Tag: Model train track standard crossword clue

Bill’s time: 7m 09s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A Blue-footed seabird : BOOBY

The bird called a blue-footed booby really lives up to its name. The bright blue feet are very distinctive. The coloring is thought to be a result of the bird’s fish diet. Birds with brighter feet tend to be more sexually active, probably because the brighter the blue hue, the healthier the bird.

15A Steak ___ (dish flambéed tableside) : DIANE

Steak Diane is pan-fried filet mignon served in a flambéed sauce made from the juices in the pan along with butter, shallots, cream and brandy. The dish is named after Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt.

20A Director Ephron : NORA

Nora Ephron had many talents, including writing film scripts and novels. Many of the movies that she wrote, she also directed. These would include some of my favorite movies of all time like “Sleepless in Seattle”, “You’ve Got Mail” and most recently, the wonderful “Julie & Julia”. And, did you know that Nora Ephron’s second marriage was to journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame? She wrote an autobiographical novel based on her life with Bernstein, which deals in particular with Bernstein’s affair with the daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

24A Netflix or Hulu : STREAMING SERVICE

Netflix was founded in Los Gatos, California in 1997 as a DVD rental company that sent out titles by mail. The company delivered its billionth DVD in 2007. I presume the renter wasn’t charged for that movie …

Hulu is a video-on-demand service. Although competing directly with Netflix and Amazon Prime, Hulu’s primary focus is the streaming of television shows rather than movies.

30A Altar constellation : ARA

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

31A Grandson of Adam and Eve : ENOS

Enos was the son of Seth, and therefore the grandson of Adam and Eve, and nephew of Cain and Abel. According to the ancient Jewish work called the Book of Jubilees, Enos married his own sister Noam.

33A Was verklempt : PLOTZED

“Verklempt” and “plotzed” are both Yiddish-derived words. “Verklempt” means overcome with emotion, while “plotzed” means to collapse or fall, often from exhaustion or strong emotion.

37A W.S.J. competitor : NYT

“The New York Times” (NYT) has been published since 1851, and is sometimes referred to as “the Gray Lady”. These days a viable alternative to buying the paper is to read the news online. NYTimes.com is the most popular online newspaper website in the country.

“The Wall Street Journal” (WSJ) is a daily newspaper with a business bent that is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company. The WSJ has a larger US circulation than any other newspaper, with “USA Today” coming in a close second place.

41A 1981 German film set aboard a submarine : DAS BOOT

I am ashamed to say that I have never watched the whole 1981 movie “Das Boot”, even though I love WWII submarine films. The film drew great critical acclaim, good news for the producers as it is one of the most expensive films ever made in Germany. The story is about the German U-boat U-96 on a patrol in October of 1941.

44A Flim-___ : FLAM

“Flim-flam” (sometimes just “flam”) is another word for a confidence trick. The term has been in use since the 1500s, would you believe?

46A Weight-to-height ratio, in brief : BMI

The body mass index (BMI) is the ratio of a person’s height to their mass.

47A Vocal range for Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner : ALTO

Aretha Franklin was a legendary American singer, songwriter, and pianist known as the “Queen of Soul”. She had a long string of hit songs including “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “Think,” and “I Say a Little Prayer”. In 1987, Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“Tina Turner” was the stage name used by Anna Mae Bullock, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Turner always loved Europe and moved there in the eighties, splitting her time between her homes in England, France and Switzerland.

48A Occasion for toasts : WEDDING RECEPTION

The tradition of toasting someone probably dates back to the reign of Charles II, when the practice was to drink a glass of wine to the health of a beautiful or favored woman. In those days, spiced toast was added to beverages to add flavor, so the use of the word “toast” was an indicator that the lady’s beauty would enhance the wine. Very charming, I must say …

55A The Beastie Boys, for example : TRIO

Beastie Boys were a hip hop band from New York that formed back in 1978. The name “Beastie” was suggested by one of the original band members, John Berry. Some time after getting together, the group asserted that “Beastie” was an acronym standing for Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Inner Excellence.

56A “Frozen” role for Kristen Bell : ANNA

Actress Kristen Bell’s first major role was playing the title character in the TV show “Veronica Mars”. Her first major film role was also playing a title character, in the 2008 film “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”. Perhaps Bell’s most famous role is as a voice actor, playing Princess Anna in the 2013 Disney hit “Frozen”.

62A One of the Big Four in banking : CITI

Internationally, the Big Four (Central) Banks are:

• The Federal Reserve (US)
• The European Central Bank
• The Bank of Japan
• The Bank of England

In American terms, the Big Four Banks are:

• JPMorgan Chase
• Bank of America
• Citigroup
• Wells Fargo

Down

1D Texter’s “shrug” : IDK

I don’t know (IDK)

2D Actress Long of “Soul Food” : NIA

Nia Long is an actress who is probably best known for playing Will Smith’s sometime girlfriend and fiancee Lisa Wilkes on the TV show “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”.

The term “soul food” emerged in the mid-1960s during the Black Power Movement, at a time when “soul” was frequently used to describe various aspects of African American culture, including soul music. The cuisine itself originated from the resourceful cooking practices of enslaved Africans in the American South, who adapted traditional African cooking methods with the limited and often undesirable ingredients provided by slave owners, such as off-cuts of meat and locally gathered vegetables.

3D Staples of Polynesian cuisine : TARO ROOTS

Taro is a root vegetable that is grown for its edible underground plant stems (corms). The English name “taro” is borrowed from the Maori language of New Zealand. The same plant is known as “gabi” in the Philippines, “arbi” in much of India, and “jimbi” in parts of Africa where Swahili is spoken.

The term “Polynesia” was coined in 1756 by author Charles de Brosses when he used it to describe all the islands in the Pacific. This usage was later restricted to what we now refer to as a subregion of Oceania.

4D Tooth coatings : ENAMELS

Tooth enamel covers the crowns of our teeth, and is the hardest substance in the human body. It is composed of 96% crystalline calcium phosphate.

5D Singer Lewis with the 2008 #1 hit “Bleeding Love” : LEONA

“Bleeding Love” is a 2007 song released by British singer Leona Lewis. The song had remarkable success around the world, and became only the second record to reach number-one in the charts in 35 countries. The first song to achieve that record was “Candle in the Wind 1997” by Elton John.

8D Model train track standard : O GAUGE

O gauge is a model railway scale that was introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin in the late 19th century and remains popular today, especially for larger, more detailed layouts.

12D Common bacterial pathogen : E COLI

Escherichia coli (E. coli) are usually harmless bacteria found in the human gut, working away quite happily. However, there are some strains that can produce lethal toxins. These strains can make their way into the food chain from animal fecal matter that comes into contact with food designated for human consumption.

13D Georges who wrote “Life: A User’s Manual” : PEREC

Georges Perec was a French novelist. Perec’s most famous work is “La vie mode d’emploi”, or “Life: A User’s Manual”.

23D Swashbuckling Flynn : ERROL

Actor Errol Flynn was born in 1909 in Tasmania, where he was raised. In his twenties, Flynn lived in the UK where he pursued his acting career. Around the same time he starred in an Australian film “In the Wake of the Bounty” and then appeared in a British film “Murder at Monte Carlo”. It was in the latter film that he was noticed by Warner Brothers who brought him to America. Flynn’s non-American heritage shone through even while he was living the American dream in California. He regularly played cricket, along with his friend David Niven, in the Hollywood Cricket Club.

A swashbuckler is a flashy swordsman. The term “swashbuckler” probably derives somehow from “swash” meaning “fall of a blow”, and “buckler” meaning “small round shield”.

25D Skating champion Harding : TONYA

Tonya Harding won the US Figure Skating Championships in 1991. Harding’s reputation was greatly tarnished in the run up to the 1994 Olympics, when her former husband and her bodyguard contracted someone to attack Harding’s main competitor, Nancy Kerrigan. During a practice session for the US Championship, a hired thug assaulted Kerrigan with a police baton, attempting to break her leg. Kerrigan was forced to withdraw, and Harding won the championship. Both Harding and Kerrigan were selected for the Olympic team, and despite attempts to get Harding removed, both skated at the Games in Lillehammer. Harding finished in eighth place, and Kerrigan won the silver medal. Harding admitted that she helped cover up the attack when she found out about it, and was stripped of her US Championship title.

26D Chowderhead : IDIOT

The word “chowderhead”, applied to someone who is regarded as stupid, has nothing to do with chowder at all. Rather, it is a corruption of an older term “cholter-head” meaning the same thing, but of unknown origin.

27D Big Apple coppers : NYPD

The New York Police Department (NYPD) is the largest municipal police force in the country. The department’s roots go back as far as 1625 when there was an eight-man night watch in the days when New York was still known as New Amsterdam. Several disparate forces with policing responsibility were amalgamated in 1844 to form the New York City Police Department, signaling the end of the night watch force that had existed for over 200 years.

“To cop” was northern-English dialect for “to seize, catch”, and is still a slang term meaning “to get hold of, steal”. This verb evolved in the noun “copper”, describing a policeman, someone who catches criminals. “Copper” is often shortened to “cop”.

35D Muse of lyric poetry : ERATO

In Greek mythology, Erato was the Muse of lyric poetry. She is often depicted with a wreath of myrtle and roses, and playing a lyre.

46D 2016 subject that dominated U.K. newspapers : BREXIT

The UK held a referendum in June 2016 in which 52% of voters chose to leave the European Union (EU). The term “Brexit” was used for the vote, a portmanteau of “Britain” and “exit”. The vote led to some debate about the future of the UK. The Scottish electorate voted for the UK to stay in the EU, and so that revived speculation about Scotland leaving the UK. There is also some discussion about Northern Ireland’s future in the UK, as the Northern Irish electorate also voted to stay in the EU.

48D ___ and ruin : WRACK

The phrase “rack and ruin” (also “wrack and ruin”), meaning “complete destruction”, is a derivative of “wreck and ruin”.

49D “___, meenie …” : EENIE

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch the tiger/monkey/baby by the toe.
If it hollers/screams let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, you are it!

50D Florentine poet who wrote “The Divine Comedy” : DANTE

Dante Alighieri (usually just “Dante”) was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His “Divine Comedy” is widely considered to be the greatest literary work ever written in the Italian language. Dante actually gave his masterpiece the title “Comedy” (“Commedia” in Italian). Written in the early 1300s, none of Dante’s original “Comedy” manuscripts survive. Three copies made by author and poet Giovanni Boccaccio in the 1360s do survive. Boccaccio changed the title to “Divine Comedy” (“Divina Commedia”), and that title persists to this day.

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.

61D Common name for NaOH : LYE

Sodium hydroxide is a highly caustic salt, with the chemical formula NaOH. Often referred to as “lye”, sodium hydroxide is also known as “caustic soda” because of its caustic properties.