0928-13 New York Times Crossword Answers 28 Sep 13, Saturday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Joe Krozel
THEME: None
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 39m 14s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Clemson Tigers logo : PAW PRINT
Clemson University was founded in 1889. The school takes its name from the town in which it is located: Clemson, South Carolina. The athletic teams of Clemson University have been called the Tigers since 1896 when a new football coach, Walter Riggs, arrived from Auburn University. Riggs was an admirer of the Princeton Tigers, so he gave his new school the tiger mascot.

17. Mimosas and such : ORNAMENTAL TREES
Some members of the Mimosa genus of plant are capable of rapid movement. For example, if you touch the leaves of the Mimosa pudica, they curl up in less than a second.

20. ___ Day (May 1) : LEI
What’s known as May Day around the world is also called Lei Day in Hawaii. Lei Day started in the twenties and is a celebration of native Hawaiian culture.

21. ___ gratia : DEI
“Dei Gratia” is Latin for “By the Grace of God”. The term is used in the name of a monarch who is said to be ruling by divine right. For example, the full title of the UK’s Queen is “Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith”.

23. Florida’s ___ National Park : BISCAYNE
Biscayne National Park in Florida is located south of Miami, and is 95% underwater. The park preserves Biscayne Bay and the barrier reefs within it.

25. Rhone feeder : SAONE
The Saône is a river in eastern France that joins up with the Rhône in Lyon.

27. “Look ___” (Vince Gill hit) : AT US
Vince Gill is a country music singer-songwriter. Gill has been honored with 20 Grammy Awards, which is more than any other male country singer.

28. Sauce often served with oysters : MIGNONETTE
Mignonette sauce is traditionally served with raw oysters. The sauce is a condiment made from minced shallots and cracked pepper suspended in vinegar.

33. Beginning of time? : BIG BANG
According to the Big Bang theory, the universe came into being just under 14 billion years ago. According to the theory, the universe started out as a hot and dense mass that began to expand rapidly (in a “big bang”). Within three minutes of the “bang”, the universe cooled so that energy was converted into subatomic particles like protons, electrons and neutrons. Over time, subatomic particles turned into atoms. Clouds of those atoms formed stars and galaxies.

34. Mao’s designated successor : HUA
Hua Guofeng was man whom Mao Zedong designated as his successor as paramount leader of the People’s Republic of China and the Communist Party of China. Hua came to power in 1976 and within a few month’s brought Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution to an end. However, Hua was deemed to be moving too slowly with his reforms, and so he was forced into early retirement after just a few years in power and Deng Xiaoping took control.

35. Snoop Dogg, to Cameron Diaz [fun fact!] : SCHOOLMATE
According to actress Cameron Diaz, she attended the same high school in Long Beach, California as rapper Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg was a year older than Diaz, and she says that claims he actually sold her some marijuana at some point.

37. Kind of check: Abbr. : CERT
Certified (cert.)

38. Coeur ___ : D’ALENE
The city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho is named for the Coeur d’Alene People, Native Americans who lived in the area when it was first explored by French Canadian fur traders. “Coeur d’Alene” translates from French as “heart of an awl”. The Native American people were given this name as they were perceived as shrewd traders by their Canadian counterparts.

39. Capitale européenne : BERNE
In French, Bern (Berne) is a European capital (capitale européenne).

Bern (also “Berne”) is the capital city of Switzerland. The official language of the city is German, but the language most spoken in Bern is a dialect known as Bernese German.

40. Angry Birds or Tetris, e.g. : TIME SINK
Angry Birds is a video game that was developed for smartphones. Angry Birds is the third most downloaded game, after Tetris and Pac-Man.

Tetris is a very addictive video game, developed in the Soviet Union in 1984. The name Tetris comes from a melding of the prefix “tetra-” (as all the game pieces have four segments) and “tennis” (a favorite sport played by the developer). Since 2005 there have been more than 100 million copies of the game installed on cell phones alone.

43. With 32-Across, study of Hesse and Mann, informally : GERMAN
(32A. See 43-Across : LIT)
Hermann Hesse was not only a novelist, but also a poet and a painter. Hesse’s best known work is probably his 1927 novel “Steppenwolf”.

Thomas Mann was a German novelist whose most famous work is probably his novella “Death in Venice”, 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.

44. W.W. II battle site, for short : IWO
Iwo Jima is a volcanic island located south of Tokyo that today is uninhabited. There were about a thousand Japanese civilians living on the island prior to WWII. In 1944, there was a massive influx of Japanese military personnel in anticipation of the inevitable US invasion. As the Japanese military moved in, the civilians were forced out and no one has lived there since.

46. 2013 women’s singles champ at Wimbledon : BARTOLI
Marion Bartoli is a former professional tennis player from France. Bartoli won her first Wimbledon title in 2013, without even losing one set in the whole tournament. A few weeks later, she announced her retirement from the game.

51. Hardly like the pick of the litter : RUNTIEST
Back around 1500. a runt was an old or decayed tree stump, and by the early 1600s “runt” was being used to describe animals that were similarly old and decayed. Ultimately “runt” came to mean the smallest and often sickest in a litter.

52. “Oh man, that’s bad” : SHEESH
“Sheesh” is an interjection used to express annoyance or surprise. It is a euphemism for “Jesus”.

Down
4. Printer rollers : PLATENS
The original platens were flat plates used to press paper against inked type to create an impression in the process of letterpress printing. The term was then used with newer printing machines and typewriters, describing the rollers that pressed paper against printing media.

6. What the French think? : IDEES
In French, an inventor (inventeur) might have a list of ideas (idées).

7. Marxist Andrés and writer Anaïs : NINS
Andreu Nin i Pérez was a Spanish politician who was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Spain, in 1921.

Anaïs Nin was a French author, famous for her journals that she wrote for over sixty years from the age of 11 right up to her death. Nin also wrote highly regarded erotica and cited D. H. Lawrence as someone from whom she drew inspiration. Nin was married to banker and artist Hugh Parker Guiler in 1923. Decades later in 1955, Nin married former actor Rupert Pole, even though she was still married to Guiler. Nin and Pole had their marriage annulled in 1966, but just for legal reasons, and they continued to live together as husband and wife until Nin passed away in 1977.

8. Boom source : TNT
TNT is an abbreviation for trinitrotoluene. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

11. Continental abbr. : AFR
Africa (Afr.)

The Carthaginian Republic was centered on the city of Carthage, the ruins of which are located on the coast of modern-day Tunisia. The Latin name for the people of Carthage was “Afri”. When the Romans took over Carthage, they created a province they called “Africa”. That name extended over time to the whole continent.

13. Woodenware : TREEN
Functional household objects made from wood can be referred to as “treen”. The term translates literally as “of a tree”. Examples of treen would be wooden plates and bowls, spoons, shoehorns and chopping boards.

14. Davis of Hollywood : OSSIE
Ossie Davis was a very successful African-American actor, but also a director, poet, playwright and social activist. One of Davis’s better known performances was in the 1993 movie “Grumpy Old Men”, in which he played the owner of the bait shop by the lake.

23. Occupy opponent : BIG BANK
The Occupy movement is a protest directed against economic and social inequality worldwide. The first such protest to garner major attention took place in Wall Street in 2011 and from there similar protests spread around the world.

24. Suffix with hex- : -ANE
A hexane is a hydrocarbon, an alkane with six carbon atoms. Hexanes of varying types are major components of gasoline.

29. Plastic that can be made permanently rigid : THERMOSET
A thermosetting plastic is one that cures with the application of heat. The necessary heat can come from irradiation, from a chemical reaction in the material, or from an external heat source.

33. Braggadocios : BOASTERS
A braggadocio is one who brags. The term was coined by poet Edmund Spenser in his epic poem “The Faerie Queen”. One of the characters in the poem is a comic knight who is prone to bragging, someone Spenser names “Braggadocchio”.

42. Former Israeli president Katsav : MOSHE
Moshe Katsav is a politician from Israel. Katsav served as the country’s president from 2000. He resigned the office in 2007, under the cloud of allegations of rape and sexual harassment. Katsav was subsequently found to be guilty of the charges and is now serving a seven year jail sentence.

43. Adorned, per menus : GARNI
“Garni” is a French word for “garnished”.

46. Something with round parts? : BOUT
A boxing bout is divided into several rounds.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Clemson Tigers logo : PAW PRINT
9. Mistreating : MEAN TO
15. Not left hanging, say : REELED IN
16. Draws : INFERS
17. Mimosas and such : ORNAMENTAL TREES
19. Toddler seats? : POTTIES
20. ___ Day (May 1) : LEI
21. ___ gratia : DEI
22. Become completely absorbed : OBSESS
23. Florida’s ___ National Park : BISCAYNE
25. Rhone feeder : SAONE
26. It can be found beneath the lower crust : PIE TIN
27. “Look ___” (Vince Gill hit) : AT US
28. Sauce often served with oysters : MIGNONETTE
32. See 43-Across : LIT
33. Beginning of time? : BIG BANG
34. Mao’s designated successor : HUA
35. Snoop Dogg, to Cameron Diaz [fun fact!] : SCHOOLMATE
37. Kind of check: Abbr. : CERT
38. Coeur ___ : D’ALENE
39. Capitale européenne : BERNE
40. Angry Birds or Tetris, e.g. : TIME SINK
43. With 32-Across, study of Hesse and Mann, informally : GERMAN
44. W.W. II battle site, for short : IWO
45. One might be a couple of years old : TOT
46. 2013 women’s singles champ at Wimbledon : BARTOLI
47. Shows levelheadedness : LISTENS TO REASON
50. Mobile advertising medium? : T-SHIRT
51. Hardly like the pick of the litter : RUNTIEST
52. “Oh man, that’s bad” : SHEESH
53. Words after “say” or before “bad” : IT ISN’T SO

Down
1. Ring accompaniers : PROPOSALS
2. Like stunt pilots’ stunts : AEROBATIC
3. Headed toward bankruptcy : WENT SOUTH
4. Printer rollers : PLATENS
5. Release a claim to, legally : REMISE
6. What the French think? : IDEES
7. Marxist Andrés and writer Anaïs : NINS
8. Boom source : TNT
9. Centennial, e.g. : MILESTONE
10. Good at drawing? : ENTICING
11. Continental abbr. : AFR
12. Attention-seeking, say : NEEDY
13. Woodenware : TREEN
14. Davis of Hollywood : OSSIE
18. Put off : ALIENATE
23. Occupy opponent : BIG BANK
24. Suffix with hex- : -ANE
26. Eyeshades? : PIGMENTS
28. Like a customer who may get special notice : MILLIONTH
29. Plastic that can be made permanently rigid : THERMOSET
30. See red? : TURN A LOSS
31. Corroded : EATEN INTO
33. Braggadocios : BOASTERS
36. Inauguration recitation, maybe : ODE
37. Confirmed : CERTAIN
39. Ones above military heads : BERETS
40. Lists : TILTS
41. “Would that it were!” : I WISH!
42. Former Israeli president Katsav : MOSHE
43. Adorned, per menus : GARNI
46. Something with round parts? : BOUT
48. Draw : TIE
49. Part of 8-Down : TRI-

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