0617-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 17 Jun 16, Friday

QuickLinks:
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: Zhouqin Burnikel
THEME: None
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 9m 21s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1…Longtime “Mike & Mike” airer..ESPN RADIO
“Mike & Mike” is a morning sports show that airs primarily on ESPN radio, but is also simulcast on ESPN2 television. Hosts of the show are Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic.

21…”Gimme a break” product..KIT KAT
I grew up eating Kit Kat bars as a kid, as the chocolate confection has been around since the thirties. Kit Kats didn’t hit the shelves in the US until the seventies. I’ve seen new varieties of Kit Kat over in the UK, such as an orange-flavored version, but haven’t seen anything like that over here.

22…First name in 39-Down research..DIAN
(39D…Person, e.g…PRIMATE)
Dian Fossey carried out her famous study of gorilla populations in the mountain forests of Rwanda (NB: it was Jane Goodall that worked with chimpanzees). Sadly, Fossey was found dead in her cabin in Rwanda in 1986, murdered in her bedroom, her skull split open by a machete. The crime was never solved.

24…God with green skin..OSIRIS
Osiris was the Egyptian god of the underworld. Osiris was the son of Geb the Earth god, and Nut the sky goddess. His wife Isis was also his sister. Osiris was killed and mutilated by Set, his own brother. Isis reassembled Osiris and revived him, just long enough that they could conceive their son Horus.

26…Where “crossword” is “korsord”: Abbr…SWE
The country of Sweden emerged during the Middle Ages, and became one of the great powers of Europe in the days of the Swedish Empire in 17th and early 18th century. Since then Sweden’s influence has waned. What was the eastern part of Sweden was lost to Russia in the early 1800s, and is now modern-day Finland. In the 20th century Sweden has adopted a very non-aggressive stance and was neutral in both World Wars. Sweden is not a member of NATO, but is a member of the European Union, although the country does not use the euro as its currency.

29…With 10-Across, player that the Broncos replaced with Peyton Manning..TIM
(10A…See 29-Across..TEBOW)
Tim Tebow is a former quarterback who played mainly for the Denver Broncos and New York Jets. Tebow’s relatively short professional career followed a very successful college career during which he became the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.

30…Like ___ of corn (really easy)..A CAN
The phrase “ can of corn” is used in baseball for a high, easy ball to catch. The exact etymology of the expression isn’t completely clear, but the most popular view is that refers to the old practice of a greengrocer using a hook on a stick to get hold of a can of corn from a high shelf. The hook would cause the can to topple off the shelf, an easy catch for the greengrocer below.

31…Something given to Apple’s Siri..VOICE COMMAND
Siri is software application that works with Apple’s iOS operating system. “Siri” is an acronym standing for Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface. You’ve probably seen the ads on television, with folks talking to their iPhones asking for information and responding with a voice. I hear that Google is a little scared by Siri, as Siri is non-visual. There’s no need to touch a screen or a keyboard to work with Siri, no opportunity to click on one of Google’s ads! By the way, voice-over artist Susan Bennett revealed herself as the female American voice of Siri not that long ago. The British version of Siri is called Daniel, and the Australian version is called Karen. Also, “Siri” is a Norwegian name meaning “beautiful woman who leads you to victory”, and was the name the developer had chosen for his first child.

38…Samsung Galaxy rival..WINDOWS PHONE
A Windows phone is one that uses the Windows Phone mobile operating system (as opposed to Google’s Android or Apple’s iOS).

The Galaxy is a series of mobile computing devices made by Samsung that was introduced in 2009.

40…Tabula ___..RASA
Tabula rasa (plural: tabulae rasae) is the idea that people are born with a “blank slate”, and that knowledge comes from experience and perception.

42…Mountain climbers?..T-BARS
A T-bar is a type of ski lift on which the skiers are pulled up the hill in pairs, with each pair standing (not sitting!) either side of T-shaped metal bar. The bar is placed behind the thighs, pulling along the skiers as they remain standing on their skis (hopefully!). There’s also a J-bar, a similar device, but with each J-shaped bar used by one skier at a time.

47…Hub for All Nippon Airways..NARITA
Plans were put together for the construction of Narita International Airport back in 1966. However, the airport was not a popular addition to the metropolis in some quarters and demonstrations, often violent, delayed the project. Originally planned for completion in 1971, the airport didn’t open until 1978. The opening ceremony was attended by about 6,000 protesters and 14,000 security police.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is a Japanese airline, second in size only to Japan Airlines (JAL).

50…Sports great with the 1993 memoir “Days of Grace”..ASHE
The great American tennis player Arthur Ashe spent the last years of his life writing his memoir called “Days of Grace”. He finished the manuscript just a few days before he passed away, dying from AIDS caused by a tainted blood transfusion.

51…Place for billiards or bingo..PARLOR
We tend to use the term “billiards” in the US to refer to games like pool. The earlier game of English billiards is still quite common in the UK and Australia. It is played on the larger snooker table, and involves the use of just two cue balls and one red ball. I used to love the game …

53…Forum rule enforcers, for short..MODS
Moderators (mods) enforce the rules in Internet fora/forums.

55…Neptune vis-à-vis Saturn..SON
In Roman mythology, the gods Saturn and Ops formed a union that produced Jupiter (Greek Zeus), Juno (Greek Hera), Neptune, Pluto and Glauca.

56…Fajita option..STEAK
“Fajita” is a Tex-Mex term that refers to grilled meat served on a tortilla. The Mexican term “fajita” is used to describe a small strip of chicken or beef. Nowadays, fajitas are often served on a sizzling platter with the tortillas and condiments on the side.

57…Halves of twinsets..CARDIGANS
The article of clothing known as a cardigan is named after the British Army Major General James Brudenell, the 7th Earl of Cardigan. Apparently, the cardigan’s design is similar to the a knitted wool waistcoat that was worn by officers during the Crimean War in which the Earl of Cardigan played a major role.

59…Early growth areas..UTERI
The Latin “uterus” (plural “uteri”) translates as both “womb” and “belly”. The Latin word was derived from the Greek “hystera” also meaning womb, which gives us the words “hysterectomy”, and “hysterical”.

60…Assurance that you can get bread at a store..ATM INSIDE
The use of the word “bread” as a slang term for money dates back to the 1940s, and is derived from the term “breadwinner”, meaning the person in the house who puts bread on the table, brings in the money.

61…One with eye patches..PANDA
Taxonomic classification of the giant panda has been a subject of great debate for years, the main question being whether it belongs to the bear or raccoon family. The accepted opinion these days, based on molecular studies, seems to be that the panda is in fact a true bear.

Down
1…Tabasco, por ejemplo..ESTADO
Tabasco is one of Mexico’s 31 states (estados), and is located in the very southeast of the country.

4…Hanoi-to-Beijing dir…NNE
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.

The city of Beijing in China was given its name in 1403, with “Beijing” chosen as it translates as “Northern Capital”. The name distinguished it from the city of Nanjing, which name translates as “Southern Capital”.

7…Makes a dead duck..DOOMS
A “dead duck” is something beyond redemption.

10…Actress Polo and others..TERIS
Teri Polo’s most prominent role on the big screen was Pam Focker in “Meet the Fockers” and its sequel. Pam is the wife of the character played by Ben Stiller. Polo also played the wife of Presidential candidate Matt Santos in “The West Wing”.

12…Project Gutenberg job..BOOK SCAN
Project Gutenberg is a volunteer program that started in 1971 with the aim of digitizing and archiving cultural works of significance. The collection of over 50,000 works comprises the full text of public domain books in ebook format.

13…Senators’ supporters, largely..OTTAWANS
The Senators are the NHL hockey team in Ottawa, Canada. The current team, founded in the 1992-93 season, is the second NHL team in the city to use the name “Senators”. The original team was founded in 1917 and had a very successful run until the league expanded into the US in the late twenties. The cost of operating in what became the smallest NHL city eventually drove the Senators to St. Louis where they played for a year as the Eagles before finally folding.

14…Home to the Royal Opera House..WEST END
The Royal Opera House is located in Covent Garden in the West End of London. The Opera House is home to both the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet, as well as the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. The institution was founded in 1728 as the Theatre Royal, although the original building was destroyed by fire in 1808. The second Theater Royal opened on the site the following year, but it was also lost in a fire, in 1856. The current building opened in 1858, and was renamed to the Royal Opera House in 1892.

21…Wear for Japan’s Coming of Age Day..KIMONO
The lovely Japanese kimono is a garment worn by men, women and children. The word “kimono” translates simply as “thing to wear”, with “ki” meaning “wear” and “mono” meaning “thing”.

The age of majority in Japan is 20 years. There is an annual holiday held in the second Monday of January to congratulate those who have reached the age of adulthood, called Coming of Age Day.

25…Big name in projectors..RICOH
Ricoh is a Japanese company that started out in 1936 and by the year 2000 was the biggest manufacturer of copiers in the world. The company is also well known as a supplier of cameras. The most successful of Ricoh’s lines of cameras is the compact model called a Caplio.

28…Big name in mowers..TORO
Toro is a manufacturer of mainly lawn mowers and snow removal equipment based in Bloomington, Minnesota. The company was started in 1914 to build tractor engines.

30…One multiplying by division..AMOEBA
An ameba (or “amoeba”, as we spell it back in Ireland) is a single-celled microorganism. The name comes from the Greek “amoibe”, meaning change. The name is quite apt, as the cell changes shape readily as the ameba moves, eats and reproduces.

33…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.

34…Pristine..MINT
Something described as “pristine” has its original purity, is uncorrupted.

35…Panini bread..CIABATTA
The Italian white bread known as ciabatta is a favorite of mine. “Ciabatta” is Italian for “slipper”, a reference to the shape of the traditional loaf. The simple recipe, with ingredients limited to wheat flour, water, salt and yeast, only dates to 1976 when it was created by a baker in Verona, as something to compete with the French baguette.

In Italy, a sandwich made from sliced bread is called a “tramezzino”, while sandwiches made from non-sliced breads are called “panini” (singular “panino”). We’ve imported the term “panini” into English to mean a pressed and toasted sandwich.

39…Person, e.g…PRIMATE
Primates are mammals, many of whom are omnivorous and make good use of their hands. They also have larger brains relative to their body size, compared to other animals. The order Primates includes apes, lemurs, baboons and humans.

44…Girl in a Beach Boys hit..RHONDA
“Help Me, Rhonda” is a Beach Boys hit written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love, released in 1965. When the song was first issued as a track on the album “Today!”, the song was titled “Help Me, Ronda” (note the spelling of “Ronda”). When the song was released as a single a month later, the title used the spelling with which we are familiar: “Help Me, Rhonda”.

47…Lumia smartphone launcher..NOKIA
I do enjoy classical guitar music, but there isn’t a huge choice on CD. There is one very special piece called “Gran Vals” by Francisco Tárrega, written in 1902. This piece has a unique reputation as it contains a phrase that it is the most listened to piece of music in the whole world. Just a few bars into the work one can hear the omnipresent Nokia ring tone!

48…The “Velvet” half of jazz’s “Velvet & Brass”..TORME
Mel Tormé was a jazz singer, with a quality of voice that earned him the nickname “The Velvet Fog”. Tormé also wrote a few books, and did a lot of acting. He was the co-author of the Christmas classic known as “The Christmas Song”, which starts out with the line “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire …”

“Velvet & Brass” is an album released in 1995 by Mel Tormé and Rob McConnell’s Boss Brass big band.

52…Fatten..LARD
Fat, when extracted from the carcass of an animal, is called “suet”. Untreated suet decomposes at room temperature quite easily so it has to be “rendered” or purified to make it stable. Rendered fat from pigs is what we call “lard”. Rendered beef or mutton fat is known as “tallow”.

54…Things laid on scapegoats..SINS
A “scapegoat” is a person chosen to take the blame in place of others. The term comes from the Bible’s Book of Leviticus, which describes a goat that was cast into the desert along with the sins of the community.

57…Hotel waiter?..CAB
A hansom cab is a very specific design of horse and buggy that was patented by Joseph Hansom in 1834 in England. The “cab” in the name is short for “cabriolet”, an earlier design of carriage on which the hansom was based. It’s from “hansom cab” that we get our modern term “cab”.

58…Fed. purchasing agency..GSA
The US Government’s General Services Administration (GSA), as the name suggests, provides general services to other federal agencies. So for example, the GSA manages office space for the other agencies, and transportation.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1…Longtime “Mike & Mike” airer..ESPN RADIO
10…See 29-Across..TEBOW
15…Utterly..STONE-COLD
16…Not act conservatively..EMOTE
17…Sets in..TAKES HOLD
18…Widespread unrest..RIOTS
19…Got on a roll?..ATE
20…Plot element..TOMB
21…”Gimme a break” product..KIT KAT
22…First name in 39-Down research..DIAN
24…God with green skin..OSIRIS
26…Where “crossword” is “korsord”: Abbr…SWE
27…Good-sized combo..OCTET
29…With 10-Across, player that the Broncos replaced with Peyton Manning..TIM
30…Like ___ of corn (really easy)..A CAN
31…Something given to Apple’s Siri..VOICE COMMAND
35…Like much locker room language..COARSE
37…Things to cry over?..ONIONS
38…Samsung Galaxy rival..WINDOWS PHONE
40…Tabula ___..RASA
41…Audio receiver..EAR
42…Mountain climbers?..T-BARS
46…Exemplar of ease..ABC
47…Hub for All Nippon Airways..NARITA
50…Sports great with the 1993 memoir “Days of Grace”..ASHE
51…Place for billiards or bingo..PARLOR
53…Forum rule enforcers, for short..MODS
55…Neptune vis-à-vis Saturn..SON
56…Fajita option..STEAK
57…Halves of twinsets..CARDIGANS
59…Early growth areas..UTERI
60…Assurance that you can get bread at a store..ATM INSIDE
61…One with eye patches..PANDA
62…Well-rooted course?..BEET SALAD

Down
1…Tabasco, por ejemplo..ESTADO
2…Reception annoyance..STATIC
3…Nudge..POKE AT
4…Hanoi-to-Beijing dir…NNE
5…Chill out..REST
6…Potential reaction to a cat..ACHOO
7…Makes a dead duck..DOOMS
8…”Sure, tell me”..I’LL BITE
9…Matchless?..ODD
10…Actress Polo and others..TERIS
11…Shoot out..EMIT
12…Project Gutenberg job..BOOK SCAN
13…Senators’ supporters, largely..OTTAWANS
14…Home to the Royal Opera House..WEST END
21…Wear for Japan’s Coming of Age Day..KIMONO
23…State with the most mountain ranges..NEVADA
25…Big name in projectors..RICOH
28…Big name in mowers..TORO
30…One multiplying by division..AMOEBA
32…”Really!”..I SWEAR!
33…French film award..CESAR
34…Pristine..MINT
35…Panini bread..CIABATTA
36…Not in real life, say..ON SCREEN
38…Finishes..WRAPS UP
39…Person, e.g…PRIMATE
43…Go after..ASSAIL
44…Girl in a Beach Boys hit..RHONDA
45…Saw, say..SENSED
47…Lumia smartphone launcher..NOKIA
48…The “Velvet” half of jazz’s “Velvet & Brass”..TORME
49…”___ to the list”..ADD IT
52…Fatten..LARD
54…Things laid on scapegoats..SINS
57…Hotel waiter?..CAB
58…Fed. purchasing agency..GSA

Return to top of page

9 thoughts on “0617-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 17 Jun 16, Friday”

  1. I finished this puzzle with no errors, but it took me 37 minutes and 14 seconds on my iPad! And I thought it was genuinely difficult. I hope I'm not the only one who had some trouble with it. (Perhaps that's what the Germans mean by "Schadenfreude"? … 🙂

    After finishing the puzzle last night (about 10 PM here in Colorado), I was exhausted and went to bed; about 2:40 AM, I woke up, went outside, sat in a chair on my patio, and stared up at the sky. During the next ten minutes, I saw no fewer than three artificial satellites pass overhead (only one of which I have been able to identify – Cosmos 1238). I also watched a very industrious bat who was probably devouring many carriers of the West Nile and Zika viruses (at least I hope that's what it was doing) . And I saw a couple of curious flashes of light in Cassiopeia (the big "W" constellation) that was either a spent rocket body tumbling end over end or a rather odd variable star or a supernova or … a member of some alien civilization trying to send me a message (probably complaining about the rebus in a recent NYT puzzle … 🙂

    Now that I'm doing the puzzles as they appear in the Times, rather than in syndication, this blog is as informative and useful as ever, but it's a bit lonely …

  2. My 28:44 time should make you feel a bit better than Bill's sub ten minute sprint. No errors. There seemed to be several entries where multiple answers would have fit. I had forgotten about the TIM TEBOW sting with the Broncos, so I entered TOM in 29A, and then JIM, before getting TEBOW in 10A. Also had difficulty connecting the Senators with OTTOWANS.

    New earworm for today is the 'Gimme a break' jingle for KITKAT bars.

  3. I could only complete half of this cynically-clued puzzle. 60 Across was almost unforgivable, what with the large number of other clues marked with the "?" ending that tips you off that there's some word trickery at work. "Bread" meaning money is well old enough that it's not slang anymore, and thus should have been tipped off. 62 Across' clue isn't much better. Too "cute" by half, and that of course makes the puzzle twice more difficult, what with the editors working against you, trying to increase the odds you can't finish.

    I like a [fair] challenge, but the puzzles of the last two days are really annoying. I'm waiting for the first puzzle to appear where all the clues just have nothing at all to do with the answers, "just to throw you off".

  4. Five weeks on, paper and pen: still 16:13. Not an easy puzzle (for me) … and yes, Bruce, I do appreciate you posting your time, even if you did beat me … 🙂 … and, yes, Bill's time was truly phenomenal … 🙂

    An enjoyable slog …

  5. I love Bills comments and am astounded by his solving times! He must be surrounded by weighty reference tomes as he sails through the clues!

  6. Nope, no weighty reference tomes … I'm sure that for Bill, as for most of us here, using reference materials to solve a puzzle is a no-no. (In fact, if you think about it, you couldn't possibly achieve a time under 10 minutes if you had to stop and look very many things up.) So … one more thing to be amazed by … the answers come out of his head! … 🙂

  7. We thought this was a truly difficult puzzle, but the absence of a rebus and obscure directors or songs let us use our noodles to solve it, which we did without looking anything up. BTW, we definitely DO look stuff up when we can't finish the puzzle. We don't regard it as cheating, but we don't take full credit for solving the puzzle if we have to look anything up. Surprisingly, looking up just one word often leads to finding several others.

    And we don't curse the setters when the clues are obscure. Part of the challenge for us is figuring out what the stranger clues might mean. What really bugs us is hard-to-figure-out rebuses and straightforward clues to answers that we never heard of (e.g. directors of plays from ten years ago).

  8. BTW, we think Bill uses some sort of Irish/Alien timepiece or something. Nobody is able to solve puzzles that quickly if earth time is used. 😉

Comments are closed.