Category: Adrian Johnson

Bill’s time: 14m 47s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11 This might change your mind : LSD

LSD (known colloquially as “acid”) is lysergic acid diethylamide. A Swiss chemist named Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 in a research project looking for medically efficacious ergot alkaloids. It wasn’t until some five years later when Hofmann ingested some of the drug accidentally that its psychedelic properties were discovered. Trippy, man …

14 Five-minute rock classic with an iconic organ intro : BABA O’RILEY

The song by the Who that is commonly called “Teenage Wasteland” actually has the title “Baba O’Riley”. “Baba O’Riley” is used as the theme song for the television show “CSI: New York”.

19 Woman with enfants : MERE

In French, a “mère” (mother) bears an “enfant” (child).

20 Not online, to a texter : IRL

In real life (IRL)

27 Seeds may go down in them : UPSETS

A seeded player or team in a tournament is one given a preliminary ranking that is used in the initial draw. The intention is that the better competitors are less likely to meet each other in the early rounds.

30 Model Boyd of London’s “Swinging Sixties” era : PATTIE

Pattie Boyd was working as a model when she was cast as a schoolgirl in the Beatles movie “A Hard Day’s Night”, although she was 20-years-old at the time. While filming, she met George Harrison, and the pair were married in 1966. They separated in 1974, largely due to Harrison’s infidelities, which included an affair with Ringo Starr’s wife. Boyd met Eric Clapton in the late sixties when he and Harrison started working together. Clapton became smitten with Boyd, and wrote the hit song “Layla” as a proclamation of his love for her in 1970. Boyd and Clapton eventually married in 1979, but the pair divorced five years later.

32 Product from Jamaica : SKA

Ska originated in Jamaica in the late fifties and was the precursor to reggae music. No one has a really definitive etymology of the term “ska”, but it is likely to be imitative of a sound.

The island nation of Jamaica is located just under 100 miles south of Cuba in the Caribbean Sea. Christopher Columbus first visited the island in 1494, and he and his crew were stranded there for over a year from 1503-1504. Spanish rule devastated the local population, through violence and disease. As a result, the Spanish transplanted African slaves to Jamaica to work as laborers. Spain lost Jamaica to the English in 1655. Given the turbulent history, most Jamaicans today are of African descent, and Jamaica is the third-most populous English-speaking country in the Americas (after the US and Canada).

34 Una y ___ vez (again and again: Sp.) : OTRA

“Una y otra vez” is Spanish for “again and again”.

41 First N.F.L. quarterback to pass for 50,000 yards : MARINO

Dan Marino played his entire professional football career with the Miami Dolphins. He is widely regarded as one of the game’s greatest quarterbacks, even though he never played on a team that won the Super Bowl.

43 Ceremonial plates for the Eucharist : PATENS

In the Christian, the Eucharist is a rite celebrating Christ’s sacrifice, as called out by Jesus at the Last Supper.

45 Three in Q3, e.g.: Abbr. : MOS

There are three months (mos.) in quarter three (Q3).

Down

3 One way up, perhaps : T-BAR

A T-bar is a ski lift on which the skiers are pulled up the hill in pairs, with each pair standing (not sitting!) either side of a T-shaped metal bar. The bar is placed behind the thighs, pulling along the skiers as they remain standing on their skis (hopefully!). There’s also a J-bar, which is a similar device but with each J-shaped bar used by one skier at a time.

4 Best-selling novelist Hoag : TAMI

Tami Hoag is a novelist best known for writing romances and thrillers. She is a prolific writer and once had five consecutive titles on the New York Times bestsellers list, all in a 20-month period.

6 Country where the oldest human skull (circa 1,000,000 B.C.) was found in 1997 : 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.

8 Plant that contains chlorophyll but lacks a stem and leaves : ALGA

Algae are similar to terrestrial plants in that they use photosynthesis to create sugars from light and carbon dioxide, but they differ in that they have simpler anatomies, and for example lack roots.

13 On the ___ : DOLE

The word “dole”, meaning “financial relief”, originated as the Old English word “dal”, the state of sharing, giving out. The phrase “on the dole”, relating to institutional relief, dates back to the twenties.

22 Pub order, in brief : IPA

India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

23 It dots the “i” in the Ohio State marching band’s spelling of “Ohio” : SOUSAPHONE

The sousaphone is a kind of tuba that was specifically designed to send the sound upward and over the rest of the orchestra, with a warm tone, achieved with a large bell that pointed upwards. The instrument was developed at the request of the composer John Philip Sousa, hence the name. The design proved to be more suitable than its predecessors for use in marching bands, and that is how it is used most frequently today.

26 On a streak? : NAKED

People have been running around naked for an awfully long time, but the application of the word “streaking” to the phenomenon only dates back to 1973. A journalist was reporting on a mass nude run of 533 people at the University of Maryland in 1973, and used the words “they are streaking (i.e. moving quickly) past me right now. It’s an incredible sight!”. The Associated Press picked up the story the next day, and interpreted “streaking” as the term to describe “running naked”, and we’ve been using it that way ever since.

36 Mexico City-to-Cancún dir. : ENE

Mexico City is the capital of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. It is also the oldest city in all the Americas, having been founded in 1325 as Tenochtitlan.

Cancún is a city and island on the east coast of Mexico, on the other side of the Yucatan Channel from Cuba. The city is growing rapidly due to its booming tourist business. Cancún is the center of what’s often called “The Mexican Caribbean” or the “Mayan Riviera”.

37 See star? : PONTIFF

The term “pontiff” tends to be used for the Bishop of Rome, the Pope. However, “pontiff” technically refers to any bishop, and a Pontifical Mass is a Mass celebrated by any bishop. The original pontiffs were members of four illustrious colleges of priests in Ancient Rome.

In the Roman Catholic Church, an episcopal see is the official seat of a bishop, and is usually described by the town or city where the bishop presides and has his cathedral. The most famous see in the church is called the Holy See, the episcopal see of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.

39 Language spoken in Middle-earth : GNOMISH

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

44 Dolphin’s facility : SONAR

Echolocation, when used by animals, is known as biosonar. The best-known example of an animal using biosonar is probably the bat, although not all species of bat use sounds to locate objects.

Bottlenose dolphins have a very large brain to body mass ratio, second only to humans among mammals in general. Along with the brain-size comes high intelligence. Many dolphins have been trained to carry out military tasks. And then there is their acting ability, as exemplified by “Flipper”.

48 Reebok rival : NIKE

Nike was founded in 1964 in Eugene, Oregon by entrepreneur Phil Knight and track-and-field coach Bill Bowerman as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS). BRS started out by distributing athletic shoes made in Japan. The company started making its own shoes in 1971 and changed its name to Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory.

The brand name Reebok was adopted as the new company name for Foster Shoes of the UK in 1960. The name Reebok (more commonly “Rhebok”) is an Afrikaans word for an antelope, and comes from the term “roe buck”.

50 Reebok rival : FILA

Fila was originally an Italian company, founded in 1911 and now based in South Korea. Fila was started in Piedmont by the Fila brothers, primarily to make underwear that they sold to people living in the Italian Alps. The company started to focus on sportswear in the seventies, using tennis-great Bjorn Borg as their major endorser.

52 Inapt locale for this answer : WEST

That’s because this answer is in the EAST of the grid.