0306-17 New York Times Crossword Answers 6 Mar 17, Monday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Medicine-approving org. : FDA
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves drugs for specific conditions. It is quite legal for a healthcare professional to prescribe an approved medication for a use that is different to the FDA-approved indication. This usage of the drug is described as “off-label”.

8. Awards in the ad biz : CLIOS
The Clio Awards are the Oscars of the advertising world and are named after Clio, the Greek Muse of History. Clio was also the recorder of great deeds, the proclaimer and celebrator of great accomplishments and a source of inspiration and genius. The Clio Awards were first presented in 1959.

13. Rainbow shape : ARC
Sunlight shining through airborne water droplets can produce rainbows. The water droplets act as little prisms, dispersing the white light into its constituent colors. Sometimes we see double rainbows. If we look carefully, we can see that the order of the colors in the first and second arcs is reversed.

16. Paving goo : TAR
The terms “Tarmac” and “macadam” are short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call Tarmac.

23. Article of outerwear for a champagne drinker? : BUBBLE WRAP
Bubble wrap was invented in 1957 in an abortive attempt to make a 3-dimensional wall covering. The result was a material that wasn’t suitable as a “wallpaper” but that did make a great packing material. And don’t forget the last Monday of every January … that’s Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day.

27. Having a ho-hum attitude : BLASE
“Blasé”, meaning “nonchalant, bored from overindulgence” comes from French, in which language it can mean “satiated”.

29. Justice Sotomayor : SONIA
Sonia Sotomayor is the first Hispanic justice on the US Supreme Court, and the third female justice. Sotomayor was nominated by President Barack Obama to replace the retiring Justice David Souter.

32. Ankle-high work shoe : BROGAN
A brogan is a heavy boot, with the original brogans being boots worn by soldiers on both sides during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Apparently some British soldiers in the Revolutionary War wore brogans that could be worn on either foot in an attempt to get more even wear.

36. Potato chips, to Brits : CRISPS
French fries are called chips back in Ireland where I grew up. And what we call chips in the US are known as “crisps” in Britain and Ireland. In France, French fries are known as “pommes frites”.

44. “Grand” women : DAMES
A grand dame is a woman of great prestige, usually one who is elderly. The male version of a grand dame is a granddaddy.

45. Classic muscle car : 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.

47. Inlets : RIAS
A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, both formed as sea level rises. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

50. Lee who directed “Life of Pi” : ANG
Taiwanese director Ang Lee sure has directed a mixed bag of films, mixed in terms of genre but not in terms of quality. He was at the helm for such classics as “Sense & Sensibility” (my personal favorite), “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “Hulk”, “Brokeback Mountain” and “Life of Pi”.

The 2012 movie “Life of Pi” is based on a 2001 novel of the same name by Yann Martel. The “Pi” in the title is an Indian boy named Pi Patel who finds himself adrift for 227 days in small boat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker.

51. ___ Harbour, Fla. : BAL
Bal Harbour is a village in Florida that is located on the northern tip of the barrier island usually known as Miami Beach.

53. Article of outerwear for a General Motors employee? : CHEVY BLAZER
A blazer is a less formal version of a suit jacket, usually with a less formal cut and often metal buttons. The original “blazer” was a red jacket worn by members of the rowing club at a Cambridge university in England. The “blazer” is so called because the Cambridge version was “blazing red” in color.

59. Gold standards : KARATS
A karat (also “carat”, the spelling outside of North America) is a measure of the purity of gold alloys, with 24-karat representing pure gold.

60. ___ lily : SEGO
The sego lily is the state flower of Utah, and is a perennial plant found throughout the Western United States.

61. Chinese leader with a Little Red Book : MAO
During China’s Cultural Revolution, the Communist Party published a book of statements and writings from Chairman Mao Zedong. Here in the West the publication was usually referred to as “The Little Red Book”.

62. Panache : STYLE
Someone exhibiting panache is showing dash and verve, and perhaps has a swagger. “Panache” is a French word used for a plume of feathers, especially in a hat.

Down
1. What the “Gras” of Mardi Gras means : FAT
“Mardi Gras” translates from French as “Fat Tuesday”, and gets its name from the practice of eating rich foods on the eve of the fasting season known as Lent. Lent starts on the next day, called Ash Wednesday.

2. Count with fangs : DRACULA
“Dracula” is a novel written by the Irish author Bram Stoker and first published in 1897. Dracula wasn’t the first vampire of literature, but he certainly was the one who spawned the popularity of vampires in theater, film and television, and indeed more novels. Personally, I can’t stand vampire fiction …

7. Mary ___ cosmetics : KAY
Mary Kay Ash founded her skincare and cosmetics company, somewhat ominously on Friday, 13th September 1963. In 1968, Mary Kay Ash bought herself a pink Cadillac, specially painted to match the color of one of her compacts. The car became so famous that she gave away five of them to her top saleswoman, a tradition that endures to this day.

9. Fond du ___, Wis. : LAC
“Fond du lac” is French and translates as “bottom of the lake”, an apt name for the city of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin located at the foot of Lake Winnebago. If you like to play the lottery, you might want to stop off in Fond du Lac as there is a stretch of South Main Street called “Miracle Mile”. Back in 1993, someone bought a ticket there and won $100 million. Then in 2006, another store sold a ticket that won $209 million. These things always come in threes, so buy your tickets now …

10. Faintest idea : INKLING
Our word “inkling” apparently comes from the Middle English word “inclen” meaning “to hint”.

11. Easter Island locale : OCEANIA
The part of the Pacific Ocean known as Oceania is roughly equivalent to the tropical islands of the South Pacific. Oceania can be divided into the regions of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.

“Rapa Nui” is the Polynesian name for what we are more likely to call Easter Island. The European name was coined by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who came across the island on Easter Sunday in the year 1722. Chilean-owned Easter Island is inhabited and is a location that is remarkably distant from neighboring civilization. The nearest inhabited island is Pitcairn Island, which is almost 1300 miles away.

12. Belgrade native : SERBIAN
Belgrade is the capital city of Serbia. The name “Belgrade” translates into “White City”.

18. Carpet variety : SHAG
Shag carpet is one with a deep pile, one with a “shaggy” appearance.

23. Small ammo : BBS
A BB gun is an air pistol or rifle that shoots birdshot known as BBs. Birdshot comes in a number of different sizes, from size 9 (0.070″ in diameter) to size FF (.230″). Birdshot that is size BB (0.180″ in diameter) gives the airgun its name.

25. Rambunctious little kids : RUG RATS
“Rug rat” and “ankle-biter” are familiar terms meaning “child”, especially a child who is not yet walking.

29. Madrid Mrs. : SRA
The equivalent of “Mrs.” in French is “Mme.” (Madame), in Spanish is “Sra.” (Señora) and in Portuguese is also “Sra.” (Senhora).

Madrid is the largest city in Spain and the capital. Madrid is located very close to the geographical center of the country. It is the third-largest city in the European Union (after London and Paris). People from Madrid called themselves Madrileños.

31. N.F.L. three-pointers: Abbr. : FGS
Field goal (FG)

32. Droid : BOT
A bot is computer program that is designed to imitate human behavior. It might crawl around the Web doing searches for example, or it might participate in discussions in chat rooms by giving pre-programmed responses. It might also act as a competitor in a computer game.

34. Alternative to FedEx : UPS
United Parcel Service (UPS) is based in Sandy Springs, Georgia and has its own airline that operates out of Louisville, Kentucky. UPS often goes by the nickname “Brown”, because of its brown delivery trucks and brown uniforms.

35. Thicken, as blood : CLOT
A blood clot is a very necessary response to an injury and is intended to prevent bleeding. Also called a “thrombus”, the clot comprises aggregated blood platelets trapped in a mesh made from fibrin, a fibrous protein. If a thrombus forms in a healthy blood vessel, restricting blood flow, that condition is known as thrombosis.

42. Honeycomb product : BEESWAX
Honeybees create a structure within their nests called a honeycomb that is used to contain their larvae and also to store honey and pollen. The honeycomb comprises hexagonal cells made from wax.

43. Retired jet, for short : SST
Supersonic transports (SSTs) like the Concorde broke Mach 1, the speed of sound. As a plane flies through air, it creates pressure waves in front (and behind) rather like the bow and stern waves of a boat. These pressure waves travel at the speed of sound, so as an aircraft itself accelerates towards the speed of sound it catches up with the pressure waves until they cannot “get out of the way”. When the aircraft reaches the speed of sound, the compressed waves merge into one single shock wave, creating a sonic boom.

49. Some computer picture files : JPEGS
The JPEG file format was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), hence the name.

51. Memory unit : BYTE
In the world of computers, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. And the prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and kilobyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

54. Kilmer of “Top Gun” : VAL
Val Kilmer’s first big leading role in a movie was playing Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone’s 1991 biopic “The Doors”. A few years later, Kilmer was chosen for the lead in another big production, “Batman Forever”. Things haven’t really gone as well for Kilmer since then, I’d say. Off the screen, he flirted with the idea of running for Governor of New Mexico in 2010. A Hollywood actor as a Governor? Would never happen …

“Top Gun” is an entertaining action movie released in 1986 starring Tom Cruise and the lovely Kelly McGillis. The movie is all about pilots training at the US Navy’s Fighter Weapons School. A lot of footage was shot on board the Navy’s carrier the USS Enterprise during flight operations. At one point in a day’s shooting, the commander of the Enterprise changed course as needed for normal operations, but this altered the light for the cameras that were filming at the time. Director Tony Scott asked for the course to be changed back, but was informed that a course change would cost the Navy $25,000. Scott wrote out a check there and then, and he got another five minutes of filming with the light he needed.

56. Middle of Arizona? : ZEE
The middle of the word “Arizona” is a letter Z (zee).

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Medicine-approving org. : FDA
4. Wine barrel : CASK
8. Awards in the ad biz : CLIOS
13. Rainbow shape : ARC
14. Opera melody : ARIA
15. Quick look : GLANCE
16. Paving goo : TAR
17. Article of outerwear for an urbanite? : CITY SLICKER
19. Too many of them “spoil the broth” : COOKS
21. Bunny’s movement : HOP
22. Component of a science course : LAB
23. Article of outerwear for a champagne drinker? : BUBBLE WRAP
26. Done: Fr. : FINI
27. Having a ho-hum attitude : BLASE
28. Warm greeting : HUG
29. Justice Sotomayor : SONIA
30. Leave full : SATE
31. Common weather phenomenon in San Francisco : FOG
32. Ankle-high work shoe : BROGAN
33. Article of outerwear for a candy lover? : SUGARCOAT
36. Potato chips, to Brits : CRISPS
39. ___-rock (music genre) : ALT
40. Entree that may be slathered in barbecue sauce : RIBS
44. “Grand” women : DAMES
45. Classic muscle car : GTO
46. Removes the rind from : PARES
47. Inlets : RIAS
48. Article of outerwear for a housekeeper? : DUST JACKET
50. Lee who directed “Life of Pi” : ANG
51. ___ Harbour, Fla. : BAL
52. Newspapers, collectively : PRESS
53. Article of outerwear for a General Motors employee? : CHEVY BLAZER
57. Bird that gives a hoot : OWL
59. Gold standards : KARATS
60. ___ lily : SEGO
61. Chinese leader with a Little Red Book : MAO
62. Panache : STYLE
63. Rat or roach : PEST
64. No. after a main telephone no. : EXT

Down
1. What the “Gras” of Mardi Gras means : FAT
2. Count with fangs : DRACULA
3. Circus tumbler : ACROBAT
4. Witch’s laugh : CACKLE
5. Crop up : ARISE
6. Command to a dog : SIT!
7. Mary ___ cosmetics : KAY
8. Bit from a movie : CLIP
9. Fond du ___, Wis. : LAC
10. Faintest idea : INKLING
11. Easter Island locale : OCEANIA
12. Belgrade native : SERBIAN
15. Unappetizing food that might be served with a ladle : GLOP
18. Carpet variety : SHAG
20. Thinks, thinks, thinks (about) : OBSESSES
23. Small ammo : BBS
24. Command spoken while pulling the reins : WHOA!
25. Rambunctious little kids : RUG RATS
26. 200- or 400-meter run, e.g. : FOOTRACE
29. Madrid Mrs. : SRA
31. N.F.L. three-pointers: Abbr. : FGS
32. Droid : BOT
34. Alternative to FedEx : UPS
35. Thicken, as blood : CLOT
36. Holders of some music collections : CD RACKS
37. Headgear for a drizzly day : RAIN HAT
38. Descriptive language : IMAGERY
41. Annoying : IRKSOME
42. Honeycomb product : BEESWAX
43. Retired jet, for short : SST
45. Shorebird with a distinctive shriek : GULL
46. Caged talker : PARROT
48. Painters’ touches : DABS
49. Some computer picture files : JPEGS
51. Memory unit : BYTE
54. Kilmer of “Top Gun” : VAL
55. Nile viper : ASP
56. Middle of Arizona? : ZEE
58. Auction grouping : LOT

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