Constructed by: Michael Baker & Jeff Chen
Edited by: Will Shortz
Not your puzzle? Try today’s …
… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Reveal Answer: The Baby Is Asleep
We have a rebus puzzle today, with the exclamation “SHH!” appearing in four squares:
- 38A New parent’s whispered admonition … or a hint to four squares in this puzzle : THE BABY IS ASLEEP
- 16A First of the Jewish High Holy Days : ROSH HASHANAH
- 20A Kitchen game? : CORNISH HEN
- 55A Seasonings that chefs employ : FRESH HERBS
- 61A Feature of “Monty Python” and “Peep Show” : BRITISH HUMOR
- 2D Headwear with breathable fabric : MESH HAT
- 9D Bit of X Games gear : CRASH HELMET
- 45D Secret : HUSH-HUSH
- 47D Big success : SMASH HIT
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
Want to discuss the puzzle? Then …
… leave a comment
Bill’s time: 9m 29s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
1 Expression of false modesty from a texter : IMHO
In my humble opinion (IMHO)
5 Peacock’s home : NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) has had a number of different logos in its history, including the famous peacock with which we are familiar today. The first peacock logo was introduced in the early days of color television and was designed to illustrate how wonderful color television would be, so go buy one! (NBC was owned by RCA, and so had a vested interest in sales of color television sets).
8 Sing “Scooby-dooby-doo,” perhaps : SCAT
Scat singing is a vocal improvisation found in the world of jazz. There aren’t any words as such in scat singing, just random nonsense syllables made up on the spot.
13 The “chum” of chumming : BAIT
The word “chum” meaning “fish bait”, is perhaps derived from the Scottish word “chum” meaning food.
15 ___ of Titus (Roman landmark) : ARCH
Titus Flavius Verspasianus was a successful military commander and Roman Emperor from 79 to 81 AD. It was Titus who laid siege to and destroyed the city and temple of Jerusalem, for which he was honored with the erection of the Arch of Titus that stands in Rome to this day. The Arch of Titus is the inspiration for many other famous arches around the world including the l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
16 First of the Jewish High Holy Days : ROSH HASHANAH
Rosh Hashanah is loosely referred to as “Jewish New Year”. The literal translation from Hebrew is “head of the year”.
20 Kitchen game? : CORNISH HEN
The Cornish game hen is a broiler chicken, and not a game bird. And, despite the designation “hen”, a Cornish game hen can be either male or female.
22 Co. that, in 1925, said of crosswords “The craze evidently is dying out fast” : NYT
“The New York Times” (NYT) has been published since 1851, and is sometimes referred to as “the Gray Lady”. These days a viable alternative to buying the paper is to read the news online. NYTimes.com is the most popular online newspaper website in the country.
Arthur Wynne is generally credited with the invention of what we now know as a crossword puzzle. Wynne was born in Liverpool, England and emigrated to the US when he was 19-years-old. He worked as a journalist and was living in Cedar Grove, New Jersey in 1913 when he introduced a “Word-Cross Puzzle” in his page of puzzles written for the “New York World”. The first book of crossword puzzles was published by Shuster & Shuster, in 1924. The collection of puzzles was a huge hit, and crosswords were elevated to the level of “a craze” in 1924 and 1925.
25 Smooth : SUAVE
The Latin word “suavis” translates as “agreeable, pleasant to the senses”. “Sauvis” is the root of the English word “suave” that describes someone who is gracious and sophisticated, and perhaps somewhat superficial. “Sauvis” also gave us the English word “sweet” meaning “pleasing to the taste”.
26 Org. that might have a beef with beef : USDA
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) classifies meat into eight different grades:
- Prime
- Choice
- Select
- Standard
- Commercial
- Utility
- Cutter
- Canner
27 Major gold exporter : MALI
The Republic of Mali is a landlocked country in western Africa located south of Algeria. Formerly known as French Sudan, the nation’s most famous city is Timbuktu. Mali is the third-largest producer of gold on the continent, after South Africa and Ghana.
29 Department store with a New York City flagship : SAKS
Saks Fifth Avenue is a high-end specialty store that competes with the likes of Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus. The original Saks & Company business was founded by Andrew Saks in 1867. The first Saks Fifth Avenue store was opened on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1924. There are now Saks Fifth Avenue stores in many major cities in the US, as well in several locations worldwide.
36 O.R. figs. : MDS
An operating room (OR) is somewhere one might find a medical doctor (MD).
43 Online marketplace since 2005 : ETSY
Etsy.com is an e-commerce website where you can buy and sell the kind of items that you might find at a craft fair.
44 Pioneer in atomic theory : BOHR
Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who won his 1922 Nobel Prize for his work on quantum mechanics and atomic structure. Later in his life, Bohr was part of the team working on the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb. Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein had a series of public debates and disputes in the twenties and thirties. Although the two respected each other very highly, they held very different views on quantum theory, different views on the laws of physics at the atomic level. The passage of time has shown that Bohr won out in those debates.
46 West Coast sch. with the mascot King Triton : UCSD
The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is located in La Jolla. The school was founded in 1960 as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Appropriately enough, UCSD’s athletic teams are known as the Tritons, and the school mascot is King Triton.
48 Source of pink juice : GUAVA
51 ___ the Enchanter, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” character : TIM
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” was released as a movie in 1975, and was a great success. Some thirty years later the film’s storyline was used as inspiration for the hit musical “Spamalot”. I saw “Spamalot” on stage not that long ago and wasn’t that impressed. But, mine was very much a minority opinion …
60 Big name in eyedrops : RENU
“ReNu” is a brand name of contact lens products sold by Bausch & Lomb.
61 Feature of “Monty Python” and “Peep Show” : BRITISH HUMOR
The zany comedy show called “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” first aired in 1969 on the BBC. The show ran for four seasons and finished up soon after John Cleese decided to leave the team and move onto other projects.
63 Ties often tied in bows : OBIS
The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. The obi can be tied at the back in what is called a butterfly knot. The term “obi” is also used for the thick cotton belts that are an essential part of the outfits worn by practitioners of many martial arts. The color of the martial arts obi signifies the wearer’s skill level
65 Idiotic : INANE
Our word “inane” meaning “silly, lacking substance” comes from the Latin “inanitis” meaning “empty space”.
66 Name associated with speed : MACH
The Mach number of a moving object (like say an airplane) is its speed relative to the speed of sound. A plane traveling at Mach 2, for example, is moving at twice the speed of sound. The term “Mach” takes its name from the Austrian physicist Ernst Mach who published a groundbreaking paper in 1877 that even predicted the “sonic boom”.
67 Soccer superstar Hamm : MIA
Mia Hamm is a retired American soccer player. She played as a forward on the US national team that won the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991. Hamm scored 158 international goals, which was more than any other player in the world, male or female, until the record was broken in 2013. Amazingly, Hamm was born with a clubfoot, and so had to wear corrective shoes when she was growing up.
68 Pair nicknamed “dynamite” in Texas hold ’em : TENS
The official birthplace of the incredibly popular poker game of Texas hold ’em is Robstown, Texas where the game dates back to the early 1900s. The game was introduced into Las Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texan enthusiasts including Doyle Brunson, a champion often seen playing on TV today. Doyle Brunson published a poker strategy guide in 1978, and this really helped increase the popularity of the game. But it was the inclusion of Texas hold ‘em in the television lineup that really gave the game its explosive surge in popularity, with the size of the prize money just skyrocketing.
Down
5 In which Bulls lock horns with Bucks, for short : NBA
The Chicago Bulls have won six NBA championships in the life of the franchise, all of them in the nineties. They won in the 1991, 1992 and 1993 seasons (a so-called “three-peat”), and then again in 1996, 1997 and 1998 (a second “three-peat”).
The Bucks are the NBA team based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin who joined the league as an expansion team in 1968. There was a fan contest held to choose the team’s name, and the winning entry was “Robins”, in honor of Wisconsin’s state bird. However, the judges opted for “Bucks”, the second-most popular choice and a reference to the state’s official wild animal, the white-tailed deer.
6 Seat in court : BANC
“Banc” is the French word for bench or seat.
7 Informal goodbyes : CIAOS
“Ciao” is Italian for “‘bye”. “Arrivederci” is more formal, and translates as “goodbye”.
9 Bit of X Games gear : CRASH HELMET
The X Games are annual events, with a Summer X Games held every year as well as a Winter X Games. It’s very much a commercial venture, with all aspects controlled by the TV station ESPN. The games focus on extreme action sports, like skateboarding and freestyle motocross in the summer and various extreme snowboarding events in the winter.
17 Claims it first : HAS DIBS
The phrase “to have dibs on” expresses a claim on something. Apparently, the term “dibs” is a contraction of “dibstone”, which was a knucklebone or jack used in a children’s game.
24 “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” rapper, informally : KANYE
Kanye West is a rap singer who was born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago. He also spent some time in Nanjing, China as a child, where his mother was teaching as part of an exchange program. West is married to reality star Kim Kardashian.
26 Connection option, in brief : USB
Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard dealing with how computers and electronic devices connect and communicate, and dealing with electrical power through those connections.
28 Midmonth time : IDES
There were three important days in each month of the old Roman calendar. These days originally depended on the cycles of the moon but were eventually “fixed” by law. “Kalendae” were the first days of each month, originally the days of the new moon. “Nonae” were originally the days of the half moon. And “idus” (the ides) was originally the day of the full moon, eventually fixed at the 15th day of a month. Actually, the ides were the 15th day of March, May, July and October. For all other months, the ides fell on the 13th. Go figure …
29 Some grid lines: Abbr. : STS
Street (st.)
30 Noted whale watcher : AHAB
Captain Ahab is the obsessed and far from friendly captain of the Pequod in Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick”. The role of Captain Ahab was played by Gregory Peck in the 1956 John Huston film adaptation. Patrick Stewart played Ahab in a 1998 miniseries in which Peck made another appearance, as Father Mapple.
31 Like a high-fat, low-carb diet : KETOGENIC
A ketogenic (also “keto”) diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. When a body consumes insufficient carbohydrates to meet the need for energy, then the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies in order to make up the energy deficit. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the bloodstream is known as “ketosis”, a term that gives rise to the name “ketogenic diet”. Medical professionals sometimes prescribe a ketogenic diet in order to control epilepsy in children. A condition of ketosis can reduce the frequency of epileptic seizures.
35 Composer Henry : MANCINI
Not only was Henry Mancini an amazing film composer, he was a very accomplished flautist. I once heard him play the challenging “Flight of the Bumblebee” on the flute on a British talk show. Very impressive …
39 Supernatural surroundings : AURAE
An aura (plural “aurae”) is an intangible quality that surrounds a person or thing, a “je ne sais quoi”. “Je ne sais quoi” is French for “I don’t know what”.
49 Airbnb alternative : VRBO
VRBO is an online marketplace for vacation rentals. The initialism stands for Vacation Rentals by Owner. VRBO was founded in 1995, and is headquartered in Austin.
Airbnb is a website-based service that matches people wanting to rent out short-term living quarters to people seeking accommodation. The company was founded in 2008 as AirBed & Breakfast. The original concept was renting out an “air bed” and providing “breakfast” to someone looking for cheap, temporary accommodation. Yeah, the “Air” in “Airbnb” has nothing to do with “air” travel …
50 Norm ___, longtime host of “This Old House” : ABRAM
Norm Abram is the master carpenter who appeared on the PBS show “This Old House”, and who later starred in the spinoff series called “The New Yankee Workshop”.
54 Sister of un oncle : MERE
In French, a “mère” (mother) bears an “enfant” (child).
56 McEntire of country : REBA
Reba McEntire is a country music singer and television actress. McEntire starred in her own sitcom “Reba” that aired on the WB and the CW cable channels from 2001 to 2007. She is sometimes referred to as “The Queen of Country”.
57 Phony personality? : SIRI
Siri was originally developed as a standalone app by a startup company of the same name. Apple acquired the company in 2010 and integrated the technology into their operating system.
62 Ones asking you to raise your hands, in brief? : TSA
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the agency that employs the good folks who check passengers and baggage at airports.
Read on, or …
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Expression of false modesty from a texter : IMHO
5 Peacock’s home : NBC
8 Sing “Scooby-dooby-doo,” perhaps : SCAT
12 Unseasoned : GREEN
13 The “chum” of chumming : BAIT
15 ___ of Titus (Roman landmark) : ARCH
16 First of the Jewish High Holy Days : ROSH HASHANAH
18 Title meaning “superior one” : LAMA
19 Approved by one’s insurance company, say : IN AREA
20 Kitchen game? : CORNISH HEN
22 Co. that, in 1925, said of crosswords “The craze evidently is dying out fast” : NYT
23 Clicking sound : TSK!
25 Smooth : SUAVE
26 Org. that might have a beef with beef : USDA
27 Major gold exporter : MALI
29 Department store with a New York City flagship : SAKS
32 Eventually : IN TIME
36 O.R. figs. : MDS
38 New parent’s whispered admonition … or a hint to four squares in this puzzle : THE BABY IS ASLEEP
41 Took a load off : SAT
42 Applies to : USES ON
43 Online marketplace since 2005 : ETSY
44 Pioneer in atomic theory : BOHR
46 West Coast sch. with the mascot King Triton : UCSD
48 Source of pink juice : GUAVA
51 ___ the Enchanter, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” character : TIM
52 That chap : HIM
55 Seasonings that chefs employ : FRESH HERBS
58 See 52-Down : … NATURE
60 Big name in eyedrops : RENU
61 Feature of “Monty Python” and “Peep Show” : BRITISH HUMOR
63 Ties often tied in bows : OBIS
64 Propels, in a way : OARS
65 Idiotic : INANE
66 Name associated with speed : MACH
67 Soccer superstar Hamm : MIA
68 Pair nicknamed “dynamite” in Texas hold ’em : TENS
Down
1 “Honesty with the volume cranked up,” per George Saunders : IRONY
2 Headwear with breathable fabric : MESH HAT
3 Catch some waves? : HEAR
4 Beginnings : ONSETS
5 In which Bulls lock horns with Bucks, for short : NBA
6 Seat in court : BANC
7 Informal goodbyes : CIAOS
8 It might be on the tip of your tongue : SALIVA
9 Bit of X Games gear : CRASH HELMET
10 High place : ACME
11 Conjunction with other or rather : … THAN
12 Friendly — or sly — look : GRIN
14 Drive-___ : THRU
17 Claims it first : HAS DIBS
21 Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice : NAMES
24 “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” rapper, informally : KANYE
26 Connection option, in brief : USB
28 Midmonth time : IDES
29 Some grid lines: Abbr. : STS
30 Noted whale watcher : AHAB
31 Like a high-fat, low-carb diet : KETOGENIC
33 “___ Love That Makes Us Happy” (hymn) : ‘TIS
34 Won’t respond until later, say : IS OUT
35 Composer Henry : MANCINI
37 One with secrets to tell : SPY
39 Supernatural surroundings : AURAE
40 Played the first card : LED
45 Secret : HUSH-HUSH
47 Big success : SMASH HIT
49 Airbnb alternative : VRBO
50 Norm ___, longtime host of “This Old House” : ABRAM
52 With 58-Across, why we do what we do : HUMAN …
53 Straightens things out? : IRONS
54 Sister of un oncle : MERE
55 Email header : FROM
56 McEntire of country : REBA
57 Phony personality? : SIRI
59 Air : TUNE
62 Ones asking you to raise your hands, in brief? : TSA
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