Tag: Abode that’s abuzz crossword clue

Bill’s time: 21m 43s

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14A One of music’s Three B’s : BACH

The “Three Bs” of western classical music are Johannes Brahms, Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Johann Sebastian Bach died when he was 65-years-old, in 1750. He was buried in Old St. John’s Cemetery in Leipzig, and his grave went unmarked until 1894. At that time his coffin was located, removed and buried in a vault within the church. The church was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid during WWII, and so after the war the remains had to be recovered and taken to the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig.

20A Island with ferries to Ibiza : MINORCA

The Balearic Islands (“Baleares” in Spanish) form an archipelago in the western Mediterranean of the east coast of Spain. The Balearics are made up of four main islands: Ibiza and Formentera (aka “the Pine Islands”), and Majorca and Minorca.

25A Hrs. for Augusta in August : EDT

As well as being the easternmost state capital, Augusta, Maine is the third smallest, with a population of under 20,000. The least populous state capitals are Montpelier, Vermont (~7,000) and Pierre, South Dakota (~14,000).

26A “___ Q” (1968 hit) : SUZIE

The song “Susie Q” was written by, and originally released by, Dale Hawkins in 1957. It was covered by Creedence Clearwater Revival (as “Suzie Q”) in 1968.

35A First non-English-language film to win Best Picture : PARASITE

“Parasite” is a 2019 comedy thriller movie from South Korea that became the nation’s highest-grossing film of all time. It was also the first movie not filmed in English to win the Oscar for Best Picture. I haven’t seen “Paradise” yet, but I hear great things from friends and family who have …

40A Annual gala locale, with “the” : … MET

The Costume Institute Gala is an annual fundraising event that benefits the Anna Wintour Costume Center in New York City’s Museum of Modern Art. The fundraiser is commonly referred to as the “Met Gala” or “Met Ball”, and was established in 1948.

41A Meat sauce in Italian cooking : RAGU

Bolognese is a meat-based sauce originating from Bologna in Italy, hence the name. The recipe is usually referred to as “ragù alla bolognese” in Italian, or simply “ragù”. Note that the Ragú brand of sauces introduced in North America in 1937 takes its name from the same source (pun … sauce!). However, the brand name uses the wrong accent (“Ragú” instead of “Ragù”), which drives a pedant like me crazy ..

42A Go-getter sorts : TYPE-AS

The Type-A and Type-B personality theory originated in the fifties. Back then, individuals were labeled as Type A in order to emphasize a perceived increased risk of heart disease. Type-A personality types are so-called “stress junkies”, whereas Type Bs are relaxed and laid back. But there doesn’t seem to be much scientific evidence to support the linkage between the Type-A personality and heart problems.

45A View from the Quai d’Orsay : SEINE

The Quai d’Orsay in Paris is a quay and street along the left bank of the River Seine. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is located there, and the French commonly use “Quai d’Orsay” as a nickname for the Ministry.

47A Character with a Jamaican accent in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” : SEBASTIAN

“The Little Mermaid” is a 1989 animated feature from Disney that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. It tells the story of a mermaid princess named Ariel who falls in love with the human Prince Eric. Ariel’s father is chief merman King Triton. Her best friend is Flounder, who despite his name is not a flounder at all and is actually a tropical fish. Ariel is also friends with Sebastian, a red Jamaican crab whose full name is Horatio Thelonious Ignacious Crustaceous Sebastian.

54A Threads, e.g. : APP

Threads is a social networking platform that Meta launched in 2023. It is similar to Twitter (now “X”) in look and feel, and is closely linked to Meta’s photo and video-sharing platform Instagram.

59A Units on a multimeter : OHMS

A multimeter is a device used to measure multiple, basic electrical properties. These are mainly voltage, resistance and current, in which case the device acts as a voltmeter, ohmmeter and ammeter respectively.

60A Seasoning preference when eating Maryland blue crab? : EXTRA OLD BAY (extra bold)

Old Bay Seasoning is a blend of herbs and spices that is named for the Old Bay Line, a passenger ship that sailed in Chesapeake Bay between Baltimore, Maryland and Norfolk, Virginia. Created in 1939, the blend was originally named “Delicious Brand Shrimp and Crab Seasoning”.

A live blue crab gets its color from pigments in the shell, which predominantly result in a blue color. When a crab is cooked, all the pigments break down except for astaxanthin, a red pigment, which is why a crab turns up at the dinner table looking very red. The blue crab was declared the Maryland state crustacean in 1989.

65A The lion in summer? : LEO

Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 23 to August 22 are Leos.

67A Humorous ending with hater : -ADE

An extremely negative person might be described as having drunk the “haterade”, a play on the beverage name “Gatorade”.

68A Sephora competitor : ULTA

Ulta Beauty is an American chain of beauty stores that was founded in 1990 and headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. I am not part of the company’s target demographic …

Sephora is a French chain of cosmetic stores, founded in 1969. The name “Sephora” is derived from the Greek for “beauty” (“sephos”). We’ve been able to visit Sephora outlets in JCPenney stores since 2006.

70A Two-pound tomahawk steak, for instance? : JUMBO ENTREE (jumbotron)

A Jumbotron is a big-screen television system that is often seen in sports stadiums. The brand name “JumboTron” was introduced by Sony in 1985. “Jumbotron” is used pretty generically now for any big-screen system in such venues as Sony exited the business in 2001.

74A Underwater respirator : GILL

A fish’s gills are the organs equivalent to the lungs of many land animals. The gills can extract oxygen dissolved in water and excrete carbon dioxide.

77A Prescriptions, for short : RXS

There seems to be some uncertainty about the origin of the symbol “Rx” that’s used for a medical prescription. One explanation is that it comes from the astrological sign for Jupiter, a symbol put on prescriptions in days of old to invoke Jupiter’s blessing to help a patient recover.

85A Casual shoe : LOAFER

The loafer slip-on shoe dates back to 1939. “Loafer” was originally a brand name introduced by Fortnum and Mason’s store in London. The derivative term “penny loafer” arose in the late fifties or early sixties, although the exact etymology seems unclear.

89A New Jersey? : CALF

Jersey cattle were bred originally on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. If you’ve seen Elsie the Cow, the mascot of Borden in the US, then you’ve seen a Jersey cow.

91A A.C.C. school : UVA

The University of Virginia (UVA) was founded by Thomas Jefferson, who then sat on the original Board of Visitors alongside former US Presidents James Madison and James Monroe. In fact, the original UVA campus was built on land near Charlottesville that was once a farm belonging to President Monroe.

Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

93A “Do I really wanna start an online bidding war? Hmm …”? : TO EBAY OR NOT TO EBAY? (To be, or not to be)

There has been centuries of debate about how one interprets Hamlet’s soliloquy that begins “To be or not to be …”. My favorite opinion is that Hamlet is weighing up the pros and cons of suicide (“to not be”).

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous fortune;
Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles …

99A Czech brew : PILSENER

Pilsener (also “pilsner” or “pils”) is a pale lager. The name “pilsener” comes from the city of Pilsen, now in the Czech Republic. It was in Pilsen, in 1842, that the first bottom-fermented lager was produced. A bottom-fermented beer is much clearer than a top-fermented beer, and has a crisper taste. The “top” and “bottom” refers to where the yeast gathers during the brewing process.

102A Michael of R.E.M. : STIPE

Michael Stipe was lead vocalist for the band R.E.M. from 1980 through 2011. Stipe is also active in the film industry. He served as an executive producer on the films “Being John Malkovich” and “Man on the Moon”.

104A What Pomeranians do : YAP

The Pomeranian is a small breed of dog named for the Pomerania region of Europe (part of eastern Germany and northern Poland). The breed was much loved by the royalty of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century, Queen Victoria owned a particularly small Pomeranian. Due to the notoriety of the monarch’s pet, the Pomeranian was bred for small size, so that during the Queen’s admittedly long reign, the size of the average “pom” was reduced by 50% …

106A The (middle) sound of “silence” : SCHWA

A schwa is an unstressed and toneless vowel found in a number of languages including English. Examples from our language are the “a” in “about”, the “e” in “taken” and the “i” in pencil.

108A “___ but a scratch” : ‘TIS

“‘Tis but a scratch” is a line from the cult classic film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. The “joke” is that the speaker has been gravely wounded.

109A Creature in Magic: The Gathering : OGRE

Magic: The Gathering is a card game, one played with a deck of themed cards. It is a relatively recent invention by a math professor named Richard Garfield. It was introduced to the public in 1993, and has a large following today.

115A Finish filming : WRAP

When shooting of a film is concluded the movie is said to wrap, and everyone heads to the wrap party. There is one story that “wrap” is actually an acronym for “wind, reel and print”, a reference to the transition of the filming process into post-production. But, this explanation is disputed.

120A They’re usually found to the left of Q’s : TAB KEYS

Like many features on our computer keyboards, the tab key is a hangover from the days of typewriters. When using a typewriter, making entries into a table was very tedious, involving lots of tapping on the spacebar and backspace key. So, a lever was added to typewriters that allowed the operator to “jump” across the page to positions that could be set by hand. Later this was simplified to a tab key which could be depressed, causing the carriage to jump to the next tab stop in much the same way that the modern tab key works on a computer.

Down

1D Actor Will of “BoJack Horseman” : ARNETT

Will Arnett is a Canadian actor who got his big break in the Fox show “Arrested Development”. Arnett’s father was the president and CEO of Molson Breweries, and Will was married to actress Penelope Ann Miller and actress/comedian Amy Poehler.

The animated series “BoJack Horseman” centers on its titular character, a washed-up anthropomorphic horse who was once the star of a popular 1990s sitcom. BoJack attempts to make a comeback in “Hollywoo” (the letter D was stolen from the famous Hollywood sign), while trying to deal with depression and addiction. Sounds like a right bundle of laughs …

3D Scary snake : RATTLER

The scales covering the tip of a rattlesnake’s tail are made of keratin, the same structural protein that makes up the outer layer of human skin, as well as our hair and nails. The rattlesnake shakes its tail vigorously to warn off potential predators, causing the hollow scales to vibrate against one another and resulting in that scary “rattle” sound. The rattler’s tail muscles “fire” an incredible fifty times a second to achieve that effect, demonstrating one of the fastest muscular movements in the whole animal kingdom.

4D Joseph who co-invented rocky road ice cream : EDY

Dreyer’s ice cream sells its products under the name Dreyer’s in the Western United States, and Edy’s in the Eastern states. The company’s founders were William Dreyer and Joseph Edy.

The flavor of ice cream known as rocky road is made using chocolate ice cream mixed with nuts and marshmallows. The exact origin of the flavor seems to be disputed, but one story is that William Dreyer invented it in 1929, chopping up walnuts and marshmallows with sewing scissors belonging to his wife.

6D Greek crosses : TAUS

The Cross of Tau is a variant of the cross symbol used in the Christian tradition. Also known as St. Anthony’s Cross, the Cross of Tau resembles the Greek letter tau, and our letter T. St. Anthony of Egypt bore such a symbol on his cloak, hence the alternate name.

8D Round Table title : SIR

King Arthur (and his Round Table) probably never really existed, but his legend is very persistent. Arthur was supposedly a leader of the Romano-British as they tried to resist the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.

9D “___ cerveza, por favor” : UNA

In Spanish, when buying “cerveza” (beer), one might purchase a “paquete de seis” (six-pack).

10D Phileas in “Around the World in Eighty Days” : FOGG

“Around the World in 80 Days” is a wonderful adventure story written by French author Jules Verne and first published in 1873. There have been some great screen adaptations of the story, including the 1956 movie starring David Niven as the protagonist Phileas Fogg. In almost all adaptations, a balloon is used for part of the journey, and is perhaps the most memorable means of transportation on Fogg’s trip around the world. However, if you read the book, Fogg never uses a balloon at all.

13D Hindi for “reign” : RAJ

The period of colonial rule by the British in South Asia from 1858 to 1947 is referred to as the British Raj. Prior to 1858, the area was ruled by a private enterprise, the British East India Company. “Raj” is the Hindi word for “reign”.

15D One of the best coffee beverages ever? : ALL-TIME AU LAIT (all-time low)

“Café au lait” (French for “coffee with milk”) is usually strong drip coffee to which one adds steamed milk. Well, that’s the way we tend to make it here in the US.

16D Top execs, collectively : C-SUITE

The C-suite is the suite of offices assigned to senior management. The “C” reference is to the abbreviation for “Chief”, the word that starts the titles of many senior officers in a company, e.g. chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer (COO) and chief financial officer(CFO).

17D Charlotte N.B.A. player : HORNET

The New Orleans Hornets joined the NBA in 1988 as an expansion team, originally based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The team was going to be called the Charlotte Spirit, but the name was changed following a “name the team” contest run in the local area. During the Revolutionary War, Lord General Cornwallis had referred to Charlotte as a “veritable nest of hornets” due the city’s resistance to British occupation, which explains the local fans’ fondness for the name “Hornets”. The franchise was moved to New Orleans for the 2002 season, as attendance wasn’t big enough to sustain the team in Charlotte. The NBA returned to North Carolina in 2004 with the establishment of the Charlotte Bobcats. The New Orleans franchise rebranded itself in 2013, becoming the Pelicans. As a result, the Charlotte Bobcats were able to change their name to the Hornets in 2014.

19D Montreal newspaper continuously published since 1778, with “The” : … GAZETTE

“The Gazette” is an English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal. “The Gazette” was founded in 1778 and is the oldest newspaper in the whole province of Quebec.

23D French city from which a soup gets its name : VICHY

Vichy is a spa town in the center of France, and people from Vichy are known as Vichyssois. After Paris was occupied by the Germans in WWII, Vichy was chosen as the seat of government for what was called the French State. The Vichy government had theoretical authority even in occupied France, and is remembered for its collaboration with the German authorities. Vichy was chosen as the new seat of government because of its relative proximity to Paris, and simply because the town had the largest hotel room capacity in the “free zone” of the country.

Vichyssoise is a thick puréed potato soup that can be served hot, but is usually served cold. As well as potatoes, a classic vichyssoise contains leeks, onions, cream and chicken stock. Although the origin is disputed, it seems that the vichyssoise was invented in America, albeit by a French chef. That chef named his soup after the town of Vichy in France.

31D Largest college fraternity in the U.S., familiarly : SIGEP

The Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity was founded in 1901 in Richmond, Virginia. It is sometimes referred to as “SigEp”. A SigEp badge or sign includes the three Greek letters above a skull and crossbones.

33D No U.S. area code starts with this : ONE

Area codes were introduced in the 1940s. Back then, the “clicks” one heard when dialing a number led to mechanical wear on various pieces of equipment. In order to minimize overall mechanical wear, areas with high call volumes were given the most efficient area codes (lowest number of clicks). That led to New York getting the area code 212, Los Angeles 213 and Chicago 312.

36D Minnesota county whose seat is St. Paul : RAMSEY

Saint Paul is the state capital of Minnesota, and is one half of the “Twin Cities” , also known as Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Saint Paul used to be called Pig’s Eye, named after a popular tavern in the original settlement in the area. In 1841, Father Lucien Galtier established a log chapel nearby that he dedicated to St. Paul the Apostle, giving the city its current name. The magnificent Cathedral of St. Paul now sits on the site where the log chapel was built.

39D Suffix with journal : -ESE

Lingo is specialized vocabulary. Journalese and legalese would be good examples.

46D Greek goddess of the night : NYX

In Greek mythology, Chaos was the first of the primeval gods born at the creation of the universe. Following Chaos came:

• Gaia, the primordial goddess of the Earth
• Tartaros, the primordial god of the Underworld
• Eros, the primordial god of Love
• Nyx, the primordial goddess of the Night
• Erebus, the primordial god of Darkness
• Aither, the primordial god of Light
• Hemera, the primordial goddess of the Day

48D Emperor who founded the Mughal Empire : BABUR

The Gardens of Babur in Kabul, Afghanistan is a historic park that dates back to the 16th century. The park was built by the first Mughal emperor Babur, and indeed the Gardens of Babur is his last resting-place.

49D Palindromic constellation : ARA

The constellation of Ara takes its name from the Latin word for “altar”.

52D What fugitives are on : THE LAM

To be on the lam is to be in flight, to have escaped from prison. “On the lam” is American slang that originated at the end of the 19th century. The word “lam” also means “beat” or “thrash”, as in “lambaste”. So “on the lam” might derive from the phrase “to beat it, scram”.

54D Many a Bahraini : ARAB

Bahrain is an island nation located off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf. Bahrain is connected to Saudi Arabia by a series of causeways and bridges that were constructed in the eighties.

55D Old El ___ (Tex-Mex brand) : PASO

Old El Paso is a Tex-Mex food brand that is owned today by General Mills. The original Old El Paso company started operating in El Paso, Texas in 1938. The original products produced were canned tomatoes and pinto beans.

56D Game with an annual World Series since 1970 : POKER

The World Series of Poker is an annual event held in Las Vegas. The winner of each event is given a much-coveted World Series of Poker bracelet.

58D Collapses, with “over” : KEELS …

To keel over is to capsize, to turn a boat over so that her keel lies up from the surface. We also use the phrase “keel over” figuratively to mean “collapse, faint”.

62D A bobcat is one, technically : LYNX

The lynx is a wild cat, of which there are four species. These are:

• The Eurasian lynx: the biggest of the four species.
• The Canada lynx: well-adapted to life in cold environments.
• The Iberian lynx: a native of the Iberian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and the most endangered cat species in the world.
• The bobcat: our North American wildcat, the smallest of the four lynxes

69D Actress Bancroft : ANNE

The actress Anne Bancroft was born Anna Italiano in the Bronx, New York. She is probably best known for her performances in the 1962 movie “The Miracle Worker” (for which she won a Best Actress Oscar) and in the 1967 movie “The Graduate”. Bancroft was married for 40 years to Mel Brooks, right up till her passing in 2005.

71D Boot out of Australia? : UGG

Uggs are sheepskin boots that were first produced in Australia and New Zealand. The original Uggs have sheepskin fleece on the inside for comfort and insulation, with a tanned leather surface on the outside for durability. “Ugg” is a generic term Down Under, although it’s a brand name here in the US.

74D Vodka-and-lime cocktail : GIMLET

A gimlet is a relatively simple cocktail that is traditionally made using just gin and lime juice. The trend in more recent times is to replace the gin with vodka.

76D Metal material used for dishware before porcelain became popular : PEWTER

Pewter is a relatively soft alloy that is made up mostly of tin, with some copper, antimony, bismuth and lead.

In the history of ceramics, earthenware (also “terra cotta”) is a relatively old material. It is porous, and needs a ceramic glaze to make it impervious to liquids. Stoneware was developed later, and is impervious to liquids in its own right due to the higher firing temperature. Porcelain came later still, and is fired at even higher temperatures to produce a stronger, harder and finer material.

83D Spin a yarn, perhaps? : CROCHET

Crochet is a process of making a fabric using a hooked needle. “Crochet” is a French word meaning “hook”.

86D Progressive inits. in the U.S. Congress : AOC

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a politician who is often referred to by her initials “AOC”. A Democrat, she was first elected to the US House of Representatives in 2018, representing part of the Bronx, Queens and Rikers Island in New York City. When she took office in 2019 at the age of 29, AOC became the youngest woman ever to serve in Congress.

88D Methuselah’s father : ENOCH

Methuselah was the son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah, and the man in the Bible who is reported to have lived the longest. Methuselah passed away seven days before the onset of the Great Flood, and tradition holds that he was 969 years old when he died.

91D Like Manhattan in the 80s and 90s? : UPTOWN

While there are many neighborhoods in New York City’s borough of Manhattan, there are some broader terms that are used to navigate one’s way around the island:

• Uptown: above 59th Street
• Midtown: between 59th Street and 14th Street (but sometimes 23rd Street or 34th Street)
• Downtown: below 14th Street

• Upper Manhattan: above 96th Street
• Lower Manhattan: below Chambers Street

• East Side: east of Fifth Avenue
• West Side: west of Fifth Avenue

92D Cialis alternative : VIAGRA

Cialis and Viagra are not just brands competing against each other, they also have differing active ingredients. Viagra is a trade name for Sildenafil citrate, and Cialis is tadalafil. Both drugs are used to treat erectile dysfunction, and more recently to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension.

95D Country whose name Americans spell with a “z” : BRASIL

Brazil is the largest country in South America, and the fifth largest country in the world (after Russia, Canada, China and the US). Brazil was a Portuguese colony from 1500 to 1815. The official name of the country under Portuguese rule was Terra da Santa Cruz (Land of the Holy Cross). However, European sailors used the name Terra do Brasil (Land of Brazil), a reference to the brazilwood tree that was much prized in Europe for the deep red dye that it produced.

96D Stymie : THWART

The word “stymie” comes from golf, and is a situation in which one’s approach to the hole is blocked by an opponent’s ball. We use the term more broadly as a verb to describe standing in the way of something.

97D Abode that’s abuzz : APIARY

An apiary is an area where bees are kept, apiculture is beekeeping, and an apiphobe has a fear of bees. The Latin word for “bee” is “apis”.

110D Vintage film channel : TCM

Turner Classic Movies (TCM)

111D Milestone for a start-up, for short : IPO

Initial public offering (IPO)

112D Sister figure : NUN

A nun is a female member of a religious community in several traditions, including Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, Buddhism and Hinduism. Sometimes the term “nun” applies to a religious woman living a contemplative and cloistered life, with the term “religious sister” applying to a woman living a life of prayer and service to the needy.