Day: August 29, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
5. Pledge of Allegiance ender ALL
The Pledge of Allegiance of the US was composed by Francis Bellamy in 1892 and was adopted by Congress in 1942. The actual words used in the pledge have changed over time. Here is the original 1892 version shown in comparison to the current version that was adopted in 1954:

1892: I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
1954: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

8. Red Cross red cross, e.g. EMBLEM
Back in 1859, a Swiss businessman called Henri Dunant went to meet French emperor Napoleon III, to discuss making it easier to conduct commerce in French-occupied Algeria. The Emperor was billeted at Solferino, where France and Austria were engaged in a major battle. In one day, Dunant witnessed 40,000 soldiers die in battle and countless wounded suffering on the battlefield without any organized medical care. Dunant abandoned his business agenda and instead spent a week caring for the sick and wounded. Within a few years he had founded the precursor to the Red Cross, and in 1901 he was awarded the first ever Nobel Peace Prize.

16. Diatribe TIRADE
A diatribe is a bitter discourse, and comes from the Greek “diatribein” meaning “to wear away”.

17. Valedictorian, typically A-STUDENT
A valediction is an act of taking one’s leave, from the Latin “vale dicere”, to say farewell. An example of a valediction would be the words “yours truly” at the end of a letter. And, the valedictorian (here in the US anyway) is the student in a graduating class that is chosen to say the final words at the graduation ceremony, a farewell to the classmates.

20. Muskrat relatives LEMMINGS
Lemmings are small rodents that live in cold climates, usually in or around the Arctic. There is a misconception that lemmings are prone to commit mass suicide. What is true is that like many animal species, lemmings are prone to mass migration, especially when the population in one area gets too great. Lemmings can swim, and will jump into a body of water in order to cross it. However, some lemmings may drown in the attempt. So, the lemmings jump en masse into a body of water to cross it, not to commit suicide. Then there was the famous Disney “White Wilderness” incident. Disney shot footage of lemmings “committing mass suicide” for the 1958 film “White Wilderness”. In fact, the lemmings in the morbid scene were flown to the location of the shoot, and were launched off a cliff using a turntable. Despicable …

21. Company with a bull in its logo ELMER’S
Elsie the Cow is the mascot of the Borden Company. Elsie first appeared at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, introduced to symbolize the perfect dairy product. Elsie was also given a husband named Elmer the Bull. Elmer eventually moved over to the chemical division of Borden where he gave his name to Elmer’s Glue.

23. When Juliet asks “wherefore art thou Romeo?” ACT II
Act II, Scene II of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is usually referred to as the “balcony scene”. Juliet utters the famous line:

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?

Every school kid must have commented with a giggle “he’s down in the garden!” However, “wherefore” isn’t an archaic word for “where”, but rather an old way of saying “why”. So Juliet is asking, “Why art thou Romeo, a Montague, and hence a sworn enemy of the Capulets?”

28. First female Supreme Court justice O’CONNOR
Sandra Day O’Connor is a former Associate justice on the US Supreme Court. O’Connor was the first woman appointed to the court, and was in office from 1981 after being appointed by President Reagan. As the court became more conservative she was viewed as the swing vote in many decisions. As a result, O’Connor was known as one of the most powerful women in the world. She retired in 2006 (replaced by Samuel Alito), and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2009.

37. Yeats’ land: Abbr. IRE
Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 for “inspired poetry” that gave “expression to a whole nation”. Yeats was Ireland’s first Nobel laureate.

38. Green gemstones JADES
Jade is actually the name given to two different mineral rocks, both of which are used to make gemstones. The first is nephrite, a mineral with a varying degree of iron content, the more iron the greener the color. The second is jadeite, a sodium and aluminum-rich pyroxene. As well as being used for gemstones, both jade minerals can be carved into decorative pieces.

40. Get a move on HIE
“To hie” is to move quickly, to bolt.

44. Currier of Currier & Ives NATHANIEL
Currier and Ives was a printmaking concern in New York City, run by Nathaniel Currier and his partner James Merritt Ives from 1834 to 1907. The firm specialized in making affordable, hand-colored black and white lithographs.

47. Netanyahu, for one ISRAELI
Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu has been the Prime Minister of Israel since 2009. Netanyahu is the only leader of the country who had actually been born in the state of Israel.

49. River to the Elbe OHRE
The Ohre is a tributary of the Elbe that runs through Germany and the Czech Republic. In Germany, the Ohre is also known as the Eger.

52. Clay being of Jewish lore GOLEM
Golem is Yiddish slang for “dimwit”. In Jewish folklore a golem is an anthropomorphic being made out of inanimate matter such as stone and clay, and is somewhat like an unintelligent robot.

56. King’s “__ Lot” ‘SALEM’S
Stephen King’s “’Salem’s Lot” was published in 1975, his second novel. It belongs to the horror genre, so you won’t catch me reading it. The title refers to the Maine town of Jerusalem’s Lot, or ‘Salem’s Lot for short. There’s an interesting story about the actual publication of the first edition. The intended price of $8.95 was changed at the last minute to $7.95, but not all the price changes were made before release. A few copies “escaped” with the dust cover marked $8.95, and they are now worth a lot of money. Go check your bookshelves …

63. West Germany’s first chancellor ADENAUER
Konrad Adenauer was the first Chancellor of West Germany after WWII, taking office in 1949 at the age of 73. Adenauer was 87 years old when he left office. Understandably perhaps, his nickname was “Der Alte”, German for “the old man”. Adenauer spent much of WWII in prison, courtesy of Herr Hitler.

64. Musical Dion CELINE
French-Canadienne singer Céline Dion first came to international attention when she won the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, in which she represented Switzerland in the competition that was hosted in Dublin, Ireland.

65. Quarterback Tebow TIM
Tim Tebow is a former quarterback who played mainly for the Denver Broncos and New York Jets. Tebow’s relatively short professional career followed a very successful college career during which he became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.

66. 100 C-notes TEN-G
In slang, 100 C-notes (100 x 100-dollar bills) adds up to ten-G (ten grand, ten thousand dollars).

67. Big name in lawn care SCOTTS
Scotts Miracle-Gro Company was founded in 1868 by one Orlando Scott, initially selling seed to the agricultural industry. In the early 1900s, Scotts started to sell to homeowners, mainly supplying lawn seed. The company merged with the gardening company Miracle-Gro in 1955.

68. 1940s mil. zone ETO
European Theater of Operations (ETO)

69. Language that gave us “clan” ERSE
There are actually three Erse languages: Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be Gaeilge (in Ireland), Gaelg (on the Isle of Man) and Gaidhlig (in Scotland).

Down
1. Italy’s La __ SCALA
The La Scala Opera House opened in 1778. It was built on the site of the church of Santa Maria della Scala, which gave the theater the name “Teatro alla Scala” in Italian.

2. Bamboozled HOSED
“To hose” is a slang term meaning to cheat, or trick.

It’s thought that the lovely word “bamboozle”, meaning “to deceive, get the better of”, came into English from the Scottish “bombaze” meaning “perplex”. We’ve been using “bamboozle” since the very early 1700s.

3. Invitation on a fictional cake EAT ME
In Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Alice follows the white rabbit down a rabbit hole and finds a bottle labelled “DRINK ME”. When she drinks the contents, it causes her to shrink. She also sees a cake adorned with the words “EAT ME”, and when she eats the cake she grows so big she finds it hard to stand up. After eating the cake, she utters the oft-quoted words, “Curiouser and curiouser”.

10. Element #35 BROMINE
Bromine is a red-brown liquid element, and is one of the halogens (along with chlorine and iodine). Bromine fumes don’t smell very nice, a fact that led to the element getting its name, as “bromos” is Greek for “stench”.

12. River of central Germany EDER
The Eder is a river in Germany, a tributary of the Fulda River. The Eder has a dam near the small town of Waldeck which holds water in the large Edersee reservoir. This was one of the dams that was attacked by the RAF during WWII with the famous Barnes Wallis bouncing bombs. It was destroyed in the Dam Busters raid in 1943, but rebuilt the same year.

13. Boot camp meal MESS
The word “mess” first came into English about 1300 and described the list of food needed for a meal, from the Old French word “mes” meaning a portion of food or a course at a meal. This usage in English evolved into “mess” meaning a jumbled mass of anything from the concept of “mixed food”. At the same time, the original usage in the sense of a food for a meal surfaced again in the military in the 1500s when a “mess” was a communal eating place.

18. Word of agreement DITTO
“Ditto” was originally used in Italian (from Tuscan dialect) to avoid repetition of the names of months in a series of dates. So “ditto” is just another wonderful import from that lovely land …

26. Great Society monogram LBJ
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 (the others being John Tyler, Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon). As president, Johnson is perhaps best remembered for escalating involvement in the Vietnam War, and for his “Great Society” legislation.

27. Self-titled 1991 debut album ALANIS
Alanis Morissette is a Canadian singer-songwriter. After releasing two pop albums in Canada, in 1995 she recorded her first album to be distributed internationally. Called “Jagged Little Pill”, it is a collection of songs with more of a rock influence. The album was a huge success, the highest-selling album of the 1990s, and the highest-selling debut album by any artist at any time (selling over 30 million units).

29. Classic beverage brand NEHI
The brand of Nehi cola has a name that sounds like “knee-high”, a measure of a small stature. Back in the mid-1900’s, the Chero-Cola company that owned the brand went for a slightly different twist on “knee-high” in advertising. The logo for Nehi was an image of a seated woman’s stockinged legs, with her skirt pulled up to her knees, to hint at “knee-high”.

30. Cartoon canine ODIE
Odie is Garfield’s best friend and is a slobbery beagle, a character in Jim Davis’s comic strip.

31. Cambodian cash RIEL
The Cambodian riel was first introduced in 1953, and was taken out of circulation by the Khmer Rouge in 1975 when they completely abolished money on taking control of the country. After the Vietnamese invasion of 1978, money was reintroduced and the Cambodian people are still using the “second” riel.

32. Not yet final, legally NISI
A decree nisi is a court order, one that only comes into force when certain specified conditions are met. At the point where the conditions are met, it becomes a decree absolute and is binding. “Nisi” is Latin for “unless”.

33. Scraps ORTS
Orts are small scraps of food left after a meal. “Ort” comes from Middle English, and originally described scraps left by animals.

34. High-fiber fruit PEAR
Most if the dietary fiber in a pear is contained in its skin, so don’t go peeling it …

35. Educator LeShan EDA
Eda LeShan wrote the book “When Your Child Drives You Crazy”, and was host of the PBS television show “How Do Your Children Grow?”

45. One of the noble gases ARGON
The “rare gases” are better known as the noble gases, but neither term is really very accurate. Noble gas might be a better choice though, as they are all relatively nonreactive. But rare they are not. Argon, for example, is a major constituent (1%) of the air that we breathe.

51. Schedule SLATE
“To slate” is to propose or schedule, a meaning that has existed since the 1880s.

53. Gumbel’s “Today” successor LAUER
Matt Lauer became the host of NBC’s “The Today Show” when he landed the gig as co-host after Bryant Gumbel retired from the job in 1997.

57. “__ plaisir!” AVEC
“Avec plaisir” is French for “with pleasure”.

58. Composer of the opera “Le Roi d’Ys” LALO
Édouard Lalo was a classical composer from France. Lalo’s most famous work is probably the complex opera “Le roi d’Ys”, which is based on a Breton legend.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Herding dog name SHEP
5. Pledge of Allegiance ender ALL
8. Red Cross red cross, e.g. EMBLEM
14. Ember, perhaps COAL
15. Cattle call MOO
16. Diatribe TIRADE
17. Valedictorian, typically A-STUDENT
19. Duplicates CLONES
20. Muskrat relatives LEMMINGS
21. Company with a bull in its logo ELMER’S
22. Highly skilled ADEPT
23. When Juliet asks “wherefore art thou Romeo?” ACT II
25. Ici __: French “here and there” ET LA
28. First female Supreme Court justice O’CONNOR
32. “Consider it done!” NO PROBLEM!
36. “__ say more?” NEED I
37. Yeats’ land: Abbr. IRE
38. Green gemstones JADES
40. Get a move on HIE
41. Walking aid STAFF
44. Currier of Currier & Ives NATHANIEL
47. Netanyahu, for one ISRAELI
49. River to the Elbe OHRE
50. Boorish CRASS
52. Clay being of Jewish lore GOLEM
56. King’s “__ Lot” ‘SALEM’S
59. Picnic serving, and when divided properly, a hint to a hidden feature of six pairs of puzzle answers LEMONADE
62. Dodges EVADES
63. West Germany’s first chancellor ADENAUER
64. Musical Dion CELINE
65. Quarterback Tebow TIM
66. 100 C-notes TEN-G
67. Big name in lawn care SCOTTS
68. 1940s mil. zone ETO
69. Language that gave us “clan” ERSE

Down
1. Italy’s La __ SCALA
2. Bamboozled HOSED
3. Invitation on a fictional cake EAT ME
4. More roly-poly PLUMPER
5. “You’re so right!” AMEN!
6. Extended LONG
7. “__ luck!” LOTSA
8. “Blah, blah, blah,” briefly ETC ETC
9. Great number of MILLION
10. Element #35 BROMINE
11. Path in a pool LANE
12. River of central Germany EDER
13. Boot camp meal MESS
18. Word of agreement DITTO
24. Awaken COME TO
26. Great Society monogram LBJ
27. Self-titled 1991 debut album ALANIS
29. Classic beverage brand NEHI
30. Cartoon canine ODIE
31. Cambodian cash RIEL
32. Not yet final, legally NISI
33. Scraps ORTS
34. High-fiber fruit PEAR
35. Educator LeShan EDA
39. “Zip it!” SHH!
42. Met the challenge FACED IT
43. Agitate FERMENT
45. One of the noble gases ARGON
46. Nursery arrival NEONATE
48. Girls LASSES
51. Schedule SLATE
53. Gumbel’s “Today” successor LAUER
54. Idyllic places EDENS
55. Sign on an on-ramp MERGE
56. Brief moments SECS
57. “__ plaisir!” AVEC
58. Composer of the opera “Le Roi d’Ys” LALO
60. Adjust to fit, perhaps EDIT
61. One in an office exchange MEMO

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