0205-10 New York Times Crossword Answers 5 Feb 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: 29m 21s
Theme: None
Answers I missed: 2 … ROLEO (RODEO) & SELENA (SEDENA).

TODAY’S WIKI-EST, AMAZONIAN GOOGLIES …
Across
1 TEATROS: The Spanish word for “theaters”.

18 SEOUL: The Samsung Tower Place is a group of seven towers, all of which are full of residential apartments. It is noted for its high-tech security systems.

19 OPELS: My Dad had an Opel Kadett when we were growing up. You don’t see many Opel cars in this country, but they’re big in Europe.

23 ASTI: Asti is in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. It is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine.

24 NTS: Windows XP, Windows Vista and now Windows 7, they’re all based on the Windows NT operating system. The NT originally stood for N-Ten, but Microsoft preferred to market it as “New Technology”.

25 ADANO: “A Bell for Adano” is a novel written by John Hersey, about an Italian-American US Army officer who found a replacement for the town’s bell stolen by the fascists. It was made into a film in 1945, the same year it won the Pullitzer.

31 BRYANT: Lane Bryant is women’s clothing store. Sadly, it is known for a 2008 shooting incident at one of its branches in Chicago. Five people were left dead after an armed robbery.

35 ORBED: The quotation is from Robert Browning’s poem “Pan and Luna“.

40 INES: Ines de Suarez was a conquistadora (a female conquistador).

42 ROLEO: Roleo is the name given to the log rolling competition.

43 A NEST: Sean O’ Faolain was an Irish short story writer, a Cork man.

48 NERISSA: Nerissa is Portia’s maid in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice“.

49 SCREED: A screed is a long speech or piece of writing, usually full of emotion.

Down
2 ENTENTE CORDIAL: The original entente cordiale (literally “cordial agreement”) was an agreement between the UK and France, signed in 1904. It ended centuries of intermittent conflict between the two empires, and initiated the cordial relationship that endured through two World Wars and lasts to the present day.

5 RIEL: The riel is the currency used in Cambodia.

6 ONT: The Bruce Peninsula projects northwest from the mainland of Ontario in Lake Huron.

7 SAMOVARS: The samovar originated in Russia, and is often a very elegant water boiler, usually for making tea. As such, there is often an attachment on top to keep a teapot warm.

9 E-FILE: That’s what I will be doing shortly, e-filing my tax returns (using Turbotax!).

12 DIALS NINE-ONE-ONE: And of course back in Ireland, we would dial 999 …

16 LUPONE: Patti LuPone won Tonys for playing Eva Peron in “Evita” and Rose in “Gypsy“.

25 AHMAD: Ahmad Jamal is an American jazz pianist who often played with Miles Davis.

26 ROYKO: Mike Ryko was a celebrated columnist who wrote for all the major Chicago newspapers.


28 TASER: Victor Appleton wrote a novel for young adults called “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle“. The company that developed the TASER electroshock weapon, named their product as a homage to the novel. TASER stands for Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle. Interesting, eh?

31 BOYCOTTS: Boycott … another word given to the world by the Irish! Englishman Captain Charles Boycott found himself on the wrong side of the local community in County Mayo, and in a concerted campaign he was refused service by all around him. His name lives on …


36 SELENA: Selena’s Quintanilla-Perez, known professionally simply as “Selena“, sadly was murdered at the height of her career in 1995, by the president of her own fan club. In a 1997 biopic about Selena’s life, Jennifer Lopez played the title role.

43 ALAR: The chemical name for Alar, a plant growth regulator, is daminozide. Initially it was primarily used on apples, but was banned when it was linked to a high risk of cancer.