Day: October 24, 2015

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Cover for a Muslim woman’s face : NIQAB
Some Muslim women wear a hijab in the presence of males outside of their immediate family. A hijab is a veil covering the head and chest. Some also wear a niqab as part of the hijab, which is a cloth that covers the face. Other Muslim women wear a burqa, which covers the whole body from the top of the head to the ground.

15. Pseudonym of Freud’s famed hysteria patient : DORA
“Dora” was the pseudonym that Sigmund Freud gave to one of his patients called Ida Bauer, whom he diagnosed with hysteria. He used the pseudonym in writing about the case to preserve her anonymity. He chose that particular name as growing up his sister’s nursemaid had to surrender her own name of Rosa to avoid confusion with Rosa, Freud’s sister. The nursemaid chose the name Dora.

18. Really, informally : UBER
“Uber” is the German word for “over”. We have absorbed “uber” into English to mean “very”.

19. Mister abroad : HERR
In Germany, a “Mr.” (Herr) is married to a “Mrs.” (Frau).

20. Bank opening? : CITI-
During the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, the US government rescued Citibank by providing loan guarantees and two payments of $25 billion each. It turns out that the government made a tidy profit on that deal, as Citibank has since repaid the loans in full, along with interest.

23. Cosmopolitan place : BAR
Like so many famous cocktails, the actual origins of the cosmopolitan are disputed. It is a nice drink though. One of the standard recipes is 4 parts citrus vodka, 1.5 parts Cointreau, 1.5 parts lime juice and 3 parts cranberry juice.

26. Epoch when horses first appeared : EOCENE
The Eocene Epoch lasted from 56 to 34 million years ago, and is noted for the emergence of the first mammals on the planet.

28. Course material, maybe : SOD
I guess the idea is that one might use sod on a golf course.

29. Religious grp. observing Family Home Evening : LDS
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often abbreviated to “LDS”, is known colloquially as the Mormon Church.

Members of the LDS Church are encouraged to hold a Family Home Evening (also known as “Family Night”) at their home one night per week. Such an evening can involves games, treats and a short lesson.

31. Don Juans : LATIN LOVERS
Don Juan is a flighty character who has been featured by a number of authors, poets and composers, including Molière, Byron, and Mozart. In the underlying legend, Don Juan ends up talking to the statue of the dead father of one of his conquests. Don Juan dines with the ghost of the dead man and when shaking the hand of the ghost he is dragged away to hell. We now use the term “Don Juan” to describe any womanizer or ladies’ man.

33. Publishing option when all else fails : VANITY PRESS
A vanity press is a publishing house in which authors pay to have their works published.

35. Some Medal of Honor recipients : AIR ACES
The highest military decoration awarded for gallantry is the Medal of Honor. The second highest medal is specific to the service, namely the Distinguished Service Cross (Army), the Navy Cross (Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard) and the Air Force Cross. The third highest award is the Silver Star.

36. Faxon who won a 2011 screenwriting Oscar : NAT
Nat Faxon is a comedian and screenwriter. As an actor, Faxon stars in the comedy series “Ben and Kate” that ran from 2012 to 2013, and in the comedy series “Married” that premiered in 2014. As a screenwriter, Faxon won an Oscar for co-writing the 2011 movie “The Descendants” starring George Clooney.

37. Sch. yardstick : GPA
Grade point average (GPA)

43. What you might hear halting speech in, for short : ESL
English as a Second Language (ESL) is sometimes referred to as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

46. Fly-by-night? : MOTH
It isn’t really understood why moths are attracted to artificial lights. There is one theory that sounds plausible to me though. It is suggested that moths navigate at night by maintaining the moon (the brightest celestial object) at a fixed angle. When a moth finds a brighter light source, like an artificial light, it gets confused.

47. Moving walkway maker : OTIS
The first moving walkway was installed at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

Otis is a manufacturer of elevators, escalators and moving walkways. By some accounts, Otis is the world’s most popular transportation company, with the equivalent of the whole world’s population travelling on Otis devices every few days.

49. Willy of the “Free Willy” movies, e.g. : ORCA
The orca that starred in the 1993 movie “Free Willy” was actually called Keiko, with Willy being his “stage name”. Keiko had a sad life. He was captured near Iceland in 1979 and sold to a local aquarium. Subsequently he was sold on to Marineland in Ontario, and then Six Flags Mexico in 1985. After starring in the movie, his fans raised money with the intent of returning Keiko to the wild. Keiko had become very ill, partly from being confined in a small tank in Mexico, so a lot of money had to be spent returning him to good health. He was purchased by the Oregon Coast Aquarium who undertook the task of treating him and preparing him for the wild. You might recall the dramatic journey he took from Mexico to Oregon in US Air Force transport plane in 1996. Having regained his health, he was flown to Iceland and there was gradually reintroduced into the wild. Sadly, Keiko did not fare too well back in the ocean. He was never adopted by a pod, so lived a solitary life. He lost weight, would sometimes follow fishing boats and play with any humans who would give him attention. In 2003 he beached himself in Taken Bay in Norway, where he died.

52. Starter on square a1, h1, a8 or h8 : ROOK
The corner piece in the game of chess is a called a rook, a word coming from the Persian word “rokh” meaning a “chariot”. The rook has also been called, perhaps incorrectly, the castle, tower, marquess or rector.

54. Singer who has recorded in Tolkien’s Elvish language : ENYA
The Irish singer Enya wrote and performed two songs for the 2001 film “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”. Her song “May It Be” was nominated to that season’s Best Original Song Academy Award. The second number, called “Aniron”, was sung in Tolkien’s Elvish language called Sindarin.

Down
1. Two of Ferdinand VII’s wives, to Ferdinand VII : NIECES
King Ferdinand VII of Spain married four times. Ferdinand’s first wife was his first cousin. She bore no children, with two pregnancies ending in miscarriage. His second wife was his niece. She bore two daughters, one of whom died at only five months old, and the other who was stillborn. Ferdinand’s third wife was not closely related, but she bore him no children. His fourth wife was another niece, and the happy couple had two daughters together.

2. How many experiments are done : IN VIVO
An experiment that is conducted “in vivo” is done so on living organisms in a natural environment. Experiments conducted “in vitro” are performed in the laboratory. “In vivo” translates from Latin as “within the living”, and “in vitro” as “within the glass”.

3. Like Yogi Berra, often : QUOTED
Yogi Berra is regarded by many as the greatest catcher ever to play in Major League Baseball, and has to be America’s most celebrated “author” of malapropisms. Here are some greats:

– “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
– “90% of the game is half mental.”
– “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
– (giving directions) “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
– “It’s déjà vu all over again.”
– “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.”
– “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”

4. “Little Miss Sunshine” Oscar winner : ARKIN
The actor Alan Arkin won his only Oscar (Best Supporting Actor) for his role in “Little Miss Sunshine” from 2006, a movie that I just did not understand …

5. Fancier of melliferous plants : BEE
Something that is “melliferous” yields honey. A melliferous plant is one that produces substances that can be collected by bees and turned into honey. “Mel” is a Latin word meaning “honey”.

6. Net Nanny no-nos : ADULT SITES
Net Nanny is a piece of software that parents, for example, can use to control a child’s online access to the Internet.

9. Instruments for old street musicians : BARREL ORGANS
The workings of a barrel organ are based on the same principle as a traditional organ, with music played by air passed through pipes. However, a barrel organ isn’t played by a trained organist, but rather by an operator who simply turns a crank. The sequence of notes played on a barrel organ are encoded on wooden barrels, hence the name of the instrument.

11. N.F.L. record-holder for most retired jersey numbers : THE BEARS
The Chicago Bears were founded in Decatur, Illinois in 1919 and moved to Chicago in 1921. The Bears are one of only two franchises in the NFL that were around at the time of the NFL’s founding (the other is the Arizona Cardinals, who were also based in Chicago in 1921).

12. “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” star : MORANIS
Rick Moranis is a Canadian actor who got his break with on the “Second City Television” show in the eighties. On the big screen, he is perhaps best known for his prominent roles in “Ghostbusters” and in the “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” series of films.

“Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” is a fun movie from 1989 starring Rick Moranis as a goofy professor who accidentally shrinks his children. The movie was written with Chevy Chase in mind for the starring role, but he was busy filming “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”. John Candy was a second choice, but he decided to pass and suggested Rick Moranis instead. I think the final choice was a good one …

13. Chestnut : SORREL
The sorrel color of horse is a copper-red, although the term is often used these days to describe any horse with chestnut coloring.

27. “As elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you could find anywhere outside an advertising agency,” per Raymond Chandler : CHESS
Raymond Chandler was novelist and screenwriter who turned to the pen relatively late in life, after losing his job in the oil business at the age of 44. His first novel was published when he was published in his early fifties. That novel was “The Big Sleep”, which featured his famous detective Philip Marlowe”.

30. Tahoe, e.g. : ALPINE LAKE
Lake Tahoe is up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, right on the border between California and Nevada. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in the country, and the largest lake in general, behind the five Great Lakes. It’s also the second deepest lake, with only the beautiful Crater Lake in Oregon being deeper. Given its location, there are tall casinos that sit right on the shore on the Nevada side of the state line where gambling is legal.

31. Jacques ___, French psychoanalyst who studied hysteria : LACAN
The term “hysteria” is no longer really used in medical circles, but some attribute the first use of the term to the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. Hysteria was supposed to be a condition suffered by women and was attributed to disturbances of the uterus. “Hystera” is the Greek word for “uterus”.

32. Its motto is “Excelsior”: Abbr. : NYS
“Excelsior” is the Latin for “ever upward”, and is the motto of the state of New York.

34. Sen. Gillibrand : KIRSTEN
Kirsten Gillibrand is a US Senator from New York, and a member of the Democratic Party. Gillibrand was serving as a member of the US House of Representatives when she was appointed to the Senate by Governor David Paterson in 2009 after Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton left office to serve as Secretary of State.

37. Experience of riding a roller coaster : G-FORCE
The force of gravity that we all feel is referred to as “one G”. As gravity is a actually an accelerating force, acceleration is measured relative to that force of gravity. So, if we are sitting in a vehicle that accelerates at 3G, then we are experiencing a force that is three times that which we feel from the gravitational pull of the earth. Zero-G is weightlessness that is experienced when in space, outside the influence of the earth’s gravity.

48. Org. with an annual list of top baby names : SSA
The Social Security Administration (SSA) publishes a list of the 1,000 most common baby names for the prior year annually, just before Mother’s Day. The list is compiled using applications for Social Security cards.

50. Reason for some averted looks, for short : PDA
PDA is an abbreviation for “public display of affection”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Cover for a Muslim woman’s face : NIQAB
6. 1-Across wearer, e.g. : ARAB
10. Ones passing notes? : ATMS
14. Toughen : INURE
15. Pseudonym of Freud’s famed hysteria patient : DORA
16. Dismiss unceremoniously : SHOO
17. Stir up : EVOKE
18. Really, informally : UBER
19. Mister abroad : HERR
20. Bank opening? : CITI-
21. Dims : BLEARS
23. Cosmopolitan place : BAR
24. They’re 50-50 : EVEN BETS
26. Epoch when horses first appeared : EOCENE
28. Course material, maybe : SOD
29. Religious grp. observing Family Home Evening : LDS
30. Lead-in to an exalted leader’s name : ALL HAIL …
31. Don Juans : LATIN LOVERS
33. Publishing option when all else fails : VANITY PRESS
34. Things some people need to get off their backs : “KICK ME” SIGNS
35. Some Medal of Honor recipients : AIR ACES
36. Faxon who won a 2011 screenwriting Oscar : NAT
37. Sch. yardstick : GPA
40. 8:00-6:00 routines, say : GRINDS
41. Pea soup : DENSE FOG
43. What you might hear halting speech in, for short : ESL
44. Toughens : STEELS
46. Fly-by-night? : MOTH
47. Moving walkway maker : OTIS
49. Willy of the “Free Willy” movies, e.g. : ORCA
50. Section one : PART A
51. Ends up with : NETS
52. Starter on square a1, h1, a8 or h8 : ROOK
53. Cubes : DICES
54. Singer who has recorded in Tolkien’s Elvish language : ENYA
55. Old : YORE
56. See 42-Down : ALERT

Down
1. Two of Ferdinand VII’s wives, to Ferdinand VII : NIECES
2. How many experiments are done : IN VIVO
3. Like Yogi Berra, often : QUOTED
4. “Little Miss Sunshine” Oscar winner : ARKIN
5. Fancier of melliferous plants : BEE
6. Net Nanny no-nos : ADULT SITES
7. Pre-bout wear : ROBES
8. Scope : AREA
9. Instruments for old street musicians : BARREL ORGANS
10. What a firefighter might leave footprints in : ASH
11. N.F.L. record-holder for most retired jersey numbers : THE BEARS
12. “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” star : MORANIS
13. Chestnut : SORREL
21. A tot often goes out in the middle of it : BEDTIME STORY
22. Nail polish removers, e.g. : SOLVENTS
25. You might give them away after burning them : BLANK CDS
27. “As elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you could find anywhere outside an advertising agency,” per Raymond Chandler : CHESS
30. Tahoe, e.g. : ALPINE LAKE
31. Jacques ___, French psychoanalyst who studied hysteria : LACAN
32. Its motto is “Excelsior”: Abbr. : NYS
33. Manliness : VIRILITY
34. Sen. Gillibrand : KIRSTEN
35. When preliminary steps are taken? : AGE ONE
37. Experience of riding a roller coaster : G-FORCE
38. Vase maker : POTTER
39. Shocked : AGHAST
41. Look inside? : DECOR
42. With 56-Across, a smartphone notification : EMAIL
45. Sock attachment? : -EROO
48. Org. with an annual list of top baby names : SSA
50. Reason for some averted looks, for short : PDA

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