Day: December 30, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Heavy book TOME
“Tome” first came into English from the Latin “tomus” which means “section of a book”. The original usage in English was for a single volume in a multi-volume work. By the late 16th century “tome” had come to mean “a large book”.

5. High-end Honda ACURA
Acura is a division of the Honda Motor Company, their luxury brand. As an aside, Infiniti is the equivalent luxury brand for the Nissan Motor Company, and Lexus is the more luxurious version of Toyota’s models.

14. Shepard who hit golf balls on the moon ALAN
Alan Shepard was the first American in space. Shepard’s flight was originally scheduled for October 1960 but a series of delays pushed it out till May 5, 1961. Yuri Gagarin made his celebrated flight on April 12, 1961, just one one month earlier, winning that part of the Space Race for the Soviets. A decade later, Shepard went into space again at the age of 47, as commander of Apollo 14. He was the fifth man to walk on the moon, and indeed the oldest. Shepard was also the only one of the Mercury Seven team to make it to the moon. Famously, he drove two golf balls while on the lunar surface.

17. Stunt pilot stunt BARREL ROLL
A barrel roll is an aerial stunt in which a plane makes a complete rotation around the longitudinal axis. The manoeuvre is so called as the corkscrew path that the aircraft executes makes it appear as though it is rotating through the inside of an enormous barrel.

19. __ d’oeuvre HORS
An hors d’oeuvre is the first course in a meal. “Hors d’oeuvre” translates from French as “apart from the work”, really meaning “not the main course”.

21. Kanga’s creator AA MILNE
Kanga is a friend of A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh”, and is a kangaroo. She is the mother of Roo, who appears more frequently in the storyline.

23. Cuba libre liquor RUM
The cocktail known as a Cuba Libre is basically a rum and Coke although the traditional recipe calls for some lime juice to be added.

24. Quaint dating-and-dining event BOX SOCIAL
Here in the US, a “box social” is an event where traditionally women provide a two-person lunch in a decorated cardboard box. Men then bid on the boxes in the hope of sharing the lunch with the lady who provided the box.

28. Buddhist sect ZEN
Zen is a Buddhist school that developed its own tradition in China back in the 7th century AD. Zen is a Japanese spelling of the Chinese word “chan”, which in turn derives from the Sanskrit word “dhyana” meaning “meditation”.

40. Japanese carp KOI
Koi are also called Japanese carp. Koi have been bred for decorative purposes and there are now some very brightly colored examples found in Japanese water gardens.

43. __ stick POGO
What we know today as a pogo stick was invented in Germany by Max Pohlig and Ernst Gottschall. The name “pogo” comes from the first two letters in each of the inventors’ family names: Po-hlig and Go-ttschall.

45. Aunt, en español TIA
In Spanish (en español), an aunt (tia) is a member of the family (la familia).

48. Bailiff’s cry OYEZ!
Town criers make public announcements on the streets, usually shouting “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!” to attract attention. The term “oyez” derives from the Anglo-Norman word for “listen” and is used in this instance to mean “Hear ye!” “Oyez!” might also be used in a courtroom as the court’s proceedings are opened.

Here in the US, the term “bailiff” is sometimes applied to a peace officer who provided security in a court.

49. Man cave celebration CHEST BUMP
“Man cave” is a slang term for a male sanctuary with home, often a spare bedroom (as it is in our house) or a converted garage.

58. Actress Kudrow LISA
The character Phoebe Buffay (and her identical twin sister Ursula) is played on the sitcom “Friends” by the actress Lisa Kudrow. Kudrow plays the ditzy member of the troupe of friends, but I’ve always viewed her as the “smartest” of the group of actors in real life, as best I could tell. Kudrow is behind the US version of the British genealogy show “Who Do You Think You Are?” a very entertaining bit of television.

62. “Fly-Fight-Win” org. USAF
The recruiting slogan of the US Air Force is “Aim High … Fly-Fight-Win”, and has been so since 2010.

63. Tequila plant AGAVE
Tequila is a spirit made from the blue agave. The drink takes its name from the city of Tequila, located about 40 miles northwest of Guadalajara.

64. Winery prefix OENO-
In Greek mythology, Oeno was the goddess of wine, giving us “oen-” as a prefix meaning “wine”. For example, oenology is the study of wine and an oenophile is a wine-lover.

66. Videos that go viral, e.g. MEMES
A “meme” (short for “mineme”) is a cultural practice or idea that is passed on verbally or by repetition from one person to another. The term lends itself very well to the online world where links, emails, files etc. are so easily propagated.

67. Rhône-Alpes city LYON
The city of Lyon in France, is also known as “Lyons” in English. Lyon is the second-largest metropolitan area in the country, after Paris.

Down
1. “Forbidden” perfume TABU
Tabu is a whole line of cosmetics and perfumes produced by the House of Dana. The company’s brand names were purchased by a Florida company called Dana Classic Fragrances in 1999.

2. “The Good Earth” mother O-LAN
Pearl S. Buck’s novel “The Good Earth” won a Pulitzer in 1932, and helped Buck win the Nobel Prize for literature a few years later. The story tells of life in a Chinese village and follows the fortunes of Wang Lung and his wife O-Lan. Although “The Good Earth” has been around for decades, it hit the bestseller list again in 2004 when it was a pick for Oprah’s Book Club.

3. NASA’s Curiosity, e.g. MARS ROVER
NASA’s Curiosity rover is the fourth in a series of unmanned surface rovers that NASA has sent to Mars. Previous rovers are the Sojourner rover (1997), Spirit rover (2004-2010) and Opportunity rover (2004-present). Curiosity rover was launched in November of 2011, and landed on Mars in August 2012 after having travelled 350 million miles. After that long journey, Curiosity landed just 1½ miles from its targeted touchdown spot.

4. Along the way EN ROUTE
“En route” is a French term that means “on the way”.

5. “__ Lang Syne” AULD
The song “Auld Lang Syne” is a staple at New Year’s Eve, the words of which were written by Scottish poet Robbie Burns. The literal translation of “Auld Lang Syne” is “old long since”, but is better translated as “old times”. The sentiment of the song is “for old time’s sake”.

6. EMT procedure CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has for decades involved the simultaneous compression of the chest to pump blood using the heart, and artificial respiration by blowing air into the lungs. Nowadays emergency services are placing more emphasis on heart compressions, and less on artificial respiration.

Emergency medical technician (EMT)

7. Troupe for the troops: Abbr. 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.

A “troupe” is a band of entertainers, especially one that travels in order to perform.

11. Garlicky mayo AIOLI
To the purist, especially in Provence in the South of France, the “home” of aioli, aioli is prepared just by grinding garlic with olive oil. However, other ingredients are often added to the mix, particularly egg yolks.

12. Actress Bloom of “High Plains Drifter” VERNA
The actress Verna Bloom played Mary, mother of Jesus, in Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” in 1988, and co-starred with Clint Eastwood in 1973’s “High Plains Drifter”. She also played the Dean’s alcoholic wife in “Animal House”.

“High Plains Drifter” is a 1973 western movie directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. The film is in the style of films directed by Sergio Leone and Don Siegel, with whom Eastwood had worked several times. Eastwood arranged for a tribute to the two directors in the finale of “High Plains Drifter”. He had the names Sergio Leone and Don Siegel written on two of the tombstones in the graveyard in which the scene was set.

13. Eponymous Ford EDSEL
The Edsel brand of automobile was named for Edsel, son of Henry Ford. Sadly, the name “Edsel” has become synonymous with “failure”, which was no fault of Edsel himself who had died several years before the Edsel line was introduced.

An eponym is a name for something derived from the name of a person, as in the “sandwich” named for the Earl of Sandwich.

22. Code creator MORSE
Samuel Morse came up with the forerunner to modern Morse code for use on the electric telegraph, of which he was the coinventor. Morse code uses a series of dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers. The most common letters are assigned the simplest code elements e.g. E is represented by one dot, and T is represented by one dash.

24. Charlie Parker jazz genre BEBOP
Charlie Parker was a Jazz saxophonist, who was often just called “Bird” or “Yardbird”. He was a leader in the development of the style of jazz called “bebop”, which gained popularity in the forties. Charlie Parker had a rough life outside of music. He was a heroin addict, and a heavy drinker. When he died, the coroner who performed his autopsy estimated his age as between 50 and 60 years old based on the appearance of his body and condition of his organs. He was actually 34-years-old when he died in a New York City hotel room in 1955.

28. Skin blemish ZIT
The slang term “zit”, meaning “a pimple”, came into the language in 1966, but no one seems to know its exact derivation.

34. “Roger that!” OKEY DOKEY!
The term “roger”, meaning “yes” or “acknowledged”, comes from the world of radiotelephony. The British military used a phonetic alphabet in the fifties that included “Roger” to represent the letter “R”. As such, it became customary to say “Roger” when acknowledging a message, with R (Roger) standing for “received”.

35. Femur, e.g. BONE
The thigh bone, the femur, is the longest and the largest bone in the human body.

36. __ bath: therapeutic soak SITZ
A “sitz bath” is one in which the water comes up to the hips. It is usually a therapeutic bath used to treat discomfort in the lower part of the body. The term comes from the German “Sitzbad” meaning a bath (bad) in which one sits. “Sitzen” is German for “to sit”.

46. ’70s-’80s scandal that inspired “American Hustle” ABSCAM
The FBI set up a sting operation in 1978, eventually targeting corruption within Congress. Central to the “scam” was a front company called “Abdul Enterprises, Ltd”, giving the whole operation the nickname “Abscam”. At the end of the say, one senator and five House members were convicted of bribery and conspiracy. Kraim Abdul Rahman was the fictional sheik that gave “his” name to the front company.

“American Hustle” is a 2013 movie with a plotline that is loosely based on the famous FBI ABSCAM sting of the late seventies and early eighties. The film stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams as two con artists who are forced to work with an FBI agent played by Bradley Cooper.

53. Prefix with skeleton EXO-
An animal with an endoskeleton has a supporting skeleton inside its body. So, we humans have an endoskeleton. A turtle has both an endoskeleton and an exoskeleton, its outer shell.

56. Gambling town near Tahoe RENO
The city of Reno’s economy took off when open gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931. Within a short time, a syndicate had built the Bank Club in Reno, which was the largest casino in the whole world at the time.

Lake Tahoe is up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, right on the border between California and Nevada. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in the country. It’s also the second deepest lake, with only the beautiful Crater Lake in Oregon being deeper. Given its location, there are tall casinos that sit right on the shore on the Nevada side of the state line where gambling is legal.

57. 1982 Disney sci-fi flick TRON
Released in 1982, Disney’s “Tron” was one of the first mainstream films to make extensive use of computer graphics. The main role in the movie is played by Jeff Bridges.

60. “Casablanca” piano man SAM
The movie “Casablanca” was released in January of 1943, timed to coincide with the Casablanca Conference, the high-level meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill. The film wasn’t a box-office hit, but gained critical acclaim, winning three Oscars including Best Picture. The signature song “As Time Goes By” was written many years earlier for a 1931 Broadway musical called “Everybody’s Welcome”, and was a hit in 1931 for Rudy Vallee. But today we all remember the Casablanca version, sung by Dooley Wilson (who played “Sam” in the film). Poor Dooley didn’t get to record it as a single, due to a musician’s strike in 1943, so the 1931 Rudy Vallee version was re-released that year and became an even bigger hit second time round.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Heavy book TOME
5. High-end Honda ACURA
10. Roof edge EAVE
14. Shepard who hit golf balls on the moon ALAN
15. In a huff UPSET
16. Headed for overtime TIED
17. Stunt pilot stunt BARREL ROLL
19. __ d’oeuvre HORS
20. Still in the store UNSOLD
21. Kanga’s creator AA MILNE
23. Cuba libre liquor RUM
24. Quaint dating-and-dining event BOX SOCIAL
26. Quite a few A LOT
28. Buddhist sect ZEN
29. Singing syllable TRA-
30. Like a stage performance LIVE
31. Eye-roller’s reply I BET
33. Mess makers SLOBS
37. Microbrewery brew ALE
38. Moving company service, and what the starts of 17-, 24-, 49- and 59-Across may be used for STORAGE
40. Japanese carp KOI
41. Remove insulation from STRIP
43. __ stick POGO
44. You can see Lincoln on one CENT
45. Aunt, en español TIA
47. No longer burning OUT
48. Bailiff’s cry OYEZ!
49. Man cave celebration CHEST BUMP
53. Cease END
54. Hold POSSESS
55. Obtain via threats EXTORT
58. Actress Kudrow LISA
59. Social agency employee CASEWORKER
62. “Fly-Fight-Win” org. USAF
63. Tequila plant AGAVE
64. Winery prefix OENO-
65. Eyelid problem STYE
66. Videos that go viral, e.g. MEMES
67. Rhône-Alpes city LYON

Down
1. “Forbidden” perfume TABU
2. “The Good Earth” mother O-LAN
3. NASA’s Curiosity, e.g. MARS ROVER
4. Along the way EN ROUTE
5. “__ Lang Syne” AULD
6. EMT procedure CPR
7. Troupe for the troops: Abbr. USO
8. Enjoy some downtime RELAX
9. “Finally!” AT LAST!
10. Guided by good ETHICAL
11. Garlicky mayo AIOLI
12. Actress Bloom of “High Plains Drifter” VERNA
13. Eponymous Ford EDSEL
18. Shade source ELM
22. Code creator MORSE
24. Charlie Parker jazz genre BEBOP
25. Like old-time schoolhouses ONE-ROOM
26. Cry of dismay ALAS!
27. Happy tune LILT
28. Skin blemish ZIT
32. Prepare to advance after a fly ball TAG UP
34. “Roger that!” OKEY DOKEY!
35. Femur, e.g. BONE
36. __ bath: therapeutic soak SITZ
38. Rancor SPITE
39. Picked up GOT
42. “You can come out now” IT’S SAFE
44. Word before group or freak CONTROL
46. ’70s-’80s scandal that inspired “American Hustle” ABSCAM
49. Academically above average C-PLUS
50. Raise, as a flag HOIST
51. College application part ESSAY
52. Meter reading USAGE
53. Prefix with skeleton EXO-
55. Meadow females EWES
56. Gambling town near Tahoe RENO
57. 1982 Disney sci-fi flick TRON
60. “Casablanca” piano man SAM
61. Night before EVE

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