Tag: Common type of TV news broadcast crossword clue

Bill’s time: 13m 42s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

19. “___ is gained as much by good works as by evil”: Machiavelli : HATRED

It is Niccolo Machiavelli’s political treatise titled “The Prince”, and the philosophical opinions expressed therein, that give rise to the word “Machiavellian”. The term describes something cunning and devious, especially at the level of state politics.

31. Glass with thick-rimmed glasses : IRA

Ira Glass is a well-respected presenter on American Public Radio who is perhaps best known for his show “This American Life”. I was interested to learn that one of my favorite composers, Philip Glass, is Ira’s first cousin.

33. Purina product : CAT CHOW

Purina began business in 1894 as an operation for producing feed for farm animals. A few years later, in 1902, the Ralston name was introduced when Webster Edgerly joined the business. Edgerly was the founder of a controversial social movement called Ralstonism. Central to the movement was personal health, with RALSTON standing for Regime, Activity, Light, Strength, Temperation, Oxygen and Nature.

41. Hot cocoa mix brand : SWISS MISS

Swiss Miss is a brand of cocoa powder and related products that is sold by ConAgra Foods. The original Swiss Miss product was introduced in the 1950s and was sold only to airlines. The airlines used it to make hot cocoa for their passengers. The beverage was so popular on flights that it was later added to grocery store shelves.

44. Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ___ You Get Enough” : ‘TIL

“Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” is a 1979 song written and recorded by Michael Jackson. It is considered by many to be a breakthrough song for Jackson as a solo artist and songwriter. “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” won Jackson his first solo Grammy Award.

45. Some tiebreakers, for short : OTS

Overtime (OT)

50. In excess, in slang : UP THE WAZOO

The slang term “up the wazoo” means “to have plenty”. It’s pretty vulgar slang and is a specific anatomical reference, so I don’t think it really belongs in a crossword …

Down

2. Entrepreneur’s start : IDEA

An entrepreneur is someone takes on most aspects of a business venture, from the original idea to the execution. The term is imported from French, with “entreprendre” meaning “to undertake”. The original usage in English dates back to the early 1800s, when it applied to a manager and promoter of a theatrical production.

3. Wee folklore hero : TOM THUMB

The story “Tom Thumb” was originally published in 1621, making it the first fairy tale ever printed in English. The title character is a boy who is no bigger than his father’s thumb, hence his name.

4. Place for hot shots : ESPRESSO BAR

Espresso is made by forcing extremely hot water, under pressure, through finely ground coffee beans. The result is a thick and concentrated coffee drink, which contains quite a lot of solids and a lot of foam. An espresso machine was first patented in 1884 in Italy, although it was a machine to make the beverage in bulk. The first patent for a machine that made individual measures was applied for in 1901, also in Italy.

6. Minute Maid brand : HI-C

Hi-C orange drink was created in 1946, and introduced to the market in 1948, initially in the south of the country. The name “Hi-C” was chosen to emphasize the high vitamin C content in the drink, as it contained added ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

In the mid-forties a process was developed to concentrate orange juice into a powder, the intent being to make it available to the armed forces. When WWII came to an end, the government’s need for the product went away, so Florida Foods Corporation was set up to market orange juice concentrate (rather than powder) to the public. This new concentrate was given the name “Minute Maid” implying that juice could be prepared quickly by simple dilution.

9. Recurrent theme : TROPE

A trope is a figure of speech. The term “trope” comes from the Greek word “tropos” that has the same meaning.

10. Scandalous selfie, maybe : SEXT

Sexting (a portmanteau of “sex” and “texting”) is the sending of explicit dialog and images between cell phones. The term “sexting” was coined by the UK’s “Sunday Telegraph Magazine” in a 2005 article.

11. Cinemax competitor : TMC

The Movie Channel is owned by Showtime, which in turn is subsidiary of CBS. The channel’s name is often abbreviated to “TMC”, although this is informal usage.

12. One helping to set the stage : ROADIE

A roadie is someone who loads, unloads and sets up equipment for musicians on tour, on the “road”.

13. Doctor with a well-known diet : ATKINS

Perhaps most notably, the eating of relatively few carbohydrates is central to the diet proposed by Robert Atkins. Atkins first laid out the principles behind the Atkins diet in a research paper published in 1958 in the “Journal of the American Medical Association”. He popularized his diet starting in 1972 with his book “Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution”.

20. Conjunctivitis treatment : EYE DROP

The conjunctivae are membranes on the outer surface of the eye and in the inner surface of the eyelid. If the conjunctivae get inflamed, due to an infection or perhaps an allergy, then this condition is called conjunctivitis, or more commonly “pinkeye”.

26. Kubrick film villain : HAL

In the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”, Dr. David Bowman (“Dave”) goes up against the spacecraft computer known as “HAL”.

Stanley Kubrick was a film director from New York who worked mainly in the UK. Kubrick directed “Spartacus” in Hollywood in 1960, and then relocated to the UK to shoot “Lolita” in 1962. His next film was “Doctor Strangelove”, which also had to be shot in the UK. At that point, Kubrick decided to make England his home.

27. Italian time period : ORA

In Italian, an “ora” (hour) is 1/24 of “un giorno” (a day).

28. College from which Steve Jobs dropped out : REED

Steve Jobs certainly was a business icon in Silicon Valley. I don’t think it is too surprising to learn that the brilliant Jobs didn’t even finish his college education, dropping out of Reed College in Oregon after only one semester. Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, but in 1985 he was basically fired from his own company during the computer sales slump of the mid-eighties. Jobs then founded NeXT Computer, a company focused on supplying workstations to the higher education and business markets. Apple purchased NeXT in 1996, and that’s how Jobs found himself back with his original company.

31. Purina competitor : IAMS

Iams dog food was introduced by the animal nutritionist Paul Iams. He felt that household pets were suffering somewhat by being fed a diet of table scraps, so he developed a dry dog food that he felt was more nutritious and suitable for pet dogs. He founded the Iams company, now part of Procter & Gamble, in 1946.

33. Brother of Seth, in the Bible : CAIN

According to the Bible, Seth was the third son of Adam and Eve, coming after Cain and Abel. Adam and Eve had several children, but Cain, Abel and Seth are the ones mentioned by name. According to the Book of Genesis, Seth was born after Cain had slain his brother Abel.

34. Last-ditch effort : HAIL MARY

A Hail Mary pass (also called “the long bomb”) is a desperation move in American football in which a long pass is thrown with very little chance of a success, right at the the end of a game or at the end of a half. The term dates back to thirties, and was probably first used at Notre Dame. The “Hail Mary” is a prayer in the Christian tradition that is of particular significance Roman Catholicism.

35. Soda can meas. : OZS

The unit of mass that we know today as a pound is descended from the old Roman unit of weight known as a libra. That libra connection is why we abbreviate “pound” to “lb”. The name “pound” though comes from the Latin “pondo” meaning “weight”. Our term “ounce” (abbreviated to “oz.”) comes from the Latin “uncia”, which was 1/12 of a Roman “libra”.

38. Annual holiday first celebrated in 1966 : KWANZAA

Kwanzaa is a celebration of African heritage that lasts from December 26 to January 1 annually. The holiday was introduced in 1966 as an alternative to the existing holidays at the end of the year. The name comes from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza”, meaning “first fruits of the harvest”. The seven days of Kwanzaa are dedicated to seven core principles known as “Nguzo Saba”.

• Umoja (Unity)
• Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
• Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
• Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
• Nia (Purpose)
• Kuumba (Creativity)
• Imani (Faith)

40. Neighborhood with Plaza de la Raza and the Latino Walk of Fame : EAST LA

East Los Angeles (usually “East LA”) is the most populous “census-designated place” in California, and is home to over 125,000 people.

41. 1957 Jimmy Dorsey standard : SO RARE

“So Rare” is a song that first became popular with a recording by Guy Lombardo in 1937. “So Rare” became a major hit for Jimmy Dorsey twenty years later, in 1957.

The brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey headed up a studio band in the early thirties and had a lot of success together, including two number one hits. The pair had a very acrimonious relationship though, and split up in 1935, each forming his own band. They did even better after the parting of the ways, with Tommy having seventeen more number one hits, and Jimmy ten.

43. Big-box store with the slogan “Never stop improving” : LOWE’S

Lucius S. Lowe opened the first Lowe’s hardware store in 1921, in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Lucius only knew the one store, as it was family who expanded the company after he passed away in 1940.

48. Drink that can cause brain freeze : ICEE

Slush Puppie and ICEE are brands of frozen, slushy drinks. Ostensibly competing brands, ICEE company now owns the Slush Puppie brand.

49. Thomas Hardy title heroine : TESS

In Thomas Hardy’s novel “Tess of the d’Urbervilles”, the heroine and title character is Tess Durbeyfield. Her father is an uneducated peasant and when he hears that his name is a corruption of the noble name of “D’Urberville”, the news goes to his head.

52. Big Angolan export : OIL

Angola is a country in south-central Africa on the west coast. It is the fourth largest diamond exporter in Africa, after Botswana, the Congo and South Africa. Such a valuable export hasn’t really helped the living standard of the country’s citizens as life expectancy and infant mortality rates are among the poorest on the continent.