0706-17 New York Times Crossword Answers 6 Jul 17, Thursday

QuickLinks:
Solution to today’s crossword in the New York Times
Solution to today’s SYNDICATED New York Times crossword in all other publications
Solution to today’s New York Times crossword found online at the Seattle Times website
Jump to a complete list of today’s clues and answers

CROSSWORD CONSTRUCTOR: Erik Agard
THEME: Killing Two Birds with One Stone
Two today’s themed answers include TWO BIRDS as hidden words. The two other themed answers include ONE STONE as hidden words:

35A. There are two, as the expression goes, in each of 16- and 55-Across : BIRDS
16A. Will Smith’s co-star in 1995’s “Bad Boys” : MARTIN LAWRENCE (hiding “martin” and “wren”)
55A. Physicist who won a 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom : STEPHEN HAWKING (hiding “hen” and “hawk”)

37A. There’s one, as the expression goes, in 5- and 27-Down : STONE
5D. Line of Japanese smartphones : SONY XPERIA (hiding “onyx”)
27D. Tropical houseplant : BAMBOO PALM (hiding “opal”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 16m 33s!
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Say “Yeah, I can make it,” say : RSVP
RSVP stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “please, answer”.

9. Pitt of “The Big Short” : BRAD
Brad Pitt’s first major role was the cowboy hitchhiker in the 1991’s “Thelma and Louise”. Pitt’s life offscreen garners as much attention as his work onscreen, it seems. The tabloids revel in the series of high-profile relationships in which he has been involved. He was engaged to Gwyneth Paltrow for a while, married to Jennifer Aniston and then to Angelina Jolie.

“The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine” is a nonfiction book by Michael Lewis that examines the run-up to the 2007-2010 global financial crisis. In particular Lewis looks at the credit bubble of the 2000s. Lewis wrote another great book called “Moneyball” that told the story of Billy Beane and how he traded his way to success managing the Oakland Athletics baseball team. Brad Pitt appeared in the movie version of both of Lewis’ books.

13. Scannable symbols on store items, for short : UPCS
Universal Price Code or Universal Product Code (UPC)

15. Mark’s replacement : EURO
One of the currencies replaced by the euro was Germany’s Deutsche Mark (known as the “Deutschmark” in English).

16. Will Smith’s co-star in 1995’s “Bad Boys” : MARTIN LAWRENCE (hiding “martin” and “wren”)
“Bad Boys” is a comedy drama movie released in 1995 starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith as two narcotics detectives in Miami.

19. Some airport times: Abbr. : ARRS
Arrival (arr.)

21. Last word of a fairy tale : AFTER
(60A. First word of a fairy tale : ONCE)
The stock phrase “Once upon a time” has been used in various forms as the start of a narrative at least since 1380. The stock phrase at the end of stories such as folktales is often “and they all lived happily ever after”. The earlier version of this ending was “happily until their deaths”.

22. Hon, modern-style : BAE
“Bae” is a contemporary term of endearment, a pet name that is an abbreviation of “babe, baby”.

26. Madrid’s country, on Olympic scoreboards : ESP
Spain is the second largest country in the European Union (after France). “Spain” is an anglicized form of the Spanish name “España”, which comes from the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula “Hispania”.

27. ___ fides : BONA
“Bona fide(s)” translates from the Latin as “in good faith”, and is used to indicate honest intentions. It can also mean that something is authentic, like a piece of art that is represented in good faith as being genuine.

28. Like the Nikkei and Hang Seng indexes : ASIAN
The Nikkei is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange that has been published by the “Nihon Keizai Shimbun” newspaper since 1950. The “Nihon Keizai Shimbun” has the largest circulation of any financial newspaper in the world, and is read by over 3 million people daily.

The Hang Seng Index (HSI) is the most important stock market index reported from Hong Kong. The index was started in 1969 by one of the largest banks in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Bank.

30. It uses clicks in lieu of paddles : EBAY
eBay was founded in 1995 as AuctionWeb as part of a computer programmer’s personal website. One of the first items purchased was a broken laser pointer, for $14.83. The buyer collected broken laser pointers …

32. Decorates with some rolls, for short : TPS
TP’ing (toilet papering) is a prank involving the covering of some object or location with rolls and rolls of toilet paper. If you live in Texas or Minnesota, that little “prank” is legal, but if you live here in California it is classed as mischief or vandalism.

39. “The Matrix” hero : NEO
Neo is the character played by Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix” series of films.

The 1999 movie sensation “The Matrix” was meant to be set in a nondescript urban environment. It was actually shot in Australia, as one of the co-producers of the film was the Australian company, Village Roadshow Pictures. You can pick up all sorts of clues about the location when watching the film, including a view of Sydney Harbour Bridge in a background shot. Also, traffic drives along on the left and there are signs for the “lift” instead of an “elevator”.

40. ___ Xtra (soda) : PIBB
The soft drink on the market today called Pibb Xtra used to be known as Mr Pibb, and before that was called Peppo. Peppo was introduced in 1972 as a direct competitor to Dr Pepper.

41. Traffic cone : PYLON
“Pylon” can be used as another word for a traffic cone.

44. “Help me, ___-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope” : OBI
Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the more beloved of the “Star Wars” characters. Kenobi was portrayed by two fabulous actors in the series of films. As a young man he is played by Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, and as an older man he is played by Alec Guinness.

46. Source of Manchego cheese : EWE
Manchego is a cheese made from sheep’s milk made in the famous La Mancha region of Spain. The term “Manchego” is used to describe things related to La Mancha.

47. Cafe : BISTRO
“Bistro” was originally a Parisian slang term for a “little wine shop or restaurant”.

50. Band whose name sounds like a vegetable : KORN
Korn is an alternative metal band from Bakersfield, California. The band’s name is derived from a fan suggestion of “Corn”. The suggested name was considered too bland and so was prettied up to Korn, with the letter “r” capitalized and written backwards.

55. Physicist who won a 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom : STEPHEN HAWKING (hiding “hen” and “hawk”)
Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist from Oxford, England. Hawking owes much of his fame in the world of popular science to his incredibly successful book called “A Brief History of Time”. “A Brief History of Time” has sold over 10 million copies and was on London’s “Sunday Times” bestseller list for over four years. Hawking does a wonderful job of explaining many aspects of cosmology without losing the average reader. There is only one equation in the whole book, and that equation is “E = mc2”. Hawking’s life story is recounted in the excellent 2014 film “The Theory of Everything”.

62. Half of a two-volume directory : A TO M
The other half would be N to Z”.

Down
3. Betamaxes, e.g. : VCRS
The video standard known as VHS is more fully referred to as the Video Home System. VHS was one of many standards touted by various manufacturers in the seventies. The biggest rival to VHS was Betamax, but we all knew which of the two standards won the final round in that fight.

4. S.F. winter clock setting : PST
Pacific Standard Time (PST)

5. Line of Japanese smartphones : SONY XPERIA (hiding “onyx”)
The Xperia is a line of smartphones that Sony has been making since 2008. The company introduced Xperia tablets in 2012. The name “Xperia” is formed from the English word “experience”.

9. Part of a Whopper : BEEF PATTY
If you were in Japan at the end of 2009 and went to Burger King, you might have ordered a Windows 7 Whopper, a promotion for the Windows 7 Operating System. The sandwich was 5 inches in height, and contained seven beef patties!

11. Like a rainbow : ARCED
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.

17. 13th, maybe : IDES
There were three important days in each month of the old Roman calendar. These days originally depended on the cycles of the moon but were eventually “fixed” by law. “Kalendae” were the first days of each month, originally the days of the new moon. “Nonae” were originally the days of the half moon. And “idus” (the ides) was originally the day of the full moon, eventually fixed at the 15th day of a month. Well, actually the ides were the 15th day of March, May, July and October. For all other months, the ides fell on the 13th. Go figure …

19. Classic Britcom : AB FAB
“Absolutely Fabulous” (sometimes shortened to “Ab Fab”) is a cult-classic sitcom produced by the BBC. The two stars of the show are Jennifer Saunders (Edina Monsoon) and Joanna Lumley (Patsy Stone). “Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie” hit the screens in 2016. I haven’t seen it yet, but my wife did and really enjoyed it. She said that there’s a veritable cavalcade of British stars that make an appearance …

23. Hamiltons : TENS
The US ten-dollar bill features the image of Alexander Hamilton, the first US Secretary of the Treasury, on the obverse. As such, ten-dollar bills are sometimes called “Hamiltons”. By the way, the $10 bill is the only US currency in circulation in which the portrait faces to the left. The reverse of the ten-dollar bill features the US Treasury Building.

29. Animal lovers’ program : ADOPT-A-PET
Adopt-a-Pet.com is a non-profit website that maintains a website of adoptable pets from over 12,000 pet shelters across North America.

31. Chest protector : BIB
The word “bib” comes from the Latin “bibere” meaning “to drink”, as does our word “imbibe”. So, maybe it’s less about spilling the food, and more about soaking up the booze …

37. Prepare to pin the tail on the donkey, say : SPIN
Pin the tail on the donkey is a children’s party game.

49. Have the tiller : STEER
A rudder is usually a flat sheet of wood or metal located at the stern of a boat, under the waterline. The rudder is attached to a rudder post, which rotates to change the orientation of the rudder hence steering the boat. That rotation of the rudder post can be achieved by pulling or pushing a lever at the top of the post called a tiller.

50. “The Two Fridas” artist : KAHLO
Diego Rivera was a Mexican painter, famous for his murals. His wife was the equally famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

53. Little annoyance : GNAT
Gnats are attracted to the smell of rotting food, and to vinegar. Simple homemade traps that use vinegar are often constructed to attract and kill gnats.

56. Second letter before iota : ETA
Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”. Originally denoting a consonant, eta was used as a long vowel in Ancient Greek.

57. Two-nation peninsula: Abbr. : KOR
Korea was occupied by the Japanese military from 1910 until Japan surrendered at the end of WWII in 1945. While the UN was working towards a trusteeship administration for Korea, the Soviet Union managed the Korean Peninsula north of the 38th parallel and the US managed the south. The UN’s plans came to naught as the Cold War dictated the establishment of the two separate states of North Korea and South Korea. North Korea invaded the South in 1950, leading to the Korean War. After three years of fighting, the border between the two states became the demarcation line between the two military forces on the day the Armistice Agreement was signed. That line runs diagonally across the 38th parallel, and is better known as the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

Return to top of page

For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Say “Yeah, I can make it,” say : RSVP
5. [Ask me what’s wrong] : SIGH
9. Pitt of “The Big Short” : BRAD
13. Scannable symbols on store items, for short : UPCS
14. 2017 Best Play winner : OSLO
15. Mark’s replacement : EURO
16. Will Smith’s co-star in 1995’s “Bad Boys” : MARTIN LAWRENCE (hiding “martin” and “wren”)
19. Some airport times: Abbr. : ARRS
20. Like most clown wigs : DYED
21. Last word of a fairy tale : AFTER
22. Hon, modern-style : BAE
23. Part of a phone plan : TEXT
24. Two-legged stands : BIPODS
25. Tantrum : FIT
26. Madrid’s country, on Olympic scoreboards : ESP
27. ___ fides : BONA
28. Like the Nikkei and Hang Seng indexes : ASIAN
30. It uses clicks in lieu of paddles : EBAY
32. Decorates with some rolls, for short : TPS
35. There are two, as the expression goes, in each of 16- and 55-Across : BIRDS
36. Part of a golf cup : RIM
37. There’s one, as the expression goes, in 5- and 27-Down : STONE
39. “The Matrix” hero : NEO
40. ___ Xtra (soda) : PIBB
41. Traffic cone : PYLON
42. Sports category prefix : PARA-
44. “Help me, ___-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope” : OBI
46. Source of Manchego cheese : EWE
47. Cafe : BISTRO
50. Band whose name sounds like a vegetable : KORN
51. Fish ladder site : DAM
52. Remove ID from, as a Facebook picture : UNTAG
53. Look stunned : GAPE
54. Lots of : MANY
55. Physicist who won a 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom : STEPHEN HAWKING (hiding “hen” and “hawk”)
58. Nursery item : TREE
59. One way to stand : TALL
60. First word of a fairy tale : ONCE
61. Stripe : SORT
62. Half of a two-volume directory : A TO M
63. Collection of highlights or bloopers : REEL

Down
1. Popular ice cream flavor : RUM RAISIN
2. Little extra poundage : SPARE TIRE
3. Betamaxes, e.g. : VCRS
4. S.F. winter clock setting : PST
5. Line of Japanese smartphones : SONY XPERIA (hiding “onyx”)
6. Where one might be marooned : ISLET
7. Content : GLAD
8. Question asked in befuddlement : HOW?
9. Part of a Whopper : BEEF PATTY
10. Approach quickly : RUN TO
11. Like a rainbow : ARCED
12. Movers and shakers : DOERS
17. 13th, maybe : IDES
18. It often occurs following a car wash, seemingly : RAIN
19. Classic Britcom : AB FAB
23. Hamiltons : TENS
24. “Whew!” : BOY!
27. Tropical houseplant : BAMBOO PALM (hiding “opal”)
29. Animal lovers’ program : ADOPT-A-PET
31. Chest protector : BIB
33. Performance that requires a lot of upper body strength : POLE DANCE
34. Figure whose wings melt in the sun : SNOW ANGEL
37. Prepare to pin the tail on the donkey, say : SPIN
38. Decepticons, in the Transformers universe : ENEMY
40. Golf ___ : PRO
43. Frustrated exclamation : ARGH!
45. Be in development : BREW
47. Unsuccessful draft picks, in sports lingo : BUSTS
48. Opening : INTRO
49. Have the tiller : STEER
50. “The Two Fridas” artist : KAHLO
53. Little annoyance : GNAT
54. “You can’t have that!” : MINE!
56. Second letter before iota : ETA
57. Two-nation peninsula: Abbr. : KOR

Return to top of page

5 thoughts on “0706-17 New York Times Crossword Answers 6 Jul 17, Thursday”

  1. 22:04, with two problems in the middle of the grid. I did think 5D was SONY EXPERIA (which I had heard of somewhere) and put it in, but I still got the "almost there" pop-up, so I used Google to verify that it wasn't the problem and then went looking for what I thought was probably a typo, only to find that I had put in RIB instead of BIB for "Chest protector", giving me ERAY instead of EBAY for "It uses clicks instead of paddles", a clever bit of misdirection making me think of some electronic game system I'd never heard of (ERAY) instead of an online form of auction (EBAY). So … trap set … trap sprung … setter 1 … Dave 0 … 🙂

    Again, I can only say, "You win some and you lose some!"

  2. 42 minutes with two whiskey tango foxtrots in this one – BAE/ABFAB (although after I read the blog, I did remember Absolutely Fabulous). Also now remember BAE from a previous puzzle – just not when it counted. The other was KAHLO..uh ok. Otherwise nice puzzle.

    Best –

  3. 23:43, and 5 errors at the bottom center. Have never heard of a bamboo **palm* (and "shoot" wouldn't fit). Proper names like KAHLO are always a recipe for disaster, so I was pretty much hung out to dry in that area.

    61 A clue was just plain *evil*. Also, didn't care much for the "there's one in…" "there's two each in…" clues.

    Not as tricky as the normal Thursday, but exasperating enough nonetheless.

Comments are closed.