1109-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 9 Nov 15, Monday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Pawel Fludzinski
THEME: Cuties … each of today’s themed answers is a CUTIE (QT), comprises two words starting with Q and T:

61A. Babies (aww …) … or an aural hint to 18-, 32-, 39- and 57-Across : CUTIES (QTs)

18A. Period of undivided attention, as with a spouse or child : QUALITY TIME
32A. Noted Max Planck contribution to physics : QUANTUM THEORY
39A. Skill useful for handling an emergency : QUICK THINKING
57A. 1/24 of an octave : QUARTER TONE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 7m 07s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

4. Mark of disgrace : STIGMA
A stigma (plural “stigmata), in a social sense, is a distinguishing mark of disgrace. For example, one might have to suffer the stigma of being in prison. The term derives from the Greek “stigma”, which was a mark or brand.

10. Curiosity rover launcher : NASA
NASA’s Curiosity rover is the fourth in a series of unmanned surface rovers that NASA has sent to Mars. Previous rovers are the Sojourner rover (1997), Spirit rover (2004-2010) and Opportunity rover (2004-present). Curiosity rover was launched in November of 2011, and landed on Mars in August 2012 after having travelled 350 million miles. After that long journey, Curiosity landed just 1½ miles from its targeted touchdown spot.

14. Campus in Troy, N.Y. : RPI
The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is a private school in Troy, New York. The university is named after its founder Stephen Van Rensselaer who set up the school in 1824. The goal of RPI has always been the “application of science to the common purposes of life”, an objective set by the founder. Given that, the name for the school’s sports teams is quite apt: the Engineers.

17. Nest egg inits. : IRA
Individual Retirement Account (IRA)

22. Band aide : ROADIE
A “roadie” is someone who loads, unloads and sets up equipment for musicians on tour, on the road.

23. Emcees’ deliveries : INTROS
The term “emcee” comes from “MC”, an initialism standing for Master or Mistress of Ceremonies.

25. Very, in music : ASSAI
The Italian term “assai” translates as “very”, and is used in music with the same meaning.

26. Springsteen’s “Born in the ___” : USA
“Born in the USA” is a 1984 song (and album) written and recorded by Bruce Springsteen. The song was written three years earlier as the title song for a movie, but was never used. That film ultimately was released as “Light of Day” starring Michael j. Fox. The original intention was for Springsteen to star in the film himself.

28. Detroit ballplayer : TIGER
The origins of the Detroit Tigers baseball team’s name seems a little unclear. One story is that it was taken from the Detroit Light Guard military unit who were known as “The Tigers”. The Light Guard fought with distinction during the Civil War and in the Spanish-American War. Sure enough, when the Detroit baseball team went into the Majors they were formally given permission to use “The Tigers” name by the Detroit Light Guard.

32. Noted Max Planck contribution to physics : QUANTUM THEORY
Max Planck was a theoretical physicist from Germany who developed quantum theory. Planck won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918.

There has always been a conflict between the theory of relativity and quantum theory. Basically, the theory of relativity works for “big stuff” but breaks down when applied to minute things like subatomic particles. On the other hand, quantum theory was developed to explain behavior at the subatomic level, and just doesn’t work on the larger scale. One of the reasons physicists are so excited about string theory is that it works at the macro and micro levels. According to string theory, all particles in the universe are really little “strings”, as opposed to the points or ball-shaped entities assumed by the other theories.

35. Post-E.R. locale : ICU
A patient might end up in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after being moved from the Emergency Room (ER).

38. “Norma ___” (Sally Field film) : RAE
“Norma Rae” is a 1979 movie starring Sally Field as Norma Rae Webster in a tale of union activities in a textile factory in Alabama. The film is based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton told in a 1975 book called “Crystal Lee, a Woman of Inheritance”.

Actress Sally Field first came to the public’s attention in the sixties with title roles in the TV shows “Gidget” and “The Flying Nun”. She has two Best Actress Oscars; one for “Norma Rae” (1979) and one for “Places in the Heart” (1984).

44. Chrysler 300 or BMW 740 : SEDAN
The American “sedan” car is the equivalent of the British “saloon” car. By definition, a sedan car has two rows of seating and a separate trunk (boot in the UK), although in some models the engine can be at the rear of the car.

45. Born, in bios : NEE
“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.

49. The “M” in Y.M.C.A. : MEN’S
The YMCA is a worldwide movement that has its roots in London, England. There, in 1844, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was founded with the intent of promoting Christian principles through the development of “a healthy spirit, mind and body”. The founder, George Williams, saw the need to create YMCA facilities for young men who were flocking to the cities as the Industrial Revolution flourished. He saw that these men were frequenting taverns and brothels, and wanted to offer a more wholesome alternative.

51. ___ Mae (government lender) : GINNIE
Ginnie Mae is the familiar nickname for the Government National Mortgage Association (GNMA), a government-owned corporation created in 1968 with the objective of promoting home ownership. The “Ginnie Mae” nickname is derived from the GNMA abbreviation.

52. ___ metals (periodic table group) : ALKALI
The alkali metals form a column in the periodic table of the elements, consisting lithium, sodium, potassium and others. All are soft metals that are very reactive. Alkali metals are so reactive in air that they must be stored under oil.

55. Mr. Scrooge : EBENEZER
The classic 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens has left us with a few famous phrases and words. Firstly, it led to popular use of the phrase “Merry Christmas”, and secondly it gave us the word “scrooge” meaning a miserly person. And thirdly, everyone knows that Ebenezer Scrooge uttered the words “Bah! Humbug!”.

60. Golden rule preposition : UNTO
The Golden Rule is also known as the ethic of reciprocity, and is a basis for the concept of human rights. A version of the rule used in the Christian tradition is attributed to Jesus: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

62. Chaney of chillers : LON
Lon Chaney, Sr. played a lot of crazed-looking characters in the days of silent movies. He did much of his own make-up work, developing the grotesque appearances that became his trademark, and earning himself the nickname “the man of a thousand faces”. Most famous were his portrayals of the title characters in the films “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1923) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925).

Down
1. One of the Nixon daughters : TRICIA
President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon had two daughters. The eldest daughter is Tricia. Tricia married Harvard law student Edward Cox in a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden in 1971.

3. Creature that attacked the Nautilus in “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” : GIANT SQUID
The Jules Verne sci-fi novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” was first published in 1869-1870 as a serial in a French magazine. Star of the novel (to me) is Captain Nemo’s magnificent submarine called the Nautilus. The distance travelled by the Nautilus is the “20,000 leagues” in the title, not a depth. 20,000 leagues is about three times the circumference of the Earth.

4. Tree whose name contains all five vowels : SEQUOIA
The giant sequoia tree is also known as the giant redwood. There’s only one part of the world where you can see giant sequoias growing naturally, and that’s on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. However, there are plenty of examples of giant sequoias that have been planted as ornamentals all over the world.

6. “Dies ___” (Latin hymn) : IRAE
“Dies Irae” is Latin for “Day of Wrath”. It is the name of a famous melody in Gregorian Chant, one that is often used as part of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass.

7. Top prize at the Olympics : GOLD
In the Ancient Olympic Games, the winner of an event was awarded an olive wreath. When the games were revived in 1896, the winners were originally given a silver medal and an olive branch, with runners-up receiving a bronze medal and a laurel branch. The tradition of giving gold, silver and bronze medals began at the 1904 Summer Olympic Games held in St. Louis, Missouri.

8. Diagnostic scan, briefly : MRI
MRI scans can be daunting for many people as they usually involve the patient lying inside a tube with the imaging magnet surrounding the body. Additionally, the scan can take up to 40 minutes in some cases. There are some open MRI scanners available that help prevent a feeling of claustrophobia. However, the image produced by open scanners are of lower quality as they operate at lower magnetic fields.

9. “The Jetsons” dog : ASTRO
“The Jetsons” is an animated show from Hanna-Barbera that had its first run in 1962-1963, and then was recreated in 1985-1987. When it was debuted in 1963 by ABC, “The Jetsons” was the network’s first ever color broadcast. “The Jetsons” are like a space-age version of “The Flintstones”. The four Jetson family members are George and Jane, the parents, and children Judy and Elroy. Residing with the family are Rosie the household robot, and Astro the pet dog.

10. Actress Portman : NATALIE
The actress Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem, Israel. She moved to the US with her family when she was just three years old.

11. The “A” in DNA : ACID
RNA and DNA are very similar molecules. One big difference is that RNA is a single-strand structure, whereas DNA is famously a double-helix. Another difference is that RNA contains ribose as a structural unit, and DNA contains deoxyribose i.e. ribose with one less oxygen atom. And that ribose/deoxyribose difference is reflected in the full name of the two molecules: ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).

13. “Zip-___-Doo-Dah” : A-DEE
“Song of the South” is a 1946 Disney film based on the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris. The move features a mix of live actors and animated characters. The song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” is the big hit from the “Song of the South”, and won the Best Song Oscar in 1947.

21. Mrs., in Munich : FRAU
In Germany, the lady of the house (haus) is the wife (frau).

Munich is the capital of the German state of Bavaria, and is the third largest city in the country (after Berlin and Hamburg). The city is called “München” in German, a term that derives from the Old German word for “by the monks’ place”, which is a reference to the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city in 1158.

26. Residents of Provo and Salt Lake City : UTAHNS
Provo, Utah is a city located just over 40 miles south of South Lake City. Provo is home to Brigham Young University. The city was originally called Fort Utah, and the name was changed to Provo in 1850 in honor of Étienne Provost. Provost was a French-Canadian fur trader who was perhaps the first man of European descent to see the Great Salt Lake.

Salt Lake City (SLC) was founded by Brigham Young, in 1847. The city takes its name from the Great Salt Lake on which it sits, and indeed was known as “Great Salt Lake City” up until 1868.

27. “Wake Up Little ___” (#1 Everly Brothers hit) : SUSIE
“Wake Up, Little Susie” is a song most famously associated with the Everly Brothers, as it was a hit for the duo in 1957. “Wake Up, Little Susie” is, or at least used to be, the favorite song of President George W. Bush.

29. Italian blue cheese : GORGONZOLA
Gorgonzola is an Italian blue cheese that bears the name of the town in Lombardy in which it originated.

30. Alternative to All : ERA
Era was the first liquid laundry detergent produced by Procter & Gamble.

All is a laundry detergent produced by Sun Products.

31. Bread for a Reuben : RYE
There are conflicting stories about the origin of the Reuben sandwich. One is that it was invented around 1914 by Arnold Reuben, an immigrant from Germany who owned Reuben’s Deli in New York.

35. Stats for Mensa : IQS
If you ever learned Latin, “mensa” was probably taught to you in lesson one as it’s the word commonly used as an example of a first declension noun. Mensa means “table”. The Mensa organization, for folks with high IQs, was set up in Oxford, England back in 1946. To become a member, you have to have an IQ that is in the top 2% of the population.

40. Sporty Chevys : CAMAROS
The Chevrolet Camaro is a car produced by General Motors from 1966 to 2002, and reintroduced in 2009. The Camaro shared much of its design with the Pontiac Firebird, and was introduced as a potential competitor to the Ford Mustang.

51. French playwright Jean : GENET
Jean Genet was a French playwright and novelist. Before he turned to writing, Genet was a homeless person with a criminal record. His debut novel was 1943’s “Notre-Dame-des-Fleur” (Our Lady of the Flowers), which is largely autobiographical and tells of a man’s life in the underworld of Paris.

52. With 53-Down, pioneering mechanical breathing apparatus : AQUA
53. See 52-Down : LUNG
Jacques-Yves Cousteau started off his career in the French Navy, aiming for a working life in aviation. Because of a car accident, Cousteau had to abandon his first career choice and instead went to sea. Famously, he co-invented the Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA), also called the aqua-lung.

54. Actress Winslet : KATE
Kate Winslet is one of my favorite actresses, someone known for taking both the big Hollywood roles while still finding the time to act in smaller independent films. Perhaps Winslet’s most famous part was opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in “Titanic”, although she won her Oscar for a more dramatic role in “The Reader”. But my favorite of her performances is in the romantic comedy “The Holiday” from 2006. I love that movie …

55. Suffix with major : -ETTE
A drum major is a the leader of a marching band, and is a position that originated in the British Army’s Corp of Drums in 1650. The drum major’s job is to lead the group and ensure that the whole ensemble keeps time. To help him do so, a drum major often uses a large baton. Over time, it became customary for the baton to be twirled and tossed in an elaborate display. The drum major tradition was embraced by high school marching bands in America. Drum-majorettes became popular in the 1930s, with groups of females taking up baton-twirling and marching with bands. According to an article in “Life” magazine published on October 10th, 1938, “the perfect majorette is a pert, shapely, smiling extrovert, who loves big, noisy crowds and knows how to make those crowds love her.” It was a different time …

56. ___ de Boulogne (Parisian park) : BOIS
Bois de Boulogne is a large park located on the western outskirts of Paris, France. It covers over 2,000 acres, making it about 2.5 times the size of Central Park in New York City. Life in the Bois de Boulogne is very wholesome during the day, with the park full of joggers, people on picnics and boaters, but at night the park is a prominent red-light district.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Game in which to cry “You’re it!” : TAG
4. Mark of disgrace : STIGMA
10. Curiosity rover launcher : NASA
14. Campus in Troy, N.Y. : RPI
15. Blunders : ERRORS
16. Got a hole in one on : ACED
17. Nest egg inits. : IRA
18. Period of undivided attention, as with a spouse or child : QUALITY TIME
20. Addled : CONFUSED
22. Band aide : ROADIE
23. Emcees’ deliveries : INTROS
24. One of six allowed to an N.B.A. player : FOUL
25. Very, in music : ASSAI
26. Springsteen’s “Born in the ___” : USA
28. Detroit ballplayer : TIGER
32. Noted Max Planck contribution to physics : QUANTUM THEORY
35. Post-E.R. locale : ICU
37. Desert refuge : OASIS
38. “Norma ___” (Sally Field film) : RAE
39. Skill useful for handling an emergency : QUICK THINKING
44. Chrysler 300 or BMW 740 : SEDAN
45. Born, in bios : NEE
46. Refrigerates : COOLS
49. The “M” in Y.M.C.A. : MEN’S
51. ___ Mae (government lender) : GINNIE
52. ___ metals (periodic table group) : ALKALI
55. Mr. Scrooge : EBENEZER
57. 1/24 of an octave : QUARTER TONE
59. Bullring bravo : OLE!
60. Golden rule preposition : UNTO
61. Babies (aww …) … or an aural hint to 18-, 32-, 39- and 57-Across : CUTIES (QTs)
62. Chaney of chillers : LON
63. Ripens, as cheese : AGES
64. Disgorges : EGESTS
65. Blow away : AWE

Down
1. One of the Nixon daughters : TRICIA
2. Things cooks wear : APRONS
3. Creature that attacked the Nautilus in “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” : GIANT SQUID
4. Tree whose name contains all five vowels : SEQUOIA
5. Tie up, as a turkey : TRUSS
6. “Dies ___” (Latin hymn) : IRAE
7. Top prize at the Olympics : GOLD
8. Diagnostic scan, briefly : MRI
9. “The Jetsons” dog : ASTRO
10. Actress Portman : NATALIE
11. The “A” in DNA : ACID
12. Final Four game : SEMI
13. “Zip-___-Doo-Dah” : A-DEE
19. One’s early years : YOUTH
21. Mrs., in Munich : FRAU
24. Period of widespread food shortage : FAMINE
26. Residents of Provo and Salt Lake City : UTAHNS
27. “Wake Up Little ___” (#1 Everly Brothers hit) : SUSIE
29. Italian blue cheese : GORGONZOLA
30. Alternative to All : ERA
31. Bread for a Reuben : RYE
33. “Believe It or ___!” : NOT
34. Condescending cluck : TSK!
35. Stats for Mensa : IQS
36. Actor’s prompt : CUE
40. Sporty Chevys : CAMAROS
41. Prepared to propose, in the traditional way : KNELT
42. Extremely aloof demeanor : ICINESS
43. Alternative to all : NONE
47. Stay out of sight, as a criminal : LIE LOW
48. Tranquil : SERENE
50. Aunt and uncle’s little girl : NIECE
51. French playwright Jean : GENET
52. With 53-Down, pioneering mechanical breathing apparatus : AQUA
53. See 52-Down : LUNG
54. Actress Winslet : KATE
55. Suffix with major : -ETTE
56. ___ de Boulogne (Parisian park) : BOIS
58. As snug as a bug in a ___ : RUG

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