Tag: Preformatted Excel documents e.g. crossword clue

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Constructed by: Doug Peterson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): A Hairy Ending

Themed answers each end with a term related to a hair salon:

17A Patterns recorded by an EEG : BRAIN WAVES

23A Items on a TV headline ticker : NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

35A Passive-aggressive refusal to speak : SILENT TREATMENT

49A .doc and .pdf, for example : FILE EXTENSIONS

56A Uninterrupted periods of success : HOT STREAKS

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

Bill’s time: 5m 19s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Flower from a bulb : TULIP

We usually associate the cultivation of tulips with the Netherlands, but they were first grown commercially in the Ottoman Empire. The name “tulip” ultimately derives from the Ottoman Turkish word “tulbend” that means “muslin, gauze”.

10 Hoppy brewpub orders, for short : IPAS

India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

14 Langston Hughes, for one : POET

Langston Hughes was a poet active in the Harlem Renaissance, and someone who helped develop the literary form known as “jazz poetry”. His poem “I, Too, Sing America” was published in 1925.

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed–

I, too, am America.

16 “Sticky” grain in some sushi : RICE

Sticky rice is a type of rice, and not a means of preparation. Sticky rice is more usually called “glutinous rice”, even though it does not contain dietary gluten.

17 Patterns recorded by an EEG : BRAIN WAVES

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of electrical activity caused by the firing of neurons within the brain. The EEG might be used to diagnose epilepsy, or perhaps to determine if a patient is “brain dead”.

19 Native of ancient Peru : INCA

The Inca people emerged as a tribe around the 12th century, in what today is southern Peru. The Incas developed a vast empire over the next 300 years, extending along most of the western side of South America. The Empire fell to the Spanish, finally dissolving in 1572 with the execution of Túpac Amaru, the last Incan Emperor.

23 Items on a TV headline ticker : NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

A news ticker, or “crawler”, is a text-based graphic that runs across the bottom of a TV screen providing perhaps news headlines or continuous stock quotes.

29 Draft rating : ONE-A

The US government maintains information on all males who are potentially subject to military conscription, using what is called the Selective Service System (SSS). In the event that a draft was held, men registered would be classified into groups to determine eligibility for service. Class 1-A registrants are those available for unrestricted military service. Other classes are 1-A-O (conscientious objector available for noncombatant service), 4-A (registrant who has completed military service) and 4-D (Minister of religion).

31 Flavoring in a shaker : SALT

A salt cellar is a small bowl that sits on a table holding salt for the seasoning of food. They were popular before free-flowing salt became available in the early 1900s. Salt cellars have been almost completely displaced now by salt shakers.

33 Camera letters : SLR

The initialism “SLR” stands for “single lens reflex”. Usually, cameras with changeable lenses are the SLR type. The main feature of an SLR is that a mirror reflects the image seen through the lens out through the viewfinder, so that the photographer sees exactly what the lens sees. The mirror moves out of the way as the picture is taken, and the image that comes through the lens falls onto unexposed film, or nowadays onto a digital sensor.

34 The Pointer Sisters’ “__ So Shy” : HE’S

“He’s So Shy” was a hit in 1980 for the Pointer Sisters. Although the title is reminiscent of the 1963 hit for the Chiffons called “He’s So Fine”, there is no relationship between the two numbers. The original lyrics were written for a male singer, but the Pointer Sisters decided to change the lyrics to fit their all-female group.

41 Extinct New Zealand bird : MOA

Moas were flightless birds native to New Zealand that are now extinct. The fate of the Moa is a great example of the detrimental effect that humans can have on animal populations. The Maoris arrived in New Zealand about 1300 AD, upsetting the balance of the ecosystem. The Moa were hunted to extinction within 200 years, which had the knock-on effect of killing off the Haast’s Eagle, the Moa’s only predator prior to the arrival of man. Moa were huge creatures, measuring up to 12 feet tall with their necks stretched upwards.

42 TSA checkpoint needs : ID’S

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

43 Flat-bottomed barge : SCOW

A scow is a flat-bottomed boat with squared-off ends that’s often used for transportation, usually pushed or pulled by a barge. Often, a scow can be seen carrying junk or garbage.

46 Four-award acronym : EGOT

The acronym “EGOT” stands for “Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony”, and is a reference to performers who have won all four awards.

49 .doc and .pdf, for example : FILE EXTENSIONS

Microsoft Word documents have the “.doc” file extension, at least those created prior to the introduction of Microsoft Office 2007. The extension used now is “.docx”.

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format introduced by Adobe Systems in 1993. PDF documents can be shared between users and read using many different applications and platforms, making them more universally accessible than documents saved by one particular program.

54 Guitar store buy : AMP

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.

55 Band that headlined the World Infestation Tour : RATT

Ratt is a heavy metal band based in Los Angeles. Ratt was formed out of a San Diego group called Mickey Ratt. Mickey Ratt was named for an underground comic called “Mickey Rat”, which in turn was named as a parody of Mickey Mouse.

62 Bordeaux bestie : AMIE

Bordeaux is perhaps the wine-production capital of the world. Wine has been produced in the area since the eighth century. Bordeaux has an administrative history too. During WWII, the French government relocated from Paris to the port city of Bordeaux when it became clear that Paris was soon to fall to the Germans. After the Germans took France, the capital was famously moved to Vichy.

63 Tennis star Naomi : OSAKA

Naomi Osaka is a Japanese-born tennis professional who became the first Asian player to be ranked number-one in singles. She was also the first ever tennis player to light the Olympic cauldron during an opening ceremony, doing so for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

64 “Iliad” city : TROY

The ancient city of Troy was located on the west coast of modern-day Turkey. The Trojan War of Greek mythology was precipitated by the elopement of Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, with Paris of Troy. The war itself largely consisted of a nine-year siege of Troy by the Greeks. We know most about the final year of that siege, as it is described extensively in Homer’s “Iliad”. The city eventually fell when the Greeks hid soldiers inside the Trojan Horse, which the Trojans brought inside the city’s walls. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts …

66 Glossy fabric : SATIN

The material known as “satin” takes its name from “Zayton”, the medieval Arabic name for the Chinese port city of Quanzhou. Quanzhou was used for the export of large amounts of silk to Europe.

Down

1 Widespread PD alert : APB

An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a broadcast from one US law enforcement agency to another.

2 The Raptors, on schedules : TOR

The Raptors are an NBA basketball team based in Toronto, Ontario. The franchise was founded, along with the Vancouver Grizzlies, when the NBA expanded into Canada in 1995. However, the Grizzlies moved to Memphis in 2001, leaving the Raptors as the only Canadian member of the league. The selection of the name “Raptors” in 1995 was strongly influenced by the popularity of the movie “Jurassic Park in the mid-nineties.

5 Observed, to Tweety : TAW

Tweety Bird is a yellow canary character that appears in Warner Brothers cartoons. In the main, Tweety Bird was voiced by the great Mel Blanc.

6 New Mexico’s country: Abbr. : USA

New Mexico became the 47th state in the US in 1912. The name “New Mexico” had been used for various territorial configurations in the region before statehood. The name “Nuevo México” was conferred by Spanish explorers in the 16th century, a reference to the Aztec Valley of Mexico. It wasn’t until centuries later that the country adopted its name “Mexico”.

7 Actress Tyler : LIV

Actress and model Liv Tyler is the daughter of Steven Tyler, lead singer with Aerosmith, and Bebe Buell, a celebrated model and singer. Apparently, Buell hid the fact that Tyler was Liv’s father until Liv was 8 years old. Buell wanted to insulate her child from the rock-and-roll lifestyle. Liv Tyler plays the Elf maiden Arwen Undómiel in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

9 Joe of “Home Alone” : PESCI

Joe Pesci got his big break in movies with a supporting role in “Raging Bull” starring Robert De Niro, earning Pesci an Oscar nomination early in his career. There followed a string of gangster roles played alongside De Niro, namely “Once Upon a Time in America”, “Goodfellas” and “Casino”. But I like Pesci’s comedic acting best of all. He was marvelous in the “Home Alone” films, the “Lethal Weapon” series, and my personal favorite, “My Cousin Vinny”. Pesci gets a mention in the stage musical “Jersey Boys”, which isn’t too surprising as he is one of the show’s producers.

“Home Alone” is a 1990 film starring Macaulay Culkin that has become a Christmas classic. Culkin was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe for his performance, becoming the youngest actor ever to be so honored. And, there are four “Home Alone” sequels.

10 Idioms used on the Emerald Isle : IRISHISMS

Here are some of my favorite Irishisms:

• “Grand”, meaning “great, or even mediocre”
• “Deadly”, meaning “wonderful”
• “How’s she cuttin’?”, meaning “How are you?”
• “Tell me this, and tell me no more”, meaning “Tell what I want to know, and not much else”
• “Get up the yard”, meaning “I disagree, so go away”
• “He/she is bang on”, meaning “He/she is nice and pleasant person”
• “Banjaxed”, meaning “beyond repair”
• “I haven’t a rashers”, meaning “I’ve no idea”
• “A few scoops”, meaning “a few drinks”
• “Great craic”, meaning “great fun”

11 Wine grapes : PINOTS

The Pinot family of grapes includes the varieties:

• Pinot blanc (Pinot bianco)
• Pinot gris (Pinot grigio)
• Pinot noir (Pinot nero)

13 __ belt : SEAT

There is only one state in the US that does not require drivers to wear seat belts by law, and that is New Hampshire.

18 Big Apple nabe : NOHO

“NoHo” is short for “North of Houston (street)”, and is the equivalent area to SoHo, South of Houston, both of which are in New York City.

Apparently, the first published use of the term “Big Apple” to describe New York City dates back to 1909. Edward Martin wrote the following in his book “The Wayfarer in New York”:

Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city. . . . It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap.

Over ten years later, the term “big apple” was used as a nickname for racetracks in and around New York City. However, the concerted effort to “brand” the city as the Big Apple had to wait until the seventies and was the work of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau.

22 Gulf Coast bird : EGRET

Egrets are a group of several species of white herons. Many egret species were faced with extinction in the 1800s and early 1900s due to plume hunting, a practice driven by the demand for egret plumes that could be incorporated into hats.

23 Loch with a legend : NESS

Scotland’s Loch Ness is famous for its fabled “monster”, referred to affectionately as “Nessie”. The loch is the second-largest lake in the country (Loch Lomond is the largest). Loch Ness takes its name from the River Ness that flows from the loch’s northern end.

24 Actor Morales : ESAI

Esai Morales is an American actor, as well as a skilled musician who can play multiple instruments. Morales was originally interested in pursuing a career in music and played in a band called “The Plan” before he turned his attention to acting. He has incorporated his musical talents into some of his acting roles. For example, in the film “La Bamba,” which tells the story of the late musician Ritchie Valens, Morales portrayed Valens’ half-brother Bob, and played the guitar and sang in several scenes.

25 Social media app with video “Reels,” familiarly : INSTA

Instagram (often abbreviated to “Insta”, or “IG”) is a photo-sharing application, one that is extremely popular. Instagram started in San Francisco in 2010. Facebook purchased Instagram two years later, paying $1 billion. The billion-dollar Instagram company had just 13 employees at the time of the sale …

26 Hanukkah moolah : GELT

“Gelt” is the Yiddish word for “money”.

27 Abolitionist Tubman : HARRIET

Harriet Tubman was not only a former slave who became a legendary abolitionist, but she was also a spy for the Union army during the Civil War. She gathered intelligence behind enemy lines, led raids that freed enslaved people, and even served as a nurse and cook for Union troops.

32 Preformatted Excel documents, e.g. : TEMPLATES

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program included in the Microsoft Office suite of applications. Microsoft’s first spreadsheet program was introduced back in 1982 and called Multiplan. Multiplan’s popularity waned due to the success of the competing product Lotus 1-2-3. Microsoft then introduced Excel, initially just for the Macintosh. When Excel was extended to Windows, Lotus was slow to respond and Microsoft took over the market.

38 Neighborhood near Dodger Stadium : ECHO PARK

Echo Park is a neighborhood in Los Angeles that is home to one of the largest and oldest Lotus flower beds in the country, located in Echo Park Lake. The Lotus flowers bloom every summer and attract visitors from all over the city.

Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles is the third oldest stadium currently used in Major League Baseball (after Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago). It is also the largest MLB stadium by seating capacity, with a total capacity of 56,000.

39 Morning’s end : NOON

Our word “noon”, meaning “midday”, comes from the Latin “nona hora” that translates as “ninth hour”. Back in ancient Rome, the “ninth hour” was three in the afternoon. Over the centuries, traditions such as church prayers and “midday” meals shifted from 3 p.m. to 12 p.m., and so “noon” became understood as 12 noon.

40 Go Fish request : TWOS

Go Fish is a very simple card game, one usually played by children:

Q. Do you have any queens?
A. No.
Q. Go fish!

44 Steep-roofed house style : A-FRAME

An A-frame house is one that has a steeply-angled roof, one forming the shape of the letter “A”. The A-frame design is popular in snowy regions, as the roof is so steeply pitched that it does not collect snow.

47 Bygone sovereign : TSAR

The House of Romanov was the second and last imperial dynasty to rule over Russia, after the Rurik dynasty. The reign of the Romanovs ended when Emperor Nicholas II abdicated following the February Revolution of 1917. Famously, Nicholas II and his immediate family were murdered soon after he stepped down, and other members of the Romanov Dynasty were sent into exile by the Bolsheviks.

51 Language with click consonants : XHOSA

The Xhosa are a Bantu people who live mainly in the southeast of South Africa. The Xhosa language is the second-most common in the country, after Zulu. Among the list of notable Xhosa people are former President Nelson Mandela and retired Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu.

52 “__ man with seven wives … ” : I MET A

You might remember the nursery rhyme “As I was going to St. Ives” from the third “Die Hard” movie, “Die Hard With a Vengeance” as it is used as a riddle in the film’s storyline. The rhyme goes like this:

As I was going to St Ives
I met a man with seven wives
Each wife had seven sacks
Each sack had seven cats
Each cat had seven kits
Kits, cats, sacks, wives
How many were going to St Ives?

There is more than one place called St. Ives in England, but most think the reference is to the seaside town of St. Ives in Cornwall. By the way, the answer to the riddle is “one”, because just the narrator was going to St. Ives, and the rest were characters he met along the way.

58 Compete in the Super G, e.g. : SKI

Super Giant Slalom (Super G) is an alpine skiing event introduced in 1982. The Super G isn’t as fast as its sister event the Downhill, but is faster than the more technical Giant Slalom.

59 Color of khakis : TAN

“Khaki” is an Urdu word that translates literally as “dusty”. The word was adopted for its current use as the name of a fabric by the British cavalry in India in the mid-1800s.

60 Colorful carp : KOI

Koi are fish that are also known as Japanese carp. Koi have been bred for decorative purposes and there are now some very brightly colored examples found in Japanese water gardens.

61 Wd. found in Roget’s : SYN

Peter Mark Roget was an English lexicographer. He was an avid maker of lists, apparently using the routine of list-making to combat depression, a condition he endured for most of his life. Roget published his famous thesaurus in 1852, with revisions and expansions being made years later by his son, and then in turn by his grandson.