Constructed by: Dan Ziring & Quiara Vasquez
Edited by: Will Shortz
Not your puzzle? Try today’s …
… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Reveal Answer: Snowball Effects
We have a rebus puzzle today. Synonyms of “DEVELOP” GRADUALLY increase in length in each of three themed across-answers:
- 33A Developing phenomena literally depicted three times in this puzzle : SNOWBALL EFFECTS
- 1A Gradually develop, literally : GROW
- 1D Pop-pop : GRAMPS
- 2D Farm storehouse : GRANARY
- 3D Punished for the weekend, perhaps : GROUNDED
- 4D Beer containers : GROWLERS
- 10A Gradually develop, literally : FORM
- 10D Total phony : FAKER
- 11D Some surgical tools : FORCEPS
- 12D Enormous amounts to spend : FORTUNES
- 13D “As far as I’m concerned …” : FOR MY PART …
- 54A Gradually develop, literally : SWELL
- 47D Fabled visitors to 49-Down, in brief : ETS
- 55D Opposite of dry, to a vintner : SWEET
- 56D Evidencing physical exertion : SWEATY
- 57D Suffer in the summer heat : SWELTER
- 49D Southwest city in 1947 news : ROSWELL
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Bill’s time: 15m 05s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
5 Doozy : BEAUT
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.
14 Cuba’s ___ Castro, brother of Fidel : RAUL
Raul Castro is the younger brother of Fidel Castro. Raul took over as President of Cuba in 2008, when Fidel stepped aside. Raul resigned his position in 2018, and retired from politics.
17 Last monarch of the House of Stuart : ANNE
The Royal House of Stewart (also “Stuart”) came to power in Scotland in the late 14th century, starting with Robert II of Scotland. The Stewarts extended their power to England and Ireland when the Tudor line became extinct as Queen Elizabeth I died without issue. James VI of Scotland became James I of England at that time. The last Stuart monarch was Anne, Queen of Great Britain who also died without issue, despite going through seventeen pregnancies. Assuming Prince William, Duke of Cambridge becomes the British Monarch one day, then there will be a Stewart descendant on the throne again. William is the son of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Diana was descended from the Stewart monarchs.
18 Barber’s belt : STROP
A strop is a strip of leather used to sharpen a razor.
19 Trademarked coffee holder : K-CUP
A K-Cup is a single-portion cup of coffee, tea or hot chocolate in which the beverage is prepared in situ. K-Cup packs are used with brewing machines made by Keurig, a manufacturer of coffee brewers based in Reading, Massachusetts. Personally, I use a Nespresso machine …
20 Sierra ___ (Mexican range, informally) : MADRES
“Sierra Madre” is Spanish for “Mother Mountain Range”, and is a name given to several mountain ranges around the world.
22 Comicdom’s “Queen of the Jungle” : SHEENA
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is a comic book heroine who first appeared in print in 1938 (in the US, 1937 in the UK). Sheena was the first female character to get her own comic book, with Wonder Woman following in 1941.
27 Aptly named mascot of the 2000 Olympics : SYD
When the Summer Olympic Games were held in Sydney, Australia in 2000, it marked the second time that the event was hosted in the Southern Hemisphere, the first occasion being the 1956 games in Melbourne. Although the Sydney Games were a public relations success, the financial result was a major disappointment. The Australian government built several new venues in the Sydney Olympic Park and were planning on recouping the cost by renting out the facilities in the following years. Sadly, the required level of bookings failed to materialize and so the government’s bank balance took a hit.
28 Jean-___ Picard of “Star Trek” : LUC
When Gene Roddenberry was creating the “Star Trek” spin-off series “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, I think he chose a quite magnificent name for the new starship captain. “Jean-Luc Picard” is imitative of one or both of the twin-brother Swiss scientists Auguste and Jean Felix Piccard. The role of Picard was played by the wonderful Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart.
30 Boom producer, once: Abbr. : SST
Supersonic transports (SSTs) like the Concorde broke Mach 1, the speed of sound. As a plane flies through the air, it creates pressure waves in front (and behind) rather like the bow and stern waves of a boat. These pressure waves travel at the speed of sound, so as an aircraft itself accelerates towards the speed of sound it catches up with the pressure waves until they cannot “get out of the way”. When the aircraft reaches the speed of sound, the compressed waves merge into one single shock wave, creating a sonic boom.
31 Leaves in the kitchen? : BASIL
Traditionally, basil is considered “the king of herbs”. In fact, the herb’s name comes from the Greek “basileus” meaning “king”.
43 One way an animal may be held : AT BAY
Our use of the phrase “at bay”, to mean “in check”, derives from the older expression “at abai” used to describe a hunted animal “unable to escape”.
45 The “Gateway to the West” : OMAHA
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska. It is located on the Missouri River, about 10 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River. When Nebraska was still a territory Omaha was its capital, but when Nebraska achieved statehood the capital was moved to the city of Lincoln.
51 Name hidden in “oleomargarine” : OMAR
Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France announced a competition to develop a substitute for butter, a substitute that would be more accessible to the lower classes and more practical for the armed forces. A French chemist called Hippolyte Mege-Mouries came up with something he called oleomargarine in 1869, which was eventually manufactured under the trade name “margarine”. The name “oleomargarine” also gives us our generic term “oleo”.
58 Company originally founded as Blue Ribbon Sports : NIKE
Nike was founded in 1964 in Eugene, Oregon by entrepreneur Phil Knight and track-and-field coach Bill Bowerman as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS). BRS started out by distributing athletic shoes made in Japan. The company started making its own shoes in 1971 and changed its name to Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory.
61 Commoner : PLEBE
A plebe is a freshman in the US military and naval academies. The term “plebe” is probably short for “plebeian”, the name given to someone of the common class in ancient Rome (as opposed to a Patrician). “Pleb” is a shortened version of “plebeian”, and is a term used outside of the military schools.
66 French season : ETE
In French, “été” (summer) follows “printemps” (spring).
67 Butterfly, but not a caterpillar : ADULT
Caterpillars are the larval form of butterflies and moths.
69 Norse god of war : TYR
Týr is the Norse god of single combat, victory and heroic glory. According to legend, Týr showed great courage when he and his fellow gods were attempting to shackle the wolf monster called Fenrir. The wolf was tricked into accepting bindings that were actually magical ribbons of great strength. Fenrir submitted to the bonds because Týr agreed to place his hand in the wolf’s mouth, as a gesture of assurance that the ribbon was harmless. When Fenrir recognized the deceit, he bit off Týr’s hand. As a result, the god Týr is almost always depicted with only one hand.
Down
5 One might hit a very low pitch : BASS TUBA
The tuba is the lowest-pitched of all brass instruments, and one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra (usually there is just one tuba included in an orchestral line-up). “Tuba” is the Latin word for “trumpet, horn”. Oom-pah-pah …
6 Many an essential worker, for short : EMT
Emergency medical technician (EMT)
8 Game in which the object is to score 500 points : UNO
UNO is a card game that was developed in the early seventies and that has been sold by Mattel since 1992. It falls into the shedding family of card games, meaning that the goal is to get rid of all your cards while preventing opponents from doing the same.
10 Total phony : FAKER
Something or someone described as phony (sometimes “phoney”) is not genuine or real. There is a suggestion that the term “phony” comes from “fawney”, which was a gold-plated brass ring used by swindlers in place of a one made of pure gold.
11 Some surgical tools : FORCEPS
Forceps are a handheld instrument used to grasp objects, often objects too small to held securely by fingers. Nowadays, the use of the term “forceps” is almost exclusively limited to the medical profession. The various types of medical forceps resemble tweezers, tongs, pliers and clamps. “Forceps” is a Latin term originally describing a blacksmith’s tool used to grasp hot items.
21 Sushi staple that isn’t served raw : EEL
Anyone going to a sushi restaurant can order all types of raw fish (known collectively as “sashimi”). However, eel is always served cooked, and that’s because the blood of eels contains a protein that cramps muscles if eaten. If the heart muscle “cramps”, the result can be death. The protein is easily rendered harmless by applying heat, i.e. by cooking.
23 Put a fork in it! : HAY
Hay is dried grass that is stored for use as animal fodder. Straw consists of the dried stalks of cereal plants, the residue left after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw can also be used as animal fodder, as well as fuel, bedding and thatch.
25 Quantity contrasted with a vector, in physics : SCALAR
In physics, a scalar is a one-dimensional quantity, whereas a vector has two dimensions. For example, speed is a scalar. On the other hand, velocity is a vector as it is defined by both speed and direction.
26 Most like a wallflower : SHIEST
The wallflower is a genus of flowering plants that usually have the ability to cling to loose mortar in walls, hence the name. We use the term “wallflower” to describe a shy person, evoking the image of that person sitting shyly by the wall at a party.
33 Ink holder : SAC
Octopodes and squid have the ability to release a dark pigment into the water as a means of escape. The dark pigment is called cephalopod ink (the squid and octopus belong to the class cephalopoda) and is stored in an ink sac. The dark color is created by melanin, the same substance that acts as a pigment in human skin.
37 Bunch of bits : BYTE
In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, and so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and gigabyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.
39 Fried food whose name translates to “breaded” : EMPANADA
An empanada is a dish made by folding pastry around cooked meat and vegetables. To me an empanada looks very similar to a dish I grew up with called a Cornish pasty.
40 Big name in juice pouches : CAPRI SUN
Capri Sun is a juice concentrate that was introduced in 1969. The brand is famous for the laminated foil pouches in which the juice is sold.
49 Southwest city in 1947 news : ROSWELL
The Roswell UFO Incident took place in 1947. Some people believe that an extraterrestrial spacecraft crashed, with aliens aboard. After the initial reports the public accepted the US Military’s explanation of the crash, that the debris recovered belonged to an experimental high-altitude surveillance balloon. The whole incident was dug up again over 30 years later when a claim was made that there was a cover-up in 1947, and that the armed forces had recovered an alien craft and brought it to Roswell Army Air Field. “The National Enquirer” ran the story, and it has been running ever since.
53 Kerfuffle : FLAP
“Kerfuffle” comes from the Scottish “curfuffle”, with both words meaning “disruption”.
55 Opposite of dry, to a vintner : SWEET
A vintner is a person selling or making wine. The term “vintner” comes from “vinum”, which is Latin for “wine”.
60 “At Last” singer James : ETTA
The 1942 song “At Last” was written for the 1941 musical film “Sun Valley Serenade” in which it is performed by Glenn Miller and his orchestra. Etta James recorded a version of “At Last” in 1960, after which it became her signature song.
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Gradually develop, literally : GROW
5 Doozy : BEAUT
10 Gradually develop, literally : FORM
14 Cuba’s ___ Castro, brother of Fidel : RAUL
15 Kind of group in chemistry : AMINO
16 Like many indie films : ARTY
17 Last monarch of the House of Stuart : ANNE
18 Barber’s belt : STROP
19 Trademarked coffee holder : K-CUP
20 Sierra ___ (Mexican range, informally) : MADRES
22 Comicdom’s “Queen of the Jungle” : SHEENA
24 Things you might save while driving : PRESETS
26 More aged, as some cheeses : SHARPER
27 Aptly named mascot of the 2000 Olympics : SYD
28 Jean-___ Picard of “Star Trek” : LUC
29 “Watch it!” : HEY!
30 Boom producer, once: Abbr. : SST
31 Leaves in the kitchen? : BASIL
33 Developing phenomena literally depicted three times in this puzzle : SNOWBALL EFFECTS
43 One way an animal may be held : AT BAY
44 Shakespearean cries : AYS
45 The “Gateway to the West” : OMAHA
46 Chinwagging : CHATTER
48 In a bind : TRAPPED
50 Google ___, service beginning in 2017 : MEET
51 Name hidden in “oleomargarine” : OMAR
52 Way off : AFAR
54 Gradually develop, literally : SWELL
58 Company originally founded as Blue Ribbon Sports : NIKE
61 Commoner : PLEBE
63 “Let’s ___!” : EAT
64 Is the real deal : HAS IT
65 Kitchen gadget with an edge : PARER
66 French season : ETE
67 Butterfly, but not a caterpillar : ADULT
68 Hole maker : SPADE
69 Norse god of war : TYR
70 “Are you down for this?” : WANNA?
Down
1 Pop-pop : GRAMPS
2 Farm storehouse : GRANARY
3 Punished for the weekend, perhaps : GROUNDED
4 Beer containers : GROWLERS
5 One might hit a very low pitch : BASS TUBA
6 Many an essential worker, for short : EMT
7 Put on : AIR
8 Game in which the object is to score 500 points : UNO
9 High-quality : TOP-SHELF
10 Total phony : FAKER
11 Some surgical tools : FORCEPS
12 Enormous amounts to spend : FORTUNES
13 “As far as I’m concerned …” : FOR MY PART …
21 Sushi staple that isn’t served raw : EEL
23 Put a fork in it! : HAY
25 Quantity contrasted with a vector, in physics : SCALAR
26 Most like a wallflower : SHIEST
32 Foxy : SLY
33 Ink holder : SAC
34 Kind of power in math : NTH
35 Early 2010s : OBAMA ERA
36 You might make waves when you lie about this : WATERBED
37 Bunch of bits : BYTE
38 Shaving canful : FOAM
39 Fried food whose name translates to “breaded” : EMPANADA
40 Big name in juice pouches : CAPRI SUN
41 All-time go-between : -THE-
42 Crestfallen : SAD
47 Fabled visitors to 49-Down, in brief : ETS
49 Southwest city in 1947 news : ROSWELL
52 Screen display : APPS
53 Kerfuffle : FLAP
55 Opposite of dry, to a vintner : SWEET
56 Evidencing physical exertion : SWEATY
57 Suffer in the summer heat : SWELTER
59 Spot for firing : KILN
60 “At Last” singer James : ETTA
62 Palindromic word in classic poetry : ERE
64 Hem’s partner : HAW
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18 thoughts on “0126-23 NY Times Crossword 26 Jan 23, Thursday”
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34:43, did not get the rebuses. Impressively complex construction. Frustrating to me that 12 of 13 entries involved in gimmick did not require rebuses to make sense.
Bill: From a crotchety 90-year-old: I have always held rebus puzzles in total scorn. There, I said it.
23:34. Good theme, and it was an even better visual once completed.
A few missteps – “pen” before SAC (I got a little too clever there) and “emu” before SYD (once again, a little too clever).
It’s only Thursday, but I could use a GROWLER or two about now. Been a long week for me.
Best –
It may be germane that I did this puzzle at the end of a long and arduous day. (At least, that’s going to be my excuse … 😜.) I found it difficult but doable until I tried to get the app to accept my finish. I had entered GROW and FORM and SWELL in the appropriate slots, saw that each crossing Down entry made sense by way of inserting characters from the Across entry it intersected, and then, for some reason, lacked the imagination to immediately insert the appropriate rebuses. I’m not going to embarrass myself by revealing how long it took me to get it “right” (but the light did come on, in the end).
Geez! What a dope! It’s definitely time to check into the Colorado State Home for the Bewildered … 😳.
The rebuses break the rule. With the “solution” provided, 1-Across is “GGRGROGROW.” There is no such word.
It’s a Thursday puzzle. There are no rules.
The constructors and editors at the New York Times regularly cheat and do dirty tricks and cheap shots against their solvers. This happens to be one rather egregious example out of many many examples.
Just for the record: I thought this was a great puzzle that somehow happened to hit a blind spot in my aging head. It should have been obvious to me that 49-Down made no sense unless one put “SWELL” in its final square, after which it should have occurred to me how to treat the other squares of 54-Across, after which it should have occurred to me how to treat the other three theme entries. Snow ball effect! Gradual accretion! Duh! My only minor complaint is that, when I cheated in order to find out what to use for the theme entries, it indicated that putting the first letter of each theme entry in all the squares (GGGG, FFFF, and SSSSS) would work. I don’t see why that should work when my way (GROW, FORM, and SWELL) didn’t. But … that doesn’t let me off the hook … 😳.
And yes, I found the extra time I spent a little frustrating, but where is it written that life should involve zero frustration? A puzzle is a puzzle is a puzzle … puzzling!
Cheat? Use dirty tricks? Indulge in cheap shots? Not in my book.
What are you talking about? Yikes! Just get a different hobby. This was a great puzzle.
Since I’m a day late in completing, ergo nobody will see this for 5 weeks, I’ll embarrass myself by admitting my time of 59:34. I finally entered the rebuses when all else failed, but if you left the “across” words intact, rather than the rebuses, it made more sense to me in relation to the reveal.
This one was BS even for a Thursday
Missed the rebus. Got stuck on each. It never dawned on me….
Although, ROSWELL crossed my mind early but I threw it out.
Oh well
Cracked the theme but entered only single letters in the rebus squares. I provided the missing letters for clues going down in my head, whereas I should have added one letter to each square incrementally with my shift + key. That I did not do. Snowball effect. Makes sense.
There were 10 words total going down from the rebus squares so that makes 10 errors, plus I missed the d and u in adult 67 A. because I was convinced 39 D. was Empanata. Duh. I know two Latin languages but about the only Spanish I know, from Steve Martin joke, is ‘donde esta casa de Pepe.’
GUess that makes 12 errors total with time of 60:59 but glad at least I cracked the theme and completed the rest. Clever puzzle.
This was a DNF for sure but then I got the rebus theme and finished in 48:40 with no errors so take that you two setter people👍👍
Stay safe😀
There’s no crying in baseball…. or Thursday puzzles. Just because it was hard to grasp at first, doesn’t make it a bad thing. Some of us enjoy a different wrinkle in construction when one appears all too infrequently. YMMV.
Amen!
I am reminded of a climbing buddy (named Paul – now, sadly, deceased), whose claim to fame was that he was a faster climber than pretty much anyone else. (After a trekking visit to Nepal, he came back talking about how he was able to out-pace all of the Sherpas on the trip.) He was essentially always the first person to the top of whatever peak was the object of the day’s climb; if it was a nice day, he would stretch out in the sun on top and, as the first fellow climber approached, his usual comment was something like, “I was a little afraid you’d gotten lost.” Oddly, some people refused to climb with him more than once, but I simply overlooked whatever it was they took offense to … 😇.
On one occasion, we climbed Longs Peak via a rather long route from the west (past Black Lake, through the saddle between Longs Peak and Pyramid Peak, and finishing on the “Homestretch”). As we started down, I suggested that we make a loop of it by going through the Keyhole and down the north side of the peak. I swear that I had no ulterior motive in suggesting this; I just happened to like that route. As it happens, though, the route includes a section where one has to deal with tumbled boulders and a good deal of “krummholz” (stunted, low-growing, twisted trees) and, in that section, I found myself pulling out well ahead of Paul. For whatever reason, I had found his weak spot! Schadenfreude!
The interesting thing about this was that, from that point on, all he could talk about was what an awful route I had chosen, how difficult it would be for anyone to make decent time on it, and how much damage it had done to his knees and back and feet and … well, you get the idea. I remained silent.
Now, whatever do you suppose put that story in my head? … 🙄.
Just in case this is seen by someone who knows me and who knew Paul: He was a fine companion and I miss him a lot, but, like all of us, he was not without his quirks … 🙂.