Day: July 22, 2023

Advertisement

Constructed by: Ed Sessa
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 12m 54s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 One who handles liner notes? : PURSER

A purser is an official on a ship who is responsible for the handling of money and the keeping of accounts. The original “pursers” were makers of “money purses”.

The use of the word “line” with reference to transportation started in the 1780s, in the context of stagecoaches. Such transportation operated a string of stagecoaches between towns and cities along regular “lines”. The concept shifted to shipping “lines” operating ocean-going “liners” between ports. And then came “airliners”.

12 Gorillagram get-up : APE SUIT

A gorillagram is somewhat like a singing telegram. The performer, the person delivering the message, is dressed in a gorilla costume.

17 Northernmost capital on the Mississippi : ST PAUL

Saint Paul is the state capital of Minnesota, and is one half of the “Twin Cities” , also known as Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Saint Paul used to be called Pig’s Eye, named after a popular tavern in the original settlement in the area. In 1841, Father Lucien Galtier established a log chapel nearby that he dedicated to St. Paul the Apostle, giving the city its current name. The magnificent Cathedral of St. Paul now sits on the site where the log chapel was built.

19 Bit of Springfield graffiti : EL BARTO

In the animated series “The Simpsons”, Bart Simpson is fond of spray-painting graffiti on walls. When he does so, he uses the tag “El Barto”.

21 Actress Wray : FAY

Fay Wray was a Canadian-American actress who is best known for her starring role in the classic 1933 film “King Kong”. When Wray passed away at the age of 96 in 2004, the lights of the Empire State Building were extinguished for 15 minutes. That fine gesture was a nod to the celebrated Empire State Building scene in “King Kong”.

22 Orhan Pamuk novel featuring a blizzard in Turkey : SNOW

Orhan Pamuk is a prominent novelist from Turkey who was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. That made him Turkey’s first Nobel Laureate.

25 Carpentry joint : DADO

In the world of joinery, a dado is a slot cut into a piece of wood across the grain. On the other hand, a groove is a slot cut with the grain.

26 Lab burners of old : ETNAS

The Bunsen burner is a common piece of lab equipment that is used for heating and combustion. The device was invented in 1854 by Robert Bunsen at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. It is sometimes referred to as an “etna”, a nickname coming from the Sicilian volcano.

28 When day is done, to Donne : E’EN

John Donne was one of England’s most celebrated poets, and was active at the start of the 17th century. He spent much of his life in poverty and even spent a short time in prison for having married his wife without procuring the appropriate permissions. After his release, his wife bore him 12 children in 16 years, passing away a few days after the twelfth child was born.

29 “The Newsroom” creator Sorkin : AARON

The wonderful screenwriter Aaron Sorkin got his big break when his stage play “A Few Good Men” was picked up by a Hollywood producer. Since then Sorkin has written great films including “The American President”, “The Social Network”, “Charlie Wilson’s War”, “Moneyball” and the excellent “The West Wing” and “The Newsroom” television series.

“The Newsroom” is a wonderfully written drama series on HBO from the pen of the great screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. The show stars Jeff Daniels as the news anchor in a cable news channel. After the first season of “The Newsroom”, producers noted a distinct bias towards left of center politics in the storylines. As a result, Sorkin hired conservative media consultants at the end of season one, presumably to help attract more viewers whose politics might be right of center.

30 Wielder of a Neutrona Wand : GHOSTBUSTER

1984’s “Ghostbusters” really is an entertaining movie. It stars Bill Murray and Harold Ramis, and was directed by Ivan Reitman (a trio that also worked together on 1981’s “Stripes”). The first draft of the screenplay was written by another star of the movie, Dan Aykroyd. Aykroyd originally envisioned “Ghostbusters” as a vehicle for himself and John Belushi, but sadly Belushi passed away before the project could be realized.

35 Some consoles : SEGAS

Sega is a Japanese video game company headquartered in Tokyo. Sega actually started out in 1940 as Standard Games and was located in Honolulu, which at that time was a city in the US Territory of Hawaii. The owners moved the operation to Tokyo in 1951 and renamed the company to Service Games. The name “Sega” is a combination of the first two letters of the words “Se-rvice” and “Ga-mes”.

41 Footlocker clasp : HASP

A “footlocker” is so called because it is a “locker” designed to be placed at the “foot” of a bed.

44 Slow roller from first to third? : TARP

Originally, tarpaulins were made from canvas covered in tar that rendered the material waterproof. The word “tarpaulin” comes from “tar” and “palling”, with “pall” meaning “heavy cloth covering”.

45 High point of a Ricola commercial : ALP

Ricola is a Swiss brand of cough drops and breath mints.

46 Places with some good deals : CASINOS

The term “casino” originated in the 1700s, then describing a public room for music or dancing. “Casino” is a diminutive of “casa” meaning “house”.

48 Orange County airport, on luggage tags : SNA

Orange County is home to famous destinations like Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm. It is also home to John Wayne Airport, also known as Orange County Airport, with the IATA code “SNA”. The “SNA” is a reference to the city of Santa Ana, which is the airport’s mailing address. The airport itself resides in an unincorporated area of the county.

54 “Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical,” for one : YOGIISM

Yogi Berra is regarded by many as the greatest catcher ever to play in Major League Baseball, and has to be America’s most celebrated “author” of malapropisms. Here are some great “Yogi-isms”:

• It ain’t over till it’s over.
• 90% of the game is half mental.
• Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.
• When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
• It’s déjà vu all over again.
• Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.
• A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.

55 Name of the pig on “Green Acres” : ARNOLD

The popular sitcom “Green Acres” originally aired from 1965 to 1971. The magnificent stars of the show were Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor, playing a couple who moved from New York City to a farm in the country. “Green Acres” was canceled as part of CBS’s so-called “rural purge”. In a move to attract younger audiences, shows were added to the schedule with more urban and contemporary themes. Classics like “The Beverly Hillbillies”, “Hee Haw” and “Mayberry R.F.D.” were dropped at the same time as “Green Acres”.

56 Parking ticket issuer : VALET

A varlet was an attendant or servant, and perhaps a knight’s page. The term “varlet” comes from the Old French “vaslet” meaning “squire, young man”. “Vaslet” also gave us our contemporary word “valet”. The term “varlet” came to be pejorative, describing an unprincipled person.

Down

3 Volcanic fallout : ASH

Our word “volcano” comes from “Vulcano”, the name of a volcanic island off the coast of Italy. The island’s name comes from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. The Romans believed that the island of Vulcano was the chimney of the forge belonging to the god Vulcan. The Romans also believed that the eruptions on Mount Etna in Sicily were caused by Vulcan getting angry and working his forge so hard that sparks and smoke flew out of the top of the volcano.

4 Unsophisticated sort : RUBE

A rube is a person lacking sophistication, someone often described as a country bumpkin. The term derives from the masculine name “Reuben”, which was considered back in the early 1800s to be a typical name used in rural areas.

5 Jovovich of the “Resident Evil” films : MILLA

Milla Jovovich is a model and actress who was born in Kiev in the former Ukrainian SSR. Jovovich left the USSR when she was five years old and came to Sacramento, California via London. She started getting modeling jobs from the age of nine, but always wanted to be an actress. Jovovich played the female lead in “Return to the Blue Lagoon” when she was 16 years old. Her big break in movies came with a starring role in “The Fifth Element” opposite Bruce Willis, playing Leeloo the alien who helps save the planet.

“Resident Evil” is a whole media franchise spawned from a video game that was launched in 1996. Now there are films, comic books, novels and more games. The series originated in Japan under the title “Biohazard”.

8 Letters set in stone : RIP

Rest in peace (RIP)

9 Plymouth voyager? : SEAFARER

Plymouth is a port city on the coast of Devon in the UK. Famously, it was the point of departure for the Mayflower Pilgrims. The city sits at the mouth of the River Plym, hence the name “Plymouth”.

10 Country named for its location : ECUADOR

“Ecuador” is the Spanish word for “equator”, which gives the country its name.

13 Artistic settings? : TABLESCAPES

A tablescape is the overall arrangement of items on a table, including the tablecloth, place settings, centerpiece, and other decorative elements.

20 Fictional news anchor who ended broadcasts with “You stay classy, San Diego!” : RON BURGUNDY

Ron Burgundy is the title character in the “Anchorman” series of films. Burgundy is a news anchor played by comedian Will Ferrell. Apparently Burgundy loves a glass of scotch, poetry, and his dog Baxter.

23 Equal Pay Day issue : WAGE GAP

Equal Pay Day has been observed each year since 1996. The date varies each year, and is symbolic of the extent of the pay gap between the genders. The day chosen represents how far into the year a woman must have worked in order to match the pay of the average man in the year prior. So, a woman must work a full year, and beyond, to match the pay of a man in the same full year. For example, Equal Pay Day was April 11th in 1996, and March 14th in 2023. A little progress …

27 Pahlavi dynasts : SHAHS

The last Shah of Iran was Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. The post-revolution government sought the extradition of the Shah back to Iran while he was in the United States seeking medical care (he had cancer). His prolonged stay in the United States, recovering from surgery, caused some unrest back in Iran and resentment towards the United States. Some say that this resentment precipitated the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran and the resulting hostage crisis.

31 Maple Leafs prov. : ONT

The Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team was founded way back in 1917. As members of the National Hockey League, the Maple Leafs have won the Stanley Cup championships thirteen times, the second best record in the league. Having said that, the last championship the team won was in 1967, and the resulting “drought” is the longest in the NHL.

32 “__ cerveza, por favor” : UNA

In Spanish, when buying “cerveza” (beer), one might purchase a “paquete de seis” (six-pack).

33 Hip hugger? : BIG SPOON

When two people are “spooning”, cuddling in bed perhaps, the person in the back is referred to as the “big spoon”, and the person in front is the “little spoon”.

34 One who moves a lot? : REALTOR

“Real estate agent” is a general, generic term. “Realtor” is the name given to a member of the trade association known as the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The NAR has gone so far as to trademark the term “Realtor” in the US.

35 Peak in the Cascade Range : SHASTA

Mount Shasta is in northern California. The origin of the name “Shasta” seems to be unclear. It may have come from the Russian “tchastal” meaning “white, clean, pure”, a name given to the volcanic peak by early Russian immigrants.

The Cascades are a mountain range in North America stretching from Northern California to southern British Columbia. The Cascade Range includes several active volcanoes, and is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. The range was named for the Cascades Rapids in the Columbia River Gorge, as they were referred to as the “mountains by the cascades” in the days following the Lewis and Clark expedition.

38 Dog star : LASSIE

The canine character Lassie is the creation of Eric Knight, an author who wrote a short story that he expanded into a novel called “Lassie Come Home” published in 1940. “Lassie Come Home” was turned into a movie three years later, the first of a very successful franchise. The original Lassie (a female) was played by a long-haired collie called Pal (a male). In fact, all of the dogs that played Lassie over the years were males, because they looked better on camera, retaining a thick coat even during the summer months.

39 “A Lesson Before Dying” writer __ J. Gaines : ERNEST

Author Ernest J. Gaines had at least three of his novels adapted into TV movies:

1. “A Lesson Before Dying” (1999)
2. “A Gathering of Old Men” (19877)
3. “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974)

43 American vodka brand with a Russian name : POPOV

Popov vodka is produced in America by the British company Diageo. Popov fills a niche in the low end of the vodka market. This American alcoholic drink is sometimes given the tongue-in-cheek nickname “Russia’s Finest”.

46 Gather selectively : CULL

To cull is to pick out the best, get rid of the rejects.

50 Sick days, personal days, etc.: Abbr. : PTO

Paid time off (PTO)

52 Part of RSVP : S’IL

“RSVP” stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “answer, please”.