0110-10 New York Times Crossword Answers 10 Jan 10

This is my solution to the crossword published in the New York Times today. If you are doing the New York Times crossword in any other publication, you are working on the syndicated puzzle.

Here is a link to my answers to today's SYNDICATED New York Times crossword.

Completion Time: not timed.
Theme: "Cross Words" ... 11 answers contain two words, one horizontal, one vertical, and crossing at the central letter.
Answers I missed: none.


TODAY'S GOOGLIES (all links go to Amazon.com) ...
Across
8 AGHAS: Aghas were officials in the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire.
20 RHONE: Avignon is in the south of France, on the River Rhone. It was home to several popes during the 14th and 15th centuries.
23 ALTOONA: Altoona is in central Pennsylvania, and is home to the Ivyside Park Campus of Pennsylvania State University.
27 RUE DE: Rue de Rivoli is a famous road in Paris, running by the Louvre. It is named after Napoleon's victory against the Austrians at the Battle of Rivoli in 1797.
33 STUM: Stum is wine that fails to ferment, perhaps due to the presence of too much sulfur.
47 PERON: Nowadays, President Juan Peron of Argentina is less well known that his wife, Eva Peron, of "Evita" fame.
49 ETO: Dwight D. Eisenhower was in command of the European Theater of Operations during WWII. If you're a WWII buff like me, there's a great made-for-TV movie starring Tom Selleck as Eisenhower called "Ike: Countdown to D-Day" that came out in 2004.
52 WINO: Thunderbird is a low-end brand of fortified wine, produced by E & J Gallo.
57 ITALO: Italo Calvino's novel "Palomar" was translated into English as "Mr. Palomar" by William Weaver.
61 LITH: Lithuania sits on the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe.
67 PRAIRIE: The three Prairie Provinces are also known as the Canadian Prairies.
75 ANN MARIE: "That Girl" was an American TV show from the late sixties starring Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie, "that girl".
77 IAGO: "Othello, the Moor of Venice" is a play by William Shakespeare, with Othello as the hero, and Iago as the villain of the piece.
78 ORGAN STOP: Organ stops can be grouped into the type of tone produced. The dulciana is classified as a "string" (as opposed to say a flute or a reed).
82 CARON: Leslie Caron was just beautiful as "Gigi" in the 1958 movie, playing alongside Maurice Chevalier.
84 MHO: Conductance (measured in mhos) is the inverse of resistance (measured in ohms).
96 KOOL: Kool & the Gang have been around since the mid-sixties, and are most famous for their hit "Celebration".
99 EST: EST is Electroshock Therapy.
103 ATOMISTS: The atomists believed that the world was composed of just atoms and voids, and that the atom was an indestructible particle. How wrong they were ...
119 ANTI-ART: Anti-art is a movement that rejects the accepted definitions of what is art, the first example of which is Dadaism.
124 NERTS: Nerts is a slang term, a corruption of "nuts!".

Down
1 SNAPE: Severus Snape is a character in the Harry Potter novels, played by the wonderful Alan Rickman in the movies.
14 HALAS: George Halas (Sr.) coached the Chicago Bears from the 1920s through the 1960s.
18 SURA: A sura is any one of the 114 chapters of the Koran.
35 AGAR: Agar is a jelly extracted from seaweed, with many uses. It is found in Japanese desserts, can be used as a laxative, and is the most common growth medium used for growing bacteria in petri dishes.
41 NOT I:  Who will help the Little Red Hen plant the seeds? "Not I!"
46 EMIL: Emil Jannings, an actor from Switzerland, was the first person to receive an Oscar. He was the star of the silent movie "The Last Command" from 1928.
48 TORSO: The Belvedere Torso sits in the Vatican Museum, and it takes it name from the Courtyard of the Belvedere in Rome, where it was once installed.
51 SLOAN: John French Sloan was an American artist who painted "McSorley's Bar", that iconic New York City tavern, in 1912.
62 BETSY: Betsy Bobbin is a character in the Oz books by L. Frank Baum. In some stories, she shows up as a great friend of Dorothy, of "Wizard of Oz" fame.
63 ERMA'S: "Aunt Erma's Cope Book" was written by Erma Bombeck and published in 1979.
68 ERODENT: The adjective from "erode", tending to erode.
78 OMSK: Omsk in in southwest Siberia.
81 OSTIA: Ostia Antica was the harbor city for Ancient Rome. Ostia is a the Latin for "mouth", and Ostia lies at the mouth of the River Tiber.
108 HERE'S: Here's Johnny! (Johnny Carson).
109 SRTAS: Madrilenas (feminine form) are people from Madrid, hence the answer is senoritas.