Constructed by: Ada Nicolle
Edited by: Will Shortz
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… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Theme: None
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Bill’s time: 17m 19s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
1 Merry air : LILT
A lilt is a light, happy tune.
5 Groups of whales : GAMS
A group of whales can be called a gam, as well as a pod.
15 Replacer of some names : ET AL
“Et alii” (et al.) is the equivalent of “et cetera” (etc.), with “et cetera” being used in place of a list of objects, and “et alii” used for a list of names.
16 Theme for a troubadour : AMOUR
A troubadour was a composer and musician of the Middle Ages whose works dealt mainly with chivalry and courtly love. Troubadours were usually men, and a female troubadour would have been called a trobairitz, a lovely word …
19 Many an emoticon : SMILE
An emoticon is a glyph created using text characters to represent facial features, and usually oriented sideways. The emoticon is designed to indicate emotion or attitude. The classic example is the smiley face 🙂. “Emoticon” is short for “emotion icon”.
22 World capital located partly on Bygdøy Peninsula : OSLO
The Norsk Folkemuseum (Norwegian Museum of Cultural History) is located on the Bygdøy peninsula on the western side of Oslo. The Bygdøy peninsula is also home to the Viking Ship Museum and the Kon-Tiki Museum.
23 ___ Effiong, role on TV’s “Sex Education” : ERIC
“Sex Education” is a marvelous Netflic comedy-drama show made for Netflix that stars Gillian Anderson as a single-mother and sex therapist, and Asa Butterfield as her insecure teenage son. Highly recommended …
29 Marine Corps protectors, for short : NCIS
NCIS is the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which investigates crimes in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.
34 It’s a mouthful, frankly : HOT DOG BUN
A hot dog is a sausage served in a split roll. The term “hot dog” dates back to the 19th-century and is thought to reflect a commonly-held opinion that the sausages contained dog meat.
The frankfurter sausage that is typically used in a North American hot dog gets its name from Frankfurter Würstchen. The latter is a German sausage that is prepared by boiling in water, just like a hot dog frank.
41 “A” overseas : EINE
The definite article in German is der, die or das, for masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. The indefinite article is ein, eine or ein, again depending on the gender of the noun. A further complication, relative to English, is that the masculine form (and only the masculine form) of the article changes when used in the accusative case, when used with the object of a sentence. The accusative forms are “den” and “einen”.
42 “Going Back to ___” (LL Cool J platinum single) : CALI
Rap star LL Cool J was born James Todd Smith. Smith’s stage name stands for “Ladies Love Cool James”. When not rapping, LL Cool J plays Special Agent Sam Hanna on TV show “NCIS: Los Angeles”.
43 Word in several font names : SANS
Serifs are details on the ends of characters in some typefaces. Typefaces without serifs are known as sans-serif, using the French word “sans” meaning “without” and “serif” from the Dutch “schreef” meaning “line”. Some people say that serif fonts are easier to read on paper, whereas sans-serif fonts work better on a computer screen. I’m not so sure though …
48 Tiny biter : MITE
Mites are tiny arthropods in the arachnid (spider) class. They are (annoyingly!) very successful creatures that have adapted to all sorts of habitats. And being so small, mites generally pass unnoticed. Ick …
50 N.Y.C. institution awarded an honorary Oscar for changing the public’s perception of movies (1979) : MOMA
The founding of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City was very much driven by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, wife of John D. Rockefeller. Working with two friends, Abby managed to get the museum opened in 1929, just nine days after the Wall Street Crash. The MoMA’s sculpture garden bears the name of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and has done so since 1949.
51 Percussion instrument that can be tuned to a pitch : KETTLEDRUM
The timpani are also called the kettledrums. “Timpani” is an Italian term with the same meaning as in English, the plural of “timpano”.
56 Gaffel Kölsch, Augustiner Helles and others : BIERS
In Germany, one might order a “bier” (beer).
58 Dinner for two at Burger King, maybe : CHEAP DATE
The Burger King chain of fast food restaurants was established as Insta-Burger King in Jacksonville, Florida in 1953. The chain operates all around the world under the Burger King name except in Australia, where you have to visit Hungry Jack’s.
64 Poker game? : EPEE
The French word for sword is “épée”. In competitive fencing the épée is connected to a system that records an electrical signal when legal contact is made on an opponent’s body.
Down
1 Rebecca in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame : LOBO
Rebecca Lobo is a former WNBA basketball player who launched a second career as a sports reporter and analyst for ESPN. Lobo played with the New York Liberty, Houston Comets and Connecticut Sun.
6 Like the sound of “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” per the song of the same name : ATROCIOUS
The title of the “Mary Poppins” song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” has been broken into it’s individual components and given the meaning “Atoning for educability through delicate beauty”. I am none the wiser …
7 Trickster in Polynesian mythology : MAUI
The term “Polynesia” was coined in 1756 by author Charles de Brosses when he used it to describe all the islands in the Pacific. This usage was later restricted to what we now refer to as a subregion of Oceania.
12 Deceives : GULLS
A gull is someone easily cheated, a dupe. The term “gull” gave rise to the word “gullible”, which is in common use today. Did you know that the word “gullible” has been removed from all online dictionaries?
18 Bracken, e.g. : FERN
The fern known as bracken is one of the oldest ferns in the world. Fossil records have been found of bracken that lived over 55 million years ago.
26 Inits. for a trip : LSD
The drug LSD is often sold impregnated into blotting paper. The paper blotter is usually divided into squares with ¼-inch sides, with each square referred to as a “tab”.
27 Nano technology, once? : IPOD
The iPod Nano was the successor to the iPod Mini and was introduced to the market at the end of 2005. There were seven versions of the Nano, until it was discontinued in 2017.
33 Activist who said “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right” : ROSA PARKS
Rosa Parks was one of some brave women in days gone by who refused to give up their seats on a bus to white women. It was the stand taken by Rosa Parks on December 1, 1955 that sparked the Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott. President Clinton presented Ms. Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996. When she died in 2005, Rosa Parks became the first ever woman to have her body lie in honor in the US Capitol Rotunda.
36 Dobrev of “The Vampire Diaries” : NINA
Nina Dobrev is a Canadian actress who was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She is perhaps best known for playing a lead role in the TV version of L. J. Smith’s series of books “The Vampire Diaries”.
38 Citrus also known as “uniq fruit” : UGLI
The ugli fruit is a hybrid of an orange and a tangerine that was first discovered growing wild in Jamaica where most ugli fruit comes from today. “UGLI” is a trademark name that is a variant of “ugly”, a nod to the fruit’s unsightly wrinkled rind.
39 Public image, in brief : REP
Reputation (rep)
44 Flight component : STEP
A landing is the area at the top and bottom of a staircase. Apparently, we called the steps between the landings a “flight” of stairs, because one “flies” between landings! Can that be true?
49 Huang who wrote “Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir” (2013) : EDDIE
Celebrity chef Eddie Huang wrote the 2013 autobiography “Fresh Off the Boat”. It was adapted into a very successful sitcom of the same name. In fact, Huang served as narrator of the show in its first season.
50 Some graduate degs. : MBAS
The world’s first Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree was offered by Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, in 1908.
54 Online publication whose motto is “Cure ignorance” : UTNE
The “Utne Reader” is known for aggregation and republishing of articles on politics, culture and the environment from other sources in the media. It was founded in 1984 by Eric Utne, with management taken over by Eric’s wife Nina Rothschild Utne in 1990.
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Merry air : LILT
5 Groups of whales : GAMS
9 “Exactly!” : BINGO!
14 Name meaning “long-lived” in Arabic : OMAR
15 Replacer of some names : ET AL
16 Theme for a troubadour : AMOUR
17 “That would change everything,” in internet lingo : BIG, IF TRUE
19 Many an emoticon : SMILE
20 To an extreme : ON STEROIDS
22 World capital located partly on Bygdøy Peninsula : OSLO
23 ___ Effiong, role on TV’s “Sex Education” : ERIC
24 Waits on : SERVES
26 Max. or min. : LIM
29 Marine Corps protectors, for short : NCIS
31 “Yes, ___!” : MA’AM
32 Trade barbs : SPAR
34 It’s a mouthful, frankly : HOT DOG BUN
37 Response to thumb-biting in “Romeo and Juliet” : DO YOU QUARREL, SIR?
40 Put off : DISGUSTED
41 “A” overseas : EINE
42 “Going Back to ___” (LL Cool J platinum single) : CALI
43 Word in several font names : SANS
45 What a retractable pen lacks : CAP
46 They’re up for debate : TOPICS
48 Tiny biter : MITE
50 N.Y.C. institution awarded an honorary Oscar for changing the public’s perception of movies (1979) : MOMA
51 Percussion instrument that can be tuned to a pitch : KETTLEDRUM
56 Gaffel Kölsch, Augustiner Helles and others : BIERS
58 Dinner for two at Burger King, maybe : CHEAP DATE
59 In common : ALIKE
60 Word with shoot or door : TRAP-
61 “___ everybody?” : ISN’T
62 Feel, somehow : SENSE
63 Additional solutions? : SUMS
64 Poker game? : EPEE
Down
1 Rebecca in the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame : LOBO
2 “You can count on me” : I’M IN
3 Gets behind : LAGS
4 Like the saying “You win some, you lose some” : TRITE
5 Schemer’s mantra : GET RICH QUICK
6 Like the sound of “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” per the song of the same name : ATROCIOUS
7 Trickster in Polynesian mythology : MAUI
8 Rides with runners : SLEDS
9 Some undergrad degs. : BAS
10 Not going anywhere : IMMOVABLE
11 Experimental nonmelodic genre : NOISE MUSIC
12 Deceives : GULLS
13 Snack item split by Ross and Rachel in the pilot episode of “Friends” : OREO
18 Bracken, e.g. : FERN
21 Words that form other words when read backward : SEMORDNILAPS
25 Latest thing : RAGE
26 Inits. for a trip : LSD
27 Nano technology, once? : IPOD
28 Question before entering a room : MAY I COME IN?
30 Fodder for an analyst : STATS
33 Activist who said “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right” : ROSA PARKS
35 Group of stars : DREAM TEAM
36 Dobrev of “The Vampire Diaries” : NINA
38 Citrus also known as “uniq fruit” : UGLI
39 Public image, in brief : REP
44 Flight component : STEP
46 French for “canvas” : TOILE
47 Many offshoots : SECTS
49 Huang who wrote “Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir” (2013) : EDDIE
50 Some graduate degs. : MBAS
52 Connecting, for short : THRU
53 Vocal feature : RASP
54 Online publication whose motto is “Cure ignorance” : UTNE
55 Hand (out) : METE
57 Understand : SEE
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