0205-17 New York Times Crossword Answers 5 Feb 17, Sunday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Sam Trabucco
THEME: First Ladies
The circled letters in today’s grid are all types of GLASS. Those words act like GLASS CEILINGS in the grid, with a down-answer “breaking through”, penetrating each of the GLASS CEILING words. Those penetrating down-answers are the FIRST LADIES to achieve something in their respective fields, the ladies who broke through the glass ceilings that they faced:

64A. Overcome a certain career barrier … or what the answers to the starred clues do? : BREAK THE GLASS CEILING

1A. 16-ounce container : P-INT (glass)
6A. Material commonly used during cathedral construction : ST-AINED (glass)
14A. Primitive timer : S-AND (glass)
75A. Easy-to-carry telescope : SP-Y (glass)
87A. Pub vessel : A-LE (glass)
95A. Cab destination? : WIN-E (glass)

2D. *One who 64-Acrossed for Supreme Court justices … : O’CONNOR
8D. *… for astronauts : RIDE
15D. *… for British prime ministers : THATCHER
77D. *… for secretaries of state : ALBRIGHT
88D. *… for Best Directors : BIGELOW
98D. *… for Nobel laureates : CURIE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 19m 12s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. 16-ounce container : P-INT (glass)
A US pint is made from 16 fluid ounces, and an imperial pint is 20 fluid ounces. The term “pint” comes into English via Old French, ultimately from the Latin “picta” meaning “painted”. The name arose from a line painted on the side of a beer glass, marking a full measure of ale.

20. Sidney Poitier’s 1980 autobiography : THIS LIFE
Sidney Poitier won his only Best Actor Oscar playing the male lead in 1963’s “Lilies of the Field”. In so doing, Poitier became the first African-American male to win a competitive Academy Award.

21. Moretz of “Carrie” : CHLOE
Chloë Grace Moretz is an actress who got her first TV and film roles when she was just seven years old. Quite frankly, I don’t think I’ve seen a movie in which she has performed …

23. When soap operas first flourished : RADIO ERA
The original soap operas were radio dramas back in the fifties. Given the structure of society back then, the daytime broadcasts were aimed at women working in the home as housewives. For some reason the sponsors of those radio shows, and the television shows that followed, were soap manufacturers like Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Lever Brothers. And that’s how the “soap” opera got its name …

24. They’re measured by pluviometers : RAINS
A pluviometer is a rain gauge. The Latin adjective “pluvius” means “rainy”.

28. Sheena who sang “U Got the Look” with Prince : EASTON
Sheena Easton is a Scottish singer. She was big in the eighties with songs like “9 to 5” (released as “Morning Train” in the US) and “For Your Eyes Only”, the theme song for the James Bond film of the same name.

40. Get : GROK
“To grok” is to understand, a slang word that’s really only used in “techie” circles. “Grok” is the creation of science fiction author Robert Heinlein, who coined the term in his 1961 novel “Stranger in a Strange Land”.

44. Mosaic pieces : TESSERAE
A tessera is an individual tile used in making a mosaic. Tesserae are usually formed in the shape of cubes.

48. Click “Going” on a Facebook event, e.g. : RSVP
RSVP stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “please, answer”.

49. 2013 best seller by Sheryl Sandberg : LEAN IN
Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook, having left her position as a vice president with Google. Sandberg is the co-author of a very influential book called “Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead”.

53. Pennsylvania vacation locale, with “the” : POCONOS
The Pocono Mountains in northeastern Pennsylvania are home to many popular vacation resorts.

56. Pokey’s pal on TV : GUMBY
“Gumby” is a stop motion clay animation television series that originally ran from the fifties to the late eighties. There were 233 episodes made in total, an impressive number. Gumby was a little green man and his sidekick was Pokey, a little red horse.

68. Heavy weight : TON
Here in the US, a ton is equivalent to 2,000 pounds. Over in the UK, a ton is 2,240 pounds. The UK unit is sometimes referred to as an Imperial ton or sometimes a “long ton”. Folks over there refer to the US ton then as a “short ton”. To further complicate matters, there is also a “metric ton” or “tonne”, which is equivalent to 2,204 pounds. I wish we’d just stick to kilograms …

71. Also-ran in 2000 : NADER
Ralph Nader has run as a third-party candidate for the office of President of the United States four times now, in every election from 1996 to 2008. Nader’s name was first first linked with the presidential race in 1971, when the famous Dr. Benjamin Spock offered to stand aside as candidate in the 1972 race if Nader would agree to run, but he declined.

72. Gray squirrel, in slang : TREE RAT
There are several species of gray squirrel that are native to North America. Even though I live here in the west of the continent, I am most familiar with the eastern gray squirrel. That’s because that particular species was introduced into Italy in 1948, and now the whole continent is overrun with the animal. The result in the British Isles is that the native red squirrel population is now endangered and there are active programs to eradicate the invading species. There was even a plan to have celebrity chefs promote gray squirrel recipes in an effort to cull the population!

86. Classical musician with a Presidential Medal of Freedom : YO-YO MA
Yo-Yo Ma is a marvelous American cellist, born in Paris to Chinese parents. Ma started studying the violin when he was very young, working his way up (in size) to the viola and finally to the cello. He has said that he wanted to play the double bass, but it was just too big for his relatively small frame.

91. Permeates : IMBUES
“To imbue” is to pervade, to soak in. “Imbue” has the same etymological roots as our word “imbibe”.

95. Cab destination? : WIN-E (glass)
The Cabernet Sauvignon grape has been around since the 17th century, and is the result of a chance crossing in southwestern France of the Cabernet franc and Sauvignon blanc grapes.

103. Arthurian princess : ISEULT
According to Arthurian legend, Iseult (also “Isolde”) was the adulterous lover of Sir Tristan, one of the Knights of the Round Table. Iseult was an Irish Princess who fell in love with Tristan who had been sent to win Iseult’s hand in marriage for King Mark of Cornwall. The tale was used as the basis for Richard Wagner’s celebrated opera “Tristan und Isolde”.

110. Caramel candies from Hershey : 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.

112. Opposite of standing : AD HOC
The Latin phrase “ad hoc” means “for this purpose”. An ad hoc committee, for example, is formed for a specific purpose and is disbanded after making its final report.

113. Getting ready to swing : TEEING UP
That could perhaps be golf.

115. White who is the oldest person ever to host “S.N.L.” : BETTY
The youngest person to host “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) was Drew Barrymore, at age 7 in 1982. The oldest host was Betty White, at 88 in 2010.

Down
2. *One who 64-Acrossed for Supreme Court justices … : O’CONNOR
Sandra Day O’Connor is a former Associate justice on the US Supreme Court. O’Connor was the first woman appointed to the court, and was in office from 1981 after being appointed by President Reagan. As the court became more conservative she was viewed as the swing vote in many decisions. As a result, O’Connor was known as one of the most powerful women in the world. She retired in 2006 (replaced by Samuel Alito), and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2009.

6. Hurriedly showed oneself out? : STREAKED
People have been running around naked for an awfully long time, but the application of the word “streaking” to the phenomenon only dates back to 1973. A journalist was reporting on a mass nude run of 533 people at the University of Maryland in 1973, and used the words “they are streaking (i.e. moving quickly) past me right now. It’s an incredible sight!”. The Associated Press picked up the story the next day, and interpreting “streaking” as the term to describe “running naked”, and we’ve been using it that way ever since.

7. “J to ___ L-O!” (Jennifer Lopez album) : THA
J.Lo is the nickname of singer and actress Jennifer Lopez. “J.Lo” is also the title of her second studio album, released in 2001.

8. *… for astronauts : RIDE
Sally Ride was a physicist and astronaut, who flew two missions on the space shuttle Challenger. In 1983, she became the first American woman in space, having been preceded by two female cosmonauts (in 1963 and 1982). Ride was 32 years on that first mission, making her the youngest astronaut ever to make it into space. In another first, Ride was the first LGBT astronaut, a fact that was revealed after her death in 2012.

9. Like over four billion people : ASIAN
Most of the world’s population lives in Asia (60%), and Asia is the largest continent in terms of landmass (30% of the world). Asia also has the highest population density (246 people per square mile), and the most populous city on the continent is Shanghai, China.

11. Mexican president Enrique Peña ___ : NIETO
Enrique Peña Nieto is the current President of Mexico, holding office since 2012. President Nieto has struggled with a plummeting approval rating ever since, largely due to a sluggish economy and a weakened Mexican Peso. And then there’s President Trump and “the wall” …

12. Zac of “Neighbors” : EFRON
Zac Efron is an actor from San Luis Obispo, California. Apparently Efron is a heartthrob to “tweenyboppers”. His big break was in the Disney hit movie “High School Musical”.

15. *… for British prime ministers : THATCHER
Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the UK from 1979 to 1990, making her the longest serving leader of the country in the 20th century, and the first woman to hold the office. Thatcher’s nickname in the press was the “Iron Lady”, a moniker bestowed on her by a Soviet journalist. The “Iron Lady” was born Margaret Hilda Roberts, the daughter of a grocer. She studied chemistry at Oxford University and worked for a while as a research chemist.

31. Cousin of “OMG!” : EEK!
OMG is text-speak for Oh My Gosh! Oh My Goodness! or any other G words you might think of …

32. Guido who painted “Massacre of the Innocents” : RENI
Guido Reni was an Italian painter from Bologna who was active in the first half of the 17th century. Reni’s most famous work is probably “Crucifixion of St. Peter”, an altarpiece commissioned in the early 1600s that is now on display in the Vatican.

38. Loo, for short : LAV
Our word lavatory (sometimes “lav”) originally referred to a washbasin, and comes from the Latin “lavatorium”, a place for washing. In the 1600s a “lavatory” came to mean a washroom, and in the 1920s a toilet.

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!

43. ___ Gay (W.W. II plane) : ENOLA
The Enola Gay was the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima in August 1945. Enola Gay was the name of the mother of pilot Col. Paul W. Tibbets, Jr.

44. Best Foreign Film of 2005 set in South Africa : TSOTSI
The 2005 film “Tsotsi” is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by South African writer Athol Fugard. The movie won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2005.

45. Kennedy who was the mother of Maria Shriver : EUNICE
Eunice Kennedy was the sister President John F. Kennedy. Eunice married Sargent Shriver, the running mate of George McGovern in the 1972 presidential race (which was won by the incumbent President Nixon). Shriver founded Camp Shriver in 1962, a day camp for children with intellectual disabilities. Camp Shriver became an annual event and was extended to communities across the country with funding from the Kennedy Foundation. A 1968 Chicago derivative of Camp Shriver developed the first “Olympics-style” competition, and at this competition Shriver announce the formation of the Special Olympics Games that we know so well today.

49. Letters of “pride” : LGBT
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)

50. Alternative to a pound : EURO
The reverse side of euro coins feature a common design, a design that includes the 12-stars featured on the Flag of Europe. The number of stars is not related to the number of states in the European Union, nor has it ever been. The number of stars in the design was the subject of much debate prior to its adoption in 1955 by the Council of Europe. Twelve was a deliberate choice, as at that time there was no political connotation, and twelve was considered to be a symbol of unity.

The official name of the currency of the UK is the pound sterling (plural “pounds sterling”). The most plausible suggestion for the etymology of the term “sterling” is that it derives from the Old English “steorra” meaning “star”, with the diminutive “-ling”. The resulting “little star” or “sterling” referred to a silver penny used by the English Normans.

52. Org. with a travel ban? : NBA
National Basketball Association (NBA)

62. Hillary Clinton in 1969 or Bill Clinton in 1970 : ONE L
“One L” is a name used in general for first year law students, especially those attending Harvard..

65. Fictional spacecraft created by the Time Lords : TARDIS
“Dr Who” is an iconic sci-fi television series that is made in the UK by the BBC. First broadcast in 1963, the show is still running today, making it the longest running sci-fi television show in the world. Dr. Who is a time traveler,from the planet Gallifrey, who “regenerates” from time to time (pun!) so that a new actor fits seamlessly into the storyline. He travels in his famous TARDIS spacecraft. Outwardly, the TARDIS looks like a police call box from the 1950s, but inside it is an enormous, multi-roomed time machine. TARDIS is an acronym standing for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.

67. West Coast air hub : LAX
Los Angeles International Airport is the sixth busiest airport in the world in terms of passenger traffic, and the busiest here on the West Coast of the US. The airport was opened in 1930 as Mines Field and was renamed to Los Angeles Airport in 1941. On the airport property is the iconic white structure that resembles a flying saucer. This is called the Theme Building and I believe it is mainly used as a restaurant and observation deck for the public. The airport used to be identified by the letters “LA”, but when the aviation industry went to a three-letter standard for airport identification, this was changed to “LAX”. Apparently the “X” has no significant meaning.

76. Yapping dog, for short : POM
The Pomeranian is a breed of small dog, named for the Pomerania region of Europe (part of eastern Germany and northern Poland). The breed was much loved by the royalty of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 19th century, Queen Victoria owned a particularly small Pomeranian. Due to the notoriety of the monarch’s pet, the Pomeranian was bred for small size, so that during the Queen’s admittedly long reign, the size of the average “pom” was reduced by 50% …

77. *… for secretaries of state : ALBRIGHT
Madeleine Albright was appointed Secretary of State by President Clinton, making her the first woman to hold the post. Albright is a very capable woman when it comes to languages, being fluent in English, French, Russian and Czech, and able to hold her own in Polish and Serbo-Croat as well.

81. Rip off, informally : GYP
“Gyp” is American slang meaning “cheat”. It dates back to the late 1800s and may derive from the word “gypsy”.

87. Altar constellation : ARA
The constellation of Ara takes its name from the Latin word for “altar”.

88. *… for Best Directors : BIGELOW
Kathryn Bigelow is a movie director and writer. Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar, for 2009’s “The Hurt Locker”. James Cameron was also nominated as Best Director that year, for “Avatar”. Bigelow and Cameron were a married couple from 1989 to 1991.

90. Che Guevara’s real first name : ERNESTO
Ernesto “Che” Guevara was born in Argentina, and in 1948 he started to study medicine at the University of Buenos Aires. While at school he satisfied his need to “see the world” by taking two long journeys around South America, the story of which are told in Guevara’s memoir later published as “The Motorcycle Diaries”. While travelling, Guevara was moved by the plight of the people he saw and their working conditions and what he viewed as capitalistic exploitation. In Mexico City he met brothers Raul and Fidel Castro and was persuaded to join their cause, the overthrow of the US-backed government in Cuba. He rose to second-in-command among the Cuban insurgents, and when Castro came to power Guevara was influential in repelling the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing Soviet nuclear missiles to the island. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to continue his work as a revolutionary. He was captured by Bolivian forces in 1967, and was executed. Fidel Castro led the public mourning of Guevara’s death, and soon the revolutionary was an icon for many left-wing movements around the world.

96. “___ little silhouetto of a man” (Queen lyric) : I SEE A
Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is a marvelously unique song in the pop repertoire. It has a very appealing structure, with no chorus but three distinct parts and with three distinct “sounds”. The opening is truly a slow ballad, which morphs into an operatic middle section, ending with a really heavy, rock-guitar conclusion. The song monopolized the number one slot in the UK charts for weeks in 1975/76, and made a comeback in 1996 when it appeared in the movie “Wayne’s World”. Great stuff …

97. Desert NE of the Sinai Peninsula : NEGEV
The Negev is a desert region in southern Israel. The largest city in the Negev is Beersheba.

98. *… for Nobel laureates : CURIE
Marie Curie lived a life of firsts. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and indeed was the first person to win two Nobel prizes (in 1903 and 1911). Most of Curie’s work was in the field of radioactivity, and was carried out in the days when the impact of excessive radiation on the human body was not understood. She died from aplastic anemia, caused by high exposure to radiation. To this day, Curie’s personal papers are kept preserved in lead-lined boxes as they are highly radioactive, even her personal cookbook.

99. 1941 chart-topper “Maria ___” : ELENA
“Maria Elena” is a Spanish song written in 1932, with the English version becoming a 1941 hit for the Jimmy Dorsey orchestra. The song was dedicated to María Elena Portes Gil, the wife of the Mexican President in the late twenties.

102. Miner’s strike : LODE
A lode is a metal ore deposit that’s found between two layers of rock or in a fissure. The “mother lode” is the principal deposit in a mine, usually of gold or silver. “Mother lode” is probably a translation of “veta madre”, an expression used in mining in Mexico.

109. Apologia pro vita ___ : SUA
The Latin phrase “apologia pro vita sua” translates as “a defense of one’s own life”. The phrase is often used for a written justification for one’s conduct or beliefs.

111. 60 minuti : ORA
In Italian, there are “sessanta minuti” (sixty minutes) in an “ora” (hour).

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. 16-ounce container : P-INT (glass)
6. Material commonly used during cathedral construction : ST-AINED (glass)
14. Primitive timer : S-AND (glass)
19. Pinnacles : ACMES
20. Sidney Poitier’s 1980 autobiography : THIS LIFE
21. Moretz of “Carrie” : CHLOE
22. Performs, biblically : DOETH
23. When soap operas first flourished : RADIO ERA
24. They’re measured by pluviometers : RAINS
25. Geneticist’s study : DNA
26. Rage : IRE
28. Sheena who sang “U Got the Look” with Prince : EASTON
29. “No worries” : IT’S OK
30. It helps you achieve balance : INNER EAR
33. Highlighter shades : NEONS
34. %: Abbr. : PCT
35. Reply to “No offense” : NONE TAKEN
37. Aid after a computer crash, say : IT HELP
40. Get : GROK
41. Mark : DENOTE
44. Mosaic pieces : TESSERAE
46. Question after a photo finish : DID I WIN?
47. “How’s it hangin’?” : SUP?
48. Click “Going” on a Facebook event, e.g. : RSVP
49. 2013 best seller by Sheryl Sandberg : LEAN IN
53. Pennsylvania vacation locale, with “the” : POCONOS
56. Pokey’s pal on TV : GUMBY
57. Spanish she-bear : OSA
60. Running a bit behind : LATISH
61. Part of a stock exchange? : MOO
64. Overcome a certain career barrier … or what the answers to the starred clues do? : BREAK THE GLASS CEILING
68. Heavy weight : TON
69. “Same with me” : I AGREE
70. Move hastily : HIE
71. Also-ran in 2000 : NADER
72. Gray squirrel, in slang : TREE RAT
74. Send elsewhere for the night, as a roommate, in modern lingo : SEXILE
75. Easy-to-carry telescope : SP-Y (glass)
79. Cubs’ home : DEN
80. Less safe for a plane landing, in a way : FOGGIER
84. Change from black-and-white : COLORIZE
86. Classical musician with a Presidential Medal of Freedom : YO-YO MA
87. Pub vessel : A-LE (glass)
91. Permeates : IMBUES
92. Behind : POSTERIOR
94. Fix, as an election : RIG
95. Cab destination? : WIN-E (glass)
100. Geometric toy whose sides change depending on how it’s folded : FLEXAGON
101. Drop a bit : SLIDE
103. Arthurian princess : ISEULT
105. Poetic preposition : ERE
106. Scrape (out) : EKE
107. Go online : LOG IN
108. Remove fat from, as a soup : DEGREASE
110. Caramel candies from Hershey : ROLOS
112. Opposite of standing : AD HOC
113. Getting ready to swing : TEEING UP
114. Lake catch : TROUT
115. White who is the oldest person ever to host “S.N.L.” : BETTY
116. Participate in deciding : HAVE A SAY
117. Took care of : SAW TO

Down
1. Superfluous part of an essay : PADDING
2. *One who 64-Acrossed for Supreme Court justices … : O’CONNOR
3. Emphatic refusal : I MEAN NO!
4. After deductions : NET
5. Gift shop item : T-SHIRT
6. Hurriedly showed oneself out? : STREAKED
7. “J to ___ L-O!” (Jennifer Lopez album) : THA
8. *… for astronauts : RIDE
9. Like over four billion people : ASIAN
10. “Victory is yours” : I LOSE
11. Mexican president Enrique Peña ___ : NIETO
12. Zac of “Neighbors” : EFRON
13. Professors answer to them : DEANS
14. Reading material for a Hollywood agent : SCRIPTS
15. *… for British prime ministers : THATCHER
16. Most-wanted invitees : A-LISTERS
17. Texting while driving, e.g. : NO-NO
18. Anchor’s place : DESK
27. Enter, as data : READ IN
31. Cousin of “OMG!” : EEK!
32. Guido who painted “Massacre of the Innocents” : RENI
36. Today : NOW
37. “Hmm, guess so” : I S’POSE
38. Loo, for short : LAV
39. ___ rally : PEP
42. What boats shouldn’t do : TIP
43. ___ Gay (W.W. II plane) : ENOLA
44. Best Foreign Film of 2005 set in South Africa : TSOTSI
45. Kennedy who was the mother of Maria Shriver : EUNICE
46. Aid for the handy, informally : DIY KIT
49. Letters of “pride” : LGBT
50. Alternative to a pound : EURO
51. Emphatic agreement : AMEN
52. Org. with a travel ban? : NBA
54. Bills, e.g. : CASH
55. Hit record? : SHINER
57. “Yi-i-ikes!” : OH GEEZ!
58. Pacific : SERENE
59. Ending with teen : -AGER
61. Certain conservative skirt : MIDI
62. Hillary Clinton in 1969 or Bill Clinton in 1970 : ONE L
63. Monster : OGRE
65. Fictional spacecraft created by the Time Lords : TARDIS
66. Like lettuce : LEAFY
67. West Coast air hub : LAX
73. Overly : TOO
74. Two-___ (smallish car) : SEATER
75. ___-fi : SCI
76. Yapping dog, for short : POM
77. *… for secretaries of state : ALBRIGHT
78. “Don’t be so dumb!” : YOU IDIOT!
81. Rip off, informally : GYP
82. Clown (around) : GOOF
83. [Yawn] : I’M SLEEPY
85. Rule by governing board : REGENCY
87. Altar constellation : ARA
88. *… for Best Directors : BIGELOW
89. Ranger’s station : LOOKOUT
90. Che Guevara’s real first name : ERNESTO
93. Puts forward, as effort : EXERTS
95. Factor in area calculation : WIDTH
96. “___ little silhouetto of a man” (Queen lyric) : I SEE A
97. Desert NE of the Sinai Peninsula : NEGEV
98. *… for Nobel laureates : CURIE
99. 1941 chart-topper “Maria ___” : ELENA
101. Slice for a hearty appetite : SLAB
102. Miner’s strike : LODE
104. Catches off base : TAGS
109. Apologia pro vita ___ : SUA
111. 60 minuti : ORA

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