1016-24 NY Times Crossword 16 Oct 24, Wednesday

Constructed by: Hanh Huynh
Edited by: Joel Fagliano

Today’s Reveal Answer: Beginner Spanish

Themed answers are common words parsed as two-word phrases BEGINNING with a SPANISH term:

  • 39A Introductory foreign language class suggested by this puzzle’s theme : BEGINNER SPANISH
  • 17A Three tickets : “TRES” PASSES
  • 26A With money : “CON” TENDER
  • 51A More revered : “MAS” SACRED
  • 60A Crazy reason : “LOCO” MOTIVE

Bill’s time: 9m 01s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Friend on “Friends” : JOEY

Actor Matt LeBlanc became famous playing Joey Tribbiani in the sitcom “Friends”, and extended that role into a less successful spinoff show “Joey”. For my money, LeBlanc’s best performances are playing a fictionalized version of himself in the excellent sitcom “Episodes” that ran from 2011 to 2017. In all three of the aforementioned series, we hear LeBlanc uttering his trademark pickup line “How you doin’?”

5 Besmirch : SMEAR

“Besmirch” is a derivative of “smirch”, with both words meaning to “make dirty”. In particular, to besmirch is to sully someone’s reputation.

10 U.S. immigration policy, familiarly : DACA

The acronym “DACA” stands for “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals”, which is a US immigration policy giving some relief to illegal immigrants brought into the country as children. Essentially, DACA provides such persons with a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation, during which time an applicant becomes eligible for a work permit. The policy was introduced by President Obama in 2012.

23 L’il ___ : ABNER

“Li’l Abner” was created and drawn by Al Capp for over 43 years starting in 1934. Al Capp stopped producing the strip in 1977, largely due to illness (he died from emphysema two years later). As the strip finished up, he went so far as to apologize to his long-standing fans, saying that he should have stopped 3-4 years earlier as he felt that the quality of his work had gone down in those latter years. The title character’s full name is “Li’l Abner Yokum”. Despite being referred to as “Li’l”, Abner is 6’ 3” tall.

33 Onetime Houston athlete whose helmet featured a derrick : OILER

The Houston Texans football team has been in the NFL since 2002. Houston had been home to the Oilers football team, but that franchise moved to Nashville in 1997 to become the Tennessee Titans.

35 Frodo Baggins’s pursuers : ORCS

Frodo Baggins is a principal character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”. He is a Hobbit, and is charged with the quest of destroying Sauron’s Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. Frodo is portrayed by American actor Elijah Wood in Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of the novels.

43 First British P.M. appointed by Queen Elizabeth II : EDEN

Sir Anthony Eden served as Britain’s Foreign Secretary during WWII, and then as Prime Minister from 1955-57. I think it’s fair to say that Eden doesn’t have a great reputation as a statesman. He was proud of his stance in favor of peace over war, so his critics characterized him as an appeaser. His major stumble on the world stage occurred with the Suez Crisis in 1956. Egypt’s President Nasser unilaterally nationalized the Suez Canal causing war to be declared on Egypt by Britain, France and Israel. Within a few months political pressure from the US and the USSR caused the allies to withdraw, bolstering Egypt’s national reputation. Eden never recovered from the loss of face at home, and it is felt that the stress even affected his health. Eden resigned in January 1957.

44 Sung tribute : PAEAN

A paean is a poem or song that expresses triumph or thanksgiving. “Paean” comes from the ancient Greek “paian” meaning “song of triumph”.

45 Tax prep pro : CPA

Certified public accountant (CPA)

46 “Tangible” balance sheet item : ASSET

The balance sheet of a company is a snapshot (single-point-in-time) view of a company’s financial position. The balance sheet lists all the company’s liabilities, all of its assets, and all of its ownership equity. The assets of a company, less its liabilities equals the ownership equity. The term “balance” is used because assets always balance out with the sum of liabilities and shareholder equity.

49 Host : MYRIAD

The term “myriad”, meaning “innumerable”, comes from the Greek “muraid”, meaning “ten thousand”. “Myriad” is one of those words that sparks heated debate about the correct usage in English. “Myriad” can be used both as an adjective and a noun. One can have “a myriad of” engagements around the holidays, for example, or “myriad” engagements around those same holidays.

55 Comedian Youngman : HENNY

Henny Youngman was a comedian known for his one-liners, most famously “Take my wife – please!” Youngman grew up in Brooklyn, New York but was actually born in Liverpool in England.

56 Goddess associated with the owl : ATHENA

The Greek goddess Athena (sometimes “Athene”) is often associated with wisdom, among other attributes. In many representations. Athena is depicted with an owl sitting on her head. It is this linkage of the owl with the goddess of wisdom that led to today’s perception of the owl as being “wise”. Athena’s Roman counterpart was Minerva.

57 Outback hoppers : ROOS

The word “kangaroo” comes from the Australian Aborigine term for the animal. There’s an oft-quoted story that the explorer James Cook (later Captain Cook) asked a local native what was the name of this remarkable-looking animal, and the native responded with “Kangaroo”. The story is that the native was actually saying “I don’t understand you”, but as cute as that tale is, it’s just an urban myth.

In Australia, the land outside of urban areas is referred to as the outback or the bush. That said, I think that the term “outback” is sometimes reserved for the more remote parts of the bush.

59 Suffix with Jumbo : -TRON

A Jumbotron is a big-screen television system that is often seen in sports stadiums. The brand name “JumboTron” was introduced by Sony in 1985. “Jumbotron” is used pretty generically now for any big-screen system in such venues as Sony exited the business in 2001.

67 Object of finger-pointing on “Fantasy Island” : PLANE

“Fantasy Island” was a fun television series that aired from 1978 to 1984, starring the dashing Ricardo Montalban as Mr. Roarke and Herve Villechaize as Tattoo. Tattoo is Roarke’s colorful sidekick, famous for shouting out, “The plane! The plane!” as the guests arrived on the island at the beginning of each episode. There were lots of celebrity guest stars that appeared over the years, such as Sonny Bono, Tom Jones, Victoria Principal and Heather Locklear.

68 Instruments heard at luaus, for short : UKES

The ukulele (uke) originated in the 1800s and mimicked a small guitar brought to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants.

Down

1 Li of martial arts fame : JET

Actor Jet Li’s real name is Li Jian Jie. Jet Li is a martial artist and international film star from Beijing, China. Li played a villain in “Lethal Weapon 4”, and had a leading role in the 2000 movie “Romeo Must Die”.Actor Jet Li’s real name is Li Jian Jie. Jet Li is a martial artist and international film star from Beijing, China. Li played a villain in “Lethal Weapon 4”, and had a leading role in the 2000 movie “Romeo Must Die”.

4 Sycophants : YES-MEN

A sycophant is a selfish person, and one who flatters. The term comes from the Greek “sykophantes” which originally meant “one who shows the fig”. This phrase described a vulgar gesture made with the thumb and two fingers.

5 Neuter : SPAY

Our verb “to spay”, meaning “to surgically remove the ovaries of” (an animal), comes from an old Anglo-French word “espeier” meaning “to cut with a sword”.

6 “Thou sing’st sweet ___”: Shak. : MUSIC

“Richard III” is one of the more famous of William Shakespeare’s historical plays. A well-known 1955 version of the play was made for the big screen with Laurence Olivier playing the title role. The most oft-quoted words from “Richard III” are probably the opening lines “Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this sun of York”, and Richard’s plea at the climax of battle “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!”

12 Drop an F-bomb, say : CURSE

“F-bomb” refers to the offensive four-letter word beginning with the letter F. The term “F-bomb” was first used in print in a “Newsday” article in 1988 in a story about baseball catcher Gary Carter.

13 Founder of the Pacific Fur Company, 1810 : ASTOR

John Jacob Astor was the patriarch of the famous American Astor dynasty. He was the country’s first multi-millionaire, making his fortune in the trade of fur, real estate and opium. In today’s terms, it has been calculated that by the time of his death he has accumulated a fortune big enough to make him the fourth wealthiest man in American history (in the company of the likes of Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Bill Gates, Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller).

18 Singer with the 2008 album “Backwoods Barbie” : PARTON

Dolly Parton is a country music singer-songwriter, as well as an actress. Parton has written over 3,000 songs, my favorite of which is “I Will Always Love You” that was a huge hit for herself and for Whitney Houston.

23 InDesign developer : ADOBE

Adobe Systems is a San Jose-based enterprise that is best known for developing Photoshop image editing software and the Portable Document Format (PDF). The company was founded in 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke, in Warnock’s garage. The Adobe Creek ran behind that garage, and the founders borrowed the name of the waterway for the company’s moniker.

28 Like Loki and Thor : NORSE

Loki is a god appearing in Norse mythology. In one story about Loki, he was punished by other gods for having caused the death of Baldr, the god of light and beauty. Loki is bound to a sharp rock using the entrails of one of his sons. A serpent drips venom which is collected in a bowl, and then his wife must empty the venom onto Loki when the bowl is full. The venom causes Loki great pain, and his writhing results in what we poor mortals experience as earthquakes.

In Norse mythology, Thor was the son of Odin. Thor wielded a mighty hammer and was the god of thunder, lightning and storms. Our contemporary word “Thursday” comes from “Thor’s Day”.

34 One miraculously healed by Jesus : LEPER

The horrible disease known as leprosy is also called Hansen’s disease, named after the Norwegian physician famous for isolating the bacterium that causes the disease. We can use the term “leper” to mean someone in general who is shunned by society.

36 Poison found naturally in castor beans : RICIN

Ricin is a highly toxic chemical found in the seeds of the castor oil plant. It is so poisonous because it inhibits one of the most basic metabolic processes, the synthesis of protein. One famous use of ricin as a weapon was the assassination of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London in 1978. An agent of the Bulgarian secret police injected a tiny pellet of ricin into his victim’s leg using a modified umbrella.

37 Airer of hearings : C-SPAN

C-SPAN is a privately-funded, nonprofit cable channel that broadcasts continuous coverage of government proceedings. The acronym stands for “Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network”.

41 “The Office” role : PAM

In the excellent sitcom “The Office”, the character Pam Halpert (née Beesly) is played very ably by Jenna Fischer. If you’ve seen the original version of “The Office” from the UK, then you’d have met Pam’s equivalent character, whose name is Dawn Tinsley.

47 ___ Juan : SAN

San Juan is the capital of Puerto Rico. The city was founded in 1521 by the Spanish, who called it “Ciudad de Puerto Rico” (Rich Port City).

48 Resells at hiked-up prices : SCALPS

Scalping of tickets, selling them above retail price for an excessive profit, originated in the mid-1800s with scalpers making money off theater tickets. There was also quite a bit of money made by people scalping railway tickets. Railroads gave discounts on tickets for longer journeys, so someone trying to get from San Francisco to Chicago might buy a ticket to New York. Once in Chicago the passenger would scalp the remainder of his/her ticket to someone wanting to get to New York, and make his or her invested money back with a bonus. The exact etymology of the term “scalper” seems unclear.

62 Basketball’s King James, from 2003-10 and 2014-18 : CAV

Basketball player LeBron James (nicknamed “King James”) seems to be in demand for the covers of magazines. James became the first African-American man to adorn the front cover of “Vogue” in March 2008. That made him only the third male to make the “Vogue” cover, following Richard Gere and George Clooney.

63 Prez #34 : IKE

When the future president was growing up, the Eisenhowers used the nickname “Ike” for all seven boys in the family, as “Ike” was seen as an abbreviation for the family name. “Big Ike” was Edgar, the second oldest boy. “Little/Young Ike” was Dwight, who was the third son born. Dwight had no sisters.

64 Doc treating 71-Across : VET

“Vet” is an abbreviation for “veterinarian”, a professional who treats animals for disease and injury. The word “veterinary” comes from the Latin “veterinae” meaning “working animals, beasts of burden”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Friend on “Friends” : JOEY
5 Besmirch : SMEAR
10 U.S. immigration policy, familiarly : DACA
14 From which Christmas lights might hang : EAVE
15 Dystopian horror film of 2013, with “The” : … PURGE
16 Birds with wings about one-tenth the length of their bodies : EMUS
17 Three tickets : “TRES” PASSES
19 Cheeky : PERT
20 “Is that OK with you?” : MAY I?
21 “Despite all that …” : EVEN SO …
23 L’il ___ : ABNER
26 With money : “CON” TENDER
29 Makes apprehensive : DAUNTS
31 Put forth, as a question : POSED
32 Well-worn : OLD
33 Onetime Houston athlete whose helmet featured a derrick : OILER
35 Frodo Baggins’s pursuers : ORCS
39 Introductory foreign language class suggested by this puzzle’s theme : BEGINNER SPANISH
43 First British P.M. appointed by Queen Elizabeth II : EDEN
44 Sung tribute : PAEAN
45 Tax prep pro : CPA
46 “Tangible” balance sheet item : ASSET
49 Host : MYRIAD
51 More revered : “MAS” SACRED
55 Comedian Youngman : HENNY
56 Goddess associated with the owl : ATHENA
57 Outback hoppers : ROOS
59 Suffix with Jumbo : -TRON
60 Crazy reason : “LOCO” MOTIVE
66 Bits of advice : TIPS
67 Object of finger-pointing on “Fantasy Island” : PLANE
68 Instruments heard at luaus, for short : UKES
69 Subside : EASE
70 Number of blessings at a Jewish wedding : SEVEN
71 See 64-Down : PETS

Down

1 Li of martial arts fame : JET
2 Item on a boathouse wall : OAR
3 Time of anticipation : EVE
4 Sycophants : YES-MEN
5 Neuter : SPAY
6 “Thou sing’st sweet ___”: Shak. : MUSIC
7 Hosp. areas usually on the ground floor : ERS
8 Get wiser, supposedly : AGE
9 Computer troubleshooting options : RESETS
10 Look to for support : DEPEND ON
11 Revise : AMEND
12 Drop an F-bomb, say : CURSE
13 Founder of the Pacific Fur Company, 1810 : ASTOR
18 Singer with the 2008 album “Backwoods Barbie” : PARTON
22 V.I.P. section? : VEE
23 InDesign developer : ADOBE
24 Bundled, as hay : BALED
25 Nonverbal attention-getter : NUDGE
27 Run : OPERATE
28 Like Loki and Thor : NORSE
30 Transgress : SIN
34 One miraculously healed by Jesus : LEPER
36 Poison found naturally in castor beans : RICIN
37 Airer of hearings : C-SPAN
38 Suspect : SHADY
40 Somewhat : IN A SENSE
41 “The Office” role : PAM
42 “Alrighty, then. As I was saying …” : ANYHOO …
47 ___ Juan : SAN
48 Resells at hiked-up prices : SCALPS
50 What to do before a marathon, perhaps : REST UP
51 Lacking gloss : MATTE
52 Open courtyards : ATRIA
53 Looks to sell : SHOPS
54 It might go way over your head : DRONE
58 The appearance of a butterfly in a home, for some : OMEN
61 Fútbol cheer : OLE!
62 Basketball’s King James, from 2003-10 and 2014-18 : CAV
63 Prez #34 : IKE
64 Doc treating 71-Across : VET
65 Symbol on the collar of Krypto the Superdog : ESS

4 thoughts on “1016-24 NY Times Crossword 16 Oct 24, Wednesday”

  1. Taunts in lieu of daunts for 29 Across giving me 2 errors. This seemed like a good challenge for a Wednesday grid. At least to my brain.

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