Tag: Netflix competitor crossword clue

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Singer LuPone : PATTI

Singer Patti LuPone won Tonys for playing Eva Peron in “Evita ” and Rose in “Gypsy”.

6 Certain Jamaican, religiously : RASTA

I must admit that I don’t really know much about Rastafarianism. I do know that a “Rasta”, such as Bob Marley, is a follower of the movement. Some say that Rastafarianism is a religion, some not. I also know that it involves the worship of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia.

11 Dol. parts : CTS

When writing an amount of money, the two digits to the right of the decimal point signify a number of cents (cts.).

16 Poke bowl fish : AHI

Yellowfin and bigeye tuna are usually marketed as “ahi”, the Hawaiian name. They are both big fish, with yellowfish tuna often weighing over 300 pounds, and bigeye tuna getting up to 400 pounds.

Poke is a Native-Hawaiian dish featuring diced raw fish. “Poke” is a Hawaiian word meaning “to slice”.

17 “La La Land” Oscar nominee : RYAN GOSLING (include “ANGRY” mixed)

Ryan Gosling is a Canadian actor who really seems to be riding high right now. He is one of a string of entertainers to graduate from the Mickey Mouse Club on the Disney Channel.

“La La Land” is a 2016 romantic musical film starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a musician and actress who fall in love in “La La Land” (Los Angeles, i.e. “LA”). The film was written and directed by Damien Chazelle, who had found success two years earlier with the musical drama “Whiplash”. “La La Land” won a record-breaking seven Golden Globes and tied the record number of Oscar nominations at fourteen, winning six.

19 Gym exercise unit : REP

Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed in ancient Greece.

22 Singer Styles and illusionist Houdini : HARRYS

Harry Styles is a singer from England who got his big break when he appeared on the British version of “The X Factor”, from which he was selected as an original member of the boy band One Direction. Styles turned to acting, and had a significant role in the 2017 war movie “Dunkirk”. Reading the gossip columns reveals that he dated Taylor Swift for a while in 2012.

28 Fateful March day : IDES

In Act I of William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” a soothsayer warns the doomed emperor to “beware the ides of March”. Caesar ignores the prophecy and is subsequently killed on the steps of the Capitol by a group of conspirators on that fateful day.

30 African adventure : SAFARI

“Safari” is a Swahili word meaning “journey” or “expedition”.

33 Jazz great Fitzgerald : ELLA

Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song”, had a hard and tough upbringing. She was raised by her mother alone in Yonkers, New York. Her mother died while Ella was still a schoolgirl, and around that time the young girl became less interested in her education. She fell in with a bad crowd, even working as a lookout for a bordello and as a Mafia numbers runner. She ended up in reform school, from which she escaped, and found herself homeless and living on the streets for a while. Somehow Fitzgerald managed to get herself a spot singing in the Apollo Theater in Harlem. From there her career took off and as they say, the rest is history.

40 Rudely sarcastic : SNARKY

“Snark” is a term that was coined by Lewis Carroll in his fabulous 1876 nonsense poem “The Hunting of the Snark”. Somehow, the term “snarky” came to mean “irritable, short-tempered” in the early 1900s, and from there “snark” became “sarcastic rhetoric” at the beginning of the 21st century.

42 “Dirty” drink : MARTINI

A dirty martini is a regular martini with a splash of olive juice, served with an olive garnish.

52 Dr. Seuss’ real last name : GEISEL

“Dr. Seuss” was the pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel. Geisel first used the pen name while studying at Dartmouth College and at the University of Oxford. Back then, he pronounced “Seuss” as it would be in German, i.e. rhyming with “voice”. After his books found success in the US, he went with the pronunciation being used widely by the public, quite happy to have a name that rhymes with “Mother Goose”.

54 Chocolate dog : LAB

The Labrador (Lab) breed of dog has been around at least since 1814, and the chocolate Labrador appeared over a century later in the 1930s. The name “Labrador Retriever” is simply a reference to the breed’s origin and behavior. Labs originally “retrieved” from the “Labrador Sea”.

61 NOW co-founders : WOMEN

The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded in 1966. The NOW bylaws include a Statement of Purpose:

NOW’s purpose is to take action through intersectional grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.

62 Ski run bump : MOGUL

Moguls are the series of bumps in the surface of snow that arise naturally as a succession of skiers make turns on a slope.

64 Nonreactive, as gases : INERT

An inert gas can be different from a noble gas. Both are relatively non-reactive, but a noble gas is an element. An inert gas might be a compound, i.e. made up of more than one element.

65 Uppity types : SNOBS

Back in the 1780s, a snob was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word “snob” was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.

Down

3 Homeland Security screening org. : TSA

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the agency that employs the good folks who check passengers and baggage at airports.

4 Jazz ensemble instrument : TENOR SAX

The saxophone was invented by Belgian musician Adolphe Sax. Sax developed lip cancer at one point in his life, and one has to wonder if his affliction was related to his saxophone playing (I am sure not!). I had the privilege of visiting Sax’s grave in the Cemetery of Montmartre in Paris a few years ago.

5 PC troubleshooter : IT GUY

Information technology (IT)

10 “Solve for x” subj. : ALG

Algebra (alg.) is a branch of mathematics in which arithmetical operations are performed on variables rather than specific numbers (x,y etc). The term “algebra” comes from the Arabic “al jebr” meaning “reunion of broken parts”.

11 Snack for Bugs : CARROT

Bugs Bunny first said “What’s up, Doc?” while addressing the hunter Elmer Fudd, in the 1940 cartoon short “A Wild Hare”.

18 Tie-breaking NHL periods : OTS

Overtime (OT)

21 When doubled, a Latin dance : CHA

The cha-cha-cha (often simplified to “cha-cha”) is a Latin dance with origins in Cuba, where it was introduced by composer Enrique Jorrin in 1953.

22 That dude’s : HIS

Our term “dude” arose as slang in New York City in the 1880s, when it was used to describe a fastidious man. In the early 1900s, the term was extended to mean “city slickers”, easterners who vacationed in the West. The first use of the term “dude ranch” was recorded in 1921.

23 2018 Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Driver : ADAM

Adam Driver is an actor best known to TV audiences for playing Adam Sackler on the show “Girls” that airs on HBO. Driver’s movie career got a huge boost in 2015 when he played villain Kylo Ren in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.

24 Int.-lowering mortgage deal : REFI

Refinance (refi)

32 Menzel who voices Elsa in “Frozen” : IDINA

Actress and singer Idina Menzel came to public attention when she was a member of the original Broadway cast of “Rent”. She is known on the small screen for playing Shelby Corcoran on the musical TV show “Glee”. On the big screen, her most noted performance was as the voice actor behind Queen Elsa in the Disney hit “Frozen”. It is Menzel who sings the Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” in “Frozen”.

36 Custard-filled pastry : NAPOLEON

A Napoleon is a French layered pastry that is often called a “mille-feuille” on the other side of the Atlantic. “Mille-feuille” is French for “thousand-leaf”. The origin of the “Napoleon” name is unclear, but is thought to derive from the French “napolitain” meaning “from Naples”. The shift to “Napoleon” perhaps took place during the reign of Napoleon I, although there is no direct connection to the emperor.

37 Mass unit : GRAM

Today, the gram is defined as one thousandth of a kilogram, with the kilogram being equal to the mass of physical sample preserved by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. Prior to 1960, the gram was defined as the weight of a cubic centimeter of pure water (at the temperature of melting ice).

The mass of an object differs from its weight. Mass measures the amount of matter present in the object, while its weight is the force exerted on the object by gravity. So, the mass of an object is the same on Earth as it is on the Moon. One the Moon, the same object weighs 16.5% of what it does on Earth.

38 Uno card : SKIP

In my youth I remember being taught a great card game by a German acquaintance of mine, a game called Mau Mau. Years later I discovered that UNO is basically the same game, but played with a purpose-printed deck instead of the regular deck of playing cards that’s used for Mau Mau. I hear that Mau Mau is derived from the game called Crazy Eights.

42 Short-in-front, long-in-back men’s hairstyle : MULLET

A mullet haircut is one that is short at the front and sides, and is long in the back.

43 Crumbly Italian cheese : ASIAGO

Asiago is a crumbly cheese that is named for the region in northeastern Italy from where it originates.

44 Netflix competitor : REDBOX

Redbox is known for renting DVDs from automated retail kiosks placed in locations such as grocery stores and fast food restaurants. Perhaps in an obvious move, Redbox now offers a video streaming service called “Redbox Instant”, a joint-venture with Verizon.

45 QB stats : TDS

Touchdown (TD)

48 Ritual Jewish meal : SEDER

The Passover Seder is a ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday, celebrating the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. One of the traditions at the meal is that the youngest child at the table asks “The Four Questions”, all relating to why this night is different from all other nights in the year:

• Why is it that on all other nights during the year we eat either bread or matzoh, but on this night we eat only matzoh?
• Why is it that on all other nights we eat all kinds of herbs, but on this night we eat only bitter herbs?
• Why is it that on all other nights we do not dip our herbs even once, but on this night we dip them twice?
• Why is it that on all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining, but on this night we eat in a reclining position?

49 Long-running forensic series : CSI

The “CSI” TV show franchise uses hits from the Who as theme music:

• “Who Are You” … “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”
• “Baba O’Riley” … “CSI: New York”
• “Won’t Get Fooled Again” … “CSI: Miami”
• “I Can See for Miles” … “CSI: Cyber”

50 Command posts : HELMS

In its broadest sense, the term “helm” describes the whole of a ship’s steering mechanism, including the rudder and tiller. In a more specific sense, the helm is the handle, tiller or wheel that is used to control the steering gear.

53 Stevie Wonder’s “__ She Lovely” : ISN’T

“Isn’t She Lovely” is a Stevie Wonder song that he released in 1976. The song refers to Wonder’s daughter Aisha Morris, who was born in the prior year.

The great musician Stevie Wonder signed up with Motown Records when he was just 11-years-old. He has been remarkably loyal to the label and is still recording with Motown some 50 years later. The level of Stevie Wonder’s success is illustrated by his 22 Grammy Awards, the most Grammys awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder was born 6 weeks prematurely, and incomplete development of blood vessels in his eyes caused the retinas to detach leaving him blind soon after birth. His mother, Lula Mae Hardaway, co-wrote many of Stevie’s songs when he was a teenager, including “I Was Made to Love Her”, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” and “I Don’t Know Why I Love You”.

55 Sobriety checkpoint initials : DWI

In some states, there is no longer a legal difference between a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) and a DUI (Driving Under the Influence). Other states retain that difference, so that by definition a DUI is a lesser offence than a DWI.

57 Nonprofit aid gp. : NGO

Non-governmental organization (NGO)

59 Raised railroads : ELS

Elevated railroad (El)