0621-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 21 Jun 15, Sunday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Timothy Polin
THEME: Climbing the Corporate Ladder … we have several CORPORATE LADDERS in today’s grid as down-answers. To make sense of the answer at the bottom of each LADDER, we must climb that ladder and connect to the across-answer at the top. So, the CORPORATION in the middle of each answer is a LADDER linking the start of the answer to its finish. I’ve shaded in red the answers that use the CORPORATE LADDERS. Complicated, and poorly explained by me …

31A. What may be forever? : POSTAGE STAMP
14D. [Video games] : SEGA

34A. Exams that students get F’s on? : TRUE/FALSE TESTS
5D. [Automobiles] : TESLA

62A. Annual celebration on January 6 : THREE KINGS DAY
47D. [Sportswear] : NIKE

75A. When viewed one way : IN THAT RESPECT
55D. [Mattresses] : SERTA

82A. Response deflecting blame : HOW WAS I TO KNOW?
68D. [Elevators] : OTIS

116A. Initiates : SETS IN MOTION
101D. [Hotels] : OMNI

118A. Part of an unsound argument : LOGICAL FALLACY
99D. [Insurance] : AFLAC

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME:25m 29s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Sunni jihadist grp. : ISIS
ISIS is an extremist Sunni rebel group, with the acronym standing for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The organization is also referred to as ISIL, standing for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or simply IS, for the Islamic State.

The Islamic sects of Sunni and Shia Muslims differ in the belief of who should have taken over leadership of the Muslim faithful after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Followers of the Sunni tradition agree with the decision that the Prophet Muhammad’s confidante Abu Bakr was the right choice to become the first Caliph of the Islamic nation. Followers of the Shia tradition believe that leadership should have stayed within the Prophet Muhammad’s own family, and favoured the Prophet’s son-in-law Ali.

In the Islamic tradition “jihad” is a duty, either an inner spiritual struggle to fulfill religious obligations or an outward physical struggle to defend the faith. Someone engaged in jihad is called a “mujahid” with the plural being “mujahideen”.

10. Alternatively, online : OTOH
On the other hand (OTOH)

20. Bath-loving TV character : ERNIE
For many years, I believed that the “Sesame Street” characters Bert and Ernie were named after two roles played in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”. In the movie, the policeman’s name is Bert and his taxi-driving buddy is named Ernie. However, the “Sesame Street” folks have stated that the use of the same names is just a coincidence.

23. Fuji rival : AGFA
Agfa was founded in Germany in 1867, a company focused on the manufacture of dyes. The full name of the enterprise was Actien Gesellschaft für Anilin Fabrikation, shortened to Agfa, and translating as “Corporation for Aniline (a dye) Production”. Agfa merged with the Belgian company Gevaert in 1894, getting them into the photographic business. Agfa 35mm film hasn’t been produced for a few years now, but there is still inventory out there and purists are buying it when they can.

Fujifilm is the world’s largest photographic and imaging company. I am a bit of a photo buff, and moved to digital a few years ago, but before that I just loved using Fuji Velvia film, especially on bright days. The saturated colors are stunning.

24. Ingredient in glassmaking : SILEX
Silex is a ground stone, nowadays usually limited to finely ground and pure silica. Silex has proved to be very useful over the ages, for example being used as a road surface in Ancient Rome.

26. Architect of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao : GEHRY
Frank Gehry is an architect from Toronto who is based in Los Angeles. Listed among Gehry’s famous creations are the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao in Spain, The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and his own private residence in Santa Monica, California. He is currently working on the upcoming Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial that will be placed in Washington, D.C. I hope to see that one day …

27. Genetic variant : ALLELE
A gene is a section of a chromosome that is responsible for a particular characteristic in an organism. For example, one gene may determine eye color and another balding pattern. We have two copies of each gene, one from each of our parents, with each copy known as an allele.

31. What may be forever? : POSTAGE STAMP
The “forever stamp” for first-class postage was introduced in 2006 (and about time!). Now we have stamps that are good for first-class postage forever, no matter how the rates change.

35. Liquid harmful to vampires : HOLY WATER
Holy water is water that has been blessed by a religious figure or a member of the clergy.

37. 100 Iranian dinars : RIAL
The “Rial” is name of the currency of Iran (as well as Yemen, Oman, Cambodia and Tunisia).

The denarius (plural “dinarii”) is a small silver coin that was used in Ancient Rome. Derived from the Latin “deni” meaning “containing ten”, a denarius had the value of ten asses. Today the dinar is a common coin in the Arab world that is named for the old Roman coin. The dinar name was chosen in the days when Arabs were conquering large swathes of the old Roman Empire.

40. Singer Carlisle of the Go-Go’s : BELINDA
Belinda Carlisle is a singer from Hollywood who first achieved success as the lead singer of the all-female rock band the Go-Go’s. Carlisle went solo when the Go-Go’s disbanded in 1985. She is married to Morgan Mason, the son of famed actor James Mason.

42. Yardbirds : CONS
A yardbird is a convict, a word that entered the language in the mid-fifties from the idea that the “birds” took exercise in the prison “yard”.

43. Lexical ref. : OED
The “Oxford English Dictionary” (OED) contains over 300,000 “main” entries and 59 million words in total. It is said it would take a single person 120 years to type it out in full. The longest entry for one word in the second edition of the OED is the verb “set”. When the third edition was published in 2007, the longest entry for a single word became the verb “put”. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most-quoted author in the OED is William Shakespeare, with his most quoted work being “Hamlet”. The most-quoted female author is George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans).

45. Former Seattle pro : SONIC
The Seattle SuperSonics were the professional basketball team based in Seattle from 1967 to 2008, at which time the franchise moved to Oklahoma City (and became the Oklahoma City Thunder).

46. Looney Tunes “devil,” for short : TAZ
The “Looney Tunes” character known as the Tasmanian Devil, or “Taz”, first appeared on screens in 1964 but gained real popularity in the 1990s.

57. Offshoot : SCION
“Scion” comes from the old French word “sion” or “cion”, meaning “a shoot or a twig”. In botanical terms today, a scion is used in grafting two compatible plants together. In grafting, one plant is selected for its root system (the “rootstock”), and the other plant is selected for its stems, leaves and fruit (the “scion”). The term scion migrated naturally into the world of family history. A scion is simply a descendant, a son or a daughter and therefore a branching point in the family tree.

61. Former Houston athlete : AERO
The Aeros were the professional ice hockey team based in Houston, Texas until 2013. The Houston Aeros were added to the International Hockey League in 1994. The franchise name was taken from the World Hockey Association’s Houston Aeros of the seventies, the team for whom Gordie Howe played. When the team moved to Des Moines in 2013 they became the Iowa Wild.

62. Annual celebration on January 6 : THREE KINGS DAY
The holiday in the Christian tradition known as the Epiphany falls on January 6th. The Epiphany marks the visit of the Magi, the Three Kings, to the Baby Jesus. In many Spanish-speaking countries, the Epiphany is called “Día de los Reyes” (The Day of the Kings).

65. First silent film to win Best Picture since “Wings” : THE ARTIST
“The Artist” is a 2011 movie from France that was filmed in black-and-white, and without sound. This dated format reflects the movie’s subject matter. The story takes place in Hollywood during the days when silent movies were being replaced by “talkies”. “The Artist” has won more awards than any other French film in history, including a Best Picture Oscar.

69. i, for -1 : ROOT
In mathematics, the square root of the number “-1” is denoted by the letter “i”. “i” isn’t a real number as there is no real square root of a negative number, so “i” is referred to as the “imaginary unit”. That said, the use of the concept of “i” extends the real number system into what’s called the complex number system.

80. Piddling : PENNY-ANTE
Penny Ante poker is a game in which bets are limited to a penny, or some other small, friendly sum. The expression “penny-ante” has come to describe any business transaction that is on a small scale.

85. Magnetic induction unit : GAUSS
Carl Friedrich Gauss was a German mathematician and scientist, by all accounts a child prodigy and one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He did a lot of work in the field of magnetism in his latter years, and for this the metric system’s unit of magnetic induction was given the name “gauss”.

86. Org. whose website has a lot of links? : PGA
The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) was founded in 1916 and today has its headquarters (unsurprisingly) in Florida, where so many golfers live. Back in 1916, the PGA was based in New York City.

The oldest type of golf course is a links course. The name “links” comes from the Old English word “hlinc” meaning “rising ground”. “Hlinc” was used to describe areas with coastal sand dunes or open parkland. As a result, we use the term “links course” to mean a golf course that is located at or on the coast, often amid sand dunes. The British Open is always played on a links course.

90. English monarch called “the Magnificent” : EDMUND I
Edmund I was King of the English from 939 CE until his death in 946. Edmund’s father was Edward the Elder, and his grandfather was Alfred the Great. He was murdered by an exilded thief while attending a church service.

93. Manhattan campus : BARNARD
Barnard College is private women’s school in New York City. Barnard was founded in 1889 and since 1900 has been affiliated with Columbia University.

95. ___ voce : SOTTO
“Sotto voce” literally means “under the voice” in Italian, and describes the deliberate lowering of one’s voice for emphasis.

100. Sea dog : TAR
A Jack Tar, or just “tar”, was a seaman in the days of the British Empire. The term probably arose due to a sailor’s various uses of tar back then, including waterproofing his clothes and using tar in his hair to slick down his ponytail.

102. Peace, to Pushkin : MIR
“Mir” is the Russian word for “peace”.

Alexander Pushkin was a Russian dramatist, novelist and poet who is often cited as the founder of modern Russian literature. His most famous works are the play “Boris Godunov” and the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin”. In his private life, Pushkin had a fiery temper and found himself fighting almost thirty duels. He died in 1837 at the age of 37 from a bullet wound received in his final duel, which he fought two days earlier.

104. Time for a siesta, perhaps : ONE PM
We use the word “siesta” to describe a short nap in the early afternoon, taking the word from the Spanish. In turn, the Spanish word is derived from the Latin “hora sexta” meaning “the sixth hour”. The idea is that the nap is taken at “the sixth hour” after dawn.

112. Fibonacci, for one : PISAN
Leonardo of Pisa was a famous and respected Italian mathematician, also known as simply “Fibonacci”. He is remembered for writing about a number sequence (although he didn’t “discover” it) that later was given the name “Fibonacci sequence”. He wrote about the series of numbers in his book called “Liber Abaci”, a celebrated work that introduced Arabic numerals (i.e. 0-9) to the Western world.

114. Shark girl in “West Side Story” : ANITA
In Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story”, the female lead character is Maria and her older friend, also in the gang called the Sharks, is Anita.

Leonard Bernstein’s musical “West Side Story” is of course based on William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. The musical is set in New York City and features two rival gangs: the Sharks from Puerto Rico and the Jets with working-class, Caucasian roots. Tony from the Jets falls in love with Maria from the Sharks. All this parallels Romeo from the House of Montague falling for Juliet from the House of Capulet in the Italian city of Verona.

115. TV amazon : XENA
The Xena character, famously played by New Zealander Lucy Lawless, was introduced in a made-for-TV movie called “Hercules and the Amazon Women”. Lawless reprised the role in a series called “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”. Xena became so popular that a series was built around her character, with Lawless retained for the title role. The fictional Xena supposedly came from the “non-fictional” Greek city of Amphipolis.

119. As a consequence : ERGO
“Ergo” is the Latin word for “hence, therefore”.

Down
1. State bordering B.C. : IDA
The US state of Idaho has a panhandle that extends northwards between Washington and Montana, right up to the border with Canada. Across that border is the Canadian province of British Columbia. Most of Idaho is in the Mountain Time Zone, but Northern Idaho (the Panhandle) is in the Pacific Time Zone.

2. Rio de Janeiro peak : SUGARLOAF
The Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was named for its shape, which resembled conical mold of sugar that was the traditional form from concentrated refined loaf sugar. The Portuguese name for the peak is “Pão de Açúcar”, which translates to “Loaf of Sugar”.

3. Something caught in the air : INFLUENZA
Influenza (flu) is an ailment that is caused by a virus. The virus is readily inactivated by the use of soap, so washing hands and surfaces is especially helpful in containing flu outbreaks.

5. [Automobiles] : TESLA
Tesla Motors is a manufacturer of electric vehicles based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla is noted for producing the first electric sports car, called the Tesla Roadster. The current base price of a roadster is about $100,000, should you be interested …

6. Member of a noted quintet : ERIE
A famous mnemonic for remembering the names of the Great Lakes is HOMES: standing for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.

7. Big inits. in comedy : SNL
NBC first aired a form of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) in 1975 under the title “NBC’s Saturday Night”. The show was actually created to give Johnny Carson some time off from “The Tonight Show”. Back then “The Tonight Show” had a weekend episode, and Carson convinced NBC to pull the Saturday or Sunday recordings off the air and hold them for subsequent weeknights in which Carson needed a break. NBC turned to Lorne Michaels and asked him to put together a variety show to fill the vacant slot, and he came up with what we now call “Saturday Night Live”.

9. Study for a Masters? : SEXOLOGY
William Masters and Virginia Johnson were two research partners famous for their investigation into human sexual response. The duo worked together from 1957 until the nineties at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

10. One doesn’t have much resistance : OHM
The unit of electrical resistance is the ohm (with the symbol omega) named after German physicist Georg Simon Ohm. Ohm was the guy who established experimentally that the amount of current flowing through a circuit is directly proportional to the voltage applied, (V=IR) a relationship that every school kid knows as Ohm’s Law.

14. [Video games] : SEGA
Sega is a Japanese video game company headquartered in Tokyo. Sega actually started out 1940 in the US as Standard Games and was located in Honolulu, Hawaii. The owners moved the operation to Tokyo in 1951 and renamed the company to Service Games. The name “Sega” is a combination of the first two letters of the words “Se-rvice” and “Ga-mes”.

15. ___ kwon do : TAE
Tae kwon do is the national sport of Korea. “Tae” means “to strike or break with foot”; “kwon” means “to strike or break with fist”; “do” means “way” or “art”. Along with judo, taekwondo is one of only two martial arts included in the Olympic Games.

17. Multitudinous : MYRIAD
“Myriad”, meaning “innumerable”, comes from the Greek “muraid”, meaning “ten thousand”.

18. Quid pro quo on the radio : PAYOLA
“Payola” is the illegal practice of paying radio stations or disk jockeys to repeatedly play a particular piece of music. The impetus behind the crime is that the more often a song is played, the more likely it is to sell. The term “payola” comes from the words “pay” and “Victrola”, an RCA brand name for an early phonograph.

“Quid pro quo” is Latin for “something for something”, a swap.

28. Young salamander : EFT
Salamanders are lizard-like amphibians found in all across the northern hemisphere. They are the only vertebrate animals that can regenerate lost limbs.

30. Small storage space : BYTE
In the world of computers, a “bit” is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of bits (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. And the prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and kilobyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

32. North-flowing English river : TRENT
The River Trent in England is one of the few rivers that flows north for much of its route. The Trent rises in Staffordshire and empties into the River Ouse in Yorkshire.

35. Ibsen’s “___ Gabler” : HEDDA
“Hedda Gabler” is a play by the great Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, first published in 1890. Considered one of the greatest theater roles, the title character of Hedda Gabler is sometimes referred to as “the female Hamlet”.

41. Mad ___ : LIBS
Mad Libs is a word game, mostly played by children in America. The idea is that one player provides a list of words which are then inserted into blank spots in a story, usually with hilarious results (they say!).

47. [Sportswear] : NIKE
I remember seeing a lady named Carolyn Davidson on the television show “I’ve Got a Secret”. Davidson created the Nike “swoosh” back in 1971 when she was a design student at Portland State. She did it as freelance work for Blue Ribbon Sports, a local company introducing a new line of athletic footwear. The “swoosh” is taken from the wing of the Greek goddess of victory, Nike. Years later, BRS changed its name to Nike, so I suppose the company should be grateful to Carolyn for both the great design, and a great company name.

48. Firm, in a way : AL DENTE
The Italian expression “al dente” literally means “to the tooth” or “to the bite” and is used to describe not only pasta, but also vegetables that are cooked so that they are tender yet still crisp.

50. Debtor’s burden : LIEN
A lien is the right that one has to retain or secure someone’s property until a debt is paid. When an individual takes out a car loan, for example, the lending bank is usually a lien holder. The bank releases the lien on the car when the loan is paid in full.

51. Pamplona runner : TORO
Pamplona, Spain is famous for its San Fermin festival held in July every year, the highlight of which is the Running of the Bulls. Every year, 200-300 people are injured in the bull run, and 15 people have been killed since 1910. If you get to Pamplona two days before the Running of the Bulls, you can see the animal-rights protest event known as the Running of the Nudes. The protesters are as naked as the bulls …

55. [Mattresses] : SERTA
Serta was founded in 1931 when a group of 13 mattress manufacturers came together, essentially forming a cooperative. Today, the Serta company is owned by eight independent licensees in a similar arrangement.

56. Fancy spread : PATE
Pâté is a rich spreadable paste made up of a mixture of ground meat and fat, to which various vegetables, herbs and spices may be added. The most famous version of the paste is pâté de foie gras, made from the fattened livers of geese (“foie gras” means “fat liver” in French).

63. Trick, slangily : HOSE
“To hose” is a slang term meaning to cheat, or trick.

64. Horse color : ROAN
A roan horse has a base coloring of perhaps red, black or brown, but that base color is lightened by white hairs throughout the shade.

68. [Elevators] : OTIS
Elevators (simple hoists) have been around for a long time. What Elisha Otis did was come up with the “safety elevator”, a design that he showcased at the 1853 World’s Fair in New York. At the Fair, Otis would stand on an elevated platform in front of onlookers and order his assistant to cut the single rope holding up the platform. His safety system kicked in when the platform had only fallen a few inches, amazing the crowd. After this demonstration, the orders came rolling in.

72. Bean on the moon : ALAN
Alan Bean is a former astronaut. Bean was the fourth man to walk on the moon, roaming the moon’s surface with Pete Conrad as part of the Apollo 12 mission. Bean resigned from NASA in 1981 and turned to painting. He is the only artist in the world to have incorporated real moon dust into his works.

74. Actress Cannon : DYAN
The actress Dyan Cannon is perhaps best known for playing Alice in the 1969 film “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice”, for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Cannon is also famous for having been on Cary Grant’s long list of wives, from 1965 to 1968 (and he was 33 years her senior).

78. Lipton employee : TEA TASTER
Sir Thomas Lipton was a grocer in Glasgow, Scotland. He founded a tea packing company in North America in 1893, in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was very successful as his blends of tea became popular in the US. Despite the Lipton roots in the UK, Lipton black tea isn’t available there, so I’ve always thought of it as an American brand.

82. General defeated by Scipio, ending the Second Punic War : HANNIBAL
Hannibal was a military commander from Ancient Carthage. Hannibal lived during a time of great conflict between Carthage and the Roman Republic, as the Romans worked to extend their influence over the Mediterranean region. Famously, Hannibal took on Rome on their own territory by marching his army, including his war elephants, over the Alps into Italy. His forces occupied much of Italy for 15 years.

Scipio Africanus was a general and politician in the Roman Republic. Scipio’s most notable victory as a soldier was in the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage. Scipio was the Roman general who defeated Hannibal at Zama in the final battle of the war.

84. Grow tiresome : CLOY
“To cloy” is to cause distaste by oversupplying something that would otherwise be pleasant, especially something with a sweet taste.

86. “Balderdash!” : PAH!
“Balderdash” means “senseless jumble of words”. The original balderdash (back before the late 1600s) was a jumbled mix of liquids, like maybe beer and wine, or even beer and milk!

89. Relative of a halberd : POLEAXE
A poleaxe (also “poleax”) is a medieval weapon. As one might expect, it is an axe on a pole. The pole could be anything from 4 to 8 feet in length.

A halberd is weapon that is similar to a poleax. It comprises an axe blade on a pole, with a long spike above the blade. There is also a hook on the side of the pole opposite the axe blade. Halberds are still used today as ceremonial weapons by the Swiss Guard in the Vatican.

90. Prevents : ESTOPS
The term “estop” means to block or stop by using some legal device. The word “estop” comes from Old French, in which “estopper” means “to stop up” or “to impede”.

91. “Hey ___” (1977 Shaun Cassidy hit) : DEANIE
“Hey Deanie” is a song recorded in 1977 by Shaun Cassidy. The song was written by Eric Carmen after he watched the movie “Splendor in the Grass” in which Natalie Wood plays a character called Deanie.

Shaun Cassidy is a singer and actor. Cassidy played the role of Joe Hardy in “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries” on television in the late seventies. He is the son of actress and singer Shirley Jones and the half-brother of actor/singer David Cassidy who appeared together in “The Partridge Family”.

93. “Soap” spinoff : BENSON
The sitcom “Benson” originally aired from 1979 until 1986 and starred Robert Guillaume in the title role. The character Benson DuBois was introduced to the world as the butler to the ultrarich Tate family in the comedy series “Soap”.

94. Glandular prefix : ADRENO-
The adrenal glands, as one might expect from the name, sit on top of the kidneys. Their main function is to secrete hormones that have a role to play in times of stress, the best-known of which is epinephrine (aka adrenaline).

95. Certain 35mm camera : SLR
SLR stands for “single lens reflex”. Usually cameras with changeable lenses are the SLR type. The main feature of an SLR is that a mirror reflects the image seen through the lens out through the viewfinder, so that the photographer sees exactly what the lens sees. The mirror moves out of the way as the picture is taken, and the image that comes through the lens falls onto unexposed film, or nowadays onto a digital sensor.

98. Magnifying lens : LOUPE
A loupe is a little magnifying lens that is held in the hand. “Loupe” is the French name for such a device.

99. [Insurance] : AFLAC
In 1999 Aflac was huge in the world of insurance but it wasn’t a household name, so a New York advertising agency was given the task of making the Aflac brand more memorable. One of the agency’s art directors, while walking around Central Park one lunchtime, heard a duck quacking and in his mind linked it with “Aflac”, and that duck has been “Aflacking” ever since …

101. [Hotels] : OMNI
Omni Hotels & Resorts is headquartered in Irvine, California and has properties in the US, Canada and Mexico.

103. Some madrigal singers : ALTI
In choral music, an alto (plural “alti”) is the second-highest voice in a four-part chorus made up of soprano, contr(alto), tenor and bass. The word “alto” describes the vocal range, that of the deepest female singing-voice, whereas the term “contralto” describes more than just the alto range, but also its quality and timbre. An adult male’s voice (not a boy’s) with the same range as an alto is called a “countertenor”.

A madrigal is a piece of vocal music, but notably a piece that is secular in content rather than religious. The madrigal originated in Italy in the early 16th century and it dominated secular music for the next one hundred years until it was gradually displaced by the aria, a product of operatic works.

107. Earth-shattering invention? : TNT
TNT is an abbreviation for trinitrotoluene. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

109. 2008 bailout recipient, for short : AIG
AIG is the American International Group, a giant insurance corporation (or I should say, “was”). After repeated bailouts by American taxpayers, the company made some serious PR blunders by spending large amounts of money on executive entertainment and middle management rewards. These included a $444,000 California retreat, an $86,000 hunting trip in England, and a $343,000 getaway to a luxury resort in Phoenix. Poor judgment, I’d say …

111. Path to enlightenment : TAO
The Chinese character “tao” translates as “path”, but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Sunni jihadist grp. : ISIS
10. Alternatively, online : OTOH
19. Impermanent hill : DUNE
20. Bath-loving TV character : ERNIE
21. Lionhearted sort : HERO
22. College booster? : EASY A
23. Fuji rival : AGFA
24. Ingredient in glassmaking : SILEX
25. Meal plan : MENU
26. Architect of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao : GEHRY
27. Genetic variant : ALLELE
29. Melodramatic sound : SOB
31. What may be forever? : POSTAGE STAMP
33. High school class, briefly : BIO
34. Exams that students get F’s on? : TRUE/FALSE TESTS
35. Liquid harmful to vampires : HOLY WATER
37. 100 Iranian dinars : RIAL
38. Fully caffeinated, say : ALERT
39. Stood for : DENOTED
40. Singer Carlisle of the Go-Go’s : BELINDA
42. Yardbirds : CONS
43. Lexical ref. : OED
44. Land : GET
45. Former Seattle pro : SONIC
46. Looney Tunes “devil,” for short : TAZ
49. Lighted icons on airplanes : SEATBELTS
53. Coming down the line? : FAMILIAL
57. Offshoot : SCION
58. Scratches (out) : EKES
59. Imaginary : DREAMT
61. Former Houston athlete : AERO
62. Annual celebration on January 6 : THREE KINGS DAY
65. First silent film to win Best Picture since “Wings” : THE ARTIST
69. i, for -1 : ROOT
70. Arch locale : INSTEP
71. Give a zero-star review, say : HATE
73. “Once again …” : I SAID …
75. When viewed one way : IN THAT RESPECT
76. Opposites of fantasts : REALISTS
80. Piddling : PENNY-ANTE
82. Response deflecting blame : HOW WAS I TO KNOW?
83. More to come shortly? : ETC
85. Magnetic induction unit : GAUSS
86. Org. whose website has a lot of links? : PGA
88. Poetic dusk : E’EN
89. Something to take to a beach : PAIL
90. English monarch called “the Magnificent” : EDMUND I
93. Manhattan campus : BARNARD
95. ___ voce : SOTTO
96. Move like groundwater : SEEP
97. The devil’s workshop, as the saying goes : IDLE HANDS
100. Sea dog : TAR
102. Peace, to Pushkin : MIR
103. Over again : AFRESH
104. Time for a siesta, perhaps : ONE PM
106. Boot : OUST
108. Whole essence : BE ALL
110. Having a row : AT IT
112. Fibonacci, for one : PISAN
113. Atop : UPON
114. Shark girl in “West Side Story” : ANITA
115. TV amazon : XENA
116. Initiates : SETS IN MOTION
117. Tickled, and how! : SENT
118. Part of an unsound argument : LOGICAL FALLACY
119. As a consequence : ERGO

Down
1. State bordering B.C. : IDA
2. Rio de Janeiro peak : SUGARLOAF
3. Something caught in the air : INFLUENZA
4. Some arctic hunters : SEALERS
5. [Automobiles] : TESLA
6. Member of a noted quintet : ERIE
7. Big inits. in comedy : SNL
8. Attaches, as with rope : TIES ON
9. Study for a Masters? : SEXOLOGY
10. One doesn’t have much resistance : OHM
11. Golfers drive off it : TEE PAD
12. Ready follower? : … OR NOT
13. Mobile home : HOUSEBOAT
14. [Video games] : SEGA
15. ___ kwon do : TAE
16. Garbage collector : ASH BIN
17. Multitudinous : MYRIAD
18. Quid pro quo on the radio : PAYOLA
28. Young salamander : EFT
30. Small storage space : BYTE
32. North-flowing English river : TRENT
34. What might be revealed in silence : TACT
35. Ibsen’s “___ Gabler” : HEDDA
36. Fresh from a shower : WET
37. Crunchy snacks : RICE CAKES
39. Quit it : DESIST
41. Mad ___ : LIBS
43. Gape at : OGLE
45. Some offshoots : SECTS
47. [Sportswear] : NIKE
48. Firm, in a way : AL DENTE
49. Step above amateur : SEMIPRO
50. Debtor’s burden : LIEN
51. Pamplona runner : TORO
52. Bank deposit? : SNOW
54. Getting together : MEETING UP
55. [Mattresses] : SERTA
56. Fancy spread : PATE
60. Foolhardy : RASH
62. Paradoxically, when it’s round it’s not circular : TRIP
63. Trick, slangily : HOSE
64. Horse color : ROAN
66. Suggestions : HINTS
67. Improved, as relations : THAWED
68. [Elevators] : OTIS
72. Bean on the moon : ALAN
74. Actress Cannon : DYAN
75. Sneaky : INSIDIOUS
77. Vessels near washstands : EWERS
78. Lipton employee : TEA TASTER
79. Needlework : STITCHING
81. Book report? : AUDIT
82. General defeated by Scipio, ending the Second Punic War : HANNIBAL
84. Grow tiresome : CLOY
86. “Balderdash!” : PAH!
87. “g,” to a chemist : GRAM
89. Relative of a halberd : POLEAXE
90. Prevents : ESTOPS
91. “Hey ___” (1977 Shaun Cassidy hit) : DEANIE
92. Minimal : MEREST
93. “Soap” spinoff : BENSON
94. Glandular prefix : ADRENO-
95. Certain 35mm camera : SLR
98. Magnifying lens : LOUPE
99. [Insurance] : AFLAC
101. [Hotels] : OMNI
103. Some madrigal singers : ALTI
105. Ballet step : PAS
107. Earth-shattering invention? : TNT
109. 2008 bailout recipient, for short : AIG
111. Path to enlightenment : TAO

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3 thoughts on “0621-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 21 Jun 15, Sunday”

  1. I had "borax" at 24A, so finished with some errors in that section. Cluing was generally OK, and the word-bends were mostly consistent. Good grid.

  2. Well worth the price of admission. Kept me busy for 1 hour 17 mins. Missed 2, 91D DEANIE (DEANNE); 112A PISAN (PNSAN)

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