0914-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 14 Sep 16, Wednesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Gamer’s representation : AVATAR
The Sanskrit word “avatar” describes the concept of a deity descending into earthly life and taking on a persona. It’s easy to see how in the world of “online presences” one might use the word avatar to describe one’s online identity.

2009’s epic “Avatar” is a science fiction film from James Cameron, who was director, writer and producer. It was an expensive movie to make and to promote, but was destined to become the highest-grossing film in the history of cinema. 20th Century Fox made a deal with Cameron to produce three “Avatar” sequels.

7. “We choose to go to the moon” speech giver, informally : JFK
President John F. Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the moon” speech was delivered in September 1962 at Rice Stadium in Houston. The aim of the speech was to persuade the American people that the US could take the lead in the Space Race. The general perception was that the Soviet Union was setting the pace, having launched the first satellite (Sputnik) and putting the first man in space (Yuri Gagarin).

“JFK” is a 1991 Oliver Stone movie, a controversial one I’d say. I suppose any work that deals with the terrible assassination of President Kennedy is bound to create a stir these days. By the way, make a note in your diary. According to US law, all documents held by the government that are related to the assassination are supposed to be released to the public by 2017.

10. Wines said to go well with steak : REDS
“Reds” is a 1981 film directed, produced and co-written by Warren Beatty, who also played the male lead. The movie lays out the life and work of American journalist John Reed, who wrote about the Russian Revolution in the book “Ten Days That Shook the World”. The film’s title refers to the Communist leanings of Reed and his wife and fellow journalist Louise Bryant, played by Diane Keaton.

15. Granola morsel : OAT
The name “Granola” (and “Granula”) were trademarked back in the late 1800s for whole-grain foods that were crumbled and baked until crisp. Granola was created in Dansville, New York in 1894.

21. Cacophony : DIN
“Cacophony” is such a lovely word, one used to describe a harsh or jarring sound. The term arises from the Greek “kakos” (bad) and “phone” (voice).

24. Fish that may be jellied or smoked : EEL
Jellied eels are a traditional British dish associated with the working class East End of London. Historically, the eels used were caught in the River Thames. The dish is prepared by boiling up eels that have been chopped into rounds in a seasoned stock and then allowing it to set. The eel contains a lot of gelatinous protein so the stock forms a jelly as it cools.

33. Yemeni capital : SANA’A
Sana (also Sana’a) is the capital city of Yemen. Within the bounds of today’s metropolis is the old fortified city of Sana, where people have lived for over 2,500 years. The Old City is now a World Heritage Site.

34. A vital sign : PULSE
One’s “pulse” is the rhythmic throbbing of arteries that is usually detected at the wrist or the neck. The contraction of the heart creates a pressure wave in the blood that moves the arterial walls, which is detected as the pulse.

38. Japanese masked drama : NOH
Noh is a form of musical drama in Japan that has been around since the 14th century. Many of the Noh performers are masked, allowing all the roles to be played by men, both male and female parts.

43. Faux money : SCRIP
“Scrip” isn’t legal tender, but operates just like currency in specific applications. It is in effect a form of credit. Originally the word “scrip” was used for a certificate giving one the right to receive something, often shares of a stock. “Scrip” is probably short for (sub)script(ion) receipt.

47. It occurs twice in “chalk talk” : SILENT L
The letters L in the words “chalk” and “talk” are silent.

49. Miracle-___ (garden care brand) : GRO
Scotts Miracle-Gro Company was founded in 1868 by one Orlando Scott, initially selling seed to the agricultural industry. In the early 1900s, Scotts started to sell to homeowners, mainly supplying lawn seed. The company merged with the gardening company Miracle-Gro in 1955.

50. Organization that honored those referenced in the 25-/36-Across, with “the” : ACADEMY
(25A. With 36-Across, what this puzzle features, literally : PICTURE
36A. See 25-Across : FRAME)
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is the organization that gives the annual Academy Awards also known as the “Oscars”. The root of the name “Oscar” is hotly debated, but what is agreed is that the award was officially named “Oscar” in 1939. The first Academy Awards were presented at a brunch in 1929 with an audience of just 29 people. The Awards ceremony is a slightly bigger event these days …

55. Camcorder brand : RCA
During WWI, the US government actively discouraged the loss of certain technologies to other countries, including allies. The developing wireless technologies were considered to be particularly important by the army and navy. The government prevented the General Electric Company from selling equipment to the British Marconi Company, and instead facilitated the purchase by GE of the American Marconi subsidiary. This purchase led to GE forming the Radio Corporation of America that we know today as RCA.

56. “How ___ Your Mother” : I MET
“How I Met Your Mother” is a sitcom that CBS has been airing since 2005. The main character is Ted Mosby, played by Josh Radnor. Mosby is also the narrator for the show looking back from the year 2030 (the live action is set in the present). As narrator, the older Mosby character is voiced by Bob Saget.

57. En route : ON THE WAY
“En route” is a French term that means “on the way”.

60. “O tempora! O mores!” orator : CICERO
Cicero was a very influential senator in Ancient Rome, in part due to his renowned ability to deliver a persuasive speech. His full name was Marcus Tullius Cicero.

The line “O tempora o mores” comes from Cicero’s “First Oration against Catiline”. The sentence is usually translated as “Oh the times! Oh the customs!”. The words express Cicero’s frustration at the lack of action taken against Catiline who has been plotting to assassinate Cicero and overthrow the Roman government.

63. The whole shebang : ALL
The word “shebang” is probably a derivative of “shebeen”, an Irish word for a “speakeasy”, where liquor was drunk and sold illegally. In English “shebang” was originally a “hut” or a “shed”. Just how this evolved into the expression “the whole shebang”, meaning “everything”, is unclear.

65. ___ Trueheart, Dick Tracy’s sweetheart : TESS
In the “Dick Tracy” comic strip, Tess Trueheart was Dick’s love interest, and later his wife (and still his love interest, I am sure!).

67. U.S. general who was a pentathlete in the 1912 Olympics : PATTON
General George Patton was a notorious leader of US forces during WWII. He was also quite the athlete in his day. Patton placed fifth in modern pentathlon at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm. Most famously, he was given command of the US Third Army in 1944. That army had resounding success, liberating more territory in less time than any other army in the history of the world. Patton barely survived the war. He was killed in a car accident outside Mannheim in Germany in December of 1945.

Down
1. Mozart’s middle name : AMADEUS
The Austrian composer’s full name was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The name “Wolfgang” translates literally as “wolf journey”. Amadeus translates as “love god”!

The magnificent 1984 film “Amadeus” is an adaptation of Peter Shaffer’s 1979 stage play of the same name. Tom Hulce played Mozart, and F. Murray Abraham played Mozart’s rival, Antonio Salieri. Both Hulce and Abraham were nominated for that season’s Best Actor Oscar, with the award going to the latter. There hasn’t been a movie since “Amadeus” that garnered two Best Actor nominations.

3. Jolie of “Maleficent” : ANGELINA
Angelina Jolie is a remarkably successful Hollywood actress from Los Angeles, California. Jolie has acting in her blood as her father is actor Jon Voight. Her godparents are actors Jacqueline Bisset and Maximilian Schell. Jolie’s first marriage was to British actor Jonny Lee Miller, who plays Sherlock Holmes on the TV show “Elementary”. Her second marriage was to actor Billy Bob Thornton, and the third to actor Brad Pitt.

“Maleficent” is a 2014 movie starring Angelina Jolie in the title role, the evil queen from “Sleeping Beauty”. “Maleficent” is loosely based on the fairy tale, and is told from the perspective of the antagonist in “Sleeping Beauty”.

5. Match.com datum : AGE
Match.com is an online dating service. The company was started in 1993 and claims to have over 20 million members worldwide, in the ratio of male to female of 49:51.

6. Website with “Ask Me Anything” interviews : REDDIT
Reddit.com is a networking and news website that started up in 2005. It is essentially a bulletin board system with posts that are voted up and down by users, which determines the ranking of posts. The name “Reddit” is a play on “read it”, as in “I read it on Reddit”. One popular feature of the Reddit site is an online forum that is similar to a press conference. Known as an AMA (for “ask me anything”), participants have included the likes of President Barack Obama, Madonna, Bill Gates, Stephen Colbert and Gordon Ramsay. President Obama’s AMA was so popular that the high level of traffic brought down many parts of the Reddit site.

9. Jewelers’ purity measures: Abbr. : KTS
A karat (also “carat”, the spelling outside of North America) is a measure of the purity of gold alloys, with 24-karat representing pure gold.

10. Ravi Shankar’s music : RAGA
Raga isn’t really a type of music, but has been described as the “tonal framework” in which Indian classical music is composed. Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous raga virtuoso (to us Westerners). Western rock music with a heavy Indian influence might be called raga rock.

11. Magic potion : ELIXIR
An elixir is a solution of alcohol and water that is used to deliver a medicine. The term “elixir” can also be used to mean a medicine that has the power to cure all ills.

12. Triangular chip : DORITO
Doritos are a brand of flavored tortilla chips launched in 1964. The name “Doritos” means “little bits of gold” in Spanish.

13. March locale of note : SELMA
The Bloody Sunday march took place between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama on 7 March 1965. The 600 marchers involved were protesting the intimidation of African-Americans registering to vote. When the marchers reached Dallas County, Alabama they encountered a line of state troopers reinforced by white males who had been deputized that morning to help keep the peace. Violence broke out with 17 marchers ending up in hospital, one nearly dying. Because the disturbance was widely covered by television cameras, the civil rights movement picked up a lot of support that day.

25. Actress Zadora : PIA
Pia Zadora is an American actress and singer. Zadora’s most famous role was in the 1982 film “Butterfly” in which she worked with Orson Welles and Stacey Keach. The film was based on the novel “The Butterfly” by James M. Cain and deals with the difficult subject of father-daughter incest.

26. “One,” in a coin motto : UNUM
From 1776, “E pluribus unum” was the unofficial motto of the United States. The phrase translates from Latin as “Out of many, one”. It was pushed aside in 1956 when an Act of Congress designated “In God We Trust” as the country’s official motto. “In God We Trust” had appeared on US coins since 1864, but was only introduced on paper currency in 1957.

30. Put on, as cargo : LADED
The verb “lade” meaning “to load” comes from an Old English word “hladan”. Lade also used to mean “to draw water” and indeed gave us our word “ladle”. So “lade” and “ladle” are close cousins.

32. 2016 running mate : PENCE
Mike Pence became Governor of Indiana in 2013. Famously, Pence was selected by Donald Trump as his vice presidential running mate.

36. Savings acct. protector : FDIC
During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Banking Act of 1933. The legislation established the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), intended to be a temporary government corporation that provided insurance on deposits made by customers of qualified financial institutions. The first accounts to be covered, in 1934, had an insurance limit of $2,500. Since the financial crisis of 2008, that limit is $250,000.

37. Sofer of “General Hospital” : RENA
Rena Sofer came to prominence as an actor in daytime television, most notably playing Lois Cerullo on “General Hospital”. Sofer’s love interest on the show was played by Wally Kurth, and the online romance led to the pair walking down the aisle in real life in 1995 (although they divorced two years later).

39. The jaguar on a Jaguar’s hood, e.g. : ORNAMENT
Jaguar started out as a manufacturer of sidecars for motorcycles back in 1922, when the company was known as the Swallow Sidecar Company (SS for short). The company changed its name to Jaguar after WWII, because of the unfortunate connotations of the letters “SS” in that era (i.e. the Nazi paramilitary organization).

42. Paper for a pad : LEASE
Back in the 16th century a “pad” was a bundle of straw to lie on, and came to mean a “sleeping place” in the early 1700s. The term was revitalized in the hippie era.

45. New Caledonia is a territory of it : FRANCE
New Caledonia is an archipelago located about 750 miles east of Australia. The islands were named by Captain James Cook in 1774, when he and his crew became the first Europeans to sight them (“Caledonia” is the Latin name for Scotland). France claimed the islands in 1854, and New Caledonia has been a French overseas territory since 1946.

46. Major vessels : AORTAS
The aorta originates in the heart and extends down into the abdomen. It is the largest artery in the body.

48. Sgt. Friday’s introduction : I’M A COP
The TV detective show “Dragnet” opened up each episode with lines spoken by the character Sergeant Joe Friday:

This is the city, Los Angeles, California, I work here. I’m a cop.

In later series, the phrase “I’m a cop” was replaced with “I carry a badge”.

51. In a deadpan manner : DRYLY
The term “deadpan”, slang for an impassive expression, comes from dead (expressionless) and pan (slang for “face”).

54. Degs. for many professors : PHDS
PhD is an abbreviation for “philosophiae doctor”, Latin for “teacher of philosophy”. Often, candidates for an earned PhD already hold a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, so a PhD might be considered a “third degree”.

56. “Law & Order: SVU” co-star : ICE-T
Rapper Ice-T must be sick of having his name come up as an answer in crossword puzzles (I know I am!). Ice-T has been interested in acting for decades and made his film debut in the 1984 movie about breakdancing called “Breakin’”. He has also played Detective Fin Tutuola in the TV show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” since the year 2000.

58. Subject of 12/8/1941 headlines : WAR
The Infamy Speech was delivered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The speech takes its name for the opening line:

Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

The phrase “a date which will live in infamy” is often misquoted as “a day which will live in infamy”. The term “infamy” was inserted in the speech just before it was delivered. A previous version read “… a date which will live in world history”.

59. Reminiscent of : A LA
The phrase “in the style of” can be translated in “alla” in Italian and “à la” in French.

61. Bitter brew, briefly : IPA
India Pale Ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Gamer’s representation : AVATAR
7. “We choose to go to the moon” speech giver, informally : JFK
10. Wines said to go well with steak : REDS
14. Make do : MANAGE
15. Granola morsel : OAT
16. Emollient source : ALOE
17. Wrangled : ARGUED
18. Words on a pink cigar band : IT’S A GIRL!
20. Losing effort? : DIET
21. Cacophony : DIN
23. “Money talks,” e.g. : MAXIM
24. Fish that may be jellied or smoked : EEL
25. With 36-Across, what this puzzle features, literally : PICTURE
28. Give ___ go : IT A
29. Gas or water : UTILITY
31. College player, e.g. : NONPRO
33. Yemeni capital : SANA’A
34. A vital sign : PULSE
35. “Wee” fellow : LAD
36. See 25-Across : FRAME
38. Japanese masked drama : NOH
41. Respected tribesman : ELDER
43. Faux money : SCRIP
45. Appear gradually, on film : FADE IN
47. It occurs twice in “chalk talk” : SILENT L
49. Miracle-___ (garden care brand) : GRO
50. Organization that honored those referenced in the 25-/36-Across, with “the” : ACADEMY
52. “Bingo!” : AHA!
53. Angels’ instruments : HARPS
55. Camcorder brand : RCA
56. “How ___ Your Mother” : I MET
57. En route : ON THE WAY
60. “O tempora! O mores!” orator : CICERO
62. Whole bunch : SCAD
63. The whole shebang : ALL
64. Willing to try : OPEN TO
65. ___ Trueheart, Dick Tracy’s sweetheart : TESS
66. Bit of hope, in an expression : RAY
67. U.S. general who was a pentathlete in the 1912 Olympics : PATTON

Down
1. Mozart’s middle name : AMADEUS
2. Wine from a single type of grape : VARIETAL
3. Jolie of “Maleficent” : ANGELINA
4. Ready to snap, maybe : TAUT
5. Match.com datum : AGE
6. Website with “Ask Me Anything” interviews : REDDIT
7. Like some custody or tax returns : JOINT
8. Budgetary excess : FAT
9. Jewelers’ purity measures: Abbr. : KTS
10. Ravi Shankar’s music : RAGA
11. Magic potion : ELIXIR
12. Triangular chip : DORITO
13. March locale of note : SELMA
19. Cries from a flock : AMENS
22. Very standoffish : ICY
25. Actress Zadora : PIA
26. “One,” in a coin motto : UNUM
27. Auditioner’s hope : ROLE
30. Put on, as cargo : LADED
32. 2016 running mate : PENCE
34. 72, on many courses : PAR
36. Savings acct. protector : FDIC
37. Sofer of “General Hospital” : RENA
39. The jaguar on a Jaguar’s hood, e.g. : ORNAMENT
40. Thus far : HITHERTO
42. Paper for a pad : LEASE
43. Like a fox : SLY
44. It’s smaller than a company : PLATOON
45. New Caledonia is a territory of it : FRANCE
46. Major vessels : AORTAS
47. Brief time, in brief : SEC
48. Sgt. Friday’s introduction : I’M A COP
49. Quickie Halloween costume : GHOST
51. In a deadpan manner : DRYLY
54. Degs. for many professors : PHDS
56. “Law & Order: SVU” co-star : ICE-T
58. Subject of 12/8/1941 headlines : WAR
59. Reminiscent of : A LA
61. Bitter brew, briefly : IPA

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