0613-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 13 Jun 14, Friday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Family guy : MADE MAN
In the Mafia, a “made man” is a fully initiated member. A made man may also be called a goodfella or a wiseguy.

17. 1974 #1 hit written by Bob Marley : I SHOT THE SHERIFF
Bob Marley is the most widely known reggae performer, with big hits such as “I Shot the Sheriff”, “Woman, No Cry” and “One Love”. A little sadly perhaps, Marley’s best selling album was released three years after he died. That album would be the “legendary” album called “Legend”.

19. Brat’s place : DELI
A bratwurst (sometimes “brat” in the US) is a German sausage.

20. With 24-Across, “The Pianist” star : ADRIEN
24. See 20-Across : BRODY
Adrian Brody won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in the Roman Polanski masterpiece “The Piano”. He won the award in 2003 at the age of 29, making him the youngest person ever to receive the Best Actor Oscar.

“The Pianist” is a memoir of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish musician of Jewish heritage and a survivor of the Holocaust. The memoir was not written by Szpilman himself, but by author Jerzy Waldorff who interviewed him and became his friend. The memoir was first published in 1946 in Poland under the title “Death of a City”, but lay unnoticed for decades. It was republished in English in 1998 under the title “The Pianist”, and became widely read. Roman Polanski then directed a 2002 screen version using “The Pianist” as a title. Sadly, Szpilman died during the making of the film and never saw the great success the movie achieved, including three Academy Awards.

25. Common shower garment : ONESIE
A “onesie” is a baby’s bodysuit, and is a common gift at a baby shower.

29. First name in westerns : ZANE
Zane Grey certainly did hit on the right niche. He wrote romanticized western novels and stories that really lent themselves to the big screen in the days when westerns were very popular movies. Incredibly, 110 films were made based on his work.

30. Conditioning apparatus : SKINNER BOX
A Skinner box is a piece of laboratory apparatus that is used in the study of animal behavior. Also known as an operant conditioning chamber, the box is used to train animals to perform specific actions in response to various stimuli. Press a button, get some food, that kind of thing. The apparatus was invented by Harvard psychologist B. F. Skinner, hence the name.

35. Once-common commercial fuel : COAL GAS
The gas supplied to homes and businesses in North America up to the 1940s and 1950s was made from coal, and was called “coal gas”. Coal gas was then replaced with natural gas.

37. Extremely long string : GOOGOLPLEX
A “googol” is 10 raised to the power of 100. The term “googol” was coined by the nine-year-old nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner. The uncle had asked the boy to come up with an interesting name for “a very large number”. Kasner then came up with the name “googleplex”, which he defined as 1 followed by as many zeros one could write before getting tired. He later refined to definition of a googolplex to be 10 to the power of a googol. And yes, the search called “Google” is a deliberate misspelling of “googol”, and Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California is called the Googleplex, a similar deliberate misspelling.

39. ___ Robles, Calif. : PASO
Paso Robles is a lovely little city in San Luis Obispo County, California. Paso Robles is home to many, many wineries. The name Paso Robles translates from Spanish as “The Pass of the Oaks”.

40. Like some symmetry : RADIAL
Radial symmetry is seen in a number of animals and plants. The result is that slices through several planes produce two identical pieces. Examples would be jellyfish and sea stars from the animal kingdom, and many flowers from the plant kingdom.

41. Congolese, e.g. : BANTU
Swahili is one of the many Bantu languages spoken in Africa. There are hundreds of Bantu languages, mainly spoken in central, east and southern Africa. The most commonly spoken Bantu language is Swahili, with Zulu coming in second.

“Congolese” is more correctly referred to as the Kongo language.

42. Word menu option? : ROGET
Peter Mark Roget was an English lexicographer. Roget was an avid maker of lists, apparently using the routine of list-making to combat depression, a condition he endured for most of his life. He published his famous thesaurus in 1852, with revisions and expansions being made years later by his son, and then in turn by his grandson.

46. Khloé Kardashian’s married name : ODOM
Lamar Odom is a basketball forward playing for the LA Clippers. Apparently Odom loves candy, and that’s how he earned his nickname, “The Candy Man”. Odom is married to Khloé Kardashian, and the couple’s wedding featured on an episode of the reality show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”. Not a show that I have ever seen …

47. Like St. Catherine : SIENESE
Saint Catherine of Siena was politically active in 14th-century Italy. Over time, she became influential in high places, and helped to bring peace among the Italian city-states. She frequently corresponded with Pope Gregory XI, whose papacy was based in Avignon in France. Some say that Catherine actually persuaded Gregory to move the papacy back to Rome. Catherine of Siena is one of Italy’s two patron saints, along with Saint Francis of Assisi.

51. Rapper with the 2009 hit “Kiss Me Thru the Phone” : SOULJA BOY TELL ‘EM
Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em is a rapper. “Soulja Boy” is a stage name (duh!). His real name is DeAndre Cortez Way.

58. World of DC Comics : KRYPTON
Superman was sent to Earth in a rocket as a child by his parents who were living on the doomed planet of Krypton. On Earth he was discovered by the Jonathan and Martha Kent, farmers who lived near the fictional town of Smallville. The Kents raised the infant as their own, giving him the name Clark.

Down
1. Sprint competitor, once : MCI
MCI was a giant telecom company that suffered a similar fate to Enron, and around about the same time. MCI’s stock price fell in 2000 and in maneuvers designed to protect the price, the company committed illegal acts. The larger-than-life CEO back then, Bernie Ebbers, is now serving a 25-year sentence in Louisiana.

The modern Sprint Corporation, a giant in the telecommunications industry, can trace its roots back to the Brown Telephone Company which was founded in 1899. C.L. and Jacob Brown created their company to provide a telephone service to the rural parts around the city of Abilene, Kansas.

2. Physical reactions? : AHS
During a physical examination by a doctor, one might be asked to open wide and say “ah”.

3. “I’m such a fool!” : D’OH!
“The Simpsons” is one of the most successful programs produced by the Fox Broadcasting Company. Homer Simpson’s catchphrase is “D’oh!”, which is such a famous exclamation that it has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) since 2001.

4. Deforestation, e.g. : ECOCIDE
The term “ecocide” is used for deliberate destruction of the natural environment, especially because of pollution or war.

6. TV foodie Brown : ALTON
Alton Brown is a celebrity chef who is behind the Food Network show “Good Eats”, and the host of “Iron Chef America”.

8. Rail construction : NEST
Rails are birds of the family Rallidae (hence their name). Outside of America, the name “rail” tends to be reserved for long-billed specie and the the term “crake” is used for short-billed species.

12. Steinbeck have-nots : OKIES
“Okies” was a derogatory term used during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s for farming families who migrated from Oklahoma (hence the name), Arkansas, Kansas and Texas in search of agricultural jobs in California. The road used by many of these migrant families was Route 66, which is also called “Mother Road”.

John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” is set during the Great Depression. The novel tells the story of the Joad family from Oklahoma, farmers who had to leave their home and head for California due to economic hardship.

14. Fermented milk drink : KEFIR
Kefir is a fermented milk drink that originated in the Caucasus region of Eurasia.

16. Souvenir shop purchase : TEE
A “souvenir” is a memento, a token of remembrance. We imported the word from French, in which language it has the same meaning. The term comes from the Latin “subvenire” meaning “to come to mind”, or literally “to come up”.

20. Feminist with the 1984 book “Gender Gap” : ABZUG
Bella Abzug was one of the leader’s of the Women’s Movement that founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. She was elected to the US Congress the same year, helped by a famous campaign slogan “This woman’s place is in the House – the House of Representatives”.

21. Product under a sink : DRANO
To clean out drains we might buy Crystal Drano which is sodium hydroxide (lye) mixed with sodium nitrate, sodium chloride (table salt) and aluminum. The contents of Drano work in concert to clear the clog. The lye reacts with any fats creating soap which may be enough to break up the clog. Also, the finely-divided aluminum reacts with water creating tremendous heat so that that mixture boils and churns, then any hair or fibers are cut by the sharp edges of the nitrate and chloride crystals. Having said all that, I find that boiling water poured down the drain almost always does the job …

22. Dial-O-Matic maker : RONCO
Ronco is a company the builds and sells products mainly for the kitchen. Over the years the company has been closely associated with the “-O-Matic” suffix, especially the “Veg-O-Matic” vegetable slicer.

23. ___ van der Rohe : MIES
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect who was routinely referred to simply as “Mies”. I am a philistine, I know, but Mies’ buildings look very plain to me. However, he did come up with two far-from-plain sayings: “less is more” and “God is in the details”.

25. Animal whose tongue is more than a foot long : OKAPI
The okapi is closely related to the giraffe, although it does have markings on its legs and haunches that resemble those of a zebra. The okapi’s tongue is long enough to reach back and wash its eyeballs (eek!), and can go back even further to clean its ears inside and out.

26. Brand that’s a shortened description of its flavor : NILLA
As one might expect, Nilla is a shortened from of “vanilla”. However, you won’t find any vanilla in Nilla cookies or wafers. They have always been flavored with vanillin, which is synthetic vanilla. Is nothing sacred …?

27. Topper of der Tannenbaum : ENGEL
In German, there might be an angel (Engel) on top of a fir tree (Tannenbaum) at Christmas.

30. “Storage Wars” cry : SOLD!
“Storage Wars” is a reality TV show about buyers looking for great deals when storage lockers are opened due to non-payment of rent.

31. Scrabble player’s asset : BLANK
The game of Scrabble has been produced in many international versions, and each of these editions has its own tile distribution to suit the local language. For example, in English we have two tiles worth ten points: one “Q” and one “Z”. If you play the game in French then there are five tiles worth ten points: one “K”, one “W”, one “X”, one “Y” and one “Z”.

32. Durango direction : OESTE
In Spanish, one direction is west (oeste).

Durango is one of the 31 states of Mexico. Durango is landlocked, and is located in the northwest of the country.

38. Scapegoat for many a failure : GREMLIN
Gremlins are mythical creatures deemed to be responsible for failure of some system or machine. The myth was popularized in the RAF during WWII, with gremlins being accused of sabotaging aircraft.

42. Día de San Valentín bouquet : ROSAS
In Spanish, a lady might receive a bouquet of roses (rosas) on St. Valentine’s Day (Día de San Valentín).

Saint Valentine’s Day was chosen by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD to honor various martyrs with the name Valentine. However, the saints’ day was dropped by the Catholic church in 1969, by Pope Paul VI. Try telling that to Hallmark though …

43. Lefty out in left field : O’DOUL
Lefty O’Doul was from San Francisco. He owned a restaurant in the city that bears his name and which still operates today (near Union Square). There’s a bridge near AT&T Park, the Giant’s relatively new ballpark, that’s called Lefty O’Doul Bridge.

44. Cheese burg? : GOUDA
Gouda is a cheese that originated in the Dutch city of the same name, although today Gouda is produced all over the world and very little of it comes from the Netherlands. Gouda is often smoke-cured, given it a yellowish-brown outer skin and that characteristic smoky taste.

“Burg” is an informal term used in the US for a smaller town, from the German word “burg” meaning a fortified city.

48. Term paper abbr. : IBID
Ibid. is short for the Latin word “ibidem” and is typically found in footnotes and bibliographies. Ibid. is used to refer the reader to the prior citation, instead of giving the same information all over again (title, author etc.).

49. Canon shooter : EOS
I’ve been using Canon EOS cameras for decades now, and have nothing but good things to say about the cameras and the lenses. The EOS name stands for Electro-Optical System, and was chosen because it evokes the name of Eos, the Titan goddess of dawn from Greek mythology.

50. Stooge syllable : NYUK!
If you’ve seen a few of the films starring “The Three Stooges” you’ll have noticed that the line up changed over the years. The original trio was made up of Moe and Shemp Howard (two brothers) and Larry Fine (a good friend of the Howards). This line up was usually known as “Moe, Larry and Shemp”. Then Curly Howard replaced his brother when Shemp quit the act, creating the most famous trio, “Moe, Larry And Curly”. Shemp returned when Curly had a debilitating stroke in 1946, and Shemp stayed with the troupe until he died in 1955. Shemp was replaced by Joe Besser, and then “Curly-Joe” DeRita. When Larry Fine had a stroke in 1970, it effectively marked the end of the act.

52. Insignificant amount : JOT
A “jot” is something very small, from the Latin “jota”, which in turn is from the Greek “iota”, the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet.

53. Blitzed : LIT
“Blitzed” and “lit” are slang terms for “drunk”.

54. Japan’s ___ Castle : EDO
Edo is the former name of the Japanese city of Tokyo. Edo was the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime that ruled from 1603 until 1868. The shogun lived in the magnificent Edo castle. Some parts of the original castle remain and today’s Tokyo Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor of Japan, was built on its grounds.

55. ___ Explorer : MSN
MSN Explorer is a special form of the Internet Explorer web browser that integrates MSN and Windows Live.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Family guy : MADE MAN
8. Create some ties : NETWORK
15. It often has chips : CHOCOLATE COOKIE
17. 1974 #1 hit written by Bob Marley : I SHOT THE SHERIFF
18. Almost equaling : CLOSE TO
19. Brat’s place : DELI
20. With 24-Across, “The Pianist” star : ADRIEN
23. Unlikely donor : MISER
24. See 20-Across : BRODY
25. Common shower garment : ONESIE
29. First name in westerns : ZANE
30. Conditioning apparatus : SKINNER BOX
34. Family guy, affectionately : UNC
35. Once-common commercial fuel : COAL GAS
36. Skippered : LED
37. Extremely long string : GOOGOLPLEX
39. ___ Robles, Calif. : PASO
40. Like some symmetry : RADIAL
41. Congolese, e.g. : BANTU
42. Word menu option? : ROGET
45. Criminal activity : RACKET
46. Khloé Kardashian’s married name : ODOM
47. Like St. Catherine : SIENESE
51. Rapper with the 2009 hit “Kiss Me Thru the Phone” : SOULJA BOY TELL ‘EM
56. Classroom films, e.g. : AUDIOVISUAL AIDS
57. Like opinion pieces : SLANTED
58. World of DC Comics : KRYPTON

Down
1. Sprint competitor, once : MCI
2. Physical reactions? : AHS
3. “I’m such a fool!” : D’OH!
4. Deforestation, e.g. : ECOCIDE
5. Assorted : MOTLEY
6. TV foodie Brown : ALTON
7. Informal rejections : NAHS
8. Rail construction : NEST
9. Say again : ECHO
10. Nail site : TOE
11. Less direct, say : WORDIER
12. Steinbeck have-nots : OKIES
13. It can kick back : RIFLE
14. Fermented milk drink : KEFIR
16. Souvenir shop purchase : TEE
20. Feminist with the 1984 book “Gender Gap” : ABZUG
21. Product under a sink : DRANO
22. Dial-O-Matic maker : RONCO
23. ___ van der Rohe : MIES
25. Animal whose tongue is more than a foot long : OKAPI
26. Brand that’s a shortened description of its flavor : NILLA
27. Topper of der Tannenbaum : ENGEL
28. Munchies, in ads : SNAX
30. “Storage Wars” cry : SOLD!
31. Scrabble player’s asset : BLANK
32. Durango direction : OESTE
33. Unlisted? : X’D OUT
35. Dog breed distinction : COAT
38. Scapegoat for many a failure : GREMLIN
39. Driver’s warm-up : PACE LAP
41. In a vulgar way : BASELY
42. Día de San Valentín bouquet : ROSAS
43. Lefty out in left field : O’DOUL
44. Cheese burg? : GOUDA
45. Fix, as some roofs : RETAR
47. Stat for a pitcher : SAVE
48. Term paper abbr. : IBID
49. Canon shooter : EOS
50. Stooge syllable : NYUK!
52. Insignificant amount : JOT
53. Blitzed : LIT
54. Japan’s ___ Castle : EDO
55. ___ Explorer : MSN

Return to top of page

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