0126-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 26 Jan 15, Monday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Ian Livengood
THEME: Fresh Start … each of today’s themed answers STARTS with a word meaning FRESH, the sense of “sassy”.

56A. New beginning … or what 16-, 23-, 31-, 38- and 45-Across each have? : FRESH START

16A. 1970s comedian whom Time magazine dubbed “TV’s First Black Superstar” : FLIP WILSON
23A. Clever person : SMART COOKIE
31A. Shampoo in a green bottle : PERT PLUS
38A. Type meant to stand out : BOLD TEXT45A. Counterpart to a lateral : FORWARD PASS

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 37s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

6. Genre for Jay Z or J. Cole : RAP
Jay Z, as well as being a successful and very rich rap artist, is married to singer Beyonce.

J. Cole is the stage name of American rap artist Jermaine Cole. J. Cole was born in Germany, on the US Army base in Frankfurt.

9. Hop, ___ and a jump : SKIP
The track and field sport sometimes called the “hop, skip and jump” is more correctly termed the triple jump. The triple jump dates back as an event to the ancient Olympic Games. When the modern Olympics were introduced in 1896, the triple jump consisted of two hops on the same foot followed by a jump. Today’s triple jump consists of a hop, a bound and then a jump.

15. Furry red monster on “Sesame Street” : ELMO
The man behind/under the character Elmo on “Sesame Street” is Kevin Clash. If you want to learn more about Elmo and Clash, you can watch the 2011 documentary “Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey”.

16. 1970s comedian whom Time magazine dubbed “TV’s First Black Superstar” : FLIP WILSON
Flip Wilson was a comedian who had his own show on television in the early seventies. Such was his level of success that in 1972, “Time” featured Wilson on the magazine’s cover and dubbed him “TV’s first black superstar. Wilson’s birth name was Clerow, and he earned the nickname “Flip” while serving the US Air Force, as he was always “flipped out”. He often played a character called Geraldine on his show, who became known for using the expression “What you see is what you get”. Computer scientists adopted Geraldine’s catchphrase to describe a system in which onscreen content is the same as that printed on paper. The computer term is WYSIWYG, an acronym standing for “what you see is what you get”.

20. Drink in a stein : ALE
A stein is a type of beer glass. The term is German in origin, and is short for “Steinkrug” meaning “stone jug”. “Stein” is the German for “stone”.

29. Tiny nation surrounded by France and the Mediterranean : MONACO
The Principality of Monaco is on the Mediterranean coast, and is otherwise surrounded by France, even though it is just under 10 miles from the Italian border. Monaco is the world’s most densely populated country, and the world’s second smallest country (the smallest being Vatican City). The principality has been very prosperous since the late 1800s, with the economy given a tremendous boost with the opening of several gambling casinos.

31. Shampoo in a green bottle : PERT PLUS
Pert Plus is a Procter & Gamble shampoo and conditioner that was introduced in 1987 as a new and improved version of the existing Pert line of shampoos.

36. Verbal thumbs-up : A-OK
Our term “A-OK” is supposedly an abbreviation for “A(ll systems are) OK”, and arose in the sixties during the Space Program.

43. Days of ___ (past times) : 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”.

44. Cocktail with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and lime juice : COSMO
Like so many famous cocktails, the actual origins of the cosmopolitan are disputed. It is a nice drink though. One of the standard recipes is 4 parts citrus vodka, 1.5 parts Cointreau, 1.5 parts lime juice and 3 parts cranberry juice.

49. “Weekend Edition” airer : NPR
“Weekend Edition” is the very enjoyable news magazine show on NPR that airs on Saturday and Sunday. “Weekend Edition” is a sister show to NPR’s “Morning Edition” that airs on Monday through Friday. There’s a regular segment of the show featuring Will Shortz, the editor of the “New York Times” crossword. Will presents a puzzle each week that is tackled on the air by a listener.

52. Achilles epic : ILIAD
Achilles is a Greek mythological figure, the main protagonist of Homer’s “Iliad”. Supposedly when Achilles was born his mother attempted to make him immortal by dipping him into the River Styx. As he was held by the heel as he was immersed, this became the only vulnerable point on his body. Years later he was killed when a poisoned arrow struck him in the heel. The arrow was shot by Paris.

53. Jean-___ Picard (U.S.S. Enterprise captain) : LUC
When Gene Roddenberry was creating the “Star Trek” spin-off series “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, I think he chose a quite magnificent name for the new starship captain. The name “Jean-Luc Picard” is imitative of one or both of the twin-brother Swiss scientists Auguste and Jean Felix Piccard. The role of Picard was of course played by the wonderful Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart.

55. Smelting waste : SLAG
The better lead ores are processed in a blast furnace, to extract the metal. The “waste” from this process is called “slag”. Slag does contain some lead and it can be processed further in a “slag furnace” to extract the residual metal. Slag furnaces also accept poorer lead ores as a raw material.

Metals are found in ore in the form of oxides. In order to get pure metal from the ore, the ore is heated and the metal oxides within are reduced (i.e. the oxygen is removed) in the chemical process known as smelting. The oxygen is extracted by adding a source of carbon or carbon monoxide which uses up the excess oxygen atoms to make carbon dioxide, a waste product of smelting (and of course, a greenhouse gas).

59. Longtime Yugoslav leader : TITO
Marshal Josip Broz Tito led the Yugoslav resistance during WWII. After the war, he led the country as Prime Minister and then President.

62. Ian : Scotland :: ___ : Ireland : SEAN
The name “John” translates into Scottish as “Ian”, and into Irish as “Seán”.

64. Fidgeting : ANTSY
The word “antsy” embodies the concept of “having ants in one’s pants”, meaning being nervous and fidgety. However, “antsy” has been used in English since the 1830s, whereas “ants in the pants” originated a century later.

Down
1. Mistake that people laugh about : GAFFE
Our word “gaffe” , meaning a social blunder, comes from the French word “gaffe” meaning “clumsy remark”, although it originally was the word for “boat hook”. The exact connection between a boat hook and a blunder seems to be unclear.

3. Albany-to-Buffalo waterway : ERIE CANAL
The Erie Canal runs from Albany to Buffalo in the state of New York. What the canal does is allow shipping to proceed from New York Harbor right up the Hudson River, through the canal and into the Great Lakes. When it was opened in 1825, the Erie Canal had immediate impact on the economy of New York City and locations along its route. It was the first means of “cheap” transportation from a port on the Atlantic seaboard into the interior of the United States. Arguably it was the most important factor contributing to the growth of New York City over competing ports such as Baltimore and Philadelphia. It was largely because of the Erie Canal that New York became such an economic powerhouse, earning it the nickname of “the Empire State”. Paradoxically, one of the project’s main proponents was severely criticized. New York Governor DeWitt Clinton received so much ridicule that the canal was nicknamed “Clinton’s Folly” and “Clinton’s Ditch”.

6. Chorus stand : RISER
A riser is a platform that elevates a group of people above a crowd, so is ideal for the performance of a choir.

7. “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! Such a performance was somewhat ironic, given that in Shakespeare’s day the practice was to use an all-male cast.

9. Tuxedo rental occasion : SENIOR PROM
A prom is a formal dance held upon graduation from high school (we call them “formals” over in Ireland). The term “prom” is short for “promenade”, the name given to a type of dance or ball.

The style of men’s evening dress called a “tuxedo” was apparently first worn to a country club event in 1886 in New York. The use of a dark dinner jacket without tails became fashionable at the club with the members, and the tradition spread from there. The country club was located in Tuxedo Park, New York, giving the style of dress its name.

10. “Hogan’s Heroes” colonel : KLINK
On the sitcom “Hogan’s Heroes”, Colonel Klink was the Camp Commandant, played by Werner Klemperer. Klemperer was born in Cologne in Germany, and fled the country with his family in 1935 due to Nazi persecution of Jews. Later, Klemperer joined the US Army and ended up using his show business talent to entertain the troops in the Pacific. Werner was the son of renowned conductor Otto Klemperer.

“Hogan’s Heroes” is a sitcom that ran in the late sixties and early seventies. The show starred Bob Crane as the ranking prisoner in a German POW camp during WWII. The four major German roles were played by actors who all were Jewish, and who all fled from the Nazis during the war. In fact, the Sergeant Schultz character was played by John Banner, who spent three years in a concentration camp.

11. Chinese-born American architect : IM PEI
I. M. Pei (full name: Ieoh Ming Pei) is an exceptional American architect who was born in China. Of Pei’s many wonderful works, my favorite is the renovation of the Louvre in Paris, especially the Glass Pyramid in the courtyard.

12. Group helping a sheriff : POSSE
Our word “posse” comes from an Anglo-Latin term from the early 15th century “posse comitatus” meaning “the force of the county”.

14. To whom Muslims pray : ALLAH
The term “Allah” comes from the Arabic “al-” and “ilah”, meaning “the” and “deity”. So “Allah” translates as “God”.

21. Browning or Kipling : POET
Robert Browning met fellow poet Elizabeth Barrett in 1845. Elizabeth was a sickly woman, confined to her parents’ house in Wimpole Street in London, largely due to the conservative and protective nature of her father. Robert and Elizabeth eventually eloped in 1846, and lived in self-inflicted exile in Italy. Away from the country of his birth, Browning was moved to write his now famous “Home Thoughts, From Abroad”, the first line of which is “Oh, to be in England …”

Rudyard Kipling was a British poet and writer famous for his tales of the British Raj, the rule of the British Empire in India. Kipling was actually born in Bombay, but returned with his family to England when he was very young. After being educated in England, he returned to India and from there traveled the world. Kipling’s most famous works are the stories “The Jungle Book”, “Just So Stories”, “The Man Who Would Be King”, and the poems “Mandalay”, “Gunga Din” and “If-”.

23. “___ ’em!” (“Attack!”) : SIC
“Sic ’em” is an attack order given to a dog, instructing the animal to growl, bark or even bite. The term dates back to the 1830s, with “sic” being a variation of “seek”.

27. Police van : PADDY WAGON
The use of the phrase “paddy wagon” dates back to the 1900s, and is American in origin. The exact derivation is disputed, although it seems to be agreed that the use of “paddy” relates to the derogatory term “Paddy” used for an Irishman. The question seems to be whether the Irish connection is due to the large numbers of Irishmen in early American police forces, or due to the large number of Irishman who ended up in the back of the police van under arrest. I’ll say nothing …

29. Org. for the A’s and O’s : MLB
The Oakland Athletics (usually “the A’s”) baseball franchise was founded back in 1901 as the Philadelphia Athletics. The team became the Kansas City Athletics in 1955 and moved to Oakland in 1968.

The Baltimore Orioles (the O’s) were one of the eight charter teams of MLB’s American League, so the franchise dates back to 1901. Prior to 1901, the team has roots in the Minor League Milwaukee Brewers, and indeed entered the American League as the Brewers. In 1902 the Brewers moved to St. Louis and became the Browns. The team didn’t fare well in St. Louis, so when it finally relocated to Baltimore in the early fifties the team changed its name completely, to the Baltimore Orioles. The owners so badly wanted a fresh start that they traded 17 old Browns players with the New York Yankees. The trade didn’t help the team’s performance on the field in those early days, but it did help distance the new team from its past.

30. Winning “Hollywood Squares” line : OOO
The popular game show “Hollywood Squares” was first aired in 1965, in glorious black and white.

31. Container at the end of a rainbow : POT
A leprechaun is a mischievous fairy in Irish folklore. Traditionally, leprechauns spend their days making shoes and hide all their money in a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Our word “leprechaun” comes from the Irish name for such a sprite, “leipreachán”.

33. “___ the Force, Luke” : USE
The Force is a metaphysical power much cited in all of the “Star Wars” movies, and still today we may hear someone in real life say “May the Force be with you”.

34. The “S” in E.S.T.: Abbr. : STD
Eastern Standard Time (EST)

36. Pink-slipped : AXED
The term “pink-slip” can be used as a verb meaning “to terminate an employee”. No one really seems to know for sure where the term originated, but there are lots of stories.

39. Warty creature : TOAD
The “warts” on the skin of a toad have no relation to the viral infection that can occur on human skin. A toad’s warts a colored bumps that are believed to help the animal blend more effectively into its environment.

41. “The Garden of Earthly Delights” artist : BOSCH
Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch painter who worked late 15th and early 16th centuries. Perhaps his most recognized work is his triptych titled “The Garden of Earthly Delights”.

42. W.W. II spy org. : OSS
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was formed during WWII in order to carry out espionage behind enemy lines. A few years after the end of the war the OSS functions were taken up by a new group, the Central Intelligence Agency that was chartered by the National Security Act of 1947.

44. “Rebel Without a ___” : CAUSE
“Rebel Without a Cause” is a 1955 drama movie, famously starring actor James Dean who died just before the film’s release. The title comes from a 1944 book by psychiatrist Robert M. Lindner “Rebel Without a Cause: The Hypnoanalysis of a Criminal Psychopath”, although the content of the book has no bearing on the movie’s storyline. The three lead actors in the movie all died tragically, and while relatively young:

– James Dean (24), in a car crash in 1955
– Sal Mineo (37), in a stabbing in 1976
– Natalie Wood (43), in a drowning in 1981

46. Kukla, Fran and ___ : OLLIE
“Kukla, Fran and Ollie” is an early television show that aired from 1947-1957. Kukla and Ollie (Oliver J. Dragon) were puppets and Fran was Fran Allison, usually the only human on the show.

47. Looped calf-catcher : RIATA
“Reata” is the Spanish word for “lasso”. We tend to use the spelling “riata” in English, but sometimes can use the original Spanish word.

48. West Point newcomer : PLEBE
“Plebe” is a slang term for a freshman in the US military and naval academies. Plebe is probably short for “plebeian”, an adjective describing someone of the common class in Ancient Rome, one of the “plebs” (a singular collective noun). “Pleb” is a shortened version of plebeian, and is a term used outside of the military schools to mean “commoner”.

West Point is a military reservation in New York State, located north of New York City. West Point was first occupied by the Continental Army way back in 1778, making it the longest, continually-occupied military post in the country. Cadet training has taken place at the garrison since 1794, although Congress funding for a US Military Academy (USMA) didn’t start until 1802.

54. Musial of Cardinals fame : STAN
Stan Musial is a retired baseball player who went by the nickname “Stan the Man”, a moniker he was awarded by the Brooklyn Dodgers fans in 1946. Apparently, off the field Stan is quite the harmonica player.

56. Jimi Hendrix’s do, informally : ‘FRO
Many of his contemporaries regarded Jimi Hendrix as the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music. Hendrix was from Seattle and didn’t really have a really stellar start to his working life. He failed to finish high school and fell foul of the law by getting caught in stolen cars, twice. The courts gave him the option of the army or two years in prison. Hendrix chose the former and soon found himself in the famous 101st Airborne. In the army, his less-than-disciplined ways helped him (as he would have seen it) because his superiors successfully petitioned to get him discharged after serving only one year of his two-year requirement, just to get him out of their hair.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Attendees : GOERS
6. Genre for Jay Z or J. Cole : RAP
9. Hop, ___ and a jump : SKIP
13. What subjects and verbs should do : AGREE
14. Right-hand man or woman : AIDE
15. Furry red monster on “Sesame Street” : ELMO
16. 1970s comedian whom Time magazine dubbed “TV’s First Black Superstar” : FLIP WILSON
18. Puppy bites : NIPS
19. Bank charges : FEES
20. Drink in a stein : ALE
21. Aches (for) : PINES
22. Upper-left computer key: Abbr. : ESC
23. Clever person : SMART COOKIE
26. Copycatting : APISH
28. One with misgivings : RUER
29. Tiny nation surrounded by France and the Mediterranean : MONACO
31. Shampoo in a green bottle : PERT PLUS
35. Washerful : LOAD
36. Verbal thumbs-up : A-OK
37. Relaxation : REST
38. Type meant to stand out : BOLD TEXT
41. Sounded like a cannon : BOOMED
43. Days of ___ (past times) : YORE
44. Cocktail with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and lime juice : COSMO
45. Counterpart to a lateral : FORWARD PASS
49. “Weekend Edition” airer : NPR
52. Achilles epic : ILIAD
53. Jean-___ Picard (U.S.S. Enterprise captain) : LUC
54. Eye affliction : STYE
55. Smelting waste : SLAG
56. New beginning … or what 16-, 23-, 31-, 38- and 45-Across each have? : FRESH START
59. Longtime Yugoslav leader : TITO
60. Attire for one lounging at a 58-Down : ROBE
61. Peeling gadget : PARER
62. Ian : Scotland :: ___ : Ireland : SEAN
63. Poem of praise : ODE
64. Fidgeting : ANTSY

Down
1. Mistake that people laugh about : GAFFE
2. Stares rudely at : OGLES
3. Albany-to-Buffalo waterway : ERIE CANAL
4. Bench press count : REPS
5. Use needle and thread : SEW
6. Chorus stand : RISER
7. “Much ___ About Nothing” : ADO
8. Pig’s digs : PEN
9. Tuxedo rental occasion : SENIOR PROM
10. “Hogan’s Heroes” colonel : KLINK
11. Chinese-born American architect : IM PEI
12. Group helping a sheriff : POSSE
14. To whom Muslims pray : ALLAH
17. Retort to “You are not!” : I AM SO!
21. Browning or Kipling : POET
23. “___ ’em!” (“Attack!”) : SIC
24. Wearying journey : TREK
25. Junkyard dog : CUR
27. Police van : PADDY WAGON
29. Org. for the A’s and O’s : MLB
30. Winning “Hollywood Squares” line : OOO
31. Container at the end of a rainbow : POT
32. Tangy teatime offering : LEMON TART
33. “___ the Force, Luke” : USE
34. The “S” in E.S.T.: Abbr. : STD
36. Pink-slipped : AXED
39. Warty creature : TOAD
40. Go wrong : ERR
41. “The Garden of Earthly Delights” artist : BOSCH
42. W.W. II spy org. : OSS
44. “Rebel Without a ___” : CAUSE
45. What boxing gloves cover : FISTS
46. Kukla, Fran and ___ : OLLIE
47. Looped calf-catcher : RIATA
48. West Point newcomer : PLEBE
50. Combustible funeral piles : PYRES
51. Hear again, as a court case : RETRY
54. Musial of Cardinals fame : STAN
56. Jimi Hendrix’s do, informally : ‘FRO
57. Curtain hanger : ROD
58. Where one might get a facial : SPA

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