1003-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 3 Oct 16, Monday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
6. Start of four TV drama titles of the 2000s : CSI
The “CSI” franchise of TV shows has been tremendously successful, but seems to be winding down. “CSI: Miami” (the “worst” of the franchise, I think) was cancelled in 2012 after ten seasons. “CSI: NY” (the “best” of the franchise) was cancelled in 2013 after nine seasons. The original “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, set in Las Vegas, hung in there until 2015 when it ended with a two-hour TV movie. The youngest show in the series is “CSI: Cyber”, and it’s still on the air.

14. Entry in the Rose Parade : FLOAT
The first Rose Parade was staged in 1890, on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California. The initial parades were organized by the Pasadena Valley Hunt Club, whose members wanted to highlight the mild winter weather in the area. The initial parades did not feature flowers, but these were added to underscore the favorable climate. It was the inclusion of the flowers that gave rise to the name “Tournament of Roses”. The first Rose Bowl football game was played in 1902.

15. “Winnie-the-Pooh” baby : ROO
Like most of the characters in A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh”, Roo was inspired by a stuffed toy belonging to Milne’s son Christopher Robin.

17. Brand of orange or grape soda : FANTA
The soft drink “Fanta” has quite an interesting history. As WWII approached, the Coca-Cola plant in Germany had trouble obtaining the ingredients it needed to continue production of the cola beverage, so the plant manager decided to create a new drink from what was available. The new beverage was built around whey (left over from cheese production) and pomace (left over after juice has been extracted from fruit). The inventor asked his colleagues to use their imagination (“Fantasie” in German) and come up with a name for the drink, so they piped up “Fanta!”

20. Unit of work in physics : ERG
An erg is a unit of mechanical work or energy. It is a small unit, as there are 10 million ergs in one joule. it has been suggested that an erg is about the amount of energy required for a mosquito to take off.

21. N.F.L. team that plays in Jersey, strangely enough : NY GIANTS
Tim Mara founded the New York Giants in 1925, after having purchased the NFL franchise for the city for the princely sum of $500, which is somewhere between $12,000 and $13,000 in today’s money.

23. Marquis ___ (French writer) : DE SADE
The Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat with a reputation for a libertine lifestyle. De Sade was also a writer, well known for his works of erotica. He fell foul of the law for some of his more extreme practices and for blaspheming the Catholic church. On an off, de Sade spent 32 years of his life in prison and in insane asylums.

26. ___ News (Roger Ailes’s former channel) : FOX
Roger Ailes founded Fox News in 1996, and became the organization’s CEO. Ailes stepped down from the post in July 2016 amid allegations of repeated sexual harassment.

31. Locale for mobile campers : RV PARK
One using a “recreational vehicle” (RV) might be called an “RVer”.

33. ___ jacket (denim top) : JEAN
Denim fabric originated in Nimes in France. The French phrase “de Nimes” (meaning “from Nimes”) gives us the word “denim”. Also, the French phrase “bleu de Genes” (meaning “blue of Genoa”) gives us our word “jeans”.

34. Pie ___ mode : A LA
In French, “à la mode” simply means “fashionable”. In America, the term has also come to describe a way of serving pie, usually with ice cream, or as I recall from when I lived in Upstate New York, with cheese.

36. “Miss” of TV’s “Dallas” : ELLIE
Miss Ellie is the matriarch of the famed Ewing family, around which the TV series “Dallas” was written. For most of the series, Miss Ellie was played by Barbara Bel Geddes, and once in a TV movie of Dallas by Molly Hagan. Barbara Bel Geddes left the show in 1984 and was replaced by the celebrated actress Donna Reed. When Bel Geddes decided to return to the show the following year, Reed was fired. This was much to Reed’s chagrin, and so a lawsuit ensued.

39. Caramel-filled candies : ROLOS
Rolo was a hugely popular chocolate candy in Ireland when I was growing up. Rolo was introduced in the thirties in the UK, and is produced under license in the US by Hershey. I was a little disappointed when I had my first taste of the American version as the center is very hard and chewy. The recipe used on the other side of the Atlantic calls for a soft gooey center.

40. Server overseer, informally : ADMIN
That would be in the world of Information Technology.

41. Conan O’Brien’s network : TBS
Before Conan O’Brien came to fame as a late night talk show host he was a writer. He wrote for both “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons”.

42. Romulus or Remus : TWIN
According to tradition, Rome was founded by the twin brothers Romulus and Remus. The pair had a heated argument about who should be allowed to name the city and Romulus hit Remus with a shovel, killing him. And so, “Rome” was born, perhaps instead of “Reme”!

43. Put (together), as a jigsaw puzzle : PIECED
Jigsaws are saws designed for the cutting of irregular curves by hand. The original jigsaw puzzles were created by painting a picture on a sheet of wood and then cutting the picture into small pieces using a jigsaw, hence the name. Today, almost all jigsaw puzzles are pictures glued onto cardboard. The puzzle pieces are then die-cut, and there’s no jigsaw involved at all.

45. “Little” folk tale character with lazy friends : RED HEN
“The Little Red Hen” is an old folk tale, probably from Russia. In the story, the little red hen finds a grain of wheat and asks for help to plant it. “Not I” is the response she gets, repeatedly. She does the work herself, eventually baking bread from the harvested grain. She asks for help in eating the bread, and gets lots of volunteers. But, the hen decides to save the bread for herself and her chicks, seeing as no one would help her plant the wheat in the first place.

47. One of the Kennedys : TED
Ted Kennedy was the youngest boy in the family that included his older brothers: Joseph Jr. (killed in action in WWII), John (assassinated) and Robert (assassinated). Ted went into the US Senate in 1962 in a special election held after his brother became US President. He remained in the Senate until he passed away in 2009, making Ted Kennedy the fourth-longest-serving Senator in history.

48. “Stumblin’ In” singer Quatro : SUZI
Suzi Quatro is a rock singer and bass guitar player from Detroit, although she relocated to the UK when she was 21 years old. Quatro had a few great, great hits in the mid-seventies, most famously “Can the Can” (1973) and “Devil Gate Drive” (1974). She also played the character Leather Tuscadero”, a female bass player on the American sitcom “Happy Days”.

53. Something bid on on “The Price Is Right” : SHOWCASE
“The Price is Right” is a television game show that first aired way back in 1956.

55. Drunk motorist’s infraction, for short : DWI
In some states, there is no longer a legal difference between a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) and a DUI (Driving Under the Influence). Other states retain that difference, so that by definition a DUI is a lesser offence than a DWI.

56. California’s says “Eureka” : STATE SEAL
The Great Seal of the State of California features the goddess Minerva of Roman mythology (Athena in Greek mythology), as well as a California grizzly bear, a miner and sailing ships. The seal also features the state motto “Eureka”. The original design of the seal was by Robert S. Garnett who later became the first general to be killed in the Civil War (while fighting for the Confederate Army).

61. Speakers’ platforms : PODIA
“Podium” (plural “podia”) is the Latin word for “raised platform”.

64. Emmy or Espy : AWARD
The Emmy Awards are the television equivalent of the Oscars in the world of film, the Grammy Awards in music and the Tony Awards for the stage. Emmy Awards are presented throughout the year, depending on the sector of television being honored. The most famous of these ceremonies are the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards. The distinctive name of “Emmy” is a softened version of the word “immy”, the nickname given to the video camera tubes found in old television cameras.

The ESPY Awards are a creation of the ESPN sports television network. One difference with similarly named awards in the entertainment industry is that ESPY winners are chosen solely based on viewer votes.

65. Sporty Pontiac : GTO
The Pontiac GTO was produced by GM from 1964 to 1974, and again by a GM subsidiary in Australia from 2004 to 2006. The original GTO’s design is credited to Pontiac chief engineer at the time John DeLorean, who later was found the DeLorean Motor Company.

Down
8. Smidgens : IOTAS
Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet. We use the word “iota” to portray something very small as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.

Our word “smidgen” (sometimes shortened to “smidge”) is used to describe a small amount. The term might come from the Scots word “smitch” that means the same thing or “a small insignificant person”.

11. Military entertainment grp. : USO
The United Service Organization (USO) was founded in 1941 at the request of FDR “to handle the on-leave recreation of the men in the armed forces”. A USO tour is undertaken by a troupe of entertainers, many of whom are big-name celebrities. A USO tour usually includes troop locations in combat zones.

12. Sch. on Manhattan’s Washington Square Park : NYU
The main campus of the private New York University (NYU) is located right in Manhattan, in Washington Square in the heart of Greenwich Village. NYU has over 12,000 resident students, the largest number of residents in a private school in the whole country. NYU’s sports teams are known as the Violets, a reference to the violet and white colors that are worn in competition. Since the 1980s, the school’s mascot has been a bobcat. “Bobcat” had been the familiar name given to NYU’s Bobst Library computerized catalog.

13. Gun, in old mob slang : GAT
“Gat” is slang for “gun”. The term is derived from the Gatling gun, the precursor to the modern machine gun. The Gatling gun was invented by Dr. Richard J. Gatling in 1861. Apparently he was inspired to invent it so that one man could do as much damage as a hundred, thereby reducing the size of armies and diminishing the suffering caused by war. Go figure …

19. Like some verbs: Abbr. : INTR
Transitive verbs are those that can take direct objects, and intransitive verbs are those that do not. Examples of transitive verbs are “throw (the ball)” and “injure (a leg)”. Examples of intransitive verbs are “fall” and “sit”.

24. Language of Yemen and Oman : ARABIC
Yemen is located on the Arabian Peninsula, lying just south of Saudi Arabia and west of Oman. Yemen is the only state on the peninsula that is a republic (its official name is the Republic of Yemen). Everyone over the age of 18 gets to vote, but only Muslims can hold elected office. Yemen has seen many rebellions over the centuries, and has been suffering through a Shia uprising since February 2015.

Oman lies on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula and is neighbored by the OAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Oman is a monarchy, and the official name of the state is the Sultanate of Oman. All of the country’s legislative, executive and judiciary power resides with the hereditary sultan.

26. Like the contents of this puzzle’s circled squares, in a nursery rhyme : FALLING DOWN
“London Bridge Is Falling Down” is an English nursery rhyme that dates back to the 1600s.

London Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down.
London Bridge is falling down,
My fair lady.

27. Hunter of myth : ORION
The very recognizable constellation of Orion is named for the Greek God Orion, the Hunter. If you take a look at the star in Orion’s “right shoulder”, the second brightest star in the constellation, you might notice that it is quite red in color. This is the famous star called Betelgeuse, a red supergiant, a huge star that is on its way out. Betelgeuse is expected to explode into a supernova within the next thousand years or so. You don’t want to miss that …

28. Sporty Jaguars : XKES
Auto manufacturer 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).

30. “It is the ___, and Juliet is the sun”: Romeo : EAST
There’s a famous couplet in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” spoken by Romeo as he spots Juliet above him at a window or on a balcony:

But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Romeo continues with:

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.

I reckon Romeo is smitten …

33. Actress Foster : JODIE
The wonderful actress and director Jodie Foster got her big break in movies early in her life, playing a very young prostitute in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film “Taxi Driver”. Sadly, her appearance in “Taxi Driver” led to her being stalked by an obsessed John Hinckley, Jr. Hinckley called Foster on the phone, sent her love letters, and followed her on campus while she was attending Yale. In 1981, Hinckley famously shot and wounded President Reagan, claiming that he believed an assassination of the President would impress Foster.

35. Cathedral recess : APSE
The apse of a church or cathedral is a semicircular recess in an outer wall, usually with a half-dome as a roof and often where there resides an altar. Originally, apses were used as burial places for the clergy and also for storage of important relics.

46. Some A.L. sluggers : DHS
In baseball, designated hitters (DHs) might replace the pitcher (P) at bat.

American League (AL)

49. Stefan ___, influential Austrian writer of the 1920s-’30s : ZWEIG
Stefan Zweig was a novelist, playwright and journalist from Vienna, Austria. Zweign wrote a memoir titled “The World of Yesterday” that he completed in 1942. The day after finishing the work, Zweig and his wife took overdoses of barbiturates. They pair were found dead in their home in Brazil, holding hands.

51. Furry “Star Wars” creatures : EWOKS
The Ewoks are creatures who live on the moon of Endor, first appearing in “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”. They’re the cute and cuddly little guys that look like teddy bears.

52. ___ Doodles (snack brand) : DIPSY
Dipsy doodles are corn chips made by Wise Foods. They’re designed for “dipping”, hence the “Dipsy” name.

53. Kerfuffle : STIR
“Kerfuffle” comes from the Scottish “curfuffle”, with both words meaning “disruption”.

56. Health resort : SPA
The word “spa” migrated into English from Belgium, as Spa is the name of a municipality in the east of the country that is famous for its healing hot springs. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.

57. Pull to a pound : TOW
An illegally parked vehicle might be towed to an impoundment lot (a “pound”).

58. Nabokov novel : ADA
“Ada” is a 1969 novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The story takes place in the 1800s on Antiterra, an Earth-like planet that has a history similar to ours but with interesting differences. For example, there is a United States, but that country covers all of North and South America. What we call eastern Canada is a French-speaking province called “Canady”, and western Canada is a Russian-speaking province called “Estody”. The storyline is about a man called Van Veen who, when 14 years old, meets for the first time his cousin, 11-year-old Ada. The two cousins eventually have an affair, only to discover later that they are in fact brother and sister.

60. Singer Carly ___ Jepsen : RAE
Carly Rae Jepsen is a singer/songwriter from Mission, British Columbia. Jepsen got her start on TV’s “Canadian Idol” when she placed third in the show’s fifth season.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Makes eyes at : OGLES
6. Start of four TV drama titles of the 2000s : CSI
9. Twisted, as a wet towel : WRUNG
14. Entry in the Rose Parade : FLOAT
15. “Winnie-the-Pooh” baby : ROO
16. Course you hardly have to study for : EASY A
17. Brand of orange or grape soda : FANTA
18. Misbehaving : ACTING OUT
20. Unit of work in physics : ERG
21. N.F.L. team that plays in Jersey, strangely enough : NY GIANTS
23. Marquis ___ (French writer) : DE SADE
25. Regarding : AS TO
26. ___ News (Roger Ailes’s former channel) : FOX
29. Tool for laying cement : TROWEL
31. Locale for mobile campers : RV PARK
33. ___ jacket (denim top) : JEAN
34. Pie ___ mode : A LA
36. “Miss” of TV’s “Dallas” : ELLIE
37. Jazz group : COMBO
38. “Yo” : SUP?
39. Caramel-filled candies : ROLOS
40. Server overseer, informally : ADMIN
41. Conan O’Brien’s network : TBS
42. Romulus or Remus : TWIN
43. Put (together), as a jigsaw puzzle : PIECED
45. “Little” folk tale character with lazy friends : RED HEN
47. One of the Kennedys : TED
48. “Stumblin’ In” singer Quatro : SUZI
50. Didn’t give a definitive answer : HEDGED
53. Something bid on on “The Price Is Right” : SHOWCASE
55. Drunk motorist’s infraction, for short : DWI
56. California’s says “Eureka” : STATE SEAL
59. Sag : DROOP
61. Speakers’ platforms : PODIA
62. ___ and outs : INS
63. Stares (at) : GAWKS
64. Emmy or Espy : AWARD
65. Sporty Pontiac : GTO
66. Minuscule, informally : EENSY

Down
1. Took care of, mob-style : OFFED
2. What a sun visor reduces : GLARE
3. Like some wineglasses and roses : LONG-STEMMED
4. Dine : EAT
5. Perform an inverted feat : STAND ON ONE’S HEAD
6. Rocky outcropping : CRAG
7. Alcohol, per its effect at a party : SOCIAL LUBRICANT
8. Smidgens : IOTAS
9. Lost one’s sanity : WENT OVER THE EDGE
10. From ___ to riches : RAGS
11. Military entertainment grp. : USO
12. Sch. on Manhattan’s Washington Square Park : NYU
13. Gun, in old mob slang : GAT
19. Like some verbs: Abbr. : INTR
22. Tree whose name sounds like a letter of the alphabet : YEW
24. Language of Yemen and Oman : ARABIC
26. Like the contents of this puzzle’s circled squares, in a nursery rhyme : FALLING DOWN
27. Hunter of myth : ORION
28. Sporty Jaguars : XKES
30. “It is the ___, and Juliet is the sun”: Romeo : EAST
32. Prepared for planting, as a field : PLOWED
33. Actress Foster : JODIE
35. Cathedral recess : APSE
37. Lt.’s superior : CAPT
44. Twosomes : DUOS
46. Some A.L. sluggers : DHS
49. Stefan ___, influential Austrian writer of the 1920s-’30s : ZWEIG
51. Furry “Star Wars” creatures : EWOKS
52. ___ Doodles (snack brand) : DIPSY
53. Kerfuffle : STIR
54. In addition : ALSO
56. Health resort : SPA
57. Pull to a pound : TOW
58. Nabokov novel : ADA
60. Singer Carly ___ Jepsen : RAE

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