0117-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 17 Jan 16, Sunday

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Solution to today’s crossword in the New York Times
Solution to today’s SYNDICATED New York Times crossword in all other publications
Solution to today’s New York Times crossword found online at the Seattle Times website
Jump to a complete list of today’s clues and answers

CROSSWORD SETTER: Jeff Chen
THEME: Twisting One’s Words … we have some black squares in today’s grid around which we have to “twist” our themed answers. Each themed answers is in the down-direction, running into a black square with arrows around it. The arrows instruct us to make a loop clockwise in the southern half of the grid, and counterclockwise in the northern half. We use the letters around the twisting square twice in the process of looping, to give us the complete answer. Difficult to explain …

33D. What causes storms to swirl in opposite directions in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres : CORIOLIS FORCE

4D. Question asked while tapping a microphone : IS THIS THING ON?
6D. Experiences fame : HAS THE LIMELIGHT
13D. Drink for Hercule Poirot : CREME DE MENTHE
14D. Spreading belief? : MANIFEST DESTINY
66D. Plus or minus thing : BATTERY TERMINAL
69D. Crawling, say : ON HANDS AND KNEES
84D. [This is how it might have happened] : DRAMATIZATION
88D. Texas : LONE STAR STATE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 32m 00s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 2 … DEBI (Desi), BANH MI (sanh mi)

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. World champion figure skater Thomas : DEBI
Debi Thomas is a former American figure skater, the 1986 world champion. After Thomas retired from competition, she went back to school and graduated with an engineering degree from Stanford before switching to medicine and orthopedic surgery. She was in private practice in 2010, but things didn’t go well for her. As of 2015, Thomas was broke and living in a bed bug-infested trailer in the Appalachian Mountains.

11. Email letters : BCC
A blind carbon copy (bcc) is a copy of a document or message that is sent to someone without other recipients of the message knowing about that extra copy.

19. Idahoan’s pride : TATERS
Idaho has the nickname the Gem State, mainly because almost every known type of gemstone has been found there. Idaho is also sometimes called the Potato State as potatoes are such a popular crop in the state.

20. ___ Lubovitch Dance Company : LAR
Lar Lubovitch is an American choreographer noted for his stage work, but also for choreographing figure skating routines for the likes of John Curry, Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill. He founded in the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in New York City in 1968, which is still going strong.

21. Funnies drawing : PANEL
A single image in a cartoon strip is known as a “panel”.

22. Luge or figure skating : WINTER SPORT
A luge is a small sled used by one or two people, on which one lies face up and feet first. The luge can be compared to the skeleton, a sled for only one person and on which the rider lies face down and goes down the hill head-first. Yikes!

27. ___ army, group that marches across the earth in Revelation : SATAN’S
According to the Bible’s Book of Revelation:

And Satan’s army marched across the earth and gathered around the camp of God’s people and the city God loves. But fire came down from heaven and burned them up. 10 And Satan, who tricked them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur with the beast and the false prophet. There they will be punished day and night forever and ever.

32. Mao’s successor : HUA
Hua Guofeng was the man whom Mao Zedong designated as his successor as paramount leader of the People’s Republic of China and the Communist Party of China. Hua came to power in 1976 and within a few month’s brought Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution to an end. However, Hua was deemed to be moving too slowly with his reforms, and so he was forced into early retirement after just a few years in power and Deng Xiaoping took control.

33. Thickets : COPSES
A copse is a small stand of trees. The term “copse” originally applied to a small thicket that was specifically grown for cutting.

35. Dr. J’s do, once : FRO
Julius Erving is a retired professional basketball player who was known as “Dr. J”, a nickname he picked up in high school. Dr. J was a trailblazer in many ways, being the first player associated with slam dunking and other moves above the rim.

38. Daily Planet photographer : OLSEN
In the “Superman” stories, Jimmy Olsen is a cub photographer who works on the “Daily Planet” newspaper with Clark Kent and Lois Lane.

39. Pop singer ___ Marie : TEENA
Teena Marie was a very successful R&B singer, born Mary Christine Brockert in Santa Monica, California.

45. Motocross racers, for short : ATVS
All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

52. The king of Egypt has a part in it : AIDA
“Aida” is the famous opera by Giuseppe Verdi, actually based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, who also designed the costumes and stages for the opening performance. The opera was first performed in 1871 in an opera house in Cairo. In the storyline, Aida is an Ethiopian princess brought into Egypt as a slave. Radames is an Egyptian commander who falls in love with her, and then of course complications arise!

59. 1.5 in a jigger: Abbr. : OZS
A jigger is a 1.5 ounce shot glass.The term “jigger” was originally used for an illicit distillery in the 1800s.

60. Waters who sang “Am I Blue?” : ETHEL
Ethel Waters was a singer and actress. Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award (after Hattie McDaniel, for “Gone With the Wind”). She received the nomination as Best Supporting Actress in 1949 for her performance in the film “Pinky”, in which she played the title character’s grandmother.

64. Application info : SSN
A Social Security number (SSN) is divided into three parts i.e AAA-GG-SSSS, Originally, the Area Number (AAA) was the code for the office that issued the card. Since 1973, the Area Number reflects the ZIP code from which the application was made. The GG in the SSN is the Group Number, and the SSSS in the number is the Serial Number. However, this is all moot, as since 2011 SSN’s are assigned randomly.

65. 89-Down nickname, with “the” : BEEB
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is also known as “the Beeb”, a name given to the network by the great Peter Sellers on the classic British radio comedy called “The Goon Show”. The BBC was founded in 1922, and was the world’s first national broadcasting organization.

67. Origin of “pooh-bah” : THE MIKADO
The term “pooh-bah” (also “poobah”), meaning an ostentatious official, comes from the world of opera. Pooh-Bah is a character in the wonderful Gilbert & Sullivan comic opera “The Mikado”. Famously, the Pooh-Bah in “The Mikado” holds many, many offices, including that of “Lord High Everything Else”.

77. Suckers : SAPS
“Sap” is slang for a fool, someone easily scammed. The term arose in the early 1800s in Britain when it was used in “saphead” and “sapskull”. All these words derive from “sapwood”, which is the soft wood found in tree trunks between the bark and the heartwood at the center.

78. “Lean Forward” sloganeer : MSNBC
MSNBC was founded in 1996 as a partnership between Microsoft (“MS”) and General Electric’s “NBC” broadcasting operation. Microsoft only owns a minority share in MSNBC today, but is still an equal partner in the separate company that runs msnbc.com.

82. Castle-breaching explosive : PETARD
In days of old, a petard was a small bomb that was used to breach fortified gates and walls. The phrase “hoisted by his own petard” comes from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, and is a reference to a petard detonating prematurely and blowing up (“hoisting”) the bomber.

87. Shamans, e.g. : HEALERS
A shaman is a supposed intermediary between the human world and the spirit world.

89. Pepsi employee : BOTTLER
The Pepsi-Cola formulation was developed by one Caleb Bradham who made the drink at home and sold it as “Brad’s Drink”. Bradham’s aim was to provide a drink that was pleasant to taste, that would aid digestion and boost energy. Included in the formula were pepsin (a digestive enzyme) and kola nuts. These two ingredients inspired the brand name we use today: Pepsi-Cola.

90. Bela Lugosi’s role in “Son of Frankenstein” : YGOR
1939’s “Son of Frankenstein” is the third in the series of classic horror films featuring Boris Karloff as the Monster. The prior titles are “Frankenstein” and “Bride of Frankenstein”. Dr. Frankenstein’s assistant Ygor is played by Bela Lugosi.

92. Journalist Nellie who went around the world : BLY
Nellie Bly was a pen name of an American journalist whose real name was Elizabeth Cochran. In 1888, Bly took a trip around the world, emulating the fictional trip of Phileas Fogg in “Around the World in Eighty Days”. She departed from New York and arrived back in San Francisco two days behind schedule, jeopardizing her goal of beating the “eighty days”. The owner of her newspaper chartered a private train for her and she made it back to New York in just over 72 days. Quite a woman …

93. Dutch export : EDAM
Edam cheese takes its name from the Dutch town of Edam in North Holland. The cheese is famous for its coating of red paraffin wax, a layer of protection that helps Edam travel well and prevents spoiling. You might occasionally come across an Edam cheese that is coated in black wax. The black color indicates that the underlying cheese has been aged for a minimum of 17 weeks.

95. 19 things on a classical guitar : FRETS
A fret is a metal strip embedded in the neck of a stringed instrument, like a guitar perhaps. The fingers press on the frets, shortening a string and hence changing the note played. The note increases by one semitone as a finger shortens a string by one fret.

97. The “N” of NGO : NON-
Non-governmental organization (NGO)

98. Accord competitor : CAMRY
The Toyota Camry takes its name from the Japanese word for “crown”. Toyota management likes the idea of naming their cars after the word “crown”, as they did with the Toyota Crown, followed by the Toyota Corona (Latin for crown) and the Toyota Corolla (Latin for small crown).

100. “The food of love,” per Shakespeare : MUSIC
The famous quotation about music being the food of love is from William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. The opening lines of the play, spoken by the love-smitten Duke Orsino are:

If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.

107. Data storage acronym : ROM
Read only memory (ROM)

112. Rush : BLITZ
“Blitz”, as it is used in English means a fast-moving and overwhelming attack. The term is a shortened version of the German word “blitzkrieg”. The blitzkrieg was a tactic used by the Germans running up to and during WWII. In the original German blitzkrieg, the army and air-force threw everything into a rapid penetration of enemy lines without stopping to reinforce its flanks. The word “blitz” means “lightning” (and “krieg” means “war”).

114. Third X or O : TOE
When I was growing up in Ireland we played “noughts and crosses” … our name for the game tic-tac-toe.

117. Tony-winning role for Robert Morse : TRU
“Tru” was written by Jay Presson Allen and is a play about Truman Capote that premiered in 1989. There is a classic anachronism in the piece. It is set in Capote’s New York City apartment at Christmas 1975. At one point the Capote character talks about suicide, saying that he has enough pills to stage his own Jonestown Massacre. The Jonestown Massacre didn’t happen until three years later, in 1978.

Robert Morse is an actor and singer noted for his appearances on Broadway in both plays and musicals. Morse also appeared on the AMC hit TV show “Mad Men” in which he plays Bertram Cooper, the senior partner in the ad agency.

118. Nickname for the only man to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series : NEON DEION
Deion Sanders is a former NFL footballer, and a former Major League Baseball player. He is the only person to play in a Super Bowl and in a World Series. And, in the 1989 season Sanders became the only person to hit a major league home run and score an NFL touchdown in the same week. While playing, he earned the nicknames “Neon Deion” and “Prime Time Sanders”.

124. Seedlets : OVULES
As we all remember from botany class, an “ovule” is a small structure in many plants that develops into the seed after fertilization. We do remember, don’t we?

126. Benzene derivative, for one : ARYL
In organic chemistry, an aryl group is a group of atoms derived from an aromatic hydrocarbon by removing one hydrogen atom. For example, removing one hydrogen from benzene (C6H6) results in the phenyl group (C6H5-).

127. Sen. Gillibrand’s home: Abbr. : NYS
Kirsten Gillibrand is a US Senator from New York, and a member of the Democratic Party. Gillibrand was serving as a member of the US House of Representatives when she was appointed to the Senate by Governor David Paterson in 2009 after Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton left office to serve as Secretary of State.

Down
3. Vietnamese sandwich : BANH MI
The French introduced the baguette into Vietnam in the days the country was a French colony. Today, a single-serving baguette is known in Vietnam as “bánh mì” (meaning “wheat bread”). The term has been extended, particularly here in the US, to describe a Vietnamese sandwich.

5. ___ vez (again: Sp.) : OTRA
“Otra vez” is Spanish for “again”, translating literally as “other time”.

6. Experiences fame : HAS THE LIMELIGHT
Limelight was an early form of stage lighting that was also known as Drummond Light. The illumination came from the burning of quicklime (calcium hydroxide), hence the name. Although limelights are a thing of the past, the term “in the limelight” is still used when describing someone in the public eye.

7. State capital in a mailing address : ST PAUL, MN
Saint Paul that is the state capital of Minnesota, and is one half of the “Twin Cities” , also known as Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Saint Paul used to be called Pig’s Eye, named after a popular tavern in the original settlement in the area. In 1841, Father Lucien Galtier established a log chapel nearby that he dedicated to St. Paul the Apostle, giving the city it’s current name. The magnificent Cathedral of St. Paul now sits on the site where the log chapel was built.

9. Column on a flight board: Abbr. : ARRS
Arrival (arr.)

10. Hrs. for eBay listings : PST
Yep, all auction times open and close on eBay using Pacific Standard Time (PST).

11. Censors : BLEEPS
The original “censor” was an officer in ancient Rome who had responsibility for taking the “census”, i.e. counting the population, and for supervising public morality.

13. Drink for Hercule Poirot : CREME DE MENTHE
A “cream liqueur” is one that includes dairy cream. The most famous example is probably Baileys Irish Cream, that is made made from cream and Irish whiskey. A crème liqueur, on the other hand, is one that includes a lot of added sugar, but no dairy cream. Examples are crème de cacao (chocolate-flavored), crème de menthe (mint-flavored) and crème de cassis (blackcurrant-flavored).

14. Spreading belief? : MANIFEST DESTINY
Manifest Destiny was the belief expressed in the 19th century that the United States was “destined” to expand right across North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

23. Super G shape : ESS
Super Giant Slalom is an alpine skiing event introduced in 1982. The Super G isn’t as fast as its sister event, the Downhill, but is faster than the more technical Giant Slalom.

25. M.R.I. readers : MDS
An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) uses powerful magnetic fields to generate its images so there is no exposure to ionizing radiation (such as X-rays). We used MRI equipment in our chemistry labs at school, way back in the days when the technology was still called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI). Apparently the marketing folks didn’t like the term “nuclear” because of its association with atomic bombs, so now it’s just called MRI.

28. “Star Trek” virtual reality room : HOLODECK
The holodeck is large virtual reality room located in Starfleet facilities in the “Star Trek” universe (pun!). To me, the holodeck is the coolest concept featured in “Star Trek” …

33. What causes storms to swirl in opposite directions in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres : CORIOLIS FORCE
In meteorology, the Coriolis effect is caused by the rotation of the Earth and the inertia of masses coming into contact with the Earth. This force causes moving objects on the planet’s surface to be deflected to the right in the Northern Hemisphere, and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. This effect is most evident in the movement of currents in the oceans and in the atmosphere. As a result, air rotates clockwise around high pressure areas in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise south of the equator. The phenomenon is named for French scientist Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis who described the effect in an 1835 paper about water wheels.

39. Russian line : TSARS
The Tsardom of Russia began in 1547 with the crowning of Ivan IV, who later became known as Ivan the Terrible. Prior to the creation of the tsardom, the principality centered on Moscow was known as the Grand Duchy of Moscow, or “Muscovy” in English.

40. Lee who directed “Life of Pi” : ANG
Taiwanese director Ang Lee sure has directed a mixed bag of films, mixed in terms of genre but not in terms of quality. He was at the helm for such classics as “Sense & Sensibility” (my personal favorite), “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “Hulk”, “Brokeback Mountain” and “Life of Pi”.

The 2012 movie “Life of Pi” is based on a 2001 novel of the same name by Yann Martel. The “Pi” in the title is an Indian boy named Pi Patel who finds himself adrift for 227 days in small boat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

42. War of 1812 battle site : ERIE
The Battle of Lake Erie was fought during the War of 1812 just off the Ohio coast. The outcome of the action was a defeat for the British and American control of Lake Erie for the remainder of the war.

44. Confucian doctrine : TAO
The Chinese character “tao” translates as “path”, but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.

46. ___ libre (poetry form) : VERS
Vers libre is poetry with an open form, a style that tends to follow the natural rhythm of speech. The style originated in 19th-century France, with “vers libre” translating as “free verse”.

50. Shock, in a way : TASE
Victor Appleton wrote a novel for young adults called “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle”. The company that developed the TASER electroshock weapon named its product as a homage to the novel. The acronym TASER stands for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”.

53. Family name of old TV : ADDAMS

They’re creepy and they’re kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They’re altogether ooky,
The Addams Family.

63. New Left org. : SDS
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was an activist group in the sixties. The SDS organized the largest student strike in the history of the United States on 26 April 1968, with about a million students staying away from class that day. The “Students for a Democratic Society” name was revived in 2006 with the foundation of a new US-based student organization with left wing beliefs. Today’s SDS was founded by a pair of high school students from Greenwich Village, New York.

68. What a film may be emailed as : MPEG FILE
The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) was established in 1988 to set standards for audio and video compression. The standards they’ve come up with use the acronym MPEG.

71. Last word of grace : 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.

72. Next-to-last word of grace, often : LORD
A “grace” is a short prayer recited before or after a meal.

A Roman Catholic form of the prayer known as “grace before meals” is:

Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen. (Preceded and followed by the Sign of the Cross.)

75. Big name in Chicago politics : DALEY
Richard J. Daley was the Mayor of Chicago for 21 years (1955-1976), making him the longest-serving mayor for the city in history. His son, Richard M. Daley was mayor until quite recently, the city’s second-longest serving mayor.

76. 1856 antislavery novel : DRED
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s first novel ended up being her most famous, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. Stowe followed it up with an 1856 novel called “Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp”.

Famously, the slave Dred Scott was unsuccessful in suing for his freedom in St. Louis, Missouri in 1857.

80. ___ San Lucas, Mexico : CABO
Cabo San Lucas is a major tourist destination at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. “Cabo” is sometimes referred to as the “Fort Lauderdale of Mexico”.

82. Klondike bar symbol : POLAR BEAR
The delicious treat made from an ice cream square covered with chocolate is actually called a “Klondike”, not the oft-cited “Klondike Bar”.

88. Texas : LONE STAR STATE
The single star on the state flag of Texas is a reminder of the “lone star” on the 1836 National Standard of Texas. The single gold star on a blue background symbolized Texas as an independent republic and its struggle for independence from Mexico.

89. Big media inits. : BBC
The marvelous British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is mainly funded by the UK government through a television licence fee that is levied annually on all households watching TV transmissions. Currently the fee is 145 UK pounds, about 230 US dollars.

91. Malady caused by H2N2 : ASIAN FLU
The so called “Asian Flu” was a pandemic that originated in China in 1956, and lasted until 1958. The H2N2 virus, which caused the disease, killed an estimated 2 million people worldwide, including almost 70,000 in the US. Years later, in 1997, the financial crisis that rocked many countries across Asia was given the same name, “Asian Flu”. The crisis started in Thailand when the Thai currency collapsed, and like a virus the panic spread across much of southeast Asia and Japan.

96. Shakespearean title role : TROILUS
William Shakespeare wrote his tragedy “Troilus and Cressida” in 1602. The play was inspired by “The Iliad”, and is a retelling of events during the Trojan War leading up to the death of Hector.

105. GPS, e.g. : SAT NAV
A global positioning system (GPS) is known as a satellite navigation (Sat Nav) system in the UK and Ireland.

108. Philosopher Lao-___ : TZE
Lao Tse (also Lao-Tzu) was a central figure in the development of the religion/philosophy of Taoism.

110. Org. with a hotline : IRS
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was set up during the Civil War to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.

111. Lightsaber battles : DUELS
The famous lightsaber weapons in the “Star Wars” series of films were updated for the seventh episode “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. The new lightsabers have energy crossguards just above the grip.

113. Some recap highlights : TDS
Touchdowns (TDs)

115. Actor Robert of “Licence to Kill” and “The Goonies” : DAVI
The roles I know Robert Davi for are in “Die Hard” (one of the two FBI agents) and the James Bond film “Licence to Kill” (the “bad guy”). Davi is a classically trained singer and he has an album coming out very soon, “Davi Sings Sinatra – On The Road To Romance”.

118. Intel org. officially formed by Truman : NSA
The National Security Agency (NSA) was set up in 1952 by President Truman, a replacement for the Armed Forces Security Agency that had existed in the Department of Defense since 1949. The NSA has always been clouded in secrecy and even the 1952 letter from President Truman that established the agency was kept under wraps from the public for over a generation. I really like the organization’s nickname … “No Such Agency”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. World champion figure skater Thomas : DEBI
5. “He did not just say that!” : OH SNAP!
11. Email letters : BCC
14. Nothing but : MERE
18. “If only …” : ALAS …
19. Idahoan’s pride : TATERS
20. ___ Lubovitch Dance Company : LAR
21. Funnies drawing : PANEL
22. Luge or figure skating : WINTER SPORT
24. Basic : ELEMENTAL
26. Advanced degree in math? : NTH
27. ___ army, group that marches across the earth in Revelation : SATAN’S
28. Hesitate in speech : HEM
29. Loses juice? : DRIES
30. Round of four : SEMIS
32. Mao’s successor : HUA
33. Thickets : COPSES
35. Dr. J’s do, once : FRO
36. Trespass : SIN
37. Big swig : BELT
38. Daily Planet photographer : OLSEN
39. Pop singer ___ Marie : TEENA
41. Solidify : GEL
43. Newspaper desk : METRO
45. Motocross racers, for short : ATVS
47. Clatter : DIN
48. Fall apart : GO TO RUIN
52. The king of Egypt has a part in it : AIDA
54. Furnace work : HEATING
56. Advancing : LOANING
57. Like villains, often : BOOED
58. Blundering : ERRING
59. 1.5 in a jigger: Abbr. : OZS
60. Waters who sang “Am I Blue?” : ETHEL
62. Some HDTVs : LCDS
64. Application info : SSN
65. 89-Down nickname, with “the” : BEEB
67. Origin of “pooh-bah” : THE MIKADO
70. Pronoun with an apostrophe : Y’ALL
74. Toss in : ADD
77. Suckers : SAPS
78. “Lean Forward” sloganeer : MSNBC
81. ___-cow : MOO
82. Castle-breaching explosive : PETARD
85. Some bank jobs, for short : REFIS
87. Shamans, e.g. : HEALERS
89. Pepsi employee : BOTTLER
90. Bela Lugosi’s role in “Son of Frankenstein” : YGOR
91. Highly rated issues : AAA BONDS
92. Journalist Nellie who went around the world : BLY
93. Dutch export : EDAM
95. 19 things on a classical guitar : FRETS
97. The “N” of NGO : NON-
98. Accord competitor : CAMRY
100. “The food of love,” per Shakespeare : MUSIC
102. Relieves (of) : RIDS
104. PC key : ESC
107. Data storage acronym : ROM
108. Snitch : TATTLE
109. Symbol of strength : OAK
110. “To repeat …” : I SAID …
112. Rush : BLITZ
114. Third X or O : TOE
115. Word with party or pail : DINNER
117. Tony-winning role for Robert Morse : TRU
118. Nickname for the only man to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series : NEON DEION
120. Wrongdoing : MALFEASANCE
122. Some family histories : SAGAS
123. Single : ONE
124. Seedlets : OVULES
125. Fictitious : TALL
126. Benzene derivative, for one : ARYL
127. Sen. Gillibrand’s home: Abbr. : NYS
128. Obsolescence : DISUSE
129. Anticipatory times : EVES

Down
1. Anticipatory times : DAWNS
2. A-teamers : ELITES
3. Vietnamese sandwich : BANH MI
4. Question asked while tapping a microphone : IS THIS THING ON?
5. ___ vez (again: Sp.) : OTRA
6. Experiences fame : HAS THE LIMELIGHT
7. State capital in a mailing address : ST PAUL, MN
8. New baby : NEONATE
9. Column on a flight board: Abbr. : ARRS
10. Hrs. for eBay listings : PST
11. Censors : BLEEPS
12. It makes for smooth sailing : CALM SEA
13. Drink for Hercule Poirot : CREME DE MENTHE
14. Spreading belief? : MANIFEST DESTINY
15. Typed, as data : ENTERED IN
16. Logician’s strong point : REASONING
17. Building add-on : ELL
21. According to : PER
23. Super G shape : ESS
25. M.R.I. readers : MDS
28. “Star Trek” virtual reality room : HOLODECK
33. What causes storms to swirl in opposite directions in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres : CORIOLIS FORCE
37. To the point … or not pointed : BLUNT
39. Russian line : TSARS
40. Lee who directed “Life of Pi” : ANG
42. War of 1812 battle site : ERIE
44. Confucian doctrine : TAO
46. ___ libre (poetry form) : VERS
48. Semiliquid lump : GLOB
49. Exude : OOZE
50. Shock, in a way : TASE
53. Family name of old TV : ADDAMS
57. Like eyes after an all-nighter : BLEARY
61. Expressions of doubt : EHS
63. New Left org. : SDS
66. Plus or minus thing : BATTERY TERMINAL
68. What a film may be emailed as : MPEG FILE
69. Crawling, say : ON HANDS AND KNEES
71. Last word of grace : AMEN
72. Next-to-last word of grace, often : LORD
73. Bereavement : LOSS
75. Big name in Chicago politics : DALEY
76. 1856 antislavery novel : DRED
79. “You don’t know ___” : BEANS
80. ___ San Lucas, Mexico : CABO
82. Klondike bar symbol : POLAR BEAR
83. Information often set in brackets : ETYMOLOGY
84. [This is how it might have happened] : DRAMATIZATION
86. Fury : IRE
88. Texas : LONE STAR STATE
89. Big media inits. : BBC
91. Malady caused by H2N2 : ASIAN FLU
94. Tasting like lamb : MUTTONY
96. Shakespearean title role : TROILUS
101. They’re the pits : STONES
105. GPS, e.g. : SAT NAV
106. Group of friends : CIRCLE
108. Philosopher Lao-___ : TZE
110. Org. with a hotline : IRS
111. Lightsaber battles : DUELS
113. Some recap highlights : TDS
115. Actor Robert of “Licence to Kill” and “The Goonies” : DAVI
116. Facility : EASE
118. Intel org. officially formed by Truman : NSA
120. Up-to-date : MOD

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9 thoughts on “0117-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 17 Jan 16, Sunday”

  1. Seeing the name Jeff Chen tells me it'll be a tough one. Does anyone comment about just how brilliant many of these puzzles are?

  2. 47:08, no errors. A tour de force. (Coriolis force, that is … 🙂 Seriously, I have a difficult time imagining how anyone comes up with the idea for something like this. Marvelous …

  3. 58:09, 5 errors. 61D ERS, 67A TRE MIKADO, 96D TROILES, 115D DANI, 124A ONELES. Enjoyed the theme, it helped in solving the puzzle. Embarrassed that I missed the error in THE MIKADO. Excellent Sunday challenge.

    As an engineering student we studied Coriolis Acceleration, and the resulting Coriolis Effect. Coriolis Force was not the first thing that came to mind, although the term is correct.

  4. Took over an hour and three minutes, and with just 2 errors.

    I'm also a gimmick hater, but this one was pretty imaginative.

  5. These kinds of puzzles make it easier for me to cancel my newspaper subscription. I really only keep it to do the NYTimes Sunday crossword, but when they get this gimmicky, I don't need them. On newsprint, it's hard to even see which way the arrows pointed. It's like the crossword creators create puzzles just to see how clever they can be, with no thought to the people trying to solve them.

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