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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: Lynn Lempel
THEME: Adjectival Body Parts … all of the theme answers are adjectives that include parts of the body:
17A. Easily offended : THIN-SKINNED
28A. Inclined to mince words : MEALYMOUTHED
46A. Lacking courage : FAINTHEARTED
62A. Cowardly : LILY-LIVERED
COMPLETION TIME: 6m 31s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
Arlo Guthrie is the son of Woody Guthrie. Both father and son are renowned for their singing of protest songs about social injustice. Arlo is most famous for his epic “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”, a song that lasts a full 18m 34s. In the song, Guthrie tells how, after being drafted, he was rejected for service in the Vietnam War based on his criminal record. He had only one incident on his public record, a Thanksgiving Day arrest for littering and being a public nuisance when he was 18-years-old.
The first Indy 500 race was held on Memorial Day in 1911. The winner that day was one Ray Harroun. He had seen someone using a rear view mirror on a horse-drawn vehicle, and decided to fit one on his Marmon “Wasp” motor car. Supposedly that was the first ever use of a rear view mirror on a motor vehicle.
14. Bona fide : ACTUAL
Bona fide(s), translates from the Latin as “in good faith”, and is used to indicate honest intentions. It can also mean that something is authentic, like a piece of art that is represented in good faith as being genuine.
20. Hits on the noggin : CONKS
To conk means to strike, especially on the head. Where I grew up, “conk” was also slang for a nose.
22. Policy expert : WONK
A wonk is an overly studious person. It is an American slang term that has been around at least since 1954.
28. Inclined to mince words : MEALY-MOUTHED
Someone who is described as mealymouthed tends not to state opinions directly and simply, and sounds hesitant.
Chia is a flowering plant in the mint family, and the Chia Pet is an invention of a San Francisco company. It did well in the eighties selling terracotta figurines to which were applied moistened chia seeds. The seeds sprout and as they grew the seedlings become the “fur” of the Chia Pet.
“Norma Rae” is a 1979 movie starring Sally Field, a tale of union activities in a textile factory in Alabama. The film is based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton told in a 1975 book called “Crystal Lee, a Woman of Inheritance”.
36. Old ___ (U.S. flag) : GLORY
The first person to coin the phrase “Old Glory”, with reference to the American flag, was Captain William Driver, a ship master from Salem, Massachusetts. As he was leaving on an 1831 voyage aboard the brig Charles Doggett, he unfurled the American flag that he had just been given by a group of friends. As the flag caught the breeze, he uttered the words, “Old Glory!”. That’s the story anyway. By the way, on that same voyage, Charles Doggett rescued the famous mutineers of the HMS Bounty, after he found them on Pitcairn Island.
42. Dairy spokescow : ELSIE
Elsie the Cow is the mascot of the Borden Company. Elsie first appeared at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, introduced to symbolize the perfect dairy product. Elsie was also given a husband, Elmer the Bull, who eventually moved over to the chemical division of Borden where he gave his name to Elmer’s Glue.
44. Air passenger protection org. : TSA
The Transportation Security Administration was of course created in 2001, soon after the 9/11 attacks.
51. Yahoo! alternative : AOL
Founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1983, America Online changed its name in 1989. As the company went international, the acronym AOL was used in order to shake off the “US-centric” sound to “America Online”. During the heady days of AOL’s success, the company could not keep up with the growing number of subscribers, so people trying to connect often encountered busy signals. That’s when users called AOL “Always Off-Line”.
52. Respectful Turkish title : AGA
An aga, or agha, is a title that was used by both civil and military officials in the Ottoman Empire.
In J. M. Barrie’s play and novel about Peter Pan, Smee is one of Captain Hook’s pirates and his right-hand man. He is described by Barrie as being “Irish” and “a man who stabbed without offence”. Nice guy!
The most famous mausoleum in the world has to be the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. The Taj Mahal was built after the death of the third wife of Shah Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal (hence the name of the mausoleum). The poor woman died in childbirth, delivering the couple’s 14th child!
62. Cowardly : LILY-LIVERED
Someone who is described as “lily-livered” is cowardly or timid. The term may have originated in “Macbeth” , where Shakespeare used it as an insult, with “lily” meaning pale or bloodless, and referring to the liver, the supposed seat of love and passion. So, an anemic liver might belong to a person lacking passion and courage.
65. Sheltered at sea : ALEE
“Alee” is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing “aweather”.
68. Nonvegetarian sandwiches, informally : BLTS
The BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) is the second most popular sandwich in the US, after the plain old ham sandwich.
Down
2. Sound heard before “Gesundheit!” : ACHOO
“Gesundheit” is the German word for “health”, and is used in response to a sneeze in Germany, as indeed it is here in the US.
We owe the character Lassie to one Eric Knight who wrote a short story that he expanded into a novel called “Lassie Come Home”, published in 1940. “Lassie Come Home” was turned into a movie three years later, the first of a very successful franchise. The original Lassie (a female) was played by a dog called Pal, a male dog. In fact, all of the dogs that played Lassie over the years were males, because they looked better on camera, retaining a thick coat even during the summer months.
6. Fraternal lodge member : ELK
The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was founded in 1868, and is a social club that has about a million members today. It started out as a group of men getting together in a “club” in order to get around the legal opening hours of taverns in New York City. The club took on a new role as it started to look out for poor families of members who passed away. The club now accepts African Americans as members (since the seventies) and women (since the nineties), but atheists still aren’t welcome.
7. River through Florence : ARNO
The Arno is the principal river in the Tuscany region of Italy, and passes through the cities of Florence and Pisa. Famously, the Arno flooded in 1966, the worst flood in the region for centuries. There were numerous deaths and extensive destruction of priceless art treasures, particularly in Florence.
There are actually four River Avons in England, but “Shakespeare’s Avon” lies mainly in Warwickshire. The name “Avon” comes from the Old English word for a river, “abona”. Stratford-upon-Avon was of course William Shakespeare’s birthplace.
Marc Chagall was a Russian-French artist, one of the most successful of the 20th century. Unlike so many painters, Chagall was able to achieve wealth and notoriety for his work during his own lifetime. It did help that Chagall lived to a ripe old age though. He passed away in 1985, at the age of 97 years young.
28. Show for the early-to-bed crowd : MATINEE
“Matinée” is a French word for a musical entertainment held during the daytime. It is derived from the word “matin”, meaning “morning”, although here is used in the sense of “daylight”. Theater performances in the US tend to be either in the evening (for the night owls) or in matinees in the afternoon (for “the early-to-bed crowd”).
29. Busybody : YENTA
Yenta (Yente) is actually a female Yiddish name. In Yiddish theater it came to mean a busybody.
30. Southernmost of the Great Lakes : ERIE
Lake Erie is the second smallest of the Great Lakes (after Lake Ontario). The lake takes its name from the Erie tribe of Native Americans that used to live along its southern shore. Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, something for which nearby residents must be quite grateful. Being relatively shallow, Erie freezes over part way through most winters putting an end to the lake effect snow that falls in the snow belt extending from the lake’s edge.
33. Luau dance : HULA
Hula is the name of the Polynesian dance. The chant or song that the dance illustrates, that’s known as the mele.
Nowadays the word “luau” denotes almost any kind of party on the Hawaiian Islands, but to the purist a luau is a feast that always includes a serving of “poi”, the bulbous underground stems of taro baked with coconut milk.
39. Zionist’s homeland : ISRAEL
The name “Zion” first turns up in the Book of Solomon in the Bible. Zion is commonly used to refer to Jerusalem, and sometimes the Biblical land of Israel.
40. “Elder” or “Younger” Roman statesman : CATO
Cato the Younger was a politician in the late Roman Republic, noted for his moral integrity. He is also remembered for an extended conflict with Julius Caesar.
Cato the Elder was a Roman statesman, known historically as “the elder” in order to distinguish him from his great-grandson, Cato the Younger. His ultimate position within Roman society was that of Censor, making him responsible for maintaining the census, and for supervising public morality.
43. And so forth, for short : ETC
Et alii is the equivalent of et cetera, with et cetera being used in place of a list of objects, and et alii used for a list of names.
Dorothy Hamill was the Olympic and World Champion singles figure skater in 1976. She was noted for the “Hamill camel”, a skating move that started with a camel spin and transitioned into a sit spin.
49. 7’s retail partner? : ELEVEN
The first precursor to the 7-Eleven store opened in Dallas, Texas in 1927. The stores were so named (much later, in 1946) because they were open longer than other stores, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
56. Biblical gift bearers : MAGI
Magi is the plural of the Latin word “magus”, a term applied to someone who was able to read the stars. Hence, magi is commonly used with reference to the “wise men from the East” who followed the star and visited Jesus just after he was born.
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Big bother : HASSLE
7. Folk singer Guthrie : ARLO
11. Month of the Indianapolis 500 : MAY
14. Bona fide : ACTUAL
15. Attack on the fridge, say : RAID
16. Future embryos : OVA
17. Easily offended : THIN-SKINNED
19. Whole lot : TON
20. Hits on the noggin : CONKS
21. Signals silently : NODS
22. Policy expert : WONK
23. Greedy type : HOG
24. Little trickster : IMP
26. Playful swimmer : OTTER
28. Inclined to mince words : MEALY-MOUTHED
32. ___ Pet (sprouting figurine) : CHIA
35. Filmdom’s “Norma ___” : RAE
36. Old ___ (U.S. flag) : GLORY
37. Scavenge (for) : HUNT
38. One with a negative outlook on life : CYNIC
41. French female friend : AMIE
42. Dairy spokescow : ELSIE
44. Air passenger protection org. : TSA
45. If ___ be : NEED
46. Lacking courage : FAINTHEARTED
50. Tooth problem : DECAY
51. Yahoo! alternative : AOL
52. Respectful Turkish title : AGA
55. Peter Pan pursuer : SMEE
57. Trifling : MERE
59. Got it wrong : ERRED
61. ___ Mahal : TAJ
62. Cowardly : LILY-LIVERED
64. Long, long ___ : AGO
65. Sheltered at sea : ALEE
66. Force out of office : DEPOSE
67. Protective wear in a highchair : BIB
68. Nonvegetarian sandwiches, informally : BLTS
69. Caused some winter havoc, maybe : SNOWED
Down
1. Emerge from an egg : HATCH
2. Sound heard before “Gesundheit!” : ACHOO
3. Police trap : STING
4. Shipwrecked : SUNK
5. Timmy’s TV dog : LASSIE
6. Fraternal lodge member : ELK
7. River through Florence : ARNO
8. Haphazard : RANDOM
9. Is dishonest with : LIES TO
10. Unusual : ODD
11. Accommodations for a family on the go? : MOTORHOME
12. River beside the Royal Shakespeare Theatre : AVON
13. Pull sharply : YANK
18. Like a fair ball as opposed to a foul ball : IN PLAY
22. Marshy habitat : WETLAND
25. Painter Chagall : MARC
27. Pull sharply : TUG
28. Show for the early-to-bed crowd : MATINEE
29. Busybody : YENTA
30. Southernmost of the Great Lakes : ERIE
31. Not naturally colored : DYED
32. Food processor? : CHEF
33. Luau dance : HULA
34. Employee-abetted crime : INSIDE JOB
39. Zionist’s homeland : ISRAEL
40. “Elder” or “Younger” Roman statesman : CATO
43. And so forth, for short : ETC
47. Champion figure skater Dorothy : HAMILL
48. Place for a lace : EYELET
49. 7’s retail partner? : ELEVEN
52. Valentine piercer : ARROW
53. Birds in a gaggle : GEESE
54. Did sums : ADDED
55. Attack with a dagger : STAB
56. Biblical gift bearers : MAGI
58. Deli loaves : RYES
60. Property after a default, for short : REPO
62. Chem class component : LAB
63. Passports and driver’s licenses, in brief : IDS
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