0713-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 13 Jul 14, Sunday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Tom McCoy
THEME: We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident … today’s themed answers are all “self-evident” phrases. Also, we have circled letters that, when read clockwise three times, spell out a Gertrude Stein quote, which is in the same format as the themed answers, but even more so: A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE.

23A. Classic excuse for some misdemeanors : BOYS WILL BE BOYS
35A. Declaration from Popeye : I YAM WHAT I YAM
43A. Doubt-dispelling words from Lady Macbeth : WHAT’S DONE IS DONE
72A. Famous Yogiism : IT AIN’T OVER TILL IT’S OVER
97A. Words dismissive of detractors : HATERS GONNA HATE
105A. Expression of resignation : IT IS WHAT IT IS
121A. “We will tolerate this no more!” : ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 33m 22s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Fighting group : CADRE
A “cadre” is most commonly a group of experienced personnel at the core of a larger organization that the small group trains or heavily influences. “Cadre” is a French word meaning a “frame”. We use it in the sense that a cadre is a group that provides a “framework” for the larger organization.

20. Bobby on the ice : ORR
Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking …

27. Prefix with -graphic : IDEO-
An ideograph or ideogram is pictorial symbol used to represent a concept. A good example would be an emoticon, like a smiley face :o)

28. Mercury, but not Earth : GOD
Mercury was a Roman god called “the messenger”, and the god of trade. Mercury’s name comes from the Latin word “merx” meaning merchandise (and therefore has the same roots as “merchant” and “commerce”).

30. Heavy work : TOME
“Tome” first came into English from the Latin “tomus” which means “section of a book”. The original usage in English was for a single volume in a multi-volume work. By the late 16th century “tome” had come to mean “a large book”.

32. Carrier to Tokyo : ANA
All Nippon Airways (ANA) is a Japanese airline, second in size only to Japan Airlines (JAL).

33. World’s largest particle physics lab, in Switzerland : CERN
CERN is an acronym that stands for “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire” (European Council for Nuclear Research. CERN’s mission is to provide the largest particle physics lab in the world, and it does just that, having built several enormous particle accelerators. The CERN particle accelerator most in the news these days is the Large Hadron Collider located near Geneva.

35. Declaration from Popeye : I YAM WHAT I YAM
Popeye first appeared in 1929 in a comic strip called “Thimble Theatre”. The strip, created by E. C. Segar, ran for ten years before Popeye made an appearance. Popeye received such a great welcome from readers that he soon “took over” the strip, and eventually even hogged the strip’s title. Before Popeye turned up Olive Oyl was the main character.

38. ___ Anne’s (popular pretzel purveyor) : AUNTIE
Auntie Anne’s is a chain of pretzel bakeries that was founded in 1988. The chain started out as a simple stand in a farmer’s market in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. There are now almost 900 outlets in about a dozen countries.

43. Doubt-dispelling words from Lady Macbeth : WHAT’S DONE IS DONE
Although William Shakespeare did not coin the phrase “What’s done is done”, his use of the expression in his play “Macbeth” is the first recorded instance. Lady Macbeth expresses the sentiment twice:

– “Things without all remedy Should be without regard: what’s done, is done”
– “Give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone. – To bed, to bed, to bed!”

51. Spectrum : GAMUT
In medieval times, the musical scale was denoted by the notes “ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la”. The term “gamma ut”, shortened to “gamut”, was used to describe the whole scale. By the 1620s, “gamut” was being used to mean the entire range of anything, the whole gamut.

53. “Alea iacta ___” (“The die is cast”) : EST
Supposedly, when Caesar marched back to Rome from Gaul, as he defiantly “crossed the Rubicon” with his army, he uttered the words “Alea iacta est” (“The die is cast”).

57. “When You’re Good to ___” (“Chicago” song) : MAMA
The wonderful 1975 musical Broadway “Chicago” is based on a 1926 play of the same name written by a news reporter called Maurine Dallas Watkins. Watkins had been assigned to cover the murder trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the “Chicago Tribune”, and used the story that unfolded as the basis for her play. Annan became the character Roxie Hart, and Gaertner became Velma Kelly. I’ve only ever seen the 2002 movie version of “Chicago” and never a live performance …

63. Encyclopedic : VAST
An encyclopedia is a compendium reference work containing summary information about a branch of knowledge, or about all knowledge. The word “encyclopedia” comes from the Greek “enkyklios paideia” meaning “general education”, or literally “general rearing of a child”.

65. Frequent features of John Constable landscapes : ELMS
John Constable is the most English of painters, although during his lifetime his work was more popular in France than it was in his native country. His most famous painting is “The Hay Wain” from 1821, which you can see in the National Gallery in London.

72. Famous Yogiism : IT AIN’T OVER TILL IT’S OVER
Yogi Berra is regarded by many as the greatest catcher ever to play in Major League Baseball, and has to be America’s most celebrated “author” of malapropisms. Here are some greats:

– “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
– “90% of the game is half mental.”
– “Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
– (giving directions) “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
– “It’s déjà vu all over again.”
– “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.”
– “A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.”

76. Traditional Gaelic singer : LILTER
Lilting is a form of singing heard in Ireland and Scotland that sort of resembles scat singing. The singer uses no words, but produces melodious sounds from the mouth.

77. Falafel holder : PITA
Pita is a lovely bread in Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines. Pita is usually round, and has a “pocket” in the center. The pocket is created by steam that puffs up the dough during cooking leaving a void when the bread cools. The pockets were a big hit in the seventies when someone came up with the idea of using them for fillings hence creating pita sandwiches or “pita pockets”.

Falafel is a fried ball of ground chickpeas or fava beans served in pita bread. I love chickpeas, but falafel just seems too dry to me.

84. Chicken ___ diable : A LA
A dish served “à la diable” is relatively hot and spicy, with the meat coated in mustard and hot pepper. The term “à la diable” translates from French as “in the style of the devil”.

89. They may come with covenants : ARKS
According to the Bible’s Book of Exodus, the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed were placed in a chest called the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark was built according to instructions given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. The tablets that were preserved were actually copies, as Moses smashed the originals given to him by God. Moses did so in a fit of anger when when he saw his people worshiping the Golden Calf.

94. Match game? : SLOTS
Slot machines earned the nickname “one-armed bandits” simply because they had “one arm”, the handle pulled to operate the machine, and they robbed you of all your money!

104. Top choice : BLOUSE
A blouse is a loose-fitting shirt, particularly worn by women or children. The term “blouse” is French, and originally described a peasant’s smock.

110. “Did gyre and gimble in the ___”: “Jabberwocky” : WABE
Here are the first two verses of “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll, probably the one poem that we all just loved learning to recite at school:

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!

118. Material blocked by parental controls : SMUT
“Smut” means “dirt, smudge” and more recently “pornographic material”. The term comes from the Yiddish “schmutz”, which is a slang word used in English for dirt, as in “dirt on one’s face”.

119. Fantasy title character whose name is one letter different from the creature he rides : ERAGON
Eragon rides a dragon.

Christopher Paolini began writing his best-selling fantasy story “Eragon” at the age of 15. Christopher’s parents, when they read the final version two years later, they decided to self-publish it, and supported Christopher as he toured the US promoting the novel. It was eventually republished by Alfred A. Knopf in 2003, and became the second-best-selling children’s paperback of 2005. The book was adapted for the big screen in 2006. I’d call that a success story …

127. Filler of la mer : EAU
“Eau” is the French word for “water”; “Mer” is the French word for “sea”.

130. Austin Powers, e.g. : SPY
The character of Austin Powers was created by the actor who plays him, Mike Myers. Apparently Myers came up with the idea for Powers while listening to the Burt Bacharach song “The Look of Love”.

Down
2. Cell part : ANODE
The two terminals of a battery are called the anode and the cathode. Electrons travel from the anode to the cathode creating an electric current.

8. District in Rome : TREVI
The district in Rome called Trevi is thought to have gotten its name from the Latin “trivium” meaning “three streets”. In days past, there were three streets that led to the square called “piazza dei Crociferi”. The most famous monument in the district today is the Trevi Fountain.

The Trevi Fountain is a huge fountain in Rome, the largest constructed in the Baroque style. The tradition is that if one throws a coin in the fountain then one is guaranteed a return visit to the city. Tourists throw in an amazing 3,000 euros (over $4,000) every day. The money is collected and is used to stock a supermarket for the needy of the city.

9. Sheldon’s apartment-mate on “The Big Bang Theory” : LEONARD
“The Big Bang Theory” is very clever sitcom aired by CBS since 2007. “The Big Bang Theory” theme song was specially commissioned for the show, and was composed and is sung by Canadian band Barenaked Ladies. The theme song was released in 2007 as a single and is featured on a Barenaked Ladies greatest hits album.

11. Emmy-winning drama four years in a row, with “The” : WEST WING
“The West Wing”, when it was being written by Aaron Sorkin, was such a fabulous television event. It is remarkable how quickly it went downhill after Sorkin moved on. Sorkin is also famous for having written the play “A Few Good Men”, and the screenplay for one of my favorite movies, namely “Charlie Wilson’s War”.

13. Stereotypical beatnik accessory : BERET
The term “beatnik” was coined by journalist Herb Caen in 1958 when he used it to describe the stereotypical young person of the “beat generation” that was oft associated with the writer Jack Kerouac. That stereotypical beatnik would be playing the bongos and rolling his or her own cigarettes. Male beatniks also tended to sport goatees and wear berets.

19. Bonding molecule : LIGAND
In the world of chemistry, a “ligand” is an ion or molecule that binds to a metal atom. The resulting molecule is known as a “coordination complex”. Examples of coordination complexes would be Prussian blue and copper vitriol.

24. Kind of ticket : LOTTO
Originally “Lotto” was a type of card game, with “lotto” being the Italian for “a lot”. We’ve used “lotto” to mean a gambling game since the late 1700s.

36. Card game with a “Chairman” : MAO
The card game called “Mao” is similar to Uno and Crazy Eights. The winning player is the one who can discard all of his or her cards, without breaking the rules of the game. The dealer in Mao is referred to as “the Chairman”.

43. One that’s a bore? : WEEVIL
A weevil is a small beetle, known for the damage that it can do to crops. The boll weevil damages cotton plants by laying eggs inside cotton bolls. The young weevils then eat their way out.

48. Some wrestlers : SUMOS
Sumo is a sport that is practiced professionally only in Japan, the country of its origin. There is an international federation of sumo wrestling now, and one of the organization’s aims is to have the sport accepted as an Olympic event.

52. Bonkers : MENTAL
The word “bonkers” meaning “crazy” originated in the fifties. The term might come from navy slang meaning “slightly drunk”, behaving as though one received a “bonk” on the head.

56. Rapper ___ Rida : FLO
Rapper Tramar Dillard is better known as (but not by me!) rapper Flo Rida. As you might have guessed, Flo Rida was born in the state of Florida.

58. Juin preceder : MAI
In French, “mai” (MAY) comes before “juin” (June).

59. 1968 live folk album : ARLO
Arlo Guthrie is the son of Woody Guthrie. Both father and son are renowned for their singing of protest songs about social injustice. Arlo is most famous for his epic “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”, a song that lasts a full 18m 34s. In the song Guthrie tells how, after being drafted, he was rejected for service in the Vietnam War based on his criminal record. He had only one incident on his public record, a Thanksgiving Day arrest for littering and being a public nuisance when he was 18-years-old.

61. “Tender Is the Night” locale, with “the” : RIVIERA
The Côte d’Azur is on the Mediterranean coast of France and stretches from Saint Tropez in the west and to the Italian border in the east. In English we often refer to the area as the French Riviera. It’s a little crowded for me (okay, “expensive”), especially in the summer

“Tender Is the Night” is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald that was adapted into a 1962 film starring Jennifer Jones, Jason Robards and Joan Fontaine.

62. Mideast legislature : KNESSET
The Knesset is the legislative branch of the Israeli government, and does its business in the Givat Ram neighborhood of central Jerusalem.

64. Determines the concentration of a dissolved substance : TITRATES
Titration is a laboratory technique used to determine the concentration of a particular solution. We probably all did titrations in school, using a burette.

67. Ocho – dos : SEIS
In Spanish, eight (ocho) minus two (dos) is six (seis).

69. Certain ruminant : ELK
Ruminants are animals that “chew the cud”. Ruminants eat vegetable matter but cannot extract any nutritional value from cellulose without the help of microbes in the gut. Ruminants collect roughage in the first part of the alimentary canal, allowing microbes to work on it. The partially digested material (the cud) is regurgitated into the mouth so that the ruminant can chew the food more completely exposing more surface area for microbes to do their work.

71. “Summer Nights” musical : GREASE
“Grease” was, and still is, a very successful stage musical with a blockbuster film version released in 1978. “Summer Nights” is a song from the musical that was a huge hit for John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

73. Colorful, pebble-like candies : NERDS
The Willy Wonka Candy Company brand is owned by Nestle, and operates using licensed materials from the Roald Dahl book “Charlie & the Chocolate Factory”. Nerdsis a name on a whole line of candy’s produced within the brand’s portfolio.

75. Roth ___ : IRA
Roth Individual Retirement Accounts (Roth IRAs) were introduced in 1997 under a bill sponsored by Senator William Roth of Delaware, hence the name.

90. Former employer for Vladimir Putin, for short : KGB
The Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti (KGB) was the national security agency of the Soviet Union until 1991. The KGB was dissolved after the agency’s chairman led a failed attempt at a coup d’état designed to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.

Vladimir Putin became acting President of Russia at the very end of 1999 when Boris Yeltsin resigned. Putin was elected in his own right in 2000, re-elected in 2004, and then ran up against a term limit in 2008. In 2008 Putin was appointed by his successor, President Dmitry Medvedev, to the position of Prime Minister. Putin is a controversial figure, inside and outside Russia. On the one hand he led the country out of an economic crisis into a period of stability and relative prosperity. On the other hand he has been associated with government corruption and accused of allowing private concerns to have undue influence on government actions. And then there is the Crimea …

91. Sunny room : SOLARIUM
A solarium (plural “solaria”) is a sunroom or sun lounge, a structure usually built onto the side of a house that contains a lot of glass to let in the sun.

93. Reams : CHEWS OUT
I must admit that I find the slang term “to ream”, with its meaning “to scold harshly”, quite distasteful. The usage of the word as a reprimand dates back to about 1950.

96. Work for a folder : ORIGAMI
Origami is the traditional Japanese art form of paper folding. The word “origami” is derived from “ori“ (folding) and “kami” (paper).

98. What you might be in France? : TOI
“Toi” is the French word for “you”, when talking to someone with whom you are familiar.

100. Pop 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.

106. “___ Baby Are You?” (1920 show tune) : WHOSE
“Whose Baby Are You?” is a 1920 song from the musical “The Night Boat”, with music by Jerome Kern and lyrics by Anne Caldwell.

108. Rocker Bob : SEGER
Bob Seger struggled as a performing artist right through the sixties and early seventies before becoming a commercial success in 1976 with the release of his album “Night Moves”. Since then, Seger has recorded songs that have become classics like, “We’ve Got Tonight” and “Old Time Rock & Roll”.

112. Corn chip since 1966 : BUGLE
Bugles corn chips are fried in coconut oil, making them high in saturated fat relative to other fried snack foods. Not good …

113. Clear sky : ETHER
The Greek philosopher Empedocles proposed that there are four elements that made up the universe, namely earth, water, air and fire. Aristotle later proposed a fifth element which he called aether (also “ether”). Aether was the divine substance that made up the stars and planets.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Fighting group : CADRE
6. Understood : GOT
9. Scientific truth : LAW
12. Lives : ABIDES
18. Opposite of wind up : UNREEL
20. Bobby on the ice : ORR
21. Memphis-to-Nashville dir. : ENE
22. Like yesterday : RECENT
23. Classic excuse for some misdemeanors : BOYS WILL BE BOYS
26. Intimidating words : OR ELSE
27. Prefix with -graphic : IDEO-
28. Mercury, but not Earth : GOD
29. Workman’s aid : VAN
30. Heavy work : TOME
32. Carrier to Tokyo : ANA
33. World’s largest particle physics lab, in Switzerland : CERN
34. Many a drive-thru installation : ATM
35. Declaration from Popeye : I YAM WHAT I YAM
38. ___ Anne’s (popular pretzel purveyor) : AUNTIE
41. Smugglers’ worries : RAIDS
42. ___ mortal : MERE
43. Doubt-dispelling words from Lady Macbeth : WHAT’S DONE IS DONE
48. Follower of lop : -SIDED
49. Follower of lop : -EARED
50. Formerly, once : ERST
51. Spectrum : GAMUT
53. “Alea iacta ___” (“The die is cast”) : EST
54. Mutt’s mutter? : ARF
57. “When You’re Good to ___” (“Chicago” song) : MAMA
60. Aside, e.g. : REMARK
63. Encyclopedic : VAST
65. Frequent features of John Constable landscapes : ELMS
68. Atypical : RARE
70. Bearing in mind : NOTING
72. Famous Yogiism : IT AIN’T OVER TILL IT’S OVER
76. Traditional Gaelic singer : LILTER
77. Falafel holder : PITA
78. Food often with pentagonal cross sections : OKRA
79. “All ___” : RISE
80. Holy ___ : TERROR
82. Makes loop-the-loops? : SEWS
84. Chicken ___ diable : A LA
86. Spanish “that” : ESA
87. One summing things up : ADDER
89. They may come with covenants : ARKS
92. Property areas : ACRES
94. Match game? : SLOTS
97. Words dismissive of detractors : HATERS GONNA HATE
102. Send, in a way : WIRE
103. Urge to attack : SET ON
104. Top choice : BLOUSE
105. Expression of resignation : IT IS WHAT IT IS
109. Baseball stat. : AVG
110. “Did gyre and gimble in the ___”: “Jabberwocky” : WABE
114. Take it easy : VEG
115. Cast : HURL
116. Sushi topper, maybe : ROE
117. Hardly highbrow reading : RAG
118. Material blocked by parental controls : SMUT
119. Fantasy title character whose name is one letter different from the creature he rides : ERAGON
121. “We will tolerate this no more!” : ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
125. Least plausible : LAMEST
126. Certain wardrobe malfunction : RIP
127. Filler of la mer : EAU
128. Mess up : TOUSLE
129. Covers with goo : SLIMES
130. Austin Powers, e.g. : SPY
131. Record stat : RPM
132. Guide : STEER

Down
1. Like some measures : CUBIC
2. Cell part : ANODE
3. Whirlpool product : DRYER
4. Strike a chord : RESONATE
5. “Gross!” : EEW!
6. Source of great profit : GOLD MINE
7. Mercury or Earth : ORB
8. District in Rome : TREVI
9. Sheldon’s apartment-mate on “The Big Bang Theory” : LEONARD
10. “___ questions?” : ANY
11. Emmy-winning drama four years in a row, with “The” : WEST WING
12. Some memory triggers : AROMAS
13. Stereotypical beatnik accessory : BERET
14. Hard water : ICE
15. Pushed back : DELAYED
16. Capture : ENSNARE
17. Fuming : STEAMED
19. Bonding molecule : LIGAND
24. Kind of ticket : LOTTO
25. Howl : BAY
31. “My, my!” : OH DEAR!
36. Card game with a “Chairman” : MAO
37. Ape : IMITATOR
39. Letters of certification? : USDA
40. Ending for how or who, for Shakespeare : E’ER
43. One that’s a bore? : WEEVIL
44. Fights : HAS AT IT
45. Where prints may be picked up : ART SALE
46. Movement : ISM
47. Send in troops, say : START A WAR
48. Some wrestlers : SUMOS
52. Bonkers : MENTAL
55. Went back over : RETROD
56. Rapper ___ Rida : FLO
58. Juin preceder : MAI
59. 1968 live folk album : ARLO
61. “Tender Is the Night” locale, with “the” : RIVIERA
62. Mideast legislature : KNESSET
64. Determines the concentration of a dissolved substance : TITRATES
66. Team V.I.P. : MVP
67. Ocho – dos : SEIS
69. Certain ruminant : ELK
71. “Summer Nights” musical : GREASE
73. Colorful, pebble-like candies : NERDS
74. Bit of trip planning: Abbr. : RTE
75. Roth ___ : IRA
81. Take up again, as a case : REHEAR
83. Yearbook sect. : SRS
85. Small power sources : AAAS
88. Ones that warn before they attack : RATTLERS
90. Former employer for Vladimir Putin, for short : KGB
91. Sunny room : SOLARIUM
93. Reams : CHEWS OUT
94. Takes a turn : SWIVELS
95. Strict : LITERAL
96. Work for a folder : ORIGAMI
98. What you might be in France? : TOI
99. Degree of disorder in a system : ENTROPY
100. Pop stars? : NOVAS
101. Bit of wisdom : NUGGET
103. Pushes aside : SHUNTS
106. “___ Baby Are You?” (1920 show tune) : WHOSE
107. Debt note : IOU
108. Rocker Bob : SEGER
111. Beguile : AMUSE
112. Corn chip since 1966 : BUGLE
113. Clear sky : ETHER
120. Pip : GEM
122. Barely beat : NIP
123. Chance, poetically : HAP
124. Refusals : NOS

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