0329-24 NY Times Crossword 29 Mar 24, Friday

Bill’s time: 15m 40s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

7 Home to the world’s largest population of Indian rhinos : ASSAM

Assam is a state in the far northeast of India, and just south of the Himalayas. It is noted for its tea, as well as its silk.

There are five types of rhinoceros that survive today, with the smaller Javan Rhino being the most rare. The rhinoceros is probably the rarest large mammal on the planet, thanks to poaching. Hunters mainly prize the horn of the rhino as it is used in powdered form in traditional Chinese medicine.

16 Geometry suffix : -GON

The suffix -gon comes from the Greek “gonia” meaning “angle, knee”. An octagon, for example, has eight angles, and a polygon has many angles.

19 ___ acid : AMINO

Amino acids are essential to life in many ways, not least of which is their use as the building blocks of proteins. Nine amino acids are considered “essential” for humans. These nine must be included in the diet as they cannot be synthesized in the body.

21 “The Book of Mormon” org. : LDS

“The Book of Mormon” is a satirical musical by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (of “South Park” fame) and Robert Lopez (of “Avenue Q” and “Frozen” fame). The show follows two missionaries from the Mormon Church seeking converts in a remote village in Uganda.

23 Trying to get a hold of : DIALING

The first patent for a rotary dial mechanism for a phone was granted in 1898, and the familiar rotary dial phones (with holes for the finger) were introduced by the Bell System in 1919. This form of dialing was called “pulse dialing”. When you dialed the number 5, say, the dial would rotate back to the start position, opening and closing electrical contacts five times and sending five pulses over the telephone line. I used to love rotary dial phones when I was a kid. My grandfather was a telephone engineer and he showed me how to “tap out” the pulses on the “hook” at the top of a pay phone. I was able to make free calls that way. He definitely contributed to the delinquency of a minor …

26 Hunks of plastic? : KENS

Barbie’s male counterpart doll is Ken, and Ken’s family name is Carson. Barbie’s full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts. When Ken was introduced in 1959, it was as Barbie’s boyfriend. In 2004 it was announced that Ken and Barbie were splitting up, and needed to spend quality time apart. Soon after the split, Barbie “met” Blaine, a boogie boarder from Australia. Happily, Barbie and Ken reconciled and reunited on Valentine’s Day 2011.

35 Form a connection where sparks fly : WELD

In the process of arc welding, metal is fused by the heat generated in an electrical arc. The welder uses two cables from an electrical power source. One cable is attached to the metal being welded, and the other to an electrode. The tip of the electrode is touched to the base metal causing a spark and an electrical arc. The electrode is held at an appropriate distance from the base metal to maintain the arc, which creates enough heat to melt the electrode and base metal.

43 One of the Minecraft protagonists : STEVE

Minecraft is a video game that was released in 2011. It is the most popular video game of all time, with well over 200 million units sold.

44 Animal whose singular and plural forms are the same : MOOSE

The moose is the largest species in the deer family, and can stand almost at 7 feet at the shoulder. Moose are a little unusual in that they are solitary animals, unlike other deers who tend to move in herds. We use the term “moose” here in North America, but confusingly, the same animal is referred to as “elk” in British English.

45 Like much of Azerbaijan’s population : SHIA

Azerbaijan is a former Soviet Republic lying on the Caspian Sea just northeast of Iran. The Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was established in 1918 and became the Muslim world’s first democratic and secular state. It didn’t last long though, as two years later it was absorbed into the Soviet Union.

49 Bust : CATCH RED-HANDED

To be caught red-handed is to be caught in the act. The expression originated in Scotland and dates back at least to the 1400s. The red in question is blood, as in being caught with blood on one’s hands after perhaps committing a murder or an act of poaching.

54 Juno, to Jupiter : SISTER

Jupiter, also known as Jove, was the king of the gods in the Roman tradition, as well as the god of sky and thunder. Jupiter was the Roman equivalent to the Greek god Zeus.

Juno was the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, and also looked after the interests of the women of Rome. She was the sister and wife of Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods.

Down

2 Enlightened Buddhist : ARHAT

“Arhat” is a Sanskrit word, the exact translation of which is somewhat disputed, with the various Buddhist traditions assuming different meanings. Translations vary from “worthy one” to “vanquisher of enemies”. In Theravada Buddhism, an arhat is someone who is fully enlightened, has achieved nirvana.

7 I.M. innovator : AOL

Even though instant messaging (sending and receiving IMs) has been around since the 1960s, it was AOL who popularized the term “instant message” in the eighties and nineties. The “AOL Instant Message” service was known as AIM.

13 Ones who might roast you : CANNIBALS

The term “cannibalism” was coined by the Spanish, working from the name of the Carib people of the Lesser Antilles. The Spanish explorers of the Caribbean believed that the Carib people ate human flesh for food, but apparently this was untrue (although there was a war ritual that involved some chewing of an enemy’s flesh). The eating of human flesh has been noted throughout history, in many parts of the world. In fact, Fiji in the South Pacific was once known as “Cannibal Isles”.

14 Speed of sound : MACH ONE

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”.

20 Tripping : ON LSD

Someone taking the drug LSD is often said to be “dropping acid”. The use of the verb “to drop” was popular slang long before LSD came on the scene, and back then applied to the taking of any illegal drug.

24 First book in the series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” familiarly : GOT

“A Game of Thrones” is the first novel in the series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin titled “A Song of Ice and Fire”. That first novel’s title gives its name to “Game of Thrones”, the incredibly popular HBO television series that uses the storyline from the whole series of books.

32 Typing meas. : WPM

Words per minute (wpm)

33 Christ the Redeemer wore a facsimile of his jersey in 2023 : PELE

“Pelé” was the nickname of Edson de Nascimento, a soccer player who used the name “Pelé” for most of his life. For my money, Pelé was the world’s greatest ever player of the game. He was the only person to have been a member of three World Cup winning squads (1958, 1962 and 1970), and was a national treasure in his native Brazil. One of Pele’s nicknames was “O Rei do Futebol” (the King of Football).

The iconic statue of Jesus overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is known as “Cristo Redentor” (Christ the Redeemer). The statue was constructed between 1922 and 1931. It is the largest Art Deco statue in the world, as it stands over 30 meters tall.

38 Doctrines : TENETS

A tenet is an article of faith, something that is held to be true. “Tenet” is Latin for “he/she/it holds”.

39 Sauron’s realm : MORDOR

Mordor is a fictional land in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. It is a place of great danger, but also home to the volcano Mount Doom. Mount. Mount Doom is the only place where the One Ring can be destroyed, and so it is the destination of the Fellowship of the Ring in their quest to save Middle-earth.

In J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”, Sauron is the actual “Lord of the Rings”. Sauron was the Dark Lord Morgoth’s trusted lieutenant.

40 Computer acronym since the 1960s : ASCII

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) lists codes for 32 “control” characters, as well as the 95 printable characters. These binary codes are the way that our computers can understand what we mean when we type, say a letter or a number. Unicode is a more contemporary standard, and is like “Ascii on steroids”, encompassing more characters.

42 Saint ___ : KITTS

Saint Kitts is the more familiar name for Saint Christopher Island in the West Indies. Saint Kitts, along with the neighboring island of Nevis, is part of the country known as the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint Kitts has had a troubled history, with the Spanish, British and French all vying for control of the island. Most of the population today is descended from slaves brought onto Saint Kitts to farm tobacco and then sugarcane. Most of the slaves were from Africa, although Irish and Scottish slaves were also used.

44 Canine woe : MANGE

Mange is a skin disorder in animals caused by parasitic mites that embed themselves in the skin, perhaps living in hair follicles. The same disorder in humans is called scabies. We use the adjective “mangy” to describe an animal suffering from mange, but also anything that is seedy or shabby.

51 “To ___ Coy Mistress” (Andrew Marvell poem) : HIS

“To His Coy Mistress” is a mid-17th century love poem by English metaphysical poet and politician Andrew Marvell. The poem is a famous “carpe diem” work, in which he pleads with a woman he loves to refrain from spurning him and to respond to his advances. Marvell wants her to “seize the day”.

My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
A hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.