Day: October 4, 2016

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. President who ended “don’t ask, don’t tell” : OBAMA
The official US policy on gays serving on the military from 1993 to 2011 was known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT). In effect, this policy outlawed discrimination against closeted gay service members, while at the same time barring openly gay persons from serving in the military. Unauthorized investigations of suspected gay servicemen and servicewomen led to the policy being extended to “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue, don’t harass”. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was repealed in 2011.

6. Women’s suffrage leader Carrie Chapman ___ : CATT
Carrie Chapman Catt founded the League of Women Voters and the International Alliance of Women. Catt was also very close to Susan B. Anthony and succeeded Anthony as head of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

10. Swanky : POSH
No one really knows the etymology of the word “posh”. The popular myth that POSH stands for “Port Out, Starboard Home” is completely untrue, and is a story that can actually be traced back to the 1968 movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. The myth is that wealthy British passengers travelling to and from India would book cabins on the port side for the outward journey and the starboard side for the home journey. This trick was supposedly designed to keep their cabins out of the direct sunlight.

14. Fortuneteller’s deck : TAROT
Tarot cards have been around since the mid-1400s, and for centuries were simply used for entertainment as a game. It has only been since the late 1800s that the cards have been used by fortune tellers to predict the future. The list of tarot cards includes the Wheel of Fortune, the Hanged Man and the Lovers.

15. “Famous” snack maker : AMOS
Wally Amos was a talent agent, one who was in the habit of taking home-baked cookies with him as an enticement to get celebrities to see him. He was urged by friends to open a cookie store (the cookies were that delicious, I guess) and this he did in Los Angeles in 1975 using the name “Famous Amos”. The store was a smash hit and he was able build on the success by introducing his cookies into supermarkets. The brand was eventually bought up making Wally a rich man, and Famous Amos cookies are still flying off the shelf.

19. Maryland athlete, for short : TERP
The sports teams of the University of Maryland are called the Maryland Terrapins, or “the Terps” for short. The name dates back to 1932 when it was coined by the the university’s president at the time, Curley Byrd. He took the name from the diamondback terrapins that are native to the Chesapeake Bay.

21. Actress Skye of “Say Anything …” : IONE
Ione Skye is an American actress born in Hertfordshire in England. She is best known for portraying the character Diane Court in the 1989 high school romance movie “Say Anything …”, starring opposite John Cusack. Skye is the daughter of the Scottish folk singer Donovan.

22. Jazz vocalist Carmen ___ : MCRAE
Carmen McRae was a jazz singer from Harlem in New York City. McRae’s inspiration was singer Billie Holiday, whom McRae met when she was 17 years old.

30. Kathmandu’s land : NEPAL
Although Kathmandu is the capital city of the lofty nation of Nepal, it sits in a bowl-shaped valley so is only at an elevation of 4,600 ft. Air pollution is a huge problem in the city. Industry and residents launch a lot of smog into the air, and given the surrounding geography and climate, any pollution blown away during the day tends to fall back into the valley at night.

31. Chicken of the Sea product : TUNA
The Chicken of the Sea brand of tuna is named for a phrase once used by fishermen for the “meat” from white albacore tuna.

34. ___ team (police unit) : SWAT
SWAT is an acronym standing for Special Weapons and Tactics. The first SWAT team was pulled together in the Los Angeles Police Department in 1968.

43. Nintendo character who hatches from an egg : YOSHI
Yoshi is a dinosaur-like character in some Nintendo video games. He first appeared as a sidekick for Mario and Luigi in the 1991 game called “Super Mario World”.

44. Prefix with athlete : TRI-
An Ironman Triathlon is a race involving a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon run of just over 26 miles. The idea for the race came out of a debate between some runners in the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay. They were questioning whether runners, swimmers or bikers were the most fit athletes. The debaters decided to combine three local events to determine the answer, inviting athletes from all three disciplines. The events that were mimicked to come up with the first triathlon were the Waikiki Roughwater swim (2.4 miles), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles). The idea was that whoever finished first would be called “the Iron Man”. The first triathlon was run in 1978, with fifteen starters and only twelve finishers. The race format is used all over the world now, but the Hawaiian Ironman is the event that everyone wants to win.

46. Website that investigates urban legends : SNOPES
Snopes.com is the place to go if you want to check the validity or history of an urban legend or Internet rumor. The site was launched in 1995 by a couple in California, Barbara and David Mikkelson.

53. International court site, with “The” : … HAGUE
International Court of Justice (ICJ) is commonly referred to as the World Court, and is based in the Hague in the Netherlands. The ICJ is the main judicial branch of the United Nations, and one of its functions is to settle disputes between UN member states. The US no longer accepts the jurisdiction of the ICJ, after the court’s 1986 decision that the US’s covert war against Nicaragua was in violation of international law. The UN Security Council is charged with enforcing ICJ rulings, and so the US used its veto power in the Nicaragua v. United States case.

55. ___ fide : BONA
“Bona fide(s)” translates from the Latin as “in good faith”, and is used to indicate honest intentions. It can also mean that something is authentic, like a piece of art that is represented in good faith as being genuine.

59. With 2-Down, star of 2003’s “Hulk” : ERIC
(2. See 59-Across : BANA)
Eric Bana is an Australian actor who enjoyed a successful career in his home country before breaking into Hollywood playing an American Delta Force sergeant in “Black Hawk Down”. A couple of years later he played the lead in Ang Lee’s 2003 movie “Hulk”, the role of Dr Bruce Banner. More recently he played the Romulan villain Nero, in the 2009 “Star Trek” movie.

62. No-longer-fashionable fur : MINK
There are two species of mink extant, the European Mink and the American Mink. There used to be a Sea Mink which was much larger than its two cousins, but it was hunted to extinction (for its fur) in the late 1800s. American Minks are farmed over in Europe for fur, and animal rights activists have released many of these animals into the wild when raiding mink farms. As a result the European Mink population has declined due to the presence of its larger and more adaptable American cousin.

64. Dance move added to the O.E.D. in 2015 : TWERK
Twerking is a dancing move in which a woman (usually) shakes her hips up and down causing a lot of “wobbling”. It’s possible that “twerk” is a portmanteau of “twist” and “jerk”. The term may have been coined back in the early 2000s with the song “Whistle While You Twurk” released by the Ying Yang Twins. Twerking became a real phenomenon in 2013 when Miley Cyrus posted a video of herself twerking in a unicorn suit to the 2011 song “Wop” by J. Dash. That video went viral on YouTube, amassing over 4 million views in no time at all.

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

Down
1. Soul singer Redding : OTIS
Otis Redding is often referred to as the “King of Soul”, and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”.

3. The “A” of B.A. : ARTS
Bachelor of Arts (BA)

4. ___ scale (measure of hardness) : MOHS
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness was developed in 1812 by Friedrich Mohs. Basically Mohs took minerals and scratched them with other minerals. In this way he was able to determine which minerals were hardest (most scratch resistant) and which softest.

6. Rebound on a pool table : CAROM
A carom is a ricochet, the bouncing of some projectile off a surface. Carom has come to mean the banking of a billiard ball, the bouncing of the ball off the side of the table.

7. ___ acid (protein builder) : AMINO
Amino acids are essential to life in many ways, not least of which is their use as the building blocks of proteins.

8. Photocopier powder : TONER
The key features of a laser printer (or copier) are that it uses plain paper and produces quality text at high speed. Laser printers work by projecting a laser image of the printed page onto a rotating drum that is coated with photoconductors (material that becomes conductive when exposed to light). The areas of the drum exposed to the laser carry a different charge than the unexposed areas. Dry ink (toner) sticks to the exposed areas due to electrostatic charge. The toner is then transferred to paper by contact and is fused into the paper by the application of heat. So, that explains why paper coming out of a laser printer is warm, and sometimes powdery.

10. Is a romancer, old-style : PITCHES WOO
The slang phrase “to pitch woo” means “to kiss and cuddle”, and has been around at least since the 1800s.

11. Former “S.N.L.” comic Cheri, whose last name rhymes with her first : OTERI
Cheri Oteri was the SNL cast member who regularly appeared with Will Ferrell in the skit featuring a pair of Spartan cheerleaders.

22. Show hosts, in brief : MCS
The term “emcee” comes from “MC”, an initialism standing for Master or Mistress of Ceremonies.

23. Skim or 2% : MILK
The fatty component of milk is known as butterfat (sometime “milkfat”). To be labeled “whole” milk, the butterfat content must be at least 3.25%. Lowfat milk is defined as milk containing 0.5-2% fat, with levels of 1% and 2% commonly found on grocery store shelves. Skim milk must contain less than 0.5% fat, and typically contains 0.1%.

24. Chinese money : YUAN
The Korean Won, the Chinese Yuan, and the Japanese Yen (all of which are Asian currencies) take their names from the Chinese written character that represents “round shape”.

26. Jets quarterback Smith : GENO
Geno Smith is an NFL quarterback who was drafted in 2013 by the New York Jets, after having played college football at West Virginia.

27. Grand work : OPUS
The Latin for “work” is “opus”, with the plural being “opera”.

31. Senator Cruz : TED
US Senator Ted Cruz served as Solicitor General for the state of Texas before heading to Washington. Cruz was appointed Solicitor General in 2003 at the age of 32, making him the youngest Solicitor General in the country. Famously, Cruz is an opponent of the Affordable Care Act and made a speech in 2013 in the US Senate on the subject that lasted for 21 hours and 19 minutes. It was the fourth longest speech in the history of the Senate.

33. Place of service for John McCain, briefly : NAM
John McCain went into the US Naval Academy in 1958, following a family tradition as his father and grandfather were both four-star admirals. The younger McCain did not achieve the same rank, retiring from the Navy as a captain in 1981, but his career development was interrupted by almost six years spent as a prisoner of war (POW) in North Vietnam. John McCain has been a US Senator from Arizona since 1987.

39. Of the flock : LAIC
Anything described is laic (or “laical, lay”) is related to the laity, those members of the church who are not clergy. The term “laic” ultimately comes from the Greek “laikos” meaning “of the people”.

40. Unit of force : DYNE
A dyne is a unit of force. The name “dyne” comes from the Greek “dynamis” meaning “power, force”. Ergs and dynes are related to each other in that one erg is the amount of energy needed to move a force of one dyne over a distance of one centimeter.

45. GPS calculation: Abbr. : RTE
A global positioning system (GPS) might point out a route (rte.).

47. Oldest of the Three Stooges : SHEMP
If you’ve seen a few of the films starring “The Three Stooges” you’ll have noticed that the line up changed over the years. The original trio was made up of Moe and Shemp Howard (two brothers) and Larry Fine (a good friend of the Howards). This line up was usually known as “Moe, Larry and Shemp”. Then Curly Howard replaced his brother when Shemp quit the act, creating the most famous trio, “Moe, Larry And Curly”. Shemp returned when Curly had a debilitating stroke in 1946, and Shemp stayed with the troupe until he died in 1955. Shemp was replaced by Joe Besser, and then “Curly-Joe” DeRita. When Larry Fine had a stroke in 1970, it effectively marked the end of the act.

48. ___ Antoinette : MARIE
Marie Antoinette was the wife of Louis XVI, the last king of France. Marie Antoinette was the fifteenth of sixteen children born to the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. The marriage to Louis, her second cousin once removed, was arranged while the two were very young. The prospective bride was “handed over” to the French at a border crossing in 1770 and two weeks later she was married to the future king. Marie Antoinette was just 14 years of age at the time, and Louis only a year her senior. Both Louis and Marie Antoinette were doomed to lose their heads courtesy of the guillotine during the French Revolution.

52. Singer Musgraves who won a 2013 Grammy for Best Country Album : KACEY
Kacey Musgraves is a country singer from Golden, Texas.

55. Heavyweight champ Riddick : BOWE
Riddick Bowe is a former professional boxer from Brooklyn, New York. Bowe was Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World in 1992. A few years later Bowe retired from boxing to join the US Marines. However, after just 11 days of basic training Bowe asked to quit, and the Marine Corps came into a lot of criticism for acceding to his request.

61. “Oh, before I forget …,” in a text : BTW
By the way (BTW)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. President who ended “don’t ask, don’t tell” : OBAMA
6. Women’s suffrage leader Carrie Chapman ___ : CATT
10. Swanky : POSH
14. Fortuneteller’s deck : TAROT
15. “Famous” snack maker : AMOS
16. Teeny : ITTY
17. Overboard, to a sailor : IN THE DRINK
19. Maryland athlete, for short : TERP
20. Talk back to : SASS
21. Actress Skye of “Say Anything …” : IONE
22. Jazz vocalist Carmen ___ : MCRAE
23. Data storage devices : MEMORY CHIPS
25. “Let me take care of that” : I GOT IT
29. Function : USE
30. Kathmandu’s land : NEPAL
31. Chicken of the Sea product : TUNA
34. ___ team (police unit) : SWAT
38. Punch in the mouth, slangily : KNUCKLE SANDWICH
41. Neither good nor bad : SO-SO
42. To whom God said “For dust you are and to dust you will return” : ADAM
43. Nintendo character who hatches from an egg : YOSHI
44. Prefix with athlete : TRI-
46. Website that investigates urban legends : SNOPES
47. Bright sort : SMART COOKIE
53. International court site, with “The” : … HAGUE
54. Jagged cliff : CRAG
55. ___ fide : BONA
59. With 2-Down, star of 2003’s “Hulk” : ERIC
60. Backpack containers where you can find the ends of 17-, 23-, 38- and 47-Across : LUNCH BOXES
62. No-longer-fashionable fur : MINK
63. Common ingredient in lotions : ALOE
64. Dance move added to the O.E.D. in 2015 : TWERK
65. Things to hang coats on : PEGS
66. “What a ___!” (“Too bad!”) : PITY
67. Meanders : WENDS

Down
1. Soul singer Redding : OTIS
2. See 59-Across : BANA
3. The “A” of B.A. : ARTS
4. ___ scale (measure of hardness) : MOHS
5. Had dinner : ATE
6. Rebound on a pool table : CAROM
7. ___ acid (protein builder) : AMINO
8. Photocopier powder : TONER
9. “Naughty!” : TSK!
10. Is a romancer, old-style : PITCHES WOO
11. Former “S.N.L.” comic Cheri, whose last name rhymes with her first : OTERI
12. Bridle rein, e.g. : STRAP
13. Promotes, with “up” : HYPES
18. Weight-loss program : DIET
22. Show hosts, in brief : MCS
23. Skim or 2% : MILK
24. Chinese money : YUAN
25. Signs, as a contract : INKS
26. Jets quarterback Smith : GENO
27. Grand work : OPUS
28. Street vendors selling Mexican food : TACO TRUCKS
31. Senator Cruz : TED
32. Made in ___ : USA
33. Place of service for John McCain, briefly : NAM
35. Bit of smoke : WISP
36. Aftereffect from working out : ACHE
37. “___ ends here!” (fighting words) : THIS
39. Of the flock : LAIC
40. Unit of force : DYNE
45. GPS calculation: Abbr. : RTE
46. [Ah, me] : SIGH
47. Oldest of the Three Stooges : SHEMP
48. ___ Antoinette : MARIE
49. Getting into a gray area? : AGING
50. Eyes: Lat. : OCULI
51. Words after “like it” and “ready” : OR NOT
52. Singer Musgraves who won a 2013 Grammy for Best Country Album : KACEY
55. Heavyweight champ Riddick : BOWE
56. Headstrong animals : OXEN
57. Do 10 crosswords in a row, say, with “out” : NERD
58. Questions : ASKS
60. Once around the track : LAP
61. “Oh, before I forget …,” in a text : BTW

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