Tag: 20/20 e.g. crossword clue

Bill’s time: 12m 27s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A Conniption : FIT

A conniption, or more commonly a conniption fit, is a bout of violent anger or panic.

9A Cuban poet/philosopher José : MARTI

José Martí was a Cuban writer and political activist who became a symbol for his country’s movement to gain independence from Spain in the 1800s, earning him the nickname “Apostle of Cuban Independence”. Martí was killed in action in a battle against Spanish troops in 1895.

17A Mail-centric fiction? : EPISTOLARY NOVEL

Something described as epistolary relates to a letter or letters. The Latin “epistola” translates into English as “letter, message”.

18A Virginia is in it, in brief : ACC

The collegiate athletic conference known as the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) was founded in 1953. The seven charter members of the ACC were Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina and Wake Forest.

21A Former home of Mr. and Mrs. Met : SHEA

Mr. Met is the mascot of the New York Mets. He is a guy with a large baseball as a head. There’s also a Mrs. Met, a mascot who was previously known as Lady Met.

23A “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” spinoff : RHODA

The seventies sitcom “Rhoda” was a spinoff of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” that starred Valerie Harper. The eighth episode of the show was an hour-long special in which Rhoda married her fiance Joe (played by David Groh). At the time of airing it was the second-most watched television episode in history, second only to the 1953 birth of Little Ricky on “I Love Lucy”.

25A Spiller of tea : YENTA

“Yenta” (also “Yente”) is actually a female Yiddish name. In Yiddish theater “yenta” came to mean a busybody, a gossip.

To spill the tea is to divulge a secret, to share scandalous news. On the other hand, sipping the tea is to quietly absorb the drama without actively participating or contributing to the mess.

27A Smelling things? : SALTS

The active ingredient in smelling salts is usually ammonium carbonate, which releases ammonia gas when mixed with alcohol. When the activated salts are held under the nose, the ammonia irritates the mucous membranes causing an inhalation reflex action.

34A High concept? : CLOUD NINE

I don’t think that anyone is really certain of the etymology of the term “on cloud nine” meaning “elated”, but I do like the following explanation. The 1896 “International Cloud-Atlas” was a long-standing reference used to define cloud shapes that was based on a classification created by amateur meteorologist Luke Howard some decades earlier. The biggest and fluffiest of all cloud shapes (and most comfortable-looking to lie on) is cumulonimbus. And you guessed it, of the ten cloud shapes defined in the atlas, cumulonimbus was cloud nine …

35A They explain what’s in the cards : TAROT READINGS

Tarot cards originated in 15th-century Italy, not as a mystical tool, but as playing cards for a game similar to bridge. It wasn’t until the late 18th century that they became widely associated with divination, particularly after French occultists began publishing treatises on their symbolic meanings.

40A Infant discomfort : COLIC

Baby colic is a condition in which a baby cries for no apparent reason and for extended periods. At least one study has shown that breastfed babies are about half as likely to suffer from colic.

48A It has its highs and lows : TIDE

Tides on Earth are mainly caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and, to a lesser extent, the gravitational pull of the Sun. During the new moon and full moon, the Sun, Earth, and Moon are roughly aligned. Their gravitational forces combine, resulting in stronger tides called spring tides, which have higher high tides and lower low tides. During the first and third quarter moons (when we see a half moon), the Sun and Moon are at right angles relative to the Earth. This means their gravitational forces partially counteract each other, resulting in more moderate tides called neap tides. High tides are not as high, and low tides are not as low.

49A Rocky openings? : YOS

You might remember Rocky Balboa saying, “Yo, Adrian!” in the original “Rocky” movie. Adrian was Rocky’s wife, played by Talia Shire, sister of director Francis Ford Coppola.

50A Burrowing animal whose name is made up of two other animals : MOLE RAT

The naked mole-rat is an ugly-looking creature, I must say. Native to parts of East Africa, the naked mole-rat has very little hair and lives much of its life underground, hence its name. One reason that scientists are very interested in naked mole-rats is that they are exceedingly resistant to cancer. Discoveries made while studying the species led to the journal “Science” declaring the naked mole-rat “Vertebrate of the Year” for 2013.

56A Indiana Jones or Rocky Balboa, e.g. : ALL-AMERICAN HERO

The title character in the “Indiana Jones” series of movies was born Henry Jones, Junior in Princeton, New Jersey. He adopted the nickname “Indiana” because that was the name of his dog when he was growing up. George Lucas, who created the character, used to have an Alaskan malamute dog named Indiana.

If ever there was a movie that defined a career breakthrough for an actor, it would have to be “Rocky” for Sylvester Stallone. Stallone was a struggling actor in 1975 when a Muhammad Ali fight inspired Stallone to write a screenplay for a boxing movie, which he did in just three days. His efforts to sell the script went well but for the fact that the interested studios wanted a big name for the lead role, and Stallone was determined to be the star himself. Stallone persevered and “Rocky” was eventually made with him playing the title role of Rocky Balboa. The movie won three Oscars, and “Sly” Stallone had arrived …

59A The 22nd Amendment limits them : TERMS

Since the days of President George Washington, there was an informal tradition that a US President could hold office for two terms, but would not run for a third. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only president to break with this tradition. Roosevelt was elected US president four times, and died a few months after starting his fourth term. It was President Roosevelt’s decision to ignore the term limit tradition that led to the adoption of the Twenty-Second Amendment of the Constitution, which provides that “no person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice”.

Down

2D Reality show whose contestants report to the Judge’s Table : TOP CHEF

“Top Chef” is a reality television show on the Bravo channel. It’s basically a cooking competition.

7D State whose official fruit is the huckleberry : IDAHO

The name “huckleberry” is used in North America to describe several plants that bear small berries. The huckleberry was designated as the state fruit of both Montana and Idaho.

11D Hot pockets? : RAVIOLI

Ravioli (singular “raviolo”) are filled dumplings served in Italian cuisine.

13D Small sounds : INLETS

Ships might travel through a sound, which is an ocean inlet or a wide channel connecting two bodies of water.

15D One of 412 in the White House : DOOR

The White House was designed by an Irishman. James Hoban from County Kilkenny emigrated to the US in his twenties, and won the design competition for the White House in 1792.

16D Supermodel Banks : TYRA

Tyra Banks is a tremendously successful model and businesswoman. Banks created and hosted the hit show “America’s Next Top Model“, and also had her own talk show. She was also the first African American woman to make the cover of the “Sports Illustrated” swimsuit issue.

22D Took back one’s words : ATE CROW

The phrase “eat crow”, an alternative to “eat humble pie”, perhaps refers to the fact that cooked crow may be edible, but is not a great food choice.

27D Foe of Dr. Eggman, in video games : SONIC

Sonic the Hedgehog is a title character in a videogame and the mascot of Sega, the computer game developer. Sonic was set up as a rival to Nintendo’s mascot Mario.

35D Mideast salad, in one spelling : TABOULI

Tabouleh (also “tabouli”) is one of my favorite dishes. It is usually made from bulgur, tomato, cucumber, parsley, mint, onion, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. Just writing that list of ingredients gets my mouth watering …

36D Simon the Zealot, e.g. : APOSTLE

Simon the Zealot was one of the lesser known of the Apostles, not to be confused with Simon Peter, leader of the early Christian Church. There are suggestions that Simon the Zealot may be the same person as Simon, the brother of Jesus.

41D Stage-left orchestra section : CELLOS

The word “cello” (plural “celli” or “cellos”) is an abbreviation for “violoncello”, an Italian word for “little violone”, referring to a group of stringed instruments that were popular up to the end of the 17th century. The name violoncello persisted for the instrument that we know today, although the abbreviation “‘cello” was often used. Nowadays, we just drop the apostrophe.

43D Coccyx or phalange, e.g. : BONE

The human coccyx is what is left of a tail that our evolutionary ancestors possessed. We usually refer to the coccyx as the tailbone.

I always thought that the singular of “phalanges” was “phalanx”, but I guess “phalange” is used as well. A phalanx/phalange is a bone in a finger or toe.

45D Brown tint : SEPIA

Sepia is that rich, brown-gray color so common in old photographs. “Sepia” is the Latinized version of the Greek word for cuttlefish, as sepia pigment is derived from the ink sac of the cuttlefish. Sepia ink was commonly used for writing and drawing as far back as ancient Rome and ancient Greece. The “sepia tone” of old photographs is not the result of deterioration over time. Rather, it is the result of a deliberate preservation process which converts the metallic silver in the photographic image to a more stable silver sulfide. Prints that have been sepia-toned can last in excess of 150 years.

47D Art movement proclaimed in a 1916 manifesto : DADA

Dadaism thrived during and just after WWI, and was an anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-art culture. The movement was launched in Zurich, Switzerland by a group of artists and writers who met to discuss art and put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire. The same group frequently expressed disgust at the war that was raging across Europe.

50D May honorees : MOMS

Note the official punctuation in “Mother’s Day”, even though one might think it should be “Mothers’ Day”. President Wilson and Anna Jarvis, who created the tradition, specifically wanted Mother’s Day to honor the mothers within each family and not just “mothers” in general, so they went with the “Mother’s Day” punctuation.

55D 2011 platinum single by Tyler, the Creator : SHE

“Tyler, the Creator” is the stage name of rap singer Tyler Okonma.