1030-26 NY Times Crossword 30 Oct 26, Friday

Bill’s time: 8m 39s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A 2019 film co-starring Taylor Swift as Bombalurina : CATS

The 2019 movie “Cats” is a much-panned big screen adaptation of the 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber stage musical of the same name. Great musical, horrible film …

9A Logic components in electric circuits : GATES

Digital systems are made up from a series of logic gates, electronic circuits with one or more inputs but only one output. Logic gates are named for the relationship between the input and output, and can be AND gates, OR gates or perhaps NOT gates.

14A Travel lead-in to “méxico” : AERO-

Aeroméxico is the flag carrier airline of Mexico. The company started out in 1934 as Aeronaves de México.

25A ___ teeth (proverbial rarity) : HEN’S

Something might be described as scarcer than hens’ teeth, as hens don’t have teeth at all!

30A Like the ingredients in a French chef’s mirepoix : DICED

Mirepoix is a mixture of diced vegetables comprising two parts onion, one part carrot, and one part celery. The raw vegetables are cooked with butter over a low heat, giving a flavor base for a variety of dishes from French cuisine. The aromatic trio was named in the 18th century for Charles-Pierre-Gaston François de Lévis, the Duke of Mirepoix, a French field marshal under King Louis XV. The duke was no great shakes as a military general, and no cook, but apparently, he did have a great personal chef.

35A Tony-winning actress Stroker : ALI

Actress Ali Stroker won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress for her performance in the 2019 Broadway revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!” In doing so, Stroker became the first wheelchair-bound actor to win a Tony. She is paralyzed from the waist down due to a spinal cord injury incurred in a car accident when she was just two years old.

52A Eye part whose name shares the same etymological root as a throat part : UVEA

The uvea is the middle of the three layers that make up the eyeball. The outer layer is called the fibrous tunic, and the inner layer is the retina.

The uvula is a conical fleshy projection hanging down at the back of the soft palate that plays an important role in human speech, particularly in the making of “guttural” sounds. The Latin word for “grape” is “uva”, so “uvula” is a “little grape”.

53A Liqueur herb : ANISE

The essential oil in the anise plant is anethole. Anethole has a licorice-like flavor, and is used extensively in cooking and to flavor several distilled alcoholic drinks.

54A “Happier Than ___” (Billie Eilish hit) : EVER

Billie Eilish describes the inspiration for her 2021 studio album “Happier Than Ever” as “self-reflection” during the COVID pandemic. She also points out that despite the album’s title, “almost none of the songs on this album are joyful”. Eilish co-wrote the album with her brother, singer-songwriter Finneas O’Connell.

56A Targets of some Audubon cameras : NESTS

The National Audubon Society is an environmental organization that was formed in 1905. The society is named for John James Audubon, an ornithologist who compiled his famous book “Birds of America” between 1827 and 1838.

Down

2D Macronutrient group? : AEIOU

The word “macronutrient” includes all the vowels, just once.

While both are essential for our health, macronutrients and micronutrients differ in the quantities our bodies need. Macronutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are required in large amounts to provide energy and support growth and repair. Micronutrients, on the other hand, are needed in smaller amounts. These include vitamins and minerals, which act as catalysts for various bodily functions, supporting everything from immune health to bone strength.

3D Cover-up in an old detective film? : TRENCH COAT

The trench coat was developed primarily for the use of the military. It is a waterproof coat that extends to just below the knee, and generally has a removable lining. In the world of Hollywood we often encounter the trench coat. One is worn by Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca”, and by Peter Sellers in the “Pink Panther” movies.

6D Opposite of agitato, in music : DOLCE

The musical term “dolce” instructs the performer to play “gently and sweetly”.

7D Grasps, informally : GROKS

To grok is to understand. “Grok” is a slang term that’s really only used in “techie” circles. It is the creation of science fiction author Robert Heinlein, who coined it in his 1961 novel “Stranger in a Strange Land”.

8D Some hedge shrubs : YEWS

The family of trees and shrubs known as yews propagate by producing a seed surrounded by a soft, sweet and brightly colored aril. Birds eat the fruit and then disperse the seed in their droppings. The birds leave the seed undamaged, and so are unharmed by the potent poisons taxane and taxol that are found within the seed. The seeds are highly toxic to humans.

9D They’re at least 170 times hotter than Tabasco sauce : GHOST PEPPERS

The ghost pepper is also known as the “bhüt jolokia” or Bhutanese pepper. The term “bhüt” somehow morphed into the similar-sounding “ghost”, hence the English name. Guinness World Records declared the ghost pepper the world’s hottest chili pepper in 2007, although the Carolina reaper was given that honor in 2017.

The tabasco pepper is a relatively unusual chili pepper in that it is not dry on the inside, and so is a “juicy” pepper. The plant is quite colorful when it bears fruit, as the peppers start out green, turn orange and are then bright red when ripe. The tabasco pepper is named for the Mexican state of Tabasco, and is best known for its use in the Tabasco brand of pepper sauce made by McIlhenny.

11D Alvin and the Chipmunks, e.g. : TRIO

Alvin and the Chipmunks is a cartoon musical group that was created for the recording of a novelty song in 1958 called “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)”. The three Chipmunks (Alvin, Simon and Theodore) were all voiced by singer Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. but with a speedy playback to create high-pitched voices.

12D The Kynge’s College of Our Ladye of ___ besyde Windesore : ETON

Eton College near Windsor in the south of England was founded way back in 1440 by King Henry VI. Originally known as “The King’s College of Our Lady of Eton beside Wyndsor”, the school was intended to provide free education to poor boys. Free education today at Eton? Not so much …

13D Grp. of nine, divided in three? : SSN

A Social Security Number (SSN) is divided into three parts, i.e AAA-GG-SSSS. Originally, the Area Number (AAA) was the code for the office that issued the card. Starting in 1973, the Area Number reflected the ZIP code from which the application was made. The GG in the SSN was the Group Number, and the SSSS number the Serial Number. This is all moot today. Since 2011, SSNs have been assigned randomly. Some random numbers, however, have been excluded from use, i.e. Area Numbers 000, 666 (!) and 900-999.

19D Juliet, Ophelia and Desdemona, to an astronomer : MOONS

All twenty-eight of the known moons of the planet Uranus are named for characters from literature, each being a character created by William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope.. The five major moons are so large that they would be considered planets in their own right if they were orbiting the sun directly. The names of these five moons are:

• Miranda (from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”)
• Ariel (from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock”)
• Umbriel (from Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock”)
• Titania (from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”)
• Oberon (from Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”)

26D Goddess referenced in “Aida” : ISIS

Isis was the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, as well as the protector of the dead and the goddess of children. She was the personification of the pharaoh’s power. The name “Isis” translates as “throne”, and she is usually depicted with a headdress shaped like a throne.

“Aida” is a celebrated opera by Giuseppe Verdi that is based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. Mariette also designed the costumes and stages for the opening performance. The opera was first staged in 1871 in an opera house in Cairo. In the storyline, Aida is an Ethiopian princess brought into Egypt as a slave. Radamès is an Egyptian commander who falls in love with her, and then complications arise!

27D Cordless heaters that you might order cords for? : WOODSTOVES

A cord of firewood has a volume of 128 cubic feet. More commonly it’s a neat stack measuring 4 feet high, 8 feet long and 4 feet deep.

28D Third-largest of Italy’s islands, after Sicily and Sardinia : ELBA

I had a lovely two-week vacation in Tuscany once, including what was supposed to be a two-night stay on the island of Elba. I had envisioned Elba as a place full of history, and maybe it is, but it is also overrun with tourists who use it as a beach getaway. We left after one day and we won’t be going back again …

In the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, the “boot” is the mainland of Italy, and the “ball” being kicked by the boot is the island of Sicily.

Sardinia is an autonomous region of Italy, and an island in the Mediterranean off the west coast of the country. It lies to the south of the French island of Corsica. Sardinia is the second largest island in the whole of the Mediterranean Sea (Sicily is the largest).

41D Pentagon ___ (subject of a 1971 Supreme Court ruling) : PAPERS

Daniel Ellsberg is a former military analyst, who famously became very disillusioned with the Vietnam War. While still working as an analyst, he made copies of classified documents related to the Johnson administration’s conduct of the war. The documents, known as the Pentagon Papers, demonstrated that the administration knew early on that the Vietnam War was essentially “unwinnable” and that continued fighting would lead to higher numbers of casualties than were being projected in the public arena. Ellsberg ended up in court charged with espionage, but all charges were dropped when it was revealed that the Nixon administration had used illegal methods to bolster its case against the defendant.

43D Hindu god with three eyes : SHIVA

Shiva (also “Siva”) is one of the major deities of the Hindu tradition, and is known as the destroyer of evil and the transformer. Shiva is also part of the Hindu trinity known as the Trimurti, along with Brahma and Vishnu.

48D Eponym of the company that marketed the first escalator : OTIS

Otis is a manufacturer of elevators, escalators and moving walkways. By some accounts, Otis is the world’s most popular transportation company, with the equivalent of the whole world’s population traveling on Otis devices every few days.

Escalators have an advantage over elevators in that they can move larger numbers of people in the same time frame. They can also be placed in just about the same physical space that would be needed for a regular staircase. Patents for escalator-type devices were first filed in 1859, but the first working model wasn’t built until 1896 by one Jesse Reno. It was erected alongside a pier in Coney Island, New York, with the second escalator being placed at an entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. Soon after, the Otis elevator company purchased the necessary patents and went into the business.

51D World’s largest ethnic group : HAN

The Han Chinese are the largest ethnic group in the world, making up about 18% of the global population and over 90% of China’s population.

52D Land that goes from coast to coast, in brief : USA

The first known use of the phrase “United States of America” is in a letter dated January 2nd, 1776 from Irish-American Stephen Moylan, who was serving as acting secretary to General George Washington. Writing to Washington’s aide-de-camp Colonel Joseph Reed, Moylan stated:

I should like vastly to go with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain [to seek foreign assistance for the cause].