Day: September 20, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
4. 2000s HBO drama set in Utah BIG LOVE
“Big Love” is a very absorbing HBO drama series about a polygamous man and his three families trying to live a relatively “normal” life in Utah. The lead is played by Bill Paxton, and his first wife by Jeanne Tripplehorn. I recommend it for its entertainment value, but should point out that it has been frowned upon by some churches.

14. Longtime Parlophone record label owner EMI
EMI is a British music company, with the acronym originally standing for Electric and Musical Industries.

15. Valentine sender ADMIRER
Saint Valentine’s Day was chosen by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD to honor various martyrs with the name Valentine. However, the saints’ day was dropped by the Catholic church in 1969, by Pope Paul VI. Try telling that to Hallmark though …

20. 2002 World Series champs ANGELS
The Anaheim Angels are today more correctly called the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The “Angels” name dates back to 1961 when the team was founded in the “City of Angels”, Los Angeles. When the franchise moved to Anaheim in 1965 they were known as the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, and most recently the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim.

22. Author Carnegie DALE
Dale Carnegie wrote and lectured on self-improvement. His most famous book is “How to Win Friends and influence People”, which was first published in 1936. Carnegie made the clever move of changing the spelling of his family name from “Carnagey”. In so doing, he used the goodwill associated with the name of industrialist Andrew Carnegie who was much revered at the time, even though there was no relation. Dale even rented Carnegie Hall and delivered a lecture to a full house.

23. CPR provider 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.

27. AA TWELVE-STEP GROUP
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was founded in 1935, by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. As the organization grew, the guiding principles established by the founders were formatted into a 12-step program that was in place by the forties.

32. Venerable ref. OED
The “Oxford English Dictionary” (OED) contains over 300,000 “main” entries and 59 million words in total. It is said it would take a single person 120 years to type it out in full. The longest entry for one word in the second edition of the OED is the verb “set”. When the third edition was published in 2007, the longest entry for a single word became the verb “put”. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most-quoted author in the OED is William Shakespeare, with his most quoted work being “Hamlet”. The most-quoted female author is George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans).

35. Rosebud, notably SLED
A central plot line in the 1941 movie “Citizen Kane” is a newsreel reporter’s quest to find the meaning of the dying word spoken by the title character: “Rosebud”. Spoiler Alert … it is revealed at the end of the movie that “Rosebud” is the name of the sled used by Kane in his childhood, the only period in which he was really happy.

37. Good thing to pass MUSTER
“To pass muster” means “to be deemed acceptable”. One musters troops, often for inspection. So, the original meaning of “pass muster” was to “get through a military inspection successfully”.

40. When Bloomsday, which celebrates Joyce’s “Ulysses,” is observed JUNE
Regular readers will know that I am unashamedly supportive of my native Irish culture, but I have to tell you that I can’t handle the works of James Joyce. I have spent many a fine day traipsing around Ireland learning about his life, but I have yet to appreciate one of his books. To me, his life is more absorbing than his writing. Having said that, “Ulysses” is an interesting novel in that it chronicles just one ordinary day in the life of a Dubliner named Leopold Bloom. There’s a huge celebration of “Ulysses” in Dublin every year on June 16th, called Bloomsday. The festivities vary from readings and performances of the storyline, to good old pub crawls.

44. AAA US MOTORISTS CLUB
The American Automobile Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit organization focused on lobbying, provision of automobile servicing, and selling of automobile insurance. The AAA was founded in 1902 in Chicago and published the first of its celebrated hotel guides back in 1917.

48. 32-Across cousin of arch. OBS
(32A. Venerable ref. OED)
I think that the inference here is that the terms “archaic” and “obsolete” have the same or similar meanings, with “archaic” being used in an American dictionary where “obsolete” might be used in an English dictionary.

49. River through the Czech Republic ELBE
The River Elbe rises in the Czech Republic and travels over a thousand kilometers before emptying into the North Sea near the port of Hamburg in Germany.

50. Canadian brewery LABATT
The Labatt Brewing Company is the largest brewer in Canada. The company was founded by John K. Labatt in London, Ontario in 1847.

53. Doughboy’s helmet TIN HAT
The American soldiers that headed overseas during WWI wear often known as “doughboys”. The term had been used as early as the 1840s and persisted till WWII, when it was quickly replaced by “GI”. There are a number of theories about the origins of “doughboy”, but the exact etymology isn’t too clear.

55. AAAA VERY THIN BATTERY
Because batteries have been around for so long now, there were many different standards set for sizes and configurations by different countries. There is now an international standard which tries to bring as many of the old disparate standards together as possible. A AAAA battery is just over 4 cm long, and only 8.3 mm in diameter. Yep, it’s pretty tiny …

58. Prefix with tonic ISO-
“Isotonic” means “of equal tension” and is of Greek origin. There are two common uses of the term. Solutions of equal concentration are said to be isotonic. An isotonic solution of saline has the same amount of salt (NaCl) as there is in blood. Also, in the isotonic contraction of a muscle, the amount of tension stays the same whereas the muscle’s length changes. Lifting an object at a constant speed causes the isotonic contract of the lifting muscle.

59. Restraining device MANACLE
A manacle is a device for constraining the hands, like handcuffs. The term comes from the Latin “manicula” which means “handle” or literally “little hand”.

60. Carnival setting RIO
Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil (after São Paulo). “Rio de Janeiro” translates as “January River”. The name reflects the discovery of the bay on which Rio sits, on New Years Day in 1502.

The celebration of carnival comes right before the Lenten period in some Christian traditions. It is thought that carnival perhaps arose from the need to “eat and drink up” any excess food and drink before the beginning of Lent.

61. Messenger developer MSN
The messaging application found with Windows is called Windows Live Messenger. It used to be known as MSN Messenger. Apparently, Microsoft is trying to integrate Skype (which it now owns) with Windows Live.

63. Email suffix EDU
The .edu domain is primarily used by educational institutions.

Down
4. Scene of a lost glass slipper BALL
The folk tale about “Cinderella” was first published by French author Charles Perrault in 1697. The storyline of the tale may date back as far as the days of Ancient Greece. A common alternative title to the story is “The Little Glass Slipper”.

5. Time to beware IDES
There were three important days in each month of the old Roman calendar. These days originally depended on the cycles of the moon but were eventually “fixed” by law. “Kalendae” were the first days of each month, originally the days of the new moon. “Nonae” were originally the days of the half moon. And “idus” (the ides) was originally the day of the full moon, eventually fixed at the 15th day of a month. Well, actually the ides were the 15th day of March, May, July and October. For all other months, the ides fell on the 13th. Go figure …

In Act I of William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” a soothsayer warns the doomed emperor to “beware the Ides of March”. Caesar ignores the prophecy and is of course killed on the steps of the Capitol by a group of conspirators on that very day.

6. Clock-setting std. GMT
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

7. Stewed LIT
To be “stewed” or “lit” is to be drunk.

8. Handel opera written in Italian ORESTE
Handel’s Italian opera “Oreste” was written and composed in England, and first performed in 1734 at Covent Garden Theatre in London. “Oreste” wasn’t well received by the public. Handel pulled together the opera mainly using pieces of music that he had already composed and published, so in one sense “Oreste” wasn’t an “original” work.

9. Not hor. VERT
Something vertical (vert.) isn’t horizontal (hor.).

10. Consequently ERGO
“Ergo” is the Latin word for “hence, therefore”.

11. Slow movements ADAGIOS
An adagio is a piece of music with a slow tempo. The “adagio” marking on the score is an instruction to play the piece slowly and in a stately manner. The word adagio is Latin for “at ease”.

19. Manhattan variety ROB ROY
Rob Roy was a folk hero in Scotland from the 18th century. He was a sort of Scottish Robin Hood, an outlaw who had the support of the populace. Rob Roy’s full name was Robert Roy MacGregor, itself an anglicization of the Scottish Raibeart Ruadh. He gave his name to a famous cocktail called a Rob Roy, a relative of the Manhattan that is made with Scotch instead of bourbon.

23. Abbr. for dating enthusiasts? ESTD
Established (estd.)

24. Hood et al.: Abbr. MTS
Mount Hood is a volcanic peak in northern Oregon. Mount Hood is the highest peak in the state, and is located about 50 miles southeast of Portland. There are six ski areas on the mountain, including a resort called Timberline that has North America’s only lift operating year-round for skiing.

26. Common cellphone feature, briefly GPS
Global Positioning System (GPS)

29. Italian : gennaio :: Spanish : __ ENERO
“January” translates into “gennaio” in Italian and “enero” in Spanish.

36. Milquetoast WUSS
Someone described a “milquetoast” is particularly weak and timid. The term comes from a character called Caspar Milquetoast in the comic strip “The Timid Soul” drawn by H. T. Webster. Webster came up with Caspar’s name by deliberately misspelling “milk toast”, which is a bland food that is suitable for someone with a weak stomach.

40. Foresail JIB
A jib is a triangular sail that is set at the bow of a sailboat.

41. Present and accounted for ALL HERE
I would have thought that “here” maps into “present and accounted for”, so that “all here” would map into “everyone present and accounted for”. But that might just be me …

45. Twisty pasta ROTINI
Rotini is the corkscrew-shaped pasta that is often used in pasta salads. Even though “rotini” sounds like it comes from a word meaning “twist, rotate”, the word “rotini” doesn’t exist in Italian, other than as the name for the pasta.

46. It’s mostly made of zinc CENT
The original one-cent coin was introduced in the US in 1793 and was made of 100% copper. The composition varied over time, and was 100% bronze up to the 1940s. During WWII there was a shortage of copper to make bronze, so the US Mint switched to zinc-coated steel for production of one-cent coins in 1943. The steelie is the only coin ever issued by the US mint that can be picked up by a magnet. Today’s one-cent coin is comprised mainly of zinc.

51. Some NCR devices ATMS
NCR is an American company that has been in business since 1884, originally called the National Cash Register Company. The company has done well in a market where new technologies seem to be constantly disrupting the status quo.

53. Starbucks order TALL
Starbucks is a coffee company based in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest coffeehouse company in the world and has over 19,000 stores. In the 1990s, Starbucks was opening one new store every single day! Starbucks is named after the chief mate on the Pequod in the Herman Melville book “Moby Dick”.

57. Pre-A.D. BCE
The designations Anno Domini (AD, “year of Our Lord”) and Before Christ (BC) are found in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The dividing point between AD and BC is the year of the conception of Jesus, with AD 1 following 1 BC without a year “0” in between. The AD/BC scheme dates back to AD 525, and gained wide acceptance soon after AD 800. Nowadays a modified version has become popular, with CE (Common/Christian Era) used to replace AD, and BCE (Before the Common/Christian Era) used to replace BC.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Breadth of fresh hair? WIG
4. 2000s HBO drama set in Utah BIG LOVE
11. “Figured it out!” AHA!
14. Longtime Parlophone record label owner EMI
15. Valentine sender ADMIRER
16. Submerge DIP
17. A HIGH LETTER GRADE
20. 2002 World Series champs ANGELS
21. Pawn STOOGE
22. Author Carnegie DALE
23. CPR provider EMT
25. Library sect. BIOG
27. AA TWELVE-STEP GROUP
32. Venerable ref. OED
33. Moving line on the ground, maybe ANTS
34. Places to perch ROOSTS
35. Rosebud, notably SLED
36. Lean and sinewy WIRY
37. Good thing to pass MUSTER
40. When Bloomsday, which celebrates Joyce’s “Ulysses,” is observed JUNE
41. “Just __ figured!” AS I
44. AAA US MOTORISTS CLUB
47. Profound DEEP
48. 32-Across cousin of arch. OBS
49. River through the Czech Republic ELBE
50. Canadian brewery LABATT
53. Doughboy’s helmet TIN HAT
55. AAAA VERY THIN BATTERY
58. Prefix with tonic ISO-
59. Restraining device MANACLE
60. Carnival setting RIO
61. Messenger developer MSN
62. Office chair mechanisms SWIVELS
63. Email suffix EDU

Down
1. “There was no choice for us” WE HAD TO
2. “That’s mind-blowing!” I’M IN AWE!
3. Laughed nervously, maybe GIGGLED
4. Scene of a lost glass slipper BALL
5. Time to beware IDES
6. Clock-setting std. GMT
7. Stewed LIT
8. Handel opera written in Italian ORESTE
9. Not hor. VERT
10. Consequently ERGO
11. Slow movements ADAGIOS
12. Place to lie low HIDEOUT
13. Make like APE
18. Command to Fido HEEL
19. Manhattan variety ROB ROY
23. Abbr. for dating enthusiasts? ESTD
24. Hood et al.: Abbr. MTS
26. Common cellphone feature, briefly GPS
28. Manservant VALET
29. Italian : gennaio :: Spanish : __ ENERO
30. Patterned cloth PRINT
31. Sticks with a horn GORES
35. Visit STOP BY
36. Milquetoast WUSS
37. Pie material? MUD
38. Of no help USELESS
39. Apply liberally SMEAR ON
40. Foresail JIB
41. Present and accounted for ALL HERE
42. Moderately dry, climatewise SUBARID
43. Challenging opening I BET YOU …
45. Twisty pasta ROTINI
46. It’s mostly made of zinc CENT
51. Some NCR devices ATMS
52. Spring occurrence THAW
53. Starbucks order TALL
54. Followers: Suff. -ITES
55. Pep VIM
56. Service abbr. NAV
57. Pre-A.D. BCE

Return to top of page