Day: January 14, 2010

This is my solution to the crossword published in the New York Times today. If you are doing 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.

Completion Time: 22m 17s
Theme: Commercial Break … remove the “AD” from the themed answers to reveal well known phrases.
Answers I missed:  0

TODAY’S GOOGLIES (all links go to Amazon.com) …
Across
1 THAT’S HOT: Apparently Paris Hilton started to coin the phrase “that’s hot” in 2005, playing on its “opposite” meaning, “that’s cool”. And she has filed for copyright protection of the phrase.
 9 ODETS: Clifford Odets wrote “The Country Girl” in 1950, and it was made into a movie starring Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly.
15 ITALIA: Translated into English from Italian, “Naples nation” is ITALY.
18 REAM: “The Office” is set in a sales office of Dunder Mifflin, a paper company. If you haven’t seen the original UK version, starring Ricky Gervais, you really should check it out.
19 MESO: The Mesozoic geological era includes the Jurrasic period.
26 BMI: Broadcast Music Incorporated collects licence fees for musicians and distributes royalties to composers whose works have been performed.
29 EMU: Emu Bay lies on the north coast of Kangaroo Island in South Australia.
40 IBO: Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe was born in the Ibo region in the south of the country.
45 ‘ERE: Eliza, in My Fair Lady, is a cockney, so “not there” she would say is ‘ere.
55 YMA: Yma Sumac was a Peruvian soprano, with a notable vocal range of five octaves.
68 RYAN’S: “Ryan’s Hope” was apparently a soap about an Irish-American family living in New York City. I can only imagine …

Down
1 TSAR: In Imperial Russia, a ukase was a proclamation issued by the government or the tsar.
9 O’TOOLE: “Lord Jim” is a novel by Joseph Conrad, turned into a movie in 1965 starring Peter O’Toole as Lord Jim.
11 ELIZA: Eliza was Henry Higgins’s pupil in “My Fair Lady” (and the original play “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw).
28 IDOL: Apparently singer Kelly Clarkson was the first winner of “American Idol“.
34 VODKA: A Salty Dog contains vodka (or gin) and grapefruit juice served in a glass with a salted rim.
38 STYX: Styx are an american band with hits in the 70s and 80s.
43 TENORS: The Three Tenors were Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras and Luciano Pavarotti (RIP).
46 RISERS: A riser is a, usually portable, elevated part of a stage.
50 EMORY: Desmond Tutu is still here from yesterday’s puzzle. He was appointed visiting professor at Emory University in 1998.
59 TATE: Actually, it’s the Tate Modern (as opposed to the original Tate Gallery) that lies on the banks of the Thames in London. It’s a beautiful building.