0610-12: New York Times Crossword Answers 10 Jun 12, Sunday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
1. Benedictine monk who founded Scholasticism : ANSELM
Anselm was one of the Archbishops of Canterbury (in England) during Medieval times, from 1093 to 1109. As well as holding the important office within the Church, Anselm was an active and respected philosopher. He is often referred to as the founder of scholasticism, a method of learning that reigned in Medieval universities right across Europe for about 400 years.

11. Initial request? : RSVP
RSVP stands for “Répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “please, answer”.

15. One of three in Toyota’s logo : OVAL
Although Toyota entered the passenger car market back in 1936, the current Toyota logo, consisting of three ovals formed into a “circled letter T”, has only been around since 1989. The two overlapping ovals are designed to represent a relationship of trust between the company and the customer, while the larger outside oval represents the global reach of the company’s products and technology.

21. What a koala really isn’t : BEAR
The koala really does look like a little bear, but it’s not even closely related. It is an arboreal marsupial, and a herbivore, native to the east and south coasts of Australia. Like so many of the cute and cuddly species on our planet, the koala was hunted nearly to extinction for its fur. It’s making a comeback now due to conservation measures taken by the Australian government.

22. Horseplay? : POLO
The game of polo originated in Iran, possibly before the 5th century BC. It was used back them primarily as a training exercise for cavalry units.

27. Pennsylvania city or county : 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.

30. Hockey feint : DEKE
A deke, also known as a dangle, is a technique used to get past an opponent in ice hockey. “Deke” is a colloquial shortening of the word “decoy”.

33. Chimera, e.g. : BEAST
In Greek mythology, a chimera was a female monster with the body of a lioness, a tail that ended in a snake’s head, and the head of a goat that emanated from the lioness’s spine. The term chimera has entered into our modern language, meaning a fanciful illusion or fabrication.

34. They’re seen but not recognized : UFOS
In 1952, the USAF revived its studies of reports of UFO sightings in a program called Project Blue Book. There were two prior USAF studies of the UFO phenomenon, namely Project Sign and Project Grudge. Project Blue Book ran from 1952 until it was shut down in 1969 with the conclusion that there was no threat to national security, and that there were no sightings that could not be explained within the bounds of modern scientific knowledge.

38. ___ populi : VOX
“Vox populi, vox Dei” is a Latin expression that translates as, “The voice of the people, the voice of God”, meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.

39. Grievances : BEEFS
A “beef” is a complaint or a grievance. It’s not quite clear how “beef” came to have this meaning, but one suggestion is that derives from the habit of soldiers at the end of the 1800s complaining about the quality or availability of beef in their rations.

40. Ring around the collar? : LASSO
Our English word “lasso” comes from the Spanish “lazo”, and ultimately from the Latin “laqueum” meaning “noose, snare”.

43. Vessel commanded by J.F.K. : 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.

54. Soulful Baker : ANITA
Anita Baker is an R&B and soul singer from Toledo, Ohio now living in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

58. ___ Martin Cognac : REMY
Remy Martin is my favorite brand of cognac (remember that when it’s my birthday!). In China, the name Remy Martin is not used, but rather the more colorful moniker, “man-headed horse”, describing the centaur logo on the bottle.

64. Wife of Uranus : GAEA
The Greek goddess personifying the earth was Gaea (meaning “land” or “earth” in Greek). The Roman equivalent goddess was Terra Mater, “Mother Earth”.

66. *Animal that gives birth to identical quadruplets : NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO
The nine-banded armadillo is the most commonly found species of armadillo found in the Americas. The “bands” are bits of armor that circle the body of the armadillo, although there are not always nine of them, but usually seven to eleven.

73. Kind of counter : DELI
The word “delicatessen” came into English from the German “Delikatessen” meaning “delicious (delikat-) to eat (essen)”.

74. “Excalibur” role : MERLIN
Merlin is a figure of legend, most famous as the wizard in the stories of King Arthur.

75. Protest singer Phil : OCHS
Phil Ochs was an American protest singer, active in the days of the Vietnam War.

79. Comical Charlotte : RAE
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”.

80. South Pacific capital : APIA
Apia is the capital city, in fact the only “city”, of the Pacific island nation of Samoa. The harbor of Apia is famous for a very foolish incident in 1889 involving seven ships from Germany, the US and Britain. A typhoon was approaching so the safest thing to do was to head for open water away from land, but no nation would move its ships for fear of losing face in front of the others. Six of the vessels were lost in the typhoon as a result and 200 American and German sailors perished. The British cruiser HMS Calliope barely managed to escape from the harbor and rode out the storm safely.

95. Maker of watches and calculators : CASIO
Casio is a Japanese manufacturer of mainly electronic products, including calculators and watches. It was Casio that produced the first portable and compact electric calculator, in 1957 would you believe?

98. “Jabberwocky” starter : ‘TWAS
Here’s the first verse of “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll, probably the one poem that we all just loved learning to recite at school:

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

108. Five-spots : ABES
“Abe” is slang for a five-dollar bill.

118. Lipstick print, maybe : CLUE
Lipsticks have a remarkably long list of ingredients. Die-hard vegans have to be careful in their choice of lipstick, as most contain beeswax. and the “shimmering” types often contain fish scales. Yuk …

119. Co-worker of Clark : LOIS
Lois Lane has been the love interest of Superman/Clark Kent since the comic series was first published in 1938. Lois and Clark both work for the big newspaper in the city of Metropolis called “The Daily Planet”. The couple finally got hitched in the comics (and on television’s “Lois and Clark”) in 1996. But never mind all that … one has to wonder what the crossword is like in “The Daily Planet” …

125. Narcissus, e.g. : EGOIST
Narcissus was a proud and vain hunter in Greek mythology. He earned himself a fatal punishment, being made fall in love with his own reflection in a pool. So, take was he by his own image, that he could not leave it and wasted away and died by the pool.

Down
2. Afrique ___ : NOIRE
Afrique Noire translates from French as Black Africa and refers to the part of the continent south of the Sahara desert.

3. World capital that’s also a girl’s name : SOFIA
Sofia is the capital of Bulgaria. Natives pronounce the name “Sofia” with the emphasis on the “o”, while the rest of tend to stress the “i”. Bulgarians do agree with us though when it comes the girl’s name “Sofia”, then they stress the “i” like we do!

5. “Ben-Hur” novelist Wallace : LEW
Lew Wallace was a general for the Union Army during the Civil War, and also an author. He wrote a very successful and celebrated book, namely “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ”, first published in 1880.

6. Styx song with some Japanese lyrics : MR ROBOTO
“Mr Roboto” is a song on the 1983 album “Kilroy Was Here” by the Chicago band Styx.

7. Frank with the album “Sheik Yerbouti” : ZAPPA
Frank Zappa was an American composer and guitarist, a solo artist as well as the founding member of the rock band Mothers of Invention. You might like to meet his four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuuka Rodan, and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen.

8. Nationals, before they were Nationals : EXPOS
The Washington Nationals baseball team started out life as the Montreal Expos in 1969. The Expos moved to Washington in 2005, becoming the Nats. There are only two Major Leagues teams that have never played in a World Series; one is the Mariners, and the other the Nats.

9. Big blast, informally : A-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.

10. Rock band composition? : LODE
A lode is metal ore deposit that’s found between two layers of rock or in a fissure.

11. Diamond stat : RBI
Runs Batted In (RBIs).

13. Redgrave of “Atonement” : VANESSA
The English actress Vanessa Redgrave is part of a predominant acting family. Her father was the great Michael Redgrave, and her sister the accomplished Lynn Redgrave. Vanessa’s daughter was Natasha Richardson, the actress and wife of Liam Neeson who died after a skiing accident in 2009.

Ian McEwan is an English novelist with a track record of writing well-received novels. His most famous work at the moment I would say is “Atonement” which has benefited from the success of the fabulous movie adaptation released in 2007.

16. Deign : VOUCHSAFE
The term “vouchsafe” means to deign, to bestow. It derives from Middle English, made up from the words meaning “to warrant as safe”.

17. Duke of ___ (noble Spanish title since 1472) : ALBA
The Duke of Alba is one of the main noble titles in Spain, giving rise to the House of Alba, an important aristocratic family. The current head of the House of Alba is Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, the 18th Duchess of Alba. The Duchess holds the Guinness Book of Records for the number of titles held, standing at over 50.

18. Big name in cinemas : LOEW
Loews Theatres was a chain of movie theaters founded in 1904 by Marcus Loew and Brantford Schwartz. It merged with AMC Theaters in 2006.

Marcus Loew was a New Yorker, born into a poor Jewish family. He started out in a penny arcade business and used its profits to buy into a nickelodeon. He later built a whole chain of movie theaters, and then moved into the production of films so that he could guarantee supply of movies that he could show in his theaters. Eventually he pulled together the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film production company, sadly passing away just three years after he inked the deal.

29. Hush Puppies material : SUEDE
Hush Puppies is a brand of casual shoe.

Suede is leather made from the underside of the skin, mainly from a lamb. As such it is very soft, although not as durable as leather made from the exterior skin. The soft leather was, and is still used for making gloves. Back in 1859 these gloves were called “gants de Suede” in France, or “gloves of Sweden”. So, “suede” is simply the French word for Sweden.

37. ___-toothed : SABER
A saber-toothed cat is an extinct mammal that lived up to 9,000 years ago.

42. Nonsense word repeated before “oxen free” : OLLY
“Olly olly oxen free” is a nonsense term that shows up in a number of children’s games and rhymes.

43. Antidrug ad, e.g., briefly : PSA
Public service announcement (PSA).

44. Half a dovetail joint : TENON
One simple type of joint used in carpentry is a mortise and tenon, basically a projection carved at the end of one piece of wood that fits into a hole cut into the end of another. The mortise is the “hole” and the tenon the “projection”.

45. Shrovetide pancakes : BLINI
A blintz (also blini) is a thin pancake similar to a crêpe, although unlike a crêpe a blintz may contain yeast.

“To shrive” is to obtain absolution by confessing and doing penance. The past tense of “shrive” is “shrove”. The verb gives its name to Shrove Tuesday, the day before the season of fasting known as Lent. Shrove Tuesday is named in recognition of the early Christian tradition of confessing the week before Lent.

48. Greek water nymph : NAIAD
The Naiads of Greek mythology were water nymphs, associated with fountains, wells, springs and streams. The saltwater equivalents to the freshwater Naiads were the Oceanids.

52. Repeating part of “Hey Jude” : NA NA NA
“Hey Jude” was originally a song called “Hey Jules”, written by Paul McCartney. He wrote the original song for John Lennon’s son Julian, as a way of comforting during his parents divorce.

56. ___ Grand : MGM
MGM Grand is the name given to a chain of hotel resorts and casinos, most famously the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The MGM Grand Las Vegas was the largest hotel in the world when it opened in 1993, and is now second largest (behind the Venetian, also in Las Vegas).

57. TripTik, e.g. : AAA MAP
“TripTik” is the brand name for customized travel maps provided by AAA for its members.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit organization, focused on lobbying, provision of automobile servicing, and selling of automobile insurance. It was founded in 1902 in Chicago, and published the first of its celebrated hotel guides back in 1917.

60. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” fairy king : OBERON
Oberon and Titania are the King and Queen of the fairies in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

63. Spanish wine : MALAGA
Malaga is a fortified sweet wine from the city of Málaga in Spain.

67. TV scientist Bill : NYE
That would be “Bill Nye the Science Guy”. Bill’s show ran on Disney for 4 years from 1993-97. I was surprised to learn that Bill Nye was married briefly to Blair Tindall, the author of “Mozart in the Jungle”. That’s a great book, if anyone is interested …

69. Grassy plain : LLANO
“Llano” is the Spanish word for “plain”.

83. Job application fig. : SSN
The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation although, given its ubiquitous use, it is looking more and more like an “identity number” to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, an SSN was required only for persons with substantial income so many children under 14 had no number assigned. For some years the IRS had a concern that a lot of people were claiming children who did not actually exist as dependents on their tax returns. So, from 1986 onward, it is a requirement to get a SSN for any dependents over the ago of 5. Sure enough, in 1987 seven million dependents “disappeared”.

86. Parks with no intention of moving : ROSA
Rosa Parks was one of a few brave women in days gone by who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white woman. It was the stand taken by Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955 that sparked the Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott. President Clinton presented Ms. Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. When she died in 2005, Rosa Parks became the first ever woman to have her body lie in honor in the US Capital Rotunda.

87. Dander : IRISH
Both phrases: “To get one’s Irish up” and “To get one’s dander up” mean to get riled up, to get angry. I guess we are always picking on the poor Irish!

88. South Vietnam’s first president ___ Dinh Diem : NGO
When France withdrew from French Indochina in the mid-fifties, Ngo Dinh Diem led the movement to create the Republic of Vietnam. In what was regarded as a fraudulent referendum, the new country of Vietnam was formed and in 1955 Diem declared himself its first president. His rule was far from peaceful, and he was assassinated by rivals in 1963.

96. Grp. that includes Ecuador and Venezuela : OPEC
The OPEC cartel (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) was formally established in 1960 and has been headquartered in Vienna since 1965. The US is actually the third largest oil producer in the world (after Russia and Saudi Arabia). One reason America isn’t in OPEC, even though we are a big producer, is that we import a lot more than we export. But you probably knew that already …

99. Garlicky sauce : AIOLI
To the purist (especially in Provence in the South of France, the “home” of aioli), aioli is prepared just by grinding garlic with olive oil. However, other ingredients are often added to the mix, particularly egg yolks.

100. Meal : GRIST
When grain has been separated from its chaff, to prepare it for grinding, it is called “grist”. Indeed, the word “grist” is derived from the word “grind”. Grist can be ground into a relatively coarse meal, or into a fine flour. The names can be confusing though. For example, the grist from maize when ground to a coarse consistency is called “grits”, and when ground to a fine consistency is called “corn meal”.

101. “___ of God” (1985 drama) : AGNES
“Agnes of God” is a 1985 film adaptation of a play by John Pielmeier. In the movie a young novice nun (played by Meg Tilly) is found to be pregnant, and she insists that this is a result of a virgin conception.

103. First name in 1960s diplomacy : ADLAI
Adlai Stevenson ran for president unsuccessfully against Eisenhower in 1952. Some years later he served under President Kennedy as Ambassador to the United Nations. He was always noted for his eloquence and had a famous exchange in a Security Council meeting during the Cuban missile crisis. He bluntly demanded that the Soviet representative on the council tell the world if the USSR was installing nuclear weapons in Cuba, saying. “Don’t wait for the translation, answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’!” and then followed up with, “I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over!”

109. Banjo master Fleck : BELA
Béla Fleck is a banjo player who performed with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck was born in New York City and was given the name Béla Anton Leoš Fleck. He was named after Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, Austrian composer Anton Webern, and Czech composer Leoš Janáček. That’s quite a name to live up to, but by all accounts Fleck is one of the most technically proficient banjo players the world has ever known.

115. 23rd in a series : PSI
The Greek letter psi is the one that looks a bit like a trident or a pitchfork.
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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Benedictine monk who founded Scholasticism : ANSELM
7. Fire : ZEAL
11. Initial request? : RSVP
15. One of three in Toyota’s logo : OVAL
19. Lunchtime errand : NOONER
20. Have an ___ grind : AX TO
21. What a koala really isn’t : BEAR
22. Horseplay? : POLO
23. *Ready for the present? : GIFT-WRAPPED
25. *Makeshift swing : INNER TUBE
27. Pennsylvania city or county : ERIE
28. Blocks : OPPOSES
30. Hockey feint : DEKE
31. Call from a crow’s nest : CAW
32. Sit on it : REAR
33. Chimera, e.g. : BEAST
34. They’re seen but not recognized : UFOS
36. Bit of fallout : ASH
38. ___ populi : VOX
39. Grievances : BEEFS
40. Ring around the collar? : LASSO
43. Vessel commanded by J.F.K. : PT BOAT
47. *Brushback pitch : INSIDE FASTBALL
51. *All-in-one : SELF-CONTAINED
53. Lot to take in : EYEFUL
54. Soulful Baker : ANITA
55. “Yeah, right” : AS IF
56. Bub : MAC
58. ___ Martin Cognac : REMY
59. Pickup capacity, maybe : ONE TON
61. Bit to split : ATOM
64. Wife of Uranus : GAEA
66. *Animal that gives birth to identical quadruplets : NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO
72. Don’t fess up to : DENY
73. Kind of counter : DELI
74. “Excalibur” role : MERLIN
75. Protest singer Phil : OCHS
79. Comical Charlotte : RAE
80. South Pacific capital : APIA
82. Silent goodbyes : WAVES
84. Cry of delight popularized by Homer Simpson : WOO HOO
86. *Saturn and others : RINGED PLANETS
90. *Contents of a chest? : INTERNAL ORGANS
93. Heated patch : IRON-ON
94. Broken off : ENDED
95. Maker of watches and calculators : CASIO
96. Signs off on : OKS
97. Unlock, poetically : OPE
98. “Jabberwocky” starter : ‘TWAS
99. Slack-jawed : AGAPE
102. Title acquired the moment someone is born? : MAMA
106. 7x – 6 = 2×2 subj. : ALG
108. Five-spots : ABES
110. Salon supply : HAIR GEL
112. Curbside buys : ADES
113. *Surfaced, in a way : BUBBLED UP
116. *Be repetitive … or what parts of the answers to the starred clues do? : GO IN CIRCLES
118. Lipstick print, maybe : CLUE
119. Co-worker of Clark : LOIS
120. Alternatively : ELSE
121. It’s got chops : KARATE
122. Like some praises : SUNG
123. Start to matter? : ANTI-
124. Keeps the nest warm : SITS
125. Narcissus, e.g. : EGOIST

Down
1. Get riled up : ANGER
2. Afrique ___ : NOIRE
3. World capital that’s also a girl’s name : SOFIA
4. Embark (on) : ENTER
5. “Ben-Hur” novelist Wallace : LEW
6. Styx song with some Japanese lyrics : MR ROBOTO
7. Frank with the album “Sheik Yerbouti” : ZAPPA
8. Nationals, before they were Nationals : EXPOS
9. Big blast, informally : A-TEST
10. Rock band composition? : LODE
11. Diamond stat : RBI
12. Party for departing parties : SEND OFF
13. Redgrave of “Atonement” : VANESSA
14. Nursery school, briefly : PRE-K
15. Decide (to) : OPT
16. Deign : VOUCHSAFE
17. Duke of ___ (noble Spanish title since 1472) : ALBA
18. Big name in cinemas : LOEW
24. Tiptop : APEX
26. Lots and plots : REALTY
29. Hush Puppies material : SUEDE
35. Oats, e.g. : FEED
37. ___-toothed : SABER
38. Cleared out : VACATED
39. Recycling holder : BIN
41. Gentrification target, maybe : SLUM
42. Nonsense word repeated before “oxen free” : OLLY
43. Antidrug ad, e.g., briefly : PSA
44. Half a dovetail joint : TENON
45. Shrovetide pancakes : BLINI
46. Repeatedly : OFTEN
47. “___ open!” : IT’S
48. Greek water nymph : NAIAD
49. Searched (through) : SIFTED
50. Be a union buster? : SECEDE
52. Repeating part of “Hey Jude” : NA NA NA
56. ___ Grand : MGM
57. TripTik, e.g. : AAA MAP
60. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” fairy king : OBERON
62. Uplifting piece : ODE
63. Spanish wine : MALAGA
65. High conflicts : AIRWARS
67. TV scientist Bill : NYE
68. Gain maturity : RIPEN
69. Grassy plain : LLANO
70. Add spring to, with “up” : LIVEN
71. “You’re ___ talk!” : ONE TO
75. Boo-boo : OWIE
76. Mass. neighbor : CONN
77. Cookout item : HOT DOG BUN
78. Ones you can count on? : SHEEP
81. Fingers : IDS
83. Job application fig. : SSN
85. No walk in the park : ORDEAL
86. Parks with no intention of moving : ROSA
87. Dander : IRISH
88. South Vietnam’s first president ___ Dinh Diem : NGO
89. Have a crush on, in middle school lingo : LIKE LIKE
91. Responded to, as a tip : ACTED ON
92. Something to try : LAWSUIT
96. Grp. that includes Ecuador and Venezuela : OPEC
99. Garlicky sauce : AIOLI
100. Meal : GRIST
101. “___ of God” (1985 drama) : AGNES
102. Certain lens : MACRO
103. First name in 1960s diplomacy : ADLAI
104. Shakes hands with, maybe : MEETS
105. Plus : ASSET
106. Kindergarten stuff : ABCS
107. Wower : LULU
109. Banjo master Fleck : BELA
111. Gains maturity : AGES
114. Command to a dog : BEG
115. 23rd in a series : PSI
117. Sponge alternative : RAG

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