0616-24 NY Times Crossword 16 Jun 24, Sunday

Bill’s time: 19m 16s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15 A garment, maybe? : BRA

A bra might come in cup-size A.

21 Narrow part of a cloche : BRIM

A cloche hat is a woman’s hat that is in the shape of a bell. The design was introduced in 1908 by Caroline Reboux, and was at its height of popularity in the twenties and early thirties. The hat’s name comes from “cloche”, the French word for “bell”.

25 Sitar great Shankar : RAVI

Ravi Shankar was perhaps the most famous virtuoso (to us Westerners) from the world of Indian classical music, and was noted for his sitar playing. Shankar was the father of the pop singer Norah Jones.

26 Variable directive : SOLVE FOR

Solve for x, or maybe y …

27 Snack sometimes served with birria : TACO

Birria is a meat stew from Mexican cuisine. What is essential to the dish is that the meat be marinated in an adobo before being cooked in a broth. The traditional meat used in the stew is goat. Goats were brought to Mexico by the Conquistadors, even though they viewed goat meat as an inferior food. As such, they gave the goats to the locals, who learned to make the meat papatable by marinating and stewing it. The Spanish referred to the resulting dish as “birria”, meaning “worthless”. The name stuck.

29 Pair that’s unlikely to win : DEUCES

A two in a deck of playing cards might be called a “deuce”, from the Middle French “deus” (or Modern French “deux”) meaning “two”.

31 Mirren who has portrayed three different British queens on screen : HELEN

Helen Mirren, one of my favorite English actresses, has played three different queens on film and television. She played Queen Elizabeth II on the 2006 film “The Queen”, the title role in the TV drama “Elizabeth I”, and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of the title character in the 1994 film “The Madness of King George”. Mirren won the “Triple Crown of Acting” for playing:

• Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen” (winning Best Actress Oscar)
• Queen Elizabeth II in “The Audience” (winning Best Actress in a Play Tony)
• Detective Jane Tennison in “Prime Suspect” (winning Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy)

32 HOLIDAY, MONSOON, TAX, TOURIST? : SEASON OPENERS

The term “monsoon” was first used in India in the days of the British Raj, when it described the seasonal winds that brought rain from the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea from June to September. “Monsoon” is derived from the Portuguese “monção”, which in turn comes from the Arabic “mawsim” meaning “season”.

37 Horror director Ari : ASTER

Ari Aster is a film director from New York City. He is into horror films, and I am not …

38 Item repeatedly stepped on by Sideshow Bob on “The Simpsons” : RAKE

Sideshow Bob is a recurring character in “The Simpsons” who is voiced by Kelsey Grammer. By all accounts, Bob is like an evil version of Frasier Crane, the character played by Grammer in “Cheers” and “Frasier”.

39 ___ orientation, consideration in American Sign Language : PALM

It’s really quite unfortunate that American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) are very different, and someone who has learned to sign in one cannot understand someone signing in the other.

40 A-, DREAM, SWAT, TAG? : TEAM LEADERS

“SWAT” is an acronym standing for Special Weapons and Tactics. The first SWAT team was pulled together in the Los Angeles Police Department in 1968.

44 Stevie Wonder’s “___ She Lovely” : ISN’T

“Isn’t She Lovely” is a Stevie Wonder song that he released in 1976. The song refers to Wonder’s daughter Aisha Morris, who was born in the prior year.

48 Fish that shares its name with a body part : SOLE

Dover sole is the name given to two different species of flatfish. The common sole found in the Atlantic is called “Dover sole” in Europe, taking its name from the fishing port of Dover on the English coast where a lot of the fish was landed. The second species found in the Pacific is known as “Dover sole” on the Pacific coast of America. The Pacific species is called “Dover sole” just because it resembles the European species.

55 ___ cave : PLATO’S

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” appears in his Socratic dialogue titled “Republic”. He uses the allegory to make the point that some people can be comfortable in their ignorance and become hostile towards someone who tries to educate them, to make them aware of their ignorance.

59 Performance often accompanied by supertitles : OPERA

Conceptually, surtitles (also “supertitles”) at say an opera are like subtitles in a film. Translations of the libretto are projected above the stage for the benefit of the audience.

69 Tuckered out : BUSHED

To be “bushed” is to be tired. The term is American in origin and dates back to the 1870s. The exact etymology is unclear, but it may somehow refer to being lost in the woods, lost in the bush.

The exact etymology of the verb “to tucker”, meaning “to tire”, seems to be uncertain. However, it seems to have originated in New England, and at least dates back to the 1830s.

72 Hit musical about a politician : EVITA

“Evita” was the follow-up musical to “Jesus Christ Superstar” for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Both of these works were originally released as album musicals, and very successful ones at that (I remember buying them when they first came out). “Evita” was made into a film in 1996, with Madonna playing the title role and Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce playing her husband Juan Perón.

74 Its national anthem is “Jana Gana Mana” : INDIA

The national anthem of India is titled “Jana Gana Mana”, and is known in English as “Thou Art the Ruler of the Minds of All People”.

76 Neighbor of 74-Across, on a Risk board : SIAM

Risk is a fabulous board game that was introduced in France in 1957. It was invented by a very successful French director of short films called Albert Lamorisse. Lamorisse called his new game “La Conquête du Monde”, which translates into English as “The Conquest of the World”. A game of Risk is a must during the holidays in our house …

78 Cheese with a white mold rind : BRIE

Brie is a soft cheese that is named for the French region in which it originated. Brie is similar to the equally famous (and delicious) Camembert. Brie is often served baked in puff pastry with fig jam.

83 Jonathan Van ___ of “Queer Eye” : NESS

Hairdresser Jonathan Van Ness is best known as the grooming expert on the TV show “Queer Eye” (the Netflix revival of the original series). He joined the cast in 2018.

91 Hertz, e.g. : UNIT

The unit of frequency measure is the hertz (Hz). It is the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. The unit is named for Heinrich Hertz, the German physicist who proved the existence of electromagnetic waves.

106 Streaming device whose name means “six” in Japanese : ROKU

Roku is a manufacturer of digital media players that allow access to audio and video programming over the Internet that is shown on television. The company was founded in Los Gatos, California in 2002 by Anthony Wood. Wood chose the name “Roku” as it is the Japanese word for “six”, and Roku is the sixth company that Wood founded.

107 Fighter of Ravana, in Hindu lore : RAMA

In the Hindu tradition, the god Vishnu has several different avatars i.e. incarnations or manifestations. Rama is the seventh of these avatars.

109 BRIDAL, COLD, GATORADE, METEOR? : SHOWER HEADS

Gatorade was developed at the University of Florida by a team of researchers at the request of the school’s football team. And so, Gatorade is named after the Gators football team.

A meteoroid is a small rocky or metallic body traveling through space. Once in the atmosphere, the meteoroid is referred to as a “meteor” or “shooting star”. Almost all meteoroids burn up, but if one is large enough to survive and reach the ground then we call it a meteorite. The word “meteor” comes from the Greek “meteōros” meaning “high in the air”.

112 One of Canada’s First Nations : CREE

“First Nations” is a term used in Canada describing the ethnicity of Native Americans who are neither Inuit nor Métis people.

Down

1 Ceremony with a censer : MASS

In the Roman Catholic tradition, a High Mass is more elaborate than a Low Mass. The former is usually a sung Mass and may involve more than one celebrant.

2 Tina Turner or Stevie Nicks, e.g. : ALTO

“Tina Turner” was the stage name used by Anna Mae Bullock, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Turner always loved Europe and moved there in the eighties, splitting her time between her homes in England, France and Switzerland.

Singer Stevie Nicks came to fame as the lead singer of Fleetwood Mac. She has a very distinctive voice, heard at its best (I think) on the famous 1977 album “Rumours”.

3 Where you might say “That’s my cue!” : POOL HALL

The more correct name for the game of pool is “pocket billiards”. The designation “pool” arose after pocket billiards became a common feature in “pool halls”, places where gamblers “pooled” their money to bet on horse races.

5 Faux pas : GAFFE

Our word “gaffe”, meaning “social blunder”, comes from the French “gaffe” meaning “clumsy remark”, although it originally was a word describing a boat hook. The exact connection between a boat hook and a blunder seems to be unclear.

The term “faux pas” is French in origin, and translates literally as “false step” (or “false steps”, as the plural has the same spelling in French).

6 Notable bankruptee of 2001 : ENRON

After all the trials following the exposure of fraud at Enron, several of the key players ended up in jail. Andrew Fastow was the Chief Financial Officer. He plea-bargained and received ten years without parole, and became the key witness in the trials of others. Even Fastow’s wife was involved and she was sentenced to one year for helping her husband hide money. Jeffrey Skilling (ex-CEO) was sentenced to 24 years and 4 months. Kenneth Lay (CEO) died in 2006 after he had been found guilty but before he could be sentenced. The accounting firm Arthur Andersen was found guilty of obstruction of justice for shredding thousands of pertinent documents and deleting emails and files (a decision that the Supreme Court later overturned on a technicality). But still, Arthur Andersen collapsed under the weight of the scandal and 85,000 people lost their jobs (despite only a handful being directly involved with Enron).

9 Formicary resident : ANT

“Formicary” is another name for “ant nest”, and comes from the Latin “formica” meaning “ant”. The phrase “ant colony” describes the ants living in an ant nest. A formicarium is similar to an aquarium, and used to house an ant colony perhaps for study. The phrase “ant farm” is usually reserved for ant nests built by an ant colony in a formicarium.

10 Come to term with? : GESTATE

The normal gestation period for humans is 280 days, a little over 9 months. The gestation period can be a little shorter, or longer. Back in 1945, a pregnancy was confirmed at 375 days, which is just over 12 months.

12 Ancient performance space : ODEON

In ancient Greece, an odeon (also “odeum”) was like a small theater, with “odeon” literally meaning “building for musical competition”. Odea were used in both Greece and Rome for entertainments such as musical shows and poetry readings.

21 Sultanate just north of the Equator : BRUNEI

The official name of Brunei is the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace. Brunei is situated on the island of Borneo, almost completely surrounded by Malaysia. Brunei’s government is dictated by the constitution adopted in 1959, and is ruled by a sultan with full executive authority. The main language spoken in the country is “Melayu Brunei” (Brunei Malay), with the official language being Malay. Apparently Malay and Brunei Malay are quite different from each other, with native speakers finding it difficult to understand each other.

33 Class often offered at the library, for short : ESL

English as a Second Language (ESL)

34 Root used in perfumery : ORRIS

Orris root is a basic ingredient in many perfumes, one providing a so-called “base note”. It is also an ingredient in some brands of gin.

36 Cuisine with larb and green papaya salad : LAO

Larb is a traditional dish from Lao cuisine that is made with minced meat, fish sauce, lime juice, and various herbs and spices. It is often considered the national dish of Laos, although it is also popular in neighboring countries like Thailand and Vietnam. The word “larb” is derived from the Lao word “laap,” which means “to mince” or “to chop finely.”

42 Kitty contribution : ANTE

The pot in a card game has been referred to as “the kitty” since the 1880s. It’s not certain how the name “kitty” evolved but possibly it comes from “kit”, the necessary equipment for the game.

47 Things a wedding D.J. might introduce : TOASTS

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 …

51 Honolulu palace name : ‘IOLANI

The ‘Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu is unique within this country. It is the only royal palace in the US that was used as an official residence by a reigning monarch. The Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in 1893 so the palace was used by successive governments even after Hawaii was awarded statehood in 1959. The palace has been a public museum since 1978.

54 Trojan War hero : AENEAS

Aeneas was a Trojan hero of myth who traveled to Italy and became the ancestor of all Romans. Aeneas’s story is told in Virgil’s epic poem “The Aeneid”.

57 Where van Gogh’s “The Yellow House” is set : ARLES

“Bedroom in Arles” is the title given to three similar but different paintings by Vincent van Gogh. The artist himself used the title “The Bedroom” for all three works. The room in question was his own bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles in the south of France where he rented rooms in 1888. We can view the first version in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the second in the Art Institute of Chicago, and the third in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

61 Classic British sitcom character inspired by Jacques Tati : MR BEAN

Monsieur Hulot is a celebrated comedic character played by French actor Jacques Tati in several films in the fifties and sixties, including “Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot” (1953) and “Mon Oncle” (1959). Rowan Atkinson draws on the antics of Monsieur Hulot when he plays his “Mr. Bean”.

62 Body of work : OEUVRE

The sum of an artist’s work in his or her lifetime is known as his or her “oeuvre”.

64 Conductance units : MHOS

Conductance (measured in “mhos”) is the inverse of resistance (measured in “ohms”). The mho has been replaced by the SI unit called the siemens.

70 City that entirely surrounds another country : ROME

Vatican City is a sovereign city-state that is walled off within the city of Rome. Vatican City is about 110 acres in area, and so is the smallest independent state in the world. With about 800 residents, it is also the smallest state in terms of population. Although the Holy See dates back to early Christianity, Vatican City only came into being in 1929. At that time, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini signed a treaty with the Holy See on behalf of the Kingdom of Italy that established the city-state.

71 N.Y. commuter line : LIRR

The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) is the commuter rail service that runs all over Long Island, New York with 124 stations and 700 miles of track. More people use the LIRR than any other commuter railroad in the US. It is also the only commuter railroad in the country that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

73 Leader in the Cuban War of Independence : 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.

96 Atlanta university : EMORY

Emory University is a private school in Atlanta, Georgia with a focus on graduate research. The school was named after a Methodist Episcopal bishop called John Emory, who was very popular at the time of the school’s founding in 1836.

100 Propelled a shell : OARED

A scull is a boat used for competitive rowing. The main hull of the boat is often referred to as a shell. Crew members who row the boat can be referred to as “oars”. And, a scull is also an oar mounted on the stern of a small boat. It’s all very confusing …

103 Loretta of “M*A*S*H” : SWIT

Loretta Swit started playing Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan on “M*A*S*H” in 1972. She and Alan Alda were the only actors who appeared in both the pilot and the series finale. Swit has written a book on needlepoint, would you believe? It’s called “A Needlepoint Scrapbook”.

108 Principal on “Abbott Elementary” : AVA

“Abbott Elementary” is a sitcom in the mockumentary genre. The show was created by and stars Quinta Brunson as a cup-half-full second-grade teacher in a Philadelphia public school. The premise of “Abbott Elementary” is that a film crew is making a documentary about the lives of teachers working in underfunded schools.

111 Department that helps a company run, informally : OPS

Operations (ops)