Day: May 20, 2025

Bill’s time: 7m 22s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Bit or byte : UNIT

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The term “byte” is an abbreviation for “binary digit”.

14 Comedian Trevor with the memoir “Born a Crime” : NOAH

“Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood” is a comedic autobiographical book penned by comedian Trevor Noah. It tells of Noah’s early life growing up during apartheid in South Africa. The title refers to the fact that black-white marriages were illegal under apartheid, and the very existence of a mixed-race child was evidence of a crime.

16 Ring-tailed primate : LEMUR

Lemurs are unusual-looking creatures that are native to the island of Madagascar off the east coast of Africa. With their white fur and dark eyes that are very reflective at night, they have a “ghostly” appearance. Indeed, the animals take their name from Roman mythology in which “lemures” were spirits of the restless dead.

19 Court colleague of Kagan and Kavanaugh : ALITO

Associate Justice Samuel Alito was nominated to the US Supreme Court by President George W. Bush. Alito is the second Italian-American to serve on the Supreme Court (Antonin Scalia was the first). Alito studied law at Yale and while in his final year he left the country for the first time in his life, heading to Italy to work on his thesis about the Italian legal system.

Elena Kagan was the Solicitor General of the United States from 2009 until 2010, when she replaced Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. That made Justice Kagan the first female US Solicitor General and the fourth female US Supreme Court justice. Kagan also served as the first female dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009.

Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump to succeed Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh took the oath of office in 2018, after what can only be described as a contentious confirmation hearing. He has been married since 2004 to Ashley Estes, who served as Personal Secretary to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2004.

25 CPR pro : EMT

An emergency medical technician (EMT) might administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

26 Queen of Olympus : HERA

In Greek mythology, Hera was the wife of Zeus and the goddess of women, marriage, family and childbirth. She was noted for her jealous and vengeful nature, particularly against those who vied for the affections of her husband. The equivalent character to Hera in Roman mythology was Juno. Hera was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.

Mount Olympus is the highest peak in Greece. In Greek mythology, it was home to the gods, and in particular home to the principal gods known as the Twelve Olympians.

27 Pet rescue grp. : ASPCA

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)

31 Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan : OMAR

Ilhan Omar has been representing Minnesota’s 5th congressional district in the US House since 2019. At that time, she became one of the first two Muslim women, as well as the first Somali American, to serve in the US Congress.

35 Mink, ferret, stoat, etc. : WEASEL WORDS

Weasels are small mammals with long, thin bodies. That body shape is an advantage when weasels chase their prey into narrow burrows.

38 Indiana or Independence, in D.C. : AVE

Famously, the layout of the streets in Washington was designed by French-born American architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant. The L’Enfant Plan called for a grid of east-west and north-south streets. This grid was crisscrossed with diagonal avenues. The avenues and streets met at circles and rectangular plazas. The east-west streets are generally named for letters, while the north-south streets are numbered. Later, many of the diagonal avenues were named for states of the union.

39 Detroit dud of the 1950s : EDSEL

The Edsel brand of automobile was named for Edsel, son of Henry Ford. Sadly, the name “Edsel” has become synonymous with “failure”, which was no fault of Edsel himself who had died several years before the Edsel line was introduced. When the Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel on 4 September 1957, Ford proclaimed the day to be “E Day”.

40 Wall St. debut : IPO

An initial public offering (IPO) is a significant event for a company as it marks the first time it becomes a publicly traded company. IPOs are often accompanied by a so-called “lock-up period.” This is a period of time, typically 90 to 180 days after the IPO, during which company insiders, such as executives and early investors, are not allowed to sell their shares on the open market. The purpose of the lock-up period is to prevent a flood of shares from hitting the market and potentially driving down the price of the stock.

43 4G ___ (letters on a cellphone screen) : LTE

In the world of telecommunications, the initialism LTE stands for Long-Term Evolution, and is wireless broadband communication standard. In general terms, LTE improves broadband speeds. As I understand it, LTE technology allows a 3G network to perform almost as well as a true 4G network, and so LTE is sometimes marketed as 4G LTE, even though it’s really “3G plus”.

47 Poet Byron, for one : LORD

George Gordon Byron, known simply as “Lord Byron”, was an English poet active in the early 1800s. Byron was equally as famous for his poetry as he was for the wild excesses in his personal life. Byron lived much of that life outside of England, and fought for revolutionaries in both Italy and Greece. He died from a fever contracted while fighting for the Greeks against the Ottomans.

49 Like pound cake : DENSE

Pound cake is so called because the traditional recipe calls for a pound of each of four ingredients:

• a pound of flour
• a pound of butter
• a pound of eggs
• a pound of sugar

I’d say that’s a lot of cake …

50 Bird whose name sounds like a hip-hop dance move : NENE

The nene is a bird that is native to Hawaii, and is also known as the Hawaiian goose. The name “nene” is an imitation of its call. When Captain Cook landed on the islands in 1778, there were 25,000 nene living there. By 1950, the number was reduced by hunting to just 30 birds. Conservation efforts in recent years have been somewhat successful. The nene was named State Bird of Hawaii in 1957.

The Nae Nae is a hip hop dance that is named for the 2013 song “Drop that NaeNae” recorded by We Are Toon. The main move in the dance involves swaying with one hand in the air and one hand down, with both feet firmly planted on the dancefloor. Go on, do it. You know you want to …

53 Crafters’ knives : X-ACTOS

The X-Acto knife was invented in the thirties by a Polish immigrant, although his intention was to come up with a scalpel for surgeons. The knife couldn’t cut it as a scalpel though (pun!), because it was difficult to clean. The inventor’s brother-in-law suggested it be used as a craft knife, and it is still around today.

61 Tennis champ Naomi : OSAKA

Naomi Osaka is a Japanese-born tennis professional who became the first Asian player to be ranked number-one in singles. She was also the first ever tennis player to light the Olympic cauldron during an opening ceremony, doing so for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

62 Freighter : CARGO SHIP

Cargo is freight carried by some vehicle. The term “cargo” comes into English via Spanish, ultimately deriving from the Latin “carricare” meaning “to load on a cart”.

70 Cryptanalyst Turing : ALAN

Alan Turing was an English mathematician. He was well-respected for his code-breaking work during WWII at Bletchley Park in England. However, despite his contributions to cracking the German Enigma code and other crucial work, Turing was prosecuted for homosexuality in 1952. He agreed to chemical castration, treatment with female hormones, and then two years later he committed suicide by taking cyanide. Turing’s life story is told in the 2014 film “The Imitation Game” with Benedict Cumberbatch playing the lead. I thoroughly enjoyed that film …

Down

1 Card game shout : UNO!

The classic card game Uno now comes in several versions. Uno ColorAdd allows people with color blindness to play, and there is also a Braille version that allows blind and sighted friends to play together.

6 Apple all-in-one : IMAC

The iMac is a desktop computer platform that Apple introduced in 1998. One of the main features of the iMac is an “all-in-one” design, with the computer console and monitor integrated. The iMac also came in a range of colors that Apple marketed as “flavors”, such as strawberry, blueberry and lime.

7 Walt Whitman’s “As the Time Draws ___” : NIGH

Walt Whitman is considered to be one of the greatest American poets. He was born in 1819 on Long Island, and lived through the American Civil War. Whitman was a controversial character, even during his own lifetime. One view held by him was that the works attributed to William Shakespeare were not actually written by Shakespeare, but rather by someone else, or perhaps a group of people.

8 Call repeated in an aerobics class : STEP!

Aerobic exercise is moderate activity designed to be at a low enough intensity that very little anaerobic activity takes place. In other words, the exercise is at a level where oxygen is taken in to burn fat and carbohydrate and to create energy. Anaerobic exercise is more intense and uses carbohydrate (glycogen) in the muscle to provide energy, without the need for oxygen. Aerobics are also called “cardio” as the exercises strengthen the cardiovascular system.

10 Dessert served with the query “Cono o coppetta?” in Italy : GELATO

Gelato (plural “gelati”) is the Italian version of American ice cream, differing in that it has a lower butterfat content than its US counterpart.

11 Somme friends : AMIS

The Somme is a department in the Picardy region, in the very north of France. It is famous as the site of devastating battles during WWI.

12 Silence on Zoom : MUTE

Zoom is a videoconferencing app that became remarkably popular in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The market deemed Zoom to be the easiest to use of the free videoconferencing apps. I’ve been using it, but really prefer Google’s Meet offering …

13 Cherubic Greek god : EROS

A cherub (plural “cherubim”) is an angel. The term “cherub” ultimately comes from the Hebrew “kerubh” (plural “kerubhim”) meaning “winged angel”. In the Jewish tradition, cherubim play a key role in protecting the Garden of Eden, and in particular the Tree of Life.

18 ___ Paulo, Brazil : SAO

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.

28 Consumers of hogwash : SWINE

“Hogwash” means “rubbish, of little value”. “Hogwash” was originally the name of swill fed to pigs.

32 Souvenir for a refrigerator : MAGNET

Refrigerator magnets … I can’t stand them! But, there is something interesting about their structure. If we place two fridge magnets back to back, and slide them slowly against each other, then we can feel an alternating attraction and repulsion. This is because they are manufactured with alternating north and south poles on the back side, and do not have two distinct poles. Who knew …?!

33 Moisturizer brand : AVEENO

Aveeno is a manufacturer of skincare and haircare products that was founded in 1945. The name Aveeno comes from the Latin name for the common oat, i.e. Avena sativa.

34 ___ Pieces : REESE’S

Reese’s Pieces are an extension to the successful Peanut Butter Cups line. They are pieces of candy that look like M&Ms, but are filled with peanut butter.

36 Fey figure of folklore : ELF

“Fey” is such a lovely word, one meaning “magical, fairy-like”. It comes from the Middle English word “feie” which has a less pleasant definition, “fated to die”. The term has been extended over the past century to mean “effeminate”.

37 Khan who founded Khan Academy : SAL

“Khan Academy” is a not-for-profit organization that aims to provide a “free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere”. Founded by educator Sal Khan in 2006, the academy mainly teaches mathematics and science through the medium of YouTube videos. Check out some of the videos. They are really excellent …

46 Utah, geometrically speaking : HEXAGON

When viewed on a map of the US, the state of Utah has six sides. It’s almost shaped like a rectangle, but there is a “bite” out of that rectangle in the northeast corner of the state.

48 What “America runs on,” in a franchise slogan : DUNKIN’

Dunkin’ Donuts started using the slogan “America Runs on Dunkin’” in 2006, and it is still around to this day.

58 March Madness org. : NCAA

“March Madness” is the name given to the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship (among others), that is held in the spring each year. Another name is “the Big Dance”.

59 Chutzpah : GALL

Our word “chutzpah” meaning “nerve, gall, impudence” is derived from the Yiddish “khutspe”, which has the same meaning.

60 ___ Major : URSA

The constellation Ursa Major (Latin for “Larger Bear”) is often just called the Big Dipper because of its resemblance to a ladle or dipper. Ursa Major also resembles a plow, and that’s what we usually call it back in Ireland, the “plough”. The words “Ursae Majoris” mean “of Ursa Major”, and are found in the names of several stars in the constellation.

64 Public radio host Glass : IRA

Ira Glass is a well-respected presenter on American Public Radio who is perhaps best known for his show “This American Life”. I was interested to learn that one of my favorite composers, Philip Glass, is Ira’s first cousin.

65 Where to find a kitten’s “toe beans” : PAW

The squishy, pink pads on the bottom of a cat’s paws are known as digital pads. More casually, they are referred to as toe beans.