Day: April 13, 2024

Bill’s time: 39m 44s

Bill’s errors: 2

• HOT MICS (hot pics!!!)
• BOOMED (booped!)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Org. with eligibility requirements : NCAA

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When his son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, President Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions, leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906, which was given the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS became the NCAA in 1910. The NCAA has been headquartered in Indianapolis since 1999.

15 Capellini lookalike : ANGEL HAIR

Capellini is a pasta that is like thin spaghetti. An even thinner version of the pasta is known as “capelli d’angelo”, which translates as “angel hair”.

17 Felt hat : DERBY

I think that a bowler hat is usually called a derby here in the US. The bowler was first produced in 1849 in London by hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler, hence the name. The alternative name of “derby” comes from the tradition of wearing bowler hats at the Derby horse race (a major race held annually in England).

22 T, in a code : DAH

A “dah” or “dash” is Morse code for the letter “T”.

Samuel Morse was a very accomplished and reputable painter (he was engaged to paint a portrait of President John Adams, for example). In 1825 Morse was in Washington working on a commissioned painting when he received a one-line letter by horse-messenger telling him that his wife was ill. He left immediately for his home in New Haven, Connecticut but by the time that Morse arrived his wife had already died and had been buried. This single event spurred him to move from painting to the development of a rapid means of long distance communication, leading to the single-wire telegraph and Morse code.

23 Spiritual teacher in Hinduism or Buddhism : YOGINI

A yogi is a master practitioner of yoga. A master practitioner who is female might be referred to as a yogini.

24 Latin opposite of “mala” : BONA

“Mala fide” is Latin for “in bad faith” and is in essence the opposite to “bona fide” meaning “in good faith”. Bad faith is a concept defined by the law that addresses the motives behind certain actions.

25 Fit for a queen? : DRAG

The etymology of the term “drag”, as used in the transvestite world, seems to be unclear. It perhaps relates to the tendency of a transvestite’s skirts to drag along the ground in days of old (although why they just didn’t hitch up their skirts is beyond me!).

27 Turner who said “Forsaking glamour is like forsaking my identity” : LANA

Lana Turner started work as a Hollywood actress at a very young age, signing up with MGM at only sixteen. Early in her career she earned the nickname “The Sweater Girl” after wearing a pretty tight sweater in the film “They Won’t Forget”, which was her film debut. She married eight times, to seven different husbands, the first of which was bandleader Artie Shaw. Shaw and Turner eloped and married on their very first date, when the young actress was just nineteen years old. After divorcing Shaw she married restaurateur Steve Crane, but had the marriage annulled when she found out that Crane was still married to his first wife. The two had a daughter together, and so remarried when Crane’s divorce was finalized. Cheryl Crane was the daughter from the marriage to Joseph and she lived with Turner after her parents split up. When Cheryl was 14-years-old, her mother was romantically involved with a shady character named Johnny Stompanato. One evening Cheryl found her mother engaged in a violent argument with Stompanato, and Cheryl became so scared that she pulled out a gun and killed him in what was deemed to be justifiable homicide. Turner’s last marriage was to a nightclub hypnotist named Ronald Pellar, and that union lasted just six months as Pellar disappeared one day with a lot of Turner’s money and jewelry. Years later Turner said, “My goal was to have one husband and seven children, but it turned out to be the other way around.”

29 Marion Crane’s sister in “Psycho” : LILA

The classic Alfred Hitchcock suspense film “Psycho” released in 1960 is based on a 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The Bloch novel in turn is loosely based on actual crimes committed by murderer and grave robber Ed Gein. When “Psycho” was making its initial run in theaters, latecomers were not granted admission, abiding by a policy instigated by Hitchcock himself. He felt that anyone missing the opening scenes would not enjoy the film.

34 Causes of some P.R. nightmares : HOT MICS

One of my favorite hot-mic moments took place in 2005, when Paris and London were vying to host the 2012 Olympics. French President Jacques Chirac compared Paris and London in that context while chatting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Chirac said, over a hot mic:

The only thing that they have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease … You cannot trust people who have such bad cuisine.

38 One stymied by security questions, say : BOT

The word “stymie” comes from golf, and is a situation in which one’s approach to the hole is blocked by an opponent’s ball. We use the term more broadly as a verb to describe standing in the way of something.

39 Go all over : GAD

To gad about is to move around with little purpose. The word “gad” comes from the Middle English “gadden” meaning “to hurry”.

45 Slipshod : POOR

Someone of something described as slipshod is slovenly in appearance or sloppy. The term “slipshod” probably comes from the idea of someone appearing in one’s slippers, someone who hasn’t made an effort in their dress.

46 Quartz variety : JASPER

The mineral known as jasper is a form of quartz. Usually colored red, jasper can be used as a stone in semi-precious jewelry. In fact, jasper is a birthstone for someone born in March.

49 ___ Grove, Missouri locale that marked the original starting point for the Oregon Trail : ELM

The Oregon Trail was established by fur trappers and traders as early as 1811. The first migrant wagon train traveled the route in 1836, starting off in Independence, Missouri and going as far as Fort Hall, Idaho. In the coming years, the trail was extended for wagons as far as the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

50 Musician who once joked “I’m not offended by all of the dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb … and I also know that I’m not blonde” : DOLLY PARTON

Dolly Parton is a country music singer-songwriter, as well as an actress. Parton has written over 3,000 songs, my favorite of which is “I Will Always Love You” that was a huge hit for herself and for Whitney Houston.

52 It’s sharp near the bottom : DIAPER PIN

“Diaper” is another word that I had to learn when I moved to America. What are called “diapers” over here, we call “nappies” back in Ireland. The term “diaper” is actually the original term that was used in England for the garment, where “diaper” referred to the cloth that was used. The term “diaper” was brought to the New World where it stuck. Back in Britain, “diaper” was displaced by the word “nappy”, a diminutive of “napkin”.

54 Tuscan city : SIENA

Siena is a beautiful city in the Tuscany region of Italy. In the center of Siena is the magnificent medieval square called Piazza del Campo, a paved sloping open area made up of nine triangular sections. The square has to be seen to be believed. Twice a year, the famous bareback horse-race called the Palio di Siena is held in the Piazza.

56 Checks for clothes : PLAID

“Tartan” is sometimes called “plaid” over here in the US, and is a word not used in the same sense outside of this country. In Scotland, a plaid is a blanket or a tartan cloth slung over the shoulder.

Down

2 Song title shared by Schubert and Beyoncé : AVE MARIA

“Ave Maria” (“Hail Mary” in English) is the prayer at the core of the Roman Catholic Rosary, which itself is a set of prayers asking for the assistance of the Virgin Mary. Much of the text of the “”Hail Mary”” comes from the Gospel of Luke. The words in Latin are:

AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

The prayer has been adapted as a hymn. The two most famous musical versions of “Ave Maria” are by Charles Gounod (based on a piece by Bach) and by Franz Schubert.”

3 Creatures with the scientific name Monodon monoceros : NARWHALS

The narwhal is a whale species in which the male has a large tusk. The “tusk” is actually a canine tooth that projects from the jaw through the lip. Usually only one tusk develops, on the left side of the jaw. Occasionally, a second tusk develops as well, on the right side of the jaw. The tusk is unlike a tooth in that it contains many nerves, making it a sensory organ. It is rarely used in an act of aggression.

5 On the D.L. : SLYLY

Something described as on the down low is secret. The phrase “on the down low” is often shortened to “on the DL”, The same abbreviated expression can also mean “on the disabled list” in sports.

8 Jason’s pet in “FoxTrot” : IGUANA

“FoxTrot” is a comic strip by Bill Amend that was first published in 1988. Originally appearing seven days a week, “Foxtrot” has been a Sunday-only offering since 2007. The strip’s main characters are the five members of the Fox family, and Quincy, the pet iguana belonging to the youngest Fox child.

9 Eponym for a dish : PETRI

Julius Richard Petri was a German bacteriologist and was the man after whom the Petri dish is named. The petri dish can have an agar gel on the bottom which acts as a nutrient source for the specimen being grown and studied, in which case the dish plus agar is referred to as an “agar plate”.

10 They don’t care for icing, for short : NHL

I know nothing about hockey, but I just read that “icing” is an illegal play. It occurs when a player shoots the puck across two red lines or more (the red lines drawn across the ice), in effect taking a really long shot at goal. The idea behind the rule is to stop teams just sitting back and taking long shots at goal.

12 Finding the bull’s-eye : AIMING

The bull’s eye (also “bullseye”) is the center of a target. The term was coined in the 1830s and comes from the resemblance of the target, in terms of size and color, to the eye of the bull.

13 Street food filled with queso : AREPA

An arepa is a cornmeal cake or bread that is popular in Colombian and Venezuelan cuisines in particular. Each arepa has a flat, round shape and is often split to make a sandwich.

16 Guess alternative : LEE

The Lee company that is famous for making jeans was formed in 1889 by one Henry David Lee in Salina, Kansas.

GUESS is a company producing a whole line of clothing, although it was originally very much associated with the production of denim jeans. The GUESS logo is quite distinctive. It features a triangle with the word “GUESS” and a question mark inside. The dot at the bottom of the question mark is also triangular, and there are the numbers 1201 and 1203 on either side. Those were the suite numbers of the company’s first office on the 12th floor of a building in downtown Los Angeles.

20 Early 2000s meme : LOLCAT

A lolcat is an image of a cat with a humorous message superimposed in text. Such images have been around since the late 1800s, but the term “lolcat” only surfaced in 2006 as the phenomenon was sweeping across the Internet. “Lolcat” is a melding of the acronym for “laugh out loud” (LOL) and “cat”.

26 Place to go out and be out : GAY BAR

Back in the 1950s, to come “out of the closet” was to admit to being an alcoholic. By the seventies, the phrase mainly referred to gay people shrugging off secrecy about their sexual orientation.

33 Personal styles, in brief : MOS

“Modus operandi” (plural “modi operandi”) is the Latin for “mode of operating”, a term we’ve been using since the mid-1600s. It’s often used by the police when referring to the methods typically employed by a particular perpetrator of a crime, and is usually abbreviated to “M.O.”

46 Modern fashion portmanteau : JORTS

Jorts, also known as jean shorts, were originally created by cutting off a pair of jeans to make them more comfortable to wear during hot weather. They became popular in the 1980s, although the term “jorts” didn’t come into use until the early 2000s.

47 Like the voice of Joan Jett or Janis Joplin : RASPY

“Joan Jett” is the stage name of rock guitarist and singer Joan Marie Larkin. She is best known as a member of the band Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, which formed in 1979.

Famously, the singer Janis Joplin died from an overdose of heroin when she was just 27 years old. That puts her in the “27 Club”, a group of famous rock and blues musicians who died at the same age. In the club along with Joplin, are Brian Jones (of the Rolling Stones), Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and a few others.

50 Agcy. founded by Nixon : DEA

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was set up in 1973 while President Nixon was in office.

53 Soup eaten with chopsticks : PHO

Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is a noodle soup from Vietnam that is a popular street food. It is often ordered with a side of hanh dam, pickled white onions.