1005-19 NY Times Crossword 5 Oct 19, Saturday

Constructed by: Trenton Charlson
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: None

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 16m 04s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Manhattan’s ___ D. Roosevelt Park : SARA

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was the only child of Sara Delano and James Roosevelt Sr. The Delano family history in America goes back to the pilgrim Philippe de Lannoy, an immigrant of Flemish descent who arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. The family name “de Lannoy” was anglicized here in the US, to “Delano”. Franklin was to marry Eleanor Roosevelt, and apparently the relationship between Sara and her daughter-in-law was very “strained”.

5 Kunis of “That ’70s Show” : MILA

Mila Kunis is a Ukrainian-born, American actress who plays Jackie Burkhart on “That ’70s Show”. Fans of the cartoon series “Family Guy” might recognize her voicing the Meg Griffin character. In ”Black Swan”, Kunis plays a rival ballet dancer to the character played by Natalie Portman. In her personal life, Kunis dated Macaulay Culkin for 8 years, but married Ashton Kutcher, her co-star from “That 70s Show”, in 2015.

14 Added to the ballot, say : WRITTEN IN

Today, a ballot is a piece of paper used to cast a vote. Back in the 1500s, a “ballot” was a small “ball” used in the process of voting.

22 Flag carrier with a 17-hour nonstop flight to London : QANTAS
(24D Kangaroo, for 22-Across : LOGO)

QANTAS is the national airline of Australia. The company name was originally an acronym standing for “Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services”. QANTAS has featured a koala in advertising campaigns for many years, although the company’s logo is a kangaroo and the company’s nickname is “Flying Kangaroo”.

27 Egyptian sky god : HORUS

Horus was one of the oldest gods in ancient Egyptian religion. Usually, Horus was depicted as a falcon or a man with a falcon head. The Eye of Horus was a common symbol used in ancient Egypt, a symbol of protection and royal power.

33 Disney president who oversaw the Pixar acquisition : IGER

Robert Iger took over from Michael Eisner as CEO in 2005. Iger worked for ABC when it was taken over by Disney in 1996, and in 1999 he was named president of Walt Disney International. Iger is doing okay for himself; he earned more than $29 million in 2009.

34 Part of a ream : QUIRE

A quire is a measure of paper quantity. There are usually 25 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires (500 sheets) in a ream. To complicate things, a quire sometimes only contains 15, 18, 20 or 24 sheets, depending on the type of paper.

38 Submerged ridge : SHOAL

A shoal is an underwater ridge or bank that is covered with a material such as sand or silt.

45 The Hagia Sophia was built in it : BYZANTINE EMPIRE

Byzantium was a Greek colony that was centered on what was to become Constantinople, now Istanbul. Legend suggests that there was a king Byzas, who gave his name to the city and later the Byzantine Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire later became known as the Byzantine Empire, right up until the Middle Ages.

Hagia Sophia is an incredibly beautiful church that was built as a Christian basilica, was converted to an imperial mosque, and then converted to a museum in Istanbul. It has a massive dome and was the largest cathedral in the world for almost a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520.

51 Not likely to be upset : TOP-SEEDED

A seeded player or team in a tournament is one given a preliminary ranking that is used in the initial draw. The intention is that the better competitors do are less likely to meet each other in the early rounds.

52 One end of the railway in “The Bridge on the River Kwai” : BURMA

The Republic of the Union of Myanmar is the official name of the Asian country that some nations still recognize as the Union of Burma.

The river referred to in the movie (and novel) “The Bridge on the River Kwai” is actually called the Khwae Yai River, and is in western Thailand. The original novel by Pierre Boulle was published in French in 1952, and the wonderful movie released in 1957. Both tell the story of the construction of part of the Burma Railway and a bridge over the river, using prisoners of war as laborers. The film stars William Holden, Alec Guinness and Jack Hawkins.

53 Euphoric state : CLOUD NINE

I don’t think that anyone is really certain of the etymology of the term “on cloud nine” meaning “elated”, but I do like the following explanation. The 1896 “International Cloud-Atlas” was a long-standing reference used to define cloud shapes that was based on a classification created by amateur meteorologist Luke Howard some decades earlier. The biggest and fluffiest of all cloud shapes (and most comfortable-looking to lie on) is cumulonimbus. And you guessed it, of the ten cloud shapes defined in the atlas, cumulonimbus was cloud nine …

56 In a jiffy : SOON

“Jiff” or “jiffy”, meaning “short time, instant” is thought originally to be thieves’ slang for “lightning”.

Down

5 Accelerator particles : MESONS
(8 One of the two components of 5-Down : ANTIQUARK)

A meson is an unstable subatomic particle, one made up of a quark and an antiquark.

6 Like Wile E. Coyote : INEPT

Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner are two much-loved cartoon characters from Warner Bros. Wile E. Coyote was created first, and Road Runner was invented as someone for Wile E. to play off. I love this cartoon; definitely one of the best …

9 It stands for something : ACRONYM

Strictly speaking, words formed from the first letters or other words are known as “initialisms”. Examples would be FBI and NBC, where the initials are spoken by sounding out each letter. Certain initialisms are pronounced as words in their own right, such as NATO and AWOL, and are called “acronyms”. So, acronyms are a subset of initialisms. As I say, that’s “strictly speaking”, so please don’t write in …

10 First name in westerns : CLINT

Actor and director Clint Eastwood is a native of San Francisco, California. As many of us perhaps remember, Eastwood’s big break was playing the supporting role of Rowdy Yates in the TV show “Rawhide” in the late fifties and early sixties. He then became the face of the spaghetti western genre of movie in the sixties, most notably in the classic “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. In later years Eastwood has branched out into directing and producing with remarkable success. And of course in the late eighties he also served as mayor of his hometown, Carmel-by-the-Sea.

11 First of the Minor Prophets : HOSEA

Hosea was one of the Twelve Prophets of the Hebrew Bible. The Twelve Prophets are also known as the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible.

12 Medgar who said “You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an idea” : EVERS

Medgar Evers was an African American civil rights activist from Mississippi who was assassinated by the Klu Klux Klan in 1963. A year after the murder, one Byron De La Beckwith was arrested and charged with the crime. Two trials failed to return a decision on Beckwith’s guilt as the juries, composed completely of white males, deadlocked both times. New evidence was unearthed some thirty years later so Beckwith could be retried and he was finally convicted of the murder in 1994. Back in 1963 Evers was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery. Evers had served in the US Army in France during WWII and left the military with the rank of sergeant.

15 Perfect and then some? : TENSES

Although we often say “perfect tense” in English, we are usually referring to the “present perfect tense”. The present perfect takes its place alongside the past perfect and future perfect. Verbs in the perfect form use the auxiliary verb “to have” alongside a past participle. For example:

  • I had solved the puzzle (past perfect)
  • I have solved the puzzle (present perfect)
  • I will have solved the puzzle (future perfect)

25 City on Utah Lake : OREM

Orem, Utah was originally known as “Sharon” (a Biblical name), then “Provo Bench”, and in 1914 it was given the family name of a local railroad operator called “Orem”. Orem gave itself the nickname “Family City USA” and sure enough in 2010, “Forbes” rated Orem the 5th best place in the country to raise a family.

28 Game with a ball called a quaffle : QUIDDITCH

Quidditch is a game that is famously played in the “Harry Potter” series of books and films. The game is contended by two teams of seven wizards or witches flying on broomsticks. The are four animated balls and six ring-shaped goals floating in mid-air. One of the balls is the Golden Snitch, and one of the players is the Seeker. It is the Seeker’s sole purpose to capture the Golden Snitch and thereby end the game.

30 Ginseng, e.g. : ROOT

The word “ginseng” comes from a Chinese term meaning “man root”. The term is used as the root of ginseng is forked and is said to resemble the legs of a man.

32 Cylindrical construction : SILO

“Silo” is a Spanish word that we absorbed into English. The term ultimately derives from the Greek “siros”, which described a pit in which one kept corn.

37 Short yardage play, briefly : QB SNEAK

That would be football.

38 Having eaten crow : SHAMED

The phrase “eat crow”, an alternative to “eat humble pie”, perhaps refers to the fact that cooked crow may be edible, but is not a great food choice.

40 Does some course prep? : TEES UP

That would be golf.

41 Shaved ice ingredient : SYRUP

A sno-cone (also “snow cone”) is just a paper cone filled with crushed ice and topped with flavored water. Italian ice is similar, but different. Whereas the flavoring is added on top of the ice to make a sno-cone, Italian ice is made with water that is flavored before it is frozen.

42 Heraldic hue : AZURE

The term “azure” came into English from Persian via Old French. The French word “l’azur” was taken from the Persian name for a place in northeastern Afghanistan called “Lazhward” which was the main source of the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. The stone has a vivid blue color, and “azure” has been describing this color since the 14th century.

43 Actress Hayek of “Frida” : SALMA

Salma Hayek is a Mexican actress. Hayek was the first Mexican national to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, earning that nomination with her portrayal of artist Frida Kahlo in the 2002 movie “Frida”.

44 Some tow jobs, for short : REPOS

Repossession (repo)

45 Front covers : BIBS

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 …

46 Home of The Times-Picayune, informally : 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), Louisiana (LA).

48 Ashcroft’s predecessor as attorney general : RENO

Janet Reno was Attorney General of the US from 1993 to 2001, and part of the Clinton administration. Reno was second-longest holder of the office, and our first female Attorney General. In 2002, Reno ran for Governor of Florida but failed to win the Democratic nomination. Thereafter she retired from public life, and passed away at the end of 2016.

John Ashcroft served as US Attorney General in the administration of President George W. Bush. Ashcroft is quite the musician and has composed some religious tunes in particular. When he was a member of the US Senate (representing the state of Missouri) he formed a barbershop quartet along with three of his colleagues that was called the Singing Senators.

49 Elysium : EDEN

In Greek mythology, Elysium was part of the Underworld where heroic and virtuous souls were laid to rest. Nowadays we use the word “Elysium” to mean a place or condition of ideal happiness, a Garden of Eden.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Manhattan’s ___ D. Roosevelt Park : SARA
5 Kunis of “That ’70s Show” : MILA
9 Had a bad feeling : ACHED
14 Added to the ballot, say : WRITTEN IN
16 Bulb unit : CLOVE
17 Terminal request : AISLE SEAT
18 Escalated : RISEN
19 Ruthlessly aggressive : TAKE NO PRISONERS
21 Fails to be : ISN’T
22 Flag carrier with a 17-hour nonstop flight to London : QANTAS
23 Winds up : CLOSES
26 Peer group : JURY
27 Egyptian sky god : HORUS
28 Sticky situations : QUAGMIRES
33 Disney president who oversaw the Pixar acquisition : IGER
34 Part of a ream : QUIRE
35 Inner tubes, topologically : TORI
36 “Get over here now!” : COME QUICK!
38 Submerged ridge : SHOAL
39 Wait : BIDE
40 “For real?” : THAT SO?
41 Gave grief, in a way : SASSED
44 Get back : REAP
45 The Hagia Sophia was built in it : BYZANTINE EMPIRE
50 Triumphant cry : I RULE!
51 Not likely to be upset : TOP-SEEDED
52 One end of the railway in “The Bridge on the River Kwai” : BURMA
53 Euphoric state : CLOUD NINE
54 State : SPEAK
55 Feature of many a diary : HASP
56 In a jiffy : SOON

Down

1 Clock : SWAT
2 Stage highlight : ARIA
3 Reward seeker’s concern : RISK
4 Free : AT LEISURE
5 Accelerator particles : MESONS
6 Like Wile E. Coyote : INEPT
7 Incredible person : LIAR
8 One of the two components of 5-Down : ANTIQUARK
9 It stands for something : ACRONYM
10 First name in westerns : CLINT
11 First of the Minor Prophets : HOSEA
12 Medgar who said “You can kill a man, but you can’t kill an idea” : EVERS
13 Places for trophies : DENS
15 Perfect and then some? : TENSES
20 Base boss : SARGE
23 Smart : CHIC
24 Kangaroo, for 22-Across : LOGO
25 City on Utah Lake : OREM
26 Oomph : JUICE
28 Game with a ball called a quaffle : QUIDDITCH
29 Vague expression of empathy : IT HAPPENS
30 Ginseng, e.g. : ROOT
31 Times gone by : ERAS
32 Cylindrical construction : SILO
34 Lull : QUIET
37 Short yardage play, briefly : QB SNEAK
38 Having eaten crow : SHAMED
40 Does some course prep? : TEES UP
41 Shaved ice ingredient : SYRUP
42 Heraldic hue : AZURE
43 Actress Hayek of “Frida” : SALMA
44 Some tow jobs, for short : REPOS
45 Front covers : BIBS
46 Home of The Times-Picayune, informally : NOLA
47 Prefix with -cracy : IDIO-
48 Ashcroft’s predecessor as attorney general : RENO
49 Elysium : EDEN