Tag: When St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated crossword clue

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Constructed by: Mark Diehl
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: None

Bill’s time: 14m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. When St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated : MID-MARCH

There is a fair amount known about Saint Patrick, some of which comes from two letters written in his own hand. St. Patrick lived in the fifth century, but was not born in Ireland. He was first brought to Ireland at about 16 years of age from his native Britain, by Irish raiders who made him a slave for six years. Patrick managed to escape and returned to his homeland where he studied and entered the Church. He went back to Ireland as a bishop and a missionary and there lived out the rest of his life. There seems to be good evidence that he died on March 17th (now celebrated annually as Saint Patrick’s Day), although the year is less clear. The stories about shamrock and snakes, I am afraid they are the stuff of legend.

13. First two-time Nobelist : MARIE CURIE

Marie Curie lived a life of firsts. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and indeed was the first person to win two Nobel prizes (in Physics in 1903, and in Chemistry in 1911). Most of Curie’s work was in the field of radioactivity, and was carried out in the days when the impact of excessive radiation on the human body was not understood. She died from aplastic anemia, caused by high exposure to radiation. To this day, Curie’s personal papers are kept preserved in lead-lined boxes as they are highly radioactive, even her personal cookbook.

15. Deep red pigment : HEME

Heme (also “haem”) is an organic structure containing iron, and is a component of hemoglobin, the protein that transports primarily oxygen around the body. It is the “heme” in “hemoglobin” that binds the oxygen atoms.

18. Company that launched the game FarmVille : ZYNGA

Zynga is a game developer based in San Francisco. The company’s most famous product is CityVille, a game similar to SimCity in look and feel, but it is “stand alone” i.e. doesn’t require an installation on one’s hard drive and is played in a browser window. Cityville attracts about 14 million game-players every day!

19. Insignificant one : TWERP

“Twerp” and “pipsqueak” are both terms used for someone who is insignificant and contemptible.

31. Wine container : TUN

A “tun” is a barrel, often a large barrel used in winemaking. The term “tun” came to be a measure of volume, originally 256 gallons of wine. The weight of such a volume of wine was referred to as a “tun”, which evolved into our contemporary unit “ton”.

33. Ingredient in a Caesar cocktail : CLAM JUICE

The cocktail known as a Caesar is reminiscent of a Bloody Mary, and so is often referred to as a Bloody Caesar. It’s basically a Bloody Mary with the addition of clam juice. The clam juice comes as part of Clamato, a proprietary blend of tomato juice and clam broth. The Caesar was invented in 1969 by restaurateur Walter Chell in Calgary Alberta. Although very popular in Canada, the drink isn’t seen very often in the US.

36. LinkedIn listing : JOB

LinkedIn is a website used by professionals wishing to network with other professionals. From what I’ve heard, LinkedIn is mainly used by folks looking for a job, and other folks looking for suitable candidates to hire.

40. Trigger-to-cylinder connection : PAWL

In a ratchet, there’s a rotating gear over which runs a spring-loaded finger, the piece of metal that makes the clicks as the gear rotates. That finger is called a “pawl”.

42. Twain of note : SHANIA

Shania Twain is a country and pop singer from Windsor, Ontario. Shania’s birth name was Eileen Edwards, and this changed to Eilleen Twain when her mother remarried. Twain changed her name to Shania in the early 1990s, around the same time that her musical career started to take off.

44. Hellenic character : ETA

Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”. Originally denoting a consonant, eta was used as a long vowel in Ancient Greek.

Someone from Greece can be called a Hellene. “Ellas” is the Greek word for “Greece”, the name of the country. Greece is also known as the “Hellenic” Republic.

49. Make right : EMEND

The verb “to amend” means “to change for the better, put right, alter by adding”. The related verb “to emend” is used more rarely and mainly in reference to the editing of professional writing. Both terms are derived from the Latin “emendare” meaning “to remove fault”.

52. Extra leaf in some books : ERRATA PAGE

“Errata” is the past participle of the Latin word “errare” meaning “to err”. We use “errata” (singular “erratum”) to mean a list of errors that have been noted in some publication.

57. Radio option with improved sound quality : FM STEREO

The radio spectrum is divided into bands based on frequency. “High band” is composed of relatively high frequency values, and “low band” is composed of frequencies that are relatively low. FM radio falls into the band called Very High Frequency, or VHF. Television signals use frequencies even higher than VHF, frequencies in the Ultra High Frequency band (UHF). AM radio uses lower frequencies that fall into the relatively low bands of Low, Medium and High Frequency (LF, MF, and HF).

Down

1. Title girl in a 1961 Ricky Nelson hit : MARY LOU

As most people are well aware here in the US (but not us immigrants!), Ricky Nelson started his career playing himself on the radio in “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”, starting in 1949. Soon after he starred in a feature film “Here Come the Nelsons”, and then started recording albums. In an effort to shake his childhood nickname “Ricky”, Nelson officially changed his stage name to “Rick” on his 21st birthday in 1961. Sadly, he was one of the long list (it seems) of singing stars who died in plane crashes. Nelson was traveling on a private plane that he leased on the day after Christmas in 1985 when it crashed just northeast of Dallas. Seven people were killed, including Nelson and his fiancée.

2. Resident of Isfahan : IRANIAN

Isfahan is the name of both a province and a city in Iran, and is located in the center of the country.

3. Home run, in slang : DINGER

“Dinger” and “round trip” are familiar terms for a home run in baseball.

4. Actress Boone of NBC’s “The Blacklist” : MEGAN

“The Blacklist” is an entertaining, albeit a little formulaic, crime drama TV show starring James Spader and Megan Boone. Spader plays a successful criminal who surrenders to the FBI in order to help catch a “blacklist” of high-profile criminals.

6. Feature of many a jalopy : RUST

The origins of our word “jalopy” meaning “dilapidated old motor car” seem to have been lost in time, but the word has been around since the 1920s. One credible suggestion is that it comes from Xalapa, Mexico as the Xalapa scrap yards were the destination for many discarded American automobiles.

7. The bird in Hitchcock’s “The Birds” : CROW

“The Birds” is a 1963 film made by Alfred Hitchcock based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier. I’ve read the story and seen the film and find them both strangely disturbing (it’s probably just me!). I can’t stand the ending of either version, as nothing resolves itself!

10. Woe of a bar habitué : BEER GUT

A “habitué” is someone who frequents a particular spot. “Habituer” is the French word for “to accustom”.

11. Some high points of Mötley Crüe? : UMLAUTS

An “umlaut” (also “diaeresis”) is a diacritical mark consisting of two horizontal dots placed over a letter, usually a vowel. Here in the West, we are perhaps most familiar with umlauts in German, as in “Schön”.

Mötley Crüe is an American rock band, from Los Angeles. They’ve been around since 1981, co-founded by the famous drummer Tommy Lee. Tommy Lee is also known for his two celebrated marriages, the first with Heather Locklear and the second with Pamela Anderson. The name “Mötley Crüe” was chosen as someone once described the band members as a “motley looking crew”. The spelling was made to look a little more exotic, with the umlauts added over the “o” and “u” one day, as the band were drinking bottles of “Löwenbräu” beer!

12. Relative of tofu : TEMPEH

Tempeh is a soy product that originated in Indonesia. It is made from soybeans that have been partly cooked and fermented. I’ve had quite a bit of tempeh used as a meat substitute in vegetarian dishes. It doesn’t have an appealing texture to me, so I’m not a fan …

20. Pulpy refuse : POMACE

Pomace (also called “marc”) is the solid material left after a fruit has been pressed to remove the juice. The pomace from grapes can be used to make grappa and grape seed oil.

25. Fourth little piggy’s share : NONE

This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none,
And this little piggy went wee wee wee all the way home.

28. Macho type : RAMBO

A rambo is very violent and militant person. The term is relatively recent one, coming from the character John Rambo played by Sylvester Stallone in the “Rambo” series of movies. The first Rambo film made was “First Blood” in 1982. The film in turn is based on the 1972 novel of the same name by David Morrell.

29. Green-skinned fruit : ANJOU

The Anjou pear is a cultivar of the European Pear. The Anjou is thought to have originated in Belgium or France (Anjou is a province in the Loire Valley of western France).

32. Chaps : BLOKES

“Bloke” is British slang for “fellow”. The etymology of “bloke” seems to have been lost in the mists of time.

33. D.C. body : CONG

Congress (cong.)

34. Native of Thimphu : BHUTANI

Bhutan is a landlocked country in South Asia located 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.

35. Tied up, in the operating room : LIGATED

In the context of surgery, a ligature is a suture tied around an anatomical structure, usually around a blood vessel. The term “ligature” comes from the Latin “ligare” meaning “to bind”.

36. Witty Garofalo : JANEANE

Janeane Garofalo is a stand-up comedian, actress and political activist. On the big screen, she appears in two of my favorite (light) movies: “The Truth About Cats and Dogs” (1996) and “The Matchmaker” (1997). I must admit, I have quite a crush on Ms. Garofalo …

46. Forbidden, in a way : TREF

According to Jewish dietary law, kosher food is fit to eat, and food that is not fit to eat is referred to as treif (or “tref”). The usage of “kosher” has extended to include anything considered legitimate.

47. First name in horror : BRAM

Bram Stoker was an Irish writer best known for the 1897 novel “Dracula”. Stoker’s fame as an author came after his death. During his lifetime he was better known as the personal assistant of renowned English actor Henry Irving. It is believed that Stoker used Irving as his inspiration for the title character in “Dracula”.

51. Pecorino cheese source : EWE

Pecorino is a family of hard cheeses from Italy, with the name coming from the Italian “pecora” meaning “sheep”. The most famous variety here in North America is Pecorino Romano, which we often refer to simply as “Romano”.

53. Holiday abroad : TET

The full name for the New Year holiday in Vietnam is “Tet Nguyen Dan” meaning “Feast of the First Morning”, with the reference being to the arrival of the season of spring. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.