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, or leave a comment below.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: 28m 28s
THEME: TEE TIME (just in time for the Masters) ... the theme answers are common phrases with the "TEE" sound added e.g. POOL CUTIE (pool cue TEE), CHRISTMAS TREATY (Christmas tree TEE), LOCH NESTEA (Loch Ness TEE) etc.
ANSWERS I MISSED: 2 ... OLINDA (ORINDA), LILI (LIRI)
Across
5. Children's illustrator Harrison ___ : CADY
Harrison Cady drew the comic strip "Peter Rabbit", which he produced faithfully for 28 years. He died in 1970, at the ripe old age of 92 years.
9. "The great aphrodisiac," per Henry Kissinger : POWERHenry Kissinger
made this quotation in the context of his own very active dating life. I think that the actual quote might have been "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac", referring to his social prowess at the height of his career.19. Bathing beauty at a swimming facility? : POOL CUTIE
(Pool cue TEE)
21. Nicholas Gage memoir : ELENI
Nicholas Gage is a Greek-American author and investigative journalist. He wrote two memoirs, "Eleni
" and "A Place for Us
". "Eleni" tells of his life in Greece during WWII and the Greek Civil War. The title is a tribute to his mother, Eleni, who was executed by Communists who occupied her village, simply because she helped her children escape from the ravages of a war of occupation. "Eleni" was adapted into a movie in 1985, starring John Malkovitch as Gage.23. Armistice signed on December 25? : CHRISTMAS TREATY
(Christmas tree TEE)
28. Allergy medication brand : ACTIFEDActifed
was developed back in 1958, by what was then Burroughs Wellcome & Company. It is simply a mixture of an antihistamine and a nasal decongestant. It became associated with the space program when astronauts on Apollo 7 and Apollo 12 used it in flight when they developed head colds. Back on earth, the astronauts made a little money when they appeared in television ads for Actifed.30. Poultry delicacies : CAPONS
A capon is a castrated cockerel (poor guy!). Castration has a profound effect on the bird (duh!) making the meat more tender to eat when he is slaughtered.
32. Bear Lake State Park locale : IDAHO
Bear Lake State Park is in the southeast of Idaho, near the border with Utah, with half of the lake being in Idaho, and half in Utah. Just like Loch Ness, Bear Lake supposedly has a "monster" and apparently sightings are reported regularly!
33. Excellent summers, for short? : CPAS
Great clue!
37. Grp. that entertains troops : USOThe United Service Organization was founded in 1941 at the request of FDR, "to handle the on-leave recreation of the men in the armed forces". A USO
tour is a tour by a troupe of entertainers, many celebrities, to troop locations, often including combat zones.38. Scottish body of water with beverage concentrate added? : LOCH NESTEA
(Loch Ness TEE)
43. Awful illustration from cartoonist William? : HANNA BARBARITY
(Hanna-Barbera TEE)
I once had the privilege of spending an afternoon in the room (Bill Hanna's den) where Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera came up with the idea of "The Flintstones".
48. Mideast capital : TEHRAN
Tehran, the capital of Iran, is the largest city in the Middle East, with a population of about 8.5 million. Iran has been around along time, so Tehran is actually its 31st national capital! We are only babies over here in the US ...
49. "Return of the Jedi" moon : ENDORThe Ewoks are creatures that live on the moon of Endor, first appearing in "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
". They're the cute and cuddly guys that look like teddy bears.52. ___ Field (former name of Minute Maid Park) : ENRON
Enron Field, as it was known, is a retractable-roof ball park, built next to Houston's old Union Station. Enron paid $100 million to get its name on the field, and then when the world found out what a scam Enron actually was, the Astros bought back the contract for the name, for a mere $2.1 million. The stadium became Astros Field for a few months, until the Coke people paid $170 million for a 28-year contract to christen the stadium Minute Maid Park. A good deal for the Astros, I'd say.
56. Opting not to sunbathe? : KEEPING PASTY
(Keeping pace TEE)
63. Reagan-era program, in brief : SDI
One of the positive things about President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, was that the US posture changed to using missiles to destroy incoming hostile weapons, from using missiles to destroy the nation attacking the country. The former doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction went by the apt acronym of MAD ...
66. Union opposer: Abbr. : CSAThe Confederate States of America
set up government in 1861 just before Abraham Lincoln took office. The CSA conceded defeat on November 6, 1865.69. ___ Tribunal (international court) : HAGUE
The Hague Tribunal is a United Nations body set up to prosecute war crimes committed during the wars in former Yugoslavia. The court was set up in the Hague in the Netherlands in 1993, and is still going strong today. The court does have a limited life, and has nothing to do with the International Criminal Court, not the International Court of Justice, both of which are also based in the Hague.
70. Exactness in giving orders to toymaking elves? : SANTA CLARITY
(Santa Clara TEE)
The Santa Clara Valley, just a few miles from me at the south of San Francisco Bay, is better known as "Silicon Valley".
79. First lady after Bess : MAMIEMamie Eisenhower
followed Bess Truman
as First Lady of the United States.86. Minneapolis neighbor : EDINA
Edina, Minnesota lies just southwest of Minneapolis. The town takes its name from Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. It was suggested by a Scottish mill owner at the time a new village was being set up in 1888.
87. Brazilian beach resort : OLINDA
Olinda sounds like a charming coastal city in Brazil, with a downtown area that has been designated a World Historic Site by the UN. Like Rio it has a vibrant Carnival season.
88. What a bunny buyer at a pet shop might want? : RABBIT WARRANTY
(Rabbit warren TEE)
90. Choice of songs at a piano bar? : HIT OR MISTY(Hit or miss TEE)
"Look at me, I'm as helpless as a kitten up a tree ..." "Misty
" was written in 1954 by one Erroll Garner. Johnny Mathis had a hit with it five years later, and it was to become his signature tune. The song of course features prominently in the 1971 Clint Eastwood thriller "Play Misty for Me".94. R&B singer Marie : TEENA
Teena Marie
is very successful R&B singer, born Mary Christina Brockert.95. 12th-century Crusader state : EDESSA
The County of Edessa was a Crusader state of the 12th century, centered around the ancient city of Edessa. Although it was landlocked, it was situated just inland right at the eastern most shores of the Mediterranean.
101. Actor Haley Joel ___ of "The Sixth Sense" : OSMENTHaley Joel Osment
was brilliant in "The Sixth Sense
", playing the young boy who saw "dead people". Before he got that role, he had played Forrest Gump's young son on screen (bet you didn't know that!). Since then, he starred in "Pay It Forward" and "A.I
", all good films.107. ___ rima (verse form for Dante) : TERZA
Dante invented the terza rima rhyming scheme. It has a chain rhyming pattern, so ABA, BCB, CDC etc. Dante introduced terza rima in his "Divine Comedy
".108. Hybrid sheepdog that moves ver-r-ry slowly? : TORTOISE SHELTIE
(Tortoise shell TEE)
113. Oscar : United States :: ___ : Mexico : ARIEL
So, the Ariel is the Mexican Academy of Film Award, set up in 1947.
114. Rack up : INCUR
115. Drinking and dancing instead of sleeping? : UP TO PARTY
(Up to par TEE) ... very "golfy"!
118. "Nascar Now" broadcaster : ESPN
"Nascar Now" first went on the air in 2007. The main host of the show is Nicole Briscoe. I am afraid I know nothing about NASCAR, and just found out that the acronym stands for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.
Down
1. Scanned lines, for short : UPC
Universal Price Code. The first UPC marked item to get scanned at the front of store was on June 26, 1974, at 08:01 a.m. at Marsh's supermarket in Troy, Ohio. It was a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum ...
2. Hardness scale inventor : MOHS
The Mohs scale of mineral hardness was developed in 1812 by Freidrich Mohs. Basically he took minerals and scratched them with other minerals. In this way he was able to determine which minerals were hardest (most scratch resistant) and which softest.
7. Large-scale flight : DIASPORA
Diaspora is a Greek word meaning "a scattering of seeds". I guess I'm one of those seeds ...
13. City that's home to King Fahd Road : RIYADH
King Fahd Road is the main thoroughfare through Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. It is named after King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud who was the head of the kingdom until he passed away in 2005, although he was somewhat of a titular head of state since 1995 when he suffered a stroke.
15. Rush jobs? : RADIO SHOWSAnother devious clue. The reference is to Rush Limbaugh
, of course.20. TV program set in Vegas : CSI
CSI
gets a lot of criticism from the law enforcement agencies for its unrealistic portrayal of the procedures and science of criminal investigation. I don't care though. It's a fun show to watch.29. Division of an Edmund Spenser work : CANTO
Edmund Spenser was an English poet, required required reading at school where I grew up. His most famous work is "The Faerie Queen
", an epic poem, and one of the longest ever written in English. Long poens are often divided into cantos, sort of like chapters in a book.33. Where some hooks connect : CHEEKS
That's if you are a boxer ...
35. Peace Nobelist Sakharov : ANDREIAndrei Sakharov
was a Soviet nuclear physicist, and in his later life a human rights activist. He participated in the USSR's program to develop the country's first atomic bomb, and was an even more crucial contributor to the development of the devastating hydrogen bomb. By the fifties, Sakharov was concerned about the consequences of his work, and in the sixties he started to become active, raising awkward questions not appreciated by the Soviet administration. He was banned from further work with the military as a consequence, and later found himself under constant police surveillance and harassment. He was then moved from Moscow and put into internal exile in Gorky. It was only under Mikhail Gorbachev's leadership, that he was able to return home to Moscow.38. Swinging dance : LINDY
The Lindy Hop is a dance based on the Charleston, and dates back to the twenties and thirties. The name Lindy is a homage to the famous 1927 flight across the Atlantic by Charles Lindbergh.
39. Sharkey of TV's "C.P.O. Sharkey" : OTTO
Otto Sharkey was played by Don Rickles. Sharkey was a Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy in the storyline, a man in charge of new recruits on a San Diego naval base. The show ran from 1976 to 1978 on NBC.
44. Yellow-flowered perennial : ARNICAArnica is in the sunflower family of plants. Supposedly, homeopathic preparations made from Arnica
help with bruising and sprains.
46. "House of Meetings" novelist, 2006 : AMIS"House of Meetings
" is a novel by British author Martin Amis, and is set in a Soviet gulag in the day's of Stalin rule. It tells of two brothers and the trials and tribulations of living in the gulag.51. Follower of the philosopher Epictetus : STOIC
Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher who was famous for teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the "Painted Porch", located on the north side of the famous Ancient Agora of Athens. Because of the location of his classes, his philosophy became known as stoicism (from "stoa"). Epictetus was a slave as a young man, eventually earning his freedom. He was a famous student of stoicism, and in turn a teacher who helped proliferate the philosophy.
62. John ___, villain in the "Saw" films : KRAMER
I would not dream of watching the 2004 "Saw
" film, or one of its sequels. I think I have written enough about ...
66. "Heaven's Gate" director : CIMINOMichael Cimino's major work was the incredible "The Deer Hunter
" form 1978. However, his 1980 movie "Heaven's Gate
" pulled in only $3 million dollars at the box office, after it had cost $42 million to make. So bad were the economics on this project that it was a major contributor to the demise of the United Artists studio.71. Burnoose wearer : ARAB
A burnoose (also known as burnous) is a hooded cloak made out of coarse woolen fabrics, and is worn by Arab and Berber men throughout North Africa.
75. Actress Taylor : LILI
Lili Taylor is an American actress. she had supporting roles in films like "Mystic Pizza
" and "Rudy
", and she had a recurring role in the HBO series "Six Feet Under
".81. Epinephrine-producing glands : ADRENALS
The adrenal glands, as you might expect from the name, sit on top of the kidneys. There main function is to secrete hormones that have a role to play in times of stress, the most well known of which is epinephrine (aka adrenaline).
88. Cape Town's home: Abbr. : RSA
The Republic of South Africa.
89. Stephen of "Stuck" : REAStephen Rea
is an Irish actor, whose most famous role was that of the "retired" IRA man in the brilliant 1992 film "The Crying Game
". "Stuck
" is the 2007 film that is based on a true story about a woman who commits a hit and run on a homeless man. The woman leaves the scene of the crime with the victim still "stuck" in her windshield. The woman leaves the man to die in her garage. Chilling, eh? But, true ...95. The Eagles of the N.C.A.A. : EMORY
Emory is a private school in Atlanta, with a focus on graduate research. The school was named after a Methodist Episcopal bishop called John Emory, who was very popular at the time of the school's founding in 1836.
96. "Ad majorem ___ gloriam" (Jesuit motto) : DEI
The Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) is a religious order in the Roman Catholic church. "Ad majorem Dei gloriam" translates into "to the greater glory of God".
98. ___ Beach (D-Day site) : UTAHUtah Beach
was the right flank of the Allied assault on Normandy. It was a late consideration in the landing, only being added to the plan when more landing craft became available as D-Day approached. Fighting was relatively light at Utah Beach, compared to the devastation encountered by the other US landing site, Omaha Beach.99. Historical subject of a Boito opera : NERO
Arrigo Boito was an Italin poet and librettist who completed one opera of his own ("Mefistofele
") and left one other opera partially complete "Nerone
". This incomplete opera is the one that tells the story of Rome at the time of Emperor Nero. The opera was completed after Boito's death by a trio of musicians, including Arturo Toscanini, and "Nerone" was premiered at La Scala in 1924, six years after Boito died.100. Vigor : BRIO
Brio is borrowed from the Italian, in which language it also means vigor and vivacity. "Con brio" is a musical direction often found on a score, instructing that the musicians play "with energy, vigor".
104. Minnesota's St. ___ College : OLAF
The St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota is named after the former king and patron saint of Norway, Olaf II.
105. Razor brand : ATRAThe Atra
was introduced by Gillette in 1977, and sold as the Contour in some markets, and its derivative products are still around today.110. Maker of fuel additives : STP
STP motor oil takes its name from Scientifically Treated Petroleum.
112. Smiley dot : EYE
In a smiley face typed on the page :-), the dots of the colon form the eyes.
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