Day: June 4, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Elevators, in Leeds LIFTS
I went to school for a while not far from Leeds in West Yorkshire in the north of England. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, Leeds was a major center for the production and trading of wool, and then with the onset of mechanization it became a natural hub for manufacture of textiles. These days Leeds is noted as a shopping destination and so has been dubbed “the Knightsbridge of the North”. People from Leeds are known locally as “Loiners”, but nobody really knows why.

6. Milo of “Ulysses” O’SHEA
Milo O’Shea was a great Irish character actor from Dublin who has appeared in everything from “Romeo and Juliet” to “The West Wing”. Sadly, O’Shea passed away in 2013 in New York City.

Regular readers will know that I am unashamedly supportive of my native Irish culture, but I have to tell you that I can’t handle the works of James Joyce. I have spent many a fine day traipsing around Ireland learning about his life, but I have yet to appreciate one of his books. To me, his life is more absorbing than his writing. Having said that, “Ulysses” is an interesting novel in that it chronicles just one ordinary day in the life of a Dubliner named Leopold Bloom. There’s a huge celebration of “Ulysses” in Dublin every year on June 16th, called Bloomsday. The festivities vary from readings and performances of the storyline, to good old pub crawls. “Ulysses” was made into a film of the same name in 1967 starring Milo O’Shea.

14. Classic soap IVORY
Ivory soap is one of Procter & Gambles oldest products, introduced way back in 1879. Ivory soap is noted for its “purity” and also because of its property of floating in water. Despite urban myths to the contrary, the property of floating in water was developed deliberately by a chemist at the time Ivory was being formulated. The soap floats because the ingredients are mixed longer than necessary for homogenization, which introduces more air into the product.

16. Gold, in them thar cerros ORO
In Spanish, there is gold (oro) in the tem tar hills (cerros).

17. *Computer logic game named for a warship MINESWEEPER (giving “diamond mine”)
THe relatively simple computer game called Minesweeper has been included in releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from 1992. The first version of Windows to include Minesweeper was Windows 3.1, but the last version was Windows 7. Windows 8 doesn’t include Minesweeper by default, but you can pick up a copy in Windows Store.

19. Novelist Umberto ECO
Umberto Eco is an Italian writer, probably best known for his novel “The Name of the Rose” published in 1980. In 1986, “The Name of the Rose” was adapted into a movie with the same title starring Sean Connery.

21. “__ better to have loved …”: Tennyson ‘TIS
Alfred Tennyson was the Poet Laureate during for much of the reign of Queen Victoria. There are many phrases we use today that were first penned by Tennyson, including:
– ‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all
– Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die

23. Radical ’60s gp. SDS
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was an activist group in the sixties. The SDS organized the largest student strike in the history of the United States on 26 April 1968, with about a million students staying away from class that day. The “Students for a Democratic Society” name was revived in 2006 with the foundation of a new US-based student organization with left wing beliefs. Today’s SDS was founded by a pair of high school students from Greenwich Village, New York.

29. Electrical measure OHM
The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.

34. Fed G-MAN
The nickname “G-men” is short for “Government Men” and refers to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

36. Elevator innovator OTIS
Elevators (simple hoists) have been around for a long time. What Elisha Otis did was come up with the “safety elevator”, a design that he showcased at the 1853 World’s Fair in New York. At the Fair, Otis would stand on an elevated platform in front of onlookers and order his assistant to cut the single rope holding up the platform. His safety system kicked in when the platform had only fallen a few inches, amazing the crowd. After this demonstration, the orders came rolling in.

37. *Upscale golfwear brand CUTTER AND BUCK (giving “diamond cutter”)
Cutter & Buck is a brand of sportswear, mainly for golf. The Cutter & Buck company was founded in Norwich in England, but now is headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Famously, Cutter & Buck sponsors Swedish golfer Annika Sörenstam.

40. Indochina country LAOS
The official name for the country of Laos is the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In the Lao language, the country’s name is “Meuang Lao”. The French ruled Laos as part of French Indochina, having united three separate Lao kingdoms. As there was a plural of “Lao” entities united into one, the French added the “S” and so today we tend to use “Laos” instead of “Lao”.

42. “Draft Dodger Rag” singer Phil OCHS
Phil Ochs was an American protest singer who was active in the days of the Vietnam War.

46. *Recruiting specialist HEADHUNTER (giving “Diamond Head”)
Diamond Head on the Hawaiian island of O’ahu was given its name by British sailors in the 1800s. These sailors found calcite crystals in the rock surrounding the volcanic tuff cone and mistook the crystals for diamonds.

49. eHarmony.com abbr. SWM
In a personal ad, a single white male (SWM) might be in search of (ISO) someone for a date.

eHarmony is a high-profile online dating service based in Pasadena, California.

52. Leaves at Starbucks? TEA
Starbucks is a coffee company based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest coffeehouse company in the world and has over 19,000 stores. In the 1990s, Starbucks was opening one new store every single day! Starbucks is named after the chief mate on the Pequod in the Herman Melville book “Moby Dick”.

56. Serious hwy. violation DUI
In some states, there is no longer a legal difference between a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) and a DUI (Driving Under the Influence). Other states retain that difference, so that by definition a DUI is a lesser offence than a DWI.

58. Phoenix-based ballplayer, and what the start of each answer to a starred clue can be DIAMONDBACK
The Arizona Diamondbacks joined Major League Baseball’s National League in 1998. By winning the World Series in 2001, the Diamondbacks became the fastest expansion team to do so in Major League history.

61. NASDAQ debut IPO
An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is the very first offer of stock for sale by a company on the open market. In other words, an IPO marks the first time that a company is traded on a public exchange. Companies have an IPO to raise capital to expand (usually).

The computerized stock trading system known as the NASDAQ was created in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers. NASDAQ stands for National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations. NASDAQ was the successor to the over-the-counter (OTC) trading system that was common at the time. OTC trading is done directly between two parties without being facilitated by an exchange.

62. Like some seals EARED
There are three families of seals. The first is the walrus family, the second the eared seals (like sea lions), and thirdly the earless seals.

63. Minolta competitor LEICA
Leica is a German optics company, famous for production of lenses and cameras. The 1913 Leica was the first practical camera that could use 35mm film, a size chosen because it was already the standard for film used in motion pictures.

Minolta was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras and related products. Minolta was founded in 1928 to make cameras using imported German technology. One of the company’s most memorable products was the world’s first integrated autofocus 35mm SLR camera. Minolta merged with Konica in 2003, forming Konica Minolta.

65. PowerPoint unit SLIDE
Given that PowerPoint is a Microsoft product, it is perhaps a bit of a paradox that the original application that became PowerPoint was designed for the Macintosh computer. This first release was called “Presenter”. The company that designed Presenter was purchased by Microsoft in 1987.

66. WWII surrender celebration VE DAY
VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) was celebrated on 8 May 1945 and marked the day when the Allies accepted the formal surrender of the German armed forces.

Down
2. Like some college walls IVIED
The term “Ivy League” originally defined an athletic conference, but now it is used to describe a group of schools of higher education that are associated with both a long tradition and academic excellence. The eight Ivy League Schools are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.

4. Cuatro menos uno TRES
In Spanish, four minus one (cuatro menos uno) is three (tres).

5. Fed. Reserve, for one SYST
The Federal Reserve System is more usually known simply as “the Fed”, and is the central banking system of the US. It was introduced in 1913 in response to a number of financial panics at the beginning of the 20th century. The original role for the Fed was to act as a lender of last resort, in case there was a run on a bank. This can happen as most of the money that is deposited by customers in a bank is reinvested by that bank, so it has very little liquid cash available. If too many customers look for their money at one time, then the bank can be short of cash and this can start a “run”. The Fed’s responsibilities have broadened since those early days …

6. ’90s “SNL” regular Cheri OTERI
Cheri Oteri was the SNL cast member who regularly appeared with Will Farrell in the skit featuring a pair of Spartan cheerleaders.

9. Before, to Blake ERE
William Blake was an English poet and artist, considered now have been a powerful force in his fields during the Romantic Age. One of Blake’s more famous poems is “The Tyger”, which has the celebrated lines:

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

10. __ valve: heart part AORTIC
The aortic valve is one of the heart’s four valves. It is located between the left ventricle and the aorta, and allows blood to flow out from the left ventricle into the aorta, and not the other way.

11. Splits the tab GOES DUTCH
Strictly speaking, when people “go Dutch” they each pay for themselves, as opposed to “splitting the tab”. That said, there is a suggestion that the term “go Dutch” originated with the Dutch door. Dutch doors had a top and a bottom equally divided in area.

12. Welding flash ARC
In the process of arc welding, metal is fused the heat generated in an electrical arc. The welder uses two cables from an electrical power source. One cable is attached to the metal being welded, and the other to an electrode. The tip of the electrode is touched to the base metal causing a spark and an electrical arc. The electrode is held at an appropriate distance from the base metal to maintain the arc, which creates enough heat to melt the electrode and base metal.

25. Endocrinologist’s concern GLAND
An endocrine gland is one that secretes hormones directly into the bloodstream. Examples of endocrine glands are the hypothalamus, the thyroid and the adrenal glands. An exocrine gland is one that secretes its essential product by way of a duct. Example of exocrine glands are sweat glands, salivary glands and mammary glands.

27. Estrada and Satie ERIKS
Erik Estrada got his big break in the movie “Airport 1975”, before playing motorcycle police officer Poncherello on the television show “CHiPs” from 1977-81.

Erik Satie was a French composer most famous for his beautiful composition, the three “Gymnopédies”. I have tried so hard to appreciate other works by Satie but I find them so very different from the minimalist simplicity of the lyrical “Gymnopédies”.

28. Legal thing RES
“Res” is the Latin for “thing”. “Res” is used in a lot of phrases in the law.

30. Bowler, e.g. HAT
I think a bowler hat is usually called a derby here in the US. The bowler was first produced in 1849 in London by hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler, hence the name. The alternative name of “derby” comes from the tradition of wearing bowler hats at the Derby horse race (a major race held annually in England).

33. Entry at Bartleby.com QUOTATION
Bartleby.com is a text archive that was founded in 1993 as “Project Bartleby”, a non-profit online collection of classic literature to be made available on the Columbia University website. The collection moved to its own website, Bartleby.com, in 1997 where it is known as the New Bartleby Library. The project takes its name from a short story by Herman Melville called “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street”. A “scrivener” was someone employed to copy legal documents by hand.

34. There’s always a hole in one GREEN
There’s an urban myth that the standard number of holes on a golf course is 18 because it takes 18 shots to polish off a fifth of scotch whisky. However, the truth is that the standard number of holes in the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland happened to settle down over time at 18, and that standard was adopted all around the world.

35. West of Hollywood MAE
Mae West was always pushing the envelope when it came to the “sexy” side of show business, even in her early days in Vaudeville. One of the first plays in which West starred on Broadway was called “Sex”, a work she penned herself. The show was a sell-out, but city officials had it raided and West found herself spending ten days in jail after being convicted of “corrupting the morals of youth”. She started in movies in 1932, already 38 years old. West used her experience writing plays to rewrite much of the material she was given, and so really she was totally responsible for her own success and on-screen appeal.

38. Caesarean rebuke ET TU
It was Shakespeare who popularized the words “Et tu, Brute?” (And you, Brutus?), in his play “Julius Caesar”, although the phrase had been around long before he penned his drama. It’s not known what Julius Caesar actually said in real life just before he was assassinated on the steps of the Senate in Rome.

39. Fenway team, on scoreboards BOS
The Boston Red Sox is one of the most successful Major League Baseball teams and so commands a large attendance, but only when on the road. The relatively small capacity of Boston’s Fenway Park, the team’s home since 1912, has dictated that every game the Red Sox has played there has been a sell out since May of 2003.

45. Elvis’ middle name ARON
Elvis Aron Presley was the younger of two identical twins. His brother was stillborn, delivered 35 minutes before Elvis. The brother was named Jesse Garon Presley. So though born a twin, Elvis was raised as an only child.

50. Book of Shadows religion WICCA
Wicca is a relatively new phenomenon, a Neopagan religion that developed in the twentieth century. A follower of Wicca is called a Wiccan or a Witch.

A “Book of Shadows” is a book used in the neopagan religion known as Wicca. The book contains religious texts as well as instructions for carrying out magic rituals. The first Book of Shadows was written in the late 1940s by English Wiccan Gerald Gardner.

51. Emmy-winning sportscaster Jim MCKAY
Jim McKay was a sports journalist, most famous for hosting ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” for 37 years, ending in 1998. McKay also covered 12 Olympic Games, including his memorable coverage of the Munich massacre at the 1972 Summer Olympics. McKay also served his country during WWII in the US Navy, in which he was the captain of a minesweeper.

56. New Jersey fort DIX
Fort Dix is the name commonly used for what is now more correctly called Joint Base McGuire -Dix-Lakehurst, a US Army base located near Trenton, New Jersey. Fort Dix was established in 1917 by the Army, and was consolidated with nearby Air Force and Navy facilities in 2009.

57. Press initials UPI
Founded in 1958, United Press International (UPI) was one of the biggest news agencies in the world, sending out news by wire to the major newspapers. UPI ran into trouble with the change in media formats at the end of the twentieth century and lost many of its clients as the afternoon newspapers shut down due to the advent of television news. UPI, which once employed thousands, still exists today but with just a handful of employees.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Elevators, in Leeds LIFTS
6. Milo of “Ulysses” O’SHEA
11. Squelch GAG
14. Classic soap IVORY
15. Complete, for short THORO’
16. Gold, in them thar cerros ORO
17. *Computer logic game named for a warship MINESWEEPER (giving “diamond mine”)
19. Novelist Umberto ECO
20. Place to pick up litter? PET STORE
21. “__ better to have loved …”: Tennyson ‘TIS
23. Radical ’60s gp. SDS
24. *Loose-leaf organizer RING BINDER (giving “diamond ring”)
29. Electrical measure OHM
31. Formal talk LECTURE
32. Blue shade AQUA
34. Fed G-MAN
36. Elevator innovator OTIS
37. *Upscale golfwear brand CUTTER AND BUCK (giving “diamond cutter”)
40. Indochina country LAOS
41. Elevated for driving TEED
42. “Draft Dodger Rag” singer Phil OCHS
43. Entertainer ARTISTE
45. Durable wood ASH
46. *Recruiting specialist HEADHUNTER (giving “Diamond Head”)
49. eHarmony.com abbr. SWM
52. Leaves at Starbucks? TEA
53. Like herb gardens AROMATIC
56. Serious hwy. violation DUI
58. Phoenix-based ballplayer, and what the start of each answer to a starred clue can be DIAMONDBACK
61. NASDAQ debut IPO
62. Like some seals EARED
63. Minolta competitor LEICA
64. Mark, as a survey box X IN
65. PowerPoint unit SLIDE
66. WWII surrender celebration VE DAY

Down
1. Favors one side LIMPS
2. Like some college walls IVIED
3. Assortment in a formatting menu FONTS
4. Cuatro menos uno TRES
5. Fed. Reserve, for one SYST
6. ’90s “SNL” regular Cheri OTERI
7. Polished look SHEEN
8. Old school dance HOP
9. Before, to Blake ERE
10. __ valve: heart part AORTIC
11. Splits the tab GOES DUTCH
12. Welding flash ARC
13. Slime GOO
18. Fishhook attachment WORM
22. Communicating regularly IN TOUCH
25. Endocrinologist’s concern GLAND
26. Give a little BEND
27. Estrada and Satie ERIKS
28. Legal thing RES
29. Slim, as chances go OUTSIDE
30. Bowler, e.g. HAT
32. Without __ in the world A CARE
33. Entry at Bartleby.com QUOTATION
34. There’s always a hole in one GREEN
35. West of Hollywood MAE
38. Caesarean rebuke ET TU
39. Fenway team, on scoreboards BOS
40. “Well, __-di-dah!” LAH
44. Oakleys or Ray-Bans SHADES
45. Elvis’ middle name ARON
47. Under control TAMED
48. Cut into ERODE
49. Unemotional STAID
50. Book of Shadows religion WICCA
51. Emmy-winning sportscaster Jim MCKAY
54. 16th-century yr. MDLV
55. Have __ in one’s bonnet A BEE
56. New Jersey fort DIX
57. Press initials UPI
59. Suffix with adverb -IAL
60. The 58-Acrosses, on scoreboards ARI

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