Tag: Original “Jeopardy!” announcer crossword clue

Bill’s time: 7m 16s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15 Places with tanks : AQUARIA

“Aquarium” is a Latin word meaning “pertaining to water”, although in Latin the word only existed as a noun with the meaning “drinking place for cattle”. Before the use of the noun “aquarium” (plural “aquaria”) in the context of fish, a tank was sometimes referred to as a marine vivarium.

16 Some Australians call it “chateau cardboard” : BOX WINE

The “box wine” package was invented in Australia, back in 1935. The original design had no tap, so the corner had to be cut off the bladder to get at the wine. The bladder with a tap was also invented in Australia, but not until 1967. I’ve done blind taste tests featuring bottled and boxed wines, and love the box concept, especially for a decent red wine …

18 1996 Olympics site : ATLANTA

The 1996 Summer Olympic Games were held in Atlanta, making them the fourth summer games hosted by the US ( after St. Louis 1904, Los Angeles 1932, and Los Angeles 1984). The 1996 games were marred when 111 people were injured as pipe bombs exploded at Centennial Olympic Park. The bombing was carried out by domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph, who was behind a series of anti-abortion and anti-gay bombings across the southern US.

19 Most of pewter : TIN

Pewter is a relatively soft alloy that is made up mostly of tin, with some copper, antimony, bismuth and lead.

25 Original “Jeopardy!” announcer : PARDO

Don Pardo’s distinctive voice announced the show “Saturday Night Live, and did so from the premiere episode that aired in 1975 until his death in 2014. Pardo was the announcer for all the SNL shows except for the 1981-82 season. Pardo retired from NBC in 2004 and moved to Tucson, Arizona, but the producers of “Saturday Night Live” persuaded him to stay on as announcer for their show. He had a lifetime contract, one of only two people ever to have such an arrangement with NBC (the other was Bob Hope!). Pardo celebrated his 90th birthday on air, blowing out candles on his birthday cake at the end of an episode of SNL.

28 Rock bottom : NADIR

The nadir is the direction pointing immediately below a particular location (through to the other side of the Earth for example). The opposite direction, that pointing immediately above, is called the zenith. We use the terms “nadir” and “zenith” figuratively to mean the low and high points in a person’s fortunes.

30 Sugar __ : BEETS

The biggest producer of sugar beets in the world is Russia, with France and the US in second and third place.

32 CV section : BIO

A curriculum vitae (CV) is a listing of someone’s work experience and qualifications, and is used mainly in making a job application. The term “curriculum vitae” can be translated from Latin as “course of life”.

35 Place to go in London : LOO

It has been suggested that the British term “loo”, meaning “toilet”, comes from “Waterloo” (water closet … water-loo), but no one seems to know for sure. Another suggestion is that the term comes from the card game of “lanterloo”, in which the pot was called the loo!

London is the largest metropolitan area in the whole of the European Union (and one of my favorite cities in the world). London has been a major settlement for over 2,000 years and was founded as a town by the Romans who named it Londinium. The name “Londinium” may have existed prior to the arrival of the Romans, and no one seems too sure of its origins. Famously, the City of London is a one-square-mile area at the center of the metropolis, the area that marked old medieval London. “The City”, as it is commonly called, has its own Mayor of the City of London (the Mayor of London is someone else), and it’s own City of London Police Force (the London Metropolitan Police are the police usually seen on the streets, a different force).

39 Matching 401(k) contribution, e.g. : JOB PERK

A 401(k) account resembles an IRA in that contributions can be made from a paycheck prior to the deduction of income taxes. A 401(k) differs from an IRA in that it is an employer-sponsored plan, with payments taken by the employer directly from an employee’s paycheck. Additionally, contributions can be fully or partially matched by an employer.

41 “Everybody Hurts” band : REM

“Everybody Hurts” is a 1992 soft rock song by R.E.M. The song was chosen as a charity single in the UK to help victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

45 Title for Juan Carlos I : EL REY

Juan Carlos I is a former king of Spain. He became king in 1975, taking up the throne just two days after the death of Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco. The new king immediately introduced the reforms necessary to transition his country into a democracy, and a constitutional monarchy. Juan Carlos abdicated in 2014, handing over the throne to his son Felipe VI.

46 Pony Express employee : RIDER

The Pony Express mail service operated for only 19 months, from 1860 until 1861. The service comprised a relay of horseback riders operating between St. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California across the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada.

64 Territory within another territory : ENCLAVE

An enclave is a portion of a country, or sometimes a whole country, that is completely surrounded by another. Examples are Vatican City and San Marino, both enclaved by Italy, and Lesotho enclaved by South Africa.

66 Heinz Field athlete : STEELER

The Pittsburgh Steelers football team was founded in 1933, making it the oldest franchise in the AFC. Back in 1933, the team was known as the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates name was chosen as the Pittsburgh baseball team was the Pirates. The name was changed to the Steelers in 1940, and then the Steagles in 1943 when the team merged with the Philadelphia Eagles. There was a further merger in 1944, with the Chicago Cardinal to form Card-Pitt. The Steelers name was resurrected in 1945.

Down

1 Garment commonly seen in Morocco : CAFTAN

A kaftan (also “caftan”) is a long robe has been associated for thousands of years with Islamic cultures.

The country of Morocco is located in North Africa, but lies just 9 miles south of Spain. Spain and Morocco, and hence Europe and Africa, are separated by those 9 miles across the Mediterranean Sea known as the Straits of Gibraltar.

2 Constellation whose name is Latin for 51-Down : AQUILA
(51D Mexican flag bird : EAGLE)

The name of the constellation Aquila is Latin for “eagle”. The brightest star in Aquila is Altair. The name “Altair” comes from the Arabic “al-nasr al-tair” meaning “the flying eagle”.

3 Stored in a cask : TUNNED

A tun is a barrel, often a large barrel used in winemaking. The term “tun” came to be a measure of volume, originally 252 gallons of wine. The weight of such a volume of wine was referred to as a “tun”, which evolved into our contemporary unit “ton”.

8 Not yet on the sched. : TBA

Something not yet on the schedule (“sked” or “sched.”) is to be advised/announced (TBA).

10 Semi bar : AXLE

A “semi” is a “semi-trailer truck”. The vehicle is so called because it consists of a tractor and a half-trailer. The half-trailer is so called because it only has wheels on the back end, with the front supported by the tractor.

11 Bluegrass characteristic : TWANG

Bluegrass is a subgenre of country music, and has its roots in the traditional music brought over from Britain and Ireland. The style of music really evolved quite recently, just before WWII. Musician Bill Monroe is referred to as its “founding father”, and indeed bluegrass takes its name from Monroe’s band, the Blue Grass Boys.

36 Crowlike birds : GRACKLES

Grackles are birds native to North and South America. Examples are the Nicaraguan grackle and the Colombian mountain grackle.

49 17th-century Flemish painter : RUBENS

Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish painter who worked in the city of Antwerp in Belgium. Rubens was knighted by two monarchs: Philip IV of Spain, and Charles I of England. When Rubens was 53-years-old, four years after the death of his first wife, he married a 16-year-old girl. It was his young second wife who inspired many of the voluptuous figures with whom Rubens became associated later in his career.

51 Mexican flag bird : EAGLE

The Mexican flag consists of three vertical stripes of green, white and red. The national coat of arms is displayed in the center of the white stripe.

53 “‘A’ – __ Adorable”: Perry Como hit : YOU’RE

“’A’ You’re Adorable” is a 1948 song that most famously was recorded the following year by Perry Como with the Fontane Sisters.

Perry Como was my mother’s favorite singer. Como was born about 20 miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Famously, his first career was barbering. He learned the trade from a local hairdresser and soon had his own shop in a Greek coffee house, at the age of 14!

58 “Goofy Greats” record label : K-TEL

K-Tel was founded in 1962 in Winnipeg, Manitoba by one Philip Kives. K-Tel’s recipe for success was the sale of inexpensive goods with a simple sales pitch and mail-order distribution.

“Goofy Greats” was a compilation LP released by K-Tel in 1975. Included were such “goofy” greats as:

• “Snoopy vs. The Red Baron” by the Royal Guardsmen
• “Itsy-Bitsy, Teenie-Weenie, Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini” by Brian Hyland
• “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy” by Ohio Express
• “See You Later, Alligator” by Bill Haley

I’d call those tracks more “great” than “goofy” …

61 Essen article : DER

The definite article in German is der, die or das, for masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. The indefinite article is ein, eine or ein, again depending on the gender of the noun. A further complication, relative to English, is that the masculine form (and only the masculine form) of the article changes when used in the accusative case, when used with the object of a sentence. The accusative forms are “den” and “einen”.

Essen is a large industrial city located on the River Ruhr in western Germany. The city experienced major population growth in the mid-1800s that was driven by the iron works established by the Krupp family.

63 Hat for an Angel : CAP

The Anaheim Angels baseball team are today more correctly called the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (LAA). The “Angels” name dates back to 1961 when the team was founded in the “City of Angels”, Los Angeles. When the franchise moved to Anaheim in 1965 they were known as the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, and most recently the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim. The Angels are also known as “the Halos”.