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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: Tom McCoy
THEME: Don’t Sue Us! … there’s no danger of getting sued today as the circled R in the grid represent the registered trademark symbol. That letter R follows a registered brand name in the across-direction, but serves as a regular letter R in the down-direction:
23A. Wooden arts-and-crafts piece : POPSICLE® STICK
32A. Quaint social occasion : TUPPERWARE® PARTY
49A. Shoelace alternative : VELCRO® STRAP
66A. Tool for reproduction : XEROX® MACHINE
85A. Hybrid outdoor game : FRISBEE® GOLF
99A. Reagan, with “the” : TEFLON® PRESIDENT
111A. Fixture in many a basement : PING-PONG® TABLE
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 19m 39s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. It returns just before spring: Abbr. : 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.
9. Black-and-white treat : OREO
The Oreo cookie was first introduced in 1912. The Oreo was intended to be a competitor to the very similar Hydrox cookie which had debuted four years earlier. The Oreo won the resulting battle on the grocery store shelves …
19. Cell material : RNA
Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by what is called transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA.
21. Fur fighters? : PETA
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is a very large animal rights organization, with 300 employees and two million members and supporters worldwide. Although the group campaigns for animal rights across a broad spectrum of issues, it has a stated focus in opposition of four practices:
– factory farming
– fur farming
– animal testing
– use of animals in entertainment
23. Wooden arts-and-crafts piece : POPSICLE® STICK
The term ice pop has been supplanted in the US by “popsicle”, as the Popsicle brand of ice pop became so popular. We still use “ice pop” in Ireland, and in the UK the same thing is called an “ice lolly”, and in Australia it’s an “ice block”.
26. Fantasy land : NARNIA
Apparently it’s not certain how C. S. Lewis came to choose Narnia as the name of the fantasy world featured in his series of children’s books, including “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. There was an ancient city in Umbria that the Romans called Narnia, but there is no evidence of a link.
28. “Sprechen ___ Deutsch?” : SIE
“Sprechen Sie Deutsch?” is the German for “Do you speak German?”
29. Great American Ball Park team : THE REDS
Great American Ball Park is named after Great American Insurance Group. It seems a pity that the name is so mercenary, as it is such a grand name for a baseball field. Oh, and it is home to the Cincinnati Reds baseball team.
32. Quaint social occasion : TUPPERWARE® PARTY
Back in the 1930s, Earl Tupper was working at the DuPont Chemical Company, and from DuPont obtained inflexible pieces of polyethylene slag. Tupper purified the slag and shaped it into unbreakable containers. He added airtight lids with a “burping seal”, which were provided tight seals similar to that provided by the lids on paint cans. He called his new product Tupperware.
40. ___ Bo : TAE
Tae Bo isn’t an ancient martial art, and rather was developed as a form of aerobic exercise in the 1990s. The discipline was introduced by taekwondo expert Billy Blanks who gave it the name Tae Bo, a melding of “taekwondo” and “boxing”.
43. Work : OPUS
The Latin for “work” is “opus”, with the plural being “opera”.
46. Pre-euro coin : PESETA
The peseta is the former currency of Spain, replaced by the euro in 2002.
49. Shoelace alternative : VELCRO® STRAP
The hook-and-loop fastener we now call Velcro was invented in 1941 by Georges de Mestral, a Swiss engineer. Mestral noticed that the seeds of the burdock plant (burrs or burs) stuck to his clothes. Under the microscope he found hooks on the burrs that grabbed hold of loops in his clothing. After years of development, he came up with a way of simulating the natural hook using man-made materials, and Velcro was born.
58. Cigar type : CHEROOT
A cheroot cigar is cylindrical in shape, untapered and with both ends clipped. This simple shape allows them to be rolled mechanically instead of by hand, making cheroots relatively cheap to produce and to purchase. The term “cheroot” ultimately derives from the Tamil “churuttu” meaning “roll of tobacco”.
62. Modern “Carpe diem” : YOLO
You only live once (YOLO)
“Carpe diem” is a quotation from Horace, one of Ancient Rome’s leading lyric poets. “Carpe diem” translates from Latin as “seize the day” or “enjoy the day”.
63. Locale for phalanges : TOE
The digital bones in the hands and feet are known as “phalanges” (singular “phalanx”). The Greek term “phalanx” was also used to describe an ancient army formation in which soldiers stood side-by-side in several rows, like an arrangement of fingers or toes.
66. Tool for reproduction : XEROX® MACHINE
Xerox was founded in 1906 in Rochester, New York and originally made photographic paper and equipment. Real success came for the company in 1959 when it introduced the first plain-paper photocopier. Xerox named Ursula Burns as CEO in 2009, the first African American woman to head up a S&P 100 company. Burn was also the first woman to succeed another female CEO (replacing Anne Mulcahy).
76. Marco ___ (shirt sold on Rubio’s website) : POLO
Yep, we can buy “Marco Polo shirts” on the website of US Senator Marco Rubio.
René Lacoste was a French tennis player who went into the clothing business, and came up with a more comfortable shirt that players could use. This became known as a “tennis shirt”. When it was adopted for use in the sport of polo, the shirts also became known as “polo shirts”. And then the “golf shirt” is basically the same thing.
84. Section of a foreign travel guide, maybe : TABOOS
The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.
85. Hybrid outdoor game : FRISBEE® GOLF
The Frisbee phenomenon started back in 1938 with a couple who had an upturned cake pan that they were tossing between each other on Santa Monica Beach in California. They were offered 25 cents for the pan on the spot, and as pans could be bought for 5 cents, the pair figured there was a living to be earned.
88. Fatty cut of fish at a sushi bar : TORO
In a sushi restaurant, the dish called “toro” is the fatty tissue from belly of the bluefin tuna.
91. Where, to Cato : UBI
“Ubi” is Latin for “where”.
Cato the Elder was a Roman statesman, known historically as “the elder” in order to distinguish him from his great-grandson, Cato the Younger. Cato the Elder’s ultimate position within Roman society was that of Censor, making him responsible for maintaining the census, and for supervising public morality.
92. Burrowing insect : BORER
“Borer” is a name given to various species of insect that bore into the woody parts of plants.
99. Reagan, with “the” : TEFLON® PRESIDENT
Like all presidents it seems, President Ronald Reagan had his supporters and his detractors. On the one hand, he was known as “the Great Communicator” because of his ability to connect with Americans. On the other hand, President Reagan earned the nickname “the Teflon President” in some quarters because of a perception that he would not blamed for anything he did wrong.
Teflon is a brand name for the polymer called PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene). Teflon is used as a coating for nonstick pans, a lubricant in machinery and as a graft material in surgery.
105. Prefix with cumulus : ALTO-
Altocumulus clouds are globular clouds seen in layers at medium altitudes. The name comes from the Latin “altus” meaning “high”, and “cumulus” meaning “heaped”.
107. Certain hosp. exam : 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.
111. Fixture in many a basement : PING-PONG® TABLE
Ping-Pong is called table tennis in the UK, where the sport originated in the 1880s. Table tennis started as an after-dinner activity among the elite, and was called “wiff-waff”. To play the game, books were stacked in the center of a table as a “net”, two more books served as “”rackets” and the ball used was actually a golf ball. The game evolved over time with the rackets being upgraded to the lids of cigar boxes and the ball becoming a champagne cork (how snooty is that?). Eventually the game was produced commercially, and the sound of the ball hitting the racket was deemed to be a “ping” and a “pong”, giving the sport its alternative name. The name “Ping-Pong” was trademarked in Britain in 1901, and eventually sold to Parker Brothers in the US.
116. Emulated one of Old MacDonald’s animals : OINKED
There was an American version of the English children’s song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” (E-I-E-I-O), that was around in the days of WWI. The first line of the US version goes “Old MacDougal had a farm, in Ohio-i-o”.
118. Response to “Who goes there?” : IT IS I
The much debated statement “it is I” is actually grammatically correct, and should not be “corrected” to “it is me”. Traditionally, pronouns following linking verbs, such as “is”, “appear” and “seem”, are written in the nominative case. Examples are:
– It is I (who called)
– It was he (who did it)
– It is we (who care)
121. Neophyte, in modern slang : NOOB
“Noob” is a not-so-nice slang term for a “newbie”, someone new to an online community.
122. Cartridge filler : TONER
The key features of a laser printer (or copier) are that it uses plain paper and produces quality text at high speed. Laser printers work by projecting a laser image of the printed page onto a rotating drum that is coated with photoconductors (material that becomes conductive when exposed to light). The areas of the drum exposed to the laser carry a different charge than the unexposed areas. Dry ink (toner) sticks to the exposed areas due to electrostatic charge. The toner is then transferred to paper by contact and is fused into the paper by the application of heat. So, that explains why paper coming out of a laser printer is warm, and sometimes powdery.
Down
1. Self-help guru who wrote “Life Code” : DR PHIL
Dr. Phil (McGraw) met Oprah Winfrey when he was hired to work with her as a legal consultant during the Amarillo Texas beef trial (when the industry sued Oprah for libel over “Mad Cow Disease” statements). Oprah was impressed with Dr. Phil and invited him onto her show, and we haven’t stopped seeing him since!
2. Hoity-toity : SNOOTY
“Snoot” is a variant of “snout” and is a word that originated in Scotland. The idea is that someone who is “snooty”, or snouty, tends to look down his or her nose at the rest of the world.
Believe it or not, the term “hoity-toity” has been in the English language since the 1660s, but back then it meant “riotous behavior”. It began to mean “haughty” in the late 1800s, simply because the “haughty” sounds similar to “hoity”.
3. Jake of CNN : TAPPER
Jake Tapper is a journalist working for CNN as Chief Washington Correspondent. Tapper is also a cartoonist. He wrote a comic strip called “Capitol Hell” that appeared in the Washington, DC paper “Roll Call” from 1994 to 2003.
5. World Showcase site : EPCOT
EPCOT Center (now just called Epcot) is the theme park beside Walt Disney World in Florida. EPCOT is an acronym standing for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, and is a representation of the future as envisioned by Walt Disney. Walt Disney actually wanted to build a living community for 20,000 residents at EPCOT, but he passed away before that vision could be realized.
12. Image on the Connecticut state quarter : OAK TREE
The oak depicted on the Connecticut quarter is the Charter Oak. The tree earned its name from the legend that the original Royal Charter for the colony was hidden in a cavity of the tree for a while. The tree no longer exists, as it went down in a storm in the early 1800s.
13. Grant portrayer on TV : ASNER
Ed Asner is most famous for playing the irascible but lovable Lou Grant on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and on the spin-off drama “Lou Grant”. Off-screen Asner is noted for his political activism. He served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and was very involved in the 1980 SAG strike. When “Lou Grant” was cancelled in in 1982, despite decent ratings, there was a lot of talk that the cancellation was a move by the network against Asner personally. In fact, one of Asner’s activist colleagues, Howard Hesseman (who played Johnny Fever) found that his show “WKRP in Cincinnati” was also cancelled … on the very same day.
14. Line of cliffs : SCARP
A scarp is a steep slope or a line of cliffs, especially one created by erosion. An alternative name is an escarpment.
15. Land in two pieces? : KOREA
Korea was occupied by the Japanese military from 1910 until Japan surrendered at the end of WWII in 1945. While the UN was working towards a trusteeship administration for Korea, the Soviet Union managed the Korean Peninsula north of the 38th parallel and the US managed the south. The UN’s plans came to naught as the Cold War dictated the establishment of the two separate states of North Korea and South Korea. North Korea invaded the South in 1950, leading to the Korean War. After three years of fighting, the border between the two states became the demarcation line between the two military forces on the day the Armistice Agreement was signed. That line runs diagonally across the 38th parallel, and is better known as the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
18. Spanish she-bear : OSA
In Spanish, “osa” is a female bear, and “oso” is a male.
24. One for two of four : SEMI
I think the idea is that the four teams or players in the final rounds of a tournament are paired off in two semis (semifinals).
30. “___ a real nowhere man …” : HE’S
“Nowhere Man” is an early song by the Beatles, released in 1966. “Nowhere Man” was one of the first songs that John Lennon wrote that was more philosophical than romantic in nature, indicative of songs to come. Apparently, Lennon himself is the inspiration for the “Nowhere Man” persona.
34. Source of the names of two months : ROMAN EMPERORS
Our month of July used to be called “Quintilis” in Ancient Rome. “Quintilis” is Latin for “fifth”, and it was the fifth month of the year back then. After the assassination of Julius Caesar, the Roman Senate renamed Quintilis to Julius, in his honor, which evolved into our “July”. The month of August, originally called “Sextilis” in Latin, was renamed in honor of Augustus.
36. “Atlas Shrugged” author Rand : AYN
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist born Alisa Rosenbaum. Her two best known works are her novels “The Fountainhead” published in 1943 and “Atlas Shrugged” from 1957. Back in 1951, Rand moved from Los Angeles to New York City. Soon after, she gathered a group of admirers around her with whom she discussed philosophy and shared drafts of her magnum opus, “Atlas Shrugged”. This group called itself “The Collective”, and one of the founding members was none other than future Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan.
37. Soprano Sumac : YMA
Yma Sumac was a Peruvian soprano. Sumac had a notable vocal range of five octaves.
39. Think piece? : CORTEX
The outermost layer of an organ is known as the cortex. The cortical layer that is most familiar to the man on the street (like me!) is that of the brain, the cerebral cortex.
44. Writer of the line “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December” : POE
Here are some lines from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven”.
Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
“The Raven” is a narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe that tells of a student who has lost the love of his life, Lenore. A raven enters the student’s bedchamber and perches on a bust of Pallas. The raven can talk, to the student’s surprise, but says nothing but the word “nevermore” (“quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore’”). As the student questions all aspects of his life, the raven taunts him with the same comment, “nevermore”. Finally the student decides that his soul is trapped beneath the raven’s shadow and shall be lifted “nevermore” …
46. Leader elected in 1946 : PERON
Nowadays, President Juan Peron of Argentina is less well-remembered than his wife Eva Peron, of “Evita” fame. Juan and Evita Peron founded the Justicialist Party in 1947, and it still exists today.
50. First name in cosmetics : ESTEE
Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, with a reputation as a great salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales volume …
52. Org. of the Argonauts and the Alouettes : CFL
The Toronto Argonauts and the Montreal Alouettes play in the Canadian Football League (CFL).
53. Some natural history museum displays, for short : T REXES
The Tyrannosaurus rex (usually written T. rex) was a spectacular looking dinosaur. “Tyrannosaurus” comes from the Greek words “tyrannos” (tyrant) and “sauros” (lizard), and the “rex” is of course Latin for “king”. They were big boys, measuring 42 feet long and 13 feet tall at the hips, and weighing 7.5 tons.
54. Tributary of the Rhine : RUHR
The Ruhr is a river in Germany that flows into the lower Rhine. The river gives its name to the Ruhr district, the largest urban agglomeration in the country.
The river running through Europe that we know in English as the Rhine, is called “Rhein” in German, “Rhin” in French and “Rijn” in Dutch.
59. Brown-and-white treat : HO HO
Ho Hos snack cakes were first produced in San Francisco in 1967; not the best thing to come out of the sixties I’d say …
61. Start of many a bumper sticker : HONK …
Honk if you …
64. Backing at a business meeting? : EASEL
The word “easel” comes from an old Dutch word meaning “donkey” would you believe? The idea is that an easel carries its load (an oil painting, say) just as a donkey would be made to carry a load.
67. “Four Quartets” poet : ELIOT
T. S. Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, largely due to his “Four Quartets”, a set of four poems that Eliot himself considered to be his life’s masterpiece.
68. Two 1980s White House personages : RONS
Ron Reagan’s views couldn’t be any further from those of his father President Ronald Reagan, I’d say. Before the radio network Air America went bust, Ron had a daily 3-hour spot, and these days he makes frequent appearances on MSNBC. Young Reagan is also a good dancer, and for a while was a member of the Joffrey Ballet.
69. Isao of the P.G.A. : AOKI
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.
72. Toy brand with soft sales? : NERF
Nerf is the name given to the soft material used in a whole series of toys designed for “safe” play indoors. The Nerf product is used to make darts, balls and ammunition for toy guns. “NERF” is an acronym, standing for Non-Expanding Recreational Foam.
74. Genealogical grouping, informally : SIBS
Siblings (sibs.)
78. Bit of a joule : ERG
An erg is a unit of mechanical work or energy. It is a small unit, as there are 10 million ergs in one joule. it has been suggested that an erg is about the amount of energy required for a mosquito to take off.
82. French city said to have given its name to a car : 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.
Sedan is a commune in the Ardennes region in northern France, close to the border with Belgium. There is apparently an apocryphal tale that the sedan automobile takes its name from the French town.
83. Bit of gymwear : TEE
Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed.
89. Bobby in skates : ORR
Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking …
93. Artful : ADROIT
The French for “to the right” is “à droit”, from which we get our word “adroit”. The original meaning of “adroit” was “rightly, properly”, but it has come to mean dexterous and skillful.
96. Crime stories? : ALIBIS
“Alibi” is the Latin word for “elsewhere” as in, “I claim that I was ‘elsewhere’ when the crime was committed … I have an ‘alibi'”.
97. “Streetcar” call : STELLA!
“Stella! Hey, Stella!” is a famous line cried out by Marlon Brando’s character (Stanley Kowalski) as his wife Stella (played by Kim Hunter) leaves for the last time with her child, in the movie “A Streetcar Named Desire”.
Desire is the name of a neighborhood in New Orleans, a destination for a streetcar line. The name “Desire” appears on the front of streetcars bound for that neighborhood, hence the title of the 1947 Tennessee Williams play “A Streetcar Named Desire”.
98. You could have it in any color you wanted, as long as it was black : MODEL T
The Ford Model T was the first really affordable car that was offered for sale, and it was produced from 1908 to 1927. It was the Model T that ushered in the era of assembly line production, which greatly cut down the cost of manufacture. The Model T’s engine was designed to run on petrol, kerosene or ethanol. Ford stated in 1909 that “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black”. In actual fact, from 1908 through 1913, the Model T wasn’t available in black, and only grey, green, blue and red. The “black only” strategy applied from 1914.
100. “Two Treatises of Government” philosopher : LOCKE
John Locke was an English philosopher whose most famous work was “Essay Concerning Human Understanding”. Locke’s position was that at birth the mind is a blank slate, a “tabula rasa”, and that knowledge is determined by experiences perceived through our senses.
101. Smallest slice of a pie chart, maybe : OTHER
A “pie chart” can also be referred to as a “circle graph”.
103. Scapegrace : IMP
A “scapegrace” is a complete rogue, “someone who escapes the grace of God”.
113. Role for Keanu Reeves : NEO
Neo is the character played by Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix” series of films.
Keanu Reeves is a Canadian actor whose most celebrated roles were a metalhead in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989), a cop in “Speed” (1994) and the main antagonist Neo in “The Matrix” series of films. Although Reeves is a Canadian national, he was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Reeves has some Hawaiian descent, and the name “Keanu” is Hawaiian for “the coldness”.
115. Ingredient in a white lady : GIN
The cocktail known as a White Lady is virtually the same recipe is a Sidecar, with brandy replaced by gin. My version is two parts gin, two parts triple sec and one part lime juice.
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. It returns just before spring: Abbr. : DST
4. Univ. parts : DEPTS
9. Black-and-white treat : OREO
13. Sends an invitation for : ASKS TO
19. Cell material : RNA
20. Independently : APART
21. Fur fighters? : PETA
22. Combs : SCOURS
23. Wooden arts-and-crafts piece : POPSICLE® STICK
26. Fantasy land : NARNIA
27. “Fingers crossed!” : HOPE SO!
28. “Sprechen ___ Deutsch?” : SIE
29. Great American Ball Park team : THE REDS
31. Collector’s ___ : ITEM
32. Quaint social occasion : TUPPERWARE® PARTY
38. Kind of poem : LYRIC
40. ___ Bo : TAE
41. “I almost forgot …” : OH YES …
42. Positive response : I AM
43. Work : OPUS
45. “Hands off!” : MINE!
46. Pre-euro coin : PESETA
49. Shoelace alternative : VELCRO® STRAP
55. Get the message, say : DECODE
56. With equal frequency : AS OFTEN
57. Streak : RUN
58. Cigar type : CHEROOT
60. “Borrowed” : STOLE
61. Titter : HEHE
62. Modern “Carpe diem” : YOLO
63. Locale for phalanges : TOE
65. Cry that’s a homophone of 81-Across : EEK!
66. Tool for reproduction : XEROX® MACHINE
71. “Heaven and earth in miniature,” per a Chinese proverb : MAN
73. Expressions of disgust : EWS
75. Sole : LONE
76. Marco ___ (shirt sold on Rubio’s website) : POLO
77. Come to an end : CEASE
79. Shenanigans : HIJINKS
81. Barely make, with “out” : EKE
82. Appetizer : STARTER
84. Section of a foreign travel guide, maybe : TABOOS
85. Hybrid outdoor game : FRISBEE® GOLF
87. Prepared : GOT SET
88. Fatty cut of fish at a sushi bar : TORO
90. Named, informally : IDED
91. Where, to Cato : UBI
92. Burrowing insect : BORER
93. ___ glance : AT A
94. Convulsion : SPASM
99. Reagan, with “the” : TEFLON® PRESIDENT
105. Prefix with cumulus : ALTO-
106. Identifying lines at the bottoms of pages : FOOTERS
107. Certain hosp. exam : MRI
108. Caught sight of : ESPIED
110. Ungraceful : GAUCHE
111. Fixture in many a basement : PING-PONG® TABLE
116. Emulated one of Old MacDonald’s animals : OINKED
117. One that’s out of one’s head? : IDEA
118. Response to “Who goes there?” : IT IS I
119. Poorly : ILL
120. Brotherhood and sisterhood : ORDERS
121. Neophyte, in modern slang : NOOB
122. Cartridge filler : TONER
123. Convened : SAT
Down
1. Self-help guru who wrote “Life Code” : DR PHIL
2. Hoity-toity : SNOOTY
3. Jake of CNN : TAPPER
4. Place for a throne : DAIS
5. World Showcase site : EPCOT
6. Hang (around) : PAL
7. Take unwanted steps? : TRESPASS
8. Line at the zoo : STRIPE
9. Elect : OPT
10. King, in Portugal : REI
11. Series finale? : ETC
12. Image on the Connecticut state quarter : OAK TREE
13. Grant portrayer on TV : ASNER
14. Line of cliffs : SCARP
15. Land in two pieces? : KOREA
16. Ingredient that’s been left out? : SUN-DRIED TOMATO
17. Pertaining to Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, e.g. : TRISTATE
18. Spanish she-bear : OSA
24. One for two of four : SEMI
25. Show (out) : SEE
30. “___ a real nowhere man …” : HE’S
33. Complete reversal : U-TURN
34. Source of the names of two months : ROMAN EMPERORS
35. Trounce : WHIP
36. “Atlas Shrugged” author Rand : AYN
37. Soprano Sumac : YMA
39. Think piece? : CORTEX
44. Writer of the line “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December” : POE
46. Leader elected in 1946 : PERON
47. Prefix with tourism : ECO-
48. Fossil fuel residue : SOOT
49. Still-life object : VASE
50. First name in cosmetics : ESTEE
51. Discoverer’s cry : LOOK WHAT I FOUND!
52. Org. of the Argonauts and the Alouettes : CFL
53. Some natural history museum displays, for short : TREXES
54. Tributary of the Rhine : RUHR
55. Substation? : DELI
58. The four seasons and others : CYCLES
59. Brown-and-white treat : HO HO
61. Start of many a bumper sticker : HONK …
64. Backing at a business meeting? : EASEL
67. “Four Quartets” poet : ELIOT
68. Two 1980s White House personages : RONS
69. Isao of the P.G.A. : AOKI
70. Online greetings : E-CARDS
72. Toy brand with soft sales? : NERF
74. Genealogical grouping, informally : SIBS
78. Bit of a joule : ERG
80. Average guy : JOE
82. French city said to have given its name to a car : SEDAN
83. Bit of gymwear : TEE
84. Start of a concession : TO BE FAIR …
85. Unoccupied : FREE
86. Start eating : BITE INTO
87. Inner feeling : GUT
88. Court technique : TOPSPIN
89. Bobby in skates : ORR
92. “It’s f-f-freezing!” : BRR!
93. Artful : ADROIT
95. Daddy : PAPA
96. Crime stories? : ALIBIS
97. “Streetcar” call : STELLA!
98. You could have it in any color you wanted, as long as it was black : MODEL T
100. “Two Treatises of Government” philosopher : LOCKE
101. Smallest slice of a pie chart, maybe : OTHER
102. Must have : NEEDS
103. Scapegrace : IMP
104. Facetious response to “Describe yourself in three adjectives” : TERSE
109. Recipe instruction : STIR
110. Sticky stuff : GOO
112. Line at a wedding : I DO
113. Role for Keanu Reeves : NEO
114. Chatter : GAB
115. Ingredient in a white lady : GIN
31:01, no errors. Pretty straightforward.
36:12, no errors. Answers were almost too easy, kept overlooking the simple answers for something more challenging. It did take almost 3/4 of the way through the puzzle before I figured out the trademark sign applied to the horizontal entries, and stood for the letter R in the verticals. Nice Sunday challenge.
35:56, no errors. But I never once felt truly comfortable with this one. Took a while to get the circle R theme, and that opened the floodgates.
This is a test. I used the "Preview" button, which seemed to work okay, but then, when I hit "Edit" to continue composing my post, I could not seem to get the keyboard back. Eventually, something I did caused the keyboard to appear, but I don't know what it was. So … here goes …
I'm still not sure what I did the first time, but I have now discovered that going to another tab and then coming back to this one makes the keyboard reappear. Curiously, though, it also seems to make the "prove you're not a robot" thing disappear. I think I can now publish this comment with impunity. Odd.