0215-10 New York Times Crossword Answers 15 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

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

Completion Time: 6m 4s
Theme: (BODY PART) IN THE (SOMETHING) e.g. MIND IN THE GUTTER, HAND IN THE TILL etc.
Answers I missed: 0

TODAY’S WIKI-EST, AMAZONIAN GOOGLIES
Across
14 EDIE: Edie Falco won her three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano in HBO’s outstanding drama series, “The Sopranos”.

20 INDIRA: Indira Gandhi’s father was Jawaharlai Nehru, Prime Minister of India (and the Nehru of the Nehru Jacket). Indira herself became Prime Minister of in 1966. She was assassinated in 1984 by two of her own bodyguards, as she walking to meet Peter Ustinov who was to interview her for Irish television.

35 ROUEN: Joan of Arc led the French Army successfully into battle a number of times during the Hundred Years War with England. When she was eventually captured, she was tried in Rouen, the seat of the occupying English government in France at that time. Famously, she was burned at the stake having been found guilty of heresy.
39 GINS: The term cotton gin is a contraction of “cotton eng-ine”. The gin is a machine that mechanically seperates cotton fibers from the cotton seed. The modern version of the cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793.

42 DECAF: The first successful process from removing caffeine involved steaming coffee beans in salt water, and then extracting the caffeine using benzene (a potent carcinogen) as a solvent. Coffee processed this way was sold as Sanka here in the US. There are other processes used these days, and let’s hope they are safer …

Down
1 DEMI: Demi Moore was born Demetria Guynes, and took the name Demi Moore when she married her first husband, Freddy Moore. She changed her name to Demi Guynes Kutcher a few years after marrying her present husband, Aston Kutcher. She still uses Demi Moore as her professional name.

2 ODIN: In Norse mythology, Valhalla is a gigantic hall (Valhalla means “hall of the slain”) in the “world” of Asgard. Asgard and Valhalla are ruled by the god Odin, the chief Norse god.

5 DONALD: Donald Trump got into real estate development under the influence of his father, Fred Trump, a wealthy New York City developer, and founder of the Trump Organization.

7 DAHL: Roald Dahl’s name is Norwegian, as his parents were from Norway. Dahl himself was Welsh, and became one of the most successful authors of the twentieth century. Some of his famous titles are “James and the Giant Peach” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory“.

26 KEN: Ken Burns directs and produces epic documentary films that usually make inventive use of archive footage. His most recent works are the sensational “The War” (about the US in WWII) and the magnificent “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea“.

28 NORAH: I don’t really like much contemporary music, but Norah Jones is a rare exception. Her musical style is enchanting. I was pleasantly surprised to find out recently that she is the daughter of sitarist Ravi Shankar.

29 TUFFET: Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet, in the popular nursery rhyme. A tuffet is a low seat or a footstool, another word for a pouffe or a hassock.

34 CLEO: Cleopatra was the last pharaoh to rule Egypt. After she died, Egypt became a province in the Roman Empire.

48 CHAD: We are all familiar with “hanging chads” after the famous Florida recounts of 2000. A chad is any piece of paper punched out from a larger sheet. So, those round bits of paper we’ve all dropped over the floor when emptying a hole punch, they’re chads.
50 MADD: Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

57 ESTA: “Come esta usted?” is the more formal way of asking, “how are you?” in Spanish.