0622-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 22 Jun 14, Sunday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Elizabeth C. Gorski
THEME: Dime Store … today’s rebus puzzle contains ten squares with a “cent” symbol (‘CI” in my grid … apologies). We use this symbol as a letter “I” in the crossing down-answer. We use it as a letter “C” in the across-answer. Note that the cent sign also starts the letter string CENT in the across answers:

96A. Total value of the symbols created by the special crossings in this puzzle : TEN CENTS

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 24m 46s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

20. River that drains the western Pyrenees : EBRO
The Ebro is the longest river in Spain. The river was known by the Romans as the Iber, and it is the “Iber” river that gives the “Iberian” Peninsula its name.

21. Hersey’s “A Bell for ___” : ADANO
“A Bell for Adano” is a novel written by John Hersey. Hersey’s story is about an Italian-American US Army officer, Major Joppolo, who found a replacement for a town’s bell stolen by fascists. “A Bell for Adano” was made into a film in 1945, the same year the novel won a Pulitzer.

22. “House of Frankenstein” director ___ C. Kenton : ERLE
Erle Kenton was a film director from Norbro, Montana. Kenton directed 131 films between 1916 and 1957, including “The Ghost of Frankenstein”, “House of Frankenstein” and “House of Dracula”.

23. 2014, for Doublemint gum : CENTENNIAL
Doublemint is a variety of chewing that was launched by Wrigley way back in 1914. Famously, Wrigley’s used twins in their advertising as spokespersons, starting in 1956.

25. Mexican president of the early 2000s : VICENTE FOX
Vicente Fox was President of Mexico from 2000 to 2006.

28. Tyler Perry, to Katy Perry, e.g. : NO RELATION
Tyler Perry is an actor best known for playing “Madea”, a character that Perry plays in drag.

Katy Perry is an American singer who grew up listening to and singing gospel music, as she was the daughter of two Christian pastors. In fact, her first musical release was a gospel album in 2001. She has branched out since then. Her first successful single was “Ur so Gay”, followed by “I Kissed A Girl”. She was married (only for a year) to the British comedian Russell Brand until 2012.

44. Like mother-of-pearl : IRIDESCENT
Mother-of-pearl is another name for nacre. Nacre is the strong iridescent material laid down by some mollusks on the inside of their shells, and it’s also what makes up pearls. The creature lays down nacre as a defensive mechanism, protecting the soft tissue of its body from the rough surface of the outer shell. Similarly, it uses nacre to encapsulate harmful debris or a parasite that penetrates the shell, and that’s how a pearl is formed.

46. When repeated, White Rabbit’s cry : I’M LATE!
The White Rabbit is a character who appears at the very start of Lewis Carroll’s novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. Alice sees the White Rabbit checking his watch and mumbling “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” Alice then follows him down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland.

49. ___ souci (carefree) : SANS
“Sans souci” is a French term that translates literally as “without worry”, so we use it to mean “carefree”.

50. White-crested ducks : SMEWS
The smew is a beautiful-looking species of duck found right across northern Europe and Asia.

53. Former political divs. : SSRS
The former Soviet Union (USSR) was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the Tsar. Geographically, the new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent to the old Russian Empire, and was comprised of fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs).

54. Car ad fig. : MPG
Miles per gallon (mpg)

55. Country whose name is an anagram of another country’s capital : MALI
The Republic of Mali is a landlocked country in western Africa, south of Algeria. The country’s most famous city is … Timbuktu.

Lima is the capital city of Peru. Lima was founded in 1535 by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, who named it “la Ciudad de los Reyes” (the City of Kings). He chose this name because the decision to found the city was made on January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany that commemorates the visit of the three kings to Jesus in Bethlehem.

63. Podiatrist’s concern : TARSI
The tarsals (also “tarsi”) are the ankle bones, equivalent to the carpals in the wrist.

65. Southern university whose newspaper is the Hullabaloo : TULANE
Tulane University is a private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Tulane was founded in 1834 as the Medical College of Louisiana. The university was privatized with the aid of an endowment from philanthropist Paul Tulane in 1884, and as a result the school’s name was changed to Tulane University.

73. Butler of book or film : RHETT
In Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind”, when Rhett Butler finally walks out on Scarlett O’Hara he utters the words “My dear, I don’t give a damn”. Most of us are more familiar with the slightly different words spoken by Clark Gable in the film adaption of the story: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

78. “Dies ___” : IRAE
“Dies Irae” is Latin for “Day of Wrath”. It is the name of a famous melody in Gregorian Chant, one that is often used as part of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass.

86. “Foreign Affairs” author Alison : LURIE
Alison Lurie is an American novelist. Lurie won a Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for her novel “Foreign Affairs”. Three of her works have been adapted for television: “The War Between the Tates”, “Imaginary Friends” and “Foreign Affairs”.

89. Blood-typing letters : ABO
The most important grouping of blood types is the ABO system. Blood is classified as either A, B, AB or O, depending on the type of antigens on the surface of the red blood cells. A secondary designation of blood is the Rh factor, in which other antigens are labelled as either positive or negative. When a patient receives a blood transfusion, ideally the donor blood should be the same type as that of the recipient, as incompatible blood cells can be rejected. However, blood type O-neg can be accepted by recipients with all blood types, A, B, AB or O, and positive or negative. Hence someone with O-neg blood type is called a “universal donor”.

100. “___ has no age”: Picasso : YOUTH
Pablo Picasso’s full name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, a name he was given right from birth. Got that?

111. Opus ___ : DEI
Opus Dei is Roman Catholic institution that was founded in Spain in 1928, and officially approved by the church in 1950. In 2010, Opus Dei had over 90,000 members, mostly lay people. The institution’s mission is to promote certain aspects of the Roman Catholic doctrine. Opus Dei was portrayed as a sinister organization by Dan Brown in his novel “The Da Vinci Code”.

118. Mythological subject of a Michelangelo painting : LEDA
In Greek mythology, Leda was the beautiful Queen of Sparta who was seduced by Zeus when he took the form of a swan. Leda produced two eggs from the union. One egg hatched into the beautiful Helen, later to be known as Helen of Troy and over whom the Trojan War was fought. The other egg hatched into the twins Castor and Pollux. Castor and Pollux had different fathers according to the myth. Pollux was the son of Zeus and was immortal, while Castor was the son of Leda’s earthly husband, and so he was a mortal. William Butler Yeats wrote a famous sonnet called “Leda and the Swan” in 1924. Peter Paul Rubens made a copy of a painting called “Leda and the Swan” by Michelangelo, which is now lost.

120. Of Peter O’Toole’s eight Oscar nominations, how many he won : NONE
Irish actor Peter O’Toole got his big break in movies when he played the title role in the 1962 epic film “Lawrence of Arabia”. But my favorite of O’Toole’s movies is much lighter fare, namely “How to Steal a Million” in which he stars opposite Audrey Hepburn.

122. Broadway singer Linda : EDER
Linda Eder is a singer and actress. She came to public attention when she won the television talent show “Star Search” for a record 13 weeks in a row. I’ve never heard of her. I know, I lead a sheltered life …

Down
4. German direction : OST
“Ost” is German for “east”.

5. Agatha Christie mystery setting : THE NILE
Agatha Christie wrote a very successful crime novel called “Death on the Nile” that was first published in 1937. That novel had started off life as a play, which was was never performed, one that Christie called “Moon on the Nile”. Christie then adapted the novel back into a play again calling it “Murder on the Nile”, which opened in London in 1946.

7. Theater award : OBIE
The Obies are the “Off-Broadway Theater Awards”. The Obies are presented annually and the recipients are chosen by “The Village Voice” newspaper.

9. Film legend Negri : POLA
Pola Negri was a Polish actress, the first star to be invited from Europe to develop a career in Hollywood. Most of her success came in the silent era, but she was able to make the transition to the talkies. Her off-screen life attracted the attention of the gossip columnists who rejoiced in her affairs with the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino.

12. Percocet, for one : PAIN PILL
Percocet is a trade name for the drug combination of oxycodone and paracetamol.

13. Suffix with ethyl : -ENE
Ethylene (also called ethene) has a gazillion uses, including as an anesthetic and an aid to hastening the ripening of fruit. It’s most common use though is as a major raw material in the manufacture of plastics (like polyethylene).

18. Message with an emoji, maybe : TEXT
An emoji is a character found on many cell phones now that is like an emoticon, but more elaborate.

24. Bright stars : NOVAS
A nova is basically a star that suddenly gets much brighter, gradually returning to its original state weeks or even years later. The increased brightness of a nova is due to increased nuclear activity causing the star to pick up extra hydrogen from a neighboring celestial body. A supernova is very different from a nova. A supernova is a very bright burst of light and energy created when most of the material in a star explodes. The bright burst of a supernova is very short-lived compared to the sustained brightness of a nova.

26. “Così Fan ___” : TUTTE
Mozart’s comic opera “Così fan tutte” is also known in English as “The School for Lovers”. The literal translation of the opera’s title is “Thus do all (women)”, or “Women are like that”.

29. Summer weather stat. : THI
Temperature-humidity index (THI)

32. Dangerous units : RADS
A rad is a unit used to measure radiation levels that is largely obsolete now. The rad has been superseded by the rem.

35. Crawler on an M. C. Escher Möbius strip : ANT
M. C. Escher was a graphic artist from the Netherlands. Escher was noted for creating works inspired by mathematics, often works that were physical impossibilities. ONe famous such works is “Drawing Hands” (1948) in which a pair of hands emerge from a piece of paper and actually draw themselves. He also created a drawing in which a group of red ants are crawling around a Möbius strip, never reaching the end.

A Möbius strip is a surface that has only one side. One is easily made by taking a strip of paper and joining the ends together, but with a twist so that it isn’t a regular “band”.

45. Town on the south shore of Long Island : ISLIP
The town of Islip is on the south shore of Long Island. It is home to Islip Airport, now known as Long Island MacArthur Airport, used by many as a viable alternative to JFK and LaGuardia.

47. Reagan attorney general : MEESE
Ed Meese was born in Oakland, California just down the road here and spent 24 years in the office of the Treasurer of Alameda County, the county in which I live. After military service, Meese earned himself a law degree at UC Berkeley. Later, as Chief of Staff for President Reagan, he was instrumental in a famous decision to crack down on student protesters at Berkeley which resulted in one protester dying and a two-week occupation of the city by the California National Guard.

51. “___ man walks into a bar …” : SO A
So a man walks into a bar and says to the bartender, “Give me 12 shots of your most expensive Tequila!” The bartender pours the shots and lines them up. The guy starts shooting them back really quickly, one right after another. The bartender says in shock, “Why are you drinking those so fast?!” The guy stops long enough to get out a few words, “You would drink these fast too, if you had what I have” Confused, the bartender asks, “Why? what do you have?” The guy says, “About four dollars” …

53. Youngest-ever French Open winner, 1990 : SELES
Monica Seles has a Hungarian name as she was born to Hungarian parents in former Yugoslavia. Seles was the World No. 1 professional tennis player in 1991 and 1992 before being forced from the sport when she was stabbed by a spectator at a match in 1993. She did return to the game two years later, but never achieved the same level of success.

60. Formal reply to “Who’s there?” : IT IS I
The much debated statement “it is I” is actually grammatically correct, and should not be “corrected” to “it is me”. Traditionally, pronouns following linking verbs, such as “is”, “appear” and “seem”, are written in the nominative case. Examples are:

– It is I (who called)
– It was he (who did it)
– It is we (who care)

61. Snookered : DUPED
The use of the word “snooker” to mean “to cheat” has been used since the early 1900s. The term probably took on that connotation as it’s relatively easy to trick someone who is new to the game of snooker.

69. Starts : SHIES
“To shy” is to move suddenly if startled.

71. Actress who co-starred in “The Lincoln Lawyer” : TOMEI
Marisa Tomei’s first screen role was in “As the World Turns”, but her break came with a recurring role in “The Cosby Show” spinoff, “A Different World”. Tomei won an Oscar for her delightful performance in “My Cousin Vinny” in 1992.

“The Lincoln Lawyer” is a novel by author Michael Connelly that was made into a 2011 film of the same name starring Matthew McConaughey in the title role.

74. Chess champ Mikhail : TAL
Mikhail Tal was truly a chess legend. Tal holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak in competition chess. And the second longest winning streak, well, that was by Tal as well.

80. Hillary Clinton’s domain, once: Abbr. : STATE DEPT
When Hillary Rodham Clinton was appointed US Secretary of State, she became the first former First Lady to serve in a president’s cabinet. Hillary met her husband, President Bill Clinton, when the two were studying at Yale law school.

85. Times table? : MASTHEAD
The masthead is a list often found on the editorial page of a newspaper that gives the members of a newspaper’s editorial board.

87. Abbr. in many an officer’s title : RET
Retired (ret.)

88. N.B.A. coach Jackson and others : STUS
Stu Jackson is a former NBA head coach. Jackson worked with the New York Knicks and the Vancouver Grizzlies in the nineties.

91. Year in Madrid : ANO
Madrid is the largest city in Spain and the capital. Madrid is located very close to the geographical center of the country. It is the third-largest city in the European Union (after London and Paris). People from Madrid called themselves Madrileños.

99. Make bigger: Abbr. : ENL
Enlarge (enl.)

103. Craving : JONES
Back in the late 60s, “Jones” was a slang term for an intense desire or an addiction. This usage probably came from an earlier meaning for “Jones” as a synonym for “heroin”. The etymology of the heroin meaning is very unclear.

108. Funny Fey : TINA
Comic actress Tina Fey has a scar on her face a few inches long on her left cheek, which I was shocked to learn was caused by a childhood “slashing” incident. When she was just five years old and playing in the front yard of her house, someone just came up to her and slashed her with a knife. How despicable!

109. Certain co. plans : HMOS
Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

110. Informant : FINK
A “fink” is an informer, someone who rats out his cohorts.

114. Pan Am rival : TWA
Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a big carrier in the US, but was perhaps even more recognized for its extensive presence in Europe and the Middle East. For many years, especially after the collapse of Pan Am, TWA was considered the unofficial flag carrier for the US. The company started in 1930, the product of a forced merger of Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express. The Transcontinental and Western Air that resulted (the original meaning of the acronym TWA) was what the Postmaster General wanted, a bigger airline to which the Postal Service could award airmail contracts.

Pan Am started out as a mail and passenger service between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba in 1927. From very early in the company’s life it was the de facto representative air carrier of the United States. For many years Pan Am’s fleet was built around the Boeing 314 Clipper, a long-range flying boat that was one of the largest aircraft around at the time. Pan Am adopted the Clipper as part of its image, even using “clipper” as the call sign for its flights.

117. Actor McKellen : IAN
Sir Ian McKellen is a marvelous English actor, someone who is comfortable playing anything from Macbeth on stage to Magneto in an “X-Men” movie. On the big screen, McKellen is very famous for playing Gandalf in “The Lord of Rings”. In the UK Sir Ian is noted for being at the forefront of the campaign for equal rights for gay people, a role he has enthusiastically embraced since the eighties.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Letter-shaped opening in a machine shop : T-SLOT
6. Sticky stuff : GOOP
10. Mature : RIPEN
15. Not playing with a full deck : DAFT
19. Goonlike : APISH
20. River that drains the western Pyrenees : EBRO
21. Hersey’s “A Bell for ___” : ADANO
22. “House of Frankenstein” director ___ C. Kenton : ERLE
23. 2014, for Doublemint gum : CENTENNIAL
25. Mexican president of the early 2000s : VICENTE FOX
27. Triangle part : LEG
28. Tyler Perry, to Katy Perry, e.g. : NO RELATION
30. Churning, as the stomach : UPSET
31. Draw (from) : DERIVE
33. Kitchenette cooker : HOTPLATE
36. Happy refrain : TRA-LA
37. One with home protection? : SNAIL
40. Middle-of-the-road : CENTRIST
44. Like mother-of-pearl : IRIDESCENT
46. When repeated, White Rabbit’s cry : I’M LATE!
48. Nonalcoholic brew : TEA
49. ___ souci (carefree) : SANS
50. White-crested ducks : SMEWS
52. Game in a forest : ELK
53. Former political divs. : SSRS
54. Car ad fig. : MPG
55. Country whose name is an anagram of another country’s capital : MALI
57. Part of i.o.u. : I OWE
59. Extra wager : SIDE BET
62. Took for booking : RAN IN
63. Podiatrist’s concern : TARSI
65. Southern university whose newspaper is the Hullabaloo : TULANE
66. Several days ago, say : RECENT PAST
70. Bugs that technically are misnamed : CENTIPEDES
72. Burn up : ENRAGE
73. Butler of book or film : RHETT
75. Prepares to be shot : POSES
76. Suggest : PROPOSE
78. “Dies ___” : IRAE
79. In : AMID
80. ___-pitch : SLO
83. Mountains have developed over them : EONS
84. Soul: Fr. : AME
86. “Foreign Affairs” author Alison : LURIE
88. Whoop-de-do : STIR
89. Blood-typing letters : ABO
90. Bully : HARASS
93. Agent’s cut : PERCENTAGE
96. Total value of the symbols created by the special crossings in this puzzle : TEN CENTS
98. Doctor’s orders : TESTS
100. “___ has no age”: Picasso : YOUTH
101. Sand, maybe : SMOOTHEN
103. Fast crowd : JET SET
104. Floored : IN AWE
107. Flaxseed or quinoa, e.g. : HEALTH FOOD
111. Opus ___ : DEI
113. Something square to eat? : DECENT MEAL
116. Defendant’s cry : I’M INNOCENT!
118. Mythological subject of a Michelangelo painting : LEDA
119. Hair extension : WEAVE
120. Of Peter O’Toole’s eight Oscar nominations, how many he won : NONE
121. Scruffs : NAPES
122. Broadway singer Linda : EDER
123. Venomous snake : ADDER
124. Cries (for) : ASKS
125. One for the books : ENTRY

Down
1. Dangerous part of an alligator : TAIL
2. Where many tickets are distributed : SPEED TRAP
3. Not going away : LINGERING
4. German direction : OST
5. Agatha Christie mystery setting : THE NILE
6. Type : GENRE
7. Theater award : OBIE
8. Kind of fixation : ORAL
9. Film legend Negri : POLA
10. Entree item with crimped edges : RAVIOLI
11. Chowderhead : IDIOT
12. Percocet, for one : PAIN PILL
13. Suffix with ethyl : -ENE
14. Partisan leader? : NON-
15. More profound : DEEPER
16. Pounds’ sounds : ARFS
17. Moving ice : FLOE
18. Message with an emoji, maybe : TEXT
24. Bright stars : NOVAS
26. “Così Fan ___” : TUTTE
29. Summer weather stat. : THI
32. Dangerous units : RADS
34. Blabs, say : LEAKS
35. Crawler on an M. C. Escher Möbius strip : ANT
37. It may be a credit to you : SEMINAR
38. Mobile-to-Birmingham dir. : NNE
39. Nervously excited : ATWITTER
41. “Things are not looking good” : IT’S BAD
42. Untroubled : SERENE
43. Samples : TASTES
44. System of beliefs : ISM
45. Town on the south shore of Long Island : ISLIP
47. Reagan attorney general : MEESE
51. “___ man walks into a bar …” : SO A
53. Youngest-ever French Open winner, 1990 : SELES
55. Fruit with a flat pit : MANGO
56. Pot collection : ANTES
58. Articles in a paper : WRITEUPS
60. Formal reply to “Who’s there?” : IT IS I
61. Snookered : DUPED
62. Harvests : REAPS
64. Two by two : IN PAIRS
66. Shampoo instruction : REPEAT
67. Clothe : ENROBE
68. Like some patches : IRON-ON
69. Starts : SHIES
71. Actress who co-starred in “The Lincoln Lawyer” : TOMEI
74. Chess champ Mikhail : TAL
77. Keep an ___ the street : EAR TO
80. Hillary Clinton’s domain, once: Abbr. : STATE DEPT
81. Summer hair product : LIGHTENER
82. Some freight cargo : ORE
85. Times table? : MASTHEAD
87. Abbr. in many an officer’s title : RET
88. N.B.A. coach Jackson and others : STUS
90. Muscle builders : HE-MEN
91. Year in Madrid : ANO
92. One who’s taking inventory? : STEALER
94. “Keep your ___ the prize!” : EYE ON
95. Half-baked, maybe : NOT DONE
97. “Honest!” : I SWEAR!
99. Make bigger: Abbr. : ENL
102. Emit, as a big sigh : HEAVE
103. Craving : JONES
104. Not lifting a finger : IDLE
105. Craving : NEED
106. Right hand : AIDE
108. Funny Fey : TINA
109. Certain co. plans : HMOS
110. Informant : FINK
112. Wee, informally : ITSY
114. Pan Am rival : TWA
115. T-shirt size: Abbr. : MED
117. Actor McKellen : IAN

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