0806-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 6 Aug 16, Saturday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Spontaneous public gathering : FLASH MOB
A flash mob is a group of people who gather to perform a sudden, brief act in a public location and then quickly disperse. Flash mobs originated in Manhattan in 2003, as a social experiment by an editor of “Harper’s Magazine” called Bill Wasik. Wasik’s first attempt to form a flash mob was unsuccessful, but the second attempt worked. The first successful flash mob was relatively tame by today’s elaborate standards, and consisted of about 130 people gathered on the 9th floor of Macy’s department store pretending to be shopping en masse for a “love rug”.

9. Balance sheet data : DEBTS
The balance sheet of a company is a snapshot (single point in time) view of a company’s financial position. The balance sheet lists all the company’s liabilities, all of its assets, and all of its ownership equity. The assets of a company, less its liabilities equals the ownership equity. The term “balance” is used because assets always balance out with the sum of liabilities and shareholder equity.

14. For whom the Collegiate School was renamed in 1718 : ELIHU YALE
Elihu Yale was a wealthy merchant born in Boston in 1649. Yale worked for the British East India Company, and for many years served as governor of a settlement at Madras (now Chennai) in India. After India, Yale took over his father’s estate near Wrexham in Wales. It was while resident in Wrexham that Yale responded to a request for financial support for the Collegiate School of Connecticut in 1701. He sent the school a donation, which was used to erect a new building in New Haven that was named “Yale” in his honor. In 1718, the whole school was renamed to “Yale College”. To this day, students of Yale are nicknamed “Elis”, again honoring Elihu.

16. Sushi bar brew : ASAHI
Asahi is a beer, and the name of the brewery that produces it. “Asahi” is Japanese for “morning sun”. Asahi introduced a “dry beer” in 1987, igniting a craze that rocketed the brewery to the number one spot in terms of beer production in Japan, with Sapporo close behind.

17. Like Cirque du Soleil performers : ACROBATIC
Cirque du Soleil is an entertainment company based in Montreal. The company was founded in 1984 by two former street performers, and stages spectacular shows that are a dramatic mix of circus and street entertainment. I’ve seen several Cirque du Soleil shows over the years, and have thoroughly every single one.

18. Paris attraction? : HELEN
According to Greek mythology, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda. When Helen reached the age of marriage, she had many suitors as she was considered the most beautiful woman in the world. Menelaus was chosen as her husband, and he took her back to his home of Sparta. Paris, a Trojan prince, seduced Helen, as she eloped with him and travelled to Troy. This event sparked the Trojan War that waged between the city of Troy and Greece. Because of this war, Helen was said to have “the face that launched a thousand ships”. And because of this phrase, it has been suggested, probably by author Isaac Asimov, that the amount of beauty needed launch a single ship is one “millihelen”.

19. Coin collectors? : SOFAS
“Sofa” is a Turkish word meaning “bench”.

22. Co. with the slogan “We move the world” : DHL
Back in the sixties, Larry Hillblom was making pocket money as a Berkeley law student by doing courier runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. After law school, Hillblom decided to parlay his experience into his own business and set up a courier service flying bills of lading ahead of freight from San Francisco to Honolulu. He brought in two buddies, Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn, as partners and the three were soon hopping on and off commercial flights and gradually making more and more money. And DHL was born … D (for Dalsey) H (for Hillblom) L (for Lynn).

23. Precisely : TO A T
The expression “to a T” can also be written as “to a tee”, and has been around at least since 1693.

26. “Red, White & ___” (2005 rock album) : CRUE
Mötley Crüe is an American rock band, from Los Angeles. They’ve been around since 1981, co-founded by the famous drummer Tommy Lee. Tommy Lee is also known for his two celebrated marriages, the first with Heather Locklear and the second with Pamela Anderson. The name “Mötley Crüe” was chosen as someone once described the band members as a “motley looking crew”. The spelling was made to look a little more exotic, with the umlauts added over the “o” and “u” one day, as the band were drinking bottles of “Löwenbräu” beer!

27. Canonflex or Leicaflex, for short : SLR
SLR stands for “single lens reflex”. Usually cameras with changeable lenses are the SLR type. The main feature of an SLR is that a mirror reflects the image seen through the lens out through the viewfinder, so that the photographer sees exactly what the lens sees. The mirror moves out of the way as the picture is taken, and the image that comes through the lens falls onto unexposed film, or nowadays onto a digital sensor.

31. Manipulative use of the Force : JEDI MIND TRICKS
The Jedi are the “good guys” in the “Star Wars” series of movies. The most famous Jedi knights from the films are Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Alec Guinness, and later Ewan McGregor) and Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz). Well, they’re my favorites anyway …

34. Coup d’___ : ETAT
A coup d’état (often just “coup”) is the sudden overthrow of a government, and comes from the French for “stroke of state”. The Swiss-German word “putsch” is sometimes used instead of “coup”, with “Putsch” translating literally as “sudden blow”.

35. Like a young Jay Gatsby : POOR
47. Jay Gatsby’s beloved : DAISY
“The Great Gatsby” is a 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald that tells of the prosperous life of Jay Gatsby during the Roaring 20s. Gatsby develops an obsessive love for Daisy Fay Buchanan, a girl he met while serving during WWI, and meets again some years later after he has improved his social standing.

36. Someone always good for a few pints? : UNIVERSAL DONOR
The most important grouping of blood types is the ABO system. Blood is classified as either A, B, AB or O, depending on the type of antigens on the surface of the red blood cells. A secondary designation of blood is the Rh factor, in which other antigens are labelled as either positive or negative. When a patient receives a blood transfusion, ideally the donor blood should be the same type as that of the recipient, as incompatible blood cells can be rejected. However, blood type O-neg can be accepted by recipients with all blood types, A, B, AB or O, and positive or negative. Hence someone with O-neg blood type is called a “universal donor”.

42. Boehner’s successor as House minority leader : PELOSI
Nancy Pelosi is a former Speaker of the House, the 60th person to hold that position. Ms. Pelosi represents a district not far from here, which covers most of San Francisco. She was the first Californian, the first Italian-American and the first woman to be Speaker of the House. As Speaker, she was also second in line, after the Vice President, to take over if President Obama could not finish his term. That made Nancy Pelosi the highest-ranking female politician in US history.

John Boehner has been Leader of the House of Representatives since 2011, and was the House Minority Leader from 2007 to 2011. Boehner is from Reading, Ohio and grew up in modest circumstances in a two-bedroom house with eleven siblings. After Boehner graduated from university in 1977, he joined a small packaging and plastics business. By the time he resigned to serve in Congress, Boehner had risen to become president of the company.

43. The Japanese captured it in 1941 : GUAM
Guam is a US territory in the western Pacific Ocean, the largest of the Mariana Islands. Guam is also the first territory in the United States to see the sun rise on any particular day. As such, the territory has adopted the motto, “Where America’s day begins”. During WWII, the US territory of Guam was occupied by the Japanese for 31 months until it was liberated in the Battle of Guam in July 1944. Of the 18,000 Japanese men holding the island, only 485 surrendered, so almost all perished in the invasion. One Japanese sergeant hid out on the island for an incredible 28 years, finally surrendering in 1972!

50. Terminal requests : IDS
ID (identity document)

51. Coup d’___ : OEIL
“Coup d’œil” is a term that we’ve imported from French. The term means, in both English and French, “glance, glimpse”. The literal translation is “stroke of the eye”.

52. Dwarf warrior in “The Lord of the Rings” : GIMLI
Gimli is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”. Gimli is one of the Dwarves of Middle Earth and is chosen as the Dwarves’ representative in the Fellowship of the Ring.

55. Sticker in a nursery : DIAPER PIN
“Diaper” is another word that I had to learn when I moved to America. What are called “diapers” over here, we call “nappies” back in Ireland. The term “diaper” is actually the original term that was used in England for the garment, where “diaper” referred to the cloth that was used. The term diaper was brought to the New World where it stuck. Back in Britain, diaper was displaced by the word “nappy”, a diminutive of “napkin”.

58. Feeling toward a supervillain : ODIUM
“Odium” is a strong dislike or aversion. The term is Latin in origin and relates to the Latin word “odi” meaning “I hate”.

59. Activity for when there’s nothing going on? : STREAKING
People have been running around naked for an awfully long time, but the application of the word “streaking” to the phenomenon only dates back to 1973. A journalist was reporting on a mass nude run of 533 people at the University of Maryland in 1973, and used the words “they are streaking (i.e. moving quickly) past me right now. It’s an incredible sight!”. The Associated Press picked up the story the next day, and interpreting “streaking” as the term to describe “running naked”, and we’ve been using it that way ever since.

60. Dapper : NATTY
A natty dresser is one who dresses smartly and neatly.

Down
1. Saturnalia events : FEASTS
Saturnalia was a festival held in Ancient Rome in honor of the god Saturn. It was a week-long celebration of eating, drinking and merriment. One remarkable custom for the festival was the role-reversal that took place in some events, with slaves being waited on by the slave owners. We use the term “saturnalia” today for any occasion of unrestrained revelry.

2. 2012-16 host of the Grammys : LL COOL J
Rap star LL Cool J was born James Todd Smith. Smith’s stage name stands for “Ladies Love Cool James”.

4. Certain weanling : SHOAT
“Shoat” is a name given to a young hog, after it has been weaned.

6. “Lady Marmalade” Grammy winner of 2001 : MYA
Mya is an R&B singer-songwriter. I don’t know her music, but I did see her get to the runner-up spot on the ninth series of “Dancing with the Stars”. On the show, Mya was beaten out of first place by Donny Osmond (don’t ask!).

“Lady Marmalade” is a song that was most famously recorded by Labelle in 1975. A 2001 cover version by Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya and Pink was also very successful, released from the soundtrack of the film “Moulin Rouge!”. The song is noted for its suggestive chorus “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?”, which translates from French as “Do you want to sleep with me tonight?”

8. Member of a holiday team : BLITZEN
In the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, better known today by its first line “‘Twas the night before Christmas”, the narrator lists for us the names of Santa’s reindeer:

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donner and Blitzen!”

9. Morse “Toto,” totally : DAHS
Dahs and dits are the sound equivalents of dashes and dots in Morse Code.

The name “Toto” is “./…/./…” in Morse code.

Toto is Dorothy’s dog in the film “The Wizard of Oz”, and in the original book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum. Toto was played in the movie by a dog called Terry, but Terry’s name was soon changed to Toto in real life due to the success of the film.

10. Telegraph extension? : -ESE
“Telegraphese” is the clipped form of language that was used in writing a telegram.

11. Shoulder-to-hip belt : BALDRIC
A “baldric” is a belt worn over one shoulder that is used to carry a sword or perhaps a musical instrument. Traditionally, baldrics are part of military dress. The British “Redcoats” typically wore a pair of white baldrics, one over each shoulder. One baldric usually carried a canteen, and the other a bayonet sheath.

12. One who’s green after seeing red : THE HULK
The comic book hero called the Hulk first made an appearance in 1962. The Hulk is the alter ego of reserved and withdraw physicist Bruce Banner. Banner mutates into the Hulk when he gets angry.

21. Media giant since 1982 : USA TODAY
The title of widest circulation of any American newspaper is an honor competed for by “The Wall Street Journal” and “USA Today”, with each paper selling about 2 million copies each day (including online subscribers). “USA Today” was launched in 1982.

25. 21-Down runs them : OBITS
“Obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”, originally the record of the death of a person, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

26. Shaggy Scottish dog : CAIRN
The Cairn Terrier breed of dog originated in the Highlands of Scotland. The breed is named for the original task given to the dog,rooting out rats and other rodents from man-made piles of stones called cairns.

32. Red English cattle : DEVON
The ancient breed of cattle known as the Devon (after the county of Devon in the English southwest) is often referred to as the “North Devon”. The Devon is a tawny red color. There is a more recent breed known as South Devon cattle, which are yellowish brown, hence the use of the “North Devon” moniker.

36. Y lookalike : UPSILON
Upsilon is the Greek letter that gives rise to our English “Y”.

37. Genre of some of Yoko Ono’s art : NEO-DADA
The Neo-Dada movement in art and literature was alive and well in the fifties and sixties. The label “Neo-Dada” reflects the similarities with the earlier Dada movement that thrived in the early 1900s. One of the more famous names associated with the Neo-Dada is Yoko Ono.

40. Scandalous Manet painting of 1863 : OLYMPIA
Edouard Manet painted “Olympia” in 1863. The painting caused a lot of controversy when it was first shown. Despite the grandiose title, Olympia is actually a courtesan, something that caused offence in the art appreciation circles at that time. I have been lucky enough to have seen the work (which doesn’t offend anyone anymore!) a few times in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris.

45. Yank, in Yucatán : GRINGO
“Gringo” is a slang term used in Latin American countries for white, non-Hispanic foreigners.

The Yucatán Peninsula is located in southeastern Mexico, where it separates the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest from the Caribbean Sea to the southeast.

49. Relatives of stilettos : DIRKS
“Dirk” is a Scots word for dagger, and is the name given to a knife that is worn hanging from a belt in traditional dress that includes a kilt. The dagger worn in a Scotsman’s sock isn’t a dirk (a popular misconception) but rather is called a “sgian dubh”, which translates as “a black or hidden knife”.

The stiletto knife was developed in Italy, and is a knife intended for thrusting and stabbing as opposed to slashing and cutting. The term “stiletto” comes from the Latin “stilus”, which was a thin pointed writing instrument used in Ancient Rome to engrave wax or clay tablets. And, there are also stiletto heels on some women’s shoes, heels that are long and thin.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Spontaneous public gathering : FLASH MOB
9. Balance sheet data : DEBTS
14. For whom the Collegiate School was renamed in 1718 : ELIHU YALE
16. Sushi bar brew : ASAHI
17. Like Cirque du Soleil performers : ACROBATIC
18. Paris attraction? : HELEN
19. Coin collectors? : SOFAS
20. As follows : THUS
22. Co. with the slogan “We move the world” : DHL
23. Precisely : TO A T
24. Chuckleheads : BOZOS
26. “Red, White & ___” (2005 rock album) : CRUE
27. Canonflex or Leicaflex, for short : SLR
28. 1,000 or 1,000,000 : CUBE
29. Profits : AVAILS
31. Manipulative use of the Force : JEDI MIND TRICKS
34. Coup d’___ : ETAT
35. Like a young Jay Gatsby : POOR
36. Someone always good for a few pints? : UNIVERSAL DONOR
42. Boehner’s successor as House minority leader : PELOSI
43. The Japanese captured it in 1941 : GUAM
44. Flight component : LEG
46. Procrastinator’s favorite word : SOON
47. Jay Gatsby’s beloved : DAISY
49. New brunette, say : DYER
50. Terminal requests : IDS
51. Coup d’___ : OEIL
52. Dwarf warrior in “The Lord of the Rings” : GIMLI
53. Part of many a diary : LATCH
55. Sticker in a nursery : DIAPER PIN
58. Feeling toward a supervillain : ODIUM
59. Activity for when there’s nothing going on? : STREAKING
60. Dapper : NATTY
61. Back in the day : YEARS AGO

Down
1. Saturnalia events : FEASTS
2. 2012-16 host of the Grammys : LL COOL J
3. Soaring expense? : AIRFARE
4. Certain weanling : SHOAT
5. Nerve centers : HUBS
6. “Lady Marmalade” Grammy winner of 2001 : MYA
7. ___ bread : OAT
8. Member of a holiday team : BLITZEN
9. Morse “Toto,” totally : DAHS
10. Telegraph extension? : -ESE
11. Shoulder-to-hip belt : BALDRIC
12. One who’s green after seeing red : THE HULK
13. Stain-free : SINLESS
15. Auto-reply message? : ECHO
21. Media giant since 1982 : USA TODAY
24. Get some help with transportation : BUM A RIDE
25. 21-Down runs them : OBITS
26. Shaggy Scottish dog : CAIRN
28. Gives credit : CITES
30. Sound of power : VROOM!
32. Red English cattle : DEVON
33. Figure in the high 60s : D-PLUS
36. Y lookalike : UPSILON
37. Genre of some of Yoko Ono’s art : NEO-DADA
38. “My anger got the best of me” : I LOST IT
39. Nimbleness : AGILITY
40. Scandalous Manet painting of 1863 : OLYMPIA
41. Knocked for a loop : REELING
45. Yank, in Yucatán : GRINGO
48. Facilitates : AIDS
49. Relatives of stilettos : DIRKS
51. Cry of surprise : OH MY!
52. Ski boots and such : GEAR
54. Like bodybuilders’ bodies : CUT
56. Is for a group? : ARE
57. Word with soup or salad : PEA

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