Constructed by: David J. Kahn
Edited by: Will Shortz
Not your puzzle? Try today’s …
… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Reveal Answer: French Revolution
Circled letters REVOLVING around black blocks in the grid spell out words that can follow FRENCH:
- FRENCH HORN
- FRENCH PASTRY
- FRENCH CUFF
- FRENCH DOOR
- FRENCH POODLE
- FRENCH KISS
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Bill’s time: 10m 57s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Roast a bit : RIB
“To rib”, meaning “to tease”, is a term dating back to 1930 and is probably an extension from “poking someone in the ribs”.
4. Tee off : MIFF
To miff is to put out, to tee off, and is verb that has been around since the early 1600s. Interestingly, in 1824 Sir Walter Scott described the word “miffed” as “a women’s phrase”. That should get him a slap, I’d say …
17. Contents of a football “shower” : GATORADE
Gatorade was developed at the University of Florida by a team of researchers at the request of the school’s football team. And so, Gatorade is named after the Gators football team.
18. Echelons : STRATA
We use the word “echelon” (ech.) to describe a rank or level, particularly in the military. The term comes from French, in which language it has the same meaning, although the original meaning in Old French is “rung of a ladder”.
20. Last readout before an odometer rolls over : NINES
An odometer measures distance traveled. “Odometer comes from the Greek “hodos” meaning “path” and “metron” meaning “measure”.
22. Kobe cash : YEN
The Korean Won, the Chinese Yuan, and the Japanese Yen (all of which are Asian currencies) take their names from the Chinese written character that represents “round shape”.
Kobe is a city on the island of Honshu in Japan. Here is North America, the city of Kobe is perhaps most famous for its beef. And yes, basketball star Kobe Bryant is named after that very same beef.
23. Juillet’s season : ETE
In French, “juillet” (July) is a month in the “été” (summer).
25. Church recesses : APSES
The apse of a church or cathedral is a semicircular recess in an outer wall, usually with a half-dome as a roof and often where there resides an altar. Originally, apses were used as burial places for the clergy and also for storage of important relics.
27. A. A. Milne hopper : ROO
Like most of the characters in A. A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh”, the kangaroo named “Roo” was inspired by a stuffed toy belonging to Milne’s son Christopher Robin.
35. Peddled : HAWKED
The verb “to hawk” has a Germanic origin, and comes from the Low German word “hoken” meaning “to peddle”. A hawker is actually slightly different from a peddler by definition, as a hawker is a peddler that uses a horse and cart, or a van nowadays perhaps, to sell his or her wares.
39. One of Snoopy’s brothers, in “Peanuts” : OLAF
Snoopy is a central and much-loved character in the Charles M. Schulz comic strip “Peanuts”. He is Charlie Brown’s pet beagle, and first appeared in “Peanuts” just two days after the strip’s debut in 1950. He was identified as “Snoopy” a month later, and first “spoke” (in a thought balloon) in 1952. Initially depicted as a more traditionally dog-like figure, Schulz started to anthropomorphize Snoopy in 1952, first drawing him upright on his hind legs in 1952, while ice-skating on a frozen lake.
43. Actress Adams : AMY
Amy Adams is an American actress. although she was actually born in Vicenza, Italy while her father was a US serviceman stationed on an Italian base. My favorite Amy Adams film so far is the outstanding “Julie & Julia” in which she acted alongside Meryl Streep. I highly recommend this truly delightful movie.
46. “Little” one of old TV : RASCAL
The marvelous series of “Our Gang” comedy short films was also known as “The Little Rascals”. The series was produced by Hal Roach starting in 1922, and running up until 1944. There were 220 “Our Gang” film shorts made in all, and one feature film title “General Spanky” released in 1936.
52. “The Simpsons” clerk : APU
The fictional Kwik-E-Mart store is operated by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on “The Simpsons” TV show. Apu is married to Manjula, and the couple have eight children. The convenience store owner doesn’t seem to be making much use of his Ph.D in computer science that he earned in the US. Apu’s undergraduate degree is from Caltech (the Calcutta Technical Institute), where he graduated top of his class of seven million students …
56. Noted Hungarian puzzler : RUBIK
What was originally called the “Magic Cube” became better known as “Rubik’s Cube”, and was named for its inventor Ernő Rubik. Rubik’s Cube is the world’s biggest selling puzzle game, with over 350 million sold in just over 30 years.
62. Oaxaca whoop : OLE!
Oaxaca (officially “Oaxaca de Juárez”) is the capital city of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, located in the south of the country.
63. 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee John : OATES
Daryl Hall & John Oates are a pop music duo who were most successful in the late seventies and early eighties. They had six number one hits, including the 1982 release “Maneater”.
64. “I am not what I am” speaker : IAGO
Iago is the schemer in Shakespeare’s “Othello”. He is a soldier who fought alongside Othello and feels hard done by, missing out on promotion. Iago hatches a plot designed to discredit his rival Cassio by insinuating that Cassio is having an affair with Desdemona, Othello’s wife.
68. How some deposits are held : IN ESCROW
One type of escrow account is held by a trusted third party for two parties who have some contractual arrangement, an arrangement that is often in dispute. The third party only releases the funds when both parties have fulfilled their contractual obligations.
70. Fragrant compounds : ESTERS
Esters are very common chemicals. The smaller, low-molecular weight esters are usually pleasant smelling and are often found in perfumes. At the other end of the scale, the higher-molecular weight nitroglycerin is a nitrate ester and is very explosive, and polyester is a huge molecule and is a type of plastic. Fats and oils found in nature are fatty acid esters of glycerol known as glycerides.
72. Contemporary of Pizarro : DE SOTO
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish conquistador who led expeditions throughout the southeastern US. De Soto’s travels were unsuccessful in that he failed to bring gold or silver back to Spain, and nor did he found any colonies. What de Soto did achieve was the exposure of local populations to devastating Eurasian diseases. De Soto was the first European to cross the Mississippi River, in 1541. The first European to see the Mississippi (but not cross it) was Alonso Álvarez de Pineda, in 1519.
Francisco Pizarro was a Spanish conquistador, and the man who led the conquest of the Inca Empire in 1533. Pizarro founded the city of Lima in Peru in 1535. Pizarro’s body was laid to rest in Lima after the son of a rival conquistador assassinated him.
73. Da’s opposite : NYET
“Nyet” is Russian for “no”, and “da” is Russian for “yes”.
Down
4. Old space station : MIR
The Russian Mir space station was a remarkably successful project. It held the record for the longest continuous human presence in space at just under 10 years, until the International Space Station eclipsed that record in 2010. Towards the end of the space station’s life however, the years began to take their toll. There was a dangerous fire, multiple system failures, and a collision with a resupply ship. The Russian commitment to the International Space Station drained funds for repairs, so Mir was allowed to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in 2001. “Mir” is a Russian word meaning “peace” or “world”.
5. Ludicrous : INANE
Our word “inane” meaning silly or lacking substance comes from the Latin “inanitis” meaning “empty space”.
9. “What you can get away with,” according to Andy Warhol : ART
American artist Andy Warhol was a leader in the pop art movement that emerged in the mid-1950s. Many of his works became the most expensive paintings ever sold. A 1963 Warhol canvas titled “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” fetched over 100 million dollars in 2013.
11. What Ascap counts for purposes of royalties : PLAYS
ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) collects licence fees for musicians and distributes royalties to composers whose works have been performed. BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) provides the same service.
12. First name in skin care : ESTEE
Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, and someone with a great reputation as a salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales volume …
13. Emory board feature? : DEANS
Emory is a private school in Atlanta, Georgia with a focus on graduate research. The school was named after a Methodist Episcopal bishop called John Emory, who was very popular at the time of the school’s founding in 1836.
15. Lav, in Leeds : LOO
I went to school for a while not far from Leeds in West Yorkshire in the north of England. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, Leeds was a major center for the production and trading of wool, and then with the onset of mechanization it became a natural hub for manufacture of textiles. These days Leeds is noted as a shopping destination and so has been dubbed “the Knightsbridge of the North”.
21. Abbr. in help-wanted ads : EEO
“Equal Employment Opportunity” (EEO) is a term that has been around since 1964 when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set up by the Civil Rights Act. Title VII of the Act prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin or religion.
24. Ad ___ committee : HOC
The Latin phrase “ad hoc” means “for this purpose”. An ad hoc committee, for example, is formed for a specific purpose and is disbanded after making its final report.
32. President Coin in the “Hunger Games” series : ALMA
“The Hunger Games” is a 2008 novel by Suzanne Collins, and the first in a trilogy of titles that also includes “Catching Fire” (2009) and “Mockingjay” (2010). “The Hunger Games” was adapted into a very successful movie released in 2012, with the sequels following soon after. Amazon.com reports more sales of “The Hunger Games” series books than even the “Harry Potter” series.
33. Veil material : TULLE
Tulle is a lightweight net fabric that is often used in veils, wedding gowns and ballet tutus.
34. Spanish she-bear : OSA
In Spanish, “osa” is a female bear, and “oso” is a male. An “oso” might be found in “un zoológico” (a zoo).
37. Harper’s Bazaar cover designer : ERTE
“Erté” was the pseudonym of French (Russian-born) artist and designer Romain de Tirtoff. Erté is the French pronunciation of his initials “R.T.” Erté’s diverse portfolio of work included costumes and sets for the “Ziegfeld Follies” of 1923, productions of the Parisian cabaret show “Folies Bergère”, as well as the 1925 epic movie “Ben-Hur”. Erté’s most famous work by far is an image titled “Symphony in Black”. It depicts a tall and slender woman dressed in black, holding a black dog on a leash.
“Harper’s Bazaar” was first published in 1867, making it the first women’s fashion magazine to hit the newsstands.
41. Darling of baseball : RON
Ron Darling is former Major league Baseball pitcher. Darling retired from the game in 1995, and starting working as a color commentator for TBS in 2007.
44. Betting game popular with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday : FARO
Faro is a card game somewhat akin to Baccarat that was popular in England and France in the 18th century. Faro made it to the Old West, where it became a favorite of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp. The origin of the name “Faro” is unclear. One popular theory is that Faro is a contraction of ‘pharaoh’ given that Egyptian motifs used to be common on playing cards of the period. There’s another theory involving the usual suspects: Irish immigrants and famines …
Wyatt Earp is famous as one of the participants in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Earp was a city policeman in Wichita, Kansas and also in Dodge City, Kansas. Earp was also deputy sheriff in Tombstone, Arizona where the O.K. Corral gunfight took place. Years later, Earp joined the Alaska Gold Rush and with a partner built and operated the Dexter Saloon in Nome.
The famous gunslinger Doc Holliday was from Georgia, and received the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery in Philadelphia. Holliday moved to the Southwest after he contracted tuberculosis, in the hope that the climate might be good for his health. He first settled in Dallas, where he soon discovered that he could make a better living gambling than by running a dental practice. It was while gambling in saloons that Holliday got involved in gunfights and built a reputation as a gunslinger. The most famous shootout in which he was involved was the Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona when he fought alongside the Earp brothers. Holliday survived his many gunfights, but eventually succumbed to the disease in his lungs. He died in Glenwood Springs, Colorado at the age of 36.
45. Alley-___ : OOP
An alley-oop is a play in basketball in which one player lobs the ball close to the basket for a teammate who usually scores with a slam dunk.
53. Like most repos : TOWED
Repossession (repo)
54. Beethoven honoree : ELISE
“Für Elise” is a beautiful piece of solo piano music by Beethoven that is also known as “Bagatelle in A Minor”. “Für Elise” means simply “For Elise”, but sadly no one knows for sure the identity of the mysterious dedicatee.
57. Andersson of Abba : BENNY
I am an unapologetic fan of ABBA’s music. ABBA was the Swedish group who topped the charts in the seventies and eighties. The name ABBA is an acronym formed from the first letters of the given names of each of the band members: Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn and Anni-Frid. Early in their careers, the four fell in love and formed two married couples: Agnetha and Bjorn, and Benny and Anni-Frid. However, at the height of their success, the relationships became strained and both couples divorced.
58. It merges with the Rhone near Valence : ISERE
The Isère river gives its name to the French Department of Isère, located partly in the French Alps. In turn, Isère gave its name to a somewhat famous ship called the Isère, which in 1885 delivered the Statue of Liberty from France to America in 214 shipping crates.
60. Old Greek square : AGORA
In early Greece, the agora was a place of assembly. The assemblies held there were often quite formal, perhaps for the reading of a proclamation. Later in Greek history, things became less formal as the agora evolved into a marketplace. Our contemporary word “agoraphobia” comes from these agorae, in the sense that an agoraphobe has a fear of open spaces, a fear of “public meeting places”.
63. ___ buco : OSSO
“Osso” is the Italian word for bone, as in the name of the dish “osso buco” (bone with a hole), which features braised veal shanks.
64. Govt. watchdog until 1996 : ICC
The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was set up in 1887 to regulate the railroads and later the trucking industry. The ICC was abolished in 1995 and its functions were absorbed by the Surface Transportation Board.
66. Sign of summer : LEO
The constellation named Leo can be said to resemble a lion. Others say that it resembles a bent coat hanger. “Leo” is the Latin for “lion”, but I’m not sure how to translate “coat hanger” into Latin …
67. Richard Gere title role : DR T
The 2000 movie “Dr. T & the Women” is a pretty good film, and stars Richard Gere in the title role. It’s a romantic comedy about a gynecologist, and the women in his private and public life. The list of actresses playing those women is impressive, and includes Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett, Laura Dern, Shelley Long, Kate Hudson and Liv Tyler.
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1. Roast a bit : RIB
4. Tee off : MIFF
8. Called on : TAPPED
14. Roast bit : ONE-LINER
16. Words in a threat : … OR ELSE
17. Contents of a football “shower” : GATORADE
18. Echelons : STRATA
19. As many as : UP TO
20. Last readout before an odometer rolls over : NINES
22. Kobe cash : YEN
23. Juillet’s season : ETE
24. Accordingly : HENCE
25. Church recesses : APSES
27. A. A. Milne hopper : ROO
29. Self-help genre : HOW-TO
31. Miscreant : BAD ACTOR
35. Peddled : HAWKED
39. One of Snoopy’s brothers, in “Peanuts” : OLAF
40. Surfing moniker : USER ID
42. Wrath : IRE
43. Actress Adams : AMY
44. Strawberry, e.g. : FLAVOR
45. Numerical prefix : OCTA-
46. “Little” one of old TV : RASCAL
48. Witness : ONLOOKER
50. Staggering : AREEL
52. “The Simpsons” clerk : APU
53. Beat : TEMPO
56. Noted Hungarian puzzler : RUBIK
59. Inflate, as a bill : PAD
62. Oaxaca whoop : OLE!
63. 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee John : OATES
64. “I am not what I am” speaker : IAGO
65. Exerts : WIELDS
68. How some deposits are held : IN ESCROW
70. Fragrant compounds : ESTERS
71. Public : ON RECORD
72. Contemporary of Pizarro : DE SOTO
73. Da’s opposite : NYET
74. Course of action : WAY
Down
1. Good-for-nothing : ROGUE
2. Not pertinent : INAPT
3. What things on the downslide may have “seen” : BETTER DAYS
4. Old space station : MIR
5. Ludicrous : INANE
6. Provided, as data : FED IN
7. Historical event suggested by each of the six groups of circled letters : FRENCH REVOLUTION
8. Coin ___ : TOSS
9. “What you can get away with,” according to Andy Warhol : ART
10. For each : PER
11. What Ascap counts for purposes of royalties : PLAYS
12. First name in skin care : ESTEE
13. Emory board feature? : DEANS
15. Lav, in Leeds : LOO
21. Abbr. in help-wanted ads : EEO
24. Ad ___ committee : HOC
25. Not much : A TAD
26. Punch line? : POW!
28. Big lug : OAF
30. Attempt, informally : WHIRL
31. Wild pig : BOAR
32. President Coin in the “Hunger Games” series : ALMA
33. Veil material : TULLE
34. Spanish she-bear : OSA
36. Start some trouble : KICK UP A ROW
37. Harper’s Bazaar cover designer : ERTE
38. Pricey : DEAR
41. Darling of baseball : RON
44. Betting game popular with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday : FARO
45. Alley-___ : OOP
47. Limit : CAP
49. Symbol of durability : OAK
51. Big time : ERA
53. Like most repos : TOWED
54. Beethoven honoree : ELISE
55. Pool competitions : MEETS
57. Andersson of Abba : BENNY
58. It merges with the Rhone near Valence : ISERE
60. Old Greek square : AGORA
61. Old-fashioned in attire : DOWDY
63. ___ buco : OSSO
64. Govt. watchdog until 1996 : ICC
66. Sign of summer : LEO
67. Richard Gere title role : DR T
69. Goal for one trying to “collect ’em all” : SET
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