0107-13 New York Times Crossword Answers 7 Jan 13, Monday

QuickLinks:
Solution to today’s crossword in the New York Times
Solution to today’s SYNDICATED New York Times crossword in all other publications

CROSSWORD SETTER: Jim Peredo
THEME: Metal Puzzle … each of today’s themed answers features a metal:

17A. Result of tanning : BRONZE SKIN
28A. Generous spirit, metaphorically : HEART OF GOLD
44A. Hit 1980s exercise video : BUNS OF STEEL
58A. Baldie’s nickname : CHROME DOME
3D. What a tyrant rules with : IRON FIST
38D. Speed demon : LEAD FOOT

COMPLETION TIME: 06m 12s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

14. Multinational coin : EURO
The European Union (EU) today stands at a membership of 27 states. The Euro is the official currency of only 16 of the 27. The list of states in the EU that don’t use the Euro includes the UK, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

17. Result of tanning : BRONZE SKIN
Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, and brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. .

21. “There ___ an old woman …” : WAS
“There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe” is an English nursery rhyme.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread;
Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

25. Pipe-playing god : PAN
In Greek mythology, Pan was a lecherous god, one who fell in love with Echo the mountain nymph. Echo refused Pan’s advances so that he became very angry. Pan’s anger created a “panic” (a word derived from the name “Pan”) and a group of shepherds were driven to kill Echo.

26. ___ nous : ENTRE
“Entre nous” is French for “between us”.

27. Kimono sash : OBI
The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. The obi can be tied in what is called a butterfly knot.

31. “Oui, oui,” across the Pyrenees : SI SI
According to Greek mythology, Pyrene was a lover of Hercules. Out of the relationship she bore a serpent, which understandably terrified her so she fled into the woods and there died. Hercules made a tomb for her that he covered with a huge pile of rocks, creating the Pyrenees mountain range that separates Spain from France. So, Pyrenees is named after Pyrene.

34. Mythical bird of prey : ROC
The mythical roc is a huge bird of prey, reputedly able to carry off and eat elephants.

35. Citizen of Canada’s capital : OTTAWAN
Ottawa is the second largest city in the Province of Ontario (after Toronto) and is the capital city of Canada. The name “Ottawa” comes from an Algonquin word “adawe” which means “to trade”.

37. Nobody doesn’t like her, in a slogan : SARA LEE
In 1935, businessman Charles Lubin bought a chain of three bakeries in Chicago called Community Bake Shops, and soon expanded the operation into seven stores. Lubin introduced a cream cheesecake that he named after his daughter who was only 8-years-old at the time, Sara Lee Lubin. The cheesecake was a hit and he renamed the bakeries to Kitchen of Sara Lee. The business was bought out by Consolidated foods in 1956, but the brand name Sara Lee persists to this day, as does Ms. Sara Lee herself who now goes by the name Sara Lee Schupf.

42. Long-distance letters : ATT
The original AT&T Corporation was first known as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.

43. Use a Kindle, say : READ
The Kindle Fire is a tablet computer version of the highly successful Kindle e-book reader. If you’re looking for a tablet computer at a very reasonable price, then the Fire is hard to pass up. Amazon’s strategy is to sell the Fire at little or no profit, with the intent of selling more Amazon products, mainly digital content.

49. “___ Maria” : AVE
“Ave Maria”, or “Hail Mary” in English, is the prayer at the core of the Roman Catholic Rosary, which itself is a set of prayers asking for the assistance of the Virgin Mary. Much of the text of the “Hail Mary” comes from the Gospel of Luke.

51. German city where Einstein was born : ULM
Ulm is in the south of Germany and sits on the River Danube. Ulm is famous as home to the tallest church in the world, Ulm Minster, a Gothic building with a steeple that is 530ft tall, with 768 steps to climb. Ulm is also the birthplace of Albert Einstein, and is where the entire Austrian army surrendered to Napoleon after the Battle of Ulm in 1805.

52. Elizabeth of cosmetics : ARDEN
Elizabeth Arden was the business name used by Canadian-American Florence Nightingale Graham. Arden built a cosmetics empire that made her one of the wealthiest women in the world.

54. Sulfuric ___ : ACID
Sulfuric acid is extremely corrosive. Sulfuric acid was called “oil of vitriol” by the Medieval alchemists of Europe.

55. Santa ___ winds : ANA
Santa Ana is the county seat of Orange County, California and takes its name from the Santa Ana River that runs through the city. The Santa Ana winds are the very dry air currents that sweep offshore late in the year in Southern California. Because these air currents are so dry, they are noted for their influence over forest fires in the area, especially in the heat of the fall. The winds arise from a buildup of air pressure in the Great Basin that lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Under the right conditions, that air spills over the peaks of the Sierra Nevada and basically “falls” down the side of the Sierra range, heading for the ocean. As the air falls it becomes drier and heats up so that relative humidity can fall to below 10% by the time it hits the coast.

57. “Venerable” English historian : BEDE
The Venerable Bede was a monk in the north of England in the first century AD. Bede is mainly known as an author and scholar, and publisher of “The Ecclesiastical History of the English People”.

58. Baldie’s nickname : CHROME DOME
“Chrome” is the name given to a metallic coating of chromium metal that is applied to an object by electroplating.

66. Deletion undoers : STETS
“Stet” is the Latin word meaning “let it stand”. In editorial work, the typesetter is instructed to disregard any change previously marked by writing the word “stet” and then underscoring that change with a line of dots or dashes.

67. Caesar’s words to Brutus : ET TU
It was Shakespeare who popularized the words “Et tu, Brute?” (And you, Brutus?), in his play “Julius Caesar”, although the phrase had been around long before he penned his drama. It’s not known what Julius Caesar actually said in real life just before he was assassinated on the steps of the Senate in Rome.

Down
2. “Ben-___” : HUR
The celebrated Charlton Heston movie “Ben-Hur” is a dramatization of a book published in 1880 by Lew Wallace titled “Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ”. The 1959 epic film won a record 11 Academy Awards, a feat that has been equaled since then but has never been beaten. The other winners of 11 Oscars are “Titanic” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Rings”.

4. Impressionist Claude : 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.

5. Tech news site : C|NET
c|net is an excellent technology website. c|net started out in 1994 as a television network specializing in technology news. In fact the host of “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest, started off his career as a host on a c|net show.

6. “Au Revoir ___ Enfants” : LES
“Au revoir, les enfants” (“Goodbye, Children”) is a French film released in 1987. The film is based on real events from the childhood of director Louis Malle who witnessed a Gestapo raid on his school. During the raid, three Jewish students and a Jewish teacher were taken and transported to Auschwitz, where they were gassed upon arrival.

18. Galifianakis of “The Hangover” : ZACH
Zach Galifianakis is a stand-up comedian who is making a name for himself on the big screen. Galifianakis garnered a lot of attention for his role in 2009’s “The Hangover”, and also starred opposite Robert Downey Jr. in the 2010 release “Due Date”.

24. Black-bordered news item : OBIT
“Obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”, originally the record of the death of a person, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

29. ___ Good Feelings : ERA OF
The Era of Good Feelings lasted from about 1816 to 1824, during the administration of President James Monroe. The term described the feeling of bipartisanship that permeated politics at that time, largely due to President Monroe deliberately downplaying differences between the parties in Washington. One can only dream …

36. Great Dane sound : WOOF
The Great Dane breed of dog is one of the tallest. The “record” for the world’s tallest living dog is usually held by a Great Dane.

40. Garden of ___ : EDEN
According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve lived in a garden “in” Eden, with Eden being geographically located by reference to four rivers including the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some scholars hypothesize that Eden was located in Mesopotamia, which encompasses much of modern-day Iraq.

45. Worriers’ problems, it’s said : ULCERS
A peptic ulcer, until fairly recently, was believed to be caused by undue amounts of stress in one’s life. It is now known that 70-90% of all peptic ulcers are in fact associated with a particular bacterium.

48. Do surgery on with a beam : LASE
The term “laser” comes from an acronym, “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation” (LASER). It has been pointed out that a more precise name for laser technology is “Light Oscillation by Stimulated Emission of Radiation”, but the resulting acronym isn’t quite so appealing, namely LOSER …

53. Klingon forehead feature : RIDGE
Klingons are a warrior race often featured in the “Star Trek” franchise of shows. Back in the first “Star Trek” movie, the actor James Doohan (who played “Scottie”) put together some Klingon dialogue that was used in the film. For subsequent movies, the American linguist Marc Okrand was commissioned to develop a working Klingon language, which he duly did using the original words from Doohan as its basis.

56. Sound boxes at a concert : AMPS
An electric guitar, for example, needs an amplifier to take the weak signal created by the vibration of the strings and turn it into a signal powerful enough for a loudspeaker.

61. End of a school e-mail address : EDU
A domain name is basically the address of a website on the Internet. Some time ago, I moved the website for this blog to a new address (from puzzle.paxient.com to NYTCrossword.com). Like in the real world, one pays for an address. I now own (well rent!) both of the addresses used for this blog, but choose to “do business”, publish the blog, at the more memorable address: NYTCrossword.com. It’s sort of like preferring to have a Park Avenue address instead of one on say Elm Street. In the Internet world, elements of the domain name are intended to indicate what type of activity goes on at a particular address. So an address with “.com” implies a “company” website, a “.org” implies a non-profit website and “.edu” implies an education website. But in reality anyone can rent whatever address they want, as it just goes to the highest bidder. Most folks remember “.com” addresses, so they are the most popular. “.com” is meant to imply a “business address” as I say, but it can even be used for somewhere to chat about crosswords!

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Sudden impulse : WHIM
5. Applauds : CLAPS
10. Imperfection : FLAW
14. Multinational coin : EURO
15. Just now : NEWLY
16. Misplace : LOSE
17. Result of tanning : BRONZE SKIN
19. Wailing cry : YOWL
20. Nifty : NEAT
21. “There ___ an old woman …” : WAS
22. “Just messin’ with you!” : I KID!
23. The fourth letter of “cancel,” but not the first : SOFT C
25. Pipe-playing god : PAN
26. ___ nous : ENTRE
27. Kimono sash : OBI
28. Generous spirit, metaphorically : HEART OF GOLD
31. “Oui, oui,” across the Pyrenees : SI SI
33. Dispose (of) : RID
34. Mythical bird of prey : ROC
35. Citizen of Canada’s capital : OTTAWAN
37. Nobody doesn’t like her, in a slogan : SARA LEE
41. Dairy farm sound : MOO
42. Long-distance letters : ATT
43. Use a Kindle, say : READ
44. Hit 1980s exercise video : BUNS OF STEEL
49. “___ Maria” : AVE
50. Standoffish : ALOOF
51. German city where Einstein was born : ULM
52. Elizabeth of cosmetics : ARDEN
54. Sulfuric ___ : ACID
55. Santa ___ winds : ANA
56. “I don’t THINK so!” : AS IF
57. “Venerable” English historian : BEDE
58. Baldie’s nickname : CHROME DOME
62. Locale : AREA
63. Touch base after a pop fly, say : TAG UP
64. Prod : GOAD
65. “It’s ___ state of affairs” : A SAD
66. Deletion undoers : STETS
67. Caesar’s words to Brutus : ET TU

Down
1. Fly catcher : WEB
2. “Ben-___” : HUR
3. What a tyrant rules with : IRON FIST
4. Impressionist Claude : MONET
5. Tech news site : C|NET
6. “Au Revoir ___ Enfants” : LES
7. Singsongy comment in a sticky situation : AWKWARD!
8. Flexible : PLIANT
9. Thesaurus offerings: Abbr. : SYNS
10. “Vehicle of the future” since the 1950s : FLYING CAR
11. Consult : LOOK TO
12. Spinning dizzily : ASWIRL
13. United with a blowtorch : WELDED
18. Galifianakis of “The Hangover” : ZACH
23. Meh : SO SO
24. Black-bordered news item : OBIT
25. Ache : PAIN
26. Get an ___ effort : E FOR
29. ___ Good Feelings : ERA OF
30. Make a big speech : ORATE
32. “My parents are going to kill me!” : I AM SO DEAD
36. Great Dane sound : WOOF
37. Green part of a flower : STEM
38. Speed demon : LEAD FOOT
39. Christmas light site : EAVE
40. Garden of ___ : EDEN
42. Not yet apprehended : AT LARGE
44. Black sheep’s cry : BAA BAA
45. Worriers’ problems, it’s said : ULCERS
46. “Heck if I know” : NO IDEA
47. Wide-brimmed summer headgear : SUN HAT
48. Do surgery on with a beam : LASE
53. Klingon forehead feature : RIDGE
55. Does stage work : ACTS
56. Sound boxes at a concert : AMPS
59. Not at home : OUT
60. Wrestling surface : MAT
61. End of a school e-mail address : EDU

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