0822-12: New York Times Crossword Answers 22 Aug 12, Wednesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Peter A. Collins
THEME: JOHANN GOETHE … the two main theme answers in the puzzle are the name of the movement in German literature and music fomented by Johann Goethe, written in German and in English:

26A. Country associated with 38-/40-/41-Across : GERMANY

38A. With 40- and 41-Across, 18th-century literary and musical movement : STURM
40A. See 38-Across : UND
41A. See 38-Across : DRANG

45A. With 47-Across, writer associated with 38-/40-/41-Across : JOHANN
47A. See 45-Across : GOETHE

7D. With 36- and 53-Down, translation of 38-/40-/41-Across : STORM
36D. See 7-Down : AND
53D. See 7-Down : STRESS

COMPLETION TIME: 14m 33s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0


Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Either of two Syrian presidents : ASSAD
Dr. Bashar al-Assad is the current President of the Syrian Arab Republic, and is the son of the former President, Hafez al-Assad, whom he replaced in 2001. President Assad is a medical doctor, speaks fluent English and conversational French. Assad was studying ophthalmology in London when he met his wife, an Englishwoman.

6. “Spring forward” inits. : DST
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.

9. “Oleanna” playwright : MAMET
David Mamet is best known as a playwright, and indeed won a Pulitzer for his 1984 play “Glengarry Glen Ross”. Mamet is also a successful screenwriter and received Oscar nominations for the films “The Verdict” (1982) and “Wag the Dog” (1997).

“Oleanna” sounds like a powerful play, written by David Mamet, first performed in 1992. It’s a two-person piece, the tale of a university professor and a female student who accuses him of sexual exploitation.

14. Bather’s scrubber : LOOFA
The loofah (also loofa, lufah and luffa, all Arabic words) is a vine, with fruit that’s very popular in Asia and Africa. If the fruit is allowed to mature, it can be processed to remove everything but the more rigid xylem structure (remember your high school botany class?) leaving a soft, sponge-like mass that is used as a skin polisher.

15. When to observe 6-Across in France : ETE
One might spend the summer (été) under the sun (le soleil).

16. Hoopster Stoudemire : AMAR’E
Amar’e Stoudemire is a professional basketball player with the New York Knicks.

17. Humanoid of Jewish folklore : GOLEM
Golem is Yiddish slang for “dimwit”. In Jewish folklore a golem is an anthropomorphic being made out of inanimate matter, somewhat like an unintelligent robot.

18. Elbow-bender : SOT
Our word “sot” comes from the Old English “sott”, meaning a fool. The word “sot” started to be associated with alcohol and not just foolery in the late 1500s.

19. ___ Hart (“Chicago” role) : ROXIE
The wonderful 1975 musical “Chicago” is based on a 1926 play of the same name written by a news reporter called Maurine Dallas Watkins. Watkins had been assigned to cover the murder trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaernter for the “Chicago Tribune”, and used the story that unfolded as the basis for her play. Annan became the character Roxie Hart, and Gaernter became Velma Kelly. I’ve only ever seen the movie version of “Chicago” and never a live performance …

30. “Babes in Toyland” composer : HERBERT
“Babes in Toyland” is an operetta by Victor Herbert, first performed in 1903 in Chicago. The musical play “The Wizard of Oz” had appeared on Broadway the prior year and was a resounding hit, so the creators of “Babes in Toyland” wanted to cash in on that success by producing something in the same genre. While not as big a hit as “Oz”, the show did very well, playing for 192 performances and is still produced today. The basic storyline makes use of various characters from the Mother Goose nursery rhymes, wound into a Christmas entertainment.

32. Wall St. stat : P/E RATIO
The P/E (price-to-earnings) ratio of a stock is the stock’s price compared to the earnings of the company per share (EPS). The idea behind the P/E ratio is that a stock with a relatively low P/E is usually a good buy, an indicator that the stock price should rise on the strength of solid earnings.

34. Wings, in zoology : ALAE
A bird (avis) has wings (alae, plural of ala), in Latin.

35. Golfer Aoki and others : ISAOS
Isao Aoki is one of Japan’s greatest golfers, now playing on the senior circuit. His best finish in a major tournament was runner-up to Jack Nicklaus in the 1980 US Open.

38. With 40- and 41-Across, 18th-century literary and musical movement : STURM
40. See 38-Across : UND
41. See 38-Across : DRANG
“Sturm und Drang” translates from the German into “Storm and Stress” or perhaps “Storm and Impulse”. “Sturm und Drang” was the name given to a movement in German literature and music in the latter half of the 18th century. The writer Johann Goethe was a major proponent of the movement, which took its name from a play by Maximilian Klinger.

45. With 47-Across, writer associated with 38-/40-/41-Across : JOHANN
47. See 45-Across : GOETHE
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer (among other things!). His most famous work is probably his play “Faust”. This epic work was published in parts, starting in 1808. The work was only published in toto after his death in 1832.

50. 90 degrees from Nord : OST
“Ost” is the German for “east”, and “nord” means “north”.

51. Sirius : DOG STAR
When you look up at the night sky, the brightest star you can see is Sirius. Sirius appears so bright to us because it is relatively close to the Earth. Sirius is commonly known as the “Dog Star” because it can be seen in the constellation Canis Major, the “Big Dog”.

55. Vintner’s prefix : OEN-
In Greek mythology Oeno was the goddess of wine, giving us “oen-” as a prefix meaning “wine”. Oenology, for example, is the study of wine.

56. Permeate : IMBUE
To imbue is to pervade, to soak in. “Imbue” has the same etymological roots as our word “imbibe”.

58. GPS suggestion: Abbr. : RTE
GPS stands for Global Positioning System. The modern GPS system that we use today was built by the US military who received the massive funding needed because of fears during the Cold War of the use of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. We civilians, all round the world, owe a lot to President Ronald Reagan because he directed the military to make GPS technology available to the public for the common good. He was moved to do so after the Soviet Union shot down KAL flight 007 carrying 269 people, just because the plane strayed accidentally into Soviet airspace.

62. Sen. Rubio : MARCO
Marco Rubio is the junior US Senator from Florida, a member of the Republican Party who has been in office since January 2011. Senator Rubio’s name has been closely associated with the Tea Party movement.

65. Morales of “Caprica” : ESAI
Esai Morales is best known for his role in the 1987 movie “La Bamba”, which depicted the life of Ritchie Valens and his half-brother Bob Morales (played by Esai).

“Caprica” is a sci-fi televisin series that was written as a prequel to the show “Battlestar Galactica”. “Caprica” didn’t sit well with the public and was cancelled after just one season.

67. ___ and terminer : OYER
“Oyer and terminer” is a term that originates in English law and that applies in some US states. Here in the US, oyer and terminer is the name given to some courts of criminal jurisdiction. Even though it has its origins in English law, the words “oyer” and “terminer” come from French (via Anglo-Norman) and mean “to hear” and “to determine”.

69. Remainder, in Rouen : RESTE
Rouen is the major city in Normandy in northern France. During the days of Norman Britain, Rouen was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman dynasties. Rouen was also where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431.

71. Radical org. of the ’60s : SDS
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was an activist group in the sixties. The SDS organized the largest student strike in the history of the United States on 26 April 1968, with about a million students staying away from class that day. The “Students for a Democratic Society” name was revived in 2006 with the foundation of a new US-based student organization with left wing beliefs. Today’s SDS was founded by a pair of high school students from Greenwich Village, New York.

72. Camels’ pit stops : OASES
The most famous oasis in the US is … Las Vegas, in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

Down
2. The Great Lakes’ ___ Locks : SOO
In the summer of 2010 I spent a very interesting afternoon watching ships make their way through the Soo Locks and Soo Canal between Lake Superior and the lower Great lakes. The name “Soo” comes from the US and Canadian cities on either side of the locks, both called Sault Ste. Marie.

3. G, in the key of C : SOL
The solfa syllables are: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la & ti. The solfa scale was developed from a six-note ascending scale created by Guido of Arezzo in the 11th century. He used the first verse of a Latin hymn to name the syllables of the scale:

Ut queant laxis resonāre fibris
Mira gestorum famuli tuorum,
Solve polluti labii reatum,
Sancte Iohannes.

The “ut” in this scale was changed to “do”, as it was a more “open ended” sound, and “si” was added (the initials of “Sancte Iohannes”) to complete the seven-note scale. Later again, “si” was changed to “ti” so that each syllable began with a unique letter.

6. Palm Springs paper, with “the” : DESERT SUN
“The Desert Sun” is a newspaper serving the Palm Springs area of Southern California. The paper was founded in 1927.

8. Four-footers : TETRAPODS
The tetrapods are the “four-footed” animals, animals who have four legs or who had four legs at some point in their evolution. All amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals are classified as tetrapods.

9. Joan of Arc, notably : MARTYR
Joan of Arc (also Jeanne d’Arc) led the French Army successfully into battle a number of times during the Hundred Years War with England. When she was eventually captured she was tried in Rouen, the seat of the occupying English government in France at that time. There she was burned at the stake having been found guilty of heresy. Joan of Arc was canonized some 600 years later, in 1920, and is now one of the patron saints of France.

10. Pal of Andy : AMOS
“Amos ‘n’ Andy” was originally a radio sitcom that was on the air from the twenties right up to the fifties. It was about Amos Jones and Andy Brown, two farm workers from outside Atlanta who head to Chicago to make good for themselves. They eventually start up the Fresh Air Taxi Company. The show was somewhat groundbreaking for the time, as it depicted African Americans for the first time in positions of influence as business owners. There was a TV adaptation that aired from 1951 to 1953 and ran in syndication right up to 1966. I have never seen/heard the show, but it sounds like it is a classic …

12. “___ tu” : ERI
The aria “Eri tu” is from Verdi’s opera “Un ballo in maschera” (A Masked Ball). The opera tells the story of the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden during a masked ball.

21. Actress Polo : TERI
Teri Polo’s most prominent role on the big screen was Pam Focker in “Meet the Fockers” and its sequel. Pam is the wife of the character played by Ben Stiller.

22. Hydrocarbon suffixes : -ANES
The “smaller” alkanes are gases and are quite combustible. Methane (CH4) is the main component of natural gas with ethane (C2H6) being the second largest component. Propane (C3H8) is another component of natural gas and is heavy enough to be readily turned into a liquid by compression for ease of transportation and storage. Butane (C4H10) is also easily liquefied under pressure and can be used as the fuel in cigarette lighters or as the propellant in aerosol sprays. The heavier alkanes are not gases, and instead are liquids and solids at room temperature.

23. Cartoonist Addams : CHAS
Chas Addams was a cartoonist. He didn’t draw a cartoon strip and rather individual cartoons, although many of his cartoons did feature regular characters. His most famous characters were the members of the Addams Family, who were published in single-panel cartoons between 1938 and 1988 in “The New Yorker”. The Addams Family moved onto the small and big screens starting in 1964.

25. Place for an English king? : DRAUGHTBOARD
A “draughtboard” is the board on which one plays the game of “draughts”.

Checkers is yet another word that I had to learn moving across the Atlantic. In Ireland the game is called draughts.

27. One of Sam’s tunes in “Casablanca” : IT HAD TO BE YOU
“It Had to Be You” was published in 1924, written by Isham Jones with lyrics written by Gus Kahn. The song has been performed on screen a number of times, including a lovely version by Dooley Wilson (the piano player “Sam”) in “Casablanca”.

28. Gorilla expert Fossey : DIAN
Dian Fossey carried out her famous study of gorilla populations in the mountain forests of Rwanda (NB: it was Jane Goodall that worked with chimpanzees). Sadly, Fossey was found dead in her cabin in Rwanda in 1986, murdered in her bedroom, her skull split open by a machete. The crime was never solved.

29. “Yesterday” or “Tomorrow” : SONG
“Yesterday” is such a beautiful ballad. It was written by Paul McCartney, who also routinely performed the song as a solo piece. “Yesterday” wasn’t originally released as a single and first appeared as a track on the 1965 Beatles album, “Help!” In several polls over in the UK, “Yesterday” has been named the number one pop song of all time.

“Tomorrow” is a song written for the Broadway musical “Annie”. The musical was based on the Harold Gray comic strip “Little Orphan Annie”. There were two subsequent film adaptations, both really quite successful, including one released in 1982 directed by John Huston of all people. It was Huston’s only ever musical.

31. “It gets late early out there” speaker : BERRA
Yogi Berra is regarded by many as the greatest catcher ever to play in Major League Baseball, and has to be America’s most celebrated “author” of malapropisms. Here are some greats:

– “It’s ain’t over till it’s over.”
– “90% of the game is half mental.”
– “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
– (giving directions) “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
– “It’s déjà vu all over again.”
– “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.”

33. “… poem lovely as ___” : A TREE
The American journalist and poet Joyce Kilmer is primarily known for his 1913 poem titles “Trees”. The original text of the poem is:

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Kilmer died a few years after writing “Trees”, a casualty of the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918, aged 31.

41. Río ___ (African region) : DE ORO
Rio de Oro is Spanish for Gold River, and was the name of one of the two territories owned by Spain that made up the province of Spanish Sahara. Spain surrendered control of the area in 1975 and subsequent ownership of the land was disputed, sparking a violent conflict between Mauritania and Morocco. Although there has been a ceasefire in place since 1991, there is still unrest in the region.

43. South American cardinal? : UNO
“Uno” is the Italian for “one”.

Cardinal numbers are the whole numbers starting with zero i.e. 0, 1, 2, 3 etc.

44. Links org. : PGA
The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) was founded in 1916, and today has its headquarters (unsurprisingly) in Florida, where so many golfers live. Back in 1916, the association was based in New York City.

45. Yoked : JOINED
The yoke is that wooden beam used between a pair of oxen so that they are forced to work together.

46. Absorption process : OSMOSIS
Osmosis is the movement of a solvent (often just water) across a semi-permeable membrane. In the process of osmosis, the solvent tends to flow from an area of less concentration to an area of higher concentration.

48. Paris Hilton, for one : HEIRESS
Paris Hilton is the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels.

54. Mexican beer brand : TECATE
Tecate is a Mexican beer that takes its name from the city of Tecate in Baja California.

57. Rod and rad : UNITS
A “rod” is a unit of length, the same length as a “perch” or a “pole”.

A rad is a unit used to measure radiation levels, one that is largely obsolete now. The rad has been superseded by the rem.

60. Equilateral figure : RHOMB
Rhomb is an alternative name for a rhombus, a 4-sided figure with sides of equal length, but angles at the corners that aren’t right angles. So, that would make a rhombus a “diamond” shape.

62. “The Tilled Field” painter Joan : MIRO
Joan Miro was a Spanish artist. Miro immersed himself in Surrealism, so much so that Andre Breton, the founder of the movement, said that Miro was “the most Surrealist of us all”. Miro painted “The Tilled Field” in 1923-24, a work that is regarded as Miro’s first Surrealist masterpiece.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Either of two Syrian presidents : ASSAD
6. “Spring forward” inits. : DST
9. “Oleanna” playwright : MAMET
14. Bather’s scrubber : LOOFA
15. When to observe 6-Across in France : ETE
16. Hoopster Stoudemire : AMAR’E
17. Humanoid of Jewish folklore : GOLEM
18. Elbow-bender : SOT
19. ___ Hart (“Chicago” role) : ROXIE
20. Marsh rodents : WATER RATS
23. Mil. headquarters : CMD
26. Country associated with 38-/40-/41-Across : GERMANY
27. They’re flashed at guards : IDS
30. “Babes in Toyland” composer : HERBERT
32. Wall St. stat : P/E RATIO
34. Wings, in zoology : ALAE
35. Golfer Aoki and others : ISAOS
37. Comparative word : THAN
38. With 40- and 41-Across, 18th-century literary and musical movement : STURM
40. See 38-Across : UND
41. See 38-Across : DRANG
42. Aircraft velocity figure : GROUND SPEED
45. With 47-Across, writer associated with 38-/40-/41-Across : JOHANN
47. See 45-Across : GOETHE
50. 90 degrees from Nord : OST
51. Sirius : DOG STAR
55. Vintner’s prefix : OEN-
56. Permeate : IMBUE
58. GPS suggestion: Abbr. : RTE
59. What much space junk is in : ORBIT
61. Time for both hands to be up : NOON
62. Sen. Rubio : MARCO
64. “All yours!” : HERE
65. Morales of “Caprica” : ESAI
66. Worth a 10 : IDEAL
67. ___ and terminer : OYER
68. Word before poor or cheap : DIRT
69. Remainder, in Rouen : RESTE
70. Moor growth : MOSS
71. Radical org. of the ’60s : SDS
72. Camels’ pit stops : OASES
73. Sightseer’s ride : BUS

Down
1. “Solve for x” subj. : ALG
2. The Great Lakes’ ___ Locks : SOO
3. G, in the key of C : SOL
4. Not many : A FEW
5. Price to pay, informally : DAMAGE
6. Palm Springs paper, with “the” : DESERT SUN
7. With 36- and 53-Down, translation of 38-/40-/41-Across : STORM
8. Four-footers : TETRAPODS
9. Joan of Arc, notably : MARTYR
10. Pal of Andy : AMOS
11. Peak, slangily : MAX
12. “___ tu” : ERI
13. Pipe joint : TEE
21. Actress Polo : TERI
22. Hydrocarbon suffixes : -ANES
23. Cartoonist Addams : CHAS
24. Go soft : MELT
25. Place for an English king? : DRAUGHTBOARD
27. One of Sam’s tunes in “Casablanca” : IT HAD TO BE YOU
28. Gorilla expert Fossey : DIAN
29. “Yesterday” or “Tomorrow” : SONG
31. “It gets late early out there” speaker : BERRA
33. “… poem lovely as ___” : A TREE
36. See 7-Down : AND
39. Earth, to the French : MONDE
41. Río ___ (African region) : DE ORO
43. South American cardinal? : UNO
44. Links org. : PGA
45. Yoked : JOINED
46. Absorption process : OSMOSIS
48. Paris Hilton, for one : HEIRESS
49. Punches in, say : ENTERS
52. Egg rating : GRADE A
53. See 7-Down : STRESS
54. Mexican beer brand : TECATE
57. Rod and rad : UNITS
60. Equilateral figure : RHOMB
62. “The Tilled Field” painter Joan : MIRO
63. World Cup chants : OLES

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