Day: May 2, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. It comes from goats MOHAIR
Angora wool comes from the Angora rabbit. On the other hand, the Angora goat produces the wool known as mohair.

10. Margery of nursery rhyme DAW
“See Saw Margery Daw” is a nursery rhyme that goes:

See Saw Margery Daw,
Jacky shall have a new master;
Jacky shall earn but a penny a day,
Because he can’t work any faster.

13. Reason to be at sea? ENIGMA
Our term “enigma” meaning “puzzle, riddle” comes from the Greek “ainigma”, which means the same thing.

16. Colorful freshwater fish TETRAS
The neon tetra is a freshwater fish, native to parts of South America. The tetra is a very popular aquarium fish and millions are imported into the US every year. Almost all of the imported tetras are farm-raised in Asia and very few come from their native continent.

17. 1994 Schwarzenegger film TRUE LIES
“True Lies” is a really, really entertaining action-comedy film from 1994 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and the wonderful Jamie Lee Curtis. The film is actually a remake of a French film called “La Totale!”. Tom Arnold has a supporting role and does a surprisingly good job, I think.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Graz in Austria, the son of the local police chief. Schwarzenegger’s family name translates into the more prosaic “black plough man”.

24. Role for Ronny OPIE
Opie Taylor is the character played by Ron Howard on “The Andy Griffith Show”. Opie lives with widowed father Andy Taylor (played by Andy Griffith) and his great-aunt Beatrice “Aunt Bee” Taylor (played by Frances Bavier. Ron Howard first played the role in 1960 in the pilot show, when he was just 5 years old. Howard sure has come a long way since playing Opie Taylor. He has directed some fabulous movies including favorites of mine like “Apollo 13”, “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Da Vinci Code”.

26. Blood system letters ABO
The most important grouping of blood types is the ABO system. Blood is classified as either A, B, AB or O, depending on the type of antigens on the surface of the red blood cells. A secondary designation of blood is the Rh factor, in which other antigens are labelled as either positive or negative. When a patient receives a blood transfusion, ideally the donor blood should be the same type as that of the recipient, as incompatible blood cells can be rejected. However, blood type O-neg can be accepted by recipients with all blood types, A, B, AB or O, and positive or negative. Hence someone with O-neg blood type is called a “universal donor”.

27. Pelion neighbor MT OSSA
Mount Ossa in Greece is located between Mt. Pelion in the south, and the famed Mt. Olympus in the north. Mount Ossa is also known as Kissavos.

29. Vulpine critter FOX
“Vulpes” is the Latin for “fox”.

30. Ingredient in a concrete American flag? RED CEMENT (from “red cent”)
Something that is “not worth a red cent” has very little value. The “red” reference is to the color of a copper penny.

36. Former German chancellor Adenauer KONRAD
Konrad Adenauer was the first Chancellor of West Germany after WWII, taking office in 1949 at the age of 73. Adenauer was 87 years old when he left office. Understandably perhaps, his nickname was “Der Alte”, German for “the old man”. Adenauer spent much of WWII in prison, courtesy of Herr Hitler.

39. Fancy carp KOI
Koi are also called Japanese carp. Koi have been bred for decorative purposes and there are now some very brightly colored examples found in Japanese water gardens.

40. Plastic leg bone? FAKE FEMUR (from “fake fur”)
The thigh bone, the femur, is the longest and the largest bone in the human body.

45. “Cows of Our Planet” cartoonist LARSON
“Cows of Our Planet” is a collection of cartoons by cartoonist Gary Larson that was published in 1992.

Gary Larson is the cartoonist behind the marvelous series called “The Far Side”. Larson retired in 1995, and so we’ve had to entertain ourselves with “The Far Side” reruns since then.

47. Mesozoic, e.g. ERA
The Mesozoic Era is also known as the Age of the Dinosaurs, as most dinosaurs developed during that time and the Era ended with the extinction of all dinosaur species (except the avian species, which developed into our modern birds). The Mesozoic Era started with another cataclysmic event, the so called “Great Dying”, the largest mass extinction in the history of our planet. During the “Great Dying” over 90% of all marine species and 70% of all terrestrial vertebrate species died off.

50. Bread often served with ghee NAAN
Naan (also “nan”) bread is very popular in Indian restaurants, as well as in other West, Central and South Asian cuisines. Indian Naan is traditionally baked in a clay oven known as a tandoor.

Ghee is clarified butter used in South Asian cuisines.

53. Line of hunky monarchs? HE-MAN DYNASTY (from “Han Dynasty”)
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.

56. Catholic recitation phrase AVE MARIA
“Ave Maria” (“Hail Mary” in English) is the prayer at the core of the Roman Catholic Rosary, which itself is a set of prayers asking for the assistance of the Virgin Mary. Much of the text of the “Hail Mary” comes from the Gospel of Luke.

57. Poker variety … and what the four longest across answers do? HOLD ‘EM
The official birthplace of the incredibly popular poker game of Texas Hold ‘Em is Robstown, Texas where the game dates back to the early 1900s. The game was introduced into Las Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texan enthusiasts including Doyle Brunson, a champion often seen playing on TV today. Doyle Brunson published a poker strategy guide in 1978, and this really helped increase the popularity of the game. But it was the inclusion of Texas Hold ‘Em in the television line-up that really gave the game its explosive surge in popularity, with the size of the prize money just skyrocketing.

62. Parker array PENS
The Parker Pen Company was founded in 1888 in Janesville, Wisconsin by George Safford Parker. Parker had repaired and sold fountain pens as a sideline for many years. With this experience, he created pens that were less likely to leak ink and founded his company based on these patented designs.

Down
2. 1992 U2 song ONE
“One” is a song composed and performed by Irish rock band U2. It was released in 1992 as a “benefit single”, with proceeds going towards AIDS research.

Irish singer Bono is a Dubliner, born Paul David Hewson. As a youth, Hewson was given the nickname “Bono Vox” by a friend, a Latin expression meaning “good voice”, and so the singer has been known as Bono since the late seventies. His band’s first name was “Feedback”, later changed to “The Hype”. The band members searched for yet another name and chose U2 from a list of six names suggested by a friend. They picked U2 because it was the name they disliked least …

5. Mosque VIPs IMAMS
An imam is a Muslim leader, often the person in charge of a mosque or perhaps a Muslim community.

8. Practices one of the environmental three R’s REUSES
The so called “waste hierarchy” can be restated as the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The preferences are in order:

– reduce consumption
– reuse manufactured products
– recycle raw materials

9. Barrel-conscious gp. OPEC
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded in 1960 at a conference held in Baghdad, Iraq that was attended by Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Nine more countries joined the alliance soon after, and OPEC set up headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and then Vienna, Austria in 1965. The basic aim of OPEC was to wrench control of oil prices from the oil companies and to put it in the hands of the sovereign states that own the natural resource.

The volume of one oil barrel is equivalent to 42 US gallons. A barrel is correctly abbreviated to “bbl”. Barrels aren’t really used for transporting crude oil anymore. Instead, oil moves in bulk through pipelines and in tankers. “Barrel” is just a quantity these days.

10. Jersey owner, maybe DAIRY FARMER
Jersey cattle were originally bred on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands, off the coast of France. If you’ve seen Elsie the Cow, the mascot of Borden in the US, then you’ve seen a Jersey cow.

11. Syria’s most populous city ALEPPO
Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and is located not far from Damascus, the nation’s capital. Aleppo owes it size and history of prosperity to its location at the end of the Silk Road, the trade route that linked Asia to Europe (and other locations). The Suez Canal was opened up in 1869 bringing a new route for transport of goods, and so Aleppo’s prosperity has declined over the past one hundred years or so.

12. Thomas Hardy setting WESSEX
Wessex was the familiar name of the Kingdom of the West Saxons in the southwest of Great Britain.

Thomas Hardy was a novelist and poet from Dorset in England. Hardy thought of himself mainly as a poet, but he is best remembered for some very fine novels, such as “Far from the Madding Crowd”, “The Mayor of Casterbridge”, “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and “Jude the Obscure”.

18. Nephew of Abraham LOT
Lot was a nephew of Abraham, with his story appearing in the Book of Genesis. At one point Lot had to flee the doomed city of Sodom with his wife. God gave instructions that the couple should not look back as they left the city, but Lot’s wife disobeyed and she was turned into a pillar of salt.

21. Cola __ WARS
“Cola Wars” is the phrase used to describe the competing marketing campaigns of Coca Cola and PepsiCo. Coke is winning …

23. Ideal time to snap? KODAK MOMENT
George Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak Company, named after the Kodak camera that he had invented four years earlier. He came up with the name of Kodak after careful consideration. Firstly he was a big fan of the letter “K”, calling it “strong, incisive”. He also wanted a word that was short, easy to pronounce and difficult to mispronounce, and a word that was clearly unique with no prior associations. “Kodak” fit the bill.

27. Bovary title: Abbr. MME
“Madame Bovary” is the most famous novel written by Gustave Flaubert. The title character is a doctor’s wife, Emma Bovary, who lives a luxurious life beyond her means, and has many adulterous affairs. The novel had a rousing reception, first being attacked by public prosecutors as obscenity, which I am sure later helped it to become a bestseller.

31. HUN neighbor, to the IOC CRO
The Republic of Croatia is a Balkan country. The Croats declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

Hungary is a country in Central Europe that has become a popular tourist destination since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded in 1894, and has its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

32. Baleful EVIL
Something described as “baleful” is ominous, promises evil.

36. Knowledge KEN
“Ken” is a Scottish verb meaning “to know”, as in being able to recognize a person or thing. The word is also used as a noun, as in “beyond my ken”, outside of what I can know or understand.

41. Yoga class regimen ASANAS
“Asana” is a Sanskrit word literally meaning “sitting down”. The asanas are the poses that a practitioner of yoga assumes. The most famous is the lotus position, the cross-legged pose called “padmasana”.

42. Hawaiian coffee-growing region KONA
The Kona district on the Big Island of Hawaii is on the western side of the island. The largest town in Kona is Kailua-Kona. Kailua-Kona is often incorrectly referred to as “Kona”. The term “kona” translates as “leeward side of the island” in Hawaiian.

43. Grand __ BAHAMA
Grand Bahama is the largest island in the Bahamas chain. Grand Bahama lies only 56 miles off the coast of Florida. The Spanish gave the island the name of “Gran Bajamar”, which means “Great Shallows”.

46. Lead singer of the Irish rock group The Corrs ANDREA
The Corrs are a Celtic rock band from Dundalk, Ireland (a town in which I spent much of my life). The band is made up of three sisters Andrea, Sharon and Caroline and their brother Jim. In the late nineties, the Corrs held the number one and number two spot on the UK charts simultaneously, something that only the Beatles had ever been able to achieve.

52. “House of Payne” creator __ Perry TYLER
Tyler Perry is an actor best known for playing “Madea”, a character that he plays in drag.

60. Club __ MED
Club Méditerranée is usually referred to as “Club Med”. It is a French company that started in 1950 with a resort on the Spanish island of Mallorca in the Mediterranean. It was originally a “club” with annual membership dues. Now it is an operator of numerous all-inclusive resorts located all over the world.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. It comes from goats MOHAIR
7. Old hand PRO
10. Margery of nursery rhyme DAW
13. Reason to be at sea? ENIGMA
14. Leak slowly SEEP
15. Pub choice ALE
16. Colorful freshwater fish TETRAS
17. 1994 Schwarzenegger film TRUE LIES
19. Organized group of female monarchs? EMPRESS CORPS (from “press corps”)
21. Waterskiing challenges WAKES
24. Role for Ronny OPIE
25. Blood __ TYPE
26. Blood system letters ABO
27. Pelion neighbor MT OSSA
29. Vulpine critter FOX
30. Ingredient in a concrete American flag? RED CEMENT (from “red cent”)
33. Overwhelming amount SEA
35. Feel a strong desire (for) STARVE
36. Former German chancellor Adenauer KONRAD
39. Fancy carp KOI
40. Plastic leg bone? FAKE FEMUR (from “fake fur”)
43. Mooch BUM
45. “Cows of Our Planet” cartoonist LARSON
47. Mesozoic, e.g. ERA
48. Old folk song composer, often: Abbr. ANON
50. Bread often served with ghee NAAN
51. Hat material STRAW
53. Line of hunky monarchs? HE-MAN DYNASTY (from “Han Dynasty”)
56. Catholic recitation phrase AVE MARIA
57. Poker variety … and what the four longest across answers do? HOLD ‘EM
61. Chess components MEN
62. Parker array PENS
63. Restless feeling UNEASE
64. Hill occupant ANT
65. Anti-aging treatment target SAG
66. Named TERMED

Down
1. Ran into MET
2. 1992 U2 song ONE
3. Popular song HIT
4. Correspond AGREE
5. Mosque VIPs IMAMS
6. Gravelly sound RASP
7. Don’t give up PERSIST
8. Practices one of the environmental three R’s REUSES
9. Barrel-conscious gp. OPEC
10. Jersey owner, maybe DAIRY FARMER
11. Syria’s most populous city ALEPPO
12. Thomas Hardy setting WESSEX
14. Squish STEP ON
18. Nephew of Abraham LOT
20. Dull repetition ROTE
21. Cola __ WARS
22. Help in a heist ABET
23. Ideal time to snap? KODAK MOMENT
27. Bovary title: Abbr. MME
28. Starting from AS OF
31. HUN neighbor, to the IOC CRO
32. Baleful EVIL
34. Capt.’s course ENE
36. Knowledge KEN
37. Mystique AURA
38. Billiards backspin DRAW
40. Wearing a lot FRAYING
41. Yoga class regimen ASANAS
42. Hawaiian coffee-growing region KONA
43. Grand __ BAHAMA
44. Spotty UNEVEN
46. Lead singer of the Irish rock group The Corrs ANDREA
49. Where many vets served NAM
51. Peach pit STONE
52. “House of Payne” creator __ Perry TYLER
54. Snoozes NAPS
55. Turned (off) SHUT
58. Sire’s mate DAM
59. Legal closing? -ESE
60. Club __ MED

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