Day: March 24, 2015

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
10. “Doctor Zhivago” woman : LARA
The heroine of Boris Pasternak’s epic novel “Doctor Zhivago” is Lara. The Lara character was inspired by Pasternak’s mistress Olga Ivinskaya.

14. First two words of Genesis : IN THE
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth …

16. “… if ___ a wiz there was” : EVER
“We’re Off to See the Wizard” is a song from the 1939 classic film “The Wizard of Oz”. It was composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics by Yip Harburg. The song is sung three times in the movie, once as a duet between Dorothy and the Scarecrow, then as a trio with the addition of the Tin Man, and finally as a quartet when the Cowardly Lion joins the group. Famously, Buddy Ebsen started filming as the Tin Man, but had to be replaced by Jack Haley. Still, it’s Ebsen’s voice that we hear singing “We’re Off to See the Wizard” as the song was never re-recorded with Haley.

17. Debate team or Model United Nations : SCHOOL CLUB (giving “night school” & “nightclub”)
Model United Nations is an educational simulation in which students learn about diplomacy, international relations and UN in general. Model UN conferences date back to the fifties.

20. Upbraided, with “off” : TOLD
“To upbraid” is to reproach, find fault with, and is a term of Swedish origin.

22. Card game with a bank : FARO
Faro is a card game somewhat akin to Baccarat that was popular in England and France in the 18th century. Faro made it to the Old West, where it became a favorite of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. The origin of the name “Faro” is unclear. One popular theory is that Faro is a contraction of ‘pharaoh’ given that Egyptian motifs used to be common on playing cards of the period. There’s another theory involving the usual suspects: Irish immigrants and famines …

23. World peace and the golden rule : IDEALS
The Golden Rule is also known as the ethic of reciprocity, and is a basis for the concept of human rights. A version of the rule used in the Christian tradition is attributed to Jesus: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

25. Aid on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” : LIFELINE (giving “nightlife” & “Nightline”)
“Nightline” is a late-night news program that has been aired by ABC since 1980. The show was anchored by Ted Koppel until he retired in 2005.

30. Tiebreakers, for short : OTS
Overtime (OT)

35. Queen of Olympus : HERA
In Greek mythology, Hera was the wife of Zeus and was noted for her jealous and vengeful nature, particularly against those who vied for the affections of her husband. The equivalent character to Hera in Roman mythology was Juno. Hera was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.

37. Letters at the end of the O.E.D. : ZEDS
The letter named “zed” has been around since about 1400, and derives from the Greek letter zeta. The spelling and pronunciation of “zee” used in America today first popped up in the 1670s.

The “Oxford English Dictionary” (OED) contains over 300,000 “main” entries and 59 million words in total. It is said it would take a single person 120 years to type it out in full. The longest entry for one word in the second edition of the OED is the verb “set”. When the third edition was published in 2007, the longest entry for a single word became the verb “put”. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most-quoted author in the OED is William Shakespeare, with his most quoted work being “Hamlet”. The most-quoted female author is George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans).

41. 6, in the set [3,5,5,6,6,6,7] : MODE
In the world of statistics, the mode of a set of numbers is the value that appears most often.

45. Not incl. : ADDL
Additional (addl.)

48. Shooter’s position in a fort : PARAPET
A parapet originally was a defensive wall, or a fortifying elevation above a main wall. We use the term now to describe several different structures, often a guard rail on a staircase or a roof. “Parapet” comes from the Italian “parapetto”, which in turn comes from “parare” (to cover, defend) and “petto” (breast).

50. British business abbr. : LTD
In Britain and Ireland the most common type of business (my perception anyway) is one that has private shareholders whose liability is limited to the value of their investment. Such a company is known as a private limited company, and has the letters “Ltd” after the name. If the shares are publicly traded, then the company is a public limited company, and has the letters “plc” after the name.

54. Atrium feature : SKYLIGHT (giving “night sky” & “night-light”)
In modern architecture an atrium (plural “atria” or “atriums”) is a large open space usually in the center of a building and extending upwards to the roof. The original atrium was an open court in the center of an Ancient Roman house. One could access most of the enclosed rooms of the house from the atrium.

58. Xmas poem opener : ‘TWAS
The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was published anonymously in 1823, and is better known today by its first line “‘Twas the night before Christmas”. Most scholars believe that the poem was written by Clement Clarke Moore, a theologian from New York City. Others say that it was written by Henry Livingston, Jr. a poet from Upstate New York.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash …

61. Boxers Muhammad and Laila : ALIS
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 …

Laila Ali is the daughter of the great Muhammad Ali and is a very capable boxer in her own right. Laila is not a bad dancer either, coming in third place in the fourth season of “Dancing with the Stars”.

62. Place where things get stuck : CRAW
“Craw” is another name for the “crop”, a portion of the alimentary tract of some animals, including birds. The crop is used for the storage of food prior to digestion. The crop allows the animal to eat large amounts and then digest that food with efficiency over an extended period. The expression “to stick in one’s craw” is used one when one cannot accept something, cannot “swallow” it.

63. It’s not an automatic feature : STICK SHIFT (giving “night stick” & “night shift”)
A night stick is a special club that is carried by police officers. The term simply comes from that fact that it was routinely carried a night.

66. Crème ___ crème : DE LA
The “crème de la crème” is the elite, the best of the best. The term is French and translates as “cream of the cream”.

68. Capital of Yemen : SANAA
Sana (also Sanaa) is the capital city of Yemen. Within the bounds of today’s metropolis is the old fortified city of Sana, where people have lived for over 2,500 years. The Old City is now a World Heritage Site.

Down
1. Pollination part : PISTIL
The stamen is the male reproductive organ of a flower. The part of the stamen known as the anther carries the pollen, which is picked up by the bee and transferred from flower to flower. The pistil is the female reproductive organ, and it accepts the pollen.

2. Like many N.S.A. communications : ENCODED
The National Security Agency (NSA) was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The NSA has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that established the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the organization’s nickname … “No Such Agency”.

3. Sports Illustrated profilee : ATHLETE
“Sports Illustrated” is read by 23 million people every week, including a whopping 19% of adult males in the US. And that’s every week, not just the swimsuit issue …

4. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” spinoff : RHODA
The seventies sitcom “Rhoda” was a spinoff of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” that starred Valerie Harper. The eighth episode of the show was an hour-long special in which Rhoda married her fiance Joe (played by David Groh). At the time of airing it was the second-most watched television episode in history, second only to the 1953 birth of Little Ricky on “I Love Lucy”.

5. Sign of summer : LEO
Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 13 to August 23 are Leos.

6. Big field in Silicon Valley : TECH
The Santa Clara Valley, just a few miles from me at the south of San Francisco Bay, is better known as “Silicon Valley”. The term “Silicon Valley” dates back to 1971 when it was apparently first used in a weekly trade newspaper called “Electronic News” in articles written by journalist Don Hoefler.

7. Kosher : Jews :: ___ : Muslims : HALAL
“Halal” is a term for an action or object that is permissible under Islamic Law. In particular “halal” is used to describe food that can be consumed. Anything that is not allowed is called “haraam”.

According to Jewish dietary law, “kosher” food is “fit” to eat, and food that is not kosher is called “treif” (or tref).

8. Tempe campus, for short : ASU
Arizona State University (ASU) has a long history, founded as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory in 1885. The athletic teams of ASU used to be known as the Normals, then the Bulldogs, and since 1946 they’ve been called the Sun Devils.

9. N.A.A.C.P. co-founder ___ Du Bois : WEB
The full name of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is remarkable in that it actually still uses the old offensive term “colored people”. The NAACP was founded in 1909, by a group that included suffragette and journalist Mary White Ovington, wealthy socialist William English Walling, and civil rights activist Henry Moscowitz. Another member of the founding group was W. E. B. Du Bois, the first African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University.

13. “All men ___ created equal” : ARE
The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence starts with:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

22. Pot-au-___ (French stew) : FEU
Pot-au-feu is a French stew made with beef and is similar to many stews made around the world, containing cheap cuts of meat with mainly root vegetables and spices. The name “pot-au-feu” means “pot on the fire”, and used to apply to a pot that was kept on the fire during cold weather, with ingredients being added when they became available, and stew doled out when needed.

24. Mischievous Norse god : LOKI
Loki is a god appearing in Norse mythology. In one story about Loki, he was punished by other gods for having caused the death of Baldr, the god of light and beauty. Loki is bound to a sharp rock using the entrails of one of his sons. A serpent drips venom which is collected in a bowl, and then his wife must empty the venom onto Loki when the bowl is full. The venom causes Loki great pain, and his writhing results in what we poor mortals experience as earthquakes.

26. Country with kibbutzim : ISRAEL
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel. Kibbutzim were traditionally agriculture-based, but now are often centered around high-tech and other industrial enterprises. The first kibbutz was established in 1909 in Palestine under Ottoman rule. This kibbutz is called Degania, which now is in northern Israel.

28. Newspaper heads, for short : EDS
Editor (ed.)

39. Downloaded video format : MPEG
The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) was established in 1988 to set standards for audio and video compression. The standards they’ve come up with use the acronym MPEG.

40. Pack cargo : LADE
The verb “lade” meaning “to load” comes from an Old English word “hladan”. Lade also used to mean “to draw water” and indeed gave us our word “ladle”. So “lade” and “ladle” are close cousins.

41. House of Commons figs. : MPS
Member of Parliament (MP)

The UK Parliament is divided into two houses, with the upper house known as the House of Lords and the lower house as the House of Commons. The members of the House of Commons are elected, but most new members of the House of Lords are appointed. Historically, a large proportion of the membership of the upper house were hereditary peers, but recent legislative changes are reducing the numbers who can sit in the House of Lords by virtue of birthright.

47. Queen of “Chicago” : LATIFAH
Queen Latifah is the stage name of the multitalented Dana Owens. The name “Latifah” is Arabic in origin and translates as “delicate, very kind”. Owens found the name and was attracted to it when she was just eight years old.

The wonderful 1975 musical “Chicago” is based on a 1926 play of the same name written by a news reporter called Maurine Dallas Watkins. Watkins had been assigned to cover the murder trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the “Chicago Tribune”, and used the story that unfolded as the basis for her play. Annan became the character Roxie Hart, and Gaertner became Velma Kelly. I’ve only ever seen the movie version of “Chicago” and never a live performance …

49. Geometry students’ symbols : PIS
The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is a mathematical constant, which we denote with the Greek letter pi (π). The ratio pi can be used to calculate the area of a disk, by multiplying the constant by the square of the radius ( πr2).

51. U.S.S. Enterprise journey : TREK
The USS Enterprise is a starship in the “Star Trek” universe (pun intended). There have been several generations of starship with the name Enterprise, starting with the vessel numbered NCC-1701, which appeared in the original TV series. My favorite “Star Trek” series is “Next Generation”, which features USS Enterprise NCC-1701D.

53. Vampire role for Tom Cruise : LESTAT
Anne Rice is an American author of erotic and Gothic novels. She was born Howard Allen O’Brien (no wonder she changed her name!). Her famous series of novels “The Vampire Chronicles” centers on her character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman who was turned into a vampire in the 18th century. One of the stories, “Interview with the Vampire”, was adapted for the big screen in 1994 and features Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and others in a star-studded cast. Not my kind of movie though, as I don’t do vampires …

55. How often, at most, one can be elected U.S. president : TWICE
Since the days of President George Washington, there was an informal tradition that a US President could hold office for two terms, but would not run for a third. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only president to break with this tradition. President Roosevelt was elected to office four times, and died a few months after starting his fourth term. It was President Roosevelt’s decision to ignore the term limit tradition that led to the adoption of the Twenty-Second Amendment of the Constitution, which provides that “no person shall be elected to the office of President more than twice”.

57. Mideast religion : BAHA’I
The Baha’i Faith is relatively new in the grand scheme of things, and was founded in Persia in the 1800s. One of the tenets of the religion is that messengers have come from God over time, including Abraham, the Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, and most recently Bahá’u’lláh who founded the Baha’i Faith.

60. Newspaper publisher Adolph : OCHS
Adolph Ochs was a former owner of the “The New York Times”. Ochs had purchased a controlling interest in “The Chattanooga Times” when he was only 19 years of age, and took control of “The New York Times” in 1896 when he was only 38 years old. It was Ochs who moved the paper’s headquarters to a new building on Longacre Square in Manhattan, which the City later renamed to the famous “Times Square” after the newspaper.

62. Navy rank below capt. : CDR
Commander (Cdr.)

65. Fig. supplied on a 64-Down form : SSN
(64D. See 65-Down : TAX)
The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation, although given its ubiquitous use, it is looking more and more like an “identity number” to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, an SSN was required only for persons with substantial income so many children under 14 had no number assigned. For some years the IRS had a concern that a lot of people were claiming children on their tax returns who did not actually exist. So, from 1986 onward, it is a requirement to get an SSN for any dependents over the age of 5. Sure enough, in 1987 seven million dependents “disappeared”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Shade of white : PEARL
6. Instruction on a frozen turkey : THAW
10. “Doctor Zhivago” woman : LARA
14. First two words of Genesis : IN THE
15. Smooth, as the way : EASE
16. “… if ___ a wiz there was” : EVER
17. Debate team or Model United Nations : SCHOOL CLUB (giving “night school” & “nightclub”)
19. Steady look : GAZE
20. Upbraided, with “off” : TOLD
21. “Now it all makes sense!” : AHA!
22. Card game with a bank : FARO
23. World peace and the golden rule : IDEALS
25. Aid on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” : LIFELINE (giving “nightlife” & “Nightline”)
29. Tennis call : LET
30. Tiebreakers, for short : OTS
32. Drenched with a sudden flow : SLUICED
33. ___ jockey (office worker) : DESK
35. Queen of Olympus : HERA
37. Letters at the end of the O.E.D. : ZEDS
38. Commuter’s reference guide : TIMETABLE (giving “nighttime” & “night table”)
41. 6, in the set [3,5,5,6,6,6,7] : MODE
44. Distance unit on a treasure map : PACE
45. Not incl. : ADDL
48. Shooter’s position in a fort : PARAPET
50. British business abbr. : LTD
52. Suffix with confident : -IAL
54. Atrium feature : SKYLIGHT (giving “night sky” & “night-light”)
56. It may require a proof of purchase : REBATE
58. Xmas poem opener : ‘TWAS
59. Trouble : WOE
61. Boxers Muhammad and Laila : ALIS
62. Place where things get stuck : CRAW
63. It’s not an automatic feature : STICK SHIFT (giving “night stick” & “night shift”)
66. Crème ___ crème : DE LA
67. Apiece : EACH
68. Capital of Yemen : SANAA
69. Count (on) : RELY
70. x and y, in math : AXES
71. Word that can precede either part of 17-, 25-, 38-, 54- and 63-Across : NIGHT

Down
1. Pollination part : PISTIL
2. Like many N.S.A. communications : ENCODED
3. Sports Illustrated profilee : ATHLETE
4. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” spinoff : RHODA
5. Sign of summer : LEO
6. Big field in Silicon Valley : TECH
7. Kosher : Jews :: ___ : Muslims : HALAL
8. Tempe campus, for short : ASU
9. N.A.A.C.P. co-founder ___ Du Bois : WEB
10. Like gambling in Nevada : LEGALIZED
11. Greed : AVARICE
12. Changed from residential to commercial, say : REZONED
13. “All men ___ created equal” : ARE
18. Winning the booby prize : LAST
22. Pot-au-___ (French stew) : FEU
24. Mischievous Norse god : LOKI
26. Country with kibbutzim : ISRAEL
27. Exerciser’s target : FLAB
28. Newspaper heads, for short : EDS
31. Sword cover : SHEATH
34. Leave surreptitiously : STEAL AWAY
36. List shortener : ETC
39. Downloaded video format : MPEG
40. Pack cargo : LADE
41. House of Commons figs. : MPS
42. Acorn, eventually : OAK TREE
43. House builder’s material : DRY WALL
46. Making a call : DIALING
47. Queen of “Chicago” : LATIFAH
49. Geometry students’ symbols : PIS
51. U.S.S. Enterprise journey : TREK
53. Vampire role for Tom Cruise : LESTAT
55. How often, at most, one can be elected U.S. president : TWICE
57. Mideast religion : BAHA’I
60. Newspaper publisher Adolph : OCHS
62. Navy rank below capt. : CDR
63. Captain’s domain : SEA
64. See 65-Down : TAX
65. Fig. supplied on a 64-Down form : SSN

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