0913-11: New York Times Crossword Answers 13 Sep 11, Tuesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Nile bird : IBIS
The ibis is a wading bird that was revered in ancient Egypt. “Ibis” is an interesting word grammatically speaking. You can have one “ibis” or two “ibises”, and then again one has a flock of “ibis”. And if you want to go with the classical plural, instead of two “ibises” you would have two “ibides”!

9. ___ Downs : EPSOM
The Surrey town of Epsom in England is most famous for its racecourse, at which is run the Epsom Derby every year, one of the three races that make up the English Triple Crown. You might also have heard of Epsom salt. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, originally prepared by boiling down mineral waters. Epsom was indeed a spa town at one time.

14. “High Hopes” lyricist : SAMMY CAHN
Sammy Cahn wrote the lyrics for “High Hopes” for the 1959 film “A Hole in the Head”, and the song won an Oscar that year. Frank Sinatra, the star of the movie, recorded the most famous version of the song.

18. Lilylike garden plant : HOSTA
The Hosta genus of plant was once classified as a lily, but is now in a family of its own and is described as “lily-like”. The plant was given the name “Hosta” in honor of the Austrian botanist Nicholas Thomas Host.

20. Singer with the #1 R&B hit “I Feel for You” : CHAKA KHAN
Chaka Khan was the front woman for the band Rufus before she launched her very successful solo career.

23. “Paper Moon” father and daughter : O’NEALS
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.

24. Biscotti flavor : ANISE
What we know in this country as “biscotti” is more properly called “biscotti di Prato”. It is a twice-baked, almond-flavored confection that originated in the Italian city of Prato. Modern versions of biscotti often contain anise or cinnamon in addition to the almond flavoring.

26. Like Batman, the Lone Ranger, etc. : MASKED
Batman is unique among his superhero compatriots in that he has no special powers, just a whole load of cool gadgets.

“The Lone Ranger” was both a radio and television show, dating back to its first radio performance in 1933 on a Detroit station. The line “Hi-yo, Silver! Away!” was a device used in the storyline to signal that a riding sequence was starting, so cue the music!

29. Hagen of stage and screen : UTA
Uta Hagen was a German-born American actress. She married Jose Ferrer in 1938, but they were divorced ten years later after it was revealed that she was having a long-running affair with Paul Robeson. Her association with Robeson, a prominent civil rights activist, earned her a spot on the Hollywood Blacklist during the McCarthy Era. This forced her away from film, but towards a successful stage career in New York City.

30. Japan’s “way of the gods” religion : SHINTO
It is perhaps best not to describe Shinto as a religion, but more as a “spirituality of the Japanese people”, a spirituality that encompasses folklore, history and mythology. Having said that, “Shinto” translates literally as “Way of the Gods”. Most people in Japan who are described as practicing Shinto, also practice Buddhism.

32. Eurasian duck : SMEW
The smew is a beautiful-looking duck found right across northern Europe and Asia.

37. Scam … or an apt title for this puzzle? : CON GAME
The slang term “scam” may come from the British slang “scamp”, used for a cheater or swindler.

39. Useless tic-tac-toe line : OXO
When I was growing up in Ireland, we played “noughts and crosses” … our name for tic-tac-toe.

40. Certain blood type, for short : O-NEG
The most important grouping of blood types is the ABO system. Blood is classified as either A, B, AB or O, depending on the type of antigens on the surface of red blood cells. A secondary designation of blood is the Rh factor, in which a different set of antigens is labelled as either positive or negative. When a patient receives a blood transfusion, ideally the donor blood should be the same type as that of the recipient, as incompatible blood cells can be rejected. However, blood type O-Neg can be accepted by recipients with all blood types, A, B, AB or O, and positive or negative. Hence someone with O-neg blood type is called a “universal donor”.

42. Economist Friedman : MILTON
Milton Friedman was a noted American economist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1976. Friedman was an advisor to President Ronald Reagan and was very much an advocate of a free market system with limited intervention by governments.

44. ___ Pieces : REESE’S
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were invented by Harry Burnett “H.B.” Reese. Peanut Butter Cups were originally called penny cups, reflecting the price at which they were sold. Then inflation took over, and maybe that’s why they were broken into smaller “pieces” …

48. Dead Sea Scrolls ascetic : ESSENE
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered over a period of years, between 1947 and 1956, in eleven caves on the shores of the Dead Sea. They are believed to have been written by an ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, although this has been called into question recently. Many of the texts are copies of writings from the Hebrew Bible.

51. Grafton’s “___ for Outlaw” : O IS
Sue Grafton writes detective novels, and her “alphabet series” features the private investigator Kinsey Millhone. She started off with “A Is for Alibi” in 1982 and is working her way through the alphabet, most recently publishing “U Is for Undertow” in 2009. What a clever naming system!

52. He was Sonny to Marlon Brando’s Vito : JAMES CAAN
Sonny Corleone was oldest son of Don Vito Corleone in Mario Puzo’s great novel, “The Godfather”. In the movie he was played by James Caan. Sonny Corleone appears as a boy in the movie “The Godfather: Part II”, and is played by director Francis Ford Coppola’s own son, Roman Coppola.

James Caan is an actor from The Bronx, New York City. He is noted for his appearances in some very big movies such as “The Godfather”, “Misery”, “A Bridge Too Far”, “Rollerball” and more recently “Elf”. Caan is quite the sportsman. He plays golf with an 8 handicap, and is a 6-Dan Black Belt Master of Gosoku Karate.

56. Chilly : ALGID
“Algid” is another word for chilly or cold, from the Latin “algere” meaning “to be cold”.

58. 54-Down by Verdi : ERI TU
The aria “Eri tu” is from Verdi’s opera “Un ballo in maschera” (A Masked Ball). The opera tells the story of the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden during a masked ball.

62. Boxer who almost upset Joe Louis in 1941 : BILLY CONN
The light-heavyweight boxing champion Billy Conn was known as the Pittsburgh Kid. In 1941 Conn actually gave up his light-heavyweight crown in order to challenge Joe Louis for the heavyweight title. Amazingly Conn led the fight right up to the thirteenth round when he made the mistake of going for a knockout. Failing to put Louis on the canvas, Conn was knocked out himself.

64. Jonas who developed a polio vaccine : SALK
Jonas Salk was an American medical researcher, famous for developing the first safe polio vaccine. In the fifties, especially after the 1952 polio epidemic, the biggest health fear in the US was polio because it killed thousands, left even more with disabilities and most of the victims were children. The situation was dire and the authorities immediately quarantined the family of any polio victim, and that quarantine was so strict that in many cases the families were not even permitted to attend the funeral of a family member who died from the disease.

Down
2. Sport with a birdie : BADMINTON
The game of badminton was developed in the mid-1700s by British military officers in India. There was already an old game called battledore and shuttlecock, so the creation of badminton was essentially the addition of a net and boundary lines for play. The game was launched officially as a sport in 1873 at Badminton House in Gloucestershire in England, giving it the name we now use.

8. City of central Sicily : ENNA
Enna sits very high up in the hills of Sicily, overlooking the whole island below. Enna is the capital of the province that bears its name and is the highest province in the whole country of Italy.

9. Gaseous hydrocarbon : ETHANE
The main component in natural gas is methane, with the second most voluminous constituent being ethane. Both methane and ethane are combustible, and so traditionally the methane and ethane were burned together to generate heat. However, since the sixties, ethane has been used as a valuable starter material for the production of ethylene, itself a raw material for polyethylene and other plastics. So, these days the ethane is extracted at a refinery before the natural gas is bottled as a fuel.

10. Sneakers brand sported by Abdul-Jabbar : PRO-KEDS
Keds is a brand name of athletic shoe first introduced in 1916 by US Rubber. The shoe was marketed as a rubber-soled, canvas-topped sneaker.

11. The younger Obama girl : SASHA
Sasha is the younger of the two Obama children, born in 2001. She is the youngest child to reside in the White House since John F. Kennedy, Jr. moved in with his parents as a small infant. Sasha’s Secret Service code name is “Rosebud”, and her older sister, Malia, has the code name “Radiance”.

15. Fashion monogram : YSL
Yves Saint-Laurent was a French fashion designer, actually born in Algeria. He started off working as an assistant to Christian Dior at the age of 17. Dior died just four years later, and as a very young man Saint-Laurent was named head of the House of Dior. However, in 1950 Saint-Laurent was conscripted into the French Army and ended up in a military hospital after suffering a mental breakdown from the hazing inflicted on him by his fellow soldiers. His treatment included electroshock therapy and administration of sedatives and psychoactive drugs. He was released from prison, managed to pull his life back together, and started his own fashion house. A remarkable story …

21. Indiana University campus site : KOKOMO
The city of Kokomo, Indiana was named after a member of the Miami Native American nation called Ma-Ko-Ko-Mo, which translates to “Black Walnut”.

24. Grand Theft ___ : AUTO
“Grand Theft Auto” is an extremely successful series of video games. It garners some negative attention because of its adult themes and the level of violence in the game. The original version of “Grand Theft Auto” was actually banned in Brazil.

25. Upper-left key : ESC
The escape key was originally used to control computer peripherals. It was a key that allowed the computer operator to stop what the peripheral was doing (cancel a print job, for example). Nowadays the escape key is used for all sorts of other things, especially in gaming programs.

26. Cooper cars : MINIS
The original mini was a fabulous car, one that I drove all over Ireland in my youth. It had a unique front-wheel-drive layout that took up very little space, allowing for a lot of room (relatively speaking) for passengers and baggage. One space-saving trick was to mount the engine transversely, so it sits rotated 90 degrees from the norm. That engine had a capacity of only 848cc. In 1961, a Mini Cooper model was introduced, a sporty version of the Mini. The Mini Cooper was a phenomenal hit, especially after repeated wins in the Monte Carlo Rally.

33. Priest’s honorific : MONSIGNOR
Monsignor is a form of address used when speaking to some high ranking members of the Roman Catholic Church. The word “monsignor” comes from the Italian “monsignore” which in turn comes from the French “mon seignor” meaning “my lord”.

35. Stir-fry vessels : WOKS
Wok is a Cantonese word, the name of the frying pan now used in many Asian cuisines.

38. Bambi’s aunt : ENA
Ena was Bambi’s aunt in the 1942 Disney film of the same name. The movie is based on the novel “Bambi, A Life in the Woods” written by Austrian author Felix Salten, published in 1923.

49. Politico Palin : SARAH
When John McCain selected Sarah Palin as candidate for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she became the first Alaskan to go on the national ticket for a major party. She also became the first woman nominated for Vice President by the Republicans.

53. Place for B-2s and B-52s: Abbr. : AFBS
The USAF’s B-2 Spirit is also known as the “Stealth Bomber”. There are 20 B-2’s in service, and the plane was first used in combat in Serbia in 1999, and most recently in Libya in 2011.

The B-52 Stratofortress has been a mainstay of the USAF since its introduction in 1955. The stated intention is to keep the B-52 in service until 2045, a remarkable length of service of over 90 years.

55. Dudley Do-Right’s heartthrob : NELL
Dudley Do-Right appeared on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, a cartoon that appeared on television in a couple of different versions from 1959-1964. Dudley was a bungling Mountie who struggled with his nemesis, the evil Snidely Whiplash, while pursuing the romantic intentions of Nell Fenwick (who always seemed to prefer Dudley’s horse!).

60. Yellowstone beast : ELK
The elk (also known as the wapiti) is the one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were used to seeing the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the “huge” wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and gave it the European name for a moose, namely “elk”. The more correct term then is “wapiti”, the Shawnee name for the animal, which means “white rump”. It’s all very confusing …

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Nile bird : IBIS
5. A ditz hasn’t one : CLUE
9. ___ Downs : EPSOM
14. “High Hopes” lyricist : SAMMY CAHN
16. Slightest amount : TRACE
17. Guilty plea, say : ADMISSION
18. Lilylike garden plant : HOSTA
19. It might make the nose wrinkle : SMELL
20. Singer with the #1 R&B hit “I Feel for You” : CHAKA KHAN
22. Suffix with ox- or sulf- : -IDE
23. “Paper Moon” father and daughter : O’NEALS
24. Biscotti flavor : ANISE
26. Like Batman, the Lone Ranger, etc. : MASKED
29. Hagen of stage and screen : UTA
30. Japan’s “way of the gods” religion : SHINTO
32. Eurasian duck : SMEW
36. Pre-K child : TOT
37. Scam … or an apt title for this puzzle? : CON GAME
39. Useless tic-tac-toe line : OXO
40. Certain blood type, for short : O-NEG
42. Economist Friedman : MILTON
43. Suffix with no-good : -NIK
44. ___ Pieces : REESE’S
46. Aides: Abbr. : ASSTS
48. Dead Sea Scrolls ascetic : ESSENE
51. Grafton’s “___ for Outlaw” : O IS
52. He was Sonny to Marlon Brando’s Vito : JAMES CAAN
56. Chilly : ALGID
58. 54-Down by Verdi : ERI TU
59. Allowed to wander, as a chicken : FREE-RANGE
61. Handle the fixin’s for a party, say : CATER
62. Boxer who almost upset Joe Louis in 1941 : BILLY CONN
63. “I’m done!” : THERE
64. Jonas who developed a polio vaccine : SALK
65. Formerly, once : ERST

Down
1. “A miss ___ good …” : IS AS
2. Sport with a birdie : BADMINTON
3. Having no delay : IMMEDIATE
4. Says “Cheese!” : SMILES
5. Hypo meas. : CCS
6. Nonclerical : LAIC
7. “Looks like I goofed” : UH-OH
8. City of central Sicily : ENNA
9. Gaseous hydrocarbon : ETHANE
10. Sneakers brand sported by Abdul-Jabbar : PRO-KEDS
11. The younger Obama girl : SASHA
12. Of base 8 : OCTAL
13. Intends : MEANS
15. Fashion monogram : YSL
21. Indiana University campus site : KOKOMO
24. Grand Theft ___ : AUTO
25. Upper-left key : ESC
26. Cooper cars : MINIS
27. Protractor measure : ANGLE
28. Field goal percentages and such : STATS
31. Class for cooking, sewing, etc. : HOME EC
33. Priest’s honorific : MONSIGNOR
34. Illuminated notices above theater doors : EXIT SIGNS
35. Stir-fry vessels : WOKS
38. Bambi’s aunt : ENA
41. Welcomer at Walmart, e.g. : GREETER
45. Make certain : ENSURE
47. Give comfort to : SOLACE
48. Give the heave-ho : EJECT
49. Politico Palin : SARAH
50. Strike down : SMITE
53. Place for B-2s and B-52s: Abbr. : AFBS
54. Operatic highlight : ARIA
55. Dudley Do-Right’s heartthrob : NELL
56. Mission conclusion? : -ARY
57. Car ding : DENT
60. Yellowstone beast : ELK
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