Category: Neville Fogarty

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. “Dragnet” force, in brief : LAPD
“Dragnet” was a very successful police drama that developed into quite a franchise. The show started out on radio in 1949, and then also ran on television from 1952. There were even a couple of movies. Star of the show, and the producer, was Jack Webb who played Sgt. Joe Friday. What a voice that man had!

5. Spirited steed : ARAB
The Arab (or Arabian) breed of horse takes its name from its original home, the Arabian Peninsula. Like any animal that humans have over-bred, the horse falls prey to genetic diseases, some of which are fatal and some of which require the horse to be euthanized.

14. Calculus calculation : AREA
In the world of calculus, the integration function calculates the area between a curve and the x-axis or y-axis.

15. City with Aces Ballpark : RENO
Aces Ballpark opened in 2009, and is home to the Triple-A baseball team in the Nevada city of Reno, the Reno Aces.

21. “Miami Vice” informant : IZZY
“Miami Vice” is a detective television show that first aired in 1984-1989. Stars of the show are Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. There is a 2006 film adaptation of “Miami Vice” that stars Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx.

25. Cleveland’s lake : ERIE
Cleveland, Ohio was named after the man who led the team that surveyed the area prior to founding of the city. General Moses Cleaveland did his work in 1796 and then left Ohio, never to return again.

27. “The way I see it,” briefly : IMHO
In my humble opinion (IMHO).

35. Avril follower : MAI
In French, the month of April (avril) comes before May (mai). Note that the French don’t capitalize the names of months as we do in English.

38. Shaw of the big band era : ARTIE
Artie Shaw was a composer, bandleader and a jazz clarinetist. Shaw’s real name was Arthur Jacob Arshawsky, born in New York City in 1910. One of his many claims to fame is that he (a white bandleader) hired Billie Holiday (a black vocalist) and toured the segregated South in the late thirties. Holiday chose to leave the band though, due to hostility from Southern audiences back then.

42. President with a Nobel Prize : OBAMA
President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the fourth US president to be so honored. President Obama is the only one of the four to have been awarded the prize during his first year of office. The Nobel committee gave the award citing President Obama’s work towards a new climate in international relations, particularly in reaching out to the Muslim world.

51. TV host Banks : TYRA
Tyra Banks is a tremendously successful model and businesswoman. Banks created and hosts the hit show “America’s Next Top Model “, and also has her own talk show. She was also the first African American woman to make the cover of the “Sports Illustrated” swimsuit issue.

54. Where the Storting sits : OSLO
The Storting is the Norwegian parliamentand is located in Oslo, Norway’s capital city. The Storting differs in structure from say the US Congress and the British Parliament in that is “unicameral”, it has only one legislative chamber.

57. Polo competitor : IZOD
Jack Izod was a tailor of some repute over in England, producing shirts for King George V as well as other members of the Royal Family. As Izod was about to retire, he was approached for the use of his name by an American clothing manufacturer based in New York. The brand Izod of London was introduced to America in 1938.

59. “Little Miss Sunshine” vehicle : VW BUS
“Little Miss Sunshine” is a respected 2006 comedy film about a family’s road trip in a VW bus. I tried watching this one a couple of times and just couldn’t take it at all despite a great cast that includes Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette and Alan Arkin.

63. Ponce de León’s quest : FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH (IN & OUT)
The legend of the Fountain of Youth gained a lot of traction in the 1500s because a story developed that the Spanish explorer Ponce de León traveled to what is now Florida in search of the legendary spring.

Juan Ponce de León was a famous Spanish explorer and conquistador. Ponce de León led the Europeans to Florida, and it was he who gave the state its name (Spanish for “Flowery Land”). He was injured on his last voyage to Florida, supposedly by a poisoned arrow, and died from his wound in Havana, Cuba.

66. Spore spreaders : FUNGI
Spores are produced by many bacteria, fungi and non-flowering plants. A spore is a reproductive body encased in a protective shell that is highly resistant to damage, and resistant to heat in particular.

67. Hawaiian bird : NENE
The bird called a nene is a native of Hawaii, and is also known as the Hawaiian goose. The name “nene” is imitative of its call. When Captain Cook landed on the islands in 1778, there were 25,000 nene living there. By 1950, the number was reduced by hunting to just 30 birds. Conservation efforts in recent years have been somewhat successful.

68. TV’s “Deal ___ Deal” : OR NO
The TV game show that is called “Deal or No Deal” in the US is shown all around the world in local versions. The original version of the show was developed in the Netherlands as “Miljoenenjacht” (Hunt for Millions).

Down
2. La Scala performance : ARIA
The La Scala Opera House opened in 1778. It was built on the site of the church of Santa Maria della Scala, which gave the theater its name, “Teatro alla Scala” in Italian.

3. One of the 53-Downs : PENN
(53. Prestigious Eastern school, informally : IVY)
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) was founded in 1740 by by Benjamin Franklin. Penn was the first school in the country to offer both graduate and undergraduate courses.

5. Prince Valiant’s son : ARN
Arn was the eldest son of Prince Valiant, the comic strip hero. Edward, the Duke of Windsor, called the “Prince Valiant” comic strip the “greatest contribution to English Literature in the past one hundred years”. I’m not so sure …

7. DreamWorks’s first animated film : ANTZ
“Antz” was the first feature movie released by Dreamworks SKG, the studio founded by Steven Spielberg and two partners in 1994. “Antz” came out in 1998, and has a stellar cast that includes Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone, Gene Hackman and many, many other big names. The cartoon is quite unique in that the facial features of the voice actors are reflected in the animated characters.

9. Tolkien meanie : ORC
According to Tolkien, Orcs are small humanoids that live in his fantasy world of Middle-earth(also called “Mordor”). They are very ugly and dirty, and are fond of eating human flesh.

10. Bone of the lower chest : FALSE RIB
In the human ribcage, the top seven sets of bones are known as true ribs as they are attached directly to the sternum or breastbone. The five sets below the true ribs are called false ribs as they don’t have this direct connection. The bottom two of the false ribs are also called floating ribs as they don’t connect to the sternum at all.

12. “Born Free” lioness : ELSA
The life story of Elsa the lion was told by game warden Joy Adamson, who had a very close relationship with the lioness from when Elsa was orphaned as a young cub. Adamson wrote the book “Born Free” about Elsa, and then “Living Free” which tells the story of Elsa and her three lion cubs. In the 1966 film based on “Born Free”, Adamson is played by the talented actress Virginia McKenna.

13. Some whiskeys : RYES
For whiskey to be labelled as “rye” in the US, it has to be distilled from at least 51% rye grain. In Canada however, a drink called rye whiskey sometimes contains no rye at all.

19. Actor Lew : AYRES
The Hollywood actor Lew Ayres got his big break in “All Quiet On the Western Front”. Famously, he also played Dr. Kildare in several movies. Ayres’ private life wasn’t too dull. He was married three times, Lola Lane and Ginger Rogers being wives one and two. Ayres was also the man for whom actress Jane Wyman left her husband Ronald Reagan, although the Ayres-Wyman relationship didn’t last very long.

24. Enzyme suffix : -ASE
Enzymes are basically catalysts, chemicals that act to increase the rate of a particular chemical reaction. For example starches will break down into sugars over time, especially under the right conditions, but in the presence of the enzyme amylase that is found in saliva, this production of sugar happens very, very quickly.

27. Apple ad line : I’M A PC
The “Get a Mac” ad television campaign that ran from 2006 to 2009 featured just two men standing against a white background. The guy on the left called himself a PC, and was played by author and actor John Hodgman. The guy on the right called himself a Mac, and was played by actor Justin Long.

28. Lopez of “Extra” : MARIO
Mario Lopez is an actor and television host from San Diego, California. Lopez came in second on the third season of “Dancing with the Stars”. Lopez ended up romantically involved with his partner in the show, professional dancer Karina Smirnoff.

“Extra” is a tabloid TV show about the entertainment industry. The current anchors for the show are Mario Lopez and Maria Menounos.

29. “___ where they ain’t” : HIT ‘EM
The phrase “Keep your eye clear, and hit ‘em where they ain’t” is advice that was first given by professional baseball player Willie Keeler. Keeler played from 1892 to 1910, mainly for the Baltimore Orioles, Brooklyn Superbas and New York Highlanders.

31. Vermont ski resort : OKEMO
Okemo is a ski resort near Ludlow, Vermont. If you visit Okemo, you’ll see that it’s also home to the Timber Ripper roller coaster, which operates year round. The Timber Ripper became the state of Vermont’s first roller coaster when it opened for business in December, 2010.

32. Dazzling gallery display : OP ART
Op art is also known as optical art, and puts optical illusions to great effect.

33. Home of the lion that Hercules slew : NEMEA
The Twelve Labors of Hercules is actually a Greek myth, although Hercules is the Roman name for the hero that the Greeks called Heracles. The first of these labors was to slay the Nemean Lion, a monster that lived in a cave near Nemea. Hercules had a tough job as the lion’s golden fur was impenetrable to normal weapons. One version of the story is that Hercules killed the lion by shooting an arrow into its mouth. Another version says that Hercules stunned the monster with a club and then strangled him with his bare hands.

44. Home of Damascus : SYRIA
Damascus is the second largest city in Syria (after Aleppo), and is the country’s capital. Damascus has the distinction of being the oldest, continuously-inhabited city in the world, having been settled in the 2nd millennium BC.

46. Oklahoma city : ADA
Back in 1889, Jeff Reed was hired to carry the mail between the two communities of Stonewall and Center in what was then called the Indian Territory. Reed had moved to the area from Texas and he bought some land in between the two limits of his mail route and built himself a log cabin. Pretty soon other settlers built homes nearby and in 1891 the settlement got its own post office. As postman, Reed got to name the new post office and he called it Ada, after his oldest daughter. Ada is now a county seat and has over 17,000 residents. One of the sons of the city of Ada was the televangelist Oral Roberts.

50. Director of “Bride of the Monster” : ED WOOD
Ed Wood was a screenwriter, director, producer and actor who made a lot of low-budget films during the 1950s. Wood worked a lot with the actor Bela Lugosi and when Lugosi passed away, the popularity of Wood’s film died off with his star. Tim Burton made a biopic about the life and career of Ed Wood that was released in 1994, a movie that was simply called “Ed Wood”.

53. Prestigious Eastern school, informally : IVY
The term “Ivy League” originally defined an athletic conference, but now it is used to describe a group of schools of higher education that are associated with both a long tradition and academic excellence. The eight Ivy League Schools are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.

55. Campbell’s product : SOUP
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.

56. ___ moth : LUNA
The lime-green Luna Moth is one of the largest moths found in North America, and grows to a wingspan of up to 4½ inches.

58. Like Nash’s lama (not llama) : ONE-L
The poet Ogden Nash is well known for his light and humorous verse. Try this one for size:

The one-L lama,
He’s a priest.
The two-L llama,
He’s a beast.
And I would bet
A silk pajama
There isn’t any
Three-L lllama.

60. Put six feet under : BURY
We’ve been burying our dead “six feet under” since the Great Plague of London in 1665. The scourge of the bubonic plague led to a law requiring that bodies be buried at least six feet below ground.

61. ___ Reader : UTNE
The “Utne Reader” is known for aggregation and republishing of articles on politics, culture and the environment from other sources in the media. The “Utne Reader” was founded in 1984, with “Utne” being the family name of the couple that started the publication.

64. Country singer McGraw : TIM
The country singer Tim McGraw is the son of the late Tug McGraw, the baseball pitcher. McGraw’s wife is fellow country singer Faith Hill.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. “Dragnet” force, in brief : LAPD
5. Spirited steed : ARAB
9. Bid : OFFER
14. Calculus calculation : AREA
15. City with Aces Ballpark : RENO
16. Good news on Wall Street : RALLY
17. Finishing up : WINDING TO A CLOSE (WIN & LOSE)
20. ___ of time : SANDS
21. “Miami Vice” informant : IZZY
22. Baths : SPAS
23. Affirmatives : YEAS
25. Cleveland’s lake : ERIE
27. “The way I see it,” briefly : IMHO
30. Window-shopping locale : STOREFRONT (TO & FRO)
35. Avril follower : MAI
36. Go after : SEEK
37. Hidden shooter : SNIPER
38. Shaw of the big band era : ARTIE
40. VCR button : REW
42. President with a Nobel Prize : OBAMA
43. Chessmen, e.g. : PIECES
45. What a vegan vetoes : MEAT
47. Be an agent for, in brief : REP
48. Great source of humor : COMEDY GOLD (COME & GO)
50. Some airport announcements, for short : ETAS
51. TV host Banks : TYRA
52. Set (down) : LAID
54. Where the Storting sits : OSLO
57. Polo competitor : IZOD
59. “Little Miss Sunshine” vehicle : VW BUS
63. Ponce de León’s quest : FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH (IN & OUT)
66. Spore spreaders : FUNGI
67. Hawaiian bird : NENE
68. TV’s “Deal ___ Deal” : OR NO
69. Hiccup, e.g. : SPASM
70. Elation : GLEE
71. Like Easter eggs : DYED

Down
1. Acts : LAWS
2. La Scala performance : ARIA
3. One of the 53-Downs : PENN
4. Cool cat : DADDY-O
5. Prince Valiant’s son : ARN
6. Checkout sight : REGISTER
7. DreamWorks’s first animated film : ANTZ
8. Sot : BOOZER
9. Tolkien meanie : ORC
10. Bone of the lower chest : FALSE RIB
11. Big failure : FLOP
12. “Born Free” lioness : ELSA
13. Some whiskeys : RYES
18. British suffix with formal : -ISE
19. Actor Lew : AYRES
24. Enzyme suffix : -ASE
26. Otherwise : IF NOT
27. Apple ad line : I’M A PC
28. Lopez of “Extra” : MARIO
29. “___ where they ain’t” : HIT ‘EM
31. Vermont ski resort : OKEMO
32. Dazzling gallery display : OP ART
33. Home of the lion that Hercules slew : NEMEA
34. Snares : TRAPS
36. Disreputable : SEEDY
39. Champagne bucket implement : ICE TONGS
41. “Bravo!” : WELL DONE!
44. Home of Damascus : SYRIA
46. Oklahoma city : ADA
49. Staring : GAZING
50. Director of “Bride of the Monster” : ED WOOD
53. Prestigious Eastern school, informally : IVY
54. Does in : OFFS
55. Campbell’s product : SOUP
56. ___ moth : LUNA
58. Like Nash’s lama (not llama) : ONE-L
60. Put six feet under : BURY
61. ___ Reader : UTNE
62. Having protected feet : SHOD
64. Country singer McGraw : TIM
65. A.T.M. imposition : FEE

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