Category: Ricky J. Sirois

Bill’s time: 20m 55s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Bungee jumping might be seen on it : BUCKET LIST

A bucket list is a list of things one wants to achieve before dying, before “kicking the bucket”. The expression hasn’t been used in this context for very long, only a decade or so, but was popularized by the 2007 film “The Bucket List” starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.

The first bungee jump using the modern latex cord was from the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, England. It was an illegal jump, with all five jumpers getting arrested soon after “hitting” the ground.

11 Aggressively promote : FLOG

“To flog” is a slang term meaning “to sell, to promote vigorously”.

16 ___ Wood, portrayer of the Bond girl Plenty O’Toole in “Diamonds Are Forever” : LANA

Lana Wood is the younger sister of the actress Natalie Wood. Lana is an actress in her own right, and a producer. She appeared regularly on television’s “Peyton Place”. She was also a Bond girl, appearing opposite Sean Connery as Plenty O’Toole in “Diamonds Are Forever”. For a while, Lana Wood and Sean Connery were romantically involved.

17 Touring show for figure skaters : STARS ON ICE

“Stars on Ice” is a touring, figure-skating show that was founded in 1986 and built around Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton. Family-oriented ice shows like “Ice Capades” and “Disney on Ice” already existed at that time, so “Stars on Ice” was aimed at an adult audience. The original cast included, in addition to Scott Hamilton, Dorothy Hamill, Toller Cranston and Rosalynn Sumners.

18 Part of UX : USER

User experience (UX)

19 Actors Feldman and Haim : COREYS

Corey Haim was a Canadian actor and teen idol. His breakthrough role was in the 1987 film “The Lost Boys”, in which he starred alongside Corey Feldman. The pair appeared together in several films, earning them the nickname “the Two Coreys”. Haim had found success in Hollywood while he was still young, but he also discovered drugs at a very early age and was using by the time he was fifteen years old. Haim died when he was 38, in 2010.

23 Liberal arts college in Michigan : ALMA

Alma College in Alma, Michigan was founded by Michigan Presbyterians in 1886. The school has a Scottish heritage of which it is very proud. Alma has its own Scottish marching band, a Scottish dance troupe and even its own design of tartan.

29 General idea : TENOR

The purport or tenor of something is its general sense.

31 Company descended from the Rockefeller oil empire : EXXON

The Esso brand has its roots in the old Standard Oil company as it uses the initial letters of “Standard” and “Oil” (ESS-O). The Esso brand was replaced by Exxon in the US, but ESSO is still used in many other countries.

John D. Rockefeller was an American industrialist whose biggest success came with the Standard Oil Company that he founded and ran for over 25 years. Rockefeller became the richest man in the world, and America’s first billionaire.

44 Arthur of “Maude” : BEA

The seventies sitcom “Maude” stars Bea Arthur as the title character Maude Findlay. “Maude” is a spin-off of “All in the Family”, as Findlay is a cousin of Edith Bunker.

49 Test important to M.A. seekers : GRE

Passing the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

50 Some disposable razors : BICS

Société Bic is a company based in Clichy in France. The first product the company produced, more than fifty years ago, was the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen that is still produced today. Bic also makes other disposable products such as lighters and razors.

56 Supreme leader? : ROSS

Diana Ross is one of the most prolific recording artists in history. She sang with the Supremes from 1959 to 1970 and then launched an incredibly successful solo career. Ross was listed in the 1993 edition of “The Guinness Book of World Records” as the most successful music artist ever, with eighteen #1 records.

58 Many a retiree these days : BABY BOOMER

A baby boomer is someone who was born in the post-WWII baby boom. The rate of births had been falling fairly steadily in the US at least since 1900, but this trend was sharply reversed in 1946 after WWII. The higher birth rate continued until 1964, when it returned to pre-war levels. Since then the birth rate has continued to decline, although at a slower pace. The period between 1946 and 1964 is often defined as the “baby boom”.

60 Tech news website : CNET

CNET is an excellent technology website. It started out in 1994 as a television network specializing in technology news. The host of “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest, started off his career as host of a CNET show.

61 Popular choice for un antojito (“little craving”) : STREET TACO

Mexican street food is known as “antojitos” in Mexican Spanish, which translates as “little cravings”.

Down

1 Spanish province whose capital is Bilbao : BISCAY

Bilbao is a city in the Basque region of northern Spain. One of the most famous buildings in the city is the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, a spectacular structure standing on the banks of the Nervión river in the downtown area.

4 Where the Hangul writing system is used : KOREA

Hangul is the name given to the Korean alphabet and official writing system in South Korea. Hangul was personally created in the 15th century by King Sejong the Great in an effort to promote literacy among his people.

7 Office hookup, for short : LAN

You may have a Local Area Network (LAN) in your house. If you’ve got a PC and a router or switch, likely attached to some modem, then you have a LAN.

21 Eponym for a ship in a famous thought experiment : THESEUS

Ancient philosophers developed the thought experiment known as “The Ship of Theseus”. Legend has it that ancient Athenians transported the Ship of Theseus to Delos, where centuries of maintenance required the replacement of all the individual parts of the ship. Given that all the parts were replaced, one-by-one, did it remain the same ship?

25 Punish like Montresor does Fortunato in “The Cask of Amontillado” : ENTOMB

“The Cask of Amontillado” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe that was published in 1846. The story tells of a vengeful man who lures his enemy into the catacombs, locks him in chains and then traps him in a niche by sealing it with a brick wall. Nice man …

Amontillado is a variety of sherry produced in the Montilla region of Spain. The name “Amontillado” is sometimes used today as a generic name for any sherry that has a color between a fino (the palest and driest sherry) and an oloroso (darker and sweeter).

32 Gal of note : GADOT

Gal Gadot is an actress and former Miss Israel. She played Gisele Yashar in the “Fast & Furious” film franchise, and then began portraying Wonder Woman in superhero movies.

34 Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest : NEZ PERCE

The Nez Percé nation of the Pacific Northwest call themselves the Nimiipuu, meaning “The Real People”. The name “Nez Percé” means “pierced nose” in French (nez percé), a name applied in error to the Nimiipuu instead of the neighboring Chinook tribe, who did in fact practice nose-piercing.

36 Horses around? : CAROUSEL

The merry-go-round amusement park ride can be a little confusing as one travels the world. In North America, we tend to use the term “carousel” for the ride, whereas it’s a “roundabout” in Britain and Ireland, and a “hurdy-gurdy” in Australia. Yet another difference is the direction of rotation. Carousels typically rotate counterclockwise in North America, and roundabouts rotate clockwise in Britain and Ireland.

41 Precursor to precalculus : ALGEBRA

Algebra (alg.) is a branch of mathematics in which arithmetical operations are performed on variables rather than specific numbers (x,y etc). The term “algebra” comes from the Arabic “al jebr” meaning “reunion of broken parts”.

44 Fast-food classic : BIG MAC

The iconic Big Mac sandwich was introduced nationally by McDonald’s in 1967. It was the creation of a Pittsburgh franchisee who offered it on the menu as a response to the very similar “Big Boy” sandwich offered by the competing Big Boy restaurant chain.

46 Team whose Triple-A affiliate is called the Sugar Land Space Cowboys : ASTROS

The Houston baseball team changed its name to the Astros (sometimes “’Stros”) from the Colt .45s in 1965 when they started playing in the Astrodome. The Astrodome was so called in recognition of the city’s long association with the US space program. The Astros moved from the National League to the American League starting in the 2013 season.

48 Historic Milwaukee brewer : PABST

Frederick Pabst was a brewer from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area who had immigrated to the US from Prussia with his parents. Pabst bought himself into his father-in-law’s small brewery and over the years grew the enterprise into a public company. The most famous beer from Pabst is Pabst Blue Ribbon.

50 Local life : BIOTA

The biota of a region is the total collection of flora and fauna found there.

55 Noted fantasy series, for short : LOTR

“Lord of the Rings” (LOTR)