Category: Robert E. Lee Morris

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. JFK announcements ETAS
Expected time of arrival (ETA)

The Idlewild Golf Course was taken over by the city of New York in 1943 and construction started on a new airport to serve the metropolis and relieve congestion at La Guardia. The Idlewild name still persists, even though the airport was named after Major General Alexander E. Anderson from the first days of the project. When the facility started operating in 1948 it was known as New York International Airport, Anderson Field. It was renamed to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in 1963, one month after the President was assassinated.

5. Athletic shoe brand PUMA
Puma is a German company that sells athletic shoes worldwide, but is most famous for producing soccer boots.

9. __ Haute, Indiana TERRE
Terre Haute, Indiana is a city close to the state’s western border with Illinois. The city is home to a state prison which in turn is home to the state’s death row. The name “Terre Haute” was chosen by French explorers in the 18th century to describe the location, as “terre haute” is French for “high ground”.

14. Red dessert wine PORT
The city of Oporto in Portugal gave its name to port wine in the late 1600s, as it was the seaport through which most of the region’s fortified wine was exported.

16. Advil competitor ALEVE
Aleve is a brand name for the anti-inflammatory drug Naproxen sodium.

Advil and Motrin are brand names for the anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen.

17. Two-toned treat OREO
How the Oreo cookie came to get its name seems to have been lost in the mists of time. One theory is that it comes from the French “or” meaning “gold”, a reference to the gold color of the original packing. Another suggestion is that the name is the Greek word “oreo” meaning “beautiful, nice, well-done”.

23. Sycophant YES-MAN
A sycophant is a selfish person, one who flatters. The term comes from the Greek “sykophantes” which originally meant “one who shows the fig”. This phrase described a vulgar gesture made with the thumb and two fingers.

26. Novelist Deighton LEN
I used to walk my dog right past author Len Deighton’s house years ago, as we lived in the same village in Ireland (probably my only claim to fame!). Deighton wrote the excellent espionage thriller “The IPCRESS File”, made into a 1965 movie starring Michael Caine.

31. Luxury SUV since 1970 RANGE ROVER
The Range Rover is the luxury version of the famous Land Rover made in England. The first Range Rover was produced in 1970, and the model is now in its fourth generation.

37. Black wood EBONY
Ebony is another word for the color black (often shortened to “ebon” in poetry). Ebony is a dark black wood that is very dense, one of the few types of wood that sinks in water. Ebony has been in high demand so the species of trees yielding the wood are now considered threatened. It is in such short supply that unscrupulous vendors have been known to darken lighter woods with shoe polish to look like ebony, so be warned …

38. Vigor’s partner VIM
“Vim” and “punch” are words that both mean “energy” and “power”.

40. Criminal, to a cop PERP
Perpetrator (perp.)

41. Sophocles tragedy OEDIPUS REX
“Oedipus Rex” (also “Oedipus the King”) is a tragedy penned by the Ancient Greek playwright Sophocles. The play tells the story of Oedipus, a man who becomes king of Thebes. Famously, Oedipus was destined from birth to murder his father and marry his mother.

Sophocles was one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. The first of these was Aeschylus, the second Sophocles, and the third Euripides. Sophocles is believed to have written 123 plays, the most famous of which are “Antigone” and “Oedipus the King”.

43. Giant Mel enshrined in Cooperstown OTT
At 5′ 9″, Mel Ott weighed just 170 lb (I don’t think he took steroids!) and yet he was the first National League player to hit over 500 home runs. Sadly, Ott died in a car accident in New Orleans in 1958 when he was only 49 years old.

44. NBC late-night comedy hit SNL
“Saturday Night Live” (SNL)

46. First film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature SHREK
Before “Shrek” was a successful movie franchise and Broadway musical, it was a children’s picture book called “Shrek!” authored and illustrated by William Steig. The title “Shrek!” came from the German/Yiddish word Schreck, meaning “fear” or “terror”.

53. One of the things little boys are made of, and a hint to 20-, 31- and 41-Across PUPPY DOG TAILS
The nursery rhyme “What Are Little Boys Made Of?” is falling out of favor these days as it is considered sexist by modern standards:

What are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Slugs and snails
And puppy-dogs’ tails,
That’s what little boys are made of.
What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice
And everything nice,
That’s what little girls are made of.

60. Pirate booty LOOT
“Booty”, meaning plunder or profit, is derived from the Old French word “butin” which has the same meaning.

61. Confused struggle MELEE
Our word “melee” comes from the French “mêlée”, and in both languages the word means a “confused fight”.

64. Message limited to 140 characters TWEET
I have never tweeted in my life, and have no plans to do so. Twitter is a microblogging service that limits any post sent to just 140 characters. In a sense, it is similar to this blog. Here I send out a post once a day containing information that I think might be useful to folks (thank you for reading!). I don’t think I could send out much of interest using just 140 characters.

65. Lotion additive ALOE
Aloe vera has a number of alternate names that are descriptive of its efficacy as a medicine. These include the First Aid plant, Wand of Heaven, Silent Healer and Miracle Plant.

66. __-de-camp AIDE
“Aide-de-camp” is a French term that we have imported into English. The phrase translates to “field assistant” and usually applies to the most senior personal aide to a high-ranking military officer or head of state.

Down
2. Mel, “The Velvet Fog” TORME
Mel Tormé was a jazz singer, with a quality of voice that earned him the nickname “The Velvet Fog”. Tormé also wrote a few books, and did a lot of acting. He was the co-author of the Christmas classic known as “The Christmas Song”, which starts out with the line “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire …”

4. Nor’easter, for one STORM
A nor’easter is a storm that blows from the northeast.

5. Light lager PILSNER
Pilsener (also pilsner or pils) is a pale lager. The name “pilsener” comes from the city of Pilsen, now in the Czech Republic. It was in Pilsen, in 1842, that the first bottom-fermented lager was produced. A bottom-fermented beer is much clearer that a top-fermented beer, and has a crisper taste. The “top” and “bottom” refers to where the yeast gathers during the brewing process.

Lager is so called because of the tradition of cold-storing the beer during fermentation. “Lager” is the German word for “storage”.

6. Part of BTU UNIT
In the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), the power of a heating or cooling unit can be measured in British Thermal Units (BTUs). This dated unit is the amount of energy required to heat a pound of water so that the water’s temperature increases by one degree Fahrenheit.

7. Dance wildly MOSH
Moshing (also “slam dancing”) is the pushing and shoving that takes place in the audience at a concert (usually a punk or heavy metal concert). The area directly in front of the stage is known as the mosh pit. When a performer does a “stage dive” it is into (or I suppose “onto”) the mosh pit. It doesn’t sound like fun to me. Injuries are common in the mosh pit, and deaths are not unknown.

9. Fossil-preserving spot TAR PIT
A tar pit is an unusual geological feature, leakage of bitumen from below ground to the earth’s surface creating a pool of natural asphalt. One of the most famous of these occurrences is the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.

The La Brea Tar Pits are located right in the heart of the city of Los Angeles. At the site there is a constant flow of tar that seeps up to the surface from underground, a phenomenon that has been around for tens of thousands of years. What is significant is that much of the seeping tar is covered by water. Over many, many centuries animals came to the water to drink and became trapped in the tar as they entered the water to quench their thirsts. The tar then preserved the bones of the dead animals. Today a museum is located right by the Tar Pits, recovering bones and displaying specimens of the animals found there. It’s well worth a visit if you are in town …

10. “The Waste Land” poet ELIOT
Eliot wrote his poem called “The Waste Land” in 1922. “The Waste Land” opens with the famous line, “April is the cruelest month …”.

11. Budget vehicle RENTAL CAR
The Budget Rent a Car company started out in 1958 with the intent of undercutting the existing price of renting a car at airports. Budget was founded by Morris Mirkin. Mirkin enlisted Julius Lederer as a co-founder the following year. Lederer was the husband of newspaper columnist “Ann Landers”.

21. Actress Cuoco of “The Big Bang Theory” KALEY
Kaley Cuoco is an actress from Camarillo, California who is best known for playing Penny, the female lead on the sitcom “The Big Bang Theory”. Cuoco’s love interest in the show is played by Johnny Galecki, and the two were romantically involved in real life for a couple of years. Cuoco is also getting a lot of exposure playing William Shatner’s daughter on priceline.com ads, and playing a genie in Toyota RAV$ commercials.

22. Guide for the Magi STAR
“Magi” is the plural of the Latin word “magus”, a term applied to someone who was able to read the stars. Hence, magi is commonly used with reference to the “wise men from the East” who followed the star and visited Jesus soon after he was born.

30. “Jurassic Park” predator, for short T REX
The Tyrannosaurus rex and other dinosaurs were cloned in the “Jurassic Park” series of books and films.

“Jurassic Park” is a 1990 novel by Michael Crichton, adapted into a hugely successful movie by Steven Spielberg in 1993. One of the main premises of the novel is that dinosaur DNA could be harvested from mosquitoes trapped in amber (fossilized tree resin), the DNA coming from the dinosaur blood consumed by the mosquitoes. The dinosaur DNA is then sequenced and used to create clones of the original beasts. A clever idea, but apparently not very practical from what I’ve read …

34. Econ. statistic GNP
A country’s Gross National Product (GNP) is the value of all services and products produced by its residents in a particular year. GNP includes all production wherever it is in the world, as long as the business is owned by residents of the country concerned. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is different, and is the value of all services and goods produced within the borders of the country for that year.

35. YouTube clip, for short VID
YouTube is a video-sharing website, launched in 2005 by three ex-PayPal employees. Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Yep, $1.65 billion … less than two years after it was founded …

36. Pacino and Capone ALS
Al Pacino seems to be best known for playing characters on both sides of the law. Pacino’s big break in movies came when he played Michael Corleone in “The Godfather”, a role that grew for him as the series of films progressed. But his Oscar-winning role was that of a blind ex-military officer in “Scent of a Woman”.

When Al Capone was a young man, he worked as a bouncer in nightclubs and saloons. He was working the door of a Brooklyn night spot one evening when he apparently insulted a woman, sparking off a fight with her brother. In the tussle, Capone’s face was slashed three times. Capone wasn’t too proud of the incident, nor the “Scarface” moniker. He always hid the scars as best he could when being photographed, and was also fond of telling people that the scars were from old war wounds.

39. Washington’s __ Sound PUGET
George Vancouver was a British explorer, and an officer in the Royal Navy. As well as exploring the coast of Australia, he is best known for his travels along the northwest coast of North America. Of course the city of Vancouver was named in his honor. Travelling with him on his Vancouver voyage was a lieutenant Peter Puget, and in his honor, Vancouver named the waters south of the Tacoma Narrows, Puget’s Sound. Nowadays, the name Puget Sound covers an area much greater than Vancouver had envisioned.

41. Peeling potatoes in the mil., perhaps ON KP
KP is a US military slang term, and stands for either “kitchen police” or “kitchen patrol”.

47. Indian currency RUPEE
The rupee is a unit of currency used in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan.

49. Tostitos dip SALSA
“Salsa” is simply the Spanish word for “sauce”.

Tostitos are a brand of tortilla chips. If you’re a vegetarian though you might want to leave them on the supermarket shelf as Frito-Lay uses pork enzymes to “enhance” flavor.

50. Garlic mayonnaise AIOLI
To the purist, especially in Provence in the South of France, the “home” of aioli, aioli is prepared just by grinding garlic with olive oil. However, other ingredients are often added to the mix, particularly egg yolks.

Mayonnaise originated in the town of Mahon in Menorca, a Mediterranean island belonging to Spain. The Spanish called the sauce “salsa mahonesa” after the town, and this morphed into the French word “mayonnaise” that we use in English today.

52. Makeup maven Lauder ESTEE
Estée Lauder was quite the successful businesswoman, with a reputation as a great salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales volume …

I’ve always loved the word “maven”, another word for an expert. Maven comes into English from the Yiddish “meyvn” meaning someone who appreciates and is a connoisseur.

54. Gym site, briefly YMCA
The YMCA is a worldwide movement that has its roots in London, England. There, in 1844, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was founded with the intent of promoting Christian principles through the development of “a healthy spirit, mind and body”. The founder, George Williams, saw the need to create YMCA facilities for young men who were flocking to the cities as the Industrial Revolution flourished. He saw that these men were frequenting taverns and brothels, and wanted to offer a more wholesome alternative.

56. Northern European capital OSLO
The city of Oslo burns trash to fuel half of its buildings, including all of its schools. The problem faced by the city is that it doesn’t generate enough trash. So, Oslo imports trash from Sweden, England and Ireland, and is now looking to import some American trash.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. JFK announcements ETAS
5. Athletic shoe brand PUMA
9. __ Haute, Indiana TERRE
14. Red dessert wine PORT
15. A party to IN ON
16. Advil competitor ALEVE
17. Two-toned treat OREO
18. Bibliography, e.g. LIST
19. Washer cycle RINSE
20. Phrase on a treasure map X MARKS THE SPOT
23. Sycophant YES-MAN
24. Captain of industry TITAN
26. Novelist Deighton LEN
28. Sinking ship deserter RAT
29. Illuminated LIT
31. Luxury SUV since 1970 RANGE ROVER
36. Hard-to-hit tennis server ACER
37. Black wood EBONY
38. Vigor’s partner VIM
39. Locale PLACE
40. Criminal, to a cop PERP
41. Sophocles tragedy OEDIPUS REX
43. Giant Mel enshrined in Cooperstown OTT
44. NBC late-night comedy hit SNL
45. Pull TUG
46. First film to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature SHREK
48. “Take care of yourself!” BE SAFE!
53. One of the things little boys are made of, and a hint to 20-, 31- and 41-Across PUPPY DOG TAILS
57. Take as one’s own ADOPT
59. Desert tableland MESA
60. Pirate booty LOOT
61. Confused struggle MELEE
62. Cool and collected CALM
63. Blackthorn fruit SLOE
64. Message limited to 140 characters TWEET
65. Lotion additive ALOE
66. __-de-camp AIDE

Down
1. Glue for a model kit EPOXY
2. Mel, “The Velvet Fog” TORME
3. Fields of study AREAS
4. Nor’easter, for one STORM
5. Light lager PILSNER
6. Part of BTU UNIT
7. Dance wildly MOSH
8. Bet all players must make ANTE
9. Fossil-preserving spot TAR PIT
10. “The Waste Land” poet ELIOT
11. Budget vehicle RENTAL CAR
12. Natl. park campers RVS
13. Wide shoe size EEE
21. Actress Cuoco of “The Big Bang Theory” KALEY
22. Guide for the Magi STAR
25. Female relative NIECE
27. Best-seller list entry NOVEL
28. Make payment REMIT
30. “Jurassic Park” predator, for short T REX
31. Auto loan default consequence REPO
32. Helps, as a 40-Across ABETS
33. Santa’s home NORTH POLE
34. Econ. statistic GNP
35. YouTube clip, for short VID
36. Pacino and Capone ALS
39. Washington’s __ Sound PUGET
41. Peeling potatoes in the mil., perhaps ON KP
42. Darts, commonly PUB GAME
44. Seven-person combo SEPTET
47. Indian currency RUPEE
49. Tostitos dip SALSA
50. Garlic mayonnaise AIOLI
51. Monsoon aftermath FLOOD
52. Makeup maven Lauder ESTEE
54. Gym site, briefly YMCA
55. Negotiation goal DEAL
56. Northern European capital OSLO
57. Qty. AMT
58. Beads on the grass DEW

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