0710-24 NY Times Crossword 10 Jul 24, Wednesday

Constructed by: Hal Moore
Edited by: Joel Fagliano

Today’s Reveal Answer: Vicious Cycles

Themed answers relate to the Tour de France CYCLE race. Circled letters represent the VICIOUS climbs up the slopes of the ALPS and PYRENEES:

  • 40A Hard patterns to break … or a punny description of the climbs up the circled letters : VICIOUS CYCLES
  • 48A Three-week bike race, such as the one featured in this puzzle : GRAND TOUR
  • 16D Typical ending point for this puzzle’s race : CHAMPS ELYSEES

Bill’s time: 8m 58s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Warts and all : AS IS

It is said that the phrase “warts and all” was coined by Oliver Cromwell, although there is no real evidence that he ever uttered the phrase. Cromwell had his portrait painted by Sir Peter Lely, an artist who had a reputation for producing works that flattered the subject. Cromwell was a puritan, and may indeed have instructed Lely to produce a less flattering and more objective image. Indeed, the painting includes warts on Cromwell’s face, imperfections that could easily have been omitted.

5 Drug that’s “dropped” : 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.

12 Formally reject : VETO

The verb “veto” comes directly from Latin and means “I forbid”. The term was used by tribunes of ancient Rome to indicate that they opposed measures passed by the Senate.

14 Like much Cajun chicken : BLACKENED

Cajun cuisine is named for the French-speaking Acadian people who were deported from Acadia in Canada to Louisiana in the 18th century.

16 Literature Nobelist born in French Algeria : CAMUS

Albert Camus was a French author, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. Sadly, Camus died in a car accident just two years after he received the prize, at only 46 years of age.

22 Tuscan red wines : CHIANTIS

Chianti is a red wine from the Chianti region of central Tuscany in Italy. Historically, Chianti was stored in a characteristically bulbous bottle wrapped in a straw basket. However, the pragmatists have won the day and regular wine bottles tend to be used nowadays.

25 Hoosegow : SLAMMER

The cooler, the pen, the joint, the slammer, the can … the prison.

“Hoosegow” is a slang term for “jail”. “Hoosegow” is a mispronunciation of the Mexican-Spanish word “juzgao” meaning “court, tribunal”.

28 Scottish “John” : IAN

The name “John” translates into Scottish as “Ian” or “Iain”, into Russian as “Ivan”, into Italian as “Giovanni”, into Spanish as “Juan”, into Welsh as “Evan”, and into Irish as “Seán”.

33 “Cum On Feel the Noize” band, 1973 : SLADE

Slade is a favorite band from my youth, a rock band from the north of England who made it big during the seventies. One of Slade’s hallmark marketing techniques was a deliberate misspelling of their song titles. A couple of those titles are “Gudbuy T’Jane” and my personal favorite “Cum On Feel the Noize”.

37 Caught some congers : EELED

Conger eels can grow to be very, very large, perhaps up to 10 feet in length.

46 “Tony n’ ___ Wedding” (Off Broadway hit) : TINA’S

“Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding” is described as “environmental theater” as there is a lot of audience participation. The play is basically an Italian-American wedding and reception, with the audience playing the guests.

47 Mourned a death, in Judaism : SAT SHIVA

Shiva is a period of mourning in the Jewish tradition that lasts for one week. “Shiva” is a Hebrew word meaning “seven”. The immediate family members of the deceased usually “sit shiva” in the home of the deceased, and there receive visitors. The ritual of sitting shiva is based on the story in Genesis in which Joseph mourns the death of his father Jacob for seven days.

52 Fraction of a joule : ERG

An erg is a unit of mechanical work or energy. It is a small unit, with one joule comprising 10 million ergs. It has been suggested that an erg is about the amount of energy required for a mosquito to take off. The term comes from “ergon”, the Greek word for work.

54 Hot ___ (winter quaff) : TODDY

The word “toddy” has come a long way. Its origins lie in the Hindi word for a palm tree, which is “tar”. The derivative word “tari” was used for palm sap, which came into English as “tarrie”, then “taddy” and “toddy”, all of which described an alcoholic drink made from fermented palm sap. That was back around 1600. Late in the 18th century, the palm sap drink called “toddy” had morphed into meaning any alcoholic drink made with liquor, hot water, sugar and spices.

Down

1 Duchess of ___ (Goya subject) : ALBA

María Cayetana de Silva was the 13th Duchess of Alba. She was a favorite subject of the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. The duchess is the subject in the famous portraits known as “La maja desnuda” (The Nude Maja) and “La maja vestida” (The Clothed Maja). “Maja” translates from Spanish as “beautiful lady”.

3 Device identifier, in computing : IP ADDRESS

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical label assigned to every device on a computer network. The device that you’re using to read this blog post on has been assigned a unique IP address, as has the computer that I’m using to make this post …

5 Singer/activist Horne : LENA

Lena Horne was an American jazz singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne started her career as a nightclub singer and then began to get some meaty acting roles in Hollywood. However, she ended up on the blacklist during the McCarthy Era for expressing left wing political views. One of Horne’s starring roles was in the 1943 movie “Stormy Weather” for which she also performed the title song.

6 Aerobic exercise option : STEP CLASS

Aerobic exercise is moderate activity designed to be at a low enough intensity that very little anaerobic activity takes place. In other words, the exercise is at a level where oxygen is taken in to burn fat and carbohydrate and to create energy. Anaerobic exercise is more intense and uses carbohydrate (glycogen) in the muscle to provide energy, without the need for oxygen. Aerobics are also called “cardio” as the exercises strengthen the cardiovascular system.

7 Pentagon org. : DOD

The largest government department in the cabinet is the Department of Defense (DOD), with a permanent staff of over 600,000. The smallest department, by far, is the Department of Education, with a mere four or five thousand employees.

The incredible building known as the Pentagon was built during WWII, and dedicated on January 15, 1943. It is the largest office building in the world (by floor space) covering an area of about 6.5 million square feet. As it was built during the war years, a major requirement was that it use a minimum amount of steel. That steel shortage dictated that the building be no more than four stories in height, and hence cover an awful lot of real estate.

9 “Pardon me,” in Pisa : SCUSI

The Italian city of Pisa is home to the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is actually the bell tower of the city’s cathedral. Pisa is also a university town, and is home to one of the oldest universities in Europe, the University of Pisa, which was founded in 1343. The university has produced many notable alumni, including the physicist Galileo Galilei.

16 Typical ending point for this puzzle’s race : CHAMPS ELYSEES

The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is one of the most famous streets in the world. It is the main thoroughfare in Paris, home to the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde. The name “Champs-Élysées” is French for Elysian Fields, a place where the righteous went after death, according to Greek mythology.

Back in the late 1800s, long-distance cycle races were used as promotional events, traditionally to help boost sales of newspapers. These races usually took place around tracks, but in 1902 the backers of the struggling sports publication “L’Auto” decided to stage a race that would take the competitors all around France. That first Tour de France took place in 1903, starting in Paris and passing through Lyon, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes and then back to Paris.

19 Actor Liu : SIMU

Simu Liu is a Chinese-born Canadian actor. One of his more famous roles was the title character in the Marvel Comics 2021 superhero movie “Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings”.

23 Member of the genus Lepus : HARE

Hares belong to the genus Lepus. Young hares under one-year-old are called leverets.

26 Rotation meas. : RPM

Revolutions per minute (rpm)

27 One eschewing rose-tinted glasses : REALIST

“To eschew”, meaning “to avoid, shun”, comes from the Old French word “eschiver” that means the same thing.

30 Composer Rorem : NED

American composer Ned Rorem is famous for his musical compositions, but also for his book “Paris Diary of Ned Rorem” that was published in 1966. Rorem talks openly about his sexuality in the book, and also about the sexual orientation of others including Noël Coward, Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber, much to some people’s chagrin.

32 Box filled with bags : TEA CADDY

A caddy is a container used for tea. “Caddy” comes from the Malay word “kati”, a unit of weight used as a standard by British tea companies in the East Indies.

34 Cloris ___, Emmy-winning actress on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” : LEACHMAN

Actress Cloris Leachman won more primetime Emmy Awards than any other person, mainly for her portrayal of Phyllis Lindstrom on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. She also won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in the 1971 movie “The Last Picture Show”. Back in 1946, she competed in the Miss America pageant as Miss Chicago.

39 Facade : ACT

Our word “facade” has been meaning “front of a building” since the mid-17th century. We started using the term figuratively, to mean “superficial appearance”, in the mid-19th century. “Façade” is the original French word with the same meaning, from which our English term derives.

41 Loan shark’s “business” : USURY

Usury used to be the practice of simply lending money at interest, but the term now refers to lending at rates of interest that are excessive.

48 Clock-setting standard: Abbr. : GMT

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the time at the Prime Meridian, the meridian that runs through Greenwich in London.

49 British ref. : OED

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Warts and all : AS IS
5 Drug that’s “dropped” : LSD
8 Baking abbr. : TSP
11 Long, easy stride : LOPE
12 Formally reject : VETO
13 Many stuffed cat toys : MICE
14 Like much Cajun chicken : BLACKENED
16 Literature Nobelist born in French Algeria : CAMUS
17 Sprinkle in : ADD
18 Like a quarter moon tide : NEAP
19 Most reserved : SHIEST
20 Thought-provoking : DEEP
22 Tuscan red wines : CHIANTIS
24 Take in, as a breath : DRAW
25 Hoosegow : SLAMMER
26 Some whiskeys : RYES
27 React like a startled horse : REAR UP
28 Scottish “John” : IAN
31 What memories are recounted in : PAST TENSE
33 “Cum On Feel the Noize” band, 1973 : SLADE
35 Rx writers : MDS
36 Food, informally : EATS
37 Caught some congers : EELED
38 Wound stinger : SALT
39 In the manner of : A LA
40 Hard patterns to break … or a punny description of the climbs up the circled letters : VICIOUS CYCLES
46 “Tony n’ ___ Wedding” (Off Broadway hit) : TINA’S
47 Mourned a death, in Judaism : SAT SHIVA
48 Three-week bike race, such as the one featured in this puzzle : GRAND TOUR
50 Fire remnant : EMBER
51 Dug up : MINED
52 Fraction of a joule : ERG
53 Brings in : EARNS
54 Hot ___ (winter quaff) : TODDY
55 How to become a whole new hue : DYE
56 Little twerp : SNOT

Down

1 Duchess of ___ (Goya subject) : ALBA
2 “You’ve convinced me!” : SOLD!
3 Device identifier, in computing : IP ADDRESS
4 Moment, informally : SEC
5 Singer/activist Horne : LENA
6 Aerobic exercise option : STEP CLASS
7 Pentagon org. : DOD
8 Segment of this puzzle’s race : TIME TRIAL
9 “Pardon me,” in Pisa : SCUSI
10 Nuisances : PESTS
12 Prez’s proxy : VEEP
13 Where many Penobscot and Passamaquoddy live : MAINE
15 Didn’t just think : KNEW
16 Typical ending point for this puzzle’s race : CHAMPS ELYSEES
19 Actor Liu : SIMU
21 90 degrees, say : EAST
23 Member of the genus Lepus : HARE
24 Group of two : DYAD
25 Mailed : SENT TO
26 Rotation meas. : RPM
27 One eschewing rose-tinted glasses : REALIST
29 Summer refresher : ADE
30 Composer Rorem : NED
32 Box filled with bags : TEA CADDY
34 Cloris ___, Emmy-winning actress on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” : LEACHMAN
38 Went against the Word : SINNED
39 Facade : ACT
40 Food item, quaintly : VIAND
41 Loan shark’s “business” : USURY
42 Base boss, informally : SARGE
43 Book in a biblioteca : LIBRO
44 Occasion : EVENT
45 ___-CoV-2 (virus that causes Covid-19) : SARS
46 Group of three : TRIO
48 Clock-setting standard: Abbr. : GMT
49 British ref. : OED