0322-13 New York Times Crossword Answers 22 Mar 13, Friday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
16. One of Disneyland’s original attractions : ROCKET TO THE MOON
“Rocket to the Moon” was one of the original rides in Tomorrowland at the Disneyland Park when it opened to the public in 1955. The ride was revamped and renamed in 1967 to “Flight to the Moon”. The name was refurbished and renamed yet again to “Mission to Mars” in 1975. It was shut down for good in 1993.

17. Part of a modern address : EMAIL DOMAIN NAME
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!

18. Bloom who played Mary in “The Last Temptation of Christ” : VERNA
The actress Verna Bloom played Mary, mother of Jesus, in Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” in 1988.

The 1988 drama “The Last Temptation of Christ” was directed by Martin Scorsese and is a film adaptation of a 1953 novel of the same name by Nikos Kazantzakis. The film and novel are controversial fictional accounts of the life of Jesus and his struggle with various forms of temptation. Willem Dafoe plays the title character, with Barbara Hershey playing Mary Magdalene.

20. “Not in eine Million Jahre!” : NIE
In German, not in a million years (eine Million Jahre), never (nie).

23. “Hey-y-y-y!” sayer of sitcomdom, with “the” : FONZ
Fonzie is a character in the sitcom “Happy Days” that was originally aired from 1974 to 1984. The Fonz was written as a secondary character, but eventually took over the show. Fonzie is of course played by Henry Winkler.

24. The Big Red Machine, on scoreboards : CIN
The Red Scare (i.e. anti-communist sentiment) following WWII had such an effect on the populace that it even caused the Cincinnati baseball team to change its name from the Reds. The team was called the Cincinnati Redlegs from 1953-1958, as the management was fearful of losing money due to public distrust of any association with “Reds”.

When the Cincinnati Reds were a dominating force in the National League in the seventies, the team was given the nickname “the Big Red Machine”.

25. Maisons, across the Pyrenees : CASAS
Houses are “maisons” in French, and “casas” in Spanish.

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, the Pyrenees are named after Pyrene.

26. Alternative to gunpowder : PEKOE
A pekoe (or more commonly, orange pekoe) is a medium-grade black tea.

Gunpowder tea is a Chinese green tea in which the leaves are rolled into small pellets. Apparently the resulting grains of tea resemble black powder, giving the name “gunpowder tea”.

29. Urquhart Castle is on it : LOCH NESS
Urquhart Castle is a ruin that sits right on the edge of Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland. What’s left of the old castle today dates from the 13th to 16th centuries.

38. Actress Landi of “The Count of Monte Cristo,” 1934 : ELISSA
Elissa Landi was a popular Hollywood actress in the twenties and thirties. Landi was born in Italy, raised in Austria, educated in England, and worked in the British, French and German film industry before immigrating to the US. The only film in which I can recall seeing her is 1941’s marvellous “After the Thin Man”, in which she plays the cousin of one of the lead characters, played by Myrna Loy.

42. ___ hammer (Mjolnir) : THOR’S
Mjölnir is the name of the hammer associated with the Norse god Thor. The name “Mjölnir” translates as “crusher”.

45. Long, for short: Abbr. : OPP
The word “long” is the opposite (opp.) of “short”.

47. Swamp birds : SORAS
A Sora is a waterbird, sometimes called the Sora Rail ot Sora Crake. Soras can be found in breeding season in marshes across most of North America.

48. Like some statues and book spines : GILT
Gilding is the application of gold leaf or gold powder to a solid surface, perhaps wood or another metal. The method of application can vary, from the use of a brush to electroplating.

50. Front-page New York Times addition of 1997 : COLOR
The “New York Times” was one of the last newspapers to start publishing color photographs. The paper’s first color image appeared on the front page on 16 October 1997.

51. Hoops Hall-of-Famer Baylor : ELGIN
Elgin Baylor is a retired NBA player and a former NBA general manager. Baylor spent 22 years as GM for the LA Clippers.

52. Slant in print : EDITORIAL STANCE
The slant or stance taken by the editor of a newspaper perhaps would be reflected in the opinions expressed in print.

55. Topiary figures : ORNAMENTAL TREES
Topiary is the practice of training and clipping perennial plants into clearly defined shapes.

Down
3. Instrument whose name means “little goose” : OCARINA
An ocarina is an ancient wind-instrument that sounds like and is played like a flute. Usually an ocarina has an egg-shaped body with a number of finger holes cut into the material making up the instrument (usually ceramic). There is a tube protruding from the body through which one blows to make sounds. The air vibrates within the body of the instrument, and the pitch of the vibrations is changed by covering and uncovering the finger-holes. Ocarinas date back as far as 12,000 years ago when they were used both in China and Central America. The ocarina was brought to Italy in the 1800s where it became popular as a child’s toy, but also as a serious instrument. It was given the name “ocarina” as its shape resembles that of a goose, and “ocarina”is a diminutive word stemming from “oca”, the Italian word for “goose”.

4. Clearing : OKING
“OKing”, saying “OK”.

5. Actress Ward : SELA
The actress Sela Ward turns up in crosswords a lot. Ward played Teddy Reed in the TV show “Sisters” in the nineties, and was in “Once and Again” from 1999-2002. I don’t know either show, but I do know Ward from the medical drama “House” in which she played the hospital’s lawyer and Greg House’s ex-partner. That was a fun role, I thought. More recently Ward has been playing a lead role on “CSI: NY” and is a very welcome and much-needed addition to the cast …

6. Wheels-up announcement, briefly : ETD
Estimated Time of Departure (ETD).

7. Mexican Indians : OTOMIS
The Otomi people live in the central part of Mexico. It is thought that the name “Otomi” might derive from an old word for “shooter of birds”.

9. Electrically neutral subatomic particle : ETA MESON
A meson is an unstable subatomic particle, made up of one quark and one antiquark.

10. Starts suddenly : SHIES
“To shy” is to move suddenly if startled.

12. Every, in an Rx : OMN
“Omni” is Latin for “all”, or “every” in the context of a medical prescription. On a prescription, “omni” is usually abbreviated to “omn”.

There seems to some uncertainty about the origin of the symbol “Rx” that’s used for a medical prescription. One explanation is that it comes from the astrological sign for Jupiter, a symbol put on prescriptions in days of old to invoke Jupiter’s blessing to help a patient recover.

13. The Star City of the South : ROANOKE
Roanoke, Virginia has the nickname “Star City”. The nickname comes from the Mill Mountain Star, an illuminated star that was installed above the city on Mill Mountain in 1949 by the Roanoke Merchants Association at the start of that year’s Christmas season. The huge star has been sitting there for over 60 years.

14. It carries out many orders : DOMINO’S
Domino’s Pizza started out as DomiNick’s, a pizza store in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The store was purchased by Dominic’s founder Tom Monaghan in 1960, along with his brother. Tom bought out his brother a few months later, for the price of a used VW! The store was renamed Domino’s Pizza in 1965, and two years later the first franchise store was opened. There are now over 8,000 stores worldwide, including one in Tallaght in Ireland, the town where I lived for many years in my youth. That Tallaght store became the first Domino’s outlet in the world to hit a turnover of $3 million a year. We Irish obviously have terrible taste when it comes to pizza …

22. Flier to Rio : VARIG
Varig was Brazil’s first airline. VARIG is an acronym for “Viação Aérea RIo-Grandense”.

23. Big name in handbags : FENDI
Fendi is an Italian fashion house, founded in 1925 by Adele Casagrande. Fendi started out as a fur and leather shop in Rome, and these days is famous for its line of handbags.

26. N.L. East team, informally : PHILS
Philadelphia’s baseball team was founded in 1883 as the Quakers, with the name changing to the Philadelphias and Phillies not long into the team’s history. The Phillies have been based in the same city using the same team name longer than any other team in US professional sports.

28. Silk selection : MOIRE
A moiré pattern is a phenomenon in physics, a so-called interference pattern. If you lay two sheets of mesh over each other for example, slightly offset, then what you see is a moiré pattern. “Moiré” is the French name for a textile that we know simply as “moire”. The rippled pattern of the textile resembles that of the interference pattern.

30. Future alumnae, quaintly : COEDS
An “alumnus” (plural … alumni) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural … alumnae). The term comes into English from Latin, in which alumnus means foster-son or pupil.

34. Rock collections may sit beside them : STEREOS
Monophonic sound (“mono”) is sound reproduced using just one audio channel, which is usually played out of just one speaker. Stereophonic sound is reproduced using two audio channels, with the sound from each channel played out of two different speakers. The pair of stereo speakers are usually positioned apart from each other so that sound appears to come from between the two. Quadraphonic sound (4.0 surround sound) uses four audio channels with the sound played back through four speakers often positioned at the corners of the room in which one is listening.

35. Daughter of King Minos : PHAEDRA
In Greek mythology, Phaedra is the daughter of King Minos of Crete, and the wife of Theseus who founded Athens. While married to Theseus, Phaedra fell in love with Hippolytus, Theseus’s son from a previous marriage. In one version of the myth, Phaedra tells Theseus that Hippolytus raped her, leading to Theseus killing his son, and Phaedra then committing suicide in an act of remorse. Tragic stuff …

36. “La Cenerentola” composer : ROSSINI
“La Cenerentola” (or “Cinderella” in English) is a comic opera by Gioachino Rossini first performed in 1817. Rossini composed the piece when he only 25 years old, and a year after his extremely successful opera “The Barber of Seville”.

39. Elegantly attired : SOIGNEE
“Soigné” (“soignée” in the feminine form) is a French word meaning “taken care of” that we use to mean “elegantly groomed”.

44. It’s turned down for extra warmth : EARLAP
Earlaps (or ear flaps) might be attached to a cap.

47. Existentialist Kierkegaard : SOREN
Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher and theologian, and I never really understood anything that he wrote!

50. “Till the End of Time” singer : COMO
Perry Como is still my mother’s favorite singer. Como was born about 20 miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Famously, his first career was barbering. Como learned the trade from a local hairdresser and soon had his own shop in a Greek coffee house, at the age of 14!

51. “___, Red-Hot & Live” (1982 blues album) : ETTA
Etta James was best known for her beautiful rendition of the song “At Last”. Sadly, as she disclosed in her autobiography, James lived a life that was ravaged by drug addiction leading to numerous legal and health problems. Ms. James passed away in January 2012 having suffered from leukemia.

54. Digital ___ (high-tech shooter) : SLR
SLR stands for “single lens reflex”. Usually cameras with changeable lenses are the SLR type. The main feature of an SLR is that a mirror reflects the image seen through the lens out through the viewfinder, so that the photographer sees exactly what the lens sees. The mirror moves out of the way as the picture is taken, and the image that comes through the lens falls onto unexposed film, or nowadays onto a digital sensor.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Speak carefully : CHOOSE ONE’S WORDS
16. One of Disneyland’s original attractions : ROCKET TO THE MOON
17. Part of a modern address : EMAIL DOMAIN NAME
18. Bloom who played Mary in “The Last Temptation of Christ” : VERNA
19. Communicated without saying anything : MIMED
20. “Not in eine Million Jahre!” : NIE
21. “Gotcha” : I DIG
22. Forest climbers : VINES
23. “Hey-y-y-y!” sayer of sitcomdom, with “the” : FONZ
24. The Big Red Machine, on scoreboards : CIN
25. Maisons, across the Pyrenees : CASAS
26. Alternative to gunpowder : PEKOE
27. Charm : ENAMOR
29. Urquhart Castle is on it : LOCH NESS
31. One often duped: Abbr. : ORIG
33. Reason for denying entry, maybe : NO ID
34. Attack as a cat might : SPRING AT
38. Actress Landi of “The Count of Monte Cristo,” 1934 : ELISSA
42. ___ hammer (Mjolnir) : THOR’S
43. Gets something off one’s back, say : SHEDS
45. Long, for short: Abbr. : OPP
46. Quiet : EASE
47. Swamp birds : SORAS
48. Like some statues and book spines : GILT
49. Lo-___ : RES
50. Front-page New York Times addition of 1997 : COLOR
51. Hoops Hall-of-Famer Baylor : ELGIN
52. Slant in print : EDITORIAL STANCE
55. Topiary figures : ORNAMENTAL TREES
56. Hoped for a miracle, maybe : SAID ONE’S PRAYERS

Down
1. Ice climbing hazard : CREVICE
2. Bore down (on) : HOMED IN
3. Instrument whose name means “little goose” : OCARINA
4. Clearing : OKING
5. Actress Ward : SELA
6. Wheels-up announcement, briefly : ETD
7. Mexican Indians : OTOMIS
8. Like some fees : NOMINAL
9. Electrically neutral subatomic particle : ETA MESON
10. Starts suddenly : SHIES
11. Go along, as one’s way : WEND
12. Every, in an Rx : OMN
13. The Star City of the South : ROANOKE
14. It carries out many orders : DOMINO’S
15. Has a cold reaction? : SNEEZES
22. Flier to Rio : VARIG
23. Big name in handbags : FENDI
25. Podiatric problems : CORNS
26. N.L. East team, informally : PHILS
28. Silk selection : MOIRE
30. Future alumnae, quaintly : COEDS
32. Substance used in fillings? : GASOLINE
34. Rock collections may sit beside them : STEREOS
35. Daughter of King Minos : PHAEDRA
36. “La Cenerentola” composer : ROSSINI
37. Distinctive parts of some hummingbirds : THROATS
39. Elegantly attired : SOIGNEE
40. Certain telecom technician : SPLICER
41. Suitability : APTNESS
44. It’s turned down for extra warmth : EARLAP
47. Existentialist Kierkegaard : SOREN
48. Blazingly bright : GLARY
50. “Till the End of Time” singer : COMO
51. “___, Red-Hot & Live” (1982 blues album) : ETTA
53. Jot : TAD
54. Digital ___ (high-tech shooter) : SLR

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