0118-10 New York Times Crossword Answers 18 Jan 10

The name’s William Ernest Butler, but please call me Bill. I grew up in Ireland, but now live out here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m retired now, from technology businesses that took our family all over the world. I answer all emails, so please feel free to email me at bill@paxient.com

If you are working on the New York Times crossword in any other publication, you are working on the syndicated puzzle. Here is a link to my answers to today’s SYNDICATED New York Times crossword. To find any solution other than today’s, enter the crossword number (e.g. 1225, 0107) in the “Search the Blog” box above.

This is my solution to the crossword published in the New York Times today …

Completion Time: 7m 45s
Theme: The themed answers are famous game show catchphrases.
Answers I missed:  0


TODAY’S GOOGLIES …
Across
6 POME: The Latin word for “fruit” is pomum, which gives us the botanical term “pome”, meaning a group of fleshy fruits e.g. apples and pears.
20 CAN I BUY A VOWEL: This catchphrase comes from “Wheel of Fortune” which has been on the the air since 1975.
31 TAI CHI: This martial art is more correctly called tai chi chuan,  which translates as “boundless fist”.
37 SURVEY SAYS:  This catchphrase comes from “Family Feud” which has aired in the US since 1976. I used to watch the UK version growing up in Ireland, where it was called “Family Fortunes”.
39 ICAHN: Carl Icahn has many business interests, and is probably best known in recent years for his dealings with Yahoo.
43 COME ON DOWN: This catchphrase comes from “The Price Is Right“, that was first televised way back in 1956!
55 THE PASSWORD IS: This catchphrase comes from the game show “Password” that first aired in 1961, and has been on and off the air right up till last year, 2009.
62 DALI: “The Persistence of Memory” is probably Salvador Dali’s most famous work, featuring the celebrated “melting clocks”. And you can see it in the MoMA in New York City.
67 ETATS: Les Etats-Unis, French for the United States.
68 X-MEN: Stan Lee originally wanted to call his heroes “The Merry Mutants” but this was changed at the request of the publisher to “X-Men“. And of course now it’s a famous movie franchise.

Down
3: LANA: Lana Turner earned the nickname “The Sweater Girl” after wearing a pretty tight sweater in the film “They Won’t Forget“, her film debut.
4 IRENE: Irene Cara is best known as an actress for her role in “Fame“, and as a singer for “Flashdance … What A Feeling“.
5 DEWITT: DeWitt Clinton was largely responsible for the building of the Erie Canal.
25 AMICI: Amici is the Italian word for “friends”, as would be spoken in Firenze (Florence).
27 GRAMM: Phil Gramm started his life in Congress as a Democratic Representative, and last served as a Republican Senator.
32 CAPOS: More properly called a caporegime, a capo is high-ranking member of the Mafia (cosa nostra).
34 ISLES: The Isle of Man is in the middle of the Irish Sea, and the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England.