Day: August 7, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
5. Goes kaput DIES
“Kaput” is a familiar term meaning “incapacitated, destroyed”, and comes to us from French (via German). The original word “capot” means “not having won a single trick” in the French card game called Piquet.

9. Buckle opener? SWASH-
A “swashbuckler” is a flashy swordsman. The term probably derives somehow from “swash” meaning “fall of a blow” and “buckler”, the name of a small round shield.

16. Chekhov’s “__ Sisters” THREE
Olga, Masha and Irina were the “Three Sisters” in the play by Anton Chekhov. The three title characters were inspired by the three Brontë sisters, the English authors.

Anton Chekhov was a Russian writer of short stories and a playwright, as well as a physician. He wrote four classic plays that are often performed all around the world, namely “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Three Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard”. All the time Chekhov was writing, he continued to practice medicine. He is quoted as saying “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.”

21. Director’s headache HAM
The word “ham”, describing a performer who overacts, is apparently a shortened form of “hamfatter” and dates back to the late 1800s. “Hamfatter” comes from a song in old minstrel shows called “The Ham-Fat Man”. It seems that a poorly performing actor was deemed to have the “acting” qualities of a minstrel made up in blackface.

22. Deli supplies SLAWS
The term “coleslaw” is an Anglicized version of the Dutch name “koolsla”, which in itself is a shortened form of “Koolsalade” meaning “cabbage salad”.

29. DDE opponent AES
Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (AES) ran for president unsuccessfully against Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE) in 1952 and in 1956. Some years after his second defeat, Stevenson served under President Kennedy as Ambassador to the United Nations. Stevenson was always noted for his eloquence and he had a famous exchange in a UN Security Council meeting during the Cuban missile crisis. Stevenson bluntly demanded that the Soviet representative on the council tell the world if the USSR was installing nuclear weapons in Cuba. His words were “Don’t wait for the translation, answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’!” followed by “I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over!”

30. They may be rolled over, briefly IRAS
Individual Retirement Account (IRA)

31. Gun lobby org. NRA
National Rifle Association(NRA)

35. “Rent-__” A-COP
“Rent-a-cop” is a derogatory term for a security guard. The term was used in 1988 as the title for a much-panned comedy-action film starring Burt Reynolds and Liza Minnelli. Minnelli was named Worst Actress at the 1988 Golden Raspberry Awards for her performance in “Rent-A-Cop”, and also for “Arthur 2: On the Rocks” that came out the same year.

36. “__ Holden”: Irving Bacheller novel EBEN
Irving Bacheller was an American journalist and writer. His novel “Eben Holden” was published in 1900.

37. *”What a dummy!” YOU DON’T KNOW JACK!
There’s a more vulgar version of the expression “you don’t know jack”, but I think that is derivative of the original. One suggestion is that “jack” refers to a “common man”, so that someone who doesn’t know jack, doesn’t even know the man in the street.

41. Alternative to de Gaulle ORLY
Orly is on the outskirts of Paris, to the south of the city. It is home to the Paris-Orly Airport, the second busiest international airport for the city after the more recently built Charles de Gaulle Airport. That said, Orly is home to more domestic flights than Charles de Gaulle.

42. Houston hockey team AEROS
The Aeros are the professional ice hockey team based in Houston, Texas. The Houston Aeros were added to the International Hockey League in 1994. The franchise name was taken from the World Hockey Association’s Houston Aeros of the seventies, the team for whom Gordie Howe played.

43. Common Mkt. EEC
The European Economic Community (EEC) was also called “the Common Market”. The EEC was a NAFTA-like structure that was eventually absorbed into today’s European Union.

44. Actress Falco EDIE
The actress Edie Falco won her three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano on HBO’s outstanding drama series called “The Sopranos”.

45. Hobbit enemy ORC
Orcs are mythical humanoid creatures that appear in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien’s use of orcs, they have also been featured in other fantasy fiction and in fantasy games.

In Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” novels, the main hobbits are:

– Bilbo Baggins
– Frodo Baggins
– Samwise Gamgee
– Peregrin Took
– Meriadoc Brandybuck

52. Simpson judge ITO
Judge Lance Ito came in for a lot of criticism for his handling of the O.J. Simpson murder trial. The lead prosecutor in that trial was Marcia Clark, you might recall. I read the book that’s Clark wrote about the trial called “Without a Doubt”, and she pointed out one trait of Judge Ito that I think is quite telling. Ito would almost always refer to the prosecutor as “Marcia”, while addressing the men on both sides of the case as “Mister”.

61. “She __ among the untrodden ways”: Wordsworth DWELT
“She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways” is a 1798 poem by William Wordsworth.

SHE dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
–Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!

63. “Ciao!” SEE YA!
“Ciao” is the Italian for “‘bye”. “Arrivederci” is more formal, and translates better as “goodbye”.

65. “Ol’ Man River” composer KERN
Jerome Kern was truly a great in the world of theater music. He wrote so many classics, including “Ol’ Man River”, “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” and “The Way You Look Tonight”.

“Ol’ Man River” is a wonderful song by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, from the musical “Show Boat”. The most famous performances of the song were by Paul Robeson, starting in 1938 when he appeared in a movie version of the stage show. Over the years Robeson changed the lyrics as he sang it at various recitals. The original words used a lot of racial epithets and stereotypical African American slang that he decided to change or omit.

Down
2. Amherst sch. UMASS
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass) is the largest public university in New England. UMass was founded back in 1863, although it took a while to get the school into service. Construction work was delayed and the college went through two presidents before William S. Clark took charge. He cracked the whip, completed the construction and enrolled the first students in the same year that he took over the reins, in 1867. As a result, although Clark was the third President of UMass, he is regarded by most as the school’s founding father.

8. Part of CBS: Abbr. SYS
CBS used to be called the Columbia Broadcasting System. CBS is the second largest broadcaster in the world, second only to the BBC in the UK.

9. Valuable violins STRADS
Generations of the Stradivari family produced violins, the most famous of which were constructed by Antonio Stradivari.

10. Frisbee maker WHAM-O
The Frisbee concept started back in 1938 with a couple who had an upturned cake pan that they were tossing between each other on Santa Monica Beach in California. They were offered 25 cents for the pan on the spot, and as pans could be bought for 5 cents, the pair figured there was a living to be earned.

12. Champagne word SEC
“Sec” is a term used in France for “dry”.

Sparkling wines can be classified according to sweetness. These classifications are, from driest to sweetest:

– Brut Nature
– Extra Brut
– Brut
– Extra Dry
– Dry
– Semi-Dry
– Sweet

13. “Clever” HEH
“Heh” is an interjection that is used to indicate wry amusement.

23. “Bates Motel” airer A AND E
“Bates Motel” is a TV series that started airing in 2013. The show is described as a prequel to the famous 1960 Hitchcock film “Psycho”, although it is set in the modern day.

27. El __ GRECO
“El Greco” (“the Greek”, in Spanish) was the nickname of the artist whose real name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos. El Greco was born in Crete in 1541, and moved to Venice to study art when he was in his early twenties. A few years later he moved to the city of Toledo in central Spain, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life.

28. Gump player HANKS
Tom Hanks is a such a great actor, I think. He has played so many iconic roles in a relatively short career. Hanks is from California, and studied theater for a couple of years in Hayward, California not far from here. Hanks is married to the talented actress Rita Wilson.

32. First president who wasn’t elected TYLER
The epic 1994 movie “Forrest Gump” is based on a 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. Groom said that he had envisioned John Goodman playing the title role, and not Tom Hanks.

33. Bunk HOOEY
The word “bunk” is short for “bunkum”, the phonetic spelling of “Buncombe”, which is a county in North Carolina. Supposedly, a state representative made a dull and irrelevant speech that was directed to his home county of Buncombe, bringing the term “bunkum” into the language with the meaning of “nonsense”. The derivative word “debunk” first appeared in a novel by William Woodward in 1923, when he used it to describe “taking the bunk out of things”.

35. Some hotel lobbies ATRIA
In modern architecture an atrium (plural “atria” or “atriums”) is a large open space usually in the center of a building and extending upwards to the roof. The original atrium was an open court in the center of an Ancient Roman house. One could access most of the enclosed rooms of the house from the atrium.

39. Dungeons & Dragons role WARLOCK
Dungeons & Dragons is a complex role-playing game first published in 1974, by Tactical Studies Rules Incorporated (TSR). Dungeons & Dragons was probably the first of the modern role-playing games to be developed, and the most successful. It is still played by lots of people today, including my nerdy son …

44. Listing in a revision, perhaps ERRATA
Errata is the past participle of the Latin word “errare” meaning “to err”. We use “errata” (singular “erratum”) to mean a list of errors that have been noted in some publication.

50. Keyboard contemporary of Vladimir ARTUR
The great Arthur (sometimes “Artur”) Rubinstein was a classical pianist from Poland who became a naturalized American citizen in 1946. Rubenstein was particularly respected as a performer of Chopin’s repertoire.

Vladimir Horowitz was a classical pianist from Kiev who escaped to the West in 1925, settling in the US. Horowitz was married to Wanda Toscanini, daughter of the famed Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini.

54. World Cup broadcaster ESPN
The next two FIFA World Cup tournaments (soccer) will be hosted by Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022).

55. Driller’s deg. DDS
Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS)

57. Civil War figure LEE
Robert E. Lee is of course renowned as a southern officer in the Civil War. Lee was a somewhat reluctant participant in the war in that he opposed the secession of his home state of Virginia from the Union. At the beginning of the war, President Lincoln invited Lee to take command of the whole Union Army but he declined, choosing instead to stay loyal to his home state.

58. Govt.-issued ID SSN
Social Security number (SSN)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Spring JUMP
5. Goes kaput DIES
9. Buckle opener? SWASH-
14. With passion AMOROUSLY
16. Chekhov’s “__ Sisters” THREE
17. *Like Grandma’s pancakes, say MADE FROM SCRATCH
19. Capt.’s heading SSE
20. Wetland FEN
21. Director’s headache HAM
22. Deli supplies SLAWS
24. *It’s rolled with a pin and put in a tin PIE DOUGH
29. DDE opponent AES
30. They may be rolled over, briefly IRAS
31. Gun lobby org. NRA
32. Barely-there underwear THONG
35. “Rent-__” A-COP
36. “__ Holden”: Irving Bacheller novel EBEN
37. *”What a dummy!” YOU DON’T KNOW JACK!
40. Solitary LONE
41. Alternative to de Gaulle ORLY
42. Houston hockey team AEROS
43. Common Mkt. EEC
44. Actress Falco EDIE
45. Hobbit enemy ORC
46. *Deli supply RYE BREAD
48. Extreme ULTRA
51. Bush __ ERA
52. Simpson judge ITO
53. Fury IRE
55. Basics of business, or a hint to the end of the answers to starred clues DOLLARS AND CENTS
61. “She __ among the untrodden ways”: Wordsworth DWELT
62. Begins, as a conversation STRIKES UP
63. “Ciao!” SEE YA!
64. Must have NEED
65. “Ol’ Man River” composer KERN

Down
1. Rough spots JAMS
2. Amherst sch. UMASS
3. Poser MODEL
4. Start to text? PRE-
5. Arm-twisting DURESS
6. Takes the stage IS ON
7. Stately shader ELM
8. Part of CBS: Abbr. SYS
9. Valuable violins STRADS
10. Frisbee maker WHAM-O
11. Works at an exhibit ART
12. Champagne word SEC
13. “Clever” HEH
15. “Let’s hit the road!” OFF WE GO!
18. Shoddy CHEAPO
23. “Bates Motel” airer A AND E
24. Preserved, in a way PICKLED
25. Literary twist IRONY
26. Open, as a gate latch UNBAR
27. El __ GRECO
28. Gump player HANKS
32. First president who wasn’t elected TYLER
33. Bunk HOOEY
34. Gold unit OUNCE
35. Some hotel lobbies ATRIA
36. Escape on the way down EJECT
38. Loving rejection NO, DEAR
39. Dungeons & Dragons role WARLOCK
44. Listing in a revision, perhaps ERRATA
45. Bested OUTDID
47. Spare tire BELLY
49. Salon job RINSE
50. Keyboard contemporary of Vladimir ARTUR
52. Memo header IN RE
54. World Cup broadcaster ESPN
55. Driller’s deg. DDS
56. Postpone paying OWE
57. Civil War figure LEE
58. Govt.-issued ID SSN
59. Absorbed, as a cost ATE
60. “A mouse!” EEK!

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