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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: Pete Muller
THEME: UMBRELLA … all the theme answers apply to the clue “UMBRELLA” which is spelled out by the circled letters. Joining the circled letters in the order from U-to-A produces a drawing of an UMBRELLA:
21A. [ ] : TRAVELERS LOGO
28A. [ ] : SHADE PROVIDER
44A. [ ] : GENE KELLY PROP
52A. [ ] : HIT FOR RIHANNA
COMPLETION TIME: 32m 15s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
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.
15. 1978 Nobel Prize sharer : SADAT
Anwar Sadat was the third President of Egypt right up to the time of his assassination in 1981. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 along with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, for their role in crafting the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1978 at Camp David. It was this agreement that largely led to Sadat’s assassination two years later.
You’ll remember Rocky Balboa calling for Adrian in the original “Rocky” movie. Adrian was played by the lovely Talia Shire, the sister of director Frances Ford Coppola. Shire also played Connie Corleone in Coppola’s series of “The Godfather” films.
19. “Winnie ___ Pu” : ILLE
A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” has been translated into many languages, and is one of the few modern titles for which there is a Latin version. Alexander Lenard had “Winnie ille Pu” published in 1958, and two years later it made it to the New York Times Best Seller List, the only book in the Latin language ever to get that honor.
20. One of the Durants who wrote “The Story of Civilization” : ARIEL
“The Story Of Civilization” is an epic work by husband and wife team Will and Ariel Durant. The eleven-volume set of books tells at least part of the story of Western Civilization, in over 4 million words written on almost 10,000 pages. The books were published from 1935 to 1975, clearly a life’s work. The history stops at “The Age of Napoleon”, as the authors both passed away in the eighties before they could finish the task they’d set themselves.
21. [ ] : TRAVELERS LOGO
Travelers is the largest American insurance company, with revenues of over $25 billion in 2010, and assets of over $100 billion. The red umbrella logo first appeared in 1870 in a newspaper ad for Travelers just a few years after it was founded. The umbrella was resurrected in the sixties and adopted as the company’s emblem.
The word “umbrella” comes from the Latin “umbra”, meaning shade or shadow.
Lamar Alexander is one of the US Senators representing Tennessee. Alexander is a great classical and country piano player, and you can actually hear him playing on a re-recording that Patti Page made of her 1950 hit “Tennessee Waltz”.
33. Pricey Swiss watch brand : RADO
Rado is a famous manufacturer of watches, noted for pioneering the use of scratch-proof materials. Rado make a watch that the Guinness Book of Records calls “the hardest watch on Earth”.
40. Commercial prefix with dyne : TELE-
Teledyne these days is a large group of companies, with the original founded in 1960. Most of the companies are in the high-tech sector, although Teledyne has had a presence in insurance and even dental products (Teledyne WaterPik).
41. U.K. election winners : MPS
Members of Parliament (MPs) are elected in the United Kingdom.
43. Language from which “gumbo” comes : BANTU
Gumbo is a type of stew or soup that originated in Louisiana. The primary ingredient can be meat or fish, but to be true gumbo it must include the “holy trinity” of vegetables, namely celery, bell peppers and onion. Okra used to be a requirement but this is no longer the case. In fact, okra gave the dish its name, as the vernacular word for the African vegetable is “okingumbo”, from the Bantu language spoken by many of the slaves brought to America.
In the movie “Singin’ in the Rain”, the wonderful, wonderful dance sequence to the title song was filmed over 2-3 days. Gene Kelly was splashing through puddles and getting rained on while all the time he was sick, with a fever of 103F.
The hit song “Umbrella” released by Rihanna in 2007, is notable (apparently) for featuring a rap verse contributed by Jay-Z. Rihanna was born and grew up on the island of Barbados, moving to the US when she was 16-years-old to pursue a singing career.
57. Black as night : EBON
Ebony is another word for the color black (often shortened to “ebon” in poetry). Ebony is a dark, black wood that is very dense, and is one of the few types of wood that sinks in water. Ebony has been in high demand, so the species of tree yielding the wood is now considered threatened. It’s in such short supply, that unscrupulous vendors have been known to darken lighter woods with shoe polish to make them look like ebony, so be warned …
Father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal starred in the 1973 comedy “Paper Moon”.
Tatum O’Neal was the youngest actress to win a “competitive” Oscar. She won the Best Supporting Actress Award in 1974 when she was just 10, for her role in “Paper Moon”. The youngest person to win an Academy Award was Shirley Temple, who was only 5 years old when she was given an honorary Oscar in 1934.
62. Queen’s title : RANEE
A ranee (also spelled rani) is the female equivalent of a raja in India.
63. Saab model : AERO
The Aero-X is a concept car, produced in 2006 by Saab. Apparently lots of folks who’ve seen or driven it would love it go into production.
SAAB stands for Svenska Aeroplan AB, which translates into English as Swedish Aeroplane Limited. So yes, SAAB was and still is mainly an aircraft manufacturer. If you take small hops in Europe you will often find yourself on a SAAB passenger plane. The SAAB automobile division was acquired by General Motors in the year 2000.
66. Where chamois and snow leopards live: Abbr. : MTNS
Down
8. Gravlax ingredient : DILL
Gravlax is the Swedish name for a dish consisting of raw salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill. Gravlax dates back to the Middle Ages when fishermen fermented salted salmon by burying it in the sand above the high-tide line. The name gravlax comes from the Scandinavian “grav” meaning “grave, hole in the ground” and “lax” meaning “salmon”.
9. Old blade : SNEE
“Snick or snee” is the name given to cut and thrust while fighting with a knife. The phrase is rooted in a pair of Dutch words, and it gave its name to a “snee”, a light sword-like knife.
12. Classical name of Troy : ILION
Ilion (or in Latin “Ileum”), was the ancient name for the city of Troy. It’s this name for Troy that gives rise to the title of Homer’s epic poem “Iliad”.
The Anaheim Angels are today more correctly called the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The “Angels” name comes from when team was founded in 1961 in the “City of Angels”, Los Angeles. When the franchise moved to Anaheim in 1965 they were known as the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, and most recently the Los Angeles Angels at Anaheim.
23. Concern for many a homeowner : RADON
Radon is a radioactive gas, a byproduct produced when uranium decays naturally in the earth. Radon gas can collect and accumulate in buildings and rooms that are particularly well insulated with very little air exchange. The danger is very real, as radon is regarded as the second most frequent cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoke.
24. Wahhabi’s belief : ISLAM
Wahhabism is a branch of the Sunni Islam religion.
If you ever get the chance to see it, I strongly recommend the Twyla Tharp musical “Movin’ Out”, a modern dance work that’s built around the music of Billy Joel. There’s no dialog, and a pretty thin plot, but it’s a wonderful series of fabulously choreographed dances to Joel hits. It’s guaranteed to have you dancing in aisles.
Emma Samms is a British actress, best known for her roles in soap operas. She played Holly Sutton on the daytime drama “General Hospital”, and was the second actress to play Fallon Carrington Colby on the prime time soap “The Colbys”, a spin-off of “Dynasty”.
29. David of infomercials : ORECK
The Oreck Corporation was named after founder David Oreck, and makes vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. The company started out selling vacuum cleaners by mail, a new concept in 1963. David Oreck appears regularly as a spokesman in the company’s ads and infomercials.
Maurice Ravel was a great French composer of the Romantic Era. His most famous piece of music by far is his “Bolero”, the success of which he found somewhat irksome as he thought it to be a trivial work. Personally though, I love minimalism and simplicity …
Idi Amin received most of his military training in the British armed forces, eventually achieving the highest rank possible for a Black African in the British Colonial Army in 1959, that of Warrant Officer. On his return to Uganda he joined the military, and quickly rose to the rank of Deputy Commander of the Army. During that time he was quite the athlete. He was a noted rugby player and swimmer, and for nine years held the Ugandan national, light-heavyweight boxing title. By the early seventies Amin was commander of all the armed forces of Uganda, and in 1971 seized power in a military coup, displacing the country’s president Milton Obote. There followed seven years of brutal rule by Amin during which it is estimated that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were murdered. Amin was ousted from power in 1979 after a war with Tanzania, and fled to Libya where he stayed for a year. He then moved to Saudi Arabia, where he was financially supported by the Saudi Royal Family for the remainder of his life. He died in 2003.
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 the 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 work is that Picasso tended to paint from his imagination, whereas Matisse tended to use nature as his inspiration.
Elton John’s real name is Reginald Dwight. He was knighted in 1998, not for his music but for his charitable work. He founded his own Elton John AIDS Foundation back in 1992.
The talented actress Shirley Temple played her first role in 1932 ,at the age of three, and was at the height of her career before she even hit her teenage years. She retired from film at the ripe old age of 22. Temple ran unsuccessfully for Congress for the Republican Party in 1967 (who would elect an actor??!!). She did serve as a political appointee though, as Representative to the UN under President Nixon, US Ambassador to Ghana under President Ford and US Ambassador to Czechoslovakia under President George H. W. Bush.
46. Grassy plains : LLANOS
“Llano” is the Spanish word for “plain”.
47. Author Deighton : LEN
I used to walk my dog right past author Len Deighton’s house years ago, as we lived in the same village in Ireland (probably my only claim to fame!). Deighton wrote the excellent espionage thriller “The IPCRESS File”, made into a 1965 movie starring Michael Caine.
Lt. Nyota Uhura was the communications officer in the original “Star Trek” television series, played by Nichelle Nichols. The role was significant in that it was one of the first African American characters to figure front and center in US television. In a 1968 episode, Kirk (played by William Shatner) and Uhura kiss, the first inter-racial kiss to be broadcast in the US. Apparently the scene was meant to be shot twice, with and without the kiss, so that network executives could later decide which version to air. William Shatner says that he deliberately ran long on the first shoot (with the kiss) and fluffed the hurried second shoot (without the kiss), so that the network would have no choice.
49. Passover month : NISAN
Nisan is the first month in the Hebrew ecclesiastical calendar.
53. Berate, with “out” : REAM
I must admit that I find the slang term “ream” meaning “scold harshly” quite distasteful. The usage as a reprimand dates back to about 1950.
55. Part of Africa : HORN
The Horn of Africa is that horn-shaped peninsula at the easternmost tip of the continent. The Horn of Africa contains the countries Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia as well as Somalia. It is also known as the Somali Peninsula.
Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. was born in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky, changing his name to Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam in 1964. Who can forget Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame for the 1996 games in Atlanta? Ali was presented with a gold medal during those ’96 Games, a replacement for the medal he won at the 1960 Olympics. He had thrown the original into the Ohio River as a gesture of disgust after being refused service at a “whites only” restaurant.
Shelton Jackson Lee is the real name of Spike Lee, the film director and producer. His first feature-length film, released in 1986, was “She’s Gotta Have It”. Lee shot the film in just twelve days, helping keep the movie within its relatively small budget of only $175,000. It grossed over $7 million …
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Devices seen around docks : IPODS
6. Output of some pirates : DVDS
10. Imitative : APISH
15. 1978 Nobel Prize sharer : SADAT
16. Reason for a delay, perhaps : RAIN
17. Shire of “The Godfather” : TALIA
18. “No way!” : MY EYE
19. “Winnie ___ Pu” : ILLE
20. One of the Durants who wrote “The Story of Civilization” : ARIEL
21. [ ] : TRAVELERS LOGO
24. “Put your wallet away, I’ve got this one” : IT’S ON ME
27. Makes up (for) : ATONES
28. [ ] : SHADE PROVIDER
32. Politico Alexander : LAMAR
33. Pricey Swiss watch brand : RADO
34. ___ Majesty : HER
37. Legion : ARMY
38. Bring onto a boat, say : REEL IN
40. Commercial prefix with dyne : TELE-
41. U.K. election winners : MPS
42. Some trajectories : ARCS
43. Language from which “gumbo” comes : BANTU
44. [ ] : GENE KELLY PROP
48. Still on the shelf : UNSOLD
51. Introductions : LEAD-INS
52. [ ] : HIT FOR RIHANNA
56. Grab : USURP
57. Black as night : EBON
58. Either co-star of “Paper Moon” : O’NEAL
62. Queen’s title : RANEE
63. Saab model : AERO
64. Common bathroom sight : SCALE
65. Threw in one’s two cents, say : ANTED
66. Where chamois and snow leopards live: Abbr. : MTNS
67. Beyond unusual : EERIE
Down
1. Creed : ISM
2. ___ now : PAY
3. Literary tribute : ODE
4. Short-term : DAY TO DAY
5. Less lax : STERNER
6. Golf bag item : DRIVER
7. A river might run through it : VALE
8. Gravlax ingredient : DILL
9. Old blade : SNEE
10. Just enough to whet one’s appetite : A TASTE
11. Pizza place : PARLOR
12. Classical name of Troy : ILION
13. Tactic for Napoleon : SIEGE
14. Nickname for the Anaheim Angels : HALOS
22. Increase, with “up” : AMP
23. Concern for many a homeowner : RADON
24. Wahhabi’s belief : ISLAM
25. “Movin’ Out” choreographer : THARP
26. Soap star Emma : SAMMS
29. David of infomercials : ORECK
30. Ravel’s “La ___” : VALSE
31. Dictator Amin : IDI
34. Painter Matisse : HENRI
35. John in England : ELTON
36. Returns to service : REUPS
38. Service break : R AND R
39. ‘Fore : ERE
40. Temple performance : TAP DANCE
43. Barely : BY A NOSE
44. Get unhitched : GO FREE
45. Said “I do” without the to-do : ELOPED
46. Grassy plains : LLANOS
47. Author Deighton : LEN
48. “Star Trek” role : UHURA
49. Passover month : NISAN
50. ___ double : STUNT
53. Berate, with “out” : REAM
54. “Yeah, sure” : I BET
55. Part of Africa : HORN
59. Attention : EAR
60. Clay, transformed : ALI
61. Spike in a director’s chair : LEE