0618-25 NY Times Crossword 18 Jun 25, Wednesday

Bill’s time: 10m 27s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5A Fashion’s Jimmy whose surname aptly rhymes with “shoe” : CHOO

Jimmy Choo is a designer of handmade women’s shoes who was born in Malaysia but grew up and was educated in London. Choo sold the 50% stake that he had in his shoe manufacturing company in 2001, for 10 million pounds sterling.

15A “By Jove!” : I SAY!

“By Jove!” is a mild oath that calls on the Roman god Jove, who was also known as Jupiter.

20A Org. that was a frequent James Bond foe : KGB

The “Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti” (KGB) was the national security agency of the Soviet Union until 1991. The KGB was dissolved after the agency’s chairman led a failed attempt at a coup d’état designed to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev.

21A Mo. setting : CST

Central Standard Time (CST)

23A M.L.B.’er in a blue-and-orange uniform : NY MET

The New York Mets (NYM) baseball team was founded in 1962 as a replacement for two teams that the city had lost, namely the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. For several years the Mets played very poorly, finishing no better than second-to-last in their division. Then along came the “Miracle Mets” (aka “Amazin’ Mets”) who beat the Baltimore Orioles in 1969 to claim the World Series in a huge upset.

24A Gad about at a banquet : TABLE-HOP

A banquet is an elaborate feast. “Banquet” is a term that seems to have reversed in meaning over time. Coming into English via French from Old Italian, “banquet” is derived from “banco” meaning “bench”. The original “banco” meal was simply a snack eaten on a bench, rather than at a table. I guess we eat more these days …

26A John or Jane of anonymity : DOE

Though the English court system does not use the term today, “John Doe” first appeared as the “name of a person unknown” in England in 1659, along with the similar “Richard Roe”. An unknown female is referred to as “Jane Doe ”, and the equivalent to Richard Roe is Jane Roe (as in Roe v. Wade, for example). Variants of “John Doe” used outside of the courts are “Joe Blow” and “John Q. Public”.

27A Bite at a bar : TAPA

“Tapa” is the Spanish word for “lid”. There is no clear rationale for why this word came to be used for an appetizer. There are lots of explanations cited, all of which seem to involve the temporary covering of one’s glass of wine with a plate or item of food to either preserve the wine or give one extra space at the table.

30A Job security, for some : TENURE

A job in a university that is described as “tenure-track” is one that can lead to a tenured position. A tenured position is a “job for life”. A person with tenure can only be dismissed for cause.

38A “Star Wars” species on Tatooine : JAWA

In the “Star Wars” universe, the Jawa are a race of rodent-like pygmies who live on the desert planet called Tatooine.

41A Sentiment on el Día de San Valentín : TE AMO

In Spanish, Saint Valentine’s Day is usually translated as “el Día de San Valentín”. Another possibility is “el Día de los Enamorados”, which translates literally as “the day of those who have fallen in love”.

45A Brewer Coors : ADOLPH

Adolph Coors founded the Coors brewing company in 1873, in Golden, Colorado. Coors was originally from the Rhine Province in Prussia, and worked in various brewers around what is today Germany before immigrating to the US in 1868. Despite all of his success as a brewer here in America, Coors ended up taking his own life in 1929, by jumping to his death out of a hotel window.

54A Bygone initials at JFK : SST

Supersonic transport (SST)

The Idlewild Golf Course was taken over by the city of New York in 1943 and construction started on a new airport to serve the metropolis and relieve congestion at LaGuardia. The Idlewild name still persists, even though the airport was named after Major General Alexander E. Anderson from the first days of the project. When the facility started operating in 1948 it was known as New York International Airport, Anderson Field. It was renamed to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in 1963, one month after the President was assassinated.

55A “Mr. Blue Sky” band, in brief : ELO

“Mr. Blue Sky” is a 1977 song by the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) from Britain. It’s a song that has been described as “Beatlesque”, and I must say that I agree with that assertion …

58A Rainy-day game for children, whose play is punnily suggested by 16-, 24-, 35- and 50-Across : THE FLOOR IS LAVA

“Floor Is Lava” is a game show based on a children’s game of the same name. In the original game, children must navigate a room, avoiding the “floor” as it is made out of “lava”. In the game show, contestants also navigate a room, but the floor/lava is 80,000 gallons of slippery, bright-red goop.

61A Capital on the Baltic Sea : RIGA

Riga is the capital city of Latvia. The historical center of Riga is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, declared as such because of the city’s magnificent examples of Art Nouveau architecture. In fact, Riga has the largest collection of Art Nouveau buildings in the world, with over 750 buildings in the city center designed in the style.

65A Takes up, as some new pants : HEMS

The term “pants”, meaning “trousers”, is an abbreviated form of “pantaloons” and first appeared in the 1840s. Pantaloons were a kind of tights named for a silly old male character in Italian comedy named “Pantaloun” who always wore tight trousers over skinny legs.

66A Pennsylvania city or its county : YORK

York, Pennsylvania was named for the historic city of York in the North of England. York was one of the cities that served as a capital of the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War. It was in York that the Articles of Confederation were drafted and adopted.

Down

2D “Ha ha ha!,” on April Fools’ Day : I GOT YOU!

April Fools’ Day is celebrated on April 1st in the Western world. In the US (and Ireland) one can make practical jokes all day long if one wants, but in the UK there is a noon deadline. Anyone pranking after midday is called an “April Fool”.

5D Acting Oscar winner inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame : CHER

“Cher” is the stage name used by singer and actress Cherilyn Sarkisian. Formerly one half of husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher, she is often referred to as the Goddess of Pop. In her acting career, Cher was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar of 1984 for her performance in “Silkwood”. She went further in 1988 and won the season’s Best Actress Oscar for playing Loretta Castorini in “Moonstruck”.

8D Home to the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan (built in A.D. 593) : OSAKA

Shitennō-ji is an historic Buddhist temple in Osaka, Japan. Founded in 593CE by Prince Shōtoku, it is one of the nation’s oldest temples and played a crucial role in the early promotion of Buddhism in the country.

10D SEAL’s org. : USN

“SEAL” is an acronym used by the US Navy’s SEa, Air and Land teams. The SEALs were born out of the Navy’s special warfare groups from WWII, like the Underwater Demolition Teams and the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons. The Navy SEAL unit was established soon after President Kennedy’s famous speech in which he announced the plan to put a man on the moon, as in the same speech the president allocated $100m of funding to strengthen special operations forces. The Navy used some of this money to set up guerrilla and counter-guerrilla units, which soon became the SEALs.

11D Wine god of myth : BACCHUS

Bacchus was the Roman god of wine-making, festivity and ritual madness. He was the equivalent of the Greek god Dionysus. The name “Bacchus” was used by the Greeks as an alternative for Dionysus, and then absorbed by the Romans.

17D Anchor or heart, maybe : TATTOO

According to a 2019 survey, about 30% of Americans have at least one tattoo, and the tattoo industry is estimated to be worth over $1 billion in the United States alone. Me? Not into pain, so one of the 70% …

18D Letters before Q, sometimes : LGBT

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning (LGBTQ)

22D “Decorated,” as a house for Halloween : TEEPEED

TP’ing (toilet papering) is a prank involving the covering of some object or location with rolls and rolls of toilet paper. If you live in Texas or Minnesota, that little “prank” is legal, but if you live here in California it is classed as mischief or vandalism.

24D North Carolina athlete : TAR HEEL

“Tar Heel” is a nickname for anyone living in, or from, the state of North Carolina. As such, it is the nickname for an athlete of the University of North Carolina (UNC). No one seems to know for sure where the term “Tar Heel” originated, but it is thought to be related to the historical importance of the tar, pitch and turpentine industries that thrived in the state due to the presence of vast forests of pine trees.

28D “The Simpsons” shopkeeper : APU

“The Problem with Apu” is a 2017 documentary that explores the use of racial stereotypes by focusing on the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from the animated sitcom “The Simpsons”. The film was written by and stars American stand-up comedian Hari Kondabolu.

33D Ruling title that dates back to the Byzantine Empire : TSAR

The term “czar” (also “tsar”) is a Slavic word that was first used as a title by Simeon I of Bulgaria in 913 AD. “Czar” is derived from the word “caesar”, which was synonymous with “emperor” at that time. We tend to use the “czar” spelling, as opposed to “tsar”, when we describe a person today with great power or authority, e.g. “Drug Czar”.

35D Course that may follow trig : CALC

The Latin word “calculus” was originally used for a reckoning or an account, and originally applied to a pebble that was used to maintain a count. The Latin word came from the Greek for a pebble, “khalix”.

39D 2019 Brad Pitt sci-fi thriller : AD ASTRA

The 2019 movie was a box-office disappointment, despite the praise for the performance of the star, Brad Pitt. . Due to poor initial test screenings, reshoots were conducted, substantially increasing the production budget. Pitt was unavailable for the extra stage, so a stunt double was used in his place.

44D The first one was delivered in 1984 : TED TALK

The acronym “TED” stands for “Technology, Entertainment and Design”. TED is a set of conferences held around the world by a non-profit group called the Sapling Foundation. The conference subjects are varied, and the meetings are often led by big names such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Jane Goodall. The Sapling Foundation then makes recordings of the conferences available for free online with the intent of disseminating the ideas globally. These conferences are known as “TED Talks”. There are also TEDx events, which are locally-run talks presented under license from TED.

53D Eudora ___, Pulitzer winner for “The Optimist’s Daughter” : WELTY

Eudora Welty was an author from Jackson, Mississippi who wrote short stories and novels about the American South. Welty won a Pulitzer in 1973 for her novel “The Optimist’s Daughter”. She was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 1980. The Eudora email system, once used by Mac and Windows operating systems, was named for Eudora Welty.

56D Small amount of whiskey : DRAM

I think that the dram is a confusing unit of measurement. It has one value as an ancient unit of mass, and two different values as a modern unit of mass, another value as a unit of fluid volume, and yet another varying value as a measure of Scotch whisky!