Day: August 28, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Bon Ami competitor AJAX
Ajax cleanser has been around since 1947, and it’s “stronger than dirt!” That was the most famous slogan over here in the US. On my side of the pond, the celebrated slogan was “it cleans like a white tornado”. Bon Ami cleanser has been around much longer. The cleanser was introduced just a few years after Bon Ami soap went to market in 1886.

5. Start of a classic Christmas poem ‘TWAS
The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was published anonymously in 1823, and is better known today by its first line “‘Twas the night before Christmas”. Most scholars believe that the poem was written by Clement Clarke Moore, a theologian from New York City. Others say that it was written by Henry Livingston, Jr. a poet from Upstate New York.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash …

9. Terra __ COTTA
The name “terra cotta” comes to us from Latin via Italian and means “baked earth”. Terra cotta is a ceramic made from clay which is left unglazed. Maybe the most famous work in terra cotta is the Terracotta Army, the enormous collection of life-size figures that was buried with the Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China around 210 BC. I had the privilege of seeing some of this collection when it toured the US a few years ago, and just the few pieces on display were so very impressive.

14. “Star Wars” role LUKE
When the character “Luke Skywalker” was created for “Star Wars”, he was named “Annikin Starkiller”. He was also a 60-year-old war veteran for a while, and also a female at one point. Luke was played by actor Mark Hamill in the first three “Star Wars” films.

15. “Hell __ no fury …” HATH
The phrase “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned” comes from the 1697 play “The Mourning Bride” penned by English playwright William Congreve. A more complete quotation is:

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned …

17. Frigg’s husband ODIN
In Norse mythology, Odin was the chief of the gods. Odin’s wife Frigg was the queen of Asgard whose name gave us our English term “Friday” (via Anglo-Saxon). Odin’s son was Thor, and his name gave us the term “Thursday”.

18. First name in suburban humor ERMA
Erma Bombeck wrote for newspapers for about 35 years, producing more than 4,000 witty and humorous columns describing her home life in suburbia.

19. Group scuffle MELEE
Our word “melee” comes from the French “mêlée”, and in both languages the word means “confused fight”.

23. Justice Fortas ABE
Abe Fortas was a US Supreme Court Justice from 1965 to 1969. Fortas has to resign his position on the bench due to a scandal about payments received, allegedly for favors granted.

24. Spleen IRE
The spleen has a couple of functions in the human body. It removes old red blood cells, and recycles the iron contained therein. The waste product of this recycling is bile. It also holds a reserve of blood that can be released when necessary (if the body goes into “circulatory shock”). Greek and Roman physicians ascribed to the theory that the body had four basic substances, the so-called four humors. All diseases were caused by these four substances getting out of balance. The four humors were:

– Black bile (melancolia)
– Yellow bile (cholera)
– Phlegm (phlegma)
– Blood (sanguis)

Out terms “splenetic” and “venting one’s spleen” are derived from this concept of have the humors out of balance.

35. Immature salamanders EFTS
Salamanders are lizard-like amphibians found in all across the northern hemisphere. They are the only vertebrate animals that can regenerate lost limbs.

37. Hall of Fame golfer Middlecoff who had a DDS degree CARY
Cary Middlecoff was a golfer on the PGA tour from 1947 to 1961, and winner of three major championships. Middlecoff played collegiate gold and was an All-American in 1939. He graduated with a degree in dentistry and then signed up with US Army Dental Corps during WWII. He gave up his job as a dentist and became a professional golfer in 1947.

38. Oscar de la __ RENTA
Oscar de la Renta is a fashion designer who really came to prominence in the sixties when his designs were worn by Jacqueline Kennedy.

40. Fictional estate near Atlanta TARA
Rhett Butler hung out with Scarlett O’Hara at the Tara plantation in Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind”. Tara was founded not far from the Georgia city of Jonesboro by Scarlett’s father, Irish immigrant Gerald O’Hara. Gerald named his new abode after the Hill of Tara back in his home country, the ancient seat of the High King of Ireland.

41. Covert maritime org. ONI
The Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is the oldest of the US intelligence services. The ONI was set up in 1882 to determine the state of advancement of foreign naval forces.

42. Notable Cuban bandleader, familiarly DESI
Desi Arnaz was of course famous for his turbulent marriage to Lucille Ball. Arnaz was a native of Cuba, and was from a privileged family. His father was Mayor of Santiago and served in the Cuban House of Representatives. However, the family had to flee to Miami after the 1933 revolt led by Batista.

44. PITCH AGGRESSIVE SPIEL
A spiel is a lengthy speech or argument designed to persuade, like a sales pitch. “Spiel” comes to us from German, either directly (“spiel” is the German for “play”) or via the Yiddish “shpil”.

48. Hail to Caesar AVE
“Ave” is a Latin word meaning “hail”, as in “Ave Maria”, which translates as “Hail Mary”.

“Caesar” was an imperial title used by the emperors of Ancient Rome. The title originated with the dictator Julius Caesar, whose cognomen (third name, hereditary name) was “Caesar”. The name was subsequently adopted by Roman Emperors.

49. “__ Mine”: Beatles song I ME
“I Me Mine” is one of the relatively few Beatles songs to have been written by George Harrison (and indeed performed by him). Harrison chose the same title for his autobiography, published in 1980 just a few weeks before John Lennon was assassinated in New York City.

59. Cannes cleric ABBE
“Abbé” is the French word for an abbot.

Cannes is a city on the French Riviera, noted as host of the Cannes Film Festival. The idea of the annual film festival was adopted by the city just before WWII. However, the festival had to wait for the end of the war for its launch in 1946.

60. Destroy RAZE
To “raze” is to level to the ground. How odd is it that “raise”, a homophone of “raze”, means to build up??!!

61. Nemo’s creator VERNE
Jules Verne really was a groundbreaking author. Verne pioneered the science fiction genre, writing about space, air and underwater travel, long before they were practical and proved feasible. Verne is the second most translated author of all time, with only Agatha Christie beating him out.

In the 1954 movie version of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, Captain Nemo goes down with his ship. In the novel by Jules Verne the fate of Nemo and his crew isn’t quite so cut and dry, although the inference is perhaps that they did indeed head for Davy Jones’ Locker.

62. Pinochle combination MELD
Pinochle is a card game that was developed from the 19th-century French game called bezique.

63. Setting for “The Quiet Man” EIRE
“Éire”, is the Irish word for “Ireland”. “Erin” is an anglicized version of “Éire” and actually corresponds to “Éirinn”, the dative case of “Éire”.

“The Quiet Man” is a marvelous romantic comedy set in Ireland from 1952 that was directed by John Ford, and stars John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara as the romantic leads. There’s a great fight-scene in this movie that is only rivaled, in my mind, by the fight scene in “Bridget Jones’s Diary”. Both go on a while, and both are hilarious …

64. Swamp grass SEDGE
Sedges are a family of plants that resemble grasses and rushes. Sedges are more properly called Cyperaceae.

65. Peacock tail spots EYES
The female peafowl, the peahen, has very dull plumage compared to the extravagant display on the tail of the peacock.

66. Anti-aircraft fire FLAK
“Flak” was originally an acronym from the German term for an aircraft defense cannon (FLiegerAbwehrKanone). Flak then became used in English as a general term for antiaircraft fire, and ultimately a term for verbal criticism as in “to take flak”.

Down
1. Oodles A LOT
It’s thought that the term “oodles”, meaning “a lot”, comes from “kit and caboodle”.

2. Self-defense method JUDO
Judo is a martial art from Japan that was developed relatively recently, in 1882. The name “judo” translates as “gentle way”.

4. Small-screen princess XENA
The Xena character, famously played by New Zealander Lucy Lawless, was introduced in a made-for-TV movie called “Hercules and the Amazon Women”. Lawless reprised the role in a series called “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”. Xena became so popular that a series was built around her character, with Lawless retained for the title role.

5. Enforcement org. since 1908 THE FBI
What we know today as the FBI was set up in 1908 as the BOI, the Bureau of Investigation. The name was changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. The Bureau was set up at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt. President Roosevelt was largely moved to do so after the 1901 assassination of President McKinley, as there was a perception that anarchists were threatening law and order. The FBI’s motto uses the organization’s acronym, and is “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity”.

6. Rabbit home WARREN
We tend to think of a “warren” today as a place where rabbits are bred, or where rabbits are found in abundance in the wild. Back in the 1300s, a warren was a more general term for an enclosed piece of land used for breeding any domestic animals. We also use “warren” figuratively now, to describe a cluster of densely populated living spaces.

7. “Don’t throw bouquets __”: song lyric AT ME
“Don’t throw bouquets at me” is a lyric from “People Will Say We’re in Love”, a show tune from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!”

8. NBA nickname SHAQ
Shaquille O’Neal is one of the heaviest players ever to have played in the NBA (weighing in at around 325 pounds). Yep, he’s a big guy … 7 foot 1 inch tall.

9. Shooting equipment CAMERAS
The original “camera” was a vaulted room, which is the meaning of the Latin term. In the 1600s, the term “camera obscura” was coined to describe a “darkened room”. This was usage was extended to describe an optical device made from a room with a small hole in one wall. Light from the scene outside passes through the hole and projects an image onto the inside walls of the room. The smaller the hole, the sharper is the image. Camera obscuras also came in smaller sizes, in the form of darkened boxes instead of rooms. These boxes developed (pun!) into our modern “cameras”.

11. Powder in the nursery TALC
Talc is a mineral, actually hydrated magnesium silicate. Talcum powder is composed of loose talc, although these days “baby powder” is also made from cornstarch.

12. Low card TREY
A trey, of clubs for example, is a name for the three of clubs in a deck of cards. The name “trey” can also be used for a domino with three pips.

13. Ended a fast ATE
“Fasting” is the act of of abstaining from food, often as a religious duty. The term was originally used in the sense of “holding firmly, holding fast” i.e. taking firm control of oneself in order to abstain from food. And “breakfast” is the time when we “break” the “fast” that we’ve imposed on ourselves overnight (unless we raided the refrigerator in the early hours of the morning!).

21. Metallica drummer Ulrich LARS
Lars Ulrich is a drummer from Denmark, and one of the founding members of the American heavy metal band called Metallica. Lars is the son of former professional tennis player Torben Ulrich, the oldest Davis Cup player in history.

Metallica is a heavy metal band from Los Angeles, formed in 1981. Not my thing …

22. Utah’s __ Mountains UINTA
The Uinta Mountains are a subrange of the Rocky Mountains located mainly in northeastern Utah, approximately 100 miles east of Salt Lake City. The tallest peak in the Uintas is Kings Peak, the highest point in Utah.

26. Chimp cousin ORANG
Orangutans (also “orangs”) are arboreal creatures, in fact the largest arboreal animals known to man. They are native to Indonesia and Malaysia, living in the rain forests. Like most species in rain forests these days, orangutans are endangered, with only two species surviving. The word “orangutan” is Malay, meaning “man of the forest”.

The Common Chimpanzee is a species of ape, a member of the Hominidae family (along with gorillas, humans and orangutans). The human and chimpanzee branches of the Hominidae family tree diverged 4-6 million years ago, making the chimp our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom.

27. First Brazilian airline VARIG
Varig was Brazil’s first airline. VARIG is an acronym standing for “Viação Aérea Rio-Grandense”.

28. Cambridgeshire cathedral town ELY
Ely Cathedral is a famous and beautiful church in the city of Ely in the county of Cambridgeshire. There is a Gothic door on the north face of the cathedral that was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the man famous as the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Christopher Wren had a personal link to the church, as his uncle was the Bishop of Ely.

29. Supernatural lamp occupants GENII
The “genie” in the bottle takes his or her name from “djinn”. “Djinns” were various spirits considered lesser than angels, with people exhibiting unsavory characteristics said to be possessed by djinn. When the book “The Thousand and One Nights” was translated into French, the word “djinn” was transformed into the existing word “génie”, because of the similarity in sound and the related spiritual meaning. This “génie” from the Arabian tale became confused with the Latin-derived “genius”, a guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at birth. Purely as a result of that mistranslation the word genie has come to mean the “djinn” that pops out of the bottle. A little hard to follow, I know, but still quite interesting …

31. Spender of rials OMANI
The Rial is name of the currency of Oman (as well as that of Yemen, Iran, Cambodia and Tunisia!).

Oman lies on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula and is neighbored by the OAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The capital city of Muscat has a strategic location on the Gulf of Oman and has a history of invasion and unrest. Centuries of occupation by the Persians ended in 1507 when the Portuguese took the city in a bloody attack. The Portuguese held Muscat for much of the next one hundred years until finally being ousted by local Omani forces in 1648. A Yemeni tribe invaded the area in 1741 and set up a monarchy that has been in place in Oman ever since.

33. Feature of LBJ speeches DRAWL
President Lyndon Johnson (LBJ) is one of only four people to have held all four elected federal offices, namely US Representative, US Senator, US Vice-President and US President. As President he is perhaps best remembered for escalating involvement in the Vietnam War, and for his “Great Society” legislation.

45. Very eager RARING
“To rare” is to rise up, a variant of “to rear”. The term is really only used in the adjectival phrase “raring to go”, meaning “very eager to do something”.

47. War zone correspondents EMBEDS
Although journalists have been directly reporting from the front lines in military conflicts for some time, the term “embedded journalism” only came into fashion during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. A formal arrangement was made between the US Military and hundreds of reporters allowing the journalists to travel with military units and, under pre-ordained conditions, report directly from those units. Some say that the arrangement was mutually beneficial. On the one hand the journalists had relatively little to worry about in terms of transportation and travel through combat zones. On the other hand, the military had greater control over what did and did not get reported.

54. Not kosher TREF
According to Jewish dietary law, “kosher” food is “fit” to eat, and food that is not kosher is called “treif” (also “tref”).

56. Biblical prophet EZRA
Ezra the Scribe, also called Ezra the Priest, is the central character in the Book of Ezra in the Hebrew Bible.

58. Sony products TVS
Sony was founded by Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka. The two partners met in the Japanese Navy during WWII.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Bon Ami competitor AJAX
5. Start of a classic Christmas poem ‘TWAS
9. Terra __ COTTA
14. “Star Wars” role LUKE
15. “Hell __ no fury …” HATH
16. Isolated APART
17. Frigg’s husband ODIN
18. First name in suburban humor ERMA
19. Group scuffle MELEE
20. PITCH TONAL FREQUENCY
23. Justice Fortas ABE
24. Spleen IRE
25. PITCH COVERING ON A ROAD
34. Some final exams ORALS
35. Immature salamanders EFTS
36. One who may signal to a bullpen: Abbr. MGR
37. Hall of Fame golfer Middlecoff who had a DDS degree CARY
38. Oscar de la __ RENTA
40. Fictional estate near Atlanta TARA
41. Covert maritime org. ONI
42. Notable Cuban bandleader, familiarly DESI
43. Good __ AS NEW
44. PITCH AGGRESSIVE SPIEL
48. Hail to Caesar AVE
49. “__ Mine”: Beatles song I ME
50. PITCH THROW TO A BATTER
58. Characteristic TRAIT
59. Cannes cleric ABBE
60. Destroy RAZE
61. Nemo’s creator VERNE
62. Pinochle combination MELD
63. Setting for “The Quiet Man” EIRE
64. Swamp grass SEDGE
65. Peacock tail spots EYES
66. Anti-aircraft fire FLAK

Down
1. Oodles A LOT
2. Self-defense method JUDO
3. Related AKIN
4. Small-screen princess XENA
5. Enforcement org. since 1908 THE FBI
6. Rabbit home WARREN
7. “Don’t throw bouquets __”: song lyric AT ME
8. NBA nickname SHAQ
9. Shooting equipment CAMERAS
10. Kitchen gadget OPENER
11. Powder in the nursery TALC
12. Low card TREY
13. Ended a fast ATE
21. Metallica drummer Ulrich LARS
22. Utah’s __ Mountains UINTA
25. Drink after a day on the slopes COCOA
26. Chimp cousin ORANG
27. First Brazilian airline VARIG
28. Cambridgeshire cathedral town ELY
29. Supernatural lamp occupants GENII
30. Time and again, to a poet OFT
31. Spender of rials OMANI
32. Jibe AGREE
33. Feature of LBJ speeches DRAWL
38. Fix again, as a hem RESEW
39. Count ending -ESS
40. Chef’s meas. TSP
42. Zealot DEVOTEE
43. Headed for an isle, maybe ASEA
45. Very eager RARING
46. Like a good alternative VIABLE
47. War zone correspondents EMBEDS
50. Family __ TREE
51. Tough HARD
52. Not so tough TAME
53. Mind OBEY
54. Not kosher TREF
55. Word with spin or wind TAIL
56. Biblical prophet EZRA
57. Stink REEK
58. Sony products TVS

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