Category: Will Nediger

Bill’s time: 16m 26s

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 British dandy : TOFF

“Toff” is a disparaging British term that is used for a well-dressed gentleman of the upper class.

5 Dennis the Menace types : PESTS

“Dennis the Menace” is a comic strip that first appeared in 1951, and was originally drawn by Hank Ketcham. The strip made the jump over the years from the newspaper to television and the silver screen. Dennis’s full name is Dennis Mitchell, and his parents are Henry and Alice (Johnson) Mitchell. Dennis’s nemesis is his neighbor, Mister George Everett Wilson. Hank Ketcham drew his inspiration for the story from his real life. When he introduced the strip he had a 4-year-old son called Dennis, and a wife named Alice.

14 The “A” in STEAM, for educators : ARTS

The acronym “STEM” stands for the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. An alternative acronym with a similar meaning is MINT, standing for mathematics, information sciences, natural sciences and technology. The acronym STEAM adds (liberal) arts to the STEM curriculum.

18 Maker of the Aspire laptop : ACER

Acer’s Aspire line is a series of personal computers, both desktops and laptops, that were introduced in 1999.

19 Pain relief brand : ALEVE

“Aleve” is a brand name used for the anti-inflammatory drug Naproxen sodium.

23 Slow-driving holiday parade in December? : CHRISTMAS CARROLL (from “Christmas carol”)

The word “carol” came into English via the Old French word “carole”, which was a “dance in a ring”. When “carol” made it into English, about 1300 AD, the term was used to describe a dance as well as a joyful song. Around 1500 AD, carols that were sung came to be associated with Christmas.

27 Musical piece like Smetana’s “Vltava” : TONE POEM

Franz Liszt was the original creator of the single-movement work known as a symphonic or tone poem. A symphonic poem is a musical piece usually based on another work, perhaps a play, story or poem. Liszt wrote the tone poem “Hamlet” in 1858, which was intended to be an introduction to Shakespeare’s play.

31 Onetime Yves Saint Laurent employer : DIOR

Fashion designer Christian Dior showed off his first collection in 1947, to great acclaim. The editor-in-chief of “Harper’s Bazaar” remarked, “it’s such a new look!” as there was a clear contrast with the austere designs that dominated the war years. The remark resulted in the collection being labeled forever as the “New Look”.

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) was an Algerian-born French fashion designer. Saint Laurent started off working as an assistant to Christian Dior at the age of 17. Dior died just four years later, and as a very young man Saint-Laurent was named head of the House of Dior. However, in 1950 Saint Laurent was conscripted into the French Army and ended up in a military hospital after suffering a mental breakdown from the hazing inflicted on him by his fellow soldiers. His treatment included electroshock therapy and administration of sedatives and psychoactive drugs. He was released from hospital, managed to pull his life back together and started his own fashion house. A remarkable story …

37 Update Wikipedia after the 2012 election? : ADD MITT’S DEFEAT (from “admits defeat”)

Mitt Romney was born Willard Mitt Romney in 1947 in Detroit, Michigan. Romney’s parents named him after J. Willard Marriott (the hotel magnate) who was the father’s best friend, and after Milton “Mitt” Romney who was the father’s cousin and quarterback for the Chicago Bears.

41 Yiddish for “pancake” : LATKE

A latke is a delicious potato pancake (I’m Irish, so anything made with potatoes is delicious, to be fair).

47 Brand of “old-fashioned” root beer : DAD’S

Dad’s root beer was developed by Ely Klapman and Barney Berns in 1937, and was given the name “Dad’s” in honor of Klapman’s father who used to make root beer for his family at home.

52 Subject of study for an insect psychologist? : BEE ATTITUDES (from “Beatitudes”)

The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of teachings of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. One famous section of the discourse is known as the Beatitudes. The eight Beatitudes are:

• … Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
• … Blessed are those who mourn: for they will be comforted
• … Blessed are the meek: for they will inherit the earth
• … Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they will be filled
• … Blessed are the merciful: for they will be shown mercy
• … Blessed are the pure in heart: for they will see God
• … Blessed are the peacemakers: for they will be called children of God
• … Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

57 Communication method that may be written with Stokoe notation, in brief : ASL

American Sign Language (ASL)

58 Investigative journalist Farrow : RONAN

Ronan Farrow is a former US government advisor in the Obama administration who hosted “Ronan Farrow Daily” on MSNBC from 2014 to 1025. He is the son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen. Ronan is estranged from his father, ever since Allen started a relationship with Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, who is now Allen’s wife.

59 Heroes that don’t wear capes : SUBS

A hero is a submarine sandwich. It originated in New York City in the 1800s among Italian immigrants who wanted an Italian sandwich that reminded them of home. The name “hero” was coined in the 1930s, supposedly by a food critic in the “New York Herald Tribune” when he wrote that “one had to be a hero” to finish the gigantic sandwich. Hero is a prevalent term to this day in New York City, reserved for a submarine sandwich with an Italian flavor.

61 Trademarked refrigerant : FREON

Freon is a DuPont trade name for a group of compounds used as a refrigerant and as a propellant in aerosols. Freon is used in the compressors of air conditioners as a vital component in the air-cooling mechanism. Freon used to contain chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which had a devastating effect on the Earth’s ozone layer. Use of CFCs is now banned, or at least severely restricted.

72 Holi powder : DYE

Holi is a Hindu festival, one celebrated in spring, that is also known as the Festival of Colours.

76 Promise from actor Damon’s friends regarding his movie premiere? : WE’LL COME, MATT (from “welcome mat”)

Matt Damon is an actor and screenwriter from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Damon’s big break came with the 1997 movie “Good Will Hunting”, in which he starred. He co-wrote the screenplay with his childhood friend Ben Affleck.

79 “To Sontag, to Sondheim, to anything taboo” musical : RENT

The musical “Rent” by Jonathan Larson is based on the Puccini opera “La bohème”. “Rent” tells the story of struggling artists and musicians living in the Lower East Side of New York, and is set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic. We saw “Rent” on Broadway quite a few years ago, and were very disappointed …

80 Ceramic stewpot : OLLA

An olla is a traditional clay pot used for the making of stews. “Olla” was the Latin word used in ancient Rome to describe a similar type of pot.

82 Philosophy influenced by the “I Ching” : TAOISM

“I Ching” is an ancient Chinese text dating back to the 2nd millennium BC. The text deals with aspects of cosmology and divination, and perhaps served as a guide for making predictions of the future. The statements in the “I Ching” consist of 64 hexagrams, sets of six lines composed in horizontal stacks.

86 Corn ___ : PONE

“Pone” is another name for corn bread, and comes from the Powhatan term “apan” meaning “something baked”.

96 Busy locale in December : MALL

Surprisingly (to me!), our word “mall”, meaning “shady walk” or “enclosed shopping space”, comes from the Italian for “mallet”. All of our shopping-style malls are named for “The Mall” in St. James’s Park in London. This tree-lined promenade was so called as it used to be a famous spot to play the croquet-like game called “pall-mall”. The game derived its name from the Italian for ball (palla) and mallet “maglio”. The London thoroughfare called the Mall still exists, at one end of which is Buckingham Palace. Indeed, parallel to the Mall is a street called Pall Mall.

97 Leah who wrote “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology” : REMINI

Leah Remini is an actress and comedian who is best known for playing Carrie Heffernan on the sitcom “The King of Queens”. More recently, in 2013, Remini competed on “Dancing with the Stars”. After that, Remini appeared as a guest co-host on the show several times. Famously, Remini was a member of the Church of Scientology, and left the organization in 2013. Since leaving, Remini has been very vocal in her criticism of the practices and policies of the church.

99 Some holiday tree decorations : GARLANDS

The custom of decorating trees at Christmas seems to have originated in Renaissance Germany. Those first trees were placed in guildhalls and were decorated with sweets and candy for the apprentices and children. After the Protestant Reformation, the Christmas tree became an alternative in Protestant homes for the Roman Catholic Christmas cribs. The Christmas tree tradition was imported into Britain by the royal family because of its German heritage. That tradition spread from Britain into North America.

110 Russian pancakes : BLINI

A blintz (also “blintze” and “blin”, plural “blini”) is a thin pancake similar to a crêpe, although unlike a crêpe, a blintz may contain yeast.

111 Disney’s Queen of Arendelle : ELSA

“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”. The film is all about the exploits of Princess Anna, the younger sister of Elsa, Snow Queen of Arendelle. Spoiler alert: Prince Hans of the Southern Isles seems to be a good guy for most of the film, but turns out to be a baddie in the end. And, a snowman named Olaf provides some comic relief.

112 Pontiac muscle cars : GTOS

The Pontiac GTO was produced by GM from 1964 to 1974, and again by a GM subsidiary in Australia from 2004 to 2006. The original GTO’s design is credited to Pontiac chief engineer at the time John DeLorean, who later founded the DeLorean Motor Company.

Down

3 Plant with no flowers or seeds : FERN

Ferns are unlike mosses in that they have xylem and phloem, making them vascular plants. They also have stems, leaves and roots, but they do not have seeds and flowers, and reproduce using spores. Spores differ from seeds in that they have very little stored food.

4 Southern dish often made with buttermilk and cornmeal : FRIED OKRA

The plant known as okra is mainly grown for its edible green pods. The pods are said to resemble “ladies’ fingers”, which is an alternative name for the plant. Okra is known as “ngombo” in Bantu, a name that might give us the word “gumbo”, the name for the name of the southern Louisiana stew that includes okra as a key ingredient.

5 Tuchus : PATOOT

Back in the 1920s, the term “patootie” was used for a sweetheart, a very pretty girl. Somehow, the term has evolved into slang for the posterior, rear end.

6 Film composer Bernstein : ELMER

Film composer Elmer Bernstein was not related to the famous classical composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, although the two were friends.

9 Jiffy : SEC

“Jiff”, or “jiffy”, meaning “short time, instant” is thought originally to be thieves’ slang for “lightning”.

10 Ancient Italian region : ETRURIA

Etruria was a region in Central Italy, home to the Etruscans. Etruscan society was at its height about 650 BC.

12 Some business news topics, for short : IPOS

An initial public offering (IPO) is the very first offer of stock for sale by a company on the open market. In other words, an IPO marks the first time that a company is traded on a public exchange. Companies have an IPO to raise capital to expand (usually).

13 What’s still in cartoons? : CEL

In the world of animation, a cel is a transparent sheet on which objects and characters are drawn. In the first half of the 20th century the sheet was actually made of celluloid, giving the “cel” its name.

16 Mount Rainier’s ___ Glacier : TAHOMA

Mount Rainier is an active volcano in the state of Washington in the Cascade Mountain Range. Native Americans first called the peak “Tacoma” and “Tahoma” meaning “mother of waters”. When Captain George Vancouver discovered Puget Sound in 1792, he named the peak in honor of his friend Rear Admiral Peter Rainier. There have been movements to change the name back to Tacoma, but these seem to have “petered” out (pun!).

17 Small piano : SPINET

“Spinet” is the name given to a smaller version of keyboard instruments, such as a small harpsichord, piano or organ. Spinets are still made today, as cheaper versions of full-size instruments.

25 First of all : ADAM

According to the Bible, God created Adam from “the dust of the ground”. Eve was created as Adam’s companion, from Adam’s rib.

34 Soft white mineral : ALABASTER

Alabaster is the name given to two, distinct materials. In general, in the days of yore, alabaster was the name given to calcite, a mineral made from calcium carbonate. In more recent times, alabaster is the name given to a form of gypsum, a hydrous sulfate of calcium.

36 Duo inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 : STEELY DAN

Steely Dan’s heyday was in the seventies when they toured for a couple of years, although the group mainly focused on studio work. The band was formed in 1972 and broke up in 1981. The core of the band reunited in 1993, and is still performing today despite the passing of founding member Walter Becker in 2017. Steely Dan’s best-selling album is “Aja” (pronounced like “Asia”), which was released in 1977.

37 Aggravation : AGITA

“Agita” is another name for “acid indigestion”, and more generally for “agitation, anxiety”.

38 Grab a midday meal with someone : DO LUNCH

“Lunch” is an abbreviated form of “luncheon”, but the exact etymology of “luncheon” seems unclear. That said, back in the 1650s, a luncheon was a light snack eaten between regular mealtimes, as opposed to a regular midday repast.

40 Heads or tails : SIDE

The two sides of a coin are known as the “obverse” and the “reverse”. The obverse is commonly referred to as “heads”, as it often depicts someone’s head. The reverse is commonly called “tails”, as it is the opposite of “heads”.

45 Berkshire school since 1440 : ETON

Eton College near Windsor in the south of England was founded way back in 1440 by King Henry VI. Originally known as “The King’s College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor”, the school was intended to provide free education to poor boys. Free education today at Eton? Not so much …

Berkshire is a county in England that is referred to as one of the “home counties”. The home counties are those that surround the city of London, outside of London itself. “Home county” is not an official designation but has been in popular use since the 1800s. The list of home counties usually comprises Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex.

46 Western settlement area led by Brigham Young : DESERET

When Mormon pioneers were settling what is today the state of Utah, they referred to the area as Deseret, a word that means “beehive” according to the Book of Mormon. Today Utah is known as the Beehive State and there is a beehive symbol on the Utah state flag. In 1959, “Industry” was even chosen as the state motto, for the term’s association with the beehive.

51 Bowling alley device : PINSETTER

A pinsetter is a mechanical device that puts bowling pins into position, returns balls, and clears fallen pins. Prior to the invention of the pinsetting machine, young men known as pinboys used to reset the pins by hand.

53 Swimming/cycling/running competitions, informally : TRIS

An Ironman Triathlon is a race involving a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon run of just over 26 miles. The idea for the race came out of a debate between some runners in the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay. They were questioning whether runners, swimmers or bikers were the most fit athletes. The debaters decided to combine three local events to determine the answer, inviting athletes from all three disciplines. The events that were mimicked in the first triathlon were the Waikiki Roughwater swim (2.4 miles), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles). The idea was that whoever finishes first would be called “the Iron Man”. The first triathlon was run in 1978, with fifteen starters and only twelve finishers. The race format is used all over the world now, but the Hawaiian Ironman is the event that everyone wants to win.

54 Zero-___ game : SUM

A zero-sum game is one in which the gains of the winner are exactly offset by the losses of the loser. There is no net gain. So by definition, a win-win situation cannot be arrived at in a zero-sum game.

67 Two-time Olympic gold medalist in soccer : HAMM

Mia Hamm is a retired American soccer player. She played as a forward on the US national team that won the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991. Hamm scored 158 international goals, which was more than any other player in the world, male or female, until the record was broken in 2013. Amazingly, Hamm was born with a clubfoot, and so had to wear corrective shoes when she was growing up.

69 Flagella relatives : CILIA

“Cilia” (singular “cilium”) is Latin for “eyelashes”.

75 77-Down’s color : BLUE

77 75-Down gemstone : LAPIS

Lapis lazuli is a blue, semi-precious stone mined mainly in Afghanistan. “Lapis Lazuli” is Latin for “stone of Lazhward”, referring to the Persian name for the location where the stone was mined. Our word “azure”, a shade of blue, has the same root.

81 Charlotte Corday, to Jean-Paul Marat : ASSASSIN

Jean-Paul Marat was a prominent figure in the French Revolution. Marat was famously murdered in his bath by a young woman named Charlotte Corday, who was a Royalist. The gruesome event was immortalized in a celebrated painting by Jacques-Louis David called “The Death of Marat”.

90 Italian-style cheese : ROMANO

“Romano” is actually an American term, and is used for a selection of hard and salty cheeses that are typically grated. One of these cheeses is the Italian Pecorino Romano, from which we get the more generic term “Romano”.

91 Strong strings : TWINES

Our word “twine”, meaning “light string”, has the same root as our word “twin”. The original Old English “twin” was a double thread.

92 Adjust the spacing between, in typography : KERN

Some fonts allow the adjustment of the spacing between individual letters. The process of adjusting that spacing evenly over all letters is called tracking. The process of adjusting the spacing individually between letters is called kerning.

93 Like a deserved comeuppance : KARMIC

Karma is a religious concept with its basis in Indian faiths. Karma embraces the notion of cause and effect. Good deeds have good consequences at some later point in one’s life, one’s future life, or one’s afterlife. And, bad deeds have bad consequences.

96 Soprano Nixon : MARNI

Soprano Marni Nixon’s claim to fame is as a playback singer, someone who provides the singing voice for actresses in starring roles in musicals. Among her list of movie roles is the singing voice of Deborah Kerr in “The King and I” (1956) and “An Affair to Remember” (1957), Natalie Wood in “West Side Story” (1961), and Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady” (1964). She did appear on screen as well, acting and singing as Sister Sophia in “The Sound of Music” (1965).

99 Pass the threshold : GO IN

Years ago I was taking a tour of a beautiful Elizabethan manor house in England, and was told a little “threshing” story by the guide as we stood in one of the rooms. She reminded us that threshing was the removal of seeds from chaff, and told us that back in the day the “chaff” was sometimes called the “thresh”. Thresh would be used on the floors, particularly in the kitchen areas where it would soak up spills and provide some thermal insulation, much as sawdust was used in my favorite pubs many moons ago. She pointed to two slots at the bottom of the door jambs where she said a low board was placed upright on the floor, to “hold” the “thresh” in the room. The board was called a “thresh-hold”, giving us our contemporary word “threshold”. I am not sure if all of that is really true, but it makes a nice story …

100 Memphis’s river : NILE

Memphis was an ancient city on the River Nile. The ruins of Memphis are located just south of Cairo, Egypt. It was a magnificent city that eventually failed due to the economic success of the city of Alexandria, which was located further down the river and right on the Mediterranean coast.

102 Onesie closure : SNAP

A onesie is a baby’s one-piece bodysuit, and is a common gift at a baby shower.

105 Plan for the future, in brief? : IRA

According to the IRS, the initialism IRA stands for “Individual Retirement Arrangement”. However, most folks refer to IRAs as “Individual Retirement Accounts”.

106 “America’s Got Talent” network : NBC

NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” is part of a global franchise based in the UK. The original show is called “Britain’s Got Talent”, and the whole franchise is owned by Simon Cowell. The first host of “America’s Got Talent” was Regis Philbin (2006), followed by Jerry Springer, Nick Cannon, Tyra Banks and Terry Crews.

107 Do the Wright thing? : FLY

The Wright Flyer was the first heavier-than-air powered aircraft. It was used by the Wright Brothers to make the series of famous flights in 1903 at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina. As a result, the Wright Flyer appears on North Carolina’s state quarter. The same plane also appears on Ohio’s state quarter, as the brothers developed and built the Wright Flyer in Dayton, Ohio.