0105-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 5 Jan 15, Monday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: John Guzzetta
THEME: Types of Bird … each of today’s themed answers is a common two-wotrd phrase, with the second word being a type of bird:

16A. Skillful lawyer : LEGAL EAGLE
24A. Cantankerous fellow : OLD BUZZARD
37A. Relative youngster : SPRING CHICKEN
51A. Hard-liner on government spending : BUDGET HAWK
60A. Goofball : SILLY GOOSE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 18s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

9. Helpful website feature, for short : FAQS
Most websites have a page listing answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). There is a link to this blog’s FAQs at the top-right of every page.

13. First month of el año : ENERO
In Spanish, the year (el año) starts in January (enero) and ends in December (diciembre).

15. Cousins of ostriches : EMUS
The large flightless birds called emus make sounds by manipulating inflatable necks sacs. The sac is about a foot long, has a thin wall and allows the bird to emit a booming sound. The type of sound emitted is the easiest way to differentiate between male and female emus.

The ostrich is a flightless bird that is native to Africa. The ostrich is extensively farmed, mainly for its feathers but also for its skin/leather and meat.

19. Result of a failed Breathalyzer test, for short : DWI
In some states, there is no longer a legal difference between a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) and a DUI (Driving Under the Influence). Other states retain that difference, so that by definition a DUI is a lesser offence than a DWI.

What we know today as the breathalyzer was introduced in 1931 as a device called the “drunkometer”.

33. Clerk on “The Simpsons” : 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 …

36. ___ Lemon, “30 Rock” character : LIZ
“30 Rock” is a sitcom on NBC that was created by the show’s star Tina Fey. Fey is an ex-performer and writer from “Saturday Night Live” and uses her experiences on that show as a basis for the “30 Rock” storyline. Fey plays Liz Lemon, the head writer for the fictional sketch comedy series “TGS with Tracy Jordan”.

44. Chaney who starred in “The Phantom of the Opera” : LON
Lon Chaney, Sr. played a lot of crazed-looking characters in the days of silent movies. He did much of his own make-up work, developing the grotesque appearances that became his trademark, and earning himself the nickname “the man of a thousand faces”. Most famous were his portrayals of the title characters in the films “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1923) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925).

47. “Just do it” shoes : NIKES
Nike was the Greek goddess of victory, often referred to as the Winged Goddess of Victory. The athletic shoe company Nike uses the “Nike swoosh” as its logo, which is based on the goddess’s wing.

54. Michelin product : TIRE
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.

58. Bonkers : MAD
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.

59. N.Y.C. home of Magrittes and Matisses : MOMA
The founding of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City was very much driven by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, the wife of John D. Rockefeller, son of the oil magnate. Working with two friends, Abby managed to get the museum opened in 1929, just nine days after the Wall Street Crash. The MoMA’s sculpture garden bears the name of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and has done so since 1949.

Belgian artist René Magritte was a surrealist. His most recognized work maybe is “The Son of Man”, a painting he created as a self-portrait. It is the work that shows a man in a bowler hat with his face covered by an apple. The image features prominently in the great movie, the 1999 remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair”.

Henri Matisse was a French artist renowned for his contribution to modern art. In his early career, Matisse was classed as a “fauve”, one of the group of artists known as the “wild beasts” who emphasized strong color over realism in their works. He was a lifelong friend of Pablo Picasso, and the two were considered to be good-natured rivals so their works are often compared. One major difference between their individual portfolios is that Picasso tended to paint from his imagination, whereas Matisse tended to use nature as his inspiration.

64. French yeses : OUIS
“Oui” is “yes” in French, and “non” is “no”.

65. National gem of Australia : OPAL
97% of the world’s opals come from Australia, so it’s no surprise perhaps that the opal is the national gemstone of the country. The state of South Australia provides the bulk of the world’s production, about 80%.

66. Word before planet or peace : INNER
The “inner planets” of our solar system are also known as the terrestrial planets. They are Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury. They all are dense and rocky, and are composed mainly of silicates and metals. The silicates make up the rocky crusts of the inner planets, and the metals form their cores.

69. Whole ___ (grocery chain) : FOODS
The first Whole Foods Market was opened in 1980 by John Mackey and partners in Austin, Texas. For the two years prior to the Whole Foods launch, Mackay was operating his natural foods store that he called “Saferway”, as opposed to “Safeway”. Clever name …

Down
4. Reagan ___ (most of the 1980s) : ERA
Ronald Reagan started out his political career as a member of the Democratic Party, but switched to the Republicans in the early fifties. He served as Governor of California for eight years, and vied unsuccessfully for the nomination for US President on two occasions. He finally succeeded in 1980 and defeated President Jimmy Carter to become the 40th US President in 1981.

7. Coral dweller : EEL
Corals are invertebrates found in the sea that live in compact colonies. Some corals secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard exoskeleton, and these type of corals make up the basic infrastructure of coral reefs.

9. “___ Navidad” : FELIZ
“Feliz Navidad” is Spanish for “Happy Christmas”.

11. “Roses are red …,” e.g. : QUATRAIN
A quatrain is a group of four lines of poetry. The most common quatrain schemes are AAAA, AABB and ABAB.

As kids we used to say:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
God made me beautiful
What happened to you?

We weren’t very nice …

12. Nine-digit ID : SSN
A Social Security number (SSN) is divided into three parts i.e AAA-GG-SSSS, Originally, the Area Number (AAA) was the code for the office that issued the card. Since 1973, the Area Number reflects the ZIP code from which the application was made. The GG in the SSN is the Group Number, and the SSSS in the number is the Serial Number. However, this is all moot, as since 2011 SSN’s are assigned randomly.

14. Frankie of the Four Seasons : VALLI
Frankie Valli is a great singer, best known for fronting the Four Seasons in the sixties. Valli had an incredible number of hits, with and without the Four Seasons. The extensive list includes, “Sherry”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, “Walk Like a Man”, “Rag Doll”, “My Eyes Adored You” and “Grease”.

17. “Evil Woman” grp. : ELO
The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) recorded the song “Evil Woman” in 1975. “Evil Woman” was written by the band’s lead vocalist Jeff Lynne, in just thirty minutes!

21. Like many Mexicans’ forebears : AZTECAN
The Aztec people of Central America dominated the region in the 14th-16th centuries. Two traits of the Aztec people are oft cited today. They built some magnificent pyramids, and they also engaged in human sacrifice. The two traits were linked in a way. For the consecration of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan, 84,400 prisoners were sacrificed over a period of four days.

23. ___-Pei (dog breed) : SHAR
The Shar Pei breed of dog is that one with the wrinkly face and really dark tongue. The breed originated in China, with “Shar Pei” being the British spelling of the Cantonese name.

25. One trying to grab a bite at the theater? : DRACULA
“Dracula” is a novel written by the Irish author Bram Stoker and first published in 1897. Dracula wasn’t the first vampire of literature, but he certainly was the one who spawned the popularity of vampires in theater, film and television, and indeed more novels. Personally, I can’t stand vampire fiction …

26. Girl’s name that’s a Hebrew letter : BETH
“Aleph” is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and “beth” the second.

27. “Can you ___ in a sentence?” (spelling bee request) : USE IT
Back in 18th-century America, when neighbors would gather to work for the benefit of one of their group, such a meeting was called a “bee”. The name “bee” was an allusion to the social nature of the insect. In modern parlance, a further element of entertainment and pleasure has been introduced, for example in a “quilting bee”, or even a “spelling bee”.

28. Area between the two Koreas, for short : DMZ
A demilitarized zone (DMZ) is usually a border between two countries where military activity is banned according to some treaty between interested parties. The most famous DMZ today has to be the buffer zone between North and South Korea. The Korean DMZ snakes right across the Korean peninsula near the 38th parallel. The centerline of the DMZ is where the front was when the ceasefire came into effect in 1953 after the Korean War. According to the armistice signed, all troops had to move back 2,000 meters from the front line on both sides, creating the DMZ that is in place today. Paradoxically perhaps, the areas on either side of the DMZ form the most heavily militarized border in the world.

38. Nightmare for the C.D.C. : PANDEMIC
A pandemic is an outbreak of a disease over a large area, especially a whole country or perhaps the whole world.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC started out life during WWII as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. The CDC worries about much more than malaria these days …

39. Invader of old Rome : GOTH
The East Germanic tribe called the Goths has two main branches, called the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths. The Visigothic capital was the city of Toulouse in France, whereas the Ostrogoth capital was the Italian city of Ravenna just inland of the Adriatic coast.

41. Priest’s robe : ALB
The alb is the white, neck-to-toe vestment worn by priests, usually with a rope cord around the waist. The term alb comes from “albus”, the Latin word for “white”.

46. Tom ___, onetime Marilyn Monroe co-star : EWELL
The actor Tom Ewell is best remembered for playing the male lead in the “The Seven Year Itch”, both on the Broadway stage and in the 1955 Hollywood movie. I also know Ewell as the “bad guy” in one of my favorite movies, 1949’s “Adam’s Rib”.

“The Seven Year Itch” is a 1955 movie by Billy Wilder, based on a stage play of the same name by George Axelrod. “The Seven Year Itch” stars Marilyn Monroe, and Tom Ewell as the guy with “the itch”. Perhaps the most famous scene in the film is the one with Monroe standing over a subway grate allowing the updraft to billow the skirt of her white dress above her knees. The manoeuvre was meant to cool her down, but I think it had the opposite effect on some in the audience! The phrase “seven year itch” had been used by psychologists to describe declining interest in staying monogamous after seven years of marriage.

48. Robe tied with an obi : KIMONO
The lovely Japanese kimono is a garment worn by men, women and children. The word “kimono” translates simply as “thing to wear”, with “ki” meaning “wear” and “mono” meaning “thing”.

The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. The obi can be tied in what is called a butterfly knot.

49. Like 18 1/2 minutes of the Watergate tapes : ERASED
The Watergate scandal is so named because it involved a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. The Watergate complex is made up of five units, three of which are apartment buildings, one an office building, and one a hotel-office building (which housed the DNC headquarters).

50. Passover meals : SEDERS
The Passover Seder is a ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday, celebrating the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. One of the traditions at the meal is that the youngest child at the table asks “The Four Questions”, all relating to why this night is different from all other nights in the year:

– Why is it that on all other nights during the year we eat either bread or matzoh, but on this night we eat only matzoh?
– Why is it that on all other nights we eat all kinds of herbs, but on this night we eat only bitter herbs?
– Why is it that on all other nights we do not dip our herbs even once, but on this night we dip them twice?
– Why is it that on all other nights we eat either sitting or reclining, but on this night we eat in a reclining position?

57. “Woo-hoo! The weekend’s almost here!” : TGIF!
“Thank God It’s Friday” (TGIF) is a relatively new expression that apparently originated in Akron, Ohio. It was a catchphrase used first by disk jockey Jerry Healy of WAKR in the early seventies. That said, one blog reader wrote me to say that he had been using the phrase in the fifties.

59. “Après ___ le déluge” : MOI
“Après moi, le déluge” is a French phrase that was supposedly used by Louis XV. The king was referring to the impending demise of the French monarchy and predicting the French Revolution. The phrase translates as “After me, the deluge”.

61. Big event at the N.Y.S.E. : IPO
An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is the very first offer of stock for sale by a company on the open market. In other words, an IPO marks the first time that a company is traded on a public exchange. Companies have an IPO to raise capital to expand (usually).

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)

62. Airport with the Tom Bradley Intl. Terminal : LAX
The international terminal at Los Angeles airport is named for former Mayor Tom Bradley. The terminal was opened for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games.

63. Singer Yoko : ONO
Yoko Ono is an avant-garde artist. Ono actually met her future husband John Lennon for the first time while she was preparing her conceptual art exhibit called “Hammer a Nail”. Visitors were encouraged to hammer in a nail into a wooden board, creating the artwork. Lennon wanted to hammer in the first nail, but Ono stopped him as the exhibition had not yet opened. Apparently Ono relented when Lennon paid her an imaginary five shillings to hammer an imaginary nail into the wood.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. More achy : SORER
6. Item in a pod : PEA
9. Helpful website feature, for short : FAQS
13. First month of el año : ENERO
14. Panorama : VIEW
15. Cousins of ostriches : EMUS
16. Skillful lawyer : LEGAL EAGLE
18. Not fatty : LEAN
19. Result of a failed Breathalyzer test, for short : DWI
20. 90-degree turn : ELL
21. “Sorry, that ___ happenin’!” : AIN’T
22. Dullards : OAFS
24. Cantankerous fellow : OLD BUZZARD
29. Folklore stories : MYTHS
31. “___ my case” : I REST
32. Crash sound : BAM!
33. Clerk on “The Simpsons” : APU
35. “That suits me to ___” : A TEE
36. ___ Lemon, “30 Rock” character : LIZ
37. Relative youngster : SPRING CHICKEN
41. “Now I see!” : AHA!
42. Pronoun before “shalt not” : THOU
43. Light brown : TAN
44. Chaney who starred in “The Phantom of the Opera” : LON
45. Duke or duchess : TITLE
47. “Just do it” shoes : NIKES
51. Hard-liner on government spending : BUDGET HAWK
54. Michelin product : TIRE
55. Care for, as a garden : TEND
56. Urging from a dinner host : EAT!
58. Bonkers : MAD
59. N.Y.C. home of Magrittes and Matisses : MOMA
60. Goofball : SILLY GOOSE
64. French yeses : OUIS
65. National gem of Australia : OPAL
66. Word before planet or peace : INNER
67. Hankering : ITCH
68. Curse : POX
69. Whole ___ (grocery chain) : FOODS

Down
1. Not often : SELDOM
2. Traffic sign with an arrow : ONE-WAY
3. Pass along, as a past present : REGIFT
4. Reagan ___ (most of the 1980s) : ERA
5. What an actor plays : ROLE
6. Bacon source : PIG
7. Coral dweller : EEL
8. Amazement : AWE
9. “___ Navidad” : FELIZ
10. Open to suggestions : AMENABLE
11. “Roses are red …,” e.g. : QUATRAIN
12. Nine-digit ID : SSN
14. Frankie of the Four Seasons : VALLI
17. “Evil Woman” grp. : ELO
21. Like many Mexicans’ forebears : AZTECAN
23. ___-Pei (dog breed) : SHAR
25. One trying to grab a bite at the theater? : DRACULA
26. Girl’s name that’s a Hebrew letter : BETH
27. “Can you ___ in a sentence?” (spelling bee request) : USE IT
28. Area between the two Koreas, for short : DMZ
30. Ready for the rotisserie : SPITTED
34. Not touched, as a boxer : UNHIT
37. Public mention : SHOUT-OUT
38. Nightmare for the C.D.C. : PANDEMIC
39. Invader of old Rome : GOTH
40. Work with yarn : KNIT
41. Priest’s robe : ALB
46. Tom ___, onetime Marilyn Monroe co-star : EWELL
48. Robe tied with an obi : KIMONO
49. Like 18 1/2 minutes of the Watergate tapes : ERASED
50. Passover meals : SEDERS
52. Grind, as the teeth : GNASH
53. Nickname for Catherine : KAY
57. “Woo-hoo! The weekend’s almost here!” : TGIF!
59. “Après ___ le déluge” : MOI
60. Soak up : SOP
61. Big event at the N.Y.S.E. : IPO
62. Airport with the Tom Bradley Intl. Terminal : LAX
63. Singer Yoko : ONO

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One thought on “0105-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 5 Jan 15, Monday”

  1. Good start for a Monday.

    I recall a talk I had with my high school principal Fr. Stiegler years ago, who had been an officer at the DMZ (not yet a Jesuit). He mentioned that it was so tense, the day he arrived a DRPK sniper had been taking shots across the DMZ, and many there truly believed we would be nuking the Soviets in a few moments. Yikes.

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