0525-24 NY Times Crossword 25 May 24, Saturday

Bill’s time: 19m 18s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Old currency of Massachusetts : WAMPUM

Wampum are sacred shell beads of North American tribes in the Eastern United States. The early European colonists often used wampum to trade with the native peoples. From this original usage, “wampum” came to be a slang term for money.

7 Sub-Saharan menaces : MAMBAS

Mambas, most famously black mambas, are highly venomous snakes that used to be responsible for a great number of fatalities before anti-venoms became available. Mamba venom is a deadly mix of neurotoxins that attack the nervous system and cardiotoxins that attack the heart. A bite, if left untreated, causes the lungs and the heart to shut down.

13 Creatures with a “third eye” sensitive to ultraviolet light : IGUANAS

Iguanas have what is known as a “third eye” on their heads. Known as the parietal eye, it can sense levels of light, although it cannot make out details.

15 Shaded circle : AREOLA

An areola (sometimes “areole”) in anatomy is a small ring of color, as in the areola surrounding the nipple, and the areola surrounding the pupil of the eye. “Areola” (plural “areolae”) comes from Latin, meaning “small open space”, and is a diminutive of the Latin word “area”, meaning “open space”.

16 It falls on the eve of Christmas Eve : FESTIVUS

Festivus is celebrated by some on December 23 each year, and has been done so since 1966. The holiday is an invention of the writer Dan O’Keefe. He introduced is to his family as a way of celebrating the season without falling prey to commercial pressure. Festivus has become popular since it was featured in a 1997 episode of the TV sitcom “Seinfeld”. Dan O’Keefe’s son was a screenwriter for that episode.

18 Result of getting doubles in Monopoly : REROLL

In the game of Monopoly, there are three ways that a player can end up in jail:

1. Landing directly on the “Go to Jail” space
2. Throwing three consecutive doubles in one turn
3. Drawing a “Go (Directly) to Jail” card from Chance or Community Chest

19 Palm off (on) : FOIST

The word “foist”, meaning “to pass off fraudulently as genuine”, comes from the Dutch word meaning “take in hand”. The original concept came from playing dice, in which one die was held surreptitiously in one hand.

22 Apt name for a spelling champ : BEA

Back in 18th-century America, when neighbors would gather to work for the benefit of one of their group, such a meeting was called a bee. The name “bee” was an allusion to the social nature of the insect. In modern parlance, a further element of entertainment and pleasure has been introduced, for example in a quilting bee, or even a spelling bee.

23 “Anne of Green Gables” author ___ Maud Montgomery : LUCY

“Anne of Green Gables” is a 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery that she set in the fictional Prince Edward Island community of Avonlea. Montgomery wrote several sequels to “Anne”, with them all being set on Prince Edward Island (PEI), from where the author hailed.

24 Text acronym : 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.

25 “The King and I” setting : SIAM

“The King and I” is a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical based on a book by Margaret Landon called “Anna and the King of Siam” first published in 1944. Landon’s book is based on a true story, told in the memoirs of Anna Leonowens. Leonowens was the governess of the children of King Mongkut of Siam in the 1860s, and she also taught the king’s wives.

27 Beverage at une brasserie : BIERE

“Bière” is French for “beer”.

A brasserie is a kind of French restaurant that’s usually a step up from a bistro. “Brasserie” is the French word for “brewery”, and the original brasseries in France served beer that was brewed on the premises.

28 Streaks overhead : CIRRI

Cirrus (plural “cirri”) clouds are those lovely wispy, white strands that are often called “mare’s tails”.

33 Time-saving tricks : HACKS

A life hack is a technique that makes a routine task easier or more efficient. The term “life hack” was coined in 2004 by journalist Danny O’Brien when describing less-than-elegant shortcuts used by IT professionals.

34 Lover of literature : ROMEO

William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” is all about the love between the two title characters, which is forbidden as the pair come from two families who are sworn enemies. Early in the play, Romeo (a Montague) sneaks into a masquerade ball being held by the Capulets in the hope of meeting a Capulet girl named Rosaline. Instead, he meets and falls for Juliet, also a Capulet. Tragedy ensues …

‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.

39 Name of two ancient kings of Phrygia, the first of whom is the famous one : MIDAS

King Midas of Greek mythology might be termed an alchemist as he had the power to turn everything he touched into gold i.e. the Midas touch. That power became a curse, as everything he touched turned to gold, including his food and drink, and even his children.

40 Shock, in a way : TASE

Victor Appleton wrote a novel for young adults called “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle”. The company that developed the TASER electroshock weapon partly named its product as a homage to the novel. The acronym “TASER” stands for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”.

44 Rearrange to fit, jocularly : TETRIS

Tetris is a very addictive video game that was developed in the Soviet Union in 1984. The name Tetris comes from a melding of the prefix “tetra-” (as all the game pieces have four segments) and “tennis” (a favorite sport played by the developer). Since 2005 there have been more than 100 million copies of the game installed on cell phones alone.

46 Red sauce : SRIRACHA

Sriracha hot chili sauce is named for the coastal city of Si Racha in eastern Thailand, where the recipe likely originated. Here in North America, we are most familiar with the Sriracha sold in a red bottle with a green that is made by Huy Fong Foods in the city of Irwindale, California. The manufacturer was founded by Vietnamese refugee David Tran, who escaped from Vietnam in 1978 on a Taiwanese freighter called the Huey Fong, after which he named his new company.

49 Highly significant, as a stretch of time : EPOCHAL

Something described as epochal, relates to an epoch, a memorable period of time. An extended meaning of “epoch” is “highly significant, earth-shattering”.

50 Treat often served in a glass cup : SUNDAE

There’s a lot of speculation about how the dessert called a sundae got its name, but there seems to be agreement that it is an alteration of the word “Sunday”.

Down

1 ___ ball : WIFFLE

Wiffle ball is a “short-range” version of baseball that is played with a light, perforated, plastic ball and a light plastic bat. The wiffle ball was invented in 1953 by David N. Mullany for his 12-year-old son. His son referred to strikeouts as “whiffs”, which gave the invention its name.

3 Reggaetón, e.g. : MUSICA

Reggaetón is a genre of music that is rooted in Latin and Caribbean music. It originated in Panama and today is very much associated with Puerto Rico.

4 Sap : PATSY

The etymology of the word “patsy” meaning “fall guy” isn’t really understood. One colorful theory suggests that the term comes from an 1890s vaudeville character named Patsy Bolivar. Patsy always got the blame when something went wrong.

“Sap” is slang for “fool, someone easily scammed”. The term arose in the early 1800s in Britain when it was used in “saphead” and “sapskull”. All these words are derived from “sapwood”, which is the softwood found in tree trunks between the bark and the heartwood at the center.

6 “Top Gun” nickname : MAV

Here are some of the more notable characters in the 1986 movie “Top Gun”:

• Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise)
• Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood (Kelly McGillis)
• Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards)
• Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer)
• Mike “Viper” Metcalf (Tom Skerritt)
• Rick “Jester” Heatherly (Michael Ironside)

7 Cuba’s José ___ International Airport : MARTI

José Martí was a Cuban writer and political activist who became a symbol for his country’s movement to gain independence from Spain in the 1800s, earning him the nickname “Apostle of Cuban Independence”. Martí was killed in action in a battle against Spanish troops in 1895.

8 God who duels Percy Jackson, in children’s literature : ARES

“Percy Jackson & the Olympians” is a series of children’s adventure stories written by Rick Riordan. Two of the books have been adapted into movies: “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” (2010) and “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters” (2013).

10 Vocally negative fans, in sports slang : BOOBIRDS

A boobird is a sports fan who does a lot of booing.

12 Sub stack? : SALAMI

“Salame” (note the letter E at the end) is an Italian sausage that is traditionally associated with the peasant classes. The meat in the sausage is preserved with salt, and it can be hung and stored for as long as ten years. The name “salame” comes from “sale”, the Italian word for salt, and “-ame”, a suffix indicating a collective noun. Our English word “salami” is actually the Italian plural for “salame”.

14 Drag through Hollywood : SUNSET STRIP

The Los Angeles thoroughfare Sunset Boulevard is 22 miles long, stretching from downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Ocean. The most famous part of Sunset Boulevard is the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, a 1½-mile stretch that is home to high-end boutiques, restaurants and nightclubs.

21 Setting for the classic film line “I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!” : SIERRA MADRE

“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” is a 1927 novel by German novelist B. Traven. The book was made into a famous 1948 movie of the same name by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart and Walter Huston (director John’s father).

25 Religiously mandated surname for Sikh men : SINGH

Sikhism is a religion that was founded in the Punjab region, which straddles the India-Pakistan border. Even though Sikhism was established relatively recently, it is now the fifth-largest organized religion in the world. Sikhism was founded in the 15th century by Guru Nanak.

27 Resists, with “at” : BALKS …

To balk is to stop and refuse to go on. It’s not just a baseball term …

28 Cien divided by veinte : CINCO

In Spanish, “cien” (a hundred) divided by “veinte” (twenty) is “cinco” (five).

29 Strong scents : MUSKS

Musk has such an elegant connotation these days because of its use in the world of perfumery. However, its origin is not quite so glamorous. The original substance called musk, also used in perfumes, was extracted from a gland in the rectal area of the male musk deer. The name “musk” is a Sanskrit word for “testicle”.

30 Tiny arachnids : MITES

Mites are tiny arthropods in the arachnid (spider) class. They are (annoyingly!) very successful creatures that have adapted to all sorts of habitats. And being so small, mites generally pass unnoticed. Ick …

33 Break : HIATUS

A hiatus is a break or opening in a material object, or an interruption in time. “Hiatus” is Latin for “opening”.

37 Potpourri assortment : PETALS

The French term “pot pourri” translates literally to “rotten pot”, but in France it used to mean “stew”. Over time, the term “potpourri” evolved in English usage to mean a “medley”, and eventually a mixture of dried flowers and spices.

39 Shot with English : MASSE

massé shot

40 GI, e.g. : TRACT

The gastrointestinal (GI) tract is a tube by which humans and other animals deliver food to the digestive organs, and dispose of solid wastes.

42 ___ Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker : TINA

Tina Brown is a British/American journalist and author. Brown wrote “The Diana Chronicles”, a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, of whom Brown was a personal friend. She emigrated to the US in 1984 to become editor for “Vanity Fair”, and later took the helm at “The New Yorker”.

43 Holey footwear : CROC

Crocs are foam clogs that were originally designed as shoes to be worn at health spas. I recently bought my first pair of crocs, and now my kids won’t talk to me …

47 Time to take stock? : IPO

An initial public offering (IPO) is a significant event for a company as it marks the first time it becomes a publicly traded company. IPOs are often accompanied by a so-called “lock-up period.” This is a period of time, typically 90 to 180 days after the IPO, during which company insiders, such as executives and early investors, are not allowed to sell their shares on the open market. The purpose of the lock-up period is to prevent a flood of shares from hitting the market and potentially driving down the price of the stock.