Constructed by: Ashton Anderson & James Mulhern
Edited by: Will Shortz
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… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Theme: None
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Bill’s time: 48m 07s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
9 Maker of some replacement heads : ORAL-B
The Oral-B toothbrush was introduced to the world in 1950, designed by a California periodontist. The first “model” was the Oral-B 60, a name given to reflect the 60 tufts in the brush. In 1969, the Oral-B was the first toothbrush to get to the moon as it was the toothbrush of choice for the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.
15 Sight from Maui’s west shore : LANAI
Lanai is the sixth largest of the Hawaiian Islands. Lanai was first spotted by Europeans just a few days after Captain Cook was killed on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1779. In 1922, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company bought the whole island of Lanai and turned most of it into the world’s largest pineapple plantation. Since then, Lanai has been known as “The Pineapple Island”. Today, 98% of the island is owned by Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, and 2% is owned by the State of Hawaii.
17 “The same” : DITTO
The word “ditto” was originally used in Italian (from Tuscan dialect) to avoid repetition of the names of months in a series of dates. So, “ditto” is another wonderful import from that lovely land …
24 Repeated voice role for Steve Carell : GRU
The main protagonist in the “Despicable Me” movies is the supervillain Felonius Gru, usually referred to simply as “Gru”.
“Despicable Me” is a 2010 animated comedy film. The main voice actor in the movie is the very funny Steve Carell. “Despicable Me” is a Universal Pictures production, although all of the animation was done in France. The 2010 film was followed by a sequel “Despicable Me 2” released in 2013, with a prequel/spin-off film called “Minions” released in 2015.
25 Lacking zip? : ENTIRE
The use of the words “zip” and “zippo” to mean “nothing” dates back to the early 1900s, when it was student slang for being graded zero on a test.
27 “Duke” for Marmaduke : PAW
Marmaduke is the title character in a newspaper comic strip that has been drawn by Brad Anderson since 1954. Marmaduke is a Great Dane, and the pet dog of the Winslow family.
“Dukes” is a slang term meaning “fists, hands”. The route taken by “dukes” to become fists seems very tortuous, but might just be true. The term “fork” was slang for “hand” for centuries (and gives rise to “fork out” meaning “hand over”). The slang term “fork” is expressed in Cockney rhyming slang as “Duke of York”, which is shortened to “duke”. As I said, tortuous …
28 Item on a library shelf : TOME
“Tome” first came into English from the Latin “tomus” which means “section of a book”. The original usage in English was for a single volume in a multi-volume work. By the late 16th century, “tome” had come to mean “large book”.
35 Code with tags : HTML
The initialism “HTML” stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is the language used to write most Internet web pages (including this one).
36 Like some telephone nos. : RES
Residence (res.)
37 What “chicken” and “egg” are examples of : SALADS
Our word “salad” comes from the Latin “salare” meaning “to salt”. The Latin “herba salata” translates as “salted vegetables”, which I guess could be a salad …
41 Philanthropist Broad : ELI
Eli Broad made his fortune in real estate and was one of the founders of Kaufman and Broad, a construction company that we know these days as KB Homes. Broad is the only person to have created two companies that made the Fortune 500 list (KB Homes and SunAmerica).
42 Polaroid’s SX-70 camera, for one: Abbr. : SLR
The initialism “SLR” stands for “single lens reflex”. Usually, cameras with changeable lenses are the SLR type. The main feature of an SLR is that a mirror reflects the image seen through the lens out through the viewfinder, so that the photographer sees exactly what the lens sees. The mirror moves out of the way as the picture is taken, and the image that comes through the lens falls onto unexposed film, or nowadays onto a digital sensor.
43 Traffic marker : PYLON
“Pylon” can be used as another word for “traffic cone”.
44 Ragtag : MOTLEY
Something described as motley is mottled, marked with different-colored spots. The term probably comes from the Old English word “mot” meaning “speck”. We can use the term “motley” figuratively to mean “diverse, heterogeneous”.
“Ragtag and bobtail” is a colorful phrase that’s used to describe the lowest classes, or the rabble. A “bobtail” is a horse that has had its tail cut short, a word that goes back as least as far as Shakespeare as he used it in “King Lear”. A “tag” is a piece of cloth that is torn and hanging, which was readily combined with “rag” in the original phrase “tag, rag and bobtail”. This idiom, perhaps originally quoted from Samuel Pepys in his diary in 1659, referred to the lower classes as “tag, rag and bobtail, dancing, singing and drinking”. The phrase evolved, giving us our contemporary word “ragtag” meaning ragged and unkempt.
49 Bank in London, for example: Abbr. : STA
Station (sta.)
The official name of the London “Underground” rail network is a little deceptive, as over half of the track system-wide is actually “over ground”, with the underground sections reserved for the central areas. It is the oldest subway system in the world, having opened in 1863. It was also the first system to use electric rolling stock, in 1890. “The Tube”, as it is known by Londoners, isn’t the longest subway system in the world though. That honor belongs to the Shanghai Metro. My personal favorite part of the Tube is the Tube map! It is a marvel of design …
50 West Point grad, informally : LOOIE
Lieutenant (lt., and “looie” in slang).
West Point is a military reservation in New York State, located north of New York City. West Point was first occupied by the Continental Army way back in 1778, making it the longest, continually-occupied military post in the country. Cadet training has taken place at the garrison since 1794, although Congress funding for a US Military Academy (USMA) didn’t start until 1802. The first female cadets were admitted to West Point in 1976, and as of 2018, about 15% of all new cadets were women.
51 Animal that can grow up to 3,000 teeth in its lifetime : ALLIGATOR
Crocodiles and alligators do indeed bear a resemblance to each other, although they belong to distinct biological families. One of the main ways used to distinguish them is by their teeth and jaws. Both the upper and lower sets of teeth of a crocodile are visible when its mouth is closed, whereas only the upper teeth of an alligator are visible with the mouth shut.
56 Final act : SWAN SONG
The phrase “swan song” is used for a final gesture, a last performance. The expression derives from an ancient belief that swans are silent for most of their lives, but sing a beautiful song just before they die.
Down
1 Home to Museum Island : BERLIN
Berlin is the capital of Germany. It is the nation’s largest city, and is the second-most populous city in the European Union (after London).
3 Tube letters : ADA
American Dental Association (ADA)
The first toothpaste in a tube was introduced by Johnson & Johnson, in 1889. Back then, toothpaste tubes were made from tin, zinc or lead.
4 Ne plus ultra : NONPAREIL
Something described as “nonpareil” has no equal, is a paragon. “Nonpareil” was an Old French word meaning “not equal”.
“Ne plus ultra” is French for “no more beyond” and means just that in English, the high-point.
5 Bro : DUDE
Our term “dude” arose as slang in New York City in the 1880s, when it was used to describe a fastidious man. In the early 1900s, the term was extended to mean “city slickers”, easterners who vacationed in the West. The first use of the term “dude ranch” was recorded in 1921.
6 Watson and others : IBMS
Watson is a computer system developed by IBM. Watson is designed to answer questions that are posed in natural language, so that it should be able to interpret questions just as you and I would, no matter how the question is phrased. The program is named after the founder of IBM, Thomas J. Watson. Today’s Watson competed in a few memorable episodes of “Jeopardy!” in 2011 taking out two of the best players of the quiz show. That made for fun television …
9 Hoary : OLDEN
The Old English word “har” meant “gray, venerable, old”, and came into English as “hoar” (and later “hoary”) with the same meaning. The term “hoar-frost” dates back to the 13th century, and reflects the similarity of the white feathers of frost to the gray/white of an old man’s beard.
10 Inveigh (against) : RAIL
To rail at or against something is to complain bitterly about it.
11 Sophocles heroine : ANTIGONE
“Antigone” is a tragedy written by Greek playwright Sophocles and first performed in 442 BC. Antigone is the daughter of King Oedipus of Thebes, and was born out of the incestuous relationship of the king with his mother Jocasta.
Sophocles was one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. The first of these was Aeschylus, the second Sophocles, and the third Euripides. Sophocles is believed to have written 123 plays, the most famous of which are “Antigone” and “Oedipus the King”.
22 Alpine folk dress : DIRNDL
The traditional dress worn by females in Austria and southern Germany is called a “dirndl”. The dirndl originated as a hard-wearing dress worn by domestic workers in Austria in the 1800s. It was adopted as a fashionable item worn by upper classes in the 1870s.
23 Supercapacitor unit : FARAD
The SI unit of capacitance is the farad, a unit that is named after the physicist Michael Faraday.
26 With gusto : EAGERLY
“Gusto” is an Italian word meaning “taste”. We use it in English in the phrase “with gusto” meaning “with great enjoyment”.
27 Washington nickname : POTUS
President of the United States (POTUS)
30 Outcast : LEPER
The horrible disease known as leprosy is also called Hansen’s disease, named after the Norwegian physician famous for isolating the bacterium that causes the disease. We can use the term “leper” to mean someone in general who is shunned by society.
31 Setting for Melville’s “The Encantadas” : GALAPAGOS
The Galápagos Islands lie over 500 miles west of Ecuador. The Galápagos owe their celebrity to the voyage of HMS Beagle which landed there in 1835, with Charles Darwin on board. It was Darwin’s study of various species on the islands that inspired him to postulate his Theory of Evolution.
Herman Melville mined his own experiences when writing his novels. Melville sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1841 on a whaler heading into the Pacific Ocean (a source for “Moby-Dick”). Melville ended up deserting his ship 18 months later and lived with natives on a South Pacific Island for three weeks (a source for “Typee”). He picked up another whaler and headed for Hawaii, where he joined the crew of a US navy frigate that was bound for Boston (a source for “Omoo”).
38 Charles ___, artist whose bust of M.L.K. Jr. was the first image of an African American displayed at the White House : ALSTON
Charles Alston was an artist from Charlotte, North Carolina who was active during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Some of Alston’s most famous works are murals, notably those at the Harlem Hospital and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the Golden State Mutual Headquarters in Los Angeles.
39 The end of Wikipedia? : DOT ORG
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, and is the most-used reference site on the Internet. The site was launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. I, for one, am very grateful …
40 Ostinato provider in Ravel’s “Boléro” : SNARE
Snare drums are so called because they have a set of wire strands (snares) stretching across the bottom surface of the drum. When the drum is struck, the snares vibrate against the bottom drumhead producing a unique sound.
In music, an ostinato is a piece of melody or a rhythmic pattern that frequently recurs in a piece. A favorite work in the classical repertoire that makes particular use of the ostinato form is Ravel’s “Bolero”.
Maurice Ravel’s “Boléro” is a remarkable piece of music that has a very insistent theme that just builds and builds, with instruments being added to the mix as the piece develops. Famously, “Boléro” played a significant role in the 1979 film “10” starring Bo Derek, Dudley Moore and Julie Andrews. Not a bad movie …
48 Member of the world’s happiest people, per repeated World Happiness Reports : FINN
The Nordic country of Finland is the most sparsely populated nation in the European Union. The relatively modest population of 5.5 million people lives in the eighth largest country on the continent.
51 Something of your neighbor’s not to covet, per the Ten Commandments : ASS
According to the Book of Exodus, the wording for the tenth commandment is:
… thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
52 Te-___ (Mexican cigar brand) : AMO
The Te-Amo brand of cigars have been made in the San Andres Valley in the state of Veracruz, Mexico since 1963.
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Wave one’s arms? : BRANDISH
9 Maker of some replacement heads : ORAL-B
14 Lose focus, in a way : SEE DOUBLE
15 Sight from Maui’s west shore : LANAI
16 Classic song with the line “Give him a lonely heart like Pagliacci / And lots of wavy hair like Liberace” : MR SANDMAN
17 “The same” : DITTO
18 Fan belt? : OLE!
19 Headache : PEST
20 Load off : RELIEF
21 Not totes : KINDA
23 Mire : FEN
24 Repeated voice role for Steve Carell : GRU
25 Lacking zip? : ENTIRE
27 “Duke” for Marmaduke : PAW
28 Item on a library shelf : TOME
29 Sarcastic “Oh, like you thought of that yourself” : REAL ORIGINAL
32 “Who’s with me?” : CAN I GET AN AMEN?
34 Horizontal group hug session : CUDDLE PUDDLE
35 Code with tags : HTML
36 Like some telephone nos. : RES
37 What “chicken” and “egg” are examples of : SALADS
41 Philanthropist Broad : ELI
42 Polaroid’s SX-70 camera, for one: Abbr. : SLR
43 Traffic marker : PYLON
44 Ragtag : MOTLEY
46 Best-selling sports video game franchise : FIFA
49 Bank in London, for example: Abbr. : STA
50 West Point grad, informally : LOOIE
51 Animal that can grow up to 3,000 teeth in its lifetime : ALLIGATOR
53 Child’s play : A SNAP
54 “I’ve heard enough” : SAY NO MORE
55 Ones making the rounds? : BEERS
56 Final act : SWAN SONG
Down
1 Home to Museum Island : BERLIN
2 Begrudge : RESENT
3 Tube letters : ADA
4 Ne plus ultra : NONPAREIL
5 Bro : DUDE
6 Watson and others : IBMS
7 Something found under a mattress : SLAT
8 Female salmon : HEN
9 Hoary : OLDEN
10 Inveigh (against) : RAIL
11 Sophocles heroine : ANTIGONE
12 “Peace, bro” : LATER, MAN
13 Algae, at times : BIOFUEL
14 Draw on, in a way : SMOKE
20 Goes back to the beginning : REWINDS
22 Alpine folk dress : DIRNDL
23 Supercapacitor unit : FARAD
26 With gusto : EAGERLY
27 Washington nickname : POTUS
28 Of the moment : TIMELY
30 Outcast : LEPER
31 Setting for Melville’s “The Encantadas” : GALAPAGOS
32 Live a little : CUT LOOSE
33 Words on a ticket : ADMIT ONE
34 Place where students can find solutions : CHEM LAB
38 Charles ___, artist whose bust of M.L.K. Jr. was the first image of an African American displayed at the White House : ALSTON
39 The end of Wikipedia? : DOT ORG
40 Ostinato provider in Ravel’s “Boléro” : SNARE
42 Oozes : SEEPS
45 “Not so!” : LIAR!
46 Imperfection : FLAW
47 Slavic form of Elijah : ILYA
48 Member of the world’s happiest people, per repeated World Happiness Reports : FINN
51 Something of your neighbor’s not to covet, per the Ten Commandments : ASS
52 Te-___ (Mexican cigar brand) : AMO
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14 thoughts on “0326-22 NY Times Crossword 26 Mar 22, Saturday”
Comments are closed.
33:33, no errors. For me, a very difficult outing. Glad to escape with my self-respect mostly intact … 😜.
“Cuddle puddle”?! Who?! What?! Where?! … 🤭 … 🤪
And … as a public service … I give you:
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/cuddle_puddle
Who knew?
DNF. I think it would be easier for me to list the answers I got on my own. I just turned this into an open book exam. I needed several helps to say the least. When DIRNDL barely stands out, you’re dealing with a tough puzzle.
And when a seed entry is CUDDLE PUDDLE, it’s a sign I’ll know almost nothing of that puzzle.
Time to burn the tape of this puzzle and prepare for Sunday.
Best –
28:04, but really a DNF. I needed to look up several answers so it was an educational exercise for me. Difficult cluing and difficult words. 😩
36:47 I started late Fri. night and was pretty much hung up on a large portion of the right and the POTUS entry as well. So I called it a night after about 32 min. and thought I’d be a DNF. Even tho sleeping only 3 hrs., the X-word lizard brain kicked in and then the rest seemed to fall pretty quickly in the morning. I can’t explain it. Maybe I had a CUDDLE PUDDLE dream that I can’t remember. SAY NO MORE.
Never fear, another DNF is here!! Never heard of….never mind, the stuff I had heard of or made a good guess at is a shorter list…. “Cuddle puddle”? Nope. “Dirndl”? Nah. Although that did remind me of the gears on my Dad’s ‘67 Ford “PRNDL”. Didn’t know the lyrics to “Mr. Sandman”….I’ll just consider this an educational exercise for future solving.
23:44, 1 Natick. Amazing really due to some ridiculously poor cluing in this one. Regardless, I have to say this one was a lot easier than yesterday’s in practice (not in reflection, I felt it was a lot easier than my performance warranted).
DNF…two setters on a Saturday NYT…wow.
I had 6 clues answered and 4 of them were wrong.
You 2 setters proved your superiority…congratulations
Except for Glenn, I am relieved to see others in my misery. It was a DNF for me. That NW corner was a complete blank.
NE plus ultra put me on a periodic table path. Did not see the French thing.
Then I was mad at myself when I saw the “museum island” was in Berlin! I spent some time in Berlin. When I looked it up, I realized it was in East Berlin when I was there.
Hats off to @glenn…
1:05:51 no errors, but Holy Cow that was a hard one.
Gosh, I’m amazed at the number of DNFs. This was difficult, as are all Saturday NYT puzzles, but I had no special problems with it. Of course, given that music has been my drug of choice since I was a wee lad in Chicago, I remember the lyrics to many songs that my older brother brought home on 78s, later 45s, and those I was allowed to play in the listening booth at the neighborhood record shop on rainy afternoons. That’s a very cumbersome way of saying that The Chordettes’ MRSANDMAN led to a fairly fast solve. Yeah, it was about 45 minutes but that’s a good Saturday time for this codger.
I seem to have the song Mr. Sandman stuck in my brain now…never heard the clued verse before, but it’s clever and fits right in.
38 minutes. Got every letter right except for one. I had reminds instead of rewinds. . So technically a DNF. But still…
After reading the comments here I feel a lot better! I finished clean, didn’t look up anything, and only took a short nap halfway through! It took forever but I learned some new answers and was quite entertained!