Day: May 23, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Meddle, in a way KIBITZ
To kibitz (or less commonly “kibbitz”) is to look on and offer unwanted advice. The term comes into English from German via Yiddish. “Kibitz” developed in German from the name of the bird “Kiebitz” which had the reputation as a meddler.

11. Shakes at rehab DTS
The episodes of delirium that can accompany withdrawal from alcohol are called Delirium Tremens (the DTs). The literal translation of this Latin phrase is “trembling madness”.

15. Skater Michelle KWAN
Michelle Kwan is perhaps the most successful American figure skater in history. As well as being an Olympic medalist twice, World champion five times, Kwan was US champion a record nine times.

16. P-like letter RHO
Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”.

17. No ordinary creation MASTERPIECE (hiding “Sprite” mixed)
Sprite is Coca-Cola’s answer to the very successful soft drink called 7 Up. Sprite was introduced in 1961, and Coca-Cola used its muscle to topple 7 Up from its dominant position in the market. Sprite has been the number-one selling lemon soda since 1978.

19. 2008 govt. bailout recipient AIG
AIG is the American International Group, a giant insurance corporation (or I should say, “was”). After repeated bailouts by American taxpayers, the company made some serious PR blunders by spending large amounts of money on executive entertainment and middle management rewards. These included a $444,000 California retreat, an $86,000 hunting trip in England, and a $343,000 getaway to a luxury resort in Phoenix. Poor judgment, I’d say …

20. Some Super Bowl highlights ADS
The Super Bowl is used for high-profile advertising because of the high viewership numbers. For example, Super Bowl XLV (2011) had an average audience of 111 million viewers, making it the most-watched American TV program in history.

22. Send an IM to PING
In the world of computer science, the original “ping” was (and still is) a test message sent over a network between computers to check for a response and to measure the time of that response. We now use the verb “to ping” more generally, meaning to send someone a message, usually a reminder.

Even though instant messaging (sending IMs) has been around since the 1960s, it was AOL who popularized the term “instant message” in the eighties and nineties.

24. “__ Tonk Women” HONKY
“Honky Tonk Women” is a 1969 song released by the Rolling Stones that topped the charts both in the US and the UK. The term “honky tonk women” refers to dancing girls who worked in a saloon. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards actually wrote the song while on vacation on a ranch in the city of Matão, Brazil.

30. Pelican relative IBIS
The ibis is a wading bird that was revered in ancient Egypt. “Ibis” is an interesting word grammatically speaking. You can have one “ibis” or two “ibises”, and then again one has a flock of “ibis”. And if you want to go with the classical plural, instead of two “ibises” you would have two “ibides”!

31. Like the action in “High Noon” REAL-TIME
I am not a fan of western movies, but “High Noon” works for me. The film has a great cast, with Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly in the lead roles. I suppose I like the film because it doesn’t fit the mold as a typical western with lots of predictable action sequences. That said, when “High Noon” first hit theaters it was not popular with audiences, largely because moviegoers were expecting the formulaic western film. One interesting feature of the storyline is that the sequence of events takes place in approximate real time.

34. NFL’s Jim Brown et al. FBS
Jim Brown is a retired fullback (FB) who played for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns. Around the time that Brown retired from the sport, he took up acting. He has appeared in many movies, although I only recall seeing him in “The Dirty Dozen” (1967) and “Ice Station Zebra” (1968) …

35. Colonial environment? ANT FARM (hiding “Fanta” mixed)
The soft drink “Fanta” has quite an interesting history. As WWII approached, the Coca-Cola plant in Germany had trouble obtaining the ingredients it needed to continue production of the cola beverage, so the plant manager decided to create a new drink from what was available. The new beverage was built around whey (left over from cheese production) and pomace (left over after juice has been extracted from fruit). The inventor asked his colleagues to use their imagination (“Fantasie” in German) and come up with a name for the drink, so they piped up “Fanta!”

38. __ patch PEA
Apparently the term “pea patch” is mainly used in the expression “tearing up the pea patch” meaning “going on a rampage”, although I’ve never heard of it. The expression arose in the American South in the days when it was common to see small pea patches, plots for the growing of black-eyed peas in particular. If a stray dog or cow got through a fence and started “tearing up the pea patch”, it would be on a rampage.

39. Walls are an important part of it FACEBOOK
The Facebook Wall is kind of the homepage for a Facebook user, I think.

42. Cartoon mouse JERRY
“Tom and Jerry” is a series of cartoons produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera starting in 1940. These short films feature Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse, who are always going at it with Jerry usually emerging victorious.

43. Instrument for Jimmy Dorsey ALTO SAX
The brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey headed up a studio band in the early thirties and had a lot of success together, including two number one hits. The pair had a very acrimonious relationship though, and split up in 1935, each forming his own band. They did even better after the parting of the ways, with Tommy having seventeen more number one hits, and Jimmy ten.

46. “The Hot Zone” subject EBOLA
The Ebola virus causes a very nasty form of hemorrhagic fever. The name of the virus comes from the site of the first known outbreak, in a mission hospital in the Ebola River Valley in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“The Hot Zone” is a 1994 book written by Richard Preston, a non-fiction work describing the history of hemorrhagic fevers (and Ebola in particular).

48. ’90s sitcom neighborhood BEL-AIR
In the late eighties Will Smith was a successful rapper, but he ran foul of the IRS. When he was faced with an IRS-imposed penalty of $2.8 million he was close to becoming bankrupt. Fortunately, along came NBC with a proposal to build a sitcom around him, and “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” was born.

50. Gossamer LACY
Something described as “gossamer” is light, delicate or flimsy. The term arose in the 1400s when it described spider webs that had been spun in harvested fields in the late fall. It is suggested that “gossamer” comes from “gos” (goose) and “sumer” (summer), the idea being that the silky spider webs resemble goose down, and goose were more commonly seen in the summer. Sounds like a stretch to me …

51. Like some livestock BOVINE
Something “bovine” is related to a cow, ox or buffalo, any ruminant in the genus Bos. “Bos” is the Latin for “cow”, and “bovinus” a Late Latin derivative term.

52. “__ Am”: 2007 Alicia Keys album AS I
Alicia Keys is the stage name of Alicia Cook, an R&B and soul singer from Hell’s Kitchen in New York City.

59. Yemeni seaport ADEN
Aden is a seaport in Yemen, located on the Gulf of Aden by the eastern approach to the Red Sea. Aden has a long history of British rule, from 1838 until a very messy withdrawal in 1967. A native of Aden is known as an Adeni. Some believe that Cain and Abel are buried in the city.

60. Tout’s tidbit HOT TIP
A “tout” (mainly in the British Isles) is someone who checks out racehorses and sell information gained to people placing bets.

63. Entry for Ripley ODDITY
“Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” is a huge franchise on television, affiliated to a worldwide chain of museums. The franchise started out as cartoon feature appearing in newspapers in 1918.

Down
1. Hindu god of desire KAMA
Kama is the Hindu god of love. He is portrayed as a youth bearing a bow and arrows, much like Eros and Cupid.

2. Air, for one IPAD
The iPad Air is Apple’s 5th-generation tablet computer. The Air is just 7.5 mm thick, and is 22% lighter than the iPad 2.

3. Largemouth __ BASS
The largemouth bass is a freshwater fish that isn’t a bass at all, but rather is a member of the sunfish family.

4. Long-haired cousin ITT
In the television sitcom “The Addams Family”, the family had a frequent visitor called Cousin Itt. Itt is a short man with long hair that runs from his head to the floor. Cousin Itt was played by Italian actor Felix Silla.

5. Debussy work, across the English Channel THE SEA
“La Mer” is a lovely group of three symphonic sketches for orchestra by the French composer Claude Debussy. Listen to it, and you can feel yourself at the ocean. “La Mer” is French for “The Sea”.

Claude Debussy is one of my favorite composers, one who epitomises the Romantic Era and Impressionist Movement in music. One of my favorite CDs is a collection of some “lighter” Debussy pieces called “Debussy for Daydreaming”, and what an evocative collection it is. Included are “Syrinx”, “Maid with the Flaxen Hair”, “Rêverie” and everyone’s favorite, “Clair de Lune”.

The English Channel is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean, the narrow part that separates the south of England from northern France. The French call the same body of water “La Manche”, which translates literally as “the sleeve”. At its narrowest point the Channel is just over 20 miles wide, and it indeed possible to see France from England and vice versa. Nowadays of course there is a tunnel under the channel making travel extremely convenient. When I was living and working in Europe, with the help of the Channel Tunnel, one day I had a breakfast meeting in Brussels, a lunch meeting in London, and a dinner meeting in Paris. It’s more fun sitting here doing the crossword though …

6. Allergy medication brand ZYRTEC
Cetirizine is an antihistamine that is sold under the brand names Zyrtec and Reactine.

7. Director Kurosawa AKIRA
Akira Kurosawa was an Oscar-winning Japanese film director. His most famous movie to us in the West has to be “The Seven Samurai”, the inspiration for the “The Magnificent Seven” starring Yul Brynner, and indeed a basis for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.

10. “Story of My Life” band __ Direction ONE
One Direction is a boy band that appeared on the British talent show “The X Factor” in 2010. Each of the band’s individual members had auditioned separately for the show and, after being eliminated from the competition, got together and qualified for the “group” category of “The X Factor”.

11. Refuse transports DRAINPIPES (hiding “Pepsi” mixed)
The Pepsi-Cola formulation was developed by one Caleb Bradham who made the drink at home and sold it as “Brad’s Drink”. Bradham’s aim was to provide a drink that was pleasant to taste, that would aid digestion and boost energy. Included in the formula were pepsin (a digestive enzyme) and kola nuts. These two ingredients inspired the brand name we use today: Pepsi-Cola.

12. Aptly named Final Jeopardy! theme song THINK!
The theme music that plays for 30 seconds during the final round of the game show “Jeopardy!” is called “Think!”. The tune was composed by the show’s creator Merv Griffin, and was originally a lullaby for his son that he called “A Time for Tony”.

13. “Never eat __ waffles”” compass point mnemonic SOGGY
“Never Eat Soggy Waffles” is a mnemonic that gives the cardinal points of the compass in a clockwise direction: North, East, South, West.

23. TV pledge drive holder PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) was founded in 1970, and is my favorite of the broadcast networks. I love PBS’s drama and science shows in particular, and always watch the election results coming in with the NewsHour team.

25. “Back to the Future” bully BIFF
Biff Tannen (and variants) was the bully character in the “Back to Future” trilogy. Biff was played by Thomas F. Wilson.

Michael J. Fox was the first choice to play the lead character, Marty McFly, in 1985’s “Back to the Future”. Unfortunately, the producers of his TV sitcom “Family Ties” would not release him to make the movie, so the crew started filming with a different choice for the lead, actor Eric Stoltz. Weeks into production, it was decided that Stoltz was miscast, and Fox was approached again. Eventually an arrangement was made with the “Family Ties” producers to “share” Fox, which led to an exhausting schedule. Fox worked seven days a week, filming “Family Ties” during the day and working on “Back to the Future” at night, usually till 2:30 in the morning.

26. Group whose second letter is often written backwards ABBA
I am an unapologetic fan of ABBA’s music. ABBA was of course the Swedish group who topped the charts in the seventies and eighties. The name ABBA is an acronym formed from the first letters of the given names of each of the band members: Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn and Anni-Frid. Early in their careers, the four fell in love and formed two married couples i.e. Agnetha and Bjorn, and Benny and Anni-Frid. However, at the height of their success, the relationships became strained and both couples divorced.

27. Record player DISC JOCKEY (hiding “Coke” mixed)
The first cola drink to become a commercial success was Coca-Cola, soon after it was invented by a druggist in 1886. That first Coca-Cola was flavored mainly with kola nuts and vanilla. The formulation was based on an alcoholic drink called Coca Wine that had been on sale for over twenty years. The original alcoholic version actually contained a small concentration of cocaine.

The world’s first radio disc jockey (DJ) was one Ray Newby of Stockton, California who made his debut broadcast in 1909, would you believe? When he was 16 years old and a student, Newby started to play his records on a primitive radio located in the Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless in San Jose. The records played back then were mostly recordings of Enrico Caruso.

29. Exaggerated feature in Obama caricatures EAR
When President Obama was touring the Dreamworks Animation studio in 2013, he remarked:

… there’s a natural connection between me and DreamWorks. I don’t know if you know this — but my ears were one of the inspirations for Shrek. That’s true, true story.

31. ’60s atty. general RFK
President John F. Kennedy was often referred to by his initials JFK, the F standing for Fitzgerald, his mother’s maiden name. The president’s brother Robert F. Kennedy also used his initials, RFK, with the F standing for his middle name Francis.

32. Suvari of “American Pie” MENA
Mena Suvari’s most famous role to date is probably “the beauty” in the 1999 movie “American Beauty”. She plays the teenage girl with whom the Kevin Spacey character becomes infatuated. She also played heather in the “American Pie” films.

33. __ de vie: French brandies EAUX
Eau de vie is a clear, colorless fruit brandy. “Eau de vie” is French for “water of life”.

35. Spelling word? ABRA
The incantation “abracadabra” has a long history. It was used as far back as the 2nd century AD in Ancient Rome when the word was prescribed by a physician to be worn on an amulet to help his emperor recover from disease. “Abracadabra” is Aramaic, and roughly translates as “I will create as I speak”.

41. “Eat __ chikin”: Chick-fil-A slogan MOR
Chick-fil-A is a chain of fast food restaurants that was founded in 1946 in Georgia. The corporation has a culture that is heavily influenced by the founder’s evangelical Christian faith. As such, Chick-fil-A is one of the only fast food or retail chain of stores that closes for business on Sunday. Chick-fil-A also made the headlines recently due to the company’s stated opposition to same-sex marriage.

44. Cry from a nest? LAND HO!
“Land ho!” yelled the sailor when he caught sight of land …

45. Steering system component TIE ROD
Tie rods are part of a rack and pinion steering mechanism in a car.

46. Entertainer John whose middle name is Hercules ELTON
Elton John’s real name is Reginald Kenneth Dwight. Dwight took his stage name as a homage to saxophonist Elton Dean with whom he played in a band called Bluesology, and to musician Long John Baldry for whom Bluesology worked as a supporting band. When Dwight changed his name legally by deed poll in 1972, he registered it as Elton Hercules John, choosing Hercules as it was the name of the horse on a famous British sitcom called “Steptoe and Son” (remade in the US as “Sanford and Son”).

47. Iraqi seaport BASRA
The Iraqi city of Basra is the country’s main port, located on the Shatt al-Arab river that empties into the Persian Gulf. Basra is believed by many to have been the location of the Garden of Eden.

52. Lock opening? ANTI-
The first anti-lock braking system (ABS) was actually developed for use on aircraft, in 1929. The system reduced braking distances for aircraft by 30% because pilots were able to apply a full braking force immediately on landing instead of applying gradual pressure to avoid skidding.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Meddle, in a way KIBITZ
7. Regarding AS TO
11. Shakes at rehab DTS
14. Carelessness? APATHY
15. Skater Michelle KWAN
16. P-like letter RHO
17. No ordinary creation MASTERPIECE (hiding “Sprite” mixed)
19. 2008 govt. bailout recipient AIG
20. Some Super Bowl highlights ADS
21. Typical leader? STEREO-
22. Send an IM to PING
23. More than glance over PEER AT
24. “__ Tonk Women” HONKY
25. Golfer’s concern BAD BACK
28. Get ready on the golf course TEE UP
30. Pelican relative IBIS
31. Like the action in “High Noon” REAL-TIME
34. NFL’s Jim Brown et al. FBS
35. Colonial environment? ANT FARM (hiding “Fanta” mixed)
38. __ patch PEA
39. Walls are an important part of it FACEBOOK
41. Drop-down item MENU
42. Cartoon mouse JERRY
43. Instrument for Jimmy Dorsey ALTO SAX
46. “The Hot Zone” subject EBOLA
48. ’90s sitcom neighborhood BEL-AIR
50. Gossamer LACY
51. Like some livestock BOVINE
52. “__ Am”: 2007 Alicia Keys album AS I
55. “For shame!” TSK!
56. Pub purchases, and a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters MIXED DRINKS
58. Pickax picking ORE
59. Yemeni seaport ADEN
60. Tout’s tidbit HOT TIP
61. “Opposed” NAY
62. Kid JEST
63. Entry for Ripley ODDITY

Down
1. Hindu god of desire KAMA
2. Air, for one IPAD
3. Largemouth __ BASS
4. Long-haired cousin ITT
5. Debussy work, across the English Channel THE SEA
6. Allergy medication brand ZYRTEC
7. Director Kurosawa AKIRA
8. Southern brew SWEET TEA
9. __ salad TACO
10. “Story of My Life” band __ Direction ONE
11. Refuse transports DRAINPIPES (hiding “Pepsi” mixed)
12. Aptly named Final Jeopardy! theme song THINK!
13. “Never eat __ waffles”” compass point mnemonic SOGGY
18. Exec’s extra PERK
22. Show some lip? POUT
23. TV pledge drive holder PBS
24. Navigation location HELM
25. “Back to the Future” bully BIFF
26. Group whose second letter is often written backwards ABBA
27. Record player DISC JOCKEY (hiding “Coke” mixed)
29. Exaggerated feature in Obama caricatures EAR
31. ’60s atty. general RFK
32. Suvari of “American Pie” MENA
33. __ de vie: French brandies EAUX
35. Spelling word? ABRA
36. Neither partner NOR
37. Places for action figures TOY BOXES
40. Serpentine EELY
41. “Eat __ chikin”: Chick-fil-A slogan MOR
43. “Put __ on it!” A LID
44. Cry from a nest? LAND HO!
45. Steering system component TIE ROD
46. Entertainer John whose middle name is Hercules ELTON
47. Iraqi seaport BASRA
49. It happens EVENT
51. Tarry BIDE
52. Lock opening? ANTI-
53. Satiric bit SKIT
54. Traveling game I SPY
56. Coll. focus MAJ
57. “__ be an honor” IT’D

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