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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A Big name in food wholesale : SYSCO

It’s hard to drive down any highway in the US without coming across a Sysco truck. It really is a huge company, the largest food service enterprise in the country. “Sysco” is an abbreviation for Systems and Services Company.

15A Just peachy : A-OKAY

Our term “A-OK” is supposedly an abbreviation for “A(ll systems are) OK”, and arose at NASA in the sixties during the space program.

17A Psychedelic rock band with the 2003 tune “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1,” with “the” : … FLAMING LIPS (hiding “MING”)

The Flaming Lips are a rock band from Oklahoma City that formed in 1983. I won’t expound here on how the band apparently chose its name. It’s a little “out there” …

The Ming dynasty lasted in China from 1368 to 1644. It was a time of tremendous innovation in so many areas, including the manufacture of ceramics. In the late Ming period, a shift towards a market economy in China led to the export of porcelain on an unprecedented scale, perhaps explaining why we tend to hear more about Ming vases than we do about porcelain from any other Chinese dynasty.

19A Sam-___ (Seuss character) : I-AM

Dr. Seuss’s famous children’s book “Green Eggs and Ham” was first published in 1960. The text of “Green Eggs and Ham” has a lot of “I am” going on. It starts with:

I am Sam
I am Sam
Sam I am

and ends with:

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am

20A No rookie : OLD PRO

The term “rookie”, used for a raw recruit, first appeared in Rudyard Kipling’s collection of songs and poems called the “Barrack-Room Ballads”, which was originally published in 1892.

22A Red denizen of Sesame Street : ELMO

Nowadays we use “denizen” to mean simply “resident”, but historically a denizen was an immigrant to whom certain rights had been granted, somewhat like today’s resident alien.

23A Problem for a plumber : LEAK

“Plumbum” is Latin for “lead”, explaining why the symbol of the element in the Periodic Table is “Pb”. It also explains why the original lead weight on the end of a line used to check vertical was called a “plumb line”. And, as pipes were originally made of lead, it also explains why we would call in a “plumber” if one of those pipes were leaking.

30A German film composer who wrote “Cornfield Chase” and “Time” : HANS ZIMMER (hiding “HAN”)

Hans Zimmer is a film composer from Frankfurt in Germany. The long list of films that Zimmer has scored includes “Rain Man” (1988), “The Lion King” (1994), “Gladiator” (2000), “The Dark Knight” (2008), “Inception” (2010) and “12 Years a Slave” (2013).

The Han dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China and lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD. It came after the Qin dynasty, and before the Three Kingdoms.

39A Mario’s video game brother : LUIGI

Luigi is the younger and taller fraternal twin brother of Nintendo’s Mario. He first appeared in the 1983 arcade game “Mario Bros.”, and is often portrayed as a more timid character than his famous sibling.

43A Hosp. areas with gurneys : ORS

Gurneys are stretchers with wheels that are used in hospitals and ambulances for transporting patients. Outside of North America, gurneys are usually called “trolleys”. The term “gurney” may have been used as the design is similar to a horse-drawn cab that was patented by one J. Theodore Gurney.

47A Hip-hop group that wrote “C.R.E.A.M.” and “Protect Ya Neck” : WU-TANG CLAN (hiding “TANG”)

Hip hop’s Wu-Tang Clan isn’t really a band, but rather a musical collective in which members rotate in and out quite freely. The group formed in 1992 in Staten Island, New York. They became one of the first major hip-hop groups to get a Las Vegas residency.

59A Big export of Myanmar : RUBIES

The Republic of the Union of Myanmar is the official name of the Asian country that some nations still recognize as the Union of Burma.

63A Ingredient in a Dark ‘n’ Stormy : RUM

A dark ‘n’ stormy is a classic cocktail made from dark rum and ginger beer, served over ice. The name comes from the ingredients, with the “dark” being the rum, and the “stormy” being the ginger beer.

64A First Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy … or a hint to 17-, 30- and 47-Across : SONG DYNASTY

The Song dynasty ruled in China from 960 to 1279 CE. There were several significant developments during this period of rule. For example, the Song dynasty issued the world’s first true banknotes, and established the first permanent standing navy in China’s history.

68A Religion of the Maldives : ISLAM

The Maldives is an island nation consisting of two chains of atolls in the Indian Ocean. The population of over 300,000 people is distributed over 192 inhabited islands, with about 1,000 islands remaining uninhabited. The Maldives is one of the countries in the world that is extremely endangered by rising sea levels.

71A Prey for polar bears : SEALS

Polar bears are close cousins of brown bears, and are thought to have evolved from a population of brown bears that became isolated during a period of glaciation. Most polar bears live north of the Arctic Circle, and live mainly on seals that they capture near the edge of ice floes.

Down

5D Steeple topper : SPIRE

In general terms, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, often a church. More specifically, a steeple can be made up of several distinct parts:

1. Tower: the base of the steeple, which can often house a clock.
2. Belfry: the part that holds bells, often part of church steeples
3. Lantern: a decorative, windowed structure that admits light into the steeple
4. Spire: the tall, slender top

7D “This is probably dumb but I’m doing it anyway” hashtag : YOLO

You only live once (YOLO)

11D The Soviet Union, to Reagan : EVIL EMPIRE

President Ronald Reagan famously used the phrase “evil empire” to describe the Soviet Union, first doing so during the Cold War in 1983. Just over five years later, Reagan was developing a working relationship with Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. As a result, he declared that he no longer felt that the use of “evil empire” applied, saying that it had been “another time, another era”.

12D Thailand, before 1939 : SIAM

“Siam” was the official name of Thailand up to 1939 (and again from 1945 to 1949).

13D Military wear, for short : CAMO

Our word “camouflage” (often abbreviated to “camo”) evolved directly from a Parisian slang term “camoufler” meaning “to disguise”. The term was first used in WWI, although the British navy at that time preferred the expression “dazzle-painting” as it applied to the pattern painted on the hulls of ships.

18D Head of a noted animal rescue project : NOAH

Genesis 6:19-20 states that Noah was instructed to take two animals of every kind into the ark. Later, in Genesis 7:2-3 Noah was instructed to take on board “every clean animal by sevens … male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth”. Apparently, “extras” (7 rather than 2) were needed for ritual sacrifice.

24D Like a comeuppance, perhaps : KARMIC

Karma is a religious concept with its basis in Indian faiths. Karma embraces the notion of cause and effect. Good deeds have good consequences at some later point in one’s life, one’s future life, or one’s afterlife. And, bad deeds have bad consequences.

28D Island that’s the world’s third-smallest country, after Vatican City and Monaco : NAURU

Nauru is the world’s smallest island nation, and is located in the South Pacific 300 km to the west of Kiribati. The island was taken as a colony by Germany in the late 1800s, and came under the administration of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom after WWI. The Japanese invaded during WWII, but Nauru was one of the islands that was bypassed in the US advance across the Pacific towards Japan. Nauru achieved independence in 1968.

Vatican City is a sovereign city-state that is walled off within the city of Rome. Vatican City is about 110 acres in area, and so is the smallest independent state in the world. With about 800 residents, it is also the smallest state in terms of population. Although the Holy See dates back to early Christianity, Vatican City only came into being in 1929. At that time, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed a treaty with the Holy See on behalf of the Kingdom of Italy that established the city-state.

The Principality of Monaco is on the Mediterranean coast, and is otherwise surrounded by France, even though it is just under 10 miles from the Italian border. Monaco is the world’s most densely populated country, and the world’s second smallest country (the smallest being Vatican City). The principality has been very prosperous since the late 1800s, with the economy given a tremendous boost with the opening of several gambling casinos.

29D People hold complicated positions on it : TWISTER MAT

Twister is a game requiring a lot of physical dexterity and flexibility. It involves players placing specific hands and feet onto colored pads on a mat, as directed by a spinning arrow on a board. Sales of the game got a great boost in 1966, when Eva Gabor played Twister with Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show”.

31D Singer Horan of One Direction : NIALL

Niall Horan is an Irish singer and former member of the British boy band One Direction. Horan is from Mullingar, a town in the middle of the country from where my own ancestors hail. That’s really all that I know about him …

33D Duck down : EIDER

Eiders are large sea ducks. Their down feathers are used to fill pillows and quilts, giving the name to the quilt called an “eiderdown”.

34D Angel ___, holder of the W.N.B.A. single-season record for offensive rebounds : REESE

Before turning pro, WNBA star Angel Reese played college basketball for the Maryland Terrapins and the LSU Tigers. While having an outstanding record on the court at LSU, she earned the nickname “Bayou Barbie”, referring to the location of the school and her use of eyelash extensions and long, pink nails on the court. Reese has embraced her glamorous image and has expressed an interest in taking up modeling after she retires from basketball.

49D ___ a soul : NARY

The adjective “nary” means “not one”, as in “nary a soul” or even “nary a one”.

53D Mila of “That ’70s Show” : KUNIS

Mila Kunis is a Ukrainian-born, American actress who plays Jackie Burkhart on “That ’70s Show”. Fans of the cartoon series “Family Guy” might recognize her voicing the Meg Griffin character. In ”Black Swan”, Kunis plays a rival ballet dancer to the character played by Natalie Portman. In her personal life, Kunis dated Macaulay Culkin for 8 years, but married Ashton Kutcher, her co-star from “That ‘70s Show”, in 2015.

58D Longtime Disney boss Bob : IGER

Robert Iger took over from Michael Eisner as CEO in 2005. Iger worked for ABC when it was taken over by Disney in 1996, and in 1999 he was named president of Walt Disney International. Iger is doing okay for himself; he earned more than $29 million in 2009.

62D Jazz singer Sylvia : SYMS

Sylvia Syms was a jazz singer from New York. Frank Sinatra called Syms the “world’s greatest saloon singer”, and gave her the nickname “Buddha”. Syms actually died on stage, suffering a heart attack at the age of 74.

65D “Dr.” from Compton : DRE

“Dr. Dre” is the stage name of rapper Andre Romell Young. He is known for his own singing career as well as for producing records and starting the careers of others such as Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent.

The city of Compton in Los Angeles County was founded in 1888 by Griffith Dickenson Compton. He was one of the pioneers who settled in the area, abandoning the declining gold fields to the north in search of agricultural opportunities to the south. Back then, Compton was known for the growing of sugar beets and dairy farming. Today, the city is known as the birthplace of West Coast hip-hop, in the late 1980s.