Constructed by: Jeffrey Wechsler
Edited by: Rich Norris
Quicklink to a complete list of today’s clues and answers
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Theme: G-Answers
Each of today’s themed answers is a common phrase, but with a letter G added at the front:
- 17A. Domestic shamelessness? : GALL IN THE FAMILY (G + “All in the Family”)
- 26A. Near giveaway at the liquor store? : GIN FOR A PENNY (G + “in for a penny”)
- 41A. Fort Knox? : GOLD DOMINION (G + “Old Dominion”)
- 53A. Result of way too many leaves in the eaves? : GUTTER CONFUSION (G + “utter confusion”)
Bill’s time: 9m 09s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Test in which contrasts are helpful, briefly : MRI
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.
14. Huffington Post owner : AOL
“The Huffington Post” is a news website founded in 2005 by Arianna Huffington. It is a very active site, with 3,000 people contributing blog posts (including many celebrities and politicians), and readers leaving over one million comments every month. “The Huffington Post” was sold to AOL in 2011 for $315 million, with Arianna Huffington staying on as editor-in-chief.
15. Wedding offering : CANAPE
A canapé is a finger food, usually small enough to eat in just one bite. In French, “canapé” is actually the word for a couch or a sofa. The name was given to the snack as the original “canapés” were savories served on toasted or stale bread that supposedly resembled a tiny “couch”.
16. Defunct food coating : ALAR
The chemical name for Alar, a plant growth regulator and color enhancer, is daminozide. Alar was primarily used on apples but was withdrawn from the market when it was linked to cancer.
17. Domestic shamelessness? : GALL IN THE FAMILY (G + “All in the Family”)
“All in the Family” is an American sitcom, a remake of the incredibly successful BBC show called “Till Death Us Do Part”. Both the UK and US versions of the sitcom were groundbreaking in that the storyline brought into focus topics previously considered unsuitable for a television comedy, including racism, homosexuality, women’s liberation, menopause and impotence. “All in the Family” is one of only three TV shows that has topped the Nielsen ratings for five consecutive seasons (the other two are “The Cosby Show” and “American Idol”). Stars of the show are:
- Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker
- Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker
- Sally Struthers as Gloria Stivic née Bunker
- Rob Reiner as Michael Stivic
21. Legal tender with a torch : DIME
The term “dime”, used for a 10-cent coin, comes from the Old French word “disme” meaning “tenth part”.
23. __ voce : SOTTO
“Sotto voce” literally means “under the voice” in Italian, and describes the deliberate lowering of one’s voice for emphasis.
25. Body shop supply : SOLDER
Solder is a metal alloy that is used to join pieces of a work together using the principle that the melting point of the alloy is below the melting point of the workpieces.
26. Near giveaway at the liquor store? : GIN FOR A PENNY (G + “in for a penny”)
The spirit known as gin gets its unique flavor mainly from juniper berries. The name “gin” comes into English from the translation of “juniper” from either French (genièvre), Dutch (jenever) or Italian (ginepro).
30. 2016 Billboard Top Artist : ADELE
Adele is the stage name of English singer Adele Adkins. Adele’s debut album is “19”, named after the age she was during the album’s production. Her second album was even more successful than the first. Called “21”, the second album was released three years after the first, when Adele was three years older. More recently, her third studio album “25”, released in 2015, broke the first-week sales records in both the UK and the US.
31. Besides Linus, the only Nobel laureate in two fields : MARIE
Marie Curie lived a life of firsts. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and indeed was the first person to win two Nobel prizes (in Physics 1903, and in Chemistry in 1911). Most of Curie’s work was in the field of radioactivity, and was carried out in the days when the impact of excessive radiation on the human body was not understood. She died from aplastic anemia, caused by high exposure to radiation. To this day, Curie’s personal papers are kept preserved in lead-lined boxes as they are highly radioactive, even her personal cookbook.
Being a chemist myself by training, I have nothing but admiration for Linus Pauling, perhaps America’s greatest chemist of all time. Pauling is the only person to have individually been awarded two Nobel Prizes (for Chemistry in 1954, and the Peace Prize in 1962). During WWI he worked on military research & development, but after the war he adopted the pacifist views of his wife and led a campaign to ban above-ground nuclear testing, for which he was awarded his Peace Prize.
37. Candy __ : CANE
Apparently candy canes were created at the behest of the choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral in Germany in 1672. The sweet sticks were basically used as bribes to keep children quiet during services. The choirmaster specified that the candy sticks should have a crook at the top so that they reminded the children of the three shepherds who visited the infant Jesus just after his birth.
38. Feb. setting in Spokane : PST
Pacific Standard Time (PST)
Spokane, Washington is named for the Spokan people who lived in the eastern portion of Washington and northern Idaho. Back in 1974, Spokane was the smallest city ever to host a World’s Fair. The theme of the fare was “the environment”, which I suppose was ahead of its time. Notably, Expo ’74 was the first American-hosted World’s Fair attended by the Soviet Union after WWII.
39. Artist at Giverny : MONET
Giverny is a commune in northern France, most famous as the location of artist Claude Monet’s home. It was in Giverny that Monet produced his famous “Water Lilies” series of paintings.
40. Opposite of 56-Across : NADIR
The nadir is the direction pointing immediately below a particular location (through to the other side of the Earth for example). The opposite direction, that pointing immediately above, is called the zenith. We use the terms “nadir” and “zenith” figuratively to mean the low and high points in a person’s fortunes.
41. Fort Knox? : GOLD DOMINION (G + “Old Dominion”)
Old Dominion University (ODU) is a public school in Norfolk, Virginia. ODU was established in 1930 as a two year branch division of the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg. The school was granted independence in 1962 as Old Dominion College, and became Old Dominion University in 1969. “The Old Dominion” was a nickname given to Virginia by King Charles II in recognition of the loyalty shown by the colony during the English Civil War.
Fort Knox is actually a US Army base, but it lends its name to the adjacent facility that is more correctly called the United States Bullion Depository. Most of the US gold reserves are in “Fort Knox”, although it isn’t the biggest gold repository in the US. That honor goes to the vault under the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Manhattan. Most of the gold stored in the New York vault belongs to foreign nations and banks.
46. “Cutthroat Kitchen” host Brown : ALTON
Alton Brown is a celebrity chef who is behind the Food Network show “Good Eats”, and the host of “Iron Chef America”.
“Cutthroat Kitchen” is a reality television show that airs on Food Network. It’s all about four chefs competing to cook the best gourmet dishes for a celebrity judge.
56. Opposite of 40-Across : ACME
The “acme” is the highest point, coming from the Greek word “akme” which has the same meaning.
58. ENT’s group : AMA
American Medical Association (AMA)
Ear, nose and throat specialist (ENT)
59. Arcade trademark word : SKEE
Skee Ball is that arcade game where you roll balls up a ramp trying to “bounce” it into rings for varying numbers of points. The game was first introduced in Philadelphia, in 1909.
Down
1. Ancient spell caster : MAGE
Mage is an archaic word for a magician.
4. Part of NSF: Abbr. : SCI
The National Science Foundation (NSF) supports research and education in all scientific fields outside of medicine. The NSF was founded in 1950 during the Truman administration. Today it has a budget of almost 7 billion dollars.
7. First name in Chicago politics : RAHM
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was an Illinois representative in the US House before resigning to take up President Obama’s offer to become the White House Chief of Staff.
8. It’s thrust in competition : EPEE
The sword known as an épée has a three-sided blade. The épée is similar to a foil and sabre, both of which are also thrusting weapons. However, the foil and saber have rectangular cross-sections.
11. Zeus remains largely neutral during its narrative : ILIAD
“The Iliad” is an epic poem by the Greek poet Homer, which tells the story of the ten-year siege of Ilium (also known as Troy) during the Trojan war. “The Odyssey”, also attributed to Homer, is sometimes described as a sequel to “The Iliad”.
12. “A dagger of the mind, a __ creation … “: Macbeth : FALSE
In William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”, one of the more famous soliloquies starts with, “Is this a dagger which I see before me …?” There isn’t an actual dagger in front of Macbeth, but instead he sees the vision of a dagger pointing at King Duncan’s bedchamber, perhaps suggesting that he should go ahead with his plan to murder the King.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
27. Enhance through change : AMEND
The verb “to amend” means “to change for the better, put right, alter by adding”. The related verb “to emend” is used more rarely and mainly in reference to the editing of professional writing. Both terms are derived from the Latin “emendare” meaning “to remove fault”.
29. Poetry Muse : ERATO
In Greek mythology, Erato was the Muse of lyric poetry, and is often depicted playing a lyre.
33. Russian Orthodox church feature : ONION DOME
The onion dome is a common form for church domes in Russia and Orthodox churches across the globe.
The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second-largest of Christian religious tradition in the world, after Roman Catholicism. Many Orthodox churches identify themselves along national lines, such as Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox and Serbian Orthodox, etc.
34. City on the Aare : BERN
The Aar (also called the “Aare” in German) is the longest river entirely in Switzerland. The Aar is a major tributary of the Rhine, and flows through Bern, the nation’s capital.
36. Kaiser, for one : ROLL
The crusty roll known as a Kaiser roll was invented in Vienna, Austria. It is thought that the “Kaiser” name was applied in honor of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I.
37. Songs of Seville : CANTOS
“El canto” is Spanish for “the song”.
The city of Seville is the capital of Andalusia in southern Spain. Seville is a favored setting for many operas including “The Barber of Seville” by Rossini, “Fidelio” by Beethoven and Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and “The Marriage of Figaro”.
41. Buffalo Bill feature : GOATEE
A goatee is a beard formed by hair on just a man’s chin. The name probably comes from the tuft of hair seen on an adult goat.
Buffalo Bill Cody was a great showman after he retired from the US Army. While serving in the Army, Buffalo Bill was awarded the Medal of Honor. William Frederick Cody earned his “Buffalo Bill” nickname while supplying buffalo meat to the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Cody “hunted” and slaughtered over 4,000 American bison in an 18-month period to fulfill his contract with the railroad.
45. Request to a dealer : HIT ME
“Stand” and “hit me” are instructions to the dealer in the card game Blackjack. The instruction “stand” means, I don’t want any more cards, I’ll use these. The instruction “hit me” means “please deal me another card”.
54. Tach stat : RPM
The tachometer takes its name from the Greek word “tachos” meaning “speed”. A tachometer measures engine revolutions per minute (rpm).
55. SEAL’s org. : USN
SEAL is an acronym used by the US Navy’s SEa, Air and Land teams. The SEALs were born out of the Navy’s special warfare groups from WWII, like the Underwater Demolition Teams and the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons. The Navy SEAL unit was established soon after President Kennedy’s famous speech in which he announced the plan to put a man on the moon, as in the same speech the president allocated $100m of funding to strengthen special operations forces. The Navy used some of this money to set up guerrilla and counterguerrilla units, which soon became the SEALs.
Complete List of Clues and Answers
Across
1. Test in which contrasts are helpful, briefly : MRI
4. __ stiff : SCARED
10. Minor set-to : TIFF
14. Huffington Post owner : AOL
15. Wedding offering : CANAPE
16. Defunct food coating : ALAR
17. Domestic shamelessness? : GALL IN THE FAMILY (G + “All in the Family”)
20. Boundary : EDGE
21. Legal tender with a torch : DIME
22. Dealer’s offering : LEASE
23. __ voce : SOTTO
25. Body shop supply : SOLDER
26. Near giveaway at the liquor store? : GIN FOR A PENNY (G + “in for a penny”)
30. 2016 Billboard Top Artist : ADELE
31. Besides Linus, the only Nobel laureate in two fields : MARIE
32. Take badly? : ROB
35. Alluring : SEXY
36. Postgame staple : RECAP
37. Candy __ : CANE
38. Feb. setting in Spokane : PST
39. Artist at Giverny : MONET
40. Opposite of 56-Across : NADIR
41. Fort Knox? : GOLD DOMINION (G + “Old Dominion”)
43. Philosophers’ group : SCHOOL
46. “Cutthroat Kitchen” host Brown : ALTON
47. Second name, perhaps : ALIAS
48. “Zounds!” : EGAD!
51. They’re often tough to beat : ODDS
53. Result of way too many leaves in the eaves? : GUTTER CONFUSION (G + “utter confusion”)
56. Opposite of 40-Across : ACME
57. Album contents : PHOTOS
58. ENT’s group : AMA
59. Arcade trademark word : SKEE
60. Part of many art museum names : MODERN
61. Table support : LEG
Down
1. Ancient spell caster : MAGE
2. Produce stand sites : ROADSIDES
3. “My turn” : I’LL GO NEXT
4. Part of NSF: Abbr. : SCI
5. Telling it like it is : CANDOR
6. Opposition leader? : ANTI-
7. First name in Chicago politics : RAHM
8. It’s thrust in competition : EPEE
9. Phone button letters : DEF
10. Without aggression : TAMELY
11. Zeus remains largely neutral during its narrative : ILIAD
12. “A dagger of the mind, a __ creation … “: Macbeth : FALSE
13. Potatoes may be cooked in one : FRYER
18. Unloose : LET FLY
19. How stand-up comics usually work : ALONE
24. Ring site : TOE
25. Salon sound : SNIP
26. [I’m shocked!] : GASP!
27. Enhance through change : AMEND
28. Showed impatience, in a way : PACED
29. Poetry Muse : ERATO
32. One moving with frequency? : RADIO DIAL
33. Russian Orthodox church feature : ONION DOME
34. City on the Aare : BERN
36. Kaiser, for one : ROLL
37. Songs of Seville : CANTOS
39. Maine road sign image : MOOSE
40. Nothing : NIL
41. Buffalo Bill feature : GOATEE
42. Really loving : MAD FOR
43. Generational tales : SAGAS
44. Barnyard sound : CLUCK
45. Request to a dealer : HIT ME
48. Verify the story of : ECHO
49. Above the crossbar and between the uprights : GOOD
50. Forced bet : ANTE
52. Obstruction : SNAG
54. Tach stat : RPM
55. SEAL’s org. : USN
Nice way to finish up the week. Like most Fridays I stared at it for a while, but once I got a little momentum it filled in apace. Right at my average Friday solve time today.
All In The Family was ranked by TV Guide as one of the top 3 shows of all time. The Sopranos was in there as well as was I Love Lucy, I believe. Archie Bunker was ranked as the top TV character of all time. I can’t argue with any of that.
Bill – I was a little disappointed in the write up today as you failed to include information as to where to go for GIN FOR A PENNY….. I actually am not a fan of gin, but it’s just the principle… 🙂
Best –
Previous puzzles: 1 error on Thu on a semi-stupid spot. Times: 9, 10, 19, 21 mins.
12:46, no errors. Like Jeff, I stared at this one for awhile, finally got started somewhere near the bottom, and then had a relatively easy time working my way back up to the top.
@Sfingi … I’ve tried a couple of times now to respond to your Monday comment about online solving (once here, on Monday, and once on the NYT blog, on Wednesday) but my timing has been off both times, so I’ll try once more: The online apps I’ve used only correct you as you enter letters if you turn that option on and I suspect that most solvers, like me, leave it turned off. (Mind you, I’m not trying to encourage you to solve online, only to correct an apparent misunderstanding.)
I’ll just say I had the same experience as Jeff and David. How’s that for a boring comment?
Hope everyone has a good Friday intro to the weekend.
Here’s another boring one: Pretty easy puzzle for Jeff W. I liked the theme.
I hope everyone has a good weekend. Seventy-four degrees and sunny in the northeast today. ?
needed esp for the g answer! asinine\
In my world, NSF means Non Sufficient Funds, as in “you’ve bounced a check”. I personally don’t bounce checks, but I’ve handled many. I had the SCI, but was muttering abt the crazy and unfair creation of self-serving abbreviations. As usual, the joke’s on me.
Have a good weekend, everyone-
I am late for the puzzle and the blog ….. I was procastinating, knowing who the constructor would be. I actually finished it, somewhat – so I guess I should be proud of myself ! Little by little, we progress along …. I actually discovered the theme from the last long clue, upwards.
NSF – as a chemist turned financial auditor, I know only as (insufficient ) or Not Sufficient Funds. The SCI set me back, a long time. The last time I bounced a check (once -) was in february 1975. These days, most of my checks are electronic and paid online. I use credit cards, (as ‘revolvers’ ), for most places.
Trivia, Only 4 people have won 2 Nobels, – the other two are Frederick Sanger (UK, both Chemistry – the structure of insulin, and DNA codes ) and John Bardeen (USA, both Physics – the transistor, and Superconductivity). Linus Pauling is the only person in the four who did not have to (!) share either of his Nobels with anybody else…. I too, like Bill, marvelled at Linus Pauling’s Valence bond theory – which I had to cram up for my chemistry exams. !@!
Finally, the idea of acme or zenith …. and nadir, set me (again !!) thinking of Antipodes or “diametrically across” points on the earth. “If you were to dig a tunnel, directly below your feet”. All the antipodal points of the continental USA are under the southern Indian ocean ….
The closest to a theoritical antipode is apparently Tangiers Morocco and Whangrei, near Auckland, New Zealand – about 20,000 kms distance. also Taipei, Taiwan and Asuncion, Paraguay, and Beijing – Rio de Janeiro and Santiago, Chile and Xian, China. No plane can apparently fly between antipodes, even at current state of technology, without refuelling…. or so, Wikipedia, says.
Have a nice night, all.
Was thinking about giving up and then poof, it all came together, albeit after about an hour and a half. No errors. Thought about cuRIE before MARIE and Apex before ACME and GOal before GOOD.
Another fun Wechsler, which I noticed while doing it for once.
On to Saturday…
Hi every buddy!
Success on this one, with plenty of missteps along the way. I like a simple theme: add one letter. No seriously fractured English (as in the dreadful UU = W thing from like two years ago, remember??!)
Dirk, glad you mentioned goal, cuz I REALLY didn’t understand that GOOD answer. Now I see it! I had ROOF at first, which of course didn’t work.
Vidwan, interesting as always!! We used to think, as kids, that if you dug right through the Earth you’d find yourself in China (good sized target, I guess!) Now I realize we’d actually be in the Indian Ocean!!
Hope Saturday’s doable…?
Be well~~™?(here’s a pal for your dog, Cattygirl!!)