0320-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 20 Mar 16, Sunday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Joel Fagliano
THEME: Double-Crossed … we have a note with today’s puzzle:

When this puzzle is completed, take the answer to each starred clue and cross out all the letters used twice. The leftover letters will spell an appropriate word, reading top to bottom.

So, what REMAINS after crossing out letters is the word REMAINDERS:

27A. *Doctor’s orders? : HIPPOCRATIC OATH (giving R)
38A. *1999 rom-com based on Shaw’s “Pygmalion” : SHE‘S ALL THAT (giving E)
42A. *Manhattan Project site : LOS ALAMOS (giving M)
56A. *Lawyer : BAR MEMBER (giving A)
58A. *Event with rainbow flags : PRIDE PARADE (giving I)
70A. *Pressured : UNDER DURESS (giving N)
73A. *Makes wedding plans : SETS A DATE (giving D)
86A. *County that includes much of Everglades National Park : MIAMI-DADE (giving E)
90A. *Tidy sum : PRETTY PENNY (giving R)
103A. *Hides out : GOES UNDERGROUND (giving S)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 24m 11s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

5. Own (up) : FESS
The term “fess” is most often seen as part of the phrasal verb “to fess up” meaning “to admit to something”. “Fess” is simply a shortened form of “confess”.

9. One of the Five Pillars of Islam : HADJ
Followers of the Muslim tradition believe in the Five Pillars of Islam, five obligatory acts that underpin Muslim life. The Five Pillars are:

– The Islamic creed
– Daily prayer
– Almsgiving
– Fasting during the month of Ramadan
– The pilgrimage to Mecca (haj) once during a lifetime

13. French film award : CESAR
The César Award is the national film award of France. The first César was awarded in 1975, named after the French sculptor César Baldaccini. The awards themselves are reproductions of an actual Baldaccini sculpture.

18. Phlegmatic : STOIC
Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher famous for teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the “Painted Porch”, located on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens. Because of the location of his classes, his philosophy became known as stoicism (from “stoa”, the word for “porch”). And yes, we get our adjective “stoic” from the same root.

23. Folded food : CREPE
“Crêpe” is the French word for “pancake”.

25. They “don’t lie,” in a #1 Shakira hit : HIPS
Shakira’s 2006 song “Hips Don’t Lie” broke a record soon after it was released. It became the most-played pop song in a single week in American radio history.

27. *Doctor’s orders? : HIPPOCRATIC OATH
The Hippocratic Corpus is a collection of about 70 medical works that were at one time believed to have written by the Ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, although authorship has been called into question. Within the collection is a document known as the Hippocratic Oath (but again, the authorship has been questioned). The oath is still used today as the basis for oaths taken by medical graduates before they enter into medical practice.

30. ___ fraîche : CREME
The French term “crème fraîche” translates as “fresh cream”, although the the cream itself is soured with a bacterial culture.

31. Regenerist brand : OLAY
Oil of Olay was developed in South Africa in 1949. When Oil of Olay was introduced internationally, it was given slightly different brand names designed to appeal in the different geographies. In Ireland we know it as Oil of Ulay, for example, and in France it is Oil of Olaz.

32. Capital of Kazakhstan : ASTANA
Astana is the capital of Kazakhstan, although only since 1997. Prior to 1997, the nation’s capital was Almaty. The decision to move the capital was made as Almaty is in a part of the country populated by ethnic Russians and the new government wanted to distance itself even further from its Soviet history.

33. Streaming video giant : HULU
Hulu.com is a website providing streaming video of full television shows. It is a joint venture of NBC and Disney, and so features a lot of their content. The service is free and is supported by advertising, but you can sign up for a premium subscription and get access to more shows. A lot of younger folks seem to use Hulu quite often …

35. “Fareed Zakaria GPS” airer : CNN
Journalist and author Fareed Zakaria hosts the weekly CNN public affairs show “Fareed Zakaria GPS”, with GPS standing for “Global Public Square”.

38. *1999 rom-com based on Shaw’s “Pygmalion” : SHE’S ALL THAT
The 1999 romantic comedy “She’s All That” is an adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion” (as is “My Fair Lady”). The critics hated “She’s All That”, but it still made it to number one at the box office.

42. *Manhattan Project site : LOS ALAMOS
The town of Los Alamos, New Mexico takes its name from the Spanish for “the poplars” or “the cottonwoods”. Famously, it is home to Los Alamos National Laboratory which was founded during WWII to work on the Manhattan Project, the development of the first atomic bomb. The town of Los Alamos didn’t exist as such, until it was planned and constructed to support the employees working on development of the bomb.

The Manhattan project was the joint US-Canada-UK project to develop an atomic bomb during WWII. Initially, the Army headquarters for the program was located on the 18th floor of a building on Broadway in New York City. Eventually, because of that first location, the project adopted the name “Manhattan”.

44. Cook in charge of 110-Across : TIM
(110A. See 44-Across : APPLE)
Tim Cook has been Apple’s CEO since 2011, when he succeeded Steve Jobs. Cook had joined the company back in 1998 as senior vice president in charge of worldwide operations. He came out as gay in October of 2014, making Cook the first openly gay CEO of a company on the Fortune 500 list.

45. Engine part, briefly : CARB
The carburetor is a device in an internal combustion engine that has the job of blending air and fuel prior to combustion. When you hit the accelerator on a car, you’re not actually directly controlling the amount of fuel going to the engine. Instead, you’re controlling the amount of air that the carburetor gets. The carburetor then sucks in the amount of fuel it needs for efficient combustion.

46. “___ Tag!” : GUTEN
“Guten Tag” is German for “hello, good day”. “Guten Morgen” means “good morning” and “guten Abend” means “good evening”.

47. Drink served in a flute : MIMOSA
Where I come from, the cocktail known in North America as a mimosa is called a Buck’s Fizz, named after the club where it was introduced in 1921. The mimosa came along a few years later, apparently first being served in the Paris Ritz. If you want to make a mimosa, it’s a 50-50 mix of champagne and orange juice, and it is very tasty …

The narrow bowl of a champagne flute is preferred over the wide bowl of a champagne coupe as the smaller surface area of the wine helps retain its carbonation.

50. Razz : TAUNT
Not so much here in America, but over in the British Isles “blowing a raspberry” is a way of insulting someone (I think it’s called “a Bronx cheer” in the US). The verb “to razz” comes from a shortened form of “raspberry”.

53. Popular tech review site : CNET
c|net is an excellent technology website. c|net started out in 1994 as a television network specializing in technology news. The host of “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest, started off his career as host of a c|net show.

55. Money of Peru : SOL
The Nuevo Sol has been the currency of Peru since the 1980s.

58. *Event with rainbow flags : PRIDE PARADE
The first gay pride parades were held all on the same weekend in 1970, in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The best-known rainbow flag is the one representing gay pride. Such usage of the rainbow flag was popularized in 1978 by artist Gilbert Baker. The varying colors of the flag represent the diversity of the gay community.

63. Caribbean area, once: Abbr. : BWI
The former British West Indies (BWI) was made up of eight colonies: the Bahamas, Barbados, British Guiana, British Honduras, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands.

64. ___ jacet (phrase on tombstones) : HIC
The abbreviation “HJS” is seen on many tombstones. It is an initialism standing for the Latin phrase “Hic Jacet Sepultus” meaning “Here Lies Buried”.

65. Often-torchlit events : LUAUS
Nowadays the word “luau” denotes almost any kind of party on the Hawaiian Islands, but to the purist a luau is a feast that always includes a serving of “poi”, the bulbous underground stems of taro baked with coconut milk.

68. “Speaking personally …,” in texts : IMO …
In my opinion (IMO)

75. Geometry textbook symbols : PIS
The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is a mathematical constant, which we denote with the Greek letter pi (π). The ratio pi can be used to calculate the area of a disk, by multiplying the constant by the square of the radius (πr2).

77. One-stanza poem : HAIKU
A haiku is a very elegant form of Japanese verse. When writing a haiku in English we tend to impose the rule that the verse must contain 17 syllables. This restriction comes from the rule in Japanese that the verse must contain 17 sound units called “moras”, but moras and syllables aren’t the same thing. What the difference is though, is not so clear to me. Here’s an example of a Haiku:

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don’t make sense
Refrigerator

78. Green day? : ST PAT’S
There is a fair amount known about St. Patrick, some of which comes from two letters written in his own hand. St. Patrick lived in the fifth century, but was not born in Ireland. He was first brought to Ireland at about 16 years of age from his native Britain, by Irish raiders who made him a slave for six years. Patrick managed to escape and returned to his homeland where he studied and entered the Church. He went back to Ireland as a bishop and a missionary and there lived out the rest of his life. There seems to be good evidence that he died on March 17th (now celebrated annually as St. Patrick’s Day), although the year is less clear. The stories about shamrock and snakes, I am afraid they are the stuff of legend.

85. “Feliz ___ Nuevo!” : ANO
In Spanish, one says “Feliz Año Nuevo!” (Happy New Year!) each “enero” (January).

86. *County that includes much of Everglades National Park : MIAMI-DADE
The residents of Florida’s Dade County voted to change its name to Miami-Dade County in 1997, in recognition of its most populous and recognized city.

The Everglades are a tropical wetlands that cover much of southern Florida. The area was named “River Glades” by a British surveyor in 1773, and is suggested that poor transcription of the word “river” led to the use of “ever”. The southern 20% of the Everglades is a protected region that we know as Everglades National Park. The park is the third largest National Park in the lower 48 states, after Death Valley NP (the largest) and Yellowstone NP.

94. Relative of ibid. : OP CIT
Op. cit. is short for “opus citatum”, Latin for “the work cited”. Op. cit. is used in footnotes to refer the reader to an earlier citation. It is similar to “ibid”, except that ibid refers the reader to the last citation, the one immediately above.

95. Newspaper unit: Abbr. : COL
Column (col.)

96. What they say about you, informally : REP
Reputation (rep.)

97. Ectomorphic : LEAN
The psychologist William Herbert Sheldon proposed a now-discredited theory that a person’s intelligence, future achievement and temperament could be associated with particular body types. Sheldon proposed three “somatotypes”, a classification that is still used today:

– Ectomorphic: thin body build
– Mesomorphic: muscular and sturdy body build
– Endomorphic: heavy body build

98. Car collector? : OIL PAN
In most internal combustion engines the pistons that move up and down are arranged in a line, and connected to a crankshaft that runs along the bottom of the engine. The up and down motion of the pistons turns the crankshaft, which turning motion is “transmitted” (via the transmission) to the wheels. The case surrounding the crankshaft is called the crankcase. The crankcase contains a lot of oil that is squirted onto the crankshaft to lubricate it. Excess oil falls to the bottom of the crankcase and into a reservoir called the oil pan.

113. Skin So Soft maker : AVON
In 1886, a young man called David McConnell was selling books door-to-door. To enhance his sales numbers he was giving out free perfume to the ladies of the houses that he visited. Seeing as his perfume was more popular than his books, he founded the California Perfume Company in New York City and started manufacturing and selling across the country. The company name was changed to Avon in 1939, and the famous “Avon Calling” marketing campaign was launched in 1954.

117. Agent Scully on “The X-Files” : DANA
“The X-Files” is a very successful science fiction show that aired on the Fox network from 1993 to 2002. The stars of the show are David Duchovny (playing Fox Mulder) and the very talented Gillian Anderson (playing Dana Scully). By the time the series ended, “The X-Files” was the longest running sci-fi show in US broadcast history. An “X-Files” reboot started airing in 2016 with Duchovny and Anderson reprising their starring roles.

Down
1. Wharton, e.g., informally : BSCHOOL
Wharton is a business school (bschool).

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.

2. Maurice who painted Parisian street scenes : UTRILLO
French painter Maurice Utrillo was born in the Montmartre area in Paris, which has a reputation as the city’s art district. Born in 1883, he was the son of artist Suzanne Valadon. Utrillo is known for his paintings of street scenes.

3. Grippers for geckos : TOE PADS
The word “gecko” comes from an Indonesian/Javanese word “tokek”, which is imitative of the reptile’s chirping sound. In making such a sound, geckos are unique in the world of lizards. More interesting to me than a gecko’s chirping is its ability to cling to walls and to other vertical surfaces. Their feet are specially adapted with “toes” that make extremely intimate, close contact to a surface. The toes have millions of hairs called setae that enable the clinging. It isn’t suction that supports them, but rather van der Waals forces (weak “gravitational” attractions). Fascinating stuff …

10. Lavish Vegas casino opened in 2009 : ARIA
Aria is one of the newer casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. “Popular Mechanics” magazine described Aria as “the most technologically-advanced hotel ever built”.

12. Book before Judges : JOSHUA
According to the Bible, after fleeing Egypt the Hebrews were led by Moses to the promised land of Canaan. Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan (one from each of the Twelve Tribes) to report on what awaited them. Ten spies returned with exaggerated stories of giants who would kill the Hebrew army if it entered Canaan. Two spies, Caleb and Joshua, came back with valid reports, that the Hebrews could inhabit the area. As a result of the false reports from the ten spies, the Hebrews did not enter Canaan but instead wandered the desert for another forty years before they finally took up residence in the promised land. At the end of the forty years, Caleb and Joshua were the only adults that survived the forty-year journey, a reward from God for their obedience. Joshua took over the leadership of the Israelites after the death of Moses.

14. Robe-wearing ruler : EMIR
An emir is a prince or chieftain, most notably in the Middle East. In English, emir can also be written as emeer, amir and ameer (watch out for those spellings in crosswords!).

16. Smith graduate, e.g. : ALUMNA
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.

Smith College is a private women’s school in Northampton, Massachusetts. Smith was founded in 1870 using funds bequeathed by Sophia Smith.

19. CNBC interviewee, maybe : CEO
CNBC is a business news channel owned by NBC. Launched in 1989, up until 1991 CNBC was known as the Consumer News and Business Channel.

28. Ring figure? : CARAT
The carat is a unit of mass used in measuring gemstones that is equal to 200 mg.

29. Old Spanish kingdom : CASTILE
The Kingdom of Castile was one seven medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. The name comes from the large number of castles that were built across the kingdom.

34. Cousin of inc. : LLC
A limited liability company (LLC) is a company structure that limits the liability of the owner or owners.

37. Muscle strengthened by a StairMaster, informally : GLUTE
There are three gluteal muscles in the human body, the largest of which is the gluteus maximus. It’s the gluteus maximus which really dictates the shape and size of the human buttocks. In evolutionary terms, the human “glutes” are larger than those in related species because they play a big role maintaining our erect posture.

40. My Chemical Romance and others : EMO BANDS
The musical genre of “emo” originated in Washington D.C. in the 80s, and takes its name from “emotional hardcore”. “Emo” is also the name given to the associated subculture. Not my cup of tea …

My Chemical Romance was an alternative rock band from Jersey City that was active from 2001 to 2013.

47. Chat room policers, informally : MODS
Moderator (mod)

48. ___ Hawkins dance : SADIE
Sadie Hawkins is a character in Al Capp’s comic strip “Li’l Abner”. Sadie was still a spinster at the age of 35 so declared a “Sadie Hawkins Day” in which she chased the local men in a foot race, with marriage as the prize when one was caught. Starting in 1938, Sadie Hawkins Dances were introduced in schools across the US, to which the woman invites the man of her choosing.

53. Peninsula in 2014 headlines : CRIMEA
Crimea is a peninsula jutting out into the Black Sea that is almost completely surrounded by water. It is connected to the Ukrainian mainland to the north by the Isthmus of Perekop, and is separated from the nearby Russian region of Kuban by the narrow (less than 10 miles) Kerch Strait. Crimea has been occupied by foreign powers many times over the centuries, and now control of the region is disputed by Ukraine and Russia.

55. Relative of a skillet : SAUTE PAN
“Sauté” is a French word. The literal translation from the French is “jumped” or “bounced”, a reference to the tossing of food while cooking it in a frying pan.

58. Band with a Ben & Jerry’s flavor named for it : PHISH
Phish is a rock and roll band that formed at the University of Vermont in 1983. After I hiatus from 2004 until 2009, the band is going strong to this day. The has been a “Phish Food” flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream since 1997.

61. “Something to Talk About” singer, 1991 : RAITT
Bonnie Raitt is a blues singer, originally from Burbank, California. Raitt has won nine Grammys for her work, but she is perhaps as well known for her political activism as she is for her music. She was no fan of President George W. Bush while he was in office, and she sure did show it.

66. Sports teams wear them, informally : UNIS
A unitard is like a leotard, except that it has long legs and sometime long sleeves. It wouldn’t be a good look for me …

71. Like Mount Rushmore at night : UPLIT
The four presidents whose faces are carved in the granite face of Mount Rushmore are (from left to right) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Each of the presidents is about 60 feet in height, although they might have been larger. The original intent was for the presidents to be depicted from head to waist, but the project lost funding.

74. “S.N.L.” bit : SKIT
“Saturday Night Live” (SNL)

79. Country singer Lee ___ Womack : ANN
Lee Ann Womack is a country music singer and songwriter from Jacksonville, Texas.

81. 1990s craze : MACARENA
“Macarena” is a dance song in Spanish that was a huge hit worldwide for Los Del Río in 1995-1996.

82. Chatting online with, for short : IMING
Even though instant messaging (IMing) has been around since the 1960s, it was AOL who popularized the term “instant message” in the eighties and nineties.

86. Ukraine neighbor : MOLDOVA
The Republic of Moldova (usually referred to as “Moldova”) was the Moldavian Socialist Republic before the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Ukraine is a large country in Eastern Europe, a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) before the dissolution of the USSR. In English we often call the country “the” Ukraine, but I am told that we should just say “Ukraine”.

88. Secrecy, with “the” : DOWN LOW
Something described as “on the down low” is “secret”. The phrase “on the DL” can mean “on the down low”. It can also mean “on the disabled list” in sports.

89. Those saying “somethin’,” say : ELIDERS
“To elide” is to pass over, omit or slur a syllable when speaking.

90. Capital that’s home to the world’s largest castle, per Guinness : PRAGUE
The beautiful city of Prague is today the capital of the Czech Republic. Prague’s prominence in Europe has come and gone over the centuries. For many years, it was the capital city of the Holy Roman Empire.

Prague Castle was built between 1880 and 1929 and is a castle complex now used as the official residence of the President of the Czech Republic. The Guinness Book of Records lists Prague Castle as the largest ancient castle in the world.

92. Multistory temple : PAGODA
Pagodas are tiered (“storied”) towers found in various parts of Asia, usually built for religious purposes.

93. Small-capped mushrooms : ENOKIS
Enokitake (also known as enoki) are long and thin white mushrooms often added to soups or salads.

102. Hero of kid-lit’s “The Phantom Tollbooth” : MILO
“The Phantom Tollbooth” is described as a modern fairy tale, and is a children’s adventure novel by Norton Juster, first published in 1961. The novel tells of a young boy called Milo who drives through a magic tollbooth in his toy car, after which he experiences many adventures.

104. Ballpark figs. : ERAS
Earned run average (ERA)

105. Part of the “everything” in an everything bagel : SALT
An “everything bagel” is typically coated with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, onion, garlic, caraway and salt.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Joke’s target : BUTT
5. Own (up) : FESS
9. One of the Five Pillars of Islam : HADJ
13. French film award : CESAR
18. Phlegmatic : STOIC
20. Prefix with distant : EQUI-
21. Black-and-white, in sneaker lingo : OREO
22. More than enough : AMPLE
23. Folded food : CREPE
24. 111-Across’s partner : AUNT
25. They “don’t lie,” in a #1 Shakira hit : HIPS
26. Not be able to sleep : LIE UP
27. *Doctor’s orders? : HIPPOCRATIC OATH
30. ___ fraîche : CREME
31. Regenerist brand : OLAY
32. Capital of Kazakhstan : ASTANA
33. Streaming video giant : HULU
35. “Fareed Zakaria GPS” airer : CNN
36. Up in years : OLD
37. ___ pull (sports injury) : GROIN
38. *1999 rom-com based on Shaw’s “Pygmalion” : SHE’S ALL THAT
42. *Manhattan Project site : LOS ALAMOS
44. Cook in charge of 110-Across : TIM
45. Engine part, briefly : CARB
46. “___ Tag!” : GUTEN
47. Drink served in a flute : MIMOSA
50. Razz : TAUNT
53. Popular tech review site : CNET
55. Money of Peru : SOL
56. *Lawyer : BAR MEMBER
58. *Event with rainbow flags : PRIDE PARADE
62. Went on to say : ADDED
63. Caribbean area, once: Abbr. : BWI
64. ___ jacet (phrase on tombstones) : HIC
65. Often-torchlit events : LUAUS
66. Requirement for one going into labor? : UNION
67. Impudence : LIP
68. “Speaking personally …,” in texts : IMO …
69. Supporting the idea : FOR IT
70. *Pressured : UNDER DURESS
73. *Makes wedding plans : SETS A DATE
75. Geometry textbook symbols : PIS
76. Big fund-raising effort : PUSH
77. One-stanza poem : HAIKU
78. Green day? : ST PAT’S
80. Expression in a toothpaste ad : SMILE
83. Shade of blue or green : NILE
85. “Feliz ___ Nuevo!” : ANO
86. *County that includes much of Everglades National Park : MIAMI-DADE
90. *Tidy sum : PRETTY PENNY
94. Relative of ibid. : OP CIT
95. Newspaper unit: Abbr. : COL
96. What they say about you, informally : REP
97. Ectomorphic : LEAN
98. Car collector? : OIL PAN
100. “That’s just ___ roll” : HOW I
101. “Same here” : AS AM I
103. *Hides out : GOES UNDERGROUND
107. Arrive : GET IN
108. South side? : OKRA
109. Portend : BODE
110. See 44-Across : APPLE
111. See 24-Across : UNCLE
112. Face with numbers : DIAL
113. Skin So Soft maker : AVON
114. Sadness : DOLOR
115. Cultural values : ETHOS
116. Kind of prof. : ASST
117. Agent Scully on “The X-Files” : DANA
118. “___ to me” : NEWS

Down
1. Wharton, e.g., informally : BSCHOOL
2. Maurice who painted Parisian street scenes : UTRILLO
3. Grippers for geckos : TOE PADS
4. At risk of capsizing : TIPPY
5. Scary : FEARSOME
6. Math term that uses all five vowels exactly once : EQUATION
7. Things taken home from the beach? : SUNTANS
8. Protest type : SIT-IN
9. Deep laugh : HO HO!
10. Lavish Vegas casino opened in 2009 : ARIA
11. Lowest part : DEPTHS
12. Book before Judges : JOSHUA
13. Deliberate : CALCULATED
14. Robe-wearing ruler : EMIR
15. Certain balloons : SPEECH BUBBLES
16. Smith graduate, e.g. : ALUMNA
17. Start on a righteous path : REPENT
19. CNBC interviewee, maybe : CEO
28. Ring figure? : CARAT
29. Old Spanish kingdom : CASTILE
34. Cousin of inc. : LLC
37. Muscle strengthened by a StairMaster, informally : GLUTE
39. “That guy?” : HIM?
40. My Chemical Romance and others : EMO BANDS
41. Mine transport : TRAM
43. Up in years : AGED
47. Chat room policers, informally : MODS
48. ___ Hawkins dance : SADIE
49. Spirit : ARDOR
51. Fairly recent : NEWISH
52. Some game show prizes : TRIPS
53. Peninsula in 2014 headlines : CRIMEA
54. Quitting aid, of sorts : NICOTINE PATCH
55. Relative of a skillet : SAUTE PAN
57. Fix : MEND
58. Band with a Ben & Jerry’s flavor named for it : PHISH
59. Trudge : PLOD
60. Glows : AURAS
61. “Something to Talk About” singer, 1991 : RAITT
66. Sports teams wear them, informally : UNIS
69. Dangerous rifts : FAULT LINES
70. “I could go with whatever” : UP TO YOU
71. Like Mount Rushmore at night : UPLIT
72. Kicked oneself over : RUED
74. “S.N.L.” bit : SKIT
79. Country singer Lee ___ Womack : ANN
80. Nursed : SIPPED ON
81. 1990s craze : MACARENA
82. Chatting online with, for short : IMING
84. Bedroom shutter? : EYE
86. Ukraine neighbor : MOLDOVA
87. Some : A COUPLE
88. Secrecy, with “the” : DOWN LOW
89. Those saying “somethin’,” say : ELIDERS
90. Capital that’s home to the world’s largest castle, per Guinness : PRAGUE
91. Take umbrage at : RESENT
92. Multistory temple : PAGODA
93. Small-capped mushrooms : ENOKIS
99. Out of favor : IN BAD
100. Motorcyclist’s invitation : HOP ON
102. Hero of kid-lit’s “The Phantom Tollbooth” : MILO
104. Ballpark figs. : ERAS
105. Part of the “everything” in an everything bagel : SALT
106. “Super cool!” : RAD!

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7 thoughts on “0320-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 20 Mar 16, Sunday”

  1. 46:38, no errors. Most of this puzzle was straightforward, but there were a few spots that held me up and added significantly to my time. At the end, I spent about ten minutes in the last of these: I had never heard of ENOKIS, I had written in ESTS instead of ERAS, and it didn't compute for me that one of the ingredients of a "bagel with everything" should be SALT. What should have resolved the issue immediately (and eventually did) was "Face with numbers" = DIAL, but I had developed one of those mental blocks that sits in your synapses and won't budge until you walk away from the puzzle for a bit. After I finally finished, I spent another ten minutes trying to grok the theme, which was basically impossible, since the Denver Post decided not to publish the explanatory note! (No big deal … I'll just go down later and bomb their building in Denver … 🙂 … Seriously, I wish the people responsible for putting the puzzle in my paper were forced to DO the puzzle … 🙂

  2. 50+ mins. A DNF for me today. Upper right corner and right side almost completely blank. Frustrating, because I had the remainder of the puzzle filled in with no errors.

  3. Just enough I didn't know to prevent me finishing. Really getting tired of Bible book titles as clues, as I try to stay as far away from religion as possible.

    @90% filled in, top left and top center proved impenetrable. ~45 mins.

  4. I still don't quite get the meaning of "double crossed" because, while I see crossing out of letters, I don't see DOUBLE crossing.
    –SR

  5. Ha, just got the "double" crossing meaning, crossing of double letters…, mind works slowly!
    SR

  6. A good challenging interesting grid. A couple of things I didn't know but other than that, I was able to get past the rest of it and ended up with my usual average for 21x21s.

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