QuickLinks:
Solution to today’s crossword in the New York Times
Solution to today’s SYNDICATED New York Times crossword in all other publications
Solution to today’s New York Times crossword found online at the Seattle Times website
Jump to a complete list of today’s clues and answers
CROSSWORD CONSTRUCTOR: Zhouqin Burnikel
THEME: Power Couple
Each of today’s themed answers includes the hidden letters AC and DC, a COUPLE of abbreviations for types of electric POWER:
36A. Victoria and David Beckham, e.g. … or what 17-, 26-, 47- and 57-Across each have, in a way : POWER COUPLE
17A. Hunky-dory : PEACHES AND CREAM
26A. Untouchable one : SACRED COW
47A. Stayed calm : ACTED COOL
57A. Pre-employment screening : BACKGROUND CHECK
BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 7m 12s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
5. Matchmaking site since 1997 : JDATE
Spark Networks is company that owns several special-interest dating sites online. The most famous is probably ChristianMingle.com, but there is also BlackSingles.com, LDSSingles.com, JDate.com and CatholicMingle.com.
16. Done, in Dijon : FINI
Dijon is a city in eastern France, in the Burgundy region. Dijon is famous for its mustard, a particularly strong variation of the condiment. The European Union doesn’t protect the name “Dijon” so anyone can use it on a label. That seems fair enough to me, given that 90% of the mustard made in and around Dijon is produced using mustard seed imported from Canada!
17. Hunky-dory : PEACHES AND CREAM
Surprisingly (to me), the term “hunky-dory” has been around a long time, and is documented back in the mid-1800s. Nobody’s really sure of its origin, but some say it is an Anglicization of Honcho dori, that back in the day was a street of ill repute in Yokohama, Japan.
20. ___ Arbor, Mich. : ANN
Ann Arbor, Michigan was founded in 1824 by John Allen and Elisha Rumsey. Supposedly, Allen and Rumsey originally used the name “Annsarbour” in recognition of stands of bur oak that were on the land they had purchased and in recognition of their wives, both of whom were called “Ann” (i.e. Anns’ Arbor)
21. Turkish for “lord” : AGA
“Aga” (also “agha”) is a title that was used by both civil and military officials in the Ottoman Empire.
22. Borrower’s letters : IOU
I owe you (IOU)
23. Perennially strong entrant at the Winter Olympics: Abbr. : SWE
The country of Sweden emerged during the Middle Ages, and became one of the great powers of Europe in the days of the Swedish Empire in 17th and early 18th century. Since then Sweden’s influence has waned. What was the eastern part of Sweden was lost to Russia in the early 1800s, and is now modern-day Finland. In the 20th century Sweden has adopted a very non-aggressive stance and was neutral in both World Wars. Sweden is not a member of NATO, but is a member of the European Union, although the country does not use the euro as its currency.
24. America, for example, which has a “Cup” named after it : YACHT
The America’s Cup is a trophy that has been awarded for yacht racing since 1851. It was first presented to the winner of a race around the Isle of Wight in England that was won by a schooner called “America”. The trophy was eventually renamed to “the America’s Cup” in honor of that first race winner.
26. Untouchable one : SACRED COW
A “sacred cow” is something that is immune from criticism or questioning. The phrase alludes to the reverence for cows in the Hindu tradition. The use of figurative idiom seems to have originated in the late 1800s in the US.
29. Tennis star Arthur : ASHE
Arthur Ashe was a professional tennis player from Richmond, Virginia. In his youth, Ashe found himself having to travel great distances to play against Caucasian opponents due to the segregation that still existed in his home state. He was rewarded for his dedication by being selected for the 1963 US Davis Cup team, the first African American player to be so honored. Ashe continued to run into trouble because of his ethnicity though, and in 1968 was denied entry into South Africa to play in the South African Open. In 1979 Ashe suffered a heart attack and had bypass surgery, with follow-up surgery four years later during which he contracted HIV from blood transfusions. Ashe passed away in 1993 due to complications from AIDS. Shortly afterwards, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.
30. Off-road wheels, briefly : ATV
All-terrain vehicle (ATV)
31. Screenwriter Ephron : NORA
Nora Ephron had many talents, including writing film scripts and novels. Many of the movies that she wrote, she also directed. These would include some of my favorite movies of all time like “Sleepless in Seattle”, “You’ve Got Mail” and most recently, the wonderful “Julie & Julia”. And, did you know that Nora Ephron’s second marriage was to journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame? She wrote an autobiographical novel based on her life with Bernstein, dealing in particular with Bernstein’s affair with the daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan.
36. Victoria and David Beckham, e.g. … or what 17-, 26-, 47- and 57-Across each have, in a way : POWER COUPLE
“Posh and Becks” is a portmanteau used for the super-couple pairing of Spice Girl Victoria Beckham (née Adams) and soccer star David Beckham. Other supercouples are/were:
- Tomkat – Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
- Grant ‘n’ Hurley – Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley
- Bennifer – Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez
- Brangelina – Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
40. Sleep clinic concern : APNEA
Sleep apnea (“apnoea” in British English) can be caused by an obstruction in the airways, possibly due to obesity or enlarged tonsils.
41. SpaceX founder Musk : ELON
SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) is a space transportation company that was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, veteran of PayPal and Tesla Motors. In 2012, SpaceX became the first private concern to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station. Apparently, SpaceX is the lowest-price player in the game.
43. The Rolling Stones or Smashing Pumpkins : BAND
Even though Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have been the driving force behind the Rolling Stones for decades, they didn’t start the group. The band was the idea of guitarist and harmonica player Brian Jones, and it was he who invited Richards and Jagger to join, as well as Ian Stewart, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts to make an original lineup of six band members. Jones called the band “Rollin’ Stone” back then in 1962, named for the song by Muddy Waters. Jones was the leader, manager and decision maker for the first few years until songs written by Richards and Jagger became hits and he started to lose artistic control. In 1967, Jones was arrested for drug possession, and again in 1968. When his trouble with the law prevented him from getting a US work visa, Jones wasn’t able to accompany the Stones on a 1969 US tour. That was the last straw, it seems, and Jones and the Stones parted company. Famously, one month later, Jones was found dead, at the bottom of his swimming pool.
The Smashing Pumpkins are an alternative rock band that formed in 1988 in Chicago.
51. Big name in nail polish : ESSIE
Essie Cosmetics is a company that was founded by Essie Weingarten, and which is now owned by L’Oreal. Apparently, Queen Elizabeth II will only wear Essie’s Ballet Slippers color nail polish. Well, that’s what Wikipedia claims …
54. Canon camera : EOS
I’ve been using Canon EOS cameras for decades now, and have nothing but good things to say about both the cameras and the lenses. The EOS name stands for Electro-Optical System, and was chosen because it evokes the name of Eos, the Titan goddess of dawn from Greek mythology.
56. Workout target, for short : PEC
“Pecs” is the familiar term for the chest muscle, more correctly known as the pectoralis major muscle. “Pectus” is a the Latin word for “breast, chest”.
63. Cold drink at Burger King : ICEE
Slush Puppie and ICEE are brands of frozen, slushy drinks. Ostensibly competing brands, ICEE company now owns the Slush Puppie brand.
The Burger King chain of fast food restaurants was established as Insta-Burger King in Jacksonville, Florida in 1953. The chain operates all around the world under the Burger King name except in Australia, where you have to visit Hungry Jack’s.
64. Former C.I.A. director Porter ___ : GOSS
Porter Goss was recruited into the CIA in his junior year at Yale, and spent the sixties working in the clandestine services arm of the agency. He was “actively” involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis, whatever that means, and he also recruited and trained foreign agents. After leaving the CIA he served in Congress as a US representative for a district in Florida for 16 years, before being asked by President George W. Bush to return to the CIA, this time as the boss.
66. War vet’s affliction, for short : PTSD
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Down
1. Fruit in som tam salad : PAPAYA
The papaya is the fruit of the Carica papaya, a large tree-like plant that is native to southern Mexico and Central America. One traditional use of papaya is as a meat tenderizer. The fruit and sap contain the enzyme papain that breaks down meat fibers. Papain is used today as a component of powdered meat tenderizers.
The dish usually listed as green papaya salad on menus in Thai restaurants in North America is referred to as “som tam” in Thailand. Som tam really goes for all of one’s taste buds, as it includes sour lime, hot chili, savory fish sauce and palm sugar for sweetness.
4. [not my mistake] : SIC
[Sic] indicates that a quotation is written as originally found, perhaps including a typo. “Sic” is Latin for “thus, like this”. The term is more completely written as “sic erat scriptum”, which translates as “thus was it written”.
5. Picture file format : JPEG
The JPEG file format was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), hence the name.
7. Santa ___ winds : ANA
The Santa Ana winds are the very dry air currents that sweep offshore late in the year in Southern California. Because these air currents are so dry, they are noted for their influence over forest fires in the area, especially in the heat of the fall. The winds arise from a buildup of air pressure in the Great Basin that lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Under the right conditions, that air spills over the peaks of the Sierra Nevada and basically “falls” down the side of the Sierra range, heading for the ocean. As the air falls it becomes drier and heats up so that relative humidity can fall to below 10% by the time it hits the coast.
8. Gin’s partner : TONIC
The original tonic water was a fairly strong solution of the drug quinine dissolved in carbonated water. It was used in tropical areas in South Asia and Africa where malaria is rampant. The quinine has a prophylactic effect against the disease, and was formulated as “tonic water” so that it could be easily distributed. In British colonial India, the colonial types got into the habit of mixing in gin with the tonic water to make it more palatable by hiding the bitter taste of the quinine. Nowadays, the level of quinine in tonic water has been dropped, and sugar has been added.
9. Home of the Ewoks : ENDOR
The Ewoks are creatures who live on the moon of Endor, first appearing in “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”. They’re the cute and cuddly little guys that look like teddy bears.
10. Togo’s home: Abbr. : AFR
Togo is a country on the West African coast, one of the smallest nations on the continent. It is located between Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north.
18. Bowler, e.g. : HAT
I think a bowler hat is usually called a derby here in the US. The bowler was first produced in 1849 in London by hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler, hence the name. The alternative name of “derby” comes from the tradition of wearing bowler hats at the Derby horse race (a major race held annually in England).
25. Katniss Everdeen, in “The Hunger Games” : HEROINE
Katniss Everdeen is a protagonist in “The Hunger Games” trilogy by Suzanne Collins. The character’s name is taken from the edible plant called katniss. On the big screen, Everdeen is played by actress Jennifer Lawrence.
27. California roll ingredient : AVOCADO
The wonderful avocado comes from a tree that is native to Mexico and Central America. The avocado fruit is sometime called an avocado pear, because of its shape, even though it is not related to the pear at all. The fruit might also be referred to as an alligator pear, due to the roughness of the green skin of some avocado cultivars.
A California roll is a kind of sushi roll that is made inside-out, with the seaweed inside and the rice on the outside. A California roll often includes rice, seaweed, cucumber and avocado. The dish originated in Los Angeles where a chef at the Tokyo Kaikan restaurant substituted avocado for fatty tuna (“toro”) in a traditional sushi recipe. The chef also put the seaweed on the inside, as his American customers preferred not to look directly at seaweed while they were eating it!
28. Swab analysis sites : DNA LABS
I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that the DNA of living things is so very similar across different species. Human DNA is almost exactly the same for every individual (to the degree of 99.9%). However, those small differences are sufficient to distinguish one individual from another, and to determine whether or not individuals are close family relatives.
30. Iowa college town : AMES
The Iowa city of Ames was founded as a stop on the Cedar Rapids and Missouri Railroad in 1864. It was named for US Congressman Oakes Ames from the state of Massachusetts in honor of the role that Ames played in the building of the transcontinental railroad.
34. Like some juries : HUNG
A hung jury is a jury that cannot reach a verdict.
38. Natural fuel source : PEAT BOG
When dead plant matter accumulates in marshy areas, it may not fully decay due to a lack of oxygen or acidic conditions. We are familiar with this in Ireland, because this decaying matter can form peat, and we have lots and lots of peat bogs.
49. Wrist bones : CARPI
The human wrist is known anatomically as the carpus. The carpal bones allow the wrist its remarkable range of motion.
51. YouTube full-screen mode exit key : ESC
YouTube is a video-sharing website, launched in 2005 by three ex-PayPal employees. Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Yep, $1.65 billion, less than two years after it was founded …
58. Boxing victories, briefly : KOS
In boxing, a knockout (KO) is when one of the fighters can’t get up from the canvas within a specified time, usually 10 seconds. This can be due to fatigue, injury, or the participant may be truly “knocked out”. A referee, fighter or doctor may also decide to stop a fight without a physical knockout, especially if there is concern about a fighter’s safety. In this case the bout is said to end with a technical knockout (TKO).
59. Delta competitor: Abbr. : UAL
United Airlines (UAL) has a complicated history, but can trace its roots back to Aviation Enterprises, founded in 1944 and later called Texas International. The first use of the “United” name in the company’s history was when airplane pioneer William Boeing merged his Boeing Air Transport with Pratt & Whitney to form the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC) in 1929. The Air Mail Act of 1934 required that UATC be broken up into United Aircraft (which became United Technologies), the Boeing Aircraft Company and United Air Lines.
Delta was the world’s largest airline for a while (after merging with Northwest Airlines in 2008) and is also the oldest airline still operating in the US. Delta’s roots go back to 1924 before it started carrying passengers and was called Huff Daland Dusters, a crop dusting company based in Macon, Georgia. The name Delta Air Service was introduced in 1928.
For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Make the grade : PASS
5. Matchmaking site since 1997 : JDATE
10. Working hard : AT IT
14. Introductory painting class : ART I
15. Assign, as blame : PIN ON
16. Done, in Dijon : FINI
17. Hunky-dory : PEACHES AND CREAM
20. ___ Arbor, Mich. : ANN
21. Turkish for “lord” : AGA
22. Borrower’s letters : IOU
23. Perennially strong entrant at the Winter Olympics: Abbr. : SWE
24. America, for example, which has a “Cup” named after it : YACHT
26. Untouchable one : SACRED COW
29. Tennis star Arthur : ASHE
30. Off-road wheels, briefly : ATV
31. Screenwriter Ephron : NORA
32. Ladies’ man : ROMEO
34. Stockpiles : HOARDS
36. Victoria and David Beckham, e.g. … or what 17-, 26-, 47- and 57-Across each have, in a way : POWER COUPLE
38. Dangers : PERILS
40. Sleep clinic concern : APNEA
41. SpaceX founder Musk : ELON
42. Found really neat : DUG
43. The Rolling Stones or Smashing Pumpkins : BAND
47. Stayed calm : ACTED COOL
51. Big name in nail polish : ESSIE
52. Something that’s definite? : THE
53. Numbskull : OAF
54. Canon camera : EOS
56. Workout target, for short : PEC
57. Pre-employment screening : BACKGROUND CHECK
61. Vision: Prefix : OPTO-
62. Come in second : PLACE
63. Cold drink at Burger King : ICEE
64. Former C.I.A. director Porter ___ : GOSS
65. Kills time : IDLES
66. War vet’s affliction, for short : PTSD
Down
1. Fruit in som tam salad : PAPAYA
2. Sports centers : ARENAS
3. Stem the flow of : STANCH
4. [not my mistake] : SIC
5. Picture file format : JPEG
6. “Twister” or “San Andreas” film genre : DISASTER
7. Santa ___ winds : ANA
8. Gin’s partner : TONIC
9. Home of the Ewoks : ENDOR
10. Togo’s home: Abbr. : AFR
11. No-win situation : TIE-SCORE
12. Briefly : IN A WORD
13. “I remember when …” : TIME WAS …
18. Bowler, e.g. : HAT
19. Stage signal : CUE
25. Katniss Everdeen, in “The Hunger Games” : HEROINE
27. California roll ingredient : AVOCADO
28. Swab analysis sites : DNA LABS
30. Iowa college town : AMES
33. A fly-by-night? : OWL
34. Like some juries : HUNG
35. Unlock, to a poet : OPE
36. Guards : PROTECTS
37. Luxury : OPULENCE
38. Natural fuel source : PEAT BOG
39. Nickname of the Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán : EL CHAPO
44. Facet : ASPECT
45. “Uncle!” criers, maybe : NIECES
46. Punched out : DECKED
48. Follow relentlessly : DOG
49. Wrist bones : CARPI
50. Long past : OF OLD
51. YouTube full-screen mode exit key : ESC
55. Laudatory poetry : ODES
58. Boxing victories, briefly : KOS
59. Delta competitor: Abbr. : UAL
60. Trendy : HIP