0111-18 NY Times Crossword Answers 11 Jan 2018, Thursday

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Constructed by: Sam Trabucco
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: Interrupted Lines

Themed answers are LINES spoken after an INTERRUPTION. And, those answers in the gird have also been interrupted, hyphenated and continued on the next line:

  • 16A. Line from someone who’s been interrupted : PLEASE LET ME FIN-
  • 19A. Kinda … or a continuation of 16-Across : ISH
  • 36A. Line from someone who’s been interrupted : DO I LOOK LIKE I’M D-
  • 39A. Joined … or a continuation of 36-Across : ONE?
  • 55A. Line from someone who’s been interrupted : QUIET! I WAS SPEAK-
  • 58A. Beethoven’s “Minuet ___” … or a continuation of 55-Across : ING! (or “IN G”)

Bill’s time: 13m 55s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Start of a magic incantation : ABRA-

The incantation “abracadabra” has a long history. It was used as far back as the 2nd century AD in Ancient Rome when the word was prescribed by a physician to be worn on an amulet to help his emperor recover from disease. “Abracadabra” is Aramaic, and roughly translates as “I will create as I speak”.

5. Hasbro toy that involves pulling and twisting : BOP IT

Bop It is a line of toys with a speaker that issues commands to activate input devices on the toy, devices such as handles, cranks, wheels and switches. The commands come in a series of increasing length, and at increasing speed. So, I guess Bop It is a test of memory and dexterity.

13. AMC’s “Better Call ___” : SAUL

“Better Call Saul” is a spinoff drama series from the hit show “Breaking Bad”. The main character is small-time lawyer Saul Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk, who featured in the original series. “Better Call Saul” is set six years before Goodman makes an appearance in the “Breaking Bad” storyline. The lawyer’s real name is James Morgan McGill, and his pseudonym is a play on the words “S’all good, man!”

14. Celebrating Hanukkah, say : JEWISH

The term “Hanukkah” derives from the Hebrew for “to dedicate”. Hanukkah is a holiday lasting eight days that commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem after successful Jewish revolt against the Seleucids in the 2nd-century BCE. The story of Hanukkah includes the miracle of the one-day supply of oil that kept the menorah alight for eight days.

15. Opposite of 29-Down : OUI
(29D. Only spoken word (by Marcel Marceau) in Mel Brooks’s “Silent Movie” : NON)

“Oui” is “yes” in French, and “non” is “no”.

22. School in San Luis Obispo : CAL POLY

Cal Poly is more familiar name for California Polytechnic State University. There are actually two Cal Poly institutions, one in San Luis Obispo (the most famous) and one in Pomona.
The city of San Luis Obispo is one of the oldest communities in California. The name “San Luis Obispo” translates as “Saint Louis, the Bishop of Toulouse”. In 1990, San Luis Obispo was the first municipality in the world to ban smoking in all indoor public areas.

26. Most hajjis : ARABS

“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”, “hajj” or “hadj”.

41. Hollywood’s Cameron : DIAZ

The Hollywood actress Cameron Diaz started out her professional life as a model. Diaz’s first acting role was in the 1994 film “The Mask”, starring alongside Jim Carrey.

42. Some canasta plays : MELDS

The card game called canasta originated in Uruguay apparently, with “canasta” being the Spanish word for “basket”. In the rummy-like game, a meld of seven cards or more is called a canasta.

47. Body shot? : MRI SCAN

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine uses powerful magnetic fields to generate its images so there is no exposure to ionizing radiation (such as X-rays). We used MRI equipment in our chemistry labs at school, way back in the days when the technology was still called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI). Apparently the marketing folks didn’t like the term “nuclear” because of its association with atomic bombs, so now it’s just called MRI.

51. Actress Hayek of “Frida” : SALMA

Salma Hayek is a Mexican actress. Hayek was the first Mexican national to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, for her portrayal of artist Frida Kahlo in the 2002 movie “Frida”.

54. Hit 2011 animated film : RIO

“Rio” is a 2011 animated movie about a male blue macaw who is brought to mate with a female blue macaw in Rio de Janeiro, hence the movie’s title. Fans can go see “Rio 2” that was released in 2014.

58. Beethoven’s “Minuet ___” … or a continuation of 55-Across : ING! (or “IN G”)

A minuet is a dance that originated in France. At some point, the middle section of the minuet was routinely scored for just a trio of instruments. The resulting composition was known as a minuet and trio, and in the Classical Era was commonly chosen as the third movement of a symphony.

61. Photographer Goldin : NAN

Nan Goldin is an American photographer who is based in New York, Berlin and Paris.

63. Bingo relative : KENO

The name of the game keno has French or Latin roots, with the French “quine” being a term for five winning numbers, and the Latin “quini” meaning “five each”. The game originated in China and was introduced into the West by Chinese immigrants who were working on the first Transcontinental Railroad in the 1800s.

Down

1. Jiggly dish : ASPIC

Aspic is a dish in which the main ingredients are served in a gelatin made from meat stock. “Aspic” is a French word meaning “jelly”.

2. Makings of a model? : BALSA

Balsa is a very fast growing tree that is native to parts of South America. Even though balsa wood is very soft, it is actually classified as a hardwood, the softest of all the hardwoods (go figure!). Balsa is light and strong, so is commonly used in making model airplanes. Amazingly, in WWII a full-size British plane, the de Havilland Mosquito, was built largely from balsa and plywood. No wonder they called it “The Wooden Wonder” and “The Timber Terror”.

3. Oscar winner Mercedes : RUEHL

Mercedes Ruehl is an actress from Queens, New York who is noted for her Academy Award-winning performance in the 1992 movie “The Fisher King”, and for her Tony Award-winning performance in the 1991 Neil Simon play “Lost in Yonkers”.

9. Co-written best seller : THE BIBLE

The Bible is the best-selling book of all time, with annual sales running at about 100 million copies.

11. City near ancient Carthage : TUNIS

Tunis is the capital of Tunisia, and gives the country her name. Tunis is on the Mediterranean coast, and is located just a few miles from the site of ancient Carthage.
The Carthaginian Republic was centered on the city of Carthage, the ruins of which are located on the coast of modern-day Tunisia. The Latin name for the people of Carthage was “Afri”. When the Romans took over Carthage, they created a province they called “Africa”. That name extended over time to include the whole continent.

12. Fruity drink brand : HI-C

Hi-C orange drink was created in 1946, and introduced to the market in 1948, initially in the south of the country. The name Hi-C was chosen to emphasize the high vitamin C content in the drink, as it contained added ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

17. Clumsy boat : SCOW

A scow is a flat-bottomed boat with squared-off ends that’s often used for transportation, usually pushed or pulled by a barge. Often a scow can be seen carrying junk or garbage.

23. Dr. ___ : PHIL

Dr. Phil (McGraw) met Oprah Winfrey when he was hired to work with her as a legal consultant during the Amarillo Texas beef trial (when the industry sued Oprah for libel over “Mad Cow Disease” statements). Oprah was impressed with Dr. Phil and invited him onto her show, and we haven’t stopped seeing him since!

26. Provider of global support? : ATLAS

The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas”.

27. Tara of “American Pie” : REID

Tara Reid is an actress known for roles she played on television and the big screen. My guess is her most-remembered performances were in the “American Pie” series of movies in which she played Vicky. Sadly, Reid succumbed to the pressure to alter her looks with plastic surgery. In interviews, she has shared that her first experience under the knife “went wrong” leading to more surgeries in attempts to rectify the resulting deformity.

29. Only spoken word (by Marcel Marceau) in Mel Brooks’s “Silent Movie” : NON

Marcel Marceau was the most famous mime of all time, and a native of Strasbourg in France. He is perhaps most associated with the character Bip the Clown who he played onstage. Marceau made a cameo appearance in Mel Brooks’s “Silent Movie”, portraying himself. In the scene, Mel Brooks is asking Marceau to appear in his movie (a question asked silently of course, in subtitles), and Marceau turns to the camera and speaks the only word in the whole film, “Non!” (French for “No!”). The mime speaks! Brilliant …

33. Obesity meas. : BMI

The body mass index (BMI) is the ratio of a person’s height to his or her mass.

34. Computing pioneer Lovelace : ADA

Ada Lovelace’s real name was Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the poet. Lovelace was fascinated by mathematics and wrote about the work done by Charles Babbage in building his groundbreaking mechanical computer. In some of her notes, she proposed an algorithm for Babbage’s machine to compute Bernoulli numbers. This algorithm is recognized by many as the world’s first computer program and so Lovelace is sometimes called the first “computer programmer”. There is a computer language called “Ada” that was named in her honor. The Ada language was developed from 1977 to 1983 for the US Department of Defense.

35. The whole shebang : A-Z

The word “shebang” is probably a derivative of “shebeen”, an Irish word for a “speakeasy”, an establishment where liquor was drunk and sold illegally. In English “shebang” was originally a “hut” or a “shed”. Just how this evolved into the expression “the whole shebang”, meaning “everything”, is unclear.

37. Plan to pay later, say : OPEN A TAB

When we run a “tab” at a bar say, we are running a “tabulation”, a listing of what we owe. Such a use of “tab” is American slang that originated in the 1880s.

45. Hawaii’s ___ Loa : MAUNA

Mauna Loa on the “Big Island” of Hawaii is the largest volcano on the planet (in terms of volume). The name “Mauna Loa” is Hawaiian for “Long Mountain”.

50. It’s taboo : 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.

53. T-shaped crosses : TAUS

Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, and the letter which gave rise to our Roman “T”. Both the letters tau (T) and chi (X) have long been symbolically associated with the cross.

56. Nigerian tribe : IBO

The Igbo (also “Ibo”) people are an ethnic group living in southeastern Nigeria.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Start of a magic incantation : ABRA-
5. Hasbro toy that involves pulling and twisting : BOP IT
10. Degree in abstract mathematics : NTH
13. AMC’s “Better Call ___” : SAUL
14. Celebrating Hanukkah, say : JEWISH
15. Opposite of 29-Down : OUI
16. Line from someone who’s been interrupted : PLEASE LET ME FIN-
19. Kinda … or a continuation of 16-Across : ISH
20. Bump heads : CLASH
21. Like a course labeled “101” : BASIC
22. School in San Luis Obispo : CAL POLY
24. Some almanac info : TIDES
25. What may take its toll?: Abbr. : HWY
26. Most hajjis : ARABS
28. Cousin of contra- : ANTI-
31. Pass on, as lore : RETELL
33. Ewe can do it! : BAA!
36. Line from someone who’s been interrupted : DO I LOOK LIKE I’M D-
39. Joined … or a continuation of 36-Across : ONE?
40. Is appealing : PLEADS
41. Hollywood’s Cameron : DIAZ
42. Some canasta plays : MELDS
43. Square figure? : TWO
45. Big pipes : MAINS
47. Body shot? : MRI SCAN
51. Actress Hayek of “Frida” : SALMA
52. Elite group : A-TEAM
54. Hit 2011 animated film : RIO
55. Line from someone who’s been interrupted : QUIET! I WAS SPEAK-
58. Beethoven’s “Minuet ___” … or a continuation of 55-Across : ING! (or “IN G”)
59. Visibly embarrassed : ABLUSH
60. “I can’t ___” : EVEN
61. Photographer Goldin : NAN
62. Giving orders : BOSSY
63. Bingo relative : KENO

Down

1. Jiggly dish : ASPIC
2. Makings of a model? : BALSA
3. Oscar winner Mercedes : RUEHL
4. Imitating : A LA
5. Stop, at sea : BELAY
6. Sees red? : OWES
7. Crux : PITH
8. School of thought : ISM
9. Co-written best seller : THE BIBLE
10. Wham or bam : NOISE
11. City near ancient Carthage : TUNIS
12. Fruity drink brand : HI-C
14. Fruity filled cakes : JELLY ROLLS
17. Clumsy boat : SCOW
18. Man buns and the Mannequin Challenge, once : FADS
23. Dr. ___ : PHIL
24. Engages in some pregame banter : TALKS TRASH
26. Provider of global support? : ATLAS
27. Tara of “American Pie” : REID
28. Bustle : ADO
29. Only spoken word (by Marcel Marceau) in Mel Brooks’s “Silent Movie” : NON
30. 50-50, e.g. : TIE
32. Just made (out) : EKED
33. Obesity meas. : BMI
34. Computing pioneer Lovelace : ADA
35. The whole shebang : A-Z
37. Plan to pay later, say : OPEN A TAB
38. Exchanged bonds? : I DOS
42. Marcel Marceau, e.g. : MIME
44. Weakling : WIMP
45. Hawaii’s ___ Loa : MAUNA
46. Ally (with) : ALIGN
47. Stylike : MESSY
48. Really, really want : CRAVE
49. George ___, Vermont senator for 34 years : AIKEN
50. It’s taboo : NO-NO
51. Ad space meas. : SQ IN
52. Leatherworkers’ tools : AWLS
53. T-shaped crosses : TAUS
56. Nigerian tribe : IBO
57. Quaint cry : EEK!