0716-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 16 Jul 14, Wednesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies

Across
1. Run up ___ : A 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.

10. “___ be in England” : OH, TO
Robert Browning met fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett in 1845. Elizabeth was a sickly woman, confined to her parents’ house in Wimpole Street in London, largely due to the conservative and protective nature of her father. Robert and Elizabeth eventually eloped in 1846, and lived in self-inflicted exile in Italy. Away from the country of his birth, Browning was moved to write his now famous “Home Thoughts, From Abroad”, the first line of which is “Oh, to be in England …”

15. Also-ran of 1992 and 1996 : PEROT
Henry Ross Perot graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1953, as president of his class. Ross Perot served his 4-year commitment but then resigned his commission, apparently having become somewhat disillusioned with the navy. He was ranked number 101 on the Forbes 400 List of Richest Americans in 2012, and at that time was worth about $3.5 billion. Perot ran as an independent candidate in the US Presidential elections of 1992 and 1996.

16. Frond bearer : FERN
Ferns are unlike mosses in that they have xylem and phloem, making them vascular plants. They also have stems, leaves and roots, but they do not have seeds and flowers, and reproduce using spores. Spores differ from seeds in that they have very little stored food.

17. Bootleggers’ foes : T-MEN
A T-man is a law-enforcement agent of the US Treasury (T is for Treasury).

“To bootleg” is make or smuggle alcoholic drinks illegally. The term arose in the late 1800s as slang for the practice of concealing a flask of liquor down the leg of a high boot. The term has been extended to mean the illegal production and sale of just about anything.

19. “Exodus” hero and others : ARIS
“Exodus” is a wonderful novel written by American writer Leon Uris, first published in 1947. The hero of the piece is Ari Ben Canaan, played by Paul Newman in the 1960 film adaptation directed by Otto Preminger.

20. Cabinet department until 1947 : WAR
The US Department of War was established by Congress in 1789, soon after George Washington was made President of the United States. The War Department continued as part of the cabinet until after WWII, then in 1947 was broken up into the Department of the Army and the Department of the Air Force. These two new departments were combined with the already-existing Department of the Navy in 1949 to form the Department of Defense.

21. Like the figure formed by the three circled letters in the upper left : SCALENE
A scalene triangle is one in which all three sides are of unequal length.

23. East of Germany? : OST
“Ost” is German for “east”.

24. Snobbishness : ELITISM
The “elite” are the privileged, the chosen few. The term is French (élite), ultimately deriving from the Latin verb “eligere” meaning “to choose”.

26. 1996 Olympics city : ATLANTA
Back in the 1780s, a “snob” was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.

29. Somerhalder of “The Vampire Diaries” : IAN
Ian Somerhalder had his big break as an actor in the TV drama “Lost”, and now has a part in TV’s “The Vampire Diaries”.

“The Vampire Diaries” is a series of horror novels aimed at teens, with a spinoff television series of the same name. I don’t do vampires …

32. Anti-D.U.I. ads, e.g. : PSAS
Public service announcement (PSA)

In some states, there is no longer a legal difference between a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) and a DUI (Driving Under the Influence). Other states retain that difference, so that by definition a DUI is a lesser offence than a DWI.

35. Newcastle’s river : TYNE
The River Tyne is in the northeast of England. The most famous city on the river is Newcastle upon Tyne.

Newcastle upon Tyne in the North of England is home to the famous Newcastle Brown Ale.

36. Like the figure formed by the three circled letters in the upper right : ISOSCELES
An isosceles triangle is one that has two sides of equal length.

39. He tapped Ryan in 2012 : ROMNEY
Mitt Romney was born Willard Mitt Romney in 1947 in Detroit, Michigan. Romney’s parents named him after J. Willard Marriott (the hotel magnate) who was the father’s best friend, and after Milton “Mitt” Romney who was the father’s cousin and quarterback for the Chicago Bears.

Paul Ryan was the Republican nominee for Vice President in the 2012 election, on the ticket with Mitt Romney. Off the political stage, Ryan is famous for his fitness regime. He has shared that much of his motivation to work out and to watch his diet is because there is a history of heart attacks at an early age in his family.

47. “Alice” waitress : FLO
Florence Jean “Flo” Castleberry was a waitress in the sitcom “Alice” which aired on CBS in the 70s and 80s. Flo got her own sitcom (called “Flo”) which had a brief run in the early 80s. I saw a few episodes of “Alice”, but that’s about it. Oh, and Flo was played by Polly Holliday.

51. “Alice” diner owner : MEL
The TV sitcom “Alice” ran from 1976 to 1985, a story about a widow named Alice who takes a job at Mel’s Diner. The show was based on a very successful 1974 movie called “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” directed by Martin Scorsese (his first Hollywood production) and starring Ellen Burstyn and Kris Kristofferson.

54. 1936 opponent of Franklin D. : ALF
Alf Landon was the Governor of Kansas from 1933-37, and was the Republican Party’s nominee against FDR in the 1936 Presidential election. He is remembered as the candidate who “disappeared” after winning the nomination. He rarely traveled during the campaign, and made no appearances at all in its first two months. FDR famously won by a landslide, with Landon only winning the states of Maine and Vermont. He wasn’t even able to carry his home state of Kansas.

55. Like the figure formed by the three circled letters at the bottom : EQUILATERAL
An equilateral triangle is one with all three sides of the same length.

62. Overlay material : ACETATE
An “acetate” is a transparency used on a projector onto which one can write or draw. It is called an “acetate” because it is usually made out of cellulose acetate.

65. “In the Heat of the Night” Oscar winner : STEIGER
Rod Steiger played some powerful roles on the screen, perhaps most memorably the Chief of Police in the 1967 drama “In the Heat of the Night”, for which he won a Best Actor Oscar. Steiger was married five times, including a 10-year marriage to fellow actor Claire Bloom. Together Bloom and Steiger had a daughter, the British opera singer Anna Steiger.

“In the Heat of the Night” is a 1967 film based on a 1965 novel of the same name by John Ball. Both tell the story of an African American detective from Philadelphia was gets involved in a murder investigation in a small town in Mississippi. The Oscar-winning film stars Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. The most famous line in the movie is “They call me Mister Tibbs!”

Down
1. Belgian seaport : ANTWERP
The port city of Antwerp is the second most populous urban area in Belgium after the capital Brussels. To most of the French-speaking population of the country, Antwerp is known as Anvers.

2. Wrapped Tex-Mex fare : TAMALES
A tamale is a traditional dish from Central America composed of a starchy dough that is steamed or boiled in a wrapper made of leaves. The dough is called masa, and can include many different ingredients including meat, cheese fruit and vegetables.

3. Stephen Colbert’s “I Am ___ (And So Can You!)” : AMERICA
Stephen Colbert is a political satirist who hosts his own show on Comedy Central, “The Colbert Report”. Colbert’s first love was theater, and so he studied to become an actor. He then moved into comedy, and ended up on the “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”. He left “The Daily Show” in 2005 to set up his own spin-off, “The Colbert Report”. In his own inimitable way, Colbert likes to use a “French” pronunciation for the name of his show, so “The Colbert Report” comes out as “The Col-bear Rep-oar”. Colbert will be taking over the “Late Show” when David Letterman retires.

4. Football’s Roethlisberger : BEN
Ben Roethlisberger plays quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

5. Blueprint details, in brief : SPECS
Blueprints are reproductions of technical drawings that are contact prints made on light-sensitive sheets. Blueprints were introduced in the 1800s and the technology available dictated that the drawings were reproduced with white lines on a blue background, hence the name “blue-print”.

6. Ming vases, e.g. : CERAMICS
The Ming Dynasty lasted in China from 1368 to 1644. The Ming Dynasty oversaw tremendous innovation in so many areas, including the manufacture of ceramics. Late in the Ming period, a shift towards a market economy in China led to the export of porcelain on an unprecedented scale, perhaps explaining why we tend to hear more about Ming vases than we do about porcelain from any other Chinese dynasty.

7. ___ Sea (Asian body) : ARAL
The Aral Sea is a great example of how man can have a devastating effect on his environment. In the early sixties the Aral Sea covered 68,000 square miles of Central Asia. Soviet Union irrigation projects drained the lake to such an extent that today the total area is less than 7,000 square miles, with 90% of the lake now completely dry. Sad …

8. Comic with a “domestic goddess” persona : ROSEANNE
The comedienne Roseanne Barr is perhaps best known as the star of her own sitcom called “Roseanne” in which she played the character Roseanne Conner. In 2012 Barr unsuccessfully vied for the Green Party’s nomination for US President. She didn’t give up though, and was successful in winning the nomination of the Peace and Freedom Party. In the 2012 presidential election she earned over 60,000 votes, and placed sixth in the list of candidates.

9. Artery implant : STENT
In the world of medicine and surgery, a stent is an artificial tube inserted inside a vessel in the body, say an artery, so that it reduces the effects of a local restriction in the body’s conduit.

12. Isolde’s beloved : TRISTAN
According to the legend of King Arthur, Tristan was a Knight of the Round Table from Cornwall in the south of England. Tristan was sent by his Cornish king to fetch an Irish princess called Iseult from her homeland, but Tristan and Iseult instead fall in love. Most famously, the couple’s story was retold as the opera “Tristan and Isolde” by Richard Wagner.

22. N.Y.C.’s Third and Ninth Avenue lines, e.g. : ELS
Elevated railroad (El)

25. Zapping, in a way : TASING
Victor Appleton wrote a novel for young adults called “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle”. The company that developed the TASER electroshock weapon named its product as a homage to the novel. The acronym TASER stands for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”.

30. Early nuclear org. : AEC
The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was set up right after WWII in 1946, with the aim of promoting the peaceful use of atomic energy. Establishing the AEC was a significant move made by President Truman, as it passed control of atomic energy from the military to the civilian sector. The AEC continued to operate until 1974 when its functions were divided up into two new agencies: the Energy Research and Development Administration and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

33. Kind of milk : SOY
What are known as soybeans here in the US are called “soya beans” in most other English-speaking countries. So, I drink soy milk here in America, but when I am over in Ireland I drink “soya milk”.

34. Special attention, briefly : TLC
Tender loving care (TLC)

38. Triage spots, for short : ERS
Emergency Room (ER)

“Triage” is the process of prioritizing patients for treatment, especially on a battlefield. The term “triage” is French and means “a sorting”.

40. Horatian work : ODE
A Horatian Ode is an ode with a specific structure, designed to resemble the odes of the Roman poet, Horace.

41. The symbol for the Roman god Mars represents it : MALE SEX
The icon used to depict the male gender is known as the Mars symbol. It is supposedly comprised of the shield and spear of the war god Mars. The icon used to depict the female sex is known as the Venus symbol.

44. Disney collectible : CEL
In the world of animation, a cel is a transparent sheet on which objects and characters are drawn. In the first half of the 20th century the sheet was actually made of celluloid, giving the “cel” its name.

45. Playboy nickname : HEF
Hugh Hefner is from Chicago. His first publishing job was in the military, where he worked as a writer for a US Army newspaper from 1944-46. He went to college after his military service and then worked as a copywriter for “Esquire” magazine. He left “Esquire” to found his own publication that he called “Playboy”, which first hit the newsstands in 1953. “Playboy” has been around ever since.

52. Ty Cobb, for most of his career : TIGER
The origins of the Detroit Tigers baseball team’s nickname seems a little unclear. One story is that it was taken from the Detroit Light Guard military unit who were known as “The Tigers”. The Light Guard fought with distinction during the Civil War and in the Spanish-American War. Sure enough, when the Detroit baseball team went into the Majors they were formally given permission to use “The Tigers” name by the Detroit Light Guard.

Ty Cobb was one of the richest baseball players of all times. When he retired, Cobb was a major stockholder of the Coca-Cola Corporation. By the time he passed away in 1961, Cobb had an even bigger investment in General Electric. He left an estate after his death worth about $86m (in 2008 dollars).

53. Praline nut : PECAN
A praline is a candy made made out of nuts and sugar syrup. The frist pralines were made in France in the 17th century for an industrialist named Marshal du Plessis-Praslin, who gave his name to the confection.

58. Dream states, for short : REMS
REM is an acronym standing for Rapid Eye Movement sleep. REM sleep takes up 20-25% of the sleeping hours and is the period associated with one’s most vivid dreams.

61. Season after printemps : ETE
In French, spring (printemps) is followed by summer (été).

63. La Brea gunk : TAR
The La Brea Tar Pits are located right in the heart of the city of Los Angeles. At the site there is a constant flow of tar that seeps up to the surface from underground, a phenomenon that has been around for tens of thousands of years. What is significant is that much of the seeping tar is covered by water. Over many, many centuries animals came to the water to drink and became trapped in the tar as they entered the water to quench their thirsts. The tar then preserved the bones of the dead animals. Today a museum is located right by the Tar Pits, recovering bones and displaying specimens of the animals found there. It’s well worth a visit if you are in town …

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Run up ___ : A TAB
5. Marks for life : SCARS
10. “___ be in England” : OH, TO
14. Big shot : NAME
15. Also-ran of 1992 and 1996 : PEROT
16. Frond bearer : FERN
17. Bootleggers’ foes : T-MEN
18. Begin to correct, maybe : ERASE
19. “Exodus” hero and others : ARIS
20. Cabinet department until 1947 : WAR
21. Like the figure formed by the three circled letters in the upper left : SCALENE
23. East of Germany? : OST
24. Snobbishness : ELITISM
26. 1996 Olympics city : ATLANTA
28. Highlights show : RECAP
29. Somerhalder of “The Vampire Diaries” : IAN
31. Skin-and-bones sort : SCRAG
32. Anti-D.U.I. ads, e.g. : PSAS
33. A dog might catch one : SCENT
35. Newcastle’s river : TYNE
36. Like the figure formed by the three circled letters in the upper right : ISOSCELES
39. He tapped Ryan in 2012 : ROMNEY
42. Something to lean on : CRUTCH
46. “If the shoe fits, wear it,” e.g. : ADAGE
47. “Alice” waitress : FLO
50. Shopaholic’s binge : SPREE
51. “Alice” diner owner : MEL
52. Traffic problem : TIE UP
54. 1936 opponent of Franklin D. : ALF
55. Like the figure formed by the three circled letters at the bottom : EQUILATERAL
60. Make a comeback : RESURGE
62. Overlay material : ACETATE
65. “In the Heat of the Night” Oscar winner : STEIGER
66. Rules for hunters to follow : GAME LAW
67. Some distracted drivers : TEXTERS
68. Sucker in : ENSNARE

Down
1. Belgian seaport : ANTWERP
2. Wrapped Tex-Mex fare : TAMALES
3. Stephen Colbert’s “I Am ___ (And So Can You!)” : AMERICA
4. Football’s Roethlisberger : BEN
5. Blueprint details, in brief : SPECS
6. Ming vases, e.g. : CERAMICS
7. ___ Sea (Asian body) : ARAL
8. Comic with a “domestic goddess” persona : ROSEANNE
9. Artery implant : STENT
10. All ___ sudden : OF A
11. Nesting area for wading birds : HERONRY
12. Isolde’s beloved : TRISTAN
13. Treading the boards : ON STAGE
21. Nurse at a bar : SIP
22. N.Y.C.’s Third and Ninth Avenue lines, e.g. : ELS
25. Zapping, in a way : TASING
27. Starts malfunctioning : ACTS UP
30. Early nuclear org. : AEC
33. Kind of milk : SOY
34. Special attention, briefly : TLC
37. Get the idea : SEE
38. Triage spots, for short : ERS
39. Flock member : RAM
40. Horatian work : ODE
41. The symbol for the Roman god Mars represents it : MALE SEX
43. Refrain syllables : TRA LA LA
44. Disney collectible : CEL
45. Playboy nickname : HEF
47. Manicurists, at times : FILERS
48. Grazing area : LEA
49. Loss of power : OUTAGE
52. Ty Cobb, for most of his career : TIGER
53. Praline nut : PECAN
56. Conk out : QUIT
57. The munchies, e.g. : URGE
58. Dream states, for short : REMS
59. “… ___-foot pole!” : A TEN
60. Queue after Q : RST
61. Season after printemps : ETE
63. La Brea gunk : TAR
64. 39-Down’s mate : EWE

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