0923-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 23 Sep 16, Friday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Andrew Zhou
THEME: None
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 17m 09s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

14. Lothario’s activity : WOMANIZING
There is a character Lothario in Don Quixote, and in the “Fair Penitent”, a 1703 play by Nicholas Rowe. In both cases the Lothario in question exhibits less than wholesome behavior towards a woman, giving rise to the term “lothario” meaning a “roue”.

23. Company that makes Tamiflu : ROCHE
The giant pharmaceutical and medical diagnostics company Hoffmann-La Roche is based in Basel, Switzerland. The company was founded back in 1896 by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, and initially produced vitamins.

26. Head of Hogwarts : LOO
It has been suggested that the British term “loo” comes from Waterloo (water-closet … water-loo), but no one seems to know for sure. Another suggestion is that the term comes from the card game of “lanterloo” in which the pot was called the loo!

In old sailing ships the toilet area for the regular sailors was located in the forward part (the head) of the ship, hence the term “head” that has been used since then for any toilet on board a boat.

In J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” universe, The Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was founded by the four most brilliant witches and wizards of their time: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Each of the founders lent their name to a House in the school, i.e. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.

30. Says “Top o’ the morning,” say : ELIDES
“To elide” is to pass over, omit or slur a syllable when speaking.

36. Manager honored at Cooperstown in 2013 : LA RUSSA
Tony La Russa is a former MLB player and manager. Off the field, La Russa is well known in this part of Northern California as the founder of the Animal Rescue Foundation (ARF) headquartered in the city of Walnut Creek. The ARF is a “no-kill” animal shelter for abandoned dogs and cats. We rescued our pet dog from the ARF.

43. Pilates class sights : MATS
Pilates is a physical exercise system developed by, and named for, Joseph Pilates. Pilates introduced his system of exercises in 1883 in Germany.

45. Southern African game : GNU
A gnu is also known as a wildebeest, and is an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is actually the Dutch word for “wild beast”.

52. Many are named after M.L.K. : STS
Martin Luther King Jr’s father was born Michael King. On a trip to Germany in 1934, Michael came to admire Protestant leader Martin Luther and changed his name to Martin Luther King on his return the United States. Famously, he passed on his new name to his son, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

55. Bond femme fatale : OCTOPUSSY
The title for the 13th James Bond film “Octopussy” actually came from an original story by the creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming. However, the movie bears no resemblance to Fleming’s 1966 short story “Octopussy and the Living Daylights”. “Octopussy” was one of the Roger Moore Bond movies, his second to last.

57. Prestidigitator’s word : VOILA!
“Voilà” means “there it is”, and “voici” means “here it is”. The terms come from “voi là” meaning “see there” and “voi ici” meaning “see here”.

Maud Adams played two Bond girls, in “The Man with the Golden Gun” and “Octopussy”, both times opposite Roger Moore as James Bond. Also, Adams was visiting her friend Roger Moore while he was shooting “A View to a Kill” and can be seen in the background in in one scene. So actually, Adams was in three Bond movies.

60. Cousin of a kite : ERNE
The ern (sometimes “erne”) is also called the white-tailed eagle, or the sea-eagle.

Kites are birds of prey that feed mainly on carrion.

62. Jazz combo? : ZEES
There is a combination (combo) of two letters Z (zee) in the word “jazz”.

63. Broadway star who was on Nixon’s list of enemies : STREISAND
During the Senate Watergate hearings, it came to light that a list had been compiled by the White House of President Nixon’s major political opponents. The list was put together as part of a campaign referred to officially as the “Political Enemies Project”. That list comprised twenty names, including actor Paul Newman and journalist Daniel Schorr. The list was expanded into a master list of Nixon’s political opponents, a list that contained hundreds of names. That master list included the likes of Senator Ted Kennedy, Governor George Wallace and celebrities Bill Cosby, Jane Fonda, Joe Namath and Barbra Streisand.

Down
2. Painter Jean-___ Fragonard : HONORE
Jean-Honoré Fragonard was a late Rococo painter from France.

3. Certain Cornhusker : OMAHAN
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska. It is located on the Missouri River, about 10 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River When Nebraska was still a territory Omaha was its capital, but when Nebraska achieved statehood the capital was moved to the city of Lincoln.

The state of Nebraska got its “Cornhusker State” nickname from the University of Nebraska athletic teams (and not the other way round). In turn, the university teams’ name comes from the prevalence of corn as a crop, and the harvesting process known as “cornhusking”, removal of the outer husk from the ear of corn.

6. “Huckleberry Finn” character : JIM
In Mark Twain’s novel “Huckleberry Finn”, much of the storyline is taken up with Huck’s adventures with the slave Jim as they raft down the Mississippi River. By making the journey, the pair hope to find freedom from slavery for Jim and freedom from his vagrant drunkard father for Huck.

7. Conductor who has a hall at Tanglewood named after him : OZAWA
Tanglewood is an estate in Lenox, Massachusetts. Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The estate takes its name from “Tanglewood Tales” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The author wrote the book in 1853 while staying in a cottage in the area. The owner renamed the cottage after Hawthorne’s work, and the name was then adopted for the nearby estate.

9. Lego competitor : K’NEX
The construction toy with the name K’Nex is the phonetic spelling of the word “connects”. The toy was invented by Joel Glickman, who came up with the idea while playing with straws as he sat at a table after a wedding. He launched K’Nex in 1993, and it is still sold in stores.

Lego is manufactured by Lego Group, a privately held company headquartered in Billund, Denmark. The company was founded by a carpenter called Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1934 and the now-famous plastic interlocking blocks were introduced in 1949. The blocks were originally sold under the name “Automatic Binding Bricks” but I think “Lego” is easier to remember! The name “Lego” comes from the Danish term “leg godt” meaning “play well”.

11. “The Consolation of Philosophy” author : BOETHIUS
“The Consolation of Philosophy” is a work written by Roman philosopher Boethius while he was in prison. Boethius was accused of conspiring to overthrow Theodoric the Great, ruler of Italy for much of the sixth century. “The Consolation of Philosophy” was to become an influential philosophical work across Europe right through the end of the Middle Ages, and was a particular influence on Christianity during that period. After a year in prison, Theodoric had Boethius executed.

12. Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes : ANCIENTS
Aeschylus was one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. The first of these was Aeschylus, the second Sophocles, and the third Euripides. Aeschylus is sometimes referred to as the father of tragedy, as his work is the earliest known representation of the style.

Sophocles was one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. The first of these was Aeschylus, the second Sophocles, and the third Euripides. Sophocles is believed to have written 123 plays, the most famous of which are “Antigone” and “Oedipus the King”.

Aristophanes was a comic playwright of Ancient Athens. He is known to have written at least forty plays, eleven of which have survived almost intact. Aristophanes was famous for writing plays that satirized life in the city, and was apparently much feared by public figures. Some say that the ridicule Aristophanes brought down on Socrates in his play “The Clouds” helped bring about his (Socrates’) trial and execution.

13. College recruitment org. : ROTC
The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) is a training program for officers based in colleges all around the US. The ROTC program was established in 1862 when as a condition of receiving a land-grant to create colleges, the federal government required that military tactics be part of a new school’s curriculum.

15. Camera manufacturer whose slogan is “Be a Hero” : GOPRO
GoPro is a company that makes high-definition video cameras that have a rugged design. Famously, GoPro cameras are used in extreme conditions. For example, they are often mounted on moving vehicles or used by people playing sports. Recently, two astronauts on the International Space Station inserted a GoPro camera inside a floating ball of water, and then showed the view from inside the ball of water. Amazing footage …

22. Genre that “The Long Goodbye” is based on : NOIR
The expression “film noir” has French origins, but only in that it was coined by a French critic in describing a style of Hollywood film. The term, meaning “black film” in French, was first used by Nino Frank in 1946. Film noir often applies to a movie with a melodramatic plot and a private eye or detective at its center. Good examples would be “The Big Sleep” and “D.O.A”.

“The Long Goodbye” is a 1973 Robert Altman film based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Raymond Chandler. The movie stars Elliott Gould as Chandler’s famous private eye Phillip Marlowe.

25. “Cake Boss” network : TLC
“Cake Boss” is a reality show set in Carlo’s Bake Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey. Apparently the show is very popular, and Carlo’s Bake Shop has become quite the tourist attraction.

27. World capital with 40 islands within its city limits : OSLO
The Norwegian capital of Oslo is located at the northern end of a fjord known as Oslofjord. The fjord is home to 40 islands that lie within the city’s limits. Oslo also has 343 lakes.

29. Breakfast spot? : TEA
I guess the reference here is to the oft quoted English phrase “a spot of tea”. Mind you, I’ve only ever heard that said in jest …

31. Cannon shot in Hollywood : DYAN
The actress Dyan Cannon is perhaps best known for playing Alice in the 1969 film “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice”, for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Cannon is also famous for having been on Cary Grant’s long list of wives, from 1965 to 1968 (and he was 33 years her senior).

35. Get perfectly pitched, in a way : AUTO-TUNE
When Cher recorded the 1998 song “Believe”, the audio engineers routinely corrected the sound of Cher’s voice to ensure that all notes were sung with perfect pitch (all singers “cheat”, it seems!). The software that does this pitch correction is called “Auto-Tune”. Then, for a bit of fun, the same engineers played with the Auto-Tune software and created a special effect in her voice that she so liked it was left in the final release. You can easily detect the strange effect if you listen to the song. The process is now called the “Cher Effect” and is used by other artists in their recordings.

37. Midwest college town : AMES
The Iowa city of Ames was founded as a stop on the Cedar Rapids and Missouri Railroad in 1864. It was named for US Congressman Oakes Ames from the state of Massachusetts in honor of the role that Ames played in the building of the transcontinental railroad.

39. Openings in the computer field? : USB PORTS
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard dealing with how computers and electronic devices connect and communicate, and deal with electrical power through those connections.

42. Longtime “Meet the Press” moderator : RUSSERT
Tim Russert was a TV journalist who moderated NBC’s “Meet the Press” for over sixteen years. Some say that Russert coined the phrases “red state” and “blue state”. Russert denied that, but he certainly did popularize the usage.

44. Places for pilots : STOVES
A pilot light is a small gas flame, one using a relatively small amount of fuel, that remains lit as an ignition source for larger gas burners.

47. Cesario’s lover in literature : OLIVIA
William Shakespeare wrote his comedy “Twelfth Night” as a Christmas entertainment (Twelfth Night being the end of the Christmas season). The play’s protagonist is a young woman named Viola. The plot calls for Viola to dress as eunuch named Cesario who goes into the service of Duke Orsino. Orsino has Cesario go to Duchess Olivia to express his love for her. But Olivia falls for Cesario, Cesario (Viola) falls for Orsino, and hilarity ensues …

51. “Yet that thy brazen gates of heaven may ___”: Shak. : OPE
Here are some lines from William Shakespeare’s play “Henry VI, Part 3”.

And, ere my knee rise from the earth’s cold face,
I throw my hands, mine eyes, my heart to thee,
Thou setter up and plucker down of kings,
Beseeching thee, if with they will it stands
That to my foes this body must be prey,
Yet that thy brazen gates of heaven may ope,
And give sweet passage to my sinful soul!

The consensus seems to be that William Shakespeare wrote 38 plays in all. Seven of the plays are about kings called “Henry”:

  • Henry IV, Part 1
  • Henry IV, Part 2
  • Henry V
  • Henry VI, Part 1
  • Henry VI, Part 2
  • Henry VI, Part 3
  • Henry VIII

53. Pianist McCoy ___, member of the John Coltrane Quartet : TYNER
McCoy Tyner is a jazz pianist from Philadelphia. For many years, Tyner was a member of the John Coltrane Quartet. McCoy’s younger brother is Jarvis Tyner, a member of the Communist Party USA who ran for Vice President in 1972 and 1976.

55. Hearing command : OYEZ!
Town criers make public announcements on the streets, usually shouting “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!” to attract attention. The term “oyez” derives from the Anglo-Norman word for “listen” and is used in this instance to me “Hear ye!”

57. Start of a classic boast : VENI …
The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BC and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. One making waves over the waves : SHOCK JOCK
10. Bridge support : I-BAR
14. Lothario’s activity : WOMANIZING
16. Wearing red to a Chinese funeral, e.g. : NO-NO
17. It has no life : INANIMATE OBJECT
19. Very well-pitched : NO-HIT
20. Become flowery : WAX POETIC
21. Fat: Fr. : GRAS
22. Cuff : NAB
23. Company that makes Tamiflu : ROCHE
24. Mailed or faxed : SENT TO
26. Head of Hogwarts : LOO
28. Salon job : TINT
30. Says “Top o’ the morning,” say : ELIDES
32. Shoshone language relative : UTE
33. Quite removed (from) : A FAR CRY
36. Manager honored at Cooperstown in 2013 : LA RUSSA
40. Marker : IOU
41. Kitchen drawers? : AROMAS
43. Pilates class sights : MATS
45. Southern African game : GNU
46. Give a raise? : EMBOSS
50. Zoom (along) : MOTOR
52. Many are named after M.L.K. : STS
54. Sit (down) heavily : PLOP
55. Bond femme fatale : OCTOPUSSY
57. Prestidigitator’s word : VOILA!
58. Summoning statement : YOU’VE BEEN SERVED
60. Cousin of a kite : ERNE
61. Modern parents may try to limit it : SCREEN TIME
62. Jazz combo? : ZEES
63. Broadway star who was on Nixon’s list of enemies : STREISAND

Down
1. Playground set : SWINGS
2. Painter Jean-___ Fragonard : HONORE
3. Certain Cornhusker : OMAHAN
4. Film setting? : CANISTER
5. Drawn together : KNIT
6. “Huckleberry Finn” character : JIM
7. Conductor who has a hall at Tanglewood named after him : OZAWA
8. Worthy of reference : CITABLE
9. Lego competitor : K’NEX
10. Administer, as a shot : INJECT
11. “The Consolation of Philosophy” author : BOETHIUS
12. Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes : ANCIENTS
13. College recruitment org. : ROTC
15. Camera manufacturer whose slogan is “Be a Hero” : GOPRO
18. Shout of surprise : BOO!
22. Genre that “The Long Goodbye” is based on : NOIR
25. “Cake Boss” network : TLC
27. World capital with 40 islands within its city limits : OSLO
29. Breakfast spot? : TEA
31. Cannon shot in Hollywood : DYAN
33. Word shouted before “Fire!” : AIM!
34. Material for mounting photos : FOAMCORE
35. Get perfectly pitched, in a way : AUTOTUNE
37. Midwest college town : AMES
38. Farm butter : RAM
39. Openings in the computer field? : USB PORTS
42. Longtime “Meet the Press” moderator : RUSSERT
44. Places for pilots : STOVES
45. Digs around : GRUBS
47. Cesario’s lover in literature : OLIVIA
48. Serious : SOLEMN
49. Worked the field, in a way : SPADED
51. “Yet that thy brazen gates of heaven may ___”: Shak. : OPE
53. Pianist McCoy ___, member of the John Coltrane Quartet : TYNER
55. Hearing command : OYEZ!
56. Brief moments : SECS
57. Start of a classic boast : VENI …
59. c, in a text : SEE

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15 thoughts on “0923-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 23 Sep 16, Friday”

  1. 23:34, no errors, iPad. I had a hard time getting started on this one. Oddly enough, it was INANIMATE OBJECT that finally gave me the needed boost, after which the rest of the solution came pretty quickly. K'NEX, BOETHIUS, TYNER, AUTOTUNE, OLIVIA, RUSSERT, and LARUSSA were all unfamiliar to one degree or another.

    @RJ … I vote for "streets". There is such a street in Denver, for example (though I think it's technically either a boulevard or an avenue) and I have seen such streets in other cuties, as well.

  2. @RJ — streets. There is a street named after MLK in pretty much every US city.

    But someone please explain the LOO one I am so frustrated

  3. @Anonymous
    My bad. I forgot to explain that "head" is a slang term for a toilet, as is "loo".

    In old sailing ships the toilet area for the regular sailors was located in the forward part (the head) of the ship, hence the term "head" that has been used since then for any toilet on board a boat.

  4. Aha. I've somehow never heard of that before. I guessed that maybe "head" was slang for bathroom because I couldn't find any other explanation, but I'd never heard it. Thanks!

  5. 17:51, no errors. Fortunately, I was able to fill 26A LOO without reading the clue; filling it with CITABLE, OSLO and GO PRO. It took a while to remember that GO PRO is a camera company.

  6. Worked on this one through several sittings, mainly because of the NE corner. GOPRO was completely out of my reach, so cheated on that one in order to finish it off [gasp].

  7. We solved this on our own skill, without looking anything up. Each of us contributed importantly to the solution. That often happens, but we regarded this as a particularly difficult puzzle, with many fair but misleading clues.

  8. Please explain "ram" for "farm butter"
    I see that there is a dairy in India called "Ram" that sells butter but cannot find any definition in English that would connect the two terms. A ram is a male goat…

  9. Thanks Bill.

    Right: butter/butt(er) sometimes I can't see those hidden meanings.

    And male 'sheep' Of course! And I'm an Aries!

    Paul

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