0919-21 NY Times Crossword 19 Sep 21, Sunday

Constructed by: Peter Gordon
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme New Look

Themed answers are common phrases into which have been inserted FRESH PAIR OF letters I:

  • 116A New look provider … or a homophonic hint to this puzzle’s theme : FRESH PAIR OF EYES or FRESH PAIR OF IS
  • 23A Meticulous magical beings? : THOROUGH FAIRIES (from “thoroughfares”)
  • 32A Like some cross-Caribbean flights? : PANAMA-HAITI (from “panama hat”)
  • 50A Journals of a certain stunt performer? : DOUBLE DIARIES (from “double dare”)
  • 68A Possible reason for refusing to wear a tank top? : SHOULDER HAIRINESS (from “shoulder harness”)
  • 85A Means of learning about Chiang Kai-shek? : BOOKS ON TAIPEI (from “books on tape”)
  • 99A Inept dancers at Oktoberfest? : POLKA IDIOTS (from “polka dots”)

Bill’s time: 16m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Like the Rock vis-à-vis any of the Stones : BEEFIER

Dwayne Johnson is a former professional wrestler whose ring name was “the Rock”. He has used his success as a character in the ring, to cross over into television and movies. He is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as getting the highest payment for a first starring role, an incredible $5.5 million.

Even though Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have been the driving force behind the Rolling Stones for decades, they didn’t start the group. The band was the idea of guitarist and harmonica player Brian Jones, and it was he who invited Richards and Jagger to join, as well as Ian Stewart, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts to make an original lineup of six band members. Jones called the band “Rollin’ Stone” back then in 1962, named for the song by Muddy Waters. Jones was the leader, manager and decision maker for the first few years until songs written by Richards and Jagger became hits and he started to lose artistic control. In 1967, Jones was arrested for drug possession, and again in 1968. When his trouble with the law prevented him from getting a US work visa, Jones wasn’t able to accompany the Stones on a 1969 US tour. That was the last straw, it seems, and Jones and the Stones parted company. Famously, one month later, Jones was found dead, at the bottom of his swimming pool.

8 Small doodles, perhaps : LAP DOGS

Poodle hybrids are sometimes described as “designer dogs”. Examples are the Labradoodle (Labrador retriever and poodle cross), cockapoo (cocker-spaniel and poodle cross), maltipoo (Maltese and poodle cross) and Jack-A-Poo (Jack Russell and poodle cross).

15 ___ pants : HAREM

Harem pants are an item of female clothing that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. They are loose fitting pants that gather at the ankle. For example, the pants worn by belly dancers would be called harem pants.

21 Candy bar with an exclamation point in its name : OH HENRY!

Oh Henry! is a candy bar that was introduced in 1920 by the Williamson Candy Company of Chicago. There doesn’t seem to be a definitive explanation for the name, although it does seem to be a play on the name of the American writer O. Henry. There is also a story that it was named after a young man named Henry who used to flirt with the female candy makers in the Williamson Candy Company. What is true is that the bar was invented by a candy maker named Tom Henry, who sold the recipe to Williamson.

25 The land down under : HADES

In classical mythology, the god of the underworld was named Hades. Over time, “Hades” came to mean the underworld itself and the name for the god became “Pluto”. Pluto’s character was more positive than the god Hades, and he represented a more rewarding afterlife compared to that offered by the darker Hades.

28 Calendar column: Abbr. : MON

We have seven days in a week because there are seven classical planets in the Solar System. The days were named for these “planets” during the Roman era:

  • Sun (Sunday)
  • Moon (Monday)
  • Mars (Tuesday)
  • Mercury (Wednesday)
  • Jupiter (Thursday)
  • Venus (Friday)
  • Saturn (Saturday)

29 Frenzied states : PANICS

In Greek mythology, Pan was a lecherous god, one who fell in love with Echo the mountain nymph. Echo refused Pan’s advances so that he became very angry. Pan’s anger created a “panic” (a word derived from the name “Pan”) and a group of shepherds were driven to kill Echo.

32 Like some cross-Caribbean flights? : PANAMA-HAITI (from “panama hat”)

The nation that we now know as Panama sits on an isthmus that formed about 3 million years ago. The isthmus was the result of a land bridge forming between North and South America as two tectonic plates of the Earth’s crust slowly collided. Man first attempted to create a waterway across the Isthmus of Panama in 1881, but the 48-mile long Panama Canal only opened for business in 1914.

The Republic of Haiti occupies the smaller, western portion of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. The rest of the island is taken up by the Dominican Republic. Haiti is one of only two nations in the Americas to have French as an official language, the other being Canada.

Panama hats are traditional headgear from Ecuador, and have never been made in volume in Panama. The “panama” moniker came about as many of the hats were shipped to the Isthmus of Panama for transportation by sea to the rest of the world. Authentic panama hats are made from the leaves of a palm-like plant known locally as the jipijapa palm.

46 ___ Reader (quarterly magazine) : UTNE

The “Utne Reader” is known for aggregation and republishing of articles on politics, culture and the environment from other sources in the media. It was founded in 1984 by Eric Utne, with management taken over by Eric’s wife Nina Rothschild Utne in 1990.

54 Body shop fig. : EST

Estimate (est.)

56 Buddy of Buddy, maybe : FIDO

“Fido”, the name for many a dog, is Latin for “I trust”.

63 Relative of cerulean : AZURE

The term “azure” came into English from Persian via Old French. The French word “l’azur” was taken from the Persian name for a place in northeastern Afghanistan called “Lazhward” which was the main source of the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. The stone has a vivid blue color, and “azure” has been describing this color since the 14th century.

Cerulean is a blue color, with the name probably coming from the Latin “caeruleus” meaning “blue”.

68 Possible reason for refusing to wear a tank top? : SHOULDER HAIRINESS (from “shoulder harness”)

“Tank top” is another one of those terms that always catches me out, as it has a different meaning on each side of the Atlantic. In the US, a tank top is a sleeveless shirt, something we would call a “vest” back in Ireland (and the US “vest” is what we call a “waistcoat”). A tank top in Ireland is a sleeveless sweater, which further adds to the confusion. The name “tank top” is derived from “tank suit”, an old name for a woman’s one-piece bathing suit. The use of “tank” for the bathing suit came from “swimming tank”, an obsolete term used in the 1920s for a swimming pool.

74 “Potatoes done perfect” sloganeer : ORE-IDA

Ore-Ida frozen foods are all made using potatoes. The company is located in Oregon, just across the border from Idaho. “Ore-Ida” is a melding of the two state names.

78 Shape of a canine ID tag, often : BONE

Identity document (ID)

80 Fossil suffix : -ITE

Originally, the term “fossil” described anything that was unearthed, dug up. We tend to define the term more narrowly today, reserving it for the geological remains of a plant or animal. “Fossil” comes from the Latin “fossilis” meaning “dug up”.

85 Means of learning about Chiang Kai-shek? : BOOKS ON TAIPEI (from “books on tape”)

Taipei (officially “Taipei City”) is the capital of Taiwan (officially “the Republic of China”). “Taipei” translates from Chinese as “Northern Taiwan City” and indeed, the capital is situated at the northern tip of Taiwan. The city is nicknamed “City of Azaleas” as flowers are said to bloom better in Taipei than in any other city on the island.

Chiang Kai-shek was the leader of the Nationalist Movement in China right through to the end of WWII. The Nationalists lost out in a Civil War to the Communists backed by the Soviet Union after the war, and Chiang Kai-shek and his government were forced to flee to Taiwan. Chiang Kai-shek claimed rule over China from Taiwan until his death in 1975.

91 Massachusetts’ College of Our Lady of the ___ : ELMS

Elms College, more correctly called the College of Our Lady of the Elms, is a Catholic college located in Chicopee, Massachusetts. The school was founded as a girls’ preparatory academy in 1897. Elms College became co-educational in 1998.

96 Wielder of the hammer Mjölnir : THOR

The hammer associated with the Norse god Thor is known as Mjölnir. The name “Mjölnir” translates as “crusher”.

98 Tools used by horologists : LOUPES

A loupe is a small magnifying lens that is held in the hand. “Loupe” is the French name for such a device.

99 Inept dancers at Oktoberfest? : POLKA IDIOTS (from “polka dots”)

The polka is a dance from central Europe, one that originated in Bohemia in the mid-1800s. It’s thought that “polka” comes from a Czech word meaning “little half”, reflecting the little half-steps included in the basic dance.

A polka dot pattern is one featuring an array of filled circles, usually of the same size and color. There doesn’t seem to be any connection between the name of the pattern and the polka dance, other than both the dance and the pattern gaining popularity around the same time, in the late nineteenth century.

105 Express line count : ITEMS

I say avoid any express checkout lane in a market that is labeled “10 items or less”. It should be “10 items or fewer”. I know, I know … I should calm down … and get a life …

107 Mentor of 50 Cent : EMINEM

Rap star Eminem’s real name is Marshall Mathers. Mathers grew up poor in Saint Joseph, Missouri. He was raised by a single-mom as the family was abandoned by his father when he was 18 months old. Marshall and his mother moved around the country before settling in a suburb of Detroit. He didn’t do well at school, and dropped out at the age of 17. But in the end he made it pretty big …

Rap star 50 Cent’s real name is Curtis James Jackson III, and is from South Jamaica in Queens, New York. 50 Cent had a rough life starting out, first dealing drugs at the age of 12. He dropped his illegal activities to pursue a rap career, but still fell victim to an assailant who pumped nine bullets into him. The alleged shooter was himself shot three weeks later, and died. 50 Cent’s alleged attacker was a bodyguard and close friend of Mike Tyson.

108 Valedictorian’s pride, in brief : GPA

A valediction is an act of taking one’s leave, from the Latin “vale dicere”, to say farewell. An example of a valediction would be the words “yours truly” at the end of a letter. And, the valedictorian (here in the US anyway) is the student in a graduating class that is chosen to say the final words at the graduation ceremony, a farewell to the classmates.

111 Smurf with a white beard : PAPA

The Smurfs are little blue people created in 1958 by the Belgian cartoonist who went by the pen name Peyo. The Smurfs became famous in the US when Hanna-Barbera used them in a children’s cartoon series. The characters are largely a group of males. The original lineup included just one “Smurfette”, who is wooed by almost all of the boy Smurfs. Later, another female was introduced into the mix called Sassette, and still later along came Granny Smurf.

115 Dish at a traditional Bedouin wedding : CAMEL

Bedouin tribes are Arab ethnic groups that predominantly live in the Middle East, in desert areas. Bedouin tribes tend to be nomadic, not settling permanently in one location.

122 Early R&B group for Missy Elliott : SISTA

Melissa “Missy” Elliott is a rap artist who was childhood friends with fellow rapper Timbaland.

124 Felt on the head? : STETSON

Stetson is a brand of hats manufactured by John B. Stetson Company of St. Joseph, Missouri. The so-called “cowboy hat” that Stetson pioneered was such a success that the company became the largest hat maker in the world, producing over 3.3 million hats per year.

Down

1 “2 Broke Girls” co-star Behrs : BETH

Actress Beth Behrs is best known for playing one of the leads in the sitcom “2 Broke Girls”. Behrs married fellow actor Michael Gladis in 2018. Gladis is best known for playing Paul Kinsey on the TV drama “Mad Men”.

3 Musk of SpaceX : ELON

Elon Musk is a successful businessman who has founded or led some very high-profile companies, namely PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX. Musk received a lot of publicity in early 2018 during a test launch by SpaceX of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. A Tesla Roadster belonging to Musk was carried into space as a dummy payload.

5 Big news to share in the biz world? : IPO

An initial public offering (IPO) is the very first offer of stock for sale by a company on the open market. In other words, an IPO marks the first time that a company is traded on a public exchange. Companies have an IPO to raise capital to expand (usually).

6 Company acquired by Allstate in 2011 : ESURANCE

Esurance is a provider of auto insurance direct to customers online and over the phone. Esurance is now owned by Allstate.

7 Longtime first name in TV talk : REGIS

Regis Philbin was an incredibly popular television personality. He was in such high demand, and had such a long career, that he holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera (in excess of 16,000 hours).

10 Letter two after tau : PHI

Phi is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet.

12 Guacamole ingredient : ONION

Guacamole is one of my favorite dishes. It is prepared by mashing avocados and perhaps adding the likes of tomato, onion and lime juice. The guacamole recipe dates back as early as the 16th century, to the time of the Aztecs. “Guacamole” translates as “avocado sauce”.

13 Major exporter of nutmeg : GRENADA

Grenada is an island nation in the British Commonwealth (or Commonwealth Realm, as it is now called). When President Reagan ordered the invasion of Grenada in 1983, after a pro-communist coup, the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II and her government were not amused …

14 ___ admin : SYS

A system administrator (in the field of information technology) is a sysadmin.

16 Big name in microwaves : AMANA

The Amana Corporation takes its name from the location of its original headquarters, in Middle Amana, Iowa. Today, the Amana name is very much associated with household appliances. The company was founded in 1934 to manufacture commercial walk-in coolers.

17 Straight sides of sectors : RADII

A sector is part of a circle that is bounded by two radii and an arc of the circumference. The term “sector” comes from the Latin “secare” meaning “to cut”, so a “sector” is a piece “cut” from a circle.

19 Soccer superstar nicknamed “La Pulga” (“The Flea”) : MESSI

Lionel “Leo” Messi is a soccer player from Argentina. Messi was awarded FIFA’s Ballon d’Or (Golden Ball) award from 2009 to 2013. The Ballon d’Or is presented to the player who is considered the best in the world in the prior year.

29 The National Zoo’s Xiao Qi Ji, e.g. : PANDA

Taxonomic classification of the giant panda has been a subject of great debate for years, the main question being whether it belongs to the bear or raccoon family. The accepted opinion these days, based on molecular studies, seems to be that the panda is in fact a true bear.

32 Hungarian herding breed : PULI

The puli is a small herding dog that is noted for its coat with tight curls that resemble dreadlocks. Pulik (the plural of “puli”) originated in Hungary.

33 Figure on Italy’s 2,000-lira note before euros were introduced : MARCONI

Guglielmo Marconi was an inventor, famous for development of a radio telegraph design that was used across the world. Marconi did a lot of his early radio work in his native Italy, but moved to England as the British government was very interested in supporting his developments.

34 Common viper : ADDER

The adder, a snake in the viper family, is the only venomous snake found on the island of Great Britain. Adders are also found in Norway and Sweden, north of the Arctic Circle.

36 People can’t lie under it : TRUTH SERUM

“Truth serum” is a common name given to any medication used to obtain information from subjects who are unwilling to give the information willingly. Examples of drugs used as a truth serum are scopolamine, sodium pentathol and ethanol (aka “alcohol”, like that served in a bar!).

38 Actor who delivered the line “Nobody puts Baby in a corner” : SWAYZE

The celebrated 1987 film “Dirty Dancing” stars Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, who were both relative unknowns at the time of filming. “Dirty Dancing” had a relatively low budget but was destined to earn over $200 million. It became the first movie to sell more than a million copies on home video. There was a prequel made in 2004 called “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights”, that wasn’t a good film at all. Patrick Swayze was paid $200,000 for his 1987 performance, and received $5 million to make a cameo in the prequel.

39 Word with power or brakes : AIR …

Automobiles tend to use hydraulic brakes, a system in which hydraulic fluid transfers pressure from the brake pedal to the brake shoes. Heavy vehicles, like trucks and buses, typically use air brakes, a system in which the braking pressure is transferred by compressed air.

42 GQ V.I.P.s : EDS

The men’s magazine known today as “GQ” used to be titled “Gentlemen’s Quarterly”. It was known as “Apparel Arts” when launched in 1931.

47 Treat for Mr. Owl : TOOTSIE POP

Tootsie Pops were developed as a derivative product from the popular Tootsie Roll candy. How popular, I hear you say? About 60 million Tootsie Rolls and 20 million Tootsie Pops are produced every day!

48 Seward Peninsula city : NOME

In 1899, the Alaska city of Nome was briefly known as Anvil City by locals to avoid confusion with the nearby city of Cape Nome. However, the US Post Office refused to approve the change, and so the name was immediately changed back to Nome.

The Seward Peninsula in Alaska is a remnant of the land bridge that once connected Alaska with Siberia during the last Ice Age. The peninsula is named for Secretary of State William Seward who negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia.

57 Triangular piece in a party bowlful : DORITO

The product that was to become Doritos was a creation at the Casa de Fritos in Disneyland in the early sixties. A marketing executive from Frito-Lay noticed how well the snack was selling in the park, and made a deal to produce the chips under the name “Doritos”, starting in 1964. “Doritos” translates from Spanish as “little bits of gold”.

60 Rentals that might come with dolly carts : U-HAULS

The U-Haul company was started by married couple Leonard Shoen and Anna Mary Carty in Ridgefield, Washington in 1945. The Shoens used $5,000 of seed money to build trailers in their garage, and then cleverly recruited gas station owners as franchisees with whom they would split the rental revenue. There are now about 15,000 U-Haul dealers across the country.

65 Letter two before tau : RHO

Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”, although it is equivalent to the Roman letter R.

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 Defamed, in a way : LIBELED

The word “libel” describes a published or written statement likely to harm a person’s reputation. It comes into English from the Latin “libellus”, the word for a small book. Back in the 1500s, libel was just a formal written statement, with the more damaging association arising in the 1600s. The related concept of slander is defamation in a transient form, such as speech, sign language or gestures.

71 Reason to see an ophthalmologist : STYE

A stye is a bacterial infection of the sebaceous glands at the base of the eyelashes, and is also known as a hordeolum.

Ophthalmology is that branch of medicine dealing with the physiology and health of the eye. “Ophthalmos” is the Greek word for “eye”.

72 Pea jacket material : WOOL

A pea coat (also “pea jacket”) is a heavy woolen outer jacket originally associated with sailors. Nowadays anyone wears them (they’re very comfortable and warm). The female equivalent of a pea coat is often called a Jackie O jacket, after Jackie Onassis.

75 Caterpillar competitor : DEERE

John Deere invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837. Prior to Deere’s invention, farmers used an iron or wooden plow that constantly had to be cleaned as rich soil stuck to its surfaces. The cast-steel plow was revolutionary as its smooth sides solved the problem of “stickiness”. The Deere company that John founded uses the slogan “Nothing Runs Like a Deere”, and has a leaping deer as its logo.

Back in the early 1900s, Benjamin Holt invented a steam tractor that was able to move over soggy land. The new vehicle crawled over the ground using wheels that drove tracks. Someone apparently noted that the tractor moved along like a caterpillar, and so the enterprise that was to be known as the Caterpillar Tractor Company was born.

76 Thomas Jefferson or John Tyler, by birth : ARIES

Aries the Ram is the first astrological sign in the Zodiac, and is named after the constellation. Your birth sign is Aries if you were born between March 21 and April 20, but if you are an Aries you would know that! “Aries” is the Latin word for “ram”.

Thomas Jefferson was born a British subject in 1743 in the Colony of Virginia, one of ten children born to Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph Jefferson. The Jefferson’s had four sons in all, with two dying in infancy. The remaining two sons inherited Peter’s estate, divided between them. Thomas came into 5,000 acres of land, including Monticello, and 20-40 slaves.

John Tyler was the tenth President of the US, and the first to take the office on the death of the incumbent. Tyler’s predecessor was President William Henry Harrison, who was in office only 32 days before he died of natural causes. For a while there was a little confusion about the wording in the constitution that covered such an eventuality. There was an argument made that Tyler would continue as Vice-President but would assume the responsibilities of the office of President, in effect as “Acting President”. However, Tyler proceeded as though he was taking over as President and took the oath of office in his hotel room in Washington. Soon afterwards, Congress declared that Tyler was indeed President, although many continued to dispute the fact. Many of President Tyler’s opponents referred to him as “His Accidency”. His term in office ended in 1845. When the Civil War began in 1861, Tyler sided with the Confederacy and was even elected to the Confederate House of Representatives for the 3rd District of Virginia. President Tyler passed away only a few days after taking his seat in the House. His death was the only one in presidential history that was not recognized in the nation’s capital, as he sided with the Confederate States.

79 Org. that bestows the Community Assist Award : NBA

National Basketball Association (NBA)

81 Liberal arts sch. major : ENG

The term “liberal arts” dates back to classical antiquity. The liberal arts were those subjects deemed essential to master for a citizen to take an active part in civil life. “Citizens” were “free people”, hence the use of the term “liberal arts”. The list of subjects studied in olden times were generally sevenfold: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy/astrology.

84 Certain curtain : SCRIM

“Scrim” is the name given to that transparent fabric that hangs down onto a theater’s stage. It is often used with special lighting for various effects.

87 Overseas speed meas. : KPH

Kilometres per hour (kph)

88 Go from here to there … like *that* : TELEPORT

Teleportation is a favorite of authors of science fiction. The hypothetical process results in the transfer of matter from one point to another, with actually crossing the intervening space. Beam me up, Scotty!

89 Quark’s place : ATOM

Quarks are elementary atomic particles that combine to make composite particles called “hadrons”. I’m really only familiar with the really stable hadrons i.e. protons and neutrons. There are six types of quarks (referred to as “flavors”). These flavors are up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top. The term “quark” was borrowed from James Joyce’s book “Finnegans Wake”, by physicist Murray Gell-Mann. However, the word coined by Joyce is pronounced “kwark”, and the particle’s name is pronounced “kwork”.

93 Pithy saying : EPIGRAM

An epigram is a short and clever statement, poem or discourse.

95 Dish whose yellow color comes from saffron : PAELLA

Paella is sometimes referred to as the Spanish national dish, but not by Spaniards. In Spain, paella is regarded as a typical regional dish from Valencia. The name “paella” means “frying pan” in Valencian, and is a reference to the shallow vessel traditionally used to cook the dish over an open fire.

Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice by weight. It is derived from the saffron crocus. The spice itself is the dried stigma found in the flower of the plant.

97 “Rude Boy” singer, to fans : RIRI

Singer Rihanna was born and grew up on the island of Barbados and moved to the US when she was 16-years-old to pursue a singing career. The name “Rihanna” is derived from the Welsh name “Rhiannon”. And, Rihanna sometimes goes by the nickname “RiRi”, which is also the name of her line of beauty products.

99 Divisions of bushels : PECKS

A peck is a dry measure equal to a quarter of a bushel. The term can be used figuratively to mean a considerable quantity in general, as in the phrase “a peck of trouble”.

In the imperial system of weights and measures, a bushel is a unit of dry volume made up of 4 pecks. In the US system, a bushel is a dry volume of 8 gallons. We have used the term “bushel” to mean “large quantity” since the 14th century.

101 Long rides? : LIMOS

The word “limousine” derives from the name of the French city of Limoges. The area around Limoges is called the Limousin, and it gave its name to a cloak hood worn by local shepherds. In early motor cars, a driver would sit outside in the weather while the passengers would sit in the covered compartment. The driver would often wear a limousin-style protective hood, giving rise to that type of transportation being called a “limousine”. Well, that’s how the story goes …

103 Literally, “works” : OPERA

The Latin for “work” is “opus”, with the plural being “opera”. We sometimes use the plural “opuses” in English, but that just annoys me …

106 Traditional rivals of the N.C.A.A.’s ‘Hoos : TERPS

The sports teams of the University of Maryland are called the Maryland Terrapins, or “Terps” for short. The name dates back to 1932 when it was coined by the university’s president at the time, Curley Byrd. He took the name from the diamondback terrapins that are native to the Chesapeake Bay.

109 Church part : APSE

The apse of a church or cathedral is a semicircular recess in an outer wall, usually with a half-dome as a roof and often where there resides an altar. Originally, apses were used as burial places for the clergy and also for storage of important relics.

110 There are three of them in a Morse “O” : DAHS

Samuel Morse came up with the forerunner to modern Morse code for use on the electric telegraph, of which he was the co-inventor. Morse code uses a series of dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers. The most common letters are assigned the simplest code elements e.g. E is represented by one dot, and T is represented by one dash. When words are spelled aloud in Morse code, a dot is pronounced as “dit”, and a dash is pronounced as “dah”.

113 USD : dollar :: MXN : ___ : PESO

The peso is used in many Spanish-speaking countries around the world. The coin originated in Spain where the word “peso” means “weight”. The original peso was what we know in English as a “piece of eight”, a silver coin of a specific weight that had a nominal value of eight “reales”.

116 Frequent C.D.C. collaborator : FDA

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves drugs for specific conditions. It is quite legal for a healthcare professional to prescribe an approved medication for a use that is different to the FDA-approved indication. This usage of the drug is described as “off-label”.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC started out life during WWII as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. The CDC worries about much more than malaria these days …

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Like the Rock vis-à-vis any of the Stones : BEEFIER
8 Small doodles, perhaps : LAP DOGS
15 ___ pants : HAREM
20 Surpass : ECLIPSE
21 Candy bar with an exclamation point in its name : OH HENRY!
22 To love, in Italian : AMARE
23 Meticulous magical beings? : THOROUGH FAIRIES (from “thoroughfares”)
25 The land down under : HADES
26 Sharpen : HONE
27 Screams : RIOTS
28 Calendar column: Abbr. : MON
29 Frenzied states : PANICS
30 High-ranking figures, collectively : BRASS
32 Like some cross-Caribbean flights? : PANAMA-HAITI (from “panama hat”)
34 Three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver in the New York Jets Ring of Honor : AL TOON
37 Biblical father of Eliphaz : ESAU
40 CNN political correspondent Bash : DANA
41 Bushy-tailed rodents : DORMICE
43 Postseason tournament pick : WILD CARD
46 ___ Reader (quarterly magazine) : UTNE
50 Journals of a certain stunt performer? : DOUBLE DIARIES (from “double dare”)
52 Commuting arrangement : CARPOOL
54 Body shop fig. : EST
55 Owing : SHY
56 Buddy of Buddy, maybe : FIDO
58 What might whet an appetite : AROMA
59 Taken down and put up elsewhere : REHUNG
63 Relative of cerulean : AZURE
66 Scale for some judges : ONE TO TEN
68 Possible reason for refusing to wear a tank top? : SHOULDER HAIRINESS (from “shoulder harness”)
71 Worries about something : SWEATS IT
73 2018 crime biopic : GOTTI
74 “Potatoes done perfect” sloganeer : ORE-IDA
77 Shape of a doughnut : TORUS
78 Shape of a canine ID tag, often : BONE
80 Fossil suffix : -ITE
82 “Most miserable hour that ___ time saw”: Lady Capulet : E’ER
83 “Checkmate” : YOU LOSE
85 Means of learning about Chiang Kai-shek? : BOOKS ON TAIPEI (from “books on tape”)
91 Massachusetts’ College of Our Lady of the ___ : ELMS
92 Some post-pollution efforts : CLEANUPS
94 Become ticked off : GET SORE
95 Ready : PREP
96 Wielder of the hammer Mjölnir : THOR
98 Tools used by horologists : LOUPES
99 Inept dancers at Oktoberfest? : POLKA IDIOTS (from “polka dots”)
105 Express line count : ITEMS
107 Mentor of 50 Cent : EMINEM
108 Valedictorian’s pride, in brief : GPA
109 Mag space seller : AD REP
111 Smurf with a white beard : PAPA
115 Dish at a traditional Bedouin wedding : CAMEL
116 New look provider … or a homophonic hint to this puzzle’s theme : FRESH PAIR OF EYES or FRESH PAIR OF IS
119 Small hill : KNOLL
120 Poorly lit : DARKISH
121 Series of steps : PROCESS
122 Early R&B group for Missy Elliott : SISTA
123 Stockpiles : AMASSES
124 Felt on the head? : STETSON

Down

1 “2 Broke Girls” co-star Behrs : BETH
2 Bounce off the wall : ECHO
3 Musk of SpaceX : ELON
4 Incendiary explosive : FIREBOMB
5 Big news to share in the biz world? : IPO
6 Company acquired by Allstate in 2011 : ESURANCE
7 Longtime first name in TV talk : REGIS
8 Unpartitioned apartment : LOFT
9 Clicking sounds? : AHAS
10 Letter two after tau : PHI
11 ___ E (skin care brand) : DERMA
12 Guacamole ingredient : ONION
13 Major exporter of nutmeg : GRENADA
14 ___ admin : SYS
15 “LOLOL” : HA HA HA
16 Big name in microwaves : AMANA
17 Straight sides of sectors : RADII
18 Put up : ERECT
19 Soccer superstar nicknamed “La Pulga” (“The Flea”) : MESSI
24 Water (down) : HOSE
29 The National Zoo’s Xiao Qi Ji, e.g. : PANDA
31 Agitate : ROIL
32 Hungarian herding breed : PULI
33 Figure on Italy’s 2,000-lira note before euros were introduced : MARCONI
34 Common viper : ADDER
35 Free : LOOSE
36 People can’t lie under it : TRUTH SERUM
38 Actor who delivered the line “Nobody puts Baby in a corner” : SWAYZE
39 Word with power or brakes : AIR …
42 GQ V.I.P.s : EDS
44 Best : DEFEAT
45 “___: Vegas” (TV reboot of 2021) : CSI
46 Revolted : UPROSE
47 Treat for Mr. Owl : TOOTSIE POP
48 Seward Peninsula city : NOME
49 Verve : ELAN
51 “There was no choice” : I HAD TO
53 Person with star power? : RATER
57 Triangular piece in a party bowlful : DORITO
60 Rentals that might come with dolly carts : U-HAULS
61 “Wrong!” : NOT SO!
62 Nickname for someone whose full name is a calendar month : GUS
64 Spur : URGE ON
65 Letter two before tau : RHO
67 Obie-winning playwright Will : ENO
69 Defamed, in a way : LIBELED
70 “Indeed” : IT IS SO
71 Reason to see an ophthalmologist : STYE
72 Pea jacket material : WOOL
75 Caterpillar competitor : DEERE
76 Thomas Jefferson or John Tyler, by birth : ARIES
79 Org. that bestows the Community Assist Award : NBA
81 Liberal arts sch. major : ENG
84 Certain curtain : SCRIM
86 On the ___ (no longer friendly) : OUTS
87 Overseas speed meas. : KPH
88 Go from here to there … like *that* : TELEPORT
89 Quark’s place : ATOM
90 “It’s my hunch …” : I SUSPECT …
93 Pithy saying : EPIGRAM
95 Dish whose yellow color comes from saffron : PAELLA
97 “Rude Boy” singer, to fans : RIRI
99 Divisions of bushels : PECKS
100 Like the Mideast exclave of Madha : OMANI
101 Long rides? : LIMOS
102 Used a prayer rug, say : KNELT
103 Literally, “works” : OPERA
104 Pieces of work : TASKS
106 Traditional rivals of the N.C.A.A.’s ‘Hoos : TERPS
109 Church part : APSE
110 There are three of them in a Morse “O” : DAHS
112 Passing through D.C.? : AYES
113 USD : dollar :: MXN : ___ : PESO
114 Part of 79-Down: Abbr. : ASSN
116 Frequent C.D.C. collaborator : FDA
117 “___ Way” (Kitty Kelley biography of Sinatra) : HIS
118 Opponent : FOE