Day: August 30, 2012

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
9. Parisian pig : PORC
“Porc” is the French for pork.

13. Vein glory? : LODE
A lode is metal ore deposit that’s found between two layers of rock or in a fissure.

16. Popular kind of 31- and 37-Across : FREE RANGE
Outside of the US, the term “free range” is used to describe farming in which animals are allowed to roam freely and are not caged or penned up. However, in the US the term is simply a marketing device, usually indicating that the animal has some access to an outdoor area, the size or nature of which is undefined.

18. Das ___ Testament : NEUE
“Das Neue Testament” … the New Testament (in German).

20. Excavation locale of an ancient Egyptian capital : AMARNA
Armana is an archaeological site on the east bank of the Nile River in Egypt, almost 200 miles south of Cairo. The ancient city is also known as el-Armana, and Tel el-Armana, although the use of “Tel” is apparently incorrect. “Tel” commonly appears in names in the region (Arabic for “hill”) but should not apply to Amarna as the site is perfectly flat.

22. French composer Saint-Saëns : CAMILLE
Camille Saint-Saens was one of the great French composers in my opinion. Even his light and airy “The Carnival of the Animals” is a lovely work.

24. First of its kind? : ADAM
According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve lived in a garden “in” Eden, with Eden being geographically located by reference to four rivers, including the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some scholars hypothesize that Eden was located in Mesopotamia, which encompasses much of modern-day Iraq.

30. Real stunner? : PHASER
A MASER is a device that was around long before LASERs came into the public consciousness. A MASER (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is similar to a LASER, but microwaves are emitted rather than light waves. When the storyline for “Star Trek” was being developed, the writers introduced a weapon called a “phaser”, with the name “phaser” derived from PHoton mASER. So, now we know …

33. Tee sign abbr. : YDS
When playing off the tee in a round of golf, the distance to the hole is usually indicated in yards.

40. He goes to town in a 1936 movie : MR DEEDS
“Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” is a great Frank Capra film released in 1936, starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. The movie is an adaptation of the short story called “Opera Hat” by Clarence Budington Kelland, which had been published a year earlier. The storyline is all about a relatively poor man (Mr. Deeds) who inherits millions of dollars. Mr. Deeds heads for New York City and is chased around by a devious reporter looking for an inside scoop.

45. Draw ___ on : A BEAD
To draw a bead on something is to take aim at it. The “bead” in question is the front sight of a gun.

46. 1997 title role for Peter Fonda : ULEE
“Ulee’s Gold” is a highly respected film from 1997 in which Peter Fonda plays the title role of Ulee. Ulee’s “gold” is the honey that Ulee produces. It is a favorite role for Peter Fonda and he has shared that playing Ulee brought into mind his father, Henry Fonda, who himself kept a couple of hives. So if you see Peter Fonda in “Ulee’s Gold” you’re witnessing some characteristics that Peter saw in his father.

47. ___ Diggory, young wizard in the Harry Potter books : CEDRIC
Cedric Diggory is a fellow student of Harry Potter at Hogwarts, two years ahead of young Harry.

49. It’s more than the sum of its parts : GESTALT
Gestalt is a German word meaning “shape”. The principles of gestaltism were developed in Germany in the early 1900s. One of the main tenets is that “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”.

52. Currency pegged to euros : KRONER
“Krone” translates in English as “crown”, and was the name given to coins that bore the image of the monarch. Today, the krone is the name given to the currency of Norway and of Denmark. Some of the Norwegian and Danish kroner have holes in the middle, giving them a “doughnut” or “torus” shape.

The European Union today stands at a membership of 27 states. The Euro is the official currency of only 16 of the 27. The list of states not using the Euro includes the UK, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

58. Pair in a dead man’s hand : ACES
In 1876, Wild Bill Hickok was playing poker in a saloon in the town of Deadwood in the Black Hills in the Dakota Territory. For once, the gunfighting lawman was sitting with his back to the door, something he almost always avoided. He had twice tried to change seats to give him a view of the door, but his card-playing comrades weren’t obliging. An enemy of Wild Bill’s named Jack McCall then was able to enter the saloon without being noticed. He walked up to the table and shot Hickok in the back of the head, killing him instantly. The hand that Hickok was holding contained four black cards, two aces and two eights. Since the killing, black aces and eights in a poker hand have been referred to as the “dead man’s hand”.

60. “Je vous en ___” : PRIE
“Je vous en prie” is French for “you are welcome”.

62. Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, for two : ELIS
Eli is the nickname for a graduate of Yale University, a term used in honor of the Yale benefactor Elihu Yale.

63. Actor George of “CSI” : EADS
George Eads is an actor from Fort Worth, Texas, Eads is best known for playing the investigator Nick Stokes on the CBS show “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”.

Down
1. Big-nosed character of 1980s TV : ALF
“ALF” was a sitcom that aired in the late eighties. ALF was a hand-puppet, supposedly an alien that crash-landed in a suburban neighborhood. “ALF” stands for “alien life form”.

6. Actress Blakley of “Nashville” : RONEE
Ronee Blakley is an actress from Namp, Idaho, best known for playing the country singer Barbara Jean in the 1975 film “Nashville”.

7. Rangers’ home in N.Y.C. : MSG
Madison Square Garden is an arena in New York City used for a variety of events. In the world of sports it is home to the New York Rangers of the NHL, as well as the New York Knicks of the NBA. “The Garden” is also the third busiest music venue in the world in terms of ticket sales.

The New York Rangers is an NHL team, one of the oldest in the league, having joined in 1926. When the Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1928, they became the first American team to do so.

9. Cure-all : PANACEA
Panacea was the Greek goddess of healing. She lent her name to the term “panacea” that was used by alchemists to describe the beguiling remedy that could cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely.

17. “Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-___” (Irish lullaby) : RAL
The song from Ireland called “Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral” was written in 1914 by one James Royce Shannon. The song became quite a hit after it was sung by Bing Crosby in the 1944 movie “Going My Way”.

28. Short marsupials? : ROOS
The name “kangaroo” comes from the Australian Aborigine term for the animal. There’s an oft-quoted story that James Cook (later Captain Cook) asked a local native what was the name of this remarkable looking animal, and the native responded with “kangaroo”. The story is that the native was actually saying “I don’t understand you”, but as cute as that tale is, it’s just an urban myth.

Marsupials are mammals that carry their young in a pouch. Better-known marsupials are kangaroos, koalas, wombats and Tasmanian devils. As you can perhaps tell from this list, most marsupials are native to the Southern Hemisphere.

35. Longtime Las Vegas entertainer : LIBERACE
The flamboyant pianist’s full name was Wladziu Valentino Liberace. Liberace was born in a suburb of Milwaukee into a Polish-Italian family. There used to be a Liberace Museum in Las Vegas, but sadly it closed in 2010 after 31 years in operation.

36. Number of 31- and 37-Across in a 55-Across : ONE DOZEN
Our word “dozen” is used for a group of twelve. We imported it into English from Old French. The modern French word for twelve is “douze”, and a dozen is “douzaine”.

41. One of the Muses : EUTERPE
In Greek mythology, the muses are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. The number of muses is a subject of debate at times, but the most popular view is that there are nine:

– Calliope (epic poetry)
– Clio (history)
– Erato (lyric poetry)
– Euterpe (music)
– Melpomene (tragedy)
– Polyhymnia (choral poetry)
– Terpsichore (dance)
– Thalia (comedy)
– Urania (astronomy)

42. South Korean model : ELANTRA
The Elantra is a compact car made by Hyundai of South Korea.

43. Arm raiser : DELTOID
The deltoid muscle is actually a group of muscles, the ones that cover the shoulder and create the roundness under the skin. The deltoid is triangular in shape resembling the Greek letter delta, hence the name.

49. Tenor Beniamino ___ : GIGLI
Beniamino Gigli was an Italian opera singer, a tenor who made many of the early recordings of the classics, some of which are available today on CD.

50. S.A.S.E.’s, e.g. : ENCLS
One type of enclosure (ENC) in a letter might be a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE).

56. Partner to do-si-do with : GAL
The term “do-si-do” is actually a corruption of a French phrase “dos- à-dos”, meaning back-to-back. And parenthetically, this is just the opposite to the familiar French term “vis-à-vis”, meaning face-to-face. In the do-si-do dance move, the partners start facing each other and then advance past each other’s right shoulder, and then move to the right without turning so that they are now facing away from each other (back-to-back). They complete the move facing in the same direction, passing each other’s left shoulders by moving backwards until they return to the starting position. Did you get that …?

57. Wii forerunner : NES
The acronym Super NES stands for Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Our kids probably have one somewhere …

The Wii is the biggest-selling game console in the world. Two distinguishing features are the impressive wireless remote control and its WiiConnect24 system which allows the console to get messages and updates wirelessly in standby mode. I have my kids unplug the darn thing when they aren’t using it, as even in standby mode it sucks up bandwidth on my wireless network here at the house.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Vigorously pursuing something : AT IT
5. Huggers : ARMS
9. Parisian pig : PORC
13. Vein glory? : LODE
14. Bilgewater : TOSH
15. Profess : AVER
16. Popular kind of 31- and 37-Across : FREE RANGE
18. Das ___ Testament : NEUE
19. Christmas in Italia : NATALE
20. Excavation locale of an ancient Egyptian capital : AMARNA
22. French composer Saint-Saëns : CAMILLE
23. “Look at the facts!” : FACE IT!
24. First of its kind? : ADAM
25. “Marvy!” : NEATO!
26. Droughty : BONE DRY
30. Real stunner? : PHASER
31. With 37-Across, dairy aisle purchase : OOOOOO
33. Tee sign abbr. : YDS
34. Traffic caution : SLO
37. See 31-Across : OOOOOO
38. Gold diggers : MINERS
40. He goes to town in a 1936 movie : MR DEEDS
45. Draw ___ on : A BEAD
46. 1997 title role for Peter Fonda : ULEE
47. ___ Diggory, young wizard in the Harry Potter books : CEDRIC
49. It’s more than the sum of its parts : GESTALT
52. Currency pegged to euros : KRONER
53. It may be hard to prove in court : INTENT
54. Muddlement : DAZE
55. Holder of 31- and 37-Across : EGG CARTON
58. Pair in a dead man’s hand : ACES
59. Feeling of gloom : PALL
60. “Je vous en ___” : PRIE
61. Predilection : BENT
62. Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, for two : ELIS
63. Actor George of “CSI” : EADS

Down
1. Big-nosed character of 1980s TV : ALF
2. Home wrecker : TORNADO
3. Visionary : IDEA MAN
4. Start of a round : TEE TIME
5. Even a tiny bit : AT ALL
6. Actress Blakley of “Nashville” : RONEE
7. Rangers’ home in N.Y.C. : MSG
8. Stack of papers : SHEAF
9. Cure-all : PANACEA
10. One way to prepare 31- and 37-Across : OVER-EASY
11. Together again : REUNITED
12. They make things up : CREATORS
17. “Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-___” (Irish lullaby) : RAL
21. What a young buck might want to prove : MANHOOD
22. Object of some whistles : CAB
27. Desperate : DO OR DIE
28. Short marsupials? : ROOS
29. “___-hoo!” : YOO-
30. Less than fair : POOR
32. Pah lead-in : OOM
34. Precisely : SMACK-DAB
35. Longtime Las Vegas entertainer : LIBERACE
36. Number of 31- and 37-Across in a 55-Across : ONE DOZEN
39. Wholehearted : EARNEST
41. One of the Muses : EUTERPE
42. South Korean model : ELANTRA
43. Arm raiser : DELTOID
44. ___ for life : SET
48. Brunch item : CREPE
49. Tenor Beniamino ___ : GIGLI
50. S.A.S.E.’s, e.g. : ENCLS
51. Stop: Abbr. : STA
56. Partner to do-si-do with : GAL
57. Wii forerunner : NES

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