Day: December 27, 2013

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. 1967 White House groom ROBB
Chuck Robb is a former Governor of Virginia and former US Senator. Robb is married to Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, the daughter of former President Lyndon B. Johnson. The couple were married in the White House in December 1967.

5. “Erin go __” BRAGH
“Erin go bragh!” is an anglicization of an Irish phrase “Éirinn go Brách!”, which translates as “Ireland Forever!”

10. Swedish singer Jenny LIND
Jenny Lind was a Swedish opera singer who was as popular off the stage as she was on. She had many suitors, including the great composers Mendelssohn and Chopin, as well as the author Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen wrote three fairy tales that were inspired by Lind, including one called “The Nightingale”, which ultimately led to Lind becoming known as “The Swedish Nightingale”.

14. Thus ERGO
“Ergo” is the Latin word for “hence, therefore”.

15. Former Dodger first baseman James LONEY
James Loney plays professional baseball for the Tampa Bay Rays. A first baseman, Loney also played for the LA Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox.

17. Windows alternative UNIX
Unix is a computer operating system that was developed at Bell Labs in 1969.

I always think of an operating system as that piece of software that sits between the hardware on my computer and the programs that I choose to run. Developers of application programs don’t really have to worry about being able to “talk to” the countless different types of hardware found in the wide variety of computers that are manufactured, they just need to talk to the handful of operating systems that are out there, like Windows, MAC and Unix. The operating system takes care of the rest.

18. Microwave brand AMANA
The Amana Corporation takes its name from the location of its original headquarters, in Middle Amana, Iowa.

20. Facilities on a 911? PORSCHE POTTY (sounds like “Porta Potty”)
Porsche was founded in 1931 in Stuttgart, Germany by Professor Ferdinand Porsche. The company didn’t produce cars at first, but worked on design and development. The first big job awarded to the company was from the German government, to design a car for the people. The result was the Volkswagen Beetle. Yep, the Beetle is a Porsche design.

We tend to use the name “Porta Potty” for a portable toilet here in North America, whereas the term “Porta Loo” is more common in the British Isles.

23. Florida University named for a pope ST LEO
Saint Leo University is a private Roman Catholic school located in the town of St. Leo, Florida. The school was founded in 1889 by a group of Benedictine monks, making it the oldest Catholic college in the state. Saint Leo was named for Pope Leo I.

The first pope named Leo is now known as Pope Saint Leo the Great. Leo I is famous for meeting with the feared Attila the Hun and persuading him to turn back his invading force that was threatening to overrun Western Europe.

32. Place to play ARENA
Our term “arena” comes from the Latin “harena”, a place of combat. Originally “harena” was used to describe sand or a sandy place. Those Ancient Roman places of combat were covered with sand to soak up blood.

33. 13-Down predecessor HST
The initial “S” in the middle of the name Harry S. Truman doesn’t stand for anything. The future-president was named “Harry” in honor of his mother’s brother Harrison “Harry” Young. The initial “S” was chosen in honor of young Harry’s two grandfathers: Anderson S-hipp Truman and S-olomon Young.

36. Oater pal in an A3? AUDI PARDNER (sounds like “Howdy, pardner”)
The Audi name has an interesting history. The Horch company was founded by August Horch in 1909. Early in the life of the new company, Horch was forced out of his own business. He set up a new enterprise and continued to use his own name as a brand. The old company sued him for using the Horch name so a meeting was held to choose something new. Horch’s young son was studying Latin in the room where the meeting was taking place. He pointed out that “Horch” was German for “hear” and he suggested “Audi” as a replacement, the Latin for “listen”.

39. Other, overseas OTRA
In Spanish, the other (otra) is neither this (esta) not that (esa).

41. Boston drummer Jeff et al. NEALS
Jeff Neal is a drummer and singer who played with the rock band Boston from 2002 to 2011.

Boston is a rock band from … Boston. Boston’s biggest hit is “Amanda”, released in 1986.

43. Tales of a 9-3? SAAB STORIES (sounds like “sob stories”)
SAAB stands for Svenska Aeroplan AB, which translates into English as Swedish Aeroplane Limited. SAAB was, and still is, mainly an aircraft manufacturer. If you take small hops in Europe you might find yourself on a SAAB passenger plane. The SAAB automobile division was acquired by General Motors in the year 2000, who then sold it to a Dutch concern in 2010. However, SAAB (automotive) finally went bankrupt in 2011.

46. Pay stub abbr. HRS
Hours (hrs.)

47. Für whom Beethoven wrote a bagatelle ELISE
“Fur Elise” is a beautiful piece of music written by Beethoven, and is also known as “Bagatelle in A Minor”. “Fur Elise” means simply “For Elise”, but sadly no one knows for sure the identity of the mysterious dedicatee.

50. Corolla competitors ALTIMAS
Nissan has been making the Altima since 1993. In 2007 the company started to produce a hybrid version, Nissan’s first foray into the hybrid market and a successful one by all accounts. Altima hybrids are even used as police cruisers by the New York Police Department.

More cars have been sold under the Toyota Corolla brand name than any other brand name in history, even outstripping sales of the VW Beetle. There has been an average of one Corolla manufactured every 40 seconds for the past 40 years. “Corolla” is Latin for “small crown”, part of a pattern used by Toyota in naming their cars (“Corona” is Latin for crown, and “Camry” sounds like the Japanese for crown).

53. Mexicali-to-Tijuana dirección OESTE
“Oeste” (west) is a “dirección” (direction), in Spanish.

Mexicali is a Mexican city in the state of Baja that lies on the US border, adjacent to Calexico, California. Mexicali is the most northerly city in Latin America.

57. Relative in a 370Z? NISSAN NEPHEW (sounds like “niece and nephew”)
Nissan is the second largest car manufacturer in its home market of Japan, surpassing even Honda in 2011, but still behind Toyota. Nissan used to sell under the brand name “Datsun”.

65. Roll on a tarmac TAXI
An airplane taxis on the tarmac at an airport.

“Tarmac” and “macadam” is of course short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call Tarmac.

66. Hives, e.g. RASH
“Hives” is the common name for the skin rash known more correctly as “urticaria”. “Urtica” is the Latin for “nettle”, even though a allergic reaction caused by nettle stings is not classified as urticaria.

67. Spiked cakes BABAS
Rum baba (also “baba au rhum” in French) is a small yeast cake saturated in rum, and sometimes filled with whipped cream. Rum baba is derived from the recipe for the tall “babka” yeast cake that was introduced to the world by the Polish communities. The Polish words “baba” and “babka” mean “old woman” or “grandmother” in English. I guess someone must have thought that all grandmothers were saturated in rum!

68. Verve ELAN
Our word “élan” was imported from French, in which language the word has a similar meaning to ours i.e “style” or “flair”.

69. Velázquez offerings ARTE
Diego Velázquez was a Spanish painter during the Baroque period. He was a member of the court of King Philip IV in the first half of the 17th century, and as such was commissioned to paint many portraits and scenes of historical importance.

70. Whooping __ CRANE
The Whooping Crane is one of only two crane species that is native to North America. Hunting and loss of habitat led to there being only 21 Whooping Cranes being left on the continent in 1941. Numbers have increased since then, but the species is still endangered. That’s a shame because the Whooping Crane is the tallest of all North American birds.

71. Heist haul, to a hood TEN G
A heist might yield 10G, ten grand, ten thousand dollars.

Down
3. Speakeasy socializer B-GIRL
B-girl is short for “bar girl”, a young lady employed by a tavern to encourage the (male, presumably) patrons to spend more money on drinks.

6. 1960 Olympics city ROME
The 1960 Summer Olympics were held in Rome, Italy. It was the second time that the modern games had been awarded to Rome, as the intention had been to hold the event there in 1908. The 1908 Olympics had to be moved to London following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906. The Italian government was first to divert funds from the sporting event in order to reconstruct the devastated city of Naples.

8. Italian seaport GENOA
Genoa is a seaport in the very north of Italy, in the region known as Liguria. One of Genoa’s most famous sons was Christopher Columbus.

9. Hilton rival HYATT
The Hyatt hotel chain takes its name from the first hotel in the group, that was purchased in 1957 i.e. Hyatt House at Los Angeles International Airport. Among other things, Hyatt is famous for designing the world’s first atrium hotel, the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta.

11. Hosp. area ICU
A patient might end up in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after being discharged from the Emergency Room (ER).

13. 33-Across successor DDE
President Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas and given the name David Dwight Eisenhower, but by the time he made it to the White House he was going by the name Dwight D. Eisenhower. Growing up, his family called him Dwight, and when “Ike” enrolled in West Point he himself reversed the order of his given names.

21. ESPN baseball analyst Alex CORA
Alex Cora is a retired baseball player who these days works as an analyst with ESPN. Cora was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico and lives there during baseball’s off-season.

26. “Dark-brow’d sophist, come not __”: Tennyson ANEAR
“Dark-brow’d sophist, come not anear;” is a line from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Poet’s Mind”, published in 1830.

Alfred Tennyson was the Poet Laureate during for much of the reign of Queen Victoria. There are many phrases we use today that were first penned by Tennyson, including:

– ‘Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all
– Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die

33. Book after Daniel 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.

37. Jeté relative PLIE
The French word for “bent” is “plié”. In the ballet move known as a plié, the knees are bent.

A jeté is a leap in ballet, coming from the French word “jeter” meaning “to throw”. A jeté en avant is a “leap to the front”, towards the audience.

40. Potent licorice-flavored liqueur ABSINTHE
Absinthe is an alcoholic spirit that is distilled from various plants and herbs, including “wormwood”. Absinthe was banned in the US in 1915 as it was deemed to be an addictive psychoactive drug. However, the accepted opinion today seems to be that absinthe is no more addictive or dangerous than any other spirit.

45. Gin flavoring SLOE
The sloe is the fruit of the blackthorn bush, which can be used to make sloe gin.

49. Beethoven’s Opus 20, for one SEPTET
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat major, Opus 20 was first performed in 1800. Beethoven dedicated the work to Empress Maria Theresa, who was the last Holy Roman Empress and the first Empress of Austria.

52. Red giant S STAR
Red giants are very large stars with a relatively low mass. The atmosphere of a red giant is also very inflated and extends a long way into space so the surface of that atmosphere that we see is relatively cool, which gives it a red color. Stars are classified by their spectral characteristics, basically the color of the light they emit. As such, red giants are classified as M stars. Cool red giants are of a color beyond the usual range, and are classified as S stars.

54. Oil source SHALE
Shale oil can be extracted from oil shale (!), although the extraction process is more expensive than that used to produce crude oil.

55. Odessa native TEXAN
The city of Odessa, Texas has as its symbol the jack rabbit. This is because from the thirties through the seventies the city hosted a rodeo for roping rabbits. The Humane Society applied pressure and the city did away with the tradition in 1977.

56. Any of several fictional multimillionaires EWING
The TV soap “Dallas” revolved around the Ewings family. The series that ran for 13 years was originally intended as a five-part mini-series, with the main characters being newlyweds Bobby and Pam Ewing. But, the devious character in the piece, Bobby’s brother J. R., became so popular with audiences that the series as extended with J. R. at the center of the story. Who can remember who shot J.R.? (It was Kristin Shepard: J.R.’s mistress, who was also his sister-in-law).

58. “The Winner Takes It All” quartet ABBA
I am an unapologetic fan of ABBA’s music. ABBA was of course the Swedish group who topped the charts in the seventies and eighties. The name ABBA is an acronym formed from the first letters of the given names of each of the band members: Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn and Anni-Frid.

59. Mumbai bread NAAN
In an Indian restaurant, naan bread is very popular. Naan is traditionally baked in a clay oven known as a tandoor.

Mumbai is the most populous city in India, and the second most populous city in the world (after Shanghai). The name of the city was changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995.

60. NASDAQ competitor NYSE
The roots of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) go back to 1792 when a group of 24 stock brokers set up the New York Stock & Exchange Board. They did so in an agreement signed under a buttonwood tree outside 68 Wall Street. That document became known as the Buttonwood Agreement.

The computerized stock trading system known as the NASDAQ was created in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers. NASDAQ stands for National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations. NASDAQ was the successor to the over-the-counter (OTC) trading system that was common at the time. OTC trading is done directly between two parties without being facilitated by an exchange.

61. Source of support BRA
The word “brassière” is of course French in origin, but it isn’t the word the French use for a “bra”. In France what we call a bra is known as a “soutien-gorge”, translating to “held under the neck”. The word “brassière” is indeed used in France but there it describes a baby’s undershirt, a lifebelt or a harness. “Brassière” comes from the Old French word for an “arm protector” in a military uniform (“bras” is the French for “arm”). Later “brassière” came to mean “breastplate” and from there the word was used for a type of woman’s corset. The word jumped into English around 1900.

62. Lock insert OAR
Oars are locked into place in oarlocks, those stirrups into which the oars are positioned for rowing. Oarlocks … another word I had to learn when I arrived in America. We call them rowlocks (pronounced “rol-ox”) on the other side of the Atlantic.

63. D-Day lander LST
LST stands for Landing Ship, Tank. LSTs were the large vessels used mainly in WWII that had doors at either ends through which tanks and other vehicles could roll off and onto beaches. The design concept persists to this day in the huge fleet of commercial roll-on/roll-off car ferries, all inspired by the LST.

The most famous D-Day in history was June 6, 1944, the date of the Normandy landings in WWII. The term “D-Day” is used by the military to designate the day on which a combat operations are to be launched, especially when the actual date has yet to be determined. What D stands for seems to have been lost in the mists of time although the tradition is that D just stands for “Day”. In fact, the French have a similar term, “Jour J” (Day J), with a similar meaning. We also use H-Hour to denote the hour the attack is to commence.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. 1967 White House groom ROBB
5. “Erin go __” BRAGH
10. Swedish singer Jenny LIND
14. Thus ERGO
15. Former Dodger first baseman James LONEY
16. Sharp ACID
17. Windows alternative UNIX
18. Microwave brand AMANA
19. Microwave NUKE
20. Facilities on a 911? PORSCHE POTTY (sounds like “Porta Potty”)
23. Florida University named for a pope ST LEO
24. Eroded ATE AWAY
28. Follow TRAIL
32. Place to play ARENA
33. 13-Down predecessor HST
36. Oater pal in an A3? AUDI PARDNER (sounds like “Howdy, pardner”)
39. Other, overseas OTRA
41. Boston drummer Jeff et al. NEALS
42. Peruse SCAN
43. Tales of a 9-3? SAAB STORIES (sounds like “sob stories”)
46. Pay stub abbr. HRS
47. Für whom Beethoven wrote a bagatelle ELISE
48. Marks of approval SEALS
50. Corolla competitors ALTIMAS
53. Mexicali-to-Tijuana dirección OESTE
57. Relative in a 370Z? NISSAN NEPHEW (sounds like “niece and nephew”)
61. Electric weather phenomenon BOLT
64. Cornered AT BAY
65. Roll on a tarmac TAXI
66. Hives, e.g. RASH
67. Spiked cakes BABAS
68. Verve ELAN
69. Velázquez offerings ARTE
70. Whooping __ CRANE
71. Heist haul, to a hood TENG

Down
1. Opts for another hitch RE-UPS
2. “… however, I may be all wet” OR NOT
3. Speakeasy socializer B-GIRL
4. “Complete series” DVD purchase, say BOX SET
5. Flat BLAH
6. 1960 Olympics city ROME
7. Take __: drop off A NAP
8. Italian seaport GENOA
9. Hilton rival HYATT
10. ID holders LANYARDS
11. Hosp. area ICU
12. Peace ender? -NIK
13. 33-Across successor DDE
21. ESPN baseball analyst Alex CORA
22. Shed thing TEAR
25. Shakespearean servant WENCH
26. “Dark-brow’d sophist, come not __”: Tennyson ANEAR
27. They may be spun YARNS
29. Reunion attendee AUNT
30. Logical beginning? IDEO-
31. Taletellers LIARS
33. Book after Daniel HOSEA
34. One way to buy time STALL
35. Character piece? TRAIT
37. Jeté relative PLIE
38. Cruising ASEA
40. Potent licorice-flavored liqueur ABSINTHE
44. Rig SEMI
45. Gin flavoring SLOE
49. Beethoven’s Opus 20, for one SEPTET
51. Easy __ AS ABC
52. Red giant S STAR
54. Oil source SHALE
55. Odessa native TEXAN
56. Any of several fictional multimillionaires EWING
58. “The Winner Takes It All” quartet ABBA
59. Mumbai bread NAAN
60. NASDAQ competitor NYSE
61. Source of support BRA
62. Lock insert OAR
63. D-Day lander LST

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