Day: September 12, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
6. Boston or Chicago BAND
Boston is a rock band from … Boston. Boston’s biggest hit was “Amanda”, released in 1986.

The rock band called Chicago was formed in … Chicago. The band’s biggest hits are “If You Leave Me Now” (1976) and “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” (1982). The band’s lineup has changed a lot over the years. The most tragic reason for a change was in 1978 when Terry Kath, one of the band’s founding members, died from an accidentally self-inflicted gun wound. Kath enjoyed playing with guns and as a joke held a pistol with an empty magazine to his temple and pulled the trigger. A round in the chamber killed him instantly.

14. Mendelssohn’s Opus 20, e.g. OCTET
Felix Mendelssohn wrote his “Octet in E-flat major” in 1825, when he was just 16 years old.

Felix Mendelssohn was a German composer who was active in the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn’s most famous works are probably his overtures “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Hebrides”, as well as his “Italian Symphony” and “Scottish Symphony”.

15. One-on-one sport EPEE
The épée that is used in today’s sport fencing is derived from the old French dueling sword. In fact, the the sport of épée fencing is very similar to the dualing of the 19th century. The word “épée” translates from French as “sword”.

17. Blueprint spec … or, allowable hours for hound sounds? BAY WINDOWS
Blueprints are reproductions of technical drawings that are contact prints made on light-sensitive sheets. Blueprints were introduced in the 1800s and the technology available dictated that the drawings were reproduced with white lines on a blue background, hence the name “blue-print”.

20. LeBron’s Miami uniform number SIX
LeBron James plays basketball for the Miami Heat. James seems to be in demand for the covers of magazines. He became the first African American man to adorn the front cover of “Vogue” in March 2008. That made him only the third male to make the “Vogue” cover, following Richard Gere and George Clooney.

21. Mr. __!: old whodunit game REE
The full name for the old mystery game is “Mr. Ree! The Fireside Detective”. It was first published in 1937 and frankly it sounds like a great game, even by today’s standards …

27. The __, Netherlands HAGUE
Den Haag is the Dutch name for the city in the Netherlands that we know in English as The Hague. Even though The Hague is the seat of the Dutch parliament and is where Queen Beatrix resides, it is not the country’s capital city. That honor goes to Amsterdam.

34. “Top Gear” airer BBC
“Top Gear” is a motoring show that first aired in 1977 on the BBC. The show had legs, and ran until 2001 when it was cancelled due to falling ratings. The show was relaunched in a new format in 2002. At its peak, the “Old Top Gear” has 6 million viewers per week. The relaunched “Top Gear” now gets a staggering 350 million viewers per week, in 170 different countries.

40. “__ We Are”: Estefan hit HERE
Gloria Estefan is a Cuban American singer, born in Havana. She fled Cuba along with her family after the Cuban Revolution, and ended up in Miami. Her father fought for the US military in Vietnam, and also took part in the doomed Bay of Pigs invasion. Years later, Gloria herself was approached by the CIA to work for the agency due to her skill with languages. She ended up doing quite well singing instead …

42. “How now? __?”: Hamlet, before mistakenly slaying Polonius A RAT
In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, the title character utters the line “How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!”. Then Hamlet thrusts his sword through a tapestry covering an alcove and kills Polonius, who was lurking there.

52. Tater Tots maker ORE-IDA
Ore-Ida frozen foods are all made with potatoes. The company is located in Oregon, just across the border from Idaho. “Ore-Ida” is a melding of the two state names.

Ore-Ida founders came up with the idea for Tater Tots when they were deciding what to do with residual cuts of potato. They chopped up the leftovers, added flour and seasoning, and extruded the mix through a large hole making a sausage that they cut into small cylinders. We eat 70 million pounds of this extruded potato every year!

57. Improvisational style SCAT
Scat singing is a vocal improvisation found in the world of jazz. There aren’t any words as such in scat singing, just random nonsense syllables made up on the spot.

58. Blueprint spec … or an MGM heartthrob’s cousin from the Netherlands? DUTCH GABLE
The actor Clark Gable was the leading man in so many great movies, the most famous of which is probably 1939’s “Gone with the Wind”. My personal favorite of his films is 1934’s “It Happened One Night”, for which he won the Best Actor Oscar. Gable enlisted in the US Army Air Corps in 1942 and flew five combat missions from England, for which he was awarded the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

62. Manuscript encl. SASE
An editor (ed.) might receive a manuscript (MS) with a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE).

63. Shell competitor ESSO
The brand name Esso has its roots in the old Standard Oil company as it uses the initial letters of “Standard” and “Oil” (ESS-O). The Esso brand was replaced by Exxon in the US, but ESSO is still used in many other countries.

Royal Dutch Shell is the largest energy company in the world and is headquartered in the Hague, in the Netherlands. The company was formed in 1907 with the merger of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and Shell Transport and Trading company of the UK. The two companies merged in order to compete globally with the biggest US oil company of the day, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. Shell Oil Company is a US-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell that is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

64. Soul singer Adams OLETA
Oleta Adams is an American soul singer from Seattle, Washington. Adams has had most of her success over in the UK, rather than here in the US.

65. Begun: Abbr. ESTD
Established (estd.)

67. Name on a Yorba Linda library NIXON
President Richard Milhous Nixon (RMN) used “Milhous” in his name in honor of his mother Hannah Milhous. Richard was born in a house in Yorba Linda, California. You can visit that house today as it is on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. It’s a really interesting way to spend a few hours if you ever get to Yorba Linda …

Down
1. Slew GOBS
“Gobs” is an informal term meaning “a large amount”.

The terms “slew” and “raft” can be used to mean “large amount”.

2. Berry rich in antioxidants ACAI
Açaí is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

3. “Come Sail Away” band STYX
“Come Sail Away” is one of the biggest hits for the Chicago band Styx, released in 1977.

4. Service station? PEW
A pew is a bench in a church, usually with a high back. The original pews were raised and sometimes enclosed seats in the church used by women and important men or families. “Pew” comes from the Old French “puie” meaning “balcony, elevation”.

7. GI’s mail drop APO
Army post office (APO)

9. “State Fair” setting DES MOINES
“State Fair” is a musical film by Rodgers and Hammerstein that was released in 1945. The “fair” in the storyline is the Iowa State Fair, in Des Moines. “State Fair” was remade in 1962, and then was adapted for the Broadway stage in 1996.

10. Crisscross patterns PLAIDS
Tartan is sometimes called “plaid” over here in the US, a word not used in the same sense outside of this country. In Scotland a “plaid” is a blanket or a tartan cloth slung over the shoulder.

11. Rajah’s tongue HINDI
The Union Government of the Republic of India has two official languages: Hindi and English.

“Raja” (also “rajah”) is word derived from Sanskrit that is used particularly in India for a monarch or princely ruler. The female form is “rani” (also “ranee”) and is used for a raja’s wife.

18. Revival prefix NEO-
The prefix “neo-” means “new, recent, revived”.

23. Sheltered, nautically ALEE
“Alee” is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing “aweather”.

26. GI chow 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.

32. One who might play under a balcony SERENADER
A ”serenade” is a musical performance in the open air, specifically at night. We tend to think of the term applying to a young man serenading his lover from below her window. We imported the word via French from the Italian “serenata” meaning “evening song”, influenced by the Italian “sera” meaning “evening”.

34. Uncle __ BEN’S
Uncle Ben’s is a famous brand of rice introduced in 1943. It was the biggest selling brand of rice in the US from the fifties through the nineties. As one might imagine, the name “Uncle Ben” is pretty offensive and Mars, who owns the brand now, have tried to distance themselves from the African-American slave/domestic servant image. In 2007 there was a TV campaign showing “Uncle Ben” as Chairman of the Board of the company. But, he is still called Uncle Ben …

35. “Up hill, down __ …”: Burns BRAE
Robert Burns wrote the poem “Epistle to Captain William Logan at Park” in 1786. Logan was an officer who had served with the British Army during the American War of Independence. Burns met him while Logan was staying with his sister in Park, near Ayr in Scotland. The first two verses of the poem are:

Hail, thairm-inspirin, rattlin Willie!
Though Fortune’s road be rough an’ hilly
To ev’ry fiddling, rhyming billie,
We never heed;
But tak it like th’ unbacked Fillie,
Proud o’ her speed.

When idly goavin, whyles we saunter,
Yirr, Fancy barks, – awa we canter,
Up-hill, down-brae, till some mishanter,
Some black Bog-hole,
Arreest us; then the scathe an’ banter
We’re forc’d to thole.

36. Bird was one, briefly CELT
Larry Bird played basketball for the Boston Celtics from 1978 to 1992. Bird has a lot of very loyal fans, and some might even be described as fanatical. In 2005 an Oklahoma City man was convicted of a crime involving a shooting. On being sentenced to 30 years imprisonment, the guilty man requested that the sentence be changed to 33 years so that it matched the number on Larry Bird’s jersey. The judge obliged …

44. Ideal PARAGON
A paragon is an model of excellence, a peerless example. Ultimately the term derives from the Greek “para-” meaning “on the side” and “akone” meaning “whetstone”. This derivation comes from the ancient practice of using a touchstone to test gold for its level of purity by drawing a line on the stone with the gold and comparing the resulting mark with samples of known purity.

48. “Pippin” Tony winner FOSSE
Bob Fosse won more Tony Awards for choreography than anyone else, a grand total of eight. He also won an Oscar for Best Director for his 1972 movie “Cabaret”, even beating out the formidable Francis Ford Coppola who was nominated that same year for “The Godfather”.

“Pippin” is a stage musical by Stephen Schwartz that was first produced in 1972, on Broadway. The original Broadway production was directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, for which work Fosse won two Tony Awards in 1973. The title character’s father in “Pippin” is named Charlemagne. The father-son characters are inspired by the Holy Roman Emperors Charlemagne and Pepin.

49. Ocean predators ORCAS
The taxonomic name for the killer whale is Orcinus orca. The use of the name “orca”, rather than “killer whale”, is becoming more and more common. The Latin word “Orcinus” means “belonging to Orcus”, with Orcus being the name for the Kingdom of the Dead.

54. Goat with Iberian and Siberian species IBEX
Ibex is a common name for various species of mountain goat. “Ibex” is a Latin name that was used for wild goats found in the Alps and Apennines in Europe.

55. Like some saxes ALTO
The saxophone was invented by Belgian Adolphe Sax. Sax developed lip cancer at one point in his life, and one has to wonder if his affliction was related to his saxophone playing (I am sure not!). I had the privilege of visiting Sax’s grave in the Cemetery of Montmartre in Paris a few years ago.

56. Inconsequential MEAN
The adjective “mean” can be used to describe something of little importance or consequence.

59. GI show gp. USO
The United Service Organization (USO) was founded in 1941 at the request of FDR “to handle the on-leave recreation of the men in the armed forces”. A USO tour is undertaken by a troupe of entertainers, many of whom are big-name celebrities. A USO tour usually includes troop locations in combat zones.

60. General on a takeout menu TSO
General Tso’s chicken is an American creation, often found on the menu of a Chinese restaurant. The name General Tso may be a reference to General Zuo Zongtang of the Qing Dynasty, but there is no clear link.

61. Will Smith title role ALI
“Ali” is a 2001 biographical movie about Muhammad Ali, with Will Smith in the title role. Among other things, the film is noted for its realistic fight scenes. The scenes were realistic because Smith was really being hit, as hard as his opponents could manage.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Short pants? GASPS
6. Boston or Chicago BAND
10. Sound of relief PHEW!
14. Mendelssohn’s Opus 20, e.g. OCTET
15. One-on-one sport EPEE
16. Con artist, for one LIAR
17. Blueprint spec … or, allowable hours for hound sounds? BAY WINDOWS
19. Naysayer ANTI
20. LeBron’s Miami uniform number SIX
21. Mr. __!: old whodunit game REE
22. Initial MAIDEN
24. Blueprint spec … or, job fit for a king’s silversmith? CROWN MOLDING
27. The __, Netherlands HAGUE
30. Regular TV show SERIES
31. Bestows AWARDS
33. __ splicing GENE
34. “Top Gear” airer BBC
37. Gets ready for lunch, maybe ZAPS
38. Scrub ERASE
40. “__ We Are”: Estefan hit HERE
41. Look over EYE
42. “How now? __?”: Hamlet, before mistakenly slaying Polonius A RAT
43. __ column SPINAL
45. Used a plane on EVENED
47. Useful quality ASSET
48. Blueprint spec … or a ’60s-’70s rock group conceding a poker hand? FOLDING DOORS
52. Tater Tots maker ORE-IDA
53. __ fault TO A
54. Words of agreement I AM
57. Improvisational style SCAT
58. Blueprint spec … or an MGM heartthrob’s cousin from the Netherlands? DUTCH GABLE
62. Manuscript encl. SASE
63. Shell competitor ESSO
64. Soul singer Adams OLETA
65. Begun: Abbr. ESTD
66. Study, say ROOM
67. Name on a Yorba Linda library NIXON

Down
1. Slew GOBS
2. Berry rich in antioxidants ACAI
3. “Come Sail Away” band STYX
4. Service station? PEW
5. Inflamed STIRRED
6. Moistens, in a way BEDEWS
7. GI’s mail drop APO
8. Unfamiliar NEW
9. “State Fair” setting DES MOINES
10. Crisscross patterns PLAIDS
11. Rajah’s tongue HINDI
12. Downed EATEN
13. Twist and compress WRING
18. Revival prefix NEO-
23. Sheltered, nautically ALEE
24. Contemptible ones CURS
25. Ruled out NEGATED
26. GI chow MRES
27. Cloud HAZE
28. Out of town AWAY
29. Yawn GAPE
32. One who might play under a balcony SERENADER
34. Uncle __ BEN’S
35. “Up hill, down __ …”: Burns BRAE
36. Bird was one, briefly CELT
39. Took its toll? RANG
40. Kettle emission HISS
42. Ardent AVID
44. Ideal PARAGON
45. Ready to be printed EDITED
46. Many a late ’90s startup DOT-COM
48. “Pippin” Tony winner FOSSE
49. Ocean predators ORCAS
50. Numerical extreme LEAST
51. Circus sound OOH!
54. Goat with Iberian and Siberian species IBEX
55. Like some saxes ALTO
56. Inconsequential MEAN
59. GI show gp. USO
60. General on a takeout menu TSO
61. Will Smith title role ALI

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