0612-26 NY Times Crossword 12 Jun 26, Friday

Bill’s time: 9m 41s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Get-up : DUDS

“Duds” is an informal word meaning “clothing”. The term comes from the word “dudde” that was used around 1300 as the name for a cloak.

12A Children’s book title character in a green suit : BABAR

“Babar the Elephant” originated in France, a creation of Jean de Brunhoff in 1931. The first book was “Histoire de Babar”, a book so successful it was translated into English two years later for publication in Britain and the US. Jean de Brunhoff wrote six more Babar stories before he died in 1937, and then his son Laurent continued his father’s work.

13A Ambassador’s aide : ATTACHE

“Attaché” is a French term that literally means “attached”, and is used for a person who is assigned to the administrative staff of some agency or other service. The term is most recognized as it applies to someone assigned to an Ambassador’s staff at an embassy. The word was extended to “attaché case” at the beginning of the twentieth century, meaning a leather case used for carrying papers. I guess that an attaché case might be “attached” to an attaché at an embassy …

16A “Red, the color of ___ / Black, the color of despair” (“Les Misérables” lyric) : DESIRE

The 1980 musical “Les Misérables” is an adaptation of the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The show opened in London in 1985, and is the longest running musical in the history of London’s West End. My wife and I saw “Les Miz” in the Queen’s Theatre in London many years ago, but were only able to get tickets in the very back row. The theater seating is very steep, so the back row of the balcony is extremely high over the stage. One of the big events in the storyline is the building of a street barricade over which the rebels fight. At the height we were seated we could see the stagehands behind the barricade, sitting drinking Coke, even smoking cigarettes. On cue, the stagehands would get up and catch a dropped rifle, or an actor who had been shot. It was pretty comical. I didn’t really enjoy the show that much, to be honest. Some great songs, but the musical version of the storyline just didn’t seem to hang together for me.

19A “Empire of the ___” (1977 sci-fi film with an approval rating of 5% on Rotten Tomatoes) : ANTS

Rotten Tomatoes is a website that mainly provides reviews and ratings of movies, although it now covers TV shows as well. The site was launched in 1998 and takes its name from the practice of audience members throwing rotten tomatoes at an unappreciated performer on stage.

20A Velociraptor, e.g., informally : DINO

Velociraptors were relatively small, feathered dinosaurs that were known for their running speed (“velociraptor” translates from Latin as “swift seizer”). They became quite infamous following the release of the “Jurassic Park” series of movies, in which they were portrayed as very effective pack hunters, and very keen on killing humans.

22A ___ asada : CARNE

The name of the dish called “carne asada” translates from Spanish as “roasted meat”.

24A Followers of the guru Nanak : SIKHS

Sikhism is a religion that was founded in the Punjab region, which straddles the India-Pakistan border. Even though Sikhism was established relatively recently, it is now the fifth-largest organized religion in the world. Sikhism was founded in the 15th century by Guru Nanak.

29A Half ass reply? : HEE

Heehaw!

34A Style with spotty coverage? : POINTILLISM

Pointillism is a style of painting that grew out of Impressionism. The pointillist technique calls for the artist to use small, distinct dots of bold color to build up the image. Pointillism was developed in the late 1800s by the great French painter, Georges Seurat. You can go see his magnificent work “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” at The Art Institute of Chicago the next time you’re in town.

39A Slip material : SILK

A slip is an undergarment that is primarily worn under a dress. It is designed to be hidden away to help a dress hang smoothly and prevent it from being see-through.

40A Tally: Abbr. : PTS

Back in the mid-1600s, a tally was a stick marked with notches that tracked how much one owed or paid. The term “tally” came from the Latin “talea” meaning “stick, rod”. The act of “scoring” the stick with notches gave rise to our word “score” for the number in a tally.

44A Big name in cups : SOLO

The Solo Cup was introduced in 1936, and was the creation of a former employee of the Dixie Company. The first Solo Cup was a paper cone that founder Leo Hulseman made at home and sold to companies that distributed bottled water. Apparently, Solo’s red plastic cups sell very well, and are used by college students playing beer pong.

50A Some camera moves : PANS

To “pan” a camera is to move in such a way as to create a “panoramic” effect, to sweep from one side of a scene to another.

52A Commedia dell’___ : ARTE

“Commedia dell’arte” translates literally from Italian as “comedy of craft”. It is a style of theater that started out in Italy in the mid-1500s. The commedia featured a cast of stock characters such as devious servants and foolish old men, most of whom wore distinctive and recognizable masks. Some of the better known characters are Harlequin (a foolish but acrobatic servant), and Pantalone (a lascivious old merchant).

53A Needing no script : OTC

Over-the-counter (OTC) drugs don’t need a prescription (Rx).

54A Deuce follower : AD IN

In tennis, if the score reaches deuce (i.e. when both players have scored three points), then the first player to win two points in a row wins the game. The player who wins the point immediately after deuce is said to have the advantage. If the player with the advantage wins the next point then that’s two in a row and that player wins the game. If the person with the advantage loses the next point, then advantage is lost and the players return to deuce and try again. The player calling out the score announces “ad in”, or more formally “advantage in”, if he/she has the advantage. If the score announcer’s opponent has the advantage, then the announcement is “ad out” or “advantage out”. Follow all of that …?

61A Windflower : ANEMONE

The name “anemone” means “daughter of the wind” in Greek, and at one time it was believed that the wind was what actually caused the flower to bloom.

63A Cone holders : RETINAS

The retina is the tissue that lines the inside of the eye, and is the tissue that is light-sensitive. There are (mainly) two types of cells in the retina that are sensitive to light, namely rods and cones. Rods are cells that best function in very dim light and only provide black-and-white vision. Cones on the other hand function in brighter light and can perceive color.

Down

1D Pastry with Austrian origins, despite its name : DANISH

The Danish pastry that we know so well over here in the US is indeed a Danish specialty, although the recipe was brought to Denmark by Austrian bakers. A “Danish” is called “Viennese bread” in Denmark.

5D Certain ladder climber : SALMON

A fish ladder is a structure built around a barrier in a river, a structure designed to allow fish to pass around that barrier. The focus is on fish that routinely swim upstream or downstream for spawning. The structure comprises a number of small steps that are easily navigated by the fish, hence the name “fish ladder”.

6D ___ collar : ETON

An Eton collar is a wide, stiff, buttoned collar that is still part of the formal school uniform at Eton College near Windsor in England.

11D Home of the Ernest Hemingway House : KEY WEST

Ernest Hemingway moved around a lot. He was born in Illinois, and after leaving school headed to the Italian front during WWI. There he served as an ambulance driver, an experience he used as inspiration for “A Farewell to Arms”. He returned to the US after being seriously wounded, but a few years later moved to Paris where he worked as a foreign correspondent. He covered the Spanish Civil War as a journalist, from Spain, using this experience for “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. During the thirties and forties he had two permanent residences, one in Key West, Florida and one in Cuba. In the late fifties he moved to Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in 1961.

14D One who might say “You wish!” : GENIE

The “genie” in the bottle (or lamp) takes his or her name from “djinn”. “Djinns” were various spirits considered lesser than angels, with people exhibiting unsavory characteristics said to be possessed by djinn. When the book “The Thousand and One Nights” was translated into French, the word “djinn” was transformed into the existing word “génie”, because of the similarity in sound and the related spiritual meaning. This “génie” from the Arabian tale became confused with the Latin-derived “genius”, a guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at birth. Purely as a result of that mistranslation the word genie has come to mean the “djinn” that pops out of the bottle. A little hard to follow, I know, but still quite interesting …

15D Site of America’s first roller coaster : CONEY ISLAND

Cony (or “coney”) is an old English word for rabbit or rabbit fur, and Coney Island in New York takes its name from the same root. The Dutch used the name “Conyne Eylandt” (Rabbit Island) after the large population of rabbits that was hunted there.

The Brooklyn Cyclones are a minor league team affiliated with the New York Mets. In 2000, a “name-the-team” contest resulted in the adoption of “Cyclones”. The name was chosen in honor of a famous roller coaster in the Astroland amusement park on Coney Island, which is close to where the Cyclones play.

27D Tzatziki ingredient : DILL

Tzatziki (also “tarator”) is a sauce made from cucumbers mixed into yogurt with other flavorings. It is primarily associated with Greece, although variants are found in cuisines of other parts of Southeastern Europe and the Middle East.

41D Saturn satellite : TITAN

Titan is the largest moon of Saturn. It is unusual in many ways, including the fact that it is the only known satellite in the solar system that has its own atmosphere (our own moon does not, for example). It is the second largest moon in the solar system, after Ganymede that orbits Jupiter. Titan is so large that it has a greater volume than Mercury, the solar system’s smallest planet.

45D Puts in one’s two cents : OPINES

To put in one’s two cents is to add one’s opinion. The American expression derives from the older English version, which is “to put in one’s two pennies’ worth”.

47D Smith who has won the Triple Crown of Acting : MAGGIE

Dame Maggie Smith was a wonderful, wonderful actress from England. Although Smith had an extensive stage career, she is perhaps best known outside of Britain as a film and television actress. She won two Oscars, including Best Actress for playing the title character in 1969’s “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”. TV audiences today know her best as the Dowager Countess on “Downton Abbey”. I saw her recently in the movie “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, a movie that I wholeheartedly recommend …

51D Obstacle for Odysseus : SIREN

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were seductive bird-women who lured men to their deaths with their song. When Odysseus sailed close to the island home of the Sirens he wanted to hear their voices, but in safety. He had his men plug their ears with beeswax and then ordered them to tie him to the mast and not to free him until they were safe. On hearing their song Odysseus begged to be let loose, but the sailors just tightened his bonds and the whole crew sailed away unharmed. We sometimes use the term “siren” today to describe a seductively charming woman, and “siren song” to describe an utterance that is particularly appealing.

55D ___ Point, Calif. : DANA

Dana Point is a city in Southern California that was named for the nearby headland of Dana Point. The headland was in turn named for Richard Henry Dana, Jr., author of the famous memoir “Two Years Before the Mast”. In his memoir, Dana described the area around the headland as “the only romantic spot on the coast”.