0710-26 NY Times Crossword 10 Jul 26, Friday

Bill’s time: 13m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Acronymic weapon : TASER

Victor Appleton wrote a novel for young adults called “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle”. The company that developed the TASER electroshock weapon partly named its product as a homage to the novel. The acronym “TASER” stands for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”.

6A Suffix with caffe- : -INE

Caffeine is a naturally occurring stimulant that is found in several plants. The chemical serves as a natural pesticide by paralyzing and killing certain insects that would otherwise feed on the plant. Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug that is consumed by humans across the world.

9A Intro course? : SALAD

Our word “salad” comes from the Latin “salare” meaning “to salt”. The Latin “herba salata” translates as “salted vegetables”, which I guess could be a salad …

14A Hot shot producer : ESPRESSO MACHINE

Espresso is made by forcing extremely hot water, under pressure, through finely ground coffee beans. The result is a thick and concentrated coffee drink that contains quite a lot of solids and a lot of foam. An espresso machine was first patented in 1884 in Italy, although it was a machine to make the beverage in bulk. The first patent for a machine that made individual measures was applied for in 1901, also in Italy.

18A Source of the Coneheads, in brief : SNL

“The Coneheads” first appeared in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch in 1977. The three family members back then were played by Dan Aykroyd (father), Jane Curtin (mother) and Laraine Newman (daughter). The characters became so popular that they were featured in a “Coneheads” movie in 1993.

21A Main ingredients in unagi don : EELS

“Unagi” is the Japanese term for ”freshwater eel”, and “anago” is the term for “saltwater eel”.

23A Former fillies : MARES

There are lots of terms to describe horses of different ages and sexes, it seems:

• Foal: horse of either sex that is less than one year old
• Yearling: horse of either sex that is one to two years old
• Filly: female horse under the age of four
• Colt: male horse under the age of four
• Gelding: castrated male horse of any age
• Stallion: non-castrated male horse four years or older
• Mare: female horse four years or older

25A One way to check your impulses, in brief? : EEG

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of electrical activity caused by the firing of neurons within the brain. The EEG might be used to diagnose epilepsy, or perhaps to determine if a patient is “brain dead”.

36A Creator of the Detroit Industry Murals : RIVERA

Diego Rivera was a Mexican painter who was famous for his murals. His wife was the equally famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

43A Virginia Woolf’s “___ Dalloway” : MRS

“Mrs. Dalloway” is a novel by Virginia Woolf that was first published in 1925. The story tells of a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a day in which she is preparing for a party that she is hosting. The novel has been compared to “Ulysses” by James Joyce, a story about a day in the life of Leopold Bloom.

50A Lego founder ___ Kirk Christiansen : OLE

Lego is manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company headquartered in Billund, Denmark. The company was founded by a carpenter named Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1932 and the now-famous plastic interlocking blocks were introduced in 1949. The blocks were originally sold under the name “Automatic Binding Bricks” but I think “Lego” is easier to remember! The name “Lego” comes from the Danish term “leg godt” meaning “play well”.

51A Relative of a bandeau : TUBE TOP

A bandeau is like a narrow tube top, and is usually worn by women, perhaps as the top part of a bikini. “Bandeau” is diminutive of the French “bande” meaning “strip, band”.

57A What a streaker running across a baseball field could be : FAN INTERFERENCE

People have been running around naked for an awfully long time, but the application of the word “streaking” to the phenomenon only dates back to 1973. A journalist was reporting on a mass nude run of 533 people at the University of Maryland in 1973, and used the words “they are streaking (i.e. moving quickly) past me right now. It’s an incredible sight!”. The Associated Press picked up the story the next day, and interpreted “streaking” as the term to describe “running naked”, and we’ve been using it that way ever since.

58A “No cap” : SRSLY

“Srsly?” is text-speak for “seriously?”

The phrase “no cap” means “no lie” or “for real”. It gained popularity in the late 2010s, particularly in hip-hop culture. The “cap” refers to “capping”, which is slang for “bragging, exaggerating, lying”.

Down

2D In tandem : AS ONE

Back in the mid- to late-1700s, a tandem was a horse-drawn carriage, one with the two horses harnessed one behind the other. A century later, we applied the term “tandem” to a bicycle with two seats, and the two riders one behind the other.

3D Blabbed : SPILLED THE BEANS

To spill the beans is to divulge a secret. The expression first appeared in American English, in the early 1900s. The phrase arose as an alternative to “spoil the beans” or “upset the applecart”. The phrase “spill the tea” has a similar meaning.

5D Short Instagram video : REEL

Reels is a facility introduced by Instagram in 2020. Essentially, it is a feature that competes with TikTok.

6D Weather map features : ISOBARS

An isobar is a line on a weather map connecting points of equal barometric pressure.

9D Ginormous quantity : SCAD

The origin of the word “scads”, meaning “lots and lots”, is unclear. That said, “scads” was used to mean “dollars” back in the mid-1800s.

10D Pescatarian steak option : AHI

A person on a pescatarian diet follows a vegetarian regimen, while incorporating seafood into some meals.

12D Relatives of sloths : ANTEATERS

Anteaters tear open ant and termite nests using their sharp claws and then eat up the eggs, larvae and mature ants using their tongues. They have very sticky saliva which coats the tongue hence making the feeding very efficient. The tongue also moves very quickly, flicking in and out of the mouth at about 150 times per minute.

All four of the extant species of three-toed sloths are native to South and Central America. Cousins of the three-toed sloths are the two-toed sloths, of which there are two species still living.

15D Catfishing, for one : SCAM

Catfishing refers to the deceptive practice of creating a false online identity to trick someone into a romantic or other type of relationship. The term originated with the 2010 documentary “Catfish” that tells of a man becoming emotionally involved with a woman who turned out to be a fabricated persona. In the film, the term “catfishing” is used metaphorically, citing a possibly apocryphal story about catfish being introduced into tanks to keep cod active during transport. A deceptive person online can stir up a stagnant relationship and keep it “interesting”, albeit dishonestly.

22D Branzino, by another name : SEA BASS

“Sea bass” isn’t a single species, but rather a broad term encompassing various fish with similar characteristics. Prized for their firm, white flesh, sea bass are popular in culinary dishes around the globe.

28D Philosophy of many founding fathers : DEISM

Deism (from the Latin “deus” meaning god) is the belief that a supreme being created the universe, a belief based on observation and reason, and without the need for faith. Further, a deist does not accept divine intervention and rather believes that the supreme being, having created the universe, leaves the world to its own devices.

By one definition, the Founding Fathers were the leaders of the American Revolution against the British Crown. By another, they were the individuals who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The term “Framers” is sometimes confused with “Founding Fathers”. According to the National Archives, the Framers were the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, those who played a key role in drafting the Constitution of the United States. The phrase “Founding Fathers” is a relatively recent term, and one coined by future US president Warren G. Harding in 1916.

30D Dollar offering : RENTAL CAR

Dollar Rent A Car was founded in 1965 as “Dollar A Day Rent A Car”, a name that reflected its actual rental rate of $1.00 per day plus mileage. The company achieved this price point by utilizing a fleet consisting entirely of Volkswagen Beetles without air conditioning.

31D Org. concerned with reactor safety : NRC

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) oversees most aspects of the safety of nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel in the US.

33D 3-D scan : MRI

MRI scans can be daunting for many people as they usually involve the patient lying inside a tube with the imaging magnet surrounding the body. Additionally, the scan can take up to 40 minutes in some cases. There are some open MRI scanners available that help prevent a feeling of claustrophobia. However, the images produced by open scanners are of lower quality as they operate at lower magnetic fields.

34D “___ Boot” : DAS

I am ashamed to say that I have never watched the whole 1981 movie “Das Boot”, even though I love WWII submarine films. The film drew great critical acclaim, good news for the producers as it is one of the most expensive films ever made in Germany. The story is about the German U-boat U-96 on a patrol in October of 1941.

42D “___ Taking the Hobbits to Isengard” (viral video from 2005) : THEY’RE

Isengard is a fortress in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. The tower at the center of Isengard is home to the character Saruman the White.

44D Fancy dos : COIFS

A coif is a hairdo. The term “coif” comes from an old French term “coife” describing a skull-cap that was worn under a helmet back in the late 13th century.

49D Coat material : TWEED

Tweed is a rough woolen fabric that is very much associated with Scotland in the UK, and with County Donegal in Ireland. The cloth was originally called “tweel”, the Scots word for “twill”. Apparently a London merchant misinterpreted some handwriting in the early 1800s and assumed the fabric was called “tweed”, a reference to the Scottish River Tweed, and the name stuck …

51D Stylish, as at an awards show? : TONY

Something described as tony is elegant or exclusive. “Tony” is derived from the word “tone”.

56D H.S.-level exam : GED

The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a battery of four tests designed to demonstrate that a student has the academic skills of someone who has graduated from an American or Canadian high school.