0412-17 New York Times Crossword Answers 12 Apr 17, Wednesday

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Jump to a complete list of today’s clues and answers

CROSSWORD SETTER: Emily Carroll
THEME: Split the Bill
Each of today’s themed answers include a hidden BILL in circled letters in my grid. That BILL has been SPLIT into two parts, one at either end of the answer:

54A. Go Dutch … or a hint to 20-, 28-, 37- and 44-Across : SPLIT THE BILL

20A. Ballpark figures : GUESSTIMATES (giving “Bill Gates”)
28A. Unwanted guest : HOME INVADER (giving “Bill Hader”)
37A. Black Tuesday event : WALL STREET CRASH (giving “Bill Walsh”)
44A. Any one of the stars of “Duck Soup” : MARX BROTHER (giving “Bill Maher”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 10m 00s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

14. O’Connor’s Supreme Court successor : ALITO
Associate Justice Samuel Alito was nominated to the US Supreme Court by President George W. Bush. Alito is the second Italian-American to serve on the Supreme Court (Antonin Scalia was the first). Alito studied law at Yale and while in his final year he left the country for the first time in his life, heading to Italy to work on his thesis about the Italian legal system.

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.

15. Comedian Schumer : AMY
Amy Schumer is a stand-up comedian, and an alumna of the reality TV show “Last Comic Standing”, in which she placed fourth. Schumer now has her own comedy series “Inside Amy Schumer”, which airs on Comedy Central. Amy is a first cousin once removed of Chuck Schumer, the senior US Senator from New York.

17. Longtime name on NBC’s “Today” : ROKER
Al Roker is best known as the meteorologist on the “Today” show on NBC. He has successfully branched out from that platform though, and even co-wrote a novel called “The Morning Show Murders”, about a celebrity chef and TV host who get entangled in mystery. Topical stuff …

18. Home to the Kennedy Space Center, familiarly : CANAVERAL
The famous headland in Florida called Cape Canaveral was named by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century. As the Cape acts as a launching station for many of NASA’s rockets, when President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 the NASA facility on nearby Merritt Island was renamed the Kennedy Space Center, and President Johnson went as far as renaming the whole of Cape Canaveral to Cape Kennedy. The name change for the cape didn’t go down well in Florida though, as the headland had been called Cape Canaveral for over 400 years. So, the name was restored in 1973, and Cape Kennedy is no more.

20. Ballpark figures : GUESSTIMATES (giving “Bill Gates”)
Bill Gates is the former CEO of Microsoft, a company that he co-founded with Paul Allen. Gates has been listed as the wealthiest man in the world on several occasion over the past two decades. He now works full-time as co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, alongside his wife Melinda. The Gates’ foundation is the largest transparently-operated charitable foundation in the world.

22. Actors Helms and Harris : EDS
The comedic actor Ed Helms got his big break in television on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show”, after which he joined the cast of “The Office”. Helms is now making a name for himself on the big screen. Notably, he co-stars in the “The Hangover” series of films.

Ed Harris is a very talented actor, noted for two great performances in movies about the Space Program. Harris played John Glenn in “The Right Stuff” in 1983, his “breakthrough” role. Twelve years later he had a “stellar” performance as flight director Gene Kranz in “Apollo 13”.

23. Opposite of trans-, with respect to gender : CIS-
The term “cisgender” is now used as the opposite of “transgender”. Cisgender people have a gender identity that matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

25. Ruckus : ADO
The word “ruckus” is used to mean a commotion, and has been around since the late 1800s. “Ruckus” is possibly a melding of the words “ruction” and “rumpus”.

28. Unwanted guest : HOME INVADER (giving “Bill Hader”)
Bill Hader is an actor and comedian best known as a member of the cast of “Saturday Night Live”. Hader was introduced to Lorne Michaels (producer of “Saturday Night Live”) by Megan Mullally, co-star of the sitcom “Will & Grace”.

35. Inc., abroad : LTD
In Britain and Ireland the most common type of business (my perception anyway) is one that has private shareholders whose liability is limited to the value of their investment. Such a company is known as a private limited company, and has the letters “Ltd” after the name. If the shares are publicly traded, then the company is a public limited company, and has the letters “plc” after the name.

36. Euro denomination : CENT
The euro is divided in 100 cents, sometimes referred to as “euro cents”. Some countries within the European Union (Ireland, for example) are taking steps to withdraw the 1-cent and 2-cent coins from circulation by allowing cash transactions to be rounded to the nearest five cents. I found it a little odd when shipping in Ireland recently, buying something priced at 99 cents, and getting no change after handing over a euro coin …

37. Black Tuesday event : WALL STREET CRASH (giving “Bill Walsh”)
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 that signalled the start of the Great Depression did not happen on just one day. The first big drop in the market took place on October 24 (Black Thursday). Things stabilized on Friday, and then the slide continued on the 28th (Black Monday) and the 29th (Black Tuesday).

41. Sheltered from the wind : ALEE
“Alee” is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing “aweather”.

42. Latin word after post or ad : HOC
The term “post hoc” is used to describe a conclusion made about an earlier event at the time of a later event. Post hoc reasoning is basically an argument made late in the day, an argument that the earlier event caused the later event. If you know what I mean …!

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.

43. Correo ___ (Spanish airmail) : AEREO
The words “Correo Aereo” can be found on some stamps. The phrase translates from Spanish as “Air Mail”.

44. Any one of the stars of “Duck Soup” : MARX BROTHER (giving “Bill Maher”)
“Duck Soup” is a Marx Brothers film that was released in 1933. There were four Marx Brothers in the cast for this film: Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Zeppo. It was to be the last film for Zeppo, who then headed off for a second career as an engineer and then a theatrical agent.

48. Grp. once led by Arafat : PLO
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in 1964. The PLO’s early stated goal was the liberation of Palestine, with Palestine defined as the geographic entity that existed under the terms of the British Mandate granted by the League of Nations back in 1923. The PLO was granted observer status (i.e. no voting rights) at the United Nations in 1974.

Yasser (also Yasir) Arafat was born in Cairo in 1929, the son of two Palestinians and the second-youngest of seven children. Arafat was beaten by his father as a child and so did not have a good relationship with him. Arafat did not attend his father’s funeral, nor did he visit his grave. The beatings were apparently administered because the young Arafat was repeatedly attending religious services in the Jewish quarter of Cairo. Arafat’s explanation was that he wanted to “study the mentality” of the Jewish people.

50. Bonus sports periods, for short : OTS
In overtime (in OT)

51. W.W. II female : WAC
The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was formed in 1942, and the unit was converted to full status the following year to become the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). Famously, General Douglas MacArthur referred to the WACs as his “best soldiers”, saying they worked harder, complained less and were better disciplined than men. The WACs were disbanded in 1978 and the serving members were integrated into the rest of the army.

54. Go Dutch … or a hint to 20-, 28-, 37- and 44-Across : SPLIT THE BILL
A Dutch door has a top and a bottom equally divided in area. There is a suggestion that the term “go Dutch” originated with the Dutch door. The bill is “split”, and so are Dutch doors. That said, when people “go Dutch” they each pay for themselves, as opposed to even splitting the tab.

57. Toronto athlete : MAPLE LEAF
The Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team was founded way back in 1917. As members of the National Hockey League, the Maple leafs have won the Stanley Cup championships thirteen times, the second best record in the league. Having said that, the last championship the team won was in 1967, and the resulting “drought” is the longest in NHL today.

60. Kate’s sitcom housemate : ALLIE
“Kate & Allie” ran from 1984 to 1989, starring Susan Saint James as Kate, and Jane Curtin as Allie. Jane Curtin won two Emmy awards for her work on the series, while Susan Saint James … did not.

62. B’way posting : SRO
Standing room only (SRO)

65. Old sailor : TAR
A Jack Tar, or just “tar”, was a seaman in the days of the British Empire. The term probably arose due to a sailor’s various uses of tar back then, including waterproofing his clothes and using tar in his hair to slick down his ponytail.

Down
1. Homer’s love : MARGE
Marge Simpson is the matriarch of the family in “The Simpsons” animated sitcom. Marge is voiced by actress Julie Kavner, who is also well known for playing Brenda Morgenstern in the TV show “Rhoda” in the seventies.

3. Adidas alternatives : NIKES
Nike was the Greek goddess of victory, often referred to as the Winged Goddess of Victory. The athletic shoe company Nike uses the “Nike swoosh” as its logo, which is based on the goddess’s wing.

4. Four Corners-area tribe : UTES
The Ute is a group of Native American tribes that now resides in Utah and Colorado. The Ute were not a unified people as such, but rather a loose association of nomadic groups. The word “Ute” means “Land of the Sun”, and “Ute” also gave us the state name “Utah”.

5. Cayman and Cayenne : PORSCHES
Porsche was founded in 1931 in Stuttgart, Germany by Professor Ferdinand Porsche. The company didn’t produce cars at first, but worked on design and development. The first big job awarded to the company was from the German government, to design a car for the people. The result was the Volkswagen Beetle. Yep, the Beetle/Bug is a Porsche design.

6. “To Kill a Mockingbird” theme : RACISM
Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” was first published in 1960. The book is a mainstay in English classes all around the world and is a great ambassador for American literature, I’d say.

7. Muslim leader : IMAM
An imam is a Muslim leader, often the person in charge of a mosque or perhaps a Muslim community.

11. ___ 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”.

12. Org. concerned with ecology : EPA
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was set up during the Nixon administration and began operation at the end of 1970.

13. Cardinal’s letters : STL
The St. Louis Cardinals were originally called the “Brown Stockings”, changing their name to the “Perfectos” in 1899. That obviously didn’t go down well with the locals, as the owners changed it one year later to the Cardinals.

19. T-Mobile rival : AT AND T
The original AT&T Corporation was known as the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, hence the contemporary abbreviation.

T-Mobile is a German telecommunications company, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom has used the “T” prefix for a number of its services, including T-Com, T-Online and T-Home.

21. Padre’s hermano : TIO
In Spanish, a “tio” (uncle) is the “hermano del padre o de la madre” (brother of the father or the mother).

30. Realtor’s unit : ACRE
“Real estate agent” is a general, generic term. “Realtor” is the name given to a member of the trade association known as the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The NAR has gone so far as the trademark the term “Realtor” in the US.

32. Like much food cart meat : HALAL
“Halal” is a term for an action or object that is permissible under Islamic Law. In particular “halal” is used to describe food that can be consumed. Anything that is not allowed is described as “haraam”.

33. Old Olds : ALERO
The Oldsmobile Alero was the last car made under the Oldsmobile brand. The Alero was produced from 1999 to 2004.

38. One in bondage : THRALL
Thrall is servitude or bondage, or a person in servitude. A thrall was a serf or servant in slavery in Scandinavia during the days of the Vikings.

45. Ostriches and kangaroos, e.g. : BIPEDS
The ostrich is a flightless bird that is native to Africa. It is extensively farmed, mainly for its feathers but also for its skin/leather and meat. Famously, the ostrich is the fastest moving of any flightless bird, capable of achieving speeds of over 40 mph. It is also the largest living species of bird, and lays the largest eggs.

The word “kangaroo” comes from the Australian Aborigine term for the animal. There’s an oft-quoted story that the explorer James Cook (later Captain Cook) asked a local native what was the name of this remarkable-looking animal, and the native responded with “Kangaroo”. The story is that the native was actually saying “I don’t understand you”, but as cute as that tale is, it’s just an urban myth.

51. One of the Flintstones : WILMA
Wilma is the wife of cartoon character Fred Flintstone. On the TV show, Wilma was voiced by Jean Vander Pyl. Vander Pyl was also provided the voice for Rosie the Robot on “The Jetsons”.

52. 1979 sci-fi thriller : ALIEN
The 1979 sci-fi horror movie “Alien” was the big break for Sigourney Weaver as it was her first lead role, and her character ended up as central to a whole set of sequels. The movie’s producers made a very conscious decision to cast a female in the lead role so as to have the film stand out in the male-dominated genre of science fiction. Famously, the film was publicized with the tagline “In space no one can hear you scream”.

55. Gold-medal skater Lipinski : TARA
When American skater Tara Lipinski won the figure skating gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, she was only 15 years old. To this day, Lipinski is the youngest person to win an individual gold at the Winter Games.

56. Dot on a radar screen : BLIP
Scientists have been using radio waves to detect the presence of objects since the late 1800s, but it was the demands of WWII that accelerated the practical application of the technology. The British called their system RDF standing for Range and Direction Finding. The system used by the US Navy was called Radio Detection And Ranging, which was shortened to the acronym RADAR.

58. ___ Arbor, Mich. : ANN
Ann Arbor, Michigan was founded in 1824 by John Allen and Elisha Rumsey. Supposedly, Allen and Rumsey originally used the name “Annsarbour” in recognition of stands of bur oak that were on the land they had purchased and in recognition of their wives, both of whom were called “Ann” (i.e. Anns’ Arbor)

59. “Harper Valley ___” (1968 #1 hit) : PTA
“Harper Valley PTA” is a country song that was a hit for Jeannie C. Riley in 1968. The song tells of a widowed mother of a teenage girl who is labelled by the daughter’s school’s PTA as scandalous, primarily for wearing a short hemline. The hit song was parlayed into successful 1978 comedy film starring Barbara Eden (of “I Dream of Jeannie”). The movie was successful enough to spawn a TV series, with Barbara Eden again taking the lead. But, the sitcom just made it through two seasons before being pulled from the schedules.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. “Don’t be such a baby!” : MAN UP!
6. Divest (of) : RID
9. Easy gaits : LOPES
14. O’Connor’s Supreme Court successor : ALITO
15. Comedian Schumer : AMY
16. All thumbs : INEPT
17. Longtime name on NBC’s “Today” : ROKER
18. Home to the Kennedy Space Center, familiarly : CANAVERAL
20. Ballpark figures : GUESSTIMATES (giving “Bill Gates”)
22. Actors Helms and Harris : EDS
23. Opposite of trans-, with respect to gender : CIS-
24. A welcome sight? : MAT
25. Ruckus : ADO
28. Unwanted guest : HOME INVADER (giving “Bill Hader”)
31. Some run to get in it : SHAPE
35. Inc., abroad : LTD
36. Euro denomination : CENT
37. Black Tuesday event : WALL STREET CRASH (giving “Bill Walsh”)
41. Sheltered from the wind : ALEE
42. Latin word after post or ad : HOC
43. Correo ___ (Spanish airmail) : AEREO
44. Any one of the stars of “Duck Soup” : MARX BROTHER (giving “Bill Maher”)
48. Grp. once led by Arafat : PLO
49. Existential statement : I AM
50. Bonus sports periods, for short : OTS
51. W.W. II female : WAC
54. Go Dutch … or a hint to 20-, 28-, 37- and 44-Across : SPLIT THE BILL
57. Toronto athlete : MAPLE LEAF
60. Kate’s sitcom housemate : ALLIE
61. Chipped in, in a way : ANTED
62. B’way posting : SRO
63. Stopwatch : TIMER
64. Eats like a rodent : GNAWS
65. Old sailor : TAR
66. Beat handily : SPANK

Down
1. Homer’s love : MARGE
2. One way to think : ALOUD
3. Adidas alternatives : NIKES
4. Four Corners-area tribe : UTES
5. Cayman and Cayenne : PORSCHES
6. “To Kill a Mockingbird” theme : RACISM
7. Muslim leader : IMAM
8. “Awesome!” : DYNAMITE!
9. Broadcast shown as it happens : LIVE TV
10. Tip jar fillers : ONES
11. ___ capita : PER
12. Org. concerned with ecology : EPA
13. Cardinal’s letters : STL
19. T-Mobile rival : AT AND T
21. Padre’s hermano : TIO
25. “Be ___ …” (request starter) : A DEAR
26. Not too quick on the uptake : DENSE
27. Prefix with -pedic : ORTHO-
29. Campaign poster word : ELECT
30. Realtor’s unit : ACRE
31. Overwhelm : SWAMP
32. Like much food cart meat : HALAL
33. Old Olds : ALERO
34. Movie trailer? : -PLEX
38. One in bondage : THRALL
39. Least cramped : ROOMIEST
40. Buckets, perhaps : CAR SEATS
45. Ostriches and kangaroos, e.g. : BIPEDS
46. Lusting after : HOT FOR
47. Biblical suffix : -ETH
51. One of the Flintstones : WILMA
52. 1979 sci-fi thriller : ALIEN
53. Court employee : CLERK
54. Killed, as a dragon : SLEW
55. Gold-medal skater Lipinski : TARA
56. Dot on a radar screen : BLIP
57. Outside or InStyle, in brief : MAG
58. ___ Arbor, Mich. : ANN
59. “Harper Valley ___” (1968 #1 hit) : PTA

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