0303-26 NY Times Crossword 3 Mar 26, Tuesday

Bill’s time: 6m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Garam ___ (South Asian spice blend) : MASALA

Garam masala is a mixture of ground spices that is particularly associated with Indian cuisine. A typical composition of garam masala includes:

• black and white peppercorns
• cloves
• cinnamon
• black and white cumin seeds
• black, brown, and green cardamom pods

All of the ingredients are toasted, and then ground together.

7A Historic tree in Boston Common : ELM

The original Liberty Tree was an elm that stood near Boston Common and marked the place where folks would rally in the build-up to the American Revolution. The symbolism of the Liberty Tree migrated across the Atlantic during the French Revolution. Revolutionaries planted “Les arbres de la liberté” as symbols of revolutionary hope.

Boston Common was created in 1634, making it the oldest city park in the country.

16A Not worth a ___ : SOU

A sou is an old French coin. We use the term “sou” to mean “practically worthless amount”.

17A He-Man’s superheroine twin sister : SHE-RA

“She-Ra: Princess of Power” is an animated television show, and a spinoff of the very successful “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe”. Both shows are aimed at young people, with “He-Man” targeted at boys and “She-Ra” at girls.

20A Classical Indian stringed instrument : SITAR

The sitar has been around since the Middle Ages. It is a stringed instrument that is played by plucking, and is used most often in Hindustani classical music. A key feature of the sitar is its set of sympathetic strings, which are not plucked but resonate in response to the main strings, contributing to its rich, shimmering sound. In the West we have been exposed to the instrument largely through the performances of Ravi Shankar and some music by George Harrison of the Beatles, a onetime student of Shankar.

22A Actor McKellen who played Magneto : IAN

Sir Ian McKellen is a marvelous English actor, one who is comfortable playing anything from Macbeth on stage to Magneto in an “X-Men” movie. On the big screen, McKellen is very famous for playing Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings”. In the UK, Sir Ian is noted for being at the forefront of the campaign for equal rights for gay people, a role he has enthusiastically embraced since the eighties.

25A “Come to our rescue!” : SOS!

The combination of three dots – three dashes – three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots – pause – three dashes – pause – three dots). That said, in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so “SOS” is really only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are back-formations that were introduced after the SOS signal was adopted.

46A Southern cornbread : PONE

“Pone” is another name for corn bread, and comes from the Powhatan term “apan” meaning “something baked”.

53A Kind of oil extracted from hemp, for short : CBD

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a chemical extracted from cannabis plants that is used as a herbal drug. It does not contain the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is responsible for the marijuana “high”.

Hemp, also known as “cannabis”, is a hardy, fast-growing plant that has many uses mainly due to the strength of the fibers in the plant’s stalks. Hemp is used to make rope, paper and textiles. The term “hemp” is sometimes reserved for varieties of the plant grown for non-drug use.

66A Residents of Edinburgh and Glasgow : SCOTS

Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, and a really beautiful city. In days gone by, it might not have been quite so charming. Like many cities, plumes of smoke hung over Edinburgh when coal and wood fires weren’t regulated. To this day, the city has the nickname “Auld Reekie”, Scots for “Old Smoky”.

Glasgow sits on the River Clyde, and is the largest city in Scotland. Back in the Victorian Era, Glasgow earned a reputation for excellence in shipbuilding and was known as “Second City of the British Empire”. Glasgow shipyards were the birthplaces of such famous vessels as the Lusitania, the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. People from Glasgow are known as Glaswegians.

67A “The Tell-Tale Heart” author : POE

Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Tell-Tale Heart” is arguably one of his most disturbing works. It is a story of cold-blooded and premeditated murder, with some dismemberment thrown in for good measure.

68A Sounds from baby robins : TWEETS

The American robin has a reddish-orange breast. This coloring gave the bird its name, due to the similarity to the European robin. The two species are not in fact related, with the American robin being a thrush, and its European cousin an Old World flycatcher. It is the American robin that famously lays light-blue eggs.

Down

2D Houston ballplayer : ASTRO

The Houston baseball team changed its name to the Astros (sometimes “’Stros”) from the Colt .45s in 1965 when they started playing in the Astrodome. The Astrodome was so called in recognition of the city’s long association with the US space program. The Astros moved from the National League to the American League starting in the 2013 season.

9D Changing genetically : MUTATING

A mutation is simply a change in the sequence of DNA, analogous to a typo in a recipe. These “typos” are the ultimate source of all genetic variation, creating new versions of a gene called alleles. For instance, the original human gene for eye color was likely for brown eyes, but mutations created the new alleles that give us blue, green, and hazel eyes.

11D Cricket’s call : CHIRP

The sound made by crickets is usually referred to as chirping, although the scientific term is “stridulation”. The sound is made by male crickets as they rub the top of one wing along a serration on the other wing.

24D Abbey residents : MONKS

A monk is a member of a religious community who lives in a monastery. The term “monk” ultimately derives from the Greek “monos” meaning “alone”. The original monks were men who practiced their religious duties in solitude, away from the world.

27D Advil targets : PAINS

Advil is Haleon’s brand of ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory drug.

29D Vinyl records, familiarly : LPS

The first vinyl records designed to play at 33⅓ rpm were introduced by RCA Victor in 1931, but were discontinued due to quality problems. The first long play (LP) 33⅓ rpm disc was introduced by Columbia Records many years later in 1948, with RCA Victor following up with a 45 rpm “single” the following year, in 1949.

31D Where to catch a Bay Area flight : SFO

The San Francisco Bay Area is served by three major airports: San Francisco (SFO), Oakland (OAK) and San Jose (SJC).

33D Eldest von Trapp daughter in “The Sound of Music” : LIESL

The von Trapps portrayed in the musical “The Sound of Music” were a real family, as is well known. In the musical and film, the eldest daughter is Liesl, although in real life her name was Agathe. Agathe came with her family to the US in 1938, and operated a private kindergarten in Baltimore, Maryland for 35 years. Agathe passed away in 2010. Agathe/Liesl was the daughter who was “Sixteen Going on Seventeen”.

34D Genre for wannabe sleuths : TRUE CRIME

The word “sleuth” came into English from Old Norse as far back as 1200 when it meant the “track or trail of a person”. In the mid-1800s, a sleuthhound described a keen investigator, a hound close on the trail of the suspect. Sleuthhound was shortened to “sleuth” and was used for a detective in general.

48D What accompanies gin and a lime wedge : TONIC

The original tonic water was a fairly strong solution of the drug quinine dissolved in carbonated water. It was used in tropical areas in South Asia and Africa where malaria is rampant. The quinine has a prophylactic effect against the disease, and was formulated as “tonic water” so that it could be easily distributed. In British colonial India, the colonial types got into the habit of mixing gin with the tonic water to make it more palatable by hiding the bitter taste of quinine. Nowadays, the level of quinine in tonic water has dropped, and sugar has been added.

49D Event with cowboys and clowns : RODEO

The job of a rodeo clown emerged in the early 1900s, as a performer who provided comic relief and who acted as a bullfighter to distract the bull and protect an injured rider. Today, the safety role is usually handled by specialized bullfighters. The comic role is often taken on by a “barrelman”, who uses a reinforced barrel as a prop, and a vital refuge. Scary stuff …

58D Shrek, e.g. : OGRE

In the 2001 animated feature “Shrek”, the title character is voiced by Mike Myers. Before Myers was cast, the role was originally given to Chris Farley. After Farley’s death in 1997, before the required dialogue was complete, Myers took over the role.

61D Type of medical network, for short : HMO

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)