0112-19 NY Times Crossword 12 Jan 19, Saturday

Constructed by: Sam Trabucco
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: None

Bill’s time: 15m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9. Bob of “Home Again” : VILA

“This Old House” first aired in 1979, on PBS, with Bob Vila as host. After ten years on the show, Vila was able to make extra income with commercial endorsements. These earnings caused conflict with commercial-free PBS, and so Vila was replaced by Steve Thomas.

14. Genesis patriarch : JACOB

In the Torah, the Israelites are traced back to Jacob, the grandson of Abraham. Jacob’s twelve sons became the ancestors of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Jacob’s sons were:

  • Reuben
  • Simeon
  • Levi
  • Judah
  • Dan
  • Naphtali
  • Gad
  • Asher
  • Issachar
  • Zebulun
  • Joseph
  • Benjamin

19. Sixth of five? : ESP

Extrasensory perception (ESP) might be considered the sixth of the five senses.

26. ___ Croft, comic book heroine : LARA

Lara Croft was introduced to the world in 1996 as the main character in a pretty cool video game (or so I thought, back then) called “Tomb Raider”. Lara Croft moved to the big screen in 2001 and 2003, in two pretty awful movie adaptations of the game’s storyline. Angelina Jolie played Croft, and she did a very energetic job.

32. Greta of “The Player” : SCACCHI

Greta Scacchi is an actress from Italy who now lives in Australia. Scacchi is popular on the European movie circuit as she is fluent in English, German , French and Italian.

38. Annual awards show since 1993 : THE ESPYS

The ESPY Awards are a creation of the ESPN sports television network. One difference with similarly named awards in the entertainment industry is that ESPY winners are chosen solely based on viewer votes.

41. First name in design : EERO

Eero Saarinen was a Finnish-American architect who was renowned in this country for his unique designs for public buildings such as Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Dulles International Airport Terminal, and the TWA building at JFK. The list of his lesser-known, but still impressive, works includes several buildings erected on academic campuses. For example, the Chapel and Kresge Auditorium on the MIT campus, the Emma Hartman Noyes House at Vassar College, the Law School building at the University of Chicago, and Yale’s David S. Ingalls Rink.

42. Lotion abbr. : SPF

In theory, the sun protection factor (SPF) is a calibrated measure of the effectiveness of a sunscreen in protecting the skin from harmful UV rays. The idea is that if you wear a lotion with say SPF 20, then it takes 20 times as much UV radiation to cause the skin to burn than it would take without protection. I say just stay out of the sun …

46. Cowboys or Vikings : NFC TEAM

The Dallas Cowboys play in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the NFL. The Cowboys are famous for a lengthy streak of 20 consecutive winning seasons, from 1966 to 1985. They are the highest-valued sports franchise in the country. The only team in the world that’s worth more money is the UK’s Manchester United soccer team.

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.

50. New York city west of Binghamton : ELMIRA

Elmira is a city in the southern tier of New York State located closed close to the border with Pennsylvania. Elmira was also the family home of Olivia Langdon, wife of Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain). Mark Twain and family are buried in Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery.

Down

1. Collectible caps : POGS

The game of pogs was originally played with bottle caps from POG fruit juice. The juice was named for its constituents, passion fruit, orange and guava.

6. French Quarter city, familiarly : NOLA

The city of New Orleans, Louisiana has the nickname “The Big Easy”. This name might come from the early 1900s when musicians found it relatively “easy” to find work there. The city is also known by the acronym NOLA, standing for New Orleans (NO), LA.

The oldest neighborhood in the city of New Orleans is the French Quarter, which is also called the “Vieux Carré (French for “Old Square”). After being founded by the French in 1718 as “La Nouvelle-Orléans”, the city developed around this central square.

9. Music’s Milli ___ : VANILLI

Milli Vanilli famously won a Grammy and had it revoked when it was discovered that they didn’t even provide the lead vocals for the award-winning recording, and just lip-synced when performing on stage.

10. Uranus or Neptune : ICE GIANT

The eight planets of our solar system can be sorted into two categories. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are “terrestrials” as they are largely composed of rock. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are “gas giants”, as they are largely composed of gaseous material. Uranus and Neptune can be called “ice giants”, a subcategory of gas giants. Ice giants have a lower mass than other gas giants, with very little hydrogen and helium in their atmospheres and a higher proportion of rock and ice.

11. Don Juan : LOTHARIO

There is a character named Lothario in Don Quixote, and in the “Fair Penitent”, a 1703 play by Nicholas Rowe. In both cases the Lothario in question exhibits less than wholesome behavior towards a woman, giving rise to the term “lothario” meaning “roue”.

Don Juan is a flighty character who has been featured by a number of authors, poets and composers, including Molière, Byron, and Mozart. In the underlying legend, Don Juan ends up talking to the statue of the dead father of one of his conquests. Don Juan dines with the ghost of the dead man and when shaking the hand of the ghost he is dragged away to hell. We now use the term “Don Juan” to describe any womanizer or ladies’ man.

14. “Seinfeld” nickname : JER

Jerry Seinfeld is a standup comedian and comic actor from Brooklyn, New York. Jerry is most famous for playing the lead in the “Seinfeld” sitcom from 1989 to 1998. “Seinfeld” was good for Jerry, earning him $267 million in 1998 alone, and making him the highest-paid celebrity that year.

18. Sports Illustrated named it #1 in its “100 Greatest Moments in Sports History” : MIRACLE ON ICE

Team USA won the gold medal in men’s hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. The victory was a surprising one given the decades-long dominance of the USSR team. The “big result” for the American team was the epic victory against the Soviets, a victory often referred to as the “Miracle on Ice”. The US went on to defeat Finland in the final and secured the gold medal. The moniker “miracle” comes from words uttered by sportscaster Al Michaels, who was calling the game for ABC. He declared, in the final seconds, “Do you believe in miracles?! Yes!”

30. Texas city on Route 66 : AMARILLO

Amarillo in the Texas panhandle is known as “The Yellow Rose of Texas” because Amarillo is the Spanish for “yellow”. The city was originally called Oneida.

31. 1980s arcade game : MS PAC-MAN

The Pac-Man arcade game was first released in Japan in 1980, and is as popular today as it ever was. The game features characters that are maneuvered around the screen to eat up dots and earn points. The name comes from the Japanese folk hero “Paku”, known for his voracious appetite. The spin-off game called Ms. Pac-Man was released in 1981.

36. Cardiac contraction : SYSTOLE

In the heart, the term “systole” describes the rhythmic contraction of the ventricles to pump the blood around the body.

45. Onetime California fort : ORD

Fort Ord was an army post on Monterey Bay in California named after a General Ord. It was established in 1917, and closed in 1994. The fort was in a spectacular location with miles of beachfront, and it also had that lovely California weather. The old fort’s land is now managed as the Fort Ord National Monument.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Game players? : PEP BANDS
9. Bob of “Home Again” : VILA
13. Domineered : OVERBORE
14. Genesis patriarch : JACOB
15. Grammy-winning group whose name is an homage to the Monkees : GORILLAZ
16. ___ Reader’s Encyclopedia (classic literary reference) : BENET’S
17. Squad on a slope : SKI TEAM
18. Best man for a wedding? : MR RIGHT
19. Sixth of five? : ESP
20. Nickname for Adrianus : ARIE
22. Courtroom outburst : LIAR!
23. In-house service? : HOME CARE
26. ___ Croft, comic book heroine : LARA
27. Perform extremely well, in sports lingo : PUT ON A CLINIC
29. Hawaiian pizza topping : HAM
32. Greta of “The Player” : SCACCHI
33. Rattle holder : TOT
34. Ironic exclamation of amazement : I’M SPEECHLESS!
37. A scarf might cover it : NAPE
38. Annual awards show since 1993 : THE ESPYS
40. “Shoot!” : DRAT!
41. First name in design : EERO
42. Lotion abbr. : SPF
44. Roman magistrate’s attendants : LICTORS
46. Cowboys or Vikings : NFC TEAM
50. New York city west of Binghamton : ELMIRA
51. Cubic ___ (synthetic gemstone) : ZIRCONIA
52. Something that’s secretive : GLAND
53. “This is too much!” : I COULDN’T!
54. Single, say : SONG
55. Tumults : TEMPESTS

Down

1. Collectible caps : POGS
2. Call up : EVOKE
3. Pass on : PERISH
4. Genre for Oasis and Blur : BRITPOP
5. Practiced : ABLE
6. French Quarter city, familiarly : NOLA
7. Ones who help people get their acts together? : DRAMA COACHES
8. States, informally : SEZ
9. Music’s Milli ___ : VANILLI
10. Uranus or Neptune : ICE GIANT
11. Don Juan : LOTHARIO
12. Part of a science journal : ABSTRACT
14. “Seinfeld” nickname : JER
16. Part of an equestrian’s outfit : BREECHES
18. Sports Illustrated named it #1 in its “100 Greatest Moments in Sports History” : MIRACLE ON ICE
21. Stock owner : RANCHER
24. Deliberate : MUSE
25. “The list goes on” : ETCETERA
28. Oratory obstacle : LISP
29. Horses kick with them : HIND LEGS
30. Texas city on Route 66 : AMARILLO
31. 1980s arcade game : MS PAC-MAN
35. Kind of zoo : PETTING
36. Cardiac contraction : SYSTOLE
39. Whiles away : SPENDS
43. Barely registering : FAINT
45. Onetime California fort : ORD
47. Judging by : FROM
48. Medium bra spec : C-CUP
49. Some gym gear : MATS
51. Face difficulty? : ZIT