Tag: Single-serving coffee brand crossword clue

Bill’s time: 16m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 What can fall off a shelf : ICEBERG

An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice that is floating freely after having broken away from a glacier or ice shelf. Our use of “iceberg” comes from the Dutch word for the same phenomenon “ijsberg”, which translates literally as “ice mountain”.

8 Host of MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation” beginning in 2011 : SHARPTON

The Reverend Al Sharpton is a high-profile Baptist minister and civil rights activist whose voice is commonly heard on radio and television. Sharpton preached his first sermon when he was only 4-years-old.

20 Something never seen at night : MATINEE

“Matinée” is a French word used to describe a musical entertainment held during the daytime. “Matinée” is derived from the word “matin”, meaning “morning”, although here the term is used in the sense of “daylight”.

28 Gettysburg general George : MEADE

George Meade was a career army officer with a depth of experience in civil and military operations even before the onset of the Civil War. During the war he rose to the level of Commander of the Army of the Potomac, and is best remembered for leading the Union forces that defeated General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg in 1863.

29 Like screwball comedies : ZANY

Something described as zany is clownish and bizarre. “Zany” can also be a noun, a term used for a clown or buffoon. The original noun was “Zanni”, a Venetian dialect variant of Gianni, short for Giovanni (John). Zanni was a character who appeared in comedy plays of the day, and was someone who aped the principal actors.

The original screwball was a delivery in the sport of cricket. That term “screwball” was imported into baseball in the 1920s, and applied to an erratic baseball pitch. By the 1930s, a screwball was an eccentric and erratic person.

36 Olympic equipment weighing less than 770 grams each : EPEES

There are three fencing events in the modern Olympics, with each distinguished by the weapon used:

• Foil
• Épée
• Sabre

46 Receiver of an all-points bulletin : RADIO CAR

An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a broadcast from one US law enforcement agency to another.

50 Simile’s center : … AS A …

A simile is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two things that are unalike. For example, a person might be described as “cute as a kitten” or as “busy as a bee”.

52 God who becomes a goddess when an “r” is removed : EROS

The name of Eros, the Greek god of love, gives rise to our word “erotic” meaning “arousing sexual desire”. Eros was referred to in Latin as both “Amor” (meaning “love”) and “Cupid” (meaning “desire”).

In Greek mythology, Eos was the goddess of the dawn who lived at the edge of the ocean. Eos would wake each morning to welcome her brother Helios the sun. The Roman equivalent of Eos was Aurora. Rather delightfully, Homer referred to Eos as “rosy-fingered dawn” in both “Iliad” and “Odyssey”.

53 Spam sender : BOT

A bot is a computer program that is designed to imitate human behavior. It might crawl around the Web doing searches for example, or it might participate in discussions in chat rooms by giving pre-programmed responses. It might also act as a competitor in a computer game.

54 James of “The Godfather” : CAAN

James Caan is an actor from the Bronx, New York City. He is noted for his appearances in some very big movies such as “The Godfather”, “Misery”, “A Bridge Too Far”, “Rollerball” and more recently “Elf”. Caan is quite the sportsman. He plays golf with an 8 handicap, and is a 6-Dan Black Belt Master of Gosoku Karate.

“The Godfather” series of films is based on “The Godfather” novel by Mario Puzo, first published in 1969. Francis Ford Coppola worked with Puzo in partnership to adapt his novel into the screenplay for the first film, and to write the screenplays for the two sequels. Coppola holds that there are really only two films in “The Godfather” series, with “The Godfather Part III” actually being the epilogue.

58 Danger when walkin’ in a silo? : FALLIN’ GRAIN (from “falling rain”)

“Silo” is a Spanish word that we absorbed into English. The term ultimately derives from the Greek “siros”, which described a pit in which one kept corn.

62 Mansfield of old Hollywood : JAYNE

Actress Jayne Mansfield is perhaps best remembered as a Hollywood sex symbol from the fifties and sixties. She was also one of the early “Playboy” Playmates, and appeared in several issues of the magazine. Mansfield was married three times, and had five children. Those children include actress Mariska Hargitay, who plays Olivia Benson on the TV police drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”.

64 Dada pioneer : ARP

Jean Arp was a French artist renowned for his work with torn and pasted paper, although that wasn’t the only medium he used. Arp was the son of a French mother and German father and spoke both languages fluently. When he was speaking German he gave his name as Hans Arp, but when speaking French he called himself Jean Arp. Both “Hans” and “Jean” translate into English as “John”. In WWI Arp moved to Switzerland to avoid being called up to fight, taking advantage of Swiss neutrality. Eventually he was told to report to the German Consulate and fill out paperwork for the draft. In order to get out of fighting, Arp messed up the paperwork by writing the date in every blank space on the forms. Then he took off all of his clothes and walked with his papers over to the officials in charge. Arp was sent home …

Dadaism thrived during and just after WWI, and was an anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-art culture. The movement was launched in Zurich, Switzerland by a group of artists and writers who met to discuss art and put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire. The same group frequently expressed disgust at the war that was raging across Europe.

65 ___ Paulo : SAO

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil. It is also the city with the highest number of helicopters in the world. This is partly driven by the horrendous traffic jams in São Paulo, but also by the wealthy having a very real fear of being kidnapped on the city’s streets.

66 Rock singers? : SIRENS

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were seductive bird-women who lured men to their deaths with their song. When Odysseus sailed closed to the island home of the Sirens he wanted to hear their voices, but in safety. He had his men plug their ears with beeswax and then ordered them to tie him to the mast and not to free him until they were safe. On hearing their song Odysseus begged to be let loose, but the sailors just tightened his bonds and the whole crew sailed away unharmed. We sometimes use the term “siren” today to describe a seductively charming woman.

67 Hedge fund titan nicknamed “The Palindrome” : SOROS

Hungarian businessman George Soros was born György Schwartz in Hungary in 1930. Famously, Soros made a short sale of $10 billion worth of UK pounds during the 1992 Black Wednesday UK currency crisis, making him a profit of over $1 billion. The move led to him being dubbed “the man who broke the Bank of England”.

72 Private Twitter transmissions, for short : DMS

Direct message (DM)

73 “Absofruitalicious” cereal, in ads : TRIX

Trix is a corn-based breakfast cereal that has been around since 1954, produced by General Mills. Ads for the cereal featured Trix Rabbit, who would try hard to get hold of bowls of the cereal. He would always get caught though, and be admonished with, “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!” With 46% sugar content, the rabbit probably wouldn’t have liked it anyway …

76 What a pro bono lawyer provides : LEGAL AID

The Latin term “pro bono publico” means “for the public good”, and is usually shortened to “pro bono”. The term applies to professional work that is done for free or at a reduced fee as a service to the public.

80 Shoulder blade : SCAPULA

The scapula is the shoulder blade. It is thought that the term “scapula” comes from the Greek “skaptein” meaning “to dig”. The assumption is that the shoulder blade resembles a trowel or a small shovel, hence the name.

92 The Children’s Defense Fund, e.g., in brief : NGO

Non-governmental organization (NGO)

97 West Bank grp. : PLO

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in 1964. The PLO’s early stated goal was the liberation of Palestine, with Palestine defined as the geographic entity that existed under the terms of the British Mandate granted by the League of Nations back in 1923. The PLO was granted observer status (i.e. no voting rights) at the United Nations in 1974.

The bulk of the Palestinian territories are located in the West Bank. The term “West Bank” is a reference to lands west of the River Jordan.

102 What was causin’ the doctor to check for joint pain? : FEAR OF MISSIN’ GOUT (from “fear of missing out”)

Gout is caused by an elevation of the levels of uric acid in the blood. As a result of the high concentrations, the uric acid can crystallize out in tissue causing extreme discomfort. What we tend to call gout occurs when the crystals are deposited in the big toe. Gout is sometimes referred to as “the disease of kings” or “the rich man’s disease”, as it is associated with a traditionally opulent diet.

111 French/Belgian river : YSER

The Yser is a river that originates in northern France and flows through Belgium into the North Sea. The Yser is often associated with WWI as it figured in a major battle early in the conflict. In the first three months of the war, the German Army pushed almost completely through Belgium, inflicting heavy losses on the Belgian Army as the defenders were forced to fight a fast-moving rearguard action. The Germans were intent on pushing right through Belgium and across France in a “race to the sea”. But the Belgians, with the help of their Allies, decided to make a final stand at the Yser Canal in an effort to prevent the Germans reaching the French ports of Calais and Dunkirk. The 22-mile long defensive line was chosen at the Yser because the river and canal system could be flooded to create a barrier that might be defended. The plan was successful and the front was “stabilized”. As we now know, millions of lives were lost over the coming years with very little movement of that battle line.

112 Apollo and others : THEATERS

The Apollo Theater in the Harlem district of Manhattan, New York opened in 1914 as Hurtig and Seamon’s New Burlesque Theater. The original facility was a whites-only venue. When it was opened to African Americans in 1934, the name was changed to the Apollo.

Down

1 Online exchange, in brief : IMS

Even though instant messaging (sending and receiving IMs) has been around since the 1960s, it was AOL who popularized the term “instant message” in the eighties and nineties. The “AOL Instant Message” service was known as AIM.

3 “What’s your ___?” (question to a guest en route) : ETA

Estimated time of arrival (ETA)

“En route” is a French term that means “on the way”.

4 Recycling container : BIN

The so-called “waste hierarchy” can be restated as the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The preferences are in order:

1. Reduce consumption
2. Reuse manufactured products
3. Recycle raw materials

5 Michael who wrote “The Neverending Story” : ENDE

Michael Ende was a children’s author from Germany. His most famous novel is the fantasy work titled “The Neverending Story”, first published in 1979.

10 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 …

11 “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” band : REM

R.E.M. was a rock band from Athens, Georgia that formed in 1980. Apparently, the name “R.E.M.” was chosen randomly from a dictionary.

13 One trading dollars for quarters : TENANT

We use the term “quarters” for a place of abode, especially housing for military personnel. Back in the late 16th century, quarters were a portion (quarter) of a town reserved for a military force.

14 Paris suburb : ORLY

Orly is a town on the outskirts of Paris, to the south of the city. It is home to the Paris-Orly Airport, the second busiest international airport for the city after the more recently built Charles de Gaulle Airport. That said, Orly is home to more domestic flights than Charles de Gaulle.

15 French marshal in the Napoleonic Wars : NEY

Michel Ney was one of the first 18 Marshals of France created by Napoleon. When Bonaparte was eventually defeated for the last time, Ney was arrested and sentenced to death. He was executed in Paris by firing squad. Nay refused to wear a blindfold, and demanded that he himself be allowed to give the order to fire.

24 Blue Muppet with a pink nose : GROVER

Grover is a character on the TV show “Sesame Street”. A blue monster, Grover is a muppet who was performed originally by Frank Oz.

28 Obsidian, once : MAGMA

Obsidian is a volcanic glass, an igneous rock. Obsidian has many functional and decorative uses. I find the use of obsidian to make glass knives to be of particular interest. Well-made obsidian knives can have a cutting edge that is many times sharper than even the highest quality of steel.

30 Capital in the South Pacific : APIA, SAMOA

Apia is the capital city, and in fact the only city, of the Pacific island-nation of Samoa. The harbor of Apia is famous for a very foolish incident in 1889 involving seven naval vessels from Germany, the US and Britain. A typhoon was approaching so the safest thing to do was to head for open water away from land, but no nation would move its ships for fear of losing face in front of others. Six of the ships were lost in the typhoon as a result and 200 American and German sailors perished. The British cruiser HMS Calliope barely managed to escape from the harbor and rode out the storm safely. Apia is also known as the home of writer Robert Louis Stevenson, for the last four years of his life.

32 Mythical creature seen on old Bhutanese stamps : YETI

The yeti, also known as the abominable snowman, is a beast of legend. “Yeti” is a Tibetan term, and the beast is fabled to live in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet. Our equivalent legend in North America is that of Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch. The study of animals whose existence have not yet been substantiated is called cryptozoology, and a cryptid is a creature or plant that isn’t recognized by the scientific community, but the existence of which has been suggested.

Bhutan is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is located high up in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and India to the south, east and west. Bhutan has been a constitutional monarchy since 2008, and has been ranked by “Businessweek” as the “happiest” country in Asia.

34 Rock’s Joplin : JANIS

Famously, the singer Janis Joplin died from an overdose of heroin when she was just 27 years old. That puts her in the “27 Club”, a group of famous rock and blues musicians who died at the same age. In the club along with Joplin, are Brian Jones (of the Rolling Stones), Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse and a few others.

35 Hägar the Horrible’s dog : SNERT

“Hägar the Horrible” is a comic strip that was created by the late Dik Browne and is now drawn by his son, Chris Browne. “Hägar the Terrible” (not “Horrible”) was the nickname given to Dik by his sons. The strip’s title character is a red-bearded Viking living on the Norwegian coast during the Middle Ages. Hägar lives with his overbearing wife Helga, his sensitive son Hamlet, his pretty daughter Honi, and his clever dog Snert.

37 Sure winners : SHOO-INS

A shoo-in is a surefire winner, especially in politics. Back in the 1920s, a shoo-in was a horse that was prearranged to win a race, a race that was fixed.

39 Cross-country camping expedition, maybe : RV TRIP

Recreational vehicle (RV)

47 Pope Francis’ homeland: Abbr. : ARG

Pope Francis was elected on 13 March 2013 as the 266th Bishop of Rome and leader of the Roman Catholic church. The new pope is famously taking a much simpler and more modest approach to the office, as he did with his life back in Argentina. Francis is the first pope since 1903 not to reside in the papal residence, choosing to live instead in the less lavish Vatican guesthouse.

54 Longtime media columnist David : CARR

David Carr was a journalist and author from Minneapolis who is perhaps best remembered for his time as a cultural reporter with “The New York Times”. Carr passed away in February 2015, after collapsing in “The New York Times” newsroom.

57 Single-serving coffee brand : NESPRESSO

A Nespresso machine brews espresso from single-use capsules of ground coffee. The machine was invented by a Nestlé employee in Switzerland in 1976. I’m a big fan, and am drinking a cup of decaf from mine right now …

59 Landlocked Asian country : LAOS

The present-day nation of Laos can trace its roots back to the historic Lao kingdom of Lan Xang that existed from 1354 to 1707. The full name of the kingdom was “Lan Xang Hom Khao”, which translates as “The Land of a Million Elephants and the White Parasol”.

60 ___ Gorbachev, former first lady of the Soviet Union : RAISA

Raisa Gorbacheva was the wife of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. There’s no doubt that Raisa’s charm and personality helped her husband as he worked to change the image of the Soviet Union.

61 His tombstone reads “Workers of all lands unite” : MARX

Karl Marx was a German philosopher and revolutionary who helped develop the principles of modern communism and socialism. Marx argued that feudal society created internal strife due to class inequalities which led to its destruction and replacement by capitalism. He further argued that the inequalities created in a capitalist society create tensions that will also lead to its self-destruction. His thesis was that the inevitable replacement of capitalism was a classless (and stateless) society, which he called pure communism.

The “Communist Manifesto” written in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels contains the phrase “Proletarians of all countries, unite!” (“Proletarier aller Länder vereinigt Euch!” in German). This evolved into the English saying “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!” The words “Workers of all lands, unite“ are written on Karl Marx’s headstone in Highgate Cemetery in London.

62 Moves like Jell-O : JIGGLES

If you like Jell-O, then you might want to stop by LeRoy, New York where you can visit the only Jell-O museum in the world. While at the museum, you can walk along the Jell-O Brick Road …

66 Hiccups : SNAGS

Hiccups is a series of forced intakes of breath, caused by spasms in the muscles of the chest and throat. The most common cause of hiccups is some sort of irritation to the stomach or oesophagus, usually taking place while eating. Apparently, we don’t really understand the reason why we hiccup, but a favored suggestion is that it may be something that we inherited from our ancestors of long ago who didn’t stand up quite as straight as we do. Gravity helps us swallow our food, but animals who walk on all fours don’t have that advantage as the food moves horizontally down the throat and into the stomach. Such beasts are in greater need of an involuntary hiccup should some food get stuck. Just a theory …

70 Certain nest egg, for short : IRA

Individual retirement account (IRA)

72 Blue-and-white earthenware pottery : DELFT

Delft is a city in the Netherlands located between Rotterdam and the Hague. Delft is noted for its pottery and was also home to one of my favorite artists, Johannes Vermeer.

73 Dramatic ballroom dance : TANGO

The dramatic dance called the tango originated in the late 1800s in the area along the border between Argentina and Uruguay. Dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires in particular traveled to Europe and beyond in the early twentieth century and brought the tango with them. The tango craze first struck Europe in Paris in the 1910s, and from there spread to London and Berlin, crossing the Atlantic to New York in 1913.

76 Two-time Best Actress winner Rainer : LUISE

Luise Rainer was a Hollywood actress from Dusseldorf in Germany. Rainer won the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing Anna Heid in 1936’s “The Great Ziegfeld”, and again for playing O-Lan in 1937’s “The Good Earth”. In doing so, she became the first actor to win more than one Oscar. Rainer passed away in 2014, just a few days shy of her 105th birthday.

77 Eva of “Desperate Housewives” : LONGORIA

Eva Longoria is a fashion model and actress who had a regular role on TV’s “Desperate Housewives”, playing Gabrielle Solis.

78 Ho-hum feelings : ENNUIS

“Ennui” is the French word for “boredom”, and a term that we now use in English. It’s one of the few French words we’ve imported that we haven’t anglicized, and actually pronounce “correctly”.

88 Home past curfew : IN LATE

Our word “curfew” comes from an Old French word meaning “cover fire”. In medieval days a bell would ring in the evenings as a signal to bank the hearths in preparation for sleeping. The intent was to prevent uncontrolled fires starting from fireplaces that were not tended during the night.

97 Phnom ___, Cambodia : PENH

Phnom Penh (also “Pnom Penh”) is the capital of Cambodia, and has been so since the French colonized the country in the late 1800s. The city’s name translates from the Khmer language as “Hill of Penh”.

98 “___ to tyrants, and my country’s friend” (words of Cato in “Julius Caesar”) : A FOE

William Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar” is a little unusual, in that Julius Caesar is not the main character. The protagonist is actually Marcus Brutus, who plays a major role in Caesar’s assassination.

99 Naval officer: Abbr. : CMDR

Commander (cmdr.)

100 Grandson of 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.

106 Western native : UTE

The Ute are a group of Native American tribes who now reside in Utah and Colorado. The Ute were not a unified people as such, but rather a loose association of nomadic groups. The word “Ute” means “Land of the Sun”, and “Ute” also gave us the state name “Utah”.