0124-26 NY Times Crossword 24 Jan 26, Saturday

Bill’s time: 23m 30s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Used as a rendezvous point : MET AT

A rendezvous is a meeting. The noun used in English comes from the French phrase “rendez vous” meaning “present yourselves”.

16A “The Addams Family” member voiced by Snoop Dogg in 2019 : ITT

Rap star Snoop Dogg’s real name is Cordozar Calvin Broadus. He is the most famous protege of the notorious rapper Dr. Dre. Sadly, Snoop Dogg has had numerous run-ins with police all round the world, even after he started to live the good life that came with his fame. Snoop Dogg has also been known as “Snoop Doggy Dogg”, and more recently as “Snoop Lion”.

17A ___ Ivanovic, former #1-ranked female tennis player : ANA

Ana Ivanovic is a Serbian tennis player, and former world number one. As well as playing tennis, she also studied finance at university in her native Belgrade.

18A Copa Mundial chant : OLE!

In Spanish, supporters might be heard yelling “ole!” (bravo!) at the “Copa Mundial” (World Cup) of soccer.

21A Empty vehicle weight : TARE

Tare is the weight of a container that is deducted from the gross weight to determine the net weight, the weight of the container’s contents.

29A What a stein might hold : PINT

A stein is a type of beer glass. The term “stein” is German in origin, and is short for “Steinkrug” meaning “stone jug”. “Stein” is German for “stone”.

30A How change comes in the Baltics : EUROS

The Baltic is a sea in northern Europe that is much less saline than the oceans. The lower amount of salt in the Baltic partially explains why almost half of the sea freezes over during the winter. In fact, the Baltic has been known to completely freeze over several times over the past few centuries.

31A Bevy : HOST

“Bevy” is a collective noun used for a number of types of bird, including quail and swans. “Bevy” is also sometimes used as a collective noun for women.

36A 1960s protest singer Phil : OCHS

Phil Ochs was an American protest singer who was active in the days of the Vietnam War. Sadly, the singer’s mental health declined at the very time the war was winding down. Saigon fell in 1975, and Ochs committed suicide in 1976.

41A Approx. 25% of it consists of national forests : ORE

The Oregon Treaty of 1846 settled a dispute between the US and the UK over sovereignty of the Oregon Country. “The Oregon Country” was the name given by the Americans to a large swathe of land west of the Rocky Mountains. That same disputed land was known as the Columbia Department by the British. Oregon became a US state in 1859.

42A Penultimate film in a series of 23 : AVENGERS: ENDGAME

“Avengers: Endgame” is a 2019 superhero movie. It is the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that features several superheroes made famous in Marvel Comics. “Avengers: Endgame” closes out the story arcs for several superheroes from prior films in the series.

50A Chucked, informally : YEETED

In contemporary slang, to yeet is to throw away, discard. “To yeet” usually implies the use of force and a general disregard for what is being discarded. As in, “I really want to yeet the word ‘yeet’ …”

Down

4D Conduit from a ventricle : AORTA

The heart has four chambers. The two upper chambers are the atria. The right atrium accepts deoxygenated blood, while the left atrium accepts oxygenated blood from the lungs. The atria squeeze those blood supplies into the two lower chambers of the heart (the ventricles), “priming” the pump, as it were. One ventricle pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs, and the other pumps oxygenated blood to the rest of the body.

5D Four minus one : TREY

A trey is a three in a deck of cards. The term “trey” can also be used for a domino with three pips, and even for a three-point play in basketball.

10D Native American people known as the “Nation du Chat” : ERIE

The Erie people lived on lands south of Lake Erie, in parts of the modern-day US states of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Erie were sometimes referred to as the Cat Nation, a reference to the mountain lions that were ever-present in the area that they lived. The name “Erie” is a shortened form of “Erielhonan” meaning “long tail”, possibly a further reference to the mountain lion or cat, which was possibly used as a totem. The Erie people gave their name to the Great Lake.

13D One breaking a 108-year drought in 2016 : CUB

The Chicago Cubs baseball team was supposedly subject to the “Curse of the Billy Goat” from 1945 until 2016. Billy Sianis, the owner of a Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago, took his pet goat with him to a World Series game against the Detroit Tigers at Wrigley Field. Fans sitting nearby didn’t like the smell of the goat, and so the owner was asked to leave. As he left, Sianis yelled out, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.” And that is how a curse is born …

15D Australian singer with the 2014 #1 album “1000 Forms of Fear” : SIA

“Sia” is the stage name of Australian singer Sia Furler from Adelaide. She is a cousin of Australian Christian Rock musician Peter Furler. Sia is a very private person, and even covers her face with a blond wig while performing.

24D Fan group that often wears black-and-white face paint : KISS ARMY

KISS is a hard rock band from New York City. They are the group whose band members use all that scary face paint and wear wacky outfits on stage.

25D “The Dove and the ___” (Aesop fable) : ANT

Aesop is remembered today as a fabulist, a writer of fables. Aesop lived in ancient Greece, probably around the sixth century BC. Supposedly he was born a slave, somehow became a free man, but then met with a sorry end. Aesop was sent to the city of Delphi on a diplomatic mission but instead insulted the Delphians. He was tried on a trumped-up charge of stealing from a temple, sentenced to death and was thrown off a cliff.

27D Charlie with the 2016 hit “We Don’t Talk Anymore” : PUTH

Charlie Puth is a singer-songwriter whose career started in 2008 with his own YouTube channel on which he posted acoustic covers of well-known songs. If you’ve seen him perform, you might have noticed a distinctive slit in his right eyebrow. That’s a permanent scar from a near-fatal dog attack that Puth suffered through when he was only two years old.

28D God who rides in a chariot pulled by two giant magical goats : THOR

The Norse god Thor rode in a chariot pulled by two goats, Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr. Somewhat ungratefully (!), he would actually roast and eat his goats to sustain himself. Fortunately for all concerned, Thor could use his celebrated hammer, Mjölnir, to resurrect the goats, provided their bones were intact.

30D Forwent : ESCHEWED

“To eschew”, meaning “to avoid, shun”, comes from the Old French word “eschiver” that means the same thing.

37D Split component, at times : TENPIN

Bowling has been around for an awfully long time. The oldest known reference to the game is in Egypt, where pins and balls were found in an ancient tomb that is over 5,000 years old. The first form of the game to come to America was nine-pin bowling, which had been very popular in Europe for centuries. In 1841 in Connecticut, nine-pin bowling was banned due to its association with gambling. Supposedly, an additional pin was added to get around the ban, and ten-pin bowling was born.

40D Like tungsten : DENSE

Tungsten is the chemical element with the symbol “W” and the atomic number of 74. The name “tungsten” is Swedish in origin, with “tung sten” translating as “heavy stone”.

42D Main greeting : AHOY!

When one thinks of the word “main”, in the context of the sea, the Spanish Main usually comes to mind. Indeed, the use of the more general term “main” to mean “sea”, originates from the more specific “Spanish Main”. “Spanish Main” originally referred to land and not water, as it was the name given to the mainland coast around the Caribbean Sea in the days of Spanish domination of the region.

44D Filmdom’s Woods who took the 11-Down : ELLE
[Exam on which 44-Down got a near-perfect score : LSAT]

“LEGALLY blonde” is a 2001 comedy film starring Reese Witherspoon as a girlish sorority president who heads to Harvard to earn a law degree. “LEGALLY blonde” was successful enough to warrant two sequels as well as a spin-off musical that played most successfully in London’s West End (for 974 performances).