Category: John-Clark Levin

Bill’s time: 13m 01s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8 Some subway art : MOSAICS

In the Middle Ages, mosaics were often dedicated to the Muses. The term “mosaic” translates as “of the Muses”.

15 Hit 2011 film based on a 2009 novel by Kathryn Stockett : THE HELP

“The Help” is a 2011 film that is an adaptation of a 2009 novel of the same name written by Kathryn Stockett. The story centers on a young female journalist who writes a book exposing the racism experienced by African American maids working in Jackson, Mississippi in the sixties.

18 Rock subgenre named for its aggressive vocals : SCREAMO

The musical genre known as screamo (also “skramz”) has been described as an aggressive subgenre of emo. Yikes …

26 Where more hot dogs are sold than at all Major League Baseball stadiums combined : COSTCO

Costco is the largest warehouse club in the US, and the second largest retailer in the world (after Wal-Mart). Apparently Costco is also the largest retailer of wine in the whole world. The company was founded in 1983 in Kirkland, Washington. Kirkland Signature is Costco’s store brand, and you can even buy Kirkland Signature wine.

38 Figure with exactly 10 digits? : MERMAID

The mythological creatures named mermaids are usually depicted with the head and upper body of a human female, and with the tail of a fish. The term “mermaid” comes from the Old English “mere” meaning “sea, lake” and “maid” meaning “young woman”. The original mermaids were probably tail-less, with that “fishy” addition likely coming with comparison to classical sirens. The male equivalent of a mermaid is “merman”.

52 Music festival lineup : PORTA POTTIES

We tend to use the name “Porta Potty” for a portable toilet here in North America, whereas the term “Porta Loo” is more common in Britain and Ireland.

56 Point of no return : RUBICON

Supposedly, when Julius Caesar marched back to Rome from Gaul, he defiantly “crossed the Rubicon” with his army while uttering the words “Alea iacta est” (“The die is cast”).

61 Foe of Ferocious Flea in Hanna-Barbera toons : ATOM ANT

Atom Ant is a cartoon character introduced by Hanna-Barbera in 1965. He is a tiny superhero who fights villains such as Ferocious Flea and a mad scientist named Professor Von Gimmick.

62 Raw fish dish : SASHIMI

Sashimi is thinly sliced raw fish, although it can also be raw meat. The word “sashimi” translates literally as “pierced body”, which may be a reference to the practice of sticking the tail and fin to sliced fish to identify it.

Down

2 “Eureka!” : AHA!

“Eureka” translates from Greek as “I have found it”. The word is usually associated with Archimedes, uttered as he stepped into his bath one day. His discovery was that the volume of water that was displaced was equal to that of the object (presumably his foot) that had been submerged. He used this fact to determine volume (and density) of a crown, something he needed in order to determine if it was made of pure gold or was a forgery.

3 Hamilton : TEN

The obverse of the US ten-dollar bill features the image of Alexander Hamilton, the first US Secretary of the Treasury. As such, ten-dollar bills are sometimes called “Hamiltons”. By the way, the $10 bill is the only US currency in circulation in which the portrait faces to the left. The reverse of the ten-dollar bill features the US Treasury Building.

4 Herb in many potato dishes : CHIVE

Chives are the smallest species of edible onion, and a favorite of mine …

5 Choppers : HELOS

Our term “helicopter” was absorbed from the French word “hélicoptère” that was coined by Gustave Ponton d’Amécourt in 1861. d’Amécourt envisioned aircraft that could fly vertically using rotating wings that “screwed” into the air. He combined the Greek terms “helix” meaning “spiral, whirl” and “pteron” meaning “wing” to give us “helicopter”.

6 Bret Easton ___, “American Psycho” author : ELLIS

Bret Easton Ellis wrote a trio of novels that were made into very successful movies:

1. “Less Than Zero” (1987, starring Andrew McCarthy)
2. “American Psycho” (2000, starring Christian Bale)
3. “The Rules of Attraction” (2002, starring James van der Beek).

“American Psycho” is a comedy horror film released in 2000 that is based on a 1991 novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis. I don’t do horror, comedic or not …

7 Scatterbrain : SPACE CADET

The expression “space cadet” is used to describe someone who is eccentric and disconnected from reality. It may even imply that the person is a user of hallucinogens. The phrase has been around since the sixties, and may be derived from the science fiction TV show “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet” that aired in the fifties.

10 Emmy-nominated Gilbert : SARA

Actress Sara Gilbert grew up playing Darlene on the sitcom “Roseanne” from 1988 to 1997. Today Gilbert appears fairly often on another hit sitcom, namely “The Big Bang Theory”. You can also see her on the daytime talk show called “The Talk”, a show that she herself created. And, she made a comeback as Darlene in 2018 in the “Roseanne” reboot(s).

11 Some speech starters : ANECDOTES

An anecdote is a short account of an event, usually something amusing. The term ultimately derives from the Greek “anekdota” meaning “things unpublished”, or more literally “things not given out”.

12 “Napoleon Dynamite” setting : IDAHO

“Napoleon Dynamite” is a comedy film released in 2004 that stars Jon Heder in the title role. The movie was a commercial success above and beyond expectations. “Napoleon Dynamite” was made on the relatively low budget of about $400,000, and yet grossed almost $45 million within a year. The title character is a nerdy high school student who spends much of life living in his fantasy world.

13 Ajax competitor : COMET

The Comet brand of household cleanser produced a famous series of ads in the sixties through the eighties that featured a character known as “Josephine the Plumber”. Played by actress Jane Withers, she was noted for uttering the line “Nothing can hold a can to Comet!”

20 Where the Tokugawa shogunate was established : EDO

“Edo” is the former name of the Japanese city of Tokyo. Edo was the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime that ruled from 1603 until 1868. The shogun lived in the magnificent Edo Castle. Some parts of the original castle remain and today’s Tokyo Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor of Japan, was built on its grounds.

22 European hotel amenity : BIDET

“Bidet” is a French word that we imported into English. In French, the word “bidet” originally described a small horse or a pony. The bidet bathroom fixture was so called because one straddles it like a horse in order to use it.

27 Paramount requirement? : SCREEN TEST

Paramount Pictures is one of the oldest surviving film studios, and is the last major studio that still has its headquarters in Hollywood. Paramount was founded in 1912 as the Famous Players Film Company by Adolph Zukor, with partners Daniel and Charles Frohman. Paramount is now owned by Viacom.

29 Commercial follower of Mc- or Nes- : -CAFE

McCafé is a chain of coffeehouses owned by McDonald’s. The first McCafé was opened by a McDonald’s franchisee in Australia, after which the company took the concept worldwide. McCafé is the most successful coffee shop brand in Australia and New Zealand.

Nescafé is an instant coffee brand made by Nestlé. The name is a portmanteau of “Nestlé” and “café”. Nescafé was developed in the thirties and introduced to the market in 1938.

31 Two-bit : SMALL-TIME

The American quarter is a little unusual in the world of decimal currency, if you think about it. Most currencies have a “20-cent” coin, which is easier to work with mathematically. The US went for the quarter in deference to the practice of dividing Spanish Milled Dollars into eight wedge-shaped “bits”. That’s also why the quarter is sometimes referred to as “two bits”. We’ve been using the adjective “two-bit” to mean “cheap, tawdry” at least since 1929. State quarters were introduced in 1999.

33 World capital where it’s illegal to fly the Soviet hammer and sickle : RIGA

Riga is the capital city of Latvia. The historical center of Riga is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, declared as such because of the city’s magnificent examples of Art Nouveau architecture. In fact, Riga has the largest collection of Art Nouveau buildings in the world, with over 750 buildings in the city center designed in the style.

The Soviet flag has three symbols:

1. A hammer symbolizes the industrial workers, the proletarians
2. A sickle symbolizes the agricultural workers, the peasants
3. A five-pointed star symbolizes the rule of the Communist Party

46 Waze calculation : ROUTE

Waze is a navigation app that is similar to Google Maps and Apple Maps. Waze was developed in Israel, and was acquired by Google in 2013.

49 Where early tablets were first unveiled? : SINAI

According to the Book of Exodus, God inscribed the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets and gave them to Moses on Mount Sinai.

51 Beverage brand founded in Osaka : ASAHI

Asahi is a Japanese beer, and the name of the brewery that produces it. “Asahi” is Japanese for “morning sun”. Asahi introduced a “dry beer” in 1987, igniting a craze that rocketed the brewery to the number one spot in terms of beer production in Japan, with Sapporo close behind.

54 Early sports video game : PONG

Do you remember the arcade video game that is like a game of tennis, with paddles moving up and down to hit what looks like a ball, over what looks like a net? Well, that is Pong. The arcade version of Pong was introduced in 1972, with Atari selling a home version through Sears for the Christmas market in 1975.

58 “Skedaddle!” : GIT!

“Skedaddle” is a slang term meaning “run away”, one that dates back to the Civil War.