0521-23 NY Times Crossword 21 May 23, Sunday

Constructed by: Robert Ryan
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: Stitchin’ Time

Themed answers are common, three word phrases parsed as though the first word ends with -IN’ (short for -ING):

  • 23A Bigamy, legally speakin’? : PARTNERIN’ CRIME (partner in crime)
  • 36A Where copy editors are workin’? : CHECKIN’ DESK (check-in desk)
  • 56A “Enjoyin’ your meal?” or “I’ll be servin’ you today”? : WAITIN’ LINE (wait in line)
  • 83A Reaction to the climax of a heartbreakin’ movie? : ENDIN’ TEARS (end in tears)
  • 102A Statute regulatin’ surrogacy? : MOTHERIN’ LAW (mother-in-law)
  • 117A Financin’ Broadway shows? : BACKIN’ BUSINESS (back in business)
  • 16D Bubbles featurin’ comic book dialogue? : TALKIN’ CIRCLES (talk in circles)
  • 55D One tendin’ to reply quickly? : RESPONDIN’ KIND (respond in kind)

Bill’s time: 16m 23s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 When Juliet drinks the potion : ACT IV

William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” doesn’t end well for the title characters. Juliet takes a potion as a ruse to fool her parents, to trick them into thinking she is dead. The potion puts her in a death-like coma for 24 hours, after which Juliet plans to awaken and run off with Romeo. Juliet sends a message to Romeo apprising him of the plan, but the message fails to arrive. Romeo hears of Juliet’s “death”, and grief-stricken he takes his own life by drinking poison. Juliet awakens from the coma, only to find her lover dead beside her. She picks up a dagger and commits suicide. Nobody lives happily ever after …

19 Race held annually in early March : IDITAROD

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race covers an incredible 1,161 miles, from Anchorage to Nome in Alaska. The race starts every year on the first Saturday in March, with the first race having been held in 1973. Finishing times range from over 8 days to 15 days or more. The first few races only used a northern route, but then a southern route was added to the roster every second year. It’s kind of a good thing, because when the racers take the northern route they don’t even pass through the town of Iditarod!

21 Reading can be found on it : THAMES

The River Thames that flows through London is the longest river entirely located in England.

Reading is the county town of Berkshire in England. It is a major railroad junction, and the site of a renowned monastery and a prison. Reading Prison was where American actor Stacy Keach spent 6 months in 1984, convicted of smuggling cocaine into the UK.

23 Bigamy, legally speakin’? : PARTNERIN’ CRIME (partner in crime)

“Bigamy” means having two wives or husbands at the same time. The term comes from the Latin “bigamus” meaning “twice married”.

26 Eau so big? : MER

In French, “eau” (water) might be found in the “mer” (sea).

40 Beefeater, e.g. : DRY GIN

Beefeater Gin is a brand of spirit from the UK, with a Yeoman Warder (beefeater) on the label.

50 Heading on a balance sheet : ASSETS

The balance sheet of a company is a snapshot (single-point-in-time) view of a company’s financial position. The balance sheet lists all the company’s liabilities, all of its assets, and all of its ownership equity. The assets of a company, less its liabilities equals the ownership equity. The term “balance” is used because assets always balance out with the sum of liabilities and shareholder equity.

53 Classic Hasbro toy that debuted in 1964 : GI JOE

G.I. Joe was the original “action figure”, the first toy to carry that description. G.I. Joe first hit the shelves in 1964. There have been a few movies based on the G.I. Joe figure, but, more famous than all of them I would say is the 1997 movie “G.I. Jane” starring Demi Moore in the title role. I thought that “G.I. Jane” had some potential, to be honest, but it really did not deliver in the end.

54 Lenovo competitor : ACER

Acer is a Taiwanese company that I visited a couple of times when I was in the electronics business. I was very impressed back then with the company’s dedication to quality, although I have heard that things haven’t gone so well in recent years …

Lenovo is a Chinese manufacturer of computers that was founded as “Legend” in 1984. The name was changed to “Lenovo” in 2002. “Lenovo” is a portmanteau of “Le” (from “Legend”) and “novo” (Latin for “new”). IBM sold off its personal computer division to Lenovo in 2005.

59 Super Bowl LVI winners : RAMS

Super Bowl LVI was played at the end of the 2021 season between the Cincinnati Bengals and the LA Rams. The Rams had home team advantage as the game was played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The Rams emerged victorious, winning 23-20. Apparently, the Super Bowl LVI broadcast was the second-most watched in the history of the NFL.

64 Brussels administrative official, informally : EUROCRAT

Belgium is one of the six founding members of the European Economic Community (EEC) that evolved into today’s European Union (EU). Belgium also acts as host of several international organizations, including NATO. There are two large regions in the country. Flanders in the north is predominantly Dutch-speaking, and Wallonia in the south is predominantly French-speaking. The capital city of Brussels is officially bilingual, although from personal experience I can attest that it is mainly French-speaking even though it is located in the Flemish part of the country.

66 Oxford, e.g. : SHOE

An oxford is a type of lace-up shoe that originated not in Oxford, but actually in Scotland and/or Ireland.

71 France before it was France : GAUL

The Gauls were a Celtic race, with Gaul covering what is now known as France and Belgium. We use the term “Gallic” today, when we refer to something pertaining to France or the French.

72 Animal that resembles a raccoon more than a bear, despite its name : RED PANDA

The red panda is a relatively small mammal with reddish-brown fur and white fur highlighting features on his head. A native of the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China, it is not closely related to the giant panda, and instead is related to the raccoon, weasel and skunk.

76 Opposite of da : NYET

“Nyet” is Russian for “no”, and “da” is Russian for “yes”.

78 Spell out in Spanish? : SIESTA

We use the word “siesta” to describe a short nap in the early afternoon, and imported the word into English from Spanish. In turn, the Spanish word is derived from the Latin “hora sexta” meaning “the sixth hour”. The idea is that the nap is taken at the sixth hour after dawn.

90 Styled like Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock : AFROED

Many of his contemporaries regarded Jimi Hendrix as the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music. Hendrix was from Seattle and didn’t really have a really stellar start to his working life. He failed to finish high school and fell foul of the law by getting caught in stolen cars, twice. The courts gave him the option of the army or two years in prison. Hendrix chose the former and soon found himself in the famous 101st Airborne. In the army, his less-than-disciplined ways helped him (as he would have seen it) because his superiors successfully petitioned to get him discharged after serving only one year of his two-year requirement, just to get him out of their hair.

The 1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair was held on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm located 43 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York. 400,000 young people attended, and saw 32 bands and singers perform over three days.

91 Sch. near the Getty Center : UCLA

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is one of the most-visited museums in the country. Like many museums in developed countries these days, the Getty has been embroiled in disputes about ownership of artifacts. The curators of the Getty have gone so far as to repatriate some items in recent years, especially to Greece and Italy. The J. Paul Getty Museum has two locations. The Getty Center is the primary location, and houses art from the Middle Ages to the present. The associated (and beautiful) Getty Villa displays art from ancient Greece, Rome and Etruria.

94 Cooper’s raw material : OAK

A cooper is a craftsman who makes wooden vessels, such as barrels. The term “cooper” ultimately derives from the Latin “cupa” meaning “barrel”.

95 OutKast, e.g. : RAP DUO

OutKast is a hip hop duo consisting of rappers André 3000 and Big Boi.

100 Concave bodily features : INNIES

The navel is essentially the scar left behind when the umbilical cord is removed from a newborn baby. One interesting use of the umbilicus (navel, belly button) is to differentiate between identical twins, especially when they are very young.

111 World capital closest to “Null Island” (0°N, 0°E) : ACCRA

Accra sits on Ghana’s coast and is a major seaport as well as the country’s capital city. The name “Accra” comes from a local word “Nkran” meaning “ants”, a name chosen because of the large number of anthills found in the area when the city was founded.

116 Cause of warming tropical seas : EL NINO

When the surface temperature of much of the Pacific Ocean rises more than half a degree celsius, then there is said to be an El Niño episode. That small temperature change in the Pacific has been associated with climatic changes that can stretch right across the globe. El Niño is Spanish for “the boy” and is a reference to the Christ child. The phenomenon was given this particular Spanish name because the warming is usually noticed near South America and around Christmas-time.

124 “Snowy” bird : EGRET

The snowy egret is a small white heron that is native to the Americas. At one time the egret species was in danger of extinction due to hunting driven by the demand for plumes for women’s hats.

Down

2 Product typically wrapped in paraffin wax : 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.

6 Beats Electronics co-founder, familiarly : DRE

Beats Electronics is a company that was co-founded by rapper Dr. Dre. Apple bought Beats for $3 billion in 2014, which is the largest acquisition in Apple’s history.

8 Wednesday eponym : ODIN

In Norse mythology, Odin was the chief of the gods. Odin’s wife Frigg was the queen of Asgard whose name gave us our English term “Friday” (via Anglo-Saxon). Odin’s son was Thor, whose name gave us the term “Thursday”. Odin himself gave us our word “Wednesday” from “Wodin”, the English form of his name.

17 Products with screens … or a homophone of a type of big screen : IMACS

The iMac is a desktop computer platform that Apple introduced in 1998. One of the main features of the iMac is an “all-in-one” design, with the computer console and monitor integrated. The iMac also came in a range of colors that Apple marketed as “flavors”, such as strawberry, blueberry and lime.

The IMAX Corporation, which is behind the IMAX film format, is a Canadian company. The impetus for developing the system came after Expo ’67 in Montreal. Back then large format screenings were accomplished using multiple projectors with multiple screens, with images basically stitched together. The team behind the IMAX technology set out to simplify things, and developed a single-camera, single-projector system.

18 South African grassland : VELDT

”Veldt” (sometimes “veld”) is the name given to large rural spaces in southern Africa. We might use the term “boondocks” for the same thing. The word “veldt” comes from the German for “field”.

31 Big-box store with a labyrinthine layout : IKEA

The IKEA furniture chain was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, when he was just 17-years-old. IKEA is an acronym standing for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd (don’t forget now!). Elmtaryd was the name of the farm where Ingvar Kamprad grew up, and Agunnaryd is his home parish in Sweden.

37 Booze : HOOCH

In the Klondike gold rush, a favorite tipple of the miners was “Hoochinoo”, a liquor made by the native Alaskans. Soon after “hooch” (also “hootch”) was adopted as a word for cheap whiskey.

38 Acid-alcohol compound : ESTER

Esters are very common chemicals. The smaller, low-molecular weight esters are usually pleasant smelling and are often found in perfumes. At the other end of the scale, the higher-molecular weight nitroglycerin is a nitrate ester and is very explosive, and polyester is a huge molecule and is a type of plastic. Fats and oils found in nature are fatty acid esters of glycerol known as glycerides.

39 Entertainers Carvey and Delany : DANAS

Dana Carvey, along with the likes of Phil Hartman and Kevin Nealon, was part of the new breed of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) comedians credited with resurrecting the show in the late eighties. One of Carvey’s most popular characters was the Church Lady (“Well, isn’t that special?”), and he became so associated with her that among fellow cast members Carvey was often referred to simply as “the Lady”. Another favorite Carvey character was Garth Algar who went to feature in the “Wayne’s World” movies. Carvey had open-heart surgery in 1997 to clear a blocked artery, but the surgical team operated on the wrong blood vessel. To recover, he had to have five more procedures. He ended up suing for medical malpractice and donated his $7.5 million compensation payment to charity.

Actress Dana Delany came to the public’s attention playing the lead in the TV show “China Beach” from 1988 to 1991. More recently, she played the lead in the drama series “Body of Proof” from 2011 to 2013.

43 Sister channel of QVC : HSN

The Home Shopping Network (HSN) was the first national shopping network, and was launched locally as the Home Shopping Club in Florida in 1982. Its first product was a can opener.

45 Cracked open : AJAR

Our word “ajar” is thought to come from Scottish dialect, in which “a char” means “slightly open”.

46 N.Y.C. gallery : 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.

50 ___ Gawande, best-selling author of “Being Mortal” : ATUL

Atul Gawande is a surgeon and author. One of his books is a 2009 work titled “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right”, in which he makes a powerful argument that formal checklists improve efficiency, consistency and even safety.

51 What’s found at the end of “Citizen Kane”? : SILENT E

The letter E at the end of the word “Kane” is a silent letter E.

1941’s “Citizen Kane” was the first film made by Orson Welles, and is considered by many to be the finest movie ever made. It’s a remarkable achievement by Wells, as he played the lead and also produced and directed. Despite all the accolades for “Citizen Kane” over the decades, the movie was far from a commercial success in its early run and actually lost money at the box office.

57 Android competitor : IOS

iOS is what Apple now calls its mobile operating system. Previously, it was known as iPhone OS.

58 Georgian and Edwardian, for two : ERAS

Immediately following the Stuart period, the Georgian era of British history is named for the sequential kings George I through George IV. The era started in 1714, when George I ascended to the throne upon the death of Queen Anne. The end of the era is defined sometimes with the death of George IV in 1830, and sometimes with the death of his successor William IV in 1837. William IV was George IV’s brother and ruled for only seven years. William IV was succeeded by his niece Victoria, resulting in the start of the Victorian era.

The Edwardian era in the UK started with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901 and the succession to the throne of her son, King Edward VII. The period was known for increased interest in women’s suffrage and continued industrial development. The era ended with the death of the king in 1910, and was soon followed by the catastrophe that was the First World War.

65 French agreement : OUI

In French, “oui” (yes) or “non” (no) might be responses to “un questionnaire” (a questionnaire).

67 “The Simpsons” teacher Krabappel : EDNA

In “The Simpsons” television show, Bart Simpson’s teacher was one Edna Krabappel. Edna married Ned Flanders, who is the next-door neighbor to the Simpson family. Sadly, Edna passed away in 2013. Edna was voiced by actress Marcia Wallace, who passed away the same year.

70 Cause of insomnia in a fairy tale : PEA

“The Princess and the Pea” is a fairy tale from the pen of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The essence of the story is that a prince’s mother tests the royal blood of an apparent princess by placing a pea under a pile of mattresses on which the young girl sleeps. The girl complains of a restless night, demonstrating a physical sensitivity that can only be attributed to a princess. And they all lived happily ever after …

73 Grammy-nominated sister of Aretha : ERMA

Erma Franklin was an R&B and gospel singer. She was the elder sister of Aretha Franklin. Erma toured with Aretha for a while, and even recorded backup vocals on her sister’s big hit “Respect”.

75 Something a P.S.A. lacks : AD FEE

Public service announcement (PSA)

80 Heroine of Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” : TIANA

“The Princess and the Frog” is an animated feature released in 2009 by Walt Disney Studios. The film is set in New Orleans in the twenties. A waitress called Tiana kisses a prince who had been turned into a frog, and then she herself turns into a frog.

84 401(k) alternatives : IRAS

A 401(k) account resembles an IRA in that contributions can be made from a paycheck prior to the deduction of income taxes. A 401(k) differs from an IRA in that it is an employer-sponsored plan, with payments taken by the employer directly from an employee’s paycheck. Additionally, contributions can be fully or partially matched by an employer.

89 Annual indie festival : SUNDANCE

The Sundance Film Festival is the largest independent film event in the country, and takes place every year around the Sundance Resort near Provo, Utah. The festival has its roots in the Utah/US Film Festival which started in Salt Lake City in 1978. Management of the festival was taken over by Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute in 1985. The festival has become a bit of a media feeding frenzy in recent years, as a lot of A-list celebrities attend. The Festival organizers introduced a “Focus on Film” campaign in 2007 in an attempt to offset some of the madness.

96 Like all animals in the genus Equus, uniquely : ONE-TOED

The Equus genus of animals includes horses, asses and zebras.

99 Diplomatic agreement : ENTENTE

An entente cordiale (sometimes just “entente”) is a friendly understanding, usually between two nations. The term, which translates from French as “cordial agreement”, was first used to describe a set of agreements between the UK and France that were put in place in 1904.

101 Form-al org.? : IRS

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was set up during the Civil War to raise money to cover war expenses. Prior to the introduction of income tax in 1862, the government was funded by levies on trade and property.

103 Some cross-references in a research paper, informally : OP CITS

“Op. cit.” is short for “opus citatum”, Latin for “the work cited”. Op. cit. is used in footnotes to refer the reader to an earlier citation. It is similar to ibid, except that ibid refers the reader to the last citation, the one immediately above.

105 Preppy tops : POLOS

René Lacoste was a French tennis player who went into the clothing business, and came up with a more comfortable shirt that players could use. This became known as a “tennis shirt”. When it was adopted for use in the sport of polo, the shirts also became known as “polo shirts”. The “golf shirt” is basically the same thing. The Lacoste line of clothing features a crocodile logo, because René was nicknamed “The Crocodile”.

106 Listless feeling : ENNUI

“Ennui” is the French word for “boredom”, and is a term that we now use in English. It’s one of the few French words we’ve imported and haven’t anglicized, and actually pronounce “correctly”.

107 Pearl button coating : NACRE

Nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl, is the strong iridescent material laid down by some mollusks on the inside of their shells, and it’s also what makes up pearls. The creature lays down nacre as a defensive mechanism, protecting the soft tissue of its body from the rough surface of the outer shell. Similarly, it uses nacre to encapsulate harmful debris or a parasite that penetrates the shell, and that’s how a pearl is formed. Cultured pearls are made by inserting a tissue graft from a donor oyster, around which the nacre is laid down.

114 Set of sheets? : REAM

A ream is 500 sheets of paper. As there were 24 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires made up a ream, there used to be 480 sheets in a ream. Ever since the standard was changed to 500, a 480-sheet packet of paper has been called a “short ream”. We also use the term “reams” to mean a great amount, evolving from the idea of a lot of printed material.

115 “Dónde ___ …?” : ESTA

“De dónde eres?” is Spanish for “Where are you from?”

118 Carbon dating determination : AGE

Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon that is found in nature in small amounts. Carbon-14 is used in the technique known as radiocarbon dating, a relatively accurate way of determining the age of something up to about 60,000 years old. When an organism is alive, the amount of radioactive carbon-14 it has compared to the amount of regular carbon-12, is a fixed ratio. After the organism dies, it is no longer exchanging carbon with the atmosphere through metabolism. So, the stable carbon-12 stays in the body as it rots but the radioactive carbon-14 gradually decays, causing the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 to fall. Scientists can determine the age of remains by measuring this carbon-14/carbon-12 ratio.

119 Game with “+2” and “+4” cards : UNO

The classic card game Uno now comes in several versions. Uno ColorAdd allows people with color blindness to play, and there is also a Braille version that allows blind and sighted friends to play together.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 “It’s not that simple” : YES AND NO
9 Kind of passage : NASAL
14 When Juliet drinks the potion : ACT IV
19 Race held annually in early March : IDITAROD
20 Computer expert, for short : IT PRO
21 Reading can be found on it : THAMES
23 Bigamy, legally speakin’? : PARTNERIN’ CRIME (partner in crime)
25 [I forgot the words …] : LA LA LA …
26 Eau so big? : MER
27 Stellar, as a pitching outing : NO-HIT
28 Pirate fodder, once : BLANK CDS
30 Right hand : AIDE
34 Joel’s smuggling partner on HBO’s “The Last of Us” : TESS
35 Creative types : ARTISTS
36 Where copy editors are workin’? : CHECKIN’ DESK (check-in desk)
40 Beefeater, e.g. : DRY GIN
42 Certain legal guardian : FOSTER DAD
43 Shade : HUE
44 Pitch tents, say : ENCAMP
48 Auction unit : LOT
49 Loads : A TON
50 Heading on a balance sheet : ASSETS
53 Classic Hasbro toy that debuted in 1964 : GI JOE
54 Lenovo competitor : ACER
56 “Enjoyin’ your meal?” or “I’ll be servin’ you today”? : WAITIN’ LINE (wait in line)
59 Super Bowl LVI winners : RAMS
60 One can be empty or veiled : THREAT
63 Spirit : SOUL
64 Brussels administrative official, informally : EUROCRAT
66 Oxford, e.g. : SHOE
68 “___ is like a cat: It only comes to you if you ignore it”: Gillian Flynn : SLEEP
71 France before it was France : GAUL
72 Animal that resembles a raccoon more than a bear, despite its name : RED PANDA
76 Opposite of da : NYET
78 Spell out in Spanish? : SIESTA
82 Crumbly cake topping : OREO
83 Reaction to the climax of a heartbreakin’ movie? : ENDIN’ TEARS (end in tears)
87 Equipment used to make “pizza slices” or “French fries” : SKIS
88 Church chorus : AMENS
90 Styled like Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock : AFROED
91 Sch. near the Getty Center : UCLA
94 Cooper’s raw material : OAK
95 OutKast, e.g. : RAP DUO
97 Gnaw (at) : EAT
98 First-time offense, so to speak : STRIKE ONE
100 Concave bodily features : INNIES
102 Statute regulatin’ surrogacy? : MOTHERIN’ LAW (mother-in-law)
104 Big ___ : SPENDER
107 2022 horror sci-fi film co-starring Daniel Kaluuya : NOPE
108 Item on a wish list : WANT
109 Japanese fried pork cutlet : TONKATSU
111 World capital closest to “Null Island” (0°N, 0°E) : ACCRA
113 Before, poetically : ERE
116 Cause of warming tropical seas : EL NINO
117 Financin’ Broadway shows? : BACKIN’ BUSINESS (back in business)
123 Seize an opportunity : POUNCE
124 “Snowy” bird : EGRET
125 All shook up : IN A STATE
126 Stood (with) : SIDED
127 Hiding spot for a 124-Across : REEDS
128 Fully : TO THE MAX

Down

1 Sharp bark : YIP
2 Product typically wrapped in paraffin wax : EDAM
3 Father : SIRE
4 Draw : ATTRACT
5 Grams in the U.K.? : NAN
6 Beats Electronics co-founder, familiarly : DRE
7 Winter Olympics powerhouse: Abbr. : NOR
8 Wednesday eponym : ODIN
9 Specialty segments : NICHES
10 Liable to be lost : AT RISK
11 Emits sparks, as a campfire : SPITS
12 Stick for a snowman, say : ARM
13 Auto racing champion Sébastien : LOEB
14 Yet to be apprehended : AT LARGE
15 Some protest activity : CHANTING
16 Bubbles featurin’ comic book dialogue? : TALKIN’ CIRCLES (talk in circles)
17 Products with screens … or a homophone of a type of big screen : IMACS
18 South African grassland : VELDT
22 Mouthing off : SASS
24 “Gotcha” : NOTED
29 Not of the cloth : LAY
31 Big-box store with a labyrinthine layout : IKEA
32 Blackmail ammunition : DIRT
33 Furnish with an income : ENDOW
36 B equivalent : C-FLAT
37 Booze : HOOCH
38 Acid-alcohol compound : ESTER
39 Entertainers Carvey and Delany : DANAS
40 Fencing face-off : DUEL
41 Fix, as a bow : RETIE
43 Sister channel of QVC : HSN
45 Cracked open : AJAR
46 N.Y.C. gallery : MOMA
47 Irritating sort : PEST
50 ___ Gawande, best-selling author of “Being Mortal” : ATUL
51 What’s found at the end of “Citizen Kane”? : SILENT E
52 Comfy : SNUG
55 One tendin’ to reply quickly? : RESPONDIN’ KIND (respond in kind)
57 Android competitor : IOS
58 Georgian and Edwardian, for two : ERAS
61 Comprehensive report? : AHA!
62 Shade : TONE
65 French agreement : OUI
67 “The Simpsons” teacher Krabappel : EDNA
69 Regarded suspiciously : EYED
70 Cause of insomnia in a fairy tale : PEA
72 Surf sound : ROAR
73 Grammy-nominated sister of Aretha : ERMA
74 Yawning : DEEP
75 Something a P.S.A. lacks : AD FEE
77 “Preach!” : TRUTH!
79 Vans Old ___ (classic sneaker) : SKOOL
80 Heroine of Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” : TIANA
81 Hastily hung, maybe : ASKEW
84 401(k) alternatives : IRAS
85 Word with “at home” or “at all” : NOT …
86 Mess (up) : SCREW
89 Annual indie festival : SUNDANCE
92 Bread an Italian grandmother might have made? : LIRA
93 Similar (to) : AKIN
96 Like all animals in the genus Equus, uniquely : ONE-TOED
98 Sailor’s rear : STERN
99 Diplomatic agreement : ENTENTE
101 Form-al org.? : IRS
102 Ribbed : MOCKED
103 Some cross-references in a research paper, informally : OP CITS
104 “___ it up!” : STEP
105 Preppy tops : POLOS
106 Listless feeling : ENNUI
107 Pearl button coating : NACRE
110 Very, informally : UBER
112 Marginally : A BIT
114 Set of sheets? : REAM
115 “Dónde ___ …?” : ESTA
118 Carbon dating determination : AGE
119 Game with “+2” and “+4” cards : UNO
120 Held session, as a council : SAT
121 “More or less” : ISH
122 “Relations” : SEX

14 thoughts on “0521-23 NY Times Crossword 21 May 23, Sunday”

  1. 33:05. Same time as Bill except a lot longer. Ok theme. It sorta helped, but not much in terms of solvin’.

    VELDT was new to me. I assumed it was wrong and didn’t expect the music because of it.

    Best –

  2. 31:59, no errors. Oddly, the last two entries to fall were MOTHER IN LAW (FATHER IN LAW?) and EL NINO (LA NINA?).

  3. C36 down: there is no such note as a C-flat. Obviously Will Shortz needs to check in with someone who reads music. There is no C-flat because “flat” means that the note is “flattened” ½ a tone below, but B is ½ step below C.

    1. Any note can be a sharp or a flat—even white keys on the piano. For instance, the note B (a white key on the piano) can also be notated as C-flat.

      1. No, notes have clear, unambiguous names. A C is a C, and there is no such thing as a C-flat or a B-sharp. Music notation is precise.

        1. Enharmonically equivalent notes are very common in music- you can look up and see that a G-flat scale has a C-flat in it.

  4. 17:22, no errors. Gonna stop recording a while… I may pick up on a limited basis sometime in the future.

    (Noticed right after I posted this it was on yesterday’s page)

    1. >
      Like Glenn, that might be last screen recordings at least of the whole thing. I’m toying with going back to newsprint to reduce my daily screen time. Looking at a computer all day for work + cell phone at other times is enough.
      There is a cost (I think around up to a toonie a pop) for the Toronto Sun which runs the NYT puzzle +LA Times daily (or I could subscribe) , but there’s also the comics, local news and ‘Sunshine girl’ if you want more bang for your buck.

  5. How do skis make pizza slices and French fries.

    Is it some kind of snow plow or slalom term?

    1. Hmm. I assumed it was a kitchen gadget. I have that slice roller gadget for pizza, one of the few culinary items I know how to make, but that can’t be it.
      See ? when you make an assumption you make an ass of you and umption.

    2. @Mike
      Rudimentary skiing instructions to control yourself without poles. Slow = skis like a slice of pizza. Fast = put them like French fries.

    3. Thanks for explaining this, Glenn. I remember doing this puzzle (24:41, no errors, according to my records), but I have no memory whatsoever of the clue for 87-Across, so I must not have read it and got “SKIS” entirely from crosses. In any case, it’s a very interesting clue … 😜.

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