0308-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 8 Mar 15, Sunday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Tom McCoy
THEME: 3.1415926 … we have a pi-themed puzzle today. The Greek letter “pi” is drawn using the black squares near the center of the grid. We even have some “pie filling” in the middle of the letter pi, with the answers to 50-down. We then have five rebus squares in the grid that are arranged in a kind of “pi” pattern. The rebus squares read PI in the down-answers and TT (which looks like the Greek letter) in the across-answers. To cap it all off, three of our answers give us a mnemonic to help us remember the first eight digits in the ratio that is designated PI. I explain how that mnemonic works below, in the “Googlies” section:

23A. The last one in, perhaps : ROTTEN EGG
26A. “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” asker : MAD HATTER
29A. Shames into action : GUILT TRIPS
117A. Snitch : TATTLE
120A. Like two lowercase letters of the alphabet : DOTTED

3D. As is usual : TYPICALLY
9D. Breather : RESPITE
15D. How questions may be asked : RAPID-FIRE
102D. Cry exclaimed while facepalming : STUPID
105D. More work : UTOPIA

50D. Pie part (that’s appropriately placed in this puzzle?) : FILLING

69A. With 94- and 72-Across, a mnemonic for the first eight digits of [symbol in the middle of the grid] : HOW I WISH …
94A. See 69-Across : … I COULD CALCULATE …
72A. See 69-Across : … PI EASILY

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 32m 03s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

4. Mountain cat : PUMA
The mountain lion is found in much of the Americas from the Yukon in Canada right down to the southern Andes in South America. Because the mountain lion is found over such a vast area, it has many different names applied by local peoples, such as cougar and puma. In fact, the mountain lion holds the Guinness record for the animal with the most number of different names, with over 40 in English alone.

11. Careen : TEAR
“Careen” dates back to 1590 when it meant “to turn a ship on its side, exposing the keel”. The word evolved from the Middle French word “carene” meaning “keel”. Our modern usage, meaning to lean or tilt, only dates back as far as the 1880s. Careen should not be confused with “career”, a verb meaning to move rapidly. One has to “career” from side-to -side in order to “careen”.

15. “New Adventures in Hi-Fi” band : REM
R.E.M. was a rock band from Athens, Georgia formed in 1980. The name “R.E.M.” was chosen randomly from a dictionary, apparently.

21. Eponymous Indian tribe : ERIE
The Erie people lived on lands south of Lake Erie. The Erie were sometimes referred to as the Cat Nation, a reference to the mountain lions that were ever-present in the area that they lived. The name “Erie” is a shortened form of “Erielhonan” meaning “long tail”, possibly a further reference to the mountain lion or cat, which was possibly used as a totem. The Erie people gave their name to the Great Lake.

23. The last one in, perhaps : ROTTEN EGG
Last one in the pool is a rotten egg!

26. “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” asker : MAD HATTER
In Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, the Mad Hatter makes his first appearance in a chapter called “A Mad Tea-Party”. This event is usually described as “The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party”, even though the Mad Hatter was just a guest. The host was the March Hare. In fact, the phrase “mad Hatter” doesn’t appear anywhere in Lewis Carroll’s novel, although the character, the Hatter (and sometimes “Hatta”), is described as mad.

During the famous Tea-Party held by the March Hare in “Alice in Wonderland”, the Mad Hatter asks the riddle “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” When Alice cannot answer and gives up, the Mad Hatter tells her, “I haven’t the slightest idea”. Even though author Lewis Carroll intended for the riddle to remain unanswered in the story, he provided us with one in a preface to an edition published decades after the original:

Enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to whether any answer to the Hatter’s Riddle can be imagined, that I may as well put on record here what seems to me to be a fairly appropriate answer: “Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar [sic] put with the wrong end in front!” This, however, is merely an afterthought; the riddle as originally invented had no answer at all.

37. Capital near the 60th parallel : OSLO
Oslo is the capital of Norway. The city of Oslo burns trash to fuel half of its buildings, including all of its schools. The problem faced by the city is that it doesn’t generate enough trash. So, Oslo imports trash from Sweden, England and Ireland, and is now looking to import some American trash too.

40. Currency in Turkey : LIRA
The word “lira” is used in a number of countries for currency. “Lira” comes from the Latin for “pound” and is derived from a British pound sterling, the value of a Troy pound of silver. For example, the lira (plural “lire”) was the official currency of Italy before the country changed over to the euro in 2002.

41. Bully on “The Simpsons” : NELSON
Nelson Muntz is a character on the animated TV show “The Simpsons”. Nelson is the school bully, and is known for his signature laugh “ha ha” or “haw haw”, I am told. I’ve never really watched the show, to be honest …

46. 2009 Newbery-winning author Gaiman : NEIL
Neil Gaiman is an English author whose works include novels, comic books and graphic novels.

49. Where you might exchange tender for tenders : KFC
The famous “Colonel” of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame was Harland Sanders, an entrepreneur from Henryville, Indiana. Although not really a “Colonel”, Sanders did indeed serve in the military. He enlisted in the Army as a private in 1906 at the age of 16, lying about his age. He spent the whole of his time in the Army as a soldier in Cuba. It was much later, in the 1930s, that Sanders went into the restaurant business making his specialty deep-fried chicken. By 1935 his reputation as a “character” had grown, so much so that Governor Ruby Laffoon of Kentucky gave Sanders the honorary title of “Kentucky Colonel”. Later in the fifties, Sanders developed his trademark look with the white suit, string tie, mustache and goatee. When Sanders was 65 however, his business failed and in stepped Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s. Thomas simplified the Sanders menu, cutting it back from over a hundred items to just fried chicken and salads. That was enough to launch KFC into the fast food business. Sanders sold the US franchise in 1964 for just $2 million and moved to Canada to grow KFC north of the border. He died in 1980 and is buried in Louisville, Kentucky. The Colonel’s secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices is indeed a trade secret. Apparently there is only one copy of the recipe, a handwritten piece of paper, written in pencil and signed by Colonel Sanders. Since 2009, the piece of paper has been locked in a computerized vault surrounded with motion detectors and security cameras.

52. Something off the top of your head? : HAIR
Not mine …

54. Particularly: Abbr. : ESP
Especially (esp.)

55. Make content : SATE
“Sate” is a variant of the older word “satiate”. Both terms can mean either to satisfy an appetite fully, or to eat to excess.

56. El Amazonas, e.g. : RIO
In Spanish, the Amazon (el Amazonas) is a river (rio).

The Amazon River of South America is the world’s largest in terms of volume, and accounts for an amazing one-fifth of the world’s total river flow. Perhaps even more amazing is that there are no bridges across the Amazon! There isn’t even one, mainly because the river flows through tropical rainforest where there are few roads and cities.

63. Wood in Lucius Malfoy’s wand : ELM
Draco Malfoy is one of the regular “bad guys” in the Harry Potter series. Malfoy is one of Potter’s fellow students, the one who sneers a lot. Draco’s father is Lucius Malfoy, a character who becomes more and more relevant as the storyline in the series of books progresses.

65. Setting for part of “Frankenstein” : ALPS
Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel has the full title of “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”. The subtitle underscores one of the themes of the book, a warning about man’s expansion into the Industrial Revolution.

69. With 94- and 72-Across, a mnemonic for the first eight digits of [symbol in the middle of the grid] : HOW I WISH …
94. See 69-Across : … I COULD CALCULATE …
72. See 69-Across : … PI EASILY
If you count the letters in each word of the mnemonic “How I wish I could calculate pi easily”, the sequence gives you the first eight digits of the value of pi, i.e. 3.1415926.

The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is a mathematical constant, which we denote with the Greek letter pi (π). Approximate values for the pi that are often used in calculations are 22/7 and 3.1415926. If you count the letters in each word of the mnemonic “How I wish I could calculate pi easily”, the sequence gives you the first eight digits of the value of pi, i.e. 3.1415926.

71. XV years before the Battle of Hastings : MLI
The Norman Conquest of England started in 1066 when William, Duke of Normandy defeated King Harold II of England at the Battle of Hastings. William was crowned King William I of England, and was dubbed William the Conqueror.

75. Jeremy of the N.B.A. : LIN
Jeremy Lin is a professional basketball player who was raised in the city of Palo Alto in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lin is the first American of Chinese descent to play in the NBA.

76. Like much of Italy in 700 B.C. : ETRUSCAN
Etruria was a region in Central Italy, home to the Etruscans. Etruscan society was at its height about 650 BC.

81. ___ Bay, site of a historic Admiral Perry visit of 1853 : TOKYO
Commodore Matthew C. Perry led a four-ship squadron of navy vessels into Tokyo Bay (then it was called “Edo Bay”) in 1853. Perry’s mission was to re-establish trade relations with Japan at a time when the country was governed by isolationists. Even though Perry brought with him gifts, to signal good will, he also gave a show of strength to indicate the US was willing to force the issue. The resulting Treaty of Kanagawa was signed the following year.

82. Israeli diet : KNESSET
The Knesset is the legislative branch of the Israeli government, and does its business in the Givat Ram neighborhood of central Jerusalem.

A Diet was a general assembly of the estates of the former Holy Roman Empire. The most famous of these assemblies was the Diet of Worms, a 16th-century meeting that took place in the small town of Worms on the Rhine River in Germany. The main item on the agenda was discussion of the 95 theses of Martin Luther. Luther was summoned to the meeting, and there found to be guilty of heresy and so was subsequently excommunicated by the Pope. The term “diet” is still used today for a legislative body.

88. It never starts with 666: Abbr. : 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. However, some random numbers have been excluded from use, i.e. Area Numbers 000, 666 (!) and 900-999.

89. Beast imagined in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” : BOAR
“Beasts of the Southern Wild” is a 2012 fantasy film centered on a courageous 6-year-old girl in a Louisiana bayou community. The film garnered very positive reviews on its release and was nominated for four Oscars. The lead character was played by child actress Quvenzhané Wallis. At 9-years-old, Wallis became the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.

103. Computing pioneer Lovelace : ADA
Ada Lovelace’s real name was Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the poet. Lovelace was fascinated by mathematics and wrote about the work done by Charles Babbage in building his groundbreaking mechanical computer. In some of her notes, she proposed an algorithm for Babbage’s machine to compute Bernoulli numbers. This algorithm is recognized by many as the world’s first computer program and so Lovelace is sometimes called the first “computer programmer”. There is a computer language called “Ada” that was named in her honor. The Ada language was developed from 1977 to 1983 for the US Department of Defense.

113. Belch : ERUCT
“To eruct” is to belch gas from the stomach, or matter from a volcano!

114. Risky venture : CRAPSHOOT
“Crapshoot” is an informal term used for something that is a gamble, is unpredictable. The term from the gambling game of craps.

If one considers earlier versions of craps, then the game has been around for a very long time and probably dates back to the Crusades. Craps may be derived from an old English game called “hazard”, also played with two dice and which was mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” from the 1300s. The American version of the game came here courtesy of the French and first set root in New Orleans where it was given the name “crapaud”, a French word meaning “toad”.

118. Fabled 90-Down : HARE
(90D. Race loser : ALSO-RAN)
“The Tortoise and the Hare” is perhaps the most famous fable attributed to Aesop. The cocky hare takes a nap during a race against the tortoise, and the tortoise sneaks past the finish line for the win while his speedier friend is sleeping.

119. Needle case : ETUI
An etui is an ornamental case used to hold small items, in particular sewing needles. We imported both the case design and the word “etui” from France. The French also have a modern usage of “etui”, using the term to depict a case for carrying CDs.

120. Like two lowercase letters of the alphabet : DOTTED
The lowercase letters “i” and “j” are both dotted.

122. English author Blyton : ENID
Enid Blyton wrote stories for children that were very popular when I was growing up in the British Isles. Not so long ago I purchased and reread my favorite of her stories growing up, a children’s novel called “The Secret Island”.

123. 1/2, for one : DATE
The date 1/2 is January 2nd, at least in the US. Back in Ireland, 1/2 is February 1st.

Down
1. Bank inits. : APR
Annual percentage rate (APR)

6. Smith of “Downton Abbey” : MAGGIE
Dame Maggie Smith is a wonderful, wonderful actress from England. Although Smith has had an extensive stage career, she is perhaps best known outside of Britain as a film and television actress. She has won two Oscars, including Best Actress for playing the title character in 1969’s “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”. TV audiences today know her best as the Dowager Countess on “Downton Abbey”. I saw her just today in the movie “The Second Best Marigold Hotel”, a movie that I wholeheartedly recommend …

7. Portends : AUGURS
The verb “to augur” means “to bode”, to serve as an omen. The term comes from the name of religious officials in Ancient Rome called augurs whose job it was to interpret signs and omens.

8. Heat, informally : PRELIM
The term “heat”, meaning a qualifying race, dates back to the 1660s. Originally a heat was a run given to a horse to prepare it for a race, to “heat” it up.

11. – : TEMPLE
12. Like the previous clue (which originally read “Place of Jewish worship”) : ERASED
So, the “Place of Jewish worship” is a TEMPLE.

13. Red Cross work : AID
Back in 1859, a Swiss businessman called Henri Dunant went to meet French emperor Napoleon III, to discuss making it easier to conduct commerce in French-occupied Algeria. The Emperor was billeted at Solferino, where France and Austria were engaged in a major battle. In one day, Dunant witnessed 40,000 soldiers die in battle and countless wounded suffering on the battlefield without any organized medical care. Dunant abandoned his business agenda and instead spent a week caring for the sick and wounded. Within a few years he had founded the precursor to the Red Cross, and in 1901 he was awarded the first ever Nobel Peace Prize.

17. Eau holder : MER
“Eau” is the French word for “water”; “mer” is the French word for “sea”.

24. Money in la banque or la banca : EUROS
The “eurozone” or “euro area” is a monetary and economic union within the European Union of 18 states (as of today) that use the euro as a shared legal tender and their sole currency.

In Europe, one might put money in the bank (“la banque” in French, “la banca”).

27. “Rolling in the Deep” singer : ADELE
Adele is the stage name of English singer Adele Adkins. Adele’s debut album is “19”, named after the age she was during the album’s production. Her second album was even more successful than the first. Called “21”, the second album was released three years after the first, when Adele was three years older.

30. Bank inits. : IRA
Individual Retirement Account (IRA)

39. Frat Pack member Ben : STILLER
Ben Stiller is the son of actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. Ben is perhaps as well-known as a director as he is an actor. He made his debut as a director in the film “Reality Bites” in 1994.

The phrase “Frat Pack” grew out of the Rat Pack, and later the Brat Pack. Frat Pack has been used for two groups of performers. First it was applied to dramatic actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Edward Norton and Ryan Phillippe who had worked with other in several films. The term is more regularly used for the comedy actors Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Steve Carell.

44. Slugger’s stat, for short : HRS
Home runs (HRs)

47. “Who goes there?” response : IT IS I
The much debated statement “it is I” is actually grammatically correct, and should not be “corrected” to “it is me”. Traditionally, pronouns following linking verbs, such as “is”, “appear” and “seem”, are written in the nominative case. Examples are:

– It is I (who called)
– It was he (who did it)
– It is we (who care)

49. One end of the hotline : KREMLIN
I was lucky enough to visit the Moscow Kremlin as a tourist a few decades ago. The Kremlin of course sits right on Red Square, along with Saint Basil’s Cathedral and the famed GUM department store. “Kremlin” is a Russian word for “fortress”.

The Moscow-Washington hotline was established in 1963 after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and is a direct communication link between the Pentagon and the Kremlin. The purpose of the link is to allow direct communication between the American and Russian leadership. The hotline has been represented in movies and televisions as a red telephone, but telephone technology has never been used for the link. The first link used Teletype machines, which were replaced with fax machines in 1986. Messages are now sent as emails over a secure computer link.

52. Betide : HAPPEN
“Betide” is an old word for “happen, happen to”. Most often today we hear it in the phrase “woe betide (someone)” meaning “bad things will happen to (someone)”.

58. Threatens, as a king : CHECKS
In the game of chess, when the king is under immediate threat of capture it is said to be “in check”. If the king cannot escape from check, then the game ends in “checkmate” and the player in check loses. In the original Sanskrit game of chess, the king could actually be captured. Then a rule was introduced requiring that a warning be given if capture was imminent (today we announce “check!”) so that an accidental and early ending to the game doesn’t occur.

59. “___ Heroes” : HOGAN’S
“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.

65. N.A.A.C.P. or N.C.A.A. part: Abbr. : ASSOC
The full name of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is remarkable in that it actually still uses the old offensive term “colored people”. The NAACP was founded in 1909, by a group that included suffragette and journalist Mary White Ovington, wealthy socialist William English Walling, and civil rights activist Henry Moscowitz. Another member of the founding group was W. E. B. Du Bois, the first African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When his son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, President Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906, which was given the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS became the NCAA in 1910.

68. Church assemblies : SYNODS
Several Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches have ruling bodies called Holy Synods, comprising a group of bishops who elect the head bishop or patriarch for their church.

83. Key material : EBONY
The traditional materials used for manufacture of piano keys were ebony (black) and ivory (white).

84. Ballyhoo : TOUT
“Ballyhoo”, meaning hype or publicity, was originally circus slang dating back to the early 1900s. No one really knows where the term comes from, but I can tell you there is a village in Co. Cork in Ireland called Ballyhooly!

86. Hide : PELT
The “pelt” is the skin of a furry animal.

92. Solve : SUSS OUT
The verb “to suss” means “to figure out”. The term originated in the 1950s as police slang, a shortening of “to suspect”.

96. Bivouacked : CAMPED
A “bivouac” is a temporary camp out of doors. The term comes to us via French from the Swiss/Alsatian word “biwacht” meaning “night guard”. The original bivouac was a group of soldiers camped out as a night guard.

97. Brouhahas : ADOS
“Brouhaha”, meaning “ado, stir”, was a French word that back in the 1550s meant “the cry of the devil disguised as clergy” . Wow!

99. Escalator parts : TREADS
Escalators have an advantage over elevators in that they can move larger numbers of people in the same time frame. They can also be placed in just about the same physical space that would be needed for a regular staircase. Patents for escalator-type devices were first filed in 1859, but the first working model wasn’t built until 1892 by one Jesse Reno. It was erected alongside a pier in Coney Island, New York, with the second escalator being placed at an entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. Soon after, Elisha Otis and the Otis elevator company purchased the necessary patents and went into the business.

100. What money can be kept in : ESCROW
One type of escrow account is held by a trusted third party for two parties who have some contractual arrangement, an arrangement that is often in dispute. The third party only releases the funds when both parties have fulfilled their contractual obligations.

102. Cry exclaimed while facepalming : STUPID
A facepalm is the gesture made by lowering one’s face into the palm of one’s hand or hands. A facepalm can be an expression of surprise perhaps, frustration or embarrassment.

105. More work : UTOPIA
“Utopia” is a work by Sir Thomas More, i.e. a “More work”.

The word “Utopia” was coined by Sir Thomas More for his book “Utopia” published in 1516 describing an idyllic fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. More’s use of the name Utopia comes from the Greek “ou” meaning “not” and “topos” meaning “place”. By calling his perfect island “Not Place”, More was apparently making the point that he didn’t think that the ideal could actually exist.

106. Actress Parker : POSEY
Parker Posey is an American actress who has earned the nickname “Queen of the Indies” due to her success in several indie movies. She did miss out on one mainstream role though, as she was edged out by Jennifer Aniston to play Rachel on “Friends”.

109. Rani’s wear : SARI
The item of clothing called a “sari” (also “saree”) is a strip of cloth, as one might imagine, unusual perhaps in that is unstitched along the whole of its length. The strip of cloth can range from four to nine meters long (that’s a lot of material!). The sari is usually wrapped around the waist, then draped over the shoulder leaving the midriff bare. I must say, it can be a beautiful item of clothing.

“Raja” (also “rajah”) is word derived from Sanskrit that is used particularly in India for a monarch or princely ruler. The female form is “rani” (also “ranee”) and is used for a raja’s wife.

110. Bit : IOTA
Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet. We use the word “iota” to portray something very small as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.

112. Chianti and Beaujolais : REDS
Chianti is a red wine from the Chianti region of central Tuscany in Italy. Historically, Chianti was stored in a characteristically bulbous bottle wrapped in a straw basket. However, the pragmatists have won the day and regular wine bottles tend to be used nowadays.

Beaujolais is a red wine made from the Gamay grape that is produced in the Beaujolais historical province that is part of the Burgundy wine-making region.

114. What’s that in Italy? : CHE
“Che” is “that” in Italian.

115. Train track support : TIE
Railroad ties are usually wooden oblong members used to support and maintain the separation between the rails. Over in Europe we call ties “sleepers”, which I think is a much more colorful term!

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Exploit, e.g. : ACT
4. Mountain cat : PUMA
8. All-___ : PRO
11. Careen : TEAR
15. “New Adventures in Hi-Fi” band : REM
18. Thickness : PLY
19. Subject of a prophecy in Genesis : ESAU
20. Ad ___ : REP
21. Eponymous Indian tribe : ERIE
22. Cry on the bridge : AYE
23. The last one in, perhaps : ROTTEN EGG
25. Toledo-to-Akron dir. : ESE
26. “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” asker : MAD HATTER
28. Move quickly, as clouds : SCUD
29. Shames into action : GUILT-TRIPS
32. Puts on : ADDS
33. Darlings : DEARS
34. Cross : IRRITABLE
35. Confuse : BEFOG
37. Capital near the 60th parallel : OSLO
38. Sushi coating, maybe : SESAME SEEDS
40. Currency in Turkey : LIRA
41. Bully on “The Simpsons” : NELSON
43. “___ no doubt” : THERE’S
45. Mess : STY
46. 2009 Newbery-winning author Gaiman : NEIL
49. Where you might exchange tender for tenders : KFC
52. Something off the top of your head? : HAIR
54. Particularly: Abbr. : ESP
55. Make content : SATE
56. El Amazonas, e.g. : RIO
57. Hole punchers : AWLS
58. Heart-to-heart, e.g. : CHAT
62. Shaving ___ : KIT
63. Wood in Lucius Malfoy’s wand : ELM
64. Chum : PAL
65. Setting for part of “Frankenstein” : ALPS
69. With 94- and 72-Across, a mnemonic for the first eight digits of [symbol in the middle of the grid] : HOW I WISH …
71. XV years before the Battle of Hastings : MLI
72. See 69-Across : … PI EASILY
74. “I” strain? : EGOMANIA
75. Jeremy of the N.B.A. : LIN
76. Like much of Italy in 700 B.C. : ETRUSCAN
77. Encrusted : CAKED
78. Atop : LYING ON
81. ___ Bay, site of a historic Admiral Perry visit of 1853 : TOKYO
82. Israeli diet : KNESSET
85. Disquietude : ANGST
86. “Carry on” : PROCEED
88. It never starts with 666: Abbr. : SSN
89. Beast imagined in “Beasts of the Southern Wild” : BOAR
91. “That makes sense now” : I SEE
93. Practice runners: Abbr. : DRS
94. See 69-Across : … I COULD CALCULATE …
101. Trips up? : ASCENTS
103. Computing pioneer Lovelace : ADA
104. Agitates : STIRS UP
107. It’s revolting : MUTINY
108. One way of learning, it’s said : OSMOSIS
111. Parish head : RECTOR
113. Belch : ERUCT
114. Risky venture : CRAPSHOOT
116. Cropped up : AROSE
117. Snitch : TATTLE
118. Fabled 90-Down : HARE
119. Needle case : ETUI
120. Like two lowercase letters of the alphabet : DOTTED
121. Mormon V.I.P. : ELDER
122. English author Blyton : ENID
123. 1/2, for one : DATE
124. Brings around : SWAYS

Down
1. Bank inits. : APR
2. Not far apart : CLOSE-SET
3. As is usual : TYPICALLY
4. Remains unsettled : PENDS
5. Exploit : USE
6. Smith of “Downton Abbey” : MAGGIE
7. Portends : AUGURS
8. Heat, informally : PRELIM
9. Breather : RESPITE
10. Stock of certain companies? : OPERAS
11. – : TEMPLE
12. Like the previous clue (which originally read “Place of Jewish worship”) : ERASED
13. Red Cross work : AID
14. Place to get clean : REHAB
15. How questions may be asked : RAPID-FIRE
16. Derelict buildings, e.g. : EYESORES
17. Eau holder : MER
24. Money in la banque or la banca : EUROS
27. “Rolling in the Deep” singer : ADELE
30. Bank inits. : IRA
31. “Where would ___ without you?” : I BE
33. Puts on : DONS
36. [Good heavens!] : GASP!
38. Enter through the back door, say : SNEAK IN
39. Frat Pack member Ben : STILLER
42. Slip-___ : ONS
44. Slugger’s stat, for short : HRS
47. “Who goes there?” response : IT IS I
48. Deadly : LETHAL
49. One end of the hotline : KREMLIN
50. Pie part (that’s appropriately placed in this puzzle?) : FILLING
51. Arrivals : COMINGS
52. Betide : HAPPEN
53. Be in store for : AWAIT
58. Threatens, as a king : CHECKS
59. “___ Heroes” : HOGAN’S
60. Like a body no longer at rest? : AWOKEN
61. x : TIMES
65. N.A.A.C.P. or N.C.A.A. part: Abbr. : ASSOC
66. Trounced : LICKED
67. Ladies’ man : PLAYER
68. Church assemblies : SYNODS
70. Tobacco chewers’ chews : WADS
73. With 79-Down, place to get spare parts : AUTO
79. See 73-Down : YARD
80. Ear-related : OTIC
83. Key material : EBONY
84. Ballyhoo : TOUT
86. Hide : PELT
87. Put on again : RE-AIR
90. Race loser : ALSO-RAN
92. Solve : SUSS OUT
94. It always points down : ICICLE
95. Football hiker : CENTER
96. Bivouacked : CAMPED
97. Brouhahas : ADOS
98. Struck (out at) : LASHED
99. Escalator parts : TREADS
100. What money can be kept in : ESCROW
101. Ear-related : AURAL
102. Cry exclaimed while facepalming : STUPID
105. More work : UTOPIA
106. Actress Parker : POSEY
107. Parcel (out) : METE
109. Rani’s wear : SARI
110. Bit : IOTA
112. Chianti and Beaujolais : REDS
114. What’s that in Italy? : CHE
115. Train track support : TIE

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5 thoughts on “0308-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 8 Mar 15, Sunday”

  1. I completed the puzzle but I didn't understand the mnemonic until you explained it. Thanks.

  2. Why must there be puzzles with more letters than one in a box or #s. Just stick to a good old crossword for relaxing not annoying!

  3. Great puzzle! Challenging, fun and educational. I, also, didn't understand the mnemonic, so I'm grateful you cleared that up. Thanks so much for your wonderful blog!

  4. Waaahhhh! It's a REBUS! No fair – I'm tellin' WEB!!! (Ctrl-Rant-on) Yes, it's a Rebus and yes, that makes it a harder puzzle and yes, it might be frustrating until that "aha" moment when you figure it out. Isn't that the point? If you want easy, there's usually a daily puzzle in most papers made up of clues like "Paul Newman movie: Cool Hand ____" and we'll spot you the L and K. The older Sunday puzzles edited by Maleska were, on average, much more difficult than this one. Now, while I have you here, did I ever tell you about when I was a boy and we had to eat sticks and walk through 5' snow to get to school every day? What? Oh, sorry, it's time for my medicine? GTG (Ctrl-Rant-Off)

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