0103-26 NY Times Crossword 3 Jan 26, Saturday

Bill’s time: 16m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15A Building that shouldn’t have running water : ICE PALACE

An ice palace is a temporary structure, one made from blocks of ice. The first such structure was built on the order of the Empress Anna in Saint Petersburg, Russia in the winter of 1739. That particular ice palace was an elaborate affair, erected during the celebrations following Russia’s victory over the Ottoman Empire. The palace survived for several months, eventually melting at the start of the following summer.

16A Actor Maguire : TOBEY

Actor Tobey Maguire is most associated with the role of Spider-Man these days. I’m not much into comic book hero films, but I do kind of enjoy the understated way that Maguire takes on “Spidey”. Maguire has appeared in other hit films, like “Pleasantville” (1998), “The Cider House Rules” (1999) and “Seabiscuit” (2003). Off the screen, he is big into poker and it’s said that he has won over $10 million playing poker in Hollywood. Apparently, the rather unsavory character “Player X” in the 2017 movie “Molly Bloom” was largely inspired by Maguire.

21A PlayStation 5 maker : SONY

Sony introduced the PlayStation line of video game consoles in 1994.

22A Hairstyle associated with lesbian culture : MULLET

A mullet haircut is one that is short at the front and sides, and is long in the back.

24A Campus mil. group : ROTC

Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC)

28A European capital that names some animals if you interchange its last two letters : MINSK

Minsk is the capital of Belarus, formerly known as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. One of Minsk’s more infamous residents was Lee Harvey Oswald, who lived there from 1960 to 1962.

29A Part of many a financial portfolio : BOND

Our word “portfolio” comes from the Italian “portafoglio” meaning “case for carrying loose papers”. The Italian term comes from “porta” meaning “carry” and “foglio” meaning “sheet, leaf”.

32A Add pizazz to : SPICE UP

Pizazz (also “pizzazz”) is energy, vitality. There’s a kind of cool thing about the “pizzazz” spelling, namely that it is the only 7-letter word in English that cannot be played in Scrabble. You can get close by using the Z-tile with the two blank tiles to get to three of the required four Zs, but there’s no way to get to the fourth Z.

35A Poke option : AHI

Poke is a Native Hawaiian dish featuring diced raw fish. “Poke” is a Hawaiian word meaning “to slice”.

36A Prefix with sphere : HEMI-

Ever wonder what the difference is between the prefixes “hemi-”, “demi-” and “semi-”, all of which mean “half”? Well, the general observation is that words using the “demi-” prefix date back to the days of Norman influence over the English language. As a result, “demi-” turns up in the world of period costume and coats of arms. Words using “hemi-” tend to have Greek roots, and are prevalent in the world of the sciences and the medical field. Words with “semi-” tend to have Latin roots, and are most often found in music and the arts, and mathematics.

38A Place to make offers : EBAY

There have been some notable things sold on eBay over the years. For example:

• Ad space on a guy’s forehead, in the form of a temporary tattoo – $37,375
• William Shatner’s kidney stone – $25,000
• A cornflake shaped like Illinois – $1,350
• A single corn flake – $1.63
• A box of 10 Twinkies – $59.99
• The original Hollywood sign – $450,400
• The meaning of life – $3.26

54A Uncovered : AU NATUREL

“Au naturel” is a French phrase, one simply meaning “in a natural state”. We use the term in English in the same sense, and also to mean “nude”.

57A What “seder” means, literally : ORDER

The Passover Seder is a ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday celebrating the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

Down

1D Unwanted mail : SPAM

The term “spam”, used for unwanted email, is taken from a “Monty Python” sketch. In the sketch (which I’ve seen) the dialog is taken over by the word Spam, a play on the glut of canned meat in the markets of Britain after WWII. So “spam” is used for the glut of emails that takes over online communication. I can just imagine nerdy Internet types (like me) adopting something from a “Monty Python” sketch to describe an online phenomenon …

4D Some chances to get credit, in brief : AP TESTS

Advanced Placement (AP)

7D Lincolnesque, in a way : LANKY

The term “lank” can describe something that is straight and flat, particularly hair. The usage was extended in the early 1800s (especially in the form “lanky”) to mean “awkwardly tall and thin”.

9D Support from an angel : SEED MONEY

An angel investor is one who provides capital very early in a business’s life cycle. The term “angel” is borrowed from Broadway, where angels are wealthy people who provide funds to stage theatrical productions.

11D Fruits related to grapefruits : POMELOS

Our largest citrus fruit is the pomelo, also known as the shaddock. While the word “pomelo” has an uncertain etymology, the use of “shaddock” is more traceable. The term was reportedly adopted after a Captain Shaddock of the East India Company introduced the fruit to Barbados in the late 1600s. The name then spread to Jamaica, and beyond.

The somewhat bitter fruit that we know as “grapefruit” originated in the island nation of Barbados in the Caribbean. It developed as a hybrid (possibly accidentally) of the Jamaican sweet orange and the Indonesian pomelo. Back in the mid-1700s, the new hybrid was referred to as “the forbidden fruit”, and later as the shaddock. Some believe that a “Captain Shaddock” brought Indonesian pomelo seeds to Barbados and was responsible for developing the hybrid. The contemporary name is perhaps an allusion to the fact that grapefruit grows in clusters like grapes.

23D Language in which “thank you” is “shukriya” : URDU

Urdu is one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English), and is one of the 22 scheduled languages in India. Urdu partly developed from Persian and is written from right to left.

26D Tech that records movement : MOCAP

Motion capture (mocap)

27D Part of a certain steering system : RACK

The modern car uses a rack and pinion steering system. The turning motion of the steering wheel turns the pinion gear. This pinion gear meshes with a linear gear called a rack, so the torque is converted to linear motion, side-to-side. This side-to-side motion turns the wheels at either end of the axle via tie-rods and the steering arm.

28D When repeated, a fish : MAHI

“Mahi-mahi” (meaning “very strong”) is the Hawaiian name for the dolphinfish, which is also known as the dorado. The mahi-mahi is an ugly looking creature if ever I saw one …

33D Soft, sticky treat : PEEP

Peeps are marshmallow candies, usually in the shapes of chicks and bunnies, primarily sold around the Easter holiday. Peeps were introduced in 1952 by a Russian immigrant called Sam Born whose company “Just Born” makes the candies to this day. The original candies were yellow and hand-shaped to look like little chicks, hence the name “Peeps”.

34D Drifters at sea : PLANKTON

Plankton are organisms that float in water and are incapable of swimming against a current. Plankton can be classified into four broad groups:

• Phytoplankton: algae that live on the surface and use light for photosynthesis.
• Zooplankton: small animals that mainly feed on other plankton.
• Bacterioplankton: the bacterial component of plankton.
• Mycoplankton: the fungal component of plankton.

45D Where French fries are “frog sticks” : DINER

Diner lingo, the verbal slang used by the staff, can be very colorful. Here are a few examples:

• Adam & Eve on a raft: two poached eggs on toast
• Adam & Eve on a raft and wreck ’em: two scrambled eggs on toast
• Burn one: put a hamburger on the grill
• Burn one, take it through the garden and pin a rose on it: hamburger with lettuce, tomato and onion
• Down: on toast
• Whiskey down: on rye toast
• Cluck and grunt: ham and eggs

46D Start of a declaration of 47 B.C. : I CAME

The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BCE and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

49D Selene’s Roman counterpart : LUNA

“Luna” is the Latin word for “moon”, and is the name given to the Roman moon goddess. The Greek equivalent of Luna was Selene. Luna had a temple on the Aventine Hill in Rome but it was destroyed during the Great Fire that raged during the reign of Nero. She also had a temple on the Palatine Hill in which a lamp remained lit, illuminating the night.

50D Lake ___, body of water near London : ERIE

The city of London, Ontario lies about halfway between Detroit and Toronto. Just like the city’s better known namesake in England, Canada’s London is located on the Thames River.

51D Informal endorsements : RECS

Recommendation (rec.)