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Jump to a complete list of today’s clues and answers
CROSSWORD SETTER: Jeff Stillman
THEME: Opposites … each of today’s themed answers comprises two words, one being the opposite of the other:
19A. “Fiddler on the Roof” song SUNRISE, SUNSET
31A. Like businesses specializing in international trade IMPORT/EXPORT
40A. Beatles hit that begins, “You say yes, I say no” HELLO, GOODBYE
54A. Like some government partnerships PUBLIC-PRIVATE
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 4m 27s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. “Dragnet” star Jack WEBB
Jack Webb played Sergeant Joe Friday on “Dragnet” on both TV and radio … and what a voice he had! Off the screen Webb was a lover of jazz, and he played the cornet. It was within the world of jazz that he met and fell in love with Julie London, the famous singer with “the smoky voice”. The couple married and had two kids together.
5. Campus military prog. ROTC
The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) is a training program for officers based in colleges all around the US. The ROTC program was established in 1862 when as a condition of receiving a land-grant to create colleges, the federal government required that military tactics be part of a new school’s curriculum.
13. Gillette razor ATRA
Fortunately for crossword constructors, the Atra razor was introduced by Gillette in 1977. The Atra was sold as the Contour in some markets and its derivative products are still around today.
15. Hindu princess RANI
A ranee (also spelled “rani”) is a queen or a princess, the female equivalent of a raja in India.
17. Samuel on the Supreme Court ALITO
Associate Justice Samuel Alito was nominated to the US Supreme Court by President George W. Bush. Alito is the second Italian-American to serve on the Supreme Court (Antonin Scalia was the first). Alito studied law at Yale and while in his final year he left the country for the first time in his life, heading to Italy to work on his thesis about the Italian legal system.
18. To be, to Tiberius ESSE
“Esse” is the Latin for “to be”. “Sum” means “I am” and “erat” means “he, she was”.
Tiberius was the second Emperor of Rome, succeeding Augustus. In his latter life Tiberius became very reclusive, not really wanting the responsibilities of Emperor but refusing to give up his power. Instead, he exiled himself from Rome leaving administrative control of the Empire to unscrupulous aides. Tiberius himself led a quiet life on the island of Capri. His death at the age of 77 was apparently hastened by a pillow placed over his face, an act ordered by his successor, Caligula.
19. “Fiddler on the Roof” song SUNRISE, SUNSET
“Sunrise, Sunset” is a lovely song from the stage musical “Fiddler on the Roof”. My mother loves Perry Como’s version of the song …
The enduring musical “Fiddler on the Roof” is based on a collection of stories by Sholem Aleichem about Tevye, a milkman living in Tsarist Russia. The musical version of the tales first opened on Broadway in 1964. “Fiddler on the Roof” had such a long run that it became the first musical to reach 3,000 performances.
24. Continental trade gp. EEC
The European Economic Community (EEC) was also known as “the Common Market”. The EEC was a NAFTA-like structure that was eventually absorbed into today’s European Union (EU).
26. Corned beef-and-Swiss sandwich REUBEN
There are conflicting stories about the origin of the Reuben sandwich. One is that it was invented around 1914 by Arnold Reuben, an immigrant from Germany who owned Reuben’s Deli in New York.
30. ’60s hallucinogen LSD
LSD (colloquially known as “acid”) is short for lysergic acid diethylamide. A Swiss chemist called Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 in a research project looking for medically efficacious ergot alkaloids. It wasn’t until some five years later when Hofmann ingested some of the drug accidentally that its psychedelic properties were discovered. Trippy, man …
35. Golfer’s concern LIE
That putt’s a gimme.
No it’s not.
Yes it is.
You lie!
Just kidding …
40. Beatles hit that begins, “You say yes, I say no” HELLO, GOODBYE
The 1967 Beatles song “Hello, Goodbye” was written by Paul McCartney using duality as a theme. While composing, McCartney basically asked an aide to supply words that were opposites to what he sang while playing a harmonium:
You say yes, I say no
You say stop and I say go go go, oh no
You say goodbye and I say hello
Hello hello
I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello
Hello hello
I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello
45. Sci-fi saucer UFO
Unidentified flying object (UFO)
48. Bears or Cubs TEAM
The Chicago Bears were founded in Decatur, Illinois in 1919 and moved to Chicago in 1921. The Bears are one of only two franchises in the NFL that were around at the time of the NFL’s founding (the other is the Arizona Cardinals, who were also based in Chicago in 1921).
The Chicago Cubs is one of only two charter members of the baseball’s National League who are still playing, the other being the Atlanta Braves. The Cubs last won the World Series in 1908, which is a long time ago. In fact, the Cubs have the longest championship drought of any professional sports team in North America.
50. Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue __” MORGUE
“The Murders in the RueMorgue” is a short story by Edgar Allen Poe, and is recognized as the first “detective story” ever written. The murder is solved when it is determined that the murderer was actually an orangutan.
52. ATM access code PIN
One enters a Personal Identification Number (PIN) when using an Automated Teller Machine (ATM).
53. __ Moines 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.
58. Hipbone parts ILIA
The sacrum and the two ilia are three bones in the human pelvis.
60. European capital west of Helsinki OSLO
Oslo is the capital of Norway. The city of Oslo burns trash to fuel half of its buildings, including all of its schools. The problem faced by the city is that it doesn’t generate enough trash. So, Oslo imports trash from Sweden, England and Ireland, and is now looking to import some American trash too.
Helsinki is the capital city of Finland, and is by far the country’s biggest urban area. In English we tend to stress the “-sink-” in “Helsinki”, whereas the Finns stress the “Hel-”.
63. No longer working: Abbr. RETD
Retired (retd.)
64. Forgetting to carry the one, say ERROR
That would be in adding a column of numbers …
66. Scots Gaelic ERSE
There are actually three Erse languages: Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be Gaeilge (in Ireland), Gaelg (on the Isle of Man) and Gaidhlig (in Scotland).
67. Sheep fat SUET
Fat, when extracted from the carcass of an animal, is called “suet”. Untreated suet decomposes at room temperature quite easily so it has to be “rendered” or purified to make it stable. Rendered fat from pigs is what we call “lard”. Rendered beef or mutton fat is known as “tallow”.
68. Unit of force DYNE
A dyne is a unit of force. The name “dyne” comes from the Greek “dynamis” meaning “power, force”. Ergs and dynes are related to each other in that one erg is the amount of energy needed to move a force of one dyne over a distance of one centimeter.
Down
2. Approx. landing hour ETA
Estimated time of arrival (ETA)
4. Hindu title of respect BABU
“Babu” is a Hindu word used in South Asia as a sign of respect to men. It can be used to mean “boss” or “father”.
6. Big name in elevators OTIS
Otis is a manufacturer of elevators, escalators and moving walkways. By some accounts, Otis is the world’s most popular transportation company, with the equivalent of the whole world’s population travelling on Otis devices every few days.
7. London gallery TATE
The museum known as “the Tate” is actually made up of four separate galleries in England. The original Tate gallery was founded by Sir Henry Tate as the National Gallery of British Art. It is located on Millbank in London, on the site of the old Millbank Prison, and is now called Tate Britain. There is also the Tate Liverpool in the north of England located in an old warehouse, and the Tate St. Ives in the west country located in an old gas works. My favorite of the Tate galleries is the Tate Modern which lies on the banks of the Thames in London. It’s a beautiful building, a converted power station that you have to see to believe.
10. Feudal servant VASSAL
In the feudal system of medieval Europe, a vassal was someone who agreed to provide some sort of service to a lord. A typical example of such a service would be military support. In return, the vassal was usually granted a piece of land.
14. PepsiCo, to Quaker Oats, e.g. PARENT
The Quaker Oats Company was founded in 1901 when four oat mills merged, including the Quaker Mill Company of Ravenna, Ohio. Quaker Mill’s owner Henry Parsons Crowell played the key role in the new company and remained at the helm until 1943.
21. SALT I participant USSR
There were two rounds of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) between the US and the Soviet Union, and two resulting treaties (SALT I & SALT II). The opening round of SALT I talks were held in Helsinki as far back as 1970, with the resulting treaty signed by President Richard Nixon and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev in 1972.
29. Video file format MPEG
The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) was established in 1988 to set standards for audio and video compression. The standards they’ve come up with use the acronym MPEG.
32. Jazzy Fitzgerald ELLA
Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song”, had a hard and tough upbringing. She was raised by her mother alone in Yonkers, New York. Her mother died while Ella was still a schoolgirl, and around that time the young girl became less interested in her education. She fell in with a bad crowd, even working as a lookout for a bordello and as a Mafia numbers runner. She ended up in reform school, from which she escaped, and found herself homeless and living on the streets for a while. Somehow Fitzgerald managed to get herself a spot singing in the Apollo Theater in Harlem. From there her career took off and as they say, the rest is history.
33. Kennedy and Turner TEDS
Ted Kennedy was the youngest boy in the family that included his older brothers: Joseph Jr. (killed in action in WWII), John (assassinated) and Robert (assassinated). Ted went into the US Senate in 1962 in a special election held after his brother became US President. He remained in the Senate until he passed away in 2009, making Ted Kennedy the fourth-longest-serving Senator in history.
Ted Turner’s big initiative in the world of business was the founding of CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel. Turner never graduated from college as he was expelled from Brown University for having a female student in his dormitory room. Years later, in 1989, Brown awarded him an honorary B.A.
38. “Auld Lang __” SYNE
The song “Auld Lang Syne” is a staple at New Year’s Eve, the words of which were written by Scottish poet Robbie Burns. The literal translation of “Auld Lang Syne” is “old long since”, but is better translated as “old times”. The sentiment of the song is “for old time’s sake”.
39. Brain scans, briefly EEGS
An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of electrical activity caused by the firing of neurons within the brain. The EEG might be used to diagnose epilepsy, or perhaps to determine if a patient is “brain dead”.
41. Small needle case ETUI
An etui is an ornamental case used to hold small items, in particular sewing needles. We imported both the case design and the word “etui” from France. The French also have a modern usage of “etui”, using the term to depict a case for carrying CDs.
43. Twist who asked for some more OLIVER
“Oliver Twist” is a novel by Charles Dickens. It is a popular tale for adaptation to the big screen. There were two silent film versions, in 1909 and 1922, and the first talkie version was released in 1933, with many to follow. The latest “Oliver” for the big screen was a 2005 Roman Polanski production.
44. Chaplin of “Game of Thrones” OONA
Oona Chaplin is an actress from Madrid in Spain. Chaplin is getting a lot of airtime these days as she plays Talisa Maegyr on HBO’s hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones”. Oona is the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, and is named for her maternal grandmother Oona O’Neill. the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill.
HBO’s “Game of Thrones” is a fantasy television drama that is adapted from a series of novels by George R. R. Martin called “A Song of Ice and Fire”. “Game of Thrones” is actually made in and around Belfast, Northern Ireland.
51. Air freshener brand GLADE
Glade is a brand of air fresheners that was first introduced in 1956.
55. Ecuador neighbor PERU
Peru’s name comes from the word “Biru”. Back in the early 1500s, Biru was a ruler living near the Bay of San Miguel in Panama. The territory over which Biru ruled was the furthest land south in the Americas known to Europeans at that time. The Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro was the first European to move south of Biru’s empire and the land that he found was designated “Peru”, a derivative of “Biru”.
“Ecuador” is the Spanish word for “equator”, which gives the country its name.
61. “Dancing With the Stars” judge Goodman LEN
Len Goodman is a professional ballroom dancer. Goodman is the head judge on the US’s “Dancing with the Stars” as well as on the original UK version of the show called “Strictly Come Dancing”.
62. Keats’ “To Autumn,” e.g. ODE
Here’s the first verse from John Keats’ ode “To Autumn” …
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. “Dragnet” star Jack WEBB
5. Campus military prog. ROTC
9. Die-hard AVID
13. Gillette razor ATRA
14. Bridal path flower piece PETAL
15. Hindu princess RANI
16. Apply crudely, as paint DAUB
17. Samuel on the Supreme Court ALITO
18. To be, to Tiberius ESSE
19. “Fiddler on the Roof” song SUNRISE, SUNSET
22. “What a relief!” AHH!
24. Continental trade gp. EEC
25. Ritzy residence ESTATE
26. Corned beef-and-Swiss sandwich REUBEN
28. Quantities: Abbr. AMTS
30. ’60s hallucinogen LSD
31. Like businesses specializing in international trade IMPORT/EXPORT
34. Second in command: Abbr. ASST
35. Golfer’s concern LIE
36. Convenience EASE
40. Beatles hit that begins, “You say yes, I say no” HELLO, GOODBYE
45. Sci-fi saucer UFO
48. Bears or Cubs TEAM
49. At the back of the pack LOSING
50. Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue __” MORGUE
52. ATM access code PIN
53. __ Moines DES
54. Like some government partnerships PUBLIC-PRIVATE
58. Hipbone parts ILIA
59. “__-ho!” HEAVE
60. European capital west of Helsinki OSLO
63. No longer working: Abbr. RETD
64. Forgetting to carry the one, say ERROR
65. In the sack ABED
66. Scots Gaelic ERSE
67. Sheep fat SUET
68. Unit of force DYNE
Down
1. Fistful of bills WAD
2. Approx. landing hour ETA
3. Quick reviews, as before a test BRUSHUPS
4. Hindu title of respect BABU
5. Archaeologist’s find RELIC
6. Big name in elevators OTIS
7. London gallery TATE
8. In the vicinity of CLOSE TO
9. “__ you clever!” AREN’T
10. Feudal servant VASSAL
11. Enlarged map segments INSETS
12. Cut down on calories DIETED
14. PepsiCo, to Quaker Oats, e.g. PARENT
20. __-do-well NE’ER
21. SALT I participant USSR
22. Opera solo ARIA
23. Garment edges HEMS
27. This and that BOTH
28. Geometric given AXIOM
29. Video file format MPEG
32. Jazzy Fitzgerald ELLA
33. Kennedy and Turner TEDS
37. Obeys, as rules ABIDES BY
38. “Auld Lang __” SYNE
39. Brain scans, briefly EEGS
41. Small needle case ETUI
42. Freeloaders LEECHES
43. Twist who asked for some more OLIVER
44. Chaplin of “Game of Thrones” OONA
45. Judge at home UMPIRE
46. More unpleasant FOULER
47. Planetary paths ORBITS
51. Air freshener brand GLADE
52. Turn on one foot PIVOT
55. Ecuador neighbor PERU
56. In very short supply RARE
57. Creek croaker TOAD
61. “Dancing With the Stars” judge Goodman LEN
62. Keats’ “To Autumn,” e.g. ODE
Pretty typical LAT grid, zero errors.
WSJ grid was different, basically for having no theme clues (e.g. "Theme Answer 1"). Consequently, I thought that made it more than a Monday level. That may or may not change. Did make a rather stupid mistake on it outside of that, however, so 3 letters off on it. (Did get the meta right!)
Hope this is a good start of a good week.
A theme clue could have been 27D This and that.
Please tell me what a LIE really is in golf. Also, how is Pespsi a PARENT of Quaker Oats? I hate to get the answer and not understand it.
Lie in golf refers to the position of the ball on the ground. Is it on the fairway, which would most likely be a good lie, or is it in the rough with high grass around it which would be a bad lie. Some people would say that scores posted by many golfers are the real lies.
pepsi owns quaker oats, or is the parent company of quaker oats
Nice easy Monday to help me recover from the scars inflicted by yesterday's puzzle. VASSEL was new to me.
Just a guess that Bill has a personal interest in ancient Rome and its rulers. He seems to have some very interesting insight into their personalities and/or foibles. Today it was Tiberius. What a way to go..although with Caligula it could have been worse.
Didn't Vidwan mention that BABU is actually a derisive term, or am I remembering incorrectly?
Best –
No difficulties (as Monday ought to be) today. If anyone wants to read my comments on the Sunday LAT's grid I just finished it and posted about it on yesterday's comment section of Bill's blog.
Jeff, you are right. Thanks for remembering. But, today, when I came to that clue, I held my nose and answered, 'Babu'. When the mountain won't got to M………. One has to kowtow to the crossword gods ! The next time someone calls me Babu …… #@! ( Seriously, I am also learning something …)
I had a great time with the puzzle, which I enjoyed thoroughly. I had 'Dan' Goodman, for dancing with the stars, and 'Obla da, Obla di' for the Beatles song …. before I was rudely corrected.
I love reading Bill's blog, and it has come to the point, where I even remember his esoteric notes …. the Trappist monks in Des Moines, for instance !!! If he has deleted some of the accompanying notes, for instance, I look for them in the empty space, forlornly …. (sigh). Reminds me, when Rex Harrison sang about Audrey Hepburn in 'My Fair Lady' …. 'I've grown accustomed to her face' !!!
I see someone has already answered Sfingi …. I always thought of 'lie' as the slope and the tortous gradient(s) and the curve and contour that golfer had to judge, that the ball would have had to travel to arrive safely at the hole.
As for Pepsi, owning Quaker Oats, I did not know that …. but it does not surprise me, …. knowing what a lock Diet Pepsi has on my grocery bill, they probably own everyone else. FWIW, I know the brother in law of Indra Nooyi, the current chairMAN (??) and CEO of Pepsi.
Thanks Pookie for that Jazz interlude, yesterday.
Jeff, when I was discussing your comments on the gravity and Isaac Newton, with a dinner guest, she mentioned, and enlarged on, Precession and 'Nutation' and totally and completely befuddled me !! Doubtlessly, you probably know all about this, and would have greatly contributed to the discussion.
Have a nice day, all.
@Vidwan827
If you want to really blow your mind, look into the discovery many had over on the Monday NYT of Mondelez International. The reason it came up (of course) is that they make grid constructor's favorite food (OREO), but if you look at everything they have a hand in these days, it's scary how much of one's grocery bill goes directly to them.
Any other observations will be left for other more appropriate places.
Rats! I just can't break 5 minutes.
Nothing in here worth commenting on, except perhaps George Costanza's alter ego, Art Vandelay, who was an importer/exporter.
@Vidwan
Honored that you remembered one of my gab sessions here. Yes – nutation and precession are very interesting topics. They are actually just basic rotational mechanics physics phenomena, but their usage is everywhere.
What makes the two conepts so difficult to understand is that almost nothing involved with them is very intuitive. I assume since the topic came up when the subject of Newton came up that she was referring to the precession of the earth as it reacts to the gravitational pull of the sun and moon (and to a lesser extent other planets).
The concepts are also crucial in the making of gyroscopes and indeed spacecraft navigation systems couldn't be created without them.
One neat illustration of these (non-intuitive) forces is a classic one where a bicycle wheel is spun to a very high RPM (really don't know at what level the experiment becomes functional). Then imagine 2 handles (one on each side) of the bike wheel center axis. If you just hang the wheel handle on one side onto a rope suspended from the ceiling, the wheel does not fall. Rather it creates a spinning motion 90 degrees to the direction of the spin of the wheel. It looks like the wheel is suspending itself and defying gravity and "walking" in a circle. In physics terms what you are seeing is the angular momentum created "chasing" the torque. If you add weight to the opposite side, you actually speed up the circular motion of the wheel walking around the rope – again pretty counter-intuitive. You are increasing the torque but not changint the moment of inertia ergo it speeds up rather than slows down the walking around.
Like I said – fun stuff to see in physics class, but hard to describe with words. It looks like a magic trick when it happens, but it's just rotational mechanics at work.
Best –
Jeff, at the risk of running this blog into a physics mutual admiration society, let me just say that I somewhat comprehend what you are saying, but I am entering the Friday puzzle zone, so I must quit.
In finality, I faintly remember a device called the Cubli ( Cube-it ?) that has strong fans to provide rotational torque that enables it to lift itself and walk. produced by the engg. college of ETH, Zurich, Switz.
Glenn, Thank you for the links of Mondelez, Intl. It is amazing how large conglomerates are.
Good noght, all.
Ah Jeff, you remind me of my "Astromony for Non Physics Majors" class and lab way back when. Toward the end of the semester, when we discussed alternate universes, I would literally be dizzy when I left the room. I still got an A though!
I enjoyed the puzzle, but I never am going to remember DYNE and ETUI, which is what spitting sounds like, and I almost never spit.
Happy Tuesday, all-
Bella
Also, in the PEANUTS cartoons, also way back when, didn't Sally call Linus her sweet babu? Maybe she said "sweet baboo", which of course is a different thing entirely.
Oh, go to bed, Bella, you're babbling.
Bella
Hi gang!
@Vidwan, I also thought of you when I saw that clue for BABU. I thought, "That's not right, per Vidwan!!"
Easy, even by Monday standards, I thought. I wasn't sure I had LIE right till I came here. Myself, I figured it referred to golfers lying about where their ball actually landed! Aren't there moments in golf when your opponent can't clearly see where the ball is? Do people sometimes cheat by secretly moving the golf ball? Or does that only happen in slapstick movies? Clearly, I don't know the game. To quote Vin Scully, "Golf is a great way to ruin a walk in the park." (My apologies to fans of the game…)
Oh! One more thing: the fact that the BABU clue appeared means the crossword editors don't read this blog!! Setters sometimes do; so should the editors, IMO.
Sweet dreams~~™