1108-18 NY Times Crossword 8 Nov 18, Thursday

Bill’s time: 10m 20s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14. Ira who wrote “The Stepford Wives” : LEVIN

As well as writing novels, Ira Levin was a dramatist and a songwriter. Levin’s first novel was “A Kiss Before Dying”, and his most famous work was “Rosemary’s Baby” which became a Hollywood hit. His best known play is “Deathtrap”, a production that is often seen in local theater (I’ve seen it a couple of times around here). “Deathtrap” was also was a successful movie, starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve. My favorite of Levin’s novels though are “The Boys from Brazil” and “The Stepford Wives”.

“The Stepford Wives” is a 1972 novel by Ira Levin about a Connecticut community in which the husbands replace their wives with docile robots. There have been two film adaptations of the book, the first released in 1975 and starring Katharine Ross (my favorite). The second movie adaptation, released in 2004, isn’t as good in my opinion, although although Bette Midler plays a great supporting role.

15. South American forest dweller : COATI

A coati is a member of the raccoon family and is also known as the Brazilian aardvark, or the snookum bear. The coati is native to Central and South America, but can also be found in the southwest of the United States.

16. Hoarfrost : RIME

Rime is that beautiful coating of ice that forms on surfaces like roofs, trees and grass, when cold water freezes instantly under the right conditions.

The Old English word “har” meant “gray, venerable, old”, and came into English as “hoar” (and later “hoary”) with the same meaning. The term “hoar-frost” dates back to the 13th century, and reflects the similarity of the white feathers of frost to the gray/white of an old man’s beard.

17. Many a hit by Def Leppard : POWER BALLAD

Def Leppard is a hard rock band from Sheffield in England. Drummer Rick Allen lost his arm in a car crash, severed by an incorrectly-worn seat belt. With the encouragement of the band, he returned to the lineup by using a specially designed electronic drum set. Amazing indeed …

19. Grp. that’s well-financed? : OPEC

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

20. N.F.C. North team, to fans : VIKES

The Minnesota Vikings joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1960. Founded in Minnesota, the team’s name reflects the location’s reputation as a center of Scandinavian American culture.

21. Bit of crab house attire : BIB

The word “bib” comes from the Latin “bibere” meaning “to drink”, as does our word “imbibe”. So, maybe a bib is less about spilling the food, and more about soaking up the booze …

28. Response to oversharing : TMI

Too much information! (TMI)

37. Horace Greeley’s advice, as followed by 17-, 25-, 50- and 60-Across? : GO WEST, YOUNG MAN

Horace Greeley was a newspaper editor and politician. In the media industry, Greeley founded and edited the “New York Tribune”, which was a very influential paper in the 1800s. In an 1865 editorial he wrote the famous words “Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country.” As a politician, Greeley ran for US President in the 1872 election. He lost that election to Ulysses S. Grant in a landslide. Greeley died not long after the votes were cast, making him the only presidential candidate to have died prior to the counting of electoral college votes.

42. Home of Spaceship Earth : EPCOT

Spaceship Earth is perhaps the structure that comes to mind when we think of Epcot in the Walt Disney World Resort. It is the large, white, 18-story geodesic sphere.

44. Baja blast : FIESTA

Baja California is both the most northern and the most western of the Mexican states. The name translates from Spanish as “Lower California”.

49. #Me___ : TOO

The use of the hashtag #MeToo was encouraged initially by actress Alyssa Milano in 2017 to draw attention to sexual assault and sexual harassment. Milano’s was acting in response to the growing number of allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein. The use of the phrase “Me Too” in the context of sexual misconduct dates back to 2006. Social activist Tarana Burke started to use the phrase on the Myspace social network after a 13-year-old girl told her that she had been sexually assaulted. Apparently, Burke had no response at the time the girl confided in her, but later wished she had responding, “Me too”.

58. Lacking joie de vivre : JADED

“Joie de vivre” means “joy of living” in French. We use the phrase to mean the happy, carefree enjoyment of life, like when we finish our crossword puzzles …

59. Montenegro joined it in 2017 : NATO

Montenegro is a country in Southeastern Europe that once was part of Yugoslavia. “Montenegro” is a historical Italianate translation of “black mountain”.

66. Part of the unconscious : ANIMA

The concepts of anima and animus are found in the Carl Jung school of analytical psychology. The idea is that within each male there resides a feminine inner personality called the anima, and within each female there is a male inner personality known as the animus.

68. N.F.L. quarterback Drew : BREES

Drew Brees is a quarterback for the New Orleans Saints. On top of his success in the NFL, when he was a youth Brees was an excellent tennis player. In one competition he actually beat a young Andy Roddick who later became the world’s number one.

Down

2. Arm for taking needles, for short? : DEA

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

4. Fatty compound : LIPID

Lipids are a groups of naturally occurring molecules including fats, waxes and fat-soluble vitamins (like A, D and E). Sometimes we use the words “fat” and “lipid” interchangeably but fats are a subgroup of lipids, specifically a group best called triglycerides.

5. Japanese mushroom : ENOKI

Enokitake (also known as “enoki”) are long and thin white mushrooms often added to soups or salads.

6. Air Medal recipients : ACES

The Air Medal is a US military decoration that was created in 1942 in an executive order signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Air Medal is awarded for acts of heroism or merit in aerial flight.

8. “Yabba ___ doo!” : DABBA

“Yabba-dabba-doo!” is one of Fred Flintstone’s catchphrases.

11. Kendrick Lamar’s genre : HIP-HOP

Kendrick Lamar is a hip-hop singer from Compton, California. Lamar’s full name is Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, with the singer’s given name honoring Motown artist Eddie Kendricks.

12. Egyptian “king of the gods” : AMEN-RA

Amun (also “Amon, Amen, Amun-Ra”) was a god in Egyptian mythology. Amun lends his name to our word “ammonia”. This is because the Romans called the ammonium chloride that they collected near the Temple of Jupiter Amun, “sal ammoniacus” (salt of Amun).

13. Boil down : DECOCT

To decoct is to extract the flavor of a liquid by boiling down and increasing the concentration. A related term is “to concoct”, meaning “to boil together”. We use the verb “to concoct” in figurative sense to mean to contrive, devise.

25. Benghazi’s land : LIBYA

Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, after the capital Tripoli. It is a port city lying on the Mediterranean Sea.

29. Crystal ___ : METH

“Meth” is a street name used for the drug methamphetamine, which is also called “crank” and “crystal meth”.

33. Gossip : YENTA

Yenta (also “Yente”) is actually a female Yiddish name. In Yiddish theater “yenta” came to mean a busybody, a gossip.

35. ___ nova : BOSSA

Bossa nova is a style of music from Brazil that evolved from samba. The most famous piece of bossa nova is the song “The Girl from Ipanema”.

38. Site of zero-gravity experiments : SPACELAB

Spacelab was a modular science laboratory that was carried in the cargo bay of 32 Space Shuttle missions from 1981 until 2000. It was designed and constructed by 10 European nations with funds from the European Space Agency (ESA), with NASA providing ground facilities and managing Space Shuttle flights.

40. Beginner, in video game lingo : NOOB

“Noob” is a not-so-nice slang term for a “newbie”, and often refers to someone who is new to an online community.

52. Marsh plant : SEDGE

Sedges are a family of plants that resemble grasses and rushes. Sedges are more properly called Cyperaceae.

55. Actor Troyer of the “Austin Powers” movies : VERNE

The actor Verne Troyer was best known for playing the character Mini-Me in the “Austin Powers” series of films. Troyer suffered from a form of dwarfism, and at a height of only 2 ft 8 in was one of the shortest men in the world.

62. Texter’s “No 63-Down!” : OMG!

63. See 62-Down : WAY

“OMG” is text-speak for “Oh My Gosh!” “Oh My Goodness!” or any other G-words you might care to use …