0919-24 NY Times Crossword 19 Sep 24, Thursday

Bill’s time: 28m 20s

Bill’s errors: 2

LEO (Lea)

SANRIO (Sanria)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Law mandating curb cuts, in brief : ADA

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)

9 A state slogan: Don’t … : … mess with “TEXAS”

“Don’t Mess with Texas” is a phrase that started in an advertising campaign for the Texas Department of Transportation in 1986. The intent behind the campaign was to reduce the amount of litter on the roads by placing signs with the slogan along the major highways. Even though “Don’t Mess with Texas” is a registered trademark, it has been adopted by countless other organizations.

14 Monument seen in the Pacific Northwest : TOTEM

“Totem” is a word used to describe any entity that watches over a group of people. As such, totems are usually the subjects of worship. Totem poles are really misnamed, as they are not intended to represent figures to be worshiped, but rather are heraldic in nature, and often celebrating the legends or notable events in the history of a tribe.

19 Party animal? : PINATA

Piñatas originated in Mexico, probably among the Aztecs or Mayans. Today’s piñatas are usually made from cardboard that is brightly decorated with papier-mâché. Traditionally a piñata was made out of a clay pot, adorned with feathers and ribbons and filled with small treasures. During religious ceremonies the clay pots would be suspended and broken open so that the contents would spill out onto the ground at the feet of a god as an offering.

20 Govt. agency whose initialism omits “Explosives” : ATF

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) today is part of the Department of Justice (DOJ). The ATF has its roots in the Department of Treasury dating back to 1886 when it was known as the Bureau of Prohibition. “Explosives” was added to the ATF’s name when the bureau was moved under the Department of Justice (DOJ) as part of the reorganization called for in the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

21 Yankees slugger Juan : SOTO

Juan Soto is a professional baseball player from Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. He made his MLB debut with the Washington Nationals in 2018, and in so doing became the youngest player in the majors (at 19).

23 Miniature dog : TOY

The toy group of dogs is made up of the smallest breeds. The smallest of the small breeds are sometimes called teacup breeds.

26 Snickers component : NOUGAT

“Nougat” is an Occitan word (Occitania being a region of Southern Europe) that translates as “nut bread”.

Snickers is a candy bar made by Mars. When I was growing up in Ireland, the same candy bar was sold as a Marathon. The name was changed in Europe to Snickers in 1990. 75% of the world’s Snickers bars are made in the Mars factory in Waco, Texas.

33 Performers wearing oshiroi makeup : GEISHAS

The Japanese term “geisha” best translates as “artist” or “performing artist”.

37 Cable channel known for its original movies : LIFETIME

Lifetime is a pay TV channel with programming aimed at women, and programming featuring women in leading roles.

44 Pasta specification : AL DENTE

The Italian expression “al dente” literally means “to the tooth” or “to the bite” and is used to describe not only pasta, but also vegetables that are cooked so that they are tender and yet still crisp.

54 February Revolution abdicator : TSAR

The year 1917 saw two revolutions in Russia, with the pair collectively called “the Russian Revolution”. As a result of the February Revolution that centered on Petrograd, the last Emperor of Russia (Tsar Nicholas II) abdicated and members of the Imperial parliament took control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The Provisional Government was itself overthrown in the October Revolution, which was led by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik party.

58 Rosten who wrote “The Joys of Yiddish” : LEO

Leo Rosten was an American humorist and writer who was actually born in what is now Poland, but who moved to the Chicago area with his family when he was a young child. Rosten is best known for his Yiddish humor and writings.

59 Genesis creator : SEGA

Genesis is a video game console sold in the US by the Japanese company Sega. Genesis is sold as Mega Drive in the rest of the world, as Sega couldn’t get the rights to the Mega Drive name in the US.

61 Group for alkali metals on the periodic table : ONE

The alkali metals form the first column of the periodic table of the elements, consisting of lithium, sodium, potassium and others. All are soft metals that are very reactive. Alkali metals are so reactive in air that they must be stored under oil.

62 More frosty : RIMIER

Rime is the beautiful coating of ice that forms on surfaces like roofs, trees and grass, when cold water freezes instantly under the right conditions.

67 President Obama’s caused Reddit to crash, for short : AMA

Reddit.com is a networking and news website that started up in 2005. It is essentially a bulletin board system with posts that are voted up and down by users, which determines the ranking of posts. The name “Reddit” is a play on “read it”, as in “I read it on Reddit”. One popular feature of the Reddit site is an online forum that is similar to a press conference. Known as an AMA (for “ask me anything”), participants have included the likes of President Barack Obama, Madonna, Bill Gates, Stephen Colbert and Gordon Ramsay. President Obama’s AMA was so popular that the high level of traffic brought down many parts of the Reddit site.

70 Half a score : TEN

Our verb “to score” meaning “to tally”, comes from the Old Norse “skor”, which is a “mark, notch”. It is likely that items such as livestock were counted by placing a notch in a stick for each set of twenty, hence our use of the noun “score” to mean “twenty”.

Down

5 Jason Mraz hit that spent 76 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart : I’M YOURS

“I’m Yours” is a 2008 song written and recorded by Jason Mraz. It was a huge hit, and broke the record for the length of time spent on the “Billboard” Hot 100 chart (76 weeks).

11 Senator’s footwear? : SKATE

The Senators are the NHL hockey team based in Ottawa, Canada. The current team, founded in the 1992-93 season, is the second NHL team in the city to use the name “Senators”. The original team was founded in 1917, and had a very successful run until the league expanded into the US in the late twenties. The cost of operating in what became the smallest NHL city eventually drove the Senators to St. Louis where they played for a year as the Eagles before finally folding.

12 Wyoming peak : TETON

The Teton Range is located just to the south of Yellowstone National Park, and is part of the Rocky Mountains. The origins of the name “Teton” is not very clear, although one story is that it was named by French trappers, as the word “tetons” in French is a slang term meaning “breasts”.

13 Diagnostics done with “Foot-o-scopes” in old shoe stores : X-RAYS

X-rays were first studied comprehensively by the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen (also “Roentgen”), and it was he who gave the name “X-rays” to this particular type of radiation. Paradoxically, in Röntgen’s native language of German, X-rays are routinely referred to as “Röntgen rays”. In 1901, Röntgen’s work on X-rays won him the first Nobel Prize in Physics that was ever awarded.

18 Goads : EGGS ON

The verb “to edge” has been used to mean to incite, to urge on, from the 16th century. Somewhere along the way “edge” was mistakenly replaced with “egg”, giving us our term “to egg on” meaning “to goad”.

22 Thin layer : LAMINA

A lamina is a layer, plate or scale. “Lamina” is Latin for “thin slice”.

27 Some square dancers : GALS

A square dance is a one for eight participants, i.e. four couples. For much of the time, the couples are arranged so that they form the sides of a square, hence the name of the dance.

30 Reporter’s question : WHERE?

The Five Ws (or “Five Ws and one H”) is a journalistic concept used for gathering information. For a story to be complete, six questions need to be answered:

1. Who is it about?
2. What happened?
3. Where did it take place?
4. When did it take place?
5. Why did it happen?
6. How did it happen?

32 Largest city in Yorkshire, England : LEEDS

I went to school for a while not far from Leeds in West Yorkshire in the north of England. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, Leeds was a major center for the production and trading of wool, and then with the onset of mechanization it became a natural hub for manufacture of textiles. These days Leeds is noted as a shopping destination and so has been dubbed “the Knightsbridge of the North”.

34 Certain grocery payment option, for short : EBT

Electronic benefit transfer (EBT)

36 Japanese company that created Hello Kitty : SANRIO

Hello Kitty is a female bobtail cat, and a character/brand name launched in 1974 by the Japanese company Sanrio. Folks can overpay for stationary, school supplies and fashion accessories with the Hello Kitty character emblazoned thereon.

39 Mr. ___ (baseball mascot) : MET

Mr. Met is the mascot of the New York Mets. He is a guy with a large baseball as a head. There’s also a Mrs. Met, a mascot who was previously known as Lady Met.

42 Composer Stravinsky : IGOR

Composer Igor Stravinsky’s most famous works were completed relatively early in his career, when he was quite young. His three ballets “The Firebird”, “Petrushka” and “The Rite of Spring” were published in 1910-1913, when Stravinsky was in his early thirties.

48 Fast-food sandwich that has had multiple “farewell tours” : MCRIB

The McDonald’s McRib sandwich is based on a pork patty. There isn’t any pork rib in the patty though. It is primarily made up of pork shoulder meat reconstituted with tripe, heart and stomach tissue. Enjoy …

49 Character name in both “The Seagull” and “Three Sisters” : IRINA

Anton Chekhov was a Russian writer of short stories and a playwright, as well as a physician. He wrote four classic plays that are often performed all around the world, namely “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Three Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard”. All the time Chekhov was writing, he continued to practice medicine. He is quoted as saying “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.”

55 Adams who co-founded the photography magazine Aperture : ANSEL

As an avid amateur photographer, I have been a big fan of the work of Ansel Adams for many years and must have read all of his books. Adams was famous for clarity and depth in his black and white images. Central to his technique was the use of the zone system, his own invention. The zone system is a way of controlling exposure in an image, particularly when there is a high contrast in the subject. Although the technique was developed primarily for black & white film, it can even apply to digital color images. In the digital world, the main technique is to expose an image for the highlights, and one or more images for the shadows. These images can then be combined digitally giving a final photograph with a full and satisfying range of exposures.

56 Like a bassoon’s sound : REEDY

Our modern bassoon first appeared in the 1800s and has had a place in the concert orchestra ever since.

58 Items given to arriving passengers at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport : LEIS

Honolulu International Airport in Hawaii was renamed in 2012 to honor Senator Daniel K. Inouye, who had represented the state for almost 50 years. Back in the early fifties, Honolulu Airport was the third-busiest in the country, and its 13,000-foot runway was the longest in the world. The facility’s IATA code is “HNL”.