0306-21 NY Times Crossword 6 Mar 21, Saturday

Bill’s time: 15m 34s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Author of “The Witches” and “The Twits” : DAHL

Roald Dahl’s name is Norwegian. Dahl’s parents were from Norway, although Dahl himself was Welsh. Dahl became one of the most successful authors of the twentieth century. Two of his most famous titles are “James and the Giant Peach” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.

9 Energy sources, of a sort : CARBS

Only relatively small amounts of carbohydrate can be stored by the human body, but those stores are important. The actual storage molecule is a starch-like polysaccharide called glycogen, which is found mainly in the liver and muscles. Glycogen is a quick source of energy when required by the body. Most of the body’s energy is stored in the form of fat, a more compact substance that is mobilized less rapidly. Endurance athletes often eat meals high in carbohydrates (carbo-loading) a few hours before an event, so that their body’s glycogen is at optimum levels.

18 Event whose organizers are concerned with brand recognition? : RODEO

“Rodeo” is a Spanish word that is usually translated into English as “round up”.

20 “Live” co-host beginning in 2001 : RIPA

When Kelly Ripa secured the co-host spot on morning television with Regis Philbin, she was still acting in “All My Children” in a role she had been playing for over ten years. After a year of holding down two jobs, she eventually gave up the acting gig. Ripa has acted as spokeswoman for several brands over the years, including Electrolux and Rykä.

25 Steals, slangily : GLOMS

“Glom” is a slang term meaning “steal”, although it can also be used to mean “latch onto” when used as “glom onto”. The term probably comes from the Scots word “glam” meaning “to snatch at”.

29 Symbol of San Francisco : CABLE CAR

The Cable Car Museum in San Francisco is a little special in that it is housed in the same complex as the city’s cable car power house. While touring the museum, visitors can look out over the power house and see the huge haulage cables heading out to the streets to pull the cars up all of those steep hills.

37 British pop star who sang 2012’s “R.I.P.” : RITA ORA

Rita Ora is a British singer who was born Rita Sahatçiu in Pristina, Yugoslavia to Albanian parents. The family name “Sahatçiu” comes from a Turkish word meaning “watchmaker”. Rita’s parents changed their name to make it easier to pronounce. So, the family name morphed from “watchmaker” to “time”, which is “ora” in Albanian.

38 A.F.C. South squad : THE COLTS

The Indianapolis Colts professional football team has been in Indiana since 1984. The team traces its roots back to the Dayton Triangles, one of the founding members of the NFL created in 1913. The Dayton Triangles relocated and became the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1930, and then the Brooklyn Tigers in 1944. The team merged with the Boston Yanks in 1945, and then played in Boston. The Yanks were moved to New York in 1949, and then to Dallas in 1952 as the Dallas Texans. The Texan franchise moved to Baltimore in 1953, forming the Colts. The Colts made their last move in 1984, to Indianapolis. Whew!

48 Faces of the internet? : EMOJIS

An emoji is a character found on many cell phones that is much like an emoticon, but is more elaborate.

49 Organic fuel : PEAT

When dead plant matter accumulates in marshy areas, it may not fully decay due to a lack of oxygen or acidic conditions. We are familiar with this in Ireland, because this decaying matter can form peat, and we have lots and lots of peat bogs around the country.

59 What “M” and “F” are both short for : DAYS

The sequence MTWTF (Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri) might appear on a calendar (cal.).

60 Harper of “No Country for Old Men” : TESS

American novelist Cormac McCarthy published the novel “No Country for Old Men” in 2005, and saw it adapted into a very successful film of the same name released in 2007. The title comes from the opening line of the William Butler Yeats poem “Sailing to Byzantium”, a poem that we Irish school kids all had to read and learn to recite …

Down

1 “Star Trek” character played by 12-Down : DATA
(12D Actor Spiner : BRENT)

Actor Brent Spiner plays the android named Lieutenant Commander Data on television’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. Spiner also played the eccentric Dr. Brackish Okun in the 1996 movie “Independence Day”.

6 A.D.A.-compliant, in a way : RAMPED

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)

9 First supermodel to produce her own posters and calendars : CAROL ALT

Carol Alt is a model from Queens, New York. Alt’s big break came when she was featured on the cover of the 1982 “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue”.

10 Page-previewing program : ADOBE READER

Adobe Acrobat is the software used to create .pdf files. Most of us are more familiar with the associated application called Adobe Reader, because that’s what we use to read those .pdf files.

11 “The Age of Bronze” artist : RODIN

Auguste Rodin was a French sculptor who was known for realistic representations of the human form. Two of Rodin’s most famous works started out as details from a larger work called “The Gates of Hell”. One of these details is “The Thinker”, and the other “The Kiss”.

13 Busses near Paddington Station? : SNOGS

“Snogging” is British slang of unknown origin that dates back to the end of WWII. The term is used for “kissing and cuddling”, what we call “making out” over here in the US.

To buss is to kiss.

London Paddington is a major railway station in the British capital. Among the station’s claim to fame is that it is the terminus for the express trains from Heathrow airport. Also, the title character in the “Paddington Bear” stories was named for the station, as he was found there by the Brown family.

15 Certain school clique : NERDS

A clique is a small, exclusive group of people. The term “clique” comes to us from France, where it has the same meaning. In French, it somehow evolved in meaning from the original “clique” meaning a sharp noise, or as we would say today, “click”.

24 Bolshevik’s foe : TSAR

The last ruler of Imperial Russia was Tsar Nicholas II (of the House of Romanov). Famously, the Tsar and his family were murdered in 1918 in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg, Russia by members of the Bolshevik secret police. The Tsar’s youngest daughter was 16-year-old Anastasia and rumors of her escape have persisted for years. The rumors grew with the help of numerous women who claimed to be Anastasia. In 2009, DNA testing finally proved that the remains of all of the Tsar’s immediate family, including Anastasia, have been found and identified.

At the second party congress of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903, a split developed. The faction with the most support was led by Vladimir Lenin. As they were in the majority, the group became known as the Bolsheviks, a term derived from the Russian word for “more” or “majority”. Lenin and the Bolsheviks led the October Revolution of 1917, as a result of which Lenin came to power. He headed the new Soviet State during its formative years.

25 Main ingredient in the curry dish kosha mangsho : GOAT

Curry powder is a mixture of spices used in South Asian dishes. The actual composition of curry powder varies depending on the cuisine. The term “curry” is an anglicization of the Tamil “kari” meaning “sauce”.

34 Shticks : ROUTINES

A shtick is a routine, a bit, a piece of entertainment. It comes from the Yiddish “shtick”, which has the same meaning and derives from the Middle High German word “stücke”, the word for “piece”.

35 “___ World” (“Sesame Street” segment) : ELMO’S

The last 15 minutes of the children’s show “Sesame Street” was called “Elmo’s World”. The ending segment was directed towards younger viewers, those around 3 years old.

39 Stir-fry ingredient : SNAP PEA

Sugar peas are also known as snap peas. These peas are eaten before the seeds mature, and the whole pod is consumed.

43 Used as a rendezvous point : MET AT

A rendezvous is a meeting. The noun used in English comes from the French phrase “rendez vous” meaning “present yourselves”.

44 Insignificant : PETTY

The word “petty”, meaning “small-minded”, comes from the French word for small, “petit”. When “petty” first came into English it wasn’t used disparagingly, and was used more literally giving us terms like “petty officer” and “petty cash”. The word “petty” evolved into a prefix “petti-” with the meaning of “small”, as in the word “petticoat”.

45 Birthplace of Malcolm X : OMAHA

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. He told his own life story in the incredibly successful book “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, on which he collaborated with author Alex Haley. Malcolm Little changed his name when he joined the Nation of Islam, choosing “X” to represent the African family name that he could never know.

46 Unit of cryptocurrency : TOKEN

A cryptocurrency is a digital asset that I simply do not understand. Apparently, an essential aspect of cryptocurrency is that it has no central administration. The first, and most famous, decentralized cryptocurrency is bitcoin.

47 Adjusts to zero, in a way : TARES

Tare is the weight of a container that is deducted from the gross weight to determine the net weight, the weight of the container’s contents.