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: 14m 22s
THEME: MY SPACE … many of the squares in the grid contain the letters MY instead of a single letter
ANSWERS I MISSED: 2 … MONISM (MYONISM), EDOM (EDOMY)
TODAY’S WIKI-EST, AMAZONIAN GOOGLIES
Across
Sammy Kaye’s
5. Brand name in the kitchen : AMANA
The Amana Corporation takes its name from the location of its original headquarters, in Middle Amana, Iowa.
The Greek god Ares is indeed bellicose. He is often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, but originally he was regarded as the god of blood-lust and slaughter.
19. Sleek, in car talk : AERO
Aero … short for aerodynamic, having very little wind resistance.
20. 1966 Mary Martin musical : IDO IDO
“I Do! I Do!” is a musical based on a play by Jan de Hartog called “The Fourposter”. The whole story, from 1895 to 1945, takes place in the bedroom of characters Agnes and Michael Snow, with a fourposter bed at center stage. Mary Martin played Agnes, and Robert Preston played Michael, when it opened on Broadway in 1966. Sounds fun …
23. Ex-lib, maybe : NEOCON
By definition, a neoconservative supports the use of American power and military to bring democracy, liberty, equality and human rights to other countries.
25. Views that reality is a unitary whole : MONISMS
Monism is the philosophy that many apparent disparate objects and views, can in fact be unified. For example, Although the universe appears to made of so may stars and planets, a monist would point out it is just one universe. A monist may argue in the field of religion that there really is only one God, and that the deities worshiped in various religions are just manifestations of that one God.
Remy Martin: my favorite cognac (remember that when it’s my birthday!). In China, the name Remy Martin is not used, but rather the more colorful “man-headed horse”, describing the centaur logo on the bottle.
32. Ancient Greek sculptor of athletes : MYRON
Myron was a Greek sculptor working in the middle of the fifth century BC. His most famous works are bronzes, of very fit, able-bodied athletes.
37. Hogwash : TRIPE
Tripe and hogwash are both words used informally meaning rubbish, of little value. Tripe is actually the rubbery lining of say a cow, that’s traditionally eaten with onions in the UK.
41. Place for une île : MER
The French would find “une ile” (an island) in “la mer” (the sea).
The Brickyard 400
46. Makes a cat’s-paw of : USES
There’s an old tale dating back to the 16th century about a monkey that persuaded a cat to pull chestnuts out the fire for him, so that the monkey could avoid burning his own paws. Since then, a cat’s-paw has been a term used for a dupe, someone used by another.
48. “Baby Baby” singer, 1991 : AMY GRANT
Amy Grant is known as “The Queen of Christian Pop” and her most famous songs are Gospel and Contemporary Christian works. “Baby Baby
58. Carbon 14 and uranium 235 : ISOTOPES
Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon that is found in nature in small amounts, and is used to in the technique known as radiocarbon dating, a relatively accurate way of determining the age of something up about 60,000 years old. Uranium-235 is also found in nature, again in tiny amounts. When uranium is “enriched” it is processed so that the concentration of uranium-235 is increased from trace levels to perhaps over 50%, making what is called “weapons grade” uranium, that can be used in nuclear weapons.
The original film “The Omen” was released in 1976. “Damien: Omen II
63. Shark on some menus : MAKO
The shortfin mako shark does indeed appear on menus, and as a result the species is dying out in some parts of the world. The mako gets its own back sometimes though, and attacks on humans are not unknown. And the shark in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”, that’s a mako.
64. 1976 Eric Carmen hit : ALL BY MYSELF
In his hit “All By Myself
Robert Olen Butler is an American writer of fiction. He won a Pulitzer in 1995 for his collection of short stories called “A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
67. Homeric sorceress : CIRCE
Circe is a minor goddess in Greek mythology, the goddess of magic. She was fond of transforming those who did not please her into animals by using magical potions.
Down
1. Oral vaccine developer : SABIN
Albert Sabin developed the oral polio vaccine. Sabin’s vaccine was a “live”, controlled vaccine. The equally famous Salk vaccine was a “killed” vaccine.
Mystic, Connecticut sits on the Mystic River. Mystic River isn’t actually a river, but rather an estuary. Mystic is home to the largest maritime museum in the world, the Museum of America and the Sea
6. See 50-Down : MOE
Tommy Moe was the first American male skier to win two medals in a single Winter Olympics in 1994 at Lillehammer in Norway. It was considered a surprise result, as Moe had at that point not won a single World Cup race.
7. Wintour of fashion : ANNA
Anna Wintour
A yellow ribbon is symbolically worn by people awaiting the return of a loved one, usually from military service overseas, but also from behind bars. The song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” tells the tale of a convict returning home to his loved one who ties a whole load of yellow ribbons around the old oak tree for him.
10. Game maker since 1972 : ATARI
The kids today probably don’t realize that we had a video game console back in the seventies, but it wasn’t a Nintendo nor a PlayStation. The Atari 2600 game system introduced the idea of separating out computing hardware (the console) from the game code (a cartridge). The same concept persists to this day, although cartridges have been displaced by discs.
12. Sandwich man? : EARL
Meats placed between slices of bread was first called a sandwich in the 18th century, named after the Fourth Earl of Sandwich. The Earl was fond of eating “sandwiches” while playing cards at his club.
Enos, as the son of Seth, was the grandson of Adam.
26. Chinese menu notation : NO MSG
Monosodium glutamate is the sodium salt of a naturally occurring (and non-essential) amino acid, glutamic acid. It is used widely as a flavor enhancer, particularly in many Asian cuisines. Whether or not it is harmful seems to be still under debate. My vote is yes … it’s not good for you. something that comes out of test tube shouldn’t be in food.
28. Ancient city that lent its name to a fig : SMYRNA
Smyrna was the name of the Turkish city now called Izmir (since 1930), and the third largest city in the country. Smyrna fig trees were imported into California in the late 1880s, and are considered the most desirable of all figs cultivated today.
Mike Myers does do a great British accent, witness his performance in the madcap “Austin Powers” movies. He has an advantage though, as both his parents are British, living in Canada.
33. Explorer John and actress Charlotte : RAES
John Rae was a Scottish explorer, who took on the task of searching for the ill-fated Franklin Expedition of 1845. The Franklin Expedition was itself searching for the elusive Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific. John Rae created much controversy back in England when he reported evidence of cannibalism among the ill-fated Franklin explorers.
Charlotte Rae is an American actress, best known for playing the character Edna Garrett on two sitcoms from the seventies and eighties, “Diff’rent Strokes” and “The Facts of Life”.
34. Snowy peak of song : OLD SMOKEY
No one seems to be certain if the Old Smokey is actually a real place. It features, of course, in the old folk song “On Top of Old Smoky” (note the spelling of Smoky!). The best odds seem to be with Clingman’s Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains, the highest point in Tennessee. Clingman’s Dome used to be called “Smoky Dome” by local Scots-Irish folk.
Johannes Rau was President of Germany from 1999 till 2004. In Germany, the office of President is largely ceremonial, as the Chancellor is the head of government.
49. Popular social networking site, and this puzzle’s theme : MY SPACE
My Space used to be the most popular of the so-called social networking sites, until it was overtaken in terms of membership by FaceBook, in 2008. Still, there are over 100 million My Space members out there. I am not one of them …
52. Thing to do on Yom Kippur : ATONE
Yom Kippur is also known as the Day of Atonement.
“Life’s Little Ironies
59. Part of una casa : SALA
A room (sala) in a house (casa) in Spanish.
60. London Magazine essayist : ELIA
The “Essays of Elia” began appearing in the “London Magazine” in 1820, and were immediate hits. Elia was actually a clerk, and a co-worker of Charles Lamb. Lamb was the author.
SLR: Single Lens Reflex. Usually cameras with changeable lenses are SLR type. The main feature of an SLR is that a mirror reflects the image seen through the lens out through the viewfinder, so that the photographer sees exactly what the lens sees. The mirror moves out of the way as the picture is taken, and the image that comes through the lens falls onto unexposed film, or nowadays onto a digital sensor.
65. Pre-A.D. : BCE
BCE can stand for:
– Before the Common Era
– Before the Christian Era
– Before the Current Era