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Edited by:Rich Norris
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Theme: Greek letters
Today's topic answers start with a pair of Greek letters. Each on-topic answer sounds like the actual answer the clue refers to:
- 56A. „Antigone“-Charaktere? :GREEK LETTERS
- 20A Unused car with about 56-Across? :NOW ALPHAROMEO (sounds like "new Alfa Romeo")
- 35A. Movies with about 56-Across? :PSI-PHIMOVIES (sounds like “sci-fi movies”)
- 42A. Forced sorting with 56-Across? :PI-RHO-MANIAC (the blade knows "Pyromane")
Bill's time:11m 24s
Bill's mistake:0
Today's Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
above
1. Serious service: MASS
The most important service in the Roman Catholic tradition is the Mass. The term "mass" comes from the late Latin word "missa", which means "dismissal". This word is used at the end of the Latin Mass in "Ite, missa est", which literally means "Go, it is the dismissal".
10. Moxie: Zeal
As early as 1876, Moxie was a brand name for a "drug" peddled as "bending up the nerves." In 1924, Moxie was registered as a trademark for a bitter, non-alcoholic drink (no longer a nerve-building claim). And we've been using the term "moxie" for "nerve" ever since...
17. Taboo: NO-NO
The word taboo was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Cook described "taboo" (probably an imitation of a Tongan word he had heard) as something both sacred and forbidden.
18. Prime instruments: SMALL DRUMS
Snare drums are so called because they have a series of strands of wire (called snares) stretched across the bottom of the drum. When the drum is struck, the snares vibrate against the lower eardrum creating a unique sound.
20. Unused car with about 56-Across? : NU ALPHA ROMEO (sounds like “new Alfa Romeo”)
The Latin equivalent of the Greek letter "nu" is "N". A capital nu looks the same as the Latin capital N, but the small nu looks like our small "v". Very confusing …
The Greek alphabet starts with the letter "alpha" and ends with the letter "omega".
The "Alfa" in Alfa Romeo is actually an acronym and stands for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili ("Lombard Automobile Factory, Public Company"). ALFA was a company founded in 1909 and taken over by Nicola Romeo in 1915. In 1920 the company name was changed to Alfa Romeo.
22. It may be bid farewell
"Adieu" is French for "goodbye" or "farewell", from "à Dieu" meaning "to God". The plural of "Adieu" is "Adieux".
23. Coin toss winner option: RECEIVE
That would probably be football.
27. Large Eurasian Group: Slavs
The Slavic peoples are in the majority in communities covering more than half of Europe. This large ethnic group is traditionally divided into three smaller groups:
- the West Slavs (including Czechs and Poles)
- the Eastern Slavs (including Russians and Ukrainians)
- the South Slavs (including Bulgarians and Serbs)
31. Much to Puccini: ASSAI
The Italian term "assai" means "very" and is used in music with the same meaning.
Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer, famous for his operas, which are performed so often around the world. His list of works includes "La bohème", "Tosca", "Madama Butterfly" and "Turandot". Puccini died in Brussels, Belgium in 1924 after suffering from throat cancer. An audience at a performance of "La bohème" in Rome learned of the composer's death in the middle of the performance. In the news, the opera was stopped and the orchestra played Chopin's "Funeral March" instead.
32. DJIA companies alphabetically after Home Depot: IBM
IBM was founded in 1896 as the Tabulating Machine Company. The company changed its name to Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in 1911 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1916. The International Business Machines (IBM) name was given first to the company's Canadian subsidiary and then to its South American subsidiary. In 1924 it was decided to adopt the International Business Machines name for the entire company. Good choice …
The Home Depot is the largest home improvement retail chain in the United States, ahead of Lowe's. Home Depot opened its first two stores in 1979. The average store size is just over 100,000 square feet. The largest Home Depot location is in Union, New Jersey and is 225,000 square feet. That's a lot of nuts and bolts...
Dow Jones & Company was founded in 1882 by three newspaper reporters, Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser. Today, the company's most well-known publication is The Wall Street Journal. In 1884, Charles Dow began reporting the average dollar value of the stocks of eleven companies, an index that spawned a slew of metrics that still bear the Dow Jones name today, including the renowned Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), the also known as the "Dow 30".
35. Movies with 56-Across? : PSI-PHI FILMS (sounds like “sci-fi movies”)
The Greek letter psi is the one that looks a bit like a trident or pitchfork.
Phi is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet. It's the letter that looks like an "O" with a vertical line through it.
42. Forced sorting with 56-Across? : PI-RHO-MANIAC (sounds like "pyromanic")
Pi is the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet and is probably best known to us as a symbol for a mathematical constant, the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. The letter pi has represented this constant since the mid-17th century and was chosen because pi is the first letter of the Greek word "perimetros," meaning "circumference."
Rho is the Greek letter that looks the same as our Roman letter "p", although it corresponds to the Roman letter R.
45. Yahoo! Alternative: MSN
The Microsoft Network (MSN) used to be an Internet Service Provider (ISP). Nowadays MSN is mainly a web portal.
Jerry Yang and David Filo called their company "Yahoo!" for two reasons. First, a Yahoo is a rude, no-nonsense brute from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels." Second, Yahoo stands for "Yet another Hierarchical Official Oracle".
46. „Silas Marner“-Autor: ELIOT
Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe is a novel written by George Eliot and first published in 1861. There is an excellent BBC TV version of the story (broadcast on PBS) starring Ben Kingsley in the title role and Patsy Kensit as Eppie. the little orphan that Marner takes under his wing.
52. Latin dance: SAMBA
The Samba is a Brazilian dance that is very symbolic of the festival known as Carnival. Like so much culture around the world, samba has its roots in Africa, as the dance is derived from dances performed by former slaves who immigrated to urban Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century. The exact roots of the name "Samba" seem to have been lost in the mists of time. However, my favorite explanation is that it comes from an African Kikongo word "semba" which means "a punch with the belly button". We don't seem to need such a word in English...
56. "Antigone" characters? : GREEK LETTERS
Antigone is a tragedy written by the Greek playwright Sophocles and set in 442 BC. was first performed. Antigone is the daughter of King Oedipus of Thebes, born of incestuous relationship with his mother Jocasta.
60. Dawn, for example: LIQUID SOAP
Procter & Gamble's Dawn is the top-selling brand of dishwashing detergent in the United States. Outside the home, animal rescue teams routinely use a 10% solution of Dawn to clean up animals caught in oil spills.
63. Place for needles and needles: CASE
A case is a decorative case for storing small items, especially sewing needles. We imported both the case design and the word "etui" from France. The French also have a modern use of 'etui', the term representing a case for carrying CDs.
64. Amazon-ID: ISBN
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) was invented by a certain Gordon Foster, who is now a professor at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. The code was originally developed for booksellers so they had a unique number (and now a barcode) for each publication.
65. Pioneer of unlimited free mileage: ALAMO
The third largest car rental company in recent years is Alamo, a relative newcomer that was founded in 1974. The Alamo invaded (pun!) the market by popularizing the idea of "unlimited mileage."
66. Map manufacture name since 1872: RAND
Rand McNally is a company that has long been associated with the city of Chicago. Its roots date back to 1856 when William Rand opened a printing shop in the city. Two years later he hired an Irish immigrant named Andrew McNally and the two turned their attention to printing tickets and timetables for the railway industry. They diversified into "railway guides" in 1870, including the first Rand McNally map in the December 1872 issue. As automobile travel became more popular, Rand and McNally turned their attention to roads and published their first road map, a map, in 1904 from New York City. Rand and McNally popularized the use of freeway numbers and, in fact, erected many roadside freeway signs themselves long before state and federal government agencies adopted the idea.
69. Wild Plum: SLOE
The sloe is the fruit of the blackthorn bush and the main flavor component of sloe schnapps. A sloe looks like a small plum, but is usually much tart in taste.
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1. Heavenly Food: MANNA
According to the Book of Exodus, manna was a food eaten by the Israelites when they traveled out of Egypt. The manna "fell" to the earth at night six days a week and was collected in the morning before it had time to melt.
3. Place of delivery of the Decalogue: SINAI
According to the Bible, Mount Sinai is the mountain where Moses was given the Ten Commandments. The biblical Mount Sinai is probably not the mountain of the same name in Egypt, although there is much debate about it. Egypt's Mount Sinai has two developed routes that one can take to reach the summit. The longer, gentler ascent takes about 2 1/2 hours, but there is also the steeper climb of the 3,750 'Steps of Penance'.
"Decalogue" is another name for the Ten Commandments. The term comes via Latin into English from the Greek "hoi deka logoi", which literally means "the ten sayings". The term has been expanded and is sometimes used generically in English to describe a basic set of governing rules.
4. Wraps not made in delicatessens: STOLES
A stole is a women's clothing accessory, a narrow scarf. It can be made of fairly light decorative material, or it can be heavier, especially if made of fur.
6. Dichter __ St. Vincent Wicked: EDNA
Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright, the third woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry (1923 for "The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver"). Millay was not only known for her work but also for the open agreement she and her husband had in their marriage. Millay took many lovers with her, including the poet George Dillon, for whom she wrote several sonnets.
7. Katy Perry Chartstürmerin 2013: ROAR
Katy Perry is an American singer who grew up listening to gospel music, the daughter of two Christian pastors. In fact, her first musical release was a gospel album in 2001. Since then she has branched out. Her first successful single was "Ur so Gay" followed by "I Kissed A Girl". She was married to British comedian Russell Brand until 2012 (for just one year).
8. Diamond Mishap: FAULT
That would be a baseball diamond.
11. Part of an academic address: EDU
The .edu domain was one of the six generic top-level domains originally specified. The full original list is:
- .com (commercial company)
- .net (entity involved in the network infrastructure, e.g. an ISP)
- .mil (US Military)
- .org (non-profit organization)
- .gov (US federal agency)
- .edu (higher education institution)
13. 62 down protectors: LTS
(62D. Snap receiver: Abbr.: QBS)
In football, a left tackle (LT) protects the quarterback (QB).
19. It can be served from an orange-handled pot: DECAF
The first successful method of removing caffeine from coffee was to steam the beans in salt water and then extract the caffeine using benzene (a powerful carcinogen) as a solvent. Coffee processed in this way was sold as Sanka here in the US. Nowadays other methods are used and let's hope they are safer...
24. Faith with five pillars: ISLAM
Followers of the Muslim tradition believe in the five pillars of Islam, five obligatory acts that underpin Muslim life. The five pillars are:
- The Islamic Creed
- Daily prayer
- give alms
- Fasting in the month of Ramadan
- The pilgrimage to Mecca (haj) once in a lifetime
25. Mermaid: VAMPS
A "vamp" (short for vampire) is a seductive woman. The term was first used in reference to actress Theda Bara's sultry portrayal in the 1915 film A Fool There Was. The film's title is a quote from Rudyard Kipling's 1897 poem "The Vampire." Bara's role was positioned as "vampire," a woman bent on seducing a man, and led to the use of "vamp" as an alternate A term for a femme fatale.
In Greek mythology, the sirens were seductive female birds who lured men to their deaths with their singing. As Odysseus sailed near the Sirens' home island, he wanted to hear their voices, but to safety. He had his men plug their ears with beeswax and then ordered them to tie him to the mast and not free him until they were safe. Hearing their song, Odysseus begged to be let go, but the sailors only tightened his bonds and the entire crew sailed away unharmed. We sometimes use the term "siren" today to describe a seductively charming woman.
26. Innsbruck Iron: IRON
Innsbruck is the capital of the Austrian state of Tyrol. Located in the Alps, Innsbruck is a famous center for winter sports and has hosted two Winter Olympics, in 1964 and 1976. The name "Innsbruck" translates to "Inn Bridge", with the Inn being the river on which the city was built.
29. "Livin' la __ Loca": Ricky Martin hit : LIFE
"Livin' la Vida Loca" is a 1999 single recorded by Ricky Martin, which translates to "living the crazy life".
33. Sri Lankan pop music: BAILA
Bayila (also "Baila") is a popular music genre in Sri Lanka. The style is heavily influenced by Portuguese culture, as Portuguese forces mainly controlled the island's coastal areas from the early 16th century. The name "bayila" comes from the Portuguese "bailar" and means "dance".
34. Regular McDonald's Pork Sandwich: MCRIB
McDonald's McRib sandwich is based on a pork patty. However, there is no pork rib in the patty. It consists primarily of pork shoulder meat reconstituted with tripe, heart and stomach tissues. Enjoy …
36. What alopecia sufferers lose: HAIR
Alopecia is hair loss, usually from the head. The term "alopecia" comes from the Greek for "loss of fur" and originally referred to the fur of a fox. The Greek for fox is alopix.
43. Cheri von "SNL": OTERI
Cheri Oteri was the SNL ("Saturday Night Live") cast member who appeared regularly with Will Ferrell in the skit featuring two spartan cheerleaders.
44. "__ life": IT IS
"C'est la vie" is French for "this is life".
48. Yelp user: REVIEWER
yelp.com is a website that provides a local business directory and reviews of services. The site is something like Yellow Pages for steroids, and the term "yelp" derives from "yel-low p-ages."
50. 65-About selection: SEDAN
(65A. Unlimited Free Kilometers Pioneer: ALAMO)
The American "sedan" car is the equivalent of the British "saloon" car. By definition, a saloon has two rows of seats and a separate boot (trunk in the UK), although some models may have the engine in the rear of the car.
51. Roadster manufacturer: TESLA
Tesla Motors is an electric vehicle manufacturer based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla is known for manufacturing the first electric sports car called the Tesla Roadster. The company followed the sports car with a luxury sedan, the Model S. The Model S was the world's best-selling plug-in electric vehicle in 2015.
54. Musical Mars: BRUNO
Bruno Mars is a Honolulu-based singer-songwriter who has been in the music business since 2006.
55. Better Half? : A SIDE
That would be the A side of a record.
57. Zen riddle: KOAN
The concept of "koan" appears in the tradition of Zen Buddhism. A koan is a story, question or perhaps a statement used as a meditation aid. It often takes the form of a problem or riddle that has no logical solution and is intended to help the meditator break free from reason and develop intuition.
58. Buddhist teacher: LAMA
"Lama" is a Tibetan word meaning "chief" or "high priest".
The Buddhist tradition has two major branches. Theravada is "the school of the elders" and the Mahayana is "the great vehicle." Theravada is the older of the two schools, while Mahayana split off from Theravada around the 1st century AD.
59. "Beowulf", for one: EPOS
"Epic" is the Greek word for a story or poem. We have translated it into English as 'epic', a long narrative poetic work describing heroic deeds and undertakings.
"Beowulf" is an old epic from England, although the story takes place in Scandinavia. Beowulf fights a battle defending the Danish king Hrothgar from the cruel outcast Grendel. Hrothgar had built a great hall for his people to feast in; sing, dance and drink a lot of mead. Angered by the carousing, Grendel attacked the hall, devouring many of the reigning warriors in their sleep. A somewhat extreme reaction to noisy neighbors, I would say...
60. Adjective for rapper Jon or Kim: LIL'
Lil Jon is a rapper whose real name is Jonathan Mortimer Smith. That is everything I know …
Lil' Kim is the stage name of rap artist Kimberly Denise Jones from Brooklyn, New York. Lil' Kim spent a year in prison in 2005 for lying to a jury in a shooting case.
61. Tonic to go? : ISO
"Isotonic" means "of equal tension" and is of Greek origin. There are two common uses of the term. Solutions of the same concentration are called isotonic. An isotonic saline solution has the same amount of salt (NaCl) as in the blood. Even when a muscle is isotonic, the tension remains the same while the length of the muscle changes. Lifting an object at a constant speed causes the isotonic contraction of the lifting muscle.
62. Snap receiver: abbr. : QBS
That would be football.
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Complete list of hints and answers
above
1. Serious service: MASS
5. Toaster opening? : HERE IS …
10. Moxie: Zeal
14. Calm down: ALIT
15. Treasure: LOOT
16. Crop, say EDIT
17. Taboo: NO-NO
18. Prime instruments: SMALL DRUMS
20. Unused car with about 56-Across? : NU ALPHA ROMEO (sounds like “new Alfa Romeo”)
22. It may be bid farewell
23. Coin toss winner option: RECEIVE
27. Large Eurasian Group: Slavs
31. Much to Puccini: ASSAI
32. DJIA companies alphabetically after Home Depot: IBM
35. Movies with 56-Across? : PSI-PHI FILMS (sounds like “sci-fi movies”)
38. PC Alternatives: MACS
40. Dreamers have big ones: IDEAS
41. A scarf can protect him: NECK
42. Forced sorting with 56-Across? : PI-RHO-MANIAC (sounds like "pyromanic")
45. Yahoo! Alternative: MSN
46. „Silas Marner“-Autor: ELIOT
47. Static source: DRYER
49. Doctor's Order: LAB TEST
52. Latin dance: SAMBA
56. "Antigone" characters? : GREEK LETTERS
60. Dawn, for example: LIQUID SOAP
63. Place for needles and needles: CASE
64. Amazon-ID: ISBN
65. Pioneer of unlimited free mileage: ALAMO
66. Map manufacture name since 1872: RAND
67. What much insurance covers: LOSS
68. Family nickname: NANAS
69. Wild Plum: SLOE
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1. Heavenly Food: MANNA
2. Audible: LOUD
3. Place of delivery of the Decalogue: SINAI
4. Wraps not made in delicatessens: STOLES
5. Mess: HASH
6. Dichter __ St. Vincent Wicked: EDNA
7. Katy Perry Chartstürmerin 2013: ROAR
8. Diamond Mishap: FAULT
9. Teacher's Note: SEE ME
10. Focused (on) : ZERO ON
11. Part of an academic address: EDU
12. Focus: GOAL
13. 62 down protectors: LTS
19. It can be served from an orange-handled pot: DECAF
21. Orange stuff: PULP
24. Faith with five pillars: ISLAM
25. Mermaid: VAMPS
26. Innsbruck Iron: IRON
28. "...__ sure you know" : LIKE ME
29. "Livin' la __ Loca": Ricky Martin hit : LIFE
30. Lighten your wallet: SPEND
32. Press : IMPEL
33. Sri Lankan pop music: BAILA
34. Regular McDonald's Pork Sandwich: MCRIB
36. What alopecia sufferers lose: HAIR
37. "My word!" : I SAY!
39. Common fittingations in football: SHOTGUNS
43. Cheri von "SNL": OTERI
44. "__ life": IT IS
48. Yelp user: REVIEWER
50. 65-About selection: SEDAN
51. Roadster manufacturer: TESLA
53. Music genre word: METAL
54. Musical Mars: BRUNO
55. Better Half? : A SIDE
57. Zen riddle: KOAN
58. Buddhist teacher: LAMA
59. "Beowulf", for one: EPOS
60. Adjective for rapper Jon or Kim: LIL'
61. Tonic to go? : ISO
62. Snap receiver: abbr. : QBS
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