1117-21 NY Times Crossword 17 Nov 21, Wednesday

Constructed by: Anne Grae Martin
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer That’s All … She Wrote

Circled letters spell out the names of various yoga poses, and are arranged in the grid to represent the shape of those poses. The poses are:

  • The CAT pose
  • The DOWNWARD DOG pose
  • The CHAIR pose
  • The COBRA pose
  • The BOAT pose
  • 58A What the five formations of circled letters in this puzzle represent : YOGA POSES

Bill’s time: 10m 29s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Biceps locale : ARM

The biceps muscle is made up of two bundles of muscle, both of which terminate at the same point near the elbow. The heads of the bundles terminate at different points on the scapula or shoulder blade. “Biceps” is Latin for “two-headed”.

15 Mauna ___ : LOA

Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawaii is the largest volcano on the planet (in terms of volume). The name “Mauna Loa” is Hawaiian for “Long Mountain”.

17 “Mrs. America” actress Uzo : ADUBA

Uzo Aduba is an actress best known for playing prison inmate Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren on the Netflix TV show “Orange Is the New Black”.

20 Kylo ___ of “Star Wars” : REN

Kylo Ren is the son of Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa in the “Star Wars” universe. The character’s birth name was Ben Solo. He was trained as a Jedi knight by his uncle, Luke Skywalker. However, Ben came to embrace the Dark Side, and changed his name to Kylo Ren. Ren is played by actor Adam Driver.

21 Like many items on Etsy : HANDMADE

Etsy.com is an e-commerce website where you can buy and sell the kind of items that you might find at a craft fair.

25 Grasslike swamp plants : SEDGES

Sedges are a family of plants that resemble grasses and rushes. Sedges are more properly called Cyperaceae.

29 Hugs, on a love letter : O-O-O

In the sequence letter sequence “X-O-X”, the X represents a kiss, and the O a hug. “O-O-O” is a string of hugs, and “X-X-X” a string of kisses. Hugs and kisses …

30 Politicians in the House of Commons: Abbr. : MPS

The UK Parliament is divided into two houses, with the upper house known as the House of Lords and the lower house as the House of Commons. The members of the House of Commons (MPs) are elected, but most new members of the House of Lords are appointed. Historically, a large proportion of the membership of the upper house were hereditary peers, but recent legislative changes are reducing the numbers who can sit in the House of Lords by virtue of birthright.

31 Kind of milk that’s an alternative to soy : OAT

Oat milk is one of the alternatives to cow’s milk, and is lactose free. I’m a big fan …

32 Headstrong : OBDURATE

Something or someone described as obdurate is persistently unbending and stubborn, usually in a bad way.

37 Bruins’ sch. : UCLA

The UCLA Bruins’ mascots are Joe and Josephine Bruin, characters that have evolved over the years. There used to be “mean” Bruin mascots but they weren’t very popular with the fans, so now there are only “happy” Bruin mascots at the games.

44 Pop star Grande, to fans : ARI

Ariana Grande is a singer and actress from Boca Raton, Florida. Grande plays the role of Cat Valentine on the sitcom “Victorious” that aired for four seasons on Nickelodeon. Grande’s singing career took off with the release of the 2011 album “Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show”.

47 Body shot, in brief? : MRI

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine uses powerful magnetic fields to generate images that can be used by medical professionals to diagnose injury and disease.

48 Cain with a 2012 presidential campaign : HERMAN

The National Restaurant Association (NRA) was founded in 1919. Perhaps the most famous name associated with the association is Herman Cain. Cain ran for US president in 2011, with his 9-9-9 tax plan at the center of his platform. He passed away in 2020 after contracting COVID-19.

55 Like September’s equinox : AUTUMNAL

An equinox is a phenomenon dictated by the tilt of the earth’s axis. Twice every year, that tilt “evens out” and the sun is equidistant from points at the same latitude both north and south of the equator. It is as if the earth has no tilt relative to the sun. The term “equinox” comes from the Latin for “equal night”, inferring that night and day are equally long, as the effect of the earth’s “tilt” is nullified. Equinoxes occur each year around March 21st (the vernal equinox) and September 23rd (the autumnal equinox).

57 Path to enlightenment : TAO

The name of the Chinese character “tao” translates as “path”, but the concept of Taoism signifies the true nature of the world.

58 What the five formations of circled letters in this puzzle represent : YOGA POSES

“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”.

63 Wonderland girl : ALICE

Lewis Carroll wrote “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” in 1865, and the sequel called “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There” in 1871. Because in the second adventure Alice went through a looking glass, the themes were deliberately chosen to be mirror images of the themes in “Wonderland”. Whereas “Wonderland” begins indoors, is set in summer, and uses playing card imagery, “Looking Glass” begins out of doors, is set in winter and uses images from the game of chess.

65 Neighbor of a Slovene : CROAT

The Republic of Croatia is a Balkan country. The Croats declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Croatia became a member of NATO in 2009, and a member of the European Union in 2013.

66 Many a Jane Austen setting : MANOR

Perhaps Jane Austen’s most famous ironic statement comes at the start of her 1813 masterpiece “Pride and Prejudice”:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

67 Pistons or Lions, on scoreboards : DET

The NBA’s Detroit Pistons team was founded in 1941 as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons of the National Basketball League. The team was owned by Fred Zollner, who supplied pistons to the automotive industry. The Pistons moved from Indiana to Detroit in 1957.

The Detroit Lions are the NFL team that play home games at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. The team was founded way back in 1929 as the Portsmouth Spartans from Portsmouth, Ohio. The Spartans joined the NFL during the Great Depression as other franchises collapsed. However, the Spartans couldn’t command a large enough gate in Portsmouth so the team was sold and relocated to Detroit in 1934.

68 Netflix’s “Sparking Joy With Marie ___” : KONDO

Marie Kondo runs a very successful organizing consulting business that she founded when she was 19 years old, and while a student at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University. She wrote an extremely successful book titled “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” that was first published in 2011. I’ve read it, and acted on at least some of the advice given therein …

Down

2 “The Shield of Achilles” poet : AUDEN

Noted poet W. H. Auden was born and raised in England, but eventually became a US citizen. As well as hundreds of poems, Auden also wrote librettos for operas, including Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rake’s Progress”.

6 ___ Thompson a.k.a. Honey Boo Boo : ALANA

“Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” is a reality show about a child beauty pageant contest called Honey Boo Boo Thompson, and her family. “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” is actually a spin-off show of another reality show called “Toddlers & Tiaras” that follows the families of a whole host of child beauty pageant contestants. Honey Boo Boo’s mother peps up her daughter before appearing in a pageant by giving her “Go Go Juice”, a mixture of Red Bull and Mountain Dew.

9 Subjects of King Carl XVI Gustaf : SWEDES

King Carl XVI Gustaf is the reigning King of Sweden, having ascended to the throne in 1973. In 1980, Sweden became the first European country to adopt a law transmitting title and property to the firstborn, regardless of gender. As a result, the King’s eldest daughter, Crown Prince Victoria, is now the heir apparent to the Swedish throne.

13 “___ a Tramp” (Disney song) : HE’S

“Lady and the Tramp” is a classic animated feature from Walt Disney that was released in 1955. The title characters are a female American cocker spaniel and a male stray mutt. Who can forget the scene where the Tramp and Lady are “on a date”, and together eat that one strand of spaghetti? So cute! Disney made a 2019 live-action adaptation of the original using the same title.

24 Fearsome pteranodon of classic film : RODAN

Rodan is a flying pterosaur appearing in a series of Japanese monster movies, created by the same studio that had earlier come up with Godzilla.

26 “Waiting for ___” : GODOT

An Irishman I may be, but I have sat through several plays by Samuel Beckett (the Irish dramatist) and I have yet to come away feeling satisfied that I spent my time well. Of course I am in the minority, as Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot” was once voted the most significant English language play of the 20th century. Maybe I will give “Waiting for Godot” another chance one day, but I doubt it …

28 [Do not delete] : [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.

30 What an Impossible Burger lacks : MEAT

Heme (also “haem”) is an organic structure containing iron, and is a component of hemoglobin, the protein that transports primarily oxygen around the body. It is the “heme” in “hemoglobin” that binds the oxygen atoms. A plant-derived version of heme is the magic ingredient in the famous Impossible Burger that has become so popular on vegetarian menus.

32 Clayey color : OCHRE

Ocher is a light, yellowish-brown color, although variations of the pigment are possible such as red ocher and purple ocher. “Ocher” is usually spelled “ochre” on the other side of the pond.

33 Serena’s best friend on “Gossip Girl” : BLAIR

“Gossip Girl” is a series of young adult novels by American author Cecily von Ziegesar. The Gossip Girl in the title is the narrator of the tale, a gossip blogger who recounts the experiences of two friends, Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen.

34 British bum : ARSE

Well, the word “arse” would never make it into a crossword on the other side of the pond, as it would be considered too rude. I have a similar reaction to the word “shag” as in “The Spy Who Shagged Me”. The film would never have been released with that title in the UK.

37 Great Salt Lake locale : UTAH

The Great Salt Lake in Utah is extremely shallow, and so the area of the lake fluctuates greatly with the changing volume of water. Back in 1963 the lake shrunk to 950 square miles, whereas in 1988 the area was measured at a whopping 3,300 square miles.

39 Venomous snake : MAMBA

Mambas, and most famously black mambas, are highly venomous snakes that used to be responsible for a great number of fatalities before anti-venoms became available. Mamba venom is a deadly mix of neurotoxins that attack the nervous system and cardiotoxins that attack the heart. A bite, if left untreated, causes the lungs and the heart to shut down.

43 Colorfully named victim in the U.K. version of Clue : DR BLACK

Clue is a board game that we knew under a different name growing up in Ireland. Outside of North America, Clue is marketed as “Cluedo”. Cluedo was the original name of the game, introduced in 1949 by the famous British board game manufacturer Waddingtons. There are cute differences between the US and UK versions. For example, the man who is murdered is called Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy in the US), one of the suspects is the Reverend Green (Mr. Green in the US), and the suspect weapons include a dagger (a knife in the US), and a spanner (a wrench in the US). I think it’s a fabulous game, a must during the holidays …

45 Mark Twain title character : PAUPER

In Mark Twain’s 1881 novel “The Prince and Pauper”, the title characters are Prince Edward, son of English King Henry VIII, and Tom Canty, the son of a poor and abusive father who lives in London.

49 “America’s Bodyshop” company : MAACO

MAACO Collision Repair & Auto Painting was founded by Anthony A. Martino ten years after he launched AAMCO Transmissions. The names of both companies were derived from the first letters of his name, i.e. “AAM”.

53 Mythological being that’s an anagram of DIANA : NAIAD

The Naiads of Greek mythology were water nymphs associated with fountains, wells, springs and streams. The saltwater equivalents of the freshwater Naiads were the Oceanids.

58 Major vegetable export of Nigeria (nearly 70% of the world’s total) : YAM

Although in the US we sometimes refer to sweet potatoes as “yams”, the yam is actually a completely different family of plants. True yams are more common in other parts of the world than they are in this country, and are especially common in Africa.

60 Ingredient in a Negroni : GIN

The Negroni is a lovely cocktail, one 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!

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Like the comment “I heard you the first 10 times!” : SASSY
6 Biceps locale : ARM
9 Hide (away) : STASH
14 With 45-Across, one who’s adorable : CUTIE …
15 Mauna ___ : LOA
16 “Gadzooks!” : WOWIE!
17 “Mrs. America” actress Uzo : ADUBA
18 Goal of some meditation : AWARENESS
20 Kylo ___ of “Star Wars” : REN
21 Like many items on Etsy : HANDMADE
23 Home front? : ENTRYWAY
25 Grasslike swamp plants : SEDGES
29 Hugs, on a love letter : O-O-O
30 Politicians in the House of Commons: Abbr. : MPS
31 Kind of milk that’s an alternative to soy : OAT
32 Headstrong : OBDURATE
36 One of 12 on a die : EDGE
37 Bruins’ sch. : UCLA
38 Ideal scenario : DREAM
40 What large birds typically do less often : MOLT
41 Comparative word : THAN
42 Flesh out some wedding plans, perhaps : SET A DATE
44 Pop star Grande, to fans : ARI
45 See 14-Across : … PIE
47 Body shot, in brief? : MRI
48 Cain with a 2012 presidential campaign : HERMAN
50 Roughly putting (together) : COBBLING
55 Like September’s equinox : AUTUMNAL
57 Path to enlightenment : TAO
58 What the five formations of circled letters in this puzzle represent : YOGA POSES
61 ___ omen (Latin akin to “Heaven forbid”) : ABSIT
63 Wonderland girl : ALICE
64 Before, in poetry : ERE
65 Neighbor of a Slovene : CROAT
66 Many a Jane Austen setting : MANOR
67 Pistons or Lions, on scoreboards : DET
68 Netflix’s “Sparking Joy With Marie ___” : KONDO

Down

1 Freak out : SCARE
2 “The Shield of Achilles” poet : AUDEN
3 Publicity act : STUNT
4 12- or 62-Down : SIB
5 Response to “Who, me?!” : YEAH, YOU!
6 ___ Thompson a.k.a. Honey Boo Boo : ALANA
7 Unruly : ROWDY
8 Palindromic title : MA’AM
9 Subjects of King Carl XVI Gustaf : SWEDES
10 Muscular : TONED
11 Breathtaking feeling : AWE
12 Member of the fam : SIS
13 “___ a Tramp” (Disney song) : HE’S
19 Hoarse voice : RASP
22 “Let’s talk …” : A WORD …
24 Fearsome pteranodon of classic film : RODAN
26 “Waiting for ___” : GODOT
27 Former U.S. coin worth $10 : EAGLE
28 [Do not delete] : [STET]
30 What an Impossible Burger lacks : MEAT
32 Clayey color : OCHRE
33 Serena’s best friend on “Gossip Girl” : BLAIR
34 British bum : ARSE
35 Common garment for tie-dyeing : TEE
36 ___ alert : EMAIL
37 Great Salt Lake locale : UTAH
39 Venomous snake : MAMBA
43 Colorfully named victim in the U.K. version of Clue : DR BLACK
45 Mark Twain title character : PAUPER
46 Fancying : INTO
49 “America’s Bodyshop” company : MAACO
50 Informal summons : C’MERE
51 Infancy : ONSET
52 “You wanna fight? Let’s go!” : IT’S ON!
53 Mythological being that’s an anagram of DIANA : NAIAD
54 Arrived at : GOT TO
56 Treated as a pawn : USED
58 Major vegetable export of Nigeria (nearly 70% of the world’s total) : YAM
59 Portuguese greeting : OLA
60 Ingredient in a Negroni : GIN
62 Member of the fam : BRO

12 thoughts on “1117-21 NY Times Crossword 17 Nov 21, Wednesday”

  1. 22:36 I know nothing of yoga poses, other than if I attempt one, I will need help getting back up….

  2. 18:32. Getting to the late. I seem to be doing that a lot these days. I don’t know any of these poses. Went right after the reveal and saw it would do me no good. A themeless for me today.

    Maybe if I ever found time to read Marie KONDO’s book, I’d get to these in a more timely manner.

    Best –

  3. No circles in printed version so theme was worthless.
    Messed on OBDURATE. Went with OCDURTE for the sake of 33D which I had CLAIRE.

  4. Too many obscure proper names for my taste also but I solved it in spite of them. I don’t time myself but long for a Wednesday.

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