0510-17 New York Times Crossword Answers 10 May 17, Wednesday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
13. Suzuki with his first name on his jersey : ICHIRO
Ichiro Suzuki plays baseball for the New York Yankees. Suzuki holds quite a few batting records including the single-season record for base hits (262), and a record-breaking streak of 10 consecutive 200-hit season. Ichiro Suzuki is a huge celebrity in his native-Japan. His agent says that if you address fan mail to “Ichiro Suzuki, Japan”, he’ll get your letter …

14. Publisher of People : TIME INC
There used to be a “People” page in each issue of “Time” magazine. This page was spun-off in 1974 as a publication of its own, which we now call “People” magazine. “People” is noted for its annual special editions with features such as “Best & Worst Dressed” and “Sexiest Man Alive”. The “Sexiest Man Alive” edition now appears at the end of November each year. The first choice for “Sexiest Man” was Mel Gibson, in 1985.

16. Kim of “L.A. Confidential” : BASINGER
Kim Basinger’s big break in movies came when she played a Bond girl, Domino Petachi in “Never Say Never Again” opposite Sean Connery. Basinger’s more famous roles were in “L.A. Confidential”, “9½ Weeks” and “8 Mile”. My personal favorite of her films though was the thriller “Cellular”, released in 2004.

“L.A. Confidential” is a 1997 movie based on a novel of the same name by James Ellroy that was first published in 1990. The story is set in the early fifties and is built around a multiple homicide at the Nite Owl coffee shop.

17. Avoid a beanball, maybe : DUCK
A beanball is a baseball pitch deliberately thrown at a batter’s head.

24. Boast : CROW
The verb “to crow” meaning “to exult in triumph” is imitative of the sound made by a crow, perhaps as it settles over some dead animal that it has found …

28. Meat in a classic Monty Python skit : SPAM
Apparently the term “spam”, used for unwanted email, is taken from a “Monty Python” sketch. In the sketch (which I’ve seen) the dialog is taken over by the word Spam, a play on the glut of canned meat in the markets of Britain after WWII. So “spam” is used for the glut of emails that takes over online communication. I can just imagine nerdy Internet types (like me) adopting something from a “Monty Python” sketch to describe an online phenomenon …

31. Post-triathlon woes : ACHES
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.

44. Beltway insider : POLITICO
The phrase “inside the Beltway” is used to refer to the infrastructure and politics of Washington, D.C. The Beltway in this case is Interstate 495, also known as the Capital Beltway.

45. Ed with seven Emmys : ASNER
Ed Asner is most famous for playing the irascible but lovable Lou Grant on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and on the spin-off drama “Lou Grant”. Off-screen Asner is noted for his political activism. He served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and was very involved in the 1980 SAG strike. When “Lou Grant” was cancelled in in 1982, despite decent ratings, there was a lot of talk that the cancellation was a move by the network against Asner personally. In fact, one of Asner’s activist colleagues, Howard Hesseman (who played Johnny Fever) found that his show “WKRP in Cincinnati” was also cancelled … on the very same day.

46. Rapper with a line of Fila sneakers : NAS
Rapper Nas used to go by another stage name, Nasty Nas, and before that by his real name, Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones. Nas released his first album “Illmatic” in 1994, and inventively titled his fifth studio album “Stillmatic”, released in 2001. Not my cup of tea, I would say …

Fila was originally an Italian company, founded in 1911, that is now based in South Korea. Fila was started in Piedmont by the Fila brothers, primarily to make underwear that they sold to people living in the Italian Alps. The company started to focus on sportswear in the seventies, using tennis-great Bjorn Borg as their major endorser.

47. Unless, in law : NISI
A decree nisi is a court order, one that only comes into force when certain specified conditions are met. At the point where the conditions are met, it becomes a decree absolute and is binding. “Nisi” is Latin for “unless”.

50. Grokked : GOT
“To grok” is to understand, and is 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”.

51. Slow-witted sort : DODO
The dodo was a direct relative of the pigeon and dove, although the fully-grown dodo was usually three feet tall. One of the reasons the dodo comes to mind when we think of extinction of a species, is that it disappeared not too long ago (last recorded alive in 1681) and humans were the reason for its demise. The dodo lived exclusively on the island of Mauritius and when man arrived, we cut back the forests that were its home. We also introduced domestic animals, such as dogs and pigs, that ransacked the dodo’s nests. The dodo was deemed to be an awkward flightless bird and so the term “dodo” has come to mean a dull-witted person.

54. President who was imprisoned for 27 years : MANDELA
As a young man, Nelson Mandela led the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Mandela was eventually arrested and admitted to charges of sabotage and was sentenced to life in prison in 1964. He remained behind bars for 27 years, mainly in the infamous prison on Robben Island. As the years progressed, Mandela became a symbol of the fight against apartheid. He was released in 1990, and immediately declared his commitment to peace and reconciliation with South Africa’s white minority population. Mandela was elected president of the Republic of South Africa (RSA) in 1994, an office that he held until 1999. Nelson Mandela passed away on December 5, 2013.

57. Sch. founded by Thomas Jefferson : UVA
The University of Virginia (UVA) was founded by Thomas Jefferson, who sat on the original Board of Visitors alongside former US Presidents James Madison and James Monroe. In fact, the original UVA campus was built on land near Charlottesville that was once a farm belonging to President Monroe.

58. “Star Wars” princess : LEIA
The full name of the character played by Carrie Fisher in the “Star Wars” series of films is Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, and later Leia Organa Solo. Leia is the twin sister of Luke Skywalker, and the daughter of Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader) and Padmé Amidala. Leia is raised by her adoptive parents Bail and Breha Organa. She eventually marries Han Solo.

59. Ice cream bar brand : DOVE
The Dove Bar is an ice cream bar that was distributed locally in Chicago from 1956 until 1985, when Mars purchased the brand and made it available nationally.

69. Facetious subject of many articles in The Onion : AREA MAN
“The Onion” is a satirical news network, with a print newspaper and a heavy online presence. “The Onion” newspaper was founded by two college students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1988. The founders sold the operation a year later for about $20,000. The paper grew steadily until 1996 when it began to publish online and really took off. I think it’s worth a tad more than $20,000 today …

70. Xenophobes’ fear : ALIENS
The Greek combining form “xeno-” means “strange, foreign”, as in xenophobia, a fear of foreigners.

72. Something needed to play the game depicted in this puzzle … or a hint to the six shaded answers : BIRDIE
“Birdie” is another name for a shuttlecock, the projectile used in the sport of badminton.

Down
1. Providence art inst. : RISD
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) is a college in Providence, Rhode Island. The RISD is located right next door to Brown University.

2. Free speech defender, for short : ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has its roots in the First World War when it was founded to provide legal advice and support to conscientious objectors. The ACLU’s motto is “Because Freedom Can’t Protect Itself”. The ACLU also hosts a blog on the ACLU.org website called “Speak Freely”.

3. In vogue : CHIC
“Chic” is a French word meaning “stylish”.

4. “Lola” band, with “the” : KINKS
The Kinks were an English band that participated in the British Invasion of America in the sixties, although only briefly. After touring the US in the middle of 1965, the American Federation of Musicians refused permits for the Kinks to book concerts for four years, apparently in response to some rowdy on-stage behavior by band.

“Lola” is a fabulous song that was written by Ray Davies and released by the Kinks back in 1970. Inspired by a real life incident, the lyrics tell of young man who met a young “lady” in a club, danced with her, and then discovered “she” was actually a transvestite. The storyline isn’t very traditional, but the music is superb.

5. Joule fraction : ERG
An erg is a unit of mechanical work or energy. It is a small unit, as there are 10 million ergs in one joule. it has been suggested that an erg is about the amount of energy required for a mosquito to take off. The term comes from “ergon”, the Greek word for work.

James Joule was an English physicist who spent much of his life working in the family brewing business. Joule used his work in the brewery to study the relationship between heat and mechanical work. In honor of his achievements, his name is used for the unit of energy in the International System of Units (i.e. the joule).

8. Defunct U.K. label : EMI
EMI was a British music company, with the abbreviation standing for Electric and Musical Industries.

9. “Footloose” hero ___ McCormack : REN
The 1984 musical drama “Footloose” tells the story of a Chicago teen (played by Kevin Bacon) who moves to a small town in which dancing and rock music has been banned. The storyline is loosely based on real events in the Oklahoma City of Elmore. Dancing was banned in Elmore for almost 100 years, with the ban eventually being lifted in 1980.

11. Start of el año : ENERO
In Spanish, “el año” (the year) starts in “enero” (January) and ends in “diciembre” (December).

16. Divider in this puzzle’s game : BADMINTON NET
The game of badminton was developed in the mid-1700s by British military officers in India. There was already an old game called battledore and shuttlecock, so the creation of badminton was essentially the addition of a net and boundary lines for play. The game was launched officially as a sport in 1873 at Badminton House in Gloucestershire in England, hence the name that we now use.

22. 1940s spy org. : OSS
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was formed during WWII in order to carry out espionage behind enemy lines. A few years after the end of the war the OSS functions were taken up by a new group, the Central Intelligence Agency that was chartered by the National Security Act of 1947.

30. Certain Wall St. takeover : LBO
A leveraged buyout (LBO) is a transaction in which an investor acquires a controlling volume of stock in a company, but buys that stock with borrowed funds (hence “leveraged”). Often the assets of the acquired company are used as collateral for the borrowed money. There is a special form of LBO known as a management buyout (MBO) in which the company’s own management team purchase the controlling interest.

32. San Fernando Valley community : ENCINO
Encino is a district in the City of Los Angeles on the north slope of the Santa Monica Mountains. The area takes its name from a historic parcel of land called Rancho Los Encinos (Ranch of the Evergreens).

34. Suffix for sugars : -OSE
Sugars are usually named using the “-ose” suffix e.g. glucose, fructose, sucrose.

35. Gerontology subject : AGING
Gerontology is the study of all aspects of aging, including the biology, psychology and sociology. Geriatrics is the study of diseases encountered in older adults.

36. San ___ (Bay Area city) : MATEO
San Mateo is a city located south of San Francisco, just across the other side of the Bay from where I live. San Mateo is Spanish for Saint Matthew.

37. Hägar the Horrible’s dog : SNERT
“Hägar the Horrible” is a comic strip that was created by the late Dik Browne and is now drawn by his son, Chris Browne. “Hägar the Terrible” (not “Horrible”) was the nickname given to Dik by his sons. The strip’s title character is a red-bearded Viking living on the Norwegian coast during the Middle Ages. Hägar lives with his overbearing wife Helga, his sensitive son Hamlet, his pretty daughter Honi, and his clever dog Snert.

39. Tsunami cause : SEISM
“Tsunami” is a Japanese word meaning “harbor wave”.

40. Cover letter abbr. : ENC
Enclosure (enc.)

42. ‘L’ train overseer : CTA
The Chicago “L” is the second largest rapid transit system in the US, with the New York City Subway being the largest. The “L” is also the second oldest, again with the New York City Subway system having the honor of being around the longest. Note that the official nickname for the system is the “L” (originally short for “elevated railroad”), although the term “El” is also in common use (especially in crosswords as “ELS”). The L is managed by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA).

48. Uganda’s Amin : IDI
Idi Amin received most of his military training in the British armed forces, eventually achieving the highest rank possible for a Black African in the British Colonial Army in 1959, that of Warrant Officer. On his return to Uganda Amin joined his country’s military and quickly rose to the rank of Deputy Commander of the Army. During that time he was quite the athlete. He was a noted rugby player and swimmer, and for nine years held the Ugandan national light-heavyweight boxing title. By the early seventies, Amin was commander of all the armed forces of Uganda and in 1971 seized power in a military coup, displacing the country’s president Milton Obote. There followed seven years of brutal rule by Amin during which it is estimated that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were murdered. Amin was ousted from power in 1979 after a war with Tanzania, and fled to Libya where he stayed for a year. He then moved to Saudi Arabia, where he was financially supported by the Saudi Royal Family for the remainder of his life. Amin died in 2003.

49. 1960s underwater habitat : SEALAB
SEALAB I, II and II were man-made habitats built by the US Navy designed to advance the technology needed for humans to live and work underwater for extended periods. SEALAB I was lowered to a depth of just under 200 feet off the coast of Bermuda in 1964. Four divers stayed in SEALAB for 11 days, before the experiment was halted due to the approach of a tropical storm.

51. Home of the Burj Khalifa : DUBAI
Burj Khalifa is a spectacular skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It is the tallest man-made structure in the world, and has been so since the completion of its exterior in 2009. The space in the building came onto the market at a really bad time, during the global financial crisis. The building was part of a US$20 billion development of downtown Dubai that was backed by the city government which had to go looking for a bailout from the neighboring city of Abu Dhabi. The tower was given the name Burj Khalifa at the last minute, apparently as a nod to the UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan who helped to broker the bailout.

55. Shepard in space : ALAN
Alan Shepard was the first American in space. Shepard’s flight was originally scheduled for October 1960 but a series of delays pushed it out till May 5, 1961. Yuri Gagarin made his celebrated flight on April 12, 1961, just one one month earlier, winning that part of the Space Race for the Soviets. A decade later, Shepard went into space again at the age of 47, as commander of Apollo 14. He was the fifth man to walk on the moon, and indeed the oldest. Shepard was also the only one of the Mercury Seven team to make it to the moon. Famously, he drove two golf balls while on the lunar surface.

56. Legendary firefighter Red : ADAIR
Red Adair was a famous fighter of fires in oil fields, and was a native of Houston, Texas. Adair’s exploits were the inspiration for a 1968 movie called “Hellfighters” starring John Wayne.

60. Took too much, briefly : ODED
Overdose (OD)

61. I came: Lat. : VENI
The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BC and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

62. Gaelic tongue : ERSE
There are actually three Erse languages: Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be Gaeilge (in Ireland), Gaelg (on the Isle of Man) and Gaidhlig (in Scotland).

64. Eastern “way” : TAO
The Chinese character “tao” translates as “path”, but the concept of Tao signifies the true nature of the world.

65. Avian source of red meat : EMU
Even though emu meat is classified as a red meat because of its color, it has a fat content that is comparable to other poultry.

66. One violating omertà : RAT
“Omertà” is a code of honor in southern Italian society. The term has been adopted by the Mafia to mean a code of silence designed to prevent a Mafioso from becoming an informer. For example, the famous Joe Valachi was someone who broke the code of silence in 1963, informing on the New York Mafia. Valachi’s story was told in the movie “The Valachi Papers”, with Charles Bronson playing the lead.

68. Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas or Sonia Sotomayor, schoolwise : ELI
Elihu Yale was a wealthy merchant born in Boston in 1649. Yale worked for the British East India Company, and for many years served as governor of a settlement at Madras (now Chennai) in India. After India, Yale took over his father’s estate near Wrexham in Wales. It was while resident in Wrexham that Yale responded to a request for financial support for the Collegiate School of Connecticut in 1701. He sent the school a donation, which was used to erect a new building in New Haven that was named “Yale” in his honor. In 1718, the whole school was renamed to “Yale College”. To this day, students of Yale are nicknamed “Elis”, again honoring Elihu.

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.

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.

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Something needed to play the game depicted in this puzzle : RACKET
7. Starts the game depicted in this puzzle : SERVES
13. Suzuki with his first name on his jersey : ICHIRO
14. Publisher of People : TIME INC
15. Supporters of broken arms : SLINGS
16. Kim of “L.A. Confidential” : BASINGER
17. Avoid a beanball, maybe : DUCK
18. Dishwasher need : SOAP
20. Tram load : ORE
21. Went off, as an alarm : SOUNDED
24. Boast : CROW
25. Foot, in anatomy : PES
28. Meat in a classic Monty Python skit : SPAM
29. Under the weather : ILL
31. Post-triathlon woes : ACHES
33. Output from futuristic weaponry : ION BEAMS
38. Wacko : LOON
39. Antenna, e.g. : SENSE ORGAN
41. Not stressed : UNACCENTED
43. Toy on a string : KITE
44. Beltway insider : POLITICO
45. Ed with seven Emmys : ASNER
46. Rapper with a line of Fila sneakers : NAS
47. Unless, in law : NISI
50. Grokked : GOT
51. Slow-witted sort : DODO
54. President who was imprisoned for 27 years : MANDELA
57. Sch. founded by Thomas Jefferson : UVA
58. “Star Wars” princess : LEIA
59. Ice cream bar brand : DOVE
63. More skilled in : BETTER AT
67. One atop the standings : LEADER
69. Facetious subject of many articles in The Onion : AREA MAN
70. Xenophobes’ fear : ALIENS
71. Call after the 72-Across crosses the 16-Down seven times and lands here : IT’S OUT!
72. Something needed to play the game depicted in this puzzle … or a hint to the six shaded answers : BIRDIE

Down
1. Providence art inst. : RISD
2. Free speech defender, for short : ACLU
3. In vogue : CHIC
4. “Lola” band, with “the” : KINKS
5. Joule fraction : ERG
6. Even odds : TOSS-UP
7. Sibling nickname : SIS
8. Defunct U.K. label : EMI
9. “Footloose” hero ___ McCormack : REN
10. Partner of vim : VIGOR
11. Start of el año : ENERO
12. Prison guard, slangily : SCREW
14. Ankle wrap for an athlete : TAPE
16. Divider in this puzzle’s game : BADMINTON NET
19. Lead-in to lark or dare : ON A …
22. 1940s spy org. : OSS
23. Ate in high style : DINED
24. Supreme Court aides : CLERKS
25. Get chummy (with) : PAL UP
26. Low-budget: Prefix : ECONO-
27. Maritime hazard : SHOAL
30. Certain Wall St. takeover : LBO
32. San Fernando Valley community : ENCINO
34. Suffix for sugars : -OSE
35. Gerontology subject : AGING
36. San ___ (Bay Area city) : MATEO
37. Hägar the Horrible’s dog : SNERT
39. Tsunami cause : SEISM
40. Cover letter abbr. : ENC
42. ‘L’ train overseer : CTA
45. Be under the weather : AIL
48. Uganda’s Amin : IDI
49. 1960s underwater habitat : SEALAB
51. Home of the Burj Khalifa : DUBAI
52. For all to see : OVERT
53. Sees regularly : DATES
55. Shepard in space : ALAN
56. Legendary firefighter Red : ADAIR
60. Took too much, briefly : ODED
61. I came: Lat. : VENI
62. Gaelic tongue : ERSE
64. Eastern “way” : TAO
65. Avian source of red meat : EMU
66. One violating omertà : RAT
68. Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas or Sonia Sotomayor, schoolwise : ELI

Return to top of page