0306-23 NY Times Crossword 6 Mar 23, Monday

Constructed by: Lynn Lempel
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Human Nature

Themed answers each comprise two words: the first is part of a HUMAN, and the second part of NATURE:

  • 55A Set of traits we all have … or a two-part description of the answers to the starred clues? : HUMAN NATURE
  • 17A *Region of upstate New York named for its bodies of water : FINGER LAKES
  • 25A *Navigation hurdle for a sailboat : HEADWIND
  • 35A *Climbers’ warm-ups before mountains : FOOTHILLS
  • 46A *Source of shade on a desert island, say : PALM TREE

Bill’s time: 5m 31s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Barcelona bar bites : TAPAS

“Tapa” is the Spanish word for “lid”. There is no clear rationale for why this word came to be used for an appetizer. There are lots of explanations cited, all of which seem to involve the temporary covering of one’s glass of wine with a plate or item of food to either preserve the wine or give one extra space at the table.

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain, after the capital Madrid. It is also the largest European city that sits on the Mediterranean coast, and the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia.

11 Bone in the mouth : JAW

The human skull is made up of two parts: the cranium (which encloses the brain) and the mandible (or “jawbone”).

14 Title for Tuck : FRIAR

Friar Tuck is a character who appears in the legends of Robin Hood. He is a jovial man, fond of his food and wine, and a member of Robin’s merry band of outlaws.

15 Roger who wrote “I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie” : EBERT

“I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie” is a collection consisting of a couple of hundred of Roger Ebert’s most acerbic and negative film reviews. Included are reviews of “Armageddon” (1998), “The Beverly Hillbillies” (1993) and “Police Academy” (1984).

16 Good prefix for Earth Day : ECO-

Earth Day was founded in the US, where it was introduced by Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin. Earth Day was designed to increase awareness and appreciation of our planet’s natural environment. The original Earth Day was on April 22nd, 1970. Decades later, the day is observed in over 175 countries.

17 *Region of upstate New York named for its bodies of water : FINGER LAKES

When I first moved to the US, I settled in Upstate New York and was lucky enough to live near the beautiful Finger Lakes. The largest of the eleven lakes is Seneca Lake, which is one of the deepest bodies of water in the United States.

21 Kaitlin of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” : OLSON

Deandra “Sweet Dee” Reynolds is a character played by Kaitlin Olson on the sitcom “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”.

30 Nile snake : ASP

The Egyptian cobra (Naja haje) is also known as the asp. That said, the term “asp” can apply to several species of snake, including the Egyptian cobra. Legend has it that Cleopatra committed suicide by enticing an asp to bite her. If that’s true, then that asp was probably an Egyptian cobra.

34 “Frontline” network : PBS

“Frontline” is a much-acclaimed PBS documentary program that has been airing since 1983. The show is a creation of WGBH-TV in Boston.

37 Houston who fought Santa Anna : SAM

Sam Houston was the first President of the Republic of Texas, a US Senator for Texas, and governor of the state. Houston was also Governor of Tennessee in his earlier life and is the only person in US history to have been governor of two different states. The city of Houston is named for Sam, and the nearby city of Huntsville boasts a statue of Houston that’s the largest freestanding statue of any American.

38 Pago Pago’s land : SAMOA

Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa in the South Pacific. The island was used by the US Navy during WWII and it managed to escape most of the conflict. The only military incident of consequence was the shelling of the city’s harbor by a Japanese submarine. A more devastating event was the tsunami that hit Pago Pago and surrounding areas in 2009, causing widespread damage and numerous deaths.

39 Sellout warning, on a sign : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

42 Weight of a diamond : CARAT

The carat is a unit of mass equal to 200 mg (0.2 grams). It is used in sizing gemstones.

46 *Source of shade on a desert island, say : PALM TREE

Palms are perennial flowering plants that take many forms, some as shrubs and some as vines, for example. Some take on a tree-like shape, with a woody stem topped by a crown of leaves. Such palms are usually referred to as “palm trees”. The coco de mer palm tree has the largest seeds of any plant on the planet. We are more familiar with the coconut palm tree, which has the second-largest plant seeds known.

50 The “A” of M.F.A. : ARTS

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

51 Skateboarding jump : OLLIE

An ollie is a skateboarding trick invented in 1976 by Alan “Ollie” Gelfand. Apparently it’s a way of lifting the board off the ground, while standing on it, without touching the board with one’s hands. Yeah, I could do that …

53 Companion for Tarzan : APE

In the stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes was actually Englishman John Clayton, Viscount Greystoke.

60 Fat compound : LIPID

Lipids are a group of naturally occurring molecules including fats, waxes and fat-soluble vitamins (like A, D and E). Sometimes we use the words “fat” and “lipid” interchangeably but fats are a subgroup of lipids, specifically a group best called triglycerides.

Down

1 Bosom buddy, informally : BFF

Best friend forever (BFF)

3 Apple used for cider : WINESAP

A winesap is a small and tart apple, one often used for making cider.

8 Orange ___ (tea type) : PEKOE

A pekoe (or more commonly “orange pekoe”) is a medium-grade black tea. There is no orange flavor in an orange pekoe tea. The “orange” name most likely derived from the name of the trading company that brought the tea to Europe from Asia.

10 GPS lines: Abbr. : STS

A global positioning system (GPS) might point streets (sts.).

11 Catholic religious order that founded Georgetown University : JESUITS

Saint Ignatius of Loyola (also known as Inigo Lopez de Loyola) was a Spanish knight from a noble family in the Basque region of Spain. He left behind his easy life to become a hermit and a priest, and eventually founded the Society of Jesus (The Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic church).

12 Squirrel’s stash : ACORNS

There are several species of gray squirrel that are native to North America. Even though I live here in the west of the continent, I am most familiar with the eastern gray squirrel. That’s because that particular species was introduced into Italy in 1948, and now the whole continent is overrun with the animal. The result in Britain and Ireland is that the native red squirrel population is now endangered and there are active programs to eradicate the invading species. There was even a plan to have celebrity chefs promote gray squirrel recipes in an effort to cull the population!

18 Cesar who played the Cisco Kid : ROMERO

Cesar Romero was an American actor of Cuban descent from New York. He played a wide variety of roles on the big screen, but is remembered by many for playing the Joker on the “Batman” television show in the sixties.

The Cisco Kid is a character who was first introduced in an O. Henry short story called “The Caballero’s Way”. The original literary character was a cruel outlaw, but the character depicted in subsequent movies and television shows is more heroic.

22 Q-tips, e.g. : SWABS

Cotton swabs were originally marketed under the name “Baby Gays”. This was changed in 1926 to “Q-Tips”, with the Q standing for “quality”.

23 “It ___ tale told by an idiot”: Macbeth : IS A

After the title character in William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” learns of Lady Macbeth’s death, he utters the words:

[Life] is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

24 Onetime spot for fast food : AUTOMAT

An automat is a fast-food restaurant that was popular in the first half of the 20th century. The original automat was established in Berlin, but the concept took off in the US. However, our modern fast food restaurants virtually wiped out automats starting in the fifties.

37 Cracker often served with soup : SALTINE

F. L. Sommer & Company of St. Joseph, Missouri started to produce wafer thin soda crackers in 1876. The crackers were later marketed as “Saltines”, due to the baking salt that was a key ingredient. The company subsequently lost trademark protection of the term “saltine”.

41 Smelted material : ORE

Metals are found in ore in the form of oxides. In order to get pure metal from the ore, the ore is heated and the metal oxides within are reduced (i.e. the oxygen is removed) in the chemical process known as smelting. The oxygen is extracted by adding a source of carbon or carbon monoxide which uses up the excess oxygen atoms to make carbon dioxide, a waste product of smelting (and, a greenhouse gas).

43 Performing company : TROUPE

“Troupe” is a French word meaning “company, band”.

45 Without cost : GRATIS

Something provided gratis is supplied free of charge. “Gratis” is a Latin term, a contraction of “gratiis” meaning “for thanks”.

47 Name on a glue bottle : ELMER

Elsie the Cow is the mascot of the Borden Company. Elsie first appeared at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, introduced to symbolize the perfect dairy product. She is so famous and respected that she has been awarded the degrees of Doctor of Bovinity, Doctor of Human Kindness and Doctor of Ecownomics. Elsie was also given a husband named Elmer the Bull. Elmer eventually moved over to the chemical division of Borden where he gave his name to Elmer’s Glue.

48 Spiral-horned antelope : ELAND

The eland (plural “eland, elands”) is a large African antelope, in fact the largest antelope on the planet. Both male and female eland have horns, and those horns have a steady spiral ridge along their length.

52 ___ 500 : INDY

The Indianapolis 500 race is held annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The race is run around a 2.5 mile oval, hence requiring 200 laps for completion. The first Indy 500 race was held on Memorial Day in 1911. The winner that day was one Ray Harroun. Harroun had seen someone using a rear view mirror on a horse-drawn vehicle, and decided to fit one on his Marmon “Wasp” motor car. Supposedly, that was the first ever use of a rear-view mirror on a motor vehicle.

55 Attila, notably : HUN

The Huns were a nomadic people who originated in Eastern Europe in the 4th century. Under the command of Attila the Hun they developed a unified empire that stretched from modern-day Germany across to the steppes of Central Asia. The whole of the Hunnic Empire collapsed within a year of Attila’s death in 453 AD.

56 ___ mode : A LA

In French, “à la mode” simply means “fashionable”. In America, the term has also come to describe a way of serving pie. Pie served à la mode includes a dollop of cream or ice cream, or as I recall from my time living in Upstate New York, with a wedge of cheddar cheese.

57 Summer hrs. in D.C. : EDT

Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Greeted a king or queen, say : BOWED
6 Barcelona bar bites : TAPAS
11 Bone in the mouth : JAW
14 Title for Tuck : FRIAR
15 Roger who wrote “I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie” : EBERT
16 Good prefix for Earth Day : ECO-
17 *Region of upstate New York named for its bodies of water : FINGER LAKES
19 Female pig : SOW
20 Slippery fish : EEL
21 Kaitlin of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” : OLSON
22 Having no doubt : SURE
23 Pants leg measurement : INSEAM
25 *Navigation hurdle for a sailboat : HEADWIND
27 Marble figures : STATUES
29 Ticket holders’ entitlements : SEATS
30 Nile snake : ASP
31 Court proceeding : TRIAL
34 “Frontline” network : PBS
35 *Climbers’ warm-ups before mountains : FOOTHILLS
37 Houston who fought Santa Anna : SAM
38 Pago Pago’s land : SAMOA
39 Sellout warning, on a sign : SRO
42 Weight of a diamond : CARAT
44 One prone to mistakes : BUNGLER
46 *Source of shade on a desert island, say : PALM TREE
49 Stem (from) : DERIVE
50 The “A” of M.F.A. : ARTS
51 Skateboarding jump : OLLIE
53 Companion for Tarzan : APE
54 Go down a slippery slope? : SKI
55 Set of traits we all have … or a two-part description of the answers to the starred clues? : HUMAN NATURE
58 Number of Canadian provinces : TEN
59 Tip over : UPEND
60 Fat compound : LIPID
61 Affirmative vote : AYE
62 Like a tech geek : NERDY
63 Desirable attribute : ASSET

Down

1 Bosom buddy, informally : BFF
2 Points in the right direction : ORIENTS
3 Apple used for cider : WINESAP
4 Young bird of prey : EAGLET
5 Rap’s Dr. ___ : DRE
6 Narrate : TELL
7 Embarrass : ABASH
8 Orange ___ (tea type) : PEKOE
9 Large sports venues : ARENAS
10 GPS lines: Abbr. : STS
11 Catholic religious order that founded Georgetown University : JESUITS
12 Squirrel’s stash : ACORNS
13 Bowled over : WOWED
18 Cesar who played the Cisco Kid : ROMERO
22 Q-tips, e.g. : SWABS
23 “It ___ tale told by an idiot”: Macbeth : IS A
24 Onetime spot for fast food : AUTOMAT
26 Leave a flight : DEPLANE
28 Watches the kids : SITS
32 “That’s brilliant!” : AHA!
33 Arm or leg : LIMB
35 Places with barns : FARMS
36 Make easier to hear, in a way : LOUDEN
37 Cracker often served with soup : SALTINE
39 Minor mistakes : SLIPUPS
40 Daydream : REVERIE
41 Smelted material : ORE
42 Auto access item : CAR KEY
43 Performing company : TROUPE
45 Without cost : GRATIS
46 Italian restaurant staple : PASTA
47 Name on a glue bottle : ELMER
48 Spiral-horned antelope : ELAND
52 ___ 500 : INDY
55 Attila, notably : HUN
56 ___ mode : A LA
57 Summer hrs. in D.C. : EDT