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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: Joon Pahk
THEME: JZ Sounds … each of the theme answers is a well-known term that includes a “J” sound, but with the “J” changed to a “Z” sound:
17. Greek god of fake tans? : ORANGE ZEUS (orange juice)
24. “Galifianakis wants you to call him back”? : PHONE ZACH (phone jack)
38. Madhouse at a G.O.P. convention? : CONSERVATIVE ZOO (conservative Jew)
48. Informal erotic reading? : BLUE-ZINES (blue jeans)
59. Famous Amos, e.g.? : COOKIE CZAR (cookie jar)
COMPLETION TIME: Did not finish!
ANSWERS I MISSED: Missed 4-5 answers in the southeast
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
5. Portland’s Rose Garden, e.g. : ARENA
Portland’s Rose Garden is a multipurpose arena, primarily built to home the Trail Blazers, the city’s NBA team.
10. “Twelfth Night” sir : TOBY
Sir Toby Belch is a much loved character in William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”.
William Shakespeare wrote his comedy “Twelfth Night” as a Christmas entertainment (Twelfth Night being the end of the Christmas season).
Mace is actually a brand name, originally introduced by Lake Erie Chemical when they started to manufacture “Chemical Mace”, with the name being a play on the club-like weapon from days of old. Mace was originally a form of tear gas, but Mace today uses a formula that is actually a pepper spray, a different formulation.
20. Outer layer of the cerebrum : CORTEX
The outermost layer of an organ is known as the cortex. The cortical layer that is most familiar to the man on the street (like me!) is that of the brain, the cerebral cortex.
21. “Gotcha” : ROGER
The term “roger”, meaning “yes” or “acknowledged”, comes from the world of radio-telephony. The British military used a phonetic alphabet in the fifties that included Roger to represent the letter “R”. As such, it became customary to say “Roger” when acknowledging a message, with R (Roger) standing for “received”.
Zach Galifianakis is a stand-up comedian who is making a name for himself on the big screen. He garnered a lot of attention for his role in 2009’s “The Hangover”, and also starred opposite Robert Downey Jr. in the 2010 release “Due Date”.
“Dobro” is now used as a generic term for a resonator guitar, and was originally a brand name. A resonator guitar is an acoustic design, with a metal cone replacing the traditional wooden sound board.
30. Java flavor : MOCHA
Café mocha is usually made using one third espresso coffee and two thirds steamed milk, with a little chocolate added. The drink is named after the town of Mocha in Yemen, a noted exporter of coffee as far back as the 15th century.
37. Selma Lagerlöf’s “The Wonderful Adventures of ___” : NILS
Selma Lagerlöf was a Swedish author, famous for her children’s book “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils”. Lagerlöf won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1909, the first woman to be so honored.
41. Do as Dürer did : ETCH
Albrecht Dürer was a German artist, noted for his etchings and engravings as well as for his paintings.
43. “I should ___ die with pity, / To see another thus”: King Lear : E’EN
Shakespeare was inspired to write his famous drama “King Lear” by the legend of “Leir of Britain”, the story of a mythological Celtic king.
Denim fabric originated in Nimes in France (with “de Nimes”, meaning “from Nimes”, giving the fabric its name). The French phrase “bleu de Genes” meaning “blue of Genoa”, gives us our word “jeans”.
51. Figurative device : TROPE
A trope is a figure of speech, from the Greek word “tropos” with the same meaning.
55. Dictator’s underling : STENO
Stenography is the process of writing in shorthand. The term comes from the Greek “steno” (narrow) and “graphe” (writing).
Weezer is an alternative rock band formed in LA in 1992. Apparently their music might be described as “emo”.
The musical genre of “emo” originated in Washington D.C. in the 80s, and takes its name from “emotional hardcore”. Not my cup of tea …
57. “At the Movies” bit : CLIP
“At the Movies” was a review television show hosted by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. It aired between 1982 and 1990.
Wally Amos was a talent agent, who was in the habit of taking home-baked cookies with him as an enticement to get celebrities to meet with him. He was urged by friends to open a cookie store (the cookies were that good, I guess) and this he did in Los Angeles in 1975 using the name “Famous Amos”. The store was a smash hit, and he was able build on the success by introducing his cookies into supermarkets. The brand was eventually bought up, making Wally a rich man, and Famous Amos cookies are still flying off the shelf.
62. Falafel bean : FAVA
Falafel is a fried ball of ground chickpeas or fava beans served in pita bread. I love chickpeas, but falafel just seems too dry to me.
Usain Bolt is a Jamaican sprinter who in the 2008 Olympics won three gold medals. Back in Jamaica, Bolt was big into cricket and probably would have been a very successful fast bowler had he not hit the track instead.
64. New Zealand : Kiwi :: Costa Rica : ___ : TICO
A tico is a familiar name for someone from Costa Rica.
Unlike many nicknames for people of a particular country, the name “Kiwi” for a New Zealander isn’t offensive at all. The term comes from the flightless bird that is endemic to New Zealand and is the country’s national symbol. Kiwi is a Maori word, and the plural (when referring to the bird) is simply “kiwi”. However, when you have two or more New Zealanders with you, they are Kiwis (note the “s”, and indeed the capital “K”!).
67. Tiresias, e.g., in Greek myth : SEER
Tiresias of Thebes was a blind prophet of Greek mythology. He was noted for his seven-year transformation into a woman.
Down
1. Brand with a torch in its logo : AMOCO
Amoco is an abbreviation for the American Oil Company. Amoco was the first oil company to introduce gasoline tanker trucks and drive-through filling stations. I wonder did they know what they were starting?
6. Cartoonist Chast : ROZ
Roz Chast had her first cartoon published in “The New Yorker” in 1978, and has had more than 800 published since then.
Dolly is the most famous sheep in the world. She was born in 1996 near Edinburgh in Scotland, grown from a cell taken from the mammary gland of a healthy donor sheep. When asked why she was called Dolly, the scientist responsible said, and I quote:
“Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn’t think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton’s”.
Like I said, I am simply quoting. I don’t judge …
10. China has only one : TIME ZONE
Local solar time was replaced with standard time zones with the increasing use of rail travel and telecommunications, as the variations in local solar times became very inconvenient. Time zones in the US vary in hourly increments, but in some parts of the world a 30-minute or even 15-minute difference can apply. On the other hand, in the vast country of China there is only one time zone.
11. Freeze out : OSTRACIZE
The practice of ostracism, freezing out or exclusion, dates back to Ancient Greece. Back then citizens could write the names of men they thought were sufficiently dangerous on tiles that were publicly posted, resulting in a banishment of ten years. “Ostracize” derives from the Greek “ostrakon”, the word for a “tile”.
Ben Bernanke has been Chairman of the Federal Reserve since 2006, appointed by President George W. Bush. Bernanke and his wife have a 30-year fixed rate mortgage with a rate of just over 5%, and one car, a Ford Focus. Modest enough …
18. High-tech map subject : GENOME
The genome of an organism is all the hereditary information needed to reproduce that organism, in other words, all of its chromosomes. When scientists unravel the human genome it takes up an awful lot of computer storage space, and yet all of this information is in almost every cell in our bodies. Every cell “knows” how to make a whole human being.
In the song “Puff the Magic Dragon”, made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary, Puff lives in the fictional land of Honalee.
One of the few characters in the television show “24” that wasn’t killed off was Chloe O’Brien, the abrasive computer scientist played by Mary Lynn Rajskub. IN the real world, the Department of Homeland Security has a development program aimed at protecting airliners from missile attacks. It is called Project CHLOE, after the character on “24”. Apparently the show was a favorite of former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
Bates Motel and house were constructed on the backlot of Universal Studios for the 1960 movie “Psycho”. They are still standing, and for me are the highlight of the backlot tour that is available to visitors.
36. Brown of Newsweek/The Daily Beast : TINA
Tina Brown is a British journalist, best known in America as author of “The Diana Chronicles”, a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, of whom Brown was a personal friend. Brown has turned her attention to this side of the Atlantic, and is working on a book about Hillary and Bill Clinton.
39. Batch holder : SHEET PAN
A sheet pan might hold a batch of cookies.
40. Decorative neckline insert : VESTEE
A vestee is an insert under a sweater or a jacket, designed to look like a blouse.
45. Philosopher Mo-___ : TZE
Mozi (also Mo-Tze) was a Chinese philosopher whose positions were often in coflict with Confucianism.
Ozzie Smith is a former professional shortstop. He played for the San Diego Padres and the St. Louis Cardinals.
The V-sign, made with the palm facing outwards, was used as a victory sign by Winston Churchill during WWII. He was careful to point his palm outwards, as the V-sign made with the palm inwards has a very rude meaning in Britain and Ireland. The same victory sign was adopted as a peace sign in protests against the Vietnam War, a usage that spread and persists to this day.
57. Head of cabbage?: Abbr. : CFO
The Chief Financial Officer is in charge of the money in a business, the “cabbage”.
60. Western treaty grp. : OAS
The Organization of American States (OAS) 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).
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Nailed : ACED
5. Portland’s Rose Garden, e.g. : ARENA
10. “Twelfth Night” sir : TOBY
14. Trademarked spray : MACE
15. Work divided by time, in physics : POWER
16. “Gotcha” : I SEE
17. Greek god of fake tans? : ORANGE ZEUS (orange juice)
19. Chain “links”: Abbr. : MTNS
20. Outer layer of the cerebrum : CORTEX
21. “Gotcha” : ROGER
23. Of yore : OLDEN
24. “Galifianakis wants you to call him back”? : PHONE ZACH (phone jack)
28. Twangy-sounding guitar : DOBRO
30. Java flavor : MOCHA
31. Irksome response to “You’re avoiding the question” : AM I
34. Sign in the middle of town : MAIN ST
37. Selma Lagerlöf’s “The Wonderful Adventures of ___” : NILS
38. Madhouse at a G.O.P. convention? : CONSERVATIVE ZOO (conservative Jew)
41. Do as Dürer did : ETCH
42. Where credit is given : BYLINE
43. “I should ___ die with pity, / To see another thus”: King Lear : E’EN
44. Find new tenants for : RELET
46. Get the word out, perhaps : ERASE
48. Informal erotic reading? : BLUE-ZINES (blue jeans)
51. Figurative device : TROPE
55. Dictator’s underling : STENO
56. Band with three self-titled albums (1994, 2001 and 2008) : WEEZER
57. “At the Movies” bit : CLIP
59. Famous Amos, e.g.? : COOKIE CZAR (cookie jar)
62. Falafel bean : FAVA
63. Lightning Bolt : USAIN
64. New Zealand : Kiwi :: Costa Rica : ___ : TICO
65. Drawing pair, perhaps : OXEN
66. Gets a break, maybe : RESTS
67. Tiresias, e.g., in Greek myth : SEER
Down
1. Brand with a torch in its logo : AMOCO
2. Number of holidays? : CAROL
3. Greeting on a computer? : E-CARD
4. In need of some hammering out : DENTED
5. Pinnacle : APEX
6. Cartoonist Chast : ROZ
7. Dolly, for one : EWE
8. Surgical specialty, informally : NEURO
9. Bad match result? : ARSON
10. China has only one : TIME ZONE
11. Freeze out : OSTRACIZE
12. Bernanke of the Fed : BEN
13. “All right!” : YES
18. High-tech map subject : GENOME
22. Perfect instance : GEM
24. A party (to) : PRIVY
25. Magical land : HONALEE
26. Tech-savvy “24” woman : CHLOE
27. Sports : HAS ON
29. Biting comment : BARB
31. Biting : ACERB
32. “Psycho” setting : MOTEL
33. Nonsexist, in a way : INCLUSIVE
35. Swizzles : STIRS
36. Brown of Newsweek/The Daily Beast : TINA
39. Batch holder : SHEET PAN
40. Decorative neckline insert : VESTEE
45. Philosopher Mo-___ : TZE
47. Puts up : ERECTS
49. Arouse, as someone’s wrath : INCUR
50. Tight rope? : NOOSE
52. Smith in Cooperstown : OZZIE
53. What two fingers may signify : PEACE
54. Overthrow, e.g. : ERROR
56. First part of a record : WINS
57. Head of cabbage?: Abbr. : CFO
58. Permissive : LAX
60. Western treaty grp. : OAS
61. Drummer’s setup : KIT
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