Day: May 30, 2024

Bill’s time: 10m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Chicken : WIMP

Our term “wimp”, describing a “timid person”, is probably an alteration of “whimper”, the sound that such an individual might make.

14 One paying taxes : EARNER

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was set up during the Civil War to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.

15 Island that’s home to the Ko’olau Mountains : OAHU

Oahu has been called “The Gathering Place”, although the word “O’ahu” has no translation in Hawaiian. It seems that “O’ahu” is simply the name of the island. One story is that it is named after the son of the Polynesian navigator who first found the islands. The island is made up of two volcanoes, Wai’anae and Ko’olau, joined together by a broad valley, the O’ahu Plain.

16 Common knee injury for athletes : ACL TEAR

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of four major ligaments that support the knee. It is located in the center of the knee and connects the femur (thigh bone) to the tibia (shin bone).

18 Locale for a noted canal : SUEZ

The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. It took ten years to construct, and opened in 1869. The northern terminus of the waterway is Port Said, and the southern is Port Tewfik in the city of Suez, which gives the canal its name.

20 Playful rub with the knuckles : NOOGIE

A noogie is a childish move in which someone rubs his (and it’s always a guy!) knuckles into a person’s head to create a little soreness.

22 “Bravo!” : WELL DONE!

To express appreciation for a male performer at an operatic performance, traditionally one calls out “bravo!”. Appreciation for a female performer is shown by using “brava!”, and for more than one performer of either sex by using “bravi!”

24 When doubled, band that performed the James Bond theme “A View to a Kill” : DURAN

Duran Duran is a new-wave band from Birmingham in England. Duran Duran’s success was partially driven by some well-received MTV music videos in the 1980s. The band also worked hard on their image and paid a lot of money for very fashionable clothes in which they performed. As a result, one of Duran Duran’s nicknames is “the prettiest boys in rock”.

“A View to a Kill” is 1985 James Bond film, and the last to star Roger Moore as the MI6 agent. The movie’s title comes from an Ian Fleming short story called “From a View to a Kill”, although the plots of the story and the film bear no resemblance to each other. The bad guy in this one is Max Zorin, portrayed by Christopher Walken.

25 Swabbie’s chum : MATEY

“Swabbie” (also “swabby, swab, swabber”) is a slang term meaning “sailor” that we’ve been using since the late 1700s. A swab was originally a member of the crew assigned to the swabbing (mopping) of the ship’s decks.

28 Utah ski resort : ALTA

Alta ski resort actually lies within the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Area. The first ski lift in the resort was opened way back in 1939. Today, Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the country that prohibits snowboarding (along with Deer Valley, Utah and Mad River Glen, Vermont). The ski resort of Snowbird, located next to Alta, has been in operation since 1971.

36 California’s ___ Mudd College : HARVEY

Harvey Mudd was a mining engineer, and president of Cyprus Mines Corporation. He lent his name to Harvey Mudd College, a science and engineering college in Claremont, California.

39 Christmas decoration : HOLLY

Ilex, commonly known as holly, is a genus of hundreds of species of flowering plants. The holly used for Christmas decoration is Ilex aquifolium. The wood from the holly bush was once a favorite for construction of Scottish bagpipes, until dense tropical woods became readily available.

42 Christmas ___ : CAROL

The word “carol” came into English via the Old French word “carole”, which was a “dance in a ring”. When “carol” made it into English, about 1300 AD, the term was used to describe a dance as well as a joyful song. Around 1500 AD, carols that were sung came to be associated with Christmas.

43 Potshot : JAB

When firing a gun, a “potshot” is a “shot” taken purely to get the prey into the “pot” for cooking. The term “potshot” was coined in the 1830s, hence distinguishing between a shot taken for sport or marksmanship and a shot taken while hunting for game.

46 Baskin-Robbins competitor : TCBY

TCBY is a chain of stores selling frozen yogurt that was founded in 1981 in Little Rock, Arkansas. The initialism TCBY originally stood for “This Can’t Be Yogurt”, but this had to be changed due to a lawsuit being pressed by a competitor called “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt”. These days TCBY stands for “The Country’s Best Yogurt”.

The Baskin-Robbins chain of ice cream parlors is the largest in the world. The chain was founded by Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins in Glendale, California in 1945. The company started using the slogan “31 flavors” in 1953, suggesting that a customer could order a different flavor of ice cream on every day of every month.

47 “___ at Five,” Count Basie tune : JIVE

“Count” Basie’s real given name was “William”. Count Basie perhaps picked up his love for the piano from his mother, who played and gave him his first lessons. Basie’s first paying job as a musician was in a movie theater, where he learned to improvise a suitable accompaniment for the silent movies that were being shown. Basie was given the nickname “Count” as he became lauded as one of the so-called “Jazz royalty”. Others so honored are Nat “King” Cole and Duke Ellington.

50 Washington’s Sea-___ Airport : TAC

Sea-Tac Airport (SEA) is more fully known as Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Sea-Tac is the main hub for Alaska Airlines.

53 Shimmer with an array of colors : OPALESCE

An opal is often described as having a milky iridescence known as opalescence.

56 Navajo dwelling : HOGAN

The traditional dwellings built by the Navajo people are known as hogans. “Hogan” is the anglicization of a Navajo word meaning “the home place”.

57 Nebulous : HAZY

Something nebulous is indistinct and vague. The term “nebulous” comes from the Latin “nebula” meaning “mist, vapor”.

59 Unpaid debt : ARREAR

To be in arrears is to have an unpaid obligation or debt. The term “arrears” came into English from the Old French “ariere” meaning “behind”.

61 Locale for a noted canal : ERIE

The Erie Canal runs from Albany to Buffalo in the state of New York. What the canal does is allow shipping to proceed from New York Harbor right up the Hudson River, through the canal and into the Great Lakes. When it was opened in 1825, the Erie Canal had an immediate impact on the economy of New York City and locations along its route. It was the first means of “cheap” transportation from a port on the Atlantic seaboard into the interior of the United States. Arguably it was the most important factor contributing to the growth of New York City over competing ports such as Baltimore and Philadelphia. It was largely because of the Erie Canal that New York became such an economic powerhouse, earning it the nickname of “the Empire State”. Paradoxically, one of the project’s main proponents was severely criticized. New York Governor DeWitt Clinton received so much ridicule that the canal was nicknamed “Clinton’s Folly” and “Clinton’s Ditch”.

62 Bird on the Canadian dollar coin : LOON

The common loon (also “great northern diver”) is the provincial bird of Ontario, and the state bird of Minnesota. The loon once appeared on Canadian $20 bills and also appears on the Canadian one-dollar coin, giving the coin the nickname “the loonie”.

63 Semester stressors : TESTS

“Semester” is a German word from the Latin “semestris”, an adjective meaning “of six months”. We use the term in a system that divides an academic year into two roughly equal parts. A trimester-system has three parts, and a quarter-system has four.

64 Doubly hyphenated IDs : SSNS

Social Security number (SSN)

Down

3 Hanukkah symbol : MENORAH

There is a seven-branched menorah used symbolically in ancient temples. However, the Hanukkah menorah is a nine-branched lampstand that is lit during the eight-day holiday called Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights. “Menorah” is the Hebrew word for “lamp”.

The term “Hanukkah” (also “Chanukah”) comes from the Hebrew for “to dedicate”. Hanukkah is a holiday lasting eight days that commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem after a successful Jewish revolt against the Seleucids in the 2nd-century BCE. The story of Hanukkah includes the miracle of the one-day supply of oil that kept the menorah alight for eight days.

5 San ___, Calif. : JOSE

San Jose is the third-largest city in California and is located at the heart of Silicon Valley. The city was founded by the Spanish in 1777 and named El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. Under Spanish and Mexican rule, the territory of Alta California had its capital in Monterey. When California was made a US state, San Jose was named as the first capital, in 1850. Subsequently, the state legislature met in Vallejo in 1852, Benicia in 1853, and finally settled in Sacramento.

6 French homophone of “haut” : EAU

In French, things can be “bas” (low) or “haut” (high).

8 One way to prepare crêpes : SUZETTE

Crêpe Suzette has to be my favorite dessert, although I haven’t dared to eat it in a long time. If you haven’t tried it before, you just have to indulge yourself when you get the chance. It is a pancake served with a sauce of caramelized sugar and butter, as well as orange juice and Grand Marnier. The dish is brought to your table with the alcohol flaming spectacularly.

13 Cry from a town crier : HEAR YE! HEAR YE!

Town criers make public announcements on the streets, usually shouting “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!” to attract attention. The term “oyez” derives from the Anglo-Norman word for “listen” and is used in this instance to me “Hear ye!”

23 Bucolic setting : LEA

The word “bucolic”, meaning “rustic, rural”, comes to us from the Greek word “boukolos” meaning “cowherd”.

32 Mr. Rogers : ROY

Cowboy actor and singer Roy Rogers’ real name was Leonard Franklin Slye, and his nickname was “King of the Cowboys”. Roy Rogers married Dale Evans in 1947. Evans’ nickname was “Queen of the West”.

34 Phil in the Poker Hall of Fame : IVEY

Phil Ivey is a World Poker Tour title winner considered by many to be the best all-around poker player in the world. Ivey has a couple of nicknames, one of which is “the Tiger Woods of Poker”.

35 Noted singer/actress from the Bronx, familiarly : J.LO

Singer and actress Jennifer Lopez (aka “J. Lo”) has two children with her third husband, singer Marc Anthony. The twins Maximilian and Emme were born in 2008. Reportedly, “People” magazine paid Lopez and Anthony $6 million to introduce the children to the public, making the images taken by the magazine the most expensive celebrity photographs of all time.

37 Onetime head of the Chicago Outfit : AL CAPONE

The Chicago Outfit is a crime syndicate that was established in Chicago in the 1910s. The Outfit’s heyday was in the 1920s, when Al Capone was calling the shots. The organization is also referred to as the Chicago Mafia and the South Side Gang.

Chicago gangster Al Capone was eventually jailed for tax evasion. He was given a record 11-year sentence in federal prison, of which he served 8 years. He left prison suffering from dementia caused by late-stage syphilis. Capone suffered through 7-8 sickly years before passing away in 1947.

42 Walks in the park : CINCHES

The term “cinch” was absorbed into American English from Spanish in the mid-1800s, when it was used to mean a “saddle-girth”. “Cincha” is the Spanish word for “girdle”. In the late 1800s, “cinch” came to mean a ‘sure thing”, in the sense that a saddle-girth can provide a “sure hold”.

43 Plaintiff in a landmark 1973 case : JANE ROE

Though the English court system does not use the term today, “John Doe” first appeared as the “name of a person unknown” in England in 1659, along with the similar “Richard Roe”. An unknown female is referred to as “Jane Doe ”, and the equivalent to Richard Roe is Jane Roe (as in Roe v. Wade, for example). Variants of “John Doe” used outside of the courts are “Joe Blow” and “John Q. Public”.

Roe v. Wade was decided in a US District Court in Texas in 1970, and reached the Supreme Court on appeal. The basic decision by the Supreme Court was that a woman’s constitutional right to privacy applied to an abortion, but that this right had to be balanced with a state’s interest in protecting an unborn child and a mother’s health. The Court further defined that the state’s interest became stronger with each trimester of a pregnancy. So, in the first trimester the woman’s right to privacy outweighed any state interest. In the second trimester the state’s interest in maternal health was deemed to be strong enough to allow state regulation of abortion for the sake of the mother. In the third trimester the viability of the fetus dictated that the state’s interest in the unborn child came into play, so states could regulate or prohibit abortions, except in cases where the mother’s life was in danger. I’m no lawyer, but that’s my understanding of the initial Supreme Court decision …

44 Had some humble pie : ATE CROW

The phrase “eat crow”, an alternative to “eat humble pie”, perhaps refers to the fact that cooked crow may be edible, but is not a great food choice.

The phrase “humble pie” derives from a medieval meat dish called “umble pie”. The filling in umble pie usually contained the offal (heart, liver, lungs and kidneys) of deer. The name “umble” came from the French “nomble” meaning “deer’s innards”.

45 Investment bank that folded in 2008 : BEAR STEARNS

New York investment bank Bear Stearns was one of the institutions that collapsed in the financial meltdown of 2008, and was then sold off to JPMorgan Chase. Bear Stearns had been founded in 1923 by three partners: Joseph Ainslee Bear, Robert B. Stearns and Harold C. Mayer Sr.

47 Au ___ (menu phrase) : JUS

The French term “au jus” is usually translated as “with its own juice”.

49 “I love the smell of ___ in the morning” (“Apocalypse Now” line) : NAPALM

The most memorable line from the 1979 movie “Apocalypse Now” is delivered by Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, the commander of a helicopter-borne air assault unit:

I love the smell of napalm in the morning

58 California red, informally : ZIN

Zinfandel is one of my favorite red wine varietals. It amazes me that the rich and heavy red Zinfandel comes from the same grape as does the sweet White Zinfandel.