Day: August 23, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
15. Pearl Buck heroine O-LAN
Pearl S. Buck’s novel “The Good Earth” won a Pulitzer in 1932, and helped Buck win the Nobel Prize for literature a few years later. The story tells of life in a Chinese village and follows the fortunes of Wang Lung and his wife O-Lan. Although “The Good Earth” has been around for decades, it hit the bestseller list again in 2004 when it was a pick for Oprah’s Book Club.

17. Key not used alone CTRL
The control key (Ctrl.)

18. Great Pyramid of Giza material LIMESTONES
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and yet it is the only one of the Wonders that is basically intact today. Egyptologists believe that the structure took ten to twenty years to complete, and that it dates back to around 2560 BC. The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest man-made structure in the world for nearly 3,900 years, until it was surpassed by Lincoln Cathedral in England in 1311 AD.

20. Gary, e.g. CITY
The city of Gary, Indiana is located just 25 miles from downtown Chicago and falls within the Chicago metropolitan area (also known as “Chicagoland”). Gary was founded by US Steel in 1906, as the company selected it as the site for a new steel plant. The name “Gary” was chosen in honor of Elbert H. Gary, who was the key player in setting up US Steel in 1901.

24. Plot component ACRE
At one time, an acre was defined as the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plow in a day. This was more precisely defined as a strip of land “one furrow long” (i.e. one furlong) and one furlong wide. The length of one furlong was equal to 10 chains, or 40 rods. A area of one furlong times 10 rods was one rood.

26. Racing family name UNSER
The Unser family seems to have racing cars in its blood. Al Unser, Sr. won the Indy 500 on four occasions. Al’s brother Jerry was the first of the Unsers to compete at Indianapolis. Al’s other brother Bobby, won the Indy three times. Al’s son, Al Junior, won the Indy twice. Al Junior’s son is also a racing driver who competes at the Indy Speedway.

27. Ottoman officer PASHA
A pasha was a high-ranking official in the Ottoman Empire, roughly equivalent to the English rank of “lord”.

29. Tripe ROT
“Tripe” is an informal term meaning “rubbish, of little value”. Tripe is actually the rubbery lining of say a cow, that in the UK is traditionally eaten with onions.

34. First name in Notre Dame football history ARA
Ara Parseghian coached the Notre Dame football team from 1964 to 1974, a period known as “The Era of Ara”.

35. Collaborative educ. group PTA
Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)

36. Initiate by purifying BAPTIZE
Baptism is a rite in Christian traditions admitting a candidate, often an infant, into the Church. The ceremony usually uses water as a sign of purification. Water may be poured on the head, or the candidate may be totally immersed in water.

38. Ringo Starr’s drummer son ZAK
Zak Starkey is an English drummer just like his Dad Richard Starkey, better known as Ringo Starr. Zak has performed with the Who and with Oasis.

40. Final notices OBITS
“Obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”, originally the record of the death of a person, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

43. “Four Quartets” poet’s monogram TSE
T. S. Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, largely due to his “Four Quartets”, a set of four poems that Eliot himself considered to be his life’s masterpiece.

45. Seat of Cass County, North Dakota FARGO
Fargo, North Dakota is the biggest city in the state. The original name for the city was Centralia, when it was a stopping point for steamboats that traveled the Red River in the late 19th century. The town really grew with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway, so the name “Fargo” was adopted in honor of one of the railroad company’s directors, William Fargo (of Wells Fargo Express fame).

46. Mil. field rations MRES
The Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) comes in a lightweight package that’s easy to tote around. The MRE replaced the more cumbersome Meal, Combat, Individual (MCI) in 1981, a meal-in-a-can. In turn, the MCI had replaced the C-ration in 1958, a less sophisticated meal-in-a-can with a more limited choice.

47. Slight arch CAMBER
“To camber” is to arch slightly, to curve upwards in the middle. “Camber” was originally a nautical term, and ultimately derives from the Latin “camurum” meaning “bent, arched”.

51. Coll. senior’s exam GMAT
If you want to get into a business school’s graduate program then you might have to take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), which will cost you about $250, I believe …

53. Old Ford LTD
There has been a lot of speculation about what the acronym LTD stands for in the car model known as “Ford LTD”. Many say it stands for Luxury Trim Decor, and others that it is an abbreviation for “limited”. Although the car was produced in Australia with the acronym meaning Lincoln Type Design, it seems LTD was originally chosen as just three meaningless letters that sound well together.

59. River to the Baltic ODER
The Oder river rises in the Czech Republic, and forms just over a hundred miles of the border between Germany and Poland. Downstream, the Oder breaks into three branches that empty into the Gulf of Pomerania in the Baltic Sea.

The Baltic is a sea in northern Europe that is much less saline than the oceans. The lower amount of salt in the Baltic partially explains why almost half of the sea freezes over during the winter. In fact, the Baltic has been known to completely freeze over several times over the past few centuries.

60. Certain copier supply XEROX TONER
The key features of a laser printer (or copier) are that it uses plain paper and produces quality text at high speed. Laser printers work by projecting a laser image of the printed page onto a rotating drum that is coated with photoconductors (material that becomes conductive when exposed to light). The areas of the drum exposed to the laser carry a different charge than the unexposed areas. Dry ink (toner) sticks to the exposed areas due to electrostatic charge. The toner is then transferred to paper by contact and is fused into the paper by the application of heat. So, that explains why paper coming out of a laser printer is warm, and sometimes powdery …

Xerox was founded in 1906 in Rochester, New York and originally made photographic paper and equipment. Real success came for the company in 1959 when it introduced the first plain-paper photocopier. Xerox named Ursula Burns as CEO in 2009, the first African American woman to head up a S&P 100 company. Burn was also the first woman to succeed another female CEO (replacing Anne Mulcahy).

Down
1. Shari Lewis creation SOCK PUPPET
Shari Lewis was the original puppeteer behind the PBS children’s show “Lamb Chop”. After Shari Lewis died in 1998, her daughter Mallory took over the role of puppeteer on the show.

4. Like mil. volunteers ENL
Enlisted (enl.)

7. Frosted RIMY
Rime is that beautiful coating of ice that forms on surfaces like roofs, trees and grass, when cold water freezes instantly under the right conditions.

8. Weather report spec. SSE
A weather report might predicts winds coming from the south-southeast (SSE).

9. Slalom path segment ESS
Slalom is an anglicized version of the Norwegian word “slalam” that translates as “skiing race”.

10. Significant butter component SATURATED FAT
Saturated fats differ from unsaturated fats chemically in that saturated fats have chains of fatty acids that are relatively straight, allowing individual molecules to pack closely together. This close packing largely explains why saturated fats are solid at room temperature. Unsaturated fatty acids on the other hand have “kinks” in the chains of their fatty acids, so that they cannot pack together closely. Unsaturated fats are generally liquid at room temperature. Food manufacturers have learned that humans get sick by consuming saturated fats (i.e. fats from animal sources). So, they market “healthy” vegetable fats (naturally unsaturated and liquid at room temperature) that they have magically transformed in solid fats (like vegetable spreads). All they did was saturate the healthy fats, so that now they solidify at room temperature, and in our arteries. There should be a law …

11. Jagged EROSE
An edge that is “erose” is irregularly notched or indented.

12. The digits in all but one of its two-digit multiples add up to it NINE

2 x 9 = 18 and 1 +8 = 9
3 x 9 = 27 and 2 + 7 = 9
4 x 9 = 36 and 3 + 6 = 9 etc.

Everything works fine until we get to:

11 x 9 = 99 and 9 + 9 = 18, which isn’t 9, but 1 + 8 = 9!

14. __ quam videri: North Carolina motto ESSE
The North Carolina motto “Esse quam videri” translates from Latin as “to be, rather than to seem to be”.

20. 2005 National Toy Hall of Fame inductee CARDBOARD BOX
The National Toy Hall of Fame was established in Salem. Oregon in 1998, but was relocated to Rochester, New York in 2002. There were seventeen original inductees, including:

– Barbie
– Etch A Sketch
– Frisbee
– Hula Hoop
– Marbles
– Monopoly

25. Bistro awning word CHEZ
“Chez” is a French term meaning “at the house of”, which comes from the Latin word “casa” meaning “cottage” or “hut”.

“Bistro” was originally a Parisian slang term for a “little wine shop or restaurant”.

46. 1997 Nielsen title role MAGOO
Mr. Quincy Magoo is a wonderful cartoon character voiced by Jim Backus. Backus is probably equally well-known for playing Mr. Magoo as well as Thurston Howell, III on “Gilligan’s Island”. Mr. Magoo first appeared on the screen in a short called “The Ragtime Bear” in 1949. His persona was at least in part based on the antics of W. C. Fields. Backus originally used a fake rubber nose that pinched his nostrils in order to create the distinctive voice, although in time he learned to do the voice without the prop. My absolute favorite appearance by Mr. Magoo is in “Mr Magoo’s Christmas Carol”, a true classic from the sixties. There was a movie adaptation of “Mr Magoo” released in 1997, with Leslie Nielsen playing the title role.

Leslie Nielsen was a Canadian actor, famous for playing the zany Sergeant Frank Drebin in “The Naked Gun”. Nielsen’s big break in films came in the innovative comedy “Airplane!”

48. Grand __ PRIX
Even though the term is used in many competitions, I think that we most associate “Grand Prix” with the series of Formula One motor races. These Formula One Grand Prix races trace their roots back to organized automobile road races from one French town to the next that date back to 1894. “Grand Prix” translates from French as “grand, big prize.”

55. Va. summer setting EDT
Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)

57. Watch chain FOB
A fob is attached to another object to make access to it easier. And so a key fob is a chain attached to a key so that it can be retrieved easily. There are also watch fobs, of course.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Pitcher’s goal SALE
5. Natural wisdom HORSE SENSE
15. Pearl Buck heroine O-LAN
16. Agents EMISSARIES
17. Key not used alone CTRL
18. Great Pyramid of Giza material LIMESTONES
19. Tapped item KEG
20. Gary, e.g. CITY
21. “I’m here to help” USE ME
22. Like gross wages, e.g. PRETAX
24. Plot component ACRE
26. Racing family name UNSER
27. Ottoman officer PASHA
29. Tripe ROT
32. Measured roughly PACED
33. Surprise of a sort UPSET
34. First name in Notre Dame football history ARA
35. Collaborative educ. group PTA
36. Initiate by purifying BAPTIZE
38. Ringo Starr’s drummer son ZAK
39. Fish with no pelvic fin EEL
40. Final notices OBITS
41. Buzz DRONE
43. “Four Quartets” poet’s monogram TSE
44. Appropriate ALLOT
45. Seat of Cass County, North Dakota FARGO
46. Mil. field rations MRES
47. Slight arch CAMBER
48. Use as an excuse PLEAD
51. Coll. senior’s exam GMAT
53. Old Ford LTD
54. Wedding figure RINGBEARER
57. Diet FARE
58. Reasonably soon IN GOOD TIME
59. River to the Baltic ODER
60. Certain copier supply XEROX TONER
61. Queen’s subjects BEES

Down
1. Shari Lewis creation SOCK PUPPET
2. Subs ALTERNATES
3. Epic LARGE-SCALE
4. Like mil. volunteers ENL
5. Spring, perhaps HELIX
6. Skip OMIT
7. Frosted RIMY
8. Weather report spec. SSE
9. Slalom path segment ESS
10. Significant butter component SATURATED FAT
11. Jagged EROSE
12. The digits in all but one of its two-digit multiples add up to it NINE
13. Appear SEEM
14. __ quam videri: North Carolina motto ESSE
20. 2005 National Toy Hall of Fame inductee CARDBOARD BOX
23. Basic top TEE
24. It’s worth one point in hockey statistics ASSIST
25. Bistro awning word CHEZ
27. Ones who have class? PUPILS
28. Is __: likely will APT TO
29. It may be disposable RAZOR BLADE
30. Grove grower ORANGE TREE
31. Wait at the diner, perhaps TAKE ORDERS
37. Fit ABLE
42. Butter on a farm? RAM
46. 1997 Nielsen title role MAGOO
47. Sympathetic sort CARER
48. Grand __ PRIX
49. Short note LINE
50. Software pro, in want ads ENGR
51. Beam GRIN
52. Hand raiser’s cry ME! ME!
55. Va. summer setting EDT
56. From __ Z A TO
57. Watch chain FOB

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