0607-13 New York Times Crossword Answers 7 Jun 13, Friday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Dupe : CAT’S-PAW
The use of the term “cat’s-paw” to mean a dupe derives from an old folk tale in which a monkey tricks a cat into pawing chestnuts from a fire. The monkey gets the chestnuts, and cat gets a burnt paw.

8. Like many PDFs : EMAILED
Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format introduced by Adobe Systems in 1993. PDF documents can be shared between users and read using many different applications, making them more universally accessible than documents saved by one particular program.

16. Letter : MISSIVE
Our word “missive”, which is used for a written message or letter, comes from the Latin “mittere” meaning “to send”.

19. Hungarian city known for “Bull’s Blood” wine : EGER
Eger is a city in the northeast of Hungary that is noted for its thermal baths and for its wine production. Back in Ireland, I used to drink a fair amount of “Bull’s Blood”, Hungary’s most famous red wine, which comes from the Eger wine region.

21. Two-time Best Rock Album Grammy winner : ENO
Brian Eno started out his musical career with Roxy Music. However, Eno’s most oft-played composition (by far!) is Microsoft’s “start-up jingle”, the 6-second sound you hear when the Windows operating system is booting up. Eno might have annoyed the Microsoft folks when he stated on a BBC radio show:

I wrote it on a Mac. I’ve never used a PC in my life; I don’t like them.

24. Neighbor of Hercules : LYRA
Lyra is a constellation that includes the star Vega, one of the brightest stars in the night sky. The constellation Lyra is surrounded by the neighboring constellations of Draco, Hercules, Vulpecula and Cygnus.

25. Critical hosp. setting : ICU
Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

26. Founding member of the Star Alliance, for short : UAL
The Star Alliance was the airline industry’s first code-sharing alliance, created in 1997. The American founding representative is United Airlines.

27. Automaker Adam : OPEL
Adam Opel founded his company in 1863, first making sewing machines in a cowshed. Commercial success brought new premises and a new product line in 1886, namely penny-farthing bicycles. Adam Opel died in 1895, leaving his two sons with a company that made more penny-farthings and sewing machines than any other company in the world. In 1899 the two sons partnered with a locksmith and started to make cars, but not very successfully. Two years later, the locksmith was dropped in favor of a licensing arrangement with a French car company. By 1914, Opel was the largest manufacturer of automobiles in Germany. My Dad had an Opel in the seventies, a station wagon (we’d say “estate car” in Ireland) called an Opel Kadett.

32. Goth relative : EMO
An “emo” is a person associated with the “emotional hardcore” rock music subculture.

The goth subculture developed from the gothic rock scene in the early eighties, and is a derivative of the punk music movement. It started in England and spread to many countries around the globe. The term “goth” of course comes from the Eastern Germanic tribe called the Goths. Frankly, I don’t understand the whole goth thing …

33. “___ Bein’ Bad” (Sawyer Brown country hit) : BETTY’S
“Betty’s Bein’ Bad” is a country song recorded in 1985 by Sawyer Brown.

Sawyer Brown is a country music band from Apopka, Florida. The members of Sawyer Band first got together as the road band for country pop singer Don King. When King retired in 1981, the road band decided to make a go of it in their own right.

36. 25-Across sights : IVS
A registered nurse (RN) might set up an intravenous (IV) drip.

40. Swinging halter, for short : TKO
In boxing, a knockout (KO) is when one of the fighters can’t get up from the canvas within a specified time, usually 10 seconds. This can be due to fatigue, injury, or the participant may be truly “knocked out”. A referee, fighter or doctor may also decide to stop a fight without a physical knockout, especially if there is concern about a fighter’s safety. In this case the bout is said to end with a technical knockout (TKO).

42. Last item bagged, often: Abbr. : RCT
The last item added by someone packing a bag for you at a retail outlet might be your receipt (rct.).

47. “___ Plays Monterey” (posthumous 1986 album) : JIMI
The live album “Jimi Plays Monterey” is a recording of Jimi Hendrix’s performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. The album was released in 1986, long after Hendrix passed away in 1970.

Many of his contemporaries regarded Jimi Hendrix as the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music. Hendrix was from Seattle and didn’t really have a really stellar start to his working life. He failed to finish high school and fell foul of the law by getting caught in stolen cars, twice. The courts gave him the option of the army or two years in prison. Hendrix chose the former and soon found himself in the famous 101st Airborne. In the army, his less-than-disciplined ways helped him (as he would have seen it) because his superiors successfully petitioned to get him discharged after serving only one year of his two-year requirement, just to get him out of their hair.

48. Chairman ___ (hoops nickname) : YAO
I guess basketball player Yao Ming must have been referred to as “Chairman Yao”, a play on “Chairman Mao”, the Chinese Communist Party leader.

Yao Ming is a retired professional basketball player from Shanghai who played for the Houston Rockets. At 7’6″, Yao was the tallest man playing in the NBA.

49. 1958-61 polit. alliance : UAR
The United Arab Republic (UAR) was a union between Egypt and Syria made in 1958 and dissolved in 1961 when Syria pulled out of the arrangement.

50. Roger Staubach’s sch. : USNA
Roger Staubach was a Heisman Trophy winner and a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys for ten years. After Staubach retired from football he started a highly successful commercial real estate business. The Staubach Company now has a multi-billion dollar portfolio of properties.

53. Home of Sinbad the sailor : BASRA
It’s quite a coincidence that the Iraqi city of Basra has a name that is an anagram of “Arabs”, isn’t it? Basra also features in the H. G. Wells science-fiction tale “The Shape of Things to Come”. Written in 1933, the storyline predicts a global conflict (WWII) that breaks out in 1940 lasting for ten years, after which chaos reigns as no victor emerges. Following worldwide plague, a benevolent dictatorship takes charge and the world moves towards a serene utopia. In time, the dictators are overthrown and peacefully retired, and the people of the Earth live happily ever after, all citizens of one global state with its capital in Basra in the Middle East.

Sinbad is the hero of a set of fictional tales from the Middle East. Sinbad comes from the port city of Basra and had fantastic adventures on voyages throughout the sea east of Africa and south of Asia.

55. “Idol ___” (Mozart aria) : MIO
“Idol mio se retriso” is an aria from Mozart’s opera “Idomeneo”.

“Idomeneo” is a Mozart opera first performed in 1781, when Mozart was just 25 years old.

59. Sorority letters : RHOS
Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”.

63. Mathematical physicist Roger : PENROSE
Roger Penrose is an English mathematical physicist who often collaborates with theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. The pair have been jointly recognized for their contribution to our understanding of the cosmos. j

Down
2. Antes up for peanuts? : ANAGRAM
“Antes up” is an anagram of “peanuts”.

4. Rear admiral’s rear : STERN
The rank of rear admiral is usually the lowest of the “admiral” ranks. The term originated with the Royal Navy. In days gone by, an admiral would head up the activities of a naval squadron from the central vessel. He would be assisted by a “vice admiral” who acted from the lead vessel. There would also be a lower-ranking admiral to command the ships at the rear of the squadron, and this was the “rear admiral”.

5. Iguana, maybe : PET
An iguana is a lizard, and as such is cold-blooded. There are times when pet iguanas need heat from a IR lamp to maintain body temperature.

7. Troglodytes troglodytes : WREN
A wren is a small songbird belonging to the family troglodytidae and the genus troglodytes.

8. Grinding material : EMERY
Emery is a very hard type of rock that is crushed for use as an abrasive. Emery paper is made by gluing small particles of emery to paper. Emery boards are just emery paper with a cardboard backing. And emery boards are primarily used for filing nails.

9. Jack Benny persona : MISER
The great comedian Jack Benny’s real name was Benjamin Kubelsky. Benny was born in 1894 and passed away in 1974 at the age of 80. Although, when Benny was on stage he always claimed to be just 39 years old!

11. Prefix with kinetic : ISO-
An isokinetic contraction of a muscle is one in which the speed of the contraction is kept constant, with the force of the contraction changing.

12. Why “there’s no time for fussing and fighting,” per a Beatles hit : LIFE IS VERY SHORT
“Life is very short” is a lyric from the The Beatles 1965 hit “We Can Work It Out”. The song was part of the first record ever to be described as a “double A-side”, and featured alongside “Day Tripper”.

13. Shows that one has : EVINCES
To evince is to show clearly,to make evident.

18. Go for broke : BALL THE JACK
The phrase “ball the jack” is a new one to me. It means “to go all out, to go quickly” and is often applied to trains. Apparently, the term was popularized in 1913 with the publication of ragtime song “Ballin’ the Jack”. The use of the words “ball” and “jack” don’t seem to be so clear.

23. Kind of beef : KOBE
Kobe Bryant plays basketball for the LA Lakers. Kobe Bryant got his name from a menu would you believe? His parents were in a Japanese restaurant and liked the name of “Kobe” beef, the beef that comes from the area around the city of Kobe on the island of Honshu in Japan.

29. Couch attachment? : -ETTE
A couchette is a sleeping berth on a passenger train, especially in Europe.

31. 2008 TARP recipient : AIG
AIG is the American International Group, a giant insurance corporation (or I should say, “was”). After repeated bailouts by American taxpayers, the company made some serious PR blunders by spending large amounts of money on executive entertainment and middle management rewards. These included a $444,000 California retreat, an $86,000 hunting trip in England, and a $343,000 getaway to a luxury resort in Phoenix. Poor judgment, I’d say …

The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was a step taken by the Bush administration to strengthen financial institutions during the sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008. The idea was for the US government to “save” the banking sector by buying up all their bad mortgages.

34. Humanoid cryptid : YETI
A cryptid is a creature or plant that isn’t recognized by the scientific community, but who existence has been suggested.

38. Part of many a German name : VON
“Von” is the German word for “from”.

39. Smidgen : DRIB
A “drib” is a negligible amount, as in “dribs and drabs”.

Our word “smidgen”, meaning a small amount, might come from the Scots word “smitch” that means the same thing or “a small insignificant person”.

40. It shows small parts of the picture : TRAILER
The term “trailer” came about in the film industry as advertisements for upcoming features were originally shown at the end of a movie being screened. This practise quickly fell out of favor as movie patrons usually left without paying much attention to the trailers. So, the trailers were moved to the beginning of the show, and the term “trailer” persisted.

44. Like many newlyweds and bagels : TOASTED
I think the idea is that someone usually toasts newlyweds, and the suggestion isn’t that newlyweds are often drunk/toasted …

45. “Leatherstocking Tales” hero : BUMPPO
James Fenimore Cooper’s most famous works are the romantic novel “The Last of the Mohicans” and the collection of historical novels known as the “Leatherstocking Tales” featuring the hero Natty Bumppo. James Fenimore was the son of William Cooper, a US Congressman. The Cooper family lived in Cooperstown, New York, a community actually founded by James’s father William Cooper.

51. “My bad, Mario!” : SCUSI!
“Scusi” is the Italian for “pardon me”.

52. Spiff (up), in dialect : NICEN
Instead of saying “make nicer” one might use the vernacular and say “nicen”.

57. Some indicator lamps, briefly : LEDS
A Light Emitting Diode (LED) is a specialized form of semiconductor that when switched on releases photons (light). LEDs are getting more and more popular and have moved from use in electronic equipment to use as a replacement for the much less efficient tungsten light bulb. I replaced many of my tungsten Xmas lights last year and saved a lot on my electricity bill. I am definitely replacing the rest this coming Christmas.

58. “The Little Mermaid” prince : ERIC
“The Little Mermaid” is a 1989 animated feature from Disney that is based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale of the same name. It tells the story of a mermaid princess called Ariel who falls in love with the human Prince Eric.

61. Post-hurricane handout, for short : MRE
The Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) comes in a lightweight package that’s easy to tote around. The MRE replaced the more cumbersome Meal, Combat, Individual (MCI) in 1981, a meal-in-a-can. In turn, the MCI had replaced the C-ration in 1958, a less sophisticated meal-in-a-can with a more limited choice.

62. With 54-Down, Best Supporting Actress nominee for 1945’s “Mildred Pierce” : EVE
54. See 62-Down : ARDEN
Eve Arden’s most famous role early in her career was playing the high school teacher in the 1950’s radio and television show “Our Miss Brooks”. Years later she played the Principal of Rydell High School in the movies “Grease” (a great film!) and “Grease 2” (a terrible film!).

“Mildred Pierce” is a novel by James M. Cain that was adapted into a 1945 film starring Joan Crawford. There is also an excellent 2011 HBO miniseries adaptation starring Kate Winslet.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Dupe : CAT’S-PAW
8. Like many PDFs : EMAILED
15. Red-hot : ON A TEAR
16. Letter : MISSIVE
17. Salvage a bad situation : MAKE THE BEST OF IT
19. Hungarian city known for “Bull’s Blood” wine : EGER
20. One catching the game : SNARER
21. Two-time Best Rock Album Grammy winner : ENO
22. Acted like a sponge : DRANK
24. Neighbor of Hercules : LYRA
25. Critical hosp. setting : ICU
26. Founding member of the Star Alliance, for short : UAL
27. Automaker Adam : OPEL
30. Mole removal option : LASER
32. Goth relative : EMO
33. “___ Bein’ Bad” (Sawyer Brown country hit) : BETTY’S
36. 25-Across sights : IVS
37. Flipped out : OVER THE EDGE
40. Swinging halter, for short : TKO
41. Almost fall : TEETER
42. Last item bagged, often: Abbr. : RCT
45. Milling byproducts : BRANS
47. “___ Plays Monterey” (posthumous 1986 album) : JIMI
48. Chairman ___ (hoops nickname) : YAO
49. 1958-61 polit. alliance : UAR
50. Roger Staubach’s sch. : USNA
53. Home of Sinbad the sailor : BASRA
55. “Idol ___” (Mozart aria) : MIO
56. Cold war weapon? : ICICLE
59. Sorority letters : RHOS
60. Too pooped to pop : PLUM TUCKERED OUT
63. Mathematical physicist Roger : PENROSE
64. Assorted : DIVERSE
65. Have meals delivered : ORDER IN
66. Like some tea : SCENTED

Down
1. Mature : COME DUE
2. Antes up for peanuts? : ANAGRAM
3. Open house invitation : TAKE A LOOK AROUND
4. Rear admiral’s rear : STERN
5. Iguana, maybe : PET
6. Music to a masseur’s ears : AAHS
7. Troglodytes troglodytes : WREN
8. Grinding material : EMERY
9. Jack Benny persona : MISER
10. Like some giants and dwarfs : ASTRAL
11. Prefix with kinetic : ISO-
12. Why “there’s no time for fussing and fighting,” per a Beatles hit : LIFE IS VERY SHORT
13. Shows that one has : EVINCES
14. GPS button : DETOUR
18. Go for broke : BALL THE JACK
23. Kind of beef : KOBE
28. Fresh : PERT
29. Couch attachment? : -ETTE
31. 2008 TARP recipient : AIG
34. Humanoid cryptid : YETI
35. Feel : SEEM
38. Part of many a German name : VON
39. Smidgen : DRIB
40. It shows small parts of the picture : TRAILER
43. Whoop it up : CAROUSE
44. Like many newlyweds and bagels : TOASTED
45. “Leatherstocking Tales” hero : BUMPPO
46. One may give a ring : SUITOR
51. “My bad, Mario!” : SCUSI!
52. Spiff (up), in dialect : NICEN
54. See 62-Down : ARDEN
57. Some indicator lamps, briefly : LEDS
58. “The Little Mermaid” prince : ERIC
61. Post-hurricane handout, for short : MRE
62. With 54-Down, Best Supporting Actress nominee for 1945’s “Mildred Pierce” : EVE

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