0803-21 NY Times Crossword 3 Aug 21, Tuesday

Constructed by: Trip Payne
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer Corner the Market

The circled letters in the CORNERS of the grid are the letters “THE MARKET” rearranged:

  • 39A What you might do after some financial trading … or in this puzzle? : CORNER THE MARKET

Bill’s time: 6m 07s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Kit ___ bar : KAT

I grew up eating Kit Kat bars as a kid. The Kit Kat hit the shelves on the other side of the pond in the 1930s, but didn’t make it into US stores until the 1970s. I’ve seen new varieties of Kit Kat bars over in Britain and Ireland, such as an orange-flavored version, but haven’t seen anything like that over here.

4 Complimentary : GRATIS

Something provided “gratis” is supplied free of charge. “Gratis” is a Latin term, a contraction of “gratiis” meaning “for thanks”.

16 Start of a carol title : HARK! …

“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is one of my favorite Christmas carols. It was written in 1739 by Charles Wesley, although he scored it as a very slow and somber tune. A number of musicians modified the music over the years (including Felix Mendelssohn) giving us the more uplifting air that we know today.

17 Soldier’s food packet, for short : MRE

The Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) comes in a lightweight package that’s easy to tote around. The MRE replaced the more cumbersome Meal, Combat, Individual (MCI) in 1981, a meal-in-a-can. In turn, the MCI had replaced the C-ration in 1958, a less sophisticated meal-in-a-can with a more limited choice.

19 “How ___ Your Mother” : I MET

“How I Met Your Mother” is a sitcom that CBS has been airing since 2005. The main character is Ted Mosby, played by Josh Radnor. Mosby is also the narrator for the show looking back from the year 2030 (the live action is set in the present). As narrator, the older Mosby character is voiced by Bob Saget.

20 Venmo’s parent company : PAYPAL

Venmo is a smartphone payment app that is now owned by PayPal. The first version of the product was introduced in 2009 by two entrepreneurs who had met as freshman students at the University of Pennsylvania. They sold the company in 2012 for over $26 million, and then PayPal acquired it the following year for a whopping $800 million. I wonder if PayPal ever buys blogs …

22 Caregivers’ org. : AMA

American Medical Association (AMA)

23 Funders of many campaign ads, in brief : PACS

A political action committee (PAC) is a private group that works to influence the outcome of a particular election or group of elections. Any group becomes a PAC by law when it receives or spends more than $1,000 for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election. In 2010 the Supreme Court ruled that PACS that did not make direct contributions to candidates or parties could accept unlimited contributions. These “independent, expenditure-only committees” are commonly referred to as “super PACs”.

26 T-Mobile acquisition of 2020 : SPRINT

The company that we know today as Sprint has a history that is linked with the Southern Pacific railroad company. Southern Pacific developed a microwave communication system for its internal use across its network using rights-of-way associated with the company’s extensive railway lines. In the early seventies, the company laid huge lengths of fiber optic cable in those rights-of-way, alongside the tracks, primarily for internal use. The railroad sold excess fiber capacity to private companies, allowing those companies to operate long distance telephone service outside of AT&T, which at that time had a long-distance monopoly. Southern Pacific took advantage of changing FCC regulations and started offering voice service directly to consumers. That service was offered under the name SPRINT, an acronym that stood for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony. Very interesting …

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.

28 Land in “Game of Thrones” : WESTEROS

“A Game of Thrones” is the first novel in the series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin titled “A Song of Ice and Fire”. That first novel’s title gives its name to “Game of Thrones”, the incredibly popular HBO television series that uses the storyline from the whole series of books.

33 ___ bowl (fruity treat) : ACAI

Açaí na tigela is a dish made from the frozen, mashed fruit of the açaí palm and served as a smoothie. Often topped with granola, banana, other berries and syrup, the dish is a specialty in much of Brazil. There’s even a savory version of açaí na tigela (“açaí in the bowl”) that includes shrimp or dried fish and tapioca. Açaí bowls are becoming very popular in North America, especially as a health food.

34 Harold who directed “Groundhog Day” : RAMIS

Harold Ramis was a real all-rounder; a very successful actor, director and writer. Indeed, in both “Ghostbusters” and “Stripes” he was a co-writer as well as playing a lead character. Ramis worked as writer-director on “Caddyshack”, “National Lampoon’s Vacation”, “Groundhog Day” and “Analyze This”.

“Groundhog Day” is a 1993 comedy film that has already become a classic. The star of the movie is Bill Murray, with the lovely Andie MacDowell putting in a great supporting performance. “Groundhog Day” is set in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania although it was actually filmed in the town of Woodstock, Illinois.

36 Soon-to-be alumni: Abbr. : SRS

An alumnus (plural “alumni”) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural “alumnae”). The term comes into English from Latin, in which an alumnus is a foster-son or pupil. “Alum” is an informal term used for either an alumna or alumnus.

44 Violin bow application : ROSIN

Rosin is a solid form of resin derived from plant sources. Rosin is formed into cakes that players of stringed instruments use to rub along the hairs of their bows to help improve sound quality. The rosin increases the degree of friction between the strings and the bow. That same friction-increasing property comes into play when baseball pitchers use rosin to get a better grip on the ball, or when dancers apply rosin to the soles of their shoes.

46 A pun is said to be the lowest form of this : WIT

Here are some of my favorite puns:

  • A man died today when a pile of books fell on him. He only had his shelf to blame.
  • I hate negative numbers and will stop at nothing to avoid them.
  • I wasn’t going to get a brain transplant, but then I changed my mind.
  • I should have been sad when my flashlight batteries died, but I was delighted.

47 Ground transportation hub : BUS DEPOT

We use the term “bus” for a mode of transportation as it is an abbreviated form of the original “omnibus”. We imported “omnibus” via French from Latin, in which language it means “for all”. The idea is that an omnibus is a “carriage for all”.

50 Key of Bach’s “The Art of Fugue” : D MINOR

“The Art of Fugue” is a collection of 14 fugues and 4 canons composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in the last decade of his life, and which was left unfinished.

A fugue is similar to a round in that it is a piece, written for two or more voices, with themes that are introduced and taken up by different voices at different pitches. The most famous composer of fugues has to be Bach.

54 Follower of Navy or presidential : … SEAL

“SEAL” is an acronym used by the US Navy’s SEa, Air and Land teams. The SEALs were born out of the Navy’s special warfare groups from WWII, like the Underwater Demolition Teams and the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons. The Navy SEAL unit was established soon after President Kennedy’s famous speech in which he announced the plan to put a man on the moon, as in the same speech the president allocated $100m of funding to strengthen special operations forces. The Navy used some of this money to set up guerrilla and counter-guerrilla units, which soon became the SEALs.

55 Private eye, in old lingo : TEC

“Tec” is a slang term meaning “private detective” or “private investigator” (PI).

61 Website 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).

64 Milliner’s creation : HAT

A milliner is someone who makes, designs or sells hats. Back in the 1500s, the term described someone who sold hats made in Milan, Italy, hence the name “milliner”.

65 Run ___ light : A RED

The first traffic lights date back to 1868 when they were installed outside the Houses of Parliament in London. They resembled the signals already in use for trains, with semaphore arms and red and green gas lamps for nighttime use. That first system was operated manually, by a policeman at the base. Sadly, one police officer was killed just one year after the light’s installation, when the gas system exploded.

66 One-pointer in horseshoes : LEANER

In the game of horseshoes, a ringer is scored when the tossed shoe lands around the target stake. A leaner is almost as good as a ringer, and is scored when a horseshoe lands upright or leans against the stake.

67 Old TV star with the catchphrase “I pity the fool” : MR T

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!”.

68 Low-carb kind of diet : KETO

A ketogenic (also “keto”) diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. When a body consumes insufficient carbohydrates to meet the need for energy, then the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies in order to make up the energy deficit. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the bloodstream is known as “ketosis”, a term that gives rise to the name “ketogenic diet”. Medical professionals sometimes prescribe a ketogenic diet in order to control epilepsy in children. A condition of ketosis can reduce the frequency of epileptic seizures.

Down

1 Dole’s 1996 running mate : KEMP

Jack Kemp was a candidate for US Vice President in the 1996 presidential election, on the Republican ticket with Bob Dole. Prior to politics, Kemp played football in the NFL, serving as quarterback and captain of the San Diego Chargers and the Buffalo Bills. Kemp passed away in 2009, and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama.

Despite all Bob Dole’s success in the world of politics, he is remembered by many as the VP candidate who lost to Walter Mondale (and Jimmy Carter) and the presidential candidate who lost to incumbent Bill Clinton. The man is a true war hero. He joined up in 1942 and fought with the Army’s 10th Mountain Division in Italy. In 1945 he was hit by machine gun fire in his right arm and back Dole was so badly injured that his comrades could only dose him up with morphine, write “M” on his forehead with his own blood (so that another, fatal dose of morphine would not be administered) and continue fighting the battle. Dole had to wait nine hours to be evacuated from the battlefield, and wait another three years before being discharged from hospital back in the States.

2 Gillette razor brand : ATRA

Fortunately for crossword constructors, the Atra was introduced by Gillette in 1977, as the first razor with a pivoting head. The Atra was sold as the Contour in some markets and its derivative products are still around today.

4 Musical that was the highest-grossing movie in 1978 : GREASE

“Grease” was, and still is, a very successful stage musical with a blockbuster film version released in 1978. The movie stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Travolta wasn’t the first choice for the lead role. It was first offered to Henry Winkler of “Happy Days” fame in which he played “the Fonz”. Winkler turned down the role for fear of being typecast as a leather-clad fifties “hood”.

6 Body parts sometimes compared to steel : ABS

The abdominal muscles (abs) are more correctly referred to as the rectus abdominis muscles. They might be referred to as a “six-pack”, or even a “ten-pack”, in a person who has developed the muscles and who has low body fat. In my case, more like a keg …

7 “Ciao” : TA-TA

An Englishman might say “ta-ta” or “cheerio” instead of “goodbye”. Well, supposedly so …

“Ciao” is Italian for “‘bye”. “Arrivederci” is more formal, and translates as “goodbye”.

9 Attendants at a heavenly throne : SERAPHIM

A seraph is a celestial being found in Hebrew and Christian writings. The word “seraph” (plural “seraphim”) literally translates as “burning one”. Seraphs are the highest-ranking angels in the Christian tradition, and the fifth-ranking of ten in the Jewish tradition.

10 1980 Devo hit : WHIP IT

Devo is a band from Akron, Ohio formed back in 1973. The band’s biggest hit is “Whip It” released in 1980. Devo have a gimmick: the wearing of red, terraced plastic hats that are referred to as “energy domes”. Why? I have no idea …

13 Times Square sign for B’way fans : TKTS

One usually needs a ticket (tkt.) to see a Broadway (B’way) show.

27 Santa ___, Calif. : ROSA

Santa Rosa is the largest city in California’s Wine Country, and the county seat of Sonoma County. The epicenter of the so-called 1906 San Francisco Earthquake was located near Santa Rosa. There was actually more damage in Santa Rosa, for the size of the city, than there was in San Francisco.

28 Texas Ranger Hall of Fame locale : WACO

The Texas city of Waco is named for the Wichita people known as the “Waco”, who occupied the area for thousands of years.

The Texas Rangers are a law enforcement agency that has been around since 1835, although an unofficial force existed since 1823.

30 Singer Bareilles : SARA

Sara Bareilles achieved success with her 2007 “Love Song” with the help of the iTunes online store. In one week in June of that year, iTunes offered the song as “free single of the week” and it quickly became the most downloaded song in the store, and from there climbed to the number spot in the charts.

31 Hindi “master” : SAHIB

“Sahib” is most recognized as a term of address used in India, where it is used in much the same way as we use “mister” in English. The term was also used to address male Europeans in the days of the British Raj. The correct female form of address is “sahiba”, but in the colonial days the address used was “memsahib”, a melding of “ma’am” and “sahib”

37 Mulligan, to a golfer : REDO

There doesn’t seem to be a definitive account for the origin of the term “mulligan”, which is most often used for a shot do-over in golf. There are lots of stories about golfers named Mulligan though, and I suspect that one of them may be true …

38 Proofreader’s directive : 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.

40 Sportscaster Andrews : ERIN

Erin Andrews is a sports reporter. I don’t watch much in the line of sports but I do know Ms. Andrews for her appearances on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2010. She did quite well and made it to the final of the show. And then she was hired as the show’s co-host alongside Tom Bergeron. And then they were both let go …

41 Cultivate a garden plot, in a way : ROTOTILL

The rototiller (or rotary tiller) was invented by Arthur Clifford Howard in 1912, in Australia.

42 Butler in a romance : RHETT

In Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind”, when Rhett Butler finally walks out on Scarlett O’Hara he utters the words “My dear, I don’t give a damn”. Most of us are more familiar with the slightly different words spoken by Clark Gable in the film adaptation of the story: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

48 Unkempt person : SLOVEN

The word “unkempt” means “disheveled, not well-combed”. It derives from the Old English word “cemban” meaning “to comb”. The opposite to the more common “unkempt” is … “kempt”.

50 Raison ___ : D’ETRE

“Raison d’être” is a French phrase meaning “reason for existence”.

51 Playwright David : MAMET

David Mamet is best known as a playwright, and indeed won a Pulitzer for his 1984 play “Glengarry Glen Ross”. Mamet is also a successful screenwriter and received Oscar nominations for the films “The Verdict” (1982) and “Wag the Dog” (1997).

52 Oscar-winning Zellweger : RENEE

Renée Zellweger’s big break came in the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire”. A few years later, Zellweger followed that up with a string of successes in “Bridget Jones’ Diary” (2001), “Chicago” (2002) and “Cold Mountain” (2003). My wife and I love watching her play Bridget Jones, and as someone coming from Britain and Ireland, I have to say that Zellweger does a remarkable job with the accent. She worked hard to perfect that accent, and of course she had a voice coach. She also went “undercover” and worked as a temp in an office for three weeks fine-tuning her skills.

54 Frequent quotation attribution: Abbr. : SHAK

William Shakespeare is referred to as the Bard of Avon, as he was born and raised in the lovely town of Stratford-upon-Avon in the English Midlands.

56 Happy as a ___ : CLAM

Our phrase “happy as a clam” dates back to the mid-1600s. Back then it was a more lengthy expression: “happy as a clam in the mud at high tide”. The idea was that a clam would be happy in its muddy home at high tide, because no one from land could get to it and eat it.

63 Singer/musician with the Imagine Peace website : ONO

Yoko Ono was born in 1933 in Tokyo into a prosperous Japanese family, and is actually a descendant of one of the emperors of Japan. Yoko’s father moved around the world for work, and she lived the first few years of her life in San Francisco. The family returned to Japan, before moving on to New York, Hanoi and back to Japan just before WWII, in time to live through the great firebombing of Tokyo in 1945. Immediately after the war the family was far from prosperous. While Yoko’s father was being held in a prison camp in Vietnam, her mother had to resort to begging and bartering to feed her children. When her father was repatriated, life started to return to normal and Yoko was able to attend university. She was the first woman to be accepted into the philosophy program of Gakushuin University.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Kit ___ bar : KAT
4 Complimentary : GRATIS
10 Put an edge on : WHET
14 Biblical suffix with do or go : -ETH
15 Dealership offering : REBATE
16 Start of a carol title : HARK! …
17 Soldier’s food packet, for short : MRE
18 Occasion that people are dyeing to celebrate? : EASTER
19 “How ___ Your Mother” : I MET
20 Venmo’s parent company : PAYPAL
22 Caregivers’ org. : AMA
23 Funders of many campaign ads, in brief : PACS
24 Presses into service : USES
26 T-Mobile acquisition of 2020 : SPRINT
28 Land in “Game of Thrones” : WESTEROS
32 Sizzling : HOT
33 ___ bowl (fruity treat) : ACAI
34 Harold who directed “Groundhog Day” : RAMIS
36 Soon-to-be alumni: Abbr. : SRS
39 What you might do after some financial trading … or in this puzzle? : CORNER THE MARKET
43 Out ___ limb : ON A
44 Violin bow application : ROSIN
45 Cry just before the guest of honor arrives at a surprise party : HIDE!
46 A pun is said to be the lowest form of this : WIT
47 Ground transportation hub : BUS DEPOT
50 Key of Bach’s “The Art of Fugue” : D MINOR
53 Feature of some dresses : SLIT
54 Follower of Navy or presidential : … SEAL
55 Private eye, in old lingo : TEC
57 Recorded : ON TAPE
61 Website designer’s code : HTML
62 Moonstruck : IN LOVE
64 Milliner’s creation : HAT
65 Run ___ light : A RED
66 One-pointer in horseshoes : LEANER
67 Old TV star with the catchphrase “I pity the fool” : MR T
68 Low-carb kind of diet : KETO
69 No-good cars : LEMONS
70 Scrape (out) : EKE

Down

1 Dole’s 1996 running mate : KEMP
2 Gillette razor brand : ATRA
3 “… or so ___ say” : THEY
4 Musical that was the highest-grossing movie in 1978 : GREASE
5 Less contrived : REALER
6 Body parts sometimes compared to steel : ABS
7 “Ciao” : TA-TA
8 “10 ___ or less” (grocery sign) : ITEMS
9 Attendants at a heavenly throne : SERAPHIM
10 1980 Devo hit : WHIP IT
11 Villain in the book of Esther : HAMAN
12 Build : ERECT
13 Times Square sign for B’way fans : TKTS
21 Deposit : PUT IN
25 Clears up a jumble : SORTS
27 Santa ___, Calif. : ROSA
28 Texas Ranger Hall of Fame locale : WACO
29 Fiscal subj. : ECON
30 Singer Bareilles : SARA
31 Hindi “master” : SAHIB
35 They help with course selection : MENUS
36 Problem on a vinyl record : SKIP
37 Mulligan, to a golfer : REDO
38 Proofreader’s directive : STET
40 Sportscaster Andrews : ERIN
41 Cultivate a garden plot, in a way : ROTOTILL
42 Butler in a romance : RHETT
46 “You betcha” : WILL DO
48 Unkempt person : SLOVEN
49 Informal eateries : DINERS
50 Raison ___ : D’ETRE
51 Playwright David : MAMET
52 Oscar-winning Zellweger : RENEE
54 Frequent quotation attribution: Abbr. : SHAK
56 Happy as a ___ : CLAM
58 Melodramatic cry : AH ME!
59 Place to walk a dog : PARK
60 Suffix with bachelor : -ETTE
63 Singer/musician with the Imagine Peace website : ONO

9 thoughts on “0803-21 NY Times Crossword 3 Aug 21, Tuesday”

  1. 12:36 neat theme, nice to see Mr. T make an appearance again, not a fan of “realer”, however….

    1. @DuncanR …

      Agree w.r.t. “realer”. It’s in the dictionary (comparative form of “real”), but I’d have a hard time creating a sentence using it that one could actually speak aloud without getting odd looks from everyone present. (Maybe if someone said to me, “Now, Nonny, get real!,” I might humorously reply, “Okay, if that’s what you want, I can get even realer than real!”)

  2. 10:13. I suspect this theme was pretty tough to construct so high marks for it. 2 errors at WESTEROn/nAHIB (?) and gMINOR/GETRE (??). No clue on 3 of those and I just had to guess a key and missed.

  3. 10:37, no errors. I got the revealer fairly early, but never got THEMARKET outta the corners.

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