Day: March 17, 2015

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
14. Emperor with a bow NERO
The Great Fire of Rome raged for five and a half days in 64 AD. Of the fourteen districts of Rome, three were completely destroyed and seven more suffered serious damage. The emperor at the time was Nero, although reports that he fiddled, played his lyre or sang while the city burned; those accounts are probably not true. In fact, Nero was staying outside of Rome when the fire started and rushed home on hearing the news. He organized a massive relief effort, throwing open his own home to give shelter to many of the citizens who were left living on the street.

15. Language of 14-Across LATIN
The Latins were a race who migrated into the Italian peninsula during the Bronze Age, settling in a triangular region on the west coast that became known as Latium. It was the Latins who founded the city of Rome in Latium. The language that developed among the people of Latium is what we now know as “Latin”.

16. Mayberry kid OPIE
Opie Taylor is the character played by Ron Howard on “The Andy Griffith Show”. Opie lives with widowed father Andy Taylor (played by Andy Griffith) and his great-aunt Beatrice “Aunt Bee” Taylor (played by Frances Bavier. Ron Howard first played the role in 1960 in the pilot show, when he was just 5 years old. Howard sure has come a long way since playing Opie Taylor. He has directed some fabulous movies including favorites of mine like “Apollo 13”, “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Da Vinci Code”.

Mayberry is the fictional North Carolina town in which the “The Andy Griffith Show” is set. Mayberry is said to based on Griffith’s own hometown of Mount Airy, North Carolina.

17. Bureau of Indian Affairs purview TRIBAL LAND — hiding BALL(PARK)
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was created in 1824 as the Office of Indian Affairs, and was then part of the War Department. Today’s BIA administers and manages almost 56 million acres of land that is held in trust for Native Americans.

21. BB-shaped veggie PEA
A BB gun is an air pistol or rifle that shoots birdshot known as BBs. Birdshot comes in a number of different sizes, from size 9 (0.080″ in diameter) to size FF (.23″). 0.180″ diameter birdshot is size BB, which gives the airgun its name.

23. 1989 handheld gadget release NINTENDO GAME BOY — hiding DOG (PARK)
The Game Boy was a hugely successful handheld video game player that was released in 1989 by Nintendo. I remember that my my kids were so eager to get hold of the devices when they first came out that I bought a couple of them in a Japanese railroad station, while there on a business trip.

29. “Magic Mike” actor Channing __ TATUM
One of the main roles that Channing Tatum is known for is G.I. Joe in the movies “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” (2009) and “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” (2013). More recently, Channing starred in the film “21 Jump Street” (2012) and “22 Jump Street” (2014).

“Magic Mike” is a 2012 movie starring Tatum Channing as a young male stripper. The film’s storyline is loosely based on Channing’s real-life experiences, as he worked as a stripper in Tampa, Florida when he was 18 years old.

32. Prof’s aides TAS
Teaching Assistants (TAs)

34. Stat for Madison Bumgarner ERA
Madison Bumgarner is a professional baseball pitcher who made his Major League debut for the San Francisco Giants in 2009. He has the nickname “MadBum”.

35. Chaplin of “Game of Thrones” OONA
Oona Chaplin is an actress from Madrid in Spain. Chaplin is getting a lot of airtime these days as she plays Talisa Maegyr on HBO’s hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones”. Oona is the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, and is named for her maternal grandmother Oona O’Neill. the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill.

36. Manhattan landmark, and a hint to this puzzle’s circles CENTRAL PARK
The man most associated with the decision to develop Central Park in New York City was William Cullen Bryant, the editor of what today is the “New York Post”. He argued that the growing city needed a large, public open space, along the lines of Hyde Park in London and the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. Most of the park’s construction took place between 1860 and 1873. Much of the clearing work was accomplished using gunpowder, and it is often noted that more gunpowder was used in Central Park than in the Battle of Gettysburg.

50. Mr. Wilson’s bane DENNIS THE MENACE — hiding THEME (PARK)
“Dennis the Menace” is a comic strip that first appeared in 1951, originally drawn by Hank Ketcham. The strip made the jump over the years from the newspaper to television and the silver screen. Dennis’s full name is Dennis Mitchell, and his parents are Henry and Alice (Johnson) Mitchell. Dennis’s nemesis is his neighbor, Mister George Everett Wilson. Hank Ketcham drew his inspiration for the story from his real life. When he introduced the strip he had a 4-year-old son called Dennis, and a wife named Alice.

54. Modern, in Berlin NEU
Berlin is the capital and largest city in Germany, and is the second most populous city in the European Union (after London).

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

Happy St. Paddy’s Day!!!

57. Polynesian-themed restaurant chain TRADER VIC’S — hiding RV (PARK)
The “Vic” in “Trader Vic’s” is Victor Jules Bergeron Jr, the founder of the chain of Polynesian-themed restaurants. “Vic” started off with $500 of borrowed money in Oakland, California in 1934, taking over his first establishment. He changed the name to Trader Vic’s, and introduced the Polynesian theme. By the time the sixties rolled round, he had 25 Trader Vic’s restaurants up and running all round the world.

61. Data unit BYTE
In the world of computers, a “bit” is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of bits (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. And the prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and kilobyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

64. 1930s heavyweight champ Max BAER
Max Baer was an American Heavyweight Champion of the World in the thirties. Baer held the title for 364 days, and then went into the ring after hardly any training at all against the well-prepared James J. Braddock. Braddock was a huge underdog, and yet emerged victorious after 15 rounds (Braddock is the subject of the 2005 movie “Cinderella Man”). By the way, Baer’s son is Max Baer, Jr., the actor who played Jethro on “The Beverly Hillbillies”.

Down
2. Empire conquered by Alexander the Great PERSIA
Alexander the Great was a king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. Alexander spent much of his life on military campaigns. His early victories led to the overthrow on the Persian King Darius III. Alexander eventually conquered the whole of the First Persian Empire, giving him rule of lands stretching from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River.

3. “Murder on the __ Express” ORIENT
Hercule Poirot is Agatha Christie’s renowned detective, a wonderful Belgian who plies his trade from his base in London. Poirot’s most famous case is the “Murder on the Orient Express”. If you haven’t read the tale, the next sentence is a spoiler. It wasn’t the butler who did it, it was everyone …

4. Driver’s lic. info DOB
Date of Birth (DOB)

5. “Midnight in Paris” writer/director Woody ALLEN
Woody Allen’s real name is Allan Stewart Konigsberg. Allen has been nominated for an Academy Award an incredible 21 times in many different categories, and has won on three occasions. He has more Oscar nominations as a screenwriter than any other writer, but he spurns the Awards ceremony and only attended it once in all his years in the movie business. He broke tradition by turning up at the 2002 ceremony, unannounced, to beg producers to continue filming in his beloved New York City despite the fears created by the 9/11 attacks.

The 2011 Woody Allen movie called “Midnight in Paris” is a real gem in my opinion. I’ve never liked Woody Allen films, to be honest, mainly because I’m not a fan of Woody Allen as an actor. “Midnight in Paris” is very much a Woody Allen script, with Owen Wilson playing the role that Allen would usually reserve for himself. Wilson plays a much better Woody Allen! Highly recommended …

10. “Philadelphia” or “Chicago,” e.g. MOVIE
“Philadelphia” is a powerful 1993 film starring Tom Hanks as a gay man who sues his law firm for wrongful dismissal, claiming that he was fired because he was diagnosed with AIDS. Hanks won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in the film. Bruce Springsteen won the Best Original Song for “Streets of Philadelphia”, which he wrote for the movie.

18. Theoretical evolutionary link APE-MAN
The term “missing link” is usually applied to the concept that there existed some form of animal that is a hybrid between apes and humans. The idea that there was some “ape-man” is discounted these days by the scientific community, which now favors the theory of evolution.

22. Bovary’s title: Abbr. MME
“Madame Bovary” is the most famous novel written by Gustave Flaubert. The title character is a doctor’s wife, Emma Bovary, who lives a luxurious life beyond her means, and has many adulterous affairs. The novel had a rousing reception, first being attacked by public prosecutors as obscenity, which I am sure later helped it to become a bestseller.

24. Helen Keller, to Anne Sullivan TUTEE
Helen Keller became a noted author despite been deaf and blind, largely through the work of her teacher, Anne Sullivan. Keller was left deaf and blind after an illness (possible meningitis or scarlet fever). when she was about 18 months old. She was to become the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The relationship between Sullivan and Keller is immortalized in the play and film called “The Miracle Worker”.

36. Longtime newsman with the catchphrase “And that’s the way it is” CRONKITE
The broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite was the anchor of the “CBS Evening News” for 19 years, from 1962 to 1981. Cronkite’s famous sign-off line was “And that’s the way it is …” Cronkite made many famous broadcasts, including coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Moon landings. Cronkite was so closely associated with the Apollo space missions that he was presented with a Moon rock, making him the only non-NASA person to be so honored.

38. Filmmaker with a distinctive style AUTEUR
We use the term “auteur” to describe a film director with a distinctive style, one that is distinct enough to overcome the influence of a movie studio and other commercial pressures. Examples often cited are Akira Kurosawa, Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks and Jean Renoir. “Auteur” is a French word meaning “author”.

39. F on a DVD player, perhaps FWD
Forward (FWD)

44. Sardine container TIN
Sardines are oily fish related to herrings. Sardines are also known as pilchards, although in the UK “sardine” is a noun reserved for a young pilchard. Very confusing …

45. Writer/illustrator Maurice SENDAK
Maurice Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children’s books. His best known work is “Where the Wild Things Are”, published in 1963. The “Wild Things” of the tale are beasts conjured up in the imagination of a young boy named Max, after he is sent to bed with no supper.

47. Pricey hors d’oeuvre CAVIAR
“Caviar” is the roe of a large fish that has been salted and seasoned, and especially the roe of a sturgeon. Beluga caviar comes from the beluga sturgeon, found primarily in the Caspian Sea. It is the most expensive type of caviar in the world. 8 ounces of US-farmed beluga caviar can be purchased through Amazon.com for just over $850, in case you’re feeling peckish …

An hors d’oeuvre is the first course in a meal. “Hors d’oeuvre” translates from French as “apart from the work”, really meaning “not the main course”.

51. West Coast NFLer NINER
The very successful National Football League team in San Francisco takes its name from the gold prospectors who flooded into Northern California around 1949 during the California Gold Rush, the “49ers”.

59. Grandpa Simpson ABE
In the animated TV show called “The Simpsons”, Grampa Abe Simpson is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, the same actor who provides the voice for Homer.

60. Brandy bottle letters VSO
Cognac is a famous variety of brandy named after the town of Cognac in the very west of France. To be called cognac, the brandy must be distilled twice in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in very specific French oak barrels. It is the length of this aging that defines the various grades of cognac (and other brandies):

– VS: Very Special … at least 2 years storage
– VSOP: Very Special (or Superior) Old Pale … at least 4 years storage
– XO: Extra Old … at least 6 years
– VSO: Very Superior Old … 12-17 years

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Device in a jogger’s armband, maybe IPOD
5. Off-mike comment ASIDE
10. Deck swabbers MOPS
14. Emperor with a bow NERO
15. Language of 14-Across LATIN
16. Mayberry kid OPIE
17. Bureau of Indian Affairs purview TRIBAL LAND — hiding BALL(PARK)
19. Heating or cooling outlet VENT
20. Nationality suffix -ESE
21. BB-shaped veggie PEA
22. Pay attention to MIND
23. 1989 handheld gadget release NINTENDO GAME BOY — hiding DOG (PARK)
29. “Magic Mike” actor Channing __ TATUM
30. Disparaging SNIDE
31. Have yet to pay OWE
32. Prof’s aides TAS
34. Stat for Madison Bumgarner ERA
35. Chaplin of “Game of Thrones” OONA
36. Manhattan landmark, and a hint to this puzzle’s circles CENTRAL PARK
39. Word before drill or engine FIRE
41. Clothes drier AIR
42. Fish-on-the-line sign TUG
43. “__ knows?” WHO
44. Gentle gaits TROTS
46. Implicit TACIT
50. Mr. Wilson’s bane DENNIS THE MENACE — hiding THEME (PARK)
53. Comparable AKIN
54. Modern, in Berlin NEU
55. Through VIA
56. “__ go bragh!” ERIN
57. Polynesian-themed restaurant chain TRADER VIC’S — hiding RV (PARK)
61. Data unit BYTE
62. Ready to hit AT BAT
63. Event with specials SALE
64. 1930s heavyweight champ Max BAER
65. Oddballs GEEKS
66. Mined materials ORES

Down
1. Sharply focused INTENT
2. Empire conquered by Alexander the Great PERSIA
3. “Murder on the __ Express” ORIENT
4. Driver’s lic. info DOB
5. “Midnight in Paris” writer/director Woody ALLEN
6. Light lunches SALADS
7. “Give __ rest!” IT A
8. Racket DIN
9. Come to a halt END
10. “Philadelphia” or “Chicago,” e.g. MOVIE
11. Test type OPEN BOOK
12. Force to make a commitment PIN DOWN
13. Tennis match part SET
18. Theoretical evolutionary link APE-MAN
22. Bovary’s title: Abbr. MME
24. Helen Keller, to Anne Sullivan TUTEE
25. In this world ON EARTH
26. Young lady GIRL
27. Alter to fit ADAPT
28. Passing remark? YEA
33. Planetarium projections STARS
35. Liver or kidney ORGAN
36. Longtime newsman with the catchphrase “And that’s the way it is” CRONKITE
37. Prison uprising RIOT
38. Filmmaker with a distinctive style AUTEUR
39. F on a DVD player, perhaps FWD
40. Informal “Understood” I HEAR YA
44. Sardine container TIN
45. Writer/illustrator Maurice SENDAK
47. Pricey hors d’oeuvre CAVIAR
48. Spiky winter hanger ICICLE
49. Pokes fun at TEASES
51. West Coast NFLer NINER
52. Hooks up with MEETS
56. Partner of flow EBB
57. License plate TAG
58. Postal worker’s beat: Abbr. RTE
59. Grandpa Simpson ABE
60. Brandy bottle letters VSO

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