1204-11: New York Times Crossword Answers 4 Dec 11, Sunday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
1. Secretaries, e.g. : DESKS
A secretary is an antique form of desk, one with drawers in a base, a hinged writing surface and a bookcase on top.

6. Modern record holder? : IPOD
The iPod is Apple’s signature line of portable media players. The iPod 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.

10. Bucks : CLAMS
“Buck” and “clam” are both slang terms for “a dollar”. The term “buck” has been around at least since 1856, and is thought to derive from the tradition of using buckskin as a unit of trade with Native Americans during the frontier days. It has been suggested that “clam” has a similar derivation, a throwback to the supposed use of clams as units of currency in ancient cultures.

19. Dow Jones industrial with the N.Y.S.E. symbol “AA” : ALCOA
The Aluminum Corporation of America (ALCOA) is the largest producer of aluminum in the United States. The company was founded in 1888 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where its headquarters is to this day.

20. Cataract site : NILE
Depending on definition, the Nile is generally regarded as the longest river on the planet. The Nile forms from two major tributaries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile which join near Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. From Khartoum the Nile flows north, traveling almost entirely through desert making it central to life for the peoples living along its length.

21. “The Ten Commandments” role : AARON
In the 1956 movie “The Ten Commandments” Aaron, the brother of Moses, was played by John Carradine.

“The Ten Commandments” is an epic movie directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and released in 1956. The cast was as epic as the film, with Charlton Heston playing the starring role of Moses.

22. ___ contendere (court plea) : NOLO
“Nolo contendere” is a legal term that translates from the Latin as “I do not wish to contend”. It’s the plea of “no contest”, an alternative to “guilty” or “not guilty”, meaning that one doesn’t admit guilt but nor does one dispute the charge.

23. Anaïs Nin, e.g.? : DIARY QUEEN (Dairy Queen)
Anaïs Nin was a French author, famous for the journals that she wrote for over sixty years from the age of 11 right up to her death. She also wrote highly regarded erotica, and cited D. H. Lawrence as someone from whom she drew inspiration.

Soft serve ice cream was developed by John McCullough in 1938. McCullough was able to get his new dessert carried by a local ice cream store in Illinois. He and the store owner became so swamped with sales that they opened a store specifically built around the product in Joliet, Illinois hence creating the first Dairy Queen outlet. There are now over 5,700 Dairy Queen franchises in 19 countries. We’ve even got one in Ireland …

25. Seizure at Sing Sing? : PRISON GRAB
Sing Sing is the nickname of the famous prison in Ossining, not far from New York City and “up the river” Hudson.

27. Title girl in a 1979 Fleetwood Mac hit : SARA
Fleetwood Mac was founded in 1967 in London. The band was started by Peter Green, and he chose the name from two friends from former bands (named Fleetwood and McVie). This is depite the fact the drummer’s name happens to be Mick Fleetwood.

29. Cause for a kid’s grounding : SASS
“Sass”, meaning “impudence”, is a back formation from the word “sassy”. “Sassy” is an alteration of the word “saucy”, with “sassy” first appearing in English in the 1830s.

30. Heavenly: Prefix : URANO-
Urano- comes from the Greek ouranos, denoting the heavens.

31. Tech marvel of the 1940s : ENIAC
The acronym ENIAC stands for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (although many folks insist that the C was for “Computer”). ENIAC was the first general-purpose electronic computer. It was designed to calculate artillery firing tables, but it ended up being used early on to make calculations necessary for the development of the hydrogen bomb. Given its uses, it’s not surprising to hear that development of ENIAC was funded by the US Army during WWII.

33. “Adam-12” call, briefly : APB
An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a broadcast from one US law enforcement agency to another.

“Adam-12” was a cop show that ran on television from the late sixties to the mid-seventies. The story revolved around two LAPD officers, played by Pete Malloy and Jim Reed. The show was created by Jack Webb, famous for his earlier hit, “Dragnet”.

43. Figure in Raphael’s “School of Athens” : 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.

“The School of Athens” is a painting by Raphael, thought by many to be his masterpiece. It is a fresco, and can be seen in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.

56. House of ___ (European dynasty) : ESTE
The House of Este is a princely dynasty in Europe. The House of Hanover that ruled Britain from 1714 to 1901 (when Queen Victoria died) was perhaps the most notable branch of the House of Este.

57. Sailors’ spars : BOWSPRITS
A bowsprit is a spar the sticks out at the bow of a boat, extending the vessels length and hence moving the stays for the foremast as far forward as possible.

62. “___ see it my way” (Beatles lyric) : TRY TO
“They to see it my way” is a lyric from the The Beatles 1965 hit “We Can Work It Out”. The song was part of the first record ever to be described as a “double A-side”, and featured alongside “Day Tripper”.

64. Adams and Falco : EDIES
Edie Adams was an all-round entertainer. She worked for many years on television with Ernie Kovacs and Jack Paar, marrying Ernie Kovacs in 1954. On the big screen she has a major supporting role in “The Apartment”, and was one of the stars of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”.

Edie Falco won her three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano in HBO’s outstanding drama series, “The Sopranos”.

65. Israel’s Dayan : MOSHE
Moshe Dayan had a long and distinguished military career (including command of Israeli forces during the 1956 Suez Crisis). He also played a pivotal, and militarily active, role as Minister for Defense during the Six-Day War of 1967. He was a very recognizable figure with a black patch over his left eye. Dayan received that injury when he was fighting for the Allies in Vichy French Lebanon during WWII. He was using a pair of binoculars that was hit by an enemy bullet, smashing metal and glass fragments into his eye.

71. Capital and largest city of Ghana : ACCRA
Accra sits on Ghana’s coast, and is a major seaport as well as the country’s capital city. The name “Accra” comes from a local word “Nkran” meaning “ants”, a name chosen because of the large number of anthills found in the area when the city was founded.

73. Fjord, e.g. : INLET
A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, both formed as sea level rises. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

85. Food item prized in French cuisine : MOREL
The morel is that genus of mushroom with the honeycomb-like structure on the cap. They’re highly prized, especially in French cuisine. Morels should never be eaten raw as they are toxic, with the toxins being removed by thorough cooking.

86. De Matteo of “Desperate Housewives” : DREA
Drea de Matteo is an actress who is most familiar to me for playing Adriana la Cerva on HBO’s wonderful series “The Sopranos”. She also played Joey’s sister on the short-lived “Friends” spin-off called “Joey”, and the character Angie Bolen on “Desperate Housewives”.

92. Hypnotist Franz : MESMER
Franz Mesmer was a German physician, the person who first coined the phrase “animal magnetism”. Back then the term described a purported magnetic field that resided in the bodies of animate beings. Mesmer also lent his name to our term “mesmerize”.

97. Fashion inits. : 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 …

103. Reciprocal function in trig : COSEC
The cosecant (cosec, for short) is the ratio of the hypotenuse of a triangle to its opposite side, and is the reciprocal of the sine, as we all remember from school …

106. Island hopper? : FROG
I guess a frog hops around an island, but I am missing something, I am sure …

110. Herr’s her : FRAU
In Germany, a “Mr.” (Herr) is married to a “Mrs.” (Frau).

116. Improvement of a Standardbred’s gait? : TROT REFORM
Standardbreds are a breed of horse developed in this country to excel at harness racing.

118. “The ___ lama, he’s a priest”: Nash : ONE-L
The poet Ogden Nash was well known for his light and humorous verse. Try this one:

The one-L lama,
He’s a priest.
The two-L llama,
He’s a beast.
And I would bet
A silk pajama
There isn’t any
Three-L lllama.

119. Biology lab stain : EOSIN
Eosin is a red dye that fluoresces under light, and that is used in the lab as a stain on microscope slides. It is particularly effective in staining animal tissues.

122. Moolah : KALE
“Kale” and “moolah” are slang terms for money.

124. Gorilla skilled in sign language : KOKO
Koko is a female Lowland Gorilla that lives in Woodside, California. The researcher Penny Patterson taught Koko to speak a modified form of American Sign Language (ASL) that she called Gorilla Sign Language. Koko can apparently use over a thousand signs.

Down
2. “Popular Fallacies” writer : ELIA
The “Essays of Elia” began appearing in “London Magazine” in 1820 and were immediate hits with the public. The author was Charles Lamb and Elia was actually a clerk, one of Lamb’s co-workers. The most famous of the essays in the collection are probably “Dream-Children” and “Old China”.

4. Much-read collection of verses : KORAN
The Koran is also known as the Qur’an in English, the transliteration of the Arabic name for the holy text of the Muslim faith. The literal translation of “Koran” is “the recitation”.

6. Rub with ointment, as in a religious ceremony : INUNCT
“Inunct” is another word for “anoint”.

7. Skewbald : PIED
A skewbald horse is one with patches of white on a dark background. A piebald horse, on the other hand, is white with dark patches.

8. Bread spread : OLEO
Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France announced a competition to develop a substitute for butter, a substitute that would be more accessible to the lower classes and more practical for the armed forces. In 1869, a French chemist called Hippolyte Mege-Mouries came up with something he called oleomargarine, which was eventually manufactured under the trade name “margarine”. The name “oleomargarine” also gives us our generic term “oleo”.

11. “___ and the Real Girl” (2007 movie) : LARS
“Lars and the Real Girl” is a pretty weird film about a shy young man who develops a relationship with an anatomically-correct, life-size doll.

13. Criminal patterns, briefly : MOS
“Modus operandi” is the Latin for “mode of operating”, a term we’ve been using since the mid-1600s. It’s often used by the police when referring to the methods typically employed by a particular perpetrator, and is usually abbreviated to “M.O.”

14. Hostess ___ Balls : SNO
The Hostess cakes called Sno Balls are usually pink in color, although in its original form each packet of two cakes contained one white and one pink. Around Halloween you can buy Sno Balls in the form of Scary Cakes and Glo Balls that are colored orange and green. and on St. Paddy’s Day there’s a green one available. Yoo hoo!

16. “WarGames” grp. : NORAD
The North American Defense Command (NORAD) isn’t just a US operation but is a cooperative arrangement between Canada and the United States. The two countries entered into an agreement to establish NORAD in 1958, mainly due to the concern that there would be little or no warning of a missile attack from the Soviet Union that came over the North Pole.

“WarGames” is a really fun 1983 movie starring Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy. I just found out that there is a sequel that was released in 2008 called “WarGames: The Dead Code”. I just put it on my Christmas list …

17. “The George & ___ Show” (old talk series) : ALANA
George Hamilton and Alana Stewart, when they were married, hosted their own talk show for a year, in 1995. It was imaginatively called “The George & Alana Show”.

18. Submarine : PO’ BOY
A po’ boy is a submarine sandwich from Louisiana. There are a lot of theories about where the name came from, and none sound too convincing to me. A po’ boy differs from a regular submarine sandwich in that it uses Louisiana French bread, which is soft in the middle and crusty on the outside.

29. Name sung over and over in a Monty Python skit : SPAM
I think that the oft-quoted story may be true that the term SPAM, used for unwanted email, is taken from a “Monty Python” sketch. In the sketch (which I’ve seen) the dialog is taken over by the word SPAM, a play on the glut of canned meat in the markets of Britain after WWII. So SPAM is used for the glut of emails that takes over online communication. I can just imagine nerdy Internet types (like me) adopting something from a “Monty Python” sketch to describe an online phenomenon …

32. The last Pope Julius : III
Pope Julius III was head of the Roman Catholic church from 1550 to 1555.

33. Década divisions : ANOS
There are ten anos (years) in una década (a decade), in Spanish anyway.

35. Decorative tip on a lace : AGLET
An aglet is the plastic or metal sheath that is found on the end of a shoelace or perhaps a drawstring. The name “aglet” comes from the Old French word “aguillette” meaning “needle”.

37. English channel, familiarly, with “the” : BEEB
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is also known as “the Beeb”, a name given to the network by the great Peter Sellers on the classic British radio comedy called “The Goon Show”.

38. Mark’s replacement : EURO
The European Union today stands at a membership of 27 states. The Euro is the official currency of only 16 of the 27. The list of states not using the Euro includes the UK, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

41. Antarctica’s ___ Ice Shelf : ROSS
The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest such structure in Antarctica, and is about the size of the country of France. The shelf is named after the person who discovered it in 1841, Captain Sir James Clark Ross.

42. Votary : ADORER
A votary is a devotee.

47. NyQuil targets : HEAD COLDS
NyQuil is a medication designed to relieve the symptoms of a common cold. It contains loads of ingredients that will make you sleepy so if you are taking it, it’s safer to do so at night. It’s a Proctor & Gamble brand, and the equivalent non-drowsy formula is known as DayQuil.

48. “Hamlet” courtier : OSRIC
In William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”, Osric is the courtier that Claudius dispatches to invite Hamlet to participate in a duel.

58. Onetime Procter & Gamble shampoo : PRELL
Prell was introduced by Proctor & Gamble in 1947, and was originally a clear green concentrate sold in a tube (like toothpaste).

59. Churl : MISER
A churl is rude, boorish person. The word “churl” comes from the Old English word “ceorl”, meaning a freeman of the lowest class.

69. Cause of a breakdown : ENZYME
Enzymes are basically catalysts, chemicals that act to increase the rate of a particular chemical reaction. So for example, starches will break down in to sugars over time, especially under the right conditions. However, in the presence of the enzyme amylase (found in saliva, say) this production of sugar happens very, very quickly.

70. ___ of Venice : DOGE
The Doge of Venice was the most senior elected official in the Republic of Venice.

75. Movie genre : FILM NOIR
The expression “film noir” has French origins, but only in that it was “created” by a French critic in describing a style of Hollywood film. The term, meaning “black film” in French, was first used by Nino Frank in 1946. Film noir often applies to a movie with a melodramatic plot, and a private eye or detective at its center. Good examples would be “The Big Sleep” and “D.O.A”.

77. Element used for shielding nuclear reactors : BORON
Boron is a metalloid element. It is very good at capturing neutrons, so it is used in radiation shields in nuclear reactors.

79. Möbius strip, e.g. : LOOP
A Möbius strip is a surface that has only one side. One is easily made by taking a strip of paper and joining the ends together, but with a twist so that it isn’t a regular “band”.

82. Title below marquis : EARL
In the ranking of nobles an earl comes above a viscount and below a marquess. The rank of earl is used in the British peerage system, and is equivalent to the rank of count in other countries. Other British ranks have female forms (e.g. marquess and marchioness, viscount and viscountess), but there isn’t a female word for the rank of earl. A female given the same rank as an earl is known as a countess.

88. Balcony window : ORIEL
An oriel window is a bay window that projects from a wall, but does not reach all the way to the ground.

93. Some “Men in Black” characters, for short : ETS
“Men in Black” are said to have appeared in the past whenever there have been reports of UFO sightings. Supposedly, these men are government agents whose job it is to suppress reports of alien landings. The conspiracy theorists got their day in the movies with the release of a pretty good sci-fi comedy in 1997 called “Men in Black”, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

96. Time for the balcony scene in “Romeo and Juliet” : ACT TWO
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?”

99. “The Faerie Queene” character : IRENA
“The Faerie Queene” is an epic poem by Edmund Spenser, and one of the longest poems written in the English laguage.

104. Annual advertising award : EFFIE
The Effie Awards are presented annually for excellence in the field of marketing communications.

108. First name at Woodstock : ARLO
Arlo Guthrie is the son of Woody Guthrie. Both father and son are renowned for their singing of protest songs about social injustice. Arlo is most famous for his epic “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”, a song that lasts a full 18m and 34s. In the song, Guthrie tells how he was rejected for service in the Vietnam War after being drafted, based on his criminal record. He had one incident on his public record, a Thanksgiving Day arrest for littering and being a public nuisance when he was just 18-years-old.

109. Barnes & Noble electronic reader : NOOK
The Barnes & Noble electronic-book reader is called the Nook. The company sells about $220 million dollars worth of the devices every year.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Secretaries, e.g. : DESKS
6. Modern record holder? : IPOD
10. Bucks : CLAMS
15. Take ___ (doze) : A NAP
19. Dow Jones industrial with the N.Y.S.E. symbol “AA” : ALCOA
20. Cataract site : NILE
21. “The Ten Commandments” role : AARON
22. ___ contendere (court plea) : NOLO
23. Anaïs Nin, e.g.? : DIARY QUEEN
25. Seizure at Sing Sing? : PRISON GRAB
27. Title girl in a 1979 Fleetwood Mac hit : SARA
28. Reverse : UNDO
29. Cause for a kid’s grounding : SASS
30. Heavenly: Prefix : URANO-
31. Tech marvel of the 1940s : ENIAC
33. “Adam-12” call, briefly : APB
34. Pioneering : EARLY-DAY
37. Rice may be served in it : BED
39. Heavenly voice of conscience? : INTERNAL ANGEL
43. Figure in Raphael’s “School of Athens” : EUCLID
45. Going to hell : DOOMED
46. Verbally attack, with “at” : LASH OUT
51. Old switch attachment? : -EROO
52. Wrong : AMISS
54. Due : OWED
56. House of ___ (European dynasty) : ESTE
57. Sailors’ spars : BOWSPRITS
59. Specialty of a couples therapist? : MARITAL ARTS
62. “___ see it my way” (Beatles lyric) : TRY TO
63. Razzed : GIBED
64. Adams and Falco : EDIES
65. Israel’s Dayan : MOSHE
68. Dear : TREASURED
71. Capital and largest city of Ghana : ACCRA
72. Gathering of spies : INTEL
73. Fjord, e.g. : INLET
74. Very good, in slang : BOFFO
76. Courtroom jacket? : TRIAL BLAZER
79. Work in a chamber, say : LEGISLATE
83. Scrutinizer : EYER
84. Prone to acne, say : OILY
85. Food item prized in French cuisine : MOREL
86. De Matteo of “Desperate Housewives” : DREA
87. Put right : RESTORE
89. “Yeah, r-i-i-ight!” : MY FOOT
92. Hypnotist Franz : MESMER
94. Circus performer in makeup? : ROUGE ELEPHANT
97. Fashion inits. : YSL
98. Starts, as a big meal : DIGS INTO
102. Business partner, often : SON
103. Reciprocal function in trig : COSEC
105. Very sore : IRATE
106. Island hopper? : FROG
108. No voter : ANTI
110. Herr’s her : FRAU
113. Storyteller for Satan? : DEVIL’S LIAR
116. Improvement of a Standardbred’s gait? : TROT REFORM
118. “The ___ lama, he’s a priest”: Nash : ONE-L
119. Biology lab stain : EOSIN
120. Dense : SLOW
121. Rend : RIP UP
122. Moolah : KALE
123. Prefix with history : ETHNO-
124. Gorilla skilled in sign language : KOKO
125. Kicks back : RESTS

Down
1. Many Little League coaches : DADS
2. “Popular Fallacies” writer : ELIA
3. One starting a stampede, maybe? : SCARED COW
4. Much-read collection of verses : KORAN
5. Suppose : SAY
6. Rub with ointment, as in a religious ceremony : INUNCT
7. Skewbald : PIED
8. Bread spread : OLEO
9. Burrow, for some : DEN
10. Qualified : CAPABLE
11. “___ and the Real Girl” (2007 movie) : LARS
12. Up : ARISEN
13. Criminal patterns, briefly : MOS
14. Hostess ___ Balls : SNO
15. Up in arms : ANGRY
16. “WarGames” grp. : NORAD
17. “The George & ___ Show” (old talk series) : ALANA
18. Submarine : PO’ BOY
24. Dilemma : QUANDARY
26. Sets to zero : NULLS
29. Name sung over and over in a Monty Python skit : SPAM
32. The last Pope Julius : III
33. Década divisions : ANOS
35. Decorative tip on a lace : AGLET
36. ___-thon (literary event) : READ-A
37. English channel, familiarly, with “the” : BEEB
38. Mark’s replacement : EURO
40. Counterpart of advertising : EDITORIAL
41. Antarctica’s ___ Ice Shelf : ROSS
42. Votary : ADORER
44. Became discouraged : LOST HEART
47. NyQuil targets : HEAD COLDS
48. “Hamlet” courtier : OSRIC
49. Downright : UTTER
50. Nickname for Theresa : TESSA
53. “Leather,” in baseball : MITT
55. Generous leeway : WIDE BERTH
58. Onetime Procter & Gamble shampoo : PRELL
59. Churl : MISER
60. Be contiguous to : ABUT
61. Pages (through) : LEAFS
63. Kind of force : GALE
65. Corner joint : MITER
66. How some sandwiches are made : ON RYE
67. Wallowing sites : STIES
69. Cause of a breakdown : ENZYME
70. ___ of Venice : DOGE
75. Movie genre : FILM NOIR
77. Element used for shielding nuclear reactors : BORON
78. Rank below capt. : LIEUT
79. Möbius strip, e.g. : LOOP
80. Troops’ harvest? : ARMY CROPS
81. Athletic supporters? : TEES
82. Title below marquis : EARL
85. Big name in faucets : MOEN
88. Balcony window : ORIEL
90. “What’s it gonna be?” : YES OR NO
91. Whip : FLOG
93. Some “Men in Black” characters, for short : ETS
95. Card game akin to Authors : GO FISH
96. Time for the balcony scene in “Romeo and Juliet” : ACT TWO
98. Managed : DID OK
99. “The Faerie Queene” character : IRENA
100. It may punctuate a court order : GAVEL
101. Fence straddler : STILE
104. Annual advertising award : EFFIE
107. It may come in buckets : RAIN
108. First name at Woodstock : ARLO
109. Barnes & Noble electronic reader : NOOK
111. Stuck in ___ : A RUT
112. Tag callers? : UMPS
114. “Get it?” : SEE
115. Bunch : LOT
116. Reproachful cluck : TSK
117. Mess up : ERR
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