0305-23 NY Times Crossword 5 Mar 23, Sunday

Constructed by: John-Clark Levin
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: As Heard Around the Dinner Table

Themed answers each start with a syllable(s) that sounds like a MEAT:

  • 102A Vegetarian options … or what the shaded letters in this puzzle are, phonetically : MEAT SUBSTITUTES
  • 22A Dine out : GO TO A RESTAURANT (“GO T-” subs for “GOAT”)
  • 35A Aid in some makeshift repairs : DUCT TAPE (“DUC-” subs for “DUCK”)
  • 38A Blackhead remover : PORE CLEANSER (“PORE C-” subs for “PORK”)
  • 62A Part of many a weight-loss ad : BEFORE PICTURE (“BEF-” subs for “BEEF”)
  • 85A Lie out on a scorching day : BAKE IN THE SUN (“BAKE IN …” subs for “BACON”)
  • 89A Landmark at the entrance to Narnia : LAMP POST (“LAM-” subs for “LAMB”)

Bill’s time: 18m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Commuter’s ticket : BUS PASS

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 …

21 Quintessential ingredient to borrow from a neighbor : SUGAR

In ancient Greece, Aristotle believed that there was a fifth element, beyond the accepted four elements of earth, wind, fire and water. This fifth element he called aether, postulating it was the makeup of celestial bodies. In Middle French in the 14th century, the “fifth element” was called “quinte essence”, coming into English as “quintessence” in the early 15th century. In the late 1500s, “quintessence” came to mean “purest essence” in a more general sense, with “quintessential” meaning “at its finest”.

26 Often-mispunctuated word : ITS (or IT’S)

The word “it’s” is a contraction for “it is”, as in “it’s a fun crossword”. The spelling “its”, without an apostrophe, is used in all other cases, most commonly as the possessive form of the pronoun “it”. In that sense, “its” is akin to the pronouns his, hers, ours, etc., as in “the newspaper is known for its great crosswords”.

28 Aurora, to the Greeks : EOS

Aurora was the Roman goddess of the dawn, and was equivalent to the Greek goddess Eos. According to myth, Aurora renewed herself each and every morning and then flew across the sky to announce the rising of the sun.

31 Powerful weapon, for short : NUKE

There are two classes of nuclear weapons, both of which get the energy for the explosion from nuclear reactions. The first nuclear bombs developed, called atomic bombs (A-bombs), use fission reactions. Uranium nuclei are split into smaller nuclei with the release of an awful lot of energy in the process. The second class of nuclear weapons are fusion bombs. These devices are called thermonuclear weapons or hydrogen bombs (H-bombs). In a fusion reaction, the nuclei of hydrogen isotopes are fused together to form bigger nuclei, with the release of even greater amounts of energy.

34 Firefly, e.g. : BEETLE

Some living organisms are able to produce light, a phenomenon known as “bioluminescence”. A famous example on land is the firefly, with its glowing tail. There are many marine animals, such as jellyfish, that emit light. The frequently observed bioluminescence on the surface of the sea is usually caused by plankton. This phenomenon may be referred to as “sea fire”.

35 Aid in some makeshift repairs : DUCT TAPE (“DUC-” subs for “DUCK”)

What we tend to call “duct” tape today was originally known as “duck” tape. In its first form, duck tape was rubber-based adhesive applied to a duck cloth backing, hence the name. Cotton duck cloth is a canvas-like material, a plain woven cotton fabric. The name “duck” comes from the Dutch “doek” meaning “linen canvas”. Duck tape started to be known as “duct tape” in the fifties, as it was commonly used to wrap air ducts in the construction industry.

40 Company that created Pong : ATARI

Do you remember the arcade video game that is like a game of tennis, with paddles moving up and down to hit what looks like a ball, over what looks like a net? Well, that is Pong. The arcade version of Pong was introduced in 1972, with Atari selling a home version through Sears for the Christmas market in 1975.

41 They can make a huge impact : ASTEROIDS

The vast majority of asteroids in the Solar System are found in the main asteroid belt, which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Four large asteroids (Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Hygeia) make up about half the mass of the asteroid belt and are 400-950 km in diameter. The total mass of the belt is just 4% of the mass of our Moon. The larger asteroids are also known as “planetoids”.

42 Spongy mushroom : MOREL

The morel is that mushroom with the honeycomb-like structure on the cap. Morels are highly prized, especially in French cuisine. They should never be eaten raw as they are toxic, with the toxins being removed by thorough cooking.

43 Movie character who said “I love you” to 110-Across : LEIA
110 Movie character who replied “I know” to 43-Across : HAN SOLO

The full name of the character played by Carrie Fisher in the “Star Wars” series of films is Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan, and later Leia Organa Solo. Leia is the twin sister of Luke Skywalker, and the daughter of Anakin Skywalker (aka “Darth Vader”) and Padmé Amidala. Leia is raised by her adoptive parents Bail and Breha Organa. She eventually marries Han Solo.

45 Network supported by “Viewers Like You” : PBS

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) was founded in 1970, and is my favorite of the broadcast networks. I love PBS’s drama and science shows in particular, and always watch election results coming in with the NewsHour team.

46 Literary character who cries “I am madness maddened!” : AHAB

Captain Ahab is the obsessed and far from friendly captain of the Pequod in Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick”. The role of Captain Ahab was played by Gregory Peck in the 1956 John Huston film adaptation. Patrick Stewart played Ahab in a 1998 miniseries in which Peck made another appearance, as Father Mapple.

56 “Meet the Press” host Chuck : TODD

Chuck Todd is a television journalist. Todd was the Chief White House Correspondent for NBC, before taking over as moderator of “Meet the Press” in 2014.

NBC’s news and interview show “Meet the Press” first aired in 1947. That’s a long time ago, and so “Meet the Press” is the longest-running television series in US broadcasting history.

60 Donnybrooks : BRAWLS

A donnybrook is a free-for-all, a melee. It is named for a famous historic fair in Donnybrook, a district in Dublin, Ireland. Donnybrook Fair had the reputation as a place where there was lots of drinking and fighting. I used to hang out a lot in Donnybrook in my student days and didn’t see any fighting. Lots of drinking, but no fighting …

64 Buck chaser? : 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 Something checked at a T.S.A. checkpoint : ID CARD

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the agency that employs the good folks who check passengers and baggage at airports.

67 One vs. 52? : SOLITAIRE

I think that a single-player card game is usually called “Solitaire” in the US whereas we use the name “Patience” back in Ireland.

72 Tiny bit of work : ERG

An erg is a unit of mechanical work or energy. It is a small unit, with one joule comprising 10 million ergs. It has been suggested that an erg is about the amount of energy required for a mosquito to take off. The term comes from “ergon”, the Greek word for work.

73 Famed Deco designer : ERTE

“Erté” was the pseudonym of French (Russian-born) artist and designer Romain de Tirtoff. “Erté” is the French pronunciation of his initials “R.T.” Erté’s diverse portfolio of work included costumes and sets for the “Ziegfeld Follies” of 1923, productions of the Parisian cabaret show “Folies Bergère”, as well as the 1925 epic movie “Ben-Hur”. Erté’s most famous work by far is an image titled “Symphony in Black”. It depicts a tall and slender woman dressed in black, holding a black dog on a leash.

74 Whitman of “Parenthood” : MAE

Actress Mae Whitman played “the daughter” in some successful movies early in her career. She was Meg Ryan’s daughter in “When a Man Loves a Woman”, George Clooney’s daughter in “One Fine Day” and Bill Pullman’s daughter in “Independence Day”. More recently, she played the lead in the 2015 teen comedy film “The Duff”.

“Parenthood” is a TV series that originally aired from 2010 until 2015, and is loosely based on the 1989 film of the same name starring Steve Martin. Ron Howard directed the film, and served as executive producer for the TV show.

78 Train that stops in New Haven and New York : ACELA

The Acela Express is the fastest train routinely running in the US, as it gets up to 150 mph at times. The service runs between Boston and Washington D.C. via Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Introduced in 2000, the brand name “Acela” was created to evoke “acceleration” and “excellence”.

80 They often don’t mature until they turn 30 : MORTGAGES

Our word “mortgage” comes from the Old French “mort gaige” which translated as “dead pledge”. Such an arrangement was so called because the “pledge” to repay “dies” when the debt is cleared.

84 Yucatán native : MAYAN

The Mayan civilization held sway in Central America and Mexico from about 350 AD, until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s.

The Yucatán Peninsula is located in southeastern Mexico, where it separates the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest from the Caribbean Sea to the southeast.

85 Lie out on a scorching day : BAKE IN THE SUN (“BAKE IN …” subs for “BACON”)

“Bacon” is an Old French word that we imported into English. The term ultimately comes from the Proto-Germanic “bakkon” meaning “back meat”.

89 Landmark at the entrance to Narnia : LAMP POST (“LAM-” subs for “LAMB”)

In the C.S. Lewis novel “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, four siblings visit the magical land of Narnia via a wardrobe in the spare room of the house in which they are living while evacuated during WWII. The children are Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter Pevensie.

94 Bareilles who sang “Love Song” : SARA

Sara Bareilles achieved success with her 2007 “Love Song” with the help of the iTunes online store. In one week in June of that year, iTunes offered the song as “free single of the week” and it quickly became the most downloaded song in the store, and from there climbed to the number spot in the charts.

95 Tribe native to the Great Basin : UTE

The Great Basin is a large region of the US covering most of Nevada, much of Utah and some parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Oregon and California. The 200,000 square mile area drains internally, with all precipitation sinking underground or flowing into lakes. Most of the lakes in the Great Basin are saline, including the Great Salt Lake, Pyramid Lake and the Humboldt Sink.

96 Suit fabric : SERGE

Serge is a type of twill fabric with diagonal ridges on both sides. The name “serge” comes from the Greek word for “silken”.

97 Agcy. impersonated in some scam calls : IRS

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was established in 1914 with the mission of protecting consumers. The FTC runs the National Do Not Call Registry, which can limit the amount of telemarketing calls that consumers receive. To register your number, simply go to the website www.donotcall.gov.

108 “The Three Musketeers” action scenes : DUELS

Alexandre Dumas’ “Three Musketeers” are Athos, Porthos and Aramis, although the hero of the novel is the trio’s young protégé D’Artagnan. A musketeer was an infantry soldier who was equipped with a musket. Funnily enough, the three “musketeers” really don’t use their muskets, and are better known for prowess with their swords.

111 They may be long and shocking : EELS

Electric eels are so called because they are capable of delivering an eclectic shock that debilitates their prey. They are also able to electrolocate their prey. They do so by generating a weak electric field. The prey causes a distortion in this electric field, which is picked up by the eel’s electroreceptor organs.

112 Clink : SLAMMER

The Clink (also “the Clynke”) was a celebrated prison in Southwark, England owned by the Bishop of Winchester. The prison was given the name “the clink”, probably from the sound made by metal keys in metal locks and metal chains around ankles. The prison was closed down in 1780, and around the same time “clink” entered the English language as a slang term for “jail”.

113 Gray matter? : ANATOMY

“Gray’s Anatomy” is a very successful human anatomy textbook that was first published back in 1858 and is still in print today. The original text was written by English anatomist Henry Gray, who gave his name to the work. The TV medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” (note “Grey” vs. Gray”) is centered on the character Dr. Meredith Grey, but the show’s title is a nod to the title of the famous textbook.

Down

1 Tom Hanks movie featuring a giant piano : BIG

“Big” is a fun movie that was released in 1988. It is a romantic comedy with an unusual plot involving a young boy who is aged to adulthood overnight (played by Tom Hanks). Who can forget the scene where Hanks and the owner of a toy store hop around on a giant piano keyboard. Remember what they played? “Heart and Soul” and “Chopsticks” …

4 Blue diamond in “Titanic,” e.g. : PROP

When James Cameron made his epic movie “Titanic”, released in 1997, it was the most expensive film ever made and cost about $200 million. It was a good investment for the studio as it became the highest-grossing film of all time, bringing in over $1.8 billion. “Titanic” remained the highest-grossing film until 2010, when Cameron eclipsed the prior record with “Avatar”.

5 Lab culture medium : AGAR

Agar (also “agar-agar”) is a jelly extracted from seaweed that has many uses. Agar is found in Japanese desserts, and can also be used as a food thickener or even as a laxative. In the world of science, it is the most common medium used for growing bacteria in Petri dishes.

6 Star close to Venus? : SERENA

Serena Williams is the younger of the two Williams sisters playing professional tennis. Serena has won more prize money in her career than any other female athlete.

8 Bandleader Shaw : ARTIE

Artie Shaw was a composer, bandleader and jazz clarinetist. His real name was Arthur Jacob Arshawsky, born in New York City in 1910. One of Shaw’s many claims to fame is that he (a white bandleader) hired Billie Holiday (a black vocalist) and toured the segregated South in the late thirties. Holiday chose to leave the band though, due to hostility from Southern audiences back then. Artie Shaw was married eight times in all. The list of his wives includes the actresses Lana Turner and Ava Gardner, as well as Betty Kern, daughter of songwriter Jerome Kern.

10 Fort Collins sch. : CSU

Colorado State University (CSU) was founded in Fort Collins in 1870 as the Colorado Agricultural College. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Colorado State Rams, although back in the days of the Colorado Agricultural College, the teams were referred to as the Aggies.

12 Cyber Monday merchant : E-TAILER

Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving, when retailers offer incentives to online shoppers in the hope of boosting sales. The term “Cyber Monday” was coined in 2005 in a press release issued by the website Shop.org. In recent years, consumers have been spending more money online on Cyber Monday than any other day in the year.

15 Soup-serving dish : TUREEN

A terrine (also “tureen”) is a cooking dish with a tightly-fitting lid made from glazed earthenware. A terrine is used for cooking in an oven, and for serving soups and stews.

17 Layer between the crust and the core : MANTLE

The mantle of a terrestrial planet is the layer between the planetary core and planet’s crust. The Earth’s mantle has a thickness of just under 1,800 miles, and is a silicate rocky shell.

23 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”.

28 Wax-coated cheese : EDAM

Edam cheese takes its name from the Dutch town of Edam in North Holland. The cheese is famous for its coating of red paraffin wax, a layer of protection that helps Edam travel well and prevents spoiling. You might occasionally come across an Edam cheese that is coated in black wax. The black color indicates that the underlying cheese has been aged for a minimum of 17 weeks.

33 Bauxite or galena : ORE

Bauxite is an aluminum ore. It takes its name from the absolutely beautiful village of Les Baux in southern France, the home of the geologist who first recognized that the mineral was a useful source of the metal.

Galena is the most commonly used mineral to produce lead. It is a form of lead sulfide. Galena is the state mineral of Missouri and of Wisconsin.

38 MADD ad, e.g. : PSA

Candace Lightner lost her 13-year-old child to a drunk-driver in 1980. Soon after, Lightner formed the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

39 Lefty : LIB

The concept of left-right politics started in France during the French Revolution. When members of France’s National Assembly convened in 1789, supporters of the King sat to the President’s right, and supporters of the revolution to the President’s left. The political terms “left” and “right” were then coined in the local media and have been used ever since.

46 Reddit Q&A : AMA

Reddit.com is a networking and news website that started up in 2005. It is essentially a bulletin board system with posts that are voted up and down by users, which determines the ranking of posts. The name “Reddit” is a play on “read it”, as in “I read it on Reddit”. One popular feature of the Reddit site is an online forum that is similar to a press conference. Known as an AMA (for “ask me anything”), participants have included the likes of President Barack Obama, Madonna, Bill Gates, Stephen Colbert and Gordon Ramsay. President Obama’s AMA was so popular that the high level of traffic brought down many parts of the Reddit site.

52 Like an allegro tempo : RAPID

The tempo (plural “tempi”) of a piece of music is usually designated with an Italian word on the score. For example, “grave” is slow and solemn, “andante” is at a walking pace, “scherzo” is fast and light-hearted, and “allegro” is fast, quickly and bright.

56 Packaging string : TWINE

Our word “twine”, meaning “light string”, has the same root as our word “twin”. The original Old English “twin” was a double thread.

58 Actress Ward : SELA

Actress Sela Ward turns up in crosswords a lot. She played Teddy Reed in the TV show “Sisters” in the nineties, and was in “Once and Again” from 1999-2002. I don’t know either show, but I do know Ward from the medical drama “House” in which she played the hospital’s lawyer and Greg House’s ex-partner. That was a fun role, I thought. More recently, Ward played a lead role on “CSI: NY” and was a very welcome and much-needed addition to the cast. And, Ward played Dr. Richard Kimble’s murdered wife in the 1993 film version of “The Fugitive”.

74 “The kissing disease” : MONO

Mononucleosis is a viral disease that is also known as “glandular fever”, or simply “mono”. The virus that causes the disease can only be contracted through direct exposure to infected saliva. As a result, mono is often called “the kissing disease”.

75 “Coming face to face with yourself,” per Jackson Pollock : ART

Jackson Pollock was an abstract expressionist painter who famously used a “drip painting” style. Pollock was married to Lee Krasner, herself an influential abstract expressionist.

76 Otherworldly : ETHEREAL

The Greek philosopher Empedocles proposed that there are four elements that made up the universe, namely earth, water, air and fire. Aristotle later proposed a fifth element which he called aether (also “ether”). Aether was the divine substance that made up the stars and planets. We’re still using the term “ether” with a similar meaning.

77 Minority in New Zealand’s parliament : MEN

The first European to sight the nation that we know today as New Zealand was the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. He labeled the land “Staten Landt”, believing it to be part of South America. Dutch cartographers changed the name to “Nova Zelandia”, after the Dutch province of Zeeland. That Latin name evolved into the Dutch “Nieuw Zeeland”, which Captain James Cook anglicized to “New Zealand”.

78 What goes “up to 11,” in “Spinal Tap” : AMP

The idioms “these go to eleven” (sometimes “up to eleven”) come from the 1984 movie “This is Spinal Tap”. In the film, the band’s guitarist is proud of his amplifier that can attain a volume of “eleven” as opposed to the standard “ten”. And so, we can say “turning it up to eleven” when we are taking something to the extreme.

80 Skinflints : MISERS

A skinflint is a miser. The term “skinflint” arose as slang around 1700, to describe a person who would “skin a flint” in order to save or make money.

86 Many a Monopoly property : AVENUE

The street names in the original US version of the board game Monopoly are locations in or around Atlantic City, New Jersey.

88 Marx’s co-author for “The Communist Manifesto” : ENGELS

Friedrich Engels was a German political theorist who worked closely with Karl Marx to develop what became known as Marxist Theory. Along with Marx, he also co-authored the “Communist Manifesto” in 1848, and later he supported Marx as he worked to publish “Das Kapital”.

90 Franklin who sang “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” : ARETHA

“Respect” is a song by Otis Redding, and one that he recorded himself in 1965. It became a hit when Aretha Franklin made her famous cover version in 1967. The Redding and Franklin versions have different storylines though, and different musical “feels”.

91 Robin Hood’s love : MARIAN

Robin Hood is a figure from English folklore, celebrated in story and song. Some stories suggest that Robin Hood the outlaw was actually a real nobleman, the Earl of Huntingdon. Robin Hood’s famous companion was Maid Marian. Interestingly, the legend of Maid Marian (full name Lady Marian of Leaford) had been around for centuries before she became associated with Robin Hood starting in the 1700s.

98 Veggie that’s often pickled : CUKE

Apparently, scientists have shown that the inside of a cucumber (“cuke” for short) growing in a field can be up to twenty degrees cooler than the surrounding air. That’s something that was believed by farmers as early as the 1730s, at which time the phrase “cool as a cucumber” was coined.

99 Virgil described its “cloud of pitch-black whirling smoke” : ETNA

Publius Vergilius Maro (better known as “Virgil”) was a poet from ancient Rome. His best known works are:

  • The “Eclogues” (or “Bucolics”)
  • The “Georgics”
  • The “Aeneid”

103 Channel that airs old MGM and RKO films : TCM

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is one of my favorite television channels as it delivers just what its name promises, i.e. classic movies.

106 Boston’s Liberty Tree, for one : ELM

The original Liberty Tree was an elm that stood near Boston Common and marked the place where folks would rally in the build-up to the American Revolution. The symbolism of the Liberty Tree migrated across the Atlantic during the French Revolution. Revolutionaries planted “Les arbres de la liberté” as symbols of revolutionary hope.

107 Kind of sauce for dim sum : SOY

Dim sum is a Chinese cuisine made up of small portions of various dishes. The tradition of serving dim sum is associated with the serving of tea, when small delicacies were offered to travelers and guests along with tea as a refreshment. The name “dim sum” translates as “touch the heart” implying that dim sum is not a main meal, just a snack “that touches the heart”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Commuter’s ticket : BUS PASS
8 They take bows : ARCHERS
15 G-rated, say : TAME
19 “It’s not coming to me” : I FORGET
20 Floral brew : ROSE TEA
21 Quintessential ingredient to borrow from a neighbor : SUGAR
22 Dine out : GO TO A RESTAURANT (“GO T-” subs for “GOAT”)
24 Competitive setting in Fortnite : ARENA
25 Like many phone cards : PREPAID
26 Often-mispunctuated word : ITS (or IT’S)
27 Lets it all out, say : VENTS
28 Aurora, to the Greeks : EOS
31 Powerful weapon, for short : NUKE
32 Pop option : COLA
34 Firefly, e.g. : BEETLE
35 Aid in some makeshift repairs : DUCT TAPE (“DUC-” subs for “DUCK”)
38 Blackhead remover : PORE CLEANSER (“PORE C-” subs for “PORK”)
40 Company that created Pong : ATARI
41 They can make a huge impact : ASTEROIDS
42 Spongy mushroom : MOREL
43 Movie character who said “I love you” to 110-Across : LEIA
45 Network supported by “Viewers Like You” : PBS
46 Literary character who cries “I am madness maddened!” : AHAB
50 Bog : FEN
51 Ill-humored : DOUR
52 “Cool!” : RAD!
55 Act theatrically : EMOTE
56 “Meet the Press” host Chuck : TODD
57 Attractions for antique hunters : YARD SALES
60 Donnybrooks : BRAWLS
61 Ironically funny : WRY
62 Part of many a weight-loss ad : BEFORE PICTURE (“BEF-” subs for “BEEF”)
64 Buck chaser? : DOE
65 Something checked at a T.S.A. checkpoint : ID CARD
67 One vs. 52? : SOLITAIRE
68 Go on and on : RANT
69 “Cool!” : NEATO!
70 Crib : PAD
71 Bad impression? : DENT
72 Tiny bit of work : ERG
73 Famed Deco designer : ERTE
74 Whitman of “Parenthood” : MAE
77 Aftermath of a toddler’s meal : MESS
78 Train that stops in New Haven and New York : ACELA
80 They often don’t mature until they turn 30 : MORTGAGES
84 Yucatán native : MAYAN
85 Lie out on a scorching day : BAKE IN THE SUN (“BAKE IN …” subs for “BACON”)
89 Landmark at the entrance to Narnia : LAMP POST (“LAM-” subs for “LAMB”)
92 “Yeah, but still …” : EVEN SO …
93 Online handicrafts marketplace : ETSY
94 Bareilles who sang “Love Song” : SARA
95 Tribe native to the Great Basin : UTE
96 Suit fabric : SERGE
97 Agcy. impersonated in some scam calls : IRS
98 Crouched in terror : COWERED
101 Private : INNER
102 Vegetarian options … or what the shaded letters in this puzzle are, phonetically : MEAT SUBSTITUTES
108 “The Three Musketeers” action scenes : DUELS
109 Flatten : PANCAKE
110 Movie character who replied “I know” to 43-Across : HAN SOLO
111 They may be long and shocking : EELS
112 Clink : SLAMMER
113 Gray matter? : ANATOMY

Down

1 Tom Hanks movie featuring a giant piano : BIG
2 It might turn out to be a drone : UFO
3 Barfly : SOT
4 Blue diamond in “Titanic,” e.g. : PROP
5 Lab culture medium : AGAR
6 Star close to Venus? : SERENA
7 Take responsibility : STEP UP
8 Bandleader Shaw : ARTIE
9 Share the ___ (sign) : ROAD
10 Fort Collins sch. : CSU
11 “___ Loss” (2022 #1 album by Drake and 21 Savage) : HER
12 Cyber Monday merchant : E-TAILER
13 Mall security guard, pejoratively : RENT-A-COP
14 Exams with a 400-1600 range : SATS
15 Soup-serving dish : TUREEN
16 Interfacers with publishers : AGENTS
17 Layer between the crust and the core : MANTLE
18 Need for a tough crossword, perhaps : ERASER
21 Command for creating a revised draft : SAVE AS
23 Sushi bar drink : SAKE
28 Wax-coated cheese : EDAM
29 Like words this clue the in? : OUT OF ORDER
30 Easily frightened sort : SCAREDY-CAT
32 Where you might go down in the ranks? : COT
33 Bauxite or galena : ORE
34 Things usually made in the morning : BEDS
36 What’s in : TREND
37 ‘Fore : ‘TIL
38 MADD ad, e.g. : PSA
39 Lefty : LIB
41 Apple wireless file transfer : AIRDROP
43 Do nothing : LOAF
44 Paris bar tender? : EUROS
46 Reddit Q&A : AMA
47 “The nerve!” : HOW DARE YOU!
48 Finally : AT LONG LAST
49 Under siege : BESET
51 Turned red, say : DYED
52 Like an allegro tempo : RAPID
53 Landed : ALIT
54 Subjects of VH1’s “I Love the …” series : DECADES
55 ‘Fore : ‘ERE
56 Packaging string : TWINE
58 Actress Ward : SELA
59 Many teens’ rooms, to parents : STIES
60 Pulitzer-winning columnist Stephens : BRET
62 “Du-u-u-ude!” : BRO!
63 Large coffee vessels : URNS
66 Made a fast stop? : ATE
68 “Previously on …” segment : RECAP
74 “The kissing disease” : MONO
75 “Coming face to face with yourself,” per Jackson Pollock : ART
76 Otherworldly : ETHEREAL
77 Minority in New Zealand’s parliament : MEN
78 What goes “up to 11,” in “Spinal Tap” : AMP
79 Pot grower? : ANTE
80 Skinflints : MISERS
81 Does well on a test, say : GETS AN A
82 Wild donkey : ASS
83 Fellow : GUY
85 Along : BESIDE
86 Many a Monopoly property : AVENUE
87 Ear piece? : KERNEL
88 Marx’s co-author for “The Communist Manifesto” : ENGELS
89 They can be passed but not failed : LAWS
90 Franklin who sang “R-E-S-P-E-C-T” : ARETHA
91 Robin Hood’s love : MARIAN
94 On the wagon : SOBER
97 Little mischief-makers : IMPS
98 Veggie that’s often pickled : CUKE
99 Virgil described its “cloud of pitch-black whirling smoke” : ETNA
100 Sign of neglect : DUST
103 Channel that airs old MGM and RKO films : TCM
104 ___ Bankman-Fried, fallen crypto mogul : SAM
105 Excessively : TOO
106 Boston’s Liberty Tree, for one : ELM
107 Kind of sauce for dim sum : SOY

9 thoughts on “0305-23 NY Times Crossword 5 Mar 23, Sunday”

  1. 21:36. Got the theme early and that helped breeze through this one. I was hunting down a turkey or chicken reference, but never found one.

    In Wordplay today the setter mentions he had MAS(TER KEY) for turkey, but it didn’t fit in the puzzle.

    I had to visit CSU in Fort Collins once. At the end of the day, we were looking for a bar to grab a beer. We found a place that kept serving us free little shots of beer. We couldn’t figure this bar out at all. Eventually we figured out we were at the Fat Tire brewery.

    I always like that story. I think the free beer part outweighs the embarrassment part of the story…..

    Best –

  2. My paper (Long Beach Press-Telegram) printed the puzzle with the theme represented by “x” ??? I thought a better theme than
    the one Bill had would be “Herd around the table”.

Comments are closed.