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Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
11. “Alley __” OOP
“Alley Oop” is a comic strip that ran for four decades starting in 1932. “Alley Oop” was drawn by V. T. Hamlin. The title character lived in the prehistoric kingdom of Moo and had a pet dinosaur called Dinny. Alley Oop also had a girlfriend called Ooola. I had assumed that Ooola’s name was a play on “hula hoop”, but that wasn’t invented until the 1950s (a kind blog reader informs me) …

15. Former “American Idol” judge Abdul PAULA
Paula Abdul is primarily a singer and dancer, and someone who endeared herself even more to the American public in recent years as a judge on “American Idol”. She had a famous husband for a couple of years, as she was married to actor Emilio Estevez from 1992-94.

17. One-over-par score BOGEY
The term “Bogey” originated at the Great Yarmouth Golf Club in England in 1890, and was used to indicate a total round that was one-over-par (and not one-over-par on a particular hole, as it is today). The name Bogey came from a music hall song of the time “Here Comes the Bogey Man”. In the following years it became popular for players trying to stay at par to be “playing against Colonel Bogey”. Then, during WWI, the marching tune “Colonel Bogey” was written and named after the golfing term. If you don’t recognize the name of the tune, it’s the one that’s whistled by the soldiers marching in the great movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai”.

21. The “I” in MIT: Abbr. INST
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

22. Target rival KMART
Kmart is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and Target. Kmart is famous for its promotions known as “blue light specials”, a program first introduced in 1965 and discontinued in 1991. I remember being in a Kmart store soon after coming to live in the US. That evening an employee installed a light stand an aisle away from me, switched on a flashing blue light and there was some unintelligible announcement over the loudspeaker system. I had no idea what was going on …

Target Corporation was founded by George Draper Dayton in 1902 in Minneapolis, Minnesota as Dayton Dry Goods Company. Dayton developed into a department store, and the company opened up a discount store chain in 1962, calling it Target. Today Target is the second-largest discount retailer in the country, after Walmart.

23. 1989 French Open winner Michael CHANG
Michael Chang is a former American professional tennis player, best remembered for his win at the 1989 French Open at the age of 17 years.

25. Illinois city symbolizing mainstream America PEORIA
Peoria is the oldest European settlement in the state of Illinois, having been settled by the French in 1680. The city is famous for being cited as “the average American city”.

26. Mobile phone system that introduced SMS texting TWO-G NETWORK
Cell phone networks are classified as 1G, 2G, 3G etc. That’s a sign that technology is improving, from generation to generation. 1G stands for “first generation”, 2G for “second generation”, 3G for “third generation” etc.

Short Message Service (SMS) is the name for the text messaging service that many of us still use on our cell phones to “text” our friends and family.

30. Dinghy pair OARS
Our term “dinghy” comes from the Hindi “dingi”, the word for a small boat.

34. 1492 ship NINA
The ship used by Christopher Columbus that we know as the Niña was actually the nickname of a ship actually called the Santa Clara. The nickname “Niña” probably came from the name of her owner, Juan Niña of Moguer.

39. Literature Nobelist Bellow SAUL
Saul Bellow was the only writer to have won the National Book Award three times, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976. Bellow was a Canadian-born American writer, and among his most famous works were “Herzog” and “Humboldt’s Gift”.

41. Film that requires special eyewear THREE-D MOVIE
The dimension of an object is defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify each point in the object. Therefore a line is one-dimensional (1D), as you only need an x-coordinate to specify a particular point on the line. A plane is two-dimensional (2D), as you need both an x-coordinate and a y-coordinate to locate a point on the plane. The inside of a solid object is then three-dimensional (3D), needing an x-, y- and z-coordinate to specify a point, say within a cube.

51. Tibetan priest LAMA
“Lama” is a Tibetan word, meaning “chief” or “high priest”.

54. Youth organization with a clover emblem FOUR-H CLUB
4-H is a youth organization in the US. The first 4-H clubs were set up at the start of the 20th century and were focused on agricultural communities. Although 4-H no longer has the rural focus, because of the organization’s history it is administered with the Department of Agriculture. The four Hs stand for Head, Heart, Hands and Health.

57. Inc. kin LLC
A limited liability company (LLC) is a company structure that limits the liability of the owner or owners.

59. Triangular river formation DELTA
Delta is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. We are most familiar with an upper-case delta and its distinctive triangular shape. The letter’s shape has influenced terms such as “deltoid muscle” and “river delta”. The upper-case delta is also used in mathematics and science to indicate a change in value.

Down
1. Belles at balls DEBS
Deb is short for “debutante”, which translates from French as “female beginner”.

2. Nerve cell transmitter AXON
A nerve cell is more correctly called a neuron, and the long nerve fiber that is part of a neuron is called the axon.

3. Potter’s stick? MAGIC WAND
The author of the amazingly successful “Harry Potter” series of books is J. K. Rowling. Rowling wrote the first book when she was living on welfare in Edinburgh in Scotland, and in longhand. She would often write in local cafes, largely because she needed to get her baby daughter out of the house (she was a single mom), and the youngster would tend to fall asleep on walks. Within five years, the single mom on welfare became a very rich woman, and is now worth about $1 billion!

4. Superabundance PLETHORA
Plethora is such a lovely word I think, meaning “a lot of”, and usually in the sense of “too much”. This usage dates back to about 1700, and before that “plethora” was a word used in the medical field to describe an “excess of bodily fluid”.

7. Fleming and McKellen IANS
Ian Fleming is most famous for writing the “James Bond” series of spy novels. You might also know that he wrote the children’s story “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, which was made into a cute movie released in 1968 and even a stage musical that opened in 2002.

Sir Ian McKellen is a marvelous English actor, someone who is comfortable playing anything from Macbeth on stage to Magneto in an “X-Men” movie. On the big screen, McKellen is very famous for playing Gandalf in “The Lord of Rings”. In the UK Sir Ian is noted for being at the forefront of the campaign for equal rights for gay people, a role he has enthusiastically embraced since the eighties.

9. Yellowstone Park grazer ELK
Yellowstone National Park was the first National Park to be established in the world, when it was designated as such by President Grant in 1872. What a great tradition it started! The American National Parks truly are a treasure.

10. Carnival pitchmen BARKERS
A barker is someone who works to attract attention for an entertainment event, trying to get patrons to buy a ticket. Barkers are often seen at circuses and funfairs. Apparently the term “barker” isn’t appreciated by those in the trade, and they prefer to be called “talkers”.

11. Tinseltown trophy OSCAR
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is the organization that gives the annual Academy Awards also known as the “Oscars”. The root of the name “Oscar” is hotly debated, but what is agreed is that the award was officially named “Oscar” in 1939. The first Academy Awards were presented at a brunch in 1929 with an audience of just 29 people. The Awards ceremony is a slightly bigger event these days …

“Tinsel Town” is a nickname for Hollywood.

12. Cheri of “SNL” OTERI
Cheri Oteri was the “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) cast member who regularly appeared with Will Farrell in the skit featuring a pair of Spartan cheerleaders.

13. Linguini or fettuccine PASTA
Linguine is a type of pasta that is similar to spaghetti, except that in cross-section linguini is elliptical whereas spaghetti is round. The correct name for the dish is “linguine” meaning “little tongues” in Italian. That said, the misspelling “linguini” is given in some dictionaries as an acceptable Americanized variant..

Fettuccine is a popular type of pasta in Italy, particularly in Rome. It is a flat noodle similar to the smaller tagliatelle that is more popular in Bologna. The most common dish made with fettuccine in North America is Fettuccine Alfredo.

19. Wild way to run AMOK
The phrase “to run amok” (sometimes “to run amuck”) has been around since the 1670s and is derived from the Malay word for “attacking furiously”, “amuk”. The word “amok” was also used as a noun to describe Malay natives who were “frenzied”. Given Malaya’s troubled history, the natives probably had good reason for that frenzy …

24. __ of Reason AGE
The Age of Enlightenment (also known as the Age of Reason) was an era bridging the 17th and 18th centuries in which rationalism and scientific method started to hold sway against ideas grounded in tradition and faith. Key figures in the Age of Enlightenment were the likes of John Locke, Isaac Newton and Voltaire.

26. Twerp TWIT
“Twit” is a word not used very often here in America. It’s a slang term that was quite common in England where it was used for “someone foolish and idiotic”.

27. Picturesque fabric TOILE
Toile fabric can be used as upholstery, or as a wallpaper, or even us a fabric for clothing.

28. “Who __ that masked man?” WAS
At the end of each episode of the show “The Lone Ranger”, one of the characters would ask the question, “”Who was that masked man?”. The answer was always , “Oh, he’s the Lone Ranger” and then we’d hear “Hi-Yo, Silver! Away!” … and cue the music!

29. “Wheel of Fortune” buy AN I
Contestants have been spinning the “Wheel of Fortune” since it first aired in 1975.

32. S-shaped molding OGEE
An ogee is like an s-curve. Specifically it is a figure consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite directions (like an S) but both ends of the curve end up parallel to each other (which is not necessarily true for an S).

33. It made Leary bleary LSD
Leary was a psychologist and writer, an icon of the sixties counterculture and a promoter of the use of LSD. Leary popularized the phrase “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out” in the sixties. After he died, some of Leary’s ashes were “buried” in space, launched aboard a rocket that contained the ashes of 24 other people including “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry.

37. Cleveland NBA player CAVALIER
The Cleveland Cavaliers are the professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavs joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1970. The team plays at the Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland, a facility that the locals refer to as “the Q”.

40. Part of FWIW FOR
For what it’s worth (FWIW), in text-speak.

41. Scotch tape target TEAR
Scotch Tape is a brand of adhesive tape made by 3M. “Scotch Tape” is one of those brand names that has become so used widely that it has become a generic term for the product. The equivalent brand name of product that we use over in Ireland is Sellotape. This British brand also has become a generic term, and is our equivalent to “Scotch tape”.

46. “Little __ Coupe”: Beach Boys hit DEUCE
“Little Deuce Coupe” is one of those hits that was released as b-side. It’s song written by Brian Wilson and Roger Christian that was released by the Beach Boys in 1963 on the b-side to “Surfer Girl”. The title refers to the Ford Model B automobile. In the 1940s, the 1932 Ford Model B became known as the ideal hot rod. It was given the slang name “deuce coupé”, with “deuce” being a reference to the “two” in the “1932” model year.

The type of car known as a “coupe” or “coupé” is a closed automobile with two doors. The name comes from the French word “couper” meaning “to cut”. In most parts of the English-speaking world the pronunciation adheres to the original French, but here in most of North America we go with “coop”. The original coupé was a horse-drawn carriage that was cut (coupé) to eliminate the rear-facing passenger seats. That left just a driver and two front-facing passengers. If the driver was left without a roof and out in the open, then the carriage was known as a “coupé de-ville”.

49. Gin fizz fruit SLOE
By definition, a cocktail known as a Fizz includes lemon or lime juice and carbonated water. The most popular of the genre is the Gin Fizz, made from 3 parts gin, 2 parts lemon juice, 1 part sugar syrup and 5 parts soda water. There is also a variant known as a sloe gin fizz.

53. Hebrew winter month ADAR
Adar is the twelfth month of the Hebrew ecclesiastical calendar. Ada is equivalent to February-March in the Gregorian calendar.

55. Old PC monitor CRT
Cathode Ray Tube (CRT)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Makes wet DAMPS
6. Second half of a record SIDE B
11. “Alley __” OOP
14. Praise mightily EXALT
15. Former “American Idol” judge Abdul PAULA
16. Depot: Abbr. STA
17. One-over-par score BOGEY
18. Fun runs, often ONE-K RACES
20. Miffed state SNIT
21. The “I” in MIT: Abbr. INST
22. Target rival KMART
23. 1989 French Open winner Michael CHANG
25. Illinois city symbolizing mainstream America PEORIA
26. Mobile phone system that introduced SMS texting TWO-G NETWORK
29. In the know AWARE
30. Dinghy pair OARS
31. Spanish sun SOL
34. 1492 ship NINA
35. Spot for a bracelet WRIST
37. Smokes, for short CIGS
38. “__ be an honor!” IT’D
39. Literature Nobelist Bellow SAUL
40. World-renowned FAMED
41. Film that requires special eyewear THREE-D MOVIE
44. Arrive on horseback RIDE UP
47. Of the ear AURAL
48. Suggestion box suggestions IDEAS
49. Comfy and cozy SNUG
51. Tibetan priest LAMA
54. Youth organization with a clover emblem FOUR-H CLUB
56. Put on the tube AIRED
57. Inc. kin LLC
58. Wear away slowly ERODE
59. Triangular river formation DELTA
60. Language ending -ESE
61. Knight mare? STEED
62. Laundromat appliance DRYER

Down
1. Belles at balls DEBS
2. Nerve cell transmitter AXON
3. Potter’s stick? MAGIC WAND
4. Superabundance PLETHORA
5. Messy digs STY
6. Dish cleaner SPONGE
7. Fleming and McKellen IANS
8. Song for two DUET
9. Yellowstone Park grazer ELK
10. Carnival pitchmen BARKERS
11. Tinseltown trophy OSCAR
12. Cheri of “SNL” OTERI
13. Linguini or fettuccine PASTA
19. Wild way to run AMOK
21. Roadside shelter INN
24. __ of Reason AGE
25. Seaside city PORT
26. Twerp TWIT
27. Picturesque fabric TOILE
28. “Who __ that masked man?” WAS
29. “Wheel of Fortune” buy AN I
31. Likewise SIMILARLY
32. S-shaped molding OGEE
33. It made Leary bleary LSD
35. Hypothetical time irregularity WARP
36. Be contrite about RUE
37. Cleveland NBA player CAVALIER
39. Tells to be quiet SHUSHES
40. Part of FWIW FOR
41. Scotch tape target TEAR
42. Did some finger painting DAUBED
43. Coffee holder MUG
44. Hunting weapon RIFLE
45. Objects of devotion IDOLS
46. “Little __ Coupe”: Beach Boys hit DEUCE
49. Gin fizz fruit SLOE
50. Naked NUDE
52. Apportion, with “out” METE
53. Hebrew winter month ADAR
55. Old PC monitor CRT
56. Toss into the mix ADD

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