1016-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 16 Oct 14, Thurday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: John Farmer
THEME: 3-Letter Repeat … each of today’s answers use a 3-letter sequence twice, once at the end of the first word and again at the start of the second:

69A. What three-letter words do in five answers in this puzzle REPEAT

18A. Cream-filled chocolate treats WHOOPIES (whoopie pies)
19A. Mark of dishonor SCARLETTER (scarlet letter)
39A. “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” poet PERCY BYSSHELLEY (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
57A. All-time scoring leader for the U.S. men’s soccer team LANDONOVAN (Landon Donovan)
62A. Official residence at the Vatican PAPALACE (Papal Palace)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 15m 59s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. City with a view of the White Cliffs of Dover CALAIS
Calais is a major ferry port in northern France that overlooks the Strait of Dover, which is the narrowest point in the English Channel. The strait is just over 20 miles wide, making Calais the nearest French town to England.

Dover is a town and port in the county of Kent on the south coast of England. Dover lies just 25 miles from the coast of France, and is a terminus on the much-used Dover-Calais ferry service. The town is also famous its magnificent chalk cliffs that are known as the White Cliffs of Dover.

7. “David,” e.g. NUDE
When Michelangelo’s famous statue of David was unveiled in 1504, it was at a time when the city-state of the Florentine Republic was threatened by rival states (including Rome). The statue depicts David after he has decided to fight Goliath, and the subject is sporting what is described as a “warning glare”. David was originally placed outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of government in Florence, and that warning glare was directed very deliberately in the direction of its enemy, Rome. The original statue of David can be seen in the Accademia Gallery in Florence, where it has resided since 1873. There is a replica of the statue in its original location in the public square outside of the Palazzo della Signoria.

11. “L’Amore dei ___ Re” (Montemezzi opera) TRE
Italo Montemezzi was an Italian composer who wrote his most famous work in 1913, the opera “L’amore dei tre re” (The Love of Three Kings). The opera was an early success for Montemezzi, enabling him to give up teaching and devote most of his life to composition.

14. Certain homecoming attendee ALUMNA
An “alumnus” (plural … alumni) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural … alumnae). The term comes into English from Latin, in which alumnus means foster-son or pupil. “Alum” is an informal term used for either an alumna or an alumnus.

15. Some Michelin Guide readers EPICURES
An epicure is a gourmet, one who appreciates fine food and drink in particular. The term is derived from the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus.

Michelin is a manufacturer of tires based in France. The company was founded by brothers Édouard and André Michelin in 1888. The brothers were running a rubber factory at the time, and invented the world’s first removable pneumatic tire, an invention that they used to launch their new company. Michelin is also noted for rating restaurants and accommodation in its famous Michelin Travel Guides.

17. 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.

18. Cream-filled chocolate treats WHOOPIES (whoopie pies)
A whoopie pie is might also be called a “BFO”, standing for Big Fat Oreo. The latter term is quite descriptive as a whoopie pie is made from two mound-shaped pieces of chocolate cake placed above and below a white creamy filling. There is some evidence that the confection originated in the with the Pennsylvania Amish. Apparently, when farmers found the pie in their lunch bags they shouted “whoopie!”, hence the name.

19. Mark of dishonor SCARLETTER (scarlet letter)
Hester Prynne is the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter”. When Hester is convicted by her puritanical neighbors of the crime of adultery, she is forced to wear a scarlet “A” (for “adultery”) on her clothing for the rest of her life, hence the novel’s title, “The Scarlet Letter”.

21. Place for a saint’s image, maybe 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.

22. ___ Reville, Hitchcock’s wife and collaborator ALMA
Alma Reville was a film director and screenwriter, and the wife of famed director Alfred Hitchcock. Reville appeared as a major character in the 2012 movie “Hitchcock”, played by the very capable Helen Mirren.

23. “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” drug LSD
“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” is 1971 novel by Hunter S. Thompson that first appeared as a two-part feature in “Rolling Stone” magazine. The story is semi-autobiographical and tells the tale of a man and his attorney who explore Las Vegas, mainly in an LSD-induced haze.

25. Villainous Luthor LEX
Lex Luthor is the arch-nemesis of Superman in comics. Luthor has been portrayed in a number of guises in the comic world as well in movies and on the small screen. For example, he appeared as Atom Man in the 1950 film series “Atom Man vs. Superman”, and was played by actor Lyle Talbot, opposite Kirk Alyn’s Superman.

29. Iraq war issue, for short WMD
The first recorded use of the term “Weapon of Mass Destruction” (WMD) was in 1937. The words were used by Cosmo Gordon Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, in reference to the bombardment of Guernica in Spain during the Spanish Civil War by the German Luftwaffe. He said, “Who can think without horror of what another widespread war would mean, waged as it would be with all the new weapons of mass destruction?”

31. Fall guy’s partner? EVE
In the Christian tradition, the “fall of man” took place in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, against the bidding of God. As a result, Adam and Eve were banished from Eden to prevent them becoming immortal by eating from the tree of life. The first humans had transitioned from a state of innocent obedience to a state of guilty disobedience.

36. Chilled coffee drink FRAPPE
A “frappé” is a frozen, fruit-flavored dessert similar to sherbet. “Frappé” is a French word that can mean “chilled”. There is also a frappé coffee, an iced-coffee drink that originated in Greece in 1950s.

39. “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” poet PERCY BYSSHELLEY (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
“O Wind, if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” are the last words of “Ode to the West Wind”, an 1819 poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley wrote “Ode to the West Wind” in 1819 when he was living in Florence, Italy. One interpretation of the work is that it expresses his dismay at not being home in England, while another is that it is a lament for the loss of his son who died earlier in the same year.

42. Inspiration for Johann Strauss II DANUBE
The Danube is the second largest river in Europe (after the Volga), and actually flows through four European capitals (Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade and Bratislava).

Of the many classical composers with the Strauss name, “The Waltz King” was Johann Strauss II from Austria. Among the many beautiful waltzes that Strauss penned are “The Blue Danube” and “Tales from the Vienna Woods”. He also composed the famous operetta “Die Fledermaus”.

44. Great ___ APE
The hominids are the great apes, and belong to the family of primates called Hominidae. Extant genera that make up the family Hominidae are:

– chimpanzees
– gorillas
– humans
– orangutans

45. “Land of the sun” native UTE
The Ute are a group of Native American tribes that now reside in Utah and Colorado. The Ute were not a unified people as such, but rather a loose association of nomadic groups. The word “Ute” translates from the Ute language as “Land of the Sun”.

46. Science advocate with a bow tie NYE
That would be “Bill Nye the Science Guy”. Bill’s show ran on Disney for 4 years from 1993-97. I was surprised to learn that Bill Nye was married briefly to Blair Tindall, the author of “Mozart in the Jungle”. That’s a great book, if anyone is interested …

48. Efron of “Neighbors” ZAC
Zac Efron is an actor from San Luis Obispo, California. Apparently Efron is a heartthrob to “tweenyboppers”. His big break was in the Disney hit movie “High School Musical”.

“Neighbors” is a 2014 comedy film starring Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as a young couple with a newborn child. Zac Efron and Dave Franco play the leaders of a fraternity that moves into the house next door. I am told that hilarity ensues …

50. What you get for bringing someone home RBI
Run batted in (RBI)

52. Edomite patriarch ESAU
Edom is an ancient Iron Age kingdom located in the south of modern-day Jordan. The area is known for its red-colored sandstone, which gave the kingdom its name. According to the Bible, the Edomites were the descendants of Esau. “Edom” translates from Hebrew as “red”, and was the name given to Esau when he ate the “red pottage”.

55. One taking an unscheduled flight? AWOL
The Military Police (MPs) are concerned with personnel who go AWOL (Absent Without Leave).

57. All-time scoring leader for the U.S. men’s soccer team LANDONOVAN (Landon Donovan)
Landon Donovan is a soccer player from ONtario, California who plays for the LA Galaxy and the US national team. Donovan holds the record for the most career goals scored in Major League Soccer, as well as the most goals scored for the US team.

62. Official residence at the Vatican PAPALACE (Papal Palace)
The Apostolic Palace (also called the Papal Palace) is the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. The palace is home to the Papal Apartments, where the Pope traditionally resides and where guests of the State are accommodated. The current head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis, declines to stay in the sumptuous Papal Apartments and instead lives in a modest two-room residence in an official guest house known as the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

64. The Ramblers of the N.C.A.A. LOYOLA
Loyola University in Chicago was founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, originally as St. Ignatius College. It is now the largest Jesuit school in the whole country.

65. Dish often served au jus PRIME RIB
The French term “au jus” is usually translated as “with it’s own juice”.

66. R-rated movie attendees ADULTS
The Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) film-rating system (R, PG-17, G etc.) is purely voluntary and is not backed by any law. Movie theaters agree to abide by the rules that come with the MPAA ratings in exchange for access to new movies.

67. Computer language named for Lord Byron’s daughter ADA
Ada Lovelace’s real name was Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the poet. Lovelace was fascinated by mathematics and wrote about the work done by Charles Babbage in building his groundbreaking mechanical computer. In some of her notes, she proposed an algorithm for Babbage’s machine to compute Bernoulli numbers. This algorithm is recognized by many as the world’s first computer program and so Lovelace is sometimes called the first “computer programmer”. There is a computer language called “Ada” that was named in her honor. The Ada language was developed from 1977 to 1983 for the US Department of Defense.

Down
2. ___ Trevelyan, Agent 006 in “GoldenEye” ALEC
Alec Trevelyan is a character in the James Bond movie “GoldenEye”. Trevelyan starts out as a compatriot of Bond, agent 006, but then morphs into the main bad guy of the film and takes on the name “Janus”.

Sean Bean is an English actor, perhaps best known in North America for playing Boromir in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. All you James Bond fans will remember him as the bad guy in “GoldenEye”, the character called Alec Trevelyan.

“GoldenEye” was the first film in the “James Bond” series of movies to feature Pierce Brosnan as the lead. The title is a nod to the author of the “James Bond” novels, Ian Fleming. Fleming had worked for British Naval Intelligence during the war, and on Operation Goldeneye in particular. Fleming also used Goldeneye as the name for his estate in Jamaica.

3. “Two-horned queen of the stars,” per Horace LUNA
“Luna” is the Latin word for “moon”, and is the name given to the Roman moon goddess. The Greek equivalent of Luna was Selene. Luna had a temple on the Aventine Hill in Rome but it was destroyed during the Great Fire that raged during the reign of Nero.

The Roman poet Horace wrote the following lines:

Sheathe your arrows, Apollo. Be mild and peaceful, and listen to the boys praying.
Two-horned queen of the stars, O moon [Luna], listen to the girls.

4. Pacific Surfliner operator AMTRAK
The Pacific Surfliner is an Amtrak passenger service running between San Diego and San Luis Obispo in Southern California, passing through Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. The Pacific Surfliner is Amtrak’s busiest service outside of the Northeast Corridor.

6. “Days of Our Lives” town SALEM
NBC’s “Days of Our Lives” is the second-longest running soap opera on US television, second only to “General Hospital”. “Days …” has been aired since November 1965.

7. Pond dweller NEWT
Newts wouldn’t be my favorite animals. They are found all over the world living on land or in water depending on the species, but always associated with water even if it is only for breeding. Newts metamorphose through three distinct developmental stages during their lives. They start off as larvae in water, fertilized eggs that often cling to aquatic plants. The eggs hatch into tadpoles, the first developmental form of the newt. After living some months as tadpoles swimming around in the water, they undergo another metamorphosis, sprouting legs and replacing their external gills with lungs. At this juvenile stage they are known as efts, and leave the water to live on land. A more gradual transition takes place then, as the eft takes on the lizard-like appearance of the adult newt.

9. Some haute couture designs DIORS
Christian Dior was a French fashion designer. As WWII approached, Dior was called up by the French military, imposing a temporary halt to his career in fashion. He left the army in 1942 and for the duration of the war designed clothes for wives of Nazi officers and French collaborators. After the war his designs became so popular that he helped re-establish Paris as the fashion center of the world.

“Haute couture”, literally “high dressmaking” in French, is a name given to the creation of exclusive fashions. A couturier is someone who creates or sells such fashions.

10. “The Island of the Day Before” novelist ECO
“The Island of the Day Before” is a novel by Italian writer Umberto Eco that was first published in 1994. It is set in the 1600s and tells of an Italian nobleman who survives a storm at sea only to be marooned on abandoned ship in a deserted harbor.

Umberto Eco is an Italian writer, probably best known for his novel “The Name of the Rose” published in 1980. In 1986, “The Name of the Rose” was adapted into a movie with the same title starring Sean Connery.

11. Ultimate rally-killer TRIPLE PLAY
In baseball, a triple play results in three outs, and the end of the inning.

12. He wears #1 in “42” REESE
Pee Wee Reese was a shortstop who played his professional career with the Brooklyn and LA Dodgers. Reese is remembered not only for his skill on the field, but for his very visible support for teammate Jackie Robinson, who famously struggled to be accepted as the first African American player in the majors.

“42” is an excellent film about the baseball career of Jackie Robinson. Stars of the movie are Chadwick Boseman as Robinson and Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey, executive with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The plot revolves around the signing of Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers, making him the first African-American player to break the baseball color barrier.

The great Jackie Robinson was of course the first African-American to play in baseball’s Major League. When Robinson made his first MLB appearance, for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he did so in front of over 26,000 spectators. Well over half the crowd that day were African-Americans, there to witness the event. Major League Baseball universally retired Robinson’s number 42 in 1997. However, on the annual Jackie Robinson Day, all MLB players on all teams wear #42 in his honor.

13. Earl of ___ a.k.a. Robert Devereux ESSEX
Robert Devereux was the 2nd Earl of Essex, and a favorite in the court of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Eventually however, Essex fell foul of the government and was found guilty of treason. He was executed on Tower Green in the Tower of London. Famously, his executor took three strokes of the axe to complete the beheading. Essex was the last person to be beheaded at the Tower.

20. Golden brown TAWNY
Something described as “tawny” is yellow-brown or tan in color. The term comes from the Anglo-French “tauné” meaning “the color of tanned leather”.

24. Goal of some industry lobbyists, for short DEREG
Deregulation (dereg.)

26. Hollywood force, in brief LAPD
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is the third largest local law enforcement agency in the country, after New York PD and Chicago PD. Among other things, LAPD is famous for creating the first Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team in the US, in 1965.

28. Abundant supply CORNUCOPIA
The Horn of Plenty is a symbol of abundance that has been used in Western art since the days of antiquity. The Horn of Plenty is usually depicted as a horn-shaped vessel containing flowers and edible delights, and may also be called the “cornucopia”.

32. ___ d’Orcia (Tuscan region) VAL
The Val d’Orcia is a region in Tuscany lying just south of the lovely city of Siena.

34. Relative of e- CYBER-
The prefix “e-” stands for “electronic” as in “e-book”. A related prefix is “cyber-”, as in “cyberspace”.

35. Fiver ABE
The US five-dollar bill is often called an “Abe”, as President Lincoln’s portrait is on the front. An Abe is also referred to as a “fin”, a term that has been used for a five-pound note in Britain since 1868.

36. Govt. mortgage insurer FHA
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was set up in 1934 to insure loans made lenders for the building and purchase of homes. The FHA was created in response to the bank failures of the Great Depression, with the intent of creating a more favorable environment for lending.

37. Penelope’s pursuer in Looney Tunes toons PEPE
Pepé Le Pew is a very likeable cartoon character from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. Pepé is a French skunk, first introduced way back in 1945. He is always thinking of “l’amour” and chases the lady skunks, or a black cat with a white stripe painted down her back accidently. The female cat is usually called Penelope Pussycat.

46. Vitamin B3 NIACIN
Niacin is also known as vitamin B3. A deficiency of niacin causes the disease pellagra. Pellagra is often described by “the four Ds”, the symptoms being diarrhea, dermatitis, dementia and death.

47. Bolster BUOY UP
Back in Ireland I often slept in beds that had a “bolster” as well as pillows. The bolster was usually a long, bed-wide, stuffed cushion, harder than a pillow. It served the purpose of raising the pillows, perhaps as an aid for sitting up in bed. Our modern usage of the verb “bolster”, meaning to give a metaphoric shot in the arm, derives from this “bolster” that we used to sit up against.

48. “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” rocker ZAPPA
Frank Zappa was an American composer and guitarist, a solo artist as well as the founding member of the rock band Mothers of Invention. You might like to meet his four children: Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan, and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen.

54. Point of contact in the automotive industry? ANODE
The two terminals of a battery are called the anode and the cathode. Electrons travel from the cathode to the anode creating an electric current in a circuit.

56. Getaway LAM
To be “on the lam” is to be in flight, to have escaped from prison. “On the lam” is American slang that originated at the end of the 19th century. The word “lam” also means to “beat” or “thrash”, as in “lambaste”. So “on the lam” might derive from the phrase “to beat it, to scram”.

58. Bird bills NEBS
“Nib” is a Scottish variant of the Old English word “neb”, with both meaning the beak of a bird. This usage of “nib” as a beak dates back to the 14th century, with “nib” meaning the tip of a pen or quill coming a little later, in the early 1600s.

59. Burrowing rodent VOLE
Vole populations can really increase rapidly. Mama vole is pregnant for just three weeks before giving birth to litters of 5-10 baby voles. Then the young voles become sexually mature in just one month! If you have one pregnant vole in your yard, within a year you could have over a hundred of the little critters.

60. Opposite of baja ALTA
In Spanish, “baja” is “low”, and “alta” is “high”.

61. Father of the American Cartoon NAST
Thomas Nast was an American caricaturist and cartoonist. Nast was the creator of the Republican Party elephant, the Democratic Party’s donkey, Uncle Sam and the image of the plump and jocular Santa Claus that we use today. Thomas Nast drew some famous cartoons in which he depicted the Tammany Society as a vicious tiger that was killing democracy. Nast’s use of the tiger symbology caught on and was used by other cartoonists to harp at the society.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. City with a view of the White Cliffs of Dover CALAIS
7. “David,” e.g. NUDE
11. “L’Amore dei ___ Re” (Montemezzi opera) TRE
14. Certain homecoming attendee ALUMNA
15. Some Michelin Guide readers EPICURES
17. Bonkers MENTAL
18. Cream-filled chocolate treats WHOOPIES (whoopie pies)
19. Mark of dishonor SCARLETTER (scarlet letter)
21. Place for a saint’s image, maybe APSE
22. ___ Reville, Hitchcock’s wife and collaborator ALMA
23. “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” drug LSD
25. Villainous Luthor LEX
26. Defeat LICK
29. Iraq war issue, for short WMD
31. Fall guy’s partner? EVE
33. Bustle ADO
34. Walker alternative CANE
36. Chilled coffee drink FRAPPE
39. “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” poet PERCY BYSSHELLEY (Percy Bysshe Shelley)
42. Inspiration for Johann Strauss II DANUBE
43. Deer John? STAG
44. Great ___ APE
45. “Land of the sun” native UTE
46. Science advocate with a bow tie NYE
47. Tournament passes BYES
48. Efron of “Neighbors” ZAC
50. What you get for bringing someone home RBI
52. Edomite patriarch ESAU
55. One taking an unscheduled flight? AWOL
57. All-time scoring leader for the U.S. men’s soccer team LANDONOVAN (Landon Donovan)
62. Official residence at the Vatican PAPALACE (Papal Palace)
64. The Ramblers of the N.C.A.A. LOYOLA
65. Dish often served au jus PRIME RIB
66. R-rated movie attendees ADULTS
67. Computer language named for Lord Byron’s daughter ADA
68. Studies DENS
69. What three-letter words do in five answers in this puzzle REPEAT

Down
1. Home security devices, for short CAMS
2. ___ Trevelyan, Agent 006 in “GoldenEye” ALEC
3. “Two-horned queen of the stars,” per Horace LUNA
4. Pacific Surfliner operator AMTRAK
5. Collectively IN ALL
6. “Days of Our Lives” town SALEM
7. Pond dweller NEWT
8. Maintained UPHELD
9. Some haute couture designs DIORS
10. “The Island of the Day Before” novelist ECO
11. Ultimate rally-killer TRIPLE PLAY
12. He wears #1 in “42” REESE
13. Earl of ___ a.k.a. Robert Devereux ESSEX
16. Put ___ fight UP A
20. Golden brown TAWNY
24. Goal of some industry lobbyists, for short DEREG
26. Hollywood force, in brief LAPD
27. “Whose ___ was this?” IDEA
28. Abundant supply CORNUCOPIA
30. Convoluted MESSY
32. ___ d’Orcia (Tuscan region) VAL
34. Relative of e- CYBER-
35. Fiver ABE
36. Govt. mortgage insurer FHA
37. Penelope’s pursuer in Looney Tunes toons PEPE
38. Sightseers? EYES
40. Share CUT
41. Cavalry mount STEED
46. Vitamin B3 NIACIN
47. Bolster BUOY UP
48. “Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow” rocker ZAPPA
49. Hope for a nominee AWARD
51. Trumpet BLARE
53. Renewable option SOLAR
54. Point of contact in the automotive industry? ANODE
56. Getaway LAM
58. Bird bills NEBS
59. Burrowing rodent VOLE
60. Opposite of baja ALTA
61. Father of the American Cartoon NAST
63. Had followers LED

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