0407-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 7 Apr 15, Tuesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Wolf (down) : SCARF
“To scarf down” is teenage slang from the sixties meaning “to wolf down, to eat hastily”. The term is probably imitative of “to scoff”.

6. Lawman Wyatt : EARP
Wyatt Earp is famous as one of the participants in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Earp was a city policeman in Wichita, Kansas and also in Dodge City, Kansas. Earp was also deputy sheriff in Tombstone, Arizona where the O.K. Corral gunfight took place. Years later, Earp joined the Alaska Gold Rush and with a partner built and operated the Dexter Saloon in Nome.

10. Apple since 1998 : IMAC
The iMac is a desktop computer platform from Apple introduced in 1998. One of the main features of the iMac is an “all-in-one” design, with the computer console and monitor integrated. The iMac also came in a range of colors, that Apple marketed as “flavors”, such strawberry, blueberry and lime.

14. Platforms for medal winners : PODIA
“Podium” (plural “podia”) is the Latin word for “raised platform”.

15. “The Bridge on the River ___” : KWAI
The river referred to in the movie (and novel) “The Bridge on the River Kwai” is actually called the Khwae Yai River, and is in western Thailand. The original novel by Pierre Boulle was published in French in 1952, and the wonderful movie released in 1957. Both tell the story of construction of part of the Burma Railway and a bridge over the river, using prisoners of war as laborers. The film stars William Holden, Alec Guinness and Jack Hawkins.

20. Robitussin or Vicks product : COUGH MEDICINE
Robitussin is a cold medicine that is available by prescription only in the US. Robitussin acts as both an expectorant and a decongestant, but is also narcotic as it contains the opiate codeine.

Vicks is a brand of medications manufactured by Procter & Gamble. The range of Vicks products includes Nyquil and Dayquil, and VapoRub.

23. El Al destination: Abbr. : ISR
El Al Israel Airlines is the flag carrier of Israel. The term “el al” translates from Hebrew as “to the skies” or “skyward”.

25. Ed.’s stack : MSS
An editor (ed.) might be faced with a pile of manuscripts (MSs).

31. Emulate Bing Crosby : CROON
The singer Bing Crosby was a great lover of the game of golf. Crosby had just finished up 18 holes on a course in Spain in 1977 when he suffered a massive heart attack on the final green. Crosby’s last words were “That was a great game of golf, fellas.”

34. The “I” of T.G.I.F. : IT’S
“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.

35. Biblical figure often depicted with a fig leaf : ADAM
The third plant named in the Bible, after the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, was the fig tree. Adam and Eve used leaves from the fig tree to sew garments when they realized that they were naked.

36. Eastern princess : RANI
A ranee (also spelled rani) is a queen or a princess, the female equivalent of a raja in India.

39. ___ Strauss & Co. : LEVI
Levi Strauss was the founder of the first company in the world to manufacture blue jeans. Levi Strauss & Co. opened in 1853 in San Francisco. Strauss and his business partner were awarded a patent in 1873 for the use of copper rivets to strengthen points of strain on working pants.

40. “Hear, hear!” : AMEN!
The word “amen” is translated as “so be it”. “Amen” is said to be of Hebrew origin, but it is likely to be also influenced by Aramaic and Arabic.

47. Parapsychologist’s study : ESP
Extrasensory perception (ESP)

48. Lennon’s love : 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.

49. Sugar suffix : -OSE
Sugars are usually named using the “-ose” suffix e.g. glucose, fructose, sucrose.

60. What’s held in hold’em : HAND
The official birthplace of the incredibly popular poker game of Texas Hold ‘Em is Robstown, Texas where the game dates back to the early 1900s. The game was introduced into Las Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texan enthusiasts including Doyle Brunson, a champion often seen playing on TV today. Doyle Brunson published a poker strategy guide in 1978, and this really helped increase the popularity of the game. But it was the inclusion of Texas Hold ‘Em in the television line-up that really gave the game its explosive surge in popularity, with the size of the prize money just skyrocketing.

62. Layer in the stratosphere : OZONE
Ozone gets its name from the Greek word ozein, meaning “to smell”. It was given this name as ozone’s formation during lightning storms was detected by the gas’s distinctive smell. Famously, there is a relatively high concentration of the gas in the “ozone layer” in the Earth’s stratosphere. This ozone layer provides a vital function for animal life on the planet as it absorbs most of the sun’s UV radiation. A molecule of ozone is made up of three oxygen atoms, whereas a “normal” oxygen has just two atoms.

65. 90 degrees from oeste : NORTE
Both north (norte) and west (oeste) are directions, in Spanish.

Down
1. Nutmeg, e.g. : SPICE
The fruit of the nutmeg tree yields two very different spices. What we call “nutmeg” comes from the seed of the tree. “Mace” is the dried covering of the seed.

2. Hot drink sometimes served with nutmeg : COCOA
The beverages hot cocoa and hot chocolate differ from each other in that the latter contains cocoa butter, whereas the former does not.

3. Possible score before a service break : AD OUT
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 …?

5. Subject of Vogue : FASHION
“Vogue” magazine has been published an awfully long time, with the first issue appearing in 1892. Over the decades the magazine has picked up a lot of criticism as well as its many fans. Famously, an assistant to the editor wrote a novel based on her experiences working with the magazine’s editor, and called it “The Devil Wears Prada”.

6. Anita of “La Dolce Vita” : EKBERG
Anita Ekberg is a Swedish model and actress, famous for her role on the big screen in the 1960 Fellini film “La Dolce Vita”. You might remember her cavorting in the Trevi Fountain in Rome in one famous scene, with the male lead, Marcello Mastroianni.

11. Many an Abercrombie & Fitch employee : MALE MODEL
Ezra Fitch was a co-founder with David Abercrombie of the clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. It is Ezra Fitch who gets the credit for introducing the Chinese game of mahjong into the US. Fitch bought up as many mahjong sets as he could find in villages all over China and sold them through Abercrombie & Fitch outlets.

13. Dancer Charisse : CYD
Actress Cyd Charisse was famous for her dancing ability and the many roles she played opposite Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. Charisse carved out a career based on dance despite the fact that she suffered from polio as a child. In fact, she took up ballet at the age of twelve to help build up her strength as she recovered from the disease.

19. ___ Cong : VIET
The Viet Cong was the name of the political and military organization based in South Vietnam that fought the US and South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War. The American military referred to the Viet Cong as “the VC”. “VC” could be extended to “Victor Charlie” in the phonetic alphabet, and this was shortened to “Charlie”, which became a military slang term for the Viet Cong and other Communists.

21. East Lansing sch. : MSU
Michigan State University (MSU) is located in East Lansing, Michigan. MSU has the largest study-abroad program of any single-campus university in the US. Programs are offered on all continents of the world, including Antarctica. MSU’s athletic teams are called the Spartans.

30. Oscar winner Berry : HALLE
The beautiful and talented actress Halle Berry is the only African American woman to win a best Actress Oscar, which she received for her performance in the 2001 movie “Monster’s Ball”. She also won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress in 2005 for playing the title role in “Catwoman”, and she very graciously accepted the award in person. Good for her!

32. Aquino’s successor in the Philippines : RAMOS
Fidel Ramos was President of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. I used to live in Manila, and one of my claims to fame is that I once went SCUBA diving with President Ramos. Well, I was in the same diving party, and there were three very burly guys between me and him the whole time …

Corazon Aquino was the first woman to hold the office of President of the Philippines. She led the popular revolt against President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 which led to the restoration of democracy in the country. She came to lead the movement against Marcos upon the assassination of her husband, the most visible opponent of Marcos. She took to the role reluctantly, proclaiming herself a “plain housewife”.

42. Leader of the Transcendentalism movement : EMERSON
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an essayist and poet who was active in the mid-1800s. Most of the essays that Emerson wrote were composed originally as lectures and then revised for print.

51. F.B.I. employee : AGENT
What we know today as the FBI was set up in 1908 as the BOI, the Bureau of Investigation. The name was changed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. The Bureau was set up at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt. President Roosevelt was largely moved to do so after the 1901 assassination of President McKinley, as there was a perception that anarchists were threatening law and order. The FBI’s motto uses the organization’s initialism, and is “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity”.

54. Some digital clock readouts, for short : LCDS
Liquid crystal display (LCD)

55. Robust : HALE
“Hale” is an adjective meaning “healthy”. Both the words “hale” and “healthy” derive from the the Old English “hal” meaning healthy.

56. Anise-flavored liqueur : OUZO
Ouzo is an aperitif from Greece that is colorless and flavored with anise. Ouzo is similar to pastis from France and also has a flavor like sambuca from Italy.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Wolf (down) : SCARF
6. Lawman Wyatt : EARP
10. Apple since 1998 : IMAC
14. Platforms for medal winners : PODIA
15. “The Bridge on the River ___” : KWAI
16. Like candles : WAXY
17. Double-clicked images : ICONS
18. Gave fits : BEDEVILED
20. Robitussin or Vicks product : COUGH MEDICINE
22. “Let’s ___!” : EAT
23. El Al destination: Abbr. : ISR
24. “Come as you ___” : ARE
25. Ed.’s stack : MSS
28. Petite sweet treat : DOUGHNUT HOLE
31. Emulate Bing Crosby : CROON
34. The “I” of T.G.I.F. : IT’S
35. Biblical figure often depicted with a fig leaf : ADAM
36. Eastern princess : RANI
37. Existential uneasiness : ANGST
39. ___ Strauss & Co. : LEVI
40. “Hear, hear!” : AMEN!
41. Slangy denial : NAH
42. Those women of Paris : ELLES
43. Advocating long sentences, say : TOUGH ON CRIME
47. Parapsychologist’s study : ESP
48. Lennon’s love : ONO
49. Sugar suffix : -OSE
50. Spare tire contents : FAT
53. Complete without a break, as a labour : PLOUGH THROUGH
57. Find childishly amusing, say : SNICKER AT
59. Less likely to waver : SURER
60. What’s held in hold’em : HAND
61. Low-lying area : VALE
62. Layer in the stratosphere : OZONE
63. Nestful : EGGS
64. Foreboding sign : OMEN
65. 90 degrees from oeste : NORTE

Down
1. Nutmeg, e.g. : SPICE
2. Hot drink sometimes served with nutmeg : COCOA
3. Possible score before a service break : AD OUT
4. Pre-engagement purchase : RING
5. Subject of Vogue : FASHION
6. Anita of “La Dolce Vita” : EKBERG
7. Left slack-jawed : AWED
8. Sources of heat or light : RADIANTS
9. Edible shell : PIE CRUST
10. Counterpart of “You lose” : I WIN
11. Many an Abercrombie & Fitch employee : MALE MODEL
12. Log splitter : AXE
13. Dancer Charisse : CYD
19. ___ Cong : VIET
21. East Lansing sch. : MSU
26. Toil (away) : SLAVE
27. Tournament round before the finals : SEMIS
28. “Nothing ___!” (“I refuse!”) : DOING
29. Accomplishment for a soprano : HIGH C
30. Oscar winner Berry : HALLE
31. Container for oranges : CRATE
32. Aquino’s successor in the Philippines : RAMOS
33. Besting : ONE-UPPING
37. Spanish New Year : ANO NUEVO
38. One-trillionth of a kilo : NANOGRAM
42. Leader of the Transcendentalism movement : EMERSON
44. Catchy part of a song : HOOK
45. No-good : ROTTEN
46. Suffix with fool or ghoul : -ISH
50. Uproar : FUROR
51. F.B.I. employee : AGENT
52. A crowd, they say : THREE
54. Some digital clock readouts, for short : LCDS
55. Robust : HALE
56. Anise-flavored liqueur : OUZO
57. That woman : SHE
58. Say “Take out the garbage” again and again, maybe : NAG

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