0808-25 NY Times Crossword 8 Aug 25, Friday

Bill’s time: 12m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Who wrote in an 1852 novel “Any mind that is capable of a real sorrow is capable of good” : STOWE

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s most famous and most successful work is 1852’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. It was also her first novel. Her second was published in 1856, i.e. “Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp”.

14A Synthetic fabric sometimes called “elastene” : LYCRA

What we call spandex in the US is known as lycra in Britain and Ireland. “Spandex” was chosen as the name for the elastic fiber as it is an anagram of “expands”.

15A Competition conducted in rounds over rounds : BAR TRIVIA

Trivia are things of little consequence. “Trivia” is the plural of the Latin word “trivium” which means “a place where three roads meet”. I guess the idea was that folks would meet at road junctions and chat, exchanging (trivial) snippets of news. Now that’s what I call a trivial fact …

20A Toadlike : WARTY

The “warts” on the skin of a toad have no relation to the viral infection that can occur on human skin. A toad’s warts are colored bumps that are believed to help the animal blend more effectively into its environment.

22A Some fridges : LGS

LG is a very large South Korean manufacturer of electronics, chemicals and telecom products. The company used to be known as Lucky-Goldstar, whence the initialism “LG”.

24A Rum-soaked cake : BABA

Rum baba (also “baba au rhum” in French) is a small yeast cake saturated in rum, and sometimes filled with whipped cream. Rum baba is derived from the recipe for the tall “babka” yeast cake that was introduced to the world by the Polish communities. The Polish words “baba” and “babka” mean “old woman” or “grandmother” in English. I guess someone must have thought that all grandmothers were saturated in rum!

26A Frameable frame : CEL

Animation cels are transparent sheets made of celluloid acetate that were used in traditional hand-drawn animation to create animated films. They were first introduced in the 1930s and were widely used in animation production until the late 1990s, when digital animation techniques began to dominate the industry.

36A Means of defense for an elephant : TUSK

Tusks are the front teeth of certain animals that grow continuously. The tusks piggs, hippo and walruses are elongated canine teeth. The tusks of elephants are elongated incisors.

38A Some residents: Abbr. : DRS

A resident is a physician who has graduated from medical school, and who is receiving specialized graduate training in a hospital. The concept of residency developed in the late 1800s. Back then, the doctors would often “reside” in hospital-provided housing while receiving the training, hence the term “resident”.

40A Like Antarctica, notably : ARID

On average, Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest of all seven continents. Although Antarctica is very cold, it is essentially a desert, receiving only 8 inches of precipitation annually at the coasts and even less inland.

43A Their tracks diffract light into rainbows : CDS

The compact disc (CD) was developed jointly by Philips and Sony as a medium for storing and playing sound recordings. When the first commercial CD was introduced back in 1982, a CD’s storage capacity was far greater than the amount of data that could be stored on the hard drive of personal computers available at that time.

48A Eurasian ermine : STOAT

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.

52A Guiding principle, metaphorically : NORTH STAR

Because the orientation of the Earth’s axis shifts, albeit very slowly, the position of north relative to the stars changes over time. The bright star that is closest to true north is Polaris, and so we call Polaris the “North Star” or “Pole Star”. Because of the relatively stable position of Polaris in the Northern Sky, it is a useful navigational tool. 14,000 years ago, the nearest bright star to true north was Vega, and it will be so again in about 12,000 year’s time.

54A 2023 title role for Timothée Chalamet : WONKA

“Wonka” is 2023 musical fantasy film that serves as a prequel to Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” exploring Willy Wonka’s younger years before he opened his iconic factory. Timothée Chalamet takes on the role of the young inventor, and interestingly, Hugh Grant plays an Oompa Loompa, a departure from his usual roles.

Actor Timothée Chalamet played at least three notable roles in the early 2020s. He portrayed Paul Atreides in the two-part film adaption of the sci-fi novel “Dune”. He also played the title character in the musical fantasy film “Wonka”, and portrayed Bob Dylan in the biopic “A Complete Unknown”. Chalamet is bilingual, in English and French. Born in New York City to an American mother and French father, he spent many summers as a youth with his grandparents just outside Lyon.

55A Events akin to streaks : UNDIE RUNS

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.

56A Opposite of entropy : ORDER

In the world of thermodynamics, entropy is a measure of disorder in a system. According to the second law of thermodynamics, the entropy of a closed system always increases, the system always tends toward disorder.

58A Corset supports : STAYS

A corset is a close-fitting undergarment that is stiffened with a material such as whalebone. Corsets are more usually worn by women, to shape the body. The word “corset” is a diminutive of the Old French “cors” meaning “body”.

Down

2D Ambitious and uncompromising, say : TYPE-A

The Type-A and Type-B personality theory originated in the fifties. Back then, individuals were labeled as Type A in order to emphasize a perceived increased risk of heart disease. Type-A personality types are so-called “stress junkies”, whereas Type Bs are relaxed and laid back. But there doesn’t seem to be much scientific evidence to support the linkage between the Type-A personality and heart problems.

3D The planets, since 2006 : OCTET

There are several mnemonics used to remember the planets and the order in which they are found in the Solar System. One example is “My Very Easy Method Just Shows Us Nine Planets”, but that doesn’t really work since Pluto was relegated from “planethood” in 2006. The oft-quoted mnemonic for the eight planets is “My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nachos”. Given the relegation of Pluto, I kind of like “Many Very Educated Men Just Screwed Up Nature”.

6D Sailing maneuvers : TACKS

“To tack” is a sailing term, one meaning “to veer into and through the wind in order to change course”. After the maneuver is completed, the wind is coming over the opposite side of the vessel.

15D Hybrid feline whose coat may feature rosettes : BENGAL CAT

Bengal cats are a hybrid breed resulting from crossing a domestic cat with an Asian leopard cat. The name of the hybrid comes from the taxonomic name for the Asian leopard cat, namely “Prionailurus bengalensis”.

The spots on spotted animals such as leopards and jaguars are arranged in groups. Those grouped spots are termed “rosettes”. The spotted patterns on such animals are unique to each individual.

19D One of two official languages of Kosovo : ALBANIAN

The country name “Kosovo” is an adjectival form of the Serbian word “kos” meaning “blackbird”. The name commemorates the “field of the blackbirds”, the site of a 1389 battle between Serbia and the Ottoman Empire. The dispute over Kosovo technically dates back to the implosion of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The capital of Kosovo is Pristina.

25D Org. with a serpent in its logo : AMA

The Rod of Asclepius (also “Aesculapius”) is a rod around which a serpent is entwined. It was carried by the Greek god Asclepius, hence the name. Asclepius was associated with medicine and healing, and so the Rod of Asclepius has long been associated with health care. It appears in the logo of many organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Medical Association (AMA). The Rod of Asclepius is sometimes confused with the caduceus, the traditional symbol of the god Hermes. The caduceus features two snakes winding around a winged staff. Famously, the US Army Medical Corps adopted the caduceus as a symbol, apparently in error, and as a result, the caduceus is sometimes associated with healthcare groups to this day.

26D Warriors for a cause : CRUSADERS

The Crusades were a series of religious wars fought between the 11th and 15th centuries. The term “crusade” came into English via French and Spanish from the Latin “crux” meaning “cross”. The use of the term was retrospective, with the first recorded use in English in 1757. The relevance of “crux” is that most crusaders swore a vow to reach Jerusalem from Europe, and then received a cloth cross that was then sewn into their clothing. The term “crusade” persists to this day, and is now used figuratively to describe any vigorous campaign in pursuit of a moral objective.

28D Bouts held in a dohyo : SUMO

Sumo is a sport that is practiced professionally only in Japan, the country of its origin. There is an international federation of sumo wrestling now, and one of the organization’s aims is to have the sport accepted as an Olympic event.

31D #@$% and &?*!, by implication : CUSS WORDS

A string of typographical symbols such as “@#%!” that is used to replace a swear word is called a “grawlix”. The term “grawlix” was coined by Mort Walker, the creator of comic strip “Beetle Bailey”, in 1964.

32D Sister of Helios : EOS

In Greek mythology, Eos is the goddess of the dawn who lives at the edge of the ocean. Eos wakes each morning to welcome her brother Helios the Sun. The Roman equivalent of Eos is Aurora. Rather delightfully, Homer referred to Eos as “rosy-fingered dawn” in both “Iliad” and “Odyssey”.

33D Table tennis or beach volleyball : COED SPORT

Ping-Pong is called table tennis in the UK, where the sport originated in the 1880s. Table tennis started as an after-dinner activity among the elite, and was called “wiff-waff”. To play the game, books were stacked in the center of a table as a “net”, two more books served as “”rackets” and the ball used was actually a golf ball. The game evolved over time with the rackets being upgraded to the lids of cigar boxes and the ball becoming a champagne cork (how snooty is that?). Eventually the game was produced commercially, and the sound of the ball hitting the racket was deemed to be a “ping” and a “pong”, giving the sport its alternative name. The name “Ping-Pong” was trademarked in Britain in 1901, and eventually sold to Parker Brothers in the US.

Indoor volleyball was invented in 1895 and was originally called “mintonette”, a reference to the related game of “badminton”. The variant called beach volleyball originated in 1915 on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, but was popularized on the beaches of Santa Monica starting in 1920.

34D Abbr. on a pay stub : YTD

Year-to-date (YTD)

35D Letters said out of embarrassment : TMI

Too much information! (TMI!)

45D Animal that’s mostly white, helping it hide in its natural habitat : PANDA

Taxonomic classification of the giant panda has been a subject of great debate for years, the main question being whether it belongs to the bear or raccoon family. The accepted opinion these days, based on molecular studies, seems to be that the panda is in fact a true bear.

51D Rare bills and dice rolls : TWOS

The US two-dollar bill features a portrait of Thomas Jefferson. The bill was introduced in 1862, and withdrawn in 1966. It was reintroduced in 1976, and is still legal tender. That said, there are relatively few two-dollar bills in circulation. Some people even hold that possession of a two-dollar bill is bad luck.

“Snake eyes” is a slang term describing a roll of two dice in which one pip turns up on each die.

53D Sign of a sellout : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)