0701-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 1 Jul 16, Friday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Talk : TATTLE
“To tattle” means to tell secrets.

16. Amelia Earhart, e.g. : AIRWOMAN
Amelia Earhart is as famous today as she was during her lifetime. When she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by Congress, and the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French government. She made two attempts to circumnavigate the globe by air (not solo). Her first attempt in March 1937 had to be abandoned when her aircraft was damaged during takeoff. The second attempt in June/July of the same year ended when Earhart and her navigator disappeared flying from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island in the Central Pacific.

18. Far Eastern city whose name means “long cape” : NAGASAKI
Nagasaki is a large port city on the Japanese island of Kyushu. Towards the end of WWII, Nagasaki was chosen as the target for the second atomic bomb dropped by the US, three days after the first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The second bomb was code-named “Fat Man”, and was delivered in a B-29 dubbed “Bockscar” that was piloted by Major Charles Sweeney. Nagasaki was not the primary target for the mission, but rather the city of Kokura. On the day of the raid, visibility over Kokura was poor due to cloud and smoke, so Bockscar flew on to Nagasaki.

19. Org. that covers Springfield in a dome in “The Simpsons Movie” : EPA
“The Simpsons” television show spawned “The Simpsons Movie” in 2007. The film is all about the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) taking on Homer Simpson after he pollutes the local lake.

20. Torpedo : DESTROY
The naval weapon called a torpedo is named for the group of electric rays of the genus “Torpedo”. The name of the fish comes from the verb “torpere”, Latin for “to be stiffened, paralyzed”, which is what happens to someone who steps on an electric ray.

22. Black : JET
The color “jet black” takes its name from the minor gemstone known as jet. The gemstone and the material it is made of takes its English name from the French name: “jaiet”.

25. Dough made in the Middle East? : RIALS
“Rial” is name of the currency of several countries in the world, including Iran, Yemen, Oman, Cambodia and Tunisia.

26. Lane in a strip : LOIS
Lois Lane has been the love interest of Superman/Clark Kent since the comic series was first published in 1938. Lois and Clark both work for the big newspaper in the city of Metropolis called “The Daily Planet”. The couple finally got hitched in the comics (and on television’s “Lois and Clark”) in 1996. But never mind all that … one has to wonder how challenging the crossword is in “The Daily Planet” …

29. Long-running Vegas show : CSI
The “CSI” franchise of TV shows has been remarkably successful. That said, only one of the four “CSI” shows is now in production (“CSI: Cyber”). The franchise consists of:

– CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (set in Las Vegas)
– CSI: Miami
– CSI: NY
– CSI: Cyber (set in Washington, DC)

31. Gravy goody : GIBLET
Goody? The giblets are the edible internal organs and entrails of a fowl. The giblets include the heart, gizzard and liver.

33. Mississippi feeder : YAZOO
The Yazoo River in the state of Mississippi was named by the French explorer La Salle after the Yazoo Native American tribe who lived near the river’s mouth. It was in the Yazoo River that a naval mine was used for the first time to sink a ship, in 1862. The Confederates successfully used a mine to sink the Union’s ironclad USS Cairo during the Civil War.

35. Backslash neighbor : SQUARE BRACKET
On a standard US keyboard, the square brackets keys lie just to the left of the backslash key.

39. Buddhist memorial dome : STUPA
A stupa is a place of worship in the Buddhist tradition. “Stupa” is a Sanskrit word meaning “heap” and a stupa is a mound-like structure that contains relics, possibly even the remains of Buddha.

40. Like motets : CHORAL
A motet is a simple musical composition based on a sacred text, usually sung without an accompaniment. The term “motet” is a diminutive form of “mot”, the French for “word”.

42. Cross words : FIES
One might exclaim disgust by saying “fie!” or “ptui!”

44. One-on-one basketball play, slangily : ISO
In an isolation play (iso) in basketball, teammates draw their defenders away the ball-handler leaving him or her to beat an opponent one-on-one.

47. Feature of un poema : RIMA
In Spanish, “un poema” (a poem) usually features a “rima” (rhyme).

54. Pixar specialty, briefly : CGI
Computer-generated imagery (CGI)

Pixar Animation Studios started out as part of Lucasfilm in 1979, George Lucas’s production company. Lucas sold what was to become Pixar to Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 1986. Pixar produced its first feature film in 1995, the fabulous “Toy Story”, and followed up with a string of hits. The company was then sold to Walt Disney in 2006, when valued at $7.4 billion. That transaction resulted in Steve Jobs becoming the biggest shareholder in Walt Disney.

55. City called the Bush Capital : CANBERRA
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. The city is located in what’s called the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) an area independent of any of the other Australian territories. In this sense, there is a similarity between Canberra in the ACT and Washington in the District of Columbia. Canberra was chosen as the nation’s capital in 1908, a choice that was a compromise in deference to the two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne.

The Australian capital of Canberra incorporates large areas of natural vegetation in its design, leading to city’s nickname “bush capital”.

57. 2006 musical featuring a vampire : LESTAT
Lestat de Lioncourt is the central character in Anne Rice’s series of erotic and Gothic novels “The Vampire Chronicles”. Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote a musical based on the character titled “Lestat”. It had a short run in San Francisco in 2005 and on Broadway in 2006.

59. Light blue partner of Connecticut and Vermont : ORIENTAL
Oriental, Connecticut and Vermont Avenues are the light blue properties in the US version of the board game Monopoly.

60. Crazy Horse, e.g. : LAKOTA
The Lakota people are Native Americans from the Great Plains, occupying lands mainly in North and South Dakota. The list of famous persons from the Lakota people includes Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, who were instrumental in the Lakota victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Crazy Horse’s Lakota name translates literally into English as “His Horse is Crazy or Spirited”. Crazy Horse was one of the tribal war party leaders at the Battle of Little Bighorn, also known as Custer’s Last Stand. Crazy Horse surrendered to the US Army in 1877. He was fatally stabbed while in custody, apparently trying to escape after having surrendered. The circumstances surrounding his death are still shrouded in controversy.

62. They’re drawn by the bizarre : STARES
“Bizarre” is a French word, with the same meaning in French as English. However, back in the 16th century, “bizarre” used to mean “handsome, brave” in French. So that’s what my wife means when she refers to me as “bizarre” …

Down
2. Brazilian city name that sounds like a U.S. state capital : ANAPOLIS
Anápolis is a city in Brazilian state of Goiás in the Center-West of the country.

4. Alternative to SHO : TMC
Showtime (SHO) is a competitor of the Movie Channel (TMC) in terms of program lineup, although both channels are in fact owned by CBS.

8. 1997 comedy with the tagline “Trust me” : LIAR LIAR
The full rhyme used by children to deride someone not telling the truth is:

Liar, liar, pants on fire,
Hang them up on the telephone wire.

The rhyme is the source of the title for the 1997 Jim Carrey comedy “Liar Liar”. “Liar Liar” is an amusing film about a lawyer who finds himself only able to tell the truth and cannot tell a lie, all because his son made a birthday wish.

9. Odysseus’ faithful dog : ARGOS
According to Homer’s “Odyssey”, Argos is a dog, the faithful companion of Odysseus. Odysseus leaves his home, and his dog, for twenty years to wage battle in Troy. When Odysseus returns, he must enter his house disguised as a beggar in order to rescue his wife Penelope from unwelcome suitors. Odysseus sees his dog, neglected, lying on a pile of manure and close to death. Much as he wants to comfort the dog, Odysseus maintains his disguise and ignores Argos, even though the dog just manages to wag his tail on seeing his master’s return, but has not the strength to greet him. As Odysseus enters his house, Argos dies.

11. Christmas trio : HOS
Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!

12. Key of Chopin’s étude “Tristesse” : E MAJOR
The famous melody in Chopin’s Étude Op. 10, No. 3 was declared by the composer to be his own favorite. The piece is sometimes referred to as “Tristesse” (meaning “Sadness”) or “Farewell”.

21. Word with a 35-Across before and after it : SIC
(35A. Backslash neighbor : SQUARE BRACKET)
[Sic] indicates that a quotation is written as originally found, perhaps including a typo. “Sic” is Latin for “thus, like this”. The term is more completely written as “sic erat scriptum”, which translates as “thus was it written”.

24. Separator of the Philippines and Malaysia : SULU SEA
The Sulu Sea is found to the southwest of the Philippines, and the northeast of Borneo. Gene Roddenberry named the “Star Trek” character Hikaru Sulu after the Sulu Sea.

28. Charcuterie, e.g. : MEATS
In French, a “charcutier” is a pork butcher, although the term “charcuterie” has come to describe a genre of cooking focused on prepared meats such as bacon, ham, sausage and pâté. Although these meats often feature pork, it is not exclusively so. The word “charcuterie” comes from the French “chair” meaning “flesh” and “cuit” meaning “cooked”.

32. Tony-winning title role of 1990 : TRU
“Tru” was written by Jay Presson Allen and is a play about Truman Capote that premiered in 1989. There is a classic anachronism in the piece. It is set in Capote’s New York City apartment at Christmas 1975. At one point the Capote character talks about suicide, saying that he has enough pills to stage his own Jonestown Massacre. The Jonestown Massacre didn’t happen until three years later, in 1978.

34. Country’s ___ Brown Band : ZAC
The Zac Brown Band is a country music group from Atlanta, Georgia.

37. One handling an OD : ER DOCTOR
An emergency room (ER) doctor might have to deal with an overdose (OD).

41. Teases, in older usage : LOLITAS
A “lolita” is a precocious young girl, a nymphet, and is a term coming from Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “Lolita”.

Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “Lolita” has a famously controversial storyline, dealing with a middle-aged man’s obsession and sexual relationship with a 12-year-old girl. Although “Lolita” is considered a classic today, after Nabokov finished it in 1953 the edgy subject matter made it impossible for him to find a publisher in the US (where Nabokov lived). In 1955, he resorted to publishing it in English at a printing house in Paris. Publication was followed by bans and seizures all over Europe. A US printing house finally took on the project in 1958, by which time the title had such a reputation that it sold exceptionally quickly. “Lolita” became the first book since “Gone with the Wind” to sell over 100,000 copies in its first three weeks in stores.

42. French daily, with “Le” : FIGARO
“Le Figaro” is one of the main French daily newspapers, along with “Le Parisien” and “Le Monde”. It was founded as a satirical publication in 1826, with the title a reference to the Pierre Beaumarchais comedy play “The Marriage of Figaro”.

43. Lackey’s response : I’M ON IT
A lackey is someone quite servile, or a male servant. The term probably comes from the Middle French “laquais”, a word used for a footman or servant.

48. Big supply line : AORTA
The aorta originates in the heart and extends down into the abdomen. It is the largest artery in the body.

56. Arthur with a Tony : BEA
Actress Bea Arthur’s most famous roles were on television, as the lead in the “All in the Family” spinoff “Maude” and as Dorothy Zbornak in “The Golden Girls”. Arthur also won a Tony for playing Vera Charles on stage in the original cast of “Mame” in 1966, two years after she played Yente the matchmaker in the original cast of “Fiddler on the Roof”.

58. Genre for Reel Big Fish : SKA
Reel Big Fish is a ska punk band from Southern California that was founded in 1991.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Talk : TATTLE
7. Driver’s hazards : FLASHERS
15. Not divisible, as a job : ONE-MAN
16. Amelia Earhart, e.g. : AIRWOMAN
17. Good news for wage earners : TAX CUT
18. Far Eastern city whose name means “long cape” : NAGASAKI
19. Org. that covers Springfield in a dome in “The Simpsons Movie” : EPA
20. Torpedo : DESTROY
22. Black : JET
23. Office monitor : BOSS
25. Dough made in the Middle East? : RIALS
26. Lane in a strip : LOIS
27. Wedding keepsake : ALBUM
29. Long-running Vegas show : CSI
30. Even’s opposite : MORN
31. Gravy goody : GIBLET
33. Mississippi feeder : YAZOO
35. Backslash neighbor : SQUARE BRACKET
39. Buddhist memorial dome : STUPA
40. Like motets : CHORAL
42. Cross words : FIES
44. One-on-one basketball play, slangily : ISO
46. Sound : AUDIO
47. Feature of un poema : RIMA
48. Accomplished : ADEPT
50. Damage done : TOLL
51. It welcomes praise : EGO
52. “Wouldn’t think so” : DOUBT IT
54. Pixar specialty, briefly : CGI
55. City called the Bush Capital : CANBERRA
57. 2006 musical featuring a vampire : LESTAT
59. Light blue partner of Connecticut and Vermont : ORIENTAL
60. Crazy Horse, e.g. : LAKOTA
61. “It was my pleasure” : NOT AT ALL
62. They’re drawn by the bizarre : STARES

Down
1. Green grocery choice : TOTE BAG
2. Brazilian city name that sounds like a U.S. state capital : ANAPOLIS
3. Some southern cookin’ : TEXAS BBQ
4. Alternative to SHO : TMC
5. Celebrate : LAUD
6. Rapping response : ENTER
7. Its rosters aren’t real : FANTASY BASEBALL
8. 1997 comedy with the tagline “Trust me” : LIAR LIAR
9. Odysseus’ faithful dog : ARGOS
10. Clout : SWAY
11. Christmas trio : HOS
12. Key of Chopin’s étude “Tristesse” : E MAJOR
13. Collect lots of : RAKE IN
14. Cross states : SNITS
21. Word with a 35-Across before and after it : SIC
24. Separator of the Philippines and Malaysia : SULU SEA
26. “Incoming!” : LOOK OUT!
28. Charcuterie, e.g. : MEATS
30. Nut-brown : MOCHA
32. Tony-winning title role of 1990 : TRU
34. Country’s ___ Brown Band : ZAC
36. Aid in labor management? : EPIDURAL
37. One handling an OD : ER DOCTOR
38. Get too close, in a way : TAILGATE
41. Teases, in older usage : LOLITAS
42. French daily, with “Le” : FIGARO
43. Lackey’s response : I’M ON IT
45. Pick : OPT
47. Casing job, for short : RECON
48. Big supply line : AORTA
49. Bill collectors? : TILLS
52. Dimple : DENT
53. Something farm-squeezed? : TEAT
56. Arthur with a Tony : BEA
58. Genre for Reel Big Fish : SKA

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