Category: Andy Kravis

Bill’s time: 12m 54s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Letters of coverage : SPF

In theory, the sun protection factor (SPF) is a calibrated measure of the effectiveness of a sunscreen in protecting the skin from harmful UV rays. The idea is that if you wear a lotion with say SPF 20, then it takes 20 times as much UV radiation to cause the skin to burn than it would take without protection. I say just stay out of the sun …

4 Roadside buildup on a warm winter day : SLUSH

Slush is a mixture of partially melted solid, a mixture of liquid and solid. The classic example is partly melted snow.

14 Metonym for attention : EAR

A metonym is a word that is used for something that is closely associated with that word. For example, “Broadway” is a metonym for “American theater” and “Washington” is a metonym for “the US government”.

15 Spotted : PINTO

A pinto is a horse with patchy markings of white mixed with another color. “Pinto” means “painted” in American Spanish.

20 Samurai’s sword : KATANA

A katana is a curved sword worn by the samurai of Japan. It is sometimes referred to as a “samurai sword”.

22 French buns : DERRIERE

“Derrière” is a French term meaning “back part, rear”.

23 Garment for a vaquero : SERAPE

“Serape” is the English pronunciation and spelling of the Spanish word “zarape”. A zarape is like a Mexican poncho, a soft woolen blanket with a hole in the middle for the head. Most serapes have colorful designs that use traditional Mayan motifs.

The Spanish suffix “-ero” can be added to a noun to describe someone who works with that “noun”. Examples would be a “vaquero” (a cowboy working with a “vaca”, a cow) and a “torero” (a bullfighter fighting a “toro”, a bull).

25 First word in the name of the U.S.’s most populous county : LOS …

Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the country.

27 Melville character with the mantra “I would prefer not to” : BARTLEBY

“Bartleby, the Scrivener” is a short story penned by Herman Melville and first published in 1853. The title character is a clerk hired by a Wall Street lawyer. The new employee shows promise at the beginning, but then refuses to do tasks required of him. Bartleby’s job is that of scrivener, someone engaged to copy legal documents by hand.

31 Pitchfork part : TINE

A “pitchfork” is so called because it is primarily a “fork” for lifting and “pitching” hay.

32 Bush bounders : ROOS

The word “kangaroo” comes from the Australian Aborigine term for the animal. There’s an oft-quoted story that the explorer James Cook (later Captain Cook) asked a local native what was the name of this remarkable-looking animal, and the native responded with “Kangaroo”. The story is that the native was actually saying “I don’t understand you”, but as cute as that tale is, it’s just an urban myth.

In Australia, the land outside of urban areas is referred to as the outback or the bush. That said, I think that the term “outback” is sometimes reserved for the more remote parts of the bush.

36 Jam session? : SLAM DUNK CONTEST

In basketball, a player makes a slam dunk by jumping up and powering the ball downward into the basket with his or her hands over the rim. The term “slam dunk” was coined by Chick Hearn, an announcer for the L.A. Lakers. The NBA even holds an annual Slam Dunk Contest.

42 Best Actress Oscar winner of 2022 : YEOH

Michelle Yeoh is an actress from Malaysia who appeared in several Hong Kong action films in which she did her own stunts and martial arts scenes. Her most famous action performance was in the 2000 movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, although I best know her for playing opposite Pierce Brosnan in the Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies”.

43 First Nations people : CREE

The Cree are one of the largest groups of Native Americans on the continent. In the US, Montana is home to most of the Cree nation. They live on a reservation shared with the Ojibwe people. In Canada, most of the Cree live in Manitoba.

“First Nations” is a term used in Canada describing the ethnicity of Native Americans who are neither Inuit nor Métis people.

46 Breed once known as the “Tax Collector’s Dog” : DOBERMAN

The Doberman Pinscher is a breed of dog that was developed around 1890 in Germany. The person responsible for introducing the breed was Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann, explaining the “Doberman” (sometimes “Dobermann”) name. “Pinschers” are a group of Germanic breeds that probably owe their name to the English word “pinch”, a reference to the tradition of cropping (pinching) the ears.

51 ___ Lipa (“Dance the Night” singer) : DUA

“Dance the Night” is a 2023 song co-written and recorded by English-Albanian singer/songwriter Dua Lipa. It made it the number one spot in the UK and Ireland, but not in the US. Dua Lipa appeared in the celebrated 2023 movie “Barbie”, playing Mermaid Barbie. In return, Barbie’s director Greta Gerwig made a cameo in the music video for “Dance in the Night”.

59 Best-selling author of 2017’s “The Hate U Give” : ANGIE THOMAS

“The Hate U Give” is a 2017 novel for young adults penned by Angie Thomas. Central to the storyline is a white police officer shooting and killing a Black youth. “The Hate U Give” topped The New York Times young adult best-seller list for 50 weeks. Despite this, it was one of the most challenged books for several years, according to the American Library Association.

61 Kid’s cry : MAA!

Male goats are bucks or billies, although castrated males are known as wethers. Female goats are does or nannies, and young goats are referred to as kids.

62 Jason of “Aquaman” : MOMOA

Jason Momoa is a model and actor who is perhaps best known for playing superhero Aquaman in several DC Comics films. He also played warrior leader Khal Drogo in the HBO TV series “Game of Thrones”. In 2017, Momoa married actress Lisa Bonet, who played Denise Huxtable on “The Cosby Show”.

“Aquaman” is a 2018 superhero film starring Jason Momoa in the title role. Momoa had previously played the Aquaman character in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” in 2016, and in “Justice League” in 2017.

64 “South Park” kid : IKE

“South Park” is an adult-oriented cartoon series on Comedy Central. I don’t do “South Park” …

Down

2 Chute behind a boat : PARASAIL

Parasailing is hanging below a tethered parachute that is towed by a boat.

5 Capital city whose main governmental building is known as the “House of Pizarro” : LIMA, PERU

Lima is the capital city of Peru. It was founded in 1535 by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, who named it “la Ciudad de los Reyes” (the City of Kings). He chose this name because the decision to found the city was made on January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany that commemorates the visit of the three kings to Jesus in Bethlehem. Lima is home to the oldest university in all of the Americas, as San Marco University was founded in 1551 during the days of Spanish colonial rule.

6 Game with a draw pile : UNO

UNO is a card game that was developed in the early seventies and that has been sold by Mattel since 1992. It falls into the shedding family of card games, meaning that the goal is to get rid of all your cards while preventing opponents from doing the same.

8 Monopoly piece : HOTEL

In the game of Monopoly, one can purchase a hotel by “demolishing” four houses and by paying an extra amount equal to the price of one more house.

9 Personality indicator, some say : STAR SIGN

Most of the signs of the classical Greek zodiac are animals. This fact relates to the etymology of the term “zodiac”, which comes from the Greek “zodiakos kyklos”, literally “circle of animals”.

11 Radiohead’s highest-selling single : CREEP

“Creep” is a 1992 song by English rock band Radiohead. There’s a chord progression in the “Creep” that is identical to one from “The Air That I Breathe” that was a 1974 hit for the Hollies. The writers of the latter song ended up with co-writing credits and a share of the royalties for “Creep”, after the publisher sued. Apparently, the whole kerfuffle was resolved amicably.

12 Three-time Olympic gold medalist ___ Walsh Jennings : KERRI

Kerri Walsh Jennings was partnered with Misty May-Treanor when they won three gold medals in beach volleyball in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

13 Like port : SWEET

Portugal’s city of Oporto (“Porto” in Portuguese) gave its name to port wine in the late 1600s. Oporto was the seaport through which most of the region’s fortified red wine was exported.

21 Lunar mission of the 2020s : ARTEMIS

NASA’s Artemis program has the goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024. Artemis is viewed as a step along the road to sending humans to Mars in the 2030s.

24 Wood that sinks in water : EBONY

Ebony is a dark black wood that is very dense, one of the few types of wood that sinks in water. Ebony has been in high demand so the species of trees yielding the wood are now considered threatened. It is in such short supply that unscrupulous vendors have been known to darken lighter woods with shoe polish to look like ebony, so be warned …

27 “The world’s biggest band,” per a 2021 Rolling Stone cover : BTS

BTS is a boy band from South Korea with seven members. The initialism “BTS” stands for the phrase “Bangtan Sonyeondan”, which translates literally as “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”. It is the best-selling musical act in the history of South Korea.

37 Fan associated with a red, white and blue skull logo : DEADHEAD

The Grateful Dead were a rock band from the San Francisco Bay Area that was founded in 1965. “The Dead” disbanded in 1995 following the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia. Grateful Dead fans (the ranks of whom include my wife) refer to themselves as “Deadheads”.

38 Catchphrase for Austin Powers : OH, BEHAVE

The Austin Powers character was created by the actor who plays him, namely Mike Myers. Apparently Myers came up with the idea for Powers while listening to the Burt Bacharach song “The Look of Love”.

39 Venomous reef dweller : SEA SNAKE

I used to live in the Philippines and spent almost every weekend SCUBA diving (happy days!). Occasionally, I’d come across a sea snake slithering through the water. The rule was always to never swim “above” sea snakes as they don’t have gills and have to come to the surface to breathe. You don’t want to be in the way of a sea snake when it’s coming up for a breath of air, as all sea snakes are venomous and many fatalities have been recorded from their bites.

50 Set of beliefs : DOGMA

A dogma is a set of beliefs. The plural of “dogma” is “dogmata” (or “dogmas”, if you’re not a pedant like me!)

55 Subatomic particle named for a Greek letter : PION

“Pion” is short for “pi meson”, and is the name given to a subatomic particle.

56 “Well, here goes nothing!” : YOLO!

You only live once (YOLO)

58 Mother of the Titans : GAEA

The Greek goddess personifying the earth was Gaea (also “Gaia”, and meaning “land” or “earth” in Greek). The Roman equivalent goddess was Terra Mater, “Mother Earth”.

The Titans were a group of twelve older deities in Greek mythology, the twelve children of the primordial Gaia and Uranus, Mother Earth and Father Sky. In the celebrated Battle of the Titans, they were overthrown by the Olympians, who were twelve younger gods. We use the term “titan” figuratively to describe a powerful person, someone with great influence.

60 “Les ___” : MIZ

The 1980 musical “Les Misérables” is an adaptation of the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The show opened in London in 1985, and is the longest running musical in the history of London’s West End. My wife and I saw “Les Miz” in the Queen’s Theatre in London many years ago, but were only able to get tickets in the very back row. The theater seating is very steep, so the back row of the balcony is extremely high over the stage. One of the big events in the storyline is the building of a street barricade over which the rebels fight. At the height we were seated we could see the stagehands behind the barricade, sitting drinking Coke, even smoking cigarettes. On cue, the stagehands would get up and catch a dropped rifle, or an actor who had been shot. It was pretty comical. I didn’t really enjoy the show that much, to be honest. Some great songs, but the musical version of the storyline just didn’t seem to hang together for me.