0728-12: New York times Crossword Answers 28 Jul 12, Saturday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Part of a certain log : STARDATE
“Stardates” are fictional dates used in the “Star Trek” universe.

9. Appliance maker that produced the first microwave oven for household use (1955) : TAPPAN
Tappan is a brand name of appliances that is now owned by Electrolux. The brand originated with the Ohio Valley Foundry company in Bellaire, Ohio that was founded in 1881 by W.J. Tappan. Back then the company made cast-iron stoves that it sold door-door. The first household microwave oven was introduced to the market in 1955, a Tappan microwave.

17. Dashing through the snow? : IDITAROD
The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race coves a massive 1,161 miles. The race starts every year on the first Saturday in March, with the first race having been held in 1973. The fastest finishing time was set in 2002 at just under 9 days. The first few races only used a northern route, but then a southern route was added to the roster every second year. It’s kind of a good thing, because when the racers take the northern route they don’t even pass through the town of Iditarod!

18. Landmark also known as Kissavos : MT OSSA
Mt. Ossa in Greece is located between Mt. Pelion in the south, and the famed Mt. Olympus in the north. Mount Ossa is also known as Kissavos.

22. Mustang option : T-TOP
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.

The Ford Mustang car was introduced in 1964. Back then the Mustang wasn’t a brand new design, but was based on the Ford Falcon. The Mustang was the first of the “pony cars”, American models that are compact, affordable, and sporty in image and performance.

27. “Copper Canyon” and “Coroner Creek” : OATERS
The term “oater”, used for a western movie, comes from the number of horses seen, as horses love oats!

“Copper Canyon” is a Western movie from 1950 starring Ray Milland and Hedy Lamarr. It’s a story about post-Civil War copper miners hiring a gunman to help themselves go about their business when facing local opposition.

“Coroner Creek” is a Western film from 1948 starring Randolph Scott, based on a novel of the same name by Luke Short. This one’s about a cowboy seeking vengeance for the killing of his fiancée.

33. They may be empty in a vending machine : CALORIES
“Empty calories” is a term used by nutritionists to describe processed carbohydrates, fats and alcohol. The idea is that foods high in empty calories contain calories and not much else i.e. few vitamins, minerals, antioxidants or fiber.

36. Journal keeper of fiction : CRUSOE
When Daniel Defoe wrote his marvelous 1719 novel called “Robinson Crusoe”, he was likely thinking of real-life Scottish castaway, Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk lived alone on the Pacific Island called “Mas a Tierra” off the coast of Chile, for four years. The island was officially renamed in 1966, to Robinson Crusoe Island.

38. Certain seal : SEA CALF
“Sea calf” is another name for the common seal.

40. Genre of Lauren Weisberger’s “The Devil Wears Prada” : CHICK LIT
“Chick lit” is fiction aimed at female readers, addressing issues of modern womanhood and often with a light-hearted approach. The term itself probably originated in the late eighties as a slang term for a college course titled “female literary tradition”. Good examples of the genre would “Bridget Jones’s Diary” by Helen Fielding and “Sex and the City” by Candace Bushnell.

Anna Wintour is fashion editor in Britain, and is also the editor-in-chief of American “Vogue”. Lauren Weisberger wrote the book “The Devil Wears Prada” with the tyrannical main character apparently based on Wintour.

42. Actress Sobieski : LEELEE
Leelee Sobieski is a film and television actress from New York City. Sobieski is a fluent French speaker, having learned from her father who is a painter and former actor from France.

45. Draw, in a way : TOKE
“Toke” is a slang term for a puff on a marijuana cigarette or on a pipe containing the drug.

49. Federal org. with compliance officers : OSHA
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created in 1970 during the Nixon administration. OSHA regulates workplaces in the private sector and regulates just one government agency, namely the US Postal Service.

51. Like Jesus on the Shroud of Turin, many believe : IMAGED
The Shroud of Turin has to be one of the most controversial and most studied human artifacts ever unearthed. The Shroud is a linen cloth on which there is the image of a man who appears to have wounds inflicted by crucifixion. Many believe that the Shroud is the burial cloth in which Jesus Christ was placed after he died on the cross. The Shroud was kept in various locations in France for centuries before being moved to Turin Cathedral in 1578, from which it gets its name, and where it has been located ever since.

54. ___ esprit : BEL
“Bel esprit” is French for “high mind”, and we use it to mean someone who is cultivated and highly intelligent, or perhaps someone who is witty. The plural of “bel esprit” is “beaux esprits”.

55. Capital of Iran’s Fars province : SHIRAZ
The Iranian city of Shiraz has long been associated with wine, but there is no proven link between the city and the wine/grape we know today as “Shiraz” (also called “Syrah”). Having said that, some clay jars were found just outside of the city of Shiraz that contained wine; wine that was 7,000 years old!

Down
1. Neaten (up) : SPIFF
A spiff is a well-dressed man.

3. O’Connor’s successor : ALITO
Associate Justice Samuel Alito was nominated to the US Supreme Court by President George W. Bush. Alito is the second Italian-American to serve on the Supreme Court (Antonin Scalia was the first). Alito studied law at Princeton and while in his final year he left the country for the first time, heading to Italy to work on his thesis on the Italian legal system.

Sandra Day O’Connor is a former US Supreme Court Justice. O’Connor was the first woman appointed to the court, and was in office from 1981 after being appointed by President Reagan. As the court became more conservative she was viewed as the swing vote in many decisions. As a result, O’Connor was known as one of the most powerful women in the world. She retired in 2006 (replaced by Samuel Alito), and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2009.

6. ___ Plus (pharmacy purchase) : ATRA
Fortunately for crossword setters, the Atra razor was introduced by Gillette in 1977. The Atra was sold as the Contour in some markets and its derivative products are still around today.

10. Bygone N.Y.S.E. ticker symbol : ATT
The original AT&T Corporation was first known as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

11. Picture-hosting Web site : PHOTOBUCKET
Photobucket is an image and video hosting website now based in Seattle, Washington. The company was founded in 2003.

14. Spring’s counterpart : NEAP
Tides of course are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

21. Title box choice : MRS
Mr. is the abbreviation for “master”, and Mrs. is the abbreviation for “mistress”.

24. Reference program launched in 2005 : GOOGLE EARTH
Google Earth is a program that maps the Earth by superimposing satellite images and aerial photographs. Google acquired the technology when it purchased Keyhole, Inc in 2004. Keyhole had been partially funded by the CIA.

28. Actor Will of “Up All Night” : ARNETT
Will Arnett is a Canadian actor who his currently in NBC’s sitcom “Up All Night”, starring alongside Christina Applegate. Arnett got his big break in the Fox show “Arrested Development”. Arnett’s father was the president and CEO of Molson Breweries, and Arnett’s wife is Amy Poehler, star of “Parks and Recreation”.

31. Cadenzas, e.g. : SOLI
“Cadenza” is a musical term, the name for a passage that is sung or played by a soloist. A cadenza is often encountered in a concerto, when the orchestra stops playing and the soloist performs alone. The soloist’s performance can be improvised or written, at the composer’s discretion.

33. Sight along una calle : CASA
One might see a house (“casa”) in a street (“calle”), in Spanish.

36. Put a cover on : CEIL
“To ceil” is to cover with a ceiling. New to me, but it makes sense!

38. 1976 Hall & Oates hit : SHE’S GONE
Daryl Hall & John Oates are a pop music duo, most successful in the late seventies and early eighties. They had six number one hits, including the 1982 release “Maneater”.

42. Flight : LAM
To be “on the lam” is to be in flight, to have escaped from prison. It is American slang that originated at the end of the 19th century. The word “lam” also means to “beat” or “thrash”, as in “lambaste”. So “on the lam” might derive from the phrase “to beat it, to scram”.

44. “Les Pêcheurs de Perles” composer : BIZET
Georg Bizet was a French composer active in the Romantic era. Bizet’s most famous work has to be his opera “Carmen”. “Carmen” received a lukewarm reception from the public, even though his fellow composers had nothing but praise for it. Sadly Bizet died very young, at only 36, before he could see “Carmen’s” tremendous success.

“The Pearl Fishers” (“Les Pêcheurs de Perles”) is the second most famous opera composed by the Georges Bizet, the French composer from the Romantic era.

46. Start to care? : OBAMA
The correct name for what has been dubbed “Obamacare” is the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”.

47. Combed, as hair : KEMPT
The word “unkempt” means “disheveled, not well-combed”. It derives from the Old English word “cemban” meaning “to comb”. The opposite to the more common “unkempt” is … “kempt”.

48. ___ Knox, co-star of Lon Chaney in “The Mummy’s Tomb” : ELYSE
Elyse Knox was a fashion designer who became a model, and then a Hollywood actress. Knox was famous as a pin-up girl for the troops in WWII. She married Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harmon when he returned from fighting in WWII, and actually was married in a wedding dress made from silk taken from a parachute that saved Harmon’s life when his plane was hit. The couple had children who made names for themselves in later life. Their daughter Kristin married singer Ricky Nelson, daughter Kelly married famed automaker John DeLaurean, and their son Mark Harmon is the actor now starring on the television show “NCIS”.

49. Olympics locale where the first figure-skating triple jump was landed : OSLO
The 1952 Winter Olympic Games took place in Oslo, Norway. The games is remembered as the first time a purpose-built athletes’ village was constructed.

56. Fourth caliph in Sunni Islam : ALI
Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib was the cousin and son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad. Ali was the first male to accept the message of Muhammad and dedicate his life to the cause of Islam.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Part of a certain log : STARDATE
9. Appliance maker that produced the first microwave oven for household use (1955) : TAPPAN
15. Give lots of work … or criticism : PILE IT ON
16. In : AT HOME
17. Dashing through the snow? : IDITAROD
18. Landmark also known as Kissavos : MT OSSA
19. Thick : FAT
20. Defiant retort : MAKE ME
22. Mustang option : T-TOP
23. Beat : FLOG
25. Like a game ending in double overtime, say : HARD-WON
27. “Copper Canyon” and “Coroner Creek” : OATERS
30. Discompose : ABASH
33. They may be empty in a vending machine : CALORIES
36. Journal keeper of fiction : CRUSOE
37. Straight : ALIGNED
38. Certain seal : SEA CALF
39. Listing agent’s principal : SELLER
40. Genre of Lauren Weisberger’s “The Devil Wears Prada” : CHICK LIT
41. So far : AS YET
42. Actress Sobieski : LEELEE
43. Aids for home parties : WET BARS
45. Draw, in a way : TOKE
49. Federal org. with compliance officers : OSHA
51. Like Jesus on the Shroud of Turin, many believe : IMAGED
54. ___ esprit : BEL
55. Capital of Iran’s Fars province : SHIRAZ
57. Faithful practice : MONOGAMY
59. Peewee : LITTLE
60. How hair might fall out : IN CLUMPS
61. Almost perfect, as a game : ONE-HIT
62. Pen pal? : CELL MATE

Down
1. Neaten (up) : SPIFF
2. Start of a big wave? : TIDAL
3. O’Connor’s successor : ALITO
4. No longer serving: Abbr. : RET
5. Geometry meas. : DIAM
6. ___ Plus (pharmacy purchase) : ATRA
7. Really listened : TOOK HEED
8. Charms : ENDEARS
9. Under control : TAMED
10. Bygone N.Y.S.E. ticker symbol : ATT
11. Picture-hosting Web site : PHOTOBUCKET
12. Kind of drip : POSTNASAL
13. “Are not!” elicitor : AM SO
14. Spring’s counterpart : NEAP
21. Title box choice : MRS
24. Reference program launched in 2005 : GOOGLE EARTH
26. Top gun : WAR ACE
28. Actor Will of “Up All Night” : ARNETT
29. Second-___ : TIER
31. Cadenzas, e.g. : SOLI
32. Weight : HEFT
33. Sight along una calle : CASA
34. They may be pint-size with big heads : ALES
35. 100% pure : LILY WHITE
36. Put a cover on : CEIL
38. 1976 Hall & Oates hit : SHE’S GONE
40. Like many cookie jars : CERAMIC
42. Flight : LAM
44. “Les Pêcheurs de Perles” composer : BIZET
46. Start to care? : OBAMA
47. Combed, as hair : KEMPT
48. ___ Knox, co-star of Lon Chaney in “The Mummy’s Tomb” : ELYSE
49. Olympics locale where the first figure-skating triple jump was landed : OSLO
50. It’s just over a foot : SHIN
52. Check within, say?: Abbr. : ENCL
53. Sweetums : DOLL
56. Fourth caliph in Sunni Islam : ALI
58. Jam (up) : GUM

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