Tag: Liverpudlian e.g. crossword club

Bill’s time: 8m 38s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11 A cup’s 48: Abbr. : TSPS

There are six teaspoons (tsps.) in an ounce (oz.), and eight ounces (oz.) in a cup.

15 One of a set of faddish toys that at its peak made up 10% of all eBay sales : BEANIE BABY

There were originally just nine Beanie Babies when Ty Warner introduced the stuffed animal in 1993. In the late nineties the toy became a real fad, largely due to innovative marketing techniques. For example, there was no mass marketing with constant TV ads, and the production volume was limited pushing the line into the realm of collectibles. Beanie Baby models were also “retired” on a regular basis, fueling a “must have” behavior in the market.

16 D-Day code name : UTAH

The Normandy landings on D-Day in 1944 took place along a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. The worst fighting by far took place on Omaha Beach, a sector assigned to the US Army that was transported by elements of the US Navy and the Royal Navy.

17 Staple of many Oktoberfest costumes : LEDERHOSEN

“Lederhosen” is the German word describing leather breeches, traditional garments worn by males in Bavaria and Austria.

Oktoberfest is a 16-day beer festival in Munich that actually starts in September. About six million people attend every year, making it the largest fair in the world. I’ve attended twice, and it really is a remarkable party …

19 Superhero uniform symbol : ESS

There’s a letter S (ess) on the chest of the uniform worn by Superman.

20 Pipe section : TRAP

Most sinks in a home have a P-trap in the outlet pipe that empties into the sewer line. This P-trap has at its heart a U-bend that retains a small amount of water after the sink is emptied. This plug of water serves as a seal to prevent sewer gases entering into the home. By virtue of its design, the U-bend can also capture any heavy objects (like an item of jewelry) that might fall through the plughole. But the “trapping” of fallen objects is secondary to the P-trap’s main function of “trapping” sewer gases.

21 Investigations with strange features : X-FILES

“The X-Files” is a very successful science fiction show that originally aired on the Fox network from 1993 to 2002. The stars of the show are David Duchovny (playing Fox Mulder) and the very talented Gillian Anderson (playing Dana Scully). By the time the series ended, “The X-Files” was the longest running sci-fi show in US broadcast history. An “X-Files” reboot started airing in 2016 with Duchovny and Anderson reprising their starring roles.

23 Ferrari’s former parent : FIAT

Fiat is the largest car manufacturer in Italy, and is headquartered in Turin in the Piedmont region in the north of the country. Fiat was founded in 1899 by Giovanni Agnelli, when the company’s name was “Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino” (FIAT). A few years ago, Fiat became the majority shareholder in Chrysler.

The Italian sports car company Ferrari was founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1939. Ferrari built the most expensive car ever sold: a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO that exchanged hands for over $38 million in 2012.

24 Tuna __: Betty Crocker brand : HELPER

Hamburger Helper is a packaged pasta marketed by General Mills under the Betty Crocker brand. Introduced in 1971, the original ingredients were dried pasta with a seasoned powdered sauce. Over the years, the line expanded into the likes of Tuna Helper, Chicken Helper, Asian Helper and even Fruit Helper.

25 Portico support : COLUMN

“Portico” is an Italian word that describes a porch or roofed walkway leading to the entrance of a building.

28 “Prince of Motown” : GAYE

Marvin Gaye was a singer-songwriter from Washington, D.C. who came to be known as “Prince of Soul” and “Prince of Motown”. Some of Gaye’s biggest hits are “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” (1968), “What’s Going On?” (1971), “Let’s Get It On” (1973) and “Sexual Healing” (1982). Famously, Gaye was shot dead by his father while Marvin was sitting on his mother’s bed just talking to her. Marvin had given the gun to his father as a Christmas gift.

29 Subj. of some 2015 WikiLeaks content : NSA

National Security Agency (NSA)

Julian Assange founded WikiLeaks, the website that is notorious for publishing information that governments and individuals would rather remain secret. Assange is currently in England and lost an appeal to avoid extradition to Sweden to face charges of sexual assault. Assange entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London seeking political asylum in 2012. He was granted asylum and lived at the embassy for almost seven years before being arrested and incarcerated in a UK prison.

31 United hub : O’HARE

O’Hare International was the world’s busiest airport from 1963 to 1998. The original airport was constructed on the site between 1942 and 1943, and was used by the Douglas Aircraft Company for the manufacture of planes during WWII. Before the factory and airport were built, there was a community in the area called Orchard Place, so the airport was called Orchard Place Airport/Douglas Field. This name is the derivation of the airport’s current location identifier: ORD (OR-chard D-ouglas). Orchard Place Airport was renamed to O’Hare International in 1949 in honor of Lieutenant Commander Butch O’Hare who grew up in Chicago. O’Hare was the US Navy’s first flying ace and a Medal of Honor recipient in WWII.

32 Honeycomb holder : CEREAL BOX

Honeycomb is a Post breakfast cereal that came on the market in 1965. It comprises honeycomb-shaped bites made from corn that are flavored with honey.

34 One-track : MONO

Monophonic sound (“mono”) is sound reproduced using just one audio channel, which is usually played out of just one speaker. Stereophonic sound is reproduced using two audio channels, with the sound from each channel played out of two different speakers. The pair of stereo speakers are usually positioned apart from each other so that sound appears to come from between the two. Quadraphonic sound (4.0 surround sound) uses four audio channels with the sound played back through four speakers that are often positioned at the corners of the room in which one is listening.

39 Swiss city with suburbs in Germany and France : BASEL

The city of Basel in Switzerland lies right where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, and so has suburbs that lie in both France and Germany.

40 Qantas baggage tag abbr. : SYD

Australia’s Sydney Airport (SYD) is located just five miles south of the city center, and next to Botany Bay. There have been plans dating back to the 1940s to build a second airport on the outskirts of the city.

QANTAS is the national airline of Australia. The company name was originally an acronym standing for “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services”. QANTAS has featured a koala in advertising campaigns for many years, although the company’s logo is a kangaroo and the company’s nickname is “Flying Kangaroo”.

41 Greek war god : ARES

The Greek god Ares is often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, but originally he was regarded as the god of bloodlust and slaughter. Ares united with Aphrodite to create several gods, including Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Terror) and Eros (Desire). Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera, and the Roman equivalent to Ares was Mars.

46 Military lodging : BILLET

A billet is a lodging for troops. The related French word “billet” translates as “ticket”. The original English “billet” was a ticket given to a soldier directing him to a home where he was to be provided with lodging.

47 Breathing space? : LUNG

In days of yore, when cook placed offal into a stew pot, all of the organs sank in the broth, except the lungs. The term “lung” came into English via German from a word meaning “the light organ”, perhaps because morsels of lung floated to the top of the soup.

48 Degree for a CFO : MBA

A chief financial officer (CFO) might have a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.

51 Tourist mecca with a mausoleum : AGRA

The most famous mausoleum in the world has to be the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. The Taj Mahal was built after the death of the fourth wife of Shah Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal (hence the name of the mausoleum). The poor woman died in childbirth delivering the couple’s 14th child. When Shah Jahan himself passed away 35 years later, he was buried beside his wife Mumtaz, in the Taj Mahal.

52 Napoleon is a dictator in it : ANIMAL FARM

In George Orwell’s 1945 novella “Animal Farm”, the fierce-looking boar named Napoleon is an allegory of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

56 Main menace : PIRATE SHIP

When one thinks of the word “main”, in the context of the sea, the Spanish Main usually comes to mind. Indeed, the use of the more general term “main” to mean “sea”, originates from the more specific “Spanish Main”. “Spanish Main” originally referred to land and not water, as it was the name given to the mainland coast around the Caribbean Sea in the days of Spanish domination of the region.

57 Ocular inflammation : STYE

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

Down

2 The limits of chic? : CEES

The word “chic” has letters C (cees) at either end.

3 Wee ones : TADS

Back in the 1800s, “tad” was used to describe a young child, and this extended into our usage of “small amount” in the early 1900s. The original use of “tad” for a child is very likely a shortened version of “tadpole”.

4 Peoria-to-Green Bay dir. : NNE

Peoria is the oldest European settlement in the state of Illinois, having been settled by the French in 1680. The city is famous for being cited as “the average American city”. The phrase, “Will it play in Peoria?” is used to mean, “Will it appeal to the mainstream?” It is believed the expression originated as a corruption of, “We shall play in Peoria”, a line used by some actors in the 1890 novel “Five Hundred Dollars” by Horatio Alger, Jr.

The city of Green Bay is the third-largest in the state of Wisconsin, after Milwaukee and Madison. The city is located on an arm of Lake Michigan called Green Bay. People in the area refer to the city as “Green Bay” and the body of water as “the Bay of Green Bay” in order to avoid confusing one with the other.

5 Exposure, to a deejay : AIRTIME

Disc jockey (DJ, deejay)

6 World capital in 1979-’80 headlines : TEHRAN

When a group of Iranian students took over the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, it precipitated the longest hostage crisis in history. 52 diplomats and citizens were held hostage for a total of 444 days.

7 Lusitania sinker : U-BOAT

The RMS Lusitania was a Cunard ocean liner that was sunk off the coast of Ireland in May 1915 during WWI. The Lusitania was on its traditional route between Liverpool and New York City, having departed New York six days before the sinking. She was attacked by a German U-boat, with 1,198 of the 1,959 people on board being killed. The main result of the sinking was to turn public opinion against Germany, greatly contributing to the US entering the war.

9 Japanese host of the 2019 G20 summit : ABE

Shinzo Abe first became Prime Minister of Japan in 2006, at which time he was the youngest person to hold the post since WWII and was the first PM born after the war. Abe was in office for less than a year, but was voted in again in 2012. At the end of 2019, Abe became the longest-serving Prime Minister in the history of Japan.

10 Sharp-sighted : LYNX-EYED

The lynx is a wild cat, of which there are four species. These are:

• The Eurasian lynx: the biggest of the four species.
• The Canada lynx: well-adapted to life in cold environments.
• The Iberian lynx: a native of the Iberian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and the most endangered cat species in the world.
• The bobcat: our North American wildcat, the smallest of the four lynxes

11 Lily family flower : TULIP

Tulip festivals are held in a few cities around the world. The largest of these is the Canadian Tulip Festival that is held every year in the capital city of Ottawa. The tradition of growing tulips in Ottawa really started at the end of WWII. The Dutch royal family presented the city with 100,000 tulip bulbs as an act of thanks for having sheltered Princess Juliana and her children while the Nazis occupied the Netherlands. The first Canadian Tulip Festival took place in 1953.

12 Theft not involving money or merchandise : STOLEN BASE

That would be baseball.

14 “__ Like the Wind”: “Dirty Dancing” tune : SHE’S

“She’s Like the Wind” is a power ballad that was co-written by actor Patrick Swayze for the 1984 movie “Grandview, U.S.A.”, in which Swayze appeared. The song wasn’t used, but when Swayze played it for the producers of the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing”, they opted to use it. Swayze performed the song himself, and it reached number-three on the Billboard Hot 100.

The celebrated 1987 film “Dirty Dancing” stars Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray, who were both relative unknowns at the time of filming. “Dirty Dancing” had a relatively low budget but was destined to earn over $200 million. It became the first movie to sell more than a million copies on home video. There was a prequel made in 2004 called “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights”, that wasn’t a good film at all. Patrick Swayze was paid $200,000 for his 1987 performance, and received $5 million to make a cameo in the prequel.

22 Circus hopper : FLEA

Fleas are flightless insects, but they sure can jump. Their very specialized hind legs allow them to jump up to 50 times the length of their bodies.

24 Leveret raisers : HARES

Hares belong to the genus Lepus. Young hares under one-year-old are called leverets.

25 Deep sleeps : COMAS

Our term “coma” comes from the Greek “koma” meaning “deep sleep”.

26 Christmas song containing “a thrill of hope” : O HOLY NIGHT

The Christmas carol known in English as “O Holy Night” is also known as “Cantique de Noël” in the original French. The melody was written by French composer Adolphe Adam, and the French lyrics are a poem called “Minuit, chrétiens” written by Placide Cappeau. “O Holy Night” was the second piece of music ever to be broadcast on radio. The Canadian-American inventor Reginald Fessenden made what is thought to be the first AM radio broadcast on Christmas Eve 1906. He included some music, starting with a piece by Handel, followed by “O Holy Night” played on the violin.

27 “Summertime Sadness” hitmaker : LANA DEL REY

“Lana Del Rey” is the stage name of singer/songwriter Elizabeth Grant. Del Rey calls herself a “self-styled gangsta Nancy Sinatra”. Nice …

30 Rink acrobatics : AXELS

An axel is a forward take-off jump in figure skating. The maneuver was first performed by Norwegian Axel Paulsen at the 1882 World Figure Skating championships.

32 Studied for a job? : CASED

The phrase “to case the joint” is American slang meaning “to examine a location with the intent of robbing it”. The origins of the phrase are apparently unknown, although it dates back at least to 1915.

42 100-member group : SENATE

The six-year terms enjoyed by US senators are staggered, so that every two years about one third of the 100 US Senate seats come up for reelection.

44 Glam rock band : SLADE

Slade is a favorite band from my youth, a rock band from the north of England who made it big during the seventies. One of Slade’s hallmark marketing techniques was a deliberate misspelling of their song titles. A couple of those titles are “Gudbuy T’Jane” and my personal favorite “Cum On Feel the Noize”.

I remember the days of glam rock so well, as it was a hugely popular genre of music in Britain and Ireland during the early seventies. Artistes wore the wildest of clothes, big hair, shiny outfits and really high platform boots. Names associated with glam rock are T. Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music and the infamous Gary Glitter.

45 Rash cause, maybe : SUMAC

Sumacs are a group of flowering shrubs and small trees that include poison oak, poison ivy and poison sumac (nasty stuff!). The leaves of some species of sumac contain tannins that are used for tanning leather. Morocco leather is an example of the use of sumac tannins.

46 Sarastro in “The Magic Flute,” e.g. : BASS

Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” (in German “Die Zauberflöte”) today is performed more often than any other opera in the repertoire worldwide.

47 Italian bread that’s no longer tender : LIRA

The word “lira” is used in a number of countries for currency. “Lira” comes from the Latin for “pound” and is derived from a British pound sterling, the value of a Troy pound of silver. For example, the lira (plural “lire”) was the official currency of Italy before the country changed over to the euro in 2002.

48 Half a seafood dinner? : MAHI

“Mahi-mahi” is the Hawaiian name for the dolphinfish, which is also called the dorado. The mahi-mahi is an ugly looking creature if ever I saw one …

49 Liverpudlian, e.g. : BRIT

Liverpool is a large port city in the northwest of England located on the estuary of the River Mersey. With a sense of humor that is typical of the area, people from Liverpool are often called “Liverpudlians”. The term comes from the jocular “Liver-puddle”, a diminutive of “Liver-pool”.

50 Bandstand boosters : AMPS

An electric guitar, for example, needs an amplifier (amp) to take the weak signal created by the vibration of the strings and turn it into a signal powerful enough for a loudspeaker.

54 Sch. with five Orange Bowl victories : FSU

Florida State University (FSU) is located in Tallahassee, the state capital of Florida. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Seminoles (sometimes the “‘Noles”). The team name was chosen in 1947 by the students in a vote, and alludes to the Seminole people of Florida.

The Orange Bowl is an annual college football game played in Miami Gardens, Florida. The Rose Bowl is the oldest of the bowl games (inaugurated in 1902), but the Sun Bowl, Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl come in second. The first Orange Bowl was played on New Year’s Day 1935.