0513-26 NY Times Crossword 13 May 26, Wednesday

Bill’s time: 7m 58s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8A Hosp. triage specialists : ER DOCS

Triage is the process of prioritizing patients for treatment, especially on the battlefield. The term “triage” is French and means “sorting”.

14A One acting on impulse? : AXON

A nerve cell is more correctly called a neuron. The long nerve fiber that conducts signals away from the neuron is known as the axon. The axon is surrounded by a myelin sheath, which acts as an electrical insulator and which increases the rate the impulses pass along the axon.

15A Wasabi-coated tidbit, maybe : PEA

Wasabi peas are peas that have been fried and then coated with wasabi powder mixed with sugar, salt and oil. They make for a crunchy snack, and are a favorite of mine …

16A Pittsburgh Pirates mascot : PARROT

The Pittsburgh Pirates (nicknamed the Bucs or Buccos) joined baseball’s National League in 1887, just eleven years after the league was formed. The Pirates played in the first ever World Series in 1903, and won their first World Series in 1909.

23A ___ mater : ALMA

The literal translation for the Latin term “alma mater” is “nourishing mother”. The phrase was used in ancient Rome to refer to mother goddesses, and in Medieval Christianity the term was used to refer to the Virgin Mary. Nowadays, one’s alma mater is the school one attended, either high school or college, usually one’s last place of education.

24A *Number of years between Summer Olympics : DOLLAR SYMBOL (shift + four)

The dollar sign ($) was first used for the Spanish-American peso, in the late 18th century. The peso was also called the “Spanish dollar” (and “piece of eight”). The Spanish dollar was to become a model for the US dollar that was adopted in 1785, along with the dollar sign.

30A Heated competition? : MEET

The term “heat”, meaning “qualifying race”, dates back to the 1660s. Originally, a heat was a run given to a horse to prepare it for a race, to “heat” it up.

31A Kilauea output : LAVA

Kilauea is one of the five active volcanoes that form the Big Island of Hawaii. It erupted almost continuously starting in 1983, until it entered a period of inactivity following a months-long explosive event in 2018.

32A Some porcelain pieces : CHINA

The ceramic known as “porcelain” can be referred to as “china” or “fine china”, as porcelain was developed in China.

34A Shiba ___ (dog breed) : INU

The Shiba Inu is a Japanese breed of dog that was developed for hunting. Although the exact etymology of “Shiba” is unclear, the term translates as “brushwood”. “Inu” is Japanese for “dog”.

37A *Number of Supreme Court justices : OPEN PARENTHESIS (shift + nine)

The US Constitution doesn’t specify the size of the Supreme Court, but authorizes the Congress to determine the number of justices. The court started with six justices in 1789, and the size of the bench grew with the size of the country and the number of judicial circuits. There were as many as ten justices, from 1863 to 1866. There have been nine justices since 1869.

41A Ethane or methane : GAS

Ethane is the second largest component of natural gas after methane. Ethane’s main use is in the production of ethylene, a compound that is widely used in the chemical industry.

Methane (CH4) is the main component of natural gas, with ethane (C2H6) being the second largest component.

43A Conscious of systemic societal problems : WOKE

The term “woke” can be used as a slang term, an adjective meaning “aware of issues of racial and social justice”.

44A Big inits. in frozen desserts : TCBY

TCBY is a chain of stores selling frozen yogurt that was founded in 1981 in Little Rock, Arkansas. The initialism TCBY originally stood for “This Can’t Be Yogurt”, but this had to be changed due to a lawsuit being pressed by a competitor called “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt”. These days TCBY stands for “The Country’s Best Yogurt”.

47A *Guns N’ Roses guitarist : QUESTION MARK (shift + Slash)

“Slash” is the stage name of Saul Hudson, the lead guitarist of the hard rock band “Guns N’ Roses”.

52A Beauty supply chain : ULTA

Ulta Beauty is a chain of American beauty stores that was founded in 1990 and headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. I am not part of the company’s target demographic …

57A Jackal-headed Egyptian deity : ANUBIS

“Anubis” is the Greek name for the ancient Egyptian deity named “Inpu”, a god associated with death and mummification. Anubis’s role was to protect the dead and their tombs.

60A What you’d need to press to make the starred clues and their answers match : SHIFT KEY

The shift key on a modern keyboard is used primarily to type uppercase letters. The term “shift” is a hangover from typewriter keyboards. The shift keys on a typewriter are held down to “shift” either the type bar or the paper-bearing carriage in order to cause a capital version of the letter to imprint on the inked ribbon.

62A It was discovered by the Curies : RADIUM

The element radium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie, in 1898.

67A Drink with junmai and nigori variants : SAKE

We refer to the Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice as “sake”. We’ve gotten things a bit mixed up in the West. “Sake” is actually the word that the Japanese use for all alcoholic drinks. What we know as sake, we sometimes refer to as rice wine. Also, the starch in the rice is first converted to sugars that are then fermented into alcohol. This is more akin to a beer-brewing process than wine production, so the end product is really a rice “beer” rather than a rice “wine”.

Down

5D Many fast pitches : SPIELS

A spiel is a lengthy speech or argument designed to persuade, like a sales pitch. “Spiel” comes to us from German, either directly (“spiel” is the German for “play”) or via the Yiddish “shpil”.

7D Stark daughter played by Sophie Turner on “Game of Thrones” : SANSA

Sophie Turner is an English actress best known for her first TV role, portraying Sansa Stark on the show “Game of Thrones”. She was only 14 years old when she first appeared in the show in 2010. In 2019, she married American singer Joe Jonas, one of the three Jonas Brothers.

8D Fuel economy org. : EPA

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

9D Tattletale : RAT

Something described as tattletale is revealing, it gives away a secret. The term is a combination of “tattle” and “tale”, and is probably patterned on the similar word “telltale”. “To tattle” means “to tell secrets”, and the noun “tattletale” applies to someone who tells secrets and informs.

11D Toothbrush handle? : ORAL-B

The Oral-B toothbrush was introduced to the world in 1950, designed by a California periodontist. The first “model” was the Oral-B 60, a name given to reflect the 60 tufts in the brush. In 1969, the Oral-B was the first toothbrush to get to the moon as it was the toothbrush of choice for the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

12D Cranberry-tinged cocktail : COSMO

Like so many famous cocktails, the actual origins of the cosmopolitan are disputed. It is a very nice drink, in my humble opinion. One of the standard recipes is 4 parts citrus vodka, 1.5 parts Cointreau, 1.5 parts lime juice and 3 parts cranberry cocktail.

22D Its fur might trim a royal robe : ERMINE

The stoat has dark brown fur in the summer, and white fur in the winter. Sometimes the term “ermine” is used for the animal during the winter when the fur is white. Ermine skins have long been prized by royalty and are often used for white trim on ceremonial robes.

28D Seville snack : TAPA

“Tapa” is the Spanish word for “lid”. There is no clear rationale for why this word came to be used for an appetizer. There are lots of explanations cited, all of which seem to involve the temporary covering of one’s glass of wine with a plate or item of food to either preserve the wine or give one extra space at the table.

The city of Seville (“Sevilla” in Spanish) is the capital of Andalusia in southern Spain. Seville is a favored setting for many operas including “The Barber of Seville” by Rossini, “Fidelio” by Beethoven and Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and “The Marriage of Figaro”.

32D Handout with a kids’ menu : CRAYON

We use the word “crayon” for a stick of colored wax used for drawing. The term was imported in the 16th century from French, in which language it means “pencil”.

35D Personification of victory : NIKE

Nike was the Greek goddess of victory, and was often referred to as “the Winged Goddess of Victory”. The athletic shoe company Nike uses the “Nike swoosh” as its logo, a logo that is inspired by the goddess’ wing.

39D Actress Jacobson of “Broad City” : ABBI

“Broad City” is a sitcom shown on Comedy Central that started out life as a web series on the Internet. It’s about two young Jewish American women having misadventures in New York City.

40D Furry “Star Wars” creature : EWOK

The Ewoks are creatures that live on the moon of Endor in the “Star Wars” universe. First appearing in “Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”, they’re the cute and cuddly little guys that look like teddy bears.

44D Container at an airport checkpoint, for short : TSA BIN

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

45D Smooth and glossy : SATINY

The material known as “satin” takes its name from “Zayton”, the medieval Arabic name for the Chinese port city of Quanzhou. Quanzhou was used for the export of large amounts of silk to Europe.

46D Seminar head, informally : PROF

A seminar is a meeting called for the exchange of information, especially in a university. The term comes from the Latin “seminarium” meaning “breeding ground, plant nursery”, which is also the root of our word “seminary”.

47D Ice cream purchase : QUART

The quart, the unit of volume, is so called because it is one quarter of a gallon.

55D Garlic relative : 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.

56D Strings of yore : LYRE

The lyre is a stringed instrument that is most closely associated with ancient Greece, and with the gods Hermes and Apollo in particular. According to myth, Hermes slaughtered a cow from a sacred herd belonging to Apollo and offered it to the gods but kept the entrails. Hermes used the entrails to make strings that he stretched across the shell of a tortoise, creating the first lyre. Apollo liked the sound from the lyre and agreed to accept it as a trade for his herd of cattle.

58D T-shaped birth control insert : IUD

It seems that it isn’t fully understood how the intrauterine device (IUD) works. The design that was most popular for decades was a T-shaped plastic frame on which was wound copper wire. It’s thought that the device is an irritant in the uterus causing the body to release chemicals that are hostile to sperm and eggs. This effect is enhanced by the presence of the copper.

59D Texting inits. : SMS

Short Message Service (SMS) is the name for the text messaging service that many of us still use on our cell phones to contact friends and family.