Day: March 27, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. ’60s activist Bobby SEALE
Bobby Seale is the civil rights activist who co-founded the Black Panther Party with Huey Newton.

6. Forward sail JIB
A jib is a triangular sail that is set at the bow of a sailboat.

9. Flavonoids-rich 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.

13. *Shady spot ARBOR (Day)
Arbor Day is a holiday each year in which people traditionally plant and care for trees. The first Arbor Day was held way back in 1872.

14. Mesabi Range output ORE
The Mesabi Range is the largest deposit of iron ore in the country, and is located in Minnesota. Robert Allen Zimmerman was raised in the area (whom we know him better as Bob Dylan) and he wrote a song called “North Country Blues” that tells of the decline of the mining industry in the Mesabi Range.

16. *Furry forecaster? GROUNDHOG (Day)
Punxsutawney is a borough in Pennsylvania, located about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Punxsutawney Phil is the famous groundhog that lives in the area. Phil comes out of his hole on February 2 each year and if he sees his shadow he goes back into his hole predicting six more weeks of winter weather. February 2 is known as Groundhog Day.

18. Chain with a red cowboy hat logo ARBY’S
The Arby’s chain of fast food restaurants was founded in 1964 by two brothers, Forrest and Leroy Raffel. The name “Arby’s” is a homonym of “RB’s”, standing for “Raffel Brothers”.

20. Former “Today” co-anchor Curry ANN
The television journalist Ann Curry is perhaps best known for the time she spent as co-host on NBC’s “Today” show. NBC executives asked Curry to resign from the “Today” show because ratings were low. I just read online that Curry was also pushed out because of the way she insisted on dressing and because she refused to dye her gray hair. I hope that isn’t true …

21. Plant sold in animal-shaped pots CHIA
Chia is a flowering plant in the mint family, and the Chia Pet is an invention of a San Francisco company. Chia Pets are terracotta figurines to which are applied moistened chia seeds. The seeds sprout and the seedlings become the “fur” of the Chia Pet.

27. *Jolly Roger, e.g. FLAG (Day)
Flag Day in the US is June 14th each year, as the flag of the United States was adopted officially by the Second Continental Congress on June 14th, 1777. Flag Day in Canada is on February 15th, as the Flag of Canada was inaugurated on February 15th, 1965.

The Jolly Roger is a flag that was flown by pirates to identify their vessels, basically to strike fear in the hearts of the crews they were attacking. We usually think of the Jolly Roger’s design as a white skull and crossbones on a black background. There is a theory that pirates originally flew a red flag, and this was known colloquially as the “pretty red”, or “joli rouge” in French. “Joli Rouge” then evolved into “Jolly Roger”.

30. *Formal beginning INAUGURATION (Day)
Inauguration Day is on January 20th, in the year following the November election of a US President. This date is called out in the twentieth Amendment to the US Constitution, which was ratified by the states in 1933.

36. __-ray Disc BLU
A Blu-ray disc looks just like a standard DVD or CD, but it has a lot more capacity for data storage making it an ideal medium for high-definition movies. The name “Blu-ray” comes from the “blue laser” used to read the disc, unlike a standard DVD player that uses a “red laser”.

41. L.A.’s __ Center: second-tallest building in California AON
The Aon Center on Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles is the second-tallest building in the California (after US Bank Tower, also in Los Angeles). There is also an Aon Center in Chicago, which is the third-tallest building in that city.

42. Salsa ingredient ONION
“Salsa” is simply the Spanish for “sauce”.

45. *Freedom from control INDEPENDENCE (Day)
On 11 Jun 1776, the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five people to draft a declaration of independence. Included in the five were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Adams persuaded the other committee members to give Jefferson the task of writing the first draft. A resolution of independence was passed by the Congress on 2 Jul 1776. The final draft of the declaration was approved by the Congress two days later, on July 4th. John Adams wrote a letter to his wife that included an assertion that July 2nd (the date of the resolution of independence) would become a great American holiday. Of course Adams was wrong, and it was actually the date the Declaration of Independence was finalized that came to be celebrated annually.

48. *Leave the ground LEAP (Day)
Leap day is February 19th in a leap year, which is usually a year that is divisible by 4. My baby brother was born on February 19th, in 1968. A woman in Utah gave birth on February 29th in 2004, on February 29th in 2008, and once more on February 29th, 2012. That’s in the Guinness Book of World Records …

53. Vagrant HOBO
No one seems to know for sure how the term “hobo” originated, although there are lots of colorful theories. My favorite is that “hobo” comes from the first letters in the words “ho-meward bo-und”, but it doesn’t seem very plausible. A kind blog reader tells me that according to Click and Clack from PBS’s “Car Talk” (a great source!), “hobo” comes from “hoe boy”. Hoe boys were young men with hoes looking for work after the Civil War. Hobos differed from “tramps” and “bums”, in that “bums” refused to work, “tramps” worked when they had to, while “hobos” traveled in search of work.

55. PSAT takers JRS
I think the acronym PSAT stands for Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test. The PSAT is divided into three sections: Math, Critical Reading, and Writing Skills.

59. Summers in China? ABACI
The abacus was used as a counting frame long before man had invented a numbering system. It is a remarkable invention, particularly when one notes that abaci are still widely used today across Africa and Asia.

61. Big name in publishing, and a visual hint to the three adjacent pairs of answers to starred clues DOUBLEDAY
Doubleday, the publishing company, was founded in 1897 by Frank Nelson Doubleday and Samuel McClure. As a result, the company was originally known as Doubleday & McClure.

64. “My Little Grass Shack” singer DON HO
Don Ho apparently had a pretty liberal arrangement with his wife. When Ho was touring with his two backing singers, Pattie Swallie and Elizabeth Gevara, all three of them shared a room together. He had two children with each of his roommates, giving a total of ten kids including the six he had with his wife. The arrangement was quite open, it seems, with all ten kids visiting each other regularly. To each his own …

66. Hoover rival ORECK
The Oreck Corporation is named after founder David Oreck and is a manufacturer of vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. The company started out selling vacuum cleaners by mail, a new concept in 1963. David Oreck himself appears regularly as a spokesman in the company’s ads and infomercials.

67. A&W rival DAD’S
Dad’s root beer was developed by Ely Klapman and Barney Berns in 1937, and was given the name “Dad’s” in honor of Klapman’s father who used to make root beer for his family at home.

A&W is a brand of root beer that has been around since 1920, when Roy Allen partnered with Frank Wright to create the A&W moniker from their family names.

68. Versatile Scrabble tile ESS
The game of Scrabble has been produced in many international versions, and each of these editions has its own tile distribution to suit the local language. For example, in English we have two tiles worth ten points: one “Q” and one “Z”. If you play the game in French then there are five tiles worth ten points: one “K”, one “W”, one “X”, one “Y” and one “Z”.

Down
2. Dashing Flynn ERROL
Errol Flynn was born 1909 in Tasmania, Australia where he was raised. In his twenties, Flynn lived in the UK where he pursued his acting career. Around the same time he starred in an Australian film “In the Wake of the Bounty” and then appeared in a British film “Murder at Monte Carlo”. It was in the latter film that he was noticed by Warner Brothers who brought him to America. Flynn’s non-American heritage shone through even while he was living the American dream in California. He regularly played cricket, along with his friend David Niven, in the Hollywood Cricket Club.

4. Reed of The Velvet Underground LOU
Lou Reed is best known as a rock musician and songwriter, and is especially associated with fabulous 1973 hit “Walk on the Wildside”. Reed is less well known as a photographer, but he has published two collections of his work. The first was released in 2003 under the title “Emotions in Action”, and the second in 2006 called “Lou Reed’s New York”.

6. Poet Keats JOHN
The poet John Keats is famous for writing a whole series of beautiful odes. The most renowned are the so-called “1819 Odes”, a collection from the year 1819 that includes famous poems such as “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode to Psyche”.

7. Historic toolmaking period IRON AGE
Ancient societies can be classified by the “three-age system”, which depends on the prevalence of materials used to make tools. The three ages are:

– The Stone Age
– The Bronze Age
– The Iron Age

The actual dates defined by each age depend on the society, as the timing of the transition from the use of one material to another varied around the globe.

10. Tropical rum drink CUBA LIBRE
The cocktail known as a Cuba Libre is basically a Rum and Coke although the traditional recipe calls for some lime juice to be added.

11. Prince __ Khan ALY
Aly Khan was a familiar name used by the media when referring to Prince Ali Solomone Aga Khan, the Pakistani ambassador to the UN from 1958 to 1960. Khan made it into the papers a lot as he was the third husband of actress Rita Hayworth.

17. “Body of Proof” actress Delany DANA
“Body of Proof” is a medical drama that has been airing on ABC since 2011. Star of the show is Dana Delany who plays a medical examiner in Philadelphia.

21. Insertion symbol CARET
The character known as a caret was originally a proofreading mark, used to indicate where a punctuation mark was to be inserted. “Caret” is Latin for “it lacks”.

23. Cancún uncles TIOS
Cancún is a city and island on the east coast of Mexico, on the other side of the Yucatan Channel from Cuba. The city is growing rapidly due to its booming tourist business. Cancún is the center of what’s often called “The Mexican Caribbean” or the “Mayan Riviera”.

26. New Orleans school TULANE
Tulane University is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Tulane was founded in 1834 as the Medical College of Louisiana. The university was privatized with the aid of an endowment from philanthropist Paul Tulane in 1884, and as a result the school’s name was changed to Tulane University.

28. IM user AOLER
Even though instant messaging (sending IMs) has been around since the 1960s, it was AOL who popularized the term “instant message” in the eighties and nineties.

29. Safari sights GNUS
A gnu is also known as a wildebeest, an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is actually the Dutch word for “wild beast”.

“Safari” is a Swahili word, meaning “journey” or “expedition”.

31. Like grizzlies URSINE
The Latin word for a bear is “ursus”.

38. Año beginner ENERO
In Spanish, we start years (anos) in January (enero) as noted on a calendar (calendrio).

40. Slurpee cousin ICEE
Icee is the brand name of one of those slushy drinks. Ugh …

43. PennySaver ad subjects ODD JOBS
Today “pennysaver” is a generic term for a free periodical issued in a community, offering items and services for sale. The original “Pennysaver” was published in 1948 in Ohio by Horace Greely and Ralph St. Denny.

46. Big times EPOCHS
Geologic time is divided into different units which are, starting with the longest:

– Supereons
– Eons
– Eras
– Periods
– Epochs
– Ages

So, supereons can be divided in eons, and eons divided into eras etc.

47. Black-box analyzers: Abbr. NTSB
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is responsible for the investigation of major accidents involving transportation. Included in this broad definition is the transportation of fluids in pipelines. The organization is independent in that it has no ties to other government agencies or departments so that its investigations can be viewed as “impartial”. The NTSB also earns a little money for the US as it hires out its investigation teams to countries who don’t have the necessary resources available on their own soil.

58. Little one TYKE
“Tyke” has been used playfully to describe a young child since at least 1902, but for centuries before that a tyke was a cur or mongrel, or perhaps a lazy or lower-class man.

63. Stat for R.A. Dickey ERA
The pitching stat, earned run average (ERA), measures how many runs a pitcher tends to give up per nine innings.

R. A. Dickey is a baseball pitcher playing for the Toronto Blue Jays.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. ’60s activist Bobby SEALE
6. Forward sail JIB
9. Flavonoids-rich berry ACAI
13. *Shady spot ARBOR (Day)
14. Mesabi Range output ORE
15. Not for minors ADULT
16. *Furry forecaster? GROUNDHOG (Day)
18. Chain with a red cowboy hat logo ARBY’S
19. Some spring rolls? SOD
20. Former “Today” co-anchor Curry ANN
21. Plant sold in animal-shaped pots CHIA
22. Gave away, as true feelings LET ON
25. One __ time AT A
27. *Jolly Roger, e.g. FLAG (Day)
30. *Formal beginning INAUGURATION (Day)
33. Lip balm stuff ALOE
35. Subleased RELET
36. __-ray Disc BLU
37. Gives substance to, with “out” FLESHES
39. Decks out ATTIRES
41. L.A.’s __ Center: second-tallest building in California AON
42. Salsa ingredient ONION
44. Hard-to-hit server ACER
45. *Freedom from control INDEPENDENCE (Day)
48. *Leave the ground LEAP (Day)
49. Stoplight color RED
50. “Done!” THERE!
53. Vagrant HOBO
55. PSAT takers JRS
57. Acct. accrual INT
59. Summers in China? ABACI
61. Big name in publishing, and a visual hint to the three adjacent pairs of answers to starred clues DOUBLEDAY
64. “My Little Grass Shack” singer DON HO
65. Die down EBB
66. Hoover rival ORECK
67. A&W rival DAD’S
68. Versatile Scrabble tile ESS
69. Small bite TASTE

Down
1. Loses muscle tone SAGS
2. Dashing Flynn ERROL
3. Dwelling ABODE
4. Reed of The Velvet Underground LOU
5. Compass point ending -ERN
6. Poet Keats JOHN
7. Historic toolmaking period IRON AGE
8. Importune BEG
9. Lacking purpose ADRIFT
10. Tropical rum drink CUBA LIBRE
11. Prince __ Khan ALY
12. “__ in the bag!” IT’S
15. “That hits the spot!” AAH!
17. “Body of Proof” actress Delany DANA
21. Insertion symbol CARET
23. Cancún uncles TIOS
24. Like many an easy grounder ONE-HOP
26. New Orleans school TULANE
28. IM user AOLER
29. Safari sights GNUS
31. Like grizzlies URSINE
32. Tack on ATTACH
33. Solo ALONE
34. Pitch in LEND A HAND
37. Flunk out FAIL
38. Año beginner ENERO
40. Slurpee cousin ICEE
43. PennySaver ad subjects ODD JOBS
46. Big times EPOCHS
47. Black-box analyzers: Abbr. NTSB
51. Takes for a spin RIDES
52. Pass ENACT
54. Theater program item BIO
56. Chafes RUBS
58. Little one TYKE
59. Tack on ADD
60. Accessorizing wrap BOA
61. Below-average grade DEE
62. Parking place LOT
63. Stat for R.A. Dickey ERA

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