0725-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 25 Jul 16, Monday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Kevin Christian
THEME: Hey Joe

1D. With 61-Down, Jimi Hendrix’s first single … or a hint to the starts of 20-, 28-, 45- and 50-Across : HEY …
61D. See 1-Down : … JOE

20A. 1899-1901 uprising in China : BOXER REBELLION (giving “Joe Boxer”)
28A. Style of “iPhone” or “eBay,” typographically : CAMELCASE (giving “Joe Camel”)
45A. “Great!” : COOL BEANS! (giving “Joe Cool”)
50A. Vacillate : BLOW HOT AND COLD (giving “Joe Blow”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 5m 13s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

14. Pitchers’ stats : ERAS
Earned run average (ERA)

15. Dizzying illusions : OP ART
Op art is also known as optical art, and puts optical illusions to great effect.

16. ___ Ant (cartoon superhero) : ATOM
Atom Ant is a cartoon character introduced by Hanna-Barbera in 1965. He is a tiny superhero who fights villains such as Ferocious Flea and a mad scientist named Professor Von Gimmick.

18. Disprove : BELIE
The verbs “to confute” and “to belie” both mean “to show to be false”.

20. 1899-1901 uprising in China : BOXER REBELLION (giving “Joe Boxer”)
The Boxer Rebellion took place in China between 1899 and 1901. It was a violent uprising by nationalists targeting foreigners and Chinese Christians. Leaders of the revolt were the “Yihequan”, known in English as “The Righteous and Harmonious Fists” or “Boxers United in Righteousness” (or simply “Boxers”). The Boxers were typically well-trained, athletic young men who practiced martial arts, hence the moniker. The rebellion was quelled by an international coalition referred to as the Eight Nation Alliance”, comprising military forces from Japan, Russia, Britain, France, the US, Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary.

Joe Boxer is a brand of men’s underwear that is sold exclusively at Kmart and Sears.

23. Actress Thurman of “Gattaca” : UMA
“Gattaca” is a science fiction movie starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman that was released in 1997. Set in the not-too-distant future, the film describes a society in which potential children are preselected so that they inherit the most desirable traits from their parents. The title “Gattaca” is the space agency featured in the storyline. I saw this one relatively recently, and found it very absorbing …

24. Fictional news director Grant : LOU
“Lou Grant” is a spinoff from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. The title character, played so ably by Ed Asner, had headed up a television newsroom in Minneapolis in the original series. In the spinoff, Grant was the city editor of the fictional “Los Angeles Tribune”. The original show was a sitcom, the spinoff was a drama series.

28. Style of “iPhone” or “eBay,” typographically : CAMELCASE (giving “Joe Camel”)
The practice of writing compound words with capital letters and no space between, or using a lowercase letter prior to an uppercase letter, is known as “CamelCase”. Examples of words using CamelCase are “PowerPoint”, “MySpace”, “iPhone”, “eBay” and “CamelCase” itself. The idea behind the moniker is that such words have a “humpy” appearance, like the humps of a camel.

The advertising mascot for Camel cigarettes was officially known as “Old Joe”, but was popularly known as “Joe Camel”. Joe originated in the seventies, in an advertising campaign that ran only in Europe where sometimes he was depicted wearing a French Foreign Legion cap. He was imported to the US in 1988 on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Camel brand. The big controversy surrounding the use of the camel character was that a 1991 study found that 5-6 year old children could recognize Joe Camel more readily than either Mickey Mouse or Fred Flintstone. Also, soon after Old Joe was introduced in the US, the Camel brand’s share of the illegal market to underage smokers went up from 1% to just under 33%.

34. Poet Dickinson : EMILY
Emily Dickinson wrote nearly 1800 poems in her lifetime, with less than a dozen published before she died in 1886. Emily’s younger sister discovered the enormous collection, and it was published in batches over the coming decades. Here is the first verse of one of her poems:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –

35. Banned apple spray : ALAR
The chemical name for Alar, a plant growth regulator and color enhancer, is daminozide. Alar was primarily used on apples but was withdrawn from the market when it was linked to cancer.

37. Talk smack about : DIS
“Dis” is a slang term meaning “insult” that originated in the eighties. It is a shortened form of “disrespect” or “dismiss”.

39. June honoree : DAD
Father’s Day was added as an official holiday in 1972, although bills to create the holiday had been with Congress since 1913. By rights, the holiday should be called “Fathers’ Day” (note the punctuation), but the Bill that was introduced in 1913 used the “Father’s Day” spelling, and that’s the one that has stuck.

40. Ancient Peruvian : INCA
The Inca people emerged as a tribe around the 12th century, in what today is southern Peru. The Incas developed a vast empire over the next 300 years, extending along most of the western side of South America. The Empire fell to the Spanish, finally dissolving in 1572 with the execution of Tupac Amaru, the last Incan Emperor.

42. ___ Mountains (range east of Moscow) : URAL
The eastern side of the Ural Mountains in Russia is generally regarded as the natural divide between the continents of Europe and Asia.

43. Tequila plant : AGAVE
Tequila is a spirit made from the blue agave. The drink takes its name from the city of Tequila, located about 40 miles northwest of Guadalajara.

45. “Great!” : COOL BEANS! (giving “Joe Cool”)
When cartoon beagle Snoopy adopts his “Joe Cool” alias, he puts on sunglasses and just leans against a wall doing nothing.

47. Rattan furniture maker : CANER
Rattan is the name of a large number of species of palms, all of which look less like trees and more like vines. The woody stems are used for making cane furniture.

48. Connected PC group : LAN
Local Area Network (LAN)

49. YouTube video additions of 2007 : ADS
YouTube is a video-sharing website, launched in 2005 by three ex-PayPal employees. Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Yep, $1.65 billion, less than two years after it was founded …

50. Vacillate : BLOW HOT AND COLD (giving “Joe Blow”)
Though the English court system does not use the term today, John Doe first appeared as the “name of a person unknown” in England in 1659, along with another unknown, Richard Roe. An unknown female is referred to as Jane Doe. Variants of “John Doe” are “Joe Blow” and “John Q. Public”.

58. Ride to an awards show : LIMO
The word “limousine” actually derives from 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 anyway …

60. Muslim pilgrimage : HAJJ
A Haji (also “Hajji”) is the term used for someone who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and it is sometimes also used as a form of address for such a person. The journey itself goes by the name “haj” or “hajj”.

64. “Twist, Lick, Dunk” cookie : OREO
There’s a smartphone app featuring the Oreo cookie. It’s a game in which one twists Oreo cookies apart, “licks” the cream from the center and then dunks the remainder of the cookie in a glass of milk.

66. Internet troll, maybe : HATER
In Internet terms, a “troll” is someone who attempts to disrupt online group activities. The fishing term “troll” is used to describe such a person, as he or she throws out off-topic remarks in an attempt to “lure” others into some emotional response.

67. Stow on a ship : LADE
The verb “lade” meaning “to load” comes from an Old English word “hladan”. Lade also used to mean “to draw water” and indeed gave us our word “ladle”. So “lade” and “ladle” are close cousins.

Down
1. With 61-Down, Jimi Hendrix’s first single … or a hint to the starts of 20-, 28-, 45- and 50-Across : HEY …
61. See 1-Down : … JOE
“Hey Joe” is a rock song written in the sixties, most famously recorded by the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1966. Jimi Hendrix was the last musician to appear at Woodstock in 1969, and “Hey Joe” was the last number he performed, so the song closed the whole festival.

2. Saudi, e.g. : ARAB
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest Arab country in the Middle East and is the world’s largest oil producer, home to the world’s largest oil reserves. The Saudi dynasty started in central Arabia in 1744 when the secular leader Muhammad ibn Saud joined forces with the Islamic scholar and Imam, Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab. At the time, Saud was a ruler of a town near Riyadh and he was determined to bring “true” Islam to the Arabian peninsula. Since 1744 the fortunes of the Saudi family have risen and fallen, but it is that same family who rules what we know today as Saudi Arabia.

3. Angel’s topper : HALO
The Greek word “halos” is the name given to the ring of light around the sun or moon, which gives us our word “halo”, used for a radiant light depicted above the head of a saintly person.

4. Like amoeba reproduction : ASEXUAL
Asexual reproduction differs from sexual reproduction in that only one parent is involved. Asexual reproduction is common among simpler organisms and some plants and fungi. Asexual reproduction is thought be useful in providing a rapid growth of a population, whereas sexual reproduction has the advantage of creating genetic diversity, hence improving the chances of adaptation to a changing environment.

5. Snake charmer’s snake : COBRA
Snake charmers don’t actually hypnotize their cobras, but they do train them. The snake is trained to “follow” the movement of end of the pungi, the instrument that the charmer uses in the act. The snake presents no danger to the charmer or the audience, as it is typically defanged or has it’s mouth partially stitched up so that only the tongue can be moved in and out. Not a very nice practice …

8. Chicago daily, familiarly : TRIB
“The Chicago Tribune” was first published in 1847. The most famous edition of “The Trib” was probably in 1948 when the headline was “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN”, on the occasion of that year’s presidential election. When it turned out Truman had actually won, the victor picked up the paper with the erroneous headline and posed for photographs with it … a famous, famous photo, that must have stuck in the craw of the editor at the time.

9. Pittsburgh N.F.L. team : STEELERS
The Pittsburgh Steelers football team were founded in 1933, making them the oldest franchise in the AFC. Back in 1933, the team was known as the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates name was chosen as the Pittsburgh baseball team was the Pirates. The name was changed to the Steelers in 1940, and then the Steagles in 1943 when the team merged with the Philadelphia Eagles. There was a further merger in 1944, with the Chicago Cardinal to form Card-Pitt. From 1945, the Steelers name was resurrected.

11. Sewing case : ETUI
An etui is an ornamental case used to hold small items, in particular sewing needles. We imported both the case design and the word “etui” from France. The French also have a modern usage of “etui”, using the term to depict a case for carrying CDs.

12. Taboo thing : NO-NO
The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

13. Capone’s adversaries, informally : T-MEN
A T-man is a law-enforcement agent of the US Treasury (T is for Treasury).

The Chicago gangster Al Capone was eventually jailed for tax evasion. He was given a record 11-year sentence in federal prison, of which he served 8 years. He left prison suffering dementia caused by late-stage syphilis. Capone suffered through 7-8 sickly years before passing away in 1947.

21. One of 22 for Jon Stewart : EMMY
Comedian Jon Stewart is best known for hosting “The Daily Show” from 1999 until 2015. Stewart is a fan of crosswords. He proposed to his girlfriend and future wife in a personalized crossword that was created with the help of crossword editor Will Shortz.

22. 1-Across, in textspeak : LOL
(1A. “That’s hilarious!” : HA-HA!)
Laugh out loud (LOL, in text-speak)

26. Protein acid : AMINO
Amino acids are essential to life in many ways, not least of which is their use as the building blocks of proteins.

27. Dance club with a glittery ball overhead : DISCO
Discotheques first appeared during WWII in Occupied France. American-style music (like jazz and jitterbug dances) was banned by the Nazis, so French natives met in underground clubs that they called discotheques where records were often played on just a single turntable. After the war, these clubs came out into the open. One famous Paris discotheque was called “Whiskey a Gogo”. In that Paris disco, non-stop music was played using two turntables next to a dance-floor, and this concept spread around the world.

28. Frank who directed “It’s a Wonderful Life” : CAPRA
I can’t tell you how many of Frank Capra’s movies are on my list of all-time favorites. He directed such classics as “It Happened One Night”, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”, “Lost Horizon”, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, “Meet John Doe”, “Arsenic and Old Lace” and the holiday favorite “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Capra was the first person to win three directorial Oscars: for “It Happened One Night”, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” and “You Can’t Take It With You”. Capra also did his bit during WWII, enlisting just a few days after Pearl Harbor was attacked. Given his great talent, and the fact that he enlisted at the relatively advanced age of 44, the US Army put him to work directing 11 documentary war films in the “Why We Fight” series, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.

The Christmas Classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” was released in 1946, and is a Frank Capra movie starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. The film’s screenplay was adapted from a short story called “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern. Remember the famous swimming pool scene? That was shot in Beverly High School gym, and the pool is still in use today.

29. Writer Edgar ___ Poe : ALLAN
Edgar Allan Poe lived a life of many firsts. Poe is considered to be the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He was also the first notable American author to make his living through his writing, something that didn’t really go too well for him as he was always financially strapped. In 1849 he was found on the streets of Baltimore, delirious from either drugs or alcohol. Poe died a few days later in hospital at 39 years of age.

31. Actor Quinn : AIDAN
Aidan Quinn is an Irish-American actor. Quinn was born in Chicago but spent some years growing up in Ireland. Mainly known as a movie actor, Quinn is currently playing the role of Captain Tommy Gregson on the excellent TV series “Elementary” that is centered on a modern-day Sherlock Holmes.

32. One emancipated by emancipation : SLAVE
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863 during the Civil War. The order freed slaves in Confederate territory, but did not apply to the five slave states that were not in rebellion. Slavery became illegal in the whole of the United States in December 1865 when the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified.

41. This, and no play, make Jack a dull boy : ALL WORK
The saying “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” first appeared in print in a compendium of proverbs in 1659. Oft times one comes across an extended version of the adage:

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,
All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.

43. “For Those About to Rock” band : AC/DC
“For Those About to Rock (We Salute Now)” is a 1981 song released by Australian rock band AC/DC. The title comes from the salute said to have been used by prisoners about to die fighting in the Roman Colosseum, “Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant” (“Hail Caesar, we who are about to die, salute you.”).

44. Low-ethanol fuel blend : GASOHOL
Gasohol is a fuel mixture made from 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline. Gasohol can be used in most internal combustion engines.

46. Scrooge outburst : BAH!
The classic 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens has left us with a few famous phrases and words. Firstly, it led to popular use of the phrase “Merry Christmas”, and secondly it gave us the word “scrooge” meaning a miserly person. And thirdly, everyone knows that Ebenezer Scrooge uttered the words “Bah! Humbug!”.

49. Puff ___ (snake) : ADDER
There are several species of venomous snakes that are referred to as puff adders. The so-called common puff adder is more correctly called the Bitis arietans. The most widespread snake in Africa, the common puff adder is responsible for more snakebite fatalities on the continent than any other snake.

51. Bart Simpson’s sister : LISA
Lisa Simpson is Bart’s brainy younger sister on TV’s “The Simpsons”. Lisa is voiced by actress Yeardley Smith.

52. Harbinger : OMEN
A harbinger is a person or a thing that indicates what is to come. The word comes from the Middle English “herbenger”, a person sent ahead to arrange lodgings.

53. Scarlett O’Hara’s plantation : TARA
Scarlett O’Hara’s home is the Tara plantation, in Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind”. Tara was founded not far from the Georgia city of Jonesboro by Scarlett’s father, Irish immigrant Gerald O’Hara. Gerald won the square mile of land on which Tara was built in an all-night poker. He named his new abode after the Hill of Tara back in his home country, the ancient seat of the High King of Ireland.

56. Doctor Zhivago’s love : LARA
The heroine of Boris Pasternak’s epic novel “Doctor Zhivago” is Lara. The Lara character was inspired by Pasternak’s mistress Olga Ivinskaya.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. “That’s hilarious!” : HA-HA!
5. Acting groups : CASTS
10. Flexed, as at the elbow : BENT
14. Pitchers’ stats : ERAS
15. Dizzying illusions : OP ART
16. ___ Ant (cartoon superhero) : ATOM
17. Harvard rival : YALE
18. Disprove : BELIE
19. Sand hill : DUNE
20. 1899-1901 uprising in China : BOXER REBELLION (giving “Joe Boxer”)
23. Actress Thurman of “Gattaca” : UMA
24. Fictional news director Grant : LOU
25. Palindromic term of address : MADAM
28. Style of “iPhone” or “eBay,” typographically : CAMELCASE (giving “Joe Camel”)
34. Poet Dickinson : EMILY
35. Banned apple spray : ALAR
36. Potter’s oven : KILN
37. Talk smack about : DIS
38. Poor passing grade : D-PLUS
39. June honoree : DAD
40. Ancient Peruvian : INCA
42. ___ Mountains (range east of Moscow) : URAL
43. Tequila plant : AGAVE
45. “Great!” : COOL BEANS! (giving “Joe Cool”)
47. Rattan furniture maker : CANER
48. Connected PC group : LAN
49. YouTube video additions of 2007 : ADS
50. Vacillate : BLOW HOT AND COLD (giving “Joe Blow”)
58. Ride to an awards show : LIMO
59. Overly enthusiastic : RABID
60. Muslim pilgrimage : HAJJ
62. Manipulator : USER
63. Negotiated peace : TRUCE
64. “Twist, Lick, Dunk” cookie : OREO
65. Stinky : RANK
66. Internet troll, maybe : HATER
67. Stow on a ship : LADE

Down
1. With 61-Down, Jimi Hendrix’s first single … or a hint to the starts of 20-, 28-, 45- and 50-Across : HEY …
2. Saudi, e.g. : ARAB
3. Angel’s topper : HALO
4. Like amoeba reproduction : ASEXUAL
5. Snake charmer’s snake : COBRA
6. Imitator : APER
7. “50% off” event : SALE
8. Chicago daily, familiarly : TRIB
9. Pittsburgh N.F.L. team : STEELERS
10. What the number 13 brings, supposedly : BAD LUCK
11. Sewing case : ETUI
12. Taboo thing : NO-NO
13. Capone’s adversaries, informally : T-MEN
21. One of 22 for Jon Stewart : EMMY
22. 1-Across, in textspeak : LOL
25. Military first-aid expert : MEDIC
26. Protein acid : AMINO
27. Dance club with a glittery ball overhead : DISCO
28. Frank who directed “It’s a Wonderful Life” : CAPRA
29. Writer Edgar ___ Poe : ALLAN
30. Claws savagely : MAULS
31. Actor Quinn : AIDAN
32. One emancipated by emancipation : SLAVE
33. Rear-___ (certain accident) : ENDER
38. 0 degrees, on a compass : DUE NORTH
41. This, and no play, make Jack a dull boy : ALL WORK
43. “For Those About to Rock” band : AC/DC
44. Low-ethanol fuel blend : GASOHOL
46. Scrooge outburst : BAH!
49. Puff ___ (snake) : ADDER
50. Photo of a speeding car, maybe : BLUR
51. Bart Simpson’s sister : LISA
52. Harbinger : OMEN
53. Scarlett O’Hara’s plantation : TARA
54. Touch, as two states : ABUT
55. Naughty’s opposite : NICE
56. Doctor Zhivago’s love : LARA
57. Handled tunes at a dance, say : DJED
61. See 1-Down : … JOE

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