0125-20 NY Times Crossword 25 Jan 20, Saturday

Constructed by: Stella Zawistowski
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: None

… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 28m 39s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16 Get the heck out of Dodge : LAM

To be on the lam is to be in flight, to have escaped from prison. “On the lam” is American slang that originated at the end of the 19th century. The word “lam” also means to “beat” or “thrash”, as in “lambaste”. So “on the lam” might derive from the phrase “to beat it, to scram”.

The phrase “get out of Dodge”, meaning “scram, flee”, is a reference to Dodge City, Kansas. The phrase became a cliché on TV westerns (mainly “Gunsmoke”, I think) and was then popularized by teenagers in the sixties and seventies.

18 Letters in film and the hotel business : MGM

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film studio was founded in 1924 by Marcus Loew. Loew was already a successful movie theater owner when he purchased Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919, and then Goldwyn Pictures in 1924. Later in 1924, Loew also purchased Louis B. Mayer Pictures, mainly so that Louis B. Mayer could merge all three studios and run them himself as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

MGM Resorts International is the name given to a chain of hotel resorts and casinos, including the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The MGM Grand Las Vegas was the largest hotel in the world when it opened in 1993, and is now the second largest (behind the Venetian, also in Las Vegas).

28 Musical family name from Cremona : AMATI

The first of the Amati family to make violins was Andrea Amati, who lived in the 14th century. He was succeeded by his sons Antonio and Girolamo. In turn, the two brothers were succeeded by Girolamo’s son Nicolo. Nicolo had a few students who achieved fame making musical instruments as well. One was his own son, Girolamo, and another was the famed Antonio Stradivari.

Cremona is a city in Lombardy in northern Italy that lies on the Po river. Cremona has a rich musical history and was the home to famous craftsmen who made stringed instruments, including Stradivari and several members of the Amati family.

29 Dross : SLAG

The better lead ores are processed in a blast furnace, to extract the metal. The waste from this process is called “slag”. Slag does contain some lead and it can be processed further in a slag furnace to extract the residual metal. Slag furnaces also accept poorer lead ores as a raw material.

When metals are smelted, there is a scum made up of impurities that floats on the surface of the molten metal. This scum is called “dross” and is drawn off and discarded. The term “dross” has come to mean any waste or impure matter.

33 Problem with live-streaming : LAG

In Internet terms, lag is a delay in response caused by network latency. We might notice lag when streaming a video, for example.

34 Olden land north of Anglia : SCOTIA

“Scotia” has been the Latin word for “Scotland” since the Middle Ages, and is sometimes used in poetry as the name for the country. Paradoxically, the Ancient Romans used the name “Scotia” for the island of Ireland. The meaning mutated over the centuries.

The Romans referred to Britain as “Brittania”, from which the island took its name. Also, the Latin for Scotland is “Caledonia”, and for Ireland is “Hibernia”. Centuries after the Romans left, a German tribe called the Angles settled in that part of Britain now known as England. The word “Angle” is the root of the name “England”, as in medieval times the country was called “Anglia”, its late-Latin name.

38 Owners of the dogs Bo and Sunny : OBAMAS

Sunny and Bo are Portuguese water dogs owned by the Obama family. The former First Family chose the Portuguese water dog largely because it is a hypoallergenic breed, and Malia Obama suffers from an allergy to most dogs.

39 Home of the 2000 Summer Olympics: Abbr. : AUS

When the Summer Olympic Games were held in Sydney, Australia in 2000, it marked the second time that the event was hosted in the Southern Hemisphere, the first occasion being the 1956 games in Melbourne. Although the Sydney Games were a public relations success, the financial result was a major disappointment. The Australian government built several new venues in the Sydney Olympic Park and were planning on recouping the cost by renting out the facilities in the following years. Sadly, the required level of bookings failed to materialize and so the government’s bank balance took a hit.

40 Pistolet, par exemple : ARME

In French, a “pistolet ou canon” (pistol or gun) is an “arme” (weapon).

42 Company Steve Jobs once owned : PIXAR

Pixar Animation Studios started out as part of Lucasfilm in 1979, George Lucas’s production company. Lucas sold what was to become Pixar to Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 1986. Pixar produced its first feature film in 1995, the fabulous “Toy Story”, and followed up with a string of hits. The company was then sold to Walt Disney in 2006, when valued at $7.4 billion. That transaction resulted in Steve Jobs becoming the biggest shareholder in Walt Disney.

44 Bit of off-season N.C.A.A. news : TRANSFER

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

51 Popular video game of 2000, with “The” : SIMS

SimCity is a very clever computer game. Players build and grow cities and societies by creating the conditions necessary for people (the Sims) to move in and thrive. SimCity was launched in 1989, and to this day it is consistently ranked as one of the greatest computer games of all time.

59 One-third of a literary trio : EMILY BRONTE

In terms of age, Emily Brontë was the middle of the three Brontë sisters, younger than Charlotte and older than Anne. Emily was a poet and a novelist, and is best remembered for her only novel, “Wuthering Heights”. Emily died very young, at 30 years old. She never recovered from a severe cold that she caught at the funeral service of Branwell Brontë, her only brother. The cold developed into tuberculosis, for which she eschewed medical attention. She passed away after three months of illness.

61 Hub of Memphis night life : BEALE STREET

Beale Street in downtown Memphis, Tennessee is a major tourist attraction. In 1977, by act of Congress, the street was officially declared the “Home of the Blues” due to its long association with the musical genre. Apparently “Beale” is the name of some forgotten military hero.

Down

2 Of a flock : OVINE

The Latin word for “sheep” is “ovis”, giving us the adjective “ovine” meaning “like a sheep”.

6 Ravel’s “Pavane Pour ___ Infante Défunte” : UNE

A pavane is a slow dance, one in which the dancers process majestically. Pavanes were very popular in Renaissance Europe.

7 Presidential monogram hidden in this clue : DDE

Future US president Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas in 1890 and given the name David Dwight, but by the time he made it to the White House he was going by the name Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE). Growing up, his family called him Dwight, and when “Ike” enrolled in West Point he himself reversed the order of his given names.

9 Author of “The Condition of the Working Class in England,” 1845 : ENGELS

Friedrich Engels was a German political theorist who worked closely with Karl Marx to develop what became known as Marxist Theory. Along with Marx, he also co-authored the “Communist Manifesto” in 1848, and later he supported Marx as he worked to publish “Das Kapital”.

10 Bris official : MOHEL

A mohel is a man who has been trained in the practice of brit milah (circumcision). Brit milah is known as “bris” in Yiddish. The brit milah ceremony is performed on male infants when they are 8-days old.

11 Otolaryngologist, familiarly : ENT

The branch of medicine known as “ear, nose and throat” (ENT) is more correctly called “otolaryngology”.

12 Where did you go? : ALMA MATER

The literal translation for the Latin term “alma mater” is “nourishing mother”. The phrase was used in ancient Rome to refer to mother goddesses, and in Medieval Christianity the term was used to refer to the Virgin Mary. Nowadays, one’s alma mater is the school one attended, either high school or college, usually one’s last place of education.

21 Bubbly cocktail : MIMOSA

Where I come from, the cocktail known in North America as a mimosa is called a buck’s fizz, with the latter named for Buck’s Club in London where it was introduced in 1921. The mimosa came along a few years later, apparently first being served in the Paris Ritz. If you want to make a mimosa, it’s a 50-50 mix of champagne and orange juice, and it is very tasty …

27 “What happens when language fails,” per Margaret Atwood : WAR

Canadian author Margaret Atwood is best known for her novels. However, Atwood also conceived the idea of the LongPen, a remote robotic writing technology. The LongPen allows a user to write remotely in ink via the Internet. Atwood came up with the idea so that she could remotely attend book signings.

29 Garment made with spandex : SPORTS BRA

What we call spandex in the US is known as lycra in Britain and Ireland. “Spandex” was chosen as the name for the elastic fiber as it is an anagram of “expands”.

32 Urchins : GAMINS

“Gamin” is a French word that we’ve imported into English. In both languages it means “street urchin”.

37 First word in Yale’s motto : LUX

“Lux et veritas” translates from Latin as “Light and Truth”. “Lux et veritas” is used as a motto of several universities including Indiana University, the University of Montana and Yale University. However, Yale’s motto is often given in Hebrew, as “Urim and Thummim”.

42 Middle America, symbolically : PEORIA

Peoria is the oldest European settlement in the state of Illinois, having been settled by the French in 1680. The city is famous for being cited as “the average American city”. The phrase, “Will it play in Peoria?” is used to mean, “Will it appeal to the mainstream?” It is believed the expression originated as a corruption of, “We shall play in Peoria”, a line used by some actors in the 1890 novel “Five Hundred Dollars” by Horatio Alger, Jr.

48 Something worn with flare? : A-LINE

An A-line skirt is one that fits snugly at the hips and flares towards the hem. The term “A-line” was first used in fashion by French designer Christian Dior in his 1955 spring collection.

49 Nick of 2019’s “Angel Has Fallen” : NOLTE

Actor Nick Nolte got his big break playing opposite Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Shaw in “The Deep”, released in 1976. Prior to that, he had worked as a model. Nolte appeared in a magazine advertisement for Clairol in 1972 alongside fellow model and future actor Sigourney Weaver.

56 Dec. 31 : NYE

New Year’s Eve (NYE)

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Self-conscious person’s exclamation : DON’T JUDGE ME
12 Self-conscious person’s question : AM I?
15 Once in a while, poetically : EVER AND ANON
16 Get the heck out of Dodge : LAM
17 What mathematicians call a lemniscate : FIGURE EIGHT
18 Letters in film and the hotel business : MGM
19 Burning feeling : ANGER
20 At birth : NEE
21 Whole head of hair : MANE
22 Back-combs : TEASES
24 Opposite of fortuitous : ILL-TIMED
26 Guzzles, say : DOWNS
28 Musical family name from Cremona : AMATI
29 Dross : SLAG
33 Problem with live-streaming : LAG
34 Olden land north of Anglia : SCOTIA
35 Chitchat : PALAVER
37 Most baggy : LOOSEST
38 Owners of the dogs Bo and Sunny : OBAMAS
39 Home of the 2000 Summer Olympics: Abbr. : AUS
40 Pistolet, par exemple : ARME
41 Sign of spring : ROBIN
42 Company Steve Jobs once owned : PIXAR
44 Bit of off-season N.C.A.A. news : TRANSFER
46 Take a bite out of? : DEFANG
51 Popular video game of 2000, with “The” : SIMS
52 Easy interview question : LOB
53 Reason for a medal : VALOR
54 And … that’s a wrap! : BOA
55 Fancy term for a long prison sentence : DURANCE VILE
58 Get the heck out of Dodge : RUN
59 One-third of a literary trio : EMILY BRONTE
60 Fathead : ASS
61 Hub of Memphis night life : BEALE STREET

Down

1 Get the grease out of : DEFAT
2 Of a flock : OVINE
3 Actress Ruth of “Loving” : NEGGA
4 Levels : TRUES
5 Shaken up : JARRED
6 Ravel’s “Pavane Pour ___ Infante Défunte” : UNE
7 Presidential monogram hidden in this clue : DDE
8 Closing the gap : GAINING
9 Author of “The Condition of the Working Class in England,” 1845 : ENGELS
10 Bris official : MOHEL
11 Otolaryngologist, familiarly : ENT
12 Where did you go? : ALMA MATER
13 Attractive quality : MAGNETISM
14 Instant : IMMEDIATE
21 Bubbly cocktail : MIMOSA
23 Arch supports : SOLES
25 ___ Tuesday (modern restaurant promotion) : TACO
27 “What happens when language fails,” per Margaret Atwood : WAR
29 Garment made with spandex : SPORTS BRA
30 Taxing : LABORIOUS
31 Rosa Parks and Booker T. Washington, for two : ALABAMANS
32 Urchins : GAMINS
34 “Terrible, just terrible” : SO SAD
36 Fleet at a distribution center : VANS
37 First word in Yale’s motto : LUX
39 Complete miss : AIRBALL
42 Middle America, symbolically : PEORIA
43 Go back (to) : REVERT
45 Water park feature : FLUME
47 Preferential treatment : FAVOR
48 Something worn with flare? : A-LINE
49 Nick of 2019’s “Angel Has Fallen” : NOLTE
50 Nod at, say : GREET
55 Nebraska senator Fischer : DEB
56 Dec. 31 : NYE
57 “I Love Lucy” network : CBS