Day: October 18, 2014

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Its General Test consists of six sections: Abbr. GRE
Passing the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

4. “NYPD Blue” Emmy winner Gordon CLAPP
Actor Gordon Clapp played Detective Greg Medavoy on “NYPD Blue”.

“NYPD Blue” is a police drama that was originally aired in 1993, and ran until 2005. Stars of the show are Dennis Franz, David Caruso, Jimmy Smits and Rick Schroder. The show created a bit of a fuss back in the nineties as it featured a relatively large amount of nudity for broadcast television.

16. Topic preceder IN RE
The term “in re” is Latin, derived from “in” (in) and “res” (thing, matter). “In re” literally means “in the matter”, and is used to mean “in regard to”, or “in the matter of”.

17. Its airport is in the subcity of Bole ADDIS ABABA
Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia. The city is relatively young, having being founded in 1886 by Emperor Menelik II. Addis Ababa holds an important position within the nations of Africa as it is home to many international organizations that are focused on the continent.

19. Houdini’s birth name WEISS
Harry Houdini was the stage name of Hungarian-born escapologist and magician Erik Weisz (later changed to “Harry Weiss”). Many people are under the impression that Houdini died while performing an escape that went wrong, an impression created by the storyline in a couple of movies about his life. The truth is that he died of peritonitis from a burst appendix. It is also true that a few days prior to his death Houdini took a series of punches to his stomach as part of his act, but doctors believe that his appendix would have burst regardless.

20. Annual milestone, briefly B-DAY
Birthday (B-day)

21. “Raise Your Glass” singer PINK
Pink is the stage name of American singer Alecia Beth Moore. That’s all I know …

22. Auction giant SOTHEBY’S
Sotheby’s is one of the world’s oldest auction houses, having opened its doors for business in 1744 in London. However, the company is now headquartered in New York City.

26. Lake Biel feeder AAR
The Aar (also called the “Aare” in German) is the longest river entirely in Switzerland. A famous spot along the Aar is the Reichenbach Falls in the center of the country, actually a series of waterfalls near the city of Meiringen. These falls are renowned in the world of literature as it was here that Sherlock Holmes fell to his supposed doom with his nemesis Professor Moriarty (in “The Adventure of the Final Problem”).

27. Mil. installation named for a 4-Down general FT BRAGG
Fort Bragg in North Carolina is a very large Army installation that covers over 250 square miles. The base is named for General Braxton Bragg, the native North Carolinian who commanded the Confederate Army forces during the Civil War.

Braxton Bragg was a US Army officer from Warrenton, North Carolina who became a general in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. After Bragg’s forces were routed at the Battles for Chattanooga, Bragg was recalled in 1864 to Richmond where he served as military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. After the war, Bragg worked at the New Orleans waterworks, supervised the work at the harbor in Mobile, Alabama and worked on the railroad in Texas.

34. Phone bill encl. SAE
Self-addressed envelope (SAE)

35. “London Fields” writer AMIS
I suppose the successful English novelist Martin Amis must have writing in his blood. He is the son of the respected author Kingsley Amis, a Booker Prize winner. Amis’s best-known novels are his so-called “London Trilogy” consisting of “Money” (1984), “London Fields” (1989) and “The Information” (1995).

39. Dog named for an island SKYE TERRIER
The Skye terrier is a breed of dog that is actually under threat of extinction. A few years ago there were only 30 Skye terriers born in the breed’s native land of the UK.

41. Sunny spots SOLARIA
A solarium (plural “solaria”) is a sunroom or sun lounge, a structure usually built onto the side of a house that contains a lot of glass to let in the sun.

44. Likely Meatout supporter VEGAN
A vegan is someone who stays away from animal products. A dietary vegan eats no animal foods, not even eggs and dairy which are usually eaten by vegetarians. Ethical vegans take things one step further by following a vegan diet and also avoiding animal products in other areas of their lives e.g. items made from leather or silk.

A “meatout” is a period in which meat is not consumed, as part of a campaign promoting animal rights or general health, perhaps.

45. Video game series set mostly on Azeroth WARCRAFT
“World of Warcraft” is an online role-playing game. My son informed me that the game is not that great. Like I would know …

54. MMXIV and others ANNI
Anno (plural “anni”) is the Latin for “year”.

57. Super Mario Galaxy systems WIIS
The Wii is the biggest-selling game console in the world.

Mario Bros. started out as an arcade game back in 1983, developed by Nintendo. The more famous of the two brothers, Mario, had already appeared in an earlier arcade game “Donkey Kong”. Mario was given a brother called Luigi, and the pair have been around ever since. In the game, Mario and Luigi are Italian American plumbers from New York City.

59. “Tout de suite!” STAT
The exact etymology of “stat”, a term meaning “immediately” in the medical profession, seems to have been lost in the mists of time. It probably comes from the Latin “statim” meaning “to a standstill, immediately”. A blog reader has helpfully suggested that the term may also come from the world of laboratory analysis, where the acronym STAT stands for “short turnaround time”.

“Tout de suite” is French for “immediately”.

60. Oreck competitor DYSON
Dyson vacuum cleaners do not use a bag to collect dust. James Dyson invented the first vacuum cleaner to use cyclonic separation in 1979, frustrated at the poor performance of his regular vacuum cleaner. As Dyson cleaners do not use bags, they don’t have to deal with collection bags that are blocked with fine dust particles, even after emptying. Cyclonic separation uses high speed spinning of the dust-containing air so that the dust particles are thrown out of the airflow into a collection bin. We have a Dyson now, and should have bought it years ago …

The Oreck Corporation is named after founder David Oreck and is a manufacturer of vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. The company started out selling vacuum cleaners by mail, a new concept in 1963. David Oreck himself appears regularly as a spokesman in the company’s ads and infomercials.

61. Once called NEE
“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.

Down
2. Ballet with a hoedown RODEO
“Rodeo” is a ballet with a score by Aaron Copland that was originally choreographed by Agnes de Mille. First performed in 1942, “Rodeo” is one of the earliest examples of a truly American classical ballet.

4. Lee side: Abbr. CSA
The Confederate States of America (CSA) set up government in 1861 just before Abraham Lincoln took office. Jefferson Davis was selected as President of the CSA at its formation and retained the post for the life of the government.

Robert E. Lee is renowned as a southern officer in the Civil War. Lee was a somewhat reluctant participant in the war in that he opposed the secession of his home state of Virginia from the Union. At the beginning of the war, President Lincoln invited Lee to take command of the whole Union Army but he declined, choosing instead to stay loyal to his home state. During the Civil War, Lee’s men referred to him affectionately as “Marse Robert”, with “marse” being slang for “master”.

5. Cheney chief of staff Scooter __ LIBBY
Scooter Libby served as Chief of Staff for Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby was indicted by a grand jury of lying about his role in the leak that identified Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. Libby always professed his innocence, but was found guilty and sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000. President George W. Bush commuted Libby’s jail sentence, but the fine and conviction were allowed to stand.

7. Out-of-favor sunscreen compound PABA
Para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), or now its derivatives, is the “active” ingredient in sunscreens in that it absorbs UV radiation. PABA derivatives are used today as PABA itself fell out of favor due to its tendency to stain clothes and to cause an allergic reaction in some users.

9. It’s often disposable DIAPER
“Diaper” is another word that I had to learn when I moved to America. What are called “diapers” over here, we call “nappies” back in Ireland. The term “diaper” is actually the original term that was used in England for the garment, where “diaper” referred to the cloth that was used. The term diaper was brought to the New World where it stuck. Back in Britain, diaper was displaced by the word “nappy”, a diminutive of “napkin”.

10. Aperitivi followers ANTIPASTI
In Italy, an “aperitivo” is a light appetizer that is served with an aperitif, a pre-dinner drink. An appetizer that is part of a meal is known as antipasto.

15. Dollar bill depiction, familiarly US SEAL
The Great Seal of the United States is a device used to authenticate some US federal documents. The obverse (front) of the Great Seal is used as the coat of arms of the US, a design that can seen on all American passports and on a dollar bill.

23. TV cooking show? BREAKING BAD
“Breaking Bad” is a crime drama series that originally aired on AMC from 2008 to 2013. The show was created by Vince Gilligan who had spent many years as producer and writer of “The X-Files”. Fans of “Breaking Bad” might like to know that there is spin-off show coming to AMC called “Better Call Saul” that focuses on the life of lawyer Saul Goodman.

The protagonist of the crime drama “Breaking Bad” is often seen “cooking meth”.

25. It has six of the seven rainbow colors in its logo NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) has had a number of different logos in its history, including the famous peacock with which we are familiar today. The first peacock logo was introduced in the early days of color television and was designed to illustrate how wonderful color television would be, so go buy one! (NBC was owned by RCA, and they had a vested interest in sales of color television sets).

29. Je ne __ quoi SAIS
“Je ne sais quoi” is French for “I don’t know”.

30. McDonald’s slogan I’M LOVIN’ IT
The original McDonald’s restaurant was opened in 1940 by Richard and Maurice McDonald as a barbecue restaurant. The brothers then moved into fast food hamburgers, eventually selling out to one of their franchise agents, Ray Kroc. It was Ray Kroc who really led the company to its worldwide success.

32. “Game of Thrones” girl __ Stark ARYA
HBO’s “Game of Thrones” is a fantasy television drama that was adapted from a series of novels by George R. R. Martin called “A Song of Ice and Fire”. “Game of Thrones” is actually made in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

33. __-Foy, Quebec STE
Sainte-Foy was a city in its own right, but as of 2002 it is a neighborhood in Quebec City. Sainte-Foy is an important part of the larger city, partly because it is home to the area’s main airport, Jean Lesage International.

39. Málaga Mrs. SRA
The city of Malaga is on the Costa del Sol in the South of Spain, as are the famous European tourist destinations of Torremolinos and Marbella. The Costa del Sol was made up of sleepy little fishing villages until the 1980s when the European sunseekers descended on the region. I wouldn’t recommend it for a holiday quite frankly …

40. Lucre RICHES
Our word “lucre” meaning “money, profits” comes from the Latin “lucrum” that means the same thing.

45. Juice amounts? WATTS
James Watt was a Scottish inventor, a man who figured prominently in the Industrial Revolution in Britain largely due to the improvements he made to the fledgling steam engine. The SI unit of power is called the watt, named in his honor.

47. Highway covered in “The Milepost” ALCAN
The Alaska Highway is also known as the Alaska-Canadian Highway or ALCAN Highway. A highway connecting the contiguous United States to Alaska was proposed in the twenties, but the Canadian authorities didn’t believe the project had much merit as the road would be used by very few of its citizens. The perceived importance of the route increased during WWII and President Roosevelt deemed the road a strategic necessity so he made a deal with Canada. The cost of construction would be born by the US, but the road and related facilities were to be handed over to Canada at the end of the war. The project was accelerated when the Japanese invaded and occupied Kiska and Attu Islands in the Aleutians. The road of course has been improved and is still in use today. The ALCAN Highway forms part of what is popularly known as the Pan-American Highway, which runs from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to the south of Argentina or Chile depending on how the route is defined.

“The Milepost” is a guidebook covering the major highways of the northwestern part of North America. First published in 1949, the original focus was on traveling the Alaska Highway.

48. Solar __ FLARE
A “solar flare” is a sudden energy release from the surface of the Sun that can be perceived as a flash of brightness and an eruption of magnetic energy. That magnetic energy reaches the Earth about two days after the event, and can disrupt long-range radio communications on our planet. The location of solar flares has been strongly linked to sunspot groups, groups of dark spots on the Sun’s surface.

49. Patisserie product TORTE
A torte is a type of cake made primarily with eggs, sugar and ground nuts (but no flour).

A patisserie is a French bakery that sells pastries, or “tartes”.

56. College basketball TV analyst Elmore LEN
Len Elmore is a former NBA basketball player who is now a sportscaster. Elmore has a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Its General Test consists of six sections: Abbr. GRE
4. “NYPD Blue” Emmy winner Gordon CLAPP
9. Senseless DAFT
13. Tone-deaf, say NONMUSICAL
16. Topic preceder IN RE
17. Its airport is in the subcity of Bole ADDIS ABABA
18. Rafts A TON
19. Houdini’s birth name WEISS
20. Annual milestone, briefly B-DAY
21. “Raise Your Glass” singer PINK
22. Auction giant SOTHEBY’S
24. Ham-handed INEPT
26. Lake Biel feeder AAR
27. Mil. installation named for a 4-Down general FT BRAGG
29. “Nothing to it” SIMPLE AS ABC
34. Phone bill encl. SAE
35. “London Fields” writer AMIS
36. Like some self-appointed critics ARTSY
37. Encouraging start? ATTA
38. Out of action, perhaps ILL
39. Dog named for an island SKYE TERRIER
41. Sunny spots SOLARIA
43. Marksman’s asset AIM
44. Likely Meatout supporter VEGAN
45. Video game series set mostly on Azeroth WARCRAFT
50. __ nut PINE
51. Object GOAL
53. “What have we here?” HELLO
54. MMXIV and others ANNI
55. Vet’s souvenir BATTLE SCAR
57. Super Mario Galaxy systems WIIS
58. Initially AT THE START
59. “Tout de suite!” STAT
60. Oreck competitor DYSON
61. Once called NEE

Down
1. Vexes, with “at” GNAWS
2. Ballet with a hoedown RODEO
3. Go no further END IT
4. Lee side: Abbr. CSA
5. Cheney chief of staff Scooter __ LIBBY
6. Specialized schools: Abbr. ACADS
7. Out-of-favor sunscreen compound PABA
8. Be flexible PLAY IT BY EAR
9. It’s often disposable DIAPER
10. Aperitivi followers ANTIPASTI
11. Private community entrance FRONT GATE
12. Prep for a marathon TEN-K
14. “Oops” elicitors MISHAPS
15. Dollar bill depiction, familiarly US SEAL
23. TV cooking show? BREAKING BAD
25. It has six of the seven rainbow colors in its logo NBC
27. __ food FAST
28. Drive, e.g. GEAR
29. Je ne __ quoi SAIS
30. McDonald’s slogan I’M LOVIN’ IT
31. Eon parts MILLENNIA
32. “Game of Thrones” girl __ Stark ARYA
33. __-Foy, Quebec STE
37. Theatergoers often share one ARMREST
39. Málaga Mrs. SRA
40. Lucre RICHES
42. One hostile to seniors AGEIST
45. Juice amounts? WATTS
46. E’en if ALTHO
47. Highway covered in “The Milepost” ALCAN
48. Solar __ FLARE
49. Patisserie product TORTE
50. Cat’s catchers PAWS
52. Like some high-fiber cereal OATY
56. College basketball TV analyst Elmore LEN

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