0902-18 NY Times Crossword 2 Sep 18, Sunday

Constructed by: Tom McCoy
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: Going Head to Head

Themed answer are pairs of individuals who have famously had showdowns. The names of those individuals are written HEAD-TO-HEAD in the grid, with the first name written in the left-direction, and the second in the right-direction:

  • 22A. Showdown in Greek mythology : SUESEHT MINOTAUR (Theseus & Minotaur)
  • 28A. Showdown in classic video games : OIRAM BOWSER (Mario & Bowser)
  • 39A. Showdown in American history : NOTLIMAH BURR (Hamilton & Burr)
  • 61A. Showdown in cinema : EKUL DARTH VADER (Luke & Darth Vader)
  • 69A. Showdown in the funnies : YPOONS RED BARON (Snoopy & Red Baron)
  • 92A. Showdown in the Bible : DIVAD GOLIATH (David & Goliath)
  • 107A. Showdown in comic books : NAMTAB JOKER (Batman & Joker)
  • 115A. Showdown in literature : ETOXIUQ WINDMILL (Quixote & windmill)

Bill’s time: 20m 20s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Group of trees : STAND

A stand of trees might be called a “copse”. The use of “stand” is in the sense of “standing growth”, and is usually with reference to trees.

6. Potential queens : PAWNS

In the game of chess, the pawns are the weakest pieces on the board. A pawn that can make it to the opposite of the board can be promoted to a piece of choice, usually a queen. Using promotion of pawns, it is possible for a player to have two or more queens on the board at one time. However, standard chess sets come with only one queen per side, so a captured rook is often used as the second queen by placing it on the board upside down.

14. Harmless weapons maker : NERF

Nerf is soft material used in a whole series of toys designed for “safe” play indoors. The Nerf product is used to make darts, balls and ammunition for toy guns. “NERF” is an acronym, standing for Non-Expanding Recreational Foam.

20. “Foucault’s Pendulum” author, 1988 : ECO

“Foucault’s Pendulum” is a 1988 Italian novel by Umberto Eco that was translated into English by William Weaver the following year. The title of the book refers to a large pendulum that was constructed by French physicist Léon Foucault to demonstrate the effect of the Earth’s rotation.

21. Like the Gregorian calendar : SOLAR

Our contemporary western calendar was introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, giving it the name “Gregorian” calendar. The Gregorian calendar superseded the Julian calendar, and both were aligned with movement of the sun across the sky. At issue was that the Julian calendar was misaligned with the solar year by about 11 minutes, creating an error that accumulated over time. Pope Gregory corrected the length of the year by introducing a more accurate rule for calculating leap years. He also wiped out the cumulated “misalignment”, in order to bring together the Christian celebration of Easter and the spring equinox. That correction involved the “loss” of 11 days. The last day of the Julian calendar (Thursday, 4 October 1582) was immediately followed by the first day of the Gregorian calendar (Friday, 15 October 1582).

22. Showdown in Greek mythology : SUESEHT MINOTAUR (Theseus & Minotaur)

In the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, Theseus sailed to the island of Crete in order to convince the Minotaur to stop devouring young boys and girls who were sent into the Minotaur’s lair, the Labyrinth. Soon after Theseus landed on Crete, he fell in love with Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, the King of Crete. Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of string that he unraveled as he ventured deep into the Labyrinth. He found the Minotaur and slayed him, and then followed the unraveled string back to the entrance of the Labyrinth, and into the arms of Ariadne.

27. Couple : ITEM

An unmarried couple known to be involved with each other might appear in the gossip columns. This appearance as “an item” in the papers, led to the use of “item” to refer to such a couple, but only since the very early seventies.

28. Showdown in classic video games : OIRAM BOWSER (Mario & Bowser)

Bowser is a turtle-like character who is the main antagonist in the Mario Bros. series of video games released by Nintendo.

34. Tours can be seen on it : LOIRE

Tours is the largest city in the Centre region of France. Sitting on the Loire river, it is said that the people of Tours speak the “purest” form of French in the whole country. The French spoken by a local is also said to be free of any accent.

39. Showdown in American history : NOTLIMAH BURR (Hamilton & Burr)

Alexander Hamilton was one of America’s Founding Fathers, chief of staff to General George Washington and the first Secretary of the Treasury. It was Hamilton who established the nation’s first political party, the Federalist Party. He is also famous for fighting a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr, which resulted in Hamilton’s death a few days later.

Aaron Burr was the third vice-president of the US, and served under Thomas Jefferson. In the final year of his term in office, Burr fought an illegal duel and killed his political rival Alexander Hamilton. Burr wasn’t brought to justice, but he did pay the price politically. Thomas Jefferson dropped him from his ticket in the election held the following year.

43. Hot ___ : ROD

A hot rod is an American car that has been modified for speed by installing a larger than normal engine. A street rod is generally a more comfortable type of hot rod, with the emphasis less on the engine and more on custom paint jobs and interiors. By definition, a street rod must be based on an automobile design that originated prior to 1949.

44. One of four in a grand slam : RBI

In baseball, a grand slam is home run hit with runners on all three bases, and hence a resulting score of four runs.

48. Bent over backward, in a way : LIMBOED

The limbo dance originated on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean. The name “limbo” is an alteration of our word “limber”, which isn’t surprising given what one has to do to get under that bar!

50. Bit of P.R. : RELEASE

Public relations (PR)

53. Like baseball’s Durham Bulls : AAA

The Durham Bulls are the Triple-A minor league baseball team based in Durham, North Carolina. The team was established in 1902 as the Durham Tobacconists, and are now the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. It was the Durham Bulls who featured in the 1988 movie “Bull Durham” starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon.

54. Speaker of Welsh or Breton : CELT

The Celts were a very broad group of people across Europe, linked by common languages. The Celts were largely absorbed by other cultures, although a relatively modern revival of the “Celtic identity” is alive and well in the British Isles. Such Celtic peoples today are mainly found in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany in France.

56. Actor Elba : IDRIS

The English actor Idris Elba is probably best known in North America for playing the drug lord Stringer Bell in the marvelous HBO drama series “The Wire”, and the title character in the 2013 film “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”. Off the screen, Elba occasionally appears as a disk jockey using the name “DJ Big Driis”.

58. One of the o’s in “o/o” : OWNER

Owner/operator (o/o), as in the trucking industry.

61. Showdown in cinema : EKUL DARTH VADER (Luke & Darth Vader)

Anakin “Ani” Skywalker is the principal character in the first six of the “Star Wars” movies. His progress chronologically through the series of films is:

  • Episode I: Anakin is a 9-year-old slave boy who earns the promise of Jedi training by young Obi-Wan Kenobi.
  • Episode II: Anakin is 18-years-old and goes on a murdering rampage to avenge the killing of his mother.
  • Episode III: Anakin is 21-years-old and a Jedi knight, but he turns to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader. His wife Padme gives birth to twins, Luke and Leia Skywalker.
  • Episode IV: Darth Vader, comes into conflict with his children, Luke Skywalker and the Princess Leia.
  • Episode V: Darth Vader attempts to coax his son Luke over to the dark side, and reveals to Luke that he is his father.
  • Episode VI: Luke learns that Leia is his sister, and takes on the task of bringing Darth Vader back from the Dark Side in order to save the Galaxy. Vader saves his son from the Emperor’s evil grip, dying in the process, but his spirit ends up alongside the spirits of Yoda and Obi-Wan. They all live happily ever after …

65. Mork’s planet : ORK

“Mork & Mindy” is a sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982. The title characters were played by Robin Williams and Pam Dawber. Mork is an alien from the planet Ork who reports back to his superior called Orson. Orson is played by voice actor Ralph James. Ralph James was also known for providing the voice of Mr. Turtle in famous Tootsie Pop commercials in the seventies. Nanu nanu!

67. Obie-winning playwright Will : ENO

Will Eno is an American playwright working in Brooklyn, New York. That said, Eno’s plays are mainly produced across the pond in the UK.

69. Showdown in the funnies : YPOONS RED BARON (Snoopy & Red Baron)

Snoopy, the famous beagle in the “Peanuts” comic strip, has a number of alter-egos and is sometimes depicted as a World War I flying ace. Snoopy’s arch-enemy in the air is Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, and Snoopy can often be seen shaking his fist and crying out, “Curse you, Red Baron!”

74. Not use cursive : PRINT

Cursive handwriting is often referred to as “longhand” or “script”, although when I was learning it at school we knew it as “joined-up writing”. The term “cursive” ultimately comes from the Latin verb “currere” meaning “to run”. The idea is that the letters of words are written with a “running” hand.

79. Neighbor of China : LAOS

The official name for the country of Laos is the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In the Lao language, the country’s name is “Meuang Lao”. The French ruled Laos as part of French Indochina, having united three separate Lao kingdoms. As there was a plural of “Lao” entities united into one, the French added the “S” and so today we tend to use “Laos” instead of “Lao”.

81. What’s used to row, row, row your boat : OAR

Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

92. Showdown in the Bible : DIVAD GOLIATH (David & Goliath)

In the story of David and Goliath, the Israelites and the Philistines faced each other in battle at the Valley of Elah. Goliath was the warrior champion of the Philistines and each day he challenged the Israelites to send out their champion to decide the battle in a one-on-one fight. No one was courageous enough to accept the challenge until young David agreed to face the mighty Goliath. David felled the giant soldier with a stone from his sling.

107. Showdown in comic books : NAMTAB JOKER (Batman & Joker)

The Joker is one of the most colorful of Batman’s nemeses, one introduced in comic books in 1940 and appearing in the first ever edition of “Batman”. The Joker has also been played on screen by some colorful characters. In the original television series, he was portrayed by Cesar Romero, and on the big screen by Jack Nicholson. What great casting!

Batman and Robin are somewhat unique among their superhero compatriots in that they have no special powers, just a whole load of cool gadgets. Batman is sometimes referred to as the Caped Crusader, Robin as the Boy Wonder, and the pair as the Dynamic Duo.

111. Simple plant : ALGA

Algae are similar to terrestrial plants in that they use photosynthesis to create sugars from light and carbon dioxide, but they differ in that they have simpler anatomies, and for example lack roots.

115. Showdown in literature : ETOXIUQ WINDMILL (Quixote & windmill)

The phrase “tilting at windmills” means “attacking imaginary enemies”. The idiom comes from an episode in the novel “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes, in which the hero of the piece charges at windmills that he imagines are giants.

118. Businesswoman Lauder : ESTEE

Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, and someone with a great reputation as a salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales volume …

119. Apt name for a Braille instructor : DOT

The Braille system of reading and writing was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, who was himself afflicted with blindness. Braille characters are composed of six positions or dots, each arranged in two columns of three dots each. Every dot can be raised or not raised, given a total of 64 possible characters.

120. TD Garden athlete : BRUIN

TD Garden is a sports arena that was built in the 1990s to replace the aging Boston Garden as home for the Boston Celtics basketball team and the Boston Bruins hockey team.

122. Cowardly Lion portrayer : LAHR

Bert Lahr’s most famous role was the cowardly lion in “The Wizard of Oz”. Lahr had a long career in burlesque, vaudeville and on Broadway. Lahr also starred in the first US production of Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot”, alongside Tom Ewell.

Down

5. Beats by ___ (headphones brand) : DRE

Beats by Dre is a brand of audio products made by Beats Electronics, a company that was co-founded by rapper Dr. Dre. Apple bought Beats for $3 billion in 2014, the largest acquisition by far in the company’s history.

12. Country named for its latitude : ECUADOR

“Ecuador” is the Spanish word for “equator”, which gives the country its name.

The Earth has five geographical zones defined by the major circles of latitude:

  • The North Frigid Zone lies north of the Arctic Circle
  • The North Temperate Zone lies between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of Cancer
  • The Torrid Zone lies between the two Tropical Circles
  • The South Temperate Zone lies between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle
  • The South Frigid Zone lies south of the Antarctic Circle

15. Stefanik who is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress : ELISE

Republican Elise Stefanik was elected to the House of Representatives in 2014 at the age of 30, making her the youngest woman ever to elected to Congress.

17. “___ Jacques” : FRERE

“Frère Jacques” is a children’s song from France. The French lyrics are:

Frère Jacques, frère Jacques,
Dormez-vous ? Dormez-vous ?
Sonnez les matines ! Sonnez les matines !
Ding, daing, dong. Ding, daing, dong.

The lyrics are usually translated into English as:

Are you sleeping, are you sleeping,
Brother John? Brother John?
Morning bells are ringing! Morning bells are ringing!
Ding, dang, dong. Ding, dang, dong.

29. Under half of 45? : B-SIDE

The first vinyl records designed to play at 33⅓ rpm were introduced by RCA Victor in 1931, but were discontinued due to quality problems. The first long play (LP) 33⅓ rpm disc was introduced by Columbia Records many years later in 1948, with RCA Victor following up with a 45 rpm “single” the following year, in 1949.

31. Brother of Dori and Nori in “The Hobbit” : ORI

“The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” is a children’s fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien that was popular from the time of its first publication in 1937. Included in the early awards for “The Hobbit” was a prize for best juvenile fiction from “The New York Herald Tribune”. Tolkien adapted his succeeding novel “The Lord of the Rings” to incorporate elements in “The Hobbit”, so that the two tales are very much related.

34. Suitable for a dieter, informally : LO-CAL

I wish we’d stop using the term “calorie”, because it is so confusing. In terms of physics, a calorie is amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree celsius (at one atmosphere of pressure). The so called “food calorie” is one thousand times as large, as it is defined in terms of kilograms instead of grams. In attempts to differentiate between these two definitions, the former is sometimes referred to as the “small calorie” and is given the symbol “cal”. The latter is referred to as the “large calorie” and given the symbol “Cal”, with a capital C. If only we’d use the SI system of units, we’d be think in just joules, instead of large and small and food calories.

35. Body of water connected by canal to the Baltic : WHITE SEA

The White Sea is an inlet of the Barents Sea in Russia. The major port of Archangel (“Archangelsk”) is located on the White Sea.

The Baltic is a sea in northern Europe that is much less saline than the oceans. The lower amount of salt in the Baltic partially explains why almost half of the sea freezes over during the winter. In fact, the Baltic has been known to completely freeze over several times over the past few centuries.

36. Watson’s company : IBM

Watson is a computer system developed by IBM. Watson is designed to answer questions that are posed in natural language, so that it should be able to interpret questions just as you and I would, no matter how the question is phrased. The program is named after the founder of IBM, Thomas J. Watson. Today’s Watson competed in a few memorable episodes of “Jeopardy!” in 2011 taking out two of the best players of the quiz show. That made for fun television …

39. Govt. org. based in Ft. Meade, Md. : NSA

Fort George G. Meade is located near Odenton, Maryland and is most famous these days as the location of the headquarters of the National Security Agency (NSA).

54. Part of the eye : CORNEA

The cornea is the transparent part of the eye in the front, covering the iris and the pupil. Even though the cornea is not part of the lens it acts as a lens, and in fact does most of the work focusing light coming in through the eye. The cornea is in effect a fixed-focus lens passing on light to the variable-focus lens that is inside the eye.

55. Wapitis : ELKS

The elk (also known as “wapiti”) is the one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were familiar with the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the “huge” wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and incorrectly gave it the European name for a moose, namely “elk”. The more correct name for the beast is “wapiti”, which means “white rump” in Shawnee. It’s all very confusing …

57. British Bulldog : Churchill :: ___ : Thatcher : IRON LADY

Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the UK from 1979 to 1990, making her the longest serving leader of the country in the 20th century, and the first woman to hold the office. Thatcher’s nickname in the press was the “Iron Lady”, a moniker bestowed on her by a Soviet journalist. The “Iron Lady” was born Margaret Hilda Roberts, the daughter of a grocer. She studied chemistry at Oxford University and worked for a while as a research chemist.

62. Rapidly spreading vine : KUDZU

Kudzu is a climbing vine that is native to southern Japan and southeast China. “Kudzu” is derived from the Japanese name for the plant, “kuzu”. Kudzu is a vigorously growing weed that chokes other plants by climbing all over them and shielding them from light. Kudzu was brought to the US from Asia for the Japanese pavilion in the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It was marketed as an ornamental, especially in the southeast of the country, and now is all over the region. Kudzu earned itself the nickname “the vine that ate the South”.

72. Relatives of emus : RHEAS

The rhea is a flightless bird that is native to South America. The rhea takes its name from the Greek Titan Rhea. It’s an apt name for a flightless bird as “rhea” comes from the Greek word meaning “ground”.

80. North African land: Abbr. : ALG

Algeria is a huge country, the second largest in Africa (only Sudan is larger), and the largest country on the Mediterranean. The capital of Algeria is Algiers, and the country takes its name from the city.

84. Laid-back : TYPE B

The Type A and Type B personality theory originated in the fifties. Back then, individuals were labelled as Type A in order to emphasize a perceived increased risk of heart disease. Type A personality types are so called “stress junkies”, whereas Type B types are relaxed and laid back. But there doesn’t seem to be much scientific evidence to support the linkage between the Type A personality and heart problems.

86. Data storage items on the decline : DVDS

The abbreviation “DVD” doesn’t actually stand for anything these days, although it originally was short for Digital Video Disk. The use of the word “video” was dropped as DVDs started to be used for storing a lot more than video. But, that seems like a long time ago …

87. Organ in the leg of a katydid, bizarrely : EAR

The insects in the cricket family that Americans call katydids, the British call bushcrickets.

94. Mauna ___ : LOA

Mauna Loa on the “Big Island” of Hawaii is the largest volcano on the planet (in terms of volume). The name “Mauna Loa” is Hawaiian for “Long Mountain”.

97. Territory name until 1889 : DAKOTA

The Dakota Territory was formed in 1861 and ceased to exist with the admission to the Union of the states of North Dakota and South Dakota. The territory was split into two states in 1889 largely due to lobbying by the Republican Party, which enjoyed a lot of support in the Dakota Territory. The admission of two states added to the political power of the party in the US Senate, by adding four safe Republican seats.

106. Author of the “Fear Street” series for young readers : STINE

Author R. L. Stine is sometimes referred to as the Stephen King of children’s literature as he writes horror stories for young people.

108. Some saber wielders : JEDI

The Jedi are the “good guys” in the “Star Wars” series of movies. The most famous Jedi knights from the films are Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Alec Guinness, and later Ewan McGregor) and Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz). Well, they’re my favorites anyway …

Lightsabers are energy weapons used by the Jedi and the Sith in the “Star Wars” series of films.

112. TV show set in William McKinley High School : GLEE

The TV show called “Glee” has proven to be very popular. The storyline focuses on a high school glee club in Lima, Ohio called New Directions.

116. It’s used to cite a site : URL

An Internet address (like NYTCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a Uniform Resource Locators (URL).

117. Bonnie and Clyde, e.g. : DUO

Bonnie and Clyde were criminals who robbed and killed their way across the central US during the Great Depression. Clyde Barrow was born a desperately poor young boy just south of Dallas, Texas. He was always in trouble with the law, first getting arrested at the age of 16. He met Bonnie Parker in 1930 at a friend’s house, and the smitten Parker followed Clyde into a life of crime. The pair were killed by a posse of Texas police officers just four years later in Louisiana.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Group of trees : STAND
6. Potential queens : PAWNS
11. Word that looks like its meaning when written in lowercase : BED
14. Harmless weapons maker : NERF
18. Strong suit? : ARMOR
19. “Continue” : UH-HUH
20. “Foucault’s Pendulum” author, 1988 : ECO
21. Like the Gregorian calendar : SOLAR
22. Showdown in Greek mythology : SUESEHT MINOTAUR (Theseus & Minotaur)
25. A couple of times : TWICE
26. Word of confirmation on a messaging app : SENT
27. Couple : ITEM
28. Showdown in classic video games : OIRAM BOWSER (Mario & Bowser)
30. Quickened paces : TROTS
32. Wasn’t struck down : STOOD
33. Realm : SPHERE
34. Tours can be seen on it : LOIRE
35. Triumph : WIN
37. Not in any way : NOWISE
39. Showdown in American history : NOTLIMAH BURR (Hamilton & Burr)
43. Hot ___ : ROD
44. One of four in a grand slam : RBI
47. Univs., e.g. : SCHS
48. Bent over backward, in a way : LIMBOED
50. Bit of P.R. : RELEASE
53. Like baseball’s Durham Bulls : AAA
54. Speaker of Welsh or Breton : CELT
56. Actor Elba : IDRIS
58. One of the o’s in “o/o” : OWNER
59. Rank above maj. : LT COL
61. Showdown in cinema : EKUL DARTH VADER (Luke & Darth Vader)
65. Mork’s planet : ORK
66. Brightly colored blazer : SUN
67. Obie-winning playwright Will : ENO
68. “What is it?” : YES?
69. Showdown in the funnies : YPOONS RED BARON (Snoopy & Red Baron)
74. Not use cursive : PRINT
77. University in Des Moines : DRAKE
78. Greenish-brown hue : HAZEL
79. Neighbor of China : LAOS
81. What’s used to row, row, row your boat : OAR
83. Leave fulfilled : SATIATE
85. Less than perfect : UNIDEAL
88. Geometric prefix : OCTA-
89. Italian “il” or French “le” : THE
90. Prattle : YAK
92. Showdown in the Bible : DIVAD GOLIATH (David & Goliath)
95. Protein shell of a virus : CAPSID
98. Like sauvignon blanc : DRY
99. Traditional Christmas decoration : HOLLY
100. Jump to conclusions : ASSUME
103. Some petting zoo animals : LAMBS
106. Word with wonder or world : SMALL …
107. Showdown in comic books : NAMTAB JOKER (Batman & Joker)
109. Lead-in to boy or girl : ATTA …
111. Simple plant : ALGA
114. Ostentation : GLITZ
115. Showdown in literature : ETOXIUQ WINDMILL (Quixote & windmill)
118. Businesswoman Lauder : ESTEE
119. Apt name for a Braille instructor : DOT
120. TD Garden athlete : BRUIN
121. Knock over : UPSET
122. Cowardly Lion portrayer : LAHR
123. ___ bit : IN A
124. Overjoy : ELATE
125. Bone: Prefix : OSTEO-

Down

1. What “Talk to the hand!” is an example of : SASS
2. Unswerving : TRUE
3. “I couldn’t agree more!” : AMEN TO THAT!
4. They’re found under a bridge : NOSTRILS
5. Beats by ___ (headphones brand) : DRE
6. Short strokes : PUTTS
7. “Alas!” : AH ME!
8. Sudden impulse : WHIM
9. Sister : NUN
10. “Try me” : SHOOT
11. Be relevant to : BEAR ON
12. Country named for its latitude : ECUADOR
13. College student’s assignment : DORM
14. Words after an interruption : NOW, WHERE WAS I?
15. Stefanik who is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress : ELISE
16. Fast one : RACER
17. “___ Jacques” : FRERE
21. Conductors’ announcements : STOPS
23. “___ where it hurts!” : HIT ‘EM
24. Uncle, in Argentina : TIO
29. Under half of 45? : B-SIDE
31. Brother of Dori and Nori in “The Hobbit” : ORI
32. Surprising lack of Oscar recognition : SNUB
34. Suitable for a dieter, informally : LO-CAL
35. Body of water connected by canal to the Baltic : WHITE SEA
36. Watson’s company : IBM
38. Defeat : WORST
39. Govt. org. based in Ft. Meade, Md. : NSA
40. Word before right or rise : ALL …
41. Move turbulently : ROIL
42. Increasingly ripe, say : REDDER
45. Wedding need … or booking : BAND
46. Stereotypical therapist’s response : I SEE
49. Pipe cleaner : DRANO
51. Enthusiasts : LOVERS
52. Go wrong : ERR
54. Part of the eye : CORNEA
55. Wapitis : ELKS
57. British Bulldog : Churchill :: ___ : Thatcher : IRON LADY
60. Undistinguished, as many a subdivision house : COOKIE-CUTTER
62. Rapidly spreading vine : KUDZU
63. Get straight : UNBEND
64. Prefix with allergenic : HYPO-
69. Football units: Abbr. : YDS
70. Idiot, in Britspeak : PRAT
71. Vow : OATH
72. Relatives of emus : RHEAS
73. Et ___ : ALII
75. Numbers to avoid : NO-CALL LIST
76. Ragged : TATTY
80. North African land: Abbr. : ALG
82. Cry of school spirit : RAH!
84. Laid-back : TYPE B
86. Data storage items on the decline : DVDS
87. Organ in the leg of a katydid, bizarrely : EAR
88. Frontier lights : OIL LAMPS
91. Unit of explosive power : KILOTON
93. “That sounds awful” : OH MAN
94. Mauna ___ : LOA
96. Wow : AMAZE
97. Territory name until 1889 : DAKOTA
100. Brat’s opposite : ANGEL
101. Popular dip : SALSA
102. Skilled laborer : SMITH
104. Tex-___ : MEX
105. Bit of corruption : BRIBE
106. Author of the “Fear Street” series for young readers : STINE
108. Some saber wielders : JEDI
109. Bluish-green : AQUA
110. Ninny : TWIT
112. TV show set in William McKinley High School : GLEE
113. Prefix with stratus : ALTO-
116. It’s used to cite a site : URL
117. Bonnie and Clyde, e.g. : DUO

12 thoughts on “0902-18 NY Times Crossword 2 Sep 18, Sunday”

  1. 45:33, no errors, though at about 22 minutes I had decided I’d not be solving this one. Then NOTLIMAHBURR hit me up-side da head and progress began to occur. This was a very well executed theme.

    @Bill: You usually spell out the acronyms used as answers but not today with RBI (runs batted in). Your blurb was, however, a bit more than “That would be baseball.”! 😂🤣

  2. 58:54. Took a long time figuring out the theme. It was made difficult as I had DaViDGOLIATH and initially didn’t see a problem with it. Took me a while to get that out of my head and look at the other theme answers more closely. Sheesh. Good one, however.

    Best –

  3. Well done on the theme… Tough to figure out, it must have been tough to put in all those instances of it. We thought it was a VERY hard puzzle, and just about gave up on it, due to massive frustration. But we persisted and finished.

  4. Two hours into this puzzle I finally got the theme .
    Three hours into this puzzle I finally finished with no errors.
    One day, just once,
    I am going to sail through a puzzle like this one (ala bill or Dave) but not today. Very tough one.

  5. 31:46, no errors. It took me quite a while to understand the gimmick, after which my solving pace picked up considerably. Cool puzzle, but I don’t think Allen would have liked it. (Oh, wait … that’s redundant, isn’t it? … 😜)

  6. Defeat…Worst??? I have used Best as a synonym for Defeat.

    I bested this puzzle, slowly but surely.

    Worst? Can that be used in a sentence to replace Defeat? I could not find an example.

    I tried my worst.

  7. Got the puzzle finally, but I never thought to reverse spell theme letters till l was done. finally looked it up. my brain was going in the wrong direction. but a good one.

  8. 41:09 and emerged unscathed. This one wasn’t easy, even once you “got” the theme and the “gag” (a pretty forced one, I must say). There were a few objectionable clues in here, like the aforementioned 38D clue for “WORST” and also 49D (clue should have mentioned a *brand*; DRANO is a product name, not a pipe cleaner; and really, it doesn’t “clean” pipes, either; this was just poor, or sloppy, or cynical editing). My least favorite was 85A: UNIDEAL. I can’t think of another word at the spur of the moment that is so unused in speech or prose as this. Even looking at it it seems to mean “a deal with one facet to it”. I’m willing to bet this is a word that conveniently formed in the grid.

    Well, this is my last NYT puzzle for some unspecified time period. I’m going to, hopefully, less cynical pastures; to the LA Times puzzle, to see if it better suits my tastes. Maybe I’ll see some familiar “signatures” on Bill’s other solutions page!

  9. 37:47, no errors. Got the theme about 1/3 way through the solve, after filling in the second half of theme entries BOWSER, DARTH VADER and GOLIATH. Enjoyable challenge, happy for a clean fill.

  10. So Eeyore leaves but Gleeyore bubbles to the top. Oh well so it goes. Very enjoyable puzzle for a Sunday afternoon at my favorite pub. I am still chuckling at Dave K.’s comment. How can we miss you Eeyore if you won’t go away?

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