1010-12 New York Times Crossword Answers 10 Oct 12, Wednesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. 1970 #1 hit with the lyric “Easy as …” : ABC
“ABC” topped the charts for the Jackson 5 in 1970, and might perhaps be called the Jackson 5’s signature tune.

15. Soap genre : DRAMA
As almost everyone knows, the original soap operas were radio dramas back in the fifties. Given the structure of society back then, the daytime broadcasts were aimed at housewives working in the home. For some reason, the sponsors of those radio shows, and the television shows that followed, were soap manufacturers, like Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Lever Brothers. And that’s how the “soap” opera got its name …

16. Macbeth or Macduff : THANE
Thanes were Scottish aristocrats. The most famous thanes have to be the Shakespearean characters Macbeth (the Thane of Glamis, later Thane of Cawdor) and MacDuff (the Thane of Fife). Other thanes in “Macbeth” are Ross, Lennox and Angus, as well as Menteith and Caithness.

19. With 49-Across, jumble : HODGE
49. See 19-Across : PODGE
“Hochepot” is an Old French word for stew or soup, and this gave rise to an Anglo-French legal term for a collection of property that was gathered prior to being divided up. This became our “hodge-podge” in the early 1400s.

24. Supposed skill of some hotline operators : ESP
That would be the Psychic Hotline.

28. Some INTs result in them : TDS
In football, some interceptions result in touchdowns.

29. When mammoths roamed : ICE AGE
A relatively well-preserved set of woolly mammoth remains were discovered in Siberia in 2012. The remains included some intact cells, and there is talk about the possibility of cloning the animal who died between 4,000 and 10,000 years ago. Scary stuff …

31. Sedona automaker : KIA
Kia Motors is the second largest manufacturer of cars in South Korea, behind Hyundai. In recent years, Kia has focused on sales into Europe and has been remarkably successful.

40. Tea-growing Indian state : ASSAM
Assam is a state in the very northeast of India, just south of the Himalayas. Assam is noted for its tea, as well as its silk.

44. H.R.H. part : HER
Her Royal Highness (HRH).

52. Cards, on scoreboards : STL
The St. Louis Cardinals were originally called the “Brown Stockings”, changing their name to the “Perfectos” in 1899. The new name obviously didn’t go down well with the locals, as the owners changed it one year later to the Cardinals.

53. Green “pet” : CHIA
Chia is a flowering plant in the mint family, and the Chia Pet is an invention of a San Francisco company. Chia Pets are terracotta figurines to which are applied moistened chia seeds. The seeds sprout and as they grew the seedlings become the “fur” of the Chia Pet.

58. “___ the loneliest number” : ONE IS
The rock band Three Dog Night had its first and biggest success back in 1969 with the Harry Nilsson song “One”. The song is perhaps best known for it’s opening words, “One is the loneliest number …” Three Dog Night took their name from an Australian expression. Apparently indigenous Australians would sleep in a hole in the ground alongside their tame dingoes  On a cold night, they would huddle up to two dingoes and if it was really, really cold, it was a “three dog night”.

62. Lee and Laurel : STANS
Stan Lee did just about everything at “Marvel Comics” over the years, from writing to being president and chairman of the board.

Stan Laurel was an English comic actor (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson), who made a great career for himself in Hollywood. Laurel ended up at the Hal Roach studio directing films, intent on pursuing a career in writing and directing. However, he was a sometime actor and was asked to step in when another comic actor, Oliver Hardy, was injured and couldn’t perform. Laurel and Hardy started to share a stage together during that time, and when it was clear they worked so well together, their partnership was born.

63. As such : PER SE
“Per se” is a Latin phrase that translates as “by itself”. We use “per se” pretty literally, meaning “in itself, intrinsically”.

64. Merry Prankster Kesey : KEN
Ken Kesey wrote the novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. Kesey was one of a group of friends who called themselves the “Merry Pranksters”, a bunch of guys who were associated with the likes of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary, all icons of the Beat Generation.

65. The hotheaded Corleone : SONNY
Sonny Corleone was oldest son of Don Vito Corleone in Mario Puzo’s great novel “The Godfather”. In the movie, Sonny was played by James Caan. Sonny appears as a boy in the movie “The Godfather: Part II”, and is played by director Francis Ford Coppola’s own son, Roman Coppola.

67. Sellout sign : SRO
Standing Room Only (SRO).

Down
3. Thickets : COPSES
A copse is a small stand of trees. A copse was originally a small thicket that was specifically grown for cutting.

5. Manhattan film festival locale : TRIBECA
TriBeCa is a clever little abbreviation that expands into “TRI-angle BE-low CA-nal Street. The name was developed by local residents who basically copied the technique used by residents of the neighboring area of SoHo, which is short for SO-uth of HO-uston Street.

The Tribeca Film Festival was launched in 2002 by film producer Jane Rosenthal and actor Robert De Niro. The festival was a very successful attempt to revitalize the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan after the devastation of the September 11th attacks.

6. ___ Solo (Ford role) : HAN
Han Solo is the space smuggler in “Star Wars” played by Harrison Ford. Ford was originally hired by George Lucas just to read lines for actors during auditions for “Star Wars”, but over time Lucas became convinced that Ford was right for the pivotal role of Han Solo.

7. Defib operator : EMT
A defibrillator might be operated by an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).

8. Sing like Tom Waits : RASP
Tom Waits is a singer-songwriter from Pomona, California. Waits is noted for his growling, rasping voice.

9. Playwright Fugard : ATHOL
Athol Fugard was born in South Africa. Fugard became involved in the theater, writing plays that opposed apartheid, many of which had to be produced outside of South Africa given the political climate at home. Fugard now lives in San Diego.

12. Actress Jolie : ANGELINA
Angelina Jolie is a remarkably successful Hollywood actress from Los Angeles, California. Jolie has acting in her blood as her father is actor Jon Voight. Her godparents are actors Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell.

13. Bug repellent : DEET
DEET is short for N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide, an active ingredient in insect repellents. DEET is most often used to repel mosquitoes by applying it to the skin and/or clothing, but is also used to protect against tick bites.

18. Stewart in the “Wordplay” documentary : JON
Jon Stewart is a political satirist and the current host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central. Stewart started out as a stand-up comic, and took over “The Daily Show” from Craig Kilborn in 1999. Stewart is a great fan of the New York Times Crossword, and appears in the fabulous movie about the puzzle called “Wordplay” (if you love this crossword, you will love this fantastic film!). Stewart actually proposed to his wife using a personalized crossword that he created with the help of Will Shortz!

25. Body part that may be deviated : SEPTUM
In the world of anatomy, a septum is a dividing wall within a chamber or other structure. For example, the interatrial septum separates the left and right atria of the heart, and the nasal septum separates the nostrils of the nose.

26. Nightwear … or a hidden feature of 17-, 21-, 33-, 41-, 54- and 59-Across? : PAJAMAS (PJs)
Our word “pajamas” comes to us from the Indian subcontinent, where “pai jamahs” were loose fitting pants tied at the waist and worn at night by locals and ultimately by the Europeans living there. And “pajamas” is another of those words that I had to learn to spell differently when I came to America. In the British Isles the spelling is “pyjamas”.

29. Clouseau, e.g.: Abbr. : INSP
Inspector Jacques Clouseau is of course the wonderful detective in “The Pink Panther” series of films. The definitive player of the role was English actor Peter Sellers. Clouseau worked for the Sûreté, the detective branch of the French National Police.

33. “Casablanca” pianist : SAM
The movie “Casablanca” was released in January of 1943, timed to coincide with the Casablanca Conference, the high-level meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill. The film wasn’t a box-office hit, but gained critical acclaim, winning three Oscars including Best Picture. The signature song “As Time Goes By” was written many years earlier for a 1931 Broadway musical called “Everybody’s Welcome”, and was a hit in 1931 for Rudy Vallee. But today we all remember the Casablanca version, sung by Dooley Wilson (“Sam” in the film). Poor Dooley didn’t get to record it as a single, due to a musician’s strike in 1943, so the 1931 Rudy Vallee version was re-released that year and became an even bigger hit second time round.

34. Needle-nosed swimmers : GARS
The fish known as a gar is very unusual in that it is often found in very brackish water. What is interesting about gar is that their swim bladders are vascularized so that they can actually function as lungs. Many species of gar can be seen coming to the surface and taking a gulp of air. This adaptation makes it possible for them to live in conditions highly unsuitable for other fish that rely on their gills to get oxygen out of the water. Indeed, quite interesting …

35. Ed.’s workload : MSS
An editor has to wade his or her way through a manuscript (MS) that has been submitted.

36. Work the aisles, informally : USH
“To ush” is to usher, to show to a seat.

38. Like some Turks and Georgians : EUROPEAN
Turkey is a country that straddles the border between the continents of Europe and Asia. Even though most of Turkey lies geographically in Asia, in recent decades the country has been strengthening its ties with its European neighbors. Turkey is a member of NATO and is well on the way to becoming a member of the European Union.

The former Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia is now an independent country. Supposedly, the Georgian people were given their name because they especially revered St. George. The flag of Georgia does indeed feature five St. George’s crosses.

42. Give the raspberry : JEER
Not so much here in America, but over in the British Isles “blowing a raspberry” is a way of insulting someone (I think it’s called “a Bronx cheer” here in the US).

46. Tases, say : SHOCKS
Victor Appleton wrote a novel for young adults called “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle”. The company that developed the TASER electroshock weapon named their product as a homage to the novel, as TASER stands for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”. Interesting, eh?

47. Bygone Wall Street device : TICKER
Stock price information used to be transmitted over telegraph lines by “stock tickers” that produced the famous “ticker tape”, a paper tape with stock symbols and prices printed on it. The “ticker” got its name from the noise it created when it was printing. Even though ticker tape is no longer used, the concept lives on in the scrolling electronic tickers that stream across the bottom of a television screen when there’s a financial program airing.

50. Spirit of Islamic myth : DJINN
The “genie” in the bottle takes his or her name from “djinn”. “Djinns” were various spirits considered lesser than angels, with people exhibiting unsavory characteristics said to be possessed by djinn. When the book “The Thousand and One Nights” was translated into French, the word “djinn” was transformed into the existing word “génie”, because of the similarity in sound and the related spiritual meaning. This “génie” from the Arabian tale became confused with the Latin-derived “genius”, a guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at birth. Purely as a result of that mistranslation the word genie has come to mean the “djinn” that pops out of the bottle. A little hard to follow, but still quite interesting …

53. “The Bourne Supremacy” org. : CIA
“The Bourne Identity” is a great spy novel written by Robert Ludlum, first published in 1980. It has been ranked as the second best spy novel of all time, just behind the even more enjoyable “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” by John le Carre. Ludlum wrote two sequels, and all three parts of the Bourne Trilogy have been made into very successful movies. Ludlum died before he could write more than three novels featuring Jason Bourne, but five more titles in the series have been published, written by Eric Van Lustbader. I must check them out …

55. Dirty Harry’s org. : SFPD
“Dirty” Harry Callahan was the protagonist in a series of five movies starring Clint Eastwood:

– “Dirty Harry” (1971)
– “Magnum Force” (1973)
– “The Enforcer” (1976)
– “Sudden Impact” (1983)
– “The Dead Pool” (1988)

57. Handled the music at a rave : DJED
The world’s first radio disk jockey was one Ray Newby of Stockton, California who made his first broadcast in 1909, would you believe? When he was 16 years old and a student, Newby started to play his records on a primitive radio located in the Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless in San Jose. The records played back then were mostly recordings of Enrico Caruso.

60. DiCaprio, to pals : LEO
Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio is from Los Angeles, California. DiCaprio’s mother was visiting a museum in Italy when she was pregnant and felt the first kick of her unborn child. At the moment of that first kick, Mama DiCaprio was looking at a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, and so named her son Leonardo.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. 1970 #1 hit with the lyric “Easy as …” : ABC
4. Last option, often : OTHER
9. Equally poor : AS BAD
14. Miracle-___ : -GRO
15. Soap genre : DRAMA
16. Macbeth or Macduff : THANE
17. Surgically replaceable body parts : HI(P J)OINTS
19. With 49-Across, jumble : HODGE
20. Sop up : ABSORB
21. Many a corporate plane : PRO(P J)ET
23. On videotape, say : SEEN
24. Supposed skill of some hotline operators : ESP
27. The sun, in Spain : EL SOL
28. Some INTs result in them : TDS
29. When mammoths roamed : ICE AGE
31. Sedona automaker : KIA
33. On-the-spot appraisal : SNA(P J)UDGMENT
36. “___ directed” : USE AS
39. Sun-kissed : TAN
40. Tea-growing Indian state : ASSAM
41. Classic mountain bikes : STUM(P J)UMPERS
44. H.R.H. part : HER
45. Alternative to texts : EMAILS
46. Manhattan’s crosstown arteries: Abbr. : STS
49. See 19-Across : PODGE
52. Cards, on scoreboards : STL
53. Green “pet” : CHIA
54. Bar musicians may put them out : TI(P J)ARS
56. Total nonsense : IDIOCY
58. “___ the loneliest number” : ONE IS
59. Serving with syrup : FLA(PJ)ACKS
62. Lee and Laurel : STANS
63. As such : PER SE
64. Merry Prankster Kesey : KEN
65. The hotheaded Corleone : SONNY
66. Protected from rainouts, say : DOMED
67. Sellout sign : SRO

Down
1. Terror-struck : AGHAST
2. Greased the palm of : BRIBED
3. Thickets : COPSES
4. Foot problem : ODOR
5. Manhattan film festival locale : TRIBECA
6. ___ Solo (Ford role) : HAN
7. Defib operator : EMT
8. Sing like Tom Waits : RASP
9. Playwright Fugard : ATHOL
10. Hits the “Add to Cart” button and then continues, say : SHOPS
11. Elicitors of groans : BAD JOKES
12. Actress Jolie : ANGELINA
13. Bug repellent : DEET
18. Stewart in the “Wordplay” documentary : JON
22. Action hero’s underwater breathing aid : REED
25. Body part that may be deviated : SEPTUM
26. Nightwear … or a hidden feature of 17-, 21-, 33-, 41-, 54- and 59-Across? : PAJAMAS (PJs)
29. Clouseau, e.g.: Abbr. : INSP
30. Defensive excavation : GUN PIT
32. PIN requester : ATM
33. “Casablanca” pianist : SAM
34. Needle-nosed swimmers : GARS
35. Ed.’s workload : MSS
36. Work the aisles, informally : USH
37. Put on, as pants : STEP INTO
38. Like some Turks and Georgians : EUROPEAN
42. Give the raspberry : JEER
43. Basic orbital path : ELLIPSE
46. Tases, say : SHOCKS
47. Bygone Wall Street device : TICKER
48. Refuses : SAYS NO
50. Spirit of Islamic myth : DJINN
51. Like a blowhard : GASSY
53. “The Bourne Supremacy” org. : CIA
54. Eject from the game : TOSS
55. Dirty Harry’s org. : SFPD
57. Handled the music at a rave : DJED
60. DiCaprio, to pals : LEO
61. Escort’s offering : ARM

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