0101-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 1 Jan 15, Thursday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Jill Denny & Jeff Chen
THEME: Par for the Course … I have colored in three sections of the grid, each of which includes the letters PAR. We “TWO under PAR”, “ONE over PAR” and “ONE under PAR”. The equivalent terms for these three golf scores are EAGLE, BOGEY and BIRDIE. It is these golf terns that are used to make sense of the the three themed answers. Happy New Year, everyone!

15A. Belt and hose : CAR PARTS
17A. Neil Armstrong declaration : THE TWO HAS LANDED
= 17A. Neil Armstrong declaration : THE EAGLE HAS LANDED (TWO under PAR)

26A. What a parent might warn a child to watch out for : THE ONE MAN
32A. Bash with a splash : POOL PARTY
= 26A. What a parent might warn a child to watch out for : THE BOGEY MAN (ONE over PAR)

38A. Chutes and ladders locale : WATER PARK
42A. 1961 Tony winner for Best Musical : BYE BYE ONE
= 42A. 1961 Tony winner for Best Musical : BYE BYE BIRDIE (ONE under PAR)

53A. Average … or a literal hint to 17-, 26- and 42-Across : PAR FOR THE COURSE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 19m 02s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

9. Kind of game or line : PICK-UP
A pick-up game is one that is started spontaneously by a group of players, with those competing usually just dropping by in the hope of participating.

17. Neil Armstrong declaration : THE EAGLE HAS LANDED (TWO under PAR)
We always seem to remember the phrase “The Eagle has landed”, historic words spoken by Neil Armstrong when he put down Apollo 11’s Lunar Excursion Module on the surface of the moon. Looking back I have to say that the words preceding “The Eagle has landed” seem to have even more impact. During the descent to the moon’s surface Armstrong used the call sign “Eagle”, indicating that he was communicating from the LEM. After he killed the engines on touching down, Armstrong’s first words home to Earth were “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” That switch of call sign from “Eagle” to “Tranquility Base” always sends shivers down my spine …

The following terms are routinely used in golf for scores relative to par:

– Bogey: one over par
– Par
– Birdie: one under par
– Eagle: two under par
– Albatross (also “double eagle”): three under par
– Condor: four under par

No one has ever recorded a condor during a professional tournament.

19. Film critic Jeffrey : LYONS
Jeffrey Lyons is a TV and film critic from New York City. Interestingly, Lyons spent three season training as a field goal kicker with the New York Giants, and spent seven summers studying bullfighting in Spain.

20. Part of a dovetail joint : TENON
One simple type of joint used in carpentry is a mortise and tenon, basically a projection carved at the end of one piece of wood that fits into a hole cut into the end of another. In a dovetail joint, the projecting tenon is not rectangular but is cut at a bias, so that when the dovetails are joined they resist being pulled apart. You’ll see dovetail joints in drawers around the house.

21. Sub : HERO
“Hero” is another name for a submarine sandwich. The hero originated in New York City in the 1800s among Italian immigrants who wanted an Italian sandwich that reminded them of home. The name “hero” was coined in the 1930s, supposedly by a food critic in the “New York Herald Tribune” when he wrote that “one had to be a hero” to finish the gigantic sandwich. Hero is a prevalent term to this day in New York City, reserved for a submarine sandwich with an Italian flavor.

23. Seizure sensors, for short : EEGS
An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of electrical activity caused by the firing of neurons within the brain. The EEG might be used to diagnose epilepsy, or perhaps to determine if a patient is “brain dead”.

26. What a parent might warn a child to watch out for : THE BOGEY MAN (ONE over PAR)
The term “Bogey” originated at the Great Yarmouth Golf Club in England in 1890, and was used to indicate a total round that was one-over-par (and not one-over-par on a particular hole, as it is today). The name Bogey came from a music hall song of the time “Here Comes the Bogey Man”. In the following years it became popular for players trying to stay at par to be “playing against Colonel Bogey”. Then, during WWI, the marching tune “Colonel Bogey” was written and named after the golfing term. If you don’t recognize the name of the tune, it’s the one that’s whistled by the soldiers marching in the great movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai”.

35. Noir alternative : AU LAIT
Café au lait (“coffee with milk”) is usually strong, drip coffee to which one adds steamed milk. At least that’s the way we tend to make in this country.

36. Part of a Spanish explorer’s name : DE LEON
Juan Ponce de León was a famous Spanish explorer and conquistador. Ponce de León led the Europeans to Florida, and it was he who gave the state its name (Spanish for “Flowery Land”). He was injured on his last voyage to Florida, supposedly by a poisoned arrow, and died from his wound in Havana, Cuba.

37. “Funny Girl” composer : STYNE
Jule Styne was an English songwriter who made a name for himself in America with a series of popular musicals. Styne wrote a number of famous songs including “Don’t Rain on My Parade” from “Funny Girl”, “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” from “Gypsy”.

The movie “Funny Girl” stars Barbra Streisand in the title role of Fanny Brice. The real Fanny Brice was a theater and film actress, and “Funny Girl” is very loosely based on her life story. Fanny Brice was born into a Hungarian Jewish family in New York City, with the real name of Fania Borach.

41. Ho Chi Minh City festival : TET
The full name for the New Year holiday in Vietnam is “Tet Nguyen Dan” meaning “Feast of the First Morning”, with the reference being to the arrival of the season of spring. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.

During the Vietnam War, Hanoi was the capital of North Vietnam and Saigon the capital of South Vietnam. After the North Vietnamese victory, Hanoi was made capital of the reunified state. Saigon, the larger metropolis, was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City.

42. 1961 Tony winner for Best Musical : BYE BYE BIRDIE (ONE under PAR)
“Bye Bye Birdie” is a stage musical set in 1958, first performed in 1960 on Broadway. It was inspired by the real-life events surrounding Elvis Presley getting drafted into the Army in 1957. The “Elvis” character in the musical is called Conrad Birdie, a play on the name of the singer Conway Twitty. One of the songs from the show is “Put on a Happy Face”.

43. Sistine Chapel painting setting : EDEN
The Sistine Chapel, in the Pope’s residence in Rome, takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV who was responsible for restoring the old Capella Magna in the 15th century. It was about a century later (1508-1512) that Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel under the patronage of Pope Julius II.

48. Butterfly, but not a caterpillar : IMAGO
The imago is an intermediate stage in the development of an insect. All four stages are embryo, larva, pupa and imago.

58. Cave : GROTTO
The word “grotto” comes to us from the Italian “grotta” meaning “vault” or “cavern”.

60. Duke’s transportation? : A TRAIN
The A Train in the New York City Subway system runs from 207th Street, through Manhattan and over to Far Rockaway in Queens. The service lends its name to a jazz standard “Take the ‘A’ Train”, the signature tune of Duke Ellington and a song much sung by Ella Fitzgerald. One version of the lyric is:

You must take the A Train
To go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem
If you miss the A Train
You’ll find you’ve missed the quickest way to Harlem
Hurry, get on, now, it’s coming
Listen to those rails a-thrumming (All Aboard!)
Get on the A Train
Soon you will be on Sugar Hill in Harlem.

Down
2. Comedian Mort : SAHL
Mort Sahl is a Canadian-born actor and comedian who moved to the US with his family when he was a child. Sahl became friends with John F. Kennedy. When Kennedy became president, Sahl wrote a lot of jokes for the President’s speeches, although he also told a lot of Kennedy jokes in his acts. After the President was assassinated in 1963, Sahl was intensely interested in finding out who was behind the crime and even got himself deputized as a member of one of the investigating teams. He was very outspoken against the results of the Warren Commission report on the assassination, and soon found himself out of favor with the public. It took a few years for him to make his comeback, but come back he did.

3. Deuce follower : TREY
A trey of clubs, for example, is a name for the three of clubs in a deck of cards. The name “trey” can also be used for a domino with three pips.

Our term “deuce” ultimately comes via French from the Latin “duo” meaning “two”.

6. “Now ___ shakes my soul”: Sappho : EROS
Some lines from the Ancient Greek poet Sappho:

Now Eros shakes my soul,
a wind on the mountain falling on the oaks.

Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet born on the Greek island of Lesbos. Sappho was much admired for her work, although very little of it survives today. She was renowned for writing erotic and romantic verse that dealt with the love of women as well as men. It was because of this poetry that the word “lesbian” (someone from Lesbos) is used to describe a gay woman.

8. Traveler’s checks, for short? : TSA
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created in 2001, soon after the 9/11 attacks.

10. Site of a 1953 C.I.A.-directed coup : IRAN
The 1953 Iranian coup d’état overthrew Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and put in place a military government which eventually led to the Shah of Iran taking power. The coup was orchestrated by the British and American governments. Arguably, the US and UK motivation was the control of oil.

14. Taxi eschewer, for short : PED
Pedestrian (ped.)

21. 2013 Joaquin Phoenix film : HER
2003’s “Her” is a rather unusual film. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as a man who develops a relationship with a computer operating system called “Samantha”, which is voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

22. Chest compressor, for short : EMT
Emergency medical technician (EMT)

28. Brio : ELAN
Our word “élan” was imported from French, in which language the word has a similar meaning to ours i.e “style” or “flair”.

“Brio” is borrowed from Italian, in which language it means vigor and vivacity. “Con brio” is a musical direction often found on a score, instructing the musicians to play “with energy, vigor”.

29. Big name in morning radio : OPIE
“The Opie & Anthony Show” is a talk show broadcast on XM and Sirius satellite radio. Hosts of the show are Opie Hughes and Anthony Cumia. I’ve turned into a bit of grouch in my old age, and I must admit that I find broadcasts like “The Opie & Anthony Show” very puerile and offensive. Past features in the show include “Whip ‘em Out Wednesdays”, “Voyeur Bus” and “T&A with O&A”. You get the idea …

30. “The Confessions of ___ Turner” (1967 Pulitzer winner) : NAT
The Confessions of Nat Turner is a 1976 novel by William Styron.

Nat Turner was a slave in Virginia who led a slave rebellion in 1831 that led to the deaths of over a hundred people. Half of the casualties were white,and half were black. The 55 white deaths took place on the day of the rebellion as a growing mob of slaves traveled from house-to-house freeing fellow slaves but also killing any white people they came across; men, women and children. The rebellion was suppressed within two days by a white militia. Slaves involved in the rebellion were tried for insurrection and related crimes, and a total of 56 blacks were executed on suspicion of involvement in the uprising. In the aftermath, life for slaves became even more difficult as any freedoms that they had earned were largely curtailed.

34. Canned food made by Nestlé : ALPO
Alpo is a brand of dog food first produced by Allen Products in 1936, with “Alpo” being an abbreviation for “Allen Products”. Lorne Greene used to push Alpo in television spots, as did Ed McMahon and Garfield the Cat, would you believe?

36. “L.A. Law” actress : DEY
The actress Susan Dey first appeared on “The Partridge Family” when she was 17-years-old when she had no acting experience. Years later, Dey won a Golden Globe for playing the leading role of Grace Van Owen in “L. A. Law”.

“L.A. Law” ran on NBC from 1986 to 1994, and was one of the network’s most successful drama series. It took over from the equally successful “Hill Street Blues” in the Thursday night 10 p.m. slot until, after a six-year run, it was itself replaced by yet another respected drama, “E.R.” The opening credits showed that famous California licence plate. The plate was on a Jaguar XJ for most of the series, but moved onto a Bentley towards the end of the run. For each series the registration sticker was updated, so no laws were being broken.

38. Peter Fonda’s role in “Easy Rider” : WYATT
“Easy Rider” is a 1969 movie about two bikers traversing the American Southwest and the South. The bikers are famously played by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, who also co-wrote the screenplay. Fonda produced the film and Hopper directed.

39. ___ Lingus : AER
Aer Lingus is my favorite airline! Well, the service isn’t that great, but when I get on board an Aer Lingus plane I feel like I am back in Ireland. Aer Lingus is the national airline of Ireland, with “Aer Lingus” being a phonetic spelling of the Irish “aer-loingeas” meaning “air fleet”. These days Aer Lingus can only lay claim to the title of Ireland’s oldest airline as it is no longer the biggest. That honor goes to the controversial budget airline called Ryanair.

40. TV channel with the slogan “Very Funny” : TBS
Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) adopted the slogan “Very Funny” in 2004. The slogan is meant to contrast TBS with its sister channel TNT, which focuses on drama shows. The TNT slogan is “Drama, Period”.

44. Clinton-backed pact : NAFTA
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.

48. Brain-freezing treat : ICEE
Icee and Slurpee are brand names of those slushy drinks. Ugh …

49. Sitcom character who curses by shouting “Shazbot!” : MORK
“Mork & Mindy” was broadcast from 1978 to 1982. We were first introduced to Mork (played by Robin Williams, of course) in a special episode of “Happy Days”. The particular episode in question has a bizarre storyline culminating in Fonzie and Mork having a thumb-to-finger duel. Eventually Richie wakes up in bed, and alien Mork was just part of a dream! Oh, and “Nanu Nanu” means both “hello” and “goodbye” back on the planet Ork. “I am Mork from Ork, Nanu Nanu”. Great stuff …

There were a few terms coined for the sitcom “Mork & Mindy” in the later seventies that became popular at the time, and are sometimes still quoted today. Most popular was Mork’s greeting “Na-Nu Na-Nu”. Mork also used “Shazbot” as a profanity, said “KO” instead of “OK”.

52. “Hedda Gabler” setting : OSLO
“Hedda Gabler” is a play by the great Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, first published in 1890. Considered one of the greatest theater roles, the title character of Hedda Gabler is sometimes referred to as “the female Hamlet”.

53. Org. that’s most likely to appreciate this puzzle? : PGA
The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) was founded in 1916 and today has its headquarters (unsurprisingly) in Florida, where so many golfers live. Back in 1916, the PGA was based in New York City.

57. Job ad abbr. : EEO
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) is a term that has been around since 1964 when the Equal Employment Commission was set up by the Civil Rights Act.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Person close to 100? : A-STUDENT
9. Kind of game or line : PICK-UP
15. Belt and hose : CAR PARTS
16. Poker declaration : I RAISE
17. Neil Armstrong declaration : THE EAGLE HAS LANDED (TWO under PAR)
19. Film critic Jeffrey : LYONS
20. Part of a dovetail joint : TENON
21. Sub : HERO
23. Seizure sensors, for short : EEGS
26. What a parent might warn a child to watch out for : THE BOGEY MAN (ONE over PAR)
31. Deviate from one’s path : YAW
32. Bash with a splash : POOL PARTY
33. “___ inglés?” : HABLA
35. Noir alternative : AU LAIT
36. Part of a Spanish explorer’s name : DE LEON
37. “Funny Girl” composer : STYNE
38. Chutes and ladders locale : WATER PARK
41. Ho Chi Minh City festival : TET
42. 1961 Tony winner for Best Musical : BYE BYE BIRDIE
43. Sistine Chapel painting setting : EDEN
45. Antennae, so to speak : EARS
46. Charged : RAN AT
48. Butterfly, but not a caterpillar : IMAGO
53. Average … or a literal hint to 17-, 26- and 42-Across : PAR FOR THE COURSE
58. Cave : GROTTO
59. Trump : OVERRULE
60. Duke’s transportation? : A TRAIN
61. Game for which it’s helpful to have hands-on experience? : PEEKABOO

Down
1. House work? : ACT
2. Comedian Mort : SAHL
3. Deuce follower : TREY
4. Until : UP TO
5. Beginning : DAWN
6. “Now ___ shakes my soul”: Sappho : EROS
7. Highest power? : NTH
8. Traveler’s checks, for short? : TSA
9. Not let up in criticism : PILE ON
10. Site of a 1953 C.I.A.-directed coup : IRAN
11. Paddle around : CANOE
12. Organlike legume : KIDNEY BEAN
13. Function : USE
14. Taxi eschewer, for short : PED
18. Animal shelter animal : STRAY
21. 2013 Joaquin Phoenix film : HER
22. Chest compressor, for short : EMT
24. In abundance : GALORE
25. Ritzy : SWANK
26. Promoted : TOUTED
27. Real imp : HOLY TERROR
28. Brio : ELAN
29. Big name in morning radio : OPIE
30. “The Confessions of ___ Turner” (1967 Pulitzer winner) : NAT
32. Wallop : PASTE
33. “___, boy!” : HERE
34. Canned food made by Nestlé : ALPO
36. “L.A. Law” actress : DEY
38. Peter Fonda’s role in “Easy Rider” : WYATT
39. ___ Lingus : AER
40. TV channel with the slogan “Very Funny” : TBS
42. Concern : BEAR ON
44. Clinton-backed pact : NAFTA
47. “Don’t blame me!” : NOT I!
48. Brain-freezing treat : ICEE
49. Sitcom character who curses by shouting “Shazbot!” : MORK
50. Special quality : AURA
51. Eats : GRUB
52. “Hedda Gabler” setting : OSLO
53. Org. that’s most likely to appreciate this puzzle? : PGA
54. Sketches, e.g. : ART
55. Short flight : HOP
56. New Year’s ___ : EVE
57. Job ad abbr. : EEO

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