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The full solution to today’s crossword that appears in the New York Times
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CROSSWORD SETTER: Joel Fagliano
THEME: None
COMPLETION TIME: Didn’t finish …
ANSWERS I MISSED: Several in the northwest corner
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
“Matterhorn” is the German name for the famous Alpine peak that lies on the border between Switzerland and Italy. The Italian name for the same mountain is Monte Cervino, and the French call it Mont Cervin. “Matterhorn” comes from the German words Matte and Horn meaning “meadow” and “peak”. Cervino and Cervin come from the Latin name for the mountain, Mons Silvius meaning “Forest Mountain”.
16. Keystone’s place : ARCH
The keystone of an arch is the last piece put in position, the placement of which allows the arch to bear weight. The keystone sits right at the apex.
17. Region with the highest concentration of national parks in the U.S. : COLORADO PLATEAU
The Colorado Plateau is a geographical feature in the southwest, covering parts of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, roughly equivalent to what is known as the Four Corners region. The Colorado Plateau is home to the greatest concentration of national parks in the country. Included in the area are Grand Canyon NP, Zion NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Arches NP and Mesa Verde NP, to name but a few.
“The Wind in the Willows” is a classic children’s novel first published in 1908. Featured in the story are characters such as Mole, Ratty, Mr. Toad and Mr. Badger. The story’s author, Kenneth Grahame, held the exalted position of Secretary of the Bank of England.
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 trio, “Moe, Larry And Curly”. Shemp returned when Curly had a debilitating stroke in 1946, and he 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.
22. Work’s antithesis, briefly : REC
Recreation …
Bob Costas has been a sportscaster for NBC since the early eighties. Costas has a son called Keith. Just before his son was born, Costas made (as a joke) a bet with Minnesota Twins center fielder Kirkby Puckett that if he was batting over .350 by the time the child was born, he would name the baby “Kirkby”. Well, Puckett won the bet, but the actual name chosen was Keith Michael Costas. When Puckett reminded Costas of the agreement, the birth certificate was changed to Keith Michael Kirkby Costas. My wife would have killed me …
27. It develops before your eyes : POLAROID
Instant film is a film that contains the chemicals necessary to develop and fix the photo without subsequent processing. Instant film was first introduced in 1972 by Polaroid.
34. Set of sheets : REAM
A ream is 500 sheets of paper. As there were 24 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires made up a ream, there used to be 480 sheets in a ream. Ever since the standard was changed to 500, a 480-sheet packet of paper is called a “short ream”.
35. They’re prepared for breaks : CASTS
If one breaks a limb, for example, one usually sets the bone in a cast.
Specifically, the Eastern Redbud is the state tree of the State of Oklahoma.
40. Fifth-century capital of the Visigoths : TOULOUSE
The East Germanic tribe called the Goths has two main branches, called the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths. The Visigoth capital was the city of Toulouse in France, whereas the Ostrogoth capital was the Italian city of Ravenna just inland of the Adriatic coast.
42. Bearded ___ : TIT
The Bearded Tit is more usually known as the Bearded Reedling. The bird doesn’t actually have a “beard”, although the male has black marks around the bill that resemble a mustache.
43. What some A.L.’ers play for : SOX
The American League includes both the Boston Red Sox, and the Chicago White Sox.
“The Misfits” is a 1961 drama starring Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, directed by John Huston. It is noted for being the last screen appearances by both Gable and Monroe. Gable suffered a heart attack two days after the end of filming, and died ten days later. When the movie premiered in New York, Monroe attended, but was on a pass from a psychiatric hospital. She took a drug overdose and died a year and a half later. Montgomery Clift also starred in the movie. Six years later, the film was on television and his housekeeper asked him if wanted to watch it. He replied curtly, “Absolutely not”. They were the last words he spoke, as he was found dead in bed the next morning. A movie with a bit of a curse, one might say …
“California Girls” was released in 1965 by the Beach Boys, and reached number three in the “Billboard” charts. Twenty years later David Lee Roth recorded a very successful cover version of the song, and it reached exactly the same spot in the charts, number three.
55. Handful, maybe : BRAT
The word “brat” is a slang term that has been around since the 1500s, and back then it was used for the child of a beggar.
57. Composition of some hedgerows : YEWS
The wood from the yew tree is the wood of choice for the longbow, a valued weapon in the history of England. The longbow is constructed with a core of heartwood (as the heartwood resists compression) tht has a sheath of sapwood (as the sapwood resists stretching). The yew was in such demand for longbows that for centuries yew trees were in short supply in Britain and the wood had to be imported from all over Europe.
Down
1. Geneva-based org. : YWCA
The Young Women’s Christian Association was founded in the late 1800s about 50 years after the YMCA, although the two organizations have always been independent of each other. Having said that, some local YWCA and YMCA organizations have amalgamated and often share facilities. Like the YMCA, the YWCA movement has its roots in England, but its headquarters is now in Geneva, Switzerland. It is quite the organization, the largest women’s group in the whole world.
4. Excitable one : ATOM
Excitation of an atom occurs when the atom absorbs energy and at least one of its electrons moves out of its resting orbit into a higher orbit. When the electron returns to it lowest orbit it may do so by emitting the excess energy in the form of a photon, that is by emitting a characteristic color of light. If sufficient energy is used to excite the atom, the electron may break free completely, in which case the atom becomes an ion.
6. Poplar trees : ALAMOS
The town of Los Alamos, New Mexico takes its name from the Spanish for “the poplars”. Famously it is home to Los Alamos National Laboratory which was founded during WWII to work on the Manhattan Project, the development of the first atomic bomb. The town of Los Alamos didn’t exist as such, until it was planned and constructed to support the employees working on development of the bomb.
The wonderful Jodie Foster got her big break in movies early in her life, playing a very young prostitute in Martin Scorcese’s 1976 film “Taxi Driver”. Sadly, her appearance in “Taxi Driver” led to her being stalked by an obsessed John Hinckley, Jr. Hinckley called Foster on the phone, sent her love letters, and followed her on campus while she was attending Yale. In 1981, Hinckley famously shot and wounded President Reagan, claiming that he believed an assassination of the President would impress Foster.
8. Some growlers, in Granada : OSOS
In Spanish, “osa” is a female bear, and “oso” is a male.
Granada is a city and province in Andalusia in the south of Spain.
10. “Out of the Silence” novelist Cox : ERLE
Erle Cox was an Australian journalist as well as an author of science fiction. His most famous novel is “Out of the Silence” first published in installments in his newspaper in 1919. The story is about a gigantic sphere that is discovered underground in Australia, containing the accumulated knowledge of a past civilization.
The Matterhorn was first climbed in 1865, although it was a tragic expedition. During the descent, four members of the party fell to their death. Since 1865, over 500 climbers have lost their lives trying to reach the summit.
If you look at the design on the faces of an Oreo cookie, it looks like something out of “The DaVinci Code”. Ah, now there’s an idea for a storyline for Dan Brown!
13. Org. with a Hall of Champions : NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association dates back to the Presidency of President Theodore Roosevelt. When President Roosevelt’s son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions, leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States in 1906 with the remit of regulating college sports. The IAUSS evolved into the NCAA in 1910.
21. Leopard runner : MAC
Apple introduced the Mac OS X Operating System in 2000. Each version of this operating system has a had a code name (intended for internal use, but it gets out), and that code name is always a type of big cat. The versions and code names are:
– 10.0: Cheetah
– 10.1: Puma
– 10.2: Jaguar
– 10.3: Panther
– 10.4: Tiger
– 10.5: Leopard
– 10.6: Snow Leopard
Interestingly, the earlier beta version was called Kodiak, after the bear.
23. 100 points : CARAT
A carat is a unit of mass used to measure gemstones and pearls. There are one hundred points in a carat, each equal to 2 milligrams, so a carat is equal to 200 milligrams.
27. What a copier will often do : PASTE
Yep, on a computer one copies and then pastes …
33. Spread things? : PATS
A “pat” of butter is so called because of the tradition of forming it by “patting”.
35. Hi-tech “guts” : CPU
The Central Processing Unit is the main component on the “motherboard” of a computer. The CPU is the part of the computer that carries out most of the functions required by a program. Nowadays you can get CPUs in everything from cars to telephones.
38. Interior decorator’s concern : MOTIF
A motif is a recurring element in an artistic work, including a piece of music.
41. Key phrase : NO SALE
The “No Sale” key on a cash register is the one pushed to open the cash drawer without recording a transaction, when there is “no sale”.
The avocet is found in warm climates, usually in saline wetlands where it uses its up-curved bill to sweep from side-to-side in water searching for aquatic insects on which it feeds. Avocets, and other similar species, may go by the common name of “stilts”, a moniker given them because of their long legs.
44. Tastee-Freez alternative : TCBY
TCBY is a chain of stores selling frozen yogurt, founded in 1981 in Little Rock, Arkansas. The acronym TCBY originally stood for “This Can’t Be Yogurt”, but this had to be changed due to a lawsuit being pressed by a competitor, “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt”. Now it stands for “The Country’s Best Yogurt”.
45. Fabulous slacker : HARE
“The Tortoise and the Hare” is perhaps the most famous fable attributed to Aesop. The hare takes a nap during a race against the tortoise, and the tortoise sneaks past the finish line first while his speedier friend is sleeping.
48. Visiting the Getty, e.g. : IN LA
The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is one of the most visited museums in the country.
“Aida” the rock musical is based on Giuseppe Verdi’s original opera. It premiered in 1998, and is still performed today. Music is by Elton John, and lyrics by Tim Rice.
Trix is a corn-based breakfast cereal that has been around since 1954, produced by General Mills. Ads for the cereal featured Trix Rabbit, who would try hard to get hold of bowls of the cereal. He would always get caught though, and be admonished with, “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!” With 46% sugar content, the rabbit probably wouldn’t have liked it anyway …
51. Quaint, quaintly : OLDE
The word “olde” wasn’t actually used much earlier than the 1920s. “Olde” was introduced to give a quaint, antique feel to brand names, shop names etc.
52. Some TV spots, briefly : PSAS
PSAs are Public Service Announcements.
54. Piece of the ‘hood : GAT
In the “hood”, a “piece” (a gun) might be called a “gat”. The slang term of course comes from the Gatling gun, the precursor to the machine gun. The Gatling gun was invented by Dr. Richard J. Gatling in 1861. Apparently he was inspired to invent it so that one man could do as much damage as a hundred, thereby reducing the size of armies and diminishing the suffering caused by war. Go figure …
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Urban playground barb : YO MAMA JOKE
11. ___ Cervin (11-Down, to French speakers) : MONT
15. All-purpose putdown : WHAT A LOSER
16. Keystone’s place : ARCH
17. Region with the highest concentration of national parks in the U.S. : COLORADO PLATEAU
19. “Don’t forget about me” : AHEM
20. “The best of animals,” in a classic children’s book : MISTER TOAD
21. Curly rider? : MOE
22. Work’s antithesis, briefly : REC
23. “Football Night in America” host : COSTAS
27. It develops before your eyes : POLAROID
32. Like 21-Across’s behavior : ANTIC
33. What runs ruin : PANTYHOSE
34. Set of sheets : REAM
35. They’re prepared for breaks : CASTS
36. The redbud is one of its symbols: Abbr. : OKLA
37. Try demonstrating that one can : ATTEMPT TO
39. Buttinsky : PRIER
40. Fifth-century capital of the Visigoths : TOULOUSE
41. It’s dangerous to do on the road : NINETY
42. Bearded ___ : TIT
43. What some A.L.’ers play for : SOX
44. 1961 film scripted by Arthur Miller : THE MISFITS
49. Capping : ATOP
53. They’re the cutest in the world, per a hit song : CALIFORNIA GIRLS
55. Handful, maybe : BRAT
56. “Ooh, aren’t you special!” : WELL LA-DI-DA
57. Composition of some hedgerows : YEWS
58. Education supporters : STATE TAXES
Down
1. Geneva-based org. : YWCA
2. “I know that one!” : OH OH
3. Father or son : MALE
4. Excitable one : ATOM
5. Nick, say : MAR
6. Poplar trees : ALAMOS
7. Foster child in ’60s TV commercials : JODIE
8. Some growlers, in Granada : OSOS
9. Didn’t surrender : KEPT
10. “Out of the Silence” novelist Cox : ERLE
11. It was first conquered in 1865 : MATTERHORN
12. Its outsides are ornately embossed : OREO COOKIE
13. Org. with a Hall of Champions : NCAA
14. Fall’s end : THUD
18. Variety : ARRAY
21. Leopard runner : MAC
23. 100 points : CARAT
24. Almost at the hour : ONE TO
25. Result of bill-passing : STATUTE LAW
26. Features of many quiz shows : TIME LIMITS
27. What a copier will often do : PASTE
28. Seeing right through : ONTO
29. Some police dept. personnel : LTS
30. It may have a single palm : ISLET
31. Sugar : DEARY
33. Spread things? : PATS
35. Hi-tech “guts” : CPU
38. Interior decorator’s concern : MOTIF
39. 27-Acrosses, slangily : PIX
41. Key phrase : NO SALE
43. Cousin of an avocet : STILT
44. Tastee-Freez alternative : TCBY
45. Fabulous slacker : HARE
46. Pigtailed mothers? : SOWS
47. Not rest easy : FRET
48. Visiting the Getty, e.g. : IN LA
49. “Another Pyramid” musical : AIDA
50. Honeycomb alternative : TRIX
51. Quaint, quaintly : OLDE
52. Some TV spots, briefly : PSAS
54. Piece of the ‘hood : GAT