0616-25 NY Times Crossword 16 Jun 25, Monday

Bill’s time: 5m 10s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Three-player trick-taking game : SKAT

When I was a teenager in Ireland, I had a friend with a German father. The father taught us the game of Skat, and what a great game it is. Skat originated in Germany in the 1800s and is to this day the most popular card game in the country. I haven’t played it in decades, but would love to play it again …

5A Supermarket tabloids, informally : RAGS

“Tabloid” is the trademarked name (owned by Burroughs Wellcome) for a “small tablet of medicine”, a name that goes back to 1884. The word “tabloid” had entered into general use to mean a compressed form of anything, and by the early 1900s was used in “tabloid journalism”, which described newspapers that had short, condensed articles and stories printed on smaller sheets of paper.

15A Dog biter : FLEA

Fleas can jump incredibly high relative to their size, up to 150 times their own height. This is due to a specialized protein in their legs called resilin, which stores and releases energy like a spring.

16A Greek theater : ODEON

The term “odeon” originally referred to a building used for ancient Greek and Roman musical performances, poetry readings, and contests. These structures were often smaller and more roofed than traditional open-air theaters. The most famous is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, still used today on the slopes of the Acropolis in Athens.

17A Pitchers’ stats : ERAS

Earned run average (ERA)

18A Short stiletto shoe : KITTEN HEEL (baby cat)

Kitten heels are short stiletto heels. As well as being shorter, the heel curves in slightly from the back of the shoe. They were introduced in the late 1950s, and popularized by the stylish actress Audrey Hepburn.

23A ‘N Sync bandmate of Justin Timberlake : JOEY FATONE (baby kangaroo)

NSYNC was a boy band from Orlando, Florida that was formed in 1995. The name of the group came from a comment by the mother of band member Justin Timberlake, who said the boys’ voices sounded “in sync”. But, it’s also true that the letters of the name NSYNC are the last letters of the given names of the five band members:

• Justin Timberlake
• Chris Kirkpatrick
• Joey Fatone
• Lance “Lansten” Bass
• JC Chasez

26A Black Friday or Cyber Monday event : SALE

In the world of retail, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the US. It is also the day when many stores start the holiday shopping season, and so offer deep discounts to get ahead of the competition.

Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving, when retailers offer incentives to online shoppers in the hope of boosting sales. The term “Cyber Monday” was coined in 2005 in a press release issued by the website Shop.org. In recent years, consumers have been spending more money online on Cyber Monday than any other day in the year.

30A Vaccine-approving org. : FDA

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has its roots in the Division of Chemistry (later “Bureau of Chemistry”) that was part of the US Department of Agriculture. President Theodore Roosevelt gave responsibility for examination of food and drugs to the Bureau of Chemistry with the signing of the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Bureau’s name was changed to the Food, Drug and Insecticide Organization in 1927, and to the Food and Drug Administration in 1930.

35A Slanted edges, as on mirrors : BEVELS

A beveled edge is like a chamfered edge. The edge of a mirror is often beveled, meaning that it is cut at an angle that isn’t perpendicular to the mirror’s surface.

38A Author Louisa May ___ : ALCOTT

Louisa May Alcott, best known for her novel “Little Women,” also wrote under the pseudonym “A.M. Barnard”. Under this name, she penned several thrilling and sensational novels, often referred to as “blood-and-thunder” tales, which were quite different in tone from her more famous works. These stories allowed her to explore darker themes and often provided a more immediate income.

41A Slugger Sammy : SOSA

Sammy Sosa was firmly in the public eye in 1998 when he and Mark McGwire were vying to be the first to surpass the home run record held by Roger Maris. McGwire fell out of public favor due to stories of steroid abuse (stories which he later admitted were true) while Sosa fell out of favor when he was found to be using a corked bat in a 2003 game.

42A ___ de Janeiro : RIO

Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil (after São Paulo). “Rio de Janeiro” translates as “January River”. The name reflects the discovery of the bay on which Rio sits, on New Year’s Day in 1502.

45A Like cursive handwriting, typically : LOOPY

Cursive handwriting is often referred to as “longhand” or “script”, although when I was learning it at school we knew it as “joined-up writing”. The term “cursive” ultimately comes from the Latin verb “currere” meaning “to run”. The idea is that the letters of words are written with a “running” hand.

46A Yahoo alternative : AOL

Well, AOL is an alternative to Yahoo! … with an exclamation point!

49A Spot that may be affected by a charley horse : CALF MUSCLE (baby cow)

“Charley horse” is a very American phrase describing painful muscle spasms in the legs. The term possibly arose in the late 19th century, and may be named for baseball pitcher Charlie “Old Hoss” Radbourn who apparently suffered a lot from leg cramps.

55A Small case for needles : ETUI

An etui is an ornamental case used to hold small items, in particular sewing needles. We imported both the case design and the word “etui” from France. The French also have a modern usage of “etui”, using the term to depict a case for carrying CDs.

60A West Point, in brief : USMA

West Point is a military reservation in New York State, located north of New York City. West Point was first occupied by the Continental Army way back in 1778, making it the longest, continually-occupied military post in the country. Cadet training has taken place at the garrison since 1794, although Congress funding for a US Military Academy (USMA) didn’t start until 1802. The first female cadets were admitted to West Point in 1976, and as of 2018, about 15% of all new cadets were women.

62A 2015 Adele hit that won three Grammys : HELLO

“Hello” is a 2015 song by English singer Adele that won her three Grammy Awards: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo Performance. It was the first song to sell over one million digital copies in a single week in the US.

65A Swords whose points were once dipped in dye before a duel : EPEES

The French word for sword is “épée”. In competitive fencing the épée is connected to a system that records an electrical signal when legal contact is made on an opponent’s body.

67A ___ gin fizz : SLOE

By definition, a cocktail known as a “fizz” includes lemon or lime juice and carbonated water. The most popular of the genre is the gin fizz, made from 3 parts gin, 2 parts lemon juice, 1 part sugar syrup and 5 parts soda water. There is also a variant known as a sloe gin fizz.

Down

1D “Thar ___ blows!” : SHE

“Thar she blows!” is a phrase that originated on whaling ships. A lookout spotting a whale surfacing to breathe might see the spray from the blowhole caused by the expulsion of carbon dioxide. Thar (there) she blows!

3D Colorful shrubs in the genus Rhododendron : AZALEAS

Azaleas are very toxic to most animals. If you go to Korea, you might come across “Tug Yonju”, which is azalea wine made from the plant’s blossoms. Azaleas are usually grown as shrubs, but are also seen as small trees, and often indoors. The name “azalea” comes from the Greek “azaleos” meaning “dry”, reflecting the plant’s ability to thrive in sandy soil.

4D In an irritable mood : TESTY

Somebody described as testy is touchy, irritably impatient. The term “testy” comes into English from Old French, ultimately deriving from “testu” meaning “stubborn, headstrong”, literally “heady”. So, our word “testy” comes from the same root as the French word “tête” meaning “head”.

5D ___ Stadium, former D.C. sports venue : RFK

Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Memorial Stadium opened in 1961 as the District of Columbia Stadium, and is actually owned by the District of Columbia. The stadium was renamed in 1969, a few months after Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Kennedy had been instrumental in the racial integration of the Washington Commanders who played in the stadium for 36 seasons. As Attorney General, Kennedy threatened to oust the Commanders from the federally-owned stadium unless the team agreed to sign African-American players.

6D Boxer who “stung like a bee” : ALI

Muhammad Ali first used his famous catchphrase “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” before his world title fight against Sonny Liston in 1964. Back then Ali still went by his birth name of Cassius Clay.

8D Lucifer : SATAN

According to some Christian traditions, Lucifer was an angel who rebelled against God and so was condemned to the Lake of Fire. Lucifer is also known as Satan or the Devil.

13D Longtime sketch comedy show, in brief : SNL

NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) was named “NBC’s Saturday Night” during its first season. This was to differentiate it from the ABC show airing at that time, called “Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell”. Chevy Chase uttered the famous line “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night” in the very first SNL episode on October 11, 1975. That careful wording has persisted, even though the NBC show’s name was changed to “Saturday Night Live” after Cosell’s show went off the air in 1976.

23D Bird whose name sounds like a letter of the alphabet : JAY

The bird known as a “jay” is sometimes called a “magpie”, although the terms are not completely interchangeable.

25D Pack (down) : TAMP

To tamp is to pack down tightly by tapping. “Tamp” was originally used specifically to describe the action of packing down sand or dirt around an explosive prior to detonation.

27D Rapper ___ Nas X : LIL

“Lil Nas X” is the stage name of rapper Montero Lamar Hill. He was born and raised just outside of Atlanta. His first hit was “Old Town Road”, which is classified as country rap.

28D U.F.O. crew : ETS

In 1952, the USAF revived its studies of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in a program called Project Blue Book. Project Blue Book ran from 1952 until it was shut down in 1969 with the conclusion that there was no threat to national security and that there were no sightings that could not be explained within the bounds of modern scientific knowledge.

36D Treat on a stick that you lick : POPSICLE

The term “ice pop” has largely been supplanted in the US by “popsicle”, as the Popsicle brand of ice pop became so popular. We still use “ice pop” in Ireland, and in the UK the same thing is called an “ice lolly”, and in Australia it’s an “ice block”.

39D Parking place : LOT

The “city lot” sense of “lot” is intertwined with the older practice of “casting lots.” Historically, land division was often determined by chance, particularly in early settlements or when distributing land among a group. “Lots” were physical objects, like stones or slips of paper, marked to represent different land parcels. These were drawn randomly, and the “lot” a person received corresponded to the specific piece of land assigned to that marker. This practice of “casting lots” directly led to the use of “lot” as a term for a defined piece of land, eventually giving us the modern usage in “city lot” and “parking lot.”

43D Left hanging between two stages : IN LIMBO

In the Roman Catholic tradition, “Limbo” is a place where souls can remain who cannot enter heaven. For example, infants who have not been baptized are said to reside in Limbo. Limbo is said to be located on the border of Hell. The name was chosen during the Middle Ages from the Latin “limbo” meaning “ornamental border to a fringe”. We use the phrase “in limbo” in contemporary English to mean “in a state of uncertainty”.

50D Bronze statue in Rockefeller Center : ATLAS

The iconic bronze statue of Atlas that faces Fifth Avenue in Rockefeller Center is the work of sculptor Lee Lawrie. It is not to be confused with the bronze gilded statue of a reclining Prometheus that looks over Rockefeller Plaza.

51D High-end German camera brand : LEICA

Leica is a German optics company that is famous for production of lenses and cameras. The 1913 Leica was the first practical camera that could use 35mm film, a size chosen because it was already the standard for film used in motion pictures.

54D Some bygone theaters : RKOS

RKO Pictures was one of the major film studios during Hollywood’s Golden Age. The studio’s iconic logo was a rotating globe with a radio tower atop. The tower beeped out “A Radio Picture” in Morse code. That is, except during WWI when it beeped out “V for Victory”.

56D Revolutionary Guevara : CHE

Ernesto “Che” Guevara was born in Argentina, and in 1948 he started to study medicine at the University of Buenos Aires. While at school he satisfied his need to “see the world” by taking two long journeys around South America, the stories of which are told in Guevara’s memoir later published as “The Motorcycle Diaries”. While traveling, Guevara was moved by the plight of the people he saw and their working conditions and what he viewed as capitalistic exploitation. In Mexico City he met brothers Raul and Fidel Castro and was persuaded to join their cause, the overthrow of the US-backed government in Cuba. He rose to second-in-command among the Cuban insurgents, and when Castro came to power Guevara was influential in repelling the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing Soviet nuclear missiles to the island. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to continue his work as a revolutionary. He was captured by Bolivian forces in 1967, and was executed. Fidel Castro led the public mourning of Guevara’s death, and soon the revolutionary was an icon for many left-wing movements around the world.

58D First channel to offer 24-hour reporting : CNN

CNN (Cable News Network) was launched in 1980 by the Turner Broadcasting System, and was the first television channel in the world to provide news coverage 24 hours a day. CNN headquarters is located in Atlanta.