Category: Dan Harris

Bill’s time: 8m 50s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15 Disney theme park designer : IMAGINEER

The Walt Disney Company coined the term “imagineering” to describe the creation and construction of Disney theme parks.

16 ___-garde : AVANT

Someone or something described as avant-garde is especially innovative. “Avant-garde” is French for “advance guard”.

17 It might be made short : LONG STORY (“lifelong” & “life story”)

To make a long story short …

18 “The Jeffersons” actress Gibbs : MARLA

Marla Gibbs is an actress from Chicago who is best known for playing Florence Johnston, the maid on the sitcom “The Jeffersons” in the seventies and eighties. Gibbs was also a singer who released several albums. She also owned a jazz club for almost 20 years in South Central L.A. called “Maria’s Memory Lane Jazz and Supper Club”.

20 Icy Hot competitor : BENGAY

Bengay is sold as a painkilling heat rub, to relieve aching muscles. It was developed in France by Dr. Jules Bengue (hence the name), and was first sold in America way back in 1898.

Icy Hot is a topical heat rub that is used to relieve muscular discomfort and pain from arthritis and rheumatism. The active ingredient doesn’t provide any heat or cold, but it does stimulate nerve receptors in the skin causing the user to experience a cool sensation followed by warmth.

27 Joie de vivre : GAIETY

“Joie de vivre” means “joy of living” in French. We use the phrase to mean the happy, carefree enjoyment of life, like when we finish our crossword puzzles …

31 ___ Fridays : TGI

T.G.I. Fridays is an American restaurant chain that was founded in 1965 in New York City. Today there are over a thousand T.G.I. Fridays restaurants in over 50 countries. I think that Fridays has always been particularly successful overseas. I used to visit one a lot with my family when we lived in the Philippines, and I believe the most successful Fridays restaurant anywhere in the world is the one in Haymarket Leicester Square in London in the UK.

34 Battle of Normandy city : CAEN

Caen, on the River Orne, lies in the Calvados department of France in the northwest of the country. Caen is famous for the WWII Battle of Caen that left the town practically destroyed. Caen is also the burial place of Norman King William I of England, also known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy in the north of France. They were descended from Viking stock, so the name “Norman” derives from a translation of “North Men”.

38 Fraternal letters : BPOE

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) was founded in 1868, and is a social club that has about a million members today. It started out as a group of men getting together in a “club” in order to get around the legal opening hours of taverns in New York City. The club took on a new role as it started to look out for poor families of members who passed away. The club now accepts African Americans as members (since the seventies) and women (since the nineties), but atheists still aren’t welcome. The list of US presidents that have been members of the BPOE includes Presidents Eisenhower, Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Ford.

39 Devices that criminals attack through “jackpotting” : ATMS

Automatic Teller Machine (ATM)

42 Schwarzenegger’s birthplace: Abbr. : AUS

Body-builder, actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Graz in Austria, the son of the local police chief. Schwarzenegger’s family name translates into the more prosaic “black plough man”. In his bodybuilding days, he was often referred to as the Austrian Oak. When he was Governor of California he was called “the Governator”, a play on his role in the “The Terminator” series of movies.

43 Western ski resort that doesn’t allow snowboarding : ALTA

Alta ski resort actually lies within the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Area. The first ski lift in the resort was opened way back in 1939. Today, Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the country that prohibits snowboarding (along with Deer Valley, Utah and Mad River Glen, Vermont. The ski resort of Snowbird, located next to Alta, has been in operation since 1971.

49 Noted anonymous street artist : BANKSY

Banksy is an English graffiti artist who is noted for his contempt of the British government for condemning his work as vandalism. Banksy’s work can fetch a pretty penny at auction. No one seems to know for sure who Banksy actually is …

50 Dec. 25 : XMAS

The abbreviation “Xmas” that is used for “Christmas” comes from the Greek letter chi (X), which is the first letter of the Greek word for “Christ” (“Χριστός”).

53 Video Pinball maker : ATARI

Founded in 1972, electronics and video game manufacturer Atari was once the fastest-growing company in US history. However, Atari never really recovered from the video game industry crash of 1983.

Our modern game of pinball evolved from an earlier table game called bagatelle that used balls, pins and holes (and I remember playing bagatelle as a boy in a pub in Ireland). The first pinball machine was made by a British inventor who settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. He modified the game of bagatelle, adding a coiled spring and a plunger to introduce balls at the end of the table, a device that is still in use today. From there, manufacturers developed coin-operated versions of pinball, which became popular during the depression as they provided a little entertainment for a few pennies. One distributor of the coin-operated pinball machines started manufacturing them himself as he couldn’t source new games fast enough. He called his pinball game Ballyhoo, and eventually named his company Bally, a brand name well known in the gambling industry to this day.

Down

1 ___ Keane, “The Family Circus” cartoonist : BIL

“The Family Circus” comic strip is written by Bil Keane. Once Bil sketches out the text and idea for the cartoon he sends it off to his son Jeff, who inks and colors it so that it is ready for publication. In the storyline itself, the main characters are based on Bil’s own family. In fact, the character “Jeffy” is based on Jeff, Bil’s son and production assistant.

3 One of the Brady Bunch : JAN

The famous sitcom “The Brady Bunch” originally aired from 1969 to 1974 on ABC. If you ever see a movie called “Yours, Mine and Ours” starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda (and remade with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo), you might notice a similarity in storyline. It was because of the success of the 1968 movie that ABC decided to go ahead with the development of “The Brady Bunch”.

7 Téa of TV : LEONI

Téa Leoni is an American actress. One of Leoni’s early parts was in the great film “A League of Their Own” (a minor role: Racine at first base). She also played the fiancée of Sam Malone from “Cheers” on the spin-off sitcom “Frasier”. A leading role on the big screen was opposite Adam Sandler in “Spanglish”. My favorite of her more prominent movie roles was as Jane in “Fun with Dick and Jane”. Leoni started playing the title role in the drama series “Madam Secretary” in 2014, and that’s a show I quite enjoy …

11 Joint czar with Peter I : IVAN V

Peter I and Ivan V were half-brothers who served as joint Tsars of Russia between the years 1682 and 1696. Peter was the most influential of the duo by far, and after Ivan died Peter went on to bring Russia into a new age earning himself the moniker Peter the Great.

21 Boot lined with sheepskin : UGG

Uggs are sheepskin boots that were first produced in Australia and New Zealand. The original Uggs have sheepskin fleece on the inside for comfort and insulation, with a tanned leather surface on the outside for durability. “Ugg” is a generic term Down Under, although it’s a brand name here in the US.

23 One of 32 by Beethoven : PIANO SONATA

In addition to 5 cello sonatas and 10 violin sonatas, Ludwig van Beethoven composed 35 piano sonatas. The most famous of his sonatas that have acquired names are probably the “Pathétique”, “Moonlight”, “Waldstein” and “Appassionata”. I should add that, until relatively recently, the count of Beethoven’s sonatas was accepted as 32. Nowadays, the total is said to include 3 previously uncounted sonatas, composed when he was just 12 years old.

33 LaBelle or LuPone : PATTI

“Patti LaBelle” is the stage name of singer Patricia Holt-Edwards from Philadelphia. She started her career in the sixties as the lead singer of the vocal group Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, later changing its name to simply “LaBelle”. When the group disbanded in 1976, Patti launched a remarkably successful solo career.

Singer Patti LuPone won Tonys for playing Eva Peron in “Evita ” and Rose in “Gypsy”.

37 I.S.P. regulator : FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been around since 1934, when it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.

41 “Gangnam Style” rapper : PSY

“PSY” is the stage name of South Korean rapper Park Jae-sang. PSY became an international star when his 2012 music video “Gangnam Style” went viral on YouTube. That video had over 1 billion views on YouTube in about six months, making it the most viewed YouTube video clip of all time. The title of the song refers to a lifestyle experienced in the Gangnam District of Seoul.

44 Hollywood’s Haley Joel : OSMENT

Haley Joel Osment was excellent in “The Sixth Sense”, playing the young boy who saw “dead people”. Before Osment got that role, he had played Forrest Gump’s young son on screen (bet you didn’t know that!). Since then, he starred in “Pay It Forward” and “A.I”, both very entertaining films.

46 Gumbo vegetables : OKRAS

Gumbo is a type of stew or soup that originated in Louisiana. The primary ingredient can be meat or fish, but to be true gumbo it must include the “holy trinity” of vegetables, namely celery, bell peppers and onion. Okra used to be a requirement but this is no longer the case. Okra gave the dish its name as the vernacular word for the African vegetable is “okingumbo”, from the Bantu language spoken by many of the slaves brought to America.

51 Museo works : ARTE

In Spanish, one sees works of “arte” (art) in “un museo” (a museum).

54 Comedian Wong : ALI

Ali Wong is a stand-up comedian from San Francisco who is a protégé of Chris Rock. She made two very successful Netflix stand-up specials “Baby Cobra” and “Hard Knock Wife”. She also worked as a writer for the hit sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat”.

55 Chick-___-A : FIL

Chick-fil-A is a chain of fast food restaurants that was founded in 1946 in Georgia. The corporation has a culture that is heavily influenced by the founder’s evangelical Christian faith. As such, Chick-fil-A is one of the only fast food or retail chain of stores that closes for business on Sunday. Chick-fil-A also made the headlines a while back due to the company’s stated opposition to same-sex marriage.

57 Downside of checking a bag : FEE

Remember when that wasn’t the “case”?