Day: June 19, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Licensed med. personnel RNS
Registered nurses (RNs) are licensed medical (med.) personnel.

14. Fuzzy __ NAVEL
The cocktail known as a fuzzy navel was invented in the eighties by bartender Ray Foley, the founder of “Bartender Magazine”. The basic drink is made with equal parts of peach schnapps and orange juice, with the “fuzzy” referring to the texture of the skin of a peach, and the “navel” referring to the navel in a navel orange. A variant of the drink is made by adding a splash of vodka, giving a hairy navel. The more vodka, the hairier the cocktail.

16. One of a kind LULU
We call a remarkable thing or a person a “lulu”. The term is used in honor of Lulu Hurst, the Georgia Wonder, who was a stage magician active in the 1880s.

22. Noted sitter HUMPTY DUMPTY
Humpty Dumpty is a character in a nursery rhyme, actually an egg although that isn’t specifically called out in the original rhyme:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

31. “We __ amused” ARE NOT
The royal “we” is more correctly called the majestic plural, and is the use of a plural pronoun to describe a single person in a high office. I suppose the most often quoted phrase that uses the majestic plural is, “We are not amused”, often attributed to Queen Victoria.

34. Role for Liz CLEO
The 1963 movie “Cleopatra” really was an epic work. It was the highest grossing film of the year, taking in $26 million dollars at the box office, yet it still lost money. The original budget for the film was just $2 million, but so many things went wrong the final cost swelled to a staggering $44 million dollars, making it the second most expensive movie ever made (taking into account inflation). Elizabeth Taylor was supposed to earn a record amount of $1 million for the film, and ended up earned seven times that amount due to delays. But she paid dearly, as she became seriously ill during shooting and had to have an emergency tracheotomy to save her life. The scar in her throat can actually be seen in some of the shots in the film.

35. Personality part EGO
Sigmund Freud created a structural model of the human psyche, breaking it into three parts: the id, the ego, and the super-ego. The id is that part of the psyche containing the basic instinctual drives. The ego seeks to please the id by causing realistic behavior that benefits the individual. The super-ego almost has a parental role, contradicting the id by introducing critical thinking and morals to behavioral choices.

36. With 37- and 38-Across, big hit LONG
37. See 36-Across FLY
38. See 36-Across BALL
In baseball, a long fly ball might bounce off the wall.

40. Miscellany OLIO
Olio is a term meaning a hodgepodge or a mixture, coming from the mixed stew of the same name. The stew in turn takes its name from the Spanish “olla”, the clay pot used for cooking.

44. Makes tawdry CHEAPENS
Saint Audrey (commonly “Awdry”) was an Anglo-Saxon queen. The queen’s admirers were in the habit of buying lace trimmings for their clothes at an annual fair held in her name. Centuries later, this lacework came to be viewed with distaste as the Puritans came to influence social standards. The lace trimming was deemed to be old-fashioned and cheap. The queen’s name “Awdry” then evolved into our word “tawdry”, meaning cheap and of poor quality.

47. Cause of bad luck, so they say BROKEN MIRROR
There is a superstition that breaking a mirror causes an individual to have seven years of bad luck, which originates from the belief that a mirror reflects the soul. So, breaking of a mirror reflects breaking part of the soul. As the soul was believed to regenerate itself every seven years then one would have to endure seven years of bad luck before the soul could repair itself.

52. __ New Guinea PAPUA
New Guinea is an island in the southwest Pacific Ocean. It is the second largest island in the world (after Greenland). The western half of the the island is ruled by Indonesia, and is made up of the provinces of Papua and West Papua. The eastern half of the island forms the mainland of the independent country called Papua New Guinea.

56. Bizarre, and what 17-, 22-, 36/37/38- and 47-Across can be, in one way or another OFF-THE-WALL
Something bizarre might be described as “off-the-wall”. The phrase “off-the-wall” is American student slang that dates back to the mid-sixties.

61. Campaign funders, briefly PACS
A Political Action Committee (PAC) is a private group that works to influence the outcome of a particular election or group of elections. Any group becomes a PAC by law when it receives or spends more than $1,000 for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election. In 2010 the Supreme Court ruled that PACS that did not make direct contributions to candidates or parties could accept unlimited contributions. These “independent-expenditure only committees” are commonly referred to as “super PACs”.

62. Guts MOXIE
Back as far as 1876, Moxie was a brand name of a “medicine” peddled with the claim that it “built up your nerve”. In 1924, Moxie was registered as a trademark for a bitter, non-alcoholic beverage (no more claims of nerve-building). And we’ve used the term “moxie” to mean “nerve” ever since …

63. 1980s surgeon general KOOP
C. Everett Koop was the Surgeon General from 1982-89, appointed by President Reagan. Koop was a somewhat controversial character and one who brought the position of Surgeon General into the spotlight more than was historically the case. Partly this was due to his pro-life position, his anti-tobacco stance and the fact that AIDS became a prominent issue while he was in office.

64. Workplaces for 1-Across ERS
Emergency room (ER)

65. Jacket material TWEED
Tweed is a rough woolen fabric very much associated with Scotland in the UK, and County Donegal in Ireland. The cloth was originally called “tweel”, the Scots word for “twill”. Apparently a London merchant misinterpreted some handwriting in the early 1800s and assumed the fabric was called “tweed”, a reference to the Scottish River Tweed, and the name stuck …

66. Elevs. HTS
Elevations (elevs.) are heights (hts.).

Down
1. “Invisible Man” writer Ellison RALPH
The author Ralph Ellison’s most famous book is “Invisible Man”, which won the National Book Award in 1953. Ellison’s full name is Ralph Waldo Ellison, and he was named for Ralph Waldo Emerson.

2. World’s smallest island nation NAURU
Nauru is the world’s smallest island nation, located in the South Pacific 300 km to the east of Kiribati. The island was taken as a colony by Germany in the late 1800s, and came under the administration of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom after WWI. The Japanese invaded during WWII, but Nauru was one of the islands that was bypassed in the US advance across the Pacific towards Japan. Nauru achieved independence in 1968.

3. Capital south of Olympia SALEM
Salem is the state capital of Oregon. It is thought that the city takes its name from the older city of Salem, Massachusetts.

Olympia is the capital of Washington State and is located in the Puget Sound region. The city’s name was chosen in 1852, a reference to the view of the Olympic Mountains to the northwest.

6. Perón of Argentina EVA
Eva Perón was the second wife of President Juan Perón who was in office from 1946 to 1955. The Argentine First Lady was known affectionately by the people as “Evita”, the Spanish language diminutive of “Eva”. “Evita” was also the follow-up musical to “Jesus Christ Superstar” for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, and was based on the life of Eva Perón.

7. Pince-__ NEZ
Pince-nez are eyeglasses clipped to the bridge of the nose. “Pince-nez” is French, translating as “pinch the nose”.

10. One-named supermodel IMAN
Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid is a supermodel from Somalia who goes simply by the name “Iman” these days. Iman is smart cookie. Imam has a degree in Political Science and is fluent in five languages: Somali, Arabic, Italian, French and English. Since 1992 Iman has been married to British rock star David Bowie.

15. Decisive times D-DAYS
The most famous D-Day in history was June 6, 1944, the date of the Normandy landings in WWII. The term “D-Day” is used by the military to designate the day on which a combat operations are to be launched, especially when the actual date has yet to be determined. What D stands for seems to have been lost in the mists of time although the tradition is that D just stands for “Day”. In fact, the French have a similar term, “Jour J” (Day J), with a similar meaning. We also use H-Hour to denote the hour the attack is to commence.

24. “Holy __!” MOLY
The mild expletive “holy moly!” is a euphemism for “holy Moses!”

25. “The Pit and the Pendulum” author POE
“The Pit and the Pendulum” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe that was first published in 1842. It is a macabre tale about a prisoner who is being tortured at the hands of the spanish Inquisition. For part of the tale, the prisoner is bound to a wooden board while a scythe-like pendulum wings above him, getting nearer and nearer with each oscillation.

31. Baldwin of “The Cooler” ALEC
“The Cooler” is an interesting film released in 2003 that stars William H. Macy in the title role. Macy plays an unlucky individual who is employed by a casino to stand by winning gamblers to change their luck, to act as “a cooler”.

32. “Portnoy’s Complaint” novelist ROTH
Author Philip Roth’s two most famous works are probably his 1959 novella “Goodbye, Columbus” for which he won a National Book Award, and his extremely controversial 1969 novel “Portnoy’s Complaint”. The latter title was banned in some libraries in the US, and was listed as a “prohibited import” in Australia. The controversy surrounded Roth’s treatment of the sexuality of the main character, a young Jewish bachelor undergoing psychoanalysis for his “complaint”.

37. Informer FINK
A “fink” is an informer, someone who rats out his cohorts.

40. Talk show tycoon OPRAH
What can you say about Oprah Winfrey? Born into poverty to a single mother and with a harrowing childhood, Oprah is now the greatest African American philanthropist the world has ever known. Oprah’s name was originally meant to be “Orpah” after the Biblical character in the Book of Ruth, and that’s how it appears on her birth certificate. Apparently folks had trouble pronouncing “Orpah”, so she’s now “Oprah”.

41. Durocher of baseball LEO
Baseball player and manager Leo Durocher was noted for being outspoken, and was given the nickname “Leo the Lip”. In 1946, while he was manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Durocher expressed the opinion that teams like his successful Dodgers would always do better that teams replete with personable individuals (naming Mel Ott in particular). He used his most memorable phrase to encapsulate the sentiment … “nice guys finish last”.

49. Maker of Caplio cameras RICOH
Ricoh is a Japanese company that started out in 1936 and by the year 2000 was the biggest manufacturer of copiers in the world. The company is also well known as a supplier of cameras. The most successful of Ricoh’s lines of cameras is the compact model called a Caplio.

50. Like septic tanks ON-LOT
A septic tank is a sewage system that resides locally beside a house, on the property i.e. “on-lot”.

51. SASE inserts, often RSVPS
RSVP stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “please, answer”.

A self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) might be an enclosure (enc.) sent with a letter.

52. Leader who wears the Ring of the Fisherman POPE
The Pope’s famous ring is known as the Ring of the Fisherman. The ring is named after the first Pope, St. Peter, who was a fisherman. Each Pope gets a new ring specially created for him, with his name written in raised lettering on the ring. The ring was used as a signet, to seal official document up in 1842. After a Pope dies, the ring is ceremonially crushed, the idea being that no documents could be backdated and forged.

54. Low-ranking GIs PFCS
Private First Class (PFC)

57. CPR pro EMT
Emergency medical technician (EMT)

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has for decades involved the simultaneous compression of the chest to pump blood using the heart, and artificial respiration by blowing air into the lungs. Nowadays emergency services are placing more emphasis on heart compressions, and less on artificial respiration.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Licensed med. personnel RNS
4. Heavens EDENS
9. Relations KIN
12. Wireless mouse batteries AAAS
14. Fuzzy __ NAVEL
15. How-to presentation DEMO
16. One of a kind LULU
17. Harebrained schemes CRAZY IDEAS
19. Lay the groundwork PREPARE
21. Live-in help, perhaps NANNY
22. Noted sitter HUMPTY DUMPTY
26. Squirt IMP
27. Hardly a deadeye POOR SHOT
31. “We __ amused” ARE NOT
34. Role for Liz CLEO
35. Personality part EGO
36. With 37- and 38-Across, big hit LONG
37. See 36-Across FLY
38. See 36-Across BALL
39. Catchall abbr. ETC
40. Miscellany OLIO
42. Pushed GOADED
44. Makes tawdry CHEAPENS
46. Acct. datum AMT
47. Cause of bad luck, so they say BROKEN MIRROR
52. __ New Guinea PAPUA
55. Gets OBTAINS
56. Bizarre, and what 17-, 22-, 36/37/38- and 47-Across can be, in one way or another OFF-THE-WALL
60. Half DX CCLV
61. Campaign funders, briefly PACS
62. Guts MOXIE
63. 1980s surgeon general KOOP
64. Workplaces for 1-Across ERS
65. Jacket material TWEED
66. Elevs. HTS

Down
1. “Invisible Man” writer Ellison RALPH
2. World’s smallest island nation NAURU
3. Capital south of Olympia SALEM
4. Protect, in a way ENCRYPT
5. Challenged DARED
6. Perón of Argentina EVA
7. Pince-__ NEZ
8. Like some dogs and devils SLY
9. Sharp KEEN
10. One-named supermodel IMAN
11. Prone to prying NOSY
13. Dining SUPPING
15. Decisive times D-DAYS
18. Short beginning INTRO
20. Sphere lead-in ATMO-
23. Able to give a firsthand account UP-CLOSE
24. “Holy __!” MOLY
25. “The Pit and the Pendulum” author POE
28. Proceed HEAD
29. Stare rudely at OGLE
30. Related TOLD
31. Baldwin of “The Cooler” ALEC
32. “Portnoy’s Complaint” novelist ROTH
33. Confer ending -ENCE
37. Informer FINK
38. Dugout convenience BAT RACK
40. Talk show tycoon OPRAH
41. Durocher of baseball LEO
42. Bet GAMBLED
43. Skip past OMIT
45. Is up against ABUTS
48. “Cross my heart!” NO LIE!
49. Maker of Caplio cameras RICOH
50. Like septic tanks ON-LOT
51. SASE inserts, often RSVPS
52. Leader who wears the Ring of the Fisherman POPE
53. Quite a way off AFAR
54. Low-ranking GIs PFCS
57. CPR pro EMT
58. “Man!” WOW!
59. Tool often swung AXE

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