1004-20 NY Times Crossword 4 Oct 20, Sunday

Bill’s time: 20m 38s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

7 L.G.B.T.-aligned advocacy group since 1987 : ACT UP

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)

12 Occasion to get all gussied up : HOT DATE

To gussy up is to dress showily. The term “gussy” was a slang term that was used to describe an overly-dressed person.

21 Newswoman Sawyer : DIANE

Diane Sawyer was the anchor of the news program “ABC World News” from 2009 until 2014. Sawyer started her career in the Nixon White House where she was hired by the Press Secretary at the time, Ron Ziegler. She worked with Nixon to help him write his memoirs after he left office and helped prepare the ex-president for his famous series of television interviews with David Frost in 1977. Sawyer was married to Mike Nichols, the noted film director, until his passing in 2014.

23 What the Old English called “Winterfylleth” : OCTOBER

October is the tenth month in our calendar but was the eighth month in the old Roman calendar, hence the prefix “octo-”. Back then there were only ten months in the year. “Ianuarius” (January) and “Februarius” were then added as the eleventh and twelfth months of the year. Soon after, the year was reset and January and February became the first and second months.

26 Home to Antilia, the world’s most valuable private residence (27 floors, $2.2 billion) : MUMBAI

Mumbai is the most populous city in India, and the second most populous city in the world (after Shanghai). The name of the city was changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995.

29 Kind of clef : ALTO

“Clef” is the French word for “key”. In music, a clef is used to indicate the pitch of the notes written on a stave. The bass clef is also known as the F-clef, the alto clef is the C-clef, and the treble clef is the G-clef.

30 To a produce vendor near closing time: “You’re …” : … OUT OF YOUR GOURD

A gourd is a plant in the same family as the cucumber. The hollow, dried out shell of the fruit is large and rounded, and used for a number of purposes. Gourds make fine bottles and bowls, and resonating chambers as part of musical instruments … and drums.

Slang terms for “head” are “bean”, “coconut”, “gourd”, “noodle” and “noggin”.

34 The “B” in GB : BYTES

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, and so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and gigabyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

35 Fisherman’s ___ (San Francisco attraction) : WHARF

Fisherman’s Wharf is the name given to what is now a tourist mecca at the northern limits of San Francisco, sitting right on San Francisco Bay. Historically, it is where the city’s fishing fleet was moored and so the neighborhood became associated with the fishing community that mainly comprised Italian immigrants.

36 Utter nonsense : BLARNEY

Blarney is a town in County Cork in the south of Ireland. Blarney is home to Blarney Castle, and inside the castle is the legendary Blarney Stone. “Kissing the Blarney Stone” is a ritual engaged in by many, many tourists (indeed, I’ve done it myself!), but it’s not a simple process. The stone is embedded in the wall of the castle, and in order to kiss it you have to sit on the edge of the parapet and lean way backwards so that your head is some two feet below your body. There is a staff member there to help you and make sure you don’t fall. The Blarney Stone has been labelled as the world’s most unhygienic tourist attraction! But once you’ve kissed it, supposedly you are endowed with the “gift of the gab”, the ability to talk eloquently and perhaps deceptively without offending. The term “blarney” has come to mean flattering and deceptive talk.

40 Wong of stand-up comedy : ALI

Ali Wong is a stand-up comedian from San Francisco who is a protégé of Chris Rock. She made two very successful Netflix stand-up specials “Baby Cobra” and “Hard Knock Wife”. She also worked as a writer for the hit sitcom “Fresh Off the Boat”.

42 Laughing matter? : GAS

“Laughing gas” is a common name for nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide is used as an anesthetic, particularly by dentists. It is also used in motor racing to increase the power output of engines. Laughing gas was first synthesized by the English chemist Joseph Priestley, but it was Humphry Davy who discovered its potential as an anesthetic. Once it was realized that the gas could give the patient a fit of the giggles, “laughing gas parties” became common among those who could afford them.

47 To a bad free throw shooter: “You’re …” : … MISSING THE POINT

That would be basketball.

60 The dove’s-foot crane’s-bill, for instance : FLOWER

Geraniums are often referred to colloquially as cranesbills because the fruit capsule of some geranium species resemble the bill of a crane. When ripe, the distinctive shape of the fruit capsule helps it spring open, and in so doing casts the seeds some distance.

62 Big seller of animal supplies : PETCO

Petco is a chain of retail stores that sells live animals and pet supplies. The Petco logo includes the two company mascots, Red Ruff the dog and Blue Mews the cat.

68 Architect Frank : GEHRY

Frank Gehry is an architect from Toronto who is based in Los Angeles. Listed among Gehry’s famous creations are the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao in Spain, The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and his own private residence in Santa Monica, California. He is currently working on the upcoming Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial that will be placed in Washington, D.C. I hope to see that one day …

69 Sci-fi classic featuring the Three Laws : I, ROBOT

Science fiction author Isaac Asimov wrote a marvelous collection of short stories titled “I, Robot” that were first published together in 1950. In the stories, he makes repeated reference to the Three Laws of Robotics, which he introduced in the story “Runaround”, first published in 1942. The three laws are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

71 Taylor Swift’s first #1 country hit, 2007 : OUR SONG

Singer Taylor Swift had one of her first gigs at the US Open tennis tournament when she was in her early teens. There she sang the national anthem and received a lot of favorable attention for the performance.

72 Things stuck in clogs : TOES

Clogs are shoes made from wood, at least in part. The clog originated as a protective item of footwear for use by farm, factory and mine workers.

73 Itching to eat and irritable about it, in slang : HANGRY

“Hangry” is an informal term meaning “irritable because of hunger”. It is a portmanteau of “hungry” and “angry”.

75 [Leave it] : [STET]

“Stet” is a Latin word meaning “let it stand”. In editorial work, the typesetter is instructed to disregard any change previously marked by writing the word “stet” and then underscoring that change with a line of dots or dashes.

94 Fishing basket : CREEL

A creel is a basket used for catching sea creatures (lobsters, for example). Creel is also the name given to the small wicker basket used to hold fish that have been caught by an angler. “Creel” is originally a Scottish word.

95 Apt anagram of MY CAR : CAMRY

The Toyota Camry takes its name from the Japanese word for “crown”. Toyota management likes the idea of naming their cars after the word “crown”, as they did with the Toyota Crown, followed by the Toyota Corona (Latin for crown) and the Toyota Corolla (Latin for small crown).

100 Native speakers of Chiwere : OTOE

Chiwere is a Siouan language spoken by the Otoe people, as well as by the Missouria and Iowa.

111 Kings and queens, maybe : TWO PAIR

That would be poker, perhaps.

113 Aspen or Alta : SKI AREA

Aspen, Colorado used to be known as Ute City, with the name change taking place in 1880. Like many communities in the area, Aspen was a mining town, and in 1891 and 1892 it was at the center of the highest production of silver in the US. Nowadays, it’s all about skiing and movie stars.

Alta ski resort actually lies within the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Area. The first ski lift in the resort was opened way back in 1939. Today, Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the country that prohibits snowboarding (along with Deer Valley, Utah and Mad River Glen, Vermont. The ski resort of Snowbird, located next to Alta, has been in operation since 1971.

114 It’s against the rule : ANARCHY

Our word “anarchy”, used to describe a society without a publicly enforced government, comes from the Greek “an-” (without) and “arkhos” (leader).

115 Move like a peacock : STRUT

The male peafowl is known as a peacock, and the female a peahen. The peafowl’s young are sometimes called peachicks.

116 Big name in nonprofit journalism : AP NEWS

The Associated Press (AP) is a news agency based in New York City. AP is a non-profit cooperative that was set up by five New York newspapers in 1846 to share the cost of transmitting news. Nowadays, AP recoups most of its cost by selling news stories and related materials to newspapers all around the world, mostly outside of the US.

Down

1 Adele’s “Million Years ___” : AGO

“Adele” is the stage name of English singer Adele Adkins. Adele’s debut album is “19”, named after the age she was during the album’s production. Her second album was even more successful than the first. Called “21”, the second album was released three years after the first, when Adele was three years older. Her third studio album “25”, released in 2015, broke the first-week sales records in both the UK and the US.

3 Spring hrs. in Colorado Springs : MDT

Mountain Daylight Time (MDT)

6 “Never interrupt your ___ when he’s making a mistake” (old aphorism) : ENEMY

An aphorism is a short and pithy statement that embodies a general truth or insightful observation. Some great examples are:

• Life is a journey, not a destination (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
• The average person thinks he isn’t (Larry Lorenzoni)
• To err is human, to forgive divine (Alexander Pope)
• Reality is an illusion, albeit a very persistent one (Albert Einstein)
• Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely (Lord Acton)

8 Valerie Plame’s org. in 2003’s Plame affair : CIA

Journalist Robert Novak broke a story in 2003 naming Valerie Plame Wilson, wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, as a covert CIA agent. Plame worked at a clothing store in Washington D.C. after graduating college, before being accepted into the CIA officer training class of 1985/86. She was to work for the CIA for over twenty years before being “outed”.

10 Sui generis : UNIQUE

“Sui generis” is a Latin expression meaning “of its own kind”. The term can be used in a number of fields, and in philosophy it refers to an idea which cannot be included in a wider concept, and idea of its own kind.

11 Destitution : PENURY

Penury is extreme poverty or need, from the Latin “penuria” meaning “want”.

12 Code edited by a webmaster : HTML

The initialism “HTML” stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is the language used to write most Internet web pages (including this one).

16 Warranting an “X,” say : ADULT

When the Motion Picture Association film rating system was introduced in 1968, the most restrictive class was an X-rating. Persons under 16 were not admitted to such films. A few years later, the guidelines were changed for all ratings, and no one under the age of 17 was admitted to films rated X. Over time, the term “X-rating” became associated with pornographic films, and so the under-17 restriction was relabeled in 1990 to “NC-17”.

17 Something to do with your buds? : TASTE

There are 2,000 to 8,000 taste buds on the human tongue, and together they detect five different tastes: salty, sour, bitter, sweet and umami. Taste buds have a short lifetime, and are replaced about every ten days.

20 Physician who co-founded A.A., familiarly : DR BOB

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. As the organization grew, the guiding principles established by the founders were formatted into a 12-step program that was in place by the forties.

25 Traipse (about) : GAD

To gad about is to move around with little purpose. The word “gad” comes from the Middle English “gadden” meaning “to hurry”.

27 How some like their café : AU LAIT

“Café au lait” (coffee with milk) is usually strong drip coffee to which one adds steamed milk. Well, that’s the way we tend to make it here in the US.

30 Creatures that can have asymmetrical ears, which aid in hunting : OWLS

Much of an owl’s diet consists of small mammals. As a result, humans have used owls for centuries to control rodent populations, usually by placing a nest box for owls on a property. Despite the fact that owls and humans live together in relative harmony, owls have been known to attack humans from time to time. Celebrated English bird photographer Eric Hosking lost an eye when attacked by a tawny owl that he was trying to photograph. Hosking wrote a 1970 autobiography with the wry title “An Eye for a Bird”.

32 Author Janowitz of literature’s “brat pack” : TAMA

Tama Janowitz is an American writer. Janowitz was born in San Francisco but has lived much of her life in New York City. In New York she hung around with the likes of Andy Warhol and became well known in literary circles. Her most famous work is a collection of short stories called “Slaves of New York”, which was made into a film of the same name in 1989.

33 Pinot ___ : GRIS

The Pinot gris grape is used to make white wine called Pinot gris, which is also known as Pinot grigio. DNA analysis has shown that the Pinot gris grape mutated from the Pinot noir variety.

38 Book before Amos : JOEL

Joel was one of the minor prophets, and the author of the Book of Joel in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles.

42 Italian painter known for his frescoes : GIOTTO

Giotto di Bondone was an artist and painter from Florence usually known simply as “Giotto” who was active in the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. Giotti’s most famous work is a fresco cycle depicting the life of the Virgin Mary and Christ that was completed in 1305 and that can still be seen in its original location in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.

A fresco is a painting created on a moist plaster, usually on a wall or ceiling. The plaster is “freshly” laid when the image is created, and “fresco” is the Italian for “fresh”.

43 Pain relief brand : ANACIN

Anacin is a brand of pain reliever that comprises aspirin and caffeine as active ingredients.

47 One of two on the Titanic : MAST

The RMS Titanic set off on her tragic maiden voyage in 1912, sailing from Southampton, England bound for New York City. Regulations only required that the ship have lifeboat capacity for 1,178 people, even though a full complement of passengers and crew was 3,547. When the order was given to abandon ship, the captain adhered to the traditional protocol of “women and children first”. As a result, only 20% of male passengers survived the disaster, compared to 75% of the female passengers. Perhaps more telling is that 61% of those in first class survived, and only 25% of those in third class. The crew fared even worse though, with only 24% making it.

50 Word stylized with extra R’s on some cereal boxes : GREAT

Tony the Tiger has been the mascot of Frosted Flakes cereal since the product’s introduction in 1951. As Tony would say, “They’re Gr-r-reat!” Well, I thought they were when I was a lot younger …

51 Some froyo bar toppings : OREOS

Frozen yogurt (“froyo” or “fro-yo”)

53 ___ polloi : HOI

“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.

61 What might be “love” or “lesbian” in a TV show title : “L” WORD

“The L Word” is a Showtime drama series. The show deals with lesbian, bisexual and transgender people living in West Hollywood. “The L word” reference is to “lesbian”.

64 El ___ (weather phenomena) : NINOS

When the surface temperature of much of the Pacific Ocean rises more than half a degree centigrade, then there is said to be an El Niño episode. That small temperature change in the Pacific has been associated with climatic changes that can stretch right across the globe. El Niño is Spanish for “the boy” and is a reference to the Christ child. The phenomenon was given this particular Spanish name because the warming is usually noticed near South America and around Christmas-time.

67 Third of seven columns: Abbr. : TUE

The days of the week are named for celestial bodies and gods

• Sunday — Sun’s Day
• Monday — Moon’s Day
• Tuesday — Tiu’s day
• Wednesday — Woden’s day
• Thursday — Thor’s day
• Friday — Freya’s day
• Saturday — Saturn’s day

73 Earliest-known Chinese dynasty (dating back to 2000 B.C.) : HSIA

The Xia (also “Hsia”) Dynasty was the first Chinese Dynasty, lasting from about 2070 to 1600 BCE.

75 Villain in 1998’s “Mulan” : SHAN YU

“Mulan” is a 1998 animated feature film made by Walt Disney studios. The film is based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, a woman who takes the place of her father in the army and serves with distinction for twelve years without reward. Disney’s lead character was given the name Fa Mulan. Donny Osmond provided the singing voice for one of the lead characters, after which his sons remarked that he had finally made it in show business as he was in a Disney film.

77 With adroitness : ABLY

The French for “to the right” is “à droit”, from which we get our word “adroit”. The original meaning of “adroit” was “rightly, properly”, but it has come to mean dexterous and skillful. Someone described as “maladroit” is unskilled and awkward.

78 División de la casa : SALA

In Spanish, a “sala” (room) is a “división” (division) of a “casa” (house).

82 Cold treat : ICEE

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

84 App with a Reservations feature : YELP

yelp.com is a website that provides a local business directory and reviews of services. The site is sort of like Yellow Pages on steroids, and the term “yelp” is derived from “yel-low p-ages”.

89 Newspaper articles and mentions on social media, in brief : FREE PR

Public relations (PR)

93 Sandwiches on pita bread : GYROS

A gyro is a traditional Greek dish of meat roasted on a tall vertical spit that is sliced from the spit as required. Gyros are usually served inside a lightly grilled piece of pita bread, along with tomato, onion and tzatziki (a yogurt and cucumber sauce).

95 ___ Brava, Spain : COSTA

The Costa Brava is a section of coast in northeastern Catalonia, Spain stretching from north of Barcelona to the border with France. “Costa Brava” means “rugged coast” and was a term coined in a local newspaper article in 1908.

96 Georgia’s capital, informally : A-TOWN

The city of Atlanta, Georgia (A-Town) had its beginnings in the late 1830s when the location was chosen as the terminus for a new railroad to be built connecting Georgia with the Midwestern United States. The city’s name was chosen by the Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, apparently after the middle name of the daughter of Governor Wilson Lumpkin: “Atalanta”.

97 Jason who played Khal Drogo on “Game of Thrones” : MOMOA

Jason Momoa is a model and actor who is perhaps best known for playing superhero Aquaman in several DC Comics films. He also played warrior leader Khal Drogo in the HBO TV series “Game of Thrones”. In 2017, Momoa married actress Lisa Bonet, who played Denise Huxtable on “The Cosby Show”.

98 The Reds, on scoreboards : CIN

The Red Scare (i.e. anti-communist sentiment) following WWII had such an effect on the populace that it even caused the Cincinnati baseball team to change its name from the Reds. The team was called the Cincinnati Redlegs from 1953-1958, as the management was fearful of losing money due to public distrust of any association with “Reds”.

99 2020 U.S. Open tennis champ Naomi : OSAKA

Naomi Osaka is a Japanese-born tennis professional who became the first Asian player to be ranked number-one in singles.

101 ___ Tzu (dog breed) : SHIH

The Shih Tzu is one of the oldest breeds of dog, and a breed that originated in China. Shih Tzus have long hairy coats but they don’t shed.

105 Middle of a certain three-in-a-row : TAC

When I was growing up in Ireland we played “noughts and crosses” … our name for the game tic-tac-toe.

106 Lone Star State sch. : SMU

Southern Methodist University (SMU) is located in University Park, Texas (part of Dallas), and was founded in 1911. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Mustangs. Also, SMU is home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

The single star on the state flag of Texas is a reminder of the “lone star” on the 1836 National Standard of Texas. The single white star on a blue background symbolizes Texas as an independent republic and its struggle for independence from Mexico.

110 ___ in kangaroo : K AS

The word “kangaroo” comes from the Australian Aborigine term for the animal. There’s an oft-quoted story that the explorer James Cook (later Captain Cook) asked a local native what was the name of this remarkable-looking animal, and the native responded with “Kangaroo”. The story is that the native was actually saying “I don’t understand you”, but as cute as that tale is, it’s just an urban myth.