Day: January 18, 2025

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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: 9m 50s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Music genre with roots in swing : BEBOP

The jazz term “bebop” probably came from “Arriba! Arriba!”, which were words of encouragement uttered by Latin-American bandleaders to their musicians.

6 Observation deck? : TAROT

Tarot cards have been around since the mid-1400s, and for centuries were simply used for entertainment as a game. It has only been since the late 1800s that the cards have been used by fortune tellers to predict the future. The list of tarot cards includes the Wheel of Fortune, the Hanged Man and the Lovers.

11 Record label for P!nk and Cat Burns : RCA

“P!nk” is the stage name of American singer Alecia Beth Moore. I know so little about “modern” music, but I do like the P!nk song “Just Give Me a Reason” …

Cat Burns is a British singer-songwriter who rose to fame in 2020 with her viral hit “Go,” which gained popularity two years later on TikTok.

14 Vegan beauty brand headquartered in Minnesota : AVEDA

Horst Rechelbacher was traveling in India in 1970 when he was introduced to the Hindu science of longevity called Ayurveda, which inspired him to set up his own company of skin and hair care products that he called Aveda. The company opened its doors in 1978 and is based in Blaine, Minnesota.

17 Monopoly property based on a historical monopoly : READING RAILROAD

The four railroad (RR) properties in the Monopoly board game are:

• Reading Railroad
• Pennsylvania Railroad
• B&O Railroad
• Short Line

The Reading Railroad, which was absorbed by Conrail in 1976, started out as the Philadelphia and Reading Railway in 1833. The Reading Railway has a square for itself in the original game of Monopoly.

19 Write alot, say? : ERR

Oops, that should read “a lot”.

21 Instrument whose name comes from the Latin for “heavenly” : CELESTA

A celesta (also “celeste”) is a keyboard instrument in which the keys operate hammers that strike a set of metal plates. The resulting sound is similar to that from a glockenspiel, although it is much softer in tone as the celesta’s plates are suspended over wooden resonators. I’d say that the most famous musical work featuring a celesta is Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from his ballet “The Nutcracker”.

24 “Mary Poppins” chimney sweep : BERT

The “Mary Poppins” series of children’s novels were written by Australian-born English writer and actress P. L. Travers. Poppins is a magical children’s nanny with a best friend Bert, who is a chimney sweep. In the famous 1964 musical film adaptation of the Mary Poppins stories, Poppins is played by Julie Andrews and Bert is played Dick Van Dyke.

26 Team that retired Willie Mays’s No. 24 : METS

Willie Mays’ nickname was “Say Hey Kid”, although his friends and teammates were more likely to refer to him as “Buck”. When Mays was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, he was asked who was the best player he’d ever seen in the game. He replied, “I don’t mean to be bashful, but I was.”

27 Banjo ridge : FRET

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.

The instrument that we know today as the banjo is a derivative of instruments that were used in Africa.

29 Clear for takeoff? : DEICE

Deicing is the process of removing snow and ice from a surface. Deicing is particularly important for aircraft operating in freezing conditions. Ice on the surface of a plane can change its aerodynamics, and dislodged ice can cause damage to engines.

31 Pong consoles : ATARIS

Do you remember the arcade video game that is like a game of tennis, with paddles moving up and down to hit what looks like a ball, over what looks like a net? Well, that is Pong. The arcade version of Pong was introduced in 1972, with Atari selling a home version through Sears for the Christmas market in 1975.

33 Third of a cappuccino : FOAM

The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin is an order of Roman Catholic friars, an offshoot of the Franciscans. The order split from the Franciscans back in 1520, and were forced to go into hiding from church authorities. The new order was helped by the Camaldolese monks, and in recognition of their assistance, the breakaway monks adopted the Camaldolese hood, known as a capuccio. It is this “capuccio” that gave the order its name, and indeed ultimately gave the name to the Capuchin monkey. The cappuccino coffee is named for the coffee-and-white colored habits worn by Capuchin friars.

40 Not virtually, virtually : IRL

In real life (IRL)

41 Once menos ocho : TRES

In Spanish, “tres” (three) is “once menos ocho” (eleven minus eight).

42 Lilikoi and lychee : FRUITS

Lilikoi is the Hawaiian name for passion fruit, a tropical fruit with a purple or yellow rind. The flavor is both sweet and tart, often described as a mix of guava, pineapple, and citrus.

Litchis are better known in English as “lychees”. We can’t eat the skin of the lychee fruit, which is why you’ll notice that you are only served the sweet flesh. If you’ve never tried them, you should do so as they’re delicious. Even though there is a nut-like seed within the edible flesh of the lychee fruit, I wouldn’t eat it, as it is poisonous …

45 Electric __ : EELS

Electric eels are so called because they are capable of delivering an eclectic shock that debilitates their prey. They are also able to electrolocate their prey. They do so by generating a weak electric field. The prey causes a distortion in this electric field, which is picked up by the eel’s electroreceptor organs.

46 Painter Thomas of the Hudson River School : COLE

Thomas Cole was an English-born, American artist who is known mainly for his landscapes. He grew up in the north of England and emigrated to the US with his family when in his teens, eventually settling in the town of Catskill on the Hudson River in present-day New York State. Cole is widely recognized as the founder of the Hudson River School, a group of mid-19th century landscape painters.

53 Island home of the Ka Hula Piko festival : MOLOKAI

Molokai is the fifth largest of the Hawaiian Islands. Famously, Molokai was home to a leper colony that was managed by Father Damien, a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium. Father Damien cared for the victims of Hansen’s Disease (then known as “leprosy”) for sixteen years before succumbing to the illness himself in 1889. Father Damien was declared a saint in 2009.

The Ka Hula Piko festival is a hula competition taking place annually on the Hawaiian island of Molokai since 1991. The event is held in Kaana in the west of the island, which is home to the sacred hill known as Pu’u Nana. It was there, according to Hawaiian legend, that the goddess Laka created the hula art form.

57 Coder’s concern : BUG

Back in 1947, famed computer programmer Grace Hopper noticed some colleagues fixing a piece of equipment by removing a dead moth from a relay. She remarked that they were “debugging” the system, and so Hopper has been given credit for popularizing the term “bug” in the context of computing.

61 “Voilà!” : I’VE DONE IT!

The French word “voilà” means “there it is”, and “voici” means “here it is”. The terms come from “voi là” meaning “see there” and “voi ici” meaning “see here”.

63 Scand. land : NOR

Norway has been ranked as one of the countries in the world with the highest standard of living every year since 2001. It is rich in natural resources and has a relatively low population. The people benefit from a comprehensive social security system, subsidized higher education for all citizens and universal health care. And Norway is famous for her success at the Winter Olympic Games, having won more gold medals than any other nation in the world.

Down

2 Drew Barrymore film promoted as “A Cinderella Story” : EVER AFTER

Ever After is a 1998 romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore. It is a modern retelling of the classic fairy tale Cinderella, set in 16th-century France. The film follows Danielle, a young woman raised by her stepmother and stepsisters, as she falls in love with Prince Henry.

Drew Barrymore has quite the pedigree, being a granddaughter of Hollywood icon John Barrymore. She appeared in her first movie at the age of five, in 1980’s “Altered States”, but her big break was in 1982’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”. That same year she became the youngest host of “Saturday Night Live” at the age of seven. She has been invited back to host the show quite a few times and has now hosted six times, more than any other female celebrity.

5 Part of PTO : PAID

Paid time off (PTO)

13 “Clear+Vivid” podcast host Alan : ALDA

“Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda” is a podcast about the art of communication that is hosted by actor and science enthusiast Alan Alda. It emphasizes the importance of clear and vivid communication in fostering understanding and empathy, hence the podcast’s title.

16 “Spirit Rangers” voice actress Summer : CREE

Cree Summer is an American-Canadian actress and singer known for her extensive voice acting career. She has lent her distinctive voice to a wide array of animated characters, including Susie Carmichael in “Rugrats”, Elmyra Duff in “Tiny Toon Adventures”, and Penny in “Inspector Gadget.

18 Noodle : NOB

Slang terms for “head” include “bean”, “coconut”, “gourd”, “noodle” and “noggin”.

23 Peasant : SERF

A serf was a member of the lowest feudal class, someone attached to land owned by a lord. “Serf” comes from the Latin “servus”, meaning “slave”.

30 Leg muscle : CALF

The calf muscle actually consists of two muscles, both of which connect to the foot through the Achilles tendon.

31 Righteous Babe Records founder DiFranco : ANI

Singer Ani DiFranco founded her record company Righteous Records in 1990 in order to gain independence from the established record industry. She had to change the name to Righteous Babe Records as there already was a Righteous Record label, one that published gospel music.

32 Singer-songwriter Bareilles : SARA

Sara Bareilles achieved success with her 2007 “Love Song” with the help of the iTunes online store. In one week in June of that year, iTunes offered the song as “free single of the week” and it quickly became the most downloaded song in the store, and from there climbed to the number spot in the charts.

35 1966 pop album with cover art of band members feeding goats : PET SOUNDS

“Pet Sounds” is a 1966 album recorded by the Beach Boys, with Brian Wilson being the creative force behind the album. Though not a commercial success at the time, Pet Sounds has since been recognized as one of the most influential albums in pop music history. The 2014 biopic “Love & Mercy” features Wilson’s production of “Pet Sounds” as one of the two main storylines. Good film …

44 Principles : TENETS

A tenet is an article of faith, something that is held to be true. “Tenet” is Latin for “he/she/it holds”.

47 “The __ I get, the better I used to be”: John McEnroe : OLDER

Former tennis pro John McEnroe is known for his prowess on the court, as well his fiery temper. He was one of the great characters of his day, and had many grudge matches against the likes of Bjorn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl. In 1984, McEnroe won 82 out of 85 matches, a winning record that still stands to this day.

48 Mutual fund fee : LOAD

Mutual fund loads are percentages levied as a commission. Mutual funds can be classified by the type of load levied. There are front-end loaded funds, back-end loaded funds and even no-load funds.

52 Some quick toasts? : EGGOS

Eggo is a line of frozen waffles and related products made by Kellogg’s. When they were introduced in the 1930s, the name “Eggo” was chosen to promote the “egginess” of the batter. “Eggo” replaced “Froffles”, the original name chosen by melding “frozen” and “waffles”.

60 “Ben-__” : HUR

The celebrated 1959 Charlton Heston movie “Ben-Hur” is a dramatization of a book published in 1880 by Lew Wallace titled “Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ”. The 1959 epic film won a record 11 Academy Awards, a feat that has been equaled since then but never beaten. The other winners of 11 Oscars are “Titanic” (1997) and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003).