0206-10 New York Times Crossword Answers 6 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: N/A (watching TV)
Theme: None
Answers I missed: 2 … MIROS (BIROS), MASHER (BASHER)

TODAY’S WIKI-EST, AMAZONIAN GOOGLIES …
Across
6 NONCE: The quaint phrase “for the nonce” means “for the present”, “for now”. It turns up my Irish Times cryptic puzzle every so often.

11 ARETE: When two glaciers erode away two parallel valleys, the ridge separating them is either a “col” or an “arete”. A col is rounded at the peak, whereas an arete is a sharpened by freeze-thaw weathering. Arete is the French word for “fish-bone”.

20 UVA: The University of Virginia Cavalier colors of orange and navy blue were adopted in 1888, and were deliberately chosen as the same colors of Oxford University in England.

23 HANSEN: Craig Hansen currently plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates. A few years ago he underwent surgery for sleep apnea, hoping to improve his pitching and stamina.


29 FANNIE: The Federal National Mortgage Association is commonly called Fannie Mae, a play on the acronym FNMA.

31 BASKETS: Earvin Johnson Jr. grew up in Lansing, Michigan. As a 15-year-old playing basketball for his high school, he had a particularly good game resulting in a laudatory write up in a local newspaper. The sportswriter gave him the nickname “Magic”, and it stuck.

32 MADD: Candice Lightner lost her 13-year-old to a drink driver in 1980. Soon after, she formed the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

33 LUTHER: Martin Luther King Jr.’s father’s name was born Michael King. On a trip to Germany in 1934, Martin came to admire Protestant leader Martin Luther, and changed his name to Martin Luther King on his return the United States.

35 MOTHER’S DAY: Note the punctuation. President Wilson, and Anna Jarvis who created the tradition, specifically wanted Mother’s Day to honor the mothers within each family, and not just “mothers” in general.

39 ATT: A pass attempt (att.) …

41 DILLINGER: Ana Cumpanas was a madam in a brothel in Gary, Indiana. She made a deal with the FBI to help pick out John Dillinger when they were leaving a movie theater together. As agreed, she wore a orange/red dress so that she could easily be seen in the crowd. Dillinger died in the resulting shootout. All this is acted out in detail in the excellent biopic about Dillinger starring Johnny Depp, “Public Enemies“.

43 DOREN: Mark Van Doren, as well as being a Pulitzer Prize winner, was the father of Charles Van Doren, the man at the center of the “Twenty One” quiz show scandal. As such, his character appears in the movie “Quiz Show“, played by Paul Schofield.

47 MESTA: Perle Mesta was a socialite and fundraiser for the Democratic Party. She was made U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg in 1949. Mesta was played by Ethyl Merman in the movie adaptation of the musical “Call Me Madam“.

Down
1 HABIB: Philip Habib was a member of the U.S. diplomatic team in the Vietnam peace negotiations. He was also the U.S. mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian talks that led to the Camp David Peace Accord in 1978.

2 ARAME: Arame is species of kelp, and quite delicious (but then again, I am a vegan!).

3 REGIS: Regis University is a Roman Catholic, Jesuit school, founded in 1877.

10 EDNAS: Edna Turnblad has traditionally been played in drag, ever since the original Broadway version of  “Hairspray”. In the recent movie, Edna was played by John Travolta.

33 LONG E: The word e-asily starts with a long e. Nice one …

35 MENE: In the Book of Daniel, there is the story of the words “Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharson” being written mysteriously on the walls of the royal place. This story is the origin of the phrase “the writing’s on the wall”.