Day: November 29, 2024

Bill’s time: 16m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

12 Hosp. care providers : RNS

Registered nurse (RN)

16 Solid :: glace : liquid :: ___ : EAU

In French, frozen “eau” (water) is “glace” (ice).

17 Bond theme song that won an Academy Award in 2022 : NO TIME TO DIE

2021’s “No Time to Die” is the 25th in the “James Bond” series of films. It stars Daniel Craig as the MI6 agent in his last appearance in the role. Bond’s adversary in “No Time to Die” is Lyutsifer Safin, played by Rami Malek. The theme song was performed by Billie Eilish.

18 Fender product : AMP

The company that made Fender electric guitars was founded in Fullerton, California in 1946, by Leo Fender.

19 Water bottle confiscator, for short : TSA

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) loosened the ban on liquids, aerosols and gels in carry-on baggage in 2006, From that date onwards, passengers had to abide by the 3-1-1 rule, i.e. 3.4-ounce or less containers (3), in a one-quart ziploc bag (1), one bag per person (1).

25 Light lager variety, casually : PILS

Pilsener (also “pilsner” or “pils”) is a pale lager. The name “pilsener” comes from the city of Pilsen, now in the Czech Republic. It was in Pilsen, in 1842, that the first bottom-fermented lager was produced. A bottom-fermented beer is much clearer than a top-fermented beer, and has a crisper taste. The “top” and “bottom” refers to where the yeast gathers during the brewing process.

28 Anti-apartheid activist Alan : PATON

Alan Paton was a South African author and an outspoken opponent of apartheid. His most successful novel is “Cry, the Beloved Country”.

Apartheid was the system of racial segregation used in South Africa from 1948 to 1994 that was designed to maintain white supremacy and control over people of color. “Apartheid” is an Afrikaans word meaning “apart-hood, the state of being apart”.

31 Mohawk culture : PUNK

Here is another example of a difference in terminology on either side of the Atlantic. What we call the Mohawk hairstyle in the US is known as a Mohican in Britain and Ireland. The Mohawk hairstyle is named after the Mohawk nation, who wore their hair in the same fashion. The Mohawk style has been around for a long time elsewhere in the world. There was a well-preserved male body found in a bog near Dublin in Ireland in 2003. The body is about 2,000 years old, and has a Mohawk haircut.

34 Mystic associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls : ESSENE

The Essenes were a Jewish religious group who are most noted these days perhaps as the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Essenes led simple lives devoted to poverty.

42 They might be down for a ski trip : PARKAS

A parka is a hooded jacket that is often lined with fur, and that is worn in cold weather. The original parka was a pullover design, but nowadays it is usually zipped at the front. “Parka” is the Russian name for the garment, and it was absorbed into English in the late 1700s via the Aleut language.

49 Big name in water filters : BRITA

Brita is a German company that specializes in water filtration products. Brita products do a great job of filtering tap water, but they don’t “purify” it as they don’t remove microbes. That job is usually done by a municipality before the water gets to the faucet.

57 Ones receiving free room and board, for short : RAS

A resident assistant/adviser (RA) is a peer leader found in a residence hall/dormitory, particularly on a college campus.

60 “The ___ of the Starfish” (1965 sequel to “A Wrinkle in Time”) : ARM

“A Wrinkle in Time” is a book by Madeleine L’Engle. Published in 1962, it is described as a science fantasy. Included in the book’s cast of characters are Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which, all of whom turn out to be supernatural beings who transport the antagonists through the universe. “A Wrinkle in Time” was adapted into a 2018 movie of the same name starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling as the three “Mrs” characters.

67 Coin with cherry blossoms on its front : YEN

The Japanese yen (JPY) is the third-most traded currency in the world, after the US dollar and the euro.

A cherry blossom (“sakura” in Japanese) is a flower of an ornamental cherry tree (not a fruit-producing cherry tree). Ornamental cherry trees are common in East Asia, and the cherry blossom is the national flower of Japan.

Down

1 U.S. state capital with the highest altitude (7,200 feet) : SANTA FE

Santa Fe is New Mexico’s capital, and the fourth most-populous city in the state (after Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Rio Rancho). Sitting at 7,199 feet above sea level, Santa Fe is the highest state capital in the US. The city’s name translates from Spanish as “Holy Faith”. The full name of the city when it was founded in 1607 was “La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís”, meaning “the Royal Town of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Assisi”. It became the capital of the province Santa Fe de Nuevo México in 1610, making Santa Fe the oldest state capital in the US.

4 Ghanaian author ___ Kwei Armah : AYI

Ayi Kwei Armah is an author from Ghana who is perhaps most famous as a novelist. His debut novel is “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born” (1968), which centers on the exploits of a man living in post-independence Ghana in the mid-1960s.

5 Napoleon’s is found at Paris’s Hôtel des Invalides : TOMB

The Hôtel des Invalides is a building complex in Paris that was opened in the 1600s as a home and hospital for unwell and aged soldiers. Today, the complex includes several museums and monuments that relate to France’s military history. The magnificent former chapel known as the Dôme des Invalides houses several tombs, and is most notably the final resting place of Napoleon Bonaparte.

11 Begin a hole : TEE UP

In the game of golf, a “tee” is a wooden or plastic peg on which one can place a ball when “teeing off”. Also, the “teeing ground” (sometimes “tee” or “tee box”) is the area at the beginning of the hole from which the first stroke is taken, from where one tees off.

12 One whose hard work is showing? : REALTOR

“Real estate agent” is a general, generic term. “Realtor” is the name given to a member of the trade association known as the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The NAR has gone so far as to trademark the term “Realtor” in the US.

14 Lying face up : SUPINE

When lying on one’s back, one is said to be in a supine position. When lying on one’s stomach, one is said to be prone.

22 World capital at roughly the same latitude as Montevideo : CANBERRA

Canberra is the capital of Australia. The city is located in what’s called the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), an area independent of any of the other Australian territories. In this sense, there is a similarity between Canberra in the ACT and Washington in the District of Columbia. Canberra was chosen as the nation’s capital in 1908, a choice that was a compromise in deference to Australia’s two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne.

Montevideo is the capital and main port of Uruguay. Famously, Montevideo featured in the Battle of the River Plate in WWII that resulted in the scuttling of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.

26 Cogsworth’s compatriot in “Beauty and the Beast” : LUMIERE

“Beauty and the Beast” is a fairy tale that was written by novelist Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Titled “La belle et la bête” in French, the story was first published in 1756. The “beauty” in the tale is named “Belle”.

32 Branded coffee pod : K-CUP

A K-Cup is a single-portion cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate in which the beverage is prepared in situ. K-Cup packs are used with brewing machines made by Keurig, a manufacturer of coffee brewers based in Reading, Massachusetts. Personally, I use a Nespresso machine …

37 Like most practitioners of Druzism : ARAB

The Druze community is a religious sect that is mainly found in Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan. The Druze split off from Ismaili Muslims (a branch of Shia Islam) in the 11th century.

40 Burn unit? : CALORIE

I wish we’d stop using the term “calorie”, because it is so confusing. In terms of physics, a calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree celsius (at one atmosphere of pressure). The so-called “food calorie” is one thousand times as large, as it is defined in terms of kilograms instead of grams. In attempts to differentiate between these two definitions, the former is sometimes referred to as the “small calorie” and is given the symbol “cal”. The latter is referred to as the “large calorie” and given the symbol “Cal”, with a capital C. If only we’d use the SI system of units, we’d be thinking in just joules, instead of large and small and food calories.

41 Hassock, by another name : OTTOMAN

A hassock is an item of furniture that is covered in cloth and used as a low seat or footstool. The term “hassock” comes from the Old English “hassuc” meaning “clump of grass”. “Hassock” was first used to describe a kneeling cushion, a usage that persists in churches to this day.

46 Pay : SALARY

It has been suggested that our term “salary” comes from the Latin “sal” meaning “salt”. The idea is that a Roman soldier’s “salarium” might have been an allowance to purchase salt.

48 Hit podcast beginning in 2014 : SERIAL

“Serial” is an investigative journalism podcast that is a spinoff from the radio show “This American Life”.

51 Gather some intel : RECON

A reconnaissance (recon) is a preliminary survey carried out to gather information. The term “reconnaissance” came into English in the early 19th century from French, from which language it translates literally as “recognition”.

62 Geographical feature sometimes named for a color : SEA

There are four seas named in English for colors:

• the Yellow Sea
• the Black Sea
• the Red Sea
• the White Sea.