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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8A Grp. that regulates streams : FCC

Radio and TV broadcasting is monitored by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC has been around since 1934, when it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.

11A Vape alternative : CIG

An electronic cigarette (also called an “e-cigarette”) is a battery-powered device that resembles a real cigarette. The e-cigarette vaporizes a solution that contains nicotine, forming a vapor that resembles smoke. The vapor is inhaled in a process called “vaping”, delivering nicotine into the body. The assumption is that an e-cigarette is healthier than a regular cigarette as the inhaled vapor is less harmful than inhaled smoke. But, that may not be so …

22A Rural skyline feature : SILO

“Silo” is a Spanish word that we absorbed into English. The term ultimately derives from the Greek “siros”, which described a pit in which one kept corn.

23A “U.F.C. fighter” : SPACE INVADER (UFO fighter)

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)

27A A, as in aviating? : ALFA

The NATO phonetic alphabet is also called the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) phonetic alphabet. Alfa, Bravo, Charlie … X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.

29A Dadaism, it’s said : ANTI-ART

Dadaism thrived during and just after WWI, and was an anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-art culture. The movement was launched in Zurich, Switzerland by a group of artists and writers who met to discuss art and put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire. The same group frequently expressed disgust at the war that was raging across Europe.

32A “Wild cats” : YOUTHFUL INDISCRETIONS (Wild oats)

Traditionally, “wild oats” were a crop that one might regret sowing instead of “good grain”. Young and tempestuous people were rash enough to sow their wild oats, and had yet to comprehend their folly. Over time, to “feel one’s oats” came to mean “be lively and confident”.

37A Extraterrestrial British TV villain that debuted in 1963 : DALEK

The Daleks are cyborg aliens and the most infamous of the enemies of “the Doctor” in the BBC sci-fi series “Doctor Who”. When I was a youngster, I remember being pushed around a hall inside one of the Dalek shells used in the TV show. A big thrill …

38A Laura seen in “Big Little Lies” : DERN

Actress Laura Dern is the daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. Among her many notable roles, Laura Dern played the Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in the 2008 movie “Recount”, and Dr. Ellie Sattler in the 1993 blockbuster “Jurassic Park”.

“Big Little Lies” is a 2017 TV miniseries that is based on a 2014 novel of the same name. It stars Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley as three women who, while dealing with their own emotional problems, find themselves involved in a murder investigation. I haven’t seen this one, but hear very good things …

39A King ___ : LEAR

Shakespeare was inspired to write his famous drama “King Lear” by the legend of “Leir of Britain”, the story of a mythological Celtic king.

42A Table salt, in a lab : NACL

NaCl is the chemical formula for sodium chloride, the scientific name for common table salt. It is an ionic compound formed from one sodium ion (Na+) and one chloride ion (Cl-). There are many “salts” found in a chemistry lab, but NaCl specifically refers to the one we use in our food.

60A P.G.A. peg : TEE

The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) was founded in 1916 and today had its headquarters (unsurprisingly) in Florida, where so many golfers live. The HQ moved to Texas in 2022. Back in 1916, the PGA was based in New York City.

72A ___ Turner, antislavery rebel : NAT

Nat Turner was a slave in Virginia who led a slave rebellion in 1831 that led to the deaths of over a hundred people. Half of the casualties were white, and half were black. The 55 white deaths took place on the day of the rebellion as a growing mob of slaves traveled from house-to-house freeing fellow slaves but also killing any white people they came across; men, women and children. The rebellion was suppressed within two days by a white militia. Slaves involved in the rebellion were tried for insurrection and related crimes, and a total of 56 blacks were executed on suspicion of involvement in the uprising. In the aftermath, life for slaves became even more difficult as any freedoms that they had earned were largely curtailed.

73A Dad, in a euphemism / Naval barrier preventing entering and leaving : OLD BLOCK / BLOCKADE

“Embargo” and “blockade” are two similar yet different terms. An embargo is a legal prohibition of trade with a particular country, whilst a blockade is an act of war, a militarily enforced prevention of the movement of goods and services. The term “embargo” came into English from Spanish, in the late 16th century.

74A Jaunty greeting : HI-HO!

Our words “jaunty” and “genteel” are related in that they both derive from the French “gentil” meaning “nice, pleasing”. In modern usage, someone described as jaunty has a buoyant air. Someone described as genteel is refined in manner.

75A Big name in deep-dish pizza : UNO

The chain of pizza parlors known today as Uno Chicago Grill used to be called Pizzeria Uno, or just “Uno’s”. Apparently, Uno’s created the world’s first deep-dish pizza.

76A Letterman rival : LENO

Jay Leno was born James Leno in New Rochelle, New York. Jay’s father was the son of Italian immigrants, and his mother was from Scotland. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts and attended Emerson College, earning a Bachelor’s degree in speech therapy. Leno also started a comedy club at Emerson in 1973. Today Jay Leno is a car nut and owns over 300 vehicles of various types. You can check them out on his website: www.jaylenosgarage.com.

Talk show host and comedian David Letterman appeared as a host on late-night television starting in 1982. He had the longest late-night hosting career on US television, 33 years, even longer than the iconic Johnny Carson.

81A In itself : PER SE

“Per se” is a Latin phrase that translates as “by itself”. We use “per se” pretty literally, meaning “in itself, intrinsically”.

83A Tanner’s letters : SPF

In theory, the sun protection factor (SPF) is a calibrated measure of the effectiveness of a sunscreen in protecting the skin from harmful UV rays. The idea is that if you wear a lotion with say SPF 20, then it takes 20 times as much UV radiation to cause the skin to burn than it would take without protection. I say just stay out of the sun …

85A Newsstand item, in brief : MAG

The word “magazine” was originally used to denote a place for storing goods, particularly military arms and ammunition, back in the late 1500s. This usage was extended to include packs of ammunition attached to automatic weapons. The first use of “magazine” in the sense of a periodical or journal dates back to 1731, with the publication of “Gentleman’s Magazine”. “Magazine” had come to mean a printed list of military stores, and the idea was that the new periodical was to be a “storehouse” of information.

94A Get ad-libby-dibby while singy-ingy-inging? : SCAT

Scat singing is a vocal improvisation found in the world of jazz. There aren’t any words as such in scat singing, just random nonsense syllables made up on the spot.

95A Apr. 15 experts : CPAS

April 15th wasn’t always Tax Day in the US. The deadline for returns was March 1st from 1913-18, when it was moved to March 15th. Tax Day has been April 15th since 1955.

99A “Chic venue that features great bands” : ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME (Ohio venue that features great bands)

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame can be visited on the shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was created in 1983 and started inducting artists in 1986. The Foundation didn’t get a home until the museum was dedicated in Cleveland in 1995. I had the great privilege of visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame some years ago and really enjoyed myself. The magnificent building was designed by famed architect I. M. Pei.

108A 2015 thriller starring Emily Blunt as an F.B.I. agent : SICARIO

“Sicario” is a 2015 crime thriller starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin. Blunt stars as an idealistic FBI agent who is part of a US government task force charged with bringing down a Mexican drug cartel. The word “sicario” is Spanish for “hitman”.

116A Rx quantity : DOSE

There seems to be some uncertainty about the origin of the symbol “Rx” that’s used for a medical prescription. One explanation is that it comes from the astrological sign for Jupiter, a symbol put on prescriptions in days of old to invoke Jupiter’s blessing to help a patient recover.

117A Theater hit’s inits. : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

119A Gnawable, wearable items that might help with A.D.H.D. : CHEWELRY

The “official” name for the condition we sometimes still refer to as “attention deficit disorder” (ADD) is “attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder” (ADHD).

121A QB’s highlights : TDS

In American football, one “goal” of a quarterback (QB) is to score touchdowns (TDs).

122A Vietnamese Lunar New Year festival : TET

The full name for the New Year holiday in Vietnam is “Tet Nguyen Dan” meaning “Feast of the First Morning”, with the reference being to the arrival of the season of spring. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.

123A Gas giant? : HESS

Hess Corporation is an oil company based in New York City. In 1964, the company started selling toy trucks with the Hess logo on them, in Hess gas stations. The company has been selling them ever since, bringing out new models just before Christmas. Hess toy trucks have become quite collectible and the old ones can fetch a pretty penny.

Down

1D Purity analysis : ASSAY

One might assay an ore to determine its composition, its makeup.

2D Kids’ play set brand : DUPLO

Duplo is a range of Lego bricks and accessories designed for children under the age of five. The bricks are twice the dimensions of regular Lego bricks, hence the name “Duplo”. The size renders them unlikely to be swallowed by a child, and more easily handled by smaller hands.

3D Messy mix-up : SNAFU

“SNAFU” is an acronym standing for “situation normal: all fouled up” (well, that’s the polite version!). As one might perhaps imagine, the term developed in the US Army, during WWII.

6D “Meek” in “Blessed are the meek,” e.g. : ADNOUN

An adnoun is an adjective that is being used as a noun, with the term “adnoun” being a portmanteau of “adjective” and “noun”. Examples are the last words in the following phrases:

• Guide-dogs for the blind
• Tax cuts for the wealthy
• Blessed are the meek
• Land of the free

The Sermon on the Mount is a collection of teachings of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. One famous section of the discourse is known as the Beatitudes. The eight Beatitudes are:

• … Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
• … Blessed are those who mourn: for they will be comforted
• … Blessed are the meek: for they will inherit the earth
• … Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness: for they will be filled
• … Blessed are the merciful: for they will be shown mercy
• … Blessed are the pure in heart: for they will see God
• … Blessed are the peacemakers: for they will be called children of God
• … Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

7D Slant made with a table saw : BEVEL

A beveled edge is like a chamfered edge. The edge of a mirror is often beveled, meaning that it is cut at an angle that isn’t perpendicular to the mirror’s surface.

8D Abbr. starting an email header : FWD

Forward (fwd.)

9D His first star turn was in the 1995 film “Devil in a Blue Dress” : CHEADLE

Don Cheadle is a Hollywood actor who is perhaps best known for his lead role in the 2004 drama “Hotel Rwanda” that deals with the harrowing subject of genocide. Since then, Cheadle has been very active in campaigns to end genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

11D “Peanuts,” e.g. : COMIC

Charles M. Schulz was a cartoonist best known for his comic strip “Peanuts” that featured the much-loved characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy. “Peanuts” was so successful, running daily in over 70 countries and 21 languages, that it earned Schulz an estimated 30-40 million dollars annually.

15D Instrument with keys : PIANO

“Eighty-eight” is a slang word for a piano, coming from the fact that a modern piano usually has 88 keys: 36 black and 52 white.

17D Barbies, e.g. : DOLLS

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.

24D The Beatles’ “Please Please Me” and “A Hard Day’s Night,” e.g. : A-SIDES

The Beatles were described on the sleeve notes of their 1963 album “With the Beatles” as the “fabulous foursome”. The press picked up on the phrase and morphed it into “the Fab Four”.

34D Sat ___ (Brit’s GPS) : NAV

A global positioning system (GPS) is known as a satellite navigation system (Sat Nav) in Britain and Ireland.

39D “Bic filler” : LIFE STORY (Bio filler)

Société Bic is a company based in Clichy in France. The first product the company produced, more than fifty years ago, was the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen that is still produced today. Bic also makes other disposable products such as lighters and razors.

43D “Arsenic’s realm, in years past” : LATE NIGHT (Arsenio’s realm, in years past)

Arsenio Hall got his big break with his role in the movie “Coming to America” with Eddie Murphy in 1988. The following year he started hosting “The Arsenio Hall Show”, which ran until 1994. He had a loyal group of fans in the audience that had the habit of almost “barking” while pumping their fists in the air. The raucous move became so popular it extended far beyond the influences of Arsenio, and to this day it is still used as a mark of appreciation in some arenas. Not by me, mind you; I’m way too shy …

46D Luxury sunglasses : RAY-BANS

Ray-Ban sunglasses were introduced in 1937 for the US Army Air Corps. The Ray-Ban Aviator model of glasses became very popular with the pilots, and apparently with General Douglas MacArthur. MacArthur was wearing a pair when he was photographed “returning” to the Philippines in WWII. The name “Ray-Ban” was chosen to “reflect” the ability of the sunglasses to stop (“ban”) the ingress of UV or IR “rays” of light.

48D Dalmatian in a red hat, maybe : FIRE DOG

The Dalmatian breed of dog originated in Dalmatia, in the Republic of Croatia. Here in the US, Dalmatians are known as “firehouse dogs”. This association dates back to the use of Dalmatians in firehouses to guard the valuable horses that pulled the fire engines.

51D Falling stars : METEORS

A meteoroid is a small rocky or metallic body traveling through space. Once in the atmosphere, the meteoroid is referred to as a “meteor”, or “shooting star”. Almost all meteoroids burn up, but if one is large enough to survive and reach the ground then we call it a meteorite. The word “meteor” comes from the Greek “meteōros” meaning “high in the air”.

55D Plains animal in a herd : BISON

There are two species of bison left (four species are extinct). We are most familiar with the American bison (commonly called the American buffalo), but there is also a European bison, which is sometimes called a “wisent”.

56D Prefix meaning “eye” : OCULO-

“Oculus” (plural “oculi”) is the Latin word for “eye”, and gives us our term “ocular” meaning “eye-related”.

59D Fruity-smelling perfume ingredient : ESTER

Esters are very common chemicals. The smaller, low-molecular-weight esters are usually pleasant smelling and are often found in perfumes. At the other end of the scale, the higher-molecular-weight nitroglycerin is a nitrate ester and is very explosive, and polyester is a huge molecule and is a type of plastic. Fats and oils found in nature are fatty acid esters of glycerol known as glycerides.

66D “___, humbug!” : BAH

The classic 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens has left us with a few famous phrases and words. Firstly, it led to popular use of the phrase “Merry Christmas”, and secondly it gave us the word “scrooge” to describe a miserly person. And thirdly, everyone knows that Ebenezer Scrooge uttered the words “Bah! Humbug!”.

79D Late-evening beverage request : DECAF

The first successful process for removing caffeine from coffee involved steaming the beans in salt water, and then extracting the caffeine using benzene (a potent carcinogen) as a solvent. Coffee processed this way was sold as Sanka here in the US. There are other processes used these days, and let’s hope they are safer …

84D Travel guide writer Eugene : FODOR

Fodor’s is the world’s largest publisher of English-language travel and tourist guides. The guidebooks were introduced in 1936 by Eugene Fodor, an American-Hungarian who was a keen traveller.

89D Maximally weird-yet-delightful : ZANIEST

Something described as zany is clownish and bizarre. “Zany” can also be a noun, a term used for a clown or buffoon. The original noun was “Zanni”, a Venetian dialect variant of Gianni, short for Giovanni (John). Zanni was a character who appeared in comedy plays of the day, and was someone who aped the principal actors.

96D Digital S.L.R. insert : SD CARD

SD cards are memory cards that were introduced in 1999. The initials “SD” stand for “Secure Digital”.

99D English writer with an apt surname : READE

Charles Reade was an English author who came to public attention with a two-act comedy play called “Masks and Faces”. Reade turned the play into a prose story in 1852 that he called “Peg Woffington”. Reade also wrote a historical novel called “The Cloister and the Hearth” about a married man who becomes a Dominican friar on hearing that his wife has died. Years later he discovers that his wife is in fact still living and a struggle develops between the man’s obligation to family and his obligation to the Roman Catholic Church.

102D Fidel ___, Philippine president in the 1990s : RAMOS

Fidel Ramos was president of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. I used to live in Manila, and one of my claims to fame is that I once went SCUBA diving with President Ramos. Well, we were in the same diving party, and there were three very burly guys between me and him the whole time …

103D Parasite : LEECH

We are most familiar with medicinal leeches, which feed on the blood of mainly vertebrate animals. However, most leeches are predatory and swallow other invertebrates for food.

104D Military deserters, in brief : AWOLS

AWOL (absent without leave)

105D Native New Zealander’s language : MAORI

The Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. They are eastern Polynesian in origin and began arriving in New Zealand relatively recently, starting some time in the late 13th century. The word “māori” simply means “normal”, distinguishing mortal humans from spiritual entities. The Māori refer to New Zealand as “Aotearoa”.

106D Best Play and Best Upset : ESPYS

The ESPY Awards are a creation of the ESPN sports television network. One difference with similarly named awards in the entertainment industry is that ESPY winners are chosen solely based on viewer votes. The acronym “ESPY” stands for “Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly”.