0611-25 NY Times Crossword 11 Jun 25, Wednesday

Bill’s time: 9m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4A Co. badges, e.g. : IDS

Identity document (ID)

14A Yogi’s accessory : MAT

A yogi is a master practitioner of yoga. A master practitioner who is female might be referred to as a yogini.

17A Chang or Eng Bunker, notably : SIAMESE TWIN (IA | WI)

Siamese twins are identical twins who are conjoined. Famously, the conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker traveled with P.T. Barnum’s circus in the last half of the 19th century. The Bunker twins were billed as the Siamese Twins as they were born in Siam, which is now Thailand. This led to the condition being called “Siamese twins”.

What is now the state of Iowa was part of French (and Spanish) Louisiana from 1682 until the US negotiated the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The US divided the purchased land into the District of Louisiana and the Indiana Territory, with present-day Iowa falling into the former. Congress established the Territory of Iowa in 1838. In 1846, Iowa was admitted as the 29th state in the Union.

The state of Wisconsin is a leading producer of dairy products, and is particularly known for its cheese. Wisconsin is sometimes referred to as the Dairy State, and the state’s licence plates have borne the motto “America’s Dairyland” since 1940.

23A ___ Haute, Ind. : TERRE

Terre Haute, Indiana is a city close to the state’s western border with Illinois. The city is home to a state prison which in turn is home to the state’s death row. The name “Terre Haute” was chosen by French explorers in the 18th century to describe the location, as “terre haute” is French for “high ground”.

27A Throwing a ball and grasping a pencil, e.g. : MOTOR SKILLS (MO | IL)

“Show-Me State” is the unofficial nickname of Missouri. The moniker was given to the state apparently because the population was noted for being conservative and non-credulous.

The State of Illinois is known as “Land of Lincoln”, as well as “The Prairie State”.

32A Grammy-nominated poet Nikki ___ : GIOVANNI

Nikki Giovanni is a poet who came into the public eye as someone at the forefront of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s. She has won many awards during her long writing career, including the NAACP Image Award and the Langston Hughes Medal.

38A Observes Ramadan, say : FASTS

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and is traditionally a period of fasting. The faithful who observe Ramadan refrain from eating, drinking and sexual relations from dawn to dusk everyday, a lesson in patience, humility and spirituality.

41A National park that’s home to the Pretty Rocks Landslide : DENALI

“Denali” means “the high one” in the native Athabaskan language, and is the name used for the peak formerly known as Mount McKinley. Denali’s summit stands at 20,237 feet, making it the highest mountain peak in North America. I was surprised to learn that there is a Denali State Park, as well as the Denali National Park. The two are located adjacent to each other (which makes sense!). The State Park is undeveloped for all practical purposes, with just a few campgrounds and trailheads.

45A Provider of crucial testimony : STAR WITNESS (AR | TN)

Arkansas has had three official nicknames over the years:

1. The Wonder State (1923)
2. The Land of Opportunity (1953)
3. The Natural State (1995)

Tennessee ties Missouri for the state that borders the most other states in the U.S., with eight neighboring states: Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri itself.

51A Solomonic figures : SAGES

According to the Bible, Solomon was the son of David and a king of Israel. Notably, Solomon is described as being very wise. In the story known as “the Judgment of Solomon”, Solomon was asked to decide which of two quarreling women was the mother of a baby. He suggested that they cut the baby in two with a sword, forcing one of the women to surrender the child rather than see it die. Solomon gave the child to the woman who showed compassion.

59A Copyright wrongs : PLAGIARISMS (LA | MS)

While both involve unauthorized use of another’s work, plagiarism specifically refers to presenting someone else’s words or ideas as your own without attribution, whereas copyright infringement is a legal term for using copyrighted material without permission, which may or may not involve plagiarism.

The French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the Mississippi River basin for France in 1682. He named the region “La Louisiane” in honor of Louis XIV, who was King of France at that time. It is from “La Louisiane” that we get the state name “Louisiana”.

Mississippi is named for the Mississippi River, which forms most of the state’s western border. In turn, the river’s name comes from the Chippewa “misi-ziibi” meaning “great river”.

65A Soccer star Messi, familiarly : LEO

Lionel “Leo” Messi is a soccer player from Argentina. He has been awarded FIFA’s Ballon d’Or (Golden Ball) award more times than any other player. The Ballon d’Or is presented to the player who is considered the best in the world in the prior year.

68A One of four featured on the Yale Nature Walk : ELM

The city of New Haven, Connecticut was founded in 1638 by Puritan immigrants from England. Famously, it is home to Yale University. The city also initiated the first public tree planting program in the country. The large elms included in the program led to New Haven being called “the Elm City”.

Down

3D Celestial phenomena observed at perigees : SUPERMOONS

A supermoon occurs when a full or new moon coincides with its closest approach to Earth, (known as perigee). Because the moon is closer, it can appear slightly larger and brighter than a typical full moon, though the difference is often subtle to the naked eye.

5D Speaker’s spot : DAIS

A dais is a raised platform for a speaker. The term “dais” comes from the Latin “discus” meaning a “disk-shaped object”. I guess that the original daises had such a shape.

7D French possessive : SES

“Ses” is the French word for “his”, “her” or “its” when referring to a group of items or individuals.

8D Bridge support : TRESTLE

A trestle is a frame that is used as a support, particularly a support forming part of a bridge.

10D Aussie’s neighbor : KIWI

Unlike many nicknames for people of a particular country, the name “Kiwi” for a New Zealander isn’t offensive at all. The term comes from the flightless bird called the kiwi, which is endemic to New Zealand and is the country’s national symbol. “Kiwi” is a Maori word, and the plural (when referring to the bird) is simply “kiwi”. However, when you have two or more New Zealanders with you, they are Kiwis (note the “s”, and indeed the capital “K”!).

11D Nobel laureate Wiesel : ELIE

Elie Wiesel was a holocaust survivor, and is best known for his book “Night” that tells of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was also the first recipient of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Award, which was later renamed the Elie Wiesel Award in his honor.

12D Figs. with two dashes : SSNS

A Social Security number (SSN) is divided into three parts, i.e AAA-GG-SSSS. Originally, the Area Number (AAA) was the code for the office that issued the card. Starting in 1973, the Area Number reflected the ZIP code from which the application was made. The GG in the SSN was the Group Number, and the SSSS number the Serial Number. This is all moot today. Since 2011, SSNs have been assigned randomly. Some random numbers, however, have been excluded from use, i.e. Area Numbers 000, 666 (!) and 900-999.

15D Jeter in Cooperstown : DEREK

Derek Jeter played his entire professional baseball career with the New York Yankees, and was the team’s captain. Jeter is the all-time career leader for the Yankees in hits, games played, stolen bases and at bats. He is also the all-time leader in hits by a shortstop in the whole of professional baseball. Jeter’s performances in the postseason earned him the nicknames “Captain Clutch” and “Mr. November”. Jeter retired from the game in 2014.

Cooperstown is a village in New York that is famous as the home to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The village was named for Judge William Cooper, the founder of Cooperstown and the father of the noted writer James Fenimore Cooper.

18D Natural dividing line on a U.S. map, as suggested by this puzzle’s circled letters : MISSISSIPPI

The Mississippi River runs right through the Midwest. It originates in Lake Itasca, Minnesota and flows into the Gulf of Mexico about a hundred miles below New Orleans. The name Mississippi is a corruption of a Native American name “misi-ziibi”, meaning “Great River, Father of Waters”.

26D Titan maker : NISSAN

The Titan is a pickup truck manufactured in the US by Nissan for the North American market. The first Nissan Titans rolled off the production line in 2003.

29D Strand in a cell : RNA

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA. An added complication is that small changes in the sequence of amino acids specified by DNA sometimes takes place in a process known as RNA editing. This RNA editing occurs after the nucleotide sequence has been transcribed from DNA, but before it is translated into protein.

30D The World Map is the largest one to date, with 11,695 pieces : LEGO SET

Lego produces some wonderful specialized sets with which you can build models of celebrated structures, including:

• The Statue of Liberty (2,882 pieces)
• The Sydney Opera House (2,989 pieces)
• The Eiffel Tower (3,428 pieces)
• Tower Bridge (4,295 pieces)
• The Taj Mahal (5,922 pieces)
• The World Map (11,695 pieces)

33D Saint Martin, par exemple : ILE

The island of Saint Martin is in the Caribbean. Part of Saint Martin is owned by France, and part by the Netherlands. In fact, it is the smallest inhabited sea island in the world that is divided between two nations.

35D Actress Mendes : EVA

I am most familiar with actress Eva Mendes as the female lead in the movie “Hitch”, in which she played opposite Will Smith. Mendes started a relationship with fellow actor Ryan Gosling in 2011, and the couple have two children together.

36D Torre ___ Greco, Italy : DEL

Torre del Greco translates literally to “Greek Man’s Tower”. It is a city at the foot of Mount Vesuvius in the Campania region of Italy and is historically known for its coral and cameo production, with a tradition dating back to the 17th century.

42D Menlo Park, N.J., famously : LAB SITE

Menlo Park, New Jersey is noted as the home to the laboratory belonging to Thomas Edison (TAE). We also have a pretty well-known Menlo Park out here in California, home to many of the venture capital companies that tend to make a lot of money out of Silicon Valley businesses.

50D Surrey town known for its salt : EPSOM

The Surrey town of Epsom in England is most famous for its racecourse (Epsom Downs), at which the Epsom Derby is run every year, one of the three races that make up the English Triple Crown. We also come across “Epsom salts” from time to time. Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, originally prepared by boiling down mineral waters. Epsom was indeed a spa town at one time. The town is also home to Epsom College, an English “public school” (which actually means “private, and expensive”). One of Epsom’s “old boys” was the Hollywood actor Stewart Granger.

52D Thomas ___ Edison : ALVA

Thomas Alva Edison (TAE) was a very successful inventor. He held over a thousand US patents in his name. Included in the list of Edison’s inventions is the phonograph, the movie camera and the long-lasting light bulb. He passed away in 1931. There is a test tube at the Henry Ford Museum that supposedly holds Edison’s last breath. Ford convinced Thomas’s son Charles to seal up a tube of air in the room just after the inventor died, as a memento.

54D Pulitzer-winning author Jennifer : EGAN

Jennifer Egan is an author who grew up in San Francisco. Egan’s 2010 work “A Visit from the Goon Squad” won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Usually termed a novel, “A Visit from the Goon Squad” is structured in such a way that it is sometimes described as a collection of linked short stories.

57D X-rated material : SMUT

“Smut” means “dirt, smudge” and more recently “pornographic material”. The term comes from the Yiddish “schmutz”, which is a slang word used in English for dirt, as in “dirt on one’s face”.

60D ___ Lingus : AER

Aer Lingus is the flag carrier airline of Ireland. It was founded in 1936 by the Irish government to provide air service between Ireland and the United Kingdom. The airline’s name means “air fleet” in Irish. In the 1950s, Aer Lingus became the first airline in the world to introduce a duty-free shopping service on board its flights.

61D Stratego piece : SPY

The wonderful board game called Stratego derives from a traditional Chinese game called “Jungle” or “Animal Chess”. The major difference between Stratego and Jungle is that in the latter, the identity of the pieces is not hidden from one’s opponent.