0509-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 9 May 14, Friday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: James Mulhern
THEME: None
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 17m 04s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Toast often given with Manischewitz : L’CHAIM
“L’Chaim” is a Hebrew toast meaning “to life”, with “chai” being the Hebrew word for “life”.

7. Nobel-winning economist who wrote “Fuzzy Math” : KRUGMAN
“Fuzzy Math: the essential guide to the Bush tax plan” is a 2001 book written by economist Paul Krugman.

The derogatory phrase “fuzzy math” was first used in the debates leading up the 2000 presidential election. Future president George W. Bush used the term to describe figures presented by his opponent Al Gore.

15. Longtime Tab competitor : DIET RITE
Diet Rite is a no-calorie cola drink that has been around since 1958. Diet Rite was introduced by RC Cola, but the brand is now owned by the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

Tab was the first diet cola introduced by the Coca-Cola company, in 1963. It was produced as a competitor to the very successful Diet Rite cola that was made by RC Cola. The name “Tab” was used as the beverage was aimed at people who wanted to keep “tabs” on their weight.

17. Like things in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” : ABNORMAL
“Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” is a huge franchise on television, affiliated to a worldwide chain of museums. The franchise started out as cartoon feature appearing in newspapers in 1918.

20. In the 29-Down, e.g.: Abbr. : ENL
Enlisted (enl.)

21. “___ do, so he shall do”: Numbers 15:14 : AS YE
The Book of Numbers in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles relates much of the journey of Moses and the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land. The title comes from the numbering of the people (a census) that is described in the beginning of the book.

34. Digs in the snow? : IGLOO
The Inuit word for “house” is “iglu”, which we usually write as “igloo”. The Greenlandic (yes, that’s a language) word for “house” is very similar: namely “igdlo”.

“Digs” is short for “diggings” meaning “lodgings”, but where “diggings” came from, no one seems to know.

35. Olympian in a shell : SCULLER
A scull is a boat used for competitive rowing. The main hull of the boat is often referred to as a shell. Crew members who row the boat can be referred to as “oars”.

36. Pitches : CAREENS
“Careen” dates back to 1590 when it meant “to turn a ship on its side, exposing the keel”. The word evolved from the Middle French word “carene” meaning “keel”. Our modern usage, meaning to lean or tilt, only dates back as far as the 1880s. Careen should not be confused with “career”, a verb meaning to move rapidly. One has to “career” from side-to -side in order to “careen”.

38. “Luncheon on the Grass” painter : MANET
Édouard Manet was a French painter whose works are mainly classified as Realist. Manet was friends with Impressionists masters like Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir and greatly influenced the Impressionist movement. The list of Manet’s marvelous paintings includes “Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe” (Luncheon on the Grass), “Le Repose” (The Repose) and “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère”.

40. Pick up something common? : CATCH A COLD
The common cold is caused by a viral infection of the upper respiratory tract. There are over 200 strains of virus that are known to cause the disease.

44. Dye containing indigotin : ANIL
Anil is another name for the indigo plant, as well as the name for the blue indigo dye that is obtained from it. The color of anil is relatively close to navy blue. The main coloring agent in indigo dye is a crystalline powder called indigotin.

48. Jackasses, e.g. : HES
A female donkey is known as a jenny, and a male is known as a jack, or sometimes a “jackass”.

53. Actor with the line “Say hello to my little friend!” : AL PACINO
Al Pacino seems to be best known for playing characters on both sides of the law. Pacino’s big break in movies came when he played Michael Corleone in “The Godfather”, a role that grew for him as the series of films progressed. But his Oscar-winning role was that of a blind ex-military officer in “Scent of a Woman”.

“Say hello to my little friend!” is a line spoken by Al Pacino in the 1983 film “Scarface”.

“Scarface” is a 1983 gangster movie starring Al Pacino as a Cuban expatriate drug lord in Miami. The film was directed by Brian De Palma and written by Oliver Stone, and is a remake of a 1932 film of the same name.

57. Feature of a Shaw show : CLARINET
Artie Shaw was a composer, bandleader and a jazz clarinetist. Shaw’s real name was Arthur Jacob Arshawsky, born in New York City in 1910. One of his many claims to fame is that he (a white bandleader) hired Billie Holiday (a black vocalist) and toured the segregated South in the late thirties. Holiday chose to leave the band though, due to hostility from Southern audiences back then. Artie Shaw was married eight times in all. The list of his wives includes the actresses Lana Turner and Ava Gardner, as well Betty Kern, daughter of songwriter Jerome Kern.

59. Accessories purchased just for openers? : KEY TAGS
Key tags are put on bunches of keys (“openers”).

60. Big player in the Suez Crisis : NASSER
Gamal Abdel Nasser was the second president of Egypt, from 1956 until he died in 1970. He stood alongside Muhammad Naguib, Egypt’s first president, during the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 that overthrew the ruling monarchy of Egypt and Sudan. Nasser was an advocate of Pan-Arabism, an ideology promoting unification of Arab peoples and countries. President Nasser went so far as forming the United Arab Republic (UAR), a union between Egypt and Syria that started in 1958 but fell apart in 1961 when Syria withdrew.

The Suez Crisis of 1956 came about when President Nasser of Egypt decided to nationalize the Suez Canal, a response to a withdrawal of funds by Britain and the US for the building of the Aswan Dam. Egypt then refused to allow any Israeli shipping the use the canal. With British and French support, Israel invaded the Sinai in October 1956, starting the military conflict. Combined British, French and Israeli forces eventually took control of the Suez Canal, which was viewed as a military success but a political disaster. The United Nations, led by the US, pressured the British, French and Israelis to withdraw.

Down
1. Source of very soft wool : LLAMA
The wool from a llama is much softer than that from a sheep, and it is also free from lanolin.

2. Whale constellation : CETUS
Cetus is a constellation named after a sea monster from Greek mythology. Today, Cetus is often called “the Whale”.

3. Oh-so-dramatic : HAMMY
The word “ham”, describing a performer who overacts, is apparently a shortened form of “hamfatter” and dates back to the late 1800s. “Hamfatter” comes from a song in old minstrel shows called “The Ham-Fat Man”. It seems that a poorly performing actor was deemed to have the “acting” qualities of a minstrel made up in blackface.

4. Acrobat producer : ADOBE
Adobe Acrobat is the software used to create .pdf files. Most of us are more familiar with the associated application called Adobe Reader, because that’s what we use to read those .pdf files.

6. Perfect expression : MOT JUSTE
“Mot juste” is a French phrase that we use in English to mean “the right word at the right time”. The literal translation is “just word”, and the French tend to use the phrase in the expression “chercher le mot juste” meaning “to search for the right word”.

7. Pet food in the form of pellets : KIBBLE
“To kibble” is to crush or grind coarsely. This verb evolved into the noun “kibble” meaning meat and/or grain that is ground into small pellets, especially when it is used for pet food.

8. “Luncheon of the Boating Party” painter : RENOIR
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French painter, very much at the forefront of the Impressionist movement. Renoir was a prolific artist, with several thousand works attributed to him. The largest collection of Renoirs is actually in the United States. You can see 181 of his paintings at the Barnes Foundation just outside Philadelphia.

The Renoir painting “Le Déjeuner des Canotiers” is also known in English as “Luncheon of the Boating Party”. It can be seen in the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.

9. ___-Aztecan : UTO
The Uto-Aztecan language family consists of about 30 languages spoken in the Western United States and Mexico. Included in the list of Uto-Aztecan languages is Ute, Comanche and Hopi.

12. ___ impasse : AT AN
“Impasse” is a French word for a blind alley or an impassable road, and we use the term to mean “stalemate”.

13. Dickens protagonist surnamed Trent : NELL
“The Old Curiosity Shop” by Charles Dickens tells the story of little 14-year-old Nell Trent and her grandfather who live in the Old Curiosity Shop in London. If you visit London, there actually is an “Old Curiosity Shop”, in Westminster. It is an establishment selling odds and ends, old curiosities, and is believed to have been the inspiration for the shop in the Dickens story. The building has been around since the 1500s, but the name “The Old Curiosity Shop” was added after the book was published.

15. Horror film antagonist surnamed Thorn : DAMIEN
The original film “The Omen” was released in 1976. “Damien: Omen II” hit the screens in 1978. We were regaled with “Omen III: The Final Conflict” in 1981, and there was even a TV movie “Omen IV: The Awakening” in 1991. I haven’t seen any of them, and have no interest in doing so (despite the excellent cast) as I really don’t like the horror genre …

19. King Arthur’s father : UTHER
According to legend, King Arthur was the son of Uther Pendragon. Uther magically disguised himself as his enemy Gorlois and slept with Gorlois’ wife Igerna, and the result of the union was Arthur.

23. 1971-97 nation name : ZAIRE
The African nation once called Zaire is a neighbor of Rwanda. The genocide and war in Rwanda spilled over into Zaire in 1996, with the conflict escalating into what is now called the First Congo War. As part of the war’s fallout there was a regime change, and in 1997 Zaire became the Democratic Republic of Congo.

26. Pat material, maybe : OLEO
Oleo, the substitute for butter, might be served in pats.

27. Low-class, in Leeds : NON-U
“Non-U” is a term used in the UK that originated in the fifties, referring to those who are “not upper class”. i.e. middle class. In effect, “the U” are the “upper” class, and “the non-U” are the middle class.

I went to school for a while not far from Leeds in West Yorkshire in the north of England. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, Leeds was a major center for the production and trading of wool, and then with the onset of mechanization it became a natural hub for manufacture of textiles. These days Leeds is noted as a shopping destination and so has been dubbed “the Knightsbridge of the North”.

28. Royals manager Ned : YOST
Ned Yost is the manager of the Kansas City Royals, and a former Major League Baseball catcher.

The Kansas City Royals Major League Baseball team was founded in 1969. The team takes its name from the American Royal, a livestock show and rodeo held annually in Kansas City since 1899.

29. Devil dog’s outfit: Abbr. : USMC
Apparently the US Marines were nicknamed “dogs from Hell” (Teufel Hunden) by German soldiers during WWI, although this has been disputed. But the “Devil Dog” name is still used today by the Marines, and with pride.

30. Org. affected by Title IX : NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

Title IX is a 1972 law that prohibits discrimination in the field of education on the basis of gender. The statue doesn’t mention sports in particular, but it is in the field of athletics that the law has had the biggest effect. After the law was enacted, the number of female sports teams ballooned in schools as funds started to flow more fairly through the system.

31. It may be a sacrifice : BUNT
“To bunt” in baseball is to barely hit the ball, just enough to have it roll slowly in front of the infielders.

36. Fault, in law : CULPA
“Culpa” is the Latin for “fault”.

37. “Father Knows Best” family name : ANDERSON
“Father Knows Best” is a radio and television sitcom that ran in the 1940s and 1950s. The title character was played by Robert Young, the actor who later played the title role on “Marcus Welby, M.D.”

42. The Furies, e.g. : CRONES
The Furies in Roman mythology were the female personification of vengeance. They were also known as the Dirae, “the terrible”. There were at least three Furies:

– Alecto: the “unceasing”
– Megaera: the “grudging”
– Tisiphone: the “avenging murder”

44. Timber dressers : ADZES
An adze (also adz) is similar to an axe, but is different in that the blade of an adze is set at right angles to the tool’s shaft. An axe’s blade is set in line with the shaft.

45. Nativity numbers : NOELS
“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, ultimately coming from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). Noel has come to be used as an alternative name for a Christmas carol.

47. Shunned one : LEPER
The horrible disease known as leprosy is also called Hansen’s disease, named after the Norwegian physician famous for isolating the bacterium that causes the disease. We can use the term “leper” to mean someone in general who is shunned by society.

49. Allure or Essence alternative : ELLE
“Elle” magazine was founded in 1945 in France and today has the highest circulation of any fashion magazine in the world. “Elle” is the French word for “she”.

“Allure” is magazine published by Condé Nast in New York that was founded in 1991 by Linda Wells. “Allure” contains articles on beauty, fashion and women’s health.

“Essence” is women’s magazine aimed at the African-American female, covering fashion and beauty. First published in 1970, the magazine’s slogan is “Fierce, Fun and Fabulous”.

50. Fix, as a pointer : SPAY
The breed of dog known as a Pointer is also known as the English Pointer. There are other pointing breeds though, dogs that instinctively “point” by stopping and aiming their muzzles at game when hunting. The list of other pointing breeds includes the English Setter and the Irish Setter.

52. Major star of 2-Down : MIRA
Mira is a red giant star in the constellation Cetus.

55. Grp. with many operations : CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the successor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) formed during WWII. The CIA was chartered by the National Security Act of 1947.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Toast often given with Manischewitz : L’CHAIM
7. Nobel-winning economist who wrote “Fuzzy Math” : KRUGMAN
14. Precipitate : LEAD TO
15. Longtime Tab competitor : DIET RITE
16. In the best- or worst-case scenario : AT MOST
17. Like things in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” : ABNORMAL
18. Psychobabble, say : MUMBO JUMBO
20. In the 29-Down, e.g.: Abbr. : ENL
21. “___ do, so he shall do”: Numbers 15:14 : AS YE
22. Put to work : UTILIZE
25. Hell : SHEER AGONY
29. Like players who sweep things : UNBEATEN
34. Digs in the snow? : IGLOO
35. Olympian in a shell : SCULLER
36. Pitches : CAREENS
38. “Luncheon on the Grass” painter : MANET
39. Like much unheeded advice : TUNED OUT
40. Pick up something common? : CATCH A COLD
43. Line of tugboats? : TOWROPE
44. Dye containing indigotin : ANIL
48. Jackasses, e.g. : HES
51. “It’s all good” : NO HARM DONE
53. Actor with the line “Say hello to my little friend!” : AL PACINO
56. Take stock of : SIZE UP
57. Feature of a Shaw show : CLARINET
58. Ominous final words : OR ELSE
59. Accessories purchased just for openers? : KEY TAGS
60. Big player in the Suez Crisis : NASSER

Down
1. Source of very soft wool : LLAMA
2. Whale constellation : CETUS
3. Oh-so-dramatic : HAMMY
4. Acrobat producer : ADOBE
5. “___ happens …” : IT SO
6. Perfect expression : MOT JUSTE
7. Pet food in the form of pellets : KIBBLE
8. “Luncheon of the Boating Party” painter : RENOIR
9. ___-Aztecan : UTO
10. [This is so frustrating!] : GRR!
11. Storyteller who needs no words : MIME
12. ___ impasse : AT AN
13. Dickens protagonist surnamed Trent : NELL
15. Horror film antagonist surnamed Thorn : DAMIEN
19. King Arthur’s father : UTHER
23. 1971-97 nation name : ZAIRE
24. Drove (on) : EGGED
26. Pat material, maybe : OLEO
27. Low-class, in Leeds : NON-U
28. Royals manager Ned : YOST
29. Devil dog’s outfit: Abbr. : USMC
30. Org. affected by Title IX : NCAA
31. It may be a sacrifice : BUNT
32. Approve for office installation : ELECT
33. E’en if : ALTHO
36. Fault, in law : CULPA
37. “Father Knows Best” family name : ANDERSON
39. Like some things you can’t handle : TOO HOT
41. Shop shelter : AWNING
42. The Furies, e.g. : CRONES
44. Timber dressers : ADZES
45. Nativity numbers : NOELS
46. Not free : IN USE
47. Shunned one : LEPER
48. Be a high-tech criminal : HACK
49. Allure or Essence alternative : ELLE
50. Fix, as a pointer : SPAY
52. Major star of 2-Down : MIRA
54. Domain of 38-Across and 8-Down : ART
55. Grp. with many operations : CIA

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