Tag: Open with one’s teeth crossword clue

Bill’s time: 13m 34s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Open with one’s teeth? : UNZIP

What we know today as a “zipper” was invented by mechanical engineer Whitcomb Judson in 1890, when it was called a “clasp locker”. The device was introduced at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, but was not successful. Several people made improvements to the basic design over the coming decades. By the 1920s, the B. F. Goodrich Company was using the device on a line of rubber boots. It was Goodrich who introduced us to the name “zipper”.

6A Network that launched in 1994 with the film “Scent of a Woman” : STARZ

The Starz premium cable channel is owned by Lionsgate, the same company that owns the Encore cable channel. Starz was launched in 1994 and mainly shows movies.

“Scent of a Woman” is a 1992 American remake of a 1974 Italian film “Profumo di donna”, which in turn is an adaptation of the Giovanni Arpino novel “Il buio e il miele”. Al Pacino won a Best Actor Oscar for playing the irascible, blind, retired Army officer Frank Slade.

11A Bed threads : PJS

“PJs” is the shortened form of “pajamas” (or “pyjamas” in British English). The word “pajama” itself comes to English from Hindi, derived from the Persian “pāē-jāma”, meaning “leg garment”.

14A Pre-Inca civilization known for its underground aqueducts and geoglyphs : NAZCA

The Nazca civilization thrived in southern Peru between 100 BCE and 800 CE. Their most famous legacy is the Nazca Lines, a vast collection of geoglyphs etched into the desert floor. The Nazca people also developed sophisticated irrigation systems and underground aqueducts to sustain life in the arid environment.

15A November birthstone : TOPAZ

Topaz is a semiprecious stone made from silicate containing aluminum and fluorine. It is the state gemstone of Utah, and the rare blue topaz is the state gemstone of Texas.

16A CNBC subj. : IPO

Initial public offering (IPO)

CNBC is a business news channel owned by NBC. Launched in 1989, “CNBC” was known as the Consumer News and Business Channel up until 1991.

26A 4x platinum self-titled album of 2001 : J.LO

“J.Lo” is the nickname of singer and actress Jennifer Lopez. “J.Lo” is also the title of her second studio album, which was released in 2001.

29A “Sesame Street” character with a pet rock named Rocco : ZOE

The muppet named Zoe is a young orange monster that appears on “Sesame Street”. Zoe is best friends with Elmo. She is a great lover of ballet and always appears wearing a tutu.

32A Alertness aid : NODOZ

NoDoz and Vivarin are brands of caffeine pills.

34A Founder of Stoicism : ZENO

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher famous for teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the “Painted Porch”, located on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens. Because of the location of his classes, his philosophy became known as stoicism (from “stoa”, the word for “porch”). We get our adjective “stoic”, meaning “indifferent to pleasure or pain”, from the same root.

40A When doubled, first name in classic Hollywood : ZSA

Zsa Zsa Gabor was a Hungarian-American actress, born in Budapest as Sári Gábor (the older sister of the actress Eva). Zsa Zsa Gabor was married a whopping nine times, including a 5-year stint with Conrad Hilton and another 5 years with the actor George Sanders. One of Gabor’s famous quips was that she was always a good housekeeper, as after every divorce she kept the house!

41A ___ Khamenei, former supreme leader of Iran : ALI

Ali Khamenei became the 2nd Supreme Leader of Iran in 1989, after serving for almost eight years as the 3rd President of Iran.

42A Daughter of Saturn, in Roman myth : JUNO

Juno was the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, and also looked after the interests of the women of Rome. She was the sister and wife of Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods.

46A Colombian offerings that may be served with hogao : AREPAS

An arepa is a cornmeal cake or bread that is popular in Colombian and Venezuelan cuisines in particular. Each arepa has a flat, round shape and is often split to make a sandwich.

53A Discombobulated : AT SEA

To discombobulate is to faze, disconcert, to confuse.

56A Large storage unit : GIGABYTE

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, and so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and gigabyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

62A 2007 horror sequel : SAW IV

The “Saw” franchise of movies is gruesome in the extreme. I’ve only seen a few minutes of “Saw” footage (accidentally). The storylines center on imprisoned victims who are faced with having to mutilate themselves in order to escape. Ugh …

63A “The Simpsons” character ___ Nahasapeemapetilon : APU

“The Problem with Apu” is a 2017 documentary that explores the use of racial stereotypes by focusing on the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from the animated sitcom “The Simpsons”. The film was written by and stars American stand-up comedian Hari Kondabolu.

Down

1D Some, in León : UNAS

León is a province in the autonomous community of Castile and León in the northwest of Spain. The province’s capital is the city of León, which was founded as a Roman military encampment around 29 BC.

2D Allied grp. : NATO

“NATO” is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (or “OTAN” in French, “l’Organisation du Traité de l’Atlantique Nord”).

3D Astronaut for whom a Pixar character is named : BUZZ ALDRIN

Buzz Aldrin was a true American hero, I’d say. He flew 66 combat missions in Korea, shot down two MiGs, earned his Sc. D. degree from MIT, and was one of the two men who landed on the moon for the first time. Now that man, he lived a life worth living.

1995’s “Toy Story” was the world’s first feature-length computer-animated movie, and also Pixar’s first production. The main roles in the film are Buzz Lightyear and Woody, who are voiced by Tim Allen and Tom Hanks respectively. Hanks was the first choice to voice Woody, but Allen was asked to voice Buzz after Billy Crystal turned down the role.

5D Longtime “Saturday Night Live” announcer Don : PARDO

Don Pardo’s distinctive voice announced the show “Saturday Night Live”, and did so from the premiere episode that aired in 1975 until his death in 2014. Pardo was the announcer for all the SNL shows except for the 1981-82 season. Pardo retired from NBC in 2004 and moved to Tucson, Arizona, but the producers of “Saturday Night Live” persuaded him to stay on as announcer for their show. He had a lifetime contract, one of only two people ever to have such an arrangement with NBC (the other was Bob Hope!). Pardo celebrated his 90th birthday on air, blowing out the candles on his birthday cake at the end of an episode of SNL.

9D Indian P.M., 1991-96 : RAO

P. V. Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister of India from 1991 to 1996. Rao is seen by most as the leader who transformed his country’s economy into the market-driven engine that it is today.

10D Totino’s frozen food offering : PIZZA ROLL

Totino’s brand of frozen pizza was founded by Rose and Jim Totino, a married couple who had been running a take-out pizzeria in Minneapolis since 1951.

11D Tropical fruta : PINA

In Spanish, “piña” (pineapple) is a “fruta” (fruit).

12D Pic file format : JPEG

The JPEG image file format (also “.jpg”) was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), hence the name.

19D 911 responder : EMT

Emergency medical technician (EMT)

21D “Music for Airports” composer : ENO

Brian Eno was one of the pioneers of the genre of ambient music. He composed an album in 1978 called “Ambient 1: Music for Airports”, which was the first in a series of four albums with an ambient theme. Eno named the tracks, somewhat inventively, 1/1, 1/2, 2/1 and 2/2.

24D Feudal estate : FIEF

In the days of feudalism, a “fief” was basically a “fee” (the words “fee” and “fief” have the same origins) paid by a Lord in exchange for some benefit to him, perhaps loyalty, or military service. The fief itself was often land granted by the Lord. We use the term “fiefdom” (and sometimes “fief”) figuratively, to describe a sphere of operation controlled by one dominant person or entity.

25D Lens solution brand : RENU

“ReNu” is a brand name of contact lens products sold by Bausch & Lomb.

26D 10,000,000 ergs : JOULE

James Joule was an English physicist who spent much of his life working in the family brewing business. Joule used his work in the brewery to study the relationship between heat and mechanical work. In honor of his achievements, his name is used for the unit of energy in the International System of Units (i.e. the joule).

28D 2004 inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame … and a hint to 3-, 10-, 29- and 33-Down : ZZ TOP

In the blues rock band ZZ Top, the hairy guitar players were Billy F. Gibbons and Dusty Hill (RIP 2021). The relatively clean-shaven drummer was, wait for it … Frank Beard (RIP 2026).

29D Bear of children’s rhyme : FUZZY WUZZY

“Fuzzy Wuzzy” is a novelty song for children that dates back to 1944.

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn’t fuzzy, was he?

31D “Heavens to Murgatroyd!” : EGAD!

Remember the catchphrase made famous by the cartoon character Snagglepuss, “Heavens to Murgatroyd!”? Snagglepuss stole that line from a 1944 movie called “Meet the People” in which it was first uttered by none other than Bert Lahr, the actor who played the cowardly lion in “The Wizard of Oz”.

33D Gesture also known as “spirit fingers” : JAZZ HANDS

Jazz hands is a dance move in which the performer extends the hands with palms towards the audience and fingers splayed. The technique is very much associated with famed choreographer Bob Fosse.

39D Console for Chrono Trigger, in brief : SNES

The name “Super NES” (or “SNES”) stands for “Super Nintendo Entertainment System”.

44D Completely missed shot : AIR BALL

An air ball in basketball is a shot that misses without even touching the rim, net or backboard.

52D Insects responsible for virtually all fig pollination : WASPS

The fig is the fruit of a small tree in the mulberry family. Once picked, figs don’t travel very well, so the bulk of figs consumed have been preserved by drying.

57D “The devourer of all things,” per Ovid : TIME

The Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso is known today simply as Ovid. Ovid is usually listed alongside the two other great Roman poets: Horace and Virgil. Although he was immensely popular during his own lifetime, Ovid spent the last ten years of his life in exile. He fell foul of Emperor Augustus and so was banished to Tomis, an island in the Black Sea. What led to this disfavor seems to have been lost in the mists of time.

60D Clumsy vessel : ARK

The term “ark”, when used with reference to Noah, is a translation of the Hebrew word “tebah”. The word “tebah” is also used in the Bible for the basket in which Moses was placed by his mother when she floated him down the Nile. It seems that the word “tebah” doesn’t mean “boat”, nor does it mean “basket”. Rather, a more appropriate translation is “life-preserver” or “life-saver”. So, Noah’s ark was Noah’s life-preserver during the flood.

61D Bygone cousin of a kiwi : MOA

Moas were flightless birds native to New Zealand that are now extinct. The fate of the Moa is a great example of the detrimental effect that humans can have on animal populations. The Maoris arrived in New Zealand about 1300 AD, upsetting the balance of the ecosystem. The Moa were hunted to extinction within 200 years, which had the knock-on effect of killing off the Haast’s Eagle, the Moa’s only predator prior to the arrival of man. Moas were huge creatures, measuring up to 12 feet tall with their necks stretched upwards.