0112-26 NY Times Crossword 12 Jan 26, Monday

Bill’s time: 6m 34s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15A Hawaiian greeting : ALOHA

The Hawaiian word “aloha” has many meanings in English: affection, love, peace, compassion and mercy. More recently, “aloha” has come to mean “hello” and “goodbye”, but only since the mid-1800s.

16A ___ cold brew : NITRO

Most beers are carbonated due to the production (or introduction) of carbon dioxide. Some beers are made “sparkling” by introducing nitrogen gas into the liquid. Nitrogen bubbles are much smaller than CO2 bubbles. As a result, nitro beers are said to have a smoother mouthfeel than carbonated beers.

17A Concluding part of a song : CODA

In music, a coda is primarily a passage that brings a movement to a conclusion. “Coda” is Italian for “tail”.

27A Acronym of affection in ASL : ILY

I love you (ILY)

American Sign Language (ASL)

28A E.M.T. process often administered to the beat of “Stayin’ Alive” : CPR

“Stayin’ Alive” is a great song recorded by the Bee Gees for the soundtrack of the 1977 movie “Saturday Night Fever”. Repeating the song to oneself is recommended as an aid if performing CPR. “Stayin’ Alive” has around 103 beats per minute, and 100–120 chest compressions per minute are recommended. A study on medical professionals found that the quality of CPR is better when thinking of the song “Stayin’ Alive”.

43A Comic/TV host O’Brien : CONAN

Before Conan O’Brien came to fame as a late night talk show host, he was a writer. He wrote for both “Saturday Night Live” and “The Simpsons”. While attending Harvard, O’Brien was president of “The Harvard Lampoon”.

46A Reddish-brown antiseptic in a first-aid kit : IODINE

Tincture of iodine is a disinfectant. A “tincture” is a substance used in dyeing. Since the 1600s, “tincture” has also been used for a solution of medicine in an alcohol mixture.

47A Rhyming advice to a renter of VHS tapes : BE KIND, REWIND

The VHS video standard is more fully referred to as the Video Home System. VHS was one of many standards touted by various manufacturers in the seventies. The biggest rival to VHS was Betamax, but we baby boomers all knew which of the two standards won the final round in that fight.

52A Massachusetts’ Cape ___ : COD

Cape Cod is indeed named after the fish. It was first referred to as “Cape Cod” by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, as his men caught so many fish there.

59A Liquid that circulates in a plant : SAP

There are two types of sap in a plant. Xylem sap is a watery solution that moves from the roots to the leaves. Phloem sap is a sugary solution that moves from the leaves (where sugars are produced) to the parts of the plant where sugars are used.

60A Locale for Adam and Eve : EDEN

According to the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve lived in a garden “in” Eden, with Eden being geographically located by reference to four rivers, including the Tigris and the Euphrates. Some scholars hypothesize that Eden was located in Mesopotamia, which encompasses much of modern-day Iraq.

69A Leaf on a sushi tray : SHISO

Shiso, the Japanese name, is a herb in the mint family. Some English speakers use the name “beefsteak plant”, a reference to the blood-red color of varieties with purple leaves. Shiso is used extensively in Japanese cuisine.

Down

3D Toy that can go “around the world” : YO-YO

A basic yo-yo trick is to make it go “around the world”. It looks cool, but it’s hard to describe in words …

5D A chef might wear a puffy white one : HAT

A toque was a brimless style of hat that was very fashionable in Europe in the 13th to 16th centuries. Nowadays we associate toques with chefs, as it is the name given to a chef’s hat (called a “toque blanche” in French, a “white hat”). A chef’s toque is quite interesting. Many toques have exactly 100 pleats, often said to signify the number of ways that an egg can be cooked.

6D Chocolate treat designed to look like a mountaintop : SNO-CAP

Sno-Caps are a brand of candy usually available in movie theaters. They have been around since the 1920s, would you believe?

7D Actress Ryder of “Beetlejuice” : WINONA

Hollywood actress Winona Ryder’s real name is Winona Horowitz. She was born near the town of Winona in Minnesota, from which she got her name. Ryder’s success on the screen has garnered as much media attention as her life off the screen. The papers had a field day when she was arrested in 2001 on a shoplifting charge followed by a very public court appearance. Her engagement with Johnny Depp in the early nineties was another media frenzy. Depp had “Winona Forever” tattooed on his arm, which he had changed after the breakup to “Wino Forever”. A man with a sense of humor …

“Beetlejuice” is a 1988 comedy-horror film directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton in the title role. Beetlejuice is an underworld character who tries to scare away the new inhabitants of a house that is haunted by the ghosts of a deceased couple (played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis).

8D Baseball’s Mel : OTT

I wonder if Mel Ott had any idea that he would turn in crosswords so very often?

10D Mary who sings “In every job that must be done there is an element of fun” : POPPINS

The “Mary Poppins” series of children’s novels were written by Australian-born English writer and actress P. L. Travers. Poppins is a magical children’s nanny with a best friend Bert, who is a chimney sweep. In the famous 1964 musical film adaptation of the Mary Poppins stories, Poppins is played by Julie Andrews and Bert is played by Dick Van Dyke.

12D Georgetown athlete : HOYA

The athletic teams of Georgetown University are known as the Hoyas. The name is derived from “Hoya Saxa”, a traditional cheer yelled out at Georgetown games as far back as 1893. The term is a mixture of Greek and Latin, with the Greek word “hoya” meaning “such” or “what”, and “saxa” translating from Latin as “rocks” or “small stones”. The cheer is usually rendered in English as “what rocks!”.

25D More than 10 billion of them are currently in circulation in the U.S. : ONES

WheresGeorge.com is a popular website that allows users to track the journey of their dollar bills. Founded in 1998, the site encourages users to enter the serial number of a dollar bill and then track its movements as it changes hands through various transactions.

30D Toy cube inventor Erno : RUBIK

What was originally called the “Magic Cube” became better known as “Rubik’s Cube”, and was named for its inventor Ernő Rubik. Rubik’s Cube is the world’s biggest selling puzzle game, with over 350 million sold in just over 30 years.

33D Test an OB may perform in the second trimester : AMNIO

Amniocentesis (“amnio” for short) is the prenatal test which involves the removal of a small amount of the amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus using a hypodermic needle. The fluid naturally contains some fetal cells, the DNA of which can then be tested to determine the sex of the child and to check for the presence of genetic abnormalities.

35D Football player with a team name inspired by the California gold rush : NINER

The California gold rush actually started in 1848. The first to exploit the find were those people already in California. By 1849 the word had spread and gold-seekers started to arrive from all over the world. The “out-of-towners” who arrived in 1849 became known as forty-niners.

42D Vegetable that looks like a large scallion : LEEK

The leek is a vegetable closely related to the onion and the garlic. It is also a national emblem of Wales (along with the daffodil), although I don’t think we know for sure how this came to be. One story is that the Welsh were ordered to wear leeks in their helmets to identify themselves in a battle against the Saxons. Apparently, the battle took place in a field of leeks.

Scallions are edible plants with a mild onion flavor. They are also called green onions or spring onions.

43D Girls Who ___ (nonprofit promoting women in computer science) : CODE

Girls Who Code (GWC) is a nonprofit working to increase the number of women choosing computer science as a career. It was founded by lawyer and politician Reshma Saujani in 2012. She had noticed a stark lack of female students in computer science classrooms while she was campaigning for Congress in the 2010 House elections.

54D New ___, capital of India : DELHI

New Delhi is the capital city of India. The city resides within the National Capital Territory of Delhi (otherwise known as the metropolis of Delhi). New Delhi and Delhi, therefore, are two different things.

55D “Get outta my hair!,” in a text : MYOB!

Mind your own business (MYOB)

56D Discipline for the flexible : YOGA

In the West, we tend to think of yoga as just a physical discipline, a means of exercise that uses specific poses to stretch and strengthen muscles. While it is true that the ancient Indian practice of yoga does involve such physical discipline, the corporeal aspect of the practice plays a relatively small part in the whole philosophy. Other major components are meditation, ethical behavior, breathing and contemplation.

62D Canadian gas brand : ESSO

The Esso brand has its roots in the old Standard Oil company as it uses the initial letters of “Standard” and “Oil” (ESS-O). The Esso brand was replaced by Exxon in the US, but ESSO is still used in many other countries.

63D Element with the symbol Ne : NEON

Neon (Ne) was discovered in 1898 by two British chemists, Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers. They chilled a sample of air, turning it into a liquid. They then warmed that liquid and separated out the gases that boiled off. Along with nitrogen, oxygen and argon (already known), the pair of scientists discovered two new gases. The first they called “krypton” and the second “neon”. “Krypton” is Greek for “the hidden one” and “neon” is Greek for “new”.

65D Last of 26 letters : ZEE

The letter zed has been around since about 1400, and derives from the Greek letter zeta. The spelling and pronunciation “zee”, used in America today, first popped up in the 1670s. The spelling and pronunciation “zed” is still used in Britain and Ireland.

66D Initialism on a Navy carrier : USS

The first launching of an aircraft from a ship took place way back in 1910. Aviation pioneer Eugene Burton Ely flew a Curtiss Pusher airplane from a temporary platform erected on the bow of the USS Birmingham, which was anchored off Norfolk Navy Base in Virginia. Ely also recorded the first landing on a ship two months later, touching down on a platform on the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay.