1113-11: New York Times Crossword Answers 13 Nov 11, Sunday

QuickLinks:
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: Jeremy Newton & Tony Orbach
THEME: Either Way … each of the theme answers is a palindrome, and reads the same from left-to-right as right-to-left:

22A. Students err? : PUPILS SLIP UP
31A. Medusa killer takes his agent to court? : PERSEUS SUES REP
46A. Reinforced ice cream container? : BUTTRESSED DESSERT TUB
58A. Inferior tour vehicle for Snoop Dogg? : SUBPAR RAP BUS
68A. Recollection from a winter tourist in Poland? : WARSAW WAS RAW
79A. Disparaging Argentine leader badly injured? : DEROGATIVE EVITA GORED
97A. One-on-one job for a ladies’ man? : GIGOLO’S SOLO GIG
110A. “Son of Darius, please confirm my dog is male”? : XERXES, SEX REX

One of my favorite words is “Aibophobia”, although it doesn’t appear in the dictionary and is a joke term. It is a great way to describe a fear of palindromes, by creating a palindrome out of the suffix “-phobia”. I would call it a “real” word though in one sense, as it was introduced in the early eighties and has been around ever since.
COMPLETION TIME: 24m 20s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0


Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Followers of William the Conqueror : NORMANS
Harold II of England was the last Anglo-Saxon king of the country. He died in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings, vainly attempting to fight off the invasion led by William, Duke of Normandy. William, also known as “the Conqueror”, became the first Norman King of England and ruled as William I from 1066 until his death in 1087.

8. ___ Pepper : SGT
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band was the alter-ego of the Beatles and was used in the studio album of the same name released in 1967.

11. African menace : ASP
The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. Therefore, when the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was her chosen method.

19. Partner of raised : BORN
Born and raised …

21. Who said “Learn from the masses, and then teach them” : MAO
Mao Zedong was born on December 16, 1893 in the Hunan Province of China. As he was the son of a peasant farmer his prospects for education were limited. Indeed he left school at age 13 to work on the family farm but did eventually get to secondary school in Changsa, the provincial capital. In the years following he continued his education in Beijing, and actually turned down an opportunity to study in France.

26. Punk offshoot : 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 …

27. Pistil complement : STAMEN
The stamen is the male reproductive organ of a flower. The part of the stamen known as the anther carries the pollen, which is picked up by the bee and transferred from flower to flower. The pistil is the female reproductive organ, and it accepts the pollen.

28. “10” in a bikini : BEACH BABE
10” is a fun, romantic comedy released in 1979, starring Dudley Moore, Bo Derek and Julie Andrews. Famously, the movie made stars of Moore and Derek, as well as popularizing Ravel’s marvelous piece of music, “Boléro”.

29. Oklahoma city : ADA
Back in 1889, Jeff Reed was hired to carry the mail between the two communities of Stonewall and Center in what was then called the Indian Territory. Reed had moved to the area from Texas, and he bought some land in between the two limits of his mail route and built himself a log cabin. Pretty soon other settlers built homes nearby, and in 1891 the settlement got its own post office. As postman, Reed got to name the new post office and he called it Ada, after his oldest daughter. Ada is now a county seat and has over 17,000 residents. One of the sons of the city of Ada was the televangelist Oral Roberts.

31. Medusa killer takes his agent to court? : PERSEUS SUES REP
In Greek mythology, Medusa was one of the monstrous female creatures known as Gorgons. Anyone who gazed directly at her would turn into stone. She was eventually killed by the hero Perseus, who beheaded her. He carried her head and used its powers as a weapon, before giving it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield.

39. Part of N.C.A.A.: Abbr. : ATH
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When President Roosevelt’s son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions, leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (IAAUS) of the United States in 1906 with the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS evolved into the NCAA in 1910.

41. Foreign tender? : AU PAIR
A “foreign tender” i.e. a foreigner who tends to children.

An “au pair” is a domestic assistant from a foreign country working and living as part of a host family. The term “au pair” is French, and means “on a par”, indicating that an au pair is treated as an equal in the host family.

44. Open hearings in courts : OYERS
Oyer was the term used to describe the reading out loud of a document in court.

52. Kay of “Rich Man, Poor Man” : LENZ
Kay Lenz is an American television actress, most famous for playing Kate Jordache in the TV mini-series adaptation of the Irwin Shaw novel “Rich Man, Poor Man”. Off the screen, she was noted as the first wife of the singer and actor, David Cassidy.

54. Info on modern business cards : URLS
Internet addresses (like NYTCrossword.com) are Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).

56. Just sort, supposedly : LIBRA
The constellation of Libra is named for the scales held by the goddess of justice, and is the only sign of the zodiac that isn’t named for a living creature.

58. Inferior tour vehicle for Snoop Dogg? : SUBPAR RAP BUS
The rap star Snoop Dogg‘s real name is Cordozar Calvin Broadus. He is the most famous protege of the notorious rapper Dr. Dre. Sadly, Snoop Dogg has had numerous run-ins with police all round the world, even after he started to live the good life that came with his fame.

63. One side in a bullfight : EL TORO
Spanish bullfighting is known locally as “corrida de toros”, literally “race of bulls”.

66. Em and Bee, e.g. : AUNTS
In “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, Dorothy lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.

Aunt Bee was a character in “The Andy Griffith Show”. The character’s full name was Beatrice Taylor but everyone in Mayberry called her “Aunt Bee”. In the storyline she was the aunt of the protagonist, Sheriff Andy Taylor. Aunt Bee was played by actress Frances Beaver.

68. Recollection from a winter tourist in Poland? : WARSAW WAS RAW
The name “Warsaw” in Polish means “belonging to Warsz”. Legend has it that Warsz, was a fisherman who fell in love with a mermaid called Sawa. It’s a nice story, but actually Warsz was a nobleman from the 12th or 13th century who owned a local village.

73. It serves a duel purpose : EPEE
The French word for sword is “épée”. In competitive fencing the épée is connected to a system that records an electrical signal when legal contact is made on an opponent’s body.

75. Bit of progress : DENT
Made progress, made a dent in it …

76. One encountered in a close encounter : UFO
In 1952, the USAF revived its studies of reports of Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) sightings, in a program called Project Blue Book. There were two prior USAF studies of the UFO phenomenon, namely Project Sign and Project Grudge. Project Blue Book ran from 1952 until it was shut down in 1969 after concluding that there was no threat to national security as there were no sightings that could not be explained within the bounds of modern scientific knowledge.

79. Disparaging Argentine leader badly injured? : DEROGATIVE EVITA GORED
Nowadays, President Juan Perón of Argentina is perhaps less well known than his second wife, Eva Perón of “Evita” fame. Juan and Eva Perón were overthrown in a military coup in 1955, although Juan Perón was returned to power in 1973, only serving for nine months before he passed away. He was succeeded in office by his third wife, Isabel Perón.

90. Actress Thurman : UMA
Uma Thurman‘s father, Robert Thurman, was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and called his daughter Uma as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name, Dbuma.

97. One-on-one job for a ladies’ man? : GIGOLO’S SOLO GIG
In French, a “gigole” is a “dancing girl, prostitute”. The male form of the word, “gigolo”, came into use in English in the 1920s.

104. Stanza alternative : SENTRA
Nissan made the car called the Stanza.

The Nissan Sentra isn’t a bad alternative to the Honda Civic, I’d say (although I love my Honda Civic Hybrid).

106. Former J.F.K. line : TWA
Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a big carrier in the US, but was perhaps even more recognized for its extensive presence in Europe and the Middle East. For many years, especially after the collapse of Pan-Am, TWA was considered the unofficial flag carrier for the US. The company started in 1930, the product of a forced merger of Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express. The Transcontinental and Western Air that resulted (the original meaning of the acronym TWA) was what the Postmaster General wanted, a bigger airline to which the Postal Service could award airmail contracts.

The Idlewild Golf Course was taken over by the city of New York in 1943, and construction started on a new airport to serve the metropolis and relieve congestion at La Guardia. The Idlewild name still persists, even though the airport was named after Major General Alexander E. Anderson from the first days of the project. When the facility started operating in 1948 it was known as New York International Airport, Anderson Field. It was renamed to John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1963, one month after the President was assassinated.

110. “Son of Darius, please confirm my dog is male”? : XERXES, SEX REX
Xerxes was the eldest son of Darius I of Persia. He succeeded to the throne in 486 BC as Xerxes I, and was later to be known as Xerxes the Great. It was Xerxes who fought against the Spartans in the Battle of Thermopylae.

113. Hip-hop’s ___ Def : MOS
Mos Def is the stage name of actor and rapper Dante Terrell Smith-Bay. Mos Def is one of the few rap stars who is really making a name for himself in the world of movies. He received critical acclaim for roles in 2003’s “The Italian Job” , 2005’s “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, and a featured role in an episode of television’s “House”.

115. Denizens: Suffix : -ITES
Nowadays we use “denizen” to mean simply a resident, but historically a denizen was an immigrant to whom certain rights had been granted, somewhat like today’s “resident alien”.

118. Guitar great Paul : LES
Les Paul was a guitarist, songwriter and inventor. When he was 33 years old, he was involved in a near-fatal car crash that left his right arm and elbow shattered. Surgeons offered him the choice of amputation or a rebuilding of the limb that would leave him unable to bend his elbow. He told them to set his arm at just under 90 degrees so that he could at least hold his guitar and perhaps play it.

119. Emergency broadcast : SOS
The combination of three dots – three dashes – three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots – pause – three dashes – pause – three dots), although in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so SOS is in effect only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are simply mnemonics, introduced after the “SOS” signal was adopted.

Down
2. Ooplasm locale : OVUM
The ooplasm is better known to us as the yolk of the egg.

3. Take back : REPO
Repossess …

4. Picture of health, for short? : MRI
A CT (or “CAT”) scan produces (via computer manipulation) a three dimensional image of the inside of an object, usually the human body. It does so by taking a series of two dimensional x-ray images while rotating the camera around the patient. The issue with CT scans is that they use x-rays, and high doses of radiation can be harmful causing damage that is cumulative over time. An MRI on the other hand (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) uses powerful magnetic fields to generate its images so there is no exposure to ionizing radiation (such as X-rays). We used MRI equipment in our chemistry labs at school, way back in the days when the technology was still called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI). Apparently the marketing folks didn’t like the term “nuclear” because of its association with atomic bombs, so now  it’s just called MRI.

6. Long Island county west of Suffolk : NASSAU
Nassau County on Long Island, New York is so called as Long Island used to have the name “Nassau”. The Dutch gave it that name in honor of Price William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, later to be King William III of England. The county’s colors are orange and blue, the colors of the House of Orange. Nassau County is the richest county per capita in the whole of New York State.

7. Part of GPS: Abbr. : SYST
GPS stands for Global Positioning System. The modern GPS system that we use today was built by the military who received the massive funding needed because of fears during the Cold War of the use of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. We civilians, all round the world, owe a lot to President Ronald Reagan because he directed the military to make GPS technology available to the public for the common good. He was moved to do so after the Soviet Union shot down KAL flight 007 carrying 269 people, just because it accidentally strayed into Soviet airspace.

8. 1970 #1 R&B hit for James Brown : SUPER BAD
The singer James Brown was often referred to as “The Godfather of Soul”. He was born in Barnwell, South Carolina and had a rough and impoverished upbringing. He lived for some years in his aunt’s house which she ran as a brothel, and when he was sixteen he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to reform school. While in reform school he was noticed by the R&B star Bobby Byrd, who took him under his wing. Byrd helped secure the young man an early release, and thereafter Brown turned his energies to music.

10. Rx qty. : TSP
There seems to some uncertainty about the origin of the symbol “Rx”, used for a medical prescription. One explanation is that it comes from the astrological sign for Jupiter, a symbol put on prescriptions in days of old to invoke Jupiter’s blessing to help the patient recover.

11. French clergymen : ABBES
Abbé is the French word for an abbot.

14. 1998 Masters champion Mark : O’MEARA
Mark O’Meara is an American golfer from Goldsboro, North Carolina. He is known as one of the American players who competes in international tournaments more than most, and has a reputation as a real gentleman all around the world.

16. Nativity figure : JOSEPH
Joseph was the adoptive father of Jesus, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

25. “Reading Rainbow” network : PBS
The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) was founded in 1970, and has to be my favorite of the broadcast networks. I love PBS’s drama and science shows in particular, and always watch the election results with the NewsHour team.

33. Former N.B.A. star Spud : WEBB
Spud Webb is a retired NBA point guard. In 1986, Webb won the NBA’s annual Slam Dunk Contest, despite being one of the shortest players in the league (at only 5’ 7”).

36. It’s stunning : TASER
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?

42. Pres. Carter’s alma mater : USNA
President Jimmy Carter is a graduate of the US Naval Academy. He served in the Navy on surface ships and submarines, and chose to pursue a career in the submarine service as he was interested in nuclear power and believed it had a great future in submarine design. As a result, he became an expert in nuclear propulsion. In 1952, the Navy sent him to the Chalk River Laboratories in Canada to lead the US effort to shutdown the reactor after an accident and partial meltdown of a reactor core. He and his team had to be lowered into the leaking reactor core for mechanical disassembly, staying there for only seconds at a time to minimise exposure to radiation. Decades later as US President, it was this experience that influenced his decision not to complete the development of the neutron bomb.

43. Candy company whose first flavor was Pfefferminz : PEZ
PEZ is an Austrian brand name for a particular candy sold in a mechanical dispenser. The name PEZ comes from the first, middle and last letters of “Pfefferminz”, the German word for “peppermint”.

44. Federal org. with inspectors : OSHA
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created in 1970 during the Nixon administration. OSHA regulates workplaces in the private sector, and only regulates just one government agency, namely the US Postal Service.

55. Dashed fig. : SSN
The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation although, given its ubiquitous use, it is looking more and more like an “identity number” to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, an SSN was required only for persons with substantial income, so many children under 14 had no number assigned. There was concern that a lot of people were claiming children as dependents on their tax returns who did not really exist, so from 1986 onwards it was a requirement to get an SSN for any dependents over the ago of 5. Sure enough, in the following year’s returns, seven million dependents “disappeared”.

57. Nest egg option, briefly : IRA
I have to tell you, when I first came to the US from Ireland it was pretty confusing seeing big signs along the freeway advocating IRA contributions. Back in Ireland, contributing to the IRA was pretty illegal (where IRA stands for the outlawed Irish Republican Army!).

58. Big ___ : SUR
Big Sur is a lovely part of the California Coast, south of Monterrey and Carmel. The name “Big Sur” comes from the original Spanish description of the area as “el sur grande” meaning “the big south”.

60. Start of an aside, to tweeters : BTW
By the way …

I have never tweeted in my life, and have no plans to do so. Twitter is a micro-blogging service that limits any post sent to just 140 characters. In a sense, it is similar to this blog. Here I send out a post once a day containing information that I think might be useful to folks (thank you for reading!). I don’t think I could send much of interest using just 140 characters. I believe that many people who do tweet tend to send out messages like “I’m at dinner now. I am having sushi” and “There’s nothing on TV. I’m bored”. Nope, I don’t think so!

61. Jah worshiper : RASTA
“Jah” is a shortened form of “Jehovah”, and is often associated with the Rastafari movement.

I must admit that I don’t really understand Rastafarianism. I do know that a Rasta, like Bob Marley, is a follower of the movement. Some say it is a religion, some not. It does involve the worship of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia.

63. Hampshire mother : EWE
Hampshire (also called Hampshire Down) is a breed of sheep. The breed is native to the Hampshire Downs in the South of England.

64. SoCal squad : LAPD
The Los Angles Police Department (LAPD) is the third largest local law enforcement agency in the country, after New York PD and Chicago PD. Among other things, LAPD is famous for creating the first Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team in the US, in 1965.

66. Italian vineyard region : ASTI
Asti is in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. It is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine.

70. River islands : AITS
Aits are little islands found in a river. Aits aren’t formed by erosion, but by the deposition of silt over time. As a result, aits often have a long and narrow shape running parallel to the banks as the sediment builds up with the flow of the water. Many of the islands in the River Thames in England have been given the name Ait, like Raven’s Ait in Kingston-upon-Thames, and Lot’s Ait in Brentford.

71. Whom Han Solo calls “Your Worship” : LEIA
Princess Leia was played by Carrie Fisher in the original “Star Wars” trilogy. Carrie Fisher has stated that she hated the famous “cinnamon bun hairstyle” that she had to wear in the films, as she felt it made her face look too round. She also had to to sit for two hours every day, just to get her hair styled. Two hours to get your hair done? It takes me two seconds …

Han Solo was the space smuggler in “Star Wars” played by Harrison Ford. Ford was originally hired by George Lucas just to read lines for actors during auditions for “Star Wars”, but over time Lucas became convinced that Ford was right for the pivotal role of Han Solo.

75. TiVo, for one : DVR
TiVo was introduced in 1999, the world’s first commercially successful DVR (Digital Video Recorder). If you don’t have a DVR, you might want to consider getting one. For those who enjoy television, it’s very liberating.

77. They may be metric … or not : FEET
In poetry a foot is the natural unit of stressed and unstressed syllables which make up the work. For example, an iambic foot consists of an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable.

81. Completely flip : GO POSTAL
“Going postal” is a slang term meaning to get uncontrollably angry and perhaps violent, especially in the workplace. The term arose out of a spate of killings that took place at postal facilities in the late eighties and early nineties.

82. Scaloppine, usually : VEAL
Scaloppine is an Italian word used for small, thin slices of meat.

84. Curio displayers : ETAGERES
An étagère is a piece of furniture with open shelves, often used to display small ornaments. I can’t stand them …

86. Their necks can turn 270 degrees : OWLS
Generally speaking, a bird’s eyes are fixed in their sockets, so a bird couldn’t “roll its eyes”, even if it wanted to. As a result, birds have evolved to easily and frequently rotate their necks so they can see what is going on around them. The owl is quite remarkable in that it can rotate its neck about 270 degrees in both directions.

90. Repulsive : UGSOME
Something that is “ugsome” is disgusting and repulsive. It comes from the Middle English word “uggen” meaning “to fear”.

91. Skirts smaller than minis : MICROS
A microskirt is less than eight inches in length …

100. “New Sensation” band, 1988 : INXS
INXS (pronounced “in excess”) is a rock band from Australia.

101. Former telco giant : GTE
GTE was a rival to AT&T, the largest of the independent competitors to the Bell System. GTE merged with Bell Atlantic in 2000, forming the company that we know today as Verizon.

105. Get back to : RSVP
RSVP stands for “Répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “please, answer”.

110. Sorority letters : XIS
The Greek letter xi, despite the name, is not the precursor of our letter X. Our X comes from the Greek letter chi.

111. Roxy Music co-founder : ENO
Brian Eno started out his musical career with Roxy Music. However, his most oft-played composition (by far!) is Microsoft’s “start-up jingle”, the 6-second sound you hear when the Windows operating system is booting up.

112. A street drug, for short : XTC
“Ecstasy” is a street name for the drug 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). MDMA was first synthesised way back in 1912, but wasn’t used recreationally until the late sixties and early seventies. The drug was designated a controlled substance in the US in 1988.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Followers of William the Conqueror : NORMANS
8. ___ Pepper : SGT
11. African menace : ASP
14. Part of a sentence: Abbr. : OBJ
17. Tracing paper, e.g. : OVERLAY
18. Twosomes : DUOS
19. Partner of raised : BORN
21. Who said “Learn from the masses, and then teach them” : MAO
22. Students err? : PUPILS SLIP UP
24. Bonus reel fodder : BLOOPERS
26. Punk offshoot : EMO
27. Pistil complement : STAMEN
28. “10” in a bikini : BEACH BABE
29. Oklahoma city : ADA
31. Medusa killer takes his agent to court? : PERSEUS SUES REP
33. Feel that one’s had enough, say : WANT OUT
37. Temptation : BAIT
38. Singsong syllable : TRA
39. Part of N.C.A.A.: Abbr. : ATH
40. Rig : EQUIP
41. Foreign tender? : AU PAIR
44. Open hearings in courts : OYERS
46. Reinforced ice cream container? : BUTTRESSED DESSERT TUB
51. What Eng. majors pursue : BAS
52. Kay of “Rich Man, Poor Man” : LENZ
53. “That’s it!” : AHA
54. Info on modern business cards : URLS
56. Just sort, supposedly : LIBRA
58. Inferior tour vehicle for Snoop Dogg? : SUBPAR RAP BUS
63. One side in a bullfight : EL TORO
66. Em and Bee, e.g. : AUNTS
67. Up : ARISEN
68. Recollection from a winter tourist in Poland? : WARSAW WAS RAW
71. Cut, in a way : LASED
73. It serves a duel purpose : EPEE
74. Flip of a flop : HIT
75. Bit of progress : DENT
76. One encountered in a close encounter : UFO
79. Disparaging Argentine leader badly injured? : DEROGATIVE EVITA GORED
87. Ads : SPOTS
88. Perks : EXTRAS
89. “Shucks!” : AW GEE
90. Actress Thurman : UMA
93. With 65-Down, stuck : UP A
94. The old man : PAPA
95. “We totally should!” : YES LET’S
97. One-on-one job for a ladies’ man? : GIGOLO’S SOLO GIG
102. Spin meas. : RPS
103. Place to buy stage props : SCENE SHOP
104. Stanza alternative : SENTRA
106. Former J.F.K. line : TWA
109. Rug type : ORIENTAL
110. “Son of Darius, please confirm my dog is male”? : XERXES, SEX REX
113. Hip-hop’s ___ Def : MOS
114. Rein in : TAME
115. Denizens: Suffix : -ITES
116. Risk : VENTURE
117. Approx. : EST
118. Guitar great Paul : LES
119. Emergency broadcast : SOS
120. “Do it” : PROCEED

Down
1. “Don’t think so!” : NOPE
2. Ooplasm locale : OVUM
3. Take back : REPO
4. Picture of health, for short? : MRI
5. Best effort : ALL
6. Long Island county west of Suffolk : NASSAU
7. Part of GPS: Abbr. : SYST
8. 1970 #1 R&B hit for James Brown : SUPER BAD
9. Not be spoken aloud : GO UNSAID
10. Rx qty. : TSP
11. French clergymen : ABBES
12. Way passé : SO LAST YEAR
13. One who gets things : PROCURER
14. 1998 Masters champion Mark : O’MEARA
15. It may be settled over beers : BAR BET
16. Nativity figure : JOSEPH
18. Stopping point? : DIME
20. A lack of compassion : NO HEART
23. Come full circle? : LAP
25. “Reading Rainbow” network : PBS
28. “That … can’t be …” : BUT
29. Busy : AT IT
30. Send out press releases, e.g. : DO PR
32. The Auld Sod : EIRE
33. Former N.B.A. star Spud : WEBB
34. A pastel : AQUA
35. “Shoot!” : NUTS
36. It’s stunning : TASER
42. Pres. Carter’s alma mater : USNA
43. Candy company whose first flavor was Pfefferminz : PEZ
44. Federal org. with inspectors : OSHA
45. Cry with a forehead slap, maybe : STUPID
47. Pipe fitting : ELBOW
48. Drains : SAPS
49. Cities, informally : URBS
50. Down in the dumps : BLUE
55. Dashed fig. : SSN
56. They may be sore after a game : LOSERS
57. Nest egg option, briefly : IRA
58. Big ___ : SUR
59. Italian article : UNA
60. Start of an aside, to tweeters : BTW
61. Jah worshiper : RASTA
62. Total : ARE
63. Hampshire mother : EWE
64. SoCal squad : LAPD
65. See 93-Across : TREE
66. Italian vineyard region : ASTI
69. “Too bad!” : WHAT A SHAME
70. River islands : AITS
71. Whom Han Solo calls “Your Worship” : LEIA
72. Constantly shifting : ANTSY
75. TiVo, for one : DVR
76. Press : URGE
77. They may be metric … or not : FEET
78. Dedicated offerings : ODES
80. Deluxe : OPULENT
81. Completely flip : GO POSTAL
82. Scaloppine, usually : VEAL
83. Show, as something new : EXPOSE TO
84. Curio displayers : ETAGERES
85. Sound dumbfounded : GASP
86. Their necks can turn 270 degrees : OWLS
90. Repulsive : UGSOME
91. Skirts smaller than minis : MICROS
92. Having a policy of reverse seniority? : AGEIST
94. Top 40 fare : POP
96. Lead’s counterpart : ERASER
98. Wedded : ONE
99. Producers of scuff marks : SOLES
100. “New Sensation” band, 1988 : INXS
101. Former telco giant : GTE
105. Get back to : RSVP
106. “That’s a fact” : TRUE
107. “#1” follows it : WE’RE
108. Given the heave-ho : AXED
110. Sorority letters : XIS
111. Roxy Music co-founder : ENO
112. A street drug, for short : XTC

Return to top of page

7 thoughts on “1113-11: New York Times Crossword Answers 13 Nov 11, Sunday”

  1. Seriously? That is complete BS! These nimrods that make up these puzzles make up words and spell them however they wish, as long as it fits in. They S**K!

  2. Could you please explain 28 down, the clue was "That … can't be…" and the answer is "nuts," and for 35 down, "Shoot!", the answer being "nuts"?
    Thanks,
    Sylvie

  3. Hi Sylvie,

    The answer to 28 down is BUT. The idea is that someone might start to say, when faced with a perplexing situation "That … can't be …", or simply "But …"

    For 35 down, the interjections "Shoot!" and "Nuts!" are both used to mean "well, gosh darn it!"

    I hope that helps, Sylvie.

Comments are closed.