0629-17 New York Times Crossword Answers 29 Jun 17, Thursday

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CROSSWORD CONSTRUCTOR: Rich Proulx
THEME: Sounds Like Country
Today’s themed answers sound like common phrases, but include the name of a country:

18A. Request for aid in East Africa? : KENYA, GIVE ME A HAND (sounds like “can you give me a hand?”)
27A. Call for cleanup in the Persian Gulf? : BAHRAIN, WASH (sounds like “brainwash”)
49A. Slogan for a West African airline? : GHANA, FLY NOW (sounds like “gonna fly now”)
62A. Entreaty for a spouse’s emigration to Central America? : TAKE MY WIFE, BELIZE (sounds like “take my wife, please”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 11m 10s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 2

  • ANGE (Anne!!!)
  • GIGI (Gini)

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

6. “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” band : WHAM!
I found out relatively recently that the eighties pop duo that we knew on the other side of the Atlantic as “Wham!” were better known as “Wham! UK” in North America. Apparently there already was a band called Wham! here in the US. Wham! UK was composed of singers George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley. George Michael made it big as a solo artist after the pair broke up, but Ridgeley kind of faded into obscurity, relatively speaking.

18. Request for aid in East Africa? : KENYA, GIVE ME A HAND (sounds like “can you give me a hand?”)
Kenya lies on the east coast of Africa, right on the equator. The country takes her name from Mount Kenya, the second highest peak on the continent (after Kilimanjaro). The official languages of Kenya are English and Swahili.

23. Ones with X-Genes, in comics : MUTANTS
In the Marvel Comics universe, mutants are beings with an X-gene. Such mutants are humans who naturally develop superhuman powers. The most celebrated of these mutants are known as the X-Men.

24. Figure on the top of Paris’s Notre-Dame : ANGE
“Ange” is French for “angel”.

Notre-Dame de Paris is the spectacular Gothic cathedral that sits on the Île de la Cité, one of the islands in the middle on the River Seine in Paris. Notre Dame is home to many beautiful and significant artifacts, the most famous of which is the Crown of Thorns supposedly worn by Jesus Christ at his execution, placed in the cathedral in 1239. It’s also home to some magnificent gargoyles on the roof, and you can climb up to the roof and take a very close look at them.

26. Hoosier hoopsters : PACERS
The Indiana Pacers are the professional basketball team based in Indianapolis, who play in the NBA. The name was chosen when the team was formed in 1967. “Pacers” is a homage harness racing pacers (famed in Indiana) and the pace car used in the Indianapolis 500.

The exact origin of the word “hoosier” is unknown, but has been around since at least 1830. The term had no direct linkage with Indiana until John Finley of Richmond, Indiana wrote a poem called “The Hoosier’s Nest” in 1833. A few years later, by 1840, “hoosier” was generally accepted as a term for Indiana residents.

27. Call for cleanup in the Persian Gulf? : BAHRAIN, WASH (sounds like “brainwash”)
Bahrain is an island nation located off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf. Bahrain is connected to Saudi Arabia by a series of causeways and bridges constructed in the eighties.

The Persian Gulf is in effect an inland sea although it technically is an offshoot of the Indian Ocean. The outlet from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean is one of the most famous maritime “choke points” in the world, known as the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world’s supply of petroleum passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

34. “Traffic Crossing ___ Bridge” (pioneering 1888 moving picture) : LEEDS
Louis Le Prince was an inventor who shot the first moving pictures on paper film using a single lens camera. As such Le Prince is referred to as the Father of Cinematography. He was a Frenchman, but shot his earliest film in 1888 in Leeds in the north of England. Le Prince never demonstrated his invention in the US as he vanished under mysterious circumstances from a train in France just prior to a planned American visit. Subsequently, Thomas Edison was credited with the invention of motion pictures.

38. Turkish title : AGA
“Aga” (also “agha”) is a title that was used by both civil and military officials in the Ottoman Empire.

42. Sale tag abbr. : IRR
Irregular (“irr.” or “irreg.”)

45. Chem. unit : MOL
Molecule (mol.)

46. Virus carried by fruit bats : EBOLA
The Ebola virus causes a very nasty form of hemorrhagic fever. The name of the virus comes from the site of the first known outbreak, in a mission hospital in the Ebola River Valley in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as Zaire). The disease is transmitted from human to human by exposure to bodily fluids. In nature, the main carrier of Ebola is the fruit bat.

48. To be, to Augustus : ESSE
Gaius Octavius Thurinus (often called Octavian) was the adopted son of Gaius Julius Caesar. After Julius Caesar was assassinated, Octavian came to power in Rome and teamed up with Mark Antony and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus in what was called the Second Triumvirate. When the triumvirate fell apart, especially after Antony’s defeat at Actium, Octavian became more powerful within the Roman Republic. Several years later he wrested sufficient power from the Roman Senate to end the Republic and begin the Roman Empire. As the first Emperor of Rome, Octavian was given the name Caesar Augustus. The month of August, originally called “Sextilis” in Latin, was renamed in honor of Augustus.

49. Slogan for a West African airline? : GHANA, FLY NOW (“gonna fly now”)
The name “Ghana” means “warrior king” in the local language. The British established a colony they called Gold Coast in 1874, later to become Ghana, as part of the scramble by Europeans to settle as much of Africa as they could. One of Ghana’s most famous sons is Kofi Annan, the diplomat who served as General Secretary of the UN for ten years until the beginning of 2007.

52. Shaman, e.g. : HEALER
A shaman is a supposed intermediary between the human world and the spirit world.

54. Smelting residue : SLAG
The better lead ores are processed in a blast furnace, to extract the metal. The “waste” from this process is called “slag”. Slag does contain some lead and it can be processed further in a “slag furnace” to extract the residual metal. Slag furnaces also accept poorer lead ores as a raw material.

Metals are found in ore in the form of oxides. In order to get pure metal from the ore, the ore is heated and the metal oxides within are reduced (i.e. the oxygen is removed) in the chemical process known as smelting. The oxygen is extracted by adding a source of carbon or carbon monoxide which uses up the excess oxygen atoms to make carbon dioxide, a waste product of smelting (and, a greenhouse gas).

57. Southwest sch. with an enrollment of over 70,000 : ASU
Arizona State University (ASU) has a long history, founded as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory in 1885. The athletic teams of ASU used to be known as the Normals, then the Bulldogs, and since 1946 they’ve been called the Sun Devils.

58. “The ___ of Horace” : ODES
One of Ancient Rome’s leading lyric poets was Quintus Horatius Flaccus, or “Horace” as we tend to know him. Horace’s most famous work is probably his collection of Latin lyric poems titled “Carmina” (the Latin for “Odes).

62. Entreaty for a spouse’s emigration to Central America? : TAKE MY WIFE, BELIZE (sounds like “take my wife, please”)
Belize was formerly known as British Honduras, and English is the country’s official language. Belize is located on the northeastern coast of Central America, bordering Mexico and Guatemala.

69. “An Inconvenient Truth” narrator : GORE
Former Vice President Al Gore was a joint recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 in recognition for his work in climate change activism. He also won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for his book on climate change called “An Inconvenient Truth”. The documentary of the same name that was spawned by the book won an Academy Award. In addition, Gore won an Emmy as co-owner of Current TV, an independent news network.

70. Church council : SYNOD
The word “synod” comes from the Greek word for assembly, or meeting. A synod is a church council, usually in the Christian faith.

Down
1. Hunky-dory : JAKE
Both “jake” and “dandy” are slang words meaning “fine”, as in “things are just dandy”.

Surprisingly (to me), the term “hunky-dory” has been around a long time, and is documented back in the mid-1800s. Nobody’s really sure of its origin, but some say it is an Anglicization of Honcho dori, that back in the day was a street of ill repute in Yokohama, Japan.

2. Three-time N.H.L. M.V.P. Ovechkin : ALEX
Alex Ovechkin is a professional hockey player from Russia. Ovechkin played in his homeland with HC Dynamo Moscow before relocating to the US to play for the Washington Capitals.

5. It has its benefits: Abbr. : SSA
Social Security Administration (SSA)

7. Queen’s residence : HIVE
A queen bee has a stinger, just like worker bees. When a worker bee stings, it leaves it stinger in its victim. The worker bee dies after losing its stinger as the loss rips out part of its insides. However, a queen bee can sting with impunity as the stinger’s anatomy is different.

9. Who shouldn’t “let your babies grow up to be cowboys,” in a 1978 #1 country song : MAMMAS
“Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” is a 1975 country song written by husband and wife Ed and Patsy Bruce, and recorded by Ed. Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson recorded a famous duet version in 1978 that topped the country music charts.

11. Arid : SAHARAN
The name “Sahara” means “greatest desert” in Arabic and it is just that, a great desert covering almost 4 million square miles of Northern Africa. That’s almost the size of the United States.

12. Segue : TRANSITION
A segue is a transition from one topic to the next. “Segue” is an Italian word that literally means “now follows”. It was first used in musical scores directing the performer to play into the next movement without a break.

20. Game played with 24 cards : EUCHRE
Euchre is a card game that probably came to the US from Germany, introduced by German farmers who settled in Wisconsin. Euchre is a trick-taking game usually played by four people in two partnerships. Unlike bridge, Euchre is played with a stripped down deck of 24 or 32 cards. The verb “to euchre” is slang for “to cheat, swindle”, a term that presumably comes from the card game.

28. Shield of Athena : AEGIS
Someone is said to be under the aegis (also “egis”) of someone else (for example) if that other person provides protection, or perhaps sponsorship. The word “aegis” comes from the Greek word for a goat (“aigis”), the idea being that the goatskin shield or breastplate worn by Zeus or Athena, gave some measure of protection.

30. ___ Republic, state toppled in 1933 : WEIMAR
At the end of WWI, the imperial government of Germany was overthrown in the German Revolution of November 1918. Just under a year later, a new constitution was adopted by a national assembly in the city of Weimar. The resulting Weimar Republic lasted until German democracy collapsed in the early 1930s and the Nazi Party came to power.

32. ___ Thomas, entertainer with a Presidential Medal of Freedom : MARLO
Marlo Thomas’s most famous role was playing the title character in the television sitcom “That Girl”. Thomas is also well known as a spokesperson for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

33. Tatami material : STRAW
A tatami is a traditional mat used on floors in Japan. The term “tatami” comes from the Japanese word “tatamu” meaning “to fold”, reflecting the fact that the mat is designed to be folded up for storage.

37. Writer ___ Rogers St. Johns : ADELA
Adela Rogers St. Johns was a journalist, novelist and screenwriter from Los Angeles. St. Johns’ father was a good friend of William Randolph Hearst, and she secured her first job working for Hearst as a reporter on the “San Francisco Examiner”. St. Johns was most famous as what was then called a “girl reporter”, in the twenties and thirties. Much later in her life, she was a regular guest on the “Tonight Show” hosted by Jack Paar.

40. “St. Elsewhere” actor Ed ___ Jr. : BEGLEY
“St. Elsewhere” is a comedy-drama TV series that originally ran from 1982 to 1988. Set in an old hospital in Boston called St. Eligius, the show starred Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels. This was in fact the first TV show that I started to watch regularly when I moved the US in the early eighties. That actors I remember most are Ed Begley, Jr. and Howie Mandel …

41. Peter Falk feature : GLASS EYE
Peter Falk was an actor from New York City who became most associated with the title role in the cop show “Columbo”. In addition to his abilities as an actor, Falk was known for his squint. This squint was the result of a glass eye that he wore from the age of three. The young Falk developed a form of cancer that necessitated the original eye’s removal.

50. Harry Potter’s owl : HEDWIG
Hedwig is the owl belonging to Harry Potter in the J. K. Rowling series of fantasy novels. Hedwig is a female owl, although she is played in the movies by male snowy owls. Male snowy owls are completely white, whereas females have dark patches on their plumage.

53. Cosmetics brand owned by Revlon : ALMAY
The Almay brand of cosmetics was established back in 1931. Almay was founded by Alfred and Fanny May Woititz, who melded their given names to come up with the brand name (Al-may). The couple were driven to invent the products as Fanny May needed cosmetics that did not irritate her skin.

Revlon was founded in the depths of the Great Depression in 1932, by Charles and Joseph Revson. The “S” in the Revson name was replaced by the “L” from Charles “Lachman”, a chemist who partnered with the two brothers.

56. Poi source : TARO
The corm of some taro plants is used to make poi, the traditional Hawaiian dish (that I think tastes horrible). When a taro plant is grown as an ornamental, it is often called Elephant Ears due to the shape of its large leaves.

57. Light-years away : AFAR
A light-year (lt. yr.) is a measure of distance, not time. It is the distance that light travels in a vacuum in one year, almost six trillion miles. The accepted abbreviation for a light-year is “ly”. A light-second is a lot shorter distance: about 186,282 miles.

59. Anthropologist Fossey : DIAN
Dian Fossey carried out her famous study of gorilla populations in the mountain forests of Rwanda (NB: it was Jane Goodall that worked with chimpanzees). Sadly, Fossey was found dead in her cabin in Rwanda in 1986, murdered in her bedroom, her skull split open by a machete. The crime was never solved.

60. Opera singer Pinza : EZIO
Ezio Pinza was an opera singer from Italy. Pinza performed for many years with the Metropolitan Opera in New York before retiring from the Met in 1948. He then launched a career on Broadway and in Hollywood.

63. “I think,” in texts : IMO
In my opinion (IMO)

64. Short albums, for short : EPS
An extended-play record, CD or download (EP) contains more music than a single, but less than an LP.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Children’s ball game : JACKS
6. “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” band : WHAM!
10. Prefix with -logical : ASTRO-
15. Plants cultivated for their sap : ALOES
16. “Hey there” : HIYA
17. Shown, as teeth : BARED
18. Request for aid in East Africa? : KENYA, GIVE ME A HAND (sounds like “can you give me a hand?”)
21. Suit : EXEC
22. Resident’s suffix : -ITE
23. Ones with X-Genes, in comics : MUTANTS
24. Figure on the top of Paris’s Notre-Dame : ANGE
26. Hoosier hoopsters : PACERS
27. Call for cleanup in the Persian Gulf? : BAHRAIN, WASH (sounds like “brainwash”)
31. Uses cross hairs : AIMS
34. “Traffic Crossing ___ Bridge” (pioneering 1888 moving picture) : LEEDS
35. Always, to Shakespeare : E’ER
36. Berate : RANT AT
38. Turkish title : AGA
39. Cut down : ABRIDGED
42. Sale tag abbr. : IRR
43. Word before school or class : MIDDLE
45. Chem. unit : MOL
46. Virus carried by fruit bats : EBOLA
48. To be, to Augustus : ESSE
49. Slogan for a West African airline? : GHANA, FLY NOW (“gonna fly now”)
52. Shaman, e.g. : HEALER
54. Smelting residue : SLAG
55. Having a corner piece? : STAPLED
57. Southwest sch. with an enrollment of over 70,000 : ASU
58. “The ___ of Horace” : ODES
62. Entreaty for a spouse’s emigration to Central America? : TAKE MY WIFE, BELIZE (sounds like “take my wife, please”)
65. Bowl : ARENA
66. “Perhaps” : I MAY
67. No-frills : PLAIN
68. Domineering : BOSSY
69. “An Inconvenient Truth” narrator : GORE
70. Church council : SYNOD

Down
1. Hunky-dory : JAKE
2. Three-time N.H.L. M.V.P. Ovechkin : ALEX
3. Roadwork indicator : CONE
4. Door opener : KEY CARD
5. It has its benefits: Abbr. : SSA
6. Toothpaste ingredient : WHITENER
7. Queen’s residence : HIVE
8. Yes, on board : AYE
9. Who shouldn’t “let your babies grow up to be cowboys,” in a 1978 #1 country song : MAMMAS
10. Let up : ABATE
11. Arid : SAHARAN
12. Segue : TRANSITION
13. Let : RENT
14. One in a million, e.g. : ODDS
19. Supermodel Hadid : GIGI
20. Game played with 24 cards : EUCHRE
25. Kind of spray : NASAL
26. “My fault” : PARDON
27. Subject of finger-pointing : BLAME
28. Shield of Athena : AEGIS
29. Wordless denials : HEAD SHAKES
30. ___ Republic, state toppled in 1933 : WEIMAR
32. ___ Thomas, entertainer with a Presidential Medal of Freedom : MARLO
33. Tatami material : STRAW
37. Writer ___ Rogers St. Johns : ADELA
40. “St. Elsewhere” actor Ed ___ Jr. : BEGLEY
41. Peter Falk feature : GLASS EYE
44. Intensifies : DEEPENS
47. “Great Scott!” : BY GOLLY!
50. Harry Potter’s owl : HEDWIG
51. Mess up : FLUB
53. Cosmetics brand owned by Revlon : ALMAY
55. Attempt : STAB
56. Poi source : TARO
57. Light-years away : AFAR
59. Anthropologist Fossey : DIAN
60. Opera singer Pinza : EZIO
61. Email button : SEND
63. “I think,” in texts : IMO
64. Short albums, for short : EPS

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