1206-25 NY Times Crossword 6 Dec 25, Saturday

Bill’s time: 13m 10s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5A Winter quaffs : SPICED ALES

“Quaff” is both a verb and a noun. One “quaffs” (takes a hearty drink) of a “quaff” (a hearty drink).

15A Booty : HAUL

“Booty”, meaning “plunder, profit”, is derived from the Old French word “butin” that has the same meaning.

16A Source of rhythm in electronic music : TECHNO BEAT

Techno is a type of electronic dance music that originated in Detroit in the eighties. Techno involves a heavy beat in common time, and what seems to be a lot of repetition. Not for me …

17A With 23-Down, bandolier, e.g. : AMMO …
23D See 17-Across : … BELT

A “bandolier” (also “bandoleer”) is a belt with small pockets that hold ammunition. A bandolier is usually worn over the shoulders, rather than around the waist. The term derives from the Spanish “banda” meaning “scarf, sash”.

22A Treats whose name is derived from the Arabic for “to drink” : SORBETS

“Sorbet” can mean different things around the world. Here in the US, sorbet is a non-fat frozen dessert that is made without any dairy content.

24A Thread organizer : LOOM

There are many types of loom used to weave cloth, but they all hold parallel threads in tension in one direction, while allowing the interweaving of threads in the perpendicular direction. The threads held under tension are the warp threads, and the “woven” threads are the “weft” threads.

27A Home to the Temple of Hephaestus : ATHENS

In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the god of blacksmiths, sculptors, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. The Roman equivalent of Hephaestus was Vulcan. Given his spheres of influence, it is perhaps not surprising that Hephaestus made all of the weapons for the gods of Olympus.

34A Director Jon M. ___ : CHU

Jon M. Chu is a movie and television director who is perhaps known for directing 2018’s highly-acclaimed film “Crazy Rich Asians”. Chu’s firstborn child is named “Willow”, after the 1998 film “Willow”. His second-born child is named “Jonathan Heights”, after the 2021 movie “In the Heights”.

36A Many a character on “Breaking Bad” : NARCO

The AMC drama “Breaking Bad” is a well-written show about a high school teacher stricken by lung cancer who turns to a life of crime to make money. It turns out that the teacher has a talent for making high-quality crystal meth. The show was created by Vince Gilligan who had spent many years as a producer and writer of “The X-Files”. There is a “Breaking Bad” spin-off show running on AMC called “Better Call Saul” that focuses on the life of lawyer Saul Goodman. If I’m honest, I enjoyed “Better Call Saul” even more than the original show …

37A Toiletry kit item : Q-TIP

Cotton swabs were originally marketed under the name “Baby Gays”. This was changed in 1926 to “Q-Tips”, with the Q standing for “quality”.

38A Portrayer of Glinda in 2024’s “Wicked,” to fans : ARI

Ariana Grande is a singer and actress from Boca Raton, Florida. Grande plays the role of Cat Valentine on the sitcom “Victorious” that aired for four seasons on Nickelodeon. Grande’s singing career took off with the release of the 2011 album “Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show”.

“Wicked” (2024) is the first installment of a two-part film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical of the same name. It stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, and shows the events that lead them to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. I skipped this one, because I am scared of flying monkeys …

40A “Indubitably!” : QUITE!

Something described as “indubitable” cannot be “doubted”.

45A Penn athletes : QUAKERS

The University of Pennsylvania (also “Penn” and “UPenn”) was founded in 1740 by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia. Penn was the first school in the country to offer both graduate and undergraduate courses. Penn’s sports teams are known as the Quakers, and sometimes the Red & Blue.

46A Website that competes with PCMag : CNET

CNET is a technology website, with the acronym “CNET” standing for “computer network”. It started out in 1994 as a television network specializing in technology news. The host of “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest, started off his career as host of a CNET show.

55A Hippie happening : BE-IN

Just before 1967’s “Summer of Love” in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, a Human Be-In was held in the city’s Golden Gate Park. The Be-In is described as a “happening”, a gathering triggered by a new state law banning the use of LSD. The term “Human Be-In” is a play on “humanist sit-in”.

56A Warning preceding some “madness” during March Madness : UPSET ALERT

“March Madness” is the name given to the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship (among others), that is held in the spring each year. Another name is “the Big Dance”.

Down

1D Closing statement? : THAT’S A WRAP

When shooting of a film is concluded the movie is said to wrap, and everyone heads to the wrap party. There is one story that “wrap” is actually an acronym for “wind, reel and print”, a reference to the transition of the filming process into post-production. But, this explanation is disputed.

4D ___ rating (chess stat) : ELO

The Elo rating system is used to compare the skill levels of competing players in games like chess and Scrabble. The system is named for a Hungarian-born professor of physics called Arpad Elo, who was also a master-level chess player active in the US Chess Federation.

5D Big Apple cathedral : ST PAT’S

The Cathedral of St. Patrick in New York City is a neo-Gothic structure that sits on Fifth Avenue across the street from Rockefeller Center. St. Patrick’s is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York.

6D Fur trade exports : PELTS

A pelt is the skin of a furry animal.

8D Singer with the top 10 albums “Crash” and “Brat” : CHARLI XCX

“Charli XCX” is the stage name of English singer/songwriter Charlotte Aitchison.

9D Tennis duo? : ENS

There is a duo of letters N (ens) in the word “tennis”.

10D It might go for a buck : DOE

A male deer is usually called a buck, and a female is a doe. However, the male red deer is usually referred to as a stag. The males of even larger species of deer are often called bulls, and the females called cows. In older English, male deer of over 5 years were called harts, and females of over 3 years were called hinds. The young of small species are known as fawns, and of larger species are called calves. All very confusing …

11D American battle tank named for a general : ABRAMS

During WWI, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill formed the Landship Committee to oversee development of armored fighting vehicles. The vehicles in development were referred to using the codeword “tank” for secrecy. Within a few months, the committee was renamed to the “Tank Supply Committee”. The codeword eventually became the overt name for the weapon.

12D First name in Norse exploration : LEIF

Leif Erikson (sometimes “Ericson”) was a Norse explorer and the first European to land in North America, some 500 years before Christopher Columbus’s landing in 1492. The Norsemen named the area they discovered “Vinland”, which might translate as “Wine Land” or “Pasture Land”. Erikson built a small settlement called Leifsbudir, which archaeologists believe they have found in modern day Newfoundland, at L’Anse aux Meadows. The settlement discovered in Newfoundland is definitely Norse, but there is some dispute over whether it is actually Erikson’s Leifsbudir.

14D Dish commonly made in a Dutch oven : STEW

A Dutch oven is a cooking pot with a tight lid, usually made from cast-iron. Back in Ireland we call them casserole dishes.

20D Former French president ___ Coty : RENE

René Coty was the President of France from 1954 to 1959 (succeeding Vincent Auriol), and notably presided over the Algerian War. Coty resigned after five years, making way for the 7-year term of Charles de Gaulle.

25D Bread spread : OLEO

26D Its first and second editions were published more than 60 yrs. apart : OED

Work started on what was to become the first “Oxford English Dictionary” (OED) in 1857. Several interim versions of the dictionary were published in the coming years with the first full version appearing, in ten bound volumes, in 1928. The second edition of the OED appeared in 1989 and is made up of twenty volumes. The OED was first published in electronic form in 1988 and went online in 2000. Given the modern use of computers, the publishing house responsible feels that there will never be a third print version of the famous dictionary.

28D Sacred Polynesian plants : TAROS

The term “Polynesia” was coined in 1756 by author Charles de Brosses when he used it to describe all the islands in the Pacific. This usage was later restricted to what we now refer to as a subregion of Oceania.

30D Endangered African grazer : WHITE RHINO

There are five types of rhinoceros that survive today, with the smaller Javan Rhino being the most rare. The rhinoceros is probably the rarest large mammal on the planet, thanks to poaching. Hunters mainly prize the horn of the rhino as it is used in powdered form in traditional Chinese medicine.

33D Ratty is one in “The Wind in the Willows” : WATER VOLE

“The Wind in the Willows” is a classic children’s novel first published in 1908. Featured in the story are characters such as Mole, Ratty, Mr. Toad and Mr. Badger. The story’s author was Kenneth Grahame, a man who held the exalted position of Secretary of the Bank of England.

36D Title film character with a “lucky fin” : NEMO

“Finding Nemo” is a 2003 animated blockbuster from Pixar. The film was the winner of the Oscar that year for Best Animated Feature. Believe it or not, “Finding Nemo” is the best-selling DVD of all time and, until 2010’s “Toy Story 3”, it was the highest-grossing, G-rated movie at the box office.

37D Longtime Nestlé product : QUIK

Nestlé Quik was introduced in 1948, and is a flavored powdered milk drink. It was sold in Europe as “Nesquik”, and that brand name replaced “Quik” here in the US in 1999. The Nesquik mascot is the Quik Bunny. The Quik Bunny had a large “Q” on a collar around his neck, and with the brand name change this “Q” became an “N”, and he is now known as the Nesquik Bunny.

45D Classic arcade game with a pyramid : Q*BERT

Q*bert is an arcade game that dates back to 1982. In the game, Q*bert is a character who starts at the top of a pyramid of cubes, and who is then moved around the pyramid by the player.

46D Shark bait : CHUM

The word “chum” meaning “fish bait”, is perhaps derived from the Scottish word “chum” meaning food.

48D Who’s asked the musical question “Do you want to build a snowman?” : ELSA

“Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” is a very popular song from the 2013 Disney musical film “Frozen”. It is performed by three of the cast members who play Anna, Princess of Arendelle, at various stages in her life, i.e. Katie Lopez (Anna at 5 years old), Agatha Lee Monn (Anna at 9 years old) and Kristen Bell (Anna at 18 years). It is one of the best-selling holiday songs of all time.