Constructed by: Barbara Lin
Edited by: Joel Fagliano
Not your puzzle? Try today’s …
… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Leg It, More than Once
Themed answers are common phrases pluralized and reinterpreted as leg coverings:
- 17A Bottoms decorated with characters from the “Odyssey”? : LONG-STORY SHORTS
- 27A Close-fitting pajamas? : SLEEP TIGHTS
- 48A Offering in Eilish’s clothing brand? : BILLIE JEANS
- 62A Request to a custom tailor? : CUT ME SOME SLACKS
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
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Bill’s time: 6m 52s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
1 Swedish company that makes submarines (but no longer cars) : SAAB
“SAAB” stands for Svenska Aeroplan AB, which translates into English as Swedish Aeroplane Limited. Although we usually think of SAAB as an auto manufacturer, it is mainly an aircraft manufacturer. If you take small hops in Europe you might find yourself on a SAAB passenger plane. The SAAB automotive division was acquired by General Motors in the year 2000, who then sold it to a Dutch concern in 2010. However, SAAB (automotive) finally went bankrupt in 2011. The assets were acquired in 2012 by NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden), a new company that used the SAAB name on its vehicles for several years.
5 Vegetarian’s protein source : TOFU
“Tofu” is a name for bean curd, and is a Japanese word meaning just that … bean that has curdled. Tofu is produced by coagulating soy milk, using either salt or something acidic. Once the protein has coagulated, the curds are pressed into the familiar blocks. Personally I love tofu, but my wife absolutely hates it …
9 So-called “Las Vegas of the East” : MACAO
Macau (also “Macao”) is an autonomous territory of China located on the Pearl River estuary about 40 miles west of Hong Kong. It was a Portuguese colony from the mid-1500s until 1999. Macau was in fact the first European colony in China, and the last, having been handed back to the Chinese in 1999, two years after Hong Kong was returned by the British. Macau’s economy is driven by tourism and gambling. The territory’s gaming revenue is the highest for any gambling center in the world.
17 Bottoms decorated with characters from the “Odyssey”? : LONG-STORY SHORTS
“Odyssey” is one of two epic poems from ancient Greece that are attributed to Homer. It is largely a sequel to Homer’s other epic “Iliad”. “Odyssey” centers on the heroic figure Odysseus, and his adventures on his journey home to Greece following the fall of Troy. We now use the term “odyssey” to describe any long series of adventures.
20 Prophet : ORACLE
In ancient Greece and Rome, an oracle was someone believed to be inspired by the gods to give wise counsel. The word “oracle” derives from the Latin “orare” meaning “to speak”, which is the same root for our word “orator”. One of the most important oracles of ancient Greece was Pythia, the high priestess to Apollo at Delphi.
21 Originally named : NEE
“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”. The term “née” is mainly used in English when referring to a married woman’s birth name, assuming that she has adopted her husband’s name, e.g. Michelle Obama née Robinson, Melania Trump née Knavs, and Jill Biden née Jacobs.
23 Instrument played by Sheila Bromberg on the Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home” : HARP
“She’s Leaving Home” is a 1967 song released by the Beatles on the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album. None of the four members of the band play an instrument in this song, and instead the music is played by a small string orchestra. The lyrics are performed by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. In fact, George Harrison and Ringo Starr weren’t even in the studio at the time of the recording.
25 Guitarist, informally : AXMAN
In the world of music, “axe” is a slang term describing a musical instrument, especially a guitar or horn.
27 Close-fitting pajamas? : SLEEP TIGHTS
Our word “pajamas” (sometimes “PJs” or “jammies”) comes to us from the Indian subcontinent, where “pai jamahs” were loose fitting pants tied at the waist and worn at night by locals and ultimately by the Europeans living there. And “pajamas” is another of those words that I had to learn to spell differently when I came to America. On the other side of the Atlantic, the spelling is “pyjamas”.
35 “___ the fields we go …” : O’ER
The traditional Christmas song “Jingle Bells” was first published in 1857, penned by James Lord Pierpont. We associate the song with Christmas, although in fact Pierpont wrote it as a celebration of Thanksgiving.
Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
O’er the fields we go
Laughing all the way
43 Oil container : CRUET
A cruet is a small glass bottle that holds a condiment or perhaps a dressing. The word “cruet” comes from an Old French word meaning “earthen pot”.
46 One who only goes to the *best* restaurants, maybe : SNOB
Back in the 1780s, a snob was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word “snob” was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.
47 “Ability” for Johnny Carson’s Carnac the Magnificent : ESP
Carnac the Magnificent was a character played by Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show”, a mystic soothsayer. Carson introduced Carnac in 1964.
48 Offering in Eilish’s clothing brand? : BILLIE JEANS
Billie Eilish is a singer-songwriter from Los Angeles. She has won several awards, and is the youngest person to have won all four major Grammy categories in the same year, i.e. Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year.
52 Earth tone : OCHRE
Ocher is a light, yellowish-brown color, although variations of the pigment are possible such as red ocher and purple ocher. “Ocher” is usually spelled “ochre” on the other side of the pond.
54 Country that gained its independence from France in 1953 : LAOS
The present-day nation of Laos can trace its roots back to the historic Lao kingdom of Lan Xang that existed from 1354 to 1707. The full name of the kingdom was “Lan Xang Hom Khao”, which translates as “The Land of a Million Elephants and the White Parasol”.
56 Texter’s qualifier : IMO
In my opinion (IMO)
62 Request to a custom tailor? : CUT ME SOME SLACKS
The term “slacks” was introduced in the early 1800s with the meaning “loose trousers”. Those early slacks were part of a military uniform.
65 Smaller cousins of English horns : OBOES
The English horn is also known by its French name “cor anglais” (and sometimes “alto oboe”). It is a double-reed, woodwind instrument.
68 End of the line, maybe : DEPOT
Our term “depot”, meaning “station, warehouse”, comes from the French word “dépôt”. The French term translates into English as “deposit” or “place of deposit”.
Down
2 Love, for Rafael Nadal : AMOR
Rafael Nadal is considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time, and he has some superstitions that help him focus on winning. For example, he has a unique pre-match ritual in which he arranges his water bottles in a very specific way. He always places them in a straight line with the labels facing the court, and he adjusts them so that they are perfectly aligned.
3 Pulitzer-winning journalist and novelist Quindlen : ANNA
Anna Quindlen is an author, journalist and columnist who won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992 for her “New York Times” column “Public and Private”.
4 Head honcho : BIG CHEESE
The phrase “the big cheese” doesn’t have its roots in the word “cheese” at all. The original phrase was “the real cheese” meaning “the real thing”, and was used way back in the late 1800s. “Chiz” is a Persian and Hindi word meaning “thing”, and it’s not hard to see how the expression “the real chiz” morphed into “the real cheese”. In early-20th century America, instead of “the real cheese”, the most influential person in a group was labeled as “the big cheese”.
“Honcho” is a slang term meaning “leader”. The word comes to us from the Japanese military, in which language a “hancho” is a “squad” (han) “leader” (cho).
7 Plant in a stegosaurus’s diet : FERN
Ferns are unlike mosses in that they have xylem and phloem, making them vascular plants. They also have stems, leaves and roots, but they do not have seeds and flowers, and reproduce using spores. Spores differ from seeds in that they have very little stored food.
The stegosaurus was a herbivorous dinosaur. They were large creatures, with distinctive plates sticking up along their backs and a spiked tail.
10 Island greeting : ALOHA
The Hawaiian word “aloha” has many meanings in English: affection, love, peace, compassion and mercy. More recently, “aloha” has come to mean “hello” and “goodbye”, but only since the mid-1800s.
11 Rod on the road : CAR ANTENNA
An antenna’s job is to convert electrical power into radio waves, and radio waves into an electrical signal. The first antennas were built by the German physicist Heinrich Hertz in 1888.
12 Animals that use pheromones to communicate : ANTS
A pheromone is a chemical secreted by an animal that triggers a social response of some sort in members of the same species. Sex pheromones are usually released by females, indicating availability for breeding. Trail pheromones are laid down to guide others from a nest to food. Territorial pheromones are used to mark the boundaries of an animal’s territory.
19 NSFW message : SEXT
Sexting (a portmanteau of “sex” and “texting”) is the sending of explicit dialog and images between cell phones. The term “sexting” was coined by the UK’s “Sunday Telegraph Magazine” in a 2005 article.
The abbreviation “NSFW” stands for “not safe/suitable for work”. It’s Internet slang used to describe online content that is best not viewed at work.
26 Flavor enhancer in Doritos, for short : MSG
Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the sodium salt of a naturally-occurring,non-essential amino acid called glutamic acid. It is used widely as a flavor enhancer, particularly in many Asian cuisines. Whether or not it is harmful seems to be still under debate. I say that anything produced in a test tube shouldn’t be in our food …
The product that was to become Doritos was a creation at the Casa de Fritos in Disneyland in the early sixties. A marketing executive from Frito-Lay noticed how well the snack was selling in the park, and made a deal to produce the chips under the name “Doritos”, starting in 1964. “Doritos” translates from Spanish as “little bits of gold”.
27 “The final frontier” : SPACE
The original “Star Trek” TV show opened each episode with a speech from Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner:
Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
33 Line adjusters on an Etch A Sketch : KNOBS
Etch A Sketch was introduced in 1960. The toy was developed in France by inventor André Cassagnes, who initially named it “L’Écran Magique” (The Magic Screen).
44 Frankly, in a text : TBH
To be honest (TBH)
49 Body part that may be green : IRIS
The iris is the colored part of the eye. It has an aperture in the center that can open or close depending on the level of light hitting the eye.
50 They can cause sour experiences for car owners : LEMONS
Long before we associated the term “lemon” with a defective car, it was used to describe defective items in general.
51 Director Coen : JOEL
I think it’s great to see two brothers working together and being so successful. Joel and Ethan Coen are two movie producers and directors who both live in New York City. The Coen brothers do love the movie-making business and they even married industry “insiders”. Ethan’s wife is film editor Tricia Cooke, and Joel is married to one of my favorite actresses, the talented Frances McDormand.
53 Small part : CAMEO
Even in my day, a cameo role was more than just a short appearance in a movie (or other artistic piece). For the appearance to be a cameo, the actor had to play himself or herself, and be instantly recognizable. With this meaning it’s easy to see the etymology of the term, as a cameo brooch is one with the recognizable carving of the silhouette of a person. Nowadays, a cameo is any minor role played by a celebrity or famous actor, regardless of the character played.
55 Cartoonist Goldberg who never actually built the machines he drew : RUBE
Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist, engineer and inventor who became famous for designing overly-complicated gadgets to perform the simplest of tasks. Goldberg produced a famous series of cartoons depicting such designs. Such was the success of his work, the Merriam-Webster dictionary accepted the phrase “Rube Goldberg” as an adjective in 1931, an adjective meaning “accomplishing something simple through complex means”.
59 Sch. west of Beverly Hills : UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) gets more applications from potential students than any other university in the country. UCLA also has more students enrolled than any other university in the state.
The city of Beverly Hills, California was named after Beverly Farms in Beverly, Massachusetts and also after the hills in that part of California.
61 Athletic award : ESPY
The ESPY Awards, also known as the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, were first presented in a ceremony in 1993. They were created by ESPN as a response to the lack of sports coverage during the summer months. ESPN decided to create an awards show to help fill that gap.
62 Fish-and-chips fish, typically : COD
In Britain and Ireland, the most common fish that is used in traditional “fish and chips” is Atlantic cod. Cod has been overfished all over the world, and is now considered to be an endangered species by many international bodies. Confrontations over fishing rights in the North Atlantic led to conflicts called “the Cod Wars” between Iceland and the UK in the 1950s and the 1970s, with fishing fleets being protected by naval vessels and even shots being fired.
64 ___Pen : EPI
EpiPen is a brand of epinephrine auto-injector. An EpiPen delivers a measured dose of epinephrine, which is a common treatment for an extreme allergic reaction.
Read on, or …
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Swedish company that makes submarines (but no longer cars) : SAAB
5 Vegetarian’s protein source : TOFU
9 So-called “Las Vegas of the East” : MACAO
14 Lead-in to present or science : OMNI-
15 *Cough, cough* : *AHEM*
16 Hard core exercise? : PLANK
17 Bottoms decorated with characters from the “Odyssey”? : LONG-STORY SHORTS
20 Prophet : ORACLE
21 Originally named : NEE
22 “Everything ___ Changed” (Taylor Swift song) : HAS
23 Instrument played by Sheila Bromberg on the Beatles’ “She’s Leaving Home” : HARP
25 Guitarist, informally : AXMAN
27 Close-fitting pajamas? : SLEEP TIGHTS
31 Shaming sound : TSK!
34 Something a window shopper might purchase? : PANE
35 “___ the fields we go …” : O’ER
36 Extract, as information : GLEAN
38 Lends a hand to : AIDS
39 Jogs : TROTS
42 Not deceived by : ONTO
43 Oil container : CRUET
45 “OMG!” : WOW!
46 One who only goes to the *best* restaurants, maybe : SNOB
47 “Ability” for Johnny Carson’s Carnac the Magnificent : ESP
48 Offering in Eilish’s clothing brand? : BILLIE JEANS
52 Earth tone : OCHRE
54 Country that gained its independence from France in 1953 : LAOS
55 Messenger molecule : RNA
56 Texter’s qualifier : IMO
58 Turn down : REFUSE
62 Request to a custom tailor? : CUT ME SOME SLACKS
65 Smaller cousins of English horns : OBOES
66 Place for grape nuts? : NAPA
67 Prepare to use, as a coupon : CLIP
68 End of the line, maybe : DEPOT
69 Hissy fit : SNIT
70 Like taking candy from a baby, it’s said : EASY
Down
1 All by oneself : SOLO
2 Love, for Rafael Nadal : AMOR
3 Pulitzer-winning journalist and novelist Quindlen : ANNA
4 Head honcho : BIG CHEESE
5 Cylindrical alternative to a French fry : TATER TOT
6 “Would you look at that!” : OHO!
7 Plant in a stegosaurus’s diet : FERN
8 “Well, duh!” : UM, YEAH!
9 Going rate? : MPH
10 Island greeting : ALOHA
11 Rod on the road : CAR ANTENNA
12 Animals that use pheromones to communicate : ANTS
13 Gives a thumbs-up : OKS
18 Smack : SLAP
19 NSFW message : SEXT
24 Place to dock : PIER
26 Flavor enhancer in Doritos, for short : MSG
27 “The final frontier” : SPACE
28 Dens : LAIRS
29 Ultimately triumph : END UP ON TOP
30 Warning sound : GROWL
32 Used, as a chair : SAT ON
33 Line adjusters on an Etch A Sketch : KNOBS
37 Suffers embarrassment : LOSES FACE
40 Labor : TOIL
41 Curses ot : SWEARS AT
44 Frankly, in a text : TBH
49 Body part that may be green : IRIS
50 They can cause sour experiences for car owners : LEMONS
51 Director Coen : JOEL
53 Small part : CAMEO
55 Cartoonist Goldberg who never actually built the machines he drew : RUBE
57 Neighbor of the United Arab Emirates : OMAN
59 Sch. west of Beverly Hills : UCLA
60 Rentals that come with poles : SKIS
61 Athletic award : ESPY
62 Fish-and-chips fish, typically : COD
63 Ballpark guess: Abbr. : EST
64 ___Pen : EPI
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9:08, no errors.
12:25, no errors. Bit of a struggle for a Tuesday.
14:31, no errors.
Your times are all exemplary after my 22:45. NE had me scratching my head….no errors, just a log of head scratching.