0609-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 9 Jun 14, Monday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Covered Greek walkway : STOA
A stoa was a covered walkway in Ancient Greece. A stoa usually consisted of columns lining the side of a building or buildings, with another row of columns defining the other side of the walkway. The columns supported a roof. Often stoae would surround marketplaces in large cities.

16. ___ vortex (winter weather phenomenon) : POLAR
The polar vortices are two persistent cyclones that are found over the Earth’s poles, one over the Arctic and one over the Antarctic. It is within the southern polar vortex that we now have a hole in the ozone layer, but there is also depletion of ozone taking place in the northern polar vortex.

18. Curse : JINX
A jinx is a charm or a spell, and the word “jinx” comes from an older word “jyng” from the 17th-century. A “jyng” was another word for the wryneck, a type of bird much used in witchcraft.

24. Morn’s counterpart : E’EN
Using poetic terminology, morn’s (morning’s) counterpart is e’en (evening).

36. South Dakota’s capital : PIERRE
Here’s an old chestnut of a trivia question for you … what’s the only state capital in the Union in which the name of the capital and the name of its state share no common letters? You guessed it … Pierre, South Dakota …

43. Former secretary of state Colin : POWELL
Colin Powell was the first African American to serve as US Secretary of State. Earlier in his career, Powell had been a four-star general in the US Army, as well as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War. Even though Colin Powell has retired from public service, he is one of the most noted moderate Republicans, often advocating support for centrist and liberal causes.

47. Split ___ soup : PEA
When peas are dried, the skin can be removed and the seed naturally “splits” into two pieces called cotyledons. These cotyledons would have formed the first two leaves of the pea plant had it been allowed to germinate.

52. Nav. rank : ENS
Ensign is (usually) the most junior rank of commissioned officer in the armed forces. The name comes from the tradition that the junior officer would be given the task of carrying the ensign flag.

53. ___ Francisco : SAN
San Francisco is the second-most densely populated city in the US, after New York. That said, the City by the Bay is only the fourth-most populous in California, after Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose. San Francisco was founded by Spanish colonists on 29 June 1776, just a few days before the United States declared independence from Britain.

54. Trail for Hansel and Gretel : CRUMBS
“Hansel and Gretel” is a Germanic fairy tale found in the collection of the Brothers Grimm. It tells of two siblings, Hansel and Gretel, the children of a woodcutter. The youngsters are abandoned in a forest at the behest of an evil stepmother. Clever Hansel hears of the plan and leaves a trail of pebbles so that he and his sister can find their way home, which they do. But the children are abandoned again and this time leave a trail of breadcrumbs. Unfortunately, the crumbs are eaten by birds and so the children do indeed become lost. But eventually they do all live happily ever after …

61. Rome’s home : ITALY
Ancient Rome went through three distinct periods. From 753 to 509 BC, Rome was a kingdom, founded by the legendary Romulus. The Roman Republic lasted from 509 to 27 BC. The Republic started with the overthrow of the last monarch, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, and replacement by two elected consuls who were advised by a senate. The Republic evolved over time, but came to an end when Octavian expanded his power and declared himself “First Citizen”, and effectively became Rome’s first Emperor and took the name Caesar Augustus. The Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century. The Eastern Roman Empire survived as the Byzantine Empire that was centered on Constantinople.

64. Codger : COOT
Geezer, codger and coot are all not-so-nice terms for an old man.

65. “The Naked Maja” artist : GOYA
Francisco Goya was a Spanish painter, often called the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. Two of Goya’s most famous works are “The Nude Maja” and “The Clothed Maja”.

66. End of an Aesop fable : MORAL
Aesop is remembered today for his famous fables. Aesop lived in Ancient Greece, probably around the sixth century BC. Supposedly he was born a slave, somehow became a free man, but then met with a sorry end. Aesop was sent to the city of Delphi on a diplomatic mission but instead insulted the Delphians. He was tried on a trumped-up charge of stealing from a temple, sentenced to death and was thrown off a cliff.

70. Hollywood Walk of Fame feature : STAR
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a series of sidewalks taking up 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and 3 blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood. The Walk of Fame is an ever-changing monument dedicated to those who have achieved greatness in the entertainment industry, both in front of and behind the camera. The first stars installed in the sidewalk were a group of eight, officially laid in 1960. That group consisted of:

– Joanne Woodward (actor)
– Olive Borden (actor)
– Ronald Colman (actor)
– Louise Fazenda (actor)
– Preston Foster (actor)
– Burt Lancaster (actor)
– Edward Sedgwick (director)
– Ernest Torrence (actor)

71. Unit of force : DYNE
An erg is a unit of energy or mechanical work. “Erg” comes from the Greek word “ergon” meaning “work”. A dyne is a unit of force. The name “dyne” comes from the Greek “dynamis” meaning “power, force”. Ergs and dynes are related to each other in that one erg is the amount of energy needed to move a force of one dyne over a distance of one centimeter.

Down
1. Garbage boats : SCOWS
A scow is a flat-bottomed boat with squared-off ends that’s often used for transportation, usually pushed or pulled by a barge. Often a scow can be seen carrying junk or garbage.

2. Amtrak service : TRAIN
Amtrak is the name used commercially by the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. “Amtrak” comes from a melding of the words “America” and “track”.

6. Singer Clapton : ERIC
Can you believe that the great Eric Clapton only had one chart-topper in the US? In 1974, Clapton released a cover version of the Bob Marley classic “I Shot the Sheriff” and ended up selling more copies of that song than Bob Marley did himself.

8. Went along the tarmac : TAXIED
An airplane taxis on the tarmac at an airport.

“Tarmac” and “macadam” is of course short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call Tarmac.

11. Keebler figure : ELF
The famous Keebler Elves have been appearing in ads for Keebler since 1968. The original head of the elves was J. J. Keebler, but he was toppled from power by Ernest J. Keebler in 1970.

21. “Oedipus ___” : REX
“Oedipus Rex” (also “Oedipus the King”) is a tragedy penned by the Ancient Greek playwright Sophocles. The play tells the story of Oedipus, a man who becomes king of Thebes. Famously, Oedipus was destined from birth to murder his father and marry his mother.

26. Beetle’s boss, in the comics : SARGE
Sgt. Snorkel (“Sarge”) is Beetle Bailey’s nemesis in the cartoon strip that bears his name. Snorkel has a dog called Otto that he dresses up to look just like himself. Otto started off as a regular dog, but artist Mort Walker decide to draw him more like his owner, and soon Otto became a big hit.

27. “Laughing” animal : HYENA
The spotted hyena of Sub-Saharan Africa is also known as the laughing hyena because of the sound it oftens makes, which resembles maniacal laughter.

29. Fish that can give you a shock : EEL
Electrophorus electricus is the biological name for the electric eel. Despite its name, the electric “eel” isn’t an eel at all, but rather what is called a knifefish, a fish with an elongated body that is related to the catfish. The electric eel has three pairs of organs along its abdomen, each capable of generating an electric discharge. The shock can go as high as 500 volts with 1 ampere of current (that’s 500 watts), and that could perhaps kill a human.

30. Actress Watts : NAOMI
Naomi Watts was born in the UK and moved to Australia when she was 14 years of age. It was in Australia that Watts got her break in television and movies. Probably her most acclaimed role was in the 2003 film “21 Grams” with Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro. Watts is best friends with fellow Australian actress Nicole Kidman.

32. Golden Delicious, e.g. : APPLE
The first Golden Delicious tree was found in a pasture field on a farm in West Virginia in the late 1800s. There were no other apple trees growing nearby, so the farmer left it to grow. The fruit proved to be popular and the farmer sold the tree to a local nursery. The nursery named the apple Golden Delicious to go along with the existing line of Red Delicious apples, even though the two varieties trees aren’t very closely related. The Golden Delicious is now the official fruit of West Virginia.

33. Sing like Bing Crosby : CROON
The singer Bing Crosby was a great lover of the game of golf. Crosby had just finished up 18 holes on a course in Spain in 1977 when he suffered a massive heart attack on the final green. Crosby’s last words were “That was a great game of golf, fellas.”

38. Ryan of “When Harry Met Sally …” : MEG
Meg Ryan is the stage name of the actress Margaret Mary Hyra. Ryan’s big break came with the excellent 1989 movie “When Harry Met Sally…” from which she went on to star in some of the greatest romantic comedies ever made.

Perhaps the most memorable scene in the wonderful film “When Harry Met Sally…” is set in a Manhattan deli. Sally (Meg Ryan) claims that men cannot recognize when a woman is faking an orgasm. Harry (Billy Crystal) disagrees, so Sally proves her point over her sandwich, screaming out a lot of “yeses!” Director Rob Reiner tells a story about a test screening of the movie that he attended. He recalls that all the women in the audience were rolling around the aisles, while the men weren’t even cracking a smile. And by the way, the actress who then utters the line in the film “I’ll have what’s she’s having”, that is Estelle Roberts, the mother of director Rob Reiner.

46. ___ scale (earthquake measurer) : RICHTER
The Richter scale was developed in 1935, by Charles Richter at the California Institute of Technology. Maybe that’s why we still use it out here, while the rest of the world has moved to the “moment magnitude scale”. Reports of earthquake magnitude are usually given using the “moment magnitude scale”, but the media don’t bother to specify which scale is being quoted.

57. Misery or Missouri : STATE
A state of misery, or the state of Missouri.

58. Serb or Pole : SLAV
The Slavic peoples are in the majority in communities covering over half of Europe. This large ethnic group is traditionally broken down into three smaller groups:

– the West Slavic (including Czechs and Poles)
– the East Slavic (including Russians and Ukrainians)
– the South Slavic (including Bulgarians and Serbs)

59. Perfectly : TO A T
The expression “to a T” can also be written as “to a tee”, and has been around at least since 1693.

60. Pepsi-___ : COLA
The Pepsi-Cola formulation was developed by one Caleb Bradham who made the drink at home and sold it as “Brad’s Drink”. Bradham’s aim was to provide a drink that was pleasant to taste, that would aid digestion and boost energy. Included in the formula were pepsin (a digestive enzyme) and kola nuts. These two ingredients inspired the brand name we use today: Pepsi-Cola.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Covered Greek walkway : STOA
5. Go the way of snowmen : MELT
9. Rapidness : SPEED
14. “Phooey!” : CRUD!
15. Operatic solo : ARIA
16. ___ vortex (winter weather phenomenon) : POLAR
17. Curse : OATH
18. Curse : JINX
19. High, as expectations : LOFTY
20. T e l e p h o n e h a n d s e t : WIDE RECEIVER
23. Sounds from a sound sleeper? : SNORES
24. Morn’s counterpart : E’EN
25. Cigarette dropping : ASH
28. C o r s e t p a r t : EXTENDED STAY
32. Perform in a play : ACT
35. Vote in favor : YEA
36. South Dakota’s capital : PIERRE
37. Teaser : PROMO
40. High’s opposite : LOW
42. Condescend (to) : DEIGN
43. Former secretary of state Colin : POWELL
45. Deface : MAR
47. Split ___ soup : PEA
48. A r m y u n i t : LONG DIVISION
52. Nav. rank : ENS
53. ___ Francisco : SAN
54. Trail for Hansel and Gretel : CRUMBS
58. T h r e e s t r i k e s … or a description of the theme clues : STRETCHED OUT
61. Rome’s home : ITALY
64. Codger : COOT
65. “The Naked Maja” artist : GOYA
66. End of an Aesop fable : MORAL
67. Cabbagelike vegetable : KALE
68. Revise, as copy : EDIT
69. Tick off : PEEVE
70. Hollywood Walk of Fame feature : STAR
71. Unit of force : DYNE

Down
1. Garbage boats : SCOWS
2. Amtrak service : TRAIN
3. One-up : OUTDO
4. Cling (to) : ADHERE
5. Your ___ (way to address a queen) : MAJESTY
6. Singer Clapton : ERIC
7. Queue : LINE
8. Went along the tarmac : TAXIED
9. “Delightful!” : SPLENDID!
10. “You ___ thing!” : POOR
11. Keebler figure : ELF
12. “Please, have some!” : EAT!
13. Like deserts : DRY
21. “Oedipus ___” : REX
22. #2 exec : VEEP
25. Take ___ down memory lane : A TRIP
26. Beetle’s boss, in the comics : SARGE
27. “Laughing” animal : HYENA
29. Fish that can give you a shock : EEL
30. Actress Watts : NAOMI
31. “What did I tell you?” : SEE?
32. Golden Delicious, e.g. : APPLE
33. Sing like Bing Crosby : CROON
34. Villages : TOWNS
38. Ryan of “When Harry Met Sally …” : MEG
39. Antiquated : OLD-STYLE
41. Used to be : WAS
44. Perjurer : LIAR
46. ___ scale (earthquake measurer) : RICHTER
49. Features of some daring sweaters : V-NECKS
50. Mined metal : ORE
51. Gently elbowed : NUDGED
55. Subject to emotional swings : MOODY
56. Poker entry fee : BUY-IN
57. Misery or Missouri : STATE
58. Serb or Pole : SLAV
59. Perfectly : TO A T
60. Pepsi-___ : COLA
61. Mischievous kid : IMP
62. It may be tapped when you listen to music : TOE
63. “Come as you ___” : ARE

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