Tag: Spot of bother crossword clue

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Constructed by: Rafael Musa
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 10m 43s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15 Firm message? : MEMO

“Memorandum” means “thing to be remembered” in Latin, from the verb “memorare” meaning “to call to mind”.

A business is sometimes called a firm. “Firm” comes into English from Latin via the Italian “firma” meaning “signature”. The concept is that business transactions are confirmed, made firm, by applying a signature.

16 First woman to serve as attorney general : RENO

Janet Reno was Attorney General (AG) of the US from 1993 to 2001, and part of the Clinton administration. Reno was the second-longest holder of the office, and our first female Attorney General. In 2002, Reno ran for Governor of Florida but failed to win the Democratic nomination. Thereafter she retired from public life, and passed away at the end of 2016.

17 Kangaroo Island critter : KOALA

Kangaroo Island is a beautiful island off the coast of South Australia, located about 70 miles southwest of Adelaide. It is the nation’s third largest island, after Tasmania and Melville Island. Kangaroo Island is known as the “Galapagos of Australia” because of its unique flora and fauna. Many species on the island are found nowhere else in the world.

20 Basis of some bonuses : SALES QUOTA

A quota is an allotment. The term “quota” was used originally with reference to the number of soldiers or quantity of supplies required from a particular town or district.

22 FedEx rival : DHL

Back in the sixties, Larry Hillblom was making pocket money as a Berkeley law student by doing courier runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. After law school, Hillblom decided to parlay his experience into his own business and set up a courier service flying bills of lading ahead of freight from San Francisco to Honolulu. He brought in two buddies, Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn, as partners and the three were soon hopping on and off commercial flights and gradually making more and more money. And DHL was born … D (for Dalsey) H (for Hillblom) L (for Lynn). DHL was acquired by Germany’s Deutsche Post in 2002.

28 Aid in avoiding viruses : IT SUPPORT

A computer virus has characteristics very similar to a virus found in nature. It is a small computer program that can copy itself and can infect another host (computer).

30 AP competitor : UPI

Founded in 1958, United Press International (UPI) used to be one of the biggest news agencies in the world, sending out news by wire to the major newspapers. UPI ran into trouble with the change in media formats at the end of the twentieth century and lost many of its clients as the afternoon newspapers shut down due to the advent of television news. UPI, which once employed thousands, still exists today but with just a fraction of that workforce.

34 Scientific journal that published the initial sequencing of the human genome : NATURE

“Nature” is a weekly, multidisciplinary scientific journal that has been published since 1869. The magazine is and always has been based in London. The title was chosen by the original publishers from a line by William Wordsworth: “To the solid ground of nature trusts the Mind that builds for aye”.

The genome is all the hereditary information needed to reproduce an organism, in other words, all of its chromosomes. When scientists unravel the human genome, it takes up an awful lot of computer storage space, and yet all of this information is in almost every cell in our bodies. Each and every cell “knows” how to make a whole human being.

36 Name on the business school at the University of Arkansas : WALTON

The Sam M. Walton College of Business is the University of Arkansas’ business school. Located in Fayetteville, it was founded in 1926 as the School of Business Administration. The Walton family, of Walmart Stores fame, gifted the school $50 million in cash in 1998, and so the name was changed to the Sam M. Walton College of Business Administration. The name was shortened to its present form in 2000.

39 Lead-in to X, Y, and Z : GEN-

The term “Generation X” originated in the UK where it was the name of a book by Jane Deverson. Her book detailed the results of a study of British youths in 1964, contrasting their lifestyle to those of previous generations. It was Canadian author Douglas Coupland who was responsible for popularizing the term, with his more successful publication “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”. By one definition, Gen-Xers were born between 1961 and 1981.

The Millennial Generation are sometimes referred to as “Generation Y” (Gen-Y). Millennials were born after the “Gen-Xers”, from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.

Definitions vary, but it seems that the term “Generation Z” is reserved for the children of “Generation X”, and for the generation that follows the “Millennials” (Generation Y). Gen-Zers are also known as “Zoomers”, a portmanteau of “Z” and “boomer” (as in “baby boomer”).

44 Nonhumans that quickly buy up concert tickets : BOTS

A bot is a computer program designed to imitate human behavior. It might crawl around the Web doing searches for example, or it might participate in discussions in chat rooms by giving pre-programmed responses. It might also act as a competitor in a computer game.

47 Earth Day mo. : APR

Earth Day was founded in the US, where it was introduced by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Earth Day was designed to increase awareness and appreciation of our planet’s natural environment. The original Earth Day was on April 22nd, 1970. Decades later, the day is observed in over 175 countries.

48 Gets carried away at a concert? : CROWD-SURFS

Someone who is crowd-surfing is passed overhead, above the crowd, from person to person. The “crowd” is usually the audience at a concert. Supposedly, the first person to crowd surf at such a venue was Iggy Pop, doing so in 1970 at Concinnati’s Summer Pop Festival.

54 Flat-topped hat : KEPI

A kepi is a circular cap with a visor, one that’s particularly associated with the French military.

57 Cask sediment : LEES

The dregs in wine, the sediment that settles during fermentation (and sometimes in the bottle), are also called “lees”.

58 Rock memoir with the chapters “Nut Bush” and “River Deep” : I, TINA

“I, Tina” is a 1986 autobiography by Tina Turner. The book was so successful it was adapted into a movie called “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” The film version was released in 1993 and stars Angela Bassett as Tina Turner. The first chapter of the biography is called “Nut Bush”, a reference to the small farming community of Nutbush, Tennessee where Turner was born (as Anna Mae Bullock).

“River Deep – Mountain High” is a 1966 song released by Ike & Tina Turner. It was the title track of the studio album that they released that same year. The song didn’t do well originally, at least in the US, but a 1969 re-release sold well after cover versions were recorded by the Animals and Deep Purple.

59 “Good __”: Alton Brown series : EATS

Alton Brown is a celebrity chef who is behind the Food Network show “Good Eats”, and who is the host of “Iron Chef America”.

60 Ciudad del __: Paraguay’s second-largest city : ESTE

Ciudad del Este is the second largest city in Paraguay (after the capital, Asunción). As the name suggests (“City of the East” in Spanish), Ciudad del Este is on the Eastern border of the country. It is connected to the city of Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil by what is called the Friendship Bridge over the Paraná River. The bridge is extremely busy, as the majority of Paraguay’s imports and exports pass over it.

Down

5 LCD component? : LEAST

The lowest/least common denominator (LCD) of a set of fractions is the least common multiple of the denominators of those fractions. For example, the LCD of ⅓ and ¼ is 12 as both ⅓ and ¼ can be expressed in multiples of 1/12 (⅓ is 4/12 and ¼ is 3/12).

7 Bitterns, e.g. : HERONS

Bitterns are wading birds in the heron family. Unlike most of their heron cousins, bitterns tend to have short necks.

9 Light run? : SOLAR-POWERED

Solar panels are arrays of solar cells that make use of what’s known as the photovoltaic effect. We are more likely to have learned about the photoelectric effect in school, in which electrons were ejected from the surface of some materials when it was exposed to light or other forms of radiation. The photovoltaic effect is related but different. Instead of being electrons ejected from the surface, in the photovoltaic effect electrons move around in the material creating a difference in voltage.

10 __-weaver spider : ORB

The spiral, wheel-shaped webs that we find in our gardens have likely been spun by an orb-weaver spider. The term “orb” is perhaps a little misleading, as in this case it means “circle”, an archaic meaning.

13 Retailer that began as a grocery store in Milwaukee : KOHL’S

Kohl’s is a department store chain with its headquarters in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The store takes its name from the founder, Maxwell Kohl.

21 Spot of bother : QUITE A PICKLE

To be in a pickle means to be in a fix, in trouble. One of the first uses of “pickle” in such a context was William Shakespeare (who else?), in his play “The Tempest”. Here is part of the conversation between Alonso, King of Naples, and his jester Trinculo:

ALONSO:
And Trinculo is reeling ripe: where should they
Find this grand liquor that hath gilded ’em?
How camest thou in this pickle?

TRINCULO:
I have been in such a pickle since I
saw you last that, I fear me, will never out of
my bones: I shall not fear fly-blowing.

25 Product auctioned at Tokyo’s historic Tsukiji Market : TUNA

The Tsukiji Market in Tokyo was the largest wholesale seafood market in the world. After operating since 1935, the market was moved in 2018 to new premises on reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay a few miles away. It is now known as Toyosu Market.

26 Sci-fi subgenre : SPACE OPERA

Space opera is a type of science fiction with storylines that resemble those in Westerns, but set in outer space in the future. The term “space opera” derives from “horse opera”, which is used to describe formulaic Western films.

27 Burmese food? : KITTY TREAT

Most Burmese cats today can be traced back to a single ancestor, a female cat given the name Wong Mau that was brought from Burma to America in 1930 and bred with a Siamese. Amazing …

42 Virtual companion : NEOPET

Neopets.com is a website where one can own a virtual pet. I wouldn’t bother if I were you …

43 Executive level : C-SUITE

The C-suite is the suite of offices assigned to senior management. The “C” reference is to the abbreviation for “Chief”, the word that starts the titles of many senior officers in a company, e.g. chief executive officer, chief operating officer and chief financial officer.