Day: April 18, 2015

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
5. Popular Mexican resort, for short : CABO
Cabo San Lucas is a major tourist destination at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. “Cabo” is sometimes referred to as the “Fort Lauderdale of Mexico”.

9. Convenient return option : E-FILE
E-file: that’s what I did with my tax return …

14. Bunker implement : RAKE
Sand traps on a golf course are referred to as “bunkers” on the other side of the Atlantic.

15. Like neatniks and clean freaks : ANAL
Our use of the word “anal” is an abbreviated form of “anal-retentive”, a term derived from Freudian psychology.

22. Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu who found a sailing route around Africa : DIAS
Bartolomeu Dias was the first European known to have sailed around the tip of Africa, in 1488. On his return journey, the Portuguese explorer discovered the Cape of Good Hope, which he originally named the Cape of Storms. King John II of Portugal renamed it to the Cape of Good Hope, signifying the positive outcomes expected from opening up a route between Europe and Asia that didn’t involve a huge overland trek.

23. Maltese, e.g. : LAPDOG
The Maltese is a toy breed of dog. There appears to be no real connection between the breed and the island of Malta.

27. Some dropped tabs : LSD
LSD (colloquially known as “acid”) is short for lysergic acid diethylamide. A Swiss chemist called Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 in a research project looking for medically efficacious ergot alkaloids. It wasn’t until some five years later when Hofmann ingested some of the drug accidentally that its psychedelic properties were discovered. Trippy, man …

30. “Singin’ in the Rain” role : LINA
In the wonderful musical film “Singin’ in the Rain”, the character Lina Lamont (played by Jean Hagen) is the actress with the grating voice who has to be dubbed by Kathy Selden (played by Debbie Reynolds). In reality, Debbie Reynolds’ voice was dubbed by an uncredited Netty Noyes.

31. Alley with a time machine : OOP
“Alley Oop” is a comic strip that ran for four decades starting in 1932. “Alley Oop” was drawn by V. T. Hamlin. The title character lived in the prehistoric kingdom of Moo, although for much of the strip’s life, Alley Oop had access to a time machine. Alley Oop also had a girlfriend called Ooola. I had assumed that Ooola’s name was a play on “hula hoop”, but that wasn’t invented until the 1950s (a kind blog reader informs me) …

33. It runs to the right : TEA PARTY
The Tea Party Caucus in the US Congress is chaired by Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann. The stated focus for the caucus is fiscal responsibility and limited government, while adhering to the groups interpretation of the US Constitution. Top contributors to the caucus are health professionals, retirees, the real estate industry as well as oil and gas interests.

35. Aaron ___, “Thank You for Smoking” star : ECKHART
Aaron Eckhart is an actor from Cupertino, California, although growing up he lived for many years in England and in Australia. My favorite of Eckhart’s performances is as the lead character in the 2005 comedy-drama movie “Thank You for Smoking”.

39. Graham ___ (old Kellogg’s cereal) : CRACKO’S
The breakfast cereal called Graham Cracko’s was introduced in 1978, just like this …

New from Kellogg’s – the great taste of graham crackers for breakfast.
Almost everyone loves the taste of graham crackers and milk.
And now you can have that great taste at breakfast.
New Kellogg’s Graham Cracko’s cereal.
Graham Cracko’s are made to stay crunchy in your bowl, on your spoon, and crunchy when you eat it.
Tomorrow morning, spoon-up that great graham cracker taste.
Kellogg’s new Graham Cracko’s.

40. Their 1982 album “Combat Rock” went double-platinum : THE CLASH
The Clash were one of the original punk bands, one that came together in 1976 in London. Despite their popularity, the Clash only ever had one number one single, “Should I Stay or Should I Go”. Even though the song was first released in 1982, it didn’t make it to the top of the charts until 1991 when it was re-released.

42. Rod and Todd’s dad, in TV cartoondom : NED
Ned Flanders lives next door to Homer on TV’s “The Simpsons”. Ned is voiced by actor Harry Shearer and has been around since the very first episode aired in 1989.

44. Classic 1950 book with the line “It’s your fiction that interests me. Your studies of the interplay of human motives and emotion” : I, ROBOT
Isaac Asimov was a wonderful science fiction writer, and a professor of biochemistry. He was a favorite author as I was growing up and I must admit that some hero worship on my part led me to study and work as a biochemist for a short while early in my career. My favorite of his works is the collection of short stories called “I, Robot”, although Asimov’s most famous work is probably his “Foundation” trilogy of novels.

47. Entrées : INS
“Entrée” means “entry” in French. An entrée can be something that helps one get “a way in”, an interview for example perhaps helped along by a recommendation letter. In Europe, even in English-speaking countries, the entrée is the name for the “entry” to the meal, the first course. I found it very confusing to order meals when I first came to America!

50. Linguistic root : ETYMON
The “etymon” is the word from which another word is derived. For example, the etymon of “Ireland” is “Eriu”, the old Celtic name for the island of Ireland.

53. Foreign state with the capital Panaji : GOA
Goa is the smallest state in India, and is located in the southwest of the country. The Portuguese landed in Goa in the early 1500s, at first peacefully carrying out trade, but then took the area by force creating Portuguese India. Portugal held onto Portuguese India even after the British pulled out of India in 1947, until the Indian Army marched into the area in 1961.

54. Beatles song in which no Beatle plays an instrument : ELEANOR RIGBY
When Paul McCartney was writing “Eleanor Rigby”, he started out with the title “Daisy Hawkins”. He also had a “Father McCartney” in the lyrics, but was afraid that folks would assume that was a reference to his Dad. So, he looked through the phone book and changed McCartney to McKenzie. The name Eleanor was borrowed from actress Eleanor Bron (a fine English actress who had a role in the movie “Help!”). The name Rigby came from Rigby & Evans Ltd, Wine & Spirit Shippers. Whatever it takes, I guess!

60. Emperor crowned in 962 : OTTO I
Otto I the Great, ruled the Holy Roman Empire in the 10th century.

61. “A touch more” sloganeer : ACER
I owned several Acer laptops, which are for my money the most reliable machine at the best price. Acer is a Taiwanese company that I used to visit a lot when I was in the electronics business. I was very impressed with the company’s dedication to quality, and haven’t been let down since.

62. Actress Ward : SELA
The actress Sela Ward turns up in crosswords a lot. Ward played Teddy Reed in the TV show “Sisters” in the nineties, and was in “Once and Again” from 1999-2002. I don’t know either show, but I do know Ward from the medical drama “House” in which she played the hospital’s lawyer and Greg House’s ex-partner. That was a fun role, I thought. More recently Ward played a lead role on “CSI: NY” and was a very welcome and much-needed addition to the cast …

63. “Gigi” composer : LOEWE
Frederick Loewe was a composer best known for his collaborations with the lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, the most famous of which were “My Fair Lady”, “Gigi” and “Camelot”.

In the lovely musical film “Gigi”, released in 1958, the title song is sung by Louis Jourdan who plays Gaston. My favorite number though, has to be “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” sung by Maurice Chevalier. Many say that “Gigi” is the last in the long line of great MGM musicals. It won a record 9 Academy Awards, a record that only lasted one year. Twelve months later “Ben Hur” won 11 Oscars. In the 1958 film, Gigi was played by the lovely Leslie Caron. A few years earlier, “Gigi” was a successful stage play on Broadway. Chosen for the title role on stage was the then-unknown Audrey Hepburn.

64. ___ Martin : REMY
Remy Martin is my favorite brand of cognac (remember that when it’s my birthday!). In China, the name Remy Martin is not used, but rather the more colorful moniker “man-headed horse” which describes the centaur logo on the bottle.

65. Alternative to Beauvais-Tillé : ORLY
Paris-Orly Airport is Paris’s second international airport (after Charles de Gaulle), and Paris Beauvais-Tillé is used by the budget airlines, as it is a 75 minute coach ride to the city center.

Down
3. All right, to 42-Across : OKELY DOKELY
(42A. Rod and Todd’s dad, in TV cartoondom : NED)
Ned Flanders, on “The Simpsons”, is fond of saying “okely dokely do!”

5. “Institutes of the Christian Religion” writer : CALVIN
John Calvin was a French theologian who was especially active during the Protestant Reformation. His system of theology took hold, and later became known as Calvinism.

6. Like the spectacled bear : ANDEAN
The bespectacled bear is also known as the Andean bear. The name “bespectacled” comes from the bear’s coloring, which can resemble eyeglasses. The name “Andean” comes from the bear’s habitat along the Andes mountain range.

8. Some pats : OLEO
Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France announced a competition to develop a substitute for butter, a substitute that would be more accessible to the lower classes and more practical for the armed forces. In 1869, a French chemist called Hippolyte Mege-Mouries came up with something that he called oleomargarine, which was eventually manufactured under the trade name “margarine”. The name “oleomargarine” also gives us our generic term “oleo”.

9. Horticultural problem : EDEMA
Both animals and plants can suffer from edema, a swelling cause by excessive accumulation of fluid.

11. Massachusetts’ Mount ___ College : IDA
Mount Ida College is a private school in Newton, Massachusetts that was founded in 1899 as an all-female high school. Mount Ida became co-educational in 1972, and offered its first bachelor’s degrees in the eighties.

13. Squeeze : EKE
To “eke out” means to “make something go further or last longer”. For example, you could eke out your income by cutting back on expenses. I always have a problem with the commonly cited definition of “eke out” as “barely get by”. Close but no cigar, I say …

18. Like some unhealthy attachments : OEDIPAL
A oedipal relationship is one in which a child exhibits sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex. A child exhibiting such behavior is said to have an Oedipus complex, named for the play “Oedipus Rex” by Sophocles.

24. “Boogie Nights” persona played by Mark Wahlberg : DIRK DIGGLER
“Boogie Nights” was released in 1997, and deals with the pornographic movie business. Burt Reynolds plays a director in the industry. Not a great subject matter, but the movie does have an impressive cast (including Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, William H. Macy and Philip Seymour Hoffman).

29. Big Japanese chip maker : NEC
NEC is the name that the Nippon Electric Company chose for itself outside of Japan after a re-branding exercise in 1983.

34. Metal band with the 1994 #1 album “Far Beyond Driven” : PANTERA
Pantera was a heavy metal band formed in 1981 by two brothers with the stage names of Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell. The group disbanded in 2003. Any hopes for a reunion were dashed in 2004 when Dimebag Darrell was shot dead on stage by a deranged fan.

35. Being abroad : ETRE
The French for “to be” is “être”.

36. 1980s baseball star Lemon : CHET
Chet Lemon is a retired baseball player, who mainly played center field for the Chicago White Sox (1975-1981) and the Detroit Tigers (1982-1990). In his retirement, Chet lives in Florida and coaches two youth teams, both called “Chet’s Lemon Juice”. Cute …

37. “Phantom Lady” co-star, 1944 : RAINES
Ella Raines was a Hollywood film and television actress who was at the height of her career in the early 1940s.

“Phantom Lady” is a 1944 film noir that was an adaptation of a novel with the same name by Cornell Woolrich.

38. Original D&D co. : TSR
Dungeons & Dragons is a complex role-playing game first published in 1974, by Tactical Studies Rules Incorporated (TSR). Dungeons & Dragons was probably the first of the modern role-playing games to be developed, and the most successful. It is still played by lots of people today, including my nerdy son …

45. “Hawaii Five-O” imperative : BOOK ‘EM
Danny Williams is a character on the TV show “Hawaii Five-O”, both in the original version that first aired in 1968 and in the remake that was first broadcast in 2010. The original, “Danno” is played by James McArthur. In the remake, Danno is played by Scott Caan, son of Hollywood actor James Caan. Book ‘em, Danno!

46. Model in a science class : ORRERY
An orrery is an ingenious mechanical device that shows the relative motion and relative positions of the planets in our solar system. The first “modern” orrery was produced in 1704 and was presented to the Irish peer known as the Earl of Orrery, from whence the name “orrery” comes.

48. Cricket infraction : NO BALL
The offense of “no ball” in the sport of cricket is usually an illegal delivery by a bowler.

51. Checker piece, e.g. : OLDIE
Ernest Evans was given the nickname “Chubby” by his boss at a produce market where he worked after school. When he went to make a recording for “American Bandstand” as Ernest Evans, Dick Clark’s wife asked what his friends called him. When she heard “Chubby”, she compared his name to that of “Fats” Domino. She then joked that “Checker” might be a better choice than Evans, given that Fats used “Domino”. And so, Chubby Checker was born.

55. Subject of a 1989 E.P.A. ban : ALAR
The chemical name for Alar, a plant growth regulator and color enhancer, is daminozide. Alar was primarily used on apples but was withdrawn from the market when it was linked to cancer.

56. ___ jure : IPSO
“Ipso jure” is Latin for “by operation of law”. It’s a legal term that I don’t really understand, to be honest …

57. Step on a scale : SOL
Do, re, me, fa, sol …

58. Great Plains native : OTO
The Otoe (also Oto) Native American tribe originated in the Great Lakes region as part of the Winnebago or Siouan tribes. The group that would become the Otoe broke away from the Winnebago and migrated southwestwards ending up in the Great Plains. In the plains the Otoe adopted a semi-nomadic lifestyle dependent on the horse, with the American bison becoming central to their diet.

59. Great Basin native : UTE
The Ute are a group of Native American tribes that now reside in Utah and Colorado. The Ute were not a unified people as such, but rather a loose association of nomadic groups.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Put one’s shoes on? : TROD
5. Popular Mexican resort, for short : CABO
9. Convenient return option : E-FILE
14. Bunker implement : RAKE
15. Like neatniks and clean freaks : ANAL
16. Neither stood out nor bombed out : DID OK
17. Refreshment on a scorching hot day : ICE-COLD BEVERAGE
20. “… and that’s no joke!” : BELIEVE YOU ME!
21. Custom finish? : -ARY
22. Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu who found a sailing route around Africa : DIAS
23. Maltese, e.g. : LAPDOG
27. Some dropped tabs : LSD
28. Athletic unit : INNING
30. “Singin’ in the Rain” role : LINA
31. Alley with a time machine : OOP
33. It runs to the right : TEA PARTY
35. Aaron ___, “Thank You for Smoking” star : ECKHART
39. Graham ___ (old Kellogg’s cereal) : CRACKO’S
40. Their 1982 album “Combat Rock” went double-platinum : THE CLASH
42. Rod and Todd’s dad, in TV cartoondom : NED
43. Quick move? : RELO
44. Classic 1950 book with the line “It’s your fiction that interests me. Your studies of the interplay of human motives and emotion” : I, ROBOT
47. Entrées : INS
50. Linguistic root : ETYMON
52. Put on : WORE
53. Foreign state with the capital Panaji : GOA
54. Beatles song in which no Beatle plays an instrument : ELEANOR RIGBY
57. “Yes, let’s!” : SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN!
60. Emperor crowned in 962 : OTTO I
61. “A touch more” sloganeer : ACER
62. Actress Ward : SELA
63. “Gigi” composer : LOEWE
64. ___ Martin : REMY
65. Alternative to Beauvais-Tillé : ORLY

Down
1. Kind of council : TRIBAL
2. Meet people : RACERS
3. All right, to 42-Across : OKELY DOKELY
4. Liter lead-in : DECI-
5. “Institutes of the Christian Religion” writer : CALVIN
6. Like the spectacled bear : ANDEAN
7. It’s easy to do for an angel : BABY-SIT
8. Some pats : OLEO
9. Horticultural problem : EDEMA
10. With 12-Down, poker target : FIREPLACE
11. Massachusetts’ Mount ___ College : IDA
12. See 10-Down : LOG
13. Squeeze : EKE
18. Like some unhealthy attachments : OEDIPAL
19. Base : VULGAR
24. “Boogie Nights” persona played by Mark Wahlberg : DIRK DIGGLER
25. Able to see through : ONTO
26. The out crowd? : GAYS
29. Big Japanese chip maker : NEC
32. “Puh-lease!” : OH, COME NOW!
34. Metal band with the 1994 #1 album “Far Beyond Driven” : PANTERA
35. Being abroad : ETRE
36. 1980s baseball star Lemon : CHET
37. “Phantom Lady” co-star, 1944 : RAINES
38. Original D&D co. : TSR
41. “Isn’t that special!” : HOW NICE!
45. “Hawaii Five-O” imperative : BOOK ‘EM
46. Model in a science class : ORRERY
48. Cricket infraction : NO BALL
49. Pass on a proposal : SAY NAY
51. Checker piece, e.g. : OLDIE
55. Subject of a 1989 E.P.A. ban : ALAR
56. ___ jure : IPSO
57. Step on a scale : SOL
58. Great Plains native : OTO
59. Great Basin native : UTE

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