Day: June 2, 2024

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Constructed by: Sid Sivakumar
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Is There an Echo in Here?

Themed answers each end with two words, the second ECHOING the first, sounding very similar:

• 24A Gold, silver, or bronze? : OLYMPIC-MEDAL METAL
• 32A Candy heart, chocolate rose, or red velvet cupcake? : HONEYMOON-SUITE SWEET
• 61A Corn dog, blooming onion, or caramel apple? : COUNTY-FAIR FARE
• 68A Erratum, appendix, or reader testimonial? : SECOND-EDITION ADDITION
• 80A Crack, streak, or fingerprint? : WINDOW-PANE PAIN
• 106A Venmo balance, PayPal account, or Google Wallet funds? : ELECTRONIC-CASH CACHE
• 118A Crane, hard hat, or cement mixer? : BUILDING-SITE SIGHT

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

Bill’s time: 12m 17s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4 “Passing” actress Thompson : TESSA

Tessa Thompson is an actress from Los Angeles who is known for playing the supporting role of Jackie Cook on the TV show “Veronica Mars”, and for playing student leader Diane Nash in the 2014 film “Selma”. She also portrays superheroine Valkyrie in movies based on Marvel Comics characters.

“Passing” is a powerful 2021 film based on a 1929 novel of the same name by Nella Larsen. The title is a reference to “racial passing”, which occurs when a member of one racial group is perceived as (passes as) a member of another. The primary use of the term was in the US, describing a black or brown person who passed for white in order to avoid racial segregation and discrimination. The cast of the movie “Passing” is led by actors Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga.

9 Hindi film star __ Rukh Khan : SHAH

Shah Rukh Khan is an incredibly successful Indian actor who has earned the nicknames “King of Bollywood” and “King Khan”. He is also referred to by his initials “SRK”. Beyond Bollywood, Khan was offered the part of the quiz show host in 2008’s “Slumdog Millionaire”, but he turned it down. The year before, Khan had in fact been quiz show host for the Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” in real life.

13 Guitar clamps : CAPOS

A capo is a clamp-like device that is placed around the neck of a guitar or other stringed instrument to shorten the strings, and hence raise the pitch. The full name, rarely used these days, is “capo tasto”, which is Italian for “head tie”.

19 2019 animated Christmas film : KLAUS

“Klaus” is a 2019 animated Christmas film that tells the origin story of Santa Claus, a fictional one that bears no resemblance to the historical St. Nicholas of Myra derivation. The title character is voiced by actor J. K. Simmons.

22 Anti-inflammatory brand : ALEVE

“Aleve” is a brand name used for the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug Naproxen sodium.

24 Gold, silver, or bronze? : OLYMPIC-MEDAL METAL

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.

29 NBA great Curry : STEPH

Basketball great Wardell Stephen “Steph” Curry II was born in Akron, Ohio, the son of former NBA player Dell Curry and former volleyball player Sonya Curry. Off the court, Curry is an avid golfer, playing off a low handicap. He regularly participates in celebrity golf tournaments, and has played alongside President Barack Obama.

32 Candy heart, chocolate rose, or red velvet cupcake? : HONEYMOON-SUITE SWEET

The concept of a honeymoon vacation only started in the early 1800s. In Britain, wealthy couples would take a “bridal tour” together after the wedding, visiting those friends and relatives who could not attend the ceremony. The etymology of “honeymoon” isn’t very clear, and may even have a negative derivation as it might suggest that the sweetness (honey) of love is doomed to wane like a passing phase of the moon. The equivalent terms in other languages are “moon of honey” (French), “honey month” (Welsh) and “tinsel week” (German).

49 Ermine in its summer coat : STOAT

The stoat has dark brown fur in the summer, and white fur in the winter. Sometimes the term “ermine” is used for the animal during the winter when the fur is white. Ermine skins have long been prized by royalty and are often used for white trim on ceremonial robes.

50 Philosopher Descartes : RENE

The great French philosopher Rene Descartes made the famous statement in Latin, “Cogito ergo sum”. This translates into French as “Je pense, donc je suis” and into English as “I think, therefore I am”. Anything pertaining to the philosophy of Descartes can be described by the adjective “Cartesian”.

53 Nobel-winning physicist Paul : DIRAC

Paul Dirac was an English theoretical physicist, and a co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1933. It was Dirac who predicted the existence of antimatter. What would the Starship Enterprise have done without antimatter?

56 “River Spirit” author Aboulela : LEILA

Leila Aboulela is an author of Sudanese origin who emigrated to Scotland in 1990, after which she started writing. A theme in much of her work is life for Muslim immigrants in Western society. Aboulela’s 2023 novel “River Spirit” was recognized by “The New York Times” as one of the best historical fiction novels published that year.

66 Bill of “Barry” : HADER

Bill Hader is an actor and comedian best known as a member of the cast of “Saturday Night Live”. Hader was introduced to Lorne Michaels (producer of “Saturday Night Live”) by Megan Mullally, co-star of the sitcom “Will & Grace”.

67 Middle-earth monster : ORC

According to Tolkien, Orcs are small humanoids that live in his fantasy world of Middle-earth (also called “Mordor”). They are very ugly and dirty, and are fond of eating human flesh.

77 __ Speedwagon : REO

REO Speedwagon is an American rock band that formed in 1967, and is still going strong. The band’s biggest hits are “Keep On Loving You” (1980) and “Can’t Fight This Feeling” (1985). The founding members chose the name for the REO Speed Wagon flatbed truck. Note that the band’s name is one word “Speedwagon”, whereas the vehicle’s name uses two words “Speed Wagon”.

78 Eucalyptus dweller : KOALA

Koalas are not bears, but are marsupials, which means they carry their young in a pouch.They are known for their diet of eucalyptus leaves, which are toxic to most other animals. To cope with this, koalas have a special digestive system that allows them to break down the toxins and extract the nutrients from the leaves. Koalas are one of the sleepiest animals in the world, sleeping up to 20 hours a day. This is because eucalyptus leaves provide very little energy.

86 Charmin rival : SCOTT

One of the claims to fame of the Scott Paper Company is that it was the first to sell toilet paper on a roll.

88 Kelly of “3 Body Problem” : MARLO

French mathematician Henri Poincaré was also a physicist, and is often described as a polymath. Notably, he contributed to the “three-body problem” of classical mechanics. That phrase became familiar to the non-scientific community when Netflix started airing the TV series “3 Body Problem”.

91 Hullabaloos : ADOS

Our word “hullabaloo”, meaning “commotion”, is a derivative of an older term “hollo-ballo”. “Hollo-ballo” was a word used for an uproar in the north of England and Scotland.

99 High-speed internet connection : FIBER

Optical fibers are lengths of glass or plastic that are slightly thicker than a human hair. They are usually bundled into cables, and then used for transmission of data signals. Optical transmission has advantages over electrical transmission, especially in terms of interference and loss of signal strength.

100 Berenstain Bear in a blue dress : MAMA

Stan and Jan Berenstain were a married couple from Philadelphia famous for creating the series of books for children called “Berenstain Bears”. The first in the series was published in 1962 and now over 250 million copies have been sold with over 300 titles.

102 Small handbag : CLUTCH

A clutch purse is a handbag with no strap at all. It is designed to be carried in the hand, to be “clutched”.

106 Venmo balance, PayPal account, or Google Wallet funds? : ELECTRONIC-CASH CACHE

Venmo is a smartphone payment app that is now owned by PayPal. The first version of the product was introduced in 2009 by two entrepreneurs who had met as freshman students at the University of Pennsylvania. They sold the company in 2012 for over $26 million, and then PayPal acquired it the following year for a whopping $800 million. I wonder if PayPal ever buys blogs …

PayPal is an e-commerce business that has been around since the year 2000, born out of a merger of two older companies: Confinity and X.com. PayPal performs payment processing for online vendors. The company was so successful that it was the first of the beleaguered dot.com companies to successfully complete an IPO after the attacks of 9/11. Then in 2002, PayPal was bought by eBay for a whopping $1.5 billion.

Google Wallet is a clever mobile payment system that allows users to store credit cards, loyalty cards, gift cards and the like on cell phones. The ideal use of the system involves just tapping one’s phone at a Wallet-enabled terminal at checkout. Great idea …

113 U.K. mil. branch : RAF

The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the oldest independent air force in the world (i.e. the first air force to become independent of army or navy forces). The RAF was formed during WWI on 1 April 1918, a composite of two earlier forces, the Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army) and the Royal Naval Air Service. The RAF’s “finest hour” was the Battle of Britain, when the vastly outnumbered British fighters fought off the might of the Luftwaffe causing Hitler to delay his plan to cross the English Channel. This outcome prompted Winston Churchill to utter the memorable words

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

115 Home of the Himalayas : ASIA

The magnificent Himalaya range of mountains in Asia takes its name from the Sanskrit for “abode of snow”. Geographically, the Himalaya separates the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau to the north.

116 Poppycock : TRIPE

“Tripe” is an informal term meaning “rubbish, of little value”. Tripe is actually the rubbery stomach lining of an animal such as a cow. It is also a traditional dish in British cuisine, prepared by poaching it with onions in milk.

It is thought that the relatively gentle term “poppycock”, meaning “nonsense”, comes from a Dutch word for “dung” combined with a Latin word for “excrete”. Not so gentle after all …

117 Princess raised on Alderaan : LEIA

In the first “Star Wars” movie, Princess Leia hides plans for the Galactic Empire’s Death Star in the droid named R2-D2. She also records a holographic message, so when it is played we can see Princess Leia as a hologram, asking for help to destroy the Death Star:

I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.

124 Psychedelics study subj. : LSD

The term “psychedelic” was coined in 1956 by British-born psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. He proposed the term to describe the effects of taking the drugs LSD and mescaline. He suggested that “psychedelic” be defined as “mind-manifesting”, from the Greek “psyche” (mind) and “delos” (manifest).

126 Lasagna layer : SAUCE

“Lasagna” was originally the name of a cooking pot, but the term came to mean a dish that was cooked in it. “Lasagna” also became the name of the flat noodle used in the dish. If you order lasagna on the other side of the Atlantic, you’ll notice the “lasagne” spelling, the plural of “lasagna”. The plural is used as there is more than one layer of pasta in the dish.

128 Novelist Harper : 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 the first draft of “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Lee passed away less than a year after “Go Set a Watchman” hit the stores.

129 Animal evoked by a chess knight : STEED

In the game of chess, the knight is a piece with relatively unusual properties. It doesn’t move in a straight line, but rather moves two squares in one-direction, and one square in the other. Also, the knight is the only piece that can jump over others.

132 Nikon choice, briefly : SLR

The Japanese company Nikon was founded in 1917 with the merger of three manufacturers of various optical devices. After the merger, Nikon’s main output was lenses (including the first lenses for Canon cameras, before Canon made its own). During the war, Nikon sales grew rapidly as the company focused on (pun!) equipment for the military including periscopes and bomb sights.

Down

1 “Faust” playwright : GOETHE

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer (among many other things). Goethe’s most famous work is probably his play “Faust”. This epic work was published in parts, starting in 1808. The work was only published in toto after his death in 1832.

Faust is a character from a classic German legend who makes a pact with the devil. He agrees to exchange his soul for worldly gratification and unlimited knowledge.

3 Esoteric knowledge : ARCANA

Arcana are deep secrets or mysteries. “Arcana” is from the Latin adjective “arcanum” meaning “secret, hidden”.

Something described as esoteric is meant only for a select few with special knowledge. The term “esoteric” comes from the Greek “esoterikos” meaning “belonging to an inner circle”.

4 MMA ref’s call : TKO

Technical knockout (TKO)

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport in which competitors use a variety of techniques from a variety of traditional combat sports and martial arts.

5 Logical conclusion? : ELL

The conclusion of the word “logical” is a letter L (ell).

8 Tree native to the Rockies : ASPEN

The “quaking” aspen tree is so called because the structure of the leaves causes them to move easily in the wind, to “tremble, quake”.

9 Spicy Chinese cuisine : SICHUAN

Sichuan (also “Szechuan”) is a province in southwest China. It is noted for its cuisine, which is hot and spicy as it uses plenty of garlic, chili peppers and the Sichuan peppercorn. A famous Szechuan dish in the US is Kung Pao chicken or shrimp.

11 Tailless primate : APE

Apes and monkeys both belong to the order of primates. The most obvious way to distinguish apes from monkeys is by the presence or lack of a tail. Almost all apes have no tail, and almost all monkeys have tails.

14 Pub quaff : ALE

“Quaff” is both a verb and a noun. One “quaffs” (takes a hearty drink) of a “quaff” (a hearty drink).

15 Bite-size cake : PETIT FOUR

A petit four is a small confection served at the end of a meal, either as a dessert or with coffee. The name “petit four” is French for “small oven”.

16 Cameo shape : OVAL

Cameo is a method of carving, often the carving of a gemstone or a piece of jewelry. The resulting image is in relief (sits proud of the background), whereas an engraved image would be produced by the similar carving method known as intaglio. Nowadays, the term “cameo” is used for any piece of oval-shaped jewelry that contains the image of a head, usually in profile (maybe even a photograph).

21 Thailand neighbor : LAOS

Over one half of the Laos-Thailand border follows the Mekong River. Running just under 1,150 miles, the border runs from the tripoint with Myanmar in the north, to the tripoint with Cambodia in the south.

25 __ facto : IPSO

“Ipso facto” is Latin, a phrase meaning “by the fact itself”. It describes something that is a direct consequence of a particular act, as opposed to something that is the result of some subsequent event. For example, my father was born in Dublin and was an Irish citizen, ipso facto. My son was born in California and is an Irish citizen by virtue of being the son of an Irish citizen (i.e. “not” ipso facto).

28 Berry in a mill : PEPPERCORN

The fruit of the black pepper plant are drupes called peppercorns. Each peppercorn is dark red in color, and contains a stone that in turn encloses a single black pepper seed. Black pepper is made by grinding dried berries that have been picked before they ripen. White pepper is made by grinding the seeds of ripe peppercorns, The seeds are extracted by soaking the fruit in water and removing the outer layer.

33 CC or LV competitor : YSL

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)

Coco Chanel (CC)

Louis Vuitton (LV)

34 Viking drink : MEAD

Mead is a lovely drink that’s made from fermented honey and water.

35 Birthplace of espresso : ITALY

Espresso is made by forcing extremely hot water, under pressure, through finely ground coffee beans. The result is a thick and concentrated coffee drink that contains quite a lot of solids and a lot of foam. An espresso machine was first patented in 1884 in Italy, although it was a machine to make the beverage in bulk. The first patent for a machine that made individual measures was applied for in 1901, also in Italy.

41 Scale button : TARE

Tare is the weight of a container that is deducted from the gross weight to determine the net weight, the weight of the container’s contents.

42 WashU’s city : STL

Washington University (WashU) in St. Louis is a private school that was founded in 1853, and named for President George Washington in 1854. The “in St. Louis” was added to the university’s name in 1976, in an attempt to avoid confusion over the school’s location.

54 Automaker whose name means “listen” in Latin : AUDI

The Audi name has an interesting history. The Horch company was founded by August Horch in 1909. Early in the life of the new company, Horch was forced out of his own business. He set up a new enterprise and continued to use his own name as a brand. The old company sued him for using the Horch name so a meeting was held to choose something new. Horch’s young son was studying Latin in the room where the meeting was taking place. He pointed out that “horch” was German for “hear” and he suggested “Audi” as a replacement, the Latin for “listen”.

55 Site to consult before buying new tech : CNET

CNET is an excellent technology website. It started out in 1994 as a television network specializing in technology news. The host of “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest, started off his career as host of a CNET show.

57 Former Yankee slugger, familiarly : A-ROD

Professional baseball player Alex Rodriguez earned more nicknames than just “A-Rod”. He has been called “the Cooler” by some players as there was a perception that teams went cold when he joined them and hot when he left. He has also been called “A-Fraud” by teammates because of another perception, that he is over-demanding. Rodriguez was in a world of hurt not so long ago, for using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. He retired from baseball in 2016.

69 With 2-Down, DC Comics superhero team : DOOM …
2D See 69-Down : … PATROL

“Doom Patrol” is a superhero TV series based on the superhero team of the same name in the DC Comics universe.

71 Flatbread made with maida : NAAN

Maida is a super-refined wheat flour used in Indian cuisine.

74 Old earbuds hookup : IPOD

The iPod is Apple’s discontinued signature line of portable media players. The iPod first hit the market in 2001 with a hard drive-based device, now known as the iPod Classic. Later models all used flash memory, allowing a smaller form factor. The smallest of the flash-based models is the iPod Shuffle, which was introduced in 2005.

80 Desert valley : WADI

“Wadi” is an Arabic term referring to a valley, or perhaps a (mostly) dry riverbed. In English we might call this a wash, or use the Spanish word “arroyo”.

83 __ rata : PRO

“Pro rata” is a Latin phrase meaning “in proportion”.

84 San Antonio landmark : ALAMO

The San Antonio mission known as the Alamo may have been named for a grove of nearby cottonwood trees. “Álamo” is the Spanish name for the cottonwood.

85 “Interstellar” director : NOLAN

British director Christopher Nolan was best known for some time for “rescuing” the floundering Batman movie franchise. In that series, Nolan directed “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight”. He was also at the helm of a couple of sci-fi movies that I really enjoyed, namely “Inception” (2010) and “Interstellar” (2014). And then, along came “Oppenheimer” …

“Interstellar” is a sci-fi film released in 2014 with a “stellar” cast including Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Matt Damon and Michael Caine. I found “Interstellar” to be a really engaging movie, one that grabbed my attention the whole way through. That said, the ending was a little bit disappointing. I’m not one for walking out of theaters with unanswered questions …

87 Emoji alternative : GIF

The Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) is an image format developed in the 1980s by CompuServe (remember CompuServe?). GIF images are compressed, reducing the file size, but without losing information. So, the original image can be reconstructed perfectly from the compressed GIF version. But, and it’s a big but, GIF images use only 256 individual colors. This means that GIF is a relatively poor choice of compression for color photographs, while it is usually fine for logos with large blocks of single colors.

93 Fish in baam machli ka salan : EEL

“Baam machli ka salan” is a fish curry from Indian cuisine that is made with eel.

96 Struck by Cupid’s arrow : SMITTEN

“Smitten” is the past participle of “to smite”, meaning “to inflict a heavy blow”. We tend to use “smitten” to mean “affected by love, love-struck”.

98 Extra special attention, for short : TLC

Tender loving care (TLC)

103 Immune system constituents : T CELLS

T cells are a group of white blood cells that are essential components of the body’s immune system. T cells are so called because they mature in the thymus, a specialized organ found in the chest.

107 CBS forensic franchise : CSI

I quite enjoy the “CSI” franchise of television shows, all except “CSI: Miami”. I find the character played by David Caruso to be extremely annoying. “CSI: Miami” was canceled in 2012. No loss …

109 Much sitar music : RAGAS

Raga isn’t really a genre of music, but has been described as the “tonal framework” in which Indian classical music is composed. Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous raga virtuoso (to us Westerners). Western rock music with a heavy Indian influence might be called raga rock.

110 Tech giant whose logo depicts the Golden Gate Bridge : CISCO

Cisco is a company that I really admire (in terms of innovation and management). Headquartered in San Jose, California, Cisco develops and sells products and services in the communications sector. The name “Cisco” was taken from the name of the city San Francisco.

111 All abuzz? : APIAN

Something described as apian is related to bees. “Apis” is Latin for “bee”.

112 Transition : SEGUE

A segue is a transition from one topic to the next. “Segue” is an Italian word that literally means “now follows”. It was first used in musical scores directing the performer to play into the next movement without a break. The oft-used term “segway” is given the same meaning, although the word “segway” doesn’t really exist. It is a misspelling of “segue” that has been popularized by its use as the name of the personal transporter known as a Segway.

113 Box score stat : RBIS

In baseball, the line square is a summary set of statistics for the game. It is seen at every baseball stadium, and includes the number of runs (R) scored by each team per innings, as well as the total number of hits (H) and errors (E). The more comprehensive box score includes the line score, but also shows the individual performance of each player.

119 “Today’s Wordle word is TRUE,” e.g. : LIE

Wordle words are all 5-letters long.

Wordle is a web-based word game that a Welsh software engineer developed to play with his partner during the COVID pandemic. The name “Wordle” is a play on the engineer’s own name: Josh Wardle. Wardle published the game on its own website in 2021, primarily for the use of Wardle’s family. One month later, the game had 90 players, and a month later 300,000 players. A week later, the number of daily players had grown to two million! The New York Times purchased Wordle in 2022 “for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures”.

121 Granita bits : ICE

Granita is a semi-frozen dessert in Italian cuisine that resembles sorbet, with the difference being that granita is usually less smooth and more crystalline.

122 QVC sister channel : HSN

The Home Shopping Network (HSN) was the first national shopping network, and was launched locally as the Home Shopping Club in Florida in 1982. Its first product was a can opener.

123 AFC Richmond coach Lasso : TED

“Ted Lasso” is a marvelous sports-comedy TV show about an American college football coach who moves to the UK to manage an English soccer team. The title character is played very admirably by Jason Sudeikis. Sudeikis first played Lasso in a series of TV commercials commissioned to promote NBC’s coverage of the British Premier League. The character became so popular that he inspired a whole TV series. Great stuff, and highly recommended …

The town of Richmond in southwest London takes its name from Richmond Palace, a Tudor royal residence that stood on the banks of the River Thames in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The palace was built by King Henry VII, who was formerly known as the Earl of Richmond. The future king’s title came from the earldom Richmond, now a market town in North Yorkshire. The marvelous TV show “Ted Lasso” is set in Richmond in London, and features the fictional football team AFC Richmond.