1108-13 New York Times Crossword Answers 8 Nov 13, Friday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Alan Arbesfeld
THEME: None
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 21m 54s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. African city of 4+ million whose name means, literally, “haven of peace” : DAR ES SALAAM
Dar es Salaam is the largest city in Tanzania, and sits right on the east coast of Africa. The city’s name is usually translated from Arabic as “Haven of Peace”.

16. Start of a Jewish holiday? : ROSH
Rosh Hashanah is loosely referred to as “Jewish New Year”. The literal translation from Hebrew is “head of the year”.

18. Arizona’s Agua ___ River : FRIA
The Agua Fria River that runs from a spot near the city of Prescott, Arizona south through the Agua Fria National Monument and into Lake Pleasant located near Peoria, Arizona. “Agua Fria” translates from Spanish as “Cold Water”.

21. Like Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 6 or 22 : IN F
Beethoven’s popular Piano Sonata No. 6 is known as the Pathétique. It was written in 1798, when the composer was just 27 years old.

Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 22 is less well known that the sonata that came before it, and the one that came after. His Piano Sonata No. 21 is known as the “Waldstein”, and No. 23 is called the “Appassionata”.

24. Tilting figure: Abbr. : KNT
Knight (knt.)

Tilting is the most recognized form of jousting. Jousting can involve the use of a number of different weapons, but when lances are used the competition is called “tilting”. Jousting took place in a roped-off enclosure that was called the lists, or list field. In later medieval times, some castles and palaces had purpose-built “tiltyards” that were used for jousting. Do you remember where the Beach Volleyball events were held in the 2012 London Olympics. Well that was Horse Guards Parade, the former tiltyard for the Palace of Whitehall that was used in the time of King Henry VIII.

25. ___ Ximénez (dessert sherry) : PEDRO
Pedro Ximénez is a white grape that grows in parts of Spain. Pedro Ximénez is also the name given to a sweet, dark sherry made from the grape. The grape is named for a soldier who is said to have brought the original cuttings from the Rhine region.

29. Smash letters : SRO
Standing Room Only (SRO)

32. Range ridges : ARETES
An arete is ridge of rock defining the border between two parallel valleys that have been formed by glaciation. If the ridge between the valleys is rounded, it is called a “col”. However if it is “sharpened”, with rock falling way due to successive freezing and thawing, then it is called an “arete”. “Arête“ is the French word for “fish bone”.

35. Eatery where the Tony Award was born : SARDI’S
Sardi’s is a renowned restaurant in the Theater District of Manhattan. Sardi’s is famous for attracting celebrities who pose for caricatures that are then displayed on the restaurant’s walls. After the death of actress and director Antoinette Perry in 1946, her friend and partner Brock Pemberton was having lunch at Sardi’s and came up with idea of a theater award that could be presented in Perry’s honor. The award was to be called the Tony Award.

44. Some Deco pieces : ERTES
Erté was the pseudonym of French artist (Russian born) Romain de Tirtoff. Erté is the French pronunciation of his initials “R.T.”

46. Lead film festival characters? : EFS
The lead letters in the words “film festival” are letters F (ef).

47. Rhineland Campaign’s arena: Abbr. : ETO
European Theater of Operations (ETO)

48. Frito-Lay snack : CHEETOS
Cheetos snacks were developed by the same guy who created Fritos, hence the name. They’ve been on the market since 1948, and up until the turn of the century the name was written “Chee-tos”. Oh, and Cheetos contain pork enzymes, so vegetarians beware!

50. Silver of fivethirtyeight.com : NATE
Nate Silver is a statistician who first gained notoriety by developing a forecasting system that predicted the future performance of baseball players. He then made a name for himself in the world of politics by predicting the outcome of the 2008 US presidential race. Silver successfully predicted the outcome of the election in 49 of the 50 states, missing out on Indiana, which Barack Obama won by less than 1% of the vote.

FiveThirtyEight is a website that publishes compiled polling date during election cycles. The site takes its name from from the total number of electors in the US electoral college.

52. California city near Fullerton : BREA
The city of Brea, California takes its name from “brea”, the Spanish word for “tar”. Back in the 1800s, entrepreneurs were attracted to the area by the “black gold” (crude oil) that was bubbling up from the ground in some instances.

54. Author Janowitz : TAMA
Tama Janowitz is an American writer. Janowitz was born in San Francisco but has lived much of her life in New York City. In New York she hung around with the likes of Andy Warhol and became well known in literary circles. Her most famous work is a collection of short stories called “Slaves of New York”, which was made into a film of the same name in 1989.

55. Opening line of a 1966 #1 Beatles hit : TRY TO SEE IT MY WAY
“Try to see it my way” is the opening line of the 1966 Beatles hit “We Can Work It Out”. The song was part of the first record ever to be described as a “double A-side”, and featured alongside “Day Tripper”.

Down
2. A bee might light on it : ANTHER
The stamen is the male reproductive organ of a flower. The part of the stamen known as the anther carries the pollen, which is picked up by the bee and transferred from flower to flower. The pistil is the female reproductive organ, and it accepts the pollen.

3. Some N.F.L.’ers : RTS
Right tackle (RT)

5. Dopes : SCHNOOKS
A “schnook” is a person who is easily cheated, someone who is extremely gullible. The term comes into English from Yiddish.

6. Restoration notation : STET
“Stet” is a Latin word meaning “let it stand”. In editorial work, the typesetter is instructed to disregard any change previously marked by writing the word “stet” and then underscoring that change with a line of dots or dashes.

7. Even though : ALBEIT
“Albeit” is such a lovely word, meaning “even though”. The term is a contraction of “although it be that”, dating back to the 14th century.

8. Polynesian island chain? : LEI
“Lei” is the Hawaiian word for “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a “lei” is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

9. Lee with an Oscar : ANG
Taiwanese director Ang Lee sure has directed a mixed bag of films, mixed in terms of genre but not in terms of quality. He was at the helm for such classics as “Sense & Sensibility” (my personal favorite), “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “Hulk”, “Brokeback Mountain” and “Life of Pi”.

10. Home row sequence : ASDF
ASDF is a sequence of keys on the home row of keyboard.

11. Kalahari Desert dweller : MEERKAT
Timon and Pumbaa are a pair of characters in Disney’s “The Lion King”, a meerkat and warthog.

12. Irritability : CHOLER
“Choler” is “anger, irritability”. Choler (also “cholera”) was one of the body’s four basic substances, the so-called four humors. All diseases were caused by these four substances getting out of balance. The four humors were:

– Black bile (melancolia)
– Yellow bile (cholera)
– Phlegm (phlegma)
– Blood (sanguis)

13. Femme canonisée : SAINTE
In French, a canonized woman (femme canonisée) is a saint (sainte).

15. Foundation for some roofing : LATHS
The words “lath” and “lattice” have the same root in Old French. Laths are thin strips of wood that are nailed across a frame forming a backing to which plaster can be applied to finish a wall.

33. What some bombs result in, in brief : TDS
In American football, a “bomb” is a long forward pass.

36. Pair of boxers? : ARF! ARF!
The boxer breed of dog (one of my favorites!) originated in Germany. My first dog was a boxer/Labrador mix, a beautiful animal. Our current family dog is a boxer/pug mix, another gorgeous creature.

39. Pontiac and others : OTTAWAS
Chief Pontiac was a leader of the Ottawa people in the 1700s. He is most famously associated with the fight against the British (called Pontiac’s Rebellion) after they emerged victorious from the French and Indian War. The most noted action during the rebellion was the attack led by Pontiac on Fort Detroit, and the subsequent siege. Although the siege was unsuccessful, it served to unite the local Native American peoples in the fight.

40. “Star Trek” extra : YEOMAN
In the US Navy, a yeoman is tasked with administrative and clerical work. In fact the position of yeoman is the oldest rating in the navy. You’ll see a lot of yeomen in the background on “Star Trek”.

49. Kind of yoga : HATHA
Hatha yoga is a yoga system developed in 15th century India. Traditional Hatha yoga is a more “complete” practice than often encountered in the west, involving not just exercise but also meditation and relaxation.

51. Important info for people with connections : ETAS
Expected time of arrival (ETA)

53. Clément with two Oscar-winning films : RENE
René Clément was a director and screenwriter from France. Clément won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film on two occasions: “The Walls of Malapaga” (1949) and “Forbidden Games” (1952).

56. Düsseldorf direction : OST
“Ost” is German for “east”.

Düsseldorf lies in the west of Germany, fairly close to the border with France, and sits on the River Rhine.

58. Allen of play-by-play : MEL
For many years, the sportscaster Mel Allen was the play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees. Allen was also the first host of television’s “This Week in Baseball”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. African city of 4+ million whose name means, literally, “haven of peace” : DAR ES SALAAM
12. Seeing things : CONTACT LENSES
14. “Why such a fuss?” : WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
16. Start of a Jewish holiday? : ROSH
17. Put one’s two cents in? : ANTE
18. Arizona’s Agua ___ River : FRIA
19. Not natural for : ALIEN TO
21. Like Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 6 or 22 : IN F
24. Tilting figure: Abbr. : KNT
25. ___ Ximénez (dessert sherry) : PEDRO
26. Manipulative health care worker : OSTEOPATH
29. Smash letters : SRO
30. Destroy, informally : NUKE
32. Range ridges : ARETES
33. Classified : TOP SECRET
35. Eatery where the Tony Award was born : SARDI’S
38. Pitch : TOSS
39. Juan’s “Hey!” : OYE!
42. Perseveres : PRESSES ON
44. Some Deco pieces : ERTES
46. Lead film festival characters? : EFS
47. Rhineland Campaign’s arena: Abbr. : ETO
48. Frito-Lay snack : CHEETOS
50. Silver of fivethirtyeight.com : NATE
52. California city near Fullerton : BREA
54. Author Janowitz : TAMA
55. Opening line of a 1966 #1 Beatles hit : TRY TO SEE IT MY WAY
59. One-hit wonder : FLASH IN THE PAN
60. Events for some antiquers : ESTATE SALES

Down
1. Demonstration exhortation : DO AS I DO
2. A bee might light on it : ANTHER
3. Some N.F.L.’ers : RTS
4. Irritate : EAT AT
5. Dopes : SCHNOOKS
6. Restoration notation : STET
7. Even though : ALBEIT
8. Polynesian island chain? : LEI
9. Lee with an Oscar : ANG
10. Home row sequence : ASDF
11. Kalahari Desert dweller : MEERKAT
12. Irritability : CHOLER
13. Femme canonisée : SAINTE
14. Deli menu subheading : WRAPS
15. Foundation for some roofing : LATHS
20. Silence : NO NOISE
22. Verges on : NEARS
23. Anticipate : FORESEE
27. Mind : SEE TO
28. Irritable state : PET
31. Election surprise : UPSET
33. What some bombs result in, in brief : TDS
34. Fanciful notions : CONCEITS
35. Dead : SPENT
36. Pair of boxers? : ARF! ARF!
37. Give a makeover : RESTYLE
39. Pontiac and others : OTTAWAS
40. “Star Trek” extra : YEOMAN
41. It’s definitely not the short answer : ESSAY
43. “That’s that” : SO BE IT
45. Fix a key problem? : RETYPE
49. Kind of yoga : HATHA
51. Important info for people with connections : ETAS
53. Clément with two Oscar-winning films : RENE
56. Düsseldorf direction : OST
57. La la lead-in : SHA
58. Allen of play-by-play : MEL

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