0712-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 12 Jul 16, Tuesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Samuel A. Donaldson
THEME: Broken Bones
Today’s grid contains circled letters that spell out the names of four bones of the body, when read from left to right. Those bones are “broken” in the sense that the spelling of the name of the bone shifts from one row to the next about halfway along.

55A. Injuries illustrated four times in this puzzle : BROKEN BONES

The BROKEN BONES are:

UL-NA
SAC-RUM
TI-BIA
FE-MUR

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 9m 04s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 2 … GUS (Rus!), GUNNER (runner)

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Canadian beer ___ Blue : LABATT
The Labatt Brewing Company is the largest brewer in Canada. The company was founded by John K. Labatt in London, Ontario in 1847.

7. Tolkien creatures : ORCS
Orcs are mythical humanoid creatures that appear in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien’s use of orcs, they have also been featured in other fantasy fiction and in fantasy games.

11. ___-Man (pint-size superhero in a 2015 film) : ANT
In the Marvel universe, the original Ant-Man was a scientist who used a drug to change his size, becoming small in scale while increasing his strength. Ant-Man featured in a 2015 superhero film, with Paul Rudd in the title role.

15. Antioxidant berry : ACAI
Açaí is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

16. “The Tell-Tale Heart” writer : POE
Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Tell-Tale Heart”, is arguably one of his most disturbing works. It is a story of cold-blooded and premeditated murder, with some dismemberment thrown in for good measure.

19. Chicken ___ (kid’s ailment) : POX
Chickenpox is a viral infection, a classic disease of childhood most commonly caught by 4-10 year olds. There is a complication that can arise later in life as the virus sometimes reactivates to cause shingles.

20. Winter hazard on the autobahn : EIS
“Eis” is the German word for “ice”.

26. Jazz composer with an Egyptian-inspired name : SUN RA
Sun Ra was the stage name of jazz composer and performer Herman Blount. Sun Ra was a bit “out there”, and claimed that he wasn’t from Earth, but rather was of the Angel Race from the planet Saturn.

34. Gambino boss : GOTTI
John Gotti was the boss of the Gambino crime family from 1985. Gotti was known as the Teflon Don and took over leadership of the family from Paul Castellano when he was gunned down, allegedly on Gotti’s orders. Gotti remained head of the New York family until he was sentenced to life in prison in 1992. Gotti died of throat cancer after ten years behind bars.

35. Disco ___ (“The Simpsons” character) : STU
On “The Simpsons”, the character of Disco Stu is voiced by Hank Azaria, although he was voiced for a while by Phil Hartman. Disco Stu is described as “a black, wrinkly John Travolta”.

37. Cousin of the mambo : RUMBA
The rumba is a Cuban dance, with influences brought by African slaves and Spanish colonists. The name “rumba” comes from “rumbo”, the Spanish word for “party, spree”.

The form of music and dance known as mambo developed in Cuba. “Mambo” means “conversation with the gods” in Kikongo, a language spoken by slaves taken to Cuba from Central Africa.

40. Chrome dome : BALDY
I heard that!

41. Language of Copenhagen, to locals : DANSK
The Danish language (“Dansk” in Danish) is not only spoken in Denmark, but also in the Southern Schleswig region of northern Germany. One of the distinctive characteristics of Dansk is that it has 27 phonetically distinctive vowels.

42. MTV documentary series about everyday people : TRUE LIFE
“True Life” is a documentary series on MTV that has been running since 1998. The topics covered by individual episodes seem to vary widely, from drug abuse to martial arts.

44. “Good Will Hunting” director Van Sant : GUS
Gus Van Sant is a movie director (among other things) who has been nominated twice for an Oscar, for “Good Will Hunting” in 1997 and for “Milk” in 2008.

“Good Will Hunting” was the movie that gave both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck their big break in films, and deservedly so. Affleck and Damon are actually distant cousins who lived two blocks from each other in Cambridge, Massachusetts where the pair spent their teen years. The two friends wrote the film’s screenplay and of course took starring roles, alongside Robin Williams and Minnie Driver. Affleck and Damon won an Academy Award for the screenplay. What a great success story, eh?

45. “___ Hope” (1970s-’80s soap) : RYAN’S
“Ryan’s Hope” is a soap opera that ran on ABC from 1975 to 1989. The show’s storyline centers on an Irish-American family in New York City. Never saw it …

52. “Game of Thrones” actress Chaplin : OONA
Oona Chaplin is an actress from Madrid in Spain. Chaplin is getting a lot of airtime these days as she plays Talisa Maegyr on HBO’s hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones”. Oona is the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, and is named for her maternal grandmother Oona O’Neill, the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill.

53. Palindromic houseware brand : OXO
The OXO line of kitchen utensils is designed to be ergonomically superior to the average kitchen too. The intended user of OXO products is someone who doesn’t have the normal range of motion or strength in the hands e.g. someone suffering from arthritis.

The three most famous palindromes in English have to be:

– Able was I ere I saw Elba
– A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
– Madam, I’m Adam

One of my favorite words is “Aibohphobia”, although it doesn’t appear in the dictionary and is a joke term. “Aibohphobia” is a great way to describe a fear of palindromes, by creating a palindrome out of the suffix “-phobia”.

58. Actress Adams of “American Hustle” : AMY
Amy Adams is an American actress. although she was actually born in Vicenza, Italy while her father was a US serviceman stationed on an Italian base. My favorite Amy Adams film so far is the outstanding “Julie & Julia” in which she acted alongside Meryl Streep. I highly recommend this truly delightful movie.

“American Hustle” is a 2013 movie with a plotline that is loosely based on the famous FBI ABSCAM sting of the late seventies and early eighties. The film stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams as two con artists who are forced to work with an FBI agent played by Bradley Cooper.

59. A Saarinen : EERO
Eero Saarinen was a Finnish American architect, renowned in this country for his unique designs for public buildings such as Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Dulles International Airport Terminal, and the TWA building at JFK. The list of his lesser-known, but still impressive, works includes several buildings erected on academic campuses. For example, the Chapel and Kresge Auditorium on the MIT campus, the Emma Hartman Noyes House at Vassar College, the Law School building at the University of Chicago, and Yale’s David S. Ingalls Rink.

60. Cult film heroine called “Mistress of the Dark” : ELVIRA
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark was a character originally used to introduce a local Los Angeles weekend horror show back in the early eighties. Elvira was a comic sexy persona played by actress Cassandra Peterson. She wore a tight black gown with a famous low-cut neckline. The weekend horror show is long gone, but the Elvira character is still going strong.

61. Number between uno and tres : DOS
“Uno, dos, tres” (one, two, three in Spanish)

Down
2. Rachel McAdams’s character in “The Notebook” : ALLIE
“The Notebook” is one of the weepiest of the weepies, a 2004 film based on a 1996 novel by Nicholas Sparks. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as a young couple who fall for each other in the forties. At the risk of giving away the ending, James Garner and Gena Rowlands play the same couple in their older years. Rowlands’ son Nick Cassavetes directed the film.

Rachel McAdams is an actress from London, Ontario who now lives in Toronto, where she also studied theater at university. I’ve enjoyed many of McAdams’ film performances, especially in the excellent 2015 biographical drama “Spotlight”.

7. Klutzes : OAFS
A “klutz” is an awkward individual, and the term comes from Yiddish. The Yiddish word for a clumsy person is “klots”.

8. It released the first 45 r.p.m. records : RCA
The first vinyl records designed to play at 33 1/3 rpm were introduced by RCA Victor in 1931, but were discontinued due to quality problems. The first Long Play (LP) 33 1/3 rpm disc was introduced by Columbia Records many years later in 1948, with RCA Victor following up with a 45 rpm “single” the following year, in 1949.

9. Indian home to Mother Teresa : CALCUTTA
Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) is the capital of West Bengal, India. Kolkata grew up around a fort that the British built in the area in 1712. Prior to the arrival of the British, there were three villages at the site, one named Kalikata. Kalikata gave its name to the city that eventually developed. This was anglicized to “Calcutta” which became the official name for centuries, until it was changed back to Kolkata in 2001.

Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in the city that is now called Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. At birth she was given the names Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (“Gonxha” means “little flower” in Albanian). She left home at the age of 18 and joined the Sisters of Loreto, and headed to Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham in Dublin, Ireland in order to learn English. Her goal was to teach in India, and English was the language used there for instruction by the nuns. After Mother Teresa passed away in 1997 she was beatified by Pope John Paul II, a step on the road to canonization. In order for her to be beatified there had to be documented evidence of a miracle that was performed due to her intercession. The miracle in question was the healing of a tumor in the abdomen of a woman due to the application of a locket containing a picture of Mother Teresa. Documentation of a second miracle is required for her to be declared a saint. The canonization process seems to well underway, with Pope Francis recognizing a second miracle in December 2015.

10. Sound part of business? : SILENT I
The letter I in the word “business” is silent.

12. 12 : NOON
Our word “noon”, meaning “midday”, comes from the Latin “nona hora” that translates as “ninth hour”. Back in Ancient Rome, the “ninth hour” was three in the afternoon. Over the centuries, traditions such as church prayers and “midday” meals shifted from 3 p.m. to 12 p.m., and so “noon” became understood as 12 noon.

13. It might contain an emoji : TEXT
An emoji is a character found on many cell phones now that is like an emoticon, but more elaborate.

18. ___ Mar (California racetrack) : DEL
Del Mar translates into English as “of the sea” aptly enough. Also aptly enough, this upscale beach town started out as a purpose-built resort developed for the rich and famous, back in 1885. Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball had a house there for many years, as did Burt Bacharach. Skateboarder Tony Hawks grew up in Del Mar.

23. G.I. grub : MRE
The Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) comes in a lightweight package that’s easy to tote around. The MRE replaced the more cumbersome Meal, Combat, Individual (MCI) in 1981, a meal-in-a-can. In turn, the MCI had replaced the C-ration in 1958, a less sophisticated meal-in-a-can with a more limited choice.

28. ___ plume : NOM DE
“Nom de plume” translates from French simply as “pen name”.

29. Itinerary data, for short : ETAS
Expected time of arrival (ETA)

32. Lenovo alternative : ACER
I owned several Acer laptops, which were for my money the most reliable machine at the best price. Acer is a Taiwanese company that I used to visit a lot when I was in the electronics business. I was very impressed back then with the company’s dedication to quality, but have heard that things have gone so well in recent years …

Lenovo is a Chinese manufacturer of computers. The company is very successful, and sold more personal computers in 2013 than any other vendor worldwide. IBM sold off its personal computer division in 2005 to Lenovo.

37. “___ County” (Elizabeth Taylor movie) : RAINTREE
“Raintree County” is a 1957 film set during the Civil War that stars Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Eva Marie Saint. The film is sometimes remembered for a serious car crash off set that nearly killed Montgomery Clift. Even though Clift sustained serious facial injuries, he returned to finish the film after surgery and a period of recovery. His injuries are readily apparent in several scenes.

43. Body part following black or pink : EYE
The conjunctivae are membranes on the outer surface of the eye and in the inner surface of the eyelid. If the conjunctivae get inflamed, due to an infection or perhaps an allergy, then this condition is called conjunctivitis, or more commonly “pinkeye”.

44. Overly ambitious student, in slang : GUNNER
“Gunner” is a slang term for an extremely competitive and ambitious student, particularly in medical or law school.

46. One of the Three Stooges : MOE
Moe Howard of the Three Stooges was expert at tossing a pie in someone’s face.

47. Architectural column style : IONIC
The Ionic was one of the three classical orders of architecture, the others being the Doric and the Corinthian. An Ionic column is relatively ornate. It usually has grooves running up and down its length and at the top there is a “scroll” design called a “volute”. The scroll motif makes Ionic columns popular for the design of academic buildings. The term “Ionic” means “pertaining to Ionia”, with Ionia being an ancient territory that is located in modern-day Turkey.

49. Valentine’s Day flowers, in Spain : ROSAS
In Spanish, the “rosa” (rose) is the “flor del amor” (flower of love).

51. Pixar’s “Finding ___” : NEMO
“Finding Nemo” is a 2003 animated blockbuster from Pixar. The film was the winner of the Oscar that year for Best Animated Feature. Believe it or not, “Finding Nemo” is the best-selling DVD of all time and, until 2010’s “Toy Story 3”, it was the highest-grossing, G-rated movie at the box office.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Canadian beer ___ Blue : LABATT
7. Tolkien creatures : ORCS
11. ___-Man (pint-size superhero in a 2015 film) : ANT
14. Distinguished N.F.L.er : ALL-PRO
15. Antioxidant berry : ACAI
16. “The Tell-Tale Heart” writer : POE
17. Take a tumble : SLIP AND FALL
19. Chicken ___ (kid’s ailment) : POX
20. Winter hazard on the autobahn : EIS
21. Charges : FEES
22. Solidify, as a friendship : CEMENT
24. Tranquil : RESTFUL
26. Jazz composer with an Egyptian-inspired name : SUN RA
27. One given the red-carpet treatment : VIP
28. Went on and on : NATTERED
31. Is ready for the summer weather, for short : HAS AC
34. Gambino boss : GOTTI
35. Disco ___ (“The Simpsons” character) : STU
36. Military sch. : ACAD
37. Cousin of the mambo : RUMBA
38. Statistician’s concern : BIAS
39. Permit : LET
40. Chrome dome : BALDY
41. Language of Copenhagen, to locals : DANSK
42. MTV documentary series about everyday people : TRUE LIFE
44. “Good Will Hunting” director Van Sant : GUS
45. “___ Hope” (1970s-’80s soap) : RYAN’S
46. More obscure : MURKIER
50. Owing (to) : IN DEBT
52. “Game of Thrones” actress Chaplin : OONA
53. Palindromic houseware brand : OXO
54. Small brain, metaphorically : PEA
55. Injuries illustrated four times in this puzzle : BROKEN BONES
58. Actress Adams of “American Hustle” : AMY
59. A Saarinen : EERO
60. Cult film heroine called “Mistress of the Dark” : ELVIRA
61. Number between uno and tres : DOS
62. Stink to high heaven : REEK
63. Laughs or cries, maybe : REACTS

Down
1. Surgical tool : LASER
2. Rachel McAdams’s character in “The Notebook” : ALLIE
3. Euphoria : BLISS
4. Modern kind of store : APP
5. Driver’s excuse for being late : TRAFFIC
6. Build muscle : TONE UP
7. Klutzes : OAFS
8. It released the first 45 r.p.m. records : RCA
9. Indian home to Mother Teresa : CALCUTTA
10. Sound part of business? : SILENT I
11. Is part of the cast of : APPEARS IN
12. 12 : NOON
13. It might contain an emoji : TEXT
18. ___ Mar (California racetrack) : DEL
23. G.I. grub : MRE
25. Broadcast commercial : TV AD
26. Failed to get involved : SAT BY
28. ___ plume : NOM DE
29. Itinerary data, for short : ETAS
30. Closing time for many city parks : DUSK
31. “Stop right there!” : HALT
32. Lenovo alternative : ACER
33. Times for most college football games : SATURDAYS
34. Chasms : GULFS
37. “___ County” (Elizabeth Taylor movie) : RAINTREE
38. Lie in the sun : BASK
40. Spew nonsense : BLABBER
41. Long-lasting, as goods : DURABLE
43. Body part following black or pink : EYE
44. Overly ambitious student, in slang : GUNNER
46. One of the Three Stooges : MOE
47. Architectural column style : IONIC
48. Apply, as pressure : EXERT
49. Valentine’s Day flowers, in Spain : ROSAS
50. Tablet purchased without a prescription? : IPAD
51. Pixar’s “Finding ___” : NEMO
52. “All right, I’ll do it!” : OK OK!
56. Mined metal : ORE
57. Eggs in clinics : OVA

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6 thoughts on “0712-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 12 Jul 16, Tuesday”

  1. 14:00, no errors, iPad. Not one of my better performances: I kept making stupid mistakes, but I got through it …

    I'm struggling with one of those seven deadly sins: envy. I'd rather be in Ireland right now! … 🙂

  2. Two errors. I had ELLIE for ALLIE and LEBATT for LABATT. For LABATT I was thinking of the French article LE. Since it was Canadian it seemed to make sense. Also ELLIE is just about as common as ALLIE. But in crosswords there is no such thing as being "close". A miss is as good as a mile.

  3. Do my eyes deceive me??? My time (8:27) is better than Bill's? And I made fewer errors (0) than he??? AND the puzzle actually had a clever theme??? All on a Tuesday!! I'm in 3 DOWN!!!

  4. 11:58, no errors. I liked this theme. Actually used it to help solve the puzzle. Good job.

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