Day: February 12, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Scale on which diamond is assigned a “10” MOHS
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness was developed in 1812 by Friedrich Mohs. Basically Mohs took minerals and scratched them with other minerals. In this way he was able to determine which minerals were hardest (most scratch resistant) and which softest.

5. Owl’s question? WHO?
“To-wit, to-woo” said the owl.

8. “Music __ charms …” HATH
William Congreve was an English playwright and poet, who was educated at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. His 1697 tragedy “The Mourning Bride” gave us a couple of oft-quoted lines:

– Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak
– Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned
Congreve’s 1695 play “Love for Love” gives us”
– O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell.

12. The sego lily is its state flower UTAH
The Sego Lily is the state flower of Utah, and is a perennial plant found throughout the Western United States.

15. Nymph rejected by Narcissus ECHO
In Greek mythology, Echo is one of the Oreads, the mountain nymphs. Echo fell in love with the vain Narcissus, and followed him into the forest one day. Narcissus heard her following him and called out, “Who’s there?”. Echo answered, “Who’s there?” Again he called out, and again Echo echoed his words back to him. Get the gist?

16. Actress Elisabeth SHUE
Elisabeth Shue has always been a favorite actress of mine. She has been in several popular films including “The Karate Kid”, “Cocktail”, two of the “Back to the Future” movies, “Leaving Las Vegas”, and my personal favorite “Adventures in Babysitting”. Shue now has a recurring role on the TV crime drama “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”.

18. Work on jerky CHEW
“Jerky” is meat that has been trimmed of fat and dried. The term “jerky” comes into English via Spanish from the Incan Quechua “ch’arki” meaning “dried flesh”.

19. WWII aircraft carrier plane HELLCAT
The F6F Hellcat was the mainstay carrier-borne aircraft for the US Navy during WWII. The Hellcat also saw service with the British Fleet Air Arm under the Lend-Lease Act.

21. Iowa native HAWKEYE
Iowa is nicknamed the Hawkeye State in honor of Chief Black Hawk, a leader of the Sauk people during the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War.

23. Tax-sheltered nest egg ROTH IRA
Roth Individual Retirement Accounts (Roth IRAs) were introduced in 1997 under a bill sponsored by Senator William Roth of Delaware, hence the name.

25. Hippy dance HULA
Hula is the name of the Polynesian dance. The chant or song that the dance illustrates, that’s known as the mele.

28. 1963 Newman film HUD
The modern-day, western movie called “Hud” was released in 1963 and has become a classic. “Hud” stars Paul Newman (in the title role) and Patricia Neal and is an adaptation of a novel by Larry McMurtry called “Horseman, Pass By”. Patricia Neal’s role in the film was relatively small, yet her performance was enough to earn her an Academy Award for Best Actress.

Paul Newman was an actor from Shaker Heights, Ohio. Newman won his only Best Actor Oscar for his role in “The Color of Money”, a Martin Scorsese film. Off screen Newman was a very successful racing driver and won several national championships. He also founded a food company called Newman’s Own which donates its profits to charity, an amount that now exceeds $300 million.

29. Ousted Iranian SHAH
The last Shah of Iran was Mohammed-Reza Shah Pahlavi, as he was overthrown in the revolution led by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. The post-revolution government sought the extradition of the Shah back to Iran while he was in the United States seeking medical care (he had cancer). His prolonged stay in the United States, recovering from surgery, caused some unrest back in Iran and resentment towards the United States. Some say that this resentment precipitated the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran and the resulting hostage crisis.

33. Arctic “snowshoe” critters HARES
The snowshoe is a species of hare found in North America. The snowshoe hare takes its name from its hind feet that are so large, they do not sink easily into snow as it hops and walks. The snowshoe hare’s fur is also brown during the summer and white in the winter.

35. Bears owner/coach who won eight NFL titles in four different decades HALAS
The NFL’s George Stanley Halas, Sr. was nicknamed “Papa Bear”. He also earned the well-deserved nickname of “Mr Everything” as he was a player, coach, inventor, jurist, producer, philanthropist, philatelist and NFL owner. He led the Chicago Bears from 1921 to 1967.

37. Singer Piaf EDITH
“La Môme Piaf” (the little sparrow) was the nickname of France’s most famous singer, Édith Piaf. What a voice this woman had, and what gorgeous ballads she sang. Édith Piaf lived a life that was not without controversy. She was raised by her mother in a brothel in Normandy, and had a pimp as a boyfriend in her teens. She had one child, while very young, born illegitimately and who died at 2-years-old from meningitis. Her singing career started when she was discovered in the Pigalle area of Paris by nightclub owner Louis Leplée. Leplée was murdered soon after, and Piaf was accused of being an accessory to the murder but was later acquitted. During World War II she was branded a traitor by many as she frequently performed for the German occupying forces, although there are other reports of her supporting the resistance movement. Later in her life she was seriously injured in no less than three, near-fatal car accidents, including one with her friend, Charles Aznavour. While recovering from her injuries she became addicted to pain medication, an addiction that lasted for the rest of her life. When she died in 1963 she was denied a Catholic funeral mass because of her lifestyle, but the crowds that turned out for her funeral procession managed to stop all traffic in Paris, the only time that has happened since the end of WWII.

43. “Ulysses” actor Milo O’SHEA
Milo O’Shea was a great Irish character actor from Dublin who has appeared in everything from “Romeo and Juliet” to “The West Wing”. Sadly, O’Shea passed away in 2013 in New York City.

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.

45. “Isn’t __ bit like you and me?”: Beatles lyric HE A
“Isn’t he a bit like you and me?” is a line from the Beatles song “Nowhere Man”.

“Nowhere Man” is an early song by the Beatles, released in 1966. “Nowhere Man” was one of the first songs that John Lennon wrote that was more philosophical than romantic in nature, indicative of songs to come. Apparently, Lennon himself is the inspirations for the “Nowhere Man” persona.

59. “Hava Nagila” dance HORA
The hora (also “horah”) is a circle dance that originated in the Balkans. The hora was brought to Israel by Romanian settlers, and is often performed to traditional Israeli folk songs. The dance is a regular sight at Jewish weddings and at bar and bat mitzvahs. At such events, it is common for the honorees to be raised on chairs during the dance.

“Hava Nagila” is a Hebrew folk song, with the title translating into “Let Us Rejoice”. The melody is from a Ukrainian folk song. The words to “Hava Nagila” were composed in 1918 to celebrate the British victory in Palestine during WWI.

62. Worker welfare org. OSHA
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created in 1970 during the Nixon administration. OSHA regulates workplaces in the private sector and regulates just one government agency, namely the US Postal Service.

64. Organ with chambers HEART
The heart has four chambers. The two upper chambers (the atria) accept deoxygenated blood from the body and oxygenated blood from the lungs. The atria squeeze the blood into the two lower chambers of the heart (the ventricles), “priming” the pump, as it were. One ventricle pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs, and the other pumps oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.

65. Son of Odin THOR
In Norse mythology, Odin was the chief of the gods. Odin’s wife Frigg was the queen of Asgard whose name gave us our English term “Friday” (via Anglo-Saxon). Odin’s son was Thor, and his name gave us the term “Thursday”.

67. “Revenge is __ best served cold” A DISH
It isn’t really clear where the expression “Revenge is a dish best served cold” originated, although forms of it have been documented back to the 1800s. A version of the phrase appeared in the marvelous 1949 British film “Kind Hearts and Coronets”, and it is suggested that the phrase gained popularity with those who saw the movie.

68. Seven: Pref. HEPT-
The prefix “hept-”, that is used for “seven”, comes from Greek. The “sept-” prefix comes from Latin.

Down
2. Will-wisp link -O’-THE-
The terms “jack-o’-lantern” and “will-o’-the-wisp” are colloquial names for “ignis fatuus”. Ignis fatuus is an eerie light seen at night over bogs and marshes, caused by the spontaneous oxidation (burning) of phosphine and/or methane that emanates from the bog.

4. Poet Silverstein SHEL
Author Shel Silverstein had a varied career and did a lot more than write books. Silverstein was a poet, composer, cartoonist and screenwriter among other things. One of his successful children’s books is “The Giving Tree”, which was first published in 1964. “The Giving Tree” tells of a young boy who has a special relationship with a tree in a forest. The message of the book seems to be that the tree provides the little boy with everything he needs.

6. Fez, e.g. HAT
“Fez” is the name given to the red cylindrical hat worn mainly in North Africa, and by Shriners here in the US. The fez used to be a very popular hat across the Ottoman Empire. The etymology of “fez” is unclear, although it might have something to do with the Moroccan city named Fez.

7. Corsage flowers ORCHIDS
“Corsage” is a word we imported from French in the late 15th century. Back then we used it to mean “the size of the body”. By the early 1800s a corsage was a bodice, or the body of a woman’s dress. At the beginning of the 20th century, the French term “bouquet de corsage” was being used for a “bouquet worn on the bodice”, and this has been shortened simply to “corsage”.

9. Motrin target ACHE
Advil and Motrin are brand names for the anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen.

11. Suffragette Julia Ward __ HOWE
Julia Ward Howe was an active pacifist and suffragist. Howe is also well known as the writer of the words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”.

13. Former Labor secretary Elaine CHAO
When President George W. Bush appointed Elaine Chao as Secretary of Labor, he made a bit of history as Chao then became the first Chinese American in history to hold a cabinet post. It turned out that Chao became the only cabinet member to hold her post for President Bush’s full eight years in office. In 1993, Chao married Mitch McConnell, the Republican Leader of the US Senate.

14. Where she blows THAR
Thar she blows!

22. Jug band percussion instrument WASHBOARD
A jug band features a jug player, as well as others playing ordinary objects perhaps modified to make sound. One such instrument was the washtub bass. The “tub” is a stringed instrument that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. A washboard might also be used in a jug band, as a percussion instrument. The ribbed surface of the washboard is usually scraped using thimbles on the ends of the fingers.

26. “Vega$” actor URICH
Robert Urich was an actor famous for starring in television’s “Vega$” and “Spenser: For Hire”. Urich did a lot of television and starred in fifteen shows, a record for any actor.

27. Mythical river of forgetfulness LETHE
The Lethe is one of the five rivers of Hades in Greek mythology. All the souls who drank from the river Lethe experienced complete forgetfulness. The Greek word “lethe” means “oblivion, forgetfulness”.

31. “Hello, wahine!” ALOHA!
“Wahine” is the word for “woman”, in both Hawaiian and Maori.

36. Doo-wop syllable SHA
Doo-wop developed in the 1940s and can be described as a vocal-based R&B music. Even though the style has been around since the forties, the name doo-wop wasn’t introduced until the early sixties.

40. Went from first to second, say SHIFTED
That would be gear-shifting in a car.

41. Jeans bottom HEM
Denim fabric originated in Nimes in France. The French phrase “de Nimes” (from Nimes) gives us the word “denim”. Also, the French phrase “bleu de Genes” (blue of Genoa) gives us our word “jeans”.

49. Mars neighbor EARTH
The surface of the planet Mars has a very high iron oxide content, so Mars is red because it is rusty!

50. __ Tzu SHIH
The Shih Tzu is one of the oldest breeds of dog, a breed that originated in China. Shih Tzus have long hairy coats but they don’t shed.

52. B’way seating area ORCH
Orchestra (orch.) seating

56. 1975 Wimbledon winner ASHE
Arthur Ashe defeated Jimmy Connors to win the Men’s Singles event at the 1975 Wimbledon Championships. Billie Jean King defeated Evonne Goolagong Cawley to win the Women’s Singles.

58. Antlered deer HART
Nowadays a “hart” is a male red deer, over five years old.

61. Ginza agreement HAI
Hai is the Japanese word for “yes”.

Ginza is a district in Tokyo that is noted for its western shops, especially the leading fashion stores.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Scale on which diamond is assigned a “10” MOHS
5. Owl’s question? WHO?
8. “Music __ charms …” HATH
12. The sego lily is its state flower UTAH
13. Map out CHART
15. Nymph rejected by Narcissus ECHO
16. Actress Elisabeth SHUE
17. Deck opening HATCH
18. Work on jerky CHEW
19. WWII aircraft carrier plane HELLCAT
21. Iowa native HAWKEYE
23. Tax-sheltered nest egg ROTH IRA
25. Hippy dance HULA
28. 1963 Newman film HUD
29. Ousted Iranian SHAH
33. Arctic “snowshoe” critters HARES
34. Quizzical sounds EHS
35. Bears owner/coach who won eight NFL titles in four different decades HALAS
37. Singer Piaf EDITH
38. Soup base BROTH
39. Luxury craft YACHT
40. Quiet “Quiet!” SHH!
43. “Ulysses” actor Milo O’SHEA
44. Quaint pronoun THEE
45. “Isn’t __ bit like you and me?”: Beatles lyric HE A
46. Solvers’ cries AHAS
47. Tremulous glow SHIMMER
50. Except SHORT OF
54. Beeline MAD DASH
59. “Hava Nagila” dance HORA
60. Different OTHER
62. Worker welfare org. OSHA
63. Progress slowly INCH
64. Organ with chambers HEART
65. Son of Odin THOR
66. Sinister chuckles HEHS
67. “Revenge is __ best served cold” A DISH
68. Seven: Pref. HEPT-

Down
1. Soft stuff MUSH
2. Will-wisp link -O’-THE-
3. Truck HAUL
4. Poet Silverstein SHEL
5. Words said with a double take WHAT THE?!
6. Fez, e.g. HAT
7. Corsage flowers ORCHIDS
8. “Consarn it!” HECK!
9. Motrin target ACHE
10. Those folks THEY
11. Suffragette Julia Ward __ HOWE
13. Former Labor secretary Elaine CHAO
14. Where she blows THAR
20. Vehicle safety measure CRASH TEST
22. Jug band percussion instrument WASHBOARD
24. “Say what?” HUH?
25. Tackled HAD AT
26. “Vega$” actor URICH
27. Mythical river of forgetfulness LETHE
30. Grating HARSH
31. “Hello, wahine!” ALOHA!
32. Can’t stand HATES
33. “You, there!” HEY!
36. Doo-wop syllable SHA
40. Went from first to second, say SHIFTED
41. Jeans bottom HEM
42. Pounds HAMMERS
48. Ado HOO-HA
49. Mars neighbor EARTH
50. __ Tzu SHIH
51. Fine-tune HONE
52. B’way seating area ORCH
53. Sounds from the stands RAHS
55. Shakespearean verb DOTH
56. 1975 Wimbledon winner ASHE
57. Hit the mall SHOP
58. Antlered deer HART
61. Ginza agreement HAI

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