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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Nickname for a Texas metropolis : BIG D

“Big D” is a nickname for the city of Dallas, Texas.

9 “Buy U A Drank” singer : T-PAIN

“T-Pain” is the stage name of rap artist Faheem Rasheed Najm from Tallahassee, Florida. He is known for his contributions to the popular use of Auto-Tune in his recordings, which gives his voice a robotic sound. He collaborated with an iPhone app developer to produce the app “I Am T-Pain” that allows users to mimic his particular style of Auto-Tune in karaoke.

15 Org. with the podcast “At Liberty” : ACLU

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

17 Alternative to the online newspaper, colloquially : DEAD-TREE EDITION

The hard-copy version of say a book is sometimes referred to as the “dead-tree” version.

20 Phrase that inspired the title of Prince Harry’s memoir : AN HEIR AND A SPARE

Harry, Duke of Sussex is the younger of the two sons of Charles and Diana, Prince and Princess of Wales. Famously, Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle in 2018. The groom’s name was Prince Henry of Wales until the marriage, at which time his name officially changed to “Prince Harry”. In January 2020, Harry and Meghan stepped back from their official duties.

21 Half of a rum-based cocktail’s name : MAI …

The mai tai cocktail is strongly associated with the Polynesian islands, but the drink was supposedly invented in 1944 in Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland, California. One recipe is 6 parts white rum, 3 parts orange curaçao, 3 parts orgeat syrup, 1 part rock candy syrup, 2 parts fresh lime juice, all mixed with ice and then a float added of 6 parts dark rum. “Maita’i” is the Tahitian word for “good”.

25 Athlete’s affliction, informally : THE YIPS

The informal term “yips” applies to the nervous twitching that can sometimes spoil a sportsman’s performance, especially a golfer’s putting stroke.

34 Filter acronym : HEPA

Air filters can be specified as “HEPA”, with the acronym standing for “high-efficiency particulate absorption”. To be given the name “HEPA”, the filter must remove 99.7% of particles with a size of 0.3 microns or larger.

39 Some carry-ons : VALISES

“Valise” is a French word meaning “suitcase”.

42 Pip’s love in “Great Expectations” : ESTELLA

The novel “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens is written in the first person through the eyes of the hero of the piece, a young orphan boy named Pip. Pip’s love interest is Estella Haversham, an orphan who was raised in a wealthy family.

43 Con : Spanish :: ___ : French : AVEC

In French, if it’s “pas sans” (not without), it’s “avec” (with).

45 Start of an apology : MEA …

Many Roman Catholics are very familiar with the Latin phrase “mea culpa” meaning “my fault”, as it is used in the Latin Mass. The additional term “mea maxima culpa” translates as “my most grievous fault”.

46 Half of an ill-fated 2001 merger : AOL

AOL’s “first” initial public offering was in 1992. Years later, the company was picked up by Time Warner (not a great investment for Time Warner, it turned out). AOL was spun off as a separate entity again in 2009 and the new company had a “second” IPO that same year.

49 Shell fish? : GAS STATION SUSHI

Royal Dutch Shell is the fourth largest company in the world in terms of revenue (Walmart is the largest) and is headquartered in the Hague, in the Netherlands. The company was formed in 1907 with the merger of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell Transport and Trading company of the UK. The two companies merged in order to compete globally with the biggest US oil company of the day, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. Shell Oil Company is a US-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell that is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

58 Sport used to train aerial gunners during W.W. II : SKEET

Skeet shooting is one of three types of competitive shotgun target shooting sports, along with trap shooting and sporting clays. The word “skeet” comes from the Scandinavian word “skot,” which means “to shoot.”

59 Saisons chaudes : ETES

In French, “été” (summer) is “la saison chaude” (the warm season).

Down

1 Word used when addressing Kamala Harris : MADAM

Kamala Harris was a US Senator for California starting in 2017, after serving for six years as the Attorney General of California. In early 2019, Harris announced her run for the Democratic nomination for US president in the 2020 election. Although she dropped out of the race, she was chosen by eventual nominee Joe Biden as his vice-presidential running mate. When the Biden-Harris ticket won the election, Harris became the first female US vice president, and the highest-ranking female politician in the history of the nation.

2 ___ Delle Donne, two-time W.N.B.A. M.V.P. : ELENA

Elena Delle Donne is a professional basketball player who was the second pick in the 2013 WNBA draft, and was drafted by the Chicago Sky. She was the first WNBA player to join the 50-40-90 club, an informal statistic used to rate shooters. The requirement is to achieve a 50% field goal percentage, a 40% three-point field goal percentage, and a 90% free throw percentage.

3 Beverage brand whose name translates to “morning sun” : ASAHI

Asahi is a Japanese beer, and the name of the brewery that produces it. “Asahi” is Japanese for “morning sun”. Asahi introduced a “dry beer” in 1987, igniting a craze that rocketed the brewery to the number one spot in terms of beer production in Japan, with Sapporo close behind.

5 Syd who co-founded Pink Floyd : BARRETT

Syd Barrett was the lead singer and a founding member of the English rock band Pink Floyd. Barrett was only active as a musician for just over ten years. He retired from the music scene in 1975 and spent the next 30 years living off Pink Floyd royalties until he passed away in 2006.

6 Cool-down stretches? : ICE AGES

Ice ages are periods in the Earth’s history when there are extensive ice sheets present in the northern and southern hemispheres. One might argue that we are still in an ice age that began 2.6 million years ago, as evidenced by the presence of ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica.

9 Game with a hands-down winner? : TWISTER

Twister is a game requiring a lot of physical dexterity and flexibility. It involves players placing specific hands and feet onto colored pads on a mat, as directed by a spinning arrow on a board. Sales of the game got a great boost in 1966, when Eva Gabor played Twister with Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show”.

11 Sarah McLachlan’s highest-charting U.S. single : ADIA

Sarah McLachlan is a singer/songwriter from Halifax, Nova Scotia who lives in Vancouver. In 1997, McLachlan married Ashwin Sood, the drummer in her band. The 1998 hit song “Adia”, which she co-wrote and recorded, was intended as an apology to her best friend … for stealing her ex-boyfriend and then marrying him!

12 Famed lab assistant : IGOR

In the world of movies, Igor has been the assistant to Dracula, Frankenstein and Young Frankenstein among others. Igor is almost invariably portrayed as a hunchback.

13 Frequent sighting on the island of Kauai : NENE

The nene is a bird that is native to Hawaii, and is also known as the Hawaiian goose. The name “nene” is an imitation of its call. When Captain Cook landed on the islands in 1778, there were 25,000 nene living there. By 1950, the number was reduced by hunting to just 30 birds. Conservation efforts in recent years have been somewhat successful. The nene was named State Bird of Hawaii in 1957.

Because the Hawaiian island of Kauai is one of the wettest places on earth, all the rainfall has helped to carve out magnificent canyons and left superb waterfalls. The island is often used as a backdrop for movies. The facilities at the island’s Lihue Airport reflect the pleasant climate enjoyed by the Hawaiian Islands. Check-in takes place completely outdoors!

18 Second-longest bone in the human body : 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.

The thigh bone, the femur, is the longest and strongest bone in the human body.

19 Russian country house : DACHA

Dachas are usually second homes in Russia and the former Soviet Union that are located outside the city limits in rural areas. Residents/tenants of dachas are often called “dachniks”.

26 Seine sights : ILES

There are two famous “îles” (islands) in the middle of the River Seine in Paris, one being the Île de la Cité, and the other Île Saint-Louis. Île de la Cité is the most renowned of the two, as it is home to the cathedral of Notre-Dame.

29 Something ending in “K,” perhaps : RACE

A 10K race is run over ten kilometers.

38 One way to prepare steak : TARTARE

Steak tartare was first served in French restaurants in the early 1900s. Back then, the dish went by the name “steak à l’Americaine”, would you believe? It was basically raw, seasoned beef mixed with egg yolk. A later version of l’Americaine, without the egg yolk and with tartar sauce served on the side, was dubbed “steak tartare”. Over time the two versions became one, and the steak tartare moniker won out. By the way, if you order steak tartare in Switzerland, I believe you are served horse meat. There are now similar “tartare” dishes made with raw salmon, or raw tuna.

39 “Beat it!” : VAMOOSE!

To vamoose is to to leave, coming from the Spanish “vamos” meaning “let’s go”.

49 Old Pontiacs : 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.

53 Risk territory between Ukraine and Siberia : URAL

Risk is a fabulous board game that was introduced in France in 1957. It was invented by a very successful French director of short films called Albert Lamorisse. Lamorisse called his new game “La Conquête du Monde”, which translates into English as “The Conquest of the World”. A game of Risk is a must during the holidays in our house …