0214-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 14 Feb 16, Sunday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Mary Lou Guizzo
THEME: All You Need … Is Love (in today’s grid). Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! We have a rebus puzzle today, with the letters LOVE inserted in several squares (represented by a heart shape in my grid). We also have some “love-ly” grid art, with the black squares depicted a heart shape in the middle of the grid:

31A. Romantic date : VALENTINE’S DAY

1A. The Beatles’ first single, 1962 : LOVE ME DO
14A. 1951 #1 Mario Lanza hit with lyrics written by 36-Down : BE MY LOVE
61A. 1994 Oscar- and Grammy-winning song for Elton John : CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT
75A. Hit song title for Bob Marley, Whitesnake and Survivor : IS THIS LOVE
78A. 2010 R. Kelly top 10 album : LOVE LETTER
86A. 1990 #1 hit for Mariah Carey : LOVE TAKES TIME
93A. 1967 #1 hit for Lulu : TO SIR WITH LOVE
1D. Insect also called a honeymoon fly : LOVEBUG
18D. 6-0 : LOVE SET
32D. Smitten : IN LOVE
48D. Aesthetes : ART LOVERS
63D. Sending a child to military camp, say : TOUGH LOVE
76D. 2003 Hugh Grant romantic comedy : LOVE ACTUALLY
78D. Rick, Ilsa and Victor, in “Casablanca” : LOVE TRIANGLE
86D. Serenades, e.g. : LOVE SONGS
99D. Tryst sites : LOVE NESTS

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 20m 14s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. The Beatles’ first single, 1962 : LOVE ME DO
“Love Me Do” is a song written by Paul McCartney on a day he was playing hooky from school when he just 16 years of age.

14. 1951 #1 Mario Lanza hit with lyrics written by 36-Down : BE MY LOVE
Mario Lanza was a classical tenor and Hollywood actor from Philadelphia who had a very successful, but very short career. Lanza’s most famous movie performance was playing Enrico Caruso in the 1951 biopic “The Great Caruso”. Lanza struggled with overeating and alcohol abuse, and died in 1959 at only 38 years of age.

19. Containing element #56 : BARIC
Barium is the chemical element with the atomic number 56, and the element symbol “Ba”.

20. Jerry-rigging material : TAPE
“To jury rig” (sometimes “jerry rig”) is to execute a makeshift repair or to manufacture a temporary contrivance. The term comes from sailing ships in which a jury rig is an improvised mast and yards that is erected as a replacement when the original mast is damaged or lost.

21. Musical lead-in to -smith : AERO-
Aerosmith is a hard rock band from Boston that formed in 1970. Aerosmith is the best-selling American rock band of all time, and holds the record for most gold albums by any American group.

22. “See ya!” : ADIOS!
The term “adios” is Spanish for “goodbye”. In the Spanish language, “adios” comes from the phrase “a dios vos acomiendo” meaning “I commend you to God”.

24. Kind of arch : OGEE
An ogee is a type of S-curve. Specifically it is a figure consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite directions (like an S) but both ends of the curve end up parallel to each other (which is not necessarily true for an S). An ogee arch is composed of two ogees, with one being the mirror of the other and meeting at the arch’s apex.

25. Pelvic bones : ILIA
The sacrum and the two ilia are three bones in the human pelvis.

31. Romantic date : VALENTINE’S DAY
Saint Valentine’s Day was chosen by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD to honor various martyrs with the name Valentine. However, the saints’ day was dropped by the Roman Catholic church in 1969, by Pope Paul VI. Try telling that to Hallmark though …

37. Scapegoat for the Fab Four breakup : ONO
The artist and singer Yoko Ono was married several times, most notably to John Lennon of the Beatles. Ono’s first husband was composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, whom she married in 1956 and divorced in 1962 after being separated for several years. Later in 1962 she married an American jazz musician called Anthony Cox. Ono and Cox had to marry twice as Ono’s divorce hadn’t been properly finalized. The marriage to Cox ended in divorce in 1969, with Ono being awarded full custody of their daughter. Ono married Lennon in 1969.

The Beatles were described on the sleeve notes of their 1963 album “With the Beatles” as the “fabulous foursome”. The press picked up on the phrase and morphed it into “the Fab Four”.

43. “Enough!,” in Ensenada : NO MAS!
“No mas!” translates from Spanish as “no more!”.

Ensenada is a city in Baja California, Mexico which sits on the coast about 80 miles south of San Diego. Ensenada is noted as a cruise ship destination, and is also a producer of outstanding wine.

44. Mil. authority : CMD
Command (cmd.)

57. See 50-Across : ALUM
(50A. Get back together, as 57-Acrosses : REUNE)
An “alumnus” (plural … alumni) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural … alumnae). The term comes into English from Latin, in which alumnus means foster-son or pupil. “Alum” is an informal term used for either an alumna or an alumnus.

59. Some old Harper’s Bazaar covers : ERTES
Erté was the pseudonym of French artist (Russian born) Romain de Tirtoff. Erté is the French pronunciation of his initials “R.T.”

“Harper’s Bazaar” was first published in 1867, making it the first women’s fashion magazine to hit the newsstands.

60. Bananas : LOCO
In Spanish, if one isn’t “sano” (sane) one might be described as “loco” (crazy).

61. 1994 Oscar- and Grammy-winning song for Elton John : CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT
Elton John won the 1995 Best Original Song Oscar for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from “The Lion King”. He won the 2000 Best Original Musical Score Tony Award for the musical “Aida”, which he wrote with Tim Rice.

65. Cinephile’s channel : TCM
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is one of my favorite television channels, delivering just what its name promises: classic movies.

66. Ones doing needlework? : TATTOOERS
The word “tattoo” (often shortened to “tat”) was first used in English in the writings of the famous English explorer Captain Cook. In his descriptions of the indelible marks adorning the skin of Polynesian natives, Cook anglicized the Tahitian word “tatau” into our “tattoo”.

67. Here, on une carte : ICI
“Vous êtes ici” are important words to know when navigating your way around Paris. They mean “You are here”, and you’ll often see them on “une carte” (a map) in the street.

72. 1990s-2000s tennis champ nicknamed “The Punisher” : AGASSI
Renowned tennis professional Andre Agassi was nicknamed “the Punisher”, because of the efficiency with which he ran most of his opponents around the court. He wrote an autobiography called “Open”, published in 2009. An amazing revelation in the book is that Agassi’s famous head of hair was actually a wig for much of his playing career. Can you imagine how hard it must have been to play tennis at his level with a rug stuck on?

75. Hit song title for Bob Marley, Whitesnake and Survivor : IS THIS LOVE
Bob Marley is the most widely known reggae performer, with big hits such as “I Shot the Sheriff”, “Woman, No Cry” and “One Love”. A little sadly perhaps, Marley’s best selling album was released three years after he died. That album would be the “legendary” album called “Legend”.

Whitesnake is a rock band from England, formed in 1978 by singer David Coverdale when he left Deep Purple.

Survivor is a rock band from Chicago that formed in 1978. The band’s biggest hit is the 1982 single “Eye of the Tiger” that was written at Sylvester Stallone’s request for the movie “Rocky III”.

78. 2010 R. Kelly top 10 album : LOVE LETTER
R. Kelly is the stage name of R&B singer Robert Kelly from Chicago. R. Kelly was named by “Billboard” as the most successful R&B singer in the past 25 years, and so I guess he has earned his nickname “King of R&B”. Kelly ran into some problems in the press when it was revealed that he had married singer Aaliyah when she was just 15 and Kelly was 27-years-old.

81. Basic ones are above 7 : PHS
As we all recall from chemistry class, a pH of 7 is considered neutral. Anything less than 7 is an acid, and anything above 7 is a base.

83. G.M.’s Mary Barra, for one : CEO
Mary Barra is the chief executive officer of General Motors (GM). Barra is the first woman to hold the top position in a global automotive manufacturing company. She truly served her apprenticeship with GM, having joined the company in 1980 as a co-op student. She was promoted to her first VP position in 2008, and took over the top spot early in 2014.

86. 1990 #1 hit for Mariah Carey : LOVE TAKES TIME
Mariah Carey produced her first album in 1990 under the guidance of Tommy Mottola, an executive at Columbia Records. Mottola and Carey must have hit it off, because they were married three years later (although Mottola is now married to a different singer …).

93. 1967 #1 hit for Lulu : TO SIR, WITH LOVE
“To Sir, with Love” is an excellent 1967 drama film starring Sidney Poitier that is based on a novel of the same name by E. R. Braithwaite. The film is about an inexperienced teacher in a tough school in the East End of London. If you see the movie keep a lookout for a couple of supporting actors. Lulu plays the student called Babs Pegg, and also sings the hit theme song from the movie. Patricia Routledge plays fellow teacher Clinty Clintridge, and later in her career played Hyacinth Bucket in the enduring BBC comedy series “Keeping Up Appearances”.

100. One of two circuit court characters? : SILENT U
There is a silent U in the word “circuit”, and in the word “court”.

103. Spirited horse : ARABIAN
The Arab (or Arabian) breed of horse takes its name from its original home, the Arabian Peninsula. Like any animal that humans have over-bred, the horse falls prey to genetic diseases, some of which are fatal and some of which require the horse to be euthanized.

104. Foreign currency unit worth about a third of a dollar : ONE LIRA
The currency of Turkey is the Turkish lira, which is divided into 100 kuruş.

105. Relative of ecru : CREAM
The shade called ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”. “Ecru” has the same roots as our word “crude”.

106. Where Pamplona is located : NAVARRE
Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain that shares a border with France. The capital of Navarre is Pamplona, the city famous for the “running of the bulls”.

107. Overrule : NIX
The use of “nix” as a verb, meaning “to shoot down”, dates back to the early 1900s. Before that “nix” was just a noun meaning “nothing”. “Nix” comes from the German “nichts”, which also means “nothing”.

110. Former telecom giant : GTE
GTE (formerly “General Telephone & Electric”) was a rival to AT&T, the largest of the independent competitors to the Bell System. GTE merged with Bell Atlantic in 2000 to form the company that we know today as Verizon.

111. The pack in a six-pack : ABS
The abdominal muscles (“abs”) are more correctly referred to as the rectus abdominis muscles. They are all called a “six-pack” in a person who has developed the muscles and who has low body fat. In my case, more like a keg …

117. Hindu honorific : SRI
“Sri” is a title of respect for a male in India.

118. Comedian Poehler : AMY
Amy Poehler was a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” from 2001 to 2008, notable for appearing in many great sketches, including those where she played Hillary Clinton opposite Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin. Poehler also starred with Fey in the 2008 movie “Baby Mama”. And, Poehler led the cast of the sitcom “Parks and Recreation” for its seven-season run.

120. Shogun capital : EDO
Edo is the former name of the Japanese city of Tokyo. Edo was the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime that ruled from 1603 until 1868. The shogun lived in the magnificent Edo castle. Some parts of the original castle remain and today’s Tokyo Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor of Japan, was built on its grounds.

The shoguns of Japan were military dictators who generally inherited their position and power. The term “shogun” can be translated as ‘general”. The position of shogun was effectively eliminated in 1867 with the demise of the Tokugawa shogunate. The modern equivalent of a shogun in Japan is a prime minister.

121. Where there may be openings in the medical field? : ERS
Emergency rooms (ERs)

Down
1. Insect also called a honeymoon fly : LOVEBUG
The lovebug is a small, flying insect that has exhibits some remarkable behavior while reproducing. Adults and females remain coupled for up to several days during and after mating, and can even fly together while still coupled. As a result, the lovebug is also known as the honeymoon fly, the kissing bug and the double-headed bug.

3. Q.E.F. part : ERAT
“Quod erat faciendum” (QEF) is similar to the phrase “quod erat demonstrandum” (QED), both of which were used by Euclid in his theorems. “Quod erat faciendum” means “what was to have been done”, and is used at the end of a proposition that was not intended as a proof, but rather as a construction.

7. ___ Tribunal : HAGUE
The Hague Tribunal is a United Nations body set up to prosecute war crimes committed during the wars in former Yugoslavia. The court was set up in the Hague in the Netherlands in 1993, and is still going strong today. The court does have a limited life, and has nothing to do with the International Criminal Court, not the International Court of Justice, both of which are also based in the Hague.

8. Wharton’s sch. : UPENN
Wharton is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. The school was established in 1881 largely due to a donation from industrialist Joseph Wharton, co-founder of Bethlehem Steel.

11. Martinique volcano : PELEE
Mount Pelee on the Caribbean island of Martinique is still active and is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes on the planet. When it erupted in 1902, it killed over 30,000 people. Most of those fatalities occurred when a cloud of hot gases settled over the town of St. Pierre, instantly igniting everything that was flammable.

The island of Martinique in the eastern Caribbean is actually a part of France, and is referred to as an “overseas department”. As such, Martinique is part of the European Union and even uses the euro as its currency. The island is fully represented in the French National Assembly and Senate, just like any department within France. It’s sort of like the status of Hawaii within the US.

12. Met expectations? : ARIAS
The Metropolitan Opera (the Met) of New York City is the largest classical music organization in the country, presenting about 220 performances each and every year. Founded in 1880, the Met is renowned for using technology to expand its audiences. Performances have been broadcast live on radio since 1931, and on television since 1977. And since 2006 you can go see a live performance from New York in high definition on the big screen, at a movie theater near you …

13. Explorer Amundsen : ROALD
The first men to reach the South Pole were a party led by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, on December 14, 1911. Famously, a team led by Robert Falcon Scott reached the pole just 33 days later, only to find that they had been beaten in their quest. Scott and the whole of his team perished on the journey back out of the Antarctic.

14. Commemorative Yevtushenko poem : BABI YAR
Yevgeny Yevtushenko is a Russian poet, among other things. His most famous work is probably his poem “Babi Yar” which tells of the Nazi massacre of Jews in Kiev in 1941. Babi Yar is a ravine outside of Kiev, where over 33,000 Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis, a massacre carried out over just two days. The Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich subtitled his Symphony No. 13 “Babi Yar”, as it included settings of the Yevtushenko poem.

16. Ho Chi ___ City : MINH
Hanoi was the capital of North Vietnam, and Saigon the capital of South Vietnam. After the Vietnam War, Hanoi was made capital of the reunified state. Saigon, the larger metropolis, was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi is located in the delta of the Red River, and is just over 50 miles from the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea.

17. One seeking enlightenment : YOGI
A yogi is a practitioner of yoga.

In the West we tend to think of yoga as a physical discipline, a means of exercise that uses specific poses to stretch and strengthen muscles. While it is true that the ancient Indian practice of yoga does involve such physical discipline, the corporeal aspect of the practice plays a relatively small part in the whole philosophy. Other major components are meditation, ethical behavior, breathing and contemplation.

18. 6-0 : LOVE SET
That would be a score in tennis, for example .

28. “Sweet!” : RAD!
In modern lingo, the term “rad” means “super awesome, super cool”.

30. Female W.W. II enlistee : WAC
The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was formed in 1942, and the unit was converted to full status the following year to become the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Famously, General Douglas MacArthur referred to the WACs as his “best soldiers”, saying they worked harder, complained less and were better disciplined than men. The WACs were disbanded in 1978 and the serving members were integrated into the rest of the army.

33. Soldier from Down Under : ANZAC
The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was a unit formed in WWI that is most notably associated with the Battle of Gallipoli.

34. When doubled, an old college cry : BOOLA
“Boola Boola” is a fight song of Yale University that was composed in 1900, although it was based on a song called “La Hoola Boola” that had been around in the 1800s. The tune of “Boola Boola” is used by the University of Oklahoma for its fight song, “Boomer Sooner”.

36. See 14-Across : SAMMY CAHN
(14A. 1951 #1 Mario Lanza hit with lyrics written by 36-Down : BE MY LOVE)
Sammy Cahn wrote for them all, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Doris Day. Cahn’s most famous song was probably “Three Coins in the Fountain”. He also wrote “All the Way”, made famous by Frank Sinatra.

40. Kirk Douglas, Robert Wagner and Gregory Peck, for Frank Sinatra : EULOGISTS
Frank Sinatra was the only child of Italian immigrants living in Hoboken, New Jersey. Like so many of our heroes, Sinatra had a rough upbringing. His mother was arrested several times and convicted of running an illegal abortion business in the family home. Sinatra never finished high school, as he was expelled for rowdy conduct. He was later arrested as a youth on a morals charge for carrying on with a married woman, which was an offence back then. But Sinatra straightened himself out by the time he was twenty and started singing professionally.

41. Methuselah’s father : ENOCH
There are two Enoch’s mentioned in the Bible. One was Enoch the son of Cain, and grandson of Adam. The second was Enoch the great-grandfather of Noah, and father of Methuselah.

Methuselah was the son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah, and the man in the Bible who is reported to have lived the longest. Methuselah passed away seven days before the onset of the Great Flood, and tradition holds that he was 969 years old when he died.

47. Turns at high speed : CAREENS
“Careen” dates back to 1590 when it meant “to turn a ship on its side, exposing the keel”. The word evolved from the Middle French word “carene” meaning “keel”. Our modern usage, meaning to lean or tilt, only dates back as far as the 1880s. Careen should not be confused with “career”, a verb meaning to move rapidly. One has to “career” from side-to-side in order to “careen”.

49. Borscht base : BEETS
Borscht is a beetroot soup that originated in Ukraine. Borscht can be served both hot and cold.

52. ___-ray : BLU
A CD player reads the information on the disc using a laser beam. The beam is produced by what’s called a laser diode, a device similar to a light-emitting diode (LED) except that a laser beam is emitted. That laser beam is usually red in CD and DVD players. Blu-ray players are so called as they use blue lasers.

55. Brit. honor : DSO
The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a British military award that is usually presented to officers with the rank of Major or higher.

62. Amor vincit ___ : OMNIA
“Omnia vincit amor” is a line from Eclogue X, one of the major works of the Latin poet Virgil. We know the phrase in English as “love conquers all”.

64. River to the Gulf of Guinea : NIGER
The principal river in western Africa is the Niger, running 2,600 miles through the continent. The river has a boomerang shape, taking a sharp turn around the the ancient city of Timbuktu in Mali.

The Gulf of Guinea is a large gulf in that forms part of the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast of Africa. One of the Gulf of Guinea’s claim to fame is that it is home to the intersecting point between zero degrees of latitude and zero degrees of longitude, i.e. where the Equator and Prime Meridian cross.

68. ___ Tin Tin : RIN
The original Rin Tin Tin was a real-life dog, a puppy discovered by a GI in a bombed-out kennel in France during WWI. The soldier named the pup Rin Tin Tin, the same name as a puppet given to American soldiers for luck. On returning to the US, “Rinty” was trained by his owner and was spotted doing tricks by a film producer. Rinty featured in some films, eventually getting his first starring role in 1923 in the silent movie “Where the North Begins”. Legend has it that this first Rin Tin Tin died in the arms of actress Jean Harlow. Not a bad way to go …

70. Summer hrs. : DST
On the other side of the Atlantic, Daylight Saving Time (DST) is known as “summer time”. The idea behind summer/daylight-savings is to move clocks forward an hour in spring (i.e. “spring forward”) and backwards in the fall (i.e. “fall back”) so that afternoons have more daylight.

72. Resembling : A LA
The phrase “in the style of” can be translated in “alla” in Italian and “à la” in French.

73. Antarctica’s Amundsen ___ : SEA
The Amundsen Sea is an area in Antarctica that was named in 1929 for the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen.

74. N.Y.C. subway line : IRT
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the original private operator of the New York Subway when it opened in 1904. The city took over ownership of the system in 1940, but the lines originally operated by the IRT are still known by the IRT moniker.

76. 2003 Hugh Grant romantic comedy : LOVE ACTUALLY
“Love Actually” is a wonderful British romantic comedy, a film we watch every Christmas. The movie has a great ensemble cast and was written and directed by Richard Curtis. Curtis was also the man behind “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “Notting Hill”. “Love Actually” is very much in the same style as these earlier films.

The English actor Hugh Grant’s full name is Hugh John Mungo Grant. Grant’s breakthrough came with his leading role in 1994’s “Four Weddings and a Funeral”. That was a fabulous performance. Sadly, I think Grant has basically been playing the same character ever since …

78. Rick, Ilsa and Victor, in “Casablanca” : LOVE TRIANGLE
The movie “Casablanca” was released in January of 1943, timed to coincide with the Casablanca Conference, the high-level meeting between Roosevelt and Churchill. The film wasn’t a box-office hit, but gained critical acclaim, winning three Oscars including Best Picture. The signature song “As Time Goes By” was written many years earlier for a 1931 Broadway musical called “Everybody’s Welcome”, and was a hit in 1931 for Rudy Vallee. But today we all remember the Casablanca version, sung by Dooley Wilson (who played “Sam” in the film). Poor Dooley didn’t get to record it as a single, due to a musician’s strike in 1943, so the 1931 Rudy Vallee version was re-released that year and became an even bigger hit second time round.

80. Hawaiian Airlines extra : LEI
“Lei” is the Hawaiian word for “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a “lei” is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

82. It has three dashes in the middle : SOS
The combination of three dots – three dashes – three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots – pause – three dashes – pause – three dots), although in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so SOS is in effect only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are also mnemonics, introduced after the “SOS” signal was adopted.

84. Head of Olympus? : OMICRON
The first letter in the word “Olympus”, if written in Greek, would by “omicron”. The name of the Greek letter “omicron” translates as “little O” (o-micron). This compares with the Greek letter “omega” which translates as “big O” (o-mega).

86. Serenades, e.g. : LOVE SONGS
A ”serenade” is a musical performance in the open air, specifically at night. We tend to think of the term applying to a young man serenading his lover from below her window. We imported the word via French from the Italian “serenata” meaning “evening song”, influenced by the Italian “sera” meaning “evening”.

87. Like each line of an eye chart vis-à-vis the one above : TINIER
The commonly used eye chart (that starts with the letters “E FP TOZ LPED”) is called a Snellen chart. The test is named after its developer Herman Snellen, who introduced it way back in 1862.

88. ___ Kosygin, longtime Soviet premier : ALEXEI
Alexei Kosygin was leader of the Soviet Union after Nikita Khrushchev, serving during the Cold War from 1964 to 1980.

89. Nickelodeon’s “Kenan & ___” : KEL
“Kenan & Kel” is a sitcom that aired on Nickelodeon from 1996 to 2000. It starred Kenan Thompson (now of “Saturday Night Live”), and Kel Mitchell.

94. Risqué, say : R-RATED
“Risqué” is a French word, the past participle of the verb “to risk”. So in English we use “risqué” to mean “racy”, but in French it means “risky”.

96. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Hank : IBA
Hank Iba was a basketball and baseball coach, spending most of his career at Oklahoma State University, coaching both sports teams. Iba also coached two winning Olympic basketball teams, helping the USA to win the gold in 1964 and 1968.

99. Tryst sites : LOVE NESTS
In its most general sense, a tryst is a meeting at an agreed time and place. More usually we consider a tryst to be a prearranged meeting between lovers. The term comes from the Old French “triste”, a waiting place designated when hunting.

102. Bizet priestess : LEILA
“The Pearl Fishers” (“Les Pêcheurs de Perles”) is the second most famous opera produced by Georges Bizet, the French composer from the Romantic era. “The Pearl Fishers” is about two Ceylon fishermen (Nadir and Zurga) who are lifelong friends, but that friendship is threatened when the pair fall in love with the same woman (Leila).

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. The Beatles’ first single, 1962 : LOVE ME DO
6. Cold-shoulder : SHUN
10. Not fight all-out : SPAR
14. 1951 #1 Mario Lanza hit with lyrics written by 36-Down : BE MY LOVE
19. Containing element #56 : BARIC
20. Jerry-rigging material : TAPE
21. Musical lead-in to -smith : AERO-
22. “See ya!” : ADIOS!
23. Inappropriate : UNAPT
24. Kind of arch : OGEE
25. Pelvic bones : ILIA
26. Watch 10 episodes in a row, say : BINGE
27. Circulates : GETS AROUND
29. Comment accompanying “That’s your problem, not mine” : DEAL WITH IT
31. Romantic date : VALENTINE’S DAY
33. Belittled : ABASED
37. Scapegoat for the Fab Four breakup : ONO
38. ___ criminal : CAREER
43. “Enough!,” in Ensenada : NO MAS!
44. Mil. authority : CMD
47. One waiting in line at an airport? : CAB
50. Get back together, as 57-Acrosses : REUNE
51. Camera feature : ZOOM
52. Apprise : BRIEF
54. Took a chance : DARED
56. Make a splash : PLOP
57. See 50-Across : ALUM
58. Big dipper : LADLE
59. Some old Harper’s Bazaar covers : ERTES
60. Bananas : LOCO
61. 1994 Oscar- and Grammy-winning song for Elton John : CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT
65. Cinephile’s channel : TCM
66. Ones doing needlework? : TATTOOERS
67. Here, on une carte : ICI
68. Smooth over : RESAND
71. Much I.R.S. mail : RETURNS
72. 1990s-2000s tennis champ nicknamed “The Punisher” : AGASSI
75. Hit song title for Bob Marley, Whitesnake and Survivor : IS THIS LOVE
77. Symptoms : SIGNS
78. 2010 R. Kelly top 10 album : LOVE LETTER
79. Like some care : NEONATAL
81. Basic ones are above 7 : PHS
82. Eyes impolitely : STARES AT
83. G.M.’s Mary Barra, for one : CEO
85. Opposite of vert. : HOR
86. 1990 #1 hit for Mariah Carey : LOVE TAKES TIME
93. 1967 #1 hit for Lulu : TO SIR, WITH LOVE
100. One of two circuit court characters? : SILENT U
101. Quiet coastal spot : INLET
103. Spirited horse : ARABIAN
104. Foreign currency unit worth about a third of a dollar : ONE LIRA
105. Relative of ecru : CREAM
106. Where Pamplona is located : NAVARRE
107. Overrule : NIX
108. Breast implant filler : GEL
109. Inflate : RAISE
110. Former telecom giant : GTE
111. The pack in a six-pack : ABS
112. “Well, whaddya know!” : GEE!
113. Bad beginning? : MAL-
114. Eyes impolitely : OGLES
115. Court call : LET
116. Mars from the vantage point of Earth, e.g. : DOT
117. Hindu honorific : SRI
118. Comedian Poehler : AMY
119. Approximates : NEARS
120. Shogun capital : EDO
121. Where there may be openings in the medical field? : ERS

Down
1. Insect also called a honeymoon fly : LOVEBUG
2. Stable locks? : MANE
3. Q.E.F. part : ERAT
4. Showy ballroom moves : DIPS
5. A piano has seven of them : OCTAVES
6. Bar fixture : STOOL
7. ___ Tribunal : HAGUE
8. Wharton’s sch. : UPENN
9. Must : NEED TO
10. Declined : SAID NO
11. Martinique volcano : PELEE
12. Met expectations? : ARIAS
13. Explorer Amundsen : ROALD
14. Commemorative Yevtushenko poem : BABI YAR
15. Change one’s story? : EDIT
16. Ho Chi ___ City : MINH
17. One seeking enlightenment : YOGI
18. 6-0 : LOVE SET
28. “Sweet!” : RAD!
30. Female W.W. II enlistee : WAC
32. Smitten : IN LOVE
33. Soldier from Down Under : ANZAC
34. When doubled, an old college cry : BOOLA
35. Totals : AMOUNTS TO
36. See 14-Across : SAMMY CAHN
39. Copy : REPLICATE
40. Kirk Douglas, Robert Wagner and Gregory Peck, for Frank Sinatra : EULOGISTS
41. Methuselah’s father : ENOCH
42. Transplant : REPOT
44. Skill : CRAFT
45. Like some stud piercings : MID-EAR
46. X’s : DELETES
47. Turns at high speed : CAREENS
48. Aesthetes : ART LOVERS
49. Borscht base : BEETS
52. ___-ray : BLU
53. What’s the point of marking things? : FELT TIP
54. Renders harmless, as a bull : DEHORNS
55. Brit. honor : DSO
62. Amor vincit ___ : OMNIA
63. Sending a child to military camp, say : TOUGH LOVE
64. River to the Gulf of Guinea : NIGER
68. ___ Tin Tin : RIN
69. Reverse of WNW : ESE
70. Summer hrs. : DST
72. Resembling : A LA
73. Antarctica’s Amundsen ___ : SEA
74. N.Y.C. subway line : IRT
76. 2003 Hugh Grant romantic comedy : LOVE ACTUALLY
78. Rick, Ilsa and Victor, in “Casablanca” : LOVE TRIANGLE
80. Hawaiian Airlines extra : LEI
82. It has three dashes in the middle : SOS
84. Head of Olympus? : OMICRON
85. Spectacularly disordered sort : HOT MESS
86. Serenades, e.g. : LOVE SONGS
87. Like each line of an eye chart vis-à-vis the one above : TINIER
88. ___ Kosygin, longtime Soviet premier : ALEXEI
89. Nickelodeon’s “Kenan & ___” : KEL
90. Perplexity : ENIGMA
91. Follower of live or down : -STREAM
92. Bring to a boil : ENRAGE
93. Come-on : TEASER
94. Risqué, say : R-RATED
95. Silently greet : WAVE TO
96. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Hank : IBA
97. Rant : TIRADE
98. Hold, as secret feelings : HARBOR
99. Tryst sites : LOVE NESTS
102. Bizet priestess : LEILA

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4 thoughts on “0214-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 14 Feb 16, Sunday”

  1. This puzzle defeated us (not many do). We are anti-rebus people, but this one was acceptable because of its relationship to Valentines Day. Pretty good work in assembling it, we think.

    With great effort we got all the answers except those in the lower left. We had to look up LOVETAKESTIME, but even that wasn't enough. Silly me: I thought AGASSI was an Alex and Yevtushenko was an ANDREI. That messed up the lower left for sure. We had OLDLIRA instead of ONELIRA, and without the X, we couldn't make any sense of N_R. TINIER we thought was a stretch, but not out of bounds. SILENTU had us kicking ourselves for not taking the "characters" hint.

    Overall, this was a great puzzle, well-integrated to the holiday, that stumped us in the end.

  2. 36:56, no errors. Clever puzzle. I can't help but wonder if the position of the "love" (heart) in 61 Across is intentionally off-center (unlike all the others, which are symetrically placed relative to a vertical center line). It is as if the puzzle is facing the solver, with its heart on its left side. Awwww … 🙂

  3. 32:44, no errors. Had 2 initial miss starts: 47A JET in lieu of CAB and 56D DIVE in lieu of PLOP.

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