0516-26 NY Times Crossword 16 May 26, Saturday

Bill’s time: 22m 00s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Modern “go-to’s” : URLS

An Internet address (like NYXCrossword.com or LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a uniform resource locator (URL).

5A Curtain for silhouetting on stage : SCRIM

“Scrim” is the name given to that transparent fabric that hangs down onto a theater’s stage. It is often used with special lighting for various effects.

10A Bird on the South Carolina state quarter : WREN

The Carolina wren is the state bird of South Carolina.

15A Emulates E.T., in a way : PHONES HOME

1982’s classic science fiction movie “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” was directed by Steven Spielberg. The idea behind the film came from Spielberg himself, and the character E.T. was based on an imaginary friend whom he conjured up as a child after his parents divorced in 1966.

17A Roman goddess who drives a two-horse chariot : LUNA

“Luna” is the Latin word for “moon”, and is the name given to the Roman moon goddess. The Greek equivalent of Luna was Selene. Luna had a temple on the Aventine Hill in Rome but it was destroyed during the Great Fire that raged during the reign of Nero. She also had a temple on the Palatine Hill in which a lamp remained lit, illuminating the night.

21A Double-___ cassowary (bird of Indonesia and Australia) : WATTLED

The cassowary is a large, flightless bird found mainly in New Guinea. One species of cassowary is the third tallest bird on the planet, second only to the ostrich and the emu.

22A Matches with forensics : DEBATE CONTESTS

Something described as forensic is connected with a court of law, or with public discussion or debate. The term comes from the Latin “forensis” meaning “of a forum, of a place of assembly”. We mainly use the word today to mean “pertaining to legal trials” as in “forensic medicine” and “forensic science”.

26A Gasoline brand that offered the Torch Club credit card : AMOCO

“Amoco” is an abbreviation for “American Oil Company”, an oil company that merged with BP in 1998. Amoco was the first oil company to introduce gasoline tanker trucks and drive-through filling stations. I wonder if they know what they were starting …?

31A Capital of Greenland : NUUK

Greenland is the largest island on the planet. Geographically, it is part of the continent of North America, but culturally and politically is considered part of Europe. The island became a Danish colony in 1815, and joined the European Economic Community (EEC) with Denmark. Greenland withdrew from the EEC after a referendum in 1982. Since 2009, Greenland has been relatively autonomous, with the Danish government retaining control of foreign affairs, defense and the judicial system. And then …

34A Up to snuff, facetiously : EPT

If one is capable, one might jokingly be described as “ept”, the ostensible opposite of “inept”.

The term “up to snuff” today means “up to standard”. It was introduced to us for the first time in 1811 in a play called “Hamlet Travestie” by Englishman John Poole. He used the phrase to mean “in the know”. It was perhaps a reference to the habit of taking powdered tobacco, a practice back then that was associated with the upper classes, the educated, those in the know.

37A Many a Porsche 911 : COUPE

The type of car known as a “coupe” or “coupé” is a closed automobile with two doors. The name comes from the French word “couper” meaning “to cut”. In most parts of the English-speaking world the pronunciation adheres to the original French, but here in most of North America we go with “coop”. The original coupé was a horse-drawn carriage that was cut (coupé) to eliminate the rear-facing passenger seats. That left just a driver and two front-facing passengers. If the driver was left without a roof and out in the open, then the carriage was known as a “coupé de-ville”.

We tend to say the name “Porsche” in English as if it is perhaps French, pronouncing it as one syllable. In German, it is pronounced with two syllables, i.e. Por-sche.

38A Practical types who are often perfectionists, it’s said : VIRGOS

The astrological sign Virgo is the sixth sign in the Zodiac, and is associated with the constellation of the same name. The Virgo constellation is related to maidens (virgins), purity and fertility.

39A Don’t start with me! : SECOND STRINGER

We’ve been using the phrases “first string” and “second string” in athletics since the mid-19th century. The expressions come from archery, in which a competitor would carry a second bowstring in case the first broke.

43A Difficult effort : TRAVAIL

A travail is a really difficult task or burden. “Travail” is the French word for “work”.

46A Setting for Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” : RIVER SEINE

The “Île de la (Grande) Jatte” is an island in the river Seine in Paris. The name translates as “Island of the (Big) Bowl”. The location features in the famous pointillist oil painting by Georges Seurat titled “Un Dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte (A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte)”. We can go see that painting in the Art Institute of Chicago.

48A Cold-smoked lox : NOVA

Nova lox is salmon that has been cured with a mild brine and then cold-smoked. The term “nova” originally applied to salmon from Nova Scotia.

49A 7 up, perhaps : EVEN-STEVEN

“Even steven” is an idiom that means “fair and equal”. It is believed to have originated in the 198th century in the England. The phrase was likely derived from the concept of evenly dividing goods or resources between two parties.

50A Gulf of ___, waters that abut Djibouti and Somaliland : ADEN

The Gulf of Aden is the body of water that lies south of the Red Sea, and just north of the Horn of Africa.

51A Vanilla units : PODS

The flavor extract that we call “vanilla” comes from the pod-like fruit of climbing orchids belonging to the genus Vanilla. Genuine vanilla is a relatively expensive spice, second only to saffron, due to the amount of work required to grow and harvest the fruit (also called “beans” and “pods”). Spanish and Portuguese explorers came across the Vanilla orchid while exploring the Gulf Coast of Mexico. They gave it the name “vainilla” meaning “little pod”.

Down

9D Medleys : MELANGES

“Mélange” is the French word for “mixture”.

10D Marriott property with the slogan “Whatever Whenever” : W HOTEL

The W chain of hotels is a luxury brand owned by Marriott. Aimed at a younger market, the W properties feature modern, minimalist decor. There’s also a “trendy” use of the letter W throughout the hotels. For example, the pool is called “the Wet”, the laundry bag in each is “the Wash” and the concierge goes by the name “Whatever Whenever”.

12D ___ Brickowski (“The Lego Movie” protagonist) : EMMET

“The Lego Movie” is a 2014 computer animated film in which all the characters are Lego figures. The hero of the piece is Emmet Brickowski (great name!), who goes up against tyrannical Lord Business. Chris Pratt voices Emmet, and Will Ferrell Lord Business. Apparently, “The Lego Movie” was well received, and resulted in the spin-off film “The Lego Batman Movie”.

16D Certain volleyballer : SETTER

In volleyball, each team can only touch the ball a maximum of three times before it returns to the other side of the net. The three contacts are often a “bump” (a preliminary pass) and a “set” (setting up the attacking shot) followed by a “spike” (a shot into the opposing court).

23D Once-popular terra-cotta figurine : CHIA PET

Chia is a flowering plant in the mint family. Chia seeds are an excellent food source and are often added to breakfast cereals and energy bars. There is also the famous Chia Pet, an invention of a San Francisco company. Chia Pets are terra-cotta figurines to which moistened chia seeds are applied. The seeds sprout and the seedlings become the “fur” of the Chia Pet.

24D Trigger hair : MANE

Cowboy Roy Rogers rode the palomino horse named Trigger. Cowgirl Dale Evans rode a buckskin quarter horse named Buttermilk.

27D State in which Gulliver is discovered by the Lilliputians : DEEP SLEEP

In the 1726 adventure novel “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver comes across the two islands of Lilliput and Blefuscu in the South Indian Ocean. Both are inhabited by people who are one-twelfth of “normal” size, so Gulliver appears like a giant to them. “Gulliver’s Travels” is well known for its satirical references to real life, and indeed these two islands are poorly disguised satires of Britain (Lilliput) and France (Blefuscu). The two islands were at war, as was constantly the situation with Britain and France.

32D Folks who enjoy a well-aged beef? : FEUDISTS

A beef is a complaint or a grievance. It’s not quite clear how “beef” came to have this meaning, but one suggestion is that it derives from the habit of soldiers at the end of the 1800s complaining about the quality or availability of beef in their rations.

35D Echolocation systems : SONARS

Echolocation, when used by animals, is known as biosonar. The best-known example of an animal using biosonar is probably the bat, although not all species of bat use sounds to locate objects.

36D Element between copper and gallium on the periodic table : ZINC

Zinc is the chemical element with the atomic number 30 and the element symbol “Zn”. It is a metal that can form pointed crystals after smelting. It is probably these crystals that gave zinc its name, which comes from the Old High German “zint” meaning “point”.

Copper metal was mined by the ancient Romans, mainly in Cyprus. Because of its origin, the Romans called the metal “aes cyprium” (metal of Cyprus), a term that evolved into the Latin “cuprum”, which in turn became our “copper”. Copper’s element symbol “Cu” comes from the Latin “cuprum”.

Gallium is a soft metal that doesn’t occur in nature in metallic form, but rather as a salt in aluminum and zinc ores. If you take a little gallium metal and just rest it in your hand, the heat from your body is enough to make it melt! Gallium has been used in the semiconductor industry for decades. For example, gallium nitride is used in making blue light emitting diodes (LEDs), which are so important these days at Christmas!

37D Spelling combinations? : COVENS

“Coven” is an old Scottish word meaning simply “gathering”. The first known application of the word to witchcraft came during the trial of a Scotswoman in 1662 accused of being a witch. At that time, “coven” came to mean a group of 13 witches.

38D They’re concerned with feeding kits : VIXENS

Male foxes are usually called dogs, and sometimes tods or reynards. Females are vixens, and young foxes are cubs, pups or kits.

39D Pharyngeal woe : STREP

Streptococcus bacteria multiply and divide along a single axis so that they form linked chains. That behavior gives the genus of bacteria its name, as “streptos” is Greek for “easily twisted, like a chain”. I had to battle with streptococcal pharyngitis (strep throat) twice in the past few years and it was not at all pleasant, I must say. Another species of streptococcus is responsible for that terrible “flesh-eating” infection that makes the news from time to time.

40D Cynthia ___, Tony winner for “The Color Purple” : ERIVO

British actress Cynthia Erivo’s big break came on the stage, when she starred in the Broadway revival of “The Color Purple” from 2015 to 2017. Her Hollywood film breakthrough came with the title role in the 2019 biopic “Harriet”, portraying Harriet Tubman and earning herself a Best Actress nomination. More recently, Erivo portrayed Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, in the “Wicked” series of films.

45D Chilly and damp : DANK

“Dank” is a lovely word that has largely been superseded by “damp”, another nice word. It is thought that “dank” came into English from Scandinavia some time before the 14th century. The modern Swedish word “dank” means “moist place”.