0816-22 NY Times Crossword 16 Aug 22, Tuesday

Constructed by: Sue Fracker
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Elbow Room

The grid includes five ELBOW-shaped groups of letters, each of which spells out a ROOM.

  • 64A Adequate space to move around … as found in this puzzle’s circled letters? : ELBOW ROOM

The ROOMS are:

  • BOILER (room)
  • GUEST (room)
  • DRESSING (room)
  • PANIC (room)
  • ROMPER (room)

Bill’s time: 6m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4 “Picnic” playwright : INGE

Playwright William Inge had a run of success on Broadway in the early fifties. His most celebrated work of that time is the play “Picnic”, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. The original 1953 cast of “Picnic” included a young male actor making his debut on Broadway. His name was Paul Newman. Many of Inge’s works are set in the American heartland and so he became known as the “Playwright of the Midwest”.

13 Classic Camaro model : IROC

The IROC-Z is a model of Camaro that was introduced by Chevrolet in 1978. The IROC-Z takes its name from a famous stock car race, the International Race of Champions.

16 Backing, or the name of Athena’s shield : AEGIS

According to Homer’s “Iliad”, the aegis is either an animal skin or a shield that was carried by Athena and Zeus. The aegis is also described as bearing the head of Gorgon, a female creature with hair made of venomous snakes. The aegis provided some level of protection to the bearer, a concept that has been extended to our contemporary usage of “aegis”. Someone under the aegis of someone else is protected or sponsored by that person.

20 Rap’s ___, the Creator : TYLER

“Tyler, the Creator” is the stage name of rap singer Tyler Okonma.

26 Southern constellation : ARA

The constellation of Ara takes its name from the Latin word for “altar”.

29 Fast-food chain with square burgers : WENDY’S

The Wendy’s chain of fast food restaurants was founded by Dave Thomas, in 1969 in Columbus, Ohio. Dave named his establishment after his fourth child, Melinda Lou “Wendy” Thomas.

32 Commuting option : RAIL

Our verb “to commute”, meaning “to go back and forth to work”, ultimately derives from the Latin “commutare”, meaning “to often change”. Back in the late 1800s, a “commutation ticket” was a season pass, so named because it allowed one to “change” one kind of payment into another. Quite interesting …

39 Seven Dwarfs ___ Train (Disney World ride) : MINE

Walt Disney World, located near Orlando in Florida, is the most visited vacation resort in the world. The resort comprises four different theme parks as well as two water parks:

  • Magic Kingdom
  • Epcot
  • Disney’s Hollywood Studios
  • Disney’s Animal Kingdom
  • Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon
  • Disney’s Blizzard Beach

40 Early Peruvians : INCAS

The Inca people emerged as a tribe around the 12th century, in what today is southern Peru. The Incas developed a vast empire over the next 300 years, extending along most of the western side of South America. The Empire fell to the Spanish, finally dissolving in 1572 with the execution of Túpac Amaru, the last Incan Emperor.

42 Over it all : JADED

Our term “jaded”, meaning tired and feeling a little “ho-hum”, comes from the noun “jade” which in the 14th century was an old, worn-out horse.

43 Slip up : GOOF

A goof is a mistake. The verb “to goof off” was coined in 1941 meaning “to make a mistake at drill”. After the war, the meaning extended to describe wasting time, loafing around.

44 Commuting option : BUS

We use the term “bus” for a mode of transportation as it is an abbreviated form of the original “omnibus”. We imported “omnibus” via French from Latin, in which language it means “for all”. The idea is that an omnibus is a “carriage for all”.

45 Moolah : DINERO

“Dinero” is a Spanish word meaning “money”, as well as a slang term for money here in the US.

49 Depot: Abbr. : STN

Our term “depot”, meaning “station, warehouse”, comes from the French word “dépôt”. The French term translates into English as “deposit” or “place of deposit”.

52 Old-fashioned alternative to Venmo or Zelle : CASH

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 …

54 Powerful adhesive : SUPER GLUE

Super Glue and Krazy Glue are trademarks for the fast-acting cyanoacrylate adhesive, which are also known generically as “super glues”.

59 Major artery : AORTA

The aorta originates in the heart and extends down into the abdomen. It is the largest artery in the body.

63 Ten pins in two bowls : SPARE

In bowling, the downing of all ten pins in two balls in the same frame is called a spare, and scores ten points. The player gets a bonus, equal to the number of pins downed with the next ball, which could be up to ten. Hence, a spare can be worth up to 20 points

66 Common mixer : TONIC

The original tonic water was a fairly strong solution of the drug quinine dissolved in carbonated water. It was used in tropical areas in South Asia and Africa where malaria is rampant. The quinine has a prophylactic effect against the disease, and was formulated as “tonic water” so that it could be easily distributed. In British colonial India, the colonial types got into the habit of mixing gin with the tonic water to make it more palatable by hiding the bitter taste of quinine. Nowadays, the level of quinine in tonic water has dropped, and sugar has been added.

67 Elitist sort : SNOB

Back in the 1780s, a snob was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word “snob” was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.

68 BBs, e.g. : AMMO

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.

70 Cry from the curb : TAXI

We call cabs “taxis”, a word derived from “taximeter cabs” that were introduced in London in 1907. A taximeter was an automated meter designed to record distance traveled and fare to be charged. The term “taximeter” evolved from “taxameter”, with “taxa” being Latin for “tax, charge”.

“Curb” is another of those words that I had to learn when I came to the US. We park by the “kerb” on the other side of the Atlantic. Oh, and the “pavement”, that’s what we call the “footpath” (because the footpath is “paved”!). It’s very confusing when you arrive in this country from Ireland, and a little dangerous, when one has been taught to “walk on the pavement” …

Down

3 Reach 212° F, as water : BOIL

When Gabriel Fahrenheit first defined his temperature scale he set 0 degrees as the temperature of a mixture of ice, water and salt. He defined 100 degrees as the temperature under his wife’s armpit! Using this scale he determined that water boiled at 210 degrees. Later refinements moved the boiling point of water up to 212 degrees, and as a result “body temperature” was shifted downwards to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

4 Sale rack abbr. : IRR

Irregular (“irr.” or “irreg.”)

5 Spruce up : NEATEN

Our verb “to spruce up” means “to make trim or neat”. The term comes from the adjective “spruce”, meaning “smart, neat”. In turn, the adjective comes from “spruce leather”, which was a Prussian leather that was used in England in the 15th and 16th centuries to make a popular style of jerkin that was widely considered to look quite smart.

6 Historic Mideast city where Samson died : GAZA

In the story of Samson in the Bible, Samson is tied up with ropes and taken to Lehi where he breaks free of his bonds and uses the jawbones of an ass to slay one thousand Philistines. The full name for Lehi is Ramath Lehi which translates as “jawbone hill”.

7 Maker of Brownie Brick Road ice cream : EDY’S

Dreyer’s ice cream sells its products under the name Dreyer’s in the Western United States, and Edy’s in the Eastern states. The company’s founders were William Dreyer and Joseph Edy.

8 “___ at the Bat” : CASEY

“Casey at the Bat” is a poem written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer, first published in the San Francisco Examiner. The poem became very popular due to repeated live performances in vaudeville by DeWolf Hopper. Casey played for the Mudville Nine, and the last line of the poem is “But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out.”

9 Host of Netflix’s “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” : LETTERMAN

Talk show host and comedian David Letterman has been appearing on late night television since 1982. Letterman had the longest late-night hosting career on US television, even longer than the iconic Johnny Carson.

10 Shivering fit : AGUE

An ague is a fever, one usually associated with malaria.

14 Sport with a coxswain : CREW

The coxswain of a boat is one in charge of steering and navigation. The word “coxswain” is shortened to “cox”, particularly when used for the person steering and calling out the stroke in a competition rowing boat.

22 Baking meas. : TBSP

Tablespoon (tbsp.)

28 Fancy scarf : ASCOT

An ascot is a wide tie that narrows at the neck, which these days is only really worn at weddings or part of a dress uniform. The tie takes its name from the Royal Ascot horse race at which punters still turn up in formal wear at Ascot Racecourse in England.

31 Yang’s counterpart : YIN

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.

34 Like neon and argon : INERT

An inert gas can be different from a noble gas. Both are relatively non-reactive, but a noble gas is an element. An inert gas might be a compound, i.e. made up of more than one element.

Neon (Ne) was discovered in 1898 by two British chemists, Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers. They chilled a sample of air, turning it into a liquid. They then warmed that liquid and separated out the gases that boiled off. Along with nitrogen, oxygen and argon (already known), the pair of scientists discovered two new gases. The first they called “krypton” and the second “neon”. “Krypton” is Greek for “the hidden one” and “neon” is Greek for “new”.

The chemical element argon has the symbol Ar. It is a noble gas, and so by definition is relatively nonreactive. The name “argon” comes from the Greek word for “lazy, inactive”. There’s a lot of argon around, as it is the third-most abundant gas in our atmosphere.

42 Interlocking puzzle : JIGSAW

Jigsaws are saws designed for the cutting of irregular curves by hand. The original jigsaw puzzles were created by painting a picture on a sheet of wood and then cutting the picture into small pieces using a jigsaw, hence the name. Today, almost all jigsaw puzzles are pictures glued onto cardboard. The puzzle pieces are now die-cut, and so there’s no jigsaw involved at all.

44 Collection of online musings : BLOG

Many folks who visit this website regard it as just that, a website. That is true, but more specifically it is referred to as a blog, as I make regular posts (actually daily posts) that then occupy the “front page” of the site. The blog entries are in reverse chronological order, and one can just look back day-by-day, reading older and older posts. “Blog” is a contraction of the term “web log”.

51 Vacuum brand : ORECK

The Oreck Corporation is named after founder David Oreck and makes vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. The company started out selling vacuum cleaners by mail, a new concept in 1963. David Oreck himself appears regularly as a spokesman in the company’s ads and infomercials.

53 Dance done to “Hava Nagila” : HORA

The hora is a circle dance that originated in the Balkans. It was brought to Israel by Romanian settlers, and is often performed to traditional, Israeli folk songs. The hora (also “horah”) is a regular sight at Jewish weddings. Sometimes the honoree at an event is raised on a chair during the dance.

“Hava Nagila” is a Hebrew folk song, with the title translating into “Let Us Rejoice”. The melody is from a Ukrainian folk song. The words to “Hava Nagila” were composed in 1918 to celebrate the British victory in Palestine during WWI.

54 Concordes, e.g., in brief : SSTS

The most famous supersonic transport (SST) is the retired Concorde. Concorde was developed and produced under an Anglo-French treaty by France’s Aérospatiale and the UK’s British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Concordes were mainly operated by Air France and British Airways, with both companies buying the planes with substantial subsidies from the French and British governments. The final Concorde flight was a British Airways plane that landed in the UK on 26 November 2003.

58 Bone in the arm : ULNA

The bones in the forearm are the radius and ulna. “Ulna” is the Latin word for “elbow”, and “radius” is Latin for “ray”. The humerus (plural “humeri”) is the long bone in the upper arm.

61 Weighty work : 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”.

65 Kimono sash : OBI

The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. The obi can be tied at the back in what is called a butterfly knot. The term “obi” is also used for the thick cotton belts that are an essential part of the outfits worn by practitioners of many martial arts. The color of the martial arts obi signifies the wearer’s skill level.

The lovely Japanese kimono is a garment worn by men, women and children. The word “kimono” translates simply as “thing to wear”, with “ki” meaning “wear” and “mono” meaning “thing”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Yammer away : GAB
4 “Picnic” playwright : INGE
8 Fastener for a bracelet : CLASP
13 Classic Camaro model : IROC
15 Interpretation of a situation : READ
16 Backing, or the name of Athena’s shield : AEGIS
17 Eager to get out : STIR CRAZY
19 Amazes : STUNS
20 Rap’s ___, the Creator : TYLER
21 Element in some food product advertising : TASTE TEST
23 Motorboat’s trail : WAKE
25 “Later!” : BYE!
26 Southern constellation : ARA
29 Fast-food chain with square burgers : WENDY’S
32 Commuting option : RAIL
36 Built like a weightlifter : MUSCLY
38 Embarrassing sound when bending over : RIP
39 Seven Dwarfs ___ Train (Disney World ride) : MINE
40 Early Peruvians : INCAS
41 Bear’s lair : DEN
42 Over it all : JADED
43 Slip up : GOOF
44 Commuting option : BUS
45 Moolah : DINERO
46 Poker payment : ANTE
47 Down on the scoreboard : LOSING
49 Depot: Abbr. : STN
50 One ___ many : TOO
52 Old-fashioned alternative to Venmo or Zelle : CASH
54 Powerful adhesive : SUPER GLUE
59 Major artery : AORTA
63 Ten pins in two bowls : SPARE
64 Adequate space to move around … as found in this puzzle’s circled letters? : ELBOW ROOM
66 Common mixer : TONIC
67 Elitist sort : SNOB
68 BBs, e.g. : AMMO
69 Creep (up on) : SNEAK
70 Cry from the curb : TAXI
71 In accordance with : PER

Down

1 Crux of the matter : GIST
2 Pretentious : ARTY
3 Reach 212° F, as water : BOIL
4 Sale rack abbr. : IRR
5 Spruce up : NEATEN
6 Historic Mideast city where Samson died : GAZA
7 Maker of Brownie Brick Road ice cream : EDY’S
8 “___ at the Bat” : CASEY
9 Host of Netflix’s “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction” : LETTERMAN
10 Shivering fit : AGUE
11 Moral transgressions : SINS
12 Oral equivalent of a nudge : PSST!
14 Sport with a coxswain : CREW
18 Moves like a baby : CRAWLS
22 Baking meas. : TBSP
24 Item that might be hidden under a front door mat : KEY
26 Spanish friend : AMIGA
27 Promise to do after being elected : RUN ON
28 Fancy scarf : ASCOT
30 Reprimand, with “down” : DRESS …
31 Yang’s counterpart : YIN
33 Errand runners : AIDES
34 Like neon and argon : INERT
35 Duped : LED ON
37 Food fight locale : CAFETERIA
41 Small musical group : DUO
42 Interlocking puzzle : JIGSAW
44 Collection of online musings : BLOG
45 Fitting abbr. hidden in “second nature” : DNA
48 Bygone fridge : ICEBOX
51 Vacuum brand : ORECK
53 Dance done to “Hava Nagila” : HORA
54 Concordes, e.g., in brief : SSTS
55 Well informed about : UPON
56 Window part : PANE
57 In the unfortunate event that : LEST
58 Bone in the arm : ULNA
60 Win easily : ROMP
61 Weighty work : TOME
62 Love of Caesar : AMOR
65 Kimono sash : OBI