Day: April 8, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Eva or Juan of Argentina : PERON
Nowadays, President Juan Perón of Argentina is perhaps less well-known than his second wife, Eva Perón of “Evita” fame. Juan and Eva Perón were overthrown in a military coup in 1955, although Juan Perón was returned to power in 1973 when he served for only nine months before he passed away. Juan was succeeded in office by his third wife, Isabel Perón.

6. “Taking you places” premium movie channel : STARZ
The Starz premium cable channel is owned by the same company that owns the Encore cable channel. Starz was launched in 1994 and mainly shows movies.

14. ’60s-’70s Twins great Tony : OLIVA
Tony Oliva is a former Major League baseball player who played his whole career for the Minnesota Twins.

15. Nest on a cliffside : AERIE
An aerie is the nest of an eagle.

16. “Friends” actress Courteney : COX
Courteney Cox played Monica Geller on the incredibly successful sitcom “Friends”. Before “Friends” she played the girlfriend of Michael J. Fox’s character on “Family Ties” for a couple of years in the late eighties. Her role in “Friends” was her biggest success, no question, when she and her fellow female costars became the highest paid TV actresses ever, earning a million dollars per episode.

17. Many a coffee shop, vis-à-vis Internet access : WI-FI HOTSPOT
A Wi-Fi hotspot is a “spot” where one can connect wirelessly with a Wi-Fi connection to a router at the center of the hotspot. From there, one can access the Internet via a modem connected to that router.

“Wi-Fi” is nothing more than a trademark, a trademark registered by an association of manufacturers of equipment that use wireless LAN (Local Area Network) technology. A device labeled with “Wi-Fi” has to meet certain defined technical standards, basically meaning that the devices can talk to each other. The name “Wi-Fi” suggests “Wireless Fidelity”, although apparently the term was never intended to mean anything at all.

20. Subj. for immigrants : ESL
English as a Second Language (ESL) is sometimes referred to as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

21. Synagogue : SHUL
Shul is another word for a synagogue. “Shul” is the term mostly used in Orthodox Judaism, “synagogue” in Conservative Judaism, and “temple” in Reform Judaism.

22. Cowpoke’s seat : SADDLE
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.

24. Flightless South American bird : RHEA
The rhea is a flightless bird native to South America. The rhea takes its name from the Greek titan Rhea, an apt name for a flightless bird as “rhea” comes from the Greek word meaning “ground”.

26. Scottish hillside : BRAE
“Brae” is a lowland Scots word for the slope or brow of a hill.

29. Hairstyling immortal Vidal : SASSOON
Vidal Sassoon was a hairdresser and businessman from London, England. Sassoon is credited with “liberating” women from the hair salon by popularizing hairstyles that one could “wash and wear”.

35. 1980s secretary of state Alexander : HAIG
Alexander Haig was Secretary of State under President Reagan, and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Nixon and Ford.

42. Move, in Realtor-speak : RELO
Some helpful blog readers have educated me on the term “Realtor” and have pointed out why the word is capitalized. “Real estate agent” is a general, generic term. “Realtor” is the name given to a member of the trade association known as the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The NAR has gone so far as the trademark the term “Realtor” in the US.

43. “In __ Shoes”: Cameron Diaz flick : HER
The Hollywood actress Cameron Diaz started out her professional life as a model. Diaz’s first acting role was in the 1994 film “The Mask”, starring alongside Jim Carrey.

“In Her Shoes” is a 2005 comedy-drama film starring Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley MacLaine. MacLaine plays the grandmother of two very different sisters played by Diaz and Collette. The movie is based on a novel of the same name by Jennifer Weiner.

53. Geologic periods : EONS
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.

61. Gender-determining heredity unit : Y CHROMOSOME
In most mammalian species, including man, females have two identical sex chromosomes (XX) and males two distinct sex chromosomes (XY). As a result it is the males who determine the sex of the offspring. However, in birds the opposite is true and so females determine the sex of the chicks.

64. Mauna __: Hawaii’s highest peak : KEA
Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, the peak of which is the highest point in the whole state. Mauna Kea is in effect the tip of a gigantic volcano rising up from the seabed. So, the “real” height of the volcano is over 33,000 feet, which is significantly “taller” than even Mount Everest, which has an elevation of 29,029 feet above sea level.

66. ESPN analyst Garciaparra : NOMAR
Nomar Garciaparra is one of only thirteen players to have hit two grand slams during a single game in the Majors. He accomplished the feat in 1999 for the Boston Red Sox against the Seattle Mariners.

67. Bachelor in personals, briefly : SWM
Single white male (SWM).

Down
2. Inventor Otis : ELISHA
Elevators (simple hoists) have been around for a long time. What Elisha Otis did was come up with the “safety elevator”, a design that he showcased at the 1853 World’s Fair in New York. At the Fair, Otis would stand on an elevated platform in front of onlookers and order his assistant to cut the single rope holding up the platform. His safety system kicked in when the platform had only fallen a few inches, amazing the crowd. After this demonstration, the orders came rolling in.

3. Remington weapons : RIFLES
Remington Arms Company was founded way back, in 1816. That makes Remington the oldest continuously operating manufacturer in North America. It is also the oldest company in the US still making its original product.

6. Second-largest planet : SATURN
Saturn is easily visible from Earth with the unaided eye, but we need some help to see the planet’s famous rings. Galileo was the first person to see Saturn’s rings, when he turned his primitive telescope towards the night sky in 1610. However, he misinterpreted what he was observing and assumed that the rings were in fact two smaller planets located at either side of the larger Saturn.

7. Physicist Nikola : TESLA
Nikola Tesla was born in Serbia, but later moved to the US. His work on mechanical and electrical engineering was crucial to the development of alternating current technology, the same technology that is used by equipment at the backbone of modern power generation and distribution systems.

8. Dadaism founder : ARP
Hans Arp was a French artist renowned for his work with torn and pasted paper, although that wasn’t the only medium he used. Arp was the son of a French mother and German father and spoke both languages fluently. When he was speaking German he gave his name as Hans Arp, but when speaking French he called himself Jean Arp. Both “Hans” and “Jean” translate into English as “John”. In WWI Arp moved to Switzerland to avoid being called up to fight, taking advantage of Swiss neutrality. Eventually he was told to report to the German Consulate and fill out paperwork for the draft. In order to get out of fighting, Arp messed up the paperwork by writing the date in every blank space on the forms. Then he took off all of his clothes and walked with his papers over to the officials in charge. He was sent home …

Dadaism thrived during and just after WWI, and was an anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-art culture. The movement began in Zurich, Switzerland started by a group of artists and writers who met to discuss art and put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire, frequently expressing disgust at the war that was raging across Europe.

10. Greek letter that seems like it should be last : ZETA
Zeta is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a precursor of our Roman letter Z. The word “zeta” is also the ancestor of the name “zed”, which became “zee”, the pronunciation that we use here in the US.

27. “La Bamba” co-star Morales : ESAI
Esai Morales is best known for his role in the 1987 movie “La Bamba”, which depicted the life of Ritchie Valens and his half-brother Bob Morales (played by Esai).

30. Very strange : OUTRE
The word “outré” comes to us from French, as you might imagine, derived from the verb “outrer” meaning “to overdo, exaggerate”. “Outrer” is also the ultimate root of our word “outrage”.

35. “The Newsroom” channel : HBO
“The Newsroom” is a wonderfully written drama series on HBO from the pen of the great screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. The show stars Jeff Daniels as the news anchor in a cable news channel. I’ve seen the first season of “The Newsroom” and noted a distinct bias towards left of center politics in the storylines. I read recently that Sorkin hired conservative media consultants at the end of season one, presumably to help attract more viewers whose politics might be right of center.

38. The Twins, at Minneapolis’s Target Field : HOME TEAM
Target Field is a baseball park in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home to the Minnesota Twins since the stadium opening in 2010. Target Corporation paid an undisclosed sum to get the naming rights of the park. The Target Corporation is headquartered in Minneapolis.

39. “Born Free” lion : ELSA
The life story of Elsa the lion was told by game warden Joy Adamson, who had a very close relationship with the lioness from when she was orphaned as a young cub. Adamson wrote the book “Born Free” about Elsa, and then “Living Free” which told the story of Elsa and her three lion cubs. In the 1966 film based on “Born Free”, Adamson is played by the talented actress Virginia McKenna.

41. Windex targets : STREAKS
The glass cleaner called Windex was introduced in 1933. The formulation sold up to the end of WWII had to be packed in metal cans because it was so flammable.

45. Free TV ad : PSA
Public service announcement (PSA).

47. Cellist who performed at Steve Jobs’s funeral : YO-YO MA
Yo-Yo Ma is a marvelous American cellist, born in Paris to Chinese parents. Ma started studying the violin when he was very young, working his way up (in size) to the viola and finally to the cello. He has said that he wanted to play the double bass, but it was just too big for his relatively small frame.

52. Garçon’s handout : CARTE
“Carte” is a word sometimes used in French for a menu. Menu items that are “à la carte” are priced and ordered separately, as opposed to “table d’hôte” which is a fixed price menu with limited choice.

56. Keynes’s sci. : ECON
John Maynard Keynes was a British economist. Keynes argued that a country’s economy could and should be managed by fiscal and monetary policy in order to mitigate the effects of inevitable recessions and depressions.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Eva or Juan of Argentina : PERON
6. “Taking you places” premium movie channel : STARZ
11. Suffix for hero : -INE
14. ’60s-’70s Twins great Tony : OLIVA
15. Nest on a cliffside : AERIE
16. “Friends” actress Courteney : COX
17. Many a coffee shop, vis-à-vis Internet access : WI-FI HOTSPOT
19. Corner PC key : ESC
20. Subj. for immigrants : ESL
21. Synagogue : SHUL
22. Cowpoke’s seat : SADDLE
24. Flightless South American bird : RHEA
26. Scottish hillside : BRAE
28. “… believe __ not!” : IT OR
29. Hairstyling immortal Vidal : SASSOON
31. “Ship out” alternative : SHAPE UP
34. Humble home : HUT
35. 1980s secretary of state Alexander : HAIG
36. False show : ACT
37. “No need to hurry, is there?” : WHY THE BIG RUSH?
41. “__ ’nuff!” : SHO
42. Move, in Realtor-speak : RELO
43. “In __ Shoes”: Cameron Diaz flick : HER
44. Meddles (with) : TAMPERS
46. “Pretty please …” : I BEG YOU
50. GPS choices : RTES
51. Pinnacle : ACME
53. Geologic periods : EONS
54. Extensive property : ESTATE
57. Sorrowful cry : ALAS!
59. Slangy “OK” : YEH
60. “Wheel of Fortune” purchase : AN E
61. Gender-determining heredity unit : Y CHROMOSOME
64. Mauna __: Hawaii’s highest peak : KEA
65. Harbor cities : PORTS
66. ESPN analyst Garciaparra : NOMAR
67. Bachelor in personals, briefly : SWM
68. Early stage : ONSET
69. Extends across : SPANS

Down
1. __ that be: authorities : POWERS
2. Inventor Otis : ELISHA
3. Remington weapons : RIFLES
4. Egg: Pref. : OVI-
5. Casual turndowns : NAHS
6. Second-largest planet : SATURN
7. Physicist Nikola : TESLA
8. Dadaism founder : ARP
9. Spanish rivers : RIOS
10. Greek letter that seems like it should be last : ZETA
11. Summer refreshers : ICED TEAS
12. Hardly an amateur : NO SLOUCH
13. Quote in a book review : EXCERPT
18. “How frustrating!” : OH, BOTHER!
23. Chip go-with : DIP
25. Pale as a ghost : ASHY
27. “La Bamba” co-star Morales : ESAI
30. Very strange : OUTRE
32. Car headlight setting : HIGH BEAM
33. Strike a bargain : AGREE
35. “The Newsroom” channel : HBO
37. Request for the latest update : WHAT’S NEW?
38. The Twins, at Minneapolis’s Target Field : HOME TEAM
39. “Born Free” lion : ELSA
40. Press for : URGE
41. Windex targets : STREAKS
45. Free TV ad : PSA
46. Words before “Can you give me directions?” : I’M LOST!
47. Cellist who performed at Steve Jobs’s funeral : YO-YO MA
48. Like a single-performer show : ONE-MAN
49. Leads, as to a seat : USHERS
52. Garçon’s handout : CARTE
55. AutoCorrect target : TYPO
56. Keynes’s sci. : ECON
58. Male heirs : SONS
62. Appt. book rows : HRS
63. Soak (up), as gravy : SOP

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