0522-23 NY Times Crossword 22 May 23, Monday

Constructed by: Đặng Quang Thắng
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: As Seen on TV

Themed answers are names of people SEEN ON TV, with the initials “AS”:

  • 58A Print ad phrase for infomercial products … or, parsed differently, a description of 17-, 25-, 35- or 50-Across : AS SEEN ON TV
  • 17A Educator who co-hosted “MythBusters” : ADAM SAVAGE
  • 25A Stand-up comedian with a self-titled sketch show : AMY SCHUMER
  • 35A Actor who starred as Jake Peralta on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” : ANDY SAMBERG
  • 50A Civil rights activist hosting MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation” : AL SHARPTON

Bill’s time: 6m 51s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Noted feature of Saturn : RING

Saturn is easily visible from Earth with the unaided eye, but we need some help to see the planet’s famous rings. Galileo was the first person to see Saturn’s rings, when he turned his primitive telescope towards the night sky in 1610. However, he misinterpreted what he was observing and assumed that the rings were in fact two smaller planets located at either side of the larger Saturn.

14 Wealthy mogul : NABOB

A nabob is a person of wealth and prominence. “Nabob” was once used as a title for a governor in India.

17 Educator who co-hosted “MythBusters” : ADAM SAVAGE

“MythBusters” is an entertaining TV show that was originally hosted by Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage. Prior to the launch of “Mythbusters”, Hyneman and Savage had both developed careers in the world of special effects. In the show, the hosts test the validity of myths and assumptions used in famous movie scenes.

19 Robin’s home : NEST

The American robin has a reddish-orange breast. This coloring gave the bird its name, due to the similarity to the European robin. The two species are not in fact related, with the American robin being a thrush, and its European cousin an Old World flycatcher. It is the American robin that famously lays light-blue eggs.

20 ___ Sutra : KAMA

The “Kama Sutra” is renowned for its descriptions of positions that can be used for sexual intercourse, but the sutra includes many other texts that deal with various matters of a sexual nature, including how to woo a woman, the conduct of a “chief wife”, the conduct of “other wives”, how to make money as a courtesan, and much more.

21 “Iron Man” Ripken of baseball : CAL

Cal Ripken played his entire, 20-year professional baseball career for the Baltimore Orioles. Ripken was known as the “Iron Man” because he showed up for work every day, come rain or shine. He played 2,632 straight games, blowing past the previous 2,130-game record held by Lou Gehrig.

24 Country north of the Persian Gulf : IRAN

The Persian Gulf is in effect an inland sea, although it technically is an offshoot of the Indian Ocean. The outlet from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean is one of the most famous maritime “choke points” in the world, and is known as the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world’s supply of petroleum passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

25 Stand-up comedian with a self-titled sketch show : AMY SCHUMER

Amy Schumer is a stand-up comedian, and an alumna of the reality TV show “Last Comic Standing”, in which she placed fourth. Schumer now has her own comedy series “Inside Amy Schumer”, which airs on Comedy Central. Amy is a first cousin once removed of Chuck Schumer, the senior US Senator from New York.

28 Dot on a domino : PIP

White masks with black spots were commonly seen in the old Venetian Carnival. The masks were known as “domini”. The domini loaned their name to the game of dominoes, due to the similarity in appearance between the mask and a domino tile.

33 Place for sweaters, but not shirts? : SAUNA

As my Finnish-American wife will tell you, “sauna” is a Finnish word. It is pronounced more correctly as “sow-nah” (“sow”, as in the female pig).

35 Actor who starred as Jake Peralta on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” : ANDY SAMBERG

Andy Samberg is an actor and comedian who was a “Saturday Night Live” cast member from 2005 until 2012. Samberg also plays the lead on the police sitcom “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”.

39 Showing little emotion : STOIC

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher famous for teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the “Painted Porch”, located on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens. Because of the location of his classes, his philosophy became known as stoicism (from “stoa”, the word for “porch”). We get our adjective “stoic”, meaning “indifferent to pleasure or pain”, from the same root.

40 Cause of low visibility in some cities : SMOG

“Smog” is a portmanteau formed by melding “smoke” and “fog”. The term was first used to describe the air around London in the early 1900s. Several cities around the world have a reputation of being particularly smoggy. For example, the most smog-plagued city in Latin America is Mexico City, which is located in a highland “bowl” that traps industrial and vehicle pollution.

42 C.E.O.’s deg. : MBA

The world’s first Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree was offered by Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, in 1908.

46 Music’s Lil ___ X : NAS

“Lil Nas X” is the stage name of rapper Montero Lamar Hill. He was born and raised just outside of Atlanta. His first hit was “Old Town Road”, which is classified as country rap.

50 Civil rights activist hosting MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation” : AL SHARPTON

The Reverend Al Sharpton is a high-profile Baptist minister and civil rights activist whose voice is commonly heard on radio and television. Sharpton preached his first sermon when he was only 4-years-old.

53 Sunrise direction, in Spanish : ESTE

In Spanish, we look to the “este” (east) to see “el sol naciente” (the rising sun).

56 Papa, Mama or Baby, in a classic fairy tale : BEAR

The story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” was first recorded in 1837 in England, although the narrative was around before it was actually written down. The original fairy tale was rather gruesome, but successive versions became more family-oriented. The character that eventually became Goldilocks was originally an elderly woman, and the three “nameless” bears became Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear.

57 Very dry, as Champagne : BRUT

Sparkling wines can be classified according to sweetness. These classifications are, from driest to sweetest:

  • Brut Nature
  • Extra Brut
  • Brut
  • Extra Dry
  • Dry
  • Semi-Dry
  • Sweet

Champagne is a historic province in the northeast of France that is famous for its sparkling white wine.

58 Print ad phrase for infomercial products … or, parsed differently, a description of 17-, 25-, 35- or 50-Across : AS SEEN ON TV

The nation’s first infomercial was aired in 1950. The product advertised was a Vitamix blender.

62 Stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body : LUTE

The lute is a stringed instrument with a long neck and usually a pear-shaped body. It is held and played like a guitar, and was popular from the Middle Ages right through to the late Baroque era. A person who plays the lute can be referred to as a “lutenist”.

64 Centers of hurricanes : EYES

Hurricanes are given names primarily to help the public keep track of dangerous systems. The names are decided ahead of the hurricane season, with the first system given a name beginning with A, the second, B etc. The names are alternated between male and female names throughout the season. Also, if the first storm of the season is male, then the following year a female name is chosen. For hurricanes in the North Atlantic, names are assigned for every letter, except Q, U, X, Y and Z. The most frequently used name is Arlene, which was used for ten different storms from 1959 to 2011.

66 Stinging insects : WASPS

While wasps are considered a nuisance by many, they are very important to the agricultural industry. Wasps prey on many pest insects, while having very little impact on crops.

Down

1 Darth Vader’s childhood name : ANAKIN

Anakin “Ani” Skywalker is the principal character in the first six of the “Star Wars” movies. His progress chronologically through the series of films is:

  • Episode I: Anakin is a 9-year-old slave boy who earns the promise of Jedi training by young Obi-Wan Kenobi.
  • Episode II: Anakin is 18-years-old and goes on a murdering rampage to avenge the killing of his mother.
  • Episode III: Anakin is 21-years-old and a Jedi knight, but he turns to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader. His wife Padme gives birth to twins, Luke and Leia Skywalker.
  • Episode IV: Darth Vader, comes into conflict with his children, Luke Skywalker and the Princess Leia.
  • Episode V: Darth Vader attempts to coax his son Luke over to the dark side, and reveals to Luke that he is his father.
  • Episode VI: Luke learns that Leia is his sister, and takes on the task of bringing Darth Vader back from the Dark Side in order to save the Galaxy. Vader saves his son from the Emperor’s evil grip, dying in the process, but his spirit ends up alongside the spirits of Yoda and Obi-Wan. They all live happily ever after …

3 Political period of Biden’s vice presidency : OBAMA ERA

Future President Joe Biden was a US Senator representing the state of Delaware from 1973 until he joined the Obama administration. While he was a senator, Vice President Biden commuted to Washington from Wilmington, Delaware almost every working day. He was such an active customer and supporter of Amtrak that the Wilmington Station was renamed as the Joseph R. Biden Railroad Station in 2011. Biden has made over 7,000 trips from that station, and the Amtrak crews were known to even hold the last train for a few minutes so that he could catch it. Biden earned himself the nickname “Amtrak Joe”.

5 Atlanta-based cable network : TBS

The tbs cable television station started out in 1967 as a local broadcast TV station in Atlanta. The station’s first call letters were WJRJ-TV, and this was changed to WTCG in 1970 when it was acquired by Ted Turner (the TCG stood for Turner Communications Group). In 1976, Turner started distributing WTCG via satellite making its programming available in other parts of the country. WTCG was only the second channel to transmit via satellite, following HBO. The difference was that WTCG was broadcast without requiring a premium subscription. The station’s call sign was changed again in 1979 to WTBS, with “TBS” standing for Turner Broadcasting System. In 1981, the channel adopted the moniker “Superstation WTBS”.

6 Make over : REVAMP

The vamp is that part of a shoe upper that extends from behind the toe to the back of the heel. Prior to the 1650s, the verb “new-vamp” was used to describe the replacement of the vamp, in order to extend the life of a show. After 1650, the verb evolved into “revamp”. We now use “revamp” figuratively, to mean “remake, renovate”.

7 Country surrounding Vatican City : ITALY

Vatican City is a sovereign city-state that is walled off within the city of Rome. Vatican City is about 110 acres in area, and so is the smallest independent state in the world. With about 800 residents, it is also the smallest state in terms of population. Although the Holy See dates back to early Christianity, Vatican City only came into being in 1929. At that time, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed a treaty with the Holy See on behalf of the Kingdom of Italy that established the city-state.

9 Campus singing group : GLEE CLUB

A glee club is a choir group, usually of males, that sings short songs known as “glees”. A glee is a song scored for three or more voices that is performed unaccompanied.

10 Language family that includes Zulu : BANTU

Zulu is one of the many Bantu languages spoken in Africa. There are hundreds of Bantu languages, with most being spoken in central, east and southern Africa. The most commonly spoken Bantu language is Swahili, with Zulu coming in second.

12 Membership roll : ROSTER

Our word “roster”, meaning “list, register”, actually comes from the same root as our word “roast”, would you believe. “Roster” came into English from the Dutch “rooster”, meaning “table, list”. An alternative use of the Dutch “rooster” was “gridiron”, from the “roosten” meaning “to roast”. The connection is that a roster of names is often listed on a sheet of paper that has grid lines resembling the marks left by a gridiron on roasted meat. Quite interesting …

18 Berry promoted as a superfood : ACAI

Açaí (pronounced “ass-aye-ee”) is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

26 Kind of folder to check for a missing email : SPAM

The term “spam”, used for unwanted email, is taken from a “Monty Python” sketch. In the sketch (which I’ve seen) the dialog is taken over by the word Spam, a play on the glut of canned meat in the markets of Britain after WWII. So “spam” is used for the glut of emails that takes over online communication. I can just imagine nerdy Internet types (like me) adopting something from a “Monty Python” sketch to describe an online phenomenon …

28 Popular noodle dish in Bangkok : PAD THAI

The delicious dish called pad Thai is a meld of stir-fried rice noodles with tamarind juice, red chili pepper plus a mix of vegetables and possibly tofu, meat or fish. It is usually topped with crushed peanuts, coriander and lime. The name “pad Thai” translates as “fried Thai-style”.

33 Squid’s ink holder : SAC

Octopodes and squid have the ability to release a dark pigment into the water as a means of escape. The dark pigment is called cephalopod ink (the squid and octopus belong to the class cephalopoda) and is stored in an ink sac. The dark color is created by melanin, the same substance that acts as a pigment in human skin.

34 Upraised part of Lady Liberty : ARM

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the United States. It was designed by sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and constructed in France by civil engineer Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame). The statue was disassembled, shipped to the US, and reassembled on its pedestal on Bedloe’s Island (now “Liberty Island”). A ceremony of dedication was held in 1886. If you take a boat ride down the Seine in Paris you will probably see a one-third replica of Lady Liberty standing on a small island in the river, looking quite magnificent. That copy was given to the people of Paris by the city’s American community in 1889.’

42 Medium of Michelangelo’s David : MARBLE

When Michelangelo’s famous statue of David was unveiled in 1504, it was at a time when the city-state of the Florentine Republic was threatened by rival states (including Rome). The statue depicts David after he has decided to fight Goliath, and the subject is sporting what is described as a “warning glare”. David was originally placed outside the Palazzo della Signoria, the seat of government in Florence, and that warning glare was directed very deliberately in the direction of its enemy, Rome. The original statue of David can be seen in the Accademia Gallery in Florence, where it has resided since 1873. There is a replica of the statue in its original location in the public square outside of the Palazzo della Signoria.

43 High-definition disc format : BLU-RAY

A CD player reads the information on the disc using a laser beam. The beam is produced by what’s called a laser diode, a device similar to a light-emitting diode (LED) except that a laser beam is emitted. That laser beam is usually red in CD and DVD players. Blu-ray players are so called as they use blue lasers.

51 Start of an encrypted URL address : HTTPS

“http” are the first letters in many Internet links. “http” stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. More secure and “safer” websites (like this one!) use links starting with “https”, which stands for “http secure”).

53 Virus named for a river in Africa : EBOLA

The Ebola River is a tributary of the Congo River and is located in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The river’s name is a contemporary French corruption of its indigenous name “Legbala”, which translates as “White Water”. The deadly Ebola virus is named for the river, as the first outbreak was identified near the Ebola River in 1976.

59 Fashion designer Anna : SUI

Anna Sui is a fashion designer from Detroit, Michigan.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Cancel, as a mission : ABORT
6 Noted feature of Saturn : RING
10 Unclothed : BARE
14 Wealthy mogul : NABOB
15 List-ending abbr. : ET AL
16 Lots and lots : A TON
17 Educator who co-hosted “MythBusters” : ADAM SAVAGE
19 Robin’s home : NEST
20 ___ Sutra : KAMA
21 “Iron Man” Ripken of baseball : CAL
22 Property in a will : ESTATE
24 Country north of the Persian Gulf : IRAN
25 Stand-up comedian with a self-titled sketch show : AMY SCHUMER
27 Originally known as : NEE
28 Dot on a domino : PIP
29 Paper towel layer : PLY
30 This year’s grads-to-be: Abbr. : SRS
31 Opera house solo : ARIA
33 Place for sweaters, but not shirts? : SAUNA
35 Actor who starred as Jake Peralta on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” : ANDY SAMBERG
39 Showing little emotion : STOIC
40 Cause of low visibility in some cities : SMOG
42 C.E.O.’s deg. : MBA
45 Run smoothly, as an engine : HUM
46 Music’s Lil ___ X : NAS
48 Hairstyles, for short : DOS
50 Civil rights activist hosting MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation” : AL SHARPTON
53 Sunrise direction, in Spanish : ESTE
54 Like a rural setting : RUSTIC
55 Crumb-carrying insect : ANT
56 Papa, Mama or Baby, in a classic fairy tale : BEAR
57 Very dry, as Champagne : BRUT
58 Print ad phrase for infomercial products … or, parsed differently, a description of 17-, 25-, 35- or 50-Across : AS SEEN ON TV
61 Bedside light : LAMP
62 Stringed instrument with a pear-shaped body : LUTE
63 Nostalgia-evoking tune : OLDIE
64 Centers of hurricanes : EYES
65 Wasn’t truthful : LIED
66 Stinging insects : WASPS

Down

1 Darth Vader’s childhood name : ANAKIN
2 Dangerous neighborhood : BAD AREA
3 Political period of Biden’s vice presidency : OBAMA ERA
4 Like the numerals I, V, X, L, etc. : ROMAN
5 Atlanta-based cable network : TBS
6 Make over : REVAMP
7 Country surrounding Vatican City : ITALY
8 Continuously bother : NAG
9 Campus singing group : GLEE CLUB
10 Language family that includes Zulu : BANTU
11 First-string squads : A-TEAMS
12 Membership roll : ROSTER
13 Joins, as a contest : ENTERS
18 Berry promoted as a superfood : ACAI
23 Timidity : SHYNESS
26 Kind of folder to check for a missing email : SPAM
28 Popular noodle dish in Bangkok : PAD THAI
32 ___ and outs : INS
33 Squid’s ink holder : SAC
34 Upraised part of Lady Liberty : ARM
36 “It’s not for me to decide” : YOUR CALL
37 Foolish sort : SIMP
38 Unexpected blessings : GODSENDS
41 Heard something via the police hotline, say : GOT A TIP
42 Medium of Michelangelo’s David : MARBLE
43 High-definition disc format : BLU-RAY
44 Take for granted : ASSUME
46 “I’m set, but thanks anyway” : NO NEED
47 Opening stake : ANTE
49 Starts a rally, in tennis : SERVES
51 Start of an encrypted URL address : HTTPS
52 Personal liking : TASTE
53 Virus named for a river in Africa : EBOLA
59 Fashion designer Anna : SUI
60 This very second : NOW

6 thoughts on “0522-23 NY Times Crossword 22 May 23, Monday”

  1. 9:43. Not your typical Monday puzzle. I struggled with a lot of it. I knew AL SHARPTON (although I didn’t know he hosted his own show these days) but no one else. If I need to watch more tv to get better at crosswords, that won’t happen. I’ll just have to live with it.

    It wasn’t a WASP, but I did step on a bee recently down in Mexico. It had been so long since I was stung by a bee, I’d forgotten how much that hurts. But I put ice on it and had a shot of tequila, and all was well. Nevertheless, I don’t want to feel that again any time soon.

    Best –

  2. Wasn’t a real quick run. Went top to bottom. Then when the theme revealed, had to go back and change BAMBERG to SAMBERG.. DOH!

    speaking of runs, shout out to @nick and @glenn for response to my ski question yesterday. I laughed out loud on ASS and UMPTION… I used to ski a lot back in the day. My first lesson was by a professional skier. Never did they use French fries or pizza cutter? I heard “snow plow” a lot.

  3. @Mike
    I guess it depends on the instructor and how they explain it, as with everything.

    @In General
    FWIW on the captures, I think a lot of it is more even having the computer on and tied up than sitting at a screen. After recording the vid, there’s doing post-edit (basically clip off all the non-solve parts, compress the file – capture vids are huge files so it’s necessary) and then uploading it. I don’t necessarily have to be at the screen waiting on post-edit and do other stuff, but it takes probably twice the amount of time the video runs, unless there’s some GPU tweak I’m missing. But yeah doing enough of anything definitely burns you out. Like I said, I’ll probably wait a while until I feel up to it again and see if I can do something on a more limited basis that has some demand behind it.

  4. Since paperboxes are an anachronism now, this morning I had to walk to a gas station around the corner to score a copy of the Sun, for a Toonie. The puzzle took me 14min. , no errs but the NW corner was a mess of ink after I started with ‘scrub’ for 1A then CNN for 5D. Have to rethink going back to paper. It’s a lot handier to do the puzzle on the computer. Plus there’s no more LA Times nor Sunshine Girl on the back page of the tabloid.
    @Mike I got that line from Samuel Jackson in the action thriller, The Long Kiss Goodnight.
    @Glenn re file size of video I found using VLC to capture the screen and reducing the frames/sec to 1, it reduces file size a lot. There’s no need for 24 frames/sec. Also I just upload the raw video without cutting out the start so it only takes a few extra clicks to record/upload.

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