NYXCrossword.com

Today’s Theme: To-Do List

Several squares in the puzzle TICK THE BOX. We use the letters “TICK” for the themed down-answers, and the letters “BOX” for the themed across-answers:

• 43D Be fully qualified … or a hint to this puzzle’s theme : TICK ALL THE BOXES

• 18A Orator’s platform : SOAPBOX
• 53A Email holder : INBOX
• 55A Set of skills, metaphorically : TOOLBOX
• 75A Playroom chest : TOY BOX
• 107A Flight recorder : BLACK BOX

• 3D Tries to make the unappealing attractive : PUTS LIPSTICK ON A PIG
• 7D Imbroglios : STICKY SITUATIONS
• 29D “You nailed it!” : THAT’S THE TICKET!
• 48D Combination meant to change behavior : CARROT AND STICK
• 56D Play piano, informally : TICKLE THE IVORIES

… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 15m 57s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4 Ad Council offerings, for short : PSAS

Public service announcement (PSA)

8 Home of the Kaaba : MECCA

The Kaaba is a large, cube-shaped structure that resides in a mosque in Mecca, in Saudi Arabia. According to the Qur’an, the Kaaba was constructed by Abraham and his son, Ishmael. When Muslims turn to face Mecca during prayers, they are actually turning to the Kaaba.

13 Spartan : BARE

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece that was famous for her military might. Spartan children had a tough upbringing, and newborn babies were bathed in wine to see if the child was strong enough to survive. Every child was presented to a council of elders that decided if the baby was suitable for rearing. Those children deemed too puny were executed by tossing them into a chasm. We’ve been using the term “spartan” to describe something self-disciplined or austere since the 1600s.

17 “The Problem With ___” (2017 documentary) : APU

“The Problem with Apu” is a 2017 documentary that explores the use of racial stereotypes by focusing on the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from the animated sitcom “The Simpsons”. The film was written by and stars American stand-up comedian Hari Kondabolu.

18 Orator’s platform : SOAPBOX

Back in the 1650s, a soapbox was just that, a wooden box for holding or transporting soap. Empty soapboxes were easily carried by a potential orator and used as a stand from which to deliver an address.

31 Mob : MAFIA

Apparently, “Cosa Nostra” is the real name for the Italian Mafia. “Cosa Nostra” translates as “our thing” or “this thing of ours”. The term first became public in the US when the FBI managed to turn some members of the American Mafia. The Italian authorities established that “Cosa Nostra” was also used in Sicily when they penetrated the Sicilian Mafia in the 1980s. The term “Mafia” seems to be just a literary invention that has become popular with the public.

33 Fish whose males bear the young : SEAHORSE

Seahorses belong to the genus Hippocampus. The genus name comes from the Greek “hippo” meaning “horse” and “kampos” meaning “sea monster”. It’s the male seahorse who carries the fertilized eggs, and not the females. The region of the brain known as the hippocampus, is so called because it resembles a seahorse in shape.

35 Evening gala : SOIREE

“Soir” is the French word for “evening” and a soirée is an evening party. The French word “soirée” has an acute accent over the first “e”, but we tend to drop this when using the word in English.

37 Note-taking spot? : ATM

Automatic Teller Machine (ATM)

46 What Franklin famously asked for : RESPECT

“Respect” is a song by Otis Redding, and one that he recorded himself in 1965. It became a hit when Aretha Franklin made her famous cover version in 1967. The Redding and Franklin versions have different storylines though, and different musical “feels”.

50 Blog feed inits. : RSS

Many websites and blogs publish content in a format known as Rich Site Summary (RSS). The “feed” can be read using an RSS reader. The advantage of using an RSS reader, is that the user doesn’t have to check the website for new content. That new material is fed to the RSS reader as soon as it is published.

57 Father of Scout, in “To Kill a Mockingbird” : ATTICUS

Atticus Finch is the protagonist in Harper Lee’s great novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Atticus is the father of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, the narrator of the piece, and of Scout’s older brother Jeremy Atticus “Jem” Finch.

61 Best Actor winner Malek : RAMI

Actor Rami Malek’s big break came with the leading role in the television series “Mr. Robot”. In 2018, Malik gave an Oscar-winning performance playing Freddie Mercury in the hit biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody”. That marked the first time that an actor of Egyptian descent won an Academy Award for Best Actor.

63 Normandy battle site : ST-LO

Saint-Lô is a town in Normandy that was occupied by Germany in 1940. Saint-Lo stood at a strategic crossroads and so there was intense fighting there during the Normandy invasion of 1944. After a prolonged bombardment, very little of the town was left standing.

66 Last dance? : SENIOR PROM

A prom is a formal dance held upon graduation from high school (we call them “formals” over in Ireland). The term “prom” is short for “promenade”, the name given to a type of dance or ball.

72 Wonder Woman accessory : LASSO

Superhero Wonder Woman first appeared in print in 1941, in a publication from DC Comics. As she was created during WWII, Wonder Woman’s first foes were the axis powers. In the less realistic world her biggest foe was and still is Ares, a “baddie” named after the Greek mythological figure. Wonder Woman had several signature expressions, including “Merciful Minerva!”, “Suffering Sappho!” and “Great Hera!”. She also has several devices that she uses in her quest for justice, e.g. the Lasso of Truth, a pair of indestructible bracelets and a tiara that can be used as a deadly projectile. Wonder Woman uses the name “Diana Prince” when “out of uniform”.

76 Downwind : ALEE

Alee is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing aweather.

83 Ka ___ (southernmost point on Hawaii) : LAE

Ka Lae is the most southerly point on the Big Island of Hawaii, and indeed the most southerly point of the fifty states in the US. It is believed that the first Polynesians to settle the Hawaiian Islands landed at Ka Lae.

84 Prefix with -graph : EPI-

In the world of literature, an epigraph is a few words at the beginning of a composition that sets forth a theme, and is often a quotation. The term “epigraph” can also be used for an inscription on maybe a building or a statue.

86 Singer Brickell : EDIE

Edie Brickell is a singer-songwriter from Dallas, Texas. Brickell has been married to fellow singer Paul Simon since 1991.

89 Commercial lead-in to land : LEGO-

There are currently six Legoland theme parks in the world, with two here in North America. One of the US parks is in Winter Haven, Florida and the other is in Carlsbad, California (which is the one that I’ve visited … a fun place).

91 Elizabeth Warren vis-à-vis former chief justice Earl Warren, e.g. : NO RELATION

Elizabeth Warren is the senior US Senator from Massachusetts, and the first female to hold that office for her state. Warren is a prominent Democratic and is a favorite of the progressive wing of the party.

Earl Warren served as Governor of California from 1943 to 1953 and as US Chief Justice from 1953 until 1969. Earlier in his career, Warren served as district attorney for Alameda County in California (which happens to be the county in which I live). Warren lent his name to the Warren Commission that he chaired, which investigated the assassination of President Kennedy.

98 Olivia Benson’s division on TV: Abbr. : SVU

Mariska Hargitay is the actress who plays Olivia Benson on the long-running police drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”. Mariska’s father was actor and former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay. Her mother was Hollywood star Jayne Mansfield.

104 First of the metalloids : BORON

Boron is the chemical element with the atomic number of 5 and symbol B. It lies over to the right in Group 13 of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Uncombined, elemental boron is not found naturally on Earth. The boron that is mined is found in oxide form, not as uncombined boron.

A metalloid is also known as a semimetal. The metalloids are a group of elements that have physical and chemical properties of both metals and nonmetals.

107 Flight recorder : BLACK BOX

In the aviation industry, a black box is an audio or data recorder installed in an aircraft as an aid in the event that an accident investigation is necessary. The “black” box is actually bright orange, so that it is easier to find after an accident.

114 ___ New Guinea : PAPUA

Papua New Guinea is a country occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea (the western side of the island is part of Indonesia).

117 Org. that kicked off again in 2020 after a 19-year hiatus : XFL

The XFL was an American Football league that only survived for one season. The intention of the league was to provide football fans with something to watch in the off-season, but the fans didn’t bother. There was discussion when the league was founded that “XFL” would stand for “Extreme” Football League, but the decision was made to let the “X” stand for nothing at all. The XFL was revived in 2020.

118 Studio behind “Platoon” and “Amadeus” : ORION

Orion Pictures is a film studio that was relaunched in 2014, after having operated originally from 1978 to 1999. Orion is a relatively small studio, but has produced four Best Picture Oscar winners:

• Amadeus (1984)
• Platoon (1986)
• Dances with Wolves (1990)
• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

124 State pair: Abbr. : SENS

The US Senate comprises 100 senators, with each of the fifty states being represented by two popularly elected senators. US senators were appointed by their state legislators from 1798 through 1913, until the Seventeenth Amendment called for popular elections.

Down

1 Transportation for the Doctor on “Doctor Who” : TARDIS

“Dr Who” is an iconic sci-fi television series that is made in the UK by the BBC. First broadcast in 1963, the show is still running today, making it the longest running sci-fi television show in the world. Dr. Who is a time traveler, from the planet Gallifrey, who “regenerates” from time to time (pun!) so that a new actor fits seamlessly into the storyline. He travels in his famous TARDIS spacecraft. Outwardly, the TARDIS looks like a police call box from the 1950s, but inside it is an enormous, multi-roomed time machine. “TARDIS” is an acronym standing for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.

2 Small suit : SPEEDO

Speedo brand swimwear was first produced in Australia in 1928, by a hosiery company that wanted to diversify. The brand name was chosen after a slogan competition among employees was won by “Speed on in your Speedos”. It was a long time ago, I guess …

4 Eeyore-ish sentiment : POOR ME

Eeyore is the donkey character in A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh”. Eeyore is very lovable, but has a gloomy and pessimistic outlook on life.

5 Stocking stuffer : SANTA

Apparently, the tradition of putting coal in the Christmas stocking of a poorly-behaved child comes simply from the proximity of the stocking (hanging on the fireplace) to a source of coal!

6 Donkey Kong, e.g. : APE

The first video game featuring the ape called Donkey Kong was created in 1981. That same game introduced the world to the character known as Mario, four years before the game Super Mario Bros became such a big hit.

7 Imbroglios : STICKY SITUATIONS

An imbroglio is a difficult or tangled situation. As one might expect, “imbroglio” comes to us from Italian. The Old Italian word “imbrogliare” means to tangle or confuse.

8 Play charades : MIME

In the parlor game known as charades, players take turns acting out words or phrases. “Charade” is a French word describing a literary puzzle that was popular in 18th-century France. In said game, the word or phrase was broken into its constituent syllables, with each syllable being described somewhat enigmatically. This puzzle evolved into “acted charades”, which we now refer to simply as “charades”.

9 Setting for a Sistine Chapel painting : EDEN

The Sistine Chapel is located in the Pope’s residence in Rome. The chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who was responsible for restoring the old Capella Magna in the 15th century. It was about a century later (1508-1512) that Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel under the patronage of Pope Julius II.

12 “Methought I was enamour’d of an ___”: Titania : ASS

Oberon and Titania are the King and Queen of the fairies in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

13 Brand of rum : BACARDI

The Bacardi company is still family-owned and operated, and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. The company was founded in Santiago de Cuba and became successful by selling a refined form of rum, something new to a market that was used to a crude dark rum. The Bacardi family opposed the Castro regime as it came to power, so the company had to relocate to Bermuda.

15 Best Actress winner Zellweger : RENEE

Renée Zellweger’s big break came in the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire”. A few years later, Zellweger followed that up with a string of successes in “Bridget Jones’ Diary” (2001), “Chicago” (2002) and “Cold Mountain” (2003). My wife and I love watching her play Bridget Jones, and as someone coming from Britain and Ireland, I have to say that Zellweger does a remarkable job with the accent. She worked hard to perfect that accent, and of course she had a voice coach. She also went “undercover” and worked as a temp in an office for three weeks fine-tuning her skills.

16 Tiny fractions of joules : ERGS

An erg is a unit of mechanical work or energy. It is a small unit, with one joule comprising 10 million ergs. It has been suggested that an erg is about the amount of energy required for a mosquito to take off. The term comes from “ergon”, the Greek word for work.

28 Iconic Chevy : CAMARO

The Chevrolet Camaro is a car produced by General Motors from 1966 to 2002, and reintroduced in 2009. The Camaro shared much of its design with the Pontiac Firebird, and was introduced as a potential competitor to the Ford Mustang.

32 ___ page : FAQ

Most websites have a page listing answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Even this blog has one!

36 Olympic pentathlete’s need : EPEE

The original pentathlon of the ancient Olympic games consisted of a foot race, wrestling, long jump, javelin and discus. When a new pentathlon was created as a sport for the modern Olympic Games, it was given the name the “modern pentathlon”. First introduced in 1912, the modern pentathlon consists of:

1. pistol shooting
2. épée fencing
3. 200m freestyle swimming
4. show jumping
5. 3km cross-country running

41 Flying Clouds and Royales : REOS

The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale and the REO Flying Cloud.

44 Author of “The Silent World: A Story of Undersea Discovery and Adventure” : COUSTEAU

Jacques-Yves Cousteau started off his career in the French Navy, aiming for a working life in aviation. Because of a car accident, Cousteau had to abandon his first career choice and instead went to sea. Famously, he co-invented the Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA), also called the aqua-lung.

45 Czech reformer Jan : HUS

Jan Hus was Czech priest who is famous today for having been burnt at the stake in 1415, having been found guilty of heresy against the Catholic Church. Hus was an important contributor to Protestantism, over 100 years before Martin Luther made his famous proclamations.

46 Coastal inlets : RIAS

A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, and both are formed as sea levels rise. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

48 Combination meant to change behavior : CARROT AND STICK

There is some debate about the “carrot/stick” metaphor. Some say that a carrot represents an incentive and a stick represents a threat, with the idea being that an incentive is more effective than a threat. Another version of the metaphor is that the carrot is dangled on a stick before a donkey, incentivizing the animal to move forward. There’s no threat, just a reward that never gets any more attainable …

56 Play piano, informally : TICKLE THE IVORIES

The traditional materials used for the manufacture of piano keys were ebony (black) and ivory (white). Ebony is still used, but now for both white and black keys. The white keys are made by covering ebony with white plastic.

58 Machu Picchu builder : INCA

Machu Picchu is known as “The Lost City of the Incas”, and it can be visited on a mountain ridge in Peru, 50 miles northwest of the city of Cuzco in the southeast of the country. The name Machu Picchu means “old peak”. The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu originates about 50 miles from Cusco on the Urubamba River in Peru. It can take travelers about 5 days to trek the full length of the trail, passing through many Incan ruins before reaching the Sun Gate on Machu Picchu mountain. The trail was becoming greatly overused, forcing the Peruvian government to limit the number of people on the trail each day to 500. Book early …

62 X-ray alternative, maybe : 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.

64 Spanish treasure : ORO

In Spanish, one might find “oro” (gold) in “una mina” (a mine”).

67 Anthem starter : O SAY …

“O say can you see by the dawn’s early light” is the opening line of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key. The song was adopted as the US national anthem in 1931, although it had been used officially by the US Navy since 1889, played when raising the flag.

68 Businesses with a portmanteau name : MOTELS

The term “motel” is a portmanteau of “motor” and “hotel”.

70 “It Ain’t Me Babe” songwriter : DYLAN

The real name of singer Bob Dylan is Robert Zimmerman. Zimmerman chose that particular stage name because he was greatly influenced by the poetry of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas.

78 Wimbledon wear, perhaps : SKORT

The garment called a “skort” is a hybrid between shorts and a skirt.

The Wimbledon Championships of tennis are held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club located in Wimbledon, a district of London. The Wimbledon Championships started in 1877, and have been played on grass since day one.

97 Canon competitor : NIKON

The Japanese company Nikon was founded in 1917 with the merger of three manufacturers of various optical devices. After the merger, Nikon’s main output was lenses (including the first lenses for Canon cameras, before Canon made its own). During the war, Nikon sales grew rapidly as the company focused on (pun!) equipment for the military including periscopes and bomb sights.

101 Fashion designer McCartney : STELLA

Stella McCartney is an English fashion designer. She is the daughter of musician Paul McCartney (of Beatles fame) and photographer Linda McCartney nee Eastman.

107 Warner ___ : BROS

The Warner Bros. film studio was founded by four Warner brothers, although their original family name was Wonskolaser. The brothers Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack emigrated from Poland as children with their parents, and changed their name when they landed in Baltimore, Maryland in 1889.

109 Like the Liberty Bell in 1846, for the last time : RUNG

The Liberty Bell was commissioned in 1752 and installed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The bell bears the inscription “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof”, a quotation from the Book of Leviticus in the Bible. Famously, the bell cracked when it was first rung in Philadelphia after arriving from the foundry where it was made in London, England. The bell’s fame originated with a short story by George Lippard published in 1847 that gave a fictional account of an old bell-ringer ringing it on July 4, 1776 upon hearing that the Second Continental Congress had voted for independence. That ringing of the bell never actually happened, even though the account was constantly presented as fact in school texts around the country for generations.

110 Big name in British art : 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 that is 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.

112 Hall-of-Fame catcher Campanella : ROY

Roy Campanella was a Major League Baseball player considered by many to have been one of the greatest catchers the game has ever seen. Campanella played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the forties and fifties and was a pioneer in breaking the color barrier as he started out playing in the Negro Leagues. Sadly, he was paralyzed in a car accident when in his late thirties and so his career was tragically cut short.