Day: December 9, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Gem weight unit CARAT
A carat is a unit of mass used in measuring gemstones that is equal to 200 mg.

6. Three-line Japanese poem HAIKU
A haiku is a very elegant form of Japanese verse. When writing a haiku in English we tend to impose the rule that the verse must contain 17 syllables. This restriction comes from the rule in Japanese that the verse must contain 17 sound units called “moras”, but moras and syllables aren’t the same thing. What the difference is though, is not so clear to me. Here’s an example of a Haiku:

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don’t make sense
Refrigerator

11. Container for Peter Pan JAR
The Peter Pan brand of peanut butter is of course named after the character in the J. M. Barrie play. What we know today as Peter Pan peanut butter was introduced in 1920 as E. K. Pond peanut butter, and renamed in 1928.

16. Prefix for a lifesaving “Pen” EPI
EpiPen is a brand name of epinephrine auto-injector. An EpiPen delivers a measured dose of epinephrine, usually for the treatment of an allergic reaction.

The naturally occurring hormone adrenaline is also known as epinephrine. Adrenaline takes its name from the adrenal glands that produce the hormone. The glands themselves take their name from their location in the body, right on the kidneys (“ad-renes” meaning near or at the kidneys in Latin). The alternative name of epinephrine has a similar root (“epi-nephros” meaning upon the kidney, in Greek).

19. Bit of Morse code DIT
Dahs and dits are the sound equivalents of dashes and dots of Morse Code. Samuel Morse didn’t invent Morse code, but it took his name because it was created for use on the electric telegraph, which was invented by him.

21. Stow cargo LADE
The verb “lade” meaning “to load” comes from an Old English word “hladan”. Lade also used to mean “to draw water” and indeed gave us our word “ladle”. So “lade” and “ladle” are close cousins.

“Cargo” is freight carried by some vehicle. The term comes into English via Spanish, ultimately deriving from the Latin “carricare” meaning “to load on a cart”.

22. “57 Varieties” brand HEINZ
The Heinz food company is an American concern, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1869, by Henry John Heinz. It was Heinz himself who came up with the marketing slogan of “57 Varieties”. The “57” really doesn’t have any relevance to the range of products available as Heinz chose the “5” because it was his lucky number, and the “7” because it was his wife’s lucky number.

25. Plane for a small airstrip, briefly STOL
STOL is an acronym, and stands for “short take-off and landing”

34. Neeson of “Schindler’s List” LIAM
Irish actor Liam Neeson got his big break when he played Oskar Schindler in the Spielberg epic, “Schindler’s List”. Neeson was in the news a few years ago when he lost his wife, actress Natasha Richardson, in a tragic skiing accident in 2009.

Oskar Schindler is of course the protagonist in the Steven Spielberg movie “Schindler’s List”. Schindler was a real person who survived WWII. During the Holocaust, Schindler managed to save almost 1,200 Jews from perishing by employing them in his factories. After the war Schindler and his wife were left penniless having used his assets to protect and feed his workers. For years the couple survived on the charity of Jewish groups. Schindler tried to make a go of it in business again but never had any real success. He died a pauper in 1974 in Hildesheim, not far from Hanover. His last wish was to be buried in Jerusalem. Schindler was the only former member of the Nazi Party to be buried on Mount Zion.

35. Carps at NAGS
The word “carp” used to mean simply “talk” back in the 13th century, with its roots in the Old Norwegian “karpa” meaning “to brag”. A century later the Latin word “carpere” meaning “to slander” influenced the use of “carp” so that it came to mean “find fault with”.

39. Clinton’s vice president GORE
Al Gore was born in Washington DC, the son of Al Gore, Sr., then a US Representative for the state of Tennessee. After deferring his military service in order to attend Harvard, the younger Gore became eligible for the draft on graduation. Many of his classmates found ways of avoiding the draft, but Gore decided to serve and even took the “tougher” option of joining the army as an enlisted man. Actor Tommy Lee Jones shared a house with Gore in college and says that his buddy told him that even if he could find a way around the draft, someone with less options than him would have to go in his place and that was just wrong.

40. Johnson of “Laugh-In” ARTE
Arte Johnson, as well being a frequent judge on “The Gong Show”, played the German soldier on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”. His character’s famous catchphrase was, “Very interesting, but …”

41. Island dance HULA
“Hula” is the name of the Polynesian dance. The chant or song that the dance illustrates, that’s known as the “mele”.

42. Beast with one hump or two CAMEL
The dromedary, also known as the Arabian Camel or Indian Camel, is the camel that has only one hump. The other species of camel is the Bactrian, which has two humps. The hump of a dromedary contains up to 80 pounds of fat, which can be broken down into water and energy if no food or water is available.

46. Pet food brand with a ProActive Health variety IAMS
Iams dog food was first produced by the animal nutritionist Paul Iams. Iams felt that household pets were suffering somewhat by being fed a diet of table scraps, so he developed a dry dog food that he thought was more nutritious and suitable for pet dogs. He founded the Iams company, now part of Procter & Gamble, in 1946.

47. Chimpanzee, e.g. APE
The Common Chimpanzee is a species of ape, a member of the Hominidae family (along with gorillas, humans and orangutans). The human and chimpanzee branches of the Hominidae family tree diverged 4-6 million years ago, making the chimp our closest living relatives in the animal kingdom.

51. Northwestern pear BOSC
Bosc is a cultivar of the European Pear grown in the northwest of the United States. The Bosc is that pear with a skin the color of a potato, with a long neck. I always seem to use the potato as my point of reference. How Irish am I …?

53. Revolutionary Guevara CHE
Ernesto “Che” Guevara was born in Argentina, and in 1948 he started to study medicine at the University of Buenos Aires. While at school he satisfied his need to “see the world” by taking two long journeys around South America, the story of which are told in Guevara’s memoir later published as “The Motorcycle Diaries”. While travelling, Guevara was moved by the plight of the people he saw and their working conditions and what he viewed as capitalistic exploitation. In Mexico City he met brothers Raul and Fidel Castro and was persuaded to join their cause, the overthrow of the US-backed government in Cuba. He rose to second-in-command among the Cuban insurgents, and when Castro came to power Guevara was influential in repelling the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing Soviet nuclear missiles to the island. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to continue his work as a revolutionary. He was captured by Bolivian forces in 1967, and was executed. Fidel Castro led the public mourning of Guevara’s death, and soon the revolutionary was an icon for many left-wing movements around the world.

56. Logician’s proof ending QED
QED is used at the end of a mathematical proof or a philosophical argument. The QED acronym stands for the Latin “quod erat demonstrandum” meaning “that which was to be demonstrated”.

61. Spoon-bending Geller URI
Uri Geller’s most famous performance is perhaps his uncomfortable failure on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson in 1973. Carson “hi-jacked” Geller on live television by providing him with spoons to bend and watches to start, none of which had been available to Geller before the show aired. Clever!

62. Musical Merman ETHEL
Ethel Merman was an actress and singer, one noted for having a very powerful voice. Merman was married and divorced four times, the last time to the actor Ernest Borgnine albeit for only 32 days in 1964.

63. Eucalyptus-eating marsupial KOALA
The koala really does look like a little bear, but it’s not even closely related. The koala is an arboreal marsupial and a herbivore, native to the east and south coasts of Australia. Koalas aren’t primates, and are one of the few mammals other than primates who have fingerprints. In fact, it can be very difficult to tell human fingerprints from koala fingerprints, even under an electron microscope.

A marsupial is a mammal that carries its young in a pouch. Most marsupials live in the Southern Hemisphere, with examples being kangaroos, koalas, possums, wombats and Tasmanian devils. The term “marsupial” comes from the Greek “marsipos” meaning “pouch, bag”.

64. Civil War prez ABE
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the US, elected in 1860 as the first president from the Republican Party. Lincoln’s electoral support came almost exclusively from the north and west of the country, winning only two out 996 counties in the Southern slave states. Lincoln led the country through Civil War, and then was assassinated in 1865 just a few days after Robert E. Lee surrendered his army of Northern Virginia. President Lincoln was succeeded in office by Vice President Andrew Johnson.

Down
1. Abel’s older brother CAIN
Adam and Eve’s children were Cain and Abel, two estranged brothers.

9. Bout enders, briefly KOS
Knock-out (KO)

11. “Star Wars” warrior JEDI
In the “Star Wars” universe, the members of the Jedi Order progress through six ranks:

– Jedi Youngling
– Jedi Padawan
– Jedi Knight
– Jedi Master
– Jedi Master of the High Council
– Jedi Grand Master of the Order

13. Big name in hotels and crackers RITZ
Cesar Ritz was a Swiss hotelier, who had a reputation for developing the most luxurious of accommodations and attracting the wealthiest clientèle. He opened the Hotel Ritz in Paris in 1898, and the second of his most famous hotels, the Ritz Hotel in London, in 1906. Ritz was lucky in his career, as before starting his own hotel chain, he had been dismissed from the Savoy Hotel in London, implicated in the disappearance of a substantial amount of wine and spirits.

I’ve always liked Ritz crackers. They’ve been around since 1934 when they were introduced by Nabisco. The name Ritz was chosen because the marketing folks felt that the association with Ritz-Carlton would evoke images of wealth and the high life.

24. Phone screening service CALLER ID
The basic technology behind caller ID was developed in Athens, Greece by “Ted” Paraskevakos in the late sixties and early seventies. The man should be made a saint …

25. Underwater experiment site SEALAB
SEALAB I, II and II were man-made habitats built by the US Navy designed to advance the technology needed for humans to live and work underwater for extended periods. SEALAB I was lowered to a depth of just under 200 feet off the coast of Bermuda in 1964. Four divers stayed in SEALAB for 11 days, before the experiment was halted due to the approach of a tropical storm.

26. Tiny Dickens boy TIM
Tiny Tim is the nickname of Timothy Cratchit, the little disabled boy in the Charles Dickens novella “A Christmas Carol”. “A Christmas Carol” is such a popular book that it has never been out of print since its first publication in December 1843.

29. Indigenous Alaskans ALEUTS
The Aleuts live on the Aleutian Islands of the North Pacific, and on the Commander Islands at the western end of the same island chain. The Aleutian Islands are part of the United States, and the Commander Islands are in Russia.

30. Grand Roman home VILLA
The original “villas” were country houses owned by the elite in Ancient Rome. A member of the Roman elite would live in a “domus” in the city, whereas the rest of the population would live in “insulae”, apartment buildings.

31. Judd of country music NAOMI
The Judds were a country music singing duo made up of Naomi Judd and her daughter Wynonna.

32. “Snowy” heron EGRET
At one time the egret species was in danger of extinction due to excessive hunting driven by the demand for plumes for women’s hats.

33. Fighter’s org. WBA
World Boxing Association (WBA)

36. Salt, on the Seine SEL
The Seine is the river that flows through Paris. The Seine empties into the English Channel to the north, at the port city of Le Havre.

42. Baked treat often wrapped in fluted paper CUPCAKE
What we know as “cupcakes” here in North America, we call “fairy cakes” back in Ireland …

44. Gizmo GADGET
The word “gizmo” (also “gismo”) was originally slang used by both the US Navy and the Marine Corps, but the exact origin seems unknown. Nowadays, “gizmo” is a general term used for a device or a part when the correct name escapes one (so I use it a lot!). Oh, and Gizmo is the name of the dog belonging to my son and his fiancee …

45. Brewer’s kiln OAST
An oast is a kiln used for drying hops as part of the brewing process. Such a structure might also be called an “oast house”.

49. Balkan native SERB
Serbs are an ethnic group native to the Balkans in southeastern Europe. Although Serbs exist as a minority group in many countries in the region, they are the majority ethnic group in Serbia, in Montenegro and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

50. Drooling toon dog ODIE
Odie is Garfield’s best friend and is a slobbery beagle, a character in Jim Davis’s comic strip.

51. Red root vegetable BEET
Chard is a lovely leafy vegetable, in my humble opinion. Chard is the same species as the garden beet, but chard is grown for the leaves, and beet is grown for the roots.

53. Bloke CHAP
“Chap” is an informal term for “lad, fellow”, especially in England. The term derives from “chapman”, an obsolete word meaning “purchaser” or “trader”.

“Bloke” is British slang for a fellow. The etymology of “bloke” seems to have been lost in the mists of time.

55. List-shortening abbr. ET AL
Et alii (et al.) is the equivalent of et cetera (etc.), with et cetera being used in place of a list of objects, and et alii used for a list of names. In fact “et al.” can stand for et alii (for a group of males, or males and females), aliae (for a group of women) and et alia (for a group of neuter nouns, or for a group of people where the intent is to retain gender-neutrality).

59. Old videotape type VHS
The video standard known as VHS is more fully referred to as the Video Home System. VHS was one of many standards touted by various manufacturers in the seventies. The biggest rival to VHS was of course Betamax, but we all knew which of the two standards won the final round in that fight.

60. Fenway team, for short SOX
The Boston Red Sox is one of the most successful Major League Baseball teams and so commands a large attendance, but only when on the road. The relatively small capacity of Boston’s Fenway Park, the team’s home since 1912, has dictated that every game the Red Sox has played there has been a sell out since May of 2003.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Gem weight unit CARAT
6. Three-line Japanese poem HAIKU
11. Container for Peter Pan JAR
14. “You __ busted!” ARE SO
15. Past prisoner, for short EX-CON
16. Prefix for a lifesaving “Pen” EPI
17. “Why bother?” IT’S HOPELESS
19. Bit of Morse code DIT
20. Trivial gripe NIT
21. Stow cargo LADE
22. “57 Varieties” brand HEINZ
24. Purr former CAT
25. Plane for a small airstrip, briefly STOL
27. “Why me?” WHAT HAVE I DONE?
33. Entire WHOLE
34. Neeson of “Schindler’s List” LIAM
35. Carps at NAGS
37. Blubber BAWL
38. 90-degree pipe piece ELL
39. Clinton’s vice president GORE
40. Johnson of “Laugh-In” ARTE
41. Island dance HULA
42. Beast with one hump or two CAMEL
43. “Why worry?” FORGET ABOUT IT
46. Pet food brand with a ProActive Health variety IAMS
47. Chimpanzee, e.g. APE
48. Equally strange AS ODD
51. Northwestern pear BOSC
53. Revolutionary Guevara CHE
56. Logician’s proof ending QED
57. “Why not?” GIVE IT A SHOT
61. Spoon-bending Geller URI
62. Musical Merman ETHEL
63. Eucalyptus-eating marsupial KOALA
64. Civil War prez ABE
65. Students’ hurdles TESTS
66. Kick out EXPEL

Down
1. Abel’s older brother CAIN
2. Class for potential painters ART I
3. Remainder REST
4. Residue in a smoker’s tray ASH
5. “You missed the deadline” TOO LATE
6. Pay attention to HEED
7. Wheel-supporting shaft AXLE
8. Cold bagful for a party ICE
9. Bout enders, briefly KOS
10. Without footwear UNSHOD
11. “Star Wars” warrior JEDI
12. Neat as __ A PIN
13. Big name in hotels and crackers RITZ
18. Hiker’s route PATH
23. Stretch out ELONGATE
24. Phone screening service CALLER ID
25. Underwater experiment site SEALAB
26. Tiny Dickens boy TIM
27. Pier WHARF
28. Do-it-yourselfer’s book genre HOW-TO
29. Indigenous Alaskans ALEUTS
30. Grand Roman home VILLA
31. Judd of country music NAOMI
32. “Snowy” heron EGRET
33. Fighter’s org. WBA
36. Salt, on the Seine SEL
41. Partner of haw HEM
42. Baked treat often wrapped in fluted paper CUPCAKE
44. Gizmo GADGET
45. Brewer’s kiln OAST
48. Greenish-blue AQUA
49. Balkan native SERB
50. Drooling toon dog ODIE
51. Red root vegetable BEET
52. Lubricates OILS
53. Bloke CHAP
54. Ice fishing access HOLE
55. List-shortening abbr. ET AL
58. Suffix with Wyoming -ITE
59. Old videotape type VHS
60. Fenway team, for short SOX

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