Constructed by: Garrett Chalfin
Edited by: Will Shortz
Not your puzzle? Try today’s …
… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Reveal Answer: The Price Is Right
Themed answers each have a synonym of “PRICE” as a hidden word on the RIGHT, at the end:
- 59A Classic game show … or a hint to 17-, 26- and 47-Across : THE PRICE IS RIGHT
- 17A Input for a barista’s grinder : WHOLE BEAN COFFEE
- 26A “Can you say more about that?” : CARE TO ELABORATE?
- 47A Tactic employed by the Vietcong : GUERILLA WARFARE
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… a complete list of answers
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Bill’s time: 5m 30s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
6 “Frozen” queen : ELSA
“Frozen” is a 2013 animated feature from Walt Disney Studios that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Snow Queen”. The film is all about the exploits of Princess Anna, the younger sister of Elsa, Snow Queen of Arendelle. Spoiler alert: Prince Hans of the Southern Isles seems to be a good guy for most of the film, but turns out to be a baddie in the end. And, a snowman named Olaf provides some comic relief.
10 Tennis’s Nadal, informally : RAFA
Rafael “Rafa” Nadal is a Spanish tennis player. He is noted for his expertise on clay courts, which earned him the nickname “The King of Clay”.
14 To whom you might cry “Ahoy!” : MATEY
“Ahoy!” is a nautical term used to signal a vessel. When the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, he suggested that “ahoy” be used as a standard greeting when answering a call. However, Thomas Edison came up with “hello”, and we’ve been using that ever since.
15 “Va-va-___!” : VOOM
“Va-va-voom!” is an expression that turns up in a lot of places. For example, it was a frequent utterance by comic actor Art Carney, most notably while playing Ed Norton in the sitcom “The Honeymooners” from the 1950s. Carney even released a comedy song “Va Va Va Voom” in 1954.
16 What’s missing in ___erican ___press : AMEX
“Amex” is short for “American Express”, the name of the financial services company that is best known for its credit card, charge card and traveler’s check businesses. The company name is indicative of its original business. American Express was founded in 1850 in Buffalo, New York as an express mail service.
17 Input for a barista’s grinder : WHOLE BEAN COFFEE
A barista is a person who serves coffee in a coffee shop. “Barista” is Italian for “bartender”.
21 Payment app whose name is now a verb : VENMO
Venmo is a smartphone payment app that is now owned by PayPal. The first version of the product was introduced in 2009 by two entrepreneurs who had met as freshman students at the University of Pennsylvania. They sold the company in 2012 for over $26 million, and then PayPal acquired it the following year for a whopping $800 million. I wonder if PayPal ever buys blogs …
22 Web designer’s code : HTML
The initialism “HTML” stands for HyperText Markup Language. HTML is the language used to write most Internet web pages (including this one).
24 Actress Dunaway : FAYE
Faye Dunaway won an Oscar for her performance in the 1976 movie “Network”. She also starred in the original version of “The Thomas Crown Affair” in 1968, opposite Steve McQueen. Dunaway had a role in the remake of “The Thomas Crown Affair” with Pierce Brosnan, over thirty years later in 1999.
35 Duke of ___, title for Prince Harry : SUSSEX
Harry, Duke of Sussex is the younger of the two sons of Charles and Diana, Prince and Princess of Wales. Famously, Prince Harry married American actress Meghan Markle in 2018. The groom’s name was Prince Henry of Wales until the marriage, at which time his name officially changed to “Prince Harry”. In January 2020, Harry and Meghan stepped back from their official duties.
36 Three on a grandfather clock : III
There are several sizes of longcase clocks, tall and freestanding clocks driven by a pendulum swinging inside a tower below the clock face. A longcase clock over 6 feet tall is called a grandfather, and one below five feet is a granddaughter, One that falls between five and six feet is known as a grandmother. The name of the clock derives from an 1876 song called “My Grandfather’s Clock”.
37 “___ Abner” : LI’L
“Li’l Abner” was created and drawn by Al Capp for over 43 years starting in 1934. Al Capp stopped producing the strip in 1977, largely due to illness (he died from emphysema two years later). As the strip finished up, he went so far as to apologize to his long-standing fans, saying that he should have stopped 3-4 years earlier as he felt that the quality of his work had gone down in those latter years. The title character’s full name is “Li’l Abner Yokum”. Despite being referred to as “Li’l”, Abner is 6’ 3” tall.
40 Cosa ____ (Mafia) : NOSTRA
Apparently, “Cosa Nostra” is the real name for the Italian Mafia. “Cosa Nostra” translates as “our thing” or “this thing of ours”. The term first became public in the US when the FBI managed to turn several members of the American Mafia. The Italian authorities established that “Cosa Nostra” was also used in Sicily when they penetrated the Sicilian Mafia in the 1980s. The term “Mafia” seems to be just a literary invention that has become popular with the public.
44 Police officer : COP
“To cop” was northern-English dialect for “to seize, catch”, and is still a slang term meaning “to get hold of, steal”. This verb evolved in the noun “copper”, describing a policeman, someone who catches criminals. “Copper” is often shortened to “cop”.
47 Tactic employed by the Vietcong : GUERILLA WARFARE
Guerrilla (sometimes “guerilla”) warfare is a type of fighting engaged in by irregular forces using ambushes and sabotage. The term “guerra” is Spanish for war, and “guerrilla” translates as “little war”.
“Viet Cong” was the name of the political and military organization based in South Vietnam that fought the US and South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War. The American military referred to the Viet Cong as “the VC”. “VC” could be extended to “Victor Charlie” in the phonetic alphabet, and this was shortened to “Charlie”, which became a military slang term for the Viet Cong and other Communists.
50 Capital of Norway : OSLO
Oslo, the capital of Norway, is an ancient city that was founded around 1048. The medieval city was destroyed by fire in 1624 and was rebuilt by the Danish-Norwegian king Christian IV and renamed to Christiana. In 1877 there was an official change of the spelling of the city’s name to “Kristiana”, and then more recently in 1925 the name was restored to the original Oslo. Things have almost gone full circle and now the center of Oslo, the area that would have been contained by the original medieval walls, has apparently been renamed to Christiana.
52 T, on a test : TRUE
An answer (ans.) might be true (T) or false (F).
59 Classic game show … or a hint to 17-, 26- and 47-Across : THE PRICE IS RIGHT
“The Price is Right” is a television game show that first aired way back in 1956.
62 Compos mentis : SANE
“Compos mentis” is a Latin phrase that translates as “in command of one’s mind”. It is a term used in contemporary law.
66 Leave in, editorially : 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.
67 Like a kindergarten room, often : MESSY
“Kindergarten” is a German term, one translating as “children’s garden”. The term was coined by the German education authority Friedrich Fröbel in 1837, when he used it as the name for his play and activity institute that he created for young children to use before they headed off to school. His thought was that children should be nourished educationally, like plants in a garden.
Down
1 German luxury cars : BMWS
The initialism “BMW” stands for “Bayerische Motoren Werke”, which translates into Bavarian Motor Works. BMW was making aircraft engines during WWI, but had to cease that activity according to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The company then started making motorcycles, and moved into automobile production starting in 1928. BMW moved back into aircraft engine manufacturing during the build-up of the Luftwaffe prior to WWII.
2 Honolulu’s island : OAHU
Honolulu is the largest city in Hawaii, and the state capital. Located on the island of Oahu, the name “Honolulu” translates from Hawaiian as “place of shelter, calm port, sheltered bay”.
3 Great Plains tribe : OTOE
The Great Plains lie between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains in North America. This vast grassland is known as “the Prairies” in Canada.
4 Reef predator : EEL
A reef is a ridge of stable material lying beneath the surface of a body of water. They can be made up of sand or rock, and also of coral. The largest coral reef on the planet is Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which stretches over 1,400 miles.
7 Rich soil : LOAM
Loam is soil made up of sand, silt and clay in the ratio of about 40-40-20. Relative to other soil types, loam is usually rich in nutrients and moisture, drains well and is easy to till. Loam can also be used in constructing houses as it is quite strong when mixed with straw and dried.
9 “The Walking Dead” cable channel : AMC
“The Walking Dead” is a horror television show made by AMC that is based on a comic book series of the same name. There are lots of flesh-eating zombies featured, so I won’t be caught “dead” watching it …
10 Ceiling beams : RAFTERS
Rafters are the beams that slope from the ridge of a roof down to the tops of the supporting walls.
11 Radio frequency letters : AM/FM
In telecommunications, a radio signal is transmitted using a sinusoidal carrier wave. Information is transmitted using this carrier wave in two main ways, by varying (modulating) the instantaneous amplitude (signal strength) of the carrier wave, and by modulating the instantaneous frequency of the carrier wave. The former is referred to as an AM signal (“amplitude modulation”), and the latter as an FM signal (“frequency modulation”).
12 Have empathy (for) : FEEL
“Sympathy” and “empathy” are related but different terms. A person exhibiting sympathy acknowledges another person’s emotional distress. A person exhibiting empathy also acknowledges distress, but understands the emotions felt as they have had a similar experience, or can at least put themselves in the shoes of the person affected.
23 Middle column on a calendar: Abbr. : WED
The days of the week are named for celestial bodies and gods
- Sunday — Sun’s Day
- Monday — Moon’s Day
- Tuesday — Tiu’s day
- Wednesday — Woden’s day
- Thursday — Thor’s day
- Friday — Freya’s day
- Saturday — Saturn’s day
29 Classic German camera : LEICA
Leica is a German optics company that is famous for production of lenses and cameras. The 1913 Leica was the first practical camera that could use 35mm film, a size chosen because it was already the standard for film used in motion pictures.
30 Carne ___ (taco choice) : ASADA
The name of the dish called “carne asada” translates from Spanish as “roasted meat”.
31 Choir member : TENOR
A tenor (plural “tenori”) is a male voice that falls between that of a countertenor and a baritone. The word “tenor” comes from the Latin “tenere” meaning “to hold”. This etymology refers to the tenor part that carries the sustained melody (canto fermo) of a traditional polyphonic composition.
41 Word that would seem to be a portmanteau of “traveling groups,” but isn’t : TROUPES
“Troupe” is a French word meaning “company, band”.
48 Feline meme since around 2006 : LOLCAT
A lolcat is an image of a cat with a humorous message superimposed in text. Such images have been around since the late 1800s, but the term “lolcat” only surfaced in 2006 as the phenomenon was sweeping across the Internet. “Lolcat” is a melding of the acronym for “laugh out loud” (LOL) and “cat”.
49 “The Shining” plot device that became significant when read backward : REDRUM
In the 1980 movie “The Shining”, there is a young boy called Danny who has the gift of ESP and who has a bad feeling about the hotel where he and his family are to live. At one stage, Danny calls out the word “redrum” and then goes into a trance. “Redrum” is “murder” spelled backwards.
52 Cuisine with pad see ew : THAI
Pad see ew is also known as Phat si io, and is a stir-fried noodle dish in Thai cuisine. “Phat si io” means “fried with soy sauce”. I love Thai food …
56 Popular fleece-lined boots : UGGS
Uggs are sheepskin boots that were first produced in Australia and New Zealand. The original Uggs have sheepskin fleece on the inside for comfort and insulation, with a tanned leather surface on the outside for durability. “Ugg” is a generic term Down Under, although it’s a brand name here in the US.
57 The Rolling Stones’ “___ a Rainbow” : SHE’S
“She’s a Rainbow” is a 1967 song Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote for the Rolling Stones, and a very “un-Rolling Stones” song it is. It was intended as a satirical piece. John Lennon claimed that “She’s a Rainbow” imitated the Beatles song ”All You Need Is Love”.
58 Online crafts marketplace : ETSY
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.
60 Things checked by T.S.A. workers : IDS
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created in 2001, soon after the 9/11 attacks. TSA personnel carry out the baggage and body searches at US airports. The TSA has a Trusted Traveler program that allows certain passengers to move more quickly through security screening. These passengers pay the TSA a one-time fee that covers a background check after which successful applicants are issued a Known Traveler Number (KTN).
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Expressed displeasure, as for an opposing team : BOOED
6 “Frozen” queen : ELSA
10 Tennis’s Nadal, informally : RAFA
14 To whom you might cry “Ahoy!” : MATEY
15 “Va-va-___!” : VOOM
16 What’s missing in ___erican ___press : AMEX
17 Input for a barista’s grinder : WHOLE BEAN COFFEE
20 Take to court : SUE
21 Payment app whose name is now a verb : VENMO
22 Web designer’s code : HTML
23 What baseball players, striking employees and pet dogs each do : WALK
24 Actress Dunaway : FAYE
26 “Can you say more about that?” : CARE TO ELABORATE?
33 Starring role : LEAD
34 Tiny : WEE
35 Duke of ___, title for Prince Harry : SUSSEX
36 Three on a grandfather clock : III
37 “___ Abner” : LI’L
39 The difference between Mara and Maria? : AN I
40 Cosa ____ (Mafia) : NOSTRA
44 Police officer : COP
46 False god : IDOL
47 Tactic employed by the Vietcong : GUERILLA WARFARE
50 Capital of Norway : OSLO
51 Desserts with crusts : PIES
52 T, on a test : TRUE
54 Love, with “the” : … L WORD
56 “___ as directed” (medicine bottle caution) : USE
59 Classic game show … or a hint to 17-, 26- and 47-Across : THE PRICE IS RIGHT
62 Compos mentis : SANE
63 “Shoot!” : DARN!
64 Implores : URGES
65 First-aid boxes, e.g. : KITS
66 Leave in, editorially : STET
67 Like a kindergarten room, often : MESSY
Down
1 German luxury cars : BMWS
2 Honolulu’s island : OAHU
3 Great Plains tribe : OTOE
4 Reef predator : EEL
5 Textile factory container : DYE VAT
6 Balanced disposition : EVEN KEEL
7 Rich soil : LOAM
8 “Why, you little …” : … SON OF A …
9 “The Walking Dead” cable channel : AMC
10 Ceiling beams : RAFTERS
11 Radio frequency letters : AM/FM
12 Have empathy (for) : FEEL
13 Lumberjack’s tool : AXE
18 Underneath : BELOW
19 “Silly goose!” : OH YOU!
23 Middle column on a calendar: Abbr. : WED
25 Situps tighten them : ABS
26 Hold tightly (to) : CLING
27 Vowel quintet : A-E-I-O-U
28 Uptick in salary : RAISE
29 Classic German camera : LEICA
30 Carne ___ (taco choice) : ASADA
31 Choir member : TENOR
32 Banish, as from a country : EXILE
38 Rock bottom : LOW POINT
41 Word that would seem to be a portmanteau of “traveling groups,” but isn’t : TROUPES
42 Early ___ (morning person) : RISER
43 The complete set : ALL
45 Twosomes : PAIRS
46 Hypotheticals : IFS
48 Feline meme since around 2006 : LOLCAT
49 “The Shining” plot device that became significant when read backward : REDRUM
52 Cuisine with pad see ew : THAI
53 High cost in New York and San Francisco : RENT
55 “Now, where ___ we?” : WERE
56 Popular fleece-lined boots : UGGS
57 The Rolling Stones’ “___ a Rainbow” : SHE’S
58 Online crafts marketplace : ETSY
59 [For shame!] : [TSK!]
60 Things checked by T.S.A. workers : IDS
61 Anger : IRE
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