Category: Hoang-Kim Vu

Bill’s time: 15m 11s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15 Radicchio relative : ESCAROLE

Endive is a leaf vegetable belonging to the chicory genus, and so is in the daisy family. Endive is also known as “escarole”.

16 Common bit of knitwear : BEANIE

A beanie is a knitted, close-fitting hat with no brim. The name probably comes from the slang term “bean” meaning “head”.

19 Shade named for a bird : TEAL

The beautiful color teal takes its name from the duck called a teal, which has dark greenish-blue (teal) markings on its head and wings.

20 Recipe part : STEP

The Latin “recipere” means “to take”, and the imperative form “recipe” was written at the top of medical prescriptions as an instruction, i.e. “take (the following)”. This use of “recipe” evolved into the instruction for preparing a dish of food in the mid-1700s.

23 Elder Stark daughter on “Game of Thrones” : SANSA

Sophie Turner is an English best known for her first TV role, portraying Sansa Stark on the show “Game of Thrones”. She was only 14 years old when she first appeared in the show in 2010. In 2016, she married American singer Joe Jones, one of the three Jonas Brothers.

27 ___ Institute, home of the Carl Sagan Center : SETI

“SETI” is the name given to a number of projects searching for extraterrestrial life. The acronym stands for “search for extraterrestrial intelligence”. One of the main SETI activities is the monitoring of electromagnetic radiation (such as radio waves) reaching the Earth in the hope of finding a transmission from a civilization in another world.

Carl Sagan was a brilliant astrophysicist, and a great communicator. He was famous for presenting obscure concepts about the cosmos in such a way that we mere mortals could appreciate. Sagan also wrote the novel “Contact” that was adapted into a fascinating 1997 film of the same name starring Jodie Foster.

28 Brown-y points, for short? : TDS

The Cleveland Browns football team was a charter member of the All-American Football Conference, formed in 1946. Cleveland is the only NFL city that has never hosted nor sent a team to the Super Bowl. And, the Browns are the only NFL team without a logo on their helmets.

39 Caribbean spirit : RUM

Rum was first distilled by slaves on the sugarcane plantations of the Caribbean in the 1800s, with the tradition being that the very first production came from Barbados.

40 Hit song title for Abba or Rihanna : SOS

The ABBA 1975 song “SOS” was originally titled “Turn Me On”. In the movie “Mamma Mia!”, “SOS” is performed by Meryl Streep (brilliantly) and by Pierce Brosnan (terribly).

“SOS” is a dance-pop song released by Rihanna in 2006.

41 Apple core, for short : CPU

The central processing unit (CPU) is the main component on the motherboard of a computer. The CPU is the part of the computer that carries out most of the functions required by a program. Nowadays you can get CPUs in everything from cars to telephones.

42 Athlete’s affliction also called “twisties” in gymnastics, with “the” : … YIPS

The informal term “yips” applies to the nervous twitching that can sometimes spoil a sportsman’s performance, especially a golfer’s putting stroke.

47 Leaves for lunch, maybe : SALAD

Our word “salad” comes from the Latin “salare” meaning “to salt”. The Latin “herba salata” translates as “salted vegetables”, which I guess could be a salad …

53 Makeup of some wet bars : SOAP

Soap is basically made by adding a strong alkali (like lye) to a fat (like olive oil or palm oil). The fats break down in the basic solution in a process called saponification. The crude soap is extracted from the mixture, washed, purified and finished in molds.

55 It may be buried : LEDE

The opening paragraph in any work of literature is often just called “the lead”. In the world of journalism, this is usually referred to as “the lede”. The derivative phrase “bury the lede” means to fail to stress the most important aspect of a story.

58 Arcade fixture with miniature toys and candy as prizes : CLAW GAME

Our word “arcade” comes from the Latin “arcus” meaning “arc”. The first arcades were passages made from a series of arches. This could be an avenue of trees, and eventually any covered avenue. I remember arcades lined with shops and stores when I was growing up on the other side of the Atlantic. Arcades came to be lined with lots of amusements, resulting in amusement arcades and video game arcades.

60 Proceed with gusto : LET RIP

“Gusto” is an Italian word meaning “taste”. We use it in English in the phrase “with gusto” meaning “with great enjoyment”.

62 Sessions of congress? : TRYSTS

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.

Down

2 ___ Jackson Jr., actor who portrayed his father in “Straight Outta Compton” : O’SHEA

O’Shea Jackson Jr. is an American actor and rapper who is best known for his portrayal of his own father, rapper Ice Cube, in the biopic “Straight Outta Compton” (2015).

3 Charybdis’ milieu : OCEAN

Charybdis was a beautiful naiad, a water nymph of Greek mythology. Zeus became enraged with Charybdis and turned her into a sea monster. In Greek myth, the monstrous form of Charybdis lay at one side of a narrow channel of water, with another sea monster named Scylla lying at the other. Sailors found it impossible to navigate the channel as getting to a safe distance from one monster left them in the clutches of the other. From this tale arose the expression “between Scylla and Charybdis” meaning having two choices, neither of which is a good one.

4 Charybdis, for one : MAELSTROM

A maelstrom is a violent or turbulent situation, or a very large whirlpool. “Maelstrom” is derived from the name of a notorious whirlpool located off the northwest coast of Norway.

5 Treatment for someone in transition, in brief : HRT

Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)

8 Something held in church : TENET

A tenet is an article of faith, something that is held to be true. “Tenet” is Latin for “he/she/it holds”.

9 Channel established under a royal charter : BBC

The marvelous British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is mainly funded by the UK government through a television “licence” (British spelling, as opposed to “license”!) fee that is levied annually on all households watching TV transmissions.

10 Genesis woman : LEAH

According to the Bible, Leah was one of the two wives of Jacob, the other being Leah’s sister Rachel. Jacob’s intention had been to marry Rachel, but Leah and Rachel’s father “switched” his daughters and provided Leah as the veiled bride. Jacob married Rachel a week later, and lived with the two wives concurrently.

13 One decidedly not laissez-faire : MILITANT

“Laissez-faire” is a French term that we use to describe non-interference in the affairs of others. The literal translation is “to let to allow”.

24 Brand with three stripes : ADIDAS

The Adidas brand dates back to when Adolf “Adi” Dassler started making his own sports shoes in his mother’s laundry room in Bavaria after returning from WWI. With his brother, Adi founded Dassler shoes. The company’s big break came in 1936 at the Berlin Olympics, when Adi persuaded American sprinter Jesse Owens to use his shoes, and with the success of Jesse Owens came success for the fledgling shoe company. After WWII the brothers split, acrimoniously. Adi’s brother, Ru-dolf Da-ssler, formed “Ruda” shoes (later to become Puma), and Adi Das-sler formed “Adidas”.

26 Burger burgled by the Hamburglar : BIG MAC

The Hamburglar is a character appearing in several McDonald’s commercials. He was introduced in 1971, and is known for his attempts to steal hamburgers from Ronald McDonald. The Hamburglar often comes up against Officer Big Mac, who is the chief of police.

35 Gamer’s post-purchase add-ons, for short : DLC

Downloadable content (DLC)

36 Photo of someone holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa, say : VISUAL GAG

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, which is caused by an unstable foundation. The tower was built in the 12th century and began to lean during construction. The lean worsened over time, and by the 1990s, the tower was at risk of collapse with a lean of 5½ degrees. A major stabilization project was undertaken in the 1990s, which reduced the lean to 3.97 degrees.

37 Like a daiquiri vis-à-vis a shot of whiskey, say : FRUITIER

Daiquirí is a small village on the coast near Santiago, Cuba and a key location in the American invasion of Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Supposedly, the cocktail called a “daiquiri” was invented by American mining engineers in a bar in nearby Santiago.

45 2014 Winter Olympics locale : SOCHI

Sochi is a city in the west of Russia on the Black Sea coast. It is the largest resort city in the whole country. Sochi is going through a busy phase in its life. It hosted the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, the Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix in 2014, and served as host for some games of the 2018 World Cup in soccer.

46 Sharp point on a kite : TALON

A talon is a claw of a bird of prey. The term “talon” ultimately derives from “talus”, the Latin word for “ankle”.

Kites are birds of prey that feed mainly on carrion.

50 The 411 : DEETS

“Deets” is slang for “details”.

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”.

59 Setting for the film “1917,” familiarly : WWI

“1917” is a 2019 Sam Mendes movie about two British soldiers carrying a message across no man’s land in northern France during WWI. Although historically inaccurate, the storyline was inspired by accounts of the war given to Mendes by his paternal grandfather. One remarkable feature of the film is that it was shot using long takes that were carefully edited to give the impression that it was filmed as just two continuous shots. Remarkable …