Day: October 15, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
4. Animal that can learn limited sign language CHIMP
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.

13. OS X-using computer IMAC
Apple introduced the Mac OS X Operating System in 2000. Each version of this operating system has had a code name, and that code name until recently has been a type of big cat. The versions and code names are:

– 10.0: Cheetah
– 10.1: Puma
– 10.2: Jaguar
– 10.3: Panther
– 10.4: Tiger
– 10.5: Leopard
– 10.6: Snow Leopard
– 10.7: Lion
– 10.8: Mountain Lion
– 10.9: Mavericks

The last release marked a change in naming pattern, with “Mavericks” being a surfing location in Northern California.

16. Tiny parasites LICE
Lice are small wingless insects of which there are thousands of species, three of which are human disease agents. The three kinds of lice affecting humans are head lice, body lice and pubic lice. Most lice feed on dead skin found on the body of the host animal, although some feed on blood. Ick …

19. Accident scene figs. EMTS
Emergency medical technician (EMT)

21. Romance writer Roberts NORA
Nora Roberts is a very successful author who has written over 165 romance novels. Roberts writes under a number of pen names: J.D. Robb, Jill March and Sarah Hardesty.

23. Baltimore Ravens mascot POE
The Baltimore football team’s name “the Ravens” has a literary derivation. Baltimore was the home of the writer Edgar Allen Poe, and so the team took its moniker from his most famous poem, “The Raven”. The name was selected in a fan contest.

28. Wheaties box figure ATHLETE
Wheaties were introduced to the world in 1924, making it the oldest cereal produced by General Mills. The idea of mixing wheat and bran together into a cereal was the result of an accidental spill of wheat bran into a stove. The product was first called Washburn’s Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes, and this was changed to Wheaties after an employee contest to find a better name.

43. Hannity of talk radio SEAN
Sean Hannity is a conservative political commentator who is perhaps best known from his syndicated radio broadcast called “The Sean Hannity Show”. Hannity also host the news show called “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel. Hannity has written a few bestselling books, including “Let Freedom Ring: Winning the War of Liberty over Liberalism”.

45. Washington Wizards’ org. NBA
The Washington Wizards are the professional basketball team based in the nation’s capital. The franchise began playing in Chicago as the Packers, in 1961. One year later, the Chicago team changed its name to the Zephyrs. After one more season, the franchise relocated and became the Baltimore Bullets. In 1973, the team moved to Landover, Maryland to became the Capital Bullets, and then took the Washington Bullets name the following season. The final name change came in 1995, as the owner was uncomfortable with the violent images conjured up by the “Bullets” name. The Wizards name was chosen after a fan contest.

52. Badlands or Death Valley NATIONAL PARK
Badlands may be “bad lands” for agriculture, but they can be beautiful. A badlands is an extensive area from which the topsoil has been eroded by wind and water, leaving exposed rock and very little vegetation. One of the most beautiful badlands areas in the US is preserved for the nation as South Dakota’s Badlands National Park.

Death Valley is a spectacular desert valley in California that is part of the Mojave Desert. Badwater Basin in Death Valley is lowest point in North America, sitting at 282 feet below sea level. Remarkably, Badwater Basin is located just 84 miles from Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States.

55. Brouhaha ADO
“Brouhaha” was a French word that back in the 1550s meant “the cry of the devil disguised as clergy” . Wow!

56. “The Lion King” queen NALA
In “The Lion King”, Nala is a lioness and the childhood friend of Simba.

The highly successful stage musical “The Lion King” started out life as a 1994 animated feature film of the same name from the Disney studio. The film is the highest earning traditionally-animated feature of all time. The animated film “Finding Nemo” has made more money, but it was created using computer animation.

57. Kmart section AISLE
Kmart is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and Target. Kmart is famous for its promotions known as “blue light specials”, a program first introduced in 1965 and discontinued in 1991. I remember being in a Kmart store soon after coming to live in the US. That evening an employee installed a light stand an aisle away from me, switched on a flashing blue light and there was some unintelligible announcement over the loudspeaker system. I had no idea what was going on …

66. Slaughter with 2,383 career hits ENOS
Enos Slaughter has a remarkable playing record in Major League Baseball over a 19-year career. Slaughter’s record is particularly remarkable given that he left baseball for three years to serve in the military during WWII.

67. Vulgar language? LATIN
Vulgar Latin (meaning “common, vernacular” Latin) was the spoken form of the language, rather than the standard written form. It is from Vulgar Latin the Romance languages like French, Spanish and Italian developed.

71. Malibu mover GAS
The Chevrolet Malibu was named for the city of Malibu, California. The Malibu was produced by General Motors from 1964 to 1983, and was then reintroduced in 1997.

Down
1. “For the Game. For the World” sports org. FIFA
The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) is the governing body of the game of soccer.

6. Tabriz citizen IRANI
Tabriz is a large city in the very northwest of Iran that once served as the country’s capital.

9. Yard sale? ALE
A yard of ale is a very tall glass, one that is just under a yard (three feet) long. It holds about 60 fluid ounces of beer. I’ve tried drinking out of one, and it is extremely difficult. There is a bulb at the bottom of the glass. When you get towards the end of the drink, that bulb causes a kind of airlock and the remainder of the beer rushes to the top of the glass splashing you in the face.

10. “The Big Bang Theory” star JIM PARSONS
Jim Parsons is an actor from Houston, Texas who is best known for playing Sheldon Cooper on the television sitcom “The Big Bang Theory”. As of 2014, Parsons and his costars Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco are earning one million dollars per episode of the show.

12. Pedometer button RESET
A pedometer is an instrument worn by a runner or walker that measures the number of steps taken. The name of the device comes from “pes”, the Latin for “foot”.

14. Winter air CAROL
The word “carol” came into English via the Old French word “carole”, which was a “dance in a ring”. When “carol” made it into English, about 1300 AD, the term was used to describe a dance as well as a joyful song. Around 1500 AD, carols that were sung came to be associated with Christmas.

18. Strings for Orpheus LYRE
The lyre is a stringed instrument most closely associated with Ancient Greece, and with the gods Hermes and Apollo in particular. According to myth, Hermes slaughtered a cow from a sacred herd belonging to Apollo and offered it to the gods but kept the entrails. Hermes used the entrails to create the first lyre. Apollo liked the sound from the lyre and agreed to accept it as a trade for his herd of cattle.

Orpheus is a figure from Greek mythology, very often associated with poetry, singing, music and the lyre in particular. In ancient Greece there was even an Orphic cult that in effect adopted the poetry ascribed to Orpheus as central to the cult’s belief system. The adjectives “Orphic” and “Orphean” describe things pertaining to Orpheus, and because of his romantic, musical bent, the term has come to describe anything melodious or enchanting.

22. Last Olds model ALERO
The Oldsmobile Alero was the last car made under the Oldsmobile brand. The Alero was produced from 1999 to 2004.

25. Cal.-to-Fla. route I-TEN
I-10 is the most southerly of the interstate routes that crosses from the Atlantic to the Pacific. I-10 stretches from Santa Monica, California to Jacksonville, Florida. Various stretches of the route have been given different names, for example, the Rosa Parks Freeway, the Santa Monica Freeway, the San Bernardino Freeway and the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway.

26. Rowlands of “Hope Floats” GENA
Gena Rowlands is an actress best known for the films made with her husband, actor and director John Cassavetes. More recently, Rowlands played a lead role opposite James Garner in the weepy, weepy 2004 film “The Notebook”. “The Notebook” was directed by her son, Nick Cassavetes.

“Hope Floats” is a romantic drama movie starring Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick, Jr. that was released in 1998. The film starts with a husband revealing his infidelity to his wife on a TV talk show. Complications ensue …

27. Hammer head PEEN
The peen of a hammer is on the head, and is the side of the head that is opposite the striking surface. Often the peen is in the shape of a hemisphere (as in a ball-peen hammer), but usually it is shaped like a claw (mainly for removing nails).

28. Nile Valley danger 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.

36. Big brass TUBA
The tuba is the lowest pitched of all the brass instruments, and one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra (usually there is just one tuba included in an orchestral line-up). “Tuba” is the Latin word for “trumpet, horn”. Oom-pah-pah …

38. Storytelling nom de plume SAKI
Hector Hugh Munro was a British writer, actually born in Burma. Munro was famous for his short stories, which he published using the pen name “Saki”. His most well-known story is “The Open Window”, which ends with the great line “Romance at short notice was her specialty”.

“Nom de plume” translates from French simply as “pen name”.

40. “__ Free”: Minute Maid spec PULP
In the mid-forties a process was developed to concentrate orange juice into a powder, the intent being to make it available to the armed forces. When WWII came to an end the government’s need for the product went away, so Florida Foods Corporation was set up to market orange juice concentrate (rather than powder) to the public. This new concentrate was given the name “Minute Maid” implying that juice could be prepared quickly by simple dilution.

41. Three-toed 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”.

48. Peace, in Arabic SALAAM
The word “salaam” is an Anglicized spelling of the Arabic word for “peace”. It can mean an act of deference, in particular a very low bow.

53. Fictional Sicilian town in a Hersey novel ADANO
“A Bell for Adano” is a novel written by John Hersey. Hersey’s story is about an Italian-American US Army officer, Major Joppolo, who found a replacement for a town’s bell stolen by fascists. “A Bell for Adano” was made into a film in 1945, the same year the novel won a Pulitzer.

59. “Good Morning America” co-anchor Spencer LARA
Lara Spencer has been co-anchor of “Good Morning America” since 2011, working alongside Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos. Back in 2004/2005, PBS viewers will have seen Spencer hosting the hit show “Antiques Roadshow”.

“Good Morning America” (GMA) is ABC’s morning show, and has been since 1975. There was even a spinoff show called “Good Afternoon America”, although it only lasted for a few months in 2012.

60. Tolkien tree giants ENTS
Ents are those tree-like creatures that live in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth in his series of books “The Lord of the Rings”. “Ent” is an Old English word for “giant”.

62. DSL offerer ISP
An Internet Service Provider (ISP) is just what the name indicates, a company that provides its customers with access to the Internet. One way that ISPs differentiate themselves from each other is in the way in which end users are connected to the ISP’s network. So, there are cable ISPs, DSL ISPs, dial-up ISPs and satellite ISPs. I’d go with cable if I were you, if it’s available in your area …

65. Cézanne’s one UNE
Paul Cézanne was a Post-Impressionist artist who was born and worked in the beautiful city of Aix-en-Provence in the South of France. Cézanne has the reputation of being the artist who bridged the late 19th century Impressionist movement with the early 20th century Cubist movement. Both Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso are quoted as saying that Cézanne “is the father of us all”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Tell tales FIB
4. Animal that can learn limited sign language CHIMP
9. Barely open AJAR
13. OS X-using computer IMAC
15. Invisible vibes AURAE
16. Tiny parasites LICE
17. Project windup FINAL PHASE
19. Accident scene figs. EMTS
20. Fit to be tied ANGRY
21. Romance writer Roberts NORA
23. Baltimore Ravens mascot POE
24. Subject of an antique auto owner’s quest ORIGINAL PART
28. Wheaties box figure ATHLETE
31. Take turns? STEER
32. “Just like I said!” SEE!
33. Ambient music innovator Brian ENO
35. Take it easy REST
37. Me, for one PERSONAL PRONOUN
43. Hannity of talk radio SEAN
44. “Well, of course!” DUH!
45. Washington Wizards’ org. NBA
46. Hits a high fly, in baseball lingo SKIES
49. “Supposing …” LET’S SAY …
52. Badlands or Death Valley NATIONAL PARK
55. Brouhaha ADO
56. “The Lion King” queen NALA
57. Kmart section AISLE
61. “If you don’t mind …?” MAY I …?
63. “Just in case” strategy, and a hint to a hidden letter sequence in 17-, 24-, 37- and 52-Across BACKUP PLAN
66. Slaughter with 2,383 career hits ENOS
67. Vulgar language? LATIN
68. Place in order SORT
69. “Cream of” serving SOUP
70. Overplay the part EMOTE
71. Malibu mover GAS

Down
1. “For the Game. For the World” sports org. FIFA
2. Words while anteing I’M IN
3. Loud noise BANG
4. Graduation flier CAP
5. “What?” HUH?
6. Tabriz citizen IRANI
7. Bricks-and-mortar workers MASONS
8. Watch closely PEER AT
9. Yard sale? ALE
10. “The Big Bang Theory” star JIM PARSONS
11. 10-Down, e.g. ACTOR
12. Pedometer button RESET
14. Winter air CAROL
18. Strings for Orpheus LYRE
22. Last Olds model ALERO
25. Cal.-to-Fla. route I-TEN
26. Rowlands of “Hope Floats” GENA
27. Hammer head PEEN
28. Nile Valley danger ASP
29. Concert souvenirs TEES
30. Clinking words HERE’S TO YOU
34. Antique OLD
36. Big brass TUBA
38. Storytelling nom de plume SAKI
39. Scallion kin ONION
40. “__ Free”: Minute Maid spec PULP
41. Three-toed bird RHEA
42. Anti vote NAY
47. Pave the way for ENABLE
48. Peace, in Arabic SALAAM
50. Mouse catcher TRAP
51. Bypasses, as online ads SKIPS
52. Designates NAMES
53. Fictional Sicilian town in a Hersey novel ADANO
54. Milk: Pref. LACTO-
58. Walk with effort SLOG
59. “Good Morning America” co-anchor Spencer LARA
60. Tolkien tree giants ENTS
62. DSL offerer ISP
64. First-aid aid KIT
65. Cézanne’s one UNE

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