Who Has Seen the Wind? Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Long and Winding Road

"The Long and Winding Road" was written by Paul McCartney in the late 1960s, as the Beatles were nearing their breakup, and it is one of the last songs credited to the Lennon-McCartney collaboration. Without the orchestral embellishments added against McCartney's wishes, the song winds with a haunting sadness back to the Beatles' beginning, with the line "You left me standing here" echoing the words "I saw her standing there" from 1963.

The song works as an extended metaphor for the idea of life as a journey that travels full circle but never quite returns to the home it left.

Answer: helix

The words "heard" and "pronounced" in the cryptic clue signal that we are looking for a word that sounds like what is described by part of the clue - "he licks" - and is defined by the other part of the clue - "shape of DNA". A helix is a curved line that winds in three-dimensional space, like a Slinky toy or a spiral staircase.

The structure of DNA is actually a double helix, with two helices winding around each other. In the mid-20th century, this structure was viewed by scientists James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins using X-ray crystallography, leading to an explosion in knowledge of how the codes of living things are formed and passed on.

Answer: zigzag

Zigzag lines differ from serpentine or other winding lines in that angles are sharp rather than curved, adding strength. Abstract zigzag designs are used in pottery making, architecture, and other arts. In sewing, zigzag stitches are used to reinforce buttonholes, seams, and edges; pinking shears cut zigzag edges resistant to fraying.

In nature, zigzags are rare but may occur when waves form regular patterns. Researchers in applied physics are experimenting with creating zigzag edges on graphene nanoribbons (carbon structures one atom thick) to develop "spintronic" applications that use both the charge and the spin of electrons to work at a deeper level than silicon based electronics do.

Answer: tendril

Tendrils are modified structures in plants that curl and twine, allowing climbing plants like vines to curve and wrap around objects they touch, providing strength. Some tendrils even produce adhesive substances that help them stick in place. Hair tendrils are wispy curls that resemble plant tendrils.

A note on the last part of my clue: XLIX is the correct Roman numeral for 49, not IL, but puzzle writers sometimes make what the "Crossword Unclued" website calls "the classic Roman numeral mistake" of subtracting larger chunks than allowed in the system.

They say that writers may be granted "cryptic license" by editors. I hope I don't get caught writing without a cryptic license!

Answer: curlicue

A curlicue is a little circular twist we often see repeated in artistic designs, especially on metal fences and gates. Curlicues look like the fancy "spit curls" that embellish the coiffures of early movie stars. Curlicues don't get much respect, because they are frivolous, unnecessary, and a bit eccentric. An alternate (perhaps older or original) form of the word is "purlicue" - from the Scottish word "pirl" - which can mean the flourish at the end of a written word or a concluding elaboration at the end of a speech or sermon. Less trivially, a purlicue was a measurement: the distance between an extended forefinger and thumb. According to several sources, "a spang and a purlicue" were measurements used playing the game of marbles, with a purlicue measured with the fingers and a spang by the width of a belt.

Answer: loop

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the basic definition of "loop" as "a shape produced by a curve that bends round and crosses itself"; however, a search for meanings of the word reveals many metaphors and elaborations. From computing, we have learned how to describe being "in a loop" where we find ourselves doing the same thing over and over. We can be "out of the loop" and lack information the in-group knows. We can be "thrown for a loop" when astonished.

A circle dance game we played as children was called "Here We Go Loop de Loo" or a variation on that title.

In an anatomy book, we can view the mysterious winding of the Loop of Henle in the human kidney, which might make us think of the loo again. As for the origins of the word "loo" - well, let's leave that mystery for another time.

Answer: crooks

The cryptic clue signals a container by the word "swallowed", and the word "are" sounds like the letter that is to be inserted into "cooks" to get the answer. Both "snake" and "crook" when used as verbs can be synonyms for "wind" as a verb. A snake that exemplifies this connection is the sidewinder. Three species of snakes in Asia, called flying snakes, can actually glide up to 100 feet in the air, but most snakes, getting along without legs, move with a sinuous, serpentine, winding motion along the ground.

The word "crook" comes from a Middle English word meaning "bend" and is related to the Old Norse word "krokr" for "hook" (like a shepherd's crook). A person who is a crook is called that because he or she is twisted or bent in character. If we use the words "winding" and "crooked" as adjectives to describe a road or river, the similarity between the words' meanings emerges more clearly.

Answer: gyration

The word "gyre" describes a ring or circle or a whirling, circular motion. Another word for this physical phenomenon is "vortex", which can refer to circular movement in the air or the water. Huge gyres spin in the oceans, driven by the Corialis effect, and these currents in turn affect Earth's wind patterns and other weather events.

The verb for what gyres do is "gyrate"; the act of gyrating is "gyration"; and gyration is what a gyroscope is all about. In his nonsense poem "Jabberwocky" Lewis Carroll's "slithy toves...gyre and gimble in the wabe"; and in W.B. Yeats's "The Second Coming" a falcon is "turning and turning in a widening gyre" - poetry in motion! The elegant structure described in my hidden word sentence is a labyrinth, an ordered path that - like a gyre - winds in a circle.

Answer: serpentine

Snakes again! The cryptic clue signals by the word "heard" that we are looking for a word that sounds like the description. The "snake" (serpent) is endless, because we will use the "t" for the second word defined in the clue: "tine". There are two (or three) ways to pronounce the word "serpentine": 1. the final syllable sounds like the tine of a fork; 2. the final syllable sounds like the first syllable in "teenager"; 3. the final syllable rhymes with "din" (a fleeting American attempt to sound educated without sounding British).

The first pronunciation fits the clue best. The word "serpentine" implies something that is like a serpent. For example, the lake in Hyde Park, London, England, is called The Serpentine because it winds in a snake-like manner.

Answer: alarm clock

The use of the wind-up alarm clock is going out of style, since most people these days use phones or other electronic devices to check the time and to set reminders. In fact, many young people find it difficult to tell time on a non-digital watch, even when they wear one as a fashion accessory.

Some parents do not see the need to teach the skill to children. While I no longer use an analog alarm clock, there was something comforting and deliberate about the sound and physical motion of winding a clock at night, imparting the illusion that I was in control of this small piece of time. Of course, I usually wanted to throw it out the window the next morning, which leads to the question: "Why would you throw the clock out the window?" The answer: "To make time fly."