Day: December 18, 2024

Bill’s time: 8m 54s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Flower in a children’s rhyme : POSY

“Poesy” was the name given to a line of verse engraved on the inner surface of a ring. The related word “posy”, for a bouquet of flowers, arose with the notion that giving a posy might be a message of love, just as a poesy inside a ring could have the same meaning.

“Ring a Ring o’ Roses” is a nursery rhyme that I well remember from my childhood.

Ring-a-ring o’ roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down.

The lyrics tend to be a little different over here in North America:

Ring-a-round the rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down.

There’s an urban legend that the rhyme refers to the Great Plague that struck England in 1665. The inference is that “ring o’roses” is a rosy rash, and that “posies” of herbs were carried to ward off the disease. Victims would sneeze “a-tishoo” and “all fall down” dead.

5 One of 1,000 for Darryl Strawberry, for short : RBI

Darryl Strawberry is a retired MLB player who was known by the nickname “The Straw Man”. Strawberry led a troubled life while playing professional baseball, and was suspended three times by the league for substance abuse.

13 Orange-and-white rental : U-HAUL

The U-Haul company was started by married couple Leonard Shoen and Anna Mary Carty in Ridgefield, Washington in 1945. The Shoens used $5,000 of seed money to build trailers in their garage, and then cleverly recruited gas station owners as franchisees with whom they would split the rental revenue. There are now about 15,000 U-Haul dealers across the country.

15 Middle-earth foe : ORC

Middle-earth is the setting for J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” series.

17 Orange soda brand : FANTA

The soft drink Fanta has quite an interesting history. As WWII approached, the Coca-Cola plant in Germany had trouble obtaining the ingredients it needed to continue production of the cola beverage, so the plant manager decided to create a new drink from what was available. The new beverage was built around whey (leftover from cheese production) and pomace (left over after juice has been extracted from fruit). The inventor asked his colleagues to use their “imagination” (“Fantasie” in German) and come up with a name for the drink, so they piped up “Fanta!”

18 *Mendel studied them : GREEN PEAS (and consider “GENES”)

Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk, and a scientist who achieved fame after his passing when his work in the field of genetics was rediscovered. The conclusions he drew from his studies of garden peas led to him earning the moniker “father of modern genetics”.

25 Title for the supposed inventor of the sandwich : EARL

Meats placed between slices of bread was first called a sandwich in the 18th century, named after the Fourth Earl of Sandwich. The earl was fond of eating “sandwiches” while playing cards at his club.

27 Cartesian conclusion : … I AM

The great French philosopher Rene Descartes made the famous statement in Latin, “Cogito ergo sum”. This translates into French as “Je pense, donc je suis” and into English as “I think, therefore I am”. Anything pertaining to the philosophy of Descartes can be described by the adjective “Cartesian”.

36 Eros, to Aphrodite : SON

As always seems to be the case with Greek gods, Eros and Aphrodite have overlapping spheres of influence. Aphrodite was the goddess of love between a man and a woman, and Eros was the god who stirred the passions of the male. The Roman equivalent of Aphrodite was Venus, and the equivalent of Eros was Cupid.

37 Olympian’s weapon : EPEE

There are three fencing events in the modern Olympics, with each distinguished by the weapon used:

• Foil
• Épée
• Sabre

43 “Take me to your leader” speaker : ALIEN

The phrase “Take me to your leader” is used somewhat humorously by fictional extraterrestrials who encounter life on Earth for the first time. Often seen in cartoons, the phrase likely originated in “The New Yorker” magazine in 1953. The relevant issue featured a cartoon showing two aliens addressing a horse, with the words “Kindly take us to your President!”

45 Main ingredient in many veggie hot dogs : SOY

A hot dog is a sausage served in a split roll. The term “hot dog” dates back to the 19th-century and is thought to reflect a commonly-held opinion that the sausages contained dog meat.

48 Hammer part : PEEN

The peen of a hammer is on the head, and is the side of the head that is opposite the striking surface. Often the peen is in the shape of a hemisphere (as in a ball-peen hammer), but usually it is shaped like a claw (mainly for removing nails).

51 Morel support? : STEM

A morel is a mushroom with a honeycomb-like structure on the cap. They are highly prized, especially in French cuisine. Morels should never be eaten raw as they are toxic, with the toxins being removed by thorough cooking.

53 “Check back later,” in brief : TBA

To be advised/announced (TBA)

68 Deliverer of the speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence,” for short : MLK

Martin Luther King, Jr’s father was born Michael King. On a trip to Germany in 1934, Michael came to admire Protestant leader Martin Luther and changed his name to Martin Luther King on his return to the United States. Famously, he passed on his new name to his son, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr (MLK).

69 First name in cosmetics : ESTEE

Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, and someone with a great reputation as a salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales “volume” …

71 Cards : IDS

Identity document (ID)

Down

2 Midwest hub : O’HARE

The IATA airport code for O’Hare International in Chicago is ORD, which comes from Orchard Place Airport/Douglas Field (OR-D).

3 Southwest point of the Texas Triangle : SAN ANTONIO

The city of San Antonio, Texas was named by Spanish explorers. They came upon a Native American settlement in the area on 13 June 1631, the feast day of St. Anthony of Padua.

5 “Understood” : ROGER

The term “roger”, meaning “yes” or “acknowledged”, comes from the world of radiotelephony. The British military used a phonetic alphabet in the fifties that included “Roger” to represent the letter “R”. As such, it became customary to say “Roger” when acknowledging a message, with R (Roger) standing for “received”.

8 Film buff : CINEASTE

A cineaste is a cinephile, a person with a deep interest in cinema. The term “cineaste” comes from the French “cinéaste”, which refers to a filmmaker.

9 Menace hiding in a basket of figs in “Antony and Cleopatra” : ASP

“Antony and Cleopatra” is one of William Shakespeare’s tragedies. It tells the story of the relationship between Mark Antony and Cleopatra after the death of Julius Caesar.

10 “Sacre ___!” : BLEU

French speakers don’t really use the profanity “sacré bleu”, at least not anymore, but we see it a lot in English literature featuring native French speakers. Most famously it is uttered by Agatha Christie’s delightful Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. There is some dispute about the origins of “sacré bleu” (sacred blue), but French dictionaries explain that it is a “softening” of the alternative “sacré Dieu” (Holy God).

12 Sylvan ___ (electropop duo) : ESSO

Sylvan Esso is a duo comprising singer Amelia Meath and producer Nick Sanborn. Together, they produce music that falls into the electropop genre.

21 Zapped with light : LASED

The term “laser” is an acronym standing for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”. It has been pointed out that a more precise name for laser technology is “light oscillation by stimulated emission of radiation”, but the resulting acronym isn’t quite so appealing, namely “loser”.

26 Ophelia’s vengeful brother in “Hamlet” : LAERTES

In William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”, Laertes is the son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia. It is Laertes who kills Hamlet using a poisoned sword..

28 Eeyore-like : MOROSE

Eeyore is the donkey character in A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh”. He is very lovable, but has a gloomy and pessimistic outlook on life.

33 Parts of many home inspections : RADON TESTS

The element radon (Rn) is a radioactive gas, and a byproduct produced when uranium decays naturally in the earth. Radon gas can collect and accumulate in buildings and rooms that are particularly well insulated with very little air exchange. The danger is very real, as radon is listed as the second most frequent cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoke.

36 Brand of party cups : SOLO

The Solo Cup was introduced in 1930, and was the creation of a former employee of the Dixie Company. The first Solo Cup was a paper cone that founder Leo Hulseman made at home and sold to companies that distributed bottled water. Apparently, Solo’s red plastic cups sell very well, and are used by college students playing beer pong.

38 Actress Amanda : PEET

Actress Amanda Peet studied acting with the celebrated Uta Hagen at Columbia University. Peet has appeared in a number of successful films including “The Whole Nine Yards” and “Syriana”. I remember her best from what I thought was a great TV show (but no one seemed to agree!) called “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”.

40 Lunchroom, casually : CAF

“Cafeteria” is a Mexican-Spanish word meaning “coffee store” that we imported into American English around 1840. Somehow, that coffee store became a self-service dining establishment in the 1890s.

47 “In memoriam” piece : OBIT

Our word “obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”. The Latin term was used for “record of the death of a person”, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

“In memoriam” is a Latin phrase that we use in English to mean “in memory of” when referring to a person who is deceased.

52 Sleeveless shirts, informally : TANKS

“Tank top” is another one of those terms that always catches me out, as it has a different meaning on each side of the Atlantic. In the US, a tank top is a sleeveless shirt, something we would call a “vest” back in Ireland (and the US “vest” is what we call a “waistcoat”). A tank top in Ireland is a sleeveless sweater, which further adds to the confusion. The name “tank top” is derived from “tank suit”, an old name for a woman’s one-piece bathing suit. The use of “tank” for the bathing suit came from “swimming tank”, an obsolete term used in the 1920s for a swimming pool.

54 Longtime Saints QB whose name has a windy homophone : BREES

Drew Brees is a quarterback who played for the San Diego Chargers before signing with the New Orleans Saints in 2006. On top of his success in the NFL, Brees was an excellent tennis player in his youth. In one competition, he actually beat a young Andy Roddick who later became the world’s number one.

57 Classic pet name : FIDO

“Fido”, the name for many a dog, is Latin for “I trust”.

58 Hollywood Boulevard sight : STAR

Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles is home to the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, comprising over 2,500 stars embedded in the sidewalk. The thoroughfare was named Prospect Boulevard until 1920, when the town of Hollywood was annexed by the city of Los Angeles.

60 “Rent” character based on a seamstress in “La Bohème” : MIMI

The musical “Rent” by Jonathan Larson is based on the Puccini opera “La bohème”. “Rent” tells the story of struggling artists and musicians living in the Lower East Side of New York, and is set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic. The main character in both “La bohème” and “Rent” is named Mimi. In the former, Mimi is a seamstress suffering from tuberculosis. In the latter, Mimi is an erotic dancer with HIV.

64 Sending help? : UPS

United Parcel Service (UPS) is based in Sandy Springs, Georgia and has its own airline that operates out of Louisville, Kentucky. UPS often goes by the nickname “Brown”, because of its brown delivery trucks and brown uniforms.