1115-11: New York Times Crossword Answers 15 Nov 11, Tuesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Elia ___, “East of Eden” director : 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.

6. ___ Romana : PAX
“Pax Romana” is Latin for “Roman Peace”. The term literally described a period in Roman history for the 1st and 2nd centuries AD during which the Roman Empire was ruled by Caesar Augustus. Under his control, expansionist ideas by powerful generals were held in check, and the peoples of foreign lands ruled by the Romans were relatively calm. The peace enjoyed was considered uneasy as Rome governed its conquered territories with an iron fist, and insurrection was likely at all times. The expression “pax Romana” then came to be used in English to describe any situation in which there is an uneasy peace, a peace imposed by a powerful state on a weaker state.

14. Bayer anti-inflammatory : ALEVE
Aleve is a brand name for the anti-inflammatory drug Naproxen sodium.

15. Ginger ___ : ALE
The brand most closely associated with ginger ale is Canada Dry. “Canada Dry Pale Ginger Ale” was first formulated in 1904 by a Canadian chemist called John McLoughlin from Ontario. Prohibition in the United State helped sales of the drink as it was particularly effective in masking the taste of illegally-produced homemade liquor.

16. Sports car extras : T-TOPS
A T-top is a car roof that has removable panels on either side of a rigid bar that runs down the center of the vehicle above the driver.

18. *Former ‘N Sync member : LANCE BASS
‘N Sync was an American boy band from Orlando, Florida that was formed in 1995. The name of the group came from a comment by the mother of band member Justin Timberlake, who said the boys voices sounded “in sync”. But, it’s also true that the letters of the name ‘N Sync are the last letters of the given names of the five band members:
– Justin Timberlake
– Chris Kirkpatrick
– Joey Fatone
– Lance “Lansten” Bass
– JC Chasez

20. ___ de France : TOUR
Back in the late 1800s, long-distance cycle races were used as promotional events, traditionally to help boost sales of newspapers. These races usually took place around tracks, but in 1902 the backers of the struggling sports publication “L’Auto” decided to stage a race that would take the competitors all around France. That first Tour de France took place in 1903, starting in Paris and passing through Lyon, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes and then back to Paris.

21. Olivia’s love in “Twelfth Night” : CESARIO
Viola is the main character in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. Viola is shipwrecked at the beginning of the play, in a land ruled by the Duke Orsino. Viola disguises herself as a boy named Cesario and then goes to work for Orsino as a page. Complications ensue …

William Shakespeare wrote his comedy “Twelfth Night” as a Christmas entertainment (Twelfth Night being the end of the Christmas season).

28. S-shaped molding : OGEE
An ogee is like an s-curve. Specifically it is a curve consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite directions (like an S) but both ends of the curve end up parallel to each other (which is not necessarily true for an S).

29. It might be examined with a loupe : GEM
A loupe is a little magnifying lens that is held in the hand. “Loupe” is the French name for such a device.

31. Macaroni’s form : TUBE
In many cases, the name given to a type of pasta comes from its shape. The name macaroni, however, comes from the type of dough used to make the noodle. Here in the US macaroni is usually elbow-shaped tubes, but it doesn’t have to be.

32. Li’l ___ (comics guy) : ABNER
“Li’l Abner” was created and drawn by Al Capp for over 43 years starting in 1934. Al Capp stopped producing the strip in 1977, largely due to illness (he died from emphysema two years later). As the strip finished up, he went so far as to apologize to his long-standing fans, saying that he should have stopped 3-4 years earlier as he felt that the quality of his work had gone down in those latter years.

34. Pennsylvania port : ERIE
Erie is a city in the very north of Pennsylvania, right on the southern shore of Lake Erie. The city takes its name from the Erie Native American tribe that resided in the area.

35. ___ gin fizz : SLOE
The ingredients of a Sloe Gin Fizz are sloe gin, lemon juice, sugar, egg white and carbonated water.

A cocktail known as a Fizz includes, by definition, lemon or lime juice and carbonated water. The most popular of the genre is the Gin Fizz, made from 3 parts gin, 2 parts lemon juice, 1 part sugar syrup and 5 parts soda water.

37. *Bygone Hollywood star known for tough-guy roles : ALDO RAY
Aldo Ray started out his Hollywood career playing tough, sexy roles. He played “the other man” in a favorite film of mine, “Pat and Mike” starring Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. He eventually became typecast in less sexy and more tough-guy parts.

40. Where many Apr. checks are sent : IRS
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) came into being during the Civil War, to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.

41. L.A. gangster : CRIP
The Crips are a street gang here in the US, with origins in Los Angeles going back to 1969. It is believed that the Crips have up to 35,000 members today across the country, and there is even a presence in the US military, both here and abroad. The main rivals of the Crips are the Bloods.

43. Malarial fever : AGUE
Malaria is a disease passed onto humans by mosquitoes. As a result of the disease a parasite invades human red blood cells and multiplies, causing fever and possibly coma or death. Over 750,000 people died from malaria and 2009, out of 225 million cases reported.

47. Vietnam War’s ___ offensive : TET
The Viet Cong was the name of the political and military organization based in South Vietnam that fought the US and South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War. It was the Viet Cong, as opposed to the North Vietnamese, who launched the famous Tet Offensive in 1968.

48. Follower of Don or San : JUAN
Don Juan is a flighty character who has been featured by a number of authors, poets and composers, including Molière, Byron, and Mozart. In the underlying legend, Don Juan ends up talking to the statue of the dead father of one of his conquests. Don Juan dines with the ghost of the dead man and when shaking the hand of the ghost he is dragged away to hell.

“San Juan” is the Spanish for “Saint John”.

49. “MADtv” bit : SKETCH
“MADtv” is a television sketch show that ran for fourteen seasons starting in 1995. The show had nothing to do with the famous “Mad” magazine, although it did license the name and logo from the publication.

51. English novelist Nick who wrote “About a Boy” : HORNBY
The English author Nick Hornby wrote three novels that were adapted into successful movies, namely: “High Fidelity”, “About a Boy” and “Fever Pitch”.

66. Will Smith title role : ALI
“Ali” is a 2001 biographical movie about Muhammad Ali, with Will Smith in the title role. Among other things, the film is noted for its realistic fight scenes. They were realistic because Smith was really being hit, as hard as his opponents could manage.

67. They follow quarters : SEMIS
Semifinals follow quarterfinals.

Down
3. *Explorer of the Rockies : ZEBULON PIKE
Zebulon Pike was an American Army officer and explorer. On his first expedition for the military he discovered a mountain in the Rockies that had been dubbed El Capitan by Spanish settlers. It was later renamed to Pike’s Peaks in honor of the explorer.

5. Flanders of “The Simpsons” : NED
Ned Flanders lives next door to Homer on TV’s “The Simpsons”. Ned is voiced by the actor Harry Shearer, and has been around since the very first episode, aired on Fox in 1989.

8. TV heroine in a leather skirt : XENA
Lucy Lawless is a New Zealand actress (and singer), famous for playing the title role in TV’s “Xena: Warrior Princess”. Lawless first played the Xena character in a made-for-TV movie called “Hercules and the Amazon Women”, and later reprised the role in a series called “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”. Xena became so popular that a series was built around her character, with Lawless retained for the role.

10. Small craft of W.W. II : PT BOATS
PT Boats were motor torpedo boats: small, speedy vessels that used torpedoes as their primary weapon against large surface ships. The “PT” stands for “Patrol Torpedo”. The most famous PT Boats that served during WWII were probably PT-41, which carried General Douglas MacArthur and his family from Corregidor to Mindanao in his escape from the Philippines, and PT-109, commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, future President of the United States.

11. Mauna ___ : LOA
Mauna Loa on the “big island” of Hawaii is the largest volcano on the planet (in terms of volume, not height). The name “Mauna Loa” is Hawaiian for “Long Mountain”.

19. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” war zone : CRIMEA
Considering that the Crimea was the site of the Charge of the Light Brigade as well as the Yalta conference towards the end of World War II, I am ashamed to say that until recently I could not pinpoint the Crimea on a map. I’m even more ashamed to say that I didn’t realize it is an extremely distinctively shaped peninsula, lying south of the Ukraine and jutting out into the Black Sea. Well, now I know …

The disastrous “Charge of the Light Brigade” took place in Balaclava in the Crimea on October 25th 1854, during the Crimean War. Commander of the British Army that day was Lord Raglan, and in overall command of the Calvary unit was the Earl of Lucan. Under Lucan, in charge of the Light Brigade was the Earl of Cardigan. Raglan sent a Captain Nolan to Lucan with orders to attack “the guns”. When Lucan asked Nolan which guns, it appears that Nolan indicated the wrong ones. Lucan then instructed Cardigan to lead the Light Cavalry in a charge on the designated guns, which he dutifully did. As the charge started, Nolan noted the error and rode onto the field to intercept the Light Brigade, but was killed by an artillery shell. The charge continued into an overwhelming artillery battery (“into the Valley of Death” to use Tennyson’s famous words), causing the loss of over 2/3 of the mounted brigade, a loss of 400 horses and 250 men killed or wounded, for no military purpose at all. Cardigan survived, left the field of battle immediately and boarded his yacht in Balaclava Harbor and had a champagne lunch. Lucan was made a member of the Order of the Bath the following year, and Raglan was promoted to Field Marshal …

21. Country music’s David Allan ___ : COE
David Allan Coe is a so-called “outlaw” country music singer, a performer who spent much of his life behind bars (the penitentiary type!). One the more famous songs that he wrote is “Take This Job and Shove It”.

23. ___ Cruz (name on old Mexican maps) : VERA
The port city of Veracruz in Mexico was originally called Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, which translates as “rich village of the true cross”. The “rich” referred to the large amount of gold that the Spanish found in the area.

25. *Classical guitarist with four Grammys : JULIAN BREAM
Julian Bream is an English player of the classical guitar and the lute.

27. Ed in Reagan’s cabinet : MEESE
Ed Meese was born in Oakland, California just down the road here, and spent 24 years in the office of the Treasurer of Alameda County, the county in which I live. After military service he earned himself a law degree at UC Berkeley. Later, as Chief of Staff for President Reagan, he was instrumental in a famous decision to crack down on student protesters at Berkeley which resulted in one protester dying and a two-week occupation of the city by the California National Guard.

29. Tile-setter’s bucketful : GROUT
Grout is a thin mortar used to fill the joints between ceramic tiles. The name “grout” comes from the Old English word “gruta”, the word for a “coarse porridge” (due to the similarity in appearance of the two). Interestingly, the word “grits” comes from the same root. Grout … grits … makes sense …

30. Land west of England : EIRE
Erin is an anglicized version of “Eire”, the Irish word for Ireland (actually it corresponds to “Eirinn”, the dative case of “Eire”).

33. Sharon’s predecessor as Israeli P.M. : BARAK
Ehud Barak served as Prime Minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001. He left office after he called a special election for Prime Minister and lost the vote to Ariel Sharon. He resigned from the Knesset and took an advisory job with the US company Electronic Data Systems (EDS), and did some security related work with a private equity company. In 2007, Barak took over leadership of Israel’s Labor Party, and is now the country’s Minister of Defense.

39. “___ Song” (Elton John hit) : YOUR
“Your Song” is another wonderful composition by Elton John. It was released in 1970, and was John’s first hit in the charts.

48. Lil ___ (rapper who popularized crunk) : JON
Lil Jon is a rapper, with the real name Jonathan Mortimer Smith. That’s all I know …

51. Official language of India : HINDI
Hindi is the official language of India, and is closely related to the associated Hindustani language Urdu. The group of people who speak Hindi-Urdu is the fourth largest language group in the world (after Mandarin, Spanish and English).

52. One-named New Age musician : YANNI
Yanni is a remarkable Greek musician, very successful in the world of New Age music. What I find remarkable is that he is a self-taught musician.

54. Mrs. 55-Down on “The Avengers” : EMMA
55. See 54-Down : PEEL
“The Avengers” was must-see television when I was growing up. It was a sixties comedy spy series set in England during the days of the Cold War. The hero was John Steed, played ably by Patrick McNee. He had various female partners as the series progressed, the first of which was Cathy Gale, played by Honor Blackman (who also played Pussy Galore in “Goldfinger”). Following Ms. Gale was Emma Peel played by the wonderful Diana Rigg.

57. Itar-___ news agency : TASS
TASS is the abbreviation used for the former news agency, the Telegraph Association of the Soviet Union (Telegrafnoye Agentstvo Sovetskovo Soyuza). When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1992, the Moscow-based agency’s scope changed, along with its name. It is now known as the Information Telegraph Agency of Russia (ITAR-TASS).

58. Budget add-ons : FAT
Anything that’s not needed in a budget, but is added anyway, that’s sometimes called “fat”.

59. “Rocks” : ICE
“Rocks, ice”, both slang terms for diamonds.

60. Religious sch. : SEM
Seminary.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Elia ___, “East of Eden” director : KAZAN
6. ___ Romana : PAX
9. 100 : A-PLUS
14. Bayer anti-inflammatory : ALEVE
15. Ginger ___ : ALE
16. Sports car extras : T-TOPS
17. Like a boxer before a fight : ROBED
18. *Former ‘N Sync member : LANCE BASS
20. ___ de France : TOUR
21. Olivia’s love in “Twelfth Night” : CESARIO
22. Ice cream specification : FLAVOR
24. Stuck : IN A JAM
28. S-shaped molding : OGEE
29. It might be examined with a loupe : GEM
31. Macaroni’s form : TUBE
32. Li’l ___ (comics guy) : ABNER
34. Pennsylvania port : ERIE
35. ___ gin fizz : SLOE
36. Limit, as a salary : CAP
37. *Bygone Hollywood star known for tough-guy roles : ALDO RAY
40. Where many Apr. checks are sent : IRS
41. L.A. gangster : CRIP
43. Malarial fever : AGUE
44. Spout forth : ORATE
46. Assume : TAKE
47. Vietnam War’s ___ offensive : TET
48. Follower of Don or San : JUAN
49. “MADtv” bit : SKETCH
51. English novelist Nick who wrote “About a Boy” : HORNBY
53. Not wake until noon, say : SLEEP IN
56. Group that rushes : FRAT
58. What the answers to the four starred clues are? : FISHERMEN
61. Chariot race locale : ARENA
62. ___ spades : ACE OF
63. Size between sm. and lg. : MED
64. ___ list : DEAN’S
65. Do the devil’s work? : TEMPT
66. Will Smith title role : ALI
67. They follow quarters : SEMIS

Down
1. Child’s racing vehicle : KART
2. Cold : ALOOF
3. *Explorer of the Rockies : ZEBULON PIKE
4. C-rated : AVERAGE
5. Flanders of “The Simpsons” : NED
6. More ghostlike : PALER
7. “Sadly …” : ALAS
8. TV heroine in a leather skirt : XENA
9. Dined at home : ATE IN
10. Small craft of W.W. II : PT BOATS
11. Mauna ___ : LOA
12. Increases : UPS
13. Frying-butter sound : SSS
19. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” war zone : CRIMEA
21. Country music’s David Allan ___ : COE
23. ___ Cruz (name on old Mexican maps) : VERA
25. *Classical guitarist with four Grammys : JULIAN BREAM
26. Stop in midstream : ABORT
27. Ed in Reagan’s cabinet : MEESE
29. Tile-setter’s bucketful : GROUT
30. Land west of England : EIRE
32. Bank holdings: Abbr. : ACCTS
33. Sharon’s predecessor as Israeli P.M. : BARAK
34. Helpful kind of piece for a jigsaw puzzle doer : EDGE
38. Barber’s supply : LATHER
39. “___ Song” (Elton John hit) : YOUR
42. Lab supply source? : PET SHOP
45. Roamed without restriction : RAN FREE
48. Lil ___ (rapper who popularized crunk) : JON
50. Like some chins : CLEFT
51. Official language of India : HINDI
52. One-named New Age musician : YANNI
54. Mrs. 55-Down on “The Avengers” : EMMA
55. See 54-Down : PEEL
57. Itar-___ news agency : TASS
58. Budget add-ons : FAT
59. “Rocks” : ICE
60. Religious sch. : SEM
61. Commercials : ADS
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