1030-20 NY Times Crossword 30 Oct 20, Friday

Bill’s time: 10m 22s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Jesus, Mary or Joseph : NAZARENE

Nazareth is a large city in northern Israel. The New Testament describes Nazareth as the childhood home of Jesus.

9 Some Eastern dignitaries : RAJAHS

“Raja” (also “rajah”) is a word derived from Sanskrit that is used particularly in India for a monarch or princely ruler. The female form is “rani” (also “ranee”) and is used for a raja’s wife.

16 Something worn for protection : AMULET

Amulets are items worn to ward off disease or to protect against harmful magic spells.

18 “Philosophy in the Bedroom” writer, 1795 : DE SADE

The Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat with a reputation for a libertine lifestyle. De Sade was also a writer, well known for his works of erotica. He fell foul of the law for some of his more extreme practices and for blaspheming the Catholic church. On and off, de Sade spent 32 years of his life in prison and in insane asylums.

19 “There’s the ___” : RUB

A rub is a difficulty or obstruction. The term comes from the game of lawn bowls in which a rub is a fault in the bowling surface. The most famous use of “rub” is in the “To be or not to be” soliloquy from William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.

To die — to sleep.
To sleep — perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub!

20 Way to get around in Chicago : EL TRAIN

Elevated railroad (El)

22 Schedule abbr. : TBA

Something not yet on the schedule (“sked” or “sched.”) is to be advised/announced (TBA).

25 Scientist who was friends with Mark Twain : TESLA

Nikola Tesla was born in Serbia, but later moved to the US. Tesla’s work on mechanical and electrical engineering was crucial to the development of alternating current technology, the same technology that is used by equipment at the backbone of modern power generation and distribution systems.

“Samuel Langhorne Clemens” was the real name of the author Mark Twain. Twain wasn’t the only pen name used by Clemens. Early in his career he signed some sketches as “Josh”, and signed some humorous letters that he wrote under the name “Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass”. The name of Mark Twain came from the days when Clemens was working on riverboats on the Mississippi. A riverboatman would call out “by the mark twain” when measuring the depth of water. This meant that on the sounding line, according to the “mark” on the line, the depth was two (“twain”) fathoms, and so it was safe for the riverboat to proceed.

29 Floats are often made with them : ROOT BEERS

Root beer is a beverage that is very North American, and is rarely found elsewhere in the world. Root beer originated in the 1700s and was made from the root of the sassafras plant. The traditional root beer was a beverage with a very low alcohol content, and today there are many versions that contain no alcohol at all. The sassafras root was used as the primary flavor ingredient right up until 1960, when the FDA banned its use as tests determined that it was a carcinogen.

31 ___ Games, second-largest multisport event after the Olympics : ASIAN

Today’s Asian Games are run by the Olympic Council of Asia and are held every four years. They are the second largest, multi-sport event in the world after the Olympics. The first Asian Games were held in 1951 in Delhi, India. The first Asian Games to be held in the Middle East were in 1974 in Tehran, Iran.

33 Welcome offering : 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.

45 Midwest city in the title of a 1942 Glenn Miller #1 hit : KALAMAZOO

“(I’ve Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo” is a song made famous by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H
I got a gal in Kalamazoo
Don’t want to boast but I know she’s the toast of Kalamazoo
(Zoo, zoo, zoo, zoo, zoo)

46 Margaret ___, artist known for painting subjects with big eyes : KEANE

“Big Eyes” is a 2014 movie about the artist Margaret Keane (played by Amy Adams). Margaret’s husband Walter Keane (played by Christoph Waltz) fraudulently claimed that it was him who actually created the paintings. The title “Big Eyes” refers to the exaggerated size of the eyes of the subjects in Keane’s paintings. The movie’s title song was co-written and performed by Lana Del Rey.

48 Spoils : BOOTY

“Booty”, meaning “plunder, profit”, is derived from the Old French word “butin” that has the same meaning.

51 Open-house org. : PTA

Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)

52 Acts like a quidnunc : MEDDLES

A quidnunc is a nosy person. The term “quidnunc” comes from the Latin “quid nunc?” which means “what now?”

55 Support above a doorway : LINTEL

A lintel is a structural beam that spans an opening in a wall, usually a door or a window.

61 Writer who served as a senator in Chile : NERUDA

“Pablo Neruda” was the pen name, and eventually the legal name, used by Chilean writer Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Basoalto chose the name as an homage to Czech poet Jan Neruda.

Down

1 Rhyming descriptor for Obama : NO-DRAMA

Barack Obama earned the nickname “No Drama Obama” during the 2007-2008 presidential campaign, as his progress towards the White Office was viewed by many as relatively cautious and error-free.

3 River through Victoria Falls : ZAMBEZI

The Zambezi is the largest African river flowing into the Indian Ocean, and the fourth-longest river on the continent. The most famous spot along the Zambezi is Victoria Falls.

Victoria Falls is located on the Zambezi River, right on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The falls were named by Scottish explorer David Livingstone in honor of Queen Victoria of Britain. Victoria Falls isn’t the highest waterfall in the world, nor is it the widest. However, the total “area” of the sheet of falling water is the largest in the world, so it is usually recognized as the largest waterfall on the planet.

4 Krieger of the U.S. women’s soccer team : ALI

Ali Krieger was a member of the 2015 Women’s World Cup-winning US soccer team. Krieger lived for five years in Germany, playing for FFC Frankfurt.

7 Shoots the breeze : NATTERS

To shoot the breeze is to participate in casual inconsequential conversation. The idiom “shoot the breeze” arose in the US in the early- to mid-20th century. The phrase probably evolved from the use of “breeze” as a slang term meaning “rumor”.

8 Liberal arts college in Boston : EMERSON

Emerson College, located in Boston’s Washington Street Theater District, offers degree programs focused on Arts and Communication. The school was founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as the Boston Conservatory of Elocution, Oratory and Dramatic Art.

11 Dip for a French dip : JUS

The French term “au jus” is usually translated as “with its own juice”.

12 Youth support group : ALATEEN

Al-Anon and Alateen are fellowships for relatives and friends of alcoholics. Alateen specifically supports teens who are affected by another’s drinking, whereas Al-Anon focuses on people of all ages.

13 Comedian Mitch who said “I haven’t slept for 10 days, because that would be too long” : HEDBERG

Mitch Hedberg was a stand-up comedian from Saint Paul, Minnesota. He made a lot of jokes about his drug use, and in 2003 he was arrested for possession of heroin. He was found dead in a hotel room in 2005, having overdosed on cocaine and heroin.

24 Plants whose name derives from the Greek for “dry” : AZALEAS

Azaleas are very toxic to most animals. If you go to Korea, you might come across “Tug Yonju”, which is azalea wine made from the plant’s blossoms. Azaleas are usually grown as shrubs, but are also seen as small trees, and often indoors.

26 Members of a pantheon : DEITIES

A pantheon is the set of all gods in a particular religion or mythology. The term comes from the Greek “pan” (all) “theon” (of gods). “Pantheon” is also the name given to a temple dedicated to all deities.

28 Two bells, nautically : ONE PM

On board a seagoing vessel, there is a system of watches that defines which specific compliment of the crew is on duty. Most of the watches last for four hours (the exception are the two dog watches that last for two hours each). During each watch, the ship’s bell is sounded every 30 minutes, starting with “one bell” thirty minutes into the watch, and finishing with eight bells that signals the end of the watch.

30 Allegro : BRISK

The tempo (plural “tempi”) of a piece of music is usually designated with an Italian word on the score. For example, “grave” is slow and solemn, “andante” is at a walking pace, “scherzo” is fast and light-hearted, and “allegro” is fast, quickly and bright.

37 ___ Smeal, three-term president of NOW : ELEANOR

The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded in 1966. The NOW bylaws include a Statement of Purpose:

NOW’s purpose is to take action through intersectional grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life.

38 Polo alternative : IZOD

Jack Izod was a tailor of some repute over in England, producing shirts for King George V as well as other members of the Royal Family. As Izod was about to retire, he was approached for the use of his name by an American clothing manufacturer based in New York. The brand Izod of London was introduced to America in 1938.

René Lacoste was a French tennis player who went into the clothing business, and came up with a more comfortable shirt that players could use. This became known as a “tennis shirt”. When it was adopted for use in the sport of polo, the shirts also became known as “polo shirts”. The “golf shirt” is basically the same thing.

39 “Bravo!” : GOOD JOB!

To express appreciation for a male performer at an operatic performance, traditionally one calls out “bravo!”. Appreciation for a female performer is shown by using “brava!”, and for more than one performer of either sex by using “bravi!”

44 Copies, in a way : XEROXES

A xerox is a copy made on a xerography machine. Xerography is a dry photocopying technique that was invented in 1938 by Chester Carlson, although he originally referred to the process as electrophotography. Joseph Wilson commercialized Carlson’s process some years later, coining the term “Xerography” using the Greek words for “dry” and “writing”. Wilson changed the name of his own photographic company to Xerox.

45 Competitor of Peterson’s and Princeton Review : KAPLAN

Kaplan Inc. was founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan, who started out tutoring students for the New York State Regents Exam in the basement of his parents’ home in Brooklyn. He opened up locations for tuition around the country, and in 1984 sold the company to the Washington Post. Revenue for Kaplan was over 2½ billion dollars in 2009.

52 Renaissance Faire quaff : MEAD

Mead is a lovely drink that’s made from fermented honey and water.

A Renaissance faire (Ren faire) is an outdoor public event in which many participants recreate historical settings by dressing in costume. Usually held in North America, many such fairs are set during the English Renaissance, and more particularly during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The definition of “Renaissance” is often stretched quite a bit, with fairs also set during the reign of Henry VIII, and maybe even during medieval times.

56 1989 one-man show : TRU

“Tru” was written by Jay Presson Allen and is a one-man play about Truman Capote that premiered in 1989. There is a classic anachronism in the piece. It is set in Capote’s New York City apartment at Christmas 1975. At one point the Capote character talks about suicide, saying that he has enough pills to stage his own Jonestown Massacre. The Jonestown Massacre didn’t happen until three years later, in 1978.

58 Devils’ advocate?: Abbr. : NHL

The New Jersey Devils are the professional ice hockey team based in Newark. The club was founded in 1974 in Kansas City, originally as the Mohawks, and then quickly renamed the Scouts. The franchise moved to Denver in 1976, becoming the Colorado Rockies. The move to Newark happened in 1982, when the team was renamed the New Jersey Devils.