Day: May 29, 2024

Bill’s time: 6m 25s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16 How some café is served : AU LAIT

“Café au lait” (French for “coffee with milk”) is usually strong drip coffee to which one adds steamed milk. Well, that’s the way we tend to make it here in the US.

17 *Vodka + coffee liqueur + Irish cream + heavy cream : MUDSLIDE

The mudslide cocktail is basically a white Russian with Baileys Irish Cream added.

19 Skimpy : MEASLY

Back in the 17th century, someone measly was affected with measles. The use of “measly” to describe something insultingly small was initially recorded as slang in the mid-1800s.

20 Feeder filler : SUET

Suet is a very popular ingredient in food provided for bird feeders.

21 Producer of the milk for Roquefort cheese : EWE

Roquefort is a cheese made from sheep milk. It comes from the commune of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in the South of France.

24 Some LG products : HDTVS

LG is a very large South Korean manufacturer of electronics, chemicals and telecom products. The company used to be known as Lucky-Goldstar, whence the initialism “LG”.

26 *Light rum + dark rum + orange juice + passion fruit syrup : HURRICANE

The hurricane is a daiquiri-like cocktail that is very much associated with the French Quarter in New Orleans. It comprises rum, lemon juice and passion fruit syrup and is traditionally served in what’s now known as a hurricane glass. Supposedly, the drink was created in the 1940s by a bar owner who wanted to sell off some overstocked rum. He mixed up the drink and sold it to sailors in glass shaped like hurricane lamps, hence the name of the cocktail.

30 One of the “Gilligan’s Island” castaways : MARY ANN

Mary Ann Summers is the “wholesome” young lady on the sitcom “Gilligan’s Island”, played by actress Dawn Wells. Sadly, Wells passed away at the end of 2020 after contracting COVID-19.

The iconic sitcom “Gilligan’s Island” ran for only three seasons, although that added up to a total of 98 episodes. The show is about a small band of castaways who are trying to escape their island and return to Hawaii. The last episode originally aired in 1967. The castaways did eventually get off the island in a 1978 TV movie called “Rescue from Gilligan’s Island”, but ended up back on the island at the end of the film.

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.

The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.

The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The Minnow would be lost, the Minnow would be lost.

The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle
With Gilligan
The Skipper too,
The millionaire and his wife,
The movie star
The Professor and Mary Ann,
Here on Gilligan’s Isle.

31 ___ Miss : OLE

“Ole Miss” is the nickname for the University of Mississippi located in Oxford, Mississippi. The name “Ole Miss” dates back to 1897, the first year a student yearbook was published. The graduating class held a competition to name the yearbook and “Ole Miss” emerged as the winner. The name stuck to the yearbook, and also as a nickname for the school itself. The University of Mississippi sports teams have been known as the Rebels since 1936. Prior to 1936, they were known as the Mississippi Flood.

32 Onetime host with the segment “Jaywalking” : LENO

Jay Leno was born James Leno in New Rochelle, New York. Jay’s father was the son of Italian immigrants, and his mother was from Scotland. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts and actually dropped out of school on the advice of a high school guidance counselor. However, years later he went to Emerson College and earned a Bachelor’s degree in speech therapy. Leno also started a comedy club at Emerson in 1973. Today Jay Leno is a car nut and owns over 300 vehicles of various types. You can check them out on his website: www.jaylenosgarage.com.

40 Jimmy of “NYPD Blue” : SMITS

Jimmy Smits’ most noted acting roles were probably Victor Sifuentes on “L.A. Law” and President Matt Santos on “The West Wing”. Smits is very fond of playing jai alai in a local league in his hometown of Los Angeles.

“NYPD Blue” is a police drama that was originally aired from 1993 until 2005. Stars of the show are Dennis Franz, David Caruso, Jimmy Smits and Rick Schroder. The show created a bit of a fuss back in the nineties, as it featured a relatively large amount of nudity for broadcast television.

43 Actor Josh who was once married to Fergie : DUHAMEL

Josh Duhamel is a former fashion model who won a 1997 International Modeling and Talent Association competition in 1997, beating future acting star Ashton Kutcher into second place. Duhamel transitioned into acting starting with the role of Leo du Pres in the daytime soap “All My Children” in 1999. He married the singer Fergie in 2009, although they separated in 2017.

51 Braves, on a scoreboard : ATL

The Atlanta Braves are the only team to have won baseball’s World Series in three different home cities. They won as the Boston Braves in 1914, the Milwaukee Braves in 1957 and the Atlanta Braves in 1995.

52 The Acropolis, now : RUIN

The term “acropolis” translates from Greek as “high city” or “city on the extremity”. In English we use the term “citadel” to mean the same thing. The most famous citadel bearing the name is the Acropolis of Athens. This Acropolis is a large, flat-topped rock in the city of Athens that rises almost 500 feet above sea level. The most recognizable building that stands on the Acropolis is the Parthenon, also known as the Temple of Athena.

60 Ruthless ruler : DESPOT

A despot is a ruler with absolute power, and often one who wields that power oppressively. “Despot” is an old French term from the 14th century that is ultimately derived from the Greek “despotes” meaning “master of a household, absolute ruler”.

61 Green-eyed monster : ENVY

William Shakespeare was one of the first to associate the color green with envy. He called jealousy the “green-eyed monster” in his play “Othello”.

63 Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot : SLEUTH

The word “sleuth” came into English from Old Norse as far back as 1200 when it meant the “track or trail of a person”. In the mid-1800s, a sleuthhound described a keen investigator, a hound close on the trail of the suspect. Sleuthhound was shortened to “sleuth” and was used for a detective in general.

According to author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, his character Sherlock Holmes was based on a Dr. Joseph Bell for whom Doyle worked in Edinburgh. That said, Bell actually wrote a letter to Doyle in which he said “you are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it”.

Hercule Poirot is one of Agatha Christie’s most beloved characters. He is a wonderful Belgian private detective who plies his trade from his base in London. Poirot’s most famous case is the “Murder on the Orient Express”. First appearing in 1920’s “The Mysterious Affair at Styles”, Poirot finally succumbs to a heart condition in the 1975 book “Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case”. Famously, Poirot is fond of using his “little gray cells”.

Down

4 Olympic gymnast with five moves named for her : BILES

Simone Biles holds the record for the most gold medals (4) won by an American gymnast in a single Olympic Games. She achieved the feat at the 2016 games held in Rio. Biles has also won more World medals than any other gymnast in history.

6 Anxiety condition, in brief : OCD

Apparently, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed mental disorder, making it about as prevalent as asthma.

7 Currency debut of 2002 : THE EURO

The euro is divided into 100 cents, sometimes referred to as “euro cents”. Some countries within the European Union (Ireland, for example) have taken steps to withdraw the 1-cent and 2-cent coins from circulation by allowing cash transactions to be rounded to the nearest five cents. I found it a little odd when buying something in Ireland recently that was priced at 99 cents, and getting no change after handing over a euro coin …

11 Believer in the principle of “I and I,” for the physical and spiritual selves : RASTA

I must admit that I don’t really know much about Rastafarianism. I do know that a “Rasta”, such as Bob Marley, is a follower of the movement. Some say that Rastafarianism is a religion, some not. I also know that it involves the worship of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia.

12 Italy’s fashion capital : MILAN

Milan (“Milano” in Italian) is Italy’s second-largest city, second only to Rome. It is a European fashion capital, the headquarters for the big Italian fashion houses of Valentino, Gucci, Versace, Armani, Prada and others. Mario Prada was even born in Milan, and helped establish the city’s reputation in the world of fashion.

13 Broadway composer Jule ___ : STYNE

Jule Styne was an English songwriter who made a name for himself in America with a series of popular musicals. Styne wrote a number of famous songs including “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from “Funny Girl”, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from “Gypsy”.

18 Explorers and others, in brief : SUVS

The Ford Explorer SUV was introduced in 1990, and is still going strong. The same car has been sold as the Mercury Mountaineer and the Lincoln Aviator.

24 “Ungula” is Latin for this word, hence “ungulate” : HOOF

Ungulates are hoofed animals. “Ungulate” comes from the Latin “ungula” meaning “hoof” or “claw”, which in turn comes from “unguis” meaning “nail”.

28 Market-focused channel : CNBC

CNBC is a business news channel owned by NBC. Launched in 1989, CNBC was known as the Consumer News and Business Channel up until 1991.

30 Magazine with cover exclamations like “Bigger Biceps!” : MEN’S HEALTH

“Men’s Health” is the most popular men’s magazine sold in the US today. “Men’s Health” started out in 1987 focused on health, but has broadened and is now described as a lifestyle magazine.

34 A birdie flies in this : BADMINTON

“Birdie” is another name for a shuttlecock, the projectile used in the sport of badminton.

45 Avignon affirmatives : OUIS

Avignon is a city in the southeast of France on the Rhône river. It is sometimes called the “City of Popes” as it was home to seven popes during the Catholic schism from 1309 to 1423.

48 Small group of trees : COPSE

A copse is a small stand of trees. The term “copse” originally applied to a small thicket that was specifically grown for cutting.

52 Invitation request : RSVP

“RSVP” stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “answer, please”.

54 Satyajit Ray’s “The ___ Trilogy” : APU

Satyajit Ray was a Bengali filmmaker famous for directing “The Apu Trilogy”. These were three Bengali films that were released between 1955 and 1959. They featured music composed by Ravi Shankar, and are considered to be some of the greatest movies of all times by international critics, yet they were filmed on tiny budgets.