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, or leave a comment below.
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: Ages! Two sittings …
THEME: N/A
ANSWERS I MISSED: 2 … BRA (BRO!), SARGASSO (SARGOSSO)
TODAY’S WIKI-EST, AMAZONIAN GOOGLIES
Across
1. Flower-scented refresher : JASMINE TEA
The reason why jasmine tea has a floral scent is because as the tea leaves are being dried, they are “mated” with jasmine blossoms, stored together in a humid environment so that the fragrance and flavor of the flowers are absorbed by the leaves.
16. Drink in a sippy cup : WAWA
A tot drinks wawa (water) out of a sippy cup.
17. Longtime battler of the Mongols : BUCK ROGERS
Before Buck Rogers made it into the big time in the comic strip, he was a character in a pair of short stories written by Philip Francis Nowlan, the first of which was “Armageddon 2419 A.D.” In the stories, he was known as Anthony Rogers, and was given a name change when he went into the comics.
18. Antony’s love : AMOR
Amor is the Latin word for love, the noun. And Latin is the language that Mark Antony spoke.
19. It flows through Knottingley : AIRE
Knottingly is in Yorkshire in the north of England, not far from where I went to graduate school (lucky for me doing this puzzle). The biggest city on the River Aire in Yorkshire is Leeds.
20. Chicago Sting’s org. : NASL
The North American Soccer League was formed in 1968, a merger of two competing leagues. The league operated until 1984. The Chicago Sting was a team in the League from 1975 to 1984. The team took their name from the great 1973 movie “The Sting“, which was set in the city of Chicago.
21. Writer who created Shrek : STEIG
Before “Shrek” was a successful movie franchise, it was a children’s picture book called “Shrek!” authored and illustrated by William Steig. The title “Shrek!” came from teh German/Yiddish word Schreck, meaning “fear” or “terror”.
29. They utilize high bands : FM RADIOS
The radio spectrum is the is divided up into bands based on the frequency. So, a high band would be a band with relatively high frequencies. FM radio falls into the band called Very High Frequency, or VHF. On the other hand, AM radio uses lower frequencies, and so falls into the lower bands of Low, Medium and High Frequency (LF, MF, and HF).
31. World leader whose full name included Abdel twice : ARAFAT
The Palestinian leader’s full name was Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini.
40. Hit from the 1997 album “Surfacing” : ADIA
“Surfacing” was recorded by Sarah McLachlan. Based on what I just read, the track “Adia”, co-written by McLachen, was written as an apology to her best friend for stealing her ex-boyfriend, and eventually marrying him!
58. Locale of the radial notch : ULNA
The radial notch is at the elbow end of the ulna.
62. “As You Like It” servant : ADAM
“As You Like It” is one of Shakespeare’s comedies, the tale of Rosalind fleeing from her Uncle’s court, along with her cousin, Celia and the court jester, Touchstone. Adam is a relatively minor role, a faithful old servant of Orlando. The interesting thing about the role of Adam though is that some people think that Shakespeare himself played the role in some performances. The play is perhaps most memorable for its oft-wuoted speach that starts with “All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players …”
63. One who used to go clubbing? : TROGLODYTE
Troglodyte is a term that is used interchangeably with “caveman”.
64. Hanna-Barbera productions : CELS
I once had the privilege of spending an afternoon in the room (Bill Hanna’s den) where Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera came up with the idea of “The Flintstones“.
Down
1. “Original father of harmony,” per Beethoven, briefly : JS BACH
Growing up, Beethoven was very familiar with Bach’s compositions growing up, as he studied his “Well-Tempered Clavier”. Bach certainly set things up for the Classical composers: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.
2. Heavenly neighbor of Scutum : AQUILA
Aquila is the Latin word for “eagle”, and Scutum is the Latin for “shield”. Aquila and Scutum are two constellations.
3. Former Ecuadorean money : SUCRES
The Ecuadorian sucre was named after Antonio Jose de Sucre, the Venezuelan independence leader and close confidante of Simon Bolivar. The sucre currency was in use from 1884, right up until 2000, when the currency became so weak it was replaced by the US dollar.
6. It’s noble : NEON
Neon is one of the noble gases, those elements over on the extreme right of the Periodic Table. Because of their “full” complement of electrons, noble gases are very nonreactive. The noble gases are Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton and Xenon.
7. Guest in a library : EDGAR
The poems of Edgar Guest might be found in a library. In the latter part of his life, he was known widely as the People’s Poet.
10. Lyricist Dubin and others : ALS
Al Dubin was a lyricist, most famous for his work on the 1933 movie “42nd Street“.
11. Clock : SWAT
To clock someone is to swat someone. I always thought that to clock someone was to hit him in the face, but I could be wrong.
14. Floating brown algae : SARGASSO
Sargassum (plural sargasso) is best known as a free-floating, brown alga. The Sargasso Sea, an area within the Atlantic Ocean, is famous for being home to many species of Sargassum. The alga is named after the Sargasso Sea, not the other way round.
23. Group in the Bogart film “Black Legion” : KLAN
The 1937 film “Black Legion” was about a real-life Black Legion, a group that existed within the Klu Klux Klan in the thirties. This group wore black uniforms, with a skull and crossbones insignia. They were responsible for many atrocities, including the murder of Earl Little, the father of Malcolm X.
25. Historical region on the Strait of Dover : ARTOIS
Artois was a province in Northern France, right on the coast next to the Strait of Dover.
28. One way to take back one’s words? : ERASER
Clever clue …
34. Something that’s the most luxurious of its kind : CADILLAC
The Cadillac Automobile Company was founded in 1902, as an independent company. It was taken over by GM in 1909, and over the next thirty years GM did a great job establishing Cadillac as the luxury car one just had to own.
35. Capital on Gulf St. Vincent : ADELAIDE
Adelaide is the capital city of the state of South Australia. Adelaide was named after Queen Adelaide, the wife of England’s King William IV.
37. River past Solothurn : AAR
The Aar (also called the Aare in German) is a major river in Switzerland. The city of Solothurn is famous for its association with the number 11. The Solothurn canton was 11th to join the Swiss Confederation. There are eleven churches in the city, as well as eleven fountains and eleven towers. the city’s cathedral has eleven altars, eleven bells, and eleven steps between each level of the steps in front of the building. It sounds a little “phooey” to me, but a local brewery is making money out of it by selling Oufi brand beer, Swiss German for eleven.
39. “Everybody Loves ___” (Johnny Cash title track) : A NUT
The album “Everybody Loves A Nut” was released by Johnny Cash in 1966.
42. He wrote “I will show you fear in a handful of dust” : TS ELIOT
The line is from Eliot’s celebrated 1922 poem “The Waste Land“. Evelyn Waugh used the line when he titled his 1934 novel “A Handful of Dust“.
46. 100 centimes : GOURDE
The Gourde is the currency used in Haiti.
48. Opera character who sings “Eri tu” : RENATO
The aria “Eri tu” is from Verdi’s opera “Un ballo in maschera” (A Masked Ball). It tells the story of the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden, during a masked ball.
49. A bee may be on it : STAMEN
The stamen is the male reproductive organ of a flower. The anther carries the pollen, which is picked up the bee and transfered to from flower to flower.
55. Phenomena after retiring : REMS
Rapid Eye Movements.