0501-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 1 May 16, Sunday

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

CROSSWORD SETTER: Joel Fagliano & Byron Walden
THEME: Stellar Work … in each of today’s themed clues, we replace an asterisk with the word STAR:

22A. *Z, for one : CABLE CHANNEL (Starz, for one)
38A. *Board : RIGHT SIDE (Starboard)
42A. *Alliance member : UNITED AIRLINES (Star Alliance member)
60A. *Ted talks, say : BROKERED A SETTLEMENT (Started talks, say)
87A. *Crossed pair : ROMEO AND JULIET (Star-crossed pair)
89A. *Search party : ED MCMAHON (Star Search party)
110A. *Let’s hope : ACTING CAREER (Starlet’s hope)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 23m 57s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Grass and such : FORAGE
“Forage” is another word for “fodder”, food used for domestic animals.

7. Lifesavers, e.g. : TORI
A torus (plural “tori”) is a shape resembling a doughnut.

22. *Z, for one : CABLE CHANNEL (Starz, for one)
The Starz premium cable channel is owned by the same company that owns the Encore cable channel. Starz was launched in 1994 and mainly shows movies.

24. Behind : DERRIERE
“Derrière” is a French term meaning “back part, rear”.

25. “O grave, where is ___ victory?”: I Corinthians : THY
The seventh and eighth books of the New Testament are the First and Second Epistles to the Corinthians.

26. Neither wizards nor witches, in Harry Potter books : MUGGLES
In the world of “Harry Potter”, a “muggle” is someone born without any magical ability, and who wasn’t born into the magical world. There is also a “Squib”, who is someone born to magical parents but who has no magical abilities.

28. Language descended from Old Norse : FAROESE
The Faroe Islands (also Faeroe Islands) are a group of islands lying halfway between Scotland and Iceland. The Faroe Islands are part of the Kingdom of Denmark and were granted the power of self-governance in 1948.

31. Subject of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Medicine : POLIO
The 1954 Nobel Prize in Medicine was a awarded to John Franklin Enders, Frederick Chapman Robbins and Thomas Huckle Weller “for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue”.

34. God whose name sounds like a word meaning “understated” : LOKI
“Loki” sounds like “low-key”.

Loki is a god appearing in Norse mythology. In one story about Loki, he was punished by other gods for having caused the death of Baldr, the god of light and beauty. Loki is bound to a sharp rock using the entrails of one of his sons. A serpent drips venom which is collected in a bowl, and then his wife must empty the venom onto Loki when the bowl is full. The venom causes Loki great pain, and his writhing results in what we poor mortals experience as earthquakes.

38. *Board : RIGHT SIDE (Starboard)
The “starboard” side of a ship is her right side, a term that comes from the Old English “steobord” meaning “side on which a vessel was steered”. Apparently, old Germanic peoples constructed boats that were habitually propelled and steered by a paddle on the right side.

42. *Alliance member : UNITED AIRLINES (Star Alliance member)
The Star Alliance was the airline industry’s first code-sharing alliance, created in 1997. The American founding representative was United Airlines. The other four members of that first alliance were SAS, Thai Airways, Air Canada, and Lufthansa.

46. They may result in title changes, for short : TKOS
Technical knockout (TKO)

47. Dips made with olives, capers and anchovies : TAPENADES
The dish known as tapenade is traditionally made from olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil. The name comes from the Provençal word for capers, “tapenas”.

48. Fragrant wood : CEDAR
Cedar is used for the manufacture of some wardrobes and chests as it has long been believed that the fragrant oil in the wood is a moth-repellent. However, whether or not cedar oil is actually effective at keeping moths away seems to be in doubt.

50. Grain to crush : GRIST
When grain has been separated from its chaff, to prepare it for grinding, it is called “grist”. Indeed, the word “grist” is derived from the word “grind”. Grist can be ground into a relatively coarse meal, or into a fine flour. The names can be confusing though. For example, the grist from maize when ground to a coarse consistency is called “grits”, and when ground to a fine consistency is called “corn meal”. There is an idiomatic phrase “grist for one’s mill”, meaning something used to one’s advantage.

52. Government org. in “Breaking Bad” : DEA
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was set up in 1973 while President Nixon was in office.

“Breaking Bad” is a crime drama series that originally aired on AMC from 2008 to 2013. The show was created by Vince Gilligan who had spent many years as producer and writer of “The X-Files”. There is a “Breaking Bad” spin-off show running on AMC called “Better Call Saul” that focuses on the life of lawyer Saul Goodman. I hear that it’s pretty good …

56. Hundred, in Honduras : CIENTO
Honduras is a Central American country that used to be known as Spanish Honduras, in order to differentiate it from British Honduras that is now called Belize. “Honduras” is the Spanish word for “the depths”, which is probably a reference to deep coastal waters.

68. Reebok rival : PUMA
Puma is a German company that sells athletic shoes worldwide. The company is most famous for its line of soccer boots.

The brand name Reebok was adopted as the new company name for Foster Shoes of the UK in 1960. The name Reebok (more commonly “Rhebok”) is an Afrikaans word for an antelope, and comes from the term “roe buck”.

69. Texas city in the movie “Friday Night Lights” : ODESSA
The city of Odessa, Texas has as its symbol the jack rabbit. This is because from the thirties through the seventies the city hosted a rodeo for roping rabbits. The Humane Society applied pressure and the city did away with the tradition in 1977.

“Friday Night Lights” is a TV series about a high school football team in Texas. The television show was inspired by the book “Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream”, as well as the 2004 movie based on the book.

70. Bonn one : EIN
After WWII, Bonn was chosen as the capital of West Germany, a choice promoted by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer who was from the area. After German reunification, the capital was moved to Berlin.

72. Pro-consumer ideology : NADERISM
Consumer and political activist Ralph Nader first came to the public’s attention with the publication of his 1965 book “Unsafe at Any Speed”, which criticized the safety record of American-made automobiles. Nader also ran five times as candidate for US President, starting as a write-in candidate in 1992.

77. Jet fuel, mainly : KEROSENE
Kerosene is a mixture of hydrocarbons that is used mainly as a fuel. Kerosene is volatile, but is less flammable than gasoline. Back in the British Isles, we call the same fuel “paraffin”.

82. Stave off : AVERT
The word “stave” was originally the plural of “staff”, a wooden rod. To “stave off” originated with the concept of holding off with a staff. In the world of barrel-making, a stave is a narrow strip of wood that forms part of a barrel’s sides.

86. Red giant in the constellation Cetus : MIRA
Mira is a red giant star in the constellation Cetus. Red giants are very large stars with a relatively low mass. The atmosphere of a red giant is also very inflated and extends a long way into space so the surface of that atmosphere that we see is relatively cool, which gives it a red color. Stars are classified by their spectral characteristics, basically the color of the light they emit. As such, red giants are classified as M stars. Cool red giants are of a color beyond the usual range, and are classified as S stars.

87. *Crossed pair : ROMEO AND JULIET (Star-crossed pair)
Two lovers who are “star-crossed” are ill-fated, thwarted by the stars. The term was coined by William Shakespeare in the prologue to his play “Romeo and Juliet”.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes,
A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life

89. *Search party : ED MCMAHON (Star Search party)
“Star Search” is a TV show hosted by Ed McMahon that ran from 1983 to 1995. It was a an audition show and an opportunity for performers in many genres of entertainment get themselves seen. Included in the list of “Star Search” competitors who later made it into the big time are:

– Adam Sandler
– Beyoncé
– Brad Garrett
– Christina Aguilera
– Drew Carey
– Justin Timberlake
– Rosie O’Donnell
– Sharon Stone
– Usher

93. Drainage pit : SUMP
A “sump” has been a “pit to collect water” since the middle of the 17th century. Prior to that, a sump was a marsh or a morass.

97. Browns and Blues : TEAMS
The Cleveland Browns football team was a charter member of the All-American Football Conference, formed in 1946. Cleveland is the only NFL city that has never hosted nor sent a team to the Super Bowl.

The St. Louis Blues hockey team takes its name from the song “St. Louis Blues”, a jazz and popular music classic.

99. “House Hunters” network : HGTV
HGTV first went on air in 1994, as the “Home, Lawn and Garden Channel”. The name was shortened (the lawn was dropped) soon after, but nowadays it’s just known as HGTV.

102. Bromine and fluorine compounds : HALIDES
A halide is a chemical compound in which one of the elements is a halogen.

The halogens are a group of elements in the periodic table consisting of fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine and astatine. The term “halogen” was the name that was originally proposed for chlorine when it was first discovered. When it was passed over in favor of chlorine, the name “halogen” was given to the group of elements to which chlorine belonged.

114. Group with the 1985 #1 hit “Broken Wings” : MR MISTER
Mr. Mister was a pop rock group that was big in the eighties. The band took its name from the record “Mr. Gone” by the Weather Report. The band used to make fun of the song calling it “Mister This”, “Mister That” and eventually “Mr. Mister”.

116. Eyelike opening, in architecture : OCULUS
Oculus (plural “oculi”) is the Latin word for “eye”, and is used in architecture for a circular window.

119. “Great” Eurasian region : STEPPE
The Eurasian Steppe (also “Great Steppe”) is a huge grassland ecosystem stretching across Europe and Asia from Moldavia in the west to Manchuria in the east.

Down
2. Home of the daily World-Herald : OMAHA
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska. It is located on the Missouri River, about 10 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River When Nebraska was still a territory Omaha was its capital, but when Nebraska achieved statehood the capital was moved to the city of Lincoln.

3. Clicker for Dorothy : RUBY SLIPPER
In the 1939 movie “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, Dorothy arrives in the Land of Oz after her farmhouse is swept up in a cyclone. The farmhouse comes to ground and kills the Wicked Witch of the East. The Wicked Witch of the West arrives to claim the magical ruby slippers worn by the Wicked Witch Witch of the East. The Good Witch of the North steps in and gives the ruby slippers to Dorothy instead.

6. Abbr. that can be written with an ampersand : ETC
Back in the day, when reciting the alphabet it was common to emphasize that some letters could be used as a word in itself. One would say “A per se A, B, C, D … I per se I, J, K, L … denoting that the letters A and I are also their own words. It was common to add the & symbol at the end of the recitation, as if it were a 27th letter. So the alphabet ended with “X, Y, Z, & (and) per se and”. This “and per se and” statement was slurred to “ampersand”, giving the name that we use today for the & symbol.

7. The casino in “Casino” : TANGIERS
“Casino” is a 1995 Martin Scorsese film. One of the movie’s stars is Robert De Niro, someone who collaborated with Scorsese in eight films in all, “Casino” being the last. The Tangiers Hotel in the movie was actually the Stardust Resort and Casino, which operated in Las Vegas from 1958 until 2006.

10. Goldbrick : IDLER
A goldbrick is someone, especially a soldier, who lies down on the job, someone who shirks his or her responsibilities. “Goldbrick” arose as slang during WWII, initially meaning “to swindle, cheat”. This was a play on the old confidence trick of selling fake gold bricks.

11. The Pentagon inits. : DOD
Department of Defense (DOD)

The incredible building known as the Pentagon was built during WWII, and dedicated on January 15, 1943. It is the largest office building in the world (by floor space) covering an area of about 6.5 million square feet. As it was built during the war years, a major requirement was that it use a minimum amount of steel. So the steel shortage dictated that the building be no more than four stories in height, covering an awful lot of real estate.

13. “___ of Heaven! too gentle to be human” (line from Shelley’s “Epipsychidion”) : SERAPH
“Epipsychidion” is an 1821 poetic work by Percy Bysshe Shelley, that had the subtitle “Verses addressed to the noble and unfortunate Lady, Emilia V–, now imprisoned in the convent of –.” In reality, the work is addressed to Countess Teresa Viviani, the 19-year-old daughter of the governor of Pisa who was placed in the Convent of Saint Anna by her father. Shelly had visited the young woman at the convent several times before writing the poem.

14. Unlofty loft : GARRET
A garret is a room on the top floor of a house, under a gabled roof. “Garret” can be another word for an attic.

16. Pirate’s mate, in literature and film : SMEE
In J. M. Barrie’s play and novel about Peter Pan, Smee is one of Captain Hook’s pirates and is Hook’s right-hand man. Smee is described by Barrie as being “Irish” and “a man who stabbed without offence”. Nice guy! Captain Hook and Smee sail on the pirate ship called the Jolly Roger.

18. German vice admiral killed in W.W. I’s Battle of the Falklands : SPEE
The Battle of the Falkland Islands was an engagement in 1914 between the British Royal Navy and the Imperial German Navy. The battle started with an attempt to raid the British base at Stanley in the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. The raiding squadron was under the command of Admiral Maximilian von Spee. The raid was repulsed by a large British force that had arrived in Stanley just the day before. By the end of the engagement, the British forces suffered relatively few casualties, whereas the German forces had been decimated. Included in the list of dead were Admiral Spee and his two sons.

20. Celtic who was the M.V.P. of the 2008 N.B.A. Finals : PAUL PIERCE
Professional basketball player Paul Pierce is from Oakland, California whose nickname is “the Truth”, a moniker given to him by Shaquille O’Neal in 2001.

23. Kaiser Permanente offering : HMO
Kaiser Permanente is a health maintenance organization (HMO) based in Oakland, California. Kaiser is the largest provider of managed care in the whole country.

30. W, for one : HOTEL
The W chain of hotels is luxury brand owned by Starwood. Aimed at a younger market, the W properties feature modern, minimalist decor. There’s also a “trendy” use of the letter W throughout the hotels. For example, the pool is called “the Wet”, the laundry bag in each is “the Wash” and the concierge goes by the name “Whatever Whenever”.

31. March 14, to math lovers : PI DAY
The first three digits of the mathematical constant “pi” are 3.14, so “Pi Day” is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) every year since 1988 when it was inaugurated at the San Francisco Exploratorium. In countries where the day is usually written before the month, Pi Day is July 22nd, reflecting the more accurate approximation of pi as 22/7. Interestingly, March 14th is also Albert Einstein’s birthday.

33. Fibonacci or Galileo : PISAN
Leonardo of Pisa was a famous and respected Italian mathematician, also known as simply “Fibonacci”. He is remembered for writing about a number sequence (although he didn’t “discover” it) that later was given the name “Fibonacci sequence”. He wrote about the series of numbers in his book called “Liber Abaci”, a celebrated work that introduced Arabic numerals (i.e. 0-9) to the Western world.

Galileo Galilei may be the most famous son of the city of Pisa in Italy and was considered by many to have been the father of modern science. In the world of physics, Galileo postulated that objects of different masses would fall at the same rate provided they did so in a vacuum (so there was no air resistance). There is a story that he dropped two balls of different masses from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa to demonstrate this, but this probably never happened. Centuries later, Astronaut David Scott performed Galileo’s proposed experiment when he dropped a hammer and feather on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission and we all saw the objects hit the moon surface, at exactly the same time.

35. Casino offering, derived from the Latin for “five each” : KENO
The name “Keno” has French or Latin roots, with the French “quine” being a term for five winning numbers, and the Latin “quini” meaning “five each”. The game originated in China and was introduced into the West by Chinese immigrants who were working on the first Transcontinental Railroad in the 1800s.

41. “Cómo ___ usted?” : ESTA
“¿Cómo está usted?” is the more formal way of asking, “How are you?” in Spanish.

42. Sch. whose mascot is Paydirt Pete : UTEP
The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) was founded in 1914, originally as the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy. To this day there is a mine shaft on the campus, and the mascot of the school’s sports teams is Paydirt Pete, a prospector from the mining industry. The teams are also known as the UTEP Miners and Lady Miners.

43. Coastal desert of southern Africa : NAMIB
The Namib Desert is in Namibia, as one might expect, and and also stretches into part of Angola. It is thought to be the oldest desert in the world, having been arid for over 55 million years.

50. Wheat ___ : GERM
The germ of a cereal (like wheat and oat) is the reproductive part that germinates and grows into a new plant. A whole grain has three main parts:

– the germ, the source of the new plant
– the endosperm, the energy store of carbohydrate and protein for initial growth
– the bran, protective outer shell

62. Novelist Vonnegut : KURT
Kurt Vonnegut was an writer from Indianapolis whose most famous work is probably the novel “Slaughterhouse-Five” from 1969. The inspiration for the book was the time he spent in the US Army in WWII. After being captured during the Battle of the Bulge, Vonnegut was held as a prisoner of war in Dresden. Many of his fellow prisoners were killed during the 1945 firebombing of Dresden, but he and others survived by sheltering in an underground meat locker that had been converted to a detention facility. The Germans called the meat locker “Schlachthof Fünf”, which translates to “Slaughterhouse Five”.

63. Big Four record co. that broke up in 2012 : EMI
The Big Four recording labels were (until EMI was broken up in 2012 and absorbed by what became “the Big Three”):

1. Universal Music Group
2. Sony Music Entertainment
3. Warner Music Group
4. EMI

71. Classic hair removal brand : NEET
The hair removal product “Neet” was launched in Canada in 1901, and was also sold as “Immac”. Today it is sold under the name “Veet”.

73. Gung-ho : AVID
“Kung ho” is a Chinese expression meaning “work together, cooperate”. The anglicized version “gung ho” was adopted by a Major Evans Carlson as an expression of combined spirit for his 2nd Marine Raider Battalion during WWII. From there the term spread throughout the Marine Corps and back to America where it persists to this day.

78. Posting at JFK or DFW : ETD
Estimated time of departure (ETD)

The Idlewild Golf Course was taken over by the city of New York in 1943 and construction started on a new airport to serve the metropolis and relieve congestion at La Guardia. The Idlewild name still persists, even though the airport was named after Major General Alexander E. Anderson from the first days of the project. When the facility started operating in 1948 it was known as New York International Airport, Anderson Field. It was renamed to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in 1963, one month after the President was assassinated.

Dallas/Fort Worth Airport (DFW) is the largest hub for American Airlines, and is also the third busiest airport in the world in terms of aircraft landings and takeoffs (Chicago O’Hare is the world’s busiest, followed by Atlanta).

79. Eastern royals : RAJAS
“Raja” (also “rajah”) is word derived from Sanskrit that is used particularly in India for a monarch or princely ruler. The female form is “rani” (also “ranee”) and is used for a raja’s wife.

81. Pause word in Psalms : SELAH
“Selah” is a word that appears commonly in the Book of Psalms in the Bible. Apparently the exact meaning of the word is unclear, but it is used as an instruction in reading or singing the text.

84. Scam with three cards : MONTE
Three-card Monte is a confidence trick in which someone is goaded into betting money on the assumption that he or she can find the “money card” (usually a queen) among three cards placed face down. The “mark” who is being duped has all sorts of ways to lose and there are usually several people in on the scam, including others playing who seem to be winning.

91. Latin carol word : ADESTE
The lovely hymn “Adeste Fideles” (translated from Latin as “O Come, All Ye Faithful”) was written by one John Francis Wade in the 13th century. Well, he wrote the original four verses, with four more verses being added over time.

92. Prynne of “The Scarlet Letter” : HESTER
Hester Prynne is the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter”. When Hester is convicted by her puritanical neighbors of the crime of adultery, she is forced to wear a scarlet “A” (for “adultery”) on her clothing for the rest of her life, hence the novel’s title, “The Scarlet Letter”.

98. “Charlie’s Angels” director, 2000 : MCG
Film director Joseph McGinty Nichol is known simply as “McG”. The nickname “McG” was given to him by his mother, to avoid confusion with his uncle and grandfather who also were named Joseph. McG directed the 2000 film “Charlie’s Angels” and the 2003 sequel “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle”.

101. One of 1,288 in the book of Numbers : VERSE
The Book of Numbers in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles relates much of the journey of Moses and the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land. The title comes from the numbering of the people that is described in the beginning of the book.

104. ___ Linda, Calif. : LOMA
Loma Linda is a city in California located not far from Los Angeles. The name Loma Linda translates from Spanish as “Beautiful Hill”.

106. ___-deucy : ACEY
Acey-deucy is a fast-played variant of backgammon. Apparently the game has been a favorite with members of the armed forces since the days of WWI.

109. Some 112-Down retakers: Abbr. : SRS
(112D. Exam with a Science Reasoning section : ACT)
Senior (sr.)

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

112. Exam with a Science Reasoning section : ACT
ACT is an abbreviation for American College Testing. The ACT is an entrance exam used by many universities. It has four sections, English, Reading, Math and Science, and an optional 30-minute essay.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Grass and such : FORAGE
7. Lifesavers, e.g. : TORI
11. Turns off : DISGUSTS
19. Source of good fortune : AMULET
20. Tried to open, as a pet door : PAWED
21. Seaman’s aid : OCEAN MAP
22. *Z, for one : CABLE CHANNEL (Starz, for one)
24. Behind : DERRIERE
25. “O grave, where is ___ victory?”: I Corinthians : THY
26. Neither wizards nor witches, in Harry Potter books : MUGGLES
28. Language descended from Old Norse : FAROESE
29. Tiara accompaniment : SASH
31. Subject of the 1954 Nobel Prize in Medicine : POLIO
32. Eagerly unwrap : RIP OPEN
34. God whose name sounds like a word meaning “understated” : LOKI
36. Take its toll? : PEAL
38. *Board : RIGHT SIDE (Starboard)
42. *Alliance member : UNITED AIRLINES (Star Alliance member)
46. They may result in title changes, for short : TKOS
47. Dips made with olives, capers and anchovies : TAPENADES
48. Fragrant wood : CEDAR
50. Grain to crush : GRIST
51. Background check runner, maybe : EMPLOYER
52. Government org. in “Breaking Bad” : DEA
53. “Oh, that’s clever!” : NICE IDEA!
55. Something to be divvied up : PIE
56. Hundred, in Honduras : CIENTO
59. Stand in the shadows : LURK
60. *Ted talks, say : BROKERED A SETTLEMENT (Started talks, say)
68. Reebok rival : PUMA
69. Texas city in the movie “Friday Night Lights” : ODESSA
70. Bonn one : EIN
72. Pro-consumer ideology : NADERISM
76. In back : AFT
77. Jet fuel, mainly : KEROSENE
82. Stave off : AVERT
83. Good friend, informally : HOMIE
85. Find some advantage : GET AN EDGE
86. Red giant in the constellation Cetus : MIRA
87. *Crossed pair : ROMEO AND JULIET (Star-crossed pair)
89. *Search party : ED MCMAHON (Star Search party)
93. Drainage pit : SUMP
94. ___ example : AS AN
95. Owl’s prey : RODENTS
97. Browns and Blues : TEAMS
99. “House Hunters” network : HGTV
102. Bromine and fluorine compounds : HALIDES
105. Kind of band : ELASTIC
107. Move it : HIE
108. Boastful types : EGOTISTS
110. *Let’s hope : ACTING CAREER (Starlet’s hope)
114. Group with the 1985 #1 hit “Broken Wings” : MR MISTER
115. “___ about right” : SEEMS
116. Eyelike opening, in architecture : OCULUS
117. Ones breaking game rules? : POACHERS
118. Big buildup : HYPE
119. “Great” Eurasian region : STEPPE

Down
1. Almanac fodder : FACTS
2. Home of the daily World-Herald : OMAHA
3. Clicker for Dorothy : RUBY SLIPPER
4. Tie word : ALL
5. “Well, fancy that!” : GEE!
6. Abbr. that can be written with an ampersand : ETC
7. The casino in “Casino” : TANGIERS
8. Soccer goof : OWN GOAL
9. Kite adjunct : REEL
10. Goldbrick : IDLER
11. The Pentagon inits. : DOD
12. Crystalline weather phenomenon : ICE FOG
13. “___ of Heaven! too gentle to be human” (line from Shelley’s “Epipsychidion”) : SERAPH
14. Unlofty loft : GARRET
15. Labor pain : UNION STRIKE
16. Pirate’s mate, in literature and film : SMEE
17. Besmirches : TARS
18. German vice admiral killed in W.W. I’s Battle of the Falklands : SPEE
20. Celtic who was the M.V.P. of the 2008 N.B.A. Finals : PAUL PIERCE
23. Kaiser Permanente offering : HMO
27. Begat : SIRED
30. W, for one : HOTEL
31. March 14, to math lovers : PI DAY
33. Fibonacci or Galileo : PISAN
35. Casino offering, derived from the Latin for “five each” : KENO
37. Revenue source for Fish and Wildlife departments : LICENSE FEES
39. Jocular disclaimer : I KID
40. Spoonful, say : DOSE
41. “Cómo ___ usted?” : ESTA
42. Sch. whose mascot is Paydirt Pete : UTEP
43. Coastal desert of southern Africa : NAMIB
44. Fruity drink : ADE
45. Tops in handwriting, say : NEATEST
49. Small stream : RILL
50. Wheat ___ : GERM
52. What sharpshooters take : DEAD AIM
54. Prompt : CUE
57. Vow that’s mostly vowels : I DO
58. When golden goals happen in the N.H.L. : OTS
61. Arts page contributor : OPERA CRITIC
62. Novelist Vonnegut : KURT
63. Big Four record co. that broke up in 2012 : EMI
64. Headlong or headstrong : RASH
65. Striven : TAKEN PAINS
66. What rugged individualists seldom admit to : NEEDING HELP
67. Light shade : TINGE
71. Classic hair removal brand : NEET
72. Reputation : NAME
73. Gung-ho : AVID
74. Skin: Suffix : -DERM
75. Numbskull : MORON
78. Posting at JFK or DFW : ETD
79. Eastern royals : RAJAS
80. Heavy load : ONUS
81. Pause word in Psalms : SELAH
84. Scam with three cards : MONTE
85. Information on a sports ticket : GAME TIME
88. Exceed : OUTSTEP
90. Fashionable : MODISH
91. Latin carol word : ADESTE
92. Prynne of “The Scarlet Letter” : HESTER
96. Question mark’s key-mate : SLASH
98. “Charlie’s Angels” director, 2000 : MCG
100. Keep occupied : TIE UP
101. One of 1,288 in the book of Numbers : VERSE
102. Biodiesel fuel source : HEMP
103. Prefix with ecology or chemical : AGRO-
104. ___ Linda, Calif. : LOMA
106. ___-deucy : ACEY
109. Some 112-Down retakers: Abbr. : SRS
111. Tan neighbor, on calculators : COS
112. Exam with a Science Reasoning section : ACT
113. Wish undone : RUE

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5 thoughts on “0501-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 1 May 16, Sunday”

  1. Yet another IMPERCEPTIBLE "theme". Give it a rest, guys and gals. You're all too clever for your own good. Nobody "sees" this stuff.

    48:06 and 7 errors. I managed to get most of it right by cross-fill, because the theme clues were utterly opaque.

  2. 36:56, no errors. Enjoyed the challenge from the vague and misdirective clues. However, I concur with previous posters, the theme was indecipherable for me, and unnecessary to solve the puzzle. Only until I read Bill's explanation, did I see the theme. As always, thank you Bill for your blog. Your explanations are greatly appreciated.

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