0619-23 NY Times Crossword 19 Jun 23, Monday

Constructed by: David Liben-Nowell
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): A Layered Puzzle

Themed answers are layers found in a PB&J SANDWICH:

  • 16A Sandwich top : SLICE OF BREAD
  • 31A Fruity sandwich ingredient : RASPBERRY JAM
  • 45A Savory sandwich ingredient : PEANUT BUTTER
  • 57A Sandwich bottom : SLICE OF BREAD

Bill’s time: 6m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Princess’s irritant in a classic 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 …

4 ___ Angeles : LOS

The California city of Los Angeles (L.A.) is the second most populous city in the country, after New York. L.A. was established in 1781 as a pueblo named “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula”, which translates as “The Town of Our Lady the Queen of Angels of the Porciúncula River”. This name evolved into “Los Angeles”, and the Porciúncula River is now called the Los Angeles River.

7 Q-tip, e.g. : SWAB

Cotton swabs were originally marketed under the name “Baby Gays”. This was changed in 1926 to “Q-Tips”, with the Q standing for “quality”.

14 South American predator whose name translates to “tooth fish” : PIRANHA

Piranhas are reputed to be able to strip an animal to its bones in seconds, but this is somewhat of a myth. Piranhas are not in fact strict carnivores, and usually are more of a nuisance to fishermen rather than a danger, as they tend to eat bait that has been set to catch other fish. Much of the reputation of the piranha is owed to the description written by President Theodore Roosevelt in his book “Through the Brazilian Wilderness”. President Roosevelt was somewhat hoodwinked though, as local fishermen put on a special “show” for him. They dumped hordes of hungry piranhas into a dammed section of a river and then tossed in a sliced up cow. President Roosevelt was pretty impressed by the orchestrated feeding frenzy.

15 Dutch ___ (heavy pot) : OVEN

A Dutch oven is a cooking pot with a tight lid, usually made from cast-iron. Back in Ireland we call them casserole dishes.

16 Sandwich top : SLICE OF BREAD
57 Sandwich bottom : SLICE OF BREAD

Meats placed between slices of bread was first called a sandwich in the 18th century, named after the Fourth Earl of Sandwich. The earl was fond of eating “sandwiches” while playing cards at his club.

18 “Atlas Shrugged” author Rand : AYN

Russian-born American author Ayn Rand considered 1957’s “Atlas Shrugged” her magnum opus. It is a dystopian novel set in a US without a Congress or president, and instead a National Legislature and “Head of State”.

22 Indian garment that drapes : SARI

The item of clothing called a “sari” (also “saree”) is a strip of cloth, as one might imagine, unusual perhaps in that it is unstitched along the whole of its length. The strip of cloth can range from four to nine meters long (that’s a lot of material!). The sari is usually wrapped around the waist, then draped over the shoulder leaving the midriff bare. I must say, it can be a beautiful item of clothing.

24 Added coins to, as a parking meter : FED

An early patent for a parking meter, dated 1928, was for a device that required the driver of the parked car to connect the battery of his or her car to the meter in order for it to operate!

29 Iconic hairstyle for Amy Winehouse : BEEHIVE

That distinctive beehive hairstyle is also called a B-52, because the round, beehive-shape also resembles the bulbous nose of a B-52 bomber! The style originated in 1958, and is credited to Margaret Vinci Heldt, the owner of a hair salon in downtown Chicago. I’m not a fan of the beehive, but I do have to say that Audrey Hepburn carried it off in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, as did Dusty Springfield in her heyday.

Amy Winehouse was a much ridiculed singer from the UK, and whose life was fraught with very public bouts of drug and alcohol abuse. Winehouse’s lifestyle caught up with her in 2011 when she was found dead from alcohol poisoning. The unfortunate singer was only 27 years old when she died, which means she is now viewed as a member of the “27 Club”. This “club” is made up of famous musicians who all died at the age of 27, including Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison of the Doors, and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.

31 Fruity sandwich ingredient : RASPBERRY JAM

Jelly is made using strained juice from crushed fruit. Jam is similar, but the whole crushed fruit is used, and often includes seeds.

33 Get by coercion : EXTORT

To extort is to obtain by force or intimidation. The term “extort” comes from the Latin “ex” (out) and “torquere” (to twist).

34 Pet for Fred, Wilma and Pebbles : DINO

In the Hanna-Barbera cartoon “The Flintstones”, Dino the pet dinosaur was voiced by the famous Mel Blanc, until Blanc passed away in 1989.

35 Racing org. for Dale Earnhardt : NASCAR

Dale Earnhardt Sr. was known for his aggressive driving style, which earned him the nickname “the Intimidator”. Earnhardt was stubborn, and so some referred to him as “Iron Head”. Earnhardt died in a crash in the 2001 Daytona 500. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is also a NASCAR driver.

48 Shelfmate of Aleve and Advil : TYLENOL

Tylenol is a pain-relieving drug with the active ingredient acetaminophen (which is known as “paracetamol” outside of the US).

51 Blueprint detail, in brief : SPEC

Blueprints are reproductions of technical or architectural drawings that are contact prints made on light-sensitive sheets. Blueprints were introduced in the 1800s and the technology available dictated that the drawings were reproduced with white lines on a blue background, hence the name “blue-print”.

53 Xfinity or Verizon Fios, in brief : ISP

Internet service provider (ISP)

Comcast is the largest cable company in the United States. It was founded in 1963 as American Cable systems. Comcast provides many of its services under the brand name “Xfinity”.

FiOS is a service from Verizon that bundles Internet, telephone and television service. All three services are provided over fiber-optic lines, right to the door. I presume that the name FiOS comes from something like “Fiber-Optic Service” …

54 One of 100 in D.C. : SEN

Our word “senate” comes from the Latin name for such a body, namely “senatus”. In turn, “senatus” is derived from “senex” meaning “old man”, reflecting the original Roman Senate’s makeup as a council of “elders”.

55 Penguin lookalike : AUK

Auks are penguin-like sea birds that live in colder northern waters including the Arctic. Like penguins, auks are great swimmers, but unlike penguins, auks can fly.

63 Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple ___” : HAZE

“Purple Haze” is a 1967 song written and recorded by Jimi Hendrix that has been described as a “psychedelic drug song of the sixties”. In fact, the term “purple haze” came to refer to LSD. Hendrix denied any relation of the lyrics to drugs at all.

64 Set of books like Elie Wiesel’s “Night,” “Dawn” and “Day” : TRILOGY

Elie Wiesel was a holocaust survivor who is best known for his book “Night” that tells of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was also the first recipient of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Award, which was later renamed the Elie Wiesel Award in his honor.

65 London-based cosmetics company : AVON

In 1886, a young man called David McConnell was selling books door-to-door. To enhance his sales numbers he was giving out free perfume to the ladies of the houses that he visited. Seeing as his perfume was more popular than his books, he founded the California Perfume Company in New York City and started manufacturing and selling across the country. The company name was changed to Avon in 1939, and the famous “Avon Calling” marketing campaign was launched in 1954.

Down

3 Trapeze artist : AERIALIST

The circus act known as the “trapeze” is so called because the shape defined by the crossbar, ropes and ceiling of the tent is a “trapezium”.

4 Closet items like sheets and towels : LINENS

The textile known as linen is made from flax fibers. The name “linen” probably comes from “linum”, which is Latin for both “flax” and “textile made from flax”.

7 Hurling, curling or baton twirling : SPORT

Hurling is the national sport of my homeland of Ireland. It’s played with a stick called a hurley and a ball called a “sliotar”. It’s thought to be the fastest team sport in the world, and certainly has to be the oldest as it predates Christianity and was brought to Ireland by the Celts.

I think curling is such a cool game (pun!). It’s somewhat like bowls, but played on a sheet of ice. The sport was supposedly invented in medieval Scotland, and is called curling because of the action of the granite stone as it moves across the ice. A player can make the stone take a curved path (“curl”) by causing it to slowly rotate as it slides.

8 Worked at a loom : WOVE

There are many types of loom used to weave cloth, but they all hold parallel threads in tension in one direction, while allowing the interweaving of threads in the perpendicular direction. The threads held under tension are the warp threads, and the “woven” threads are the “weft” threads.

17 Prickly plant in a thicket : BRIER

“Briar” (sometimes “brier”) is a generic name describing several plants that have thorns or prickles, including the rose. Famously, Br’er Rabbit lives in a briar patch.

20 Reset button on a scale : TARE

Tare is the weight of a container that is deducted from the gross weight to determine the net weight, the weight of the container’s contents.

21 Immersive cinema format : IMAX

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.

24 Island country west of Tonga : FIJI

The island nation of Fiji is an archipelago in the South Pacific made up of over 330 islands, 110 of which are inhabited. Fiji was occupied by the British for over a century and finally gained its independence in 1970.

The Kingdom of Tonga is made up of 176 islands in the South Pacific, 52 of which are inhabited and scattered over an area of 270,000 square miles. Tonga was given the name Friendly Islands in 1773 when Captain James Cook first landed there, a reference to the warm reception given to the visitors. The nation’s capital is the city of Nukuʻalofa on the island of Tongatapu.

25 Broadway’s “Dear ___ Hansen” : EVAN

“Dear Evan Hansen” is a 2015 stage musical about a young man with awkward social skills and his efforts to make friends. The show was inspired by real-life events: The show’s writer, Steven Levenson, was inspired to write the musical after the suicide of a high school student in his hometown.

28 “On My Own” singer in “Les Misérables” : EPONINE

The 1980 musical “Les Misérables” is an adaptation of the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The show opened in London in 1985, and is the longest running musical in the history of London’s West End. My wife and I saw “Les Miz” in the Queen’s Theatre in London many years ago, but were only able to get tickets in the very back row. The theater seating is very steep, so the back row of the balcony is extremely high over the stage. One of the big events in the storyline is the building of a street barricade over which the rebels fight. At the height we were seated we could see the stagehands behind the barricade, sitting drinking Coke, even smoking cigarettes. On cue, the stagehands would get up and catch a dropped rifle, or an actor who had been shot. It was pretty comical. I didn’t really enjoy the show that much, to be honest. Some great songs, but the musical version of the storyline just didn’t seem to hang together for me.

32 Garment with two cups : BRA

The brassiere is a relatively modern invention, with the first contemporary bra being patented in 1914. However, there are ancient artifacts that show that women have been wearing garments to support their breasts for thousands of years. One of the most famous examples is a mosaic from Sicily that dates back to the 4th century AD. It depicts women athletes wearing bra-like garments while throwing the discus, lifting weights, and playing ball games.

37 ___ Dhabi : ABU

Abu Dhabi is one of the seven Emirates that make up the federation known as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The two largest members of the UAE (geographically) are Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the only two of the seven members that have veto power over UAE policy. Before 1971, the UAE was a British Protectorate, a collection of sheikdoms. The sheikdoms entered into a maritime truce with Britain in 1835, after which they became known as the Trucial States, derived from the word “truce”.

43 Readouts of brain waves, in brief : EEGS

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of electrical activity caused by the firing of neurons within the brain. The EEG might be used to diagnose epilepsy, or perhaps to determine if a patient is “brain dead”.

56 “www” addresses : URLS

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

57 Decorative pillow cover : SHAM

A sham is something that is imitation, fake. In the world of bed linens, a sham is also an imitation or fake, in the sense that it is a decorative cover designed to cover up a regular pillow used for sleeping.

58 Volcano’s output : LAVA

Lava is a phenomenon that results from the eruption of magma from a volcano. Depending on the type of lava and the volcano it comes from, lava can reach temperatures of up to 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit (1,200 degrees Celsius). That’s hot enough to melt steel …

59 Big name in golf shirts : IZOD

Jack Izod was a tailor of some repute over in England producing shirts for King George V, as well as other members of the Royal Family. As Izod was about to retire, he was approached for the use of his name by an American clothing manufacturer based in New York. The brand Izod of London was introduced to America in 1938.

61 Taj Mahal’s city : AGRA

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India is a magnificent marble mausoleum. It was built in the mid-17th century by the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to her 14th child in 1631. When Shah Jahan himself died in 1666, he was buried in the Taj Mahal, alongside his wife.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Princess’s irritant in a classic fairy tale : PEA
4 ___ Angeles : LOS
7 Q-tip, e.g. : SWAB
11 Alternative to straight up, at a bar : OVER ICE
13 Read closely, with “over” : PORE …
14 South American predator whose name translates to “tooth fish” : PIRANHA
15 Dutch ___ (heavy pot) : OVEN
16 Sandwich top : SLICE OF BREAD
18 “Atlas Shrugged” author Rand : AYN
19 Gallery display : ART
20 Up to, for short : ‘TIL
22 Indian garment that drapes : SARI
24 Added coins to, as a parking meter : FED
27 French female friend : AMIE
29 Iconic hairstyle for Amy Winehouse : BEEHIVE
31 Fruity sandwich ingredient : RASPBERRY JAM
33 Get by coercion : EXTORT
34 Pet for Fred, Wilma and Pebbles : DINO
35 Racing org. for Dale Earnhardt : NASCAR
38 “Huh, didn’t see you there!” : OH, HI!
41 Humiliated : ABASED
45 Savory sandwich ingredient : PEANUT BUTTER
48 Shelfmate of Aleve and Advil : TYLENOL
49 Therefore : ERGO
50 NNW’s opposite : SSE
51 Blueprint detail, in brief : SPEC
53 Xfinity or Verizon Fios, in brief : ISP
54 One of 100 in D.C. : SEN
55 Penguin lookalike : AUK
57 Sandwich bottom : SLICE OF BREAD
63 Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple ___” : HAZE
64 Set of books like Elie Wiesel’s “Night,” “Dawn” and “Day” : TRILOGY
65 London-based cosmetics company : AVON
66 Formally reprimand : CENSURE
67 Created : MADE
68 Bucks and bulls, e.g. : HES
69 Small amount : TAD

Down

1 Bursts, as a bubble : POPS
2 Wicked : EVIL
3 Trapeze artist : AERIALIST
4 Closet items like sheets and towels : LINENS
5 Eight, in Spanish : OCHO
6 Ocean voyager : SEAFARER
7 Hurling, curling or baton twirling : SPORT
8 Worked at a loom : WOVE
9 Square footage : AREA
10 Reshape, as a pipe cleaner : BEND
12 Somewhat R-rated : RACY
17 Prickly plant in a thicket : BRIER
20 Reset button on a scale : TARE
21 Immersive cinema format : IMAX
23 Helps with a heist, say : ABETS
24 Island country west of Tonga : FIJI
25 Broadway’s “Dear ___ Hansen” : EVAN
26 Store item that’s only for show : DEMO
28 “On My Own” singer in “Les Misérables” : EPONINE
30 Drink enough water : HYDRATE
32 Garment with two cups : BRA
36 Alternative to broadcast TV : CABLE
37 ___ Dhabi : ABU
38 Chooses (to) : OPTS
39 Casual greetings : HEYS
40 Strong and healthy : HALE
42 Whiff three times in the batter’s box : STRIKE OUT
43 Readouts of brain waves, in brief : EEGS
44 ___-down menu : DROP
46 “I can’t ___ that!” (lament after encountering a disturbing image) : UNSEE
47 The very best : TOP-NOTCH
52 Lakeside lodgings : CABINS
54 Part of an act : SCENE
56 “www” addresses : URLS
57 Decorative pillow cover : SHAM
58 Volcano’s output : LAVA
59 Big name in golf shirts : IZOD
60 On the house : FREE
61 Taj Mahal’s city : AGRA
62 Artificially colored : DYED