Day: June 18, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Part of a Genesis-inspired costume FIG LEAF
The third plant named in the Bible, after the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, was the fig tree. Adam and Eve used leaves from the fig tree to sew garments when they realized that they were naked.

17. Rolling Stones guitarist RON WOOD
Ronnie Wood is one of the Rolling Stones. The Stones were formed in 1962, and Wood joined in 1975. Prior to his stint with the Stones, Wood was a member of the Jeff Beck Group as well as the Faces.

18. Fuddy-duddies CODGERS
Geezer and codger are two not-so-nice terms for an old man.

20. Cross at a frat TAU
Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, the letter which gave rise to our Roman “T”. Both the letters tau (T) and chi (X) have long been symbolically associated with the cross.

21. Bloke’s bathroom LOO
When I was growing up in Ireland, a “bathroom” was a room that had a bath and no toilet. The separate room with the commode was called “the toilet” or sometimes the W.C. (the water closet). Apparently the term closet was used because in the 1800s when homeowners started installing toilets indoors they often displaced clothes and linens in a “closet”, as a closet was the right size to take the commode. It has been suggested that the British term “loo” comes from Waterloo (water-closet … water-loo), but no one seems to know for sure. Another suggestion is that the term comes from the card game of “lanterloo” in which the pot was called the loo!

“Bloke” is British slang for a fellow. The etymology of “bloke” seems to have been lost in the mists of time.

22. “RUR” playwright CAPEK
Karel Čapek was a Czech writer noted for his works of science fiction. Čapek’s 1920 play “R.U.R.” is remembered in part for introducing the world to the word “robot”. The words “automaton” and “android” were already in use, but Capek gave us “robot” from the original Czech “robota” meaning “forced labor”. The acronym “R.U.R.”, in the context of the play, stands for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”.

25. Harpers Ferry raider JOHN BROWN
Harpers Ferry is a town in West Virginia located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. We tend to remember Harpers Ferry as the place where John Brown led a raid on a federal armory during the Civil War with the intent of arming slaves.

30. TNT part TRI-
TNT is an abbreviation for trinitrotoluene. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

31. Chain including the Matterhorn SWISS ALPS
“Matterhorn” is the German name for the famous Alpine peak that lies on the border between Switzerland and Italy. The Italian name for the same mountain is Monte Cervino, and the French call it Mont Cervin. “Matterhorn” comes from the German words Matte and Horn meaning “meadow” and “peak”. Cervino and Cervin come from the Latin name for the mountain, Mons Silvius meaning “Forest Mountain”.

39. 1976 horror classic … and, read another way, group that appears at 17-, 25-, 50- and 61-Across and 20-Down THE OMEN (or “THE O-MEN”)
The original film “The Omen” was released in 1976. “Damien: Omen II” hit the screens in 1978. We were regaled with “Omen III: The Final Conflict” in 1981, and there was even a TV movie “Omen IV: The Awakening” in 1991. I haven’t seen any of them, and have no interest in doing so (despite the excellent cast) as I really don’t like the genre …

42. Weed control giant ORTHO
Ortho is a brand of weed killer owned by Scott’s Miracle-Gro.

44. George Orwell or George Eliot PSEUDONYM
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, the famous British author of the classics “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and “Animal Farm”.

George Eliot was the pen name of English novelist Mary Anne Evans. As one might think, Evans chose a male pen name in order that her work might be best appreciated in the Victorian era. Eliot wrote seven novels including “Adam Bede” (1859), “The Mill on the Floss” (1860), “Silas Marner” (1861) and “Middlemarch” (1871-72).

46. Hoppy brew, for short IPA
India Pale Ale is a style of beer that comes from England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

48. Road surface TAR
“Tarmac” and “macadam” is of course short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call Tarmac.

49. Re-re-re-re-shared link on Facebook, e.g. MEME
A “meme” (short for “mineme”) is a cultural practice or idea that is passed on verbally or by repetition from one person to another. The term lends itself very well to the online world where links, emails, files etc. are so easily propagated.

50. Legendary Manhattan restaurateur TOOTS SHOR
Toots Shor ran his Toot’s Shor’s Restaurant in Manhattan during the forties and fifties. The establishment served relatively plain American cuisine, but it was a celebrated hangout for the New York elite. Shor’s personality brought in the rich and famous, like Jackie Gleason, Charlie Chaplin, Chief Justice Earl Warren and Louis B. Mayer.

55. Roadie’s unit AMP
An electric guitar, for example, needs an amplifier (amp) to take the weak signal created by the vibration of the strings and turn it into a signal powerful enough for a loudspeaker.

A “roadie” is someone who loads, unloads and sets up equipment for musicians on tour, on the road.

56. Dawson in the first Super Bowl LEN
Len Dawson is a retired AFL-NFL quarterback who played for the Kansas City Chiefs (originally the Dallas Texans). Dawson played for the Chiefs in the first ever Super Bowl, losing badly to the Green Bay Packers. However, he was on the winning team in Super Bowl IV, when the Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings. Quarterback Dawson was named the MVP that day.

57. Soft slip-on MOC
“Moc” is short for “moccasin”, the type of shoe.

61. “The Joy of Painting” artist BOB ROSS
Bob Ross was an artist and art instructor. Ross created and appeared in the long-running PBS show “The Joy of Painting”, a show which provided instructions for budding artists.

65. Suitable for tweens, usually PG RATED
The term “tween” is now used to describe preadolescence, the years between 8 and 12 years of age.

67. Ancient provincial governors SATRAPS
“Satrap” is an old Persian word for a provincial governor. In modern usage in English, a satrap is a world leader who is heavily influenced by a superior power.

68. Suffragist Elizabeth Cady __ STANTON
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the earliest leaders of the woman’s rights and woman’s suffrage movements in the United States. Notably, she opposed the extension of voting rights to African American men (the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments), even though she was an outspoken abolitionist. She believed that increasing the number of male voters in the country would just make it harder for women to get the vote.

Down
2. “I’d say,” in texts IMO
In my opinion (IMO)

3. Rickey ingredient GIN
Rickeys are a class of mixed drink made from a base spirit, half a squeezed lime and carbonated water.

6. Baseball’s Moises ALOU
Jesus Alou played major league baseball, as did his brothers Matty and Felipe, and as does Felipe’s son, Moises.

8. Old Testament prophet MICAH
The Book of Micah is one of twelve books in the Bible written by the so called minor prophets. The name “Micah” translates into English from Hebrew as “Who is like God?”

9. PayPal figure AMOUNT
PayPal is an ecommerce business that has been around since the year 2000, born out of a merger of two older companies: Confinity and X.com. PayPal performs payment processing for online vendors. The company was so successful that it was the first of the beleaguered dot.com companies to successfully complete an IPO after the attacks of 9/11. Then in 2002, PayPal was bought by eBay for a whopping $1.5 billion.

11. Quiche base EGG
The classic dish called quiche is made with eggs (“oeufs” in French). Even though the quiche is inextricably linked to French cuisine, the name “quiche” comes from the German word for cake, “Kuchen”. The variant called “quiche lorraine” includes bits of smoked bacon as an ingredient.

12. Hip-hop star Green CEELO
CeeLo Green is the stage name of rapper Thomas DeCarlo Callaway. Apparently Green is one of the coaches for the contestants on the singing TV show “The Voice”. That’s all I need to know …

14. “The Pluto Files” author Neil deGrasse __ TYSON
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist who is noted for his ability to communicate science to the masses. Tyson is well known for his appearances on the great PBS show “Nova”.

20. Regular on Bob Newhart sitcoms TOM POSTON
Tom Poston was an actor from Columbus, Ohio. Poston had a successful television and film career starting in the 1950s, although I most remember him as the bumbling handyman on “Newhart”. Poston was actually married to Suzanne Pleshette who played the wife of Newhart’s character in “The Bob Newhart Show”.

22. Fruity cocktail, familiarly COSMO
Like so many famous cocktails, the actual origins of the cosmopolitan are disputed. It is a nice drink though. One of the standard recipes is 4 parts citrus vodka, 1.5 parts Cointreau, 1.5 parts lime juice and 3 parts cranberry juice.

25. Minty Derby cocktail JULEP
If you’d like to make yourself a mint julep, one recipe is:

– 3 oz of Bourbon
– 4-6 sprigs of mint
– granulated sugar to taste

32. Local stations STOPS
Local trains stop at railroad stations.

36. Sample, for example RHYME
The word “sample” rhymes with the word “example”.

45. Greek for “little O” OMICRON
51. Greek for “big O” OMEGA
Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet and is the one that looks like a horseshoe. The word “omega” literally means “great O” (O-mega). Compare this with the Greek letter Omicron meaning “little O” (O-micron).

52. Mesmerizing designs OP ART
Op art is also known as optical art, and puts optical illusions to great effect.

Franz Mesmer was a German physician, the person who first coined the phrase “animal magnetism”. Back then the term described a purported magnetic field that resided in the bodies of animate beings. Mesmer also lent his name to our term “mesmerize”.

54. Deadly snake COBRA
Snake charmers don’t actually hypnotize their cobras, but they do train them. The snake is trained to “follow” the movement of end of the pungi, the instrument that the charmer uses in the act. The snake presents no danger to the charmer or the audience, as it is typically defanged or has it’s mouth partially stitched up so that only the tongue can be moved in and out. Not a very nice practice …

57. Suffragist Lucretia MOTT
Lucretia Coffin Mott (what a name!) was an American Quaker, and an advocate for women’s rights. Mott has been called the first American “feminist”. Her first job was teaching in the Quaker school in which she was educated. There she learned that her salary was to be one third of that paid to the males with the same job (she married one of the male teachers!). That injustice initiated her interest in women’s rights.

59. Patriotic women’s org. DAR
In order to be a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), an applicant has to prove that she is a descendant of someone closely associated with, and supportive of, the American Revolution.

63. “Homeland” airer, briefly SHO
“Homeland” is a psychological drama shown on Showtime about a CIA officer who is convinced that a certain US Marine is a threat to the security of the United States. The show is based on a series from Israeli television called “Hatufim” (Prisoners of War”). I saw the first series of this show and highly recommend it …

64. Specimen, for example: Abbr. SYN
The word “specimen” is a synonym (syn.) for the word “example”.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Part of a Genesis-inspired costume FIG LEAF
8. Tom in an alley MALE CAT
15. Good-natured AMIABLE
16. Vivid language IMAGERY
17. Rolling Stones guitarist RON WOOD
18. Fuddy-duddies CODGERS
19. “__ said it!” YOU
20. Cross at a frat TAU
21. Bloke’s bathroom LOO
22. “RUR” playwright CAPEK
25. Harpers Ferry raider JOHN BROWN
28. Trash emanation ODOR
29. Sponge, as a smoke BUM
30. TNT part TRI-
31. Chain including the Matterhorn SWISS ALPS
34. Cancel, NASA-style ABORT
38. “Oh, wow!” MAN!
39. 1976 horror classic … and, read another way, group that appears at 17-, 25-, 50- and 61-Across and 20-Down THE OMEN (or “THE O-MEN”)
41. “Hunh?” WHA?
42. Weed control giant ORTHO
44. George Orwell or George Eliot PSEUDONYM
46. Hoppy brew, for short IPA
48. Road surface TAR
49. Re-re-re-re-shared link on Facebook, e.g. MEME
50. Legendary Manhattan restaurateur TOOTS SHOR
54. Fall beverage CIDER
55. Roadie’s unit AMP
56. Dawson in the first Super Bowl LEN
57. Soft slip-on MOC
58. More prepared READIER
61. “The Joy of Painting” artist BOB ROSS
65. Suitable for tweens, usually PG RATED
66. Weaken from disuse ATROPHY
67. Ancient provincial governors SATRAPS
68. Suffragist Elizabeth Cady __ STANTON

Down
1. Not within walking distance FAR
2. “I’d say,” in texts IMO
3. Rickey ingredient GIN
4. Ones doing case studies LAWYERS
5. Tablet download EBOOK
6. Baseball’s Moises ALOU
7. Gave lunch to FED
8. Old Testament prophet MICAH
9. PayPal figure AMOUNT
10. Young chap LAD
11. Quiche base EGG
12. Hip-hop star Green CEELO
13. “This way” symbol ARROW
14. “The Pluto Files” author Neil deGrasse __ TYSON
20. Regular on Bob Newhart sitcoms TOM POSTON
22. Fruity cocktail, familiarly COSMO
23. Pitching duel? AD WAR
24. Writing end POINT
25. Minty Derby cocktail JULEP
26. Product name BRAND
27. Baby-back goodie RIB
29. “Dang it!” BAH!
32. Local stations STOPS
33. Makeup mishap SMEAR
35. Didn’t lease OWNED
36. Sample, for example RHYME
37. Worker with show tigers TAMER
40. 31-Across locale: Abbr. EUR
43. Bomb opposite HIT
45. Greek for “little O” OMICRON
47. Dreaming, say ASLEEP
50. Canvas covers TARPS
51. Greek for “big O” OMEGA
52. Mesmerizing designs OP ART
53. Steers the steers HERDS
54. Deadly snake COBRA
57. Suffragist Lucretia MOTT
59. Patriotic women’s org. DAR
60. Feminizing Spanish suffix -ITA
61. English lit degrees BAS
62. Choose OPT
63. “Homeland” airer, briefly SHO
64. Specimen, for example: Abbr. SYN

Return to top of page