NYXCrossword.com

Bill’s time: 9m 56s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11 Pilates class equipment : MATS

Pilates is a physical exercise system developed by, and named for, Joseph Pilates. Pilates introduced his system of exercises in 1883 in Germany.

16 Prefix meaning “straight” or “correct” : ORTHO-

The prefix “ortho-” in a word can describe “straight, upright, correct”. A literal interpretation of “orthopedics” is “straightening of a child”, and a literal interpretation of “orthodoxy” is the “correctness of opinion”.

18 Big name in cosmetics : ESTEE

Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, and someone with a great reputation as a salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales “volume” …

20 Singer who coaches on “The Voice,” familiarly : REBA

Reba McEntire is a country music singer and television actress. McEntire starred in her own sitcom “Reba” that aired on the WB and the CW cable channels from 2001 to 2007. She is sometimes referred to as “The Queen of Country”.

“The Voice” is yet another reality television show. It is a singing competition in which the judges hear the contestants without seeing them in the first round. The judges then take on chosen contestants as coaches for the remaining rounds. “The Voice” is a highly successful worldwide franchise that originated in the Netherlands as “The Voice of Holland”.

21 *Nabisco cookie brand : CHIPS AHOY!

Chips Ahoy! is a Nabisco brand of chocolate chip cookies.

23 English town known for its mineral springs : EPSOM

The Surrey town of Epsom in England is most famous for its racecourse (Epsom Downs), at which the Epsom Derby is run every year, one of the three races that make up the English Triple Crown. We also come across “Epsom salts” from time to time. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, originally prepared by boiling down mineral waters. Epsom was indeed a spa town at one time. The town is also home to Epsom College, an English “public school” (which actually means “private, and expensive”). One of Epsom’s “old boys” was the Hollywood actor Stewart Granger.

24 Either parent of Zeus : TITAN

The Titans were a group of twelve older deities in Greek mythology, the twelve children of the primordial Gaia and Uranus, Mother Earth and Father Sky. In the celebrated Battle of the Titans, they were overthrown by the Olympians, who were twelve younger gods. We use the term “titan” figuratively to describe a powerful person, someone with great influence.

25 *Major fantasy sports platform : YAHOO!

Jerry Yang and David Filo called their company “Yahoo!” for two reasons. Firstly, a Yahoo is a rude unsophisticated brute from Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”. Secondly, Yahoo stands for “Yet another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”.

37 Finishes in grand style, like the answers to the starred clues? : GOES OUT WITH A BANG

An interrobang is a punctuation mark comprising a question mark superimposed on an exclamation point. As the character is nonstandard, it is often written as with the individual characters side by side, in either order (“!?” & “?!”). The name “interrobang” comes from “interrogative point” (alternative name for a question mark) and the “bang” (printer’s jargon for an exclamation point).

41 Scroll holder : ARK

The Torah ark is found in a synagogue, and is the ornamental container in which the Torah scrolls are stored. The word “Torah” best translates as “teaching” or “law”. The Torah ark is referred to as the “Aron Kodesh” in Hebrew, meaning “Holy Ark”.

42 British unit of mass : STONE

We used pounds and stones in Ireland as units of mass/weight, for all my life there. However, such measures no longer have any “official” status in the country, as the Irish made the conversion to the metric system. Having said that, many folks still tend to measure body weight in stones and pounds. One stone is equal to fourteen pounds.

43 “___ Doone” : LORNA

The novel “Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor” was written by Richard Doddridge Blackmore. R. D. Blackmore was an English novelist, very celebrated and in demand in his day (the late 1800s). His romantic story “Lorna Doone” was by no means a personal favorite of his, and yet it is the only one of his works still in print.

48 Currency units in Nepal and Sri Lanka : RUPEES

The rupee is a unit of currency used in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan. The term “rupee” comes from the Sanskrit word “rupya”, which once meant “stamped, impressed” and then “coin”.

53 *Willa Cather novel set in 1880s Nebraska : O PIONEERS!

American author Willa Cather wrote what’s referred to as the “Prairie Trilogy”, novels that tell the story of Swedish immigrants living in Nebraska. The titles in the trilogy are “O Pioneers!”, “The Song of the Lark” and “My Ántonia”. Cather won the Pulitzer Prize for another novel “One of Ours”, which is set in Nebraska and the French battlefields of WWI.

58 Had too much, for short : OD’ED

Overdose (OD)

59 Aptly named two-time Super Bowl M.V.P. : STARR

Bart Starr was a football player and coach who spent his whole career with the Green Bay Packers, playing quarterback for the Packers from 1956 to 1971. Starr was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the first two Super Bowls.

61 *Slogan in the 2016 Republican presidential primary : JEB!

Jeb Bush is the son of President George H. W. Bush, and the brother of President George W. Bush. I always thought that Jeb was an American nickname for James or Joseph but I must be wrong, because George and Barbara’s son John Ellis Bush is called “Jeb”. A kind blog reader has suggested the name “Jeb” may have been chosen as JEB are the initials of John Ellis Bush.

62 One of 11 in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” : PIPER

Those would be “eleven pipers piping”.

The fabulous Christmas carol called “The Twelve Days of Christmas” dates back at least to 1780 when it was first published in England, though it may be French in origin. The concept of twelve days of Christmas comes from the tradition that the three kings came to visit the Christ Child twelve days after he was born. This same tradition is the origin of the title to Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night”.

64 Son of Zeus : ARES

The Greek god Ares is often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, but originally he was regarded as the god of bloodlust and slaughter. He united with Aphrodite to create several gods, including Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Terror) and Eros (Desire). Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera, and the Roman equivalent to Ares was Mars.

Down

1 ___ Douglas-Home, former British P.M. : ALEC

Sir Alec Douglas-Home was Prime Minister of the UK from 1963 to 1964. Nowadays the British Prime Minister is chosen from the membership of the House of Commons, and Sir Alec Douglas-Home was the last Prime Minister to be chosen from the House of Lords. He had to give up his peerage though (he was the Earl of Home) in order to take up the post.

4 Symbols of sovereignty : SCEPTERS

A scepter (“sceptre” in Britain and Ireland) is a ceremonial staff, one often held by a monarch.

6 Specialty espresso drink : MOCHA LATTE

Espresso is made by forcing extremely hot water, under pressure, through finely ground coffee beans. The result is a thick and concentrated coffee drink that contains quite a lot of solids and a lot of foam. An espresso machine was first patented in 1884 in Italy, although it was a machine to make the beverage in bulk. The first patent for a machine that made individual measures was applied for in 1901, also in Italy.

7 Hunter in the night sky : ORION

According to Greek mythology, Orion was a giant hunter who was placed in the night sky by Zeus, the king of the gods. Orion is very recognizable as a constellation, especially with the three bright stars known as “Orion’s Belt”. The brightest star in the sky, Sirius, is said to be Orion’s hunting dog, and this star sits at Orion’s “foot”.

9 The whole ___ : SHEBANG

The word “shebang” is probably a derivative of “shebeen”, which is an Irish term describing a “speakeasy”, an establishment where liquor was drunk and sold illegally. In English, a “shebang” was originally a “hut” or a “shed”. Just how this evolved into the expression “the whole shebang”, meaning “everything”, is unclear.

10 Browning who directed 1931’s “Dracula” : TOD

Tod Browning was a Hollywood actor and director whose career spanned the silent and talkie eras. Browning is best remembered as the director of 1931’s “Dracula”, starring Bela Lugosi in the title role, and for his silent film work with Lon Chaney.

13 Out of bounds : TABOO

The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

26 George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire,” for one : SAGA

“A Game of Thrones” is the first novel in the series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin titled “A Song of Ice and Fire”. That first novel’s title gives its name to “Game of Thrones”, the incredibly popular HBO television series that uses the storyline from the whole series of books.

27 Songwriter Novello : IVOR

Ivor Novello was one of the most popular entertainers in Britain in the early 20th century. Novello was a Welsh composer, singer and actor. On top of his success on the stage and in front of the camera, he even wrote the dialogue for the 1932 movie “Tarzan the Ape Man” starring Johnny Weissmuller.

28 Plant in the allium family : LEEK

The leek is a vegetable closely related to the onion and the garlic. It is also a national emblem of Wales (along with the daffodil), although I don’t think we know for sure how this came to be. One story is that the Welsh were ordered to wear leeks in their helmets to identify themselves in a battle against the Saxons. Apparently, the battle took place in a field of leeks.

30 First actor to portray a Bond villain (Le Chiffre, 1954) : PETER LORRE

Peter Lorre was the first actor to play a James Bond villain, doing so in a 1954 TV adaptation of the Ian Fleming novel “Casino Royale”. Bond was played by American actor Barry Nelson, and Lorre played Le Chiffre.

35 Oscar-winning Hathaway : ANNE

Actress Anne Hathaway is a trained soprano singer. She put that training on display in the 2012 film adaptation of “Les Misérables,” for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

36 Gelatin substitute in vegan recipes : AGAR

Agar (also “agar-agar”) is a jelly extracted from seaweed that has many uses. Agar is found in Japanese desserts, and can also be used as a food thickener or even as a laxative. In the world of science, it is the most common medium used for growing bacteria in Petri dishes.

38 Org. that delivers : USPS

United States Postal Service (USPS)

39 Classic children’s song about a lark : ALOUETTE

The French-Canadian children’s song starts with, “Alouette, gentille alouette …” “Alouette” is the French word for a bird, the “lark”. The song is actually pretty gruesome, even though it was used to teach children the names of body parts. The origin of the song lies in the French colonists’ penchant for eating larks, which they considered to be game birds. So in the song, the singer tells the lark that he/she will pluck off one-by-one the lark’s head, nose, eyes, wings and tail.

44 Rocks out to heavy metal, say : HEADBANGS

Headbanging is a practice engaged in by many players and followers of hard rock and heavy metal music. It involves shaking and nodding of the head energetically in time to the music. It’s a dangerous practice. Terry Balsamo is a guitarist with the band Evanescence and in 2005 he suffered a stroke, apparently from a blood clot that formed in his neck due to headbanging during performances.

45 Fine-grained wood : YEW

The family of trees and shrubs known as yews propagate by producing a seed surrounded by soft, sweet and brightly colored aril. Birds eat the fruit and then disperse the seed in their droppings. The birds leave the seed undamaged, and so are unharmed by the potent poisons taxane and taxol that are found within the seed. The seeds are highly toxic to humans.

47 One of four in Earth’s history : EON

Geologic time is divided into a number of units of varying lengths. These are, starting from the largest:

• supereon
• eon (also “aeon”)
• era
• period
• epoch
• age

48 Spanish region with a namesake wine : RIOJA

Rioja wines come from the province of La Rioja in Northern Spain. In my days living back in Europe, Rioja wines were noted for their heavy oaky flavors and it wasn’t uncommon to order a “rough Rioja” when out for dinner of an evening.

50 Academy newbie : PLEBE

A plebe is a freshman in the US military and naval academies. The term “plebe” is probably short for “plebeian”, the name given to someone of the common class in ancient Rome (as opposed to a Patrician). “Pleb” is a shortened version of “plebeian”, and is a term used outside of the military schools.

53 ___ Day and the Knights, band that performs “Shout” in “Animal House” : OTIS

Otis Day & the Knights were a fictional band created for the 1978 movie “Animal House“. In the film, they perform fabulous versions of “Shout” and “Shama Lama Ding Dong”. The band’s performance was so well received that they transitioned from the world of make believe to reality.

“Shout” is a hit song that was written and released by the Isley Brothers in 1959. A huge hit it was indeed, but not at first. In fact, it was destined to become the first record to “go gold” based on its longevity rather than its initial sales. “Shout” has been covered many times. My personal favorite cover versions are by Otis Day and the Knights in the film “Animal House” in 1978, and by Scottish singer Lulu in 1964.

You know you make me wanna (Shout!)
Kick my heels up and (Shout!)
Throw my hands up and (Shout!)
Throw my head back and (Shout!)
Come on now (Shout!)

The very funny 1978 movie “Animal House” has the prefix “National Lampoon’s …” because the storyline came out of tales that had already appeared in “National Lampoon” magazine. “Animal House” was to become the first in a long line of successful “National Lampoon” films. The main pledges in the movie are Tom Hulce (Pinto), who later played a magnificent “Amadeus”, and Stephen Furst (Flounder), who later played a regular role on television’s “Babylon 5”.

56 R.S.V.P. convenience : SASE

An SAE is a “stamped, addressed envelope”. An SASE is a “self-addressed, stamped envelope”.

“RSVP” stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “answer, please”.

59 Belgian town known for its mineral springs : SPA

The word “spa” migrated into English from Belgium, as “Spa” is the name of a municipality in the east of the country that is famous for its healing hot springs. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.