0119-22 NY Times Crossword 19 Jan 22, Wednesday

Constructed by: Ori Brian
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): a + d

There is a note with today’s puzzle:

This is a “uniclue” crossword, which combines Across and Down. When two answers share a number, they also share a clue.

The answers to the “uniclues” are in the format “a and d”, where “a” is the across-answer and “d” is the down-answer:

  • 1A Reposition an icon, maybe : DRAG AND DROP
  • 5A Key inspiration? : STARS AND STRIPES
  • 10A Genre with a Hall of Fame in Ohio : ROCK AND ROLL
  • 27A Principle of complementary duality : YIN AND YANG
  • 42A Pleasantly concise : SHORT AND SWEET
  • 51A Combine, as versatile wardrobe pieces : MIX AND MATCH
  • 59A Fashion accessories in a 1940s #1 Dinah Shore hit : BUTTONS AND BOWS

Bill’s time: 7m 29s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Key inspiration? : STARS AND STRIPES

“The Star-Spangled Banner” by Francis Scott Key was adopted as the US national anthem in 1931. The song had been used officially by the US Navy since 1889, and was played when raising the flag.

7 Grande of “The Voice,” 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”.

“The Voice” is yet another reality television show. It is a singing competition in which the judges hear the contestants without seeing them in the first round. The judges then take on chosen contestants as coaches for the remaining rounds. “The Voice” is a highly successful worldwide franchise that originated in the Netherlands as “The Voice of Holland”.

8 Alamo offering : RENTAL

The third-largest car rental company in recent years is Alamo, which was founded in 1974. Alamo made inroads (pun!) into the market by popularizing the idea of “unlimited mileage”.

9 Kind of fragrant oil in some Asian cuisines : SESAME

Sesame oil is extracted from sesame seeds. It is one of the nutritionally “good” oils, in that it is high in polyunsaturated fatty acids. Unlike most “good” oils, sesame oil keeps at room temperature, due to the presence of naturally occurring preservatives.

10 Genre with a Hall of Fame in Ohio : ROCK AND ROLL

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame can be visited on the shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was created in 1983 and started inducting artists in 1986. The Foundation didn’t get a home until the museum was dedicated in Cleveland in 1995. I had the great privilege of visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame some years ago and really enjoyed myself. The magnificent building was designed by famed architect I. M. Pei.

11 Daisy variety also called a marguerite : OXEYE

Oxeyes are in the daisy family of plants. Also known as dog daisies or marguerites, the flowers of oxeyes feature white petals surrounding yellow disc florets.

12 Constellation known as the Whale : CETUS

Cetus is a constellation named after a sea monster from Greek mythology. Today, Cetus is often referred to as the Whale.

13 Leslie ___, Amy Poehler’s role on “Parks and Recreation” : KNOPE

“Parks and Recreation” is a sitcom that started airing on NBC in 2009, and is a show that has grown on me. It stars the “Saturday Night Live” alum Amy Poehler. The creators of “Parks and Recreation” are part of the team responsible for the American version of “The Office”, so you’ll notice some similarities in the style of the two shows, and some actors that have appeared in both.

Amy Poehler was a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” from 2001 to 2008, notable for appearing in many great sketches, including those where she played Hillary Clinton opposite Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin. Poehler also starred with Fey in the 2008 movie “Baby Mama”. And, Poehler led the cast of the sitcom “Parks and Recreation” for its seven-season run.

14 Chocolate-and-caramel candy : ROLO

Rolo was a hugely popular chocolate candy in Ireland when I was growing up. Rolo was introduced in the thirties in the UK, and is produced under license in the US by Hershey. I was a little disappointed when I had my first taste of the American version as the center is very hard and chewy. The recipe used on the other side of the Atlantic calls for a soft gooey center.

15 Number of Brontë sisters or Karamazov brothers : THREE

The Brontë family lived in the lovely village of Haworth in Yorkshire, England. The three daughters all became recognised authors. The first to achieve success was Charlotte Brontë when she published “Jane Eyre”. Then came Emily with “Wuthering Heights” and Anne with “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall”.

“The Brothers Karamazov” was the last novel completed by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky, as the author died just four months after it was published.

18 Checks held by Santa? : REINS

We get the names for Santa’s reindeer from the famous 1823 poem called “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, although we’ve modified a couple of the names over the years. The full list is:

  • Dasher
  • Dancer
  • Prancer
  • Vixen
  • Comet
  • Cupid
  • Donder (originally “Dunder”, and now often “Donner”)
  • Blitzen (originally “Blixem”)

Rudolph was added to the list by retailer Montgomery Ward, would you believe? The store commissioned Robert L. May to create a booklet that could be handed out to children around Christmas in 1939, and May introduced us to a new friend for Santa, namely Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

19 Actor Jared : LETO

Jared Leto is an actor and musician. In the world of music, he is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the rock band 30 Seconds to Mars. In the film world, one of his most critically acclaimed roles was that of a heroin addict in “Requiem for a Dream”. Leto also appeared in “American Psycho”, “Panic Room” and “Lord of War”. He won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance in 2013’s “Dallas Buyers Club”, in which he portrayed a transgender woman.

20 One who wasn’t due to arrive, informally : PREEMIE

A “preemie” (sometimes “premie”) is a preterm or premature birth.

21 Fountain treats : MALTS

Walgreens claims to have introduced the malted milkshake, back in 1922.

22 Count : TALLY UP

Back in the mid-1600s, a tally was a stick marked with notches that tracked how much one owed or paid. The term “tally” came from the Latin “talea” meaning “stick, rod”. The act of “scoring” the stick with notches gave rise to our word “score” for the number in a tally.

27 Principle of complementary duality : YIN AND YANG

The yin and yang can be illustrated using many different metaphors. In one, as the sun shines on a mountain, the side in the shade is the yin and the side in the light is the yang. The yin is also regarded as the feminine side, and the yang the masculine. The yin can also be associated with the moon, while the yang is associated with the sun.

31 Mass x acceleration, in physics : FORCE

Newton’s second law of motion tells us that a body accelerates when a force is applied to it, and the greater the mass of the object, the greater the force required to cause that acceleration. Mathematically, the law can be written as Force = mass x acceleration (F=ma).

32 Area near TriBeCa in N.Y.C. : SOHO

The Manhattan neighborhood known today as SoHo was very fashionable in the early 1900s, but as the well-heeled started to move uptown the area became very run down and poorly maintained. Noted for the number of fires that erupted in derelict buildings, SoHo earned the nickname “Hell’s Hundred Acres”. The area was then zoned for manufacturing and became home to many sweatshops. In the mid-1900s artists started to move into open loft spaces and renovating old buildings as the lofts were ideal locations in which an artist could both live and work. In 1968, artists and others organized themselves so that they could legalize their residential use of an area zoned for manufacturing. The group they formed took its name from the name given to the area by the city’s Planning Commission i.e “South of Houston”. This was shortened from So-uth of Ho-uston to SoHo as in “SoHo Artists Association”, and the name stuck.

34 Chewy Easter treat : PEEP

Peeps are marshmallow candies usually in the shapes of chicks and bunnies, primarily sold around the Easter holiday. Peeps were introduced in 1952 by a Russian immigrant called Sam Born whose company “Just Born” makes the candies to this day. The original candies were yellow and hand-shaped to look like little chicks, hence the name “Peeps”.

35 Plains tribe : OTOE

The Otoe (also “Oto”) Native American tribe originated in the Great Lakes region as part of the Winnebago or Siouan tribes. The group that would become the Otoe broke away from the Winnebago and migrated southwestward, ending up in the Great Plains. In the plains the Otoe adopted a semi-nomadic lifestyle dependent on the horse, with the American bison becoming central to their diet.

38 Italy’s Mount ___ : ETNA

Mount Etna on the island of Sicily is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy, and indeed the largest of all active volcanoes in Europe. Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius. Mt. Etna is home to a 110-km long narrow-gauge railway, and two ski resorts. It is sometimes referred to as “Mongibello” in Italian, and as “Mungibeddu” (sometimes “Muncibeddu”) in Sicilian. The English name “Etna” comes from the Greek “aitho” meaning “I eat”.

41 Issa of “Insecure” : RAE

“Insecure” is a comedy-drama TV show that premiered in 2016. It is co-written by and stars Issa Rae, who also created the comedy web series “Awkward Black Girl” on which “Insecure” is based.

44 DC Comics antiheroine a.k.a. Selina Kyle : CATWOMAN

Catwoman, the alter ego of Selina Kyle, is a supervillain who is usually depicted as an adversary of Batman in comics. In the sixties television show “Batman”, Catwoman was first portrayed by actress Julie Newmar, but then the more memorable Eartha Kitt took over, with the marvelously “feline voice”. On the big screen, Catwoman has been played by Lee Meriwether in “Batman” (1966), Michelle Pfeiffer in “Batman Returns” (1992), Halle Berry in “Catwoman” (2004) and Anne Hathaway in “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012).

46 Loud chewing, for some : PET PEEVE

The phrase “pet peeve”, meaning “thing that provokes one most”, seems to be somewhat ironic. A “peeve” is a source of irritation, and the adjective “pet” means “especially cherished”.

47 Id’s counterpart : EGO

Sigmund Freud created a structural model of the human psyche, breaking it into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is that part of the psyche containing the basic instinctual drives. The ego seeks to please the id by causing realistic behavior that benefits the individual. The superego almost has a parental role, contradicting the id by introducing critical thinking and morals to behavioral choices.

50 Lead-in to a culinary attribution : A LA

The phrase “in the style of” can be translated as “alla” in Italian and “à la” in French.

52 “Veni” : I CAME

The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BCE and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

53 Strobe light gas : XENON

Metal halide lamps that are called xenons don’t actually rely on the incorporated xenon gas to generate light. The xenon gas is added so that the lamp comes on “instantly”. Without the xenon, the lamp would start up rather like an older streetlamp, flickering and sputtering for a while before staying alight.

A strobe light is a device that produces regular flashes, like the light on top of a police car. The term derives from the Greek “strobos” meaning “twisting, whirling”.

54 Miracle-___ : GRO

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company was founded in 1868 by one Orlando Scott, and initially sold seed to the agricultural industry. In the early 1900s, Scotts started to sell to homeowners, and mainly supplied lawn seed. The company merged with the gardening company Miracle-Gro in 1955, and then with TruGreen in 2016.

55 Medieval adventure tale : GEST

Our word “gest”, describing a great deed or exploit, has been around since about 1300. The term comes from the Old French word “geste” meaning the same thing. These days “geste” can also mean “gesture”.

58 Info collected by H.R. : SSNS

The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation, although given its ubiquitous use, it is looking more and more like an identity number to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, an SSN was required only for persons with substantial income, so many children under 14 had no number assigned. For some years the IRS had a concern that a lot of people were claiming children on their tax returns who did not actually exist. So starting in 1986, the IRS made it a requirement to get an SSN for any dependents over the age of 5. Sure enough, seven million dependents “disappeared” in 1987. Today, a SSN is required for a child of any age in order to receive a tax exemption.

Human resources (HR)

59 Fashion accessories in a 1940s #1 Dinah Shore hit : BUTTONS AND BOWS

Dinah Shore had a lot of success as a singer in the forties and fifties in the Big Band Era, and then in the sixties as a hostess of variety programs on television. Shore was also a big fan of golf, both as a player and a spectator. She founded the Colgate Dinah Shore golf tournament which is now the Kraft Nabisco Championship, one of the four majors on the LPGA Tour.

61 PlayStation maker : SONY

Sony introduced the PlayStation line of video game consoles in 1994.

63 Author of macabre tales, in brief : EA POE

Edgar Allan Poe (EAP) lived a life of many firsts. Poe is considered to be the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He was also the first notable American author to make his living through his writing, something that didn’t really go too well for him as he was always financially strapped. In 1849 he was found on the streets of Baltimore, delirious and in dire need of medical help. Poe died a few days later in hospital at 40 years of age.

65 Stackable food item : OREO

How the Oreo cookie came to get its name seems to have been lost in the mists of time. One theory is that it comes from the French “or” meaning “gold”, a reference to the gold color of the original packing. Another suggestion is that the name is the Greek word “oreo” meaning “beautiful, nice, well-done”.

70 Essential ingredient in Welsh rarebit : TOAST

Welsh rarebit is a delicious dish made using a cheese-flavored sauce served over toast. It may be that the name Welsh rarebit was originally a bit of an insult to the folks in Wales. The dish was called Welsh “rabbit” back in the 1700s. In those day’s rabbit was the poor man’s meat, and the implication of the dish’s name is that in Wales cheese was the poor man’s rabbit.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Reposition an icon, maybe : DRAG AND DROP
2 Crowd’s sound : ROAR
3 Sub : ALTERNATE
4 “Check it out for yourself!” : GO SEE!
5 Key inspiration? : STARS AND STRIPES
6 You, in hymns : THEE
7 Grande of “The Voice,” to fans : ARI
8 Alamo offering : RENTAL
9 Kind of fragrant oil in some Asian cuisines : SESAME
10 Genre with a Hall of Fame in Ohio : ROCK AND ROLL
11 Daisy variety also called a marguerite : OXEYE
12 Constellation known as the Whale : CETUS
13 Leslie ___, Amy Poehler’s role on “Parks and Recreation” : KNOPE
14 Chocolate-and-caramel candy : ROLO
15 Number of Brontë sisters or Karamazov brothers : THREE
16 Ones with a lot of pull in agriculture? : OXEN
17 Major crop for Russia and Canada : OATS
18 Checks held by Santa? : REINS
19 Actor Jared : LETO
20 One who wasn’t due to arrive, informally : PREEMIE
21 Fountain treats : MALTS
22 Count : TALLY UP
23 Poppin’, as a party : LIT
24 Collect, as profit : REAP
25 “___ dreaming?” : AM I
26 WNW’s opposite : ESE
27 Principle of complementary duality : YIN AND YANG
28 Some people bow to it : IDOL
29 Some protest handouts : LEAFLETS
30 Did some crunches at lunch? : ATE
31 Mass x acceleration, in physics : FORCE
32 Area near TriBeCa in N.Y.C. : SOHO
33 Gets comfortable with : ADAPTS TO
34 Chewy Easter treat : PEEP
35 Plains tribe : OTOE
36 Bright color in the garden : TOMATO RED
37 Spoken : ORAL
38 Italy’s Mount ___ : ETNA
39 Things taken in class : NOTES
40 Mess up : ERR
41 Issa of “Insecure” : RAE
42 Pleasantly concise : SHORT AND SWEET
43 Joyful giddiness : GLEE
44 DC Comics antiheroine a.k.a. Selina Kyle : CATWOMAN
45 Talk show visitor : TV GUEST
46 Loud chewing, for some : PET PEEVE
47 Id’s counterpart : EGO
48 Most faithful : TRUEST
49 First vegetable grown in space : POTATO
50 Lead-in to a culinary attribution : A LA
51 Combine, as versatile wardrobe pieces : MIX AND MATCH
52 “Veni” : I CAME
53 Strobe light gas : XENON
54 Miracle-___ : GRO
55 Medieval adventure tale : GEST
56 Add fuel to : STOKE
57 Beats easily : ACES OUT
58 Info collected by H.R. : SSNS
59 Fashion accessories in a 1940s #1 Dinah Shore hit : BUTTONS AND BOWS
60 Scholarship consideration : NEED
61 PlayStation maker : SONY
62 Neutral shades : TANS
63 Author of macabre tales, in brief : EA POE
64 Potpie bit : PEA
65 Stackable food item : OREO
66 “Let’s go already!” : C’MON!
67 Hearty meal options : STEWS
68 Perceptive : KEEN
69 Ones tending to brood? : HENS
70 Essential ingredient in Welsh rarebit : TOAST
71 Miniature whirlpool : EDDY