Category: Rebecca Goldstein

Bill’s time: 12m 42s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Chaise alternative : BANC

In French, one might sit on a “chaise” (chair) or “banc” (bench).

15 Botanical stoma, e.g. : PORE

Stomata (the usual plural of “stoma”, and not “stomas”) are pores found under almost every leaf, clearly visible under a simple microscope. The stomata take in air rich in carbon dioxide. Through the process of photosynthesis, the plants generate oxygen, which is released back into the air though the same stomata.

16 Fade from use : GO OBSOLETE

Something described as “obsolescent” is going out of use, becoming “obsolete”.

17 “Das ___ der Deutschen” (Germany’s national anthem) : LIED

I must admit that I thought Germany’s national anthem was titled “Deutschland Uber Alles”. In fact, these are just words from the refrain. The anthem is called “Das Lied der Deutschen” (“the Song of the Germans”), with words put to music written by Joseph Haydn in 1797.

18 ___ mundi : ANNO

Anno Mundi is abbreviated as AM, and translates from the Latin as “in the year of the world”. The AM calendar dates from the year of creation, so the actual year changes in different versions depending on which year is understood to be “year 1”.

19 Daring : MOXIE

Back as far as 1876, Moxie was a brand name of a “medicine” peddled with the claim that it “built up your nerve”. In 1924, “Moxie” was registered as a trademark for a bitter, non-alcoholic beverage (no more claims of nerve-building). We’ve used the term “moxie” to mean “nerve” ever since …

20 It might make a cameo : ONYX

Cameo is a method of carving, often the carving of a gemstone or a piece of jewelry. The resulting image is in relief (sits proud of the background), whereas an engraved image would be produced by the similar carving method known as intaglio. Nowadays, the term “cameo” is used for any piece of oval-shaped jewelry that contains the image of a head, usually in profile (maybe even a photograph).

21 Resistance figure : OHM

The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.

25 Dog with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame : LASSIE

The canine character Lassie is the creation of Eric Knight, an author who wrote a short story that he expanded into a novel called “Lassie Come Home” published in 1940. “Lassie Come Home” was turned into a movie three years later, the first of a very successful franchise. The original Lassie (a female) was played by a long-haired collie called Pal (a male). In fact, all of the dogs that played Lassie over the years were males, because they looked better on camera, retaining a thick coat even during the summer months.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a series of sidewalks taking up 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and 3 blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood. The Walk of Fame is an ever-changing monument dedicated to those who have achieved greatness in the entertainment industry, both in front of and behind the camera. The first stars installed in the sidewalk were a group of eight, officially laid in 1960. That group consisted of:

• Joanne Woodward (actor)
• Olive Borden (actor)
• Ronald Colman (actor)
• Louise Fazenda (actor)
• Preston Foster (actor)
• Burt Lancaster (actor)
• Edward Sedgwick (director)
• Ernest Torrence (actor)

33 Head of St. Paul’s Cathedral? : LOO

In old sailing ships, the toilet area for the regular sailors was located in the forward part (the head) of the ship. As a result, the term “head” has been used since then for any toilet on board a boat.

The famous and very beautiful St. Paul’s Cathedral in London was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. St. Paul’s was completed in 1708 and was constructed as part of a rebuilding program necessary after the devastation of the Great Fire of London of 1666. St. Paul’s is the second largest church building in the country, after Liverpool Cathedral.

35 Island east of Bali : TIMOR

Timor is an island in Maritime Southeast Asia. The island is politically divided into West Timor, belonging to Indonesia, and the independent state of East Timor. The name “Timor” comes from a Malay word for “east”, and is used as Timor lies at the eastern end of the Lesser Sunda Islands.

37 Word shouted before “Feliz año nuevo!” : UNO

In Spanish, coming up to midnight on New Year’s Eve, one might hear “cinco, cuatro, tres, dos, uno!” (five, four, three, two, one) and then “Feliz Año Nuevo!” (Happy New Year!).

38 Snaps : GOES BANANAS

The expression “to go bananas”, meaning “to become excited or angry”, is one that I would have imagined had a clear etymology but that doesn’t seem to be the case. A further surprise is that we’ve only been “going bananas” since the sixties, the days of flower power. One apt theory about the hippy roots of the phrase is that there was an unfounded belief that ingesting roasted banana peels had a similar hallucinogenic effect as magic mushrooms.

40 Liveliness : ESPRIT

Our word “esprit”, meaning “liveliness of mind”, comes to us from Latin via French. The Latin “spiritus” means “spirit”.

46 Captain Rosbach of reality TV’s “Below Deck” : LEE

“Below Deck” is a reality TV show that features crew members living and working on a superyacht during the charter season. It’s a popular show, one that spawned several spinoffs, for example:

• “Below Deck Mediterranean”
• “Below Deck Sailing Yacht”
• “Below Deck Down Under”
• “Below Deck Adventure”

48 Ramen topping : ENOKI

Enokitake (also known as “enoki”) are long and thin white mushrooms often added to soups or salads.

Ramen is a noodle dish composed of Chinese-style wheat noodles in a meat or fish broth flavored with soy or miso sauce. Ramen is usually topped with sliced pork and dried seaweed. The term “ramen” is also used for precooked, instant noodles that come in single-serving, solid blocks.

50 What “sends forth / His fiery breathings from the broken flues,” per Virgil : ETNA

Publius Vergilius Maro (better known as “Virgil”) was a poet from ancient Rome. His best known works are:

• The “Eclogues” (or “Bucolics”)
• The “Georgics”
• The “Aeneid”

Down

1 Merediz who reprised her Tony-nominated role in the 2021 film adaptation of “In the Heights” : OLGA

Olga Merediz is a Cuban-born, American actress and singer. She is perhaps best known for playing Abuela Caludia in the Broadway musical “In the Heights”, and in the film adaptation.

“In the Heights” is a musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda that opened on Broadway in 2008, and won the Best Musical Tony that season. John Chu directed a big-screen adaptation released in 2021. The title is a reference to the Washington Heights neighborhood in New York City.

2 High point? : NOON

Our word “noon”, meaning “midday”, comes from the Latin “nona hora” that translates as “ninth hour”. Back in ancient Rome, the “ninth hour” was three in the afternoon. Over the centuries, traditions such as church prayers and “midday” meals shifted from 3 p.m. to 12 p.m., and so “noon” became understood as 12 noon.

3 Basilica sight : ICON

In its modern usage, the term “basilica” applies to a Roman Catholic church that has been given special ceremonial rights by the Pope.

4 They bring up the rear : CABOOSES

The word “caboose” originally came from Middle Dutch and was the word for a ship’s galley. When the last car in a train in North America was given a stove for the comfort of the crew, it took on the name “caboose”. The term has also become slang for a person’s backside.

5 Volleyball doubles? : ELS

There are two occurrences of double letters L (els) in the word “volleyball”.

6 Cousin of a machete : BOLO

A machete is a large knife, one usually 13-18 inches long. The term “machete” is the diminutive of “macho” meaning “male, strong”.

12 Online lecture franchise : TEDX

The acronym “TED” stands for “Technology, Entertainment and Design”. TED is a set of conferences held around the world by a non-profit group called the Sapling Foundation. The conference subjects are varied, and the meetings are often led by big names such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Jane Goodall. The Sapling Foundation then makes recordings of the conferences available for free online with the intent of disseminating the ideas globally. These conferences are known as “TED Talks”. There are also TEDx events, which are locally-run talks presented under license from TED.

22 Retail-focused channel : HSN

The Home Shopping Network (HSN) was the first national shopping network, and was launched locally as the Home Shopping Club in Florida in 1982. Its first product was a can opener.

24 First name in Russian literature : LEO

Russian author Leo Tolstoy is best known for his novels “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina”. He also wrote the much-respected novellas “Hadji Murad” and “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”.

27 Songwriter Brickell : EDIE

Edie Brickell is a singer-songwriter from Dallas, Texas. Brickell has been married to fellow singer Paul Simon since 1991.

36 Novel with the line “Reader, I married him” : JANE EYRE

“Jane Eyre” is a celebrated novel written by Charlotte Brontë, under the pen name Currer Bell. The love story is perhaps represented by the oft-quoted opening lines of the last chapter, “Reader, I married him”. There is a wonderful 4-hour television adaptation made by the BBC that I highly recommend to fans of the novel …

39 Dundee dismissal : NAE

The city of Dundee lies on the north bank of the Firth of Tay in Scotland. The origins of the name “Dundee” are a little obscure, although the omnipresent “dùn” in place names all over Scotland and Ireland is the Celtic word for “fort”.

47 Telescope named for the second administrator of NASA : WEBB

The James Webb Space Telescope entered into service in 2022. It uses infrared radiation to observe objects, and also produces images with higher resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope that started operating in 1990. The Webb is named for James E. Webb, the NASA administrator who served from 1961 to 1968.

49 Cardigan, e.g. : KNIT

The article of clothing known as a cardigan is named after the British Army Major General James Brudenell, the 7th Earl of Cardigan. Apparently, the cardigan’s design is similar to the knitted wool waistcoat that was worn by officers during the Crimean War in which the Earl of Cardigan played a major role.

51 Bird that makes the longest migration in the animal kingdom : TERN

Terns are seabirds that are found all over the world. The Arctic Tern makes a very long-distance migration. One Arctic Tern that was tagged as a chick in Great Britain in the summer of 1982, was spotted in Melbourne, Australia just three months later. The bird had traveled over 14,000 miles in over those three months, an average of about 150 miles a day. Remarkable …

53 ___ Stark, role on “Game of Thrones” : ARYA

Maisie Williams is the English actress who plays the tomboyish young girl Arya Stark on the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones”.