Category: Roy Leban

Note: Syndicated Puzzle “0609”
It seems that some papers published the “wrong” syndicated puzzle on July 14th 2015. Although it is numbered 0609, it is actually a puzzle numbered 0630. You can find my solution to the 0630 puzzle here.

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Marsupial that looks like a small bear : WOMBAT
Wombats are marsupials that are native to Australia. Apparently, wombats are often mocked in their native land, as they are viewed as fat, slow, lazy animals. The “unofficial” mascot of the 2000 Sydney Olympics was “Fatso the Fat-A**ED Wombat”.

7. Mrs. en français : MME
The equivalent of “Mrs.” in French is “Mme.” (Madame) and in Spanish is “Sra.” (Señora).

14. Much-discussed program of the 1960s-’70s : APOLLO
The Apollo program is very much associated with President Kennedy, as he gave NASA the challenge to land men on the moon by the end of the sixties. However, the Apollo program was conceived during the Eisenhower administration as a follow-up to Project Mercury that put the first Americans in space.

16. ___ Empire : INCA
The Inca people emerged as a tribe around the 12th century, in what today is southern Peru. The Incas developed a vast empire over the next 300 years, extending along most of the western side of South America. The Empire fell to the Spanish, finally dissolving in 1572 with the execution of Tupac Amaru, the last Incan Emperor.

18. [1948] : CITATION
When the race horse Citation won the Hollywood Gold Cup in 1951, it became the first horse with career winnings over over $1 million. After that win, Citation’s owners promptly retired him to stud.

20. St. Louis landmark : ARCH
The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is the tallest monument in the United States. It was designed by Eero Saarinen, with the help of structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel. They did their design work back in 1947, but construction wasn’t started until 1963. In 1980, a daredevil took it upon himself to parachute onto the top of the arch intending to further jump from the apex of the arch and parachute to the ground. He hit the arch sure enough, and slid all the way down one of the arches to his death. No comment …

22. Home of the Belmont Stakes : NEW YORK
The Belmont Stakes is a horse race held in June each year, at Belmont Park racetrack in Elmont, New York. The Belmont Stakes is the last of the US Triple Crown races, following the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.

23. [1977] : SEATTLE SLEW
Seattle Slew was a thoroughbred racehorse who won the Triple Crown in 1977. Although Seattle Slew was the tenth to win the Triple Crown, he was is the only horse to have done so undefeated.

27. Formerly : NEE
“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.

28. W.W. II foe : AXIS
Before WWII, Hungary’s prime minister was lobbying for an alliance between Germany, Hungary and Italy and worked towards such a relationship that he called an “axis”. The main Axis powers during the war were Germany, Italy and Japan. However, also included in the relationship were Romania, Bulgaria and the aforementioned Hungary.

31. Flit (about) : GAD
“To gad about” is to move around with little purpose. The word “gad” comes from the Middle English “gadden” meaning “to hurry”.

32. “Picnic” playwright : INGE
Playwright William Inge had a run of success on Broadway in the early fifties. Inge’s most celebrated work of that time was the play “Picnic”, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. The original 1953 cast of “Picnic” included a young male actor making his debut on Broadway. His name was Paul Newman. Many of Inge’s works are set in the American heartland and so he became known as the “Playwright of the Midwest”.

35. [2015] : AMERICAN PHAROAH
American Pharaoh is the twelfth and latest winner of the Triple Crown, achieving the feat in 2015. The horse’s name was inspired by that of his parents: Pioneerof the Nile (dam) and Yankee Gentleman (sire).

41. Money-saving way to make repairs, for short : DIY
Back in Ireland we don’t have “hardware stores” as such, but rather DIY Centres (and that’s the spelling). DIY is an abbreviation for “Do It Yourself”.

43. Hosp. diagnostic : MRI
A CT (or “CAT”) scan produces (via computer manipulation) a three dimensional image of the inside of an object, usually the human body. It does so by taking a series of two dimensional x-ray images while rotating the camera around the patient. The issue with CT scans is that they use x-rays, and high doses of radiation can be harmful causing damage that is cumulative over time. An MRI on the other hand (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), uses powerful magnetic fields to generate its images so there is no exposure to ionizing radiation (such as X-rays). We used MRI equipment in our chemistry labs at school, way back in the days when the technology was still called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI). Apparently the marketing folks didn’t like the term “nuclear” because of its association with atomic bombs, so now it’s just called MRI.

47. Commercial prefix with postale : AERO-
Aéropostale was a French aviation company founded in 1918 in Toulouse. When Aéropostale was founded, its focus was to be carrying mail, hence the name. The Aéropostale clothing retailer takes its name from the airline.

49. Sch. in Terre Haute, Ames or Pocatello : ISU
Iowa State University of Science and Technology (ISU) is located in Ames, Iowa. Among many other notable events, ISU created the country’s first school of veterinary medicine, in 1879. The sports teams of ISU are known as the Cyclones.

Indiana State University (ISU) was established in Terre Haute in 1865, as the Indiana State Normal School. ISU’s sports teams are called the Sycamores.

Idaho State University (ISU) is located in Pocatello, Idaho. The school started out in 1901 as the Academy of Idaho. ISU’s sports teams are known as the Bengals.

50. [1973] : SECRETARIAT
Secretariat won the Triple Crown in 1973, and set record times for each of the three races in the series (the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes), records that stand to this day. Famously, there was a biopic released in 2010 called “Secretariat” that chronicled the horse’s life.

53. “On the Road” novelist : KEROUAC
Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” is largely autobiographical, telling the story of Sal Paradise (Jack K.) and the road trips that he and his friends took across the country in the fifties.

56. [1978] : AFFIRMED
The very successful racehorse called Affirmed won the Triple Crown in 1978. Affirmed had a famous rivalry with the the horse Alydar, with the pair meeting up on ten occasions. Affirmed and Alydar came in first and second in each of the 1978 Triple Crown races.

62. Contest with lightsabers : DUEL
The famous lightsaber weapons in the “Star Wars” series of films have apparently been updated for the upcoming seventh episode “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. The new lightsabers have energy crossguards just above the grip.

63. End of a university’s domain : EDU
The .edu domain was one of the six original generic top-level domains specified. The complete original list is:

– .com (commercial enterprise)
– .net (entity involved in network infrastructure e.g. an ISP)
– .mil (US military)
– .org (not-for-profit organization)
– .gov (US federal government entity)
– .edu (college-level educational institution)

64. Garden figures : GNOMES
In English folklore, the lovable fairy’s anti-hero is the diminutive gnome, an evil ugly character. Over the centuries, the gnome has become more lovable so we now have garden gnomes and even the Travelocity Gnome …

65. 88 or 98 of autodom : OLDS
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.

Down
1. Man-o’-___ (old battleship) : WAR
The man-o’-war was the most powerful design of warship from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, developed in England at the height of the British Empire.

3. Cool in the mid-1960s : MOD
“Mod” is short for “modernist”, and describes a subculture that originated in London in the late fifties. Young men who called themselves mods tended to wear tailored suits, listen to pop music and drive around on Italian motor scooters. Mods came into conflict with another subculture that emerged at the same time in the UK called the rockers. Rockers were into rock and roll music, and drove motorcycles I remember as a young kid in school having to declare myself as either a mod or a rocker. I don’t think our “gangs” back then were quite the same as they are today though …

6. “Patriot Games” novelist : TOM CLANCY
“Patriot Games” is a 1987 novel from Tom Clancy that features his hero Jack Ryan. The story opens with Ryan saving the lives of the Prince and Princess of Wales during a kidnapping attempt by an Irish terrorist group. In the 1992 film adaptation of the book, the Prince and Princess of Wales are dropped from the story, and replaced by the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Tom Clancy was an incredibly successful novelist who was noted for his technically-detailed military and espionage thrillers. Clancy’s first novel was “The Hunt for Red October”, published in 1984. Although “Red October” was to be his most successful work, I personally preferred his second book “Red Storm Rising”, published in 1986. Clancy passed away in 2013.

7. Bub : MAC
“Bub” is American slang, a term used to address males, and is possibly a variation of bud.

9. First name at the cosmetics counter : ESTEE
Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, with a reputation as a great salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales volume …

10. Louisville or Baltimore : CITY
The city of Louisville, Kentucky was a chartered as a town in 1780 and was named in honor of King Louis XVI of France as French soldiers were aiding Americans in the Revolutionary War that was raging at that time.

Cecilius Calvert was the 2nd Baron of Baltimore, an English peer and member of the Irish House of Lords who became Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland. Calvert managed the Maryland colony from his home in England, for 42 years. As Calvert was a Roman Catholic, the colony of Maryland became a haven for Catholics from England who were suffering religious persecution. The city of Baltimore is named after Calvert, who was also known as Lord Baltimore. The Baltimore title comes from the Manor of Baltimore, a large estate in County Longford in Ireland.

21. Hägar’s wife, in the comics : HELGA
“Hagar the Horrible” is a comic strip that was created by the late Dik Browne and is now drawn by his son, Chris Browne. “Hagar the Terrible” (not “Horrible”) was the nickname given to Dik by his sons. Hage of the comic strip lives with his wife Hagar Horrible, their children Hamlet and Honi, and their dog Snert.

23. Many a Viking tale : SAGA
The Vikings were a Germanic people from northern Europe who were noted as great seafarers. Key to the success of the Vikings was the design of their famous “longships”. Made from wood, the longship was long and narrow with a shallow hull, It was also light, so that the crew would actually carry it small distances over land and around obstacles. Longships were designed to be propelled both by sail and by oars.

30. Onetime Mideast grp. : UAR
The United Arab Republic (UAR) was a union between Egypt and Syria made in 1958 and dissolved in 1961 when Syria pulled out of the arrangement.

32. Roman trio : III
The number three is “III” in Roman numerals.

33. Events for the police blotter : SHOOTINGS
A police blotter is (or used to be) a daily record of arrests made.

34. Spray in the kitchen : PAM
PAM cooking oil was introduced in 1961 by Leon Rubin and Arthur Meyerhoff. The name “PAM” is an acronym … standing for “Product of Arthur Meyerhoff”. Who’d a thunk it …?

38. Upscale chain hotel : OMNI
Omni Hotels & Resorts is headquartered in Irvine, California and has properties in the US, Canada and Mexico.

40. Pulitzer Prize category: Abbr. : HIST
Pulitzer Prizes are awarded annually for achievements in journalism, literature and musical composition. The prize was established back in 1917 by the Hungarian-American newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer left money in his will for the prize, and for its administration by Columbia University.

44. Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, with “The” : MIKADO
“The Mikado” is a wonderful comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, set in the exotic location of Japan. “Mikado” is a former term for the “Emperor of Japan”. In the opera, Nanki-Poo is the Mikado’s son, who falls in love with the maiden Yum-Yum.

48. ___ Trail : OREGON
The Oregon Trail was established by fur trappers and traders as early as 1811. The first migrant wagon train traveled the route in 1836, starting off in Independence, Idaho and going as far as Fort Hall, Idaho. In the coming years, the trail was extended for wagons as far as the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

50. California’s Big ___ : SUR
Big Sur is a lovely part of the California Coast, south of Monterey and Carmel. The name “Big Sur” comes from the original Spanish description of the area as “el sur grande” meaning “the big south”.

51. Eponymous chair designer : EAMES
Charles and Ray Eames were a husband-wife team of furniture designers. One of the more famous of their designs is the Eames lounge chair that comes with an ottoman. This trendy piece of furniture featured in a late episode of the television show “Frasier”. In the show, Frasier’s Dad remarks that the Eames chair is so comfortable that he might have gotten rid of his tatty old recliner a long time ago.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Marsupial that looks like a small bear : WOMBAT
7. Mrs. en français : MME
10. Price : COST
14. Much-discussed program of the 1960s-’70s : APOLLO
15. Smallish batteries : AAS
16. ___ Empire : INCA
17. Cash in : REDEEM
18. [1948] : CITATION
20. St. Louis landmark : ARCH
22. Home of the Belmont Stakes : NEW YORK
23. [1977] : SEATTLE SLEW
27. Formerly : NEE
28. W.W. II foe : AXIS
29. See 30-Across : ALLY
30. One 29-Across of the U.S. in W.W. II : USSR
31. Flit (about) : GAD
32. “Picnic” playwright : INGE
33. Place to be pampered : SPA
35. [2015] : AMERICAN PHAROAH
41. Money-saving way to make repairs, for short : DIY
42. Inevitable ruin : DOOM
43. Hosp. diagnostic : MRI
44. Tousle, as the hair : MUSS
47. Commercial prefix with postale : AERO-
48. 1 1 1 : ONES
49. Sch. in Terre Haute, Ames or Pocatello : ISU
50. [1973] : SECRETARIAT
53. “On the Road” novelist : KEROUAC
55. Descriptive of some undesirable consequences : DIRE
56. [1978] : AFFIRMED
58. Nullify : NEGATE
62. Contest with lightsabers : DUEL
63. End of a university’s domain : EDU
64. Garden figures : GNOMES
65. 88 or 98 of autodom : OLDS
66. “Get my point?” : SEE?
67. December shopping mall figures : SANTAS

Down
1. Man-o’-___ (old battleship) : WAR
2. Uncover, poetically : OPE
3. Cool in the mid-1960s : MOD
4. Meadow sounds : BLEATS
5. A serious one might be red : ALERT
6. “Patriot Games” novelist : TOM CLANCY
7. Bub : MAC
8. For the most part : MAINLY
9. First name at the cosmetics counter : ESTEE
10. Louisville or Baltimore : CITY
11. They might make you cry : ONIONS
12. Numbers on the board : SCORES
13. Petroleum ship : TANKER
19. “Isn’t she cute?!” : AWW!
21. Hägar’s wife, in the comics : HELGA
23. Many a Viking tale : SAGA
24. Final, for one : EXAM
25. Congressional staffer : AIDE
26. Thin : SLENDER
30. Onetime Mideast grp. : UAR
32. Roman trio : III
33. Events for the police blotter : SHOOTINGS
34. Spray in the kitchen : PAM
36. Hwys. : RDS
37. Studied, with “over” : PORED
38. Upscale chain hotel : OMNI
39. Infield, for one : AREA
40. Pulitzer Prize category: Abbr. : HIST
44. Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, with “The” : MIKADO
45. Worth having : USEFUL
46. Browsed, as the Internet : SURFED
47. Consent, as to a request : ACCEDE
48. ___ Trail : OREGON
50. California’s Big ___ : SUR
51. Eponymous chair designer : EAMES
52. Sports venue : ARENA
54. De-squeaks : OILS
57. Like many payments on the first of the month : DUE
59. Qty. : AMT
60. Word with black or blended : TEA
61. Curve of a sort : ESS

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