0705-13 New York Times Crossword Answers 5 Jul 13, Friday

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: Paula Gamache
THEME: None
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 39m 50s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 4 … ODA MAE (Ota Mae), IKETTES (Okettes), CLOD (clot), ABRI (abro)

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Utah’s ___ Range : WASATCH
The Wasatch Range is at the western edge of the Rocky Mountains and runs through Utah. “Wasatch” is a Ute word meaning “mountain pass”.

16. Kind of pie : SHOOFLY
Shoofly pie is made from molasses and is very similar to a treat that I grew up with back in Ireland called treacle tart, with molasses substituted for golden syrup. It is suggested that the name “shoofly” derives from the fact that flies have to be shooed away when they are attracted to the molasses.

17. What a blog provides : SOAPBOX
“Blog” is a melding of the words “Web” and “log”. My two blogs are “logs” of all the New York Times and Los Angeles Times crosswords published, and I post them on the “Web” at NYTCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com.

18. Cornish knight of the Round Table : TRISTAN
According to the legend of King Arthur, Tristan was a Knight of the Round Table from Cornwall in the south of England. Tristan was sent by his Cornish king to fetch an Irish princess called Iseult from her homeland, but Tristan and Iseult instead fall in love. Most famously, the couple’s story was retold as the opera “Tristan and Isolde” by Richard Wagner.

19. Bud of Nancy : AMI
A male friend in France is “un ami”, and a female friend is “une amie”.

Nancy is a city in northeastern France.

20. “Ghost” character Brown : ODA MAE
Oda Mae Brown is the medium in “Ghost”, played by Whoopi Goldberg.

The fabulous film “Ghost” was the highest-grossing movie at the box office in 1990, bringing in over $500 million, despite only costing $21 million to make. Stars of the film are Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. You might want to check out the stage musical adaptation “Ghost The Musical”, which debuted in 2011 and is touring the UK and US.

22. The working girl in “Working Girl” : TESS
“Working Girl” is an entertaining romantic comedy film from 1988 that stars Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford in the lead roles, with Sigourney Weaver supporting. I just found out that “Working Girl” was remade into a TV series in the nineties with Sandra Bullock starring, but it only aired for 12 episodes.

23. Euro dispenser : BANCO
In Spanish, a banco (bank) might dispense euros.

25. Freshwater predator : GAR
The fish known as a gar is very unusual in that it is often found in very brackish water. What is interesting about gar is that their swim bladders are vascularized so that they can actually function as lungs. Many species of gar can actually be seen coming to the surface and taking a gulp of air. This adaptation makes it possible for them to live in conditions highly unsuitable for other fish that rely on their gills to get oxygen out of the water. Indeed, quite interesting …

26. Semester, e.g. : TERM
“Semester” is a German word from the Latin “semestris”, an adjective meaning “of six months”. We of course use “semester” in a system that divides an academic year into two roughly equal parts. A trimester system has three parts, and a quarter system has four.

28. Richard Gere title role : DR T
The 2000 movie “Dr. T & the Women” is a pretty good film, starring Richard Gere in the title role. There can’t be many romantic comedies about gynecologists …

Richard Gere has played such great roles on the screen, and I find him to be a very interesting character off the screen. Gere has been studying Buddhism since 1978 and is a very visible supporter of the Dalai Lama and the people of Tibet.

31. 1980s TV outfit : THE A-TEAM
“The A-Team” is an action television series that originally ran in the eighties. The A-Team was a group of ex-US special forces personnel who became mercenaries. Star of the show was Hollywood actor George Peppard, ably assisted by Mr. T and Robert Vaughan.

35. Date shown on the tablet of the Statue of Liberty : JULY IV MDCCLXXVI
The Statue of Liberty was of course a gift from the people of France to the United States. It was designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and was dedicated in 1886. If you take a boat ride down the Seine in Paris you’ll get quite the surprise (unless you are expecting it) as there is a one-third replica of Lady Liberty standing on a small island in the river looking quite magnificent. The copy was given to the people of Paris by the city’s American community in 1889.

39. Blood-typing system : ABO
The most important grouping of blood types is the ABO system. Blood is classified as either A, B, AB or O, depending on the type of antigens on the surface of the red blood cells. A secondary designation of blood is the Rh factor, in which other antigens are labelled as either positive or negative. When a patient receives a blood transfusion, ideally the donor blood should be the same type as that of the recipient, as incompatible blood cells can be rejected. However, blood type O-neg can be accepted by recipients with all blood types, A, B, AB or O, and positive or negative. Hence someone with O-neg blood type is called a “universal donor”.

41. Situated near the middle line of the body : MESIAL
The term “mesial” is used to describe something on or near the middle. The term is used in dentistry to mean something situated near the middle of the jaw at the front.

44. Gypsy people : ROMA
The Romani people are an ethnic group mainly found across Europe. Outsiders often refer to the Romani as “gypsies”. The Romani arrived in Europe in the 15th century from the Middle East. The English term “gypsy” comes from a Middle English corruption of the word for an “Egyptian”.

48. $2 to $2,000, in Monopoly : RENT
The street names in the US version of Monopoly are locations in or around Atlantic City, New Jersey.

49. Actor Hamm of “Mad Men” : JON
Jon Hamm lived the life of a struggling actor for quite some time before he hit gold with the starring role in the AMC drama “Mad Men”. He plays the main character, advertising executive (and man about town), Don Draper. I am told by my wife and female friends, that he is quite good looking. I don’t see it myself …

50. “The accuser of our brethren,” per Revelation : SATAN
Revelation is the last book in the New Testament of the Bible. The book’s author is said to be John of Patmos, as called out in this passage:

I John…was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. …and I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet saying: What thou seest, write in a book…

51. Digital imaging brand : AGFA
Agfa was founded in Germany in 1867, a company focused on the manufacture of dyes. The full name of the enterprise was Aktiengesellschaft für Anilinfabrikation, shortened to Agfa, and translating as “Corporation for Aniline (a dye) Production”. Agfa merged with the Belgian company Gevaert in 1894, getting them into the photographic business. Agfa 35mm film hasn’t been produced for a few years now, but there is still inventory out there and purists are buying it when they can.

52. ___ oil : SUNTAN
In theory, the sun protection factor (SPF) is a calibrated measure of the effectiveness of a sunscreen in protecting the skin from harmful UV rays. The idea is that if you wear a lotion with say SPF 20, then it takes 20 times as much UV radiation to cause the skin to burn than it would take without protection. I say just stay out of the sun …

55. University of Cincinnati athlete : BEARCAT
The Bearcats are the athletic teams of the University of Cincinnati. The “Bearcat” name came from a specific football game back in 1914, against the UK Wildcats. Cincinnati’s fullback on the day was Leonard Baehr, so the crowd took up the chant:

They may be the wildcats, but we have a Baehr-cat on our side!

57. Former Colts arena : RCA DOME
The RCA Dome was probably better known as the Hoosier dome, home to the Indianapolis Colts from 1984-2007. It was torn down in 2008, but the inflated roof was put to good use afterwards. The material was re-purposed by local artisans, creating wallets, messenger bags etc. These can still be purchased, with proceeds going to charity.

61. Turner backers : IKETTES
The Ikettes were the female backing vocalists for the Ike & Tina Turner Revue in the sixties. The Ikettes replaced the Artettes in 1960.

62. Scale often used in a laboratory : CELSIUS
Anders Celsius was a Swedish astronomer. The temperature scale that Celsius created was the reverse of that used today, with “zero” representing the boiling point of water and “100” representing water’s freezing point. This scale was “upended” (in 1744) just after Celsius died, by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. The resulting temperature scale then became known as the centigrade scale for over 200 years, until in 1948 it was decided to adopt the “degree Celsius”. So, anyone still using “degrees centigrade” is actually way behind the times …

Down
1. Condiment that can make your eyes water : WASABI
Sometimes called Japanese horseradish, wasabi is a root used as a condiment in Japanese cooking. The taste of wasabi is more like mustard than a hot pepper in that the vapors that create the “hotness” stimulate the nasal passages rather than the tongue. Personally, I love the stuff …

4. “Antony and Cleopatra” prop : ASP
In William Shakespeare’s play “Antony and Cleopatra”, the heroine of the piece addresses the asp as she uses the snake to commit suicide:

Come, thou mortal wretch,
With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool,
Be angry, and dispatch.

The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.

5. Banned : TABOO
The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

7. “I Ching” figures : HEXAGRAMS
The “I Ching” is an ancient Chinese text dating back to the 2nd millennium BC. The text deals with aspects of cosmology and divination, and perhaps served as a guide for making predictions of the future. The statements in the “I Ching” consist of 64 hexagrams, sets of six lines composed in horizontal stacks.

8. Orange dwarf : K STAR
Stars are usually classified based on the color of the light that they emit. These classifications are, from hottest to coolest, O, B, A, F, G, K and M. One way to remember the order of these letters is to use the mnemonic “Oh, be a fine girl, kiss me”. The colors of these stars range from blue (class O) to red (class M). Our sun is class G, a yellow star, but I think we all know that …

9. German possessive pronoun : IHRE
“Ihre” is the German word for “her”.

12. When to wear a cocktail dress, traditionally : AFTER SIX
Our word “cocktail” first appeared in the early 1800s. The exact origin of the term is not clear, but it is thought to be a corruption of the French word “coquetier” meaning “egg cup”, a container that was used at that time for serving mixed drinks.

13. Sports bar feature : PLASMA TV
Plasma televisions are so called because the screen is made up tiny cells containing electrically charged ionized gases (plasmas). Each of the cells is effectively a tiny fluorescent lamp.

14. Aid and abet: Abbr. : SYNS
“Aid” and “abet” are synonyms.

The word “abet” comes into English from the Old French “abeter” meaning “to bait” or “to harass with dogs” (it literally means “to make bite”). This sense of encouraging something bad to happen morphed into our modern usage of “abet” meaning to aid or encourage someone in a crime.

21. Oscar winner once named Sexiest Man Alive by People : MATT DAMON
Matt Damon is an actor and screenwriter from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Damon’s big break came with the 1997 movie “Good Will Hunting” in which he starred. He co-wrote the screenplay with his childhood friend Ben Affleck.

24. 20th-century French leader : COTY
René Coty was the President of France from 1954 to 1959 (succeeding Vincent Auriol), and notably presided over the Algerian War. Coty resigned after five years, making way for the 7-year term of Charles de Gaulle.

26. Record label for the Miracles and Stevie Wonder : TAMLA
Tamla Records was started in 1959 by Berry Gordy, Jr. Gordy started a second record label the following year, called Motown …

28. Massachusetts governor ___ Patrick : DEVAL
Deval Patrick is the current Governor of Massachusetts. Patrick took over as Governor from Mitt Romney in 2006. The famous Massachusetts health care reform that was enacted by Romney fell to Patrick for implementation.

29. Entry in an annual international sports competition since 1851 : YACHT
A lind blog reader pointed out (below) that the America’s Cup isn’t challenged annually. As far as I can tell, the competition is held about every three years.

The America’s Cup is a trophy that has been awarded for yacht racing since 1851. It was first presented to the winner of a race around the Isle of Wight in England that was won by a schooner called “America”. The trophy was eventually renamed to “the America’s Cup” in honor of that first race winner.

30. French pronoun : TOI
“Toi” is the French word for “you”, when talking to someone with whom you are familiar.

32. Drum kit part : HI-HAT
In a drum kit, a hi-hat is that pairing of cymbals that sits on a stand and is played by using a foot pedal. The top cymbal is raised and lowered by the foot, hence creating a crashing sound.

36. Epithet for a computer whiz : UBER-GEEK
The original “geek” was a sideshow performer, perhaps at a circus.

37. Eat crow : LOSE FACE
The phrase “eat crow”, an alternative to “eat humble pie” perhaps refers to the fact that cooked crow may be edible, but is not a great food choice.

45. Holy Roman emperor known as “the Red” : OTTO II
Otto II was also called Otto the Red. He was the son of the Otto the Great and ruled the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty, becoming Holy Roman Emperor in 967 AD.

46. Fighters for Kenyan independence : MAU MAU
The Mau Mau Uprising was a revolt against British rule in Kenya that took place in the fifties. The group staging the revolt called themselves the Kenya Land and Freedom Army. Apparently for some long forgotten reason, the rebels became known as the Mau Mau.

49. Early invaders of Britain : JUTES
Germanic tribes invaded Great Britain from the early 5th century and created the nation that we now call England. The Anglo-Saxons, as these tribes came to be called, held sway in the country until 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest. The Anglo-Saxons were descendants of three Germanic tribes:

– The Angles, from Angeln in Northern Germany (and the tribe that gave the name “England”).
– The Saxons, from Lower Saxony and Holland.
– The Jutes, from the Jutland peninsula in Denmark.

51. Shelter dug into a hillside : ABRI
An abri is a shelter or place to hide, especially in wartime. “Abri” is a term we borrow from French.

56. Monitor, for short : CRT
Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) … there aren’t many of them available in stores these days!

58. Shakes : DTS
The episodes of delirium that can accompany withdrawal from alcohol are called Delirium Tremens (the DTs). The literal translation of this Latin phrase is “trembling madness”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Utah’s ___ Range : WASATCH
8. Snatches : KIDNAPS
15. Where to check for prints? : ART SALE
16. Kind of pie : SHOOFLY
17. What a blog provides : SOAPBOX
18. Cornish knight of the Round Table : TRISTAN
19. Bud of Nancy : AMI
20. “Ghost” character Brown : ODA MAE
22. The working girl in “Working Girl” : TESS
23. Euro dispenser : BANCO
25. Freshwater predator : GAR
26. Semester, e.g. : TERM
27. “That ___ stupid!” : IS SO
28. Richard Gere title role : DR T
29. Addresses shrilly : YAPS AT
31. 1980s TV outfit : THE A-TEAM
34. “Am ___ blame?” : I TO
35. Date shown on the tablet of the Statue of Liberty : JULY IV MDCCLXXVI
39. Blood-typing system : ABO
40. Converses : HAS A CHAT
41. Situated near the middle line of the body : MESIAL
43. Formed a junction : MET
44. Gypsy people : ROMA
48. $2 to $2,000, in Monopoly : RENT
49. Actor Hamm of “Mad Men” : JON
50. “The accuser of our brethren,” per Revelation : SATAN
51. Digital imaging brand : AGFA
52. ___ oil : SUNTAN
54. Port vessel : TUG
55. University of Cincinnati athlete : BEARCAT
57. Former Colts arena : RCA DOME
59. Bend backward : RECURVE
60. J, F or K : INITIAL
61. Turner backers : IKETTES
62. Scale often used in a laboratory : CELSIUS

Down
1. Condiment that can make your eyes water : WASABI
2. Coffee and fresh-baked cookies have them : AROMAS
3. Adds color to : STAINS
4. “Antony and Cleopatra” prop : ASP
5. Banned : TABOO
6. Lug : CLOD
7. “I Ching” figures : HEXAGRAMS
8. Orange dwarf : K STAR
9. German possessive pronoun : IHRE
10. “___ ever!” : DO I
11. Jet wing warning : NO STEP
12. When to wear a cocktail dress, traditionally : AFTER SIX
13. Sports bar feature : PLASMA TV
14. Aid and abet: Abbr. : SYNS
21. Oscar winner once named Sexiest Man Alive by People : MATT DAMON
24. 20th-century French leader : COTY
26. Record label for the Miracles and Stevie Wonder : TAMLA
28. Massachusetts governor ___ Patrick : DEVAL
29. Entry in an annual international sports competition since 1851 : YACHT
30. French pronoun : TOI
32. Drum kit part : HI-HAT
33. Odd : ECCENTRIC
35. Preserves, perhaps : JAM
36. Epithet for a computer whiz : UBER-GEEK
37. Eat crow : LOSE FACE
38. Bonus, in ads : XTRA
42. Mired : IN A RUT
45. Holy Roman emperor known as “the Red” : OTTO II
46. Fighters for Kenyan independence : MAU MAU
47. Little dears : ANGELS
49. Early invaders of Britain : JUTES
50. Slow racer : SNAIL
51. Shelter dug into a hillside : ABRI
52. Pitching stat : SAVE
53. Middle school marks? : ACNE
56. Monitor, for short : CRT
58. Shakes : DTS

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