Tag: Oater orphans crossword clue

Bill’s time: 17m 06s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15 City on the Aare : BERN

Bern (sometimes “Berne”, especially in French) is the capital city of Switzerland. The official language of the city is German, but the language most spoken in Bern is a dialect known as Bernese German.

The Aar (also called the “Aare” in German) is the longest river entirely in Switzerland. The Aar is a major tributary of the Rhine and flows through Bern, the nation’s capital.

19 Palm native to South American swampland : ACAI

Açaí (pronounced “ass-aye-ee”) is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

20 Precept : TENET

A tenet is an article of faith, something that is held to be true. “Tenet” is Latin for “he holds”.

21 Family name in Civil War fiction : O’HARA

The last lines in Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone With the Wind” are spoken by Scarlett O’Hara:

“Tara! Home. I’ll go home, and I’ll think of some way to get him back! After all, tomorrow is another day!”

22 Golfer Aoki : ISAO

Isao Aoki is one of Japan’s greatest golfers. Aoki’s best finish in a major tournament was runner-up to Jack Nicklaus in the 1980 US Open.

23 Roadway closed for repairs? : DOWN STREET (from “Downing Street”)

London’s famous Downing Street is home to the official residences of the Prime Minister (Number 10) and the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Number 11). The street was built in the late 17th century by Sir George Downing, hence the name.

25 Sturdy piece of lumber? : SOUND BOARD (from “sounding board”)

The original sounding board is a structure, usually made from wood, that is placed above or behind a speaking platform to help project the voice. We use the term “sounding board” figuratively to describe a person on whom one evaluates an idea or opinion.

27 “Not interested” feeling : ENNUI

“Ennui” is the French word for “boredom”, and a term that we now use in English. It’s one of the few French words we’ve imported that we haven’t anglicized, and actually pronounce “correctly”.

28 Maintain control (over) : RIDE HERD

To ride herd on is to supervise someone, or more usually, a group of people.

30 Oater orphans : DOGIES

“Dogie” (sometimes “dogy”) is cowboy slang for a motherless calf in a herd.

31 Online biz : E-TAIL

“E-tail” is the term used these days for online shopping (coming from “retail”). E-tail is often compared to regular shopping in the “real world” by juxtaposing it with a “brick and mortar” store.

34 Prop for Mr. Monopoly : CANE

Mr. Monopoly is also known as Rich “Uncle” Pennybags, and is the mascot of the game Monopoly. For years, we could spot Mr. Monopoly reaching out of the “O” in the word Monopoly on the game board.

35 Hot Wheels maker : MATTEL

Mattel is the world’s largest toy manufacturer. Mattel was founded by Harold “Matt” Matson and Elliot Handler in 1945, and they chose the company name by combining “Matt” with “El-liot” giving “Matt-el”.

The Hot Wheels brand of toy car was introduced by Mattel in 1968. Hot Wheels models are all die-cast, with many designs coming from blueprints provided by the manufacturers of the full-size car.

38 “Nixon in China” tenor role : MAO

“Nixon in China” is an opera by John Adams, with a libretto by Alice Goodman. The piece was inspired by President Nixon’s famous visit to China in 1972.

45 TV show about Amtrak services? : TRAIN PROGRAM (from “training program”)

Amtrak is the name used commercially by the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. “Amtrak” comes from a melding of the words “America” and “track”.

50 “Dumbo” actress Green : EVA

Despite the English-sounding name, Eva Green is a French actress. Green played Bond girl Vesper Lynd in the 2006 movie “Casino Royale” opposite Daniel Craig.

“Dumbo” is a 2019 live-action movie inspired by the original 1941 Walt Disney animated film of the same name. Directed by Tim Burton, 2019’s “Dumbo” focuses less on the title character, and more on the humans who interact with the animals. Indeed, the animals in Burton’s “Dumbo” don’t talk, even though they do in the Disney version.

51 Stephen of “Counterpart” : REA

Stephen Rea is an Irish actor from Belfast. Rea’s most successful role was Fergus in 1992’s “The Crying Game”, for which performance he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. In “The Crying Game”, Fergus was a member of the IRA. In real life, Rea was married to IRA bomber and hunger striker Dolours Price at the time he made the movie.

“Counterpart” is a sci-fi thriller TV series starring J. K. Simmons. The fascinating premise of the show is that two parallel Earths were created during the Cold War, with a crossing-over point existing in Berlin. Simmons is one of several actors who play dual roles, one from each of the parallel universes.

52 Had a stable baby : FOALED

There are lots of terms to describe horses of different ages and sexes, it seems:

• Foal: horse of either sex that is less than one year old
• Yearling: horse of either sex that is one to two years old
• Filly: female horse under the age of four
• Colt: male horse under the age of four
• Gelding: castrated male horse of any age
• Stallion: non-castrated male horse four years or older
• Mare: female horse four years or older

53 Insignia automaker : OPEL

The Insignia is a car produced by the German automaker Opel 2008. The Insignia is rebranded for the North American market as the Buick Regal, a model name that had been used by GM for US-produced cars from 1973 to 2004.

54 Presentation prop : EASEL

The word “easel” comes from an old Dutch word meaning “donkey”, would you believe? The idea is that an easel carries its load (an oil painting, say) just as a donkey would be made to carry a load.

56 __ 5000: annual list of the fastest-growing privately held companies : INC

“Inc.” is a business magazine that specializes in articles about growing companies. “Inc.” publishes a list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the country each year, calling it the “Inc. 500”. The “Inc. 5000” is an expanded list also published by the magazine.

57 “Stranger Things” actor : ASTIN

Sean Astin is best known for playing the title role in the 1993 film “Rudy” and the character Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings” movies. You might also have seen him playing Lynn McGill in the 5th season of “24”. Astin is the son of actress Patty Duke, and the adopted son of actor John Astin (of “The Addams Family” fame).

“Stranger Things” is a sci-fi horror TV show made for Netflix that aired its first season in 2016. I don’t do horror, and so haven’t seen it …

62 Cold War st. : SSR

The former Soviet Union (officially “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”, i.e. USSR) was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the Tsar. Geographically, the new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent to the old Russian Empire, and comprised fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs).

The term “Cold War” was coined by the novelist George Orwell in a 1945 essay about the atomic bomb. Orwell described a world under threat of nuclear war as having a “peace that is no peace”, in a permanent state of “cold war”. The specific use of “cold war” to describe the tension between the Eastern bloc and the Western allies is attributed to a 1947 speech by Bernard Baruch, adviser to Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

63 Pequod co-owner : PELEG

The Pequod is the whaling ship that figures in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby Dick”. The ship is owned by a consortium of the citizens of Nantucket Island, including Captains Ahab, Bildad and Peleg.

65 HR dept. data : SSNS

Social Security number (SSN)

Human resources (HR)

66 Cornfield maze, e.g.? : LAND PATTERN (from “landing pattern”)

An airport’s landing pattern is the standard path used by aircraft taking off and landing. Such a pattern is established so assist pilots in seeing and avoiding other traffic. Pilots routinely flying in and out of a particular airfield can get used to the pattern of traffic encountered.

70 Agitated state : SNIT

The exact etymology of “snit”, meaning “fit of temper”, isn’t really known. The term was first used in print in the play “Kiss the Boys Goodbye” by Clare Boothe Luce, which dates back to the 1930s and is set in the American South.

75 Mdse. category : IRR

Irregular (“irr.” or “irreg.”)

80 PepsiCo-owned chip brand : LAY’S

Lay’s potato chips were introduced in 1938 by Herman W. Lay. Lay started selling his chips out the trunk of his car, travelling all over the US. In those days the chips were pretty much handmade, but Lay put an end to that in 1942. He invented the first continuous potato processor in 1948, and chips started to take over the world!

84 Carson’s successor : LENO

“The Tonight Show” has had six permanent hosts so far:

• Steve Allen (1954-57)
• Jack Paar (1957-62)
• Johnny Carson (1962–92)
• Jay Leno (1992–2009, 2010–14)
• Conan O’Brien (2009–10)
• Jimmy Fallon (2014–present)

87 Chemistry suffix : -ENE

An alkene is an organic compound made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms. It differs from an alkane in that it has at least one C=C double bond. The simplest alkene is the gas ethylene, a major raw material used in the manufacture of plastics (like polyethylene).

91 Mother of Ares : HERA

In Greek mythology, Hera was the wife of Zeus and was noted for her jealous and vengeful nature, particularly against those who vied for the affections of her husband. The equivalent character to Hera in Roman mythology was Juno. Hera was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.

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.

95 Triathlon segments : EVENTS

An Ironman Triathlon is a race involving a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon run of just over 26 miles. The idea for the race came out of a debate between some runners in the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay. They were questioning whether runners, swimmers or bikers were the most fit athletes. The debaters decided to combine three local events to determine the answer, inviting athletes from all three disciplines. The events that were mimicked in the first triathlon were the Waikiki Roughwater swim (2.4 miles), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles). The idea was that whoever finishes first would be called “the Iron Man”. The first triathlon was run in 1978, with fifteen starters and only twelve finishers. The race format is used all over the world now, but the Hawaiian Ironman is the event that everyone wants to win.

97 Address bar letters : HTTP

“http” are the first letters in many Internet links. “http” stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. More secure and “safer” websites (like this one!) use links starting with “https”, which stands for “http secure”).

98 Played for a sap : HAD

“Sap” is slang for “fool, someone easily scammed”. The term arose in the early 1800s in Britain when it was used in “saphead” and “sapskull”. All these words are derived from “sapwood”, which is the softwood found in tree trunks between the bark and the heartwood at the center.

100 Guitar-making hardwood : ALDER

There appears to be heated debate by those in the know, about whether or not the type of wood used in the construction of electric guitars makes a difference to the sound quality. However, amongst those that value choice of wood, alder is the clear favorite.

102 V8 veggie : CARROT

The beverage V8 is a mixture of eight different vegetable juices, hence the name. It was introduced in 1933 by the New England Products Company as “ege-min 8”. The eight vegetables are beets, celery, carrots, lettuce, parsley, watercress, spinach, and tomato.

108 Ford named for a legendary flier, briefly : T-BIRD

Ford manufactured the Thunderbird (T-Bird) from 1955 to 2005. Originally a two-seater sporty convertible, the T-Bird was introduced as a competitor to Chevrolet’s new sports car, the Corvette. The “Thunderbird” name is a reference to a legendary creature from the culture of several Native-American peoples. There’s also a story that the name is a direct reference to the Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California of which the then chairman of Ford’s board was a member.

114 Sidewalk vendor’s supply request? : STAND ORDER (from “standing order”)

Back in Ireland, the “pavement” is what we call the “sidewalk, footpath” (because the footpath is “paved”, often with “paving” stones!). It’s very confusing when you arrive in this country from Ireland, and a little dangerous when one has been taught from a young age to “walk on the pavement” …

118 Sure rival : ARRID

Arrid is an antiperspirant deodorant brand introduced in the thirties. Slogans associated with Arrid have been “Don’t be half-safe – use Arrid to be sure”, “Stress stinks! Arrid works!” and “Get a little closer”.

119 It’s near the humerus : ULNA

The humerus is the long bone in the upper arm. The bones in the forearm are the radius and ulna. “Ulna” is the Latin word for “elbow”, and “radius” is Latin for “ray”.

120 Recipe smidge : DASH

In cooking, the terms “dash”, “pinch” and “smidgen” can all be used for a very small measure, one that is often undefined. However, you can in fact buy some measuring spoons that define these amounts as follows:

• a dash is 1/8 teaspoon
• a pinch is 1/16 teaspoon
• a smidgen is 1/32 teaspoon

121 Key wood : EBONY

The traditional materials used for the manufacture of piano keys were ebony (black) and ivory (white). Ebony is still used, but now for both white and black keys. The white keys are made by covering ebony with white plastic.

122 Besmirch : TAINT

“Besmirch” is a derivative of “smirch”, with both words meaning to “make dirty”. In particular, to besmirch is to sully someone’s reputation.

Down

2 Quicken’s boxed Q, for one : ICON

Quicken is a popular software application primarily used for managing personal finances. The Quicken program was developed by Intuit, a company that purchased Rock Financial in 1999. Intuit renamed the Rock Financial Lending Institution to Quicken Loans.

3 Scotts Turf Builder target : LAWN

Scotts Miracle-Gro Company was founded in 1868 by one Orlando Scott, and initially sold seed to the agricultural industry. In the early 1900s, Scotts started to sell to homeowners, and mainly supplied lawn seed. The company merged with the gardening company Miracle-Gro in 1955, and then with TruGreen in 2016.

4 French social dances : MINUETS

A minuet is a dance that originated in France. At some point, the middle section of the minuet was routinely scored for just a trio of instruments. The resulting composition was known as a minuet and trio. In the Classical Era, a minuet and trio was often chosen as the third movement of a symphony.

5 NFL pass, complete or not : ATT

In football, one statistic (stat) used to track the performance of a quarterback (QB) is attempts (ATT).

6 Gibbs of country : TERRI

Terri Gibbs is a country music singer who had thirteen singles that made the Billboard country singles charts in the eighties. Gibbs was born blind.

7 Ninja Turtles’ human pal April __ : O’NEIL

Actress Judith Hoag is perhaps best known for playing April O’Neil in the 1990 movie “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”. More recently, she was cast in the recurring role of Tandy Hampton on the show “Nashville”.

10 Prepared for a selfie : POSED

A selfie is a self-portrait, one usually taken with a digital camera or cell phone. A “group selfie” is sometimes referred to as a “groufie” or “wefie”. A “couple selfie” is known as an “usie” or “ussie”, although those terms are sometimes also used for a group picture.

12 Heap kudos on : LAUD

Our word “kudos” means “acclaim given for an exceptional achievement”. “Kudos” is both a singular and plural noun, and comes from the Greek “kyddos” meaning “glory, fame”.

13 Prince Valiant’s son : ARN

In the comic strip “Prince Valiant”, Arn is the eldest son of the title character, and Aleta is his wife. Edward, Duke of Windsor, once declared that “Prince Valiant” comic strip the “greatest contribution to English Literature in the past one hundred years”. I’m not so sure …

15 Giant in the development of neurological disease therapies : BIOGEN

Biogen is a biotech company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that focuses on gene therapy. It was founded in 1978 in Geneva by a remarkable group of biologists, two of whom subsequently won Nobel Prizes for their accomplishments in genetic biology.

16 Actor Morales : ESAI

Actor Esai Morales is best known in the world of film for the 1987 movie “La Bamba”, which depicted the life of Ritchie Valens and his half-brother Bob Morales (played by Esai). On the small screen, Morales plays Lt. Tony Rodriguez on “NYPD Blue” and Joseph Adama on “Caprica”.

26 Animal-based fertilizer : BONE MEAL

Bone meal is a fertilizer comprising ground up animal bone and other waste products from slaughter houses. Not very vegan …

29 Hula __ : HOOP

Hula hoops were a big craze in the 1950s, but they have been around in various forms at least since the year 500 BCE.

32 “He Was Despised,” in Handel’s “Messiah” : ALTO SOLO

“Messiah” is a famous oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel that was first performed in Dublin, Ireland in 1742. The libretto is a text from the King James Bible that was compiled by Handel’s friend Charles Jennens. Not long after he received the libretto from Jennens, Handel took just 24 days to compose the full oratorio. He was obviously on a roll, became Handel started into his next oratorio, “Samson” just one week after finishing “Messiah”. He finished the first draft of “Samson” within a month.

34 PC corner key : CTRL

The Control (CTRL) key on a PC keyboard is used to modify the function of other keys. For example, pressing CTRL+C copies a selection to the clipboard, and CTRL+V pastes the contents of the clipboard to a location defined by the cursor. Control keys were introduced on teletypewriters to generate “control characters”, which are non-printing characters that instruct a computer to do something like print a page, ring a bell etc.

38 Personal bearing : MIEN

One’s mien is one’s bearing or manner. “Mien” shares the same etymological root as our word “demeanor”.

41 Make sketches of Barbie dolls? : DESIGN WOMEN (from “Designing Women”)

The famous Barbie doll was created by businesswoman Ruth Handler and first appeared on store shelves in 1959. Barbie was based on a German fashion doll called Bild Lilli that was introduced in 1955. Lilli had been a German cartoon character before taking on a three-dimensional form. Prior to the introduction of Bild Lilli and Barbie, children’s dolls were primarily representations of infants.

“Designing Women” is a sitcom that originally aired in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The show’s storyline centers on four women, and one man, who work together at a small interior designing company in Atlanta.

46 Porch furniture material : RATTAN

Rattan is the name of a large number of species of palms, all of which look less like trees and more like vines. The woody stems are used for making cane furniture.

49 Genre of Vasarely’s “Zebra” : OP ART

Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian-French artist who produced works in the op art genre. Vasarely’s painting from the 1930s titled “Zebras” is often cited as one of the first examples of op art.

52 Twitter follower, often : FAN

The familiar blue Twitter logo is known as “Larry the Bird”. The logo was named for former Boston Celtics player Larry Bird.

58 Bygone despots : TSARS

The term “czar” (also “tsar”) is a Slavic word that was first used as a title by Simeon I of Bulgaria in 913 AD. “Czar” is derived from the word “Caesar”, which was synonymous with “emperor” at that time.

A despot is a ruler with absolute power, and often one who wields that power oppressively. “Despot” is an old French term from the 14th century that is ultimately derived from the Greek “despotes” meaning “master of a household, absolute ruler”.

61 Advanced French class assignment : ESSAI

“Essai” is the French word for an “essay”.

63 Positive particle : PROTON

A proton is a subatomic particle, with at least one found in the nucleus of every atom. A proton is not a “fundamental particle”, as it itself is made up of three quarks; two up quarks and one down quark.

67 Krall of jazz : DIANA

Diana Krall is a jazz singer and piano player from Nanaimo, British Columbia. Krall is married to English rock musician Elvis Costello.

68 Richard __, first black “SNL” host : PRYOR

The first seven hosts of “Saturday Night Live” (in 1975) were

1. George Carlin
2. Paul Simon
3. Rob Reiner
4. Candice Bergen
5. Robert Klein
6. Lily Tomlin
7. Richard Pryor

69 IRS convenience : E-FILE

E-file: that’s certainly what I do with my tax return …

72 Colorful swimmers : TETRAS

The neon tetra is a freshwater fish that is native to parts of South America. The tetra is a very popular aquarium fish and millions are imported into the US every year. Almost all of the imported tetras are farm-raised in Asia and very few come from their native continent.

74 Sewer worker in a ’50s sitcom : ED NORTON

Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton are two characters in “The Honeymooners”, played by Jackie Gleason and Art Carney. Kramden is a bus driver, and Norton works with the New York City sewer department.

77 Sgts.’ superiors : LTS

The rank of lieutenant (lt.) is superior to the rank of sergeant (sgt.), and below the rank of captain (capt.).

79 Salon service with a pedi : MANI

Manicure & pedicure (mani-pedi)

85 “Sister Act” extra : NUN

The 1992 comedy “Sister Act” stars Whoopi Goldberg as a lounge singer from Reno who hides out in a San Francisco convent disguised as a nun. It’s a funny, funny film.

89 Thick soup : POTTAGE

A potage (also “pottage”) is a thick soup or stew, and is named after the Old French word “pottage” meaning “potted dish”.

90 Jupiter and Mars : GODS

Jupiter, also known as Jove, was the king of the gods in the Roman tradition, as well as the god of sky and thunder. Jupiter was the Roman equivalent to the Greek god Zeus.

Mars was the god of war in ancient Rome. Mars was also viewed as the father of the Roman people and the father of Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers who founded Rome according to Roman mythology.

96 Preventative power : VETO

The verb “veto” comes directly from Latin and means “I forbid”. The term was used by tribunes of ancient Rome to indicate that they opposed measures passed by the Senate.

98 Spicy Asian cuisine : HUNAN

Hunan is a province in south-central China. It is located south of Lake Dongting, which gives the province its name, as “Hunan” translates as “south of the lake”.

99 Pacing, perhaps : ANTSY

The word “antsy” embodies the concept of “having ants in one’s pants”, meaning being nervous and fidgety. However, “antsy” has been used in English since the 1830s, whereas “ants in the pants” originated a century later.

100 Gaming pioneer : ATARI

At one point, the electronics and video game manufacturer Atari was the fastest-growing company in US history. However, Atari never really recovered from the video game industry crash of 1983.

101 Bolshevik leader : LENIN

At the second party congress of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903, a split developed. The faction with the most support was led by Vladimir Lenin. As they were in the majority, the group became known as the Bolsheviks, a term derived from the Russian word for “more” or “majority”. Lenin and the Bolsheviks led the October Revolution of 1917, as a result of which Lenin came to power. He headed the new Soviet State during its formative years.

102 Duped? : CC’ED

I wonder do the kids of today know that “cc” stands for carbon copy, and do they have any idea what a carbon copy was? Do you remember how messy carbon paper was to handle? A kind blog reader pointed out to me a while back that the abbreviation has evolved and taken on the meaning “courtesy copy” in our modern world.

103 Bit of plankton : ALGA

Plankton are organisms that float in water and are incapable of swimming against a current. Plankton can be classified into four broad groups:

• Phytoplankton: algae that live on the surface and use light for photosynthesis.
• Zooplankton: small animals that mainly feed on other plankton.
• Bacterioplankton: the bacterial component of plankton.
• Mycoplankton: the fungal component of plankton.

105 Move, for short : RELO

“Relocate” (relo)

106 Six-part undergrad exam : LSAT

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

107 Blade brand : ATRA

Fortunately for crossword constructors, the Atra was introduced by Gillette in 1977, as the first razor with a pivoting head. The Atra was sold as the Contour in some markets and its derivative products are still around today.

110 Surrealist Magritte : RENE

Belgian artist René Magritte was a surrealist. His most recognized work maybe is “The Son of Man”, a painting he created as a self-portrait. It is the work that shows a man in a bowler hat with his face covered by an apple. The image features prominently in a great movie, the 1999 remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair”.

115 “Silent Spring” subj. : DDT

DDT is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (don’t forget now!). DDT was used with great success to control disease-carrying insects during WWII, and when made available for use after the war it became by far the most popular pesticide. And then Rachel Carson published her famous book “Silent Spring”, suggesting there was a link between DDT and diminishing populations of certain wildlife. It was the public outcry sparked by the book, and reports of links between DDT and cancer, that led to the ban on the use of the chemical in 1972. That ban is touted as the main reason that the bald eagle was rescued from near extinction.