0626-11: New York Times Crossword Answers 26 Jun 11, Sunday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. 1988 Grammy winner for “Crying” : KD LANG
k.d. lang is the stage name of Kathryn Dawn Lang, a Canadian singer and songwriter. Beyond her performing career, she is a noted activist focused on animal rights, gay rights, and human rights in Tibet.

20. Cry from a balcony : O ROMEO
In the balcony scene in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Juliet utters the famous line:

O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?

Every schoolkid must have commented with a giggle “he’s down in the garden!” Of course, “wherefore” isn’t an archaic word for “where”, but rather an old way of saying “why”. So Juliet is asking, “Why art thou Romeo, a Montague, and hence a sworn enemy of the Capulets?”

21. ___ pork : MOO SHU
Moo Shu Pork is a traditional dish from northern China, with the main ingredients being shredded pork and scrambled egg.

22. Many a Nevada resident : SIERRAN
The American Sierra Nevada range lies along the border between the states of California and Nevada. The “original” Sierra Nevada is in Andalusia in Spain, with the name meaning “snowy range” in Spanish.

23. Dance seen in a Lincoln Center performance of “Don Giovanni”? : NEW YORK MINUET (New York minute)
The expression “in a New York minute” is used to indicate that something happens very quickly. It is is based on the idea that everything moves faster in the Big Apple, which I suppose is true!

25. Penn State campus site : ALTOONA
Altoona is in central Pennsylvania, and is home to the Ivyside Park Campus of Pennsylvania State University.

27. Prefix with caching : GEO-
Geocaching is a game rather like “hide and seek”, played outdoors using hi-tech equipment. The idea is that someone places a waterproof container in a specific location with known GPS coordinates. The container has a logbook inside, so that players who find the “cache” can record their discovery along with any notes of interest. The location of the container is listed on special sites on the Internet for anyone to access. You can check out caches near you at www.geocaching.com. You will probably be surprised at how many there are! I know I was …

28. Baja’s opposite : ALTA
In Spanish, “baja” is “low”, and “alta” is “high”.

30. Author : PENNER
An author is someone who pens i.e. someone who writes.

31. “Hang on ___!” : A MO
Hang on a mo-ment.

32. Locale for a cattail : FEN
Cattails are flowering plants found in wetlands, although we call them bullrushes back in Ireland …

40. Celebration after a 1964 heavyweight championship? : FETE OF CLAY
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.

48. Not so big : RUNTIER
Back in 1500 a runt was an old or decayed tree stump, and by the early 1600s it was being used to describe animals that were similarly old and decayed, and ultimately for the smallest and often sickest of a litter.

50. Blackmore heroine : LORNA
Lorna Doone was written by Richard Doddridge Blackmore. R. D. Blackmore was an English novelist, very celebrated and in demand in his day (the late 1800s). His romantic story “Lorna Doone” was be no means a favorite of his, and yet it is the only one of his works still in print.

54. Female co-star in “Love Crazy,” 1941 : LOY
“Love Crazy” is another vehicle for the fabulous team of William Powell and Myrna Loy, famous for “The Thin Man” series of films. It’s a screwball comedy (of course) about a couple whose marriage comes under pressure by an old girlfriend and a mother-in-law. Definitely my kind of movie …

57. Tolkien creatures : ENTS
Ents are those tree-like creatures that live in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, in his series of books “The Lord of the Rings”.

59. Scarlett O’Hara’s real first name : KATIE
As casting proceeded for the movie version of “Gone With the Wind”, Clark Gable was a shoo-in from day one. The role of Scarlett was considered very desirable in the acting community, with Bette Davis on the short list, and Katherine Hepburn demanding an appointment with producer David O. Selznick to discuss the role. Vivien Leigh was an unlikely contender, an English actress for the definitive Southern belle role. Selznick was adamant though, and stuck by his choice despite a lot of protests.

65. The Mavericks, on scoreboards : DAL
The Mavericks is the name of the NBA franchise is Dallas, Texas. The team was founded in 1980, and the Mavericks name was decided on by fan votes. The choice of “Mavericks” was helped on by the fact that the actor James Garner was a part-owner of the team, and he of course played “Maverick” on television.

68. Shriners’ headwear: Var. : FEZES
The Shriners are an offshoot of the Freemasons. One of the founders was Walter Fleming, who picked up the idea of creating a group with a Middle Eastern theme after witnessing an Arabian musical comedy in Southern France and again in North Africa. He gave the group its name, the Ancient Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, or Shriners for short.

“Fez” is the name given to the red, cylindrical hat worn mainly in North Africa, and by Shriners here in the US. It used to be very popular right across the Ottoman Empire. The etymology of “fez” is unclear, although it might have something to do with the Moroccan city named Fez.

69. Gob : TAR
“Gob” is a slang term for a sailor, and it may derive from a slang term for chewing tobacco, itself a derivative of the slang term for a mouth, a “gob”.

A Jack Tar, or just “tar”, was a seaman in the days of the British Empire. The term probably arose due to a sailor’s various uses of tar in those days, including waterproofing their clothes, and using tar in their hair to slick down their ponytails.

71. Decide to sleep in the nude? : CAST PAJAMAS (cat’s pajamas)
There was a whole series of phrases involving animals that developed in the 1920s, all designed to indicate a superlative. Some are still around today, such as “the cat’s pajamas” and “the bee’s knees”. Others didn’t last too long e.g. “the eel’s ankle” and “the snake’s hip”.

75. Sodium ___ : AMIDE
Sodium amide, also known as sodamide, is a dangerous chemical. It can explode when exposed to water.

76. “Around the Horn” cable channel : ESPN
“Around the Horn” is a 30-minute sports roundup aired everyday on ESPN.

79. 1983 #1 hit with the lyric “Put on your red shoes” : LET’S DANCE
David Bowie’s great hit “Let’s Dance” was released in 1983, his only record to make it to number one on both sides of the Atlantic.

81. What whitewashers apply? : IVORY COATS (Ivory Coast)
The Republic of Côte d’Ivoire is located in West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea. The country is often, mistakenly, referred to as the Ivory Coast, the direct translation from the French. The official language of the country is French, as for many years it was a French colony.

84. ___ Friday’s : TGI
T.G.I. Friday’s is an American restaurant chain, founded in 1965 in New York City. Today there are over a thousand T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants in over 50 countries. I think they have always been particularly successful overseas. I used visit one a lot with my family when we lived in the Philippines, and I believe the most successful Friday’s restaurant anywhere in the world is the one in Haymarket Leicester Square in London in the UK.

88. Response to the query “Does Ms. Garbo fist-bump?”? : NO, GRETA SHAKES (no great shakes)
Famously, Greta Garbo lived a life of seclusion in New York City after she retired from the entertainment business. Commentators often associated her need for privacy with a line she uttered in the great 1932 movie “Grand Hotel”. Her character, Grusinskaya the Russian ballerina, said, “I want to be alone (…) I just want to be alone”.

95. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Is King” band, 1983 : ELO
ELO of course stands for the Electric Light Orchestra, a symphonic rock group from the north of England. Their manager was Don Arden, father of Sharon Osbourne (wife of Ozzy).

97. Actress Polo : TERI
Teri Polo’s most prominent role on the big screen is Pam Focker in “Meet the Fockers” and its sequel. Pam is the wife of the character played by Ben Stiller.

99. Polynesian potable : KAVA
Kava is a plant found in the western Pacific. Its roots are used to make an intoxicating drink also called kava, which acts as a sedative.

107. Shocking, in a way : TASING
Victor Appleton wrote a novel for young adults called “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle”. The company that developed the TASER electroshock weapon, named their product as a homage to the novel, as TASER stands for Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle. Interesting, eh?

108. Leonard of literature : ELMORE
Elmore Leonard used to write a lot of westerns in the fifties and moved onto crime and suspense novels later in his career. A lot of his books have made it to the big screen, including “Get Shorty” and “Mr Majestyk”.

109. Sting, e.g. : BASSIST
Sting is the stage name used by Gordon Sumner, who came to fame initially as the lead singer for The Police. Off stage, Sting is an avid chess player, and he once participated in an exhibition game with chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov.

110. Team that once played at Enron Field : ASTROS
Enron Field, as it was known, is a retractable-roof ball park, built next to Houston’s old Union Station. Enron paid $100 million to get its name on the field, and then when the world found out what a scam Enron actually was, the Astros bought back the contract for the name, for a mere $2.1 million. The stadium became Astros Field for a few months, until the Coke people paid $170 million for a 28-year contract to christen the stadium Minute Maid Park. A good deal for the Astros, I’d say …

111. Bob Evans rival : DENNY’S
Denny’s was the first restaurant I ate at on my initial visit to the US over 30 years ago. I thought I was in heaven. I’ve changed my opinion a little since then! Denny’s is famous for being “always open” (almost), something that blew my mind as a visitor from Ireland back in 1980. Denny’s was founded in 1953 in Lakewood, California, and originally went by the name “Denny’s Donuts”.

Down
1. Former German chancellor Adenauer : KONRAD
Konrad Adenauer was the first Chancellor of West Germany after WWII, taking office in 1949 at the age of 73. He was 87 years old when he left office. Understandably perhaps, his nickname was “Der Alte”, German for “the old man”. He spent much of WWII in prison, courtesy of Herr Hitler.

3. One hit by a tuba : LOW NOTE
The tuba is the lowest pitched of all the brass instruments, and one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra (usually there is only one included in an orchestral line-up). “Tuba” is the Latin word for “trumpet, horn”.

4. Singer Grant and others : AMYS
Amy Grant is known as “The Queen of Christian Pop” and her most famous songs are Gospel and Contemporary Christian works. “Baby Baby” is one such song, released in 1991, a number-one hit for her.

9. Garfield’s owner : JON
Jon Arbuckle is a fictional character, the owner of Odie from Jim Davis’s comic strip “Garfield”. Garfield is Arbuckle’s orange tabby cat. Odie is his less-than-smart beagle.

11. Country star ___ Lynne : SHELBY
Shelby Lynne is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She had a tough start in life. When she was only 17, her father shot and killed her mother, and then turned the gun on himself. Rough indeed …

12. “Così fan ___” : TUTTE
Mozart’s comic opera “Così fan tutte” is also known as “The School for Lovers” in English. A more literal translation is “Thus do all (women)”, or “Women are like that”.

13. Agcy. with a list of prohibited items : TSA
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was of course created in 2001, soon after the 9/11 attacks.

15. A Fonda : PETER
Peter Fonda is the son of actor Henry, brother of actress Jane, and father of actress Bridget. Peter nearly didn’t make it to the stage. He was one of the many children who have been victims of shooting accidents. Peter shot himself in the stomach when he was just 11-years-old, and very nearly died.

16. Plane over Yemen, maybe : DRONE
Yemen is located on the Arabian Peninsula, lying just south of Saudi Arabia and west of Oman. Yemen is the only state on the peninsula that is a republic (its official name is the Republic of Yemen). Everyone over the age of 18 gets to vote, but only Muslims can hold elected office.

17. College town just off Interstate 95 : ORONO
The town of Orono is home to the University of Maine, founded in 1862. The college is actually located on an island (Marsh island) lying between the Penobscot and Stillwater rivers. The town of Orono is named after Joseph Orono, a chief of the Penobscot Nation.

24. When doubled, a number puzzle : KEN
KenKen is an arithmetic and logic puzzle invented quite recently, in 2004 by a Japanese math teacher named Tetsuya Miyamoto. “Ken” is the Japanese word for “cleverness”.

32. “Totem and Taboo” writer : FREUD
Sigmund Freud’s “Totem und Tabu” (simply “Totem and Taboo” in English) is subtitled “Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics”. It is a series of four essays in which Freud applies psychoanalysis to archaeology, anthropology and the study of religion.

35. Judo-like exercises : TAE BO
Tae Bo isn’t an ancient martial art, but was developed as a form of aerobic exercise in the 1990s. It was introduced by taekwondo expert Billy Blanks who gave it the name Tae Bo, a melding of taekwondo and boxing.

38. Offspring : SCION
Scion comes from the old French word “sion” or “cion”, meaning “a shoot or a twig”. In botanical terms today, a scion is used in grafting two compatible plants together. In grafting, one plant is selected for its root system (the “rootstock”), and the other plant is selected for its stems, leaves and fruit (the “scion”). The term scion migrated naturally into the world of family history. A scion is simply a descendant, a son or a daughter, and therefore a branching point in the family tree.

41. Town on the Hudson R. : FT LEE
Fort Lee, New Jersey is located at the western side of the George Washington Bridge that spans the Hudson River. Fort Lee is known as the birthplace of the motion picture industry. The world’s first movie studio was built there by Thomas Edison, a facility known as the Black Maria.

42. Filmmaker Allen : IRWIN
The TV and movie director Irwin Allen was known as “The Master of Disaster”, as he worked on so many disaster movies. The most famous of these were “The Poseidon Adventure” and “The Towering Inferno”, both of which he produced.

44. Apollo target : MOON
The Apollo program is of course very much associated with President Kennedy, as he gave NASA the challenge to land men on the moon by the end of the sixties. However, the Apollo program was conceived during the Eisenhower administration as a follow-up to Project Mercury that put the first Americans in space.

52. What Cher Bono, e.g., goes by : ONE NAME
Cher’s name at birth was Cherilyn Sarkisian.

56. River to the North Sea : YSER
The Yser originates in northern France and flows though Belgium into the North Sea. The Yser name is oft associated with WWI as it figured in a major battle early in the conflict. In the first three months of the war the German Army pushed almost completely through Belgium, inflicting heavy losses on the Belgian Army as the defenders were forced to fight a fast-moving rearguard action. The Germans were intent on pushing right through Belgium and across France in a “race to the sea”. But the Belgians, with the help of its Allies, decided to make a final stand at the Yser Canal in an effort to prevent the Germans reaching the French ports of Calais and Dunkirk. The 22-mile long defensive line was chosen at the Yser because the river and canal system could be flooded to create a natural barrier that might be defended. The plan was successful, and the front was “stabilized”. As we now know, millions of lives were lost over the coming years with very little movement of that battle line.

58. Artist Francisco : GOYA
Francisco Goya was a Spanish painter, often called the last of the Old Masters, and the first of the moderns. Two of his most famous works are “The Nude Maja” and “The Clothed Maja”.

59. Director of the major film debuts of James Dean and Warren Beatty : KAZAN
Elia Kazan won Oscars for best director in 1948 for “Gentleman’s Agreement” and in 1955 for “On The Waterfront”. In 1999, he was given an Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. He also directed “East of Eden” which introduced James Dean to movie audiences, and “Splendor in the Grass” which included Warren Beatty in his debut role.

63. Home to Sun Devil Stadium : TEMPE
Sun Devil Stadium is the football stadium on the Arizona State University campus.

67. Old Fords : LTDS
There has been a lot of speculation about what the acronym LTD stands for in the car model “Ford LTD”. Many say it stands for Luxury Trim Decor, and others that it is an abbreviation for “limited”. Well, it turns out that LTD was chosen as just three meaningless letters that sound good together.

68. Like Mussolini : FASCIST
Benito Mussolini was deposed in 1943 just a few weeks after the Allies invaded Sicily and started to bomb Rome. Fascist politicians voted to oust him, and Italian King Victor Emmanuel had him arrested. Hitler selected Lieutenant Colonel Otto Skorzeny to lead a group of German commandos in a daring rescue of his longtime ally. The rescuers were towed into Italian airspace in gliders, which the commandos flew into a mountainside close to where Mussolini was being held captive. The element of surprise was so significant, that the rescue was effected without a shot being fired. A small plane was flown in to transport Mussolini and Skorzeny out of Italy, and to safety in Vienna. Some months later, Mussolini returned to Italy and fought on in parts of the country not yet taken by the Allies. As the end drew near, he made a run for Switzerland but was captured by Italian partisans. They executed him and took his body to Milan, where it was put on display hanging upside down for all to see.

72. Game whose name is derived from Swahili : JENGA
“Jenga” is the Swahili word for “build!”

73. Sean Connery and others : SCOTS
Sean Connery is of course most famous for playing the original James Bond in the successful series of movies. Back in his native Scotland he is very active in politics, and is a member of the Scottish Nationalist Party. He actively campaigns for Scottish independence from Britain, and has stated that he believes Scotland will achieve that goal within his own lifetime.

77. Jazz singer Anderson : IVIE
Ivie Anderson was a jazz singer, famous for performing with Duke Ellington’s orchestra in the thirties and early forties.

85. Alex of “Webster” : KARRAS
Before Alex Karras played the adoptive father of the title character in the sitcom “Webster”, he played football for the Detroit Lions and was also a professional wrestler.

88. Southwest Africa’s ___ Desert : NAMIB
The Namib Desert is in Namibia, as one might expect, and and also stretches into part of Angola. It is thought to be the oldest desert in the world, having been arid for over 55 million years.

101. Retired 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. 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.

103. It landed in the Pacific Ocean on 3/23/01 : MIR
Mir was a very successful project, with the station still holding the record for the longest continuous manned presence in space, at just under ten years. Towards the end of its life however, the years began to take their toll. There was a dangerous fire, multiple system failures, and a collision with a resupply ship. The Russian commitment to the International Space Station drained funds for repairs, so the station was allowed to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere in 2001.

104. Yucatán year : ANO
The Yucatán is one of Mexico’s 31 states, and is located in the east of the country, on the northern tip of the Yucatán peninsula.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. 1988 Grammy winner for “Crying” : KD LANG
7. Tweak : ADJUST
13. Bosses : TOP DOGS
20. Cry from a balcony : O ROMEO
21. ___ pork : MOO SHU
22. Many a Nevada resident : SIERRAN
23. Dance seen in a Lincoln Center performance of “Don Giovanni”? : NEW YORK MINUET
25. Penn State campus site : ALTOONA
26. Also-___ (losers) : RANS
27. Prefix with caching : GEO-
28. Baja’s opposite : ALTA
30. Author : PENNER
31. “Hang on ___!” : A MO
32. Locale for a cattail : FEN
33. “None of the leading sales people came in today”? : ALL BEST ARE OFF
36. Grandparents, typically : DOTERS
38. With a wink, say : SLILY
39. Berkeley campus nickname : CAL
40. Celebration after a 1964 heavyweight championship? : FETE OF CLAY
42. “You don’t need to remind me” : I REMEMBER
48. Not so big : RUNTIER
49. Tampa paper, briefly, with “the” : TRIB
50. Blackmore heroine : LORNA
51. Washed (down) : HOSED
54. Female co-star in “Love Crazy,” 1941 : LOY
55. Stirrup? : COWBOY BOOST
57. Tolkien creatures : ENTS
58. 41-Down was named after one: Abbr. : GEN
59. Scarlett O’Hara’s real first name : KATIE
60. Voiced : SONANT
61. Summer sign : LEO
62. Little dipper? : TOE
63. Claimed : TAKEN
64. Chop : HEW
65. The Mavericks, on scoreboards : DAL
66. Up for grabs, as convention delegates : IN PLAY
68. Shriners’ headwear: Var. : FEZES
69. Gob : TAR
70. Ending with soft or spy : WARE
71. Decide to sleep in the nude? : CAST PAJAMAS
73. Drink with one’s pinkie up, say : SIP
74. Some cats blow on them : SAXES
75. Sodium ___ : AMIDE
76. “Around the Horn” cable channel : ESPN
77. Summer treats : ICE POPS
79. 1983 #1 hit with the lyric “Put on your red shoes” : LET’S DANCE
81. What whitewashers apply? : IVORY COATS
84. ___ Friday’s : TGI
85. Interlocks : KNITS
86. ___ acid : CITRIC
88. Response to the query “Does Ms. Garbo fist-bump?”? : NO, GRETA SHAKES
94. Summer mo. : JUL
95. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Is King” band, 1983 : ELO
96. Make it : ARRIVE
97. Actress Polo : TERI
98. See 33-Down : OOP
99. Polynesian potable : KAVA
100. They’re often said to be fair : MAIDENS
102. Love before war? : PRE-MARTIAL SEX
106. Looms : IMPENDS
107. Shocking, in a way : TASING
108. Leonard of literature : ELMORE
109. Sting, e.g. : BASSIST
110. Team that once played at Enron Field : ASTROS
111. Bob Evans rival : DENNY’S

Down
1. Former German chancellor Adenauer : KONRAD
2. Imagine : DREAM OF
3. One hit by a tuba : LOW NOTE
4. Singer Grant and others : AMYS
5. Prefix with -lithic : NEO-
6. Stuffs oneself with : GORGES ON
7. Shot, e.g. : AMMO
8. Question that may be answered “And how!” : DO I?
9. Garfield’s owner : JON
10. For the most part : USUALLY
11. Country star ___ Lynne : SHELBY
12. “Così fan ___” : TUTTE
13. Agcy. with a list of prohibited items : TSA
14. Tree whose two-word name, when switched around, identifies its product : OIL PALM
15. A Fonda : PETER
16. Plane over Yemen, maybe : DRONE
17. College town just off Interstate 95 : ORONO
18. Thief, in Yiddish : GANEF
19. Wolf (down) : SNARF
24. When doubled, a number puzzle : KEN
29. Credit : ASCRIBE
32. “Totem and Taboo” writer : FREUD
33. With 98-Across, showy play : ALLEY
34. Story teller : LIAR
35. Judo-like exercises : TAE BO
37. French beings : ETRES
38. Offspring : SCION
41. Town on the Hudson R. : FT LEE
42. Filmmaker Allen : IRWIN
43. Pipe shape : ELBOW
44. Apollo target : MOON
45. Bygone hand weapon : BROAD AX
46. Catch : ENSNARE
47. Crib items : RATTLES
49. Lugs : TOTES
51. Like a corkscrew : HELICAL
52. What Cher Bono, e.g., goes by : ONE NAME
53. Ceases : STOPS IT
55. Soap units : CAKES
56. River to the North Sea : YSER
58. Artist Francisco : GOYA
59. Director of the major film debuts of James Dean and Warren Beatty : KAZAN
62. Not live : TAPED
63. Home to Sun Devil Stadium : TEMPE
64. Tickled : HAPPY
67. Old Fords : LTDS
68. Like Mussolini : FASCIST
69. Ranks : TIERS
70. Didn’t miss : WAS AT
72. Game whose name is derived from Swahili : JENGA
73. Sean Connery and others : SCOTS
74. Turn brown, maybe : SPOIL
77. Jazz singer Anderson : IVIE
78. Busy : OCCUPIED
80. Doesn’t miss : ATTENDS
81. Most murky : INKIEST
82. It’s worst when it’s high : TREASON
83. High and softly resonant : SILVERY
85. Alex of “Webster” : KARRAS
87. Sweet-talks : COAXES
88. Southwest Africa’s ___ Desert : NAMIB
89. Commercial name suffix : -ORAMA
90. Handles : GRIPS
91. Lifts : RIDES
92. “___ could have told you that!” : EVEN I
93. Seven: Prefix : HEPTA-
94. Speck : JOT
98. Assns. : ORGS
99. Alphabet string : KLMN
101. Retired flier : SST
103. It landed in the Pacific Ocean on 3/23/01 : MIR
104. Yucatán year : ANO
105. Drink with a head : ALE
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