Day: June 21, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. “Apostrophe (‘)” rocker ZAPPA
Frank Zappa was an American composer and guitarist, a solo artist as well as the founding member of the rock band Mothers of Invention. You might like to meet his four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuuka Rodan, and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen.

6. Decide not to run KILL
A newspaper editor might kill a story and not run it.

10. Artist van __ GOGH
Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who seems to have had a very tortured existence. Van Gogh only painted for the last ten years of his life, and enjoyed very little celebrity while alive. Today many of his works are easily recognized, and fetch staggering sums in auction houses. Van Gogh suffered from severe depression for many of his final years. When he was only 37, he walked into a field with a revolver and shot himself in the chest. He managed to drag himself back to the inn where he was staying but died there two days later.

14. Works about the country IDYLS
An idyl is a short poem with a pastoral theme, usually depicting the scene in romantic and idealized terms. The word comes from the Greek “eidyllion”, which literally translates to “little picture” but was a word describing a short, poem with a rustic theme.

15. It may involve pi AREA
The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is a mathematical constant, which we denote with the Greek letter pi (π). The ratio pi can be used to calculate the area of a disk, by multiplying the constant by the square of the radius ( πr2).

16. Bone used in pronation ULNA
“Pronation” is the medical term for rotation of the forearm.

17. Multiple Grammy winner Jones NORAH
The beguiling Norah Jones is the daughter of famous sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, and is one of my favorite singers. If you haven’t heard Jones sing “Come Away with Me”, you just haven’t lived …

18. Party animal? PONY
I guess the idea here is that ponies might be hired for kids’ parties, and these are called “pony parties”. But, I could be wrong … again …

19. Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a __” FAUN
The very approachable “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune” (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun) is a symphonic poem that was composed by Claude Debussy and first performed in 1894. Debussy’s famous piece was inspired by the poem “L’après-midi d’un faune” that was written by Stéphane Mallarmé. In turn, the prelude was the inspiration for a ballet of the same name that was choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky.

20. Dog aficionados? GREYHOUND BUFFS (from “Greyhound bus”)
Speaking as someone who lived much of my life outside of the US, I have to say that the Greyhound bus is real symbol of America, famous from so many old movies. In Ireland the official provincial bus service “stole” the famous logo that gracefully adorns the sides of these buses, and uses an Irish Setter in place of the iconic greyhound.

23. Word seen annually on a November People magazine cover SEXIEST
“People” magazine is noted for its annual special editions with features such as “Best & Worst Dressed” and “Sexiest Man Alive”. The “Sexiest Man Alive” edition now appears at the end of November each year. The first choice for “Sexiest Man” was Mel Gibson, in 1985. The 2012 choice was actor Channing Tatum.

24. Grisham’s gp. ABA
The American Bar Association (ABA) was founded back in 1878 and is a voluntary association for lawyers and law students. The ABA focuses on setting academic standards for law schools and setting ethical codes for the profession.

“The Firm” is the book that brought John Grisham his first success, although it was the second novel that he wrote. The first was “A Time to Kill”, which garnered a lot more attention after “The Firm” took off. Personally, my favorite of his novels is “Runaway Jury”.

25. Bit of needlework TAT
One is “tatting” when one is making lace. The word “tatting” has been around since the 1830s, but no one seems to have discovered its etymology.

31. Current type EBB
Tides of course 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 tides, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

34. Lilliputian ocean formations? PEEWEE REEFS (from “Pee Wee Reese”)
Pee Wee Reese met Jackie Robinson after Robinson was signed to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As Reese tells the story, when he greeted Robinson it was the first time he had shaken hands with a black man. In those early days life was difficult for Robinson, and Reese made himself very visible as a friend, supporting the breaking down of racial barriers despite very vocal opposition.

In the 1726 adventure novel “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver comes across the two islands of Lilliput and Blefscu in the South Indian Ocean. Both are inhabited by people who are one-twelfth of “normal” size, so Gulliver appears like a giant to them. “Gulliver’s Travels” is well known for its satirical references to real life, and indeed these two islands are poorly disguised satires of Britain (Lilliput) and France (Blefscu). The two islands were at war, as was constantly the situation with Britain and France.

38. Conan Doyle title SIR
The Scottish writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is most closely associated with his wonderful character Sherlock Holmes. Doyle also wrote a series of science fiction stories featuring the character Professor Challenger. The first book in which Challenger appears is the famous “The Lost World”, a story about prehistoric creatures that are found living in the modern age on an isolated plateau in South America.

39. Artist who wrote “Diary of a Genius” DALI
The famous surrealist painter Salvador Dalí was born in Figueres, Spain. I had the privilege of visiting the Dalí Museum in Figueres some years ago, just north of Barcelona. If you ever get the chance, it’s a “must see” as it really is a quite magnificent building with a fascinating collection.

40. Fodder for the British tabloids? NOBLE GAFFES (from “noble gas”)
The noble gases (also “rare gases”) are those elements over on the extreme right of the Periodic Table. Because of their “full” complement of electrons, noble gases are very unreactive. The six noble gases that occur naturally are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon.

45. May honorees MAS
Note the official punctuation in “Mother’s Day”, even though one might think it should be “Mothers’ Day”. President Wilson, and Anna Jarvis who created the tradition, specifically wanted Mother’s Day to honor the mothers within each family and not just “mothers” in general, so they went with the “Mother’s Day” punctuation.

47. Bygone flier TWA
Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a big carrier in the US, but was perhaps even more recognized for its extensive presence in Europe and the Middle East. For many years, especially after the collapse of Pan-Am, TWA was considered the unofficial flag carrier for the US. The company started in 1930, the product of a forced merger of Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express. The Transcontinental and Western Air that resulted (the original meaning of the acronym TWA) was what the Postmaster General wanted, a bigger airline to which the Postal Service could award airmail contracts.

49. McClanahan of “The Golden Girls” RUE
The actress Rue McClanahan was best known for her television sitcom roles, as Vivian Harmon on “Maude” and as Blanche Devereaux on “The Golden Girls”.

50. Classic Stutz BEARCAT
The Stutz Bearcat was a sports car produced from 1912 to 1934.

The Stutz Motor Company was a manufacturer of luxury cars in Indianapolis. Stutz was noted as a producer of fast cars and luxury vehicles for the elite.

58. Kapalua Airport site MAUI
The airport code for the small Kapalua Airport on the island of Maui is JHM. JHM stands for “John Henry Morgan”. Morgan was president of Hawaiian Airlines at the time the airport was developed.

59. Father of Phobos ARES
The Greek god Ares is often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, but originally he was regarded as the god of blood-lust and slaughter. Ares united with Aphrodite to create several gods, including Phobos, Deimos and Eros. The Roman equivalent to Ares was Mars.

60. Rhymes of rap BUSTA
Busta Rhymes is the stage name of rap artist Trevor Smith from Brooklyn, New York. Busta’s stage name is in honor of professional footballer Buster Rhymes.

64. Horse show MR ED
“Mister Ed” first aired in 1961 and ran for almost five years. It was a very successful show (and even made it to Ireland!). Mister Ed, the talking horse, was a palomino that had the real name of Bamboo Harvester. Mister Ed’s “voice” was that of actor Allan “Rocky” Lane, a star of a lot of B-movie westerns from the forties and fifties. In the show, Mister Ed would only talk to the lead (human) character Wilbur, played by Alan Young, leading to some hilarious situations. Mister Ed had a stunt double and stand-in for the show, another horse called Pumpkin. Pumpkin later played the horse that made frequent appearances on the show “Green Acres”.

65. Sport with a wired weapon EPEE
The French word for sword is “épée”. In competitive fencing the épée is connected to a system that records an electrical signal when legal contact is made on an opponent’s body.

Down
3. Lab glass PYREX
Pyrex glassware is brand name owned by Corning. As well as being used in bakeware and laboratory glassware, Pyrex is often the material of choice for optics in large telescopes used in astronomy.

4. Start of an oft-misquoted 1942 film line PLAY IT
“Play It Again, Sam” was a Broadway play by Woody Allen that he adapted into a 1972 movie of the same name. The film is a little unusual for Woody Allen in that for once he didn’t direct his own work, instead leaving that job to Herbert Ross. “Play It Again, Sam” is all about a man obsessed by the Humphrey Bogart’s role in “Casablanca”. Something else notable about the Woody Allen film is that the title is actually a misquote from “Casablanca” as the Ingrid Bergman character actually said, “Play it once, Sam. For old times’ sake”.

6. Down the tubes KAPUT
“Kaput” comes to us from French via German. “Capot” means “not having won a single trick” in the French card game called Piquet.

7. Element abundant in liver IRON
The human liver has many functions, one of which is to store vital substances. The list of substances stored in the liver includes glucose (as glycogen), vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin B12, vitamin K, iron and copper.

11. Norway’s patron saint OLAF
Of the many kings of Norway named Olaf/Olav (and there have been five), Olaf II is perhaps the most celebrated as he was canonized and made patron saint of the country. Olaf II was king from 1015 to 1028 and was known as “Olaf the Big” (or Olaf the Fat) during his reign. Today he is more commonly referred to as “Olaf the Holy”. After Olaf died he was given the title of Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae, which is Latin for “Norway’s Eternal King”.

12. African bovines GNUS
A gnu is also known as a wildebeest, an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is actually the Dutch word for “wild beast”.

13. Dynasty after the Qin HAN
The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China and lasted from 206 BC to 220 AD. It came after the Qin Dynasty, and before the Three Kingdoms.

22. Over, to Ulrich UBER
Uber is the German word for “over”.

27. Co-panelist with Francis and Kilgallen CERF
Many of you will remember Bennett Cerf as a regular panelist on the great television game show “What’s My Line?” He was a publisher and co-founder of Random House, and was the man responsible for winning publishing contracts with authors such as Eugene O’Neill, Truman Capote and James Michener. He was hilarious on “What’s My Line?”, appearing in almost every episode of the show which ran from 1951 to 1967. He had such a gentlemanly way of making the most puerile puns.

I only discovered the wonderful old American TV show “What’s My Line?” a few years ago. I was familiar with the show’s British adaptation, but hadn’t spotted the US version until relatively recently in reruns. I fell in love with the beautiful Arlene Francis watching those reruns. She was a regular panelist on the show, and the embodiment of elegance. Host of the show was the erudite and genteel John Daly, the much-respected journalist and broadcaster. Daly became the son-in-law of Chief Justice Earl Warren when he married Warren’s daughter, Virginia.

Dorothy Kilgallen was a New York journalist who was a regular panelist on the TV show “What’s My Line?” As a journalist, Kilgallen was most famous for writing the syndicated column “The Voice of Broadway”. Kilgallen was found dead in her home in 1965. She had relatively high levels of alcohol and barbiturates in her bloodstream, and might also have had a heart attack. Conspiracy theorists have suggested that the government might have been involved in Kilgallen’s death as she was critical of the Warren Commission that investigated President Kennedy’s assassination, and she also claimed to have interviewed Jack Ruby privately in 1964.

29. “Man __ Mancha” OF LA
“Man of La Mancha” is a musical based on “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes. The musical was first staged in 1965 on Broadway, when it ran for 2,328 performances. The show is also famous for the song “The Impossible Dream” which has become a classic.

30. Three-pronged letters PSIS
The Greek letter psi is the one that looks a bit like a trident or a pitchfork.

31. A tenth of zehn EINS
In German, one tenth of ten (zehn) is one (eins).

32. UCLA VIP, e.g. BMOC
Big Man On Campus (BMOC)

33. Former wrestling star __ Brazil BOBO
Bobo Brazil was the ring name of professional wrestler Houston Harris. Harris was one of the first African Americans to break into the sport and so earned the title “the Jackie Robinson of professional wrestling”.

35. Genesis twin ESAU
Esau, was the grandson of Abraham and the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. Esau is portrayed as being very different from his brother, as a hunter and someone who loves the outdoor life.

37. Came down without sticking, usually FLURRIED
Our word “flurry”, used for a light snowfall, ultimately comes from the Middle English word “flouren” meaning “to sprinkle” as with flour.

41. Case for some small, sharp items ETUI
An etui is an ornamental case used to hold small items, in particular sewing needles. We imported both the case design and the word “etui” from France. The French also have a modern usage of “etui”, using the term to depict a case for carrying CDs.

43. Hot times in the cité ETES
One might spend the summer (été) under the sun (le soleil) in a city (cité) in France.

51. __ del Sol COSTA
Spain’s Costa del Sol (“Coast of the Sun”) is in Andalusia in the South of Spain. It lies sandwiched between two other “costas”, the Costa de la Luz and the Costa Tropical. The city of Malaga is on the Costa del Sol, as well as the famous European tourist destinations of Torremolinos and Marbella. The Costa del Sol was made up of sleepy little fishing villages until the 1980s when the European sunseekers descended on the region. I wouldn’t recommend it for a holiday quite frankly …

53. Alexander et al. TSARS
There were three tsars of Russia named Alexander,all of whom ruled in the 19th century: Alexander I, II and III.

54. “The Alienist” author CARR
“The Alienist” is a 1994 crime novel by author Caleb Carr.

One of Caleb Carr’s novels is a latter day Sherlock Holmes mystery called “The Italian Secretary”. The novel was written as a homage to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (using the Holmes character with the permission of the Doyle estate). I am a big fan of Sherlock Holmes stories so I must put this one on my reading list.

55. Brobdingnagian HUGE
Brobdingnag is one of the lands visited by the hero in Jonathan Swift’s novel “Gulliver’s Travels”. Brobdingnag is inhabited by giants.

58. Fall bloom MUM
Chrysanthemums are perennial flowering plants that are often called “mums”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. “Apostrophe (‘)” rocker ZAPPA
6. Decide not to run KILL
10. Artist van __ GOGH
14. Works about the country IDYLS
15. It may involve pi AREA
16. Bone used in pronation ULNA
17. Multiple Grammy winner Jones NORAH
18. Party animal? PONY
19. Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a __” FAUN
20. Dog aficionados? GREYHOUND BUFFS (from “Greyhound bus”)
23. Word seen annually on a November People magazine cover SEXIEST
24. Grisham’s gp. ABA
25. Bit of needlework TAT
26. Common soft drink feature SCREWTOP
31. Current type EBB
34. Lilliputian ocean formations? PEEWEE REEFS (from “Pee Wee Reese”)
36. “__ the opinion …” I’M OF
38. Conan Doyle title SIR
39. Artist who wrote “Diary of a Genius” DALI
40. Fodder for the British tabloids? NOBLE GAFFES (from “noble gas”)
45. May honorees MAS
46. Search for SCOUT OUT
47. Bygone flier TWA
49. McClanahan of “The Golden Girls” RUE
50. Classic Stutz BEARCAT
54. Reason for many December returns? CHRISTMAS GOOFS (from “Christmas goose”)
58. Kapalua Airport site MAUI
59. Father of Phobos ARES
60. Rhymes of rap BUSTA
61. Hunger URGE
62. Buzz cut’s lack PART
63. Starlike flower ASTER
64. Horse show MR ED
65. Sport with a wired weapon EPEE
66. Park and drive GEARS

Down
1. Sharp put-downs ZINGS
2. Esteem to the max ADORE
3. Lab glass PYREX
4. Start of an oft-misquoted 1942 film line PLAY IT
5. Valueless pile ASH HEAP
6. Down the tubes KAPUT
7. Element abundant in liver IRON
8. __ a hand LEND
9. Expose LAY BARE
10. Didn’t just chuckle GUFFAWED
11. Norway’s patron saint OLAF
12. African bovines GNUS
13. Dynasty after the Qin HAN
21. Bone: Pref. OSTE-
22. Over, to Ulrich UBER
26. Fleet SWIFT
27. Co-panelist with Francis and Kilgallen CERF
28. Group with lineups TEAM
29. “Man __ Mancha” OF LA
30. Three-pronged letters PSIS
31. A tenth of zehn EINS
32. UCLA VIP, e.g. BMOC
33. Former wrestling star __ Brazil BOBO
35. Genesis twin ESAU
37. Came down without sticking, usually FLURRIED
41. Case for some small, sharp items ETUI
42. Blows one’s stack GOES APE
43. Hot times in the cité ETES
44. Party parting gift SWAG BAG
48. Motivate AROUSE
50. Tend to a duck BASTE
51. __ del Sol COSTA
52. Hunting AFTER
53. Alexander et al. TSARS
54. “The Alienist” author CARR
55. Brobdingnagian HUGE
56. Crab pot, e.g. TRAP
57. Not much more than MERE
58. Fall bloom MUM

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