Tag: Marketer’s suggestion for the holidays crossword clue

Bill’s time: 8m 46s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 The Allman brother who married Cher : GREGG

The Allman Brothers Band has to be one of the most unlucky bands in the business. Soon after the group had its big break with the 1971 album “At Fillmore East”, one of the two Allman brothers, Duane, was killed in a motorcycle accident. One year later, bassist Berry Oakley was killed, also in a motorcycle accident. The other brother, Gregg Allman, passed away in his home in 2017.

6 What Jupiter and Saturn are made of : GAS

In our solar system, the four planets nearest the sun (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) are known as terrestrial planets, and are composed mainly of silicate rocks and metal. The remaining four planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) are referred to as gas planets, as they have no solid rock or metal. The gas planets do not have a solid surface, although they are sometimes said to have a “rocky center”. This is actually liquid metal or rock formed by the high temperatures and pressures at the centers of the gas planets.

18 “___ to a Nightingale” (Keats poem) : ODE

“Ode to a Nightingale” is a very famous 1819 poem penned by John Keats. Keat was inspired to write the 8-stanza poem in one sitting, while listening to the song of a nightingale in a nearby nest.

19 Humble, as a manger : LOWLY

A manger is an open box in which feed is placed for livestock. The term “manger” comes from the French verb “manger” meaning “to eat”.

20 “Just chill!” : DON’T HAVE A COW!

The phrase “don’t have a cow” originated in the fifties, as a variation of the older “don’t have kittens”. The concept behind the phrase is that one shouldn’t get worked up, it’s not like one is giving birth to a cow.

23 French suffix with jardin : -IERE

“Jardinière” is the feminine form of the French word for “gardener”. In English, a jardinière is a decorative container for flowers that is usually located outdoors.

24 Loose-fitting Hawaiian dress : MUUMUU

A muumuu is a loose dress that originated in Hawaii. Many muumuus are brightly colored and made of the same material as the ubiquitous Hawaiian shirt. The word “mu’umu’u” means “cut off” in Hawaiian.

37 Rum-soaked cake : BABA

Rum baba (also “baba au rhum” in French) is a small yeast cake saturated in rum, and sometimes filled with whipped cream. Rum baba is derived from the recipe for the tall “babka” yeast cake that was introduced to the world by the Polish communities. The Polish words “baba” and “babka” mean “old woman” or “grandmother” in English. I guess someone must have thought that all grandmothers were saturated in rum!

38 1980s sitcom E.T. : ALF

“ALF” is a sitcom that aired in the late eighties. The title character is a hand-puppet, and supposedly an alien named Gordon Shumway from the planet Melmac. The alien crash-landed into the house of amateur radio enthusiast Willie Tanner. Tanner renamed the intruder “ALF”, standing for “alien life form”.

40 Chicago ballplayer : CUB

The Chicago Cubs baseball team was supposedly subject to the “Curse of the Billy Goat” from 1945 until 2016. Billy Sianis, the owner of a Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago, took his pet goat with him to a World Series game against the Detroit Tigers at Wrigley Field. Fans sitting nearby didn’t like the smell of the goat, and so the owner was asked to leave. As he left, Sianis yelled out, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.” And that is how a curse is born …

41 Capital of the Yukon : WHITEHORSE

Whitehorse is the capital city of Canada’s Yukon Territory. It sits at the head of the Yukon River and its location made it an important supply center during the Klondike Gold Rush.

Canada’s federal territory known as Yukon takes its name from the Yukon River. “Yukon” means “Big Stream” in the local Gwich’in language.

44 Feminine name that’s also a tropical jungle vine : LIANA

Liana (also “liane”) is a vine that generally grows in moist areas such as rain forests. Lianas grow using the trees in the forest as structural support. My bet is that Tarzan swung from tree to tree on liana vines …

47 Hip-hop dance move popular in the 2010s : NAE NAE

The Nae Nae is a hip hop dance that is named for the 2013 song “Drop that NaeNae” recorded by We Are Toon. The main move in the dance involves swaying with one hand in the air and one hand down, with both feet firmly planted on the dancefloor. Go on, do it. You know you want to …

48 Married woman in Madrid : SENORA

Madrid is the most populous city in Spain, and is the nation’s capital. It is located very close to the geographical center of the country. Madrid is the second-largest city in the European Union by population, after Berlin. People from Madrid called themselves Madrileños.

50 ___ Scout cookies : GIRL

Depending on which bakery makes the particular variety of Girl Scout cookies, the name can vary. For example, Little Brownie Bakers makes Samoa cookies, while ABC Bakers uses the same recipe and calls the cookies Caramel deLites. The assumption is that these cookies have the exotic name “Samoa” because they contain the tropical ingredients of coconut and cocoa. The most popular variety of Girl Scout cookies sold are Thin Mints.

51 Children’s song featuring the animals and sounds in this puzzle : OLD MACDONALD
56 Refrain in 51-Across that accompanies the sounds at 24-, 37- and 47-Across : E-I-E-I-O

There was an old American version of the English children’s song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” (E-I-E-I-O) that was around in the days of WWI. The first line of the older US version goes “Old MacDougal had a farm, in Ohio-i-o”.

59 Hole-punching tool : AWL

An awl is a pointed tool used for marking a surface or for piercing small holes. The earliest awls were used to pierce ears, apparently. The tool then became very much associated with shoemakers.

60 Rank between sarge and cap’n : LOOIE

Lieutenant (lt., and “looie” in slang).

62 Actress Saldana of “Avatar” : ZOE

American actress Zoë Saldana played the Na’vi princess in “Avatar”, and Uhura in the 2009 movie “Star Trek” (and sequels). Saldana seems to pick the right movies, as she is the only actress to have three different films in the top twenty at the box office for three consecutive weeks (“Avatar”, “The Losers” and “Death at a Funeral”).

2009’s epic “Avatar” is a science fiction film from James Cameron, who was the director, writer and producer. It was an expensive movie to make and to promote, but was destined to become the highest-grossing film in the history of cinema. 20th Century Fox made a deal with Cameron to produce four “Avatar” sequels.

64 “The Rose” singer Midler : BETTE

I am a huge, huge fan of Bette Midler. I love her bawdy humor, her expansive personality, and her amazing voice. Midler will forever be associated with the 1979 film “The Rose”, which is loosely based on the life of the self-destructive singer Janis Joplin, with Bette playing the lead. Midler shows that she can act in this movie, and boy does she show that she can sing. The title song was written by Amanda McBroom and became a huge hit for Midler in 1979.

Down

1 Alum : GRAD

An alumnus (plural “alumni”) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural “alumnae”). The term comes into English from Latin, in which an alumnus is a foster-son or pupil. “Alum” is an informal term used for either an alumna or alumnus.

2 Realtor-speak for “move” : RELO

“Real estate agent” is a general, generic term. “Realtor” is the name given to a member of the trade association known as the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The NAR has gone so far as to trademark the term “Realtor” in the US.

3 Alma mater for Aldous Huxley and George Orwell : ETON

Eton College near Windsor in the south of England was founded way back in 1440 by King Henry VI. Originally known as “The King’s College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor”, the school was intended to provide free education to poor boys. Free education today at Eton? Not so much …

The literal translation for the Latin term “alma mater” is “nourishing mother”. The phrase was used in ancient Rome to refer to mother goddesses, and in Medieval Christianity the term was used to refer to the Virgin Mary. Nowadays, one’s alma mater is the school one attended, either high school or college, usually one’s last place of education.

Aldous Huxley was a writer from England whose best-known work is the novel “Brave New World”. Huxley was noted for his interest in parapsychology and mysticism, as well as for his promotion of the idea of taking psychedelic drugs “in a search for enlightenment”. Famously, Huxley died on November 22nd, 1963, the same day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

“George Orwell” was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, the famous British author of the classics “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and “Animal Farm”.

9 Apple storage service beginning in 2011 : ICLOUD

iCloud is an Apple service that features cloud storage and cloud computing.

In the world of computing, when one operates “in the cloud”, one’s files and key applications are not stored on one’s own computer, but rather are residing “in the cloud”, on a computer somewhere out on the Internet. I do 90% of my computing in the cloud. That way I don’t have to worry about backing up files, and I can operate from any computer if I have to …

12 Word with change or spill : OIL …

In most internal combustion engines the pistons that move up and down are arranged in a line, and connected to a crankshaft that runs along the bottom of the engine. The up and down motion of the pistons turns the crankshaft, which turning motion is “transmitted” (via the “transmission”) to the wheels. The case surrounding the crankshaft is called the crankcase. The crankcase contains a lot of oil that is squirted onto the crankshaft to lubricate it. Excess oil falls to the bottom of the crankcase and into a reservoir called the oil pan.

21 Greek war god : ARES

The Greek god Ares is often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, but originally he was regarded as the god of bloodlust and slaughter. Ares united with Aphrodite to create several gods, including Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Terror) and Eros (Desire). Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera, and the Roman equivalent to Ares was Mars.

25 Like brand-new tires : UNWORN

A retread tire is one that has been recycled, possibly more than once. The tread of the old tire is buffed away, and new rubber tread is applied to the “bare” tire using some special process that seems to work really well (except for truck tires, in my humble opinion!). Retreads are a lot cheaper, and are relatively friendly to the environment.

26 Patriotic World Cup chant : USA! USA!

The FIFA World Cup is the most prestigious tournament in the sport of soccer. The competition has been held every four years (excluding the WWII years) since the inaugural event held in Uruguay in 1930. The men’s World Cup is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, even outranking the Olympic Games. And, the women’s World Cup is fast catching up …

27 U.K.-based financial giant : HSBC

HSBC is a UK-based financial services company that was the largest bank in Europe in 2018. It can trace its history back to 1865, when it was founded in British Hong Kong as the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. The initialism “HSBC” stood for the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

28 Some moving rentals : U-HAULS

The U-Haul company was started by married couple Leonard Shoen and Anna Mary Carty in Ridgefield, Washington in 1945. The Shoens used $5,000 of seed money to build trailers in their garage, and then cleverly recruited gas station owners as franchisees with whom they would split the rental revenue. There are now about 15,000 U-Haul dealers across the country.

29 Singer Gibson or Harry : DEBBIE

Singer Debbie Harry and guitarist Chris Stein founded the rock band Blondie in 1974. Blondie’s biggest hits were “Heart of Glass”, “Call Me”, “Rapture” and “The Tide is High”.

33 “The Book of ___” (2010 Denzel Washington film) : ELI

2010’s “The Book of Eli” is one of those “end of the world” movies, with Denzel Washington playing a tough guy traveling across what is left of the United States after some apocryphal event.

Denzel Washington is an actor from Mount Vernon, just outside New York City. Washington’s big break came with a TV role, playing Dr. Philip Chandler on “St. Elsewhere” from 1982 to 1988.

36 Old dagger : SNEE

A snee is a type of dagger, one formerly used by Scottish highlanders.

39 Carol words before “Born is the King of Israel” : NOEL NOEL …

“The First Noel” is a traditional Christmas carol from England that probably dates back to the 1700s.

The First Noel the angel did say
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay;
In fields as they lay, keeping their sheep,
On a cold winter’s night that was so deep.
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel,
Born is the King of Israel.

42 City NNW of Oklahoma City : ENID

Enid, Oklahoma takes its name from the old railroad station around which the city developed. Back in 1889, that train stop was called Skeleton Station. An official who didn’t like the name changed it to Enid Station, using a character from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King”. Maybe if he hadn’t changed the name, the city of Enid would now be called Skeleton, Oklahoma! Enid has the nickname “Queen Wheat City” because it has a huge capacity for storing grain, the third largest grain storage capacity in the world.

Oklahoma City is the largest city in Oklahoma, and the state capital. Although it is only the 29th most-populous city in the country, Oklahoma City is the eighth-largest by land area. Sadly, the city suffered the nation’s worst act of domestic terrorism, the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that caused the death of 168 people.

43 ___ Chicken (Chicago-based restaurant chain) : HAROLD’S

Harold’s Chicken Shack is a chain of fried chicken restaurants in the Chicago area. The first restaurant in the chain was opened by Harold Pierce in 1950.

50 Treble symbol : G-CLEF

“Clef” is the French word for “key”. In music, a clef is used to indicate the pitch of the notes written on a stave. The bass clef is also known as the F-clef, the alto clef is the C-clef, and the treble clef is the G-clef.

52 Nowhere to be found, colloquially : AWOL

MPs (military police officers) often track down personnel who go AWOL (absent without leave).

55 Off! ingredient : DEET

“DEET” is short for “N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide”, an active ingredient in insect repellents. DEET is most often used to repel mosquitoes by applying it to the skin and/or clothing. It is also used to protect against tick bites.