1221-14 New York Times Crossword Answers 21 Dec 14, Sunday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Joel Fagliano
THEME: Season’s Greetings … each of today’s themed answers sound like a common phrase with a “HO” sound inserted. Ho Ho Ho!

22A. Homer that leaves people yawning? : HO-HUM DINGER (Ho + “humdinger”)
24A. “Shucks!” or “Pshaw!”? : HOKEY WORD (Ho + “keyword”)
42A. Southwest tribe after a fistfight? : BLACK-EYED HOPIS (Ho + “black-eyed peas”)
67A. Backstabbing pal? : DESPICABLE HOMIE (Ho + “Despicable Me”)
91A. Barn dance that’s free to attend? : NO-MONEY HOEDOWN (Ho + “no money down”)
114A. Vagrant after getting kicked off a train, say? : CROSS HOBO (Ho + “crossbow”)
117A. Stuff your dad finds ridiculous? : HOKUM TO PAPA (Ho + “come to Papa”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 28m 05s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

19. One may be removed : COUSIN
In the most general terms, a cousin is anyone with whom one shares a common ancestor. Cousins in one’s immediate family are of course usually called by a more direct term (father, brother, uncle etc.). Two cousins are pinpointed in a family tree by using “degree” and “removal” to describe the relationship. For example, first cousins (first-degree cousins) share a common grandparent, and second cousins share a common great-grandparent, and so on up the tree. If the two cousins share the same common ancestor but there is a generational difference, then the “removal” term is used. So, if you share as a common ancestor your great-grandparent with one of your cousins, that person is your second cousin, unless that cousin is of a different generation in which case the number of generations “removed” is also specified. If that person regards your great-grandfather as his/her great-great grandfather, then you are still second cousins but more specifically are second cousins once removed (i.e. one generation removed). I explained this very badly …

22. Homer that leaves people yawning? : HO-HUM DINGER (Ho + “humdinger”)
A home run in baseball might be called a “dinger” or a “round trip”, among other things.

A “humdinger” or a “pip” is someone or something outstanding. Humdinger is American slang dating back to the early 1900s, originally used to describe a particularly attractive woman.

29. Pale ___ : ALE
Pale ale is a beer made using mainly pale malt, which results in a relatively light color for a malted beer.

30. Majors in acting : LEE
Lee Majors plays Steve Austin, the title character on the sci-fi show from the seventies called “The Six Million Dollar Man”. The series is based on a 1972 novel called “Cyborg”.

34. “The less you wear, the more you need ___” (slogan) : NAIR
Nair is a hair removal product that has some pretty harsh ingredients. The most important active constituents are calcium hydroxide (“slake lime”) and sodium hydroxide (“caustic soda”). Other Nair components seem to be there to soothe the skin after the harsher chemicals have done their job. The name “Nair” probably comes from combining “no” and “hair”.

38. Sauce with a name derived from the Italian for “pounded” : PESTO
The term “pesto” applies to anything made by pounding. What we tend to know as “pesto” sauce is more properly called “pesto alla genovese”, pesto from Genoa in northern Italy.

40. Risky chess move, informally : SAC
Sacrifice (sac.)

41. Some briefs : BVDS
The men’s underwear known as BVDs are made by the Bradley, Voorhees & Day. The company was started in 1876 to make bustles for women, and is named for its founders.

45. Pad ___ (noodle dish) : THAI
The delicious dish called Pad Thai is a meld of stir-fried rice noodles with tamarind juice, red chili pepper plus a mix of vegetables and possibly tofu, meat or fish. It is usually topped with crushed peanuts, coriander and lime. The name “Pad Thai” translates as “fried Thai style”.

47. Part of E.T.S.: Abbr. : EDUC
The Educational Testing Service (ETS) was founded in 1947, and produces standardized tests for students from kindergarten through college. Perhaps most famously, ETS operates the SAT testing process.

48. Piano sonatas, e.g. : SOLI
“Soli” (the plural of “solo”) are pieces of music performed by one artist, whereas “tutti” are pieces performed by all of the artists.

The term “sonata” comes from the Latin and Italian word “sonare” meaning “to sound”. A sonata is a piece of music that is played, as opposed to a cantata (from Latin and Italian “cantare” meaning “to sing”), a piece of music that is sung.

49. ___ generis : SUI
“Sui generis” is a Latin expression meaning “of its own kind”. The term can be used in a number of fields, and in philosophy it refers to an idea which cannot be included in a wider concept, and idea of its own kind.

51. World of Warcraft creatures : OGRES
“World of Warcraft” is an online role-playing game. My son informs me that the game is not that great. Like I would know …

54. Navratilova rival : 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.

Martina Navratilova is a retired tennis player who is thought by many to have been the greatest player of all time. Navratilova won the Wimbledon singles title a record nine times, which is one of many records that she holds. She was born in Czechoslovakia but asked for political asylum in the US in 1975 at 18 years of age. Navratilova was granted temporary residency in the US and as a result was stripped of her Czech citizenship. That Czech citizenship was restored in 2008, making her a dual citizen.

60. First lady from Texas : LAURA
Laura Bush, wife of President George W. Bush, had her memoir “Spoken from the Heart” published in 2010. Born Laura Lane Welch, the former First Lady has a Master’s degree in Library Science (as does my wife, my own First Lady!). Given that background, it’s not surprising that two causes that Laura Bush focused on while in the White House were education and literacy. She established the annual National Book Festival, first held in Washington, D.C. in 2001, after having co-founded the Texas Book Festival in her home state.

61. Nav. rank : ENS
Ensign is (usually) the most junior rank of commissioned officer in the armed forces. The name comes from the tradition that the junior officer would be given the task of carrying the ensign flag.

62. War stat : MIAS
Missing in action (MIA)

64. Bleacher feature : TIER
At a sports event, one often sits in the “bleachers”. This is a particularly American term for the tiered stands that provide seating for spectators. These seats were originally wooden planks, and as they were uncovered they would be “bleached” by the sun, giving the name we use today. Sometimes the fans using the bleachers might be referred to as “bleacherites”.

67. Backstabbing pal? : DESPICABLE HOMIE (Ho + “Despicable Me”)
“Homie” is short for “homeboy”, someone from one’s home neighborhood.

“Despicable Me” is a 2010 animated comedy film. The main voice actor in the movie is the very funny Steve Carell. “Despicable Me” is a Universal Pictures production, although all of the animation was done in France.

73. “Dedicated to the ___ Love” : ONE I
“Dedicated to the One I Love” is a song that is most associated with the Mamas and the Papas as they had a hit with it in 1967. Back in 1961, the same song was a big hit for The Shirelles.

75. Filch : COP
“Filch” is a slang term for “steal”.

78. Around : CIRCA
“Circa” is a Latin word meaning “around, near, about the time of”. We use “circa” directly in English to mean “about the time of”, as well as in derivative words such as “circle” and “circus”.

79. Zion National Park material : SANDSTONE
To me, the most spectacular feature of Zion National Park, in southwestern Utah, is the magnificent Zion Canyon. The canyon cuts through red Navajo sandstone and is a truly beautiful sight.

84. Reader of the Deseret News : UTAHN
A Utahn or Utahan is someone from Utah.

When Mormon pioneers were settling what is today the state of Utah, they referred to the area as Deseret, a word that means “beehive” according to the Book of Mormon. Today Utah is known as the Beehive State and there is a beehive symbol on the Utah state flag.

86. They’re above abs : PECS
“Pecs” is the familiar term for the chest muscle, more correctly known as the pectoralis major muscle. “Pectus” is a the Latin word for “breast, chest”.

88. “It Came ___ a Midnight Clear” : UPON
“It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” is both a poem and Christmas carol. The poem was written back in 1849 by Edmund Sears, a Unitarian parish minister in Wayland, Massachusetts.

89. ___ tide : NEAP
Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

98. Hematite, e.g. : ORE
Iron ore comes in a number of different forms, like magnetite (the most magnetic of all minerals) and hematite (the most commonly exploited iron ore).

101. Actress Strahovski of 2000s TV : YVONNE
Yvonne Strahovski is an actress from Australia. Strahovski got her big break playing CIA agent Sarah Walker on the action-comedy show “Chuck”. More recently, she played CIA agent Kate Morgan on “24: Live Another Day” opposite Kiefer Sutherland.

103. Proctor’s charge : TESTEES
A “proctor” is a supervisor, especially of an examination in a school, or perhaps of a dormitory. The word “proctor” originated in the late 1500s, a contraction of the word “procurator”, the name given to an official agent of a church.

107. Computer addresses: Abbr. : IPS
An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical label assigned to every device on a computer network.

108. Believe it! : ISM
An “ism” is a system of beliefs, like communism, taoism etc.

109. R.S.V.P., e.g.: Abbr. : ANS
RSVP stands for “répondez, s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “please, answer”.

114. Vagrant after getting kicked off a train, say? : CROSS HOBO (Ho + “crossbow”)
No one seems to know for sure how the term “hobo” originated, although there are lots of colorful theories. My favorite is that “hobo” comes from the first letters in the words “ho-meward bo-und”, but it doesn’t seem very plausible. A kind blog reader tells me that according to Click and Clack from PBS’s “Car Talk” (a great source!), “hobo” comes from “hoe boy”. Hoe boys were young men with hoes looking for work after the Civil War. Hobos differed from “tramps” and “bums”, in that “bums” refused to work, “tramps” worked when they had to, while “hobos” traveled in search of work.

117. Stuff your dad finds ridiculous? : HOKUM TO PAPA (Ho + “come to Papa”)
“Hokum” was originally theater slang, meaning “melodramatic, exaggerated acting”. Now the term just means “empty talk”.

121. Temple University’s team : OWLS
Temple University was founded in 1888, and started out as a night school offering classes to people of limited means who had to hold down jobs during the day. These students earned themselves the nickname of “night owls”, leading to the use of “Owls” for Temple’s athletic teams.

122. Saharan nomad : TUAREG
The Tuareg are a nomadic people who inhabit the Saharan interior of North Africa, mainly in Niger, Mali and Algeria.

123. “The Shawshank Redemption” setting : STATE PEN
Stephen King’s novella “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” was adapted into a 2009 stage play and a 1994 film, both called “The Shawshank Redemption”. The Ohio State Reformatory was used for exterior shots of the fictional Shawshank Prison. That same facility was used for the prison scenes in the 1997 film “Air Force One”.

125. Charles Schwab competitor : E*TRADE
E*Trade is mainly an online discount brokerage. It was founded in 1982 in Palo Alto, California, and I used to drive by its headquarters almost every day. The company is now run out of New York City. E*Trade produces those famous Super Bowl ads with the talking babies staring into a webcam.

Down
3. Germany’s ___ Basin : RUHR
The Ruhr is a large urban area in western Germany. The area is heavily populated, and is the fifth largest urban area in the whole of Europe, after Istanbul, Moscow, London and Paris. The Ruhr became heavily industrialized due to its large deposits of coal. By 1850, the area contained nearly 300 operating coal mines. Any coal deposits remaining in the area today are too expensive to exploit.

4. Pac-12 team, for short : ASU
Arizona State University (ASU) has a long history, founded as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory in 1885. The athletic teams of ASU used to be known as the Normals, then the Bulldogs, and since 1946 they’ve been called the Sun Devils.

5. Steve Jobs’s successor at Apple : TIM COOK
Tim Cook has been Apple’s CEO since 2011, when he succeeded Steve Jobs. Cook had joined the company back in 1998 as senior vice president in charge of worldwide operations. Cook came out as gay in October of 2014, making him the first openly gay CEO on the Fortune 500 list.

6. Minuses, basically : EN DASHES
In typography, there are em dashes and en dashes. The em dash is about the width of an “m” character, and an en dash about half that, the width of an “n’ character. An en dash is used, for example, to separate numbers designating a range, as in 5-10 years. Th em dash seems to be going out of style, and indeed the application I am using to write this paragraph won’t let me show you one!

7. House speaker after Dennis Hastert : NANCY PELOSI
Nancy Pelosi is a former Speaker of the House, the 60th person to hold that position. Ms. Pelosi represents a district not far from here, which covers most of San Francisco. She is the first Californian, the first Italian-American and the first woman to be Speaker of the House. As Speaker, she was also second in line, after the Vice President, to take over if President Obama could not finish his term. That made Nancy Pelosi the highest-ranking female politician in US history.

10. Hockey Hall of Fame locale : TORONTO
The Hockey Hall of Fame was established in 1943 in Kingston, Ontario. However, years of effort failed to raise sufficient funds to build a permanent building for the Hall of Fame in Kingston. The NHL finally agreed to construct a building for a permanent exhibition in Toronto that was opened in 1961. A larger home for the Hockey Hall of Fame was opened in Toronto in 1993.

11. Playbill info : BIO
I get quite a kick out of reading the bios in “Playbill” as some of them can be really goofy and entertaining. “Playbill” started off in 1884 in New York as an in-house publication for just one theater on 21st St. You can’t see any decent-sized production these days anywhere in the United States without being handed a copy of “Playbill”.

12. World capital once conquered by Augustus : ANKARA
Ankara is the second largest city in Turkey, after Istanbul (formerly Constantinople). After WWI, the Ottoman Empire had been defeated and the Allies occupied the Ottoman capital of Istanbul. The victors planned to break up most of Turkey, leaving native Turks just part of their country for their own. In the inevitable War of Independence that followed, the Turkish Nationalists used Ankara as their base. When the Nationalists emerged victorious, they declared Ankara the new capital of Turkey.

Gaius Octavius Thurinus (often called Octavian) was the adopted son of Gaius Julius Caesar. After Julius Caesar was assassinated, Octavian came to power in Rome and teamed up with Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in what was called the Second Triumvirate. When the triumvirate fell apart, especially after Antony’s defeat at Actium, Octavian became more powerful within the Roman Republic. Several years later he wrested sufficient power from the Roman Senate to end the Republic and begin the Roman Empire. As the first Emperor of Rome, Octavian was given the name Caesar Augustus. The month of August, originally called “Sextilis” in Latin, was renamed in honor of Augustus.

14. Roy Rogers’s real last name : SLYE
Cowboy actor and singer Roy Rogers’ real name was Leonard Franklin Slye, and his nickname was “King of the Cowboys”. Roy Rogers married Dale Evans in 1947. Evans’ nickname was “Queen of the West”.

16. Cause for a quarantine : EBOLA VIRUS
The Ebola virus causes a very nasty form of hemorrhagic fever. The name of the virus comes from the site of the first known outbreak, in a mission hospital in the Ebola River Valley in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The original use of our word “quarantine” back in the 1500s was as a legal term. A “quarantine” was the 40 days in which a widow had the legal right to reside in her dead husband’s house.

17. Moon of Neptune : NEREID
Nereid is the third largest moon of the planet Neptune. In Greek mythology, the Nereids were the sea-nymphs who attended the god Neptune.

28. Cognac bottle letters : VSOP
Cognac is a famous variety of brandy named after the town of Cognac in the very west of France. To be called cognac, the brandy must be distilled twice in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in very specific French oak barrels. It is the length of this aging that defines the various grades of cognac (and other brandies):

– VS: Very Special … at least 2 years storage
– VSOP: Very Special (or Superior) Old Pale … at least 4 years storage
– XO: Extra Old … at least 6 years
– VSO: Very Superior Old … 12-17 years

31. Lawn game : BOCCE
The Italian bowling game of “bocce” (anglicized as “bocci”) is based on a game played in Ancient Rome. “Bocce” is the plural of the Italian word “boccia” meaning “bowl”.

34. Celtic battle, say : NBA GAME
The Boston Celtics NBA basketball team were founded just after WWII in 1946. The Celtics won eight league championships in a row from 1958 to 1966. That’s the longest consecutive championship winning streak of any professional sports team in North America.

35. Like President Taft : OBESE
William Howard Taft may have been the 27th President of the United States, but his lifelong ambition was to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. President Taft was able to realize that dream in 1921, eight years after losing his bid for re-election as president. As Chief Justice, this former US President swore in two new presidents: Calvin Coolidge (in 1925) and Herbert Hoover (in 1929). William Howard Taft is also remembered as the most obese president. In the last year of his presidency, he weighed about 340 pounds (he was 5 feet 11 inches tall). Twelve months after leaving the White House, President Taft had dropped 80 pounds and substantially lowered his blood pressure.

39. Sedgwick in Warhol films : EDIE
Edie Sedgwick became famous when she starred in several short films made by Andy Warhol in the sixties. Sedgwick’s life was portrayed in a 2006 biographical film called “Factory Girl”.

43. Warrior or downward dog : YOGA POSE
In the West we tend to think of yoga as a physical discipline, a means of exercise that uses specific poses to stretch and strengthen muscles. While it is true that the ancient Indian practice of yoga does involve such physical discipline, the corporeal aspect of the practice plays a relatively small part in the whole philosophy. Other major components are meditation, ethical behavior, breathing and contemplation.

44. Rhone tributary : ISERE
The Isère river gives its name to the French Department of Isère, located partly in the French Alps. In turn, Isère gave its name to a somewhat famous ship called the Isère, which in 1885 delivered the Statue of Liberty from France to America in 214 shipping crates.

55. Composer whose name is an anagram of SANTA + ME : SMETANA
Bedřich Smetana was a Czech composer, known as the father of Czech music. Just like Beethoven, Smetana was still composing at the end of his life even though he was totally deaf.

66. “Personally, I think …,” in texts : IMO
In my opinion (IMO)

67. Kate Middleton, e.g. : DUCHESS
Kate Middleton is the wife of Prince William of the UK. Middleton is what one might call a commoner, born to parents who had worked together as flight attendants before becoming quite wealthy running their own mail order business. As is so often the case in Britain, Kate’s ancestry can be traced back far enough to show that she and William do have common ancestors, dating back to the 1500s on her mother’s side and to the 1400s on her father’s side.

68. Complex thing? : CONDO
The words “condominium” and “apartment” tend to describe the one type of residential property, a private living space with facilities shared with others residing in the same building or complex. The difference is that a condominium is usually owned, and an apartment is rented. At least that’s how it is in the US. The word “condominium” comes from the Latin “com” (together) and “dominum” (right of ownership).

70. Lead-in to pressure : ACU-
Acupressure and acupuncture are related alternative medical techniques. Both aim to clear blockages in the flow of life energy through the body’s meridians. The treatment is given by stimulating “acupoints’ in the body, by applying pressure in the case of acupressure, and by applying needles in the case of acupuncture.

75. Fattened fowl : CAPON
A capon is a castrated cockerel (poor guy!). Castration has a profound effect on the bird (duh!) making the meat more tender to eat when it is slaughtered.

76. Nickname for Orlando : O-TOWN
Orlando in Central Florida is the largest inland city in the state. Orlando was the most visited city in the US in 2009, mainly as the city and environs has many theme parks including Walt Disney World, Universal Studios Florida and SeaWorld.

77. Pasta with a name derived from the Italian for “quills” : PENNE
Cylindrical pasta is known in general as “penne”, and there are many variants. For example, ziti is a particularly large and long tube with square-cut ends. “Penne” is the plural of “penna”, the Italian for “feather, quill”.

80. Auntie ___ (pretzel chain) : ANNE’S
Auntie Anne’s is a chain of pretzel bakeries that was founded in 1988. The chain started out as a simple stand in a farmer’s market in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. There are now almost 900 outlets in about a dozen countries.

Pretzels originated in Europe and are especially popular in Southern Germany where a pretzel is known as “Brezel”. Pretzels were introduced into the US in the 1800s by immigrants from Germany and Switzerland who came to be known over here as the Pennsylvania Dutch.

81. German auto : OPEL
Adam Opel founded his company in 1863, first making sewing machines in a cowshed. Commercial success brought new premises and a new product line in 1886, namely penny-farthing bicycles. Adam Opel died in 1895, leaving his two sons with a company that made more penny-farthings and sewing machines than any other company in the world. In 1899 the two sons partnered with a locksmith and started to make cars, but not very successfully. Two years later, the locksmith was dropped in favor of a licensing arrangement with a French car company. By 1914, Opel was the largest manufacturer of automobiles in Germany. My Dad had an Opel in the seventies, a station wagon (we’d say “estate car” in Ireland) called an Opel Kadett.

83. “Good job by you!” : KUDOS!
Our word “kudos” means acclaim given for an exceptional achievement. “Kudos” is not a plural, despite a common misapprehension. It is a singular noun derived from the Greek “kyddos” meaning “glory, fame”.

90. Joint business venture? : POT SHOP
“Potiguaya” is the Mexican-Spanish word for “marijuana leaves”. The slang name “pot” comes from “potiguaya”.

The term “joint” has a long history in the drug world. The word originally came from French in which it is the past participle of the word for “to join”. It became an Anglo-Irish term for a side-room “joined” onto a main room in the early 1800s. Towards the end of the 19th century it was US slang for a small, shady establishment, such as an opium den. By the 1930s a joint was a hypodermic needle used to inject heroin, and soon after became the term for a marijuana cigarette.

92. Look : MIEN
One’s “mien” is one’s bearing or manner. “Mien” shares the same etymological root as our word “demeanor”.

93. Special newsstand offering : ONE-SHOT
In the world of magazine publishing, a “one-shot” is a one-time, special publication that is produced to highlight one particular subject of interest.

94. “Illmatic” rapper : NAS
The rap artist Nas used to go by another stage name, Nasty Nas, and before that by his real name, Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones. Nas released his first album “Illmatic” in 1994, and inventively titled his fifth studio album “Stillmatic”, released in 2001. Not my cup of tea, I would say …

96. Regal and Encore : BUICKS
David Dunbar Buick was an inventor working in Detroit, Michigan who founded the Buick Motor Company in 1903. Buick sold his interest in Buick Motors just three years later. He passed away in 1929, practically penniless. Still, over 30 million vehicles have been built that bore the Buick name.

97. Lively intelligence : ESPRIT
Our word “esprit”, meaning “liveliness of mind”, comes to us from Latin via French. The Latin “spiritus” means “spirit.

104. Ski resort near Santa Fe : TAOS
The city of Taos, New Mexico is named for the Native American village nearby called Taos Pueblo. Taos is famous for its art colony. Artists began to settle in Taos in 1899, and the Taos Society of Artists was founded in 1915.

108. ___ of Man : ISLE
The Isle of Man is a large island located in the middle of the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland. I used to spend a lot of time there in my youth, and a very interesting place it is indeed. The Isle of Man is classed as a British Crown Dependency and isn’t part of the United Kingdom at all. It is self-governing and has its own parliament called the Tynwald. The Tynwald was created in AD 979 and is arguably the oldest continuously-running parliament in the world. The inhabitants of the island speak English, although they do have their own language as well called Manx, which is very similar to Irish Gaeilge and Scottish Gaelic. And then there are those Manx cats, the ones without any tails. I’ve seen lots of them, and can attest that they are indeed found all over the island.

110. Stillwater’s home: Abbr. : OKLA
The city of Stillwater, Oklahoma is located in the north-central part of the state, in the area that is sometimes known as “Tornado Alley”. One of the city’s claims to fame is that it is home to Oklahoma State University.

111. ___ Liasson, NPR political correspondent : MARA
Mara Liasson is a radio and television journalist. Liasson is a former White House correspondent and is the current national political correspondent for National Public Radio.

112. With 113-Down, it’s full of opinions : OP-ED
113. See 112-Down : PAGE
Op-Ed is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-Eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

116. Son of, in Hebrew names : BEN
In Arabic names, “ibn” is a word meaning “son of”. The words “bin” and “ben” are also used for “son of”. The word “bint” means “daughter of”. Similarly, in Hebrew “ben” is used to mean “son of”, and “bat” is used to mean “daughter of”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Something put on the spot? : AD RATE
7. Without a mixer : NEAT
11. Likely feature of a college town : BAR SCENE
19. One may be removed : COUSIN
20. ___-American : AFRO
21. Red or white sticker? : WINE LABEL
22. Homer that leaves people yawning? : HO-HUM DINGER (Ho + “humdinger”)
24. “Shucks!” or “Pshaw!”? : HOKEY WORD (Ho + “keyword”)
25. Go astray : ERR
26. Father-son activity : CATCH
27. They can be fertilized : OVA
29. Pale ___ : ALE
30. Majors in acting : LEE
31. Domineering : BOSSY
32. Give rise to : INSPIRE
34. “The less you wear, the more you need ___” (slogan) : NAIR
35. “Pick me, pick me!” : OOH OOH!
38. Sauce with a name derived from the Italian for “pounded” : PESTO
40. Risky chess move, informally : SAC
41. Some briefs : BVDS
42. Southwest tribe after a fistfight? : BLACK-EYED HOPIS (Ho + “black-eyed peas”)
45. Pad ___ (noodle dish) : THAI
47. Part of E.T.S.: Abbr. : EDUC
48. Piano sonatas, e.g. : SOLI
49. ___ generis : SUI
51. World of Warcraft creatures : OGRES
54. Navratilova rival : SELES
56. Starts recycling, say : GOES GREEN
60. First lady from Texas : LAURA
61. Nav. rank : ENS
62. War stat : MIAS
64. Bleacher feature : TIER
65. Where a director directs : FILM SET
67. Backstabbing pal? : DESPICABLE HOMIE (Ho + “Despicable Me”)
70. Soon gonna : ABOUT TO
73. “Dedicated to the ___ Love” : ONE I
74. Siouan speaker : OTOE
75. Filch : COP
78. Around : CIRCA
79. Zion National Park material : SANDSTONE
82. Coast along, with “by” : SKATE
84. Reader of the Deseret News : UTAHN
85. Break off : END
86. They’re above abs : PECS
88. “It Came ___ a Midnight Clear” : UPON
89. ___ tide : NEAP
91. Barn dance that’s free to attend? : NO-MONEY HOEDOWN (Ho + “no money down”)
96. Seeks change? : BEGS
98. Hematite, e.g. : ORE
100. Together : IN ALL
101. Actress Strahovski of 2000s TV : YVONNE
102. What vinegar has a lot of : USES
103. Proctor’s charge : TESTEES
105. Gawks at : OGLES
107. Computer addresses: Abbr. : IPS
108. Believe it! : ISM
109. R.S.V.P., e.g.: Abbr. : ANS
110. Where the big buoys are? : OCEAN
111. Makeshift wig, maybe : MOP
114. Vagrant after getting kicked off a train, say? : CROSS HOBO (Ho + “crossbow”)
117. Stuff your dad finds ridiculous? : HOKUM TO PAPA (Ho + “come to Papa”)
120. Gentle treatment, metaphorically : KID GLOVES
121. Temple University’s team : OWLS
122. Saharan nomad : TUAREG
123. “The Shawshank Redemption” setting : STATE PEN
124. Nursing need : TEAT
125. Charles Schwab competitor : E*TRADE

Down
1. Feel deep compassion : ACHE
2. Way out : DOOR
3. Germany’s ___ Basin : RUHR
4. Pac-12 team, for short : ASU
5. Steve Jobs’s successor at Apple : TIM COOK
6. Minuses, basically : EN DASHES
7. House speaker after Dennis Hastert : NANCY PELOSI
8. I will follow it : E-F-G-H-
9. “___ we done?” : ARE
10. Hockey Hall of Fame locale : TORONTO
11. Playbill info : BIO
12. World capital once conquered by Augustus : ANKARA
13. Return to one’s seat? : REELECT
14. Roy Rogers’s real last name : SLYE
15. Raven’s cry : CAW!
16. Cause for a quarantine : EBOLA VIRUS
17. Moon of Neptune : NEREID
18. Church leaders : ELDERS
21. Sound of a fly swatter : WHAP!
23. “___ no biggie” : IT’S
28. Cognac bottle letters : VSOP
31. Lawn game : BOCCE
32. “Or so” : -ISH
33. Bone to pick : ISSUE
34. Celtic battle, say : NBA GAME
35. Like President Taft : OBESE
36. Bygone : OLDEN
37. Trucks, maybe : HAULS
39. Sedgwick in Warhol films : EDIE
43. Warrior or downward dog : YOGA POSE
44. Rhone tributary : ISERE
46. Some Christmas decorations : HOLLIES
50. Computerdom, informally : INFOTECH
52. ‘Fore : ERE
53. Got the chair? : SAT
55. Composer whose name is an anagram of SANTA + ME : SMETANA
57. Bear : STAND
58. Put-downs : GIBES
59. Like used cigars, maybe : RELIT
63. Suffix with social : -IST
66. “Personally, I think …,” in texts : IMO
67. Kate Middleton, e.g. : DUCHESS
68. Complex thing? : CONDO
69. Tree whose pods have sweet pulp : HONEY LOCUST
70. Lead-in to pressure : ACU-
71. Was gullible : BIT
72. Crush, e.g. : ORANGE SODA
75. Fattened fowl : CAPON
76. Nickname for Orlando : O-TOWN
77. Pasta with a name derived from the Italian for “quills” : PENNE
80. Auntie ___ (pretzel chain) : ANNE’S
81. German auto : OPEL
83. “Good job by you!” : KUDOS!
87. Trendy coffee order : SOY LATTE
90. Joint business venture? : POT SHOP
92. Look : MIEN
93. Special newsstand offering : ONE-SHOT
94. “Illmatic” rapper : NAS
95. Balance : EVEN OUT
96. Regal and Encore : BUICKS
97. Lively intelligence : ESPRIT
99. Take off : REMOVE
104. Ski resort near Santa Fe : TAOS
106. Beauty : GEM
108. ___ of Man : ISLE
110. Stillwater’s home: Abbr. : OKLA
111. ___ Liasson, NPR political correspondent : MARA
112. With 113-Down, it’s full of opinions : OP-ED
113. See 112-Down : PAGE
115. Mil. rank : SGT
116. Son of, in Hebrew names : BEN
118. Get behind : OWE
119. It’s hard to shoot : PAR

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