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Edited by: Patti Varol
Today’s Theme: None
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Bill’s time: 13m 45s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
1 Genre embraced by Miles Davis in the late 1960s : JAZZ FUSION
Jazz musician Miles Davis was born into a relatively affluent family, so he had plenty of music lessons as a child. After high school, Davis studied at the Juilliard School of Music in New York but he dropped out before finishing his studies. He stated later that the Juilliard classes focused too much on European and “white” music, but he acknowledged that the school gave him a foundation in music theory that helped him in later life.
11 Intel on a political rival : OPPO
In the world of politics, “oppo” is “opposition research”. The idea is to collect information on one’s opponent that can be used against him or her.
15 Speaker of the house? : AMAZON ECHO
Amazon Echo is a voice-controlled hardware device that can be used to provide several services including playing radio programs and music, recording of shopping lists, and managing a calendar. The device just sits in the home listening, until it hears a “wake up” command.
16 Einsteinhaus city : BERN
The “Einsteinhaus” (Einstein House) in Bern, Switzerland is a former residence of Albert Einstein that is now open to the public as a museum. Einstein lived there from 1903 to 1905 with his first wife, Mileva Marić, and their eldest son Hans Albert Einstein.
18 Quantity of strontium in an award-winning 2018 photograph : ATOM
In 2018, a Ph.D. student at the University of Oxford took a remarkable, award-winning photograph. David Nadlinger was “trapping” single atoms in an electric field for his research project on quantum computing. He used a standard digital SLR camera to photograph one single, charged atom of strontium illuminated by a blue-violet light against a black background.
21 Insect that collaborates through stigmergy : TERMITE
Termites are insects that are somewhat unique in that they can digest cellulose (as can ruminants such as cattle). Because of this diet, they cause a lot of trouble for human populations by feeding on wood in man-made structures.
The word “stigmergy” was coined in 1959 to describe the indirect coordination that occurs between termites working to build complex nests. The term is used more generally now to describe the actions of any group acting in a similar form of self-organization. Animals, like ants and termites (or even robots!), can work together by changing their environment and leaving clues for each other. In the case of termites, one worker termite leaves a scent trail, and another follows it, and so on, until they build something complex together.
23 “__ de Funk”: Horace Silver composition : OPUS
Horace Silver was an influential jazz pianist and composer, particularly known for his contributions to the hard bop style in the 1950s. He co-founded the Jazz Messengers with Art Blakey, and penned numerous jazz standards like “Song for My Father”, “The Preacher”, and “Nica’s Dream”.
24 Postop prescription : OPIATE
The name of the class of drugs called “opioids” comes from the word “opium”, which describes the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy. Drugs derived from opium are known as “opiates”. The broader term “opioids” covers both natural and synthetic drugs that behave in the same way as opiates, i.e. those drugs that bind to opioid receptors in the brain.
25 Narrow channel : STRAIT
A strait (str.) is a narrow waterway connecting two large bodies of water. A strait might be considered the opposite of an isthmus, which is a narrow strip of land connecting two large land masses. Straits often have significant economic and geopolitical significance, as they can form choke points for maritime traffic. Examples are the Strait of Hormuz (connecting the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman) and the Strait of Gibraltar (connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea).
28 __ musubi: meat-and-rice snack : SPAM
Spam musubi is a snack food comprising a slice of grilled Spam and a block of rice, both wrapped in nori (dried edible seaweed from traditional Japanese cuisine). Spam musubi are particularly popular in Hawaii and Guam.
29 “__ Mubarak” : EID
“Eid Mubarak” translates from Arabic as “Blessed festival/feast”. It is a greeting used by many Muslins at the two main holidays celebrated in Islam: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.
31 Hestia’s domain : HEARTH
Hestia was the virgin goddess of the hearth and home to ancient Greeks. She was a daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and a sibling of Zeus.
33 “Dumb Money” star Paul : DANO
Paul Dano is an actor and musician from New York City. I best know him for playing Brian Wilson in “Love & Mercy”, a fascinating film about the Beach Boys.
“Dumb Money” is a very interesting biographical movie about the infamous GameStop short squeeze that hit the stock market in 2021. Based on the 2021 book “The Antisocial Network”, it tells the story of financial marketer and educator Keith Gill, portrayed by Paul Dano. Gill’s social media posts outlining his investment gains due to his ownership of GameStop stock. Many, many small volume investors bought the same stock, resulting in the price of the stock sky-rocketing. Several professional investors and fund managers shorted the stock, as the fundamentals of the company did not support the rising price. This resulted in a short squeeze, with the short sellers suffering major losses.
36 Stallone role : RAMBO
“First Blood” was the original of the four “Rambo” films starring Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, a troubled Vietnam War veteran. I thought “First Blood” was a pretty good film actually, but the sequels were terrible, and way too violent for me. But, action all the way …
39 Decidedly non-vegan kid-lit character : SAM I AM
Dr. Seuss’s famous children’s book “Green Eggs and Ham” was first published in 1960. “Green Eggs and Ham” now ranks twelfth in the list of top selling children’s books. By the way, “Harry Potter” books hold the top four slots in that list. The text of “Green Eggs and Ham” has a lot of “I am” going on. It starts with:
I am Sam
I am Sam
Sam I am
and ends with:
I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am
40 Airport code that encompasses EWR, JFK, and LGA : NYC
The three big airports serving New York City (NYC) are John F. Kennedy (JFK), LaGuardia (LGA) and Newark (EWR).
42 “The Twelve Days of Christmas” musicians : PIPERS
Those would be “eleven pipers piping”.
The fabulous Christmas carol called “The Twelve Days of Christmas” dates back at least to 1780 when it was first published in England, though it may be French in origin. The concept of twelve days of Christmas comes from the tradition that the three kings came to visit the Christ Child twelve days after he was born. This same tradition is the origin of the title to Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night”.
43 Dress part : BODICE
A bodice is the upper part of a dress. In earlier times, a bodice was a corset or stays. Strangely enough, “bodice” is a variant of “bodies”, the plural of “body”. In the 16th century, a “body” was a two-part corset that fastened in the middle.
45 Some Barbieland residents : KENS
Barbie’s male counterpart doll is Ken, and Ken’s family name is Carson. Barbie’s full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts. When Ken was introduced in 1959, it was as Barbie’s boyfriend. In 2004 it was announced that Ken and Barbie were splitting up, and needed to spend quality time apart. Soon after the split, Barbie “met” Blaine, a boogie boarder from Australia. Happily, Barbie and Ken reconciled and reunited on Valentine’s Day 2011.
46 Upper class, often : SEMINAR
A seminar is a meeting called for the exchange of information, especially in a university. The term comes from the Latin “seminarium” meaning “breeding ground, plant nursery”, which is also the root of our word “seminary”.
48 York mother : MUM
York is a beautiful cathedral city in the historical county of Yorkshire in Northern England. It was founded way, way back in 71 AD by the Romans as a military fortress on the River Ouse. Remains of that fortress have been excavated under the foundations of York Minster, the city’s magnificent Gothic cathedral.
55 Rainbow forms : ARCS
Sunlight reflected by airborne water droplets can produce rainbows. The water droplets act as little prisms, dispersing the white light into its constituent colors. Sometimes we see double rainbows. If we look carefully, we can see that the order of the colors in the first and second arcs is reversed.
56 Bright green cocktails : APPLETINIS
An appletini is an apple martini, a cocktail containing vodka and an apple-flavored beverage such as apple brandy. One recipe is:
- 1 part sweet vermouth
- 1 part dry vermouth
- 4 parts vodka
- 3 parts apple juice
58 Walkway created by foot traffic : DESIRE PATH
A desire path is an unplanned trail that is created by animal or human traffic trampling the ground. Some say that the oldest desire path in the US originated as the Wickquasgeck Path made by Native Americans, which connected settlements on Manhattan Island, avoiding swamps and hills. That path developed into the thoroughfare that we now call Broadway.
Down
1 Zinger : JAPE
“To jape” means “to joke or quip”. The exact origins of “jape” are unclear, but it does seem to come from Old French. In the mid-1600s, “to jape” was a slang term meaning “to have sex with”. No joke …!
3 Bird voiced by John Oliver in “The Lion King” : ZAZU
In “The Lion King” series of movies, Zazu is a bird, a red-billed hornbill. From movie to movie, the voice actors portraying Zazu have changed. Rowan Atkinson played Zazu in the original film.
6 Crude : UNCOUTH
The word “couth” existed in Middle English with the meaning “well-known, customary”. The term died out, but was resurrected in the late 19th century as a back-formation of the word “uncouth” meaning “rude, lacking in polish”.
7 Jokic and Jovic of the NBA, e.g. : SERBS
Nikola Jokić is a professional basketball player who was born in former-Yugoslavia. He was playing in the Serbian League before being drafted in 2014 by the Denver Nuggets of the NBA. Jokić won a silver medal with the Serbian national team when they lost to the USA in the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Nikola Jović is a Serbian NBA player who was born in England. His English birth came about because his father, Ilija Jović, was playing professional basketball there at the time. Nikola joined the Miami Heat in 2022, after having played in the professional league in Serbia.
11 “Becoming” memoirist : OBAMA
“Becoming” is a 2018 memoir by former First Lady Michelle Obama. After “Becoming” was published in November 2018, it took just 15 days for it to break the record for copies sold of any book in the US that year.
25 Fast-fashion giant based in Singapore : SHEIN
Shein is a fast-fashion retailer that was founded in China in 2008, and is now headquartered in Singapore. The original company name was “ZZKKO”.
26 Loveable sorts : TEDDY BEARS
The stuffed toy known as a teddy bear was introduced in the early 1900s and was named for President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt. The toy was inspired by a political cartoon that was drawn in 1902 showing President Roosevelt on a bear hunt and refusing to kill a black bear cub. That event is celebrated annually on September 9th as National Teddy Bear Day.
45 Talib who rapped “My name is in the middle of equality” : KWELI
Talib Kweli is a rapper from Brooklyn, New York whose breakthrough as an artist came as a member of the hip hop duo Black Star, along with Mos Def (now known as “Yasiin Bey”).
48 First name in art : MONA
Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece that we know in English as the “Mona Lisa” is called “La Gioconda” in Italian, the language of the artist. It’s also known as “La Joconde” by the Government of France which owns the painting and displays it in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The title comes from the name of the subject, almost certainly Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. Giocondo was a wealthy silk merchant in Florence who commissioned the painting for the couple’s new home to celebrate the birth of their second son.
50 Material for a scrimmage pinny : MESH
The word “scrimmage” can be used for practice play between two squads of a team, or perhaps an exhibition game.
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Genre embraced by Miles Davis in the late 1960s : JAZZ FUSION
11 Intel on a political rival : OPPO
15 Speaker of the house? : AMAZON ECHO
16 Einsteinhaus city : BERN
17 Bottom of a pie : PIZZA CRUST
18 Quantity of strontium in an award-winning 2018 photograph : ATOM
19 Professor’s domain : EDU
20 Throng : MOB
21 Insect that collaborates through stigmergy : TERMITE
23 “__ de Funk”: Horace Silver composition : OPUS
24 Postop prescription : OPIATE
25 Narrow channel : STRAIT
28 __ musubi: meat-and-rice snack : SPAM
29 “__ Mubarak” : EID
31 Hestia’s domain : HEARTH
32 Didn’t divulge : HID
33 “Dumb Money” star Paul : DANO
34 Extremities : EDGES
35 Check : VET
36 Stallone role : RAMBO
37 Checked at the door : ID’ED
38 Cap : LID
39 Decidedly non-vegan kid-lit character : SAM I AM
40 Airport code that encompasses EWR, JFK, and LGA : NYC
41 Boatloads : TONS
42 “The Twelve Days of Christmas” musicians : PIPERS
43 Dress part : BODICE
45 Some Barbieland residents : KENS
46 Upper class, often : SEMINAR
47 Unite : WED
48 York mother : MUM
51 Placed, as bets : LAID
52 Made a solo arrangement? : LIVED ALONE
55 Rainbow forms : ARCS
56 Bright green cocktails : APPLETINIS
57 Furtive summons : PSST!
58 Walkway created by foot traffic : DESIRE PATH
Down
1 Zinger : JAPE
2 During : AMID
3 Bird voiced by John Oliver in “The Lion King” : ZAZU
4 “Bo-o-oring!” : ZZZ!
5 Spots for soft landings : FOAM PITS
6 Crude : UNCOUTH
7 Jokic and Jovic of the NBA, e.g. : SERBS
8 Hosp. area : ICU
9 “You’re too much!” : OH STOP IT!
10 Tablet : NOTEPAD
11 “Becoming” memoirist : OBAMA
12 French girlfriend : PETITE AMIE
13 Energy consumption unit? : PROTEIN BAR
14 “Your money’s no good here!” : ON ME!
22 Perimeter : RIM
23 Spent time on the lake, say : OARED
25 Fast-fashion giant based in Singapore : SHEIN
26 Loveable sorts : TEDDY BEARS
27 Crudely drawn cartoons expressing frustration : RAGE COMICS
28 Shakes : SHEDS
30 Makes toast? : DOOMS
33 Makes wet : DAMPS
35 Like some tomatoes : VINE RIPE
36 Outdoor concert contingency : RAIN DATE
38 Yard sale sign, essentially : LOCAL AD
39 Likely ticket holder? : SPEEDER
41 __ ear : TIN
44 Performed in a Shakespeare play? : DIDST
45 Talib who rapped “My name is in the middle of equality” : KWELI
46 Smack : SLAP
48 First name in art : MONA
49 Military group : UNIT
50 Material for a scrimmage pinny : MESH
53 CEO’s direct reports : VPS
54 Sass : LIP
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