0910-13 New York Times Crossword Answers 10 Sep 13, Tuesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Zhouqin Burnikel
THEME: Chinese Roots … today’s themed answers are words that have origins in Chinese:

1A. *Relative of an orange : KUMQUAT
8A. *Tropical storm : TYPHOON
23A. *Lingerie material : SILK
37A. *Act deferentially : KOWTOW
40A. *French fries topper : KETCHUP
43A. *Like an eager beaver : GUNG HO
52A. *Food, slangily : CHOW
70A. *Root used in some energy drinks : GINSENG
71A. Language that’s the source of the words answered by this puzzle’s starred clues : CHINESE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 12m 00s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. *Relative of an orange : KUMQUAT
The kumquat tree bears fruit that looks like a small orange, about the size of an olive. The rind of a kumquat is sweet, and the center sour, so often it is only the rind that is eaten. The name “kumquat” comes from the Cantonese “kamkwat” meaning “golden orange”.

8. *Tropical storm : TYPHOON
The term “typhoon” may come from the Cantonese “tai fung”, which translates as “a great wind”.

A severe tropical storms is called a “hurricane” when it occurs in the Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, a “typhoon” in the Northwest Pacific, and a “cyclone” in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean. Tropical storms form over warm water, picking up energy from the evaporation from the ocean surface.

16. Certain steroid : HORMONE
Steroids are found commonly in nature, with familiar examples being cholesterol and testosterone. The controversial class of drugs called anabolic steroids (known informally as “roids” or simply “steroids”) are artificially produced chemicals designed to mimic the effect of the male sex hormone, testosterone. They are termed “anabolic” as they build up cellular tissue (particularly muscle) in a process called anabolism.

18. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” co-star : ED ASNER
Ed Asner is most famous for playing the irascible but lovable Lou Grant on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and on the spin-off drama “Lou Grant”. Off-screen, Asner is noted for his political activism. He served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and was very involved in the 1980 SAG strike. When “Lou Grant” was cancelled in 1982, despite decent ratings, there was a lot of talk that the cancellation was a move by the network against Asner personally. In fact one of Asner’s activist colleagues, Howard Hesseman (who played Johnny Fever), found that his show “WKRP in Cincinnati” was also cancelled … on the very same day …

In its day, “The Mary Tyler Moore show” was a real trail-blazer. It was the first television series with a lead character who was an independent-minded, career-oriented and single woman.

23. *Lingerie material : SILK
Silk is a fiber made from natural protein, and is produced by insect larvae. The best-known silk is made by the larvae of the mulberry silkworm. The term “silk” comes from “si”, the Chinese word for the material.

“Lingerie” is a French term, but as used in France it just means any underwear, worn by either males or females. In English we use “lingerie” to describe alluring underclothing worn by women. The term “lingerie” comes into English via the French word “linge” meaning “washables”, and ultimately from the Latin “linum”, meaning “linen”. We tend not to pronounce the word correctly in English, either here in the US or across the other side of the Atlantic. The French pronunciation is more like “lan-zher-ee”, as opposed to “lon-zher-ay” (American) and “lon-zher-ee” (British).

27. New Orleans pro team : SAINTS
The New Orleans Saints football team takes its name from the jazz song “When the Saints Go Marching In”, a tune that is very much associated with the city. The team was founded in 1967, on November 1, which is All Saints’ Day in the Roman Catholic tradition.

31. Feeling one’s ___ : OATS
“To feel one’s oats” is “to be lively”, and is a phrase that originated in the us in the early 1830s.

35. Sonata maker : HYUNDAI
The Hyundai factory in Ulsan, South Korea is the largest integrated automobile manufacturing facility in the world, able to produce 1.6 million vehicles each year.

37. *Act deferentially : KOWTOW
To kowtow is to show servile deference. “Kowtow” comes from the Chinese “k’o-t’ou” which is the name for the custom of kneeling and touching the forehead to the ground in a gesture of respect. The Chinese term literally translates as “knock the head”.

39. Best rating at Moody’s : AAA
Moody’s is a credit rating agency which ranks the creditworthiness of borrowers, a service also provided by Standard & Poor’s. Moody’s was started in 1909 by John Moody when he published a book containing analysis of railroad securities.

40. *French fries topper : KETCHUP
The term “ketchup” may be of Chinese origin. One suggestion is that the name comes from “kôe-chiap”, meaning the brine of pickled fish. The name may also come from the Chinese “jyutping”, meaning “tomato sauce”.

“French fries” are of course called “chips” back in the British Isles where I grew up. In France, they’re called “pommes frites” (“fried potatoes”).

43. *Like an eager beaver : GUNG HO
“Kung ho” is a Chinese expression meaning “work together, cooperate”. The anglicized version “gung ho” was adopted by a Major Evans Carlson as an expression of combined spirit for his 2nd Marine Raider Battalion during WWII. From there the term spread throughout the Marine Corps and back to America where it persists to this day.

45. Friend of Hamlet : HORATIO
Horatio is a character in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, a friend of the play’s hero and a relatively uninterested party in the intrigue that makes up the storyline. As a trusted friend, Horatio serves as a sounding board for Hamlet, allowing us in the audience to gain more insight into Hamlet’s thinking and character as we listen to the two in conversation.

47. City in Nevada : ELKO
The city of Elko came into being in 1868 as a settlement built around the eastern end of a railway line that was constructed from California and that was destined for Utah. When that section of the line was completed. the construction crews moved on towards the Nevada/Utah border, and the settlement was left behind to eventually form the city of Elko

49. Former Israeli P.M. Ehud : BARAK
Ehud Barak served as Prime Minister of Israel from 1999 to 2001. Barak left office after he called a special election for Prime Minister and lost the vote to Ariel Sharon. Barak resigned from the Knesset and took an advisory job with the US company Electronic Data Systems (EDS), and did some security-related work with a private equity company. In 2007, Barak took over leadership of Israel’s Labor Party and is now the country’s Minister of Defense.

52. *Food, slangily : CHOW
“Chow” is an American slang term for food that originated in California in the mid-1800s. “Chow” comes from the Chinese pidgin English “chow-chow” meaning “food”.

63. “If you ask me,” in blog comments : IMO
In my opinion (IMO)

64. Radio pioneer : MARCONI
Guglielmo Marconi was an inventor, famous for development of a radio telegraph design that was used across the world. Marconi did a lot of his early radio work in his native Italy, but moved to England as the British government was very interested in supporting his developments.

68. Genie’s master : ALADDIN
“Aladdin” is a famous tale in the “Arabian Nights”, also called “The Book of One Thousand and One Nights”. However, there is no evidence at all that the story was in the original collection. It is generally believed that one Antoine Galland introduced the tale when he translated the “Arabian Nights” into French in the early 1700s.

69. Op-ed pieces : COLUMNS
“Op-ed” is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

70. *Root used in some energy drinks : GINSENG
The word “ginseng” comes from a Chinese term meaning “man root”. The term is used as the root of ginseng is forked and resembles the legs of a man.

Down
2. Organs men don’t have : UTERI
The Latin “uterus” translates as both “womb” and “belly”. The Latin word was derived from the Greek “hystera” also meaning womb, which gives us the words “hysterectomy”, and “hysterical”.

4. Four times a day, in an Rx : QID
“Ter” is the Latin word for “three”, commonly used in the medical world on prescriptions as part of the expression “ter in die”. “Ter in die” is Latin for “three times a day”, abbreviated to “TID”. “Bis in die” (BID) would be twice a day, and “quater in die” (QID) would be four times a day.

5. Some, in Santiago : UNOS
Santiago is the capital of Chile. The city was founded in 1541 by the Spanish as Santiago de Nueva Extremadura. The name was chosen in honor of Saint James and the community of Extremadura in western Spain.

6. No. in chemistry : AT WT
The atomic weight of an element is the mass of one atom of the element, relative to the mass of an atom of carbon (which is assumed to have an atomic weight of 12).

10. Often-counterfeited luxury brand : PRADA
Prada was started in 1913 as a leathergoods shop in Milan, by the two Prada brothers. One of the brothers, Mario Prada, prevented the female members of his family participating in the company as he didn’t believe women should be involved in business (!). When the sexist brother died, his son had no interest in the business so it was his daughter who took over and ran the company for about twenty years, handing it over to her own daughter. I’d say the devil loved that …

11. ___ Pinafore : HMS
“H.M.S. Pinafore” is one of my favorite of the Gilbert & Sullivan comic operas (a production we staged at high school, many moons ago). “Pinafore” was one of the first big hits for Gilbert & Sullivan (in their native Britain, and in America), and they followed it up with “The Pirates of Penzance” and “The Mikado”.

12. Wife of Charlie Chaplin : OONA
Oona O’Neill dated J. D. Salinger and Orson Welles in her teens, but ended up marrying Charlie Chaplin. Oona was still pretty young when she married Chaplin, much to the dismay of her famous father, the playwright Eugene O’Neill. After the marriage Eugene disowned Oona as he was pretty upset about 54-year-old Chaplin marrying his 18-year-old daughter.

13. Universal donor’s type, informally : O-NEG
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”.

14. Villain in the 2009 “Star Trek” film : NERO
The 2009 movie “Star Trek” is in effect a prequel to the original “Star Trek” series. The film features a young James T. Kirk (played by Chris Pine) and a young Spock (played by Zachary Quinto) battling Romulan named Nero (played by Eric Bana) who comes back in time. As always, there’s an appearance by the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy, of course) who does a bit of time travel himself.

24. The Wildcats of the Big 12 Conf. : KSU
The athletic teams of Kansas State University (KSU) are called the Wildcats. The Wildcats official “colors” are just one, Royal Purple. There are very few college teams with just one official color. As well as KSU there is Syracuse (Orange) and Harvard (Crimson).

28. Egyptian symbol of life : ANKH
The ankh was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character for “eternal life”. The ankh wasn’t just used in inscriptions but was often fashioned into amulets and as surrounds for mirrors (perhaps symbolizing a view into another world).

30. ___ King Cole : NAT
Nat King Cole’s real name was Nathaniel Adams Coles. Cole made television history in 1956 when his own show debuted on NBC, a first for an African-American. Cole couldn’t pick up a national sponsor, so in order to save money and possibly save the show, many guest artists worked for no fee at all – the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte and Peggy Lee. The show survived for a year, but eventually Nat King Cole had to pull the plug on it himself.

33. Foofaraw : TO-DO
“Foofaraw” is excessive or flashy ornamentation, or a fuss over something that is unimportant.

34. Neighbor of Nor. and Fin. : SWE
Sweden is the third largest country in the European Union by area. However, it has a low population density with only 24 inhabitants per square mile, which is very low for Europe and compares with a US population density of 84 inhabitants per square mile (lucky old Canada has 9 inhabitants per square mile!).

37. Actor Russell : KURT
The actor Kurt Russell’s career started when he was a child playing a lead role in the TV Western series “The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters” in the sixties. Russell met actress Goldie Hawn on the set of the 1984 film “Swing Shift”, and the two have been in a relationship ever since.

38. October gem : OPAL
Here is the “official” list of birthstones by month, that we tend to use today:

January: Garnet
February: Amethyst
March: Bloodstone or Aquamarine
April: Diamond
May: Emerald
June: Pearl or Moonstone
July: Ruby
August: Sardonyx or Peridot
September: Sapphire or Lapis Lazuli
October: Opal or Pink Tourmaline
November: Topaz or Citrine
December: Turquoise or Zircon (also now, Tanzanite)

46. Sleuth, in slang : TEC
“Tec” is slang for a private detective.

51. 1998 De Niro crime thriller : RONIN
I haven’t seen “Ronin”, a 1998 action thriller about a group of ex-special forces and intelligence agents who collaborate to steal a mysterious suitcase. It stars Robert De Niro and Jean Reno, and sounds like my kind of film.

The actor Robert De Niro is noted for his longtime and highly successful collaboration with director Martin Scorsese. De Niro is also noted for his commitment as a method actor. Famously he gained a full 60 pounds in order to play Jake Lamotta in the 1980 movie “Raging Bull”.

56. Slate, e.g. : EMAG
“Slate” is an online magazine founded in 1996. “Slate” was originally owned by Microsoft and was part of the MSN online offering. The magazine has been available for free since 1999 (it is ad-supported) and has been owned by the Washington Post Company since 2004.

57. Indonesian tourist mecca : BALI
Bali is the most important tourist destination in Indonesia and is an island lying east of Java. A decade ago, Bali’s tourist industry was badly hit in the aftermath of two terrorist bombings. The first one, in 2002, killed 202 people, mainly foreign tourists in a nightclub.

62. Landlocked African land : MALI
The Republic of Mali is a landlocked country in western Africa, south of Algeria. The country’s most famous city is … Timbuktu. And the remoteness of Timbuktu is behind it becoming a metaphor for any distant and outlandish location.

65. Some B&N wares : CDS
Barnes & Noble (B&N) is the oldest retailer of books in the US. The company started out in the book-printing business in 1873 and opened its first true bookstore in 1917, in New York City.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. *Relative of an orange : KUMQUAT
8. *Tropical storm : TYPHOON
15. Eroded : ATE INTO
16. Certain steroid : HORMONE
17. Disappointment : LETDOWN
18. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” co-star : ED ASNER
19. Procter & Gamble’s first liquid laundry detergent : ERA
20. Plenty ticked off : STEAMED
22. Back in history : AGO
23. *Lingerie material : SILK
25. Race with lots of passing : RELAY
27. New Orleans pro team : SAINTS
31. Feeling one’s ___ : OATS
35. Sonata maker : HYUNDAI
37. *Act deferentially : KOWTOW
39. Best rating at Moody’s : AAA
40. *French fries topper : KETCHUP
42. Dedicated verse : ODE
43. *Like an eager beaver : GUNG HO
45. Friend of Hamlet : HORATIO
47. City in Nevada : ELKO
48. Alcoholic’s recourse : BOTTLE
49. Former Israeli P.M. Ehud : BARAK
52. *Food, slangily : CHOW
56. Decline : EBB
59. The blahs : BOREDOM
63. “If you ask me,” in blog comments : IMO
64. Radio pioneer : MARCONI
66. Surveillance pickup : CHATTER
68. Genie’s master : ALADDIN
69. Op-ed pieces : COLUMNS
70. *Root used in some energy drinks : GINSENG
71. Language that’s the source of the words answered by this puzzle’s starred clues : CHINESE

Down
1. Nutrient-rich cabbages : KALES
2. Organs men don’t have : UTERI
3. Lead, for one : METAL
4. Four times a day, in an Rx : QID
5. Some, in Santiago : UNOS
6. No. in chemistry : AT WT
7. Sound of music : TONE
8. Dominant ideas : THEMES
9. Song in the Alps : YODEL
10. Often-counterfeited luxury brand : PRADA
11. ___ Pinafore : HMS
12. Wife of Charlie Chaplin : OONA
13. Universal donor’s type, informally : O-NEG
14. Villain in the 2009 “Star Trek” film : NERO
21. Plant with a heart : ARTICHOKE
24. The Wildcats of the Big 12 Conf. : KSU
26. “That hurt!” : YOW!
28. Egyptian symbol of life : ANKH
29. Thought: Prefix : IDEO-
30. ___ King Cole : NAT
32. Yours, in Paris : A TOI
33. Foofaraw : TO-DO
34. Neighbor of Nor. and Fin. : SWE
35. Major swag : HAUL
36. Jerk hard : YANK
37. Actor Russell : KURT
38. October gem : OPAL
39. What the number of birthday candles indicates : AGE
41. Sexy : HOT
44. Big bunch : GOB
46. Sleuth, in slang : TEC
48. Making public : BARING
50. Cabin or cottage : ABODE
51. 1998 De Niro crime thriller : RONIN
53. Vegas request : HIT ME
54. Signs : OMENS
55. In decline : WORSE
56. Slate, e.g. : EMAG
57. Indonesian tourist mecca : BALI
58. Fiber-rich food : BRAN
60. 800, in old Rome : DCCC
61. “I know! I know!” : OH! OH!
62. Landlocked African land : MALI
65. Some B&N wares : CDS
67. Large vat : TUN

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