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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Creator of Beats Electronics, familiarly : DRE

Beats Electronics is a company that was co-founded by rapper Dr. Dre. Apple bought Beats for $3 billion in 2014, which is the largest acquisition in Apple’s history.

4A Key of Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” : A-FLAT

Scott Joplin was a great American composer and pianist, the “King of Ragtime”. Joplin was born poor, into a laboring family in Texas. He learned his music from local teachers and started out his career as an itinerant musician, traveling around the American South. He found fame with the release of his 1899 composition “Maple Leaf Rag”, regarded as the foundation stone on which ragtime music was built. Joplin’s music, and ragtime in general, was rediscovered by the populace in the early seventies when it was used in the very successful movie “The Sting”.

9A ___ ball : COMET (Fire ball)

Comets and asteroids are similar, both being relatively small celestial bodies orbiting the sun. Comets differ from asteroids in that they have a coma or tail, especially when they are close enough to the sun. The coma and tail are temporary fuzzy atmospheres that develop due to the presence of solar radiation. Comets are sometimes referred to as “dirty snowballs”, a reference to their composition: rock, dust, water ice and frozen gasses.

14A Classic cartoon dog with the catchphrase “You eediot!” : REN

“The Ren & Stimpy Show” is an animated television serial created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi, and which ran on Nickelodeon from 1991 to 1996. The title characters are Marland “Ren” Höek, a scrawny Chihuahua, and Stimpson J. Cat, a rotund Manx cat. Not my cup of tea …

15A Prefix with Roman : GRECO-

Greco-Roman wrestling was contested at the first modern Olympic Games, back in 1896. Back then there was relatively little regulation of the sport and Greco-Roman contests were noted for their brutality. Bouts also took a long time to finish, often lasting hours. In fact, two competitors in the final round of the event at the 1912 Olympic Games fought a match that lasted 11 hours and 40 minutes. The victor was so exhausted after the contest that he was unable to compete in the final bout.

16A Ancient calculation tools : ABACI

The abacus (plural “abaci”) was used as a counting frame long before the widespread use of written decimal numerals. It is a remarkable invention, particularly when one notes that abaci are still widely used today across Africa and Asia.

17A Bygone org. for the Houston Oilers : AFL

The American Football League (AFL) was founded in 1959 as a competitor to the already-established National Football League (NFL). The AFL eventually merged with the NFL, in 1970. It was the competition between the AFL and NFL that gave us the Super Bowl. The first-ever World Championship Game between the champions of the two leagues was held in 1967, a game that we now refer to as Super Bowl I.

The Houston Texans football team has been in the NFL since 2002. Houston had been home to the Oilers football team, but that franchise relocated to Tennessee in 1997, eventually settling in Nashville and renaming themselves the Tennessee Titans in 1999.

32A Political rival of Mark Antony : CICERO

Cicero was a very influential senator in ancient Rome, in part due to his renowned ability to deliver a persuasive speech. His full name was Marcus Tullius Cicero.

34A Southern California city with a Spanish name : BREA

The city of Brea, California takes its name from “brea”, the Spanish word for “tar”. Back in the 1800s, entrepreneurs were attracted to the area by the “black gold” (crude oil) that in some locations was just bubbling up from the ground.

41A Overzealous fan, in modern slang : STAN

“Stan” is a song by rapper Eminem (featuring Dido) that was recorded in 2000. The title refers to a fictional Eminem fan named “Stan” who becomes obsessed with the rapper, and who grows irate when his letters to his idol go unanswered. Stan’s final act is to make a voice recording as he drives into a river, with his pregnant girlfriend locked in the trunk. One of the legacies of the song is that “stan” is now used as a slang term for an obsessed and maniacal fan.

46A Big fuss : HOOPLA

The word “hoopla” means “boisterous excitement”. The term probably comes from “houp-là”, something the French say instead of “upsy-daisy”. Then again, “upsy-daisy” probably isn’t something said very often here in the US …

62A Aquarium fish with “neon” and “emperor” varieties : TETRA

The neon tetra is a freshwater fish that is native to parts of South America. The tetra is a very popular aquarium fish and millions are imported into the US every year. Almost all of the imported tetras are farm-raised in Asia and very few come from their native continent.

63A Ramadan’s end : EID

Eid al-Fitr is a religious holiday in the Muslim tradition that is known in English as the “Festival of Breaking the Fast”. It marks the end of Ramadan, a period of dawn-to-sunset fasting.

66A Actor Stephen of “V for Vendetta” : REA

Stephen Rea is an actor from Belfast, Northern Ireland. His most successful role was Fergus in 1992’s “The Crying Game”, for which performance he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. In “The Crying Game”, Fergus was a member of the IRA. In real life, Rea was married to IRA bomber and hunger striker Dolours Price at the time he made the movie.

“V for Vendetta” is a 2006 movie based on the political thriller graphic novel of the same name by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. The film stars Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman and Stephen Rea. Two other Moore novels made it to the big screen: “From Hell” and “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”.

Down

2D Asylum seeker : REFUGEE

Asylum (plural “asyla”) is a Latin word meaning “sanctuary”.

5D “Metropolitan Life” author Lebowitz : FRAN

Fran Lebowitz is an author and social commentator very much associated with New York City, where she lives. Lebowitz is also a heavy smoker, and an avid activist for smokers’ rights.

8D Emblem with an Ojibwe name : TOTEM

“Totem” is a word used to describe any entity that watches over a group of people. As such, totems are usually the subjects of worship. Totem poles are really misnamed, as they are not intended to represent figures to be worshiped, but rather are heraldic in nature, and often celebrating the legends or notable events in the history of a tribe.

10D Belt with a kimono : OBI

The lovely Japanese kimono is a garment worn by men, women and children. The word “kimono” translates simply as “thing to wear”, with “ki” meaning “wear” and “mono” meaning “thing”.

11D ___ starters : MATCHES (Fire starters)

A strike-anywhere match will ignite if struck against almost any dry, hard, rough surface. The match head comprises two chemicals that are necessary for ignition. In order to minimize the chances of accidental ignition of matches, the safety match was developed. The safety match is safer because the match head only includes one of the chemicals necessary for ignition. The second chemical is included in a special striking surface provided with the matches, usually along the side of a matchbox.

12D Pastry whose name is French for “lightning” : ECLAIR

The name for the pastry known as an “éclair” is clearly French in origin. The French word for lightning is “éclair”, but no one seems to be too sure how it came to be used for the rather delicious bakery item.

21D Eavesdrop from afar, maybe : READ LIPS

To eavesdrop is to listen in on someone else’s conversation without being invited to do so. The term comes from the practice of spies loitering in the area just outside the walls of a house, particularly in the “eavesdrip”, the ground close to a house that catches the drips of rainwater falling from the eaves of the roof.

27D Professor’s world : ACADEMIA

An academy is a place of education, especially higher education. The original Academy was the public garden in which Greek philosopher Plato taught his students. That garden was the Grove of Academus, named for a hero of Greek mythology.

29D Tech co. that was integral to early computer science : IBM

Tech giant IBM was founded as the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896. The company changed its name to the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in 1911 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1916. The name “International Business Machines” (IBM) was given first to the company’s Canadian subsidiary, and then to its South American subsidiary. In 1924, it was decided to adopt the International Business Machines name for the whole company. Good choice …

40D Fills, as a buffet plate : LOADS UP

Our word “buffet” comes from the French “bufet” meaning “bench, sideboard”. So, a buffet is a meal served from a “bufet”.

43D Things that might be provided with grace? : DINNERS

A grace is a short prayer recited before or after a meal, especially in the Christian tradition. The term “grace” comes from the Latin “gratiarum actio” meaning “act of thanks”.

44D Book after Lamentations : EZEKIEL

Ezekiel is recognized as a Hebrew prophet in the three main Abrahamic religions. Ezekiel’s story is told in the Jewish and Christian traditions in the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel’s final resting place is said to be a tomb in southern Iraq near the town of Al Kifl.

45D Tabloid that’s one of the 10 highest-circulation papers in the U.S. : NEWSDAY

“Newsday” is a New York newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island. “Newsday” was founded in 1940 by Alicia Patterson and her husband Harry Guggenheim. I hear that “Newsday” has a good crossword …

47D Cantankerous : ORNERY

Back in the early 1800s, the word “ornery” was an informal contraction for the word “ordinary”, and meant commonplace, but with a sense of “poor quality, coarse, ugly” as opposed to “special”. Towards the end of the century, the usage “ornery” had evolved into describing someone who was mean or cantankerous.

50D Card that’s the source for “blue mana” in Magic: The Gathering : ISLAND

Magic: The Gathering is a card game, one played with a deck of themed cards. It is a relatively recent invention by a math professor named Richard Garfield. It was introduced to the public in 1993, and has a large following today.

58D Wheel that comes apart easily? : BRIE

Brie is a soft cheese that is named for the French region in which it originated. Brie is similar to the equally famous (and delicious) Camembert. Brie is often served baked in puff pastry with fig jam.

61D Platform for Duck Hunt, in brief : NES

“Duck Hunt” is a video game. Not for me though …