Tag: Use a Sharpie on perhaps crossword clue

Bill’s time: 12m 38s!

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11A Student’s concern, in brief : GPA

Grade point average (GPA)

14A Girl in Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” : ALICE

“White Rabbit” is a song recorded in 1967 by Jefferson Airplane that made it into the top ten. The lyrics make blatant drug references, and use imagery from the “Alice” children’s novels by Lewis Carroll such as the White Rabbit, the White Knight, the Red Queen and the Dormouse.

15A Use a Sharpie on, perhaps : REDACT

Our word “redact”, meaning to revise or edit, comes from the past participle of the Latin “redigere” meaning “to reduce”.

Sharpie is a brand of marker pen that has been on sale since 1964. When introduced, it was the world’s first permanent marker styled as a pen.

16A Undefeated boxer Laila : ALI

Laila Ali is the daughter of the great Muhammad Ali and is a very capable boxer in her own right. Laila’s professional record is an impressive 24 wins, including 21 knockouts. Now retired, she never lost a fight, and nor did she ever draw. One of those victories was against Jackie Frazier-Lyde, daughter of her father’s nemesis Joe Frazier. Laila is not a bad dancer either, coming in third place in the fourth season of “Dancing with the Stars”.

17A Platinum-selling singer who co-starred in the films “Moonlight” and “Hidden Figures” : JANELLE MONAE

Janelle Monáe is a singer and actress. I’m not familiar with her as a singer, but did see Monáe play NASA engineer Mary Jackson in the excellent 2016 film “Hidden Figures”.

“Moonlight” is a 2016 semi-autobiographical film based on an unpublished play by Tarell Alvin McCraney titled “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue”. “Moonlight” won the season’s Best Picture Oscar, thus becoming the first film to do so with an all-Black cast, and the first with an LGBT storyline.

20A Certain chain movie theaters : AMCS

The AMC theater chain used to go by the name American Multi-Cinema Inc., hence the initialism “AMC”.

24A Corkscrew-shaped pasta : ROTINI

Rotini is a corkscrew-shaped pasta that is often used in pasta salads. Even though “rotini” sounds like it comes from a word meaning “twist, rotate”, the word “rotini” doesn’t exist in Italian other than as the name for the pasta.

26A Lion’s home : DETROIT

The Detroit Lions are the NFL team that play home games at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. The team was founded way back in 1929 as the Portsmouth Spartans from Portsmouth, Ohio. The Spartans joined the NFL during the Great Depression as other franchises collapsed. However, the Spartans couldn’t command a large enough gate in Portsmouth so the team was sold and relocated to Detroit in 1934.

36A Only known warm-blooded fish : OPAH

The opah is sometimes referred to as “warm-blooded”, the only fish described as such. This does not mean that the opah maintains the same temperature, regardless of its environment, but rather that the core of its body stays at about 5°C above the surrounding water temperature.

44A “Für ___” (Beethoven dedication) : ELISE

“Für Elise” is a beautiful piece of solo piano music by Beethoven that is also known as “Bagatelle in A Minor”. “Für Elise” simply means “For Elise”, but sadly no one knows for sure the identity of the mysterious dedicatee.

47A Wordsworth’s “Intimations of Immortality,” e.g. : ODE

“Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” is a 1804 poem by English poet William Wordsworth. That said, the first part of the poem was written in 1802, completed in 1804, and then first published in 1807.

48A Homing devices? : ANKLE MONITORS

A person under house arrest often wears an ankle monitor that is used to ensure that he or she does not stray far from home. An alternative system involves random calls to the confined person’s home that have to be answered by the convict. On the face of it, house arrest seems to be a very economic alternative for society instead of the prison system. As part of the sentence, the convict may even be asked to pay for the cost of monitoring his or her house arrest.

57A Year in Rio : ANO

Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil (after São Paulo). “Rio de Janeiro” translates as “January River”. The name reflects the discovery of the bay on which Rio sits, on New Year’s Day in 1502.

64A Experiencing little to no amorous attraction, informally : ARO

Someone described as aromantic (“aro”, for short) experiences little or no romantic attraction. The opposite of aromanticism is alloromanticism.

65A List ender : ET ALII

“Et alii” (et al.) is the equivalent of “et cetera” (etc.), with “et cetera” being used in place of a list of objects, and “et alii” used for a list of names.

66A Kind of sax : TENOR

The saxophone was invented by Belgian musician Adolphe Sax, hence the name. Sax developed lip cancer at one point in his life, and one has to wonder if his affliction was related to his saxophone playing (I am sure not!). I had the privilege of visiting Sax’s grave in the Cemetery of Montmartre in Paris a few years ago.

67A A/C measure : BTU

In the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), the power of a heating or cooling unit can be measured using the British Thermal Unit (BTU). This dated unit is the amount of energy required to heat a pound of water so that the water’s temperature increases by one degree Fahrenheit.

Down

1D Unforgettable place? : ALAMO

The famous Alamo in San Antonio, Texas was originally known as Mission San Antonio de Valero. The mission was founded in 1718 and was the first mission established in the city. The Battle of the Alamo took place in 1836, a thirteen-day siege by the Mexican Army led by President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Only two people defending the Alamo Mission survived the onslaught. One month later, the Texian army got its revenge by attacking and defeating the Mexican Army in the Battle of San Jacinto. During the surprise attack on Santa Anna’s camp, many of the Texian soldiers were heard to cry “Remember the Alamo!”.

5D “Chic” modifier : TRES

“Très chic” is a French term meaning “very stylish”.

6D Rope fiber : HEMP

Hemp, also known as “cannabis”, is a hardy, fast-growing plant that has many uses mainly due to the strength of the fibers in the plant’s stalks. Hemp is used to make rope, paper and textiles. The term “hemp” is sometimes reserved for varieties of the plant grown for non-drug use.

10D The “S” of T.S. Eliot : STEARNS

The author T. S. Eliot was the son of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Champe Stearns, so his full name was Thomas Stearns Eliot (TSE).

23D Puccini opera : TOSCA

Unlike so many operas, Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca” was a big hit right from day one, when it was first performed in 1900 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Currently, “Tosca” is the eighth-most performed opera in America.

25D Actress Vardalos : NIA

Nia Vardalos is an actress and screenwriter whose biggest break came with the 2002 film “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, which she wrote and in which she starred. The film tells the story of a Greek-American woman marrying a non-Greek Caucasian American who converts to the Greek Orthodox Church to facilitate the marriage. The storyline reflects the actual experiences of Vardalos and her husband, actor Ian Gomez. Vardalos and Gomez appeared together as hosts for two seasons of the reality competition “The Great American Baking Show”.

26D North American peak named by the Koyukon Athabascans : DENALI

“Denali” means “the high one” in the native Athabaskan language, and is the name used for the peak formerly known as Mount McKinley. Denali’s summit stands at 20,237 feet, making it the highest mountain peak in North America. I was surprised to learn that there is a Denali State Park, as well as the Denali National Park. The two are located adjacent to each other (which makes sense!). The State Park is undeveloped for all practical purposes, with just a few campgrounds and trailheads.

28D Rio maker : KIA

The Kia Rio is a subcompact that has been in production since 1999, and has undergone several updates and redesigns over the years. The Rio was designed by Kia’s chief design officer, Peter Schreyer, who previously worked for Audi and is credited with designing the iconic Audi TT.

30D Carousel, e.g. : RIDE

The merry-go-round amusement park ride can be a little confusing as one travels the world. In North America, we tend to use the term “carousel” for the ride, whereas it’s a “roundabout” in Britain and Ireland, and a “hurdy-gurdy” in Australia. Yet another difference is the direction of rotation. Carousels typically rotate counterclockwise in North America, and roundabouts rotate clockwise in Britain and Ireland.

37D They might be decked in December : HALLS

The music for the Christmas song “Deck the Halls” is a traditional Welsh tune that dates back to the 16th century. The same tune was used by Mozart for a violin and piano duet. The lyrics with which we are familiar (other than the “fa-la-la”) are American in origin, and were recorded in the 19th century.

“’Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la la la la la!”

39D Morse bit : DIT

The first telegraph message in the US was sent by Samuel Morse from the US Capitol in 1844. The message was received by a B&O railroad depot in Baltimore, Maryland. The message content was the words “WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT”, a quotation from the Book of Numbers in the Bible.

45D Twin city in the Bible : SODOM

The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as Admah and Zeboim, were destroyed by God for the sins of their inhabitants, according to the Bible. The name Sodom has become a metaphor for vice and homosexuality, and gives us our word “sodomy”.

49D Resident of Japan’s third-largest city : OSAKAN

The Japanese city of Osaka used to be called Naniwa, with the name changing to Osaka sometime before 1500. “Osaka” can be translated either as “large hill” or “large slope”. Osaka is sometimes referred to as “the Chicago of Japan” as it is a major center of commerce and industry. The city has also been named the “nation’s kitchen”, and was a center for Japan’s rice trade for centuries.

50D Host of the 2000 Olympics : SYDNEY

When the Summer Olympic Games were held in Sydney, Australia in 2000, it marked the second time that the event was hosted in the Southern Hemisphere, the first occasion being the 1956 games in Melbourne. Although the Sydney Games were a public relations success, the financial result was a major disappointment. The Australian government built several new venues in the Sydney Olympic Park and were planning on recouping the cost by renting out the facilities in the following years. Sadly, the required level of bookings failed to materialize and so the government’s bank balance took a hit.

57D Actress Shawkat of “Arrested Development” : ALIA

Alia Shawkat is an actor who might be best known for playing Maeby Fünke on the sitcom “Arrested Development”. She is best friends with fellow actor Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page), whom Shawkat met while filming the 2009 movie “Whip It”.

58D Astrophysicist ___ deGrasse Tyson : NEIL

Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist who is noted for his ability to communicate science to the masses. Tyson is well known for his appearances on the great PBS show “Nova”.