Day: June 2, 2011

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. See 26-/28-Down : NEW YORK
What is the only state name in the Union ending with the letter “K”?

8. See 26-/28-Down : FLORIDA
What state is home to the oldest European settlement in North America? (St. Augustine)

15. Banned medicine used to treat asthma : EPHEDRA
Ephedra is a plant extract used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of asthma and hay fever. Ephedra was banned by the FDA in 2004 as its use has been linked to many fatalities.

17. Pinchas Zukerman, e.g. : VIOLIST
Pinchas Zukerman plays the violin as well as the viola, and is also a well-known conductor. He lives in Ottawa, Canada and is the Principal Conductor of the city’s National Arts Centre Orchestra.

18. Where “Lucrezia Borgia” premiered : LA SCALA
“Lucrezia Borgia” is an opera by Donizetti.

Pope Alexander VI led the Roman Catholic church from 1492 to 1503. He had a poor reputation amongst his flock, and is remembered for having weakened the moral authority of the church. Lucrezia Borgia was the most famous of the four illegitimate children that he had with Vannozza dei Cattanei, one of the Pope’s many mistresses.

20. Baccarat alternative : FARO
Faro is a card game, somewhat akin to Baccarat, that was popular in England and France in the 18th century. It made it to the Old West, where it became a favorite of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. The origin of the name “Faro” is unclear. One popular theory is that Faro is a contraction of ‘pharaoh’ given that Egyptian motifs used to be common on playing cards of the period. There’s another theory involving the usual suspects: Irish immigrants and famines …

23. ___ Brothers : EVERLY
The Everly Brothers are noted for their steel guitar sound, and their great use of harmony. Their harmony onstage wasn’t reflected off the stage though. In 1973 the brothers decided to pursue separate careers and scheduled a farewell performance attended by many fans, family and stalwarts from the music industry. Don Everly came on stage too drunk to perform, and eventually brother Phil just stormed off into the wings, smashing his guitar as he left. The boys didn’t talk to each other for ten years after that incident.

26. When doubled, a 19-Across : BORA
Bora Bora is one of the Society Islands of French Polynesia. The name Bora Bora is imitative of the Tahitian name for the island and should really be pronounced “pora pora”. It means “first born”.

29. “Drawing is putting a line round an ___”: Henri Matisse : IDEA
Henri Matisse was a French artist renowned for his contribution to modern art. In his early days he was classed as a “fauve”, one of the group of artists known as the “wild beasts” who emphasized strong color over realism in their works. Matisse was a life-long friend of Pablo Picasso, and the two were considered to be good-natured rivals so their works are often compared. One major difference between their individual portfolios is that Picasso tended to paint from his imagination, whereas Matisse tended to use nature as his inspiration.

30. 1976 Pulitzer winner for “Air Music” : ROREM
American composer Ned Rorem is famous for his musical compositions, but also for his book, “Paris Diary of Ned Rorem” which was published in 1966. He talks openly about his sexuality in the book, but also about the sexuality of others including Noel Coward, Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber, much to some people’s chagrin.

31. Sports bar fixture : HDTV SET
In the digital world, resolution of a display, television, image etc. is the number of pixels that can be displayed in a standard area (say a square inch). The emphasis today is on producing larger area displays/televisions, i.e increasing the number of pixels simply by increasing the size of the screen. In the past couple of decades the emphasis was on adding more pixels within the same screen size to increase resolution. That would just be wasted effort these days as further increases in resolution cannot be perceived by the eye. Now that TV’s are capable of displaying such high resolutions, broadcasters are responding by producing a video signal of “higher resolution”, that they call high-definition television, HDTV.

33. Mother ___ : TERESA
Mother Teresa was born in Albania in 1910, and was given the names Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (“Gonxha” means “little flower” in Albanian). She left home at the age of 18 and joined the Sisters of Loreto, and headed to Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham in Dublin, Ireland in order to learn English. Her goal was to teach in India, and English was the language used there for instruction by the nuns. After Mother Teresa passed away in 1997, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II, a step on the road to canonization. In order for her to be beatified there had to be documented evidence of a miracle that was performed due to her intercession. The miracle in question was the healing of a tumor in the abdomen of a woman due to the application of a locket containing a picture of Mother Teresa. Documentation of a second miracle is required for her to be declared a saint.

35. Ma or Pa in a Steinbeck novel : JOAD
Tom Joad is a character in John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”. The role of Joad is played by Henry Fonda in the 1940 film adaptation directed by John Ford. Ford’s movie has a place in history, as it was one of the first 25 movies selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in the US National Film Registry.

36. Steinbeck, e.g. : WRITER
John Steinbeck considered “East of Eden” his magnus opus. Most of the storyline takes place near Salinas, just south of where I live in the Bay Area. Two of the characters in the story are brothers Cal and Aron, representative of the biblical Cain and Abel.

44. Org. that combats illegal file sharing : RIAA
The Recording Industry of America (RIAA) represents music distributors. It is the RIAA that certifies records that have gone gold and platinum i.e. reached fixed sales thresholds. It’s also the RIAA that goes after individuals who share music illegally online.

46. Buffalo-hunting Indians : OTOS
The Otoe (also Oto) Native American tribe originated in the Great Lakes region as part of the Winnebago or Siouan tribes. The group that would become the Otoe broke away from the Winnebago and migrated southwestwards ending up in the Great Plains. In the plains the Otoe adopted a semi-nomadic lifestyle dependent on the horse, with the American bison becoming central to their diet.

49. Approximate year in which Eric the Red was born : CML
According to Icelandic tradition, Erik the Red was the man responsible for founding the first Nordic settlement in Greenland. Erik had a famous son, the explorer Leif Ericson.

52. 1986 rock autobiography : I, TINA
Tina Turner is actually a stage name, used by Anna Mae Bullock, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Turner has always loved Europe, and moved there in the eighties. She now splits her time between her homes in England, France and Switzerland.

56. Stephen of Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” : DEDALUS
Stephen Dedalus is the main character in “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” by Irish author James Joyce. The novel is semi-autobiographical, and is a refined version of an earlier work called “Stephen Hero”. I am proud to say that one of my own ancestors, a driver of a horse-drawn cab, appears a couple of times as a character in “Stephen Hero”. Such fame …

59. Senators’ place : ICE RINK
The Senators are the NHL hockey team in Ottawa, Canada. The current team, founded in the 1992-93 season, is the second NHL team in the city to use the name “Senators”. The original team was founded in 1917 and had a very successful run until the league expanded into the US in the late twenties. The cost of operating in what became the smallest NHL city eventually drove the Senators to St. Louis where they played for a year as the Eagles before finally folding.

60. See 26-/28-Down : GEORGIA
What state in the Union is home to the world’s largest college campus? (Berry College)

61. See 26-/28-Down : MONTANA
What state in the Union is home to the most different species of mammal?

Down
1. See 26-/28-Down : NEVADA
What state in the Union is the largest producer of gold (with only South Africa producing more)?

2. “The best is yet to come,” for Frank Sinatra : EPITAPH
Frank Sinatra was the only child of Italian immigrants living in Hoboken, New Jersey. Like so many of our heroes, Sinatra had a rough upbringing. His mother was arrested several times and convicted of running an illegal abortion business in the family home. Sinatra never finished high school, being expelled for rowdy conduct, and he was arrested on a morals charge as a youth for carrying on with a married woman, which was an offence back then. But he straightened himself out by the time he was twenty, and started singing professionally.

5. “Swan Lake” swan : ODILE
“Swan Lake” is such a delightfully light and enjoyable ballet. It tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by a sorcerer. The ballet also features Odile, Odette’s “evil twin”. Odile is disguised to look like Odette with the goal of tricking the prince to fall in love with her. In the ballet, the roles of Odette and Odile are played by the same ballerina.

7. “Kitty ___” (Beyoncé song) : KAT
Beyoncé Knowles established herself in the entertainment industry as the lead singer with the R&B group Destiny’s Child. She launched her solo singing career in 2003, two years after making her first appearance as an actor. In 2006 she played the lead in the very successful movie adaptation of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls”. Beyoncé is married to rap star Jay-Z.

8. Syllables following “Strike the harp and join the chorus” : FA LA LA
“Strike the harp and join the chorus” is a line from the traditional Yuletide carol “Deck the Halls”. The tune itself is Welsh in origin, dating back to the 16th century. The lyrics however, are American and from the 19th century. Also, Mozart used the tune as a theme for a delightful violin and piano duet.

9. Doctor whom Nixon called “the most dangerous man in America” : LEARY
Timothy Leary was an icon of sixties counterculture, a promoter of the use of LSD. After his death, some of his ashes were “buried” in space, launched aboard a rocket that contained the ashes of 24 other people, including “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry.

11. Bird of myth : ROC
The mythical roc is a huge bird of prey, reputedly able to carry off and eat elephants.

12. ___ Freleng, creator of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck : ISADORE
Isadore “Friz” Freleng was a cartoonist best known for his work with Warner Bros, on the “Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” series of cartoons. He was largely responsible for developing some great characters including Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam and Speedy Gonzales. And for all that, he won four Academy Awards.

13. Actual name of Nabokov’s Lolita : DOLORES
Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “Lolita” has a famously controversial storyline, dealing with a middle-aged man’s obsession and sexual relationship with a 12-year-old girl. Although “Lolita” is considered a classic today, after Nabokov finished it in 1953 the edgy subject matter made it impossible for him to find a publisher in the US (where Nabokov lived). In 1955, he resorted to publishing it in English at a printing house in Paris. Publication was followed by bans and seizures all over Europe. A US printing house finally took on the project in 1958, by which time the title had such a reputation that it sold exceptionally quickly. It became the first book since “Gone with the Wind” to sell over 100,000 copies in its first three weeks in the stores.

14. See 26-/28-Down : ALABAMA
The pecan is the state nut of which state in the Union? Nope, it’s not Georgia!

25. It’s depicted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling : EDEN
The Sistine Chapel, in the Pope’s residence in Rome, takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV who was responsible for restoring the old Capella Magna in the 15th century. It was about a century later (1508-1512) that Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel under the patronage of Pope Julius II.

33. TV character who said “Him a beauty. Like mountain with snow – silver-white” : TONTO
On the television version of “The Lone Ranger”, Tonto was played by the actor Jay Silverheels.

35. Don ___ : JUAN
Don Juan is a flighty character who has been featured by a number of authors, poets and composers, including Molière, Byron, and Mozart. In the underlying legend, Don Juan ends up talking to the statue of the dead father of one of his conquests. Don Juan dines with the ghost of the dead man and when shaking the hand of the ghost he is dragged away to hell.

36. See 26-/28-Down : WYOMING
Which state in the Union was the first to give women the vote?

40. Island in the Mediterraneo : SICILIA
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, the “ball” that is being kicked by the Italian “boot”.

41. Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, 1987-95 : SAM NUNN
Sam Nunn served as a US Senator for the state of Georgia as a Democrat, for 24 years until 1997. Nunn is married to Colleen O’Brien, whom he met for the first time in the US Embassy in Paris where she was working as a spy for the CIA.

45. See 26-/28-Down : ALASKA
What is the most easterly state in the Union? (and the most westerly and northerly!)

47. Second-generation Japanese-American : NISEI
There are some very specific terms used to describe the children born to Japanese immigrants in their new country. The immigrants themselves are known as Issei. Nisei are second generation Japanese, Sansei the third generation (grandchildren of the immigrant), and Yonsei are fourth generation.

51. Pioneering puppeteer Tony : SARG
Tony Sarg was a German-American puppeteer and illustrator. He was hired by Macy’s in 1928 to build helium-filled “puppets” for their Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, a tradition that was to last a long time. In 1935 he designed and built the puppets and displays in Macy’s windows for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

55. D.C.’s Kennedy ___ : CTR
The Kennedy Center is a performing arts center on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. It is the busiest performing arts center in the country, hosting about 2,000 performances each year, for nearly two million audience members.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:

Across
1. See 26-/28-Down : NEW YORK
8. See 26-/28-Down : FLORIDA
15. Banned medicine used to treat asthma : EPHEDRA
16. Spray : AEROSOL
17. Pinchas Zukerman, e.g. : VIOLIST
18. Where “Lucrezia Borgia” premiered : LA SCALA
19. Ocean ring : ATOLL
20. Baccarat alternative : FARO
21. 5/29/1917, for J.F.K. : DOB
22. Fish by letting the bait fall lightly on the water : DAP
23. ___ Brothers : EVERLY
26. When doubled, a 19-Across : BORA
27. Hired thugs : APES
29. “Drawing is putting a line round an ___”: Henri Matisse : IDEA
30. 1976 Pulitzer winner for “Air Music” : ROREM
31. Sports bar fixture : HDTV SET
33. Mother ___ : TERESA
34. Big stretch? : AEON
35. Ma or Pa in a Steinbeck novel : JOAD
36. Steinbeck, e.g. : WRITER
39. Dark : SUNLESS
42. Nods : YESES
43. Passion : HEAT
44. Org. that combats illegal file sharing : RIAA
46. Buffalo-hunting Indians : OTOS
47. “Easy there!” : NOW NOW
49. Approximate year in which Eric the Red was born : CML
50. Big lotto prize, for short : MIL
51. Is unused : SITS
52. 1986 rock autobiography : I, TINA
54. On the mend, say, as one’s arm : IN A CAST
56. Stephen of Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” : DEDALUS
58. Pecan, e.g. : NUT TREE
59. Senators’ place : ICE RINK
60. See 26-/28-Down : GEORGIA
61. See 26-/28-Down : MONTANA

Down
1. See 26-/28-Down : NEVADA
2. “The best is yet to come,” for Frank Sinatra : EPITAPH
3. Screamed and hollered : WHOOPED
4. Scream and holler : YELL
5. “Swan Lake” swan : ODILE
6. Ones on the right track?: Abbr. : RRS
7. “Kitty ___” (Beyoncé song) : KAT
8. Syllables following “Strike the harp and join the chorus” : FA LA LA
9. Doctor whom Nixon called “the most dangerous man in America” : LEARY
10. Roughly : OR SO
11. Bird of myth : ROC
12. ___ Freleng, creator of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck : ISADORE
13. Actual name of Nabokov’s Lolita : DOLORES
14. See 26-/28-Down : ALABAMA
20. Stew : FRET
24. Dealer’s accessory : VISOR
25. It’s depicted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling : EDEN
26. With 28-Down, theme of this puzzle : BORDER
28. See 26-Down : STATES
30. Unembellished : REAL
32. Some necklines : VEES
33. TV character who said “Him a beauty. Like mountain with snow – silver-white” : TONTO
35. Don ___ : JUAN
36. See 26-/28-Down : WYOMING
37. Royal attendants : RETINUE
38. Person who’s out of step with society : ISOLATO
39. Tailors : SEWS
40. Island in the Mediterraneo : SICILIA
41. Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, 1987-95 : SAM NUNN
43. Throat soother : HOT TEA
45. See 26-/28-Down : ALASKA
47. Second-generation Japanese-American : NISEI
48. Ream out : WIDEN
51. Pioneering puppeteer Tony : SARG
53. Sour : TART
55. D.C.’s Kennedy ___ : CTR
56. Dark : DIM
57. Prefix with warrior : ECO
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