Day: May 18, 2016

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
6. Place for a chicken COOP
An Old English word for basket (“cypa”) started to be used in the 14th century as the word “coop”, meaning a small cage for poultry, a word we still use today.

10. Herring prized for its roe SHAD
The shad is also known as the river herring. The eggs (roe) of the female shad are prized as a delicacy in the Eastern US.

17. With 59-Across, words from a fictional mariner … and a hint to both parts of 26-, 31-, 42- and 47-Across WATER, WATER, …
(59A. See 17-Across … EVERY WHERE)
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is an epic poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge first published in 1798. The publication of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is said to mark the beginning of the Romantic period of British literature. Perhaps the lines most often quoted from the poem are:

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where
Nor any drop to drink

19. Any minute now, to a bard ANON
“Anon” originally meant “at once” and evolved into today’s meaning of “soon” apparently just because the word was misused over time.

20. Tampa-to-Jacksonville dir. NNE
The Florida city of Tampa has been known as the Big Guava since the seventies. The term is imitative of New York’s “Big Apple”, and refers to the unsuccessful search for the reported wild guava trees that were once hoped to be the basis of a new industry for the area.

The port city of Jacksonville, Florida is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States (four cities in Alaska cover more land). Jacksonville was named in honor of President Andrew Jackson.

21. Frosty coat HOAR
The Old English word “har” meant “gray, venerable, old”, and came into English as “hoar” (and later “hoary”) with the same meaning. The term “hoar-frost” dates back to the 13th century, and reflects the similarity of the white feathers of frost to the gray/white of an old man’s beard.

22. Fern-to-be SPORE
Ferns are unlike mosses, in that they have xylem and phloem, making them vascular plants. They also have stems, leaves and roots, but they do not have seeds and flowers, and reproduce using spores. Spores differ from seeds in that they have very little stored food.

23. Criticize sneakily SNIPE
“To snipe” is to attack with snide criticism, especially from a safe distance. This usage of the term is an extension of the older meaning, to take a shot from a hidden position (as in “sniper”). Such a shot was originally taken when hunting the game birds called “snipes”.

34. Astronaut Grissom GUS
Gus Grissom was the second American to fly in space, and the first astronaut at NASA to make two space flights. Sadly, Grissom was one of the three astronauts who died in a terrible launch pad fire in 1967.

38. __-Locka, Florida OPA
Opa-Locka is a rather interesting city in Florida. Opa-Locka is located near Miami, and has a themed city plan that is based on “One Thousand and One Nights”. The city hall has a very Arabian look, and some examples of street names are Ali Baba Avenue and Sesame Street.

42. Reaganomics term SUPPLY-SIDE (giving “water supply” & “waterside”)
The theory of supply-side economics holds that economic growth is best-promoted by investing in capital, and by making it easy for goods and services to be delivered to potential customers. The idea is that consumers will respond to the ready availability of products and services at lower prices and will spend. In turn, suppliers reinvest in businesses, creating more jobs and more spending power.

The economic policies promoted by the Reagan administration in the eighties came to be known as “Reaganomics”. The policy had four main elements:

1. Reduction in the growth of government spending
2. Reduction in the rate of federal income tax and capital gains tax
3. Reduction in government regulation
4. Tightening of the money supply

44. __ Kan: Alpo rival KAL
The brand name “Whiskas” has been used for cat food since 1988, but the product itself has been made in McLean, Virginia since 1936. For decades it was sold under the name “Kal Kan”.

Alpo is a brand of dog food first produced by Allen Products in 1936, with “Alpo” being an abbreviation for “Allen Products”. Lorne Greene used to push Alpo in television spots, as did Ed McMahon and Garfield the Cat, would you believe?

46. Fit as a fiddle and tough as nails SIMILES
Someone who is “as fit as a fiddle” is very fit, very well. When the idiom was coined around 1600, the phrase meant “suitable for purpose” as “fit” was more often used in that sense.

47. Primary entrance MAIN GATE (giving “water main” & “Watergate”)
The Watergate scandal is so named because it involved a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. The Watergate complex is made up of five units, three of which are apartment buildings, one an office building, and one a hotel-office building (which housed the DNC headquarters).

52. Exams for would-be attys. LSATS
The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) has been around since 1948.

53. Shore eagles ERNES
The ern (also erne) is also called the white-tailed eagle or sea-eagle.

56. Dick’s wife, twice LIZ
Actress Elizabeth Taylor married eight times, to seven husbands. Those marriages were to:

– Conrad “Nicky” Hilton, the young hotel heir
– Michael Wilding, the English actor
– Mike Todd, the film and stage producer
– Eddie Fisher, the singer
– Richard Burton (twice), the Welsh actor
– John Warner, who went on to become a US Senator for Virginia
– Larry Fortensky, a construction worker whom Taylor met at the Betty Ford Clinic

58. __-Seltzer ALKA
Alka-Seltzer is a brand of fizzy antacid that has been marketed since 1931. In terms of ingredients, it is a mix of sodium bicarbonate, aspirin and anhydrous citric acid.

64. Conundrum POSER
“Conundrum” is a relatively new word, even though it sounds like Latin. It was coined in the late 16th century in Oxford University, England as slang, pseudo-Latin word meaning “pedant”. Somehow, this meaning evolved into “riddle, puzzle” in the late 18th century.

66. __ buco: veal dish OSSO
“Osso” is the Italian word for bone as in the name of the dish Osso Buco: braised veal shanks.

Down
4. Nice season? ETE
In French, the season of “été” (summer) starts in “juin” (June).

The French city of Nice is on the Mediterranean coast in the southeast of the country. Although Nice is only the fifth most populous city in France, it is home to the busiest airport outside of Paris. That’s because of all the tourists flocking to the French Riviera.

6. “Ta-ta” CIAO
“Ciao” is the Italian for “‘bye”. “Arrivederci” is more formal, and translates as “goodbye”.

An Englishman might say “ta-ta” or “cheerio” instead of “goodbye”. Well, supposedly so …

8. Ferrell’s “SNL” cheerleading partner OTERI
Cheri Oteri was the “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) cast member who regularly appeared with Will Ferrell in the skit featuring a pair of Spartan cheerleaders.

11. Onetime capital of French Indochina HANOI
Hanoi was the capital of North Vietnam, and Saigon the capital of South Vietnam. After the Vietnam War, Hanoi was made capital of the reunified state. Saigon, the larger metropolis, was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi is located in the delta of the Red River, and is just over 50 miles from the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea.

France possessed a group of colonies in Southeast Asia from 1887 to 1954 that was collectively referred to as French Indochina. The colonies included much of modern-day Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

18. Puppy WHELP
A whelp is a young dog, and also a young wolf, bear, lion, tiger and seal. The term has largely been replaced by “pup” or “puppy”.

22. Masters and Johnson subject SEX
William Masters and Virginia Johnson were two research partners famous for their investigation into human sexual response. The duo worked together from 1957 until the nineties at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

24. Agenda line ITEM
“Agenda” is a Latin word that translates as “things to be done”, coming from the verb “agere” meaning “to do”.

27. First lady after Lady Bird PAT
Pat Nixon was the First Lady of the US from 1969 to 1974. Nixon was born in Ely, Nevada and named Thelma Catherine Ryan. The future First Lady’s Irish father gave her the nickname “Pat” because she was born on March 16th, the day before St. Patrick’s Day.

President Lyndon Johnson’s wife Claudia Alta Taylor was named after her mother’s brother Claud. Taylor’s more familiar name came from her childhood nurse Alice Tittle, who remarked that as a little baby Claudia was “purty as a ladybird”. A ladybird is what we call a ladybug on the other side of the Atlantic. So, the moniker Lady Bird stuck with the future First Lady throughout her life.

28. Suntan lotion numbers, briefly SPFS
In theory, the sun protection factor (SPF) is a calibrated measure of the effectiveness of a sunscreen in protecting the skin from harmful UV rays. The idea is that if you wear a lotion with say SPF 20, then it takes 20 times as much UV radiation to cause the skin to burn than it would take without protection. I say just stay out of the sun …

29. Baseball’s Matty or Felipe ALOU
Matty Alou played major league baseball, as did his brothers Jesus and Felipe, and as did Felipe’s son, Moises.

32. Droid download APP
The Droid is a smartphone from Motorola that is noted for running Google’s Android operating system.

36. Fr. holy women STES
“Sainte” (ste.) is French for “saint”, when referring to a female.

39. Places with rings and horses GYMS
Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed.

40. Massive land mass ASIA
Most of the world’s population lives in Asia (60%), and Asia is the largest continent in terms of landmass (30% of the world). Asia also has the highest population density (246 people per square mile), and the most populous city on the continent is Shanghai, China.

42. Gp. that kidnapped Patty Hearst SLA
The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) was founded in 1973 by an escapee of the prison system, Donald DeFreeze. The group’s manifesto promoted the rights of African Americans although, in the 2-3 year life of the group, DeFreeze was the only black member. Famously, the SLA kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst in 1974. Hearst apparently fell victim to what is called the Stockholm syndrome and became sympathetic to her captors’ cause. She joined the SLA and assumed the name “Tania”.

43. Big name in pharmaceuticals LILLY
Eli Lilly is the largest corporation in the state of Indiana. The founder Eli Lilly was a veteran of the Union Army in the Civil War, and a failed Mississippi plantation owner. Later in life he returned to his first profession and opened a pharmaceutical operation to manufacture drugs and sell them wholesale. Under Lilly’s early guidance, the company was the first to create gelatin capsules to hold medicines and the first to use fruit flavoring in liquid medicines.

45. Top prosecutors: Abbr. AGS
Attorneys General (AGs) head up the Department of Justice (DOJ). When the office of the Attorney General was created in 1789 it was a part-time job, with no departmental support. The Department of Justice came into being in 1870.

47. Maryland’s Fort __ MEADE
Fort George G. Meade is located near Odenton, Maryland and is most famous these days as the location of the headquarters of the National Security Agency (NSA).

48. “Over the Rainbow” composer Harold ARLEN
Harold Arlen is a composer of popular music who will forever be associated with his composition “Over the Rainbow” from the movie “The Wizard of Oz”. Arlen also composed the music to “Come Rain or Come Shine”, “It’s Only a Paper Moon”, “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” and the wonderful “Stormy Weather”.

“Over the Rainbow” is a classic song written especially for the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz”. It was sung by the young Judy Garland (Dorothy) in the film, and it was to become her signature song. There is an introductory verse that wasn’t used in the movie, and is very rarely heard:

When all the world is a hopeless jumble
And the raindrops tumble all around,
Heaven opens a magic lane
When all the clouds darken up the skyway,
There’s a rainbow highway to be found
Leading from your window pane
To a place behind the sun,
Just a step beyond the rain.

There is also a second chorus that was intended to be in the movie, but it ended up on the cutting room floor:

Someday I’ll wake and rub my eyes
And in that land beyond the skies,
You’ll find me
I’ll be a laughing daffodil
And leave the silly cares that fill
My mind behind me.

50. DVR devices TIVOS
TiVo was introduced in 1999 and was the world’s first commercially successful DVR (Digital Video Recorder).

55. Treat often split OREO
There’s an iPhone app featuring the Oreo cookie. It’s a game in which one twists Oreo cookies apart, “licks” the cream from the center and then dunks the remainder of the cookie in a glass of milk.

60. Typing meas. WPM
Words per minute (WPM)

61. __ polloi HOI
“Hoi polloi” is a Greek term, literally meaning “the majority, the many”. In English, “hoi polloi” has come to mean “the masses” and is often used in a derogatory sense.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Pricey STEEP
6. Place for a chicken COOP
10. Herring prized for its roe SHAD
14. Use a lectern ORATE
15. A fan of INTO
16. Tortilla snack TACO
17. With 59-Across, words from a fictional mariner … and a hint to both parts of 26-, 31-, 42- and 47-Across WATER, WATER, …
19. Any minute now, to a bard ANON
20. Tampa-to-Jacksonville dir. NNE
21. Frosty coat HOAR
22. Fern-to-be SPORE
23. Criticize sneakily SNIPE
26. Oil conduit PIPELINE (giving “water pipe” & “waterline”)
28. Chef’s tool SPATULA
30. Fire, or fire-fighting tool AXE
31. Electricity source POWER PLANT (giving “water power” & “water plant”)
34. Astronaut Grissom GUS
37. Incriminate with false evidence FRAME
38. __-Locka, Florida OPA
39. Emaciated GAUNT
41. Messy spot STY
42. Reaganomics term SUPPLY-SIDE (giving “water supply” & “waterside”)
44. __ Kan: Alpo rival KAL
46. Fit as a fiddle and tough as nails SIMILES
47. Primary entrance MAIN GATE (giving “water main” & “Watergate”)
52. Exams for would-be attys. LSATS
53. Shore eagles ERNES
54. Object of worship IDOL
56. Dick’s wife, twice LIZ
58. __-Seltzer ALKA
59. See 17-Across … EVERY WHERE
62. Safe document DEED
63. Left GONE
64. Conundrum POSER
65. They may be split or tight ENDS
66. __ buco: veal dish OSSO
67. Make a mess of MISDO

Down
1. Seeded SOWN
2. Convey TRANSPORT
3. Completely eroded EATEN AWAY
4. Nice season? ETE
5. Part of 60-Down PER
6. “Ta-ta” CIAO
7. Coming up next ON TAP
8. Ferrell’s “SNL” cheerleading partner OTERI
9. __ favor: Pedro’s “please” POR
10. Paper clip alternative STAPLE
11. Onetime capital of French Indochina HANOI
12. Oak nut ACORN
13. Charity, say DONEE
18. Puppy WHELP
22. Masters and Johnson subject SEX
24. Agenda line ITEM
25. Partner of simple PURE
27. First lady after Lady Bird PAT
28. Suntan lotion numbers, briefly SPFS
29. Baseball’s Matty or Felipe ALOU
32. Droid download APP
33. Snoozes NAPS
34. Free from blame GUILTLESS
35. Not wanted UNDESIRED
36. Fr. holy women STES
39. Places with rings and horses GYMS
40. Massive land mass ASIA
42. Gp. that kidnapped Patty Hearst SLA
43. Big name in pharmaceuticals LILLY
44. Works on, as dough KNEADS
45. Top prosecutors: Abbr. AGS
47. Maryland’s Fort __ MEADE
48. “Over the Rainbow” composer Harold ARLEN
49. Signed in pen INKED
50. DVR devices TIVOS
51. Blissful places EDENS
55. Treat often split OREO
57. Nothing ZERO
59. __ trip EGO
60. Typing meas. WPM
61. __ polloi HOI

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