Category: Rich Katz

Bill’s time: 14m 58s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8A Capital city on the Gulf of Guinea : ACCRA

Accra sits on Ghana’s coast and is a major seaport as well as the country’s capital city. The name “Accra” comes from a local word “Nkran” meaning “ants”, a name chosen because of the large number of anthills found in the area when the city was founded.

The Gulf of Guinea is a large gulf that forms part of the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast of Africa. One of the gulf’s claims to fame is that it is home to the intersecting point between zero degrees of latitude and zero degrees of longitude, i.e. where the Equator and Prime Meridian cross.

13A Gamer’s pursuit : E-SPORT

Esports (electronic sports) are video game competitions. The International Olympic Committee has held meetings to consider the inclusion of esports in the Olympic Games. What about medals for crossword solving …?

22A {Elijah, Ruth, Natalie} : BABE IN THE WOODS

Elijah Wood is an American actor who is most associated with his role as Frodo Baggins in the “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Actress Natalie Wood was born in San Francisco to Russian immigrant parents, her real name being Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko. Wood performed in many great films over her relatively short career. She played a leading role in “Miracle on 34th Street” when she was just 8-years-old, and in “Rebel Without a Cause” when she was a teenager. There followed hits like “West Side Story”, “Gypsy” and “Splendor in the Grass”. Wood was married to Robert Wagner, twice. Wagner and Wood were on a weekend boat trip to Santa Catalina Island when she drowned in 1981. The death was deemed an accident after an investigation. However, in 2011 the boat’s captain revealed that he had lied during that investigation and claimed that Wood died as the result of a fight with Wagner. Wood’s death certificate was amended as a result, with a statement that how Wood entered the water was not clearly established.

Jack Dunn was the owner/manager of the Baltimore Orioles back in 1914, when he signed George Herman Ruth as a pitcher. The other players called Ruth “Jack’s newest babe”, and the name “Babe” stuck.

24A “Send a quick reminder” : PING ME

In the world of computer science, a ping is a test message sent over a network between computers to check for a response and to measure the time of that response. We now use the verb “to ping” more generally, meaning to send someone a message, usually a reminder.

26A Org. for those leaving the workforce : AARP

“AARP” is now the official name for the interest group that used to be called the American Association of Retired Persons. The name change reflects the current focus of the group on all Americans aged 50 or over, as opposed to just people who have retired.

28A {Kerouac, Dubya, Ginsberg} : BEATS AROUND THE BUSH

The term “beatnik” was coined by journalist Herb Caen in 1958 when he used it to describe the stereotypical young person of the “beat generation”, which is oft associated with the writer Jack Kerouac. That stereotypical beatnik would be playing the bongos, rolling his or her own cigarettes. Male beatniks tended to sport goatees and wear berets.

Allen Ginsberg was a poet from Newark, New Jersey whose name became inextricably linked with the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the counterculture of the 1960s. His most famous work is the 1955 poem “Howl”, in which Ginsberg denounces capitalism and conformity in the US.

President George W. Bush was nicknamed “Dubya” based on the Texas pronunciation of his middle initial “W”.

37A Grinders : HEROS

The etymology of “grinder”, as a name for a sandwich, is unknown. That said, it is known that the term dates back to 1954. It is speculated that eating the large sandwich requires a lot of chewing, and hence the name “grinder”.

41A {WC, AC, DC} : POWER BEHIND THE THRONE

There are two types of electric current. The 120V supply that is distributed throughout our homes provides us with alternating current (AC). The AC current moves back and forth every 1/60 second, in two different directions. AC is great for transmission around the country, and that’s the main reason that AC is piped into our homes. However, all of our electronic devices need direct current (DC), current that flows in one direction. That’s why those devices have adapters at the end of a power cable. The 120V AC supply is converted by the adapter into the DC supply used by the device.

When I was growing up in Ireland, a bathroom was a room that had a bath and no toilet. The separate room with the commode was called the toilet or sometimes the WC (the water closet). Apparently the term “closet” was used because in the 1800s when homeowners started installing toilets indoors they often displaced clothes and linens in a closet, as a closet was the right size to take the commode.

49A Jewish mysticism, in one spelling : KABALA

“Cabala” refers to a Jewish mystical doctrine. The word has several spellings, including “Kabbalah”, “Qabalah” and “Cabalah”, which can correspond to different historical and theological traditions. The Hebrew root of the term means “to receive”, which is a reference to the oral tradition of receiving mystical knowledge.

50A Love, in Lima : AMOR

Lima is the capital city of Peru. It was founded in 1535 by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, who named it “la Ciudad de los Reyes” (the City of Kings). He chose this name because the decision to found the city was made on January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany that commemorates the visit of the three kings to Jesus in Bethlehem. Lima is home to the oldest university in all of the Americas, as San Marcos University was founded in 1551 during the days of Spanish colonial rule.

52A Knee part often torn by athletes, in brief : ACL

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of four major ligaments that support the knee. It is located in the center of the knee and connects the femur (thigh bone) to the tibia (shin bone).

60A “The Second Coming” poet, 1919 : YEATS

Every Irish school child has to read “The Second Coming”, a 1919 poem by W. B. Yeats. And when it comes to interpreting and understanding it, as kids we were in trouble right from the first line:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Because of this poem, I reckon more Irish kids know what a “gyre” is than kids from any other nation! A gyre is basically a vortex …

62A Ragú competitor : PREGO

The Prego brand of pasta sauce is owned by the Campbell Soup Company. It is actually based on the family recipe of one of the company’s chefs. “Prego” literally means “I pray” in Italian, but it translates best in English as “you’re welcome” when it is used after a “thank you” (“grazie”, in Italian).

The Ragú brand of pasta sauce was introduced in 1937. The name ”Ragù” is the Italian word for a sauce used to dress pasta, however the spelling is a little off in the name of the sauce. In Italian, the word is “Ragù” with a grave accent over the “u”, but if you look at a jar of the sauce on the supermarket shelf it is spelled “Ragú” on the label, with an acute accent. Sometimes I think we just don’t try …

63A The Shakespearean version of this has three quatrains followed by a couplet : SONNET

A sonnet is a 14-line poem with a specific structure and rhyming scheme. A popular rhyming scheme for what is known as the Italian sonnet is ABBA, ABBA, CDECDE. Compare this with the Shakespearean sonnet which rhymes as ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG.

66A {Bonnie, Oscar, Clyde} : HONOR AMONG THIEVES

“Bonnie and Clyde” were criminals who robbed and killed their way across the central US during the Great Depression. Clyde Barrow was born a desperately poor young boy just south of Dallas, Texas. He was always in trouble with the law, first getting arrested at the age of 16. He met Bonnie Parker in 1930 at a friend’s house, and the smitten Parker followed Clyde into a life of crime. The pair were killed by a posse of Texas police officers just four years later in Louisiana.

71A “Hammerin’ Hank” of baseball : AARON

The great Hank Aaron (“Hammerin’ Hank” or “the Hammer”) has many claims to fame. One notable fact is that he is the last major league baseball player to have also played in the Negro League.

75A 30-ounce Starbucks size : TRENTA

Starbucks introduced us to coffee drinks in a whole range of volumes:

• Demi … 3 fl oz
• Short … 8 fl oz
• Tall … 12 fl oz
• Grande … 16 fl oz (Italian for “large”)
• Venti … 20 fl oz (Italian for “twenty”)
• Trenta … 30 fl oz (Italian for “thirty”)

78A Old Testament patriarch : ABRAHAM

Abraham is a prominent figure in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions. He was descended from Noah and was the “father” of many tribes, including the Israelites and Ishmaelites. In the Christian tradition Jesus was a descendant of Abraham through the Israelite tribe, and in the Muslim tradition Muhammad was a descendant of Abraham through the Ishmaelite tribe.

82A Rightmost hour on a grandfather clock : III

There are several sizes of longcase clocks, tall and freestanding clocks driven by a pendulum swinging inside a tower below the clock face. A longcase clock over 6 feet tall is called a grandfather, and one below five feet is a granddaughter, one that falls between five and six feet is known as a grandmother. The name of the clock derives from an 1876 song called “My Grandfather’s Clock”.

85A Neighbor of an Estonian : LETT

Latvia is one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs). People from Latvia are called Letts.

88A {Larry, Sue, Emma} : TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE

Larry Bird played basketball for the Boston Celtics from 1978 to 1992. Bird has a lot of very loyal fans, and some might even be described as fanatical. In 2005 an Oklahoma City man was convicted of a crime involving a shooting. On being sentenced to 30 years imprisonment, the guilty man requested that the sentence be changed to 33 years so that it matched the number on Larry Bird’s jersey. The judge obliged. Or so the story goes …

WNBA player Sue Bird is one of only two basketball players, male or female, to have won five Olympic gold medals. The other is fellow WNBA star Diana Taurasi. Bird became engaged to US soccer phenom Megan Rapinoe in 2020.

96A Org. concerned with plants : OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

97A {Cinnabon, Kool-Aid, Hi-C} : ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES

The drink we know today as Kool-Aid was invented by Edwin Perkins and his wife in Perkins’ mother’s kitchen in southwest Nebraska. Kool-Aid is now the Official Soft Drink of the state.

Hi-C orange drink was created in 1946 and introduced to the market in 1948, initially in the south of the country. The name “Hi-C” was chosen to emphasize the high vitamin C content in the drink, as it contained added ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

107A Powerhouse in English football : ARSENAL

Arsenal Football Club (nicknamed “the Gunners”) is an English soccer team based in the Holloway district of London. The club was founded in 1886 as Dial Square by workers at the Royal Arsenal munitions factory. Dial Square was the name given to the workshops at the center of the Royal Arsenal complex. After just a few weeks in existence, the club changed its name to Royal Arsenal, which was eventually shortened to just Arsenal.

110A Home to Waikiki Beach : OAHU

Waikiki is a neighborhood of Honolulu that is home to the famous Waikiki Beach. The name “Waikiki” means “spouting fresh water” in Hawaiian.

111A California’s ___ Linda : LOMA

Loma Linda is a city in California located not far from Los Angeles. The name Loma Linda translates from Spanish as “Beautiful Hill”.

120A Longtime Tribeca restaurant where some say the Cosmopolitan was invented, with “the” : … ODEON

Like so many famous cocktails, the actual origins of the cosmopolitan are disputed. It is a very nice drink, in my humble opinion. One of the standard recipes is 4 parts citrus vodka, 1.5 parts Cointreau, 1.5 parts lime juice and 3 parts cranberry cocktail.

123A Van Halen of Van Halen : EDDIE

Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was a Dutch-American musician who was a guitarist and primary songwriter for the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded with his brother Alex in 1972. Eddie performed an iconic guitar solo on Michael Jackson’s 1983 hit “Beat It”. It was not only uncredited, but he did it as a favor and was never paid for it.

Van Halen is a heavy metal band formed in Pasadena, California back in 1972. Brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen originally called the band Mammoth, changing the name to Van Halen in 1974 when they found out there was another Mammoth playing the circuit. Early on, the brothers were renting a sound system from David Lee Roth, and they decided to save some money by bringing him into the band and saving on the rental fee!

124A Extended voyage : ODYSSEY

“Odyssey” is one of two epic poems from ancient Greece that are attributed to Homer. It is largely a sequel to Homer’s other epic “Iliad”. “Odyssey” centers on the heroic figure Odysseus, and his adventures on his journey home to Greece following the fall of Troy. We now use the term “odyssey” to describe any long series of adventures.

Down

2D Shinbone : TIBIA

The tibia is the shinbone, and is the larger of the two bones right below the knee. It is the strongest weight-bearing bone in the human body. “Tibia” is the Roman name for a Greek flute and it is thought that the shinbone was given the same name because flutes were often fashioned out of the shinbones of animals.

8D Nile dam : ASWAN

The Aswan Dam on the River Nile is actually two dams. The Low Dam was first built in 1902 (and modified later). The High Dam was completed in 1970.

11D Lead-in to River or Rover : RED

The Red River (sometimes “Red River of the South”) runs for almost 1,400 miles, and for much of its length serves as the border between Texas and Oklahoma. It is a saltwater river, with the salt coming from vast deposits buried in the upper reaches of the river and its tributaries. Almost 3,500 tons of salt flows down the Red River every day.

Red Rover is a playground game played by two teams of children. Each team forms a chain, holding hands. The idea is for individuals to try to break through the chain of the opposing team.

12D Dummkopf : ASS

“Dummkopf” is a German word that translates literally as “dumb head”.

19D Bygone N.Y.C. music venue with rhyming initials : CBGB

The music club known as CBGB opened in 1973 intending to feature country, bluegrass and blues music (hence the name “CBGB”, Country, BlueGrass and Blues). The club developed an association in the eighties with New York’s underground hardcore punk music.

23D Wisconsin’s ___ Claire : EAU

Eau Claire, Wisconsin is named for the Eau Claire River, which in turn was named by French explorers. The explorers had been traveling down the muddy Chippewa River and diverted into the clear water of what is now called the Eau Claire River. They exclaimed “Voici l’eau claire!” meaning “Here is clear water!” The French phrase “Voici l’eau claire” is now the city’s motto that appears on the city seal.

27D Buddy of “The Beverly Hillbillies” : EBSEN

Actor Buddy Ebsen was best known for playing Jed Clampett in television’s “The Beverly Hillbillies”. Ebsen had been cast in the role of the Tin Man in the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz”, but he developed an allergy to the aluminum dust that was used in the makeup. He ended up in hospital and had to walk away from the part. Ebsen blamed “The Wizard of Oz” on persistent problems that he had with his lungs in subsequent years. But Ebsen lived 16 years longer than any of the other major cast members of the film, so maybe he got the last laugh!

“The Beverly Hillbillies” sitcom originally aired from 1962 to 1971. The show had consistently respectable ratings, but was canceled as part of “the Rural Purge” at CBS. Advertisers at the time were applying pressure on the network to move to more urban-themed shows. CBS responded by canceling shows such as “Petticoat Junction”, “Green Acres”, “Lassie” as well as “The Beverly Hillbillies”.

29D Apt name for a conchologist? : SHEL

Although “conch” is now used as a generic term for largish sea snails and their shells, the true conch belongs to a specific group of gastropods. The “meat” is very popular, and so the conch is the second-most popular edible snail after “escargot”. The conch shell can be used as a wind instrument, and the true conch is also a good source for pearls.

32D What has flatter feet? : ODE

In poetry, a foot is the natural unit of stressed and unstressed syllables which make up the work. For example, an iambic foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

41D Do some roadwork on : PAVE

Back in Ireland, the “pavement” is what we call the “sidewalk, footpath” (because the footpath is “paved”, often with “paving” stones!). It’s very confusing when you arrive in this country from Ireland, and a little dangerous when one has been taught from a young age to “walk on the pavement” …

42D Folk religion akin to voodoo : OBEAH

“Obeah” is a West Indian term that describes the folk magic practiced in many of the Caribbean islands.

Voodoo is a religion that originated in the French slave colony of Saint-Domingue on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

44D Women’s areas in old Muslim palaces : HAREMS

“Harem” is a Turkish word derived from the Arabic for “forbidden place”. Traditionally, a harem was the female quarters in a household in which a man had more than one wife. Not only wives (and concubines) would use the harem, but also young children and other female relatives. The main point was that no men were allowed in the area. The term “harem” is also applied to the women, children and staff occupying the quarters.

45D Last stage of an insect’s development : IMAGO

The imago is an intermediate stage in the development of an insect. All four stages are embryo, larva, pupa and imago.

48D Metric unit of weight : TONNE

The tonne, also known as a metric ton, is equivalent to 1,000 kg (or 2,205 lb). The tonne isn’t an official unit of mass in the metric system, but it is used a lot.

55D Figs. related to car loans : APRS

Annual percentage rate (APR)

58D Big bunch : BEVY

“Bevy” is a collective noun used for a number of types of bird, including quail and swans. “Bevy” is also sometimes used as a collective noun for women.

63D Lead-in to sphere, in the atmosphere : STRATO-

The stratosphere is a layer of the atmosphere that is so called because it is stratified in temperature, with the warmer layers at the top. One important constituent of the stratosphere is ozone. The ozone absorbs UV radiation coming from space, protecting us on the planet’s surface.

65D Atlantic crosser of 1492 : NINA

The ship used by Christopher Columbus that we know as the Niña was actually the nickname of a ship actually called the Santa Clara. The nickname “Niña” probably came from the name of her owner, Juan Niño of Moguer.

68D Wayne’s buddy in “Wayne’s World” : GARTH

“Wayne’s World” was originally a “Saturday Night Live” sketch starring Mike Myers (as Wayne Campbell) and Dana Carvey as Garth Algar. The sketch was so successful that it was parlayed into two hit movies, released in 1992 and 1993. Not my cup of tea, though …

76D T. ___ Price (investment firm) : ROWE

T. Rowe Price is an investment company based in Baltimore that was founded in 1937 by Thomas Rowe Price, Jr.

78D He was né Clay : ALI

Boxer Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in Louisville, Kentucky in 1942. Clay joined the Nation of Islam in the early sixties, at which point he changed his name to Muhammad Ali. The name he chose translates into “one who is worthy of praise” (Muhammad) and “most high” (Ali).

79D ___ pork (dish in a Chinese restaurant) : MU SHU

Moo shu pork (also “mu shu pork”) is a traditional dish from northern China, with the main ingredients being shredded pork and scrambled egg. In North America, the dish is served with tortilla-like wrappers that are sometimes referred to as “moo shu pancakes”.

83D Tale of rustic life : IDYLL

An idyll (also “idyl”) is a short poem with a pastoral theme, usually depicting the scene in romantic and idealized terms. The word “idyl” comes from the Greek “eidyllion”, which literally translates to “little picture” but was a word describing a short poem with a rustic theme.

84D “Vidi,” in Caesar’s boast : I SAW

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.

87D Satirist Freberg : STAN

Stan Freberg is an American satirist and author who took over for Jack Benny on CBS radio. His career as a broadcaster suffered though, largely because he refused to take on manufacturers of alcohol and tobacco as sponsors for his show.

91D Conflict sparked by an archduke’s assassination: Abbr. : WWI

As with WWII, tension was building as the European powers jockeyed for position on the world stage in the run-up to the First World War . The event that triggered the open warfare was the June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by a Yugoslav nationalist. There followed an ultimatum by the Austro-Hungarian Empire against the Kingdom of Serbia. This in turn triggered what were basically automatic threats invoked by age old alliances, and within weeks the major powers were at war. As these were colonial powers, the conflict spread around the world. By the time an armistice was signed in November 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire had ceased to exist, and the German and Russian Empires had been defeated.

92D San Francisco’s ___ Valley : NOE

Noe Valley is a neighborhood in San Francisco. The area is named after José de Jesús Noé who was the last Mexican mayor of Yerba Buena, which is what San Francisco was called when it was part of Mexico.

93D Madrid’s land, in the Olympics : ESP

Spain is the second largest country in the European Union (after France). “Spain” is an anglicized form of the Spanish name “España”, which comes from the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula “Hispania”.

100D Vietnam’s capital : HANOI

Hanoi (“Hà Nội” in Vietnamese) was the capital of North Vietnam, and Saigon the capital of South Vietnam. After the Vietnam War, Hanoi was made capital of the reunified state. Saigon, the larger metropolis, was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi is located in the delta of the Red River, and is just over 50 miles from the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea.

102D Soldier for Attila : HUN

The Huns were a nomadic people from Central Asia who migrated into Eastern Europe during the 4th century. Under the command of Attila the Hun they developed a unified empire that stretched from modern-day Germany across to the steppes of Central Asia. The whole of the Hunnic Empire collapsed within a year of Attila’s death in 453 AD.

103D Black suit : CLUBS

The suit in a deck of cards that we refer to as “clubs” comes from the standard French deck. In French, the suit is known as “trèfles” meaning “clovers”, as the club icon resembles a clover leaf. Our name “clubs” comes from the Italian-Spanish standard deck, in which the equivalent suit is “Bastoni”, meaning “batons”.

109D Kind of wave : SINE

A sine wave is a mathematical function that describes a simple, smooth, repetitive oscillation. The sine wave is found right throughout the natural world. Ocean waves, light waves and sound waves all have a sine wave pattern.

113D Last name for an unnamed person : DOE

Though the English court system does not use the term today, “John Doe” first appeared as the “name of a person unknown” in England in 1659, along with the similar “Richard Roe”. An unknown female is referred to as “Jane Doe”, and the equivalent to Richard Roe is Jane Roe (as in Roe v. Wade, for example). Variants of “John Doe” used outside of the courts are “Joe Blow” and “John Q. Public”.

115D Ring result, in brief : TKO

Technical knockout (TKO)

117D Ron who played Tarzan : ELY

Ron Ely is most famous for playing the title role in the “Tarzan” TV series in the sixties. Years later, Ely hosted the 1980 and 1981 “Miss America” pageants right after longtime host Bert Parks retired, before the job was taken over by Gary Collins. And Ely is a successful mystery novelist. He wrote “Night Shadows” and “East Beach” in the mid-nineties, both of which featured his private eye Jake Sands.

118D Two in Tijuana : DOS

Tijuana is the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California, and lies just across the US-Mexico border from San Diego. Tijuana is also the most westerly of all Mexican cities. A lot of Tijuana’s growth took place in the twenties as tourists flocked south of the border during the days of prohibition in the US. One of the many casinos and hotels that flourished at that time was Hotel Caesar’s in the Avenida Revolución area. Hotel Caesar’s claims to be the birthplace of the now ubiquitous Caesar Salad.