Constructed by: Joe Deeney
Edited by: Will Shortz
Not your puzzle? Try today’s …
… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Reveal Answer: With or Without You
Themed answers include two pairs. One element of a pair is a FAMILY NAME IN SHAKESPEARE (WITH U). The other element is that NAME WITHOUT U:
- 34A First Billboard #1 hit for U2 … and a hint to the answers to the four starred clues : WITH OR WITHOUT YOU
- 19A *Family name in Shakespeare : MONTAGUE
- 47A *Film technique sometimes used to show the passage of time : MONTAGE
- 42A *Family name in Shakespeare : CAPULET
- 21A *Pill form : CAPLET
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Bill’s time: 13m 29s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
1 New York City’s ___ Delano Roosevelt Park : SARA
Sara Delano Roosevelt Park is in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The park is named for Sara, the mother of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
5 “This is dear mercy, and thou ___ it not”: “Romeo and Juliet” : SEEST
William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is all about the love between the two title characters, which is forbidden as the pair come from two families who are sworn enemies. Early in the play, Romeo (a Montague) sneaks into a masquerade ball being held by the Capulets in the hope of meeting a Capulet girl named Rosaline. Instead, he meets and falls for Juliet, also a Capulet. Tragedy ensues …
10 Loretta of “M*A*S*H” : SWIT
Loretta Swit started playing Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan on “M*A*S*H” in 1972. She and Alan Alda were the only actors who appeared in both the pilot and the series finale. Swit has written a book on needlepoint, would you believe? It’s called “A Needlepoint Scrapbook”.
14 Member of hoi polloi : PLEB
In ancient Rome, the patricians were the members of the families in the ruling classes. Those Romans who were not patricians by birth were known as plebs.
“Hoi polloi” is a Greek term that translates literally as “the majority, the many”. In English, “hoi polloi” has come to mean “the masses” and is often used in a derogatory sense.
17 Jai ___ : ALAI
Jai alai is a game that derives from Basque pelota, and is known as “cesta-punta” in the Basque language. The name “jai alai” translates from the original Basque as “merry festival”.
18 Some phone notifications during March Madness : UPSET ALERTS
“March Madness” is the name given to the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship (among others), that is held in the spring each year.
19 *Family name in Shakespeare : MONTAGUE
In the balcony scene in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Juliet utters the famous line:
O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?
Every school kid must have commented with a giggle “he’s down in the garden!” Of course, “wherefore” isn’t an archaic word for “where”, but rather an old way of saying “why”. So Juliet is asking, “Why art thou Romeo, a Montague, and hence a sworn enemy of the Capulets?”
27 Apple varieties : IMACS
The iMac is a desktop computer platform that Apple introduced in 1998. One of the main features of the iMac is an “all-in-one” design, with the computer console and monitor integrated. The iMac also came in a range of colors that Apple marketed as “flavors”, such as strawberry, blueberry and lime.
29 Conway in the Country Music Hall of Fame : TWITTY
Conway Twitty was a country singer who crossed over to the rock and roll and pop genres. Twitty’s real name was Harold Lloyd Jenkins, and he was named for the silent movie actor Harold Lloyd. There doesn’t seem to be a definitive explanation for how Twitty chose his stage name, but one suggestion is that he combined the names of the cities of Conway, Arkansas and Twitty, Texas.
31 Stat that doesn’t apply to Teslas : MPG
Miles per gallon (mpg)
Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 as a manufacturer of electric vehicles based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla is noted for producing the first electric sports car, called the Tesla Roadster. The company followed the sports car with a luxury sedan, the Model S. The Model S was the world’s best selling plug-in electric vehicle of 2015. Tesla Motors shortened its name to Tesla in early 2017.
34 First Billboard #1 hit for U2 … and a hint to the answers to the four starred clues : WITH OR WITHOUT YOU
“With or Without You” is a 1987 song that was a huge hit for Irish band U2. It originally appeared on the 1987 album “The Joshua Tree”. “With or Without You” was also U2’s first chart topper in North America.
37 “Coronation ___” (Elgar composition) : ODE
Sir Edward Elgar was the quintessential English composer. He is inextricably associated with his “Pomp and Circumstance” marches (including “Land of Hope and Glory”) and the “Enigma Variations”.
39 Gives quite a shock : TASES
To tase is to use a taser, a stun gun.
40 Guinness record-holder for the most career goals in football : PELE
“Pelé” is the nickname of Edson de Nascimento, a soccer player who has used the name “Pelé” for most of his life. Pelé is now retired, and for my money was the world’s greatest ever player of the game. He is the only person to have been a member of three World Cup winning squads (1958, 1962 and 1970), and is a national treasure in his native Brazil. One of Pele’s nicknames is “O Rei do Futebol” (the King of Football).
42 *Family name in Shakespeare : CAPULET
In William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”, the lovers discuss the sad fact that they have been born into two feuding families in the famous balcony scene. Juliet says:
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
Romeo’s reply includes the famous lines:
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
51 Livened (up) : GINGERED
“To gin up” is slang meaning “to enliven, excite”. The term probably derives from the older “to ginger up”. Gingering up was the rather nasty practice of putting ginger up inside a horse to make it lively and move with a high tail.
55 Standout diva performances : SOLI
“Soli” (the plural of “solo”) are pieces of music performed by one artist, whereas “tutti” are pieces performed by all of the artists.
The term “diva” comes to us from Latin via Italian. “Diva” is the feminine form of “divus” meaning “divine one”. The word is used in Italy to mean “goddess” or “fine lady”, and especially is applied to the prima donna in an opera. We often use the term to describe a singer with a big ego.
56 One who doesn’t give up : REAL TROOPER
Apparently the phrase “like a real trooper” has diverged in usage over time. Someone who is brave and stalwart might be described as a real “trooper”, like a soldier in a troop. Someone who is reliable and a supportive colleague might be described as a real “trouper”, like an actor in a troupe.
Down
1 Inundates with junk : SPAMS
The term “spam”, used for unwanted email, is taken from a “Monty Python” sketch. In the sketch (which I’ve seen) the dialog is taken over by the word Spam, a play on the glut of canned meat in the markets of Britain after WWII. So “spam” is used for the glut of emails that takes over online communication. I can just imagine nerdy Internet types (like me) adopting something from a “Monty Python” sketch to describe an online phenomenon …
6 Language in which “Hello, how are you?” is “Halò, ciamar a tha thu?” : ERSE
There are actually three Erse languages: Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be “Gaeilge” (in Ireland), “Gaelg” (on the Isle of Man) and “Gaidhlig” (in Scotland).
7 Cancún-to-Havana dir. : ENE
Cancún is a city and island on the east coast of Mexico, on the other side of the Yucatan Channel from Cuba. The city is growing rapidly due to its booming tourist business. Cancún is the center of what’s often called “The Mexican Caribbean” or the “Mayan Riviera”.
Havana is the capital city of Cuba. The city was founded by the Spanish in the early 1500s after which it became a strategic location for Spain’s exploration and conquest of the Americas. In particular, Havana was used as a stopping-off point for treasure-laden ships on the return journey to Spain.
10 Fitbit units : STEPS
Fitbits are wearable activity trackers that are mainly used to track the number of steps walked, although more and more features have been added over time. A Fitbit was even used as evidence in at least one murder case. A Connecticut man claimed that a home intruder had shot and killed his wife. Police used data from the wife’s Fitbit to disprove the husband’s story, and ended up charging him with the murder.
11 New York paper that published the very first crossword (1913) : WORLD
Arthur Wynne is generally credited with the invention of what we now known as a crossword puzzle. Wynne was born in Liverpool, England and emigrated to the US when he was 19-years-old. He worked as a journalist and was living in Cedar Grove, New Jersey in 1913 when he introduced a “Word-Cross Puzzle” in his page of puzzles written for the “New York World”. The first book of crossword puzzles was published by Shuster & Shuster, in 1924. The collection of puzzles was a huge hit, and crosswords were elevated to the level of “a craze” in 1924 and 1925.
13 Likely to snap : TESTY
Somebody described as testy is touchy, irritably impatient. The term “testy” comes into English from Old French, ultimately deriving from “testu” meaning “stubborn, headstrong”, literally “heady”. So, our word “testy” comes from the same root as the French word “tête” meaning “head”.
15 Bandleader Xavier : CUGAT
Xavier Cugat was an American bandleader born in Spain, who arrived in the United States via Cuba. He worked in Hollywood on movies, although he was also in charge of the Hotel Orchestra in the Waldorf Astoria in New York City for 16 years. Famously he conducted using just one arm, as he would hold his pet Chihuahua in the other. His fourth marriage was to comic actress Charo, in the first marriage ceremony ever to take place in Caesar’s Palace.
16 Part of an aircraft wing : SLAT
In an airplane wing, a slat is a moving surface on the leading edge of the wing, primarily having the same effect as the flap on the trailing edge. With slats and flaps deployed, a plane can fly more slowly, and take off or land in a shorter distance.
27 ___ Jima : IWO
Iwo Jima is a volcanic island located south of Tokyo that today is uninhabited. The name is Japanese for “Sulfur Island”, referring to the sulfur mining on which Iwo Jima’s economy once depended. There were about a thousand Japanese civilians living on the island prior to WWII. In 1944, there was a massive influx of Japanese military personnel in anticipation of the inevitable US invasion. As the Japanese military moved in, the civilians were forced out and no one has lived there since. Control of the island was wrested from the Japanese in the five-week Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. Said battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific theater in WWII.
29 Place for a # : TWEET
A hashtag is a word preceded by the symbol #. Hashtags are big these days because of Twitter, a microblogging service that I don’t think I will ever understand …
30 Lin ___, author of the best seller “The Importance of Living” : YUTANG
Lin Yutang was a Chinese writer who lived much of his life in the US. Among other accomplishments, Yutang is noted for his very popular translations of classic Chinese texts into English.
31 Billboard’s year-end #1 single of 1979 : MY SHARONA
“My Sharona” is a hit single from 1979 released by a band called the Knack. The band’s guitarist wrote the song after meeting a 17-year-old girl called Sharona, who later became his girlfriend. Young Sharona appears on the cover sleeve for the record. Three decades later, Sharona’s a real estate agent in LA.
32 “To Helen” poet : POE
Edgar Allan Poe wrote two versions of his poem “To Helen”. The “Helen” in the poems might be the Greek goddess of light or perhaps Helen of Troy. In fact, Poe wrote the poem in honor of Jane Stanard, who was the mother of one of his childhood friends.
33 ___ Fring, “Breaking Bad” bad guy : GUS
Gus Fring is a character on the hit AMC television show “Breaking Bad” and the prequel “Better Call Saul”. Fring is a Machiavellian drug lord who fronts his illegal activities with a successful chain of fast food restaurants called Los Pollos Hermanos. He is played by actor Giancarlo Esposito.
41 Reason to say “Duh!” : BONER
Boner is one of those terms that I just don’t like because it can be used offensively. “Boner” can be used to mean “faux pas, error”.
42 “You Can’t Take It With You” director, 1938 : CAPRA
I can’t tell you how many of Frank Capra’s movies are on my list of all-time favorites. He directed such classics as “It Happened One Night”, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”, “Lost Horizon”, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, “Meet John Doe”, “Arsenic and Old Lace” and the holiday favorite “It’s a Wonderful Life”. Capra was the first person to win three directorial Oscars: for “It Happened One Night”, “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town” and “You Can’t Take It With You”. Capra also did his bit during WWII, enlisting just a few days after Pearl Harbor was attacked. Given his great talent, and the fact that he enlisted at the relatively advanced age of 44, the US Army put him to work directing 11 documentary war films in the “Why We Fight” series, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.
45 What might end a wrestling match : UNCLE
“To say uncle” is an American expression meaning “to submit, yield”. Its usage dates back to the early 1900s, but nobody seems to know how “uncle!” came to mean “stop!”
48 Extremely cold : GELID
“Gelid” is such a lovely word, with the meaning “icy cold”. “Gelid” derives from the Latin “gelum” meaning “frost, intense cold”.
53 A Stark, to a Lannister, on “Game of Thrones” : FOE
“A Game of Thrones” is the first novel in the series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin titled “A Song of Ice and Fire”. That first novel’s title gives its name to “Game of Thrones”, the incredibly popular HBO television series that uses the storyline from the whole series of books.
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 New York City’s ___ Delano Roosevelt Park : SARA
5 “This is dear mercy, and thou ___ it not”: “Romeo and Juliet” : SEEST
10 Loretta of “M*A*S*H” : SWIT
14 Member of hoi polloi : PLEB
15 Place to look for a date : CORNERSTONE
17 Jai ___ : ALAI
18 Some phone notifications during March Madness : UPSET ALERTS
19 *Family name in Shakespeare : MONTAGUE
21 *Pill form : CAPLET
22 Bit of pool wear : SWIM CAP
23 Leaves on the line : LETS DRY
24 One might be measured by the pound : MUTT
25 “True that” : IT IS
27 Apple varieties : IMACS
29 Conway in the Country Music Hall of Fame : TWITTY
31 Stat that doesn’t apply to Teslas : MPG
34 First Billboard #1 hit for U2 … and a hint to the answers to the four starred clues : WITH OR WITHOUT YOU
37 “Coronation ___” (Elgar composition) : ODE
38 Woman’s name that sounds festive : NOELLE
39 Gives quite a shock : TASES
40 Guinness record-holder for the most career goals in football : PELE
41 Blowout : BASH
42 *Family name in Shakespeare : CAPULET
47 *Film technique sometimes used to show the passage of time : MONTAGE
50 Never-before-seen : ALL NEW
51 Livened (up) : GINGERED
52 “No problemo!” : PIECE OF CAKE
55 Standout diva performances : SOLI
56 One who doesn’t give up : REAL TROOPER
57 “Right away, boss!” : ON IT!
58 Pay (up) : ANTE
59 Fired (up) : KEYED
60 They’re in one year and out the other : FADS
Down
1 Inundates with junk : SPAMS
2 OK : ALLOW
3 Help to get back on one’s feet? : REANIMATE
4 In need of toning down : A BIT MUCH
5 Absorb : SOP UP
6 Language in which “Hello, how are you?” is “Halò, ciamar a tha thu?” : ERSE
7 Cancún-to-Havana dir. : ENE
8 Having all one needs : SET
9 Determines as the source : TRACES TO
10 Fitbit units : STEPS
11 New York paper that published the very first crossword (1913) : WORLD
12 Put in the ground : INTER
13 Likely to snap : TESTY
15 Bandleader Xavier : CUGAT
16 Part of an aircraft wing : SLAT
20 Follows, as a tip : ACTS ON
23 Willowy : LITHE
25 “You can count on me” : I WILL
26 Championship : TITLE
27 ___ Jima : IWO
28 In the center of : MID
29 Place for a # : TWEET
30 Lin ___, author of the best seller “The Importance of Living” : YUTANG
31 Billboard’s year-end #1 single of 1979 : MY SHARONA
32 “To Helen” poet : POE
33 ___ Fring, “Breaking Bad” bad guy : GUS
35 Mariner’s skill : ROPEWORK
36 Brings to mind, as a flavor : TASTES OF
41 Reason to say “Duh!” : BONER
42 “You Can’t Take It With You” director, 1938 : CAPRA
43 Unfamiliar : ALIEN
44 Skirt or curtain feature : PLEAT
45 What might end a wrestling match : UNCLE
46 System of modified spellings used on the internet : LEET
47 Like N.F.L. referees since 1975 : MIKED
48 Extremely cold : GELID
49 Modifications to text : EDITS
51 Stare slack-jawed : GAPE
53 A Stark, to a Lannister, on “Game of Thrones” : FOE
54 Reluctant to give details : COY
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14 thoughts on “0403-20 NY Times Crossword 3 Apr 20, Friday”
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15:19, no errors. Clever idea.
33:03 Had “capsule” instead of “caplet”thinking that I needed a “u” in the answer. Took a while to straighten that out….
19:52. What, a theme on a Friday?? Heads will roll. That said, it was a very clever theme. I really liked this one. As always, my saying I liked a weekend puzzle means I was able to finish it.
Xavier CUGAT could get married at Caesar’s Palace right now. No one’s using it…
Best –
Don’t normally see a theme on Friday and this one didn’t offer much resistance, though clever enough. GELID is new to me and was obtained with crosses; the rest was relatively easy for a Friday.
31 min. Got hung up on tablet instead of caplet .Didn’t see the theme until I was finished. Clever idea.
I had “this is dear mercy, and thou SENSE it not” which made
Hanava “ENE” of Cancun. Seemed okay to me.
1:04:03 no errors…I had to refer to “my notes” from previous puzzles for some answers and spent a long time in the NE corner.
Would you like to see all I know about Shakespeare ?
Wanna see it again?
Hey Jack,
What kind of notes do you keep from previous puzzles? Just trying to find out how the more experienced solvers become successful.
Steve
23:31, 3 errors: YU(L)ANG; MY (C)HARONA; (L)A(C)ES. Couldn’t spell MY SHARONA, so 39A looked like either MACES or LACES. 30A didn’t help, a complete unknown. Even if I had spelled MY SHARONA correctly, LASES would have looked just as good. Actually used the theme to get CAPLET and MONTAGE.
Theme and revealer were clipped and a bit obvious, but neat and clever. Not as easy was the SE. A couple of crossing unknowns put me in the loser’s bracket. An UPSETALERT might have helped, but no March Madness this year
Had fun with this one. No errors. Learned some new ones like gingered, pleb and gelid. My father taught theater and I attended one of his summer school classes… “Shakespeare without tears“
19:24 A confidence booster after last Saturday’s debacle
@Steve…they are divided into many categories such as authors and books, actors and movies, artists and art, schools and locations, computers and so on and are all answers from previous puzzles…lt is sorta like a handwritten version of google
No errors.. Really did good this time… Lots of words I didn’t know.. I have never read or have seen a show of Romeo and Juliet .. Looks like it’s high time. Too many crosswords with all these references. Its how I’m learning about the story. … I had a good time with this one.