Category: Christina Iverson

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Job for Sherlock : CASE

According to author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, his character Sherlock Holmes was based on a Dr. Joseph Bell for whom Doyle worked in Edinburgh. That said, Bell actually wrote a letter to Doyle in which he said “you are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it”.

5A Breakfast chain that punnily used a kangaroo in its early commercials : 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.

15A Vegetarian protein : TOFU

“Tofu” is a name for bean curd, and is a Japanese word meaning just that … bean that has curdled. It is produced by coagulating soy milk, using either salt or something acidic. Once the protein has coagulated, the curds are pressed into the familiar blocks. Personally I love tofu, but my wife absolutely hates it …

18A “You’re despicable!” speaker voiced by Mel Blanc : DAFFY DUCK

Daffy Duck first appeared on the screen in “Porky’s Duck Hunt” in 1937. In the original cartoon, Daffy was just meant to have a small role, but he was a big hit as he had so much sass. Even back then, Daffy was voiced by the ubiquitous Mel Blanc.

20A Fashion designer Ralph : LAUREN

Ralph Lauren is an American fashion designer, born Ralph Liftshitz in the Bronx, New York. Lauren started off working as a salesman for Brooks Brothers after spending two years in the US Army. He then opened a necktie store, featuring his own tie designs. The ties were sold under the name “Polo”, which became Lauren’s most famous brand. Other Lauren brands are Purple Label and Black Label.

22A Better deal on a mortgage, in brief : REFI

Refinance (refi)

23A Born, in marriage announcements : NEE

“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”. The term “née” is mainly used in English when referring to a married woman’s birth name, assuming that she has adopted her husband’s name, e.g. Michelle Obama née Robinson, Melania Trump née Knavs, and Jill Biden née Jacobs.

24A “I’m hunting wabbits” speaker voiced by Mel Blanc : ELMER FUDD

Elmer Fudd is one of the most famous Looney Tunes cartoon characters, and is the hapless nemesis of Bugs Bunny. If you have never seen it, check out Elmer and Bugs in the marvelous “Rabbit of Seville”, a short cartoon that parodies Rossini’s “Barber of Seville”. Wonderful stuff …

28A Mont Blanc, e.g. : ALP

Mont Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps. The name “Mont Blanc” translates from French into “white mountain”. The mountain lies on the border between France and Italy, and it has been generally accepted for decades that the summit lies within French territory. However, there have been official claims that the summit does in fact fall within the borders of Italy.

29A Small piece of china … or small dog size : TEACUP

The toy group of dogs is made up of the smallest breeds. The smallest of the small breeds are sometimes called teacup breeds.

36A Neighbor of a Cambodian : THAI

The Kingdom of Cambodia is located in the Indochina Peninsula of Southeast Asia, and is bordered by Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and the Gulf of Thailand. “Cambodia” is the English version of the country’s name, which in Khmer is “Kampuchea”.

40A “Ha-ha-ha-HA-ha!” speaker voiced by Mel Blanc : WOODY WOODPECKER

The much-loved cartoon character Woody Woodpecker came out of the Walter Lantz animation studio. Woody initially appeared in a cartoon called “Knock Knock” released in 1940. Woody was first voiced by the famous Mel Blanc.

43A Garden of Eden man : ADAM

According to the Bible, God created Adam from “the dust of the ground”. Eve was created as Adam’s companion, from Adam’s rib.

44A Newspaper opinion piece : OP-ED

“Op-ed” is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

45A Place to put a stethoscope : CHEST

The word “stethoscope” comes from the Greek word for “chest examination”. The stethoscope was invented back in 1816 in France by René Laennec, although back then it looked just like an ear trumpet, a wooden tube with flared ends.

46A “Ain’t gonna happen!” : NO DICE!

One suggestion for the origin of the phrase “no dice”, meaning “nothing doing, no way”, refers back to illegal gambling in the early 1900s. When approached by police, illegal gamblers would hide their dice (some even swallowed them). It was well known that city attorneys wouldn’t prosecute unless the police could produce the dice. Apparently there was an idiom at the time, “no dice, no conviction”.

50A “Weekend Update” show, in brief : SNL

“Weekend Update” is the longest-running of any recurring sketch on “Saturday Night Live” (SNL). In fact, the segment made its debut on the very first show, back in 1975. The first “anchor” at the “Weekend Update” desk was Chevy Chase.

51A “I am ze locksmith of love, no?” speaker voiced by Mel Blanc : PEPE LE PEW

Pepé Le Pew is a cartoon character from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. He is a French skunk, first introduced way back in 1945. He is always thinking of “l’amour” and chases the lady skunks, or a black cat with a white stripe accidentally painted down her back. As a child, I used to find Pepé Le Pew cartoons really funny. As an old man, all I can see is stalking and sexual assault …

57A Chum, in Chartres : AMI

Chartres is a town in north-central France, lying about 60 miles southwest of Paris.

62A “What’s up, Doc?” speaker voiced by Mel Blanc : BUGS BUNNY

Cartoon legend Bugs Bunny owes a couple of the iconic elements of his persona to the superb 1934 film “It Happened One Night”. In the movie, Clark Gable has a celebrated scene in which his character munches on raw carrots. He also utters the lines “I, uh, didn’t mean anything, Doc.”and “No offense, Doc.” When Bugs made his debut in the 1940 cartoon “A Wild Hare”, he was munching on carrots, and spouting the line “What’s up, Doc?”

Down

1D Kind of car San Francisco is famous for : CABLE

A cable car is a vehicle that is propelled by attaching it to a moving, endless cable. There are two main types of cable: one is suspended from an overhead cable (like a ski lift), and the other moves along tracks on the ground (like a San Francisco cable car).

3D Clear component of blood : SERUM

Blood serum (plural “sera”) is the clear, yellowish part of blood i.e. that part which is neither a blood cell nor a clotting factor. Included in blood serum are antibodies, the proteins that are central to our immune system. Blood serum from animals that have immunity to a particular disease can be transferred to another individual, hence providing that second individual with some level of immunity. Blood serum used to pass on immunity can be called “antiserum”.

4D ___ nous : ENTRE

In French, something might perhaps be discussed “entre deux” (between two) or “entre nous” (between us).

8D Magic dragon’s name, in song : PUFF

“Puff the Magic Dragon” is a song released in 1963 by Peter, Paul and Mary. It was written by Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow (the “Peter” of the singing trio). The lyrics tell the story of a dragon named Puff, and a little boy named Jackie Paper. There is an urban myth that the lyrics refer to the use of drugs. In fact, the words are based on a poem that Lipton wrote when he was 19-years-old in 1959, and which was inspired by an Ogden Nash poem called “Custard the Dragon”.

10D Baked item whose name suggests how much of each ingredient to use : POUND CAKE

Pound cake is so called because the traditional recipe calls for a pound of each of four ingredients:

• a pound of flour
• a pound of butter
• a pound of eggs
• a pound of sugar

I’d say that’s a lot of cake …

11D Fairy tale’s first word : ONCE

The stock phrase “Once upon a time …” has been used in various forms as the start of a narrative at least since 1380. The stock phrase at the end of stories such as folktales is often “and they all lived happily ever after”. The earlier version of this ending was “happily until their deaths”.

21D Falcons’ and Eagles’ org. : NFL

The Atlanta Falcons joined the NFL in 1965. The team name was suggested by a schoolteacher called Miss Julia Elliott. Elliot suggested that “the Falcon is proud and dignified, with great courage and fight. It never drops its prey. It is deadly and has a great sporting tradition.”

The Philadelphia Eagles were established in 1933 and joined the National Football League as a replacement for the bankrupt Frankford Yellow Jackets, also from Philadelphia. The “Eagle” name was inspired by the Blue Eagle insignia that was used by companies who were in compliance with the National Industrial Recovery Act that was central to President Roosevelt’s New Deal Program.

25D “Give me five!” : UP TOP!

The celebratory gesture that we call a “high five” is said to have been invented by former baseball players Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke when they were both playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the late 1970s.

30D Colorado Plateau natives : UTES

The Colorado Plateau is a geographical feature in the southwest, covering parts of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, roughly equivalent to what is known as the Four Corners region. It is home to the greatest concentration of national parks in the country. Included in the area are Grand Canyon NP, Zion NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Arches NP and Mesa Verde NP, to name but a few.

32D Long-necked bird with a “knob” on its beak : SWAN

An adult male swan is a cob and an adult female is a pen. Young swans are swanlings or cygnets.

33D Brouhaha : TO-DO

“Brouhaha”, meaning “ado, stir”, was a French word that back in the 1550s meant “the cry of the devil disguised as clergy” . Wow!

38D Do a tally of : ADD UP

Back in the mid-1600s, a tally was a stick marked with notches that tracked how much one owed or paid. The term “tally” came from the Latin “talea” meaning “stick, rod”. The act of “scoring” the stick with notches gave rise to our word “score” for the number in a tally.

51D Kind of colony in the film “Papillon” : PENAL

“Papillon” is an excellent film starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman as convicts in the French penal colony on Devil’s Island (“Île du Diable” in French). “Papillon” is the French word for “butterfly” and is a reference to the character Henri “Papillon” Charrière, played by McQueen.

52D Dadaist Max : ERNST

Max Ernst was a painter and sculptor, and a pioneer in the Dada movement and Surrealism. Ernst was born near Cologne in Germany in 1891 and he was called up to fight in WWI, as were most young German men at that time. In his autobiography he writes “Max Ernst died the 1st of August, 1914”, which was a statement about his experiences in the war. In reality, Ernst died in 1976 having lived to the ripe old age of 85.

53D €€€ : EUROS

The euro sign (€) looks like a letter C, but with two horizontal lines drawn across the middle. Inspiration for the design comes from the Greek letter epsilon.

55D Dickens’s “The Mystery of ___ Drood” : EDWIN

“The Mystery of Edwin Drood” is an unfinished novel by Charles Dickens. The story itself is centered not on the title character, but on Edwin Drood’s uncle, a choirmaster named John Jasper.

56D Sommelier’s stock : WINES

“Sommelier” is the French word for “wine steward”. The role of a sommelier, also “chef de vin”, extends beyond just uncorking bottles. A trained and knowledgeable sommelier is responsible for developing wine lists, providing wine service, and expertly pairing wines with food. Beyond wine, the term “sommelier” has expanded to include other beverage specialists, such as a “beer sommelier” (also known as a “cicerone”) or a “sake sommelier”.