Category: Hoang-Kim Vu

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Constructed by: Hoang-Kim Vu
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 12m 38s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Words for private relaxation? : AT EASE

The lowest military rank of soldier is often a private (pvt.). The term “private” comes from the Middle Ages when “private soldiers” were hired or conscripted by noblemen to form a “private army”. The more generic usage of “private” started in the 1700s.

7 Wallach of “The Magnificent Seven” : ELI

Eli Wallach appeared consistently and made great performances on the big and small screens from the 1950s onwards. Wallach’s most famous role was probably “the Ugly” in “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. More recently he gave a very strong performance in 2006’s “The Holiday”. Sadly, Wallach passed away in June 2014, at the age of 98.

“The Magnificent Seven” really is a very entertaining western movie (and I am no fan of westerns, quite frankly). Famously, it is a 1960 remake of the Akira Kurosawa 1954 Japanese film, “Seven Samurai”. “The Magnificent Seven” is the second most shown film on television in the US. Only “The Wizard of Oz” gets more air time.

14 Ninth animal in the Chinese zodiac : MONKEY

The 12-year cycle in the Chinese calendar uses the following animals in order:

• Rat
• Ox
• Tiger
• Rabbit
• Dragon
• Snake
• Horse
• Goat
• Monkey
• Rooster
• Dog
• Pig

15 Rock’s __ Lobos : LOS

Los Lobos are an American Chicano rock band who released their first LP in 1978 and are still going strong today. The band’s name “Los Lobos” translates from Spanish as “The Wolves”.

16 Argentine tango figure : OCHO

The “ocho” is a figure-of-eight step featured in the Argentine tango.

The dramatic tango dance originated in the late 1800s in the area along the border between Argentina and Uruguay. A popular variant of the ballroom tango is the Argentine tango, which emerged in the late 1800s in Buenos Aires. The Argentine tango is danced to a greater variety of music, and is considered to be more technically demanding. It is also described as being more sensual and intimate. I wish I could dance …

17 “Can’t do it” : NO DICE

One suggestion for the origin of the phrase “no dice”, meaning “nothing doing, no way”, refers back to illegal gambling in the early 1900s. When approached by police, illegal gamblers would hide their dice (some even swallowed them). It was well known that city attorneys wouldn’t prosecute unless the police could produce the dice. Apparently there was an idiom at the time, “no dice, no conviction”.

23 “Praising You” singer Rita : ORA

Rita Ora is a British singer who was born Rita Sahatçiu in Pristina, Yugoslavia to Albanian parents. The family name “Sahatçiu” comes from a Turkish word meaning “watchmaker”. Rita’s parents changed their name to make it easier to pronounce. So, the family name morphed from “watchmaker” to “time”, which is “ora” in Albanian.

24 Bacalhau or klippfisk : COD

“Bacalhau” is the Portuguese word for “cod”, and is a term used in cooking for dried and salted cod. The term for unsalted cold in the same cuisine is “bacalhau fresco” (fresh cod).

“Klippfisk” is the Norwegian word describing fried and salted cod. The term translates literally as “cliff-fish”, reflecting the traditional practice of drying the cod in the sun, on bare rocks on cliffs.

25 Big name in pickups : RAM

Chrysler put ram hood ornaments on all of its Dodge-branded vehicles starting in 1933. When the first line of Dodge trucks and vans were introduced in 1981, they were named “Rams” in honor of that hood ornament.

33 Poet Sexton : ANNE

Anne Sexton was a poet from Massachusetts who won the 1967 Pulitzer for poetry for her collection titled “Live or Die”. Sexton’s style of poetry is sometimes classified as “confessional”, and reveals details of her private life, including her battle with depression. She finally committed suicide in 1974 at the age of 45.

34 Warwick Davis’s Wicket, for one : EWOK

The Ewoks are creatures that live on the moon of Endor in the “Star Wars” universe. First appearing in “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”, they’re the cute and cuddly little guys that look like teddy bears.

Warwick Davis is a very successful English actor who suffers from dwarfism. He has played several notable roles, including Ewok Wicket in the “Star Wars” movies, the title character in the “Willow” and “Leprechaun” series of films, and both Professor Filius Flitwick and the goblin Griphook in the “Harry Potter” films.

39 “Life’s Better Together” site : EVITE

Evite.com is a website launched in 1998 that is used to create, send and manage “evites”, online invitations.

40 European harbor with an eponymous wine : PORTO

Portugal’s city of Oporto (“Porto” in Portuguese) gave its name to port wine in the late 1600s. Oporto was the seaport through which most of the region’s fortified red wine was exported.

43 Fitzgerald who recorded 2-Down : ELLA
[2D Porter classic : TOO DARN HOT]

Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song”, made her real stage debut at the Apollo Theater in Harlem on Amatuer Night when she was just 17 years old. She had intended to perform a dance routine, but decided to sing instead after seeing a superior dance act. She won the Amatuer Night competition.

45 Heading on a holiday list : NICE

Santa checks his list for those who are naughty and those who are nice.

46 Part of an idiomatic pocketful : RYE

“Sing a Song of Sixpence” is an English nursery rhyme that dates back to the 1700s. In the rhyme there are a couple of lines that have always intrigued me:

Four and twenty blackbirds
Baked in a pie

This seems to be a reference to the practice in the 16th century of “baking” live birds into a pie for special occasions. When the crust was cut open the birds would fly away, much to the amusement of the diners.

47 Born : NEE

“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”. The term “née” is mainly used in English when referring to a married woman’s birth name, assuming that she has adopted her husband’s name, e.g. Michelle Obama née Robinson, Melania Trump née Knavs, and Jill Biden née Jacobs.

60 Palo __ : ALTO

“The city of Palo Alto, California takes its name from a specific redwood tree called El Palo Alto (Spanish for “the tall stick”) that is located within the bounds of the city. The tree is 110 feet tall and over a thousand years old.

61 Burj Khalifa’s fed. : UAE

Burj Khalifa is a spectacular skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is the tallest man-made structure in the world, and has been so since the completion of its exterior in 2009. The space in the building came onto the market at a really bad time, during the global financial crisis. The building was part of a US$20 billion development of downtown Dubai that was backed by the city government which had to go looking for a bailout from the neighboring city of Abu Dhabi. The tower was given the name Burj Khalifa at the last minute, apparently as a nod to UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan who helped to broker the bailout.

64 Helpers on set: Abbr. : PAS

Production assistant (PA)

65 Trypanosome vector : TSETSE

The tsetse fly is responsible for the transmission of sleeping sickness, a disease that is more correctly called African trypanosomiasis. The disease is only observed in humans who have been bitten by a tsetse fly that is infected with the trypanosome parasitic protozoan.

Down

1 Midterm exam, familiarly? : AMNIO

Amniocentesis (“amnio” for short) is the prenatal test which involves the removal of a small amount of the amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus using a hypodermic needle. The fluid naturally contains some fetal cells, the DNA of which can then be tested to determine the sex of the child and to check for the presence of genetic abnormalities.

2 Porter classic : TOO DARN HOT

“Too Darn Hot” is a Cole Porter song written for his 1948 musical “Kiss Me, Kate”. In the original stage version, there is a line “According to the Kinsey Report”. That was altered for the 1953 film version of the musical to “According to the latest report”.

Cole Porter was a little unusual amongst his peers in that he was one of the few successful songwriters who wrote both lyrics and music for his compositions. Porter was seriously injured in a riding accident in his forties and was left disabled and in pain. Despite this, he continued to work and produced his most successful work after the accident.

7 Presentations that are up-and-down? : ELEVATOR PITCHES

An elevator pitch is an abbreviated and informative description of something, perhaps a product or a company. The idea is that someone could get across the whole “pitch” to another party while traveling between floors in an “elevator”.

8 __ language : LOVE

Gary Chapman wrote a 1992 book called “The Five Love Languages” in which he suggested that there are five ways that someone might express and experience love. Those five “love languages” are:

1. Words of affirmation (compliments)
2. Quality time
3. Gifts
4. Acts of service
5. Physical touch

9 Designer Mizrahi : ISAAC

Isaac Mizrahi is a fashion designer from Brooklyn, New York. Mizrahi pops up on television quite a lot. He took on the post of head judge on the reality show “Project Runway: All Stars” in 2012.

11 Latte option : ICED

The term “latte” is an abbreviation of the Italian “caffelatte” meaning “coffee (and) milk”. Note that in the correct spelling of “latte”, the Italian word for milk; there is no accent over the “e”. An accent is often added by mistake when we use the word in English, perhaps meaning to suggest that the word is French.

12 First stop on the Beatles’ second U.S. tour, familiarly : SHEA

The Beatles concert tour of 1965 was the band’s second, after the phenomenal success of their debut appearances in America the prior year. The opening engagement was at Shea Stadium, a concert at which the Beatles only played for 30 minutes. The audience of over 55,000 people set a new record for concert attendance, as did the gate of $304,000 (seems small now, huh?). The amplifiers in the stadium were completely overpowered by the noise of the crowd, and the Fab Four literally couldn’t hear themselves sing. At one point, John Lennon just started goofing around as no one could hear the music, and started playing keyboards with his elbows!

13 Part of an iconic pocketful : POSY

“Ring a Ring o’ Roses” is a nursery rhyme that I well remember from my childhood.

Ring-a-ring o’ roses,
A pocket full of posies,
A-tishoo! A-tishoo!
We all fall down.

The lyrics tend to be a little different over here in North America:

Ring-a-round the rosie,
A pocket full of posies,
Ashes! Ashes!
We all fall down.

There’s an urban legend that the rhyme refers to the Great Plague that struck England in 1665. The inference is that “ring o’roses” is a rosy rash, and that “posies” of herbs were carried to ward off the disease. Victims would sneeze “a-tishoo” and “all fall down” dead.

26 Finest of Lovely Lady Liberty’s recipes, per a “Schoolhouse Rock” song : MELTING POT

“Schoolhouse Rock!” is a network educational TV show that first aired on ABC from 1973 to 1984.

30 Fundraising group that supports female political candidates : EMILY’S LIST

EMILY’s List is a political action committee (PAC) that contributes to the campaigns of pro-choice Democratic female candidates running for office. The PAC’s name is an acronym standing for “Early Money Is Like Yeast”, meaning that early contributions to a campaign really help to “raise dough”.

31 Othello and Hamlet : TITLE ROLES

“The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice” is a play penned by William Shakespeare that is usually referred to as simply “Othello”. The title character is a military commander (of Moorish origin) in the Venetian army. The villain of the piece is Iago, Othello’s scheming ensign.

The full title of William Shakespeare’s play that we tend to call “Hamlet” is “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”. It is the most performed of all Shakespeare’s plays and it is also his longest, the only one of his works comprising over 4,000 lines. That’s about a 4-hour sitting in a theater …

32 High class? : ONE-A

The US government maintains information on all males who are potentially subject to military conscription, using what is called the Selective Service System (SSS). In the event that a draft was held, men registered would be classified into groups to determine eligibility for service. Class 1-A registrants are those available for unrestricted military service. Other classes are 1-A-O (conscientious objector available for noncombatant service), 4-A (registrant who has completed military service) and 4-D (Minister of religion).

33 Once-sacred snakes : ASPS

The venomous snake called an asp was a symbol of royalty in ancient Egypt.

37 Hall of Famer Ochoa : LORENA

Lorena Ochoa is a retired professional golfer from Mexico who was ranked as the number one female golfer in the world from 2007 to 2010.

42 Dan Savage, notably : SEXPERT

Dan Savage is an author and journalist who is famous for writing a sex advice column under the title “Savage Love”. “Savage Love” is directed towards the gay community and is syndicated in several dozen newspapers across the world.

51 Alicia Vikander, e.g. : SWEDE

Alicia Vikander is an actress from Sweden. She gained recognition with American audiences when she played the humanoid robot in the fascinating 2015 film “Ex Machina”. In 2018, she played the title character in the film “Tomb Raider”. Vikander is married to Irish actor Michael Fassbender.

52 Blackberries, e.g. : PDAS

The PDA (personal digital assistant) known as a BlackBerry was given its name because the keyboard on the original device resembled the surface on the fruit of a blackberry.

55 Org. with conferences : NCAA

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

57 __ Star State : LONE

The single star on the state flag of Texas is a reminder of the “lone star” on the 1836 National Standard of Texas. The single white star on a blue background symbolizes Texas as an independent republic and its struggle for independence from Mexico.