0405-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 5 Apr 15, Sunday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Tom McCoy
THEME: The Captain Goes Down with the Ship … each of today’s themed answers is written in the DOWN-direction, and consists of a famous CAPTAIN and his SHIP:

2D. Example from classic American literature : AHAB/PEQUOD
5D. Example from television : KIRK/ENTERPRISE
10D. Example from sci-fi literature : NEMO/NAUTILUS
14D. Example from 18th-century history : BLIGH/BOUNTY
52D. Example from fantasy literature : HOOK/JOLLY ROGER
60D. Example from 20th-century history : SMITH/TITANIC
63D. Example from advertising : CRUNCH/GUPPY
75D. Metaphorical example from poetry : LINCOLN/USA

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 28m 11s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 3 … BETACAM (Betamax), CONS (mons!!!), ATOM (atox!!!)

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. White’s partner : SAJAK
Pat Sajak took over the hosting of “Wheel of Fortune” from Chuck Woolery back in 1983 and has been doing the job ever since. Sajak had a short run as a talk show host in 1989/1990 and used to sub quite often for Larry King and Regis Philbin.

Vanna White is the lady who turns the letters on the “Wheel of Fortune” game show. White is big into knitting and crochet, and has her own line of yarns called “Vanna’s Choice”.

6. Religious journey : HAJ
A Haji (also “Hajji”) is the term used for someone who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and it is sometimes also used as a form of address for such a person. The journey itself goes by the name “haj” or “hajj”.

12. Treasonous groups : CABALS
A cabal is a small group of secret plotters, perhaps scheming against a government or an individual.

18. Home of Faa’a International Airport : TAHITI
Faa’a is the largest commune on the island of Tahiti, part of French Polynesia in the South Pacific. Faa’a is in effect a suburb of Papeete, French Polynesia’s capital city.

19. Kindle, e.g. : E-READER
I bought myself a Kindle Fire HD not that long ago. I’ve started reading e-books for the first time in my life, as well as enjoying other computing options available with the tablet device. I love it …

21. Union union : AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was founded in 1886 by Samuel Gompers, making it one of the first federations of unions in the country. Led by Gompers, the AFL became dominated by craft unions, unions representing skilled workers of particular disciplines. In the early thirties, John L. Lewis led a movement within the AFL to organize workers by industry, believing this would be more effective for the members. But the craft unions refused to budge, so Lewis set up a rival federation of unions in 1932 called the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The two federations became bitter rivals for over two decades until finally merging in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO.

22. Asian wild ass : ONAGER
The onager is also known as the Asiatic wild ass. The onager is a little larger than a donkey, and looks like a cross between a donkey and a horse. One characteristic of the onager is that is remarkably “untamable”.

23. 1/100 of a peseta : CENTIMO
The peseta is the former currency of Spain, replaced by the euro in 2002.

25. Some Halloween decorations : WEBS
All Saints’ Day is November 1st each year. The day before All Saints’ Day is All Hallows Eve, better known by the Scottish term “Halloween”.

26. Kit ___ bar : KAT
I grew up eating Kit Kat bars as a kid, as the chocolate confection has been around since the thirties. Kit Kats didn’t hit the shelves in the US until the seventies. I’ve seen new varieties of Kit Kat over in the UK, such as an orange-flavored version, but haven’t seen anything like that over here.

29. Book that needs to be read word for word? : ROGET’S
Peter Mark Roget was an English lexicographer. Roget was an avid maker of lists, apparently using the routine of list-making to combat depression, a condition he endured for most of his life. He published his famous thesaurus in 1852, with revisions and expansions being made years later by his son, and then in turn by his grandson.

30. Picking up strength, for short? : ESP
Extrasensory perception (ESP)

31. Sony video recorder : BETACAM
Betacam is range of video cassette products that was released by Sony in 1982.

35. Postal abbr. : RTE
Route (rte.)

36. 101, say : INTRO
An introductory course might be labeled “101”, as in Mathematics 101 for example.

42. 7/11 product? : QUOTIENT
The quotient is the answer one gets when dividing one number by another. The term comes from the Latin “quotiens” meaning “how many times”.

45. Crime of those in Dante’s second circle : LUST
In Dante’s “Inferno”, Hell is represented as nine circles of suffering. The nine circles of Hell are:

– Limbo
– Lust
– Gluttony
– Greed
– Anger
– Heresy
– Violence
– Fraud
– Treachery

46. When repeated, classic song with the lyric “Sayin’ we gotta go, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah” : LOUIE
“Louie Louie” is an R&B song that was most famously a hit for the Kingsmen in 1963. The Kingsmen were accused of deliberately slurring words in the song that were describing the sexual act. There was even a 31-month investigation by the FBI, after which it was concluded that the accusation was unfounded.

49. Begin’s opposite? : SADAT
Anwar Sadat was the third President of Egypt right up to the time of his assassination in 1981. Sadat won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 along with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for the role played in crafting the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty of 1978 at Camp David. It was this agreement that largely led to Sadat’s assassination three years later.

55. One who aims to hit singles? : CUPID
Cupid wants to fire that arrow of love into all the single people out there.

57. Quarters of a Quarter Pounder : OUNCES
A quarter of a pound is four ounces, and a quarter of four ounces is one ounce!

The Quarter Pounder sandwich was created just down the road here, in a McDonald’s restaurant in Fremont, California. The franchise owner felt that there was a market for a hamburger with more meat in the bun, and so introduced a meat patty that weighed a quarter pound prior to cooking. He advertised the Quarter Pounder in his restaurant using the slogan, “Today Fremont, tomorrow the world”. Prophetic words …

59. Keepers of appointments, for short : PDAS
Personal digital assistant (PDA)

65. Baseball V.I.P.s : GMS
General manager (GM)

69. Ayatollah’s speech : FARSI
“Farsi” is one of the local names for Persian, an Iranian language.

An Ayatollah is a high-ranking cleric in the Muslim faith, roughly equivalent to a Bishop or a Cardinal in the Roman Catholic tradition, or to a Chief Rabbi in Judaism.

75. Flee : LAM
To be “on the lam” is to be in flight, to have escaped from prison. “On the lam” is American slang that originated at the end of the 19th century. The word “lam” also means to “beat” or “thrash”, as in “lambaste”. So “on the lam” might derive from the phrase “to beat it, to scram”.

81. Twilight, poetically : GLOAMING
“Gloaming” is an alternative word for twilight or dusk, and is often used poetically. The word is particularly associated with Scottish poetry, and notably the work of Robert Burns.

86. Adhered (to) : HEWED
“To hew to” is to conform to a rule or principle.

88. Amaretto ingredients : ALMONDS
Amaretto is an Italian liqueur with a sweet almond flavor. Even though the drink is sweet, it has a bitterness lent to it by the bitter almonds that are often used as a flavoring. The name “amaretto” is a diminutive of the Italian word “amaro” meaning “bitter”.

89. Best-selling children’s series “___ Jackson & the Olympians” : PERCY
“Percy Jackson & the Olympians” is a series of children’s adventure stories written by Rick Riordan. Two of the books have been adapted into movies: “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” (2010) and “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” (2013).

90. Common address start : HTTP
“http” are the first letters in most Internet link addresses. “http” stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol.

92. Bugs someone? : MEL BLANC
Mel Blanc was known as “The Man of a Thousand Voices”. We’ve all heard Mel Blanc at one time or another, I am sure. His was the voice behind such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Woody Woodpecker, Elmer Fudd and Barney Rubble. And the words on Blanc’s tombstone are … “That’s All Folks”.

95. Explorer Meriwether ___ : LEWIS
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were soldiers in the US Army. Lewis was a personal aide to President Thomas Jefferson, even residing in the Presidential Mansion. This exposure contributed to his selection as leader of the famous expedition. William Clark was actually Lewis’s boss for a while before Clark retired. Lewis asked Clark to come out of retirement to accompany him on his three-year exploration.

96. ___-breath : BABY’S
Baby’s-breath is the name used in the US and Canada for Gypsophila, a genus of flowering plants. Gypsophila can often be found on calcium-rich soils including gypsum, which gives the plant its name. Baby’s-breath is often used as a filler in floral bouquets, and an adornment worn in the hair by young women at weddings.

97. Japanese 94-Across : OBI
(94A. See 97-Across : SASH)
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.

100. Claymation dog : GROMIT
“Wallace and Gromit” is a famous animation series from England that uses claymation and stop-motion technology. Wallace is a zany inventor who just loves cheese, especially Wensleydale. Gromit is Wallace’s pet dog, and his best friend.

108. Some 99-Down : NANOS
(99. See 108-Across : IPODS)
The iPod Nano is the successor to the iPod Mini and was introduced to the market at the end of 2005. There have been seven versions of the Nano to date and the current Nano as well as playing tunes is an FM player, records voice memos, has a pedometer and can connect with external devices (like a heart monitor, maybe) using Bluetooth technology.

110. ___ Period (part of Japanese history) : EDO
Edo is the former name of the Japanese city of Tokyo. Edo was the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime that ruled from 1603 until 1868. The shogun lived in the magnificent Edo castle. Some parts of the original castle remain and today’s Tokyo Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor of Japan, was built on its grounds.

111. ___ regni : ANNO
“Anno regni” is Latin for “in the year of the reign”.

115. Coming or going, say : GERUND
A gerund is a form of a verb that can be used as a noun. For example, the gerund of the verb “to act” is “acting”, as in the phrase “we really enjoyed the acting”.

120. Yellow-and-white flowers : OXEYES
Oxeyes are in the daisy family of plants.

122. Letters in the Greek spelling of “Parthenon” : NUS
The Latin equivalent of the Greek letter nu is “N”. An uppercase nu looks just like the Latin capital N, however, the lowercase nu looks like our lowercase “v”. Very confusing …

The Parthenon is the ruined temple that sits on the Athenian Acropolis. Although the Parthenon was dedicated to the goddess Athena as a sacred building in the days of the Athenian Empire, it was actually used primarily as a treasury. In later centuries, the Parthenon was repurposed as a Christian Church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and was used as a mosque after Ottoman conquest.

123. Capital on the Atlantic : RABAT
Rabat is the capital city of the Kingdom of Morocco. After WWII, the United States maintained a major Air Force Base in Rabat, part of Strategic Air Command (SAC). Responding to pressure from the Moroccan government of King Mohammed V, the USAF pulled out in 1963.

Down
2. Example from classic American literature : AHAB/PEQUOD
Captain Ahab is the obsessed and far from friendly captain of the Pequod in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”. The role of Captain Ahab was played by Gregory Peck in the 1956 John Huston film adaptation. Patrick Stewart played Ahab in a 1998 miniseries in which Peck made another appearance, as Father Mapple.

5. Example from television : KIRK/ENTERPRISE
According to the storyline in “Star Trek”, Captain James Tiberius Kirk was born in Riverside, Iowa. The town of Riverside displays a plaque, noting Riverside as the “future birthplace of James T. Kirk.”

The USS Enterprise is a starship in the “Star Trek” universe (pun!). There have been several generations of starship with the name Enterprise, starting with the vessel numbered NCC-1701, which appeared in the original TV series. My favorite “Star Trek” series is “Next Generation”, which features USS Enterprise NCC-1701D.

6. Property unit : HECTARE
The hectare is a non-SI unit of area that is mainly used to measure land. One hectare is equal to 10,000 square meters (100 meters x 100 meters), and equivalent to 2.47 acres.

8. With 18-Down, structure that gets less stable with time : JENGA
(18D. See 8-Down : TOWER)
Jenga is a simple but very entertaining game, one in which one stacks wooden blocks as high as possible until the resulting tower collapses. “Jenga” is the Swahili word for “to build”.

9. Deuce preceder, maybe : AD IN
In tennis, if the score reaches “deuce” (i.e. when both players have scored three points), then the first player to win two points in a row wins the game. The player who wins the point immediately after deuce is said to have the “advantage”. If the player with the advantage wins the next point then that’s two in a row and that player wins the game. If the person with the advantage loses the next point, then advantage is lost and the players return to deuce and try again. If the one of the players is calling out the score then if he/she has the advantage then that player announces “ad in” or more formally “advantage in”. If the score announcer’s opponent has the advantage, then the announcement is “ad out” or “advantage out”. Follow all of that …?

10. Example from sci-fi literature : NEMO/NAUTILUS
In the 1954 movie version of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, Captain Nemo goes down with his ship (the submarine Nautilus). In the novel by Jules Verne the fate of Nemo and his crew isn’t quite so cut and dry, although the inference is perhaps that they did indeed head for Davy Jones’ Locker.

12. Summer pants : CAPRIS
Capri pants first became popular on the island of Capri, apparently. They were invented in Europe in 1948, but only became stylish in the US in the sixties. Mary Tyler Moore often wore Capri pants on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and to some extent she sparked a fashion trend. After a lull in the seventies and eighties there was a resurgence in sales after Uma Thurman wore them (and danced in them) in “Pulp Fiction”. Can’t stand the look of them myself …

14. Example from 18th-century history : BLIGH/BOUNTY
William Bligh was a senior officer in the Royal Navy who was famously captain of the HMS Bounty when her crew mutinied. As I found out in my last trip back to Ireland, late in his life Bligh charted and mapped Dublin Bay and designed the important North Bull Wall that sits at the mouth of the River Liffey and entrance to Dublin Port.

Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall wrote “Mutiny on the ‘Bounty'”, based on a true story. They followed up their successful novel with two more works, creating what is now called the “Bounty Trilogy”. The three books are:

1. “Mutiny on the ‘Bounty'”, the tale of the mutiny against Captain Bligh.
2. “Men Against the Sea”, the story of Captain Bligh and the eighteen men set adrift in an open boat by the mutineers.
3. “Pitcairn’s Island”, a narrative about the lives of the mutineers on South Sea islands after the mutiny.

20. Bond holder? : ATOM
One atom may be bonded to another to form a molecule.

31. Flora and fauna : BIOTA
The biota of a region is the total collection of flora and fauna found there.

39. ___ de leche : DULCE
“Dulce de leche” is Spanish for “candy of milk”, and is a confection made by slowly heating milk and sugar until it develops a pleasing flavor and color.

43. Duke rival, for short : UNC
The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill started enrolling students way back in 1795, making it the oldest public university in the country (the first to enrol students).

Duke University was founded in 1838 as Brown’s Schoolhouse. The school was renamed to Trinity College in 1859, and to this day the town where the college was located back then is known as Trinity, in honor of the school. The school was moved in 1892 to Durham, North Carolina in part due to generous donations from the wealthy tobacco industrialist Washington Duke. Duke’s donation required that the school open its doors to women, placing them on an equal footing with men. Trinity’s name was changed to Duke in 1924 in recognition of the generosity of the Duke family.

44. Game center? : TAC
That would be the game called tic-tac-toe.

46. Watchmaker’s tool : LOUPE
A loupe is a little magnifying lens that is held in the hand. “Loupe” is the French name for such a device.

47. County div. : TWP
Township (twp.)

52. Example from fantasy literature : HOOK/JOLLY ROGER
In J. M. Barrie’s play and novel about Peter Pan, Captain Hook and his crew sail on the pirate ship called the Jolly Roger.

Captain Hook is the bad guy in “Peter Pan”, the famous play by J. M. Barrie. Hook is Peter Pan’s sworn enemy, as Pan cut off Hook’s hand causing it to be replaced by a “hook”. It is implied in the play that Hook attended Eton College, just outside London. Hook’s last words are “Floreat Etona”, which is Eton College’s motto.

56. Get running smoothly, in a way : DEBUG
Back in 1947, the famed computer programmer Grace Hopper noticed some colleagues fixing a piece of equipment by removing a dead moth from a relay. She remarked that they were “debugging” the system, and so she has been given credit for popularizing the term.

60. Example from 20th-century history : SMITH/TITANIC
Edward Smith was the ill-fated captain of the RMS Titanic on her doomed maiden voyage.

63. Example from advertising : CRUNCH/GUPPY
The first Cap’n Crunch commercials aired in 1963, at the time the product line was launched. The Cap’n’s full name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch, would you believe? Crunch’s voice was provided for many years by Daws Butler, the same voice actor who gave us Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound. Cap’n Crunch is commander of the S.S. Guppy.

69. Point of sharpest vision : FOVEA
The fovea centralis is a small depression on the retina and is the point of sharpest vision. About half of the nerve fibers in the optic nerve terminate at the fovea, with the other half carrying signals from the rest of the retina. “Fovea” is Latin for “pit”, and is a term used from several anatomical depressions found in the body.

70. Golden ___ : AGERS
A “golden ager” is a senior citizen.

75. Metaphorical example from poetry : LINCOLN/USA
“O Captain! My Captain!” is an 1865 poem by Walt Whitman, an elegy written about President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination.

O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

77. Classic roadsters : MGS
My neighbor used to keep his MG Midget roadster in my garage (away from his kids!) back in Ireland many moons ago. The Midget was produced by MG division of the British Motor Corporation from 1961 to 1979, with the MG acronym standing for “Morris Garages”.

85. British Invasion band : THEM
Them was a band from Belfast, Northern Ireland who are best remembered for their 1964 hit “Gloria”. Them are often listed as participants of the British Invasion of that era. The five-man lineup included the great Van Morrison left the group to go solo in 1967.

91. Much-vilified food : TWINKIE
The snack cakes called Twinkies have been around since 1930. They were created by a baker called James Dewar, who chose the name from a billboard advertising “Twinkle Toe Shoes”. The original filling in the cake was a banana cream, but this was swapped out as a result of rationing during WWII. The vanilla cream became so popular that the banana reciipe was dropped completely.

93. Some fingerprints : LATENTS
In the world of criminology, there are three classes of fingerprints. Patent prints are those which are obvious, easily spotted by the naked eye. Impressed prints are those made when the fingertips apply pressure to a soft material or surface, such as the skin. Latent prints are those that are invisible to the naked eye, but which can be detected using special equipment and materials.

95. Schlemiels : LOSERS
A “schlemiel“ is an awkward and clumsy person. “Shlemiel” is the Yiddish for “a bungler”, with the term coming from the German story “The Wonderful History of Peter Schlemihl”, published in 1813.

98. Louse’s place, in Robert Burns’s “To a Louse” : BONNET
“To A Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady’s Bonnet at Church” is a 1786 poem by Scottish poet Robert Burns. With an unlikely subject, the narrator addresses a louse that he notices roaming around the bonnet of an upper class lady in church.

102. Fearsome birds : ROCS
The mythical roc is a huge bird of prey, reputedly able to carry off and eat elephants. The roc was said to come from the Indian subcontinent. The supposed existence of the roc was promulgated by Marco Polo in the accounts that he published of his travels through Asia.

105. Ixnay : VETO
Pig Latin is in effect a game. One takes the first consonant or consonant cluster of an English word and moves it to the end of the word, and then adds the letters “ay”. So the Pig Latin for the word “nix” is “ix-n-ay” … ixnay, and for “scram” is “am-scr-ay”

106. “A Clockwork Orange” protagonist : ALEX
“A Clockwork Orange” is a novella by Anthony Burgess, first published in 1962. The story is about a young teenager named Alex, who leads a small gang on violent rampages each night. The story has been adapted for the big and small screens, most famously in a 1971 film by Stanley Kubrick. It’s way too violent for me …

111. ___ League : ARAB
The Arab League was formed in 1945 in Cairo with six founding members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria. As a result of events during the 2011 Arab Spring, the Arab League has suspended Syria’s membership.

114. Michigan rival, for short : OSU
Ohio State University (OSU) was founded back in 1870 as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. The athletic teams of OSU are called the Buckeyes, named after the state tree of Ohio. In turn the buckeye tree gets its name from the appearance of its fruit, a dark nut with a light patch thought to resemble a “buck’s eye”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. White’s partner : SAJAK
6. Religious journey : HAJ
9. Queen’s attendant : ANT
12. Treasonous groups : CABALS
18. Home of Faa’a International Airport : TAHITI
19. Kindle, e.g. : E-READER
21. Union union : AFL-CIO
22. Asian wild ass : ONAGER
23. 1/100 of a peseta : CENTIMO
24. With formal properness : PRIMLY
25. Some Halloween decorations : WEBS
26. Kit ___ bar : KAT
28. “Leave!” : GO NOW!
29. Book that needs to be read word for word? : ROGET’S
30. Picking up strength, for short? : ESP
31. Sony video recorder : BETACAM
33. Relatively recent : NEWISH
35. Postal abbr. : RTE
36. 101, say : INTRO
37. Corporate department : SALES
38. Party time, for short : B’DAY
42. 7/11 product? : QUOTIENT
45. Crime of those in Dante’s second circle : LUST
46. When repeated, classic song with the lyric “Sayin’ we gotta go, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah” : LOUIE
47. Bully, at times : TAUNTER
49. Begin’s opposite? : SADAT
51. Word of regret : SHOULDA
53. “So what?” : WHO CARES?
55. One who aims to hit singles? : CUPID
57. Quarters of a Quarter Pounder : OUNCES
58. Walk quietly : PAD
59. Keepers of appointments, for short : PDAS
61. Deficit, informally : HOLE
62. Went (for) : OPTED
63. Scoundrel : CUR
65. Baseball V.I.P.s : GMS
67. Gist : NUB
68. Crucial : KEY
69. Ayatollah’s speech : FARSI
71. Afflicts : AILS
73. Hist. or Eng. : SUBJ
75. Flee : LAM
78. Ne’er-do-wells : ROGUES
79. In good ___ : STEAD
81. Twilight, poetically : GLOAMING
84. It could go either way : EVEN BET
86. Adhered (to) : HEWED
88. Amaretto ingredients : ALMONDS
89. Best-selling children’s series “___ Jackson & the Olympians” : PERCY
90. Common address start : HTTP
92. Bugs someone? : MEL BLANC
94. See 97-Across : SASH
95. Explorer Meriwether ___ : LEWIS
96. ___-breath : BABY’S
97. Japanese 94-Across : OBI
100. Claymation dog : GROMIT
102. Helpful household pets : RATTERS
104. Cut (off) : LOP
105. Appraises : VALUES
108. Some 99-Down : NANOS
110. ___ Period (part of Japanese history) : EDO
111. ___ regni : ANNO
112. Go by : ELAPSE
113. Lightly pound : KNOCK ON
115. Coming or going, say : GERUND
117. Moderate : TEMPER
118. “No, you really must!” : I INSIST!
119. Takes marks off : ERASES
120. Yellow-and-white flowers : OXEYES
121. Prefix with system : ECO-
122. Letters in the Greek spelling of “Parthenon” : NUS
123. Capital on the Atlantic : RABAT

Down
1. Least mad : SANEST
2. Example from classic American literature : AHAB/PEQUOD
3. Lively dances : JIGS
4. Polished off : ATE
5. Example from television : KIRK/ENTERPRISE
6. Property unit : HECTARE
7. “___ you even listening?” : ARE
8. With 18-Down, structure that gets less stable with time : JENGA
9. Deuce preceder, maybe : AD IN
10. Example from sci-fi literature : NEMO/NAUTILUS
11. Brick worker’s tools : TROWELS
12. Summer pants : CAPRIS
13. Big dos : AFROS
14. Example from 18th-century history : BLIGH/BOUNTY
15. Top : ACME
16. Pleasant inflection : LILT
17. Some beans : SOYS
18. See 8-Down : TOWER
20. Bond holder? : ATOM
27. Clad : ATTIRED
31. Flora and fauna : BIOTA
32. Deceives : CONS
34. Dampens : WETS
37. Affix carelessly : SLAP ON
39. ___ de leche : DULCE
40. Cooperated with : AIDED
41. Up side? : YEAS
43. Duke rival, for short : UNC
44. Game center? : TAC
46. Watchmaker’s tool : LOUPE
47. County div. : TWP
48. “I got it!” : AHA!
50. “I *finally* got it!” : DUH!
52. Example from fantasy literature : HOOK/JOLLY ROGER
54. Some trilogies : SAGAS
56. Get running smoothly, in a way : DEBUG
60. Example from 20th-century history : SMITH/TITANIC
63. Example from advertising : CRUNCH/GUPPY
64. Words before a date : USE BY …
66. Is out : SLEEPS
69. Point of sharpest vision : FOVEA
70. Golden ___ : AGERS
72. Cut (off) : SAW
74. Told : BLABBED
75. Metaphorical example from poetry : LINCOLN/USA
76. As well as : AND
77. Classic roadsters : MGS
78. “One … two … three …,” in a gym : REPS
80. On the left, for short : DEM
82. Get together : AMASS
83. Many a fed. holiday : MON
85. British Invasion band : THEM
87. Kind of ceiling : DEBT
91. Much-vilified food : TWINKIE
93. Some fingerprints : LATENTS
95. Schlemiels : LOSERS
98. Louse’s place, in Robert Burns’s “To a Louse” : BONNET
99. See 108-Across : IPODS
101. Watch over : RE-SEE
102. Fearsome birds : ROCS
103. Welcome, perhaps : ASK IN
105. Ixnay : VETO
106. “A Clockwork Orange” protagonist : ALEX
107. Unbelievable, say : LAME
109. Talking during a movie, e.g. : NO-NO
111. ___ League : ARAB
114. Michigan rival, for short : OSU
116. Post-Civil War Reconstruction, e.g. : ERA

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3 thoughts on “0405-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 5 Apr 15, Sunday”

  1. I gotta say: the theme was a bit LAME. But it went across multiple media and ERAs, so it was not totally "gag me with a spoon" lame. And I must admit, as an English major, it pleased me to see GERUND make an appearance. Props.

    Opening day of baseball: Cardinals shut out the Cubs. Stasis returns to the world. Happy Easter, all.

  2. My only real problem with this one was with the "word" RESEE. I get the pun in the clue, but I would be willing to bet that not one person in a thousand could use it in a sentence and pretend he/she had said something in proper English.

  3. At first he was confused by the small,seemingly incomplete paintings in the gallery; but upon further examination, he began to resee them as excised and jumbled pieces of one large mural.
    I must be one in 1,000.l

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