0414-23 NY Times Crossword 14 Apr 23, Friday

Bill’s time: 10m 56s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Dungeons & Dragons, e.g., in brief : RPG

Role-playing game (RPG)

8 Abigail who wrote “remember the ladies” to her husband in 1776 : ADAMS

Abigail Adams (born Abigail Smith) had a unique distinction being married to John Adams. Abigail was the first Second Lady of the US, and then became the second First Lady! That said, the titles of “Second Lady” and “First Lady” were not used in her day.

20 Cop show co-starring LL Cool J, informally : NCIS: LA

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”.

21 The “Y” of the code JPY : YEN

Japanese yen (JPY)

22 Not closeted : OUT

Back in the 1950s, to come “out of the closet” was to admit to being an alcoholic. By the seventies, the phrase mainly referred to gay people shrugging off secrecy about their sexual orientation.

23 Little annoyance : GNAT

Gnats have a relatively short lifespan, of about 7-10 days.

27 “I’ve heard enough,” in brief : TMI

Too much information (TMI)

34 American ___ : ELM

The official state tree of Massachusetts is the American elm. The elm was chosen in 1941, in a gesture commemorating George Washington taking command of the Continental Army in 1775. He did so beneath an American elm on Cambridge Common.

35 Ottomans, e.g. : TURKS

Osman I was the man who established the Ottoman Dynasty, with “Ottoman” coming from the name “Osman”. This is despite the fact that the “Ottoman Empire” came about with the conquest of Constantinople, and that didn’t happen until almost 130 years after Osman I died.

38 Heckelphone relative : OBOE

A heckelphone is a musical instrument like an oboe, but pitched an octave lower. The heckelphone was invented in 1904 by a manufacturer of woodwind instruments in Germany named Wilhelm Heckel.

39 Otherworldly : FEY

“Fey” is such a lovely word, one meaning “magical, fairy-like”. It comes from the Middle English word “feie” which has a less pleasant definition, “fated to die”. The term has been extended over the past century to mean “effeminate”.

44 Medium talent : ESP

The so-called sixth sense is extrasensory perception (ESP). It is also referred to as second sight.

46 Old Jewish enclave : SHTETL

The Yiddish word for “town” is “shtot”, and so “shtetl” is the diminutive form meaning “small town”.

54 Once-trendy green cocktails : APPLETINIS

An appletini is an apple martini, a cocktail containing vodka and an apple-flavored beverage such as apple brandy. One recipe is:

• 1 part sweet vermouth
• 1 part dry vermouth
• 4 parts vodka
• 3 parts apple juice

57 13x platinum Pearl Jam album that actually has 11 tracks : TEN

Pearl Jam is an alternative rock band from Seattle, Washington.

58 WhatsApped, say : IM’ED

WhatsApp is a popular messaging service used on smartphones that sends messages and other files from one mobile phone number to another. Launched in 2011, WhatsApp is incredibly popular, and indeed the most popular messaging service used today. Facebook acquired WhatsApp in 2014, paying over $19 billion.

Down

1 Feline friend of Tom on “Tom and Jerry” : TOPSY

“Tom and Jerry” is a series of cartoons produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera starting in 1940. These short films feature Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse who are always going at it, with Jerry usually emerging victorious.

4 Fork-tailed bird : TERN

Terns are a family of seabirds. They are similar to gulls, but are more slender and more lightly built. Many species of tern are known for their long-distance migrations, with the Arctic tern migrating so far that it is believed to see more daylight in a year than any other animal.

6 Its top score is 1520 : PSAT

Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT)

7 ___ economy : GIG

Musicians use “gig” to describe a job, a performance. The term originated in the early 1900s in the world of jazz. The derivative phrase “gig economy” applies to a relatively recent phenomenon where workers find themselves jumping from temporary job to temporary job, from gig to gig.

8 Stereotypical millennial breakfast item : AVOCADO TOAST

Avocado toast is trendy, but delicious. My homemade version includes a generous sprinkling of freshly cracked black pepper, and a splash of hot sauce. Yum …

Millennials are sometimes referred to as “echo boomers”, as millennials are often the children of “baby boomers”.

12 Kind of bean : SOYA

What are known as soybeans here in the US are called “soya beans” in most other English-speaking countries. So, I drink soy milk here in America, but when I am over in Ireland I drink “soya milk”.

25 Rugby competitor : ETON

The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders, including prime ministers David Cameron and Boris Johnson. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington and George Orwell. Author Ian Fleming was also an Eton alumnus, as was Fleming’s iconic character James Bond, although 007 was expelled by the school.

Rugby is a town in County Warwickshire, England. It is a market town, and is also home to the famous Rugby School, one of the oldest private schools in the country. The school gave its name to the sport of rugby, as the laws of the game were first published by three boys at Rugby School in 1845.

26 Texted eyes, maybe : COLON

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”.

27 Lavatory, informally : THRONE ROOM

Our word “lavatory” (sometimes “lav”) originally referred to a washbasin, and comes from the Latin “lavatorium”, a place for washing. In the 1600s, “lavatory” came to mean a washroom, and in the 1920s a toilet.

31 Some branded coolers : YETIS

YETI is a manufacturer of coolers and related products that is based in Austin, Texas. There was a kerfuffle between YETI and the National Rifle Association in 2018, when YETI removed the NRA from its membership discount program. That kerfuffle got quite public when some NRA members published videos of themselves destroying their own YETI products in protest.

32 Free alternative to Netflix : TUBI

Tubi is an ad-supported streaming service that was launched in 2014. Programs available from Tubi include both films and TV series. Program availability increased in 2020 when Tubi was purchased by Fox Corporation, for $440 million.

33 Alternative to Skippy : JIF

Jif is the leading brand of peanut butter in the US, and has been since 1981. Introduced in 1958, Jif is now produced by Smuckers.

41 Maine attractions : PINES

Maine is the least-densely populated state east of the Mississippi, with almost 90% of its land covered with forests. Perhaps that’s why the state’s nickname is “The Pine Tree State” …

42 Key collaborator : PEELE

Jordan Peele is a former cast member of the sketch comedy show “Mad TV”. Peele created his own sketch comedy show “Key & Peele” with fellow-Mad TV alum Keegan-Michael Key. Peele started hosting and producing the revival of “The Twilight Zone” in 2019.

47 People of Arizona : HOPI

Many members of the Hopi nation live on a reservation that is actually located within the much larger Navajo reservation in Arizona.

48 Suitable for most audiences : TV-PG

TV Parental Guidelines (TV-PG, TV-MA, etc.) were introduced in the US in 1997. Use of the rating system by broadcasters is entirely voluntary.

52 Give a card to : HIT

Hit me, give me another card.