Day: March 28, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
13. Waikiki warbler : DON HO
Don Ho apparently had a pretty liberal arrangement with his wife. When Ho was touring with his two backing singers, Pattie Swallie and Elizabeth Gevara, all three of them shared a room together. He had two children with each of his roommates, giving a total of ten kids including the six he had with his wife. The arrangement was quite open, it seems, with all ten kids visiting each other regularly. To each his own …

19. 1974 John Carpenter sci-fi film : DARK STAR
“Dark Star” is a sci-fi comedy released in 1974. Director John Carpenter described the movie as “‘Waiting for Godot’ in space”. That means I won’t be watching “Dark Star” …

21. Baudelaire ou Rimbaud : POETE
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet, noted not only for his own work but also for translating the work of American poet Edgar Allen Poe.

Arthur Rimbaud was a poet from France who was active in the latter half of the 19th century. Rimbaud was described by Victor Hugo as “an infant Shakespeare”.

23. Escamillo of “Carmen,” e.g. : TOREADOR
“Toreador” is an old Spanish word for a bullfighter, but it’s a term not used any more in Spain nor in Latin America. In English we use the term “toreador”, but in Spanish a bullfighter is a “torero”.

Georg Bizet was a French composer active in the Romantic era. Bizet’s most famous work has to be his opera “Carmen”. “Carmen” initially received a lukewarm reception from the public, even though his fellow composers had nothing but praise for it. Sadly Bizet died at only 36 years of age, before he could see “Carmen’s” tremendous success.

32. Sneaker brand : PUMA
Puma is a German company that sells athletic shoes worldwide, but is most famous for producing soccer boots.

35. Fourth of July celebrants : AMERICAN CITIZENS
On 11 June 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five people to draft a declaration of independence. Included in the five were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Adams persuaded the other committee members to give Jefferson the task of writing the first draft. A resolution of independence was passed by the Congress on 2 Jul 1776. The final draft of the declaration was approved by the Congress two days later, on July 4th. John Adams wrote a letter to his wife that included an assertion that July 2nd (the date of the resolution of independence) would become a great American holiday. Of course Adams was wrong, and it was actually the date the Declaration of Independence was finalized that came to be celebrated annually.

41. ___-European : INDO
The Indo-European languages are a large group that includes most of the major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau and South Asia. The Indo-European is the largest grouping of languages in the world.

42. Priebus’s predecessor as Republican Party chairman : STEELE
Michael Steele served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2009 to 2011 and was the first African American to fill the post.

The current Chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) is Reince Priebus. Prior to serving as chairman, Priebus was general counsel for the RNC.

43. Author Sinclair : UPTON
Upton Sinclair was a prolific American author, with almost 100 books to his name. Sinclair’s most famous work is probably “The Jungle”, a 1906 novel about the meat packing industry. Revelations in “The Jungle” contributed to the Meat Inspection Act being passed by Congress a few months after the book was published. Sinclair also wrote “Oil”, published in 1927, which was the basis of the 2007 film “There Will Be Blood” that stars Daniel Day-Lewis.

44. Impressionist Frank : CALIENDO
Frank Caliendo is a comedian and impressionist who made a name for himself on “MADtv”. Caliendo also had a show of his own for while called “Frank TV”.

47. Tolkien baddie : ORC
According to Tolkien, Orcs are small humanoids that live in his fantasy world of Middle-earth(also called “Mordor”). They are very ugly and dirty, and are fond of eating human flesh.

49. Washington player : NATIONAL
The Washington Nationals baseball team started out life as the Montreal Expos in 1969. The Expos moved to Washington in 2005 becoming the Nats. There are only two Major Leagues teams that have never played in a World Series, one being the Mariners and the other the Nats.

54. Year “Othello” was first performed : MDCIV
Shakespeare’s “Othello” was first performed in 1604. The main characters in the play are:

– Othello, a general in the army of Venice
– Desdemona, Othello’s wife
– Cassio, Othello’s trusted ensign
– Iago, the villain of the piece

57. Fiats : DICTA
A “fiat” is an arbitrary rule that is imposed, and is the Latin for “let it be done”.

58. Novelist Ferber : EDNA
Edna Ferber won the Pulitzer for her novel “So Big”, which was made into a film a few times, most famously in 1953 starring Jane Wyman.

61. Maiden name preceder : NEE
“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.

63. ___-culotte : SANS
A “sans-culotte” is a revolutionary extremist. The term originated with the politically active urban laborers during the French Revolution. These laborers made up the majority of the Revolutionary Army and wore “pantalons” (pants) as opposed to the fancier “culottes” (silk knee-breeches) of the bourgeois classes.

Down
2. Soft seat : SOFA
“Sofa” is a Turkish word meaning “bench”.

3. “___ Majesty’s Secret Service” : ON HER
“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” is the sixth of the James Bond films, and the only one to star George Lazenby in the leading role. He wasn’t a great choice for 007 …

5. Company that makes Turf Builder : SCOTTS
Scotts Miracle-Gro Company was founded in 1868 by one Orlando Scott, initially selling seed to the agricultural industry. In the early 1900s, Scotts started to sell to homeowners, mainly supplying lawn seed. The company merged with the gardening company Miracle-Gro in 1955.

6. Cutting-edge product? : ATRA
Fortunately for crossword setters, the Atra razor was introduced by Gillette in 1977. The Atra was sold as the Contour in some markets and its derivative products are still around today.

7. Old group whose members are all represented in this puzzle : THIRTEEN COLONIES
The original thirteen colonies collaborated to set up a Continental Congress that led to the declaration of independence in 1776. There was a larger set of colonies in British America at that time, but the remainder opted to stay loyal to the Crown. The loyal colonies were the British West Indies, Newfoundland, the Province of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and East and West Florida.

8. Like a cool cat : HEP
The slang term “hep” meaning “cool” has the same meaning as the later derivative term “hip”. The origins of “hep” seem unclear, but it was adopted by jazz musicians of the early 1900s.

12. Tom who followed Johnny Carson on NBC : SNYDER
Tom Snyder was a news anchor and radio/television personality who worked for NBC and CBS in the seventies and eighties. Snyder was best known for his late night appearances hosting “The Tomorrow Show” and “The Late Late Show”.

21. “Jar of Hearts” singer Christina : PERRI
Christina Perri is a singer-songwriter from Philadelphia. Perri’s big hit was “Jar of Hearts” released in 2010, which was helped along when it was showcased on the TV show “So You Think You Can Dance”.

24. Relating to songbirds : OSCINE
The adjective “oscine” describes birds belonging to the suborder Oscine, a group that includes most songbirds.

26. Places for sweaters : SPAS
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”.

27. N.F.C. South city : TAMPA
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers joined the NFL in 1976 along with the Seattle Seahawks as expansion teams. The Bucs had a tough start in the NFL, losing their first 26 games. Things went better in the early eighties, but then the team went through 14 consecutive losing seasons. Their luck changed again though, and they won the Super Bowl at the end of the 2002 season.

29. Not for tweens, say : R-RATED
The term “tween” is now used to describe preadolescence, the years between 10 and 12 years of age.

36. Sponsor of an annual science competition : INTEL
Intel is the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips. The company was founded in 1968, and the name “Intel” is a derived from the term “int(egrated) el(ectronics)”.

37. ___ brothers (Hollywood duo) : COEN
I think it’s great to see two brothers working together and being so successful. Joel and Ethan Coen are two movie producers and directors who both live in New York City. The Coen brothers do love the movie-making business and they even married industry “insiders”. Ethan’s wife is film editor Tricia Cooke, and Joel is married to one of my favorite actresses, the lovely Frances McDormand.

38. Numbers needed for letters : ZIP CODES
ZIP codes were introduced in 1963. The acronym ZIP stands for Zone Improvement Plan, a name indicating that mail travels more efficiently when the codes are included in the postal address.

42. Best-selling thriller author Daniel ___ : SILVA
Daniel Silva is a bestselling thriller author from Michigan. Silva’s first novel was a “New York Times” bestseller called “The Unlikely Spy”. Silva followed up with a string of hit novels featuring her hero, an art restorer named Gabriel Allon.

43. Geller with claims of paranormal powers : URI
Uri Geller’s most famous performance is perhaps his uncomfortable failure on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson in 1973. Carson “hi-jacked” Geller on live television by providing him with spoons to bend and watches to start, none of which had been available to Geller before the show aired. Clever!

44. ___ Yards : CAMDEN
Oriole Park is home to the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. The full name of the stadium is Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

46. Cleo of jazz : LAINE
Cleo Laine is a jazz singer from England who is noted for her remarkable range of nearly four octaves. Laine is the only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in each of the classical, jazz and popular music categories. My favorite of her recordings is “He Was Beautiful”, which is also known as “Cavatina” and is a version of the theme from the film “The Deer Hunter”.

47. Several Holy Roman emperors : OTTOS
Otto I through Otto VI were all Holy Roman Emperors.

The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) existed from 962 to 1806 AD and was a territory of varying size over the centuries that centered on the Kingdom of Germany. The HRE was a successor to the western half of the Ancient Roman Empire.

51. Masked assassin : NINJA
The ninjas were around in Japan at the time of the samurai, but were a very different type of warrior. The ninjas were covert operatives, specializing in the use of stealth to accomplish their missions. As they were a secretive cadre they took on a mystical reputation with the public, who believed they had the ability to become invisible or perhaps walk on water.

53. Wise alternative : LAY’S
Lay’s potato chips were introduced in 1938 by Herman W. Lay. Lay started selling his chips out the trunk of his car, travelling all over the US. In those days the chips were pretty much handmade, but Lay put an end to that in 1942. He invented the first continuous potato processor in 1948, and chips started to take over the world!

The Wise Potato Chip Company was founded in 1921 by Earl Wise, Sr.

56. 7 on an old phone : PRS
In days gone by, telephone keypads had three letters written below each of the numbers 2 through 9. These eight numerical keys only allowed for 24 letters, so two letters had to be omitted, namely Q and Z. So, the 7-key has the letters PRS and 9-key the letters WXY.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Beginning with : AS OF
5. Criticize harshly : SCATHE
10. Aging equipment? : VATS
13. Waikiki warbler : DON HO
14. It’s often the last choice : OTHER
15. Full of salt : BRINY
16. Table : DEFER
17. Sets off : TRIPS
18. Didn’t just mislead someone : LIED
19. 1974 John Carpenter sci-fi film : DARK STAR
21. Baudelaire ou Rimbaud : POETE
22. Inarticulate comebacks : OHS
23. Escamillo of “Carmen,” e.g. : TOREADOR
26. Hot spot : STOVE
29. Vacation destination : RESORT
30. Smooth, in a way : PAVE
31. Come and go : RECUR
32. Sneaker brand : PUMA
35. Fourth of July celebrants : AMERICAN CITIZENS
39. Bridge : SPAN
40. Backstage : NOT ON
41. ___-European : INDO
42. Priebus’s predecessor as Republican Party chairman : STEELE
43. Author Sinclair : UPTON
44. Impressionist Frank : CALIENDO
47. Tolkien baddie : ORC
48. Have ___ (live it up) : A BALL
49. Washington player : NATIONAL
54. Year “Othello” was first performed : MDCIV
55. Cheerleader’s asset : SPIRIT
57. Fiats : DICTA
58. Novelist Ferber : EDNA
59. Playground retort : ARE SO!
60. Relish : ENJOY
61. Maiden name preceder : NEE
62. Fills the tank, with “up” : GASSES
63. ___-culotte : SANS

Down
1. Extra : ADDED
2. Soft seat : SOFA
3. “___ Majesty’s Secret Service” : ON HER
4. Pay : FORK OVER
5. Company that makes Turf Builder : SCOTTS
6. Cutting-edge product? : ATRA
7. Old group whose members are all represented in this puzzle : THIRTEEN COLONIES
8. Like a cool cat : HEP
9. Hectic places in hosps. : ERS
10. Not the same : VARIED
11. Connect with : TIE TO
12. Tom who followed Johnny Carson on NBC : SNYDER
15. Swell : BLOAT
20. Yonder yacht : SHE
21. “Jar of Hearts” singer Christina : PERRI
24. Relating to songbirds : OSCINE
25. Blowout victory : ROUT
26. Places for sweaters : SPAS
27. N.F.C. South city : TAMPA
28. It takes the cake : OVEN
29. Not for tweens, say : R-RATED
32. Locked (up) : PENT
33. Reverse : UNDO
34. Trowel user : MASON
36. Sponsor of an annual science competition : INTEL
37. ___ brothers (Hollywood duo) : COEN
38. Numbers needed for letters : ZIP CODES
42. Best-selling thriller author Daniel ___ : SILVA
43. Geller with claims of paranormal powers : URI
44. ___ Yards : CAMDEN
45. Start of “The Alphabet Song” : ABCDE
46. Cleo of jazz : LAINE
47. Several Holy Roman emperors : OTTOS
50. Heed the alarm : ARISE
51. Masked assassin : NINJA
52. Do something about : ACT ON
53. Wise alternative : LAY’S
55. It’s a long story : SAGA
56. 7 on an old phone : PRS

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