0627-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 27 Jun 16, Monday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Kevan Choset
THEME: Lives of Ease
Today’s themed answers are celebrities whose names use the letter E, but no other vowel:

59A. Carefree existences … or, punnily, what 17-, 27- and 45-Across have : LIVES OF EASE
(or “Lives of Es”)
17A. 1940s-’50s Dodgers great who lent support to Jackie Robinson : PEE WEE REESE
27A. Comedian who hosted the 2014 Oscars : ELLEN DEGENERES
45A. Actress with the classic line “You had me at hello” : RENEE ZELLWEGER

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 47s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Spanish red wine : RIOJA
Rioja wines come from the province of La Rioja in Northern Spain. In my days living back in Europe, Rioja wines were noted for their heavy oaky flavors and it wasn’t uncommon to order a “rough Rioja” when out for dinner of an evening.

6. Taters : SPUDS
The word “spud” is used as a slang term for a potato and was first recorded in the mid-1800s, in New Zealand would you believe?

11. Insult, slangily : DIS
“Dis” is a slang term meaning “insult” that originated in the eighties. It is a shortened form of “disrespect” or “dismiss”.

14. Actor Ed who voiced Carl Fredricksen in “Up” : ASNER
“Up” is the tenth movie released by Pixar studios, featuring wonderful animation as we have come to expect from Pixar. The film earned itself two Academy Awards. The main voice actor is Ed Asner, whose animated persona as Carl Fredricksen was created to resemble Spencer Tracy, as Tracy appeared in his last film, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”.

15. Tim ___, N.F.L. player known for kneeling in prayer : 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.

17. 1940s-’50s Dodgers great who lent support to Jackie Robinson : PEE WEE REESE
Pee Wee Reese was a shortstop who played his professional career with the Brooklyn and LA Dodgers. Reese is remembered not only for his skill on the field, but for his very visible support for teammate Jackie Robinson, who famously struggled to be accepted as the first African-American player in the majors. As he was an outstanding marbles player as a child, Reese was given the nickname “pee wee” after the name for a small marble.

21. Teri ___, Best Supporting Actress nominee for “Tootsie” : GARR
The lovely Teri Garr had a whole host of minor roles in her youth, including appearances in nine Elvis movies. Garr’s big break came with the role of Inga in “Young Frankenstein”, and her supporting role in “Tootsie” earned Garr an Academy Award nomination. Sadly, Teri Garr suffers from multiple sclerosis. She is a National Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

“Tootsie” is a hilarious 1982 comedy starring Dustin Hoffman in the title role, a male actor who adopts a female identity in order to land an acting job. Jessica Lange won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in the film. “Tootsie” was also provided Geena Davis with her first movie role.

22. “Dallas” family name : EWING
The TV soap “Dallas” revolved around the Ewings family. The series that ran for 13 years was originally intended as a five-part mini-series, with the main characters being newlyweds Bobby and Pam Ewing. But, the devious character in the piece, Bobby’s brother J. R., became so popular with audiences that the series as extended with J. R. at the center of the story. The original show ran from 1978 to 1991, and a revival was made starting in 2012. The new version of “Dallas” included some of the old characters, such as Bobby and Pam Ewing, as well as J.R. Larry Hagman, who played J.R. Ewing, passed away at the end of 2012.

26. Australian gem export : OPAL
97% of the world’s opals come from Australia, so it’s no surprise perhaps that the opal is the national gemstone of the country. The state of South Australia provides the bulk of the world’s production, about 80%.

27. Comedian who hosted the 2014 Oscars : ELLEN DEGENERES
Ellen DeGeneres is a very, very successful TV personality, having parlayed her career in stand-up comedy into lucrative gigs as an actress and talk show host. Back in 1997 DeGeneres chose the “Oprah Winfrey Show” to announce that she was a lesbian. Her character on “The Ellen Show” also came out as a lesbian in a scene with her therapist, who was played by Oprah Winfrey. Nice twist!

33. Egypt’s capital : CAIRO
Cairo is the capital city of Egypt. It is the largest city on the continent of Africa and is nicknamed “The City of a Thousand Minarets” because of its impressive skyline replete with Islamic architecture. The name “Cairo” is a European corruption of the city’s original name in Arabic, “Al-Qahira”.

34. Sent back to a lower court : REMANDED
“To remand” is to send back. In the law, the term can mean to send back into custody, or to send back a case to a lower court.

36. “The Addams Family” cousin : ITT
In the television sitcom “The Addams Family”, the family had a frequent visitor called Cousin Itt. Itt is a short man with long hair that runs from his head to the floor. Cousin Itt was played by Italian actor Felix Silla.

They’re creepy and they’re kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They’re altogether ooky,
The Addams Family.

39. I, to a psychologist : EGO
Sigmund Freud created a structural model of the human psyche, breaking it into three parts: the id, the ego, and the super-ego. The id is that part of the psyche containing the basic instinctual drives. The ego seeks to please the id by causing realistic behavior that benefits the individual. The super-ego almost has a parental role, contradicting the id by introducing critical thinking and morals to behavioral choices.

45. Actress with the classic line “You had me at hello” : RENEE ZELLWEGER
Renée Zellweger’s big break came in the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire”. A few years later, Zellweger followed that up with a string of successes in “Bridget Jones Diary” (2001), “Chicago” (2002) and “Cold Mountain” (2003). My wife and I love watching her play Bridget Jones, and as someone coming from the British Isles, I have to say that Zellweger does a remarkable job with the accent. She worked hard to perfect that accent, and of course she had a voice coach. She also went “undercover” and worked as a temp in an office for three weeks fine-tuning her skills.

“Jerry Maguire” is a 1996 film starring Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Renée Zellweger. The title character is played by Cruise, and is a sports agent. There are several lines oft quoted from “Jerry Maguire” including:

– “Show me the money!”
– “You complete me”
– “You had me at ‘hello’”

49. News anchor Lester : HOLT
Lester Holt is a television journalist. Holt is anchor for the weekend editions of the shows “Today” and “Nightly News” on NBC, as well as the show “Dateline NBC”.

50. “___ español?” : HABLA
“Habla español?” is Spanish for “Do you speak Spanish?”

52. ___ Spring (2010s movement) : ARAB
The term “Arab Spring” has been applied to the wave of protests, riots and civil wars that impacted the Arab world for 2010 to 2012. The uprisings were sparked by the Tunisian Revolution at the end of 2010 that led to the ouster of the longtime president and the institution of democratic elections. The period of instability that followed in some Arab League countries has been dubbed the “Arab Winter”.

58. Wed. follower : THU
In Norse mythology, Thor was the son of Odin. Thor wielded a mighty hammer and was the god of thunder, lightning and storms. Our contemporary word “Thursday” comes from “Thor’s Day”.

“Wotan” is an alternative (High German) spelling of the name Woden, the Anglo-Saxon version of the Norse god Odin. Wotan is the head god in the pagan tradition, but as paganism was gradually replaced by Christianity in the 7th and 8th centuries, Wotan moved from his place in religion and into the realm of folklore. Indeed, he is a precursor of our modern day Father Christmas. Wotan (Woden) also gave his name to Wednesday, Woden’s Day …

63. “The Faerie Queene” woman whose name means “peace” : IRENA
“The Faerie Queene” is an epic poem by Edmund Spenser, one of the longest poems written in the English language. Spenser dedicated the work to Queen Elizabeth I, who is represented as the Faerie Queene Gloriana. In return, Queen Elizabeth I granted Spenser a pension of 50 pounds a year for life.

64. Gossip, from the Yiddish : YENTA
Yenta (also “Yente”) is actually a female Yiddish name. In Yiddish theater “yenta” came to mean a busybody.

65. “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” airer : PBS
The “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” TV show starred Fred Rogers. It was the second-longest running series on PBS television after that other iconic children’s show “Sesame Street”.

66. Ohio city where Goodyear is headquartered : AKRON
For part of the 1800s, the Ohio city of Akron was the fasting growing city in the country, feeding off the industrial boom of that era. The city was founded in 1825 and its location, along the Ohio and Erie canal connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River, helped to fuel Akron’s growth. Akron sits at the highest point of the canal and the name “Akron” comes from the Greek word meaning “summit”. Indeed, Akron is the county seat of Summit County.

The Goodyear tire company was founded in 1898. The company was named for Charles Goodyear, the man who invented vulcanized rubber in 1839. Despite the Goodyear name, Charles Goodyear himself had no connection with the company.

Down
3. First-year law student : ONE L
“One L” is a name used in general for first year law students.

6. Attack from a low-flying plane : STRAFE
We’ve been using “strafe” to mean an attack on a ground position from low-flying aircraft since WWII. Prior to that, the word was used by British soldiers to mean any form of attack. It was picked up from the German word for “punish” as it was used in “Gott strafe England” meaning, “May God punish England”.

8. Lyft competitor : UBER
Uber is a ridesharing service that was founded in 2009 and is based in San Francisco. The service is somewhat controversial and has been described as an illegal taxicab operation. Central to Uber’s service is the company’s mobile app, which can use the client’s GPS location to help find the nearest available ride. Uber’s main competitor is Lyft. Personally, I love the service and have only had good experiences …

9. Uno + uno : DOS
In Spanish, two times “uno” (one) is “dos” (two).

10. Popeye’s son : SWEE’PEA
Originally Popeye used the nickname “Swee’pea” to address his girlfriend Olive Oyl. Then along comes a baby, found on Popeye’s doorstep. Popeye adopts the little guy and raises him, calling him “Swee’Pea”.

11. Hors d’oeuvre often topped with paprika : DEVILED EGG
Deviled eggs are hard-boiled eggs that have been shelled and sliced in two. The egg’s yolk is mixed with primarily mayonnaise and mustard, and then spooned into the hard-boiled egg white. The eggs are then sprinkled with paprika and served cold. Some people make deviled eggs on Halloween, dropping an olive slice in the middle so that the whole thing resembles an eyeball! The term “deviled” has been used for zesty or spicy foods since the 1700s.

13. Spotify selection : SONG
Spotify is a popular music-streaming service that was launched in Sweden in 2008.

25. Musician Yoko : ONO
Yoko Ono was born into a prosperous Japanese family, and is actually a descendant of one of the emperors of Japan. Her father moved around the world for work, and she lived the first few years of her life in San Francisco. The family returned to Japan, before moving on to New York, Hanoi and back to Japan just before WWII, in time to live through the great fire-bombing of Tokyo in 1945. Immediately after the war the family was far from prosperous. While Yoko’s father was being held in a prison camp in Vietnam, her mother had to resort to begging and bartering to feed her children. When her father was repatriated, life started to return to normal and Yoko was able to attend university. She was the first woman to be accepted into the philosophy program of Gakushuin University.

27. Vaping need, informally : E-CIG
An electronic cigarette (also called an “e-cigarette”) is a battery-powered device that resembles a real cigarette. The e-cigarette vaporizes a solution that contains nicotine, forming a vapor that resembles smoke. The vapor is inhaled, delivering the nicotine into the body. The assumption is that an e-cigarette is healthier than a regular cigarette as the inhaled vapor is less harmful than inhaled smoke. But, that may not be so …

32. “Speaking of which …,” for example : SEGUE
A “segue” is a transition from one topic to the next. “Segue” is an Italian word that literally means “now follows”. It was first used in musical scores directing the performer to play into the next movement without a break.

38. The New Yorker cartoonist Chast : ROZ
Roz Chast had her first cartoon published in “The New Yorker” in 1978, and has had more than 800 published since then.

41. ___-retentive : ANAL
The use of the word “anal” to mean “stiffly conventional” is an abbreviated form of “anal-retentive”, a term derived from Freudian psychology. Regardless, I’m not a big fan of the term …

46. From the capital of Tibet : LHASAN
Lhasa is the capital city of Tibet, and the name “Lhasa” translates as “place of the gods”. However, Lhasa used to be called Rasa, a name that translates into the less auspicious “goat’s place”. Lhasa was also once called the “Forbidden City” due to its inaccessible location high in the Himalayas and a traditional hostility exhibited by residents to outsiders. The “forbidden” nature of the city has been reinforced since the Chinese took over Tibet in the early 1950s as it has been difficult for foreigners to get permission to visit Lhasa.

47. Timber wolf : LOBO
The timber wolf is also known as the gray wolf, tundra wolf or lobo.

50. URL starter : HTTP
“http” are the first letters in most Internet links. “http” stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol.

Internet addresses (like NYTCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) are more correctly called Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).

51. “Moby-Dick” captain : AHAB
Captain Ahab is the obsessed and far from friendly captain of the Pequod in Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick”. The role of Captain Ahab was played by Gregory Peck in the 1956 John Huston film adaptation. Patrick Stewart played Ahab in a 1998 miniseries in which Peck made another appearance, as Father Mapple.

53. Cabinet member who once appeared beside her impersonator on “S.N.L.” : RENO
Janet Reno was Attorney General of the US from 1993 to 2001. Reno was the person to hold the office second longest, and was our first female Attorney General. In 2002, Reno ran for Governor of Florida but failed to win the Democratic nomination. Janet Reno was impersonated by Will Ferrell on “Saturday Night Live”, primarily in a recurring sketch called “Janet Reno’s Dance Party”. That sketch appeared for the last time in 2001, and Janet Reno herself turned up for the party.

55. Prince in “Frozen” : HANS
“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”.

61. “This might be of interest …,” for short : FYI …
FYI (for your information)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Spanish red wine : RIOJA
6. Taters : SPUDS
11. Insult, slangily : DIS
14. Actor Ed who voiced Carl Fredricksen in “Up” : ASNER
15. Tim ___, N.F.L. player known for kneeling in prayer : TEBOW
16. Environmental prefix : ECO-
17. 1940s-’50s Dodgers great who lent support to Jackie Robinson : PEE WEE REESE
19. Moving day vehicle : VAN
20. Prefix with vision or market : TELE-
21. Teri ___, Best Supporting Actress nominee for “Tootsie” : GARR
22. “Dallas” family name : EWING
24. Bread unit : LOAF
26. Australian gem export : OPAL
27. Comedian who hosted the 2014 Oscars : ELLEN DEGENERES
33. Egypt’s capital : CAIRO
34. Sent back to a lower court : REMANDED
36. “The Addams Family” cousin : ITT
37. Tot’s three-wheeler : TRIKE
39. I, to a psychologist : EGO
40. Admonishment for public displays of affection : GET A ROOM!
43. Verbally spar : ARGUE
45. Actress with the classic line “You had me at hello” : RENEE ZELLWEGER
48. Tatters : RAGS
49. News anchor Lester : HOLT
50. “___ español?” : HABLA
52. ___ Spring (2010s movement) : ARAB
54. Impact sound in the comics : WHAM!
58. Wed. follower : THU
59. Carefree existences … or, punnily, what 17-, 27- and 45-Across have : LIVES OF EASE
62. Shout before “You’re it!” : TAG!
63. “The Faerie Queene” woman whose name means “peace” : IRENA
64. Gossip, from the Yiddish : YENTA
65. “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” airer : PBS
66. Ohio city where Goodyear is headquartered : AKRON
67. Cry when accepting a challenge : IT’S ON!

Down
1. In awe : RAPT
2. “Aha!” : I SEE!
3. First-year law student : ONE L
4. Dealer in diamonds : JEWELER
5. “All bets ___ off” : ARE
6. Attack from a low-flying plane : STRAFE
7. Jury member : PEER
8. Lyft competitor : UBER
9. Uno + uno : DOS
10. Popeye’s son : SWEE’PEA
11. Hors d’oeuvre often topped with paprika : DEVILED EGG
12. Words of confidence : I CAN
13. Spotify selection : SONG
18. “Yipe!” : EGAD!
23. Alert : WARN
25. Musician Yoko : ONO
26. “This one’s ___” : ON ME
27. Vaping need, informally : E-CIG
28. “Catch you on the flip side” : LATER
29. Ones eschewing trash cans : LITTERBUGS
30. Dirty coating : GRIME
31. Cartoon shriek : EEK!
32. “Speaking of which …,” for example : SEGUE
35. Active person : DOER
37. Pedicurists work on them : TOES
38. The New Yorker cartoonist Chast : ROZ
41. ___-retentive : ANAL
42. Crown, scepter, etc. : REGALIA
43. Leather punch : AWL
44. Share with one’s followers, in a way : RETWEET
46. From the capital of Tibet : LHASAN
47. Timber wolf : LOBO
50. URL starter : HTTP
51. “Moby-Dick” captain : AHAB
52. State definitively : AVER
53. Cabinet member who once appeared beside her impersonator on “S.N.L.” : RENO
55. Prince in “Frozen” : HANS
56. Regarding : AS TO
57. Not nice : MEAN
60. Bother : IRK
61. “This might be of interest …,” for short : FYI …

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4 thoughts on “0627-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 27 Jun 16, Monday”

  1. One error. I had IRENE for IRENA. I thought this puzzle was quite a bit more difficult than the usual Monday. Thanks, Bill, for your comments. There were several interesting facts I learned from them today. I'm always appreciative.

  2. 8:26 for me, no errors, not even with IRENA. Agree this was a tad more difficult than your average Monday….

  3. 7:51, no errors. The theme words helped to speed up the fill today.

    As a kid growing up in New York City, my dad brought me to game at Ebbetts Field; where I got to watch my heroes, the Brooklyn Bums in action. Pee Wee was my second favorite player, right behind Duke Snider.

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