Category: Kathryn Ladner

Bill’s time: 6m 50s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15 “Who Let the Dogs Out” group : BAHA MEN

The Baha Men are so called because they hail from the Bahamas. Their big hit was “Who Let the Dogs Out?” That song once ranked third in a list of the world’s most annoying songs!

17 Cat breed with distinctive light/dark coloring : SIAMESE

The exact origins of the Siamese cat aren’t very clear, but it is believed to be from Southeast Asia. The Siamese takes its name from the sacred temple cats of Thailand (a nation once called “Siam”).

18 Like Chopin’s “Aeolian Harp” étude : IN A-FLAT

Aeolus was the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology, and he gave his name to the adjective “aeolian” (also “aeolic, eolic”) meaning “windblown”, something produced or carried by the wind. For example, an aeolian harp is a fascinating instrument; a box with a sounding board and strings that is “played” by the wind as it blows.

Frédéric Chopin was a Polish composer who spent most of his life in France. He was most famous for his piano works in the Romantic style. Chopin was a sickly man and died quite young, at 39. For many of his final years he had a celebrated and tempestuous relationship with the French author George Sand (the nom de plume of the Baroness Dudevant). Those years with Sand may have been turbulent, but they were very productive in terms of musical composition.

19 Surveyor’s map : PLAT

A plat is a map showing actual and planned features. So, a town might have a plat showing existing and intended buildings.

20 Deets and dope : INFO

“Deets” is slang for “details”.

Apparently, “to dope out” is a slang term meaning “to figure out, infer from available information”. Our use of the word “dope” to mean “inside information” probably comes from horse racing. The idea is that a bettor might have information about which horse has been drugged (doped) to influence its performance.

21 William G. ___, patentee of a kind of wrench : ALLEN

The Allen wrench (or “Allen key”, as we call it back in Ireland) is a successful brand of hex wrench that was trademarked in 1943 by the Allen Manufacturing Company of Hartford , Connecticut. However, the hex wrench had in fact been around since the mid-to-late 1800s.

23 Dispensable candy : PEZ

PEZ is an Austrian brand of candy sold in a mechanical dispenser. Famously, PEZ dispensers have molded “heads”, and have become very collectible over the years. The list of heads includes historical figures like Betsy Ross and Paul Revere, characters from “Star Wars” and “Star Trek”, and even British royalty like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (“William and Kate”). The name “PEZ” comes from the first, middle and last letters of “Pfefferminz”, the German word for “peppermint”.

26 Record label that declined to sign the Beatles in 1962 : DECCA

Decca Records started out in 1929 as a British record label. The US branch of Decca was opened up in 1934, but the UK and US entities went their separate ways starting in WWII. Famously, Decca turned down a chance to record the Beatles in 1962 taking the position “Guitar groups are on the way out”. That said, Decca did sign the Rolling Stones.

33 Singer/songwriter DiFranco : ANI

Ani DiFranco is a folk-rock singer and songwriter. DiFranco has also been labeled a feminist icon, and in 2006 won the Woman of Courage Award from the National Organization for Women.

36 Sci-fi/fantasy publisher with a rocky peak logo : TOR

Tor Books is a publishing house in New York City that specializes in science fiction and fantasy novels.

39 Architectural style of Manhattan’s Chrysler Building : ART DECO

The Chrysler Building in Manhattan is a magnificent Art Deco structure that was opened in 1930. Standing at over 1,000 feet tall, it was the tallest building in the world for almost a year, until the Empire State Building was completed in 1931. The building was constructed for use by the Chrysler Corporation, but the company never owned it. The car manufacturer’s founder decided to pay for the Chrysler Building out of his personal wealth, so that he could pass it on to his children.

41 Inoculation, slangily : VAX

Immunization is the process used to boost an individual’s immune system making it less likely to succumb to a particular disease. Before we learned to intervene, the immune system was bolstered only by contracting the disease and surviving it. Inoculation was developed specifically for the prevention of smallpox, and involves the introduction of small samples of diseased tissue into the body resulting in a mild case of the disease, and significant boost to the immune system. The related process of vaccination involves the introduction of a benign form of the microorganism or virus into the body so that a boost to the immune system can occur without catching the disease itself.

42 Sigma follower : TAU

Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, and the letter that gave rise to our Roman “T”. Both the letters tau (T) and chi (X) have long been symbolically associated with the cross.

43 Indian royal : RAJAH

“Raja” (also “rajah”) is a word derived from Sanskrit that is used particularly in India for a monarch or princely ruler. The female form is “rani” (also “ranee”) and is used for a raja’s wife.

46 Part of B&B : AND

In the US, an intimate inn is a bed & breakfast (B&B). Traditionally, a bed & breakfast back in Ireland was more basic accommodation, and used to be much cheaper than a comparable hotel room.

54 Armada : FLEET

The most famous armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England in order to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I in 1588. It failed in its mission, partly due to bad weather encountered en route. Ironically, the English mounted a similar naval attack against Spain the following year, and it failed as well.

56 Kind of lamp or cake : LAVA

The lava lamp was invented in 1960 by a British man, Edward Craven-Walker. The “lava” is a mixture of wax and carbon tetrachloride, floating in a water/glycerol mix. The wax reduces in density as it picks up heat from the incandescent bulb in the lamp’s base. The wax rises, cools, and then sinks to the bottom of the liquid only to be heated again.

Molten chocolate cake is chocolate cake with a warm and liquid chocolate center. A dessert often called “lava cake”, it was invented by French chef Michel Bras, and dates back to 1981. It was popularized in the US by French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, initially in his New York restaurant Jean-Georges.

58 Military trim? : CREW CUT

The term “crew cut” probably originated in Yale in the 1890s. The Yale football players were noted for wearing their hair relatively long, as it helped protect their heads inside the flimsy leather football helmets of the day. In contrast, the rowing team wore their hair relatively short, in a style that came to be known as the “crew cut”.

61 Run-of-the-mill : GENERIC

Something described as run-of-the-mill is unspectacular, quite normal. The idea is that the regular production from say a sawmill isn’t perfect, but does the job. Imperfections in the wood can be expected, but the milled wood should get the job done. Going back a few years, similar expressions were quite common, such as “run-of-the-kiln” and “run-of-the-mine”.

65 The Washington Monument, for one : OBELISK

An obelisk is a rectangular column that tapers to the top and is capped by a pyramid shape. An image of an obelisk was used by the ancient Egyptians as a hieroglyph.

Completed in 1885, the Washington Monument was the world’s tallest structure, but only for a few years. The Washington Monument lost its “world title” in 1889, on the completion of the Eiffel Tower. It retains the title of world’s tallest stone structure, standing at almost 555 feet in height.

66 Miles ___, teen who becomes Spider-Man in “Into the Spider-Verse” : MORALES

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” is an animated superhero film released in 2018 that won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The animation style of the movie is called “comic book come to life.” The filmmakers wanted to create a movie that felt like a living, breathing comic book, and they achieved that by incorporating comic book elements like thought bubbles and sound effects into the animation.

68 Introductory textbook : PRIMER

A primer is a textbook used to teach the alphabet and basic reading. When “primer” is used in this sense in the US, it is pronounced with a short letter I (giving “primmer”). I’ve never understood why such a pronunciation would be used …

Down

2 Bollywood star Aishwarya ___ : RAI

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan won the 1994 Miss World pageant representing India. She parlayed that win into an incredibly successful acting career, mainly appearing in Hindi and Tamil films.

3 Institutional religious officer : CHAPLAIN

Our word “chapel”, meaning “place of worship”, comes from the Latin word “capella” meaning “small cape”. The reference is to a relic of Saint Martin of Tours, part of his cloak. Tradition has it that when Martin was a soldier, he cut his military cloak in two so as to give half to a beggar in need. The remainder he retained as his “capella”. He did not know that the beggar was Christ in disguise. Martin then left the military to become a monk, then abbot and finally bishop. The cape came into the possession of the Frankish kings who brought the relic as they waged war, housing it in a tent called “the capella”. The priests who said mass in the capella each day were known as the “capellani” (the source of our word “chaplain”).

4 Source of the saying “Brevity is the soul of wit” : HAMLET

Polonius is an important character in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. Polonius is eventually killed by Hamlet, albeit in a case of mistaken identity. Polonius has several memorable lines in the play that are oft-quoted today, including “To thine own self be true”, “Brevity is the soul of wit”, and “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”.

6 Part of a three-piece suit : VEST

Here’s another word that often catches me out. What we call a vest here in the US is a waistcoat back in Ireland. And, the Irish use the word “vest” for an undershirt.

8 Kimono tightener : OBI

The lovely Japanese kimono is a garment worn by men, women and children. The word “kimono” translates simply as “thing to wear”, with “ki” meaning “wear” and “mono” meaning “thing”.

9 “___, vidi, vici” : VENI

The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BCE and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

10 African antelope that’s the size of a moose : ELAND

The eland (plural “eland, elands”) is a large African antelope, in fact the largest antelope on the planet. Both male and female eland have horns, and those horns have a steady spiral ridge along their length.

11 Improvised musically : RIFFED

A riff is a short rhythmic phrase in music, especially one improvised on a guitar.

13 Director DuVernay : AVA

Ava DuVernay is a filmmaker who became the first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, a feat she achieved in 2012 for her feature film “Middle of Nowhere”. “Middle of Nowhere” tells the story of a woman who drops out of medical school to focus on her husband when he is sentenced to 8 years in prison. DuVernay also directed the 2014 film “Selma” about the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

21 Smoothie fruit : ACAI

Açaí (pronounced “ass-aye-ee”) is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

23 Ads that aim to raise awareness, in brief : PSAS

Public service announcement (PSA)

24 Tolkien tree creature : ENT

Ents are tree-like creatures that live in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth in his series of books “The Lord of the Rings”. “Ent” is an Old English word for “giant”.

25 Multinational clothing retailer based in Spain : ZARA

Zara is a clothing chain headquartered in Spain. It specializes in fast fashion, the speedy replication of the latest high-end designs so that cost-effective versions hit the retail stores soon after the original appears on the catwalk.

27 Branded shoe with holes : CROC

Crocs are foam clogs that were originally designed as shoes to be worn at health spas. I recently bought my first pair of crocs, and now my kids won’t talk to me …

34 Home of Bryce Canyon National Park : UTAH

Bryce Canyon National Park truly is a beautiful part of America. The strange thing is that Bryce isn’t a canyon at all, but rather is a natural amphitheater created by erosion of sedimentary rocks that are part of the Paunsaugunt Plateau.

38 “Terrible” tsar : IVAN

The Grand Prince of Moscow, and first Tsar of Russia, Ivan IV became known as “Ivan the Terrible”. The name “terrible” is a translation from Russian, and perhaps creates the wrong impression about the man. The Russian word is “Grozny”, which is more akin to “strict” and “powerful” rather than “cruel” or “abominable”.

43 Bandmate of John, Paul and George : RINGO

Ringo Starr is a musician, best known as the drummer for the Beatles. In addition to his music career, Ringo Starr has appeared in a number of films. In addition to his film work, Ringo Starr has also done voiceover work for several animated television shows and movies. He has lent his distinctive voice to characters in shows like “Thomas & Friends” and “The Simpsons,” as well as movies like “Yellow Submarine”.

44 One-celled creature : AMOEBA

An ameba (also “amoeba”) is a single-celled microorganism. The name comes from the Greek “amoibe”, meaning change. The name is quite apt, as the cell changes shape readily as the ameba moves, eats and reproduces.

46 “Smart” guys : ALECKS

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.

48 Move elsewhere in a hurry : DECAMP

To decamp is to leave camp. We also use “decamp” in a figurative sense to mean “depart suddenly or promptly”.

50 Tell (on) : TATTLE

Something described as tattletale is revealing, it gives away a secret. The term is a combination of “tattle” and “tale”, and is probably patterned on the similar word “telltale”. “To tattle” means “to tell secrets”, and the noun “tattletale” applies to someone who tells secrets and informs.

52 Thanksgiving Day Parade sponsor : MACY’S

The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City has been held every year since 1924, with a brief suspension from 1942-1944. The parade was halted during WWII as there was a need for rubber and helium to support the war effort. The 2020 parade was closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and so was a broadcast-only event.

54 Bichon ___ (dog breed) : FRISE

The breed of dog known as a bichon frisé is characteristically small and fluffy. The name of the breed comes from the French phrase “bichon à poil frisé” meaning “small dog with curly hair”.

55 Royal house of Elizabeth I : TUDOR

The Wars of the Roses was a series of civil wars fought for the throne of England between the rival Houses of Lancaster (with a symbol of a red rose) and York (with a symbol of a white rose). Ultimately the Lancastrians emerged victorious after Henry Tudor defeated King Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field. Henry was crowned King Henry VII, and so began the Tudor dynasty. Henry Tudor united the rival houses by marrying his cousin Elizabeth of York. Henry VII had a relatively long reign of 23 years that lasted until his death, after which his son succeeded to the throne as Henry VIII, continuing the relatively short-lived Tudor dynasty. Henry VIII ruled from 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry VIII was the last male to lead the House of Tudor, as his daughter Queen Elizabeth I died without issue. When Elizabeth died, the Scottish King James VI succeeded to the throne as James I of England and Ireland. James I was the first English monarch of the House of Stuart.

The Elizabethan era, the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, is considered by many to be the golden age of English history. It was the age of William Shakespeare and the age of the English Renaissance. Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and the last sovereign of the House of Tudor.

59 Actress Hatcher : TERI

Teri Hatcher’s most famous role is the Susan Mayer character on the TV comedy-drama “Desperate Housewives”. I’ve never seen more than a few minutes of “Housewives” but I do know Teri Hatcher as a Bond girl, as she appeared in “Tomorrow Never Dies”. More recently, she portrayed Lois Lane on the show “Lois & Clark”.

62 “Xanadu” rock grp. : ELO

The title song of the 1980 movie “Xanadu” was performed by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) and Olivia Newton-John (who starred in the film). Despite the popularity of ELO around the world, the song “Xanadu” was the band’s only number-one hit back in their homeland of the UK.

64 Cooking spray brand : PAM

PAM cooking spray was introduced in 1961 by Leon Rubin and Arthur Meyerhoff. The name “PAM” is an acronym … standing for “Product of Arthur Meyerhoff”. Who’d a thunk it …?