Category: Doug Peterson

Bill’s time: 12m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Olympics event in which Germany is the traditional powerhouse : BOBSLED

Bobsleds are so called because competitors in the sport originally would “bob” in and out of the sled in order to increase its speed.

15A First name of the “Princess of Pop” : ARIANA

Ariana Grande is a singer and actress from Boca Raton, Florida. Grande plays the role of Cat Valentine on the sitcom “Victorious” that aired for four seasons on Nickelodeon. Grande’s singing career took off with the release of the 2011 album “Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show”.

21A Rita of the “Fifty Shades” movies : ORA

Rita Ora is a British singer who was born Rita Sahatçiu in Pristina, Yugoslavia to Albanian parents. The family name “Sahatçiu” comes from a Turkish word meaning “watchmaker”. Rita’s parents changed their name to make it easier to pronounce. So, the family name morphed from “watchmaker” to “time”, which is “ora” in Albanian.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” is a 2015 erotic drama movie based on a 2011 novel of the same name by E.L. James. Starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, the film was widely panned by critics and won out of six nominations at the season’s Golden Raspberry Awards. Audiences didn’t care, though, and it was a box office smash. It also spawned two sequels: “Fifty Shades Darker” (2017) and “Fifty Shades Freed” (2018).

23A Kitchen alternative to tallow : GHEE

Ghee is clarified butter used in South Asian cuisines. “Ghee” comes from Sanskrit, and translates as “sprinkled”.

Fat, when extracted from the carcass of an animal, is called suet. Untreated suet decomposes at room temperature quite easily so it has to be rendered, purified to make it stable. Rendered fat from pigs is what we call lard. Rendered beef or mutton fat is known as tallow.

25A Grammy-winning song (2013) that begins “The snow glows white on the mountain tonight” : LET IT GO

“Let It Go” is an incredibly successful song from the Disney animated film “Frozen” released in 2013. It was performed in the movie by Idina Menzel, who also was the voice actor for the character Elsa. “Let It Go” is one of the very few Disney songs to make it into the Billboard Top Ten.

28A Gen-Xer’s “excellent” : RAD

The term “Generation X” originated in the UK where it was the name of a book by Jane Deverson. Her book detailed the results of a study of British youths in 1964, contrasting their lifestyle to those of previous generations. It was Canadian author Douglas Coupland who was responsible for popularizing the term, with his more successful publication “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”. By one definition, Gen-Xers were born between 1961 and 1981.

32A Cootie-free greeting : AIR KISS

“Cooties” is WWI British slang for “body lice”. Ugh …

34A Foster kid in “Taxi Driver”? : JODIE

The wonderful actress and director Jodie Foster got her big break in movies early in her life, playing a very young prostitute in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film “Taxi Driver”. Sadly, her appearance in “Taxi Driver” led to her being stalked by an obsessed John Hinckley, Jr. Hinckley called Foster on the phone, sent her love letters, and followed her on campus while she was attending Yale. In 1981, Hinckley famously shot and wounded President Reagan, claiming that he believed an assassination of the President would impress Foster.

“Taxi Driver” is a remarkable 1976 movie directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Robert De Niro. The film is remarkable for some great performances, but also for sparking an attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan. Would-be assassin John Hinckley, Jr. tried to kill the President in order to impress Jodie Foster. Hinckley had been obsessed with Foster since seeing her performance in the film as child prostitute Iris Steensma.

36A Frank who wrote the music and lyrics to “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” : LOESSER

Frank Loesser was a songwriter who was famous for penning both lyrics and music for the Broadway show “Guys and Dolls” and “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying”. Loesser also wrote the marvelous song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”.

“How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” is a Frank Loesser musical based on a 1952 book of the same name by Shepherd Mead. The story centers on an ambitious young window washer who rockets through the management ranks of a private company with the help of a how-to manual.

38A Like a Mediterranean diet : HEART-SMART

The Mediterranean diet is a nutritional regime that is based on the traditional diets consumed in Greece, and the southern parts of Italy, France and Spain. Central to the Mediterranean diet are relatively high proportions of olive oil, legumes, unrefined cereals, fruits and vegetables. Oh, and the odd glass of red wine.

41A Endurance event, for short : TRI

An Ironman Triathlon is a race involving a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon run of just over 26 miles. The idea for the race came out of a debate between some runners in the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay. They were questioning whether runners, swimmers or bikers were the most fit athletes. The debaters decided to combine three local events to determine the answer, inviting athletes from all three disciplines. The events that were mimicked in the first triathlon were the Waikiki Roughwater swim (2.4 miles), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles). The idea was that whoever finishes first would be called “the Iron Man”. The first triathlon was run in 1978, with fifteen starters and only twelve finishers. The race format is used all over the world now, but the Hawaiian Ironman is the event that everyone wants to win.

42A Bending over, perhaps : MOONING

The first recorded mooning incident took place in 66 AD during the First Roman-Jewish War. Roman soldiers decided to moon Jewish pilgrims as they traveled to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

46A QB Dawson who faced Bart Starr in Super Bowl I : LEN

Len Dawson is a retired AFL-NFL quarterback who played for the Kansas City Chiefs (originally the Dallas Texans). Dawson played for the Chiefs in the first ever Super Bowl, losing badly to the Green Bay Packers. However, he was on the winning team in Super Bowl IV, when the Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings. Quarterback Dawson was named the MVP that day.

Bart Starr was a football player and coach who spent his whole career with the Green Bay Packers, playing quarterback for the Packers from 1956 to 1971. Starr was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the first two Super Bowls.

Super Bowl I was played in January 1967 between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers emerged victorious in a game with a score of 35-10. That game was officially known as the AFL-NFL Championship Game, as the name “Super Bowl” wasn’t applied until two seasons later. That “first” Super Bowl is now known as Super Bowl III and was played between the New York Jets and the Baltimore Colts. The Jets came out on top.

54A Sommelier, e.g. : POURER

“Sommelier” is the French word for “wine steward”. If that steward is a female, then the term used in French is “sommelière”.

57A Dish, at times : ANTENNA

An antenna’s job is to convert electrical power into radio waves, and radio waves into an electrical signal. The first antennas were built by the German physicist Heinrich Hertz in 1888.

Down

1D Storage units : BITS

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”.

3D Crib for a doll : BARBIE DREAMHOUSE

Mattel, the supplier of Barbie dolls, purchased a 3,500 square-foot house in Malibu, and had it redecorated to resemble the company’s Barbie Dreamhouse dollhouse. The creation of a life-size Barbie Dreamhouse was part of a promotion on the occasion of Barbie’s 50th birthday.

4D Trim : SVELTE

“Svelte” comes into English from Latin, via the Italian “svelto” meaning “stretched out”. Something or someone described as svelte would be slender and graceful.

5D Literature Nobelist who wrote “Dodsworth” and “Kingsblood Royal” : LEWIS

Sinclair Lewis was an American novelist and playwright. Lewis was the first US writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he won in 1930.

6D Berkshire institution : ETON

The town of Eton in Berkshire, England is home to the world-famous Eton College. The original settlement of Eton was located on an island surrounded by the River Thames, and the name “Eton” means “settlement on an island. A stream on one side of the island silted up almost 200 years ago, but it was cleared in 2019 so that Eton qualifies as an island once again.

7D Vietnamese currency : DONG

The currency of Vietnam is known as the dong. One dong is divided into ten hao, and one hao is divided into ten xu.

8D Like “Animal Farm” and “Don Quixote” : SATIRIC

“Animal Farm” is a 1945 novella written by George Orwell, a satire of life in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. Orwell had trouble getting his novel published in his homeland of the UK during WWII, as anti-Soviet literature wasn’t a good thing to publish while the UK and USSR were on the same side of a World War. In fact, one publisher who was willing to distribute the book changed his mind after being warned off by the British Ministry of Information. Given his experiences, I find it interesting that Orwell should write “Nineteen Eighty-Four” a few years later, and introduce the world to Big Brother.

The full name of Cervantes’s novel is “The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha”. In the story, Don Quixote is a retired country gentleman who heads out as a knight-errant and who renames himself Don Quixote of La Mancha. In his mind he designates a neighboring farm girl called Aldonza Lorenzo as his lady love, and renames her Dulcinea del Toboso.

10D “Ritorna vincitor” singer : AIDA

“Aida” is a celebrated opera by Giuseppe Verdi that is based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. Mariette also designed the costumes and stages for the opening performance. The opera was first staged in 1871 in an opera house in Cairo. In the storyline, Aida is an Ethiopian princess brought into Egypt as a slave. Radamès is an Egyptian commander who falls in love with her, and then complications arise!

12D Mortimer who once made a guest appearance on “The Muppet Show” : SNERD

Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen’s most famous character was Charlie McCarthy, but Bergen also worked with Mortimer Snerd. Edgar had a daughter who became very famous as well: actress Candice Bergen.

19D Side order with curry : ROTI

In an Indian restaurant, naan bread is very popular. Roti is an unleavened cousin of naan.

24D Ethiopian emperor Selassie : HAILE

Emperor Haile Selassie I ruled Ethiopia until he was removed from power in a revolution in 1974. He died in 1975 under suspicious circumstances and it is widely believed that he was assassinated.

25D Part of U.C.L.A. : LOS

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) gets more applications from potential students than any other university in the country. UCLA also has more students enrolled than any other university in the state.

26D High ways : ELS

Elevated railroad (El)

27D Vehicles seen in the films “Dazed and Confused” and “Two-Lane Blacktop” : GTOS

The Pontiac GTO was produced by GM from 1964 to 1974, and again by a GM subsidiary in Australia from 2004 to 2006. The original GTO’s design is credited to Pontiac chief engineer at the time John DeLorean, who later founded the DeLorean Motor Company.

29D Basketball legend Maravich’s nickname : PISTOL PETE

Pete Maravich was a professional basketball player who earned the nickname “Pistol Pete”. Maravich was forced to retire from the game in 1980 due to injury problems. He died eight years later from heart failure. An autopsy revealed that Maravich was missing a left coronary artery, which supplies blood to the heart muscle. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged as a result, compensating for the defect.

33D Name in the baking aisle : KARO

Karo is a brand of corn syrup, an industrially manufactured sweetener derived from corn. The brand was introduced in 1902 by the Corn Products Refining Company.

36D Brief office hookup? : LAN

You may have a Local Area Network (LAN) in your house. If you’ve got a PC and a router or switch, likely attached to some modem, then you have a LAN.

44D Sex therapy topic : G-SPOT

The full name for the G-spot is the “Gräfenberg spot”, named after German doctor Ernst Gräfenberg. Gräfenberg is best known for developing the intrauterine device (IUD).

50D Port WSW of Algiers : ORAN

Oran lies on the Algerian coast, and is famous for being the port where the French Navy was largely destroyed by the British during WWII in order to avoid the French vessels falling into the hands of Nazi Germany after France surrendered. This decisive and unexpected unilateral action by the British sent a very strong message around the world that Britain was willing to fight alone against the axis powers if necessary.

52D Certain bond, informally : MUNI

A municipal bond (“muni”) is one that is issued by a city or local government, or some similar agency. Munis have an advantage over other investments in that any interest earned on the bond is usually exempt from state and federal income taxes.