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Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
14. Hodgepodge OLIO
“Olio” is a term meaning a hodgepodge or a mixture, coming from the mixed stew of the same name. The stew in turn takes its name from the Spanish “olla”, the clay pot used for cooking.

18. Pennsylvania borough in today’s news PUNXSUTAWNEY
Punxsutawney is a borough in Pennsylvania, located about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Punxsutawney Phil is the famous groundhog that lives in the area. Phil comes out of his hole on February 2 each year and if he sees his shadow he goes back into his hole predicting six more weeks of winter weather. February 2 is known as Groundhog Day.

20. Clinton’s instrument SAX
President Bill Clinton learned to play the saxophone when he was a boy. He was good enough to play first chair in the saxophone section of the Arkansas state band. My guess is that the former president’s most famous performance on the sax during his political career was on “The Arsenio Hall Show” in 1992. Clinton was a candidate for president at that time, and make quite a splash in the news media when he played “Heartbreak Hotel” on the show.

21. Ambulance VIP EMT
Emergency medical technician (EMT)

Our word “ambulance” originated in the French term “hôpital ambulant” meaning field hospital (literally “walking hospital”). In the 1850s, the term started to be used for a vehicle transporting the wounded from the battlefield, leading to our “ambulance”.

22. ’50s nuclear experiments A-TESTS
There are two classes of nuclear weapons, both of which get the energy for the explosion from nuclear reactions. The first nuclear bombs developed, called atomic bombs (A-bombs), use fission reactions. In an atomic bomb, uranium nuclei are split into smaller nuclei with the release of an awful lot of energy in the process. The second class of nuclear weapons are fusion bombs. Fusion devices are also called thermonuclear weapons or hydrogen bombs (H-bombs). In a fusion reaction, the nuclei of hydrogen isotopes are fused together to form bigger nuclei, with the release of even greater amounts of energy than a fission reaction.

23. Founded, on signs ESTD
Established (estd.)

29. Pop singer Diamond 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.

31. Henry VIII’s sixth wife Catherine PARR
Henry VIII was of course the English King with the most wives. Well, something rubbed off on his last wife, Catherine Parr. She was to become the English Queen with the most husbands! By the time she married Henry she had been widowed twice, and after Henry died she married once again.

37. Germany’s __ Republic, 1919-’33 WEIMAR
At the end of WWI, the imperial government of Germany was overthrown in the German Revolution of November 1918. Just under a year later, a new constitution was adopted by a national assembly in the city of Weimar. The resulting Weimar Republic lasted until German democracy collapsed in the early 1930s and the Nazi Party came to power.

45. Bahamas capital NASSAU
Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, used to be called Charles Town. After having been burnt to the ground by the Spanish in 1684, it was rebuilt and named Nassau in honor of King William III of England, a Dutchman from the House of Orange-Nassau (aka William of Orange). Nassau is a favored location for the James Bond series of movies. The city and surroundings feature in “Thunderball”, “Never Say Never Again”, “Casino Royale” and “For Your Eyes Only”.

49. Amt. on a new car window MSRP
Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP)

53. Venus de __ MILO
The famous “Venus de Milo” is so named as she was discovered in the ruins of the ancient city of Milos, on the Aegean island of the same name. I’ve been lucky enough to see the statue, in the Louvre in Paris, and was surprised at how large it is (6 ft 8 in tall).

56. Employee handing out playbills USHER
I get quite a kick out of reading the bios in “Playbill” as some of them can be really goofy and entertaining. “Playbill” started off in 1884 in New York as an in-house publication for just one theater on 21st St. You can’t see any decent-sized production these days anywhere in the United States without being handed a copy of “Playbill”.

57. Stoolie FINK
A “fink” is an informer, someone who rats out his cohorts.

Stoolies, also called canaries, will sing to the cops given the right incentive. “Stoolie” is short for “stool pigeon”. A stool pigeon was a decoy bird tied to a stool so as to lure other pigeons. “Stoolies” were originally decoys for the police, rather than informers, hence the name.

63. Word after Iron or Stone AGE
Ancient societies can be classified by the “three-age system”, which depends on the prevalence of materials used to make tools. The three ages are:

– The Stone Age
– The Bronze Age
– The Iron Age

The actual dates defined by each age depend on the society, as the timing of the transition from the use of one material to another varied around the globe.

64. Corp. leader CEO
Chief executive officer (CEO)

65. February 2, every year GROUNDHOG DAY
Groundhog Day is observed on February 2nd each year. The festival was first observed by the Pennsylvania Germans in the 18th century. Groundhog Day coincides with the Christian holiday of Candlemas.

69. Asian language in a region famous for tigers BENGALI
The Bengal tiger is the most populous subspecies of tiger in the world, yet it is still in danger of extinction. There are estimated to be under 2,500 individual Bengal tigers on the planet, with most in India and Bangladesh. The Bengal tiger is the national animal of both countries.

70. __ vault POLE
The pole vault has been an Olympic event for men since the 1896 games. However, women’s pole vaulting was only introduced at the 2000 games.

72. La Brea discovery FOSSIL
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 …

Down
1. Girl who lost her sheep BO-PEEP
The lines that are most commonly quoted for the rhyme about “Little Bo Peep” are:

Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
And can’t tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, And they’ll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them.But, there are actually four more verses, including this one:
It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side,
All hung on a tree to dry.

2. Barnard graduate ALUMNA
Barnard College is private women’s school in New York City. Barnard was founded in 1889 and since 1900 has been affiliated with Columbia University.

4. Bagel go-with LOX
Lox is a cured salmon fillet, finely sliced. The term “lox” comes into English via Yiddish, and derives from the German word for salmon, namely “Lachs”.

The bagel was invented in the Polish city of Kraków in the 16th century. Bagels were brought to this country by Jewish immigrants from Poland who mainly established homes in and around New York City.

7. Corp. execs’ degrees MBAS
The world’s first Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree was offered by Harvard’s Graduate School of Business Administration, in 1908.

9. Lucky Luciano cohort Meyer __ LANSKY
The gangster Meyer Lansky was known as the “Mob’s Accountant”. When he died in 1983 at the ripe old age of 80 years, on paper Lansky was worth almost nothing. However, the FBI believed that he actually had about $300 million in hidden bank accounts, funds which the authorities were never able to find.

Lucky Luciano was an American gangster based in New York City, who had been born in Sicily. One of Luciano’s more significant moves was to split New York City into five regions controlled by different Mafia crime families. This act is considered the birth of modern organized crime in the US.

13. LBJ’s home state TEX
The LBJ Ranch, located west of Austin, was the Texas home of President Lyndon B. Johnson. The property is now preserved as Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park. Within the bounds of the park are the former president’s birthplace and his final resting place. While President Johnson was in office, the LBJ Ranch was known as the Texas White House.

24. Sweetie pie SNOOKUMS
The term of endearment “snookums” comes from the family name “Snooks”. Snooks was a name used in Britain in the 1800s for some hypothetical, unknown individual (as we would use the name “Joe Blow” perhaps).

26. Dennis the Menace’s grumpy neighbor MR WILSON
“Dennis the Menace” is a comic strip that first appeared in 1951, originally drawn by Hank Ketcham. The strip made the jump over the years from the newspaper to television and the silver screen. Dennis’s full name is Dennis Mitchell, and his parents are Henry and Alice (Johnson) Mitchell. Dennis’s nemesis is his neighbor, Mister George Everett Wilson. Hank Ketcham drew his inspiration for the story from his real life. When he introduced the strip he had a 4-year-old son called Dennis, and a wife named Alice.

30. Part of UCLA LOS
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) gets more applications from students than any other university in the country. UCLA also has more students enrolled than any other university in the state.

32. Chinese appetizer DIM SUM
Dim sum is a Chinese cuisine made up of small portions of various dishes. The tradition of serving dim sum is associated with the serving of tea, when small delicacies were offered to travelers and guests along with tea as a refreshment. The name “dim sum” translates as “touch the heart” implying that dim sum is not a main meal, just a snack “that touches the heart”.

33. “I think …,” in texts IMO
In my opinion (IMO)

36. Mets’ old stadium SHEA
Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadows, New York was named after William A. Shea, the man credited with bringing National League baseball back to the city in the form of the New York Mets. Shea Stadium was dismantled (not imploded) in 2008-2009, and the site now provides additional parking for the new stadium nearby called Citi Field.

38. Old Montreal baseballer EXPO
The Washington Nationals baseball team started out life as the Montreal Expos in 1969. The Expos moved to Washington in 2005 becoming the Nats. There are only two Major Leagues teams that have never played in a World Series, one being the Mariners and the other the Nats.

41. Flippered aquarium attractions SEA LIONS
There are three families of seals. The first is the walrus family, the second the eared seals (like sea lions), and thirdly the earless seals.

42. Sch. with a Spokane campus WSU
Washington State University Spokane was established in 1989 as a branch campus of Washington State University, which is based in Pullman, Washington. That same year saw two other branch campuses established: WSU Tri-Cities (in Richmond) and WSU Vancouver.

43. Typist’s stat. WPM
Words per minute (WPM)

44. Some young cows HEIFERS
A calf is a young cow of either sex that is not more than a year old. A heifer is a young cow that has not calved, and the term “cow” can be used for a female of the species that has given birth.

47. Pennsylvania raceway POCONO
Pocono Raceway is a superspeedway in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. Pocono raceway hosts two NASCAR events each year, in June and August. The track is triangular in shape, and Pocono Raceway is often referred to as “Tricky Triangle”.

56. GI show gp. USO
The United Service Organization (USO) was founded in 1941 at the request of FDR “to handle the on-leave recreation of the men in the armed forces”. A USO tour is undertaken by a troupe of entertainers, many of whom are big-name celebrities. A USO tour usually includes troop locations in combat zones.

58. USSR secret service KGB
The Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti (KGB) was the national security agency of the Soviet Union until 1991. The KGB was dissolved after the agency’s chairman led a failed attempt at a coup d’état designed to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.

60. Santa __: West Coast winds ANAS
The Santa Ana winds are the very dry air currents that sweep offshore late in the year in Southern California. Because these air currents are so dry, they are noted for their influence over forest fires in the area, especially in the heat of the fall. The winds arise from a buildup of air pressure in the Great Basin that lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Under the right conditions, that air spills over the peaks of the Sierra Nevada and basically “falls” down the side of the Sierra range, heading for the ocean. As the air falls it becomes drier and heats up so that relative humidity can fall to below 10% by the time it hits the coast.

62. Given name of the critter in today’s news PHIL
Punxsutawney Phil doesn’t actually make any predictions in downtown Punxsutawney, regardless of what we’ve seen in the movies. Instead, the groundhog makes his annual forecast in a little clearing at the top of a wooded hill two miles outside town, a location known as Gobbler’s Knob.

64. Billiards stick CUE
We tend to use the term “billiards” in the US to refer to games like pool. The earlier game of English billiards is still quite common in the UK and Australia. It is played on the larger snooker table, and involves the use of just two cue balls and one red ball. I used to love the game …

67. Dean’s list no. GPA
Grade point average (GPA)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Burst into tears BAWL
5. Wander off the point RAMBLE
11. Rainy WET
14. Hodgepodge OLIO
15. In the plane’s cabin, say ON BOARD
17. New Year’s __ EVE
18. Pennsylvania borough in today’s news PUNXSUTAWNEY
20. Clinton’s instrument SAX
21. Ambulance VIP EMT
22. ’50s nuclear experiments A-TESTS
23. Founded, on signs ESTD
25. Foe ENEMY
27. Approved, briefly OK’D
29. Pop singer Diamond NEIL
31. Henry VIII’s sixth wife Catherine PARR
32. Conk out DIE
35. “Make up your mind!” YES OR NO?!
37. Germany’s __ Republic, 1919-’33 WEIMAR
40. Flip-flops THONGS
41. What we’ll have of 3-Down, according to folklore, if 18-Across 62-Down sees his 50-Down on 65-Across SIX MORE WEEKS
43. Puppies WHELPS
45. Bahamas capital NASSAU
46. Thick fog metaphor PEA SOUP
48. Dirt road groove RUT
49. Amt. on a new car window MSRP
53. Venus de __ MILO
54. Mess of hair MOP
56. Employee handing out playbills USHER
57. Stoolie FINK
59. Workshop grippers CLAMPS
63. Word after Iron or Stone AGE
64. Corp. leader CEO
65. February 2, every year GROUNDHOG DAY
68. Coffee hour vessel URN
69. Asian language in a region famous for tigers BENGALI
70. __ vault POLE
71. Letter before tee ESS
72. La Brea discovery FOSSIL
73. Filled with wonder AWED

Down
1. Girl who lost her sheep BO-PEEP
2. Barnard graduate ALUMNA
3. Cold season WINTER
4. Bagel go-with LOX
5. Landslide victory ROUT
6. Poker pot starter ANTE
7. Corp. execs’ degrees MBAS
8. Bend before in reverence BOW TO
9. Lucky Luciano cohort Meyer __ LANSKY
10. Before, in poetry ERE
11. Cowboy movies WESTERNS
12. Shirking, as taxes EVADING
13. LBJ’s home state TEX
16. Salon coloring DYE
19. Speak SAY
24. Sweetie pie SNOOKUMS
26. Dennis the Menace’s grumpy neighbor MR WILSON
28. Hate DETEST
30. Part of UCLA LOS
32. Chinese appetizer DIM SUM
33. “I think …,” in texts IMO
34. Make, as money EARN
36. Mets’ old stadium SHEA
38. Old Montreal baseballer EXPO
39. Back REAR
41. Flippered aquarium attractions SEA LIONS
42. Sch. with a Spokane campus WSU
43. Typist’s stat. WPM
44. Some young cows HEIFERS
47. Pennsylvania raceway POCONO
50. Sundial casting SHADOW
51. Entertain in style REGALE
52. Victimized, with “on” PREYED
55. Outlet inserts PLUGS
56. GI show gp. USO
58. USSR secret service KGB
60. Santa __: West Coast winds ANAS
61. 1551, to Caesar MDLI
62. Given name of the critter in today’s news PHIL
64. Billiards stick CUE
66. NBA official REF
67. Dean’s list no. GPA

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