Category: Julian Lim

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Fur tycoon ASTOR
John Jacob Astor was the father of the famous American Astor dynasty. He was the country’s first multi-millionaire, making his fortune in the trade of fur, real estate and opium. In today’s terms, it has been calculated that by the time of his death he has accumulated a fortune big enough to make him the fourth wealthiest man in American history (in the company of the likes of Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Bill Gates, Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller).

6. “Due Date” co-star Galifianakis ZACH
Zach Galifianakis is a stand-up comedian who is making a name for himself on the big screen. Galifianakis garnered a lot of attention for his role in 2009’s “The Hangover”, and also starred opposite Robert Downey Jr. in the 2010 release “Due Date”.

“Due Date” is a 2010 comedy starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Zach Galifianakis as two unlikely traveling companions on a road trip. The Downey character is trying to get home in time for the birth of his child. Hilarity ensues, I am told …

10. Rock blasters AMPS
An electric guitar, for example, needs an amplifier to take the weak signal created by the vibration of the strings and turn it into a signal powerful enough for a loudspeaker.

15. Bassoon cousin OBOE
The oboe is perhaps my favorite of the reed instruments. The name “oboe” comes from the French “hautbois” which means “high wood”. When you hear an orchestra tuning before a performance you’ll note (pun intended!) that the oboe starts off the process by playing an “A”. The rest of the musicians in turn tune to that oboe’s “A”.

Our modern bassoon first appeared in the 1800s and has had a place in the concert orchestra ever since.

17. *Victor at Little Bighorn CHIEF CRAZY HORSE
Crazy Horse’s Lakota name translates literally into English as “His Horse is Crazy or Spirited”. Crazy Horse was one of the tribal war party leaders at the Battle of Little Bighorn, also known as Custer’s Last Stand. Crazy Horse surrendered to the US Army in 1877. He was fatally stabbed while in custody, apparently trying to escape after having surrendered. The circumstances surrounding his death are still shrouded in controversy.

The Battle of Little Bighorn was the famous engagement between the Lokata, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho Native American peoples against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the US Army led by General George Custer. Custer was soundly defeated and he and all of his men were killed in the engagement. I had the privilege of visiting the battle site a few years ago, and it was a very memorable experience.

20. Zilch NADA
“Nada” is the Spanish word for “nothing”.
We use the term “zilch” to mean “nothing”. Our current usage evolved in the sixties, before which the term was used to describe “meaningless speech”. There was a comic character called Mr. Zilch in the 1930s in “Ballyhoo” magazine. Mr. Zilch’s name probably came from the American college slang “Joe Zilch” that was used in the early 1900s for “an insignificant person”.

21. Fantasy game brute 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.

22. Latin lesson word AMAT
“Amo, amas, amat: … “I love, you love, he/she/it loves”, in Latin.

24. *2006 “Survivor” setting COOK ISLANDS
The Cook Islands is a grouping of 15 small islands in the South Pacific that is an associated state with New Zealand. under this arrangement, New Zealand is responsible for the defense of the Cook Islands and represents them on the world stage. Cook Islanders are citizens of New Zealand, but they are also Cook Island nationals. The Cook Islands have their own democratically elected parliament and are self-governed.

The reality show “Survivor” is based on a Swedish television series created in 1997 called “Expedition Robinson”.

30. November honoree VET
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.

31. “I’m an idiot!” D’OH!
“The Simpsons” is one of the most successful programs produced by the Fox Broadcasting Company. Homer Simpson’s catchphrase is “D’oh!”, which is such a famous exclamation that it has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) since 2001.

39. Gp. that houses strays SPCA
Unlike in most developed countries, there is no “umbrella” organization in the US with the goal of preventing cruelty to animals. Instead there are independent organizations set up all over the nation using the name SPCA. Having said that, there is an organization called the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) that was originally intended to operate across the country, but really it now focuses its efforts in New York City.

42. Bowlers and trilbies HATS
I think a bowler hat is usually called a derby here in the US. The bowler was first produced in 1849 in London by hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler, hence the name. The alternative name of “derby” comes from the tradition of wearing bowler hats at the Derby horse race (a major race held annually in England).

The hat called a trilby is a fedora with a narrow brim. This style of hat was worn in a stage adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel “Trilby” that was performed in London in the early 1900s. The hat became popular in the UK around the same time, and took its name from the play.

47. Strudel ___ mode A LA
Strudel is a layered pastry that is usually sweet. The word “strudel” means “whirlpool, eddy” in German.

48. Jon Hamm’s “Mad Men” role __ Draper DON
Jon Hamm lived the life of a struggling actor for quite some time before he hit gold with the starring role in the AMC drama “Mad Men”. Hamm plays the main character, advertising executive and man about town, Don Draper. I am told by my wife and female friends, that he is quite good looking. I don’t see it myself …

49. Vocation METIER
One’s métier is one’s area of expertise, one’s profession.

55. Classy CHIC
“Chic” is a French word meaning “stylish”.

57. Ricky portrayer DESI
In the hit television show “I Love Lucy”, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz played Lucy and Ricky Ricardo.

Desi Arnaz was of course famous for his turbulent marriage to Lucille Ball. Arnaz was a native of Cuba, and was from a privileged family. Desi’s father was Mayor of Santiago and served in the Cuban House of Representatives. However, the family had to flee to Miami after the 1933 revolt led by Batista.

63. Like Iago, say EVIL
Iago is the schemer in Shakespeare’s “Othello”. Iago is a soldier who fought alongside Othello and feels hard done by, missing out on promotion. He hatches a plot designed to discredit his rival Cassio by insinuating that Cassio is having an affair with Desdemona, Othello’s wife. By the end of the play it’s Iago himself who is discredited and Othello (before committing suicide) apologizes to Cassio for having believed Iago’s lies. Heavy stuff …

64. Rice/Lloyd Webber musical EVITA
“Evita” was the follow up musical to “Jesus Christ Superstar” for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Both of these works were originally released as album musicals, and very successful ones at that (I remember buying them when they first came out). “Evita” was made into a film in 1996, with Madonna playing the title role and Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce playing her husband Juan Perón.

65. Trees used to make longbows YEWS
Yew is the wood of choice for the longbow, a valued weapon in the history of England. The longbow is constructed with a core of yew heartwood (as the heartwood resists compression) that has a sheath of yew sapwood (as the sapwood resists stretching). The yew was in such demand for longbows that for centuries yew trees were in short supply in Britain and the wood had to be imported from all over Europe.

66. Attends to one’s whistle? WETS
The phrase “to wet one’s whistle” has been around a long time, first recorded in 1386. Back then the expression meant simply “to take a drink”, with “whistle” being a euphemism for “voice” or “throat”. Nowadays, we do the wetting more with an alcoholic drink.

67. Unreactive gas XENON
The noble gases (also “rare gases”) are those elements over on the extreme right of the Periodic Table. Because of their “full” complement of electrons, noble gases are very unreactive. The six noble gases that occur naturally are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon.

Down
1. Sawyer employer ABC NEWS
Diane Sawyer is the anchor of ABC’s news program “ABC World News”. Sawyer started her career in the Nixon White House where she was hired by the Press Secretary at the time, Ron Ziegler. She worked with Nixon to help him write his memoirs after he left office and helped prepare the ex-president for his famous series of television interviews with David Frost in 1977. Sawyer is married to Mike Nichols, the noted film director.

3. Poseidon’s staff TRIDENT
Poseidon was the god of the sea in Greek mythology as well as the “Earth-Shaker”, the god responsible for earthquakes.

4. __ Day vitamins ONE A
One A Day is a line of multivitamins made by Bayer. One A Day was introduced way back in 1940.

6. Masked hero who debuted in the 1919 story “The Curse of Capistrano” ZORRO
The character Zorro was created by Johnston McCulley in 1919 for a series of stories and pulp fiction. The name “Zorro” is the secret identity of a Spanish colonial nobleman called Don Diego de la Vega. “Zorro” is Spanish for “fox”.

8. Member of the fam COZ
“Coz” is an informal term meaning “cousin”.

11. Ferdinand’s love in “The Tempest” MIRANDA
Miranda is the only female character on stage in William Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest”. Miranda lives in exile with her father Prospero and slave Caliban on an island. She falls in love with Ferdinand, the prince of Naples who is shipwrecked on the shores of the island. Miranda utters the most famous lines of the play, words that gave Aldous Huxley the title for his famous novel “Brave New World” …

O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t.

13. Jeanne d’Arc, for one: Abbr. STE
Jeanne d’Arc was a female saint (“sainte” in French).

Joan of Arc (also Jeanne d’Arc, her birth name) led the French Army successfully into battle a number of times during the Hundred Years War with England. When she was eventually captured, Joan was tried in Rouen, the seat of the occupying English government in France at that time. There she was burned at the stake having been found guilty of heresy. Joan of Arc was canonized some 600 years later, in 1920, and is now one of the patron saints of France.

18. Old geezer COOT
Geezer and coot are two not-so-nice terms for an old man.

24. Consiglieri’s boss CAPO
More properly called a “caporegime”, a “capo” is high-ranking member of the Mafia (Cosa Nostra).

A consigliere (plural “consiglieri”) is a trusted advisor and confidant to a Mafia boss. “Consigliere” is Italian for “counselor”. The pecking order in a Mafia family is boss, underboss, consigliere.

25. Penn et al. IVIES
The term “Ivy League” originally defined an athletic conference, but now it is used to describe a group of schools of higher education that are associated with both a long tradition and academic excellence. The eight Ivy League Schools are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.

The University of Pennsylvania (Penn) was founded in 1740 by by Benjamin Franklin. Penn was the first school in the country to offer both graduate and undergraduate courses.

26. Contained opening? SELF
The prefix “self-” appears in such words as “self-contained” and “self-image”.

29. Big band instrument TUBA
The tuba is the lowest pitched of all the brass instruments, and one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra (usually there is just one tuba included in an orchestral line-up). “Tuba” is the Latin word for “trumpet, horn”.

34. Ctrl-__-Delete ALT
Control-Alt-Delete is a keyboard command on IBM PC compatible systems used for a soft reboot, or more recently to bring up the task manager in the Windows operating system. Bill Gates tells us that the command was originally just a device to be used during development and was never meant to “go live”. He recently said that “Ctrl+Alt+Del” was a mistake, and that he would have preferred a dedicated key on the keyboard that carried out the same function.

37. Superhero with a hammer THOR
Thor is a superhero who was introduced to us by Marvel Comics in 1962. The character is of course based on the Norse god Thor, and comes complete with a magical hammer. Like so many comic book heroes it seems, Thor has made it to the big screen. Actor Chris Hemsworth played the role in the 2011 film “Thor” directed by the great Kenneth Branagh. Branagh must have needed the cash …

40. Give a sop to PLACATE
Cerberus is a dog with three heads that appears in both Greek and Roman mythology. Cerberus had the job of guarding the gates of Hades and preventing those who had crossed the River Styx from ever escaping. A sop is a piece of food that has been dipped in some liquid, as one might sop a piece of bread in soup. There is an idiomatic expression, “to give a sop to Cerberus”, which means to give someone a bribe, or pay someone off. The idea is that if one could bribe Cerberus, give him a sop to eat, then he would let you pass and escape from Hades.

48. Style of a historic Miami Beach district DECO
Miami Beach has an Art Deco Historic District that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The buildings in the district make up the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the world.

57. Comic Chappelle DAVE
Dave Chapelle is a stand-up comedian who has also had some roles in big movies, like “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” and “Con Air”. Chappelle lives on a 65-acre farm outside Yellow Springs, Ohio, the town where his father lived when Dave was growing up in Washington, D.C.

58. Almond __ JOY
I think my favorite candy growing up was an Almond Joy, although in my part of the world it had a slightly different formulation and was called a Bounty Bar.

60. Roman salutation AVE
“Ave” is Latin for “hail” and was used by the Romans as a greeting and a salutation.

61. T. __ REX
The Tyrannosaurus rex (usually written T. rex) was a spectacular looking dinosaur. “Tyrannosaurus” comes from the Greek words “tyrannos” (tyrant) and “sauros” (lizard), and the “rex” is of course Latin for “king”. They were big boys, measuring 42 feet long and 13 feet tall at the hips, and weighing 7.5 tons.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Fur tycoon ASTOR
6. “Due Date” co-star Galifianakis ZACH
10. Rock blasters AMPS
14. Conveyed BORNE
15. Bassoon cousin OBOE
16. Wreak havoc in the streets RIOT
17. *Victor at Little Bighorn CHIEF CRAZY HORSE
20. Zilch NADA
21. Fantasy game brute ORC
22. Latin lesson word AMAT
23. New Year’s ___ EVE
24. *2006 “Survivor” setting COOK ISLANDS
28. Attacked WENT AT
30. November honoree VET
31. “I’m an idiot!” D’OH!
32. Abs strengthener SIT-UP
33. Leave port SAIL
35. Apportioning word EACH
36. *Nursed, in a way BOTTLE-FED
39. Gp. that houses strays SPCA
42. Bowlers and trilbies HATS
43. Millionaire’s retreat VILLA
47. Strudel ___ mode A LA
48. Jon Hamm’s “Mad Men” role __ Draper DON
49. Vocation METIER
50. *All-in-one appliance WASHER-DRYER
54. Dye holder VAT
55. Classy CHIC
56. Fish you can smoke EEL
57. Ricky portrayer DESI
58. Handy person suggested by the starts of the answers to starred clues JACK OF ALL TRADES
62. Nebraska native OTOE
63. Like Iago, say EVIL
64. Rice/Lloyd Webber musical EVITA
65. Trees used to make longbows YEWS
66. Attends to one’s whistle? WETS
67. Unreactive gas XENON

Down
1. Sawyer employer ABC NEWS
2. “Same here!” SO HAVE I!
3. Poseidon’s staff TRIDENT
4. __ Day vitamins ONE A
5. Authority on a field REF
6. Masked hero who debuted in the 1919 story “The Curse of Capistrano” ZORRO
7. Stunned way to be taken ABACK
8. Member of the fam COZ
9. Casual greeting HEY
10. Cookie shop enticement AROMA
11. Ferdinand’s love in “The Tempest” MIRANDA
12. Ph.D.’s further studies POSTDOC
13. Jeanne d’Arc, for one: Abbr. STE
18. Old geezer COOT
19. “Come no closer!” HALT!
24. Consiglieri’s boss CAPO
25. Penn et al. IVIES
26. Contained opening? SELF
27. “Too noisy!” SHH!
29. Big band instrument TUBA
33. Defensive effort STAND
34. Ctrl-__-Delete ALT
35. Correct EDIT
37. Superhero with a hammer THOR
38. Even once EVER
39. Chain __ SAW
40. Give a sop to PLACATE
41. Moneymaker CASH COW
44. Not vacant LIVED-IN
45. Charge for using, as an apartment LEASE TO
46. Potter or jeweler, e.g. ARTISAN
48. Style of a historic Miami Beach district DECO
49. Get gooey MELT
51. Outdoor outings HIKES
52. Bright again RELIT
53. Argues ineffectively YELLS
57. Comic Chappelle DAVE
58. Almond __ JOY
59. Select group? FEW
60. Roman salutation AVE
61. T. __ REX

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