Quicklinks:
The full solution to today’s crossword that appears in the New York Times
The full solution to today’s SYNDICATED New York Times crossword that appears in all other publications
THEME: “I’m ALL IN” … all the theme answers are common expressions with the words “ALL IN” dropped i.e. (ALL IN) FAVOR, (ALL IN) GOOD TIME, (ALL IN) ONE, (ALL IN) YOUR HEAD, (ALL IN) THE FAMILY, (ALL IN) A DAY’S WORK
COMPLETION TIME: 10m 7s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0
Across
1. *Cry at the start of a vote : FAVOR
(ALL IN) FAVOR
Otis Redding is often referred to as the “King of Soul”, and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”.
14. Duane ___ (New York City pharmacy chain) : READE
The chain of drug and convenience stores in New York City known as Duane Reade were started in 1960 by three brothers. The first three stores were serviced by a warehouse in lower Manhattan located on Broadway between Duane and Reade streets, streets that gave the chain its name.
When Cher recorded the 1998 song “Believe”, the audio engineers routinely corrected the sound of Cher’s voice to ensure that all notes were sung with perfect pitch (all singers “cheat”, it seems!). The software that does this pitch correction is called “Auto-Tune”. Then, for a bit of fun, the same engineers played with the Auto-Tune software and created a special effect in her voice that she so liked it was left in the final release. You can easily detect the strange effect if you listen to the song. The process is now called the “Cher Effect” and is used by other artists in their recordings.
19. Liberals, with “the” : LEFT
The concept of left-right politics started in France during the French Revolution. When members of France’s National Assembly convened in 1789, supporters of the King sat to the President’s right, and supporters of the revolution to the President’s left. The political term’s “left” and “right” were then coined in the local media, and have been ever since.
20. *”Soon enough, my friend” : GOOD TIME
(ALL IN) GOOD TIME
22. Big mess : SNAFU
SNAFU is an acronym standing for Situation Normal: All Fouled Up (well, that’s the “polite” version!). As you might imagine, the term developed in the US Army, during WWII.
24. “Bien ___!” : SUR
“Bien sûr” translates from French as “of course”, although a literal translation is “well sure”.
Ana Gasteyer is an actress best known for being a cast member of “Saturday Night Live” from 1996 to 2002. Gasteyer was famous on SNL for playing Martha Stewart … topless!
26. French theologian who wrote “Sic et Non” : ABELARD
Peter Abélard was a French philosopher who did most of his teaching in the 12th century. He is renowned not only for his theological writings, but for his legendary affair with Héloïse d’Argenteuil. Héloïse became pregnant by Abélard and was sent way from her home on the grounds of Notre-Dame in Paris to Brittany where she gave birth to a son. The loving couple married in secret, but when they were discovered Héloïse’s uncle separated the two sending his niece off to a convent in Argenteuil, where years later she became the prioress. The uncle’s vengeance on Abélard was more brutal, as he had him castrated. Soon after, Abélard himself went into the church and became a monk. Yowza …
Jean Sibelius was the most famous Finnish classical composer, and shall forever be linked with his wonderful symphonic poem, “Finlandia”. Sibelius composed so many, many lovely pieces of music right up until the mid 1920s when he was in his fifties. Despite all his efforts, he did not produce any noted works for the last thirty years of his life.
29. Seat of Albany County, Wyo. : LARAMIE
A French (or French-Canadian) trapper named Jacques LaRemie came to the area surrounding modern-day Laramie in the late 1810s, one of the first Europeans to visit. One day he disappeared without trace in the back country, but his name survives as it’s used for the Laramie Mountains, Laramie River, and ultimately the city of Laramie, Wyoming.
The Notorious B.I.G. was the stage name of rap star Christopher Wallace. While at the height of his fame Wallace was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, a murder case that has never been solved. The 2009 movie “Notorious” is about Wallace’s life and stars fellow rap artist Jamal Woolard (aka Gravy) in the title role.
Many of you will remember Bennett Cerf as a regular panelist on the great television game show “What’s My Line?” He was a publisher and co-founder of Random House, and was the man responsible for winning publishing contracts with authors such as Eugene O’Neill, Truman Capote and James Michener. He was hilarious on “What’s My Line”, appearing in almost every episode of the show which ran from 1951 to 1967. He had such a gentlemanly way of making the most puerile puns.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was one of the earliest leaders of the woman’s rights and woman’s suffrage movements in the United States. Notably, she opposed the extension of voting rights to African American men (the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments), even though she was an outspoken abolitionist. She believed that increasing the number of male voters in the country would just make it harder for women to get the vote.
36. *As a package : ONE
(ALL IN) ONE
38. Here, in Juárez : ACA
The Mexican city sitting across the border from El Paso is more correctly called Ciudad Juárez. Juárez used to be called El Paso del Norte (the North Pass). It was to be the younger settlement on the northern side of the Rio Grande which would retain the “El Paso” name.
The Martin B-10 bomber entered service in 1934. It was the first bomber to have retractable landing gear, an internal bomb bay and a powered gun turret. It was built for speed and was 50% faster than its predecessor biplane bombers, and at the time of its introduction, the B-10 was even faster than any fighter plane of the day.
45. Move from site to site? : SURF
The use of the word “surf” to mean cruising around the Internet dates back to 1993, when Internet browsers started to become popular.
Arsenio Hall got his big break with his role in “Coming to America” with Eddie Murphy in 1988. The following year he started hosting “The Arsenio Hall Show”, which ran until 1994. He had a loyal group of fans in the audience that had the habit of almost “barking” while pumping their fists in the air. The raucous move became so popular it extended far beyond the influences of Arsenio, and to this day it is still used as a mark of appreciation in some arenas. Not by me, mind you …
47. Oslo Accords party, for short : PLO
The Oslo Accords grew out of secret negotiations between Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israeli delegates in a residence in Oslo. The teams shared the same house while they conducted 14 meetings. While eating all their meals together at the same table, the negotiators came to respect one another and apparently friendships developed.
I saw Justin Bieber on television the other day for the first time, and boy do I feel old. This heartthrob from Canada was born in 1994(!), and he is recording hit after hit record. Me, I’ll stick with the Beatles …
The term “tween” is now used to describe preadolescence, the years between 10 and 12 years of age.
52. *Completely imagined : YOUR HEAD
(ALL IN) YOUR HEAD
Toots Shor ran his Toot’s Shor’s Restaurant in Manhattan during the forties and fifties. The establishment served relatively plain American cuisine, but it was a celebrated hangout for the New York elite. Shor’s personality brought in the rich and famous, like Jackie Gleason, Charlie Chaplin, Chief Justice Earl Warren and Louis B. Mayer.
When “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” came out in 1982 it set a world record for first-day sales of movie tickets, despite the fact that the preceding “Star Trek” film was viewed as a critical and commercial flop. William Shatner of course played James T. Kirk, and the evil Khan was played by Ricardo Montalbán. Leonard Nimoy didn’t want to appear in the sequel, and only agreed to do so when the producers agreed to “kill off” Spock at the end of the story (but he comes back … and back … and back …).
59. Alveoli site : LUNG
The alveoli are the little air sacs in the lungs of mammals, the site of gas exchange with the blood. Carbon dioxide is taken out of the blood and replaced with oxygen. Isn’t life remarkable?
60. “I love you,” in a telenovela : TE AMO
A “telenovela” is a “television novel”, a form of programming that is very popular in Latin America. It is sort of like a soap opera that has an end in sight, that runs for less than a year. I like this quote from an executive at Telemundo:
“A telenovela is all about a couple who wants to kiss and a scriptwriter who stands in their way for 150 episodes.”
63. Poker phrase … or what’s needed to complete the answers to the six starred clues : ALL IN
Down
1. Aristophanes comedy, with “The” : FROGS
Aristophanes was a comic playwright of Ancient Athens. He is known to have written at least forty plays, eleven of which have survived almost intact. Aristophanes was famous for writing plays that satirized life in the city, and was apparently much feared by public figures. Some say that the ridicule Aristophanes brought down on Socrates in his play “The Clouds” helped bring about his (Socrates’) trial and execution.
The red-tailed hawk is one of the most common hawks in North America and is found all over the continent. Because they are so common, if you see a hawk that has been captured and trained for falconry, it’s most likely a red-tail.
The Pac-Man arcade game was first released in Japan in 1980 and is as popular today as it ever was, at least in some circles. The game features characters that are maneuvered around the screen to eat up dots and earn points. The name comes from the Japanese folk hero “Paku”, known for his appetite.
![PAC-MAN [Game Download]](https://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=B003ZSIJA2&tag=wesneyoticrso-20)
7. New York stadium eponym : ASHE
The Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York opened in 1997 and is the largest outdoor, tennis-only venue in the world. The stadium is sometimes criticized for not having a retractable dome to protect the playing surface from inclement weather, a constant cause of debate.
8. Taradiddle : LIE
A tarradiddle (also taradiddle) is just a little lie, a fib.
Having lived on both sides of the Atlantic, I find the Mars Bar to be one of the most perplexing candies! The original Mars Bar is a British confection (and delicious) first manufactured in 1932. The US version of the original Mars Bar is called a Milky Way. But the Milky Way is also produced in the UK, and it is completely different to its US cousin, and is more like an American “3 Musketeers”. Then there is the American Mars Bar, something different again. No wonder I gave up eating candy bars …
“(ALL IN) THE FAMILY”
“All in the Family” is an American sitcom, a remake of the incredibly successful BBC sitcom called “Till Death Us Do Part”. Both the UK and US versions of the show were groundbreaking in that the storyline brought into focus topics previously considered unsuitable for a television comedy, including racism, homosexuality, women’s liberation, menopause and impotence. “All in the Family” is one of only three TV shows that has topped the Nielsen ratings for five consecutive seasons (the other two are “The Cosby Show” and “American Idol”).
23. Brand of 45-Down balls : NERF
(45. See 23-Down : SPONGY)
Nerf is the name given to a soft material used in a whole series of toys designed for “safe” play indoors. The Nerf material is used to make ammunition for toy guns, darts, and balls. The acronym NERF stands for Non-Expanding Recreational Foam.
26. Direction at sea : ALEE
The direction “alee” is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he is pointing “aweather”.
30. Where “Otello” premiered, with “La” : SCALA
Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Otello” was first performed in 1887 at the La Scala Theater in Milan. It is based on Shakespeare’s “Othello” and is considered by many to be Verdi’s greatest work.
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur was one of the US’s most famous military men, truly a legend in his own time. MacArthur has been played on the screen many times. Famous portrayals are by:
– Henry Fonda in “Collision Course: Truman vs. MacArthur”, a TV movie from 1976
– Gregory Peck in “MacArthur”, the biopic from 1977
– Laurence Olivier in “Inchon”, a movie set during the Korean War, released in 1982
32. *To be expected : A DAY’S WORK
(ALL IN) A DAY’S WORK
33. MSNBC competitor : CNN
CNN (Cable News Network) was launched in 1980, the first television channel in the world to provide news 24 hours a day.
36. Vintner’s prefix : OENO-
In Greek mythology Oeno was the goddess of wine, giving us “oeno-” as a prefix meaning “wine”. Oenology, for example, is the study of wine.
Mr Sulu was of course played by George Takei in the original “Star Trek” series. He has played lots of roles over the years, and is still very active in television. Did you know that Takei appeared in the 1963 film, “Pt-109”? He played the helmsman steering the Japanese destroyer that ran down John F. Kennedy’s motor torpedo boat.
42. How some wages are calculated : PRO RATA
“Pro rata” is a Latin phrase meaning “in proportion”.
44. Popular tractors : DEERES
John Deere invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837. Prior to Deere’s invention, farmers used an iron or wooden plow that constantly had to be cleaned as rich soil stuck to its surfaces. The cast-steel plow was revolutionary as its smooth sides solved the problem of “stickiness”.
45. See 23-Down : SPONGY
48. Untamed : FERAL
“Feral”, meaning existing in a wild or untamed state, comes from the Latin word “fera” meaning “a wild animal”.
“Drag Me to Hell” is a horror film released in 2009. It was directed by Sam Raimi, with a screenplay written by Raimi and his brother. I’m not one for horror movies …
Sam Raimi is a very successful director and producer, responsible for the “Spiderman” series of films among others, and TV series such as “Xena: Warrior Princess”.
50. Classic theater : ODEON
In Ancient Greece, an odeon was like a small theater, with “odeon” literally meaning a “building for musical competition”. Odea were used in both Greece and Rome, for entertainments such as musical shows and poetry readings.
The yin and the yang can be explained using many different metaphors. In one, as the sun shines on a mountain, the side in the shade is the yin, and the side in the light is the yang. The yin is also regarded as the feminine side, and the yang the masculine.
53. Cad : HEEL
Our word “cad”, meaning a person lacking in finer feelings”, is a shortening of the word “cadet”. Cad was first used for a servant, and then students at British universities used “cad” as a name for a boy from the local town. “Cad” took on its current meaning in the 1830s.
54. Where the robed are rubbed : SPA
The word “spa” migrated to English from Belgium, as Spa is the name of a health resort there. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.
I don’t like many westerns, to be honest, but the 1963 movie “Hud” is a classic. It stars Paul Newman and Patricia Neal and is an adaptation of a novel by Larry McMurtry called “Horseman, Pass By”. Patricia Neal’s role in the film was relatively small, yet her performance was enough to earn her an Academy Award for Best Actress.
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. *Cry at the start of a vote : FAVOR
6. Tree in California : PALM
10. Soulful Redding : OTIS
14. Duane ___ (New York City pharmacy chain) : READE
15. Land west of the Pacific : ASIA
16. “This is terrible!” : OH NO
17. Greased : OILED
18. “Believe” singer, 1999 : CHER
19. Liberals, with “the” : LEFT
20. *”Soon enough, my friend” : GOOD TIME
22. Big mess : SNAFU
24. “Bien ___!” : SUR
25. Former “S.N.L.” comic Gasteyer : ANA
26. French theologian who wrote “Sic et Non” : ABELARD
28. Jean Sibelius, for one : FINN
29. Seat of Albany County, Wyo. : LARAMIE
30. Biggie ___ (rapper a k a Notorious B.I.G.) : SMALLS
33. Bennett of “What’s My Line?” : CERF
34. “Am ___ risk?” : I AT
35. Women’s rights pioneer Elizabeth ___ Stanton : CADY
36. *As a package : ONE
37. Old man: Ger. : ALTE
38. Here, in Juárez : ACA
39. Bomber type : B-TEN
41. More agile : SPRYER
43. Relinquish, as arms : LAY DOWN
45. Move from site to site? : SURF
46. Hall of TV fame : ARSENIO
47. Oslo Accords party, for short : PLO
48. One way to sway : FRO
51. Many a Justin Bieber fan : TWEEN
52. *Completely imagined : YOUR HEAD
54. Restaurateur Toots : SHOR
55. Kirk’s foe in a “Star Trek” sequel : KHAN
57. Lofty dwelling : AERIE
58. Unadulterated : PURE
59. Alveoli site : LUNG
60. “I love you,” in a telenovela : TE AMO
61. Sacred chests : ARKS
62. Tense : EDGY
63. Poker phrase … or what’s needed to complete the answers to the six starred clues : ALL IN
Down
1. Aristophanes comedy, with “The” : FROGS
2. Alphabetic pentad : AEIOU
3. Bravery : VALOR
4. Took too much : ODED
5. Common North American hawk : RED-TAIL
6. Iconic chomper : PAC-MAN
7. New York stadium eponym : ASHE
8. Taradiddle : LIE
9. Classic candy with nougat : MARS BAR
10. “How lu-u-uxurious!” : OO LA LA
11. *Top-rated TV series of 1971-76 : THE FAMILY
12. Madden : INFURIATE
13. Lush : SOT
21. Quaint lodgings : INNS
23. Brand of 45-Down balls : NERF
26. Direction at sea : ALEE
27. Block : DETER
28. Pass muster : FLY
30. Where “Otello” premiered, with “La” : SCALA
31. General played by Fonda (in 1976), Peck (1977) and Olivier (1982) : MACARTHUR
32. *To be expected : A DAY’S WORK
33. MSNBC competitor : CNN
36. Vintner’s prefix : OENO-
37. Terrier’s sound : ARF
39. Exemplar of dryness : BONE
40. Glimmer : TWINKLE
41. U.S.S. Enterprise helmsman : SULU
42. How some wages are calculated : PRO RATA
44. Popular tractors : DEERES
45. See 23-Down : SPONGY
48. Untamed : FERAL
49. Sam who directed “Drag Me to Hell” : RAIMI
50. Classic theater : ODEON
52. Masculine side : YANG
53. Cad : HEEL
54. Where the robed are rubbed : SPA
56. Movie for which Patricia Neal won Best Actress : HUD