1103-19 NY Times Crossword 3 Nov 19, Sunday

Constructed by: Kristian House
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: All the Right Movies

Themed answers are movie titles with a long E-sound inserted:

  • 23A Your apartment-mate, if you don’t close the door before showering? : A ROOMIE WITH A VIEW (from “A Room with a View”)
  • 31A Your wish, maybe, when a rambunctious terrier puppy is first brought home? : ESCAPE FROM NEW YORKIE (from “Escape from New York”)
  • 50A Tyrannic sort? : RAGING BULLY (from “Raging Bull”)
  • 54A O. Henry? : IRONY MAN (from “Iron Man”)
  • 80A Online reference about toilets? : JOHN WIKI (from “John Wick”)
  • 82A Guys who pass out Halloween treats? : GOODY FELLAS (from “Goodfellas”)
  • 96A What outsiders think about the new hire? : STRANGERS ON A TRAINEE (from “Strangers on a Train”)
  • 110A What the exhausted working woman wears to bed? : A HARD DAY’S NIGHTIE (from “A Hard Day’s Night”)

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 21m 04s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 “___ are the voyages of the starship Enterprise” : THESE

The original “Star Trek” TV show opened each episode with a speech from Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner:

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

11 Long-billed wader : IBIS

The ibis is a wading bird that was revered in ancient Egypt. “Ibis” is an interesting word grammatically speaking. You can have one “ibis” or two “ibises”, and then again one has a flock of “ibis”. And if you want to go with the classical plural, instead of two “ibises” you would have two “ibides”!

19 Brownie ingredient : COCOA

Apparently, the first brownies were created for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The recipe was developed by a pastry chef at the city’s Palmer House Hotel. The idea was to produce a cake-like dessert that was small enough and dainty enough to be eaten by ladies as part of a boxed lunch.

20 Actor Tom of “The Dukes of Hazzard” : WOPAT

Tom Wopat is the actor who played Luke Duke on the television series “The Dukes of Hazzard”. Wopat also played one of Cybill Shepherd’s exes on the nineties sitcom “Cybill”. More recently, he had a small part in Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained”, playing US Marshal Gil Tatum.

“The Dukes of Hazzard” is a comedy adventure TV show that originally aired from 1979 to 1985. The title characters are Bo and Luke Duke, two cousins from the rural part of the fictional county of Hazzard in Georgia. The pair drive around in the General Lee, a flashy Dodge Charger stock car. Other notable characters in the show were Daisy Duke (played by Catherine Bach) and Boss Hogg (played by Sorrell Booke).

21 Indie singer/songwriter ___ Case : NEKO

Neko Case is an American singer-songwriter who is best known as a solo artist as well as a member of the indie rock group from Canada called the New Pornographers.

22 1980s U.S. Davis Cup team captain : ASHE

Arthur Ashe was a professional tennis player from Richmond, Virginia. In his youth, Ashe found himself having to travel great distances to play against Caucasian opponents due to the segregation that still existed in his home state. He was rewarded for his dedication by being selected for the 1963 US Davis Cup team, the first African American player to be so honored. Ashe continued to run into trouble because of his ethnicity though, and in 1968 was denied entry into South Africa to play in the South African Open. In 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack and had bypass surgery, with follow-up surgery four years later during which he contracted HIV from blood transfusions. Ashe passed away in 1993 due to complications from AIDS. Shortly afterwards, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.

The Davis Cup is referred to as the “World Cup of Tennis” as teams from competing countries play in a knock-out format. Although there are now over 120 nations competing, it all started in 1900 with an event featuring teams for just the US and Great Britain. That first competition came about when four members of the Harvard University tennis team wanted to challenge the British. One of the Harvard players was Dwight D. Davis. Davis designed the format for the tournament, and bought a sterling silver trophy using his own money. The event was called the International Lawn Tennis Challenge at first, but this evolved into the Davis Cup, taking the name of the trophy awarded to the winning nation.

23 Your apartment-mate, if you don’t close the door before showering? : A ROOMIE WITH A VIEW (from “A Room with a View”)

E.M. Forster’s novel “A Room with a View” was first published in 1908. The novel’s title refers to the view that was promised two Englishwomen who check into a hotel in Florence. The pair expected a view of the River Arno, and instead get a view of the hotel’s courtyard. A fellow guest offers to swap rooms, and from there the plot thickens! There was a fantastic screen adaptation released in 1985 that was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. There is a great cast, including Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and Daniel Day-Lewis.

31 Your wish, maybe, when a rambunctious terrier puppy is first brought home? : ESCAPE FROM NEW YORKIE (from “Escape from New York”)

The Yorkshire terrier is a breed of dog from the county of Yorkshire in the north of England. That part of the country became very industrialized in the 19th-century, and was home to hundreds of clothing mills. The “Yorkie” was developed to catch rats in those mills.

“Escape from New York” is a 1981 sci-fi film in which New York’s Manhattan Island has been converted into the nation’s maximum-security prison. Kurt Russell stars in both this film, and in the 1996 sequel “Escape from L.A.” Russell took the role in an attempt to move on from the “sugary” reputation he’d earned from a string of appearances up to that point in Disney comedies. Mission accomplished, I’d say …

36 Browning who directed “Dracula,” 1931 : TOD

Tod Browning was a Hollywood actor and director whose career spanned the silent and talkie eras. Browning is best remembered as the director of 1931’s “Dracula”, starring Bela Lugosi in the title role, and for his silent film work with Lon Chaney.

37 Draw a bead on : AIM AT

To draw a bead on something is to take aim at it. The “bead” in question is the front sight of a gun.

39 Songwriters’ org. : ASCAP

ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) collects licence fees for musicians and distributes royalties to composers whose works have been performed. BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) provides the same service.

42 Lady friend, in Florence : AMICA

Florence is the capital city of the Tuscany region in Italy. Something from or related to Florence is described as “Florentine”. The city is known as “Firenze” in Italian.

44 Great ___ : DANE

The Great Dane breed of dog isn’t actually from Denmark, and rather is from Germany.

48 Soprano ___ Te Kanawa : KIRI

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is an outstanding soprano from New Zealand who was in great demand for operatic performances in the seventies and eighties.

50 Tyrannic sort? : RAGING BULLY (from “Raging Bull”)

I just do not like boxing, nor movies about boxing, but I certainly accept that “Raging Bull” is true cinema classic. It is a biopic released in 1980, with Robert De Niro starring as Jake LaMotta, and ably directed by Martin Scorsese. Famously, De Niro gained about 70 pounds in weight to lay LaMotta in his early years, showing true dedication to his craft.

54 O. Henry? : IRONY MAN (from “Iron Man”)

“O. Henry” was the pen name of writer William Sydney Porter from Greensboro, North Carolina. O. Henry is famous for his witty short stories that have a clever twist in the tail.

Iron Man is another comic book superheroes, this one created by Stan Lee for Marvel Comics. The character is the alter ego of Tony Stark, and has become very famous in recent years since the appearance of the 2008 action movie “Iron Man” starring Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role. Iron Man’s love interest, Pepper Potts, is routinely played by Gwyneth Paltrow in the same series of films.

56 Time and Tide : BRANDS

“Time” magazine has a readership of about 25 million, making it the largest-circulation weekly news magazine in the world.

Tide is a laundry detergent that has been made by Procter & Gamble since 1946. Back then, Tide was marketed as “America’s Washday Favorite”.

58 President pro ___ : TEM

“Pro tempore” can be abbreviated to “pro tem” or “p.t.” “Pro tempore” is a Latin phrase that best translates as “for the time being”. It is used to describe a person who is acting for another, usually a superior. The President pro tempore of the US Senate is the person who presides over the Senate in the absence of the Vice President of the US. It has been tradition since 1890 that the president pro tem is the most senior senator in the majority party. The president pro tem ranks highly in the line of succession to the presidency, falling third in line after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.

61 “What greater gift than the love of a ___”: Charles Dickens : CAT

Charles Dickens was an English novelist who achieved great success in his own time, and is still regarded as perhaps the greatest novelist of the Victorian period. Many of his novels explored the plight of the poor in Victorian society, perhaps driven by his own experiences as a child. Dickens had to leave school to work in a factory after his father was thrown into a debtor’s prison. As a result, Dickens had to educate himself. He is said to have pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, with his first success coming with the 1835 serial publication of “Pickwick Papers”. And, everyone’s favorite has to be his 1843 novella, “A Christmas Carol”.

67 Monarch’s inits. : HRH

His/Her Royal Highness (HRH)

71 Sight at a gladiatorial fight : GORE

The term “gladiator” means “swordsman”, and comes from “gladius”, the Latin word for “sword”.

75 Actress Grier of “Jackie Brown” : PAM

Pam Grier is an actress whose most acclaimed performance was in the 1997 Quentin Tarantino film “Jackie Brown”, in which she played the title role.

76 Location of Hephaestus’ forge : ETNA

In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the god of blacksmiths, sculptors, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. The Roman equivalent of Hephaestus was Vulcan. Given his spheres of influence, it is perhaps not surprising that Hephaestus made all of the weapons for the gods of Olympus.

80 Online reference about toilets? : JOHN WIKI (from “John Wick”)

A wiki is a website on which users are allowed to create and edit content themselves. The term “wiki” comes from the name of the first such site, introduced in 1994 and called WikiWikiWeb. “Wiki” is a Hawaiian word for “quick”, and is used because comprehensive content is created very quickly, as there are so many collaborators contributing to the site.

“John Wick” is a 2014 action movie starring Keanu Reeves in the title role. Reeves plays a retired hitman who goes on a killing spree to avenge the murder of his dog. There’s quite the body count …

82 Guys who pass out Halloween treats? : GOODY FELLAS (from “Goodfellas”)

The Martin Scorsese classic “Goodfellas” is a 1990 adaptation of a nonfiction book by Nicholas Pileggi called “Wiseguy”. The film tells the story of a mob family that succumbs to the FBI after one of their own becomes an informant.

88 With 45-Across, what was once the world’s fourth-largest inland body of water : ARAL …
(45A See 88-Across : … SEA )

The Aral Sea is a great example of how man can have a devastating effect on his environment. In the early sixties the Aral Sea covered 68,000 square miles of Central Asia. Soviet irrigation projects drained the lake to such an extent that today the total area is less than 7,000 square miles, with 90% of the lake now completely dry. Sad …

89 Atkins dieters’ no-nos : CARBS

Perhaps most notably, the eating of relatively few carbohydrates is central to the diet proposed by Robert Atkins. Atkins first laid out the principles behind the Atkins diet in a research paper published in 1958 in the “Journal of the American Medical Association”. He popularized his diet starting in 1972 with his book “Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution”.

91 Rapunzel feature : TRESS

“Rapunzel” is a fairy tale in the collection of the Brothers Grimm. Rapunzel was a maiden who was locked in a tower by an enchantress. The inevitable prince turns up, and he climbs up to Rapunzel using her long, fair hair as a climbing rope.

93 ___ syrup (natural sweetener) : AGAVE

Agave nectar (also “agave syrup”) is sweeter than honey, but is much more fluid. The nectar’s sweetness comes from its high fructose content. A lot of agave nectar comes from the blue agave, the same species that is used to make tequila.

95 Drummer Starkey : ZAK

Zak Starkey is an English drummer just like his Dad Richard Starkey, better known as Ringo Starr. Zak has performed with the Who and with Oasis.

96 What outsiders think about the new hire? : STRANGERS ON A TRAINEE (from “Strangers on a Train”)

“Strangers on a Train” is a 1951 Hitchcock film that is based on a 1950 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith. It stars Farley Granger and Robert Walker as two strangers who meet on a train and decide to carry out murders for each other. Alfred HItchcock’s daughter Pat Hitchcock gets a small role in this one.

103 Common baitfish : CHUBS

There is a whole family of fish called “chubs” including European chubs, lake chubs, hornyhead chub, creek chubs, and a host of others.

105 Statistical tool for checking a hypothesis : T-TEST

In the world of statistics, a t-test is one that makes use of a “Student’s t distribution”. The t-statistic was introduced by a chemist working in the Guinness Brewery in Dublin, back in 1908. “Student” was the chemist’s pen name.

106 Be a stool pigeon : TALK

Stoolies, also called “canaries”, will sing to the cops given the right incentive. “Stoolie” is short for “stool pigeon”. A stool pigeon was a decoy bird tied to a stool so as to lure other pigeons. Originally a stoolie was a decoy for the police, rather than an informer, hence the name.

109 “Mila 18” novelist : URIS

“Mila 18” is a novel by American author Leon Uris that is set during WWII in Warsaw, Poland after the occupation by Germany. The book’s title refers to the bunker that served as headquarters of the Jewish resistance group in the Warsaw Ghetto. The bunker was located at “Ulica Mila 18” (“18 Pleasant Street” in English).

110 What the exhausted working woman wears to bed? : A HARD DAY’S NIGHTIE (from “A Hard Day’s Night”)

“A Hard Day’s Night” is 1964 musical comedy starring the Beatles. I think that it’s the kind of movie that you either love or hate, and I love it! And, what a fabulous soundtrack …!

114 Man-to-man alternative : ZONE

In some team sports, there is a choice between man-to-man defense and zone defense. In the former, each defensive player guards a corresponding player on the other team. In the latter, each defensive player covers a particular “zone” of the playing area.

115 Lavish soiree : GALA

“Soir” is the French word for “evening” and a “soirée” is an “evening party”. The French word “soirée” has an acute accent over the first “e”, but we tend to drop this when using the word in English.

117 Singer Mann : AIMEE

Aimee Mann is a rock singer and guitarist from Virginia. Mann is married to Michael Penn, the brother of actor Sean Penn.

119 Statuette that weighs 6 pounds 12 1/2 ounces : EMMY

The Emmy Awards are the television equivalent of the Oscars from the world of film, the Grammy Awards in music and the Tony Awards for the stage. Emmy Awards are presented throughout the year, depending on the sector of television being honored. The most famous of these ceremonies are the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards. The distinctive name “Emmy” is a softened version of the word “immy”, the nickname given to the video camera tubes found in old television cameras. The Emmy statuette was designed by television engineer Louis McManus in 1948, and depicts a woman holding up an atom. McManus used his wife as a model for the woman.

Down

1 Grifter’s game : SCAM

Grift is money made dishonestly, especially as the result of a swindle. The term is perhaps an alteration of the word “graft”, which can have a similar meaning.

3 Place to learn lessons in Lyon : ECOLE

In French, one might learn “une leçon” (a lesson) in an “école” (school).

The city of Lyon in France, is also known as “Lyons” in English. Lyon is the second-largest metropolitan area in the country, after Paris. It is located just to the north of the confluence of the Rhône and Saône Rivers.

5 Spade said to be excellent at digging up dirt : SAM

Private detective Sam Spade is the main character in Dashiell Hammett’s novel “The Maltese Falcon”. Famously, Spade was played by Humphrey Bogart in the 1941 film adaptation directed by John Huston.

7 Football Hall-of-Famer Long : HOWIE

Howie Long is a retired NFL defensive end who is now a sportscaster for Fox Sports Networks. Long tried some acting after retiring from the NFL, and appeared alongside John Travolta in the 1996 action movie “Broken Arrow”. Howie’s son Chris is also a defensive end in the NFL, and son Kyle is an NFL guard.

9 Lecherous : SATYRIC

The satyrs of Greek mythology came with a very high sex drive. They are the “rude” male subjects drawn on the side of old Greek vases. The nubile maidens known as nymphs were often an object of attention for the satyrs.

11 Emulate Edison : INVENT

Thomas Edison was a very successful inventor. He held over a thousand US patents in his name. Included in the list of Edison’s inventions is the phonograph, the movie camera and the long-lasting light bulb. He passed away in 1931. There is a test tube at the Henry Ford Museum that supposedly holds Edison’s last breath. Ford convinced Thomas’s son Charles to seal up a tube of air in the room just after the inventor died, as a memento.

13 1950s White House nickname : IKE

When the future president was growing up, the Eisenhowers used the nickname “Ike” for all seven boys in the family, as “Ike” was seen as an abbreviation for the family name. “Big Ike” was Edgar, the second oldest boy. “Little/Young Ike” was Dwight, who was the third son born. Dwight had no sisters.

17 It turns a hot dog into a Texas hot dog : CHILI

The full name of the dish that is often called simply “chili” is “chili con carne”, Spanish for “peppers with meat”. The dish was created by immigrants from the Spanish Canary Islands in the city of San Antonio, Texas (a city which the islanders founded). The San Antonio Chili Stand was a popular attraction at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and that stand introduced the dish to the rest of America and to the world.

24 Product that had sales of more than 300,000 on its first day in 2010 : IPAD

The groundbreaking iPad was introduced by Apple in 2010. The iOS-based iPads dominated the market for tablet computers until 2013, when Android-based tablets (manufactured by several companies) took over the number-one spot.

25 Michigan college : ALMA

Alma College in Alma, Michigan was founded by Michigan Presbyterians in 1886. The school has a Scottish heritage of which it is very proud. Alma has its own Scottish marching band, a Scottish dance troupe and even its own design of tartan.

30 Biblical peak : HOREB

In the Book of Deuteronomy, it is stated that Moses was given the Ten Commandments on Mount Horeb. In other parts of the Bible the same event is described as taking place on Mount Sinai. So, many think that Horeb is an alternative name for Sinai.

33 Astrologer Sydney : OMARR

Sydney Omarr was an astrology consultant to the rich and famous, and author of a horoscope column that appeared in the Los Angeles Times. While Omarr (real name Sidney Kimmelman) was in the US Army, he even wrote a horoscope column for “Stars and Stripes”. He claimed that he got the job of writing for “Stars and Stripes” after having giving a consultation to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

39 Pointy-eared dog : AKITA

The Akita breed of dog is named for its point of origin, Akita Prefecture in Japan. When Helen Keller visited Japan in 1937, she asked for and was given an Akita breed of dog, with the name of Kamikaze-go. Sadly, the dog died within a year from distemper. The following year the Japanese government officially presented Keller with a replacement dog. Supposedly Keller’s dogs were the first members of the breed to be introduced into the US.

41 Early human : CRO-MAGNON

Remains of early man, dating back to 35,000 years ago, were found in Abri de Cro-Magnon in southwest France, giving the name to those early humans. Cro-Magnon remains are the oldest human relics that have been discovered in Europe.

43 Michael Lewis best seller with the subtitle “The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” : MONEYBALL

Michael Lewis wrote his book “Moneyball” about the way Billy Beane built up the Oakland Athletics baseball team by bringing on board players who were “undervalued”, getting the maximum benefit from his limited payroll budget. I must admit I know nothing about baseball, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading “Moneyball”, as well as the film adaptation with Brad Pitt playing Beane.

46 Wapiti : ELK

The elk (also “wapiti”) is 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 …

51 German city near the Belgian border : AACHEN

Aachen is a city in the very west of Germany, right on the border with Belgium and the Netherlands. In English, we quite often refer to this city by its French name, Aix-la-Chapelle.

55 Bela Lugosi’s role in “The Ghost of Frankenstein” : YGOR

“The Ghost of Frankenstein” is a 1942 horror movie starring Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Monster and Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein’s assistant Ygor. It is in this “Frankenstein” film that the Monster first stumbles along with his arms outstretched in front of him. There’s no real reason for this behavior in subsequent portrayals, but in “The Ghost of Frankenstein” he does so because he is blind.

62 Computation class in Cambridge : MATHS

Here’s another term that catches me out all the time, having done my schooling on the other side of the Atlantic. The term “mathematics” is shortened to “math” in the US, but to “maths” in Britain and Ireland.

63 Part of A.P.A.: Abbr. : ASSN

American Psychiatric Association (APA)

76 “Nations have their ___, just like individuals”: James Joyce : EGO

Regular readers will know that I am unashamedly supportive of my native Irish culture, but I have to tell you that I can’t stand many of the works of James Joyce. I have spent many a fine day traipsing around Ireland learning about him, but I find myself more absorbed by Joyce’s life than by his writing. Having said that, “Ulysses” is an interesting novel in that it chronicles just one ordinary day in the life of a Dubliner named Leopold Bloom. There’s a huge celebration of “Ulysses” in Dublin every year on June 16th, called Bloomsday. The festivities vary from readings and performances of the storyline, to good old pub crawls. “Ulysses” was made into a film of the same name in 1967 starring Milo O’Shea.

78 Charles who wrote “The Cloister and the Hearth” : READE

Charles Reade was an English author who came to public attention with a two-act comedy play called “Masks and Faces”. Reade turned the play into a prose story in 1852 that he called “Peg Woffington”. Reade also wrote a historical novel called “The Cloister and the Hearth” about a married man who becomes a Dominican friar on hearing that his wife has died. Years later he discovers that his wife is in fact still living and a struggle develops between the man’s obligation to family and his obligation to the Roman Catholic Church.

83 What some sailors bring back : YARNS

The phrase “to spin a yarn”, meaning “to tell a tall tale”, originated in the early 1800s with seamen. The idea was that sailors would tell stories to each other while engaged in mindless work such as twisting yarn.

90 Gamers’ embodiments : AVATARS

The Sanskrit word “avatar” describes the concept of a deity descending into earthly life and taking on a persona. It’s easy to see how in the world of online presences one might use the word avatar to describe one’s online identity.

92 Adjustable feature of a typewriter : TAB SET

Like most features on our computer keyboards, the tab key is a hangover from the days of typewriters. When using a typewriter, making entries into a table was very tedious, involving lots of tapping on the spacebar and backspace key. So, a lever was added to typewriters that allowed the operator to “jump” across the page to positions that could be set by hand. Later this was simplified to a tab key which could be depressed, causing the carriage to jump to the next tab stop in much the same way that the modern tab key works on a computer.

94 Egg on : GOAD

The verb “to edge” has been used to mean to incite, to urge on, from the 16th century. Somewhere along the way “edge” was mistakenly replaced with “egg”, giving us our term “to egg on” meaning “to goad”.

95 Cousin of penne : ZITI

Cylindrical pasta is known in general as “penne”, and there are many variants. For example, ziti is a particularly large and long tube with square-cut ends. “Penne” is the plural of “penna”, the Italian for “feather, quill”.

97 Painful sensation : THROE

Our contemporary word “throe”, meaning a spasm of pain, has been around since the early 1600s. It is a different spelling of the word “throwe” that had been around since around 1200 AD and which meant pain, particularly a pang of childbirth or the agony of death. Pain, from cradle to grave …

98 Machu Picchu or Pompeii : RUINS

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 …

The ancient city of Pompeii is situated close to Naples in Italy. Pompeii was destroyed in AD 79 by the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius. The city was completely lost from that time, and was only rediscovered in 1748. Excavations have uncovered the remarkably well-preserved buildings and roads, and Pompeii now attracts over 2 million visitors annually.

101 119-Across winner for both “Roots” and “Rich Man, Poor Man” : ASNER

Ed Asner is most famous for playing the irascible but lovable Lou Grant on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and on the spin-off drama “Lou Grant”. Off-screen Asner is noted for his political activism. He served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and was very involved in the 1980 SAG strike. When “Lou Grant” was cancelled in 1982, despite decent ratings, there was a lot of talk that the cancellation was a move by the network against Asner personally. In fact, one of Asner’s activist colleagues, Howard Hesseman (who played Johnny Fever) found that his show “WKRP in Cincinnati” was also canceled … on the very same day.

Not only did Alex Haley author the magnificent novel “Roots”, he was also the collaborator with Malcolm X on “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”. His 1976 novel “Roots” is based on Haley’s own family history, and he claimed to be a direct descendant of the real life Kunta Kinte, the slave who was kidnapped in the Gambia in 1767. If you remember the original television adaptation of “Roots”, you might recall that Kunta Kinte was played by LeVar Burton, who later went on to play another famous role, Geordi La Forge on “Star Trek: the Next Generation”.

Irvin Shaw’s novel “Rich Man, Poor Man” was adapted into a television miniseries that was originally shown in 1976. The production was the first of its kind, a television miniseries based on a major work of fiction. Ed Asner won an Emmy for playing the lead role of Axel Jordache, one of four Emmy Awards won by the miniseries.

102 Wonderland cake message : EAT ME

In Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Alice follows the white rabbit down a rabbit hole and finds a bottle labelled “DRINK ME”. When she drinks the contents, it causes her to shrink. She also sees a cake adorned with the words “EAT ME” written using currants, and when she eats the cake she grows so big she finds it hard to stand up. After eating the cake, she utters the words, “Curiouser and curiouser”.

111 Scene stealer : HAM

The word “ham”, describing a performer who overacts, is a shortened form of “hamfatter” and dates back to the late 1800s. “Hamfatter” comes from a song in old minstrel shows called “The Ham-Fat Man”. It seems that a poorly performing actor was deemed to have the “acting” qualities of a minstrel made up in blackface.

112 Corporate “a.k.a.” : DBA

Doing business as (DBA)

113 Chicken, in a Chinese dish : GAI

Moo goo gai pan is the American version of a traditional Cantonese dish. In Cantonese, “moo goo” means “button mushroom”, “gai” is “chicken” and “pan” is “slices”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Broods : STEWS
6 “___ are the voyages of the starship Enterprise” : THESE
11 Long-billed wader : IBIS
15 Idiosyncrasies : TICS
19 Brownie ingredient : COCOA
20 Actor Tom of “The Dukes of Hazzard” : WOPAT
21 Indie singer/songwriter ___ Case : NEKO
22 1980s U.S. Davis Cup team captain : ASHE
23 Your apartment-mate, if you don’t close the door before showering? : A ROOMIE WITH A VIEW (from “A Room with a View”)
26 Self-involved : VAIN
27 Blend : MELD
28 Expensive : PRICY
29 Drumstick : LEG
30 Gets better : HEALS
31 Your wish, maybe, when a rambunctious terrier puppy is first brought home? : ESCAPE FROM NEW YORKIE (from “Escape from New York”)
36 Browning who directed “Dracula,” 1931 : TOD
37 Draw a bead on : AIM AT
38 Bring in : EARN
39 Songwriters’ org. : ASCAP
42 Lady friend, in Florence : AMICA
44 Great ___ : DANE
45 See 88-Across : … SEA
48 Soprano ___ Te Kanawa : KIRI
49 Giant star : IDOL
50 Tyrannic sort? : RAGING BULLY (from “Raging Bull”)
54 O. Henry? : IRONY MAN (from “Iron Man”)
56 Time and Tide : BRANDS
57 Zap : NUKE
58 President pro ___ : TEM
59 Giant flying turtle monster of film : GAMERA
61 “What greater gift than the love of a ___”: Charles Dickens : CAT
62 But: Fr. : MAIS
64 Not digital : ANALOG
66 Hankering : YEN
67 Monarch’s inits. : HRH
68 It can cause shortness of breath : ASTHMA
71 Sight at a gladiatorial fight : GORE
72 Fluffy neckwear : BOA
73 Chooses : ELECTS
75 Actress Grier of “Jackie Brown” : PAM
76 Location of Hephaestus’ forge : ETNA
78 Spoil, as a parade : RAIN ON
80 Online reference about toilets? : JOHN WIKI (from “John Wick”)
82 Guys who pass out Halloween treats? : GOODY FELLAS (from “Goodfellas”)
85 Greenhouse containers : POTS
86 Some fútbol cheers : OLES
87 Completely dominate : OWN
88 With 45-Across, what was once the world’s fourth-largest inland body of water : ARAL …
89 Atkins dieters’ no-nos : CARBS
91 Rapunzel feature : TRESS
92 Walked over : TROD
93 ___ syrup (natural sweetener) : AGAVE
95 Drummer Starkey : ZAK
96 What outsiders think about the new hire? : STRANGERS ON A TRAINEE (from “Strangers on a Train”)
103 Common baitfish : CHUBS
104 Terminal guesstimate, for short : ETA
105 Statistical tool for checking a hypothesis : T-TEST
106 Be a stool pigeon : TALK
109 “Mila 18” novelist : URIS
110 What the exhausted working woman wears to bed? : A HARD DAY’S NIGHTIE (from “A Hard Day’s Night”)
114 Man-to-man alternative : ZONE
115 Lavish soiree : GALA
116 Ruffian : BRUTE
117 Singer Mann : AIMEE
118 Drink flavorer : ZEST
119 Statuette that weighs 6 pounds 12 1/2 ounces : EMMY
120 According to : AS PER
121 Become slick, in a way : ICE UP

Down

1 Grifter’s game : SCAM
2 Raced : TORE
3 Place to learn lessons in Lyon : ECOLE
4 Dye on a deck : WOOD STAIN
5 Spade said to be excellent at digging up dirt : SAM
6 Pipsqueak : TWERP
7 Football Hall-of-Famer Long : HOWIE
8 Flop that’s one for the ages : EPIC FAIL
9 Lecherous : SATYRIC
10 Ordinal suffix : -ETH
11 Emulate Edison : INVENT
12 “Boring” shade : BEIGE
13 1950s White House nickname : IKE
14 Female badger : SOW
15 The Boar’s Head, in Shakespeare : TAVERN
16 Russian artist Brodsky, the first painter awarded the Order of Lenin : ISAAK
17 It turns a hot dog into a Texas hot dog : CHILI
18 Pick up on : SENSE
24 Product that had sales of more than 300,000 on its first day in 2010 : IPAD
25 Michigan college : ALMA
30 Biblical peak : HOREB
32 Beat walker : COP
33 Astrologer Sydney : OMARR
34 Slowly eases (off) : WEANS
35 Andrew ___, businessman-turned-politician : YANG
39 Pointy-eared dog : AKITA
40 Tornado warning device : SIREN
41 Early human : CRO-MAGNON
42 Early human : ADAM
43 Michael Lewis best seller with the subtitle “The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” : MONEYBALL
44 Got results : DID THE JOB
45 Editor’s stack of unsolicited manuscripts : SLUSH PILE
46 Wapiti : ELK
47 All-vowel avowal : AYE
49 Publicist’s concern : IMAGE
51 German city near the Belgian border : AACHEN
52 Tree knot : GNARL
53 Textbook section : UNIT
55 Bela Lugosi’s role in “The Ghost of Frankenstein” : YGOR
56 Word before bread or boat : BANANA …
60 Take care of, as a persistent squeak : RE-OIL
62 Computation class in Cambridge : MATHS
63 Part of A.P.A.: Abbr. : ASSN
65 Truckful : LOAD
69 Assembles : MAKES
70 Out of whack : AMISS
74 Fold-up beds : COTS
76 “Nations have their ___, just like individuals”: James Joyce : EGO
77 Haul : TOW
78 Charles who wrote “The Cloister and the Hearth” : READE
79 Bygone sister language of Latin : OSCAN
81 Valued asset for an employee : WORK ETHIC
83 What some sailors bring back : YARNS
84 Throat problem : FROG
85 Beautify : PRETTY UP
90 Gamers’ embodiments : AVATARS
91 Whup : TAN
92 Adjustable feature of a typewriter : TAB SET
93 Off : ASTRAY
94 Egg on : GOAD
95 Cousin of penne : ZITI
96 Slimeball : SCUZZ
97 Painful sensation : THROE
98 Machu Picchu or Pompeii : RUINS
99 Kingdom : REALM
100 What’s left, in Paris : RESTE
101 119-Across winner for both “Roots” and “Rich Man, Poor Man” : ASNER
102 Wonderland cake message : EAT ME
107 Stead : LIEU
108 Medieval stronghold : KEEP
110 Go gray, say : AGE
111 Scene stealer : HAM
112 Corporate “a.k.a.” : DBA
113 Chicken, in a Chinese dish : GAI

7 thoughts on “1103-19 NY Times Crossword 3 Nov 19, Sunday”

  1. Kind of disagree with 67-A: Monarch’s inits. Isn’t a monarch referred to as His/Her Majesty, while close relatives of the monarch are usually given the HRH title? I guess I’ve watched “The Crown” to closely! 🙂

  2. 47:24. I saw the title had the word “movies” in it so I knew this would be tough for me, and it was.

    Best –

  3. 53:50. Some day, when I grow up, I hope to recognize a theme before reading Bill’s blog…..

  4. Scuzz?? Really?? That’s a stretch — I believe the word “scuzball” only has one “z” in it. I hated the southwest corner of this puzzle — can you tell??

  5. 1:04:50 no errors….I spent some time trying to work IE into the answer rather than the long E sound but finally saw the light….typical time for me and a NYT Sunday puzzle

  6. Bill – Today’s regular NYT puzzle didn’t post for some reason. Anyway – 36:34 on that one that will appear in syndication in 2 weeks…

Comments are closed.