Day: November 9, 2016

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Zion National Park’s state : UTAH
To me, the most spectacular feature of Zion National Park, in southwestern Utah, is the magnificent Zion Canyon. The canyon cuts through red Navajo sandstone and is a truly beautiful sight.

5. Long Island airport site : ISLIP
The town of Islip is on the south shore of Long Island. It is home to Islip Airport, now known as Long Island MacArthur Airport, used by many as a viable alternative to JFK and LaGuardia.

10. Rapper Snoop ___ : DOGG
The rap star Snoop Dogg’s real name is Cordozar Calvin Broadus. He is the most famous protege of the notorious rapper Dr. Dre. Sadly, Snoop Dogg has had numerous run-ins with police all round the world, even after he started to live the good life that came with his fame.

15. Dixie, with “the” : SOUTH
“Dixie” is a nickname sometimes used for the American South, and often specifically for the original 11 states that seceded from the Union just prior to the Civil War. It’s apparently not certain how the name “Dixie” came about. One theory is that it comes from the term “dixie” which was used for currency issued by banks in Louisiana. The 10-dollar bills had the word “dix” on the reverse side, the French for “ten”. From the banknote, the French speaking area around New Orleans came to be known as Dixieland, and from there “Dixie” came to apply to the South in general.

16. NPR’s “___ a Game” : ONLY
NPR’s flagship sports program is “Only a Game “, hosted by Bill Littlefield and aired on Saturdays.

17. “Cosmos” subj. : ASTR
Astronomy (astr.)

“Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” is a 2014 science documentary TV show presented by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. The series is a follow-on to the famous 1980 show “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” that was presented by Carl Sagan.

18. Classic chocolate syrup brand : BOSCO
Bosco Chocolate Syrup is produced in New Jersey, and first hit store shelves in 1928.

19. ___ tide (semimonthly event) : NEAP
Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

20. “Coach, make sure everyone’s here” [N.H.L.] : COUNT THE (Dallas) STARS
The Dallas Stars hockey team was founded in 1967, based in Bloomington, Minnesota, and was back then called the Minnesota North Stars. The team moved to Dallas in 1993.

23. Subj. for those working the angles? : TRIG
Trigonometry (trig)

24. Tom of “Happy Days” : BOSLEY
Tom Bosley is an actor best remembered for playing Howard Cunningham (referred to as “Mr. C” by the Fonz) on the sitcom “Happy Days”. Bosley also played the title role in the mystery series called “Father Dowling Mysteries”, which aired from 1989 to 1991.

25. “Coach, get ’em to today’s game” [N.B.A.] : BRING THE (Miami) HEAT
The Miami Heat basketball team debuted in the NBA in the 1988-89 season. The franchise name was chosen in a competitive survey, with “Miami Heat” beating out “Miami Vice”.

32. Infield fly rule play : POP-UP
That would be baseball.

36. Many a Charlton Heston movie : EPIC
As well as having a fine career as an actor, Charlton Heston was a noted political activist. In the fifties he was very much a progressive and left-leaning in his political views. He was one of few in Hollywood to speak out against racism and support the Civil Rights Movement. Later in his life Heston became more associated with the conservative right, and was president of the National Rifle Association.

38. Falls into a La-Z-Boy, say : PLOPS
La-Z-Boy is a furniture manufacturer based in Monroe, Michigan. Although the company makes furniture for every room in the house, it is famous for it’s recliner chairs found in family rooms all over the country.

40. Cornmeal bread : PONE
“Pone” is another word for corn bread, from the Powhatan word “apan” meaning “something baked”.

43. “Star Wars” droid, informally : ARTOO
Artoo’s proper name is R2-D2. R2-D2 is the smaller of the two famous droids from the “Star Wars” movies. British actor Kenny Baker, who stood just 3 ft 8 ins tall, was the man inside the R2-D2 droid for the first six of the “Star Wars” movies.

45. Halloween accessory : WIG
All Saints’ Day is November 1st each year. The day before All Saints’ Day is All Hallows’ Eve, better known by the Scottish term, “Halloween”.

46. “Coach, get those guys a little ice water” [N.F.L.] : COOL YOUR (New York) JETS
Just like the New York Giants, the New York Jets are based in New Jersey, headquartered in Florham Park. The Jets and the Giants have a unique arrangement in the NFL in that the two teams share Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Jets were an AFL charter team, formed in 1959 as the Titans of New York. The Titans changed their name to the Jets in 1963.

52. Muscle group targeted by Pilates : CORE
Pilates is a physical exercise system developed by, and named for, Joseph Pilates. Pilates introduced his system of exercises in 1883 in Germany.

53. “Coach, nab a few of those curfew violators” [M.L.B.] : CATCH SOME (Tampa Bay) RAYS
The Tampa Bay Rays are a relatively “young” franchise, being formed in 1998. The initial name of the franchise was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. While known as the Devil Rays, the team finished last in the league in almost every year. The name was changed to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008, and I am told the Rays started into a streak of winning seasons soon after.

58. Movie featuring Ben Affleck as a C.I.A. agent : ARGO
“Argo” is a 2012 movie that is based on the true story of the rescue of six diplomats hiding out during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. The film was directed by and stars Ben Affleck and is produced by Grant Heslov and George Clooney, the same pair who produced the excellent “Good Night, and Good Luck”. I saw “Argo” recently and recommend it highly, although I found the scenes of religious fervor pretty frightening …

63. Walk like a tosspot : REEL
A “juicer” or “tosspot” is a drunk.

64. Two of the heart’s chambers : ATRIA
The heart has four chambers. The two upper chambers (the atria) accept deoxygenated blood from the body and oxygenated blood from the lungs. The atria squeeze the blood into the two lower chambers of the heart (the ventricles), “priming” the pump, as it were. One ventricle pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs, and the other pumps oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.

65. 180s : UIES
U-turns (Uies)

66. Ferber who wrote “Show Boat” : EDNA
Edna Ferber was a novelist and playwright from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Ferber won a Pulitzer for her novel “So Big”, which was made into a film a few times, most famously in 1953 starring Jane Wyman. Ferber also wrote “Show Boat”, “Cimarron” and “Giant”, which were adapted successful for the stage and/or big screen.

67. Church choir selection : PSALM
The Greek word “psalmoi” originally meant “songs sung to a harp”, and gave us the word “psalms”. In the Jewish and Western Christian traditions, the Book of Psalms contains 150 individual psalms, divided into five sections.

68. Proofreader’s “leave it” : STET
“Stet” is a Latin word meaning “let it stand”. In editorial work, the typesetter is instructed to disregard any change previously marked by writing the word “stet” and then underscoring that change with a line of dots or dashes.

Down
1. Thurman of “Kill Bill” : UMA
“Kill Bill” is a 3-part Quentin Tarantino movie (so I haven’t seen it!). “Kill Bill” started off as one film, but as the running time was over four hours, it was split into two “volumes”, released several months apart in 2003 and 2004. There has been a lot of talk about making “Kill Bill: Volume 3”.

2. Some exam graders, for short : TAS
Teaching Assistants (TAs)

4. “The French Connection” drug : HEROIN
The commercialization of the drug heroin was led by the Bayer pharmaceutical company in Germany. The drug had been re-discovered in Bayer’s labs, and was named by the company’s head of research “heroin” from the German “heroisch” meaning “heroic, strong”. This was a reference to the perceived “heroic” effects on the user. Bayer lost the trademark rights to heroin (along with their “aspirin”) as part of WWI reparations.

5. Library catalog ID : ISBN
The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) was invented by one Gordon Foster who is now a professor at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. The code was originally developed for booksellers, so that they had a unique number (and now a barcode) for each publication.

9. One of the friends on “Friends” : PHOEBE
The character Phoebe Buffay (and her identical twin sister Ursula) is played on the sitcom “Friends” by the actress Lisa Kudrow. Kudrow plays the ditzy member of the troupe of friends, but I’ve always viewed her as the “smartest” of the group of actors in real life, as best I could tell. Kudrow is behind the US version of the British genealogy show “Who Do You Think You Are?” a very entertaining bit of television.

10. 1992 Clinton campaign song : DON’T STOP
Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 hit “Don’t Stop” was used as the theme song for Governor Bill Clinton in his successful 1992 campaign to become US president. The members of the then disbanded Fleetwood Mac reunited to perform the song at the President Clinton’s inaugural ball in 1993.

11. Shaq in old RadioShack commercials : O’NEAL
Retired basketball player Shaquille O’Neal now appears regularly as an analyst on the NBA TV show “Inside the NBA”. Shaq has quite a career in the entertainment world. His first rap album, called “Shaq Diesel”, went platinum. He also starred in two of his own reality show: “Shaq’s Big Challenge” and “Shaq Vs.”

13. Word before moth or cab : GYPSY
Gypsy moths were brought to the US from Eurasia in 1868 by one Leopold Trouvelot, a French scientist who lived in Massachusetts. He was trying to make a hybrid, silk-spinning caterpillar that was resistant to disease. However, some of the moths escaped from his lab, and today the gypsy moth is one of the most prevalent and destructive pests of hardwood trees in the eastern US.

A “gypsy cab” is an illegal and unlicensed taxicab.

21. Popular fleece-lined boots : UGGS
Uggs are sheepskin boots that originated in Australia and New Zealand. Uggs have sheepskin fleece on the inside for comfort and insulation, with a tanned leather surface on the outside for durability. Ugg is a generic term down under, although it’s a brand name here in the US.

22. “All My Children,” e.g. : SOAP
“All My Children” was the first daytime soap opera to debut in the seventies. Star of the show was Susan Lucci who played Erica Kane. The show was cancelled in 2011 after having being on the air for 41 years.

23. Literary figure of speech : TROPE
A “trope” is a figure of speech, from the Greek word “tropos” that has the same meaning.

25. Title in Uncle Remus tales : BR’ER
Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox are characters in the Uncle Remus stories, written by Joel Chandler Harris. The Uncle Remus stories are adaptations of African American folktales that Harris collected across the Southern States. “Br’er” is an abbreviated form of “brother”.

27. Islamic equivalent of kosher : HALAL
“Halal” is a term for an action or object that is permissible under Islamic Law. In particular “halal” is used to describe food that can be consumed. Anything that is not allowed is called “haraam”.

According to Jewish dietary law, “kosher” food is fit to eat, and food that is not fit to eat is referred to as “treif” (or tref).

28. Atlanta university : EMORY
Emory is a private school in Atlanta, Georgia with a focus on graduate research. The school was named after a Methodist Episcopal bishop called John Emory, who was very popular at the time of the school’s founding in 1836.

35. Cribbage or croquet needs : PEGS
Cribbage is a great card game that originated in 17th-century England, a creation of the poet Sir John Suckling. One of the unique features of the game is that a cribbage board with pegs is used to keep score. Here in the US, cribbage is very much associated with the submarine service, as it is a favorite game of submariners of all ranks.

The very genteel game of croquet is played on lawns all over the world. It’s the game where mallets are used to hit wooden balls through hoops embedded in the grass. The name “croquet” is from French dialect and means “hockey stick”. The game originated in Brittany in France, and was popularized in Ireland in the 1830s.

37. “It’s the real thing” brand : COCA COLA
Coca-Cola has used many advertising over the life of the brand, including:

• The Great National Temperance Beverage (1906)
• Where There’s Coke There’s Hospitality (1948)
• It’s the Real Thing (1971)
• Catch the Wave (1986, for “new Coke”)
• Red, White & You (1986, for “Coke Classic”)

39. Old French coin : SOU
A sou is an old French coin. We use the term “sou” to mean “an almost worthless amount”.

42. Munch between meals : NOSH
Our word “nosh” has been around since the late fifties, when it was imported from the Yiddish word “nashn” meaning “to nibble”. We use “nosh” as a noun that means snack, or as a verb meaning to eat between meals.

44. “Free Willy” creature : 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.

51. Three-star U.S. Army rank: Abbr. : LT GEN
Historically, the rank of lieutenant general was subordinate to a captain general. The latter was in command on the battlefield, and the former was his “lieutenant”, his second in command.

54. Muesli morsels : OATS
“Muesli” is a Swiss-German term describing a breakfast serving of oats, nuts, fruit and milk. “Muesli” is a diminutive of the German word “Mues” meaning “puree”. Delicious …

55. Sorvino of “Mighty Aphrodite” : MIRA
Mira Sorvino is an American actress, winner of an Oscar for her supporting role in the 1995 Woody Allen movie “Mighty Aphrodite”. Sorvino also played a title role opposite Lisa Kudrow in the very forgettable “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion”.

“Mighty Aphrodite” is a 1995 Woody Allen romantic comedy starring Mira Sorvino. The film was inspired by George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion”. I know, the critics loved “Mighty Aphrodite”, but I can’t stand it …

56. “Don’t be ___” (Google motto) : EVIL
“Don’t be evil” is Google’s corporate motto. The concept is incorporated into one of the company’s formally defined Core Values: “Do the right thing: don’t be evil. Honesty and Integrity in all we do. Our business practices are beyond reproach. We make money by doing good things.”

57. Copier paper buy : REAM
A ream is 500 sheets of paper. As there were 24 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires made up a ream, there used to be 480 sheets in a ream. Ever since the standard was changed to 500, a 480-sheet packet of paper has been called a “short ream”.

62. “The buck stops here” presidential inits. : HST
The phrase “passing the buck” supposedly comes from poker. The marker that indicates whose turn it is to deal is called the buck, and it is passed from player to player. Over time, the phrase came to mean the passing of responsibility (or usually blame). President Harry S. Truman popularized the derivative phrase “the buck stops here” by placing a sign bearing those words on his desk in the Oval Office. President Truman had received the sign as a gift from a prison warden who was also an enthusiastic poker player.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Zion National Park’s state : UTAH
5. Long Island airport site : ISLIP
10. Rapper Snoop ___ : DOGG
14. Farm female : MARE
15. Dixie, with “the” : SOUTH
16. NPR’s “___ a Game” : ONLY
17. “Cosmos” subj. : ASTR
18. Classic chocolate syrup brand : BOSCO
19. ___ tide (semimonthly event) : NEAP
20. “Coach, make sure everyone’s here” [N.H.L.] : COUNT THE (Dallas) STARS
23. Subj. for those working the angles? : TRIG
24. Tom of “Happy Days” : BOSLEY
25. “Coach, get ’em to today’s game” [N.B.A.] : BRING THE (Miami) HEAT
30. Nonsense : ROT
31. “Me too!” : SO AM I!
32. Infield fly rule play : POP-UP
36. Many a Charlton Heston movie : EPIC
38. Falls into a La-Z-Boy, say : PLOPS
40. Cornmeal bread : PONE
41. Scout’s job, briefly : RECON
43. “Star Wars” droid, informally : ARTOO
45. Halloween accessory : WIG
46. “Coach, get those guys a little ice water” [N.F.L.] : COOL YOUR (New York) JETS
49. Belly flop effect : SPLASH
52. Muscle group targeted by Pilates : CORE
53. “Coach, nab a few of those curfew violators” [M.L.B.] : CATCH SOME (Tampa Bay) RAYS
58. Movie featuring Ben Affleck as a C.I.A. agent : ARGO
59. Born yesterday, so to speak : NAIVE
60. “That hurts!” : OUCH!
63. Walk like a tosspot : REEL
64. Two of the heart’s chambers : ATRIA
65. 180s : UIES
66. Ferber who wrote “Show Boat” : EDNA
67. Church choir selection : PSALM
68. Proofreader’s “leave it” : STET

Down
1. Thurman of “Kill Bill” : UMA
2. Some exam graders, for short : TAS
3. Gallery-frequenting writer : ART CRITIC
4. “The French Connection” drug : HEROIN
5. Library catalog ID : ISBN
6. Chimney sweep’s target : SOOT
7. Passionate desire : LUST
8. Persistent desire : ITCH
9. One of the friends on “Friends” : PHOEBE
10. 1992 Clinton campaign song : DON’T STOP
11. Shaq in old RadioShack commercials : O’NEAL
12. Angry look : GLARE
13. Word before moth or cab : GYPSY
21. Popular fleece-lined boots : UGGS
22. “All My Children,” e.g. : SOAP
23. Literary figure of speech : TROPE
25. Title in Uncle Remus tales : BR’ER
26. Do one better than : TOP
27. Islamic equivalent of kosher : HALAL
28. Atlanta university : EMORY
29. In the know about : HIP TO
33. Tailored wear imparting confidence : POWER SUIT
34. Come together : UNITE
35. Cribbage or croquet needs : PEGS
37. “It’s the real thing” brand : COCA COLA
39. Old French coin : SOU
42. Munch between meals : NOSH
44. “Free Willy” creature : ORCA
47. Playful response to a zinger : OH SNAP!
48. Like occasions of celebration : JOYOUS
49. Hair-raising experience : SCARE
50. Trimmed back : PARED
51. Three-star U.S. Army rank: Abbr. : LT GEN
54. Muesli morsels : OATS
55. Sorvino of “Mighty Aphrodite” : MIRA
56. “Don’t be ___” (Google motto) : EVIL
57. Copier paper buy : REAM
61. Clamp shape : CEE
62. “The buck stops here” presidential inits. : HST

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