0807-12: New York Times Crossword Answers 7 Aug 12, Tuesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
5. Writer Roald who created the Oompa-Loompas : DAHL
Roald Dahl’s name is Norwegian. Dahl’s parents were from Norway although Dahl himself was Welsh. Dahl became one of the most successful authors of the twentieth century. A couple of his most famous titles are “James and the Giant Peach” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.

The Oompa-Loompas are characters in the Roald Dahl book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, and indeed in the sequel story “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator”. Willy Wonka came across the Oompa-Loompas on an isolated island in the Atlantic and invited them to work in his factory in order to escape those hunting them on the island. Right before Dahl’s book was first published, he was intending to call the Oompa-Loompas the “Whipple-Scrumpets”.

14. Father of Thor : ODIN
In Norse mythology, Odin was the chief of the gods. His wife Frigg was the queen of Asgard whose name gave us our English term Friday (via Anglo-Saxon). Odin’s son was Thor, and his name gave us the term Thursday.

15. Company name whose second letter is capitalized : EBAY
eBay is an auction site with a twist. If you don’t want to enter into an auction to purchase an item, there’s a “Buy It Now” price. Agree to pay it, and the item is yours …

16. Photocopier cartridge : TONER
The key features of a laser printer (or copier) are that it uses plain paper and produces quality text at high speed. Laser printers work by projecting a laser image of the printed page onto a rotating drum that is coated with photoconductors (material that becomes conductive when exposed to light). The areas of the drum exposed to the laser carry a different charge than the unexposed areas. Dry ink (called toner) sticks to the unexposed areas due to electrostatic charge. The toner is then transferred to paper by contact and is fused into the paper by the application of heat. So, that explains why paper coming out of a laser printer is warm, and sometimes powdery …

17. Saturn’s second-largest moon : RHEA
Rhea is the second-largest of Saturn’s moons, and the ninth-largest of all the moons in our solar system. The moon is named after the Titan Rhea from Greek mythology. Unlike our moon, Rhea might have an atmosphere of sorts, and even rings.

20. With 38-Across, a complaint : DOC, I’M ADDICTED TO
38. See 20-Across : TWITTER
40. With 57-Across, response to the complaint : SORRY, I’M
57. See 40-Across : NOT FOLLOWING YOU
I have never tweeted in my life, and have no plans to do so. Twitter is a micro-blogging service that limits any post sent to just 140 characters. In a sense, it is similar to this blog. Here I send out a post once a day containing information that I think might be useful to folks (thank you for reading!). I don’t think I could send out much of interest using just 140 characters. I believe that many people who do tweet tend to send out messages like “I’m at dinner now. I am having sushi” and “There’s nothing on TV. I’m bored”. Nope, I don’t think so!

23. New World cat : OCELOT
The ocelot is found mainly in South and Central America, although there have been sightings as far north as Arkansas. An ocelot doesn’t look too different from a domestic cat, and some have been kept as pets. Perhaps most famously, Salvador Dali had one that he carried around.

24. HBO’s “Real Time With Bill ___” : MAHER
Bill Maher is a stand-up comedian and political commentator. Maher has an HBO television show called “Real Time with Bill Maher” which is essentially a follow-on from the very successful “Politically Incorrect” that started out on Comedy Central.

25. Drink named for a certain small stature : NEHI
The brand of Nehi cola has a name that sounds like “knee-high”, a measure of a small stature. Back in the mid-1900’s the Chero-Cola company, which owned the brand, went for a lightly different twist on “knee-high” in advertising. The logo for Nehi was an image of a seated woman’s stockinged legs, with her skirt pulled up to her knees, to hint at “knee-high”.

27. Bergman who directed “Wild Strawberries” : INGMAR
Ingmar Bergman was a director of movies, stage and television from Sweden. Late in his life, Bergman ceased working for several years and left Sweden when he was wrongly charged with tax evasion, an event that caused him to have a nervous breakdown. Despite pleas from even the Swedish Prime Minister to return to his homeland, Bergman stayed in Germany for eight years before finally picking up his life again in Sweden.

35. Partner of legis. and jud. : EXEC
The principle of “separation of powers” usually leads to three branches of government, the executive, the legislative and the judiciary. The “three-branch” model is used in the US and the UK, for example.

37. Plotter against Cassio in “Othello” : IAGO
Iago is the schemer in Shakespeare’s “Othello”. Iago is a soldier who fought alongside Othello and feels hard done by, missing out on promotion. He hatches a plot designed to discredit his rival Cassio by insinuating that Cassio is having an affair with Desdomona, Othello’s wife. By the end of the play it’s Iago himself who is discredited and Othello (before committing suicide) apologizes to Cassio for having believed Iago’s lies. Heavy stuff …

42. Prefix with -gramme : AERO
An aerogram is like a very thin letter with no envelope, designed to be light to facilitate transit via airmail. An aerogram is usually a custom-made piece of lightweight paper that is folded in a specific way and sealed with gum on the paper, in such a way that an envelope is not required.

43. Attire for Antonius : TOGA
In Ancient Rome the classical attire known as a toga (plural “togae”) was usually worn over a tunic. The tunic was made from linen, and the toga itself was a piece of cloth about twenty feet long made from wool. The toga could only be worn by men, and only if those men were Roman citizens. The female equivalent of the toga was called a “stola”.

The most famous member of the Antonius family of Ancient Rome was Marcus Antonius i.e. Mark Antony who was an ally of Julius Caesar and lover of Cleopatra of Egypt.

50. Subject of a painting by Picasso or Rousseau : DREAM
“Le Rêve” (“The Dream”) is a 1910 painting by French Post-Impressionist Henri Rousseau. “Le Rêve” was Rousseau’s last work, as he died just a few months after he finished the painting.

“Le Rêve” is an oil painting by Pablo Picasso that he created when he was 50-years-old, the subject being his 22-year-old mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter. The painting is an openly erotic work, as Picasso even included an erect penis that made up part of the face of the model …

61. Situated near the upper part of the hip : ILIAC
The sacrum and the two ilia are three bones in the human pelvis.

62. Mid-March date : IDES
In Act I of William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” a soothsayer warns the doomed emperor to “beware the Ides of March”. Caesar ignores the prophesy and is of course killed on the steps of the Capitol by a group of conspirators on that very day.

There were three important days in each month of the old Roman calendar. These days originally depended on the cycles of the moon but were eventually “fixed” by law. “Kalendae” were the first days of each month, originally the days of the new moon. “Nonae” were originally the days of the half moon. And “idus” (the ides) was originally the day of the full moon, eventually fixed at the 15th day of a month. Well, actually the ides were the 15th day of March, May, July and October. For all other months, the ides fell on the 13th. Go figure …

64. Capital of Belarus : MINSK
Minsk is the capital of Belarus, formerly known as the Belorussion Soviet Socialist Republic.

65. Gaelic speaker : CELT
The Celts were a very broad group of people across Europe, linked by common languages. The Celts were largely absorbed by other cultures, although a relatively modern revival of the “Celtic identity” is alive and well in the British Isles. Such Celtic peoples today are mainly found in Ireland, Scotland, Wales.

66. 1960s secretary of state Dean : RUSK
Dean Rusk was Secretary of State in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Rusk served for eight years, making him the second-longest serving Secretary of State in US history.

68. Jazzy Fitzgerald : ELLA
Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song”, had a hard and tough upbringing. She was raised by her mother alone in Yonkers, New York. Ella’s mother died while she was still a schoolgirl, and around that time young Ella became less interested in her education. She fell in with a bad crowd, even working as a lookout for a bordello and as a Mafia numbers runner. She ended up in reform school, from which she escaped, and found herself homeless and living on the streets for a while. Somehow she managed to get herself a spot singing in the Apollo Theater in Harlem. From there her career took off and as they say, the rest is history.

69. Rented living qtrs. : APTS
The words “condominium” and “apartment” tend to describe the same type of residential property, a private living space with facilities shared with others residing in the same building or complex. The difference is that a condominium is usually owned, and an apartment is rented. At least that’s how it is in the US. The word “condominium” comes from the Latin “com” (together) and “dominum” (right of ownership).

Down
1. Astronaut Cooper, informally : GORDO
Gordon Cooper was an American astronaut who went into space as part of both the Mercury and Gemini Programs. Cooper had the honor of being the first American to have a snooze in space!

2. On an ___ basis : AD HOC
The Latin phrase “ad hoc” means “for this purpose”.

8. Neighbor of ancient Phrygia : LYDIA
Lydia and Phrygia were ancient territories in land now covered by modern-day Turkey. Both territories eventually fell under Greek and then Roman rule.

9. New York’s ___ Island : STATEN
Staten Island is part of New York City and is the least populous of the the city’s five boroughs. The island was originally called Staaten Eylandt by Henry Hudson after the Dutch parliament’s name, the Staaten Generaal.

12. Like Felix, but not Oscar : NEAT
“The Odd Couple” is a play by the wonderfully talented Neil Simon first performed on Broadway, in 1965. This great play was adapted for the big screen in 1968, famously starring Jack Lemmon (as Felix Ungar) and Walter Matthau (as Oscar Madison). The success of the play and the film gave rise to an excellent television sitcom that ran from 1970-1975, starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. In 1985, Neil Simon even went so far as to adapt the play for an all-female cast, renaming it “The Female Odd Couple”. I’d like to see that one …

13. Puzzler Rubik : ERNO
What was originally called the “Magic Cube” became better known as the Rubik’s Cube, named for its inventor Ernő Rubik. Rubil’s Cube is the world’s biggest selling puzzle game, with over 350 million sold in just over 30 years.

21. “Les Coquelicots” artist : MONET
Claude Monet painted the harbor of Le Havre in the north of France in 1872, giving it the title “Impression, Sunrise”. The painting is not a “realistic” representation of the scene in front of him, hence the name “impression”. It was this very painting that gave rise to the name of the Impressionist movement.

“Les Coquelicots” (“Poppies Blooming”) is an 1873 painting by Claude Monet.

22. Marx brother at a piano : CHICO
The five Marx Brothers were born to “Minnie” and “Frenchy” Marx in New York City. The more famous older boys were Chico, Harpo and Groucho. Zeppo was the youngest brother, and he appeared in the early Marx Brothers movies. The fifth son was called Gummo, and he decided to pursue a career off the stage.

26. Tarzan or Buck Rogers, e.g. : HERO
“Tarzan” is the title character in the series of books created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The line “Me Tarzan, you Jane” never appeared in the books, and indeed doesn’t even figure in the movies. Apparently Johnny Weissmuller (the original movie “Tarzan”) saw Maureen O’Sullivan (the original movie “Jane”) struggling with a suitcase in the parking lot during filming. He grabbed the bag from her, jokingly saying “Me Tarzan, you Jane”, and people have been quoting those words ever since.

Before Buck Rogers made it into the big time in the comic strip “Buck Roger in the 25th Century”, he was a character in a pair of short stories written by Philip Francis Nowlan, the first of which was “Armageddon 2419 A.D.” In the stories, Buck was known as Anthony Rogers, and was given a name change when he went into the comics.

29. Not fer : AGIN
If you’re not “fer” (for), then you could be “agin” (against).

31. Wound for Cassio : STAB
Cassio is a character in William Shakespeare’s “Othello”. Cassio is a young lieutenant under the command of Othello. He falls prey to the machinations of the play’s antagonist Iago, eventually being stabbed by him. Cassio survives, and lives to see Iago exposed as a fraud.

33. Actor Robert De ___ : NIRO
Robert De Niro is noted for his longtime and highly successful collaboration with the director Martin Scorsese. He is also noted for his commitment as a method actor. Famously he gained a full 60 pounds in order to play Jake La Motta in the 1980 movie “Raging Bull”.

36. “Hairy man” in Genesis : ESAU
Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When their mother Rebekah gave birth to the twins “the first emerged red and hairy all over (Esau), with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out (Jacob)”. As Esau was the first born, he was entitled to inherit his father’s wealth (it was his “birthright”). Instead, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for the price of a “mess of pottage” (a meal of lentils).

39. One of the Barrymores : ETHEL
Ethel Barrymore was one of the famous Barrymore family of actors. Ethel was the sister of John and Lionel Barrymore. Ethel was a close friend of Winston Churchill, and some even say that Winston even proposed to her.

41. Synthetic material : RAYON
Rayon is a little unusual in the textile industry, in that it is not truly a synthetic fiber, but nor can it be called a natural fiber. It is produced from naturally occurring cellulose that is dissolved and then reformed into fibers.

44. Hunk on display : GQ MODEL
The Men’s magazine known today as “GQ” used to be titled “Gentlemen’s Quarterly”, and before that was called “Apparel Arts” when it was launched in 1931.

49. Bygone record label : ARISTA
Arista Records was set up as part of Columbia Pictures by one Clive Davis. Davis chose “Arista” as it was the name of the New York City Honor Society to which he belonged.

51. Fictional character who cried “Curiouser and curiouser!” : ALICE
In Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Alice follows the white rabbit down a rabbit hole and finds a bottle labelled “DRINK ME”. When she drinks the contents, it causes her to shrink. She also sees a cake adorned with the words “EAT ME”, and when she does so she grows so big she finds it hard to stand up. After eating the cake, she says the famous words, “Curiouser and curiouser”.

53. Ancient Greek marketplace : AGORA
In early Greece the “agora” was a place of assembly. Often the assemblies held there were quite formal, perhaps for the reading of a proclamation. Later in Greek history, things became less formal as the agora evolved into a market place. Our contemporary word “agoraphobia” comes from these agorae, in the sense that a sufferer has a fear of open spaces, a fear of “public meeting places”.

54. Staple of IHOP booths : SYRUP
The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) was founded back in 1958. IHOP was originally intended to be called IHOE, the International House of Eggs, but that name didn’t do too well in marketing tests …

57. “The Secret of ___” (1982 animated film) : NIMH
“The Secret of NIMH” is the 1982 screen adaptation of a book written by Robert C. O’Brien. The novel’s title is “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH”. “Mrs. Frisby” doesn’t actually appear in the movie version, at least not under the same name. In the film her character is called Mrs. “Brisby”, with the name change being made due to concerns about a potential trademark dispute with “Frisbee” discs.

58. Jumble : OLIO
Olio is a term meaning a hodgepodge or a mixture, coming from the mixed stew of the same name. The stew in turn takes its name from the Spanish “olla”, the clay pot used when cooking the stew.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Empty spaces : GAPS
5. Writer Roald who created the Oompa-Loompas : DAHL
9. What a landscape painter paints : SCENE
14. Father of Thor : ODIN
15. Company name whose second letter is capitalized : EBAY
16. Photocopier cartridge : TONER
17. Saturn’s second-largest moon : RHEA
18. Stoop : BEND
19. Birdlike : AVIAN
20. With 38-Across, a complaint : DOC, I’M ADDICTED TO
23. New World cat : OCELOT
24. HBO’s “Real Time With Bill ___” : MAHER
25. Drink named for a certain small stature : NEHI
27. Bergman who directed “Wild Strawberries” : INGMAR
31. Smell, taste or touch : SENSE
35. Partner of legis. and jud. : EXEC
37. Plotter against Cassio in “Othello” : IAGO
38. See 20-Across : TWITTER
40. With 57-Across, response to the complaint : SORRY, I’M
42. Prefix with -gramme : AERO
43. Attire for Antonius : TOGA
45. Without assistance : ALONE
46. Decorative pin : BROOCH
48. Shoreline structure : QUAY
50. Subject of a painting by Picasso or Rousseau : DREAM
52. Entrees brought out with carving knives : ROASTS
57. See 40-Across : NOT FOLLOWING YOU
61. Situated near the upper part of the hip : ILIAC
62. Mid-March date : IDES
63. ___ fixation : ORAL
64. Capital of Belarus : MINSK
65. Gaelic speaker : CELT
66. 1960s secretary of state Dean : RUSK
67. Party throwers : HOSTS
68. Jazzy Fitzgerald : ELLA
69. Rented living qtrs. : APTS

Down
1. Astronaut Cooper, informally : GORDO
2. On an ___ basis : AD HOC
3. Gun, in slang : PIECE
4. Symbol of slowness : SNAIL
5. Election year event : DEBATE
6. Not yet up : ABED
7. Use a whisk on : HAND MIX
8. Neighbor of ancient Phrygia : LYDIA
9. New York’s ___ Island : STATEN
10. Beauty on display : COVER GIRL
11. Woman’s name that means “eat” backward : ENID
12. Like Felix, but not Oscar : NEAT
13. Puzzler Rubik : ERNO
21. “Les Coquelicots” artist : MONET
22. Marx brother at a piano : CHICO
26. Tarzan or Buck Rogers, e.g. : HERO
28. It’s sometimes held at a deli : MAYO
29. Not fer : AGIN
30. Terminus for all roads, in a saying : ROME
31. Wound for Cassio : STAB
32. Still-life pitcher : EWER
33. Actor Robert De ___ : NIRO
34. Didn’t compromise : STOOD FAST
36. “Hairy man” in Genesis : ESAU
39. One of the Barrymores : ETHEL
41. Synthetic material : RAYON
44. Hunk on display : GQ MODEL
47. Some pottery containers : CROCKS
49. Bygone record label : ARISTA
51. Fictional character who cried “Curiouser and curiouser!” : ALICE
53. Ancient Greek marketplace : AGORA
54. Staple of IHOP booths : SYRUP
55. Breakfast side dish : TOAST
56. Is a sore loser, say : SULKS
57. “The Secret of ___” (1982 animated film) : NIMH
58. Jumble : OLIO
59. Biscuit containers : TINS
60. Wishing place : WELL

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