Day: May 16, 2016

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
6. Magazine with a “Person of the Year” : TIME
“Time” magazine started naming a “Man of the Year” in 1927, only changing the concept to “Person of the Year” in 1999. Prior to 1999, the magazine did recognize four females as “Woman of the Year”: Wallis Simpson (1936), Soong May-ling a.k.a. Madame Chiang Kai-shek (1937), Queen Elizabeth II (1952) and Corazon Aquino (1986). “Time” named Albert Einstein as Person of the Century in 1999, with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi as runners-up.

10. Former “Meet the Press” host Marvin : KALB
Marvin Kalb is a journalist most famous for his 30-year stint reporting for CBS and NBC News. Kalb was the last person to be recruited by journalism icon Edward R. Murrow.

16. French lady friend : AMIE
A male friend in France is “un ami”, and a female friend is “une amie”.

19. Spanish newborn : BEBE
In Spanish, a “madre’s” (mother’s) treasure is her “bebe” (baby).

21. Fifth-century pope known as “the Great” : LEO I
The first pope named Leo is now known as Pope Saint Leo the Great. Leo I is famous for meeting with the feared Attila the Hun and persuading him to turn back his invading force that was threatening to overrun Western Europe.

22. Impressionist Claude : MONET
Claude Monet painted the harbor of Le Havre in the north of France in 1872, giving it the title “Impression, Sunrise”. The painting is not a “realistic” representation of the scene in front of him, hence the name “impression”. It was this very painting that gave rise to the name of the Impressionist movement, and earned Monet the title of Father of Impressionism.

23. Ugandan tyrant Idi ___ : AMIN
Idi Amin received most of his military training in the British armed forces, eventually achieving the highest rank possible for a Black African in the British Colonial Army in 1959, that of Warrant Officer. On his return to Uganda Amin joined his country’s military and quickly rose to the rank of Deputy Commander of the Army. During that time he was quite the athlete. He was a noted rugby player and swimmer, and for nine years held the Ugandan national light-heavyweight boxing title. By the early seventies, Amin was commander of all the armed forces of Uganda and in 1971 seized power in a military coup, displacing the country’s president Milton Obote. There followed seven years of brutal rule by Amin during which it is estimated that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were murdered. Amin was ousted from power in 1979 after a war with Tanzania, and fled to Libya where he stayed for a year. He then moved to Saudi Arabia, where he was financially supported by the Saudi Royal Family for the remainder of his life. Amin died in 2003.

25. Piece of sports equipment that’s spiked : VOLLEYBALL
In volleyball, each team can only touch the ball a maximum of three times before it returns to the other side of the net. The three contacts are often a “bump” (a preliminary pass) and a “set” (setting up the attacking shot) followed by a “spike” (a shot into the opposing court).

28. Grand ___ National Park : TETON
Grand Teton National Park is located just south of Yellowstone NP, and a must-see if you are visiting the latter. The park is named after the tallest peak in the magnificent Teton Range known as Grand Teton. The origins of the name “Teton” is not very clear, although my favorite story is that it was named by French trappers, as the word “tetons” in French means “breasts”!

30. Pie ___ mode : A LA
In French, “à la mode” simply means “fashionable”. In America, the term has also come to describe a way of serving pie, usually with ice cream, or as I recall from when I lived in Upstate New York, with cheese.

31. Insect with a stinger : BEE
A queen bee has a stinger, just like worker bees. When a worker bee stings, it leaves it stinger in its victim. The worker bee dies after losing its stinger as the loss rips out part of its insides. However, a queen bee can sting with impunity as the stinger’s anatomy is different.

32. Cozies keep them hot : TEAPOTS
A tea cozy is an insulated cover for a teapot, something to keep the tea hot. I don’t know what I’d do without my tea cosy/cozy …

36. Cutlass or 88, informally : OLDS
Oldsmobile made the Cutlass Ciera from 1982 to 1996. The Ciera was the brand name’s most successful model.

The last Oldsmobile 88 came off the production line in 1999. The first 88 was made way back in 1949. The Oldsmobile 98 was discontinued in 1996, but had been introduced in 1940.

39. Leopard’s marking : SPOT
The four “big cats” are the tiger, lion, jaguar and leopard. The smallest of these is the leopard.

55. Emmy winner Perlman : RHEA
Rhea Perlman’s most famous role has to be “Carla Tortelli”, the irascible waitress in the long-running sitcom “Cheers”. Perlman is also a successful children’s author, and has published a series of six books called “Otto Undercover”. She is married to Hollywood actor Danny DeVito, and has been so since 1982.

57. Call of Duty: Black ___ (video game) : OPS
“Call of Duty” is a incredibly successful series of video games that started out life on computers and is now available for gaming consoles and handhelds. The first version of this war game was set in WWII, but other versions feature the likes of “Modern Warfare” and “Black Ops”.

58. Hermes’ mother : MAIA
Maia is one of the Pleiades of Greek mythology, and is the eldest of the Seven Sisters.

The Seven Sisters of Greek mythology are also known as the Pleiades. The Seven Sisters were the daughters of the titan Atlas, who had been forced to carry the heavens on his shoulders. In an act of kindness, Zeus transformed the sisters first into doves, and then into stars so that they could provide comfort for their father. There is indeed a cluster of seven stars in the night sky named for the myth and known as the Pleiades.

Hermes was the Greek god of transitions and boundaries, one who intercedes between mortals and the divine. The Roman equivalent to Hermes was the god Mercury.

62. Tesla co-founder Musk : ELON
Elon Musk is successful businessman who has founded or led some very high-profile companies, namely PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX.

64. Tin or titanium : METAL
The Latin word for tin is “stannum”, and so tin’s atomic symbol is “Sn”. One of the ores used as a source of tin is “stannite”.

The chemical element called titanium is a silver-colored metal. Discovered in 1791 by British clergyman and mineralogist William Gregor, the element is named for the Titans of Greek mythology. Titanium has the highest tensile strength to density ratio of any metallic element, so it is strong and yet relatively light. As a result, titanium and titanium alloys are used extensively in aircraft and spacecraft.

Down
5. Certain Scotsman : GAEL
A Gael is anyone of a race that speaks or spoke one of the Erse tongues. There are actually three Erse languages. Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be Gaeilge (in Ireland), Gaelg (on the Isle of Man) and Gaidhlig (in Scotland).

6. Off-limits : TABOO
The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

8. All Supreme Court justices until 1981 : MEN
Sandra Day O’Connor is a former Associate justice on the US Supreme Court. O’Connor was the first woman appointed to the court, and was in office from 1981 after being appointed by President Reagan. As the court became more conservative she was viewed as the swing vote in many decisions. As a result, O’Connor was known as one of the most powerful women in the world. She retired in 2006 (replaced by Samuel Alito), and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2009.

10. Meat on a skewer : KABOB
The name “kebab” (also “kabob”) covers a wide variety of meat dishes that originated in Persia. In the West, we usually use “kebab” when talking about shish kebab, which is meat (often lamb) served on a skewer. “Shish” comes from the Turkish word for “skewer”.

12. Defamed in print : LIBELED
The word “libel”, meaning a published or written statement likely to harm a person’s reputation, comes into English from the Latin “libellus”, the word for a small book. Back in the 1500s “libel” was just a formal written statement, with the more damaging meaning arising in the 1600s.

13. Small VWs : BEETLES
VW stands for Volkswagen, which translates from German into “people’s car”. The original Volkswagen design was the Beetle and was built under a directive from Adolf Hitler, who wanted a cheap car built that ordinary people could afford to purchase. He awarded the contract to engineer Ferdinand Porsche, whose name (paradoxically) would forever be associated with high performance, expensive cars. The Beetle was the official name of the VW model released in North America, but it was usually referred to as a “Bug” here in the US, and a “Beetle” elsewhere in the world.

18. Home to Vegas: Abbr. : NEV
Back in the 1800s, the Las Vegas Valley was given its name from the extensive meadows (“las vegas” is Spanish for “the meadows”) present in the area courtesy of the artesian wells drilled by local farmers. Las Vegas was incorporated as a city in 1905, in the days when it was a stopping-off point for pioneers travelling west. It eventually became a railroad town, although with the coming of the railroad growth halted as travelers began to bypass Las Vegas. The city’s tourism industry took off in 1935 with the completion of the nearby Hoover Dam, which is still a popular attraction. Then gambling was legalized, and things really started to move. Vegas was picked, largely by celebrated figures in “the mob”, as a convenient location across the California/Nevada state line that could service the vast population of Los Angeles. As a result, Las Vegas is the most populous US city founded in the 20th century (Chicago is the most populous city founded in the 19th century, just in case you were wondering).

22. R&B singer with the hit “It’s All About Me” : MYA
Mya is an R&B singer-songwriter. I don’t know her music, but I did see her get to the runner-up spot on the ninth series of “Dancing with the Stars”. On the show, Mya was beaten out of first place by Donny Osmond (don’t ask!).

26. Foamy coffee order : LATTE
The term “latte” is an abbreviation of the Italian “caffelatte” meaning “coffee (and) milk”. Note that in the correct spelling of “latte”, the Italian word for milk, there is no accent over the “e”. An accent is often added by mistake when we use the word in English, perhaps meaning to suggest that the word is French.

27. “___ Dream” (63-Across from “Lohengrin”) : ELSA’S
“Elsa’s Dream” is an aria from Richard Wagner’s opera “Lohengrin”.

We’ve often heard the “Bridal Chorus” from Richard Wagner’s opera “Lohengrin”. It’s the tune to “Here comes the bride …”, which is played regularly at the start of wedding ceremonies as the bride walks down the aisle. In the opera, the “Bridal Chorus” is sung not at the start of the ceremony but afterwards, by the women of the wedding party as they accompany newlywed Elsa to the bridal chamber.

29. Former All-Star closer Robb : NEN
Robb Nen is a former relief pitcher, best known as a player with the San Francisco Giants. When Nen entered a game in the ninth inning, fans referred to it as the “Nenth” inning.

33. Shenanigan : ANTIC
I suppose one could be forgiven for thinking that “shenanigan” is an Irish term. Apparently the word is of uncertain derivation but was coined in San Francisco and Sacramento, California in the mid-1800s.

34. Gem whose authenticity can be checked by rubbing it against the teeth : PEARL
Anyone wanting to check whether or not a pearl is real or fake can do so by rubbing the bead against the biting edge of a tooth. A real pearl has a slightly rough texture, caused by imperfections in the outer layers of nacre.

35. Mork’s birthplace, on TV : ORK
“Mork & Mindy” was broadcast from 1978 to 1982. We were first introduced to Mork (played by Robin Williams) in a special episode of “Happy Days”. The particular episode in question has a bizarre storyline culminating in Fonzie and Mork having a thumb-to-finger duel. Eventually Richie wakes up in bed, and alien Mork was just part of a dream! Oh, and “Nanu Nanu” means both “hello” and “goodbye” back on the planet Ork. “I am Mork from Ork, Nanu Nanu”. Great stuff …

38. A/C measure, for short : BTU
In the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), the power of a heating or cooling unit can be measured in British Thermal Units (BTUs). This dated unit is the amount of energy required to heat a pound of water so that the water’s temperature increases by one degree Fahrenheit.

39. Sent millions of emails, say : SPAMMED
Apparently the term “spam”, used for unwanted email, is taken from a “Monty Python” sketch. In the sketch (which I’ve seen) the dialog is taken over by the word Spam, a play on the glut of canned meat in the markets of Britain after WWII. So “spam” is used for the glut of emails that takes over online communication. I can just imagine nerdy Internet types (like me) adopting something from a “Monty Python” sketch to describe an online phenomenon …

40. Brew with a rhyming name : PALE ALE
Pale ale is a beer made using mainly pale malt, which results in a relatively light color for a malted beer.

43. ___, amas, amat : AMO
“Amo, amas, amat” … “I love, you love, he/she/it loves”, in Latin.

49. Speckled horses : ROANS
A roan horse has an even mixture of white and colored hairs on the body with the head, lower legs, mane and tail having a more solid color.

50. Utah’s Sen. Hatch : ORRIN
Orrin Hatch is a Republican Senator from Utah. Hatch is also quite the musician, and plays the piano, violin and organ. He has composed various compositions, including a song called “Heal Our Land” that was played at the 2005 inauguration of President George W. Bush.

52. Mauna ___ (Hawaiian peak) : KEA
Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, the peak of which is the highest point in the whole state. Mauna Kea is in effect the tip of a gigantic volcano rising up from the seabed.

56. ___ mater : ALMA
The literal translation for the Latin term “alma mater” is “nourishing mother”. “Alma mater” was used in Ancient Rome to refer to mother goddesses, and in Medieval Christianity the term was used to refer to the Virgin Mary. Nowadays, one’s alma mater is the school one attended, either high school or college, usually one’s last place of education.

59. Card game that can go on and on : WAR
War is a card game, mainly played by young children.

61. Gift given while saying “Aloha!” : LEI
“Lei” is the Hawaiian word for “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a “lei” is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

The Hawaiian word “Aloha” has many meanings in English: affection, love, peace, compassion and mercy. More recently “aloha” has come to mean “hello” and “goodbye”, but only since the mid-1800s.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Picking out of a lineup, informally : IDING
6. Magazine with a “Person of the Year” : TIME
10. Former “Meet the Press” host Marvin : KALB
14. Craze : MANIA
15. Freshly : ANEW
16. French lady friend : AMIE
17. Reason for a cast : BROKEN BONE
19. Spanish newborn : BEBE
20. Period after dark, in poetry : E’EN
21. Fifth-century pope known as “the Great” : LEO I
22. Impressionist Claude : MONET
23. Ugandan tyrant Idi ___ : AMIN
25. Piece of sports equipment that’s spiked : VOLLEYBALL
28. Grand ___ National Park : TETON
30. Pie ___ mode : A LA
31. Insect with a stinger : BEE
32. Cozies keep them hot : TEAPOTS
36. Cutlass or 88, informally : OLDS
37. Family gathering place : DINNER TABLE
39. Leopard’s marking : SPOT
41. Starts liking : TAKES TO
42. Skillet, e.g. : PAN
43. It’s thinner as you go up : AIR
44. City-related : URBAN
48. Device with a snooze button : ALARM CLOCK
53. Idiot : DOPE
54. “I agree” : ME TOO
55. Emmy winner Perlman : RHEA
57. Call of Duty: Black ___ (video game) : OPS
58. Hermes’ mother : MAIA
59. “Ready to go!” … or a description of 17-, 25-, 37- and 48-Across? : WE’RE ALL SET!
62. Tesla co-founder Musk : ELON
63. Opera part : ARIA
64. Tin or titanium : METAL
65. Scouting groups : DENS
66. Something rising in a gentrifying neighborhood : RENT
67. Choice plane seating : AISLE

Down
1. “Man, what a day!” : I’M BEAT!
2. Comment after “You think I’m chicken?” : DARE ME!
3. Part of a prank, say : IN ON IT
4. Suffix with peace or neat : -NIK
5. Certain Scotsman : GAEL
6. Off-limits : TABOO
7. How foods are often fried : IN OIL
8. All Supreme Court justices until 1981 : MEN
9. Ram’s mate : EWE
10. Meat on a skewer : KABOB
11. Willing to go along : AMENABLE
12. Defamed in print : LIBELED
13. Small VWs : BEETLES
18. Home to Vegas: Abbr. : NEV
22. R&B singer with the hit “It’s All About Me” : MYA
24. Cry in a game of tag : NOT IT!
26. Foamy coffee order : LATTE
27. “___ Dream” (63-Across from “Lohengrin”) : ELSA’S
29. Former All-Star closer Robb : NEN
33. Shenanigan : ANTIC
34. Gem whose authenticity can be checked by rubbing it against the teeth : PEARL
35. Mork’s birthplace, on TV : ORK
36. Prayer starter : O LORD …
37. Gift to a nonprofit : DONATION
38. A/C measure, for short : BTU
39. Sent millions of emails, say : SPAMMED
40. Brew with a rhyming name : PALE ALE
43. ___, amas, amat : AMO
45. Raises : BOOSTS
46. Take to a higher court : APPEAL
47. Snuggle : NESTLE
49. Speckled horses : ROANS
50. Utah’s Sen. Hatch : ORRIN
51. Have an affair : CHEAT
52. Mauna ___ (Hawaiian peak) : KEA
56. ___ mater : ALMA
59. Card game that can go on and on : WAR
60. Before, to a bard : ERE
61. Gift given while saying “Aloha!” : LEI

Return to top of page