Day: February 12, 2015

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
6. Scale syllables LAS
The solfa syllables are: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la & ti. The solfa scale was developed from a six-note ascending scale created by Guido of Arezzo in the 11th century. He used the first verse of a Latin hymn to name the syllables of the scale:

Ut queant laxis resonāre fibris
Mira gestorum famuli tuorum,
Solve polluti labii reatum,
Sancte Iohannes.

The “ut” in this scale was changed to “do”, as it was a more “open ended” sound, and “si” was added (the initials of “Sancte Iohannes”) to complete the seven-note scale. Later again, “si” was changed to “ti” so that each syllable began with a unique letter.

14. Simple-living sect AMISH
The Amish are a group of Christian churches, a sub-group of the Mennonite churches. The Amish church originated in Switzerland and Alsace in 1693 when it was founded by Jakob Ammann. It was Ammann who gave the name to the Amish people. Many Amish people came to Pennsylvania in the 18th century.

16. Pope John Paul II’s given name KAROL
Pope John Paul II led the Catholic Church from 1978 until 2005, a period of over 26 years. That made him the second longest serving Pope in history, after Pius IX who reigned for over 31 years in the mid 1800s. Paradoxically, John Paul II’s predecessor was John Paul I who only ruled for 33 days. John Paul II was a native of Poland, and was the first non-Italian Pope to lead the church since 1523. His real name was Karol Wojtyla.

17. Warm-water ray MANTA
The manta ray is the biggest species of ray, with the largest one recorded at over 25 feet across and weighing 5,100 pounds.

18. Ziegfeld with follies FLO
Florenz “Flo” Ziegfeld, Jr. was the man behind the series of theatrical revues called the “Ziegfeld Follies”, as well as the producer of the musical “Show Boat”. The “Follies” shows were structured as imitations of the “Folies Bergère” cabaret shows of Paris.

19. Donald Jr.’s mom IVANA
Ivana Winklmayr was born in Czechoslovakia. Winklmayr was an excellent skier, and was named as an alternate for the 1982 Czech Olympic Team. She was promoting the Montreal Olympics in New York in 1976 when she met Donald Trump. Ivana and Donald’s marriage was very public and well-covered by the media, but not nearly so well as their very litigious divorce in 1990.

Donald Trump, Jr. is the eldest child of real estate mogul Donald Trump and his first wife Ivana Zelníčková. Donald, Jr. is an executive vice president in the Trump Organization. He also shows up from time to time on his father’s show “The Apprentice”.

20. One of the deadly sins ANGER
The cardinal sins of Christian ethics are also known as the seven deadly sins. The seven deadly sins are:

– wrath
– greed
– sloth
– pride
– lust
– envy
– gluttony

22. Four-time Emmy winner for Outstanding Drama Series LA LAW
“L.A. Law” ran on NBC from 1986 to 1994, and was one of the network’s most successful drama series. It took over from the equally successful “Hill Street Blues” in the Thursday night 10 p.m. slot until, after a six-year run, it was itself replaced by yet another respected drama, “E.R.” The opening credits showed that famous California licence plate. The plate was on a Jaguar XJ for most of the series, but moved onto a Bentley towards the end of the run. For each series the registration sticker was updated, so no laws were being broken.

23. Longtime Lehrer partner MACNEIL
Robert MacNeil is a retired Canadian journalist who co-anchored “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” on PBS for twenty years.

26. __ spoon GREASY
“Greasy spoon” is a familiar term for a restaurant, usually a diner, that is less than pristine and that serves cheap food.

29. Coniferous secretions RESINS
Coniferous trees are usually evergreen, and always bear cones (hence the name).

33. “The imperious __ breed monsters”: Shakespeare SEAS
“The imperious seas breed monsters” is a line from William Shakespeare’s play “Cymbeline”.

“Cymbeline” is an early play written by William Shakespeare that is classified these days as a romance. The play takes place in Ancient Britain and is inspired by legends of an early Celtic king called Cunobeline. The main character in the work is Cymbeline’s daughter Imogen, who secretly marries Posthumus Leonatus, someone in her father’s court. There is a movie in the works starring Ethan Hawke and Dakota Johnson.

34. New England food fish SCROD
Scrod is the name given to fish that has been “scrawed” i.e. split open, dried and then broiled.

38. Edible pockets PITAS
Pita is a lovely bread in Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines. Pita is usually round, and has a “pocket” in the center. The pocket is created by steam that puffs up the dough during cooking leaving a void when the bread cools. The pockets were a big hit in the seventies when someone came up with the idea of using them for fillings hence creating pita sandwiches or “pita pockets”.

40. Sign before Virgo LEO
Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 13 to August 23 are Leos.

42. Computer text code ASCII
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) lists codes for 32 “control” characters, as well as the 95 printable characters (like a, A, b, B, 1, 2, etc). These binary ASCII codes are the way that our computers can understand what we mean when we type say a letter or a number.

44. Bond’s car starter? ASTON
Aston Martin is a British car manufacturer, founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin. The Aston part of the company name comes from Aston Hill, a famous site for hill-climbing cars that is nearby the original factory. Aston Martin cars are much loved by the British entertainment industry. James Bond was equipped with an Aston Martin in “Goldfinger”, and Michael Caine drove one in the 1969 version of “The Italian Job”. Roger Moore’s character drove a yellow Aston Martin in the seventies television show “The Persuaders!”.

45. Pi-sigma link RHO
Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”.

46. “Life Is Good” rapper NAS
Rapper Nas used to go by another stage name, Nasty Nas, and before that by his real name, Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones. Nas released his first album “Illmatic” in 1994, and inventively titled his fifth studio album “Stillmatic”, released in 2001. Not my cup of tea, I would say …

48. Pig’s digs STY
“Digs” is short for “diggings” meaning “lodgings”. Where “diggings” came from, no one seems to know.

51. Broadway songwriting team __ and Ebb KANDER

John Kander was a composer whose most notable collaboration was with lyricist Fred Ebb. The Kander and Ebb team worked a lot with Liza Minnelli. Their first project together, a musical called “Flora the Red Menace”, won Minnelli a Tony. Their second project together was “Cabaret” which ran for three years, won eight Tony Awards and was adapted into a movie.

59. Start of a spell ABRA-
The incantation “abracadabra” has a long history. It was used as far back as the 2nd century AD in Ancient Rome when the word was prescribed by a physician to be worn on an amulet to help his emperor recover from disease. “Abracadabra” is Aramaic, and roughly translates as “I will create as I speak”.

61. Dome openings OCULI
Oculus (plural “oculi”) is the Latin word for “eye”, and is used in architecture for a circular window.

62. Melville’s Billy BUDD
“Billy Budd” is a novella by American author Herman Melville. However, Melville didn’t actually finish “Billy Budd” before he died in 1891.

65. China neighbor LAOS
The official name for the country of Laos is the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In the Lao language, the country’s name is “Meuang Lao”. The French ruled Laos as part of French Indochina, having united three separate Lao kingdoms. As there was a plural of “Lao” entities united into one, the French added the “S” and so today we tend to use “Laos” instead of “Lao”.

68. 1953 Caron film LILI
“Lili” is 1953 musical film starring Leslie Caron in the title role, a naive French orphan girl. A famous song from the movie is “Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo”.

The beautiful and talented French actress and dancer Leslie Caron is best known for her appearances in the classic Hollywood musical films “An American in Paris”, “Lili” and “Gigi”. Although I love the movie “Gigi”, my favorite of her performances is in the comedy war drama “Father Goose” in which she played opposite Cary Grant. Caron has danced with the best, including Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rudolf Nureyev.

70. Michaelmas mo. SEPT
“Michaelmas” is the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel, a day in the Western Christian calendar. Michaelmas is September 29th every year, and is associated with the beginning of fall.

Down
1. Priest from the East LAMA
“Lama” is a Tibetan word, meaning “chief” or “high priest”.

2. Mogadishu-born model IMAN
Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid is a supermodel from Somalia who goes simply by the name “Iman” these days. Iman is smart cookie. Imam has a degree in Political Science and is fluent in five languages: Somali, Arabic, Italian, French and English. Since 1992 Iman has been married to British rock star David Bowie.

Mogadishu is a major port city on the west coast of Africa, and is the capital of Somalia. The city is known locally as Xamar.

3. Wenceslaus, e.g. KING
“Good King Wenceslas” is one of my favorite Christmas carols. The main character in the carol is based on Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia. The lyrics were written by Englishman John Mason Neale and the tune is Scandinavian in origin. That’s quite a cultural mix, but it seems to work!

4. Acapulco-to-Oaxaca dirección ESTE
“Este” (east) is a “dirección” (direction), in Spanish.

The Mexican city of Acapulco is on the southwest coast of the country, in the state of Guerrero. The name “Acapulco” translates from the local language into “at the big reeds”.

Oaxaca (officially “Oaxaca de Juárez”) is the capital city of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, located in the south of the country.

5. Greg’s sitcom wife DHARMA
“Dharma & Greg” is a sitcom that aired from 1997 to 2002 on ABC. Greg and Dharma are a couple that married on their first date, despite being exact opposites in personality and upbringing.

7. C.S. Lewis lion ASLAN
In the C. S. Lewis series of books “The Chronicles of Narnia”, Aslan is the name of the lion character (as in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”). “Aslan” is actually the Turkish word for lion. Anyone who has read the books will recognize the the remarkable similarity between the story of Aslan and the story of Christ, including a sacrifice and resurrection.

9. Résumé essentials SKILLS
A résumé is a summary of a person’s job experience and education and is used as a tool by a job seeker. In many countries, a résumé is equivalent to a curriculum vitae. “Résumé” is the French word for “summary”.

10. “__ Nagila” HAVA
“Hava Nagila” is a Hebrew folk song, with the title translating into “Let Us Rejoice”. The melody is from a Ukrainian folk song. The words to “Hava Nagila” were composed in 1918 to celebrate the British victory in Palestine during WWI.

12. Chaplin granddaughter OONA
Oona Chaplin is an actress from Madrid in Spain. Chaplin is getting a lot of airtime these days as she plays Talisa Maegyr on HBO’s hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones”. Oona is the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, and is named for her maternal grandmother Oona O’Neill. the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill.

13. Diner side SLAW
The term “coleslaw” is an Anglicized version of the Dutch name “koolsla”, which in itself is a shortened form of “Koolsalade” meaning “cabbage salad”.

24. Animal in some of Aesop’s fables ASS
Aesop is remembered today for his famous fables. Aesop lived in Ancient Greece, probably around the sixth century BC. Supposedly he was born a slave, somehow became a free man, but then met with a sorry end. Aesop was sent to the city of Delphi on a diplomatic mission but instead insulted the Delphians. He was tried on a trumped-up charge of stealing from a temple, sentenced to death and was thrown off a cliff.

25. Mil. roadside hazard IED
Sadly, having spent much of my life in the border areas between southern and Northern Ireland, I am all too familiar with the devastating effects of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). One has to admire the bravery of soldiers who spend their careers defusing (or attempting to defuse) such devices in order to save the lives and property of others. Of course these days, IEDs are very much in the news in Iraq and Afghanistan.

26. Teahouse hostess GEISHA
The Japanese term “geisha” best translates as “artist” or “performing artist”.

28. Morales of “La Bamba” ESAI
Esai Morales is best known for his role in the 1987 movie “La Bamba”, which depicted the life of Ritchie Valens and his half-brother Bob Morales (played by Esai).

30. Pupil controller IRIS
The iris is the colored part of the eye with an aperture in the center that can open or close depending on the level of light hitting the eye.

The pupil of the eye is the “hole” located in the center of the iris through which light enters the retina. The term “pupil” came into English via French from the latin “pupilla”, which is the diminutive form of “pupa” meaning “girl, doll”. The term came about due to the tiny doll-like image that one can see of oneself when looking into the center of another’s eyes.

35. Baha’i, e.g.: Abbr. REL
The Baha’i Faith is relatively new in the grand scheme of things, and was founded in Persia in the 1800s. One of the tenets of the religion is that messengers have come from God over time, including Abraham, the Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, and most recently Bahá’u’lláh who founded the Baha’i Faith.

47. Composer Schoenberg ARNOLD
Arnold Schoenberg was a champion of the use of atonality in music. I admit to having a somewhat closed mind when it comes to atonality, so I have very little of his music in my collection.

57. Android media console brand QUBI
The qubi is a new media console that gets attached to a television. It is designed to compete with the Roku, Apple TV and the XBox. Qubi runs on the Android operating system from Google.

58. 1997 Fonda role ULEE
“Ulee’s Gold” is a highly respected film from 1997 in which Peter Fonda plays the title role of Ulee. Ulee’s “gold” is the honey that Ulee produces. It is a favorite role for Peter Fonda and he has shared that playing Ulee brought to mind his father Henry Fonda, who himself kept a couple of hives. So if you see Peter Fonda in “Ulee’s Gold” you’re witnessing some characteristics that Peter saw in his father.

60. Chinese-born actress __ Ling BAI
Bai Ling is a Chinese actress who moved to the US in 1994. Apparently Ling claims that she is from the moon, and that her grandmother still lives there …

63. Fist bump DAP
The dap is a form of handshake, nowadays often a complicated and showy routine of fist-bumps, slaps and shakes. Some say that “dap” is an acronym standing for “Dignity And Pride”.

64. Combo vaccine, for short DPT
The DPT vaccine is combination vaccine providing protection against diphtheria (D), pertussis (P, also known as whooping cough) and tetanus (T).

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Popular LIKED
6. Scale syllables LAS
9. Drives away SHOOS
14. Simple-living sect AMISH
15. Guitar attachment? -IST
16. Pope John Paul II’s given name KAROL
17. Warm-water ray MANTA
18. Ziegfeld with follies FLO
19. Donald Jr.’s mom IVANA
20. One of the deadly sins ANGER
21. What a flap may cover EAR
22. Four-time Emmy winner for Outstanding Drama Series LA LAW
23. Longtime Lehrer partner MACNEIL
26. __ spoon GREASY
29. Coniferous secretions RESINS
33. “The imperious __ breed monsters”: Shakespeare SEAS
34. New England food fish SCROD
36. Goes bad ROTS
38. Edible pockets PITAS
40. Sign before Virgo LEO
41. Canadian bottle size LITRE
42. Computer text code ASCII
43. Sturdy tree ELM
44. Bond’s car starter? ASTON
45. Pi-sigma link RHO
46. “Life Is Good” rapper NAS
48. Pig’s digs STY
50. Lacking a mate ODD
51. Broadway songwriting team __ and Ebb KANDER
53. Starts from scratch REDOES
55. Urban centers, and what this puzzle’s circles represent TOWN SQUARES
59. Start of a spell ABRA-
61. Dome openings OCULI
62. Melville’s Billy BUDD
65. China neighbor LAOS
66. Fabric information spot LABEL
67. Ruse TRAP
68. 1953 Caron film LILI
69. Helps with the dishes DRIES
70. Michaelmas mo. SEPT

Down
1. Priest from the East LAMA
2. Mogadishu-born model IMAN
3. Wenceslaus, e.g. KING
4. Acapulco-to-Oaxaca dirección ESTE
5. Greg’s sitcom wife DHARMA
6. Series of biological stages LIFE CYCLES
7. C.S. Lewis lion ASLAN
8. Shelf-restocking sources STOREROOMS
9. Résumé essentials SKILLS
10. “__ Nagila” HAVA
11. Unwritten ORAL
12. Chaplin granddaughter OONA
13. Diner side SLAW
24. Animal in some of Aesop’s fables ASS
25. Mil. roadside hazard IED
26. Teahouse hostess GEISHA
27. Certain exterminator’s concern RAT CONTROL
28. Morales of “La Bamba” ESAI
30. Pupil controller IRIS
31. Having second thoughts NOT TOO SURE
32. Took steps STRODE
33. Bit of inspiration SPARK
35. Baha’i, e.g.: Abbr. REL
37. Ships SENDS
39. Strength SINEW
41. Cake section LAYER
47. Composer Schoenberg ARNOLD
49. Gets behind TRAILS
52. “__ say!”: parental warning DO AS I
54. Results of getting behind DEBTS
56. Dueling memento SCAR
57. Android media console brand QUBI
58. 1997 Fonda role ULEE
59. The whole lot ALL
60. Chinese-born actress __ Ling BAI
63. Fist bump DAP
64. Combo vaccine, for short DPT

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