0221-24 NY Times Crossword 21 Feb 24, Wednesday

Bill’s time: 8m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

12 Team V.I.P.s, in brief : GMS

General manager (GM)

15 Author of “The Eagle and the Fox” and “The Fox and the Lion” : AESOP

Aesop is remembered today as a fabulist, a writer of fables. Aesop lived in ancient Greece, probably around the sixth century BC. Supposedly he was born a slave, somehow became a free man, but then met with a sorry end. Aesop was sent to the city of Delphi on a diplomatic mission but instead insulted the Delphians. He was tried on a trumped-up charge of stealing from a temple, sentenced to death and was thrown off a cliff.

16 Where to watch the Lightning and Hurricanes : ARENAS

The Tampa Bay Lightning are a National Hockey League team based in Tampa, Florida. Commonly referred to as “the Bolts”, the team name comes from Tampa Bay’s reputation as the Lightning Capital of North America.

The Carolina Hurricanes are a professional hockey team based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The team was founded as the New England Whalers, when they were located in Boston, and then Hartford, Connecticut. The Whalers moved to Raleigh in 1997, and became the Hurricane.

18 Region that spans about 8% of the earth’s land area [Arabic] : SAHARA DESERT (from the Arabic “sahra” meaning “desert”)

The name “Sahara” means “desert” in Arabic. The Sahara is just that, a great desert covering almost 4 million square miles of Northern Africa. That’s almost the size of the United States.

21 Rodin sculpture featuring a couple whose lips don’t quite touch : THE KISS

“The Kiss” is a beautiful sculpture created in 1889 by Auguste Rodin. I’ve had the privilege of standing beside a large, life-size marble version of the work on a few occasions in the Rodin Museum, my favorite of all museums in Paris. The Musée Rodin is very special in that the building and garden that hold all of the works were Rodin’s actual home and studio. Well worth a visit if you make it to Paris …

22 “My Gal ___” : SAL

“My Gal Sal” is a song written by composer Paul Dresser. “My Gal Sal” is also the name of the movie recounting Dresser’s life made in 1942. It stars Victor Mature as Dresser, and Rita Hayworth as Sally “Sal” Elliott.

23 Fencing option : FOIL

Before the foil was introduced as a sporting weapon, it was used as a blunted weapon for sword practice. It has been suggested that the sword was blunted by wrapping metal foil around the tip, hence the name.

24 Addams family cousin : ITT

“In the television sitcom “”The Addams Family””, the family has a frequent visitor named Cousin Itt. He is a short man with long hair that runs from his head to the floor. Itt was played by Italian actor Felix Silla.

They’re creepy and they’re kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They’re altogether ooky,
The Addams Family.

”

25 Body of water bordering Nevada and California [Washoe] : LAKE TAHOE (from the Washoe “da ow ga” meaning “the lake”)

Lake Tahoe (often referred to simply as “Tahoe”) is up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and is located right on the border between California and Nevada. It is the largest alpine lake in the country, and the largest lake in general behind the five Great Lakes. Tahoe is also the second deepest lake, with only the beautiful Crater Lake in Oregon being deeper. Given its location, there are tall casinos that sit right on the shore on the Nevada side of the state line where gambling is legal.

27 Actor McGregor : EWAN

Ewan McGregor is a very talented Scottish actor, one who got his break in the 1996 film “Trainspotting”. McGregor’s first big Hollywood role was playing the young Obi-Wan-Kenobi in the “Star Wars” prequels. Less known is his televised marathon motorcycle journey from London to New York via central Europe, Ukraine, Siberia, Mongolia and Canada. The 2004 trip was shown as “Long Way Round” on TV. McGregor did a similar trip in 2007 called “Long Way Down”, which took him and the same traveling companion from the north of Scotland to Cape Town in South Africa.

33 Shakespearean fairy queen : MAB

In Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Mercutio refers to the fairy known as Queen Mab. It seems that Queen Mab was Shakespeare’s creation, although she became popular in subsequent works of literature. For example, she is referred to in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”, in Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility”, and Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote a large poetic work called “Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem”.

40 Landmark on which most U.S. radio stations base the starts of their call signs, with “W” on the east and “K” on the west [Algonquin] : MISSISSIPPI RIVER (from the Algonquin “misi-ziibi” meaning “great river”)

The Mississippi River runs right through the Midwest. It originates in Lake Itasca, Minnesota and flows into the Gulf of Mexico about a hundred miles below New Orleans. The name Mississippi is a corruption of a Native American name “misi-ziibi”, meaning “Great River, Father of Waters”.

As a general rule (there are a few exceptions), radio call signs in the US start with the letter K west of the Mississippi River, and with the letter W to the east.

44 Clay targets, informally : SKEETS

Skeet shooting is one of three types of competitive shotgun target shooting sports, along with trap shooting and sporting clays. The word “skeet” comes from the Scandinavian word “skot,” which means “to shoot.”

45 Official language of Ghana and Botswana: Abbr. : ENG

The country name “Ghana” translates as “warrior king” in the local language. The British established a colony they named the Gold Coast in 1874, later to become Ghana, as part of the scramble by Europeans to settle as much of Africa as they could. One of Ghana’s most famous sons was Kofi Annan, the diplomat who served as General Secretary of the UN for ten years until the beginning of 2007.

Botswana is an African country that is located just north of South Africa. Someone from Botswana is called a “Motswana” (yes, with an M), with the plural being “Batswana” (yes, with a B).

46 Certain mattress material : FOAM

Memory foam is primarily made from polyurethane, and is used to make mattresses. It was developed by NASA in the mid-1960s with the intent of improving the safety of aircraft cushions.

48 Commonly torn band, for short : ACL

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of four major ligaments that support the knee. It is located in the center of the knee and connects the femur (thigh bone) to the tibia (shin bone).

50 Nation that shares an island with part of Indonesia [Indonesian] : EAST TIMOR (from the Indonesian “timur” meaning “east”)

Timor is an island in Maritime Southeast Asia. The island is politically divided into West Timor, belonging to Indonesia, and the independent state of East Timor. The name “Timor” comes from a Malay word for “east”, and is used as Timor lies at the eastern end of the Lesser Sunda Islands.

62 “Mud” : JOE

It seems that no one really knows why we refer to coffee as “joe”, but we’ve been doing so since early in WWII.

63 Like the names of 18-, 25-, 40- and 50- Across vis-à-vis the bracketed languages : TAUTOLOGICAL

“Tautology” is one of my favorite words. It describes needless repetition, the redundant use of words to convey the same message, perhaps in the same sentence.

68 Big fashion inits. : YSL

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)

69 Some downtown street liners : METERS

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!

Down

1 Dramatis personae portrayers : CAST

The dramatis personae a list of the principal characters in a play or other dramatic work. It is usual, but not necessary, to also list the actors playing each character. The phrase “dramatis personae” translates from Latin as “the masks of the drama”.

2 Actress and documentarian Remini : LEAH

Leah Remini is an actress and comedian who is best known for playing Carrie Heffernan on the sitcom “The King of Queens”. More recently, in 2013, Remini competed on “Dancing with the Stars”. After that, Remini appeared as a guest co-host on the show several times. Famously, Remini was a member of the Church of Scientology, and left the organization in 2013. Since leaving, Remini has been very vocal in her criticism of the practices and policies of the church.

3 Arthur of the court : ASHE

Arthur Ashe was a professional tennis player from Richmond, Virginia. In his youth, Ashe found himself having to travel great distances to play against Caucasian opponents due to the segregation that still existed in his home state. He was rewarded for his dedication by being selected for the 1963 US Davis Cup team, the first African-American player to be so honored. Ashe continued to run into trouble because of his ethnicity though, and in 1968 was denied entry into South Africa to play in the South African Open. In 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack and had bypass surgery, with follow-up surgery four years later during which he contracted HIV from blood transfusions. Ashe passed away in 1993 due to complications from AIDS. Shortly afterwards, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.

4 Be absorbed, as a marinade : SOAK IN

Our verb “to marinate” comes from the French “mariner” meaning “to pickle in sea brine”, which in turn comes from the Latin “marinus” meaning “of the sea”. So, “marinade” is related to “marine”.

5 Pole that extends a sail : SPRIT

A sprit is a pole that extends out from a mast, one often supporting a special sail called a spritsail.

8 ___ Virtue, three-time world ice dancing champion : TESSA

Tessa Virtue is a Canadian ice dancer who won the 2010 and 2018 Olympic gold along with her partner Scott Moir. Virtue and Moir have been skating together since 1997, when they were seven and nine years old respectively. That makes them the longest-standing Canadian ice dance team in history.

13 Penguins great Lemieux : MARIO

Mario Lemieux is a retired Canadian NHL player. He played his whole professional career with the Pittsburgh Penguins, from 184 to 2006, and in 1999 took over ownership of the team.

19 First M.L.B. team to use artificial turf in its stadium : ASTROS

“AstroTurf” is the trademarked name of an artificial playing surface suitable for many ball sports. AstroTurf was invented in 1965 and originally went on the market as ChemGrass. The first really big application was in 1966 in the Houston Astrodome, so the name “AstroTurf” was applied and has remained ever since.

23 Persian language : FARSI

Farsi (also known as Persian) is a language spoken by about 62 million people as a first language, and another 50 million or more as a second language. It is the official language of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan.

25 Eye-opening experience? : LASIK

LASIK surgery uses a laser to reshape the cornea of the eye to improve vision. The LASIK acronym stands for “laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis”.

27 ___ Raducanu, 2021 U.S. Open women’s tennis champion : EMMA

Canadian-born, British tennis player Emma Raducanu won the singles title at the US Open, making her the first British woman to win a Grand Slam tournament since Virginia Wade back in 1977.

31 Loch ___ : NESS

Loch Ness is one of the two most famous lakes in Scotland. Loch Ness is famous for its “monster”, and Loch Lomond is famous for the lovely song “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond”. Oh, ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road …

35 Ape’s weapon in “Planet of the Apes” : SPEAR

The “Planet of the Apes” franchise of films is based on a French novel by Pierre Boulle called “La Planète des singes”. The book was published in English as “Monkey Planet”, but was re-released as “Planet of the Apes” when Hollywood had made its choice for a movie title.

36 International oil grp. : OPEC

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) controls a significant portion of the world’s oil supply. OPEC member countries account for around 44% of global oil production and 73% of the world’s oil reserves.

47 It’s just an illusion : MIRAGE

A mirage occurs when light rays are bent by passing from cold air to warmer air. The most often cited mirage is a “lake” seen in a desert, which is actually the blue of the sky and not water at all. The word “mirage” comes to us via French from the Latin “mirare” meaning “to look at in wonder”. “Mirage” has the same root as our words “admire” and “mirror”.

55 Fortune tell : AUGUR

The verb “to augur” means “to bode, serve as an omen”. The term comes from the name of religious officials in ancient Rome called augurs whose job it was to interpret signs and omens.

60 Scale button : 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.

63 Cook with a long history at Apple : TIM

Tim Cook was appointed as Apple’s CEO in 2011, when he succeeded Steve Jobs. Cook had joined the company back in 1998 as senior vice president in charge of worldwide operations. He came out as gay in October of 2014, making Cook the first openly gay CEO of a company on the Fortune 500 list.

64 Bobby of Bruins lore : ORR

Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking. While still 31 years old, in 1979, Orr became the youngest person inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Prior to that, in 1967, Orr became the youngest person named the NHL’s Rookie of the Year.