0801-13 New York Times Crossword Answers 1 Aug 13, Thursday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Timothy Polin
THEME: Ratios in Physics … the circled words in today’s grid are in pairs, and each pair is a physical unit “over” a physical unit, hence defining a ratio used in physics. The physical unit defined in each ratio is the word that completes the clue:

17A. With 22-Across, fail to cope with difficult circumstances : CRACK UNDER PRESSURE (Pressure = Force/Area)
27A. With 35-Across, highway sign meaning “slow down” : REDUCE SPEED (Speed = Distance/Time)
45A. With 51-Across, Monaco has the world’s highest : POPULATION DENSITY (Density = Mass/Volume)

60A. What the three sets of shaded squares in this puzzle represent : PHYSICS FORMULAS

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 14m 22s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Delivery specialists, for short : OBS
“Ob.” is an abbreviation for “obstetrics”.

14. Chinese calendar figure : RAT
The 12-year cycle in the Chinese Calendar uses the following animals in order:

– Rat
– Ox
– Tiger
– Rabbit
– Dragon
– Snake
– Horse
– Goat
– Monkey
– Rooster
– Dog
– Pig

15. Seagoing vessels : SLOOPS
Sloops and cutters are sailboats, and each has just one mast. One major difference between the two types of vessel is that the mast on a cutter is set much further aft than the mast on a sloop.

20. ___ Diurna (daily Roman notices) : ACTA
The Latin phrase “Acta Diurna” translates literally as “Daily Acts”, but is usually said to mean “Daily Public Records”. The Acta Diurna were official announcements carved in stone and displayed in the public places. These announcements were often the results of legal proceedings or trials. or noteworthy births, marriages or deaths.

23. Tolkien’s Dark Lord of Mordor : SAURON
In J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”, Sauron is the actual “Lord of the Rings”. Sauron was the Dark Lord Morgoth’s trusted lieutenant.

40. Unit of energy : ERG
An erg is a unit of energy or mechanical work. “Erg” comes from the Greek word “ergon” meaning “work”. A dyne is a unit of force. The name “dyne” comes from the Greek “dynamis” meaning “power, force”. Ergs and dynes are related to each other in that one erg is the amount of energy needed to move a force of one dyne over a distance of one centimeter.

41. British poet laureate ___ Day-Lewis : CECIL
Cecil Day-Lewis was an Irish poet from County Laois who was appointed Poet Laureate of the UK in 1968. Cecil has a famous son, the actor Daniel Day-Lewis.

43. Ingredient in an Arnold Palmer : ICE TEA
The drink named for golfer Arnold Palmer is made from lemonade and ice tea. The drink named for fellow golfer John Daly is also made from lemonade and ice tea, but with vodka added …

50. The Yoko of “Oh Yoko!” : ONO
“Oh Yoko!” is a song written and performed by John Lennon in 1971, which appears on his iconic album “Imagine”. The title of course refers to Lennon’s wife, Yoko Ono.

56. Hindu noblewoman : RANI
A ranee (also spelled “rani”) is the female equivalent of a raja in India, and is the equivalent of a western queen or princess.

64. Too much : DE TROP
We use the term “de trop” to mean “too much, too many”. In the original French, “de trop” translates as “in excess”.

66. Some Groucho Marx humor : PUNS
Groucho Marx’s real name was Julius Henry Marx. By the time Groucho started his successful, post-Hollywood career hosting the quiz show “You Bet Your Life”, he was sporting a real mustache. For all his movies, his mustache had been painted on with greasepaint.

68. Greek night goddess : NYX
In Greek mythology, Chaos was the first of the primeval gods born at the creation of the universe. Following Chaos came:

– Gaia, the primordial goddess of the Earth
– Tartaros, the primordial god of the Underworld
– Eros, the primordial god of Love
– Nyx, the primordial goddess of the Night
– Erebus, the primordial god of Darkness
– Aither, the primordial god of Light
– Hemera, the primordial goddess of the Day

Down
1. Black-and-white threats : ORCAS
The taxonomic name for the killer whale is Orcinus orca. The use of the name “orca”, rather than “killer whale”, is becoming more and more common. The Latin word “Orcinus” means “belonging to Orcus”, with Orcus being the name for the Kingdom of the Dead.

7. Engine parts : RODS
In an internal combustion engine, it is the (connecting) rods which connect the pistons to the crankshaft.

9. Old D&D co. : TSR
Dungeons & Dragons is a complex role-playing game first published in 1974, by Tactical Studies Rules Incorporated (TSR). Dungeons & Dragons was probably the first of the modern role-playing games to be developed, and the most successful. It is still played by lots of people today, including my nerdy son …

10. Sif’s husband in myth : THOR
In Norse mythology, Sif was the goddess of the Earth. Sif was married to the thunder god Thor.

12. South America’s ___ Trail : INCA
The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu originates about 50 miles from Cuzco 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 …

13. Plowman’s command : GEE
“Haw!” is a command given to a trained animal that is hauling something (like a horse or an ox). “Haw!” is used to instruct the animal to turn to the left. The equivalent command for a right turn is “Gee!” Just to confuse things, the same commands are used in the British Isles but with the opposite meanings. That must be pretty unsettling for jet-setting plow horses …

18. Stitch : CARD
A “card”, “stitch” or “riot” is a very amusing person.

26. German direction : OST
“Ost” is German for “east”.

28. Old A. C. Gilbert toy : ERECTOR SET
Oh how I loved my Erector Set as a kid. The version we used growing up was referred to as a Meccano set, as “Meccano” was the brand name used for for the toy sold as “Mechanics Made Easy”. The original Erector Set was developed by inventor Alfred Carlton Gilbert, and first produced in 1913. Back then it was sold as “The Erector/Structural Steel and Electro-Mechanical Builder”.

31. Actor Cage, informally : NIC
Nic Cage was born Nicolas Coppola. Cage is the nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola and actress Talia Shire, both of whom are his father’s siblings.

33. California’s ___ River : EEL
The Eel River in California was named in 1850 by an explorer Josiah Gregg after he made a trade with some Native Americans, swapping a frying pan for a large catch of eels.

36. What was cool in the ’50s? : HEP
The slang term “hep” meaning “cool” has the same meaning as the later derivative term “hip”. The origins of “hep” seem unclear, but it was adopted by jazz musicians of the early 1900s.

39. Follower of brown. or auburn. : EDU
Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, is one of the eight Ivy League schools. Brown has been around a long time, founded in 1764, years before America declared independence from England. The university took the name of Brown in 1804 after one Nicholas Brown, Jr. gave a substantial gift to the school.

Auburn University in Alabama was chartered in 1856, as the East Alabama Male College. The school was renamed when it was granted university status in 1960.

41. Hunting gear, informally : CAMO
Our term “camouflage” evolved directly from a Parisian slang term “camoufler” meaning “to disguise”. The term was first used in WWI, although the British navy at that time preferred the expression “dazzle-painting”.

43. Golfer Poulter : IAN
Ian Poulter is a golfer from England who for a while was ranked number five in the world.

44. Form a ring around : ENVIRON
“Environ” is the French word for “round” or “round about”.

46. City in New Jersey or California : LODI
Lodi, New Jersey was named in honor of the city of Lodi in Italy. One of Lodi’s claims to fame is that it is home to the Satin Dolls go-go bar, which was used for location shoots for the fictional Bada Bing bar in “The Sopranos”.

Lodi, California may not be as well known a wine producer as Sonoma and Napa counties, but has been given the moniker “Zinfandel Capital of the World”.

47. Dominican baseball family name : ALOU
Jesus Alou played major league baseball, as did his brothers Matty and Felipe, and as does Felipe’s son, Moises.

52. County bordering Cambridgeshire : ESSEX
Essex is a county in England, referred to as one of the “home counties”.

The home counties are the counties that surround the city of London, outside of London itself. “Home county” is not an official designation but has been in popular use since the 1800s.

53. 10 benjamins : THOU
Benjamin Franklin is featured on one side of the hundred-dollar bill, and Philadelphia’s Independence Hall on the other side. There is a famous “error” in the image of Independence Hall. If you look closely at the clock face at the top of the building you can see that the “four” is written in Roman numerals as “IV” as perhaps one might expect. However, on the actual clock on Independence Hall, the “four” is denoted by “IIII”.

54. Canticle : HYMN
A canticle is a hymn which is taken from a biblical text other than the Psalms.

57. Colgate product for men : AFTA
Afta Lotion is a brand name of aftershave lotion, belonging to Colgate-Palmolive.

60. Hallucinogenic inits. : PCP
Phencyclidine is a recreational drug usually referred to on the street as PCP or “angel dust”.

62. Brit. legislators : MPS
British legislators are Members of Parliament (MPs).

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Delivery specialists, for short : OBS
4. Something groundbreaking : A FIRST
10. Tiny bit of kindling : TWIG
14. Chinese calendar figure : RAT
15. Seagoing vessels : SLOOPS
16. Refine : HONE
17. With 22-Across, fail to cope with difficult circumstances : CRACK UNDER PRESSURE (Pressure = Force/Area)
20. ___ Diurna (daily Roman notices) : ACTA
21. She, in Italy : ESSA
22. See 17-Across : AREA
23. Tolkien’s Dark Lord of Mordor : SAURON
25. Belts boxers don’t want to receive? : KOS
27. With 35-Across, highway sign meaning “slow down” : REDUCE SPEED (Speed = Distance/Time)
34. Fist-pounding sort : TYRANT
35. See 27-Across : TIME
36. Ritually torments : HAZES
40. Unit of energy : ERG
41. British poet laureate ___ Day-Lewis : CECIL
42. Whimsical outburst : EGAD!
43. Ingredient in an Arnold Palmer : ICE TEA
45. With 51-Across, Monaco has the world’s highest : POPULATION DENSITY (Density = Mass/Volume)
50. The Yoko of “Oh Yoko!” : ONO
51. See 45-Across : VOLUME
53. Graceless landing, say : THUD
56. Hindu noblewoman : RANI
59. World Cup chorus : OLES
60. What the three sets of shaded squares in this puzzle represent : PHYSICS FORMULAS
63. Terse invitation : COME
64. Too much : DE TROP
65. Poetic preposition : ERE
66. Some Groucho Marx humor : PUNS
67. Tarnishes : STAINS
68. Greek night goddess : NYX

Down
1. Black-and-white threats : ORCAS
2. Where people get loaded on a train : BAR CAR
3. Center of a square, maybe : STATUE
4. See 29-Down : ASK?
5. Language learner’s goal : FLUENCY
6. Particle accelerator particles : IONS
7. Engine parts : RODS
8. Addressing : SPEAKING TO
9. Old D&D co. : TSR
10. Sif’s husband in myth : THOR
11. Eroded (away) : WORE
12. South America’s ___ Trail : INCA
13. Plowman’s command : GEE
18. Stitch : CARD
19. Express : FAST
24. Exposes a secret of : OUTS
26. German direction : OST
28. Old A. C. Gilbert toy : ERECTOR SET
29. With 4-Down, reluctant questioner’s opening : DARE I
30. Eroded (away) : ATE
31. Actor Cage, informally : NIC
32. Early 10th-century year : CMI
33. California’s ___ River : EEL
36. What was cool in the ’50s? : HEP
37. Gone by : AGO
38. Nuke : ZAP
39. Follower of brown. or auburn. : EDU
41. Hunting gear, informally : CAMO
43. Golfer Poulter : IAN
44. Form a ring around : ENVIRON
46. City in New Jersey or California : LODI
47. Dominican baseball family name : ALOU
48. Showing ill humor : SULLEN
49. Like wet paint : SMEARY
52. County bordering Cambridgeshire : ESSEX
53. 10 benjamins : THOU
54. Canticle : HYMN
55. Exercises : USES
57. Colgate product for men : AFTA
58. “Me neither” : NOR I
60. Hallucinogenic inits. : PCP
61. Composition of many a music library : CDS
62. Brit. legislators : MPS

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