Day: March 24, 2025

Bill’s time: 5m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8 Odysseus’ faithful dog : ARGOS

According to Homer’s “Odyssey”, Argos is a dog, and the faithful companion of Odysseus. Odysseus leaves his home, and his dog, for twenty years to wage battle in Troy. When Odysseus returns, he must enter his house disguised as a beggar in order to rescue his wife Penelope from unwelcome suitors. Odysseus sees his dog, neglected, lying on a pile of manure and close to death. Much as he wants to comfort the dog, Odysseus maintains his disguise and ignores Argos. The dog just manages to wag his tail on seeing his master’s return, but has not the strength to greet him. As Odysseus enters his house, Argos dies.

13 Major or Minor in astronomy? : URSA

The constellation Ursa Major (Latin for “Larger Bear”) is often just called “the Big Dipper” because of the resemblance of its main stars to a ladle or dipper. Those stars also resemble a plow, and that’s what we usually call the same constellation back in Ireland the “Plough”.

Ursa Minor (Latin for “Smaller Bear”) sits right beside the constellation Draco (Latin for “Dragon”). Ursa Minor used to be considered the wing of Draco, and was once called “Dragon’s Wing”. The tail of the “Smaller Bear” might also be considered as the handle of a ladle, and so the constellation is often referred to as the Little Dipper.

14 ___ Gold, pretzel brand : ROLD

Pretzels originated in Europe and are especially popular in Southern Germany where a pretzel is known as “Brezel”. Pretzels were introduced into the US in the 1800s by immigrants from Germany and Switzerland who came to be known over here as the Pennsylvania Dutch.

17 Londoner or Liverpudlian, informally : BRIT

The Romans referred to Britain as “Brittania”, from which the island took its name. Also, the Latin for Scotland is “Caledonia”, and for Ireland is “Hibernia”. Centuries after the Romans left, a German tribe called the Angles settled in that part of Britain now known as England. The word “Angle” is the root of the name “England”, as in medieval times the country was called “Anglia”, its late-Latin name.

London, England has been a major settlement for over 2,000 years and was founded as a town by the Romans who named it Londinium. The name “Londinium” may have existed prior to the arrival of the Romans, and no one seems too sure of its origins. Famously, the City of London is a one-square-mile area at the center of the metropolis, the area that marked old medieval London. “The City”, as it is commonly called, has its own Mayor of the City of London (the Mayor of London is someone else), and its own City of London Police Force (the London Metropolitan Police are the police usually seen on the streets, a different force).

Liverpool is a large port city in the northwest of England located on the estuary of the River Mersey. With a sense of humor that is typical of the area, people from Liverpool are often called “Liverpudlians”. The term comes from the jocular “Liver-puddle”, a diminutive of “Liver-pool”.

18 Buckeye’s home : OHIO

Ohio is sometimes referred to as the Buckeye State, taking the name from the state tree. In turn, the buckeye tree gets its name from the appearance of its fruit, a dark nut with a light patch, thought to resemble a “buck’s eye”.

19 Japanese noodle dish : RAMEN

Ramen is a noodle dish composed of Chinese-style wheat noodles in a meat or fish broth flavored with soy or miso sauce. Ramen is usually topped with sliced pork and dried seaweed. The term “ramen” is also used for precooked, instant noodles that come in single-serving, solid blocks.

25 Sleep cycle inits. : REM

“REM” is an acronym standing for “rapid eye movement”. REM sleep takes up 20-25% of the sleeping hours and is the period associated with one’s most vivid dreams.

28 K-pop group with an “army” of followers : BTS

Online fans of the K-pop boy band BTS refer to themselves as ARMY, an acronym standing for Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth. The idea is that BTS fans represent young people.

29 The Air Force’s F-16 or F-22, for example : JET

The F-16 is a supersonic fighter aircraft that has been in service since 1978. Officially known as the Fighting Falcon, pilots and crew routinely refer to the F-16 as the Viper. As of 2015, there have been more F-16s in military service around the world than any other fixed-wing fighter aircraft.

31 Tiki bar cocktail with a rhyming name : MAI TAI

The mai tai cocktail is strongly associated with the Polynesian islands, but the drink was supposedly invented in 1944 in Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland, California. One recipe is 6 parts white rum, 3 parts orange curaçao, 3 parts orgeat syrup, 1 part rock candy syrup, 2 parts fresh lime juice, all mixed with ice and then a float added of 6 parts dark rum. “Maita’i” is the Tahitian word for “good”.

The world’s first tiki bar was called “Don the Beachcomber”, and was opened in L.A. in 1933 by Ernest Gantt (also known as “Donn Beach”). The bar became famous for its exotic rum cocktails. Gantt was called to serve in WWII, and the business expanded dramatically under his ex-wife’s management so that there was a 160-restaurant chain waiting for Gantt when he returned stateside.

36 Jones or James of jazz : ETTA

Etta Jones was a jazz singer who was sometimes known as the “jazz musician’s jazz singer”. Because she has a similar name to Etta James, Jones was often confused with the more famous singer. Jones never really had any huge commercial success though, despite the respect that she engendered within the inner sanctums of the jazz world.

Etta James had a tough upbringing and faced many challenges. She was born to an unmarried teenage mother and never knew her father. She experienced abuse and hardship, and even dealt with heroin addiction. Despite all this, she rose to become one of the most iconic and influential singers of all time, known for her powerful voice and soulful performances.

39 Zodiac sign whose symbol roars : LEO

Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 23 to August 22 are Leos.

46 Swim meet event : MEDLEY

Competitive medley swimming can be either individual medley (one swimmer) or medley relay (four swimmers). The four different swimming styles used are:

1. Butterfly
2. Backstroke
3. Breaststroke
4. Freestyle

47 ___ Lanka : SRI

The island nation of Sri Lanka lies off the southeast coast of India. The name “Sri Lanka” translates from Sanskrit into English as “venerable island”. Before 1970, Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon, a name given to the country during British rule.

48 Org. for Arnold Palmer : PGA

Arnold Palmer was one of the greats of the world of golf. He was very popular with many fans of the game, and his followers were usually referred to as “Arnie’s Army”. Off the course, Palmer was an avid pilot until his latter years. He resided in Latrobe, Pennsylvania for much of the year and the local airport is named in his honor: Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

51 Hockey Hall-of-Famer Bobby : ORR

Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking. While still 31 years old, in 1979, Orr became the youngest person inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Prior to that, in 1967, Orr became the youngest person named the NHL’s Rookie of the Year.

52 Vehicle in a light rail system : TRAM

A tram is a means of public transportation that runs on rails laid along the length of streets in cities and towns. Trams might also be referred to as trolleys or streetcars.

55 Arctic abodes : IGLOOS

The Inuit word for “house” is “iglu”, which we usually write as “igloo”. The Greenlandic (yes, that’s a language) word for “house” is very similar, namely “igdlo”. The walls of igloos are tremendous insulators, due to the air pockets in the blocks of snow.

60 Brief walk-on movie appearance : CAMEO

Even in my day, a cameo role was more than just a short appearance in a movie (or other artistic piece). For the appearance to be a cameo, the actor had to play himself or herself, and be instantly recognizable. With this meaning it’s easy to see the etymology of the term, as a cameo brooch is one with the recognizable carving of the silhouette of a person. Nowadays, a cameo is any minor role played by a celebrity or famous actor, regardless of the character played.

62 Character in “Frankenstein” films who doesn’t appear in the Mary Shelley novel : IGOR

In the world of movies, Igor has been the assistant to Dracula, Frankenstein and Young Frankenstein among others. Igor is almost invariably portrayed as a hunchback.

Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel has the full title of “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”. The subtitle underscores one of the themes of the book, i.e. a warning about the expansion into the Industrial Revolution.

63 Severe wind : GALE

A gale is a very strong wind, one defined by the Beaufort scale as having wind speeds from 50 to just over 100 kilometers per hour.

64 Chris of Captain America fame : EVANS

Chris Evans’ Hollywood career really took off when he was cast as the Human Torch in the “Fantastic Four” movies starting in 2005. He portrayed another superhero in 2011, playing the title role in “Captain America: The First Avenger”.

65 Fruit from a palm : DATE

Date palms can be either male or female. Only the female tree bears fruit (called “dates”).

66 Norse god of war : ODIN

In Norse mythology, Odin was the chief of the gods. He is usually depicted as having one eye, reflecting the story of how he gave one of his eyes in exchange for wisdom.

68 Cryptography org. : NSA

The National Security Agency (NSA) runs an annual Codebreaker Challenge that is aimed mainly at the student population. As best I can tell, the focus of the challenge is reverse software engineering. Checking out the Codebreaker Challenge website suggests that the NSA runs this program in order to identify and attract potential new employees.

Down

2 Knight-___ (medieval character wandering in search of adventure) : ERRANT

Someone described as errant is roving around, especially in search of adventure, as in “knight-errant”.The term “errant” has come to mean “behaving wrongly” and “straying outside the bounds”.

5 Bing Crosby or Nat King Cole : CROONER

Bing Crosby has been described as the first multimedia star, having achieved incredible success in terms of record sales, radio ratings and ticket sales for his movies. There are also many interesting things about Crosby’s life out of the limelight. For example, his daughter Mary Crosby played Kristin Shepard on the TV’s “Dallas”, and so was the person “who shot J. R.” After his first wife Dixie Lee died, Bing Crosby dated and eventually proposed to actress and model Pat Sheehan. The proposal went nowhere, but Sheehan ended up marrying Bing Crosby’s son Dennis a few years later.

Nat King Cole’s real name was Nathaniel Adams Coles. Cole made television history in 1956 when his own show debuted on NBC, a first for an African-American. Cole couldn’t pick up a national sponsor, so in order to save money and possibly save the show, many guest artists worked for no fee at all – the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte and Peggy Lee. The show survived for a year, but eventually Nat King Cole had to pull the plug on it himself.

6 Pacific salmon : COHO

The coho salmon is dark blue with silver along the side of its body, but only during the phase of its life while it is in the ocean. When spawning and heading up into a freshwater river, the coho has bright red sides.

10 Call of Duty handle, e.g. : GAMERTAG

Call of Duty (COD) is an incredibly successful series of video games that started out life on computers and is now available for gaming consoles and handhelds. The first version of this war game was set in WWII, but other versions feature the likes of “Modern Warfare” and “Black Ops”.

12 Nine-digit ID : SSN

A Social Security number (SSN) is divided into three parts, i.e AAA-GG-SSSS. Originally, the Area Number (AAA) was the code for the office that issued the card. Starting in 1973, the Area Number reflected the ZIP code from which the application was made. The GG in the SSN was the Group Number, and the SSSS number the Serial Number. This is all moot today. Since 2011, SSNs have been assigned randomly. Some random numbers, however, have been excluded from use, i.e. Area Numbers 000, 666 (!) and 900-999.

21 Color of two stripes on the flag de España : ROJO

“Rojo” is Spanish for “red”.

Spain is the second largest country in the European Union (after France). “Spain” is an anglicized form of the Spanish name “España”, which comes from the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula “Hispania”.

22 Attire for a G.I. who doesn’t want to be seen : CAMO

Our word “camouflage” (often abbreviated to “camo”) evolved directly from a Parisian slang term “camoufler” meaning “to disguise”. The term was first used in WWI, although the British navy at that time preferred the expression “dazzle-painting” as it applied to the pattern painted on the hulls of ships.

33 Vote-by-___ (absentee option) : MAIL

There are several states in the US that conduct elections almost entirely by mail, i.e. Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Internationally, Switzerland is notable in that elections are also conducted almost entirely by mail.

34 Gymnast Suni ___ : LEE

Suni Lee is an American gymnast who won the women’s artistic individual all-around event at the 2020 Olympics. A few weeks after her victory in Tokyo, Lee competed in the 30th season of “Dancing with the Stars”, finishing in 5th place.

36 Resident of 123 Sesame Street : ELMO

The “Sesame Street” character named Elmo has a birthday every February 3rd, and on that birthday he always turns 3½ years old. The man behind/under Elmo on “Sesame Street” for many years was Kevin Clash. If you want to learn more about Elmo and Clash, you can watch the 2011 documentary “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey”.

37 Echelon : TIER

We use the word “echelon” (ech.) to describe a rank or level, particularly in the military. The term comes from French, in which language it has the same meaning, although the original meaning in Old French is “rung of a ladder”.

38 “The Boys” and “The Bear,” for two : TV DRAMAS

“The Boys” is a satirical superhero TV show based on a comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The superheroes (Supes) are marketed as heroic personae to the public, but their alter egos are corrupt and self-serving. The title characters are a CIA-sponsored black op team fighting the corruption.

“The Bear” is a comedy-drama TV show that started airing in 2022. It stars Jeremy Allen White (of “Shameless” fame) as a chef from a Michelin-star restaurant who heads home to Chicago to run his family’s sandwich shop after his brother dies. I really enjoyed this one …

43 Greek sandwich in pita bread : GYRO

A gyro is a traditional Greek dish of meat roasted on a tall vertical spit that is sliced from the spit as required. Gyros are usually served inside a lightly grilled piece of pita bread, along with tomato, onion and tzatziki (a yogurt and cucumber sauce).

44 Country between Djibouti and Sudan on the coast of the Red Sea : ERITREA

Eritrea is a country located in the Horn of Africa, and surrounded by Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti and the Red Sea. Some scientists believe that the area now known as Eritrea was the departure point for anatomically modern humans who first left Africa to populate the rest of the world.

Djibouti is a country in the Horn of Africa that is located to the northwest of Somalia, with coasts on the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Once known as French Somaliland, the country gained independence from France in 1977. The newly independent nation adopted the same name as Djibouti, the capital city.

Sudan was the largest country in Africa until 2011, when the Southern Sudan region opted by referendum to become independent. “North Sudan” retained the name of Sudan, and the new state is called South Sudan. Sudan is now the third largest country in the continent, after Algeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

48 Greasy hair ointment : POMADE

Pomade is perfumed ointment, one mainly used for grooming the hair. The word “pomade” comes from the Latin “pomum” meaning “apple”, as the original ointment recipe used smashed apples.

54 Rap’s ___ Thee Stallion : MEGAN

“Megan Thee Stallion” is the stage name of rapper Megan Pete. Pete’s mother Holly Thomas was also a rap performer, one using the stage name “Holly-Wood”. Thomas would bring Megan to recording sessions rather than put her in daycare, and so exposed her young daughter to the recording business at an early age.

56 Toy bricks : LEGOS

Lego is manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company headquartered in Billund, Denmark. The company was founded by a carpenter called Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1934 and the now-famous plastic interlocking blocks were introduced in 1949. The blocks were originally sold under the name “Automatic Binding Bricks” but I think “Lego” is easier to remember! The name “Lego” comes from the Danish term “leg godt” meaning “play well”.

61 Filmmaker DuVernay : AVA

Ava DuVernay is a filmmaker who became the first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, a feat she achieved in 2012 for her feature film “Middle of Nowhere”. “Middle of Nowhere” tells the story of a woman who drops out of medical school to focus on her husband when he is sentenced to 8 years in prison. DuVernay also directed the 2014 film “Selma” about the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.