12/08/24 - Just for Fun 🥳

Just for Fun by John Kugelman

1A | Candy that resembles a tube of lipstick

PUSHPOP

Does human ingenuity know no bounds? Introduced in 1986 (and still moving tens of millions of units a year), Push Pops completely re-imagined the humble lollipop – taking this hardened mixture of sugar and corn syrup off its humble stick and inserting it into a cylindrical container outfitted with a lid, thereby giving consumers the option to enjoy just a lick (or two) at a time before stowing the rest of their sweet treat away for later.

22A | Tarot card group

ARCANA

Tarot decks first emerged in Italy around the mid-1400s and were soon being used across Europe to play a variety of trick-taking card games. Their structure bears a strong resemblance to the standard deck of cards we're familiar with today, albeit with a few modifications:

1. Each of the main four suits (Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles) has 14 cards rather than 13 due to presence of an additional face card, the Knight
2. The addition of a fifth "trump" (highest ranking) suit containing 21 cards
3. A "Fool" card

It wasn't until the late 1700s that the tarot deck was co-opted by occultists for the purpose many associate these cards with today: fortune-telling and divination (aka "cartomancy").

When employed in this practice, the 21 cards of the trump suit + the "Fool" are labeled the Major Arcana, with "The Magician," "The Hermit," "The Hanged Man" and others serving to reveal the big picture themes and important events of a person's life. The Minor Arcana, on the other hand, focuses primarily on day-to-day matters and is comprised of the deck's remaining 56 cards.

44A | Canonized king of Norway

STOLAF

A pagan by birth, Olaf II Haraldsson aka Olaf the Stout (c.995-1030) was baptized in France at the age of 18. Upon returning two years later to Norway (his home country), Olaf II became king after conquering territory and consolidating power following the death of Sweyn Forkbeard (a Dane who was also simultaneously the King of Denmark and the King of England).

[Side note: Sweyn had previously seized the Danish throne from his father, Harald Bluetooth, after whom the pairing technology was named – because linking together your phone and earbuds is a process quite similar to uniting Denmark's various tribes under one kingdom.]

During his 12-year reign, Olaf spearheaded Norway's adoption of Christianity and was canonized in 1031, one year after his death in the famous Battle of Stiklestad. Today, St. Olaf is known as the Patron Saint of Norway and is represented by a silver axe on the country's coat of arms.

63A | Dutch astronomer with an eponymous ice cloud

OORT

To the victor goes the spoils, which explains why so much of what we encounter in our lives bears the name of the person who introduced said thing:

Venn diagrams. Ferris wheels. Tupperware. Nachos. Pythagorean Theorem.

Which brings us to the Oort Cloud, a tourist attraction none of us will ever have the pleasure of visiting firsthand seeing as it is a (hypothetical) sphere of icy space debris that scientists believe encases our solar system. This purported bubble is named in honor of Jan Oort (1900-1992), the astronomer who first postulated its potential existence along with numerous other findings that continue to shape our understanding of the Milky Way.

⁉️ THAT'S NOT ALL: The extended Oort universe (pun intended!) also includes: the Oort constants (used for myriad calculations relating to the rotation of our galaxy), an Oort asteroid, and the Oort crater on Pluto.

72A | Instrument heard on the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black"

SITAR

The sitar on "Paint It Black," the lead single from the Rolling Stones' 1966 album Aftermath, was performed by Brian Jones, one of the band's founding guitarist. The track reached #1 on the UK and US charts and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2018. (Raise your hand if you knew there was a hall of fame for songs.)

Sadly, on account of his worsening addiction to drugs and alcohol, Jones was kicked out of the Stones in June 1969 and found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool less than a month later (officially deemed a "death by misadventure" in the parlance of British law).

Owing to his age at the time of his passing, Jones is considered a member of the so-called "27 Club" – a supergroup comprised of popular musicians (including Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, and later, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse) who passed away three years short of entering their third decade.

👉 BONUS BIT: Cotchford Farm – the property where Jones died – was previously the long-time residence of Winnie-the-Pooh creator A.A. Milne.

81A | Mascot of the Baltimore Ravens

POE

In 1995, when Art Modell declared his intention to re-locate his football team from Cleveland to Baltimore, he was granted permission under one condition: the franchise's name (the Browns) had to be left behind for another team to operate under. Thus, the Baltimore Ravens were hatched – filling an NFL-sized hole that had existed in the city since the Colts galloped to Indianapolis in 1984.

In a nod to the classic poem written by one of its most famous residents, "Ravens" was selected as the winning entry in a poll to name the new team, with fans raving about the bird's intimidating reputation as well as its avian-themed kinship with Baltimore's other professional sports squad, the baseball-playing Orioles.

Although originally the team employed a trio of mascots, when "Edgar" and "Allan" asked if they would be returning following the 2008 season, quoth the Ravens: "Nevermore."

112A | Bested a birdie

EAGLED

Each hole on a golf course is assigned a "par" value, which represents the number of strokes it should take a player to make their ball into the cup.

The naming conventions for scores higher and lower than par are:

• Double Bogey – 2 shots over par
• Bogey – 1 shot over par
• Birdie – 1 shot under par
• Eagle – 2 shots under par

The term "birdie" originated in the early 1900s when the word "bird" was American slang for "great" (e.g. "a bird of a shot"). From there, "eagle" – the national symbol of the United States – became the accepted designation for a score that was one stroke better.

3D | One of over 100 for Haydn

SYMPHONY

They call him the "Father of the Symphony" for a reason! With 104 to his credit, Austrian composter Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) far outpaced his peers, including his friend Mozart (41) and one-time pupil Beethoven (who produced a paltry 9).

As formalized by Haydn, a symphony (from the Greek symphonia, meaning “concordant in sound") is intended to be performed by a large orchestra and consists of four distinct musical movements, each with their own vibe:

• First Movement – lively, typically a sonata
• Second Movement – slow
• Third Movement – dance-y, perhaps a minuet
• Fourth Movement – energetic, rousing

13D | Spice planet in the "Dune" universe

ARRAKIS

In the universe of Frank Herbert's 1965 science-fiction masterpiece Dune, "melange" (alternately known as "spice") is an extremely valuable commodity that can only be found on the harsh desert planet of Arrakis.

👉 BONUS BIT: Tatooine, the Skywalker's home planet in George Lucas's science-fiction masterpiece Star Wars, was inspired by Arrakis.

32D | Chewy Japanese dessert

MOCHI

Because "glutinous rice cake" doesn't quite have the same ring to it.

77D | "Aladdin" character who hates crackers

IAGO

Iago is the wise-cracking parrot sidekick of Jafar, the main villain in the 1992 Disney animated feature Aladdin. Voiced by comedian Gilbert Gottfried, Iago's efforts to help his master become the ruler of Agrabah (a fictional Middle Eastern kingdom) are in part motivated by the Sultan's propensity to force feed him crackers (a food he despises).

Originally named Sinbad, the feathered fiend was later given the moniker Iago in reference to the manipulative antagonist of Shakespeare's Othello.