0418-22 NY Times Crossword 18 Apr 22, Monday

Constructed by: Carl Larson
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Loose Ends

Themed answers have a word that often follows “LOOSE”, divided between the answer’s ENDS:

  • 64A Unresolved details … and a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters : LOOSE ENDS
  • 17A Go strolling : TAKE A WALK (giving “loose TA-LK”)
  • 25A Outdoor concert stage : BAND SHELL (giving “loose BA-LL”)
  • 30A Stiff test : CHALLENGE (giving “loose CHA-NGE”)
  • 45A Turnpike feature made obsolescent by electronic passes : TOLLBOOTH (giving “loose TO-OTH”)
  • 51A Gel-filled NyQuil offerings : LIQUICAPS (giving “loose LI-PS”)

Bill’s time: 6m 17s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Scotch ___ (3M product) : TAPE

Scotch Tape is a brand of adhesive tape made by 3M. “Scotch Tape” is one of those brand names that has become a generic term for the product. The equivalent brand name of the product that we use over in Ireland is Sellotape. This British brand also has become a generic term, and so is our equivalent to “Scotch tape”.

The company that is now called 3M was founded as a mining venture in 1902, and used to be known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (hence the name “3M”).

5 Olympic martial art since 1964 : JUDO

Judo is a martial art from Japan that developed relatively recently, in 1882. The name “judo” translates as “gentle way”. Practitioners of judo proceed through a series of proficiency grades known as the kyu-dan system. At each progression, a different colored belt is awarded.

19 One end of a battery : ANODE

A battery is a device that converts chemical energy into electric energy. A simple battery is made up of three parts: a cathode, an anode and a liquid electrolyte. Ions from the electrolyte react chemically with the material in the anode producing a compound and releasing electrons. At the same time, the electrolyte reacts with the material in the cathode, absorbing electrons and producing a different chemical compound. In this way, there is a buildup of electrons at the anode and a deficit of electrons at the cathode. When a connection (wire, say) is made between the cathode and anode, electrons flow through the resulting circuit from the anode to cathode in an attempt to rectify the electron imbalance.

20 Squirrel’s stash : ACORNS

The nest of a tree squirrel or flying squirrel is known as a “drey” (sometimes “dray”). Squirrels usually build dreys where branches fork in large trees. Dreys can be hard to spot, until the leaves fall late in the year. They are roughly circular structures made from twigs, dry leaves and grass.

23 Two-finger victory sign : VEE

One has to be careful making that V-sign depending where you are in the world. Where I came from, the V-for-victory (or peace) sign has to be made with the palm facing outwards. If the sign is made with the palm facing inwards, it can be interpreted as a very obscene gesture.

27 Doozy : LULU

We call a remarkable thing or a person a lulu. The term “lulu” was coined in honor of Lulu Hurst, the Georgia Wonder, who was a stage magician active in the 1880s.

A doozy is something extraordinary or bizarre. The exact origins of the word “doozy” aren’t clear, but it might be a derivative of the name Eleanora Duse, an Italian actress popular early in the 20th century. Some say that the term comes from the Duesenberg brand of automobile, which was indeed referred to as a “duesy”. However, the use of “doozy” in print occurs before the Duesenberg hit the market.

29 Canal to the Red Sea : SUEZ

The Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. The canal took ten years to construct, and opened in 1869. The northern terminus of the waterway is Port Said, and the southern is Port Tewfik in the city of Suez, which gives the canal its name.

38 Legacy I.S.P. : AOL

AOL was a leading Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the 1980s and 1990s. The company does still provide dial-up access to the Internet for some subscribers, but most users now access AOL using faster, non-AOL ISPs.

An Internet service provider (ISP) is just what the name indicates, a company that provides its customers with access to the Internet. One way that ISPs differentiate themselves from each other is in the way in which end users are connected to the ISP’s network. So, there are cable ISPs, DSL ISPs, dial-up ISPs and satellite ISPs.

39 Immunity tokens on “Survivor” : IDOLS

The reality show “Survivor” is based on a Swedish television series created in 1997 called “Expedition Robinson”.

41 Genetic messenger : RNA

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA.

48 Sushi bar drink : SAKE

We refer to the Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice as “sake”. We’ve gotten things a bit mixed up in the West. “Sake” is actually the word that the Japanese use for all alcoholic drinks. What we know as sake, we sometimes refer to as rice wine. Also, the starch in the rice is first converted to sugars that are then fermented into alcohol. This is more akin to a beer-brewing process than wine production, so the end product is really a rice “beer” rather than a rice “wine”.

51 Gel-filled NyQuil offerings : LIQUICAPS (giving “loose LI-PS”)

NyQuil is a medication designed to relieve the symptoms of a common cold. NyQuil contains loads of ingredients that will make you sleepy, so if you are taking it, it’s safer to do so at night. It’s a Proctor & Gamble brand, and the equivalent non-drowsy formula is known as DayQuil.

59 Post-O.R. stop : ICU

Many a patient spends time in the intensive care unit (ICU) after leaving the operating room (OR).

60 Warsaw resident : POLE

Warsaw is the capital of Poland. The city’s name translates into English as “belonging to Warsz”. Legend has it that Warsz was a fisherman who fell in love with a mermaid called Sawa. It’s a nice story, but Warsz was actually a nobleman from the 12th or 13th century who owned a local village.

66 Subs at a deli : HEROS

A hero is a submarine sandwich. The hero originated in New York City in the 1800s among Italian immigrants who wanted an Italian sandwich that reminded them of home. The name “hero” was coined in the 1930s, supposedly by a food critic in the “New York Herald Tribune” when he wrote that “one had to be a hero” to finish the gigantic sandwich. Hero is a prevalent term to this day in New York City, reserved for a submarine sandwich with an Italian flavor.

70 Where to buy shares of G.M. : NYSE

The roots of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) go back to 1792 when a group of 24 stock brokers set up the New York Stock & Exchange Board. They did so in an agreement signed under a buttonwood tree outside 68 Wall Street. That document became known as the Buttonwood Agreement. Today, the NYSE is located in a National Historic Landmark building with the address 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

General Motors (GM) was the largest manufacturer of vehicles in the world for 77 straight years, at least in terms of numbers of cars sold, from 1931 until 2007. GM was established in 1908 in Flint, Michigan as a holding company for Buick, which in turn had been founded in 1899. GM’s Buick brand is the oldest, still-active automotive brand in the US. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009, and emerged from that bankruptcy just one month later, with a lot of help from the US taxpayer. In order to do so, GM had to shut down its Hummer, Pontiac and Saturn operations. The revamped General Motors then had a huge Initial Public Offering in 2010 that raised $23 billion.

Down

2 Early calculators : ABACI

The abacus (plural “abaci”) was used as a counting frame long before man had invented a numbering system. It is a remarkable invention, particularly when one notes that abaci are still widely used today across Africa and Asia.

3 Black tea variety : PEKOE

A pekoe (or more commonly “orange pekoe”) is a medium-grade black tea. There is no orange flavor in an orange pekoe tea. The “orange” name most likely derived from the name of the trading company that brought the tea to Europe from Asia.

5 Film with the line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” : JAWS

The famous line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” from 1975’s “Jaws” was ranked no. 3 in a list of top movie quotes compiled by “The Hollywood Reporter”. The top of the list makes interesting reading, with the following comprising the top five:

  1. “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” from “Gone With the Wind” (1939)
  2. “Here’s looking at you, kid.” from “Casablanca” (1942)
  3. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” from “Jaws” (1975)
  4. “May the Force be with you.” from “Star Wars” (1977)
  5. “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” from “The Wizard of Oz” (1939)

“Jaws” is a thrilling 1975 movie directed by Steven Spielberg that is based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley. The film has a powerful cast, led by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. “Jaws” was perhaps the first summer blockbuster and had the highest box office take in history up to that time, which was a record that stood until “Star Wars” was released two years later.

6 Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the ___” : USA

Miley Cyrus became famous playing the Disney Channel character “Hannah Montana”. Miley is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. When she was born, Billy Ray and his wife named their daughter “Destiny Hope”, but soon they themselves calling her “Smiley” as she was always smiling as a baby, and this got shortened to Miley over time. Cute …

7 Airline with its main hub in Atlanta : DELTA

Delta was the world’s largest airline for a while (after merging with Northwest Airlines in 2008) and is the oldest airline still operating in the US. Delta’s roots go back to 1924 before it started carrying passengers when it was Huff Daland Dusters, a crop-dusting company based in Macon, Georgia. The name “Delta Air Service” was introduced in 1928.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is the world’s busiest airport, as measured by passenger traffic. Atlanta has had that distinction since 1998, and was the world’s busiest in terms of take-offs and landings from 2005 until 2013. Over 50% of Atlanta’s traffic comes from Delta Air Lines.

8 Like many chardonnay barrels : OAKEN

The chardonnay grape is believed to have originated in the Burgundy wine region of France. Now it’s grown “everywhere”. Drinkers of California “chards” seem to be particularly fond of oak flavor, so most chardonnay wines are aged in oak barrels or with oak chips.

11 Warmer than freezing, on the Celsius scale : ABOVE ZERO

Anders Celsius was a Swedish astronomer. The temperature scale that Celsius created was the reverse of that used today, with “zero” representing the boiling point of water and “100” representing water’s freezing point. This scale was “upended” (in 1744) just after Celsius died, by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. The resulting temperature scale then became known as the “centigrade” scale for over 200 years, until in 1948 it was decided to adopt the degree “celsius”. So, anyone still using “degrees centigrade” is actually way behind the times …

22 OB/GYNs and 36-Downs : MDS

A medical doctor (MD) might be an expert in obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN).

25 ___ cake (ring-shaped dessert) : BUNDT

Here in the US, what we know as bundt cake takes its name from the ring-shaped pan in which it is usually baked. This pan was introduced in 1950 by the company Nordic Ware, at which time the “Bundt” name was trademarked.

28 Garland gift in Hawaii : LEI

“Lei” is a Hawaiian word meaning “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a lei is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

30 Ride that’s hailed : CAB

A hansom cab is a very specific design of horse and buggy that was patented by Joseph Hansom in 1834 in England. The “cab” in the name is short for “cabriolet”, an earlier design of carriage on which the hansom was based. It’s from “hansom cab” that we get our modern term “cab”.

34 “Black-ish” co-star Tracee ___ Ross : ELLIS

“black-ish” is a sitcom starring Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross that premiered in 2014. The show is noted for tackling tough issues such as racism, police brutality, attitudes toward the LGBT community, and the 2016 US presidential election.

36 Sinus specialist, for short : ENT

The branch of medicine known as “ear, nose and throat” (ENT) is more correctly called “otolaryngology”.

In anatomical terms, a sinus is a cavity in tissue. Sinuses are found all over the body, in the kidney and heart for example, but we most commonly think of the paranasal sinuses that surround the nose.

40 35mm camera type, in brief : SLR

Single-lens reflex (SLR) camera

At the beginning of the 20th century, 35mm was chosen as a standard size for film used in still cameras. 35mm was selected as it was already the standard film size used in motion pictures.

43 Letter after sigma : TAU

Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, and the letter that gave rise to our Roman “T”. Both the letters tau (T) and chi (X) have long been symbolically associated with the cross.

47 Tournament favorite : ONE SEED

A seeded player or team in a tournament is one given a preliminary ranking that is used in the initial draw. The intention is that the better competitors are less likely to meet each other in the early rounds.

51 Traffic signal : LIGHT

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.

53 Writer Edgar ___ Poe : ALLAN

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.

54 Spring bloom : PEONY

The flowering plant called a peony is named for Paean, the mythical physician to the Greek gods.

57 Actress MacDowell : ANDIE

Andie MacDowell is an American actress who seems to turn up in quite a few British productions set in that part of the world. Most famously she was the love interest in the fabulous film “Four Weddings and a Funeral” starring opposite Hugh Grant. I also enjoyed another of her movies, “Groundhog Day”, which is a fun tale set back here in the US.

63 Stag’s mate : DOE

A male deer is usually called a buck, and a female is a doe. However, the male red deer is usually referred to as a stag. The males of even larger species of deer are often called bulls, and the females called cows. In older English, male deer of over 5 years were called harts, and females of over 3 years were called hinds. The young of small species are known as fawns, and of larger species are called calves. All very confusing …

65 Tiebreakers in hoops : OTS

Overtime (OT)

Basketball is truly a North American sport. It was created in 1891 by Canadian James Naismith at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts. His goal was to create something active and interesting for his students in the gym. The first “hoops” were actually peach baskets, with the bottoms of the baskets intact. When a player got the ball into the “net”, someone had to clamber up and get the ball back out again in order to continue the game!

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Scotch ___ (3M product) : TAPE
5 Olympic martial art since 1964 : JUDO
9 Apt rhyme for “slams” : WHAMS
14 Do as one’s told : OBEY
15 Sailing the ocean : ASEA
16 Roomba or Automower : ROBOT
17 Go strolling : TAKE A WALK (giving “loose TA-LK”)
19 One end of a battery : ANODE
20 Squirrel’s stash : ACORNS
21 Sub at an office : TEMP
23 Two-finger victory sign : VEE
24 Use, as a towel at the shore : LIE ON
25 Outdoor concert stage : BAND SHELL (giving “loose BA-LL”)
27 Doozy : LULU
29 Canal to the Red Sea : SUEZ
30 Stiff test : CHALLENGE (giving “loose CHA-NGE”)
35 Fuss in front of a mirror : PREEN
38 Legacy I.S.P. : AOL
39 Immunity tokens on “Survivor” : IDOLS
41 Genetic messenger : RNA
42 Sings out with a lot of power : BELTS
45 Turnpike feature made obsolescent by electronic passes : TOLLBOOTH (giving “loose TO-OTH”)
48 Sushi bar drink : SAKE
50 Metal for a girder : IRON
51 Gel-filled NyQuil offerings : LIQUICAPS (giving “loose LI-PS”)
55 Post-O.R. stop : REHAB
59 Post-O.R. stop : ICU
60 Warsaw resident : POLE
61 Wildly absurd, colloquially : INSANE
62 Chef De Laurentiis of the Food Network : GIADA
64 Unresolved details … and a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters : LOOSE ENDS
66 Subs at a deli : HEROS
67 Start a poker pot : ANTE
68 Menu bar option : EDIT
69 Big obstacles at a golf course : TREES
70 Where to buy shares of G.M. : NYSE
71 Easter egg colorings : DYES

Down

1 Completely wreck : TOTAL
2 Early calculators : ABACI
3 Black tea variety : PEKOE
4 “You’ve got to be kidding” reaction : EYE ROLL
5 Film with the line “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” : JAWS
6 Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the ___” : USA
7 Airline with its main hub in Atlanta : DELTA
8 Like many chardonnay barrels : OAKEN
9 Brings to a close : WRAPS UP
10 Sweetie : HON
11 Warmer than freezing, on the Celsius scale : ABOVE ZERO
12 One posing for an artist : MODEL
13 Metal for a girder : STEEL
18 Declare invalid, as a marriage : ANNUL
22 OB/GYNs and 36-Downs : MDS
25 ___ cake (ring-shaped dessert) : BUNDT
26 What’s-___-name : HER
28 Garland gift in Hawaii : LEI
30 Ride that’s hailed : CAB
31 Weeder’s tool : HOE
32 Even-steven : ALL SQUARE
33 Slimy stuff : GOO
34 “Black-ish” co-star Tracee ___ Ross : ELLIS
36 Sinus specialist, for short : ENT
37 “I don’t think so” : NAH
40 35mm camera type, in brief : SLR
43 Letter after sigma : TAU
44 Ticket granting access to the slopes : SKI PASS
46 Carried : BORNE
47 Tournament favorite : ONE SEED
49 Green: Prefix : ECO-
51 Traffic signal : LIGHT
52 Less welcoming : ICIER
53 Writer Edgar ___ Poe : ALLAN
54 Spring bloom : PEONY
56 Skillful with home repairs : HANDY
57 Actress MacDowell : ANDIE
58 One-ups : BESTS
61 “Gotcha” : I SEE
63 Stag’s mate : DOE
65 Tiebreakers in hoops : OTS