Day: March 6, 2019

Bill’s time: 7m 34s

Bill’s errors: 2

• OXI (Oxy)
• ESIASON (Esyason)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Nurse Barton : CLARA

Clara Barton was deeply disturbed by her experiences caring for the wounded during the Civil War. She dedicated herself after the war towards American recognition of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The American Red Cross was inevitably formed, in 1881, and Barton was installed as its first president.

6. Work with a libretto : OPERA

Opera is a performing art involving musicians as well as singers who perform a dramatic work that combines a libretto and a musical score. The art form developed in the Italy in the late 1500s, with the first opera being recognised as “Dafne”, a work by Jacopo Peri that is now lost but was first performed in Florence in 1598. The oldest surviving opera score is also by Peri, a work called “Euridice” that was first staged in 1600. The oldest opera that is still performed regularly today is “L’Orfeo” by Claudio Monteverdi, which dates back to 1607.

14. Spring for a drink? : OASIS

An isolated area of vegetation in a desert is called an oasis (plural “oases”). As water is needed for plant growth, an oasis might also include a spring, pond or small lake. We often use the term “oasis” more generally to describe a haven, a place of rest.

15. Piece of info : DATUM

Our word “data” (singular “datum”) comes from the Latin “datum” meaning “given”. The idea is that data are “things given”.

19. “Narcos” org. : DEA

“Narcos” is a Netflix show that deals with the Drug Enforcement Agency’s battles against drug cartels. The first two seasons focus on the rise and fall of drug lord Pablo Escobar of the Medellín Cartel, and is set and filmed in Colombia.

20. First encounter in a romcom : MEET CUTE

“Meet cute” is a term used since the 1930s or 1940s for a scene in a film or TV show in which a future couple have an amusing first encounter.

25. General sense : TENOR

The purport or tenor of something is its general sense.

27. Nearly one-third of Africa : SAHARA DESERT

The name “Sahara” means “greatest desert” in Arabic. The Sahara is just that, a great desert covering almost 4 million square miles of Northern Africa. That’s almost the size of the United States.

31. Roadside business : MOTEL

The term “motel” is a portmanteau of “motor” and “hotel”.

34. Decorating job on “Cake Boss” : ICER

“Cake Boss” is a reality show set in Carlo’s Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey. Apparently the show is very popular, and Carlo’s Bake Shop has become quite the tourist attraction.

43. Gathering with much networking : SCHMOOZEFEST

To schmooze is to chat intimately. “Schmooze” is a word that comes from the Yiddish “schmusen” meaning “to chat” .

47. Neutral shade : TAUPE

Taupe is a dark, gray-brown color. The word “taupe” comes from the Latin name of the European Mole, which has skin with the same color.

48. __Clean: stain remover : OXI

OxiClean is a bleaching agent and cleaner that was famously marketed using infomercials that featured the late Billy Mays.

49. Tarzan raiser : APE

In the stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes was actually Englishman John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke.

52. Razor sharpener : STROP

A strop is a strip of leather used to sharpen a razor.

60. Rock concert need : AMP

An electric guitar, for example, needs an amplifier (amp) to take the weak signal created by the vibration of the strings and turn it into a signal powerful enough for a loudspeaker.

61. Angel who directs Satan to Earth in “Paradise Lost” : URIEL

Uriel is one of the archangels in the Jewish and Christian traditions. Uriel makes a few notable appearances in literature: in John Milton’s epic poem “Paradise Lost” and in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem “Uriel”.

64. Diver’s gem : PEARL

Pearls form in oysters because of a reaction that is similar to an immune system response in higher animals. The pearl is formed as the oysters lays down successive layers of calcium carbonate around some microscopic foreign body that has penetrated the shell.

65. Renoir subjects : NUDES

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French painter who was very much at the forefront of the Impressionist Movement. Renoir was a prolific artist, with several thousand works attributed to him. The largest collection of Renoirs is actually in the United States. You can see 181 of his paintings at the Barnes Foundation just outside Philadelphia.

Down

1. Pink drink, for short : COSMO

Like so many famous cocktails, the actual origins of the cosmopolitan are disputed. It is a nice drink. One of the standard recipes is 4 parts citrus vodka, 1.5 parts Cointreau, 1.5 parts lime juice and 3 parts cranberry juice.

5. Hardly gregarious : ASOCIAL

Back in the 1600s, the word “gregarious” applied to animals and meant “disposed to live in flocks”. The root word is the Latin “grex” meaning “flock, herd”. I guess the idea is that a gregarious creature plays nice with others.

6. One-named folk singer : ODETTA

Odetta Holmes (or just “Odetta”) was a singer and a human rights activist. She has been cited as an influence by such singers as Harry Belafonte, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Carly Simon.

8. Saison that starts in juin : ETE

In French, the season of “été” (summer) starts in “juin” (June). Note that the names of months are not capitalized in French.

10. Radio component : AM TUNER

In telecommunications, a radio signal is transmitted using a sinusoidal carrier wave. Information is transmitted using this carrier wave in two main ways, by varying (modulating) the instantaneous amplitude (signal strength) of the carrier wave, and by modulating the instantaneous frequency of the carrier wave. The former is referred to as an AM signal (“amplitude modulation”), and the latter as an FM signal (“frequency modulation”).

13. PRNDL selection : GEAR

PRNDL … that would be Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive and Low. The gear shift for an automatic transmission is sometimes known familiarly as the “prindle” stick, from the abbreviation PRNDL.

26. Genesis place : EDEN

According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve lived in a garden “in” Eden, with Eden being geographically located by reference to four rivers including the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some scholars hypothesize that Eden was located in Mesopotamia, which encompasses much of modern-day Iraq.

27. Jiffy : SEC

“Jiff” or “jiffy”, meaning “short time, instant” is thought originally to be thieves’ slang for “lightning”.

28. Blue __ Mountains : RIDGE

The Blue Ridge Mountains are part of the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern US. The range is noted for the bluish colors of the peaks. The blue hue is actually caused by the emission of an organic compound called isoprene into the atmosphere. The isoprene contributes to the blue haze that covers mountain ranges.

29. Prepare to sing an anthem : RISE

The word “anthem” used to describe a sacred song, especially one with words taken from the Scriptures. The British national anthem (“God Save the Queen/King”) technically is a hymn, and so it came to be described as “the national hymn” and later “the national anthem”. The use of the word “anthem” extended from there to describe any patriotic song.

31. “Alice” diner : MEL’S

The sitcom “Alice” is set in Mel’s Diner, which is supposedly frequented by locals and truckers on the outskirts of Phoenix. There is a real Mel’s Diner in Phoenix, and the restaurant’s sign is used in the opening credits. The real-world Mel’s was called “Chris’ Diner”, but the owner agreed to a temporary change in name for the purposes of the show. But, “Chris” never came back, and “Mel’s” is still serving customers today.

32. Oil org. : OPEC

The OPEC cartel was formally established in 1960 and has been headquartered in Vienna since 1965. The US is actually the third largest oil producer in the world (after Russia and Saudi Arabia). One reason America isn’t in OPEC, even though we are a big producer, is that we import a lot more than we export. But we all probably knew that already …

39. Granola bar morsel : OAT

The names “Granola” and “Granula” were trademarked back in the late 1800s for whole-grain foods that were crumbled and baked until crisp. Granola was created in Dansville, New York in 1894.

41. Makes more powerful : SOUPS UP

To soup up an engine is to increase its horsepower. The verb probably derives from the older slang term “soup”, which was a narcotic illegally injected into racehorses to make them run faster.

42. Co-host of the sports radio show “Boomer and Gio” : ESIASON

Boomer Esiason is a retired NFL quarterback who developed a second career as a sports commentator. Esiason has had the nickname “Boomer” since before he was born. His mother called him “Boomer” because he was constantly kicking away in her womb.

“Boomer and Carton” was a morning drivetime sports program that ran from 2007 until 2017. The show was hosted by retired quarterback Boomer Esiason and radio personality Craig Carton. The partnership ended when Carton was arrested and convicted of crimes related to a Ponzi scheme that he ran promising concert tickets to investors. After a brief stint hosting the show by himself and with guest co-hosts, Esiason then paired up with radio host Gregg Giannotti and the show was rebranded at the end of 2017 as “Boomer and Gio”.

44. Chinese chairman : MAO

Mao Zedong (also “Mao Tse-tung”) was born on December 16, 1893 in the Hunan Province of China. As Mao was the son of a peasant farmer, his prospects for education were limited. Indeed he left school at age 13 to work on the family farm but did eventually get to secondary school in Changsha, the provincial capital. In the years following, Mao continued his education in Beijing and actually turned down an opportunity to study in France.

45. Last words of the Pledge of Allegiance : … FOR ALL

The Pledge of Allegiance of the US was composed by Francis Bellamy in 1892 and was adopted by Congress in 1942. The actual words used in the pledge have changed over time. Here is the original 1892 version shown in comparison to the current version that was adopted in 1954:

1892: I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

1954: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

50. Golfer Calvin : PEETE

Calvin Peete was the most successful African-American golfer on the PGA tour before Tiger Woods hit the circuit. Peete played on the Ryder Cup teams of 1983 and 1985.

51. Some Deco collectibles : ERTES

“Erté” was the pseudonym of French (Russian-born) artist and designer Romain de Tirtoff. Erté is the French pronunciation of his initials “R.T.” Erté’s diverse portfolio of work included costumes and sets for the “Ziegfeld Follies” of 1923, productions of the Parisian cabaret show “Folies Bergère”, as well as the 1925 epic movie “Ben-Hur”. Erté’s most famous work by far is an image titled “Symphony in Black”. It depicts a tall and slender woman dressed in black, holding a black dog on a leash.

53. Big volume : TOME

“Tome” first came into English from the Latin “tomus” which means “section of a book”. The original usage in English was for a single volume in a multi-volume work. By the late 16th century, “tome” had come to mean “large book”.

54. Stein filler : BEER

A stein is a type of beer glass. The term is German in origin, and is short for “Steinkrug” meaning “stone jug”. “Stein” is German for “stone”.

59. River inlet : RIA

A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, with both formed as sea level rises. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.