0714-12: New York Times Crossword Answers 14 Jul 12, Saturday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
15. Forty-niners’ song : OH! SUSANNA
“Oh! Susanna” is a song that was published in 1848, written by Stephen Foster. The song is often called “Banjo on My Knee”, an understandable slip given the words of the chorus. “Oh! Susanna” came to be associated with the Forty-Niners, the miners who travelled to California in the 1849 Gold Rush. The lyrics were changed to suit the Gold rush theme with “Alabama” being replaced by “California”, and “banjo” being replaced by “washpan”.

16. Fresh : LIPPY
Someone who is “lippy” is fresh, cheeky or insolent.

17. War with little or no active warfare : SITZKRIEG
At the beginning of WWII, there was a phase where very little action took place. The war was sparked by Germany’s invasion of Poland, causing Britain and France to declare war on Germany. Poland fell in September 1939, but there was no real military response by the Allies until the Battle of France in May of 1940. September 1939 to May 1940 is sometimes referred to as the “Phoney War”, or “der Sitzkrieg” (meaning “sitting war”, and a play on the term “Blitzkrieg”).

18. River from the Graian Alps : ISERE
The Isère river gives its name to the French Department of Isère, located partly in the French Alps. In turn, Isère gave its name to a somewhat famous ship called the Isère, which in 1885 delivered the Statue of Liberty from France to America, in 214 crates.

The Graian Alps are a range of mountains in the western Alps, lying in part of France, Italy and Switzerland. The range takes its name from the Graiocceli, a Celtic tribe that lived in the area. The most famous peak in the Graian Alps is probably Mont Blanc.

19. “Little” sister in “Hairspray” : INEZ
Little Inez is a character in “Hairspray”, the 1998 film by John Waters. Early in the story, the main character is turned away at an audition because she is overweight, and at the same audition Little Inez is turned away because she is African American.

20. Backpacker’s bagful : GORP
“Gorp” is the name sometimes used for trail mix, particularly by hikers. It’s not really known for sure how this name came about, but some say it stands for “good old raisins and peanuts” or perhaps “gobs of raw protein”.

21. Pirate’s shoulder, stereotypically : PERCH
There are quite a few characteristics of the pirate stereotype that were born in Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”. Such things as parrots sitting on a pirate’s shoulder, peg legs and X-marks on treasure maps were invented or owe their popularity to the novel.

22. Land on the Arctic Circle: Abbr. : NOR
Norway has been ranked as the country in the world with the highest standard of living almost every year since 2001. Norway is rich in natural resources and has a relatively low population. The people benefit from a comprehensive social security system, subsidized higher education for all citizens and universal health care.

23. Nobelist Bloch or Lorenz : KONRAD
Konrad Bloch was a German American who jointly won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1964 for work on the metabolism of cholesterol and fatty acids. Bloch started his studies in his homeland of Germany but had to flee to the United States in the mid-thirties due to the Nazi persecution of Jews.

Konrad Lorenz was an Austrian zoologist and co-winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries made in individual and social behavior patterns. Many of his discoveries came from studying birds.

25. French town fortified by Charlemagne : ST LO
Saint-Lô is a town in Normandy that was occupied by Germany in 1940. Saint-Lo stood at a strategic crossroads and so there was intense fighting there during the Normandy invasion of 1944. After the bombardment, very little of the town was left standing.

The French town of Saint-Lô had been a fortified settlement dating back to the days of ancient Gaul. The ramparts on which the first settlement was built were fortified by Charlemagne in the 9th century, although this extra security was unable to stop the town being sacked by the Vikings in 890 AD.

26. City whose name means “eat” : ESSEN
“Essen” is the German word for “to eat”.

30. Carrier whose theme is “Rhapsody in Blue”: Abbr. : UAL
United Airlines used the tagline “Fly the Friendly Skies” in its marketing materials from 1965 to 1996. It was replaced with “It’s time to fly”. United chose George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” as the company’s theme music in 1976, and paid the Gershwin estate a fee of $500,000 for the privilege.

40. Honor for an ace : AIR MEDAL
The Air Medal is a US military decoration that was created in 1942 in an executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Air Medal is awarded for acts of heroism or merit in aerial flight.

42. “How I Met Your Mother” guy : TED
“How I Met Your Mother” is a sitcom that CBS has been airing since 2005. The main character is Ted Mosby, played by Josh Radnor. Mosby is also the narrator for the show looking back from the year 2030 (the live action is set in the present). As narrator, the older Mosby character is voiced by Bob Saget.

50. Persian language? : MEWS
The Persian is that long-haired cat with a squashed muzzle. The breed takes its name from its place of origin, namely Persia (Iran).

57. Band parodied by Weird Al Yankovic’s “Dare to Be Stupid” : DEVO
Devo is a band from Akron, Ohio formed back in 1973. The band’s biggest hit is “Whip It” released in 1980.

Weird Al Yankovich is famous for his parodies of songs, like “Eat It”, his parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It”. The title song of his 1985 album “Dare to Be Stupid” is a musical pastiche, a style parody of the band Devo.

60. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” author : ERIC CARLE
Eric Carle is a very successful children’s author and book illustrator, with over 100 million of his books sold around the world. Carle’s most famous title is “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, and it alone has sold 30 million copies.

63. Triumphantly boastful : COCK-A-HOOP
To be “cock-a-hoop” is to be exultant, boastfully elated. The origin of the term is disputed, and the opposing etymologies are very complicated. So, I will just note something completely irrelevant and tell you that I used to enjoy a pint of beer on a Sunday afternoon when I was a student in a lovely pub called the Cock & Hoop …

64. Racket-raising Richards : RENEE
Renée Richards is a former professional tennis player. Richards was at the center of a very public controversy in the seventies when she was banned from playing in the 1976 US Open, as she had been born a man and had undergone gender reassignment surgery. Richards disputed the ban and took her case to the New York Supreme court where she won her case. In 1977 Richards then made it to the women’s double final in the US Open. Later she coached Martina Navatilova, helping Navratilova win two Wimbledon titles.

65. Attire for Little Lord Fauntleroy : KNEE PANTS
“Little Lord Fauntleroy” is a novel written by English author and playwright Frances Hodgson Burnett. “Little Lord Fauntleroy” was more than a well-received work of fiction as the book had a great impact on fashion in the late 1800s. The young Fauntleroy wore a suit that Burnett described in great detail, a suit that was illustrated in the book in pen-and-ink drawings. It had a velvet cut-away jacket and knee pants that matched, and was worn with a blouse that had a ruffled collar. Mothers often dressed their young boys in these “Fauntleroy suits” in the late 19th and early 20th century, especially here in North America.

Down
1. 0, for 90º : COSINE
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 …?

2. Massive chargers : RHINOS
There are five types of rhinoceros that survive today, and the smaller Javan Rhino is the most rare. The rhinoceros is probably the rarest large mammal on the planet, thanks to poaching. Hunters mainly prize the horn of the rhino as it is used in powdered form in traditional Chinese medicine.

3. Goldilocks and others : ASTERS
Goldilocks is a relatively rare type of aster that is native to south-eastern Europe.

4. Nap kin : FUZZ
A “nap” is a soft and perhaps fuzzy surface on cloth or leather.

6. Red River city : FARGO
Fargo, North Dakota is the biggest city in the state. The original name for the city was Centralia, back when it was a stopping point for steamboats that traveled the Red River in the late 19th century. The town really grew with the arrival of the Northern Pacific Railway, so the name “Fargo” was adopted in honor of one of the railroad company’s directors, William Fargo (of Wells Fargo Express fame).

The Red River flows northward from Minnesota and North Dakota into Manitoba where it empties into Lake Winnipeg. In the US, this river is often called the Red River of the North, to avoid confusion with the Red River that is a tributary of the Mississippi (also known as Red River of the South).

7. Parts of galvanic cells : ANIONS
As we all recall from science class, a positive ion is called a cation and a negative ion is an anion. The names “cation” and “anion” come from Greek, with “kation” meaning “going down” and “anion” meaning “going up”.

A galvanic cell is a device that uses a chemical reaction to create an electrical current. A simple battery is a galvanic cell, with larger batteries being a collection of galvanic cells operating in concert.

9. Option for printing archival copies : RAG PAPER
Cotton paper (also called “rag paper”) is made not from wood pulp like ordinary paper, but rather from cotton. The cotton is usually sourced from used cloths or rags, hence the name. Cotton paper lasts longer and is stronger then ordinary paper.

13. Revival meeting? : CPR CLASS
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) has for decades involved the simultaneous compression of the chest to pump blood using the heart, and artificial respiration by blowing air into the lungs. Nowadays emergency services are placing more emphasis on heart compressions, and less on artificial respiration.

14. Halloween costume parts : EYE HOLES
All Saints’ Day is November 1st each year. The day before All Saints’ Day is All Hallows Eve, better known by the Scottish term, “Halloween”.

24. Bit of old European money : 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. Famously, at the climax of William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”, Antonio goes on trial because he cannot repay a loan to Shylock of 3,000 ducats. Faced with non-payment, Shylock demands his legal right to “a pound of flesh”.

27. Edible red ball : EDAM
Edam cheese takes its name from the Dutch town of Edam in North Holland. The cheese is famous for its coating of red paraffin wax, a layer of protection that helps it travel well and prevents spoiling. You might occasionally come across an Edam cheese that is coated in black wax. This means that the underlying cheese has been aged for a minimum of 17 weeks.

29. Rice served after him : POWELL
Colin Powell was the first African American to serve as US Secretary of State. Earlier in his career, Powell had been a four-star general in the US Army, as well as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War. Even though Colin Powell has retired from public service, he is one of the most noted moderate Republicans, often advocating support for centrist and liberal causes.

Condoleezza Rice was the second African American to serve as US Secretary of State (after Colin Powell) and the second woman to hold the office (after Madeleine Albright). Prior to becoming Secretary of State in President George W. Bush’s administration, Rice was the first woman to hold the office of National Security Advisor. In private life, Rice is a remarkably capable pianist. Given her stature in Washington, Rice has had the opportunity to play piano in public with the likes of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and soul singer Aretha Franklin.

32. Line-item veto target, often : RIDER
“Veto” comes directly from Latin and means “I forbid”. The word was used by tribunes of Ancient Rome to indicate that they opposed measures passed by the Senate.

35. One may supply boaters : HAT MAKER
A boater is a straw hat often associated with boating, hence the name.

36. Pet kept by Wilson, Harding and Coolidge : AIREDALE
Of all the pets of the US Presidents, perhaps none had a more exalted position than Laddie Boy, the Airedale terrier belonging to President Warren G. Harding. Laddie Boy even had his own chair on which to sit during cabinet meetings. After President Harding died, newsboys across the country collected 19,134 pennies which were melted and sculpted into a statue of Laddie Boy. You can see that statue today in the Smithsonian.

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

48. Red selection : MERLOT
Merlot is one of the main grapes used to make Bordeaux wines, along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

51. Geometry calculation : SLOPE
The slope or gradient of a straight line is the ratio of the “rise” (delta y) to the “run” (delta x). If there is no difference in the values of y for all points in a line that delta y is zero, and the slope is zero. If the values of y are all the same, then the line is horizontal.

53. “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” writer : LOCKE
John Locke was the English philosopher who postulated that the mind is a blank slate (or “tabula rasa”) when we are born, and that we fill that slate with our experiences and observations.

56. Too cute, in Cambridge : TWEE
In the UK, something “twee” is cutesy or overly nice. “Twee” came from “tweet”, which is the cutesy, baby-talk way of saying “sweet”.

The famous university city of Cambridge in the England takes its name from an Old English term meaning “Bridge on the River Granta”. The river in question is now called the River Cam, with “Cam” being a back formation from “Cambridge”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Destination for many a quilter : CRAFT FAIR
10. One with a supporting role? : BRACE
15. Forty-niners’ song : OH, SUSANNA
16. Fresh : LIPPY
17. War with little or no active warfare : SITZKRIEG
18. River from the Graian Alps : ISERE
19. “Little” sister in “Hairspray” : INEZ
20. Backpacker’s bagful : GORP
21. Pirate’s shoulder, stereotypically : PERCH
22. Land on the Arctic Circle: Abbr. : NOR
23. Nobelist Bloch or Lorenz : KONRAD
25. French town fortified by Charlemagne : ST LO
26. City whose name means “eat” : ESSEN
28. Absorb : SOP UP
30. Carrier whose theme is “Rhapsody in Blue”: Abbr. : UAL
31. Head, or heading: Abbr. : DIR
33. Way out : RECOURSE
35. Went ballistic : HAD A FIT
39. Inexperience : RAWNESS
40. Honor for an ace : AIR MEDAL
42. “How I Met Your Mother” guy : TED
43. Skipper’s syllable : TRA
44. Add some stuffing to : REPAD
46. Is imminent : LOOMS
50. Persian language? : MEWS
52. Keep spinning, as yarns : RETELL
54. Stack of chips, sometimes : BET
55. Ticket specification : ADULT
57. Band parodied by Weird Al Yankovic’s “Dare to Be Stupid” : DEVO
58. Homeroom response : HERE
59. Report in the funny papers? : KAPOW
60. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” author : ERIC CARLE
62. Expedite some union business? : ELOPE
63. Triumphantly boastful : COCK-A-HOOP
64. Racket-raising Richards : RENEE
65. Attire for Little Lord Fauntleroy : KNEE PANTS

Down
1. 0, for 90º : COSINE
2. Massive chargers : RHINOS
3. Goldilocks and others : ASTERS
4. Nap kin : FUZZ
5. “How could you?!” : TSK
6. Red River city : FARGO
7. Parts of galvanic cells : ANIONS
8. Off : IN ERROR
9. Option for printing archival copies : RAG PAPER
10. It’s hardly a trend : BLIP
11. Stops lying : RISES
12. Opening : APERTURE
13. Revival meeting? : CPR CLASS
14. Halloween costume parts : EYE HOLES
23. Assailant without a gun : KNIFER
24. Bit of old European money : DUCAT
27. Edible red ball : EDAM
29. Rice served after him : POWELL
32. Line-item veto target, often : RIDER
34. Command to return to a former state : UNDO
35. One may supply boaters : HAT MAKER
36. Pet kept by Wilson, Harding and Coolidge : AIREDALE
37. Tap : DRAW UPON
38. Obsolescent music option : TAPE DECK
41. In a bit : LATER ON
45. 38-Down, for one : DEVICE
47. Fairy king : OBERON
48. Red selection : MERLOT
49. Gets in hot water? : STEEPS
51. Geometry calculation : SLOPE
53. “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” writer : LOCKE
56. Too cute, in Cambridge : TWEE
58. “Good one!” : HA-HA
61. Restrict, in a way : CAP

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