0509-13 New York Times Crossword Answers 9 May 13, Thursday

QuickLinks:
Solution to today’s crossword in the New York Times
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CROSSWORD SETTER: Patrick Merrell
THEME: Hi Mom! … Today’s themed answers honor Moms everywhere. There is also a hidden message in the grid as “HI, MOM” is written between BETWEEN THE LINES across the center of the grid:

17A. Interstitially, say BETWEEN THE LINES (HI, MOM!)

28A. Wearer of a red-starred tiara WONDER WOMAN
47A. Marquee actress LEADING LADY
58A. May delivery HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 40m 17s (got stuck for 20 mins in the very top left of the grid!)
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Allowing some ventilation, say AJAR
Our word “ajar” is thought to come from Scottish dialect, in which “a char” means “slightly open”.

10. Org. with Divisions I, II and III NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When his son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, President Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906, which was given the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS became the NCAA in 1910.

14. Teen woe MONO
Mononucleosis is a viral disease that is also simply “Mono” or glandular fever. The virus that causes the disease can only be contracted through direct exposure to infected saliva. As a result, Mono is often called “the kissing disease”.

19. Brit’s tea ___ COSY
I don’t know what I’d do without my tea cosy/cozy …

22. Nina ___ (fashion label) RICCI
The Nina Ricci fashion house was founded by Italian-born Maria “Nina” Ricci, in Paris in 1932.

28. Wearer of a red-starred tiara WONDER WOMAN
Wonder Woman first appeared in print in 1941, in a publication from DC Comics. As she was created during WWII, Wonder Woman’s first foes were the axis powers. In the less realistic world her biggest foe was and still is Ares, a “baddie” named for the Greek mythological figure.

31. Bitter herb RUE
“Rue” is a common name for the herb Ruta graveolens. Rue can be used medicinally, and sparingly as a herb in cooking.

34. ’40s blowups N-TESTS
The testing of US nuclear weapons by the US at Bikini Atoll in the middle of 1946 went by the codename “Operation Crossroads”. The tests used A-bombs and were designed to measure the effect of blasts on navy vessels. There were three tests planned, but the third had to be cancelled as the Navy couldn’t decontaminate the ships used in the second test.

36. Modern electric cars TESLAS
Tesla Motors is a manufacturer of electric vehicles based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla is noted for producing the first electric sports car, called the Tesla Roadster. The current base price of a roadster is about $100,000, should you be interested …

40. Tokyo strip? 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.

42. Kind of screen IMAX
The IMAX Corporation, which is behind the IMAX film format, is a Canadian company. The impetus for developing the system came after Expo ’67 in Montreal. Back then large format screenings were accomplished using multiple projectors with multiple screens, with images basically stitched together. The team behind the IMAX technology set out to simplify things, and developed a single-camera, single-projector system.

46. Grant or Carter AMY
Amy Grant is known as “The Queen of Christian Pop” and her most famous songs are Gospel and Contemporary Christian works. Grant recorded two songs that made it to number one in the commercial charts: “The Next Time I Fall” (1981, duet with Peter Cetera) and “Baby Baby” (1991).

Amy Carter is the only daughter of President Jimmy Carter. She is the youngest child and has three older brothers. After growing up in the White House, Amy Carter turned to political activism and was very vocal on US policy towards South African apartheid and Central America. She was arrested at a 1986 demonstration protesting CIA recruitment on a university campus, but was later acquitted. Today she has a close relationship with her father and is on the board of counselors of the Carter Center. In 1995 she provided the illustrations for her father’s book for children, “The Little Baby Snoogle-Fleejer”.

47. Marquee actress LEADING LADY
A marquee is a sign that placed over the entrance to a theater, and often bears the names of the leading lady and leading man in a film or performance.

50. Twofold BINAL
“Binal” is an adjective meaning “twofold, double”.

52. Verso’s flip side RECTO
The left and right pages of a book or magazine are known in publishing circles as verso and recto. Recto comes from the Latin for “right”, and verso comes from the Latin word for “turned”. The idea is that the left side of the page is “turned” and is the reverse of the recto/right side.

53. Explanation that doesn’t explain anything, informally CUZ
Because, ‘cause, ‘cos, cuz …

54. Surname in punk rock RAMONE
Joey Ramone was the frontman for the punk rock band called the Ramones. Joey Ramone died in 2001 and two years later the block where he lived on East 2nd Street in New York City was renamed Joey Ramone Place.

“The Ramones” were an American punk rock band. The group formed in Forest Hills, New York in the mid-seventies. Arguably, the Ramones were the first punk rock group and defined the genre. Something else that’s not my cup of tea …

58. May delivery HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
Note the official punctuation in “Mother’s Day”, even though one might think it should be “Mothers’ Day”. President Wilson, and Anna Jarvis who created the tradition, specifically wanted Mother’s Day to honor the mothers within each family and not just “mothers” in general, so they went with the “Mother’s Day” punctuation.

64. Title parent in a TLC reality series KATE
“Jon & Kate Plus 8” is a reality show that was later renamed to “Late Plus 8”. The show chronicles the lives of Jon and Kate Gosselin and their 8 kids, one set of twins and one set of sextuplets. The show’s change of name was necessitated by Jon and Kate getting divorced in 2009.

65. Coop sound PEEP
Baby chicks might be peeping in the chicken coop, making soft, high-pitched sounds.

67. Northern duck SMEW
The smew is a beautiful-looking species of duck found right across northern Europe and Asia.

Down
1. Government rep. AMB
Ambassador (amb.)

2. Cartoon character with shades JOE COOL
When Snoopy adopted his “Joe Cool” alias, he put on sunglasses and just leaned against a wall doing nothing.

3. Fats Domino’s first name ANTOINE
Antoine “Fats” Domino was born and raised in New Orleans, with Creole as his first language. He made into the big time in 1949 when he recorded an early rock and roll record called “The Fat Man”. That record sold over a million copies, the first rock and roll record to achieve that milestone.

4. Melees ROWS
“Melee” comes from the French “mêlée”, and in both languages the word means a “confused fight”.

5. Caesar’s greeting AVE
“Ave” is Latin for “hail” and was used by the Romans as a greeting and a salutation.

7. Island in the Thames AIT
Aits are little islands found in a river. Aits aren’t formed by erosion, but by the deposition of silt over time. As a result, aits often have a long and narrow shape running parallel to the banks as the sediment builds up with the flow of the water. Many of the islands in the River Thames in England have been given the name “Ait”, like Raven’s Ait in Kingston-upon-Thames, and Lot’s Ait in Brentford.

8. “To life!” L’CHAIM
“L’Chaim” is a Hebrew toast meaning “to life”, as “chai” is the Hebrew word for “life”.

18. Literary character who says “Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt!” EYRE
“Jane Eyre” is of course the novel written by Charlotte Brontë, under the pen name Currer Bell. Over the years, I’ve shared here on my blogs that the “Jane Eyre” story line is a little too dark and Gothic for my taste, but a very persuasive blog reader convinced me to look more at the romantic side of the story and give it a second chance. I watched a wonderful 4-hour television adaptation of the novel made by the BBC a while back and I have to say that because I was focused on the relationship between Jane and Rochester, I was able to push past the Gothic influences (that depress me) so I really enjoyed the story. I thoroughly recommend the 2006 BBC adaptation to fans of the novel.

21. Personal letters SWF
Single white female (SWF) is an abbreviation commonly used in personal ads.

24. 100 lbs. CWT
In the very sensible country of America, a hundredweight is 100 pounds. In the UK, of course a hundredweight has to be 112 pounds. The hundredweight is also called a centum weight, which explains the abbreviation used: “cwt.”

25. Can COMMODE
A commode is a toilet. Back in the 1700s, a commode was a chest of drawers, a name derived from the French word “commode” meaning “convenient”. In the mid-1800s, the term was applied to a chamber pot, which was regarded as a “convenience”.

27. Super ___ NES
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was sold in North America from 1985 to to 1995. The NES was the biggest selling gaming console of the era.

29. Children’s author who won three Edgars 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 children’s authors of the twentieth century. Two of his most famous titles are “James and the Giant Peach” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (the Edgars) are presented annually by the Mystery Writers of America.

35. Title boy in a 1964 Disney film EMIL
“Emil and the Detectives” is a novel first published in 1929. It was originally written in German and was titled “Emil und die Detektive”. The Disney company released a screen adaptation in 1964.

36. Space maker TAB
Like most features on our computer keyboards, the tab key is a hangover from the days of typewriters. When using a typewriter, making entries into a table was very tedious as it involved lots of tapping on the spacebar and backspace key. So, a lever was added to typewriters that allowed the operator to “jump” across the page to positions that could be set by hand. Later this was simplified to a tab key, which could be depressed causing the carriage to jump to the next tab stop in much the same way that the modern tab key works on a computer.

38. Nerve junction SYNAPSE
A synapse is a junction between a nerve cell and another cell over which an electrical or chemical signal can pass.

39. Solder and others ALLOYS
Solder is a metal alloy that is used to join pieces of a work together using the principle that the melting point of the alloy is below the melting point of the workpieces.

41. Certain lighter or highlighter BIC
Société Bic is a French company, based in Clichy in France. The first product the company produced, more than fifty years ago, was the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen that is still produced today. Bic also makes other disposable products such as lighters and razors.

43. Driving surface MACADAM
“Tarmac” and “macadam” is of course short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call Tarmac.

48. Dark circle AREOLA
An areola (sometimes “areole”) in anatomy is a small ring of color, as in the areola surrounding the nipple, and the areola surrounding the pupil of the eye. “Areola” comes from Latin, meaning “small open space”, and is a diminutive of the Latin word “area”, meaning “open space”.

55. The Rio Grande divides it: Abbr. N MEX
The Rio Grande is a river forming part of the border between mexico and the United States. Although we call the river the Rio Grande on this side of the border, in Mexico it is called the Rio Bravo or Rio Bravo del Norte.

60. Confucian scholar Chu ___ HSI
Zhu Xi (also Chu Hsi) was a scholar in the Song Dynasty in China, and was a noted neo-Confucian.

62. Poison source in Christie’s “A Pocket Full of Rye” YEW
“A Pocket Full of Rye” is a Miss Marple mystery by Agatha Christie. The title is a line from the nursery rhyme called “Sing a Song of Sixpence”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Allowing some ventilation, say AJAR
5. ___ in the park A WALK
10. Org. with Divisions I, II and III NCAA
14. Teen woe MONO
15. Singer or actor’s helper VOICE COACH
17. Interstitially, say BETWEEN THE LINES
19. Brit’s tea ___ COSY
20. Hosts prefer them A-LISTS
21. “___ see” SO I
22. Nina ___ (fashion label) RICCI
26. Keep an ___ (watch) EYE ON
28. Wearer of a red-starred tiara WONDER WOMAN
31. Bitter herb RUE
32. One in the doghouse? FLEA
33. Card reader, briefly ATM
34. ’40s blowups N-TESTS
36. Modern electric cars TESLAS
40. Tokyo strip? OBI
42. Kind of screen IMAX
46. Grant or Carter AMY
47. Marquee actress LEADING LADY
50. Twofold BINAL
52. Verso’s flip side RECTO
53. Explanation that doesn’t explain anything, informally CUZ
54. Surname in punk rock RAMONE
56. Follower of a list of names ET AL
58. May delivery HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY
63. “Why bother?!” IT’S USELESS!
64. Title parent in a TLC reality series KATE
65. Coop sound PEEP
66. Plot line X-AXIS
67. Northern duck SMEW

Down
1. Government rep. AMB
2. Cartoon character with shades JOE COOL
3. Fats Domino’s first name ANTOINE
4. Melees ROWS
5. Caesar’s greeting AVE
6. Captured WON
7. Island in the Thames AIT
8. “To life!” L’CHAIM
9. Start for a shipbuilder KEEL
10. Like melees NOISY
11. Runs along CANTERS
12. Beats, as the competition ACES OUT
13. Sounds at a fireworks display AHS
16. Lawyer’s need CLIENT
18. Literary character who says “Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt!” EYRE
21. Personal letters SWF
23. Declaration that might precede a fold I RAISE
24. 100 lbs. CWT
25. Can COMMODE
27. Super ___ NES
29. Children’s author who won three Edgars DAHL
30. Bless, in a way ANOINT
35. Title boy in a 1964 Disney film EMIL
36. Space maker TAB
37. Certain monarchy EMIRATE
38. Nerve junction SYNAPSE
39. Solder and others ALLOYS
41. Certain lighter or highlighter BIC
43. Driving surface MACADAM
44. Flatter servilely ADULATE
45. End of a school series XYZ
48. Dark circle AREOLA
49. Attendee GOER
51. Boost, as sound AMP UP
55. The Rio Grande divides it: Abbr. N MEX
57. Clucks of disappointment TSKS
58. In HIP
59. Neighbor of 55-Down TEX
60. Confucian scholar Chu ___ HSI
61. End of a count? -ESS
62. Poison source in Christie’s “A Pocket Full of Rye” YEW


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Posted by Bill Butler
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