0609-12: New York Times Crossword Answers 9 Jun 12, Saturday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
1. Al Jazeera locale : DOHA, QATAR
Qatar is a sovereign state in the Middle East, occupying the Qatar Peninsula, itself located in the Arabian Peninsula. Qatar lies on the Persian Gulf and shares one land border, with Saudi Arabia to the south. Qatar has more oil and gas reserves per capita of population than any other country in the world and in 2010 had the fastest growing economy in the world, driven by the petrochemical industry.

Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar located on the Persian Gulf. The name “Doha” translates from Arabic as “the big tree”.

Al Jazeera is an independent news service owned by the state of Qatar. Since 2006, Al Jazeera has been broadcasting an English language channel, hiring many top journalists from American news outlets. “Al jazeera” is Arabic for “the island”.

15. 2012 election issue : OBAMACARE
The correct name for what has been dubbed “Obamacare” is the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”.

17. Flip : GO BANANAS
The expression “to go bananas” is one that I would have imagined had a clear etymology but that doesn’t seem to be the case. A further surprise is that we’ve only been “going bananas” since the sixties, in the days of flower power. One apt theory about the hippy roots of the phrase is that there was an unfounded belief that ingesting roasted banana peels had a similar hallucinogenic effect as magic mushrooms.

19. Mens ___ : REA
“Mens rea” is Latin for “guilty mind” and is a central concept in criminal law. The concept is expanded to “actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea” meaning “the act does not make a person guilty unless the mind be also guilty”. In other words, a man should not be deemed guilty of an act, unless he had a “guilty mind”, that he intended to do wrong.

21. Source of some inside info? : CT SCAN
A CT (or “CAT”) scan produces (via computer manipulation) a three dimensional image of the inside of an object, usually the human body. It does so by taking a series of two dimensional x-ray images while rotating the camera around the patient. The issue with CT scans is that they use x-rays, and high doses of radiation can be harmful causing damage that is cumulative over time. An MRI on the other hand (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), uses powerful magnetic fields to generate its images so there is no exposure to ionizing radiation (such as X-rays). We used MRI equipment in our chemistry labs at school, way back in the days when the technology was still called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI). Apparently the marketing folks didn’t like the term “nuclear” because of its association with atomic bombs, so now it’s just called MRI.

22. Trouble in the night : APNEA
Sleep apnea can be caused by an obstruction in the airways, possibly due to obesity or enlarged tonsils.

24. Snarky reply after a lecture : IS THAT ALL?
To be “snarky” is to be rudely sarcastic or snide.

26. W.W. II battle town : CAEN
Caen, on the River Orne, lies in the Calvados department of France in the northwest of the country. Caen is famous for the WWII Battle of Caen that left the town practically destroyed. Caen is also the burial place of the Norman King William I of England, also known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

27. Bird named for its call : NENE
The bird called a nene is a native of Hawaii, and is also known as the Hawaiian goose. The name “nene” is imitative of its call. When Captain Cook landed on the islands in 1778, there were 25,000 nene living there. By 1950, the number was reduced by hunting to just 30 birds. Conservation efforts in recent years have been somewhat successful.

28. Foreign leader : REY
In Spanish, a king (rey) might wear a crown (una corona).

34. Leader given the posthumous title Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae : ST OLAV
Of the many kings of Norway named Olaf/Olav (and there have been five), Olaf II is perhaps the most celebrated as he was canonized and made patron saint of the country. Olaf II was king from 1015 to 1028, and was known as “Olaf the Big” (or Olaf the Fat) during his reign. Today he is more commonly referred to as “Olaf the Holy”. After Olaf died he was given the title of Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae, which is Latin for “Norway’s Eternal King”.

36. Trinity member : THE SON
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit/Ghost.

40. Jones’s “Men in Black” role : AGENT K
“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.

44. Calculus, e.g. : STONE
The Latin word “calculus” was used for a reckoning or an account, and originally applied to a pebble that was used to maintain a count. The Latin word came from the Greek for a pebble, “khalix”.

45. Undercover wear? : PJS
Our word “pajamas” comes to us from the Indian subcontinent, where “pai jamahs” were loose fitting pants tied at the waist and worn at night by locals and ultimately by the Europeans living there. And “pajamas” is another of those words that I had to learn to spell differently when I came to America. In the British Isles the spelling is “pyjamas”.

50. Collegiate honor society of Bloomberg and Iacocca : TAU BETA PI
Tau Beta Pi is an engineering honor society, the oldest one in the country. The association was formed back in 1885 when the academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa made moves to restrict membership to student of the liberal arts.

53. Annie who voiced Bo Peep in “Toy Story” : POTTS
Annie Potts is an actress from Nashville, Tennessee. She had roles in successful films such as “Ghostbusters” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and did voice work for “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2”. Potts was lucky to survive a car crash when she was 21 years old, as she broke nearly every bone in her lower body.

54. Sticking points? : BRIARS
“Briar” is a generic name for several plants that have thorns, including the rose.

55. Cross reference? : INRI
The letters on the cross on which Jesus died were INRI. INRI is an acronym for the Latin “Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum”, which translates into English as Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews.

61. Some are bitter : ALOES
Bitter Aloe is a name given to the plant more properly called Aloe ferox. Bitter Aloe is indigenous to parts of South Africa, and is endangered.

62. Avalanche gear : ICE SKATES
The Colorado Avalanche is a professional ice hockey team in Denver, Colorado. The Avalanche were founded in Quebec in 1972 as the Quebec Nordiques, and moved to Denver in 1995.

64. #1 on VH1’s “40 Hottest Hotties of the ’90s” : MARKY MARK
Marky Mark was frontman for the band Marky mark and the Funky Bunch in the nineties. We know Marky Mark these days as the noted movie actor, Mark Wahlberg, leading actor in the likes of “The Italian Job” and “Shooter”.

Down
2. The duck in “Peter and the Wolf” : OBOE PART
As is the case for many I am sure, Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” was my introduction to the world of classical music, as it was played for us at school many, many moons ago. Prokofiev wrote the piece as a commissioned work for the Central Children’s Theater in Moscow, in 1936. He loved the idea of the project, and wrote the story and music in just four days!

The oboe is perhaps my favorite of the reed instruments. The name “oboe” comes from the French “hautbois” which means “high wood”. When you hear an orchestra tuning before a performance you’ll note (pun intended!) that the oboe starts off the process by playing an “A”. The rest of the musicians in turn tune to that oboe’s “A”. Oh, and if you want to read a fun book (almost an “exposé”) about life playing the oboe, you might try “Mozart in the Jungle” by oboist Blair Tindall. I heard recently that the folks at HBO are working towards a pilot based on the book, and I can’t wait to see it!

3. It rates over 100,000 on the Scoville scale : HABANERO
The habanero chili has a very intense flavor. Interestingly, the correct spelling of the chili’s name is “habanero”, although in English we try to be clever and add a tilde making it “habañero”, which isn’t right at all …

The Scoville scale is a measure of the spiciness of chili pepper. The scale was invented by a pharmacist in 1912, Wilbur Scoville. To determine the position of a pepper on Scoville scale, the amount of capsaicin in the chili is measured. Capsaicin is an irritant that causes the sensation of burning when it comes in to contact with tissue, particularly the mucous membranes.

4. Health advocacy abbr. : AMA
The American Medical Association (AMA) was founded in 1847 at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The first female member was allowed to join in 1868, but the first African American members weren’t admitted until one hundred years later, in 1968.

6. Berry variety : ACAI
Açaí is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

8. Shrinking body : ARAL SEA
The Aral Sea is great example of how man can have a devastating effect on the environment. In the early sixties the Aral Sea covered 68,000 square miles of Central Asia. Soviet Union irrigation projects drained the lake to such an extent that today the total area is less than 7,000 square miles, with 90% of the lake now completely dry. Sad …

9. Brief word : RES
“Res” is the Latin for “thing”. “Res” is used in a lot of phrases in the law, including “res ipsa loquitur”. The literal translation of “res ipsa loquitur” is “the thing speaks for itself”. It refers to situations when there is an injury, and the nature of the injury is such that one can assume that negligence had to have taken place.

11. ’50s trial : H-TEST
There are two classes of nuclear weapons, both of which get the energy for the explosion from nuclear reactions. The first nuclear bombs developed, called atomic bombs (A-bombs), use fission reactions. Uranium nuclei are split into smaller nuclei with the release of an awful lot of energy in the process. The second class of nuclear weapons are fusion bombs. These devices are called thermonuclear weapons or hydrogen bombs (H-bombs). In a fusion reaction, the nuclei of hydrogen isotopes are fused together to form bigger nuclei, with the release of even greater amounts of energy than a fission reaction.

13. Dish containing masa : TAMALE
A tamale is a traditional dish from Central America composed of a starchy dough that is steamed or boiled in a wrapper made of leaves. The dough is called masa, and can include many different ingredients including meat, cheese fruit and vegetables.

23. First name in aviation : ENOLA
As we all know, the Enola Gay was the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima in August 1945. Enola Gay was the name of the mother of the pilot, Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr.

25. Major downer? : TNT
TNT is an abbreviation for trinitrotoluene. The chemical was first produced by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand in 1863, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

33. ___ Park, home of the San Diego Padres : PETCO
Petco Park is the ballpark used by the San Diego Padres since 2004. Before Petco Park was opened, the Padres shared Qualcomm Stadium with the San Diego Chargers of the NFL. When the stadium was being built, fans were offered the chance to buy bricks on which a dedication could be written. The animal rights group PETA tried to buy a brick to write a protest message against Petco’s treatment of animals, but were denied. However PETA eventually managed to buy a brick, which reads “Break Open Your Cold Ones, Toast the Padres, Enjoy This Champion Organization”. If you take the first letters of each word in the message you come up with “BOYCOTT PETCO”.

37. Spreadsheet command : SORT DATA
In an electronic spreadsheet, such as Microsoft Excel, one can select a block of data and use the command “sort” to reorder the data. You can sort the data perhaps alphabetically, in numerical order etc.

38. Hockey shot involving two players : ONE-TIMER
In ice hockey, a “one-timer” is a move in which a player accepts a pass from a teammate and just hits the puck without any attempt to control it.

41. School grp. : NEA
The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the country, and mainly represents public school teachers.

42. Food whose name comes from the Tupi language of South America : TAPIOCA
The cassava plant is a woody shrub native to South America grown largely for its carbohydrate-rich tubers. In fact, the cassava is the third largest food source of carbohydrates (for humans) in the world. Ordinarily, the carbohydrate is extracted from the plant, dried as flour and is called tapioca.

The Tupi people were an ethnic group indigenous to Brazil.

43. “M*A*S*H” character from Toledo, Ohio : KLINGER
Jamie Farr played the cross-dressing Corporal Max Klinger on the TV version of “M*A*S*H”. His character was always trying to get out of Korea, usually by looking for certification as someone mentally incompetent. There was a deliberately ironic twist in the final episode that aired, as Klinger was the only character to voluntarily stay on in Korea (he had married a local woman).

45. Military craft : PT BOAT
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 that carried General Douglas MacArthur and his family from Corregidor to Mindanao in his escape from the Philippines, and PT-109 that was commanded by Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, future President of the United States.

46. “Pain Is Love” rapper : JA RULE
Ja Rule is the stage name of rapper Jeffrey Atkins. Apparently Ja Rule is noted not only for his music, but for his “feuds” with the likes of 50 Cent and Eminem.

47. Beau : SUITOR
“Beau” is the French word for “beautiful”, in the male sense.

51. Big name in motels : BATES
Bates Motel and house were constructed on the backlot of Universal Studios for the 1960 movie “Psycho”. They are still standing, and for me are the highlight of the backlot tour that is available to visitors.

53. What may represent “I” in American Sign Language : PINKY
It’s really quite unfortunate that American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) are very different, and someone who has learned to sign in one cannot understand someone signing in the other.

56. Game played across the world : RISK
Risk is a fabulous board game, first sold in France in 1957. Risk was invented by a very successful French director of short films called Albert Lamorisse. He called his new game “La Conquête du Monde”, which translates into English as “The Conquest of the World”. A game of Risk is a must during the holidays in our house …

59. Calculus abbr. : LIM
Limit (lim.)

60. Setting in “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” informally : NAM
“Call of Duty” is a incredibly successful series of video games that started out life on computers and is now available for gaming consoles and handhelds. The first version of this war game was set in WWII, and an eighth version is in the works that features “Modern Warfare”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Al Jazeera locale : DOHA, QATAR
10. Shot : PHOTO
15. 2012 election issue : OBAMACARE
16. Set ___ : A TRAP
17. Flip : GO BANANAS
18. Boss’s directive : SEE ME
19. Mens ___ : REA
20. Soup flavorer : DILL
21. Source of some inside info? : CT SCAN
22. Trouble in the night : APNEA
24. Snarky reply after a lecture : IS THAT ALL?
26. W.W. II battle town : CAEN
27. Bird named for its call : NENE
28. Foreign leader : REY
29. Slip : ERROR
31. Relishes : EATS UP
34. Leader given the posthumous title Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae : ST OLAV
36. Trinity member : THE SON
40. Jones’s “Men in Black” role : AGENT K
44. Calculus, e.g. : STONE
45. Undercover wear? : PJS
48. Close up : SEAL
49. Mates : CREW
50. Collegiate honor society of Bloomberg and Iacocca : TAU BETA PI
53. Annie who voiced Bo Peep in “Toy Story” : POTTS
54. Sticking points? : BRIARS
55. Cross reference? : INRI
57. Executed : DID
58. Word with control or sight : OUTTA
59. Access provider : LOGIN NAME
61. Some are bitter : ALOES
62. Avalanche gear : ICE SKATES
63. Clipped : TERSE
64. #1 on VH1’s “40 Hottest Hotties of the ’90s” : MARKY MARK

Down
1. Popular events for gamblers : DOG RACES
2. The duck in “Peter and the Wolf” : OBOE PART
3. It rates over 100,000 on the Scoville scale : HABANERO
4. Health advocacy abbr. : AMA
5. Grilling option : Q AND A
6. Berry variety : ACAI
7. Nudist’s lack : TAN LINE
8. Shrinking body : ARAL SEA
9. Brief word : RES
10. Noodles : PASTA
11. ’50s trial : H-TEST
12. Rock carrier : ORE CAR
13. Dish containing masa : TAMALE
14. How one might speak : OPENLY
21. Where to pin a medal : CHEST
23. First name in aviation : ENOLA
25. Major downer? : TNT
30. Taunt : RAG
32. Pause fillers : UHS
33. ___ Park, home of the San Diego Padres : PETCO
35. Wedding wear : VESTS
37. Spreadsheet command : SORT DATA
38. Hockey shot involving two players : ONE-TIMER
39. Story locale? : NEWS DESK
41. School grp. : NEA
42. Food whose name comes from the Tupi language of South America : TAPIOCA
43. “M*A*S*H” character from Toledo, Ohio : KLINGER
45. Military craft : PT BOAT
46. “Pain Is Love” rapper : JA RULE
47. Beau : SUITOR
51. Big name in motels : BATES
52. Clean, in a way : ERASE
53. What may represent “I” in American Sign Language : PINKY
56. Game played across the world : RISK
59. Calculus abbr. : LIM
60. Setting in “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” informally : NAM

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