Day: February 24, 2024

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Constructed by: Guilherme Gilioli
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 17m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

13 Particles in the Fermi theory of beta decay : ANTINEUTRINOS

In the world of particle physics, antimatter is made up of particles that have the same mass as particles of ordinary matter, but with the opposite charge and quantum spin. Mixing matter and antimatter causes the annihilation of both, with a release of energy equal to the mass of the particles according to Einstein’s equation E=mc².

15 Rent, pension, etc. : UNEARNED INCOME

A pension is a fund into which people make payments, usually during their working lives. In return, anyone who contributed receives periodic payments after retirement. In the US, Social Security is the most widely available pension.

17 “There’s no wrong way to eat a __”: candy tagline : REESE’S

Harry Burnett “HB” Reese founded Reese’s Candy Company in 1923. Prior to forming his own company, Reese had worked as a dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milton S Hershey, the founder of the Hershey Company. In 1928, Reese invented Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, which were destined to become the top-selling candy brand in the US.

20 Bandmate of Dizzy and Duff : AXL

Guns N’ Roses (GNR) is a hard rock band founded in 1985 that is still going strong. The group was pulled together by Axl Rose, the lead vocalist. The lead-guitar player back then was Tracii Guns, and it was the combination of Axl and Tracii’s “family” names that led to the band being called Guns N’ Roses.

Duff McKagan played bass guitar with the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses (GNR). Above and beyond his musical career, McKagan is a writer and a businessman. He writes regular columns for online publications like ESPN.com, Playboy.com and SeattleWeekly.com. He went back to school to study business and finance, and in 2011 he founded the wealth management company Meridian Rock, which focuses on helping musicians handle their money.

Keyboard player Dizzy Reed is best known as a member of the hard rock band Guns N’ Roses (GNR). He is the second-longest serving member of the band, after founder Axl Rose.

24 Comedian Radner : GILDA

Gilda Radner was a comedian and actress, and one of the original cast members of the hit television show “Saturday Night Live”. Radner left her first husband to marry comedic actor Gene Wilder, whom she met while they were both filming the Sidney Poitier movie “Hanky Panky”.

25 Nectar eaters : WASPS

The sugary liquid known as nectar is produced by plants to attract animals needed for the plant’s survival. The classic example is the nectar produced in flowers that attracts insects needed to facilitate pollination. Some plants produce nectar in leaves that attracts favorable insects that in turn prey on insects that can harm the plants.

30 Actress Jessica : 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.

32 N-everlasting thing : FAD

Fads never last …

33 Ishikawa __: visual component of root-cause analysis : DIAGRAM

Kaoru Ishikawa was a professor in the engineering department of the University of Tokyo who was greatly involved in initiatives that established Japanese manufacturers as producers of quality goods. Here in the West, he is best known for introducing the fishbone diagram, which is more correctly referred to as the Ishikawa diagram. Such diagrams are useful tools in identifying potential factors causing a particular effect.

38 __ Souls College, Oxford : ALL

All Souls is one of the constituent colleges that make up the University of Oxford in England. The school was founded way back in 1438 by Henry Chichele, who was Archbishop of Canterbury at the time. He established All Souls to commemorate those who had died in the series of conflicts now known as the Hundred Years’ War (fought between England and France). The official name of the school is “College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed”.

41 Vegan-friendly organic brand : AMY’S

Amy’s Kitchen is a company making organic and easy-to-prepare frozen food, all of which is vegetarian. The company was founded in 1987 by Andy and Rachel Berliner, and Amy is their daughter.

47 Forest moon where C-3PO was worshipped as a god : ENDOR

The fictional forested moon of Endor features prominently in the “Star Wars” movie “Return of the Jedi”. The moon is home to the race of furry aliens known as Ewoks. Filming for the forest scenes actually took place in Humboldt Redwoods State Park in Northern California.

C-3PO (or “Threepio”) is the protocol droid that appears in the “Star Wars” movie franchise.

49 Walks, in stats : BBS

On a baseball scorecard, a walk is recorded as “BB”, which stands for “base on balls”.

57 “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Noodles,” for one : MNEMONIC DEVICE

We can rattle off the order of the planets in our solar system (from the Sun outwards) using a mnemonic: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune).

Down

1 “The Glass Menagerie” girl : LAURA

The Tennessee Williams play “The Glass Menagerie” is somewhat autobiographical. The main characters are Amanda Wingfield, a woman abandoned by her husband raising her two children. The children are Laura and Tom, with the latter character based on Williams himself. Laura is Tom’s mentally fragile elder sister. It is Laura who has a collection of animal figurines, “The Glass Menagerie”.

3 __ drum : STEEL

Steel drums (also “steelpans”) are musical instruments that originated in Trinidad and Tobago. They were an evolution of similar drums made using bamboo. That evolution started in the early 1940s, when the base material for the drums became 55-gallon oil drums.

4 Mulheres da família : TIAS

In Portuguese, some “mulheres da família” (family women) are “tias” (aunts).

6 2030 event : CENSUS

The taking of the nationwide census every ten years is a requirement specified in Article 1, Section 2 of the US Constitution. The first US census was taken in 1790. As stated in the Constitution, the main purposes of the census are to ensure fair representation by population, and fair assessment of direct taxes.

8 Weather-sensitive fig. : ETD

Estimated time of departure (ETD)

9 “Mindfreak” magician Angel : CRISS

Criss Angel is the stage name of Chris Sarantakos, an illusionist from New York. He has a big show in Las Vegas and also gets a lot of airtime on TV (including a TV show “MINDFREAK”).

10 Idiosyncrasy : KINK

The prefix “idio-” indicates something peculiar, as in “idiosyncrasy”, a peculiarity exhibited by an individual or a group.

12 The __ Brothers: “Listen to the Music” band : DOOBIE

The Doobie Brothers are a rock band from San Jose, California, and aren’t brothers at all. Apparently, the band took their name from their fondness for “doobies”, a slang term for marijuana cigarettes.

14 Shaver : SMALL FRY

Juvenile fish that have just grown to the point where they can feed themselves are known as “fry”. By the end of the 17th century, the phrase “small fry” was common, when referring to such fish. More recently, the phrase was applied figuratively to insignificant people, and then to little children.

“Shaver” is a slang term for a “fellow”, from the sense of “one who shaves”. Hence, a “little shaver” is a boy, a youngster.

23 Continuing ed course : ESL

English as a Second Language (ESL)

27 Muñoz Ryan who wrote the Newbery Honor Book “Echo” : PAM

Pam Muñoz Ryan is a prolific author of books for children and young adults.

29 Legendary attendants of Charlemagne : PALADINS

The paladins were warrior attendants of Charlemagne, the King of the Franks. Also called the Twelve Peers, the paladins often feature in fictional tales of heroism about the period.

33 Doesn’t want the truth, say : DARES

The party game truth or dare has been around a long time. A variant from the early 1700s as attested as a “Christmas game”, under the name “questions and commands”.

36 Japanese title of respect : SAN

The Japanese honorific “-san” is added to the end of names as a title of respect, and can be translated as “Mr.” or “Ms.” The usage is wider than it is in English, though. Sometimes “-san” is added to the name of a company, for example.

40 2023 WNBA Finals MVP Wilson : A’JA

Professional basketball player A’ja Wilson was the first pick in the 2018 WNBA draft, after which she signed for the Las Vegas Aces. She won Olympic Gold at the 2020 Olympics, and captained the Aces in 2022 when the team won their first league championship title.

44 Pulitzer-winning McCullough presidential biography : TRUMAN

HIstorian David McCullough was an award-winning author. Two of his books won Pulitzers: “Truman” and “John Adams”. Both were adapted for the small screen. I thoroughly recommend the miniseries “John Adams” starring Paul Giamatti, and am anxious to see the TV movie “Truman” starring Gary Senise …

50 Bowling game : BOCCE

The Italian bowling game of bocce (often anglicized as “bocci” or “boccie”) is based on a game played in ancient Rome. “Bocce” is the plural of the Italian word “boccia” meaning “bowl”.

53 Seating level : LOGE

In most theaters and stadiums today, “loge” is the name given to the front rows of a mezzanine level. Loge can also be used for box seating.

55 Shape of a baklava, sometimes : NEST

Baklava is a very sweet and rich (and delicious) dessert pastry made from layers of filo dough filled with nuts and sweetened with honey or syrup. The name “baklava” comes from the Ottoman Turkish name for the pastry.

58 IDs of PCs : IPS

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical label assigned to every device on a computer network. The device that you’re using to read this blog post on has been assigned a unique IP address, as has the computer that I’m using to make this post …