1114-11: New York Times Crossword Answers 14 Nov 11, Monday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
5. “Remember the ___!” (Texan’s cry) : ALAMO
The Battle of the Alamo took place in 1836, a thirteen-day siege by the Mexican Army led by President General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Only two people defending the Alamo Mission survived the onslaught. One month later, the Texian army got its revenge by attacking and defeating the Mexican Army in the Battle of San Jacinto. During the surprise attack on Santa Anna’s camp, many of the Texian soldiers were heard to cry “Remember the Alamo!”.

10. “___ and Circumstance” : POMP
Sir Edward Elgar was the quintessential English composer, inextricably associated with his compositions the “Pomp and Circumstance” marches (which includes “Land of Hope and Glory”) and the “Enigma Variations”.

14. Mideast royal name : SAUD
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest Arab country in the Middle East and is the world’s largest oil producer, home to world’s largest oil reserves. The Saudi dynasty started in central Arabia in 1744 when the secular leader Muhammad ibn Saud joined forces with the Islamic scholar and Imam, Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab. At the time, Saud was a ruler of a town near Riyadh, and he was determined to bring “true” Islam to the Arabian peninsula. Since 1744 the fortunes of the Saudi family have risen and fallen, but it is that same family that rules what we know today as Saudi Arabia.

23. Slowing, in music: Abbr. : RIT
Rit. (or sometimes ritard.) is the abbreviation for ritardando, the musical direction to slow down the tempo.

27. Tincture of ___ : IODINE
Tincture of iodine is a disinfectant. A “tincture” is a substance used in dyeing. Since the 1600s “tincture” has also been used for a solution of medicine in an alcohol mixture.

29. Help out a panhandler : SPARE SOME CHANGE
“To panhandle” is “to beg”. The term has been in use since the very early 1900s and probably comes from the sticking out of one’s hand and arm, like the handle of a pan.

33. Suffix with ethyl : -ENE
An alkene is an organic compound made up of carbon and hydrogen atoms. It differs from an alkane in that it has at least one C=C double bond. The simplest alkene is the gas ethylene, a major raw material used in the manufacture of plastics (like polyethylene).

39. Cheer for a toreador : OLE
“Toreador” is an old Spanish word for a bullfighter, but it’s a term not used any more in Spain nor in Latin America. In English we use the term “toreador”, but in Spanish a bullfighter is a “torero”.

40. Bridge positions : EASTS
That would be bridge, the card game.

41. Capital of Samoa : APIA
Apia is the capital city, in fact the only “city”, of the Pacific island nation of Samoa. The harbor of Apia is famous for a very foolish incident in 1889 involving seven ships from Germany, the US and Britain. A typhoon was approaching so the safest thing to do was head for open water away from land, but no nation would move its ships for fear of losing face in front of the others. Six of the vessels were lost in the typhoon as a result, and 200 American and German sailors perished. The British cruiser HMS Calliope barely managed to escape from the harbor and rode out the storm safely.

42. Charged particle : ION
As we all recall from science class, a positive ion is called a cation, and a negative ion is an anion. The names “cation” and “anion” come from Greek, with “kation” meaning “going down”, and “anion” meaning “going up”.

43. Greyhound, e.g. : BUS
Speaking as someone who lived much of my life outside of the US, I have to say that the Greyhound bus is real symbol of America, famous from so many old movies. In Ireland the official provincial bus service “stole” the famous logo that gracefully adorns the sides of these buses, and uses an Irish Setter in place of the iconic greyhound.

51. Popeye’s Olive ___ : OYL
“Thimble Theater” was the precursor comic strip to the famous “Popeye” drawn by E. C. Seger. Before Popeye came into the story, the brother and sister characters Castor Oyl and Olive Oyl were the main protagonists. And then, along comes a sailor …

52. ___ out a living : EKE
To “eke out” means to “make something go further or last longer”. So, you can eke out your income by cutting back on expenses. I always have a problem with the definition that “eke out” means to “barely get by”. Close but no cigar, I say …

53. Old nuclear regulatory org. : AEC
The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was set up right after WWII in 1946, with the aim of promoting the peaceful use of atomic energy. Establishing the AEC was a significant move made by President Truman, as it passed control of atomic energy from the military to the civilian sector. The AEC continued to operate until 1974 when its functions were divided up into two new agencies: the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

54. Bigwig : NABOB
A nabob is a person of wealth and prominence. “Nabob” derives from the title of a governor in India.

57. Florida key, e.g. : ISLET
A “key” (also “cay”) is a low island offshore, as in the Florida Keys for example. Our term in English comes from the Spanish “cayo” meaning “shoal, reef”.

59. Portable product for music lovers : IPOD
The iPod is Apple’s signature line of portable media players. It first hit the market in 2001 in the form of a hard drive-based device now known as the iPod Classic. Later models all use flash memory, allowing a smaller form factor.

64. Black-and-white cookies : OREOS
The Oreo was the biggest selling cookie in the 20th century, and almost 500 billion of them have been produced since they were introduced in 1912 by Nabisco. In those early days the creme filling was made with pork fat, but today vegetable oils are used instead. If you take a bite out of an Oreo sold outside of America you might notice a difference from the homegrown cookie, as coconut oil is added to give a different taste.

67. Busybody : YENTA
Yenta (Yente) is actually a female Yiddish name. In Yiddish theater it came to mean a busybody.

Down
2. Minor despot : SATRAP
“Satrap” is an old Persian word for a provincial governor. In modern usage in English, a satrap is a world leader who is heavily influenced by a superior power.

3. “I’ve got it!” : EUREKA
Eureka translates from Greek as “I have found it”. The word is usually associated with Archimedes, uttered as he stepped into his bath one day. His discovery was that the volume of water that was displaced was equal to that of the object (presumably his foot) that had been submerged. He used this fact to determine the volume of a crown, something he needed to determine if it was made of pure gold or was a forgery.

4. Deuce follower, in tennis : AD IN
In tennis, if the score reaches “deuce” (i.e. when both players have scored three points), then the first player to win two points in a row wins the game. The player who wins the point immediately after deuce is said to have the “advantage”. If the player with the advantage wins the next point then that’s two in a row and that player wins the game. If the person with the advantage loses the next point, then advantage is lost and the players return to deuce and try again. If the one of the players is calling out the score then if he/she has the advantage then that player announces “ad in” or more formally “advantage in”. If the score announcer’s opponent has the advantage, then the announcement is “ad out” or “advantage out”. Follow all that …?

5. Human’s hairy cousin : APE
The scientific community doesn’t really embrace the concept of a “missing link” anymore. The idea that the there is or was an “ape man” that links the human species with “lower animals” has fallen by the wayside.

6. Smooth, in music : LEGATO
Legato is a musical direction, signifying that long and continuous notes should be played very smoothly. The opposite of legato is staccato, notes played in a disconnected form.

7. Proton’s place : ATOM
The proton is a subatomic particle, with at least one found in the nucleus of every atom. A proton is not a “fundamental particle” though, as it itself is made up of three quarks; to up quarks and one down quark.

8. Y chromosome carrier : MALE
Or, as I saw in a clue here one time for the answer “Y CHROMOSOME” … women just don’t get it! I don’t write the clues …

10. Winter clock setting in L.A. : PST
On the other side of the Atlantic, Daylight Saving Time (DST) is known as “summer time”. The idea behind summer/daylight-savings is to move clocks forward an hour in spring and backwards in the fall, so that afternoons have more daylight.

11. Flutelike instruments : OCARINAS
An ocarina is an ancient wind-instrument that sounds like, and is played like, a flute. Usually an ocarina has an egg-shaped body with a number of finger holes cut into the material making up the instrument (usually ceramic). There is a tube protruding from the body through which one blows to make sounds. The air vibrates within the body of the instrument, and the pitch of the vibrations is changed by covering and uncovering the finger-holes. Ocarinas date back as far 12,000 years ago when they were used both in China and Central America. The ocarina was brought to Italy in the 1800s where it became popular as a child’s toy, but also as a serious instrument. It was given the name “ocarina” as its shape resembles that of a goose, and “ocarina”is a diminutive word stemming from “oca”, the Italian word for “goose”.

18. Actresses Allen and Black : KARENS
The actress Karen Allen is best known for playing Marion Ravenwood in the “India Jones” series of films, opposite Harrison Ford in the title role. Some might remember her film debut, in the madcap 1978 comedy “National Lampoon’s Animal House”. Off screen, she loves knitting and has her own textile company called Karen Allen Fiber Arts. And, she also teaches yoga!

The actress Karen Black played quite a few memorable roles, including the waitress girlfriend of Jack Nicholson in “Five Easy Pieces” for which performance she received an Oscar nomination. If you have ever seen “Airport 1975”, she is the one playing the stewardess who ended up flying the plane after a mid-air collision.

22. Cry from Homer Simpson : D’OH
“The Simpsons” is one of the most successful programs produced by the Fox Broadcasting Company. Homer Simpson’s catchphrase is “D’oh”, now such a famous exclamation that it has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) since 2001.

28. Table linen fabric : DAMASK
Damask was originally a weaving technique associated with the Byzantine and Islamic weaving centers of the Middle Ages. “Damask” comes from the name of Damascus which was a major trading city at that time.

31. “Winnie-the-Pooh” writer : MILNE
Alan Alexander (A.A.) Milne was an English author, best known for his delightful “Winnie-the-Pooh” series of books. He had only one son, Christopher Robin Milne, born in 1920, the inspiration for the Christopher Robin character in the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Winnie-the-Pooh was named after Christopher Robin’s real teddy bear, one he called Winnie, who in turn was named after a Canadian black bear called Winnie that the Milnes would visit in London Zoo. The original Winnie teddy bear is on display at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library in New York.

36. Christmas drinks : WASSAILS
“Wassail” is ale or mulled wine used for toasting at festivals, especially Christmas. The term “wassail” comes from Old Norse “ves heill” meaning “be healthy”.

37. Symbol of Americanism : APPLE PIE
The full expression is “as American as motherhood and apple pie”. I think the concept here is not that America is the home of motherhood nor apple pie, but rather that America is as wholesome as motherhood and apple pie. I’ve heard that the phrase originated in WWII when GI’s bring interviewed by journalists would say that they were going to war “for Mom and apple pie”.

38. Polymeric compound in breast implants : SILICONE
Silcones are synthetic polymers that include the element silicon. Often the words “silicone” and “silicon” are confused and used incorrectly. I use silicones as sealants and adhesives all around the house. Silicones are also used to fill breast implants, although implants are more likely to contain saline these days due to safety concerns.

40. The Father of Geometry : EUCLID
Euclid of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician who lived in the first millennium, often referred to as the “Father of Geometry”. He wrote a famous book called “Elements” on the subject of mathematics, and the title was so enduring that it was used as the main textbook for the subject right up to the late 19th century.

43. Chesapeake ___ : BAY
Chesapeake Bay is on the Atlantic coast and is surrounded by the states of Maryland and Virginia. It is the largest estuary in the whole country, with over 150 rivers and streams draining into it.

48. Michael of “Caddyshack” : O’KEEFE
Michael O’Keefe played Danny Noonan in the film “Caddyshack” (I’m not a big fan of that movie). I saw O’Keefe at the cinema not too long ago in the George Clooney film “Michael Clayton”.

49. Popular computer game with geometric shapes : TETRIS
Tetris is a very addictive video game, developed in the Soviet Union in 1984. The name Tetris comes from a melding of the prefix “tetra-”, as all the game pieces have four segments, and “tennis”, a favorite sport played by the developer. Since 2005 there have been more than 100 million copies of the game installed on cell phones alone.

56. Actor Wilson : OWEN
The actor Owen Wilson was nominated for an Oscar, but not for his acting. He was nominated for co-writing the screenplay for “The Royal Tenenbaums” along with Wes Anderson.

58. Davenport : SOFA
The name Davenport, when used to mean a sofa, is one of those generic terms that evolved for an item from the name of a prominent manufacturer. The long-gone Davenport Company sold a lot of furniture in the Midwest and Upstate New York, so the term is especially common in that part of the country.

60. ___ Moines, Iowa : DES
The city of Des Moines, the capital of Iowa, takes its name from the Des Moines River. The river in turn takes its name from the French “Riviere des Moines”, meaning “River of the Monks”. It looks like there isn’t any “monkish” connection to the city’s name per se. “Des Moines” was just the name given to the river by French traders who corrupted “Moingona”, the name of a group of Illinois who lived by the river. However, others do contend that the French Trappist monks, who lived fully 200 miles away from the river, somehow influenced the name.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Sailing : ASEA
5. “Remember the ___!” (Texan’s cry) : ALAMO
10. “___ and Circumstance” : POMP
14. Mideast royal name : SAUD
15. “She loves me, she loves me not …” flower part : PETAL
16. Memento of an old wound : SCAR
17. Acquire sudden riches : STRIKE GOLD
19. Capture : TAKE
20. Boxing venue : ARENA
21. Alter, as the Constitution : AMEND
23. Slowing, in music: Abbr. : RIT
24. Talk, talk, and talk some more : YAK
25. Groove : RUT
27. Tincture of ___ : IODINE
29. Help out a panhandler : SPARE SOME CHANGE
33. Suffix with ethyl : -ENE
34. Make peeved : IRK
35. Central street name : MAIN
36. Big stingers : WASPS
39. Cheer for a toreador : OLE
40. Bridge positions : EASTS
41. Capital of Samoa : APIA
42. Charged particle : ION
43. Greyhound, e.g. : BUS
44. What multiple winners of a lottery must do : SPLIT THE JACKPOT
50. Equipment next to swings and seesaws : SLIDES
51. Popeye’s Olive ___ : OYL
52. ___ out a living : EKE
53. Old nuclear regulatory org. : AEC
54. Bigwig : NABOB
57. Florida key, e.g. : ISLET
59. Portable product for music lovers : IPOD
61. Absolutely amazed : BOWLED OVER
63. Queue : LINE
64. Black-and-white cookies : OREOS
65. Classic name for a French poodle : FIFI
66. Observes : SEES
67. Busybody : YENTA
68. One-spot cards : ACES

Down
1. Tests, as ore : ASSAYS
2. Minor despot : SATRAP
3. “I’ve got it!” : EUREKA
4. Deuce follower, in tennis : AD IN
5. Human’s hairy cousin : APE
6. Smooth, in music : LEGATO
7. Proton’s place : ATOM
8. Y chromosome carrier : MALE
9. Satan : OLD NICK
10. Winter clock setting in L.A. : PST
11. Flutelike instruments : OCARINAS
12. Achieving success : MAKING IT
13. Fifth and sixth graders, typically : PRETEENS
18. Actresses Allen and Black : KARENS
22. Cry from Homer Simpson : D’OH
26. Apply : USE
28. Table linen fabric : DAMASK
30. Made good on, as a loan : REPAID
31. “Winnie-the-Pooh” writer : MILNE
32. Before, poetically : ERE
36. Christmas drinks : WASSAILS
37. Symbol of Americanism : APPLE PIE
38. Polymeric compound in breast implants : SILICONE
39. “How exciting!” : OOH
40. The Father of Geometry : EUCLID
42. Birth announcement for babies with blue caps : IT’S A BOY
43. Chesapeake ___ : BAY
45. X : TEN
46. Odds and ends for sale : JOB LOT
47. Relating to the lower part of the upper body : PELVIC
48. Michael of “Caddyshack” : O’KEEFE
49. Popular computer game with geometric shapes : TETRIS
55. Make yawn : BORE
56. Actor Wilson : OWEN
58. Davenport : SOFA
60. ___ Moines, Iowa : DES
62. That: Sp. : ESA
Return to top of page