1119-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 19 Nov 14, Wednesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Jacob Stulberg
THEME: There’s No Two Ways About It … each of today’s themed answers starts with NO- and ends with -ON:

18A. With 64-Across, words of certainty … or a hint to 23-, 40- and 56-Across : THERE’S NO TWO
64A. See 18-Across : WAYS ABOUT IT

23A. “Silkwood” screenwriter : NORA EPHRON
40A. Like Advil vis-à-vis Vicodin : NON-PRESCRIPTION
56A. Convention outcome : NOMINATION

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 8m 58s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

4. Raise, as Old Glory : HOIST
The person who coined the phrase “Old Glory” with reference to the American flag was Captain William Driver, a shipmaster from Salem, Massachusetts. As Driver was leaving on an 1831 voyage aboard the brig Charles Doggett, he unfurled the American flag that he had just been given by a group of friends. As the flag caught the breeze, he uttered the words, “Old Glory!”. That’s the story anyway. On that same voyage, Charles Doggett rescued the famous mutineers of the HMS Bounty, after he found them on Pitcairn Island.

16. “In the red,” e.g. : IDIOM
The idiom “in the red” means “operating at a loss”. The phrase comes from the color of ink in a ledger, in which losses are written in red ink and profits in black.

17. NAFTA signatory: Abbr. : MEX
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is between Canada, Mexico and the United States. When NAFTA came into force in 1994 it set up the largest free trade zone in the world.

22. One headed for Ellis Island, say : EMIGRANT
Ellis Island is an exclave of New York City that is geographically located within Jersey City, New Jersey. The name comes from a Samuel Ellis who owned the island around the time of the American Revolution.

23. “Silkwood” screenwriter : NORA EPHRON
Nora Ephron had many talents, including writing film scripts and novels. Many of the movies that she wrote, she also directed. These would include some of my favorite movies of all time like “Sleepless in Seattle”, “You’ve Got Mail” and most recently, the wonderful “Julie & Julia”. And, did you know that Nora Ephron’s second marriage was to journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame? She wrote an autobiographical novel based on her life with Bernstein, dealing in particular with Bernstein’s affair with the daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

“Silkwood” is a 1983 film about a nuclear power plant whistleblower. The movie is based on the true story of labor activist Karen Silkwood who was killed in a car accident under suspicious circumstances. She had just alleged wrongdoing at the power plant in which she worked. In real life, the power plant operators were found liable for Silkwood’s death and settled with her estate for $1.3 million.

26. Gaelic tongue : ERSE
There are actually three Erse languages: Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be Gaeilge (in Ireland), Gaelg (on the Isle of Man) and Gaidhlig (in Scotland).

27. ___ Croft (Angelina Jolie role) : LARA
Lara Croft was first introduced to the world as the main character in a pretty cool video game (I thought) called “Tomb Raider”, back in 1996. Lara Croft moved to the big screen in 2001 and 2003, in two pretty awful movie adaptations of the game’s storyline. Angelina Jolie played Croft, and she did a very energetic job.

Angelina Jolie is a remarkably successful Hollywood actress from Los Angeles, California. Jolie has acting in her blood as her father is actor Jon Voight. Her godparents are actors Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell.

30. Cuisine in which “phat mama” is a noodle dish : THAI
“Phat mama” is a Thai dish, a type of stir-fried instant noodles.

35. Archipelago makeup : ISLES
“Archipelago” is a name often used for a group or chain of islands. “Archipelago” is our spelling of the Italian “arcipelago”, a word that has Greek roots. “Arcipelago” was the proper name for the Aegean Sea in Greek, a word that was eventually used for the Aegean Islands.

40. Like Advil vis-à-vis Vicodin : NON-PRESCRIPTION
Advil is Wyeth’s brand of ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory drug.

Vicodin is a brand name of pain-reliever. The formulation is a mixture of two ingredients: hydrocodone (an opiate) and paracetamol (a non-opiate analgesic).

44. Mormon’s obligation : TITHE
A tithe is a traditional payment of one tenth of a person’s annual income and is usually given to a church. Tithing is a practice taught in many traditions, and according to a 2002 survey, about 3% of American adults donate 10% or more of their income to a church.

46. Bit of dinero : PESO
Dinero is the Spanish word for money, as well as a slang term for money here in the US.

50. Instrument in the painting “The Spirit of ’76” : FIFE
“The Spirit of ’76” is a famous painting by Archibald Willard that used to be called “Yankee Doodle”. It was created in 1875 for the Centennial International Exposition of 1876 held in Philadelphia, which was the first World’s Fair to be held in the US. The painting depicts three soldiers from the Revolutionary War marching in the middle of a battle, two playing drums and one a fife.

61. Where the Joads were driven from : OKLAHOMA
John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath” is set during the Great Depression. The novel tells the story of the Joad family from Oklahoma, farmers who had to leave their home and head for California due to economic hardship.

63. Presto or largo : TEMPO
On a musical score, presto is used to indicate a fast tempo. “Presto” is the Italian word for “quick”.

Largo is a instruction to play a piece of music with a very slow tempo. “Largo” is the Italian word for “broadly”.

68. Krupp Works city : ESSEN
The Krupp manufacturing interest originated with Friedrich Krupp who inherited an iron forge that the family owned in the German city of Essen. Friedrich made some not-so-clever investments designed to get the family into the cast steel business. Friedrich died quite young, and his son, Alfred, had to take over the struggling steelworks at only 14 years of age. When he took the helm, the company had five workers. At the time of his death there were about 20,000 employees, and Krupp’s was the world’s largest industrial company.

72. “Cowboy and the Senorita,” e.g. : OATER
“Cowboy and the Senorita” is a 1944 Roy Rogers movies. It is the first film in which Rogers appears on screen with Dale Evans, who was later to become his wife.

73. One in knickers : LAD
Back in the early 1900s, young boys would wear short pants in summer and longer “knee pants” in winter. The “knee pants” came to be known as “knickers” or “knickerbockers” in honor of the fictional author Diedrich Knickerbocker who appears in Washington Irving’s “History of New York”. Knickerbocker’s attire included knee-breeches.

Down
1. Noodle dish : RAMEN
Ramen is a noodle dish composed of Chinese-style wheat noodles in a meat or fish broth flavored with soy or miso sauce. Ramen is usually topped with sliced pork and dried seaweed.

2. Last Oldsmobile : ALERO
The Oldsmobile Alero was the last car made under the Oldsmobile brand. The Alero was produced from 1999 to 2004.

9. Buffalo ___ : WING
There are a few stories about how Buffalo wings were first developed, most of them related to the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. If you’re looking for Buffalo wings on a menu in Buffalo, you’ll note that in and around the city they’re just referred to as “wings”.

11. Instrument with sympathetic strings : SITAR
The sitar has been around since the Middle Ages. The sitar is a stringed instrument that is played by plucking, and is used most often in Hindustani classical music. In the West we have been exposed to the instrument largely through the performances of Ravi Shankar and some music by George Harrison of the Beatles, a onetime student of Shankar.

Sympathetic strings are also known as resonance strings and are found particularly on Indian musical instruments. Sympathetic strings are not played directly, but resonate when certain tones are played on the main strings.

19. It has a reciprocal function : SINE
The most familiar trigonometric functions are sine, cosine and tangent. Each of these is a ratio, a ratio of two sides of a right-angled triangle. The “reciprocal” of these three functions are secant, cosecant and cotangent. The reciprocal functions are simply the inverted ratios, the inverted sine, cosine and tangent. These inverted ratios should not be confused with the “inverse” trigonometric functions e.g. arcsine, arccosine and arctangent. These inverse functions are the reverse of the sine, cosine and tangent. For example, the arctangent can be read as “What angle is equivalent to the following ration of opposite over adjacent?”

21. Self-proclaimed leader of ISIS, e.g. : CALIPH
“Caliph” is an Arabic word meaning “successor”. In the Islamic tradition, a caliph is a leader who is deemed to be a successor of Muhammad.

ISIS is an extremist Sunni rebel group, with the acronym standing for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Today, ISIS controls territory in Iraq, Syria, Sinai and eastern Libya and has declared it the Islamic State (IS).

24. ___-dieu : PRIE
Prie-dieu literally means “pray (to) God” in French. A prie-dieu is basically a padded kneeler, with an armrest in front and a shelf on which one placed books of prayer.

25. Prosciutto and others : HAMS
Parma is a city in northern Italy, famous for its ham (prosciutto) and cheese (parmesan). Although the word prosciutto is used in Italian to mean ham however it is prepared, in English we use the word to describe the dry-cured ham that is served raw, in thin slices. Apparently, prosciutto can be made out of the meat from the leg of a pig, or from the thigh of a wild horse.

30. Discharge letters? : TNT
TNT is an abbreviation for trinitrotoluene. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

31. ___ polloi : HOI
“Hoi polloi” is a Greek term, literally meaning “the majority, the many”. In English, “hoi polloi” has come to mean “the masses” and is often used in a derogatory sense.

32. Aardvark’s morsel : ANT
The aardvark is the oddest looking of creatures, a nocturnal burrowing animal that is native to Africa. The name “aardvark” is Afrikaans for “earth pig”, although it is not in fact related to the pig. Aardvarks are noted, among other things, for their unique teeth. Their teeth have no enamel and wear away quite readily, but continuously regrow.

36. Tropicana Field site, informally : ST PETE
Tropicana Field is home to the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball.

37. Factor in club selection : LIE
On a golf course, the lie of the ball is a factor in which club is selected by a golfer.

38. Canon offering : EOS
In Greek mythology, Eos is the goddess of the dawn who lived at the edge of the ocean. Eos would wake each morning to welcome her brother Helios the sun. The Roman equivalent of Eos is Aurora.

39. Nestlé ___ Caps : SNO
Sno-Caps are a brand of candy usually only available in movie theaters. Sno-caps have been around since the 1920s, would you believe?

41. Stephen of “Citizen X” : REA
Stephen Rea is an Irish actor from Belfast. Rea’s most successful role was Fergus in 1992’s “The Crying Game”, for which performance he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar. In “The Crying Game”, Fergus was a member of the IRA. In real life, Rea was married to IRA bomber and hunger striker Dolours Price at the time he made the movie.

“Citizen X” is a 1995 TV movie, a crime thriller about a seven-year hunt by Soviet authorities for for a Russian serial killer who murdered 53 women and children. Stars of the film are Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland and Max von Sydow.

42. Lower one’s A.P.R., perhaps : REFI
Annual percentage rate (APR)

49. ___ dragon (huge lizard) : KOMODO
The large lizard called a Komodo dragon is so named because it is found on the island of Komodo (and others) in Indonesia. It can grow to a length of over 9 1/2 feet, so I guess that explains the dragon part of the name …

53. Czar’s edict : UKASE
The term czar (also tsar) is a Slavic word that was first used as a title by Simeon I of Bulgaria in 913 AD. “Czar” is derived from the word “Caesar”, which was synonymous with “emperor” at that time.

54. “Family Ties” mother : ELYSE
The actress Meredith Baxter is best known for playing Elyse, the mother in the eighties sitcom “Family Ties”. Baxter’s big break on television came with a title role on a short-lived sitcom called “Bridget Loves Bernie”. She ended up marrying David Birney, her co-star on “Bridget Loves Bernie”, and so was known for many years as Meredith Baxter-Birney. She changed her name back to Meredith Baxter when the pair divorced in 1989.

“Family Ties” was one of the first TV shows that I enjoyed when I arrived in the US back in 1983. I found the situation very appealing, with two ex-hippie parents facing off against an ultra-conservative son. The main characters in the show were Michael J. Fox as Alex, Justine Bateman as Alex’s sister Mallory, Meredith Baxter-Birney as Alex’s mom Elyse, and Michael Gross as Alex’s dad Steven. But some future stars had recurring roles as well, including Courteney Cox as one of Alex’s girlfriends and Tom Hanks as Elyse’s younger brother.

55. ___ tag : LASER
The name “Laser Tag” is really a misnomer as lasers are rarely used in the game. The “guns” actually send out infrared light, and not laser light, which is picked up by infrared detectors worn by the players.

57. Tierney of “ER” : MAURA
Maura Tierney is an actress from Boston, Massachusetts. Tierney is best known for playing Lisa Miller on television’s “NewsRadio” and Abby Lockhart on “ER”.

62. A Katzenjammer kid : HANS
“The Katzenjammer Kids” is a comic strip that debuted in 1897, and is still syndicated. That makes it the longest-running comic strip still in syndication.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Like a new recruit : RAW
4. Raise, as Old Glory : HOIST
9. Fritter away : WASTE
14. Patterned after : A LA
15. Come to mind : OCCUR
16. “In the red,” e.g. : IDIOM
17. NAFTA signatory: Abbr. : MEX
18. With 64-Across, words of certainty … or a hint to 23-, 40- and 56-Across : THERE’S NO TWO
20. At attention : ERECT
22. One headed for Ellis Island, say : EMIGRANT
23. “Silkwood” screenwriter : NORA EPHRON
26. Gaelic tongue : ERSE
27. ___ Croft (Angelina Jolie role) : LARA
28. Clerical nickname : REV
30. Cuisine in which “phat mama” is a noodle dish : THAI
33. Little pain in the you-know-where : IMP
35. Archipelago makeup : ISLES
40. Like Advil vis-à-vis Vicodin : NON-PRESCRIPTION
44. Mormon’s obligation : TITHE
45. Make darts, say : SEW
46. Bit of dinero : PESO
47. “Fire away!” : ASK!
50. Instrument in the painting “The Spirit of ’76” : FIFE
52. Contest with seconds : DUEL
56. Convention outcome : NOMINATION
61. Where the Joads were driven from : OKLAHOMA
63. Presto or largo : TEMPO
64. See 18-Across : WAYS ABOUT IT
67. Adopt-a-thon adoptee : PET
68. Krupp Works city : ESSEN
69. Took a spin : DROVE
70. Bard’s preposition : ERE
71. Dirty looks? : LEERS
72. “Cowboy and the Senorita,” e.g. : OATER
73. One in knickers : LAD

Down
1. Noodle dish : RAMEN
2. Last Oldsmobile : ALERO
3. Car wash machine : WAXER
4. Cold sufferer’s drink : HOT TEA
5. Gaelic “Gee!” : OCH!
6. It might go away for the summer : ICE
7. Not so iffy : SURER
8. Something a seismograph picks up : TREMOR
9. Buffalo ___ : WING
10. Be wild for : ADORE
11. Instrument with sympathetic strings : SITAR
12. Dots on a map : TOWNS
13. Act badly, in a way : EMOTE
19. It has a reciprocal function : SINE
21. Self-proclaimed leader of ISIS, e.g. : CALIPH
24. ___-dieu : PRIE
25. Prosciutto and others : HAMS
29. Big wheel : VIP
30. Discharge letters? : TNT
31. ___ polloi : HOI
32. Aardvark’s morsel : ANT
34. IBM-compatibles, e.g. : PCS
36. Tropicana Field site, informally : ST PETE
37. Factor in club selection : LIE
38. Canon offering : EOS
39. Nestlé ___ Caps : SNO
41. Stephen of “Citizen X” : REA
42. Lower one’s A.P.R., perhaps : REFI
43. “Heads ___, tails …” : I WIN
48. Elitist : SNOB
49. ___ dragon (huge lizard) : KOMODO
51. Like a “before” versus “after” photo subject, say : FATTER
52. Carpentry peg : DOWEL
53. Czar’s edict : UKASE
54. “Family Ties” mother : ELYSE
55. ___ tag : LASER
57. Tierney of “ER” : MAURA
58. Urge forward : IMPEL
59. Record store section : OPERA
60. Jotted down : NOTED
62. A Katzenjammer kid : HANS
65. Rug rat : TOT
66. “You’re all ___ got” : I’VE

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