0501-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 1 May 14, Thursday

QuickLinks:
Solution to today’s crossword in the New York Times
Solution to today’s SYNDICATED New York Times crossword in all other publications

Share today’s solution with a friend:
FacebookTwitterGoogleEmail

CROSSWORD SETTER: Brandon Hensley
THEME: Alien Abduction of Cattle … we have a rebus puzzle today, with a twist. Several squares contain the letters ET, and joining those squares together outlines a flying saucer. Under the flying saucer we have a square containing the letters COW, indicative of the cattle that have purportedly been abducted by aliens:

1A. With 6-Across, subject of an eerie rural legend … illustrated by connecting nine identically filled squares in this puzzle with a closed line : ALIEN
6A. See 1-Across : ABDUCTION

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 19m 06s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. With 6-Across, subject of an eerie rural legend … illustrated by connecting nine identically filled squares in this puzzle with a closed line : ALIEN
6. See 1-Across : ABDUCTION
In some circles, it is suggested that individuals have been abducted by aliens, It has also been suggested that the phenomenon is linked to the mutilation of cattle, or that cattle have also been abducted.

15. Member of the chordophone family : VIOLA
Musical instruments that produce sounds through the vibration of strings can be described collectively as “chordophones”. Examples are violins, violas, guitars and pianos.

17. Whizzes : GENII
“Genii” is the plural of “genius”.

A “genius” is a person with exceptional intellect or talent. In Roman mythology a genius was something divine to be found in any person, place or thing. In particular, doors and gates each had their own genius that acted as a guardian spirit.

18. Far south? : ANTARCTIC
Lines of latitude are the imaginary horizontal lines surrounding the planet. The most “important” lines of latitude are, from north to south:

– Arctic Circle
– Tropic of Cancer
– Equator
– Tropic of Capricorn
– Antarctic Circle

19. Site of many hangings : CLOSET
In old French a “clos” was an enclosure, with the diminutive form “closet” describing a small enclosure or private room. Over time this evolved into our modern usage, to describe a cabinet or cupboard.

21. Some Spanish zoo exhibits : OSOS
In Spanish, “osa” is a female bear, and “oso” is a male.

22. Some glass paperweights : PRISMS
When light passes through a prism, it is split up (“disperses”) into differing wavelengths. It then becomes clear that white light is actually a mixture of different colors, which show up as beautiful spectra.

24. Tolkien’s Prancing Pony, e.g. : INN
The Prancing Pony is an inn at the center of the village of Bree in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”.

J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien was an English author, best known by far for his fantasy novels “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”. Although Tolkien lived in England and was a professor at Oxford, he served for many years as an external examiner at my old school, University College Dublin in Ireland.

27. Not believe in spirits? : TEETOTAL
Teetotalism is the practice of abstaining from alcohol. The teetotalism movement started in England in the 1800s.

32. Viscosity symbols : ETAS
A viscous liquid might be described as “thick”, and a more viscous liquid is thicker, less likely to flow.

36. Any of the Four Noble Truths : TENET
The central doctrine of the Buddhist tradition is known as the Four Noble Truths. Those four tenets are:

– There is suffering
– Suffering has a cause
– Suffering can cease
– There is a path out of suffering

39. Confident, ambitious, loyal sort, supposedly : LEO
Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 13 to August 23 are Leos.

40. Guillotine targets : TETES
“Tête” is the French word for “head”.

The guillotine is a device for executing people by decapitating them. The guillotine is most associated with France where it was used most notably and extensively during the French Revolution. The guillotine was used as the standard method of execution in France right up until 1981 when capital punishment was finally abolished.

41. “Cómo” follower : ESTA
“Cómo estas?” is Spanish for “how are you?”

42. Purchase on delta.com, e.g. : E-TICKET
Delta was the world’s largest airline for a while (after merging with Northwest Airlines in 2008) and is also the oldest airline still operating in the US. Delta’s roots go back to 1924 before it started carrying passengers and was called Huff Daland Dusters, a crop dusting company based in Macon, Georgia. The name Delta Air Service was introduced in 1928.

44. M.D. grp. : HMO
Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

51. Mother who appeared on two covers of Time : TERESA
Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in the city that is now called Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. At birth she was given the names Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (“Gonxha” means “little flower” in Albanian). She left home at the age of 18 and joined the Sisters of Loreto, and headed to Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham in Dublin, Ireland in order to learn English. Her goal was to teach in India, and English was the language used there for instruction by the nuns. After Mother Teresa passed away in 1997 she was beatified by Pope John Paul II, a step on the road to canonization. In order for her to be beatified there had to be documented evidence of a miracle that was performed due to her intercession. The miracle in question was the healing of a tumor in the abdomen of a woman due to the application of a locket containing a picture of Mother Teresa. Documentation of a second miracle is required for her to be declared a saint.

52. Former Saudi king : FAHD
King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud was the head of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia until he passed away in 2005. King Fahd was somewhat of a titular head of state since 1995 when he suffered a stroke. In his heyday, the king was fond of a luxurious lifestyle, especially when outside of the kingdom. His 482 ft yacht sported two swimming pools, a garden, a hospital with two operating rooms, and four Stinger missiles. His personal Boeing 747 aircraft even had its own fountain.

59. Ethyl acetate, e.g. : ESTER
Esters are very common chemicals. The smaller, low-molecular weight esters are usually pleasant smelling and are often found in perfumes. At the other end of the scale, the higher-molecular weight nitroglycerin is a nitrate ester and is very explosive, and polyester is a huge molecule and is a type of plastic. Fats and oils found in nature are fatty acid esters of glycerol.

Ethyl acetate is an ester made by reacting ethanol with acetic acid. It is a common solvent found in things like nail polish removers and glues. As I recall from my long-gone days in a lab, ethyl acetate has a very nice fruity smell.

64. Currency worth about 1/36 of a dollar : RUBLE
The ruble (also “rouble”) is the unit of currency in Russia, as well as several other countries of the former Soviet Union. One ruble is divided into one hundred kopecks.

Down
5. Tool used with a hammer : NAIL SET
A nail set is a type of punch that is used to drive the head of a nail flush or below the surface of a piece of wood.

7. Intelligence researcher Alfred : BINET
The original Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale for scoring IQ tests was developed by French psychologist Alfred Binet and his student Theodore Simon. The scale was revised in 1916 by Lewis M. Terman, a psychologist at Stanford University, resulting in the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale.

8. Chemical restricted by the Stockholm Convention : DDT
DDT is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (don’t forget now!). DDT was used with great success to control disease-carrying insects during WWII, and when made available for use after the war it became by far the most popular pesticide. And then Rachel Carson published her famous book “Silent Spring”, suggesting there was a link between DDT and diminishing populations of certain wildlife. It was the public outcry sparked by the book, and reports of links between DDT and cancer, that led to the ban on the use of the chemical in 1972. That ban is touted as the main reason that the bald eagle was rescued from near extinction.

13. Mayberry town drunk : OTIS
Otis Campbell is the town drunk on the sitcom “The Andy Griffith Show”, and was played by actor Hal Smith. The Campbell character was dropped in the late sixties as sponsors became concerned about being associated with heavy drinking.

14. Foreign policy grp. : NSC
The National Security Council (NSC) was created by President Harry S. Truman in 1947. The NSC is chaired by the sitting president and meets in the White House Situation Room.

20. Polynesian term for an island hopper : OMOO
Herman Melville mined his own experiences when writing his novels. Melville sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1841 on a whaler heading into the Pacific Ocean (a source for “Moby Dick”). Melville ended up deserting his ship 18 months later and lived with natives on a South Pacific Island for three weeks (a source for “Typee”). He picked up another whaler and headed for Hawaii, where he joined the crew of a US navy frigate that was bound for Boston (a source for “Omoo”).

25. Wedding announcement word : NEE
“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.

26. Like Seattle vis-à-vis Phoenix : WETTER
The average annual rainfall in Seattle is 36.2 inches, and in Phoenix is 8.0 inches.

28. Baseball great who had a career batting 1-Down of .304 : OTT
(1D. Batting fig. : AVG)

At 5′ 9″, Mel Ott weighed just 170 lb (I don’t think he took steroids!) and yet he was the first National League player to hit over 500 home runs. Sadly, Ott died in a car accident in New Orleans in 1958 when he was only 49 years old.

30. Weakness : ANEMIA
The term “anemia” (or “anaemia” as we write it back in Ireland) comes from a Greek word meaning “lack of blood”. Anemia is a lack of iron in the blood, or a low red blood cell count. Tiredness is a symptom of the condition.

34. “Mutiny on the Bounty” captain : BLIGH
William Bligh was a senior officer in the Royal Navy who was famously captain of the HMS Bounty when her crew mutinied. As I found out in my last trip back to Ireland, late in his life Bligh charted and mapped Dublin Bay and designed the important North Bull Wall that sits at the mouth of the River Liffey and entrance to Dublin Port.

Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall wrote “Mutiny on the ‘Bounty'”, based on a true story. They followed up their successful novel with two more works, creating what is now called the “Bounty Trilogy”. The three books are:

1. “Mutiny on the ‘Bounty'”, the tale of the mutiny against Captain Bligh.
2. “Men Against the Sea”, the story of Captain Bligh and the eighteen men set adrift in an open boat by the mutineers.
3. “Pitcairn’s Island”, a narrative about the lives of the mutineers on South Sea islands after the mutiny.

35. Intl. trade org. : EEC
The European Economic Community (EEC) was also called “the Common Market”. The EEC was a NAFTA-like structure that was eventually absorbed into today’s European Union.

38. Charter ___, symbol on the Connecticut state quarter : OAK
The oak depicted on the Connecticut quarter is the Charter Oak. The tree earned its name from the legend that the original Royal Charter for the colony was hidden in a cavity of the tree for a while. The tree no longer exists, as it went down in a storm in the early 1800s.

42. Noted stratovolcano : ETNA
Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy. Mt Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius. The third of the trio is Stromboli.

51. Goods stolen by the Knave of Hearts : TARTS
“The Queen of Hearts” is a poem that dates back to 1782. The poem starts out:

The Queen of Hearts
She made some tarts,
All on a summer’s day;
The Knave of Hearts
He stole those tarts,
And took them clean away.

The King of Hearts
Called for the tarts,
And beat the knave full sore;
The Knave of Hearts
Brought back the tarts,
And vowed he’d steal no more.

52. “Lincoln” : FIVE
The US five-dollar bill is often called an “Abe” or a “Lincoln”, as President Lincoln’s portrait is on the front. An Abe is also referred to as a “fin”, a term that has been used for a five-pound note in Britain since 1868.

53. An integral can compute it : AREA
Remember doing calculus at school, and all those derivatives and integrals? Well, you probably also remember that an integral calculates the area under a curve (for example).

54. Munich mister : HERR
In Germany, a “Mr.” (Herr) is married to a “Mrs.” (Frau).

Munich is the capital of the German state of Bavaria, and is the third largest city in the country (after Berlin and Hamburg). The city is called “München” in German, a term that derives from the Old German word for “by the monks’ place”, which is a reference to the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city in 1158.

56. Waistcoat item : FOB
A fob is attached to another object to make access to it easier. And so a key fob is a chain attached to a key so that it can be retrieved easily. There are also watch fobs, of course.

57. Rose in the music world : AXL
Axl Rose is the lead vocalist of the American rock band, Guns N’ Roses.

Guns N’ Roses is a hard rock band founded in 1985 that is still going strong. The group was pulled together by Axl Rose, the lead vocalist. The lead-guitar player back then was Tracii Guns, and it was the combination of Axl and Tracii’s “family” names that led to the band being called Guns N’ Roses.

58. Texas has a big one : TEE
The word “Texas” has a big “tee”, an uppercase letter T.

60. Not yet on the sked : TBA
Something not yet on the schedule (sked) is to be advised (TBA).

61. Loop takers : ELS
The Chicago “L” is the second largest rapid transit system in the US, with the New York City Subway being the largest. The “L” is also the second oldest, again with the New York City Subway system having the honor of being around the longest. Note that the official nickname for the system is the “L” (originally short for “elevated railroad”), although the term “El” is also in common use (especially in crosswords as “ELS”). The L is managed by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).

The historic commercial center of Chicago is known as the Loop. One theory is that the “loop” got its name from the cable loops in the city’s old cable car system.

62. Band with the 1991 hit “Shiny Happy People” : REM
R.E.M. was a rock band from Athens, Georgia formed in 1980. The name “R.E.M.” was chosen randomly from a dictionary, apparently.

Share today’s solution with a friend:
FacebookTwitterGoogleEmail

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. With 6-Across, subject of an eerie rural legend … illustrated by connecting nine identically filled squares in this puzzle with a closed line : ALIEN
6. See 1-Across : ABDUCTION
15. Member of the chordophone family : VIOLA
16. Bisectors pass through them : MIDPOINTS
17. Whizzes : GENII
18. Far south? : ANTARCTIC
19. Site of many hangings : CLOSET
21. Some Spanish zoo exhibits : OSOS
22. Some glass paperweights : PRISMS
24. Tolkien’s Prancing Pony, e.g. : INN
26. Texted, say : WROTE TO
27. Not believe in spirits? : TEETOTAL
32. Viscosity symbols : ETAS
33. Big, big, big : OBESE
36. Any of the Four Noble Truths : TENET
37. Join with : TIE TO
39. Confident, ambitious, loyal sort, supposedly : LEO
40. Guillotine targets : TETES
41. “Cómo” follower : ESTA
42. Purchase on delta.com, e.g. : E-TICKET
44. M.D. grp. : HMO
45. Raising a stink? : REEKING
47. Focus (on) : HOME IN
50. “I’d rather not” : NAH
51. Mother who appeared on two covers of Time : TERESA
52. Former Saudi king : FAHD
55. Some runners : COWARDS
56. One feeling warm on the inside? : FIRE EATER
59. Ethyl acetate, e.g. : ESTER
63. Push too far : OVEREXERT
64. Currency worth about 1/36 of a dollar : RUBLE
65. Clean-shaven : BEARDLESS
66. Fit : SPASM

Down
1. Batting fig. : AVG
2. Fiction : LIE
3. It’s charged : ION
4. Call up : ELICIT
5. Tool used with a hammer : NAIL SET
6. Accumulate : AMASS
7. Intelligence researcher Alfred : BINET
8. Chemical restricted by the Stockholm Convention : DDT
9. ___ tree : UP A
10. Ornamental headpiece : CORONET
11. Nerves may cause them : TICS
12. Loving : INTO
13. Mayberry town drunk : OTIS
14. Foreign policy grp. : NSC
20. Polynesian term for an island hopper : OMOO
22. Some positive reinforcement : PRAISE
23. Flower-shaped decoration : ROSETTE
24. “No worries” : IT’S OK
25. Wedding announcement word : NEE
26. Like Seattle vis-à-vis Phoenix : WETTER
28. Baseball great who had a career batting 1-Down of .304 : OTT
29. Gets choppers : TEETHES
30. Weakness : ANEMIA
31. Pretends : LETS ON
34. “Mutiny on the Bounty” captain : BLIGH
35. Intl. trade org. : EEC
38. Charter ___, symbol on the Connecticut state quarter : OAK
42. Noted stratovolcano : ETNA
43. Heavens : ETHER
46. “Absolutely!” : INDEED!
48. They may be barked : ORDERS
49. Goof : MESS UP
51. Goods stolen by the Knave of Hearts : TARTS
52. “Lincoln” : FIVE
53. An integral can compute it : AREA
54. Munich mister : HERR
55. Reacts fearfully : COWERS
56. Waistcoat item : FOB
57. Rose in the music world : AXL
58. Texas has a big one : TEE
60. Not yet on the sked : TBA
61. Loop takers : ELS
62. Band with the 1991 hit “Shiny Happy People” : REM

Return to top of page

The Best of the New York Times Crossword Collections
Amazon.com Widgets