0608-12: New York Times Crossword Answers 8 Jun 12, Friday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
1. “I’m a Survivor” sitcom : REBA
Reba McEntire is a country music singer and television actress. McEntire starred in her own sitcom called “Reba” that aired on the WB and the CW cable channels from 2001 to 2007.

5. “West Side Story” girlfriend : ANITA
In Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story”, the female lead character is Maria and her older friend, also in the gang called the Sharks, is Anita.

Leonard Bernstein’s musical “West Side Story” is of course based on William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. The musical is set in New York City and features two rival gangs: the Sharks from Puerto Rico and the Jets with working-class, Caucasian roots. Tony from the Jets falls in love with Maria from the Sharks. All this parallels Romeo from the House of Montague falling for Juliet from the House of Capulet in the Italian city of Verona.

10. Cabinet maker?: Abbr. : PRES
In the Westminster system, the Cabinet is a group of sitting politicians chosen by the Prime Minister to head up government departments and also to participate collectively in major governmental decisions in all areas. In the US system, the Cabinet is made up not of sitting politicians, but rather of non-legislative individuals who are considered to have expertise in a particular area. The Cabinet members in the US system tend to have more of an advisory role outside of their own departments.

14. Icelandic saga subject : ERIC THE RED
According to Icelandic tradition, Erik the Red was the man responsible for founding the first Nordic settlement in Greenland. Erik had a famous son, the explorer Leif Ericson.

16. Long way to walk? : HALL
Halls tend to be long and narrow …

17. “Chantez-Chantez” singer, 1957 : DINAH SHORE
Dinah Shore had a lot of success as a singer in the forties and fifties in the Big Band Era, and then in the sixties as a hostess of variety programs on television. Shore was also a big fan of golf both as a player and a spectator. She founded the Colgate Dinah Shore golf tournament which is now the Kraft Nabisco Championship, one of the four majors on the LPGA Tour.

18. It’s 180° from X : IIII
Strangely enough, when Roman numerals are used on the face of a clock, the number 4 is represented “incorrectly” as IIII, rather then IV. However, the number 9 is represented “correctly” as IX. There are a number of theories to explain this, and no matter which is correct, I still find the dichotomy quite interesting!

19. Cell division? : ANODE
The two terminals of a battery are called the anode and the cathode. Electrons travel from the anode to the cathode creating an electric current.

21. It’s taken by some coll. seniors : LSAT
The Law School Admission Test (LSAT) has been around since 1948.

24. Some encumbrances : LIENS
A lien is the right that one has to retain or secure someone’s property until a debt is paid.

25. Class Notes subject, informally : ALUM
An “alumnus” (plural … alumni) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural … alumnae). The term comes into English from Latin, in which alumnus means foster-son or pupil.

I guess Class Notes is a service provied by some colleges where alumni can post an update about their lives and careers.

27. “___ Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein” (Bach cantata) : ACH
The Bach cantata “Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein” was inspired by an older chorale with words that were written by Martin Luther. Luther’s text was itself based on Psalm 12 in the Bible.

30. Memorial Day performance : TAPS
“Taps” is played nightly by the US military to indicate “lights out”. It’s also known as “Butterfield’s Lullaby” as it is a variation of an older bugle call named the “Scott Tattoo” that was arranged during the Civil War by the Union Army’s Brigadier General Daniel Butterfield. The tune is called “taps” from the notion of drum taps, as it was originally played on a drum, and only later on a bugle.

40. Idaho motto opener : ESTO
“Esto perpetua” is the Latin phrase meaning, “Let it be perpetual”. It is used as the motto of a number of groups, as well as the state of Idaho. The words are attributed to the theologian Paolo Sarpi (Fra Paolo), his last words, a wish for his native Venice: “let it be perpetual”.

41. Big guns in the Mideast : EMIRS
An emir is a prince or chieftain, most notably in the Middle East. In English, “emir” can also be written as “amir” and “ameer” (watch out for those spellings in crosswords!).

43. Norman with a legendary swing : GREG
Greg Norman is from Australia, a golfer who spent a long time ranked as the world’s number one in the eighties and nineties. Off the golf course, Norman is a very, very successful businessman. One of his more visible ventures is his winery called Greg Norman Estates.

45. Flying ___ : DISC
The Frisbee concept started back in 1938 with a couple who had an upturned cake pan that they were tossing between each other on Santa Monica Beach in California. They were offered 25 cents for the pan on the spot, and as pans could be bought for 5 cents, the pair figured there was a living to be earned by making and selling the toy.

50. Kosher’s Islamic equivalent : HALAL
“Halal” is a term for an action or object that is permissible under Islamic Law. In particular “halal” is used to describe food that can be consumed. Anything that is not allowed is called “haraam”.

57. Trafalgar Square figure : LORD NELSON
Admiral Horatio Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar was HMS Victory. The battle was a decisive win for the British during the Napoleonic Wars, fought against the combined fleets of France and Spain. Nelson was fatally wounded by a marksman from one of the French ships, but as he was conscious he continued to monitor the battle, dying three hours after he was shot. Nelson was much revered by his crew who felt that his body had to be returned to England. The body was placed in a barrel full of brandy and the barrel lashed to the mainmast of the Victory and placed under guard. The damaged flagship was towed to Gibraltar where the the body was transferred to a lead-lined coffin and the brandy replaced by aqua vitae, spirits of wine. While the body continued its journey home, dispatches reporting the outcome of the battle were carried to England on a ship called … HMS Pickle!

Nelson’s Column sits in the middle of Trafalgar Square in London. The monument was erected between 1840 and 1843 to commemorate the death of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. The column was refurbished in 2006, during which work it was discovered that the column was actually 4.4 meters shorter than realized!

58. Lacking : SANS
In French we use the words “sans” (without) and “avec” (with).

60. Salinger girl : ESME
J. D. Salinger wrote a short story called “For Esme – with Love and Squalor”, originally published in “The New Yorker” in 1950. It is a story about a young English girl called Esme and an American soldier, and is set in WWII.

J. D. Salinger was a very reclusive author, most famous for his novel “Catcher in the Rye”. Salinger fought in WWII after he was drafted into the US Army. He saw action on Utah Beach on D-Day, and in the Battle of the Bulge. He also spent a lot of time interrogating prisoners due to his knowledge of French and German, and he was one of the first Americans to go into a liberated concentration camp. He later spent time in hospital suffering from what was then called combat stress reaction, as he tried to deal with what he saw in the German camps.

Down
1. Hester Prynne’s stigma : RED A
Hester Prynne is the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter”. When Hester is convicted by her puritanical neighbors of the crime of adultery, she is forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her clothing for the rest of her life, hence the novel’s title, “The Scarlet Letter”.

2. Journalist Burnett of 55-Down : ERIN
Erin Burnett is a television journalist, the host of her own show on CNN called “Erin Burnett OutFront”. Apparently Burnett also shows up occasionally as advisor to Donald Trump on “The Celebrity Apprentice”.

6. Beverage once sold “in all popular flavors” : NEHI
“Nehi Corporation” was the nickname for the Chero-Cola/Union Bottle Works that introduced the Nehi drink in 1924. Years later the company developed a new brand, Royal Crown Cola (also known as RC Cola). By 1955, RC Cola was the company’s flagship product, so the “Nehi Corporation” became the “Royal Crown Company”. In 1954, RC Cola became the first company to sell soft drinks in cans.

8. Coastal plunger : TERN
Terns are seabirds that are found all over the world. The Arctic Tern makes a very long-distance migration. One Arctic Tern that was tagged as a chick in Great Britain in the summer of 1982, was spotted in Melbourne, Australia just three months later. The bird had traveled over 14,000 miles in that time, an average of about 150 miles a day. Remarkable …

10. Southeast Asian soarer : PHILIPPINE EAGLE
The Philippine Eagle is just that, an eagle that is native to the Philippines. It is also the country’s national bird. The Philippine Eagle is a highly endangered species and if you kill one you could be facing up to twelve years in a Philippine jail.

12. First name in 2000 headlines : ELIAN
The immigration status of young Cuban boy Elian González was all over the news in 2000. Elian’s mother drowned while trying to enter the US illegally, whereas Elian and his mother’s boyfriend survived the journey. The INS placed Elian in the care of paternal relatives in the US who then petitioned to have the boy stay with them permanently, against the wishes of Elian’s father back in Cuba. After court proceedings the federal authorities forcibly removed Elian from his relatives in the US, and he was returned to his father who took him back to Cuba. Back in Cuba, Fidel Castro stepped in and befriended Elian, so he has influential sponsorship now in his homeland as a result of his ordeal. Elian is now attending a Cuban military school.

15. Director Angelopoulos who won the 1988 Palme d’Or : THEO
Theo Angelopoulos was a Greek filmmaker. Angelopoulos’s 1998 film “Eternity and a Day” (not 1988, as in the clue) won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

23. The Five ___, 1950s million-selling doo-wop group : SATINS
The Five Satins are a doo-wop group that was formed in New Haven, Connecticut back in 1954. The group had only one really big hit, namely “In the Still of the Night” released in 1956.

24. Slow passage : LARGO
Largo is a instruction to play a piece of music with a very slow tempo. “Largo” is the Italian word for “broadly”.

26. Singer learning a script : LORI
Lori Singer is an actress, and also a cellist. Singer’s most famous acting role was the daughter of the Reverend Shaw Moore (played by John Lithgow) in “Footloose”.

29. “Iceland” star, 1942 : HENIE
Sonja Henie was a World and Olympic Champion figure skater from Norway, in the days when “amateur” sports stars were not paid. She made up for it in Hollywood, where she was one of highest paid stars at the height of her career.

“Iceland” is a musical film that was released in 1942, a vehicle for skating star Sonja Henie. The story is all about a US Marine winning the heart of an Icelandic woman during WWII.

32. 1970s Thunderbird options : 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.

33. Rose family member : PETE
Pete Rose was a talented baseball player who holds the record for all-time Major League hits. In recent years of course his reputation has been tarnished by admissions that he bet on games in which he played and managed.

34. Waldorf-Astoria muralist : SERT
José Maria Sert was a painter of murals from Catalan, and a friend of Salvador Dali.

The Waldorf=Astoria (note the double hyphen) is named for the famous Astor family of New York that was so successful in business. The first Astors to arrive in the US immigrated from Walldorf in Germany. Two members of the family eventually built hotels in the city, one called the Waldorf (opened in 1893) and the other the Astoria (opened in 1897), with the pair operating next door to each other in competition. The hotels were eventually joined into one, creating the world’s largest hotel of the day. The original Waldorf=Astoria was demolished (the Empire State Building occupies that space now). The current hotel is an Art Deco landmark in the city, opened in 1931.

35. Tiger Express station brand : ESSO
The brand name Esso has its roots in the old Standard Oil company, as it uses the initial letters of “Standard” and “Oil” (ESS-O). The Esso brand was replaced by Exxon in the US but ESSO is still used in many other countries.

41. ___ Edibles (food shop on “The Facts of Life”) : EDNA’S
Charlotte Rae is an American actress, best known for playing the character Edna Garrett on two sitcoms from the seventies and eighties: “Diff’rent Strokes” and “The Facts of Life”. Towards the end of the series, the Edan Garrett character operated her own gourmet food shop called “Edna’s Edibles”.

42. Spyder rival : MIATA
I’ve always liked the looks of the Mazda Miata, probably because it reminds me so much of old British sports cars. The Miata is built in Hiroshima, Japan.

You might hear a roadster referred to as a spyder (or spider). It’s a two-seater car without a roof, side or rear windows. They’ve been around forever, a design used for many early cars. Some automotive companies have used the term for one of their models, such as Porsche and Chevrolet.

44. South Korea’s first president : RHEE
Syngman Rhee was born in Korea, but received much of his education in the US, including a Ph.D. from Princeton. The very much westernized Rhee returned to Korea in 1910, a Korea that by then had been annexed by Japan. Soon after he found himself President of a Provisional Government of Korea based in Shanghai, but was eventually ousted for misuse of power. After WWII, Rhee was installed as President, heavily backed by the United States. However, Rhee’s rule proved to be more like tyranny and during the Korean War his relationship with the US Government became very strained. He stayed in power until 1960 when student revolts became popular enough to force him out of office. The CIA flew him out of the country and he went into exile in Hawaii, where a few years later he died of a stroke.

46. Luzón, e.g. : ISLA
“Isla” is the Filipino word for “island”, but it’s also the Spanish word. The reference here is to the Spanish, I think, as Luzón is the Spanish spelling for the island of Luzon, the largest of the Philippine islands, home to the capital city of Manila.

48. River at Chartres : EURE
The French department of Eure is in the north of France. The most popular spot to visit in the whole department is the commune of Giverny where one can see Claude Monet’s house and garden, the subject of so many of his paintings.

Chartres is a town in north-central France, lying about 60 miles southwest of Paris.

49. Conn of “Grease” : DIDI
Didi Conn, born Edith Bernstein, I thought played a great character in the “Grease” films: “Frenchy”.

52. Singer Lovich : LENE
Lene Lovich is a singer based in England, although she was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. Lovich was popular at the height of the New Wave music movement.

55. Home of “Your Bottom Line” : CNN
“Your Bottom Line” is a financial news program on CNN, originally called “Open House”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. “I’m a Survivor” sitcom : REBA
5. “West Side Story” girlfriend : ANITA
10. Cabinet maker?: Abbr. : PRES
14. Icelandic saga subject : ERIC THE RED
16. Long way to walk? : HALL
17. “Chantez-Chantez” singer, 1957 : DINAH SHORE
18. It’s 180° from X : IIII
19. Cell division? : ANODE
20. Places to put up : INNS
21. It’s taken by some coll. seniors : LSAT
22. Business brass : CEOS
24. Some encumbrances : LIENS
25. Class Notes subject, informally : ALUM
27. “___ Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein” (Bach cantata) : ACH
30. Memorial Day performance : TAPS
31. Almost in vain : TO LITTLE PURPOSE
36. Road locomotives : TRACTION ENGINES
37. Runners often seen in windows : AIR CONDITIONERS
38. Big names : VIPS
39. Poetic period : E’EN
40. Idaho motto opener : ESTO
41. Big guns in the Mideast : EMIRS
43. Norman with a legendary swing : GREG
45. Flying ___ : DISC
46. Put away : ICED
50. Kosher’s Islamic equivalent : HALAL
53. Digital protection : NAIL
54. Water flow regulator : SLUICE GATE
56. Dip ___ in : A TOE
57. Trafalgar Square figure : LORD NELSON
58. Lacking : SANS
59. Took home courses? : ATE IN
60. Salinger girl : ESME

Down
1. Hester Prynne’s stigma : RED A
2. Journalist Burnett of 55-Down : ERIN
3. Aid in judging distances : BINOCULAR VISION
4. School rings? : ACADEMIC CIRCLES
5. Some patient responses : AHS
6. Beverage once sold “in all popular flavors” : NEHI
7. Press : IRON
8. Coastal plunger : TERN
9. Some pitcherfuls : ADES
10. Southeast Asian soarer : PHILIPPINE EAGLE
11. Toasts : RAISES ONE’S GLASS
12. First name in 2000 headlines : ELIAN
13. Venting aids : SLITS
15. Director Angelopoulos who won the 1988 Palme d’Or : THEO
23. The Five ___, 1950s million-selling doo-wop group : SATINS
24. Slow passage : LARGO
25. “___ baby!” : ATTA
26. Singer learning a script : LORI
28. Bonehead : CLOD
29. “Iceland” star, 1942 : HENIE
30. Function of some forks : TUNING
32. 1970s Thunderbird options : T-TOPS
33. Rose family member : PETE
34. Waldorf-Astoria muralist : SERT
35. Tiger Express station brand : ESSO
41. ___ Edibles (food shop on “The Facts of Life”) : EDNA’S
42. Spyder rival : MIATA
44. South Korea’s first president : RHEE
46. Luzón, e.g. : ISLA
47. Cardiological concern : CLOT
48. River at Chartres : EURE
49. Conn of “Grease” : DIDI
51. Its diameter is measured in picometers : ATOM
52. Singer Lovich : LENE
55. Home of “Your Bottom Line” : CNN

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