Day: October 29, 2015

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Co. that bought out Applebee’s in 2007 : 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 …

The Applebee’s chain of “Neighborhood Bar & Grill” restaurants was founded in 1980, with the first Applebee’s eatery opening in Decatur, Georgia. When it comes to “chain” restaurants, I like Applebee’s …

9. Some causes of insomnia : DRIPS
That would be the faucet dripping, or perhaps a runny nose!

16. Dangerous emission : RADON
Radon is a radioactive gas, a byproduct produced when uranium decays naturally in the earth. Radon gas can collect and accumulate in buildings and rooms that are particularly well insulated with very little air exchange. The danger is very real, as radon is listed as the second most frequent cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoke.

20. Final answer? : OTHER
Perhaps “answer A”, “answer B”, “answer C” or “other”.

23. Number of monosyllabic U.S. state names : ONE
I’m not going to tell you …

… oh, okay. It’s Maine.

27. Rasputin, for one : MYSTIC
Grigori Rasputin was a Russian Orthodox mystic who apparently had great influence over the Emperor Nicholas and his family, and over the Empress Alexandra in particular.

31. OPEC member: Abbr. : UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates (states) in the Middle East. Included in the seven are Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with the city of Abu Dhabi being the UAE capital and cultural center.

32. Locale for snow leopards : NEPAL
Snow leopards are creatures that tend to keep to themselves, living in high ground in the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. Given that they are so “secretive” estimates of the size of the snow leopard population are pretty rough, with perhaps 3,500 to 7,000 in the wild.

39. Sign at the front of some bars : CLEF
Clef is the French word for “key”. In music, a clef is used to indicate the pitch of the notes written on the stave. The bass clef is also known as the F-clef, and the treble clef is the G-clef.

44. 1881 novel “for children and those who love children” : HEIDI
“Heidi” is a Swiss children’s book written by Johanna Spyri and published in two parts. The first is “Heidi’s years of learning and travel”, and the second “Heidi makes use of what she has learned”. The books tell the story of a young girl in the care of her grandfather in the Swiss Alps.

46. “Cars” producer : PIXAR
“Cars” is a 2006 animated feature from Pixar. The great cast of voice actors includes Paul Newman in his last movie role before he passed away in 2008.

49. Rat : FINK
A “fink” is an informer, someone who rats out his cohorts.

51. Skim : NONFAT
What we call “skim” milk here in North America is known as “skimmed” milk on the other side of the Atlantic.

53. Campbell’s variety : CHICKEN NOODLE
The Campbell’s Soup company is named for one of the enterprise’s two founders, Joseph A. Campbell. He and Abraham Anderson started the business in 1869. The iconic design of the Campbell’s can was introduced in 1989 and has hardly changed since then. The gold seal in the design comes from the 1900 Paris Exhibition.

58. Director Besson : LUC
Luc Besson is a French film director and producer. One of the movies that he wrote and directed is “Nikita”, released in 1990. The actress who plays the title role in “Nikita” is Anne Parillaud, Besson’s wife.

60. Where to see Spaceship Earth : EPCOT
EPCOT Center (now just called Epcot) is the theme park beside Walt Disney World in Florida. EPCOT is an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, and is a representation of the future as envisioned by Walt Disney. Walt Disney actually wanted to build a living community for 20,000 residents at EPCOT, but he passed away before that vision could be realized.

Spaceship Earth is perhaps the structure that comes to mind when we think of Epcot in the Walt Disney World Resort. It is the large white, 18-story geodesic sphere.

64. Message from a server : EMAIL
In the world of computer science, a computer accessing a service is called a “client”. The service is provided on a computer called a “server”. These days, clients and servers often communicate via the Internet. I am typing up this blog post on my laptop (the client) and am connected via the Internet to the Google Drive service that resides on a computer somewhere (the server).

68. Pass up : FORGO
“To forego” means to precede. “To forgo” means “to do without”. That said, one is a variant spelling of the other. It’s all very confusing …

72. Addie’s husband in “As I Lay Dying” : ANSE
“As I Lay Dying” is a novel by William Faulkner first published in 1930. The book has an unusual structure, with stream of consciousness writing throughout. There is one whole chapter that I’d like to quote here:

My mother is a fish.

That’s a five-word chapter …

Down
1. ___ facto : IPSO
“Ipso facto” is Latin, meaning “by the fact itself”. Ipso facto describes something that is a direct consequence of particular act, as opposed to something that is the result of some subsequent event. For example, my father was born in Dublin and was an Irish citizen ipso facto. My son was born in California and is an Irish citizen by virtue of being the son of an Irish citizen (“not” ipso facto).

5. Subj. for 6-Downs : ESL
(6D. See 5-Down : ALIEN)
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).

8. Friedrich ___, first president of the German Republic : EBERT
Friedrich Ebert was President of Germany from 1919 until he passed away in 1925. He was the first person to hold the office, which was created under the Weimar constitution that officially governed the country from 1919 until 1945. Ebert was a pivotal figure in the German Revolution at the end of WWI that led to the Weimar Republic.

9. Source of the line “There is no one alive who is you-er than you!” : DR SEUSS
Dr. Seuss was the pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel. Geisel was commander of the Animation Department of the USAF during WWII. He was behind many propaganda films including one called “Our Job in Japan”. Even though the film was produced specifically as propaganda, this same movie was used after the war as a basis for the short feature “Design for Death”, a study of Japanese culture released in 1947 and winner of an Oscar for best Documentary.

12. Film unlikely to have a costume designer? : PORNO
The word “pornography” comes from the Greek “pornographos” meaning “writing of prostitutes”.

18. Hollywood’s Alan or Adam : 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 …

Actor Adam Arkin is the son of Oscar winner Alan Arkin. Adam played Aaron Shutt on the TV show “Chicago Hope”.

22. Org. from which Óglaigh na hÉireann split off : IRA
“Óglaigh na hÉireann” translates from Irish as “soldiers of Ireland”.

26. Burmese and Himalayans : CATS
Most Burmese cats today can be traced back to a single ancestor, a female cat given the name Wong Mau that was brought from Burma to America in 1930. Amazing …

The Himalayan breed of cat has long hair and is identical to the Persian, but with blue eyes and different colors at the extreme points of its coat.

28. Big lock maker : YALE
The Yale brand name comes from the name of the founder of the original company, Linus Yale Jr. Linus Yale was the inventor of the pin tumbler lock.

34. Bird: Prefix : AVI-
The prefix “avi-” means “bird-related” as in “aviculture”, the breeding of birds.

35. Big Apple thoroughfare, informally : LEX
Lexington Avenue in New York City is famous from many things, but my favorite fact is that it was the site of the first ever arrest for speeding in the city. In 1899 a police officer on a bicycle caught up with a cabdriver who was tearing down Lexington Avenue at the breakneck speed of 12 mph …

Apparently the first published use of the term “Big Apple” to describe New York City dates back to 1909. Edward Martin wrote the following in his book “The Wayfarer in New York”:

“Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city. . . . It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap.”

Over ten years later, the term “big apple” was used as a nickname for racetracks in and around New York City. However, the concerted effort to “brand” the city as the Big Apple had to wait until the seventies and was the work of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau.

37. Las Vegas casino opened in 2009 : ARIA
Aria is one of the newer casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. “Popular Mechanics” magazine described Aria as “the most technologically-advanced hotel ever built”.

38. Hide : PELT
The “pelt” is the skin of a furry animal.

40. Banking inits. : FDIC
During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Banking Act of 1933. The legislation established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), intended to be a temporary government corporation that provided insurance on deposits made by customers of qualified financial institutions. The first accounts to be covered, in 1934, had an insurance limit of $2,500. Since the financial crisis of 2008, that limit is $250,000.

42. South African money : RAND
The Rand is the currency of South Africa. Much of South Africa’s famed gold comes from mines around Johannesburg in the Witwatersrand (Afrikaans for “the ridge of white waters”). The Rand currency takes its name from this ridge.

45. Matter of interpretation : INKBLOT
The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which a subject is asked to interpret a series of inkblots. The test was created by Swiss Freudian psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach in the 1920s.

50. Partner to Kenan in a 1990s Nickelodeon sitcom : KEL
“Kenan & Kel” is a sitcom that aired on Nickelodeon from 1996 to 2000. It starred Kenan Thompson (now of “Saturday Night Live”), and Kel Mitchell.

52. Dewey, to Donald : NEPHEW
Donald Duck’s nephews are identical triplets called Huey, Dewey and Louie, and they first appeared on the screen in 1938. Once in a while, due to errors in production, a fourth duck can be seen in the background. This little “mistake” is affectionately called “Phooey Duck” by folks in the industry.

55. Nabisco wafer : NILLA
As one might expect, Nilla is a shortened from of “vanilla”. However, you won’t find any vanilla in Nilla cookies or wafers. They have always been flavored with vanillin, which is synthetic vanilla. Is nothing sacred …?

56. Bagel variety : ONION
The bagel was invented in the Polish city of Kraków in the 16th century. Bagels were brought to this country by Jewish immigrants from Poland who mainly established homes in and around New York City.

63. Part of a hobo city : TENT
No one seems to know for sure how the term “hobo” originated, although there are lots of colorful theories. My favorite is that “hobo” comes from the first letters in the words “ho-meward bo-und”, but it doesn’t seem very plausible. A kind blog reader tells me that according to Click and Clack from PBS’s “Car Talk” (a great source!), “hobo” comes from “hoe boy”. Hoe boys were young men with hoes looking for work after the Civil War. Hobos differed from “tramps” and “bums”, in that “bums” refused to work, “tramps” worked when they had to, while “hobos” traveled in search of work.

65. Supermarket chain : IGA
IGA stands for Independent Grocers Alliance, a chain of supermarkets that extends right around the world. IGA’s headquarters is in Chicago. The company uses the slogan “Hometown Proud Supermarkets”.

67. Formerly known as : NEE
“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Co. that bought out Applebee’s in 2007 : IHOP
5. Rest : EASE
9. Some causes of insomnia : DRIPS
14. Come down hard : POUR
15. Hunk : SLAB
16. Dangerous emission : RADON
17. Party-going and such : SOCIAL LIFE
19. Skyline feature : SPIRE
20. Final answer? : OTHER
21. Unnatural, in a way : EERIE
23. Number of monosyllabic U.S. state names : ONE
24. One whose work is going downhill? : SKI INSTRUCTOR
27. Rasputin, for one : MYSTIC
30. Very quickly : ASAP
31. OPEC member: Abbr. : UAE
32. Locale for snow leopards : NEPAL
36. Backpack part : STRAP
39. Sign at the front of some bars : CLEF
41. Second chance : DO-OVER
43. Bothered : SORE
44. 1881 novel “for children and those who love children” : HEIDI
46. “Cars” producer : PIXAR
48. ___ change : OIL
49. Rat : FINK
51. Skim : NONFAT
53. Campbell’s variety : CHICKEN NOODLE
58. Director Besson : LUC
59. Like some turns and dates : BLIND
60. Where to see Spaceship Earth : EPCOT
64. Message from a server : EMAIL
66. Almost all … and a hint to the five circled letters : LION’S SHARE
68. Pass up : FORGO
69. Stuff of legends : LORE
70. Like 2016, but not 2015 : EVEN
71. Pay for : TREAT
72. Addie’s husband in “As I Lay Dying” : ANSE
73. Into the sunset : WEST

Down
1. ___ facto : IPSO
2. Call at night : HOOT
3. “You got me” : OUCH!
4. Father figure : PRIEST
5. Subj. for 6-Downs : ESL
6. See 5-Down : ALIEN
7. Some hotel conveniences : SAFES
8. Friedrich ___, first president of the German Republic : EBERT
9. Source of the line “There is no one alive who is you-er than you!” : DR SEUSS
10. Knock : RAP
11. Easy-to-use : IDIOT-PROOF
12. Film unlikely to have a costume designer? : PORNO
13. Mean grin : SNEER
18. Hollywood’s Alan or Adam : ARKIN
22. Org. from which Óglaigh na hÉireann split off : IRA
25. Put away : ICED
26. Burmese and Himalayans : CATS
27. A lot : MUCH
28. Big lock maker : YALE
29. “Do what you want!” : SEE IF I CARE!
33. Father figure : POP
34. Bird: Prefix : AVI-
35. Big Apple thoroughfare, informally : LEX
37. Las Vegas casino opened in 2009 : ARIA
38. Hide : PELT
40. Banking inits. : FDIC
42. South African money : RAND
45. Matter of interpretation : INKBLOT
47. Parts : ROLES
50. Partner to Kenan in a 1990s Nickelodeon sitcom : KEL
52. Dewey, to Donald : NEPHEW
53. Chin feature : CLEFT
54. “___ me” : HUMOR
55. Nabisco wafer : NILLA
56. Bagel variety : ONION
57. Aerosol targets : ODORS
61. Give in : CAVE
62. Contents of veins : ORES
63. Part of a hobo city : TENT
65. Supermarket chain : IGA
67. Formerly known as : NEE

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