Day: September 26, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Ski area helpers T-BARS
A T-bar is a type of ski lift in which the skiers are pulled up the hill in pairs, with each pair standing (not sitting!) either side of T-shaped metal bar. The bar is placed behind the thighs, pulling along the skiers as they remain standing on their skis (hopefully!). There’s also a J-bar, a similar device, but with each J-shaped bar used by one skier at a time.

14. “Live Free __”: New Hampshire motto OR DIE
“Live Free or Die” is the motto of the state of New Hampshire. The phrase originated with General John Stark, a native of New Hampshire who served in the Revolutionary War. Stark had to miss a reunion celebration in 1809 due to poor health, and instead sent a letter with his toast “Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.”

17. RATS PIED PIPER’S TRAIL
The legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin dates back to medieval times. Recently there have been suggestions that the story is rooted in some truth, that the town of Hamelin did in fact lose many of its children, perhaps to plague. The suggestion is that the tale is an allegory.

20. “Friendly skies” co. UAL
United Airlines used the tagline “Fly the Friendly Skies” in its marketing materials from 1965 to 1996. It was then replaced with “It’s time to fly”. United chose George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” as the company’s theme music in 1976, and paid the Gershwin estate a fee of $500,000 for the privilege.

21. Garr of “Mr. Mom” TERI
The lovely Teri Garr had a whole host of minor roles in her youth, including appearances in nine Elvis movies. Garr’s big break came with the role of Inga in “Young Frankenstein”, and her supporting role in “Tootsie” earned Garr an Academy Award nomination. Sadly, Teri Garr suffers from multiple sclerosis. She is a National Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

“Mr. Mom” is a 1983 comedy written by John Hughes, starring Michael Keaton and the great Teri Garr. The movie is all about an engineer in the auto industry in Detroit who loses his job and then takes over the running of the household while his wife heads back to work. It’s funny stuff …

23. SHUCKS PREPARES CORN
“To shuck” is to remove the husk from (say an ear of corn) or to remove the shell from (say an oyster).

28. One of the Seven Sisters schools VASSAR
Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York is now a co-educational school after over a century as a women’s college since its founding in 1861. The school was officially declared co-ed in 1969, although it had accepted a handful of male students on the GI Bill after WWII.

The Seven Sisters are a group of (traditionally women’s) colleges in the northeast of the country. The seven are:

– Mount Holyoke
– Vassar
– Wellesley
– Smith
– Radcliffe
– Bryn Mawr
– Barnard

32. Joe’s sister in TV’s “Under the Dome” ANGIE
“Under the Dome” is a sci-fi show that is based on a novel of the same name by Stephen King. The storyline involves a small town in Maine that is inexplicably covered with a transparent indestructible dome that cuts the inhabitants off from the rest of the world. It’s an intriguing concept for a novel/show, but I’m not a big fan of Stephen King …

35. Salinger girl ESME
J. D. Salinger wrote a short story called “For Esme – with Love and Squalor”, originally published in “The New Yorker” in 1950. It is a story about a young English girl called Esme and an American soldier, and is set in WWII.

J. D. Salinger was a very reclusive author, most famous for his novel “Catcher in the Rye”. Salinger fought in WWII after he was drafted into the US Army. He saw action on Utah Beach on D-Day, and in the Battle of the Bulge. He also spent a lot of time interrogating prisoners due to his knowledge of French and German, and he was one of the first Americans to go into a liberated concentration camp. He later spent time in hospital suffering from what was then called combat stress reaction, as he tried to deal with what he saw in the German camps.

44. Hurdle for a storied cow MOON
The nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle” has been around at least since the mid-1700s.

Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon,
The little dog laughed to see such fun,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

57. Setting for “Beasts of the Southern Wild” BAYOU
The exact origins of the word “bayou” is uncertain, but it is thought perhaps to come from the Choctaw (a Native American people from the southeast) word “bayuk”, meaning “small stream”.

“Beasts of the Southern Wild” is a 2012 fantasy film centered on a courageous 6-year-old girl in a Louisiana bayou community. The film garnered very positive reviews on its release and was nominated for four Oscars. The lead character was played by child actress Quvenzhané Wallis. At 9-years-old, Wallis became the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.

61. Seasonal drink NOG
It’s not really clear where the term “nog” comes from although it might derive from the word “noggin”, which was originally a small wooden cup that was long associated with alcoholic drinks.

67. Time fraction: Abbr. NSEC
“Nanosecond” is more correctly abbreviated to “ns”, and really is a tiny amount of time … one billionth of a second.

68. “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” singer CROCE
Jim Croce’s most successful songs were “Bad. Bad Leroy Brown” and “Time in a Bottle”. Like so many great singers it seems, Croce died in a plane crash. He was killed along with five others just after takeoff when the small commercial plane in which he was travelling hit a tree, possibly because the pilot had a heart attack. Croce died just a few days before the release of his latest album, “I Got a Name”.

69. Computerized city people SIMS
“SimCity” is a very clever computer game. Players build and grow cities and societies by creating the conditions necessary for people (the Sims) to move in and thrive. “SimCity” was launched in 1989, and to this day it is consistently ranked as one of the greatest computer games of all time.

70. Former “Entertainment Tonight” co-anchor TESH
John Tesh is a pianist and composer, as well as a radio and television presenter. For many years Tesh presented the show “Entertainment Tonight”. For “ET” he once covered the filming of an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. As part of the piece, he volunteered to act as a Klingon warrior and so if you see the “Star Trek: TNG” episode called “The Icarus Factor” in reruns, watch out for John Tesh engaging in ritual torture with Mr. Worf as his victim.

71. Ecclesiastical council SYNOD
The word synod comes from the Greek word for assembly, or meeting. A synod is a church council, usually in the Christian faith.

Down
3. Jane Eyre’s charge ADELE
In Charlotte Brontë’s novel “Jane Eyre”, the title character becomes the governess of Adele, Mr. Rochester’s ward.

6. Plains home TEPEE
A tepee (also written as “tipi” and “teepee”) is a cone-shaped tent traditionally made from animal hides that is used by the Great Plains Native Americans. A wigwam is a completely different structure and is often a misnomer for a tepee. A wigwam is a domed structure built by Native Americans in the West and Southwest, intended to be a more permanent dwelling. The wigwam can also be covered with hides but more often was covered with grass, reeds, brush or cloth.

8. Classical Greek style DORIC
The Doric was one of the three classical orders of architecture, the others being the Ionic and the Corinthian.

11. Boyfriend BEAU
A “beau” is the boyfriend of a “belle”, a young lady. Both terms were imported into English from French.

19. Banks in fashion TYRA
Tyra Banks is a tremendously successful model and businesswoman. Banks created and hosts the hit show “America’s Next Top Model “, and also has her own talk show. She was also the first African American woman to make the cover of the “Sports Illustrated” swimsuit issue.

31. Roger who played Lord Marbury on “The West Wing” REES
Roger Rees is a Welsh actor. Rees played the character Robin Colcord on “Cheers”, the posh love interest for Rebecca Howe played by Kirstie Alley. Rees also appeared periodically on “The West Wing” as the marvelously flamboyant and eccentric Lord John Marbury, the British Ambassador.

32. BBs, e.g. AMMO
A BB gun is an air pistol or rifle that shoots birdshot known as BBs. Birdshot comes in a number of different sizes, from size 9 (0.080″ in diameter) to size FF (.23″). 0.180″ diameter birdshot is size BB, which gives the airgun its name.

33. Spring tide counterpart NEAP
Tides of course are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

34. Hard-to-see pest GNAT
Gnats are attracted to the smell of rotting food, and to vinegar. Simple homemade traps that use vinegar are often constructed to attract and kill gnats.

35. WWII command ETO
General 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” that came out in 2004.

36. “Dexter” network, in listings SHO
“Dexter” is a crime show that airs on Showtime. The title character works for the Miami Police Department as an expert in blood spatter patterns by day, but is a serial killer by night. The original series was based on the “Dexter” novels written by Jeff Lindsay. I haven’t seen this show myself, but my eldest son really enjoys it …

37. Word with best or common MAN
The term “best man” is Scottish in origin and has been used in English since the early 1800s when it replaced “groomsman”.

42. Logician’s “E,” perhaps ERAT
QED is used at the end of a mathematical proof or a philosophical argument. The QED acronym stands for the Latin “quod erat demonstrandum” meaning “that which was to be demonstrated”.

49. Chianti, in Chianti VINO
Chianti is a red wine from the Chianti region of central Tuscany in Italy. Historically, Chianti was stored in a characteristically bulbous bottle wrapped in a straw basket. However, the pragmatists have won the day and regular wine bottles tend to be used nowadays.

52. “Eight Is Enough” actor Willie AAMES
Willie Aames is an actor from Newport Beach, California. Aames is best known for playing Tommy Bradford on the TV comedy “Eight is Enough” that originally aired in the seventies.

55. “But wait! There’s more!” company RONCO
Ron Popeil is an inventor who is well known for appearing in infomercials for his own products. One of the more famous infomercials is for his Showtime Rotisserie, which he touts with the phrase “Set it, and forget it!”. Popeil’s company is called Ronco. Popeil also made popular the phrase “But wait, there’s more!”

58. Healthy berry ACAI
Açaí is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

59. Cowpoke’s polite assent YES’M
Cowpoke is a term used nowadays for any cowboy, but it was originally limited to the cowboys who prodded cattle onto railroad cars using long poles.

63. Tolkien’s talking tree ENT
Ents are those tree-like creatures that live in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth in his series of books “The Lord of the Rings”. “Ent” is an Old English word for “giant”.

64. IBM hardware PCS
IBM was founded as the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896. The company changed its name to the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in 1911 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1916. The name of International Business Machines (IBM) was given first to the company’s Canadian subsidiary, and then its South American subsidiary. In 1924, it was decided to adopt the International Business Machines name for the whole company. Good choice …

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Ski area helpers T-BARS
6. Finish line? TA-DA!
10. Equal to the task ABLE
14. “Live Free __”: New Hampshire motto OR DIE
15. Some are easily bruised EGOS
16. Sound of laughter PEAL
17. RATS PIED PIPER’S TRAIL
20. “Friendly skies” co. UAL
21. Garr of “Mr. Mom” TERI
22. “My place or __?” YOURS
23. SHUCKS PREPARES CORN
27. Unspecified amount ANY
28. One of the Seven Sisters schools VASSAR
32. Joe’s sister in TV’s “Under the Dome” ANGIE
35. Salinger girl ESME
38. Soccer shout OLE!
39. DARN MEND WITH A NEEDLE
43. Goat quote MAA
44. Hurdle for a storied cow MOON
45. Offers thanks, in a way PRAYS
46. Decides one will OPTS TO
49. Itinerary word VIA
50. SHOOT TAKE A PICTURE
57. Setting for “Beasts of the Southern Wild” BAYOU
60. Cloudburst, e.g. RAIN
61. Seasonal drink NOG
62. FUDGE ICE CREAM TOPPING
66. Item on a “honey-do” list TASK
67. Time fraction: Abbr. NSEC
68. “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” singer CROCE
69. Computerized city people SIMS
70. Former “Entertainment Tonight” co-anchor TESH
71. Ecclesiastical council SYNOD

Down
1. Replenish a pint of ale, say TOP UP
2. Thorny shrub BRIAR
3. Jane Eyre’s charge ADELE
4. Free RID
5. When sch. often starts SEP
6. Plains home TEPEE
7. Golden __: seniors AGERS
8. Classical Greek style DORIC
9. Stubborn one ASS
10. They have strings attached APRONS
11. Boyfriend BEAU
12. Animal shelter LAIR
13. Under-the-sink joints ELLS
18. Modest acknowledgment of praise I TRY
19. Banks in fashion TYRA
24. Bill stamp PAID
25. From the top ANEW
26. Hot spot OVEN
29. Pop SODA
30. Compatriot ALLY
31. Roger who played Lord Marbury on “The West Wing” REES
32. BBs, e.g. AMMO
33. Spring tide counterpart NEAP
34. Hard-to-see pest GNAT
35. WWII command ETO
36. “Dexter” network, in listings SHO
37. Word with best or common MAN
40. “Don’t worry about me” I’M OK
41. Huge production EPIC
42. Logician’s “E,” perhaps ERAT
47. Has to sell STOCKS
48. Bullish beginning? TAUR-
49. Chianti, in Chianti VINO
51. Wipe out ERASE
52. “Eight Is Enough” actor Willie AAMES
53. Sound quality PITCH
54. Workers’ backer UNION
55. “But wait! There’s more!” company RONCO
56. Vandalized, Halloween-style EGGED
57. Comedy routines BITS
58. Healthy berry ACAI
59. Cowpoke’s polite assent YES’M
63. Tolkien’s talking tree ENT
64. IBM hardware PCS
65. Ask too many questions PRY

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