0305-25 NY Times Crossword 5 Mar 25, Wednesday

Bill’s time: 8m 59s

Bill’s errors: 2

LUPUS (lupis)
KOMBUCHA (kombicha)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “Adios, ___!” : AMIGO

The term “adiós” is Spanish for “goodbye”. “Adiós” comes from the phrase “a Dios vos acomiendo” meaning “I commend you to God”.

6 Texter’s “you tell me” : IDK

I don’t know (IDK)

9 Sweet braided bread : BABKA

Babka is a sweet yeast cake that can also be called bobka or baba. Babka originated in Eastern Europe and is served traditionally on Easter Sunday, and with a drizzle of rum syrup.

14 Source of a pulse : SONAR

The British developed the first underwater detection system that used sound waves. Research was driven by defense demands during WWI, leading to production of working units in 1922. This new sound detection system was described as using “supersonics”, but for the purpose of secrecy the term was dropped in favor of an acronym. The work was done under the auspices of the Royal Navy’s Anti-Submarine Division, so ASD was combined with the “IC” from “superson-ic-s” to create the name ASDIC. The navy even went as far as renaming the quartz material at the heart of the technology “ASDivite”. By the time WWII came along, the Americans were producing their own systems and coined the term SONAR (Sound Navigation and Ranging), playing off the related application, RADAR. And so, the name ASDIC was deep-sixed …

16 Ingredient in a Whopper : ONION

If you were in Japan at the end of 2009 and went to Burger King, you might have ordered a Windows 7 Whopper, a promotion for the Windows 7 Operating System. The sandwich was 5 inches in height, and contained seven beef patties!

17 Home of many champion marathoners : KENYA

Kenya lies on the east coast of Africa, right on the equator. The country takes its name from Mount Kenya, the second-highest peak on the continent (after Kilimanjaro). The official languages of Kenya are English and Swahili.

23 Chichén ___ (Mayan archaeological site) : ITZA

Chichén Itzá is a Mayan ruin located in the Mexican state of Yucatán. It is the second-most visited archaeological site in the country (after the ancient city of Teotihuacan). Chichén Itzá has seen a surge in the number of visitors since the development of nearby Cancún as a tourist destination.

31 Wild backdrop for “Wuthering Heights” : MOOR

“Wuthering Heights” is the only novel written by Emily Brontë, and one that she published using the pen name Ellis Bell. It was published in December of 1847, a date chosen to take advantage of the wave of success enjoyed by Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” that had been published just two months earlier.

32 Biblical patriarch who begat Methuselah : ENOCH

There are two Enoch’s mentioned in the Bible. One was Enoch, son of Cain and grandson of Adam. The second was Enoch, great-grandfather of Noah and father of Methuselah.

Methuselah was the son of Enoch and the grandfather of Noah, and the man in the Bible who is reported to have lived the longest. Methuselah passed away seven days before the onset of the Great Flood, and tradition holds that he was 969 years old when he died.

35 Verbal facepalm : D’OH

“The Simpsons” is one of the most successful programs produced by the Fox Broadcasting Company. Homer Simpson’s catchphrase is “D’oh!”, which became such a famous exclamation that it has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) since 2001. “D’oh!” can be translated as “I should have thought of that!”

36 Message meaning “I can’t be reached right now” : OOO

Out of the office (OOO)

37 “Welcome Back, Kotter” role of 1970s TV : GABE

Comedian and actor Gabe Kaplan is known more for his poker playing these days. As an actor, he played the title character in the seventies sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter”. He started winning poker tournaments in the 1980s, and started working as a TV commentator for poker events in the 1990s.

“Welcome Back, Kotter” is a sitcom from the late seventies. The title character is a teacher at Buchanan High, one Gabe Kotter who himself had attended the school as a student. Kotter teaches a remedial class of students who call themselves the Sweathogs. In fact, Kotter had himself been a founder of the Sweathogs, when he was a student in the same class. Kotter was played by Gabe Kaplan. One of the prominent students in his class Vinnie Barbarino played by a young John Travolta, a role that launched his film career. In recent years you might have seen Gabe Kaplan as co-host of the popular show “High Stakes Poker” on GSN.

39 Yusuf ___, adopted name of singer Cat Stevens : ISLAM

The singer-songwriter that I mainly know by the name “Cat Stevens” has had a few monikers in his life. He was born in London as Steven Georgiou and adopted the stage name “Steve Adams” in the mid-sixties. A year later he changed his stage name to “Cat Stevens”, with which he had most success. During this time he had hits with classic songs like “Wild World”, “Moonshadow” and “Morning Has Broken”. He also wrote the song “The First Cut Is the Deepest”, which became a hit for four different artists. In 1977, Stevens converted to Islam and took the name Yusuf Islam in 1978.

44 Missouri tributary : PLATTE

The Platte River used to be called the Nebrakier, which is an Oto word meaning “flat river”. Indeed, the state of Nebraska takes its name from “Nebrakier”. For a while it was also called the River Plate as “plate” is the French word “flat”. Later this became “Platte”, the phonetic spelling of the French “plate”.

55 Broadway star LuPone : PATTI

Singer Patti LuPone won Tonys for playing Eva Peron in “Evita ” and Rose in “Gypsy”.

61 Research campus in upstate N.Y. : RPI

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is a private school in Troy, New York. The university is named after its founder Stephen Van Rensselaer who set up the school in 1824. The goal of RPI has always been the “application of science to the common purposes of life”, an objective set by the founder. Given that, the name for the school’s sports teams is quite apt: the Engineers.

67 Country music’s ___ Young Band : ELI

The Eli Young Band is a country group from Texas founded by Mike Eli and James Young when they were roommates in the University of North Texas.

70 Airport org. : TSA

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the agency that employs the good folks who check passengers and baggage at airports.

71 Intelligence org. : NSA

National Security Agency (NSA)

Down

2 Recipient of Bart Simpson’s crank calls : MOE

On the animated TV comedy “The Simpsons”, Bart likes to prank-call Moe’s Tavern. Bart asks Moe to “page” someone in the bar using a fictitious name, a name which sounds like a rude phrase when called out loud. This running joke on “The Simpsons” is a homage to a series of legendary calls made in real life to the Tube Bar in Jersey City by John Elmo and Jim Davidson that were taped and circulated widely in the mid-seventies. Some of the milder names used in the original prank calls were:

• Al Cholic (alcoholic)
• Cole Kutz (cold cuts)
• Sal Lammy (salami)
• Anita Bath (I need a bath)

3 New York’s Stonewall, e.g. : INN
4 New York’s Stonewall, e.g. : GAY BAR

The police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn on June 29th, 1969. That raid triggered a spate of violent demonstrations led by the LGBT community. Now known as the Stonewall riots, those demonstrations are viewed by many as a significant event leading to the modern-day fight for LGBT rights in the US. Since then, June has been chosen as LGBT Pride Month in recognition of the Stonewall riots.

7 Marvel superhero portrayed by Ryan Reynolds : DEADPOOL

“Deadpool” is a 2016 superhero film, the eighth of the “X-Men” series of movies. The title character is played by Ryan Reynolds. Deadpool constantly breaks the fourth wall in the movie, often to crack a joke. That characteristic is a carry-over from the comics, in which Deadpool often addresses asides to the reader.

8 Fermented, sweetened tea drink : KOMBUCHA

Kombucha is a fermented drink made with tea, sugar, bacteria, and yeast. The tea is first steeped in hot water, then sugar is added and the mixture allowed to cool. The bacteria and yeast are added, and the mixture is allowed to ferment for 7-10 days. During fermentation, the bacteria and yeast convert the sugar into alcohol and acetic acid, which gives kombucha its characteristic sour taste.

9 Dinghy or dory : BOAT

Our term “dinghy” comes from the Hindi “dingi”, a word meaning “small boat”.

A dory is a small boat that’s around 20 feet long with a shallow draft, a flat bottom and a sharp bow. Dories are commonly used for fishing.

11 Two hearts, for one : BID

The version of the card game bridge that is played mostly today is contract bridge. Auction bridge is a similar game, and is a precursor to contract bridge.

12 Fish in a garden pond : KOI

Koi are fish that are also known as Japanese carp. Koi have been bred for decorative purposes and there are now some very brightly colored examples found in Japanese water gardens.

13 “Raggedy” doll : ANN

Raggedy Ann is a rag doll that was created by Johnny Gruelle in 1915 for his daughter, Marcella. He decided to name the doll by combining the titles of two poems by James Whitcomb Riley, “The Raggedy Man” and “Little Orphan Annie”. Gruelle introduced Raggedy Ann in a series of books three years later. Sadly, Marcella died at 13 years of age with her father blaming a smallpox vaccination she was given at school. Gruelle became very active in the movement against mass vaccination, for which Raggedy Ann became a symbol.

21 Cheer for a fútbol team : OLE!

In Spanish, a “fútbol” (football, soccer) supporter might shout “olé!” (bravo!).

24 1919 event that confirmed the general theory of relativity : TOTAL ECLIPSE

Oh boy … Einstein’s general theory of relativity is beyond me. I think that the basic idea behind Albert Einstein’s equivalence principle is that inertial mass and gravitational mass are equivalent. The image that helps me is of a spaceship “floating” in a location with little or no gravitational field so that the astronauts are “weightless”. We can create the equivalence of gravity by accelerating the spaceship. If that rate of acceleration is a steady 9.8 m/s², then the astronauts will experience the inertial equivalent of Earth’s gravitational field.

25 Commercial property left mostly vacant by hybrid work arrangements : ZOMBIE OFFICE

A zombie is a corpse that has been brought back to life by some mystical means. Our modern use of the term largely stems from the undead creatures featured in the 1968 horror movie called “Night of the Living Dead”. Now that film I haven’t seen, and probably never will …

38 Clever wit : ESPRIT

Our word “esprit”, meaning “liveliness of mind”, comes to us from Latin via French. The Latin “spiritus” means “spirit”.

39 Actor McKellen : IAN

Sir Ian McKellen is a marvelous English actor, one who is comfortable playing anything from Macbeth on stage to Magneto in an “X-Men” movie. On the big screen, McKellen is very famous for playing Gandalf in “The Lord of Rings”. In the UK, Sir Ian is noted for being at the forefront of the campaign for equal rights for gay people, a role he has enthusiastically embraced since the eighties.

41 Rotini and bucatini : PASTAS

Rotini is a corkscrew-shaped pasta that is often used in pasta salads. Even though “rotini” sounds like it comes from a word meaning “twist, rotate”, the word “rotini” doesn’t exist in Italian other than as the name for the pasta.

Bucatini (also “perciatelli”) are pieces of pasta that resemble spaghetti with a hole running through the middle. The term “bucatini” comes from the Italian “buco” meaning “hole”.

53 Scary sight for a red-bellied marsh mouse : EGRET

Egrets are a group of several species of white herons. Many egret species were faced with extinction in the 1800s and early 1900s due to plume hunting, a practice driven by the demand for egret plumes that could be incorporated into hats.

56 World’s most populous country as of 2023 : INDIA

AS of 2023, the two most populous nations in the world are India and China, with both being home to more than 1.4 billion people (India overtook China as the most populous in 2023). The third most populous country is the USA, with about 340 million people.

58 James of “The Godfather” : CAAN

James Caan was an actor from the Bronx, New York City. He was noted for his appearances in some very big movies such as “The Godfather”, “Misery”, “A Bridge Too Far”, “Rollerball” and more recently “Elf”. Caan was quite the sportsman. He played golf with an 8 handicap, and was a 6-Dan Black Belt Master of Gosoku Karate.

Sonny Corleone was the eldest son of Don Vito Corleone in Mario Puzo’s great novel “The Godfather”. In the movie, Sonny was played by James Caan. Sonny appears as a boy in the movie “The Godfather: Part II”, and is played by director Francis Ford Coppola’s own son, Roman Coppola.

59 Speed Wagon and Flying Cloud of old autodom : REOS

The REO Speed Wagon was a light truck introduced in 1915, and a precursor to the modern pickup truck. The rock band REO Speedwagon is named for the truck, but note the difference between the spelling of Speedwagon (the band) and Speed Wagon (the truck).

The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale 8 and the REO Flying Cloud.

62 Insurance option, for short : HMO

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

63 Recombinant ___ : DNA

Recombinant DNA is DNA made under laboratory conditions. The recombination technique (sometimes referred to as “gene splicing”) brings together genetic material from multiple sources. The sources of that genetic material might be from a different part of the same gene, or even from the gene of a different organism. The end result is a new, man-made, genetic combination.