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Bill’s time: 10m 43s

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Karate match exchanges : BOWS

“Karate” is a Japanese word meaning “empty hand”, and the related word “karaoke” translates as “empty orchestra”.

5 Nickname for Chicago’s Ernie Banks : MR CUB

First baseman Ernie Banks was known as “Mr. Cub”, and played his entire 19-year professional career with the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs retired Banks’ uniform number 14 in 1982, making him the first Cubs player to be so honored. Banks was known for his catchphrase, “It’s a beautiful day for a ballgame … Let’s play two!”, a reference to his love of the game, always wanting to play a doubleheader.

10 Gradually decrease : WANE

The verbs “to wax” and “to wane” come from Old English. To wax is to increase gradually in size, strength, intensity or number. To wane is to decrease gradually.

20 Corrida shout : OLE!

Spanish bullfighting is known locally as “corrida de toros”, literally “race of bulls”.

21 Christmas hymn start : ADESTE …

The lovely Christmas hymn “Adeste Fideles” (entitled “O Come, All Ye Faithful” in English) was written by one John Francis Wade in the 13th century. Well, he wrote the original four verses, with four more verses being added over time. A kind blog reader pointed out to me that the English translation is in fact a little “off”. The term “adeste” best translates from Latin as “be present, attend”, rather than “come”. The verb “come” appears later in the lyrics in “venite adoremus”, meaning “come, let us worship”.

23 One in a gun show? : GYM RAT

“Gym rat” is a slang term describing someone who spends all of his or her leisure time playing sports or working out at the gym. Never been called a gym rat …

“Guns” is a slang term for very strong arms or biceps.

25 Ax wielder, at times : BOSS

That would be a saw boss, the supervisor of a saw crew.

26 Lover of Euridice, in a Gluck opera : ORFEO

“Orfeo ed Euridice” is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck that was first performed in 1762. It is perhaps Gluck’s most popular work.

28 Anaheim stadium nickname : BIG A

Angel Stadium of Anaheim is sometimes called the Big A. The Big A opened for business in 1966, making it the fourth oldest stadium in the major leagues, after Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium.

30 1843 story narrated by a murderer, with “The” : TELL-TALE HEART

Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Tell-Tale Heart” is arguably one of his most disturbing works. It is a story of cold-blooded and premeditated murder, with some dismemberment thrown in for good measure.

35 Finger in the dike, so to speak : DAMAGE CONTROL

“Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates” is a children’s novel written by American author Mary Mapes Dodge, first published in 1865. The novel is famous for introducing a story, told with within the novel’s own storyline, the tale of the little Dutch boy who put his finger in the leaking dike. I always thought the tale of the boy and the dike was a Dutch legend but no, it was a literary invention of Mary Mapes Dodge …

44 Meteorological line : ISOBAR

An isobar is a line on a weather map connecting points of equal barometric pressure.

48 Units for many staples: Abbr. : LBS

The unit of mass that we know today as a pound is descended from the old Roman unit of weight known as a “libra”. That “libra” connection is why we abbreviate “pound” to “lb”. The name “pound” comes from the Latin “pondo” meaning “weight”. Our term “ounce” (abbreviated to “oz.”) comes from the Latin “uncia”, which was 1/12 of a Roman “libra”.

53 Beyond reason : INORDINATE

Back in the late 1500s, something said to be inordinate was not ordered, lacked regularity. Over time, this meaning evolved into “exceeding orderly limits” and so “immoderate, excessive”.

56 Heavy burdens : MILLSTONES

Millstones are pairs of heavy stones used for grinding grains in a gristmill. ONe stone is stationary, and is called the “bedstone”. The “runner stone” turns above the bedstone, and does the actual grinding. The idiom “millstone around one’s neck”, meaning “carrying a heavy load or responsibility”, originated in the gospel of Matthew:

If anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

57 Wonder Woman gal pal __ Candy : ETTA

Etta Candy was introduced into Wonder Woman’s universe by DC Comics in 1942. She started out as an undernourished young woman who Wonder Woman encountered in a local hospital. The next time Etta appeared in the comics, she was a rather rotund woman who claims to have been rejuvenated by eating candy. That was 1942 …

58 Pompano kin : SCAD

“Scad” is the common name for various species in the family of fish known taxonomically as the Carangidae. “Scad” is a Cornish term that dates back to about 1600, when it was used to describe the fish also known as the horse mackerel.

The fish known as a pompano takes its name via Spanish from the Latin “pampinus” meaning “tendril, leaf of a vine”. The name probably comes from the shape of the fish, which somewhat resembles a vine leaf.

59 Black-necked shorebird : STILT

The avocet is found in warm climates, usually in saline wetlands where it uses its upcurved bill to sweep from side-to-side in water searching for aquatic insects on which it feeds. Avocets, and other similar species, may go by the common name of “stilts”, a moniker applied to them because of their long legs.

60 World power initials until 1991 : USSR

When the former Soviet Union (USSR) dissolved in 1991, it was largely replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The formation of the CIS underscored the new reality, that the former Soviet Republics (SSRs) were now independent states. Most of the 15 former SSRs joined the CIS. Notably, the three Baltic SSRs (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) opted not to join the new commonwealth, and in 2004 joined NATO and the EU.

Down

1 Slow cooker associated with Boston : BEANPOT

In the days of sail, the natural trade routes across the Atlantic involved a lot of ships arriving in Boston directly from West Indies. One of the main cargoes carried by these vessels coming from the West Indies was molasses. An abundance of cheap molasses led to an abundance of baked beans in the port city, and all those baked beans gave rise to Boston’s nickname “Beantown”.

5 “I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer” doctor : MCCOY

Actor DeForest Kelley is best known for playing Bones McCoy in the original “Star Trek” cast. The show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, originally offered Kelley the role of Spock, but Kelly refused it and so was given the part of the ship’s medical officer. Bones McCoy had the habit of expressing a need to stick to his medical duties, despite the wishes of his fellow crew members, for example:

• What am I, a doctor or a moon shuttle conductor?
• I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer!
• I’m a doctor, not an escalator.
• I’m not a magician, Spock, just an old country doctor.
• I’m a doctor, not a coal miner.
• Damn it, man, I’m a doctor, not a torpedo technician!

7 Worker with rattan : CANER

Rattan is the name of a large number of species of palms, all of which look less like trees and more like vines. The woody stems are used for making cane furniture.

8 “For the Boys” org. : USO

The United Service Organization (USO) was founded in 1941 at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt “to handle the on-leave recreation of the men in the armed forces”. A USO tour is undertaken by a troupe of entertainers, many of whom are big-name celebrities. A USO tour usually includes troop locations in combat zones.

“For the Boys” is a 1991 movie starring Bette Midler and James Caan as two performers entertaining the troops during WWII, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Although the movie is fictional, many believe that Caan’s character is based on Bob Hope, and Midler’s on actress and singer Martha Raye. In fact, Raye pursued an ultimately unsuccessful legal action against the film’s producers on that basis.

10 Port vessel : WINE BARREL

Portugal’s city of Oporto (“Porto” in Portuguese) gave its name to port wine in the late 1600s. Oporto was the seaport through which most of the region’s fortified red wine was exported.

12 “Fiddlesticks!” : NERTS!

“Nerts” is a slang term, a corruption of “nuts!”

We’ve been using “fiddlesticks” to mean “nonsense” since the early 17th century. Prior to that time, “fiddlestick” referred to the bow of a fiddle.

13 Pair of shoes? : ESSES

There is a pair of letters S (esses) in the word “shoes”.

16 Ness, for one : FED

A fed is an officer of a US federal agency, although the term “fed” usually applies to an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Eliot Ness was the Treasury agent charged with the task of bringing down the notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone. When Ness took on the job in 1930, Chicago law-enforcement agents were renowned for being corrupt, for being on the take. Ness handpicked 50 prohibition agents who he thought he could rely on, later reducing the group to a cadre of 15 and ultimately just 11 trusted men. That group of 11 earned the nickname “The Untouchables”, the agents who couldn’t be bought.

27 “Sesame Street” segment : ELMO’S WORLD

The last 15 minutes of the children’s show “Sesame Street” was called “Elmo’s World”. The ending segment was directed towards younger viewers, those around 3 years old.

33 “The Name of the Rose” author : ECO

Umberto Eco was an Italian writer who is probably best known for his novel “The Name of the Rose”, published in 1980. In 1986, “The Name of the Rose” was adapted into a movie with the same title starring Sean Connery.

43 Target of a new vaccine : EBOLA

The Ebola virus causes a very nasty form of hemorrhagic fever. The name of the virus comes from the site of the first known outbreak, in a mission hospital in the Ebola River Valley in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as Zaire). The disease is transmitted from human to human by exposure to bodily fluids. In nature, the main carrier of Ebola is the fruit bat.

45 Spender of rials : OMANI

Rial is the name of the currency of Oman (as well as Yemen, Iran, Cambodia and Tunisia). Generally, there are 1,000 baisa in a rial.

46 Stimulating nut : BETEL

A betel nut is something that is chewed, especially in parts of Asia. “Betel nut” is a bit of a misnomer, as the nut in question is actually an areca nut from the Areca palm. For chewing, the areca nut is wrapped in betel leaves and the whole thing is called a “betel nut”.

47 ’50s headline event : A-TEST

Atomic test (A-test)

50 Takes in too much, for short : OD’S

Overdose (OD)

52 Spirit of Notre-Dame : DIEU

In French, “Dieu” (God) is the foe of “le diable” (the devil).

Notre-Dame de Paris is the spectacular Gothic cathedral that sits on the Île de la Cité, one of the islands in the middle on the River Seine in Paris. Notre Dame is home to many beautiful and significant artifacts, the most famous of which is the Crown of Thorns supposedly worn by Jesus Christ at his execution, placed in the cathedral in 1239. It’s also home to some magnificent gargoyles on the roof, and you can climb up to the roof and take a very close look at them. Well, you used to be able to, until the tragic fire of 2019.