0902-23 NY Times Crossword 2 Sep 23, Saturday

Bill’s time: 14m 27s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 No-brainer? : ZOMBIE

A zombie is a corpse that has been brought back to life by some mystical means. Our modern use of the term largely stems from the undead creatures featured in the 1968 horror movie called “Night of the Living Dead”. Now that film I haven’t seen, and probably never will …

7 Seabird that can be tufted or horned : PUFFIN

Puffins are seabirds found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. They feed primarily by diving into the water to catch fish, and are known for their ability to swim underwater using a “flying” technique.

13 Words that might be followed by “Hear! Hear!” : A TOAST

The tradition of toasting someone probably dates back to the reign of Charles II, when the practice was to drink a glass of wine to the health of a beautiful or favored woman. In those days, spiced toast was added to beverages to add flavor, so the use of the word “toast” was an indicator that the lady’s beauty would enhance the wine. Very charming, I must say …

14 Pepper with a “delayed fuse” : SERRANO

The serrano chili pepper is native to the mountainous regions of the Mexican states of Puebla and Hidalgo. The name “serrano” comes from the Spanish “sierra” meaning “mountain”.

The phrase “Hear! Hear!” is an expression of support that is perhaps more commonly used in the UK than on this side of the Atlantic. It evolved from “Hear him! Hear him!”, which was the original utterance used in the UK parliament in the 17th century.

15 Toy that’s not really a toy? : POODLE

The standard poodle breed of dog is considered by many to be the second-most intelligent breed, after the border collie. The name “poodle” comes from a Low German word meaning “to splash about”, reflecting the original use of the breed as a water retriever.

The toy group of dogs is made up of the smallest breeds. The smallest of the small breeds are sometimes called teacup breeds.

17 It has triangular blades : SEDGE

Sedges are a family of plants that resemble grasses and rushes. Sedges are more properly called Cyperaceae.

18 Susceptible to burning, in a way : FAIR

That would be me, with my susceptible Irish skin …

25 Herd : buffalo :: bob : ___ : SEALS

Here are some colorful collective nouns:

• A pride of lions
• A shrewdness of apes
• A cloud of bats
• A bench of bishops
• A parliament of owls
• A clowder of cats
• A waddling of ducks
• An army of frogs
• A knot of toads

30 Call from a server, maybe : AD IN

In tennis, if the score reaches deuce (i.e. when both players have scored three points), then the first player to win two points in a row wins the game. The player who wins the point immediately after deuce is said to have the advantage. If the player with the advantage wins the next point then that’s two in a row and that player wins the game. If the person with the advantage loses the next point, then advantage is lost and the players return to deuce and try again. The player calling out the score announces “ad in”, or more formally “advantage in”, if he/she has the advantage. If the score announcer’s opponent has the advantage, then the announcement is “ad out” or “advantage out”. Follow all of that …?

32 “Oversharing alert!” : TMI!

Too much information (TMI)

37 Fertile Crescent feeder : TIGRIS

The Fertile Crescent is a large swath of land in the Near East that includes the Nile Valley in the west and the land around the Tigris and Euphrates in the east.

39 It has a triangular blade : EPEE

The sword known as an épée has a three-sided blade. It is similar to a foil and saber, although the foil and saber have rectangular cross-sections.

40 Like Staten Island on a New York City subway map : INSET

Staten Island is part of New York City and is the least populous of the city’s five boroughs. The island was originally called Staaten Eylandt by Henry Hudson and was named after the Dutch parliament, the Staaten Generaal.

41 Campus noob : FROSH

“Frosh” is a slang term for a college freshperson (formerly “freshman”). We call such a person a “fresher” back in Ireland …

43 Abbr. on a paper tray : LTR

Our paper sizes here in North America don’t conform with the standards in the rest of the world. ISO standard sizes used elsewhere were chosen so that the ratio of width to length is usually one to the square root of two. This mathematical relationship means that when you cut a piece of paper in two each half preserves the aspect ratio of the original, which can be useful in making reduced or enlarged copies of documents. Our standard size of “letter” (ltr., 8.5 x 11 inches) was determined in 1980 by the Reagan administration to be the official paper size for the US government. Prior to this, the “legal” size (8.5 x 14 inches) had been the standard, since 1921.

51 Acquisition in Monopoly : HOTEL

In the game of Monopoly, one can purchase a hotel by “demolishing” four houses and by paying an extra amount equal to the price of one more house.

54 Snack crackers since 1921 : CHEEZ-ITS

Cheez-it crackers were introduced way back in 1921, and were first sold by the Green & Green Company of Dayton, Ohio.

56 Legacy competitor : SONATA

The Sonata is one of Hyundai’s most successful models, having been introduced in 1985 and still being sold today. The original model didn’t make it to the North American market as it had problems meeting emission standards. The first Sonatas hit this side of the Pacific in 1988, and were assembled in Bromont, Quebec.

60 Foraged delicacies : MORELS

A morel is a mushroom with a honeycomb-like structure on the cap. They are highly prized, especially in French cuisine. Morels should never be eaten raw as they are toxic, with the toxins being removed by thorough cooking.

Down

1 Irradiates : ZAPS

The first microwave oven was invented in 1946 by Percy Spencer, an engineer at Raytheon. While he was standing beside an active radar unit, which used microwaves, he noticed that the candy bar in his pocket had melted. Spencer proceeded to expose various foods to microwaves in tests that would lead to the development of the first commercial microwave oven.

2 Platte Valley people : OTOE

The Platte River used to be called the Nebrakier, which is an Oto word meaning “flat river”. Indeed, the state of Nebraska takes its name from “Nebrakier”. For a while it was also called the River Plate as “plate” is the French word “flat”. Later this became “Platte”, the phonetic spelling of the French “plate”.

5 Much of Tonga : ISLETS

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.

6 Bastille Day saison : ETE

In French, “juillet” (July) is a month in the “été” (summer).

The Bastille is a former fortress in Paris that was used as a prison by the kings of France. On 14 July 1789, an angry mob stormed the Bastille during the French Revolution. The mob was actually after the stores of gunpowder in the fortress, but while inside the building freed seven prisoners and killed the Bastille’s governor. The storming of the Bastille became a symbol of the French Revolution and has been celebrated in France every July 14th since 1790. That celebration is referred to as “la fête nationale” (the national day) in France, but in English-speaking countries it is usually known as “Bastille Day”.

7 Eponymous German bacteriologist : PETRI

Julius Richard Petri was a German bacteriologist and was the man after whom the Petri dish is named. The petri dish can have an agar gel on the bottom which acts as a nutrient source for the specimen being grown and studied, in which case the dish plus agar is referred to as an “agar plate”.

16 Top-selling concession item at San Francisco’s Oracle Park : GARLIC FRIES

Oracle Park has been home to the San Francisco Giants baseball team since 2000, although the “Oracle” moniker has only been in place since 2019. The park sits right on San Francisco Bay, on a cove named China Basin. Since the stadium has been in use, that cove is known unofficially as McCovery Cove, after Giants first baseman Willie McCovey. When a Giants player hits a home run that lands directly in the water of McCovey Cove, it is known as a “splash hit”.

21 Some Greek cheeses : FETAS

Feta is a Greek cheese made from sheep’s milk, or a mixture of sheep and goat’s milk. The cheese is salted and cured in a brine solution for several months before it is eaten.

22 Fuss (over) : FAWN

The verb “to fawn” has a different etymology to that of the noun “fawn”. The Old English “faegnian” meant “to rejoice, be glad”. In particular, the Old English verb applied to a dog wagging its tail. From there, “to fawn” came to mean “to court favor, to grovel”.

23 The world’s first Black-led republic : HAITI

The Republic of Haiti occupies the smaller, western portion of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. The rest of the island is taken up by the Dominican Republic. Haiti is one of only two nations in the Americas to have French as an official language, the other being Canada.

29 Perfume part : ESTER

Esters are very common chemicals. The smaller, low-molecular weight esters are usually pleasant smelling and are often found in perfumes. At the other end of the scale, the higher-molecular weight nitroglycerin is a nitrate ester and is very explosive, and polyester is a huge molecule and is a type of plastic. Fats and oils found in nature are fatty acid esters of glycerol known as glycerides.

41 Alternative to a tulip glass : FLUTE

The narrow bowl of a champagne flute is usually preferred over the wide bowl of a champagne coupe as the smaller surface area of the wine helps retain its carbonation.

45 They may be held during the national anthem : BRIMS

The word “anthem” used to describe a sacred song, especially one with words taken from the Scriptures. The British national anthem (“God Save the Queen/King”) technically is a hymn, and so it came to be described as “the national hymn” and later “the national anthem”. The use of the word “anthem” extended from there to describe any patriotic song.

47 One crossing the line : SCAB

We first started calling strikebreakers scabs in the early 1800s, and before that a scab was a person who refused to join a trade union (back as early 1777). The word “scab” probably comes from the use of “scab” as a symptom of a skin disease, and so is a term that is meant to insult.

48 Reds state : OHIO

The Red Scare (i.e. anti-communist sentiment) following WWII had such an effect on the populace that it even caused the Cincinnati baseball team to change its name from the Reds. The team was called the Cincinnati Redlegs from 1953-1958, as the management was fearful of losing money due to public distrust of any association with “Reds”.

49 Bubbly chocolate bar brand : AERO

I must admit to having a weakness for Aero chocolate bars. Aero was introduced by Rowntree’s in the North of England in 1935. The “aero” name is a reference to the chocolate’s “bubbly” texture.

55 Unwanted spot, informally : ZIT

The slang term “zit”, meaning “pimple”, came into the language in 1966, but no one seems to know its exact derivation.