1213-21 NY Times Crossword 13 Dec 21, Monday

Constructed by: Tomas Spiers
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Stop, Drop and Roll

Themed answers define the words “STOP”, “DROP” AND “ROLL”:

  • 65A Fire safety technique … or 17-, 29- and 49-Across together : STOP, DROP AND ROLL
  • 17A Grand Central, for one : RAILROAD STATION (= STOP)
  • 29A Event of October 1929 : MARKET CRASH (= DROP)
  • 49A Pastry with a swirl : CINNAMON BUN (= ROLL)

Bill’s time: 7m 03s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 Prefix with -naut : AERO-

An aeronaut is a pilot of a craft that is lighter than air, like a hot air balloon for example.

15 ___ gras (goose or duck delicacy) : FOIE

Pâté is a rich spreadable paste made from a mixture of ground meat and fat, to which various vegetables, herbs and spices may be added. The most famous version of the paste is pâté de foie gras, which is made from the fattened livers of geese (“foie gras” means “fat liver” in French).

16 Contents of a .jpeg file : IMAGE

The JPEG image file format (also “.jpg”) was created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), hence the name.

17 Grand Central, for one : RAILROAD STATION

Grand Central Terminal in New York City is the largest railroad station in the world in terms of the number of platforms (44). Those platforms are all underground, and on two levels. The official name for the facility is “Grand Central Terminal”. The name “Grand Central Station” is very common, and is actually the name of the facility that the terminal replaced in 1913.

20 Host Harvey of “Family Feud” : STEVE

Steve Harvey is a comedian and TV personality who really started his successful career in 1990 when he landed the job of hosting “It’s Showtime at the Apollo” in 1990. He has hosted “The Steve Harvey Morning Show” on the radio since 2000, and “Family Feud” on television since 2010.

21 Music genre often labeled “heavy” : METAL

The rock anthem “Born to be Wild” was made famous by the band Steppenwolf in 1967. The song is sometimes referred to as the first heavy metal song, as the words “heavy metal thunder” appear in the lyric, the first recorded use of the term “heavy metal” in rock music.

22 Psychedelic substance : LSD

LSD (known colloquially as “acid”) is lysergic acid diethylamide. A Swiss chemist named Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 in a research project looking for medically efficacious ergot alkaloids. It wasn’t until some five years later when Hofmann ingested some of the drug accidentally that its psychedelic properties were discovered. Trippy, man …

23 ___ year (2020 or 2024) : LEAP

I wasn’t sure of the origin of the term “leap year”, and when I checked I found it to be fairly obvious. As a reference, let’s use March 25, 2007, a Sunday. The year before, in 2006, March 25th fell one weekday earlier on a Saturday. That follows the rule that any particular date moves forward in the week by one day, from one year to the next. However, the next year (2008) has an extra day, February 29th. So March 25, 2008 falls on a Tuesday, “leaping” two weekdays forward, not one, as 2008 is a “leap” year. I think I am more confused now than when I started this paragraph …

25 Actor/musician whose name sounds like a drink : ICE-T

Rapper Ice-T must be tired of having his name come up as an answer in crossword puzzles (I know I am!). Born Tracy Marrow, Ice-T has been interested in acting for decades and made his film debut in the 1984 movie about breakdancing called “Breakin’”. He has also played Detective Fin Tutuola in the TV show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” since the year 2000.

27 Santa ___ winds : ANA

The Santa Ana winds are the very dry air currents that sweep offshore late in the year in Southern California. Because these air currents are so dry, they are noted for their influence over forest fires in the area, especially in the heat of the fall. The winds arise from a buildup of air pressure in the Great Basin that lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Under the right conditions, that air spills over the peaks of the Sierra Nevada and basically “falls” down the side of the Sierra range, heading for the ocean. As the air falls it becomes drier and heats up so that relative humidity can fall to below 10% by the time it hits the coast.

29 Event of October 1929 : MARKET CRASH

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 that signalled the start of the Great Depression did not take place in one day. The first big drop in the market took place on October 24 (Black Thursday). Things stabilized on Friday, and then the slide continued on the 28th (Black Monday) and the 29th (Black Tuesday).

36 Bird symbolizing grace : SWAN

An adult male swan is a cob, and an adult female is a pen. Young swans are swanlings or cygnets.

37 Figure skater Harding : TONYA

Tonya Harding won the US Figure Skating Championships in 1991. Harding’s reputation was greatly tarnished in the run up to the 1994 Olympics, when her former husband and her bodyguard contracted someone to attack Harding’s main competitor, Nancy Kerrigan. During a practice session for the US Championship, a hired thug assaulted Kerrigan with a police baton, attempting to break her leg. Kerrigan was forced to withdraw, and Harding won the championship. Both Harding and Kerrigan were selected for the Olympic team, and despite attempts to get Harding removed, both skated at the Games in Lillehammer. Harding finished in eighth place, and Kerrigan won the silver medal. Harding admitted that she helped cover up the attack when she found out about it, and was stripped of her US Championship title.

43 Legal wrong : TORT

“Tort” is a French word meaning “mischief, injury or wrong”. In common law, a tort is a civil wrong that results in the injured party suffering loss or harm, and the injuring party having a legal liability. Tort law differs from criminal law in that torts may result from negligence and not just intentional actions. Also, tort lawsuits may be decided on a preponderance of evidence, without the need of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

44 Love on the Loire : AMOUR

The Loire is the longest river in France. It is so long that it drains one-fifth of the nation’s land mass. The Loire rises in the southeast, in the Cevennes mountain range, then heads north then due west, emptying into the Bay of Biscay at the city of Nantes. The Loire Valley is home to some of France’s most famous wine production, and includes the wine regions of Sancerre, Pouilly-Fumé and Muscadet. It is also home to some of the nation’s most spectacular châteaux. There are over 300 castles along the river, built by French kings and their courtiers.

49 Pastry with a swirl : CINNAMON BUN

“True” cinnamon sticks are taken from the inner bark of the Cinnamomum verum tree. However, a lot of cinnamon sticks are also sold that come from a related species of tree, and these are more correctly referred to as “cassia”.

56 La ___ (Bolivian capital) : PAZ

The full name of the capital city of Ecuador is San Francisco de Quito. Quito is the second highest administrative capital city in the world, after La Paz, Bolivia.

62 €€€€€ : EUROS

The euro sign (€) looks like a letter C, but with two horizontal lines drawn across the middle. Inspiration for the design comes from the Greek letter epsilon.

68 Where to sit for the bar? : STOOL

One of my favorite places to perch. Well, it used to be a couple of years ago …

69 Where baby Moses was found : NILE

According to the Bible, the Pharaoh issued an edict that all male Hebrew children be drowned in the river Nile soon after birth. Moses’ mother saved her child by placing him in a basket and hiding him among the bulrushes at the edge of the Nile. The baby was found and adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter.

Down

3 Star of “Room” and “Captain Marvel” : BRIE LARSON

I mainly recognize actress Brie Larson from playing the daughter of Toni Collete’’s character on the excellent TV show “United States of Tara”. Larson is from Sacramento, and trained at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, where she was the youngest person ever admitted.

4 Do a crossword, say : SOLVE

Arthur Wynne is generally credited with the invention of what we now know as a crossword puzzle. Wynne was born in Liverpool, England and emigrated to the US when he was 19-years-old. He worked as a journalist and was living in Cedar Grove, New Jersey in 1913 when he introduced a “Word-Cross Puzzle” in his page of puzzles written for the “New York World”. The first book of crossword puzzles was published by Shuster & Shuster, in 1924. The collection of puzzles was a huge hit, and crosswords were elevated to the level of “a craze” in 1924 and 1925.

5 Money manager, in brief : CFO

The chief financial officer (CFO) is particularly concerned about his or her company’s profit and loss (P&L).

9 Cockney vis-à-vis English : DIALECT

A Cockney is someone who, according to tradition, is born within the sound of Bow Bells in the center of London. The Cockney accent is usually considered “working class”. Cockney speakers often use a wonderful form of speech called rhyming slang. So, Cockney’s drink a lot of “Rosie Lea” (tea), and climb the “apples and pears” (stairs) using their “plates of meat” (feet). Cockneys also tend to “drop their aitches”, so “home” becomes “‘ome” and “horse” becomes “‘orse”.

10 An essential worker, for short : EMT

Emergency medical technician (EMT)

11 A sea horse has a prehensile one : TAIL

Seahorses belong to the genus Hippocampus. The genus name comes from the Greek “hippo” meaning “horse” and “kampos” meaning “sea monster”. It’s the male seahorse who carries the fertilized eggs, and not the females. The region of the brain known as the hippocampus, is so called because it resembles a seahorse in shape.

A part of the body that is described as prehensile is adapted for grasping. Examples would be an elephant’s trunk and a monkey’s tail.

18 Printing paper units : REAMS

A ream is 500 sheets of paper. As there were 24 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires made up a ream, there used to be 480 sheets in a ream. Ever since the standard was changed to 500, a 480-sheet packet of paper has been called a “short ream”. We also use the term “reams” to mean a great amount, evolving from the idea of a lot of printed material.

27 Fortune 500 company whose name rhymes, appropriately, with “quack” : 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 …

28 Tennis champ Osaka : NAOMI

Naomi Osaka is a Japanese-born tennis professional who became the first Asian player to be ranked number-one in singles.

33 Damascus is its capital : SYRIA

Damascus is the second largest city in Syria (after Aleppo), and is the country’s capital. Damascus has the distinction of being the oldest, continuously-inhabited city in the world, having been settled in the 2nd millennium BC. Also, it has the nickname “City of Jasmine”.

34 Word repeated in Roger Ebert’s “I ___, ___, ___ This Movie” : HATED

“I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie” is a collection consisting of a couple of hundred of Roger Ebert’s most acerbic and negative film reviews. Included are reviews of “Armageddon” (1998), “The Beverly Hillbillies” (1993) and “Police Academy” (1984).

39 Phoenix N.B.A. team : SUNS

The Phoenix Suns NBA team are in the Pacific Division, and are the only team in that division not based in California.

50 Bryn ___ (women’s college) : MAWR

Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania is a women’s liberal arts school that was founded in 1885. Bryn Mawr was the first women’s university in the nation to offer graduate education through to a PhD. While the undergraduate program is open only to females, the school opened up the postgraduate program to males in 1931.

55 Spiritual guides : GURUS

“Guru” is a Hindi word meaning “teacher” or “priest”.

58 They have everything from aardvarks to zebras : ZOOS

The world’s first zoo opened in Britain in 1820. Now known as “London Zoo”, the facility was referred to back then as the “Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society of London”. The term “zoo” is a shortening of “zoological”.

The aardvark is the oddest looking of creatures, and a nocturnal burrowing animal that is native to Africa. Even though it is sometimes called the African ant bear, the name “aardvark” is Afrikaans for “earth pig”. Aardvarks are noted, among other things, for their unique teeth. Their teeth have no enamel and wear away quite readily, but continuously regrow. The aardvark feeds mainly on ants and termites.

The term “zebra” comes from an old Portuguese word “zevra” meaning “wild ass”. Studies of zebra embryos show that zebras are basically black in color, with white stripes that develop with growth. Before this finding, it was believed they were white, with black stripes.

61 Sign of saintliness : HALO

The Greek word “halos” is the name given to the ring of light around the sun or moon, which gives us our word “halo” that is used for a radiant light depicted above the head of a saintly person.

63 Ye ___ Shoppe : OLDE

The word “olde” wasn’t actually used much earlier than the 1920s. “Olde” was introduced to give a quaint antique feel to brand names, shop names etc. as in “Ye Olde Shoppe”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Flows out, as the tide : EBBS
5 One who’s always complaining, complaining, complaining : CRAB
9 Prevent through intimidation : DETER
14 Prefix with -naut : AERO-
15 ___ gras (goose or duck delicacy) : FOIE
16 Contents of a .jpeg file : IMAGE
17 Grand Central, for one : RAILROAD STATION
20 Host Harvey of “Family Feud” : STEVE
21 Music genre often labeled “heavy” : METAL
22 Psychedelic substance : LSD
23 ___ year (2020 or 2024) : LEAP
25 Actor/musician whose name sounds like a drink : ICE-T
27 Santa ___ winds : ANA
29 Event of October 1929 : MARKET CRASH
35 A long way away : FAR
36 Bird symbolizing grace : SWAN
37 Figure skater Harding : TONYA
38 Spoiler of a perfect record : LOSS
40 Skiing or skating : SPORT
43 Legal wrong : TORT
44 Love on the Loire : AMOUR
46 Listening device for an undercover officer : WIRE
48 Inconclusive score : TIE
49 Pastry with a swirl : CINNAMON BUN
52 “I’ve ___ enough out of you!” : HAD
53 Bridge : SPAN
54 Narrowly defeat, with “out” : EDGE …
56 La ___ (Bolivian capital) : PAZ
59 “If only!” : I WISH!
62 €€€€€ : EUROS
65 Fire safety technique … or 17-, 29- and 49-Across together : STOP, DROP AND ROLL
68 Where to sit for the bar? : STOOL
69 Where baby Moses was found : NILE
70 Go back, when editing : UNDO
71 “Yum!” : TASTY!
72 Mother Nature’s blanket : SNOW
73 Ooze : SEEP

Down

1 Elves have big ones, stereotypically : EARS
2 Musical rhythm : BEAT
3 Star of “Room” and “Captain Marvel” : BRIE LARSON
4 Do a crossword, say : SOLVE
5 Money manager, in brief : CFO
6 Wander about : ROAM
7 Right-hand person : AIDE
8 Closest pal : BESTIE
9 Cockney vis-à-vis English : DIALECT
10 An essential worker, for short : EMT
11 A sea horse has a prehensile one : TAIL
12 Big heads : EGOS
13 Tear up : REND
18 Printing paper units : REAMS
19 What you may use when turning down an invitation : TACT
24 Canine “handshake” offerings : PAWS
26 Gait for a horse with a buggy : TROT
27 Fortune 500 company whose name rhymes, appropriately, with “quack” : AFLAC
28 Tennis champ Osaka : NAOMI
30 Grammy genre since 1988 : RAP
31 In the public consciousness : KNOWN
32 Terse request to a bartender : ANOTHER ONE
33 Damascus is its capital : SYRIA
34 Word repeated in Roger Ebert’s “I ___, ___, ___ This Movie” : HATED
39 Phoenix N.B.A. team : SUNS
41 Poke fun at : RIB
42 “You’re right” : TRUE
45 With haste : RAPIDLY
47 Came to a close : ENDED
50 Bryn ___ (women’s college) : MAWR
51 Liver and ___ (dish) : ONIONS
55 Spiritual guides : GURUS
56 [Hey! Over here!] : [PSST!]
57 Lead-in to boy or girl : ATTA …
58 They have everything from aardvarks to zebras : ZOOS
60 Whirl : SPIN
61 Sign of saintliness : HALO
63 Ye ___ Shoppe : OLDE
64 Pigs’ supper : SLOP
66 What calls the kettle black, in an expression : POT
67 Fresh : NEW