LAXCrossword.com

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
10. *Waterloo (DOWN)FALL
Waterloo is a small municipality in Belgium. The name “Waterloo” originated with the Dutch and is probably an anglicization of “wet clearing in a forest”. The town is famous for the Battle of Waterloo that took place nearby in 1815. The Battle of Waterloo was fought between the Imperial French army led by Emperor Napoleon and an Anglo-Allied army led by the Irish-born British Field Marshal, the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo led to his abdication and the restoration of King Louis XVIII to the throne of France. Bonaparte was exiled to the British-owned island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821. Such is the fame of the battle that the term “Waterloo” is used figuratively today for any decisive or crushing defeat.

15. Electrical component RELAY
A relay is a switch, one that is operated electrically as opposed to mechanically. Relays tend to be used when a high-power circuit needs to be controlled by a low-power signal.

16. Seaman’s direction ALEE
“Alee” is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing “aweather”.

17. 9-Down sensors RODS
(9D. Looker? EYE)
The retina is the tissue that lines the inside of the eye, the tissue that is light-sensitive. There are (mainly) two types of cell in the retina that are sensitive to light, called rods and cones. Rods are cells that best function in very dim light and only provide black-and-white vision. Cones on the other hand function in brighter light and can perceive color.

18. Midwestern tribe OSAGE
The Osage Nation originated in the Ohio River valley in what we now call Kentucky. They were forced to migrate west of the Mississippi by the invading Iroquois tribe. Most of the tribe members now live in Osage County, Oklahoma.

20. “You shall hear more __ morning”: “Measure for Measure” ERE
“Measure for Measure” is one of William Shakespeare’s plays, ostensibly a comedy. The title “Measure for Measure” is actually a quotation from the Bible found in the Gospel According to Luke.

22. Amethyst source GEODE
A geode is a rock in which there is a cavity lined or filled with crystal formations.

Amethyst is form of quartz that is purple in color. There was a belief that the stone protected the owner from drunkenness, which is how amethyst got its name. The Ancient Greek “ἀméthystos” means “not intoxicated”.

27. Me.-to-Fla. highway US-ONE
US Route 1 runs from Fort Kent in Maine right down to Key West in Florida.

28. Freudian subject DREAM
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist, and founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychiatry. One of Freud’s tenets was that our dreams are a necessary part of sleep as they prevent the dreamer from awakening due to desire for unfulfilled wishes. The dream’s content represents those unfulfilled wishes and satisfies the desire.

30. ’60s radical gp. SDS
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was an activist group in the sixties. The SDS organized the largest student strike in the history of the United States on 26 April 1968, with about a million students staying away from class that day. The “Students for a Democratic Society” name was revived in 2006 with the foundation of a new US-based student organization with left wing beliefs. Today’s SDS was founded by a pair of high school students from Greenwich Village, New York.

32. Crockett’s Waterloo ALAMO
The pioneer Davy Crockett is often referred to as “King of the Wild Frontier”. Crockett was from East Tennessee. After serving in the local militia he entered politics and represented his state in the US House of Representatives from 1827 to 1831. Crockett disapproved of many of the policies of President Andrew Jackson, which led to his defeat in the 1834 election for the House. The defeat prompted Crockett to leave Tennessee for Texas. Famously, he died there in 1836 at the Battle of the Alamo.

39. Onetime Silly String maker WHAM-O
Wham-O was founded in 1948, with the company’s first product being the Wham-O slingshot. Since then, Wham-O has market a string of hit toys including the Hula Hoop, the Frisbee, the Slip ‘N Slide, Silly String, the Hacky Sack and the Boogie Board.

43. Seafarer TAR
A Jack Tar, or just “tar”, was a seaman in the days of the British Empire. The term probably arose due to a sailor’s various uses of tar back then, including waterproofing his clothes and using tar in his hair to slick down his ponytail.

46. Bygone dentifrice IPANA
Ipana toothpaste was introduced in 1915 and was at the height of its popularity in the forties and fifties. Sales declined in the sixties and the product was withdrawn from the US market in the seventies. Bucky the Beaver was the “spokesman” for Ipana. Bucky the Beaver’s slogan was “Brusha… Brusha… Brusha. Get the New Ipana – it’s dandy for your teeth!”

A “dentifrice” is preparation that is used to clean the teeth. Usually a paste today, a dentifrice can also be a powder, gel or liquid. The term came into English via Middle French from the Latin “dens” meaning “tooth” and “fricare” meaning “to rub”.

48. “Twelfth Night” servant MARIA
William Shakespeare wrote his comedy “Twelfth Night” as a Christmas entertainment (Twelfth Night being the end of the Christmas season).

53. Ancient Iranians MEDES
The Medes were an ancient people that lived in what is now northwestern Iran. The Medes held sway in the region only for about 60 years, until Cyrus the Great came along and defeated Astyages, the king of Media (not to be confused with Howard Stern, the self-proclaimed “king of all media”!).

54. Thing on a bob LURE
A bob or a bobber, also known as a float, is used in fishing. It really serves two purposes: it suspends the hook at a predetermined depth, and it also acts as an indicator of a bite.

55. “__ guy walks into … ” SO A
So a man walks into a bar and says to the bartender, “Give me 12 shots of your most expensive Tequila!” The bartender pours the shots and lines them up. The guy starts shooting them back really quickly, one right after another. The bartender says in shock, “Why are you drinking those so fast?!” The guy stops long enough to get out a few words, “You would drink these fast too, if you had what I have” Confused, the bartender asks, “Why? what do you have?” The guy says, “About four dollars” …

56. Actress Russell KERI
Actress Keri Russell got her big break on television when she was cast in the title role in the drama show “Felicity” that ran from 1998 from 2002. The lead character in the show is Felicity Porter, a young lady introduced to the audience with a head of long curly blonde hair. Famously, Russell cut her hair extremely short at the start of the second season, an action that was associated with a significant drop in the show’s viewership. Russell had to grow out her hair over the season. I haven’t seen “Felicity”, but I really do enjoy Russell playing one of the leads in the entertaining Cold War drama called “The Americans” that is aired by FX.

59. __ stick: incense JOSS
A joss stick is a type of incense that is traditionally burned before religious images and shrines in many Asian cultures. The term “joss” comes into English via Portuguese from the Latin “deus” meaning “god”.

60. Rare blood type, briefly A-NEG
Here is an approximate distribution of blood types across the US population:

— O-positive: 38 percent
— O-negative: 7 percent
— A-positive: 34 percent
— A-negative: 6 percent
— B-positive: 9 percent
— B-negative: 2 percent
— AB-positive: 3 percent
— AB-negative: 1 percent

62. Fifi’s BFF AMIE
A male friend in France is “un ami”, and a female friend is “une amie”.

Best friend forever (BFF)

63. *1964 Grammy-winning rock ‘n’ roll song (DOWN)TOWN
“Downtown” is a marvelous 1964 song that was a worldwide hit for English singer Petula Clark. Composed by Tony Hatch, “Downtown” was also a hit for Dolly Parton and Emma Bunton, the ex-Spice Girl.

Down
2. Spanish sherry AMOROSO
“Oloroso” is the Spanish word for “scented, fragrant”. It is used to describe a sherry that is usually dark and nutty, characteristics brought on by oxidative aging. A sweetened oloroso can be be described as a cream sherry, amoroso or brown sherry, depending on the sugar content.

4. QB’s stats TDS
Quarterbacks (QBs) love to see those touchdowns (TDs).

8. Peer of Trygve and Kofi DAG
Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld was the second secretary-general of the United Nations, right up until his death in a plane crash in Rhodesia in 1961. The crash was considered suspicious at the time as the bodyguards were found to have bullet wounds when they died, but this was put down to bullets exploding in the fire after the crash.

Trygve Lie was a Norwegian politician who served as the first UN Secretary-General, from 1946 to 1952. Prior to his time at the UN, Lie was the Foreign Minister of the Norwegian government-in-exile during the Nazi occupation of his country during WWII.

Kofi Annan is a diplomat from Ghana who served as General Secretary of the UN for ten years until the beginning of 2007. Annan was born into an aristocratic family, and had a twin sister named Efua Atta. Efua and Kofi shared the middle name “Atta”, which means “twin” in the Akan language of Ghana. Annan attended the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1971-72, and graduated with a Master of Science degree.

12. Bygone pump word LEADED
The Ethyl Corporation produced the controversial anti-knock fuel additive known as Ethyl, actually tetra-ethyl lead (and we are still living with the consequences).

13. Middle Ages colony residents LEPERS
The horrible disease known as leprosy is also called Hansen’s disease, named after the Norwegian physician famous for isolating the bacterium that causes the disease. We can use the term “leper” to mean someone in general who is shunned by society.

21. Sugar suffix -OSE
Sugars are usually named using the “-ose” suffix e.g. glucose, fructose, sucrose.

22. Marx of lesser repute GUMMO
The five Marx Brothers were born to “Minnie” and “Frenchy” Marx in New York City. The more famous older boys were Chico, Harpo and Groucho. Zeppo was the youngest brother, and he appeared in the early Marx Brothers movies. The fifth son was called Gummo, and he decided to pursue a different career off the stage.

25. Lifestyle magazine SELF
“Self” is a women’s magazine that has been published since 1979. It is a publication that focuses on health, beauty, wellness and style.

26. Host noted for a 1960 on-air resignation PAAR
Jack Paar was most famous as the host of “The Tonight Show”, from 1957 to 1962. Paar was involved in a famous incident on the show in 1960, when he learned that NBC had censored one of his jokes (about a “water closet”, or toilet). He walked off mid-broadcast as a protest, and did not return for a full month. When Paar died in 2004, “Time” magazine wrote that Paar was “the fellow who split talk show history into two eras: Before Paar and Below Paar”. Very complimentary …

33. Classic military text by Carl von Clausewitz ON WAR
Carl von Clausewitz was a Prussian general who famously penned the book “Vom Kriege” (“On War”) about military strategy, although he left the work unfinished at his death. Clausewitz’s wife edited his manuscripts and published them within a few years of his passing.

35. Legislative VIPs WHIPS
In the world of politics, the party whip is the “heavy”, the person whose job it is to ensure that party members vote according to party policy. “Whip” comes from “whipping in”, a term used in hunting. Any hounds tending to stray from the pack were “whipped in” to prevent them wandering off.

36. Touristy viticultural valley NAPA
The first commercial winery in Napa Valley, California was established way back in 1858. However, premium wine production only dates back to the 1960s, with the region really hitting the big time after its success at the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976. The story of that famous blind wine tasting is told in the entertaining 2008 film “Bottle Shock”.

41. Capital of Cyprus NICOSIA
Nicosia, the capital of the island nation of Cyprus. Given the location of Cyprus in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, Nicosia is the most southeasterly of all capital cities in the European Union.

43. Cruise partnership nickname TOMKAT
Tom Cruise’s third wife was actress Katie Holmes The high-profile couple were dubbed TomKat by the entertainment media. Cruise and Holmes had one child together, a daughter named Suri who was born in 2006. TomKat divorced in 2012.

44. L’Oréal competitor AVEENO
Aveeno is a manufacturer of skincare and haircare products that was founded in 1945. The name Aveeno comes from the Latin name for the common oat, “Avena sativa”.

L’Oréal is a French cosmetics company, the largest cosmetics and beauty company in the world.

47. Mental wherewithal ACUMEN
Acumen is such a lovely word, I think, meaning “keenness of judgment or insight”. “Acumen” is Latin, meaning “point, sting”, the idea being that someone with acumen has mental sharpness.

48. GI grub MRE
The Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) comes in a lightweight package that’s easy to tote around. The MRE replaced the more cumbersome Meal, Combat, Individual (MCI) in 1981, a meal-in-a-can. In turn, the MCI had replaced the C-ration in 1958, a less sophisticated meal-in-a-can with a more limited choice.

52. Endangered Sumatran ORANG
Orangutans (also “orangs”) are arboreal creatures, in fact the largest arboreal animals known to man. They are native to Indonesia and Malaysia, living in the rain forests. Like most species in rain forests these days, orangutans are endangered, with only two species surviving. The word “orangutan” is Malay, meaning “man of the forest”.

Sumatra is a very large island in western Indonesia, the sixth largest island in the world and home to 22% of the country’s population.

54. Mythical troublemaker LOKI
Loki is a god appearing in Norse mythology. In one story about Loki, he was punished by other gods for having caused the death of Baldr, the god of light and beauty. Loki is bound to a sharp rock using the entrails of one of his sons. A serpent drips venom which is collected in a bowl, and then his wife must empty the venom onto Loki when the bowl is full. The venom causes Loki great pain, and his writhing results in what we poor mortals experience as earthquakes.

57. Compact Cadillac sedan ATS
The Cadillac model known as the ATS is so called because it is an “A-Series Touring Sedan”.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. *Dejected (DOWN)CAST
5. *Sledding spot (DOWN)GRADE
10. *Waterloo (DOWN)FALL
14. Enclosed in AMID
15. Electrical component RELAY
16. Seaman’s direction ALEE
17. 9-Down sensors RODS
18. Midwestern tribe OSAGE
19. Show appreciation, in a way CLAP
20. “You shall hear more __ morning”: “Measure for Measure” ERE
21. Shows a preference OPTS
22. Amethyst source GEODE
23. Prognosticate FORESEE
25. Struggling engine sound SPUTTER
27. Me.-to-Fla. highway US-ONE
28. Freudian subject DREAM
30. ’60s radical gp. SDS
31. *Data transfer (DOWN)LOAD
32. Crockett’s Waterloo ALAMO
34. Annoyed moviegoer’s shout … or what’s needed to make sense of the answers to starred clues DOWN IN FRONT!
39. Onetime Silly String maker WHAM-O
40. *Faster way to fly (DOWN)WIND
43. Seafarer TAR
46. Bygone dentifrice IPANA
48. “Twelfth Night” servant MARIA
49. Deserve credit, perhaps OVERPAY
51. “Yes” CORRECT
53. Ancient Iranians MEDES
54. Thing on a bob LURE
55. “__ guy walks into … ” SO A
56. Actress Russell KERI
57. Dinnertime attraction AROMA
59. __ stick: incense JOSS
60. Rare blood type, briefly A-NEG
61. Memento TOKEN
62. Fifi’s BFF AMIE
63. *1964 Grammy-winning rock ‘n’ roll song (DOWN)TOWN
64. *Decrease (DOWN)SWING
65. *Musical starting point (DOWN)BEAT

Down
1. “Watch out!” CAREFUL!
2. Spanish sherry AMOROSO
3. Rush hour timesaver, hopefully SIDE ROAD
4. QB’s stats TDS
5. Feel one’s way GROPE
6. Took it easy RESTED
7. “Fate is so cruel!” ALAS!
8. Peer of Trygve and Kofi DAG
9. Looker? EYE
10. Aspect FACET
11. Metes out ALLOTS
12. Bygone pump word LEADED
13. Middle Ages colony residents LEPERS
21. Sugar suffix -OSE
22. Marx of lesser repute GUMMO
24. Provide, as with talent ENDOW
25. Lifestyle magazine SELF
26. Host noted for a 1960 on-air resignation PAAR
29. Was loquacious RAN ON
33. Classic military text by Carl von Clausewitz ON WAR
35. Legislative VIPs WHIPS
36. Touristy viticultural valley NAPA
37. Indecisive comment I MAY
38. Hardly fascinating TIRESOME
41. Capital of Cyprus NICOSIA
42. Statistical matrix, e.g. DATASET
43. Cruise partnership nickname TOMKAT
44. L’Oréal competitor AVEENO
45. Altered, as a map REDREW
47. Mental wherewithal ACUMEN
48. GI grub MRE
50. Wield power REIGN
52. Endangered Sumatran ORANG
54. Mythical troublemaker LOKI
57. Compact Cadillac sedan ATS
58. Dustup ROW
59. Hook relative JAB

Return to top of page