Day: February 10, 2015

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
6. Higgledy-piggledy : AMOK
The phrase “to run amok” (sometimes “to run amuck”) has been around since the 1670s and is derived from the Malay word for “attacking furiously”, “amuk”. The word “amok” was also used as a noun to describe Malay natives who were “frenzied”. Given Malaya’s troubled history, the natives probably had good reason for that frenzy …

10. Turns left, as a plow horse : HAWS
“Haw!” is a command given to a trained animal that is hauling something (like a horse or an ox). “Haw!” is used to instruct the animal to turn to the left. The equivalent command for a right turn is “Gee!” Just to confuse things, the same commands are used in the British Isles but with the opposite meanings. That must be pretty unsettling for jet-setting plow horses …

15. ___-Rooter : ROTO
The “Roto-Rooter” is an invention of Samuel Oscar Blanc. Blanc came up with the idea in 1933 after having to deal with a sewer line in his son’s apartment that was blocked with roots from a tree, a common problem. He put together his first version of the device using a washing machine motor, roller skate wheels and a steel cable. The “rotating rooter” snaked down the sewer line, and rotating blades at the tip of the cable cut through the troublesome roots. Blanc sold his machine for decades to people who set up their own drain clearing businesses. In 1980 the Blanc family sold the Roto-Rooter company to a Cincinnati concern that started buying up independent franchises that used the Roto-Rooter to create the national service with which we are familiar today. My advice is to save yourself the cost of the service call and just rent a machine. That’s what I do …

16. Take too much of, briefly : OD ON
Overdose (OD)

20. Cries at a plaza de toros : OLES
We translate the Spanish phrase “Plaza de Toros” as “bullring”, and bullfighting is known as “corrida de toros” in Spain. Bullfighting can also be seen in Portugal, southern France and in parts of Latin America.

27. “The Star-Spangled Banner” opening : O SAY
“O say can you see by the dawn’s early light” us the opening line of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key.

The lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner” were written first as a poem by Francis Scott Key, inspired by the bombarding by the British of the American forces at Fort McHenry that he witnessed during the Battle of Baltimore in September 1814. The words were then set to the tune of a popular British drinking song penned by John Stafford Smith called “The Anacreontic Song”, with the Anacreontic Society being a men’s club in London.

29. Part of N.B.A.: Abbr. : NATL
National Basketball Association (NBA)

30. Port-au-Prince’s home : HAITI
The Republic of Haiti occupies the smaller, western portion of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. The rest of the island is taken up by the Dominican Republic. Haiti is one of only two nations in the Americas to have French as an official language, the other being Canada.

The capital city of Haiti is Port-au-Prince. The city was hit by a devastating earthquake in January of 2010. The official government estimate of the death toll stands at 230,000 people, with many bodies never recovered.

32. Crack, as lips : CHAP
The verb “to chap” means “to crack”, and has been used to mean a crack in the skin since way back in the 14th century.

38. The ailing meteorologist was … : UNDER THE WEATHER
“Meteorology” is the science dealing with weather and weather conditions. The term comes into English via French from the Greek “meteoron” meaning “thing high up” and “-logia” meaning “treatment of”.

41. Two, for binary arithmetic : BASE
We use a base ten numbering system, with ten digits (0 – 9). The binary system, or base two, uses just two digits (0 & 1). The binary system is used at a fundamental level in computing, because the number 0 and 1 can be represented by microcircuits being switched “on” or “off”.

42. “___ kleine Nachtmusik” : EINE
Mozart’s Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, is better known as “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”, which translates into “a little serenade”, but the more literal English translation of “a little night music” is often used. It is a delightful piece in four, very recognizable movements, although there is much debate about a “lost” fifth movement.

43. Lowly workers : PEONS
A peon is a lowly worker with no real control over his/her working conditions. The word comes into English from Spanish where it has the same meaning.

55. Like two U.N. secretaries general : ASIAN
To date, there have been two UN secretaries general from Asia: U Thant and Ban Ki-moon.

U Thant was a diplomat from Burma who serv
ed as the third Secretary-General of the United Nations, taking over from Dag Hammarskjöld. In Burmese, he was known as Pantanaw U Thant. The “U” is an honorific in Burmese, simply the equivalent of “Mr.” in English.

Ban Ki-Moon is the current Secretary-General of the United Nations. He is from South Korea and spent most of his working life as a diplomat for his country, before taking the post of Foreign Minister in the South Korean government. He will continue as UN Secretary-General until the end of 2016, having been unanimously re-elected by the General Assembly to a second term.

56. Fashion inits. : YSL
Yves Saint-Laurent was a French fashion designer, actually born in Algeria. Saint-Laurent started off working as an assistant to Christian Dior at the age of 17. Dior died just four years later, and as a very young man Saint-Laurent was named head of the House of Dior. However, in 1950 Saint-Laurent was conscripted into the French Army and ended up in a military hospital after suffering a mental breakdown from the hazing inflicted on him by his fellow soldiers. His treatment included electroshock therapy and administration of sedatives and psychoactive drugs. He was released from prison, managed to pull his life back together and started his own fashion house. A remarkable story …

57. Possible result of owing money : REPO
Repossession (repo)

58. British gun : STEN
The STEN gun is an iconic armament that was used by the British military. The name STEN is an acronym. The S and the T comes from the name of the gun’s designers, Shepherd and Turpin. The EN comes from the Enfield brand name, which in turn comes from the Enfield location where the guns were manufactured for the Royal Small Arms Factory, an enterprise owned by the British government.

63. Capital of Qatar : DOHA
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar located on the Persian Gulf. The name “Doha” translates from Arabic as “the big tree”.

Qatar is a sovereign state in the Middle East occupying the Qatar Peninsula, itself located in the Arabian Peninsula. Qatar lies on the Persian Gulf and shares one land border, with Saudi Arabia to the south. Qatar has more oil and gas reserves per capita of population than any other country in the world. In 2010, Qatar had the fastest growing economy in the world, driven by the petrochemical industry.

67. Hunts and pecks, e.g. : TYPES
Two-fingered typing is sometimes called “hunting and pecking”. The typist hunts for the requisite key and then “pecks” like a hen with one finger.

Down
1. Stuck-up sort : SNOOT
“Snoot” is a variant of “snout” and is a word that originated in Scotland. The idea is that someone who is “snooty”, or snouty, tends to look down his or her nose at the rest of the world.

2. Funny Poundstone : PAULA
Paula Poundstone is a stand-up comedian who grew up in Sudbury, Massachusetts. She is a regular panelist on the NPR weekly news quiz show “Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me”. I had the privilege of seeing Poundstone performing in a local theater not so long ago, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

3. Popular 1980s arcade game : ASTEROIDS
I remember being quite addicted to the Atari video arcade game called “Asteroids” back in the early eighties. Apparently I wasn’t the only one, as “Asteroids” was Atari’s best selling game of all time.

4. Ski resort whose name is an anagram of 34-Across : TAOS
The city of Taos, New Mexico is named for the Native American village nearby called Taos Pueblo. Taos is famous for its art colony. Artists began to settle in Taos in 1899, and the Taos Society of Artists was founded in 1915.

7. Prized mushroom : MOREL
The morel is that genus of mushroom with the honeycomb-like structure on the cap. They’re highly prized, especially in French cuisine. Morels should never be eaten raw as they are toxic, with the toxins being removed by thorough cooking.

8. Baseball’s Mel : OTT
At 5′ 9″, Mel Ott weighed just 170 lb (I don’t think he took steroids!) and yet he was the first National League player to hit over 500 home runs. Sadly, Ott died in a car accident in New Orleans in 1958 when he was only 49 years old.

9. 37 bout results for Muhammad Ali, informally : KOS
Muhammad Ali won 56 professional fights, 37 of which were knockouts. He lost 5 fights, 4 being decisions and one being a technical knockout (TKO). The TKO-loss was Ali’s second-last fight, against Larry Holmes. By the time Ali took on Holmes, he was already showing signs of Parkinson’s Syndrome, although the diagnosis would not come until four years later. Ali turned out for his last two fights largely because he needed the money. A sad end to a career, I’d say …

11. “Goodbye” : ADIEU
“Adieu” is the French for “goodbye” or “farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God”. The plural of “adieu” is “adieux”.

12. Half of humanity, to some feminists : WOMYN
Some feminists use an alternative spelling for the word “women”, including “womyn” and “womban”.

18. Chop ___ : SUEY
Many believe that the Chinese dish known as chop suey was invented in America, by Chinese immigrants. In fact, by the time it showed up in the US it already existed in the Taishan district of Guangdong in southeast China, the origin of many of those immigrants. “Chop suey” translates as “assorted pieces”, and is made up of some meat and eggs quickly cooked with vegetables in a thickened sauce.

22. Snorkel, in “Beetle Bailey”: Abbr. : SGT
Sgt. Snorkel (“Sarge”) is Beetle Bailey’s nemesis in the cartoon strip that bears his name. Snorkel has a dog called Otto that he dresses up to look just like himself. Otto started off as a regular dog, but artist Mort Walker decide to draw him more like his owner, and soon Otto became a big hit.

24. Place to see a Ferris wheel : FAIR
The first Ferris Wheel was built for the Chicago World’s Fair (officially known as the “World’s Columbian Exposition”) in 1893. That wheel was designed and constructed by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr. who lent his name to wheels built from then on.

28. Caribbean percussion groups : STEEL BANDS
The musical style of calypso originated in Trinidad and Tobago, but there seems to be some debate about which influences were most important as the genre developed. It is generally agreed that the music was imported by African slaves from their homeland, but others emphasize influences of the medieval French troubadours. To me it sounds more African in nature. Calypso reached the masses when it was first recorded in 1912, and it spread around the world in the thirties and forties. It reached its pinnacle with the release of the famous “Banana Boat Song” by Harry Belafonte.

31. Flag carrier of Japan : ANA
All Nippon Airways (ANA) is a Japanese airline, second in size only to Japan Airlines (JAL).

I always considered Japan Airlines (JAL) as the Japanese flag carrier …

32. Pants material : CHINO
Chino is a twill cloth most often used to make hard-wearing pants. The pants have come to be referred to as chinos. Chino cloth was originally developed for use by the military, but quickly became popular with civilians.

33. “The Little Red ___” : HEN
“The Little Red Hen” is an old folk tale, probably from Russia. In the story, the little red hen finds a grain of wheat and asks for help to plant it. “Not I” is the response she gets, repeatedly. She does the work herself, eventually baking bread from the harvested grain. She asks for help in eating the bread, and gets lots of volunteers. But, the hen decides to save the bread for herself and her chicks, seeing as no one would help her plant the wheat in the first place.

37. Hosp. areas where you might hear “Scalpel, please” : ORS
Operating room (OR)

39. Blue shade : TEAL
The beautiful color of teal takes it name from the duck called a “teal”, which has dark greenish-blue (teal) markings on its head and wings.

48. ___ Martin : ASTON
Aston Martin is a British car manufacturer, founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin. The Aston part of the company name comes from Aston Hill, a famous site for hill-climbing cars that is nearby the original factory. Aston Martin cars are much loved by the British entertainment industry. Of course James Bond was given one in “Goldfinger”, and Michael Caine drove one in the 1969 version of “The Italian Job”. Roger Moore’s character drove a yellow Aston Martin in the seventies television show “The Persuaders!”.

49. 150 bushels an acre, e.g. : YIELD
In the imperial system of weights and measures, a bushel is a unit of dry volume made up of 4 pecks. In the US system, a bushel is a dry volume of 8 gallons. We have used the term “bushel” to mean “large quantity” since the 14th century.

50. George who signed the Declaration of Independence : WYTHE
George Wythe was a representative for Virginia to the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention. Wythe was also the first of the Virginia representatives to sign the Declaration of Independence. He taught law at the College of William and Mary, and in 1779 became the US’s first law professor.

53. Beatles record label : APPLE
The Beatles founded their own record label in 1968, Apple Records. When singles were released, the A-side had the image of a Granny Smith apple on the label, with the B-side label showing the midsection of the same apple cut in half. Cute …

54. Blog entries : POSTS
Many folks who visit this website regard it as just that, a website. That is true, but more correctly it is referred to as a blog, as I make regular posts (actually daily posts) which then occupy the “front page” of the site. The blog entries are in reverse chronological order, and one can just look back day-by-day, reading older and older posts. Blog is a contraction of the term “web log”.

57. Former New York mayor Giuliani : RUDY
Rudy Giuliani became known around the world as he stepped up and led his city so well during the terrible days following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. His actions that September earned him a number of accolades. He was named as “Time” magazine’s person of the year, and was given an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.

59. Checkpoint necessities : IDS
ID (identity document)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Flood : SPATE
6. Higgledy-piggledy : AMOK
10. Turns left, as a plow horse : HAWS
14. Like some country-and-western singing : NASAL
15. ___-Rooter : ROTO
16. Take too much of, briefly : OD ON
17. The ailing postal worker was … : OUT OF SORTS
19. Have a silent role? : MIME
20. Cries at a plaza de toros : OLES
21. Put to good ___ : USE
22. “Bye!” : SEE YA!
23. Blacken : TAR
24. The ailing rock star was … : FEELING PUNK
27. “The Star-Spangled Banner” opening : O SAY
29. Part of N.B.A.: Abbr. : NATL
30. Port-au-Prince’s home : HAITI
32. Crack, as lips : CHAP
34. Concerning : AS TO
38. The ailing meteorologist was … : UNDER THE WEATHER
41. Two, for binary arithmetic : BASE
42. “___ kleine Nachtmusik” : EINE
43. Lowly workers : PEONS
44. Nonfatty : LEAN
46. Dollar : U.S. :: ___ : Cuba : PESO
47. The ailing golfer was … : WAY BELOW PAR
52. Keg part : TAP
55. Like two U.N. secretaries general : ASIAN
56. Fashion inits. : YSL
57. Possible result of owing money : REPO
58. British gun : STEN
59. The ailing trash collector was … : IN THE DUMPS
62. Related : TOLD
63. Capital of Qatar : DOHA
64. Movie ticket category : ADULT
65. Make ___ meet : ENDS
66. Dish with a little of this and a little of that : STEW
67. Hunts and pecks, e.g. : TYPES

Down
1. Stuck-up sort : SNOOT
2. Funny Poundstone : PAULA
3. Popular 1980s arcade game : ASTEROIDS
4. Ski resort whose name is an anagram of 34-Across : TAOS
5. One with pointy ears : ELF
6. Came up : AROSE
7. Prized mushroom : MOREL
8. Baseball’s Mel : OTT
9. 37 bout results for Muhammad Ali, informally : KOS
10. Where umpires umpire : HOME PLATES
11. “Goodbye” : ADIEU
12. Half of humanity, to some feminists : WOMYN
13. Furtive sort : SNEAK
18. Chop ___ : SUEY
22. Snorkel, in “Beetle Bailey”: Abbr. : SGT
24. Place to see a Ferris wheel : FAIR
25. Amazed : IN AWE
26. Where a redneck gets red : NAPE
28. Caribbean percussion groups : STEEL BANDS
30. Center : HUB
31. Flag carrier of Japan : ANA
32. Pants material : CHINO
33. “The Little Red ___” : HEN
35. Typical western : SHOOT ‘EM UP
36. X : TEN
37. Hosp. areas where you might hear “Scalpel, please” : ORS
39. Blue shade : TEAL
40. One doing impressions : APER
45. Time after dusk, to poets : E’EN
46. Susceptible to sunburn : PALE
47. Garbage : WASTE
48. ___ Martin : ASTON
49. 150 bushels an acre, e.g. : YIELD
50. George who signed the Declaration of Independence : WYTHE
51. Sarcastic “Oh, sure” : PSHAW
53. Beatles record label : APPLE
54. Blog entries : POSTS
57. Former New York mayor Giuliani : RUDY
59. Checkpoint necessities : IDS
60. With 61-Down, what “dis” is? : NOT
61. See 60-Down : DAT

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