0826-22 NY Times Crossword 26 Aug 22, Friday

Constructed by: Robert Logan
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Even Odds

All across answers comprise an even number of letters, and all down answers an odd number:

  • 64A A 50/50 chance … or a description of the lengths of this puzzle’s Across and Down answers, respectively : EVEN ODDS

Bill’s time: 15m 39s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9 Aidy of “Saturday Night Live” : BRYANT

Actor and comedian Aidy Bryant made her debut on “Saturday Night Live” in 2012. Bryant married fellow comedian Conner O’Malley in 2018.

19 Bulrush, e.g. : REED

Cattails are flowering plants found in wetlands. We call them bulrushes back in Ireland …

20 Zoom call background effect : BLUR

Zoom is a videoconferencing app that became remarkably popular in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The market deemed Zoom to be the easiest to use of the free videoconferencing apps. I’ve been using it, but really prefer Google’s Meet offering …

22 Coveted magic item in Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” : BEAN

“Jack and the Beanstalk” is a fairy tale from England. In the story, young Jack sells the family cow for some magic beans. He plants the beans and a massive beanstalk grows up into the sky. At the top of the beanstalk there lives an ogre. Jack climbs the beanstalk and adventures ensue …

“Into the Woods” is a Stephen Sondheim musical that premiered in 1986. The storyline uses characters from several fairy tales, including “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Jack and the Beanstalk”, “Rapunzel” and “Cinderella”. The borrowed characters are held together with an underlying original tale about a baker and his wife who long to have a child, but cannot due to a curse placed on them by a witch.

28 Really tiny machines : NANOBOTS

Nanorobots (also “nanobots”) are tiny devices that range from 0.1 to 10 micrometers in size. The technology of nanorobotics is in its infancy, but it is hoped that nanobots might be used (for example) in medicine one day. The oft-cited application is the use of nanobots inserted inside the body to identify and destroy cancer cells.

39 Largest of the Society Islands : TAHITI

Tahiti is the most populous island in French Polynesia, which is located in the central Southern Pacific. Although Captain Cook landed in Tahiti in 1769, he wasn’t the first European to do so. However, Cook’s visit was the most significant in that it heralded a whole spate of European visitors, who brought with them prostitution, venereal disease and alcohol. Included among the subsequent visitors was the famous HMS Bounty under the charge of Captain Bligh.

The Society Islands (in French, “Îles de la Société”) are a group of islands in the South Pacific that are part of French Polynesia. It is thought that the islands were named by English explorer Captain James Cook in honor of the Royal Society. The Society Islands are divided into two groups: The Windward Islands (the most famous of which is Tahiti) and the Leeward Islands (which includes the island of Bora Bora).

40 Calculus AB or Physics C, e.g. : AP TEST

The Advanced Placement (AP) program offers college-level courses to kids who are still in high school (HS). After being tested at the end of an AP course, successful students receive credits that count towards a college degree.

41 Showbiz sappiness : SCHMALTZ

“Schmaltz” is an informal term used to describe things that are excessively sentimental. The word comes from the Yiddish “shmalts”, which means “melted fat”. Indeed, the modern German word for fat or grease is Schmaltz, and it can be used in the same figurative way in that language.

43 Bottle of rum go-with : YO-HO-HO!

The fictional sea shanty called “Dead Man’s Chest” was introduced in Robert Louis Stevenson’s great novel, “Treasure Island”. In the book, Stevenson only describes the chorus, which goes:

Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest–
…Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest–
…Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

53 Snack item since 1912 : OREO

National Oreo Cookie Day is March 6th each year. There is an urban legend that the particular day was chosen as this was the day that the name “Oreo” was registered as a trademark. However, that’s not the case. The application was filed on March 14, 1912 and registration took place on August 12, 1913. The suggestion is that the first Oreos went on sale on March 6, 1912.

54 Fruit-bearing shrub known botanically as Prunus spinosa : SLOE

The sloe is the fruit of the blackthorn bush, and the main flavoring ingredient in sloe gin. A sloe looks like a small plum, but is usually much more tart in taste.

56 Davy Jones was one : MONKEE

The Monkees pop group was assembled in 1966 specifically for a planned television series called “The Monkees”. The show aired from 1966 to 1968, and the band continued to perform in concerts until 1970. 20 years after the band was formed, there was a revival in interest for both the show and the band’s music, so the Monkees got together for several reunion tours. The lead singer of the group was Englishman Davy Jones, who passed away in February 2012.

Davy Jones was the apparent lead vocalist for the Monkees, but it was drummer Micky Dolenz who took the lead in most of their hit songs. Peter Tork was the band member who was portrayed as the “dumb one” on “The Monkees” television show, but he was far from a dummy. In the early days of the band, session musicians played all the instruments for the records, except Tork. Tork got to play his guitar. The things that are kept from us …

59 Portrayer of the lawyer Robert Shapiro in “The People v. O.J. Simpson” : TRAVOLTA

Actor, dancer and singer John Travolta got his first break playing student Vinnie Barbarino in the sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter” in the seventies. While still on the TV show, Travolta showed off his dancing skills on two fabulous musical films: “Saturday Night Fever” (1977) and “Grease” (1978). His career then took a bit of a dip, before resurging again with his role in the 1994 Quentin Tarantino blockbuster “Pulp Fiction”.

“American Crime Story” is a true crime anthology TV series. Each season is a standalone mini-series. The first three seasons aired were:

  1. “The People v. O. J. Simpson”
  2. “The Assassination of Gianni Versace”
  3. “Impeachment” (the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal)

Down

>

2 Bank regulator : LEVEE

A levee is an artificial bank, usually made of earth, that runs along the length of a river. It is designed to hold back river water at a time of potential flooding. “Levée” is the French word for “raised” and is an American term that originated in French-speaking New Orleans around 1720.

4 Accomplishes the impossible with cats : HERDS

The idiomatic phrase “herding cats” describes a futile attempt to control a group of people (perhaps) who are inherently uncontrollable. This phrase originated relatively recently, and appears to come from a line spoken in the 1979 film “Monty Python’s Life of Brian”. In the movie’s opening, three shepherds are discussing sheep, and move on to cats: “Can you imagine a herd of cats waiting to be sheared? Meow! Meow! Woo hoo hoo.”

5 Big inits. in payroll services : ADP

Automatic Data Processing (ADP) is an enterprise based in Roseland, New Jersey that provides business services to companies. The company was founded back in 1949 by Henry Taub as Automatic Payrolls, Inc.

6 Surround sound pioneer : DOLBY

The Dolby noise-reduction system was introduced in the 1960s by Dolby Laboratories, founded by engineer Ray Dolby. Basically, that initial Dolby noise-reduction system was designed to reduce background hiss heard on audio tapes.

Monophonic sound (“mono”) is sound reproduced using just one audio channel, which is usually played out of just one speaker. Stereophonic sound is reproduced using two audio channels, with the sound from each channel played out of two different speakers. The pair of stereo speakers are usually positioned apart from each other so that sound appears to come from between the two. Quadraphonic sound (4.0 surround sound) uses four audio channels with the sound played back through four speakers that are often positioned at the corners of the room in which one is listening.

8 They make up families : GENUSES

Taxonomy is the classification of organisms into groups or categories known as taxons (plural “taxa”). We are most familiar with the classification of organisms in the major taxonomic ranks (taxa):

  • Life
  • Domain
  • Kingdom
  • Phylum
  • Class
  • Order
  • Family
  • Genus (plural “genera”)
  • Species

9 Some shot : BBS

A BB gun is an air pistol or rifle that shoots birdshot known as BBs. Birdshot comes in a number of different sizes, from size 9 (0.070″ in diameter) to size FF (.230″). Birdshot that is size BB (0.180″ in diameter) gives the airgun its name.

10 Joey who doesn’t wear pants : ROO

A male kangaroo is known as a buck, jack or boomer. A female is called a jill, flyer or doe. A young kangaroo is a joey, and a group of kangaroos is a mob or troop.

13 Common kind of battery : NICAD

A NiCad rechargeable battery is so called because the electrodes are made of nickel oxide hydroxide (“Ni”) and metallic cadmium (“Cad”).

28 Big employer of U.S. mathematicians, in brief : NSA

The National Security Agency (NSA) runs an annual Codebreaker Challenge that is aimed mainly at the student population. As best I can tell, the focus of the challenge is reverse software engineering. Checking out the Codebreaker Challenge website suggests that the NSA runs this program in order to identify and attract potential new employees.

29 Something that may be toted on a tour : AMP

An electric guitar, for example, needs an amplifier (amp) to take the weak signal created by the vibration of the strings and turn it into a signal powerful enough for a loudspeaker.

32 Get drunk, formally : BESOT

Our word “sot” comes from the Old English “sott”, meaning “fool”. The word “sot” started to be associated with alcohol and not just foolery in the late 1500s. The derivative term “besotted” means “muddled with drunkenness”, or more figuratively “infatuated”.

36 Old telecom inits. : ITT

International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT) was formed in 1920 from the Puerto Rico Telephone Company. ITT divested its telecommunications business in 1986, today the company is known for its products in the field of water and fluids management, as well motion and flow control. Many of ITT’s products are sold into the aerospace market.

37 Cheney of politics : LIZ

Liz Cheney is the eldest daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. She was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2016, representing the state of Woming’s single seat. Her father held that same seat for ten years. Watch this space …

41 Scottish sheepdog, informally : SHELTIE

The Shetland Islands in Scotland have given their name to a few breeds of animals, including Shetland cattle, Shetland ponies, Shetland sheep, Shetland sheepdogs and Shetland geese. The Shetlands lie about 110 miles northeast of the Scottish mainland.

42 Small-screen milestone of the 1950s : COLOR TV

Early television programming was broadcast in monochrome, i.e. black-and-white or grayscale. The introduction of color television built on the technology behind monochrome TV in the sense that color television images are a combination of three monochrome images. The colors of these three monochrome signals are red, green and blue (RGB).

44 Extra periods, for short : OTS

Overtime (OT)

49 Ring bearer of note : FRODO

Frodo Baggins is a principal character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”. Frodo is a Hobbit, and is charged with the quest of destroying Sauron’s Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. Frodo is portrayed by American actor Elijah Wood in Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of the novels.

57 Antidiscrimination inits. : EEO

“Equal Employment Opportunity” (EEO) is a term that has been around since 1964 when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set up by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII of the Act prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin or religion.

58 Layer of green eggs : EMU

Emu eggs are very large, with a thick shell that is dark-green in color. One emu egg weighs about the same as a dozen chicken eggs. It is the male emu that incubates the eggs. The incubation period lasts about 8 weeks, during which time the male neither eats nor drinks, just lapping up any morning dew that is nearby. While incubating a clutch of eggs, male emus lose about a third of their weight.

60 Mover’s need, maybe : VAN

The vehicle we call a “van” takes its name from “caravan”, and so “van” is a shortened version of the older term. Back in the 1600s, a caravan was a covered cart. We still use the word “caravan” in Ireland to describe what we call a “mobile home” or “recreational vehicle” here in the US.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Team leader : ALPHA DOG
9 Aidy of “Saturday Night Live” : BRYANT
15 “Yeah, I’m breaking up with you” : WE’RE DONE
16 Kind of board at the beach : BOOGIE
17 Prepare for everything, maybe : OVERPLAN
18 Journalist’s secret : SOURCE
19 Bulrush, e.g. : REED
20 Zoom call background effect : BLUR
22 Coveted magic item in Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” : BEAN
23 Retirement spots : DENS
24 “Absolutely!” : YES INDEEDY!
27 Check in : REPORT
28 Really tiny machines : NANOBOTS
34 Explosive feedback? : RECOIL
38 A heavy one may want a lighter : SMOKER
39 Largest of the Society Islands : TAHITI
40 Calculus AB or Physics C, e.g. : AP TEST
41 Showbiz sappiness : SCHMALTZ
43 Bottle of rum go-with : YO-HO-HO!
45 “I can’t say for sure” : HARD TO TELL
49 Gift tag word : FROM
53 Snack item since 1912 : OREO
54 Fruit-bearing shrub known botanically as Prunus spinosa : SLOE
55 Food you might eat in a bed : RICE
56 Davy Jones was one : MONKEE
59 Portrayer of the lawyer Robert Shapiro in “The People v. O.J. Simpson” : TRAVOLTA
61 Regard : ESTEEM
62 “You’re on!” : IT’S A DEAL!
63 “Who, me?” rejoinder : YES, YOU
64 A 50/50 chance … or a description of the lengths of this puzzle’s Across and Down answers, respectively : EVEN ODDS

Down

1 “Can we talk?,” tersely : A WORD
2 Bank regulator : LEVEE
3 Show vanity, in a way : PREEN
4 Accomplishes the impossible with cats : HERDS
5 Big inits. in payroll services : ADP
6 Surround sound pioneer : DOLBY
7 Ready : ON ALERT
8 They make up families : GENUSES
9 Some shot : BBS
10 Joey who doesn’t wear pants : ROO
11 “Absolutely!” : YOU BETCHA!
12 Match : AGREE
13 Common kind of battery : NICAD
14 Minute : TEENY
21 Light (into) : RIP
25 0° : NORTH
26 Free movie starring yourself? : DREAM
28 Big employer of U.S. mathematicians, in brief : NSA
29 Something that may be toted on a tour : AMP
30 ___ at all : NOT
31 “Yep, that’s fine” : OKEY DOKEY
32 Get drunk, formally : BESOT
33 Straight: Prefix : ORTHO-
35 Something you might strike : OIL
36 Old telecom inits. : ITT
37 Cheney of politics : LIZ
41 Scottish sheepdog, informally : SHELTIE
42 Small-screen milestone of the 1950s : COLOR TV
44 Extra periods, for short : OTS
45 Cozy : HOMEY
46 Popped up : AROSE
47 Signs a 48-Down : RENTS
48 See 47-Down : LEASE
49 Ring bearer of note : FRODO
50 All ___ up (irritated) : RILED
51 Eightsome : OCTAD
52 Board, so to speak : MEALS
57 Antidiscrimination inits. : EEO
58 Layer of green eggs : EMU
60 Mover’s need, maybe : VAN

14 thoughts on “0826-22 NY Times Crossword 26 Aug 22, Friday”

  1. 7:35. Pretty easy solve for me. I noticed a bit of a mini-theme where of colloquial phrases spaced symmetrically on the grid: WE’RE DONE, IT’S A DEAL, YES INDEEDY, HARD TO TELL, YOU BETCHA, and OKEY DOKEY. As for the even/odds thing, I think that’s interesting construction.

  2. 11:40 I wish I could post a screenshot to offer proof of the completion time, given my typical history of being slower than all of humanity. That said, I totally missed the theme, so my reputation in that regard remains intact….

  3. Good one …

    Today’s New Yorker crossword (Friday, 08/26) is by David Steinberg and it’s also a good one. New Yorker puzzles are supposed to get easier during the week, so I was a bit surprised to find myself bogging down. It took me a while to figure out the gimmick (a new one! … will wonders never cease? … 😜); then, it got easier and, ultimately, I found myself very impressed. (Pretty danged clever for an upstart kid fifty years younger than me … 🤪.)

  4. 15:02, no errors. Smooth solve today, just seemed in sync with setter. Impressive construction, but invisible to the solver. Got the almost there message, had to go back and find/correct OKAY DOKEY to OKEY DOKEY.

  5. 15:18. I didn’t notice a theme, but I did notice the unusual look of the grid. Maybe that counts as half a point.

    EMUs lay green eggs? I don’t know if I can ever read “Green Eggs and Ham” the same way again.

    The AP Physics C TEST means it’s calculus based. AP Physics 1 and 2 are algebra based. I can’t believe how low standards are these days. An algebra based exam didn’t even exist when I took it. Also – I can’t imagine a college level physics course that isn’t calculus based. I took algebra based physics as a freshman…in HIGH SCHOOL. I’m sounding like a grump now.

    Best –

    1. I took physics in college as a bio major, and, while calc was a prerequisite, I certainly didn’t need a whit of it in physics (and haven’t needed it for a 25 year career in biomedical research either…). Physics for bio majors is probably different from physics for physics and chem majors or engineers.

  6. 9:10, no errors.

    @Dave
    For what it’s worth, that theme was trite and I’ve seen it repeated multiple times before. Can’t remember where for as many as I’ve done of these. But with themes it’s always that it’s all been done.

    @Jeff
    For what it’s worth when I went to college, there was a course named “College Physics” and two named “University Physics”. And you can guess the difference between the two. That experience is far in my past to remember what majors actually were *okay* with College Physics, but most all the science based ones wanted a number of the “University Physics” courses. Both courses existed though, which tells me both had *reasons* to exist.

    1. @Glenn …

      I probably should have said “new to me” … and, in fact, it is possible that I have encountered some variant of the theme in my fading past. In any case, Steinberg’s use of it was elegant, and I found his puzzle most enjoyable.

      I’d still be interested in hearing where you see all those asymmetrical grids you mentioned on the other blog a few weeks ago (if, in fact, they’re actually asymmetrical, as opposed to just “not-NYT-standard-compliant”).

      1. >asymmetrical grids

        Most constructors really don’t care that much about being fully “NYT-standard compliant” (as you put it) when they’re posting to their own sites, but will try. It might be one or two squares off from rotational symmetry, but it happens. You just probably haven’t been around different places enough to run into it or didn’t particularly pay attention.

        1. The New York Times prefers a particular kind of rotational symmetry, but there are other kinds (left/right, up/down, etc.). I spot-checked a few of the (quite literally) thousands of puzzles in my files and was able to find examples of “non-NYT” asymmetry, but only a few completely asymmetric ones (most of which have appeared in the USA Today since Erik Agard took over) – nothing like the numbers of them that you claimed to run into on a daily basis. So I was curious to know where it was that you were seeing so many …

  7. I had a COMP SCI major in college. Had to take CALC I and II. But you had to prove some sort of algebra and trig knowledge either by taking a pre-calc course or taking a CLEP TEST (not sure if that’s a thing anymore). I took the CLEP , passed , and took th CALC I and II. the biggest regret was that the way the course syllabus was laid out, you either had to take Theoretical calc in the 1st semester of the freshman year, or wait for 2nd semester and take applied calc. Which meant delaying of all the other courses that required calc first. I was in a hurry to get through college. So I took Theoretical calc. What a mess. There are no answers! … like 48 or 62! Just another formulaic result. I didn’t do well. Got a C in Calc I and a C+ in calc II. I passed . Went on through all my computer science courses and never used calc again. I finished my undergrad in 3 1/2 years because of my CLEP tests and other gen ed quals. I still regret Theoretical calc. It soured me.

    But I digress. This puzzle went fast for a friday. Got a bit hung up in NE corner. Not sure what the point of the theme was other than easily answering the clue.

  8. 38:51 no errors…the NW corner took a minute and I still wasn’t sure but luck was on my side for a change 👍
    Judging by others remarks I might be the only one responding here who didn’t go to college…you can’t win ‘‘em all 🤪
    Stay safe😀

  9. Love the college talk. Brings back a lot of memories. Thanks to all above for their input.

    I went to a very small school, Rice U in Houston, as an undergrad. There were only 2000 undergrad students (I don’t think it’s much bigger now), 90% of whom were science and engineering majors. So nearly everyone in the school took what we called “the big three” – calculus, chemistry, and physics (which was calculus based) in their freshman year. There weren’t enough students to fill up both a college physics and university physics class so I suppose I was (am?) pretty ignorant of such things.

    Tom R – Acceleration is the derivative of velocity (time rate of change of velocity), and you integrate acceleration to get velocity as a function of time. Those are very simple concepts, and I think that’s day one of freshman physics – i.e. even the most basic relations of classical physics require calculus to fully understand how interrelated everything is. I guess that’s why I’m so perplexed by the non-calculus based physics. All that said, perhaps that level of understanding simply isn’t necessary in other fields.

    Best –

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