0517-13 New York Times Crossword Answers 17 May 13, Friday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Josh Knapp
THEME: None
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 46m 44s (lots of trouble in the top left)
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

14. Summer time eponym : AUGUSTUS
Gaius Octavius Thurinus (often called Octavian) was the adopted son of Gaius Julius Caesar. After Julius Caesar was assassinated, Octavian came to power in Rome and teamed up with Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in what was called the Second Triumvirate. When the triumvirate fell apart, especially after Antony’s defeat at Actium, Octavian became more powerful within the Roman Republic. Several years later he wrested sufficient power from the Roman Senate to end the Republic and begin the Roman Empire. As the first Emperor of Rome, Octavian was given the name Caesar Augustus. The month of August, originally called “Sextilis” in Latin, was renamed in honor of Augustus.

16. Peso : Mexico :: ___ : Panama : BALBOA
The balboa is one of the currencies used in Panama, along with the US dollar. The currency was named in honor of Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa.

Vasco Núñez de Balboa was a Spanish explorer, the man who led the 1513 expedition across the Isthmus of Panama to become the first European to set eyes on the Pacific Ocean. On reaching the ocean, Balboa walked into the water up to his knees, raised his sword and an image of the Virgin Mary, and claimed possession of the ocean (that he named the South Sea) and all adjoining lands in the name of the king and queen of Spain.

17. “NYC 22” replaced it in 2012 : CSI: MIAMI
I quite enjoy the “CSI” franchise of television shows, except “CSI: Miami”. I find the character played by David Caruso to be extremely annoying. Apparently it was cancelled in 2012. No loss …

18. Key represented by all white keys on a piano : C MAJOR
In the world of music, the key of C major has no flats or sharps.

19. Plate holder : ATLAS
In the world of printing, a plate is a print taken from a sheet of metal or rubber. For example, maps in an atlas are usually referred to as plates.

The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas”.

20. Kin of clubs : BLTS
The BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) is the second most popular sandwich in the US, after the plain old ham sandwich.

The club sandwich is a double-decker affair with three layers of bread and two layers of filling. This style of sandwich has been around since the end of the 19th century, and some say it was invented at an exclusive gambling “club” in Saratoga Springs, New York.

22. Sporty Spice, by another name : MEL C
The five members of the English pop group the Spice Girls are:

– Scary Spice (Melanie Brown, or Mel B)
– Baby Spice (Emma Bunton, and my fave!)
– Ginger Spice (Geri Halliwell)
– Posh Spice (Victoria Beckham)
– Sporty Spice (Melanie Chisholm, or Mel C)

24. Batcave, e.g. : LAIR
Wayne Manor is where Bruce Wayne lives, the alter-ego of Batman. It is a huge manor that lies just outside Gotham City. Looking after the house is the Wayne family servant, Alfred. Beneath the grounds of the manor is an extensive cave system where Bruce Wayne put together his Batcave. Access is to the cave is via a staircase behind a hidden door. The door is opened by moving the hands of a non-functioning grandfather clock to 10:47, the time at which Wayne’s parents were murdered. It is the murder of his parents that sets Bruce off on his journey of crime fighting.

25. End point of a common journey : MECCA
Mecca is in the Makkah province of Saudi Arabia and is the holiest city in Islam. Every year several million Muslims perform the Hajj, a holy pilgrimage to Mecca.

26. Ginnie ___ : MAE
Ginnie Mae is the familiar nickname for the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA), a government-owned corporation created in 1968 with the objective of promoting home ownership. The “Ginnie Mae” nickname is derived from the GNMA acronym.

30. Univ. figures : TAS
Teaching Assistants (TAs)

31. Style of New York’s Sony Building : POSTMODERNISM
The Sony Building in New York City was completed in 1984, and was opened as the AT&T Building. AT&T sold the building to Sony in 2002, and now a deal has been made for sony to hand it over to the Chetrit Group.

34. ’60s film character wearing one black glove : DR STRANGELOVE
“Dr. Strangelove” is a black comedy directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, released in 1964. The big star in the film is the great Peter Sellers, who plays three key roles.

35. Literary classic featuring the teen Tadzio : DEATH IN VENICE
“Death in Venice” is probably the most famous novella by author Thomas Mann. The novel was originally published in German in 1912 as “Der Tod in Venedig”. The story was famously adapted for the big screen in 1971, in a movie starring Dirk Bogarde.

36. Teen “Whoa!” : OMG!
OMG is text-speak for Oh My Gosh! Oh My Goodness! or any other G words you might think of …

37. Grp. concerned with violence levels : MPAA
The Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) film-rating system (R, PG-17, G etc.) is purely voluntary and is not backed by any law. Movie theaters agree to abide by the rules that come with the MPAA ratings in exchange for access to new movies.

38. With 43-Across, part of a squid : INK
(43. See 38-Across : SAC)
Octopuses and squid have the ability to release a dark pigment into the water as a means of escape. The dark pigment is called cephalopod ink (the squid and octopus belong to the class cephalopod). The dark color is created by melanin, the same substance that acts as a pigment in human skin.

39. Long-running Mell Lazarus comic strip : MOMMA
Mell Lazarus is known as the creator of two long-running comic strips. “Miss Peach” ran from 1957 to 2002, and “Momma” first appeared in 1970 and is still going strong. Lazarus started his career as an apprentice to famed cartoonist Al Capp.

48. Biblical waste? : SMITE
“To smite” is to strike with a firm blow.

54. Stupefying thing : OPIATE
Opiates are the narcotic alkaloids found in the opium poppy plant, although some synthetic versions and derivatives of the same alkaloids are also called opiates. To produce opiates, the latex sap of the opium poppy is collected and processed. The naturally-occurring drugs of morphine and codeine can both be extracted from the sap. Some synthesis is required to make derivative drugs like heroin and oxycodone.

Down
1. Tree with large seedpods on its trunk : CACAO
The flowers of the cacao tree grow in clusters directly on the trunk, and on older branches. The pollinated flowers turn into ovoid cacao pods, each of which contain 20-60 seeds or beans. The seeds are used as the main ingredient in chocolate.

4. Jacob ___, South African president beginning in 2009 : ZUMA
Jacob Zuma is the current President of South Africa, and also the President of the African National Congress (ANC). Zuma is a polygamist with six wives and twenty children.

5. Member of the Ennead : ISIS
The Ennead is a group of nine gods in Egyptian mythology. The Ennead were all in the same family, all descendents of the god Atum.

Isis was the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, as well as the protector of the dead and the goddess of children.

6. Attic character : ETA
Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”.

Greece is divided into 13 peripheries, regional administrative divisions. The capital of Greece, Athens, is located in the periphery of Attica.

7. Movement from Cuba? : RUMBA
The rumba is a Cuban dance, with influences brought by African slaves and Spanish colonists. The name “rumba” comes from “rumbo”, the Spanish word for “party, spree”.

15. It’s known for its start-ups : SILICON VALLEY
The Santa Clara Valley, just a few miles from me at the south of San Francisco Bay, is better known as “Silicon Valley”. The term “Silicon Valley” dates back to 1971 when it was apparently first used in a weekly trade newspaper called “Electronic News” in articles written by journalist Don Hoefler.

25. “The Once and Future King” figure : MERLIN
“The Once and Future King” is a novel by T. H. White, first published in 1958. It is a fantasy novel based on Arthurian legend. The title is derived from an inscription that was said to be written on King Arthur’s tomb: “Here lies Arthur, king once, and king to be”.

27. Albuterol alleviates it : ASTHMA
The drug Salbutamol is known in the US as albuterol. One of the more noted brand names for the drug is Ventolin. Salbutamol is mostly inhaled, as a treatment for the relief of asthma.

29. Like some Beanie Babies : TEENIE
There were originally just nine Beanie Babies when Ty Warner introduced the stuffed animal in 1993. In the late nineties the toy became a real fad, largely due to innovative marketing techniques. For example, there was no mass marketing with constant TV ads, and the production volume was limited pushing the line into the realm of collectibles. Beanie Baby models were also “retired” on a regular basis, fueling a “must have” behavior in the market.

33. Groove on an arrow : NOCK
The nock is the slot that is cut into the end of an arrow into which the string is placed as the bow is drawn.

35. Pie-baking giant : 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 …

40. Antares or Proxima Centauri : M-STAR
Antares is the brightest star in the constellation Scorpio. The name “Antares” comes from “anti-Ares” meaning “anti-Mars”. The star has a reddish hue that resembles the planet Mars.

Proxima Centauri is a mere 4.2 light years away from the Earth, making it the second nearest star to our planet (the Sun, of course, is nearer). The name comes from “proxima” meaning “nearest to” and Centauri from the constellation Centaurus to which the star belongs.

42. Poet who wrote “Do I dare / Disturb the universe?” : ELIOT
“Do I dare / Disturb the universe?” are lines from T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a very famous poem by T. S. Eliot, first published in 1915. The rather odd name of “Prufrock” seems to have just come to Eliot, although there was a Prufrock-Littau Company in St. Louis when he lived there.

44. Focus of stereochemistry : ATOMS
Stereochemistry is the study of the arrangements of atoms in a molecule in terms of their spatial arrangement.

45. Roman Demeter : CERES
In Greek mythology, Demeter if the goddess of the harvest. Her Roman equivalent is Ceres.

47. Neckline? : FRET
A fret is a metal strip embedded in the neck of a stringed instrument, like a guitar perhaps. The fingers press on the frets, shortening a string and hence changing the note played. The note increases by one semitone as a finger shortens a string by one fret.

49. Baby sound : MEWL
To mewl is to cry weakly, like a baby, with the word being somewhat imitative.

51. Verano, across the Pyrenees : ETE
Our word “summer” is “verano” in Spanish, and “été” in French.

53. Yours, in Turin : TUO
Turin (“Torino” in Italian) is a major city in the north of Italy that sits on the Po River. Back in 1861, when the Kingdom of Italy was formed, Turin was chosen as the first capital of the country .

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Closer to the edge, say : CRAZIER
8. Brothers’ keepers? : ABBOTS
14. Summer time eponym : AUGUSTUS
16. Peso : Mexico :: ___ : Panama : BALBOA
17. “NYC 22” replaced it in 2012 : CSI: MIAMI
18. Key represented by all white keys on a piano : C MAJOR
19. Plate holder : ATLAS
20. Kin of clubs : BLTS
22. Sporty Spice, by another name : MEL C
23. Hernando’s “Hey!” : OYE!
24. Batcave, e.g. : LAIR
25. End point of a common journey : MECCA
26. Ginnie ___ : MAE
28. Darling : CUTE
30. Univ. figures : TAS
31. Style of New York’s Sony Building : POSTMODERNISM
34. ’60s film character wearing one black glove : DR STRANGELOVE
35. Literary classic featuring the teen Tadzio : DEATH IN VENICE
36. Teen “Whoa!” : OMG!
37. Grp. concerned with violence levels : MPAA
38. With 43-Across, part of a squid : INK
39. Long-running Mell Lazarus comic strip : MOMMA
41. What you may squeal with : GLEE
43. See 38-Across : SAC
46. “Think of ___ …” : IT AS
47. Dipped : FELL
48. Biblical waste? : SMITE
50. Run one’s mouth : NATTER
52. Allowing no equivocation : EITHER/OR
54. Stupefying thing : OPIATE
55. Favor doer’s comment : YOU OWE ME
56. It can be dangerous when leaked : SECRET
57. Like some sunbathers : TOPLESS

Down
1. Tree with large seedpods on its trunk : CACAO
2. Like many older Americans’ French or Spanish : RUSTY
3. Not given to lumbering : AGILE
4. Jacob ___, South African president beginning in 2009 : ZUMA
5. Member of the Ennead : ISIS
6. Attic character : ETA
7. Movement from Cuba? : RUMBA
8. Brass tacks : ABCS
9. Sock sound : BAM!
10. Bad attribution : BLAME
11. Aim : OBJECTIVE
12. Where to find some nuts : TOOL CASE
13. “My heart bleeds for you,” often : SARCASM
15. It’s known for its start-ups : SILICON VALLEY
21. Proceed wearily : TRUDGE
24. Unleash : LET RIP
25. “The Once and Future King” figure : MERLIN
26. Extremely : MOST
27. Albuterol alleviates it : ASTHMA
29. Like some Beanie Babies : TEENIE
31. Sensible : PRAGMATIC
32. Head : MANAGE
33. Groove on an arrow : NOCK
34. Mailing to a label : DEMO TAPE
35. Pie-baking giant : DOMINO’S
40. Antares or Proxima Centauri : M-STAR
42. Poet who wrote “Do I dare / Disturb the universe?” : ELIOT
43. Yes or no follower : SIREE!
44. Focus of stereochemistry : ATOMS
45. Roman Demeter : CERES
47. Neckline? : FRET
48. Union ___ : SHOP
49. Baby sound : MEWL
51. Verano, across the Pyrenees : ETE
53. Yours, in Turin : TUO


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Posted by Bill Butler
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