Category: Chandi Deitmer

Bill’s time: 28m 23s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Org. for Sandra Bullock in “Miss Congeniality” : FBI

“Miss Congeniality” is a comedy released in 2000 starring Sandra Bullock as an FBI agent who goes undercover in the Miss United States pageant. The critics panned this one, but I really enjoyed it …

4 Shawarma wraps : PITAS

Shawarma is a popular street food in the Middle East. It is made from thin slices of seasoned and marinated meat, stacked into a cone-shaped column, and then roasted on a vertical spit. Servings are prepared by slicing the outside roasted meat.

9 Tear things : DUCTS

Tears are produced by the lacrimal glands, one in each eye.

17 Dress (up), quaintly : TOG

The verb “to tog up”, meaning “to dress up”, comes from the Latin “toga” describing the garment worn in ancient Rome. “Tog” can also be used as an informal word for a coat or a cloak. Back in Ireland, togs are what we call swimming shorts.

19 ___ nous : ENTRE

In French, something might perhaps be discussed “entre deux” (between two) or “entre nous” (between us).

21 Nocturnal bird known for its distinct calls, informally : WHO
22 – : TOWEL (sounds like “HOOT OWL”)

“Hoot owl” is an informal name for the barred owl. Barred owls have dark stripes running up and down the underside of their bodies, hence the name “barred”. They also have a very distinctive two-phrase vocalization, hence the name “hoot”.

32 14,000-foot volcano in California : SHASTA

Mount Shasta is in northern California. The origin of the name “Shasta” seems to be unclear. It may have come from the Russian “tchastal” meaning “white, clean, pure”, a name given to the volcanic peak by early Russian immigrants.

40 Grammy winner Hill : LAURYN

Lauryn Hill is a singer-songwriter from South Orange, New Jersey who is best known as a member of the band called the Fugees (from 1994 to 1996). Off stage, Hill is known for having five children with Rohan Marley, the son of reggae icon Bob Marley. She was also in the public eye in 2010 when she served 3 months in jail for tax evasion.

45 Sch. with the mascot Sparky the Sun Devil : ASU

Arizona State University (ASU) has a long history, and was founded as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory in 1885. The athletic teams of ASU used to be known as the Normals, then the Bulldogs, and since 1946 they’ve been called the Sun Devils.

49 Equivalent of one gallon : FORK
50 – : WARTS (sounds like “FOUR QUARTS”)

The quart, the unit of volume, is so called because it is one quarter of a gallon.

56 From India or Pakistan : DESI

People from the Indian subcontinent might refer to themselves as “desi”.

58 Hit Mach I … or a hint to answering eight pairs of consecutive entries in this puzzle : BREAK THE SOUND BARRIER

When an aircraft or other object approaches the speed of sound, it experiences a dramatic increase in drag and other undesirable aerodynamic effects. Pilots of high-speed fighter aircraft during WWII became acutely aware of this phenomenon and coined the term “sound barrier” to describe the apparent inability of flying controllably beyond the speed of sound. In 1947, American pilot Chuck Yeager was the first to demonstrate that a purposely-designed aircraft could indeed fly through the sound barrier.

The Mach number of a moving object (like say an airplane) is its speed relative to the speed of sound. A plane traveling at Mach 2, for example, is moving at twice the speed of sound. The term “Mach” takes its name from the Austrian physicist Ernst Mach who published a groundbreaking paper in 1877 that even predicted the “sonic boom”.

65 Denomination of Boston’s historic Charles Street Church: Abbr. : AME

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AME Zion) Church was formed in New York City. The church was established by African-American Christians who faced discrimination when attending other churches. Initially the African-American congregations were led by Caucasian Methodist ministers, with the first African American being ordained in 1820.

70 Substance banned for agricultural use in 1972, for short : DDT

DDT is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (don’t forget now!). DDT was used with great success to control disease-carrying insects during WWII, and when made available for use after the war it became by far the most popular pesticide. And then Rachel Carson published her famous book “Silent Spring”, suggesting there was a link between DDT and diminishing populations of certain wildlife. It was the public outcry sparked by the book, and reports of links between DDT and cancer, that led to the ban on the use of the chemical in 1972. That ban is touted as the main reason that the bald eagle was rescued from near extinction.

71 Style that flares out from the waist : A-LINE

An A-line skirt is one that fits snugly at the hips and flares towards the hem. The term “A-line” was first used in fashion by French designer Christian Dior in his 1955 spring collection.

73 One crying “Help!”? : BEATLE

Although credited to Lennon-McCartney, the title song to the 1965 Beatles movie “Help!” was composed by John Lennon, with some assistance from Paul McCartney. Lennon later described the song as one of his most honest and genuine songs. He said, “I was fat and depressed and I was crying out for ‘Help’”.

75 Big money exec : CFO

Chief financial officer (CFO)

78 Growing season : SPRING

Apparently, we call the season “spring” because it is associated with the period when most plants and flowers “spring up” out of the ground.

83 Princess of Power, in the comics : SHE-RA

“She-Ra: Princess of Power” is an animated television show, and a spinoff of the very successful “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe”. Both shows are aimed at young people, with “He-Man” targeted at boys and “She-Ra” at girls.

91 Lauder of cosmetics : ESTEE

Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, and someone with a great reputation as a salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales volume …

92 Amherst sch. : UMASS

The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) is the largest public university in New England. UMass was founded back in 1863, although it took a while to get the school into service. Construction work was delayed and the college went through two presidents before William S. Clark took charge. He cracked the whip, completed the construction and enrolled the first students in the same year that he took over the reins, in 1867. As a result, although Clark was the third President of UMass, he is regarded by most as the school’s founding father.

99 Lollygagger : SLOPE
100 – : OAK (sounds like “SLOWPOKE”)

Back in the early 1800s, a “poke” was a device attached to domestic animals such as pigs or sheep to keep them from escaping their enclosures. The poke was like a yoke with a pole, and slowed the animal down, hence the term “slowpoke”.

To lollygag (also “lallygag”) is to dawdle, to dally.

105 Member org. of the Five Eyes alliance : NSA

The Five Eyes (FVEY) is an alliance of intelligence agencies from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US.

107 Habitat for vicuñas : ANDES

The vicuña is a South American camelid that lives in the Andes. The vicuña produces very little wool, and that wool can only be collected every three years. So, vicuña wool is very expensive due to the shortage of supply. And, the vicuña is the national animal of Peru.

108 Some essays : OP-EDS

“Op-ed” is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

109 Couturier who created Le Smoking tuxedo, for short : YSL

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)

Down

1 “Victory!,” in internet shorthand : FTW!

“FTW” is an initialism abbreviating “for the win”, a phrase meaning “being great, sure to succeed”.

2 Clothing style with hippie influences : BOHO-CHIC

Boho-chic is a style of fashion that grew out of the bohemian and hippie looks.

8 Show shot in Studio 8H, for short : SNL

Studio 8H is an NBC TV studio located at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City. When completed in 1933, it was the largest radio studio in the world, and was intended for orchestral performances as well as variety programs with large studio audiences. Studio 8H was converted for television in 1950, and since 1975 has been the home of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL).

13 Fleur de ___ (seasoning) : SEL

Fleur de sel is a form of sea salt that forms as a thin crust on the surface of seawater as it evaporates. It is now used mainly as a finishing salt in the cooking process, meaning that it is sprinkled on the surface of a dish just before it is served. The name “fleur de sel” translates from French as “flower of salt”, which is a reference to the flowery patterns that form in the salty crust as seawater evaporates.

15 Irene ___ (“the Woman,” to Sherlock Holmes) : ADLER

The character Irene Adler only appears in one of the many Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the story “A Scandal in Bohemia”, Holmes expresses remarkable admiration for Adler as a woman and as a foe. As a result, derivative works in the Holmes genre often feature Adler as something of a romantic interest for Sherlock.

16 411 : DEETS

Several large US cities started using the telephone number “411” in the 1930s for local directory assistance. “411” was used in markets where the Bell System of telephone companies was prevalent. The number “113” served the same purpose on markets dominated by GTE and other telephone companies, with the last such usage of “113” disappearing in the 1980s. The term “4-1-1” is now used in North America as slang for “information”.

26 Nonsense, to Brits : TOSH

“Tosh” is British slang for “foolish nonsense”, and is likely a combination of “trash” and “bosh”.

27 Medicare section that covers prescription drugs : PART D

Medicare is divided into four parts:

• A: Hospital Insurance
• B: Medical Insurance
• C: Medicare Advantage Plans
• D: Prescription Drug Plans

29 U.S. Davis Cup player for 10 years : ASHE

Arthur Ashe was a professional tennis player from Richmond, Virginia. In his youth, Ashe found himself having to travel great distances to play against Caucasian opponents due to the segregation that still existed in his home state. He was rewarded for his dedication by being selected for the 1963 US Davis Cup team, the first African-American player to be so honored. Ashe continued to run into trouble because of his ethnicity though, and in 1968 was denied entry into South Africa to play in the South African Open. In 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack and had bypass surgery, with follow-up surgery four years later during which he contracted HIV from blood transfusions. Ashe passed away in 1993 due to complications from AIDS. Shortly afterwards, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.

The Davis Cup is referred to as the “World Cup of Tennis” as teams from competing countries play in a knock-out format. Although there are now over 120 nations competing, it all started in 1900 with an event featuring teams for just the US and Great Britain. That first competition came about when four members of the Harvard University tennis team wanted to challenge the British. One of the Harvard players was Dwight D. Davis. Davis designed the format for the tournament, and bought a sterling silver trophy using his own money. The event was called the International Lawn Tennis Challenge at first, but this evolved into the Davis Cup, taking the name of the trophy awarded to the winning nation.

41 Aslan’s world : NARNIA

Apparently, it’s not certain how C. S. Lewis came to choose Narnia as the name of the fantasy world featured in his series of children’s books, including “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. There was an ancient city in Umbria that the Romans called Narnia, but there is no evidence of a link.

In the C. S. Lewis series of books known as “The Chronicles of Narnia”, Aslan is the name of the lion character (as in the title “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”). “Aslan” is actually the Turkish word for lion. Anyone who has read the books will recognize the remarkable similarity between the story of Aslan and the story of Christ, including a sacrifice and resurrection.

44 Cap’n’s subordinate : BOS’N

A boatswain works on the deck of a boat. He or she is unlicensed, and so is not involved in the navigation or handling of the vessel, and instead is in charge of the other unlicensed workers on the deck. “Boatswain” is pronounced “bosun” and this phonetic spelling is often used interchangeably with “boatswain”. The contraction “bo’s’n” is also very popular.

51 ___ Lingus : AER

Aer Lingus is the flag carrier airline of Ireland. It was founded in 1936 by the Irish government to provide air service between Ireland and the United Kingdom. The airline’s name means “air fleet” in Irish. In the 1950s, Aer Lingus became the first airline in the world to introduce a duty-free shopping service on board its flights.

52 Long-term security option, in brief : T-BOND

A Treasury note (T-note) is a government debt that matures in 1-10 years. A T-note has a coupon (interest) payment made every six months. The T-note is purchased at a discount to face value, and at the date of maturity can be redeemed at that face value. A Treasury bill (T-bill) is a similar financial vehicle, but it matures in one year or less, and a T-bond matures in 20-30 years.

57 Steamed food items eaten with the hands : TAMALES

A tamale is a traditional dish from Central America composed of a starchy dough that is steamed or boiled in a wrapper made from a corn husk or banana leaf. The dough is called masa, and can include many different ingredients including meat, cheese, fruit and vegetables. A hot tamale is a kind of tamale that originated in the Mississippi Delta. It is particularly spicy, and the masa is replaced with corn meal.

59 Recipient of a 2008 govt. bailout : AIG

“AIG” is an initialism used by the American International Group, a giant insurance corporation. After repeated bailouts by American taxpayers starting in 2008, the company made some serious PR blunders by spending large amounts of money on executive entertainment and middle management rewards. These included a $444,000 California retreat, an $86,000 hunting trip in England, and a $343,000 getaway to a luxury resort in Phoenix. Poor judgment, I’d say …

61 Browser destination : SITE

A web browser is a piece of software used to access the World Wide Web. The first web browser was called “WorldWideWeb” and was invented in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee, the man who created the World Wide Web. The browser known as Mosaic came out in 1993, and it was this browser that drove so much interest in the World Wide Web, and indeed in the Internet in general. Marc Andreessen led the team that created Mosaic, and he then set up his own company called Netscape. Netscape created the Netscape Navigator browser that further popularized the use of the Web starting in 1994. Microsoft responded by introducing Internet Explorer in 1995, which sparked the so-called “browser war”, a war that Microsoft clearly won. As Netscape floundered, the company launched the open-source Mozilla project which eventually led to the Firefox browser. Apple then came out with its own Safari browser in 2003. Google’s Chrome browser, introduced in 2008, is by far the most popular way to view the Web today.

62 Language group of sub-Saharan Africa : BANTU

There are hundreds of Bantu languages, which are mainly spoken in central, east and southern Africa. The most commonly spoken Bantu language is Swahili, with Zulu coming in second.

77 Shoppe descriptor : OLDE

The word “olde” wasn’t actually used much earlier than the 1920s. “Olde” was introduced to give a quaint antique feel to brand names, shop names etc. as in “Ye Olde Shoppe”.

80 Things revealing basic truths? : PH TESTS

As we all recall from chemistry class, a pH of 7 is considered neutral. Anything less than 7 is an acid, and anything above 7 is a base.

81 Like Zambia relative to Angola : EAST

Angola is a country in south-central Africa on the west coast. It is the fourth largest diamond exporter in Africa, after Botswana, the Congo and South Africa. Such a valuable export hasn’t really helped the living standard of the country’s citizens as life expectancy and infant mortality rates are among the poorest on the continent.

The landlocked nation of Zambia in Southern Africa was ruled by the British for many years as a colony known as Northern Rhodesia. Northern Rhodesia finally gained independence in 1964, adopting the name Zambia. The new name comes from the Zambezi river, which forms much of the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The famous Victoria Fall lies on the Zambezi, on that border.

85 Fades (out) : PETERS

The verb phrase “to peter out”, meaning “to fizzle out”, originated in the 1840s in the American mining industry. While the exact etymology isn’t clear, it probably derives from the term “saltpeter”, a constituent of gunpowder.

86 Holy text divided into suras : QURAN

A sura is any one of the 114 chapters of the Koran.

87 Savory quality : UMAMI

Umami is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, bitter and salty. “Umami” is a Japanese word used to describe “a pleasant savory taste”. Umami was proposed as a basic taste in 1908, but it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the scientific community finally accepted it as such.

94 Something that closes quickly : FLOP

That might be a stage show that is a flop.

95 Capital of Togo : LOME

Lomé is the capital city of Togo in West Africa. It is located on the Gulf of Guinea, and is the country’s largest port.

98 Sidewalk snogging, e.g., for short : PDA

Public display of affection (PDA)

“Snogging” is British slang of unknown origin that dates back to the end of WWII. The term is used for “kissing and cuddling”, what we call “making out” over here in the US.

99 “Dexter” channel, familiarly : SHO

“Dexter” is a crime show that airs on Showtime. The title character works for the Miami Police Department as an expert in blood spatter patterns by day, but is a serial killer by night. The original series was based on the “Dexter” novels written by Jeff Lindsay. I haven’t seen this show myself, but my eldest son really enjoys it …

101 ___ Penn, actor who held a post in the Obama White House : KAL

Indian-American actor Kal Penn made a name for himself in the “Harold & Kumar” series of comedy films. These so-called “stoner comedies” are not my cup of tea, but I enjoyed him playing his more mainstream roles on TV’s “House” and “24”. He left the world of acting when President Obama won the 2008 election to work as an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement (although he did leave the White House briefly to film the “Harold & Kumar” sequel).