Category: Michael Schlossberg

Bill’s time: 18m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A The small screen’s second Golden Age, informally : PEAK TV

“Peak TV” is a term used to describe the period that saw a dramatic increase of scripted TV series being produced, starting in the late 1990s. One thinks of shows like “Sex and the City”, “The Sopranos” and “The West Wing” that led the way. This revolution took place when cable channels started investing in and producing quality content, adding to the shows being created by traditional TV networks. Some argue that the Peak TV era ended in the early 2020s. Streaming providers no longer routinely drop full seasons of shows, binge-watching is on the decline, and commercial breaks are becoming more common.

7A Completed in two under par : EAGLED

The following terms are routinely used in golf for scores relative to par:

• Bogey: one over par
• Par
• Birdie: one under par
• Eagle: two under par
• Albatross (also “double eagle”): three under par
• Condor: four under par

No one has ever recorded a condor during a professional tournament.

13A Indian tourist mecca : GOA

Goa is the smallest state in India, and is located in the southwest of the country. The Portuguese landed in Goa in the early 1500s, at first peacefully carrying out trade, but then took the area by force creating Portuguese India. Portugal held onto Portuguese India even after the British pulled out of India in 1947, until the Indian Army marched into the area in 1961.

19A One working near home : UMPIRE

Back in the 15th century, “an umpire” was referred to as “a noumpere”, which was misheard and hence causing the dropping of the initial letter N. The term “noumpere” came from Old French “nonper” meaning “not even, odd number”. The idea was that the original umpire was a third person called on to arbitrate between two, providing that “odd number” needed to decide the dispute.

23A Cardinal point? : SISTINE CHAPEL

The Sistine Chapel is located in the Pope’s residence in Rome. The chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who was responsible for restoring the old Capella Magna in the 15th century. It was about a century later (1508-1512) that Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel under the patronage of Pope Julius II.

25A Philanthropist ___ French Gates : MELINDA

Melinda French was working as a project manager at Microsoft when she met Bill Gates. The couple were married in Hawaii in 1994, after which she left Microsoft to start and raise a family. They divorced in 2021.

27A Tipping point? : CASH REGISTER

What we usually call a cash register here in North America, we mostly call a “till” in Ireland and the UK. I haven’t heard the word “till” used much here in that sense …

38A Father of Transcendentalism : EMERSON

Ralph Waldo Emerson was an essayist and poet who was active in the mid-1800s. Most of the essays that Emerson wrote were composed originally as lectures and then revised for print. He is often referred to as “The Sage of Concord”, as Emerson spent much of his life in Concord, Massachusetts.

43A “Absolutamente!” : SI SI!

In Spanish, when one is positive, one might say, “Absolutamente” (Absolutely), “Si si” (Yes yes).

46A ___ Miss : OLE

“Ole Miss” is the nickname for the University of Mississippi located in Oxford, Mississippi. The name “Ole Miss” dates back to 1897, the first year a student yearbook was published. The graduating class held a competition to name the yearbook and “Ole Miss” emerged as the winner. The name stuck to the yearbook, and also as a nickname for the school itself. The University of Mississippi sports teams have been known as the Rebels since 1936. Prior to 1936, they were known as the Mississippi Flood.

57A Tree ring, to a dendrochronologist : YEAR

Dendrochronology is the dating of trees by examining growth rings.

59A Potpourri feature : AROMA

The French term “pot pourri” translates literally to “rotten pot”, but in France it used to mean “stew”. Over time, the term “potpourri” evolved in English usage to mean a “medley”, and eventually a mixture of dried flowers and spices.

60A What the Mosquirix vaccine targets : MALARIA

Malaria is a disease passed onto humans by mosquitoes. As a result of the disease, a parasite invades human red blood cells and multiplies causing fever and possibly coma or death. Over 750,000 people died from malaria in 2009, out of 225 million cases reported.

65A Supergiant, e.g. : STAR

Supergiant stars are among the most massive and luminous stars in the universe, significantly larger than our Sun. They are typically short-lived on a cosmic scale, burning through their fuel rapidly, and often end their lives in spectacular supernova explosions, leaving behind neutron stars or black holes.

75A Comic who said “One thing about being narrow-minded — you’ll never be lonely” : SAHL

Mort Sahl is a Canadian-born actor and comedian who moved to the US with his family when he was a child. Sahl became friends with John F. Kennedy. When Kennedy became president, Sahl wrote a lot of jokes for the President’s speeches, although he also told a lot of Kennedy jokes in his acts. After the President was assassinated in 1963, Sahl was intensely interested in finding out who was behind the crime and even got himself deputized as a member of one of the investigating teams. He was very outspoken against the results of the Warren Commission report on the assassination, and soon found himself out of favor with the public. It took a few years for him to make his comeback, and come back he did.

79A Mary Westmacott, for Agatha Christie : ALIAS

Not only did Agatha Christie write a fabulous collection of murder-mystery stories, she also wrote romances, but under the pen name Mary Westmacott. I’ve read almost all of Christie’s 66 detective novels, but I must admit, not one of her romance novels.

81A Bring up the rear? : MOON

The first recorded mooning incident took place in 66 AD during the First Roman-Jewish War. Roman soldiers decided to moon Jewish pilgrims as they traveled to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

84A Galoots : OAFS

“Galoot” is an insulting word describing an awkward or boorish man, an ape. The term comes from the nautical world, where it was originally what a sailor might call a soldier or marine.

93A Sawbones, in brief : OR DOCS

“Sawbones” is a slang term meaning “surgeon”.

97A Japanese pitcher nicknamed “The Tornado” : NOMO

Hideo Nomo is a former professional baseball pitcher from Osaka, Japan. After achieving success in Japan, Nomo became the first Japanese-born player to appear in Major League Baseball in the US. Nomo threw two no-hitters while playing here in the Majors. He is the only Japanese-born player to have thrown even one no-hitter.

98A Frodo’s sidekick : SAM

Samwise Gamgee is the sidekick to Frodo Baggins in Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”. “Sam” is portrayed by American actor Sean Astin in the Peter Jackson big screen adaptations of the novels.

104A Stately trees : ELMS

The Ulmus laevis deciduous tree that is native to Europe is commonly referred to as the European white elm, spreading elm and stately elm.

105A Barn-raising participants, maybe : AMISH

The Amish are members of a group of Christian churches, and a subgroup of the Mennonite churches. The Amish church originated in Switzerland and Alsace in 1693 when it was founded by Jakob Ammann. It was Ammann who gave the name to the Amish people. Many Amish people came to Pennsylvania in the 18th century.

107A ___ Paulo : SAO

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil. It is also the city with the highest number of helicopters in the world. This is partly driven by the horrendous traffic jams in São Paulo, but also by the wealthy having a very real fear of being kidnapped on the city’s streets.

120A Home to Uganda’s presidential palace : ENTEBBE

Kampala is the capital city of Uganda. The airport that serves Kampala is in the town of Entebbe. Entebbe airport is well known for the daring hostage-rescue carried out by Israeli Defense Forces in 1976 following a hijacking.

121A Brownie point? : GIRL SCOUT CAMP

Brownies are members of the Girl Guiding organization who are seven to ten years old. When the group was founded in 1914 by Lord Baden-Powell, they were known as Rosebuds. That name wasn’t popular with the membership and so was changed, taking inspiration from an 1870 story by Juliana Horatia Ewing called “The Brownies”.

125A Flagship Honda model : ACCORD

Honda started manufacturing the Accord model in Marysville, Ohio in 1982, making the Accord the first Japanese car to be produced in the US. The Accord was the best-selling Japanese car in America from 1982 to 1997, and 1989 was the first import to become the best-selling car in the US.

126A Lover of Bassanio, in Shakespeare : PORTIA

In William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”, Portia is the formidable heroine who takes on the guise of a male lawyer and calls herself “Balthasar”. Portia does this to save the life of Antonio, the play’s title character. Portia makes a famous speech that gives us the oft-quoted phrase, “the quality of mercy”:

The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes…

127A Like hemoglobin : RED

Red blood cells are also known as erythrocytes, and are responsible for delivering oxygen from the lungs to the body’s tissues. Iron-rich hemoglobin in the cell binds the oxygen molecules, and is also responsible for the red color. While some waste carbon dioxide (CO2) is carried back to the lungs by red blood cells, most of the CO2 is transported back to the lungs as bicarbonate ions dissolved in the blood plasma.

129A Wise king in the “Iliad” and “Odyssey” : NESTOR

Nestor was one of the Argonauts, the adventurers who sailed on the Argo with Jason on his search for the Golden Fleece of Greek mythology. In Homer’s “Iliad”, wise old Nestor is noted for giving sage advice. We use the term “nestor” today for any wise old man.

Down

2D Jannings who won the first Best Actor Oscar : EMIL

Emil Jannings was an actor from Switzerland who also held German and Austrian citizenship. He was the very first person to receive an Oscar, as the star of the 1928 silent movie called “The Last Command”. Jannings also starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in the 1930 classic “The Blue Angel”.

5D Beater of pocket rockets, in Texas hold ’em : TRIPS

A pair of aces are referred to as pocket rockets, particularly when holding them in the hand (the pocket) in the popular variant of poker known as Texas hold ‘em. The term “rockets” is used as the letters A written side-by-side look like two small rockets on the launchpad (AA).

6D “The Floating City” : VENICE

Anyone wanting to get around the historic center of the Italian city of Venice has to walk or travel on water. Cars are not allowed. In fact, Venice is the largest urban, car-free area in the whole of Europe.

9D Greek sisters of myth : GRACES

In Greek and Roman mythology there were goddesses of the better things in life, charm, beauty, nature, creativity and fertility. In Greece they were known as the “Charites” and in Rome they were the “Gratiae”. In English we refer to them as the Graces, of which there are usually three:

• Aglaea (aka Splendor)
• Euphrosyne (aka Mirth)
• Thalia (aka Good Cheer)

10D Pop star Dua ___ : LIPA

Dua Lipa is a singer-songwriter and fashion model from England. She was born in London to Albanian parents, and considers her native language to be Albanian. She also speaks English with a British accent.

12D Second-most-populous city in the world (after Tokyo) : DELHI

New Delhi is the capital city of India. The city resides within the National Capital Territory of Delhi (otherwise known as the metropolis of Delhi). New Delhi and Delhi, therefore, are two different things.

14D Much-desired blood type, for short : O-NEG

In general, a person with type O-negative blood is a universal donor, meaning that his or her blood can be used for transfusion into persons with any other blood type: A, B, AB or O, negative or positive (although there are other considerations). Also in general, a person with type AB-positive blood is a universal recipient, meaning that he or she can receive a transfusion of blood of any type: A, B, AB or O, negative or positive.

17D Author of “The Princess and the Pea” and “The Ugly Duckling” : ANDERSEN

The wonderful storyteller Hans Christian Andersen became very successful in his own lifetime. In 1847 he visited England for the summer and made a triumphal tour of English society’s most fashionable drawing rooms. There Andersen met with the equally successful Charles Dickens, and the two seemed to hit it off. Ten years later Andersen returned to England and stayed for five weeks in Dickens’ home as his guest. Dickens published “David Copperfield” soon after, and supposedly the less than lovable character Uriah Heep was based on Dickens’ house guest Hans Christian Andersen. That wasn’t very nice!

“The Princess and the Pea” is a fairy tale from the pen of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The essence of the story is that a prince’s mother tests the royal blood of an apparent princess by placing a pea under a pile of mattresses on which the young girl sleeps. The girl complains of a restless night, demonstrating a physical sensitivity that can only be attributed to a princess. And they all lived happily ever after …

Hans Christian Andersen’s tale “The Ugly Duckling” has to be one of the most endearing ever written. Unlike so many fairy tales, “The Ugly Duckling” isn’t based on any folklore and is simply a product of Andersen’s imagination. It is speculated that Andersen was the illegitimate son of the Crown Prince of Denmark, and that he wrote the story of the ugly duckling that turned into a beautiful swan as a metaphor for the secret royal lineage that was within Andersen himself.

31D Brunch station offering : CREPE

“Crêpe” is the French word for “pancake”.

34D Astronaut Grissom : GUS

Gus Grissom was the second American to fly in space, and the first astronaut at NASA to make two space flights. Sadly, Grissom was one of the three astronauts who died in that terrible launch pad fire in 1967.

35D Finsteraarhorn, e.g. : ALP

The Finsteraarhorn is the highest of the Alps that lies outside of the main chain, actually in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. The Finsteraarhorn is the ninth highest peak in the whole of the Alps.

48D “Star Trek II: The ___ of Khan” : WRATH

In the 1982 movie “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” William Shatner played James T. Kirk, and the evil Khan was played by Ricardo Montalbán. Leonard Nimoy didn’t want to appear in the sequel, and only agreed to do so when the producers agreed to “kill off” Spock at the end of the story (but he comes back … and back … and back …).

54D Joie de vivre : BRIO

“Brio” is borrowed from Italian, in which language the term means “vigor and vivacity”. “Con brio” is a musical direction often found on a score, instructing the musicians to play “with energy, vigor”.

“Joie de vivre” means “joy of living” in French. We use the phrase to mean the happy, carefree enjoyment of life, like when we finish our crossword puzzles …

58D Biblical shepherd : ABEL

In the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis, Cain murders his brother Abel. Subsequently, God asks Cain, “Where is Abel thy brother?” Cain replies, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”

60D Many residents, for short : MDS

A resident is a physician who has graduated from medical school, and who is receiving specialized graduate training in a hospital. The concept of residency developed in the late 1800s. Back then, the doctors would often “reside” in hospital-provided housing while receiving the training, hence the term “resident”.

64D Lhasa ___ : APSO

The Lhasa apso breed of dog originated in Tibet and is named after “Lhasa” (the capital city) and “apso” (a Tibetan word meaning “bearded”). The Lhasa apso has been around since 800 BC and is one of the oldest breeds in the world, one very closely related to the ancestral wolf.

65D It’s literally “inflated” in the kitchen : SOUFFLE

A soufflé is a French dish that is usually served as a dessert. The verb “souffler” means “to blow, blow up”.

66D Mast attachment above a gaff : TOPSAIL

A topsail is a sail that is set on a mast above another sail. It is possible to mount yet another topsail above the first.

67D QB stat: Abbr. : ATT

In football, a quarterback’s (QB’s) performance can be measured by attempts (ATT), a statistic (stat).

71D Actress Smith of Fox’s “Empire” : TASHA

Actress Tasha Smith’s break came with a starring role in the nineties sitcom “Boston Common”, playing Tasha King. More recently, she landed a recurring role in the show “Empire”, playing Carol Holloway.

“Empire” is a musical drama TV series about the hip hop music business. Star of the show is Terrence Howard, who plays drug-dealer turned hip hop mogul Lucious Lyon. Lyon is CEO of Empire Entertainment.

79D “The Golden Bachelor” network : ABC

“The Golden Bachelor” is a spin-off of the dating reality TV series “The Bachelor”. The opening season resulted in the 72-year-old bachelor finding a match and ABC airing a special “The Golden Wedding” at the end of the season. However, the couple divorced after only three months of marriage.

82D Newbery-winning author Scott ___ : O’DELL

Author Scott O’Dell mainly wrote historical novels for young people. His best-known work is the 1960 novel “Island of the Blue Dolphins”, which is about a young girl stranded for years on an island off the California coast. The book is based on a true story of a Native American girl left alone on one of California’s Channel Islands for 18 years, before being rescued in 1853.

88D Alley ___ : OOP

“Alley Oop” is a comic strip that ran for four decades starting in 1932. “Alley Oop” was drawn by V. T. Hamlin. The title character lived in the prehistoric kingdom of Moo, although for much of the strip’s life, Alley Oop had access to a time machine. Alley Oop also had a girlfriend called Ooola. I had assumed that Ooola’s name was a play on “hula hoop”, but that little toy wasn’t invented until the 1950s (a kind blog reader informs me) …

91D Kind of cycle at night : REM

“REM” is an acronym standing for “rapid eye movement”. REM sleep takes up 20-25% of the sleeping hours and is the period associated with one’s most vivid dreams.

102D Suburban setting? : CAR LOT

The Suburban is an SUV made by Chevrolet starting in 1935. That makes “Chevrolet Suburban” the longest continuous use nameplate in automobile history.

112D New York theater award first given in 1956 : OBIE

The Obies are the Off-Broadway (“OB”) Theater Awards. They have been presented annually since 1956. The recipients used to be chosen by “The Village Voice” newspaper, but now are jointly administered with the American Theatre Wing.

113D One of the 10 plagues of Egypt : LICE

According to the biblical Book of Exodus, God inflicted ten plagues on Egypt to persuade the Pharaoh to release the Israelites from bondage. For example, the first was the changing of water in the Nile to blood, the eighth was a plague of locusts that consumed all the Egyptian crops, and the tenth was the death of firstborn sons.

114D Dungeons & Dragons baddies : ORCS

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D, DnD) is a complex role-playing game (RPG) introduced in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules Incorporated (TSR). Dungeons & Dragons was probably the first of the modern role-playing games to be developed, and the most successful. It is still played by lots of people today, including my youngest son …

116D One of 24 in Yankee Stadium : ACRE

Yankee Stadium in the Bronx in New York City cost $2.3 billion to construct, making it the most expensive baseball stadium ever built. $1.2 billion of that cost was covered using public funds.

122D Ticketmaster spec : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

123D Navy submarine head: Abbr. : CDR

Commander (Cdr.)