Category: Jeff Stillman

Bill’s time: 17m 11s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Annual N.A.A.C.P. ceremony since 1967 : IMAGE AWARDS

The NAACP Image Awards are presented annually to recognise people of color in the worlds of film, television, music and literature. The first awards were presented in 1967, and the ceremony usually takes place in Los Angeles.

12 Series of steps in Spain : FLAMENCO DANCE

Flamenco is a style of Spanish music and dance. The origin of the word “flamenco” isn’t clearly understood, but the explanation that seems most credible to me is that it comes from Flanders in Northern Europe. Given that “flamenco” is the Spanish word for “Flemish” and Flanders is home to the Flemish people it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

14 Noted antigun demonstration on the National Mall : MILLION MOM MARCH

The Million Mom March was a rally held on Mother’s Day 2000. It took place mainly in Washington, DC, and promoted legislation to tighten gun control. The publicity surrounding the event attracted a counter-demonstration by a group that called themselves the Second Amendment Sisters, who advocated protection of gun rights.

18 That’s a wrap! : SARI

The item of clothing called a “sari” (also “saree”) is a strip of cloth, as one might imagine, unusual perhaps in that it is unstitched along the whole of its length. The strip of cloth can range from four to nine meters long (that’s a lot of material!). The sari is usually wrapped around the waist, then draped over the shoulder leaving the midriff bare. I must say, it can be a beautiful item of clothing.

21 Hosp. staffers : RNS

Registered nurse (RN)

23 Scale notes : MIS
26D Scale notes : RES

The sol-fa syllables are: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la & ti.

28 Cold War concerns, for short : ICBMS

An Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with the range necessary to cross between continents. Being ballistic (unlike a cruise missile), an ICBM is guided during the initial launch phase, but later in flight just relies on thrust and gravity to arrive at its target. It is defined as intercontinental as it has a range greater than 3,500 miles. ICBMs are really only used for delivering nuclear warheads. Scary stuff …

30 It’s around “two o’clock”: Abbr. : ENE

East-northeast (ENE)

31 ___ Prize, major honor in mathematical achievement : ABEL

The Abel Prize is awarded for outstanding achievement in the field of mathematics. It has been presented annually by the King of Norway since 2001, and is sometimes described as “the mathematician’s Nobel Prize”.

36 Big name in green products : SCOTTS

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company was founded in 1868 by one Orlando Scott, and initially sold seed to the agricultural industry. In the early 1900s, Scotts started to sell to homeowners, and mainly supplied lawn seed. The company merged with the gardening company Miracle-Gro in 1955, and then with TruGreen in 2016.

39 Network descended from the first national “superstation” : TBS

The tbs cable television station started out in 1967 as a local broadcast TV station in Atlanta. The station’s first call letters were WJRJ-TV, and this was changed to WTCG in 1970 when it was acquired by Ted Turner (the TCG stood for Turner Communications Group). In 1976, Turner started distributing WTCG via satellite making its programming available in other parts of the country. WTCG was only the second channel to transmit via satellite, following HBO. The difference was that WTCG was broadcast without requiring a premium subscription. The station’s call sign was changed again in 1979 to WTBS, with “TBS” standing for Turner Broadcasting System. In 1981, the channel adopted the moniker “Superstation WTBS”.

42 Actor Rutger ___ of “Blade Runner” : HAUER

Rutger Hauer is a Dutch actor, one famous in the US for his Hollywood roles. He was born in Breukelen in the Netherlands, which is the town that gave its name to the borough of Brooklyn in New York City.

“Blade Runner” is a cult classic, a sci-fi film made in 1982 loosely based on the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick. It was directed by Ridley Scott who regards “Blade Runner” as his most “complete” film. There is a phenomenon known as the “‘Blade Runner’ Curse”. An inordinate number of companies behind products that were displayed prominently in the movie found themselves in financial trouble soon after the movie’s release. Included in the list of troubled concerns are Atari, Cuisinart, Pan Am and the Bell System.

43 Japanese zither : KOTO

The koto is a traditional stringed instrument, and the national musical instrument of Japan.

The zither is a stringed instrument, one in which the strings do not extend beyond the bounds of the sounding box. That means that the instrument has no neck, unlike a guitar.

48 “Peanuts” girl with curly hair : FRIEDA

Charles Schulz introduced a character named Frieda in the sixties. She is a little girl with a head of curly, red hair. Schulz modeled Frieda on his longtime friend from real life Frieda Rich, a local artist from Minneapolis.

52 Qatar left it in 2019 : OPEC

Qatar is a sovereign state in the Middle East occupying the Qatar Peninsula, itself located in the Arabian Peninsula. Qatar lies on the Persian Gulf and shares one land border, with Saudi Arabia to the south. Qatar has more oil and gas reserves per capita of population than any other country in the world. In 2010, Qatar had the fastest growing economy in the world, driven by the petrochemical industry.

59 Line on a Montana license plate : TREASURE STATE

Montana is called the Treasure State because of its rich mineral resources, particularly gold and silver. The first major gold discovery in Montana was in 1862, and the resulting Gold Rush brought thousands of prospectors to the state. The nickname “Treasure State” was first used in the 1960s by the Montana State Highway Department during a tourism promotion.

Down

2 Surname on “Cheers” : MALONE

On the sitcom “Cheers”, bartender Sam Malone was played by Ted Danson. Malone was a retired relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, and a recovering alcoholic. Great show …

4 ___Guessr, browser game that pulls from Google Street View : GEO

Street View is a feature in Google Maps providing interactive photographic panoramas of locations all around the world. Most of us have probably come across a Google car with a hightech camera on its roof capturing images for Street View. As well as a fleet of cars for taking images, Google has also used a trike to capture images in pedestrian locales, a snowmobile during a Winter Olympics, trollies inside museums, and backpack-mounted cameras on canal boats in Venice.

5 Suffix similar to -trix : -ENNE

The feminine suffix “-trix” is Latin in origin, and is equivalent to the male suffix “-tor”. Examples of usage would be “aviatrix” and “aviator”. Similarly, the feminine suffix “-ette” came into English from French, with the suffix “-et” being the male equivalent. Examples of usage would be “brunette” and “brunet”. The suffix “-enne” also came into English from French, with a male equivalent of “-en” and “-an”. Examples would be “comedienne, comedian” and “doyenne, doyen”.

8 Don Draper and Roger Sterling on a hit AMC series : ADMEN

“Mad Men” was the flagship show on the AMC television channel for several seasons. Set in the sixties, it’s all about an advertising agency located on Madison Avenue in New York (hence the title). “Mad Men” became the first show created by a basic cable channel to win an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series.

10 Some forensic lab samples : DNAS

Something described as forensic is connected with a court of law, or with public discussion or debate. The term comes from the Latin “forensis” meaning “of a forum, of a place of assembly”. We mainly use the word today to mean “pertaining to legal trials” as in “forensic medicine” and “forensic science”.

13 Deploying ransomware, for one : E-CRIME

Ransomware is a piece of software used to extort money from computer users ranging from individuals to complete enterprises. The ransomware usually encrypts the victim’s data, and presents a message demanding a payment in exchange for the key needed to decrypt the data. One famous example is the WannaCry ransomware attack that was launched in May of 2017. Almost a quarter of a million computers were affected in over 150 countries. Actual ransom payments made by victims (to bitcoin accounts) amounted to over $130,000. The attackers have never been brought to justice.

22 Says who? : SIMON

“Simon Says” is a kids’ game. The idea is for the players of the game to obey the “controller” who gives instructions. But the players should only obey when the controller uses the words, “Simon says …”. The game has very old roots, with a Latin version that uses the words “Cicero dicit fac hoc” (Cicero says do this).

27 Olive lover? : BLUTO

Bluto is the villain in the Popeye cartoon strip, a character who has been around since 1932. Sometimes you will see Bluto go by the name Brutus, depending on the date of the publication. This “confusion” arose because there was an unfounded concern that the name “Bluto” was owned by someone else. Bluto, Brutus … it’s the same guy.

Popeye first appeared in 1929 in a comic strip called “Thimble Theatre”. The strip, created by E. C. Segar, ran for ten years before Popeye made an appearance. Popeye received such a great welcome from readers that he soon “took over” the strip, and eventually even hogged the strip’s title. Before Popeye turned up, Olive Oyl was the main character.

29 Modern descriptor with man or woman : CIS

The term “cisgender” is used as the opposite of “transgender”. Cisgender people have a gender identity that matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

34 Automne preceder : ETE

In French, “automne” (autumn/fall) follows “été” (summer).

49 Prefix with linear : RECTI-

Something described as rectilinear is characterized by straight lines.

51 X-ray ___ (novelty purchase) : SPEX

I am not sure that I agree with the “spex” spelling in this answer …

X-Ray Spex (as opposed to the novelty item “x-ray specs”) was a punk band from England that formed in 1976 and finally broke up in 2008. Their most famous hit was the first song they recorded: “Oh Bondage Up Yours!”

53 French verb whose first letter contains a circumflex : ETRE

A circumflex is a diacritic mark used routinely in some languages, such as French. For example, there’s a circumflex over the first “e” in “être”, the French for “to be”.

54 Singer who was the highest-selling doll of 1976, surpassing Barbie : CHER

“Cher” is the stage name used by singer and actress Cherilyn Sarkisian. Formerly one half of husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher, she is often referred to as the Goddess of Pop. In her acting career, Cher was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar of 1984 for her performance in “Silkwood”. She went further in 1988 and won the season’s Best Actress Oscar for playing Loretta Castorini in “Moonstruck”.

57 Old French love poem : LAI

In the mid-13th century a “lay” was a short song. “Lay” evolved from the Old French word “lai” meaning “song, lyric”.

58 Follower of Marx : -ISM

Marxism is the political and economic philosophy espoused by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the mid-to-late 1800s. The main tenet of Marxism is that bourgeois suppression of lower classes in a capitalistic society inevitably leads to a socialist and ultimately classless society.