Day: February 5, 2015

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
5. Dorm peer leaders: Abbr. RAS
RAs are resident assistants or resident advisers, the peer leaders found in residence halls, particularly on a college campus.

14. Palm that produces purple berries 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.

15. CPR giver EMT
Emergency medical technician (EMT)

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.

16. Missouri River city PIERRE
Here’s an old chestnut of a trivia question for you … what’s the only state capital in the Union for which the name of the capital and the name of its state share no common letters? You guessed it … Pierre, South Dakota …

20. IM guffaw LOL
Laugh out loud (LOL)

Even though instant messaging (sending IMs) has been around since the 1960s, it was AOL who popularized the term “instant message” in the eighties and nineties.

23. Points in math class LOCI
In mathematics, a locus is the set of all points that satisfy a given requirement. For example, the locus called a circle is the set of all points equidistant from a single point.

31. Drink with sushi SAKE
We refer to the Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice as “sake”. We’ve gotten things a bit mixed up in the West. “Sake” is actually the word that the Japanese use for all alcoholic drinks. What we know as sake, we sometimes refer to as “rice wine”. It is indeed made from rice, but it is a brewed rather than fermented and so is more like a beer than a wine.

Sushi is a Japanese dish that has as its primary ingredient cooked, vinegared rice. The rice is usually topped with something, most often fish, and can be served in seaweed rolls. If you want raw fish by itself, then you have to order “sashimi”.

42. Tetra holder TANK
The neon tetra is a freshwater fish, native to parts of South America. The tetra is a very popular aquarium fish and millions are imported into the US every year. Almost all of the imported tetras are farm-raised in Asia and very few come from their native continent.

47. So as not to be noticed UNDER THE RADAR (giving “radar detector”)
Scientists have been using radio waves to detect the presence of objects since the late 1800s, but it was the demands of WWII that accelerated the practical application of the technology. The British called their system RDF standing for Range and Direction Finding. The system used by the US Navy was called Radio Detection And Ranging, which was shortened to the acronym RADAR.

53. Vacation destination SPA
The word “spa” migrated into English from Belgium, as Spa is the name of a municipality in the east of the country that is famous for its healing hot springs. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.

61. __ Pie ESKIMO
Eskimo Pies are chocolate covered bars of ice cream, and have been around since the early twenties.

62. Great Basin native UTE
The Ute are a group of Native American tribes that now reside in Utah and Colorado. The Ute were not a unified people as such, but rather a loose association of nomadic groups.

The Hydrographic Great Basin is a large region of the US covering most of Nevada, much of Utah and some parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and California. The 200,000 square mile area drains internally, with all precipitation sinking underground or flowing into lakes. Most of the lakes in the Great Basin are saline, including the Great Salt Lake, Pyramid Lake and the Humboldt Sink.

63. Orkin victim PEST
Orkin is a pest-control company. If you want to learn more about insects, you might want to visit the O. Orkin Zoo, a permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. The exhibit has over 300 live insects, all displayed in their natural habitats.

65. TD’s half-dozen PTS
In football, a touchdown (TD) scores six points (pts.).

66. Gorillas, e.g. APES
The hominids are the great apes, and belong to the family of primates called Hominidae. Extant genera that make up the family Hominidae are:

– chimpanzees
– gorillas
– humans
– orangutans

The gorilla is the largest primate still in existence, and is one of the nearest living species to humans. Molecular biology studies have shown that our nearest relatives are in fact the species in the genus Pan (the chimpanzee and the bonobo), which split from the human branch of the family 4-6 million years ago. Gorillas and humans diverged at a point about 7 million years ago. The term “gorilla” derives from the Greek “gorillai” meaning “tribe of hairy women”.

Down
6. __ curiae: friend of the court AMICUS
An amicus curiae is a “friend of the court”, and is a concept that originated in Roman law. An amicus curiae is someone who assists a court in a decision, without being a party to the case in question.

8. Nav. noncom CPO
A Chief Petty Officer (CPO) is a non-commissioned officer in the Navy and Coast Guard. The “Petty” is derived from the French word “petit” meaning “small”.

11. Skywalker associate, familiarly ARTOO
Artoo’s proper name is R2-D2. R2-D2 is the smaller of the two famous droids from the “Star Wars” movies. British actor Kenny Baker, who stands just 3 ft 8 ins tall, has been the man inside the R2-D2 droid for all six of the “Star Wars” movies.

Anakin “Ani” Skywalker is the principal character in all six of the “Star Wars” movies. Anakin is the real name of Darth Vader.

12. Monastic garment FROCK
A frock is a woman’s dress, but “frock” also describes a robe worn by monks. Our use of “frock” comes from the Old French “froc”, which back in the 12th century was a monk’s habit.

13. Inducing the willies EERIE
A “fit of the willies” is a spell of nervousness. The expression is probably a derivative of “the woollies”, a colloquial expression for “nervous” likely to be a reference to itchiness caused by wool garments.

18. Sea eagles ERNS
The ern (also erne) is also called the white-tailed eagle, and the sea-eagle.

22. Kitchen dweller of song DINAH
“Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah” is a line from the American folk song “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”. The section with this line is actually “lifted” from an older song published as, “Old Joe, or Somebody in the House with Dinah”.

30. Campus no. GPA
Grade point average (GPA)

33. Prince in “Frozen” HANS
“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”.

34. Large grazer ELK
Male elks are called bulls, and females are known as cows. Bull elks are known for their very loud screaming, which is called bugling. Cow elks are attracted to bulls that bugle more often and most loudly.

36. Cowardly Lion player LAHR
Bert Lahr’s most famous role was the cowardly lion in “The Wizard of Oz”. Lahr had a long career in burlesque, vaudeville and on Broadway. Lahr also starred in the first US production of Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot”, alongside Tom Ewell.

38. Missouri River city OMAHA
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska. It is located on the Missouri River, about 10 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River When Nebraska was still a territory Omaha was its capital, but when Nebraska achieved statehood the capital was moved to the city of Lincoln.

39. Sundance Kid’s girlfriend ETTA
Etta Place is the schoolteacher character played by the lovely Katharine Ross in the 1969 movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.

The actress Katharine Ross is best known for two major roles: playing Elaine Robinson in “The Graduate”, and Etta Place in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”. Ross is married to the actor Sam Elliott. Although the couple appeared together in “Butch Cassidy …” it was in different scenes. They never actually met during the 1969 filming and first ran into each almost ten years later in 1978, and then started dating.

43. Boll eater WEEVIL
A weevil is a small beetle, known for the damage that it can do to crops. The boll weevil damages cotton plants by laying eggs inside cotton bolls. The young weevils then eat their way out.

A boll is a seed-bearing capsule of some plants, particularly of flax and cotton.

44. Actor Will of “The Lego Movie” ARNETT
Will Arnett is a Canadian actor who his currently in NBC’s sitcom “Up All Night”, starring alongside Christina Applegate. Arnett got his big break in the Fox show “Arrested Development”. Arnett’s father was the president and CEO of Molson Breweries, and Arnett’s wife is Amy Poehler, star of “Parks and Recreation”.

45. Many diner dishes SAUTES
“Sauté” is a French word. The literal translation from the French is “jumped” or “bounced”, a reference to the tossing of food while cooking it in a frying pan.

47. Stress-related ailment, possibly ULCER
Until fairly recently, a peptic ulcer was believed to be caused by undue amounts of stress in one’s life. It is now known that 70-90% of all peptic ulcers are in fact associated with a particular bacterium.

48. Language on a longship NORSE
The Vikings were a Germanic people from northern Europe who were noted as great seafarers. Key to the success of the Vikings was the design of their famous “longships”. Made from wood, the longship was long and narrow with a shallow hull, It was also light, so that the crew would actually carry it small distances over land and around obstacles. Longships were designed to be propelled both by sail and by oars.

49. 16th-century circumnavigator DRAKE
Sir Francis Drake was a Vice-Admiral in the Elizabethan navy, and second in command when the Royal Navy defeated the Spanish Armada. He was also a sanctioned pirate for the Queen and wreaked havoc on the Spanish merchant fleet. His most famous ship was the Golden Hind, in which he circumnavigated the world between 1577 and 1580.

57. Former Abbey Road Studios owner EMI
The Abbey Road Studios in London was a large Georgian townhouse built in the 1830s. It became a recording studio in 1931, and you can even see some YouTube video showing Sir Edward Elgar back then making recordings with the London symphony Orchestra. The studios passed through various owners and by the time the Beatles started their famous recording it was known as EMI Studios. The Beatles recorded practically all of their albums there, between 1962 and 1970. Famously they named a 1969 album after the studio, “Abbey Road”. That’s the one with the cover showing the Fab Four crossing the “zebra crossing” outside the studio.

58. “GoodFellas” boss DON
The Martin Scorsese classic “Goodfellas” is a 1990 adaptation of a non-fiction book by Nicholas Pileggi called “Wiseguy”. The film tells the story of a mob family that succumbs to the FBI after one of their own becomes an informant.

60. IRA suggester CPA
A certified public accountant (CPA) might advise one to open an Individual Retirement Account (IRA).

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Parlor action BETS
5. Dorm peer leaders: Abbr. RAS
8. Lidless container CARAFE
14. Palm that produces purple berries ACAI
15. CPR giver EMT
16. Missouri River city PIERRE
17. “You don’t look a day over 29,” probably WHITE LIE (giving “lie detector”)
19. One may use a teleprompter ORATOR
20. IM guffaw LOL
21. Hustled RACED
23. Points in math class LOCI
24. Didn’t come to pass WENT UP IN SMOKE (giving “smoke detector”)
28. Chorus for the villain HISSES
29. “Dang!” NUTS!
30. Fellow GENT
31. Drink with sushi SAKE
32. Cow or sow SHE
35. Flooring phrase PEDAL TO THE METAL (giving “metal detector”)
40. Promos ADS
41. General organization? ARMY
42. Tetra holder TANK
43. Reining word WHOA!
44. “Given the circumstances …” AS IT IS …
47. So as not to be noticed UNDER THE RADAR (giving “radar detector”)
51. Stories of the ages LORE
52. Invalidate ANNUL
53. Vacation destination SPA
56. Wanted badly CRAVED
59. Device for exposing the end of 17-, 24-, 35- or 47-Across DETECTOR
61. __ Pie ESKIMO
62. Great Basin native UTE
63. Orkin victim PEST
64. Pull out of the water REEL IN
65. TD’s half-dozen PTS
66. Gorillas, e.g. APES

Down
1. Go through a lot of tissues BAWL
2. Tunnel effect ECHO
3. Help from behind TAILWINDS
4. Gather dust SIT
5. “I can __” RELATE
6. __ curiae: friend of the court AMICUS
7. Tough to climb STEEP
8. Nav. noncom CPO
9. Word before base or ball AIR
10. Kingdoms REALMS
11. Skywalker associate, familiarly ARTOO
12. Monastic garment FROCK
13. Inducing the willies EERIE
18. Sea eagles ERNS
22. Kitchen dweller of song DINAH
25. Spanish 101 verb ESTA
26. Cook quickly, in a way NUKE
27. Half-note feature STEM
28. Obey HEED
30. Campus no. GPA
31. Farm home STY
32. Unit between levels STAIRSTEP
33. Prince in “Frozen” HANS
34. Large grazer ELK
36. Cowardly Lion player LAHR
37. Bouncy pace TROT
38. Missouri River city OMAHA
39. Sundance Kid’s girlfriend ETTA
43. Boll eater WEEVIL
44. Actor Will of “The Lego Movie” ARNETT
45. Many diner dishes SAUTES
46. Not working IDLE
47. Stress-related ailment, possibly ULCER
48. Language on a longship NORSE
49. 16th-century circumnavigator DRAKE
50. Turn out END UP
54. Prepare for a shot POSE
55. Song and dance ARTS
57. Former Abbey Road Studios owner EMI
58. “GoodFellas” boss DON
60. IRA suggester CPA

Return to top of page