Category: Doug Peterson

Bill’s time: 22m 11s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Research subject for which Bohr won a Physics Nobel : ATOM

Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who won his 1922 Nobel Prize for his work on quantum mechanics and atomic structure. Later in his life, Bohr was part of the team working on the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb. Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein had a series of public debates and disputes in the twenties and thirties. Although the two respected each other very highly, they held very different views on quantum theory, different views on the laws of physics at the atomic level. The passage of time has shown that Bohr won out in those debates.

5 Grimm account : TALE

The Brothers Grimm (Jacob and Wilhelm) were two German academics noted for collecting and publishing folk tales. Among the tales in their marvelous collection are “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Sleeping Beauty” and “Cinderella”.

15 Like cranberries : TART

When early European settlers came across red berries growing in the bogs of the northern part of America, they felt that the plant’s flower and stem resembled the head and bill of a crane. As such, they called the plant “craneberry”, which evolved into “cranberry”.

21 Tarot deck grouping : ARCANA

In a 78-card tarot deck, the picture cards are referred to as the Major Arcana. The remaining cards are known as the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana included The Fool, the Wheel of Fortune, the Hanged Man, and Death.

26 Maker of Regenerist products : OLAY

Oil of Olay was developed in South Africa in 1952. When Oil of Olay was introduced internationally, it was given slightly different brand names designed to appeal in the different geographies. In Ireland we know it as Oil of Ulay, for example, and in France it is Oil of Olaz.

28 French auto pioneer Louis : RENAULT

Renault is a French automaker that was founded in 1899 by Louis Renault and his brothers. I’ve seen relatively few Renault cars here in North America, but have driven them many times in Europe, which is the company’s core market.

34 Side hustle for a veterinarian? : LAB SPECIALIST

The Labrador (Lab) breed of dog has been around at least since 1814, and the chocolate Labrador appeared over a century later in the 1930s. The name “Labrador Retriever” is simply a reference to the breed’s origin and behavior. Labs originally “retrieved” from the “Labrador Sea”.

A veterinarian (vet) is a professional who treats animals for disease and injury. The word “veterinary” comes from the Latin “veterinae” meaning “working animals, beasts of burden”.

42 New York Cosmos star of the ’70s : PELE

“Pelé” is the nickname of Edson de Nascimento, a soccer player who has used the name “Pelé” for most of his life. Pelé is now retired, and for my money was the world’s greatest ever player of the game. He is the only person to have been a member of three World Cup winning squads (1958, 1962 and 1970), and is a national treasure in his native Brazil. One of Pele’s nicknames is “O Rei do Futebol” (the King of Football).

The New York Cosmos are a Brooklyn-based soccer team that joined the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 2013. The current Cosmos team takes its name from the original NY Cosmos founded in 1970 that folded in 1985. Apparently, the “Cosmos” name was chosen with reference to the moniker of the NY Mets baseball team. The concept was that the baseball team was “metropolitan”, and the new soccer team was to be “cosmopolitan”.

43 Metal precioso : ORO

In Spanish, “oro” (gold) is a “metal precioso” (precious metal).

46 National gemstone of Mexico : FIRE OPAL

Fire opals are almost transparent, unlike other opals that are richly iridescent. Although almost transparent, fire opals usually have a warm yellow, orange or red color. The most famous fire opals are also called Mexican fire opals, and come from the state of Querétaro in north-central Mexico.

56 “A Confederacy of Dunces” author : TOOLE

John Kennedy Toole was an author whose most famous work is his 1980 novel “A Confederacy of Dunces”. Toole had committed suicide eleven years before publication, when he was just 31 years old. The author’s mother found a smudged carbon copy of the book’s manuscript after her son had passed, and she persisted in her efforts to get the novel published. She was finally successful in 1980, and the following year “A Confederacy of Dunces” won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Well done, Mom …

57 Shed, with “off” : SLOUGH …

To slough off is to cast off, especially when one is talking about the skin of a snake or other animal.

58 Many a Sharon Olds poem : ODE

Poet Sharon Olds won a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2013. She was also the first American woman to win the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry.

63 Turned : SLUED

To slue (also “slew) is to turn sharply, or to rotate on an axis.

65 Its fleece is hypoallergenic : ALPACA

Alpacas are like small llamas, but unlike llamas were never beasts of burden. Alpacas were bred specifically for the fleece. As such, there are no known wild alpacas these days, even in their native Peru.

66 Part of a gig : BYTE

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 prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, and so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and gigabyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

67 Side hustle for an anesthesiologist? : OUTPATIENT COORDINATOR

“Aisthesis” is the Greek word for “feeling”, from which “anaisthesia” is Greek for “want of feeling, lack of sensation”. And that’s how we get our English term “anesthesia”.

73 Leon who wrote “Battle Cry” : URIS

“Battle Cry” is a novel by Leon Uris that was first published in 1953. The story follows men in the US Marines during WWII. “Battle Cry” is somewhat biographical as Uris served with the 6th Marine Regiment during the war. The book was adapted into a 1955 movie of the same name for which Uris wrote the screenplay.

74 Avid bird-watcher, say : TOMCAT

A group of cats can be referred to as a clowder or a glaring. A male cat is a tom or tomcat, and a neutered male is a gib. An unaltered female cat is a queen, and a spayed female might be referred to informally as a molly. A young cat is a kitten.

75 URL divider : SLASH

An Internet address (like NYXCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a uniform resource locator (URL).

78 Holy ones: Abbr. : STS

Saint (st.)

81 Spanish city north of León : OVIEDO

Oviedo is a cathedral city in northern Spain located just over ten miles from the Bay of Biscay coast.

87 Side hustle for a carpenter? : NAIL TECHNICIAN

A carpenter is someone who shapes and assembles structural woodwork. The term “carpenter” comes from the Late Latin “carpentarius” meaning “wagon or carriage maker”. Both “carpenter” and “car” probably derive ultimately from the Gaulish word “karros” meaning “chariot”. Quite interesting …

95 Christmas purchase : TREE

The custom of decorating trees at Christmas seems to have originated in Renaissance Germany. Those first trees were placed in guildhalls and were decorated with sweets and candy for the apprentices and children. After the Protestant Reformation, the Christmas tree became an alternative in Protestant homes for the Roman Catholic Christmas cribs. The Christmas tree tradition was imported into Britain by the royal family because of its German heritage. That tradition spread from Britain into North America.

96 Like Athena : WISE

The Greek goddess Athena (sometimes “Athene”) is often associated with wisdom, among other attributes. In many representations. Athena is depicted with an owl sitting on her head. It is this linkage of the owl with the goddess of wisdom that led to today’s perception of the owl as being “wise”. Athena’s Roman counterpart was Minerva.

98 Moving ___ : VAN

The vehicle we call a “van” takes its name from “caravan”, and so “van” is a shortened version of the older term. Back in the 1600s, a caravan was a covered cart. We still use the word “caravan” in Ireland to describe what we call a “mobile home” or “recreational vehicle” here in the US.

100 Record label for Otis Redding and Big Star : STAX

Stax Records was founded in 1957 as Satellite Records. The biggest star to record with Stax was the great Otis Redding.

108 Cold-weather jacket : ANORAK

Anoraks really aren’t very popular over here in America. Everyone has one in Ireland! An anorak is a heavy jacket with a hood, often lined with fur (or fake fur), and is an invention of the Inuit people.

109 Person with lots to show : REALTOR

“Real estate agent” is a general, generic term. “Realtor” is the name given to a member of the trade association known as the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The NAR has gone so far as to trademark the term “Realtor” in the US.

115 Museum that awards the Turner Prize : TATE

The Turner Prize is awarded annually by the Tate gallery in the UK to visual artists. The prize is named for the painter J. M. W. Turner.

120 Tech tutorials site : C|NET

c|net is an excellent technology website. c|net started out in 1994 as a television network specializing in technology news. The host of “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest, started off his career as host of a c|net show.

122 Set of showbiz awards, in brief : EGOT

The acronym “EGOT” stands for “Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony”, and is a reference to performers who have won all four awards. Also known as the “Showbiz Award Grand Slam”, there are relatively few individuals who have been so honored. The first five to do so were:

1. Richard Rodgers in 1962
2. Helen Hayes in 1977
3. Rita Moreno in 1977
4. John Gielgud in 1991
5. Audrey Hepburn in 1994 (posthumously)

124 Actress and inventor Lamarr : HEDY

Hedy Lamarr was an American actress who was actually born in Vienna in modern-day Austria. Not only was Lamarr a successful Hollywood performer, during WWII she was the co-inventor of a frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum method of transmitting radio signals that is still used to this day in wireless communication. Impressive …

127 Show off at the gym : FLEX

Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed in ancient Greece.

Down

1 “Because freedom can’t protect itself” org. : ACLU

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has its roots in the First World War. It grew out of the National Civil Liberties Bureau (CLB) that was founded to provide legal advice and support to conscientious objectors. The ACLU’s motto is “Because Freedom Can’t Protect Itself”. The ACLU also hosts a blog on the ACLU.org website called “Speak Freely”.

2 Animated figure : TOON

The word “cartoon” was originally used for a “drawing on strong paper”, a durable drawing used as a model for a work of art. The term comes from the French word “carton” meaning “heavy paper, pasteboard”. Cartoons have been around a long time, with some of the most famous having been drawn by Leonardo da Vinci.

3 Evil creatures in 7-Down : ORCS
(7D Frodo’s film franchise, familiarly : LOTR)

According to Tolkien, Orcs are small humanoids that live in his fantasy world of Middle-earth (also called “Mordor”). They are very ugly and dirty, and are fond of eating human flesh.

5 Large orchestral gong : TAM-TAM

The tam-tam is a gong that also goes by the names “chau gong” or “bullseye gong”. It is the kind of gong that has become part of a symphony orchestra, having been introduced by French composer François-Joseph Gossec in 1790.

6 Mahershala of “Moonlight” : ALI

Mahershala Ali is an actor and sometime rapper. Among the more memorable roles Ali has had are lobbyist Remy Danton in TV’s “House of Cards”, and Colonel Boggs in “The Hunger Games” series of movies. He also won Best Supporting Actor Oscars for playing Juan in the 2016 drama “Moonlight”, and Dr. Don Shirley in 2018’s “Green Book”.

“Moonlight” is a 2016 semi-autobiographical film based on an unpublished play by Tarell Alvin McCraney titled “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue”. “Moonlight” won the season’s Best Picture Oscar, thus becoming the first film to do so with an all-black cast, and the first with an LGBT storyline.

7 Frodo’s film franchise, familiarly : LOTR

“Lord of the Rings” (LOTR)

Frodo Baggins is a principal character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”. Frodo is a Hobbit, and is charged with the quest of destroying Sauron’s Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. Frodo is portrayed by American actor Elijah Wood in Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of the novels.

8 Blues great Waters : ETHEL

Ethel Waters was a singer and actress. Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award (after Hattie McDaniel, for “Gone With the Wind”). Waters received the nomination as Best Supporting Actress in 1949 for her performance in the film “Pinky”, in which she played the title character’s grandmother.

15 Cheery “Ciao!” : TOODLE-OO

The term “toodles” meaning “goodbye”, is a short form of “toodle-oo”, which in turn comes from the French “à tout à l’heure” which translates as “see you later”.

16 Two-time opponent of Dwight : ADLAI

Adlai Stevenson (AES) ran for president unsuccessfully against Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE), once in 1952 and again in 1956. Some years after his second defeat, Stevenson served under President Kennedy (JFK) as Ambassador to the United Nations. Stevenson was always noted for his eloquence and he had a famous exchange in a UN Security Council meeting during the Cuban missile crisis. Stevenson bluntly demanded that the Soviet representative on the council tell the world if the USSR was installing nuclear weapons in Cuba. His words were “Don’t wait for the translation, answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’!” followed by “I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over!”

18 Guilt-producing meeting, perhaps : TRYST

In the most general sense, a tryst is a meeting at an agreed time and place. More usually we consider a tryst to be a pre-arranged meeting between lovers. The term comes from the Old French “triste”, a waiting place designated when hunting. Further, a tryst taking place at lunchtime is sometimes referred to as a nooner.

24 Maxim : SAW

A saw is an old saying, one that is often repeated and is very familiar. The term “old saw” is actually a tautology, as by definition a “saw” is “old”.

29 Nobel-winning author Gordimer : NADINE

Nadine Gordimer is an author and political activist from South Africa. Gordimer’s writing was recognized in 1991 when she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. One of the main focuses of her works is the apartheid that was once part of South African culture and law.

31 Park supervisor? : VALET

A varlet was an attendant or servant, and perhaps a knight’s page. The term “varlet” comes from the Old French “vaslet” meaning “squire, young man”. “Vaslet” also gave us our contemporary word “valet”. The term “varlet” came to be pejorative, describing an unprincipled person.

35 Economic stat. : CPI

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) measures changes in the price of services and goods purchased by households. The United States CPI fell in 2009, for the first time since 1955. That’s how bad the 2009 recession was …

36 Male swans : COBS

An adult male swan is a cob, and an adult female is a pen. Young swans are swanlings or cygnets.

38 Bouncy toys : POGO STICKS

What we know today as a pogo stick was invented in Germany by Max Pohlig and Ernst Gottschall. The name “pogo” comes from the first two letters in each of the inventors’ family names: Po-hlig and Go-ttschall.

40 Thrift-store fashion, informally : BOHO

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

47 Hindu, for one : POLYTHEIST

A polytheist is a person who believes in many deities, with the opposite being a monotheist, someone who believes in one god. The ancient Greeks and Romans were polytheists.

48 Justice beginning in 2006 : ALITO

Associate Justice Samuel Alito was nominated to the US Supreme Court by President George W. Bush. Alito is the second Italian-American to serve on the Supreme Court (Antonin Scalia was the first). Alito studied law at Yale and while in his final year he left the country for the first time in his life, heading to Italy to work on his thesis about the Italian legal system.

49 New Testament miracle recipient : LEPER

The horrible disease known as leprosy is also called Hansen’s disease, named after the Norwegian physician famous for isolating the bacterium that causes the disease. We can use the term “leper” to mean someone in general who is shunned by society.

53 Its etymology may derive from the diminutive of “borough” in Italian : GHETTO

The original “ghetto” was an island in Venice that was used for confining Venetian Jews. The same island was used to store slag from a foundry, and “getto” was the Venetian word for “slag”. The term “ghetto” spread across Europe, at the beginning always associated with repressed Jewish populations. Ultimately it came to mean any urban area housing a minority group under economic and social pressure.

54 “Mission: Impossible” theme composer Schifrin : LALO

Lalo Schifrin is an Argentine pianist and composer best known for writing film and television scores. Famously, Schifrin wrote the theme for “Mission: Impossible”, and also for TV shows “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”, “Mannix” and “Starsky and Hutch”.

55 Convention center event : EXPO

The first “World’s Fair” was held in 1851, known back then as the “Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations”. The fair was the idea of Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria. It was held in a magnificent glass and cast-iron structure called the Crystal Palace that was purpose-built for the occasion. The “Great Exhibition” spawned a tradition of what became known as World’s Fairs, expositions that feature national pavilions created by participating countries. The term “Expo” was coined for Expo 67, a 1967 World’s Fair held in Montreal. Since then, we’ve been using “expo” to describe any large exposition or trade show.

60 Some HDTVs : LCDS

Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) are the screens that are found in most laptops today, and in flat panel computer screens and some televisions. LCD monitors basically replaced Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) screens, the old television technology.

61 1979 Commodores hit with the lyric “Good times never felt so good” : SAIL ON

The Commodores were very big in the seventies and eighties. The group’s original members first got together as freshmen while attending what is now Tuskegee University, and got their big break opening for the Jackson 5 on tour. The most famous ex-member of the Commodores is Lionel Richie.

64 Singer Celine : DION

“Because You Loved Me” is a 1996 song recorded by Celine Dion. It served as the theme song for the film “Up Close and Personal” that was released the same year starring Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer.

65 One of two in “Hamilton” : ACT

“Hamilton” is a 2015 musical based on the life of US Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, as described in the 2004 biography by Ron Chernow. The show opened off-Broadway in February 2015, and transferred to Broadway in August of the same year. Advance ticket sales for the Broadway production were unprecedented, and reportedly amounted to $30 million. The representations of the main characters are decidedly ground-breaking. The show is rooted in hip-hop and the main roles such as Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington are all played by African-American and Hispanic actors.

67 Unit of prevention : OUNCE

According to Benjamin Franklin, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

69 Revise, as text : EMEND

The verb “to amend” means “to change for the better, put right, alter by adding”. The related verb “to emend” is used more rarely, and mainly in reference to the editing of professional writing. Both terms are derived from the Latin “emendare” meaning “to remove fault”.The verb “to amend” means “to change for the better, put right, alter by adding”. The related verb “to emend” is used more rarely, and mainly in reference to the editing of professional writing. Both terms are derived from the Latin “emendare” meaning “to remove fault”.

70 Org. with Divisions I-III : NCAA

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

71 Suspense 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.

72 Pandora native in “Avatar” : NA’VI

In James Cameron’s epic “Avatar”, the “blue people” are the Na’vi, the indigenous species that lives on the lush moon called Pandora. The main Na’vi character featured in the film is the female Neytiri. According to Cameron, Neytiri was inspired by the character played by Raquel Welch in the movie “Fantastic Voyage” and the comic book character Vampirella.

80 Classic skit comedy show : SCTV

“Second City Television” (SCTV) is a sketch show that was produced in Canada from 1976 to 1984. SCTV was very successful with audiences all over North America, and in effect launched the careers of several comedy greats. The list of SCTV alumni includes John Candy, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, Catherine O’Hara, Harold Ramis and Martin Short.

82 Sole ingredient in some cookies? : DATA

When you visit a website, often it will leave a little piece of text information called a “cookie” on your computer. As a cookie is a text file, and not executable, it is relatively harmless. However, as browsers routinely read these text files, cookies can be used by spyware. Basically, the browser can read the cookie and tell a lot about your browsing habits. This can be a good thing, so when you go back to your favorite websites you will be recognized and this can help you. For example, you may have shopped at a site and you’ll find that your shopping cart still has the items you were looking at, often because the items were stored in a cookie. However, they can be “bad” as some spyware uses the cookies to detect your browsing habits and can direct the browser to do things you may not want it to do. I do accept cookies, as they do enhance the browsing experience, but only from sites that I trust …

83 Rock with colorful bands : ONYX

Onyx is a form of quartz that comes in many different shades, but most often it’s the black version that’s used for jewelry. The name “onyx” comes from the Greek word for “fingernail”, as onyx in the flesh color is said to resemble a fingernail.

86 “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” vampire : DARLA

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is a TV series that originally aired from 1997 to 2003. “Buffy …” was incredibly successful, especially given that it wasn’t aired on one of the big four networks. The show was created by Joss Whedon and stars Sarah Michelle Gellar in the title role.

96 Frank : WIENIE

What we call a wiener in this country is known as a Vienna sausage in Germany. It was first produced by a butcher from Frankfurt who was living in Vienna, hence the name “Wiener”, which is German for “of Vienna”. Paradoxically, the same sausage is called a Frankfurter in Vienna, as it was created by someone from Frankfurt. It’s all very confusing …

102 Nonsensical : INANE

Our word “inane” meaning “silly, lacking substance” comes from the Latin “inanitis” meaning “empty space”.

104 Accent ___ : GRAVE

In French, accents over the letter E can be acute (é, “accent aigu”) or grave (è, “accent grave”).

107 Giant bird of Arabian myth : ROC

The mythical roc is a huge bird of prey, one reputedly able to carry off and eat elephants. The roc was said to come from the Indian subcontinent. The supposed existence of the roc was promulgated by Marco Polo in the accounts that he published about his travels through Asia.

112 Starbucks size : TALL

Starbucks introduced us to coffee drinks in a whole range of volumes:

• Demi … 3 fl oz
• Short … 8 fl oz
• Tall … 12 fl oz
• Grande … 16 fl oz (Italian for “large”)
• Venti … 20 fl oz (Italian for “twenty”)
• Trenta … 30 fl oz (Italian for “thirty”)

113 Slurpee relative : ICEE

Icee and Slurpee are brand names of slushy drinks. Ugh …

114 Party mix ingredient : CHEX

Chex Mix is a party mix that includes Chex cereal as a major ingredient. The first recipe appeared on boxes of Chex cereal in 1952.