0428-12: New York Times Crossword Answers 28 Apr 12, Saturday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
18. Menu general : TSO
General Tso’s chicken is an American creation, often found on the menu of a Chinese restaurant. The name General Tso may be a reference to General Zuo Zontang of the Qing Dynasty, but there is no clear link.

20. Jobs announcement? : MAC
Macintosh (also “Mac”) is a line of computers from Apple Inc. The first Mac was introduced in 1984, and I remember someone showing me one at work in those early days of personal computing. There was a piece of white plastic connected to the main computer by a cord, and I was amazed when the guy showed me that it controlled where the cursor was on the screen. My colleague told me that this lump of plastic was called “a mouse” …

Steve Jobs certainly was a business icon in Silicon Valley. I don’t think it is too surprising to learn that the brilliant Jobs didn’t even finish his college education, dropping out of Reed College in Oregon after only one semester. Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, but in 1985 he was basically fired from his own company during the computer sales slump of the mid-eighties. Jobs then founded NeXT Computer, a company focused on supplying workstations to the higher education and business markets. Apple purchased NeXT in 1996, and that’s how Jobs found himself back with his original company.

21. Refreshment site : OASIS
The most famous oasis in the US is … Las Vegas, in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

26. Old-time actresses Allgood and Haden : SARAS
Sara Allgood was an Irish actress who was active when the Irish National Theatre was founded in the world-famous Abbey Theatre in 1904. Allgood then appeared in early Hitchock films, and in 1941 was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role in “How Green Was My Valley”.

Sara Haden was a Hollywood actress in the thirties through the fifties. Haden made a career out of playing character roles.

30. Ad ___ : REM
The Latin term “ad rem” translates literally as “to the matter”.

32. Tom Sawyer’s half brother : SID
Mark Twain’s famous character Tom Sawyer had a few family members. He had an Aunt Polly, an Aunt Sally Phelps, a cousin Mary and half-brother Sid.

34. Org. with lead concerns : EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was set up during the Nixon administration and began operation at the end of 1970.

49. Ball-bearing piece : TEE
In the game of golf, say, a “tee” bears the ball.

51. Sycosis source, informally : STAPH
Staphylococcus is a genus of bacteria. Under a microscope it can be seen that the individual bacteria form into clusters like bunches of grapes. “Staphylococcus” comes from the Greek word meaning “bunch of grapes”.

55. Trucial States, today: Abbr. : UAE
Dubai is one of the seven Emirates that make up the federation known as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The two largest members (geographically) of the UAE are Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the only two of the seven members that have veto power over UAE policy. Before 1971, the UAE was a British Protectorate, a collection of sheikdoms. The sheikdoms entered into a maritime truce with Britain in 1835, after which they became known as the Trucial States, derived from the word “truce”.

57. Buzzsaw Brown, e.g. : ALE
Buzzshaw Brown is a brown ale brewed by Deschutes Brewery, a brewery in Bend, Oregon.

59. Little Parisian? : PEU
In French, something can be more than “a little” (un peu), it can be “very” (très).

Down
1. Poem comprised of quotations : CENTO
A cento is a derivative work in a way, a poem composed of verses and passages from other authors. The name “cento” is Latin for a “cloak made of patches”.

2. Common language in Niger : HAUSA
Hausa is the language of the Hausa people, one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa.

4. Calculator button : COS
As we all remember from geometry class, when we have any right-angled triangle, if you divide the length of its adjacent side by the length of the hypotenuse, the resulting ratio is called the cosine. We all do remember that, don’t we?

5. In dire need of gas : ON E
On empty.

6. First name in Polish politics : LECH
Lech Walesa worked as an electrician in the Gdansk Shipyards in Poland. Walesa was active in the trade union movement in the days when unions were not welcome behind the Iron Curtain. His efforts resulted in the founding of Solidarity, the first independent trade union in Soviet-controlled territory. For his work, Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and in 1990 he became the first democratically elected President of Poland. He has lost support in Poland in recent years, but he is a very popular booking on the international speaking circuit.

7. Literary lion : ASLAN
In the C. S. Lewis books, Aslan is the name of the lion character (as in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”). Aslan is actually the Turkish word for lion. Anyone who has read the books will recognize the the remarkable similarity between the story of Aslan and the story of Christ, including a sacrifice and resurrection.

8. 1955 sci-fi film that was one of the first to use Technicolor : THIS ISLAND EARTH
“This Island Earth” is a 1955 science fiction film based on a novel of the same name by Raymond F. Jones. If you’ve ever seen “Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie”, the characters in the 1996 film are forced to watch “This Island Earth” as part of the storyline.

11. Killers that may go through hoops : ORCAS
The taxonomic name for the killer whale is Orcinus orca. The use of the name “orca”, rather than “killer whale”, is becoming more and more common. The Latin word “Orcinus” means “belonging to Orcus”, with Orcus being the name for the Kingdom of the Dead.

12. City near Oneida Lake : UTICA
Today, Utica in New York is known as “Second Chance City” due to the recent influx of refugees from war-torn parts of the world, and from Bosnia in particular. These immigrants have helped revitalize the area and reverse a trend of population loss.

Oneida Lake is the largest lake lying entirely within the state of New York. Oneida is situated close to New York’s Finger Lakes, but it isn’t one of them. Having said that, some regard Oneida Lake as the “thumb” that goes along with the “fingers”.

13. “… ___ fool returneth to his folly”: Proverbs 26:11 : SO A
There is a rather unsavory aphorism in the Book of Proverbs that goes “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly”.

22. She pounded the East Coast in 2011 : IRENE
Hurricane Irene caused extensive flooding as it travelled through the Caribbean, up the East Coast of the United States and into the Atlantic seaboard of Canada. The hurricane was unusual in that it came so far north up. 55 deaths were attributed to Irene.

23. Alternative to Tempur-Pedic : SERTA
Serta was founded in 1931 when a group of 13 mattress manufacturers came together, essentially forming a cooperative. Today, the company is owned by eight independent licensees in a similar arrangement. Interesting …

Tempur-Pedic is a manufacturer of mattresses. Tempur-Pedic is the company that picked up the pressure-absorbing material that NASA developed in the early seventies.

25. Luis in the Red Sox Hall of Fame : TIANT
Luis Tiant is a former Major League Baseball pitcher from Cuba. During his career, Tiant was noted for his cigar smoking. After he retired, he launched a line of his own cigars called “El Tiant”.

28. “Every man will be ___ if he can”: Thoreau : A POET
Henry David Thoreau is a personal hero of mine. Thoreau is best known for his book called “Walden” published in 1854. The book outlines his philosophy of life and details his experiences living in a cabin near Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts.

29. South Asian wear: Var. : SAREE
The item of clothing called a sari (also saree) is a strip of cloth, as one might imagine, unusual perhaps in that is unstitched along the whole of its length. It can range from four to nine meters long (that’s a lot of material!). The sari is usually wrapped around the waist, then draped over the shoulder leaving the midriff bare. I must say, it can be a beautiful item of clothing.

31. Moon of Jupiter : MNEME
Mneme is a moon of Jupiter, also known as Jupiter XL. The moon is named after Mneme, one of the original three Muses of Greek mythology.

33. Ticket, informally : DUCAT
“Ducat” is a slang term for an item of money or for an admission ticket. The original ducat was a coin introduced by the Republic of Venice in 1284.

35. Color-streaked playing marble : IMMIE
An agate marble is streaked, and is known colloquially is an “aggie”. Cheap glass imitations are also made, and these are called “immies”.

36. Grp. involved with Brown v. Board of Education : NAACP
The full name of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is remarkable in that it actually still uses the old but offensive term “colored people”. The NAACP was founded in 1909, by a group that included suffragette and journalist Mary White Ovington, wealthy socialist William English Walling, and civil rights activist Henry Moscowitz. Another member of the founding group was W. E. B Du Bois, the first African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University.

In 1954, the US Supreme Court made its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, ruling that separate schools were unequal. In 1957, nine African American students were registered to attend an all-white school in Little Rock, a registration made possible by the Little Rock School Board who agreed to comply with the Supreme Court decision. Arkansas Governor Faubus’s reaction was to deploy the National Guard in order to prevent the children (supported by a crowd) from entering the school. This move put Faubus in direct conflict with President Eisenhower who responded by federalizing the Arkansas National Guard and sending in the 101st Airborne Division of the Army to escort the children through a hostile mob.

37. McAloo ___ (burger at McDonald’s in India) : TIKKI
In India, McDonald’s restaurants have separate parts of the kitchen in which vegetarian menu items are prepared. One of these items is the McAloo Tikki Burger, which uses a veggie patty made from potatoes, peas and spices. I could go for that …

38. About : ANENT
“Anent” is a preposition meaning “regarding, concerning”.

39. Apollo’s birthplace : DELOS
The Greek island of Delos is found in the center of a circular ring of islands called the Cyclades. Delos was believed to be the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis.

48. Hall-of-Fame jockey Earl : SANDE
Earl Sande retired from his very successful career as a jockey in 1932. He turned to training racehorses, and within a few years he was the most successful trainer in the country.

53. Nez ___ : PERCE
The Nez Percé tribe of the Pacific Northwest call themselves the Nimiipuu, meaning “The Real People”. The name Nez Percé means “pierced nose” in French, a name applied in error to the Nimiipuu instead of the neighboring Chinook tribe, who did in fact practice nose piercing.

60. Seagoing sort : TAR
A Jack Tar, or just “tar”, was a seaman in the days of the British Empire. The term probably arose due to a sailor’s various uses of tar back then, including waterproofing of clothes and using tar in the hair to slick down a ponytail.

62. Trombonist Winding : KAI
Kai Winding was a trombonist and jazz composer, born in Denmark but raised in the US.

63. Express : PUT
To express is to set forth in words, to put …

65. Grp. with a piece plan? : NRA
The NRA is the National Rifle Association, an organization that has been around since 1871. The group has had some celebrity presidents, including US President Ulysses S. Grant. It’s often said that the NRA is the most powerful lobbying group in Washington.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Stuff between some cake layers : CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
16. Brood terribly : EAT ONE’S HEART OUT
17. They may perform minor surgeries : NURSE CLINICIANS
18. Menu general : TSO
19. Harbors : HAS
20. Jobs announcement? : MAC
21. Refreshment site : OASIS
24. Thing that’s picked : NIT
26. Old-time actresses Allgood and Haden : SARAS
30. Ad ___ : REM
32. Tom Sawyer’s half brother : SID
34. Org. with lead concerns : EPA
35. Staff member checking the books : INTERNAL AUDITOR
41. Self-correcting or self-cleaning, say : MAINTENANCE-FREE
42. Put some matter in the gray matter? : MAKE A MENTAL NOTE
43. “Nasty!” : ICK
44. Kill : END
45. Besides : TOO
46. Big pictures : EPICS
49. Ball-bearing piece : TEE
51. Sycosis source, informally : STAPH
55. Trucial States, today: Abbr. : UAE
57. Buzzsaw Brown, e.g. : ALE
59. Little Parisian? : PEU
60. Ruthless : TAKE NO PRISONERS
66. Something baffling : A HARD NUT TO CRACK
67. Creates more incentive to win : RAISES THE STAKES

Down
1. Poem comprised of quotations : CENTO
2. Common language in Niger : HAUSA
3. Others, to Juan : OTROS
4. Calculator button : COS
5. In dire need of gas : ON E
6. First name in Polish politics : LECH
7. Literary lion : ASLAN
8. 1955 sci-fi film that was one of the first to use Technicolor : THIS ISLAND EARTH
9. Contracted time period? : E’EN
10. More than mar : MAIM
11. Killers that may go through hoops : ORCAS
12. City near Oneida Lake : UTICA
13. “… ___ fool returneth to his folly”: Proverbs 26:11 : SO A
14. Thing to fry in : SUN
15. 8-Down characters, briefly : ETS
22. She pounded the East Coast in 2011 : IRENE
23. Alternative to Tempur-Pedic : SERTA
25. Luis in the Red Sox Hall of Fame : TIANT
27. Like many things that come back : RETRO
28. “Every man will be ___ if he can”: Thoreau : A POET
29. South Asian wear: Var. : SAREE
31. Moon of Jupiter : MNEME
33. Ticket, informally : DUCAT
35. Color-streaked playing marble : IMMIE
36. Grp. involved with Brown v. Board of Education : NAACP
37. McAloo ___ (burger at McDonald’s in India) : TIKKI
38. About : ANENT
39. Apollo’s birthplace : DELOS
40. Otherwise : IF NOT
47. Round dance officials : CUERS
48. Hall-of-Fame jockey Earl : SANDE
50. Olympic-level : ELITE
52. Vertical, at sea : APEAK
53. Nez ___ : PERCE
54. Ear protectors : HUSKS
56. Time to evolve? : EONS
58. Those, to Juan : ESOS
60. Seagoing sort : TAR
61. Cry upon figuring out 66-Across : AHA
62. Trombonist Winding : KAI
63. Express : PUT
64. Time of year for much raking: Abbr. : OCT
65. Grp. with a piece plan? : NRA

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