In this grid, the “divided circle” symbol represents the word “HALF”
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: HALF AND HALF … some squares of the puzzle (two in the middle, and the four corners) contain the word HALF, giving theme answers that include “HALF” i.e.
– HALF-BAKED & HALF-TRUTH
– ONE-HALF & HALF NELSON
– HALF-DAY & BETTER HALF
– FIRST HALF & OTHER HALF
– HALF-AND-HALF
COMPLETION TIME: 14m 06s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 2 … PAREO (PARIO), DESERET (DISERET)
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Poorly developed, as an idea : HALF-BAKED
7. Clear of dishes : BUS
We’ve been busing tables since the early part of the 20th century. It’s thought the verb comes from the name of the vehicle, and referred to the four-wheeled cart used to collect the dirty dishes.
10. 50% : ONE-HALF
Comedian Milton Berle was known as “Uncle Miltie” and “Mr. Television”, and was arguably the first real star of American television as he was hosting “Texaco Star Theater” starting in 1948.
Ana Alicia is an actress best known for playing Melissa Agretti, the heiress on the TV series “Falcon Crest” in the eighties.
16. ___-Dixie Stores : WINN
The Winn-Dixie supermarket chain started out as a family concern, growing from a general store in Burley, Idaho in 1914. When the family business was big enough, it took a controlling interest in a chain of stores called Winn-Lovett in 1939. Using the name Winn-Lovett, the company continued to grow and in 1955 bought the Dixie Home chain of stores. At that point the name changed to Winn-Dixie. The original family name? That was Davis …
18. “Stat!” : NOW
The exact etymology of “stat”, used to mean “immediately” in the medical profession, seems to have been lost in the mists of time. It probably comes from the Latin “statim” meaning “to a standstill”. How that morphed into “at once” is unclear.
19. “___ homo” : ECCE
According to the Gospel of John, when Pilate presented a scourged and beaten Jesus to the crowd, he used the words, “Ecce homo”, Latin for “Behold the man”.
Uta Hagen was a German-born American actress. She married Jose Ferrer in 1938, but they were divorced ten years later after it was revealed that she was having a long-running affair with Paul Robeson. Her association with Robeson, a prominent civil rights activist, earned her a spot on the Hollywood Blacklist during the McCarthy Era. This forced her away from film, but towards a successful stage career in New York City.
James Joule was an English physicist who spent much of his life working in the family brewing business. He used his work in the brewery to study the relationship between heat and mechanical work. In honor of his achievements, his name is used for the unit of energy (the joule) in the International System of Units.
An erg is a unit of energy, or mechanical work. “Erg” comes from the Greek word “ergon”, meaning “work”.
23. “Misty” composer Garner : ERROLL
“Look at me, I’m as helpless as a kitten up a tree …”
25. The second “T” in TNT : TOLUENE
TNT is an abbreviation for trinitrotoluene. The explosive chemical was first produced by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand in 1863, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate, so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.
28. Vitamin label fig. : RDA
Recommended Daily Allowances were introduced during WWII, and were replaced by Recommended Daily Intakes in 1997.
Los Lonely Boys is a rock band from San Angela, Texas. The three band members are three brothers.
31. Unmoved : STOIC
Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher famous for teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the “Painted Porch”, located on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens. Because of the location of his classes, his philosophy became known as stoicism (from “stoa”, the word for “porch”). And yes, we get our adjective “stoic” from the same root.
Canadian-born Paul Anka’s big hit was in 1957, “Diana”. He was the subject of a much-lauded documentary film in 1962, called “Lonely Boy”.
“Eso Beso” is Spanish for “That Kiss”.
34. Port on the eastern Mediterranean : TYRE
Tyre is an ancient Phoenician city, and today is the fourth largest city in Lebanon. The city’s name “Tyre” means “rock”, a reference to the rocky outcrop on which the original city was built.
The game of Scrabble has been around since 1938, the invention of an architect named Alfred Moshoer Butts. Butts determined the optimum number of tiles of each letter and the appropriate point value of each tile, by analyzing letter distributions in publications like … “The New York Times” …
37. Coffee additive : HALF-AND-HALF
In general, half-and-half is a liquid beverage composed of equal parts of two ingredients. The dairy product that we call half-and-half is a mixture of milk and cream. Be careful about asking for half-and-half in Ireland though. You are likely to get a half pint of Harp lager with a half pint of Guinness stout floated on top. But then again, what’s wrong with that?
The origin of the name “bikini”, a type of bathing suit, seems very uncertain. My favorite story is that it is named after the Bikini Atoll, site of American A-bomb tests in the forties and fifties. The name “bikini” was chosen for the swim-wear because of the “explosive” effect it had on men who saw a woman wearing the garment!
The word “brassière” is of course French in origin, but it isn’t the word the French use for a “bra”. In France a bra is a “soutien-gorge”, translating to “held under the neck”. The word “brassière” is used in France though, applying to a baby’s undershirt, a lifebelt or a harness. “Brassière” comes from the Old French word for an “arm protector” in a military uniform (“bras” is the French for “arm”). Later “brassière” came to mean “breast plate” and from there was used for a type of woman’s corset. The word jumped into English around 1900.
Apparently the first published use of the term “Big Apple” to describe New York City dates back to 1909. Edward Martin wrote in his book “The Wayfarer in New York” the following:
“Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city. . . . It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap.”
Henri Matisse was a French artist renowned for his contribution to modern art. In his early days he was classed as a “fauve”, one of group of artists known as the “wild beasts” who emphasized strong color over realism in their works. Matisse was a life-long friend of Pablo Picasso, and the two were considered to be friendly rivals and their works are often compared. One major difference between their individual bodies of works is that Picasso tended to paint from his imagination, whereas Matisse tended to use nature for his inspiration.
Pareo is the Tahitian name for a wrap-around skirt. Although the term is used today for clothing worn by both males and females, originally the pareo was a woman’s skirt, as Tahitian males wore a loincloth called a maro.
50. Dam-building org. : TVA
The Tennessee Valley Authority has to be one of America’s great success stories when it comes to economic development. Created in 1933, the TVA spearheaded economic development in the Tennessee Valley at the height of the Great Depression. Central to the success was the federally-funded construction of flood control and electricity generation facilities.
51. Western treaty grp. : OAS
The Organization of American States has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. All the independent states in the Americas are members of the group (except Honduras, suspended after the 2009 coup in that country).
57. Book before Esth. : NEH
In the Bible, the book of Nehemiah is followed by the Book of Esther.
Elsa’s life story was told by game warden Joy Adamson, who had a very close relationship with the lioness from when she was orphaned as a young cub. Adamson wrote the book “Born Free” about Elsa, and then “Living Free” which told the story of Elsa and her three lion cubs. In the 1966 film “Born Free” Adamson is played by actress Virginia McKenna.
59. Way of the East : TAO
The Chinese character “tao” translates as “path”, but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.
If you’ve ever heard Cyndi Lauper speaking, you’d know that she was from Queens, New York. She is the daughter of divorced parents, strongly influenced by a supportive mother. She was always a free spirit, and even as young teen in the mid-sixties she dyed her hair different colors and wore outlandish fashions. She was a young woman who wanted to “find herself”, and to that end she once spent two weeks alone in the woods up in Canada, well, just with her dog.
67. Four hours on the job, perhaps : HALF-DAY
68. Cool, in slang : DEF
The slang word “def” meaning “excellent, cool” may come from the word “definite”. New to me …
69. Opening 30 minutes of football : FIRST HALF
Down
1. Deceptive remark : HALF-TRUTH
In movie “The Wizard of Oz” Toto is played by a terrier, but in the books by L. Frank Baum, Toto was just described as “a little black dog, with long, silky hair and small black eyes that twinkled merrily on either side of his funny, wee nose”.
Stanley Donen was the co-director of the 1952 musical “Singin’ in the Rain”. His partner in crime was the magnificent Gene Kelly. Donen also directed another great dance classic, 1951’s “Royal Wedding”, where famously he had Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling. Decades later, when Lionel Richie released his song “Dancing on the Ceiling”, it was Stanley Donen who directed the 1986 music video.
8. Game with Draw 2 cards : UNO
In my youth I remember being introduced to a great card game called Mau Mau, by a German acquaintance of mine. Years later I discovered that Uno is basically the same game, but played with a purpose-printed deck, instead of the regular deck used for Mau Mau.
9. How a magician’s assistant might appear : SAWED IN HALF
11. Lake Michigan explorer Jean ___ : NICOLET
Jean Nicolet was a noted French fur trader and explorer. He was the first European to cross Lake Michigan, and the first European to explore what is now the state of Wisconsin.
13. Wrestling hold : HALF NELSON
The full nelson and half nelson are wrestling holds, in which one wrestler secures the opponent by encircling his or her arms under the armpits and around the neck. Some say the hold is named after Admiral Nelson, who was renowned for using encircling tactics in battle.
26. Kiev’s land: Abbr. : UKR
Kiev is the capital city of Ukraine, and a beautiful city from what I heard from friends that have visited.
27. Suffix with Sudan : ESE
Sudan is the largest country in Africa, and lies south of Egypt, with the River Nile running north-south through its center.
Toner is the dry ink that is used in a laser printer.
The key features of a laser printer are that it uses plain paper, and produces quality text at high speed. Laser printers work by projecting a laser image of the printed page onto a rotating drum that is coated with photoconductors (material that becomes conductive when exposed to light). The part of the drum exposed to the laser carries a different charge than the unexposed areas. Dry ink (called toner) sticks to the unexposed areas due to electrostatic charge. The toner is then transferred to paper by contact and is fused to the paper with heat. So, that explains why paper coming out of a laser printer is warm, and sometimes powdery …
37. Hardly enthusiastic : HALF-HEARTED
38. Wife, colloquially : BETTER HALF
40. Amu Darya’s outlet : ARAL SEA
The Amu Darya is a major river in Central Asia that empties into the Aral Sea. It is also called the Oxus or Amu River.
The Aral Sea is great example of how man can have a devastating effect on the environment. In the early sixties the Aral Sea covered 68,000 square miles of Central Asia. Soviet Union irrigation projects drained the lake to such an extent that today the total area is less than 7,000 square miles, with 90% of the lake now completely dry. Sad …
42. “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” airer : NPR
Chicago Public Radio produces one of my wife’s favorite shows, “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” It is indeed a fun game show. There should be more game shows of that ilk on the radio in my humble opinion …
The English word “yak” is an Anglicized version of the Tibetan name for the male of the species. Yak milk is much prized in the Tibetan culture. It is made into cheese and butter, and the butter is used to make a tea that is consumed by the gallon by Tibetans. The butter is also used as a fuel in lamps, and during festivals the butter can be sculpted into religious icons.
45. Provisional Mormon state : DESERET
In 1849, led by Brigham Young, the Mormon pioneers who had settled in Salt Lake City set up a provisional state that included all of present-day Utah and Nevada, as well as much of the surrounding states. Young called this provisional state Deseret and he wanted it to be admitted into the Union. He set up a lot of the administrative structures that would be required for statehood, and indeed this infrastructure basically governed the area for two full years. The proposal was not accepted, and in 1850 the Utah territory was created by the US Congress.
Jacob Riis is famous for his photographs and and newspaper articles that highlighted the plight of the impoverished in New York City. “How the Other Half Lives” was originally an extensive article that appeared in “Scribner’s Magazine” in 1889, at Christmas. It had such an impact that Riis was commissioned to expand the article into a book, published the following year.
In the 1940s the Three Stooges did their bit for the war effort and made a series of anti-Nazi movies. One of the highlights of these films and shorts was Moe Howard’s impersonation of Adolf Hitler.
If you’ve seen a few of the films starring “The Three Stooges” you’ll have noticed that the line up changed over the years. The original trio was made up of Moe Howard, Shemp Howard (two brothers) and Larry Fine (a good friend of the Howards). This line up was usually known as “Moe, Larry and Shemp”. Then Curly Howard replaced his brother when Shemp quit the act, creating the most famous line up of “Moe, Larry And Curly”. Shemp returned when Curly had a debilitating stroke in 1946, and Shemp stayed with the troupe until he died in 1955. Shemp was replaced by Joe Besser, and then “Curly-Joe” DeRita. When Larry had a stroke in 1970, it effectively marked the end of the act.
“Lady and the Tramp” is a classic animated feature from Walt Disney, released in 1955. Who can forget the scene where the Tramp and Lady are “on a date” and eat that one strand of spaghetti? So cute!
![Lady and the Tramp [VHS]](https://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0788812807&tag=wesneyoticrso-20)
56. Broadway hit, slangily : BOFF
A boffola is “a dazzling, often sudden instance of success”, it says here. It’s an alternative for the noun “boff” which can have the same meaning.
62. Yes, in Yokohama : HAI
Yokohama is the second most populous city in Japan, and lies very close to the nation’s capital, on Tokyo Bay.
63. Big ___, Calif. : SUR
Big Sur is lovely part of the California Coast, south of Monterrey and Carmel. The name “Big Sur” comes from the original Spanish description of the area as “el sur grande” meaning “the big south”.
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Poorly developed, as an idea : HALF-BAKED
7. Clear of dishes : BUS
10. 50% : ONE-HALF
14. Milton Berle’s longtime sponsor : TEXACO
15. Actress ___ Alicia : ANA
16. ___-Dixie Stores : WINN
17. Spoil, as a parade : RAIN ON
18. “Stat!” : NOW
19. “___ homo” : ECCE
20. Tony winner Hagen : UTA
21. Joule fraction : ERG
23. “Misty” composer Garner : ERROLL
25. The second “T” in TNT : TOLUENE
28. Vitamin label fig. : RDA
29. Rock’s ___Lonely Boys : LOS
30. Sunken ships : HULKS
31. Unmoved : STOIC
33. Anka’s “___ Beso” : ESO
34. Port on the eastern Mediterranean : TYRE
35. Go ___ length : TO ANY
36. Q’s point value in Scrabble : TEN
37. Coffee additive : HALF-AND-HALF
38. Bikini part : BRA
41. Draws back : SHIES
42. Big Apple enforcement org. : NYPD
46. Improviser’s asset : EAR
47. Artist Matisse : HENRI
48. Tahitian-style wraparound skirt : PAREO
50. Dam-building org. : TVA
51. Western treaty grp. : OAS
52. Most dismal : DARKEST
54. Worker in a cage : TELLER
56. Pickup truck feature : BED
57. Book before Esth. : NEH
58. Joy Adamson’s lioness : ELSA
59. Way of the East : TAO
61. “As if!” : OH SURE
64. Marsh growth : REED
65. Year-end helper : ELF
66. “Time After Time” singer Cyndi : LAUPER
67. Four hours on the job, perhaps : HALF-DAY
68. Cool, in slang : DEF
69. Opening 30 minutes of football : FIRST HALF
Down
1. Deceptive remark : HALF-TRUTH
2. Barely defeat : BEAT OUT
3. With respect to a graph line, e.g. : AXIALLY
4. Toto’s state: Abbr. : KAN
5. Prefix with system : ECO
6. “Singin’ in the Rain” director Stanley : DONEN
7. Prank cigar sound : BANG
8. Game with Draw 2 cards : UNO
9. How a magician’s assistant might appear : SAWED IN HALF
10. Person in the hole : OWER
11. Lake Michigan explorer Jean ___ : NICOLET
12. Box in : ENCLOSE
13. Wrestling hold : HALF NELSON
22. Puts a new finish on : RESTAINS
24. Risqué : RACY
26. Kiev’s land: Abbr. : UKR
27. Suffix with Sudan : ESE
28. Like some inns or hot dog stands : ROADSIDE
32. Cartridge filler : TONER
37. Hardly enthusiastic : HALF-HEARTED
38. Wife, colloquially : BETTER HALF
39. In a tangled mess : RAVELED
40. Amu Darya’s outlet : ARAL SEA
41. Do some blacksmith’s work on : SHOE
42. “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” airer : NPR
43. Shaggy animal in a herd : YAK
44. Marriage contracts, briefly : PRENUPS
45. Provisional Mormon state : DESERET
49. Jacob Riis subjects, with “the” : OTHER HALF
53. Moe parodied him in some W.W. II-era Three Stooges shorts : ADOLF
55. Tramp’s love : LADY
56. Broadway hit, slangily : BOFF
60. Pub offering : ALE
62. Yes, in Yokohama : HAI
63. Big ___, Calif. : SUR