Day: November 28, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Gaping opening : MAW
“Maw” is a term used to describe the mouth or stomach of a carnivorous animal. “Maw” is also used as slang for the mouth or stomach of a greedy person.

15. “Easy Rider” ride : HARLEY
The Harley-Davidson motorcycle company was started up in the very early 1900s by two childhood friends, William Harley and Arthur Davidson, . Their first design was in effect an engine hooked up to a pedal bicycle, but the 116 cc cylinder capacity simply couldn’t generate enough power to get up the hills of their native city of Milwaukee. The pair came up with a redesigned model that had a cylinder capacity of 405 cc, which the partners built in a shed at the back of Davidson’s house. In 1906, the partners built their first factory, located where the company’s headquarters is to this day, on Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“Easy Rider” is a 1969 movie about two bikers traversing the American Southwest and the South. The bikers are famously played by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, who also co-wrote the screenplay. Fonda produced the film and Hopper directed.

17. Christian symbol used during the Crusades : JERUSALEM CROSS
The Jerusalem Cross is also called the Crusaders’ Cross. At the center of the design is a cross potent, a heraldic cross with crossbars at the four ends. There are also four smaller Greek crosses in each quadrant of the large cross in the center. The design comes from the coat of arms of Godfrey of Bouillon during the First Crusade.

19. Coastal feature : RIA
A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, both formed as sea level rises. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

21. Bit of electric guitar play : HOT LICK
A “lick” is a musical phrase, one often played during an improvised solo in the jazz and rock styles. A “lick” differs from a “riff” in that riffs can include chord progressions whereas licks are usually single-note melodies.

24. Trading insider Boesky : IVAN
Ivan Boesky Wall Street trader who was found guilty of insider trading and served two years in prison. His sentence was a lot lighter than it could have been, as he cooperated with the authorities and informed on others. Boesky partly inspired the character Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas in the 1987 movie “Wall Street”. Boesky used the words “I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself” in a speech delivered in 1986. Gekko said “greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works.”

27. Results of refrigerator raids : NOSHES
Our word “nosh” has been around since the late fifties, when it was imported from the Yiddish word “nashn” meaning “to nibble”.

34. Many an informative tweet : NEWS ALERT
I have never tweeted in my life, and have no plans to do so (but one should never say “never”). Twitter is a microblogging service that limits any post sent to just 140 characters. In a sense, it is similar to this blog. Here I send out a post once a day containing information that I think might be useful to folks (thank you for reading!). I don’t think I could send out much of interest using just 140 characters.

35. Wordsworth’s “___: Intimations of Immortality” : ODE
“Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” is a 1804 poem by by English poet William Wordsworth. That said, the first part of the poem was written in 1802, completed in 1804, and then first published in 1807.

36. New England architectural style : CAPE COD
The Cape Cod architectural style is relatively simple. Cape Cod cottages often have a story and a half, with a steep roof and end gables. There is a distinctive single chimney at the center of the roof. The front door is also place centrally in the wall.

38. Best effort : ALL
Give it your best effort, give it your all.

39. Early Stephen King thriller : ‘SALEM’S LOT
Stephen King’s “’Salem’s Lot” was published in 1975, his second novel. It belongs to the horror genre, so you won’t catch me reading it. The title refers to the Maine town of Jerusalem’s Lot, or ‘Salem’s Lot for short. There’s an interesting story about the actual publication of the first edition. The intended price of $8.95 was changed at the last minute to $7.95, but not all the price changes were made before release. A few copies “escaped” with the dust cover marked $8.95, and they are now worth a lot of money. Go check your bookshelves …

41. Charles, for one : ROI
Charles I was king (“roi” in French) of the Franks from 768 to 800. He was known as “Charles the Great” or , more famously, Charlemagne.

42. Ball opener? : SKEE
Skee Ball is that arcade game where you roll balls up a ramp trying to “bounce” it into rings for varying numbers of points. The game was first introduced in Philadelphia, in 1909.

43. Gulf of Aqaba resort city : EILAT
Eilat (sometimes “Elat”) the most southerly city in Israel, sitting right at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on the Gulf of Aqaba.

44. “… And God Created Woman” actress : BARDOT
Brigitte Bardot is a former model and actress, as well as a noted animal rights activist. Perhaps her best known screen performance is in the 1956 French film “…And God Created Woman” that was directed by her then husband, Roger Vadim.

46. Its highest possible score is 240, for short : PSAT
Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT)

48. Space blanket material : MYLAR
Mylar is a brand name for a polyester film with many uses, one of which is to make reflective surfaces. Mylar can be used to make reflective solar sails, which are a fascinating form of spacecraft propulsion. Believe it or not, reflecting photons of light each provide a small amount of thrust, and enough of them can propel an object in the vacuum of space.

A “space blanket” is a very light-weight and thin blanket made from a thin sheet of Mylar. Space blankets are often used in emergencies as the Mylar gives a very reflective surface, which serves to reduce heat loss from the body. Hikers can also use the blanket to reflect the sun as a signal in an emergency situation.

52. St. Francis of Assisi, for one : ASCETIC
St. Francis founded the Franciscan religious order in Assisi in 1208. He died in 1226, and was declared a saint just two years later in 1228. Construction of the Basilica of San Francesco d’Assisi started immediately after the canonization, and finished 25 years later. The Basilica is now a United Nations World Heritage Site.

54. Chain owned by Wyndham Worldwide : RAMADA
A ramada is a shelter, with a rook and no walls, mainly found in the American southwest. Nowadays, the shelter can be temporary or permanent, but originally ramadas were makeshift shelters constructed by aboriginal Indians from branches or bushes.

55. Hit animated film of 2011 : RIO
“Rio” is a 2011 animated movie about a male blue macaw who is brought to mate with a female blue macaw in Rio de Janeiro, hence the movie’s title. Fans can go see “Rio 2” that was released in 2014.

56. Time of annual madness … or a hint to four squares in this puzzle : BLACK FRIDAY
In the world of retail, “Black Friday” is the day after Thanksgiving in the US. Black Friday is when many stores start the holiday shopping season, and so offer deep discounts to get ahead of the competition.

59. Colorful carp : KOI
Koi are also called Japanese carp. Koi have been bred for decorative purposes and there are now some very brightly colored examples found in Japanese water gardens.

61. Falsetto-voiced Muppet : ELMO
The man behind/under the character Elmo on “Sesame Street” is Kevin Clash. If you want to learn more about Elmo and Clash, you can watch the 2011 documentary “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey”.

62. It has many famous alums : SNL
The list of successful alums of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) includes, to name but a few:
– Tina Fey
– Robert Downey Jr.
– Eddie Murphy
– Billy Crystal
– Chevy Chase

64. Big Sur institute : ESALEN
Esalen is a retreat centre in Big Sur, California that was opened in 1962. The center is located on the coast, about 50 miles south of Monterey. It takes its name from the Esselen Native American tribe that once lived in the area where the institute is located.

Down
2. Singer who was awarded an M.B.E. in 2013 : ADELE
The English singer Adele Adkins goes by the stage name “Adele”. Adele describes her musical style as “heartbroken soul”. Not too long ago, Adele wrote and performed the theme song for the latest James Bond film, “Skyfall”.

4. Ordinary guy: Var. : SHMO
“Schmo” (also “shmo”) is American slang for a dull or boring person, from the Yiddish word “shmok”.

5. XXX part : TAC
When I was growing up in Ireland we played “noughts and crosses” … our name for the game tic-tac-toe.

7. Warm greetings? : ALOHAS
The Hawaiian word “Aloha” has many meanings in English: affection, love, peace, compassion and mercy. More recently “aloha” has come to mean “hello” and “goodbye”, but only since the mid-1800s.

8. Unstable physics particle : MESON
A meson is an unstable subatomic particle, made up of one quark and one antiquark.

11. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” author : ERIC CARLE
Eric Carle is a very successful children’s author and book illustrator, with over 100 million of his books sold around the world. Carle’s most famous title is “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, and it alone has sold 30 million copies.

18. Italian port on the Tyrrhenian Sea : SALERNO
Salerno is a port city on the southwest coast of Italy. In WWII, after the Italians negotiated a peace treaty with the Allies in 1943, the King of Italy relocated to Salerno from Rome. The new Italian government was set up in the city, and for a few months Salerno was “capital” of the country.

The Tyrrhenian Sea is that part of the Mediterranean that lies off the west coast of Italy. It is bounded on the north and east by the Italian mainland, on the west by the large islands of Corsica and Sardinia, and on the south by Sicily.

22. Theater magnate Marcus : LOEW
Marcus Loew was a New Yorker, born into a poor Jewish family. He started out in a penny arcade business and used its profits to buy into a nickelodeon. He built a whole chain of movie theaters, and then moved into the production of films so that he could guarantee supply of features that he could show in his theaters. Eventually he pulled together the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film production company, and sadly passed away just three years after he inked the deal.

24. “Come hungry. Leave happy” sloganeer : IHOP
The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) was founded back in 1958. IHOP was originally intended to be called IHOE, the International House of Eggs, but that name didn’t do too well in marketing tests …

30. Mother of the Freedom Movement, to friends : ROSA LEE PARKS
Rosa Parks was one of a few brave women in days gone by who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white woman. It was the stand taken by Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955 that sparked the Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott. President Clinton presented Ms. Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. When she died in 2005, Rosa Parks became the first ever woman to have her body lie in honor in the US Capitol Rotunda.

32. Electrical transformer : TESLA COIL
A Tesla coil is used to create the high voltages needed to ionize air in those pyrotechnic shows where sparks jump from globe to globe. The same technology was used up to the twenties in spark-gap radio transmitters which were central to wireless telegraphy back then. The Tesla coil is named after the physicist Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla was born in Serbia, but later moved to the US. His work on mechanical and electrical engineering was crucial to the development of alternating current technology, the same technology that is used by equipment at the backbone of modern power generation and distribution systems.

42. Stonewall, say : STYMIE
The word “stymie” comes from golf, and is a situation in which one’s approach to the hole is blocked by an opponent’s ball.

44. Tummy soother : BICARB
“Bicarb” is a familiar term for sodium bicarbonate. Another name for the same compound is “baking soda”. When sodium carbonate is added to a batter, it reacts with acids and releases carbon dioxide which gives baked goods texture, all those “holes”.

45. Baseball All-Star Infante : OMAR
Omar Infante is a professional baseball player from Venezuela who plays with the Detroit Tigers.

47. Tolkien protagonist : BILBO
Bilbo Baggins is the main character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novel “The Hobbit”, and a supporting character his “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

50. Water : ADAM’S ALE
I suppose water was all that Adam had available to him to drink, so that’s how the expression “Adam’s ale” arose (I am guessing … can’t find anything definitive anywhere). The phrase “Adam’s Ale” makes a nice juxtaposition with “the demon drink”!

51. So-called “laboratory’s first gift to the loom” : RAYON
Rayon is a little unusual in the textile industry in that it is not truly a synthetic fiber, but nor can it be called a natural fiber. Rayon is produced from naturally occurring cellulose that is dissolved and then reformed into fibers.

53. Way up? : T-BAR
A T-bar is a type of ski lift in which the skiers are pulled up the hill in pairs, with each pair standing (not sitting!) either side of T-shaped metal bar. The bar is placed behind the thighs, pulling along the skiers as they remain standing on their skis (hopefully!). There’s also a J-bar, a similar device, but with each J-shaped bar used by one skier at a time.

54. Country addresses, for short : RFDS
Rural Free Delivery (RFD) was started in the US in 1891. Prior to RFD, rural Americans had to travel to the nearest post office to pick up their mail.

58. “2 Broke Girls” actress Dennings : KAT
Kat Dennings is the stage name of actress Katherine Litwack, noted today for her co-starring role on CBS’s sitcom “2 Broke Girls”. Dennings is an avid blogger, and you can check out her video blog on YouTube.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Gaping opening : MAW
4. Tees off : STEAMS
10. Salon service : SET
13. Hoo-has : ADOS
15. “Easy Rider” ride : HARLEY
16. Beginning to mature? : PRE-
17. Christian symbol used during the Crusades : JERUSALEM CROSS
19. Coastal feature : RIA
20. Expert : OLD PRO
21. Bit of electric guitar play : HOT LICK
23. Epoxy, e.g. : RESIN
24. Trading insider Boesky : IVAN
26. Ages ago : ONCE
27. Results of refrigerator raids : NOSHES
29. Fathered : BEGAT
30. Prime or crime follower : RATE
33. Small amount of liquor : TOT
34. Many an informative tweet : NEWS ALERT
35. Wordsworth’s “___: Intimations of Immortality” : ODE
36. New England architectural style : CAPE COD
38. Best effort : ALL
39. Early Stephen King thriller : ‘SALEM’S LOT
41. Charles, for one : ROI
42. Ball opener? : SKEE
43. Gulf of Aqaba resort city : EILAT
44. “… And God Created Woman” actress : BARDOT
46. Its highest possible score is 240, for short : PSAT
47. Jam : BIND
48. Space blanket material : MYLAR
52. St. Francis of Assisi, for one : ASCETIC
54. Chain owned by Wyndham Worldwide : RAMADA
55. Hit animated film of 2011 : RIO
56. Time of annual madness … or a hint to four squares in this puzzle : BLACK FRIDAY
59. Colorful carp : KOI
60. One way to study : ABROAD
61. Falsetto-voiced Muppet : ELMO
62. It has many famous alums : SNL
63. Some NASA designs : ROBOTS
64. Big Sur institute : ESALEN

Down
1. Epic : MAJOR
2. Singer who was awarded an M.B.E. in 2013 : ADELE
3. An argument : WORDS
4. Ordinary guy: Var. : SHMO
5. XXX part : TAC
6. Misidentify, e.g. : ERR
7. Warm greetings? : ALOHAS
8. Unstable physics particle : MESON
9. Alphabetizing, e.g.: Abbr. : SYST
10. Cracks, as piping : SPRINGS A LEAK
11. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” author : ERIC CARLE
12. It whistles while it works : TEAKETTLE
14. Flat on one’s back : SUPINE
18. Italian port on the Tyrrhenian Sea : SALERNO
22. Theater magnate Marcus : LOEW
24. “Come hungry. Leave happy” sloganeer : IHOP
25. Expert : VETERAN
28. Assists, e.g. : STAT
29. Sack : BED
30. Mother of the Freedom Movement, to friends : ROSA LEE PARKS
31. What a ticket is good for : ADMISSION
32. Electrical transformer : TESLA COIL
34. Reason to be barred from a bar : NO ID
36. Simple 29-Down : COT
37. Part of a tennis net : CORD
40. One way to be running or working : LATE
42. Stonewall, say : STYMIE
44. Tummy soother : BICARB
45. Baseball All-Star Infante : OMAR
47. Tolkien protagonist : BILBO
49. Big dipper : LADLE
50. Water : ADAM’S ALE
51. So-called “laboratory’s first gift to the loom” : RAYON
53. Way up? : T-BAR
54. Country addresses, for short : RFDS
57. Baby’s sound : COO
58. “2 Broke Girls” actress Dennings : KAT

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