Day: August 29, 2024

Bill’s time: 10m 29s

Bill’s errors: 2

• ZIA (tia)
• ZOROASTER (Toroaster)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Fashion designer Anna : SUI

Anna Sui is a fashion designer from Detroit, Michigan.

8 Challenger, e.g. : DODGE

The Dodge Challenger is a car made by Chrysler to compete with the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Camaro.

15 Writer who quipped “The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast” : OSCAR WILDE

Oscar Wilde was an Irish writer who led a very public life in his adopted home of London. Although he was a prolific writer of many forms of literature, Wilde penned only one novel, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. He was perhaps more renowned in his own time as a dramatist. Several of his plays are performed regularly today, including “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, “An Ideal Husband” and “The Importance of Being Earnest”. Wilde’s last work was a poem titled “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”, which recounted his time in prison after being convicted of homosexual offenses in 1895 and sentenced to two years’ hard labor. Oscar Wilde died in 1900 at the age of 46 in Paris, destitute.

18 Call of duty? : BUGLE

A bugle is a simple brass instrument, one that usually has no valves with which a player can alter the pitch. The altering of pitch is achieved by changing the ebay that the lips interface with the mouthpiece. Bugles evolved from wind instruments made from animal horns. “Bugle” is an abbreviation for “buglehorn”, an earlier name for the same instrument. Indeed, the term “bugle” comes from the Latin “buculus” meaning “young ox, heifer”.

24 Eponymous physicist Georg : OHM

The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.

25 Military school newbie : PLEBE

A plebe is a freshman in the US military and naval academies. The term “plebe” is probably short for “plebeian”, the name given to someone of the common class in ancient Rome (as opposed to a Patrician). “Pleb” is a shortened version of “plebeian”, and is a term used outside of the military schools.

27 Term for a swab : 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.

30 Constitutional change endorsed by NOW, for short : ERA

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was written by the American suffragist leader, Alice Paul. Although Paul was successful in her campaign to get passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution (guaranteeing voting rights regardless of sex), her 1923 Equal Rights Amendment didn’t make it to the Senate floor until 1972. The amendment was passed by the Senate, and then headed to the state legislatures for the required ratification. 38 states had to approve the legislation for the amendment to be adopted, but only 35 states voted in favor before the deadline. The amendment is still pending, although about half of the fifty states have adopted the ERA into their state constitutions.

The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded in 1966. The NOW bylaws include a Statement of Purpose:

NOW’s purpose is to take action through intersectional grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.

31 Suit type for Cab Calloway : ZOOT

A zoot suit has pants that are fairly loose fitting, except around the cuff at the bottom of the leg. The pants also have a high waist. The jacket of the suit has wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. Zoot suits were popular in the US in the thirties and forties, and were often associated with the African American, Latino American and Italian American ethnic groups. Over in the UK, the zoot suit was worn by the “Teddy boys” of the fifties and sixties. “Zoot” is probably just a slang iteration of the word “suit”.

Cab Calloway was a famous jazz singer and bandleader who enjoyed most of his fame in the thirties and forties. His best known recording was the song “Minnie the Moocher” which had a chorus that used the terms “hi-de-hi” and “hi-de-ho”. Calloway became so associated with the song he earned the nickname “The Hi De Ho Man”.

35 Competitive gamer’s forte : ESPORT

Esports (electronic sports) are video game competitions. The International Olympic Committee has held meetings to consider the inclusion of esports in the Olympic Games. What about medals for crossword solving …?

44 Some vodka orders : STOLIS

Stolichnaya is a brand of “Russian” vodka made from wheat and rye grain. “Stoli” originated in Russia, but now it’s made in Latvia. Latvia is of course a completely different country, so you won’t see the word “Russian” on the label anymore.

47 Start of many Scottish surnames : MAC

“Mac” is a Gaelic word meaning “son” and “son of”, and is a common prefix in Irish and Scottish names.

56 Conductor of electrical impulses : AXON

A nerve cell is more correctly called a neuron. The long nerve fiber that conducts signals away from the neuron is known as the axon. The axon is surrounded by a myelin sheath, which acts as an electrical insulator and which increases the rate the impulses pass along the axon.

64 Part of an iris : PETAL

The iris diaphragm of a lens is analogous to the iris of the eye, in that it is the opening through which light passes. The size of that aperture changes the amount of light passing through the lens. The size of the aperture is routinely referred to as the f-stop, and can be varied on many cameras.

70 Skye writing? : ERSE

There are three Erse languages: Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be “Gaeilge” (in Ireland), “Gaelg” (on the Isle of Man) and “Gaidhlig” (in Scotland).

The Isle of Skye is off the northwest coast of Scotland in the Inner Hebrides. It is the second largest island in the country, and has been linked to the mainland by a road bridge since 1995. I’ve never been there, but I hear the views are spectacular.

Down

1 Wanted notice, for short : APB

An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a broadcast from one US law enforcement agency to another.

7 Meaning of “veni” : I CAME

The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BCE and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

14 Twice-monthly tide : NEAP

Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

16 Businessman Emanuel : ARI

Ari Emanuel is the co-CEO of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, the largest talent agency in the world. His company represents the likes of Martin Scorsese, Michael Moore, Matt Damon, and Conan O’Brien.

21 Stout, e.g. : ALE

The term “stout” was first used for a type of beer in the 1600s when it was used to describe a “strong, stout” brew, and not necessarily a dark beer as it is today.

24 First in a series of Norwegian kings : OLAF I

Of the many kings of Norway named Olaf/Olav (and there have been five), Olaf II is perhaps the most celebrated, as he was canonized and made the patron saint of the country. Olaf II was king from 1015 to 1028 and was known as “Olaf the Big” (or “Olaf the Fat”) during his reign. Today he is more commonly referred to as “Olaf the Holy”. After Olaf died he was given the title of “Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae”, which is Latin for “Norway’s Eternal King”.

26 Leaves on a pizza : BASIL

Pizza was invented in Naples, where it has a long tradition that goes back to ancient Rome. During an 1889 visit to Naples, Queen Margherita of Savoy was served a special pizza that was created with toppings designed to mimic the colors of the Italian flag. The ingredients of tomato (red), mozzarella (white) and basil (green) can still be found together on menus today, on a pie usually named Pizza Margherita after the queen. I do love basil on my pizza …

31 Actress in the “Avatar” and “Avengers” franchises : ZOE SALDANA

American actress Zoë Saldana played the Na’vi princess in “Avatar”, and Uhura in the 2009 movie “Star Trek” (and sequels). Saldana seems to pick the right movies, as she is the only actress to have three different films in the top twenty at the box office for three consecutive weeks (“Avatar”, “The Losers” and “Death at a Funeral”).

34 Cap’n’s subordinates : BO’S’NS

A boatswain works on the deck of a boat. He or she is unlicensed, and so is not involved in the navigation or handling of the vessel, and instead is in charge of the other unlicensed workers on the deck. “Boatswain” is pronounced “bosun” and this phonetic spelling is often used interchangeably with “boatswain”. The contraction “bo’s’n” is also very popular.

37 Founder of a Persian religion : ZOROASTER

Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest religions in the world, and held sway in the pre-Islamic Iranian empires from around 600 to 650 BCE. Followers of the tradition worship a single creator god, and follow the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster (also known as “Zarathustra”).

39 Balance sheet listing : ASSET

The balance sheet of a company is a snapshot (single-point-in-time) view of a company’s financial position. The balance sheet lists all the company’s liabilities, all of its assets, and all of its ownership equity. The assets of a company, less its liabilities equals the ownership equity. The term “balance” is used because assets always balance out with the sum of liabilities and shareholder equity.

41 Sports org. founded by Billie Jean King : WTA

Former World No. 1 tennis player Billie Jean King founded the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in 1973.

Billie Jean King is a retired professional tennis player and former world No. 1. She won more Wimbledon titles (20, across singles, doubles and mixed doubles) than any other player in history. In addition to her success on the court, King was a pioneer for gender equality in sports. In 1973, she defeated Bobby Riggs in the celebrated “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match, which helped to raise awareness of the issue of equal pay for women athletes. King also founded the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and served as its first president.

42 Furniture outlet with an average size of 300,000 square feet, or five football fields : IKEA STORE (follow EAST)

The IKEA furniture chain was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, when he was just 17-years-old. IKEA is an acronym standing for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd (don’t forget now!). Elmtaryd was the name of the farm where Ingvar Kamprad grew up, and Agunnaryd is his home parish in Sweden.

48 Obsolescent data storage option, for short : CD-R

“CD-ROM” stands for “compact disc read only memory”. The name indicates that you can read information from the disc (like a standard music CD for example), but you cannot write to it. You can also buy a CD-RW, which stands for “compact disc – rewritable”, with which you can read data and also write over it multiple times using a suitable CD drive.

52 Senators’ garments, once : TOGAE

In ancient Rome, the color of a man’s toga could indicate the wearer’s social status. For example, a plain white toga (known as a “toga candida”) was worn by candidates for political office, while a “toga praetexta” with a purple border was worn by magistrates and certain priests. A “toga picta”, which was decorated with elaborate embroidery and gold trim, was reserved for victorious generals and triumphal processions.

53 Powerful auto engines : HEMIS

“Hemi” is short for “hemisphere”, and is the name given to an internal combustion engine with hemispherical combustion chambers. Chrysler is famous for using hemi engines in many of its models.