Day: November 11, 2015

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
5. Calcium source MILK
Calcium is an important constituent of a healthy diet. 99% of the body’s calcium is found in the bones and teeth. The calcium in bones contributes to their strength and density.

16. Former Cleveland oil company acquired by BP SOHIO
Standard Oil of Ohio was formed in 1911, and was one of the companies that resulted from the breakup of John D. Rockefeller’s behemoth Standard Oil. The company used the brand name “Sohio” at service stations within Ohio, and “Boron” in other states. Sohio merged with BP in 1968.

Cleveland, Ohio was named after the man who led the team that surveyed the area prior to founding of the city. General Moses Cleaveland did his work in 1796 and then left Ohio, never to return again.

17. San __, Italy REMO
The Italian city of San Remo sits on the Mediterranean, right on the border with France. In Italian the city is named Sanremo, just one word, although the spelling of “San Remo” dates back to ancient times.

19. Match with bishops CHESS
It is believed that the game of chess originated in northwest India, evolving from a 6th-century game called “chaturanga”, a Sanskrit word meaning “four divisions”. These four (military) divisions were represented in the game:

– Infantry (now “pawns”)
– Cavalry (now “knights”)
– Elephants (now “bishops”)
– Chariots (now “rooks”)

20. Access to 54-Across RABBIT HOLE
(54A. Setting for a novel originally published 11/11/1865 WONDERLAND)
The White Rabbit is a character who appears at the very start of Lewis Carroll’s novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. Alice sees the White Rabbit checking his watch and mumbling “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!” Alice then follows him down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland.

23. Catalina, e.g. ISLE
Catalina Island off the coast of California is more correctly referred to as Santa Catalina Island. Santa Catalina is one of the Channel Islands of California, and is located in Los Angeles County. Santa Catalina has been a major tourist destination since the early 1920s when William Wrigley, Jr. of chewing gum fame invested millions of dollars to develop needed infrastructure to attract visitors. Wrigley owned the Chicago Cubs at the time, and so he made the Chicago Cubs use the island for spring training, as part of a publicity campaign. The Cubs trained there until 1951.

24. Houston-based scandal subject ENRON
After all the trials following the exposure of fraud at Enron, several of the key players ended up in jail. Andrew Fastow was the Chief Financial Officer. He plea-bargained and received ten years without parole, and became the key witness in the trials of others. Even Fastow’s wife was involved and she was sentenced to one year for helping her husband hide money. Jeffrey Skilling (ex-CEO) was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months. Kenneth Lay (CEO) died in 2006 after he had been found guilty but before he could be sentenced. The accounting firm Arthur Andersen was found guilty of obstruction of justice for shredding thousands of pertinent documents and deleting emails and files (a decision that the Supreme Court later overturned on a technicality). But still, Arthur Andersen collapsed under the weight of the scandal and 85,000 people lost their jobs (despite only a handful being directly involved with Enron).

30. Badminton barrier NET
The game of badminton was developed in the mid-1700s by British military officers in India. There was already an old game called battledore and shuttlecock, so the creation of badminton was essentially the addition of a net and boundary lines for play. The game was launched officially as a sport in 1873 at Badminton House in Gloucestershire in England, giving it the name that we now use.

31. Short-legged dog CORGI
The Welsh corgi is a herding dog that originated in Britain, with two recognized breeds: the Pembroke and Cardigan. Corgis aren’t speedy enough to do their job by running around livestock like collies, and instead nip at the heels.

34. “Mad” social in 54-Across TEA PARTY
(54A. Setting for a novel originally published 11/11/1865 WONDERLAND)
In Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, the Mad Hatter makes his first appearance in a chapter called “A Mad Tea-Party”. This event is usually described as “The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party”, even though the Mad Hatter was just a guest. The host was the March Hare. In fact, the phrase “mad Hatter” doesn’t appear anywhere in Lewis Carroll’s novel, although the character, the Hatter (and sometimes “Hatta”), is described as mad.

37. Spud TATER
The word “spud” is used as a slang term for a potato and was first recorded in the mid-1800s, in New Zealand would you believe?

39. Butte relative MESA
“What’s the difference between a butte and a mesa?” Both are hills with flat tops, but a mesa has a top that is wider than it is tall. A butte is a much narrower formation, taller than it is wide.

41. Antacid choice TUMS
The main ingredient in Tums antacid, made by GlaxoSmithKline, is calcium carbonate. Tums have been on the market since 1930. If you want to save a few pennies, Target brand antacid is identical to Tums, so I hear …

43. 34-Across napper in 54-Across DORMOUSE
(54A. Setting for a novel originally published 11/11/1865 WONDERLAND)
The Dormouse is one of the characters in attendance at “A Mad Tea Party” at the beginning of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. He is a sleepy character, and at one point the Mad Hatter pours tea on the Dormouse’s nose to wake him up.

45. Remove pieces from? DISARM
“Piece” is underworld slang for “gun”.

46. Fencing defense PARRY
In competitive fencing, a parry is a maneuver that blocks an attack by an opponent. There are actually nine defined ways to execute a parry.

48. Mao __-tung TSE
Mao Zedong (also “Mao Tse-tung”) was born on December 16, 1893 in the Hunan Province of China. As Mao was the son of a peasant farmer, his prospects for education were limited. Indeed he left school at age 13 to work on the family farm but did eventually get to secondary school in Changsha, the provincial capital. In the years following, Mao continued his education in Beijing and actually turned down an opportunity to study in France.

49. Shortening brand CRISCO
The Crisco brand of shortening was the first shortening to be made entirely from vegetable oil. Although that sounds like a good thing, it’s actually made by hydrogenating vegetable oil so that it has physical properties similar to the animal shortening it was designed to replace. This hydrogenation turns good fats into bad fats, so medical professionals suggest limited intake.

51. Divided country KOREA
Korea was occupied by the Japanese military from 1910 until Japan surrendered at the end of WWII in 1945. While the UN was working towards a trusteeship administration for Korea, the Soviet Union managed the Korean Peninsula north of the 38th parallel and the US managed the south. The UN’s plans came to nothing as the Cold War dictated the establishment of the two separate states of North Korea and South Korea. North Korea invaded the South in 1950, leading to the Korean War. After three years of fighting, the border between the two states became the demarcation line between the two military forces on the day the Armistice Agreement was signed. That line runs diagonally across the 38th parallel, and is better known as the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

53. Wild West weapon COLT
Samuel Colt was fascinated as a young man by the science behind gunpowder and its used in weapons. He decided early on in his life, that he would respond to the challenge of the day, how to achieve the impossible, a weapon that fire more than the two times available at the time using a double-barreled rifle. He came up with the concept of the revolver while at sea, modeling his design on the spoked wheel that steered the ships on which he served. His revolver made him a very rich man in his own lifetime. By the time he died in 1862, his estate was valued at around $15 million. Can you imagine; $15 million back in 1862?

54. Setting for a novel originally published 11/11/1865 WONDERLAND
Lewis Carroll wrote “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” in 1865, and the sequel called “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There” in 1871. Because in the second adventure Alice went through a looking glass, the themes were deliberately chosen to be mirror images of the themes in “Wonderland”. Whereas “Wonderland” begins indoors, is set in summer, and uses playing card imagery, “Looking Glass” begins out of doors, is set in winter and uses images from the game of chess.

64. Bond girl Kurylenko OLGA
Olga Kurylenko is a Ukrainian actress and model. Kurylenko played the Bond girl Camille Montes in “Quantum of Solace”.

65. Facial area under a soul patch CHIN
A “soul patch” is that small patch of facial hair worn especially by jazz musician, located just below the lower lip and above the chin. The actor and comedian Howie Mandel has been sporting a soul patch for many years, I believe.

66. Prickly shrub GORSE
Gorse can be a lovely plant to view, largely because of its showy yellow flower. However, gorse took over my front yard so I was glad to see the back of it when I relandscaped recently, going with a drought-tolerant design.

67. Corset stiffener STAY
A corset is a close-fitting undergarment that is stiffened with a material such as whalebone. Corsets are more usually worn by women, to shape the body. The word “corset” is a diminutive of the Old French “cors” meaning “body”.

Down
1. Teri of “Tootsie” GARR
The lovely Teri Garr had a whole host of minor roles in her youth, including appearances in nine Elvis movies. Garr’s big break came with the role of Inga in “Young Frankenstein”, and her supporting role in “Tootsie” earned Garr an Academy Award nomination. Sadly, Teri Garr suffers from multiple sclerosis. She is a National Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

“Tootsie” is a hilarious 1982 comedy starring Dustin Hoffman in the title role, a male actor who adopts a female identity in order to land an acting job. Jessica Lange won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in the film. “Tootsie” was also provided Geena Davis with her first movie role.

4. Acrobat creator ADOBE
Adobe Acrobat is the software used to create .pdf files. Most of us are more familiar with the associated application called Adobe Reader, because that’s what we use to read those .pdf files.

5. Restaurant host MAITRE D’
The full title of a “maître d’” is “maître d’hôtel”, which means “master of the hotel”.

7. Use, as a chaise LIE ON
I think the reference here is to a chaise longue, rather the carriage known as a “chaise”.

A “chaise longue” is an upholstered, sofa-like chair that is long enough to support the legs. “Chaise longue” is French for “long chair”. And, the term has nothing to do with a “lounge” … it’s a “longue” (long) chair, not a “lounge” chair.

A chaise is a light carriage with a folding hood that transports one or two people. “Chaise” is the French for “chair”, and takes its name from the “sedan chair” means of transportation. In the US, the name “chaise” evolved into “shay”.

8. “As seen on TV” record co. K-TEL
K-Tel was founded in 1962 in Winnipeg, Manitoba by one Philip Kives. K-Tel’s recipe for success was the sale of inexpensive goods with a simple sales pitch and mail-order distribution.

9. Pac-12 powerhouse USC
The athletic teams of the University of Southern California are called the USC Trojans. The women’s teams are also called the Trojans, but are sometimes referred to as Women of Troy.

11. Critter who kept disappearing in 54-Across CHESHIRE CAT
(54A. Setting for a novel originally published 11/11/1865 WONDERLAND)
The Cheshire Cat is a character in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. The Cheshire Cat has an expansive grin, and at one point magically disappears in front of Alice, leaving just the grin visible.
Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,’ thought Alice; `but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!

22. Online money source E-LOAN
E-Loan used to be based just down the road from me in the San Francisco Bay Area, but after takeover by a Rosemont, Illinois company it was moved to the parent’s headquarters. E-Loan was founded in 1997 to provide customers access to mortgages over the Internet.

26. Alsatian dadaist ARP
Hans Arp was a French artist renowned for his work with torn and pasted paper, although that wasn’t the only medium he used. Arp was the son of a French mother and German father and spoke both languages fluently. When he was speaking German he gave his name as Hans Arp, but when speaking French he called himself Jean Arp. Both “Hans” and “Jean” translate into English as “John”. In WWI Arp moved to Switzerland to avoid being called up to fight, taking advantage of Swiss neutrality. Eventually he was told to report to the German Consulate and fill out paperwork for the draft. In order to get out of fighting, Arp messed up the paperwork by writing the date in every blank space on the forms. Then he took off all of his clothes and walked with his papers over to the officials in charge. Arp was sent home …

Alsatia is the Latin name for the region in France known as Alsace. Alsace is home to Strasbourg, a beautiful city that I had the privilege to visit some years ago. Strasbourg is home to many international organizations, including the European Court of Human Rights.

Dadaism thrived during and just after WWI, and was an anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-art culture. The movement began in Zurich, Switzerland started by a group of artists and writers who met to discuss art and put on performances in the Cabaret Voltaire, frequently expressing disgust at the war that was raging across Europe.

28. “Top Chef” network BRAVO
“Top Chef” is a reality television show on the Bravo channel. It’s basically a cooking competition.

29. Hookah smoker in 54-Across CATERPILLAR
The Caterpillar is a character in Lewis Carroll’s novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. When Alice meets the Caterpillar, he is smoking tobacco in a hookah. Alice doesn’t have a good first impression of the Caterpillar as he appears to be quite rude, talking in terse sentences in between puffs on his pipe.

A hookah is a waterpipe, a device for smoking tobacco in which the smoke is passed through a water basin before it is inhaled.

31. Bus. brass CEOS
Chief executive officer (CEO)

33. Highly respected Buddhists ZEN MASTERS
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”.

34. Improvised booster seat for a tot, maybe TOME
“Tome” first came into English from the Latin “tomus” which means “section of a book”. The original usage in English was for a single volume in a multi-volume work. By the late 16th century “tome” had come to mean “a large book”.

35. Romanov royals TSARS
The House of Romanov was the second and last imperial dynasty to rule over Russia, after the Rurik dynasty. The reign of the Romanov’s ended when Emperor Nicholas II abdicated following the February Revolution of 1917. Famously, Nicholas II and his immediate family were murdered soon after he stepped down, and other members of the Romanov Dynasty were sent into exile by the Bolsheviks.

41. “The Burden of Proof” author TUROW
Scott Turow is an author and lawyer from Chicago. Turow has had several bestselling novels including “Presumed Innocent”, “The Burden of Proof” and “Reversible Errors”, all three of which were made into films. He also wrote the autobiographical book “One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School”.

44. Hobbit enemy ORC
Orcs are mythical humanoid creatures that appear in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien’s use of orcs, they have also been featured in other fantasy fiction and in fantasy games.

47. Barrio food store BODEGA
“Bodega” is the Spanish term for a winery, or these days for a grocery store.

“Barrio” is the name given to an urban district in Spanish-speaking countries.

49. Keeping in the loop, briefly CC’ING
I wonder do the kids of today know that “cc” stands for carbon copy, and do they have any idea what a carbon copy was? Do you remember how messy carbon paper was to handle?

50. Wild West show RODEO
“Rodeo” is a Spanish word, which is usually translated as “round up”.

55. Plains people OTOS
The Otoe (also Oto) Native American tribe originated in the Great Lakes region as part of the Winnebago or Siouan tribes. The group that would become the Otoe broke away from the Winnebago and migrated southwestwards ending up in the Great Plains. In the plains the Otoe adopted a semi-nomadic lifestyle dependent on the horse, with the American bison becoming central to their diet.

57. Diamond of music NEIL
I saw Neil Diamond in concert about 15 years ago, and I must say he does put on a great show. His voice is cracking a bit, but that didn’t seem to spoil anyone’s enjoyment. I’ve also seen Diamond interviewed a few times on television, and I wouldn’t say he has the most scintillating of personalities.

60. Nottingham-to-London dir. SSE
Nottingham is a city in the East Midlands of England. To outsiders, perhaps Nottingham is most famous for its links to the legend of Robin Hood.

London is the largest metropolitan area in the whole of the European Union (and one of my favorite cities in the world). London has been a major settlement for over 2,000 years and was founded as a town by the Romans who named it Londinium. The name “Londinium” may have existed prior to the arrival of the Romans, and no one seems too sure of its origins. Famously, the City of London is a one-square-mile area at the center of the metropolis, the area that marked old medieval London. “The City”, as it is commonly called, has its own Mayor of the City of London (the Mayor of London is someone else), and it’s own City of London Police Force (the London Metropolitan Police are the police usually seen on the streets, a different force).

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Inaugural ball, e.g. GALA
5. Calcium source MILK
9. Open, as toothpaste UNCAP
14. Very dry ARID
15. Down to business AT IT
16. Former Cleveland oil company acquired by BP SOHIO
17. San __, Italy REMO
18. “Of course” I SEE
19. Match with bishops CHESS
20. Access to 54-Across RABBIT HOLE
23. Catalina, e.g. ISLE
24. Houston-based scandal subject ENRON
25. Wood-shaping tools LATHES
27. Phone button trio ABC
30. Badminton barrier NET
31. Short-legged dog CORGI
32. Emotionally out of control CRAZED
34. “Mad” social in 54-Across TEA PARTY
37. Spud TATER
38. Benefit BOON
39. Butte relative MESA
40. Like 2016 EVEN
41. Antacid choice TUMS
42. Deteriorate DECAY
43. 34-Across napper in 54-Across DORMOUSE
45. Remove pieces from? DISARM
46. Fencing defense PARRY
47. Keep out BAN
48. Mao __-tung TSE
49. Shortening brand CRISCO
51. Divided country KOREA
53. Wild West weapon COLT
54. Setting for a novel originally published 11/11/1865 WONDERLAND
59. Loafs IDLES
61. Some intersections TEES
62. Slushy treat ICEE
63. Approaches NEARS
64. Bond girl Kurylenko OLGA
65. Place for a soul patch CHIN
66. Prickly shrub GORSE
67. Corset stiffener STAY
68. Fish caught in pots EELS

Down
1. Teri of “Tootsie” GARR
2. Neck of the woods AREA
3. Common perch LIMB
4. Acrobat creator ADOBE
5. Restaurant host MAITRE D’
6. Soup server’s caution IT’S HOT
7. Use, as a chaise LIE ON
8. “As seen on TV” record co. K-TEL
9. Pac-12 powerhouse USC
10. Baseball rarities NO-HIT GAMES
11. Critter who kept disappearing in 54-Across CHESHIRE CAT
12. It may be graded in an auditorium AISLE
13. Plays to the camera POSES
21. Deep-seated INNER
22. Online money source E-LOAN
26. Alsatian dadaist ARP
27. Took steps ACTED
28. “Top Chef” network BRAVO
29. Hookah smoker in 54-Across CATERPILLAR
31. Bus. brass CEOS
33. Highly respected Buddhists ZEN MASTERS
34. Improvised booster seat for a tot, maybe TOME
35. Romanov royals TSARS
36. Self-congratulatory cheer YAY ME!
38. Active BUSY
41. “The Burden of Proof” author TUROW
42. Restaurant visitor DINER
44. Hobbit enemy ORC
45. Venture to express DARE SAY
47. Barrio food store BODEGA
49. Keeping in the loop, briefly CC’ING
50. Wild West show RODEO
51. Lowered oneself? KNELT
52. Visitor to 54-Across ALICE
55. Plains people OTOS
56. Overexertion aftermath ACHE
57. Diamond of music NEIL
58. Man caves, maybe DENS
60. Nottingham-to-London dir. SSE

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