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Solution to today’s crossword in the New York Times
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CROSSWORD SETTER: Zhouqin Burnikel
THEME: Big Companies, Big Bosses … today’s themed answers are in pairs that cross each other in the grid. One half of the pair is the name of large company, and the other half is that company’s founder:
36A. World’s largest online retailer : AMAZON
11D. Founder of 36-Across : JEFF BEZOS58A. World’s biggest private employer : WALMART
34D. Founder of 58-Across : SAM WALTON6D. World’s most widely distributed syndicated news service : CNN
17A. Founder of 6-Down : TED TURNER47D. “World’s most admired company,” per Fortune : APPLE
63A. Founder of 47-Down : STEVE JOBS
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 9m 18s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
9. Lower California, informally : BAJA
Baja California is both the most northern and the most western of the Mexican states. The name translates from Spanish as “Lower California”.
13. “Splendor in the Grass” director Kazan : ELIA
Elia Kazan won Oscars for best director in 1948 for “Gentleman’s Agreement” and in 1955 for “On The Waterfront”. In 1999 Kazan was given an Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. He also directed “East of Eden”, which introduced James Dean to movie audiences, and “Splendor in the Grass” that included Warren Beatty in his debut role.
15. “Entertainment Tonight” host Nancy : O’DELL
Nancy O’Dell has been the co-anchor of the TV show “Entertainment Tonight” since 2011, replacing Mary Hart.
17. Founder of 6-Down : TED TURNER
(6D. World’s most widely distributed syndicated news service : CNN)
Ted Turner’s big initiative in the world of business was the founding of CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel. Turner never graduated from college as he was expelled from Brown University for having a female student in his dormitory room. Years later, in 1989, Brown awarded him an honorary B.A.
24. Pre-A.D. : BCE
The designations Anno Domini (AD, “year of Our Lord”) and Before Christ (BC) are found in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The dividing point between AD and BC is the year of the conception of Jesus, with AD 1 following 1 BC without a year “0” in between. The AD/BC scheme dates back to AD 525, and gained wide acceptance soon after AD 800. Nowadays a modified version has become popular, with CE (Common/Christian Era) used to replace AD, and BCE (Before the Common/Christian Era) used to replace BC.
26. Hit back? : SIDE-B
The hit song is usually on the A-side of a record.
28. Old name for Tokyo : 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.
38. Macy’s symbol : STAR
The original Macy’s store was opened by Rowland Hussey Macy in Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1851. This store, and several others that Macy opened, all failed. Macy picked himself up though, and started over again in New York City. Those early New York stores all focused on the sale of dry goods, but added departments quickly as the clientele grew. The Macy’s “star” logo has been around since the company was first established. Macy chose the star because it mimicked the star tattoo that he got as a teenager when he was working on a whaling ship out of Nantucket.
39. Word after Dead or Red : SEA
The Dead Sea is a salt lake that lies over 1,000 feet below sea level in the Middle East. It is one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world, with a salt content that is almost ten times that of the ocean.
The Red Sea (sometimes called the Arabian Gulf) is a stretch of water lying between Africa and Asia. The Gulf of Suez (and the Suez Canal) lies to north, and the Gulf of Aden to the south. According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible, God parted the Red Sea to allow Moses lead the Israelites from Egypt.
41. Seat with cushions : SOFA
“Sofa” is a Turkish word meaning “bench”.
51. End-of-season honorees, for short : MVPS
Most valuable player (MVP)
60. Andean ruminants : LLAMAS
The wool from a llama is much softer than that from a sheep, and it is also free from lanolin.
63. Founder of 47-Down : STEVE JOBS
(47D. “World’s most admired company,” per Fortune : APPLE)
Steve Jobs certainly was a business icon in Silicon Valley. I don’t think it is too surprising to learn that the brilliant Jobs didn’t even finish his college education, dropping out of Reed College in Oregon after only one semester. Steve Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976, but in 1985 he was basically fired from his own company during the computer sales slump of the mid-eighties. Jobs then founded NeXT Computer, a company focused on supplying workstations to the higher education and business markets. Apple purchased NeXT in 1996, and that’s how Jobs found himself back with his original company.
The logo of Apple, the computer company, is a silhouette of an apple with a bite taken out of it. The company’s original logo featured a picture of Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree.
67. Skye of “Say Anything …” : IONE
Ione Skye is an American actress born in Hertfordshire in England. She is best known for portraying the character Diane Court in the 1989 high school romance movie “Say Anything …”, starring opposite John Cusack. Skye is the daughter of the Scottish folk singer Donovan.
Down
2. Olds of old : ALERO
The Oldsmobile Alero was the last car made under the Oldsmobile brand. The Alero was produced from 1999 to 2004.
3. Obama’s veep : BIDEN
Vice President Joe Biden was a US Senator representing the state of Delaware from 1973 until he joined the Obama administration. While he was a senator, Vice President Biden commuted to Washington from Wilmington, Delaware almost every working day. He was such an active customer and supporter of Amtrak that the Wilmington Station was renamed as the Joseph R. Biden Railroad Station in 2011. Biden has made over 7,000 trips from that station, and the Amtrak crews were known to even hold the last train for a few minutes so that he could catch it. Biden earned himself the nickname “Amtrak Joe”.
4. Fill to the gills : SATE
“Sate” is a variant of the earlier word “satiate”. Both terms can mean either to satisfy an appetite fully, or to eat to excess.
11. Founder of 36-Across : JEFF BEZOS
(36A. World’s largest online retailer : AMAZON)
As founder of the superb enterprise Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos is an incredibly rich man. Having said that, his salary in 2010 was just a little over $80,000. Compare that with the cost of his personal security detail which was $1.6 million! Bezos made the news in 2013 when he purchased the “The Washington Post” newspaper for $250 million in cash.
12. Old one, in German : ALTE
“Alte” is the German word for “old man”.
16. One may trip on it : LSD
LSD (colloquially known as “acid”) is short for lysergic acid diethylamide. A Swiss chemist called Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 in a research project looking for medically efficacious ergot alkaloids. It wasn’t until some five years later when Hofmann ingested some of the drug accidentally that its psychedelic properties were discovered. Trippy, man …
18. Turkic tongue : UZBEK
Uzbek is the official language of Uzbekistan, and is spoken by about 25 million people, mainly in Central Asia.
The Republic of Uzbekistan is a former Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). Uzbekistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia, and is in fact surrounded by countries which are also landlocked. This means that to reach a coastline from Uzbekistan, you have to cross at least two international borders. There are only two “doubly landlocked” countries in the world: Uzbekistan in Central Asia, and Liechtenstein in Central Europe.
22. “Livin’ La ___ Loca” : VIDA
“Livin’ La Vida Loca” is a single recorded by Ricky Martin, the title of which translates as “living the crazy life”.
25. Lover of Psyche : EROS
In the myth of Cupid (aka Eros) and Psyche, the two title characters must overcome many obstacles to fulfill their love for each other. Overcome them they do, and the pair marry and enjoy immortal love.
30. Pretty tasteless food : TOFU
Tofu is another name for bean curd, and is a Japanese word meaning just that … bean that has “curdled”. Tofu is produced by coagulating soy milk, using either salt or something acidic. Once the protein has coagulated, the curds are pressed into the familiar blocks. Personally I love tofu, but my wife, she absolutely hates it …
32. River through Flanders : YSER
The Yser originates in northern France and flows through Belgium into the North Sea. The Yser is often associated with WWI as it figured in a major battle early in the conflict. In the first three months of the war, the German Army pushed almost completely through Belgium, inflicting heavy losses on the Belgian Army as the defenders were forced to fight a fast-moving rearguard action. The Germans were intent on pushing right through Belgium and across France in a “race to the sea”. But the Belgians, with the help of their Allies, decided to make a final stand at the Yser Canal in an effort to prevent the Germans reaching the French ports of Calais and Dunkirk. The 22-mile long defensive line was chosen at the Yser because the river and canal system could be flooded to create a barrier that might be defended. The plan was successful and the front was “stabilized”. As we now know, millions of lives were lost over the coming years with very little movement of that battle line.
33. Italian hothead? : ETNA
Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy. Mt Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius.
34. Founder of 58-Across : SAM WALTON
(58A. World’s biggest private employer : WALMART)
Walmart (previously “Wal-Mart”) takes in more revenue than any other publicly traded company in the world. Over in my homeland, Walmart operates under the name Asda. Walmart’s worldwide headquarters are in Bentonville, Arkansas, the home of Sam Walton’s original Five and Dime. You can actually go into the original store, as it is now the Walmart Visitor Center.
53. Ham it up : EMOTE
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.
55. Love, to Valentino : AMORE
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor who emigrated to the US when he was 18 years old. He developed a Hollywood career in silent movies that propelled him to the status of sex symbol in the twenties. Valentino died very young, having being admitted to hospital with appendicitis and gastric ulcers. He underwent surgery and developed peritonitis, and passed away when he was only 31 years old.
56. Valentino, e.g. : LABEL
Valentino is a fashion house that was founded in Rome in 1959 by Valentino Garavani. The company is now based in Milan.
57. Op-ed piece : ESSAY
Op-ed is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.
61. Slightly open : AJAR
Our word “ajar” is thought to come from Scottish dialect, in which “a char” means “slightly open”.
65. M.D. specialty : ENT
Ear, Nose and Throat specialist (ENT)
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Test runners : LABS
5. Many a carnival game : SCAM
9. Lower California, informally : BAJA
13. “Splendor in the Grass” director Kazan : ELIA
14. “Changed my mind” computer command : UNDO
15. “Entertainment Tonight” host Nancy : O’DELL
17. Founder of 6-Down : TED TURNER
19. Loads and loads : RAFTS
20. Relief on a hot day : BREEZE
21. Stuffed : OVERFED
23. Near eternity : EON
24. Pre-A.D. : BCE
26. Hit back? : SIDE-B
27. Precious : DEAR
28. Old name for Tokyo : EDO
29. Aliens, for short : ETS
32. “That’s not news to me” : YES, I KNOW
36. World’s largest online retailer : AMAZON
38. Macy’s symbol : STAR
39. Word after Dead or Red : SEA
41. Seat with cushions : SOFA
42. Get tangled : ENMESH
45. Splits, as a couple : BREAKS UP
48. Uncooked : RAW
49. Where to find a soft drink’s promotional code : CAP
51. End-of-season honorees, for short : MVPS
52. Hawk’s home : AERIE
54. Soak up, as gravy : SOP
55. Pub draught : ALE
58. World’s biggest private employer : WALMART
60. Andean ruminants : LLAMAS
62. Winning : ON TOP
63. Founder of 47-Down : STEVE JOBS
66. Cybermemo : E-NOTE
67. Skye of “Say Anything …” : IONE
68. Domain : AREA
69. Many bills in tip jars : ONES
70. Pre-K enrollees : TOTS
71. Fall back (on) : RELY
Down
1. Ignored : LET BE
2. Olds of old : ALERO
3. Obama’s veep : BIDEN
4. Fill to the gills : SATE
5. “No prob” : SURE CAN
6. World’s most widely distributed syndicated news service : CNN
7. Suffix with lemon : -ADE
8. Down in the mouth : MOROSE
9. Cause of yawning : BOREDOM
10. On ___ (how some pranks are done) : A DARE
11. Founder of 36-Across : JEFF BEZOS
12. Old one, in German : ALTE
16. One may trip on it : LSD
18. Turkic tongue : UZBEK
22. “Livin’ La ___ Loca” : VIDA
25. Lover of Psyche : EROS
27. Critical : DIRE
30. Pretty tasteless food : TOFU
31. Lose it : SNAP
32. River through Flanders : YSER
33. Italian hothead? : ETNA
34. Founder of 58-Across : SAM WALTON
35. Fly trap : WEB
37. Pops, as the question : ASKS
40. Combat supplies : ARMS
43. Just gets (by) : SCRAPES
44. Eyelash, e.g. : HAIR
46. Slowly changes : EVOLVES
47. “World’s most admired company,” per Fortune : APPLE
50. Look after a neighbor’s dog, say : PET SIT
53. Ham it up : EMOTE
55. Love, to Valentino : AMORE
56. Valentino, e.g. : LABEL
57. Op-ed piece : ESSAY
58. “___ unto him …” : WOE
59. A.D. part : ANNO
61. Slightly open : AJAR
64. Overly : TOO
65. M.D. specialty : ENT
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