Constructed by: John Ewbank
Edited by: Will Shortz
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… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Theme: None
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… a complete list of answers
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Bill’s time: 8m 57s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
13 Subject of the Jake Gyllenhaal movies “Donnie Darko” and “Source Code” : TIME TRAVEL
Jake Gyllenhaal’s most famous role has to be as co-star with Heath Ledger in “Brokeback Mountain”, but he has also had lead roles in big movies like “The Day After Tomorrow”, “Jarhead” and “Rendition”.
16 Genre for “Dune” and “Flash Gordon” : SPACE OPERA
Space opera is a type of science fiction with storylines that resemble those in westerns, but set in outer space in the future. The term “space opera” derives from “horse opera”, which is used to describe formulaic western films.
“Dune” is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, first published in 1965. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time. The book has a large and dedicated fanbase, who refer to themselves as “Duners” or “Dune fans.”
“Flash Gordon” was originally a comic strip that was first published in 1934 and drawn by Alex Raymond. It was created to compete with the already successful strip titled “Buck Rogers”.
17 European tourist attraction that’s erupted in popularity : ETNA
Mount Etna on the island of Sicily is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy, and indeed the largest of all active volcanoes in Europe. Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius. Mt. Etna is home to a 110-km long narrow-gauge railway, and two ski resorts. It is sometimes referred to as “Mongibello” in Italian, and as “Mungibeddu” (sometimes “Muncibeddu”) in Sicilian. The English name “Etna” comes from the Greek “aitho” meaning “I eat”.
18 Party animal? : DONKEY
Thomas Nast was an American caricaturist and cartoonist. He was the creator of the Republican Party elephant, the Democratic Party donkey, Uncle Sam and the image of the plump and jocular Santa Claus that we use today.
20 Arctic food fish : CHAR
The Arctic char is a cold-water fish that is found in freshwater bodies in the very north of our planet, as the name suggests. In fact, no other freshwater fish is found as far north as the Arctic char.
24 Styx figure : ACHILLES
Achilles is the protagonist in Homer’s “Iliad”. When Achilles was born, his mother attempted to make him immortal by dipping him into the River Styx. As he was held by the heel while under the water, this became the only vulnerable point on his body (his Achilles’ heel”). Years later he was killed when a poisoned arrow struck him in the heel. That arrow was shot by Paris.
The River Styx of Greek mythology was the river that formed the boundary between the Earth and the Underworld (or “Hades”). The souls of the newly dead had to cross the River Styx in a ferry boat piloted by Charon. Traditionally, a coin would be placed in the mouths of the dead “to pay the ferryman”.
28 Any of the “Bad Boys” in the 1980s-’90s N.B.A. : PISTON
The NBA’s Detroit Pistons team was founded in 1941 as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons of the National Basketball League. The team was owned by Fred Zollner, who supplied pistons to the automotive industry. The Pistons moved from Indiana to Detroit in 1957.
32 Figure at a shareholders’ meeting, in brief : CFO
Chief financial officer (CFO)
34 In check : AT BAY
Our use of the phrase “at bay”, to mean “in check”, derives from the older expression “at abai” used to describe a hunted animal “unable to escape”.
35 Out to lunch : DAFT
To be “out to lunch” is to not be completely there, to be a little crazy.
44 Maker of Gator utility vehicles : DEERE
John Deere invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837. Prior to Deere’s invention, farmers used an iron or wooden plow that constantly had to be cleaned as rich soil stuck to its surfaces. The cast-steel plow was revolutionary as its smooth sides solved the problem of “stickiness”. The Deere company that John founded uses the slogan “Nothing Runs Like a Deere”, and has a leaping deer as its logo.
45 “Post hoc, ___ propter hoc” (causal fallacy) : ERGO
The term “post hoc” is used to describe a conclusion made about an earlier event at the time of a later event. Post hoc reasoning is basically an argument made late in the day, an argument that the earlier event caused the later event. If you know what I mean …!
46 Any chess move in which one gives up a piece, informally : SAC
Sacrifice (“sac”)
52 Hawk : SELL
The verb “to hawk” has a Germanic origin, and comes from the Low German word “hoken” meaning “to peddle”. A hawker is actually slightly different from a peddler by definition, as a hawker is a peddler that uses a horse and cart, or a van nowadays perhaps, to sell his or her wares.
55 Language spoken in Canada : CREE
The Cree are one of the largest groups of Native Americans on the continent. In the US, Montana is home to most of the Cree nation. They live on a reservation shared with the Ojibwe people. In Canada, most of the Cree live in Manitoba.
57 Doofus : ASS
“Doofus” (also “dufus”) is student slang that has been around since the sixties. Apparently the word is a variant of the equally unattractive term “doo-doo”.
58 Org. with a small, one-story building in Times Square : NYPD
The New York Police Department (NYPD) is the largest municipal police force in the country. The department’s roots go back as far as 1625 when there was an eight-man night watch in the days when New York was still known as New Amsterdam. Several disparate forces with policing responsibility were amalgamated in 1844 to form the New York City Police Department, signaling the end of the night watch force that had existed for over 200 years.
Times Square in New York City isn’t a square at all, but rather a triangle. When the New York Times newspaper opened new headquarters in the area in 1904, the city agreed to the name “Times Square”, changing it from Longacre Square.
Down
1 Possible concern for a vet : PTSD
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
2 Certain cosmetic procedure, for short : LIPO
Liposuction (lipo) dates back to the 1920s when it was developed by a surgeon in France. However, the procedure quickly lost favor when a French model developed gangrene after surgery. As a result, it wasn’t until the mid-seventies that modern liposuction took off, after being popularized by two Italian-American surgeons in Rome.
3 Land with an exclave on the Strait of Hormuz : OMAN
The Musandam peninsula juts out into the Strait of Hormuz, at the entry to the Persian Gulf. The peninsula is Omani territory, even though it is separated from the rest of the country by the United Arab Emirates (making the Musandam peninsula an “exclave” of Oman). The catamaran ferry service running from Musandam and the Omani capital of Muscat is reportedly the fastest passenger ferry in the world.
Given the politics of oil, the Strait of Hormuz is a strategically important waterway in the Middle East. It is the link between the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. On one side of the strait sits the UAE and Oman, and on the other Iran. 40% of the world’s oil shipments pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
5 Skyline sight : STEEPLE
Back in the 1700s there was a race called a “steeplehunt”, a horse race from a fixed location to some church in the distance which had a steeple visible. This evolved into the race that we know today as a “steeplechase”.
7 It’s an uphill climb from here : EVEREST BASE CAMP
Mount Everest was first summited in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese-Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Hillary and Norgay were part of an expedition from which two pairs of climbers were selected to make a summit attempt. The first pair were Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans, and they came within 330 feet of their goal but had to turn back. The expedition sent up the second pair two days later, and history was made on 29 May 1953.
Tenzing–Hillary Airport is a domestic airport in Nepal that was rated as the most dangerous in the world for twenty years. Despite its reputation, the facility is popular due to its proximity to Mount Everest Base Camp. The airport was built in 1964 by Sir Edmund Hillary, and was renamed in 2008 in honor of Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the first people to summit Mount Everest.
12 Website with a No Fear Shakespeare section : SPARKNOTES
SparkNotes is a resource that produces study guides. It was started in 1999 by a group of Harvard students as part of a literary website TheSpark.com. Apparently, many teachers aren’t fans of SparkNotes, arguing that the guides can be used as an alternative to completing reading assignments or even a way of cheating during exams.
14 Adjective applied to the U.K.’s Air Force and Navy, but not Army : ROYAL
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the oldest independent air force in the world (i.e. the first air force to become independent of army or navy forces). The RAF was formed during WWI on 1 April 1918, a composite of two earlier forces, the Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army) and the Royal Naval Air Service. The RAF’s “finest hour” was the Battle of Britain, when the vastly outnumbered British fighters fought off the might of the Luftwaffe causing Hitler to delay his plan to cross the English Channel. This outcome prompted Winston Churchill to utter the memorable words
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
The Royal Navy is the oldest of the armed services of the United Kingdom, having been formed in the early 16th century. As such, it is known as the Senior Service. The first truly organized naval force was founded by Henry VIII in 1546.
24 Taqueria beverage : AGUA FRESCA
An agua fresca is a blended drink made with sugar and water flavored with fruit, cereal, flowers or seeds. Traditional aguas frescas are sold by street vendors, especially in Mexico and the American Southwest. Common flavorings are hibiscus and tamarind.
25 Attendants at a saturnalia : CUP BEARERS
Saturnalia was a festival held in ancient Rome in honor of the god Saturn. It was a week-long celebration of eating, drinking and merriment. One remarkable custom for the festival was the role-reversal that took place in some events, with slaves being waited on by the slave owners. We use the term “saturnalia” today for any occasion of unrestrained revelry.
31 Milky drink : LATTE
The term “latte” is an abbreviation of the Italian “caffelatte” meaning “coffee (and) milk”. Note that in the correct spelling of “latte”, the Italian word for milk; there is no accent over the “e”. An accent is often added by mistake when we use the word in English, perhaps meaning to suggest that the word is French.
34 Gymnast Raisman : ALY
Aly Raisman is a retired gymnast. She captained the US gold-winning teams in the Olympics in 2012 (“The Fierce Five”) and in 2016 (“The Final Five”).
35 “i” piece : DOT
A tittle is a small diacritical mark used in writing. Examples are the cedilla and tilde used in some languages, and the dot over the lowercase letters i and j in English.
37 Group with 26-Down in Korean, Japanese and English : BTS
[26D Billboard Hot 100 listings : HIT SINGLES]
BTS is a boy band from South Korea with seven members. The initialism “BTS” stands for the phrase “Bangtan Sonyeondan”, which translates literally as “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”. BTS is the best-selling musical act in the history of South Korea.
44 No-no for a vegan : DAIRY
A vegan is someone who stays away from animal products. A dietary vegan eats no animal foods, not even eggs and dairy that are usually eaten by vegetarians. Ethical vegans take things one step further by following a vegan diet and also avoiding animal products in other areas of their lives e.g. items made from leather or silk.
46 About 80 meters, for an Airbus A380 : SPAN
The first jet to be called a “Jumbo” was Boeing’s 747, as it was the first wide-body airliner. A wide-body passenger aircraft has seating laid out with two aisles running the length of the plane. The 747 also has three decks for part of its length, with the lower deck being used for cargo and galley space, and the upper deck for extra passenger seating. The Airbus A380 is called a “Superjumbo” as it has two full decks of passengers.
49 ___ Empire : INCA
The Inca Empire was known as the Tawantinsuyu, which translates as “land of the four quarters”. It was a federal organization with a central government that sat above four “suyu” or “quarters”, four administrative regions.
50 Wiener schnitzel ingredient : VEAL
Schnitzel is an Austrian dish made from slices of meat that have been tenderized and thinned with a wooden mallet, and then coated in breadcrumbs and fried. The variant known as Wiener Schnitzel (i.e. Viennese schnitzel) is usually made from veal, although now that veal has fallen into disfavor due to concerns about animal rights, it is often made from pork.
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Police officers, in British slang : PLODS
6 Promotes, informally : REPS
10 Provisos : IFS
13 Subject of the Jake Gyllenhaal movies “Donnie Darko” and “Source Code” : TIME TRAVEL
15 Small fragment : SNIP
16 Genre for “Dune” and “Flash Gordon” : SPACE OPERA
17 European tourist attraction that’s erupted in popularity : ETNA
18 Party animal? : DONKEY
19 Brink : RIM
20 Arctic food fish : CHAR
21 Part of a comic strip : PANEL
23 Something out standing in its field? : STALK
24 Styx figure : ACHILLES
28 Any of the “Bad Boys” in the 1980s-’90s N.B.A. : PISTON
29 Traveler’s aid : GUIDE
30 Traveler’s aid : ATLAS
32 Figure at a shareholders’ meeting, in brief : CFO
33 Engaged in : UP TO
34 In check : AT BAY
35 Out to lunch : DAFT
36 Targets for crunches, informally : ABS
37 Swell : BLOAT
38 “Look for yourself” : GO SEE
39 Full of pluck : FEISTY
41 They’re first to play : STARTERS
43 Goes on and on : RANTS
44 Maker of Gator utility vehicles : DEERE
45 “Post hoc, ___ propter hoc” (causal fallacy) : ERGO
46 Any chess move in which one gives up a piece, informally : SAC
47 Reach through reasoning : DERIVE
52 Hawk : SELL
53 One working with a set of keys : PIANO TUNER
55 Language spoken in Canada : CREE
56 General motor? : ARMORED CAR
57 Doofus : ASS
58 Org. with a small, one-story building in Times Square : NYPD
59 Mergers and acquisitions : DEALS
Down
1 Possible concern for a vet : PTSD
2 Certain cosmetic procedure, for short : LIPO
3 Land with an exclave on the Strait of Hormuz : OMAN
4 Hit the ___ : DECK
5 Skyline sight : STEEPLE
6 Freestyle, e.g. : RAP
7 It’s an uphill climb from here : EVEREST BASE CAMP
8 Jeopardy : PERIL
9 Wrestling move : SLAM
10 “Well, then …” : IN THAT CASE …
11 You can take it or leave it : FINAL OFFER
12 Website with a No Fear Shakespeare section : SPARKNOTES
14 Adjective applied to the U.K.’s Air Force and Navy, but not Army : ROYAL
15 Vaishnavism and Shaivism, e.g. : SECTS
22 “Groovy!” : NEATO!
23 Member of the fam : SIS
24 Taqueria beverage : AGUA FRESCA
25 Attendants at a saturnalia : CUP BEARERS
26 Billboard Hot 100 listings : HIT SINGLES
27 Marriage agreement? : I DO
28 Suffer consequences : PAY
31 Milky drink : LATTE
34 Gymnast Raisman : ALY
35 “i” piece : DOT
37 Group with 26-Down in Korean, Japanese and English : BTS
38 Waved at, say : GREETED
40 Loosely worn item of attire : STOLE
42 Zeal : ARDOR
44 No-no for a vegan : DAIRY
46 About 80 meters, for an Airbus A380 : SPAN
48 “So inconsiderate!” : RUDE
49 ___ Empire : INCA
50 Wiener schnitzel ingredient : VEAL
51 Has it wrong : ERRS
54 Positive indication? : NOD
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