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CROSSWORD CONSTRUCTOR: Andrew Zhou
THEME: In Bad Taste
Each of today’s themed answers is an idiomatic phrase that starts with a verb often found in a RECIPE. The idioms point towards DISASTROUS situations, and so together we have A RECIPE FOR A DISASTER:
106A. What 27-, 39-, 56-, 66-, 79- and 96-Across together make up? : A RECIPE FOR DISASTER
27A. Step 1: Raise hell : STIR UP A HORNET’S NEST
39A. Step 2: Make some literary gaffes : MIX ONE’S METAPHORS
56A. Step 3: Devote energy to something hopeless : BEAT A DEAD HORSE
66A. Step 4: Be a financial wastrel : POUR MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN
79A. Step 5: Look pretty schlubby : CUT A POOR FIGURE
96A. And finally: Has divided loyalties : SERVES TWO MASTERS
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 20m 00s (on the nose!)
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. “___ Davis Eyes,” 1981 #1 hit : BETTE
Kim Carnes has an incredible raspy voice. Perhaps Carnes’ most famous release was “Bette Davis Eyes”, one of my favorite songs. Back in 1966, she was a member of the New Christy Minstrels, performing alongside Kenny Rogers and Karen Black.
6. Some lookout notices, for short : APBS
An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a broadcast from one US law enforcement agency to another.
10. One thrown for a loop? : LASSO
Our English word “lasso” comes from the Spanish “lazo”, and ultimately from the Latin “laqueum” meaning “noose, snare”.
15. Musical genre for “Gangnam Style” : K-POP
K-pop (Korean pop) is a genre of music from South Korea that emerged in the early nineties. It’s a bit beyond me …
PSY is the stage name of South Korean rapper Park Jae-sang. PSY became an international star when his 2102 music video “Gangnam Style” went viral on YouTube. That video had over 1 billion views on YouTube in about six months, making it the most viewed YouTube video clip of all time. I am not one of that billion …
19. Sundance Film Festival local : UTAHN
The Sundance film festival is the largest independent film event in the country, and takes place every year around the Sundance Resort near Provo, Utah. The festival has its roots in the Utah/US Film Festival which started in Salt Lake City in 1978. Management of the festival was taken over by Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute in 1985. The festival has became a bit of a media feeding frenzy in recent years, as a lot of A-list celebrities attend. The Festival organizers introduced a “Focus on Film” campaign in 2007 to try to offset some of the madness.
21. Venusian or Jovian : ALIEN
Maybe there are aliens living on Venus (Venusians) or Jupiter (Jovians).
24. Soprano on TV : TONY
The actor James Gandolfini is perhaps best known for playing Mafia boss Tony Soprano in the HBO show “The Sopranos”. For my money, one of Gandolfini’s best performances was in the 2013 romantic comedy “Enough Said”, opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Sadly, Gandolfini passed away just before that film was released.
26. America’s Cup, e.g. : EWER
The America’s Cup is a trophy that has been awarded for yacht racing since 1851. It was first presented to the winner of a race around the Isle of Wight in England that was won by a schooner called “America”. The trophy was eventually renamed to “the America’s Cup” in honor of that first race winner.
31. Opus ___ : DEI
Opus Dei is Roman Catholic institution that was founded in Spain in 1928, and officially approved by the church in 1950. In 2010, Opus Dei had over 90,000 members, mostly lay people. The institution’s mission is to promote certain aspects of the Roman Catholic doctrine. Opus Dei was portrayed as a sinister organization by Dan Brown in his novel “The Da Vinci Code”.
33. ___ Picchu : MACHU
Machu Picchu is known as “The Lost City of the Incas”, and it can be visited on a mountain ridge in Peru, 50 miles northwest of the city of Cuzco in the southeast of the country. The name Machu Picchu means “old peak”. The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu originates about 50 miles from Cusco on the Urubamba River in Peru. It can take travelers about 5 days to trek the full length of the trail, passing through many Incan ruins before reaching the Sun Gate on Machu Picchu mountain. The trail was becoming greatly overused, forcing the Peruvian government to limit the number of people on the trail each day to 500. Book early …
47. Reciprocal in trigonometry : COSECANT
The most familiar trigonometric functions are sine, cosine and tangent (abbreviated to “sin, cos and tan”). Each of these is a ratio, a ratio of two sides of a right-angled triangle. The “reciprocal” of these three functions are secant, cosecant and cotangent. The reciprocal functions are simply the inverted ratios, the inverted sine, cosine and tangent. These inverted ratios should not be confused with the “inverse” trigonometric functions e.g. arcsine, arccosine and arctangent. These inverse functions are the reverse of the sine, cosine and tangent. For example, the arctangent can be read as “What angle is equivalent to the following ratio of opposite over adjacent?”
50. Undecided, on a sked : TBA
Something not yet on the schedule (“sked” or “sched.”) is to be advised/announced (TBA).
51. Many residents of Holmes County, Ohio : AMISH
The Amish are a group of Christian churches, a subgroup of the Mennonite churches. The Amish church originated in Switzerland and Alsace in 1693 when it was founded by Jakob Ammann. It was Ammann who gave the name to the Amish people. Many Amish people came to Pennsylvania in the 18th century.
55. ___ rock : GLAM
I remember the days of glam rock so well, as it was a hugely popular genre of music in the British Isles during the early seventies. Artistes wore the wildest of clothes, big hair, shiny outfits and really high platform boots. Names associated with glam rock are T. Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music and Gary Glitter.
60. One who’s been tapped on the shoulder : SIR
Kneel, and the Queen might “dub thee a knight” if you’re lucky. “Dub” is a specific term derived from Old English that was used to mean “make a knight”. As the knight was also given a knightly name at the same time, “dub” has come to mean “give someone a name”.
61. West Coast news inits. : LAT
The “Los Angeles Times” newspaper started out life in 1881 as the “Los Angeles Daily Times”. The paper has a turbulent history, especially in the early 1900s when management and unions were at loggerheads. In 1910, two union members bombed the “Los Angeles Times” building causing a fire that killed 21 newspaper employees.
62. Numbers after a decimal point: Abbr. : CTS
When writing an amount of money, the two digits to the right of the decimal point signify a number of cents (cts.).
65. Activewear brand : AVIA
The Avia brand name for athletic shoes was chosen as “avia” is the Latin word for “to fly”, and suggests the concept of aviation. Avia was founded in Oregon in 1979.
66. Step 4: Be a financial wastrel : POUR MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN
A “wastrel” is a spendthrift, someone who “wastes” resources.
77. Address not in a phone book : URL
Internet addresses (like NYTCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) are more correctly called Uniform Resource Locators (URLs).
79. Step 5: Look pretty schlubby : CUT A POOR FIGURE
A “schlub” is a clumsy, stupid person. The term comes into English via Yiddish, possibly from the Polish “żłób“ meaning “blockhead”.
88. Eliot’s “Silas ___” : MARNER
“Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe” is a novel written by George Eliot and first published in 1861. There’s an excellent BBC TV version of the tale (shown on PBS) starring Ben Kingsley in the title role, with Patsy Kensit playing Eppie, the young orphaned child that Marner takes under his wing.
90. Employer of the Bond girl in “The Spy Who Loved Me,” for short : KGB
The Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti (KGB) was the national security agency of the Soviet Union until 1991. The KGB was dissolved after the agency’s chairman led a failed attempt at a coup d’état designed to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.
92. Actress Gardner : AVA
Ava Gardner is noted for her association with some big movies, but also for her association with some big names when it came to the men in her life. In the world of film, she appeared in the likes of “Mogambo” (1953), “On the Beach” (1959), “The Night of the Iguana” (1964) and “Earthquake” (1974). The men in her life included husbands Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw and Frank Sinatra. After her marriages had failed (and perhaps before!) she had long-term relationships with Howard Hughes and bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguin whom she met through her friend Ernest Hemingway.
102. 1990s tennis phenom : SELES
Monica Seles has a Hungarian name as she was born to Hungarian parents, in former Yugoslavia. Seles was the World No. 1 professional tennis player in 1991 and 1992 before being forced from the sport when she was stabbed by a spectator at a match in 1993. She did return to the game two years later, but never achieved the same level of success.
103. Company with a lightning bolt in its logo : RCA
During WWI, the US government actively discouraged the loss of certain technologies to other countries, including allies. The developing wireless technologies were considered to be particularly important by the army and navy. The government prevented the General Electric Company from selling equipment to the British Marconi Company, and instead facilitated the purchase by GE of the American Marconi subsidiary. This purchase led to GE forming the Radio Corporation of America that we know today as RCA.
104. Lee on a set : 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”.
119. A Wayans brother : DAMON
The Wayans family is known as the First Family of Entertainment as it is replete with actors, directors, screenwriters and comedians. I hate to admit it, but I don’t think I know any of them!
120. Israeli magazine holders : UZIS
The first Uzi submachine gun was designed in the late 1940s by Major Uziel “Uzi” Gal of the Israel Defense Forces, who gave his name to the gun.
122. Buddha, for one : YOGI
Gautama Buddha was the sage on whose teachings the Buddhist tradition was founded. It is generally believed that the Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama in Kapilavastu in present-day Nepal, in about 563 BCE.
125. Zac of “Dirty Grandpa” : 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”.
129. Hospital opening? : STENT
In the world of medicine and surgery, a stent is an artificial tube inserted inside a vessel in the body, say an artery, so that it reduces the effects of a local restriction in the body’s conduit.
Down
2. Nouveau-Mexique, e.g. : ETAT
In French, “le Nouveau-Mexique” (New Mexico) is a US “état” (state).
4. Like a bronze medalist : THIRD BEST
In the Ancient Olympic Games, the winner of an event was awarded an olive wreath. When the games were revived in 1896, the winners were originally given a silver medal and an olive branch, with runners-up receiving a bronze medal and a laurel branch. The tradition of giving gold, silver and bronze medals began at the 1904 Summer Olympic Games held in St. Louis, Missouri.
6. Resort in the Wasatch Mountains : ALTA
Alta ski resort actually lies within the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Area. The first ski lift in the resort was opened way back in 1939. Today, Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the country that prohibits snowboarding (along with Deer Valley, Utah and Mad River Glen, Vermont. The ski resort of Snowbird located next to Alta has been in operation since 1971.
8. Chimpanzee variety : BONOBO
The Bonobo used to be called the Pygmy Chimpanzee, and is a cousin of the Common Chimpanzee. The Bonobo is an endangered species, found in the wild only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. Along with the Common Chimpanzee, the Bonobo is the closest species to humans genetically.
9. William who wrote “The Confessions of Nat Turner” : STYRON
“The Confessions of Nat Turner” is a 1976 novel by William Styron. It is written as a first-person narrative by slave and rebellion leader Nat Turner, and is based on a real document, a “confession” told by Turner to attorney Thomas Gray while he awaited trial.
Nat Turner was a slave in Virginia who led a slave rebellion in 1831 that led to the deaths of over a hundred people. Half of the casualties were white,and half were black. The 55 white deaths took place on the day of the rebellion as a growing mob of slaves traveled from house-to-house freeing fellow slaves but also killing any white people they came across; men, women and children. The rebellion was suppressed within two days by a white militia. Slaves involved in the rebellion were tried for insurrection and related crimes, and a total of 56 blacks were executed on suspicion of involvement in the uprising. In the aftermath, life for slaves became even more difficult as any freedoms that they had earned were largely curtailed.
12. Family in a computer game : SIMS
SimCity is a very clever computer game. Players build and grow cities and societies by creating the conditions necessary for people (the Sims) to move in and thrive. “SimCity” was launched in 1989, and to this day it is consistently ranked as one of the greatest computer games of all time.
13. Trump spokesman Spicer : SEAN
Sean Spicer became White House press secretary when President Donald Trump assumed office on January 20th, 2017. Prior to taking his position with the Trump administration, Spicer had served as the communications director for the Republican National Committee since 2011.
15. Bellyache : KVETCH
The word “kvetch” comes to us from Yiddish, with “kvetshn” meaning “to complain” or “squeeze”.
28. High-grade cotton : PIMA
Pima is a soft cotton that is very durable and absorbent. Pima cotton is named after the Pima Native Americans who first cultivated it in this part of the world.
29. C.E.O. of the Planetary Society starting in 2010 : NYE
That would be “Bill Nye the Science Guy”. Bill’s show ran on PBS for four years from 1993-97.
35. Pope who initiated the First Crusade : URBAN II
Otho de Lagery (also Odo) took office as Pope Urban II in 1088. It was Pope Urban II who started the First Crusade, the military expedition by Roman Catholic Europe to occupy the Holy Lands. The First Crusade lasted from 1096 to 1099.
36. One crossing the line? : SCAB
We first started calling strikebreakers “scabs” in the early 1800s, and before that a scab was a person who refused to join a trade union (back as early 1777). The word probably comes from the use of “scab” as a symptom of a skin disease, and so is a term that is meant to insult.
46. Nonvoting member in the U.S. House of Representatives : SAMOAN
There are sixteen US territories in all, but only five of them are inhabited:
- Puerto Rico
- Guam
- Northern Mariana Islands
- US Virgin Islands
- American Samoa
Examples of US territories with no permanent or native inhabitants are Wake Island and Midway Islands.
57. Best-selling Canadian singer of all time (with 200+ million record sales) : DION
French-Canadienne singer Céline Dion first came to international attention when she won the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, in which she represented Switzerland in the competition that was hosted in Dublin, Ireland. She is now the the best-selling Canadian artist of all time.
63. James who wrote “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” : THURBER
James Thurber was a cartoonist, author and humorist who was noted for his wit. One of Thurber’s most famous works is the 1939 short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”.
64. Medieval toiler : SERF
A serf was a member of the lowest feudal class, someone attached to land owned by a lord. “Serf” comes from the Latin “servus”, meaning “slave”.
66. Grand viziers, e.g. : PASHAS
A pasha was a high-ranking official in the Ottoman Empire, and was roughly equivalent to the English rank of lord.
70. Some money set aside : ESCROW
One type of escrow account is held by a trusted third party for two parties who have some contractual arrangement, an arrangement that is often in dispute. The third party only releases the funds when both parties have fulfilled their contractual obligations.
82. “Hop-o’-My-Thumb” villain : OGRE
“Hop-o’-My-Thumb” is a fairy tale from France. The story is also called “Little Thumbling” and tells of a small boy going up against an ogre.
84. It has a noted school of theater, film and television : UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) gets more applications from potential students than any other university in the country. UCLA also has more students enrolled than any other university in the state.
85. Pulitzer winner Armantrout and others : RAES
Rae Armantrout is a poet who teaches at the University of California, San Diego. Armantrout was the 2010 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
86. “Frozen” princess : ELSA
“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”.
95. Ad Council output, for short : PSAS
Public service announcement (PSA)
97. Pickle brand : VLASIC
Apparently, Vlasic invented the glass-packed, shelf-stable pickle. The company adopted the stork mascot in the late sixties, with the stork originally carrying a baby. The mascot was a play on the perception that pregnant women have a higher than average appetite for pickles.
100. Whom Kala reared : TARZAN
Kala is the fictional ape that rescues the infant Tarzan from the dangerous leader of the apes. In the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel, Kala is killed a few years later by a hunter, for which Tarzan exacts the ultimate revenge. In the 1999 Disney adaptation of the story, Kala doesn’t die.
105. Altar approaches : NAVES
In large Christian churches, the nave is the main approach to the altar, and is where most of the congregation are seated.
107. Some G.I. wear, for short : CAMO
Our word “camouflage” (often abbreviated to “camo”) evolved directly from a Parisian slang term “camoufler” meaning “to disguise”. The term was first used in WWI, although the British navy at that time preferred the expression “dazzle-painting” as it applied to the pattern painted on the hulls of ships.
108. Little hellions : IMPS
A hellion is a mischievous and wild person. “Hellion” is a North American term, probably derived for the word that we use for the same thing on the other side of the Atlantic, which is “hallion”.
111. Character with the aria “When I am laid in earth” : DIDO
The opera “Dido and Aeneas” was written by English Baroque composer Henry Purcell. The story was taken from Virgil’s epic poem “Aeneid” and tells of the love affair between Dido, the Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, the Trojan hero.
112. “Vidi” : I SAW
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.
114. Major before going to B-school, maybe : ECON
A “B-school” is a business school.
117. Bagel topper : LOX
Lox is a brine-cured salmon fillet, finely sliced. The term “lox” comes into English via Yiddish, and derives from the German word for salmon, namely “Lachs”.
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. “___ Davis Eyes,” 1981 #1 hit : BETTE
6. Some lookout notices, for short : APBS
10. One thrown for a loop? : LASSO
15. Musical genre for “Gangnam Style” : K-POP
19. Sundance Film Festival local : UTAHN
20. Sack : LOOT
21. Venusian or Jovian : ALIEN
22. Pointer for a weather person? : VANE
23. Vertical part of a plane : Y-AXIS
24. Soprano on TV : TONY
25. Drifting sort : NOMAD
26. America’s Cup, e.g. : EWER
27. Step 1: Raise hell : STIR UP A HORNET’S NEST
31. Opus ___ : DEI
32. “Golly!” : BOY!
33. ___ Picchu : MACHU
36. Wild guess : STAB
39. Step 2: Make some literary gaffes : MIX ONE’S METAPHORS
47. Reciprocal in trigonometry : COSECANT
49. Targets of a cleanse : TOXINS
50. Undecided, on a sked : TBA
51. Many residents of Holmes County, Ohio : AMISH
52. Movie release day, often: Abbr. : FRI
54. Had pants? : GASPED
55. ___ rock : GLAM
56. Step 3: Devote energy to something hopeless : BEAT A DEAD HORSE
59. Prefix with second : NANO-
60. One who’s been tapped on the shoulder : SIR
61. West Coast news inits. : LAT
62. Numbers after a decimal point: Abbr. : CTS
65. Activewear brand : AVIA
66. Step 4: Be a financial wastrel : POUR MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN
74. Doxycycline target : ACNE
75. Refusals : NOS
76. When doubled, a drink with vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice : WOO
77. Address not in a phone book : URL
78. ___ film : STAG
79. Step 5: Look pretty schlubby : CUT A POOR FIGURE
87. Partner of hems : HAWS
88. Eliot’s “Silas ___” : MARNER
90. Employer of the Bond girl in “The Spy Who Loved Me,” for short : KGB
91. Where 84-Down is, colloquially : SOCAL
92. Actress Gardner : AVA
93. Figure out : DECODE
94. Zoology class : REPTILES
96. And finally: Has divided loyalties : SERVES TWO MASTERS
101. Org. involved in a probe : NASA
102. 1990s tennis phenom : SELES
103. Company with a lightning bolt in its logo : RCA
104. Lee on a set : ANG
106. What 27-, 39-, 56-, 66-, 79- and 96-Across together make up? : A RECIPE FOR DISASTER
116. “Such is life” : ALAS
119. A Wayans brother : DAMON
120. Israeli magazine holders : UZIS
121. “Pipes” : VOICE
122. Buddha, for one : YOGI
123. Made some calls : UMPED
124. “Ain’t I sumthin’!” : TA-DA!
125. Zac of “Dirty Grandpa” : EFRON
126. ___ asst. : EXEC
127. Tweets, e.g. : POSTS
128. Bank deposit? : SNOW
129. Hospital opening? : STENT
Down
1. Totally believes : BUYS
2. Nouveau-Mexique, e.g. : ETAT
3. Prepare to take off : TAXI
4. Like a bronze medalist : THIRD BEST
5. Follow : ENSUE
6. Resort in the Wasatch Mountains : ALTA
7. “Oh, nuts!” : POOH!
8. Chimpanzee variety : BONOBO
9. William who wrote “The Confessions of Nat Turner” : STYRON
10. Running track part : LANE
11. Much : A LOT
12. Family in a computer game : SIMS
13. Trump spokesman Spicer : SEAN
14. TV-watching option : ON DEMAND
15. Bellyache : KVETCH
16. Handle roughly : PAW
17. With 18-Down, distribution limitation, informally : ONE …
18. See 17-Down : … PER
28. High-grade cotton : PIMA
29. C.E.O. of the Planetary Society starting in 2010 : NYE
30. Depletes : SAPS
34. Stream coming down a mountain? : HOT LAVA
35. Pope who initiated the First Crusade : URBAN II
36. One crossing the line? : SCAB
37. “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare,” e.g. : TOME
38. It spans 11 time zones : ASIA
40. Conflagration : INFERNO
41. More, in ads : XTRA
42. Navigator’s aid : STAR
43. Shaded growth : MOSS
44. Anticipate : EXPECT
45. Lace : TIE
46. Nonvoting member in the U.S. House of Representatives : SAMOAN
48. Gulf : CHASM
53. Without forethought : IDLY
54. Begin fighting : GO TO WAR
55. Growl like a dog : GNAR
57. Best-selling Canadian singer of all time (with 200+ million record sales) : DION
58. Duped : HAD
63. James who wrote “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” : THURBER
64. Medieval toiler : SERF
66. Grand viziers, e.g. : PASHAS
67. Scales span them : OCTAVES
68. Napping, so to speak : UNAWARE
69. Rules and ___ : REGS
70. Some money set aside : ESCROW
71. Doo-___ : WOP
72. Recess : NOOK
73. Like minor celebrities : D-LIST
80. Repeal : UNDO
81. Be swarming (with) : TEEM
82. “Hop-o’-My-Thumb” villain : OGRE
83. Melting : GOING SOFT
84. It has a noted school of theater, film and television : UCLA
85. Pulitzer winner Armantrout and others : RAES
86. “Frozen” princess : ELSA
88. Really not O.K. : MESSED UP
89. Part of a musical : ACT
93. Ovine : sheep :: cervine : ___ : DEER
95. Ad Council output, for short : PSAS
97. Pickle brand : VLASIC
98. Pound sound : ARF!
99. Talent seekers : SCOUTS
100. Whom Kala reared : TARZAN
105. Altar approaches : NAVES
107. Some G.I. wear, for short : CAMO
108. Little hellions : IMPS
109. Brooke or Brooks : POET
110. Closes : ENDS
111. Character with the aria “When I am laid in earth” : DIDO
112. “Vidi” : I SAW
113. Fade : TIRE
114. Major before going to B-school, maybe : ECON
115. Big figure in Manhattan? : RENT
116. Response that’s often repeated : AYE
117. Bagel topper : LOX
118. ___-appropriate : AGE