Category: Joseph Gangi

Bill’s time: 10m 50s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Rent in the garment district? : RIP

The Garment District in Manhattan established itself as the powerhouse of the nation’s garment industry by producing clothes for slaves on southern plantations. Slave owners found it more efficient to get clothes from New York than have the slaves make their own clothes. Up to this time, most American made their own clothes, so this really was a new industry. Business got a further boost with the need for ready-made uniforms for soldiers fighting in the Civil War. As the market increased, competition grew and costs had to be kept down. Manhattan had a ready supply of cheap labor, so it was able to keep up with demand. By the end of the 1860s, Americans were buying most of their clothes rather than making them.

10 Nickname for a young Skywalker : ANI

Darth Vader is (to me) the most colorful antagonist in the “Star Wars” universe. Born as Anakin “Ani” Skywalker, he was corrupted by the Emperor Palpatine and turned to “the Dark Side”. In the original films, Darth Vader was portrayed by English bodybuilder David Prowse, and voiced by actor James Earl Jones. Jones asked that he go uncredited for the first two “Star Wars” films, feeling that his contributions were insufficient to warrant recognition. I disagree …

13 The Great Depression, for one : ERA

The Great Depression (also “Depression Era) was a worldwide phenomenon in the decade or so that preceded World War II. The depression was sparked by a dramatic drop in stock prices in the US in September 1929, which eventually made the news around the world following the stock market crash of October 29th of that year, now known as Black Tuesday. US unemployment rose to 25% during the Great Depression, and in some countries unemployment was as high as 33%. Many economists believe that World War II played a large role in ending the depression, at least here in the US. Government spending on the war increased employment dramatically, although many of those jobs were in the front lines. During the war, unemployment fell back below 10%.

21 “Charlotte’s Web” monogram : EBW

E. B. (Elwyn Brooks) White was an American writer. His most famous creations were the children’s stories “Charlotte’s Web” and “Stuart Little”, but he also co-authored the writing guide “The Elements of Style” (usually referred to as “Strunk & White”).

28 Drum type : SNARE

Snare drums are so called because they have a set of wire strands (snares) stretching across the bottom surface of the drum. When the drum is struck, the snares vibrate against the bottom drumhead producing a unique sound.

36 Patrick on the 1992 Dream Team : EWING

Patrick Ewing is a former NBA player, and a two-time inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2008 for his individual career and in 2010 as a member of the 1992 Olympic team. Ewing is Jamaican-born, and moved with his family to the US in 1975. He was actually born in the British Colony of Jamaica, as Jamaica became independent from the UK the day after his birth.

41 Name that translates as “people of the standing stone” : ONEIDA

The Oneida people originally lived in the area that is now Central New York. They were one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the Five Nations (the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca).

43 Divine or digital representation : AVATAR

The Sanskrit word “avatar” describes the concept of a deity descending into earthly life and taking on a persona. It’s easy to see how in the world of online presences one might use the word avatar to describe one’s online identity.

48 “The spell is cast! Don’t blink or you’ll miss it …” (go to 15-Down) : ABRACADABRA!

The incantation “abracadabra” has a long history. It was used as far back as the 2nd century AD in ancient Rome when the word was prescribed by a physician to be worn on an amulet to help his emperor recover from disease. “Abracadabra” is Aramaic, and roughly translates as “I will create as I speak”.

52 Bulldoze : RAZE

The term “bulldoze” comes from the noun “bulldose”, which meant “a severe beating” back in the late 1800s. A bulldose was “a dose fit for a bull”, a beating designed to intimidate mainly black Republican voters in the 1876 US presidential election.

55 Pepper and others: Abbr. : SGTS

“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was the alter-ego of the Beatles, and the title of a famous studio album released in 1967, as well as the name of the album’s title track.

58 Sheltered from the wind : ALEE

Alee is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing aweather. The sheltered side of an island, for example, might be referred to as the “lee” side.

60 Bird revered by the Maori : KIWI

The kiwi is an unusual bird in that it has a highly developed sense of smell and is the only one of our feathered friends with nostrils located at the tip of its long beak.

61 Modern initialism when skipping text : TL;DR

Too long, didn’t read (TL;DR)

62 What a server may “serve” : EMAIL

In the world of computer science, a computer accessing a service is called a “client”. The service is provided on a computer called a “server”. These days, clients and servers often communicate via the Internet. I am typing up this blog post on my laptop (the client) and am connected via the Internet to the Google Drive service that resides on a computer somewhere (the server).

Down

3 Like some hair and seas : PARTED

The Red Sea (sometimes “Arabian Gulf”) is a stretch of water lying between Africa and Asia. The Gulf of Suez (and the Suez Canal) lies to the north, and the Gulf of Aden to the south. According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible, God parted the Red Sea to allow Moses lead the Israelites from Egypt.

6 Hell of a poem? : INFERNO

Dante’s epic narrative poem “Divina Commedia” (Divine Comedy) is divided into three parts: “Inferno”, “Purgatorio” and “Paradiso” (Hell, Purgatory and Paradise).

9 James of jazz : ETTA

“Etta James” was the stage name of celebrated R&B and jazz singer Jamesetta Hawkins. James was an acquaintance of civil rights activist Malcom X. For ten years, she was a member of the Nation of Islam, and used the name “Jamesetta X”.

10 Grande of pop : ARIANA

Ariana Grande is a singer and actress from Boca Raton, Florida. Grande plays the role of Cat Valentine on the sitcom “Victorious” that aired for four seasons on Nickelodeon. Grande’s singing career took off with the release of the 2011 album “Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show”.

18 Considerable, as a sum : TIDY

A tidy sum, a pretty penny, a considerable amount of money.

25 Lily Potter, ___ Evans : NEE

In the world of “Harry Potter”, Harry’s mother was Lily Potter née Evans. Lily Evans had magical abilities even though she was born to Muggles, individuals with no magical powers. Lily married James Potter. Lily and James were murdered by Lord Voldemort, leaving their child Harry an orphan.

31 Echo effect : REVERB

When audio mixing in the process of sound recording, the sound engineer might add some reverb, a slight reverberation.

32 Cap’n’s mate : BOS’N

A boatswain works on the deck of a boat. He or she is unlicensed, and so is not involved in the navigation or handling of the vessel, and instead is in charge of the other unlicensed workers on the deck. “Boatswain” is pronounced “bosun” and this phonetic spelling is often used interchangeably with “boatswain”. The contraction “bo’s’n” is also very popular.

35 Miller offering : LITE BEER

The first light beer was produced by Chicago’s Meister Brau brewery in the sixties. Miller took over Meister Brau, reformulated the light beer using the same process and became the first of the big breweries to come out with a light beer, “Lite Beer from Miller” introduced in 1973. There really wasn’t a serious competitor to Miller Lite until Anheuser-Busch finally came up with a process and a product in 1982 that they called Bud Light.

42 Rogers’s co-star in “Top Hat” : ASTAIRE

“Top Hat” is a fun comedy musical starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers that was released in 1935. It was to become the most successful movie that the Astaire-Rogers team made.

50 Inter ___ : ALIA

“Inter alia” is Latin for “among other things”.