0307-26 NY Times Crossword 7 Mar 26, Saturday

Bill’s time: 14m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A One who makes a living from fish : CARD SHARK

A “card sharp” is someone who is skilled and deceptive with playing cards, particularly when playing gambling games like poker. It seems that the term “card sharp” predates the related “card shark”, both of which have the same meaning.

16A Prefix with -centric : HELIO-

Heliocentrism is the astronomical model that has the Earth and other planets revolving around the Sun at the center of the Solar System. The geocentric model holds that the Earth is the center of the Universe.

17A Like the crescendo in Ravel’s “Boléro” : POCO A POCO

Maurice Ravel was a great French composer of the Romantic Era. His most famous piece of music by far is his “Bolero”, the success of which he found somewhat irksome as he considered it a trivial work. Personally though, I love the piece’s minimalism and simplicity …

18A Prayer presenter : RABBI

The term “rabbi” traces its origins to the Hebrew word “rav”, meaning “great” or “master.” Over time, the suffix “-i”, indicating “my,” was added, forming “rabbi”, which literally translates to “my master” or “my teacher”. This title of respect and authority came to denote a Jewish scholar and teacher qualified to make decisions in Jewish law.

19A What travellers typically have in America? : ONE L

Not only is Noah Webster’s name inextricably linked with his series of dictionaries, but he is also renowned as an advocate for English spelling reform. He argued that “traditional” English is hard to learn, and that it should be simplified and standardized (instead of “standardised”). He published spelling books that were used in schools, and from edition to edition he changed the spelling of words in order to simplify the language. Examples are the use of “s” over “c” in words like “defense” (in Ireland we have “defence” and “defense” depending on usage), “-re” became “-er” as in “center” instead of “centre” (reversing the influence of French), and he dropped one of the Ls in words like “traveler” (I learned “traveller”). Mind you, he also spelled “tongue” as “tung”, but he didn’t get very far with that one.

22A M.R.I. induction units : TESLAS

The tesla unit measures the strength of a magnetic field, or more precisely the magnetic flux density. It is named for the physicist Nikola Tesla. He was born in a village in modern-day Croatia, then part of the Austrian Empire, and later moved to the US. His work on mechanical and electrical engineering was crucial to the development of alternating current technology, the same technology that is used by equipment at the backbone of modern power generation and distribution systems.

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine uses powerful magnetic fields to generate images that can be used by medical professionals to diagnose injury and disease.

27A Part of a Grim Reaper costume : COWL

A cowl is a long garment with a hood that is primarily worn by monks in the Christian tradition. The term “cowl” can also describe the hood itself.

The Grim Reaper is one of the personifications of death, along with the Hooded One and the Angel of Death. Death has been depicted since the 1400s as a skeleton in a hooded, black cloak and carrying a scythe. The name “Grim Reaper” only dates back to the mid-1800s.

29A Controller of floods in the video game Pharaoh : OSIRIS

Osiris was the Egyptian god of the underworld. He was the son of Geb the Earth god, and Nut the sky goddess. His wife Isis was also his sister. Osiris was killed and mutilated by Set, his own brother. Isis reassembled Osiris and revived him, just long enough that they could conceive their son Horus.

37A R&B’s Braxton : TONI

Toni Braxton is a very successful R&B singer, but one who seems to have trouble managing her financial affairs. After two highly successful albums, she had to file for bankruptcy protection in 1998. She recovered and had even more success, and then had to file for bankruptcy again in 2010.

40A Sémillon rouge and Médoc noir : MERLOTS

Merlot is one of the main grapes used to make Bordeaux wines, along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

45A Location of a notorious 33-Down: Abbr. : ELM ST
[33D Cause of a cold sweat, perhaps : NIGHTMARE]

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” is a Wes Craven slasher-horror film that was released in 1984. As I don’t do “slasher” or “horror”, I was surprised to learn that Johnny Depp was in the movie, making his feature film debut.

48A When strikes go on the longest? : NOON

Our word “noon”, meaning “midday”, comes from the Latin “nona hora” that translates as “ninth hour”. Back in ancient Rome, the “ninth hour” was three in the afternoon. Over the centuries, traditions such as church prayers and “midday” meals shifted from 3 p.m. to 12 p.m., and so “noon” became understood as 12 noon.

62A Woman central to electioneering? : IONE

The woman’s name “Ione” is found at the center of the word “electioneering”.

63A “Big Little Lies” author Moriarty : LIANE

Liane Moriarty is an author from Sydney, Australia. Her most famous work is a 2014 novel titled “Big Little Lies”, which was adapted into a very successful TV series starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern, and Zoë Kravitz.

66A Ninnyhammer : MORON

The unsavory word “moron” was used formerly by the medical community to describe someone with a degree of mental retardation. The term comes from the Greek “moros” meaning “foolish, dull”. Back in the early 1900s, IQ tests were used to classify those suffering from mental retardation into categories:

• “idiot” … IQ of 0-20
• “imbecile” … IQ of 21-50
• “moron” …IQ of 51-70

68A It keeps a narrow passage passable : STENT

In the world of surgical medicine, a stent is an artificial tube inserted inside a vessel in the body, say an artery, in order to reduce the effects of a local restriction in the body’s conduit.

Down

1D 100 bones : C-SPOT

“C-note” and “C-spot” are slang terms for “$100 bill”.

7D Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen’s status, repeatedly, in “Catch-22” : AWOL

“Catch-22” is a novel by Joseph Heller set during WWII. The title refers to absurd bureaucratic constraints that soldiers had to suffer. Heller’s “Catch 22” was invoked by an army psychiatrist to explain that any pilot requesting to be evaluated for insanity, to avoid flying dangerous missions, had to be sane as only a sane man would try to get out of such missions. The term “catch-22” has entered the language and describes a paradoxical situation from which one can’t escape due to contradictory rules; one loses, no matter what choice one makes.

9D Money in Reykjavík : KRONA

The króna is the currency of Iceland. Iceland is the second-least populous country with its own currency (after the Seychelles).

Reykjavik is the capital city, and indeed the only city, of Iceland. It is also the most northerly capital city of any country. It isn’t very large, relatively speaking, with a population of only 200,000 in the Greater Reykjavik Area.

23D First Amendment protector, in brief : ACLU

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

The Constitution of the United States was adopted on September 17, 1787. There have been 27 amendments to the constitution, the first ten of which are collectively called the Bill of Rights. In essence the Bill of Rights limits the power of the Federal Government and protects the rights of individuals. For example, the First Amendment states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

34D Taylor-Joy of “Furiosa” : ANYA

Actress Anya Taylor-Joy had quite the international upbringing. She was born in Miami, and raised in Buenos Aires and then London. She is perhaps best known for playing the title character in the 2020 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma”, and the lead role in the Netflix miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit”.

36D What arms may hold, informally : AMMO

The word “munitions” describes materials and equipment used in war. The term derives from the Latin “munitionem” meaning “fortification, defensive wall”. Back in the 17th century, French soldiers referred to such materials as “la munition”, a Middle French term. This was misheard as “l’ammunition”, and as a result we ended up importing the word “ammunition” (often shortened to “ammo”), a term that we now use mainly to describe the material fired from a weapon.

47D Not yet seen, say : LATENT

Something is said to be latent if it is present, but not active.

61D Dye-yielding shrub : ANIL

“Anil” is another name for the indigo plant, as well as the name of the blue indigo dye that is obtained from it. The color of anil is relatively close to navy blue. The main coloring agent in indigo dye is a crystalline powder called indigotin.