0123-11: New York Times Crossword Answers 23 Jan 11, Sunday

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: LETTER OPENERS … all the theme answers (all 26 of them!) start off with a different letter of the alphabet, from A to Z
COMPLETION TIME: 30m 49s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Yo, she was Adrian : TALIA
You might remember Rocky Balboa saying, “Yo, Adrian!” in the original Rocky movie. Adrian was Rocky’s wife, played by the lovely Talia Shire, sister of director Frances Ford Coppola.

6. *Insulation measure : R-VALUE
R-value is a measure of thermal resistance, and indicates how effective a material is as an insulator. It is used widely in the construction industry.

12. *Weapon first tested in ’52 : H-BOMB
The first test of a hydrogen bomb was in 1954 at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. It may have been a technical success, but it was an environmental disaster, largely because the actual yield of 15 megatons was unexpected (4-6 megatons was anticipated). The fallout caused many deaths, and led to birth defects in generations to come.

24. Oscar snubber of 1972 : BRANDO
Marlon Brando won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Vito Corleone in the 1972 blockbuster “The Godfather”. He turned down the award and didn’t attend the ceremony. Instead he sent a Native American rights activist called Sacheen Littlefeather who made a speech protesting the depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood movies. Brando wasn’t the first person to refuse an Oscar. George C. Scott did the same thing when he won for playing the title role in 1970’s “Patton”. Scott just didn’t like the whole idea of “competing” with other actors.

25. Frequently pierced place : NOSTRIL
Ick …

26. *The Boss’s backers : E STREET BAND
The E Street Band is the backing group for Bruce Springsteen. The band came together in 1972 but didn’t take a formal name until two years later. The keyboard player in the original line up was David Sancious, and his mother allowed the group to rehearse at her home. That home was on E Street in Belmar, New Jersey, and that’s where the band got their name.

28. It may go off the road, briefly : ATV
An all terrain vehicle tends to go off the road a lot.

29. *Setting for “Saving Private Ryan” : D-DAY
The most famous D-Day in history was June 6, 1944, the date of the Normandy landings in WWII. The term “D-Day” is used in the military to designate the day on which a combat operation is to be launched, especially when the actual date has yet to be determined. What D stands for seems to have been lost in the mists of time although the tradition is that it just stands for “Day”. In fact, the French have a similar term, “Jour J” (Day J), with a similar meaning. We also use H-Hour to denote the hour the attack is to commence.

“Saving Private Ryan” is an epic 1998 movie directed by Steven Spielberg, a real “must see”. The D-Day invasion scenes were shot over a two-month period on the southeast coast of Ireland. The scenes with the landings cost about $12 million to shoot, and involved about 1,500 extras. Most of those extras were members of the Irish Reserve Defence Forces. The Irish Reserve Forces have been in quite a few films, including the battle scenes of “Braveheart”.

30. Taxco table : MESA
Taxco de Alarcón is a small city in southern Mexico. Taxco is a center for silver mining, and is also well known for the production of silverware and fine items made using silver.

“Mesa” is the Spanish for “table” and is of course is how we get the name “mesa”, a geographic feature.

“What’s the difference between a butte and a mesa?” I hear you cry! Both are hills with flat tops, but a mesa has a top that is wider than it is tall. A butte is a much narrower formation, taller than it is wide. Now we know …

32. Nanki-___ of “The Mikado” : POO
“The Mikado” is a wonderful comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan, set in the exotic location of Japan. “Mikado” is a former term for the “Emperor of Japan”. In the opera, Nanki-Poo is the Mikado’s son, who falls in love with Yum-Yum.

34. *Touch, e.g. : IPOD
The iPod is Apple’s signature line of portable media players. It first hit the market in 2001, with a hard drive-based device, now known as the iPod Classic. Later models all use flash memory, allowing a smaller form factor.

36. *Ace ___ Stories (old detective pulp magazine) : G-MAN
The nickname G-men is short for “Government Men”.

39. One of the Blues Brothers : ELWOOD
The Blues Brothers is a blues band created in 1978 for a Saturday Night Live sketch. The original Blues Brothers were Dan Aykroyd (Elwood Blues) and John Belushi (“Joliet” Jake Blues).

42. N N N : NUS
The Latin equivalent of the Greek letter “nu” is “N”. An uppercase nu looks just like the Latin capital N, but the lowercase nu looks like our lowercase “v”. Very confusing …

52. *Typography symbol : M DASH
In typography, there are em dashes and en dashes. The em dash is about the width of an “m” character, and an en dash about half that, the width of an “n’ character. An en dash is used, for example, to separate numbers designating a range, as in 5-10 years. Th em dash seems to be going out of style, and indeed the application I am using to write this paragraph won’t let me show you one!

59. Hot times on the Riviera : ETES
The Côte d’Azur is on the Mediterranean coast of France and stretches from Saint Tropez in the west and to the Italian border in the east. In English we often refer to the area as the French Riviera. It’s a little crowded for me (okay, expensive), especially in the summer (été in French).

63. Opposite of guerra : PAZ
In Spanish, there is war (guerra) and peace (paz).

65. ___ Mode, female character in “The Incredibles” : EDNA
“The Incredibles” is a 2004 animated feature from Pixar, and not a great one if you ask me. But asking me isn’t a good idea … the film won two Oscars.

67. ___ Kadiddlehopper, Red Skelton character : CLEM
Red Skelton was an American comedian, who started out in show business as a teenager working with the circus. He had a very successful career on radio, that he moved to television in the early fifties. His popularity only began to fade in the early seventies, when he had difficulty appealing to younger audiences. Skelton spent less time performing in his latter years, and turned to his other great love … painting.

69. The third one is a shocker : RAIL
The first commercial uses of a third rail to power trains were actually in Ireland, with the Giant’s Causeway Tramway in 1883, and the Bessbrook and Newry Tramway in 1885.

76. One carrying a toon? : CEL
In the world of animation, a cel is a transparent sheet on which objects and characters are drawn. In the first half of the 20th century the sheet was actually made of celluloid, giving the “cel” its name.

80. Honoree’s place : DAIS
Ultimately our word “dais” comes from the Latin “discus” meaning a “disk-shaped object”.

84. Small : PETTY
The word “petty”, meaning “small-minded”, comes from the French word for small, “petit”. When “petty” first came into English it wasn’t used disparagingly, and was used more literally giving us terms like “petty officer” and “petty cash”.

85. .___ : COM
As in NYTCrossword.com … just type that into your browser every day, and you’ll come straight to my favorite blog!

88. *4x platinum album of 2001 : J.LO
J.Lo is the nickname of singer and actress Jennifer Lopez. J.Lo is also the title of her second studio album, released in 2001.

89. Maurice of Nixon’s cabinet : STANS
Maurice Stans was Secretary of Commerce in the Nixon administration. He resigned from the cabinet to head up the finance committee of Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign. Famously, money raised by this committee was used to finance some of the Watergate crimes.

90. King protector : BISHOP
That would be in the game of chess.

91. Bottle in the kitchen or bath : DRANO
When we purchase what is labelled as “lye” today, it is caustic soda (sodium hydroxide). To clean out drains we might buy Crystal Drano which is sodium hydroxide (lye) mixed with sodium nitrate, sodium chloride (table salt) and aluminum. The contents of Drano work in concert to clear the clog. The lye reacts with any fats creating soap which may be enough to break up the clog. Also, the finely divided aluminum reacts with water creating tremendous heat so that that mixture boils and churns, then any hair or fibers are cut by the sharp edges of the nitrate and chloride crystals. Having said all that, I find that boiling water poured down the drain almost always does the job …

93. Whence the word “safari” : SWAHILI
“Safari” is a Swahili word, meaning “journey” or “expedition”.

96. Coach Parseghian : ARA
Ara Parseghian coached the Notre Dame football team from 1964 to 1974, a period known as “The Era of Ara”.

100. *’Vette option : T-TOP
A T-top is a car roof that has removable panels on either side of a rigid bar that runs down the center of the car above the driver.

101. Actress Sofer : RENA
Rena Sofer came to prominence as an actor in daytime television, most notably playing Lois Cerullo on “General Hospital”. Her love interest on the show was played by Wally Kurth, and the online romance led to the pair walking down the aisle in real life in 1995 (although they divorced two years later).

103. Light bulb over one’s tête? : IDEE
Idée is the French word for “idea”.

105. Shelter org. : ASPCA
Unlike in other countries, there is no “umbrella” society in the US with the goal of preventing cruelty to animals. Instead there are independent organizations set up all over the nation using the name SPCA. There is in fact an American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), which was originally intended to operate across the country, but really it is focuses its efforts in New York City.

112. *Beam with a bend : L-BAR
I think the reference here is to the bar used in the ski lift, but I could be wrong …

A T-bar is a type of ski life in which the skiers are pulled up the hill in pairs, with each pair sitting either side of T-shaped metal bar. The bar is placed behind the thighs, pulling along the skier who remains standing on his/her skis (hopefully!). There’s also a J-bar, a similar device, but with each J-shaped bar used by one skier at a time. In some locations a J-bar is called an L-bar.

116. *Women just don’t get it : Y CHROMOSOME
Clever wording … designed to raise a few hackles!

118. Former Pakistani P.M. Bhutto : BENAZIR
When Benazir Bhutto took office as Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1988, she became the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state. She came from good political stock, as she was the eldest child of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in 2007 just a few weeks before a scheduled general election. Her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, is the current Prime Minister of the country.

122. Last-second bidder on eBay : SNIPER
Sniping is a very controversial practice on online auction sites where someone places a bid at the very last second, just before an auction closes. The idea is that by doing so, the late bidder is giving no chance for an opposing bidder to respond. There are even software programs available that help auction snipers place the sniper’s bid “automatically”.

125. *House coverer : C-SPAN
C-SPAN is a privately funded, non-profit, cable channel that broadcasts non-stop coverage of government proceedings.

126. Like a turkey’s wattle : SAGGY
A wattle is that ugly (at least I think it’s ugly) appendage hanging below the neck of some birds, like say a turkey.

127. *One of Sean Combs’s aliases : P. DIDDY
When Sean John Combs started his rapping career, he used the stage name Puff Daddy. Then he went with P. Diddy, and is now recording simply as Diddy. Having said that, he has to stick with P. Diddy in some countries as he lost a legal battle over use of the name as there is another artist called Richard “Diddy” Dearlove. There’s now talk of Mr. Combs going with the name “Ciroc Obama”.

128. Steak ___ : DIANE
Steak Diane is pan-fried filet mignon served in a flambéed sauce made from the juices in the pan along with butter, shallots, cream and brandy. The dish is named after Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt.

Down
1. Tribal heads? : TOTEM
Totem is the name given to any entity that watches over a group of people. As such, totems are usually the subjects of worship. Totem poles are really misnamed, as they are not intended to represent figures to be worshiped, but rather are heraldic in nature, often celebrating the legends or notable events in the history of a tribe.

2. “___, fair sun, and kill the envious moon”: Romeo : ARISE
There’s a famous couplet in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” spoken by Romeo as he spots Juliet above him at a window or on a balcony:

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Romeo continues with:

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.

I reckon Romeo is smitten …

4. Cross-dressing : IN DRAG
The etymology of the term “drag” as used in the transvestite world seems to be unclear. It perhaps relates to the tendency of a transvestite’s skirts to drag along the ground in days of old (although why they just didn’t hitch up their skirts is beyond me!).

5. Author who won a posthumous Pulitzer in 1958 : AGEE
James Agee was a noted, American film critic. He wrote an autobiographical novel “A Death in the Family” that won him his Pulitzer in 1958, albeit posthumously.

6. Bar mitzvah party : RABBI
A Jewish girl becomes a Bat Mitzvah at 12 years of age, the age at which she becomes responsible for her actions. Boys are obviously less mature (surprise surprise!) and become Bar Mitzvahs at 13. The term translates into daughter and son of the commandments.

7. Spreading fast on YouTube : VIRAL
YouTube is a video-sharing website. it was started in 2005 by three ex-PayPal employees. Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Yep, $1.65 billion … less than two years after it was founded …

8. Country singer Jackson and others : ALANS
Alan Jackson is a country music singer, and a bit of an author too. Jackson married his high school sweetheart in 1979, but they had a parting of the ways about twenty years later due to the pressures on the marriage from Jackson’s career. The pair reconciled, and Jackson wrote a book describing the relationship he has with his wife and his commitment to Christianity. The book is called “It’s All About Him: Finding the Love of My Life”, and it topped the New York Times Best Seller List.

9. Jenny ___ a k a the Swedish Nightingale : LIND
Jenny Lind was a Swedish opera singer, and was as popular off the stage as she was on it. She had many suitors, including the great composers Mendelssohn and Chopin, as well as the author Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen wrote three fairy tales that were inspired by Lind, including one called “The Nightingale”, which ultimately led to Lind becoming known as “The Swedish Nightingale”.

10. Grand Forks sch. : UND
Greater Grand Forks is also called the Grand Cities, and is made up of the twin cities of Grand Forks, Nebraska and East Grand Forks, Minnesota. The Grand Forks name comes from the French “Les Grand Fourches” (The Big Forks) which was the name given to the area as it is located at the forks of the Red River and Red Lake River.

Grand Forks, Nebraska is home to the University of Nebraska, the oldest institution of higher education in the state.

13. *”Plan 9 From Outer Space,” e.g. : B MOVIE
The term B movie was used to describe movies that were made with low budgets and were intended to be the bottom half of a double feature (remember the days of double features?).

“Plan 9 From Outer Space” is a 1959 sci-fi/horror movie about extra-terrestials, a doomsday machine, and resurrected dead people. It has been dubbed the “worst movie ever made”.

14. Saturn’s spouse : OPS
Ops (also Opis) was the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Rhea. She was married to Saturn.

16. Pointers : BIRD DOGS
There are generally three classes of gundogs: retrievers, flushing dogs and pointing breeds.

20. Inlet : RIA
A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, both formed as sea level raises. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

23. Trig ratio : SECANT
The secant (sec, for short) is the ratio of the hypotenuse of a triangle to its adjacent side, and is the reciprocal of the cosine, as we all remember from school …

32. Exercise one is prone to do : PUSH-UP
Cleverly worded clue! We call a “push up” a “press up” over in Ireland. Something else to confuse me …

37. Deli array : MEATS
The word “delicatessen” came into English from the German “Delikatessen” meaning delicious (delikat-) to eat (essen).

38. Sting’s instrument : BASS
The Police were a trio formed in London in 1977, with Sting being the most famous member and the lead singer.

40. Repeated cry in Buster Poindexter’s “Hot Hot Hot” : OLE
Buster Poindexter is a pseudonym used by singer David Johansen from the band, the New York Dolls. As Poindexter, Johansen had a lot of commercial success in the late eighties and nineties.

41. ___ point : DEW
The dew point is a temperature, the temperature to which humid air must be cooled in order for water vapor to condense. We call the condensed water “dew”.

42. *Group with the 2000 #1 hit “It’s Gonna Be Me” : ‘N SYNC
‘N Sync was an American boy band from Orlando, Florida that was formed in 1995. The name of the group came from a comment by the mother of band member Justin Timberlake, who said the boys voices sounded “in sync”. But, it’s also true that the letters of the name ‘N Sync are the last letters of the given names of the five band members:

– Justin Timberlake
– Chris Kirkpatrick
– Joey Fatone
– Lance “Lansten” Bass
– JC Chasez

It should be noted though, that Lance was given a nickname just so that the “N” at the end of “Lansten” would fit into “‘N Sync”!

43. *Thing that won’t go off without a hitch? : U-HAUL
U-Haul was started by married couple Leonard Shoen and Anna Mary Carty in Ridgefield, Washington in 1945. The Shoens used $5,000 of seed money to build trailers in their garage, and then cleverly recruited gas station owners as franchises with whom they would split the rental revenue. There are now about 15,000 U-Hail dealers across the country.

46. Mingles (with) : ADMIXES
Admix is a rarely used term that just means “mix”.

52. Shakespeare’s “food of love” : MUSIC
The famous quotation about music being the food of love is from William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. The opening lines of the play, spoken by the love-smitten Duke Orsino are:

If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.

54. *”As Seen on TV” company : K-TEL
K-Tel was founded 1962 in Winnipeg, Manitoba by one Philip Kives. The company’s recipe for success was the sale of inexpensive goods with a simple sales pitch and mail-order distribution.

57. Vegas opening? : LAS
Back in the 1800s, the Las Vegas Valley was given its name from the extensive meadows (“las vegas” is Spanish for “the meadows”) present in the area courtesy of the artesian wells drilled by the local farmers. Las Vegas was incorporated as a city in 1905, in the days when it was a stopping-off point for pioneers travelling west. It eventually became a railroad town, although with the coming of the railroad growth halted as travelers began to bypass Las Vegas. The city’s tourism industry took off in 1935 with the completion of the nearby Hoover Dam, which is still a popular tourist attraction. 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 is the most populous US city founded in the 20th century (Chicago is the most populous city founded in the 19th century, just in case you were wondering).

58. 1909 Physics Nobelist for work in wireless telegraphy : MARCONI
Guglielmo Marconi was an inventor, famous for development of a radio telegraph design that was used across the world. Marconi did a lot of his early radio work in his native Italy, but moved to England as the British government was very interested in supporting his developments.

60. Some drum parts : SNARES
Snare drums are so called because they have a set of wire strands (called snares) stretched across the bottom surface of the drum. When the drum is struck, the snares vibrate against the bottom drumhead producing a unique sound.

66. The Queen of Soul, familiarly : ARETHA
I think Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, had a tough life. She had her first son when she was 13-years-old, and her second at 15. In 2008, “Rolling Stone” magazine ranked her as number one in their list of the greatest singers of all time.

68. Colorado ski area : VAIL
The Vail Ski Resort in Colorado is the largest single mountain ski resort in the whole country. The resort was opened in 1962, basically in the middle of nowhere. It was given the name Vail after Vail Pass which runs by the mountain (now also called Vail Mountain). The town of Vail, Colorado was established four years later in 1966, and now has a population of about 5,000.

70. Dockworker’s org. : ILA
The International Longshoremen’s Association.

72. *It helps one get the picture : F-STOP
Varying the f-stop in a lens varies how big the lens opening is (the aperture) when the photograph is taken. Smaller apertures (higher f-stop values) allow in less light, but result in sharper photographs.

73. *Midsize Jaguar : S-TYPE
Jaguar started out as a manufacturer of sidecars for motorcycles back in 1922, when the company was known as Swallow Sidecar Company (SS for short). The company changed its name to Jaguar after WWII, because of the unfortunate connotations of the the letters “SS” at that time.

77. Harry Shearer’s program on public radio : LE SHOW
Harry Shearer (today famous for voicing so many characters on the “The Simpsons”) has been hosting “Le Show” on Public Radio since 1983 would you believe?

81. Call letters? : SOS
The combination of three dots – three dashes – three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots – pause – three dashes – pause – three dots), although in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so SOS is in effect only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are simply mnemonics, introduced after the SOS signal was adopted.

83. *Little swab : Q-TIP
Cotton swabs were originally marketed under the name “Baby Gays”, but this was changed in 1926 to “Q-Tip”, with the Q standing for “quality”.

85. Govt. flu-fighting org. : CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC started out life during WWII as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. The CDC worries about much more than malaria these days …

87. ___ Trench (earth’s deepest depression) : MARIANAS
I think this answer/clue is wrong. The “Marianas” is a familiar name for the Mariana Islands that lie in the Pacific Ocean south of Japan and north of New Guinea. The “Mariana” Trench (note there is no “s” on the end of Mariana) is the lowest elevation on the surface of the Earth’s crust. The Mariana Trench takes its name from the Islands, as it lies just to the east of the Marianas.

95. From ___ Z (how this puzzle goes?) : A TO
The puzzle has 26 themed answers, one for each letter of the alphabet.

96. Oil company acronym : ARCO
ARCO stands for Atlantic Richfield Company. One of ARCO’s claims to fame is that it is responsible for the nation’s largest Superfund site. Mining and smelting in the area around Butte, Montana polluted the region’s water and soil, and ARCO have agreed to pay $187 million to help clean up the area.

102. Town in Umbria : ASSISI
The Italian town of Assisi is famous as the birthplace of St. Francis, and as the home to the Franciscan religious order. It was also the home to the St. Clare and her order of the Poor Sisters (later known as the Poor Clares).

107. Lackluster : PROSY
Something that is prosy lacks impact and is dry, prosaic in fact.

111. Lead/tin alloy : TERNE
Terne is used as a rust-protecting coat for steel.

116. Doctor Zhivago : YURI
“Doctor Zhivago” is of course the epic novel by Boris Pasternak, first published in 1957. I haven’t tried to read it, but the 1965 film version is a must see, directed by David Lean and starring Omar Sharif in the title role. The story centers on Yuri Zhivago, a doctor and poet, and how he is affected by the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War.

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Yo, she was Adrian : TALIA
6. *Insulation measure : R-VALUE
12. *Weapon first tested in ’52 : H-BOMB
17. *Gasket type : O-RING
18. Bedridden, say : AILING
19. Debilitates : IMPAIRS
22. They’re found in año after año : TILDES
24. Oscar snubber of 1972 : BRANDO
25. Frequently pierced place : NOSTRIL
26. *The Boss’s backers : E STREET BAND
28. It may go off the road, briefly : ATV
29. *Setting for “Saving Private Ryan” : D-DAY
30. Taxco table : MESA
31. Winds : COILS
32. Nanki-___ of “The Mikado” : POO
34. *Touch, e.g. : IPOD
36. *Ace ___ Stories (old detective pulp magazine) : G-MAN
38. Swindle, slangily : BURN
39. One of the Blues Brothers : ELWOOD
42. N N N : NUS
45. N N N : ENS
46. Stocks up : AMASSES
49. Slant : ANGLE
50. Shelled : SHOT AT
52. *Typography symbol : M DASH
53. Pilot’s milieu : SKY
55. Darn : SEW
56. Workplace for a cabin boy : YACHT
57. Payment type : LUMP SUM
59. Hot times on the Riviera : ETES
61. 12-Across and the like : NUKES
62. Tag sale tag : AS IS
63. Opposite of guerra : PAZ
65. ___ Mode, female character in “The Incredibles” : EDNA
67. ___ Kadiddlehopper, Red Skelton character : CLEM
68. *It may be under a hood : V-SIX
69. The third one is a shocker : RAIL
71. Barks : ARFS
74. Numerical prefix : DECA-
76. One carrying a toon? : CEL
78. The year 640 : DCXL
79. “Give it ___!” : A REST
80. Honoree’s place : DAIS
82. Toyota S.U.V. : SEQUOIA
84. Small : PETTY
85. .___ : COM
88. *4x platinum album of 2001 : J.LO
89. Maurice of Nixon’s cabinet : STANS
90. King protector : BISHOP
91. Bottle in the kitchen or bath : DRANO
93. Whence the word “safari” : SWAHILI
96. Coach Parseghian : ARA
97. Going ___ : APE
98. Numbers by a door? : CAROLS
100. *’Vette option : T-TOP
101. Actress Sofer : RENA
103. Light bulb over one’s tête? : IDEE
104. “Awesome!” : WOW
105. Shelter org. : ASPCA
108. Skewer : SPIT
112. *Beam with a bend : L-BAR
114. Skeletal opening? : EXO-
116. *Women just don’t get it : Y CHROMOSOME
118. Former Pakistani P.M. Bhutto : BENAZIR
120. Spanish pastry : CHURRO
122. Last-second bidder on eBay : SNIPER
123. Marathoner’s need : STAMINA
124. Mountain homes : AERIES
125. *House coverer : C-SPAN
126. Like a turkey’s wattle : SAGGY
127. *One of Sean Combs’s aliases : P. DIDDY
128. Steak ___ : DIANE

Down
1. Tribal heads? : TOTEM
2. “___, fair sun, and kill the envious moon”: Romeo : ARISE
3. Melodious speaking tones : LILTS
4. Cross-dressing : IN DRAG
5. Author who won a posthumous Pulitzer in 1958 : AGEE
6. Bar mitzvah party : RABBI
7. Spreading fast on YouTube : VIRAL
8. Country singer Jackson and others : ALANS
9. Jenny ___ a k a the Swedish Nightingale : LIND
10. Grand Forks sch. : UND
11. ___ trip : EGO
12. Pointer : HINT
13. *”Plan 9 From Outer Space,” e.g. : B MOVIE
14. Saturn’s spouse : OPS
15. Flatten, in a way : MAT DOWN
16. Pointers : BIRD DOGS
20. Inlet : RIA
21. Like some winks : SLY
23. Trig ratio : SECANT
27. Bunches : TONS
28. *Tops : A-ONE
32. Exercise one is prone to do : PUSH-UP
33. Places where some R.N.’s work : ORS
35. Took the part of : PLAYED
37. Deli array : MEATS
38. Sting’s instrument : BASS
40. Repeated cry in Buster Poindexter’s “Hot Hot Hot” : OLE
41. ___ point : DEW
42. *Group with the 2000 #1 hit “It’s Gonna Be Me” : ‘N SYNC
43. *Thing that won’t go off without a hitch? : U-HAUL
44. Hit : SOCKED
46. Mingles (with) : ADMIXES
47. They may have keys : MAPS
48. Scranton-to-Philadelphia dir. : SSE
51. Like some amusement parks : THEMED
52. Shakespeare’s “food of love” : MUSIC
54. *”As Seen on TV” company : K-TEL
57. Vegas opening? : LAS
58. 1909 Physics Nobelist for work in wireless telegraphy : MARCONI
60. Some drum parts : SNARES
64. *3-D graph line : Z-AXIS
66. The Queen of Soul, familiarly : ARETHA
68. Colorado ski area : VAIL
70. Dockworker’s org. : ILA
72. *It helps one get the picture : F-STOP
73. *Midsize Jaguar : S-TYPE
75. Coax : CAJOLE
77. Harry Shearer’s program on public radio : LE SHOW
78. Kind of income : DUAL
79. Beelike : APIAN
81. Call letters? : SOS
83. *Little swab : Q-TIP
85. Govt. flu-fighting org. : CDC
86. Mouths : ORA
87. ___ Trench (earth’s deepest depression) : MARIANAS
90. Bluegills : BREAMS
92. Obama nickname : NO DRAMA
94. *I.R.S. form : W-TWO
95. From ___ Z (how this puzzle goes?) : A TO
96. Oil company acronym : ARCO
99. Grasping : SEEING
102. Town in Umbria : ASSISI
105. Nose-burning : ACRID
106. Bit : SHRED
107. Lackluster : PROSY
109. Old man : POPPA
110. “Um … er …” : I MEAN
111. Lead/tin alloy : TERNE
112. Dumbbell abbr. : LBS
113. Call, e.g. : BET
115. *Revealing photo : X-RAY
116. Doctor Zhivago : YURI
117. How many oldies get rereleased : ON CD
119. Not go straight : ZIG
120. Limit : CAP
121. “If only ___ listened …” : HE’D

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