0820-13 New York Times Crossword Answers 20 Aug 13, Tuesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Zhouqin Burnikel & Don Gagliardo
THEME: Doubleday … each of today’s themed answers is made up of two words, each of which can precede the word DAY:

17A. Research that may be outdoors : FIELDWORK (giving “field day” & “workday”)
26A. Variable spring period : HOLY WEEK (from “holy day” & “weekday”)
36A. What employers tap to get employees : LABOR MARKET (from “Labor Day” & “market day”)
50A. Fortunate sort : LUCKY DOG (from ‘lucky day” & “dog day”)
58A. Supposed inventor of baseball … or a hint to 17-, 26-, 36- and 50-Across : DOUBLEDAY

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 10:21
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Digging … or word after “digging” : INTO
I dig crosswords, I am into crosswords … and digging into what might be behind the clues.

5. Santa ___, Calif. : ROSA
Santa Rosa is the largest city in California’s Wine Country, and the county seat of Sonoma County. The epicenter of the so-called 1906 San Francisco Earthquake was located near Santa Rosa, so there was actually more damage in Santa Rosa, for the size of the city, than there was in San Francisco.

9. Penne, e.g. : PASTA
Cylindrical pasta is known in general as “penne”, and there are many variants. For example, ziti is a particularly large and long tube with square-cut ends.

15. Geishas’ wear : OBIS
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.

The Japanese term “geisha” best translates as “artist” or “performing artist”.

16. Synthetic fiber : ARNEL
Arnel is a brand name of an acetate textile.

19. “Lemon Tree” singer Lopez : TRINI
Trini Lopez is a noted singer and guitarist from Dallas, Texas. He is perhaps best known for his international hit “If I Had a Hammer” from 1963, as well as “Lemon Tree” from 1965.

The 1965 Trini Lopez hit “Lemon Tree” is a folk song that was written by Will Holt earlier in the sixties. Holt’s song is based on a Brazilian folk song “Meu limão, meu limoeiro”.

20. Org. recommending regular checkups : ADA
The American Dental Association (ADA) is the largest and oldest national dental association in the world. Today the ADA is based in Chicago, but the association was founded in Niagara Falls, New York in 1859. The ADA started out as a group of 26 dentists and now has more than 152,000 members.

22. Camera adjustments : F-STOPS
Varying the f-stop in a lens varies how big the lens opening (the aperture) is when a photograph is taken. Smaller apertures (higher f-stop values) admit less light, but result in sharper photographs.

26. Variable spring period : HOLY WEEK (from “holy day” & “weekday”)
In the Christian tradition, Holy Week is the last week of Lent and the week that precedes Easter Sunday. Holy Week includes the religious holidays of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

31. A .08% reading may lead to it, for short : DUI
In some states, there is no longer a legal difference between a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) and a DUI (Driving Under the Influence). Other states retain that difference, so that by definition a DUI is a lesser offence than a DWI.

32. Casey with a radio countdown : KASEM
Not only is Casey Kasem so closely associated with the radio show “American Top 40”, but he is also well known for playing the voice of Shaggy Rogers on the “Scooby-Doo” animated series.

36. What employers tap to get employees : LABOR MARKET (from “Labor Day” & “market day”)
Labor Day is a federal holiday observed every year on the first Monday in September. The tradition of honoring workers with a holiday started in Boston in 1878, when a day of observance was organized by the Central Labor Union, the major trade union at the time. There was a bloody dispute in 1894 between labor unions and the railroads called the Pullman Strike, which led to the death of some workers when the US Military and US Marshals were instructed to maintain order. President Grover Cleveland submitted a “Labor Day” bill to Congress which was signed into law just six days after the end of the strike. The introduction of a federal holiday to honor the worker was a move designed to promote reconciliation between management and unions after the bitter conflict.

39. There are five on China’s flag : STARS
The Chinese flag has a red background with five gold stars in the upper left corner. The stars are arranged with four small stars in an arc beside a larger star. The design was adopted in 1949 and was first flown in October of that year at a ceremony in Tiananmen Square announcing the foundation of the People’s Republic of China.

41. Alternatives to Slurpees : ICEES
Icee and Slurpee are brand names of those slushy drinks. Ugh …

42. San Francisco’s ___ Hill : NOB
Nob Hill is a very elevated and central location in the city of San Francisco. Because of its views of the surrounding city and environs, Nob Hill became a desirable place to live for the wealthy in the 1800s. The area is still one of San Francisco’s most affluent neighborhoods and is home to upscale hotels as well as the magnificent Grace Cathedral. The name “Nob Hill” comes from the slang term for someone who is well-to-do, a “nob”.

43. One of 154 for Shakespeare : SONNET
A sonnet is a short poem with varying rhyming schemes but always with 14 lines. The sonnet form has been around at least since the 13th century. The Shakespearean sonnet is composed of three quatrains (4 lines) and a final couplet (2 lines).

50. Fortunate sort : LUCKY DOG (from ‘lucky day” & “dog day”)
“Dog Days” is the term given to the warmest and most humid days of summer. The term derives from the ancient belief that hot weather was caused when Sirius (the Dog Star) was in close proximity to the sun.

53. Lit : SOUSED
The word “souse” dates back to the 14th century and means “to pickle, steep in vinegar”. In the early 1600s the usage was applied to someone “pickled” in booze, a drunkard.

58. Supposed inventor of baseball … or a hint to 17-, 26-, 36- and 50-Across : DOUBLEDAY
Abner Doubleday was a general in the Union Army during the Civil War. Some say that Doubleday fired the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter in the first battle of the war. After the Civil War, while stationed in San Francisco, Doubleday too out a patent for the cable car system that still runs in the city. Claims have been made that Doubleday also invented baseball, with the first game being played in Elihu Phinney’s cow pasture in Cooperstown, New York.

61. Hollywood’s Davis : BETTE
I must confess that I have a problem watching movies starring Bette Davis. I think I must have seen her play one of her more sinister roles when I was a kid and it gave me nightmares or something. So, I have never seen the 1950 classic “All About Eve”, given that Bette Davis gets top billing. But, the title role of Eve Harrington was played by Anne Baxter, and Ms Baxter’s movies I do enjoy. Coincidentally, on the epic television series “Hotel”, when Bette Davis became ill, it was Anne Baxter who was chosen to take on her role.

63. Vulcan mind ___ : MELD
Mr. Spock was the first to show us the Vulcan mind meld, on the original “Star Trek” series. Vulcans have the ability to meld with the minds of other Vulcans, and indeed humans, in order to see what what’s “going on” in the other individual’s mind.

64. Source of Indian black tea : ASSAM
Assam is a state in the very northeast of India, just south of the Himalayas. Assam is noted for its tea, as well as its silk.

Down
4. Medium for Van Dyck or van Gogh : OIL
Anthony van Dyck was a Flemish artist, although he was noted as a painter in the British royal court. His most famous portraits are of King Charles I of England and members of his family. The men in his paintings often sported a short, pointed beard that was in fashion at the time. When that style of beard became fashionable again centuries later, it was termed a “Van Dyke” in honor of the artist.

6. High wind? : OBOE
The oboe is perhaps my favorite of the reed instruments. The name “oboe” comes from the French “hautbois” which means “high wood”. When you hear an orchestra tuning before a performance you’ll note (pun intended!) that the oboe starts off the process by playing an “A”. The rest of the musicians in turn tune to that oboe’s “A”.

9. Helen Keller’s portrayer in “The Miracle Worker” : PATTY DUKE
Patty Duke is an actress from Queens, New York who achieved fame as child star. She had her own sitcom for three years in the mid-sixties, with most episodes written by successful novelist Sidney Sheldon. Astin’s third husband was comedy actor John Astin who played Gomez Addams on “The Addams Family”. Duke is the mother of actor Sean Astin who plays Samwise Gamgee in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

“The Miracle Worker” is a 1962 movie based on the autobiography of Helen Keller called “The Story of My Life”.

Helen Keller became a noted author despite been deaf and blind, largely through the work of her teacher, Anne Sullivan. Keller was left deaf and blind after an illness (possible meningitis or scarlet fever). when she was about 18 months old. She was to become the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The relationship between Sullivan and Keller is immortalized in the play and film called “The Miracle Worker”.

13. Ring king : ALI
Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. was born in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky. Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam in 1964. Who can forget Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame for the 1996 games in Atlanta? Ali was presented with a gold medal during those ’96 Games, a replacement for the medal he won at the 1960 Olympics. He had thrown the original into the Ohio River as a gesture of disgust after being refused service at a “whites only” restaurant.

23. ___ Poke (candy) : SLO
If you are interested, you can still buy Slo Pokes!

25. Holocaust hero Schindler : OSKAR
Oskar Schindler is of course the protagonist in the Steven Spielberg movie “Schindler’s List”. Schindler was a real person who survived WWII. During the Holocaust, Schindler managed to save almost 1,200 Jews from perishing by employing them in his factories. After the war, Schindler and his wife were left penniless having used his assets to protect and feed his workers. For years the couple survived on the charity of Jewish groups. Schindler tried to make a go of it in business again but never had any real success. He died a pauper in 1974 in Hildesheim, not far from Hanover. His last wish was to be buried in Jerusalem. Schindler was the only former member of the Nazi Party to be buried on Mount Zion.

29. General on Chinese menus : TSO
General Tso’s chicken is an American creation, often found on the menu of a Chinese restaurant. The name General Tso may be a reference to General Zuo Zongtang of the Qing Dynasty, but there is no clear link.

30. Part of H.M.S. : HER
HMS stands for His or Her Majesty’s Ship and is a prefix used in the navies of some monarchies, most notably the UK’s Royal Navy.

33. Auto safety feature, redundantly : ABS SYSTEM
The first anti-lock braking system (ABS) was actually developed for use on aircraft, in 1929. The system reduced braking distances for aircraft by 30% because pilots were able to apply a full braking force immediately on landing instead of applying gradual pressure to avoid skidding.

37. Bandage brand : ACE
ACE is a brand name of elastic bandage.

39. NBC show since ’75 : SNL
NBC first aired a form of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) in 1975 under the title “NBC’s Saturday Night”. The show was actually created to give Johnny Carson some time off from “The Tonight Show”. Back then “The Tonight Show” had a weekend episode, and Carson convinced NBC to pull the Saturday or Sunday recordings off the air and hold them for subsequent weeknights in which Carson needed a break. NBC turned to Lorne Michaels and asked him to put together a variety show to fill the vacant slot, and he came up with what we now call “Saturday Night Live”.

44. “___ to Joy” : ODE
“Ode to Joy” is a poem written in 1785 by German poet Friedrich Schiller. Ludwig van Beethoven gave the poem great notoriety when he used it in his Ninth “Choral” Symphony first performed in 1824.

47. 27 Chopin works : ETUDES
An étude is a small instrumental composition that is usually quite hard to play and is intended to help the performer master a particular technique. “Étude” is the French word for “study”. Études are commonly performed on the piano.

Frederic Chopin was a Polish composer who spent most of his life in France. He was most famous for his piano works in the Romantic style. Chopin was a sickly man and died quite young, at 39. For many of his final years he had a celebrated and tempestuous relationship with the French author George Sand (the nom de plume of the Baroness Dudevant). Those years with Sand may have been turbulent, but they were very productive in terms of musical composition.

49. Half of Stevenson’s “strange case” : MR HYDE
Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was first published in 1886. There are many tales surrounding the writing of the story including one that the author wrote the basic tale in just three to six days, and spent a few weeks simply refining it. Allegedly, Stevenson’s use of cocaine stimulated his creative juices during those few days of writing.

51. ___ Kinte of “Roots” : KUNTA
The 1977 miniseries “Roots”, the character Kunta Kinte was played by as a young man by actor LeVar Burton and as an older man by John Amos.

Alex Haley’s 1976 novel “Roots” is based on Haley’s own family history. Haley claimed that he was a direct descendant of the real life Kunta Kinte, the slave who was kidnapped in the Gambia in 1767. If you remember the fabulous television adaptation of “Roots”, you might recall that Kunta Kinte was played by LeVar Burton, who later went on to play another famous role, Geordi La Forge on “Star Trek: the Next Generation”.

52. The Braves, on scoreboards : ATL
The Atlanta Braves are the only team to have won baseball’s World Series in three different home cities. They won as the Boston Braves in 1914, the Milwaukee Braves in 1957 and the Atlanta Braves in 1995.

55. Like Napoleon, before Elba? : ABLE
The three most famous palindromes in English have to be:

– Able was I ere I saw Elba
– A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
– Madam, I’m Adam

One of my favorite words is “Aibohphobia”, although it doesn’t appear in the dictionary and is a joke term. “Aibohphobia” is a great way to describe a fear of palindromes, by creating a palindrome out of the suffix “-phobia”.

57. Org. with balls and strikes : PBA
The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA).

59. ___-lacto-vegetarian : OVO
A lacto-ovo vegetarian is someone who does not consume meat or fish, but does eat eggs (ovo) and dairy (lacto) products.

60. Big inits. in music : EMI
EMI is a British music company, with the acronym originally standing for Electric and Musical Industries.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Digging … or word after “digging” : INTO
5. Santa ___, Calif. : ROSA
9. Penne, e.g. : PASTA
14. “Me neither” : NOR I
15. Geishas’ wear : OBIS
16. Synthetic fiber : ARNEL
17. Research that may be outdoors : FIELDWORK (giving “field day” & “workday”)
19. “Lemon Tree” singer Lopez : TRINI
20. Org. recommending regular checkups : ADA
21. Function : USE
22. Camera adjustments : F-STOPS
24. “I’m with you!” : ME TOO!
26. Variable spring period : HOLY WEEK (from “holy day” & “weekday”)
28. Some cheers : YAYS
29. Something not to be spared, in a saying : THE ROD
31. A .08% reading may lead to it, for short : DUI
32. Casey with a radio countdown : KASEM
34. Not suitable : UNAPT
36. What employers tap to get employees : LABOR MARKET (from “Labor Day” & “market day”)
39. There are five on China’s flag : STARS
41. Alternatives to Slurpees : ICEES
42. San Francisco’s ___ Hill : NOB
43. One of 154 for Shakespeare : SONNET
46. Prisoner’s sentence : TERM
50. Fortunate sort : LUCKY DOG (from ‘lucky day” & “dog day”)
52. Late bloomer : ASTER
53. Lit : SOUSED
54. Fink : RAT
56. “Yuck!” : UGH!
57. Magician’s assistant in an audience, say : PLANT
58. Supposed inventor of baseball … or a hint to 17-, 26-, 36- and 50-Across : DOUBLEDAY
61. Hollywood’s Davis : BETTE
62. Wicked : EVIL
63. Vulcan mind ___ : MELD
64. Source of Indian black tea : ASSAM
65. Ready to come off the stove : DONE
66. “Got it” : I SEE

Down
1. Severe disrepute : INFAMY
2. “I haven’t the foggiest” : NO IDEA!
3. Bringer of peace : TREATY
4. Medium for Van Dyck or van Gogh : OIL
5. Counterparts of columns : ROWS
6. High wind? : OBOE
7. Word said with a salute : SIR
8. Request : ASK FOR
9. Helen Keller’s portrayer in “The Miracle Worker” : PATTY DUKE
10. “This way” indicator : ARROW
11. Attacked anonymously : SNIPED AT
12. Stiffen through nervousness : TENSE UP
13. Ring king : ALI
18. Couple : DUO
23. ___ Poke (candy) : SLO
25. Holocaust hero Schindler : OSKAR
26. Fixing, as the bottom of a skirt : HEMMING
27. Press ___ (media packet) : KIT
29. General on Chinese menus : TSO
30. Part of H.M.S. : HER
33. Auto safety feature, redundantly : ABS SYSTEM
35. Flight destinations : NESTS
36. Attire for scientists : LAB COATS
37. Bandage brand : ACE
38. Like some mil. officers : RET
39. NBC show since ’75 : SNL
40. Messes up, as the hair : TOUSLES
44. “___ to Joy” : ODE
45. Dozed (off) : NODDED
47. 27 Chopin works : ETUDES
48. Entertain lavishly : REGALE
49. Half of Stevenson’s “strange case” : MR HYDE
51. ___ Kinte of “Roots” : KUNTA
52. The Braves, on scoreboards : ATL
54. Many an archaeological site : RUIN
55. Like Napoleon, before Elba? : ABLE
57. Org. with balls and strikes : PBA
59. ___-lacto-vegetarian : OVO
60. Big inits. in music : EMI

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