Quicklinks:
Solution to today’s crossword in the New York Times
Solution to today’s SYNDICATED New York Times crossword in all other publications
CROSSWORD SETTER: David J. Kahn
THEME: JACK or JOHN … both ANDREW JACKSON and ANDREW JOHNSON fit as answers for 39A. “Either of the two presidents who also served as a US SENATOR from TENNESSEE”. As a result, three of the down clues can also have two answers:
– 33D. It’s rich in sugar : CAKE or CANE
– 37D. Cotton ___ : BALLS or BOLLS
– 41D. Captain James of the high seas : COOK or HOOK
COMPLETION TIME: 20m 32s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
A carom is a ricochet, the bouncing of some projectile off a surface. It has come to mean the banking of a billiard ball, the bouncing of the ball off the side of the table.
“A Passage to India” is a wonderful novel by E. M. Forster set in the days of the British Raj. There are two excellent adaptations for the screen that I would recommend. There’s a BBC television version from 1965 starring a wonderful cast including Virginia McKenna and Cyril Cusack. There is also an Oscar-winning movie version
23. Formerly : NEE
“Née” is the French word for “born”, when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”
31. Introduction to a Spanish count? : UNO
Uno, dos, tres, cuatro!
Back in the late 1800s, long distance cycle races were used as promotional events, traditionally to help boost sales of newspapers. These races usually took place around tracks, but in 1902 the backers of the struggling sports publication “L’Auto” decided to stage a race that would take the racers all around France. That first Tour de France took place in 1903, starting in Paris, and passing through Lyon, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes and then back to Paris.
35. Coolness : APLOMB
Aplomb is such a lovely word, meaning confidence and assurance. It is a French word that literally means “perpendicularity”, or “on the plumb line”. The idea is that someone with aplomb is poised, upright, balanced.
Like many of the earlier US presidents, Andrew Jackson was a career military man. He distinguished himself as commander of American forces during the War of 1812, particularly in the defense of New Orleans. He had a reputation of being fair to his troops, but strict. It was during this time that he was described as “tough as old hickory”, creating a nickname that stuck with him for life.
“Desire Under the Elms” is a classic American play written by Eugene O’Neill and published in 1924. It is basically a retelling of a Greek tragedy, but set in contemporary New England. Sophia Loren stars in a movie version released in 1958.
43. Performed a cadenza, e.g. : SOLOED
In music a cadenza (the Italian word for “cadence”) is a passage devoted to a solo player or singer. A cadenza usually has a “free” style, giving the featured artist the opportunity to improvise.
46. Santo Domingo greeting : ALO
Santo Domingo de Guzmán is the capital city of the Dominican Republic. Christopher Columbus was the first European to visit what is now the Dominican Republic, in 1492. Four years later Christopher’s younger brother, Bartholomew Columbus arrived, and founded Santo Domingo, making the city the oldest, continuously-inhabited European settlement in the Americas.
José Clemente Orozco was a Mexican painter famous for his themed murals, often promoting the causes of peasants and workers. His most famous mural is probably a fresco painted in the Library of Dartmouth College, called “The Epic of American Civilization”.
Panama hats are also known as Jipijapas, named for a town in Ecuador that was a major player in the hat trade.
56. Chemical suffix : -ENE
An alkene is an organic compound made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms. It differs from an alkane in that it has at least one C=C double bond. The simplest alkene is the gas ethylene, a major raw material used in the manufacture of plastics (like polyethylene).
60. Gilbert ___, author of “A Void,” a 290-page novel without the letter E : ADAIR
Gilbert Adair is a Scottish author. He wrote a translation of the book “La Disparition” by the French author Georges Perec, an interesting work in that it contains no instances of the letter “e”. Adair’s translation is called “A Void”, and in it the author also managed to avoid using the letter “e”. Remarkable …
James Ensor was a Belgian painter active in the first half of the twentieth century. He lived in Ostend for almost all of his life, and in terms of travel, he only made three brief trips, to Paris, London and Holland.
70. Bygone flier : SST
The most famous SuperSonic Transport (SST) was the Concorde, a plane that’s no longer flying. Concorde had that famous “droop nose”. The nose was moved to the horizontal position during flight to create the optimum aerodynamic shape thereby reducing drag, and was lowered during taxi, takeoff and landing, so that the pilot had better visibility. The need for the droop nose was driven largely by the delta-shaped wings on Concorde. The delta wing necessitates a higher angle of attack at takeoff and landing than conventional wing designs, so the pilot needed the nose lowered so that he or she could see the ground.
Down
Dewlap is that flap of skin that hangs below the neck of some creatures. Dewlaps are found on anything from dogs to iguanas.
Hershey’s produce over 80 million Kisses each day, and has been making them since 1907.
4. “Don Juan” division : CANTO
A canto is a section of a long poem, a term first used by Dante. “Canto” is the Italian for “song.
Lord Byron wrote the poem “Don Juan” based on the legend of the Don Juan the womanizer. In the poem, he created the character Donna Inez, Don Juan’s mother. Supposedly, Inez was based on Byron’s own wife, Annabella Milbanke.
“Starpeace” is a concept album recorded by Yoko Ono in 1985. The project was designed as a message of peace, and a statement of opposition to the “Star Wars” missile defense system championed by President Reagan.
8. Conflate : MERGE
To conflate is to bring together, to meld or fuse.
9. School whose 1910 football team went undefeated and unscored upon : NAVY
The Navy Midshipmen football team went undefeated during the 1910 season, and didn’t even have a point scored against them. They didn’t win every game though .. their record included one scoreless draw.
“Broken Arrow” was a ground-breaking movie when it was released in 1950, as it marked the first time that a major Western portrayed Native Americans sympathetically. Top of the bill was James Stewart, and playing Geronimo was actor Jay Silverheels. Silverheels had already landed the TV role of the Lone Ranger’s sidekick, Tonto, when he was offered the part in “Broken Arrow”.
12. Language known to native speakers as “gjuho shqipe” : ALBANIAN
The Albanian language is spoken mainly in Albania and Kosovo.
25. Winter time : YULE
“Yule” celebrations coincide with Christmas, and the words “Christmas” and “yule” have become synonymous in much of the world. Yule, though, was originally a pagan festival celebrated by Germanic peoples. The name “yule” comes from the Old Norse word “jol” that was used to describe the festival.
Tom Joad is a character in the John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath”. The role of Joad was played by Henry Fonda in the 1940 film adaptation directed by John Ford. Ford’s movie has a place in history, as it was one of the first 25 movies selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
30. Rock bottom : NADIR
The nadir is the direction pointing immediately below a particular location (through to the other side of the Earth for example). The opposite direction, the direction pointing immediately above, is called the zenith.
33. It’s rich in sugar : CAKE or CANE
37. Cotton ___ : BALLS or BOLLS
A boll is a seed-bearing capsule of some plants, particularly flax and cotton.
The Minnesota Timberwolves is the NBA franchise based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves joined the league as part of an expansion in 1987. The NBA had been in Minneapolis before as the city was home to the Minneapolis Lakers from 1947-1960, until the team moved to Los Angeles.
The famed British explorer, Captain James Cook, made three major voyages of discovery into the Pacific Ocean. Cook was in command of HMS Resolution on his third voyage, and along with his crew he became the first European to visit the Hawaiian Islands, in 1778. He landed on Kauai, and named the whole archipelago the Sandwich Islands, in honor of the fourth Earl of Sandwich who was in charge of the British Admiralty at the time. Cook continued his voyage, leaving Hawaii for exploration of the coast of what is now Canada and Alaska, returning to Hawaii the following year. After one month of contact with the native Hawaiians, Cook attempted to leave the islands but was forced to return to repair a broken mast. Relations between the Europeans and the islanders had been good, but despite this a dispute developed and got out of control that resulted in Cook being struck on the head and stabbed to death. His body was dragged away by the islanders, and as an apparent sign of respect for the Captain, the body was processed according to funeral traditions associated with Hawaiian kings and elders. Eventually, after a petition from the remaining crew, some of Cook’s remains were also returned for a formal burial at sea, adhering to British naval tradition.
Captain James Hook is the bad guy in J. M. Barrie’s play “Peter Pan; or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up”.
45. Ranch closing? : -ERO
A ranchero is one employed on a ranch, a word with Spanish roots.
49. Bollywood queens : RANEES
Bollywood is an informal name given to the huge film industry based in Mumbai in India. The term “Bollywood” is a melding of “Bombay”, the old name for Mumbai, and of course Hollywood.
57. ___ Fox : BR’ER
Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox are characters in the Uncle Remus stories, written by Joel Chandler Harris. His stories are adaptations of African American folk tales that he collected across the American South. The “Br’er” of course stands for “brother”.
59. It starts in March: Abbr. : DST
On the other side of the Atlantic, Daylight Saving Time (DST) is known as “summer time”. The idea behind summer/daylight-savings is to move clocks forward an hour in spring and backwards in the fall, so that afternoons have more daylight.
61. Start of many a blog comment : IMO
In My Opinion …
“The New York Times” has been published since 1851. These days a viable alternative to buying the paper is to read the news online. NYTimes.com is the most popular online newspaper website in the country, and I’m proud to be one of the 30 million visitors to the site each month.
65. Macduff rebuff : NAE
Macduff eventually kills Macbeth, at the end of Shakespeare’s play.
Nae is the Scottish vernacular for “no”.
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Class : ILK
4. Kind of shot : CAROM
9. Plague : NAG AT
14. Act independently : GO IT ALONE
16. ___ Quested, “A Passage to India” woman : ADELA
17. See 39-Across : US SENATOR
18. Come and go, e.g. : VERBS
19. Boon : ASSET
20. High-spirited : GAY
22. Bagel flavor : OAT
23. Formerly : NEE
24. Food sometimes eaten with a small fork : OYSTER
28. Mobile-to-Huntsville dir. : NNE
29. League: Abbr. : ASSN
31. Introduction to a Spanish count? : UNO
32. Year the first Tour de France was held : MCMIII
35. Coolness : APLOMB
38. Try to hit : AIM AT
39. Either of the two presidents who also served as a 17-Across from 62-Across : ANDREW JACKSON or ANDREW JOHNSON
42. Wife in O’Neill’s “Desire Under the Elms” : ABBIE
43. Performed a cadenza, e.g. : SOLOED
44. Sandpaperish : COARSE
46. Santo Domingo greeting : ALO
47. Other, to Orozco : OTRA
51. Cart track, e.g. : RUT
52. Subject of a sailor’s weather maxim : RED SKY
55. Jipijapa, e.g. : HAT
56. Chemical suffix : -ENE
57. Expensive seating area : BOX
58. Passport, e.g.: Abbr. : IDENT
60. Gilbert ___, author of “A Void,” a 290-page novel without the letter E : ADAIR
62. See 39-Across : TENNESSEE
66. Shot that’s hard to miss : GIMME
67. Publisher’s department : ROYALTIES
68. “The Scandalized Masks” painter : ENSOR
69. Kicked in : ANTED
70. Bygone flier : SST
Down
1. Creature with a dewlap : IGUANA
2. The “5” in “6-5,” e.g. : LOSSES
3. Things wrapped in foil : KISSES
4. “Don Juan” division : CANTO
5. Reminiscent of : A LA
6. Break down : ROT
7. “Starpeace” recorder, 1985 : ONO
8. Conflate : MERGE
9. School whose 1910 football team went undefeated and unscored upon : NAVY
10. Drink suffix : -ADE
11. Real-life character in the 1950 western “Broken Arrow” : GERONIMO
12. Language known to native speakers as “gjuho shqipe” : ALBANIAN
13. Have victory within one’s grasp : TASTE IT
15. Kind of shot : TEE
21. Target of many a shot : ARM
25. Winter time : YULE
26. Some blankets : SNOWS
27. 1940 Henry Fonda role : TOM JOAD
30. Rock bottom : NADIR
33. It’s rich in sugar : CAKE or CANE
34. Botch : MISDO
36. Certain tense: Abbr. : PRES
37. Cotton ___ : BALLS or BOLLS
39. Overflow with : ABOUND IN
40. Timberwolves and the like : NBA TEAMS
41. Captain James of the high seas : COOK or HOOK
42. Land : ACREAGE
45. Ranch closing? : -ERO
48. Argument : THESIS
49. Bollywood queens : RANEES
50. Warrant, with “to” : ATTEST
53. One in a mob scene? : EXTRA
54. Produce : YIELD
57. ___ Fox : BR’ER
59. It starts in March: Abbr. : DST
61. Start of many a blog comment : IMO
63. Long time : EON
64. Big Apple read: Abbr. : NYT
65. Macduff rebuff : NAE