Day: April 22, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Switchblade SHIV
“Shiv” is a slang term for a weapon crudely fashioned to resemble a knife. Mostly we hear of shivs that have been fashioned by prison inmates to do harm to others.

Back in the British Isles we call a switchblade a flick knife, descriptive of the action of the blade as it springs out of the grip when released. Switchblades were somewhat glamorized in the movies on the fifties, such as “Rebel Without a Cause”, “West Side Story” and “12 Angry Men”. As a consequence, there are specific laws restricting the manufacture, sale and possession of switchblades.

5. French revolutionary who was murdered in a tub MARAT
Jean-Paul Marat was a prominent figure in the French Revolution. Marat was famously murdered in his bath by a young woman called Charlotte Corday who was a Royalist. The gruesome event was immortalized in a celebrated painting by Jacques-Louis David.

16. One-named Gaelic folk singer ENYA
Enya’s real name is Eithne Patricia Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1980 Enya launched her very successful solo career. She sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

17. Bear in two constellations URSA
The constellation called Ursa Major (Latin for “Larger Bear”) is often just called the Big Dipper because of its resemblance to a ladle or dipper. Ursa Major also resembles a plow, and that’s what we usually call the same constellation back in Ireland: the “plough”.

Ursa Minor sits right beside the constellation Draco (Latin for “dragon”). Ursa Minor used to be considered the wing of Draco, and so was once called “Dragon’s Wing”.

18. Pro cager NBAER
In the early days of basketball, when a ball went out of bounds possession was awarded to the player who first retrieved the ball. This led to mad scuffles off the court, often involving spectators. As the game became more organized courts were routinely “caged”, largely because of this out of bounds rule, to limit interaction with the crowd. It’s because of these cages that basketball players are sometimes referred to today as “cagers”.

19. Folksy Joan BAEZ
Joan Baez is an American folk singer and a prominent activist in the fields of nonviolence, civil rights, human rights and environmental protection. Baez has dated some high-profile figures in her life including Bob Dylan, Steve Jobs (of Apple) and Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead.

23. Martini liquor GIN
The name “martini” probably takes it name from the “Martini & Rossi” brand of dry vermouth, although no one seems to be completely sure. What is clear is that despite the Martini name originating in Italy, the martini drink originated in the US. The original martini was made with gin and sweet vermouth, but someone specifying a “dry” martini was given gin and dry vermouth. Nowadays we use dry vermouth for all martinis and the term “dry” has become a reference to how little vermouth is included in the drink. Famously, Noel Coward liked his drink very dry and said that a perfect martini is made by “filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy”.

24. AOL chat components IMS
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.

25. Turkish __: spas BATHS
A Turkish bath is basically a “wetter” version of the Finnish sauna.

28. 24-hour auto race city LE MANS
Le Mans is a city in northwestern France. The city is famous for the 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race that has been held annually since 1923. The 24-hour race uses the city’s race track, but closed city streets are also used for part of the circuit.

30. “Star Trek” catchphrase BEAM ME UP (from “support beam”)
The catchphrase “Beam me up, Scotty” has its origins in the TV show “Star Trek”. Supposedly, it is a line that was often spoken by Captain Kirk to the Starship Enterprise’s Chief Engineer Mr. Scott. All that said, the line was never ever spoken on the show, nor in any of the spinoff movies.

34. Aim for pins BOWL
Bowling has been around for an awfully long time. The oldest known reference to the game is in Egypt, where pins and balls were found in an ancient tomb that is over 5,000 years old. The first form of the game to come to America was nine-pin bowling, which had been very popular in Europe for centuries. In 1841 in Connecticut, nine-pin bowling was banned due to its association with gambling. Supposedly, an additional pin was added to get around the ban, and ten-pin bowling was born.

52. Prefix with foam STYRO-
Styrofoam is an extruded polystyrene foam made by The Dow Chemical Company. Styrofoam has loads of applications, including home insulation and use as a buoyancy aid.

53. Maglie or Mineo SAL
Sal Maglie was a professional baseball pitcher, one of just a few players who played for all three New York teams of his day, namely the New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Maglie was known as Sal the Barber because he was said to give “close shaves” to hitters, frequently pitching on the inside.

Sal Mineo’s most famous role was John “Plate” Crawford, the kid who was in awe of the James Dean character in “Rebel Without a Cause”. Sadly, Mineo was murdered in 1976 when he was just 37 years old. He was attacked in the alley behind his Los Angeles apartment and stabbed through the heart. When an arrest was made it was discovered that the murderer had no idea that his victim was a celebrity, and that his plan was just to rob anyone who came along.

62. “The First Time __ Saw Your Face” EVER I
I suppose the most famous song released by American singer Roberta Flack is her 1972 hit “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, a beautiful number and a beautiful rendition …

67. 500-mile race, familiarly INDY
The first Indy 500 race was held on Memorial Day in 1911. The winner that day was one Ray Harroun. Harroun had seen someone using a rear view mirror on a horse-drawn vehicle, and decided to fit one on his Marmon “Wasp” motor car. Supposedly that was the first ever use of a rear view mirror on a motor vehicle.

Down
4. Calf meat, in Provence VEAU
“Veau” is the French word for “calf”.

5. Coated buttonlike candies M AND MS
Forrest Mars, Sr. was the founder of the Mars Company. Forrest invented the Mars Bar while living over in England and then developed M&M’s when he returned to the US. Mars came up with the idea for M&M’s when he saw soldiers in the Spanish Civil War eating chocolate pellets. Those pellets had a hard shell of tempered chocolate on the outside to prevent them from melting. Mars got some of the funding to develop the M&M from William Murrie, the son of the president of Hershey’s Chocolate. It is the “M” & “M” from “Mars” & “Murrie” that gives the name to the candy.

6. “Slicing Up Freshness” fast-food chain 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”.

7. Reddish horse ROAN
A roan horse has an even mixture of white and colored hairs on the body with the head, lower legs, mane and tail having a more solid color.

10. Device for a Skype chat WEBCAM
The main feature of the Skype application is that it allows voice communication to take place over the Internet (aka VoIP). Skype has other features such as video conferencing and instant messaging, but the application made its name from voice communication. Skype was founded by two Scandinavian entrepreneurs and the software necessary was developed by a team of engineers in Estonia. The development project was originally called “Sky peer-to-peer” so the first commercial name for the application was “Skyper”. This had to be shortened to “Skype” because the skyper.com domain name was already in use.

12. Soap ingredient LYE
Today when we purchase what is labelled as “lye”, it is caustic soda (sodium hydroxide).

13. ’60s-’80s Red Sox legend, familiarly YAZ
Yaz is the nickname for Carl Yastrzemski who played his whole career with the Boston Red Sox.

21. Ford named for a horse PINTO
The Pinto is a small car that was made by the Ford company from 1971 to 1980. The Pinto was of course named for the type of horse. Allegations were made in 1997 that the neck of the car’s fuel tank could easily break off in a collision leading to a deadly fire. However, the allegations were never really shown to be valid.

22. Selectric maker IBM
I remember the IBM Selectric typewriter so well. It was a very successful model as it used a very innovative “typeball” instead of the typical “basket” of individual typebars that were typical in prior models.

29. “Oh” de Cologne? ACH
The German exclamation “ach!” is usually translated into English as “oh!”

34. Lugosi who played Dracula BELA
Bela Lugosi was a Hungarian stage and screen actor, best known for playing the title role in the 1931 film “Dracula” and for playing the same role on Broadway. Lugosi found himself typecast for the rest of his career and almost always played the role of the villain, often in horror movies. When he passed away in 1956, his wife had him buried in the costume he wore playing Count Dracula on Broadway.

37. Cul-de-__ SAC
Even though “cul-de-sac” can indeed mean “bottom of the bag” in French, the term cul-de-sac is of English origin (the use of “cul” in French is actually quite rude). The term was introduced in aristocratic circles at a time when it was considered very fashionable to speak French. Dead-end streets in France are usually signposted with just a symbol and no accompanying words, but if words are included they are “voie sans issue”, meaning “way without exit”.

38. Pharmaceutical giant Eli LILLY
Eli Lilly is the largest corporation in the state of Indiana. The founder, Eli Lilly, was a veteran of the Union Army in the Civil War, and a failed Mississippi plantation owner. Later in life he returned to his first profession and opened a pharmaceutical operation to manufacture drugs and sell them wholesale. Under Lilly’s early guidance, the company was the first to create gelatin capsules to hold medicines and the first to use fruit flavoring in liquid medicines.

39. __-Globe: shakable collectible SNO
It is believed that the first snow globes were introduced in France in the early 1800s. They were a development of glass paperweights that were already common, and were initially used to do the same job.

40. Balaam’s mount ASS
Balaam was a diviner who appears in the Book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible. In one story, Balaam is held to task by an angel for particularly cruel treatment of an ass.

46. Lures by phishing, say ROPES IN
Phishing is the name given to the online practice of stealing usernames, passwords and credit card details by creating a site that deceptively looks reliable and trustworthy. Phishers often send out safe-looking emails or instant messages that direct someone to an equally safe-looking website where the person might inadvertently enter sensitive information. “Phishing” is a variant of the word “fishing”, as in “fishing for passwords, PIN numbers etc.”

50. Ascot wearer FOP
An Ascot tie is that horrible-looking (I think!) wide tie that narrows at the neck, which these days is only really worn at weddings. The tie takes its name from the Royal Ascot horse race at which punters still turn up in formal wear at Ascot Racecourse in England.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Switchblade SHIV
5. French revolutionary who was murdered in a tub MARAT
10. Hard to outwit WILY
14. Trumpet muffler MUTE
15. Rolled out of bed AROSE
16. One-named Gaelic folk singer ENYA
17. Bear in two constellations URSA
18. Pro cager NBAER
19. Folksy Joan BAEZ
20. Behavior of a community GROUP DYNAMICS (from “support group”)
23. Martini liquor GIN
24. AOL chat components IMS
25. Turkish __: spas BATHS
28. 24-hour auto race city LE MANS
30. “Star Trek” catchphrase BEAM ME UP (from “support beam”)
33. Standing straight ERECT
34. Aim for pins BOWL
35. “How come?” WHY?
36. Storage items near outdoor faucets HOSE REELS (from “support hose”)
40. Satisfied sigh AAH
43. Sox player, e.g. ALER
44. Preface, briefly INTRO
48. Military officer’s ride STAFF CAR (from “support staff”)
51. Attempt to cool, as steaming hot soup BLOW ON
52. Prefix with foam STYRO-
53. Maglie or Mineo SAL
54. Unlock, poetically OPE
55. Nurturing network of family and friends, and a hint to the starts of 20-, 30-, 36- and 48-Across SUPPORT SYSTEM
60. Corncob pipe part STEM
62. “The First Time __ Saw Your Face” EVER I
63. Speech problem LISP
64. Stay fresh KEEP
65. Dig artifact RELIC
66. Send out, as rays EMIT
67. 500-mile race, familiarly INDY
68. Phones on stage, e.g. PROPS
69. Contradict DENY

Down
1. Bring across the border illegally SMUGGLE
2. One in a rush HURRIER
3. “Your money’s no good here!” IT’S ON ME!
4. Calf meat, in Provence VEAU
5. Coated buttonlike candies M AND MS
6. “Slicing Up Freshness” fast-food chain ARBY’S
7. Reddish horse ROAN
8. On the ocean ASEA
9. __ paper: school composition TERM
10. Device for a Skype chat WEBCAM
11. Very agitated IN A STEW
12. Soap ingredient LYE
13. ’60s-’80s Red Sox legend, familiarly YAZ
21. Ford named for a horse PINTO
22. Selectric maker IBM
26. “Whadja say?” HUH?
27. Double agent SPY
29. “Oh” de Cologne? ACH
30. Drilling tool BORER
31. Potter’s pitcher EWER
32. Tavern brew ALE
34. Lugosi who played Dracula BELA
37. Cul-de-__ SAC
38. Pharmaceutical giant Eli LILLY
39. __-Globe: shakable collectible SNO
40. Balaam’s mount ASS
41. Lawyer: Abbr. ATT
42. Country bumpkin HAYSEED
45. Double-cross TWO-TIME
46. Lures by phishing, say ROPES IN
47. Afraid of running out, gas gauge-wise ON EMPTY
49. Drably unattractive FRUMPY
50. Ascot wearer FOP
51. Fundamentals BASICS
53. Word after comic or landing STRIP
56. Cop’s suspect PERP
57. Eggs __ easy OVER
58. Move, in brokerese RELO
59. Winter toy SLED
60. Tackle a slope SKI
61. Olympic diver’s perfection TEN

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