0120-10 New York Times Crossword Answers 20 Jan 10

The name's William Ernest Butler, but please call me Bill. I grew up in Ireland, but now live out here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm retired now, from technology businesses that took our family all over the world. I answer all emails, so please feel free to email me at bill@paxient.com

If you are working on 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. To find any solution other than today's, enter the crossword number (e.g. 1225, 0107) in the "Search the Blog" box above.

This is my solution to the crossword published in the New York Times today ...

Completion Time: 6m 23s
Theme: ONWARD AND UPWARD ... the themed answers contain both the words "ON" and "UP", as in SUCTION CUP, CONTROL GROUPS, MONEY SUPPLIES & WONTON SOUP.
Answers I missed:  0


TODAY'S GOOGLIES (all links go to Amazon.com) ...
Across
5: BUMPS: Phrenology is the practice of reading a persons personality by studying the contours of the person's skull.
15 ISSAK: Chris Isaak's 1991 hit "Wicked Game" is taken from his 1989 album "Heart Shaped World".
23 CONTROL GROUPS: In a single-blind trial, the subjects do not know whether or not they are in the test group or the control group, but the researcher does. In a double-blind trial, neither the subjects nor the researcher know who is in the test and control groups, until the study is completed.
33 PESTO: Pesto gets its name from the Latin word for "crush". The word "pestle", as in mortar and pestle, is derived from the same Latin root.
36 LEAH: Leah is the first wife of Jacob, and mother of six of the twelve tribes of Israel.
37 DRED: Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in 1852, and followed it up with "Dred, a Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp" four years later.
41 RYAN: Jack Ryan is the hero in many of Tom Clancy's novels, first introduced in "The Hunt for Red October" in 1984, played by Alec Baldwin in the movie.
45 ETTA: Etta James is best known for her rendition of "At Last".
62 ARTE: Arte Johnson, as well being a frequent judge on "The Gong Show", played the German soldier on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" with the catchphrase "Very interesting, but ..."
63 SPARE: In bowling, downing all ten pins in two balls in the same frame is a "spare", scoring ten points. The player gets a bonus, equal to the number of pins downed on the next shot, which could be up to ten. Hence, a spare can be worth up to 20 points.
66 CARPE: Carpe is Latin for the word "seize", as in the quote from Horace: "Carpe diem", seize the day, or enjoy the day.
67 GORY: I've only seen the trailers, and wouldn't watch the "Saw" movies. Too gory for me ...

Down
1: MSNBC: You can listen to Rachel Maddows on Air America Radio, and watch her on MSNBC.
7 MAC: The OS X operating system has been shipping with all new Macs since 2002.
9 SKI: In skiing, a wedeln is a parallel turn.
12 A DUE: As we saw in yesterday's puzzle, a due is a musical term meaning to "together", but literally "by two".
19 OF US: Russell Crowe starred in the 1994 Australian film "The Sum of Us", which was an adaption of the stage play by David Stevens.
24 TITAN: The Tennessee Titans are an American Football team based in Nashville.
25 GLENDAS: Glenda Farrell was an actress mainly from films of the 1930s like the "Torchy Blane" series. Glenda Jackson won her first Oscar for the controversial 1969 film "Women in Love", and is now a Member of Parliament.
31 HERA: Hera was the wife of Zeus, and was noted for her jealousy and vengeful nature, particularly against those who vied for the affections of her husband.
34 ENYA: An Irish singer she may be, but Enya is not a favorite of mine.
46 EPOPEE: Epopee is from the French, the word for an epic poem.
59 NSC: The National Security Council meets in the White House Situation Room.