0102-26 NY Times Crossword 2 Jan 26, Friday

Bill’s time: 13m 06s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4A Tolstoy book whose title asks a question : WHAT IS ART?

Russian author Leo Tolstoy is best known for his novels “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina”. He also wrote the much-respected novellas “Hadji Murad” and “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”.

16A They rate up to 350,000 on the Scoville scale : HABANEROS

The habanero chili has a very intense flavor. Interestingly, the correct spelling of the chili’s name is “habanero”. We often try to be clever in English and add a tilde making it “habañero”, which isn’t right at all …

The Scoville scale is a measure of the spiciness of chili peppers. The scale was invented by a pharmacist in 1912, Wilbur Scoville. To determine the position of a pepper on the Scoville scale, the amount of capsaicin in the chili is measured. Capsaicin is an irritant that causes the sensation of burning when it comes into contact with tissue, particularly mucous membranes.

19A Dance move also known as a backslide : MOONWALK

The backslide dance move that we know as the moonwalk has been around at least since the 1930s. Back then, it was used by the great Cab Calloway, who dubbed the move “the Buzz”. It was Michael Jackson who popularized the backslide in the 1980s, and gave it the name “moonwalk”.

22A Fig. that cannot start with 9 : SSN

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.

23A Org. for The Rock and Brock Lesnar : WWE

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is a company promoting professional wrestling as a form of entertainment.

Dwayne Johnson is a former professional wrestler whose ring name was “the Rock”. He has used his success as a character in the ring, to cross over into television and movies. He is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as getting the highest payment for a first starring role, an incredible $5.5 million.

Professional wrestler Brock Lesnar is the youngest person to win the WWE Championship, doing so just over a month after turning 25 years old. In total, Lesnar has won the WWE Championship four times.

27A Windfalls : BOONS

A windfall is a piece of good fortune, like a piece of fruit that has fallen from the tree when the wind blows.

35A The Cowboys of the N.C.A.A. : OSU

The athletic teams of Oklahoma State University (OSU) are called the Cowboys and the Cowgirls.

36A Word from the Lakota for “they dwell” : TEPEE

A tepee (also written as “tipi” and “teepee”) is a cone-shaped tent traditionally made from animal hides that is used by the Great Plains Native Americans. A wigwam is a completely different structure and is often a misnomer for a tepee. A wigwam is a domed structure built by Native Americans in the West and Southwest, intended to be a more permanent dwelling. The wigwam can also be covered with hides but more often was covered with grass, reeds, brush or cloth.

40A Attraction on the western side of Carson Range : TAHOE

Lake Tahoe (often referred to simply as “Tahoe”) is up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and is located right on the border between California and Nevada. It is the largest alpine lake in the country. Tahoe is also the second deepest lake, with only the beautiful Crater Lake in Oregon being deeper. Given its location, there are tall casinos that sit right on the shore on the Nevada side of the state line where gambling is legal.

43A Spray in the kitchen : PAM

PAM cooking spray was introduced in 1961 by Leon Rubin and Arthur Meyerhoff. The name “PAM” is an acronym … standing for “Product of Arthur Meyerhoff”. Who’d a thunk it …?

57A May day celebrant : MOM

Note the official punctuation in “Mother’s Day”, even though one might think it should be “Mothers’ Day”. President Wilson and Anna Jarvis, who created the tradition, specifically wanted Mother’s Day to honor the mothers within each family and not just “mothers” in general, so they went with the “Mother’s Day” punctuation.

Down

1D President who wrote “Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it” : ADAMS

John Adams was the second President of the United States. I must admit that I learned much of what I know about President Adams in the excellent, excellent HBO series “John Adams”, which is based on David McCullough’s 2001 biography of the same name. Having said that, I have also visited the Adams home in Quincy, Massachusetts several times. He was clearly a great man with a great intellect …

2D Default outcomes, perhaps : REPOS

Repossession (repo)

3D Kind of sequence that that proceeds 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, … : FIBONACCI

Leonardo of Pisa was a famous and respected Italian mathematician, also known as simply “Fibonacci”. He is remembered for writing about a number sequence (although he didn’t “discover” it) that later was given the name “Fibonacci sequence”. He wrote about the series of numbers in his book called “Liber Abaci”, a celebrated work that introduced Arabic numerals (i.e. 0-9) to the Western world.

5D Modern security threat : HACK

A computer hacker is a computer expert, and in particular one who uses that expertise to solve problems with hardware and software. So, the original use of the term “hacking” was very positive. Since the 1980s, the term “hacker” is more commonly used for an expert in subverting computer security.

6D Org. with the Rule of Law Initiative : ABA

The American Bar Association (ABA) was founded back in 1878 and is a voluntary association for lawyers and law students. The ABA focuses on setting academic standards for law schools and setting ethical codes for the profession.

7D Cylindrical oven : TANDOOR

A tandoor is a cylindrical clay or metal oven used in cuisines from several Asian locales, including India.

20D Actor Fishburne of “The Matrix” : LAURENCE

I’d guess that the most famous roles played by actor Laurence Fishburne are Morpheus in “The Matrix” series of movies, and Dr. Raymond Langston on the TV show “CSI”. Fishburne is married to the actress Gina Torres. The pair play a married couple on the TV show “Hannibal”.

27D Count in the Blues Hall of Fame : BASIE

“Count” Basie’s real given name was “William”. Count Basie perhaps picked up his love for the piano from his mother, who played and gave him his first lessons. Basie’s first paying job as a musician was in a movie theater, where he learned to improvise a suitable accompaniment for the silent movies that were being shown. Basie was given the nickname “Count” as he became lauded as one of the so-called “Jazz royalty”. Others so honored are Nat “King” Cole and Duke Ellington.

29D Bird whose eggs are sometimes a canvas for Aboriginal art : EMU

Emu eggs are very large, with a thick shell that is dark-green in color. One emu egg weighs about the same as a dozen chicken eggs. It is the male emu that incubates the eggs. The incubation period lasts about 8 weeks, during which time the male neither eats nor drinks, just lapping up any morning dew that is nearby. While incubating a clutch of eggs, male emus lose about a third of their weight.

30D Capotes are flapped at them : TOROS

In Spanish, the “toro” (bull) might charge at “el capote rojo” (the red cape).

41D ___ Brown, author of “The Da Vinci Code” : DAN

Dan Brown is a somewhat controversial author who is best known for his 2003 novel “The Da Vinci Code”. I’ve read all of Brown’s books and must say that his early ones are awful (“Digital Fortress” and “Deception Point”). Having said that, I loved “Angels and Demons”, and found “The Da Vinci Code” to be a great read.

45D Kind of acid : AMINO

Amino acids are essential to life in many ways, not least of which is their use as the building blocks of proteins. Nine amino acids are considered “essential” for humans. These nine must be included in the diet as they cannot be synthesized in the body.

46D Stem component : XYLEM

Xylem is a vascular tissue in many plants, the function of which is to transport water and some nutrients. It is xylem tissue that makes up what we know as wood.

49D Table outside : MESA

“Mesa” is the Spanish for “table” and is how we get the term “mesa” that describes the geographic feature. A mesa is similar to a butte. Both are hills with flat tops, but a mesa has a top that is wider than it is tall. A butte is a much narrower formation, taller than it is wide.

50D Big purveyor of health supplements : GNC

General Nutrition Centers (GNC) is a retailer of health and nutrition supplements based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1935 as a small health food store in downtown Pittsburgh. There are now about 5,000 stores in the US. The GNC slogan is “Live Well”.