1213-25 NY Times Crossword 13 Dec 25, Saturday

Bill’s time: 10m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Possible turnoff on a first date : BAD BREATH

“Fetor” (sometimes “foetor”) is a relatively formal, and often medical, term describing a powerful, offensive smell. “Fetor” is often used in clinical or scientific contexts, like fetor oris (a medical term for bad breath).

14A City SE of Chicago : GARY

The city of Gary, Indiana is located just 25 miles from downtown Chicago and falls within the Chicago metropolitan area (also known as “Chicagoland”). Gary was founded by US Steel in 1906, as the company selected it as the site for a new steel plant. The name “Gary” was chosen in honor of Elbert H. Gary, who was the key player in setting up US Steel in 1901.

18A “Knowing” without really knowing, for short : ESP

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

22A Actress Birch of “Hocus Pocus” : THORA

Thora Birch is an actress from Los Angeles. Birch is probably best known for her breakthrough role in the 1999 movie “American Beauty” in which she was the insecure daughter of a married couple played by Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening.

“Hocus Pocus” is a 1993 comedy film about a teenage boy who resurrects a trio of witches, played by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy. Although the movie bombed at the box office, it has legs, and has regular showings around Halloween every year. Despite failing at the box office, Disney made “Hocus Pocus 2”, and with the same leading cast.

24A Robert Byrd was one for 51 years: Abbr. : SEN

Democratic Senator Robert Byrd passed away in June, 2010. He was the US Senator from West Virginia. Byrd was elected to office in 1959 and retained his seat until his death. Senator Byrd was the longest-serving member in the history of the United States Congress, having served for 51 years.

27A Philippic : TIRADE

The term “tirade” describes a long and vehement speech, and is a word that came into English from French. “Tirade” can have the same meaning in French, but is also the word for “volley”. So, a tirade is a “volley” of words.

A philippic is a damning speech designed to bring down a politician. The original “philippic” was delivered in the 4th century BCE by the Greek statesman Demosthenes, and was an attack on Philip II of Macedon, hence the name.

30A Subs : HOAGIES

“Hoagy” (sometimes “hoagie”) is another name for a submarine sandwich. The term “hoagy” originated in Philadelphia, and was apparently introduced by Italians working in the shipyards during WWI. The shipyards were located on Hog Island, and the sandwich was first called “the Hog Island”, which morphed into “hoagy”.

34A Board of creatives? : PALETTE

A palette is a board on which an artist holds and mixes paints. A classical palette is oval in shape, and has a thumbhole and an insert for brushes. Not every artist uses a classical palette. For example, Picasso used a sheet of newspaper.

35A Countenance : MIEN

One’s mien is one’s bearing or manner. “Mien” shares the same etymological root as our word “demeanor”.

39A Ticker tape?: Abbr. : ECG

An EKG measures the electrical activity in the heart. Back in my homeland of Ireland, an EKG is known as an ECG (for electrocardiogram). We use the German name in the US, Elektrokardiogramm, giving us EKG. Apparently the abbreviation EKG is preferred, as ECG might be confused (if poorly handwritten, I guess) with EEG, the abbreviation for an electroencephalogram.

40A First, second or third : ORDINAL

Ordinal numbers express a position in a series, i.e. first, second, third etc.

45A They travel through tubes : OVA

The Fallopian tubes stretch from the ovaries of female mammals to the uterus. They are named for the 16th-century Italian anatomist Gabriello Fallopio, who was the first to describe them.

52A Morning prayer : MATINS

In the Roman Catholic tradition, there is an official set of daily prayers known as the Liturgy of the Hours. The traditional list of prayers is:

• Matins (during the night, or at midnight)
• Lauds or Dawn Prayer (Dawn, or 3 a.m.)
• Prime or Early Morning Prayer (First Hour, or 6 a.m.)
• Terce or Mid-Morning Prayer (Third Hour, or 9 a.m.)
• Sext or Midday Prayer (Sixth Hour, or 12 noon)
• None or Mid-Afternoon Prayer (Ninth Hour, or 3 p.m.)
• Vespers or Evening Prayer (“at the lighting of the lamps”, or 6 p.m.)
• Compline or Night Prayer (before retiring, generally at 9 p.m.)

54A Weapon that killed Medusa, in myth : SWORD

In Greek mythology, Medusa was one of the monstrous female creatures known as Gorgons. According to one version of the Medusa myth, she was once a beautiful woman. She incurred the wrath of Athena who turned her lovely hair into serpents and made her face hideously ugly. Anyone who gazed directly at the transformed Medusa would turn into stone. She was eventually killed by the hero Perseus, who beheaded her. He carried Medusa’s head and used its powers as a weapon, before giving it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. One myth holds that as Perseus was flying over Egypt with Medusa’s severed head, drops of her blood fell to the ground and formed asps.

Down

3D Alternative to a snake : DRANO

To clean out drains we might buy Crystal Drano, which is sodium hydroxide (lye) mixed with sodium nitrate, sodium chloride (table salt) and aluminum. The contents of Drano work in concert to clear the clog. The lye reacts with any fats creating soap which may be enough to break up the clog. Also, the finely-divided aluminum reacts with the lye generating hydrogen gas that churns the mixture. Any hair or fibers are cut by the sharp edges of the nitrate and chloride crystals. Having said all that, I find that boiling water poured down the drain quite often does the job …

A plumber’s snake might be used to clear a clog.

4D Fancy hotel amenities : BIDETS

“Bidet” is a French word that we imported into English. In French, the word “bidet” originally described a small horse or a pony. The bidet bathroom fixture was so called because one straddles it like a horse in order to use it.

5D Orangutan, by another name : RED APE

Orangutans (also “orangs”) are arboreal creatures, the largest arboreal animals known to man. They are native to Indonesia and Malaysia, and live in rainforests. Like most species in rainforests these days, orangutans are endangered, with only two species surviving. The word “orangutan” is Malay, meaning “man of the forest”.

8D Part of TNT : TRI-

Trinitrotoluene (TNT)

10D Creator of some bubbles : CORPORATE GREED

The world’s first ever speculative “bubble” in the financial markets took place in 1637, when the price of tulip bulbs skyrocketed out of control. The tulip had been introduced into Europe a few years earlier and demand for tulips was so high that single bulbs were selling for ten times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. The climb in prices was followed quickly by a collapse in the market that was so striking that the forces at play were given the term “tulip mania”. To this day, any large economic bubble may be referred to as “tulip mania”.

12D Audrey Hepburn and Princess Diana, for two : FASHION ICONS

Actress Audrey Hepburn trained as a ballet dancer for much of her early life. She had to give up her ambitions to become a prima ballerina due to a weak constitution attributed to malnutrition she experienced during WWII. Hepburn turned to acting, and earned her first starring film role after a screen test for 1953’s “Roman Holiday”, in which she played opposite Hollywood legend Gregory Peck. That performance changed her life, as she was a surprising winner of the Best Actress Oscar that season. After a long and successful acting career, Hepburn devoted many years to humanitarian causes. She was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF in 1989, and traveled the world promoting programs that benefited humanity. In recognition for her work with UNICEF, President George H. W. Bush awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Charles, Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The wedding was a huge television event, with about 750 million people tuning in worldwide. Although the event was billed as the start of a fairytale marriage, the couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. Lady Diana died in a car crash in Paris the following year.

17D School viewing? : SNORKELING

Our word “snorkel” comes from German navy slang “Schnorchel” meaning “nose, snout”. The German slang was applied to an air-shaft used for submarines, due to its resemblance to a nose, in that air passed through it and it made a “snoring” sound. “Schnorchel” comes from “Schnarchen”, the German for “snore”.

20D Mourning peal : KNELL

The word “knell” is used for a solemn ring from a bell, often associated with death or a funeral. “Knell” comes from the Old English “cnell” and is probably imitative in origin, sounding like a peal from a large bell.

26D Cousin of a wolverine : OTTER

The wolverine is a mammal related to weasels and stoats that looks more like a small bear. Adult wolverines are about the size of a medium dog, but tend to be quite ferocious and can take down a prey that is several times its size.

29D Article of regalia worn by both Elizabeth II and Pope Paul VI : TIARA

Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 when her father, King George VI died. The Princess was on an official visit to Kenya when her husband broke the news to her; that she had become queen. When she was crowned in 1953 in Westminster Abbey, it was the first coronation to be televised. Queen Elizabeth’s reign was the longest in the history of the UK.

Pope Paul VI was head of the Roman Catholic Church from 1963 to 1978. He was born in the village of Concesio in Lombardy, Italy as Giovanni Battista Montini. The future pope’s mother was from a noble family, and his father was a member of the Italian parliament.

41D Rapper with the 2022 hit “Big Energy” : LATTO

“Latto” (also “Big Latto”, and formerly “Mulatto”) is the stage name of rap singer Alyssa Stephens. She was the winner of the first season of the LIfetime reality show “”The Rap Game”, in 2016.

44D Not mucho : POCO

In Spanish, if one doesn’t have “mucho” (much), one might have “poco” (little).

49D A little work : ERG

An erg is a unit of mechanical work or energy. It is a small unit, with one joule comprising 10 million ergs. It has been suggested that an erg is about the amount of energy required for a mosquito to take off. The term comes from “ergon”, the Greek word for work.

50D Pitch, roll and ___ (rotations along the three-dimensional axes) : YAW

In the world of flight dynamics, three critical angles of rotation are known as pitch, roll and yaw. “Pitch” describes the lift and descent of the nose and tail. “Roll” describes motion around the axis that runs along the length of the airplane. “Yaw” describes rotation of the aircraft around the vertical axis.