1012-26 NY Times Crossword 12 Oct 26, Monday

Bill’s time: 5m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5A Singer/actress Bareilles : SARA

Sara Bareilles achieved success with her 2007 “Love Song” with the help of the iTunes online store. In one week in June of that year, iTunes offered the song as “free single of the week” and it quickly became the most downloaded song in the store. It was her debut single, and earned a couple of Grammy nominations.

16A Electric vehicle from Japan : NISSAN LEAF

The Leaf is an electric car made by Nissan that was introduced in 2010. The model name is an acronym standing for “Leading, Environmentally friendly, Affordable, Family car”.

18A God with a bow and arrow : EROS

Eros was the Greek god of love, desire and attraction, and usually depicted as a winged youth wielding a bow and arrows. The arrows had the power to ignite feelings of love or passionate longing in whomever they struck. Eros (Cupid or Amor in Roman mythology) was the son of Aphrodite (Venus) and Ares (Mars).

24A Total mess : MARE’S NEST

The term “mare’s nest” has two meanings these days. More commonly it refers to a confused mess, although this usage is really an error, confusion with the idiom “rat’s nest”, which has that meaning. The correct usage of “mare’s nest”, dating back to the 16th century, is to describe a hoax, a promising discovery that turns out to be next to nothing.

28A Birthstones for some Libras : OPALS

Here is the “official” list of birthstones, by month, that we tend to use today:

• January: Garnet
• February: Amethyst
• March: Bloodstone or Aquamarine
• April: Diamond
• May: Emerald
• June: Pearl or Moonstone
• July: Ruby
• August: Sardonyx or Peridot
• September: Sapphire or Lapis Lazuli
• October: Opal or Pink Tourmaline
• November: Topaz or Citrine
• December: Turquoise or Zircon (also now, Tanzanite)

31A Movie princess with “space buns” : LEIA

Princess Leia is Luke Skywalker’s twin sister in the original “Star Wars” trilogy and was played by Carrie Fisher. Carrie Fisher has stated that she hated the famous “cinnamon bun hairstyle” that she had to wear in the films, as she felt it made her face look too round. She also had to sit for two hours every day just to get her hair styled. Two hours to get your hair done? It takes me just two seconds …

33A Rapper ___ Kim : LIL

“Lil’ Kim” is the stage name of rap artist Kimberly Denise Jones from Brooklyn, New York. She spent 10 months in jail in 2005 for lying to a jury in a case about a shooting.

34A Mercury, Venus or Mars : DEITY

Mercury was a Roman god called “the messenger”, and the god of trade. Mercury’s name comes from the Latin word “merx” meaning merchandise (and therefore has the same roots as “merchant” and “commerce”).

Venus was the Roman goddess of love and, according to Roman myth, was the mother of the Roman people. Her Greek counterpart was Aphrodite.

Mars was the god of war in ancient Rome. He was also viewed as the father of the Roman people and the father of Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers who founded Rome according to Roman mythology.

38A Striped kitty : TABBY

Tabbies aren’t a breed of cat, but rather are cats with particular markings regardless of breed. They have coats with stripes, dots and swirling patterns, and usually an “M” mark on the forehead.

40A Main element in pewter : TIN

Pewter is a relatively soft alloy that is made up mostly of tin, with some copper, antimony, bismuth and lead.

45A Olympic sword with a guarded tip : EPEE

The sword known as an épée has a three-sided blade. It is similar to a foil and saber, although the foil and saber have rectangular cross-sections.

49A Celtics legend nicknamed “The Hick from French Lick” : LARRY BIRD

Larry Bird played basketball for the Boston Celtics from 1978 to 1992. Bird has a lot of very loyal fans, and some might even be described as fanatical. In 2005 an Oklahoma City man was convicted of a crime involving a shooting. On being sentenced to 30 years imprisonment, the guilty man requested that the sentence be changed to 33 years so that it matched the number on Larry Bird’s jersey. The judge obliged. Or so the story goes …

53A Singer Grande, informally : 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”.

54A Part of the Holy Trinity : SON

In the Christian tradition, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit/Ghost are three persons in one divine being, the Holy Trinity.

55A Tony winner Menzel : IDINA

Actress and singer Idina Menzel came to public attention when she was a member of the original Broadway cast of “Rent”. She is known on the small screen for playing Shelby Corcoran on the musical TV show “Glee”. On the big screen, her most noted performance was as the voice actor behind Queen Elsa in the Disney hit “Frozen”. It is Menzel who sings the Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” in “Frozen”.

56A ___-Cola : COCA

The exact formula for Coca-Cola is a trade secret. The secret recipe is locked in a vault. That vault is on public display in the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, Georgia.

63A Lollipop holder : STICK

A lollipop is a piece of candy on a stick. The name “lollipop” surfaced in 1908, and was taken from a prominent race horse of the day named Lolly Pop.

65A “Late Night” host Meyers : SETH

Seth Meyers is an actor and comedian who is perhaps best-known today for hosting his own late night talk show on NBC. Meyers might be described as a poker shark. He won the third season of Celebrity Poker Showdown in 2004.

67A Little kid : TYKE

“Tyke” has been used playfully to describe a young child since at least 1902. For centuries before that, a tyke was a cur or mongrel, or perhaps a lazy or lower-class man.

Down

1D “Tom Lake” 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.

3D Raw fish dish at a Japanese restaurant : SASHIMI

Sashimi is thinly sliced raw fish, although it can also be raw meat. The word “sashimi” translates literally as “pierced body”, which may be a reference to the practice of sticking the tail and fin to sliced fish to identify it.

4D “Citizen Kane” director Welles : ORSON

Orson Welles is perhaps best-remembered in the world of film for his role in 1941’s “Citizen Kane”. In the world of radio, Welles is known for directing and narrating 1938’s famous broadcast of “The War of the Worlds”, a broadcast that convinced many listeners that the Earth was indeed being invaded by aliens.

1941’s “Citizen Kane” was the first film made by Orson Welles, and is considered by many to be the finest movie ever made. It’s a remarkable achievement by Welles, as he played the lead and also produced and directed. Despite all the accolades for “Citizen Kane” over the decades, the movie was far from a commercial success in its early run and actually lost money at the box office.

8D “Clemency” actress Woodard : ALFRE

Alfre Woodard is an actress from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in the 1983 film “Cross Creek”. Off the stage and screen, Woodard is very active in the Democratic Party.

11D Russian revolutionary Leon : TROTSKY

Leon Trotsky was a Soviet politician and revolutionary, the founder and first leader of the Red Army as well as one of the first members of the Politburo. Trotsky was ousted and deported in 1929 when he opposed the policies of Joseph Stalin. Trotsky continued to be vocal in opposition to Stalin in Mexico, his place of exile. Stalin had him assassinated there in 1940.

14D Explosive block in Minecraft : TNT

Minecraft is a video game that was released in 2011. Apparently, it is the most popular video game of all time, with well over 200 million units sold.

17D Mythical Greek ship : ARGO

In Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts set sail on the Argo from the city of Iolcos in search of the Golden Fleece. Jason’s vessel was called the “Argo” in honor of a man named Argus, who designed and constructed it with the help of the goddess Athena.

21D Tree with “quaking” leaves : ASPEN

The “quaking” aspen tree is so called because the structure of the leaves causes them to move easily in the wind, to “tremble, quake”.

23D Baseball great Ripken : CAL

Cal Ripken played his entire, 20-year professional baseball career for the Baltimore Orioles. Ripken was known as the “Iron Man” because he showed up for work every day, come rain or shine. He played 2,632 straight games, blowing past the previous 2,130-game record held by Lou Gehrig.

24D ___ Marian, Robin Hood’s beloved : MAID

Robin Hood is a figure from English folklore who is celebrated in story and song. Some stories suggest that Robin Hood the outlaw was actually a real nobleman, the Earl of Huntingdon. Robin Hood’s famous companion was Maid Marian. Interestingly, the legend of Maid Marian (full name Lady Marian of Leaford) had been around for centuries, before she became associated with Robin Hood starting in the 1700s.

32D “Jurassic Park” insect casing : AMBER

Amber’s technical name is “resinite”, reflecting its composition and formation. Amber starts out life as soft sticky tree resin but then under high temperature and pressure from overlying layers of soil, it fossilizes. The sticky resin can trap organisms or other plant matter, and this material can sometimes remain virtually intact inside the amber fossil giving us a unique gift from the past.

“Jurassic Park” is a 1990 novel by Michael Crichton that was adapted into a hugely successful movie by Steven Spielberg in 1993. One of the main premises of the novel is that dinosaur DNA could be harvested from mosquitoes trapped in amber (fossilized tree resin), the DNA coming from the dinosaur blood consumed by the mosquitoes. The dinosaur DNA is then sequenced and used to create clones of the original beasts. Apparently, that’s a clever idea, but not very practical …

38D Hybrid flower named after a drink : TEA ROSE

The first tea roses were so called because they had a fragrance reminiscent of Chinese black tea.

39D Kind of jam in a Sacher torte : APRICOT

Sachertorte is a chocolate cake from Austria. It was specifically created in 1832 when Prince Metternich commanded his personal chef to prepare a dessert for some special guests. But his head chef became ill so the task fell to 16-year-old Franz Sacher, an apprentice in the kitchen. That teenager’s dessert is now one of Austria’s most famous dishes.

43D Went hog wild : RAN AMOK

The phrase “to run amok” (sometimes “to run amuck”) has been around since the 1670s and is derived from the Malay word for “attacking furiously”, “amuk”. The word “amok” was also used as a noun to describe Malay natives who were “frenzied”. Given Malaya’s troubled history, the natives probably had a good reason for that frenzy …

52D Amelia Earhart, for one : PILOT

Amelia Earhart is as famous today as she was during her lifetime. When she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross by Congress, and the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French government. She made two attempts to circumnavigate the globe by air (not solo). Her first attempt in March 1937 had to be abandoned when her aircraft was damaged during takeoff. The second attempt in June/July of the same year ended when Earhart and her navigator disappeared flying from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island in the Central Pacific.

55D Squid’s defensive output : INK

Octopodes and squid have the ability to release a dark pigment into the water as a means of escape. The dark pigment is called cephalopod ink (the squid and octopus belong to the class cephalopoda). It is produced in the ink gland and is stored in the ink sac. The dark color is created by melanin, the same substance that acts as a pigment in human skin.

60D Anxious condition, in brief : OCD

Apparently, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed mental disorder, making it about as prevalent as asthma.