0620-21 NY Times Crossword 20 Jun 21, Sunday

Constructed by: Michael Lieberman
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme Familiar Surroundings

Themed answers start and end with a noun. Putting the nouns together gives the verb in the middle of the answer:

  • 23A Prisoner accidentally causes a power outage? : CON CONFUSES FUSES
  • 37A Southern university beefs up campus security? : ELON ELONGATES GATES
  • 54A Fellow imposes a strict palm fruit regimen? : MAN MANDATES DATES
  • 78A Actress de Armas writes “Mr. Gas” and “Ms. Rag”? : ANA ANAGRAMS GRAMS
  • 94A Smartphone advises on poker bets? : APP APPRAISES RAISES
  • 112A Doctor acquires antibiotics? : PRO PROCURES CURES

Bill’s time: 17m 03s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Home for The Devil : TAROT

Tarot cards have been around since the mid-1400s, and for centuries were simply used for entertainment as a game. It has only been since the late 1800s that the cards have been used by fortune tellers to predict the future. The list of tarot cards includes the Wheel of Fortune, the Hanged Man and the Lovers.

15 Web designer’s code : HTML

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

20 Pitcher Hershiser : OREL

Orel Hershiser is big into poker now that he has retired from Major League Baseball. Hershiser lives in Las Vegas and when he isn’t working for ESPN, apparently he is at the poker tables, playing professionally. When Hershiser is eliminated in a poker tournament, he is in the habit of presenting the person who ousts him with an autographed baseball.

21 They might dog a dog : FLEAS

Fleas are flightless insects, but they sure can jump. Their very specialized hind legs allow them to jump up to 50 times the length of their bodies.

22 “___ there!” : AHOY

“Ahoy!” is a nautical term used to signal a vessel. When the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, he suggested that “ahoy” be used as a standard greeting when answering a call. However, Thomas Edison came up with “hello”, and we’ve been using that ever since.

29 Small songbirds : LARKS

Larks are small songbirds that are found all over the world, although only the horned lark species is found here in North America. Despite their size, larks are sometimes considered game birds, and can be served up as food. It’s not uncommon to find a dish containing lark meat in southern Europe.

33 Year, in Brazil : ANO

In Portuguese, the Earth travels around “o sol” (the Sun) in one “ano” (year).

34 Cherokee and Navajo : NATIONS

The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma are descended from the Old Cherokee Nation that was forced to relocate from the Southeast in the late 1830s on the infamous Trail of Tears. Today’s Cherokee Nation numbers about 300,000 people, with almost two thirds of that population living in Oklahoma.

There are more speakers of the Navajo (also “Navaho”) language than any other Native American language north of the US-Mexico border. Famously, the Navajo language was used by the “code talkers” in the Pacific Theater during WWII to send secure communications by radio. These Navajo “coded” messages were used in fast tactical communications, with one bilingual Navajo speaker talking over the radio to another speaker, and the two acting as translators at either end of the conversation. The Navajo code was never broken by the Japanese.

37 Southern university beefs up campus security? : ELON ELONGATES GATES

Elon is a city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina located close to the city of Burlington. Elon University is a private liberal arts school founded in 1889.

42 Unlike bread on Passover : LEAVENED

Leaven is a substance that causes bread to rise, perhaps yeast or baking powder. The term comes into English via French from the Latin “levare” meaning “to rise”.

45 Pierce-Arrow competitor : REO

The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale 8 and the REO Flying Cloud.

The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company made vehicles from 1901 until 1939, headquartered in Buffalo, New York. Noted for luxury cars, Pierce-Arrow was selected as the supplier of the first official cars for the White House. President William Howard Taft ordered two Pierce-Arrows in 1909.

46 Popular Hyundai : ELANTRA

The Elantra is a compact car made by Hyundai of South Korea. There was a long-standing dispute between Hyundai and manufacturers Lotus and Mitsubishi. Lotus contended that the Elantra’s name was too close to the Lotus Elan, and Mitsubishi didn’t like the similarity to the Mitsubishi Elante.

47 “O mio babbino caro,” e.g. : ARIA

“O mio babbino caro” is a really beautiful aria from Giacomo Puccini’s opera “Gianni Schicchi”.

48 Key part: Abbr. : ANS

Answer (ans.)

50 Keenness of judgment : ACUMEN

“Acumen” is such a lovely word, I think, one meaning “keenness of judgment or insight”. “Acumen” is Latin for “point, sting”, the idea being that someone with acumen has mental sharpness.

53 Chinese zodiac animal : RAT

The Chinese Zodiac is a scheme that relates each year to the attributes of a particular animal in a 12-year cycle. So, the Chinese Zodiac has one sign for each of twelve years, whereas the Western Zodiac has one sign for each of the twelve months.

54 Fellow imposes a strict palm fruit regimen? : MAN MANDATES DATES

Date palms can be either male or female. Only the female tree bears fruit (called “dates”).

63 Convenient transport through urban traffic : MOPED

The word “moped” was coined in 1952 by a Swedish journalist named Harald Nielsen. The term is a portmanteau of “motor” and “pedal”.

65 One seeing things with a critical eye? : CYCLOPS

Cyclops was a one-eyed giant in Greek and Roman mythology. Cyclops lived inside Mount Etna, the Sicilian volcano.

68 Good spice to add to guacamole (try it!) : CUMIN

Cumin is a flowering plant native to the region stretching from the eastern Mediterranean to East India. Cumin spice is made from the dried seeds and is the second most common spice used in the world (only black pepper is more popular). Cumin is particularly associated with Indian cuisine and is a key ingredient in curry powder. Lovely stuff …

Guacamole is one of my favorite dishes. It is prepared by mashing avocados and perhaps adding the likes of tomato, onion and lime juice. The guacamole recipe dates back as early as the 16th century, to the time of the Aztecs. “Guacamole” translates as “avocado sauce”.

72 U.F.C. fighting style : MMA

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport in which competitors use a variety of techniques from a variety of traditional combat sports and martial arts.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the largest promoter in the world of mixed martial arts competitions. I think the idea is that competitors fight each other in various disciplines to see who is the “best of the best” …

73 Heretics flout them : DOGMAS

A dogma is a set of beliefs. The plural of “dogma” is “dogmata” (or “dogmas”, if you’re not a pedant like me!)

77 Early Ron Howard role : OPIE

Opie Taylor is the character played by Ron Howard on “The Andy Griffith Show”. Opie lives with widowed father Andy Taylor (played by Andy Griffith) and his great-aunt Beatrice “Aunt Bee” Taylor (played by Frances Bavier). Ron Howard first played the role in 1960 in the pilot show, when he was just 5 years old. Howard sure has come a long way since playing Opie Taylor. He has directed some fabulous movies including favorites of mine like “Apollo 13”, “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Da Vinci Code”.

78 Actress de Armas writes “Mr. Gas” and “Ms. Rag”? : ANA ANAGRAMS GRAMS

“Mr. Gas” and “Ms. Rag” are anagrams of “grams”.

Ana de Armas is an actress from Cuba. Having attended the National Theater School of Cuba, she moved to Spain at the age of 18. Thre, she made a name for herself in a Spanish TV series called “El Internado”. De Armas moved to Los Angeles in 2014, after which her performance opposite Ryan Gosling in 2017’s “Blade Runner 2049” earned her critical acclaim.

85 Like the verse “Roses are red, violets are blue …,” in brief : ANON

Anonymous (anon.)

86 Body of water that’s home to the world’s largest marine reserve : ROSS SEA

The Ross Sea is a bay in the Southern Ocean of Antarctica. It was discovered by one James Ross in 1841. A more recent discovery, in the waters of the Ross Sea, was a 33 feet long giant squid that was captured in 2007.

88 The Cougars of the N.C.A.A. : BYU

Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah has about 34.000 students on campus making it the largest religious university in the country. The school was founded in 1875 by Brigham Young, then President of the Mormon Church.

91 New York has 28 of them : ELECTORS

The Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1804, and redefines procedures used by the Electoral College during a presidential election. Prior to the amendment, each member of the Electoral College cast two electoral votes, after which the candidate with the most votes was elected president, and the candidate with the second-most votes was elected vice president. As a result of the amendment, each member of the Electoral College casts one vote for president, and one vote for vice president. So, the Twelfth Amendment makes it unlikely that we end up with a vice president who is not supportive of the president, as the victorious pair probably campaigned together on the same ticket, and had not been rivals in the election.

100 Off-road ride, for short : ATV

All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

101 Org. whose plans are up in the air? : FAA

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

104 Georgia-based insurance giant : AFLAC

In 1999, Aflac (American Family Life Assurance Company) was huge in the world of insurance but it wasn’t a household name, so a New York advertising agency was given the task of making the Aflac brand more memorable. One of the agency’s art directors, while walking around Central Park one lunchtime, heard a duck quacking and in his mind linked it with “Aflac”, and that duck has been “Aflacking” ever since …

109 Ones making you duck down? : EIDERS

Eiders are large sea ducks. Their down feathers are used to fill pillows and quilts, giving the name to the quilt called an “eiderdown”.

111 Kinks song that Weird Al Yankovic parodied as “Yoda” : LOLA

“Lola” is a fabulous song that was written by Ray Davies and released by the Kinks back in 1970. Inspired by a real life incident, the lyrics tell of a young man who met a young “lady” in a club, danced with her, and then discovered “she” was actually a transvestite. The storyline isn’t very traditional, and the music is superb.

115 A short one by Ogden Nash reads “Parsley / is gharsley” : POEM

Ogden Nash was a poet from Rye, New York who is remembered for his light and quirky verse. Nash had over 500 such works published between 1931 and 1972.

116 Macabre illustrator Edward : GOREY

Author Edward Gorey is famous for writing illustrated books that feature pen-and-ink drawings. Gorey described his works as literary nonsense, a style made famous by Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll.

117 One kind of plastic : AMEX

“Amex” is short for “American Express”, the name of the financial services company that is best known for its credit card, charge card and traveler’s check businesses. The company name is indicative of its original business. American Express was founded in 1850 in Buffalo, New York as an express mail service.

118 Indian wedding adornment : HENNA

Henna has been used for centuries as a dye, for leather and wool as well as hair and skin. In modern days, henna is often used for temporary tattoos.

120 Connecticut-based insurance giant : AETNA

When the healthcare management and insurance company known as Aetna was founded, the name was chosen to evoke images of Mount Etna, the Italian volcano.

122 Work from Roxane Gay or Jia Tolentino : ESSAY

Roxane Gay is an author and contributing opinion writer for “The New York Times”. The list of her best-selling works includes the 2014 novel “An Untamed State”, the 2017 collection of short stories “Difficult Women”, and the 2017 memoir “Hunger”.

Down

4 Willy, in “Free Willy” : ORCA

The orca that starred in the 1993 movie “Free Willy” was actually called Keiko, with Willy being his “stage name”. Keiko had a sad life. He was captured near Iceland in 1979 and sold to a local aquarium. Subsequently he was sold on to Marineland in Ontario, and then Six Flags Mexico in 1985. After starring in the movie, his fans raised money with the intent of returning Keiko to the wild. Keiko had become very ill, partly from being confined in a small tank in Mexico, so a lot of money had to be spent returning him to good health. He was purchased by the Oregon Coast Aquarium who undertook the task of treating him and preparing him for the wild. You might recall the dramatic journey he took from Mexico to Oregon in a US Air Force transport plane in 1996. Having regained his health, he was flown to Iceland and there was gradually reintroduced into the wild. Sadly, Keiko did not fare too well back in the ocean. He was never adopted by a pod, so lived a solitary life. He lost weight, would sometimes follow fishing boats and play with any humans who would give him attention. In 2003, he beached himself in Taken Bay in Norway, where he died.

5 Telecom with a pink logo : T-MOBILE

T-Mobile is a German telecommunications company, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom has used the “T” prefix for a number of its services, including T-Com, T-Online and T-Home.

7 Chow : GRUB

“Chow” is a slang term for “food” that originated in California in the mid-1800s. “Chow” comes from the Chinese pidgin English “chow-chow” meaning “food”.

8 Add new caulking to : RESEAL

The term “caulk” comes from old Norman French “cauquer”, and described the action of filling gaps with lime. “Caulk” has the same root as our word “chalk”.

9 Roosevelt credited with saying “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” : ELEANOR

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the daughter of Elliot, brother to President Theodore Roosevelt. Eleanor met Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was her father’s fifth cousin, in 1902. The two started “walking out together” the following year after they both attended a White House dinner with President Theodore Roosevelt.

10 Closest of pals, for short : BFFS

Best friend forever (BFF)

11 Hillary Clinton vis-à-vis Wellesley College : ALUMNA

Wellesley is a private women’s school located in the town of Wellesley, Massachusetts. Wellesley was founded in 1870 and is one of the original Seven Sisters Colleges.

13 Hip-hop duo ___ Sremmurd : RAE

Rae Sremmurd is hip hop act consisting of two brothers from Tupelo, Mississippi: Khalif “Swae Lee” Brown and Aaquil “Slim Jxmmi” Brown. The pair used to perform as Dem Outta St8 Boyz, with the brothers using the names Kid Krunk and Caliboy, along with a third brother known as Lil Pantz. The name “Rae Sremmurd” is a backward spelling of the words making up “EarDrummers”, which is the name of the production company that signed the duo. Sometimes I think I over-complicate things by using the name “Bill” …

14 What “…” may represent : ESS

The Morse code symbol for the letter S is “dot-dot-dot”.

15 José Martí, by birth : HAVANAN

José Martí was a Cuban writer and political activist who became a symbol for his country’s movement to gain independence from Spain in the 1800s, earning him the nickname “Apostle of Cuban Independence”. Martí was killed in action in a battle against Spanish troops in 1895.

18 Some strong solutions : LYES

What we call “lye” is usually sodium hydroxide (NaOH), although historically the term “lye” was used for potassium hydroxide. Lye has many uses, including to cure several foodstuffs. Lye can make olives less bitter, for example. The chemical is also found in canned mandarin oranges, pretzels and Japanese ramen noodles. More concentrated grades of lye are used to clear drains and clean ovens. Scary …

24 DuPont patent of 1938 : NYLON

The polymer known as “nylon” was developed by Dupont in the 1930s. The first application for the new product was as bristles in toothbrushes, in 1938. The second application became more famous. The first stockings made from nylon were produced in 1940, and since then stockings have been known as “nylons”. The polymer was developed as a replacement for silk, which was in short supply during WWII.

29 Boston airport : LOGAN

Boston’s Logan Airport (BOS) is named for General Edward Lawrence Logan, a military officer from South Boston who fought in the Spanish-American War.

36 St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Vincent : ISLES

Saint Kitts is the more familiar name for Saint Christopher Island in the West Indies. Saint Kitts, along with the neighboring island of Nevis, is part of the country known as the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint Kitts has had a troubled history, with the Spanish, British and French all vying for control of the island. Most of the population today is descended from slaves brought onto Saint Kitts to farm tobacco and then sugarcane. Most of the slaves were from Africa, although Irish and Scottish slaves were also used.

The Caribbean island nation of Saint Lucia has a population of less than 200,000. Remarkably, Saint Lucia has produced two Nobel Laureates: economist Arthur Lewis and poet Derek Walcott.

“Saint Vincent and the Grenadines” is the full name of the Caribbean nation that’s usually referred to simply as “Saint Vincent”. The Grenadines are a chain of 32 islands, of which Saint Vincent is the largest.

37 Saint on the big screen : EVA MARIE

Eva Marie Saint won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Edie Doyle in the 1954 movie “On the Waterfront”. My favorite of Saint’s movies is the 1959 Hitchcock classic “North by Northwest”, in which she starred opposite Cary Grant. She ratcheted back her career at its height, right after her success in “North by Northwest”. Saint opted instead to spend more time with her husband and children, taking very few acting roles. That marriage is still going strong, and she has two children and several grandchildren.

38 Pulitzer winner ___ St. Vincent Millay : EDNA

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright, and the third woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (in 1923 for “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver”). Millay was noted not only for her work, but also for the open arrangement that she and her husband had in their marriage. Millay took many lovers, including the poet George Dillon, for whom she wrote a number of sonnets.

40 Shake an Etch A Sketch, e.g. : ERASE

Etch A Sketch was introduced in 1960. The toy was developed in France by inventor André Cassagnes, who initially named it “L’Écran Magique” (The Magic Screen).

42 How kids might describe dad jokes : LAME

I tell dad jokes all the time, just to annoy the kids …

  • I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down!
  • If you see a robbery at an Apple Store, does that make you an iWitness?
  • A termite walks into a bar and asks, “Is the bar tender here?”
  • Two guys walk into a bar, the third one ducks.
  • What’s the best part about living in Switzerland? I don’t know, but the flag is a big plus.

44 “___ Too Proud” (hit musical about the Temptations) : AIN’T

The Temptations singing group used to be known as the Elgins, and was formed in 1960 in Detroit. The group is still performing today, although only the second tenor, Otis Williams, was part of the original quintet. The Temptations were very much associated with their “sister group”, the Supremes.

51 Ingredient in a Negroni : CAMPARI

Campari is an alcoholic beverage with a distinctive red flavor and a pleasant, yet bitter taste. It is a key ingredient in one of my favorite cocktails: an Americano (one part Campari, one part sweet vermouth and a dash of club soda).

The Negroni is a lovely cocktail that hails from Italy. A classic recipe calls for equal parts gin, sweet vermouth and Campari. According to legend, the drink was first made by bartender Forsco Scarselli at the request of Count Camillo Negroni, hence the name. The count wanted a stronger version of an Americano, and so Scarselli dropped the Americano’s soda water and replaced it with gin!

52 Sporty trucks, in brief : UTES

A utility vehicle is often called a “ute” for short. Nowadays one mainly hears about sport-utes and crossover-utes.

58 ___ March : SELMA

The Bloody Sunday march took place between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama on 7 March 1965. The 600 marchers involved were protesting the intimidation of African-Americans registering to vote. When the marchers reached Dallas County, Alabama they encountered a line of state troopers reinforced by white males who had been deputized that morning to help keep the peace. Violence broke out with 17 marchers ending up in hospital, one nearly dying. Because the disturbance was widely covered by television cameras, the civil rights movement picked up a lot of support that day. The route of the march is memorialized as a US National Historic Trail called the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights Trail.

59 Word that appears with confetti when texted on an iPhone : CONGRATS

The word “confetti” is related to “confection”. The original confetti were small candies thrown during carnivals in Italy. This custom migrated to England, and eventually evolved into the practice of tossing small pieces of paper instead of confections.

63 Big name in synthesizers : MOOG

In the sixties, Robert Moog invented the Moog Synthesizer, an electronic device that he used to produce music. I used to own a few of his albums, including a Moog version of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”. What a great performance that was …

65 Cardamom-spiced brew : CHAI

Chai is a drink made from spiced black tea, honey and milk, with “chai” being the Hindi word for “tea”. We often called tea “a cup of char” growing up in Ireland, with “char” being our slang word for tea, derived from “chai”.

The spice known as cardamom comes from the seeds of several plants that are native to India. Those plants were introduced to Guatemala in the early 20th century, and now Guatemala produces and exports more cardamom than any other country in the world, even India. Cardamom is the third-priciest spice on the market today by weight, after vanilla and saffron.

67 They may be checked at the door : IDS

Identity document (ID)

68 Yoga pose with an arched back : COBRA

“Asana” is a Sanskrit word that translates literally as “sitting down”. The asanas are the poses that a practitioner of yoga assumes. The most famous is the lotus position, the cross-legged pose called “padmasana”.

69 “High-five!” : UP TOP!

The celebratory gesture that we call a “high five” is said to have been invented by former baseball players Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke when they were both playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the late 1970s.

70 Like fuschia and turquiose : MISSPELLED

“Fuschia” should be “fuchsia”, and “turquiose” should be “turquoise”.

71 Actor Aziz : ANSARI

Aziz Ansari is an actor and comedian from Columbia, South Carolina who is best known for playing Tom Haverford on the sitcom “Parks and Recreation”. Ansari also stars in the Netflix comedy-drama series “Master of None”.

80 What an integral can be used to calculate : AREA

Remember doing calculus at school, and all those derivatives and integrals? Well, you probably also remember that an integral calculates the area under a curve (for example), and a derivative calculates the slope of a tangent at a particular point on a curve.

81 One of the Obamas : MALIA

Malia Obama is the eldest of Barack and Michelle Obama’s two daughters. Malia graduated from the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., the same school that Chelsea Clinton attended. Malia took a gap year after leaving high school, and spent the 2016 summer as an intern in the US Embassy in Madrid, before heading off to Harvard in 2017.

83 Jellied garnish : ASPIC

Aspic is a dish in which the main ingredients are served in a gelatin made from meat stock. “Aspic” is a French word meaning “jelly”.

87 Low bows : SALAAMS

The word “salaam” is an Anglicized spelling of the Arabic word for “peace”. The term can describe an act of deference, and in particular a very low bow.

92 ___ Park, Colo. : ESTES

Estes Park is a town in a beautiful part of the US, in northern Colorado. Estes Park is home to the headquarters of Rocky Mountain National Park.

93 Raw deal from a restaurant? : CEVICHE

Ceviche is a raw seafood dish that is popular in South and Central America. Ceviche is typically made from fish marinated in lemon or lime juice and spiced with hot peppers.

97 Document with two accents : RESUME

A résumé is a summary of a person’s job experience and education and is used as a tool by a job seeker. In many countries, a résumé is equivalent to a curriculum vitae. “Résumé” is the French word for “summary”.

101 Water clover and adder’s-tongue : FERNS

Ferns are unlike mosses in that they have xylem and phloem, making them vascular plants. They also have stems, leaves and roots, but they do not have seeds and flowers, and reproduce using spores. Spores differ from seeds in that they have very little stored food.

104 Popular dog 105-Down : ALPO
105 See 104-Down : FOOD

Alpo is a brand of dog food introduced by Allen Products in 1936, with “Alpo” being an abbreviation for “Allen Products”. Lorne Greene used to push Alpo in television spots, as did Ed McMahon and Garfield the Cat, would you believe?

107 Daughter of Ned Stark on “Game of Thrones” : ARYA

Maisie Williams is the English actress who plays the tomboyish young girl Arya Stark on the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones”.

108 Smelt things? : ORES

Metals are found in ore in the form of oxides. In order to get pure metal from the ore, the ore is heated and the metal oxides within are reduced (i.e. the oxygen is removed) in the chemical process known as smelting. The oxygen is extracted by adding a source of carbon or carbon monoxide which uses up the excess oxygen atoms to make carbon dioxide, a waste product of smelting (and, a greenhouse gas).

112 Tour grp. : PGA

The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) was founded in 1916 and today has its headquarters (unsurprisingly) in Florida, where so many golfers live. Back in 1916, the PGA was based in New York City.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Home for The Devil : TAROT
6 Fairy tale villain : OGRE
10 Ballet-inspired fitness method : BARRE
15 Web designer’s code : HTML
19 Dream interrupter, maybe : ALARM
20 Pitcher Hershiser : OREL
21 They might dog a dog : FLEAS
22 “___ there!” : AHOY
23 Prisoner accidentally causes a power outage? : CON CONFUSES FUSES
26 Police unit, informally : VICE
27 “Hoo boy!” : OH BABY!
28 “Your guess is as good as mine” : BEATS ME
29 Small songbirds : LARKS
30 In a manner of speaking : SAY
31 Kind : ILK
33 Year, in Brazil : ANO
34 Cherokee and Navajo : NATIONS
37 Southern university beefs up campus security? : ELON ELONGATES GATES
42 Unlike bread on Passover : LEAVENED
45 Pierce-Arrow competitor : REO
46 Popular Hyundai : ELANTRA
47 “O mio babbino caro,” e.g. : ARIA
48 Key part: Abbr. : ANS
50 Keenness of judgment : ACUMEN
53 Chinese zodiac animal : RAT
54 Fellow imposes a strict palm fruit regimen? : MAN MANDATES DATES
59 Something that can be tried or cracked : CASE
60 Dead giveaway? : ESTATE
61 Put away some groceries? : ATE
62 ___ school : MED
63 Convenient transport through urban traffic : MOPED
64 Go bad : ROT
65 One seeing things with a critical eye? : CYCLOPS
67 ___ cannon (sci-fi weapon) : ION
68 Good spice to add to guacamole (try it!) : CUMIN
71 Wizard of ___ (nickname for a good massage therapist) : AHS
72 U.F.C. fighting style : MMA
73 Heretics flout them : DOGMAS
77 Early Ron Howard role : OPIE
78 Actress de Armas writes “Mr. Gas” and “Ms. Rag”? : ANA ANAGRAMS GRAMS
82 World’s best-selling musical artists of 2020 : BTS
83 Target of a pop-up blocker : AD SITE
84 Financial planning option, for short : IRA
85 Like the verse “Roses are red, violets are blue …,” in brief : ANON
86 Body of water that’s home to the world’s largest marine reserve : ROSS SEA
88 The Cougars of the N.C.A.A. : BYU
91 New York has 28 of them : ELECTORS
94 Smartphone advises on poker bets? : APP APPRAISES RAISES
98 High-hat attitude : ELITISM
99 “Told you so” : SEE
100 Off-road ride, for short : ATV
101 Org. whose plans are up in the air? : FAA
104 Georgia-based insurance giant : AFLAC
106 Unnamed somebody : SO-AND-SO
109 Ones making you duck down? : EIDERS
111 Kinks song that Weird Al Yankovic parodied as “Yoda” : LOLA
112 Doctor acquires antibiotics? : PRO PROCURES CURES
115 A short one by Ogden Nash reads “Parsley / is gharsley” : POEM
116 Macabre illustrator Edward : GOREY
117 One kind of plastic : AMEX
118 Indian wedding adornment : HENNA
119 Even ___ : ODDS
120 Connecticut-based insurance giant : AETNA
121 Break : REST
122 Work from Roxane Gay or Jia Tolentino : ESSAY

Down

1 Snacks from some trucks : TACOS
2 Honolulu’s ___ Stadium : ALOHA
3 Sought feedback from : RAN BY
4 Willy, in “Free Willy” : ORCA
5 Telecom with a pink logo : T-MOBILE
6 Reaction to a stomach punch : OOF!
7 Chow : GRUB
8 Add new caulking to : RESEAL
9 Roosevelt credited with saying “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” : ELEANOR
10 Closest of pals, for short : BFFS
11 Hillary Clinton vis-à-vis Wellesley College : ALUMNA
12 Move to a new table, maybe : RESEAT
13 Hip-hop duo ___ Sremmurd : RAE
14 What “…” may represent : ESS
15 José Martí, by birth : HAVANAN
16 Social media pic designed to attract sexual attention : THIRST TRAP
17 False : MOCK
18 Some strong solutions : LYES
24 DuPont patent of 1938 : NYLON
25 Skip it : STONE
29 Boston airport : LOGAN
32 Work in the kitchen? : KNEAD
35 Abounded (with) : TEEMED
36 St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Vincent : ISLES
37 Saint on the big screen : EVA MARIE
38 Pulitzer winner ___ St. Vincent Millay : EDNA
39 Spur : GOAD
40 Shake an Etch A Sketch, e.g. : ERASE
41 Full : SATED
42 How kids might describe dad jokes : LAME
43 Important stretches : ERAS
44 “___ Too Proud” (hit musical about the Temptations) : AIN’T
49 Visits overnight : STAYS AT
51 Ingredient in a Negroni : CAMPARI
52 Sporty trucks, in brief : UTES
55 Lots : A TON
56 Lets hit it! : NET
57 What “…” may represent : ETC
58 ___ March : SELMA
59 Word that appears with confetti when texted on an iPhone : CONGRATS
63 Big name in synthesizers : MOOG
65 Cardamom-spiced brew : CHAI
66 !!! : OMG!
67 They may be checked at the door : IDS
68 Yoga pose with an arched back : COBRA
69 “High-five!” : UP TOP!
70 Like fuschia and turquiose : MISSPELLED
71 Actor Aziz : ANSARI
74 Spanish hand : MANO
75 Spanish love : AMOR
76 Application figs. : SSNS
78 Practiced : ADEPT
79 Birds’ bills : NEBS
80 What an integral can be used to calculate : AREA
81 One of the Obamas : MALIA
83 Jellied garnish : ASPIC
87 Low bows : SALAAMS
89 Kind of question : YES/NO
90 Old wheels : USED CAR
92 ___ Park, Colo. : ESTES
93 Raw deal from a restaurant? : CEVICHE
95 Categorize : ASSORT
96 “There’s no one on me!” : I’M OPEN!
97 Document with two accents : RESUME
101 Water clover and adder’s-tongue : FERNS
102 Fight setting : ARENA
103 Purity test : ASSAY
104 Popular dog 105-Down : ALPO
105 See 104-Down : FOOD
107 Daughter of Ned Stark on “Game of Thrones” : ARYA
108 Smelt things? : ORES
110 Payment often made around January 1 : DUES
112 Tour grp. : PGA
113 Little eggs : ROE
114 Business card abbr. : EXT

13 thoughts on “0620-21 NY Times Crossword 20 Jun 21, Sunday”

  1. 26:11 Figured out the theme about 10 minutes in and that helped. Still had a lot of fat fingers to undo. Got hung up a bit on 15D, 16D, 17D. Never heard of 16D. Had JOHNDOE vs SOANDSO for a long time – similarly with OVA vs ROE.

    Cowboy contacts a poet?
    Tex Texts TS (as in Eliot).
    It’s almost 2:00 a.m. – best I could come up with. Of course, T.S. Eliot is long since dead, and I’m a bit dead tired.

  2. 13:21. Pretty simple theme made for a smooth solve. The “Y” in ARYA and GOREY was a guess. I’ve never seen GoT, which is making crosswords increasingly difficult. Got this one done bright (or, more accurately, dark) and early waiting for a race to happen for which the weather likely has other plans.

  3. 28:21 after finding and fixing an error: I somehow ended up with “GOREN” instead of “GOREY” (a name I actually knew, though I haven’t encountered it in a while) and therefore “ARNA” instead of “ARYA” (a name I should know by now, even though I don’t watch “Game of Thrones”- or anything else on TV, for that matter) and I then got hung up for a couple of minutes trying to grok the relationship between “…” and “ESS” (oh … Morse code, I gu… 😜).

    Not doing well last night … major fog in my area (between the ears) … 😜

  4. 31:24. Same error as Nonny with the GOREn/ARnA nexus. Leaned on the theme a lot during this one.

    Hate to admit I didn’t notice at first that the clues for 70D were MISSPELLED, but I got a laugh out of it anyway….eventually.

    I always thought the Cherokee nation was named after a Jeep…

    Best –

  5. 70 Down clue in my magazine was NOT misspelled — it says “Like fuchsia and turquoise”. If it had said “Like fuchsia and turquoise, often”, the clue would have been okay. But apparently the print version was erroneously corrected.

  6. I note that when I find an answer mystifying, Bill omits his explanation; so I guess he’s puzzled, too.

  7. I was determined not to make this a DNF…soooo about 1 hour and 45 later I finished only to find one error…NIBS FOR NEBS.
    That is very discouraging.
    I don’t understand 1A, 19A, or 48A
    Sta safe😀

    1. 1A: the Devil is a card in a TAROT deck.
      19A: you may be having a dream when the ALARM goes off and wakes you up.
      48A: an ANS (i.e. answer) is part of an answer “key”.
      Staying safe, thank you.

  8. 30:19, 2 errors: N(I)BS/AD SIT(I). Should have caught the errors, but didn’t double check AD SITE.
    Considering a LARK weighs about one ounce: bones, feathers and all; the meat must be very tasty, or the people eating them must be desperate.

  9. 91A New York state had 29 ELECTORS in the 2020 election. Due to population shifts, the state will have 28 in 2024.

  10. Not that difficult but also not very entertaining. A real slog in my opinion. Rates a C-

  11. Like others, once I got the theme, things fell together quicker..

    Had a long stare at 93D CEVICHE.. didn’t know it and the crosses weren’t popping out to me… and I questioned HENNA as an adornment but it was all an educated guess at that point.

    Bit stuck in NE corner with MOCK and LARKS.. it worked out.

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