0622-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 22 Jun 16, Wednesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Fred Piscop
THEME: Anagrams
Each of today’s themed answers are common phrases in the format x AND y, with x and y giving an anagram of a word given in the clue:

17A. What NOTICING can anagram to : GIN AND TONIC
29A. What MEDITATE can anagram to : DATE AND TIME
44A. What MARTINET can anagram to : NEAT AND TRIM
59A. What SKILLETS can anagram to : KISS AND TELL

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 9m 48s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Airline with “flying boats” in the 1930s-’40s : PAN AM
Pan Am started out as a mail and passenger service between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba in 1927. From very early in the company’s life it was the de facto representative air carrier of the United States. For many years Pan Am’s fleet was built around the Boeing 314 Clipper, a long-range flying boat that was one of the largest aircraft around at the time. Pan Am adopted the Clipper as part of its image, even using “clipper” as the call sign for its flights.

11. Rock’s Bon Jovi : JON
Jon Bon Jovi was born John Francis Bongiovi, Jr., and he is the leader of the band that took his name: Bon Jovi.

14. Virus in 2014 news : EBOLA
The Ebola virus causes a very nasty form of hemorrhagic fever. The name of the virus comes from the site of the first known outbreak, in a mission hospital in the Ebola River Valley in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The disease is transmitted from human to human by exposure to bodily fluids. In nature, the main carrier of Ebola is the fruit bat.

15. Decorative fabric : TOILE
Toile fabric can be used as upholstery, or as a wallpaper, or even as a fabric for clothing.

16. Cry with an epiphany : AHA!
An “epiphany” is an appearance or manifestation, especially of a supreme being. By extension, “epiphany” can also apply to a sudden insight or intuitive perception. The term derives from the Greek “epiphainein” meaning “to manifest, display”.

17. What NOTICING can anagram to : GIN AND TONIC
The spirit known as gin gets its unique flavor mainly from juniper berries. The name “gin” comes into English from the translation of “juniper” from either French (genièvre), Dutch (jenever) or Italian (ginepro).

The original tonic water was a fairly strong solution of the drug quinine dissolved in carbonated water. It was used in tropical areas in South Asia and Africa where malaria is rampant. The quinine has a prophylactic effect against the disease, and was formulated as “tonic water” so that it could be easily distributed. In British colonial India, the colonial types got into the habit of mixing in gin with the tonic water to make it more palatable by hiding the bitter taste of the quinine. Nowadays, the level of quinine in tonic water has been dropped, and sugar has been added.

19. California wine, for short : ZIN
Zinfandel is one of my favorite red wine varietals. It amazes me that the rich and heavy red Zinfandel comes from the same grape as does the sweet White Zinfandel.

21. Hummer’s instrument : KAZOO
The modern instrument we know today as the kazoo was invented by one Alabama Vest of Macon, Georgia in the 1800s. The kazoo first came to the public’s attention at the Georgia State Fair of 1852, when it was known as the “Down-South Submarine” (because of it’s shape, I would imagine).

24. Creditors’ holdings : LIENS
A lien is the right that one has to retain or secure someone’s property until a debt is paid. When an individual takes out a car loan, for example, the lending bank is usually a lien holder. The bank releases the lien on the car when the loan is paid in full.

37. Geraint’s beloved, in Arthurian legend : ENID
“Idylls of the King” is a cycle of twelve poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson that retells the tale of King Arthur. One of the “idylls” is the story of Geraint and Enid. This story is told in two parts: “The Marriage of Geraint” and “Geraint and Enid”. Tennyson’s Enid gave her name to the city of Enid, Oklahoma.

40. Wrinkly citrus : UGLI
The ugli fruit is a hybrid of an orange and a tangerine, first discovered growing wild in Jamaica where most ugli fruit comes from today. “UGLI” is a trademark name that is a variant of “ugly”, a nod to the fruits unsightly wrinkled rind.

42. Home of the first Dole plantation : OAHU
The Dole Plantation on Oahu is home to the Pineapple Garden Maze. The maze sits on three acres of land, and includes over two miles of paths. It is the largest maze in the world.

44. What MARTINET can anagram to : NEAT AND TRIM
A martinet is someone who is a hard taskmaster and someone who sticks to the rules. Our use of the term is said to come from Jean Martinet, an Inspector General in the army of Louis XIV of France. Martinet was a noted drill master and disciplinarian.

47. ___ judicata : RES
“Res judicata” is a term used in the law for a decided case, which translates from Latin as “a matter already judged”.

48. “Boots on the ground” advocates : HAWKS
The dove is a symbol of peace, and the hawk is a symbol of war.

49. Witty rejoinder : MOT
“Bon mot” translates from French as “good word”. We use “bon mot” (and sometimes just “mot”) to mean a quip, a witticism.

51. Botanist’s study : FLORA
The fauna is the animal life of a particular region, and the flora is that region’s plant life. The term “fauna” comes from the Roman goddess of earth and fertility who was called Fauna. Flora was the Roman goddess of plants, flowers and fertility.

53. Talismans, or the curses they protect against : EVIL EYES
The “evil eye” is a curse that is cast by giving a malicious glare.

58. Source of the Beverly Hillbillies’ wealth : OIL
“The Beverly Hillbillies” was a rags-to-riches sitcom that aired from 1962 to 1971, a creation of writer Paul Henning. Buoyed by the success of “Hillbillies”, Henning created another sitcom in 1965, one that was a complete opposite in terms of plot, the riches-to-rags story of “Green Acres”.

62. Headline-delivering org. : UPI
Founded in 1958, United Press International (UPI) was one of the biggest news agencies in the world, sending out news by wire to the major newspapers. UPI ran into trouble with the change in media formats at the end of the twentieth century and lost many of its clients as the afternoon newspapers shut down due to the advent of television news. UPI, which once employed thousands, still exists today but with just a handful of employees.

63. Bottled water brand : EVIAN
Évian-les-Bains (or simply Évian) is in the very east of France, on the shores of Lake Geneva directly across the lake from Lausanne, Switzerland. As one might imagine, Évian is the home of Évian mineral water, the most successful business in town. Personally, I can’t stand the distinctive taste of Évian water …

65. Predator of elephants, in myth : ROC
The mythical roc is a huge bird of prey, reputedly able to carry off and eat elephants. The roc was said to come from the Indian subcontinent. The supposed existence of the roc was promulgated by Marco Polo in the accounts that he published of his travels through Asia.

66. Hub : NEXUS
A nexus is a means of connection, or a center where many connections come together. “Nexus” is a Latin word meaning “that which ties or binds together”. The Latin “nexus” is the past participle of the verb “nectere” meaning “to bind”.

67. Stood on the hind legs, with “up” : RARED
Horses “rear up” on their hind legs. I think that the term “rare up” is used as well, for the same meaning, but I think that it might be slang.

Down
1. Cribbage markers : PEGS
Cribbage is a great card game that originated in 17th-century England, a creation of the poet Sir John Suckling. One of the unique features of the game is that a cribbage board with pegs is used to keep score. Here in the US, cribbage is very much associated with the submarine service, as it is a favorite game of submariners of all ranks.

3. Taboo : NO-NO
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.

5. Like Lake Mead : MAN-MADE
The reservoir on the Colorado River known as Lake Mead used to the largest reservoir in the US. Located outside Las Vegas, drought and increasing demand for water has shrunk Lake Mead so that now Lake Sakakawea on the Missouri in North Dakota has a larger surface area and volume of water.

When the magnificent Hoover Dam was completed in 1936 it was the largest hydroelectric plant in the world, as well as being the world’s largest concrete structure. The edifice was originally known as Boulder Dam, due to its location near Boulder City, Nevada. The dam was eventually named after Herbert Hoover for his role in having the dam built when he was Secretary of Commerce, and his later support as US President. There was a formal dedication ceremony held in September 1935 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the area, when only work on the powerhouse was incomplete. President Roosevelt managed to make his dedication speech without once referring to the name of his former opponent President Hoover. When the dam was finally put into service in 1936, the project was two years ahead of schedule. Those were the days …

6. Ides rebuke : ET TU?
It was Shakespeare who popularized the words “Et tu, Brute?” (And you, Brutus?), in his play “Julius Caesar”, although the phrase had been around long before he penned his drama. It’s not known what Julius Caesar actually said in real life just before he was assassinated on the steps of the Senate in Rome.

7. Not worth debating : MOOT
“To moot” is to bring up as a subject for discussion or debate. So, something that is moot is open to debate. Something that is no longer moot, is no longer worth debating. We don’t seem to be able get that right …

9. Peyton’s gridiron brother : ELI
Eli Manning plays as quarterback for the New York Giants. Eli’s brother Peyton Manning is a former quarterback for the Denver Broncos. Eli and Peyton’s father is Archie Manning, who was also a successful NFL quarterback.

11. Groundbreaking Al Jolson title role : JAZZ SINGER
The classic musical “The Jazz Singer” was released in 1927, and became the biggest box office success for the Warner Bros. to date. Famously, it was a “talkie”, and is now regarded as one of the films that signaled the impending end of the “silent era”. Star of the movie is Al Jolson, who performs six songs including “Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo’ Bye)” and “My Mammy”.

12. Neil Young song about Kent State : OHIO
Kent State University’s main campus is located in Kent, Ohio. Kent State will forever be associated with student activism and opposition to the Vietnam War in the late sixties and early seventies. The fateful day was May 4, 1970 when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on students, killing four protesters and wounding nine.

Neil Young is a singer and songwriter from Toronto, Ontario. Young is known for his solo work, as well as his earlier recordings with Buffalo Springfield and as the fourth member of Crosby, Stills & Nash. Young is also a successful movie director, although he uses the pseudonym “Bernard Shakey” for his movie work. Included in his filmography are “Human Highway” and “Greendale”.

13. Billionth: Prefix : NANO-
The prefix “nano-” is used for units of one billionth part. “Nano-” comes from the Greek “nanos” meaning “dwarf”.

18. “David Copperfield” wife : DORA
Dora Spenlow is a first wife of the title character in the Charles Dickens novel “David Copperfield”. Dickens named his own daughter Dora Annie Dickens, after Ms. Spenlow.

24. Dorothy of “Road” movies : LAMOUR
The actress Dorothy Lamour is best known for co-starring in the “Road to …” series of films with Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Lamour was born Mary Slaton in New Orleans, and was crowned Miss New Orleans in 1931. She moved to Hollywood in 1936, and starred in her first “Road to …” movie in 1940.

25. Smithsonian, e.g.: Abbr. : INST
The Smithsonian Institution was established in 1846 as the United States National Museum. The institution was renamed in honor of British scientist James Smithson who indirectly provided the initial funding. The funds were collected from England on the orders of President Andrew Jackson, and arrived in the form of 105 sacks containing 104,960 gold sovereigns.

27. Like a merino : OVINE
The Merino breed of sheep is prized for the soft quality of its wool.

30. Pirelli patterns : TREADS
Pirelli is a tire manufacturer located in Milan, Italy. Among its many claims to fame, Pirelli is known for the Pirelli Calendar, the company’s limited-distribution trade calendar that has been produced since the mid-sixties.

31. Arachnid leg count : EIGHT
Arachnids are creatures with eight jointed legs. The name of the class Arachnida comes from the Greek “aráchnē” meaning “spider”.

32. Pooh’s creator : MILNE
A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” has been translated into many languages, and is one of the few modern titles for which there is a Latin version. Alexander Lenard had “Winnie ille Pu” published in 1958, and two years later it made it to the New York Times Best Seller List, the only book in the Latin language ever to get that honor.

35. Shoulder-slung synthesizer : KEYTAR
A “keytar” is a lightweight musical keyboard that is worn around the neck with a strap like a guitar. “Keytar” is a slang term and is a portmanteau of “keyboard” and “guitar”. The instruments are more properly called “strap-on keyboards” or something similar.

39. Knock on the noodle : BONK
“Noodle” and “bean” are slang terms for the head.

51. Near-impossible N.F.L. point total : FOUR
A four-point total can be racked up by a football team as a result of two safety plays, each of which earns two points. Safeties can be scored in several ways, such as a foul committed by the offense in their own end zone. Apparently, a four-point total has only be recorded once in NFL history, in 1923, when the Racine Legion beat the Chicago Cardinals 10-4.

52. Fat removal, briefly : LIPO
Liposuction dates back to the 1920s when it was developed by a surgeon in France. However, the procedure quickly lost favor when a French model developed gangrene after surgery. As a result it wasn’t until the mid-seventies that modern liposuction took off, after being popularized by two Italian-American surgeons in Rome.

53. Twin of Jacob : ESAU
Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When their mother Rebekah gave birth to the twins “the first emerged red and hairy all over (Esau), with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out (Jacob)”. As Esau was the first born, he was entitled to inherit his father’s wealth (it was his “birthright”). Instead, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for the price of a “mess of pottage” (a meal of lentils).

54. U-Haul rentals : VANS
The U-Haul company was founded by married couple Leonard Shoen and Anna Mary Carty in Ridgefield, Washington in 1945. The Shoens used $5,000 of seed money to build trailers in their garage, and then cleverly recruited gas station owners as franchisees with whom they would split the rental revenue. There are now about 15,000 U-Haul dealers across the country.

55. Orbital period : YEAR
A year is defined as the time it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun.

57. Flexible Flyer, e.g. : SLED
“Flexible flyer” is now a generic term for a steel runner sled that can be steered with the feet. The original Flexible Flyer was patented in 1889.

61. Henry VIII wife count : SIX
Famously, King Henry VIII had six queens consort. There is a rhyme that is commonly used to help remember the fates of each of his wives, which goes:

King Henry the Eighth, to six wives he was wedded. One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded.

The use of the term “divorce” isn’t quite accurate though, as in fact Henry had two of his marriages annulled. His wives (and their fates) were:

– Catherine of Aragon (Annulled),
– Anne Boleyn (Beheaded),
– Jane Seymour (Died)
– Anne of Cleves (Annulled),
– Catherine Howard (Beheaded),
– Catherine Parr (Survived).

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Airline with “flying boats” in the 1930s-’40s : PAN AM
6. Certain war zone correspondent : EMBED
11. Rock’s Bon Jovi : JON
14. Virus in 2014 news : EBOLA
15. Decorative fabric : TOILE
16. Cry with an epiphany : AHA!
17. What NOTICING can anagram to : GIN AND TONIC
19. California wine, for short : ZIN
20. Leave in a huff : STORM OUT
21. Hummer’s instrument : KAZOO
23. Scratch up : MAR
24. Creditors’ holdings : LIENS
26. Question a magician won’t answer : HOW?
29. What MEDITATE can anagram to : DATE AND TIME
34. Bring out : EVOKE
36. Optician’s display : RIMS
37. Geraint’s beloved, in Arthurian legend : ENID
38. Mucky ground : MIRE
39. Sired, biblically : BEGOT
40. Wrinkly citrus : UGLI
41. Pitch-black : INKY
42. Home of the first Dole plantation : OAHU
43. Pooped out : SPENT
44. What MARTINET can anagram to : NEAT AND TRIM
47. ___ judicata : RES
48. “Boots on the ground” advocates : HAWKS
49. Witty rejoinder : MOT
51. Botanist’s study : FLORA
53. Talismans, or the curses they protect against : EVIL EYES
58. Source of the Beverly Hillbillies’ wealth : OIL
59. What SKILLETS can anagram to : KISS AND TELL
62. Headline-delivering org. : UPI
63. Bottled water brand : EVIAN
64. Remove from memory : ERASE
65. Predator of elephants, in myth : ROC
66. Hub : NEXUS
67. Stood on the hind legs, with “up” : RARED

Down
1. Cribbage markers : PEGS
2. Not very much : A BIT
3. Taboo : NO-NO
4. Function under “Clock” on an iPhone : ALARM
5. Like Lake Mead : MAN-MADE
6. Ides rebuke : ET TU?
7. Not worth debating : MOOT
8. Recyclables holder : BIN
9. Peyton’s gridiron brother : ELI
10. Knocked to the canvas : DECKED
11. Groundbreaking Al Jolson title role : JAZZ SINGER
12. Neil Young song about Kent State : OHIO
13. Billionth: Prefix : NANO-
18. “David Copperfield” wife : DORA
22. Poker order : ANTE UP
24. Dorothy of “Road” movies : LAMOUR
25. Smithsonian, e.g.: Abbr. : INST
26. Leave no escape for : HEM IN
27. Like a merino : OVINE
28. Sleep-deprived employee, maybe : WORKAHOLIC
30. Pirelli patterns : TREADS
31. Arachnid leg count : EIGHT
32. Pooh’s creator : MILNE
33. Cuts and pastes : EDITS
35. Shoulder-slung synthesizer : KEYTAR
39. Knock on the noodle : BONK
43. Do a slow burn : SMOLDER
45. Come alive : AWAKEN
46. Poker announcement : I’M IN
50. Prefix meaning 51-Down : TETRA-
51. Near-impossible N.F.L. point total : FOUR
52. Fat removal, briefly : LIPO
53. Twin of Jacob : ESAU
54. U-Haul rentals : VANS
55. Orbital period : YEAR
56. Choice word : ELSE
57. Flexible Flyer, e.g. : SLED
60. “___ been had!” : I’VE
61. Henry VIII wife count : SIX

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8 thoughts on “0622-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 22 Jun 16, Wednesday”

  1. 9D: Peyton Manning has retired as of March 2016. He is no longer the quarterback of the Denver Broncos.

  2. No errors. Clever theme. I almost never do anagrams but I am impressed that the setter could find these terms hidden in these common words.

    Bill, that 67Across (RARED) made me wonder about it also. I notice that your comment about it is pretty much non-commital also. My thinking is that it is more of a mispronunciation of REARED than slang. Southern dialect in the US does a lot of this. Probably hearkens back to the days when the average person could neither read nor write. I think I recall hearing this pronunciation when I was growing up in Oklahoma but it was not considered to be good English.

  3. 11:22, no errors. Agree with Dale that the twist on the anagram theme was clever. Took me a while to figure out why the clue word had 8 letters, but the grid entry required 11.

    Got RARED entirely from the cross words. Agree with Dale (again) that the word would be used when the author is conveying a speakers' accent, rather than using it as an alternate spelling. I read 'Huckleberry Finn' for the first time a couple of months ago. Mark Twain filled the book with examples of this: non-dictionary words, deliberately misspelled to convey a speakers' accent.

  4. No…. RARED is just plain **wrong**. It's not an alternate spelling.

    10:18, two mistakes: couldn't "see" MOT without the word "bon" that usually goes with it, and TETRA didn't jump out at me either; I was mistakenly assuming tetra- was five-. Oh well. Decent Wednesday challenge, just a bit of sloppy editing.

  5. Five weeks ago, iPad: 9:36, no errors. Today, pen and paper: 8:36, no errors.

    I grew up in northern Iowa and the phrases "rared up" and "rared back" were certainly in use there. (In fact, if I close my eyes, I can hear my grandfather, who was a great story-teller, saying either one.) Also, Google found me a couple of sites with posts about the issue, and … on a hunch, I just checked my compact edition of the OED and found "rare" listed as an "obsolete form of rear". So, while I agree that it's an odd spelling, I didn't find it to be *that* odd …

  6. P.S. Surely our expressions of "raring to go" or "rarin' to go" would come from the comparison to an eager horse "raring up." We don't say "rearing to go". Or do we? Maybe some of us do. I guess that's the whole point here.

  7. Clues for the theme entries are grammatically incorrect..should read ''anagrams to'.

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