0627-21 NY Times Crossword 27 Jun 21, Sunday

Bill’s time: 16m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Rackets : SCAMS

The slang term “scam”, meaning “swindle”, may come from the British slang “scamp”.

15 Japanese city that shares its name with a dog breed : AKITA

The Akita breed of dog is named for its point of origin, Akita Prefecture in Japan. When Helen Keller visited Japan in 1937, she asked for and was given an Akita breed of dog, with the name of Kamikaze-go. Sadly, the dog died within a year from distemper. The following year the Japanese government officially presented Keller with a replacement dog. Supposedly Keller’s dogs were the first members of the breed to be introduced into the US.

20 Home to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum : HANOI

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum is a huge memorial to the former Vietnamese leader that is located at the center of Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi. The mausoleum’s design was inspired by Lenin’s Tomb in Red Square in Moscow. Ho Chi Minh’s embalmed body is on display in a central hall in a glass case and visitors file past it every day to pay their respects.

24 Highly specialized knowledge : ESOTERICA

Something described as esoteric is meant only for a select few with special knowledge. The term “esoteric” comes from the Greek “esoterikos” meaning “belonging to an inner circle”.

25 Color whose name is derived from “lapis lazuli” : AZURE

The term “azure” came into English from Persian via Old French. The French word “l’azur” was taken from the Persian name for a place in northeastern Afghanistan called “Lazhward” which was the main source of the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. The stone has a vivid blue color, and “azure” has been describing this color since the 14th century.

26 Frequent comics collaborator with Jack Kirby : STAN LEE

As writers for the comic book industry, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee worked together a lot throughout the 1960s. The Kirby-Lee team created such icons as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and the Hulk.

28 Belief : CREED

A creed or credo is a profession of faith, or a system of belief or principles. “Credo” is Latin for “I believe”.

34 Bozo : ASS

The unsavory word “bozo” describes a person with a low IQ, and someone who is usually quite muscular. The term has been used since the early 1900s, and possibly comes from the Spanish “bozal” that was used to describe someone who spoke Spanish poorly.

35 “I 30-Down the fool!” speaker : MR T
30D See 35-Across : PITY

Mr. T’s real name is Laurence Tero Tureaud. Mr. T is famous for many things, including the wearing of excessive amounts of jewelry. He started this habit when he was working as a bouncer, wearing jewelry items that had been left behind by customers at a nightclub so that the items might be recognized and claimed. It was also as a bouncer that he adopted the name Mr. T. His catch phrase comes from the movie “Rocky III”. In the film, before he goes up against Rocky Balboa, Mr. T says, “No, I don’t hate Balboa, but I pity the fool”. He parlayed that line into quite a bit of success. He had a reality TV show called “I Pity the Fool”, and produced a motivational video called “Be Somebody … or Be Somebody’s Fool!”.

37 GPS suggestion: Abbr. : RTE

A global positioning system (GPS) might point out a route (rte.).

39 1966 Donovan hit : MELLOW YELLOW

“Donovan” is the stage name of Scottish folk and pop singer Donovan Leitch. One of his more famous recordings on this side of the pond is 1966’s “Mellow Yellow”.

43 Sinatra, to fans : OL’ BLUE EYES

In 1973, Frank Sinatra came out of retirement with a TV special and an album called “Ol’ Blue Eyes is Back“. The nickname “Ol’ Blue Eyes” stuck …

47 Band whose “Gold: Greatest Hits” has sold over 30 million copies : ABBA

I am an unapologetic fan of ABBA’s music. ABBA was the Swedish group who topped the charts in the seventies and eighties. The name ABBA is an acronym formed from the first letters of the given names of each of the band members: Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn and Anni-Frid. Early in their careers, the four fell in love and formed two married couples: Agnetha and Bjorn, and Benny and Anni-Frid. However, at the height of their success, the relationships became strained and both couples divorced.

50 Raised a false alarm : CRIED WOLF

“The Boy Who Cried Wolf” is one of Aesop’s fables, and the tale that gives rise to our phrase “to cry wolf” meaning “to give a false alarm”. In the fable, a shepherd boy is in the habit of tricking nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his flock by crying “Wolf!”. When an actual attack is made, the villages assume it’s another false alarm and the sheep are eaten by the wolf.

52 Tennis’s Nadal, informally : RAFA

Rafael “Rafa” Nadal is a Spanish tennis player. He is noted for his expertise on clay courts, which earned him the nickname “The King of Clay”.

59 Guest feature? : SILENT U

The word “guest” features a silent letter U.

60 Popular folk rock duo : INDIGO GIRLS

Indigo Girls are a folk rock music duo made up of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. Ray and Saliers are considered icons in the LGBT community as both identified themselves as lesbians a long time ago, although they have never been a couple.

63 1968 self-titled folk album : ARLO

Arlo Guthrie is the son of Woody Guthrie. Both father and son are renowned for singing protest songs about social injustice. Arlo is most famous for his epic “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”, a song that lasts a full 18m 34s. In the song Guthrie tells how, after being drafted, he was rejected for service in the Vietnam War based on his criminal record. He had only one incident on his public record, a Thanksgiving Day arrest for littering and being a public nuisance when he was 18-years-old.

65 A.L. West team, on scoreboards : LAA

The Anaheim Angels baseball team is today more correctly called the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (LAA). The “Angels” name dates back to 1961 when the team was founded in the “City of Angels”, Los Angeles. When the franchise moved to Anaheim in 1965 they were known as the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, and most recently the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels are also known as “the Halos”.

66 Rubik with a cube : ERNO

What was originally called the “Magic Cube” became better known as “Rubik’s Cube”, and was named for its inventor Ernő Rubik. Rubik’s Cube is the world’s biggest selling puzzle game, with over 350 million sold in just over 30 years.

71 World’s deepest river : CONGO

The Congo River in Africa is the second-largest in the world in terms of volume of water discharged (after the Amazon), and the second longest river in Africa (after the Nile). It is also the deepest river in the world, with depths exceeding 700 feet. The name “Congo” comes from the ancient Kingdom of Kongo that was once located at the mouth of the river.

77 Investigate, à la Sherlock Holmes : ENQUIRE

According to author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, his character Sherlock Holmes was based on a Dr. Joseph Bell for whom Doyle worked in Edinburgh. That said, Bell actually wrote a letter to Doyle in which he said “you are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it”.

79 Wunderkinder : PRODIGIES

A wunderkind is a child prodigy, often one with a musical gift. The term is German in origin and translates literally as “wonder child”.

82 Implement for an Amish driver : BUGGY WHIP

The Amish are members of a group of Christian churches, and a subgroup of the Mennonite churches. The Amish church originated in Switzerland and Alsace in 1693 when it was founded by Jakob Ammann. It was Ammann who gave the name to the Amish people. Many Amish people came to Pennsylvania in the 18th century.

87 It’s covered in paint in the Sherwin-Williams logo : EARTH

Sherwin-Williams is a big producer of paints, as well as related products for the construction industry. The company was founded by Henry Sherwin and Edward Williams in Cleveland, Ohio in 1866.

89 Oscar-winning song from “Slumdog Millionaire” : JAI HO

The brilliant film “Slumdog Millionaire” is a screen adaptation of a 2005 novel by Indian author Vikas Swarup. A low-budget movie, it ended up winning eight Oscars in 2008. I reckon it turned a profit …

91 Media watchdog agcy. : FCC

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been around since 1934, when it replaced the Federal Radio Commission.

92 “Strange Magic” band, for short : ELO

“Strange Magic” is a song by English rock band the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) that was released as a single in 1976. It had appeared earlier as a track on ELO’s 1975 album “Face the Music”.

95 Mars : THE RED PLANET

The surface of the planet Mars has a very high iron oxide content, so Mars is red because it is rusty!

100 Harmful bits of sunlight : ULTRAVIOLET RAYS

At either end of the visible light spectrum are the invisible forms of radiation known as infrared (IR) light and ultraviolet (UV) light. IR light lies just beyond the red end of the visible spectrum, and UV light lies just below the violet end.

105 Remove calcium deposits from : DELIME

The name of the element calcium comes from the Latin “calcis” meaning “lime”. “Quicklime” and “burnt lime” are common names for calcium oxide.

106 Sharp shooter, for short? : SLR

Single-lens reflex (SLR) camera

115 Word rhymed with “ami” by Lafayette in “Hamilton” : OUI

The Marquis de Lafayette was a French military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War, as well as having a notable career back in France. But, his links to America were strong, so that when he died in 1834 he was buried in Paris under soil transported from the Revolutionary War battlefield at Bunker Hill.

116 Like Merriam-Webster’s inclusion of the word “irregardless,” originally : CONTROVERSIAL

George and Charles Merriam founded their publishing company in 1831, and in 1843 purchased the rights to Noah Webster’s dictionary a few months after his death. Merriam-Webster has been publishing mainly dictionaries and reference books ever since.

119 College admissions fig. : GPA

Grade point average (GPA)

120 Delta hub, on luggage tags : ATL

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is the world’s busiest airport, as measured by passenger traffic. Atlanta has had that distinction since 1998, and was the world’s busiest in terms of take-offs and landings from 2005 until 2013. Over 50% of Atlanta’s traffic comes from Delta Air Lines.

121 Birth control option, briefly : IUD

It seems that it isn’t fully understood how the intrauterine device (IUD) works. The design that was most popular for decades was a T-shaped plastic frame on which was wound copper wire. It’s thought that the device is an irritant in the uterus causing the body to release chemicals that are hostile to sperm and eggs. This effect is enhanced by the presence of the copper.

124 Stags or bucks : HES

A male deer is usually called a buck, and a female is a doe. However, the male red deer is usually referred to as a stag. The males of even larger species of deer are often called bulls, and females cows. In older English, male deer of over 5 years were called harts, and females of over 3 years were called hinds. The young of small species are known as fawns, and of larger species are called calves. All very confusing …

126 Alcoholic’s affliction, briefly : DTS

The episodes of delirium that can accompany withdrawal from alcohol are called delirium tremens (the DTs). The literal translation of this Latin phrase is “trembling madness”.

128 Retired flier, for short : SST

The most famous supersonic transport (SST) was the Concorde, a plane that’s no longer flying. Concorde had that famous “droop nose”. The nose was moved to the horizontal position during flight to create the optimum aerodynamic shape thereby reducing drag. It was lowered during taxi, takeoff and landing, so that the pilot had better visibility. The need for the droop nose was driven largely by the delta-shaped wings. The delta wing necessitates a higher angle of attack at takeoff and landing than conventional wing designs, so the pilot needed the nose lowered so that he or she could see the ground.

129 Explosive stuff : TNT

“TNT” is an abbreviation for “trinitrotoluene”. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

Down

1 California-based soft drink company : SHASTA

The soft drink company Shasta Beverages started off bottling mineral water from Shasta Springs in Northern California back in 1889. The water was originally shipped in railroad cars that were lined with glass. Costly transportation, I’d say …

2 Divisions of long poems : CANTOS

A canto is a section of a long poem, and is a term first used by the Italian poet Dante. “Canto” is the Italian for “song”.

3 Historical records : ANNALS

“Annal” is a rarely used word, and is the singular of the more common “annals”. An annal would be the recorded events of one year, with annals being the chronological record of events in successive years. The term “annal” comes from the Latin “annus” meaning “year”.

6 Olympic poker? : EPEE

There are three fencing events in the modern Olympics, with each distinguished by the weapon used:

• Foil
• Épée
• Sabre

7 Military hospitals, briefly : VAS

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was formed in 1930 to manage pre-existing government benefits for war veterans. Some of those benefits dated back to the Continental Congress. Today, the most visible benefit is probably the network of VA medical centers that provide comprehensive healthcare services to veterans.

8 Period of history : EPOCH

Geological time is divided into a number of units of varying lengths. These are, starting from the largest:

• supereon
• eon (also “aeon”)
• era
• period
• epoch
• age

14 Twin in Genesis : ESAU

Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When their mother Rebekah gave birth to the twins “the first emerged red and hairy all over (Esau), with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out (Jacob)”. As Esau was the first born, he was entitled to inherit his father’s wealth (it was his “birthright”). Instead, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for the price of a “mess of pottage” (a meal of lentils).

16 Instrument often played for comedic effect : KAZOO

The modern instrument we know today as the kazoo was invented by one Alabama Vest of Macon, Georgia in the 1800s. The kazoo first came to the public’s attention at the Georgia State Fair of 1852, when it was known as the “Down-South Submarine” (because of its shape, I would imagine).

17 Tennessee Williams’s “The Night of the ___” : IGUANA

“The Night of the Iguana” is a play by Tennessee Williams, based on a short story that he wrote in 1948. Famously, the play was adapted for the screen in a 1964 movie of the same name, with powerful performances by Richard Burton, Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr.

19 “___ Fideles” : ADESTE

The lovely Christmas hymn “Adeste Fideles” (entitled “O Come, All Ye Faithful” in English) was written by one John Francis Wade in the 13th century. Well, he wrote the original four verses, with four more verses being added over time. A kind blog reader pointed out to me that the English translation is in fact a little “off”. The term “adeste” best translates from Latin as “be present, attend”, rather than “come”. The verb “come” appears later in the lyrics in “venite adoremus”, meaning “come, let us worship”.

27 ___ Simmons, real name of the late rapper DMX : EARL

“DMX” and “Dark Man X” are stage names used by rap artist Earl Simmons. DMX’s biggest hit is “Party Up (Up in Here)” released in 1999 (I know that song!). DMX seems to get in trouble with the law a lot, an awful lot …

36 Affectionate attention, briefly : TLC

Tender loving care (TLC)

37 One enforcing traveling rules : REF

That would be basketball.

39 Kind of jacket : MAO

What we call the Mao suit in the west is known as the Zhongshan suit in China. The style was introduced by Sun Yat-sen (also known as Sun Zhongshan) as the form of national dress after the founding of the Republic of China in 1912.

46 Polite form of address similar to “Mr.” or “Ms.” : SRI

“Sri” is a title of respect for a male in India.

47 Criminally aid : ABET

The word “abet” comes into English from the Old French “abeter” meaning “to bait” or “to harass with dogs” (literally “to make bite”). This sense of encouraging something bad to happen morphed into our modern usage of “abet” meaning to aid or encourage someone in a crime.

53 With the bow, musically : ARCO

“Arco” is a musical direction instructing a string player to return to normal bowing technique after a passage played using some other technique (perhaps pizzicato).

55 Vipers with upturned snouts : ASPS

The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.

57 Part of a religious title that means “ocean” : DALAI

The Dalai Lama is a religious leader in the Gelug branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The current Dalai Lama is the 14th to hold the office. He has indicated that the next Dalai Lama might be found outside of Tibet for the first time, and may even be female.

58 Southern California county : ORANGE

Orange County in the Greater Los Angeles Area is the smallest county in Southern California by area, and yet it is the sixth most populous county in the US. The county seat is Santa Ana.

60 “Mood ___” (Duke Ellington classic) : INDIGO

“Mood Indigo” is a 1930 jazz piece co-written by Duke Ellington as an instrumental specifically for a radio broadcast. Originally called “Dreamy Blues”, the radio audience responded so well that lyrics were added and it was renamed to “Mood Indigo”.

Duke Ellington was a bandleader and composer believed by many to have elevated jazz to the same level as other respected genres of music. Ellington tended not to use the word “jazz” to describe his compositions, preferring the term “American Music”.

70 High degrees, for short : PHDS

“Ph.D.” is an abbreviation for “philosophiae doctor”, Latin for “teacher of philosophy”. Often, candidates for a PhD already hold a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, so a PhD might be considered a “third degree”.

71 Setting for many a Super Mario Bros. level : CASTLE

“Super Mario” is a series of video games created by Nintendo that features the character Mario, and his adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom.

74 Pesach observers : JEWS

Pesach is an alternative name for Passover.

78 Groups of bees? : QUILTERS

Back in 18th-century America, when neighbors would gather to work for the benefit of one of their group, such a meeting was called a bee. The name “bee” was an allusion to the social nature of the insect. In modern parlance, a further element of entertainment and pleasure has been introduced, for example in a quilting bee, or even a spelling bee.

96 ___ River, part of the Texas/Oklahoma border : RED

The Red River (sometimes “Red River of the South”) runs for almost 1,400 miles, and for much of its length serves as the border between Texas and Oklahoma. It is a saltwater river, with the salt coming from vast deposits buried in the upper reaches of the river and its tributaries. Almost 3,500 tons of salt flows down the Red River every day.

98 Skedaddled : LIT OUT

“Skedaddle” is a slang term meaning “run away” that dates back to the Civil War.

104 ___ Faire (event with jousting, for short) : REN

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.

109 Source of the milk for chèvre cheese : GOAT

Chèvre is goat cheese. It takes its name from “chèvre”, the French word for “goat”.

110 The “R” of R.B.G. : RUTH

Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) served 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. She finally succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2020. Much of Ginsburg’s life is recounted in the excellent 2018 movie “On the Basis of Sex”.

114 Condé ___ : NAST

Condé Nast is a mass media corporation that has a very large portfolio of publications, including “Vogue”, “GQ”, “House and Garden”, “Golf Digest”, “Wired”, “Vanity Fair” and “The New Yorker”.