0107-20 NY Times Crossword 7 Jan 20, Tuesday

Constructed by: Ross Trudeau
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Outside Shots

Themed answers are literally OUTSIDE SHOTS:

  • 51A What 20-, 28- and 42-Across are : OUTSIDE SHOTS
  • 20A Long jumper, in hoops : THREE-POINTER
  • 28A Very slight probability : GHOST OF A CHANCE
  • 42A Picture from Ansel Adams, say : LANDSCAPE PHOTO

… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 5m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Break-dancer, slangily : B-BOY

A b-boy is a male devotee of rap-music and breakdancing. Apparently the term “b-boy” comes from either “Bronx boy” or “break boy”.

15 “Silkwood” screenwriter Ephron : NORA

Nora Ephron had many talents, including writing film scripts and novels. Many of the movies that she wrote, she also directed. These would include some of my favorite movies of all time like “Sleepless in Seattle”, “You’ve Got Mail” and most recently, the wonderful “Julie & Julia”. And, did you know that Nora Ephron’s second marriage was to journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame? She wrote an autobiographical novel based on her life with Bernstein, which deals in particular with Bernstein’s affair with the daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

“Silkwood” is a 1983 film about a nuclear power plant whistleblower. The movie is based on the true story of labor activist Karen Silkwood who was killed in a car accident under suspicious circumstances. She had just alleged wrongdoing at the power plant in which she worked. In real life, the power plant operators were found liable for Silkwood’s death and settled with her estate for $1.3 million.

17 “Hello” singer, 2015 : ADELE

“Hello” is a 2015 song by English singer Adele that won her three Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance.

18 Nickname for baseball’s Reggie Jackson : MR OCTOBER

Former baseball player Reggie Jackson is known as “Mr. October”, because of his memorable postseason performances.

20 Long jumper, in hoops : THREE-POINTER

That would be basketball.

22 Call to the U.S.C.G. : SOS

The combination of three dots – three dashes – three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots – pause – three dashes – pause – three dots). That said, in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so “SOS” is really only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are also mnemonics that were introduced after the SOS signal was adopted.

The US Coast Guard (USCG) has the distinction of being the country’s oldest continuous seagoing service. The USCG was founded as the Revenue Cutter Service by Alexander Hamilton in 1790.

23 One of 10 felled in a strike : PIN

In bowling, a spare is recorded on a score sheet with a forward slash mark. A strike is recorded with a large letter X.

24 Big name in lighters : BIC

Société Bic is a company based in Clichy in France. The first product the company produced, more than fifty years ago, was the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen that is still produced today. Bic also makes other disposable products such as lighters and razors.

33 Triage locales, briefly : ERS

Emergency room (ER)

Triage is the process of prioritizing patients for treatment, especially on the battlefield. The term “triage” is French and means “sorting”.

34 Bottom-left PC key : CTRL

The Control (CTRL) key on a PC keyboard is used to modify the function of other keys. For example, pressing CTRL+C copies a selection to the clipboard, and CTRL+V pastes the contents of the clipboard to a location defined by the cursor. Control keys were introduced on teletypewriters to generate “control characters”, which are non-printing characters that instruct a computer to do something like print a page, ring a bell etc.

37 Audiophile’s rack contents : CDS

The compact disc (CD) was developed jointly by Philips and Sony as a medium for storing and playing sound recordings. When the first commercial CD was introduced back in 1982, a CD’s storage capacity was far greater than the amount of data that could be stored on the hard drive of personal computers available at that time.

38 Ream unit : SHEET

A ream is 500 sheets of paper. As there were 24 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires made up a ream, there used to be 480 sheets in a ream. Ever since the standard was changed to 500, a 480-sheet packet of paper has been called a “short ream”. We also use the term “reams” to mean a great amount, evolving from the idea of a lot of printed material.

39 What the “E” stands for in HOMES : ERIE

A well-known mnemonic for remembering the names of the Great Lakes is HOMES, an acronym standing for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior.

40 Trifling amount : SOU

A sou is an old French coin. We use the term “sou” to mean “an almost worthless amount”.

41 Subj. for an M.B.A. student : ECON

Economics (econ.)

42 Picture from Ansel Adams, say : LANDSCAPE PHOTO

As an avid amateur photographer, I have been a big fan of the work of Ansel Adams for many years and must have read all of his books. Adams was famous for clarity and depth in his black and white images. Central to his technique was the use of the zone system, his own invention. The zone system is a way of controlling exposure in an image, particularly when there is a high contrast in the subject. Although the technique was developed primarily for black & white film, it can even apply to digital color images. In the digital world, the main technique is to expose an image for the highlights, and one or more images for the shadows. These images can then be combined digitally giving a final photograph with a full and satisfying range of exposures.

46 H.S. math class : ALG

Algebra (alg.) is a branch of mathematics in which arithmetical operations are performed on variables rather than specific numbers (x,y etc). The term “algebra” comes from the Arabic “al jebr” meaning “reunion of broken parts”.

47 “___ favor” : POR

“Por favor” is Spanish for “please”.

48 Island ring : LEI

“Lei” is a Hawaiian word meaning “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a lei is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

49 Wall St. debut : IPO

An initial public offering (IPO) is the very first offer of stock for sale by a company on the open market. In other words, an IPO marks the first time that a company is traded on a public exchange. Companies have an IPO to raise capital to expand (usually).

57 Reaction to the Beatles in 1964, e.g. : MANIA

The phenomenon known as “Beatlemania” originated in the early sixties, with the term describing the frenzy exhibited particularly by female fans of the Beatles. The term is perhaps imitative of the much older “Lisztomania”, a term coined in 1844 for the similar fan frenzy directed towards pianist and composer Franz Liszt during an eight-year tour of Europe starting in 1839. Hysterical fans of Liszt would try to get locks of his hair, fight over his handkerchiefs and even carry glass vials containing the dregs from his coffee cup.

59 Hoppy quaffs : ALES

“Quaff” is both a verb and a noun. One “quaffs” (takes a hearty drink) of a “quaff” (a hearty drink).

61 Gave the heave-ho : AXED

“Heave-ho” is a nautical term that was used as a chant when sailors were hoisting a sail, for example. The term has come to mean “dismissal”, as in “give him the old heave-ho”.

62 Turndown from Putin : NYET

The English word “no” translates into Russian as “nyet” and into German as “nein”.

Vladimir Putin became acting President of Russia at the very end of 1999 when Boris Yeltsin resigned. Putin was elected in his own right in 2000, re-elected in 2004, and then ran up against a term limit in 2008. In 2008 Putin was appointed by his successor, President Dmitry Medvedev, to the position of Prime Minister. Putin is a controversial figure, inside and outside Russia. On the one hand he led the country out of an economic crisis into a period of stability and relative prosperity. On the other hand he has been associated with government corruption and accused of allowing private concerns to have undue influence on government actions. And then, along came the 2016 US presidential election …

63 “Let It Go” singer in “Frozen” : ELSA

“Let It Go” is an incredibly successful song from the Disney animated film “Frozen” released in 2013. It was performed in the movie by Idina Menzel, who also was the voice actor for the character Elsa. “Let It Go” is one of the very few Disney songs to make it into the Billboard Top Ten.

Down

4 Time for a TV log : YULE

A Yule log is a large log made from a very hard wood that is burned as part of the Christmas celebration. There is also a cake called a Yule log that is served at Christmas, especially in French-speaking parts of the world. The cake is made from sponge that is rolled up to resemble a wooden Yule log.

5 How LPs were originally recorded : IN MONO

Monophonic sound (“mono”) is sound reproduced using just one audio channel, which is usually played out of just one speaker. Stereophonic sound is reproduced using two audio channels, with the sound from each channel played out of two different speakers. The pair of stereo speakers are usually positioned apart from each other so that sound appears to come from between the two. Quadraphonic sound (4.0 surround sound) uses four audio channels with the sound played back through four speakers that are often positioned at the corners of the room in which one is listening.

9 Hammer-wielding Norse god : THOR

The hammer associated with the Norse god Thor is known as Mjölnir. The name “Mjölnir” translates as “crusher”.

11 969, for Methuselah at his death : AGE

Methuselah was the son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah, and the man in the Bible who is reported to have lived the longest. Methuselah passed away seven days before the onset of the Great Flood, and tradition holds that he was 969 years old when he died.

19 Part of I.T., for short : TECH

Information technology (IT)

26 Lot unit : ACRE

One acre is equivalent to 43,560 square feet.

29 Dominated, in gamer lingo : OWNED

Lingo is specialized vocabulary. “Journalese” and “legalese” would be good examples.

31 “Gesundheit!” elicitor : ACHOO!

“Gesundheit” is the German word for “health”, and is used in response to a sneeze in Germany, as indeed it is here in the US quite often.

35 ___ Fleck, banjo virtuoso : BELA

Béla Fleck is a banjo player who performed with the band’s New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck was born in New York City and was given the name Béla Anton Leoš Fleck. He was named after Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, Austrian composer Anton Webern, and Czech composer Leoš Janáček. That’s quite a name to live up to, but by all accounts Fleck is one of the most technically proficient banjo players the world has ever known.

36 River of Eurasia : URAL

The Ural River rises in the Ural Mountains in Russia and flows for half its length through Russian territory until it crosses the border into Kazakhstan, finally emptying into the Caspian Sea. It is the third-longest river in Europe, after the Volga and Danube. The Ural is often cited as defining a long stretch of the border between Europe and Asia, although the exact position of that border is open to debate.

38 Splits that may give rise to sects : SCHISMS

A schism is a split or division, especially in a religion.

40 Nova ___ (Halifax native, say) : SCOTIAN

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia (NS) lies on the east coast of the country and is a peninsula surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. The area was settled by Scots starting in 1621, and Nova Scotia is Latin for “New Scotland”.

Halifax is the capital of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The original Canadian Town of Halifax was established in 1749 and was named for the British Earl of Halifax. The Earl of Halifax peerage was named for the town in West Yorkshire in the North of England.

41 Sword with a sensor : EPEE

The French word for sword is “épée”. In competitive fencing the épée is connected to a system that records an electrical signal when legal contact is made on an opponent’s body.

43 Like cocoons and cotton candy : SPUN

What we call “cotton candy” here in the US has some interesting names in the rest of the world. Back in Ireland it’s candyfloss, in France it “barbe à papa” (Dad’s beard), and in Australia it is called fairy floss. “Fairy floss” is actually the original name for cotton candy, a name first used when the confection was introduced at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.

44 Like Liesl, among the von Trapp children : ELDEST

The von Trapps portrayed in the musical “The Sound of Music” were a real family, as is well known. In the musical and film, the eldest daughter is Liesl, although in real life her name was Agathe. Agathe came with her family to the US in 1938, and operated a private kindergarten in Baltimore, Maryland for 35 years. Agathe passed away in 2010.

50 Port of Honshu : OSAKA

The Japanese city of Osaka used to be called Naniwa, with the name changing to Osaka sometime before 1500. “Osaka” can be translated either as “large hill” or “large slope”. Osaka is sometimes referred to as “the Chicago of Japan” as it is a major center of commerce and industry. The city has also been named the “nation’s kitchen”, and was a center for Japan’s rice trade for centuries.

Honshu is the largest island in Japan, and the seventh largest island in the world. The name “Honshu” translates as “Main Island”.

51 Essay offering an alternative viewpoint : OP-ED

“Op-ed” is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

52 Drink similar to a Slurpee : ICEE

Icee and Slurpee are brand names of slushy drinks. Ugh …

53 In fine fettle : HALE

Both of the words “hale” and “healthy” derive from the Old English “hal” meaning “healthy”.

54 Place where one might get a mani-pedi : SPA

Manicure & pedicure (mani-pedi)

56 First lady : EVE

According to the Bible, Eve was created as Adam’s companion by God, creating her from Adam’s rib.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Break-dancer, slangily : B-BOY
5 Not yet out of contention : IN IT
9 Big, fat mouth : TRAP
13 Gun, as an engine : REV UP
15 “Silkwood” screenwriter Ephron : NORA
16 Bigger than big : HUGE
17 “Hello” singer, 2015 : ADELE
18 Nickname for baseball’s Reggie Jackson : MR OCTOBER
20 Long jumper, in hoops : THREE-POINTER
22 Call to the U.S.C.G. : SOS
23 One of 10 felled in a strike : PIN
24 Big name in lighters : BIC
25 Terse affirmative : I AM
28 Very slight probability : GHOST OF A CHANCE
32 On vacation : AWAY
33 Triage locales, briefly : ERS
34 Bottom-left PC key : CTRL
35 Beyond well-done : BURNT
37 Audiophile’s rack contents : CDS
38 Ream unit : SHEET
39 What the “E” stands for in HOMES : ERIE
40 Trifling amount : SOU
41 Subj. for an M.B.A. student : ECON
42 Picture from Ansel Adams, say : LANDSCAPE PHOTO
46 H.S. math class : ALG
47 “___ favor” : POR
48 Island ring : LEI
49 Wall St. debut : IPO
51 What 20-, 28- and 42-Across are : OUTSIDE SHOTS
54 Relative via remarriage : STEP-NIECE
57 Reaction to the Beatles in 1964, e.g. : MANIA
58 Give a smooth surface : PAVE
59 Hoppy quaffs : ALES
60 What a lenient boss might cut you : SLACK
61 Gave the heave-ho : AXED
62 Turndown from Putin : NYET
63 “Let It Go” singer in “Frozen” : ELSA

Down

1 Spoiled sorts : BRATS
2 One monopolizing a mattress : BED HOG
3 Describing one’s bathroom routine in detail, say : OVERSHARING
4 Time for a TV log : YULE
5 How LPs were originally recorded : IN MONO
6 “Me neither” : NOR I
7 Cell window fixtures : IRON BARS
8 Military science subject : TACTICS
9 Hammer-wielding Norse god : THOR
10 Cause chafing, perhaps : RUB
11 969, for Methuselah at his death : AGE
12 One ___ customer : PER
14 Gets a furtive glimpse of : PEEPS AT
19 Part of I.T., for short : TECH
21 “Alas!” : PITY!
25 Like some flagrant fouls : INTENTIONAL
26 Lot unit : ACRE
27 Go soft : MELT
29 Dominated, in gamer lingo : OWNED
30 Sick and tired : FED UP
31 “Gesundheit!” elicitor : ACHOO!
35 ___ Fleck, banjo virtuoso : BELA
36 River of Eurasia : URAL
37 In a crude way : COARSELY
38 Splits that may give rise to sects : SCHISMS
40 Nova ___ (Halifax native, say) : SCOTIAN
41 Sword with a sensor : EPEE
43 Like cocoons and cotton candy : SPUN
44 Like Liesl, among the von Trapp children : ELDEST
45 Public perception, in political lingo : OPTICS
50 Port of Honshu : OSAKA
51 Essay offering an alternative viewpoint : OP-ED
52 Drink similar to a Slurpee : ICEE
53 In fine fettle : HALE
54 Place where one might get a mani-pedi : SPA
55 Line on a bill just above the total : TAX
56 First lady : EVE