Day: September 30, 2023

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Constructed by: Jess Rucks
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 10m 50s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Red aperitif : CAMPARI

Campari is an alcoholic beverage with a distinctive red color and a pleasant, yet bitter taste. It is a key ingredient in one of my favorite cocktails: an Americano (one part Campari, one part sweet vermouth and a dash of club soda).

An apéritif is an alcoholic drink served before a meal, to stimulate the palate. A digestif is an alcoholic drink served after a meal, to aid digestion.

8 Defib experts : EMTS

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable electronic device that automatically analyzes the heart rhythm of a person who is experiencing sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and, if necessary, delivers an electrical shock to the heart to restore a normal heart rhythm. AEDs are becoming more common sights, especially as most can now be used to help a patient, even if the operator has no training. On a recent trip to Britain and Ireland, I noticed that the iconic telephone boxes are being used to house AEDs rather than remove them as public phones become unnecessary.

14 Love or life follower : -BOAT

“The Love Boat” TV series was born out of a 1976 made-for-TV movie with the same title. The movie itself was an adaptation of a nonfiction book called “The Love Boats” written by real-life cruise director Jeraldine Saunders.

17 Morsel : BITE

A morsel is a small bite, a mouthful of food. The term “morsel” comes from the Latin “morsus” meaning “bite”.

18 Old Irish : CELTS

The Celts are a very broad group of people across Europe who are linked by common languages. The original Celts were largely absorbed by other cultures, although a relatively modern revival of the “Celtic identity” is alive and well in Britain and Ireland. Such Celtic peoples today are mainly found in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany in France.

19 Mireille of “Big Love” : ENOS

Mireille Enos is an actress from Kansas City. She is perhaps best known for her TV work, playing Sarah Linden on “The Killing” and for playing twins Kathy and JoDean Marquart on “Big Love”. Enos is married to actor Alan Ruck, who I mainly remember playing Cameron Frye in the great movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”.

“Big Love” is an absolutely superb HBO drama series about a polygamous man and his three families trying to live a relatively “normal” life in Utah. The male lead is played by the late Bill Paxton, and his three wives are played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloë Sevigny and Ginnifer Goodwin.

23 Nothing to fret about? : AIR GUITAR

The concept of playing an imaginary electric guitar (an “air guitar”) is so popular that there are several championship competitions held. There has even been a world championship since 1996. Crazy …

A fret is a metal strip embedded in the neck of a stringed instrument, a guitar perhaps. The fingers press on the frets, shortening a string and hence changing the note played. The note increases by one semitone as a finger shortens a string by one fret.

27 Up from Spain? : NORTE

“Norte” (north) is a “dirección” (direction), in Spanish.

29 Hero with a weak spot : ACHILLES

Achilles is the protagonist in Homer’s “Iliad”. When Achilles was born, his mother attempted to make him immortal by dipping him into the River Styx. As he was held by the heel while under the water, this became the only vulnerable point on his body (his Achilles’ heel”). Years later he was killed when a poisoned arrow struck him in the heel. That arrow was shot by Paris.

33 Inuk of film whose real name was Allakariallak : NANOOK

“Nanook of the North” is a silent movie released in 1922. The title character is an Inuk man living in the Canadian Arctic. The film is primarily a documentary following the lives of Nanook and his family as they travel, hunt for food and build an igloo. Nanook’s real name was Allakariallak.

37 Intrepid : FEARLESS

The adjective “intrepid” describes someone who is fearless, with resolute fortitude. The term comes from the Latin “in-” meaning “not” and “trepidus” meaning “alarmed”.

40 Ones to “watch out for,” per an Amazon Prime reality series : BIG GRRRLS

“Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls” is a reality show hosted by rapper and singer Lizzo. The show is a competition in which women compete to be dancers performing in Lizzo’s concert appearances.

46 Jiff : SEC

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

47 Throw away in disgust, slangily : YEET

In contemporary slang, to yeet is to throw away, discard. “To yeet” usually implies the use of force and a general disregard for what is being discarded. As in, “I really want to yeet the word ‘yeet’ …”

49 Wakeboarding spot : LAKE

A wakeboard is board with foot bindings on which a rider is towed behind a motorboat. The idea is to use the board to cross the wake, and hopefully lift off the crest of the wake to “get some air”.

51 Cantina rounds : MARGARITAS

No one seems to know for sure who first created the margarita cocktail. The most plausible and oft-quoted is that it was invented in 1941 in Ensenada, Mexico. The barman mixed the drink for an important visitor, the daughter of the German ambassador. The daughter’s name was Margarita Henkel, and she lent her name to the new drink. The basic recipe for a margarita is a mixture of tequila, orange-flavored liqueur (like Cointreau) and lime juice.

54 100 sawbucks : ONE-G

“Sawbuck” is slang for “10-dollar bill”. The term was applied to the bill as the Roman numeral X (which used to appear on the reverse) resembles the end of a sawhorse.

Down

1 Animal with three sets of eyelids and two sets of eyelashes : CAMEL

Camels are well adapted to the desert, most notably perhaps having a fatty hump that acts as a reservoir of water. They also have long eyelashes and ear hairs, as well as nostrils that can close, all of which act as barriers to blown sand. They even have a third eyelid, which dislodges any sand that gets lodged in the eye.

2 Wolf voiced by Giancarlo Esposito in “The Jungle Book” : AKELA

Akela is the wolf in “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling. The wolf gave his name to a cubmaster in the scouting movement, who is now known as “Akela”.

“The Jungle Book” is a 2016, live-action Disney film based on Rudyard Kipling’s collection of stories with the same title. The impressive voice cast includes Bill Murray as Baloo, Ben Kingsley as Bagheera, Idris Elba as Shere Khan, Scarlett Johnsson as Kaa, and Christopher Walkenb as King Louis. The film was a big success, and for a while held the record for the most successful remake of all time (it was a remake of the 1967 animated feature “The Jungle Book”).

Actor Giancarlo Esposito was born in Copenhagen, but moved to Manhattan with his family when he was just six years old. He is perhaps best known for playing narcotics distributor Gus Fring in the drama shows “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul”.

3 Like Bolognese : MEATY

Bolognese is a meat-based sauce originating from Bologna in Italy, hence the name. The recipe is usually referred to as “ragù alla bolognese” in Italian, or simply “ragù”. Note that the Ragú brand of sauces introduced in North America in 1937 takes its name from the same source (pun … sauce!). However, the brand name uses the wrong accent (“Ragú” instead of “Ragù”), which drives a pedant like me crazy ..

6 Code name on “Money Heist” : RIO

“Money Heist” (“La casa de papel” in Spanish) is a very successful crime drama series from Spain that transferred to Netflix, after which the show’s run was extended. The show was so successful that Netflix made a documentary called “Money Herist: The Phenomenon”.

9 “Schitt’s Creek” character who says, “What you did was impulsive, capricious, and melodramatic, but it was also wrong” : MOIRA ROSE

In the excellent Canadian sitcom “Schitt’s Creek”, the character Moira Rose is an outrageous former soap star, and wife of Johnny Rose and their two adult children, David and Alexis. Moira is played by actress and comedian Catherine O’Hara. Supposedly, the character was inspired by the reality stars on “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and “The Real Housewives” franchise.

10 Hot-dish topping : TATER TOTS

Ore-Ida’s founders came up with the idea for Tater Tots when they were deciding what to do with residual cuts of potato. They chopped up the leftovers, added flour and seasoning, and extruded the mix through a large hole making a sausage that they cut into small cylinders. We eat 70 million pounds of this extruded potato every year!

12 Feedback providers? : MICS

We’ve all heard the howl of audio feedback when someone places a microphone near a loudspeaker. What happens is that a sound picked up by the microphone is amplified on the way to the speaker, and then the microphone picks up the amplified sound, which gets further amplified and passed out of the speaker, and a loop occurs. Ouch …!

13 Habanera kin : TANGO

The dramatic tango dance originated in the late 1800s in the area along the border between Argentina and Uruguay. Dancers and orchestras from Buenos Aires in particular traveled to Europe and beyond in the early twentieth century and brought the tango with them. The tango craze first struck Europe in Paris in the 1910s, and from there spread to London and Berlin, crossing the Atlantic to New York in 1913.

The dance that we call the “habanera” is known as the “contradanza” in Cuba where it originated. The habanera gained popularity in the 19th century and was the first dance from Cuba to become successful internationally. The name “habanera” is Spanish for “of Havana”.

20 “Sugar Town” singer : SINATRA

“Sugar Town” is a 1966 song released by Nancy Sinatra. The title is a reference to sugar cubes laced with the drug LSD.

23 “Inferiority complex” coiner : ADLER

Alfred Adler was one of the group of medical professionals who founded the psychoanalytic movement. Today, Adler is less famous than his colleague Sigmund Freud.

24 “Et tu” day : IDES

In Act I of William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, a soothsayer warns the doomed leader to “beware the ides of March”. Caesar ignores the prophecy and is subsequently killed on the steps of the Capitol by a group of conspirators on that fateful day.

29 Chapati flour : ATTA

Atta is a whole-wheat flour used to make flatbreads in South Asian cuisine, such as chapati and naan. “Atta” is the Hindi or Urdu word for “dough”.

Chapati is an unleavened flatbread that is associated with India. The name of the bread comes from the Hindi word “chapat” meaning “flat”.

35 Word in many Spanish team names : REAL

Real Madrid is a professional soccer team based in Madrid, Spain. The team name translates as “Royal Madrid”. Real Madrid is often ranked as the world’s most valuable soccer team, and is one of the most widely supported sports teams on the planet.

37 Figure on the Oregon license plate : FIR TREE

Oregon license plates have been decorated with an image of a Douglas Fir tree ever since July 1988.

41 “Everybody Hurts” band : REM

“Everybody Hurts” is a 1992 soft rock song by R.E.M. The song was chosen as a charity single in the UK to help victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

45 “The Last of Us” survivor played by Anna Torv : TESS

“The Last of Us” is a post-apocalyptic drama TV show that is based on a video game of the same name. The apocalypse in the storyline is caused by mass fungal infection that developed into a pandemic. Those infected turn into zombie-like creatures. Ugh …

Anna Torv is an actress from Australia who is best known for playing agent Olivia Dunham of the FBI on the TV show “Fringe”.

48 French press alternative : DRIP

A French press is a type of coffee pot in which the grounds are separated from the coffee when a fine mesh filter is pressed to the bottom of the pot using a plunger. Back in Ireland, our name for a French press is a cafetière.

50 __ surf : EGO

We’ve all done it, googling our own names to see what comes up. It’s called “ego-surfing”.

53 Actress Ortiz : ANA

The breakthrough role for actress Ana Ortiz was playing the title character’s older sister in the TV series “Ugly Betty”.