0615-12: New York Times Crossword Answers 15 Jun 12, Friday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
15. Home of Owens Corning Corporation : TOLEDO, OHIO
Owens Corning Corporation was founded in 1935 as a partnership between two existing companies, becoming a separate entity in 1938. Today Owens Corning is the largest manufacturer in the world of fiberglass and related products. However, the company had difficult times due to the use of asbestos in some of its products. People harmed by the asbestos sued Owens Corning forcing the company to seek bankruptcy protection due to the amount of compensation awarded to victims. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 2006 and is making substantial profits again.

16. First lady Harrison : ANNA
When President William Henry Harrison took office, his wife Anna wasn’t feeling well and delayed her trip to Washington. One month later she was packing items in preparation for the move into the White House when she received the news that her husband had passed away, after only a few weeks in office. So, Anna Harris never actually entered the White House.

17. Catchphrase of the ’80s : I WANT MY MTV
The most successful branding campaign for MTV was centered on the slogan “I want my MTV”. The campaign was launched in 1982 and the slogan became so well-known that it was actually incorporated into the lyrics of the 1985 song by “Money for Nothing” recorded by Dire Straits.

18. Rock’s Kings of ___ : LEON
Kings of Leon is an American rock band formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1999. The band members are all related to each other and chose the group’s name in honor of their common grandfather whose given name is Leon.

21. Coulrophobe’s bugaboo : CLOWN
Coulrophobia is a relatively new term, coined in 2001 or perhaps a few years earlier. Coulrophobia is a fear of clowns, something I tend to suffer from …

22. Extra turn in Monopoly : FREE ROLL
The commercial game of Monopoly is supposedly a remake of “The Landlord’s Game” created in 1903 by a Quaker woman called Lizzie Phillips. She used her game as a tool to explain the single tax theory of American economist Henry George. The Landlord’s Game was first produced commercially in 1924. The incredibly successful derivative game called Monopoly was introduced in 1933 by Charles Darrow, who became a very rich man when Parker Brothers bought the rights to the game just two years later in 1935.

24. “Monster” actress, 2003 : RICCI
Christina Ricci is an American actress who found fame on the big screen at an early age, playing the very young Wednesday Addams in the 1991 movie version of “The Addams Family“.

“Monster” is a pretty disturbing crime drama released in 2003. The film’s storyline is based on the real-life tale about Aileen Wuornos (played by Charlize Theron), a serial killer who was eventually caught and executed in 2002.

27. Composer/conductor Webern : ANTON
Anton Webern was a composer and conductor from Austria. In his compositions, Webern used the twelve-tone technique devised by Arnold Schoenberg, which means that I find his music a tad difficult to appreciate …

31. Puck, for one : WOLFGANG
Wolfgang Puck is a celebrity chef from Austria. Puck was the man behind the famous pair of restaurants in Southern California called Spago.

33. Building with giant doors : HANGAR
“Hangar” is a French word for “shed”. The French first started using the term for a “shed for airplanes” in the very early 1900s.

36. Many a prom corsage : WRISTLET
“Corsage” is a word we imported from French in the late 15th century. Back then we used it to mean “the size of the body”. By the early 1800s a corsage was a bodice, or the body of a woman’s dress. At the beginning of the 20th century, the French term “bouquet de corsage” was being used for a “bouquet worn on the bodice”, and this has been shortened simply to “corsage”.

38. Napa Valley sight : VINES
Apparently the name “Napa” comes from the Native American Patwin word “napo” meaning “house”.

39. Postal stamp on una carta : AEREO
“Aereo” is the Italian for “airplane”.

40. Patrick of “Barry Lyndon” : MAGEE
Patrick Magee was an Irish actor, born in Armagh, Northern Ireland. He won a Tony for his performance in the play “Marat/Sade” by Peter Weiss.

42. Dotted ones are half again as long : RESTS
In music, the length of a “rest” can be extended by half by simply adding a dot after it on the score.

43. French cathedral city : CHARTRES
Chartres is a town in north-central France, lying about 60 miles southwest of Paris.

49. Curly-haired toon : BOOP
Betty Boop made her first appearance on the screen in 1930, in a cartoon called “Dizzy Dishes”. Her character was modeled on the the It-girl, the sexy Clara Bow of movie fame. Back then Betty Boop was a sexy poodle and it wasn’t until 1932 that she morphed into completely human form. Betty was quite the risqué figure, but her vampish ways only lasted a few years. When the Production Code of 1934 came into force, Betty started to dress more modestly and toned down her behavior.

51. Joe Hardy’s girlfriend in the Hardy Boys books : IOLA
In the famous “The Hardy Boys” series of books, Joe Hardy’s girlfriend is Iola Morton. Iola’s best friend is Callie Shaw, the girlfriend of Frank Hardy. Iola was killed off in a car bomb in one of the stories.

54. Oater sound : CLOP
The term “oater”, used for a western movie, comes from the number of horses seen, and horses love oats!

55. Taking a load off : CHILLAXING
“Chillax” is a slang term meaning “chill and relax”. Who’da thunk it …?

56. Big name in salad dressing : KEN’S
The food manufacturing company called Ken’s Foods is known for its salad dressings. As well as selling its own products, it is Ken’s Foods that manufactures the Newman’s Own brand under contract.

Down
3. “___ Walk” (Frost poem) : A LATE
The wonderful poet Robert Frost was a native of San Francisco. He was well recognized for his work during his lifetime, and received four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry.

4. O’Connor of “Xena” : RENEE
Renee O’Connor is an actress from Katy, Texas best known for playing the role of Gabrielle on the television show “Xena: Warrior Princess”.

5. Setting for Yankees home games: Abbr. : EDT
Many Yankees games are played during Eastern Daylight Saving Time.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Daylight Saving Time (DST) is known as “summer time”. The idea behind summer/daylight-savings is to move clocks forward an hour in spring and backwards in the fall so that afternoons have more daylight.

7. Nassau ___ liqueur : ROYALE
Nassau Royale is a brand of liqueur, based on rum, I think …

8. I = V/R : OHM’S LAW
The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega), named after Georg Simon Ohm, the German physicist. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit was directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.

10. Like the K.G.B.: Abbr. : SOV
The Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti (KGB) was the national security agency of the Soviet Union until 1991. The KGB was dissolved at that time after the agency’s chairman led a failed attempt at a coup d’état designed to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.

12. “Home on the Range” range : ONE OCTAVE
The words of “Home on the Range” came before the music, a poem called “My Western Home” from the 1870s written by a Dr. Brewster Higley of Kansas. The music was added by Daniel Kelley, a friend of Higley. And now, a version of the song is the state song of Kansas.

13. Treats to beat the heat : SNOW CONES
A sno-cone (also “snow cone”) is just a paper cone filled with crushed ice and topped with flavored water. Italian ice is similar, but different. Whereas the flavoring is added on top of the ice to make a sno-cone, Italian ice is made with water that is flavored before it is frozen.

26. Jean, Jacques or Jean-Jacques : NOM
“Nom” is the French word for “name”.

28. Like some paper punches : THREE-HOLE
We are all familiar with “hanging chads” after the famous Florida election recounts of 2000. A chad is any piece of paper punched out from a larger sheet. So, those round bits of paper we’ve all dropped over the floor when emptying a hole punch, they’re chads.

32. Tomato : LOVE APPLE
A tomato is sometimes referred to as a love apple. This comes from the French term “pomme d’amour” which arose from the belief that the tomato had the powers of an aphrodisiac.

34. “Stand” band : REM
R.E.M. was a rock band from Athens, Georgia formed in 1980. The name “R.E.M.” was chosen randomly from a dictionary, apparently.

36. “Walk On By” singer : WARWICK
Dionne Warwick is is a very, very successful singer, with more Top 100 hits than any other female vocalist other than Aretha Franklin. Warwick had a pretty successful cousin too: Whitney Houston …

37. Zesty casserole with a crust : TACO PIE
A taco pie is made with seasoned ground beef in a pie crust, with the whole pie covered with the usual taco toppings, namely shredded lettuce, sour cream, tomato and cheese.

41. Halloween personae : GHOULS
Our word “ghoul” comes from the Arabic “ghul”, the name for an evil spirit that feeds on corpses.

44. In the midst of : TWIXT
“Twixt” is a shortened form of “betwixt”, meaning “between, among”.

46. “The Vampire Diaries” girl : ELENA
“The Vampire Diaries” is a series of horror novels aimed at teens, with a spinoff television series of the same name. I don’t do vampires …

47. Rank smoke : STOGY
A “stogie” (also “stogy”) is both a “rough, heavy shoe” and a “long, cheap cigar”. Both items were favored by the drivers of the covered wagons called “Conestogas” that wended their way across the Midwest in days gone by. The term “stogie” is derived from the name of the wagon, which itself is named after the area in which the wagons were built: Conestoga, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

49. Nobelist name of 1922 and 1975 : BOHR
Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who won his 1922 Nobel Prize for his work on quantum mechanics and atomic structure. Later in his life he was part of the team working on the Manhattan Project, developing the first atomic bomb.

52. D.E.A. target drug : PCP
Phencyclidine is a recreational drug usually referred to on the street as PCP or “angel dust”.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was set up in 1973 while President Nixon was in office.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Field agents? : SCARECROWS
11. Amount to : COST
15. Home of Owens Corning Corporation : TOLEDO, OHIO
16. First lady Harrison : ANNA
17. Catchphrase of the ’80s : I WANT MY MTV
18. Rock’s Kings of ___ : LEON
19. Big party : FETE
20. Big party : BASH
21. Coulrophobe’s bugaboo : CLOWN
22. Extra turn in Monopoly : FREE ROLL
24. “Monster” actress, 2003 : RICCI
25. Explanatory lead-in : I MEAN …
27. Composer/conductor Webern : ANTON
28. What was yours at one time? : THINE
31. Puck, for one : WOLFGANG
33. Building with giant doors : HANGAR
35. Envy, anger or greed, maybe : MOTIVE
36. Many a prom corsage : WRISTLET
38. Napa Valley sight : VINES
39. Postal stamp on una carta : AEREO
40. Patrick of “Barry Lyndon” : MAGEE
42. Dotted ones are half again as long : RESTS
43. French cathedral city : CHARTRES
48. Hard hits : WHAMS
49. Curly-haired toon : BOOP
50. Possible result of an allergic reaction : WELT
51. Joe Hardy’s girlfriend in the Hardy Boys books : IOLA
52. What an ad blocker might block : POP-UP VIDEO
54. Oater sound : CLOP
55. Taking a load off : CHILLAXING
56. Big name in salad dressing : KEN’S
57. Current : PRESENT DAY

Down
1. Shortchange : STIFF
2. Duck and quail : COWER
3. “___ Walk” (Frost poem) : A LATE
4. O’Connor of “Xena” : RENEE
5. Setting for Yankees home games: Abbr. : EDT
6. Money-saving fast-food option : COMBO-MEAL
7. Nassau ___ liqueur : ROYALE
8. I = V/R : OHM’S LAW
9. Accompanying : WITH
10. Like the K.G.B.: Abbr. : SOV
11. Excusing oneself from work, maybe : CALLING IN
12. “Home on the Range” range : ONE OCTAVE
13. Treats to beat the heat : SNOW CONES
14. Kind of bed : TANNING
21. Comparatively arch : CRAFTIER
23. Carnival booth with soda bottles : RING TOSS
26. Jean, Jacques or Jean-Jacques : NOM
28. Like some paper punches : THREE-HOLE
29. Do business? : HAIR SALON
30. They’re usually found on the margins : INSET MAPS
32. Tomato : LOVE APPLE
34. “Stand” band : REM
36. “Walk On By” singer : WARWICK
37. Zesty casserole with a crust : TACO PIE
41. Halloween personae : GHOULS
44. In the midst of : TWIXT
45. Overhauled : REDID
46. “The Vampire Diaries” girl : ELENA
47. Rank smoke : STOGY
49. Nobelist name of 1922 and 1975 : BOHR
52. D.E.A. target drug : PCP
53. Transportation for many a Little League team : VAN

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