1231-24 NY Times Crossword 31 Dec 24, Tuesday

Bill’s time: 5m 28s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 Jewish mourning period : 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.

17 VOLT, AMP : POWER COUPLE

The volt is a unit of electric potential, or voltage. I always think of electrical voltage as something like water pressure. The higher the pressure of water (voltage), the faster the water flows (the higher the electric current that flows).

The unit of electric current is the ampere, which is abbreviated correctly to “A” rather than “amp”. It is named after French physicist André-Marie Ampère, one of the main scientists responsible for the discovery of electromagnetism.

22 Disney villain with a pet parrot : JAFAR

Jafar is the bad guy in the animated film “Aladdin”. He was important enough to get his name front and center in the sequel called “Aladdin 2”, which is usually referred to as “The Return of Jafar”.

24 “Beowulf” and the “Mahabharata,” for two : EPICS

“Beowulf” is an old epic poem from England, although the story is set in Scandinavia. Beowulf fights a battle, defending the Danish King Hrothgar from the ferocious outcast Grendel. Hrothgar had built a great hall for his people in which they could celebrate; singing, dancing and drinking lots of mead. Grendel was angered by the carousing and attacked the hall, devouring many of the incumbent warriors as they slept. A bit of an extreme reaction to noisy neighbors I’d say …

“Mahabharata” is a Sanskrit epic of ancient India that is the longest epic poem known, from anywhere in the world. It comprises about 1.8 million words, making it about ten times the length of the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey” combined. It is only about four times the length of another major Sanskrit epic, the “Ramayana”.

30 Buffalo N.H.L.ers : SABRES

The Buffalo Sabres joined the National Hockey League in the 1970-71 season. The team took the name “Sabres” as the result of a fan contest.

36 Member of K-pop’s Blackpink : LISA

Blackpink is a girl group from South Korea that was formed in 2016. By all accounts, Blackpink has gained more international success than any other female Korean act.

45 Mauna ___ : KEA

Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, the peak of which is the highest point in the whole state. Mauna Kea is in effect the tip of a gigantic volcano rising up from the seabed.

46 Adjective in the theme of “The Addams Family” : SPOOKY

Charles Addams was a cartoonist who signed his work “Chas Addams”. He didn’t draw a cartoon strip but rather individual cartoons, although many of his cartoons did feature regular characters. The most famous of these were the members of the Addams Family, who were published in single-panel cartoons between 1938 and 1988 in “The New Yorker”. The Addams Family moved onto the small and big screens starting in 1964.

They’re creepy and they’re kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They’re altogether ooky,
The Addams Family.

54 Present day, in brief : XMAS

The abbreviation “Xmas” that is used for “Christmas” comes from the Greek letter chi (X), which is the first letter of the Greek word for “Christ” (“Χριστός”).

65 Singer Bega a.k.a. “The King of Mambo” : LOU

“Lou Bega” is the stage name of German singer David Lubega Balemezi. He is best known, by far, for his 1999 hit “Mambo No. 5”.

67 10-legged creatures : CRABS

Decapods are an order of crustaceans that includes crayfish, crabs, lobsters, prawns and shrimp. Even though decapods can have perhaps over 30 appendages, only ten of these are considered legs, hence the name “decapod”.

Down

3 Green fruit : KIWI

What we call kiwifruit today (and sometimes just “kiwi”) used to be called a Chinese gooseberry. Marketing folks in the fifties decided to call it a “melonette”, and then New Zealand producers adopted the name “kiwifruit”.

5 Simple two-player card game : WAR

War is a card game, one played mainly by children.

6 Stone-faced : STOIC

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher famous for teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the “Painted Porch”, located on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens. Because of the location of his classes, his philosophy became known as stoicism (from “stoa”, the word for “porch”). We get our adjective “stoic”, meaning “indifferent to pleasure or pain”, from the same root.

8 Actor Mike or Omar : EPPS

Mike Epps is a stand-up comedian and actor from Indianapolis. Epps played Day-Day Jones in the 2000 stoner film “Next Friday”, and in the 2002 sequel “Friday After Next”.

Actor Omar Epps was originally a rapper and was a member of a group called “Wolfpack” before he pursued acting full-time. His really big break came in the form of a recurring role on the popular medical drama series “ER”, followed by a recurring role in the TV series “House” as Dr. Eric Foreman.

9 Subj. for some immigrants : ESL

English as a Second Language (ESL)

18 “Nixon in ___” (John Adams opera) : CHINA

“Nixon in China” is an opera by John Adams, with a libretto by Alice Goodman. The piece was inspired by President Nixon’s famous visit to China in 1972.

23 The In-N-Out Burger logo has a yellow one : ARROW

In-N-Out Burger is a fast food chain that’s very popular out here on the left coast. Unusually for a fast food business, In-N-Out Burger has no franchises and is privately owned. The company also prides itself on paying all employees above minimum wage. Also, if you check the packaging of the food and drink items, you’ll find a bible verse discreetly printed on the bottom of cups and wrappers, reflecting the Christian beliefs held by the company ownership. In-N-Out Burger was founded in 1948 by Harry and Esther Snyder, and is now owned by Lynsi Snyder, the couple’s only grandchild.

27 Gin rummy combo : MELD

Gin rummy is a faster variant of standard rummy. It was introduced in 1909 by one Elwood Baker and his son.

28 Alternative to “Hasta la vista” : ADIOS, AMIGO

“Hasta la vista” is Spanish for “goodbye”. The phrase translates literally as “until the seeing”, i.e. “goodbye until we see each other again”.

30 Police work? : SONG

The Police were a trio formed in London in 1977, with Sting being the most famous member and the lead singer. The band’s long list of hits includes “Roxanne” (1977), “Message in a Bottle” (1979), “Walking on the Moon” (1979) and “Every Breath You Take” (1983). The Police broke up in 1986, but their reunion tour of 2007/2008 made them the world’s highest-earning musicians for the year 2008.

33 ___ 500 : INDY

The Indianapolis 500 race is held annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The race is run around a 2.5 mile oval, hence requiring 200 laps for completion. The first Indy 500 race was held on Memorial Day in 1911. The winner that day was one Ray Harroun. Harroun had seen someone using a rear view mirror on a horse-drawn vehicle, and decided to fit one on his Marmon “Wasp” motor car. Supposedly, that was the first ever use of a rear-view mirror on a motor vehicle.

41 Country legend Lynn : LORETTA

Singer Loretta Lynn is sometimes referred to as the First Lady of Country Music. Lynn was born in 1932 in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner and his wife, and so famously is also referred to as “the Coal Miner’s Daughter”. Her much younger sister (by 19 years) is the singer Crystal Gayle.

43 Neighbor of an Afghan : IRANI

The Afghanistan-Iran border runs in a generally north-south direction. It extends over 570 miles from a tripoint with Turkmenistan in the north to a tripoint with Pakistan in the south.

44 Boy king of Egypt : TUT

“King Tut” is a name commonly used for the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun. Tutankhamun may not have been the most significant of the pharaohs historically, but he is the most famous today largely because of the discovery of his nearly intact tomb in 1922 by Howard Carter. Prior to this find, any Egyptian tombs uncovered by archaeologists had been ravaged by grave robbers. Tutankhamun’s magnificent burial mask is one of the most recognizable of all Egyptian artifacts.

48 Showtime drama with a serial-killer protagonist : DEXTER

“Dexter” is a crime show that airs on Showtime. The title character works for the Miami Police Department as an expert in blood spatter patterns by day, but is a serial killer by night. The original series was based on the “Dexter” novels written by Jeff Lindsay. I haven’t seen this show myself, but my eldest son really enjoys it …

49 Gold, silver or bronze : MEDAL

In the Ancient Olympic Games, the winner of an event was awarded an olive wreath. When the games were revived in 1896, the winners were originally given a silver medal and an olive branch, with runners-up receiving a bronze medal and a laurel branch. The tradition of giving gold, silver and bronze medals began at the 1904 Summer Olympic Games held in St. Louis, Missouri.

53 Yankee Doodle’s method of transport : PONY

“The Yankee Doodle Boy” is a song from the musical “Little Johnny Jones” by George M. Cohan. It is a patriotic number, well known for its opening line “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy”. The musical tells the story of American jockey Johnny Jones who rides a horse called Yankee Doodle in the English Derby. Jimmy Cagney played Cohan in the 1942 biopic called “Yankee Doodle Dandy”, and gave a famous rendition of the song.

55 ___ Millions : MEGA

The Mega Millions lottery game is available in most states of the US, as is its major rival called Powerball.

56 Part of U.A.E. : ARAB

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

61 “S.N.L.” network : NBC

NBC first aired a form of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) in 1975 under the title “NBC’s Saturday Night”. The show was actually created to give Johnny Carson some time off from “The Tonight Show”. Back then “The Tonight Show” had a weekend episode, and Carson convinced NBC to pull the Saturday or Sunday recordings off the air and hold them for subsequent weeknights in which Carson needed a break. NBC turned to Lorne Michaels and asked him to put together a variety show to fill the vacant slot, and he came up with what we now call “Saturday Night Live”.