0915-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 15 Sep 14, Monday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1.: ___ and Clark expedition: LEWIS
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were soldiers in the US Army. Lewis was a personal aide to President Thomas Jefferson, even residing in the Presidential Mansion. This exposure contributed to his selection as leader of the famous expedition. William Clark was actually Lewis’s boss for a while before Clark retired. Lewis asked Clark to come out of retirement to accompany him on his three-year exploration.

6.: “Romeo and Juliet” has five of them: ACTS
Shakespeare adopted the five-act structure for all of his plays, using the same format that was used by Seneca for his Roman tragedies. Given five acts, the plays tend to unfold as follows:

– Act I is used as an introduction
– Act II is used to complicate things
– Act III contains the climax of the tale
– Act IV is used to add some suspense
– Act V is the conclusion

13.: Juneau’s home: ALASKA
Given that it’s the capital of the vast state of Alaska, it is perhaps not surprising to learn that the municipality of Juneau is almost as big as the area of the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined, and yet has only a population of about 31,000 people!

15.: Season to be jolly: NOEL
“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, ultimately coming from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). Noel has come to be used as an alternative name for a Christmas carol.

16.: Singer Reed or Rawls: LOU
Lou Reed is best known as a rock musician and songwriter, and is especially associated with fabulous 1973 hit “Walk on the Wildside”. Reed is less well known as a photographer, but he has published two collections of his work. The first was released in 2003 under the title “Emotions in Action”, and the second in 2006 called “Lou Reed’s New York”.

Lou Rawls was an American soul and blues singer known for his smooth vocal style. With his singing career well on the way, Rawls was asked to sing “The Star Spangled Banner” in 1977 at a Muhammad Ali fight in Madison Square Garden. This performance led to him being asked to sing the anthem many, many times in the coming years with his last rendition being at a World Series game in 2005. Rawls passed away in January of the following year.

25.: Wine: Prefix: OENO-
In Greek mythology, Oeno was the goddess of wine, giving us “oeno-” as a prefix meaning “wine”. For example, oenology is the study of wine and an oenophile is a wine-lover.

32.: Diana Rigg’s role on “The Avengers”: EMMA PEEL
“The Avengers” was must-see television when I was growing up. “The Avengers” was a sixties comedy spy series set in England during the days of the Cold War. The hero was John Steed, played ably by Patrick MacNee. Steed had various female partners as the series progressed, the first of which was Cathy Gale, played by Honor Blackman (who also played Pussy Galore in “Goldfinger”). Following Ms. Gale was Emma Peel played by the wonderful Diana Rigg. Finally there was Tara King, played by Linda Thorson.

Diana Rigg is a marvelous actress from England who is best known for playing Emma Peel on the hit sixties show “The Avengers”. Rigg also won an Emmy for her performance in a 1997 television adaptation of “Rebecca”. She was also the best ever Bond girl, in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (opposite the worst ever Bond guy, George Lazenby).

36.: ___ Cong: VIET
“Viet Cong” was the name of the political and military organization based in South Vietnam that fought the US and South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War. The American military referred to the Viet Cong as “the VC”. “VC” could be extended to “Victor Charlie” in the phonetic alphabet, and this was shortened to “Charlie”, which became a military slang term for the Viet Cong and other Communists.

37.: Junk, from Yiddish: DRECK
“Dreck” is filth or trash, a word that comes into English from “drek”, the Yiddish word for rubbish.

41.: Hall-of-Fame QB John: ELWAY
Former quarterback John Elway played his entire professional football career with the Denver Broncos. Elway now works as the executive vice president for football operations with the Broncos, which means he works for the team president directly, and that head coach John Fox reports to Elway. Elway was the oldest player ever to be named MVP in a Super Bowl game, being so honored in Super Bowl XXXIII in the 1998 season after the Bronco’s victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

48.: Doozy: LULU
We call a remarkable thing or a person a “lulu”. The term is used in honor of Lulu Hurst, the Georgia Wonder, who was a stage magician active in the 1880s.

Eleanora Duse was an Italian actress, known professionally simply as “Duse”. There is a theory that our term “doozy” derived from Eleanora’s family name. I guess she was a “doozy”.

49.: TV show created by Lorne Michaels, for short: SNL
Lorne Michaels is a television producer, best known as the creator of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL). We can get some insight into Michaels’ character and demeanor by watching the show “30 Rock”. The character played by Alec Baldwin is inspired by Michaels.

50.: Car item that speaks, in brief: GPS
GPS stands for Global Positioning System. The modern GPS system that we use today was built by the US military who received the massive funding needed because of fears during the Cold War of the use of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. We civilians all round the world owe a lot to President Ronald Reagan because he directed the military to make GPS technology available to the public for the common good. President Reagan was moved to do so after the Soviet Union shot down KAL flight 007 carrying 269 people, just because the plane strayed accidentally into Soviet airspace.

53.: Jetty: QUAY
A jetty is a pier that juts out into a body of water. “Jetty” derives from the French verb “jeter” meaning “to throw”, the idea being that a jetty is a structure that is “thrown” out past the edge of the land surrounding the body of water.

56.: “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” musical: EVITA
“Evita” was the follow up musical to “Jesus Christ Superstar” for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Both of these works were originally released as album musicals, and very successful ones at that (I remember buying them when they first came out). “Evita” was made into a film in 1996, with Madonna playing the title role and Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce playing her husband Juan Perón.

58.: Eins, zwei, ___: DREI
The German for “one, two, three” is “eins, zwei, drei”.

59.: Web address: URL
Internet addresses (like NYTCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com ) are more correctly called Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).

63.: Bruins of the N.C.A.A.: UCLA
The UCLA Bruins mascots are Joe and Josephine Bruin, characters that have evolved over the years. There used to be “mean” Bruin mascots but they weren’t very popular with the fans, so now there are only “happy” Bruin mascots at the games.

65.: April payment: TAX
April 15th wasn’t always Tax Day in the US. The deadline for returns was March 1st from 1913-18, when it was moved to March 15th. Tax Day has been April 15th since 1955.

66.: ___ ex machina: DEUS
“Deus ex machina” is a Latin phrase that translates as “god out of the machine”. “Deus ex machina” is a plot device used in some works whereby some apparently inextricable problem is suddenly resolved by an unexpected intervention. The term was first used in Horace’s “Ars Poetica”.

Down
2.: Funeral song: ELEGY
An elegy is a mournful poem or funeral song, also known as a dirge. Perhaps the most famous elegy in the English language is that written by Thomas Gray, completed in 1750. His “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is the source of many oft-quoted phrases, including:

– Celestial fire
– Far from the Madding Crowd
– Kindred spirit

3.: Hit 2008 Pixar film with a robot: WALL-E
“WALL-E” is a very cute, Pixar movie, released in 2008. The hero of the piece is a robot called WALL-E, who loves his “Hello Dolly”, and who falls in love with another robot called EVE.

6.: The “A” of A.D.: ANNO
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.

9.: Camera type, in brief: SLR
SLR stands for “single lens reflex”. Usually cameras with changeable lenses are the SLR type. The main feature of an SLR is that a mirror reflects the image seen through the lens out through the viewfinder, so that the photographer sees exactly what the lens sees. The mirror moves out of the way as the picture is taken, and the image that comes through the lens falls onto unexposed film, or nowadays onto a digital sensor.

10.: Alan of “M*A*S*H”: ALDA
Alan Alda has had a great television career, especially of course on “M*A*S*H”. Alda won his first Emmy in 1972, for playing Hawkeye Pierce on “M*A*S*H”. He won his most recent Emmy in 2006 for his portrayal of Presidential candidate Arnold Vinick in “The West Wing”. When it comes to the big screen, my favorite of Alda’s movies is the 1978 romantic comedy “Same Time, Next Year” in which he starred opposite Ellen Burstyn.

11.: ___ II Men (R&B group): BOYZ
BOYZ II Men are an R&B vocal trio from Philadelphia who started out in 1988. The original BOYZ II Men lineup included a fourth member, Michael McCary. McCary left the group in 2003 due to chronic back pain. The BOYZ II Men 1992 hit “End of the Road” stayed at number-one in the Billboard charts for an amazing thirteen weeks, shattering the 11-week record that had been held by Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” since 1956.

12.: Canal to the Red Sea: SUEZ
The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. The canal took ten years to construct, and opened in 1869. The northern terminus of the waterway is Port Said, and the southern is Port Tewfik in the city of Suez, which gives the canal its name. There are no locks on the Suez Canal, and there is only “one-lane” navigation available. There are two spots in the canal where ships travelling in opposing directions can pass each other. A second canal is now under construction that will cover half the route of the existing canal. When completed, the Suez Canal will be able to handle 97 ships a day, up from the current capacity of 49 ships per day.

18.: Zodiac symbol for Sagittarius: ARCHER
Sagittarius is a constellation of the zodiac, with “sagittarius” being the Latin for “archer”. The constellation is usually represented by a centaur (half-bull, half-man) with a bow.

22.: Mr. X: JOHN DOE
Although the English court system does not use the term today, John Doe first appeared as the “name of a person unknown” in England in 1659, along with another unknown, Richard Roe. The female equivalent of John Doe is Jane Doe, with the equivalent to Richard Roe being Jane Roe (as in Roe v. Wade).

24.: Au courant: HIP
“Au courant” means “up-to-date” and comes into English directly from French, in which language it has the same meaning.

26.: Cpl. or sgt.: NCO
An NCO is a non-commissioned officer in the armed forces. Usually such an officer is one who has earned his or her rank by promotion through the enlisted ranks. A good example would be a sergeant or a corporal.

27.: How Hamlet stabs Polonius: FATALLY
In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, Polonius is an important character eventually killed by Hamlet, albeit in a case of mistaken identity. Polonius has two memorable lines in the play that are oft-quoted today. “To thine own self be true”, and “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”.

28.: Hebrew “A”: ALEPH
“Aleph” is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and “beth” the second.

32.: “Be it ___ so humble …”: EVER
“Home! Sweet Home!” is a song that has been around at least since 1827. The melody was composed by Englishman Sir Henry Bishop, using lyrics written by American John Howard Payne.

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home;
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which seek thro’ the world, is ne’er met elsewhere.
Home! Home!
Sweet, sweet home!
There’s no place like home
There’s no place like home!

33.: Venus de ___: MILO
The famous “Venus de Milo” is so named as she was discovered in the ruins of the ancient city of Milos, on the Aegean island of the same name. I’ve been lucky enough to see the statue, in the Louvre in Paris, and was surprised at how large it is (6 ft 8 in tall).

34.: Whimper: MEWL
“To mewl” is to cry weakly, like a baby, with the word being somewhat imitative of the sound itself.

42.: Word that completes the song titles “___ Baby” and “Baby It’s ___”: YOU
“You Baby” is a 1966 album and title track released by the Turtles.

“Baby It’s You” is a Burt Bacharach song that was a hit both for the Shirelles in 1961, and for the Beatles as a re-release in 1995.

44.: The “S” in R.S.V.P.: S’IL
RSVP stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “please, answer”.

47.: Polynesian land whose Internet suffix is .tv: TUVALU
Tuvalu is a Polynesian island nation that was formerly called the Ellice Islands. Tuvalu lies midway between Hawaii and Australia. It is the third least populous sovereign state in the world with under 11,000 inhabitants, ahead of Vatican City and Nauru.

50.: Dish that Oliver Twist asked for more of: GRUEL
“Oliver Twist” is a novel by Charles Dickens. It is a popular tale for adaptation to the big screen. There were two silent film versions, in 1909 and 1922, and the first talkie version was released in 1933, with many to follow. The latest “Oliver” for the big screen was a 2005 Roman Polanski production.

52.: Spacek of “Carrie”: SISSY
The actress Sissy Spacek probably got her big break in movies when she played the title role in the 1976 horror movie “Carrie”, which is based on the Stephen King novel. Her most acclaimed role is the lead in the 1980 biopic about Loretta Lynn called “Coal MIner’s Daughter”, for which she won an Oscar. Spacek’s first cousin is the actor Rip Torn.

54.: ___ Major: URSA
The constellation called Ursa Major (Latin for “Larger Bear”) is often just called the Big Dipper because of its resemblance to a ladle or dipper. Ursa Major also resembles a plow, and that’s what we usually call the same constellation back in Ireland, the “plough”.

55.: “Jeopardy!” host Trebek: ALEX
The word is that Alex Trebek will step down as host of the game show “Jeopardy” in 2016, when his current contract expires. The list of names mentioned to replace Trebek includes Brian Williams, Dan Patrick, Matt Lauer and Anderson Cooper. I vote for Cooper, but I can’t see him taking the job …

61.: Old British rule in India: RAJ
The period of colonial rule by the British in South Asia from 1858 to 1947 is referred to as the British Raj. Prior to 1858, the area was ruled by a private enterprise, the British East India Company. “Raj” is the Hindi word for “reign”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1.: ___ and Clark expedition: LEWIS
6.: “Romeo and Juliet” has five of them: ACTS
10.: Stomach muscles, for short: ABS
13.: Juneau’s home: ALASKA
15.: Season to be jolly: NOEL
16.: Singer Reed or Rawls: LOU
17.: Performer who may have a navel decoration: BELLY DANCER
19.: Color, as Easter eggs: DYE
20.: Eye amorously: OGLE
21.: Souped-up engine sound: VROOM!
22.: Bebop, e.g.: JAZZ
23.: Bread for a ham sandwich: RYE
24.: Drunk’s interjection: HIC
25.: Wine: Prefix: OENO-
27.: Some British pub food: FISH AND CHIPS
32.: Diana Rigg’s role on “The Avengers”: EMMA PEEL
35.: With precise timing: ON CUE
36.: ___ Cong: VIET
37.: Junk, from Yiddish: DRECK
40.: Precursor to a game of chicken: DARE
41.: Hall-of-Fame QB John: ELWAY
43.: Jailbird: PRISONER
45.: Risk, figuratively: ROLL OF THE DIE
48.: Doozy: LULU
49.: TV show created by Lorne Michaels, for short: SNL
50.: Car item that speaks, in brief: GPS
53.: Jetty: QUAY
56.: “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” musical: EVITA
58.: Eins, zwei, ___: DREI
59.: Web address: URL
60.: Common stir-fry ingredients: BEAN SPROUTS
62.: Suffix with expert: -ISE
63.: Bruins of the N.C.A.A.: UCLA
64.: Command used when creating a new file name: SAVE AS …
65.: April payment: TAX
66.: ___ ex machina: DEUS
67.: What quivering legs feel like … or a word that can precede the starts of 17-, 27-, 45- and 60-Across: JELLY

Down
1.: Childbirth: LABOR
2.: Funeral song: ELEGY
3.: Hit 2008 Pixar film with a robot: WALL-E
4.: Getaway spot in the sea: ISLE
5.: Clouds’ locale: SKY
6.: The “A” of A.D.: ANNO
7.: What a butterfly emerges from: COCOON
8.: Overflowed (with): TEEMED
9.: Camera type, in brief: SLR
10.: Alan of “M*A*S*H”: ALDA
11.: ___ II Men (R&B group): BOYZ
12.: Canal to the Red Sea: SUEZ
14.: Counseled: ADVISED
18.: Zodiac symbol for Sagittarius: ARCHER
22.: Mr. X: JOHN DOE
24.: Au courant: HIP
26.: Cpl. or sgt.: NCO
27.: How Hamlet stabs Polonius: FATALLY
28.: Hebrew “A”: ALEPH
29.: “Not if ___ help it!”: I CAN
30.: 100%: PURE
31.: Crystal ball gazer: SEER
32.: “Be it ___ so humble …”: EVER
33.: Venus de ___: MILO
34.: Whimper: MEWL
38.: Colorful parts of many birds: CRESTS
39.: Takes for ransom: KIDNAPS
42.: Word that completes the song titles “___ Baby” and “Baby It’s ___”: YOU
44.: The “S” in R.S.V.P.: S’IL
46.: Lamb’s coat: FLEECE
47.: Polynesian land whose Internet suffix is .tv: TUVALU
50.: Dish that Oliver Twist asked for more of: GRUEL
51.: “He loves me, he loves me not” flower part: PETAL
52.: Spacek of “Carrie”: SISSY
53.: Leave work for good: QUIT
54.: ___ Major: URSA
55.: “Jeopardy!” host Trebek: ALEX
57.: Bring ___ a third party: IN AS
58.: Peace symbol: DOVE
60.: Blossom-to-be: BUD
61.: Old British rule in India: RAJ

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