0429-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 29 Apr 16, Friday

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Graveyard hour : FIVE AM
Work days are routinely three shifts:

– Day/1st shift
– Swing/2nd shift
– Night/graveyard/3rd shift

7. Dark as dark can be : JET-BLACK
The color “jet black” takes its name from the minor gemstone known as jet. The gemstone and the material it is made of takes its English name from the French name: “jaiet”.

15. Nova Scotia, once : ACADIA
The great explorer Verrazzano gave the name “Arcadia” to the coastal land that stretched from north of present day Virginia right up the North American continent to Nova Scotia. The name Arcadia was chosen as it was also the name for a part of Greece that had been viewed as idyllic from the days of classical antiquity. The “Arcadia” name quickly evolved into the word “Acadia” that was used locally here in North America. Much of Acadia was settled by the French in the 1600s, and then in 1710 Acadia was conquered by the British. There followed the French and Indian War after which there was a mass migration of French Acadians, often via the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) to the French colony of Louisiana. The local dialectic pronunciation of the word “Acadian” was “Cajun”, giving the name to the ethnic group for which Louisiana has been home for about 300 years.

19. Haggis ingredient : 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”.

Haggis is the national dish of Scotland. It is savory pudding made from the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep, mixed with onion, oatmeal, suet and spices. The pudding was originally cooked in the sheep’s stomach but these days is usually prepared in a sausage casing.

20. “What’s hangin’?” : SUP
I think “sup” is slang for “what’s up?”

22. Ursule, e.g.: Abbr. : STE
“Sainte” (ste.) is French for “saint”, when referring to a female.

Saint Ursula is a saint in the Christian Church. What is known about Ursula’s life comes from legend, which describes her as a virgin martyr who was executed in Cologne sometime before the 5th century CE.

26. Old radio dummy : SNERD
Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen’s most famous character was Charlie McCarthy, but Bergen also worked with Mortimer Snerd.

27. Squeaker in a cage : HAMSTER WHEEL
The rodents known as hamsters are commonly kept as house pets. Male hamsters are called bucks, females are called does, and baby hamsters are known as pups.

30. City on the Oka River : OREL
Orel (also Oryol) is a city lying on the Oka River, just over 200 miles SSW of Moscow. Orel was one of the cities occupied by Germany during WWII. It was liberated in 1943, but had been almost completely destroyed.

31. Arles article : LES
The definite article in French can be “le” (with masculine nouns), “la” (with feminine nouns), and “les” (with plurals of either gender).

Quite a few years ago now, I had the privilege of living just a short car-ride from the beautiful city of Arles in the South of France. Although Arles has a long and colorful history, the Romans had a prevailing influence over the city’s design. Arles has a spectacular Roman amphitheater, arch, circus as well as old walls that surround the center of the city. In more modern times, it was a place Vincent van Gogh often visited, and where he painted his famous “Cafe Terrace at Night”, as well as “Bedroom in Arles”.

32. Lucky strike : TROVE
The term “treasure trove” comes from the Anglo-French “tresor trové “ meaning “found treasure”.

35. Result of holding or hooking : PENALTY
Both hooking and holding are penalties in ice hockey.

37. Shot-putter’s activity : HEAVING
Shot put, or events like shot put, have been around for millennia, but the first events that truly resemble today’s track and field event had to come with the invention of the cannonball. Soldiers would “putt” (throw) cannonballs as far as possible in attempts to outperform each other. Shot put has been in the modern Olympic Games since day-one, with an American winning the gold in the first games in 1896, one Robert Garrett.

39. Latin word on a diploma : SUMMA
When an academic degree is awarded, a level of distinction can be noted depending on the degree of success achieved by the student. There are three types of honor, each with a Latin name:

– cum laude: meaning “with honor” (literally “with praise”)
– magna cum laude: meaning “with great honor”
– summa cum laude: meaning “with highest honor”

41. Conclusion lead-in : ERGO
“Ergo” is the Latin word for “hence, therefore”.

42. Tropical smoothie flavor : PASSION FRUIT
Passion fruit is a vine species of passion flower. It is grown mainly for juice, although the fruit can be eaten is if is allowed to dehydrate a little to enhance the sweetness.

45. Double-dipping, e.g. : TABOO
Double-dipping a chip into salsa, say, is considered taboo in polite circles.

49. ___ Balls : SNO
The Hostess cakes called Sno Balls are usually pink in color, although in its original form each packet of two cakes contained one white and one pink. Around Halloween you can buy Sno Balls in the form of Scary Cakes and Glo Balls that are colored orange and green. and on St. Paddy’s Day there’s a green one available. Yoo hoo!

50. Healing helper : ALOE
Aloe vera has a number of alternate names that are descriptive of its efficacy as a medicine. These include the First Aid plant, Wand of Heaven, Silent Healer and Miracle Plant.

51. Show that’s earned more than 40 Emmys, in brief : SNL
“Saturday Night Live” (SNL)

56. Sonnet-ending unit : TERCET
A tercet is a group of three connected lines of poetry.

A sonnet is a short poem with varying rhyming schemes but always with 14 lines. The sonnet form has been around at least since the 13th century. The Shakespearean sonnet is composed of three quatrains (4 lines) and a final couplet (2 lines). The Petrarchan sonnet comprises two quatrains (4 lines) followed by two tercets (3 lines).

58. 72 of its 108 lines end in “-ore” sounds : THE RAVEN
“The Raven” is a narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe that tells of a student who has lost the love of his life, Lenore. A raven enters the student’s bedchamber and perches on a bust of Pallas. The raven can talk, to the student’s surprise, but says nothing but the word “nevermore” (“quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore’”). As the student questions all aspects of his life, the raven taunts him with the same comment, “nevermore”. Finally the student decides that his soul is trapped beneath the raven’s shadow and shall be lifted “nevermore” …

59. “The Evangelist” of Christianity : ST MARK
Mark the Evangelist was the author of the Gospel of Mark and the founder of the Church of Alexandria in Egypt.

Down
4. “Desperate Housewives” housewife : EDIE
Edie Williams is a character on television’s “Desperate Housewives” played by Nicollette Sheridan. Edie has had a few marriages as the “Desperate Housewives” storyline progressed. Edie Williams was formerly Edie Britt, Edie McLain and Edie Rothwell.

6. Questel who voiced Olive Oyl : MAE
Mae Questel was an actress and voice artist who was most famous for voicing the cartoon characters Betty Boop and Olive Oyl.

7. Fitting gifts for puzzle enthusiasts? : JIGSAWS
The original jigsaw puzzles were created by painting a picture on a sheet of wood and then cutting the picture into small pieces using a jigsaw, hence the name. Today, almost all jigsaw puzzles are pictures glued onto cardboard. The puzzle pieces are then die-cut, and there’s no jigsaw involved at all.

8. “Uncle!” : ENOUGH!
To “say uncle” is an American expression meaning to submit or yield. Its usage dates back to the early 1900s, but nobody seems to know how “uncle!” came to mean “stop!”

9. Too much, to Marcel : TROP
“Trop” is the French word for “too”, in the sense of “too much” for example (i.e. not in the sense of “also”).

11. Valentino type : LATIN LOVER
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor who emigrated to the US when he was 18 years old. He developed a Hollywood career in silent movies that propelled him to the status of sex symbol in the twenties. Valentino died very young, having being admitted to hospital with appendicitis and gastric ulcers. He underwent surgery and developed peritonitis, and passed away when he was only 31 years old.

12. Fourth-wall breaker : ASIDE
In the theater world, the fourth wall is the imaginary was at the front of the stage through which the audience experiences the action. When a character acknowledges the existence of the audience, perhaps by addressing them, he or she is said to have broken the fourth wall.

13. Star on the horizon? : COMER
A “comer” is a rising star, someone with a promising career.

24. Symbols of change, in math : DELTAS
Delta is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet. We are most familiar with an upper-case delta and its distinctive triangular shape. The letter’s shape has influenced terms such as “deltoid muscle” and “river delta”. The upper-case delta is also used in mathematics and science to indicate a change in value. The lower-case delta looks a bit like our lower-case D, and indeed the Greek letter delta gave us our Latin letter D.

25. Shot from behind the arc, informally : TREY
In basketball, a shot from “behind the arc” is taken from outside the three-point line.

26. Shot putter’s supply? : SERA
A nurse might be “putting” a shot into one’s arm containing serum (plural “sera”).

28. Grist for a war of words? : SLAM POETRY
A poetry slam is a competition in which poets read their own work (usually), with winners being chosen by members of audience. Apparently the first poetry slam took place in Chicago in 1984. Now there is a Nation Poetry Slam that takes place each year, with representatives from the US, Canada and France.

When grain has been separated from its chaff, to prepare it for grinding, it is called “grist”. Indeed, the word “grist” is derived from the word “grind”. Grist can be ground into a relatively coarse meal, or into a fine flour. The names can be confusing though. For example, the grist from maize when ground to a coarse consistency is called “grits”, and when ground to a fine consistency is called “corn meal”. There is an idiomatic phrase “grist for one’s mill”, meaning something used to one’s advantage.

33. It often catches an infection : VIRUS SCAN
A computer virus has characteristics very similar to a virus found in nature. It is a small computer program that can copy itself and can infect another host (computer).

36. “OMG, I’m cracking up!” : LMAO
Laughing my a** off (LMAO)

40. First country in the world with universal suffrage (1906) : FINLAND
“Universal suffrage” today is said to exist when all citizens have the right to vote, regardless of race, sex, belief, wealth or social status. That said, the term has been used differently in times past, and in particular in the context of universal suffrage for me. There is some debate about which nation was the first to achieve universal suffrage. New Zealand opened up voting to all citizens regardless of sex in 1893, however, women did not have the right to stand for election at that time. Finland is another contender for the “first universal suffrage” moniker, having achieved that status in 1906.

43. Product of natural outdoor steeping : SUN TEA
Sun tea is tea that is made simply by dropping tea into water and letting it “brew” in the sun for a few hours, then adding ice. A blog reader has kindly pointed out that he was told by a doctor that sun tea has the potential to be dangerous. The sun-warmed brew is warm enough and sits long enough to incubate any bacterial contamination that may be present. I think I’ll stick to my regular iced tea that is speedily brewed at high temperature …

46. Warm welcome? : ALOHA
The Hawaiian word “Aloha” has many meanings in English: affection, love, peace, compassion and mercy. More recently “aloha” has come to mean “hello” and “goodbye”, but only since the mid-1800s.

53. Pistolet ou canon : ARME
In French, a “pistolet ou canon” (pistol or gun) is an “arme” (weapon).

55. “God, home and country” org. : DAR
In order to be a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), an applicant has to prove that she is a descendant of someone closely associated with, and supportive of, the American Revolution. The DAR maintains an online database of Revolutionary War patriots. The database is searchable, and is known as the Patriot Index.

56. Literary monogram : TSE
The author T. S. Eliot was the son of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Champe Stearns, so his full name was Thomas Stearns Eliot (TSE).

57. Fight call, for short : TKO
Technical knockout (TKO)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Graveyard hour : FIVE AM
7. Dark as dark can be : JET-BLACK
15. Nova Scotia, once : ACADIA
16. Not excessively : IN REASON
17. A ghostwriter isn’t given one : BYLINE
18. Ball : GOOD TIME
19. Haggis ingredient : SUET
20. “What’s hangin’?” : SUP
21. It comes to a head : IDEA
22. Ursule, e.g.: Abbr. : STE
23. Means of tracking wildlife : ID TAG
26. Old radio dummy : SNERD
27. Squeaker in a cage : HAMSTER WHEEL
30. City on the Oka River : OREL
31. Arles article : LES
32. Lucky strike : TROVE
35. Result of holding or hooking : PENALTY
37. Shot-putter’s activity : HEAVING
39. Latin word on a diploma : SUMMA
40. Dedicated to : FOR
41. Conclusion lead-in : ERGO
42. Tropical smoothie flavor : PASSION FRUIT
45. Double-dipping, e.g. : TABOO
48. Answering to : UNDER
49. ___ Balls : SNO
50. Healing helper : ALOE
51. Show that’s earned more than 40 Emmys, in brief : SNL
52. Lack of anxiety : EASE
54. Spreadsheet function : SORT DATA
56. Sonnet-ending unit : TERCET
58. 72 of its 108 lines end in “-ore” sounds : THE RAVEN
59. “The Evangelist” of Christianity : ST MARK
60. Book that doesn’t require much time or thought : EASY READ
61. “But still …” : EVEN SO …

Down
1. Dynamite : FAB
2. Hostile looks : ICY STARES
3. A 99¢ burger may be on it : VALUE MENU
4. “Desperate Housewives” housewife : EDIE
5. Slangy “True, no?” : AIN’T IT?
6. Questel who voiced Olive Oyl : MAE
7. Fitting gifts for puzzle enthusiasts? : JIGSAWS
8. “Uncle!” : ENOUGH!
9. Too much, to Marcel : TROP
10. See 38-Down : … BED
11. Valentino type : LATIN LOVER
12. Fourth-wall breaker : ASIDE
13. Star on the horizon? : COMER
14. Work digitally? : KNEAD
22. Fill time at an airport, say : SHOP
24. Symbols of change, in math : DELTAS
25. Shot from behind the arc, informally : TREY
26. Shot putter’s supply? : SERA
28. Grist for a war of words? : SLAM POETRY
29. Ageless, ages ago : ETERNE
33. It often catches an infection : VIRUS SCAN
34. Rail heads : ENGINEERS
36. “OMG, I’m cracking up!” : LMAO
37. Place for a stove light : HOOD
38. With 10-Down, turn in : GO TO …
40. First country in the world with universal suffrage (1906) : FINLAND
43. Product of natural outdoor steeping : SUN TEA
44. Onetime motel come-on : FREE TV
45. Refinement : TASTE
46. Warm welcome? : ALOHA
47. Snoozers : BORES
51. Relief pitcher’s success : SAVE
53. Pistolet ou canon : ARME
55. “God, home and country” org. : DAR
56. Literary monogram : TSE
57. Fight call, for short : TKO

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