0508-15 New York Times Crossword Answers 8 May 15, Friday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Instagram alternative : SNAPCHAT
Snapchat is a messaging system that allows users to send photos and video clips to a limited list of recipients. The photos and clips, called “snaps”, can be viewed for only a few seconds before they are deleted from the recipient’s device and from the Snapchat servers.

Instagram is a photo-sharing application, one that is extremely popular I hear. Instagram was started in San Francisco in 2010. Facebook purchased Instagram two years later, paying $1 billion. The billion-dollar Instagram company had just 13 employees at the time …

15. “Gentlemen, this is vodka” sloganeer : KETEL ONE
Ketel One is a brand of vodka from the Netherlands. The vodka is distilled from wheat in copper pot stills, and “ketel” is Dutch for “pot still”.

16. Melter on winter sidewalks : HALITE
Halite is the mineral form of sodium chloride, and is also known as “rock salt”. Halite is used melt ice, as salt water has a lower freezing point than pure water. Adding salt to icy sidewalks can therefore cause any ice to melt (as long as the ambient temperature isn’t too low). A mixture of halite and ice can also be used to cool things below the freezing point of water, perhaps to make ice cream.

19. Masago, at a sushi bar : SMELT ROE
The Japanese dish called “masago” is actually the roe of the capelin fish. Masago is often mixed with wasabi and served as “wasabi caviar”.

22. Camp vehicle : CANOE
The boat called a canoe takes its name from the Carib word “kenu” meaning “dugout”. It was Christopher Columbus who brought “kenu” into Spanish as “canoa”, which evolved into our English “canoe”.

25. Winged figure of myth : EROS
Eros was the Greek god of love, the Greek counterpart of the Roman god Cupid.

27. Any day now : ANON
“Anon” originally meant “at once” and evolved into today’s meaning of “soon” apparently just because the word was misused over time.

30. Tech field, briefly : CGI
Computer-generated imagery (CGI)

35. Participant in the Battle of Saratoga, 1777 : HESSIAN
The Hessians were German regiments that fought for the British during the American Revolutionary War. They took their name from the homeland of about one third of the men, namely Hesse-Kassel.

40. All Saints’ Day vis-à-vis All Souls’ Day : EVE
All Saints’ Day is November 1st each year. The day before All Saints’ Day is All Hallows Eve, better known by the Scottish term, “Halloween”.

All Souls’ Day is a religious holiday mainly in the Roman Catholic tradition. All Souls’ Day is observed on November 2nd annually, and is a commemoration of the “faithful departed”.

41. 1960 Pirates World Series hero, familiarly : MAZ
Bill “Maz” Mazeroski is a former Major League baseball player who spent his whole career with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In game seven of the 1960 World Series, Mazeroski hit a home run to win the championship, the only time that a home run had ever won a World Series. Then Joe Carter did something similar for the Blue Jays in 1993, a home run to win in game six, the only other time a World Series has been decided with a homer.

43. Hammer part : CLAW
The peen of a hammer is on the head, and is the side of the head that is opposite the striking surface. Often the peen is in the shape of a hemisphere (as in a ball-peen hammer), but usually it is shaped like a claw (mainly for removing nails).

47. Takes turns in a casino : ROLLS
The “casino” originated in the 1700s, first describing a public room for music or dancing. The name “casino” is a diminutive of “casa” meaning “house”.

49. Shakespearean sister : CORDELIA
“King Lear” is one of William Shakespeare’s tragedies. Lear’s three daughters figure prominently in the storyline. The three are, in order of age:

– Goneril
– Regan
– Cordelia

53. Japanese import set in a kitchen : IRON CHEF
“Iron Chef” is a Japanese cooking show that has been aired since 1993. The original Japanese show was dubbed for airing in English-speaking countries and became a surprising hit around the world. There are now spin-off shows around the world including “Iron Chef America” and “Iron Chef UK”.

57. Charles Schwab alternative : E*TRADE
E*Trade is mainly an online discount brokerage. It was founded in 1982 in Palo Alto, California, and I used to drive by its headquarters almost every day. The company is now run out of New York City. E*Trade produces those famous Super Bowl ads with the talking babies staring into a webcam.

The Charles Schwab investment company was founded in 1971 as First Commander Corporation. Investor and businessman Charles Schwab and four partners purchased First Commander and changed the name to Charles Schwab in 1973.

Down
2. Big inits. in computing : NEC
NEC is the name that the Nippon Electric Company chose for itself outside of Japan after a rebranding exercise in 1983.

5. Iceland has a cold one : CLIME
Clime is just another word for climate, as in the expression “in search of warmer climes”.

Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in the whole of Europe, with two-thirds of the nation’s population residing in and around the capital city of Reykjavik. Iceland was settled by the Norse people in AD 874, and was ruled for centuries by Norway and then Denmark. Iceland became independent in 1918, and has been a republic since 1944.

7. Flight preventer : ANKLE MONITOR
A person under house arrest often wears an ankle monitor that is used to ensure that he or she does not stray far from home. An alternative system involves random calls to the confined person’s home that have to be answered by the convict. On the face of it, house arrest seems to be a very economic alternative for a society instead of the prison system. As part of the sentence, the convict may even be asked to pay for the cost of monitoring his or her house arrest.

11. “The Greatest: My Own Story” author : ALI
Muhammad Ali wrote his autobiography “The Greatest: My Own Story” in 1975, along with Richard Durham. The book was adapted into a movie two years later, with Ali playing himself and Ernest Borgnine playing his trainer Angelo Dundee.

12. Fox hunt leader of old : SIMON COWELL
Simon Cowell was invited to be a judge on “Pop Idol”, a British show that spawned “American Idol”. Cowell was then asked to take part in the US spin-off, and we haven’t stopped seeing him since …

20. Five-in-a-row U.S. Open winner : ROGER FEDERER
Roger Federer is a Swiss tennis player considered by many to be the greatest tennis player of all time. Federer is married to former tennis pro Mirka Vavrinec. The couple are parents to two sets of twins.

22. Private stock : CACHE
A “cache” is a secret supply. We imported the term into English from French Canadian trappers in the 17th century. Back then, “cache” was as slang term for a “hiding place for stores”, derived from the French verb “cacher” meaning “to hide”.

24. Detritus on New Year’s morning : NOISEMAKERS
“Detritus” is the loose material that results from the process of erosion. The usage of the term has evolved to man any accumulated material or debris. “Detritus” is Latin for “a wearing away”.

29. “Buddenbrooks” novelist : MANN
Thomas Mann was a German novelist whose most famous work is probably his novella “Death in Venice”, originally published in German in 1912 as “Der Tod in Venedig”. The story was famously adapted for the big screen in 1971, in a movie starring Dirk Bogarde.

“Buddenbrooks” was Thomas Mann’s first novel, published in 1901. When Mann was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929, it was given on the basis of his whole body of work, although “Buddenbrooks” was specifically mentioned as the main reason for the award.

31. ___ bath : SITZ
A “sitz bath” is one in which the water comes up to the hips. It is usually a therapeutic bath used to treat discomfort in the lower part of the body. The term comes from the German “Sitzbad” meaning a bath (bad) in which one sits. “Sitzen” is German for “to sit”.

33. Like the historic Battle of Lepanto, 1571 : NAVAL
The Battle of Lepanto was a 1571 naval battle fought between the Spanish-led Holy League and the Ottoman Empire. It was the last battle in Mediterranean fought entirely between navies using galleys.

36. “Beat it!” : SCAT!
Our word “scat”, meaning “get lost!” comes from a 19th-century expression “quicker than s’cat”, which meant “in a great hurry”. The original phrase probably came from the words “hiss” and “cat”.

43. Leader of five N.C.A.A. basketball championships for Duke, informally : COACH K
Mike Krzyzewski is a coach and former basketball player from Chicago, Illinois. As a young man, Krzyzewski captained the Army Cadets basketball team, before serving in the Army for five years. After resigning from active duty, Coach K (as he is called) eventually took the head coaching job with the Army Cadets followed by the head coach’s position with Duke, where he has been since 1980. Today, Coach K also coaches the US International team.

44. Hunt for a film? : HELEN
Helen Hunt is a very talented actress who first came to national attention playing opposite Paul Reiser in TV’s hit sitcom “Mad About You”. Hunt then starred in some major films including “As Good as It Gets” (for which she won the Best Actress Oscar), “Twister, “Cast Away”, What Women Want” and more recently “The Sessions”. Offscreen, Hunt was married for a while to Hank Azaria, a favorite actor of mine.

46. Gave one’s parole : VOWED
The term “parole” is a French word that we use in English, with the French “parole” meaning “word, speech”. Of particular interest is the French phrase “parole d’honneur” which translates as “word of honor”. In the early 1600s we started using “parole” to mean a promise by a prisoner of war not to escape, as in the prisoner giving his “word of honor” not to run off. Over time, parole has come to mean conditional release of a prisoner before he or she has served the full term of a sentence.

50. Lucius S. ___, hardware chain store eponym : LOWE
Lucius S. Lowe opened the first Lowe’s hardware store in 1921, in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Lucius only knew the one store, as it was family who expanded the company after he passed away in 1940.

52. Muscle used in pull-ups, briefly : LAT
The muscles known as the “lats” are the latissimi dorsi, the broadest muscles in the back. “Latissimus” is the Latin for “broadest” and “dorsum” is Latin for “back”.

54. Chopper : HOG
Some modified Harley-Davidson motorcycles were referred to as “choppers”, as the owners would chop of parts that were deemed unnecessary for speed.

55. “A New World Record” grp., 1976 : ELO
If you listen to the song “Rockaria” on the 1976 ELO album “A New World Record”, you’ll hear an “oops”. The introduction to the track features an opera singer who starts the vocals too early in the first take. The band decided to use that first take anyway, complete with the singer saying “oops”.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Instagram alternative : SNAPCHAT
9. Smart : CLASSY
15. “Gentlemen, this is vodka” sloganeer : KETEL ONE
16. Melter on winter sidewalks : HALITE
17. Checking locales : ICE RINKS
18. See 48-Across : ANIMAL
19. Masago, at a sushi bar : SMELT ROE
21. Something well-kept? : OIL
22. Camp vehicle : CANOE
25. Winged figure of myth : EROS
26. Bounds : ENDS
27. Any day now : ANON
28. Thinking one is pretty hot stuff, say : SMUG
29. Guy : MAC
30. Tech field, briefly : CGI
31. Blockheads? : STONEMASONS
35. Participant in the Battle of Saratoga, 1777 : HESSIAN
37. Subscription prescription : RENEWAL
38. Hummer in the summer : ELECTRIC FAN
40. All Saints’ Day vis-à-vis All Souls’ Day : EVE
41. 1960 Pirates World Series hero, familiarly : MAZ
42. “That was ___ …” : THEN
43. Hammer part : CLAW
44. Pressure, informally : HEAT
46. Whole lot of nothing : VOID
47. Takes turns in a casino : ROLLS
48. Official 18-Across of Utah : ELK
49. Shakespearean sister : CORDELIA
51. Keep off the grid, say : LIE LOW
53. Japanese import set in a kitchen : IRON CHEF
57. Charles Schwab alternative : E*TRADE
58. Space in a paper available for journalism instead of ads : NEWSHOLE
59. Stored (within) : NESTED
60. 25-Across, for one : GREEK GOD

Down
1. “___ Utah!” (state license plate slogan) : SKI
2. Big inits. in computing : NEC
3. Had dinner : ATE
4. Individual : PERSON
5. Iceland has a cold one : CLIME
6. Get an edge on : HONE
7. Flight preventer : ANKLE MONITOR
8. Tryout : TEST RUN
9. Total zoo : CHAOS
10. Driving range? : LANE
11. “The Greatest: My Own Story” author : ALI
12. Fox hunt leader of old : SIMON COWELL
13. Conservative : STAID
14. RESPONDS LIKE THIS! : YELLS
20. Five-in-a-row U.S. Open winner : ROGER FEDERER
22. Private stock : CACHE
23. Sweetie : ANGEL
24. Detritus on New Year’s morning : NOISEMAKERS
26. Maneuver carefully : EASE
28. Headline : STAR
29. “Buddenbrooks” novelist : MANN
31. ___ bath : SITZ
32. Statistics class figure : MEAN
33. Like the historic Battle of Lepanto, 1571 : NAVAL
34. Mountains : SLEWS
36. “Beat it!” : SCAT!
39. Dressing down : CHIDING
43. Leader of five N.C.A.A. basketball championships for Duke, informally : COACH K
44. Hunt for a film? : HELEN
45. 1%, say : ELITE
46. Gave one’s parole : VOWED
47. Final step in cleaning : RINSE
49. Up to ___ : CODE
50. Lucius S. ___, hardware chain store eponym : LOWE
52. Muscle used in pull-ups, briefly : LAT
54. Chopper : HOG
55. “A New World Record” grp., 1976 : ELO
56. Had dinner : FED

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