Day: September 27, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Early 20th-century Met Baritone Pasquale AMATO
Pasquale Amato was an operatic baritone from Naples. Amato was at the height of his popularity while singing with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, which he did from 1908 until 1921.

6. City on the Nile GIZA
Giza is located on the west bank of the Nile, about 20 km southwest of Cairo. The nearby Giza Plateau is home to some of the most amazing ancient monuments on the planet, including the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Great Sphinx.

14. Three-time Oscar-winning director CAPRA
I can’t tell you how many of Frank Capra’s movies are on my list of all-time favorites. He directed such classics as “It Happened One Night”, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”, “Lost Horizon”, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, “Meet John Doe”, “Arsenic and Old Lace” and the holiday favorite “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Capra was the first person to win three directorial Oscars: for “It Happened One Night”, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” and “You Can’t Take It With You”. Capra also did his bit during WWII, enlisting just a few days after Pearl Harbor was attacked. Given his great talent, and the fact that he enlisted at the relatively advanced age of 44, the US Army put him to work directing 11 documentary war films in the “Why We Fight” series, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

15. OS X basis UNIX
Unix is a computer operating system that was developed at Bell Labs in 1969.

Apple introduced the Mac OS X Operating System in 2000. Each version of this operating system has had a code name, and that code name until recently has been a type of big cat. The versions and code names are:

– 10.0: Cheetah
– 10.1: Puma
– 10.2: Jaguar
– 10.3: Panther
– 10.4: Tiger
– 10.5: Leopard
– 10.6: Snow Leopard
– 10.7: Lion
– 10.8: Mountain Lion
– 10.9: Mavericks

The last release marked a change in naming pattern, with “Mavericks” being a surfing location in Northern California.

16. Scholarly Islamic title IMAM
An imam is a Muslim leader, often the person in charge of a mosque or perhaps a Muslim community. The title is also used by renowned Muslim scholars.

18. Place to pick up some pets NAPE
Some animals pick up their young by the nape of the neck.

19. Yankees coach Tony PENA
Tony Peña is a former professional baseball catcher and manager. He is now a coach with the New York Yankees.

22. Reno and others: Abbr. AGS
Janet Reno was Attorney General of the US from 1993 to 2001. Reno was the person to hold the office second longest, and was our first female Attorney General. In 2002, Reno ran for Governor of Florida but failed to win the Democratic nomination. Thereafter she retired from public life.

28. Thick-trunked tree BAOBAB
“Baobab” is the common name for an Adansonia tree, most species of which are native to Madagascar. The name Adansonia was given in honor of the French naturalist and explorer Michel Adanson.

30. Bee product QUILT
Back in 18th-century America, when neighbors would gather to work for the benefit of one of their group, such a meeting was called a “bee”. The name “bee” was an allusion to the social nature of the insect. In modern parlance, a further element of entertainment and pleasure has been introduced, for example in a “quilting bee”, or even a “spelling bee”.

35. Word with lake or lick SALT
A “mineral lick” (also “salt lick”) is an exposed mineral deposit to which some animals gravitate as a source for minerals essential to their diet that are otherwise in short supply in the environment. Naturally occurring mineral licks are usually exposed by harsh weather, but artificial versions are also used, especially to attract wild animals to a particular location.

36. World’s largest user of cheese, according to its website PIZZA HUT
Pizza Hut started out as a single location in Wichita, Kansas in 1958 and is now the world’s largest pizza franchise. Pizza Hut claims to be the world’s largest user of cheese, consuming 300 million pounds every year. The chain buys 3% of the cheese produced in the US, which means that 170,000 American cows are producing milk for Pizza Hut alone.

40. Goes after, as flies SHAGS
To shag (I am reliably informed, never having played a game of baseball in my life!) is to chase and catch a fly ball.

48. Airline with headquarters in Amstelveen KLM
The acronym KLM stands for “Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij”, which translates from Dutch as “Royal Aviation Company”. KLM is the flag carrier for the Netherlands, and is the oldest airline in the world still operating with its original name. It was founded in 1919. KLM merged with Air France in 2004.

Amstelveen is a suburb of Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. The municipality is named for the Amstel river that runs through the capital. And, the river also gives its name to Amstel, the famous Dutch beer.

50. Improv session JAM
The use of “jam”, to mean an improvised passage performed by a whole jazz band, dates back to the late twenties. This gave rise to “jam session”, a term used a few years later. The use of “jam” in this context probably stems from the meaning of “jam” as something sweet, something excellent.

53. Two-band AM/FM
The radio spectrum is divided into bands based on frequency. “High band” is composed of relatively high frequency values, and “low band” is composed of frequencies that are relatively low. FM radio falls into the band called Very High Frequency, or VHF. Television signals use frequencies even higher than VHF, frequencies in the Ultra High Frequency band (UHF). AM radio uses lower frequencies that fall into the relatively low bands of Low, Medium and High Frequency (LF, MF, and HF).

56. Etonic competitor AVIA
The Avia brand name for athletic shoes was chosen as “avia” is the Latin word for “to fly”, and suggests the concept of aviation. Avia was founded in Oregon in 1979.

Etonic is a manufacturer of sporting shoes that is particularly known for its golf shoes. The company was founded in 1876 in Brockton, Massachusetts and was named for its founder, Charles A. Eaton.

57. Extend one’s service RE-UP
“To re-up” is an informal term used in the world of the military meaning to sign up again for another tour of duty.

58. __ layer OZONE
Ozone gets its name from the Greek word ozein, meaning “to smell”. It was given this name as ozone’s formation during lightning storms was detected by the gas’s distinctive smell. Famously, there is a relatively high concentration of the gas in the “ozone layer” in the Earth’s stratosphere. This ozone layer provides a vital function for animal life on the planet as it absorbs most of the sun’s UV radiation. A molecule of ozone is made up of three oxygen atoms, whereas a “normal” oxygen has just two atoms.

60. Mallorca, e.g. ISLA
The Island of Majorca (“Isla Mallorca” in Spanish) is Spain’s largest island, and is located in the Mediterranean Sea. The population of the island ballooned over the past few decades as Majorca became a mecca for tourists from all over Europe.

61. Quetzalcoatl worshiper AZTEC
The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl’s name means “feathered serpent”.

Down
1. Clemson Univ. is in it ACC
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)

Clemson University was founded in 1889. The school takes its name from the town in which it is located: Clemson, South Carolina. The athletic teams of Clemson University have been called the Tigers since 1896 when a new football coach, Walter Riggs, arrived from Auburn University. Riggs was an admirer of the Princeton Tigers, so he gave his new school the tiger mascot.

2. Only actor to speak in Mel Brooks’ “Silent Movie” MARCEAU
Marcel Marceau was the most famous mime of all time, a native of Strasbourg in France. Marceau made a cameo appearance in Mel Brooks’s “Silent Movie”, playing himself. In the scene, Mel Brooks is asking Marceau to appear in his movie (a question asked silently of course, in subtitles), and Marceau turns to the camera and speaks the only word in the whole film, “Non!” (French for “No!”). The mime speaks! Brilliant …

3. Ill-fated 1967 mission APOLLO I
Apollo 1 was planned to be the first manned mission in NASA’s lunar landing program. Sadly, the three crew members perished in a tragic cabin fire that took place in a launch pad test. The astronauts who died were Gus Grissom (the second American to fly in space), Edward White (the first American to walk in space) and Roger Chaffee (the pilot for the planned Apollo 1 mission).

5. Poison __ OAK
Two of the plants that are most painful to humans are poison oak and poison ivy. Poison oak is mainly found west of the Rocky Mountains, and poison ivy to the east.

8. Routing aids ZIP CODES
ZIP codes were introduced in 1963. The acronym ZIP stands for Zone Improvement Plan, a name indicating that mail travels more efficiently when the codes are included in the postal address.

12. Asia’s longest river YANGTZE
The Yangtze River rises in the Tibetan plateau and flows broadly from west to east through China before entering the East China Sea at Shanghai. The Yangtze is the third longest river in the world (after the Nile and the Amazon), and is the longest in Asia.

23. Summer party invitation letters BBQ
It is believed that our word “barbecue” (often shortened to “BBQ”) comes from the Taíno people of the Caribbean in whose language “barbacoa” means “sacred fire pit”.

24. Part of Wayne’s world BATCAVE
Wayne Manor is where Bruce Wayne lives, the alter-ego of Batman. It is a huge manor that lies just outside Gotham City. Looking after the house is the Wayne family servant, Alfred. Beneath the grounds of the manor is an extensive cave system where Bruce Wayne put together his Batcave. Access is to the cave is via a staircase behind a hidden door. The door is opened by moving the hands of a non-functioning grandfather clock to 10:47, the time at which Wayne’s parents were murdered. It is the murder of his parents that sets Bruce off on his journey of crime fighting.

25. Neighbor of Tempe MESA
The city of Mesa, Arizona is in effect a suburb of Phoenix. The original settlement of non-Native Americans was founded by Daniel Webster Jones who led a Mormon group from St. George, Utah. The settlement was first called Jonesville, then Fort Utah and eventually Lehi. A second group of Mormons arrived and formed a settlement on top of a nearby mesa. It was this use of a mesa that eventually gave the city its current name.

Tempe is a city in the metropolitan area of Phoenix. The city is named for the Vale of Tempe in Greece.

26. Eponymous skater Axel PAULSEN
An Axel is a forward take-off jump in figure skating. It was first performed by Norwegian Axel Paulsen at the 1882 World Figure Skating championships.

27. “Chicago” song ALL THAT JAZZ
“All That Jazz” is a song from the 1975 musical “Chicago”, which was choreographed by the great Bob Fosse. “All That Jazz” was later used as the title for a 1979 film directed by Fosse that features a main character who is a theater director and choreographer, and who greatly resembles Fosse himself.

42. Material GERMANE
Something that is “germane” is relevant. “Germane” originally meant “having the same parents”, but it was used more figuratively as “on topic” by William Shakespeare in “Hamlet”. And that’s the way we’ve been using it ever since “Hamlet” was first performed in the 1600s.

47. __-Loompas: Dahl characters OOMPA
The Oompa-Loompas are characters in the Roald Dahl book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, and indeed in the sequel story “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator”. Willy Wonka came across the Oompa-Loompas on an isolated island in the Atlantic and invited them to work in his factory in order to escape those hunting them on the island. Right before Dahl’s book was first published, he was intending to call the Oompa-Loompas the “Whipple-Scrumpets”.

52. Dennings of “2 Broke Girls” KAT
Kat Dennings is the stage name of actress Katherine Litwack, noted today for her co-starring role on CBS’s sitcom “2 Broke Girls”. Dennings is an avid blogger, and you can check out her video blog on YouTube.

“2 Broke Girls” is a sitcom that has been on the air since 2011. It tells the story of two relatively poor roommates trying to start a cupcake business in Brooklyn, New York.

53. NPR journalist Shapiro ARI
Ari Shapiro is the very able White House correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR).

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Early 20th-century Met Baritone Pasquale AMATO
6. City on the Nile GIZA
10. “‘Sup” HIYA
14. Three-time Oscar-winning director CAPRA
15. OS X basis UNIX
16. Scholarly Islamic title IMAM
17. Rasp CROAK
18. Place to pick up some pets NAPE
19. Yankees coach Tony PENA
20. 10% of MDX CLI
21. Common file folder abbr. MISC
22. Reno and others: Abbr. AGS
23. Popular ’60s-’70s garb BELL-BOTTOM PANTS
28. Thick-trunked tree BAOBAB
29. Put on a pedestal IDEALIZE
30. Bee product QUILT
31. Followed RESULTED
32. Makes a decision ACTS
35. Word with lake or lick SALT
36. World’s largest user of cheese, according to its website PIZZA HUT
40. Goes after, as flies SHAGS
44. Alternative-medicine staple ALOE VERA
45. Fastball, in slang HEATER
46. Some sightings CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
48. Airline with headquarters in Amstelveen KLM
49. Energy source ATOM
50. Improv session JAM
51. Premium factor RISK
53. Two-band AM/FM
54. Bashes GALAS
56. Etonic competitor AVIA
57. Extend one’s service RE-UP
58. __ layer OZONE
59. One might be staked TENT
60. Mallorca, e.g. ISLA
61. Quetzalcoatl worshiper AZTEC

Down
1. Clemson Univ. is in it ACC
2. Only actor to speak in Mel Brooks’ “Silent Movie” MARCEAU
3. Ill-fated 1967 mission APOLLO I
4. Pioneers TRAILBLAZES
5. Poison __ OAK
6. Hit the gas GUN IT
7. Agitated IN A STIR
8. Routing aids ZIP CODES
9. Send packing AXE
10. Not square HIP
11. “Seriously” I MEAN IT
12. Asia’s longest river YANGTZE
13. Got a lot of AMASSED
21. __ mentality MOB
23. Summer party invitation letters BBQ
24. Part of Wayne’s world BATCAVE
25. Neighbor of Tempe MESA
26. Eponymous skater Axel PAULSEN
27. “Chicago” song ALL THAT JAZZ
33. What you once were? THEE
34. Last things written on applications? SURNAMES
36. Super saver? PACK RAT
37. “No harm done” I’LL LIVE
38. Enhances the details ZOOMS IN
39. Considerate TACTFUL
41. Got stuffed, maybe ATE A LOT
42. Material GERMANE
43. Yearbook sect. SRS
45. Buzz HUM
47. __-Loompas: Dahl characters OOMPA
52. Dennings of “2 Broke Girls” KAT
53. NPR journalist Shapiro ARI
54. __ long way GO A
55. Hardly a long time SEC

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