0706-23 NY Times Crossword 6 Jul 23, Thursday

Bill’s time: 10m 46s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Christmas pudding ingredient : SUET

Fat, when extracted from the carcass of an animal, is called suet. Untreated suet decomposes at room temperature quite easily so it has to be rendered, purified to make it stable. Rendered fat from pigs is what we call lard. Rendered beef or mutton fat is known as tallow.

Christmas pudding is a traditional holiday dish served mainly in Britain and Ireland. It is also referred to as plum pudding, even though there aren’t any plums included in the list of ingredients. “Plums” was a term that used to mean “raisins”, which are included. One of the appetizing ingredients is suet, animal fat. There’s also a lot of alcohol, which allows the pudding to be aged for months if desired. I must admit, I love Christmas pudding, soaked in brandy that’s set alight. And a little brandy butter on the side …

5 It’s from the underside of a hide : SUEDE

Suede is leather made from the underside of an animal’s skin, usually the skin from a lamb. As such it is very soft, although not as durable as leather made from the exterior skin. The soft leather was, and is still used for making gloves. Back in 1859 these gloves were called “gants de Suede” in France, or “gloves of Sweden”. So, the name “suede” comes from the French word for Sweden.

10 Band whose jukebox musical led to a pair of films : ABBA

The hit musical “Mamma Mia!” was written to showcase the songs of ABBA. I’m a big fan of ABBA’s music, so I’ve seen this show a couple of times and just love it. “Mamma Mia!” is such a big hit on the stage that on any given day there are at least seven performances going on somewhere in the world. There is a really interesting film version of the show that was released in 2008. I think the female lead Meryl Streep is wonderful in the movie, but the male leads … not so much! By the way, one can tell the difference between “Mamma Mia” the ABBA song and “Mamma Mia!” the musical, by noting the difference in the punctuation in the titles.

“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” is a 2018 sequel to the hit 2008 movie “Mamma Mia!” I am an unashamed fan of the original film, and really loved both the original and the sequel. I especially enjoyed Cher’s rendition of a couple of ABBA hits at the end of the second movie, and happily received Cher’s 2018 album “Dancing Queen” for Christmas that year …

16 Pupil’s surrounding : IRIS

The iris is the colored part of the eye. It has an aperture in the center that can open or close depending on the level of light hitting the eye.

The pupil of the eye is the hole located in the center of the iris through which light enters the retina. The term “pupil” came into English via French from the latin “pupilla”, which is the diminutive form of “pupa” meaning “girl, doll”. The term came about due to the tiny doll-like image that one can see of oneself when looking into the center of another’s eyes.

19 They’re often steamed, then rolled : OATS

Oat cereals all start out as “groats”, toasted oat grains with the hull still intact:

• Steel-cut oats, sometimes called “Irish oats”, are groats that have been chopped into chunks about the size of sesame seeds.
• Stone-ground oats, sometimes called “Scottish oats”, have been ground into smaller pieces, about the size of poppy seeds.
• Old-fashioned rolled oats are made by first steaming the toasted groats, and then rolling them into flakes.
• Quick-cooking oats are similar to rolled oats, but thinner flakes.
• Instant oats have been chopped, rolled, pre-cooked, dehydrated and often have salt and sugar added.

20 Request regarding “the ball game” … or instructions for answering the starred clues : TAKE ME OUT or TAKE “ME” OUT

“Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is a 1908 song that is traditionally sung during the seventh inning stretch of a baseball game. Even though the song is now inextricably linked to baseball, neither of the two composers had ever been to a game before they wrote it.

23 Artist’s studio : ATELIER

An atelier is an artist’s studio, with “atelier” being the French word for “studio” or “workshop”.

28 *Their history is celebrated in March : WOMEN (WON + ME)

Here in the US, Women’s History Month is celebrated annually in March, and coincides with International Women’s Day on March 8th. In Canada, October was chosen for Women’s History Month, to coincide with the Canadian celebration of Persons Day on October 18th.

The Korean won, Chinese yuan, and Japanese yen (all of which are Asian currencies) take their names from the Chinese written character that represents “round shape”.

31 Get big, as a hashtag : TREND

A hashtag is a word preceded by the symbol #. Hashtags are big these days because of Twitter, a microblogging service that I don’t think I will ever understand …

34 Boosters, e.g. : SHOTS

An injection using a hypodermic needle might be termed a “shot” in North America, and a “jab” in Britain and Ireland.

35 Reddit Q&A : AMA

Reddit.com is a networking and news website that started up in 2005. It is essentially a bulletin board system with posts that are voted up and down by users, which determines the ranking of posts. The name “Reddit” is a play on “read it”, as in “I read it on Reddit”. One popular feature of the Reddit site is an online forum that is similar to a press conference. Known as an AMA (for “ask me anything”), participants have included the likes of President Barack Obama, Madonna, Bill Gates, Stephen Colbert and Gordon Ramsay. President Obama’s AMA was so popular that the high level of traffic brought down many parts of the Reddit site.

37 Gripes : BEEFS

A beef is a complaint or a grievance. It’s not quite clear how “beef” came to have this meaning, but one suggestion is that it derives from the habit of soldiers at the end of the 1800s complaining about the quality or availability of beef in their rations.

39 Bird with a bluish neck and green eggs : EMU

Emu eggs are very large, with a thick shell that is dark-green in color. One emu egg weighs about the same as a dozen chicken eggs. It is the male emu that incubates the eggs. The incubation period lasts about 8 weeks, during which time the male neither eats nor drinks, just lapping up any morning dew that is nearby. While incubating a clutch of eggs, male emus lose about a third of their weight.

41 Michelangelo’s only signed work : PIETA

The Pietà is a representation of the Virgin Mary holding in her arms the dead body of her son Jesus. The most famous Pietà is undoubtedly the sculpted rendition by Michelangelo that is located in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. That particular sculpture is thought to be the only work that Michelangelo signed. In some depictions of the Pietà, Mary and her son are surrounded by other figures from the New Testament. Such depictions are known as Lamentations.

42 *Neighbor of Saudi Arabia : YEMEN (YEN + ME)

Yemen is located on the Arabian Peninsula, and lies just south of Saudi Arabia and west of Oman. Yemen is the only state on the peninsula that is a republic (its official name is the Republic of Yemen). Everyone over the age of 18 gets to vote, but only Muslims can hold elected office.

The Japanese yen is the third-most traded currency in the world, after the US dollar and the euro.

45 *Concrete component : CEMENT (CENT + ME)

The terms “cement”, “mortar” and ”concrete” are related, and tend to get confused at times. Cement is a binder that hardens over time and binds other materials together. Cement mixed with a fine aggregate forms mortar, a workable paste used to bind building blocks together. Cement mixed with sand and gravel forms concrete, a pourable slurry that hardens into an extremely robust building material.

The official name of our smallest denomination coin is “cent”, and our use of the word “penny” is just a colloquialism derived from the British coin of the same name. In the UK, the plural of penny is “pence”, whereas we have “pennies” in our pockets.

51 Some manga adaptations : ANIME

Anime is cartoon animation in the style of Japanese manga comic books.

55 Town near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks : MOAB

The gorgeous Arches National Park is located in eastern Utah, just outside of Moab. The main focus of the park is the preservation of over 2,000 natural sandstone arches. The arches are relatively fragile, and 43 have collapsed since 1970, mainly due to erosion caused by wind and rain.

Canyonlands is a magnificent national park in southeast Utah not far from Moab. The canyons in the park, and the associated mesas and buttes, were formed mainly by the Colorado and Green Rivers.

58 Bit of dust : MOTE

A mote is a tiny particle, often a speck of dust.

60 Cream alternative : ECRU

The color ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”. “Ecru” has the same roots as our word “crude”.

Down

2 W.W. II sub : U-BOAT

The term “U-boat” comes from the German word “Unterseeboot” (undersea boat). U-boats were primarily used in WWII to enforce a blockade against enemy commercial shipping, with a main objective being to cut off the supplies being transported to Britain from the British colonies and the US. The epic fight for control of the supply routes became known as the Battle of the Atlantic.

5 Anago, at a sushi restaurant : SEA EEL

“Unagi” is the Japanese term for” freshwater eel”, and “anago” is the term for “saltwater eel”.

7 Caesarean delivery? : ET TU?

It was Shakespeare who popularized the words “Et tu, Brute?” (meaning “And you, Brutus?”). They appear in his play “Julius Caesar”, although the phrase had been around long before he penned his drama. It’s not known what Julius Caesar actually said in real life (if anything at all) as he was assassinated on the steps of the Senate in Rome.

8 Bug spray ingredient : DEET

“DEET” is short for “N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide”, an active ingredient in insect repellents. DEET is most often used to repel mosquitoes by applying it to the skin and/or clothing. It is also used to protect against tick bites.

9 Spell “mispell,” e.g. : ERR

Speaking as someone who misspells all the time, I find it somewhat amusing that one of the more common words to misspell is “misspell” (written incorrectly as “mispell”).

10 Garlicky condiment : AIOLI

Aioli is a French sauce made from garlic, egg yolks, and olive oil. The word “aioli” comes from “alh”, the Provençal word for garlic, and “oli”, a Catalan word meaning “oil”.

30 Zip : NADA

“Nada” is the Spanish word for “nothing”. “De nada” translates literally from the Spanish as “of nothing”, and is used to mean “you’re welcome” or “don’t mention it”. The French have the same expression “de rien”, also translating to “of nothing” and used the same way.

The use of the words “zip” and “zippo” to mean “nothing” dates back to the early 1900s, when it was student slang for being graded zero on a test.

37 German sausage, informally : BRAT

A bratwurst (sometimes simply “brat” in the US) is a German sausage. The name comes from “brät-” meaning “finely chopped meat”, and “Wurst” meaning “sausage”.

41 Place for a reading : PALM

The practice of telling fortunes by studying palms is known as palmistry, palm reading, chiromancy or chirology. The term “chiromancy” comes from the Greek “kheir” (hand) and “mateia” (divination).

44 Actress Alexis of “Gilmore Girls” : BLEDEL

Alexis Bledel is an actress from Houston who is best known for playing one of the title characters in TV’s “Gilmore Girls”. In the show, Bledel plays the daughter of single mother Lorelai Gilmore, played by Lauren Graham.

49 Like a Pac-Man T-shirt, say : RETRO

The Pac-Man arcade game was released first in Japan in 1980, and is as popular today as it ever was. The game features characters that are maneuvered around the screen to eat up dots and earn points, while being pursued by ghosts named Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. The name of the game comes from the Japanese folk hero “Paku”, who is known for his voracious appetite. The spin-off game called Ms. Pac-Man was released in 1981.

53 Otis’s feline friend in a 1989 film : MILO

“The Adventures of Milo and Otis” is a movie about an orange tabby cat named Milo, and a fawn-colored pug named Otis. The film was originally released in Japanese in 1986, and was revamped for English audiences in a version released in 1989.

56 Pro___ (for now) : TEM

“Pro tempore” can be abbreviated to “pro tem” or “p.t.” “Pro tempore” is a Latin phrase that best translates as “for the time being”. It is used to describe a person who is acting for another, usually a superior. The President pro tempore of the US Senate is the person who presides over the Senate in the absence of the Vice President of the US. It has been tradition since 1890 that the president pro tem is the most senior senator in the majority party. The president pro tem ranks highly in the line of succession to the presidency, falling third in line after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.