Category: Matthew Sewell

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Constructed by: Christopher Bolduc & Matthew Sewell
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 14m 12s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Focus of a Stockholm museum whose slogan is “Walk In. Dance Out.” : ABBA

ABBA The Museum is an exhibition in Stockholm that opened in 2013. One of the exhibits featured in the “museum” is a self-playing piano that is linked to a piano in Benny Andersson’s own home. So, the museum’s piano reproduces whatever Benny is playing, in real time. That’s kind of cool …

15 Luau performances : HULAS

The hula is a native dance of Hawaii that uses arm movements to relate a story. The hula can be performed while sitting (a noho dance) or while standing (a luna dance).

The Hawaiian party or feast known as a “luau” really dates back to 1819, when King Kamehameha II removed religious laws that governed the eating of meals. These laws called for women and men to eat separately. At the same time as he changed the laws, the king initiated the luau tradition by symbolically eating with the women who moved in his circle.

17 Porch pirate deterrent, hopefully : RING CAMERA

The company Ring is a supplier of smart home security devices. It was founded in 2013 as Doorbot. The company’s most notable product is a smart doorbell that includes a camera, microphone and speaker.

“Porch pirate” is a slang term describing a despicable person who steals packages delivered to someone’s home and left outside the door. Porch piracy continues to grow, as online shopping increases in volume. In New York City alone, it is estimated that 90,000 packages were stolen in 2019.

21 Fermented paste : MISO

Miso is the name of the seasoning that makes miso soup. Basic miso seasoning is made by fermenting rice, barley and soybeans with salt and a fungus to produce a paste. The paste can be added to stock to make miso soup, or perhaps to flavor tofu.

22 “Allez __ Bleus!”: Coupe du Monde cry : LES

The French national soccer team usually wear red, white and blue colors, a nod to the nation’s tricolor flag. The team’s nickname is “les Bleus” (the Blues). Fans are often heard chanting “Allez les Bleus!” meaning “Go Blues!”.

In French, the most celebrated soccer competition is the “Coupe de Monde” (World Cup).

26 USN officer : CDR

Commander (Cdr.)

27 Phanerozoic __ : EON

In the geological time scale, we are living in the Phanerozoic Eon that started about 540 million years ago. The current eon started with the appearance of an abundance of animals in the fossil record. The term “Phanerozoic” was coined in 1930, coming from the Ancient Greek “phaneros” meaning “visible” and “zoe” meaning “life”.

37 “Succession” family name : ROY

“Succession” is a very popular dark comedy-drama series that premiered in 2018. It’s about a family-owned, global media company. The “succession” in question is who will get to run the empire after the passing of the ailing family patriarch. The marvelous Scottish actor Brian Cox plays the head of the company Logan Roy. Great stuff, albeit quite depressing and terrifying …

45 Impromptu screwdriver : DIME

The term “dime”, used for a 10-cent coin, comes from the Old French word “disme” meaning “tenth part”.

48 Best Picture of 2021 : CODA

“CODA” is a 2021 movie, a remake of the 2014 French-Belgian film “La Famille Bélier”. The English-language version stars Emilia Jones as the only hearing member of a deaf family struggling with a fishing business in Gloucester, Massachusetts. “CODA” was the first film distributed by a streaming service (Apple TV+) to win a Best Picture Oscar. The title “CODA” is an acronym standing for “child of deaf adults”.

49 Very loud, in music : FORTISSIMO

The musical term “pianissimo” is abbreviated to “pp”, and is an instruction to the performer to sing or play very softly. The concept can be extended to “ppp”, short for “pianississimo”, an instruction of play even more softly. The opposite instructions are fortissimo (ff) and fortississimo (fff), instructions to perform very loudly, and even more loudly.

51 Wide-ly read works? : TOMES

“Tome” first came into English from the Latin “tomus” which means “section of a book”. The original usage in English was for a single volume in a multi-volume work. By the late 16th century, “tome” had come to mean “large book”.

52 Tub : 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.

Down

1 New Beer’s Eve month : APRIL

Prohibition ended in December 1933 when the 21st Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified by the states. Ten months earlier, in anticipation of ratification of the 21st amendment, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Cullen-Harrison Act that allowed consumption of relatively low-alcohol content beer and wine (up to 3.2% by weight). The passage of the Cullen-Harrison Act is celebrated each year on April 7th as National Beer Day. April 6th is observed as “New Beer’s Eve”.

2 Snake River tributary : BOISE

The Boise River is a just over 100-mile long tributary of the Snake River. It is thought that the river gives its name to the city of Boise, the capital of Idaho.

The Snake River in the US northwest is the largest tributary of the Columbia River. The Snake River carved out the magnificent Hells Canyon, which is North America’s deepest river gorge.

3 Some sacrifices : BUNTS

That might be baseball.

6 Like Peter Quill of the Guardians of the Galaxy, in part : HUMAN

Peter Quill, also known as Star-Lord, is a character in the Marvel Comics universe. He is the leader of the superhero team Guardians of the Galaxy. On the big screen, Quill is portrayed by Chris Pratt in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series of films.

7 Novelist Ferrante : ELENA

Elena Ferrante is an Italian author, best known for her 4-part series known as the “Neapolitan Novels”. What is very interesting about “Ferrante” is that the moniker is a pseudonym, and no one seems to know the author’s real name. There is some speculation that “Elena” is in fact a man.

8 Oceanic staple : TARO

Taro is a root vegetable that is grown for its edible underground plant stems (corms). The English name “taro” is borrowed from the Maori language of New Zealand. The same plant is known as “gabi” in the Philippines, “arbi” in much of India, and “jimbi” in parts of Africa where Swahili is spoken.

The part of the Pacific Ocean known as “Oceania” is roughly equivalent to the tropical islands of the South Pacific. Oceania can be divided into the regions of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.

9 U.S. ID issuer : SSA

Social Security Administration (SSA)

10 Orchestra position : CHAIR

In an orchestra, the first violins are led by the concertmaster (from the German “Konzertmeister” meaning the same thing), who is often referred to as the “first chair” in the US. The first chair is usually regarded as the most skilled of the first violin section, and will usually play any solo passages (unless a guest soloist is performing a violin concerto).

12 Micromobility option : E-SCOOTER

Micromobility is transportation, usually of a person, over short distances. That transportation is often provided by a scooter or a bicycle.

18 Red shade : CANDY APPLE

“Candy apple” is yet another term that I had to learn when I came to the US. Candy apples are called “toffee apples” outside of North America.

25 Faux __ : FUR

Faux fur is fake fur, with “faux” being the French word for false, fake.

26 Unwanted crack in crackleware : CHIP

Crackleware is a type of ceramic with a distinctive crackled glaze. The cracks are created when the glaze shrinks at a different rate than the body of the pottery. Crackleware has been produced in many different cultures throughout history, but it is particularly associated with China.

30 Triple Crown of Surfing sponsor : VANS

Vans is a manufacturer of mainly skateboarding shoes. The company was founded as a shoe manufacturer in 1966 called the Van Doren Rubber Company. The business turned towards skateboarders in the seventies, and then adopted the “Vans” name in the nineties.

The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing is a series of surfing competitions held in Hawaii. All of the events are held off the coast of the island of Oahu, except one of the women’s competitions that is held in Honolua Bay in Maui.

32 Small club, maybe : TREY

A trey is a three in a deck of cards. The term “trey” can also be used for a domino with three pips, and even for a three-point play in basketball.

34 __ shed : SHE

A “she shed” is the equivalent of a “man cave”. It is somewhere that “she” can use as her own space within a home.

39 Sch. near Emily Dickinson’s home : UMASS

The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) is the largest public university in New England. UMass was founded back in 1863, although it took a while to get the school into service. Construction work was delayed and the college went through two presidents before William S. Clark took charge. He cracked the whip, completed the construction and enrolled the first students in the same year that he took over the reins, in 1867. As a result, although Clark was the third President of UMass, he is regarded by most as the school’s founding father.

On a road trip around the country a few years ago, my wife and I had a very disappointing stop in Amherst, Massachusetts intending to visit the old home of Emily Dickinson. We hadn’t done our homework and failed to note that the home was only open for tours on certain days of the week, and not the day we were there (so be warned!). Emily Dickinson wrote nearly 1800 poems in her lifetime, with less than a dozen published before she died in 1886. Emily’s younger sister discovered the enormous collection, and it was published in batches over the coming decades.

40 Physics Nobelist of 1938 : FERMI

Enrico Fermi was born in Rome, Italy. He moved to the US just before WWII, largely to escape the anti-Semitic feelings that were developing in Italy under Mussolini. Fermi traveled from Rome to Stockholm in 1938 to receive that year’s Nobel Prize in Physics. Instead of returning to Italy, Fermi and his family traveled on to New York City, where they applied for permanent residency. It was Fermi’s work at the University of Chicago that led to the construction of the world’s first nuclear reactor. Fermi died at 53 years of age from stomach cancer . Cancer was a prevalent cause of death among the team working on that first nuclear pile.

42 “The __ Network”: Kate Quinn novel about women spies : ALICE

“The Alice Network” is a 2017 historical novel by Kate Quinn that is based on the real-life Alice Network spy ring that operated in German-occupied Europe during World War One. That network was a group of women spies working for the British, especially around the area of Lille in occupied France.

43 Island nation whose flag features the Southern Cross : SAMOA

The Samoan flag comprises a blue rectangle in the top-left of a red field. The blue rectangle includes four large and one smaller star that make up the Southern Cross.

“Southern Cross” is the familiar name for the constellation Crux. “Crux” is the Latin word for “cross”.

46 Bear with a “Thotful Spot” : POOH

In the Winnie-the-Pooh stories by A. A. Milne, Pooh has a place where he goes to think. That place has a log on which Pooh sits, and signpost that reads “Pooh’s thotful spot”.

48 “Blue Bloods” extra : COP

“Blue Bloods” is a police drama series about a family of New York City police officers led by Police Commissioner Frank Reagan, played by Tom Selleck. The show first aired in 2010, and is a creation of husband and wife Robin Green and Mirchell Burgess. Green and Burgess also wrote together for the hit show “The Sopranos”.

49 Celebratory initialism : FTW

“FTW” is an initialism abbreviating “for the win”, a phrase meaning “being great, sure to succeed”.