Category: Jordan Hildebrandt

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Constructed by: Jordan Hildebrandt
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Following Protocol

Themed answers are HTTP error codes reinterpreted as actions by knights that go against their CODE OF CHIVALRY. Clever …

• 113A Medieval protocol for knights, or an alternate title for this puzzle? : CODE OF CHIVALRY

• 22A HTTP 504: Knight fails to return to castle before portcullis closes for curfew : GATEWAY TIMEOUT
• 35A HTTP 403: Knight not approved to embark on second search for the Holy Grail : FORBIDDEN REQUEST
• 49A HTTP 419: Knight’s squire’s apprenticeship no longer in force : PAGE EXPIRED
• 80A HTTP 500: Knight fails to tip waitstaff at banquet : SERVER ERROR
• 96A HTTP 405: Knight illegally aims for opponent’s head during joust : METHOD NOT ALLOWED

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

Bill’s time: 18m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

18 Roman aqueduct section : ARCH

Aqueducts are bridges built to allow the movement of water across valleys and ravines. The term “aqueduct” comes from the Latin “aqua” (water) and “ducere” (to lead).

19 Active volcano on Sicily : ETNA

Italy is home to three active volcanoes:

• Stromboli (in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the north coast of Sicily)
• Vesuvius (overlooking Naples)
• Etna (on the island of Sicily)

21 Bedouin, e.g. : ROAMER

Bedouin tribes are Arab ethnic groups that predominantly live in the Middle East, in desert areas. Bedouin tribes tend to be nomadic, not settling permanently in one location.

22 HTTP 504: Knight fails to return to castle before portcullis closes for curfew : GATEWAY TIMEOUT

A portcullis is a vertically closing gate that is commonly used in medieval castles. Portcullises often come in pairs, at the front and back of the main gateway into the castle. The portcullis at the back would be closed first, allowing invaders to enter the gateway before closing the second portcullis. Men would be trapped between the two barriers, and then burning wood or oil could be dropped on them through openings in the gateway’s roof called murder-holes.

25 Soft cotton fabric : MUSLIN

Muslin is a cotton fabric that was first encountered by Europeans in Mosul, Iraq. The city of Mosul loaned its name to the fabric. Despite the name, muslin actually originated in and around Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh.

26 Literary comparisons : SIMILES

A simile is a figure of speech in which a comparison is made between two things that are unalike. For example, a person might be described as “cute as a kitten” or as “busy as a bee”.

27 Organs that affect balance : EARS

The inner ear is primarily responsible for detecting sound and maintaining balance. It comprises two main parts. The cochlea is the sensory organ of hearing, and the vestibular system coordinates movement with balance.

28 Boutonniere counterpart : CORSAGE

“Corsage” is a word that we imported from French in the late 15th century. Back then it meant, believe it or not, “body size”. By the early 1800s, a corsage was a bodice, or the body of a woman’s dress. At the beginning of the 20th century, the French term “bouquet de corsage” was being used for a “bouquet worn on the bodice”, and this has been shortened simply to “corsage”.

A boutonnière is a flower worn by men in the lapel of a jacket, in the buttonhole. In fact, sometimes a boutonnière is referred to as a “buttonhole”, which is the translation of the French term.

29 Bed cover : DUVET

A duvet is a large, flat bag that is filled with down feathers or a synthetic substitute that is used as a top cover for a bed. Although a duvet is similar to what is called a “comforter” in the US, there is a difference. A duvet often has an easily removed cover that is usually laundered at the same time as the bottom sheet and pillowcases. We use them a lot in Europe, and generally without a top sheet due to the ease of laundering.

34 Flower in some O’Keeffe paintings : IRIS

Georgia O’Keeffe was an influential American artist, one who led the introduction of American art into Europe. Famously, she was married to photographer Alfred Stieglitz who helped develop her career in the early days. Georgia O’Keeffe’s last home was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she had done a lot of her work during her lifetime. She died there in 1986, at the ripe old age of 98. One of her most famous paintings is from 1926, called “Black Iris III”.

35 HTTP 403: Knight not approved to embark on second search for the Holy Grail : FORBIDDEN REQUEST

The Holy Grail is a theme found throughout Arthurian legend. The grail itself is some vessel, with the term “grail” coming from the Old French “graal” meaning “cup or bowl made of earth, wood or metal”. Over time, the legend of the Holy Grail became mingled with stories of the Holy Chalice of the Christian tradition, the cup used to serve wine at the Last Supper. Over time, the term “grail” came to be used for any desired or sought-after object.

40 Snap veggies : PEAS

Sugar peas are also known as snap peas. These peas are eaten before the seeds mature, and the whole pod is consumed.

43 DOJ staffers : ATTYS

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) was created in 1870 by the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant, although the office of the Attorney General (AG) had been operating since 1789. The DOJ Building in Washington, D.C. was completed in 1935, and was named the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in 2001.

45 Ryan of “Star Trek: Picard” : JERI

Jeri Ryan’s most famous role is the de-assimilated Borg known as Seven of Nine on “Star Trek: Voyager”. I haven’t seen that show, but I know Ryan from a supporting role on the legal drama “Shark”, playing opposite James Woods. She also plays Ronnie Cooke on “Boston Public”.

“Star Trek: Picard” is a spinoff of the original “Star Trek” TV show from the 1960s. As the title suggests, the focus is on Starfleet Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, who first appeared as the lead in the show “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. Spoiler alert! Picard dies at the end of the first series, but his consciousness is transferred to a synthetic body.

46 Puglia lang. : ITAL

Apulia (“Puglia” in Italian) is a region of Southern Italy, one that covers the whole of the heel of the “boot”, and further north along the Adriatic coast. The region’s capital is the city of Bari.

59 Blues label based in Memphis : STAX

Stax Records was founded in 1957 as Satellite Records. The biggest star to record with Stax was the great Otis Redding.

60 Icy layer : RIME

Rime is the beautiful coating of ice that forms on surfaces like roofs, trees and grass, when cold water freezes instantly under the right conditions.

61 “Pressure” singer Lennox : ARI

“Pressure” is a 2021 song released by R&B singer Ari Lennox. The accompanying music video has been described as a homage to Donna Summer and Diana Ross.

65 Some fossils : TEETH

Originally, the term “fossil” described anything that was unearthed, dug up. We tend to define the term more narrowly today, reserving it for the geological remains of a plant or animal. “Fossil” comes from the Latin “fossilis” meaning “dug up”.

67 Citi player : MET

Citi Field is a relatively new baseball stadium used by the New York Mets (NYM) that sits right next door to the site of Shea stadium, where the Mets had played for decades. The new facility’s name comes from corporate sponsor Citigroup.

69 16th POTUS : ABE

Abraham Lincoln was the sixteenth President of the US. There are several stories told about how he earned the nickname “Honest Abe”. One story dates back to early in his career as a lawyer. Lincoln accidentally overcharged a client and then walked miles in order to right the wrong as soon as possible.

76 “The Sparks Brothers” director Wright : EDGAR

Edgar Wright is a film director from England who frequently collaborates with actor/comedians Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Wright co-wrote the very successful “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy with Pegg, and was at the helm for the filming of all three movies.

“The Sparks Brothers” is a 2021 film, a documentary about brothers Russell and Ron Mael who performed as the pop and rock duo Sparks. Director Edgar Wright frequently collaborates with actors and comedians Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Frost and Pegg’s voices can be heard in “The Sparks Brothers” simulating the voices of Ringo Starr and John Lennon respectively.

78 Commuters’ region : SUBURBIA

Our verb “to commute”, meaning “to go back and forth to work”, ultimately derives from the Latin “commutare”, meaning “to often change”. Back in the late 1800s, a “commutation ticket” was a season pass, so named because it allowed one to “change” one kind of payment into another. Quite interesting …

86 Finnish tech giant : NOKIA

I do enjoy classical guitar music, but there isn’t a huge choice on CD. There is one very special piece called “Gran Vals” by Francisco Tárrega, written in 1902. This piece has a unique reputation as it contains a phrase that was once the most listened-to piece of music in the whole world. Just a few bars into the work one can hear the celebrated Nokia ringtone!

90 New cadet : PLEBE

A plebe is a freshman in the US military and naval academies. The term “plebe” is probably short for “plebeian”, the name given to someone of the common class in ancient Rome (as opposed to a Patrician). “Pleb” is a shortened version of “plebeian”, and is a term used outside of the military schools.

96 HTTP 405: Knight illegally aims for opponent’s head during joust : METHOD NOT ALLOWED

“Jousting” and “tilting” are synonyms describing the medieval competition in which two horsemen yielding blunted lances attempt to unseat each other. Such an event has been referred to as “jousting” since the 1300s. At some point, the path of the two charging horsemen was separated by a cloth barrier known as a tilt (“tilt” meant “cloth covering”). The term “tilting” was applied to the sport in the 1500s, although by then the cloth barrier had been upgraded to a wooden fence.

102 White peg in Battleship : MISS

Battleship is a remarkably fun guessing game that I used to play as a child. Back then, we would play it just using pencil and paper. These days kids are more likely to play an electronic version of the game.

103 Car port? : AUX

On a computer, for example, headphones might be plugged into an auxiliary input connector (often marked “AUX”).

109 Toyota sedan : COROLLA

More cars have been sold under the Toyota Corolla brand name than any other brand name in history, even outstripping sales of the VW Beetle. There has been an average of one Corolla manufactured every 40 seconds for the past 40 years. “Corolla” is Latin for “small crown”, part of a pattern used by Toyota in naming their cars (“Corona” is Latin for crown, and “Camry” sounds like the Japanese for crown).

113 Medieval protocol for knights, or an alternate title for this puzzle? : CODE OF CHIVALRY

The ideal qualities found in a knight are collectively described as chivalry, and include courtesy, generosity, valor and skill with a sword. The term “chivalry” comes into English via the Old French “chevalier” meaning “knight”.

119 For a __ pittance : MERE

A pittance is a small amount, often a living allowance or remuneration. The term “pittance” came into English from Old French, and is basically an amount given out of a sense of “pity”.

120 Hi-fi system : STEREO

Hi-fi systems were introduced in the late 1940s. They are pieces of audio equipment designed to give a much higher quality reproduction of sound than cheaper systems available up to that point. “Hi-fi” stands for “high fidelity”.

121 Civil rights initialism : BLM

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement started in 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death of African-American youth Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. Three civil rights activists, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, originated the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter.

122 Brouhahas : ADOS

“Brouhaha”, meaning “ado, stir”, was a French word that back in the 1550s meant “the cry of the devil disguised as clergy” . Wow!

Down

3 Probiotic yogurt brand : ACTIVIA

Probiotics are live microorganisms found in some foods, maybe a yogurt, that are used to restore or improve the microbiota in the gut. Well, that’s what the marketing folks tell us, but the scientific community is a little cautious about the use of such foods. The European Commission prohibits the use of “probiotic” on food packaging, deeming it to be misleading.

4 Rap anthem by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five : THE MESSAGE

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were a hip hop group that formed in 1978 in New York City. They achieved mainstream success starting in 1982 with the release of the song “The Message”. The group was the first hip hop group to be inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, in 2007.

6 Warm compress target, maybe : STYE

A stye is a bacterial infection of the sebaceous glands at the base of the eyelashes, and is also known as a hordeolum.

7 Termite eaters : ANTS

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.

8 Mai __: cocktail : TAI

The mai tai cocktail is strongly associated with the Polynesian islands, but the drink was supposedly invented in 1944 in Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland, California. One recipe is 6 parts white rum, 3 parts orange curaçao, 3 parts orgeat syrup, 1 part rock candy syrup, 2 parts fresh lime juice, all mixed with ice and then a float added of 6 parts dark rum. “Maita’i” is the Tahitian word for “good”.

9 “Monsters, Inc.” factory product : DOOR

The animated feature “Monsters, Inc.” was released in 2001, and was Pixar’s fourth full-length movie. It’s about cute monsters, and that’s all I know other than that the voice cast included the likes of John Goodman, Billy Crystal and Steve Buscemi.

10 “Pinkie promise?” : YOU SWEAR?

The use of “pinkie” or “pinky” for the little finger or toe comes into English from “pinkje”, the Dutch word for the same digit. Who knew …?

11 Isengard attacker : ENT

Isengard is a fortress in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. The tower at the center of Isengard is home to the character Saruman the White.

14 Make the grade : PASS MUSTER

“To pass muster” means “to be deemed acceptable”. One musters troops, often for inspection. So, the original meaning of “pass muster” was to “get through a military inspection successfully”.

17 “Ready Player One” author Cline : ERNEST

Writer Ernest Cline is best known for his science-fiction novels “Ready Player One” (2011) and “Armada” (2015). Cline also co-wrote the screenplay for a movie adaptation of “Ready Player One” that was directed by Steven Spielberg and released in 2018.

30 “The Graham Norton Show” airer : BBC

Graham Norton is an Irish comedian, actor and television host who is based in the UK. He is best known perhaps for his chat show “The Graham Norton Show” that started airing in 2007. Fans of the sitcom “Father Ted” might remember him playing the character named Father Noel Furlong.

36 Agate kin : ONYX

Onyx is a form of quartz that comes in many different shades, but most often it’s the black version that’s used for jewelry. The name “onyx” comes from the Greek word for “fingernail”, as onyx in the flesh color is said to resemble a fingernail.

39 Swab for 27-Across : Q-TIP
[27A Organs that affect balance : EARS]

Cotton swabs were originally marketed under the name “Baby Gays”. This was changed in 1926 to “Q-Tips”, with the Q standing for “quality”.

44 Model/activist Holliday : TESS

Tess Holliday is a plus-size model and body-positive activist. She was born Ryann Hoven and changed her name to Tess Munster when she started modeling. That choice was purely because she was a fan of “The Munsters” TV show. In 2015, she adopted the family name of Nick Holliday, the father of her two children.

47 Parmesan substitute : ASIAGO

Asiago is a cheese that is named for the region in northeastern Italy from where it originates. It comes in varying textures depending on its age. Fresh Asiago is very smooth, while aged Asiago can be very crumbly.

48 __ support : LUMBAR

The human spine comprises five regions of vertebrae, which are (starting at the neck):

• Cervical (C1 – C7)
• Thoracic (T1 – T12)
• Lumbar (L1 – L5)
• Sacral (S1 – S5)
• Coccyx (also known as the tailbone)

50 With hands on hips : AKIMBO

“Akimbo” is such a lovely word, I think (as in “arms akimbo”). I failed to dig up anything too exciting about the term’s etymology. It seems to stem from Middle English, “in kekbowe” or “on kenbow” meaning “bend in a curve”. When the arms are held akimbo, the hands are on the hips and the elbows are pointed outward.

54 Goofy sort : HAM

The word “ham”, describing a performer who overacts, is a shortened form of “hamfatter” and dates back to the late 1800s. “Hamfatter” comes from a song in old minstrel shows called “The Ham-Fat Man”. It seems that a poorly performing actor was deemed to have the “acting” qualities of a minstrel made up in blackface.

56 Coeval : PEER

Something described as coeval is of equal age or antiquity.

57 Spielberg shark thriller : JAWS

“Jaws” is a thrilling 1975 movie directed by Steven Spielberg that is based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley. The film has a powerful cast, led by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. “Jaws” was perhaps the first summer blockbuster and had the highest box office take in history up to that time, which was a record that stood until “Star Wars” was released two years later.

59 Sister on “Succession” : SHIV

In the comedy-drama show “Succession”, patriarch Logan Roy has one daughter. Her name is Siobhan (my favorite Irish name!), and goes by the nickname “Shiv”. Shiv is played by Australian actress Sarah Snook.

64 You, in Montréal : TOI

The original name of Montreal was “Ville-Marie”, meaning “City of Mary”. “Ville-Marie” is now the name of a borough in the city, the borough which includes the downtown area and “Old Montreal”. The present-day city covers most of the Island of Montreal (in French, “Île de Montréal”) that is located where the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers meet. The name “Montreal” comes from the three-headed hill that dominates the island and is called “Mount Royal”.

66 Driveway-patching gunk : TAR

The terms “tarmac” and “macadam” are short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call “tarmac”.

68 Actress Hatcher : TERI

Teri Hatcher’s most famous role is the Susan Mayer character on the TV comedy-drama “Desperate Housewives”. I’ve never seen more than a few minutes of “Housewives” but I do know Teri Hatcher as a Bond girl, as she appeared in “Tomorrow Never Dies”. More recently, she portrayed Lois Lane on the show “Lois & Clark”.

73 Cheesy layered snack : NACHOS

The dish known as “nachos” was supposedly created by the maître d’ at a restaurant called the Victory Club in the city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. The name of the maître d’ was Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya.

77 One prone to histrionics, informally : DRAMA LLAMA

The term “histrionic”, meaning “theatrical”, comes to us via Latin from the word “histrio” that is believed to an Etruscan word for “actor”.

79 Hershey caramel candy : ROLO

Rolo was a hugely popular chocolate candy in Ireland when I was growing up. It was introduced in the thirties in the UK, and is produced under license in the US by Hershey. I was a little disappointed when I had my first taste of the American version as the center is very hard and chewy. The recipe used on the other side of the Atlantic calls for a soft gooey center.

80 Faygo or Fanta : SODA

Faygo is a soft drink company that was founded in Detroit in 1907 by Russian immigrants as Feigenson Brothers Bottle Works. The owners changed the name of the company to Faygo in 1921.

The soft drink Fanta has quite an interesting history. As WWII approached, the Coca-Cola plant in Germany had trouble obtaining the ingredients it needed to continue production of the cola beverage, so the plant manager decided to create a new drink from what was available. The new beverage was built around whey (leftover from cheese production) and pomace (left over after juice has been extracted from fruit). The inventor asked his colleagues to use their “imagination” (“Fantasie” in German) and come up with a name for the drink, so they piped up “Fanta!”

90 Ninth planet, until 2006 : PLUTO

Pluto was discovered in 1930, and was welcomed as the ninth planet in our solar system. Pluto is relatively small in size, just one fifth of the mass of our own moon. In the seventies, astronomers began to discover more large objects in the solar system, including Eris, a “scattered disc object” at the outer reaches. Given that Eris is actually bigger than Pluto, and other objects really aren’t that much smaller, Pluto’s status as a planet was drawn into question. In 2006 there was a scientific definition for a “planet” agreed for the first time, resulting in Pluto being relegated to the status of “dwarf planet”, along with Eris. This relegation led to the word “pluto” being used as a noun meaning “give a less important position than before”.

91 Fishy topping : LOX

Lox is a brine-cured salmon filet that is finely sliced. The term “lox” comes into English via Yiddish, and derives from the German word for salmon, namely “Lachs”.

93 Ill-fated “Grey’s Anatomy” resident George : O’MALLEY

“Gray’s Anatomy” is a very successful human anatomy textbook that was first published back in 1858 and is still in print today. The original text was written by English anatomist Henry Gray, who gave his name to the work. The TV medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” (note “Grey” vs. Gray”) is centered on the character Dr. Meredith Grey, but the show’s title is a nod to the title of the famous textbook.

94 Nutty : BIZARRE

“Bizarre” is a French word, one with the same meaning in English. However, back in the 16th century, “bizarre” used to mean “handsome, brave” in French. I guess that’s what my wife means when she refers to me as “bizarre” or “bizarro” …

96 Coffee-and-chocolate concoctions : MOCHAS

A caffè mocha is a caffè latte that has been flavored with chocolate. One might also regard a caffè mocha as hot chocolate with the addition of a shot of espresso.

97 Narcissist : EGOIST

Narcissus was a proud and vain hunter in Greek mythology. He earned himself a fatal punishment, falling in love with his own reflection in a pool. So, taken was he by his own image that he could not leave it, and wasted away and died by the pool. Narcissus gives us our term “narcissism” meaning “excessive love of oneself”.

104 Sen.’s domain : GOV

The .gov domain was one of the six original generic top-level domains specified. The complete original list is:

• .com (commercial enterprise)
• .net (entity involved in network infrastructure e.g. an ISP)
• .mil (US military)
• .org (not-for-profit organization)
• .gov (US federal government entity)
• .edu (college-level educational institution)

108 Genesis figure : ADAM

According to the Bible, God created Adam from “the dust of the ground”. Eve was created as Adam’s companion, from Adam’s rib.

113 Uber or Lyft alternative : CAB

A hansom cab is a very specific design of horse and buggy that was patented by Joseph Hansom in 1834 in England. The “cab” in the name is short for “cabriolet”, an earlier design of carriage on which the hansom was based. It’s from “hansom cab” that we get our modern term “cab”.

114 Tampa’s st. : FLA

The Florida city of Tampa has been known as “the Big Guava” since the seventies. The term is imitative of New York’s “Big Apple”, and refers to the unsuccessful search for the reported wild guava trees that were once hoped to be the basis of a new industry for the area. Tampa has also been called “Cigar City”, a reference to the cigar industry that fueled the area’s growth starting in the 1880s.