0609-23 NY Times Crossword 9 Jun 23, Friday

Bill’s time: 11m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Plastic surgeon’s concern : SCAR

The medical specialty of plastic surgery is divided into two disciplines. Reconstructive surgery aims to reconstruct or improve the functioning of part of the body. Cosmetic surgery aims at improving the appearance of a body part.

10 Home theater purchase : HDTV

High-definition television (HDTV)

14 Environmental organization that has ships : GREENPEACE

The environmental organization Greenpeace was founded in 1971, and is headquartered in Amsterdam. Famously, the organization uses seagoing vessels in some of its campaigns. The most renowned of these ships was the refitted fishing trawler Rainbow Warrior. The original Rainbow Warrior was known for disrupting activities like whale-hunting, dumping of radioactive waste and nuclear testing. In response to the latter, the French government secretly bombed the vessel while in harbor in Auckland, New Zealand. A Dutch freelance photographer died in that bombing.

18 Title paratrooper in a 1998 war film : RYAN

“Saving Private Ryan” is an epic 1998 movie directed by Steven Spielberg, and a real “must see”. The D-Day invasion scenes were shot over a two-month period on the southeast coast of Ireland. The scenes involved more than 1,500 extras, many of whom were members of the Irish Defense Forces.

19 Hill worker : ANT

Anthills are actually underground nests. The ants in the colony excavate below ground, resulting in a pile of sand or soil above ground.

21 Taro and jicama : TUBERS

Taro is a root vegetable that is grown for its edible underground plant stems (corms). The English name “taro” is borrowed from the Maori language of New Zealand. The same plant is known as “gabi” in the Philippines, “arbi” in much of India, and “jimbi” in parts of Africa where Swahili is spoken.

The plant called the jícama is also known as the Mexican yam and Mexican turnip. Jícama is grown for its tuberous root. The tuber’s interior is usually eaten raw.

23 Singer with the 1960 #2 hit “Puppy Love” : ANKA

“Puppy Love” is a song written and recorded by Paul Anka in 1960. He wrote the song for his girlfriend at the time, actress and singer Annette Funicello. “Puppy Love” was covered by Donny Osmond, who had a big hit with it in 1972.

24 Choir section : TENORS

A tenor (plural “tenori”) is a male voice that falls between that of a countertenor and a baritone. The word “tenor” comes from the Latin “tenere” meaning “to hold”. This etymology refers to the tenor part that carries the sustained melody (canto fermo) of a traditional polyphonic composition.

34 Decoupage need : GLUE

Découpage involves the use of colored paper cutouts that are glued onto an object as decoration The term “découpage” comes from the Middle French word “decouper” meaning “to cut out”.

36 Greek philosopher known for reductio ad absurdum arguments : ZENO

Zeno of Elea was a Greek philosopher who lived in Elea, a Greek colony in Southern Italy. Zeno is famous for his paradoxes, a set of problems that really make you think! In the problem known as “Achilles and the Tortoise”, Zeno tells us that Achilles races a tortoise, giving the tortoise a head start (of say 100 meters). By the time Achilles reaches the starting point of the tortoise, the tortoise will have moved on, albeit only a small distance. Achilles then sets his sights on the tortoise’s new position and runs to it. Again the tortoise has moved ahead a little. Achilles keeps on moving to the tortoise’s new position but can never actually catch his slower rival. Or can he …?

37 “Baby at my breast,” in a Shakespearean tragedy : ASP

In William Shakespeare’s play “Antony and Cleopatra”, the heroine of the piece addresses the asp as she uses the snake to commit suicide:

Come, thou mortal wretch,
With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool,
Be angry, and dispatch.

Later she says:

Peace, peace!
Dost thou not see my baby at my breast,
That sucks the nurse asleep?

38 Low-cut, laceless shoes : PUMPS

A pump is a woman’s shoe that doesn’t have a strap. Such shoes are probably called “pumps” because of the sound they make while walking in them.

39 Particulars, informally : DEETS

“Deets” is slang for “details”.

43 Common Jesuit school name : LOYOLA

Saint Ignatius of Loyola (also known as Inigo Lopez de Loyola) was a Spanish knight from a noble family in the Basque region of Spain. He left behind his easy life to become a hermit and a priest, and eventually founded the Society of Jesus (The Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic church).

45 Things to believe in : TENETS

A tenet is an article of faith, something that is held to be true. “Tenet” is Latin for “holds”.

46 Who’s Who filler, informally : BIOS

Several publications use the phrase “Who’s Who” in the title. The oldest and best known is the British reference “Who’s Who” that has been listing prominent British people since 1849. There is a sister publication called “Who Was Who” that lists prominent people who have died since 1897.

47 Bluefin alternative : AHI

Bluefin tuna is one of those species (actually there are three species of bluefin) that has been overfished, and is no longer found in some parts of the world.

51 Like hyperbolic comments : OVERSTATED

Hyperbole is the use of exaggerated speech. The term “hyperbole” is Greek, coming from “hyper-” meaning “beyond” and “bole” meaning “a throwing”. When using hyperbole, our choice of words is “thrown beyond” what is normally necessary to get our point across.

55 Postseason college football game formerly sponsored by Tostitos : FIESTA BOWL

The Fiesta Bowl is a college football bowl game played every year at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona.

Tostitos are a brand of tortilla chips. If you’re a vegetarian, you might want to leave them on the supermarket shelf as Frito-Lay uses pork enzymes to “enhance” flavor.

58 Like some Brie : RUNNY

Brie is a soft cheese that is named for the French region in which it originated. Brie is similar to the equally famous (and delicious) Camembert. Brie is often served baked in puff pastry with fig jam.

Down

1 District of India that’s home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites : AGRA

Agra is a medieval city on the banks of the river Yamuna in India that was the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1556 to 1658. The city is home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites:

• The Taj Mahal: the famous mausoleum built in memory of Mumtaz Mahal.
• Agra Fort: the site where the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond was seized.
• Fatehpur Sikri: a historic city that’s home to well-preserved Mughal architecture.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is better known by the acronym “UNESCO”. UNESCO’s mission is to help build peace in the world using programs focused on education, the sciences, culture, communication and information. The organization’s work is aimed in particular at Africa, and gender equalization. UNESCO also administers a World Heritage Site program that designates and helps conserve sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to humanity across the world.

2 Modern site of ancient Persepolis : IRAN

Persepolis is located in modern Iran, just northeast of the city of Shiraz. The earliest remains of the city date back to around 500 BC. Much of the city’s construction took place during the reign of King Xerxes the Great.

6 Much-debated grammar topic : SERIAL COMMA

Also called an Oxford comma and Harvard comma, a serial comma is the comma in a list of terms before the word “and”, as in “clues, answers, and crosswords”. The use of the Oxford comma is controversial, accepted more on this side of the Atlantic than the other. Personally, I use the Oxford comma when it seems appropriate verbally, when a pause adds to the sentence. But then, my English teacher really didn’t approve of any of my opinions …

11 Laundry room detritus : DRYER SHEET

Detritus is loose material that results from the process of erosion. The usage of the term has evolved to describe any accumulated material or debris. “Detritus” is Latin for “a wearing away”.

13 Shoe brand with an iconic checkerboard design : VANS

Vans is a manufacturer of mainly skateboarding shoes. The company was founded as a shoe manufacturer in 1966 called the Van Doren Rubber Company. The business turned towards skateboarders in the seventies, and then adopted the “Vans” name in the nineties.

15 Lively dance : POLKA

The polka is a dance from central Europe, one that originated in Bohemia in the mid-1800s. It’s thought that “polka” comes from a Czech word meaning “little half”, reflecting the little half-steps included in the basic dance.

22 Kelvin or newton : UNIT

The kelvin is a unit of measurement for temperature, named after British physicist William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin.

Newtons are units of force. The newton is named for Sir Isaac Newton, the English physicist and mathematician.

23 Hill worker : AIDE

The designer of Washington D.C., Pierre L’Enfant, chose the crest of a hill as the site for the future Congress House. He called the location “Jenkins Hill” and “Jenkins Heights”. Earlier records show the name as “New Troy”. Today, we call it “Capitol Hill”.

25 Prefix with phone : MEGA-

A megaphone is also known as a loudhailer or bullhorn. It was probably Thomas Edison who coined, or at least popularized, the term “megaphone” in 1878. He created a megaphone that was intended to benefit those who were hard of hearing. Edison’s device was relatively clumsy, and far from portable. However, it allowed a person speaking in a normal voice to be heard about two miles away!

26 What some QR codes contain : URLS

An Internet address (like NYXCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a uniform resource locator (URL).

A QR Code (for “Quick Response Code”) is a two-dimensional barcode that is favored over UPC barcodes as it can read more quickly and can store much more information. The QR Code comprises black squares within a square grid on a white background.

27 It’s all-inclusive : SOUP TO NUTS

The American expression “from soup to nuts” means “from beginning to end”. The idiom comes from the description of a full course dinner, with soup to start and nuts as a dessert.

28 Many a Porsche 911 : COUPE

The type of car known as a “coupe” or “coupé” is a closed automobile with two doors. The name comes from the French word “couper” meaning “to cut”. In most parts of the English-speaking world the pronunciation adheres to the original French, but here in most of North America we go with “coop”. The original coupé was a horse-drawn carriage that was cut (coupé) to eliminate the rear-facing passenger seats. That left just a driver and two front-facing passengers. If the driver was left without a roof and out in the open, then the carriage was known as a “coupé de-ville”.

We tend to say the name “Porsche” in English as if it is perhaps French, pronouncing it as one syllable. In German, it is pronounced with two syllables, i.e. Por-sche.

36 Subject of a statue that was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World : ZEUS

The full list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World is:

• the Great Pyramid at Giza, Egypt
• the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Greece
• the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus
• the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
• the Colossus of Rhodes
• the Lighthouse at Alexandria, Egypt

38 Gunpowder ___ (1605 English conspiracy) : PLOT

Even when I was a kid living in England in the 1960s, we would make up an effigy of Guy Fawkes to parade around the streets in the runup to Guy Fawkes Day, November 5th. Guy Fawkes was the man who led the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the British king and Parliament on November 5, 1605. We kids would use the effigy to raise money from strangers by approaching them with the phrase “penny for the guy”. The money collected was used to buy fireworks that we’d shoot off on Bonfire Night, the name given to the evening of Guy Fawkes Day. The effigy known as “the guy” gave rise in the UK to the use of “guy” to describe a poorly-dressed man. By the mid-1800s, the term “guy” was adopted into American-English to mean simply “fellow”.

39 Brightest point in Canis Major, familiarly : DOG STAR

When you look up at the night sky, the brightest star you can see is Sirius. It appears so bright to us because it is relatively close to the Earth. Sirius is commonly known as the “Dog Star”, as it can be seen in the constellation Canis Major, the “Big Dog”.

45 Lobster pot, e.g. : TRAP

A lobster pot is used to trap lobsters. It is a chamber with a sturdy frame and walls made of netting. The entrance to the pot is a one-way device, so that lobsters enter the pot to eat the bait, but cannot escape after their meal. Many traps have two chambers: the “kitchen” holds the bait, and the “parlor” holds the trapped lobsters.

46 Some queens but not kings : BEES

A queen bee has a stinger, just like worker bees. When a worker bee stings, it leaves its stinger in its victim. The worker bee dies after losing its stinger as the loss rips out part of its insides. However, a queen bee can sting with impunity as her stinger’s anatomy is different.

53 ___-Bakr, close adviser of Muhammad : ABU

The Islamic sects of Sunni and Shia Muslims differ in the belief of who should have taken over leadership of the Muslim faithful after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. Followers of the Sunni tradition agree with the decision that the Prophet Muhammad’s confidante Abu Bakr was the right choice to become the first Caliph of the Islamic nation. Followers of the Shia tradition believe that leadership should have stayed within the Prophet Muhammad’s own family, and favored the Prophet’s son-in-law Ali.