Category: Barbara Lin

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Constructed by: Barbara Lin
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 7m 29s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Subject of the Caldecott Honor book “The Right Word” : ROGET

Peter Mark Roget was an English lexicographer. He was an avid maker of lists, apparently using the routine of list-making to combat depression, a condition he endured for most of his life. Roget published his famous thesaurus in 1852, with revisions and expansions being made years later by his son, and then in turn by his grandson.

“The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus” is a 2014 book by Jen Bryant.

The Randolph Caldecott Medal is awarded annually to the prior year’s “most distinguished American picture book for children”. The inaugural year for the award was 1938. The medal is named for British artist and illustrator Randolph Caldecott. In 2009, the structure of the awards was tweaked so that selected runners-up for the Medal were given the status of “Caldecott Honor Books”.

10 “The __ Tour”: record-setting 2023-24 concert series : ERAS

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour started on Saint Patrick’s Day in 2023 in Glendale, Arizona, with a schedule covering five continents over two years. Swift described the line up songs as “a journey through the musical eras of [her 17-year] career”.

14 Butterfly’s stage : IMAGO

The imago is an intermediate stage in the development of an insect. All four stages are embryo, larva, pupa and imago.

15 Stroke of luck? : HOLE IN ONE

One well-documented hole in one (ace) was during a round of the British Open in 1973. American golfer Gene Sarazen achieved the feat that day, at the age of 71. A less well-documented series of holes in one was reported by the North Korean press in a story about the Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The report was that Kim Jong-il scored 11 holes in one in his first and only round of golf.

17 City between Bismarck and Minneapolis on I-94 : FARGO

Fargo, North Dakota is the biggest city in the state. The original name for the city was Centralia, when it was a stopping point for steamboats that traveled the Red River in the late 19th century. The town really grew with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway, so the name “Fargo” was adopted in honor of one of the railroad company’s directors, William Fargo (of Wells Fargo Express fame).

19 Swiss cheese? : FRANCS

Not only is the Swiss Franc legal tender in Switzerland, it is also the money used in Liechtenstein and the Italian exclave of Campione d’Italia.

21 Camp site : MESS TENT

“Mess” first came into English about 1300, when it described the list of food needed for a meal. The term comes from the Old French word “mes” meaning a portion of food or a course at a meal. This usage in English evolved into “mess” meaning a jumbled mass of anything, from the concept of “mixed food”. The original usage, in the sense of a food for a meal, surfaced again in the military in the 1500s when a “mess” was a communal eating place.

22 Being of Jewish folklore : GOLEM

“Golem” is Yiddish slang for “dimwit”. In Jewish folklore, a golem is an anthropomorphic being made out of inanimate matter, and is somewhat like an unintelligent robot.

24 Unleavened flatbread : ROTI

In an Indian restaurant, naan bread is very popular. Roti is an unleavened cousin of naan.

25 Band whose work is featured in the musical “Head Over Heels” : THE GO-GO’S

The Go-Go’s were an all-female rock band that was formed in Los Angeles back in 1978. The band’s biggest hit is “We Got the Beat”, which was released in 1982. The best-known member of the Go-Go’s is probably Belinda Carlisle.

“Head over Heels” is a 2015 jukebox musical based on the “Arcadia”, a long prose pastoral by 16th-century English poet Philip Sydney. The show’s music comprises songs from the catalog of the all-female rock band the Go-Go’s.

35 Cheek muscle, for short : GLUTE

There are three gluteal muscles in the human body, the largest of which is the gluteus maximus. It’s the gluteus maximus which really dictates the shape and size of the human buttocks. In evolutionary terms, the human “glutes” (also “glutei”) are larger than those in related species because they play a big role in maintaining our erect posture.

36 Acrobat’s company : ADOBE

Adobe Acrobat is the software used to create .pdf files. Most of us are more familiar with the associated application called Adobe Reader, because that’s what we use to read those .pdf files.

38 AQI monitor : EPA

The air quality index (AQI) is monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

40 Brown ermine : 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.

41 “__ Baby”: 2020 film set during a Jewish ritual : SHIVA

“Shiva Baby” is a 2020 comedy film written and directed by Emma Seligman. Seligman adapted her own 2018 short film in writing the 2020 feature version. It’s about a bisexual Jewish woman who attends a shiva with her parents, along with an ex-girlfriend and her current sugar daddy.

43 Soul provider : KIA

The Kia Soul is a compact car produced in South Korea, although it was designed by Kia here in the US, in Irvine, California. Yep, the Kia Soul is made in Seoul …

44 Shirley Jackson’s genre : HORROR

Shirley Jackson was an author noted for her works in the horror and mystery genres. Arguably, her most famous title is “The Lottery”, a short story published in 1948. It is a horror tale, one that shocked readers to the extent that Jackson was inundated with hate mail. However, “The Lottery” is often cited as one of the most famous short stories in American literature.

46 Biological building block : STEM CELL

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that can become specialized cells. Stem cells are found in embryos (embryonic stem cells), and are especially prevalent about 4-5 days of growth after fertilization. Stem cells are also found throughout the bodies of adults (somatic stem cells). Somatic stem cells are associated with a particular organ and have the potential to regenerate all the cell types of the organ from which they originate.

51 Threat to some colonists : ANTEATER

Anteaters tear open ant and termite nests using their sharp claws and then eat up the eggs, larvae and mature ants using their tongues. They have very sticky saliva which coats the tongue hence making the feeding very efficient. The tongue also moves very quickly, flicking in and out of the mouth at about 150 times per minute.

55 Seuss reptile : YERTLE

“Yertle the Turtle” is a story by Dr. Seuss. The book is noted for the inclusion of the word “burp”. Back in 1958 when it was published, “burp” was considered to be vulgar. But, no one seemed to mind!

58 Barrier visited by tourists : CORAL REEF

Barrier reefs are coral reefs that are separated from the mainland by a deep channel. The most famous example is the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Other examples are the Belize Barrier Reef off the coast of Belize in Central America, and the New Caledonian Barrier Reef off the coast of New Caledonia in the South Pacific.

60 Hawkeye missile : ARROW

Hawkeye is a supervillain turned superhero in the Marvel universe. The alter ego of Clint Barton, Hawkeye is a master archer.

62 Two-terminal device : DIODE

A diode is a component in a circuit, the most notable characteristic of which is that it will conduct electric current in only one direction. Some of those vacuum tubes we used to see in old radios and television were diodes, but nowadays almost all diodes are semiconductor devices.

65 Elusive Himalayans : YETIS

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.

Down

2 Ilhan who was the first person to wear a hijab on the House floor : OMAR

Ilhan Omar has been representing Minnesota’s 5th congressional district in the US House since 2019. At that time, she became one of the first two Muslim women, as well as the first Somali American, to serve in the US Congress.

4 Holiday concoction : EGGNOG

It’s not really clear where the term “nog” (as in “eggnog”) comes from although it might derive from the word “noggin”, which was originally a small wooden cup that was long associated with alcoholic drinks.

6 Omega, in physics : OHM

The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.

8 Bull in a product name : ELMER

Elsie the Cow is the mascot of the Borden Company. Elsie first appeared at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, introduced to symbolize the perfect dairy product. She is so famous and respected that she has been awarded the degrees of Doctor of Bovinity, Doctor of Human Kindness and Doctor of Ecownomics. Elsie was also given a husband named Elmer the Bull. Elmer eventually moved over to the chemical division of Borden where he gave his name to Elmer’s Glue.

11 Hitchcock’s first film in color : ROPE

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were two well-heeled students at the University of Chicago who famously murdered a 14-year-old boy, apparently just on a whim, to show that they could commit the perfect crime. The crime turned out to be not quite so perfect and the pair were caught and put on trial for the murder in 1924. The trial was big news, especially after the defendants engaged high-profile attorney Clarence Darrow to represent them. In fact, the court proceedings were dubbed “The Trial of the Century”. The crime itself was the inspiration for the 1929 play called “Rope” by Patrick Hamilton, which in turn was the inspiration for the 1948 Hitchcock film of the same name.

20 Beneficiary of a Sonic boom? : SEGA

Sonic the Hedgehog is a title character in a videogame and the mascot of Sega, the computer game developer. Sonic was set up as a rival to Nintendo’s mascot Mario.

27 Some campus returnees : SOPHS

The term “sophomore” has been used for a student in the second year of university since the 1680’s. The original meaning of the word was “arguer”. The term has Greek roots, from two Greek words that have been artificially combined in English. The Greek “sophos” means “wise”, and “moros” means “foolish”.

29 Ragtime dance : TURKEY TROT

The turkey trot is a dance step that was popular in the early 1900s, often performed to ragtime music. It was a dance denounced by the Vatican, as some of the positions assumed were deemed suggestive and offensive.

Ragtime music was at the height of its popularity in the early 1900s. It takes its name from its characteristic “ragged” rhythms. The most famous ragtime composer was Scott Joplin, who had a big hit with his “Maple Leaf Rag” when it was published in 1899. He followed that up with a string of hits, including the “Pine Apple Rag” (sic). Ragtime fell out of favor about 1917 when the public turned to jazz. It had a resurgence in the forties when jazz musicians started to include ragtime tunes in their repertoires. But it was the 1973 movie “The Sting” that brought the true revival, as the hit soundtrack included numerous ragtime tunes by Scott Joplin, including the celebrated “The Entertainer” originally published in 1902.

31 Nephric : RENAL

The kidneys have several functions in the body, including the removal of toxins from the blood. This function is carried out by nephrons, the main structural units in the kidneys. Each human kidney comprises about a million nephrons.

34 Yogurt-based condiment served with 24-Across : RAITA

Raita is a condiment served in Indian restaurants that is made from yogurt flavored with coriander, cumin, mint and cayenne pepper.

37 Counter points? : BAR SEATS

When we sit at a counter (in a diner, say), there’s a connection with money lenders. Back in the mid-1300s, a counter was the table used by a money lender doing business. The term “counter” came into English from Latin via French, ultimately from “computare” meaning “to count”.

45 Souped-up junker : RAT ROD

A custom-assembled car, made with cheap or cast-off parts, is known as a rat rod (a play on “hot rod”).

47 Nation known for temperance : CARRIE

Carrie Nation was an activist in the temperance movement prior to the introduction of Prohibition. She was a radical, by all accounts. Nation violently attacked taverns with a hatchet, earning her the nickname “Hatchet Granny”.

49 “The Canterbury Tales” pilgrim : REEVE

A reeve was a senior official in the days of Anglo-Saxon England, and might perhaps have been a chief magistrate of a town. Famously, a reeve appears in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”. “The Reeve’s Tale” is the third tale in the book.

52 Time for some wrap parties : NOEL

“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, and ultimately comes from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). “Noel” has come to be used as an alternative for “Christmas carol”.

53 Zurich transport : TRAM

Zurich is located in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. It is the largest city in the country.

56 California wine town near Stockton : LODI

Lodi, California may not be as well known as a wine producer as Sonoma and Napa counties, but it has been given the moniker “Zinfandel Capital of the World”.

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