1002-13 New York Times Crossword Answers 2 Oct 13, Wednesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
6. Radar screen dot : BLIP
Scientists have been using radio waves to detect the presence of objects since the late 1800s, but it was the demands of WWII that accelerated the practical application of the technology. The British called their system RDF standing for Range and Direction Finding. The system used by the US Navy was called Radio Detection And Ranging, which was shortened to the acronym RADAR.

10. ___-à-porter : PRET
“Prêt-à-Porter” is a common enough phrase over in Europe, a French expression meaning “ready-to-wear” that has made it into a number of other languages including English.

14. Actor Quinn : AIDAN
Aidan Quinn is an Irish-American actor. Quinn was born in Chicago but spent some years growing up in Ireland. Mainly known as a movie actor, Quinn is currently playing the role of Captain Tommy Gregson on the excellent TV series “Elementary” that is centered on a modern-day Sherlock Holmes.

15. Charlie Chaplin’s last wife : 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.

17. What Ali Baba found on the treasure in the cave? : PRINTS OF THIEVES (sounds like “Prince of Thieves”)
“Prince of Thieves” is a nickname associated with the legendary character Robin Hood.

There is some controversy about the story “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” in that it has been suggested it was not part of the original collection of Arabic tales called “One Thousand and One Nights”. The suggestion is that the Ali Baba tale was added by one of the European translators of the collection.

25. Down Under runners : EMUS
The emu has had a tough time in Australia since man settled there. There was even an “Emu War” in Western Australia in 1932 when migrating emus competed with livestock for water and food. Soldiers were sent in and used machine guns in an unsuccessful attempt to drive off the “invading force”. The emus were clever, breaking their usual formations and adopting guerrilla tactics, operating as smaller units. After 50 days of “war”, the military withdrew. Subsequent requests for military help for the farmers were ignored. The emus had emerged victorious …

33. Baseball exec Bud : SELIG
Bud Selig is the current commissioner of Major League Baseball. Selig became acting commissioner in 1992 after the resignation of Fay Vincent. The team owners searched for a new commissioner for six years, and finally gave the permanent job to Selig in 1998. Selig has announced that he plans to retire from the post in January 2015.

35. Honour bestowed by Queen Elizabeth: Abbr. : OBE
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry in the UK that was established in 1917 by King George V. There are five classes within the order, which are in descending seniority:

– Knight Grand Cross (GBE)
– Knight Commander (KBE)
– Commander (CBE)
– Officer (OBE)
– Member (MBE)

36. Sch. near Beverly Hills : UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) gets more applications from students than any other university in the country. UCLA also has more students enrolled than any other university in the state.

The city of Beverly Hills, California was named after Beverly Farms in Beverly, Massachusetts and also after the hills in that part of California.

39. Bar from Mars : TWIX
I remember Twix bars from way back in 1967 when they were introduced in the British Isles. Twix bars made it to the US over a decade later, in 1979.

40. Avril follower : MAI
In French, the month of May (mai) follows April (avril).

41. Grammy-winning blues guitarist Jonny : LANG
Jonny Lang is a blues and gospel singer from Fargo, North Dakota. Lang is noted for his unusual voice. At 13 years of age, his voice was described as that of a 40-year-old Blues singer.

47. Web site that users themselves may revise : WIKI
A wiki is a website in which users are allowed to create and edit content themselves. The term “wiki” comes from the name of the first such site, introduced in 1994 and called WikiWikiWeb. “Wiki” is a Hawaiian word for “quick”, and is used because comprehensive content is created very quickly a there are so many collaborators contributing to the site.

48. Many a Rolling Stone cover subject : IDOL
The iconic magazine “Rolling Stone” was founded in San Francisco in 1967. Jann Wenner was a cofounder, and is still the magazine’s chief editor. The name for the publication is taken from the 1950 song “Rollin’ Stone” recorded by Muddy Waters.

54. Lerner/Loewe musical set in Paris : GIGI
In the lovely musical film “Gigi”, released in 1958, the title song is sung by Louis Jourdan who plays Gaston. My favorite number though, has to be “Thank Heaven for Little Girls” sung by Maurice Chevalier. Many say that “Gigi” is the last in the long line of great MGM musicals. It won a record 9 Academy Awards, a record that only lasted one year. Twelve months later “Ben Hur” won 11 Oscars. In the 1958 film, Gigi was played by the lovely Leslie Caron. A few years earlier, “Gigi” was a successful stage play on Broadway. Chosen for the title role on stage was the then unknown Audrey Hepburn.

62. ___ dire (court examination) : VOIR
“Voir dire” comes from Anglo-Norman and is a phrase used in law. The modern word “voir” means “to see”, and is no relation to the older “voir”, which comes from the Latin “verum” meaning “that which is true”. Given that “dire” means “to say”, “voir dire” can be translated as “that which is true to say”. As such, legal use of “voir dire” is an oath to tell the truth.

64. Coloratura’s practice : RUNS
The musical term “coloratura” is used to describe elaborate melody that may include runs and trills. “Coloratura” translates from Italian literally as “coloring”.

65. 1990s compacts : GEOS
Geos were small vehicles manufactured by General Motors mainly in the nineties. Geos were designed to compete head-to-head with the small imports that were gaining market share at the time in the US. Some Geo models that you might remember are the Metro, the Prizm and the Storm. The cars were actually built as joint-ventures with Japanese manufacturers. The Prizm was a GM/Toyota project, the Metro was GM/Suzuki, and the Storm was GM/Isuzu.

Down
3. Deuce follower : AD IN
In tennis, if the score reaches “deuce” (i.e. when both players have scored three points), then the first player to win two points in a row wins the game. The player who wins the point immediately after deuce is said to have the “advantage”. If the player with the advantage wins the next point then that’s two in a row and that player wins the game. If the person with the advantage loses the next point, then advantage is lost and the players return to deuce and try again. If the one of the players is calling out the score then if he/she has the advantage then that player announces “ad in” or more formally “advantage in”. If the score announcer’s opponent has the advantage, then the announcement is “ad out” or “advantage out”. Follow all of that …?

4. 1940 Disney film : FANTASIA
“Fantasia” was Disney’s third feature length movie, released in 1940. The film had a disappointing critical reception and pushed the Disney company into financial difficulties. RKO took over the film’s distribution in 1946. The folks at RKO cut a full hour off the running time and relaunched the movie into a successful run. If you haven’t seen “Fantasia”, I urge you to do so. It’s a real delight …

5. Big bang letters : 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. Sitar master Shankar : RAVI
Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous virtuoso (to us Westerners) from the world of Indian classical music, and was noted for his sitar playing. Shankar was the father of the beautiful singer Norah Jones.

The sitar has been around since the Middle Ages. The sitar is a stringed instrument that is played by plucking, and is used most often in Hindustani classical music. In the West we have been exposed to the instrument largely through the performances of Ravi Shankar and some music by George Harrison of the Beatles, a onetime student of Shankar.

18. Option on “Wheel of Fortune” : SPIN
Contestants have been spinning the “Wheel of Fortune” since it first aired in 1975.

19. Arctic language : INUIT
The Inuit peoples live in the Arctic, in parts of the US, Russia, Greenland and Canada.

26. Cascades, e.g.: Abbr. : MTNS
The Cascades are a mountain range in North America stretching from Northern California to southern British Columbia. The Cascades includes several active volcanoes, and is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. The range was named for the Cascades Rapids in the Columbia River Gorge, as they were referred to as the “mountains by the cascades” in the days following the Lewis and Clark expedition.

27. Old Renault : LE CAR
French automaker Renault made the “mini-like” Renault 5 and sold it as the Renault “Le Car” in North America. My Dad had a Renault 5 back in Ireland …

28. Stan’s film partner : OLLIE
Stan Laurel was an English comic actor (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson), who made a great career for himself in Hollywood. Laurel ended up at the Hal Roach studio directing films, intent on pursuing a career in writing and directing. However, he was a sometime actor and was asked to step in when another comic actor, Oliver Hardy, was injured and couldn’t perform. Laurel and Hardy started to share a stage together during that time and when it was clear they worked so well together, their partnership was born. Oh, and the oft-quoted story that Clint Eastwood is the son of Stan Laurel … that’s just an urban myth.

31. Car mentioned in the Beach Boys’ “Fun, Fun, Fun” : T-BIRD
Ford manufactured the Thunderbird (T-Bird) from 1955 to 2005, originally as a two-seater sporty convertible.

33. Cesspool : SUMP
A cesspit (also “cesspool”) is a covered tank or pit used for the disposal of human waste.

37. American, in England : YANK
The term “Yankee” originated back in the 1600s when Dutch settlers used to called English colonists “Jankes”, a disparaging term meaning “Little Johns”.

41. Classic shooter : LEICA
Leica is a German optics company, famous for production of lenses and cameras. The 1913 Leica was the first practical camera that could use 35mm film, a size chosen because it was already the standard for film used in motion pictures.

42. Doc bloc : HMO
Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

45. Crude fleet : OILERS
An “oiler” is an oil tanker.

46. Guarantor of financial accts. : FDIC
During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Banking Act of 1933. The legislation established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), intended to be a temporary government corporation that provided insurance on deposits made by customers of qualified financial institutions. The first accounts to be covered, in 1934, had an insurance limit of $2,500. Since the financial crisis of 2008, that limit is $250,000.

49. Open a crack : AJAR
Our word “ajar” is thought to come from Scottish dialect, in which “a char” means “slightly open”.

50. Hippo’s wear in 4-Down : TUTU
The word “tutu”, used for a ballet dancer’s skirt, is actually a somewhat “naughty” term. It came into English from French in the early 20th century. The French “tutu” is an alteration of the word “cucu”, a childish word for “cul” meaning the “bottom,” or “backside”.

51. Eliot Ness and others : T-MEN
A T-man is a law-enforcement agent of the US Treasury (T is for Treasury).

Eliot Ness was the Treasury agent charged with the task of bringing down the notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone. When Ness took on the job in 1930, Chicago law-enforcement agents were renowned for being corrupt, for being on the take. Ness handpicked 50 prohibition agents who he thought he could rely on, later reducing the group to a cadre of 15 and ultimately just 11 trusted men. That group of 11 earned the nickname “The Untouchables”, the agents who couldn’t be bought.

53. Home of Miami University : OHIO
Miami University is a school that was founded in 1809 in Oxford, Ohio. The school is named for its location in the Miami Valley in the southwest of the state.

56. Classic muscle cars : GTOS
GTO stands for Gran Turismo Omologato.

57. Archipelago part : ISLE
“Archipelago” is a name often used for a group or chain of islands. “Archipelago” is our spelling of the Italian “arcipelago”, a word that has Greek roots. “Arcipelago” was the proper name for the Aegean Sea in Greek, a word that was eventually used for the Aegean Islands.

60. 33rd president’s monogram : HST
Harry Truman wanted to go to West Point having served with the Missouri Army National Guard on active duty in WWI, but he couldn’t get in because of his poor eyesight. Young Truman didn’t have the money to pay for college anywhere else. He did manage to study for two years towards a law degree at the Kansas City Law School in the twenties, but he never finished his schooling. So, Harry S. Truman was the last US President (out of a list of ten) who did not have a college degree.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Long part of a lance : SHAFT
6. Radar screen dot : BLIP
10. ___-à-porter : PRET
14. Actor Quinn : AIDAN
15. Charlie Chaplin’s last wife : OONA
16. Singsong syllables : LA LA
17. What Ali Baba found on the treasure in the cave? : PRINTS OF THIEVES (sounds like “Prince of Thieves”)
20. In the mail : SENT
21. Heart of the matter : PITH
22. Simple : NAIVE
23. Not supportin’ : AGIN
25. Down Under runners : EMUS
27. Sign of a failed practice? : LOSING PATIENTS (sounds like “losing patience”)
33. Baseball exec Bud : SELIG
34. ___ trap : LINT
35. Honour bestowed by Queen Elizabeth: Abbr. : OBE
36. Sch. near Beverly Hills : UCLA
37. Letter closing : YOURS
39. Bar from Mars : TWIX
40. Avril follower : MAI
41. Grammy-winning blues guitarist Jonny : LANG
42. In need of some manscaping, say : HAIRY
43. Puzzles as gifts? : PRESENTS OF MIND (sounds like “presence of mind”)
47. Web site that users themselves may revise : WIKI
48. Many a Rolling Stone cover subject : IDOL
49. You’ll need to take steps to get to it : ATTIC
52. ___ sci : POLI
54. Lerner/Loewe musical set in Paris : GIGI
58. Be startled by singing monks? : JUMP AT THE CHANTS (sounds like “jump at the chance”)
61. Suit to ___ : A TEE
62. ___ dire (court examination) : VOIR
63. Seat for a stand-up : STOOL
64. Coloratura’s practice : RUNS
65. 1990s compacts : GEOS
66. What a verb ending may indicate : TENSE

Down
1. Suckers : SAPS
2. Employ : HIRE
3. Deuce follower : AD IN
4. 1940 Disney film : FANTASIA
5. Big bang letters : TNT
6. Sound of disgust : BOOING
7. Digs in an old warehouse, maybe : LOFT
8. Prevalent, as a rumor : IN THE AIR
9. Sound of disgust : PAH!
10. When repeated several times, child’s entreaty : PLEASE
11. Sitar master Shankar : RAVI
12. Stat for 26-Down: Abbr. : ELEV
13. Stun with a charge : TASE
18. Option on “Wheel of Fortune” : SPIN
19. Arctic language : INUIT
24. Booking : GIG
26. Cascades, e.g.: Abbr. : MTNS
27. Old Renault : LE CAR
28. Stan’s film partner : OLLIE
29. Toupee alternative : PLUGS
30. Lose-lose : NO-WIN
31. Car mentioned in the Beach Boys’ “Fun, Fun, Fun” : T-BIRD
32. Hot, like a hunk : SEXY
33. Cesspool : SUMP
37. American, in England : YANK
38. Moving stealthily : ON TIPTOE
39. Party in the parking lot : TAILGATE
41. Classic shooter : LEICA
42. Doc bloc : HMO
44. Acquires with sticky fingers : SWIPES
45. Crude fleet : OILERS
46. Guarantor of financial accts. : FDIC
49. Open a crack : AJAR
50. Hippo’s wear in 4-Down : TUTU
51. Eliot Ness and others : T-MEN
53. Home of Miami University : OHIO
55. Wise to : IN ON
56. Classic muscle cars : GTOS
57. Archipelago part : ISLE
59. “The whole family can watch” program rating : TV-G
60. 33rd president’s monogram : HST

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