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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Field of unknowns : 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”.

8A Lead role in the highest-grossing film of 1985 : MCFLY

Michael J. Fox was the first choice to play the lead character, Marty McFly, in 1985’s “Back to the Future”. Unfortunately, the producers of his TV sitcom “Family Ties” would not release him to make the movie, so the crew started filming with a different choice for the lead, namely actor Eric Stoltz. Weeks into production, it was decided that Stoltz was miscast, and Fox was approached again. An arrangement was made with the “Family Ties” producers to “share” Fox, which led to an exhausting schedule. Fox worked seven days a week, filming “Family Ties” during the day and working on “Back to the Future” at night, usually until 2:30 in the morning.

15A It “lies just halfway between rashness and cowardice,” per Miguel de Cervantes : VALOR

The full name of the author of “Don Quixote” was Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. As a young man in 1570, Cervantes was a soldier fighting for the Spanish Navy, stationed in Naples, at that time a possession of Spain. He was injured in battle, receiving three gunshot wounds including two to the chest. His injuries left him without the use of his left arm. After recuperating, he returned to active service, and in 1575 he was captured by Algerian corsairs, and spent the next five years in slavery in North Africa. His parents found him and bought his freedom, and brought him home to his native Madrid.

16A “Marvelous” TV character played by Rachel Brosnahan : MRS MAISEL

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is a comedy drama TV show set in the late fifties and early sixties. The title character, played by Rachel Brosnahan, is a New York housewife who opts for a career as a standup comedian.

Actress Rachel Brosnahan is best known for playing the title character in the comedy drama “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”. Prior to that success, she had a recurring role playing sex worker Rachel Posner in the political thriller “House of Cards”.

23A Cousin of a springbok : ELAND

The eland (plural “eland, elands”) is a large African antelope, in fact the largest antelope on the planet. Both male and female eland have horns, and those horns have a steady spiral ridge along their length.

Springboks are brown and white gazelles native to southwestern Africa. The name “springbok” comes from the Afrikaans for “jump goat”.

24A Outdoor apparel company with mountains in its logo : PATAGONIA

Headquartered in Ventura, California, Patagonia is an outdoor clothing retailer that was founded in 1973 as Great Pacific Iron Works.

Patagonia is a very sparsely populated region at the very southern tip of South America that is divided administratively between Chile and Argentina. The area is named for the Patagons, a race of giant humans that were rumored to live there.

27A Vulcans, for one : ALIEN RACE

Vulcans are an alien race in the “Star Trek” franchise. The most famous (half-)Vulcan is Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy. Spock’s father is a Vulcan, and his mother is human.

28A Christmas carol contraction : ‘TIS

The music for the Christmas song “Deck the Halls” is a traditional Welsh tune that dates back to the 16th century. The same tune was used by Mozart for a violin and piano duet. The lyrics with which we are familiar (other than the “fa-la-la”) are American in origin, and were recorded in the 19th century.

“’Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la la la la la!”

29A Actress Lily of “Killers of the Flower Moon” : GLADSTONE

Actress Lily Gladstone made history as the first Native American to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Martin Scorsese’s 2023 film “Killers of the Flower Moon”. Apparently, her inspiration to become an actress came at the tender age of five, after watching “Return of the Jedi” and wanting to portray an Ewok!

“Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” is a 2017 book about the Osage murders written by journalist David Grann. The victims of the killing spree were wealthy Osage people who owned land beneath which were lucrative oil deposits. After an investigation by the newly formed FBI, cattle rancher and crime boss William King Hale was found guilty of masterminding the scheme. Martin Scorsese adapted the book into the hit 2023 film “Killers of the flower Moon”.

31A Get a Lyft, say : RIDESHARE

Lyft was founded in 2012 as a ride-sharing service in San Francisco, California. The company’s original name was “Zimride” and it was focused on long-distance ride-sharing. One of Lyft’s early marketing campaigns involved drivers attaching furry, pink mustaches on the front of their vehicles. The company walked back that idea in 2015 as some riders objected to arriving at formal events in a car with a giant mustache on display.

36A Henry ___, founder of Time, Life and Sports Illustrated : LUCE

Henry Luce was a publisher, mainly of magazines. He was responsible for launching such iconic publications as “Time”, “Life”, “Fortune” and “Sports Illustrated”.

40A Org. offering jumps : AAA

On most cars using a 12V battery, the recommended sequence of connections used when jump-starting is:

1. Dead battery positive terminal … to good battery positive terminal
2. Good battery negative terminal … to bare metal on the dead car, as far away from the battery as possible.

The final connection is made to bare metal (like an engine mounting bolt) because such parts are connected to the negative terminal of the dead battery. The final connection is made away from the battery so that any spark created is less likely to ignite the explosive hydrogen gas that might be emitted by a battery.

41A Vittorio who directed “Bicycle Thieves” : DE SICA

Vittoria De Sica was an Italian director and actor. De Sica was director of the film “The Bicycle Thief”, released in 1948. Many deem “The Bicycle Thief” to be the greatest movie ever made.

48A Stopped vacillating : OPTED

To vacillate is to be indecisive, to waver. The verb “to vacillate” comes from the Latin “vacillare” meaning “to sway to and fro”.

49A 7-Eleven and Circle K, informally : C-STORES

Convenience store (C-store)

The first precursor to the 7-Eleven store opened in Dallas, Texas in 1927. The stores were so named (much later, in 1946) because they were open longer than other stores, from 7am to 11pm.

Down

2D Legendary rock singer? : LORELEI

Lorelei is the name of a legendary mermaid or nymph who lured fishermen by singing a beautiful song. Lorelei’s aim was to have the fishermen steer their boats onto rocks lurking beneath the water’s surface.

4D Halley of Halley’s comet : EDMOND

Edmond Halley was an English astronomer who lived at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1705 he declared that comet sightings recorded in 1456, 1531, 1607 and 1682 were in fact observations of the same comet returning to fly by Earth at regular intervals. He predicted that this comet would return in 1758. Hally was right, and so the comet was named after him. Sadly, Halley didn’t live long enough to see that his prediction came true.

5D Cornrow, e.g. : BRAID

The traditional braids known as “cornrows” can also be called “crows”, which is a shortened version of the original term. The style was imported into the US from Africa.

7D Mount for Quixote’s squire : ASS

The full name of Cervantes’s novel is “The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha”. In the story, Don Quixote is a retired country gentleman who heads out as a knight-errant and who renames himself Don Quixote of La Mancha. In his mind he designates a neighboring farm girl called Aldonza Lorenzo as his lady love, and renames her Dulcinea del Toboso.

8D Award won four times in the W.N.B.A. by A’ja Wilson : MVP

Professional basketball player A’ja Wilson was the first pick in the 2018 WNBA draft, after which she signed for the Las Vegas Aces. She won Olympic Gold at the 2020 Olympics, and captained the Aces in 2022 when the team won their first league championship title.

10D Walk with exaggerated motions : FLOUNCE

A flounce is a strip of fabric that has been gathered to create the appearance of fullness, like a wide ruffle. Flounces are usually sewn onto the edge of skirts.

11D ___ Johnson, inventor of the Super Soaker : LONNIE

The Super Soaker brand of water gun first went on sale in toy shops in 1989. Since then, over a billion dollars worth of Super Soakers have been sold.

12D California town thought (incorrectly) to be named from a backward “bakery” sign : YREKA

The California city of Yreka developed from a miners’ camp called Thompson’s Dry Diggings. “Yreka” derives from the name for Mount Shasta (wáik’a) in the Shasta language, which translates as “North Mountain” or “White Mountain”. There is, however, a story related by Mark Twain that the name “Yreka” comes from the word “bakery”. Back when the area was a mining boomtown, a baker was preparing a canvas sign with the word “BAKERY”. Leaving it out to dry, all but the B could be seen through the canvas. This reversed “-AKERY” was read by a stranger, and he presumed that the sign gave the name of the camp, and read it as “YREKA”. The name stuck. Well, that’s Mark Twain’s story …

24D Protects oneself, possum-style : PLAYS DEAD

The idiom “playing possum” means “pretending to be dead”. The phrase is used in recognition of the behavior of the Virginia Opossum that does just that, plays dead as a defense mechanism. We often use the term “possum” colloquially for the opossum species that live here in North America, but in fact, the true “possums” are marsupials native to Australia.

27D Home of Banff National Park : ALBERTA

Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada is located high in the Canadian Rockies and is a popular tourist destination. The town of Banff and the surrounding park were given their name in 1884 by then president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, George Stephen. He named Banff for his birthplace of Banffshire in Scotland.

29D Wonder Woman portrayer : GADOT

Before becoming a Hollywood star, Gal Gadot served two years of mandatory military service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as a combat fitness instructor. She has shared that her military training helped prepare her for the physical demands of her action roles. Gadot also won the Miss Israel pageant in 2004 and represented her country in the Miss Universe competition that same year.

“Wonder Woman” is a 2017 film starring Gal Gadot as the superhero title character. It is listed by many as one of the best superhero movies of all time. Gadot had played Wonder Woman before, in the 2016 film “Batman v Superman”.

30D Brouhaha : BIG SCENE

“Brouhaha”, meaning “ado, stir”, was a French word that back in the 1550s meant “the cry of the devil disguised as clergy” . Wow!

31D “Welsh” dish with melted cheese : RAREBIT

Welsh rarebit is a delicious dish made using a cheese-flavored sauce served over toast. It may be that the name Welsh rarebit was originally a bit of an insult to the folks in Wales. The dish was called Welsh “rabbit” back in the 1700s. In those days, rabbit was the poor man’s meat, and the implication of the dish’s name is that in Wales cheese was the poor man’s rabbit.

32D Cuban container : HUMIDOR

A humidor is a box or room that has a controlled environment optimized for the storage of cigars, cigarettes and pipe tobacco. The main factor to be controlled is “humidity”, hence the storage area is called a “humidor”.

34D Colorful shawls : SERAPES

“Serape” is the English pronunciation and spelling of the Spanish word “zarape”. A zarape is like a Mexican poncho, a soft woolen blanket with a hole in the middle for the head. Most serapes have colorful designs that use traditional Mayan motifs.

37D Grain with a nutty flavor : FARRO

Farro is an ancient grain that is often used as an alternative to rice in dishes like risotto, thanks to its nutty taste and chewy texture. The term “farro” can refer to three different species of wheat: einkorn, emmer, and spelt. Emmer is often considered “true” farro and is the most common variety cultivated in Italy.

41D Netflix offerings until 2023 : DVDS

Netflix was founded in Los Gatos, California in 1997 as a DVD rental company that sent out titles by mail. The company delivered its billionth DVD in 2007. I presume the renter wasn’t charged for that movie …