Day: August 8, 2018

Bill’s time: 7m 29s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5. Body wrap spot : SPA

The word “spa” migrated into English from Belgium, as Spa is the name of a municipality in the east of the country that is famous for its healing hot springs. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.

13. Jaunty tune : LILT

Our words “jaunty” and “genteel” are related in that they both derive from the French “gentil” meaning “nice, pleasing”. In modern usage, someone described as jaunty has a buoyant air. Someone described as genteel is refined in manner.

14. Like a dotted note, in mus. : STAC

Staccato is a musical direction signifying that notes should be played in a disconnected form. The opposite of staccato would be legato, indicating long and continuous notes played very smoothly.

17. Ending with Wal : -MART

Walmart (previously “Wal-Mart”) takes in more revenue than any other publicly traded company in the world. Over in my homeland, Walmart operates under the name Asda. Walmart’s worldwide headquarters are in Bentonville, Arkansas, the home of Sam Walton’s original Five and Dime. You can actually go into the original store, as it is now the Walmart Visitor Center.

18. High-calorie cake : TORTE

A torte is a type of cake made primarily with eggs, sugar and ground nuts (but no flour).

19. Kontinental Hockey League trophy named for an astronaut : GAGARIN CUP

The winners of Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League playoffs are awarded the Gagarin Cup. Named for cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the trophy was first awarded in 2008.

The Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space when his spacecraft Vostok I made a single orbit of the Earth in 1961. Sadly, Gagarin died only seven years later in a plane crash.

22. Wrangler maker : JEEP

Chrysler’s Jeep Wrangler is a direct descendent of the military “Jeep” vehicle that was heavily relied on during WWII.

23. Homer’s neighbor : NED

Ned Flanders lives next door to Homer on TV’s “The Simpsons”. Ned is voiced by actor Harry Shearer and has been around since the very first episode aired in 1989.

26. Airport area with carousels : BAGGAGE CLAIM

Apparently, the baggage carousel was developed by a French company. The first installation was in Paris Orly Airport in the 1950s.

31. Pulitzer-winning author James : AGEE

James Agee was a noted American film critic and screenwriter. Agee wrote an autobiographical novel “A Death in the Family” that won him his Pulitzer in 1958, albeit posthumously. He was also one of the screenwriters for the 1951 classic movie “The African Queen”.

44. Part of pewter : TIN

Pewter is a relatively soft alloy that is made up mostly of tin, with some copper, antimony, bismuth and lead.

45. Olympian warmonger : ARES

The Greek god Ares is often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, but originally he was regarded as the god of bloodlust and slaughter. Ares united with Aphrodite to create several gods, including Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Terror) and Eros (Desire). Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera, and the Roman equivalent to Ares was Mars.

50. 1965 Yardbirds hit : I’M A MAN

“I’m a Man” is a 1955 song written and recorded by Bo Diddley. The most famous cover version of the song was released in 1965 by English rock band the Yardbirds.

The Yardbirds are a rock band that was very big in the sixties. They disbanded in 1968, but reformed in 1992 and are still going strong today. One of the groups most famous hits was “For Your Love”, and playing on the original recording of that song was band member Eric Clapton. Clapton left the Yardbirds soon afterwards, having gained his initial foothold in the world of rock music.

52. Corrosive substance : 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 …

60. “The Kiss” sculptor : RODIN

“The Kiss” is a beautiful sculpture created in 1889 by Auguste Rodin. I’ve had the privilege of standing beside a large, life-size marble version of the work on a few occasions in the Rodin Museum, my favorite of all museums in Paris. The Musée Rodin is very special in that the building and garden that hold all of the works were Rodin’s actual home and studio. Well worth a visit if you make it to Paris …

62. Old Royale 8’s : REOS

The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale and the REO Flying Cloud.

63. Jessica of “Dark Angel” : ALBA

Actress Jessica Alba got her big break when she was cast in the Fox science fiction show “Dark Angel”. Alba had a tough life growing up as she spent a lot of time in hospital and so found it difficult to develop friendships. As a youngster she twice had a collapsed lung, frequently caught pneumonia, suffered from asthma, had a ruptured appendix and a tonsillar cyst. On top of all that, Alba acknowledges that she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child.

“Dark Angel” is a sci-fi series that ran from 2000 to 2002, and gave the star Jessica Alba her big break as an actress. Alba plays a genetically-enhanced super-soldier in post-apocalyptic Seattle. The show is a creation of celebrated producer and director James Cameron.

64. “Ready Player One” novelist Ernest : CLINE

Writer Ernest Cline is best known for his science-fiction novels “Ready Player One” (2011) and “Armada” (2015). Cline also co-wrote the screenplay for a movie adaptation of “Ready Player One” that was directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 2018.

67. Missouri River tributary : OSAGE

Much of the Osage River in Missouri is now taken up by two large reservoirs created behind two dams that provide power for St. Louis and the surrounding area. The two reservoirs are the Truman Reservoir and the Lake of the Ozarks.

69. Eye woe : STYE

A stye is a bacterial infection of the sebaceous glands at the base of the eyelashes, and is also known as a hordeolum.

Down

1. Paperless journal : BLOG

Many folks who visit this website regard it as just that, a website. That is true, but more correctly it is referred to as a blog, as I make regular posts (actually daily posts) that then occupy the “front page” of the site. The blog entries are in reverse chronological order, and one can just look back day-by-day, reading older and older posts. “Blog” is a contraction of the term “web log”.

2. “Radames’ Letter” musical : AIDA

The rock musical “Aida” is based on Giuseppe Verdi’s original opera. It premiered in 1998 and is still performed today. Music is by Elton John and lyrics are by Tim Rice.

5. Getz of jazz : STAN

Stan Getz was a jazz saxophonist. Getz’s playing style earned him the nickname “The Sound”.

6. Pique-nique place : PARC

Our term “picnic” comes from the French word that now has the same meaning, namely “pique-nique”. The original “pique-nique” was a fashionable potluck affair, and not necessarily held outdoors.

7. Bona fide : ACTUAL

“Bona fide(s)” translates from the Latin as “in good faith”, and is used to indicate honest intentions. It can also mean that something is authentic, like a piece of art that is represented in good faith as being genuine.

8. One way to stand : PAT

To stand pat is to resist change. The term comes from the game of poker, in which one stands pat if one keeps one’s hand as is, not drawing any extra cards.

9. WWII flag-raising island : IWO JIMA

Iwo Jima is a volcanic island located south of Tokyo that today is uninhabited. The name is Japanese for “Sulfur Island”, referring to the sulfur mining on which Iwo Jima’s economy once depended. There were about a thousand Japanese civilians living on the island prior to WWII. In 1944, there was a massive influx of Japanese military personnel in anticipation of the inevitable US invasion. As the Japanese military moved in, the civilians were forced out and no one has lived there since. Control of the island was wrested from the Japanese in the five-week Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. Said battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific theater in WWII.

The Pulitzer-winning photograph “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” was taken in 1945 by photographer Joe Rosenthal. The image was used for Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington, DC that was dedicated in 1954.

11. Big name in makeup : ESTEE

Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, and someone with a great reputation as a salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales volume …

12. Smith of Fox News : SHEP

Shep Smith is a television journalist and host with Fox News. Smith has been hosting “Shepard Smith Reporting” on Fox since 2013.

14. Wee bit : SMIDGEN

Our word “smidgen” (sometimes shortened to “smidge”) is used to describe a small amount. The term might come from the Scots word “smitch” that means the same thing or “a small insignificant person”.

20. Stephen of “Counterpart” : REA

Stephen Rea is an Irish actor from Belfast. Rea’s most successful role was Fergus in 1992’s “The Crying Game”, for which performance he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. In “The Crying Game”, Fergus was a member of the IRA. In real life, Rea was married to IRA bomber and hunger striker Dolours Price at the time he made the movie.

“Counterpart” is a sci-fi TV show starring J. K. Simmons in a dual role, playing a character that exists in two parallel worlds. I haven’t seen this show yet, and it does look interesting …

21. “Don’t text and drive” ad, e.g. : PSA

Public service announcement (PSA)

25. Mottled : PIED

Something described as pied is patchy or blotchy in color, piebald. The term comes from the Middle English “pie”, an old name for the magpie, and is a reference to the bird’s black and white plumage.

26. Enjoy the sun : BASK

Our verb “to bask”, meaning “to expose one to pleasant warmth”, is derived from the gruesome, 14th-century term “basken”, meaning “to wallow in blood”. The contemporary usage apparently originated with Shakespeare, who employed “bask” with reference to sunshine in “As You Like It”.

28. Heredity unit : GENE

Genetic variation is a fundamental behind the process of natural selection. Genetic variation is the result of mutations occurring in genes. If a mutation results in an individual that is more fit for survival, then the principle of “survival of the fittest” makes is more likely that the individual will mate. The mutation can then be passed onto offspring.

29. Albumen container : EGG

“Albumen” is the technical name for egg white.

30. Tropical raccoon relative : COATI

A coati is a member of the raccoon family and is also known as the Brazilian aardvark, or the snookum bear. The coati is native to Central and South America, but can also be found in the southwest of the United States.

35. Garden in a Sistine Chapel mural : EDEN

The Sistine Chapel, in the Pope’s residence in Rome, takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV who was responsible for restoring the old Capella Magna in the 15th century. It was about a century later (1508-1512) that Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel under the patronage of Pope Julius II.

38. Genesis kingdom : EDOM

Edom was an ancient Iron Age kingdom located in the south of modern-day Jordan. The area is known for its red-colored sandstone, which gave the kingdom its name. According to the Bible, the Edomites were the descendants of Esau. “Edom” translates from Hebrew as “red”, and was the name given to Esau when he ate the “red pottage”.

39. Gimlet liquor : GIN

A gimlet is a relatively simple cocktail that is traditionally made using just gin and lime juice. The trend in more recent times is to replace the gin with vodka.

40. World’s third-most spoken language : ENGLISH

Here’s a list of the six most spoken languages in the world, in order:

1. Chinese
2. Spanish
3. English
4. Hindi
5. Arabic
6. Portuguese

47. Dinghy implement : OAR

Our word “dinghy” comes from the Hindi “dingi”, a word “small boat”.

49. “We the Living” writer Rand : AYN

“We the Living” is the first novel by the author Ayn Rand, and was published in 1936.

51. __ blitz : MEDIA

“Blitz”, as it is used in English, means a fast-moving and overwhelming attack. It is a shortened version of the German word “blitzkrieg”. The blitzkrieg was a tactic used by Germany running up to and during WWII. In the original German blitzkrieg, the army and air-force threw everything into a rapid penetration of enemy lines without stopping to reinforce its flanks. The word “blitz” means “lightning” (and “krieg” means “war”).

53. West Coast gas brand : ARCO

The company name “ARCO” stands for the Atlantic Richfield Company. One of ARCO’s claims to fame is that it is responsible for the nation’s largest Superfund site. Mining and smelting in the area around Butte, Montana polluted the region’s water and soil, and ARCO have agreed to pay $187 million to help clean up the area.

55. Twice-monthly tide : NEAP

Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

59. Powerful wind : GALE

A gale is a very strong wind, a wind that is defined by Beaufort wind scale as a wind with speeds from 50 to just over 100 kilometers per hour.

61. Name change indicator : NEE

“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.