Day: June 5, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Sails fixed to bowsprits : JIBS
A jib is a triangular sail that is set at the bow of a sailboat.

A bowsprit is a spar the sticks out at the bow of a boat, extending the vessels length and hence moving the stays for the foremast as far forward as possible.

5. Reform Party candidate of 1996 : PEROT
Henry Ross Perot graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1953, as president of his class. Ross Perot served his 4-year commitment but then resigned his commission, apparently having become somewhat disillusioned with the navy. He was ranked number 101 on the Forbes 400 List of Richest Americans in 2012, and at that time was worth about $3.5 billion.

The Reform Party of the USA was founded in 1995 by Ross Perot with the intent of creating an alternative to the Republican and Democratic Parties. The Reform Party’s biggest success was the election of Jesse Ventura as Governor of Minnesota.

14. Grounded birds : EMUS
The emu has had a tough time in Australia since man settled there. There was even an “Emu War” in Western Australia in 1932 when migrating emus competed with livestock for water and food. Soldiers were sent in and used machine guns in an unsuccessful attempt to drive off the “invading force”. The emus were clever, breaking their usual formations and adopting guerrilla tactics, operating as smaller units. After 50 days of “war”, the military withdrew. Subsequent requests for military help for the farmers were ignored. The emus had emerged victorious …

15. Psychoanalyst Fromm : ERICH
Erich Fromm was a German psychologist. Fromm studied extensively the work of Sigmund Freud, and became very critical of his theories. He was also noted for his political views, and had a socialist leaning. He spent some time in the US and was active in the Socialist Party of America, in the fifties when McCarthyism was running rampant.

21. Vintner’s dregs : LEES
The dregs in wine, the sediment that settles during fermentation (and sometimes in the bottle), is also called “lees”.

22. Some farm machines : DEERES
John Deere invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837. Prior to Deere’s invention, farmers used an iron or wooden plow that constantly had to be cleaned as rich soil stuck to its surfaces. The cast-steel plow was revolutionary as its smooth sides solved the problem of “stickiness”.

32. 2005 “Survivor” island nation : PALAU
Palau is a tiny island nation lying 500 miles east of the Philippines, and 2,000 miles south of Japan. Palau was once a Spanish possession and was sold by Spain to Germany in the late 19th century. During WWI, Japan invaded the islands (as Japan had declared war on Germany) and was awarded the islands as a territory by the League of Nations at the end of hostilities. In WWII the US took Palau from the Japanese in a bloody battle in 1944. Palau emerged from American administration in 1994 and is now a sovereign state.

38. Tumbler, e.g. : GLASS
A tumbler is another name for a glass. Back in the 1660s a tumbler was a glass with a rounded or pointed base so that it could not be put down without spilling its contents, as it would “tumble” over. The idea was that one had to drink up before putting the glass down.

40. Rules’ partners, briefly : REGS
Rules and regulations …

41. Massage deeply : ROLF
Rolfing is a trademarked massage technique, developed by Ida Pauline Rolf in the fifties.

48. Exclamations of tsuris : OYS
“Tsuris” is an informal term of Yiddish originan meaning “troubles”.

55. Part of GTO : GRAN
GTO stands for Gran Turismo Omologato.

58. Work containing 21 epistles : THE NEW TESTAMENT
By definition, an epistle is a writing sent by one person to a group of people, with the name “epistle” coming from the Greek word for “a letter”. The 21 epistles of the New Testament are letters from various of the Apostles to groups of Christians, with most of them being written by Paul.

62. Tower of ___ (puzzle with pegs and rings) : HANOI
The Tower of Hanoi is a mathematical puzzle or game in which different-sized disks are moved around on three vertical rods. The disks start off as a stack on one rod with the largest disk on the bottom. The idea is to move the disks one-at-a-time so that the entire stack ends up on another rod.

63. Sister of Luke, in sci-fi : LEIA
Princess Leia was played by Carrie Fisher in the original “Star Wars” trilogy. Carrie Fisher has stated that she hated the famous “cinnamon bun hairstyle” that she had to wear in the films, as she felt it made her face look too round. She also had to to sit for two hours every day just to get her hair styled. Two hours to get your hair done? It takes me just two seconds …

65. Like “The Biggest Loser” contestants : OBESE
“The Biggest Loser” is an enormous (pun!) phenomenon at this point, with at least 25 versions of the show appearing around the world. It seems to be doing a lot of good for folks even beyond those losing on the show, with spin-off programs in communities all over America. But, it’s not all good news. The first season’s winner lost 122 pounds in two months, 37% of his starting body weight, but since then he gained back all the weight. That’s a shame …

66. Sound suggested by the first letters of the words in 17-, 26-, 44- and 58-Across : BANG!
TNT is an abbreviation for trinitrotoluene. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

Down
1. Movie foes of the Sharks : JETS
Leonard Bernstein’s musical “West Side Story” is of course based on William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. The musical is set in New York City and features two rival gangs: the Sharks from Puerto Rico and the Jets with working-class, Caucasian roots. Tony from the Jets falls in love with Maria from the Sharks. All this parallels Romeo from the House of Montague falling for Juliet from the House of Capulet in the Italian city of Verona.

2. Beatnik’s “Gotcha” : I’M HIP
Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were part of the Beat Generation, American writers who embraced the beat culture of the fifties. The term “Beat Generation” was coined by Kerouac back in 1948, describing the youth of the day who had been “beaten down” and who were refusing to conform to the social norms of the time. The “beatniks” of the fifties, were to morph into the hippies of the sixties.

3. Like a well-behaved niño : BUENO
In Spanish, a well-behaved boy (niño) is good (bueno).

4. Abbr. retired after Gorbachev’s resignation : SSR
The former Soviet Union (USSR) was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the Tsar. Geographically, the new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent to the old Russian Empire, and was comprised of fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs).

Mikhail Gorbachev was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until the USSR dissolved in 1991. As well being associated with the ultimate collapse of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev’s name is linked with the policies of “Perestroika” and “Glasnost”. “Perestroika” (meaning “restructuring”) was his political and economic initiative to make socialism work more efficiently to better meet the needs of consumers. “Glasnost” (meaning “publicity, openness”) was Gorbachev’s policy of increased transparency of government in order to reduce levels of corruption in the Communist Party and government.

5. Pre-euro currency : PESETA
The peseta is the former currency of Spain, replaced by the euro in 2002.

6. One of the winemaking Gallos : ERNEST
E J Gallo Winery was founded by Ernest and Julio Gallo in Modesto, California in 1933. Gallo is the largest exporter of wine from the State of California.

7. Kia subcompacts : RIOS
Kia Motors is the second largest manufacturer of cars in South Korea, behind Hyundai (and Hyundai is a part owner in Kia now). In recent years, Kia has focused on sales into Europe, and has been remarkably successful.

8. N.L.C.S. mo. : OCT
The National League Championship Series (NLCS) is a round of postseason games played by teams from Major League Baseball’s National League to determine which team will go to the World Series.

9. “L.A. Woman” band : THE DOORS
The Doors formed in 1965 in Los Angeles. The band chose their name from a book by Aldous Huxley called “The Doors of Perception”.

12. Predatory seabird : ERNE
The ern (also erne) is also called the white-tailed eagle, and the sea-eagle.

18. Diplomat Root : ELIHU
Elihu Root was an American statesman, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912 for his diplomatic work that brought “nations together through arbitration and cooperation”. Root served as Secretary of State under President Theodore Roosevelt.

19. Post-Carnival period : LENT
In Latin, the Christian season that is now called Lent was termed “quadragesima” (meaning “fortieth”), a reference to the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert before beginning his public ministry. When the church began its move in the Middle Ages towards using the vernacular, the term “Lent” was introduced. “Lent” comes from “lenz”, the German word for “spring”.

27. Word on Moses’ tablets : SHALT
According to the Book of Exodus, God inscribed the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets and gave them to Moses on Mount Sinai.

28. “Illmatic” rapper : NAS
Rapper Nas used to go by another stage name, Nasty Nas, and before that by his real name, Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones. Nas released his first album “Illmatic” in 1994, and inventively titled his fifth studio album “Stillmatic”, released in 2001. Not my cup of tea, I would say …

31. Life of Riley : EASE
The phrase “life of Reilly” dates back to at least 1919. It may have originates in a song from the 1880s about a man called O’Reilly and how he became rich and lived an easy life.

32. Reader’s goal : PART
An actor might read for a part in a play.

33. Mine, to Mimi : A MOI
“À moi” (literally “to me”) is the French for “mine”.

39. Left Coast airport letters : LAX
Los Angeles International Airport is the sixth busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, and the busiest here on the West Coast of the US. The airport was opened in 1930 as Mines Field and was renamed to Los Angeles Airport in 1941. On the airport property is the iconic white structure that resembles a flying saucer. This is called the Theme Building and I believe it is mainly used as a restaurant and observation deck for the public. The airport used to be identified by the letters “LA”, but when the aviation industry went to a three-letter standard for airport identification, this was changed to “LAX”. Apparently the “X” has no significant meaning.

43. Brand owned by Whirlpool : AMANA
The Amana Corporation takes its name from the location of its original headquarters, in Middle Amana, Iowa.

45. Closing bell org. : NYSE
The roots of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) go back to 1792 when a group of 24 stock brokers set up the New York Stock & Exchange Board. They did so in an agreement signed under a buttonwood tree outside 68 Wall Street. That document became known as the Buttonwood Agreement.

46. Some sculptures : TORSOS
“Torso” (plural “torsi”) is an Italian word meaning the “trunk of a statue”, a word that we imported into English.

50. “___ bad moon rising” : I SEE A
“Bad Moon Rising” is a song recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Written by band member John Fogerty, the song was inspired by the composer watching the hurricane scene in the movie “The Devil and Daniel Webster”.

52. Packaging abbr. : NT WT
Net weight (Nt. Wt.)

53. Louisville’s river : OHIO
The city of Louisville, Kentucky was a chartered as a town in 1780 and was named in honor of King Louis XVI of France as French soldiers were aiding Americans in the Revolutionary War that was raging at that time.

54. Sherilyn of “Twin Peaks” : FENN
Sherilyn Fenn was the actress who played Audrey Horne on “Twin Peaks” in the nineties. Fenn also played the title role in the 1993 romantic drama film “Boxing Helena”.

55. Blood type determinant : GENE
The most important grouping of blood types is the ABO system. Blood is classified as either A, B, AB or O, depending on the type of antigens on the surface of the red blood cells. A secondary designation of blood is the Rh factor, in which other antigens are labelled as either positive or negative. When a patient receives a blood transfusion, ideally the donor blood should be the same type as that of the recipient, as incompatible blood cells can be rejected. However, blood type O-neg can be accepted by recipients with all blood types, A, B, AB or O, and positive or negative. Hence someone with O-neg blood type is called a “universal donor”.

57. Hartford insurance company symbol : STAG
The Hartford investment and insurance company was founded in Hartford, Connecticut in 1810. The company was started by a group of local merchants as a Fire Insurance Company with an initial cash injection of $15,000. The Hartford had an annual revenue of over $26 billion in 2012.

60. Org. for Tigers, but not Lions or Bears : MLB
The origins of the Detroit Tigers baseball team’s nickname seems a little unclear. One story is that it was taken from the Detroit Light Guard military unit who were known as “The Tigers”. The Light Guard fought with distinction during the Civil War and in the Spanish-American War. Sure enough, when the Detroit baseball team went into the Majors they were formally given permission to use “The Tigers” name by the Detroit Light Guard.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Sails fixed to bowsprits : JIBS
5. Reform Party candidate of 1996 : PEROT
10. What cats often do in the spring : SHED
14. Grounded birds : EMUS
15. Psychoanalyst Fromm : ERICH
16. Designed for flight, for short : AERO
17. “It just can’t be predicted” : THERE’S NO TELLING
20. Sermon subject : SIN
21. Vintner’s dregs : LEES
22. Some farm machines : DEERES
23. Puts forward as fact : POSITS
25. Come-___ : ONS
26. “False!” : THAT’S NOT TRUE!
32. 2005 “Survivor” island nation : PALAU
35. Guffaw syllable : HAR
36. That certain something : AURA
37. “I ___ the opinion …” : AM OF
38. Tumbler, e.g. : GLASS
40. Rules’ partners, briefly : REGS
41. Massage deeply : ROLF
42. An end to sex? : -UAL
43. Shake hands (on) : AGREE
44. “Later” : TILL NEXT TIME
48. Exclamations of tsuris : OYS
49. How bettors may act : ON A TIP
52. Easy to prepare, in ads : NO-FUSS
55. Part of GTO : GRAN
56. French possessive : SES
58. Work containing 21 epistles : THE NEW TESTAMENT
61. Museum area : WING
62. Tower of ___ (puzzle with pegs and rings) : HANOI
63. Sister of Luke, in sci-fi : LEIA
64. Muscular firmness : TONE
65. Like “The Biggest Loser” contestants : OBESE
66. Sound suggested by the first letters of the words in 17-, 26-, 44- and 58-Across : BANG!

Down
1. Movie foes of the Sharks : JETS
2. Beatnik’s “Gotcha” : I’M HIP
3. Like a well-behaved niño : BUENO
4. Abbr. retired after Gorbachev’s resignation : SSR
5. Pre-euro currency : PESETA
6. One of the winemaking Gallos : ERNEST
7. Kia subcompacts : RIOS
8. N.L.C.S. mo. : OCT
9. “L.A. Woman” band : THE DOORS
10. Figure for a rep to achieve : SALES TARGET
11. Whodunit suspect, perhaps : HEIR
12. Predatory seabird : ERNE
13. Follows relentlessly : DOGS
18. Diplomat Root : ELIHU
19. Post-Carnival period : LENT
24. Hangout for teachers : STAFF LOUNGE
27. Word on Moses’ tablets : SHALT
28. “Illmatic” rapper : NAS
29. Sorry sort : RUER
30. Wanderlust, e.g. : URGE
31. Life of Riley : EASE
32. Reader’s goal : PART
33. Mine, to Mimi : A MOI
34. Hang loose : LOLL
38. Question while covering someone’s eyes : GUESS WHO
39. Left Coast airport letters : LAX
43. Brand owned by Whirlpool : AMANA
45. Closing bell org. : NYSE
46. Some sculptures : TORSOS
47. Headed for sudden death, say : IN A TIE
50. “___ bad moon rising” : I SEE A
51. Surround on all sides : PEN IN
52. Packaging abbr. : NT WT
53. Louisville’s river : OHIO
54. Sherilyn of “Twin Peaks” : FENN
55. Blood type determinant : GENE
57. Hartford insurance company symbol : STAG
59. A patron may run one : TAB
60. Org. for Tigers, but not Lions or Bears : MLB

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