Day: September 12, 2015

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Game with a Bad Piggies spin-off ANGRY BIRDS
Angry Birds is a video game that was developed for smartphones. Angry Birds is the third most downloaded game, after Tetris and Pac-Man.

11. Pi preceder? OCTO-
The name “octopus” comes from the Greek for “eight-footed”. The most common plural used is “octopuses”, although the Greek plural form “octopodes” is also quite correct. The plural “octopi” isn’t really correct as the inference is that “octopus” is like a second-declension Latin noun, which it isn’t. That said, dictionaries are now citing “octopi” as an acceptable plural. Language does evolve, even though it drives me crazy …

15. Modem interface SERIAL PORT
In the world of computing, serial and parallel ports have largely been replaced with newer technology that allows for faster data transfer (such as USB ports). One of the main differences between serial and parallel ports is that a parallel port can only transfer information in one direction, from the hard drive. A serial port transfers information both to and from the hard drive.

17. Westminster attraction CLOCK TOWER
Big Ben is the name commonly used for the large bell in the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster (aka the Houses of Parliament). Big Ben’s official name is the Great Bell, and there is some debate about the origins of the nickname. It may be named after Sir Benjamin Hall who oversaw the bell’s installation, or perhaps the English heavyweight champion of the day Benjamin Caunt.

22. “Willy and the Poor Boys” band, familiarly CCR
Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) was a rock band from San Francisco that actually played in a Southern rock style, with hits such as “Proud Mary”, “Bad Moon Rising”, “Down on the Corner” and “Who’ll Stop the Rain”.

“Willy and the Poor Boys” is a 1969 album by the band Creedence Clearwater Revival. The album features the hit song “Down on the Corner”, which is about a fictional band that plays on street corners. The name of that band is “Willy and the Poor Boys”, which explains the album’s name.

23. Poe title stowaway PYM
American author Edgar Allen Poe was noted mainly for his short stories and only wrote one complete novel in his short life, namely “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket”. The novel recounts the adventures of a young man who journeys to the South Seas aboard four different vessels. The book was to become an inspiration for the more famous “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville.

24. Grain beard AWN
Awn is the name given to hair or bristle-like structures found in numerous species of plants. In some species, like barley, the awns can contain photosynthetic tissue.

26. Type of sandwich? KNUCKLE
“Knuckle sandwich” is a slang phrase describing a punch in the mouth with a clenched fist.

28. 2009 Emmy co-winner for Outstanding Talk Show Host BEHAR
Joy Behar is a comedian, and former co-host of the hit talk show “The View”. Behar was one of the original co-hosts of “The View”, and stayed with the show from 1997 until 2013.

31. Gateway Arch architect SAARINEN
The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is the tallest monument in the United States. It was designed by Eero Saarinen, with the help of structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel. They did their design work back in 1947, but construction wasn’t started until 1963. In 1980, a daredevil took it upon himself to parachute onto the top of the arch intending to further jump from the apex of the arch and parachute to the ground. He hit the arch alright, and slid all the way down one of the arches to his death. No comment …

35. With “The,” Massachusetts license plate slogan SPIRIT OF AMERICA
The slogan “Spirit of America” has been seen on Massachusetts license plates since 1987. The phrase originated as an advertising jingle in the early 1980s.

38. Neophyte TYRO
A tyro (also “tiro”) is a beginner or a novice. “Tyro” comes into English from Latin, in which “tiro” means “a recruit”.

A “neophyte” is a recent convert to a particular doctrine or practice.

40. Key of Grieg’s Piano Concerto A MINOR
Edvard Grieg is Norway’s best known composer, active in the Romantic Era. Grieg’s most famous works are the gorgeous “Piano Concerto in A minor:”, and his incidental music for the play “Peer Gynt” by Henrik Ibsen.

43. Sturdy carts DRAYS
A dray is a side-less, 4-wheeled cart used for hauling goods.

44. Cork’s province MUNSTER
Ireland is divided into four provinces: Leinster, Munster, Connacht and Ulster. “Ulster” is sometimes used as a synonym for Northern Ireland, but in fact Ulster is comprised of the six counties of Northern Ireland and three more, namely Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan.

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland. Cork has been a major port for many years, and was the last port of call for many, many Irish emigrants to America. When these Irish people reached the US it was common for them to give their point of origin as “Cork”, whereas they may have come from almost anywhere in Ireland. It’s because of this that many descendants of Irish immigrants who had been told they were from a Cork family often find out they were under a misapprehension as their ancestors just sailed from Cork.

46. Menu term A LA
The phrase “in the style of” can be translated in “alla” in Italian and “à la” in French.

47. Consumer protection org. BBB
The Better Business Bureau is a private concern (nope, it is not a government agency), founded in 1912. It operates like a franchise, with local BBB’s managed independently but operating to a “corporate” set of guidelines.

50. Calif. setting PST
Pacific Standard Time (PST)

53. Wells creation ELOI
In the 1895 novel by H. G. Wells called “The Time Machine”, there are two races that the hero encounter in his travels into the future. The Eloi are the “beautiful people” who live on the planet’s surface. The Morlocks are a race of cannibals living underground who use the Eloi as food.

59. Arctic fliers AUKS
Auks are penguin-like sea birds that live in colder northern waters including the Arctic. Like penguins, auks are great swimmers, but unlike penguins, auks can fly.

61. Marvel Comics superheroes X-MEN
X-Men is a team of superheroes created by Stan Lee for Marvel Comics. Nowadays the X-Men are perhaps best known as the subject of a series of movies, with Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine, and Patrick Stewart playing Professor Xavier (or simply “Professor X”). Some very respected actors have also played the villains that X-Men have to battle. For example, the enemy called Magneto is portrayed by veteran Shakespearean actor Sir Ian McKellan.

62. “Through the Looking-Glass” brother TWEEDLEDEE
Tweedledee and Tweedledum are characters who appear in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There”. Carroll didn’t invent the characters though, as they were already part of a well-known nursery rhyme:

Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
As black as a tar-barrel;
Which frightened both the heroes so,
They quite forgot their quarrel.

Down
1. Recording acronym ASCAP
ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) collects licence fees for musicians and distributes royalties to composers whose works have been performed. BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) provides the same service.

2. “M.O.” rapper NELLY
Nelly is the stage name of rap artist Cornell Haynes, Jr. from Austin, Texas.

4. 2003 College World Series winner RICE
Rice University is a private school in Houston, Texas. William Marsh Rice had made a will endowing the funds for the establishment of the school at the time of his death. When he was found dead one morning in his bed, his lawyer announced that his will had been changed, with the bulk of Rice’s estate actually going to the lawyer making the announcement. Upon investigation, it was discovered that the lawyer had paid Rice’s valet to murder his employer using chloroform and a fake will was written. Eventually, the original will was deemed valid and the funds were disbursed so that the school could be built.

6. Short order? BLT
The BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) is the second most popular sandwich in the US, after the plain old ham sandwich.

7. Apple products IPOD NANOS
The iPod Nano is the successor to the iPod Mini and was introduced to the market at the end of 2005. There have been seven versions of the Nano to date and the current Nano as well as playing tunes is an FM player, records voice memos, has a pedometer and can connect with external devices (like a heart monitor, maybe) using Bluetooth technology.

8. 1930s-’40s pitcher “Schoolboy” __ ROWE
Lynwood Thomas Rowe was baseball pitcher who went by the nickname “Schoolboy”. Rowe earned that name as a high school student when he was playing on a men’s team at the age of only 15 years.

9. Worthless trash DRECK
“Dreck” is filth or trash, a word that comes into English from “drek”, the Yiddish word for rubbish.

11. “… the apparel __ proclaims the man”: “Hamlet” OFT
In William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”, Polonius gives some fatherly advice to his son Laertes before the young man heads off to France. Included among the numerous pearls of wisdom is the oft-quoted “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”.

Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportioned thought his act.
Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,
Bear ’t that th’ opposèd may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.
Take each man’s censure but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy—rich, not gaudy,
For the apparel oft proclaims the man,
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous chief in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

12. Provocative and frequently misleading link CLICKBAIT
“Clickbait” is trickery used by website designers to entice a reader to click on a particular link. That link may be a disguised ad, so that the website owner gets some income from the advertiser.

13. “The Sum of All Fears” author TOM CLANCY
Tom Clancy was an incredibly successful novelist who was noted for his technically-detailed military and espionage thrillers. Clancy’s first novel was “The Hunt for Red October”, published in 1984. Although “Red October” was to be his most successful work, I personally preferred his second book “Red Storm Rising”, published in 1986. Clancy passed away in 2013.

14. Victor Herbert work OPERETTA
Victor Herbert was a composer, cellist and conductor who is known for several successful operettas that played on Broadway at the turn of the century and up to WWI. Examples of his operettas are “Babes in Toyland” (1903) and “Naughty Marietta” (1910).

21. Influential sci-fi drama RUR
Karel Čapek was a Czech writer noted for his works of science fiction. Čapek’s 1920 play “R.U.R.” is remembered in part for introducing the world to the word “robot”. The words “automaton” and “android” were already in use, but Capek gave us “robot” from the original Czech “robota” meaning “forced labor”. The acronym “R.U.R.”, in the context of the play, stands for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”.

25. Scintilla WHIT
Both “whit” and “fig” are used to describe a trivial amount, a mere trifle.

A “scintilla” is a small amount. The term can also be used to describe a spark or a flash (as in “to scintillate”). The term came into English from Latin, in which language it means “spark, particle of fire, atom”.

27. Warm-weather pants CAPRIS
Capri pants first became popular on the island of Capri, apparently. They were invented in Europe in 1948, but only became stylish in the US in the sixties. Mary Tyler Moore often wore Capri pants on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and to some extent she sparked a fashion trend. After a lull in the seventies and eighties there was a resurgence in sales after Uma Thurman wore them (and danced in them) in “Pulp Fiction”. Can’t stand the look of them myself …

29. Put another quarter in, as a parking meter REFED
An early patent for a parking meter, dated 1928, was for a device that required the driver of the parked car to connect the battery of his or her car to the meter in order for it to operate!

31. “Trust No One” Washington attraction SPY MUSEUM
The International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. is a private enterprise that opened in 2002. It was founded by Milton Maltz, a former code-breaker during the Korean War. The Spy Museum is a fun place to visit …

35. 1765 levy repealed in 1766 STAMP TAX
A “stamp act” is a law requiring that taxes be paid when certain documents are “stamped” to make them legal. Such taxes are known as “stamp duty”. The infamous Stamp Act of 1765 was a tax imposed by Britain on the American colonies. The colonies famously rejected the Act declaring “No Taxation without Representation”, and the disagreement became a significant factor in the decision to declare independence.

37. New Age superstar ENYA
Enya’s real name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1980 Enya launched her very successful solo career, eventually becoming Ireland’s best-selling solo musician. And, she sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

New-Age music is created to provide a relaxing and stress-free atmosphere. The New Age movement is often said to have begun with the release of an album called “Spectrum Suite” by Steven Halpern in 1975.

41. Causes of “60 Minutes” delays, briefly OTS
The CBS newsmagazine show “60 Minutes” is aired on Sundays, following live broadcast of NFL games. If a game goes into overtime (OT), the start of the “60 Minutes” broadcast is delayed.

The marvelous news magazine program “60 Minutes” has been on the air since 1968. The show is unique among all other regularly-scheduled shows in that it has never used theme music. There is just the ticking of that Aristo stopwatch.

49. Polite word, in Potsdam BITTE
“Bitte” is the German word for “please”.

Potsdam is a city in Germany that lies just on the outskirts of the nation’s capital of Berlin. Famously, Potsdam was the site of a conference between Stalin, Churchill and Truman after the end of WWII in Europe.

53. Women’s issue ELLE
“Elle” magazine was founded in 1945 in France and today has the highest circulation of any fashion magazine in the world. “Elle” is the French word for “she”. “Elle” is published monthly worldwide, although you can pick up a weekly edition if you live in France.

55. ISP choice MSN
The Microsoft Network (MSN) used to be an Internet service provider (ISP). These days, MSN is mainly a web portal.

58. ISP choice AOL
AOL was a leading Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the 1980s and 1990s. The company does still provide dial-up access to the Internet for some subscribers, but most users now access AOL using faster, non-AOL ISPs.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Game with a Bad Piggies spin-off ANGRY BIRDS
11. Pi preceder? OCTO-
15. Modem interface SERIAL PORT
16. Fizzle FLOP
17. Westminster attraction CLOCK TOWER
18. 17-Across display TIME
19. Plant with tubular flowers ALOE
20. Inside job DECOR
22. “Willy and the Poor Boys” band, familiarly CCR
23. Poe title stowaway PYM
24. Grain beard AWN
26. Type of sandwich? KNUCKLE
28. 2009 Emmy co-winner for Outstanding Talk Show Host BEHAR
30. Try to get GRAB AT
31. Gateway Arch architect SAARINEN
34. Puff PANT
35. With “The,” Massachusetts license plate slogan SPIRIT OF AMERICA
38. Neophyte TYRO
39. Calm SERENITY
40. Key of Grieg’s Piano Concerto A MINOR
43. Sturdy carts DRAYS
44. Cork’s province MUNSTER
46. Menu term A LA
47. Consumer protection org. BBB
50. Calif. setting PST
51. Described in letters SPELT
53. Wells creation ELOI
54. Play group TEAM
56. Cell warning EMAIL ALERT
59. Arctic fliers AUKS
60. Like some protests NONVIOLENT
61. Marvel Comics superheroes X-MEN
62. “Through the Looking-Glass” brother TWEEDLEDEE

Down
1. Recording acronym ASCAP
2. “M.O.” rapper NELLY
3. Stable employee GROOM
4. 2003 College World Series winner RICE
5. Jaw YAK
6. Short order? BLT
7. Apple products IPOD NANOS
8. 1930s-’40s pitcher “Schoolboy” __ ROWE
9. Worthless trash DRECK
10. Solid STRONG
11. “… the apparel __ proclaims the man”: “Hamlet” OFT
12. Provocative and frequently misleading link CLICKBAIT
13. “The Sum of All Fears” author TOM CLANCY
14. Victor Herbert work OPERETTA
21. Influential sci-fi drama RUR
24. Atmosphere: Pref. AERI-
25. Scintilla WHIT
27. Warm-weather pants CAPRIS
28. Industrial bigwigs BARONS
29. Put another quarter in, as a parking meter REFED
31. “Trust No One” Washington attraction SPY MUSEUM
32. Internal combustion engine system AIR INTAKE
33. Tale NARRATIVE
35. 1765 levy repealed in 1766 STAMP TAX
36. Board part MEAL
37. New Age superstar ENYA
41. Causes of “60 Minutes” delays, briefly OTS
42. Feel sorry for REPENT
45. Do more lawn work REMOW
47. Run BLEED
48. Supported BORNE
49. Polite word, in Potsdam BITTE
52. Pool division LANE
53. Women’s issue ELLE
55. ISP choice MSN
57. Top LID
58. ISP choice AOL

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