0824-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 24 Aug 14, Sunday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
8. Stomach settler : BICARB
“Bicarb” is a familiar term for sodium bicarbonate. Another name for the same compound is “baking soda”. When sodium carbonate is added to a batter, it reacts with acids and releases carbon dioxide which gives baked goods texture, all those “holes”.

20. Truck-driving competitions : ROADEOS
A “roadeo” is a competition held between drivers of buses or trucks. Obviously, the term is a play on the words “road” and “rodeo”.

22. The Roman poet Ovid, once : EXILE
The Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso is today known simply as Ovid. Ovid is usually listed alongside the two other great Roman poets: Horace and Virgil. Ovid was very popular in his day, but somehow he fell foul of Emperor Augustus. For a reason unknown today, Augustus banished Ovid to Tomis, an island in the Black Sea. He lived there for about ten years, until he died.

23. Paintball gun? : BLOT ACTION RIFLE (from “bolt action rifle”)
The “paint” in paintball isn’t actually paint, but rather a mix of gelatin and food coloring.

25. “Keep climbing” sloganeer : DELTA
Delta was the world’s largest airline for a while (after merging with Northwest Airlines in 2008) and is also the oldest airline still operating in the US. Delta’s roots go back to 1924 before it started carrying passengers and was called Huff Daland Dusters, a crop dusting company based in Macon, Georgia. The name Delta Air Service was introduced in 1928.

26. Hankerings : YENS
The word “yen”, meaning “urge”, has been around in English since the very early 1900s. It comes from the earlier word “yin” imported from Chinese, which was used in English to describe an intense craving for opium!

28. Device that can tell if someone’s recently vacationed in Hawaii? : LEI DETECTOR (from “lie detector”)
“Lei” is the Hawaiian word for “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a “lei” is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

30. U.K. news source, with “the” : BEEB
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is also known as “the Beeb”, a name given to the network by the great Peter Sellers on the classic British radio comedy called “The Goon Show”. The BBC was founded in 1922, and was the world’s first national broadcasting organization.

31. Trifling amount : SOU
A sou is an old French coin. We use the term “sou” to mean “an almost worthless amount”.

38. The Cardinals, on scoreboards : STL
The St. Louis Cardinals were originally called the “Brown Stockings”, changing their name to the “Perfectos” in 1899. The new name obviously didn’t go down well with the locals, as the owners changed it one year later to the Cardinals.

39. Eschew modesty : CROW
“To eschew”, meaning “to avoid, shun” comes from the Old French word “eschiver” that means the same thing.

43. Big name in trucking : CON-WAY
Con-Way is a transportation company based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Con-Way was founded in 1929 as Consolidated Truck Lines.

44. Item from the Victoria’s Sweetness catalog? : BRA OF CHOCOLATE (from “bar of chocolate”)
Victoria’s Secret was founded in 1977 in San Francisco, California. The founder wanted to create an environment where men were comfortable buying lingerie for their wives and girlfriends, an alternative to a department store.

49. Nautical command : AVAST
“Avast” is a nautical term used to tell someone to stop or desist from what they are doing. The word comes from the Dutch “hou vast” meaning “hold fast”.

51. Boccaccio wrote a biography of him : DANTE
Dante Alighieri (usually just “Dante”) was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. Dante’s “Divine Comedy” is widely considered to be the greatest literary work ever written in the Italian language.

Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet. Boccaccio’s most famous works are probably a collection of novellas called “The Decameron”, and a collection of biographies called “On Famous Women”.

52. Union general Wallace : LEW
Lew Wallace was a general for the Union Army during the Civil War, and was also an author. He wrote a very successful and celebrated book called “Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ”, first published in 1880, which was made into a movie starring Charlton Heston.

57. Anne Frank, e.g.? : DIARY MAID (from “dairymaid”)
Anne Frank has to be one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust. This is largely because the story of this young girl lives on in her widely published diary, and in adaptations of the diary for stage and screen. Anne Frank was a German until she lost her nationality in 1941 when the Nazis came to power. By this time she was living with her family in Amsterdam, as the Franks chose to flee Germany in 1933. When the Germans occupied the Netherlands, the family went into hiding in the attic of Otto Frank’s office building (Otto was Anne’s father). There the family hid for two whole years until they were betrayed. The family was split up, and Anne and her sister died from typhus in a concentration camp in 1945.

61. Ones manifesting Manifest Destiny : SETTLERS
Manifest Destiny was the belief expressed in the 19th century that the United States was “destined” to expand right across North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

63. Wash. Square campus : NYU
The main campus of the private New York University (NYU) is located right in Manhattan, in Washington Square in the heart of Greenwich Village. NYU has over 12,000 resident students, the largest number of residents in a private school in the whole country.

67. Site of many IVs : ICU
One might see intravenous drips (IVs) in an intensive care unit (ICU).

73. “Hee Haw” heyday, say? : ERA OF CORN (from “ear of corn”)
The variety show “Hee Haw” aired on CBS from 1969-1971, and then had a 20-year run in syndication. The show was built around country music, although the format was inspired by “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In”.

76. Rock growth : LICHEN
Lichens are interesting organisms, as they are made up of a partnership of a fungus and either an alga or a bacterium existing in a symbiotic relationship. The algae or bacteria are capable of photosynthesis, and so manufacture simple sugars using light and carbon dioxide from the air. The fungus uses the manufactured sugars, and in return provides a stable environment for the algae or bacteria to thrive.

79. Director of the “Dark Knight” trilogy : NOLAN
Director Christopher Nolan is best known for “rescuing” the floundering Batman movie franchise. He directed “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight”.

83. Figure skater Mao : ASADA
Mao Asada is a figure skater from Japan. Asada won a silver medal in the 2010 Olympics, and won the World Championships of 2008, 2010 and 2014. Asada is extremely popular in her homeland, where she is known affectionately as “Mao-chan”.

89. Novelist Danielle without her glossy dress? : SATINLESS STEEL (from “stainless steel”)
Danielle Steel is a remarkably popular author. She has sold over 800 million copies of her novels, making her the eighth best-selling writer in history.

In order to resist the tendency to rust, stainless steel (as opposed to carbon steel) has about 11% chromium. Stainless steel does in fact tend to rust, but just not as easily as regular carbon steel.

92. “A Streetcar Named Desire” role : STELLA
“Stella! Hey, Stella!” is a famous line cried out by Marlon Brando’s character (Stanley Kowalski) as his wife Stella (played by Kim Hunter) leaves for the last time with her child, in the movie “A Streetcar Named Desire”.

Desire is the name of a neighborhood in New Orleans, a destination for a streetcar line. The name “Desire” appears on the front of streetcars bound for that neighborhood, hence the title of the 1947 Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire”.

93. ___-Ball : SKEE
Skee Ball is that arcade game where you roll balls up a ramp trying to “bounce” it into rings for varying numbers of points. The game was first introduced in Philadelphia, in 1909.

95. Honey Bunches of Oafs, e.g.? : CLOD CEREAL (from “cold cereal”)
Honey Bunches of Oats is a breakfast cereal made by Post Foods.

98. Beaver Cleaver exclamation : GEE!
Ward Cleaver and his wife June were the parents of Wally Cleaver and his younger brother “The Beaver”. The four family members appeared in the fifties sitcom “Leave It to Beaver”.

We used to see a lot of American television programming growing up in Ireland, but “Leave It to Beaver” was one show that didn’t make it across the Atlantic. I’ve seen a couple of episodes, and I am not sure it would travel well. The show went on the air for the first time the day that Sputnik was launched by the Russians, and aired its last show just a few months before President Kennedy was assassinated. An iconic series, by all accounts.

100. Yom Kippur War figure : MEIR
Golda Meir was known as the “Iron Lady” when she was Prime Minister of Israel, long before the term came to be associated with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Golda Meir was born Golda Mabovitch in Kiev (in modern-day Ukraine), and when she was a young girl she moved with her family to the United States and settled in Milwaukee. As a teenager she relocated to Denver where she met and married Morris Meyerson, at the age of 19. She and her husband joined a kibbutz in Palestine in 1921, when she was in her twenties. Meir had been active in politics in the US, and continued her political work in Palestine. She was very influential during WWII, and played a leading role in negotiations after the war leading to the setting up of the state of Israel. By the time she was called on to lead the country, Meir had already retired, citing exhaustion and ill health. But serve she did, and led Israel during turbulent times (e.g. the massacre at the Munich Olympics, and the Yom Kippur War). She eventually resigned in 1974, saying that was what the people wanted.

The Yom Kippur War started on October 6 in 1973 with a surprise move by Syria and Egypt into the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights. The conflict quickly escalated into a confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union, as both superpowers rushed arms to the opposing states. Within a week, Israeli forces had regained the land that had been lost and two weeks later had advanced within striking range of both Cairo and Damascus. A UN brokered ceasefire brought the war to an end on October 25, after just 19 days of fighting.

101. Soup after it’s been taken off the burner? : CALM CHOWDER (from “clam chowder”)
The type of soup known as “chowder” may be named for the pot in which it used to be cooked called a “chaudière” (boiler), a French term.

107. Semidome site : APSE
The apse of a church or cathedral is a semicircular recess in an outer wall, usually with a half-dome as a roof and often where there resides an altar. Originally apses were used as burial places for the clergy and also for storage of important relics.

108. Care providers, for short : HMOS
Health Maintenance Organization(HMO)

113. What might determine if the moon hitting your eye like a big pizza pie is truly amore? : CROONER’S INQUEST (from “coroner’s inquest”)
“That’s Amore” is a pop standard written by Harry Warren and Jack Brooks in 1952. “That’s Amore” became the signature song for Dean Martin after he sang it (with some help from Jerry Lewis) in the 1953 comedy film “The Caddy”. “When the moon hits you eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore …”

The term “coroner” is derived from the Latin “custos placitorum coronae”, which was once the title of the officer responsible for protecting the property of the royal family (“corona” is Latin for “crown”). Over time, the responsibilities of the office narrowed and changed until by the 17th century, the main task was to determine the cause of death in cases not obviously natural.

116. “A Journal of the Plague Year” novelist, 1722 : DEFOE
Daniel Defoe is most famous today as an author, of the novel “Robinson Crusoe” in particular. Defoe was also a trader, and a spy for King William III.

Daniel Defoe, author of “Robinson Crusoe”, also wrote the novel “A Journal of the Plague Year”, a story set in the Great Plague that stuck London in 1665.

117. ___ Lane, acting first lady during Buchanan’s tenure : HARRIET
James Buchanan was US President just prior to the Civil War. He was the only president from the state of Pennsylvania, and also the only president who remained a bachelor for the whole of his life. As he was unmarried, Buchanan’s niece Harriet Lane acted as First Lady. Buchanan earned the nickname “Ten-Cent Jimmie” during the 1856 presidential election campaign. He was famous for his claim that ten cents a day was enough for a working man to live on.

Down
1. Pen name of columnist Pauline Phillips : ABBY
The advice column “Dear Abby” first appeared in 1956. Pauline Phillips was Abby back then, but now the column is written by Jeanne Phillips, her daughter. The full name of the “Abby” pen name is Abigail Van Buren, which Pauline Phillips came up with by combining “Abigail” from the biblical Book of Samuel, and “Van Buren” after the former US president.

3. In a moment : ANON
“Anon” originally meant “at once” and evolved into today’s meaning of “soon” apparently just because the word was misused over time.

5. Miss ___ : USA
The Miss USA beauty pageant was founded in 1952 in order to select the American candidate for the Miss Universe competition.

6. “Lolita” subject : LECHERY
The word “lecher”, one who debauches, came into English in the 12th century. The original word in Old French was “lecheor”, literally “licker”.

Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “Lolita” has a famously controversial storyline, dealing with a middle-aged man’s obsession and sexual relationship with a 12-year-old girl. Although “Lolita” is considered a classic today, after Nabokov finished it in 1953 the edgy subject matter made it impossible for him to find a publisher in the US (where Nabokov lived). In 1955, he resorted to publishing it in English at a printing house in Paris. Publication was followed by bans and seizures all over Europe. A US printing house finally took on the project in 1958, by which time the title had such a reputation that it sold exceptionally quickly. “Lolita” became the first book since “Gone with the Wind” to sell over 100,000 copies in its first three weeks in stores.

10. Connie’s husband in “The Godfather” : CARLO
In the Mario Puzo novel “The Godfather”, Carlo Rizzi is married to Connie Corleone, daughter of Mafia boss Don Vito Corleone. Carol was played by actor Gianni Russo in the 1972 movie.

11. Last thing bid? : ADIEU
“Adieu” is the French for “goodbye” or “farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God”.

16. “Rock-a-bye Baby,” e.g. : LILT
“Rock-a-Bye Baby” is a lullaby, the history of which is much debated. Some say it originated in England, and others claim that it was the first poem that was written on American soil.

Rock-a-bye baby, on the treetop,
When the wind blows, the cradle will rock,
When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall,
And down will come baby, cradle and all.

17. ___ clef : ALTO
Clef is the French word for “key”. In music, a clef is used to indicate the pitch of the notes written on the stave.

30. “Bugsy” star : BEATTY
The actor Warren Beatty is the only person to have been nominated for an Oscar in the categories of producer, director, writer and actor, all for the same film. What’s even more remarkable achieved that honor twice: for the films “Heaven Can Wait” and “Reds”.

34. Peaceful protest of the 1960s : LOVE-IN
A “love-in” was a peaceful protest most associated with the late sixties. The gatherings themselves often involved meditation, music and the use of psychedelic drugs. The term “love-in” was apparently coined by LA comedian Peter Bergman who had a radio show at that time.

36. Bugs that weigh tons : VWS
VW stands for Volkswagen, which translates from German into “people’s car”. The original Volkswagen design was the Beetle and was built under a directive from Adolf Hitler, who wanted a cheap car built that ordinary people could afford to purchase. He awarded the contract to engineer Ferdinand Porsche, whose name (paradoxically) would forever be associated with high performance, expensive cars. The Beetle was the official name of the VW model released in North America, but it was usually referred to as a “Bug” here in the US, and a “Beetle” elsewhere in the world.

37. Brady Campaign opposer, for short : NRA
The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (usually referred to as “the Brady Bill”) was enacted in 1993 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The law instituted federal background checks for anyone wishing to purchase a firearm. The legislation is named for Jim Brady, Ronald Reagan’s press secretary who was paralysed for life when John Hinckley, Jr. attempted to assassinate the president. Brady passed away in August 2014. The death was ruled a homicide, that he had died from the gunshot wound he received thirty-three years earlier.

38. Cheat : SHYSTER
“Shyster” is American slang for an unscrupulous lawyer, and is probably an alteration of the German word “Scheisser” meaning an incompetent and worthless person. “Scheisser” derives from an even less complimentary term “Sheisse”, the German for …. well, I won’t say it. But I will say as an aside that one of my son’s school friends told me one time that he didn’t really hold with the “Thank God It’s Friday” philosophy (TGIF), and was more into “So Happy It’s Thursday”. You can work it out …

41. Palindromic name : OTTO
The three most famous palindromes in English have to be:

– Able was I ere I saw Elba
– A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
– Madam, I’m Adam

One of my favorite words is “Aibohphobia”, although it doesn’t appear in the dictionary and is a joke term. “Aibohphobia” is a great way to describe a fear of palindromes, by creating a palindrome out of the suffix “-phobia”.

45. Work with a number : OPUS
The Latin for “work” is “opus”, with the plural being “opera”.

54. Modern-day capital that King David ordered besieged : AMMAN
Amman is the capital city of Jordan, and is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world. Amman has been occupied by a number of different civilizations over the centuries, including the Greeks who called it Philadelphia, a name retained by the Romans when they occupied the city just after 100 AD.

56. Sri Lanka export : PEKOE
A pekoe (or more commonly, orange pekoe) is a medium-grade black tea. There is no orange flavor in an orange pekoe tea. The “orange” name most likely derived from the name of the trading company that brought the tea to Europe from Asia.

The name Sri Lanka translates from Sanskrit into English as “venerable island”. Before 1970, Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon, a name given to the country during British rule. The lion on the country’s national flag symbolizes the fight against British colonialism.

58. “Joseph Anton: A Memoir” autobiographer : RUSHDIE
Salman Rushdie is a famous British novelist, born in India. Rushdie’s most celebrated novel is “The Satanic Verses” published in 1988, a Booker Prize finalist. However, the book attracted unfavorable attention from many in the Muslim faith who labelled it as blasphemy. Such was the outrage that a fatwā was issued in 1989 by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini calling for the faithful to kill Rushdie. The author remains under police protection provided by the UK government and has not been harmed, although others associated with the book have been injured and even killed. Rushdie wrote “Joseph Anton: A Memoir” in 2012, which tells of the author’s time in hiding, when he used the pseudonym Joseph Anton. The pseudonym was in honor of authors Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov.

65. Black Friday events : SALES
In the world of retail, “Black Friday” is the day after Thanksgiving in the US. Black Friday is when many stores start the holiday shopping season, and so offer deep discounts to get ahead of the competition.

69. Phoebe’s twin on “Friends” : URSULA
The character Phoebe Buffay (and her identical twin sister Ursula) is played on the sitcom “Friends” by the actress Lisa Kudrow. Kudrow plays the ditzy member of the troupe of friends, but I’ve always viewed her as the “smartest” of the group of actors in real life, as best I could tell. Kudrow is behind the US version of the British genealogy show “Who Do You Think You Are?” a very entertaining bit of television.

75. High country : NEPAL
Nepal lies to the northeast of India. Today, the state is known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. In 2008, the Communist Party of Nepal won the country’s general election. Soon after, the Assembly voted to change the form of government, moving away from a monarchy and creating a secular republic.

77. Author Dinesen : ISAK
Isak Dinesen was the pen name of the Danish author Baroness Karen Blixen. Blixen’s most famous title by far is “Out of Africa”, her account of the time she spent living in Kenya.

78. Blanchett of “Blue Jasmine” : CATE
Cate Blanchett is a great Australian actress, and winner of an Academy Award for playing Katherine Hepburn in “The Aviator”. Winning for that role made Blanchett the first person to win an Academy Award for playing an actor (Hepburn) who had also won an Oscar. Now that, that is trivial information …

The 2013 comedy-drama “Blue Jasmine” was written and directed by Woody Allen, and stars Australian actress Cate Blanchett. The film’s storyline has been compared to that of the Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire”. My wife saw this one, and she said it was quite dark, but enjoyable. I didn’t see it as I am not much of a Woody Allen fan …

91. Ex-mayor seen in “The Muppets Take Manhattan” : ED KOCH
Ed Koch was a Democratic Representative in the US Congress from 1969-73, and then Mayor of New York City from 1978-89. From 1997 to 1999 Koch was a “judge” on the TV show “The People’s Court”. And in 2004, he collaborated with his sister Pat Koch, and wrote a children’s book called “Eddie, Harold’s Little Brother”, a tale about Ed’s own childhood experiences.

“The Muppets Take Manhattan” is a 1984 musical film, the third in a series of such films featuring the Muppets. This particular film introduced the world to the Muppet Babies, who are still around today.

92. “It’s true whether or not you believe in it,” per Neil deGrasse Tyson : SCIENCE
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist who is noted for his ability to communicate science to the masses. Tyson is well known for his appearances on the great PBS show “Nova”.

98. ___ Cantor, German mathematician who invented set theory : GEORG
Georg Cantor was the mathematician who invented set theory in the 1870s, along with Richard Dedekind.

99. Kovacs of comedy : ERNIE
Ernie Kovacs was an American comedian who was active in the fifties and early sixties. Famously, Kovacs was married to actress, singer and comedienne Edie Adams. Sadly, Kovacs died in a car accident in 1962.

101. Heels : CADS
Our word “cad”, meaning “a person lacking in finer feelings”, is a shortening of the word “cadet”. “Cad” was first used for a servant, and then students at British universities used “cad” as a term for a boy from the local town. “Cad” took on its current meaning in the 1830s.

102. Rink maneuver : AXEL
An Axel is a forward take-off jump in figure skating. It was first performed by Norwegian Axel Paulsen at the 1882 World Figure Skating championships.

104. Grammatical concept : MOOD
There are possible “moods” for English verbs: indicative, imperative, subjunctive and infinitive. Each is a verb form that shows the manner in which a thought is expressed.

105. Close the set? : WRAP
When shooting of a film is concluded the movie is said to “wrap”, and everyone heads to the wrap party. There is one story that “wrap” is actually an acronym for “wind, reel and print”, a reference to the transition of the filming process into post-production. But, this explanation is disputed.

106. TV “explorer” : DORA
“Dora the Explorer” is a cartoon series shown on Nickelodeon. Part of Dora’s remit is to introduce the show’s young viewers to some Spanish words and phrases.

107. Kennedy Center focus : ARTS
The Kennedy Center is a performing arts center in Washington, D.C. that is located on the banks of the Potomac River. The center opened in 1971 and is now hosts more performances than any other performing arts center in the whole country.

109. “Breaking Bad” commodity : METH
“Meth” is a street name used for the drug methamphetamine, also called “crank” and “crystal meth”.

I hadn’t seen the AMC drama “Breaking Bad” until relatively recently when my wife borrowed the first and second seasons from our local library. It is a well-written show about a high school teacher stricken by lung cancer who turns to a life of crime to make money. We just have to go find that last season that everyone raves about …

110. Home of the first U.N. secretary general : OSLO
Trygve Lie was a Norwegian politician who served as the first UN Secretary-General, from 1946 to 1952. Prior to his time at the UN, during WWII, Lie was the Foreign Minister of the Norwegian government-in-exile during the Nazi occupation.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. In most cases : AS A RULE
8. Stomach settler : BICARB
14. Fasten, as a rope : BELAY
19. “But wait … there’s more!” items : BONUSES
20. Truck-driving competitions : ROADEOS
22. The Roman poet Ovid, once : EXILE
23. Paintball gun? : BLOT ACTION RIFLE (from “bolt action rifle”)
25. “Keep climbing” sloganeer : DELTA
26. Hankerings : YENS
27. Maintains the border, say : HEMS
28. Device that can tell if someone’s recently vacationed in Hawaii? : LEI DETECTOR (from “lie detector”)
30. U.K. news source, with “the” : BEEB
31. Trifling amount : SOU
32. Dated : SAW
33. Narrow shaft in a mountain? : SLIVER MINE (from “silver mine”)
38. The Cardinals, on scoreboards : STL
39. Eschew modesty : CROW
43. Big name in trucking : CON-WAY
44. Item from the Victoria’s Sweetness catalog? : BRA OF CHOCOLATE (from “bar of chocolate”)
49. Nautical command : AVAST
50. Collective effort : TEAM PLAY
51. Boccaccio wrote a biography of him : DANTE
52. Union general Wallace : LEW
53. Shingle sealant : TAR
55. Poker set? : SUITS
56. Like many hospital patients getting visitors : POST-OP
57. Anne Frank, e.g.? : DIARY MAID (from “dairymaid”)
61. Ones manifesting Manifest Destiny : SETTLERS
63. Wash. Square campus : NYU
64. Some credit card rewards : MILES
66. Aerodynamic : SLEEK
67. Site of many IVs : ICU
70. One in a tight space, perhaps : SMALL CAR
73. “Hee Haw” heyday, say? : ERA OF CORN (from “ear of corn”)
76. Rock growth : LICHEN
79. Director of the “Dark Knight” trilogy : NOLAN
81. Salt source : SEA
82. Make do with, say : USE
83. Figure skater Mao : ASADA
84. Microscope part : EYEPIECE
87. Absorb : SOP UP
89. Novelist Danielle without her glossy dress? : SATINLESS STEEL (from “stainless steel”)
92. “A Streetcar Named Desire” role : STELLA
93. ___-Ball : SKEE
94. Channel-surfing catalysts : ADS
95. Honey Bunches of Oafs, e.g.? : CLOD CEREAL (from “cold cereal”)
97. Set a price of : ASK
98. Beaver Cleaver exclamation : GEE!
100. Yom Kippur War figure : MEIR
101. Soup after it’s been taken off the burner? : CALM CHOWDER (from “clam chowder”)
107. Semidome site : APSE
108. Care providers, for short : HMOS
112. Given : AXIOM
113. What might determine if the moon hitting your eye like a big pizza pie is truly amore? : CROONER’S INQUEST (from “coroner’s inquest”)
116. “A Journal of the Plague Year” novelist, 1722 : DEFOE
117. ___ Lane, acting first lady during Buchanan’s tenure : HARRIET
118. Send to the ocean bottom : SCUTTLE
119. Goes downhill? : SLEDS
120. Cells displaced them : PAGERS
121. British eatery : TEA SHOP

Down
1. Pen name of columnist Pauline Phillips : ABBY
2. Where the rubber meets the road? : SOLE
3. In a moment : ANON
4. Reasons to resurface : RUTS
5. Miss ___ : USA
6. “Lolita” subject : LECHERY
7. Honor : ESTEEM
8. Family business abbr. : BROS
9. Particle in a salt solution : ION
10. Connie’s husband in “The Godfather” : CARLO
11. Last thing bid? : ADIEU
12. Mortgage adjustment, briefly : REFI
13. Willing to take risks : BOLD
14. Dampen, perhaps : BEDEW
15. Higher-up : EXEC
16. “Rock-a-bye Baby,” e.g. : LILT
17. ___ clef : ALTO
18. It starts with a celebration : YEAR
21. Handles : SEES TO
24. Take a shot? : IMBIBE
29. Masseur’s supply : TALC
30. “Bugsy” star : BEATTY
31. Fashion lines : SEAMS
33. Burn : SCALD
34. Peaceful protest of the 1960s : LOVE-IN
35. Kind of : IN A WAY
36. Bugs that weigh tons : VWS
37. Brady Campaign opposer, for short : NRA
38. Cheat : SHYSTER
39. Kind of rock : CLASSIC
40. Sound off : RANT
41. Palindromic name : OTTO
42. Grieve openly : WEEP
45. Work with a number : OPUS
46. Garbage collection? : FLIES
47. Driven group : CATTLE
48. Sign of rot : ODOR
50. Be behind : TRAIL
54. Modern-day capital that King David ordered besieged : AMMAN
56. Sri Lanka export : PEKOE
58. “Joseph Anton: A Memoir” autobiographer : RUSHDIE
59. Absence justification : ILLNESS
60. Game drawers : DECOYS
62. Letter arrangement? : LEASE
65. Black Friday events : SALES
68. Candlelight diners, perhaps : COUPLE
69. Phoebe’s twin on “Friends” : URSULA
71. Have in mind : MEAN
72. Spellbound : RAPT
74. When repeated, cry before “They’re catching up!” : FASTER!
75. High country : NEPAL
76. Miss : LASS
77. Author Dinesen : ISAK
78. Blanchett of “Blue Jasmine” : CATE
80. One who may be grand? : NIECE
85. Slithery swimmer : EEL
86. Walks noisily : CLOMPS
88. Poetic contraction : O’ER
90. Whip tip : LASH
91. Ex-mayor seen in “The Muppets Take Manhattan” : ED KOCH
92. “It’s true whether or not you believe in it,” per Neil deGrasse Tyson : SCIENCE
96. Stop it : DESIST
97. Summits : ACMES
98. ___ Cantor, German mathematician who invented set theory : GEORG
99. Kovacs of comedy : ERNIE
101. Heels : CADS
102. Rink maneuver : AXEL
103. Long sentence : LIFE
104. Grammatical concept : MOOD
105. Close the set? : WRAP
106. TV “explorer” : DORA
107. Kennedy Center focus : ARTS
108. Humble dwellings : HUTS
109. “Breaking Bad” commodity : METH
110. Home of the first U.N. secretary general : OSLO
111. Walking distance : STEP
114. Poetic contraction : E’ER
115. Who: Lat. : QUA

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