0828-26 NY Times Crossword 28 Aug 26, Friday

Bill’s time: 14m 14s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8A Mythical figure in “Doctor Faustus” : HELEN

“Doctor Faustus” is a novel by Thomas Mann first published in 1947. It is a retelling of the legend of Faust, but set in Germany in the first half of the 20th century.

15A Like a parkour practitioner : AGILE

Parkour (also “freerunning”) is a physical discipline that involves moving from one point to another in an urban environment using only the human body. Parkour practitioners (“traceurs”) use a variety of techniques, including running, jumping, climbing, and vaulting, to move quickly and efficiently through their environment. The discipline originated in France, and the name “parkour” comes from the French “parcours du combattant”, which can be translated as “obstacle course”.

19A Christian ___ : ERA

The designations Anno Domini (AD, “Year of Our Lord”) and Before Christ (BC) are found in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The dividing point between AD and BC is the year of the birth of Jesus, with AD 1 following 1 BC without a year “0” in between. The AD/BC scheme dates back to AD 525, and gained wide acceptance soon after AD 800. Nowadays a modified version has become popular, with CE (Common/Christian Era) used to replace AD, and BCE (Before the Common/Christian Era) used to replace BC.

20A Beamed over : TELEPORTED

Teleportation is a favorite of authors of science fiction. The hypothetical process results in the transfer of matter from one point to another, without actually crossing the intervening space. Beam me up, Scotty!

25A Milieu for bathyspheres, with “the” : … DEEPS

A bathysphere is a submersible used in exploring the deep sea. The bathysphere is spherical in shape, so as to better resist the high pressure of deep waters. The term “bathysphere” comes from the Greek “bathus” and “sphaira” meaning “deep” and “sphere”. The vessel is simply lowered into the water on a strong cable.

26A “Ignorance is bliss,” e.g. : OLD SAW

A saw is an old saying, one that is often repeated and is very familiar. The term “old saw” is actually a tautology, as by definition a “saw” is old.

29A Compañeras : AMIGAS

In Spanish, one might have an “amiga y compañera” (female friend and companion).

31A Rabbit’s title : BR’ER

Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox are characters in the Uncle Remus stories, written by Joel Chandler Harris. The “Uncle Remus” stories are adaptations of African American folktales that Harris collected across the Southern States. “Br’er” is an abbreviated form of “brother”.

36A Asteroids system : ATARI

I remember being quite addicted to the Atari video arcade game called Asteroids back in the early eighties. Apparently I wasn’t the only one, as Asteroids was Atari’s best-selling arcade game of all time.

39A ___ 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.

41A Yellow-and-black ideogram : SMILEY

The Smiley Company is a brand licensing enterprise that was founded in France, and is now based in London. The company was founded largely to manage licensing of the smiley ideogram that was trademarked by French journalist Franklin Loufrani in 1971. That “smiley face” has been licensed to countless companies around the world. Famously, Walmart opposed the registration of the Smiley Company’s design in the US, claiming that it might be confused with a design already used by Walmart. Walmart and the Smiley Company settled out of court in 2011.

An ideograph or ideogram is a pictorial symbol used to represent a concept. A good example would be an emoticon, like a smiley face 🙂

42A World’s second-most-populous island : HONSHU

Honshu is the largest island in Japan, and the seventh largest island in the world. The name “Honshu” translates as “Main Island”.

52A Customizable avatar for Nintendo games : MII

Nintendo introduced customizable avatars for the company’s video game consoles starting in 1997. The first customizable avatars for the Wii system were introduced in 2006, and were given the inventive name “Miis”.

53A Natural exfoliant : LOOFA

The loofah (also “loofa”, “lufah” and “luffa”, all Arabic words) is a vine, with fruit that’s very popular in Asia and Africa. If the fruit is allowed to mature, it can be processed to remove everything but the more rigid xylem structure (remember your high school botany class?) leaving a soft, sponge-like mass that is used as a skin polisher.

In the world of botany, to exfoliate means to lose leaves. The term “exfoliate” comes from the Latin “ex” (off) and “folium” (leaf). In the world of cosmetology, to exfoliate is to remove dead cells from the surface of the skin.

54A Houdini specialty : ESCAPE ACT

“Harry Houdini” was the stage name of Hungarian-born escapologist and magician Erik Weisz (later Americanized to “Ehrich Weiss”). Many people are under the impression that Houdini died while performing an escape that went wrong, an impression created by the storyline in a couple of movies about his life. The truth is that he died of peritonitis from a burst appendix. It is also true that a few days prior to his death Houdini took a series of punches to his stomach as part of his act, but doctors believe that his appendix would have burst regardless.

57A Flower in a Whitman poem written as an elegy for Lincoln : LILAC

Walt Whitman wrote his famous poem “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” as an elegy following the violent death of President Lincoln.

58A Kim Cattrall’s role on “Sex and the City” : SAMANTHA

Kim Cattrall is a Canadian English actress best known for playing Samantha Jones on HBO’s “Sex and the City”. My favorite film in which Cattrall features is the excellent 2010 film “The Ghost Writer”, in which she does a great job playing an Englishwoman.

The HBO show “Sex and the City” is based on a book of the same name by Candace Bushnell. Bushnell created the book by compiling columns that she wrote for the “New York Observer”. The lead character Carrie Bradshaw is really Bushnell’s alter ego (note that the initials CB apply both to author and character).

Down

1D Certain elastic band : SINEW

“Sinew” is another name for “tendon”. Tendons are bands of collagen that connect muscle to bone. Tendons are similar to ligaments and fasciae, which are also connective tissue made out of collagen, but ligaments join bone to bone, and fasciae connect muscle to muscle. We also use the term “sinew” to mean “muscular power”.

4D Org. that might do some spring cleaning? : EPA

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

5D Actress Ming-Na of “Mulan” : WEN

Ming-Na Wen is an actress who is perhaps best known for voicing the title character in the animated film “Mulan” and its sequel, and for playing Fennec Shand in the “Star Wars” franchise. Wen is trilingual, being fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.

“Mulan” is a 1998 animated feature film made by Walt Disney studios. The film is based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan, a woman who takes the place of her father in the army and serves with distinction for twelve years without reward. Disney’s lead character was given the name Fa Mulan. Donny Osmond provided the singing voice for one of the lead characters, after which his sons remarked that he had finally made it in show business as he was in a Disney film.

8D Frequent collaborator with Bill Murray : HAROLD RAMIS

Harold Ramis was a real all-rounder; a very successful actor, director and writer. Indeed, in both “Ghostbusters” and “Stripes” he was a co-writer as well as playing a lead character. Ramis worked as writer-director on “Caddyshack”, “National Lampoon’s Vacation”, “Groundhog Day” and “Analyze This”.

Actor and comedian Bill Murray got his big break on “Saturday Night Live” when he replaced the departing Chevy Chase in the show’s second season. Murray then launched a hugely successful film career, starring in a host of hit movies such as “Caddyshack”, “Stripes”, “Tootsie”, “Ghostbusters”, “What About Bob?” and “Groundhog Day”. His film career took off again with a lead role in 2003’s “Lost in Translation”. A favorite Bill Murray movie of mine is 2012’s “Hyde Park on the Hudson”, in which Murray plays President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

9D Members of a Gen Z subculture with online origins : E-GIRLS

E-girls and e-boys (maybe “e-kids”) may spend a lot of time on social media, especially TikTok, hence the use of the prefix “e-”.

12D Sine qua non : NEED

“Sine qua non” is a Latin phrase that we use to mean “the essential element or condition”. The literal translation is “without which not”. One might say, for example, “a challenging crossword is the sine qua non of a good newspaper”. Well, crossword fans might say that …

29D Residency org. : AMA

American Medical Association (AMA)

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”.

30D Brewing stuff : MASH

In brewing and distilling, the mash is the mixture of grain and water that is heated so that enzymes break down starch into sugars. The sugary liquor extracted from the mash is called the wort. Yeast is added to the wort, resulting in the sugars being converted to alcohol.

40D Lightning conductor? : THOR

In Norse mythology, Thor was the son of Odin. Thor wielded a mighty hammer and was the god of thunder, lightning and storms. Our contemporary word “Thursday” comes from “Thor’s Day”.

41D Rock subgenre portmanteau : SCREAMO

The musical genre known as screamo (also “skramz”) has been described as an aggressive subgenre of emo. Yikes …

43D Jazz aficionado, e.g. : NBA FAN

The Utah Jazz professional basketball team moved to Salt Lake City in 1979. As one might guess from the name, the team originated in New Orleans, but only played there for five seasons. New Orleans was a tough place to be based because venues were hard to come by, and Mardi Gras forced the team to play on the road for a whole month.

An aficionado is an enthusiast. Imported from Spanish, “aficionado” was originally used in English to describe a devotee of bullfighting.

44D Spirit seen on el Día de los Muertos : MEZCAL

Mezcal (also “mescal”) is a distilled spirit made from the agave plant. Technically, tequila is a type of mezcal that is distilled specifically from the blue agave.

The “Día de Muertos” (also “Dia de los Muertos”, both meaning “Day of the Dead”) is a holiday that originated in Mexico, and is now celebrated around the world. It is traditionally celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, and involves family and friends gathering to remember those who have died. Despite the somber nature, the Day of the Dead usually has a joyful tone, as family remembers the happier events and anecdotes associated with the departed.

46D The 12th crew member in “Ocean’s Twelve” : TESS

“Ocean’s 11” is a great film from 1960, starring Frank Sinatra as Danny Ocean. The original storyline is updated for the excellent 2001 remake, with George Clooney playing the lead. In the 1960 movie, the love interest is a character called Beatrice Ocean, played by Angie Dickinson. In the 2001 version, the love interest gets a new name, Tess Ocean, and is played by Julia Roberts. The 2001 remake (titled “Ocean’s Eleven”, note the spelling) spawned two sequels: “Ocean’s Twelve” in 2004 and “Ocean’s Thirteen” in 2007.

48D Electric instrument played on Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” : SITAR

The great musician Stevie Wonder signed on with Motown Records when he was just 11-years-old. He was remarkably loyal to the label, recording with Motown for six decades (before launching his own So What The Fuss Records label). The level of Stevie Wonder’s success is illustrated by his collection of Grammy Awards, the most Grammys awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder was born 6 weeks prematurely, and incomplete development of blood vessels in his eyes caused the retinas to detach leaving him blind soon after birth. His mother, Lula Mae Hardaway, co-wrote many of Stevie’s songs when he was a teenager, including “I Was Made to Love Her”, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” and “I Don’t Know Why I Love You”.

51D Star turns at a concert : SOLI

“Soli” (the plural of “solo”) are pieces of music performed by one artist, whereas “tutti” are pieces performed by all of the artists.