1126-19 NY Times Crossword 26 Nov 19, Tuesday

Constructed by: Olivia Mitra Framke
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Tarot Card Reader

Themed answers each start with a Tarot card:

  • 63A One examining the starts of 17-, 27- and 48-Across : TAROT CARD READER
  • 17A It resulted in human language division, per Genesis : THE TOWER OF BABEL
  • 27A It’s better than what’s not familiar, in a saying : THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
  • 48A Classic American novel set in France and Spain : THE SUN ALSO RISES

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

Bill’s time: 5m 01s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Quad digs : DORM

A university often features a central quadrangle (quad).

14 Lenovo competitor : ACER

Acer is a Taiwanese company that I visited a couple of times when I was in the electronics business. I was very impressed back then with the company’s dedication to quality, although I have heard that things haven’t gone so well in recent years …

Lenovo is a Chinese manufacturer of computers. The company is very successful, and sold more personal computers in 2013 than any other vendor worldwide. IBM sold off its personal computer division to Lenovo in 2005.

17 It resulted in human language division, per Genesis : THE TOWER OF BABEL

We use the word “babel” now to describe a scene of confusion, lifting the term from the biblical story of the Tower of Babel. The Tower was built in the city of Babylon, and the construction was cursed with a confusion of languages due to the varied origins of all the builders.

21 Tiny: Prefix : NANO-

The prefix “nano-” is used for units of one thousand-millionth part. “Nano-” comes from the Greek “nanos” meaning “dwarf”.

25 Exam for future M.B.A.s : GMAT

If you want to get into a business school’s graduate program then you might have to take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), which will cost you about $250, I believe …

34 Ingredient in a daiquiri : RUM

Daiquirí is a small village on the coast near Santiago, Cuba and a key location in the American invasion of Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Supposedly, the cocktail called a “Daiquiri” was invented by American mining engineers in a bar in nearby Santiago.

36 Actress Davis of “A League of Their Own” : GEENA

As well as being a successful Hollywood actress, Geena Davis is an accomplished archer and came close to qualifying for the US archery team for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Davis is also a member of American Mensa. She is quite the lady …

“A League of Their Own” is a comedy drama film released in 1992 that tells a tale about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League active during WWII. The lead actors were Tom Hanks and Geena Davis. The film spawned one of the most famous quotes in movie history: “There’s no crying in baseball!”

37 Baseball Hall-of-Famer Slaughter : ENOS

Enos Slaughter has a remarkable playing record in Major League Baseball over a 19-year career. Slaughter’s record is particularly remarkable given that he left baseball for three years to serve in the military during WWII.

42 Duke of ___, title for Prince Andrew : YORK

Prince Andrew, Duke of York is the third child and second son of Queen Elizabeth II of the UK. Andrew was second in line to the throne when he was born, after his older brother Charles. He is now fourth in line, after Princes Charles, William and Harry. Famously, Andrew was married to Sarah Ferguson for a few years, until a divorce that was much-covered by the media. Infamously, Andrew got himself involved with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

47 “Science Guy” Bill : NYE

That would be “Bill Nye the Science Guy”. Bill’s show ran on PBS for four years, from 1993-97.

48 Classic American novel set in France and Spain : THE SUN ALSO RISES

“The Sun Also Rises” was Ernest Hemingway’s first major novel, published in 1926. Hemingway originally titled the work “Fiesta”, and indeed it was originally published under this title outside of America. At the recommendation of the publisher, Scribner’s, the title was changed to “The Sun Also Rises”, taken from Ecclesiastes 1:5 “The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.”

53 Do the butterfly, e.g. : SWIM

The butterfly is the newest swimming stroke used in competition, having been introduced in 1933. It was originally used as a variant of the breaststroke, in an attempt to gain an advantage in speed over swimmers using the traditional breaststroke movement. The butterfly was carved out as a style of its own in 1952, and made its Olympic debut in 1956.

54 Smoothie berry : ACAI

Açaí (pronounced “ass-aye-ee”) is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

57 Paella base : RICE

Paella is sometimes referred to as the Spanish national dish, but not by Spaniards. In Spain, paella is regarded as a typical regional dish from Valencia.

59 Austrian painter Gustav : KLIMT

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter who primarily painted the female body, often producing works that were described as erotic. One of Klimt’s most famous paintings is “The Kiss”, which he completed in 1908.

63 One examining the starts of 17-, 27- and 48-Across : TAROT CARD READER

Tarot cards have been around since the mid-1400s, and for centuries were simply used for entertainment as a game. It has only been since the late 1800s that the cards have been used by fortune tellers to predict the future. The list of tarot cards includes the Wheel of Fortune, the Hanged Man and the Lovers.

66 Cara of “Fame” : IRENE

Irene Cara co-wrote and sang the Oscar-winning song “Flashdance… What a Feeling” from the 1983 movie “Flashdance”. Cara also sang the title song for the 1980 movie “Fame”, and indeed played the lead role of student Coco Hernandez.

“Fame” is a 1980 musical film that follows students at New York’s High School of Performing Arts. Irene Cara sings the hugely successful theme song “Fame”, and stars as one of the students. Cara had in fact attended the High School of Performing Arts in real life. The movie “Fame” was so successful that it led to a spinoff TV series, stage shows and a 2009 remake.

67 Mad Libs prompt : NOUN

Mad Libs is a word game, one mostly played by children in America. The idea is that one player provides a list of words which are then inserted into blank spots in a story, usually with hilarious results (they say!).

70 Lyft and Snapchat : APPS

Lyft is a ridesharing service that is based in San Francisco, as is Uber, Lyft’s biggest competitor.

Snapchat is a messaging system that allows users to send photos and video clips to a limited list of recipients. The photos and clips, called “snaps”, can be viewed for only a few seconds before they are deleted from the recipient’s device, and from the Snapchat servers.

Down

1 What your phone uses up when you’re not on Wi-Fi : DATA

“Wi-Fi” is nothing more than a trademark, a trademark registered by an association of manufacturers of equipment that use wireless LAN (Local Area Network) technology. A device labeled with “Wi-Fi” has to meet certain defined technical standards, basically meaning that the devices can talk to each other. The name “Wi-Fi” suggests “Wireless Fidelity”, although apparently the term was never intended to mean anything at all.

2 Adolph ___, creator of the slogan “All the News That’s Fit to Print” : OCHS

Adolph Ochs was a former owner of “The New York Times”. Ochs had purchased a controlling interest in “The Chattanooga Times” when he was only 19 years of age, and took control of “The New York Times” in 1896 when he was 38 years old. Soon after taking charge, Ochs coined the paper’s slogan “All the News That’s Fit to Print”. It was also Ochs who moved the paper’s headquarters to a new building on Longacre Square in Manhattan, which the city later renamed to the famous “Times Square” after the newspaper. Och’s son-in-law Arthur Hays Sulzberger took over control of “The New York Times” after Adolph died. The Ochs Sulzberger family has owned the paper ever since.

4 Squire in “The Wind in the Willows” : MR TOAD

Mr. Toad is one of the main characters in the children’s novel “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame. A. A. Milne (of “Winnie-the-Pooh” fame) wrote several plays based on “The Wind in the Willows”, the first of which is “Toad of Toad Hall”.

7 Nick Jr. explorer : DORA

“Dora the Explorer” is a cartoon series shown on Nickelodeon. Part of Dora’s remit is to introduce the show’s young viewers to some Spanish words and phrases.

8 Like a bed of moss : SPONGY

There is a traditionally-held belief that in the northern hemisphere there is a heavier growth of moss on the north-facing side of trees. The assumption is that the sun creates a drier environment on the south side of the tree, an environment that is less conducive to the growth of moss.

9 ___ port : USB

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard dealing with how computers and electronic devices connect and communicate, and deal with electrical power through those connections.

11 Bum : HOBO

No one seems to know for sure how the term “hobo” originated, although there are lots of colorful theories. My favorite is that “hobo” comes from the first letters in the words “ho-meward bo-und”, but it doesn’t seem very plausible. A kind blog reader tells me that according to Click and Clack from PBS’s “Car Talk” (a great source!), “hobo” comes from “hoe boy”. Hoe boys were young men with hoes looking for work after the Civil War. Hobos differed from “tramps” and “bums” in that “bums” refused to work, “tramps” worked when they had to, while “hobos” traveled in search of work.

19 Anxiety about exclusion, per a modern acronym : FOMO

Fear of missing out (FOMO)

26 Summer mo. : AUG

Our month of July used to be called “Quintilis” in ancient Rome. “Quintilis” is Latin for “fifth”, and it was the fifth month of the year back then. After the assassination of Julius Caesar, the Roman Senate renamed Quintilis to Julius, in his honor, which evolved into our “July”. The month of August, originally called “Sextilis” in Latin, was renamed in honor of Augustus.

29 Ham it up : EMOTE

The word “ham”, describing a performer who overacts, is a shortened form of “hamfatter” and dates back to the late 1800s. “Hamfatter” comes from a song in old minstrel shows called “The Ham-Fat Man”. It seems that a poorly performing actor was deemed to have the “acting” qualities of a minstrel made up in blackface.

32 How Reubens are served, typically : ON RYE

There are conflicting stories about the origin of the Reuben sandwich. One such story is that it was invented around 1914 by Arnold Reuben, an immigrant from Germany who owned Reuben’s Deli in New York.

49 Pot watcher? : NARC

“Potiguaya” is the Mexican-Spanish word for “marijuana leaves”. The slang name “pot” comes from “potiguaya”.

50 Grammy-winning Grande : ARIANA

Ariana Grande is a singer and actress from Boca Raton, Florida. Grande plays the role of Cat Valentine on the sitcom “Victorious” that aired for four season on Nickelodeon. Grande’s singing career took off with the release of the 2011 album “Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show”.

51 Words from an impatient commuter, perhaps : I’M LATE

Our verb “to commute”, meaning “to go back and forth to work”, ultimately derives from the Latin “commutare”, meaning “to often change”. Back in the late 1800s, a “commutation ticket” was a season pass, so named because it allowed one to “change” one kind of payment into another. Quite interesting …

55 Part of T.L.C. : CARE

Tender loving care (TLC)

58 Word before top or circle : CROP …

Don’t believe what you hear. Crop circles are hoaxes …

61 Citi Field team : METS

Citi Field is the relatively new baseball stadium used by the New York Mets that sits right next door to the site of Shea stadium, where the Mets had played for decades. And the new facility’s name comes from corporate sponsor Citigroup.

64 First of three? : TEE

The first letter in the word “three” is a letter T (tee).

65 Hosp. V.I.P.s : RNS

Registered nurse (RN)

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Quad digs : DORM
5 Compact storage units : PODS
9 Concert hall staffer : USHER
14 Lenovo competitor : ACER
15 Individually : A POP
16 Sign of fire : SMOKE
17 It resulted in human language division, per Genesis : THE TOWER OF BABEL
20 “It must have been ___ news day” : A SLOW
21 Tiny: Prefix : NANO-
22 Like some cheeks in winter air : ROSY
23 All over again : ANEW
25 Exam for future M.B.A.s : GMAT
27 It’s better than what’s not familiar, in a saying : THE DEVIL YOU KNOW
34 Ingredient in a daiquiri : RUM
35 Second attempt, informally : REDO
36 Actress Davis of “A League of Their Own” : GEENA
37 Baseball Hall-of-Famer Slaughter : ENOS
39 Long guitar parts : NECKS
42 Duke of ___, title for Prince Andrew : YORK
43 Wasn’t naturally : ACTED
45 “If it ___ broke …” : AIN’T
47 “Science Guy” Bill : NYE
48 Classic American novel set in France and Spain : THE SUN ALSO RISES
52 Scorch : SEAR
53 Do the butterfly, e.g. : SWIM
54 Smoothie berry : ACAI
57 Paella base : RICE
59 Austrian painter Gustav : KLIMT
63 One examining the starts of 17-, 27- and 48-Across : TAROT CARD READER
66 Cara of “Fame” : IRENE
67 Mad Libs prompt : NOUN
68 Reusable bag : TOTE
69 Mock, in a way : TEASE
70 Lyft and Snapchat : APPS
71 Ultimatum word : ELSE

Down

1 What your phone uses up when you’re not on Wi-Fi : DATA
2 Adolph ___, creator of the slogan “All the News That’s Fit to Print” : OCHS
3 Walk lurchingly : REEL
4 Squire in “The Wind in the Willows” : MR TOAD
5 Fox’s foot : PAW
6 Dentist’s order : OPEN WIDE
7 Nick Jr. explorer : DORA
8 Like a bed of moss : SPONGY
9 ___ port : USB
10 Device used to open a lock from a distance : SMART KEY
11 Bum : HOBO
12 ___ out a living (barely gets by) : EKES
13 Depend (on) : RELY
18 Person with a deed : OWNER
19 Anxiety about exclusion, per a modern acronym : FOMO
24 Squared up : EVEN
26 Summer mo. : AUG
27 Word that pricks a dog’s ears : TREAT
28 Gut feeling : HUNCH
29 Ham it up : EMOTE
30 Train that doesn’t skip stops : LOCAL
31 Highlighter hues : NEONS
32 How Reubens are served, typically : ON RYE
33 Some vigils : WAKES
38 Therapy appointments : SESSIONS
40 Was a brown-noser : KISSED UP
41 Frosted flakes? : SNOW
44 Expected, as a baby : DUE
46 Tot’s three-wheeler, for short : TRIKE
49 Pot watcher? : NARC
50 Grammy-winning Grande : ARIANA
51 Words from an impatient commuter, perhaps : I’M LATE
54 Feuding : AT IT
55 Part of T.L.C. : CARE
56 Zone : AREA
58 Word before top or circle : CROP …
60 Pop star : IDOL
61 Citi Field team : METS
62 Leaves home? : TREE
64 First of three? : TEE
65 Hosp. V.I.P.s : RNS