0930-10: New York Times Crossword Answers 30 Sep 10, Thursday

Quicklinks:
The full solution to today’s crossword that appears in the New York Times
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THEME: Uh-uh! … all the theme answers are possible meanings of “uh-uh!” e.g I WOULDN’T … IF I WERE YOU, BAD IDEA, BACK OFF
COMPLETION TIME: 13m 00s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Across
1. Sci-fi role starting in 1966 : MR SPOCK
Leonard Nimoy played the logical Mr. Spock on the original “Star Trek” television series. He has to be the most popular character, and keeps popping up in “Star Trek” spin offs to this day. Nimoy first worked alongside William Shatner (Captain Kirk) in an episode of “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” (I loved that show!), with Nimoy playing a bad guy, and Shatner an U.N.C.L.E. recruit.

8. Keach of “W.” : STACY
What a distinctive voice Stacy Keach has, one that has served him well. In addition to his great appearances on screen, Keach is familiar to viewers as a narrator for television series like “Nova”, “American Experience” and “National Geographic”. Keach was born with a cleft lip and partial cleft palate that required lots of surgery when he was a child. I’d say he is a remarkable role model for kids born with a similar problem, and indeed today Keach is the honorary chairperson of the Cleft Palate Foundation.

15. He played opposite Jones in “Carousel” and “Oklahoma!” : MACRAE
Gordon Macrae was best known for appearances in “Oklahoma!” and “Carousel”, two musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein. In both he appeared opposite leading lady Shirley Jones. He and Jones became lifelong friends, and Macrae was the godfather of one of her sons.

16. With 24-Across, “Uh-uh!” : I WOULDN’T
24. See 16-Across : IF I WERE YOU
I wouldn’t … if I were you …

18. Map line: Abbr. : RTE
Some maps show routes.

21. Wagering locale: Abbr. : OTB
Off-Track Betting is the legal gambling that takes place on horse races outside of a race track. A betting parlor can sometimes be referred to as an OTB.

22. Some socials : BEES
Back in 18th century America, when neighbors would gather to work together for the benefit of one of their group, such a meeting was called a “bee”. The name “bee” was an allusion to the social nature of the insect. In modern parlance, a further element of entertainment and pleasure has been introduced, for example in a “quilting bee”.

24. See 16-Across : IF I WERE YOU

27. Wayne or Lee : BRUCE
Bruce Wayne is the secret identity of Batman in the comic series created by DC Comics. The first name of Bruce was chosen as a homage to the Scottish king and heroic figure, Robert the Bruce. The family name was a nod to “Mad Anthony” Wayne, the US Army general and statesman who rose to prominence in the Revolutionary War.

Bruce Lee was born not far from here, in San Francisco, although he was raised in Hong Kong, returning to the US to attend college. Sadly, Bruce Lee died when he was only 32 years old, due to cerebral edema (a swelling of the brain) attributed to adverse reactions to the pain killing drug Equagesic.

31. Destination for a Near Eastern caravan : SERAI
A serai was a stopping off point for caravans along the trade routes of central and western Asia. It was typically an inn built around a large courtyard that provided accommodations for the traveling parties. The full name of such establishments was “caravanserai”, from the Persian karwan-sarai meaning inn (sarai) for a karwan (group of travelers).

34. “Uh-uh!” : BAD IDEA

36. “Uh-uh!” : BACK OFF

40. Brand associated with Everyday Knee Highs : L’EGGS
L’eggs is such a clever brand name, I think. L’eggs is a brand of pantyhose (L’eggs = legs), with its product sold, well, it used to be, in egg-shaped containers (L’eggs = “the” eggs). The brand was introduced in 1969, an instant hit. The inventive marketing of L’eggs pantyhose led to a competitive response by Kayser-Roth who introduced the No Nonsense brand in 1973. The idea behind No Nonsense was that the packaging of L’eggs was just a gimmick, and here was a No Nonsense alternative. L’eggs won the battle though.

43. Island in the Tyrrhenian Sea : ELBA
I had a lovely two-week vacation in Tuscany once, including what was supposed to be a two-night stay on Elba. I had envisioned Elba as a place full of history, and maybe it is, but it is overrun with tourists who use it as a beach getaway. We left after one day, and we won’t be going back.

The Tyrrhenian Sea is that part of the Mediterranean that lies off the west coast of Italy. It is bounded on the north and east by the Italian mainland, on the west by the large islands of Corsica and Sardinia, and on the south by Sicily.

48. Deut. preceder : NUM
Numbers is the fourth Book of the Hebrew Bible, with the English title coming from the “numbering of the Israelites”, a census taken in the wilderness of the Sinai and again on the plain of Moab.

Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible. The English title of Deuteronomy comes from a Greek word which translates as “second law”.

49. “Uh-uh!” : THINK AGAIN

52. ___ Harker, wife in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” : MINA
Mina Harker is a character appearing in Bram Stoker’s novel, “Dracula”. I really don’t do vampires, so I can’t tell you anything about her …

53. Dorm V.I.P.’s, for short : RAS
RAs are resident assistants, or resident advisors, the peer leaders found in residence halls, particularly on a college campus.

55. Letters on the road : HOV
In some parts of the country one sees high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV lanes), but out here in California, we call them carpool lanes.

58. “Uh-uh!” : DON’T DO IT

64. Girl in “Waterworld” : ENOLA
“Waterworld“, a Kevin Costner vehicle released in 1995, really wasn’t that great a movie despite it’s promising storyline about land submerged by melting polar ice caps. The movie was filmed in Hawaii, a massive production with a huge budget overrun. I went SCUBA diving in one of the locations a few years after the films crews had headed home. All along the reef there were small metal plates embedded in the rock, used as anchor points for various floating sets. I would have thought that kind of thing would have been cleaned up, but no …

65. Guinness superlative : TALLEST
“The Guinness Book of World Records” holds some records of its own. It is the best-selling copyrighted series of books of all time, and is one of the books most often stolen from public libraries! The book was first published in 1954, by two twins, Norris and Ross McWhirter. The McWhirter twins found themselves with a smash hit, and eventually became very famous in Britain on a TV show based on world records.

Down
1. Year Michelangelo began work on “David” : MDI
When Michelangelo’s famous statue of David was unveiled in 1504, it was at a time when the city state of the Florentine Republic was threatened by rival states (including Rome). The statue depicts David after he has decided to fight Goliath, and he has what is described as a “warning glare”. David was originally placed outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of government, and that warning glare was directed very deliberately at it’s enemy, Rome.

2. VCR button : REW
Video Cassette Recorders have rewind buttons, but have you tried to buy one lately?

3. Bridge need : SCORE PAD
There’s a score pad needed when playing the card game, bridge.

5. Heraldic band : ORLE
In heraldry, an orle is a decorative band that lies close to the edge of the front surface of a shield.

6. Mail order option : COD
Cash on Delivery.

7. Style of fighting : KUNG FU
In the west we sometimes use the term kung fu as a Chinese martial art. We’ve gotten the wrong idea though, as the term “kung fu” really describes any skill that can be learned through dedication and hard work. So, kung fu can describe a martial art, but not exclusively.

8. Nymph pursuer : SATYR
The satyrs of Greek mythology came with a very high sex drive. They are the “rude” male subjects drawn on the side of old Greek vases. The nubile maidens known as nymphs were often an object of attention for the satyrs.

9. Fort Worth sch. : TCU
Texas Christian University is a private school in Fort Worth, Texas. TCU used to be called AddRan Male & Female, named after an AddRan Clark, the son of Addison Clark who died at the age of 3-years-old from diphtheria. Poor young AddRan was named after his father and his brother, Addison and Randolph.

10. Arid region’s watercourse : ARROYO
An arroyo is a small stream, or more often, a dry riverbed.

14. Greek philosophical group : STOICS
Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher who was famous for teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the “Painted Porch”, located on the north side of the famous Ancient Agora of Athens. Because of the location of his classes, his philosophy became known as stoicism (from stoa/porch). And yes, we get our adjective “stoic” from the same root.

20. One who’s definitely not in the in-crowd : DWEEB
Dweeb is relatively recent American slang that came out of college life in the late sixties. Dweeb, squarepants, nerd: they’re all are not-so-nice terms that mean the same thing, someone excessively studious and socially inept.

23. Zeno’s locale : ELEA
Zeno of Elea was a Greek philosopher, around before the time of the more famous Socrates. He lived in Elea, a Greek colony in Southern Italy. Along with Parmenides, Zeno was at the heart of what became known the Eleatic school.

24. Sale table notation : IRREG
One is likely to find irregular sizes on the sales table in a store.

25. Actress Alexander of “The Cosby Show” : ERIKA
Erika Alexander is the actress that played Pam Tucker, a cousin that came to live with the Huxtable household in “The Cosby Show”. She also won many awards for playing Maxine Shaw on the Fox sitcom “Living Single”.

27. Eliot protagonist : BEDE
“Adam Bede” was the first novel written by the English writer George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans). It was published in 1859, and has been in print since then, over 150 years.

30. European fashion capital : MILAN
Milan is a European fashion capital alright, the headquarters for the big Italian fashion houses of Valentino, Gucci, Versace, Armani, Prada and others. Mario Prada was even born in Milan, helping establish the city’s reputation.

33. “Don’t have ___!” : A COW
The phrase “don’t have a cow” originated in the fifties, a variation of the older “don’t have kittens”. The concept behind the phrase is that one shouldn’t get worked up, it’s not like one is giving birth to a cow.

35. Disco phrase : A GO GO
Go-go dancing started in the early sixties. Apparently, the first go-go dancers were women at the Peppermint Lounge in New York City who would spontaneously jump up onto tables and dance the twist. It wasn’t long before clubs everywhere started hiring women to dance on tables for the entertainment of their patrons. Out in Los Angeles, the “Whisky a Go Go” club on Sunset Strip added a twist (pun intended!), as they had their dancers perform in cages suspended from the ceiling, creating the profession of “cage dancing”. The name “go-go” actually comes from two expressions. The expression in English, “go-go-go” describes someone who is high energy, and the expression in French “a gogo” describes something in abundance.

37. Hardly a picky eater : OMNIVORE
The term “omnivore” comes from Latin, meaning “one who devours all”.

38. 8-Down’s Roman equivalent : FAUN
8. Nymph pursuer : SATYR
Fauns are regarded as the Roman mythological equivalent of the Greek satyrs, but fauns were half-man and half-goat, and much more “carefree” in personality than their Hellenic cousins. In the more modern world, we are quite familiar with Mr. Tumnus, the faun-like character encountered by the children entering the world of Narnia in C. S. Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”.

39. Low-cost home loan corp. : FNMA
The Federal National Mortgage Association is commonly called Fannie Mae, a play on the acronym FNMA.

43. Brokerage name since 1992 : E*TRADE
E*Trade is mainly an online discount brokerage. It was founded in 1982 in Palo Alto, California, and I used to drive by its headquarters almost every day. The company is now run out of New York City. E*Trade runs those famous Super Bowl ads with the talking babies staring into a webcam.

44. Like the Dalai Lama, historically : LHASAN
Starting with the fifth Dalai Lama in the 17th century, the Buddhist leader has spent the winter in the magnificent Potola Palace in the Tibetan capital city of Lhasa. In 1959, however, the current Dalai Lama (the 14th) had to flee Tibet when the Tibetan people rebelled against Chinese occupation in 1959. Since then, he has resided in Dharamsala in Northern India, as a guest of the Indian people.

50. Fate : KARMA
Karma is religious concept with its basis in Indian faiths. Karma embraces the concept of cause and effect. Good deeds have good consequences at some later point in one’s life, or future life, or afterlife, and vice versa.

52. Feature at an auto show, in two different ways : MODEL
There are pretty models leaning up against the new models at an auto show, so I hear …

55. Webmaster’s lingo : HTML
HTML is HyperText Markup Language, the language used to write most Internet web pages (including this one).

57. Sushi fish : EEL
Sushi is a Japanese dish that has as its primary ingredient cooked, vinegared rice. The rice is often topped with something, usually fish, and can often be served in seaweed rolls. If you want raw fish by itself, then you have to order “sashimi”.

59. Jazz group, for short : NBA
The Utah Jazz professional basketball team moved to their current home in Salt Lake City in 1979. As one might guess from the name, the team originated in New Orleans, but only played there for five seasons. New Orleans was a tough place to be based because venues were hard to come by, and Mardi Gras forced the team to play on the road for a whole month.

60. Mag. edition : ISS
Magazines come in issues.

61. New Year festival overseas : TET
The full name for the new year holiday in Vietnam is Tet Nguyen Dan, meaning “Feast of the First Morning”. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.

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