0810-23 NY Times Crossword 10 Aug 23, Thursday

Bill’s time: 9m 10s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Race that winds down in the winter? : SLALOM

“Slalom” is an anglicized version of the Norwegian word “slalam” that translates as “skiing race”. There is a longer version of the traditional slalom that is called giant slalom

10 Cup holder : BRA

The first modern bra was invented by a New York socialite named Mary Phelps Jacob in 1913. Jacob was looking for a more comfortable and fashionable alternative to the corsets that were then commonly worn, and she fashioned a bra using two handkerchiefs and some ribbon. She later patented her invention, which she called the “Backless Brassiere.”

13 Long line of travelers : CARAVAN

A camel train carrying passengers or goods across a desert can be referred to as a caravan. “Caravan” derives from the Persian “karwan”, which has the same meaning. Over in Britain, “caravan” is the name given to travel trailers.

17 1998 film featuring N.B.A. star Ray Allen : HE GOT GAME

Ray Allen is a retired NBA player who has made a name for himself as an actor. He gave a lauded performance as basketball prodigy Jesus Shuttlesworth in the 1998 film “He Got Game”, appearing alongside Denzel Washington.

19 Nintendo Switch forerunner : WII

Introduced in 2006, Nintendo’s Wii quickly became the biggest-selling game console in the world.

The Nintendo Switch is a gaming console released in 2017. I guess the name “Switch” is used because users can “switch” between portable and home console modes. The device is a table that can be used as a personal gaming unit, or can be docked for use as a home console.

20 Strike … or something that can be batted : LASH

At least as far back as the 1800s, the term “batting” was used in falconry to describe the fluttering of a hawk’s wings while on a perch or a fist, as if the bird intended to fly away. The usage of “batting” extended to the fluttering of a human’s eyelids, giving us the expressions “batting an eye” and “batting an eyelid”.

22 Dead lines? : ELEGY

An elegy is a mournful poem or funeral song, and is also known as a dirge.

25 Singers : STOOLIES

Stoolies, also called “canaries”, will “sing” to the cops given the right incentive. “Stoolie” is short for “stool pigeon”. A stool pigeon was a decoy bird tied to a stool so as to lure other pigeons. Originally a stoolie was a decoy for the police, rather than an informer, hence the name.

31 “Miracle Workers” airer : TBS

“Miracle Workers” is a comedy show based on a 2012 novel by Simon Rich titled “What in God’s Name”. Rich created the show, which stars Daniel Radcliffe as an angel whose job it is to handle all of the prayers of humanity. Steve Buscemi plays God. I haven’t seen this one yet, but it sounds intriguing …

34 Dish near a water cooler? : OFFICE GOSSIP

Our word “gossip” comes from the Old English “godsibb” meaning “godparent”. Back then, the term was used for female friends who attended a birth, and later for anyone engaging in idle talk.

Just as modern day office workers gather around the water cooler to gossip, on board a ship back in the early 1800s the sailors would gather around the water barrel on the deck to shoot the breeze. That water barrel was called a “scuttlebutt”, from “scuttle” (opening in a ship’s deck) and “butt” (barrel). Quite interesting …

To dish the dirt is to talk about someone or something without regard to veracity. The phrase comes from “dish” (in the sense of dishing out food) and “dirt” (in the sense of negative information). To be dishy is to be given to gossip.

39 Durango dirección : NORTE

“Norte” (north) is a “dirección” (direction), in Spanish.

40 Anyone born in late July or early August : LEO

Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 23 to August 22 are Leos.

41 Yoga pose that stretches the abdominals : COBRA

Yoga’s “cobra pose” is also called “bhujangasana”. The Sanskrit word for snake or serpent is “bhujanga”.

42 Islands atop coral reefs : CAYS

A key (also “cay”) is a low offshore island, as in the Florida “Keys”. Our term in English comes from the Spanish “cayo” meaning “shoal, reef”.

43 Only person whose first and last name together is listed as an adjective in Merriam-Webster : RUBE GOLDBERG

Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist, engineer and inventor who became famous for designing overly-complicated gadgets to perform the simplest of tasks. Goldberg produced a famous series of cartoons depicting such designs. Such was the success of his work, the Merriam-Webster dictionary accepted the phrase “Rube Goldberg” as an adjective in 1931, an adjective meaning “accomplishing something simple through complex means”.

45 Who’s “Comin’,” in a Laura Nyro tune : ELI

Laura Nyro was a singer-songwriter from the Bronx, New York. Nyro had success with her own recordings, but her songs were even more successful when recorded by other big names. Two of Nyro’s compositions were “Eli’s Coming” recorded by Three Dog Night, and “Stoney End” by Barbra Streisand.

46 Sport in a ring : SUMO

Sumo is a sport that is practiced professionally only in Japan, the country of its origin. There is an international federation of sumo wrestling now, and one of the organization’s aims is to have the sport accepted as an Olympic event.

48 Steno supplies : NOTEPADS

Stenography is the process of writing in shorthand. The term comes from the Greek “steno” (narrow) and “graphe” (writing).

51 Caterwaul : YOWL

To caterwaul is to utter long cries, to “wail” like a “cat”.

55 ___ Carta : MAGNA

The Magna Carta is a landmark document issued in England in 1215. It represents the first time that an English king had to submit to the will of his subjects, a group of barons who sought to limit the powers of the monarchy. In particular the Magna Carta calls out that no freeman could be punished except through the law of the land. And famously, the Magna Carta was an inspiration for the United States Constitution.

60 With 63-Across, Freudian concept of resisting temptation … or a hint to four squares in this puzzle : IMPULSE …
63 See 60-Across : … CONTROL

Sigmund Freud created a structural model of the human psyche, breaking it into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is that part of the psyche containing the basic instinctual drives. The ego seeks to please the id by causing realistic behavior that benefits the individual. The superego almost has a parental role, contradicting the id by introducing critical thinking and morals to behavioral choices.

65 Certain gastropod : SEA SLUG

Snails and slugs are referred to collectively as gastropods. There are many, many species of gastropods, found both on land and in the sea. Gastropods with shells are generally described as snails, and those species without shells are referred to as slugs.

67 MSNBC competitor : CNN

CNN (Cable News Network) was launched in 1980 by the Turner Broadcasting System, and was the first television channel in the world to provide news coverage 24 hours a day. CNN headquarters is located in Atlanta.

Down

1 Most common vowel sound in English : SCHWA

A schwa is an unstressed and toneless vowel found in a number of languages including English. Examples from our language are the “a” in “about”, the “e” in “taken” and the “i” in pencil.

3 ___ Abrams, role on “Glee” : ARTIE

Artie Abrams is a character in the Fox television show “Glee”. Abrams is played by the young actor Kevin McHale, and is the character who gets around in a wheelchair.

5 Ellipse : OVAL

One way to envision the two foci of an ellipse is to imagine two nails sticking up out of a board, placed a small distance apart. A loop of string is placed on the board, with the nails in the middle. A pen is placed inside the loop, and moved as far away from the nails as possible, confined by the string. The pen is then run around the nails, stretching out the string so that it is taut. The pen will draw an ellipse, and the point where the nails are, they are the ellipse’s two foci.

6 Title lyric that precedes “There’ll be days like this” in a Shirelles classic : MAMA SAID …

The Shirelles were a vocal group who had a string of hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They were the first all-female group to have a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with their song “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” in 1961.

8 Yoko from Tokyo : ONO

Yoko Ono was born in 1933 in Tokyo into a prosperous Japanese family, and is actually a descendant of one of the emperors of Japan. Yoko’s father moved around the world for work, and she lived the first few years of her life in San Francisco. The family returned to Japan, before moving on to New York, Hanoi and back to Japan just before WWII, in time to live through the great firebombing of Tokyo in 1945. Immediately after the war the family was far from prosperous. While Yoko’s father was being held in a prison camp in Vietnam, her mother had to resort to begging and bartering to feed her children. When her father was repatriated, life started to return to normal and Yoko was able to attend university. She was the first woman to be accepted into the philosophy program of Gakushuin University.

11 Nicolas who directed “The Man Who Fell to Earth” : ROEG

Nicolas Roeg is a film director from England with quite the pedigree when it comes to association with great movies. He contributed to 1962’s “Lawrence of Arabia”, and he himself directed noted films like “Walkabout” (1972), “Don’t Look Now” (1973) and “The Man Who Fell to Earth” (1976).

The 1976 British film “The Man Who Fell to Earth” is perhaps most famous for its star, David Bowie. The movie was directed by Nicolas Roeg, and is based on a 1963 novel of the same name written by Walter Tevis.

14 Smart thermostat brand : NEST

The suffix “-stat” comes from the Greek “statos” meaning “standing, stationary”. It was first used in the mid-1700s in the term “heliostat”, which described an instrument that made the sun appear stationary. We still use “-stat” in the name of devices that stabilize or regulate. For example, a thermostat controls temperature and a rheostat uses resistance to control current flow in an electrical circuit.

16 Digestive fluid : BILE

The human gallbladder is a pear-shaped organ that mainly helps with the digestion of fat. The gallbladder stores and concentrates bile, which is made in the liver. The bile is released from the gallbladder when fat enters the digestive tract. The bile acts as a surfactant, emulsifying the fat in food so that it can be more easily digested.

26 Codeine or methadone : OPIOID

The name of the class of drugs called “opioids” comes from the word “opium”, which describes the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy. Drugs derived from opium are known as “opiates”. The broader term “opioids” covers both natural and synthetic drugs that behave in the same way as opiates, i.e. those drugs that bind to opioid receptors in the brain.

“Codeine” is the common name for the opiate 3-methylmorphine, which is a common ingredient in cough medicines. Codeine occurs naturally, making up about 2% of opium sap, although most codeine is synthesized from the more abundant morphine. The name “codeine” comes from the Greek “kodeia” meaning “poppy head”. There is so much codeine produced that it is the most commonly consumed opiate across the world.

Methadone is a synthetic drug used as a painkiller and as an anti-addictive drug used in the treatment of addiction to opiates. Methadone was developed in Germany just prior to WWII, driven by a shortage of opiates needed for the military.

29 Flying ___ : ACE

A flying ace (also “air ace”) is an aviator who has shot down a number of enemy planes during combat. The qualifying number of kills seems to vary, but five is common. The first use of “ace” was during WWI, when the French newspapers dubbed pilot Adolphe Pegoud “l’as” (French for “the ace”) when he shot down his fifth German plane.

32 Vice president after Jefferson : BURR

Aaron Burr was the third vice-president of the US, and served under Thomas Jefferson from 1801 to 1805. In the final year of his term in office, Burr fought an illegal duel and killed his political rival Alexander Hamilton. Burr was charged with several crimes as a result, but those charges were eventually dropped. The Democratic-Republican Party had already decided not to nominate Burr as candidate for vice president to run alongside Jefferson in the 1804 election, largely because the relationship between Vice President Burr and President Jefferson was so poor. The subsequent fallout resulting from the killing of Alexander Hamilton effectively ended Burr’s political career.

33 Animal whose skull is the subject of Georgia O’Keeffe’s “Summer Days” : STAG

Georgia O’Keeffe was an influential American artist, one who led the introduction of American art into Europe. Famously, she was married to photographer Alfred Stieglitz who helped develop her career in the early days. Georgia O’Keeffe’s last home was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she had done a lot of her work during her lifetime. She died there in 1986, at the ripe old age of 98. One of her most famous paintings is from 1926, called “Black Iris III”.

35 Suckling on a farm : FOAL

There are lots of terms to describe horses of different ages and sexes, it seems:

• Foal: horse of either sex that is less than one year old
• Yearling: horse of either sex that is one to two years old
• Filly: female horse under the age of four
• Colt: male horse under the age of four
• Gelding: castrated male horse of any age
• Stallion: non-castrated male horse four years or older
• Mare: female horse four years or older

38 N’awlins lunch, maybe : PO’ BOY

A po’ boy is a submarine sandwich from Louisiana. The name of the sandwich apparently dates back to 1929. It was a sandwich given away free to streetcar workers in New Orleans during a strike, i.e. to “poor boys” not earning a wage. A po’ boy differs from a regular submarine sandwich in that it uses Louisiana French bread, which is soft in the middle and crusty on the outside.

Apparently the “N’awlins” pronunciation of “New Orleans” is common, but is most often uttered by tourists. Locals are more likely to say “New Awlins”.

41 Some investments, for short : CDS

A certificate of deposit (CD) is like a less-flexible and higher-paying savings account. Instead of depositing money into a savings account and earning interest periodically, one can open a CD. With a CD one deposits a minimum amount of money but must leave it there for a specified length of time. In return for committing the funds for a fixed period, one is given a higher interest rate than a savings account and can redeem that interest and the initial deposit when the term has expired. CDs are relatively low-risk investments as they are FDIC insured, just like savings accounts.

44 Agile and flexible : LISSOME

“Lissome” is such a lovely word, I think. It applies to something that is easily bent and supple. The term is a variation of “lithesome”.

52 Media mogul whose production company is her name in reverse : OPRAH

Oprah Winfrey’s multimedia production company is known as Harpo Studios. “Harpo” is “Oprah” spelled backwards, and is also the name of the husband of the character who Winfrey played in the movie “The Color Purple”.

54 Was amused, in textspeak : LOL’ED

Laugh out loud (LOL)

56 “Couldn’t agree more!” : AMEN!

The word “amen” translates as “so be it”. “Amen” is said to be of Hebrew origin, but it is also likely to be influenced by Aramaic and Arabic.

61 ___ generis : SUI

“Sui generis” is a Latin expression meaning “of its own kind”. The term can be used in a number of fields, and in philosophy it refers to an idea which cannot be included in a wider concept, and idea of its own kind.

62 What’s added atop a croque-monsieur to make it a croque-madame : EGG

The “croque monsieur” is a French dish, a baked or fried ham and cheese sandwich. Before baking, the sandwich is dipped in whipped eggs. The cheese used is traditionally Emmental or Gruyère. If the sandwich is topped with a fried egg, then it is referred to as a “croque madame”.

64 Dr. Mom’s specialty, for short : TLC

Tender loving care (TLC)