1128-24 NY Times Crossword 28 Nov 24, Thursday

Bill’s time: 12m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 “Then again,” in texts : OTOH

On the other hand (OTOH)

10 “Abbott Elementary” principal : 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.

13 Nutrient-rich soil component : HUMUS

Humus is the dark organic material found in soil. It is the result of the decomposition of vegetable and animal matter, and supplies vital nutrients to the earth. “Humus” is Latin for “earth, soil”.

15 Editorial notation for an error : [SIC]

[Sic] indicates that a quotation is written as originally found, perhaps including a typo. “Sic” is Latin for “thus, like this”. The term is more completely written as “sic erat scriptum”, which translates as “thus was it written”.

19 Common order at a hoagie shop : TURKEY SUB

“Hoagy” (sometimes “hoagie”) is another name for a submarine sandwich. The term “hoagy” originated in Philadelphia, and was apparently introduced by Italians working in the shipyards during WWI. The shipyards were located on Hog Island, and the sandwich was first called “the Hog Island”, which morphed into “hoagy”.

21 Beyond the pale : TOO FAR

The phrase “beyond the pale” describes something that is offensive, outside the bounds of what is acceptable. The expression has its roots in the palings that defined boundaries in the Middle Ages. Those palings (fences) were made from “pales”, from the Latin “palus” meaning “stake”. The noun “pale” came to describe that area within the palings. The most famous “Pale” was that part of Ireland controlled for centuries directly by the English government, which was land surrounding Dublin that was bounded by ditches and fences. People living outside the Pale did not share the beliefs and customs of those within the boundaries, which gave rise to our usage of the phrase “beyond the pale”.

25 Clip : PACE

A clipper was a three-masted sailing ship commonly crossing the seas in the 19th century. Clippers were built for speed, so were narrow and had less room for carrying freight than many vessels used in trade. They were developed largely due to the demand for speedy delivery of fresh tea from China to Europe. The name comes from the term “to clip” meaning to move swiftly (as in “at a clip”). Perhaps the most famous clipper ship is the Cutty Sark built in 1869, the last clipper to be built as a merchant vessel. The Cutty Sark owes her fame to the fact that she is on display as a museum ship in a dry dock in Greenwich in London.

27 It might be mashed (in more ways than one!) : TATER

Apparently, a baseball has long been referred to as a tater (also “potato”). In the seventies, a long ball started to be called a “long tater”, and from this a home run became a “tater”.

29 Grandiose : EPIC

The suffix “-ose” comes into English from Latin. It can be added to a word to mean “full of”, or perhaps “like”. Examples are “grandiose” (full of grandeur) and “jocose” (full of jokes).

33 Legal org. : ABA

American Bar Association (ABA)

38 Grammy, in Germany : OMA

The German for “grandpa” is “Opa”, and for “grandma” is “Oma”.

39 Bumpkin : HAYSEED

“Bumpkin” is really a not-so-nice term for someone from a rural area. The term has an even less nice derivation. It comes from the Middle Dutch “bommekijn” meaning “little barrel”. “Bumpkin” was used as a derogatory term for Dutch people, who were regarded as short and plump.

43 Actor Daniel ___ Kim : DAE

Daniel Dae Kim is an American actor who is famous for playing Jin-Soo Kwon on “Lost”. Kim moved on to play one of the leads on the CBS remake of “Hawaii Five-O”, portraying the character Chin Ho Kelly.

44 Canadian fuel brand : ESSO

The Esso brand has its roots in the old Standard Oil company as it uses the initial letters of “Standard” and “Oil” (ESS-O). The Esso brand was replaced by Exxon in the US, but ESSO is still used in many other countries.

45 Hackneyed : BANAL

Hackney is a location in London, and it probably gave its name to a “hackney”, an ordinary type of horse around 1300. By 1700 a “hackney” was a person hired to do routine work, and “hackneyed” meant “kept for hire”, and then “stale, uninteresting”. This morphed into a hackney carriage, a carriage or car for hire, and into “hack”, a slang term for a taxi driver or cab.

46 Figs. counted in some diets : CALS

I wish we’d stop using the term “calorie”, because it is so confusing. In terms of physics, a calorie is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree celsius (at one atmosphere of pressure). The so-called “food calorie” is one thousand times as large, as it is defined in terms of kilograms instead of grams. In attempts to differentiate between these two definitions, the former is sometimes referred to as the “small calorie” and is given the symbol “cal”. The latter is referred to as the “large calorie” and given the symbol “Cal”, with a capital C. If only we’d use the SI system of units, we’d be thinking in just joules, instead of large and small and food calories.

51 Old Glory : US FLAG

The person who coined the phrase “Old Glory” with reference to the American flag was Captain William Driver, a shipmaster from Salem, Massachusetts. As Driver was leaving on an 1831 voyage aboard the brig Charles Doggett, he unfurled the American flag that he had just been given by a group of friends. As the flag caught the breeze, he uttered the words, “Old Glory!”. That’s the story anyway. On that same voyage, Charles Doggett rescued the famous mutineers of the HMS Bounty, after he encountered them on Pitcairn Island.

60 “Key ___ ” (Bogart movie) : LARGO

Key Largo is an island in the Florida Keys. The island gained a lot of celebrity in 1948 when the John Huston movie “Key Largo” was released, starring Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Lauren Bacall.

61 R&B icon Rawls : LOU

Lou Rawls was an American soul and blues singer known for his smooth vocal style. With his singing career well on the way, Rawls was asked to sing “The Star Spangled Banner” in 1977 at a Muhammad Ali fight in Madison Square Garden. This performance led to him being asked to sing the anthem many, many times in the coming years with his last rendition being at a World Series game in 2005. Rawls passed away in January of the following year.

64 Since January 1: Abbr. : YTD

Year-to-date (YTD)

65 French, in England : SNOG

“Snogging” is British slang of unknown origin that dates back to the end of WWII. The term is used for “kissing and cuddling”, what we call “making out” over here in the US.

A kiss that involves touching of tongues is known as a French kiss, but no one seems to know why. Paradoxically, in Northern France, giving the same type of kiss is known as “baiser anglais”, i.e. English kissing!

Down

1 Jazz great Baker : CHET

The famous jazz trumpeter Chet Baker was noted for his heroin addiction, a problem that nearly put an end to his performing career. He managed a comeback in the late seventies, mainly appearing and recording in Europe. But he never kicked the drug habit and was found dead one day after falling from his hotel room window in Amsterdam.

2 Streaming giant : HULU

Hulu is a video-on-demand service. Although competing directly with Netflix and Amazon Prime, Hulu’s primary focus is the streaming of television shows rather than movies.

3 Some coffee orders : AMERICANOS

A caffè Americano is espresso to which hot water is added, bringing the coffee to a similar strength as drip coffee. Caffè Italiano is a similar drink, but a little stronger, with a 1:1 ratio of espresso to hot water.

5 ___ Park, Colo. : ESTES

Estes Park is a town in a beautiful part of the US, in northern Colorado. Estes Park is home to the headquarters of Rocky Mountain National Park.

6 Abbr. in a birth announcement : OZS

The everyday system of weights that we use in the US is known as the avoirdupois system and is based on one pound consisting of sixteen ounces. The name “avoirdupois” comes from the Anglo-Norman French “aveir de peis” meaning “goods of weights”. “Goods of weights” were items sold in bulk that were weighed on a balance.

7 Vietnamese New Year : TET

The full name for the New Year holiday in Vietnam is “Tet Nguyen Dan” meaning “Feast of the First Morning”, with the reference being to the arrival of the season of spring. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.

11 “___ Las Vegas” : VIVA

“Viva Las Vegas” is an Elvis Presley movie released in 1964 that is considered one of his best films. The good reception for the movie was at least in part due to the performance of the female lead, the talented actress Ann-Margret.

20 Mythological creature with origins in Sherpa folklore : YETI

The yeti, also known as the abominable snowman, is a beast of legend. “Yeti” is a Tibetan term, and the beast is fabled to live in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet. Our equivalent legend in North America is that of Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch. The study of animals whose existence have not yet been substantiated is called cryptozoology, and a cryptid is a creature or plant that isn’t recognized by the scientific community, but the existence of which has been suggested.

In the Tibetan language, “Sherpa” means “eastern people” (sher = east, pa = people). Sherpas are an ethnic group from Nepal, but the name is also used for the local guides who assist mountaineers in the Himalayas, and particularly on Mount Everest.

23 Hanna-Barbera character who co-starred with Secret Squirrel : ATOM ANT

Atom Ant is a cartoon character introduced by Hanna-Barbera in 1965. He is a tiny superhero who fights villains such as Ferocious Flea and a mad scientist named Professor Von Gimmick.

24 Response to “Gracias” : DE NADA

In Spanish, one can respond to “Gracias” (Thank you) with “De nada” (It’s nothing).

25 Examine in great detail, as a text : PARSE

The verb “to parse” means “to state the parts of speech in a sentence”. “Parse” comes from the Latin word “pars” meaning “part”.

30 Home away from home : PIED-A-TERRE

A pied-à-terre is a secondary living space or temporary accommodation, often somewhere to live in a big city that is some distance away from a primary residence. “Pied-à-terre” is French for “foot on the ground”.

42 Trees along the National Mall : ELMS

The National Mall is a park in downtown Washington, D.C. It is home to several museums that are part of the Smithsonian, as well as the National Gallery of Art.

46 Pitcher for the reds? : CARAFE

A carafe is a container made from glass that has no handles, and no stopper.

52 Flue residue : SOOT

The flue in a chimney is a duct that conveys exhaust gases from a fire to the outdoors. An important feature of a flue is that its opening is adjustable. When starting a fire, the flue should be wide open, maximizing airflow to get help ignition.

55 Showbiz awards acronym : EGOT

The acronym “EGOT” stands for “Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony”, and is a reference to performers who have won all four awards.

58 Qualifying abbreviation : IMO

In my opinion (IMO)