1201-17 NY Times Crossword Answers 1 Dec 2017, Friday

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Constructed by: Lily Silverstein
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: None

Bill’s time: 13m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Receiver go-with : AMP

The receiver in a home entertainment system acts like the “nerve center” of the set up. The receiver is primarily for gathering sound inputs from all of your sound-producing devices (CD player, DVD player, VHS player etc.) and then processing and sending that sound signal to your collection of speakers.

10. “___ brillig …” : ‘TWAS

Here are the first two verses of “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll, probably the one poem that we all just loved learning to recite at school

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!

17. Group of stars also known as the Three Kings : ORION’S BELT

A subset of three particularly bright stars in the constellation of Orion is named “Orion’s Belt”. The three bright stars sit almost in a straight line and are about equidistant. They’re usually the easiest way to spot the constellation of Orion in the night sky.

19. Cartoonist William who co-created Tom and Jerry : HANNA

I once had the privilege of spending an afternoon in the room (Bill Hanna’s den) where Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera came up with the idea of “The Flintstones” …

“Tom and Jerry” is a series of cartoons produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera starting in 1940. These short films feature Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse who are always going at it, with Jerry usually emerging victorious.

22. Henri or Guillaume : NOM

“Guillaume” (William) is a common “nom” (name) in France.

23. Viola staff starter : ALTO CLEF

“Clef” is the French word for “key”. In music, a clef is used to indicate the pitch of the notes written on the stave. The bass clef is also known as the F-clef, the alto clef is the C-clef, and the treble clef is the G-clef.

27. Famed Manhattan deli : ZABAR’S

Zabar’s is a famous food store and deli in Manhattan that shows up a lot in TV shows and movies. Zabar’s ran into a some problems a few years ago when a journalist reported that the store’s lobster salad, which had been a hit for 15 years, did not in fact contain any lobster. The spread is now called “Zabster Zalad”.

30. 86’ed : AXED

“To 86” is American slang mean “to get rid of”. The term originated with Hollywood film crews who often used an 85 filter when shooting outdoors in daylight, to filter out UV radiation that can give a blue cast to film. A camera without a filter was said to have an “86 filter”, so that “to 86” meant to take something away.

32. Italian-born fashion model who became a U.S. citizen in 2016 : FABIO

Fabio Lanzoni (usually called just “Fabio”) is an Italian fashion model and all-round celebrity. Fabio’s real claim to fame was his appearance on the cover of many, many romance novels in the eighties and nineties.

39. Author Calvino : ITALO

As well as being an author, Italo Calvino was a famous Italian journalist. He was a supporter of communism and so wasn’t very popular in the US nor in Britain.

40. ___ II razor : TRAC

Gillette introduced the Trac II in 1971. The Trac II was the world’s first twin-blade razor.

41. Digs : PAD

Back in the 16th century a pad was a bundle of straw to lie on. “Pad” came to mean “place for sleeping” in the early 1700s. The term was revitalized in the hippie era.

44. Popular Italian brew : PERONI

The Peroni Brewery is based in Rome, although it was founded in Vigevano in Lombardy in 1846. Outside of Italy, Peroni is particularly popular in the UK.

50. Texting format : SMS

Short Message Service (SMS) is the name for the text messaging service that many of us still use on our cell phones to contact our friends and family.

52. Like some bonds : IONIC

Chemical compounds consist of atoms that are attracted to each other in “chemical bonds”. Chemical bonds are primarily of two types: bonds resulting from electrostatic attraction between atoms with opposite charges (ionic and metallic bonds), and bonds formed through the sharing of electrons (covalent bonds).

53. “Voilà!” : TA-DA!

“Voilà” means “there it is”, and “voici” means “here it is”. The terms come from “voi là” meaning “see there” and “voi ici” meaning “see here”.

55. Nickname of the B-36 bomber, ironically : PEACEMAKER

The Convair B-36 Peacemaker was a bomber built for the USAF and deployed from 1949 to 1959. With a wingspan of 230 feet, the B-36 is the largest combat aircraft ever produced. It was a piston-engined aircraft, and was replaced from 1955 with the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress.

59. N.B.A. Western Conference team : UTAH

The Utah Jazz professional basketball team moved to their current home in Salt Lake City in 1979. As one might guess from the name, the team originated in New Orleans, but only played there for five seasons. New Orleans was a tough place to be based because venues were hard to come by, and Mardi Gras forced the team to play on the road for a whole month.

62. Auxiliary propositions, in math : LEMMAS

A lemma is a helping theorem, a subsidiary proposition that helps prove some other proposition.

Down

1. Hellos and goodbyes : ALOHAS

The Hawaiian word “aloha” has many meanings in English: affection, love, peace, compassion and mercy. More recently, “aloha” has come to mean “hello” and “goodbye”, but only since the mid-1800s.

3. Ballet technique : POINTE

“Pointe” is the name given to ballet dancing on the tips of the toes, and is a French term. A ballerina wears pointe shoes (sometimes “toe shoes”) to perform this delightful-looking, albeit unhealthy feat (pun!).

4. Comic Wyatt : CENAC

Wyatt Cenac is a comedian and writer from New York City who was raised in Dallas. Cenac worked for three years as a writer for the TV show “KIng of the Hill” before joining “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” as writer and correspondent.

7. One in a story with an apple : EVE

In the Christian tradition, the “fall of man” took place in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation of eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This went against the bidding of God, and was at the urging of the serpent. As a result, Adam and Eve were banished from Eden to prevent them becoming immortal by eating from the tree of life. The first humans had transitioned from a state of innocent obedience to a state of guilty disobedience.

8. One in a story with an apple : TELL

Supposedly, William Tell came from Uri, a canton in the German part of Switzerland. Altdorf is the capital of Uri and is the city where William Tell shot the apple off his son’s head using a crossbow, at least according to legend. There is a bronze statue of Tell that was erected in the city’s marketplace in 1895 to memorialize the event.

9. Slugger David who was a hero of the 2013 World Series : ORTIZ

The Dominican-American baseball player David Ortiz has the nickname “Big Papi”. After each home run that Ortiz scores, he looks upwards and points to the sky, a tribute to his mother who died in a car crash in 2002 when she was only 46 years old.

10. Source of caffeine : TEA

Caffeine is a naturally occurring stimulant that is found in several plants. The chemical serves as a natural pesticide by paralyzing and killing certain insects that would otherwise feed on the plant. Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug that is consumed by humans across the world.

12. Queens neighborhood in which “All in the Family” was set : ASTORIA

“All in the Family” is an American sitcom, and a remake of the incredibly successful BBC show called “Till Death Us Do Part”. Both the UK and US versions of the sitcom were groundbreaking in that the storyline brought into focus topics previously considered unsuitable for a television comedy, including racism, homosexuality, women’s liberation, menopause and impotence. “All in the Family” is one of only three TV shows that has topped the Nielsen ratings for five consecutive seasons (the other two are “The Cosby Show” and “American Idol”). Stars of the show are:

  • Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker
  • Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker
  • Sally Struthers as Gloria Stivic née Bunker
  • Rob Reiner as Michael Stivic

24. ___ Calrissian of “Star Wars” : LANDO

The character Lando Calrissian was played by actor Billy Dee Williams in two of the “Star Wars” movies.

26. Big name in Formula One : FERRARI

The Italian sports car company Ferrari was founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1939. Ferrari built the most expensive car ever sold: a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO that exchanged hands for over $38 million in 2012.

In motor racing, the designation “formula” is a set of rules that all participants and cars must abide by. The definition of “Formula One” was agreed back in 1946, with the “one” designating that it is the most advanced of the “formulae”, and the most competitive.

31. Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of ___ Gray” : DORIAN

“The Picture of Dorian Gray” is a novel by Oscar Wilde, in fact Wilde’s only novel. In the story, the title character is a young man appearing in a painting. Jokingly, Dorian sells his soul to the devil so that the painting would age rather than he.

35. Writer Federico García ___ : LORCA

Garcia Lorca was a Spanish poet and dramatist. Lorca is as famous for his poems and his plays as he is for the circumstances of his death. Although it has never been irrefutably proven, many believe that he was shot and killed while in the custody of Nationalist militia, one month after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

41. Far lefties : PINKOS

The term “pinko” came to us courtesy of “Time” magazine, in 1925. Back then “pinko” was used to describe those who were politically left of center. Red was the color associated with the left going back to the 1800s (how times have changed!), and “pink” was assigned to people who were not aligned with the left politically, but had left-leaning tendencies.

47. Chickens (out) : WIMPS

Our term “wimp”, describing a “timid person”, is probably an alteration of “whimper”, the sound that such an individual might make.

48. Frozen dew : HOAR

The Old English word “har” meant “gray, venerable, old”, and came into English as “hoar” (and later “hoary”) with the same meaning. The term “hoar-frost” dates back to the 13th century, and reflects the similarity of the white feathers of frost to the gray/white of an old man’s beard.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Receiver go-with : AMP
4. Snapped out of it : CAME TO
10. “___ brillig …” : ‘TWAS
14. Was a major, if invisible, presence at : LOOMED OVER
16. Lessen : EASE
17. Group of stars also known as the Three Kings : ORION’S BELT
18. Up the ___ : ANTE
19. Cartoonist William who co-created Tom and Jerry : HANNA
20. Justin Trudeau’s party: Abbr. : LIB
22. Henri or Guillaume : NOM
23. Viola staff starter : ALTO CLEF
27. Famed Manhattan deli : ZABAR’S
29. “I told you so!” : SEE!
30. 86’ed : AXED
32. Italian-born fashion model who became a U.S. citizen in 2016 : FABIO
33. Super-hands-on manager : CONTROL FREAK
36. Parts played on classic sitcoms? : GENDER ROLES
37. Tiny top percent of one-percenters : ZILLIONAIRES
39. Author Calvino : ITALO
40. ___ II razor : TRAC
41. Digs : PAD
44. Popular Italian brew : PERONI
46. Shortly : IN A WHILE
49. Embitterment : IRE
50. Texting format : SMS
52. Like some bonds : IONIC
53. “Voilà!” : TA-DA!
55. Nickname of the B-36 bomber, ironically : PEACEMAKER
59. N.B.A. Western Conference team : UTAH
60. Dropping the ball a lot : ERROR-PRONE
61. 10^15: Prefix : PETA-
62. Auxiliary propositions, in math : LEMMAS
63. D.C.-to-Virginia Beach dir. : SSE

Down

1. Hellos and goodbyes : ALOHAS
2. Something to keep up : MORALE
3. Ballet technique : POINTE
4. Comic Wyatt : CENAC
5. Sides of many city buses : ADS
6. Crowd around : MOB
7. One in a story with an apple : EVE
8. One in a story with an apple : TELL
9. Slugger David who was a hero of the 2013 World Series : ORTIZ
10. Source of caffeine : TEA
11. Pretenders : WANNABES
12. Queens neighborhood in which “All in the Family” was set : ASTORIA
13. “Looks fine to me” : SEEMS OK
15. One-track : MONO
21. Confound : BAFFLE
24. ___ Calrissian of “Star Wars” : LANDO
25. Range : EXTENT
26. Big name in Formula One : FERRARI
28. Reveals : BARES
31. Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of ___ Gray” : DORIAN
33. One taking a bow at a concert? : CELLO
34. Green or red things from the garden : ONIONS
35. Writer Federico García ___ : LORCA
36. Gave the stink eye : GLARED AT
37. “Shush!” : ZIP IT UP!
38. Repeat : ITERATE
41. Far lefties : PINKOS
42. Subjects of some conspiracy theories : ALIENS
43. Command : DECREE
45. Push : IMPEL
47. Chickens (out) : WIMPS
48. Frozen dew : HOAR
51. Bone-dry : SERE
54. Exclamation sometimes spelled with a hyphen : AHA!
56. Offshoot : ARM
57. Modern address ending : COM
58. Long stretch : ERA