Day: November 10, 2012

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Fictional sleepwalker LADY MACBETH
Lady Macbeth is an evil and treacherous woman in William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. The most famous line uttered by Lady Macbeth has to be:

Out, damned spot! Out, I say!

12. __ shot FLU
Influenza is an ailment that is caused by a virus. The virus is readily inactivated by the use of soap, so washing hands and surfaces is especially helpful in containing flu outbreaks.

15. 1989 Best Original Song Oscar winner UNDER THE SEA
“Under the Sea” is a song from “The Little Mermaid”, an animated movie released in 1989 by Disney. The song won the Best Original Song Oscar that year, and indeed the movie also won and Oscar for Best Original Score.

18. GRF succeeded him RMN
President Richard Milhous Nixon used “Milhous” in his name in honor of his mother Hannah Milhous. Richard was born in a house in Yorba Linda, California. You can visit that house today as it is on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. It’s a really interesting way to spend a few hours if you ever get to Yorba Linda …

President Gerald Ford was well known for his athletic prowess. He was the star football player both in his high school and later at the University of Michigan. After graduation, President Ford received two offers to play in the NFL, from the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers. He turned down both teams opting instead to take a coaching position at Yale giving him the opportunity to apply to Yale Law School. But young Mr. Ford’s plan backfired as Yale Law School turned him down because of his full-time commitment to sports: coaching football, boxing and teaching JV cheer-leading. It took three years for President Ford to make it into Yale Law School, but he finally got there, in 1938.

19. “The Memory of Trees” album maker ENYA
Enya’s real name is Eithne Patricia Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1980 Enya launched her very successful solo career. She sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

21. 1940s Time film critic James AGEE
James Agee was a noted American film critic and screenwriter. Agee wrote an autobiographical novel “A Death in the Family” that won him his Pulitzer in 1958, albeit posthumously. He was also one of the screenwriters for the 1951 classic movie “The African Queen”.

34. Home of the Kon-Tiki Museum OSLO
Thor Heyerdahl was a noted Norwegian adventurer famous for his Kon-Tiki expedition in which he sailed a raft over 4,000 miles from South America to the Tuamotu Archipelago in the South Pacific. Heyerdahl also sailed a boat made from papyrus called Ra II from Morocco, across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados.

37. Mass garb ALB
The alb is the white, neck-to-toe vestment worn by priests, usually with a rope cord around the waist. The term alb comes from “albus”, the Latin word for “white”.

38. Worker, informally PROLE
George Orwell introduced us to the “proles”, the working class folk in his famous novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Collectively, the proles made up the section of society known as the proletariat.

45. Paint company with an ursine image in its logo BEHR
The Behr brand of paint is pronounced “bear”, and the cans even have a bear logo. The company was founded in 1947 by Otho Behr Jr.

46. Skiers’ aids T-BARS
A T-bar is a type of ski lift in which the skiers are pulled up the hill in pairs, with each pair standing (not sitting!) either side of T-shaped metal bar. The bar is placed behind the thighs, pulling along the skiers who remain standing on their skis (hopefully!). There’s also a J-bar, a similar device, but with each J-shaped bar used by one skier at a time.

52. OPEC member UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates (states) in the Middle East. Included in the seven are Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with the city of Abu Dhabi being the UAE capital and cultural center.

57. Literary monogram TSE
T. S. Eliot was born in New England but grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. Much of Eliot’s college education was at Oxford, and clearly he became comfortable with life in England. In 1927 he became a British citizen and lived the rest of life in the UK.

58. Antipastos, e.g. ASSORTMENTS
Antipasto is the first course of a meal in Italy. “Antipasto” translates as “before the meal”.

Down
3. Time to 6-Down D-DAY
The most famous D-Day in history was June 6, 1944, the date of the Normandy landings in WWII. The term “D-Day” is used by the military to designate the day on which a combat operations are to be launched, especially when the actual date has yet to be determined. What D stands for seems to have been lost in the mists of time although the tradition is that D just stands for “Day”. In fact, the French have a similar term, “Jour J” (Day J), with a similar meaning. We also use H-Hour to denote the hour the attack is to commence.

5. Bouncer-turned-actor MR T
Mr. T’s real name is Laurence Tureaud. Mr. T is famous for many things, including the wearing of excessive amounts of jewelry. He started this habit when he was working as a bouncer, wearing jewelry items that had been left behind by customers at a nightclub so that the items might be recognized and claimed. It was also as a bouncer that he adopted the name Mr. T. His catch phrase comes from the movie “Rocky III”. In the film, before he goes up against Rocky Balboa, Mr. T says, “No, I don’t hate Balboa, but I pity the fool”. He parlayed that line into quite a bit of success. He had a reality TV show called “I Pity the Fool”, and produced a motivational video called “Be Somebody … or Be Somebody’s Fool!”.

7. Berry of St. Louis CHUCK
Chuck Berry may be a pioneer of rock and roll, but he had an inauspicious start to his life. Berry was raised in a middle class family in St. Louis and started playing and performing music in high school. However, while still at school he was arrested and convicted of armed robbery. He served three years for the crime and was released from prison in 1947 on his 21st birthday. He certainly got his act together after that …

8. Game show host Convy BERT
Bert Convy was an American actor, although he was perhaps better known as a game show host. Famously. Convy was host for the shows “Tattletales”, “Super Password” and “Win, Lose or Draw”.

14. __ Reader: alternative media anthology 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.

21. Hawks’ home: Abbr. ATL
The NBA’s Atlanta Hawks started out as the Buffalo Bisons in 1946, although after only a few months the team was moved to Moline, Illinois as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. The Blackhawks were one of the 17 original teams playing at the founding of the National Basketball Association. There was another move in 1951 and a renaming to the Milwaukee Hawks, and yet again in 1955 when the team became the St. Louis Hawks. The latest move was to Atlanta, in 1968.

25. Subject of a 1922 discovery TUT
King Tut is a name commonly used for the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen. Tutankhamen may not have been the most significant of the pharaohs historically, but he is the most famous today largely because of the discovery of his nearly intact tomb in 1922. Prior to this find, any Egyptian tombs uncovered by archaeologists had been ravaged by grave robbers. Tutankhamen’s magnificent burial mask is one of the most recognizable of all Egyptian artifacts.

26. “Cheers!” SKOAL
Skoal is a Swedish toast, with roots in the old Norse word “skaal”, meaning “cup”.

30. City north of Cologne ESSEN
I knew a man back in Ireland, a German national from the city of Essen. He had very sad tales to tell from the days of WWII. As a young boy he lost his (socialist) parents during the Nazi purges early in the war. In 1943 he was living with his grandmother and still attending school when he was drafted into the army along with the rest of his class (at 14 years of age). His platoon leader was his school teacher who made a point of tutoring the boys in place of military drilling. One day he was on guard duty with his class/platoon at the dam above the city, and along come the Dam Busters with their bouncing bombs. The raid was successful (from the perspective of the Allies), but he described terrible famine faced by the people below the dam due to flooding of the farmland that surrounded the factories.

Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany, and is called “Koln” in German.

32. They develop from unfertilized eggs DRONE BEES
Drone bees and ants are fertile males of the species whose sole role in life seems to be to mate with a queen.

38. Declaration of Independence writer? PEN
I guess a pen could be used for writing more than just the Declaration of Independence.

42. Taboo word MUSTN’T
The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

49. Noyes’s “ghostly galleon” MOON
Alfred Noyes was an English poet best known for his narrative poem “The Highwayman”, published in 1906.

50. Hardware bit T-NUT
A T-nut is so called because it has a t-shape when viewed from the side.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Fictional sleepwalker LADY MACBETH
12. __ shot FLU
15. 1989 Best Original Song Oscar winner UNDER THE SEA
16. Seed used in cat grass OAT
17. Holiday staple ROAST TURKEY
18. GRF succeeded him RMN
19. “The Memory of Trees” album maker ENYA
20. Join the cast of ACT IN
21. 1940s Time film critic James AGEE
22. Head turner NECK
24. Winter warmer MITTEN
26. Consented SAID OK
29. Soften MODULATE
31. Firing spots KILNS
32. Bus stop DEPOT
33. Exhibits HAS
34. Home of the Kon-Tiki Museum OSLO
35. It may be marked TRAIL
36. Signs of neglect WEBS
37. Mass garb ALB
38. Worker, informally PROLE
39. Kerosene source SHALE
40. Product with the slogan “Get What Fits.” LEE JEANS
42. Fair one MAIDEN
43. Political position STANCE
44. __ tape DUCT
45. Paint company with an ursine image in its logo BEHR
46. Skiers’ aids T-BARS
48. Rescue team, briefly EMTS
52. OPEC member UAE
53. Solos GOES IT ALONE
55. Orch. section STR
56. All fuss and feathers PRETENTIOUS
57. Literary monogram TSE
58. Antipastos, e.g. ASSORTMENTS

Down
1. Fly in a river LURE
2. Presently ANON
3. Time to 6-Down D-DAY
4. Equivocal reply YES AND NO
5. Bouncer-turned-actor MR T
6. See 3-Down ATTACK
7. Berry of St. Louis CHUCK
8. Game show host Convy BERT
9. Klondike bar relative ESKIMO PIE
10. Cause of screaming and fainting, perhaps TEEN IDOL
11. Stable diet? HAY
12. Progress at a faster rate FORGE AHEAD
13. Unfortunate LAMENTABLE
14. __ Reader: alternative media anthology UTNE
21. Hawks’ home: Abbr. ATL
23. Volkswagen model EOS
25. Subject of a 1922 discovery TUT
26. “Cheers!” SKOAL
27. Windows alternatives AISLE SEATS
28. “You can count on me!” I’LL BE THERE
29. Board MEALS
30. City north of Cologne ESSEN
32. They develop from unfertilized eggs DRONE BEES
35. Cultivation wheels TRACTORS
36. Benign fiction WHITE LIE
38. Declaration of Independence writer? PEN
39. RBI fly SAC
41. Tip holder JAR
42. Taboo word MUSTN’T
44. Paint additive DRIER
45. Run in BUST
47. About AS TO
49. Noyes’s “ghostly galleon” MOON
50. Hardware bit T-NUT
51. Mtg. SESS
53. Credit-weighted no. GPA
54. Balance-reducing equipment, often ATM

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