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Bill’s time: 5m 47s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Analyze critically : PARSE

The verb “to parse” means “to state the parts of speech in a sentence”. “Parse” comes from the Latin word “pars” meaning “part”.

6 Counting gadgets : ABACI

The abacus (plural “abaci”) was used as a counting frame long before man had invented a numbering system. It is a remarkable invention, particularly when one notes that abaci are still widely used today across Africa and Asia.

11 Business address abbr. : STE

Suite (ste.)

14 Michener novel with astronauts : SPACE

“Space” is a 1982 novel by James A. Michener. It is a fictional account of the US manned spaceflight program. It was adapted into a miniseries by CBS titled “James A Michener’s Space” starring James Garner that originally aired in 1985.

17 U.S. gaming release of 1989 : SEGA GENESIS (“Sega” = mixed “sage”)

Genesis is a video game console sold in the US by the Japanese company Sega. Genesis is sold as Mega Drive in the rest of the world, as Sega couldn’t get the rights to the Mega Drive name in the US.

20 Ivan or Nicholas : TSAR

The Grand Prince of Moscow, and first Tsar of Russia, Ivan IV became known as “Ivan the Terrible”. The name “terrible” is a translation from Russian, and perhaps creates the wrong impression about the man. The Russian word is “Grozny”, which is more akin to “strict” and “powerful” rather than “cruel” or “abominable”.

The last ruler of Imperial Russia was Tsar Nicholas II (of the House of Romanov). Famously, the Tsar and his family were murdered in 1918 in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg, Russia by members of the Bolshevik secret police. The Tsar’s youngest daughter was 16-year-old Anastasia and rumors of her escape have persisted for years. The rumors grew with the help of numerous women who claimed to be Anastasia. In 2009, DNA testing finally proved that the remains of all of the Tsar’s immediate family, including Anastasia, have been found and identified.

21 Actor Chaney : LON

Lon Chaney, Sr. played a lot of crazed-looking characters in the days of silent movies. He did much of his own make-up work, developing the grotesque appearances that became his trademark, and earning himself the nickname “the man of a thousand faces”. Most famous were his portrayals of the title characters in the films “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1923) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925).

22 Windy home, probably : AERIE

An aerie is the nest of an eagle, and is also known as an “eyrie”.

24 Chiffon-like materials : VOILE FABRICS (“voile” = mixed “olive”)

Voile is a soft and sheer fabric, usually made from cotton, that is often used as a window treatment. Voile curtains are similar to net curtains and may be used as mosquito nets, for example. Aptly enough, “voile” is the French word for “veil”.

Chiffon is a sheer fabric usually made from silk, cotton, nylon or rayon. The French word “chiffon” is a diminutive of “chiffe” meaning “rag, piece of cloth”.

31 Piccadilly Circus statue : EROS

London’s Piccadilly Circus is a major road junction in the West End of London. The junction is at one end of the thoroughfare called Piccadilly, hence the first part of the name. The junction’s shape is roughly circular, hence the use of “circus”, a Latin word meaning “circle”. Famously, there is a statue of Eros at the center of the junction.

33 Future first lady wed in 1842 : MARY TODD (“Mary” = mixed “army”)

Mary Todd moved in the best of the social circles in Springfield, Illinois and there met the successful lawyer, Abraham Lincoln. The path to their marriage wasn’t exactly smooth, as the engagement was broken once but reinstated, with the couple eventually marrying in 1842.

40 Word from a bull : BUY

The terms “bull market” and “bear market” come from the way in which each animal attacks. A bull thrusts his horns upwards (an “up” market), whereas a bear swipes with his paws downward (a “down” market).

41 Foam toy : NERF BALL (“Nerf” = mixed “fern”)

Nerf is soft material used in a whole series of toys designed for “safe” play indoors. The Nerf product is used to make darts, balls and ammunition for toy guns. “NERF” is an acronym, standing for Non-Expanding Recreational Foam.

49 Rocky Mountains nickname : MILE-HIGH CITY (“mile” = mixed “lime”)

Denver, Colorado is nicknamed the “Mile-High City” because its official elevation is listed as exactly one mile. Denver City was founded in 1858 as a mining town. The name was chosen in honor of the Kansas Territorial Governor at the time, James W. Denver.

54 Longing : YEN

The word “yen”, meaning “urge”, has been around in English since the very early 1900s. It comes from the earlier word “yin” imported from Chinese, which was used in English to describe an intense craving for opium.

55 Cheese with an edible rind : BRIE

Brie is a soft cheese that is named for the French region in which it originated. Brie is similar to the equally famous (and delicious) Camembert.

60 Simple salad … and what the starts of the five other longest answers are? : MIXED GREENS

64 Aardvark snack : ANT

The aardvark is the oddest looking of creatures, and a nocturnal burrowing animal that is native to Africa. Even though it is sometimes called the African ant bear, the name “aardvark” is Afrikaans for “earth pig”. Aardvarks are noted, among other things, for their unique teeth. Their teeth have no enamel and wear away quite readily, but continuously regrow. The aardvark feeds mainly on ants and termites.

67 Caustic chemical : LYE

What we call “lye” is usually sodium hydroxide, although historically the term was used for potassium hydroxide. Lye has many uses, including to cure several foodstuffs. Lye can make olives less bitter, for example. The chemical is also found in canned mandarin oranges, pretzels and Japanese ramen noodles. More concentrated grades of lye are used to clear drains and clean ovens. Scary …

68 State of northeast India : ASSAM

Assam is a state in the very northeast of India, and just south of the Himalayas. Assam is noted for its tea as well as its silk.

Down

2 Gibbons, e.g. : APES

Gibbons are referred to as lesser apes as they differ in size and behavior from the great apes e.g. chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and humans.

3 Music featuring sitars : RAGA

Raga isn’t really a genre of music, but has been described as the “tonal framework” in which Indian classical music is composed. Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous raga virtuoso (to us Westerners). Western rock music with a heavy Indian influence might be called raga rock.

5 Neurologist’s printout, briefly : EEG

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of electrical activity caused by the firing of neurons within the brain. The EEG might be used to diagnose epilepsy, or perhaps to determine if a patient is “brain dead”.

6 “Dover Beach” poet : ARNOLD

English poet Matthew Alfred was active during the reign of Queen Victoria. He is sometimes referred to as the third great Victorian poet, after Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning.

“Dover Beach” is an 1867 poem by English poet Matthew Arnold.

The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; —on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

7 __ Bag: eponymous ’70s designer label : BEENE

Geoffrey Beene was an American fashion designer. He had an impressive list of clients that included First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Nancy Reagan. He had a very successful line of clothing called “Beene Bag”.

8 Remote batteries : AAS

The first television remote control was introduced by Zenith Radio Corporation, in 1950. That remote was hard-wired to the TV, and was marketed as “Lazy Bones”. Personally, my first “remote” was a broomstick that I used by pushing in large mechanical buttons that selected each of the three channels that were available back then on the east coast of Ireland …

9 Third-century date : CCI

In Roman numerals, the year 201 is written as CCI.

11 Puppeteer Lewis : SHARI

Shari Lewis was the original puppeteer behind the PBS children’s show “Lamb Chop”. After Shari Lewis died in 1998, her daughter Mallory took over the role of puppeteer on the show.

13 They’re heavier than foils : EPEES

The sword known as an épée has a three-sided blade. The épée is similar to a foil and sabre, although the foil and saber have rectangular cross-sections.

18 Nobelist Wiesel : ELIE

Elie Wiesel was a holocaust survivor, and is best known for his book “Night” that tells of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was also the first recipient of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Award, which was later renamed the Elie Wiesel Award in his honor.

27 SFO postings : ARRS

The San Francisco Bay Area is served by three major airports: San Francisco (SFO), Oakland (OAK) and San Jose (SJC).

29 Buffalo’s county : ERIE

There are three Erie Counties in the US:

• Erie County, New York (with Buffalo as the county seat)
• Erie County, Ohio (with Sandusky as the county seat)
• Erie County, Pennsylvania (with Erie as the county seat)

Buffalo is the second-most populous city in the state of New York. The city takes its name from Buffalo Creek that runs through the metropolis (although the waterway is called Buffalo River within the city). The source of the name Buffalo Creek is the subject of much speculation, but one thing is clear, there were never any bison in the area.

30 Irish pop group family name : CORR

The Corrs are a Celtic rock band from Dundalk, Ireland (a town in which I spent much of my life). The band is made up of three sisters Andrea, Sharon and Caroline and their brother Jim. In the late nineties, the Corrs held the number one and number two spot on the UK charts simultaneously, something that only the Beatles had ever been able to achieve.

33 End of a corporal’s URL : MIL

The .mil domain was one of the six original generic top-level domains specified. The complete original list is:

• .com (commercial enterprise)
• .net (entity involved in network infrastructure e.g. an ISP)
• .mil (US military)
• .org (not-for-profit organization)
• .gov (US federal government entity)
• .edu (college-level educational institution)

34 Sapporo sashes : OBIS

Sapporo is the fourth largest city in Japan, and lies on the island of Hokkaido. The city and surrounding area was home in 1972 to the first Winter Olympic Games to be held in Asia. For the beer drinkers out there, Sapporo is also home to Sapporo Brewery, Japan’s oldest beer producer.

35 “Seriously, man!” : DUDE!

Our term “dude” arose as slang in New York City in the 1880s, when it was used to describe a fastidious man. In the early 1900s, the term was extended to mean “city slickers”, easterners who vacationed in the West. The first use of the term “dude ranch” was recorded in 1921.

38 Arabian arroyo : WADI

“Wadi” is an Arabic term referring to a valley, or perhaps a (mostly) dry riverbed. In English we might call this a wash, or use the Spanish word “arroyo”.

39 Words after shake or break : … A LEG

There are many, many colorful theories for the origins of the expression “break a leg” that’s used in the world of theater to mean “good luck”. Regardless of the origin, what is clear is that using the phrase “good luck” is considered to be very “bad luck”.

43 Czech Republic region : BOHEMIA

The region known as Bohemia covers most of the Czech Republic. Centuries ago, it was wrongly believed that gypsies came from Bohemia, giving rise to the term “Bohemian” meaning a “gypsy of society”.

45 Nutrient-rich legume : SOYBEAN

What are known as soybeans here in the US are called “soya beans” in most other English-speaking countries. So, I drink soy milk here in America, but when I am over in Ireland I drink “soya milk”.

48 “Merciless” Flash Gordon foe : MING

In the “Flash Gordon” comic strip, the main bad guy is Ming the Merciless, the evil emperor who rules the planet Mongo. Ming has been around quite a while, first appearing in print way back in 1934.

50 Device common on “Seinfeld” : IRONY

Jerry Seinfeld is a standup comedian and comic actor from Brooklyn, New York. Jerry is most famous for playing the lead in the “Seinfeld” sitcom from 1989 to 1998. “Seinfeld” was good for Jerry, earning him $267 million in 1998 alone, and making him the highest-paid celebrity that year.

51 Starbucks order : LATTE

Starbucks is a coffee company based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest coffeehouse company in the world and has over 19,000 stores. In the 1990s, Starbucks was opening one new store every single day! Starbucks is named after the chief mate on the Pequod in Herman Melville’s book “Moby Dick”.

52 Spotted African predator : HYENA

Hyenas have the reputation of being cowardly scavengers. That said, the spotted hyena that lives in Sub-Saharan Africa actually kills about 95% of its food and a pack of spotted hyenas are capable of driving off leopards or lionesses before they can consume their kill.

56 OPTI-FREE rival : RENU

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

OPTI-FREE is a line of contact lens solutions made by Alcon.

57 Contents of many cartridges : INKS

Four-color printing uses four different color inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The black ink is also known as the “key”. The first letters of the colors (with black being ”key”) give the more common name for four-color printing, namely CMYK.

58 To be, to Brutus : ESSE

The most famous man with the name “Brutus” in Ancient Rome was Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger. It was this Brutus that Julius Caesar turned to when he was assassinated on the steps of the Senate. William Shakespeare immortalized Brutus by featuring him in his play, “Julius Caesar”, and giving his victim the line “Et tu, Brute?”

61 Apr. addressee : IRS

April 15th wasn’t always Tax Day in the US. The deadline for returns was March 1st from 1913-18, when it was moved to March 15th. Tax Day has been April 15th since 1955.

63 Slugger’s stat : RBI

Run batted in (RBI)