Day: December 17, 2012

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
4. “Fiddler on the Roof” dairyman TEVYE
The enduring musical “Fiddler on the Roof” is based on a collection of stories by Sholem Aleichem about Tevye, a milkman in Tsarist Russia. The musical version of the tales first opened on Broadway in 1964. “Fiddler on the Roof” had such a long run that it became the first musical to reach 3,000 performances.

9. Hannibal crossed them ALPS
Hannibal was a military commander from Ancient Carthage. Hannibal lived during a time of great conflict between Carthage and the Roman Republic, as the Romans worked to extend their influence over the Mediterranean region. Famously, Hannibal took on Rome on their own territory by marching his army, including his war elephants, over the Alps into Italy. His forces occupied much of Italy for 15 years.

13. Author Fleming IAN
Ian Fleming is most famous of course for writing the “James Bond” series of spy novels. You might also know that he wrote the children’s story “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, which was made into a cute movie released in 1968 and even a stage musical that opened in 2002.

16. “Shakespeare in Love” Oscar winner JUDI DENCH
Dame Judi Dench is an outstanding English actress, known for decades in her home country mainly as a stage and television actress. Dench’s film career took off in the nineties with a relatively trivial role as “M” in the James Bond series of films. Since then she has played leading roles in several excellent movies including “Shakespeare in Love”, “Mrs. Brown” and “Notes on a Scandal”.

I found the 1998 movie “Shakespeare in Love” to be an entertaining romantic comedy, a fictional account of Shakespeare having a love affair while in the middle of writing his famous “Romeo and Juliet”. The great cast includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Colin Firth and Judi Dench, with Joseph Fiennes in the title role.

18. Ann __, Michigan ARBOR
Ann Arbor, Michigan was founded in 1824 by John Allen and Elisha Rumsey. Supposedly, the founders used the name “Annarbour” in recognition of stands of bur oak that were on the land they had purchased (“arbor”) and in recognition of their wives, both of whom were called “Ann”.

20. “Brian’s Song” actor James CAAN
James Caan is an actor from the Bronx in New York City. Caan is noted for his appearances in some very big movies such as “The Godfather”, “Misery”, “A Bridge Too Far”, “Rollerball” and more recently “Elf”. Caan is quite the sportsman. He plays golf with an 8 handicap, and is a 6-Dan Black Belt Master of Gosoku Karate.

22. Johannesburg’s land: Abbr. RSA
Johannesburg is the most populous city in South Africa. The city developed from a prospecting settlement, and was named after two surveyors: Johannes Meyer and Johannes Rissik.

24. “Pirates of the Caribbean” series star JOHNNY DEPP
Johnny Depp achieved initial fame as an actor on the TV series “21 Jump Street” that aired in the eighties. Depp’s first movie success came with the title role in the 1990 film “Edward Scissorhands”, although he also played a supporting role 1984’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street”.

The “Pirates of the Caribbean” series of films is of course based on the wonderful ride at the Disney theme parks. The first title in the series is “The Curse of the Black Pearl”, released in 2003. The film is remarkable in many ways, including the fact that it was the first Disney movie to be given a PG-13 rating.

30. Venus, e.g. PLANET
The planet Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky, after our Moon.

33. USPS pieces LTRS
The US Postal Service is a remarkable agency in many ways. For starters, the governments right and responsibility to establish the Post Office is specifically called out in Article One of the US constitution. Also, the first postmaster general was none other than Benjamin Franklin. And the US Postal Service operates over 200,000 vehicles, which is the largest vehicle fleet in the world.

34. The Yankee Clipper JOE DIMAGGIO
Joe DiMaggio was born not too far from here, in Martinez, California and was the son of Italian immigrants. The family moved to San Francisco when Joltin’ Joe was just a baby. Joe’s Dad was a fisherman, and it was his hope that all his sons would follow him into his trade. But Joe always felt sick at the smell of fish, so fishing’s loss was baseball’s gain.

37. ‘Vette roof option T-TOP
A T-top is a car roof that has removable panels on either side of a rigid bar that runs down the center of the vehicle above the driver.

40. Sea west of Greece IONIAN
The Ionian Sea is that part of the Mediterranean that lies between Greece and the southern part of Italy (under the sole of the “boot”). The Ionian Sea is one of the most seismically active areas on the planet.

44. Law school grads, briefly, and an apt title for this puzzle JDS
The law degree abbreviated to J.D. stands for Juris Doctor.

47. “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” author JOAN DIDION
Joan Didion is an American writer whose work expresses somewhat pessimistic views about contemporary society. Didion writes about social fragmentation, and believes that the media dictates how we live.

52. Nerve cell part AXON
A nerve cell is more correctly called a neuron, and the long nerve fiber that is part of a neuron is called the axon.

53. “It’s Not About the Bike” author Armstrong LANCE
Lance Armstrong is a former professional road racing cyclist. Famously, Armstrong won the Tour de France seven times in a row, an especially impressive feat as he is a testicular cancer survivor. However, in August 2012 Armstrong was stripped of his titles when he gave up his opposition to charges that he had used performance enhancing drugs.

56. “East of Eden” co-star JAMES DEAN
In his short life, James Dean starred in three great movies: “East of Eden”, “Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant”, for which he received two posthumous Best Actor Oscar nominations (the only person to do so). On a fateful day in September 1955, Dean set off in Porsche for a race in Salinas, California. While driving to the race he was given a speeding ticket. Two hours later Dean was involved in a near head-on collision and was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in Paso Robles, California.

60. Eye-fooling pictures OP ART
Op art is also known as optical art, and puts optical illusions to great effect.

61. First of a Latin threesome AMO
“Amo, amas, amat: … “I love, you love, he/she/it loves”, in Latin.

62. Periodic table fig. AT NO
The atomic number of an element is also called the proton number, and is the number of protons found in the nucleus of each atom of the element.

Down
1. Demi Moore military movie GI JANE
G.I. Joe was the original “action figure”, the first toy to carry that description. G.I. Joe first hit the shelves in 1964. There have been a few movies based on the G.I. Joe figure, but, more famous than all of them I would say is the 1997 movie “G.I. Jane” starring Demi Moore in the title role. I think this movie had some potential, to be honest, but it really did not deliver at all.

Demi Moore was born Demetria Guynes and took the name Demi Moore when she married her first husband, Freddy Moore. She changed her name to Demi Guynes Kutcher a few years after marrying her present husband (soon to be ex), Aston Kutcher. She still uses Demi Moore as her professional name.

2. Hardy’s comedy partner LAUREL
Stan Laurel was an English comic actor (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson), who made a great career for himself in Hollywood. Laurel ended up at the Hal Roach studio directing films, intent on pursuing a career in writing and directing. However, he was a sometime actor and was asked to step in when another comic actor, Oliver Hardy, was injured and couldn’t perform. Laurel and Hardy started to share a stage together during that time and when it was clear they worked so well together, their partnership was born. Oh, and the oft-quoted story that Clint Eastwood is the son of Stan Laurel … that’s just an urban myth.

8. Revolutionary Allen ETHAN
Ethan Allen was one of the founders of the state of Vermont. Allen was also a hero in the American Revolutionary War, famous for leading (along with Benedict Arnold) the small band of men that captured Fort Ticonderoga. And yes, the Ethan Allan store and furniture line is named for Ethan Allen the patriot.

10. Opera text LIBRETTO
“Libretto” is the diminutive form of “libro”, the Italian word for a book. We use “libretto” to mean the text used in a musical work, or perhaps the “book” of that musical work.

12. Colorful shawls SERAPES
“Serape” is the English pronunciation and spelling of the Spanish word “zarape”. A zarape is like a Mexican poncho, a soft woolen blanket with a whole in the middle for the head. Most have colorful designs that use traditional Mayan motifs.

15. Japanese electronics giant SANYO
Sanyo is a Japanese electronics manufacturer based near Osaka and founded in 1947. The company name means “three oceans” reflecting the company’s original aim to sell its products all around the world (across three oceans, the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian).

17. Squid’s squirt INK
Octopuses and squid have the ability to release a dark pigment into the water as a means of escape. The dark pigment is called cephalopod ink (the squid and octopus belong to the class cephalopod). The dark color is created by melanin, the same substance that acts as a pigment in human skin.

21. Formicarium insect ANT
“Formicarium” is the more formal name for an ant farm. “Formica” is the Latin word for “ant”.

24. “The Grapes of Wrath” surname JOAD
John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” is set during the Great Depression. The novel tells the story of the Joad family from Oklahoma, farmers who had to leave their home and head for California due to economic hardship.

25. Old Dodge hatchbacks OMNIS
The Dodge Omni was basically the same car as the Plymouth Horizon, and was produced by Chrysler from 1978-90. The Omni is a front-wheel drive hatchback, the first in a long line of front-wheel drive cars that were very successful for Chrysler. The Omni was actually developed in France, by Chrysler’s Simca division. When production was stopped in the US in 1990, the tooling was sold to an Indian company that continued production for the Asian market for several years.

26. Works by Salvador DALIS
The famous surrealist painter Salvador Dalí was born in Figueres, Spain. I had the privilege of visiting the Dalí Museum in Figueres some years ago, just north of Barcelona. If you ever get the chance, it’s a “must see” as it really is a quite magnificent building with a fascinating collection.

28. Cavs, on scoreboards CLE
The Cleveland Cavaliers are the professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavs joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1970.

31. CPR specialist 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.

32. Trendy aerobics regimen TAE BO
Tae Bo isn’t an ancient martial art, but was developed as a form of aerobic exercise in the 1990s. The discipline was introduced by taekwondo expert Billy Blanks who gave it the name Tae Bo, a melding of “taekwondo” and “boxing”.

34. Satirist Swift JONATHAN
Jonathan Swift was an Irish author and cleric. Swift is most famous perhaps for his 1726 novel “Gulliver’s Travels”, but we Irishmen remember him also as the Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. He was renowned for his wit and satire.

36. Prime meridian hrs. GMT
A meridian is a line of longitude, and the Prime Meridian is that line of longitude defined as 0 degrees. The Prime Meridian is also called the Greenwich Meridian as it passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in southeast London. Of course the line of longitude that is used to represent 0 degrees is an arbitrary decision. 25 nations formally decided in 1884 to use the Greenwich Meridian as 0 degrees as it was already a popular choice. That is all except the French, who abstained from the vote and used the Paris Meridian as 0 degrees on French charts for several decades.

37. Mexican border city TIJUANA
Tijuana is the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California, and lies just across the US-Mexico border from San Diego. Tijuana is also the most westerly of all Mexican cities. A lot of Tijuana’s growth took place in the twenties as tourists flocked south of the border during the days of prohibition in the US. One of the many casinos and hotels that flourished at that time was Hotel Caesar’s in the Avenida Revolución area. Hotel Caesar’s claims to be the birthplace of the now ubiquitous Caesar Salad.

41. Hersey’s bell town ADANO
“A Bell for Adano” is a novel written by John Hersey. Hersey’s story is about an Italian-American US Army officer named Major Joppolo, who found a replacement for a town’s bell stolen by fascists. “A Bell for Adano” was made into a film in 1945, the same year the novel won a Pulitzer.

42. Say no to NIX
The use of “nix” as a verb, meaning “to shoot down”, dates back to the early 1900s. Before that “nix” was just a noun meaning “nothing”. “Nix” comes from the German “nichts”, which also means “nothing”.

44. U.S. capital nearest the Arctic Circle JUNEAU
Given that it’s the capital of the vast state of Alaska, it is perhaps not surprising to learn that the municipality of Juneau is almost as big as the area of the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined, and yet has only a population of about 31,000 people!

46. Pool workers STENOS
Stenography is the process of writing in shorthand. The term comes from the Greek “steno” (narrow) and “graphe” (writing).

48. Judo schools DOJOS
The Japanese word dojo literally means “place of the way”. Originally the term applied to training halls that were found in or beside temples. The teaching in a dojo was not limited to the martial arts, but in the Western world we use the dojo as the name for a training facility for judo, karate and the like.

53. D-Day fleet LSTS
LST stands for Landing Ship, Tank. LSTs were the large vessels used mainly in WWII that had doors at either ends through which tanks and other vehicles could roll off and onto beaches. The design concept persists to this day in the huge fleet of commercial roll-on/roll-off car ferries, all inspired by the LST.

The most famous D-Day in history was June 6, 1944, the date of the Normandy landings in WWII. The term “D-Day” is used by the military to designate the day on which a combat operations are to be launched, especially when the actual date has yet to be determined. What D stands for seems to have been lost in the mists of time although the tradition is that D just stands for “Day”. In fact, the French have a similar term, “Jour J” (Day J), with a similar meaning. We also use H-Hour to denote the hour the attack is to commence.

55. Gen. Eisenhower’s arena: Abbr. ETO
Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE) was in command of the European Theater of Operations (ETO) during WWII. If you’re a WWII buff like me, then I recommend you take a look at a great, made-for-TV movie starring Tom Selleck as Eisenhower called “Ike: Countdown to D-Day” which came out in 2004.

57. Month after avril MAI
In French, the month of April (avril) comes before May (mai). Note that the French don’t capitalize the names of months as we do in English.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Mop & __: cleaning brand GLO
4. “Fiddler on the Roof” dairyman TEVYE
9. Hannibal crossed them ALPS
13. Author Fleming IAN
14. On __: counting calories A DIET
15. Cathedral topper SPIRE
16. “Shakespeare in Love” Oscar winner JUDI DENCH
18. Ann __, Michigan ARBOR
19. Sporting site ARENA
20. “Brian’s Song” actor James CAAN
22. Johannesburg’s land: Abbr. RSA
23. Part of a bottle NECK
24. “Pirates of the Caribbean” series star JOHNNY DEPP
27. Moose relative ELK
28. Cousin of edu COM
29. Perfectly TO A TEE
30. Venus, e.g. PLANET
33. USPS pieces LTRS
34. The Yankee Clipper JOE DIMAGGIO
37. ‘Vette roof option T-TOP
39. Cooks over boiling water STEAMS
40. Sea west of Greece IONIAN
43. Drill insert BIT
44. Law school grads, briefly, and an apt title for this puzzle JDS
47. “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” author JOAN DIDION
50. Song for two DUET
51. Final: Abbr. ULT
52. Nerve cell part AXON
53. “It’s Not About the Bike” author Armstrong LANCE
54. Pale ASHEN
56. “East of Eden” co-star JAMES DEAN
59. “Cool beans!” NEATO
60. Eye-fooling pictures OP ART
61. First of a Latin threesome AMO
62. Periodic table fig. AT NO
63. Uses a swizzle stick STIRS
64. Good times UPS

Down
1. Demi Moore military movie GI JANE
2. Hardy’s comedy partner LAUREL
3. Next to bat ON DECK
4. “I did it!” TADA
5. Suffix with stamp -EDE
6. Wine, on le menu VIN
7. ”That’s gross!” YECCH!
8. Revolutionary Allen ETHAN
9. Showery mo. APR
10. Opera text LIBRETTO
11. Flourish PROSPER
12. Colorful shawls SERAPES
15. Japanese electronics giant SANYO
17. Squid’s squirt INK
21. Formicarium insect ANT
24. “The Grapes of Wrath” surname JOAD
25. Old Dodge hatchbacks OMNIS
26. Works by Salvador DALIS
28. Cavs, on scoreboards CLE
30. Drop by POP IN
31. CPR specialist EMT
32. Trendy aerobics regimen TAE BO
34. Satirist Swift JONATHAN
35. Narrow the gap GAIN
36. Prime meridian hrs. GMT
37. Mexican border city TIJUANA
38. Gift for a handyman TOOL SET
41. Hersey’s bell town ADANO
42. Say no to NIX
44. U.S. capital nearest the Arctic Circle JUNEAU
45. Take down the tents and move on DECAMP
46. Pool workers STENOS
48. Judo schools DOJOS
49. Not suited INAPT
50. Youngster’s “play catch” partner DAD
53. D-Day fleet LSTS
55. Gen. Eisenhower’s arena: Abbr. ETO
57. Month after avril MAI
58. Go down the wrong path ERR

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