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: Shedding a TEAR … each of the theme answers contains the letters TEAR i.e. “NE(T EAR)NINGS, WAS(TE AR)EA, DEFINI(TE AR)TICLE, WYET(T EAR)P, PLANE(T EAR)TH
COMPLETION TIME: 7m 40s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0
Across
The first jet to be called a “Jumbo” was Boeing’s 747, as it was the original wide-body airliner, meaning it was the first to have seating laid out with two aisles running the length of the plane. The plane also has three decks for part of its length, with the lower deck being used for cargo and galley space, and the upper deck for extra passenger seating. The more recently introduced Airbus A380 is called a “Superjumbo” as it has two full decks of passengers.
Rand McNally is a company long associated with the city of Chicago. Its roots go back to 1856 when William Rand opened a printing shop in the city. Two years later he hired and Irish immigrant call Andrew McNally and the pair turned to printing tickets and timetables for the railroad industry. The diversified into “railroad guides” in 1870, a precursor of what was to be their big success, the road atlas. When automobile travel started to become significant, Rand and McNally turned their attention to roads and they published their first road map, of New York City, in 1904. Rand and McNally really popularized the use of highway numbers, and indeed erected many roadside highway signs themselves, long before the state and federal authorities adopted the idea.
14. Part of the eye : RETINA
The retina is the name given to the tissue that lines the inside of the eye, the tissue that is light-sensitive. There are (mainly) two types of cell in the retina that are sensitive to light: the rods and the cones. Rods are cells that best function in very dim light and only provide black-and-white vision. Cones on the other hand function in brighter light and can perceive color.
16. Profits : NET EARNINGS
NE(T EAR)NINGS
In a statement of accounts, gross profit is the difference between revenue from sales and the cost of making goods or providing a service. So called fixed costs (overheads, payroll, taxes and interest payments) are not included in gross profits. When these fixed costs have been deducted from the gross profits, what is left is called the net profit, also known as “the bottom line” or “net earnings”.
The New Orleans Hornets joined the NBA in 1988 as an expansion team, originally based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The team was going to be called the Charlotte Spirit, but the name was changed following a “name the team” contest run in the local area. During the Revolutionary War, Lord General Cornwallis had referred to Charlotte as a “veritable nest of hornets” due the city’s resistance to British occupation, which explains the local fans’ fondness for the name “Hornets”. The franchise was moved to New Orleans for the 2002 season, as attendance wasn’t big enough to sustain the team in Charlotte.
19. Industrial city of Germany : ESSEN
I knew a man back in Ireland, a German national from the city of Essen. He had very sad tales to tell from the days of WWII. As a young boy he lost his (socialist) parents during the Nazi purges early in the war. In 1943, he was iliving with his grandmother and still attending school when he was drafted into the army along with the rest of his class (at 14 years old, he told me). His platoon leader was his old school teacher who made a point of tutoring the boys in place of military drilling. One day, he was on guard duty with his class/platoon at the dam above the city, and along come the Dam Busters, with their bouncing bombs. The raid was successful (from the perspective of the Allies), but he described terrible famine faced by the people below the dam due to flooding of the farmland that surrounded the factories.
Scud missiles were developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The Soviets called them R-11 missiles at first, with later versions known as R-17 and R-300 Elbrus. The name “Scud” was actually the name NATO used for the missile, a name created by Western intelligence officers. Ballistic missiles haven’t been used much in actual warfare, with the most ballistic missile launches happening in WWII, the German V-2 rocket attacks on England. The second most used ballistic missile is the Scud, which featured in a number of conflicts:
– used by Egypt against Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973
– used by the USSR in Afghanistan
– used by Libya against a US Coast Guard station in 1986
– used by Iranians and Iraqis in the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88
– used by Iraq in the Gulf War of 1990-91
25. Town dump, e.g. : WASTE AREA
WAS(TE AR)EA
28. Othello’s supposed rival for Desdemona’s affection : CASSIO
Iago is the schemer in Shakespeare’s “Othello”. Iago is a soldier who fought alongside Othello, and feels hard done by, missing out on promotion. His rival is Cassio, and Iago hatches a plot designed to discredit him. Iago insinuates that Cassio is having an affair with Desdomona, Othello’s wife. By the end of the play, it’s Iago himself who is discredited, and Othello (before committing suicide) apologizes to Cassio for having believed Iago’s lies. Heavy stuff …
39. The, grammatically : DEFINITE ARTICLE
WAS(TE AR)EA
Stan Musial is a retired baseball player who went by the nickname “Stan the Man”, a moniker he was awarded by the Brooklyn dodgers fans in 1946. Apparently, off the field Stan is quite the harmonica player.
Osiris was the Egyptian god of the underworld. He was the son of Geb, the Earth god, and Nut, the sky goddess. His wife, Isis, was also his sister …
44. Last in a sequence: Abbr. : ULT
The ultimate is the last in a series.
45. ___ of Man : ISLE
The Isle of Man is a large island located in the middle of the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland. I used to spend a lot of time there in my youth, and a very interesting place it is indeed. The Isle of Mann is classed as a British Crown Dependency, and isn’t part of the United Kingdom at all. It is self-governing and has its own parliament called the Tynwald. The Tynwald was created in AD 979, and is arguably the oldest continuously running parliament in the world. The inhabitants of the island speak English, although they do have their own language called Manx, which is very similar to Irish Gaeilge and Scottish Gaelic. And then there are the Manx cats, the ones without any tails. I’ve seen lots of them, and can attest that they are found all over the island.
Debbie Reynolds got into the movie business by winning a Miss Burbank Beauty Contest when she was 16 years of age. Her prize for winning was a contract with Warner Brothers, which led to regular appearances in movie musicals. Her big break came with her appearance in 1952’s “Singin’ in the Rain”. Reynolds has been married three times, most famously to her first husband, Eddie Fisher. Together the couple had two children, Carrie and Todd Fisher. Debbie and Carrie (of Princess Leia fame) live right next door to each other in Los Angeles.
49. Dodge City lawman : WYATT EARP
WYAT(T EAR)P
Wyatt Earp participated in what has to be the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Strangely enough, the fight didn’t happen at the O.K. Corral, but took place six doors down the street in a vacant lot next to a photography studio.
Trans World Airlines was a big carrier in the US, but was perhaps even more recognized for its extensive presence in Europe and the Middle East. For many years, especially after the collapse of Pan-Am, TWA was considered the unofficial flag carrier for the US. The company started in 1930, the product of a forced merger of Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express. The Transcontinental and Western Air that resulted (the original TWA) was what the Postmaster General wanted, a bigger airline to which the Postal Service could award airmail contracts.
Hermann Hesse was not only a novelist, but also a poet and a painter. His best known work is probably his 1927 novel “Steppenwolf”.
58. Antlered animal : ELK
The elk (also known as wapiti) is the one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were used to seeing the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the “huge” wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and gave it the European name for a moose, namely “elk”. The more correct term then is “wapiti”, the Shawnee name for the animal, which means “white rump”. Very confusing …
PLANE(T EAR)TH
The fascinating Sir David Attenborough is a British broadcaster and naturalist, and the younger brother of actor Richard Attenborough. I’ve known him from British television for almost all of my life, but he has become recognizable over here in the US more recently due to his appearance and narration in the television series’ “Life On Earth”, “The Living Planet”, “The Blue Planet”, “Life” and “Planet Earth”. However, US versions of David Attenborough shows tend to be voiced-over by American personalities, so some recordings of “Planet Earth” feature the voice of Sigourney Weaver”, and “Life” features the voice of Oprah Winfrey.
The brand most closely associated with ginger ale is Canada Dry. “Canada Dry Pale Ginger Ale” was first formulated in 1904 by a Canadian chemist called John McLoughlin from Ontario, Canada. Prohibition helped sales of the drink as it was particularly effective in masking the taste of illegally produced, homemade liquor.
66. Grapefruit-like fruit : POMELO
The pomelo is a citrus fruit native to Southeast Asia. Apparently it tastes like a sweet, mild grapefruit. I don’t think I have ever had one …
70. Shed thing hidden in 16-, 25-, 39-, 49- and 59-Across : TEAR
Down
3. Tyke : TOT
“Tyke” has been used playfully to describe a young child since at least 1902, but for centuries before that a “tyke” was a cur or mongrel, or perhaps a lazy or lower-class man.
“I, Tina” is the 1986 autobiography of Tina Turner. The book was so successful, it was adapted into a movie called “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”, released in 1993 and starring Angela Bassett as Tina Turner.
7. ___ City (Las Vegas) : SIN
Las Vegas, Nevada was founded as a city in 1905. It became a stop-off point for pioneers travelling west, and eventually a railroad town, although with the coming of the railroad growth halted as folks began to bypass Las Vegas. The city’s tourism industry took off in 1935 with the completion of the nearby Hoover Dam, and visitors to Vegas take tours of the dam to this day. Then gambling was legalized, and things really started to move. Vegas was picked, largely by celebrated figures in “the mob”, as a convenient location across the California/Nevada state line that could service the vast population of Los Angeles. As a result, Las Vegas became the most populous US city founded in the 20th century (an honor that had belonged to Chicago in the 19th century).
8. London’s locale: Abbr. : ENG
London is the largest metropolitan area in the whole of the European Union (and one of my favorite cities in the world). London has been a major settlement for over 2,000 years and was founded as a town by the Romans who called it Londinium. The name “Londinium” may have existed prior to the arrival by the Romans, and no one seems too sure of its origins. Famously, the City of London is a one-square-mile area at the center of the metropolis, the area that marked the old medieval London. “The City”, as it is commonly called, has its own Mayor of the City of London (the Mayor of London is someone else), and it’s own City of London Police Force (the London Metropolitan Police are the police we usually see on the street as tourist, a different force).
Gamal Abdel Nasser was the second president of Egypt, from 1956 until he died in 1970. He had stood alongside Muhammad Naguib, Egypt’s first president, during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 which overthrew the ruling monarchy of Egypt and Sudan. Nasser was an advocate of Pan-Arabism, an ideology promoting unification of Arab peoples and countries. President Nasser went so far as forming the United Arab Republic (UAR), a union between Egypt and Syria that started in 1958, but fell apart in 1961 when Syria withdrew.
Lake Nasser is a large artificial lake created as a result of the construction of the Aswan High Dam (initiated by President Nasser). Lake Nasser lies in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Strictly speaking, the section of the lake in Sudan is called Lake Nubia.
10. Many a West Virginia worker : MINER
The State of West Virginia is has historically been associated with fossil fuels, and is sometimes referred to as “The COG State”, using the acronym for Coal, Oil and Gas.
Edward Albee’s most famous play is “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Albee’s first play, a one-acter, was “The Zoo Story”.
12. Oro y ___ (Montana’s motto) : PLATA
Oro y Plata means “gold and silver”, and is the state motto of Montana. The motto was written in Spanish, purely because “it had a nice ring to it”.
14. B&O and Short Line: Abbr. : RRS
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest in the country. Construction started on the railroad in 1828 in order to offer an method of transportation inland from Baltimore. This was deemed necessary as the port city was losing business to New York City after the completion of the Erie Canal (which cheaply and efficiently moved goods inland).
The Short Line is an alternative name for a railroad line in Saint Paul, Minnesota, now called the Merriam Park Subdivision.
21. Island west of Maui : LANAI
Lanai is the sixth largest of the Hawaiian Islands. Lania was first spotted by Europeans just a few days after Captain Cook was killed on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1779. In 1922, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company bought the whole island of Lanai, and turned most of it into the world’s largest pineapple plantation. Since then, Lanai has been known as “The Pineapple Island”.
23. Citadel student : CADET
The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, is a college located in Charleston, South Carolina. The school took in its first twenty students way back in 1843, when it was known as the South Carolina Military Academy. Back then “academy” was a word associated with secondary schools so it was decided to change the name to “College” in order to eliminate confusion.
The Baltimore Orioles were one of the eight charter teams of MLB’s American League, so the Major League team dates back to 1901. Prior to 1901, the team has roots in the Minor League Milwaukee Brewers, and indeed entered the American League in 1901 as the Brewers. In 1902 the Brewers moved to St. Louis and became the Browns. The team didn’t fare well in St. Louis, so when it finally relocated to Baltimore in the early fifties the team changed it’s name completely, to the Baltimore Orioles. The owners so badly wanted a fresh start that they traded 17 old Browns players with the New York Yankees. The trade didn’t help the team’s performance on the field, but it did help distance the new team from its past.
34. “Agnus ___” : DEI
“Agnus Dei” is Latin for “Lamb of God”, a term used in Christian faiths for Jesus Christ, symbolizing his role as a sacrificial offering to atone for the sins of man.
36. Swim with the fishes, say : SCUBA
Jacques-Yves Cousteau started off his career in the French Navy, heading for a working life in aviation. Because of a car accident, he had to abandon his first career choice and instead went to sea. Famously, he invented the aqualung (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus – SCUBA), and is known as the father of SCUBA diving.
38. “For ___ sake!” : PETE’S
“For Pete’s sake” is referred to as a “minced oath”, meaning it’s a milder version of a less pleasant expression. “For Pete’s sake” probably came from “for God’s sake”, and maybe even refers to St. Peter.
J. K. Rowling is the author of the amazingly successful Harry Potter series of books. Rowling wrote the first book when she was living on welfare in Edinburgh in Scotland, and in longhand. She would often write in local cafes, largely because she needed to get her baby daughter out of the house (she was a single mom), and the youngster would tend to fall asleep on walks. Within five years, the single mom on welfare became a very rich woman, and is now worth about $1 billion!
Joanne Rowling changed her name to J. K. Rowling at the request of her publisher, who believed that young boys might shy away from reading the first “Harry Potter” book if they believed the story was written by a woman (this was 1997!). “Jo” Rowling chose J for Joanne, and K for Kathleen after her grandmother (Jo had no middle name to use).
41. African fly pest : TSETSE
Tsetse flies live on the blood of vertebrate mammals. The name “tsetse” comes from Tswana, a language of southern Africa, and translates simply as “fly”. Tsetse flies are famous for being carriers of the disease known as “sleeping sickness”. The disease is caused by a parasite which is passed on to humans when the tsetse fly bites into human skin tissue. If one considers all the diseases transmitted by the tsetse fly, then it is responsible for over a quarter of a million deaths each year.
46. Vast treeless plain : STEPPE
A steppe is a grassland, devoid of trees apart from those growing near rivers and lakes. We would likely call such a geographic feature a prairie in this country.
Like so many beverages introduced by the Coca-Cola Company, Mello Yello was launched to compete against a successful drink already on the market. Mello Yello first hit the shelves in 1979, designed to take market share from Pepsi Cola’s “Mountain Dew”.
Renee Zellweger’s big break came in the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire”, and her most successful roles came within a few years when she appeared in “Bridget Jones Diary” (2001), “Chicago” (2002) and “Cold Mountain” (2003). My wife and I love watching her play Bridget Jones, and as someone coming from the British Isles I have to say she does a remarkable job with the accent. She worked hard to perfect that accent. Of course she had a voice coach, but she also went “undercover” and worked as a temp in an office for three weeks fine tuning her skills.
53. Suave or VO5 competitor : PRELL
Prell was introduced by Proctor & Gamble in 1947, and was originally a clear, green concentrate sold in a tube (like toothpaste).
60. Bagel topper : LOX
Lox is a a cured salmon fillet, finely sliced. The term “lox” comes into English via Yiddish, and derives from the German word for salmon, “Lachs”.
61. What a guitar may be hooked up to : AMP
An electric guitar, for example, needs an amplifier to take the weak signal created by the vibration of the strings and turn it into a signal powerful enough signal a loudspeaker.
You know how there are certain songs that are very evocative of times past, some particular period or event in our lives? For me, Billy Joel’s “Tell Her About It” always reminds me of my first visit to the US, back in 1983. I had won a raffle in my home town in Ireland a couple of months earlier, first prize: a holiday in Ibiza. Around the same time, I’d heard of a job going over here in America for which I was “uniquely” qualified (a fluke, trust me!) but I had to interview to get in the running. I had wanderlust back then, so I made a deal with the travel agent and swapped the 2-week holiday for two in Ibiza, for a one-week stay for me on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. I did the interview, got the job, and spent a glorious week driving a rented Ford Mustang along the back roads of Cape Cod with Billy Joel belting out “Tell Her About It” on the car radio. Hard to believe that’s almost 30 years ago …
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Boeing 747s, e.g. : JETS
5. Out of bed for the day : RISEN
10. Rand McNally product : MAP
13. Resting on : ATOP
14. Part of the eye : RETINA
15. In bed all day, maybe : ILL
16. Profits : NET EARNINGS
18. Hornets’ and Nuggets’ org. : NBA
19. Industrial city of Germany : ESSEN
20. Winter precipitation : SLEET
22. Gulf war missiles : SCUDS
25. Town dump, e.g. : WASTE AREA
28. Othello’s supposed rival for Desdemona’s affection : CASSIO
30. “Beep beep” maker : HORN
31. Commotion : ADO
32. Teacher, after exams : GRADER
35. “Quickly!,” on an order : ASAP
39. The, grammatically : DEFINITE ARTICLE
42. Musial of the Cardinals : STAN
43. Egyptian god of the underworld : OSIRIS
44. Last in a sequence: Abbr. : ULT
45. ___ of Man : ISLE
47. Actress Reynolds of “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” : DEBBIE
49. Dodge City lawman : WYATT EARP
54. The “T” in TWA : TRANS
55. German Hermann : HESSE
56. Use the pink end of a pencil : ERASE
58. Antlered animal : ELK
59. Emmy-winning nature series narrated by David Attenborough : PLANET EARTH
65. Ginger ___ : ALE
66. Grapefruit-like fruit : POMELO
67. ___ as shootin’ : SURE
68. Wrecker’s job : TOW
69. Kick out of school : EXPEL
70. Shed thing hidden in 16-, 25-, 39-, 49- and 59-Across : TEAR
Down
1. Feb. preceder : JAN
2. Summer in France : ETE
3. Tyke : TOT
4. Goes 80, say : SPEEDS
5. Extend a subscription : RENEW
6. Turner’s 1986 rock autobiography : I, TINA
7. ___ City (Las Vegas) : SIN
8. London’s locale: Abbr. : ENG
9. Former Egyptian leader with a lake named after him : NASSER
10. Many a West Virginia worker : MINER
11. “The Zoo Story” playwright Edward : ALBEE
12. Oro y ___ (Montana’s motto) : PLATA
14. B&O and Short Line: Abbr. : RRS
17. Give, as homework : ASSIGN
21. Island west of Maui : LANAI
22. A lot : SCADS
23. Citadel student : CADET
24. Stars and Stripes land, for short : US OF A
26. Remove wool from : SHEAR
27. Hot : TORRID
29. Baltimore baseballer : ORIOLE
33. Bewildered : AT SEA
34. “Agnus ___” : DEI
36. Swim with the fishes, say : SCUBA
37. Bold poker bet : ALL IN
38. “For ___ sake!” : PETE’S
40. The J. and K. in J. K. Rowling: Abbr. : INITS
41. African fly pest : TSETSE
46. Vast treeless plain : STEPPE
48. Suckling site : BREAST
49. Bread choice that’s not white or rye : WHEAT
50. Mello ___ (soft drink) : YELLO
51. Off-kilter : ASKEW
52. Actress Zellweger : RENEE
53. Suave or VO5 competitor : PRELL
57. From ___ Z : A TO
60. Bagel topper : LOX
61. What a guitar may be hooked up to : AMP
62. Regret : RUE
63. Gay singing syllable : TRA
64. Billy Joel’s “Tell ___ About It” : HER