0306-18 NY Times Crossword Answers 6 Mar 2018, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Bruce Greig
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Animal Move

Themed answers are two-word phrases. The first word is an animal, and the second is a verb meaning “move”:

  • 16A. Forced walk with arms pinned behind the back : FROG MARCH
  • 24A. Hit 2000 animated film set on a farm : CHICKEN RUN
  • 34A. Core-strengthening exercise performed on all fours : BEAR CRAWL
  • 50A. Old ragtime dance : TURKEY TROT
  • 60A. Straight-kneed military movement : GOOSE STEP

Bill’s time: 5m 46s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. French clerics : ABBES

In French, “abbés” (abbots) might live in “un monastère” (a monastery).

6. Resource in the Mesabi Range : ORE

The Mesabi Range has the largest deposit of iron ore in the country, and is located in Minnesota. Robert Allen Zimmerman was raised in the area (whom we know him better as “Bob Dylan”) and he wrote a song called “North Country Blues” that tells of the decline of the mining industry in the Mesabi Range.

13. Florida’s Key ___ : LARGO

Key Largo is an island in the Florida Keys. The island gained a lot of celebrity in 1948 when the John Huston movie “Key Largo” was released, starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall.

15. Official state sport of Wyoming : RODEO

“Rodeo” is a Spanish word that is usually translated into English as “round up”.

18. Relating to element #76 : OSMIC

Osmium is a metallic element in the platinum family. Osmium is the densest naturally occurring element, and is about twice as dense as lead.

19. Something “lost” in the highest-grossing movie of 1981 : ARK

“Raiders of the Lost Ark” is, in my humble opinion, the best of the Indiana Jones franchise of movies. This first Indiana Jones film was released in 1981, produced by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg. Harrison Ford was Spielberg’s first choice to play the lead, but Lucas resisted as he was concerned that he would be too closely associated with the actor (as Ford played Han Solo in “Star Wars”, and also appeared in Lucas’s “American Graffiti”). Tom Selleck was offered the role but he couldn’t get out of his commitments to “Magnum, P.I.” Eventually Spielberg got his way and Ford was hired, a good thing I say …

20. Precalculator calculators : ABACI

The abacus (plural “abaci”) was used as a counting frame long before man had invented a numbering system. It is a remarkable invention, particularly when one notes that abaci are still widely used today across Africa and Asia.

22. “Hogwash!” : LIES!

“Hogwash” means “rubbish, of little value”. “Hogwash” was originally the name of swill fed to pigs.

26. Specialties : FORTES

A person’s forte is his or her strength. The term “forte” came into English via French from the Latin “fortis” meaning strong.

33. ___ Moines, Iowa : DES

The city of Des Moines is the capital of Iowa, and takes its name from the Des Moines River. The river in turn takes its name from the French “Riviere des Moines” meaning “River of the Monks”. It looks like there isn’t any “monkish” connection to the city’s name per se. “Des Moines” was just the name given by French traders who corrupted “Moingona”, the name of a group of Illinois Native Americans who lived by the river. However, others do contend that French Trappist monks, who lived a full 200 miles from the river, somehow influenced the name.

38. Death on the Nile cause, perhaps : ASP

The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.

46. Muss, as the hair : TOUSLE

A “muss” is state of disorder, and a term that probably evolved from “mess”. The phrase “no muss, no fuss” means “no bother, no mess made, no excessive hustle and bustle”.

49. Young raptor : EAGLET

“Raptor” is a generic term for a bird of prey, one that has talons to grip its victims.

50. Old ragtime dance : TURKEY TROT

The turkey trot is a dance step that was popular in the early 1900s, often performed to ragtime music. It was a dance denounced by the Vatican, as some of the positions assumed were deemed suggestive and offensive.

54. Cockney greeting : ‘ELLO

A Cockney is someone who, according to tradition, is born within the sound of Bow Bells in the center of London. The Cockney accent is usually considered “working class”. Cockney speakers often use a wonderful form of speech called rhyming slang. So, Cockney’s drink a lot of “Rosie Lea” (tea), and climb the “apples and pears” (stairs) using their “plates of meat” (feet). Cockneys also tend to “drop their aitches”, so “home” becomes “‘ome” and “horse” becomes “‘orse”.

55. Courtyards : ATRIA

In modern architecture an atrium (plural “atria” or “atriums”) is a large open space usually in the center of a building and extending upwards to the roof. The original atrium was an open court in the center of an Ancient Roman house. One could access most of the enclosed rooms of the house from the atrium.

62. Any of eight English kings : HENRY

Henry I of England was a son of William the Conqueror. According to legend, Henry died from eating “a surfeit of lampreys”, or more likely food poisoning. Lampreys look like a cross between a fish and an eel.

Famously, King Henry VIII had six queens consort. There is a rhyme that is commonly used to help remember the fates of each of his wives, which goes:

King Henry the Eighth, to six wives he was wedded. One died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded.

The use of the term “divorce” isn’t quite accurate though, as in fact Henry had two of his marriages annulled. His wives (and their fates) were:

  1. Catherine of Aragon (Annulled),
  2. Anne Boleyn (Beheaded),
  3. Jane Seymour (Died)
  4. Anne of Cleves (Annulled),
  5. Catherine Howard (Beheaded),
  6. Catherine Parr (Survived).

63. “Barbara ___” (Beach Boys hit) : ANN

The Beach Boys 1965 hit “Barbara Ann” was actually a cover version of a song first recorded by the Regents in 1961 (with the different spelling “Barbara Anne”).

65. Physics units : ERGS

An erg is a unit of mechanical work or energy. It is a small unit, with one joule comprising 10 million ergs. it has been suggested that an erg is about the amount of energy required for a mosquito to take off. The term comes from “ergon”, the Greek word for work.

Down

2. New York’s Spanish Harlem and others : BARRIOS

“Barrio” is the name given to an urban district in Spanish-speaking countries.

The Manhattan district of Harlem is sometimes divided into Central Harlem, West Harlem and East Harlem. East Harlem is also known as Spanish Harlem.

3. Employees at Re/Max and Coldwell Banker : BROKERS

RE/MAX is an international real estate company headquartered in Denver, Colorado. The name “RE/MAX” stands for “real estate maximum”, and the company’s logo is a hot-air balloon with RE/MAX emblazoned on it.

The real estate company Coldwell Banker was founded in San Francisco, just after the 1906 earthquake.

5. “Brave New World” drug : SOMA

In Aldous Huxley’s 1931 masterpiece, “Brave New World”, the members of his future society are encouraged to partake of the drug called soma. The soma provides hangover-free escapes referred to as “holidays”.

There is a speech by Miranda in “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare that is the source for the title of the dystopian novel “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley:

O wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in’t.

6. Who said “I’m black. I don’t feel burdened by it …. It’s part of who I am. It does not define me” : OPRAH

What can you say about Oprah Winfrey that hasn’t been said already? Born into poverty to a single mother and with a harrowing childhood, Oprah is now the greatest African American philanthropist the world has ever known. Oprah’s name was originally meant to be “Orpah” after the Biblical character in the Book of Ruth, and that’s how it appears on her birth certificate. Apparently folks had trouble pronouncing “Orpah”, so she’s now “Oprah”.

7. Christina who played Wednesday Addams : RICCI

Christina Ricci is an American actress who found fame on the big screen at an early age, playing the very young Wednesday Addams in the 1991 movie version of “The Addams Family”.

9. Particles in quantum mechanics : BOSONS

Particle physics is beyond me, but I do known that bosons are subatomic particles. They can be elementary like photons or composite like mesons, which are composed of one quark and one antiquark. “Bosons” are named for the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose who developed Bose-Einstein statistics along with Albert Einstein.

11. Sports & ___ (Trivial Pursuit category) : LEISURE

Trivial Pursuit was invented in 1979 by two Canadians from Montreal. The pair decided to come up with their own game after they discovered that there were pieces missing from the game of Scrabble that they wanted to play. There was a full blown launch of a commercial version of the game in 1982. In 2008, Hasbro bought the complete rights to Trivial Pursuit, for US$80 million! On a personal note, I met my lovely wife over a game of Trivial Pursuit …

12. Museum guides : DOCENTS

“Docent” is a term used for a university lecturer. There are also museum docents, people who serve as guides for visitors to their institutions and who usually provide their services for free. The term comes from the Latin “docere” meaning “to teach”.

17. Some kindergarten instruction : ABCS

“Kindergarten” is a German term, one translating as “children’s garden”. The term was coined by the German education authority Friedrich Fröbel in 1837, when he used it as the name for his play and activity institute that he created for young children to use before they headed off to school. His thought was that children should be nourished educationally, like plants in a garden.

23. Attack as Hamlet did Polonius : STAB

Polonius is an important character in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. Polonius is eventually killed by Hamlet, albeit in a case of mistaken identity. He has several memorable lines in the play that are oft-quoted today, including “To thine own self be true”, “Brevity is the soul of wit”, and “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”.

25. ___ Sutra : KAMA

The “Kama Sutra” is renowned for its descriptions of positions that can be used for sexual intercourse, but the sutra includes many other texts that deal with various matters of a sexual nature, including how to woo a woman, the conduct of a “chief wife”, the conduct of “other wives”, how to make money as a courtesan. And much more, as if that isn’t enough …

30. Noninvasive diagnostic procedure, for short : MRI

MRI scans can be daunting for many people as they usually involve the patient lying inside a tube with the imaging magnet surrounding the body. Additionally, the scan can take up to 40 minutes in some cases. There are some open MRI scanners available that help prevent a feeling of claustrophobia. However, the image produced by open scanners are of lower quality as they operate at lower magnetic fields.

31. One of two in “Waiting for Godot” : ACT

“Waiting for Godot” is a play by novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett that premiered in 1953. Irishman Beckett actually wrote the piece in French, under the title “En attendant Godot”. He then translated the play into English himself.

35. ___-deucey (card game) : ACEY

Acey-deucey is a fast-played variant of backgammon. Apparently the game has been a favorite with members of the armed forces since the days of WWI.

36. Org. awarding titles to Mike Tyson and Tyson Fury : WBA

World Boxing Association (WBA)

37. Balcony section : LOGE

In most theaters and stadia today, “loge” is the name given to the front rows of a mezzanine level. Loge can also be used for box seating.

38. Embassy worker … or something that worker might carry : ATTACHE

“Attaché” is a French term which literally means “attached”, and is used for a person who is assigned to the administrative staff of some agency or other service. The term is most recognized as it applies to someone assigned to an Ambassador’s staff at an embassy. The word was extended to “attaché case” at the beginning of the twentieth century, meaning a leather case used for carrying papers. I guess that an attache case might “attached” to an attaché at an embassy …

43. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, for a record 19 times : ALL-STAR

Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s name at birth was Ferdinand Lewis “Lew” Alcindor. Alcindor changed his name when he converted to Islam.

47. Super G competitors : SKIERS

Super Giant Slalom (Super G) is an alpine skiing event introduced in 1982. The Super G isn’t as fast as its sister event the Downhill, but is faster than the more technical Giant Slalom.

49. French summers : ETES

In French, “été” (summer) is a common time to go “en vacances” (on vacation).

51. Coverage of senators in ancient Rome? : TOGAS

In Ancient Rome the classical attire known as a toga (plural “togae”) was usually worn over a tunic. The tunic was made from linen, and the toga itself was a piece of cloth about twenty feet long made from wool. The toga could only be worn by men, and only if those men were Roman citizens. The female equivalent of the toga was called a “stola”.

52. Onetime news exec Arledge : ROONE

Roone Arledge was an executive at ABC. Arledge made a name for himself in sports broadcasting and then took over ABC News in 1977, a position he held until his death in 2002.

53. O3 : OZONE

Ozone gets its name from the Greek word “ozein” meaning “to smell”. It was given this name as ozone’s formation during lightning storms was detected by the gas’s distinctive smell. Famously, there is a relatively high concentration of the gas in the “ozone layer” in the Earth’s stratosphere. This ozone layer provides a vital function for animal life on the planet as it absorbs most of the sun’s UV radiation. A molecule of ozone is made up of three oxygen atoms, whereas a “normal” oxygen has just two atoms
.

57. Art ___ : DECO

Art deco is a style of design and architecture of the 1920s that actually had its roots in Belgium and then spread throughout Europe before arriving in North America. Celebrated examples of art deco architecture are the magnificent Chrysler Building in New York City completed in 1930, and the GE Building that sits in the middle of Rockefeller Center also in New York City, with the address of “30 Rock”.

61. Mme., in Madrid : SRA

The equivalent of “Mrs.” in French is “Mme.” (Madame), in Spanish is “Sra.” (Señora) and in Portuguese is also “Sra.” (Senhora).

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. French clerics : ABBES
6. Resource in the Mesabi Range : ORE
9. Lacking any tread : BALD
13. Florida’s Key ___ : LARGO
14. Fruit center : PIT
15. Official state sport of Wyoming : RODEO
16. Forced walk with arms pinned behind the back : FROG MARCH
18. Relating to element #76 : OSMIC
19. Something “lost” in the highest-grossing movie of 1981 : ARK
20. Precalculator calculators : ABACI
21. Grace under pressure : POISE
22. “Hogwash!” : LIES!
24. Hit 2000 animated film set on a farm : CHICKEN RUN
26. Specialties : FORTES
28. State with conviction : ASSERT
29. Test, as 6-Across : ASSAY
30. Seriously injure : MAIM
33. ___ Moines, Iowa : DES
34. Core-strengthening exercise performed on all fours : BEAR CRAWL
38. Death on the Nile cause, perhaps : ASP
41. Commend : CITE
42. Swine : BOARS
46. Muss, as the hair : TOUSLE
49. Young raptor : EAGLET
50. Old ragtime dance : TURKEY TROT
54. Cockney greeting : ‘ELLO
55. Courtyards : ATRIA
56. Trickled : OOZED
58. Bit of a draft? : SIP
59. Fire department V.I.P. : CHIEF
60. Straight-kneed military movement : GOOSE STEP
62. Any of eight English kings : HENRY
63. “Barbara ___” (Beach Boys hit) : ANN
64. Hunger for : CRAVE
65. Physics units : ERGS
66. “Get it?” : SEE?
67. Propelled a boat : OARED

Down

1. Cattle or horse feed : ALFALFA
2. New York’s Spanish Harlem and others : BARRIOS
3. Employees at Re/Max and Coldwell Banker : BROKERS
4. Bad thing to have on one’s face : EGG
5. “Brave New World” drug : SOMA
6. Who said “I’m black. I don’t feel burdened by it …. It’s part of who I am. It does not define me” : OPRAH
7. Christina who played Wednesday Addams : RICCI
8. Honesty and hard work, e.g. : ETHIC
9. Particles in quantum mechanics : BOSONS
10. Looked up to : ADMIRED
11. Sports & ___ (Trivial Pursuit category) : LEISURE
12. Museum guides : DOCENTS
15. Borders of boxing rings : ROPES
17. Some kindergarten instruction : ABCS
23. Attack as Hamlet did Polonius : STAB
25. ___ Sutra : KAMA
27. Hurricane’s center : EYE
30. Noninvasive diagnostic procedure, for short : MRI
31. One of two in “Waiting for Godot” : ACT
32. Ill temper : IRE
35. ___-deucey (card game) : ACEY
36. Org. awarding titles to Mike Tyson and Tyson Fury : WBA
37. Balcony section : LOGE
38. Embassy worker … or something that worker might carry : ATTACHE
39. Wind that typically brings warmer air : SOUTHER
40. Operating smoothly, as an engine : PURRING
43. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, for a record 19 times : ALL-STAR
44. Take over for : RELIEVE
45. Clogged (up) : STOPPED
47. Super G competitors : SKIERS
48. Like lettuce, spinach and kale : LEAFY
49. French summers : ETES
51. Coverage of senators in ancient Rome? : TOGAS
52. Onetime news exec Arledge : ROONE
53. O3 : OZONE
57. Art ___ : DECO
61. Mme., in Madrid : SRA