Day: November 24, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Skye cap TAM
A tam o’shanter is a man’s cap traditionally worn by Scotsmen. “Tams” were originally all blue (and called “blue bonnets”), but as more dyes became readily available they became more colorful. The name of the cap comes from the title character of Robert Burns’ poem “Tam O’Shanter”.

The Isle of Skye is off the northwest coast of Scotland in the Inner Hebrides. It is the second largest island in the country, and has been linked to the mainland by a road bridge since 1995. I’ve never been there, but I hear the views are spectacular.

20. Yemen neighbor OMAN
Oman lies on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula and is neighbored by the OAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The capital city of Muscat has a strategic location on the Gulf of Oman and has a history of invasion and unrest. Centuries of occupation by the Persians ended in 1507 when the Portuguese took the city in a bloody attack. The Portuguese held Muscat for much of the next one hundred years until finally being ousted by local Omani forces in 1648. A Yemeni tribe invaded the area in 1741 and set up a monarchy that has been in place in Oman ever since.

Yemen is located on the Arabian Peninsula, lying just south of Saudi Arabia and west of Oman. Yemen is the only state on the peninsula that is a republic (its official name is the Republic of Yemen). Everyone over the age of 18 gets to vote, but only Muslims can hold elected office.

21. Old Spanish sailing force ARMADA
The most famous Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England in order to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I in 1588. It failed in its mission, partly due to bad weather encountered en route. Ironically, the English mounted a similar naval attack against Spain the following year, and it failed as well.

22. Small egg OVULE
As we all remember from botany class, an “ovule” is a small structure in many plants that develops into the seed after fertilization. We do remember, don’t we?

24. __ the Merciless: Flash Gordon foe MING
In the “Flash Gordon” comic strip, the main bad guy is Ming the Merciless, the evil emperor who rules the planet Mongo. Ming has been around quite a while, first appearing in print way back in 1934.

25. Tolstoy novel about game hunting? BOAR AND GEESE (from “War and Peace”)
I have to confess that I have tried to read Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” twice in my life, and failed both times (it is l-o-n-g). Even though the 1956 movie adaptation runs for 3 1/2 hours, it’s still the easy way out! The film version stars Audrey Hepburn as Natasha Rostova and Henry Fonda as Count Pierre Bezukhov.

31. London novel about gentlemen coming to blows? BRAWL OF THE MILD (from “(The) Call of the Wild”)
“The Call of the Wild” is the most widely published novel of writer Jack London. The book tells the story of a dog named Buck that is forced into the hard life of a sled dog in the Yukon. When I was at school in Ireland, we got to read London’s follow-up novel “White Fang”. “White Fang” is a companion novel that the tells the tale of a wolf-dog that is born in the wild but eventually settles into a domesticated life.

36. Computer acronym ASCII
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) lists codes for 32 “control” characters, as well as the 95 printable characters (like a, A, b, B, 1, 2, etc). These binary ASCII codes are the way that our computers can understand what we mean when we type say a letter or a number.

38. DDE rival AES
Adlai Stevenson (AES) ran for president unsuccessfully against Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and in 1956. Some years after his second defeat, Stevenson served under President Kennedy as Ambassador to the United Nations. Stevenson was always noted for his eloquence and he had a famous exchange in a UN Security Council meeting during the Cuban missile crisis. Stevenson bluntly demanded that the Soviet representative on the council tell the world if the USSR was installing nuclear weapons in Cuba. His words were “Don’t wait for the translation, answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’!” followed by “I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over!”

40. “__ Miniver” MRS
“Mrs Miniver” is a 1942 movie starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon that is based on a 1940 book of the same name by Jan Struther. The book itself is actually a compilation of newspaper columns that Struther wrote for “The Times” of London. The columns were reflections of daily life in the run up to WWII as seen through the eyes of the fictional “Mrs. Miniver”. When the film was completed, President Roosevelt intervened and had it rushed to theaters as he believed it would help convince the American people that the US needed to intervene in the war raging in Europe.

52. Salinger novel about an alien abduction? SNATCHER IN THE SKY (from “Catcher in the Rye”)
“The Catcher in the Rye” is the most famous novel from the pen of J. D. Salinger. The main character and narrator in the book is Holden Caulfield, a teenager who gets expelled from a university prep school. Caulfield also makes appearances in several short stories written by Salinger, as do other members of the Caulfield family.

56. Good, in Hebrew TOV
“Tov” is the Hebrew word for “good”, as in “mozel tov”, meaning “good luck”.

58. Bygone bringers of blocks ICEMEN
Nowadays we tend to associate the term “iceman” with the Eugene O’Neill play “The Iceman Cometh”.

“The Iceman Cometh” is a play written by American playwright Eugene O’Neill and first performed in 1946 on Broadway. The play centers on some down-and-out men in a shabby saloon in Manhattan. The title is a reference to the “ice man”, the man who would have delivered ice to homes back in the time of the play. The reference is to a bawdy joke in which the “ice man” was having an affair with someone’s wife.

59. Spanish appetizer TAPA
“Tapa” is the Spanish for “lid”, and there is no clear rationale for why this word came to be used for an appetizer. There are lots of explanations cited, all of which seem to involve the temporary covering of one’s glass of wine with a plate or item of food to either preserve the wine or give one extra space at the table.

70. Dreiser novel about a prominent British prince? MISTER HARRY (from “Sister Carrie”)
“Sister Carrie” is a 1900 novel by American author Theodore Dreiser. The title character is a country girl who moves to Chicago to make a new life for herself. At first she becomes a mistress to men whom she perceives as her superior, but eventually becomes a famous actress. The novel was adapted into a successful movie in 1952 starring Jennifer Jones and Laurence Olivier.

72. Big name in elevators OTIS
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.

74. NFL pick sixes, e.g. INTS
“Pick-six” is a football term, an interception returned by the defensive team for a touchdown. The “pick” is the interception, and the “six” is the number of points awarded for a touchdown.

75. Red dye EOSIN
Eosin is a red dye that fluoresces under light, and that is used in the lab as a stain on microscope slides. It is particularly effective in staining animal tissues.

76. Guy dolls KENS
Barbie’s male counterpart doll is Ken, and Ken’s family name is Carson. Barbie’s full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts. When Ken was introduced in 1959, it was as Barbie’s boyfriend. In 2004 it was announced that Ken and Barbie were splitting up, and needed to spend quality time apart. Soon after the split, Barbie “met” Blaine, a boogie boarder from Australia.

80. Cleo’s undoing ASP
The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.

82. Brontë novel about the rigors of ballet training? SMOTHERING TIGHTS (from “Wuthering Heights”)
“Wuthering Heights” is the only novel written by Emily Brontë, one that she published using the pen name Ellis Bell. Her sister Charlotte Brontë had just published her famous book “Jane Eyre” under the name Currer Bell. The most famous film adaptation is probably the 1939 version starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon.

87. One may overlook a loch BRAE
“Brae” is a lowland Scots word for the slope or brow of a hill.

“Loch” is the Scottish Gaelic word for “lake”. The Irish Gaelic word is “lough”.

91. Perfume with myrrh, say CENSE
Frankincense and myrrh are both tree resins, exuded when certain species of tree are damaged. The harvested resins are used to make essentials oils for perfumes, and are also burned to give off a pleasant fragrance.

95. More than feasts (on) ODS
Overdoses (ODs)

100. Swiss mathematician EULER
Leonhard Euler was a brilliant Swiss mathematician and physicist, a pioneer in the fields of logarithms and graph theory.

101. Email attachment, briefly PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format introduced by Adobe Systems in 1993. PDF documents can be shared between users and read using many different applications, making them more universally accessible than documents saved by one particular program.

104. Forster novel about the mysterious death of Tutenkhamen? A TOMB WITH A CLUE (from “A Room with a View”)
E.M. Forster’s novel “A Room with a View” was first published in 1908. There was a fantastic screen adaptation released in 1985 directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. There is a great cast, including Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Daniel Day-Lewis.

109. Gulf War missile PATRIOT
Patriot is a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system manufactured by Raytheon. The radar component of the system is called the “Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept On Target”, known by the acronym PATRIOT.

113. Former president of Pakistan ZIA
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq was the President of Pakistan from 1978 until he died in 1988. Zia died in a plane crash along with US Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Lewis Raphel and several other VIPs. The official investigation into the cause of the crash concluded that the plane was probably brought down by sabotage.

115. Steinbeck novel about a spiritual vegan? OF RICE AND ZEN (from “Of Mice and Men”)
“Of Mice and Men” is a novella written by American author John Steinbeck, published in 1937. The title comes from the famous poem by Robert Burns, “To a Mouse”. The inspirational line is “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley.”

118. “__.0”: Comedy Central show TOSH
Daniel Tosh is a stand-up comedian and host of “Tosh.0”, a video clip show on Comedy Central.

119. Bad opening? DYS-
The prefix “dys-” comes from the Greek for “bad”. Example of the use of the prefix would be: dyslexia (bad + word), dyspepsia (bad+digested).

122. Curved molding OGEE
An ogee is like an s-curve. Specifically it is a figure consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite directions (like an S) but both ends of the curve end up parallel to each other (which is not necessarily true for an S).

126. “O, let me not be mad” speaker LEAR
“O, let me not be mad” is a line by the title character in William Shakespeare’s play “King Lear”. But, mad he is …

Down
2. “Winesburg, Ohio” author Sherwood ANDERSON
Sherwood Anderson was an author from Ohio who had been a very successful businessman. After a nervous breakdown forced him out of the world of commerce, he took up writing. Anderson’s most famous work is a collection of short stories called “Winesburg, Ohio”.

4. Horn of Africa natives SOMALIS
The Horn of Africa is that horn-shaped peninsula at the easternmost tip of the continent, containing the countries Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia as well as Somalia. The Horn of Africa is also known as the Somali Peninsula.

5. Baja buddy AMIGO
Baja California is both the most northern and the most western of the Mexican states. The name translates from Spanish as “Lower California”.

6. Crooks, in slang GANEFS
A ganef is a thief or a scoundrel, from the Hebrew word “gannab” meaning “to steal”.

7. Unsettled feelings, in Frankfurt ANGSTE
Frankfurt is the fifth largest city in Germany. The city is more properly called Frankfurt am Main, to distinguish it from Frankfurt an der Oder, a town near the Polish border. Frankfurt is located on the Main River, hence the name.

8. Buffalo hockey player SABRE
The Buffalo Sabres joined the National Hockey League in the 1970-71 season. The team took the name “Sabres” following a fan contest.

10. Cremona craftsman AMATI
The first of the Amati family to make violins was Andrea Amati, who lived in the 14th century. He was succeeded by his sons, Antonio and Girolamo. In turn, they were succeeded by Girolamo’s son, Nicolo. Nicolo had a few students who achieved fame making musical instruments as well. One was his own son, Girolamo, and another was the famed Antonio Stradivari.

Cremona is a city in Lombardy in northern Italy that lies on the Po River. Cremona has a rich musical history and was the home to famous craftsmen who made stringed instruments, including Stradivari and several members of the Amati family.

11. Beetle, for one CAR
The Beetle was the official name of the VW model released in North America, but it was usually referred to as a “Bug” here in the US, and a “Beetle” elsewhere in the world.

12. Author LeShan EDA
Eda LeShan wrote “When Your Child Drives You Crazy”, and was host of the PBS television show “How Do Your Children Grow?”

16. Haggis ingredient SUET
Haggis is the national dish of Scotland. It is savory pudding made from the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep, mixed with onion, oatmeal, suet and spices. The pudding was originally cooked in the sheep’s stomach but these days is usually prepared in a sausage casing.

34. Actress Mazar DEBI
Debi Mazar plays Shauna Roberts on the HBO series “Entourage”. You might have seen her on “Dancing with the Stars” a while back, although she didn’t do so welland was eliminated in the third week.

46. Cliffside debris SCREE
When a rock face erodes, lumps of rock and dust fall to the ground. The pile of rocks gathered around the rock face is called scree, a word derived from the old Norwegian term for a landslide.

48. Great American Ball Park player RED
The Red Scare (i.e. anti-communist sentiment) following WWII had such an effect on the populace that it even caused the Cincinnati baseball team to change its name from the Reds. The team was called the Cincinnati Redlegs from 1953-1958, as the management was fearful of losing money due to public distrust of any association with “Reds”.

49. Cannabis compound THC
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive in cannabis.

50. Nike rival REEBOK
The brand name Reebok was adopted as the new company name for Foster Shoes of the UK in 1960. The name Reebok (more commonly “Rhebok”) is an Afrikaans word for an antelope, and comes from the term “roe buck”.

54. “Stop, sailor!” AVAST!
“Avast” is a nautical term used to tell someone to stop or desist from what they are doing. The word comes from the Dutch “hou vast” meaning “hold fast”.

55. Considerable TIDY
A considerable sum, a tidy sum …

59. Hot stuff TABASCO
Edward McIlhenny created the first Tabasco Sauce in 1868. He recycled old cologne bottles as a container for the sauce so that he could present it to friends, and when he went into business he ordered new cologne bottles for the commercial product. Even today, the Tabasco Sauce bottle bears a striking resemblance to the bottle used to distribute 4711 cologne.

64. Gold meas. KTS
A karat (also “carat”, the spelling outside of North America) is a measure of the purity of gold alloys, with 24-karat representing pure gold.

66. Dickens’ Heep URIAH
Uriah Heep is a sniveling insincere character in the novel “David Copperfield” by Charles Dickens. The character is such a “yes man” that today, if we know someone who behaves the same way, then we might call that person a “Uriah Heep”.

67. “The Hat Makes the Man” artist ERNST
Max Ernst was a painter and sculptor, a pioneer in the Dada movement and Surrealism. Ernst was born near Cologne in Germany in 1891 and he was called up to fight in WWI, as were most young German men at that time. In his autobiography he writes “Max Ernst died the 1st of August, 1914” a statement about his experiences in the war. In reality, Ernst died in 1976 having lived to the ripe old age of 85.

70. Wee bit MITE
A mite is a small amount, as in “the widow’s mite”, a story from the Bible.

71. Pal, slangily HOMIE
“Homie” is short for “homeboy”: someone from one’s home neighborhood.

79. Supermarket franchise initials IGA
IGA stands for Independent Grocers Alliance, a chain of supermarkets that extends right around the world. IGA’s headquarters is in Chicago.

84. Hip bones ILIA
The sacrum and the two ilia are three bones in the human pelvis.

87. “Scottish Fantasy” composer BRUCH
Max Bruch was a composer from Germany who was writing during the Romantic Period. Bruch’s most famous work is his first Violin Concerto, composed in 1866.

89. Arterial problem ANEURYSM
An aneurysm is a bulge in the wall of a blood vessel.

94. Subtly mottled, as fabric HEATHER
The adjective “heather” is used to describe a fabric that has interwoven yarns of mixed colors. Usually a gray shade is added to another color to create a more muted effect, like a heather green perhaps.

105. Harriet’s TV spouse OZZIE
“The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” ran from 1952 to 1966, and it is has been running continuously in syndication ever since. It was the longest-running, non-animated sitcom in US television history.

106. Appearances MIENS
One’s mien is one’s bearing or manner. “Mien” shares the same etymological root as our word “demeanor”.

107. Beatle trademark BANGS
“Bangs” is another word that caught me out when I arrived in the US. “Bangs” back in Ireland are called “a fringe”. Apparently the US term is derived from the hair on horses somehow.

108. Old Testament prophet HOSEA
Hosea was one of the Twelve Prophets of the Hebrew Bible, also called the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible.

112. Poi source TARO
The corm of some taro plants is used to make poi, the traditional Hawaiian dish (that I think tastes horrible). When a taro plant is grown as an ornamental, it is often called Elephant Ears due to the shape of its large leaves.

117. Sot’s problem DTS
The episodes of delirium that can accompany withdrawal from alcohol are called Delirium Tremens (the DTs). The literal translation of this Latin phrase is “trembling madness”.

Our word “sot” comes from the Old English “sott”, meaning a fool. The word “sot” started to be associated with alcohol and not just foolery in the late 1500s.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Skye cap TAM
4. Long yarn SAGA
8. Wide open areas? SPACES
14. Fix after an outage, as a clock RESET
19. Genetics lab study RNA
20. Yemen neighbor OMAN
21. Old Spanish sailing force ARMADA
22. Small egg OVULE
23. Fingers IDS
24. __ the Merciless: Flash Gordon foe MING
25. Tolstoy novel about game hunting? BOAR AND GEESE (from “War and Peace”)
27. Most texts MESSAGES
29. Informer RAT
30. Intimidated DAUNTED
31. London novel about gentlemen coming to blows? BRAWL OF THE MILD (from “Call of the Wild”)
35. Assembled MET
36. Computer acronym ASCII
37. Get SEE
38. DDE rival AES
40. “__ Miniver” MRS
43. Murder mystery staple CORPSE
45. Credit (to) ASCRIBE
49. Court happening TRIAL
51. Spot for a pad KNEE
52. Salinger novel about an alien abduction? SNATCHER IN THE SKY (from “Catcher in the Rye”)
56. Good, in Hebrew TOV
57. Clear RID
58. Bygone bringers of blocks ICEMEN
59. Spanish appetizer TAPA
63. Stir up WAKEN
65. Tinted HUED
68. Despicable BASE
69. “What a shame!” ALAS!
70. Dreiser novel about a prominent British prince? MISTER HARRY (from “Sister Carrie”)
72. Big name in elevators OTIS
73. Daffy BATS
74. NFL pick sixes, e.g. INTS
75. Red dye EOSIN
76. Guy dolls KENS
77. Check ARREST
79. Belief: Suff. -ISM
80. Cleo’s undoing ASP
82. Brontë novel about the rigors of ballet training? SMOTHERING TIGHTS (from “Wuthering Heights”)
87. One may overlook a loch BRAE
91. Perfume with myrrh, say CENSE
92. Crowd __ PLEASER
93. Crowd THRONG
95. More than feasts (on) ODS
96. Pancake-making facilitator MIX
97. Photo __ OPS
100. Swiss mathematician EULER
101. Email attachment, briefly PDF
104. Forster novel about the mysterious death of Tutenkhamen? A TOMB WITH A CLUE (from “A Room with a View”)
109. Gulf War missile PATRIOT
113. Former president of Pakistan ZIA
114. Lozenges, e.g. SOOTHERS
115. Steinbeck novel about a spiritual vegan? OF RICE AND ZEN (from “Of Mice and Men”)
118. “__.0”: Comedy Central show TOSH
119. Bad opening? DYS-
120. Booze SAUCE
121. R or X RATING
122. Curved molding OGEE
123. Not leave, with “up” USE
124. Corners, in a way TREES
125. Preoccupy OBSESS
126. “O, let me not be mad” speaker LEAR
127. Times in want ads PMS

Down
1. Sculpt, as hedges TRIM BACK
2. “Winesburg, Ohio” author Sherwood ANDERSON
3. Total drubbing MASSACRE
4. Horn of Africa natives SOMALIS
5. Baja buddy AMIGO
6. Crooks, in slang GANEFS
7. Unsettled feelings, in Frankfurt ANGSTE
8. Buffalo hockey player SABRE
9. Tournament kickoff, perhaps PRO-AM
10. Cremona craftsman AMATI
11. Beetle, for one CAR
12. Author LeShan EDA
13. Bank deposit SAND
14. Scoundrel ROGUE
15. Affair EVENT
16. Haggis ingredient SUET
17. “What __ is new?” ELSE
18. Began a round, with “off” TEED
26. Farm mom DAM
28. Lift SWIPE
32. __ wave HEAT
33. Den LAIR
34. Actress Mazar DEBI
39. House mate?: Abbr. SEN
40. Pair, as two odd socks MISMATE
41. Earns copiously RAKES IN
42. Cunning SLYNESS
44. Approx. EST
46. Cliffside debris SCREE
47. Violin parts CHIN RESTS
48. Great American Ball Park player RED
49. Cannabis compound THC
50. Nike rival REEBOK
53. Sure to end badly NO-WIN
54. “Stop, sailor!” AVAST!
55. Considerable TIDY
59. Hot stuff TABASCO
60. Fearful ALARMED
61. Arts supporters PATRONS
62. Furniture and fixtures, say ASSETS
64. Gold meas. KTS
65. Eats HAS
66. Dickens’ Heep URIAH
67. “The Hat Makes the Man” artist ERNST
70. Wee bit MITE
71. Pal, slangily HOMIE
78. Lady, e.g. SHE
79. Supermarket franchise initials IGA
81. L.A. hours PST
83. Turning meas. RPM
84. Hip bones ILIA
85. Call in a bakery NEXT!
86. Develop GROW
87. “Scottish Fantasy” composer BRUCH
88. In a ball ROLLED UP
89. Arterial problem ANEURYSM
90. Exits EGRESSES
94. Subtly mottled, as fabric HEATHER
98. Starter’s gun PISTOL
99. Easy mark STOOGE
101. Damage, so to speak PRICE
102. Cubes in the kitchen DICES
103. Antagonist FOE
105. Harriet’s TV spouse OZZIE
106. Appearances MIENS
107. Beatle trademark BANGS
108. Old Testament prophet HOSEA
109. Put up POST
110. At a distance AFAR
111. Faithful TRUE
112. Poi source TARO
116. Collar NAB
117. Sot’s problem DTS

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