1012-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 12 Oct 16, Wednesday

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Solution to today’s crossword in the New York Times
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Jump to a complete list of today’s clues and answers

CROSSWORD SETTER: Jeff Chen
THEME: Enjoy!
Today’s themed answers include synonyms of ENJOY. Those synonyms are shown in circled letters in the grid:

4D. Item in a swag bag : PARTY FAVOR
9D. Southern side dish made with kernels off the cob : CORN RELISH
22D. Push oneself to the max : DIG DEEP
26D. Pretentiously high-class : FANCY PANTS
28D. Thinking similarly : LIKE-MINDED

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 11m 38s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

13. Light-colored brew : PALE ALE
Pale ale is a beer made using mainly pale malt, which results in a relatively light color for a malted beer.

14. Condo building employees : DOORMEN
The terms “condominium” and “apartment” tend to describe the same type of residential property, a private living space with facilities shared with others residing in the same building or complex. The difference is that a condominium is usually owned, and an apartment is rented. At least that’s how it is in the US. The word “condominium” comes from the Latin “com-” (together) and “dominum” (right of ownership).

16. Canada’s first province alphabetically : ALBERTA
Alberta (Alta.) is a big province, about the size of Texas. Alberta is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the fourth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Princess Louise also donated her name to Lake Louise, the large glacial lake in the province, now within the bounds of Banff National Park.

24. Like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 : IN F
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 is also known as the Pastoral Symphony.

27. What an Ironman has to battle : FATIGUE
An Ironman Triathlon is a race involving a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a marathon run of just over 26 miles. The idea for the race came out of a debate between some runners in the 1977 Oahu Perimeter Relay. They were questioning whether runners, swimmers or bikers were the most fit athletes. The debaters decided to combine three local events to determine the answer, inviting athletes from all three disciplines. The events that were mimicked to come up with the first triathlon were the Waikiki Roughwater swim (2.4 miles), the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 miles) and the Honolulu Marathon (26.2 miles). The idea was that whoever finished first would be called “the Iron Man”. The first triathlon was run in 1978, with fifteen starters and only twelve finishers. The race format is used all over the world now, but the Hawaiian Ironman is the event that everyone wants to win.

31. Mazda roadster : MIATA
The Mazda MX-5 is sold as the Miata in North America, and as the Roadster in Japan. I’ve always liked the looks of the Mazda Miata, probably because it reminds me so much of old British sports cars. The Miata is built in Hiroshima, Japan.

33. “___ out walkin’ after midnight” (Patsy Cline lyric) : I GO
“Walkin’ After Midnight” was a hit for singer Patsy Cline in 1957. It was in fact Cline’s first major single, and came fully four years before her next hit “I Fall to Pieces”.

Patsy Cline was a country music singer who managed to cross over into the world of pop music where she enjoyed great success. Cline is one of a long list of musical legends who died in plane crashes. Cline was 30 years old when she was killed in 1963 in a Piper Comanche plane piloted by her manager, Randy Hughes. Hughes and Cline decided to make that last flight despite warnings of inclement weather, and it was a severe storm that brought down the plane in a forest outside Camden, Tennessee.

34. Boxer Ali : LAILA
Laila Ali is the daughter of the great Muhammad Ali and is a very capable boxer in her own right. Laila’s professional record is an impressive 24 wins, including 21 knockouts. Now retired, she never lost a fight, and nor did she ever draw. One of those victories was against Jackie Frazier-Lyde, daughter of her father’s nemesis Joe Frazier. Laila is not a bad dancer either, coming in third place in the fourth season of “Dancing with the Stars”.

36. Model in 10 straight Sports Illustrated swimsuit editions, familiarly : ANNE V
Anne Vyalitsyna is a Russian-American model who also goes by the name “Anne V”. One of her claims to fame is that she appeared in every one of the annual “Sports Illustrated” swimsuit issues from 2005 to 2014.

37. Summer setting in Seattle: Abbr. : PDT
Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)

The Washington city of Seattle was founded on a site that had been occupied by Native Americans for over 4,000 years before the first Europeans arrived in the area. The name “Seattle” was chosen in honor of Duwamish Chief Seattle who had a reputation for welcoming white settlers.

38. Get tats : INK UP
The word “tattoo” (often shortened to “tat”) was first used in English in the writings of the famous English explorer Captain Cook. In his descriptions of the indelible marks adorning the skin of Polynesian natives, Cook anglicized the Tahitian word “tatau” into our “tattoo”. Tattoos are also sometimes referred to as “ink”.

39. Big name in precision cutting : X-ACTO
The X-Acto knife was invented in the thirties by a Polish immigrant, although his intention was to come up with a scalpel for surgeons. The knife couldn’t cut it as a scalpel though (pun!), because it was difficult to clean. The inventor’s brother-in law suggested it be used as a craft knife, and it is still around today.

40. ___ capita : PER
“Per capita” is a Latin term used to mean “per person, per unit of population”. The literal translation of the term is “by heads”.

43. Luau souvenir : LEI
“Lei” is the Hawaiian word for “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a “lei” is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

45. Like a zoot-suiter : HEP
The slang term “hep” meaning “cool” has the same meaning as the later derivative term “hip”. The origins of “hep” seem unclear, but it was adopted by jazz musicians of the early 1900s.

A zoot suit has pants that are fairly loose fitting, except around the cuff at the bottom of the leg. The pants also have a high waist. The jacket of the suit has wide lapels and wide padded shoulders. Zoot suits were popular in the US in the thirties and forties, and were often associated with the African American, Latino American and Italian American ethnic groups. Over in the UK, the zoot suit was worn by the “Teddy boys” of the fifties and sixties. “Zoot” is probably just a slang iteration of the word “suit”.

47. A Marx brother : ZEPPO
The five Marx Brothers were born to “Minnie” and “Frenchy” Marx in New York City. The more famous older boys were Chico, Harpo and Groucho. Zeppo was the youngest brother, and he appeared in the early Marx Brothers movies. The fifth son was called Gummo, and he decided to pursue a different career off the stage.

52. Color of the Dodge Charger on “The Dukes of Hazzard” : ORANGE
“The Dukes of Hazzard” is a comedy adventure TV show that originally aired from 1979 to 1985. The title characters are Bo and Luke Duke, two cousins from the rural part of the fictional county of Hazzard in Georgia. The pair drive around in the General Lee, a flashy Dodge Charger stock car. Other notable characters in the show were Daisy Duke (played by Catherine Bach) and Boss Hogg (played by Sorrell Booke).

55. Land created by C. S. Lewis : NARNIA
Apparently it’s not certain how C. S. Lewis came to choose Narnia as the name of the fantasy world featured in his series of children’s books, including “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. There was an ancient city in Umbria that the Romans called Narnia, but there is no evidence of a link.

58. Surgical asst. : OR NURSE
Surgery (surg.) is usually performed in an operating room (OR).

60. Insects on a 17-year cycle : CICADAS
Cicadas are insects that are found all over the world. Although they resemble locusts, cicadas are an unrelated family. The name “cicada” is Latin and translated as “tree cricket”. However, the name is imitative of the clicking sound the insect makes using parts of its exoskeleton known as “tymbals”.

63. Weaponry storehouse : ARSENAL
Our word “arsenal” comes from the Italian “arzenale”, a work adapted from the Arabic for “workshop”. There was a large wharf in Venice called the Arzenale that became associated with the storage of weapons and ammunition, and this led to our contemporary usage of “arsenal”.

64. Vitamin brand with an instructive name : ONE A DAY
One A Day is a line of multivitamins made by Bayer. One A Day was introduced way back in 1940.

Down
2. Actress Jessica : ALBA
Actress Jessica Alba got her big break when she was cast in the Fox science fiction show “Dark Angel”. Alba had a tough life growing up as she spent a lot of time in hospital and so found it difficult to develop friendships. As a youngster she twice had a collapsed lung, frequently caught pneumonia, suffered from asthma, had a ruptured appendix and a tonsillar cyst. On top of all that she acknowledges that she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child. It seems that she has really turned her life around …

3. Satyr’s stare : LEER
The satyrs of Greek mythology came with a very high sex drive. They are the “rude” male subjects drawn on the side of old Greek vases. The nubile maidens known as nymphs were often an object of attention for the satyrs.

4. Item in a swag bag : PARTY FAVOR
“Swag” is “loot, stolen property”, a term that started out as criminal slang in England in the 1830s. Swag is also the name given to the promotional freebies available at some events. That said, there’s an urban myth that the promotional “swag” is an acronym standing for “stuff we all get”.

5. Gibson who was the first person of color to win a tennis Grand Slam event : ALTHEA
Althea Gibson was known as “the Jackie Robinson of tennis” as she broke the “color barrier” and became the first African-American woman to win a Grand Slam title, in France in 1956. She was quite the athlete and was a great golfer as well as tennis player. She was the first African-American woman to play in the Ladies PGA tour, although she never had a win. Outside of sport, she sang a little and recorded an album, and even appeared in a movie (“The Horse Soldiers”) with John Wayne and William Holden. Sadly, towards the end of her life she ended up destitute and on welfare. When her plight was made known in a tennis magazine, well-wishers from all over the world sent her gifts of money, a total of nearly one million dollars. Quite a story …

6. Bucolic locale : LEA
The word “bucolic”, meaning rustic or rural, comes to us from the Greek word “boukolos” meaning “cowherd”.

7. Journalist Wells : IDA
Ida B. Wells was an African American journalist and leader of the civil rights movement. She published a pamphlet in 1892 called “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases”, which publicized the horrors of lynching of African Americans by white mobs in the South.

8. Title “Dr.” in an H. G. Wells story : MOREAU
“The Island of Doctor Moreau” is an 1896 novel penned by H. G. Wells. The book tells the story of a shipwrecked man who ends up on the island of Doctor Moreau. Moreau engages in vivisection and creates new beasts (the “Beast Folk”) by combining different species.

11. Marriott competitor : OMNI
Omni Hotels & Resorts is headquartered in Irvine, California and has properties in the US, Canada and Mexico.

Marriott Hotels developed their initial properties in the fifties. The first to open was the Quality Inn near Washington DC, the first purpose-built airport hotel in the country.

12. Last parts drawn in hangman : LEGS
The word-guessing game called Hangman seems to have been played first in Victorian England. At one time it was known as “Birds, Beasts and Fishes” as the words to be guessed had to be types of animal.

15. Something cut down during March Madness : NET
March Madness is the name given to the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship (among others), held in spring each year.

24. Where to see pictures on the big screen? : IMAX
The IMAX Corporation, which is behind the IMAX film format, is a Canadian company. The impetus for developing the system came after Expo ’67 in Montreal. Back then large format screenings were accomplished using multiple projectors with multiple screens, with images basically stitched together. The team behind the IMAX technology set out to simplify things, and developed a single-camera, single-projector system.

25. Ship of 1492 : NINA
The ship used by Christopher Columbus that we know as the Niña was actually the nickname of a ship actually called the Santa Clara. The nickname “Niña” probably came from the name of her owner, Juan Niña of Moguer.

29. Many a college applicant’s interviewer, for short : ALUM
An “alumnus” (plural … alumni) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural … alumnae). The term comes into English from Latin, in which alumnus means foster-son or pupil. “Alum” is an informal term used for either an alumna or an alumnus.

32. Spot for un chapeau : TETE
In French, one wears a “chapeau” (hat) on one’s “tête” (head).

45. Hullabaloo : HOO-HA
Our word “hullabaloo” meaning a “commotion” is a derivative of an older term “hollo-ballo”. “Hollo-ballo” was a word used for an uproar in the north of England and Scotland.

47. Keebler saltine brand : ZESTA
F. L. Sommer & Company of St. Joseph, Missouri starting making wafer thin soda crackers in 1876. The crackers were later marketed as Saltines, due to the baking salt that was a key ingredient. Trademark protection of the term “saltine” was subsequently lost.

50. Part of Wonder Woman’s outfit : TIARA
Wonder Woman first appeared in print in 1941, in a publication from DC Comics. As she was created during WWII, Wonder Woman’s first foes were the axis powers. In the less realistic world her biggest foe was and still is Ares, a “baddie” named for the Greek mythological figure. Wonder Woman had several signature expressions, including “Merciful Minerva!”, “Suffering Sappho!” and “Great Hera!”.

53. Like Venus in “The Birth of Venus” : NUDE
Sandro Botticelli was a painter of the Early Renaissance belonging to the Florentine school. Perhaps his best known work is “The Birth of Venus”, painted about 1486, which can be seen in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

57. Bit of Bollywood 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.

Bollywood is the informal name given to the huge film industry based in Mumbai in India. The term “Bollywood” is a melding of “Bombay”, the old name for Mumbai, and “Hollywood”.

59. Jellied delicacy : 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.

60. Exec. money manager : CFO
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Ladies’ night attendee : GAL PAL
7. “It’s all good” : I’M COOL
13. Light-colored brew : PALE ALE
14. Condo building employees : DOORMEN
16. Canada’s first province alphabetically : ALBERTA
17. Prepare, as a musical score : ARRANGE
18. Lack of supply : DEARTH
19. Join : ENLIST
20. Possible response to “Can you pick up the kids from school?” : YES, DEAR
24. Like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 : IN F
27. What an Ironman has to battle : FATIGUE
28. Place : LAY
31. Mazda roadster : MIATA
33. “___ out walkin’ after midnight” (Patsy Cline lyric) : I GO
34. Boxer Ali : LAILA
36. Model in 10 straight Sports Illustrated swimsuit editions, familiarly : ANNE V
37. Summer setting in Seattle: Abbr. : PDT
38. Get tats : INK UP
39. Big name in precision cutting : X-ACTO
40. ___ capita : PER
41. Asparagus spears, e.g. : STEMS
42. “___ durn tootin’!” : YER
43. Luau souvenir : LEI
44. Bottom of bell bottoms : HEM
45. Like a zoot-suiter : HEP
47. A Marx brother : ZEPPO
49. Possessive often containing a mistaken apostrophe : ITS
52. Color of the Dodge Charger on “The Dukes of Hazzard” : ORANGE
55. Land created by C. S. Lewis : NARNIA
58. Surgical asst. : OR NURSE
60. Insects on a 17-year cycle : CICADAS
61. Exciting romantic prospect : HOT DATE
62. Ones defrauding museums : FORGERS
63. Weaponry storehouse : ARSENAL
64. Vitamin brand with an instructive name : ONE A DAY

Down
1. High wind : GALE
2. Actress Jessica : ALBA
3. Satyr’s stare : LEER
4. Item in a swag bag : PARTY FAVOR
5. Gibson who was the first person of color to win a tennis Grand Slam event : ALTHEA
6. Bucolic locale : LEA
7. Journalist Wells : IDA
8. Title “Dr.” in an H. G. Wells story : MOREAU
9. Southern side dish made with kernels off the cob : CORN RELISH
10. Spoken test : ORAL
11. Marriott competitor : OMNI
12. Last parts drawn in hangman : LEGS
13. Crib : PAD
15. Something cut down during March Madness : NET
21. Go completely dotty? : STIPPLE
22. Push oneself to the max : DIG DEEP
23. Bout of swellheadedness : EGO TRIP
24. Where to see pictures on the big screen? : IMAX
25. Ship of 1492 : NINA
26. Pretentiously high-class : FANCY PANTS
28. Thinking similarly : LIKE-MINDED
29. Many a college applicant’s interviewer, for short : ALUM
30. Flaps one’s gums : YAPS
32. Spot for un chapeau : TETE
35. Pay to play : ANTE
45. Hullabaloo : HOO-HA
46. Wild throw, e.g. : ERROR
47. Keebler saltine brand : ZESTA
48. Sometimes-caramelized food : ONION
50. Part of Wonder Woman’s outfit : TIARA
51. Impertinent : SASSY
53. Like Venus in “The Birth of Venus” : NUDE
54. Nickname for Mom’s mom : GRAN
56. A lot of land, maybe : ACRE
57. Bit of Bollywood music : RAGA
59. Jellied delicacy : EEL
60. Exec. money manager : CFO

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