Day: October 21, 2014

There’s a note with today’s puzzle:

A SIGN OF THE TIMES
A Crossword Contest
All the puzzles this week, from Monday to Saturday, have been created by one person, Patrick Blindauer. Keep your solutions handy, because the Saturday puzzle conceals a meta-challenge involving the solution grids of all six. When you have the answer to the meta-challenge, send it to crossword@nytimes.com. Twenty correct solvers, chosen at random, whose entries are received by 6:00 p.m. E.T. Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014, will win one-year online subscriptions to the New York Times crossword. Only one entry per person, please. The answer and winners’ names will appear on Friday, Oct. 31, at www.nytimes.com/wordplay.

We’ve been asked by Will Shortz, the New York Times puzzle editor, not to speculate about the meta-challenge until the competition ends on Sunday evening. Let’s honor that request …

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
10. Karl, Richard or Harpo MARX
Karl Marx was a German philosopher and revolutionary who helped develop the principles of modern communism and socialism. Marx argued that feudal society created internal strife due to class inequalities which led to its destruction and replacement by capitalism. He further argued that the inequalities created in a capitalist society create tensions that will also lead to its self-destruction. His thesis was that the inevitable replacement of capitalism was a classless (and stateless) society, which he called pure communism.

Richard Marx is a singer and songwriter who had a string of hits in the eighties and nineties. Marx was the first singer in history to have his first seven singles all break into the Billboard Top 5.

Harpo Marx was the second oldest of the Marx brothers. Harpo’s real name was Adolph, and he earned his nickname because he played the harp. Famously he didn’t speak on screen, a routine he developed after reading a review that he performed really well when he just didn’t speak!

14. Actress Donovan of “Clueless” ELISA
Elisa Donovan is an actress from Poughkeepsie, New York. Donovan’s big break came in the film “Clueless” playing Amber Mariens, a part that she later played in the television series of the same name.

17. Dramatic note in Verdi’s “Di quella pira” HIGH C
“Di quella pira” is an aria from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Il trovatore”. Written for Manrico, the tenor part, the aria contains a famous and somewhat controversial “high C” note. This high C is tough for many tenors to reach, and those who manage to do so tend to get a round of applause during a performance. Interestingly, the high C does not appear on Verdi’s original score. Apparently, one of the first tenors to sing the part decided to introduce the note to add some drama to the role, and subsequent tenors have been asked to follow his lead.

20. TIME MARATHONER’S STAT
The marathon is run over 26 miles and 385 yards, a distance chosen to commemorate the legendary messenger-run by Pheidippides from the site of the Battle of Marathon back to Athens. The actual distance run today was decided in 1921, and matches the length of the modern-day Marathon-Athens highway.

23. Baseball family of note ALOUS
Jesus Alou played major league baseball, as did his brothers Matty and Felipe, and as does Felipe’s son Moises.

24. Not optional: Abbr. REQ
Required (req.)

25. ___ Miss OLE
Ole Miss is the nickname for the University of Mississippi. The name “Ole Miss” dates back to 1897, the first year a student yearbook was published. The graduating class held a competition to name the yearbook and “Ole Miss” emerged as the winner. The name stuck to the yearbook, and also as a nickname for the school itself.

28. Force = ___ x acceleration MASS
Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion are the basis of classical mechanics. The three laws define the relationship between a body and the forces acting on that body, and its resulting motion.

Newton’s second law of motion tells us that a body accelerates when a force is applied to it, and the greater the mass of the object, the greater the force required to cause that acceleration. Mathematically, the law can be written as Force = mass x acceleration (F=ma).

32. “Much ___ About Nothing” ADO
“Much Ado About Nothing” is a favorite of mine, a play by William Shakespeare. It is a comedic tale of two pairs of lovers with lots of mistaken identities and double meanings. I once saw it performed in the fabulous Globe Theatre in London … by an all-female cast!

33. Egg cell OVUM
“Ovum” (plural “ova”) is Latin for “egg”.

34. Mo. that seems like it should be seventh SEP
The month of September is the ninth month in our year, although the name “September” comes from the Latin word “septum” meaning “seventh”. September was the seventh month in the Roman calendar until the year 46 BC when Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar. The Julian system moved the start of the year from March 1st to January 1st, and shifting September to the ninth month. The Gregorian calendar that we use today was introduced in 1582.

35. TIME PARTNER OF WARNER
Time Warner is the third-largest TV and film media company in the world, after Disney and Comcast. Today’s conglomerate came about in 1990 with the merger of Time with Warner Communications. Time is a large magazine publisher, notably of “Time” magazine. Warner Communications was an entertainment company, the parent of Warner Bros. Pictures and Warner Music Group.

43. Palindromic woman’s name AVA
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”.

44. Rho-tau linkup SIGMA
Sigma is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, and is the one used for an “ess” sound, equivalent to our letter S. Sigma is used in mathematics to represent a summation, the adding together of a sequence of numbers.

The 17th, 18th and 19th letters of the Greek alphabet are rho, sigma and tau.

47. Senator Harry of Nevada REID
Democrat Harry Reid became the Senate Majority leader in 2007. Reid had a big day in the Senate from a Democratic perspective with the successful passage of the so-called ObamaCare Bill. Paradoxically, Harry Reid’s wife was in hospital at the time, having broken her back in a car accident. Reid took over as Senate Majority leader from Bill Frist who retired from politics in 2007.

48. Kristoff’s reindeer in “Frozen” SVEN
“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”.

49. “Much ___ About Nothing” (“The Simpsons” episode) APU
The fictional Kwik-E-Mart store is operated by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on “The Simpsons” TV show. Apu is married to Apu, and the couple have eight children. The convenience store owner doesn’t seem to be making much use of his Ph.D in computer science that he earned in the US. Apu’s undergraduate degree is from Caltech (the Calcutta Technical Institute), where he graduated top of his class of seven million students …

52. Pier JETTY
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.

59. Days of ___ YORE
We use the word “yore” to mean “time long past” as in “the days of yore”. “Yore” comes from the Old English words for “of years”.

60. Uptight, informally ANAL
Our use of the word “anal” is an abbreviated form of “anal-retentive”, a term derived from Freudian psychology.

63. Giant in the fruit and vegetable market DOLE
James Dole lent his name to today’s Dole Food Company. James Dole was known as the Pineapple King, as he developed the pineapple industry in Hawaii and founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, the forerunner to the Dole Food Company. Dole might have had some help on the way, as he was cousin to Sanford B, Dole, President of the Republic of Hawaii from 1894 to 1900.

67. Two-time U.S. Open winner Monica SELES
Monica Seles has a Hungarian name as she was born to Hungarian parents in former Yugoslavia. Seles was the World No. 1 professional tennis player in 1991 and 1992 before being forced from the sport when she was stabbed by a spectator at a match in 1993. She did return to the game two years later, but never achieved the same level of success.

Down
1. Talk show host Diane of 31-Down REHM
Diane Rehm is host of the NPR-syndicated radio show called “The Diane Rehm Show”. The show used to be called “Kaleidoscope”, when Rehm took over as host in 1979. It was rebranded in 1984.

2. “On the Waterfront” director Kazan ELIA
Elia Kazan won Oscars for best director in 1948 for “Gentleman’s Agreement” and in 1955 for “On The Waterfront”. In 1999 Kazan was given an Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. He also directed “East of Eden”, which introduced James Dean to movie audiences, and “Splendor in the Grass” that included Warren Beatty in his debut role.

The 1954 drama “On the Waterfront”, starring Marlon Brando, told a story of violence and corruption among longshoremen. The movie was based on a series of 24 articles written by investigative journalist Malcolm Johnston and published in “The New York Sun”. The original news stories uncovered mob infiltration on the New York City Waterfront, but the location for the film was chosen as Hoboken, New Jersey.

5. Craft knife brand X-ACTO
The X-Acto knife was invented in the thirties by a Polish immigrant, although his intention was to come up with a scalpel for surgeons. The knife couldn’t cut it as a scalpel though (pun intended!), because it was difficult to clean. The inventor’s brother-in law suggested it be used as a craft knife, and it is still around today.

6. Natural history museum display DINOSAUR
Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for about 135 million years until what’s called the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. It is generally assumed that this extinction event was triggered when a massive comet or asteroid impacted the Earth. That impact created a dust cloud that led to a prolonged “winter” when plants and plankton could not photosynthesise. Almost all dinosaurs died out. The only survivors were the dinosaurs that evolved into our modern-day birds.

7. Dry country whose name is an anagram of wet weather IRAN
Before 1935 the country we know today as Iran was called Persia by the Western world. The official name of the country since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 is the “Islamic Republic of Iran”.

“Iran” is an anagram of “rain”.

11. Judd who wrote and directed “Knocked Up” APATOW
Judd Apatow is best known for producing the TV series “Freaks and Geeks” and “Undeclared”. Not my cup of tea …

“Knocked Up” is a 2007 romantic comedy written and directed by Judd Apatow, starring Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl and Paul Rudd.

13. Like “Midnight Cowboy,” originally X-RATED
The 1969 movie “Midnight Cowboy” is a Hollywood adaptation of a novel of the same name by James Leo Herlihy. It’s a pretty depressing story about a young Texan (played by Jon Voight) who heads to New York City to make money as a hustler, hiring himself out to women for sex. Pretty soon the young man ends up selling his body for sex with males as well. Prior to release the MPAA gave the movie an R-rating, but the United Artists studio took advice and decided to release it with an X-rating. When “Midnight Cowboy” won the Best Picture Academy Award in 1969, it became the only X-rated film to be so honored.

21. Gulf War vehicle HUMVEE
“Humvee” is a nickname for the military vehicle developed by AM General. The full name is High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle i.e. HMMWV, or simply “Humvee”.

27. Org. with an oral fixation? ADA
American Dental Association (ADA)

29. Struck, old-style SMOTE
“To smite” is to strike with a firm blow.

31. “Fresh Air” airer NPR
National Public Radio (now just called NPR) was launched in 1970 after President Johnson signed into law the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. The intent of the act was to provide funding for radio and television broadcasting that wasn’t simply driven by profit. As a longtime fan of the state-funded BBC in the UK, I’d have to agree with that intent …

“Fresh Air” is a marvelous radio talk show broadcast on NPR, hosted by Terry Gross. The first broadcast of the program was made in 1975, with Judy Blank hosting. Terry Gross took over a few months later, and Gross has been presenting and producing the show ever since. I had the privilege of hearing Terry Gross give a talk here in my hometown some years ago. What a fascinating woman she is, full of great stories about the her experiences interviewing so many interesting personalities.

33. Cloverleaf part ON-RAMP
Cloverleaf interchanges allow two highways to cross without the need for stopping traffic. They are so called as when viewed overheard they look like the leaves of a four-leaf clover.

34. Home of Pippi Longstocking SWEDEN
Pippi Longstocking appears as the heroine in a series of books written by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren. Lindgren was quite the activist, very well known in the circles working for children’s and animal rights, In particular, Lindgren campaigned heavily against corporal punishment.

36. With 44-Down, fictional prankster TOM
(44D. See 36-Down SAWYER)
Tom Sawyer is of course a favorite character created by Mark Twain. He turns up in four of Twain’s books:

– “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”
– “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”
– “Tom Sawyer Abroad”
– “Tom Sawyer, Detective”

But that’s not all, as he appears in at least three works that Twain left unfinished:

– “Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians” (a sequel to “Huckleberry Finn”)
– “Schoolhouse Hill”
– “Tom Sawyer’s Conspiracy” (a sequel to “Tom Sawyer, Detective”)

37. Beans in a burrito FRIJOLES
“Frijoles” is Spanish for “beans”.

A burrito is a common dish served in Mexican cuisine, It is a flour tortilla filled with all sorts of good stuff. The term “burrito” is Spanish for “little donkey”, the diminutive of “burro” meaning “donkey”. It’s thought that the name was applied as a burrito looks like a bedroll or pack that might be carried by a donkey.

38. Elite fighter NAVY SEAL
SEAL is an acronym used by the US Navy’s SEa, Air and Land teams. The SEALs were born out of the Navy’s special warfare groups from WWII, like the Underwater Demolition Teams and the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons. The Navy SEAL unit was established soon after President Kennedy’s famous speech in which he announced the plan to put a man on the moon, as in the same speech the president allocated $100m of funding to strengthen special operations forces. The Navy used some of this money to set up guerrilla and counter-guerrilla units, which soon became the SEALs.

45. What Apple’s Project Purple became IPHONE
Apple started development of the iPhone in 2004 in collaboration with Cingular Wireless (now AT&T Mobility). The confidential program was given the name “Project Purple”, and took thrity months to complete at a cost of about $150 million. The iPhone was introduced in 2007 at the Macworld convention in San Francisco.

47. Big chargers in Africa RHINOS
There are five types of rhinoceros that survive today, and the smaller Javan Rhino is the most rare. The rhinoceros is probably the rarest large mammal on the planet, thanks to poaching. Hunters mainly prize the horn of the rhino as it is used in powdered form in traditional Chinese medicine.

51. Luxury label PRADA
Prada was started in 1913 as a leathergoods shop in Milan, by the two Prada brothers. One of the brothers, Mario Prada, prevented the female members of his family participating in the company as he didn’t believe women should be involved in business (!). When the sexist brother died, his son had no interest in the business so it was his daughter who took over and ran the company for about twenty years, handing it over to her own daughter. I’d say the devil loved that …

55. Word repeated by a roadie into a microphone TEST
A “roadie” is someone who loads, unloads and sets up equipment for musicians on tour, on the road.

56. Bacteriologist Jonas SALK
Jonas Salk was an American medical researcher, famous for developing the first safe polio vaccine. In the fifties, especially after the 1952 epidemic, polio was the biggest health fear in the US because it killed thousands, left even more with disabilities and most of the victims were children. The situation was dire and the authorities immediately quarantined the family of any polio victim, and that quarantine was so strict that in many cases the families were not even permitted to attend the funeral of a family member who died from the disease.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Alternative version of a song REMIX
6. Is into DIGS
10. Karl, Richard or Harpo MARX
14. Actress Donovan of “Clueless” ELISA
15. Something spinach has IRON
16. Switchboard attendant: Abbr. OPER
17. Dramatic note in Verdi’s “Di quella pira” HIGH C
18. Grandma, familiarly NANA
19. Story with many chapters SAGA
20. TIME MARATHONER’S STAT
23. Baseball family of note ALOUS
24. Not optional: Abbr. REQ
25. ___ Miss OLE
26. Part of 31-Down: Abbr. NATL
28. Force = ___ x acceleration MASS
30. Single UNWED
32. “Much ___ About Nothing” ADO
33. Egg cell OVUM
34. Mo. that seems like it should be seventh SEP
35. TIME PARTNER OF WARNER
41. Mined material ORE
42. Arduous hike TREK
43. Palindromic woman’s name AVA
44. Rho-tau linkup SIGMA
47. Senator Harry of Nevada REID
48. Kristoff’s reindeer in “Frozen” SVEN
49. “Much ___ About Nothing” (“The Simpsons” episode) APU
50. Speedometer letters MPH
52. Pier JETTY
54. TIME WHAT PRISONERS DO
59. Days of ___ YORE
60. Uptight, informally ANAL
61. Preoccupy TIE UP
62. Brings to a close ENDS
63. Giant in the fruit and vegetable market DOLE
64. Avoid EVADE
65. Word before home and room REST
66. ___ for it (invites trouble) ASKS
67. Two-time U.S. Open winner Monica SELES

Down
1. Talk show host Diane of 31-Down REHM
2. “On the Waterfront” director Kazan ELIA
3. Seasonal traveler MIGRATOR
4. Promising beginning? I SHALL …
5. Craft knife brand X-ACTO
6. Natural history museum display DINOSAUR
7. Dry country whose name is an anagram of wet weather IRAN
8. They’re doomed … doomed! GONERS
9. Trap SNARE
10. Swamp stuff MOSS
11. Judd who wrote and directed “Knocked Up” APATOW
12. Delight REGALE
13. Like “Midnight Cowboy,” originally X-RATED
21. Gulf War vehicle HUMVEE
22. Tiny complaint SQUEAK
26. Few Z’s NAP
27. Org. with an oral fixation? ADA
29. Struck, old-style SMOTE
31. “Fresh Air” airer NPR
33. Cloverleaf part ON-RAMP
34. Home of Pippi Longstocking SWEDEN
36. With 44-Down, fictional prankster TOM
37. Beans in a burrito FRIJOLES
38. Elite fighter NAVY SEAL
39. Palindromic woman’s name EVE
40. Vied for office RAN
44. See 36-Down SAWYER
45. What Apple’s Project Purple became IPHONE
46. Two of five in basketball GUARDS
47. Big chargers in Africa RHINOS
48. Endeavor STRIVE
51. Luxury label PRADA
53. French heads TETES
55. Word repeated by a roadie into a microphone TEST
56. Bacteriologist Jonas SALK
57. “My man!” DUDE!
58. Unlocks, in verse OPES

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