1022-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 22 Oct 16, Saturday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Rugby rival of Harvard : MCGILL
McGill University is a school in Montreal that was founded in 1821. The university was formed from the preexisting McGill College that had been established using a grant from Montreal merchant James McGill.

7. It operates Hamburger U. : MICKEY D’S
The McDonald’s fast-food restaurant chain is sometimes referred to as “Mickey D’s”.

17. 1955 R&B hit for Bo Diddley : I’M A MAN
“I’m a Man” is a 1955 song written and recorded by Bo Diddley. The most famous cover version of the song was released in 1965 by English rock band the Yardbirds.

Bo Diddley was the stage name of Ellas Otha Bates, the celebrated R&B artist.

19. Buff : MAVEN
I’ve always loved the word “maven”, another word for an expert. Maven comes into English from the Yiddish “meyvn” meaning someone who appreciates and is a connoisseur.

A “buff”, “fiend” or a “nut” is one who is extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable about a subject.

22. Free of shampoo, say : RINSE OUT
Back in the 1760s, the verb “to shampoo” was an Anglo-Indian word meaning “to massage”. A century later we started to shampoo our hair.

25. “Cleopatre” artist : ERTE
Erté was the pseudonym of French (Russian born) artist and designer Romain de Tirtoff. Erté is the French pronunciation of his initials “R.T.” Erté’s diverse portfolio of work included costumes and sets for the “Ziegfeld Follies” of 1923, as well as productions of the Parisian cabaret show “Folies Bergère”. Erté’s most famous work by far is an image titled “Symphony in Black”. It depicts a tall and slender woman dressed in black, holding a black dog on a leash.

26. Directory listings: Abbr. : NOS
Number (no.)

27. A place antelope lope : VELDT
Also known as Veld, Veldt is the name given to large rural spaces in southern Africa. We might use the term “boondocks” for the same thing. The word comes from the German for “field”.

30. Maugham’s title girl of Lambeth : LIZA
“Liza of Lambeth” was the first novel from the pen of English writer W. Somerset Maugham. It’s the story of 18-year old factory work Liza Kemp from the Lambeth district of London, following her for the last four months of her tragic life. It’s a sad tale of brutality towards towards women. At the time of writing, Maugham was working as a doctor at a hospital in Lambeth, which back then was very much a working class area.

W. Somerset Maugham was a playwright and novelist from the UK. Maugham was actually born in France, but on British soil in the British embassy in Paris. He became very successful as an author and was the highest paid writer of the 1930s.

34. Uses without sharing, in slang : BOGARTS
“To bogart” is to bully, or it can mean to use without sharing. In the later sense, a person using marijuana might “bogart a joint”, keeping it to himself or herself and not passing it around. The term is a reference to Hollywood actor Humphrey Bogart, who often played scenes with a cigarette dangling from his lips.

38. Golfer nicknamed Long John : DALY
John Daly is a golfer with the nickname “Long John”, as he really knows how to get distance off the tee. He has the reputation of a wild man on the circuit, and perhaps that’s why he has a drink named after him. A “John Daly” is the same as the non-alcoholic “Arnold Palmer”, with lemonade and iced tea, but the “Daly” has vodka added.

39. Interruption of service? : NET
That would be in tennis.

40. Model material : BALSA
Balsa is a very fast growing tree that is native to parts of South America. Even though balsa wood is very soft, it is actually classified as a hardwood, the softest of all the hardwoods (go figure!). Balsa is light and strong, so is commonly used in making model airplanes. Amazingly, in WWII a full-size British plane, the de Havilland Mosquito, was built largely from balsa and plywood. No wonder they called it “The Wooden Wonder” and “The Timber Terror”.

41. Translation material : RNA
Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by what is called transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA.

42. Website used by a lot of artisans : ETSY
Etsy.com is an e-commerce website where you can buy and sell the kind of items that you might find at a craft fair.

47. They’re “made by fools like me,” per Kilmer : POEMS
The American journalist and poet Joyce Kilmer is primarily known for his 1913 poem titled “Trees”. The original text of the poem is:

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Kilmer died a few years after writing “Trees”. He was a casualty of the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31.

53. Start, in a way : BOOT UP
The verb “to boot” as used in the world of computers comes from the phrase “pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps”. The idea is that the software that has to be loaded before a computer can do anything useful is called a “bootstrap load”.

Down
2. Oscar winner before “Grand Hotel” : CIMARRON
“Cimarron” is a 1929 novel by Edna Ferber, adapted into a film of the same name two years later. The novel is all about the Oklahoma Land Rush. Unsettled land back then was known as Cimarron Territory, a familiar name used by settlers, giving the title to the novel.

“Grand Hotel” is a marvelous film released in 1932 based on a book of the same name by William A. Drake. Drake himself had based his book on a novel by Vicki Baum titled “Menschen im Hotel”. The 1932 movie has a stellar cast including Greta Garbo and John Barrymore. “Grand Hotel” was remade in 1945 as ‘Week-End at the Waldorf”, a film I saw not that long ago starring Ginger Rogers and Walter Pidgeon.

3. 1974 National Book Award winner by Thomas Pynchon : GRAVITY’S RAINBOW
“Gravity’s Rainbow” is a complex novel by Thomas Pynchon that centers on the design and use of V-2 rockets by Germany towards the end of WWII.

4. Daughter and half sister of Oedipus : ISMENE
According to Greek mythology, Ismene is a daughter, and at the same time half-sister, of Oedipus, King of Thebes. Jocasta was the mother of Oedipus, and then his wife, with the incestuous union resulting in the birth of Ismene.

6. Shared computer syst. : LAN
Local Area Network (LAN)

7. One who goes on to try to conquer the Universe? : MISS USA
The Miss USA beauty pageant was founded in 1952 in order to select the American candidate for the Miss Universe competition.

8. Language akin to Yupik : INUIT
The Inuit peoples live in the Arctic, in parts of the US, Russia, Greenland and Canada.

The Yupik are a group of indigenous peoples of Alaska and the Russian Far East.

11. They may reduce sentences, for short : EDS
Editor (ed.)

13. Four-time N.B.A. scoring champion in the 2010s : DURANT
Kevin Durant is a professional basketball player with the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NBA. You might come across Durant on the big screen as well, as he starred in the children’s film “Thunderstruck” in 2012.

14. Vessel opener : STENT
In the world of medicine and surgery, a stent is an artificial tube inserted inside a vessel in the body, say an artery, so that it reduces the effects of a local restriction in the body’s conduit.

27. Front-and-center section : VIOLAS
The viola looks like and is played like a violin, but is slightly larger. It is referred to as the middle voice in the violin family, between the violin and the cello.

30. It has a Marxist-Leninist ideology : LAOS
The official name for the country of Laos is the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In the Lao language, the country’s name is “Meuang Lao”. The French ruled Laos as part of French Indochina, having united three separate Lao kingdoms. As there was a plural of “Lao” entities united into one, the French added the “S” and so today we tend to use “Laos” instead of “Lao”.

34. Bêtes noires : BANES
“Bête noire” translates from French as “black beast” and is used in English to describe something or someone that is disliked.

40. Gewgaw : BAUBLE
A “gewgaw” is a trinket, a trivial piece of jewelry. It’s also a term I’ve never seen outside of crosswords

44. Davis of film : GEENA
As well as being a successful Hollywood actress, Geena Davis is an accomplished archer and came close to qualifying for the US archery team for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Davis is also a member of American Mensa. She is quite the lady …

52. K’ung Fu-___ : TSE
The sayings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (anglicized from “K’ung Fu-Tse”) are collected in a work called “The Analects” or “Linyu”. It wasn’t Confucius who wrote down his thoughts though, but rather his pupils, some 40 or so years after his death in 479 BC.

53. 41-Across is a topic in it, briefly : BIO
(41A. Translation material : RNA)
Biology (bio.)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Rugby rival of Harvard : MCGILL
7. It operates Hamburger U. : MICKEY D’S
15. Like many offshore rescues : AIR-SEA
16. Visiting only a short time : IN AND OUT
17. 1955 R&B hit for Bo Diddley : I’M A MAN
18. “Ri-i-ight” : SURE SURE
19. Buff : MAVEN
20. 17-Across, to the self-titled “Bo Diddley” : B-SIDE
21. Took care of : RAN
22. Free of shampoo, say : RINSE OUT
24. Shut (up) : PENT
25. “Cleopatre” artist : ERTE
26. Directory listings: Abbr. : NOS
27. A place antelope lope : VELDT
29. Kittenish : COY
30. Maugham’s title girl of Lambeth : LIZA
31. Suspicion : IDEA
32. Live : ONSTAGE
34. Uses without sharing, in slang : BOGARTS
37. What there often is for improvement : ROOM
38. Golfer nicknamed Long John : DALY
39. Interruption of service? : NET
40. Model material : BALSA
41. Translation material : RNA
42. Website used by a lot of artisans : ETSY
43. Breeze (along) : SAIL
44. “Huh … never mind then” : GUESS NOT
46. One of “the highest form of literature,” per Hitchcock : PUN
47. They’re “made by fools like me,” per Kilmer : POEMS
49. Parades, with “out” : TROTS
51. Rollback events : EBB TIDES
53. Start, in a way : BOOT UP
54. Squeaker : CLOSE ONE
55. Lift one’s spirits? : IMBIBE
56. Subterranean scurrier : SEWER RAT
57. Played first : OPENED

Down
1. Unhand or disarm? : MAIM
2. Oscar winner before “Grand Hotel” : CIMARRON
3. 1974 National Book Award winner by Thomas Pynchon : GRAVITY’S RAINBOW
4. Daughter and half sister of Oedipus : ISMENE
5. Shows a preference : LEANS
6. Shared computer syst. : LAN
7. One who goes on to try to conquer the Universe? : MISS USA
8. Language akin to Yupik : INUIT
9. ID : CARD
10. End of a lap : KNEE
11. They may reduce sentences, for short : EDS
12. “And how!” : YOU’RE DARN TOOTIN’
13. Four-time N.B.A. scoring champion in the 2010s : DURANT
14. Vessel opener : STENT
20. Still matter? : BOOZE
23. Tough nut to crack : ENIGMA
24. Court position : PLEA
25. Prefix with village : ECO-
27. Front-and-center section : VIOLAS
28. Like fringe festival fare : EDGY
30. It has a Marxist-Leninist ideology : LAOS
33. Car payment? : TOLL
34. Bêtes noires : BANES
35. Aid in studying a culture : TEST TUBE
36. Dump : STY
38. Equipment for a rock band : DRUM SET
40. Gewgaw : BAUBLE
42. Coat : ENROBE
43. Design info : SPECS
44. Davis of film : GEENA
45. Really put one’s foot down : STOMP
47. Berth place : PIER
48. Repute : ODOR
50. Was reckless, in a way : SPED
52. K’ung Fu-___ : TSE
53. 41-Across is a topic in it, briefly : BIO

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