0518-18 NY Times Crossword Answers 18 May 2018, Friday

Constructed by: Ryan McCarty
Edited by: Will Shortz

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Today’s Theme: None

Bill’s time: 11m 06s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Declaration of Sgt. Joe Friday : I’M A COP

The TV detective show “Dragnet” opened up each episode with lines spoken by the character Sergeant Joe Friday:

This is the city, Los Angeles, California, I work here. I’m a cop.

In later series, the phrase “I’m a cop” was replaced with “I carry a badge”.

10. University of New Mexico symbol : LOBO

The University of New Mexico (UNM) is a school in Albuquerque, founded in 1889. The sports teams of UNM are called the Lobos, and there are two mascots who work the crowds called Lobo Louie and Lobo Lucy.

14. Zippo : NOT ONE IOTA

Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet, one that gave rise to our letters I and J. We use the word “iota” to portray something very small, as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.

25. Senators’ grp. : NHL

The Senators are the NHL hockey team in Ottawa, Canada. The current team, founded in the 1992-93 season, is the second NHL team in the city to use the name “Senators”. The original team was founded in 1917, and had a very successful run until the league expanded into the US in the late twenties. The cost of operating in what became the smallest NHL city eventually drove the Senators to St. Louis where they played for a year as the Eagles before finally folding.

30. Outmarch? : PRIDE PARADE

The first gay pride parades were held all on the same weekend in 1970, in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Back in the 1950s, to come “out of the closet” was to admit to being an alcoholic. By the seventies, the phrase mainly referred to gay people shrugging off secrecy about their sexual orientation.

34. Insects named after a small bird : OWLET MOTHS

Owlet moths are a large family of moths known more formally the Noctuidae. Most owlet moths fly at night and are attracted to light. Many species are preyed upon by bats. Some of these species have a defense mechanism, organs in the ears that pick up the sonar signals emitted by bats and cause the moth wings to spasm. The erratic flying helps the moth evade its hunter.

39. With 40-Across, car pooler’s perk : HOV …

40. See 39-Across : … LANE

In some parts of the country, one sees high-occupancy vehicle lanes (HOV lanes). Out here in California we refer to them as carpool lanes.

41. ___ Park, home of Facebook : MENLO

Menlo Park is a town in the San Francisco Bay Area. The town was built around land previously owned by two Irish immigrants. The pair called their property “Menlo Park”, naming it for Menlo in County Galway, which is where the Irishmen came from.

42. “The River” star Sissy : SPACEK

The actress Sissy Spacek got her big break in movies when she played the title role in the 1976 horror movie “Carrie”, which is based on the Stephen King novel. Her most acclaimed role is the lead in the 1980 biopic about Loretta Lynn called “Coal MIner’s Daughter”, for which she won an Oscar. Spacek’s first cousin is the actor Rip Torn.

46. ___ by Dana (perfume) : TABU

Tabu is a whole line of cosmetics and perfumes produced by the House of Dana. The company’s brand names were purchased by a Florida company called Dana Classic Fragrances in 1999.

53. Canyon producer : GMC

GMC is a division of General Motors (GM) established in 1901 that started out as GMC Truck.

54. Some Chinese teas : HYSONS

Hyson is a Chinese green tea that is also known as Lucky Dragon Tea.

Down

1. Longtime CNBC commentator Ron : INSANA

Ron Insana is a TV commentator, reporter and host in the world of financial news programs. He made a name for himself during the days of the Bush administration as he pulled off two exclusive interviews with President George W. Bush in which they discussed the economy.

7. ___ Padres National Forest : LOS

The Santa Barbara National Forest in California was renamed to Los Padres National Forest in 1936.

12. Gaelic spirit : BANSHEE

A banshee is a female spirit in Irish mythology, from the Irish “bean sí” meaning “woman of the fairy mounds”. The banshee is supposedly heard wailing in the night, especially when someone is about to die.

15. FICA contribution collector : IRS

The Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax (FICA) was introduced in the 1930s as part of President Roosevelt’s New Deal. FICA payments are made by both employees and employers in order to fund Social Security and Medicare.

21. In the cloud, say : STORED

In the world of computing, when one operates “in the cloud”, one’s files and key applications are not stored on one’s own computer, but rather are residing “in the cloud”, on a computer somewhere out on the Internet. I do 90% of my computing in the cloud. That way I don’t have to worry about backing up files, and I can operate from any computer if I have to …

34. “Quit your joshin’!” : OH STOP!

When the verb “to josh”, meaning “to kid”, was coined in the 1840s as an American slang term, it was written with a capital J. It is likely that the term somehow comes from the proper name “Joshua”, but no one seems to remember why.

41. Classic song that begins “And now the end is near” : MY WAY

The song “My Way” has lyrics that were written by Paul Anka in 1969, but the tune itself was composed two years earlier by Claude François and Jacques Revaux. The song had been released with completely different lyrics in France as “Comme d’habitude” (“As Usual”). When Anka heard the song on television in Paris he sought out and obtained the rights to use it himself, for free. Supposedly, “Comme d’habitude” has been recorded in more languages, by more artists, than any other song in the contemporary repertoire.

And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I’ll say it clear
I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain
I’ve lived a life that’s full
I traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

48. ’60s service site : NAM

By some definitions, the official involvement of Americans in the Vietnam War started in 1955. At that time, President Eisenhower deployed a Military Assistance Advisory Group to assist in the training of the South Vietnamese Army. American involvement in the conflict officially ended in 1973 with the signing of an agreement that came out of the Paris Peace Accords.

49. Starz alternative : TMC

The Movie Channel is owned by Showtime, which in turn is subsidiary of CBS. The channel’s name is often abbreviated to “TMC”, although this is informal usage.

The Starz premium cable channel is owned by the same company that owns the Encore cable channel. Starz was launched in 1994 and mainly shows movies.