0313-26 NY Times Crossword 13 Mar 26, Friday

Bill’s time: 10m 54s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Group of students on a field trip, say : BUSLOAD

We use the term “bus” for a mode of transportation as it is an abbreviated form of the original “omnibus”. We imported “omnibus” via French from Latin, in which language it means “for all”. The idea is that an omnibus is a carriage “for all”.

8A Holly or Monty, for Queen Elizabeth II : CORGI

The Welsh corgi is a herding dog that originated in Britain, with two recognized breeds: the Pembroke and Cardigan. Corgis aren’t fast enough to do their job by running around livestock like collies, and instead nip at the heels. “Corgi” is Welsh for “dwarf dog”.

13A Where to see the sites : INTERNET

The Internet (uppercase letter I) is a system of interconnected networks that uses the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to link devices around the world. In common usage, the word “internet” (lowercase letter I) is often used interchangeably with “World Wide Web”, although “the Web” is just one of many services and applications that uses the Internet.

16A Guitar player’s percussive technique : SLAP BASS

Slap bass is a playing technique commonly used in funk, jazz, and rock music that involves hitting the strings with the thumb and popping or slapping them with the fingers to produce a percussive sound.

17A Canine’s coat : ENAMEL

Tooth enamel covers the crowns of our teeth, and is the hardest substance in the human body. It is composed of 96% crystalline calcium phosphate.

18A President whose wife was nicknamed “Lemonade Lucy” for refusing to serve alcohol in the White House : HAYES

Rutherford B. Hayes (RBH) was the 19th president of the US. Long before we had to endure the dispute over the 2000 presidential election, Rutherford Hayes found himself president after a disputed election in 1876. President Hayes came into office having lost the popular vote to his opponent Samuel Tilden as he was voted into office by one electoral college vote. Hayes was awarded the election in the end because of an informal deal struck between Democrats and Republicans called the Compromise of 1877. Democrats allowed Rutherford to occupy the White House in exchange for removal of federal troops occupying the southern states.

23A Big player in D.C., for short? : NAT

The Washington Nationals (“Nats”) started out life as the Montreal Expos in 1969, and were the first Major League Baseball team in Canada. The Expos moved to Washington in 2005 becoming the Nats.

24A Cross product : PEN

A. T. Cross is a company that claims to be the oldest manufacturer of fine pens. Cross was founded in 1846 in Providence, Rhode Island by one Richard Cross. Richard passed the company on to his son Alonzo T. Cross, who gave it the current name.

25A Chuck who created “Young Sheldon” : LORRE

Chuck Lorre created many great sitcoms that have stood the test of time. Included in the list of his shows are “Grace Under Fire”, “Cybil”, “Dharma & Greg”, “Two and a Half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory”. Lorre is famous for the “vanity cards” that appear for a few seconds at the end of his shows. The cards include a message directly from Lorre, perhaps an observation on life, and maybe something quite controversial. CBS has had to censor several of Lorre’s vanity cards, but you can read the uncensored versions on his website.

“Young Sheldon” is a spinoff prequel to the hit sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” that follows the life of a 9-year-old Sheldon Cooper. The title character is played by child actor Iain Armitage. Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon on “The Big Bang Theory”, is the narrator for the spinoff, and is also an executive producer. In another link between the shows, young Sheldon’s Mom is played by actress Zoe Perry. Perry is the real-life daughter of Laurie Metcalf, who plays “old” Sheldon’s mom in the original series.

30A Section of Westminster Abbey where Chaucer and Shakespeare are honored : POETS’ CORNER

Poets’ Corner is an area in Westminster Abbey in London that earned its name from the high number of poets buried and commemorated there, as well as playwrights and authors. The first poet interred there was Geoffrey Chaucer. Also in Poets’ Corner are the remains of Edmund Spenser, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, John Dryden, George Frideric Handel, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Johnson, Rudyard Kipling, Laurence Olivier and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Wow!

31A Film character who says “Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate” : JACK SPARROW

Captain Jack Sparrow is the protagonist in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series of movies, and is played by Johnny Depp. Depp has said that he based his portrayal of Sparrow partly on the Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. I could believe that …

32A With 37-Across, major N.Y.C. thoroughfare : PARK …
37A See 32-Across : … AVE

Park Avenue in New York City used to be known as Fourth Avenue, and for much of its length carried the tracks of the New York and Harlem Railroad. When the line was built, some of it was constructed by cutting through the length of the street and then forming underground tunnels by covering over the line with grates and greenery. This greenery formed a parkland between 34th and 40th Streets, and in 1860 the grassy section of Fourth Avenue was renamed Park Avenue, a name that was eventually used for the whole thoroughfare.

40A Powerful auto engine type : HEMI

“Hemi” is short for “hemisphere”, and is the name given to an internal combustion engine with hemispherical combustion chambers. Chrysler is famous for using hemi engines in many of its models.

43A Pop star who once stylized her name with a dollar sign : KESHA

“Kesha” (formerly “Ke$ha”) is the stage name used by singer Kesha Rose Sebert.

47A Lots, e.g. : REALTY

The terms “realty” and “real estate” actually date back to the late 1600s. Back then, the terms meant “real possessions, things owned that are tangible and real”.

48A The 1930s-’40s, to a jazz aficionado : SWING ERA

The swing style of dance was developed to accompany the swing style of jazz music that became particularly popular in the swing era (1933-1947). Examples of swing dances that persist to this day are the Lindy hop and Charleston.

49A ___ Rooney, best-selling author of 2024’s “Intermezzo” : SALLY

Irish author Sally Rooney has published novels, short fiction and poetry. Her 2018 novel “Normal People” was adapted into a very successful TV miniseries of the same name that first aired in 2020.

Down

1D Piece that can’t move to a different-colored square : BISHOP

In a game of chess, the bishops move along diagonals.

2D Take cargo from : UNLADE

The verb “to lade” meaning “to load” comes from an Old English word “hladan”. “Lade” also used to mean “draw water” and indeed gave us our word “ladle”. So “lade” and “ladle” are close cousins.

4D Biblical pariah : LEPER

The horrible disease known as leprosy is also called Hansen’s disease, named after the Norwegian physician famous for isolating the bacterium that causes the disease. We can use the term “leper” to mean someone in general who is shunned by society.

“Pariah” is an anglicized version of the Tamil word “Paraiyar”. The Paraiyar are a social group of about 9 million people found in some Indian states and in Sri Lanka. The term “pariah” came to be a general term for members of the lowest caste in society, outcasts.

6D “Ugly Betty” actress Ortiz : ANA

The breakthrough role for actress Ana Ortiz was playing the title character’s older sister in the TV series “Ugly Betty”.

“Ugly Betty” is a drama-comedy show that originally aired on television from 2006 to 2010. The show is based on a telenovela soap opera from Colombia called “Yo soy Betty, la fea”. The title role of Betty Suarez is played by America Ferrera.

8D Some Christmas tree decorations : CANES

The custom of decorating trees at Christmas seems to have originated in Renaissance Germany. Those first trees were placed in guildhalls and were decorated with sweets and candy for the apprentices and children. After the Protestant Reformation, the Christmas tree became an alternative in Protestant homes for the Roman Catholic Christmas cribs. The Christmas tree tradition was imported into Britain by the royal family because of its German heritage. That tradition spread from Britain into North America.

11D Dangerous item whose first six letters are an anagram of DANGER : GRENADE

Our word “grenade”, used for a small explosive missile, came via French from the word for the pomegranate fruit. The name reflects the similarity between the seed-filled fruit and the powder-filled, fragmentation bomb. Grenades also resemble pineapples in appearance, and so sometimes are called “pineapples”.

14D Top guns? : T-SHIRT CANNONS

T-shirts can be shot out of an air cannon, perhaps at a sports game.

27D Dark beer variety : BOCK

A bock is a strong lager from Germany that was first brewed in the town of Einbeck. The famous brewers of Munich adopted the style of beer, calling it Einbeck after the town of its origin. However, with the Bavarian accent “Einbeck” came out as “ein Bock”, the German for “a billy goat”. The name “bock” stuck, and so you’ll often see a billy goat on the labels of bock beers.

31D Body of water near Sumatra : JAVA SEA

The Java Sea is a relatively shallow body of water bounded by the islands of Borneo, Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi.

Sumatra is a very large island in western Indonesia. It is the sixth largest island in the world and home to 22% of the country’s population.

34D Last six lines of a sonnet : SESTET

A sonnet is a short poem with varying rhyming schemes but always with 14 lines. The sonnet form has been around at least since the 13th century. The Shakespearean sonnet is composed of three quatrains (4 lines) and a final couplet (2 lines). The Petrarchan sonnet comprises two quatrains (4 lines) followed by a sestet (6 lines), or two tercets (3 lines).

39D Military chopper : HUEY

The military helicopter known as the Bell UH-1 Iroquois is usually referred to as the “Huey”. It was first used by the US Army for medevac and utility operations in the mid-fifties. About 7,000 Hueys saw service in the Vietnam War. The US military phased out the Huey relatively recently, mainly replacing it with the UH-60 Black Hawk.

46D “Bah!,” to Lady Macbeth : FIE!

Lady Macbeth is an evil and treacherous woman in William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. The most famous line uttered by Lady Macbeth has to be:

Out, damned spot! Out, I say!

In this line, Lady Macbeth is frantically rubbing at her hand trying to get rid of an imaginary bloodstain left after her involvement four murders.