0630-20 NY Times Crossword 30 Jun 20, Tuesday

Constructed by: Zachary David Levy
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Justice Ginsburg

Themed answers each relate to Supreme Court Associate JUSTICE Ruth Bader GINSBURG:

  • 54A Subject of this puzzle, who once said “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you” : JUSTICE GINSBURG
  • 17A 2018 biopic about 54-Across : ON THE BASIS OF SEX
  • 22A Brooklyn neighborhood where 54-Across grew up : FLATBUSH
  • 34A Tongue-in-cheek nickname for 54-Across : THE NOTORIOUS RBG
  • 47A Law school where 54-Across finished at the top of the class : COLUMBIA

… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 5m 50s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Segment of the Constitution that starts “We the People” : PREAMBLE

The US Constitution comprises a preamble (famously beginning with “We the people …”), seven articles and twenty-seven amendments (to date).

9 YouTube postings : VIDEOS

YouTube is a video-sharing website that was launched in 2005 by three ex-PayPal employees. Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Yep, $1.65 billion, less than two years after it was founded …

16 ___ Marcos, longtime first lady of the Philippines : IMELDA

Many moons ago, I spent a couple of very happy years living in Manila in the Philippines. I had an apartment there, and residing in the apartment building next door was Imelda Marcos, along with all of her shoes I assume …

20 Early Beatle Sutcliffe : STU

Stu Sutcliffe was one of the original four members of The Silver Beatles (as The Beatles were known in their early days), along with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison. Sutcliffe apparently came up with the name “Beatles” along with John Lennon, as a homage to their hero Buddy Holly who was backed by the “Crickets”. By all reports, Sutcliffe wasn’t a very talented musician and was more interested in painting. He went with the group to Hamburg, more than once, but he eventually left the Beatles and went back to art school, actually studying for a while at the Hamburg College of Art. In 1962 in Hamburg, Sutcliffe collapsed with blinding headaches. He died in the ambulance on the way to hospital, his death attributed to cerebral paralysis.

21 Some hoppy drafts, for short : IPAS

India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

The foodstuff that we call “hops” are actually the female flowers of the hop plant. The main use of hops is to add flavor to beer. The town in which I live here in California used to be home to the largest hop farm in the whole world. Most of the harvested hops were exported all the way to the breweries of London, where they could fetch the best price.

28 Saves to discuss later : TABLES

These “tabling” and “shelving” idioms drive me crazy, because they are often misused. If a topic is shelved, it is set aside. If a topic is tabled, it is brought “off the shelf” and put “on the table” for discussion. I know that language evolves, but I think that it should at least make sense …

31 1952 Winter Olympics host : OSLO

The 1952 Winter Olympic Games took place in Oslo, Norway. One of the firsts at the 1952 games was the first use of a purpose-built athletes’ village. The 1952 Games also marked the return of Japan and Germany to the Olympic family after being excluded from the 1948 games following WWII.

33 Subatomic particle named for an Indian physicist : BOSON

Particle physics is beyond me, but I do know that bosons are subatomic particles. They can be elementary like photons or composite like mesons, which are composed of one quark and one antiquark. “Bosons” are named for the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose who developed Bose-Einstein statistics along with Albert Einstein.

34 Tongue-in-cheek nickname for 54-Across : THE NOTORIOUS RBG

The 2015 book “Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg” was co-written by Shana Knizhnik and Iris Carmon. Knizhnik had previously authored a “Notorious R.B.G” blog. The moniker “Notorious RBG” is reminiscent of the name of rap star the Notorious B.I.G.

41 Start of the Arabic alphabet : ALIF

“Alif” is the first letter in the Arabic Semitic alphabet, and is equivalent to the Hebrew “aleph”.

42 Birch relatives : ALDERS

Alder trees are deciduous (i.e. not evergreen), and the fruit of the tree is called a “catkin”. The tree carries both male and female catkins that look very similar to each other, but the male catkin is longer than the female. Alders are pollinated by wind usually, although bees can play a role.

Birch is a hardwood tree. The smooth bark of the birch has eye-like features, leading to the tree’s nickname of “the Watchful Tree”.

47 Law school where 54-Across finished at the top of the class : COLUMBIA

Columbia University is an Ivy League school in New York City. Columbia’s athletic teams are called the Lions, which is thought to be a reference to the lion on the English coat of arms. Prior to the American Revolution, Columbia was called King’s College as it was chartered by King George II in 1754.

49 Emmy-winning Ward : SELA

Actress Sela Ward turns up in crosswords a lot. Ward played Teddy Reed in the TV show “Sisters” in the nineties, and was in “Once and Again” from 1999-2002. I don’t know either show, but I do know Ward from the medical drama “House” in which she played the hospital’s lawyer and Greg House’s ex-partner. That was a fun role, I thought. More recently, Ward played a lead role on “CSI: NY” and was a very welcome and much-needed addition to the cast. And, Ward played Dr. Richard Kimble’s murdered wife in the 1993 film version of “The Fugitive”.

54 Subject of this puzzle, who once said “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you” : JUSTICE GINSBURG

Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg serves on the US Supreme Court. Justice Ginsburg was the second woman to join the Court, and was nominated by President Bill Clinton. She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999 and underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. During that time she did not miss one day on the bench. In 2009 Justice Ginsburg had surgery for pancreatic cancer, and was back to work 12 days later. She had left-lung lobectomy to remove cancerous nodules in 2018, which forced Justice Ginsburg to miss oral argument in January 2019, for the first time since joining the court 25 years earlier. Much of Ginsburg’s life is recounted in the excellent 2018 movie “On the Basis of Sex”.

59 Air carrier based in Seoul : ASIANA

Asiana is the second-largest airline in South Korea, behind Korean Air. Asiana was founded in 1988, and as a result ended the monopoly that had been enjoyed by Korean Air.

60 Sweet liqueur : ANISETTE

Anisette is a French liqueur that is flavored with anise. Anisette is different from the popular drink called pastis as it is produced using a different process and anisette does not contain any licorice. The equivalent drink to anisette in Italy is called sambuca.

Down

1 Oktoberfest toast : PROSIT!

“Prosit” is a German toast meaning “may it benefit”.

Oktoberfest is a 16-day beer festival in Munich that actually starts in September. About six million people attend every year, making it the largest fair in the world. I’ve attended twice, and it really is a remarkable party …

5 Talking horse of old TV : MR ED

The sitcom “Mister Ed” first aired in 1961 and ran for almost five years. It was a very successful show (and even made it to Ireland!). Mister Ed, the talking horse, was a palomino that had the real name of Bamboo Harvester. Mister Ed’s “voice” was that of actor Allan “Rocky” Lane, a star of a lot of B-movie westerns from the forties and fifties. In the show, Mister Ed would only talk to the lead (human) character Wilbur, played by Alan Young, leading to some hilarious situations. Mister Ed had a stunt double and stand-in for the show, another horse called Pumpkin. Pumpkin later made frequent appearances on the show “Green Acres”.

6 Israel’s Netanyahu, familiarly : BIBI

Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu became Prime Minister of Israel in 2009, when he became the first leader of the country who was born in the state of Israel. After graduating high school, Netanyahu served in the Israeli special forces and participated in several combat missions, getting wounded on multiple occasions. After leaving the army in 1972, Netanyahu studied at MIT in the US, earning a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s degree in business.

8 Many “Men in Black” characters, informally : ETS

“Men in black” (MIB) are said to have appeared in the past whenever there have been reports of UFO sightings. Supposedly, these men are government agents whose job it is to suppress reports of alien landings. The conspiracy theorists got their day in the movies with the release of a pretty good sci-fi comedy in 1997 called “Men in Black”, starring Will Smith (as Agent J) and Tommy Lee Jones (as Agent K).

12 Golfer nicknamed “The Big Easy” : ELS

Ernie Els is a South African golfer. Els is a big guy but he has an easy fluid golf swing that has earned him the nickname “The Big Easy”. He is a former World No. 1 and has won four majors: the US Open (1994 & 1997) and the British Open (2002 & 2012).

13 A famous one by Percy Bysshe Shelley begins “Hail to thee, blithe spirit!” : ODE

“To a Skylark” is an 1820 poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The opening line “Hail to thee, blithe Spirit” is the inspiration used by Noël Coward for the title of his famous comic play called “Blithe Spirit”.

14 “Wailing” instrument : SAX

The saxophone was invented by Belgian musician Adolphe Sax, hence the name. Sax developed lip cancer at one point in his life, and one has to wonder if his affliction was related to his saxophone playing (I am sure not!). I had the privilege of visiting Sax’s grave in the Cemetery of Montmartre in Paris a few years ago.

18 Key : ISLE

A key (also “cay”) is a low offshore island, as in the Florida “Keys”. Our term in English comes from the Spanish “cayo” meaning “shoal, reef”.

22 ___ Keys : FLORIDA

The Florida Keys are a chain of low islands that stretch from the tip of the Florida peninsula, about 15 miles south of Miami. The westernmost inhabited island is Key West, and the westernmost uninhabited island is Dry Tortugas. Most of the inhabited islands are connected by US Highway 1, which traverses several impressive bridges.

24 Geographical inits. until 1991 : USSR

The former Soviet Union (officially “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”, i.e. USSR) was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the tsar. Geographically, the new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent to the old Russian Empire, and comprised fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs).

26 ___ Kong : HONG

Hong Kong became part of the British Empire after the First Opium War in 1842. In 1898, Britain signed a 99-year lease to retain control of Hong Kong. That control ended 99 years later in 1997 with a formal transfer of sovereignty back to China.

32 Reason for an apology, maybe : SNAFU

“SNAFU” is an acronym standing for “situation normal: all fouled up” (well, that’s the polite version!). As one might perhaps imagine, the term developed in the US Army, during WWII.

34 Gillette brand name : TRAC

Gillette introduced the Trac II in 1971. The Trac II was the world’s first twin-blade razor.

35 Biggest city on the island of Hawaii : HILO

Hilo is the largest settlement on the big island of Hawaii, and has a population of over 43,000 (that’s not very many!). I love the Big Island …

42 Sting that was the inspiration for the 2013 film “American Hustle” : ABSCAM

The FBI set up a sting operation in 1978 that eventually targeted corruption within Congress. Central to the “scam” was a front company called “Abdul Enterprises, Ltd”, which company name led to the whole operation being nicknamed “Abscam”. At the end of the day, one senator and five House members were convicted of bribery and conspiracy. Karim Abdul Rahman was the fictional sheik that gave “his” name to the front company.

“American Hustle” is a 2013 movie with a plotline that is loosely based on the famous FBI ABSCAM sting of the late seventies and early eighties. The film stars Christian Bale and Amy Adams as two con artists who are forced to work with an FBI agent played by Bradley Cooper.

46 River to the Bay of Bengal : GANGES

The River Ganges rises in the western Himalaya and flows through the northeast of India before crossing into Bangladesh where it enters the Bay of Bengal. The Ganges is worshipped by Hindus as the goddess Ganga, and is the most sacred of all rivers in Hinduism.

The Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean is the largest bay in the world.

51 ___ colada : PINA

“Piña colada” is a Spanish term that translates into “strained pineapple”. The piña colada cocktail was introduced in the Caribe Hilton San Juan in 1954, and since 1978 it has been the official beverage of Puerto Rico. Yum …

54 Holder of jelly beans in a guessing contest : JAR

Jelly beans are thought to have originated in Boston, and it is documented that they were sent from there by families and friends of soldiers fighting in the Civil War.

56 Singer with the 2016 #1 hit “Cheap Thrills” : SIA

“Sia” is the stage name of Australian singer Sia Furler from Adelaide. Sia is a cousin of Australian Christian Rock musician Peter Furler.

58 Group of whales : GAM

A group of whales can be called a gam, as well as a pod.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Segment of the Constitution that starts “We the People” : PREAMBLE
9 YouTube postings : VIDEOS
15 Goes wild : RUNS RIOT
16 ___ Marcos, longtime first lady of the Philippines : IMELDA
17 2018 biopic about 54-Across : ON THE BASIS OF SEX
19 “Yep, I took care of it!” : SURE DID!
20 Early Beatle Sutcliffe : STU
21 Some hoppy drafts, for short : IPAS
22 Brooklyn neighborhood where 54-Across grew up : FLATBUSH
27 About 5 mL : TSP
28 Saves to discuss later : TABLES
31 1952 Winter Olympics host : OSLO
32 Prefix with economics : SOCIO-
33 Subatomic particle named for an Indian physicist : BOSON
34 Tongue-in-cheek nickname for 54-Across : THE NOTORIOUS RBG
39 Archcompetitor : RIVAL
40 Terse turndown to an invitation : I CAN’T!
41 Start of the Arabic alphabet : ALIF
42 Birch relatives : ALDERS
44 Newspaper, disparagingly : RAG
47 Law school where 54-Across finished at the top of the class : COLUMBIA
49 Emmy-winning Ward : SELA
50 Inquire : ASK
51 Burst : POP OPEN
54 Subject of this puzzle, who once said “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you” : JUSTICE GINSBURG
59 Air carrier based in Seoul : ASIANA
60 Sweet liqueur : ANISETTE
61 What to do “and weep,” in an expression : READ ‘EM
62 King or queen : MATTRESS

Down

1 Oktoberfest toast : PROSIT!
2 Prologues : RUN-UPS
3 Snare : ENTRAP
4 Furnace residue : ASHES
5 Talking horse of old TV : MR ED
6 Israel’s Netanyahu, familiarly : BIBI
7 Whites or darks for laundry, say : LOAD
8 Many “Men in Black” characters, informally : ETS
9 Scenic views : VISTAS
10 “You all can keep playing” : I’M OUT
11 Assuredly, in slang : DEF
12 Golfer nicknamed “The Big Easy” : ELS
13 A famous one by Percy Bysshe Shelley begins “Hail to thee, blithe spirit!” : ODE
14 “Wailing” instrument : SAX
18 Key : ISLE
22 ___ Keys : FLORIDA
23 Help by speaking well of : BOOST
24 Geographical inits. until 1991 : USSR
25 Pig : SLOB
26 ___ Kong : HONG
28 Level or lathe : TOOL
29 Not sit idly by : ACT
30 Bit of dust jacket info : BIO
32 Reason for an apology, maybe : SNAFU
33 Places dogs go at cookouts : BUNS
34 Gillette brand name : TRAC
35 Biggest city on the island of Hawaii : HILO
36 Satanic : EVIL
37 Word repeated in “___ or no ___?” : ICE
38 It makes stroke after stroke : OAR
42 Sting that was the inspiration for the 2013 film “American Hustle” : ABSCAM
43 What a thumbs-up icon might represent : LIKE
44 Standing : REPUTE
45 Warnings : ALERTS
46 River to the Bay of Bengal : GANGES
48 Northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail : MAINE
49 Clearheaded : SOBER
51 ___ colada : PINA
52 Words after get or sleep : … ON IT
53 [Over here!] : [PSST!]
54 Holder of jelly beans in a guessing contest : JAR
55 Take advantage of : USE
56 Singer with the 2016 #1 hit “Cheap Thrills” : SIA
57 Bit : TAD
58 Group of whales : GAM

12 thoughts on “0630-20 NY Times Crossword 30 Jun 20, Tuesday”

  1. 10:24 Fairly smooth. Originally had RUNSAMOK for 15A but then MRED (5D) spoke to me and I got it fixed – the answer, – NOT Mr. Ed 🙂

  2. 12:29 no errors. Top half flew by, bottom half, not so much. MESON before BOSON. After that it sped up again. Nice celebration of RBG.

  3. 11:47. I had PROST which didn’t fit PROSIT so I was confused there. PROST is one of about 3 words I know in German. Also put KING Kong before HONG Kong. Otherwise a smooth solve.

    Every particle in nature whether elementary or not is either a BOSON or a fermion (Named after another crossword favorite, Enrico Fermi). Two or more BOSONs are allowed to do the exact same thing – e.g. photons in a laser are all lockstep doing the same thing in the same direction. You can’t make a laser out of fermions. Fermions (of the same type) are forbidden from doing the exact same thing. An example of a fermion is an electron. Two electrons are forbidden to orbit an atom the exact same way. That is the underlying reason for the Pauli exclusion principle we all learn in chemistry class. In fact, if electrons were BOSONs, chemistry as we know it would be unrecognizable.

    I digress. I must be ready for a long weekend.

    Best –

  4. 9:46, no errors. After filling the bottom right corner, and having GINSBURG; tried to fit Ruth Bader in the seven empty boxes; lost time erasing and entering JUSTICE instead. That woman must be tough as leather.

  5. No errors. Much respect for any person who spends their life fighting for a noble cause!
    Intelligent, petite, fierce!

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