Tag: First in a series crossword clue

Bill’s time: 8m 23s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Pixel rival : IPHONE

“Pixel” is a brand of electronic devices for consumers supplied by Google. The main Pixel devices are smartphones, but the brand name is also used for laptops, tablet computers and smartwatches. I’m a fan …

16 Iris’s location : UVEA

The uvea is the middle of the three layers that make up the eyeball. The outer layer is called the fibrous tunic, and the inner layer is the retina.

18 Epic with the line “Come, friend, you too must die” : ILIAD

“Iliad” is an epic poem by the Greek poet Homer that tells the story of the ten-year siege of “Ilium” (i.e. “Troy”) during the Trojan war. “The Odyssey”, also attributed to Homer, is sometimes described as a sequel to “Iliad”.

20 Start of a quip by comic Steven Wright : WHY ISN’T THE WORD …
35 Middle of the quip … and a hint to eight squares in this puzzle : … “PHONETICALLY” …
52 End of the quip : … SPELLED WITH AN “F”?

Steven Wright is a remarkably droll comedian from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Wright is very, very quotable:

• What’s another word for Thesaurus?
• If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?
• I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
• When I was a little kid we had a sandbox. It was a quicksand box. I was an only child… eventually.

29 Pressure cooker sound : HISS

A pressure cooker reduces cooking times because water boils at a higher temperature when under pressure. Water boils at 100°C at atmospheric pressure, but will boil at over 120°C in most pressure cookers. As a result, pressure cooking takes place at this higher temperature. In general, chemical reactions double with every ten degrees of increased temperature, and so a pressure cooker can speed up the cooking process by about four times.

32 ___ Robinson, mother of Michelle Obama : MARIAN

Michelle Obama née Robinson grew up on the South Side of Chicago. Her brother is Craig Robinson, former coach of men’s basketball at Oregon State University. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Michelle Robinson worked as an associate at the Chicago office of the Sidley Austin law firm. Barack Obama joined the firm as a summer associate and Michelle Robinson was assigned to mentor him, and as they say, one thing led to another …

48 Drink featured in the Elvis film “Blue Hawaii” : MAI TAI

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”.

“Blue Hawaii” is one of a series of Elvis Presley movies, one released in 1961. 36-year-old Angela Lansbury was cast as the mother of the character played by 26-year-old Presley. Apparently, Lansbury “wasn’t amused” at the age gap, but took the role anyway.

56 Actor Jannings : EMIL

Emil Jannings was an actor from Switzerland who also held German and Austrian citizenship. Jannings was the very first person to receive an Oscar, as the star of the 1928 silent movie called “The Last Command”. He also starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in the 1930 classic “The Blue Angel”.

57 Youngest golfer to score below his age in a P.G.A. Tour event : SNEAD

Sam Snead was probably the most successful golfer never to win a US Open title, as he won a record 82 PGA Tour events. Snead did win seven majors, but never the US Open. He was also quite the showman. He once hit the scoreboard at Wrigley Field stadium with a golf ball, by teeing off from home plate. Snead’s best-remembered nickname is “Slammin’ Sammy”.

58 White Sox or Red Sox player, informally : AL’ER

The Chicago White Sox Major League Baseball team was established in Chicago in 1900 and originally was called the White Stockings. The name was changed because the abbreviation “Sox” for “Stockings” was regularly used in newspaper headlines.

The Boston Red Sox are one of the most successful Major League Baseball teams and so command a large attendance, but only when on the road. The relatively small capacity of Boston’s Fenway Park, the team’s home since 1912, has dictated that every game the Red Sox have played there has been a sell-out from May of 2003 to April 2013. I had the pleasure of touring Fenway Park some years ago. It’s quite a place …

60 Cricket segments : OVERS

In the sport of cricket, an over is a collection of six deliveries of the ball from one end of the pitch by one bowler to the batter at the other end of the pitch. After each over, the bowler changes and deliveries come from the opposite end.

61 Miller option : LITE

The first light beer was produced by Chicago’s Meister Brau brewery in the sixties. Miller took over Meister Brau, reformulated the light beer using the same process and became the first of the big breweries to come out with a light beer, “Lite Beer from Miller” introduced in 1973. There really wasn’t a serious competitor to Miller Lite until Anheuser-Busch finally came up with a process and a product in 1982 that they called Bud Light.

62 Flower whose name means “flame” in ancient Greek : PHLOX

Phlox is a genus of flowering plants found mainly in North America. A common name for the plant is Jacob’s Ladder.

63 Lead-in to maniac : NYMPHO-

Hypersexuality in humans is termed “satyriasis” in males and “nymphomania” in females.

Down

1 “Jeopardy!” offering : ANSWER

The TV show “Jeopardy!” first went on the air in 1964, and is another successful Merv Griffin creation. But, it took the introduction of Alex Trebek as host in order to bring the show into the big times. Trebek was host from 1984 until his sad passing in 2020.

8 Comedian Trevor : NOAH

Trevor Noah is an outstanding comedian from Johannesburg, South Africa. Noah took over as host of the Comedy Channel’s “The Daily Show” after Jon Stewart retired. Noah can speak several languages, including English, Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, Afrikaans, and German.

9 “___ Game” (1986 Hugo Award winner) : ENDER’S

Orson Scott Card is a science fiction author (mainly). Card’s most famous work is his novel “Ender’s Game” first published in 1985. “Ender’s Game” was adapted into a movie and released in 2013, with a cast that includes Harrison Ford.

10 Cot alternative : FUTON

Anyone lucky enough to have visited Japan might be familiar with the traditional Japanese futon. Unlike what we tend to call futon in this country, the Japanese original is a padded mattress and quilt. Japanese futons are usually rolled up in the morning so that the space used for sleeping can be repurposed during the day.

12 Achilles, for two : TENDONS

The Achilles tendon is located at the back of the leg, above the heel. The name is a reference to Achilles, the hero of Greek myth who was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel.

13 Muesli bit : OAT

“Muesli” is a Swiss-German term describing a breakfast serving of rolled oats, nuts, fruit and milk. The dish can be soaked overnight in milk before serving (“overnight oats”). “Muesli” is a diminutive of the German word “Mues” meaning “puree”. Delicious …

21 Underworld figure : SATAN

Satan is the bringer of evil and temptation in the Abrahamic religions. The name “Satan” is Hebrew for “adversary”.

28 Singer Tori : AMOS

Tori Amos is an American pianist and singer. She started playing the piano at two years old, and was composing piano pieces by age five. Amos was playing in piano bars (chaperoned by her father) when she was 14. I’m going to have to find some of her music …

30 Choquequirao inhabitant : INCA

Choquequirao is a ruined city in south Peru that is apparently very similar to Machu Picchu in terms of architecture and remaining structures. The name “Choquequirao” translates as “Cradle of Gold”.

34 Urban addr. specification : BLDG

Building (bldg.)

39 Noxious : MIASMAL

The word “miasma” was first used for the poisonous atmosphere thought to arise from swamps and rotting matter, and which could cause disease. Nowadays, a miasma is just a thick cloud of gas or smoke.

43 Only U.S. president buried in Washington, D.C. : WILSON

Woodrow Wilson was a professor at Princeton from 1890 to 1902 at which time he was promoted to president of the university. Professor Wilson had earned his PhD. at Johns Hopkins University in 1886, so that when he was elected 28th President of the United States in 1912, he became the only US President to hold a PhD.

45 Home of Firenze : ITALIA

Florence is the capital city of the Tuscany region in Italy. Something from or related to Florence is described as “Florentine”. The city is known as “Firenze” in Italian.

49 Early text messager : TELEX

Telex grew out of the world of the telegraph. What telex brought to telegraphy was the ability to route messages. Instead of having to talk to an operator to route a particular message to the intended party, the user of a telex could route the message directly to another telex machine by way of a rotary dial, one very similar to that on a telephone.

50 One of a Disney septet : DWARF

In the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale called “Snow White”, the seven dwarfs were not given any names. The names were added for the 1937 classic Disney film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. The seven dwarfs are:

• Doc (the leader of the group)
• Grumpy (that would be me, according to my wife …)
• Happy
• Sleepy
• Bashful
• Sneezy
• Dopey

55 Word before and after an ampersand, in the grocery : HALF

Half and half is a dairy product consisting of half milk and half light cream.