0610-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 10 Jun 14, Tuesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Alexander Graham Bell, for one : SCOT
Alexander Graham Bell was an inventor and scientist from Edinburgh, Scotland who later lived in Canada and the US. Both his wife and his mother were deaf, a fact that led to Bell spending much of life researching hearing and speech. Bell’s work on hearing devices led to the invention of the telephone. Paradoxically, Bell hated the telephone and refused to have one in the study of his home where he worked. I am with him on this one, as I hate the phone myself …

10. Asteroid ___ : BELT
The vast majority of asteroids in the Solar System are found in the main asteroid belt, which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Four large asteroids (Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Hygiea) make up about half the mass of the asteroid belt and are 400-950 km in diameter. The total mass of the belt is just 4% of the mass of our Moon.

14. Cay : ISLE
A “key” (also “cay”) is a low island offshore, as in the Florida Keys. Our term in English comes from the Spanish “cayo” meaning “shoal, reef”.

15. Harden (to) : ENURE
“Enure” is a variant spelling of “inure”, meaning to harden oneself against the effects of, to accustom oneself to.

19. Vegas hotel transport : TRAM
There is a tram system that runs on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip that connects several hotels:

– The Mandalay Bay Tram connects the Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur
– The CityCenter Tram connects the Monte Carlo, the Crystals and Bellagio

20. Brief 1831 headline? : MONROE NO MORE
James Monroe was the fifth US President, and the last of the Founding Fathers to hold the highest office. Famously, he presided over the Era of Good Feelings, when there was very little partisan strife in Washington. President Monroe racked up a lot of debt while in politics and so when he retired he had to sell off a lot of his property and struggled financially for the remainder of his life. Monroe was one of three US presidents to pass away on American Independence Day (along with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams). Monroe died on July 4th 1831.

22. Museum’s ends? : EMS
There are two letters M in the word “museum”, one at either end.

27. Brief 1727 headline? : NEWTON WENT ON
Sir Isaac Newton was one of the most influential people in history, the man who laid the groundwork for all of classical mechanics. The story about an apple falling on his head, inspiring him to formulate his theories about gravity, well that’s not quite true. Newton often told the story about observing an apple falling in his mother’s garden and how this made him acutely aware of the Earth’s gravitational pull. However, he made no mention of the apple hitting him on the head.

32. Goes fishing in go fish? : DRAWS
Go Fish a very simple card game, usually played by children.

33. “I am woman, hear me ___” : ROAR
The successful singer Helen Reddy was born in Melbourne, Australia. In 1966, Reddy won a talent contest, and earned herself a trip to New York City for an audition. The 25-year-old single mother decided to stay in the US, and a few years later was able to launch a successful singing career. Her hit song “I Am Woman”, released in 1972, was the first recording by an Australian artist to reach #1 in the US charts.

34. Jet that once made a boom, in brief : SST
The most famous Supersonic Transport (SST) was the Concorde, a plane that’s no longer flying. Concorde had that famous “droop nose”. The nose was moved to the horizontal position during flight to create the optimum aerodynamic shape thereby reducing drag. It was lowered during taxi, takeoff and landing, so that the pilot had better visibility. The need for the droop nose was driven largely by the delta-shaped wings. The delta wing necessitates a higher angle of attack at takeoff and landing than conventional wing designs, so the pilot needed the nose lowered so that he or she could see the ground.

40. Home of Waikiki Beach : OAHU
Waikiki is a neighborhood of Honolulu, home to the famous Waikiki Beach. The name “Waikiki” means “spouting fresh water” in Hawaiian.

41. Badger’s home: Abbr. : WIS
The Wisconsin Badgers are the sports teams of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The state of Wisconsin is nicknamed “the Badger State”. This name came about in the early days of lead mining in the 1800s. The miners would often set up home in the holes they were digging, earning them the nickname “badgers”, leading to the state’s nickname.

43. Employee of TV’s Sterling Cooper & Partners : ADMAN
Sterling Cooper is a fictional Madison Avenue advertising agency featured in the TV show “Mad Men”.

44. Brief 1931 headline? : EDISON IS DONE
Thomas Alva Edison was nicknamed “The Wizard of Menlo Park” by a newspaper reporter, a name that stuck. He was indeed a wizard, in the sense that he was such a prolific inventor. The Menlo Park part of the moniker recognizes the location of his first research lab, in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Edison had 1,093 patents in his name in the US, and 2,332 patents worldwide.

50. Switch positions : ONS
Not only did I have to learn new spellings of words when I moved here from Ireland (here I go, whining again!) but I had to learn that down is the “off” position for a switch most times, and up is the “on” position. It’s exactly the opposite on the other side of the pond. Have I ever told you about the steering wheel position in the car? Aaargh!

51. ___ Lingus : AER
Aer Lingus is my favorite airline! Well, the service isn’t that great, but when I get on board an Aer Lingus plane I feel like I am back in Ireland. Aer Lingus is the national airline of Ireland, with “Aer Lingus” being a phonetic spelling of the Irish “aer-loingeas” meaning “air fleet”. These days Aer Lingus can only lay claim to the title of Ireland’s oldest airline as it is no longer the biggest. That honor goes to the controversial budget airline called Ryanair.

57. Rickman of the Harry Potter films : ALAN
Alan Rickman is a marvelous English actor, famous for playing bad guy Hans Gruber in the original “Die Hard” film, Severus Snape in the “Harry Potter” series and my personal favorite, Eamon de Valera in “Michael Collins”.

58. Where the Carpenters “long to be” in a 1970 #1 hit : CLOSE TO YOU
The Burt Bacharach/Hal David song “(They Long to Be) Close to You” is best known as a 1970 hit for the Carpenters. However, the song was first recorded by Richard Chamberlain, in 1963.

Karen Carpenter was an accomplished drummer, although she only started playing drums in high school, as a member of the school band. After she graduated she started playing jazz with her brother, Richard, and a college friend. Later, she and Richard played with a group called Spectrum, and submitted many demo tapes to recording companies, but all were unsuccessful. Finally, Karen and Richard got a recording contract with A&M Records, and when they had Karen take the lead on their songs, they hit the big time and toured as the Carpenters. Sadly, of course, Karen passed away at only 32-years-old, dying from heart failure brought on by anorexia.

63. “Funeral Blues” poet : AUDEN
The noted poet W. H. Auden was born and raised in England, but eventually became a US citizen. As well as hundreds of poems, Auden also wrote librettos for operas, including Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress”.

W. H. Auden’s poem “Funeral Blues” is also known by its first line “Stop all the clocks”. It garnered a lot of attention in recent years as it features prominently in the movie “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, where it is recited at “the funeral”.

64. Beaver projects : DAMS
Beavers build dams so that they can live in and around the slower and deeper water that builds up above the dam. This deeper water provides more protection for the beavers from predators such as bears. Beavers are nocturnal animals and do all their construction work at night.

66. Historic event on Bikini atoll, briefly : A-TEST
The testing of US nuclear weapons by the US at Bikini Atoll in the middle of 1946 went by the codename “Operation Crossroads”. The tests used A-bombs and were designed to measure the effect of blasts on navy vessels. There were three tests planned, but the third had to be cancelled as the Navy couldn’t decontaminate the ships used in the second test.

67. View from a pew, maybe : APSE
The apse of a church or cathedral is a semicircular recess in an outer wall, usually with a half-dome as a roof and often where there resides an altar. Originally apses were used as burial places for the clergy and also for storage of important relics.

A pew is a bench in a church, usually with a high back. The original pews were raised and sometimes enclosed seats in the church used by women and important men or families. “Pew” comes from the Old French “puie” meaning “balcony, elevation”.

Down
1. Beyoncé, to Solange, or vice versa : SIS
Solange Knowles is a singer/songwriter, and the younger sister of the incredibly successful singer Beyoncé. Solange was in the news recently when security camera footage was released showing her punching and kicking Beyoncé’s husband Jay-Z in an elevator.

2. CBS drama with multiple spinoffs : CSI
The “CSI” franchise of TV shows has been tremendously successful, but seems to be winding down. “CSI: Miami” (the “worst” of the franchise, I think) was cancelled in 2012 after ten seasons. “CSI: NY” (the “best” of the franchise) was cancelled in 2013 after nine seasons. The original “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, set in Las Vegas, is still going strong and has been doing so since 2000.

5. 2013 Sheryl Sandberg best seller : LEAN IN
Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook, having left her position as a vice president with Google. Sandberg is the co-author of a very influential book called “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead”.

6. Steel magnate Carnegie : ANDREW
Andrew Carnegie was an industrialist and philanthropist from Scotland who made his fame and fortune in the US steel industry. He founded the Carnegie Steel Company in 1892, which was destined to become US Steel. After he sold Carnegie Steel, making his fortune, Carnegie devoted the rest of his life to philanthropy. Famously, he built Carnegie Hall in New York, founded Carnegie Mellon University in PIttsburgh, and set up several charitable trust funds that are still doing valuable work today.

7. Bit of praise, in modern usage : KUDO
Our word “kudos” is used to acclaim an exceptional achievement. “Kudos” is not a plural, despite a common misapprehension. It is a singular noun derived from the Greek “kyddos” meaning “glory, fame”.

8. Writer ___ Stanley Gardner : ERLE
I must have read all of the Perry Mason books when I was in college. I think they kept me sane when I was facing the pressure of exams. Author Erle Stanley Gardner was himself a lawyer, although he didn’t get into the profession the easy way. Gardner went to law school, but got himself suspended after a month. So, he became a self-taught attorney and opened his own law office in Merced, California. Understandably, he gave up the law once his novels became successful.

10. Gotham City V.I.P. : BATMAN
Gotham had been a nickname for New York City long before it was picked up by comic books as a setting for Batman tales. The term was coined by Washington Irving in a periodical that he published in 1807. Irving was lampooning New York politics and culture, and lifted the name from the village of Gotham in Nottinghamshire, England. The original Gotham was, according to folklore, inhabited by fools.

13. Busts, as broncos : TAMES
A “bronco” (also “bronc”) is a horse that is untamed. In Mexican Spanish “bronco” is a word for “horse”, and in the original Spanish “bronco” means “rough, rude”.

23. Word of thanks overseas : MERCI
“Thank you” is “merci” in French, and “danke” in German.

29. Clio : history :: ___ : lyric poetry : ERATO
In Greek mythology, the muses are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. The number of muses is a subject of debate at times, but the most popular view is that there are nine:

– Calliope (epic poetry)
– Clio (history)
– Erato (lyric poetry)
– Euterpe (music)
– Melpomene (tragedy)
– Polyhymnia (choral poetry)
– Terpsichore (dance)
– Thalia (comedy)
– Urania (astronomy)

31. You might pick one up in a bar : TAB
When we “run a tab” at a bar say, we are “running a tabulation”, a listing of what we owe. Such a use of “tab” is American slang that originated in the 1880s.

34. Girl Scout cookie with toasted coconut : SAMOA
Depending on which bakery makes the particular variety of Girl Scout cookie, the name can vary. For example, Little Brownie Bakers makes the Samoa cookies, while ABC Bakers uses the same recipe and calls the cookies Caramel Delites. The assumption is that these cookies have the exotic name of “Samoa” because they contain the tropical ingredients of coconut and cocoa.

35. “The L Word” role for Katherine Moennig : SHANE
Katherine Moennig is an actress whose best-known role is Shane McCutcheon on the Showtime drama “The L Word”. Moennig is a cousin of fellow actress Gwyneth Paltrow.

“The L Word” is a Showtime drama series. The show deals with lesbian, bisexual and transgender people living in West Hollywood. “The L word” reference is to “lesbian”.

38. Luau dish : POI
Nowadays the word “luau” denotes almost any kind of party on the Hawaiian Islands, but to the purist a luau is a feast that always includes a serving of “poi”, the bulbous underground stems of taro baked with coconut milk.

39. Part of U.N.L.V. : LAS
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) was established in 1957 as the Southern Division of the University of Nevada, Reno. One of UNLV’s flagship departments is the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, which is consistently ranked as one of the best hotel and hospitality colleges in the nation. I suppose that’s not surprising given the proximity to the Las Vegas Strip.

44. Onetime Disney chief : EISNER
Michael Eisner took over as CEO of the Walt Disney Company in 1984. Eisner has been attributed with turning Disney around, as the company was floundering really since 1966 when Walt Disney died. Eisner had a good run, but ran foul of Walt Disney’s nephew Roy Disney who led a revolt that resulted in Eisner’s resignation in 2005.

48. Pawnshop estimate : VALUE
The tradition sign outside a pawnbroker’s shop consists of three balls. This symbol dates back to the Middle Ages, where it was used on coats of arms as a sign of monetary success. The running joke is that the three balls mean “two to one, you won’t get your stuff back”.

49. Carne ___ (Mexican dish) : ASADA
“Carne Asada” translates from Spanish as “roasted meat”.

53. Org. with eligibility rules : NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When his son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, President Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906, which was given the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS became the NCAA in 1910.

55. Lymph ___ : NODE
Lymph nodes are organs in the lymphatic system that act as “traps” for foreign bodies. As such, lymph nodes have a high concentration of white blood cells, which defend the body by fighting invading bacteria.

56. Root beer, e.g. : SODA
Root beer is a beverage that is very “North American”, as it is rarely found elsewhere in the world. Root beer originated in the 1700s and was made from the root of the sassafras plant. The traditional root beer was a beverage with a very low alcohol content, and of course today there are many versions that contain no alcohol at all. The sassafras root was used as the primary flavor ingredient right up until 1960, when the FDA banned its use as tests determined that it was a carcinogen.

59. Chihuahua sound : YAP
Chihuahua is a state in northern Mexico that shares a border with Texas and New Mexico. Chihuahua is the largest state in the country, so has the nickname “El Estado Grande”. The state takes its name from the Chihuahuan Desert which lies largely within its borders. And of course the Chihuahua breed of dog takes its name from the state.

60. Meditation syllables : OMS
“Om” is a sacred mystic word from the Hindu tradition. “Om” is sometimes used as a mantra, a focus for the mind in meditation.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Alexander Graham Bell, for one : SCOT
5. Places to go fishing : LAKES
10. Asteroid ___ : BELT
14. Cay : ISLE
15. Harden (to) : ENURE
16. Region : AREA
17. One way to ride a horse : SIDESADDLE
19. Vegas hotel transport : TRAM
20. Brief 1831 headline? : MONROE NO MORE
22. Museum’s ends? : EMS
25. Golf ball’s position : LIE
26. Mends, as socks : DARNS
27. Brief 1727 headline? : NEWTON WENT ON
32. Goes fishing in go fish? : DRAWS
33. “I am woman, hear me ___” : ROAR
34. Jet that once made a boom, in brief : SST
37. Prefix with -genarian : OCTO-
38. Alternative if things don’t work out : PLAN B
40. Home of Waikiki Beach : OAHU
41. Badger’s home: Abbr. : WIS
42. Castle protection : MOAT
43. Employee of TV’s Sterling Cooper & Partners : ADMAN
44. Brief 1931 headline? : EDISON IS DONE
47. Take advantage (of) : AVAIL
50. Switch positions : ONS
51. ___ Lingus : AER
52. Secretive classroom activity … or what 20-, 27- and 44-Across are anagrammatic examples of? : PASSING NOTES
57. Rickman of the Harry Potter films : ALAN
58. Where the Carpenters “long to be” in a 1970 #1 hit : CLOSE TO YOU
62. Ill-mannered : RUDE
63. “Funeral Blues” poet : AUDEN
64. Beaver projects : DAMS
65. Drop of melodrama? : TEAR
66. Historic event on Bikini atoll, briefly : A-TEST
67. View from a pew, maybe : APSE

Down
1. Beyoncé, to Solange, or vice versa : SIS
2. CBS drama with multiple spinoffs : CSI
3. Superannuated : OLD
4. Be overflowing : TEEM
5. 2013 Sheryl Sandberg best seller : LEAN IN
6. Steel magnate Carnegie : ANDREW
7. Bit of praise, in modern usage : KUDO
8. Writer ___ Stanley Gardner : ERLE
9. Witnessed : SEEN
10. Gotham City V.I.P. : BATMAN
11. Bobble or fumble : ERROR
12. Get smart : LEARN
13. Busts, as broncos : TAMES
18. Arias, e.g. : SOLOS
21. Disinfectant target : ODOR
22. Set up, as a chair : ENDOW
23. Word of thanks overseas : MERCI
24. Hits a fly, say : SWATS
28. “Terrible” age : TWO
29. Clio : history :: ___ : lyric poetry : ERATO
30. Fictional opening? : NON-
31. You might pick one up in a bar : TAB
34. Girl Scout cookie with toasted coconut : SAMOA
35. “The L Word” role for Katherine Moennig : SHANE
36. Piano man, maybe : TUNER
38. Luau dish : POI
39. Part of U.N.L.V. : LAS
40. Not even : ODD
42. The year 1551 : MDLI
43. It’s a plus : ASSET
44. Onetime Disney chief : EISNER
45. Old West “neckties” : NOOSES
46. Something to be proven in a criminal case : INTENT
47. In different places : APART
48. Pawnshop estimate : VALUE
49. Carne ___ (Mexican dish) : ASADA
53. Org. with eligibility rules : NCAA
54. Fill to excess : GLUT
55. Lymph ___ : NODE
56. Root beer, e.g. : SODA
59. Chihuahua sound : YAP
60. Meditation syllables : OMS
61. Find a purpose for : USE

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