0127-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 27 Jan 16, Wednesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Adam G. Perl
THEME: The Times They Are A-Changin’ … we have six anagrams of the word TIMES in today’s grid. Yep, as Bob Dylan sang, THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’.

23A. With 38- and 52-Across, 1964 Bob Dylan song … or a hint to the answers to this puzzle’s starred clues : THE TIMES …
38A. See 23-Across : … THEY ARE …
52A. See 23-Across : … A-CHANGIN’

1A. *Do in, old-style : SMITE
9A. *Grocery line count : ITEMS
19A. *Tiny biters : MITES
59A. *Gives off : EMITS
67A. *Answer to “Who’s there?” : IT’S ME!
69A. *”No more, thanks” : I’M SET

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 11m 53s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

6. Org. for Janet Yellen, with “the” : FED
The Federal Reserve System is more usually known simply as “the Fed”, and is the central banking system of the US. It was introduced in 1913 in response to a number of financial panics at the beginning of the 20th century. The original role for the Fed was to act as a lender of last resort, in case there was a run on a bank. This can happen as most of the money that is deposited by customers in a bank is reinvested by that bank, so it has very little liquid cash available. If too many customers look for their money at one time, then the bank can be short of cash and this can start a “run”. The Fed’s responsibilities have broadened since those early days …

The economist Janet Yellen has been the Chair of the Federal Reserve since 2014, and is the first woman to hold the position.

14. Suffix with Obama, once : -MANIA
The term “Obamamania” was coined during the 2008 election cycle to describe the fervent support that candidate Obama enjoyed, particularly among young people.

15. One more than due : TRE
“One, two, three” in Italian is “uno, due, tre”.

17. SeaWorld frolicker : OTTER
The fur of the sea otter is exceptionally thick. It is in fact the densest fur in the whole animal kingdom.

SeaWorld was started in San Diego in 1964. The original plan was build an underwater restaurant with a marine life show. Eventually the founders dropped the idea of the eating establishment and just went with a theme park. SeaWorld has been mired in controversy since the 2013 release of the documentary “Blackfish”, which tells of the involvement of a particular orca (killer whale) in the death of two SeaWorld employees and one SeaWorld visitor.

19. *Tiny biters : MITES
Mites are tiny arthropods in the arachnid (spider) class. Mites are (annoyingly!) very successful creatures that have adapted to all sorts of habitats, and being so small, they generally pass unnoticed. Ick …

20. Phil who sang “Draft Dodger Rag” : OCHS
Phil Ochs was an American protest singer who was active in the days of the Vietnam War. Sadly, the singer’s mental health declined at the very time the war was winding down. Saigon fell in 1975, and Ochs committed suicide in 1976.

23. With 38- and 52-Across, 1964 Bob Dylan song … or a hint to the answers to this puzzle’s starred clues : THE TIMES …
38. See 23-Across : … THEY ARE …
52. See 23-Across : … A-CHANGIN’
“The Times They Are A-Changin’” is the title track of a 1964 Bob Dylan album. Dylan wrote the song in 1963 as a deliberate attempt to create and anthem of change to suit the times. Sadly, he was right. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated just one month after Dylan recorded the song.

25. Sine, for example : RATIO
The most familiar trigonometric functions are sine, cosine and tangent (abbreviated to “sin, cos and tan”). Each of these is a ratio, a ratio of two sides of a right-angled triangle. The “reciprocal” of these three functions are cosecant, secant and cotangent. The reciprocal functions are simply the inverted ratios, the inverted sine, cosine and tangent. These inverted ratios should not be confused with the “inverse” trigonometric functions e.g. arcsine, arccosine and arctangent. These inverse functions are the reverse of the sine, cosine and tangent. For example, the arctangent can be read as “What angle is equivalent to the following ratio of opposite over adjacent?”

28. Midtown Manhattan cultural attraction, for short : MOMA
The founding of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City was very much driven by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, the wife of John D. Rockefeller, son of the oil magnate. Working with two friends, Abby managed to get the museum opened in 1929, just nine days after the Wall Street Crash. The MoMA’s sculpture garden bears the name of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and has done so since 1949.

31. G.I. address : APO
Army Post Office (APO)

33. Symbol of penance : ASHES
Palm Sunday is a celebration in the Christian tradition that falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. The day commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, soon after he raised Lazarus from the dead. The faithful carry palms on the day, a reference to the palms scattered in front of Jesus by the welcoming crowd. In many churches, the palms are saved from Palm Sunday and then burned on Shrove Tuesday, The ash from the palms is then used to anoint the faithful as a sign of repentance on the next day, a day known as Ash Wednesday.

36. Nutritional figs. : RDAS
Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) were introduced during WWII and are a set of recommendations for the standard daily allowances of specific nutrients. RDAs were effectively absorbed into a broader set of dietary guidelines in 1997 called Recommended Daily Intakes (RDIs). RDIs are used to determine the Daily Values (DV) of foods that are printed on nutrition fact labels on most food that we purchase.

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

42. When Brutus struck : IDES
Julius Caesar was assassinated on the 15th (the ides) of March, 44 BC. He was attacked by a group of sixty people in the Roman Senate, and was stabbed 23 times. The first to strike a blow was Servilius Casca, who attacked Caesar from behind and stabbed him in the neck. In Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, Casca utters the words “Speak, hands, for me!” just before making the fatal blow. The following line, uttered by Caesar, is more famous though, directed towards Brutus: “Et tu, Brute?”

45. Some refrigerators : GES
The General Electric Company is usually referred to simply as “GE”. One of the precursor companies to GE was Edison General Electric, founded in 1890 by the inventor Thomas Edison. What we know today as GE was formed two years later when Edison merged his company with Charles Coffin’s Thomson-Houston Electric Company. In 1896, GE was selected as one of the 12 companies listed on the newly formed Dow Jones Industrial Average. GE is the only one of the original 12 that is still on that list. I spent over ten years with GE at the beginning of my working career, and in fact it was GE that asked me to transfer to the US back in the 1980s …

49. “See ya!” : CIAO!
“Ciao” is Italian for “‘bye”. “Arrivederci” is more formal, and translates as “goodbye”.

51. 5 for B and 6 for C : AT NOS
The atomic number of an element is also called the proton number, and is the number of protons found in the nucleus of each atom of the element.

Boron is the chemical element with the atomic number of 5 and symbol B. It lies over to the right in Group 13 of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Uncombined, elemental boron is not found naturally on Earth. The boron that is mined is found in oxide form, not as uncombined boron.

The chemical element carbon has the symbol “C” and the atomic number of 6. Pure carbon exists in several physical forms, including graphite and diamond.

56. Affair that led to Scooter Libby’s 2007 conviction, informally : CIA-GATE
CIA-gate is an alternative name for the Plame affair.

Robert Novak broke a story in 2003 naming Valerie Plame Wilson, wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, as a covert CIA agent. Valery Plame worked at a clothing store in Washington D.C. after graduating college before she was accepted into the CIA officer training class of 1985/86. She was to work for the CIA for over twenty years, before being “outed” in 2003.

Scooter Libby served as Chief of Staff for Vice President Dick Cheney. Libby was indicted by a grand jury of lying about his role in the leak that identified Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. Libby always professed his innocence, but was found guilty and sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000. President George W. Bush commuted Libby’s jail sentence, but the fine and conviction were allowed to stand.

63. Number of strikes in a turkey : THREE
There is a suggestions that the use of the term “turkey” to describes three strikes in a row in bowling arose in the late 1700s. Playing conditions back them made it very difficult to bowl one strike, never mind three. Also, prizes awarded were often items of food. A values prize, particularly around Thanksgiving, was a turkey, and it was awarded for bowling three strikes in a row.

64. Lash of old westerns : LARUE
Alfred LaRue was an actor who appeared in a lot of western movies in the forties and fifties. He was very adept with the bullwhip, earning him the nickname “Lash”. Years after his onscreen career ended, LaRue was the guy who trained Harrison Ford how to use a bullwhip for his role in the “Indiana Jones” series of films.

65. Nabokov heroine : ADA
“Ada” is a 1969 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The story takes place in the 1800s on Antiterra, an Earth-like planet that has a history similar to ours but with interesting differences. For example, there is a United States, but that country covers all of North and South America. What we call eastern Canada is a French-speaking province called “Canady”, and western Canada is a Russian-speaking province called “Estody”. The storyline is about a man called Van Veen who, when 14 years old, meets for the first time his cousin, 11-year-old Ada. The two cousins eventually have an affair, only to discover later that they are in fact brother and sister.

66. Canasta plays : MELDS
The card game called canasta originated in Uruguay apparently, with “canasta” being the Spanish word for “basket”. In the rummy-like game, a meld of seven cards or more is called a canasta.

68. Pro ___ (for now) : TEM
“Pro tempore” can be abbreviated to “pro tem” or “p.t.” “Pro tempore” is a Latin phrase that best translates as “for the time being”. It is used to describe a person who is acting for another, usually a superior. The President pro tempore of the US Senate is the person who presides over the Senate in the absence of the Vice President of the US. It has been tradition since 1890 that the president pro tem is the most senior senator in the majority party. The president pro tem ranks highly in the line of succession to the presidency, falling third in line after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.

Down
1. ___-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 : SMOOT
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 was sponsored by Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley. The act raised tariffs on imported goods to record levels, the second highest in US history. The strategy appeared to work at first, protecting US jobs in the early days of the depression. But as many anticipated, tariffs were raised in retaliation by other countries and US exports plummeted. Many economists blame the 1930 Tariff Act for the depth of the Great Depression.

2. One of 20 in a book : MATCH
Matchbooks have become quite collectible. A 1927 matchbook celebrating Charles Lindbergh’s famous flight across the Atlantic fetched $6,000 in auction in 2015.

3. How Buddhists strive to live : IN THE MOMENT
To live in the moment is to be aware of what is happening now. By definition, this means not dwelling on the past, thoughts about the past. It also means not worrying about the future. When doing the crossword, one just does the crossword …

6. N.J. town next to Palisades Park : FT LEE
Fort Lee, New Jersey is located at the western side of the George Washington Bridge that spans the Hudson River. Fort Lee is known as the birthplace of the motion picture industry. The world’s first movie studio was built there by Thomas Edison, a facility known as the Black Maria.

7. Great Lakes tribesmen : ERIES
The Erie people lived on lands south of Lake Erie. The Erie were sometimes referred to as the Cat Nation, a reference to the mountain lions that were ever-present in the area that they lived. The name “Erie” is a shortened form of “Erielhonan” meaning “long tail”, possibly a further reference to the mountain lion or cat, which was possibly used as a totem. The Erie people gave their name to the Great Lake.

9. 2001 Sean Penn movie : I AM SAM
“I Am Sam” is a 2001 drama movie starring Sean Penn. Penn plays a man with a developmental disability who is raising a young daughter alone after her mother abandoned the family.

10. Service with a bird logo : TWITTER
I have never tweeted in my life, and have no plans to do so (but one should never say “never”). Twitter is a microblogging service that limits any post sent to just 140 characters. In a sense, it is similar to this blog. Here I send out a post once a day containing information that I think might be useful to folks (thank you for reading!). I don’t think I could send out much of interest using just 140 characters.

12. Army fare, for short : MRE
(11D. The “E” of 12-Down : EAT)
The Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) comes in a lightweight package that’s easy to tote around. The MRE replaced the more cumbersome Meal, Combat, Individual (MCI) in 1981, a meal-in-a-can. In turn, the MCI had replaced the C-ration in 1958, a less sophisticated meal-in-a-can with a more limited choice.

13. 1960s antiwar 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.

26. “Colorful” folk duo : INDIGO GIRLS
Indigo Girls are a folk rock music duo made up of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. Ray and Saliers are considered icons in the LGBT community as both identified themselves as lesbians a long time ago, although they have never been a couple.

27. River to the Missouri : OSAGE
Much of the Osage River in Missouri is now taken up by two large reservoirs created behind two dams that provide power for St. Louis and the surrounding area. The two reservoirs are the Truman Reservoir and the Lake of the Ozarks.

29. Golf’s Aoki : ISAO
Isao Aoki is one of Japan’s greatest golfers, now playing on the senior circuit. Aoki’s best finish in a major tournament was runner-up to Jack Nicklaus in the 1980 US Open.

30. Those, in Taxco : ESOS
Taxco de Alarcón is a small city in southern Mexico. Taxco is a center for silver mining, and is also well known for the production of silverware and fine items made using silver.

32. “The Taming of the Shrew” setting : PADUA
The city of Padua is in northern Italy, not far from Venice. Padua has many claims to fame. Galileo was one of the lecturers at the University of Padua, for example. And, William Shakespeare chose the city as the setting for his play “The Taming of the Shrew”.

William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” is about a courting couple. The male is Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, and the female is Katharina, the so-called “shrew”. As the play progresses, the “shrew” is “tamed” and becomes an “obedient” bride … a controversial storyline in the contemporary world, to say the least. Regardless, modern adaptations have been made, including 1948’s Broadway musical “Kiss Me Kate” and the 1999 romantic comedy “10 Things I Hate About You”.

34. Rosemary, for one : HERB
The herb rosemary is reputed to improve the memory. As such, rosemary has been used as a symbol of remembrance, especially in Europe and Australia. For example, mourners might throw sprigs of rosemary into graves, symbolically remembering the dead. The character Ophelia in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” utters the line “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance”. The name of the herb comes from the Latin “ros marinus” which means “dew of the sea”. The idea is that rosemary can in fact grow in some arid locations with only the moisture that is carried by a sea breeze.

35. Part of a Masonic symbol : EYE
If you look at the back of a one-dollar bill there is an eye sitting above a pyramid. This is known as the Eye of Providence, and is similar to the Eye of Horus that we see so often in Ancient Egyptian designs and hieroglyphs. The Eye of Providence is a common Christian emblem from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and is often associated with Freemasonry.

39. Nouveau ___ : RICHE
The “nouveau riche” are people who have achieved their wealth themselves, not from an inheritance. “Nouveau riche” is French for “new rich”.

40. Director Kazan : ELIA
Elia Kazan won Oscars for best director in 1948 for “Gentleman’s Agreement” and in 1955 for “On The Waterfront”. In 1999 Kazan was given an Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. He also directed “East of Eden”, which introduced James Dean to movie audiences, and “Splendor in the Grass” that included Warren Beatty in his debut role.

43. Place of privacy : SANCTUM
A “sanctum” is a private place where one can hide away without fear of intrusion. I love my sanctum …

48. 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup champs : USA
The FIFA Women’s World Cup is a soccer tournament that has been held every four years since 1991. The US national team has won the tournament three times, more than any other nation.

50. Reason to take off one’s hat : ANTHEM
The word “anthem” used to describe a sacred song, especially one with words taken from the Scriptures. The British national anthem (“God Save the Queen/King”) technically is a hymn, and so it came to be described as the “national hymn” and eventually “national anthem”. The use of the word “anthem” extended from there to describe any patriotic song.

52. “Hoarders” airer : A AND E
“Hoarders” is a documentary show on the A&E channel that tells the stories of real-life people who suffer from compulsive hoarding. The show ran for six seasons before being canceled in 2013.

54. ___-France (region including Paris) : ILE DE
Île-de-France (literally “Island of France”) isn’t an island at all. It is the name given to the most populous of France’s 26 administrative regions. Île-de-France is roughly equivalent to the Paris metropolitan area.

55. Bikini blast, briefly : N-TEST
The testing of US nuclear weapons by the US at Bikini Atoll in the middle of 1946 went by the codename “Operation Crossroads”. The tests used A-bombs and were designed to measure the effect of blasts on navy vessels. There were three tests planned, but the third had to be cancelled as the Navy couldn’t decontaminate the ships used in the second test.

57. Target of blame : GOAT
A “scapegoat” is a person chosen to take the blame in place of others. The term comes from the Bible’s Book of Leviticus, which describes a goat that was cast into the desert along with the sins of the community.

59. “Y”-sporting collegian : ELI
Eli is the nickname for a graduate of Yale University, a term used in honor of the Yale benefactor Elihu Yale.

61. Recipient of much Apr. mail : IRS
April 15th wasn’t always Tax Day in the US. The deadline for returns was March 1st from 1913-18, when it was moved to March 15th. Tax Day has been April 15th since 1955.

63. Texter’s “Didn’t need to know that” : TMI
Too much information! (TMI)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. *Do in, old-style : SMITE
6. Org. for Janet Yellen, with “the” : FED
9. *Grocery line count : ITEMS
14. Suffix with Obama, once : -MANIA
15. One more than due : TRE
16. Judge’s determination : AWARD
17. SeaWorld frolicker : OTTER
18. Club selection factor : LIE
19. *Tiny biters : MITES
20. Phil who sang “Draft Dodger Rag” : OCHS
21. Overlook, as a fault : SEE PAST
23. With 38- and 52-Across, 1964 Bob Dylan song … or a hint to the answers to this puzzle’s starred clues : THE TIMES …
25. Sine, for example : RATIO
28. Midtown Manhattan cultural attraction, for short : MOMA
29. Bigger than big : IMMENSE
31. G.I. address : APO
33. Symbol of penance : ASHES
36. Nutritional figs. : RDAS
37. Make a run for it : LAM
38. See 23-Across : … THEY ARE …
41. “Need ___ on?” : I GO
42. When Brutus struck : IDES
44. Make even slicker : RE-OIL
45. Some refrigerators : GES
46. Foot-long sandwich option : TUNA SUB
49. “See ya!” : CIAO!
51. 5 for B and 6 for C : AT NOS
52. See 23-Across : … A-CHANGIN’
56. Affair that led to Scooter Libby’s 2007 conviction, informally : CIA-GATE
58. Steering wheel option : TILT
59. *Gives off : EMITS
62. You, impersonally : ONE
63. Number of strikes in a turkey : THREE
64. Lash of old westerns : LARUE
65. Nabokov heroine : ADA
66. Canasta plays : MELDS
67. *Answer to “Who’s there?” : IT’S ME!
68. Pro ___ (for now) : TEM
69. *”No more, thanks” : I’M SET

Down
1. ___-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 : SMOOT
2. One of 20 in a book : MATCH
3. How Buddhists strive to live : IN THE MOMENT
4. Connects with : TIES TO
5. Musical gift : EAR
6. N.J. town next to Palisades Park : FT LEE
7. Great Lakes tribesmen : ERIES
8. How a daring quarterback may throw : DEEP
9. 2001 Sean Penn movie : I AM SAM
10. Service with a bird logo : TWITTER
11. The “E” of 12-Down : EAT
12. Army fare, for short : MRE
13. 1960s antiwar org. : SDS
21. Flop’s opposite : SMASH
22. Place for a shot : ARM
24. “___ my wit’s end!” : I’M AT
26. “Colorful” folk duo : INDIGO GIRLS
27. River to the Missouri : OSAGE
29. Golf’s Aoki : ISAO
30. Those, in Taxco : ESOS
31. Touched down : ALIT
32. “The Taming of the Shrew” setting : PADUA
34. Rosemary, for one : HERB
35. Part of a Masonic symbol : EYE
39. Nouveau ___ : RICHE
40. Director Kazan : ELIA
43. Place of privacy : SANCTUM
47. “Obviously” : SO I SEE
48. 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup champs : USA
50. Reason to take off one’s hat : ANTHEM
52. “Hoarders” airer : A AND E
53. Third-stringers : C-TEAM
54. ___-France (region including Paris) : ILE DE
55. Bikini blast, briefly : N-TEST
57. Target of blame : GOAT
59. “Y”-sporting collegian : ELI
60. Antislip protection : MAT
61. Recipient of much Apr. mail : IRS
63. Texter’s “Didn’t need to know that” : TMI

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6 thoughts on “0127-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 27 Jan 16, Wednesday”

  1. 13:49, no errors. For some reason, after I figured out the name of the theme song, I completely neglected to notice its effect on the answers to the starred clues. A little too much (or too little?) in the moment, I guess … 🙂

  2. No errors. Only one erasure (A-TEST went to N-TEST). At first it looked like I did not have a chance to finish this but getting the song title and subsequent anagrams made it all fall into place rapidly thereafter. Thanks Mr. Setter, for giving me some good clues.

  3. 19:18, no errors. Getting the theme helped, but I had to scratch my head for several of these answers. Was not easy.

  4. 12:31, no errors. Enjoyable theme which helped in solving the puzzle. Only one change, 67A "IT IS I" to "IT'S ME". It helps to be old enough to remember Bob Dylan.

  5. We got them all without looking anything up. As usual, we don't time ourselves. We thought this was one of the easier Wednesday puzzles. Clever theme. One "cheap" clue, for REOIL.

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