Day: April 17, 2025

Bill’s time: 12m 51s

Bill’s errors:

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 ___ bowl (healthful dish) : ACAI

Açaí na tigela is a dish made from the frozen, mashed fruit of the açaí palm and served as a smoothie. Often topped with granola, banana, other berries and syrup, the dish is a specialty in much of Brazil. There’s even a savory version of açaí na tigela (“açaí in the bowl”) that includes shrimp or dried fish and tapioca. Açaí bowls are becoming very popular in North America, especially as a health food.

5 Cellular protein : ACTIN

Actins are a family of proteins that join together to form long chains, or filaments. These chains, called F-actin, are important for all sorts of cell activities, from muscle contractions to cell division.

15 Mars with bars : BRUNO

Bruno Mars is a singer-songwriter from Honolulu who has been active in the music business since 2006. “Bruno Mars” is a stage name, as Mars was born “Peter Hernandez”.

16 Cold-blooded kind of monster : GILA

A Gila monster is a venomous lizard found in the southwestern US and northern Mexico, and is the only venomous lizard native to America. Gila monsters move along at a snail’s pace so aren’t normally a danger to humans. The name “Gila” is a reference to the Gila River Basin in the American Southwest, where the Gila monster was prevalent.

20 Bit of ballet wear : TOE SHOE

“En pointe” is ballet dancing on the tips of the toes, and is a French term. A ballerina wears pointe shoes (sometimes “toe shoes”) to perform this delightful-looking, albeit unhealthy, feat (pun!).

22 2013 movie co-starring Scarlett Johansson in which she is never seen : HER

2003’s “Her” is a rather unusual film. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as a man who develops a relationship with a computer operating system called “Samantha”, which is voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

Scarlett Johansson is a film actress from New York City. Johansson had an acclaimed lead performance in the 1996 movie “Manny & Lo”, when she was just 12 years old. The earliest films I remember her in, two favorites of mine, are “Girl in a Pearl Earring” and “Lost in Translation”, both from 2013. She has become quite the sex symbol, and is the only woman to have been named “Sexiest Woman Alive” twice by “Esquire” magazine. The media sometimes refer to her as “ScarJo”, a moniker that she apparently dislikes intensely.

23 “Going Back to Cali” rapper, 1998 : LL COOL J

Rap star LL Cool J was born James Todd Smith. Smith’s stage name stands for “Ladies Love Cool James”. When not rapping, LL Cool J plays Special Agent Sam Hanna on TV show “NCIS: Los Angeles”.

25 *Abigail Adams or Eleanor Roosevelt, informally : FLOTUS

First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS)

Abigail Adams (born Abigail Smith) had a unique distinction being married to John Adams. She was the first Second Lady of the US, and then became the second First Lady! That said, the titles of “Second Lady” and “First Lady” were not used in her day.

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt continued to lead a very active public life after her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt passed away. For example, President Roosevelt’s successor, Harry S. Truman appointed her as delegate to the UN General Assembly in 1945. In 1946, she became the chairperson of the UN Commission on Human Rights. The UN awarded Eleanore Roosevelt its Prize in the Field of Human Rights in the prizes inaugural year of 1968, although this was six years after her death. President Truman called her the “First Lady of the World”, in recognition of her human rights achievements.

29 *Red denizen of Sesame Street : ELMO

Nowadays we use “denizen” to mean simply “resident”, but historically a denizen was an immigrant to whom certain rights had been granted, somewhat like today’s resident alien.

30 Advocates for : ESPOUSES

To espouse is to take in marriage. We have used the extended meaning of “to give one’s support to” since the 1600s.

33 Animal with luxurious fur : SABLE

Sables are small mammals, about two feet long, that are found right across northern Europe and northern Asia. The sable’s black pelt is highly prized in the fur trade. Sable is unique among furs in that it feels smooth no matter which direction it is stroked.

36 Consumer protection agcy. : FTC

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was established in 1914, with the mission of protecting consumers.

37 Muse of memory : MNEME

In Greek mythology, Mneme was one of the nine Olympian Muses, the muse of memory.

41 Santa ___ (hot winds) : ANAS

The Santa Ana winds are the very dry air currents that sweep offshore late in the year in Southern California. Because these air currents are so dry, they are noted for their influence over forest fires in the area, especially in the heat of the fall. The winds arise from a buildup of air pressure in the Great Basin that lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Under the right conditions, that air spills over the peaks of the Sierra Nevada and basically “falls” down the side of the Sierra range, heading for the ocean. As the air falls it becomes drier and heats up so that relative humidity can fall to below 10% by the time it hits the coast.

45 *”The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a ___ to be kindled”: Plutarch : FIRE

Plutarch was a Greek historian who became a Roman citizen. Plutarch’s most famous work is probably “Parallel Lives”, a series of paired biographies, with each pair comparing the lives of one Greek and one Roman.

46 Eliot protagonist : MARNER

“Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe” is a novel written by George Eliot and first published in 1861. There’s an excellent BBC TV version of the tale (shown on PBS) starring Ben Kingsley in the title role, with Patsy Kensit playing Eppie, the young orphaned child that Marner takes under his wing.

47 *Pickle or asparagus unit : SPEAR

Often, a dill pickle is actually a pickled gherkin, as the gherkin and cucumber are different cultivars within the same species. Here in the US, dill is commonly added to pickling vinegar or brine, but this wasn’t the case when I used to eat them back in Ireland (I can’t stand dill!). You might see jars labeled as “cornichons”, but they’re gherkins. “Cornichon” is the French word for “gherkin”.

Asparagus is a perennial flowering plant that is grown mainly for its edible shoots (or “spears”). The shoots must be harvested when they are very young, as they become woody very quickly.

51 State with 1,350 miles of coastline (second-most after Alaska): Abbr. : FLA

What we know as the US state of Florida, was named by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, who led the first Europeans to the area in 1513. The actual name he used was “La Florida”, Spanish for “the Flowery (Land)”.

52 *Small, embedded program : APPLET

“Applet” is the name given to a small application that runs within a larger computer program.

54 São ___, most populous city in the Southern Hemisphere : PAULO

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil. It is also the city with the highest number of helicopters in the world. This is partly driven by the horrendous traffic jams in São Paulo, but also by the wealthy having a very real fear of being kidnapped on the city’s streets.

63 Almost half of Scandinavians : SWEDES

Strictly speaking, Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe that covers the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The broader region that includes Finland and Iceland is referred to locally as “the Nordic countries”.

Down

3 Early investor : ANGEL

An angel investor is one who provides capital very early in a business’s life cycle. The term “angel” is borrowed from Broadway, where angels are wealthy people who provide funds to stage theatrical productions.

4 Literally, “equal legs” : ISOSCELES

An isosceles triangle is one that has two sides of equal length.

6 Draconian : CRUEL

Constitutional law was brought to Athens and ancient Greece by a legislator called Draco. The legal code that Draco developed was relatively harsh, which is why we use the term “draconian” to describe unforgiving rules.

7 Large cask for beer or wine : TUN

A tun is a barrel, often a large barrel used in winemaking. The term “tun” came to be a measure of volume, originally 252 gallons of wine. The weight of such a volume of wine was referred to as a “tun”, which evolved into our contemporary unit “ton”.

12 Spot dans la Seine : ILE

There are two famous “îles” (islands) in the middle of the River Seine in Paris, one being the Île de la Cité, and the other Île Saint-Louis. Île de la Cité is the most renowned of the two, as it is home to the cathedral of Notre-Dame.

13 Many Ph.D. students : TAS

Teaching assistant (TA)

19 Some Halloween “transports” : BROOMS

The sweeping implement known as a “broom” used to be called a “besom”. A besom was made from a bundle of twigs tied to a stouter pole. The favored source for the twigs came from thorny shrubs from the genus Genista. The common term for many species of Genista is “broom”. Over time, “broom besoms” came to be known simply as “brooms”.

24 ABC’s first program broadcast in color, with “The” : … JETSONS

“The Jetsons” is an animated show from Hanna-Barbera that had its first run in 1962-1963, and then was recreated in 1985-1987. When it debuted in 1963 on ABC, “The Jetsons” was the network’s first ever color broadcast. “The Jetsons” is like a space-age version of “The Flintstones”. The four Jetson family members are George and Jane, the parents, and children Judy and Elroy. Residing with the family in Orbit City are their household robot Rosie and pet dog Astro.

27 What one may have to do to destroy a Death Star : USE THE FORCE

In the “Star Wars” universe, a Death Star is a huge space station that is the size of a moon. It is armed with a superlaser that can destroy entire planets.

28 Original and influential : SEMINAL

Something that is seminal is creative and has the power to originate, is formative. The term comes from the Latin “semen” meaning “seed”.

35 Classic French sauce : BEARNAISE

Béarnaise sauce is a classic French sauce made with clarified butter emulsified into egg yolks and white wine vinegar, and flavored with shallots, tarragon, and chervil. It is considered a “child” of Hollandaise sauce, with a more herbaceous and savory taste. The sauce is named after Béarn, a historical region in southwestern France, though the exact connection remains unclear.

36 Horseshoe enthusiasts? : FARRIERS

A blacksmith is someone who forges and shapes iron, perhaps to make horseshoes. A farrier is someone who fits horseshoes onto the hooves of horses. The term “blacksmith” is sometimes used for one who shoes horses, especially as many blacksmiths make horseshoes and fit them as well.

46 John ___, author of “Annals of the Former World” : MCPHEE

“Annals of the Former World” is a 1998, Pulitzer-winning book by nonfiction author John McPhee. It is a book about geology, and presents a geological history of the North American continent.

50 Brand of oversize Lego bricks : DUPLO

Duplo is a range of Lego bricks and accessories designed for children under the age of five. The bricks are twice the size of regular Lego bricks, so that they aren’t likely to be swallowed by a child, and are also more easily handled by smaller hands.

53 Veteran’s affliction, in brief : PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

56 Does a certain prank on, informally : TPS

TP’ing (toilet papering) is a prank involving the covering of some object or location with rolls and rolls of toilet paper. If you live in Texas or Minnesota, that little “prank” is legal, but if you live here in California it is classed as mischief or vandalism.

59 Some M.I.T. grads, in brief : EES

Electrical engineer (EE)

60 The last one flew in 10/03 : SST

The most famous supersonic transport (SST) is the retired Concorde. Concorde was developed and produced under an Anglo-French treaty by France’s Aérospatiale and the UK’s British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Concordes were mainly operated by Air France and British Airways, with both companies buying the planes with substantial subsidies from the French and British governments. The final Concorde flight was a British Airways plane that landed in the UK on 26 November 2003.