Day: July 20, 2015

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Cager Shaquille O’NEAL
Shaquille O’Neal is one of the heaviest players ever to have played in the NBA (weighing in at around 325 pounds). Yep, he’s a big guy … 7 foot 1 inch tall.

6. Port in southeastern Iraq BASRA
It’s quite a coincidence that the Iraqi city of Basra has a name that is an anagram of “Arabs”, isn’t it? Basra also features in the H. G. Wells science-fiction tale “The Shape of Things to Come”. Written in 1933, the storyline predicts a global conflict (WWII) that breaks out in 1940 lasting for ten years, after which chaos reigns as no victor emerges. Following worldwide plague, a benevolent dictatorship takes charge and the world moves towards a serene utopia. In time, the dictators are overthrown and peacefully retired, and the people of the Earth live happily ever after, all citizens of one global state with its capital in Basra in the Middle East.

14. Actor Gabriel or singer David BYRNE
Irish actor Gabriel Byrne is probably still best known for his starring role in the 1995 film “The Usual Suspects”, although he has an impressive resume of roles since the mid-nineties. One of his more noted television roles was playing therapist Dr. Paul Weston on the HBO series “In Treatment” from 2008 to 2010. Byrne was married to actress Ellen Barkin from 1988 until they divorced in 1999.

The musician David Byrne was a founding member of the New Wave band called Talking Heads. Byrne resides in the US although was born in the UK.

15. “Family Matters” misfit URKEL
Steve Urkel is a character on the TV show “Family Matters” that aired in the late eighties and nineties. The Urkel character was the archetypal “geek”, played by Jaleel White. Urkel was originally written into the show’s storyline for just one episode, but before long Urkel was the show’s most popular recurring character.

16. Sci-fi aircraft UFO
Unidentified flying object (UFO)

17. Decision of a courtroom dozen JURY VERDICT
A jury is a group of people who have sworn to render a verdict. The term “jury” comes into English via French, ultimately from the Latin “iurare” meaning “to swear”.

21. Poet Pound EZRA
Ezra Pound was an American poet who spent much of his life wandering the world, spending years in London, Paris, and Italy. In Italy, Pound’s work and sympathies for Mussolini’s regime led to his arrest at the end of the war. His major work was the epic, albeit incomplete, “The Cantos”. This epic poem is divided into 120 sections, each known as a canto.

27. “Snowy” birds EGRETS
The Snowy Egret is a small white heron, native to the Americas. At one time the egret species was in danger of extinction due to hunting driven by the demand for plumes for women’s hats.

28. Fuse with an alloy SOLDER
Solder is a metal alloy that is used to join pieces of a work together using the principle that the melting point of the alloy is below the melting point of the workpieces.

32. Greek Cupid EROS
Cupid is the god of desire and erotic love in Roman mythology. The Greek counterpart of Cupid is Eros.

33. Letter between rho and tau SIGMA
Sigma is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, and is the one used for an “ess” sound, equivalent to our letter S. Sigma is used in mathematics to represent a summation, the adding together of a sequence of numbers.

36. Chicken __ king A LA
A dish prepared “a la king” (usually chicken or turkey), is food prepared in a cream sauce, with mushrooms, pimentos, green peppers and sherry.

38. School’s underclass team … or, initially, what the four longest answers in this puzzle comprise JV SQUAD
Junior varsity (JV)

“Varsity” is an adjective used to describe a university or school team or competition. “Varsity” is a variant of the earlier term “versity” used in the late 17th century, which was a shortened form of “university”.

41. Tokyo, once EDO
Edo is the former name of the Japanese city of Tokyo. Edo was the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime that ruled from 1603 until 1868. The shogun lived in the magnificent Edo castle. Some parts of the original castle remain and today’s Tokyo Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor of Japan, was built on its grounds.

44. Hereditary ruler DYNAST
A “dynast” is someone who rules by virtue of heredity.

48. Words on Monopoly’s Jail square JUST VISITING
We have a house rule here for Monopoly. The players place all the fines and taxes that are paid into the center of the board, instead of into the bank. Anyone landing on the Free Parking square then collects whatever money has been contributed.

55. Bronx baseballer YANKEE
The New York Yankees baseball team has the nickname “the Bronx Bombers”. The nickname reflects where the team plays (the Bronx) and the team’s reputation for hitting (bombers). The New York Yankees were the first team to retire a uniform number, doing so on July 4, 1939. That day the retired the number 4 in honor of Lou Gehrig.

57. Vital blood vessel JUGULAR VEIN
The jugular veins transport deoxygenated blood from the head back to the heart. There are actually five jugular veins: right and left internal veins, right and left externals, and the anterior. The term “jugular” comes from the Latin “iugulum” meaning “collarbone, throat, neck”.

62. Buddhist sect ZEN
Zen is a Buddhist school that developed its own tradition in China back in the 7th century AD. Zen is a Japanese spelling of the Chinese word “chan”, which in turn derives from the Sanskrit word “dhyana” meaning “meditation”.

63. Supreme Court justice Kagan ELENA
Elena Kagan was the Solicitor General of the United States who replaced Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. That made Justice Kagan the first female US Solicitor General and the fourth female US Supreme Court justice. I hear she is a fan of Jane Austen, and used to reread “Pride and Prejudice” once a year. Not a bad thing to do, I’d say …

65. Lumberjack’s tool AXE
As one might imagine, “lumberjack” was originally a Canadian term.

66. Like toads WARTY
The “warts” on the skin of a toad have no relation to the viral infection that can occur on human skin. A toad’s warts a colored bumps that are believed to help the animal blend more effectively into its environment.

67. Japanese cartoon art ANIME
Anime is cartoon animation in the style of Japanese Manga comic books.

The Japanese word “manga” means “whimsical pictures” and is an apt term to describe the Japanese style of comic book. Manga publications are more diverse than American comic books and have a larger audience. Manga cover many subjects including romance, sports, business, horror, and mystery.

Down
1. Noun after a vb., generally OBJ
In a sentence, the noun preceding the verb is usually the subject, and the noun succeeding is usually the object.

2. Big Apple sch. NYU
The main campus of the private New York University (NYU) is located right in Manhattan, in Washington Square in the heart of Greenwich Village. NYU has over 12,000 resident students, the largest number of residents in a private school in the whole country. NYU’s sports teams are known as the Violets, a reference to the violet and white colors that are worn in competition. Since the 1980s, the school’s mascot has been a bobcat. “Bobcat” had been the familiar name given to NYU’s Bobst Library computerized catalog.

Apparently the first published use of the term “Big Apple” to describe New York City dates back to 1909. Edward Martin wrote the following in his book “The Wayfarer in New York”:

Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city. . . . It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap.

Over ten years later, the term “big apple” was used as a nickname for racetracks in and around New York City. However, the concerted effort to “brand” the city as the Big Apple had to wait until the seventies and was the work of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau.

5. “Inception” actor Joseph Gordon-__ LEVITT
I suspect that the Hollywood actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt is about to get a boost to his career later this year as he is playing the title character in the Oliver Stone film “Snowden” that is scheduled for release in December 2015. “Snowden” tells the story of Edward Snowden, the contractor who leaked classified information from the NSA starting in 2103. Gordon-Levitt also appeared in two of my favorite sci-fi films, “Inception” and “Looper”, both of which feature some clever use of the time travel concept.

6. Actress Delta BURKE
The actress and comedienne Delta Burke is best known for playing Suzanne Sugarbaker in the sitcom “Designing Women”. Burke ending up leaving the cast in 1991 due to her poor relationship with the creators of the show.

7. Shakespearean forest ARDEN
The Forest of Arden is the setting for Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”. Even though there is a Forest of Arden surrounding Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford-on-Avon, as the play is set in France one has to assume that the “As You Like It” Arden is an anglicization of the forested “Ardennes” region that stretches from Belgium into France.

11. Peach __ FUZZ
“Peach fuzz” is the familiar name for “vellus hair”, the fine hair that is most visible on children and adult women. Vellus hair tends to be masked by what’s called terminal or androgenic hair in adult males. Vellus hair helps with cooling of the body. When a skin pore opens to sweat, the sweat wets a vellus hair, which provides a surface for evaporative cooling.

13. “Julius Caesar” costume TOGA
In Ancient Rome the classical attire known as a toga (plural “togae”) was usually worn over a tunic. The tunic was made from linen, and the toga itself was a piece of cloth about twenty feet long made from wool. The toga could only be worn by men, and only if those men were Roman citizens. The female equivalent of the toga was called a “stola”.

The most famous Roman known as “Caesar” was Gaius Julius Caesar, the dictator usually referred to as Julius Caesar. It was Julius Caesar’s actions and assassination that ushered in the end of the Roman Republic and the birth of the Roman Empire. The name Gaius Julius Caesar was also used by the dictator’s father, and indeed his grandfather.

23. Sweet Rosie of song O’GRADY
“Sweet Rosie O’Grady” is a 1943 musical film starring Betty Grable as an American singer intent on marrying an English duke to better her situation.

25. West Point letters USMA
West Point is a military reservation in New York State, located north of New York City. West Point was first occupied by the Continental Army way back in 1778, making it the longest, continually-occupied military post in the country. Cadet training has taken place at the garrison since 1794, although Congress funding for a US Military Academy (USMA) didn’t start until 1802. The first female cadets were admitted to West Point in 1976, and today about 15% of all new cadets are women.

26. Willie Nelson’s “On the __ Again” ROAD
“On the Road Again” is a 1980 song that was written and recorded by Willie Nelson. He wrote the song for the movie “Honeysuckle Rose”, in which Nelson had the leading role. Nelson was asked to write the song by the film’s executive producer while the pair were taking a flight together. Nelson promptly wrote the song on the airsickness bag that was in the seatback in front of him.

29. Aquafina rival DASANI
Dasani is a Coca-Cola brand of bottled water. Dasani is filtered tap water with some trace minerals added.

Aquafina is a Pepsico brand of bottled water. Aquafina is just plain old municipal water that has been purified.

33. Govt.-issued ID SSN
A Social Security number (SSN) is divided into three parts i.e AAA-GG-SSSS, Originally, the Area Number (AAA) was the code for the office that issued the card. Since 1973, the Area Number reflects the ZIP code from which the application was made. The GG in the SSN is the Group Number, and the SSSS in the number is the Serial Number. However, this is all moot, as SSNs have been assigned randomly since 2011.

34. Mensa stats IQS
If you ever had to learn Latin, as did I, “mensa” was probably taught to you in Lesson One as it’s the word commonly used as an example of a first declension noun. Mensa means “table”. The Mensa organization for folks with high IQs was set up in Oxford, England back in 1946. To become a member, one is required to have an IQ that is in the top 2% of the population.

38. Bach’s “__, Joy of Man’s Desiring” JESU
The Bach cantata “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben” (Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life) has ten movements. The most famous of these movements is the last one, a chorale titled “Jesus bleibet meine Freude”, usually translated as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.

39. November honorees VETS
Veterans Day used to be known as Armistice Day, and is observed on November 11th each year. This particular date was chosen as the Armistice that ended WWI was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

45. 1977 Steely Dan album AJA
Steely Dan’s heyday was in the seventies when they toured for a couple of years, although the group mainly focused on studio work. The band was formed in 1972 and broke up in 1981. The core of the band reunited in 1993 and they are still going strong today.

47. __ del Fuego TIERRA
Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southern tip of South America and is the location of the famed Cape Horn. Tierra del Fuego was discovered by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. He saw native fires on land as he passed by and originally called the location “Land of Smoke” This was later changed to “Land of Fire”, or “Tierra del Fuego” in Spanish.

49. Blake’s “burning bright” big cat TYGER
William Blake was an English poet and artist, considered now have been a powerful force in his fields during the Romantic Age. One of Blake’s more famous poems is “The Tyger”, which has the celebrated lines:

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

52. Disputed Mideast strip GAZA
After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the boundaries of the strip of land on the Mediterranean around Gaza were fixed in the Israel-Egypt Armistice Agreement. The boundaries were specifically defined but were not to be recognized as an international border. From 1948, the Gaza Strip was occupied and administered by Egypt, until 1967 when Israel took over occupation following the Six-Day War. In 1993, Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Accords which handed over administration to the Palestinian Authority, but with Israel retaining control of the Gaza Strip’s airspace, some land borders and its territorial waters. The intent was to further this agreement, but discussions between the parties broke down. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

54. Heredity unit GENE
A gene is a section of a chromosome that is responsible for a particular characteristic in an organism. For example, one gene may determine eye color and another balding pattern. We have two copies of each gene, one from each of our parents, with each copy known as an allele.

57. Yom Kippur observer JEW
Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people and is also known as the Day of Atonement.

59. Quarterback Manning ELI
Eli Manning plays as quarterback for the New York Giants. Eli’s brother Peyton Manning is quarterback for the Denver Broncos. Eli and Peyton’s father is Archie Manning, who was also a successful NFL quarterback.

60. “__ the Walrus” I AM
“I Am the Walrus” is a Beatles song released in 1967. It was written by John Lennon, with the Walrus being a reference to the poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter” from Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass”.

61. “Science Guy” Bill NYE
That would be “Bill Nye the Science Guy”. Bill’s show ran on Disney for 4 years from 1993-97. I was surprised to learn that Bill Nye was married briefly to Blair Tindall, the author of “Mozart in the Jungle”. That’s a great book, if anyone is interested, and now a comedy-drama series produced by Amazon …

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Cager Shaquille O’NEAL
6. Port in southeastern Iraq BASRA
11. Butcher’s trimmings FAT
14. Actor Gabriel or singer David BYRNE
15. “Family Matters” misfit URKEL
16. Sci-fi aircraft UFO
17. Decision of a courtroom dozen JURY VERDICT
19. Half an evasive route ZAG
20. Noisy pig OINKER
21. Poet Pound EZRA
22. Business partnership JOINT VENTURE
27. “Snowy” birds EGRETS
28. Fuse with an alloy SOLDER
32. Greek Cupid EROS
33. Letter between rho and tau SIGMA
36. Chicken __ king A LA
37. Fled the scene RAN
38. School’s underclass team … or, initially, what the four longest answers in this puzzle comprise JV SQUAD
40. Tennis division SET
41. Tokyo, once EDO
42. Itty-bitty EENSY
43. Donated GAVE
44. Hereditary ruler DYNAST
46. Made amends ATONED
48. Words on Monopoly’s Jail square JUST VISITING
52. Head over heels (over) GAGA
55. Bronx baseballer YANKEE
56. Mimic APE
57. Vital blood vessel JUGULAR VEIN
62. Buddhist sect ZEN
63. Supreme Court justice Kagan ELENA
64. Pass on, as a message RELAY
65. Lumberjack’s tool AXE
66. Like toads WARTY
67. Japanese cartoon art ANIME

Down
1. Noun after a vb., generally OBJ
2. Big Apple sch. NYU
3. Make a mistake ERR
4. “It’s still __ game” ANYONE’S
5. “Inception” actor Joseph Gordon-__ LEVITT
6. Actress Delta BURKE
7. Shakespearean forest ARDEN
8. Blouse go-with SKIRT
9. Camcorder button REC
10. PC key ALT
11. Peach __ FUZZ
12. Miles off AFAR
13. “Julius Caesar” costume TOGA
18. Holders of ltrs. or bills ENVS
21. Long-bodied swimmer EEL
22. Razzed JEERED
23. Sweet Rosie of song O’GRADY
24. Applied with heat, as patches IRON-ON
25. West Point letters USMA
26. Willie Nelson’s “On the __ Again” ROAD
29. Aquafina rival DASANI
30. Late news hour ELEVEN
31. Kid-friendly, TV-wise RATED G
33. Govt.-issued ID SSN
34. Mensa stats IQS
35. Fella GUY
38. Bach’s “__, Joy of Man’s Desiring” JESU
39. November honorees VETS
43. Settled a score GOT EVEN
45. 1977 Steely Dan album AJA
46. “__ silly question … ” ASK A
47. __ del Fuego TIERRA
49. Blake’s “burning bright” big cat TYGER
50. Brag VAUNT
51. Decorative woodwork INLAY
52. Disputed Mideast strip GAZA
53. Peak APEX
54. Heredity unit GENE
57. Yom Kippur observer JEW
58. Suffix with form -ULA
59. Quarterback Manning ELI
60. “__ the Walrus” I AM
61. “Science Guy” Bill NYE

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