Day: September 4, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Gusto ZEST
“Gusto” is an Italian word meaning “taste”. We use it in the sense of “with gusto”, with great enjoyment.

5. Reynolds Wrap maker ALCOA
The Aluminum Corporation of America (ALCOA) is the largest producer of aluminum in the United States. The company was founded in 1888 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where its headquarters are to this day.

10. Reptile house attractions BOAS
Boa constrictors are members of the Boidae family of snakes, all of which are non-venomous. Interestingly, the female boa is always larger than the male.

14. __-Seltzer ALKA
The antacid known as Alka-Seltzer used an animated character called Speedy in its adverts from 1951 to 1964. Speedy had an Alka-Seltzer tablet as a body and another as a hat. His job was to get out the message that Alka-Seltzer provided speedy relief!

15. Luxury hotel with a YouFirst rewards program LOEWS
Loews Hotels is a North American chain that was founded in 1946. What sets Loews apart from most hotel chains is its focus on families and pets, with the company’s “Loews Loves Kids” and “Loews Loves Pets” travel programs.

19. Cross the threshold GO IN
Years ago I was taking a tour of a beautiful Elizabethan manor house in England, and was told a little “threshing” story by the guide as we stood in one of the rooms. She reminded us that threshing was the removal of seeds from chaff, and told us that back in the day the “chaff” was sometimes called the “thresh”. Thresh would be used on the floors, particularly in the kitchen areas where it would soak up spills and provide some thermal insulation, much as sawdust was used in my favorite pubs many moons ago. She pointed to two slots at the bottom of the door jambs where she said a low board was placed upright on the floor, to hold the thresh in the room. The board was called a “thresh hold”, giving us our contemporary word “threshold”. I am not sure if all of that is really true, but it makes a nice story.

21. Big name in dangerous stunts EVEL
Daredevil Evel Knievel contracted hepatitis C from the many blood transfusions that he needed after injuries incurred during stunts. He had to have a liver transplant as a result, but his health declined after that. He eventually passed away in 2007.

22. Sierra follower, in the NATO alphabet TANGO
The NATO phonetic alphabet is also called the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) phonetic alphabet. It goes Alfa, Bravo, Charlie … Zulu.

29. Staff symbols RESTS
In written music, the notes are written on a staff. A pause between notes is indicated by a “rest”.

30. Part of Q.E.D. ERAT
QED is used at the end of a mathematical proof or a philosophical argument. The QED acronym stands for the Latin “quod erat demonstrandum” meaning “that which was to be demonstrated”.

31. __ Belt ORION’S
A “subset” of three particularly bright stars in the constellation of Orion is named “Orion’s Belt”. The three bright stars sit almost in a straight line and are about equidistant. They’re usually the easiest way to spot the constellation of Orion in the night sky.

34. Jan. honoree MLK
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a US Federal holiday taking place on the third Monday of each year. It celebrates the birthday of Dr. King, and was signed into law by President Reagan in 1983, and first observed in 1986. However, some states resisted naming the holiday MLK Day, and gave it alternative names (like “Civil Rights Day”), but it was officially celebrated as MLK Day in all 50 states from the year 2000 onwards.

40. Suffix with concert -INO
A “concertino” is a short concerto.

A concerto is a musical work usually composed of three movements, and is usually written for a solo instrument accompanied by an orchestra.

41. “__ Fideles” ADESTE
The lovely hymn “Adeste Fideles” (translated from Latin as “O Come, All Ye Faithful”) was written by one John Francis Wade in the 13th century. Well, he wrote the original four verses, with four more verses being added over time.

52. Film with talking bugs ANTZ
“Antz” was the first feature movie released by Dreamworks SKG, the studio founded by Steven Spielberg and two partners in 1994. “Antz” came out in 1998, and has a stellar cast that includes Woody Allen, Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone, Gene Hackman and many, many other big names. The cartoon is quite unique in that the facial features of the voice actors are reflected in the animated characters.

53. NFL’s Jaguars, for short JAX
The Jacksonville Jaguars (JAX) have been in the NFL since 1995, and play in the American Football Conference (AFC).

56. “The Year of Magical Thinking” author Didion JOAN
Joan Didion is an American writer whose work expresses somewhat pessimistic views about contemporary society. Didion writes about social fragmentation, and believes that the media dictates how we live.

“The Year of Magical Thinking” is a 2005 book by Joan Didion that describes her experiences in the year following the sudden death of Didion’s husband, the novelist John Gregory Dunne. Sadly, Didion and Dunne’s daughter also passed away, succumbing to pancreatitis not long before “The Year of Magical Thinking” was published. Didion wrote a second book, called “Blue Nights”, that dealt with the loss of her daughter.

60. Qatari bigwig EMIR
An emir is a prince or chieftain, most notably in the Middle East. In English, “emir” can also be written as “amir” and “ameer” (watch out for those spellings in crosswords!).

Qatar is a sovereign state in the Middle East occupying the Qatar Peninsula, itself located in the Arabian Peninsula. Qatar lies on the Persian Gulf and shares one land border, with Saudi Arabia to the south. Qatar has more oil and gas reserves per capita of population than any other country in the world. In 2010, Qatar had the fastest growing economy in the world, driven by the petrochemical industry.

61. Chicago’s __ Planetarium ADLER
Chicago’s Adler Planetarium was opened in 1930, making it the first and oldest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere. The facility is named for Max Adler, a former Sears executive and philanthropist who provided the funds for construction.

64. Gnocchi topping PESTO
The term “pesto” applies to anything made by pounding. What we tend to know as “pesto” sauce is more properly called “pesto alla genovese”, pesto from Genoa in northern Italy.

Gnocchi are small dumplings in Italian cuisine that can be made from various ingredients including potato, my personal favorite. The name “gnocchi” might be derived from the Italian “nocchio” meaning “knot in wood”.

65. Kan. neighbor OKLA
The 1889 Indian Appropriations Act officially opened up the so called Unassigned Lands, land in Oklahoma on which no Native American tribes had settled. Once the Act was signed, those lands became available for settlement. Those people that settled the same lands illegally, prior the date specified, they were termed “Sooners” as their situation was defined in the “sooner clause” of the Act. “Sooner State” is now the nickname for Oklahoma.

Down
2. Mideast airline EL AL
El Al Israel Airlines is the flag carrier of Israel. The term “el al” translates from Hebrew as “to the skies”.

3. Absolut rival SKYY
Skyy Vodka is produced in the US, although the operation is owned by the Campari Group headquartered in Italy. Skyy first hit the shelves in 1992 when it was created by an entrepreneur from San Francisco, California.

I must admit, if I ever do order a vodka drink by name, I will order the Absolut brand. I must also admit that I do so from the perspective of an amateur photographer. I’ve been swayed by the Absolut marketing campaign that features such outstanding photographic images. I’m sure you’ve come across examples …

4. Bit of ink TAT
The word “tattoo” (often shortened to “tat”) was first used in English in the writings of the famous English explorer Captain Cook. In his descriptions of the indelible marks adorning the skin of Polynesian natives, Cook anglicized the Tahitian word “tatau” into our “tattoo”.

5. Naproxen brand ALEVE
Aleve is a brand name for the anti-inflammatory drug Naproxen sodium.

6. “Two Women” Oscar winner LOREN
Sophia Loren certainly has earned her exalted position in the world of movies. In 1962 Loren won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in the Italian film “Two Women”, the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English speaking performance. She received a second nomination for Best Actress for her role in “Marriage Italian-Style”, another Italian-language movie, released in 1964.

“Two Women” is a disturbing Italian film released in 1960, starring Sophia Loren as a woman trying to protect her 12-year-old daughter during WWII. Based on a novel called “La ciociara” by Alberto Moravia, the film includes a scene where mother and daughter are gang-raped in a church by Moroccan soldiers of the French Army. Although the story is fictional, the mass-rape and killings really took place in the days following the Allied victory at the Battle of Monte Cassino. Referred to in Italy as “Marocchinate”, colonial troops in the French Army from Morocco reportedly raped thousands of women and murdered almost a thousand men who were trying to protect their wives and daughters.

7. “Fool for You” Grammy winner Green CEELO
CeeLo Green is the stage name of rapper Thomas DeCarlo Callaway. Apparently Green is one of the coaches for the contestants on the singing TV show “The Voice”. That’s all I need to know …

9. PEI hours AST
Atlantic Standard Time (AST) is four hours behind Greenwich Mean Time and one hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time. The list of locations that use AST includes Puerto Rico and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Prince Edward Island (PEI) is a maritime Canadian province. The island at the center of the province was named for Prince Edward, the fourth son of King George III and the father of Queen Victoria.

10. “The African Queen” co-star BOGART
Humphrey “Bogie” Bogart’s breakthrough movie was “The Petrified Forest” from 1936, but for me, nothing beats “Casablanca”. Although, if you haven’t seen it, check out the original “Sabrina” from 1954. It’s a real delight …

The excellent 1951 movie “The African Queen” is a screen adaptation of a novel with the same name by C. S. Forester. The stars of course were Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, and the film won Bogie his only Oscar. Some scenes were shot on location in Uganda and the Congo, where conditions were far from ideal for making a film. Most of the cast fell ill at various times, although Bogart remained hale and hearty. He claimed that was because he stuck to his own supply of whiskey rather than drinking the local water!

13. Church council SYNOD
The word synod comes from the Greek word for assembly, or meeting. A synod is a church council, usually in the Christian faith.

18. Oct- minus one HEPT-
The prefix “hept-”, that is used for “seven”, comes from Greek. The “sept-” prefix, which means the same thing, comes from Latin.

22. “The Gondoliers” girl TESSA
“The Gondoliers” is a delightful operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan, first performed in 1889 at the Savoy Theatre in London. Tessa is a maiden selected as a bride in a “line up” by one of the gondoliers. I last saw “The Gondoliers” decades ago, an amateur production in the small town where I was living at the time in Ireland. Great fun!

24. Rainbow __ TROUT
The steelhead and rainbow trout are actually the same species. The difference is that rainbow trout usually return to freshwater to spawn after two or three years at sea, while the steelhead spends its whole life in the ocean. Apparently steelheads were reclassified as a salmon species relatively recently.

26. Fruity soda NEHI
“Nehi Corporation” was the nickname for the Chero-Cola/Union Bottle Works that introduced the Nehi drink in 1924. Years later the company developed a new brand, Royal Crown Cola (also known as RC Cola). By 1955, RC Cola was the company’s flagship product, so the “Nehi Corporation” became the “Royal Crown Company”. In 1954, RC Cola became the first company to sell soft drinks in cans.

27. Yeats’ home ERIN
“Éire”, is the Irish word for “Ireland”. “Erin” is an anglicized version of “Éire” and actually corresponds to “Éirinn”, the dative case of “Éire”.

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.

28. Top-rated evening TV show of 1961-62 WAGON TRAIN
“Wagon Train” is a TV Western that originally aired from 1957 until 1965. The show (which I loved as a kid) was inspired by a 1950 John Ford movie called “Wagon Master”. The televison series is about a wagon train making its way from Missouri to California.

32. Actress Witherspoon REESE
Reese is not actually actress Witherspoon’s given name. She started out life as Laura Jeanne Witherspoon. Reese is her mother’s maiden name.

44. Literary award named for a writer O HENRY
The O. Henry Award has been given annually since 1919 and honors exceptional short stories. “O. Henry” was the pen name of writer William Sydney Porter from Greensboro, North Carolina. O. Henry is famous for his witty short stories that have a clever twist in the tail.

45. Dix et un ONZE
In French, ten and one (dix et un) come to eleven (onze).

46. __ d’art OBJET
An “objet d’art” is an item that has artistic merit. The term is French for “art object”.

47. Wynonna’s mom NAOMI
The Judds were a country music singing duo made up of Naomi Judd and her daughter Wynonna.

50. In __: unborn UTERO
“In utero” is a Latin term meaning “in the uterus”. The Latin “uterus” translates as both “womb” and “belly”. The Latin word was derived from the Greek “hystera” also meaning womb, which gives us the words “hysterectomy”, and “hysterical”.

54. __ Sea ARAL
The Aral Sea is a great example of how man can have a devastating effect on his environment. In the early sixties the Aral Sea covered 68,000 square miles of Central Asia. Soviet Union irrigation projects drained the lake to such an extent that today the total area is less than 7,000 square miles, with 90% of the lake now completely dry. Sad …

55. Lawless character 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.

58. Keats poem ODE
The poet John Keats is famous for writing a whole series of beautiful odes. The most renowned are the so-called “1819 Odes”, a collection from the year 1819 that includes famous poems such as “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode to Psyche”.

59. “The Leftovers” airer HBO
“The Leftovers” is a television drama that is based on a novel of the same by Tom Perrotta. I haven’t seen the show or read the book, but the premise sounds very interesting. It is set in a small New York town and takes place three years after a global “Rapture”, an event in which two percent of the world’s population disappeared inexplicably. The focus is on those folks “left over”, and not the people who disappeared.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Gusto ZEST
5. Reynolds Wrap maker ALCOA
10. Reptile house attractions BOAS
14. __-Seltzer ALKA
15. Luxury hotel with a YouFirst rewards program LOEWS
16. Nothing but ONLY
17. Keep one’s landlord happy PAY THE RENT
19. Cross the threshold GO IN
20. Tricky SLY
21. Big name in dangerous stunts EVEL
22. Sierra follower, in the NATO alphabet TANGO
23. Box instruction OPEN OTHER END
26. Not familiar with NEW AT
29. Staff symbols RESTS
30. Part of Q.E.D. ERAT
31. __ Belt ORION’S
34. Jan. honoree MLK
37. Optional learning HIGHER EDUCATION
40. Suffix with concert -INO
41. “__ Fideles” ADESTE
42. Back in the day ONCE
43. They may be counted NOSES
45. Golden number? OLDIE
46. Usually not a good way to get married ON THE REBOUND
51. Exposed BARED
52. Film with talking bugs ANTZ
53. NFL’s Jaguars, for short JAX
56. “The Year of Magical Thinking” author Didion JOAN
57. “You listen to me,” and an instruction about what to look for in 17-, 23-, 37- and 46-Across NOW SEE HERE
60. Qatari bigwig EMIR
61. Chicago’s __ Planetarium ADLER
62. Roughage source BRAN
63. Facetious nickname for a big guy TINY
64. Gnocchi topping PESTO
65. Kan. neighbor OKLA

Down
1. Prepares, as leftovers ZAPS
2. Mideast airline EL AL
3. Absolut rival SKYY
4. Bit of ink TAT
5. Naproxen brand ALEVE
6. “Two Women” Oscar winner LOREN
7. “Fool for You” Grammy winner Green CEELO
8. Have OWN
9. PEI hours AST
10. “The African Queen” co-star BOGART
11. Under consideration ON ONE’S MIND
12. Straighten ALIGN
13. Church council SYNOD
18. Oct- minus one HEPT-
22. “The Gondoliers” girl TESSA
23. Four-letter word OATH
24. Rainbow __ TROUT
25. As a result HENCE
26. Fruity soda NEHI
27. Yeats’ home ERIN
28. Top-rated evening TV show of 1961-62 WAGON TRAIN
31. Turkey on rye, e.g. ORDER
32. Actress Witherspoon REESE
33. Some badges IDS
35. Centers of activity LOCI
36. Seat for a dummy KNEE
38. Relaxed EASED
39. Ratted (on) TOLD
44. Literary award named for a writer O HENRY
45. Dix et un ONZE
46. __ d’art OBJET
47. Wynonna’s mom NAOMI
48. Cries BAWLS
49. Commencement ONSET
50. In __: unborn UTERO
53. Sudden movement JERK
54. __ Sea ARAL
55. Lawless character XENA
57. Go out in the afternoon? NAP
58. Keats poem ODE
59. “The Leftovers” airer HBO

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