Day: June 16, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. *Some boat covers : T-TOPS
A T-top is a design of top for boats that has a T-shape when viewed from the side.

19. Beau’s girl : AMIE
A male friend in France is “un ami”, and a female friend is “une amie”.

20. A lot of the Beatles’ “She Loves You” : YEAHS
The Beatles song “She Loves You” was released in 1963. It was one of five songs that together achieved an amazing feat in the US charts. At one point that year, those five songs were in the top five positions.

22. 1960s TV boy : OPIE
Ron Howard sure has come a long way since playing Opie Taylor on “The Andy Griffith Show”. Howard has directed some fabulous movies including favorites of mine like “Apollo 13”, “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Da Vinci Code”. And today, “Opie” is a grandfather …

31. Brooklyn athlete : NET
The NBA’s Brooklyn Nets until relatively recently were the New Jersey Nets based in Newark. Prior to 1977, the team was known as the New York Nets and played in various locations on Long Island. Ten years earlier, the Nets were called the New Jersey Americans and were headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey.

39. Joint czar with Peter I : IVAN V
Peter I and Ivan V were half-brothers who serves as joint Tsars of Russia between the years 1682 and 1696. Peter was the most influential of the duo by far, and after Ivan died Peter went on to bring Russia into a new age earning himself the moniker Peter the Great.

40. Drink that’s stirred : NOG
It’s not really clear where the term “nog” comes from although it might derive from the word “noggin”, which was originally a small wooden cup that was long associated with alcoholic drinks.

42. Maritime letters : HMS
HMS stands for His or Her Majesty’s Ship and is a prefix used in the navies of some monarchies, most notably the UK’s Royal Navy.

46. France’s Académie ___ Beaux-Arts : DES
The Institut de France is a learned society located in Paris that is comprised of five separate academies:

– The French Academy, which is concerned with the French language
– The Academy of Humanities
– The Academy of Sciences
– The Academy of Fine Arts, which includes Painting and Sculpture, Music, and Architecture
– The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences

47. Grp. involved in back-to-school night : PTA
Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)

57. Symbol of remoteness : SIBERIA
Siberia is a vast area in Northern Asia. The region’s industrial development started with the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway from 1891 to 1916, which linked Siberia to Russia in the west.

61. Romeo and Juliet, e.g. : ELOPERS
In Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, it is explicitly stated that Juliet is 13 years of age, and the assumption is that Romeo is perhaps a little older.

62. Insincere earnestness : SMARM
The term “smarm”, meaning insincere flattery, comes from a colloquial word “smalm” meaning to smear the hair with some sort of styling product.

66. Shul reading : TORAH
A Torah scroll (also “Sefer Torah”) is a handwritten copy of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Shul is another word for a synagogue. “Shul” is the term mostly used in Orthodox Judaism, “synagogue” in Conservative Judaism, and “temple” in Reform Judaism.

67. India’s ___ Coast : MALABAR
India’s Malabar Coast is the name given to the whole of the southwestern coast of the country.

73. Rocky Mountain tribe : ARAPAHO
The Arapaho tribe lived on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. The Arapaho traditionally wintered in small camps in the foothills of the Rockies, and then relocated to plains in the spring where they hunted the buffalo that were gathering to give birth to their young.

79. PC game sensation of the early 2000s, with “The” : SIMS
“SimCity” is a very clever computer game. Players build and grow cities and societies by creating the conditions necessary for people (the Sims) to move in and thrive. “SimCity” was launched in 1989, and to this day it is consistently ranked as one of the greatest computer games of all time.

82. Three-point line, e.g. : ARC
The three-point line on a basketball court is an arc.

85. Tammany Hall problem : GRAFT
The building known as Tammany Hall was home to the Tammany Society, an organization in New York City that came to be the political machine behind the Democratic Party that held sway in New York State from the late-18th century to the mid-20th century. The society was named for Tamanend, a leader of the Native American Lenape people.

89. “N.B.A. on ___” : TNT
TNT stands for Turner Network Television. The TNT cable channel made a big splash in the eighties when it started to broadcast old MGM movies that had been “colorized”, not something that was a big hit with the public. In recent years, the TNT programming lineup is touted with the tagline “We Know Drama”, and includes shows like “Judging Amy”, “ER” and “Cold Case”.

101. Texas oil city : ODESSA
The city of Odessa, Texas has as its symbol the jack rabbit. This is because from the thirties through the seventies the city hosted a rodeo for roping rabbits. The Humane Society applied pressure and the city did away with the tradition in 1977.

102. Company whose logo has a diagonal red arrow : SUNOCO
Back in the late 1800s, Sunoco was known as the Sun Oil Company.

104. J.F.K.’s historic ___ Flight Center : TWA
The TWA Flight Center was a terminal in JFK Airport in New York that was designed by Eero Saarinen. The terminal opened up for business in 1962. The building is now being incorporated into a new terminal for JetBlue Airways.

111. Journalist/writer Herbert : AGAR
American journalist Herbert Agar won a Pulitzer Prize in 1934.

112. Ryan of “The Beverly Hillbillies” : IRENE
Irene Ryan was the wonderful American actress who played “Granny” on “The Beverly Hillbillies”. Ryan was a remarkable in that she had a successful career in vaudeville, on radio and television, on film and on Broadway.

114. Maine-to-Florida rte. : US ONE
US Route 1 runs from Fort Kent in Maine right down to Key West in Florida.

115. Captain ___ : NEMO
In the 1954 movie version of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, Captain Nemo goes down with his ship. In the novel by Jules Verne the fate of Nemo and his crew isn’t quite so cut and dry, although the inference is perhaps that they did indeed head for Davy Jones’ Locker.

Down
3. Gemstone for most Libras : OPAL
Here is the “official” list of birthstones by month, that we tend to use today:

January: Garnet
February: Amethyst
March: Bloodstone or Aquamarine
April: Diamond
May: Emerald
June: Pearl or Moonstone
July: Ruby
August: Sardonyx or Peridot
September: Sapphire or Lapis Lazuli
October: Opal or Pink Tourmaline
November: Topaz or Citrine
December: Turquoise or Zircon (also now, Tanzanite)

4. Lap dog breed : PUG
The pug is a breed of dog of Chinese origin. Our current family pet is a boxer/pug cross, a good-looking mutt!

5. Channel starting in 2003 : SPIKE TV
The Nashville Network (TNN) was a country music cable channel that operated from 1983 to 2003. When TNN closed down it was relaunched with a completely different format as Spike, marketed as “the first television channel for men”.

6. Tennis great Tommy : HAAS
Tommy Haas is German-American tennis player. He grew up in Hamburg and, like many promising tennis players, moved to Florida to develop his tennis skills, at the age of 13.

7. Espionage agcy. with a leader played by Tom Cruise : IMF
It was Tom Cruise’s idea to adapt the “Mission Impossible” television series for the big screen, and it became the first project for Cruise’s own production company. Tom Cruise took on the starring role of Ethan Hunt in the movies, the point man for the Impossible Missions Force (IMF).

9. Nashville-based variety show, 1969-92 : HEE HAW
The variety show “Hee Haw” aired on CBS from 1969-1971, and then had a 20-year run in syndication. The show was built around country music, although the format was inspired by “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In”.

13. “Doctor ___” : WHO
The iconic science-fiction television show “Doctor Who” was first aired in 1963, and relaunched in 2005 by the BBC. The relaunched series is produced in-house by the BBC in Cardiff in Wales, the location that is the setting of the successful “Doctor Who” spin-off called “Torchwood”. The new show is about the Cardiff branch of the Torchwood Institute which investigates incidents involving extraterrestrials.

15. *Works : OPERA
The Latin for “work” is “opus”, with the plural being “opera”.

16. French lord : SIEUR
“Sieur” is the French equivalent of the English “Sir”.

21. Kama ___ : SUTRA
Kama is the Hindu god of love. He is portrayed as a youth bearing a bow and arrows, much like Eros and Cupid.

The word “sutra” is used in Hinduism for a learned text, one usually meant to be studied by students.

The Kama Sutra is renowned for its descriptions of positions that can be used for sexual intercourse, but the sutra includes many other texts that deal with various matters of a sexual nature including how to woo a woman, the conduct of a “chief wife”, the conduct of “other” wives, how to make money as a courtesan and much, much more, as if that isn’t enough …

24. Horror director Eli : ROTH
Eli Roth is one of a group of directors of horror movies known quite graphically as “The Splat Pack”. I can’t stand “splat” movies and avoid them as best I can. Roth is also famous for playing Donny Donowitz in the Quentin Tarantino movie “Inglourious Basterds”, a good film I thought, if you close your eyes during the gruesome bits.

25. Polynesian entertainments : HULAS
Hula is the name of the Polynesian dance. The chant or song that the dance illustrates, that’s known as the mele.

31. Protected goose : NENE
The bird called a nene is a native of Hawaii, and is also known as the Hawaiian goose. The name “nene” is imitative of its call. When Captain Cook landed on the islands in 1778, there were 25,000 nene living there. By 1950, the number was reduced by hunting to just 30 birds. Conservation efforts in recent years have been somewhat successful.

32. Biblical son begat by a 105-year-old father : ENOS
Enos was the son of Seth and the grandson of Adam and Eve.

33. Sleeping sickness carrier : TSETSE
Tsetse flies live on the blood of vertebrate mammals. The name “tsetse” comes from Tswana, a language of southern Africa, and translates simply as “fly”. Tsetse flies are famous for being carriers of the disease known as “sleeping sickness”. Sleeping sickness is caused by a parasite which is passed onto humans when the tsetse fly bites into human skin tissue. If one considers all the diseases transmitted by the insect, then the tsetse fly is responsible for a staggering quarter of a million deaths each year.

34. Protein-rich soup : MISO
Miso is the name of the seasoning that makes the soup. Basic miso seasoning is made by fermenting rice, barley and soybeans with salt and a fungus (!) to produce a paste. The paste can be added to stock to make miso soup, or perhaps to flavor tofu.

35. Poet banished in A.D. 8 : OVID
The Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso is today known simply as Ovid. Ovid is usually listed alongside the two other great Roman poets: Horace and Virgil.

43. Kelly of “The West Wing” : MOIRA
Moira Kelly is an actress from Queens, New York. Kelly provided the voice for the female lion cub Nala in “The Lion King” and its sequel. I mostly remember her for playing a White House media consultant in the first series of the wonderful TV drama “The West Wing”.

46. June honoree : DAD
Father’s Day was added as an official holiday in 1972, although bills to create the holiday had been with Congress since 1913. By rights, the holiday should be called “Fathers’ Day” (note the punctuation), but the Bill that was introduced in 1913 used the “Father’s Day” spelling, and that’s the one that has stuck.

51. Black ___ : MAMBA
The mamba, and most famously the black mamba, is a highly venomous snake that used to be responsible for a great number of fatalities before anti-venoms became available. Mamba venom is a deadly mix of neurotoxins that attack the nervous system, and cardiotoxins that attack the heart so a bite, if left untreated, causes the lungs and the heart to shut down.

58. Wrinkle remover : BOTOX
Botulinum toxin is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. The toxin is a protein that can cause botulism, an extremely dangerous illness in humans and animals. Botulinum toxin is sold under the trade name Botox. Botox is used therapeutically and in cosmetic applications to weaken muscles, perhaps muscles that are in uncontrollable spasm. The cosmetic application involves the paralyzing of facial muscles in order to eliminate or reduce wrinkles, at least for a few months.

59. *Sandy spots, maybe : TRAPS
Sand traps on a golf course are referred to as “bunkers” on the other side of the Atlantic.

63. Novelist Puzo : MARIO
The novelist and screenwriter Mario Puzo, was best known for his book “The Godfather”, which he also co-adapted for the big screen. His name is less associated with some very famous screenplays that he wrote, including “Earthquake”, “Superman” and “Superman II”.

64. Dollar rival : ALAMO
The third largest car rental company right now is Alamo, a relative newcomer founded in 1974. Alamo made inroads (pun intended!) into the market by popularizing the idea of “unlimited mileage”.

72. Jean-___ Picard of “Star Trek: T.N.G.” : LUC
When Gene Roddenberry was creating the “Star Trek” spin-off series “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, I think he chose a quite magnificent name for the new starship captain. The name “Jean-Luc Picard” is imitative of one or both of the twin-brother Swiss scientists Auguste and Jean Felix Piccard. The role of Picard was of course played by the wonderful Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart.

76. Lord’s worker : SERF
A serf was a member of the lowest feudal class, someone attached to land owned by a lord. “Serf” comes from the Latin “servus”, meaning “slave”.

77. ___ 51 (conspiracy theory subject) : AREA
The famed Area 51 is a remote base in the USAF Nevada Test and Training Range. There’s no question that Area 51 is an unusual base in that frontline operational units are not deployed there. It seems that it is used for developing and testing new and classified weapons facilities for the US Military and other US agencies like the CIA. The government did not even acknowledge that Area 51 existed until 1995, and this official position fuelled a theory that the base is home to UFOs that landed on Earth.

81. Dr.’s order : MRI
A CT (or “CAT”) scan produces (via computer manipulation) a three dimensional image of the inside of an object, usually the human body. It does so by taking a series of two dimensional x-ray images while rotating the camera around the patient. The issue with CT scans is that they use x-rays, and high doses of radiation can be harmful causing damage that is cumulative over time. An MRI on the other hand (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), uses powerful magnetic fields to generate its images so there is no exposure to ionizing radiation (such as X-rays). We used MRI equipment in our chemistry labs at school, way back in the days when the technology was still called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI). Apparently the marketing folks didn’t like the term “nuclear” because of its association with atomic bombs, so now it’s just called MRI.

82. Literary olios : ANAS
An ana (or plural anas) is a collection, perhaps of literature, that represents the character of a particular place or a person. Ana can be used as a noun or as a suffix (e.g. Americana).

83. “Les Trois Villes” novelist : ZOLA
The most famous work of French writer Émile Zola is his 1898 open letter “J’Accuse!” written to then French president Félix Faure. The letter was published on the front page of a leading Paris newspaper, and accused the government of anti-Semitism in its handling of the trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus was a Jewish military officer in the French army, falsely accused and convicted of spying for Germany. Even after the error was discovered, the government refused to back down and let Dreyfus rot away on Devil’s Island rather than admit to the mistake. It wasn’t until 1906, 12 years after the wrongful conviction, that Dreyfus was freed and reinstated, largely due to the advocacy of Emile Zola.

88. QB Tim : TEBOW
Tim Tebow is a quarterback playing for the Denver Broncos. Tebow was the first college sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.

91. ___-Babylonian (ancient Semitic language) : ASSYRO
Assyro-Babylonian is a Semitic language that is now extinct, but which was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia.

92. Major-leaguer with three 60+ home run seasons : SOSA
Sammy Sosa was right in the public eye in 1998 when he and Mark McGwire were vying to be the first to surpass the home run record held by Roger Maris. McGwire fell out of public favor due to stories of steroid abuse (stories which he later admitted were true) while Sosa fell out of favor when he was found to be using a corked bat in a 2003 game.

97. Cliché, often : ADAGE
“Cliché” is a word that comes from the world of printing. In the days when type was added as individual letters into a printing plate, for efficiency some oft-used phrases and words were created as one single slug of metal. The word “cliché” was used for such a grouping of letters. It’s easy to see how the same word would become a term to describe any overused phrase. Supposedly, “cliché” comes from French, from the verb “clicher” meaning “to click”. The idea is that when a matrix of letters was dropped in molten metal to make a cliché, it made a clicking sound.

102. “Pursuit of the Graf ___” (1956 war film) : SPEE
Maximilian Graf von Spee was actually born in Denmark, but of a noble German family. By the time WWI started, Spee had risen to the rank of Rear Admiral in the German Navy. He was killed in the Battle of the Falkland Islands (the original 1914 version!). Of course he gave his name to the powerful pocket battleship, the Admiral Graf Spee, which was damaged in the Battle of the River Plate during WWII. The Graf Spee took refuge in the neutral port of Montevideo and when the boat was expelled by the government of Uruguay, the captain scuttled her rather than face the Allied flotilla waiting for her just outside the port.

104. Old satellite-launching rocket : THOR
Thor was the name of the first ballistic missile to go into operation for the US military (actually operated by the US Air Force). Thor didn’t qualify as an ICBM in that it’s range was limited to 1,500 miles, and so was classified as an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM). The Thor family of missiles was somewhat rushed into service as a stop-gap measure while ICBMs were being developed, for fear that the Soviets would get long range missile capability before the US. When ICBM missiles went into service, the Thor missiles were quickly retired, the last being withdrawn in 1963.

108. Shul fixture : ARK
The Torah ark is found in a synagogue, and is the ornamental container in which are stored the Torah scrolls.

109. ___ kwon do : TAE
Taekwondo is the national sport of Korea. “Tae” means “to strike or break with foot”; “kwon” means “to strike or break with fist”; “do” means “way” or “art”. Along with judo, taekwondo is one of only two martial arts included in the Olympic Games.

110. General on Chinese menus : TSO
General Tso’s chicken is an American creation, often found on the menu of a Chinese restaurant. The name General Tso may be a reference to General Zuo Zontang of the Qing Dynasty, but there is no clear link.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. *Some boat covers : T-TOPS
6. Exorbitant : HIGH
10. Eye liner? : BROW
14. Climbed : ROSE
18. “Climb onto Papa’s lap!” : HOP UP!
19. Beau’s girl : AMIE
20. A lot of the Beatles’ “She Loves You” : YEAHS
22. 1960s TV boy : OPIE
23. Start of a trivia question : IF A GIRAFFE HAS FOURTEEN
27. Patriots’ org. : NFL
28. Wallops : KOS
29. Wallops : THUMPS
30. Constellation next to Gemini : TAURUS
31. Brooklyn athlete : NET
32. Latin phrase at the end of a list : ET ALII
33. Three-part : TRINARY
34. Trivia question, part 2 : MORE THAN A WALRUS AND
39. Joint czar with Peter I : IVAN V
40. Drink that’s stirred : NOG
41. “If only you could ___ now” : SEE ME
42. Maritime letters : HMS
45. Assess, with “up” : SIZE
46. France’s Académie ___ Beaux-Arts : DES
47. Grp. involved in back-to-school night : PTA
49. Stitch : RIOT
50. Rhyming honor : ODE
51. Ding, say : MAR
57. Symbol of remoteness : SIBERIA
59. Vocal fanfare : TADA!
61. Romeo and Juliet, e.g. : ELOPERS
62. Insincere earnestness : SMARM
66. Shul reading : TORAH
67. India’s ___ Coast : MALABAR
71. Garden : PLOT
73. Rocky Mountain tribe : ARAPAHO
75. ___ cable (TV hookup) : AUX
76. Cause for plastic surgery, maybe : SAG
79. PC game sensation of the early 2000s, with “The” : SIMS
80. Certain drive-thru convenience : ATM
82. Three-point line, e.g. : ARC
83. Complete loser : ZERO
84. “___ boy!” : HOO
85. Tammany Hall problem : GRAFT
89. “N.B.A. on ___” : TNT
90. Like the earth and some apples : CORED
91. Trivia question, part 3 : A SQUIRREL HAS HALF AS
96. Betrays : RATS OUT
99. Razzers : GIBERS
100. Italian for 95-Down : ORA
101. Texas oil city : ODESSA
102. Company whose logo has a diagonal red arrow : SUNOCO
103. Explorer or Escape, in brief : SUV
104. J.F.K.’s historic ___ Flight Center : TWA
107. End of the trivia question : MANY AS A PIG, WHAT ARE THEY?
111. Journalist/writer Herbert : AGAR
112. Ryan of “The Beverly Hillbillies” : IRENE
113. Info for airport greeters : ETAS
114. Maine-to-Florida rte. : US ONE
115. Captain ___ : NEMO
116. They’re tapped : KEGS
117. Some deli buys : RYES
118. *Cruise stops : PORTS

Down
1. Flimsy, as an excuse : THIN
2. British fop : TOFF
3. Gemstone for most Libras : OPAL
4. Lap dog breed : PUG
5. Channel starting in 2003 : SPIKE TV
6. Tennis great Tommy : HAAS
7. Espionage agcy. with a leader played by Tom Cruise : IMF
8. Present need? : GIFT TAG
9. Nashville-based variety show, 1969-92 : HEE HAW
10. With lots of room to spare : BY A MILE
11. Breathe : RESPIRE
12. Lugs : OAFS
13. “Doctor ___” : WHO
14. Big around the middle : ROTUND
15. *Works : OPERA
16. French lord : SIEUR
17. Wee : EENSY
21. Kama ___ : SUTRA
24. Horror director Eli : ROTH
25. Polynesian entertainments : HULAS
26. Game stopper : RAIN
31. Protected goose : NENE
32. Biblical son begat by a 105-year-old father : ENOS
33. Sleeping sickness carrier : TSETSE
34. Protein-rich soup : MISO
35. Poet banished in A.D. 8 : OVID
36. Level : RAZE
37. *End of ___ : AN ERA
38. Official in a mask : UMP
42. One taking applications : HIRER
43. Kelly of “The West Wing” : MOIRA
44. *What’s in store : STASH
46. June honoree : DAD
48. Be moribund, say : AIL
49. *Move, as a plant : REPOT
51. Black ___ : MAMBA
58. Wrinkle remover : BOTOX
59. *Sandy spots, maybe : TRAPS
62. *Chart-topper : SMASH
63. Novelist Puzo : MARIO
64. Dollar rival : ALAMO
68. It’s said when a light bulb goes on : AHA
69. Cheap booze : ROTGUT
71. *Auto shop inventory : PARTS
72. Jean-___ Picard of “Star Trek: T.N.G.” : LUC
76. Lord’s worker : SERF
77. ___ 51 (conspiracy theory subject) : AREA
78. Mercury and Saturn : GODS
81. Dr.’s order : MRI
82. Literary olios : ANAS
83. “Les Trois Villes” novelist : ZOLA
86. At it : ARGUING
87. Features of some cowboy shirts : FRINGES
88. QB Tim : TEBOW
89. Guttural : THROATY
90. Partition into multiple bits : CARVE UP
91. ___-Babylonian (ancient Semitic language) : ASSYRO
92. Major-leaguer with three 60+ home run seasons : SOSA
93. Sort of : QUASI
94. Ogling type : LECHER
95. Part of a day : HOUR
96. Type type : ROMAN
97. Cliché, often : ADAGE
98. *Late office opening, say : TEN AM
102. “Pursuit of the Graf ___” (1956 war film) : SPEE
103. Lip : SASS
104. Old satellite-launching rocket : THOR
105. Gave out : WENT
106. Motion carriers : AYES
108. Shul fixture : ARK
109. ___ kwon do : TAE
110. General on Chinese menus : TSO

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