0810-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 10 Aug 16, Wednesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: David C. Duncan Dekker
THEME: Quintuple Letters
Today’s grid contains at least five occurrences of each letter in the alphabet:

33A. Like each letter of the alphabet in this puzzle, at minimum : QUINTUPLE

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 13m 35s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

5. 43-Across in one’s ___ : CRAW
(43A. See 5-Across : STICK)
“Craw” is another name for the “crop”, a portion of the alimentary tract of some animals, including birds. The crop is used for the storage of food prior to digestion. The crop allows the animal to eat large amounts and then digest that food with efficiency over an extended period. The expression “to stick in one’s craw” is used one when one cannot accept something, cannot “swallow” it.

9. Mmes., in Madrid : SRAS
The equivalent of “Mrs.” in French is “Mme.” (Madame), in Spanish is “Sra.” (Señora) and in Portuguese is also “Sra.” (Senhora).

13. Key of Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet: Abbr. : A MAJ
Schubert’s famous “Trout Quintet” is named for an earlier Schubert Lied called “The Trout”, variations of which were used in the fourth movement.

14. Kool-Aid flavor : GRAPE
The drink we know today as Kool-Aid was invented by Edward Perkins and his wife, in Perkins’ mother’s kitchen in southwest Nebraska. Kool-Aid is now the Official Soft Drink of the state.

16. O.K., in slang : JAKE
Both “jake” and “dandy” are slang words meaning “fine”, as in “things are just dandy”.

17. Levels : RAZES
To “raze” (“rase”, in UK English) is to level to the ground. I’ve always thought it odd that “raise”, a homophone of “raze”, means to build up.

18. Close to closed : AJAR
Our word “ajar” is thought to come from Scottish dialect, in which “a char” means “slightly open”.

19. Fusion dance-music genre : ACID JAZZ
The musical genre known as “acid jazz” is also called “club jazz”. The genre originated in London clubs in the 1980s.

21. South African tongue : TSWANA
Tswana is a Bantu language that is spoken primarily in southern Africa.

23. One of 17 in Monopoly: Abbr. : AVE
The street names in the US version of Monopoly are locations in or around Atlantic City, New Jersey.

24. Kind of sauce, for short : BBQ
It is believed that our word “barbecue” (BBQ) comes from the Taíno people of the Caribbean in whose language “barbacoa” means “sacred fire pit”.

26. Like an Old English sheepdog : SHAGGY
The old English sheepdog was developed as a herding breed. It has a very furry coat, with hair covering the face and eyes. The breed is very popular in literature, film and television. The list of famous fictional examples of the breed include Edison in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and Nana in “Hook”.

30. Gulp down : QUAFF
“Quaff” is both a verb and a noun. One quaffs (takes a hearty drink) of a quaff (a hearty drink).

40. Part of a neutron’s makeup : DOWN QUARK
Quarks are elementary atomic particles that combine to make composite particles called “hadrons”. I’m really only familiar with the really stable hadrons i.e. protons and neutrons. There are six types of quarks (referred to as “flavors”). These flavors are up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top. The term “quark” was borrowed from James Joyce’s book “Finnegans Wake”, by physicist Murray Gell-Mann. However, the word coined by Joyce is pronounced “kwark”, and the particle’s name is pronounced “kwork”.

49. Foot-stomping dance : JIG
The dance known as a “jig” is most associated with Ireland and Scotland. In traditional Irish dancing, the jig is second in popularity only to the reel. The most famous Irish jig is probably “The Irish Washerwoman”. I may not dance a jig, but I sure do know the tune of “The Irish Washerwoman” …

52. Like 100 vis-à-vis 20 : FIVEFOLD
We can use the French phrase “vis-à-vis” as a preposition meaning “compared with”. When used as an adverb or adjective, it means “face to face”, which is a more literal translation from French.

60. African antelope : ORYX
The oryx is a large antelope species, mainly found in Africa but also in the Arabian Peninsula. One species was introduced by man into the White Sands Missile Range. As a result, the oryx is now considered an invasive species in the neighboring White Sands National Monument.

61. “Butt out,” briefly : MYOB
Mind your own business (MYOB)

63. Powerful engine, informally : HEMI
“Hemi” is short for “hemisphere”, and is the name given to an internal combustion engine with hemispherical combustion chambers. Chrysler is famous for using Hemi engines in many of its models.

66. Albuquerque’s home: Abbr. : NMEX
Albuquerque is the most populous city in the state of New Mexico. The city was founded in 1706 as a Spanish colonial outpost named “La Villa de Alburquerque” (note the extra letter “r”) in honor of Francisco, Duke of Alburquerque, who had been viceroy of New Spain from 1653 to 1669. Alburquerque is a town in the west of Spain, close to the border with Portugal.

Down
1. Tijuana’s locale : BAJA
Tijuana is the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California, and lies just across the US-Mexico border from San Diego. Tijuana is also the most westerly of all Mexican cities. A lot of Tijuana’s growth took place in the twenties as tourists flocked south of the border during the days of prohibition in the US. One of the many casinos and hotels that flourished at that time was Hotel Caesar’s in the Avenida Revolución area. Hotel Caesar’s claims to be the birthplace of the now ubiquitous Caesar Salad.

2. Apple variety : IMAC
The iMac is a desktop computer platform from Apple introduced in 1998. One of the main features of the iMac is an “all-in-one” design, with the computer console and monitor integrated. The iMac also came in a range of colors, that Apple marketed as “flavors”, such strawberry, blueberry and lime.

3. Turkish brandy : RAKI
“Raki” is a brandy-like drink that is flavored with anise, and which is considered a national drink in Turkey. The name “raki” is correctly written without a dot over the letter “i”.

4. Spun records, say : DJED
The world’s first radio disk jockey was one Ray Newby of Stockton, California who made his debut broadcast in 1909, would you believe? When he was 16 years old and a student, Newby started to play his records on a primitive radio located in the Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless in San Jose. The records played back then were mostly recordings of Enrico Caruso.

5. Pokémon Go, e.g. : CRAZE
“Pokémon GO” is a reality-based video game in which players must locate, capture, battle and train virtual creatures known as Pokémon. The Pokémon are hidden in the real world, in the sense that they have to be located on an electronic device (like a smartphone) in “the real world”, for which a GPS location is needed. Players see the Pokémon overlaid on a view of the real world on their smart device.

6. Twit : RAZZ
Not so much here in America, but over in the British Isles “blowing a raspberry” is a way of insulting someone (I think it’s called “a Bronx cheer” in the US). The verb “to razz” comes from a shortened form of “raspberry”.

“To twit” is to tease someone for making an embarrassing mistake.

8. Place primarily populated by Palestinians : WEST BANK
The bulk of the Palestinian territories are located in the West Bank. The term “West Bank” is a reference to lands west of the River Jordan.

9. “Arms and the Man” playwright : SHAW
“Arms and the Man” is a play by George Bernard Shaw, a comedy that was first staged in 1894 in London. Shaw came up with the title from the opening words of Virgil’s “Aeneid”, which translate as “Of arms and man I sing”.

10. Eastern ruler : RAJAH
“Raja” (also “rajah”) is word derived from Sanskrit that is used particularly in India for a monarch or princely ruler. The female form is “rani” (also “ranee”) and is used for a raja’s wife.

11. ___ Thompson a.k.a. Honey Boo Boo : ALANA
“Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” is a reality show about a child beauty pageant contest called Honey Boo Boo Thompson, and her family. “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” is actually a spinoff show of another reality show called “Toddlers & Tiaras” that follows the families of a whole host of child beauty pageant contestants. Honey Boo Boo’s mother peps up her daughter before appearing in a pageant by giving her “Go Go Juice”, a mixture of Red Bull and Mountain Dew.

12. Building material for one of the Three Little Pigs : STRAW
The fairy tale of “The Three Little Pigs” has been around for centuries, although it first appeared in print in the 1840s. One little pig built a house using straw and another built one using wood. The cleverest little pig built its house using bricks.

20. Jaromir ___, five-time N.H.L. scoring leader : JAGR
Jaromír Jágr is an NHL hockey player from the Czech Republic. When Jágr made his debut in the NHL in 1990 at age 18, he was the youngest player in the league.

22. About 6.5 million for the Pentagon: Abbr. : SQ FT
The incredible building known as the Pentagon was built during WWII, and dedicated on January 15, 1943. It is the largest office building in the world (by floor space) covering an area of about 6.5 million square feet. As it was built during the war years, a major requirement was that it use a minimum amount of steel. So the steel shortage dictated that the building be no more than four stories in height, covering an awful lot of real estate.

24. Regal automaker : BUICK
The Regal was a mid-size Buick made from 1973 to 2004. The Regal was relaunched in 2011 as a sports sedan.

26. West Coast cop squad, for short : SFPD
The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is the 11th largest police department in the country. The SFPD dates back to the days of the Gold Rush, being founded in 1849 as a force of 35 officers. SFPD has featured a lot in movies and on television. The most famous films are probably “Bullitt”, the “Dirty Harry” series and “48 Hrs.” On television there was “Ironside”, “The Streets of San Francisco” and now “Monk”.

27. Sign of a saint : HALO
The Greek word “halos” is the name given to the ring of light around the sun or moon, which gives us our word “halo”, used for a radiant light depicted above the head of a saintly person.

33. Mock doc : QUACK
A “quack” is a person who pretends to have knowledge that he or she does not in fact possess. The term especially applies to someone fraudulently pretending to have medical skills. Our modern word is an abbreviation of “quacksalver”, an archaic term with Dutch roots that translates as “hawker of salve”, Back in the Middle Ages, quacksalvers would shout out (quack) as they sold their pseudo-medical wares.

35. Acronym for an outdoor fantasy game : LARP
Live action role-playing (LARP)

36. Mrs. Einstein : ELSA
Albert Einstein’s first wife was a fellow student of his at the Zurich Polytechnic, Mileva Marić. The couple had a daughter together before they married in 1903, and then two sons. Albert and Mileva divorced in 1919. Albert was remarried that same year, to Elsa Löwenthal. Albert and Elsa had started a relationship in 1912, while he was still married to his first wife. Elsa had also been married before, divorcing Max Löwenthal in 1908. When Elsa took Albert’s name at the time of their marriage, she was regaining her old family name, as she was also an Einstein by birth. Albert and Elsa were first cousins.

38. Kind of bee : QUILTING
Back in 18th-century America, when neighbors would gather to work for the benefit of one of their group, such a meeting was called a “bee”. The name “bee” was an allusion to the social nature of the insect. In modern parlance, a further element of entertainment and pleasure has been introduced, for example in a “quilting bee”, or even a “spelling bee”.

41. Ear swab : Q-TIP
Cotton swabs were originally marketed under the name “Baby Gays”, but this was changed in 1926 to “Q-Tips”, with the Q standing for “quality”.

42. Place for a parakeet : CAGE
Parakeets are a group of bird species that are small parrots. The most common type of parakeet that we see in pet stores is the budgerigar.

47. Copy off another’s paper? : XEROX
Xerox was founded in 1906 in Rochester, New York and originally made photographic paper and equipment. Real success came for the company in 1959 when it introduced the first plain-paper photocopier. Xerox named Ursula Burns as CEO in 2009, the first African American woman to head up a S&P 100 company. Burn was also the first woman to succeed another female CEO (replacing Anne Mulcahy).

49. Deceptive talker : JIVER
“Jive” is a slang term meaning “nonsensical talk”.

51. “___-Dick” : MOBY
The full title of Herman Melville’s novel is “Moby-Dick; or, The Whale”. Note that the convention is to hyphenate “Moby-Dick” in the title, as that was how the book was first published, in 1851. However, there is no hyphen in the name of the whale “Moby Dick” as reproduced throughout the text.

52. ___ bean : FAVA
Fava bean is an alternative name for the broad bean.

53. Warm Alpine wind : FOHN
A Föhn is a dry wind that comes off the downwind side of a mountain range. The air is dry as the wind has lost its moisture by being forced upwards as it hit the upwind side of the mountains. The word “Föhn” is German and originated in the Alps. The term probably comes from the Latin name for a mild west wind, which was “favonius”. Favonius was the Latin name for the Greek god of the west wind, Zephyrus.

54. Beehive State city : OREM
Orem, Utah was originally known as “Sharon” (a Biblical name), then “Provo Bench”, and in 1914 it was given the family name of a local railroad operator called “Orem”. Orem gave itself the nickname “Family City USA” and sure enough in 2010, “Forbes” rated Orem the 5th best place in the country to raise a family.

When Mormon pioneers were settling what is today the state of Utah, they referred to the area as Deseret, a word that means “beehive” according to the Book of Mormon. Today Utah is known as the Beehive State and there is a beehive symbol on the Utah state flag.

55. ___ disease : LYME
Lyme disease is an infectious disease that is becoming more and more common. The condition takes its name from the town of Lyme, Connecticut where several cases were diagnosed in 1975. Humans catch the disease when bitten by infected ticks. If caught early enough, the disease is usually successfully treated with antibiotics.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Frequent flier : BIRD
5. 43-Across in one’s ___ : CRAW
9. Mmes., in Madrid : SRAS
13. Key of Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet: Abbr. : A MAJ
14. Kool-Aid flavor : GRAPE
15. Put a stop to : HALT
16. O.K., in slang : JAKE
17. Levels : RAZES
18. Close to closed : AJAR
19. Fusion dance-music genre : ACID JAZZ
21. South African tongue : TSWANA
23. One of 17 in Monopoly: Abbr. : AVE
24. Kind of sauce, for short : BBQ
25. See 59-Down : -HAW
26. Like an Old English sheepdog : SHAGGY
30. Gulp down : QUAFF
32. Party handout : FAVOR
33. Like each letter of the alphabet in this puzzle, at minimum : QUINTUPLE
37. Work determinedly (through) : PLOW
38. Sharp-witted : QUICK
39. Enthusiasm : ZEAL
40. Part of a neutron’s makeup : DOWN QUARK
42. Some presidential appointees : CZARS
43. See 5-Across : STICK
44. Beauty spot : DAY SPA
45. Go a few rounds : BOX
48. Sort : ILK
49. Foot-stomping dance : JIG
50. Free (from) : EXEMPT
52. Like 100 vis-à-vis 20 : FIVEFOLD
57. Lead-in to space : AERO-
58. “Can’t say as ___” : I HAVE
60. African antelope : ORYX
61. “Butt out,” briefly : MYOB
62. “Out of the question!” : NEVER!
63. Powerful engine, informally : HEMI
64. Like calendar firemen : SEXY
65. Transmission setting : GEAR
66. Albuquerque’s home: Abbr. : NMEX

Down
1. Tijuana’s locale : BAJA
2. Apple variety : IMAC
3. Turkish brandy : RAKI
4. Spun records, say : DJED
5. Pokémon Go, e.g. : CRAZE
6. Twit : RAZZ
7. Copycat : APE
8. Place primarily populated by Palestinians : WEST BANK
9. “Arms and the Man” playwright : SHAW
10. Eastern ruler : RAJAH
11. ___ Thompson a.k.a. Honey Boo Boo : ALANA
12. Building material for one of the Three Little Pigs : STRAW
14. “Good ___!” : GRAVY
20. Jaromir ___, five-time N.H.L. scoring leader : JAGR
22. About 6.5 million for the Pentagon: Abbr. : SQ FT
24. Regal automaker : BUICK
26. West Coast cop squad, for short : SFPD
27. Sign of a saint : HALO
28. Swear : AVOW
29. Evening wear : GOWNS
30. Odd behavior : QUIRK
31. Out of focus : FUZZY
33. Mock doc : QUACK
34. Some baby food : PEAS
35. Acronym for an outdoor fantasy game : LARP
36. Mrs. Einstein : ELSA
38. Kind of bee : QUILTING
41. Ear swab : Q-TIP
42. Place for a parakeet : CAGE
44. Reef explorer : DIVER
45. Smiles broadly : BEAMS
46. Daisy variety : OXEYE
47. Copy off another’s paper? : XEROX
49. Deceptive talker : JIVER
51. “___-Dick” : MOBY
52. ___ bean : FAVA
53. Warm Alpine wind : FOHN
54. Beehive State city : OREM
55. ___ disease : LYME
56. 519, in old Rome : DXIX
59. With 25-Across, a farm call : HEE-

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8 thoughts on “0810-16 New York Times Crossword Answers 10 Aug 16, Wednesday”

  1. 13:24, no errors, iPad. TSWANA was totally new to me, though I would guess it's related to "Botswana"? LARP was also unknown to me, but I filled it in using crossing entries without even noticing the clue for it (not an especially good thing, since it says I'm still too distracted by the nature of the iPad app to check all the clues). Recently, I drove a rented Buick Regal for a couple of months while my Honda CR-V was waiting to have its killer airbag replaced; I appreciated the acceleration of the Regal, but I think it would destroy my back if I had to drive it for a year.

  2. Five weeks on, pen and paper: 12:42, no errors, still didn't remember LARP (though I at least noticed the clue this time). After I finished the puzzle, I decided to verify the "quintuple" claim as a test of my waning ability to concentrate on a totally mindless task. The results: 27 A's, 17 E's, 10 I's, 6 L's, 8 O's, 13 R's, 9 S's, and 5 apiece of all the other 19 letters. In addition, there are 40 black squares, for a grand total of 225, which is indeed the square of 15. You may regard this as a public service … 🙂

  3. @Dave Kennison–Thanks for the count.

    Got the unknown LARP via crosses. Tripped up by FOHN, also unknown, because I couldn't summon up the crossing H in HEMI, which, alas, was not unknown to me.

    I found this puzzle a bit clunky as well as QUIRKy, but not a bad Wednesday exercise.

  4. Four errors, two letters. Had JAPE for JAKE, RAPI for RAKI and TAWANA for TSWANA, AQFT for SQFT.

    Bill, you have a typo on your comment about RAKI. You have "got" for "dot". I took you literally and went running off to Google thinking I had found a new word. I soon realized it was only a typo but there was a silver lining. There was some great information about the dotless letter "i". I had never known any of that before.

  5. 18:40, no errors. Had particular difficulty with the top left corner. RAKI is a new word for me. Did not associated Apple with the computer manufacturer until late. Tijuana, to me anyway, is north of the BAJA; so did not make that connection until it became obvious. Figured the second letter of 17A had to be M since keys would be either Major (MAJ) or Minor (MIN).

    Tough puzzle for a Wednesday.

  6. Wow! 13:09, no errors. And a big first: a better solve time than Bill on consecutive days! Doesn't get any better'n that!

  7. Didn't get ACIDJAZZ, but had BIRD, DJED and BAJA, but changed my mind about Bird and have never heard of Jake before. Got the Jazz part of the word by just guessing because of its musical connection but again..not a huge listener of jazz in general. Never heard of Tswana, but again i had the QFT for Sqft and had to smack myself in the head for that one AND the IMAC. Heard of ORYX but thought it was IBEX even though i thought LYME was correct.. Again i feel stupid for not guessing QUILTING as i had EVERY LETTER BUT THE G *sigh*…never watched Honey Boo Boo as i have a strict aversion to reality shows in general..and didnt get MYOB because i never knew about OXERYE even though i had every letter but the damn Y. M-OB just didnt make any sense. BUT i correctly guessed the QUINTUPLE clue from all the Q,Z,V and X's in the puzzle..I'm not fantastic at these things but i havn't done crosswords very long, but Bill..you must be some kind of AI robot to get the later week puzzles. My hat comes off for all you guys that can even come close to beating him. *grin*.. Aaron W.

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