Day: June 5, 2019

Bill’s time: 8m 25s

Bill’s errors: 2

• AINU (Aidu)
• -INE (-ide)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 MSNBC analyst Melber : ARI

Ari Melber is a television journalist and chief legal correspondent for MSNBC. He has hosted his own daily show called “The Beat with Ari Melber” since 2017.

4 Olds Cutlass model : CIERA

Oldsmobile made the Cutlass Ciera from 1982 to 1996. The Ciera was the most successful model that bore the Oldsmobile badge.

9 Garbage boats : SCOWS

A scow is a flat-bottomed boat with squared-off ends that’s often used for transportation, usually pushed or pulled by a barge. Often a scow can be seen carrying junk or garbage.

14 Airport shuttle : VAN

The vehicle we call a “van” takes its name from “caravan”, and is a shortened version of the older term. Back in the 1600s, a caravan was a covered cart. We still used the term “caravan” in Ireland to describe what we call a “mobile home” or “recreational vehicle” here in the US.

16 Deck with the Fool and the World : TAROT

Tarot cards have been around since the mid-1400s, and for centuries were simply used for entertainment as a game. It has only been since the late 1800s that the cards have been used by fortune tellers to predict the future. The list of tarot cards includes the Wheel of Fortune, the Hanged Man and the Lovers.

19 Yoga pose : ASANA

“Asana” is a Sanskrit word literally meaning “sitting down”. The asanas are the poses that a practitioner of yoga assumes. The most famous is the lotus position, the cross-legged pose called “padmasana”.

20 Many a coast-to-coast journey : RED-EYE FLIGHT

A red-eye flight is one departing late at night and arriving early the next morning. The term is a reference to tired passengers disembarking with red eyes.

23 Burr and Hamilton, e.g. : ENEMIES

Aaron Burr was the third vice-president of the US, and served under Thomas Jefferson. In the final year of his term in office, Burr fought an illegal duel and killed his political rival Alexander Hamilton. Burr wasn’t brought to justice, but he did pay the price politically. Thomas Jefferson dropped him from his ticket in the election held the following year.

Alexander Hamilton was one of America’s Founding Fathers, chief of staff to General George Washington and the first Secretary of the Treasury. It was Hamilton who established the nation’s first political party, the Federalist Party. He is also famous for fighting a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr, which resulted in Hamilton’s death a few days later.

26 2008 Ridley Scott film set in the Middle East : BODY OF LIES

“Body of Lies” is a 2008 Ridley Scott spy thriller that is based on a 2007 novel of the same name by “Washington Post” columnist David Ignatius. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe and Mark Strong.

Ridley Scott is a British director who caught the public eye with the success of the 1979 film “Alien”. Since then, Scott has directed some great movies, including “Thelma & Louise” (1991), the Oscar-winning “Gladiator” (2000) and “The Martian” (2015). Scott also directed the groundbreaking “1984” advertisement that launched the Apple Macintosh personal computer.

31 Prefix with scope : ENDO-

An endoscope is an instrument used to make a visual examination of the inside of an organ or cavity of the body.

32 Symbols in email addresses : ATS

The “at symbol” (@) originated in the commercial word, as shorthand for “each at, per” and similar phrases. I suppose we see the symbol most commonly these days as part of email addresses.

34 Ryegrass disease : ERGOT

Ergots are fungi that cause disease in rye and related plants. If human eat ergot-contaminated grain, a condition called ergotism can result. Ergotism is the result of consumption of alkaloids produced by the fungi, alkaloids that can cause seizures and manic behavior. It has even been suggested that the hysteria exhibited by the Salem “witches” was perhaps caused by the ingestion of ergot-contaminated rye.

38 Cal. sequence : M-T-W-T-F

The days of the week are named for celestial bodies and gods

• Sunday — Sun’s Day
• Monday — Moon’s Day
• Tuesday — Tiu’s day
• Wednesday — Woden’s day
• Thursday — Thor’s day
• Friday — Freya’s day
• Saturday — Saturn’s day

41 Indigenous Japanese : AINU

The Ainu people are an indigenous race found primarily in Japan and parts of Russia close to Japan. The spoken Ainu language has nearly died out, with only a handful of native speakers alive today.

61 “Flashdance…What a Feeling” singer Cara : IRENE

Irene Cara co-wrote and sang the Oscar-winning song “Flashdance… What a Feeling” from the 1983 movie “Flashdance”. Cara also sang the title song for the 1980 movie “Fame”, and indeed played the lead role of student Coco Hernandez.

64 Big name in wedding invitations : EATON

Eaton Cards and Stationery is a company that specializes in supplying stationery for weddings.

Down

1 Prefix for the birds : AVI-

The prefix “avi-” means “bird-related” as in “aviculture”, the breeding of birds.

4 Bit of TLC? : CARE

Tender loving care (TLC)

6 “Reader, I married him” governess : EYRE

“Jane Eyre” is the celebrated novel written by Charlotte Brontë, under the pen name Currer Bell. The love story is perhaps represented by the oft-quoted opening lines of the last chapter, “Reader, I married him”. There is a wonderful 4-hour television adaptation made by the BBC that I highly recommend to fans of the novel …

7 Coral environs : REEF

Polyps are tiny sea creatures that are found attached to underwater structures or to other polyps. Polyps have a mouth at one end of a cylindrical “body” that is surrounded by tentacles. Some polyps cluster into groups called stony corals, with stony corals being the building blocks of coral reefs. The structure of the reef comprises calcium carbonate exoskeletons secreted by the coral polyps.

8 British prime minister after WWII : ATTLEE

Clement Attlee served as leader of Britain’s Labour Party and as Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government during the war years under the leadership of Winston Churchill, a Conservative. Attlee swept into power right after WWII in a landslide victory over Churchill, and was responsible for major changes not only in Britain but around the waning British Empire. It was under Attlee that former British colonies like India, Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka and Jordan became independent. Also, the Palestine Mandate was terminated in 1948, while he was in office, with the state of Israel being declared the very next day.

10 Soft wool : CASHMERE

Cashmere wool comes not only from the Cashmere goat, but also from other types of goat. Technically, cashmere isn’t really a wool, but rather a hair. Unlike hair, wool is elastic and grows in clusters.

12 Got the gold : WON

In the Ancient Olympic Games, the winner of an event was awarded an olive wreath. When the games were revived in 1896, the winners were originally given a silver medal and an olive branch, with runners-up receiving a bronze medal and a laurel branch. The tradition of giving gold, silver and bronze medals began at the 1904 Summer Olympic Games held in St. Louis, Missouri.

13 Many a stop: Abbr. : STA

A station (“stn.” or “sta.”) is a railroad (RR) or bus stop.

18 Jacuzzi effect : EDDY

“Jacuzzi” is one of those brand names that has become so much associated with the product that it is often assumed to be a generic term. The Jacuzzi company was founded in 1915 by the seven(!) Jacuzzi brothers in Berkeley California. The brothers, who were Italian immigrants, pronounced their name “ja-coot-si”, as one might suspect when one realizes the name is of Italian origin. The company started off by making aircraft propellers and then small aircraft, but suspended aircraft production in 1925 when one the brothers was killed in one of their planes. The family then started making hydraulic pumps, and in 1948 developed a submersible bathtub pump so that a son of one of the brothers could enjoy hydrotherapy for his rheumatoid arthritis. The “hydrotherapy product” took off in the fifties with some astute marketing towards “worn-out housewives” and the use of celebrity spokesman Jack Benny.

22 Deg. for a CEO : MBA

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

24 Old name of Tokyo : EDO

“Edo” is the former name of the Japanese city of Tokyo. Edo was the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime that ruled from 1603 until 1868. The shogun lived in the magnificent Edo Castle. Some parts of the original castle remain and today’s Tokyo Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor of Japan, was built on its grounds.

25 Drunk : SOT

Our word “sot” comes from the Old English “sott”, meaning “fool”. The word “sot” started to be associated with alcohol and not just foolery in the late 1500s.

27 German composer Carl : ORFF

Carl Orff was a German composer whose most famous piece of music is the dramatic cantata from 1937 called “Carmina Burana”.

29 “To Kill a Mockingbird” novelist : LEE

Nelle Harper Lee was an author from Monroeville, Alabama. For many years, Lee had only one published novel to her name, i.e. “To Kill a Mockingbird”. That contribution to the world of literature was enough to earn her the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a Pulitzer Prize. Harper Lee was a close friend of fellow author Truman Capote who was the inspiration for the character named “Dill” in her novel. Lee was all over the news in 2015 as she had published a second novel, titled “Go Set a Watchman”. The experts seem to be agreeing that “Go Set a Watchman” is actually a first draft of “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Lee passed away less than a year after “Go Set a Watchman” hit the stores.

Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” was first published in 1960. The book is a mainstay in English classes all around the world. In my humble opinion, “To Kill A Mockingbird” is a great ambassador for American literature.

35 Firenze native : ITALIANO

Florence is the capital city of the Tuscany region in Italy. Something from or related to Florence is described as “Florentine”. The city is known as “Firenze” in Italian.

36 Chick-__-A: fast-food chain : FIL

Chick-fil-A is a chain of fast food restaurants that was founded in 1946 in Georgia. The corporation has a culture that is heavily influenced by the founder’s evangelical Christian faith. As such, Chick-fil-A is one of the only fast food or retail chain of stores that closes for business on Sunday. Chick-fil-A also made the headlines a while back due to the company’s stated opposition to same-sex marriage.

38 Queen of folklore : MAB

In Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Mercutio refers to the fairy known as Queen Mab. It seems that Queen Mab was Shakespeare’s creation, although she became popular in subsequent works of literature. For example, she is referred to in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”, in Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility”, and Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote a large poetic work called “Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem”.

42 Meeting handouts : AGENDAS

“Agenda” is a Latin word that translates as “things to be done”, coming from the verb “agere” meaning “to do”.

44 JFK stat : ETD

Estimated time of departure (ETD)

53 Divine circle : HALO

The Greek word “halos” is the name given to the ring of light around the sun or moon, which gives us our word “halo” that is used for a radiant light depicted above the head of a saintly person.

54 Killer serves : ACES

That would be tennis, for example.

58 Immortal Notre Dame coach Parseghian : ARA

Ara Parseghian coached the Notre Dame football team from 1964 to 1974, a period known as “The Era of Ara”.