Category: Doug Peterson

Bill’s time: 33m 41s!

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 It may be mined or crunched : DATA

Our word “data” (singular “datum”) comes from the Latin “datum” meaning “given”. The idea is that data are “things given”.

5 Night lights, of a sort : AURORA

The spectacular aurora phenomenon is seen lighting up the night sky at both poles of the earth (the Aurora Borealis in the north, and the Aurora Australis in the south). The eerie effect is caused by charged particles colliding with atoms at high latitudes.

11 ___ card (auditioner’s need) : SAG

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was formed back in 1933, at a time when Hollywood stars were really being exploited by the big movie studios, especially the younger and less inexperienced performers. Early supporters of the Guild included famous names like Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney (you could imagine them in a negotiation!). Past presidents of SAG were also big names, such as Eddie Cantor, James Cagney, Ronald Reagan, Howard Keel, Charlton Heston, Ed Asner and Melissa Gilbert. SAG merged with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) in 2012 to create SAG-AFTRA.

16 Actress Mendes : EVA

I am most familiar with actress Eva Mendes as the female lead in the movie “Hitch”, in which she played opposite Will Smith. Mendes started a relationship with fellow actor Ryan Gosling in 2011, and the couple have two children together.

20 An official language of the Northwest Territories : 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.

22 Go ashore : DEBARK

In getting on and off a seagoing vessel, one embarks and debarks. The terms “embark” and “debark” come from the name of the small ship known as a barque.

24 French :
27 Cake :
30 Advocate? : MARIE ANTOINETTE

Marie Antoinette was the wife of Louis XVI, the last king of France. Marie Antoinette was the fifteenth of sixteen children born to the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. The marriage to Louis, her second cousin once removed, was arranged while the two were very young. The prospective bride was “handed over” to the French at a border crossing in 1770 and two weeks later she was married to the future king. Marie Antoinette was just 14 years of age at the time, and Louis only a year her senior. Both Louis and Marie Antoinette were doomed to lose their heads courtesy of the guillotine during the French Revolution.

There is no evidence that Marie Antoinette ever uttered the words “Let them eat cake”. The phrase was attributed to “a great princess” though, by the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau wrote in his autobiography:

Finally I recalled the stopgap solution of a great princess who was told that the peasants had no bread, and who responded: “Let them eat brioche (cake).”

33 Green hazard : TRAP

Sand traps on a golf course are referred to as bunkers on the other side of the Atlantic.

35 A word before we forget? : LEST …

“Lest we forget” is an oft-quoted phrase, one that comes from a poem by Rudyard Kipling called “Recessional”. Kipling wrote the piece on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897 and used it to express sadness at the waning of the British Empire. The phrase “lest we forget” is used in this context, a warning that the empire will decline. Ever since WWI we’ve been using the words on memorials as a plea not to forget the sacrifices made by others in the past.

36 Loud firework : PETARD

In days of old, a petard was a small bomb that was used to breach fortified gates and walls. The phrase “hoist with his own petard” comes from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, and is a reference to a petard detonating prematurely and blowing up (“hoisting”) the bomber.

38 Catherine of “Schitt’s Creek” : O’HARA

Catherine O’Hara is an actress and comedian from Toronto, Ontario. One of O’Hara’s more famous film roles is Kevin’s mother in the Christmas classic “Home Alone”. She also plays a lead character in the excellent sitcom “Schitt’s Creek” alongside Eugen Levy.

45 Somber rings : KNELLS

The word “knell” is used for a solemn ring from a bell, often associated with death or a funeral. “Knell” comes from the Old English “cnell” and is probably imitative in origin, sounding like a peal from a large bell.

50 Fictional Christian of books and films : GREY

“Fifty Shades of Grey” is an incredibly popular erotic novel by British writer E. L. James. “Fifty Shades of Grey” is the fastest-selling paperback of all time. There are two other titles to complete the trilogy: “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed”.

52 Sussex smell : ODOUR

Sussex is a county in the southeast of England that lies right on the English Channel. The county of Sussex has about the same boundaries as the ancient Kingdom of Sussex, a Saxon colony that existed for about five hundred years until the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Hastings, a town on the Sussex coast, was the site of the first battle of the Norman Conquest of England.

53 Atlantic :
55 Division :
57 Skaters : DETROIT RED WINGS

The Detroit Red Wings play in the National Hockey League (NHL). The Red Wings have won the Stanley Cup more times than any other US-based NHL team.

60 Host that preceded and succeeded O’Brien : LENO

“The Tonight Show” has had six permanent hosts so far:

• Steve Allen (1954-57)
• Jack Paar (1957-62)
• Johnny Carson (1962–92)
• Jay Leno (1992–2009, 2010–14)
• Conan O’Brien (2009–10)
• Jimmy Fallon (2014–present)

62 Home :
63 Office :
66 Convenience : ALL-IN-ONE PRINTER

An all-in-one printer is a multifunctional computer peripheral that typically incorporates a photocopier, printer and scanner.

72 Jolly season : YULE

Yule celebrations coincide with Christmas, and the words “Christmas” and “Yule” (often “Yuletide”) have become synonymous in much of the world. However, Yule was originally a pagan festival celebrated by Germanic peoples. The name “Yule” comes from the Old Norse word “jol” that was used to describe the festival.

75 PlayStation rival : XBOX

The Xbox line of video game consoles is made by Microsoft. The original Xbox platform was followed by Xbox 360 and more recently by Xbox One. Microsoft’s Xbox competes directly with Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s Wii.

Down

1 Part of R&D : Abbr. : DEV

Research and development (R&D)

2 Big name in body sprays : AXE

Axe is a brand of male grooming products. Axe is sold under the name Lynx in some parts of the world.

4 “Thunderstruck” band : AC/DC

“Thunderstruck” is a single by Australian hard rock band AC/DC released in 1990. The title of the song was used for a 2004 Australian film about five AC/DC fans.

5 Sleeper’s problem : APNEA

Sleep apnea (“apnoea” in British English) can be caused by an obstruction in the airways, possibly due to obesity or enlarged tonsils.

9 Accounting dept. stamp : RECD

Received (recd.)

10 Vampiric in appearance : ASHEN

Legends about vampires were particularly common in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans in particular. The superstition was that vampires could be killed using a wooden stake, with the preferred type of wood varying from place to place. Superstition also defines where the body should be pierced. Most often, the stake was driven through the heart, but Russians and northern Germans went for the mouth, and northeastern Serbs for the stomach.

11 House that’s not the House : SENATE

The US Congress is described as “bicameral” in that it is divided into two separate assemblies, namely the Senate and the House of Representatives. The term “bicameral” comes from the prefix “bi-” meaning “two”, and the Latin “camera” meaning “chamber”.

25 Smart ___ : ALEC

Apparently, the original “smart Alec” (sometimes “Aleck”) was one Alec Hoag, a pimp, thief and confidence trickster who plied his trade in New York City in the 1840s.

29 American home of a royal palace : OAHU

The ‘Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu is unique within this country. It is the only royal palace in the US that was used as an official residence by a reigning monarch. The Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in 1893 so the palace was used by successive governments even after Hawaii was awarded statehood in 1959. The palace has been a public museum since 1978.

32 Pamplona’s province : NAVARRE

Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain that shares a border with France. The capital of Navarre is Pamplona, the city famous for the “running of the bulls”.

34 Top gear? : PARK

PRNDL … that would be Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive and Low. The gear shift for an automatic transmission is sometimes known familiarly as the “prindle” stick, from the abbreviation PRNDL.

37 Last little bit : DREG

The dregs in wine, the sediment that settles during fermentation (and sometimes in the bottle), are also called “lees”.

41 Mongolian tent : YURT

A yurt is a wood-framed dwelling that is used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. Although a yurt is a substantial structure, it is also extremely portable.

The East Asian nation of Mongolia lies between Russia to the north and China to the south. With an area of over 600,000 square miles and a population of about 3 million people, Mongolia is the most sparsely populated sovereign nation on the planet. Almost half of the Mongolian populace lives in the capital city of Ulan Bator.

42 University near Greensboro : ELON

Elon is a city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina located close to the city of Burlington. Elon University is a private liberal arts school founded in 1889.

The North Carolina city of Greensboro was founded in 1808 as Greensborough, with the spelling changing in 1895. The city was named for Major General Nathanael Greene who commanded the defeated American forces at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse during the Revolutionary War. Although technically a defeat, Greene’s forces inflicted such heavy casualties on the British Army, led by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis, that the outcome was a strategic victory for the Americans.

43 Counterfeit token : SLUG

A slug is a counterfeit coin that is used to trick a coin-operated machine. A slug might just be a metal blank, or another coin of lower value. I remember the Austrian Schilling trick that was used in the nineties in the UK. A counterfeiter simply glued two Austrian Schillings back-to-back, and these passed nicely as pound coins. Back then, that represented a 90% profit for the bad guy.

46 G.R.E. takers, usually: Abbr. : SRS

Passing the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

47 Obsolescent music holder : CD CASE

A CD case is also known as a jewel box, and I am really not sure why. I’ve heard some explanations, but not one that I really buy …

Something described as “obsolescent” is going out of use, becoming “obsolete”.

49 P.M. preceded and succeeded by Churchill : ATTLEE

Clement Attlee served as leader of Britain’s Labour Party and as Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government during the war years under the leadership of Winston Churchill, a Conservative. Attlee swept into power right after WWII in a landslide victory over Churchill, and was responsible for major changes not only in Britain but around the waning British Empire. It was under Attlee that former British colonies like India, Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka and Jordan became independent. Also, the Palestine Mandate was terminated in 1948, while he was in office, with the state of Israel being declared the very next day.

51 Modern food critic : YELPER

yelp.com is a website that provides a local business directory and reviews of services. The site is sort of like Yellow Pages on steroids, and the term “yelp” is derived from “yel-low p-ages”.

56 City in Northern Ireland : DERRY

Derry is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland, after the capital city of Belfast. “Derry” is the anglicized version of the city’s name in Irish. The city’s legal name is “Londonderry”, a contentious name that was given when the city was granted a royal charter in the 17th century.

The island of Ireland is politically divided between the Republic of Ireland in the south and Northern Ireland in the north. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, and covers about one-sixth of the island.

59 Former frosh : SOPH

The term “sophomore” has been used for a student in the second year of university since the 1680’s. The original meaning of the word was “arguer”. The term has Greek roots, from two Greek words that have been artificially combined in English. The Greek “sophos” means “wise”, and “moros” means “foolish”.

“Frosh” is a slang term for a college freshperson (formerly “freshman”). We call such a person a “fresher” back in Ireland …

61 Mineral with parallel 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.

64 Meghan Mountbatten-Windsor ___ Markle : NEE

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is a former actress, and an American-born member of the British royal family. As an actress, Meghan Markle (her birth name) is best known for playing Rachel Zane on the legal drama “Suits”. Markle met her future husband, Prince Harry, on a blind date set up by a mutual friend in 2016.

65 Composer Brian : ENO

Brian Eno started his musical career with Roxy Music. However, Eno’s most oft-played composition (by far!) is Microsoft’s “startup jingle”, the 6-second sound you hear when the Windows operating system is booting up. Eno might have annoyed the Microsoft folks when he stated on a BBC radio show:

I wrote it on a Mac. I’ve never used a PC in my life; I don’t like them.

68 “Turn to Stone” band of 1977, for short : ELO

The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) is a symphonic rock group from the north of England.

69 Playmate of Fido and Rover : REX

The name “Rex” translates from Latin as “king”.