Day: May 21, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Co. with brown trucks : UPS
United Parcel Service (UPS) is based in Sandy Springs, Georgia and has its own airline that operates out of Louisville, Kentucky.

14. Vietnamese holiday : TET
The full name for the New Year holiday in Vietnam is Tet Nguyen Dan, meaning “Feast of the First Morning”. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.

15. Yale or Root : ELIHU
Elihu Yale was a wealthy merchant born in Boston in 1649. Yale worked for the British East India Company, and for many years served as governor of a settlement at Madras (now Chennai) in India. After India, Yale took over his father’s estate near Wrexham in Wales. It was while resident in Wrexham that Yale responded to a request for financial support for the Collegiate School of Connecticut in 1701. He sent the school a donation, which was used to erect a new building in New Haven that was named “Yale” in his honor. In 1718, the whole school was renamed to “Yale College”. To this day, students of Yale are nicknamed “Elis”, again honoring Elihu.

Elihu Root was an American statesman, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912 for his diplomatic work that brought “nations together through arbitration and cooperation”. Root served as Secretary of State under President Theodore Roosevelt.

18. *Sculling competition craft : RACING SHELL
A scull is a boat used for competitive rowing. The main hull of the boat is often referred to as a shell.

20. “Toreador Song” opera : CARMEN
Georg Bizet was a French composer active in the Romantic era. Bizet’s most famous work has to be his opera “Carmen”. “Carmen” initially received a lukewarm reception from the public, even though his fellow composers had nothing but praise for it. Sadly Bizet died at only 36 years of age, before he could see “Carmen’s” tremendous success.

“Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre” is more commonly called “The Toreador Song”, and is one of the most famous arias in Georges Bizet’s opera “Carmen”. “Toreador” is an old Spanish word for a bullfighter, but it’s a term not used any more in Spain nor in Latin America. In English we use the term “toreador”, but in Spanish a bullfighter is a “torero”.

22. Cheers for Escamillo in 20-Across : OLES
In Bizet’s opera “Carmen”, the title character falls in love with a glamorous toreador (bullfighter) named Escamillo.

28. *”Support our troops” symbol : YELLOW RIBBON
A yellow ribbon is symbolically worn by people awaiting the return of a loved one, usually from military service overseas, but also from a penal institution. The tradition dates back to the English Civil War (1642-1651). The Puritan Army that supported the English Parliament wore yellow ribbons when going into battle.

33. Singer Guthrie : ARLO
Arlo Guthrie is the son of Woody Guthrie. Both father and son are renowned for their singing of protest songs about social injustice. Arlo is most famous for his epic “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”, a song that lasts a full 18m 34s. In the song Guthrie tells how, after being drafted, he was rejected for service in the Vietnam War based on his criminal record. He had only one incident on his public record, a Thanksgiving Day arrest for littering and being a public nuisance when he was 18-years-old.

36. Historic women’s gp. : DAR
In order to be a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), an applicant has to prove that she is a descendant of someone closely associated with, and supportive of, the American Revolution.

37. Comic actor Dudley : MOORE
The comic actor Dudley Moore was perhaps most famous in his homeland of the UK as half of a groundbreaking comedy duo called simply Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. Relatively late in his career, Moore broke into Hollywood with a supporting role in “Foul Play” (1978) and a leading role in “10” (1979) and “Arthur” (1981). Moore was also a highly accomplished piano player and gave many concert performances.

39. New Jersey port with a bridge to Staten Island : BAYONNE
The city of Bayonne, New Jersey is situated next to Jersey City and connects to Staten Island via the Bayonne Bridge that spans the tidal strait known as the Kill Van Kull.

45. Prefix with -lithic : NEO
A neolith is a stone tool that was produced during the Neolithic Era, the last part of the Stone Age.

59. Lady of Lisbon : DONA
In Portugal a title of respect for men is “Dom”. The equivalent female title is “Dona”.

Lisbon is the capital of Portugal. Lisbon is the westernmost capital city in Europe, and indeed is the westernmost large city on the continent. It is also the oldest city in Western Europe and is hundreds of years older than London, Paris and Rome.

61. Freeport’s “Grand” island : BAHAMA
Freeport is a port city on the island of Grand Bahama, and is the second largest city in the Bahamas (after the capital Nassau).

65. “Pygmalion” playwright’s initials : GBS
George Bernard Shaw was a very successful Irish playwright. Shaw is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature, and an Oscar. He won his Oscar for adapting his own play “Pygmalion” for the 1938 film of the same name starring Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller. Most people are more likely to have seen the musical adaptation of “Pygmalion” that went by the title “My Fair Lady”.

66. Els with tees : ERNIE
Ernie Els is a South African golfer. Els a big guy but he has an easy fluid golf swing that has earned him the nickname “The Big Easy”. He has a child who suffers from autism and so Els has been very effective in raising money for charities that focus on the condition.

67. Big name in metal wrap : ALCOA
The Aluminum Corporation of America (ALCOA) is the largest producer of aluminum in the United States. The company was founded in 1888 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where its headquarters are to this day.

69. Buddies, in slang : PEEPS
“Peeps” is a slang term for one’s associates or friends, one’s “people”.

70. British comedian Gervais : RICKY
I’d say that in North America, comedian Ricky Gervais is best known as the writer and lead actor in the original version of the TV show “The Office”. Gervais’s role was taken on by Michael Scott in the US rendition of the sitcom. “The Office” just finished its run here in the US, but there is a German version that is still going strong and there is a Chinese version in the works.

Down
1. Seat of New York’s Oneida County : UTICA
Today, Utica in New York is known as “Second Chance City” due to the recent influx of refugees from war-torn parts of the world, and from Bosnia in particular. These immigrants have helped revitalize the area and reverse a trend of population loss.

5. Hawkeye Pierce portrayer : ALAN ALDA
Alan Alda had a great television career, especially of course on “M*A*S*H”. Alda won his first Emmy in 1972, for playing Hawkeye Pierce on “M*A*S*H”. He won his most recent Emmy in 2006 for his portrayal of Presidential candidate Arnold Vinick in “The West Wing”. When it comes to the big screen, my favorite of Alda’s movies is the 1978 romantic comedy “Same Time, Next Year” in which he starred opposite Ellen Burstyn.

6. London’s Old __ : VIC
The Old Vic is a very famous theater (or I should I say “theatre”?) in London, previously known as the Royal Coburg Theatre and then the Royal Victorian Theatre (giving it the current name “The Old Vic”). The theater owes a lot of its fame and standing to the fact that it housed the National Theater of Great Britain after it was founded in 1963 by Sir Laurence Olivier. Today the National Theater has new, modern premises, but the Old Vic Theatre Company stills garners a lot of attention. The current, and very energetic, artistic director of the company is American actor, Kevin Spacey.

7. Buckeye State : OHIO
Ohio is sometimes referred to as the Buckeye State, taking the name from the state tree. In turn, the buckeye tree gets its name from the appearance of its fruit, a dark nut with a light patch, thought to resemble a “buck’s eye”.

11. GRE practice : PREP
Passing the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

12. One-named soccer immortal : PELE
Pelé is the nickname of Edson de Nascimento, a soccer player who has used the name Pelé for most of his life. Pelé is now retired, and for my money was the world’s greatest ever player of the game. He is the only person to have been part of three World Cup winning squads, and is a national treasure in his native Brazil.

13. Website with restaurant reviews : YELP
yelp.com is a website that provides a local business directory and reviews of services. The site is sort of like Yellow Pages on steroids, and the term “yelp” is derived from “yel-low p-ages”.

21. BLT dressing : MAYO
Mayonnaise originated in the town of Mahon in Menorca, a Mediterranean island belonging to Spain. The Spanish called the sauce “salsa mahonesa” after the town, and this morphed into the French word “mayonnaise” that we use in English today.

The BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) is the second most popular sandwich in the US, after the plain old ham sandwich.

25. Medium for some animators : CLAY
Clay animation is also known as “claymation”, and has been around since the early 1900s.

27. “Game of Thrones” network : HBO
HBO’s “Game of Thrones” is a fantasy television drama that was adapted from a series of novels by George R. R. Martin called “A Song of Ice and Fire”. “Game of Thrones” is actually made in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

29. Maine campus town : ORONO
The town of Orono is home to the University of Maine, founded in 1862. The college is actually located on an island (Marsh island) lying between the Penobscot and Stillwater rivers. The town of Orono is named after Joseph Orono, a chief of the Penobscot Nation.

31. Like Sabin’s polio vaccine : ORAL
Albert Sabin developed the oral polio vaccine. Sabin’s vaccine was a “live” controlled vaccine. The equally famous Salk vaccine was a “killed” vaccine.

32. Bank teller’s cry : NEXT
“To tell” can mean “to count”, as in “telling one’s blessings” and “there are 16, all told”. This usage of the word “tell” gives us the term “bank teller”.

33. Outlet letters : AC/DC
If you have a laptop with an external power supply then that big “block” is an AC/DC converter. It converts the AC current you get from a wall socket into the DC current that is used by the laptop.

35. First name in jeans : LEVI
Levi Strauss was the founder of the first company in the world to manufacture blue jeans. Levi Strauss & Co. opened in 1853 in San Francisco. Strauss and his business partner were awarded a patent in 1873 for the use of copper rivets to strengthen points of strain on working pants.

44. Much-hyped NASDAQ event for Facebook : IPO
An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is the very first offer of stock for sale by a company on the open market. In other words, an IPO marks the first time that a company is traded on a public exchange. Companies have an IPO to raise capital to expand (usually).

48. Cpls. and sgts. : NCOS
An NCO is a non-commissioned officer in the armed forces. Usually such an officer is one who has earned his or her rank by promotion through the enlisted ranks. A good example would be a sergeant.

54. “Raw” pigment : UMBER
Umber is an earthy, brown shade, and originally described a pigment made from earth found in Umbria, the region in central Italy. Similarly, the shade of “sienna” was originally a pigment made from earth found around Siena in Tuscany.

57. Famille patriarch : PERE
In French, a father (père) has an important role in a family (famille).

58. Writing sister of Emily and Charlotte : ANNE
Anne was the youngest of the three sisters in the literary Brontë family. Her older sisters wrote novels that are more recognized, but Anne’s two novels do have a following. “Agnes Grey” is based on her own experiences working as a governess. Her other novel, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” is written as a long letter from a young man describing the events leading up to his first meeting with his wife-to-be. Anne Brontë’s writing career was cut short in 1849, when she died of pulmonary tuberculosis, at only 29 years of age.

64. Send covertly, as a dupe email : BCC
A blind carbon copy (bcc) is a copy of a document or message that is sent to someone without other recipients of the message knowing about that extra copy.

I wonder do the kids of today know that “cc” stands for carbon copy, and do they have any idea what a carbon copy was? Do you remember how messy carbon paper was to handle?

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Co. with brown trucks : UPS
4. Eat with relish : SAVOR
9. Brand-new barker : PUPPY
14. Vietnamese holiday : TET
15. Yale or Root : ELIHU
16. Be in harmony : AGREE
17. Fiancé’s last words? : I DO
18. *Sculling competition craft : RACING SHELL
20. “Toreador Song” opera : CARMEN
22. Cheers for Escamillo in 20-Across : OLES
23. Zing : PEP
24. Annual fact book : ALMANAC
26. __ of office : OATH
28. *”Support our troops” symbol : YELLOW RIBBON
33. Singer Guthrie : ARLO
36. Historic women’s gp. : DAR
37. Comic actor Dudley : MOORE
38. Middling mark : CEE
39. New Jersey port with a bridge to Staten Island : BAYONNE
42. Slipshod : LAX
43. “Speak of the __!” : DEVIL
45. Prefix with -lithic : NEO
46. Liquefy : MELT
47. *Convenient neckwear : CLIP-ON BOWTIE
51. Without repetition : ONCE
52. Develop stage fright, say : TENSE UP
56. “Me time” resort : SPA
59. Lady of Lisbon : DONA
61. Freeport’s “Grand” island : BAHAMA
62. *Disorder on the court : TENNIS ELBOW
65. “Pygmalion” playwright’s initials : GBS
66. Els with tees : ERNIE
67. Big name in metal wrap : ALCOA
68. Permit : LET
69. Buddies, in slang : PEEPS
70. British comedian Gervais : RICKY
71. History chapter : ERA

Down
1. Seat of New York’s Oneida County : UTICA
2. Sewing machine lever : PEDAL
3. Thunder source : STORM
4. Cool and collected : SERENE
5. Hawkeye Pierce portrayer : ALAN ALDA
6. London’s Old __ : VIC
7. Buckeye State : OHIO
8. Get close to “Empty” : RUN LOW
9. Fritter away the hours : PASS TIME
10. “Blech!” : UGH
11. GRE practice : PREP
12. One-named soccer immortal : PELE
13. Website with restaurant reviews : YELP
19. Transmission choice : GEAR
21. BLT dressing : MAYO
25. Medium for some animators : CLAY
27. “Game of Thrones” network : HBO
29. Maine campus town : ORONO
30. Tree trunk : BOLE
31. Like Sabin’s polio vaccine : ORAL
32. Bank teller’s cry : NEXT
33. Outlet letters : AC/DC
34. Lively dance : REEL
35. First name in jeans : LEVI
39. Brownies with brown sugar in place of chocolate : BLONDIES
40. Pond critter : NEWT
41. Small laptop : NOTEBOOK
44. Much-hyped NASDAQ event for Facebook : IPO
46. Fry basket material : MESH
48. Cpls. and sgts. : NCOS
49. Remain close to : BE NEAR
50. Sort of : IN A WAY
53. Soaring hunter : EAGLE
54. “Raw” pigment : UMBER
55. Food found in the shapes at the ends of the answers to starred clues : PASTA
56. Staircase part : STEP
57. Famille patriarch : PERE
58. Writing sister of Emily and Charlotte : ANNE
60. “That’s __ need!” : ALL I
63. __ in the bud : NIP
64. Send covertly, as a dupe email : BCC

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