1203-25 NY Times Crossword 3 Dec 25, Wednesday

Bill’s time: 7m 59s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14A Plant-based spread : OLEO

Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France announced a competition to develop a substitute for butter, a substitute that would be more accessible to the lower classes and more practical for the armed forces. A French chemist called Hippolyte Mege-Mouries came up with something he called oleomargarine in 1869, which was eventually manufactured under the trade name “margarine”. The name “oleomargarine” also gives us our generic term “oleo”.

15A Echo speaker : ALEXA

Amazon Echo is a voice-controlled hardware device that can be used to provide several services including playing radio programs and music, recording of shopping lists, and managing a calendar. The device just sits in the home listening, until it hears a “wake up” command.

16A Largest company headquartered in Oregon : NIKE

Nike was founded in 1964 in Eugene, Oregon by entrepreneur Phil Knight and track-and-field coach Bill Bowerman as Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS). BRS started out by distributing athletic shoes made in Japan. The company started making its own shoes in 1971 and changed its name to Nike, after the Greek goddess of victory.

17A 1967 hit by the Who, per 68-Across : FOR MILES, I CAN SEE

“I Can See for Miles” is the biggest selling single for the Who in the United States. It’s a song that enjoyed added exposure when it was adopted as the theme tune for the TV show “CSI: Cyber”.

20A Words after “happily ever after” : THE END

The stock phrase “Once upon a time …” has been used in various forms as the start of a narrative at least since 1380. The stock phrase at the end of stories such as folktales is often “and they all lived happily ever after”. The earlier version of this ending was “happily until their deaths”.

23A Long-haired bovine : YAK

The English word “yak” is an Anglicized version of the Tibetan name for the male of the species. Yak milk is much prized in Tibetan culture. It is made into cheese and butter, and the butter is used to make a tea that is consumed in great volume by Tibetans. The butter is also used as a fuel in lamps, and during festivals the butter is even sculpted into religious icons.

24A Anabolic steroids, e.g., informally : PEDS

Performance-enhancing drug (PED)

Steroids are found commonly in nature, with familiar examples being cholesterol and testosterone. The controversial class of drugs called anabolic steroids (known informally as “‘roids” or simply “steroids”) are artificially produced chemicals designed to mimic the effect of the male sex hormone, testosterone. They are termed “anabolic” as they build up cellular tissue (particularly muscle) in a process called anabolism. Taking anabolic steroids can be termed “juicing”, and the aggressive behavior that can be a side-effect is known as “‘roid rage”.

27A College football rival of Michigan, for short : OSU

Ohio State University (OSU) in Columbus was founded back in 1870 as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. The athletic teams of OSU are called the Buckeyes, named after the state tree of Ohio. In turn the buckeye tree gets its name from the appearance of its fruit, a dark nut with a light patch thought to resemble a “buck’s eye”. The school’s athletic mascot was introduced in 1965, and is an anthropomorphic buckeye nut named Brutus Buckeye.

29A 1978 song by Gloria Gaynor, per 68-Across : SURVIVE, I WILL

Gloria Gaynor is a singer who had most success during the disco era, most notably with “I Will Survive” in 1979. Gaynor released “I Will Survive” as a B-side to “Substitute”, a cover version to a Righteous Brothers song. “Substitute” made it to #107 in the charts in December 1978. “I Will Survive” hit the #1 spot three months later.

38A Linseed oil source : FLAX

Linseed oil is also known as flaxseed oil, as the oil is extracted from the dried seeds of the flax plant.

39A Shampoo often in a green bottle : PRELL

Prell shampoo was introduced by Procter & Gamble in 1947. Back then it was a clear green concentrate sold in a tube (like toothpaste).

41A Cause for a miner celebration? : LODE

A lode is a metal ore deposit that’s found between two layers of rock or in a fissure. The mother lode is the principal deposit in a mine, usually of gold or silver. “Mother lode” is probably a translation of “veta madre”, an expression used in mining in Mexico.

42A Animal in more than 70 Bugs Bunny titles : HARE

Cartoon legend Bugs Bunny owes a couple of the iconic elements of his persona to the superb 1934 film “It Happened One Night”. In the movie, Clark Gable has a celebrated scene in which his character munches on raw carrots. He also utters the lines “I, uh, didn’t mean anything, Doc.”and “No offense, Doc.” When Bugs made his debut in the 1940 cartoon “A Wild Hare”, he was munching on carrots, and spouting the line “What’s up, Doc?”

44A 2008 hit by Katy Perry, per 68-Across : A GIRL, I KISSED

2008’s “I Kissed A Girl” is the debut single released by Katy Perry, and the song launched her into stardom. The song’s provocative lyrics and catchy pop-rock melody resonated widely, making it a massive commercial success, topping the charts in numerous countries.

47A One of a trio encountered by Ricitos de Oro : OSO

“Goldilocks” translates into Spanish as “Ricitos de Oro”, literally “Little Golden Curls”.

48A Egyptian sun deity : ATEN

“Aten” was the name given to the disk of the sun in ancient Egypt. Aten came to be deified in Egypt, and was worshiped as an aspect of the sun god Ra.

52A Forehead marker at the start of Lent : ASH

In the Christian tradition, the first day in the season of Lent is called Ash Wednesday. On that day, Palm Crosses from the prior year’s Palm Sunday are burned. The resulting ashes are mixed with sacred oil and then used to anoint worshipers on the forehead with the shape of a cross.

59A 1973 Bob Marley song covered by Eric Clapton, per 68-Across : THE SHERIFF, I SHOT

“I Shot the Sheriff” is a 1973 song released by Bob Marley & the Wailers, one that was also written by Marley.

Can you believe that the great Eric Clapton only had one chart-topper in the US? In 1974, Clapton released a cover version of the Bob Marley classic “I Shot the Sheriff” and ended up selling more copies of that song than Bob Marley did himself. Clapton is the only person to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times: once as a member of the Yardbirds, once as a member of the supergroup Cream, and once as a solo artist.

63A Currency of Yemen : RIAL

The rial is the currency of Yemen (as well as Oman, Iran and Tunisia). Generally, there are 1,000 baisa in one rial.

64A Language in which “maunga roa” means “long mountain” : MAORI

The Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. They are eastern Polynesian in origin and began arriving in New Zealand relatively recently, starting some time in the late 13th century. The word “māori” simply means “normal”, distinguishing mortal humans from spiritual entities. The Māori refer to New Zealand as “Aotearoa”.

66A TV’s Griffith, Kaufman or Samberg : ANDY

Andy Griffith was an actor and gospel singer. As an actor, he is perhaps best remembered for his starring roles in TV shows “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Matlock”. As a singer, his 1996 album “I Love to Tell the Story: 25 Timeless Hymns” went platinum and won a 1997 Grammy.

Andy Samberg is an actor and comedian who was a “Saturday Night Live” cast member from 2005 until 2012. Samberg also plays the lead on the police sitcom “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”.

68A Wise counselor of sci-fi who might not be great at karaoke? : YODA

In the “Star Wars” series of films, the character named Yoda has a unique speech pattern. He often uses the word order object-subject-verb. For example:

• Patience you must have …
• Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.
• To answer power with power, the Jedi way this is not.

Down

3D Jeter in Cooperstown : DEREK

Derek Jeter played his entire professional baseball career with the New York Yankees, and was the team’s captain. Jeter is the all-time career leader for the Yankees in hits, games played, stolen bases and at bats. He is also the all-time leader in hits by a shortstop in the whole of professional baseball. Jeter’s performances in the postseason earned him the nicknames “Captain Clutch” and “Mr. November”. Jeter retired from the game in 2014.

Cooperstown is a village in New York that is famous as the home to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The village was named for Judge William Cooper, the founder of Cooperstown and the father of the noted writer James Fenimore Cooper.

5D Like Picard vis-à-vis Kirk : BALDER

Sir Patrick Stewart is perhaps most famous for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. Stewart’s Hollywood career became so successful that he moved from the UK to Los Angeles, but he returned to his homeland in 2004. He stated at the time that he was homesick, and wanted to get back to playing roles in the theater.

William Shatner is a Canadian actor, one famous for playing Captain James T. Kirk in the original “Star Trek” television series. Shatner was trained as a classical Shakespearean actor, and appeared on stage in many of the Bard’s works early in his career. While playing the Kirk character, he developed a reputation for over-acting, really emphasizing some words in a speech and using an excessive number of pauses. He gave his name to a word “shatneresque”, which describes such a style.

6D Drink that may come in a yard : ALE

A yard of ale is a very tall glass, one that is just under a yard (three feet) long. It holds about 60 fluid ounces of beer. I’ve tried drinking out of one, and it is extremely difficult. There is a bulb at the bottom of the glass. When you get towards the end of the drink, that bulb causes a kind of airlock and the remainder of the beer rushes to the top of the glass, splashing you in the face.

7D Jean-Paul Sartre’s “___ Chemins de la Liberté” : LES

Jean-Paul Sartre was a leading French philosopher, as well as a writer and political activist. Sartre also served with the French army during WWII and spent nine months as a prisoner of war having been captured by German troops. He was one of the few people to have been awarded a Nobel Prize and to have then refused to accept it. Sartre was named winner of the prize for Literature in 1964, for his first novel “Nausea”. Before his win, Sartre knew that his name was on the list of nominees so he wrote to the Nobel Institute and asked to be withdrawn from consideration. The letter somehow went unread, so he found himself having to refuse the award after he had been selected.

9D Obama-era immigration program, informally : DACA

The acronym “DACA” stands for “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals”, which is a US immigration policy giving some relief to illegal immigrants brought into the country as children. Essentially, DACA provides such persons with a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation, during which time an applicant becomes eligible for a work permit. The policy was introduced by President Obama in 2012.

10D Novelist Patchett : ANN

Ann Patchett is an author who lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Her most famous work is probably her novel “Bel Canto”, published in 2001. In 2012, “Time” included Patchett in the magazine’s list of 100 most influential people in the world. Also, Patchett co-owns Parnassus Books, an independent bookstore in Nashville

12D Store with iconic blue totes : IKEA

The IKEA furniture stores use the colors blue and yellow for brand recognition. Blue and yellow are the national colors of Sweden, where IKEA was founded and is headquartered.

19D Yours, in French : A TOI

“À toi” is the French term for “yours”, when talking to someone with whom one is familiar. “À toi” literally means “to you”.

25D “Slavonic Dances” composer : DVORAK

Antonín Dvořák was a composer from Czechoslovakia who spent three years working and composing in the United States. He was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York from 1892 to 1895. Certainly here in the US, Dvořák’s best known work is his Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”, which is often referred to as “The New World Symphony”. His career was very much helped along by fellow composer Johannes Brahms, who very much appreciated Dvořák’s work.

26D Omsk’s region : SIBERIA

Omsk is a city in southwest Siberia. It is located over 1400 miles from Moscow and was chosen as the destination for many internal exiles in the mid-1900s. Perhaps the most famous of these exiles was the author Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

29D Philly b-ball squad : SIXERS

The Philadelphia 76ers basketball team is one of the oldest franchises in the NBA. The “Sixers” were formed in 1946 as the Syracuse Nationals. The team moved to Philadelphia in 1963, and the name 76er was chosen in a fan contest, a name that honors the men who fought for the country’s independence in 1776.

33D Drug featured in “How to Change Your Mind” : LSD

Journalist Michael Pollan wrote a 2018 book that became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. The full title of the work is “How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence”. Pollan adapted the book into a four-part documentary for Netflix, using the shorter title “How to Change Your Mind”.

35D Band that helped popularize “pay-what-you-want” pricing with their album “In Rainbows” : RADIOHEAD

Radiohead is an alternative rock band from England that formed in 1985. When the band self-released their 2007 studio album “In Rainbows”, it was a big deal for the music industry. Radiohead offered a digital version of the album using a pay-what-you-want pricing model. Reportedly, most fans paid what would be a normal retail price for the download version of the album. That’s not bad, considering the relatively low cost to produce a download compared to the cost of producing a CD.

38D Home to the Tamiami Trail: Abbr. : FLA

The Tamiami Trail is a section of US Highway 41 in Florida that connects Tampa to Miami. The name “Tamiami” is a portmanteau of “Tampa” and “Miami”.

39D Aphrodite’s second letter : PHI

As always seems to be the case with Greek gods, Eros and Aphrodite have overlapping spheres of influence. Aphrodite was the goddess of love between a man and a woman, and Eros was the god who stirred the passions of the male. The Roman equivalent of Aphrodite was Venus, and the equivalent of Eros was Cupid.

43D Golden-tan dog of multiple films : BENJI

Benji is the main character in a series of “Benji” movies made starting from 1974. Benji is a mixed-breed dog.

45D Blue area on a Scottish map : LOCH

“Loch” is the Scottish-Gaelic word for “lake”. The Irish-Gaelic word is “lough”, and the Welsh word is “llyn”.

51D “Ad ___ per aspera” (motto of Kansas) : ASTRA

The motto of the State of Kansas is “ad astra per aspera”, a Latin expression meaning “to the stars through difficulties”. Kansas shares the same motto with quite a few other institutions, including an English grammar school, an Australian high school, and even Starfleet, the service to which the USS Enterprise belongs in the “Star Trek” series.

52D Razor brand : ATRA

Fortunately for crossword constructors, the Atra was introduced by Gillette in 1977, as the first razor with a pivoting head. The Atra was sold as the Contour in some markets and its derivative products are still around today.

55D 18-wheeler : SEMI

An 18-wheeler semi-trailer truck has eight wheels under the trailer, i.e. four on each of the two rear axles. There are 10 wheels under the tractor unit. Two of the ten wheels are on the front axle, and eight are on the rear two axles that sit under the front of the trailer.

56D Modern country that includes most of ancient Mesopotamia : IRAQ

Mesopotamia was the land that lay between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, that flow through modern-day Iraq. The name “Mesopotamia” means “between the rivers”.

58D Award with a “Best Record-Breaking Performance” category : ESPY

The ESPY Awards are a creation of the ESPN sports television network. One difference with similarly named awards in the entertainment industry is that ESPY winners are chosen solely based on viewer votes. The acronym “ESPY” stands for “Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly”.