0504-23 NY Times Crossword 4 May 23, Thursday

Constructed by: David J. Kahn
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer(s): Capital Gains

Themed answers have all GAINED a CAPITAL city as a hidden word:

  • 38A With 31-Down, proceeds from the sale of an asset … or a hint to understanding six answers in this puzzle : CAPITAL …
  • 31D See 38-Across : … GAINS
  • 18A What “x” might mean : TIMBERLINES – BERLIN = TIMES
  • 59A Sweetheart : BAKING STONE – KINGSTON = BAE
  • 1D Criminal patterns, in brief : MOSQUITO – QUITO = MOS
  • 3D Writer Morrison : RIGATONI – RIGA = TONI
  • 39D Fellows : PARISHES – PARIS = HES
  • 41D Some corp. takeovers : LOS LOBOS – OSLO = LBOS

Bill’s time: 11m 12s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4 1983 hit that won a Grammy for Record of the Year : BEAT IT

“Beat It” is a 1982 song by Michael Jackson that appeared on the “Thriller” studio album. Famously, the 4-minute song includes a 30-second guitar solo that Eddie Van Halen recorded as a favor to Jackson.

14 Bit of samurai attire : OBI

The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. The obi can be tied at the back in what is called a butterfly knot. The term “obi” is also used for the thick cotton belts that are an essential part of the outfits worn by practitioners of many martial arts. The color of the martial arts obi signifies the wearer’s skill level.

Samurai were noble military officers in medieval and early-modern Japan who served particular clans and lords. Originally known as “bushi” in Japanese, the term “samurai” was introduced in the early part of the 18th century.

18 What “x” might mean : TIMBERLINES – BERLIN = TIMES

Berlin is the capital of Germany. It is the nation’s largest city, and is the second-most populous city in the European Union (after London).

23 Oda ___ Brown, Whoopi Goldberg’s character in “Ghost” : MAE

Oda Mae Brown is the psychic medium in the movie “Ghost”, and is played by Whoopi Goldberg.

The fabulous film “Ghost” was the highest-grossing movie at the box office in 1990, bringing in over $500 million, despite only costing $21 million to make. Stars of the film are Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg. You might get a chance to check out the stage musical adaptation “Ghost (The Musical)”, which debuted in 2011 and toured the UK and US.

37 Demon in Japanese folklore : ONI

Oni are demons and ghosts in Japanese folklore. Children in Japan might play “oni gokko”, which is the same as the game of “tag” played in the Western world. The person who is “it” is referred to as the “oni”.

39 Compadre : PAL

“Compadre” is Spanish for “friend, buddy”.

42 “Hollywood” vis-à-vis the film industry, e.g. : METONYM

A metonym is a word that is used for something that is closely associated with that word. For example, “Broadway” is a metonym for “American theater” and “Washington” is a metonym for “the US government”.

We can use the French phrase “vis-à-vis” as a preposition meaning “compared with”. When used as an adverb or adjective, it means “face-to-face”, which is a more literal translation from French.

43 ___ Alto : PALO

The city of Palo Alto, California takes its name from a specific redwood tree called El Palo Alto (Spanish for “the tall stick”) that is located within the bounds of the city. The tree is 110 feet tall and over a thousand years old.

47 Holy ___ : SEE

In the Roman Catholic Church, an episcopal see is the official seat of a bishop, and is usually described by the town or city where the bishop presides and has his cathedral. The most famous see in the church is called the Holy See, the episcopal see of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.

54 With 22-Across, former senator whose name can be spelled using only the letters in NEBRASKA (his home state) : BEN …
22A See 54-Across : … SASSE

Ben Sasse was elected as a US Senator for Nebraska in 2014. Prior to serving in Congress, Sasse was President of Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska.

55 Horace was one, notably : ODIST

One of ancient Rome’s leading lyric poets was Quintus Horatius Flaccus or “Horace”, as we tend to know him. Horace’s most famous work is probably his collection of Latin lyric poems titled “Carmina” (the Latin for “Odes”).

58 Mag that began endorsing political candidates in 2014 : COSMO

“Cosmopolitan” magazine was first published way back in 1886! It started out life as a family magazine, then as a literary publication. “Cosmo” took its present form as a women’s magazine in the 1960s.

59 Sweetheart : BAKING STONE – KINGSTON = BAE

Kingston is the capital of Jamaica. Prior to an earthquake in 1692, Port Royal was the main settlement on the island. Survivors of the earthquake set up camp in the agricultural village of Kingston. Despite the hardship of thousands dying in the camp from mosquito-borne diseases, the camp developed into a permanent settlement, especially after a 1703 fire that further destroyed Port Royal.

62 Lead-in to goblin : HOB-

A hobgoblin is a mischievous spirit of folk lore. Perhaps the most famous character labeled as a hobgoblin is Puck in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

65 Brian of ambient music : ENO

Brian Eno was one of the pioneers of the genre of ambient music. Eno composed an album in 1978 called “Ambient 1: Music for Airports”, which was the first in a series of four albums with an ambient theme. Eno named the tracks, somewhat inventively, 1/1, 1/2, 2/1 and 2/2.

66 Dungeonlike : DANK

“Dank” is a lovely word that has largely been superseded by “damp”, another nice word. It is thought that “dank” came into English from Scandinavia some time before the 14th century. The modern Swedish word “dank” means “moist place”.

67 Metal workers? : ROBOTS

Karel Čapek was a Czech writer noted for his works of science fiction. Čapek’s 1921 play “R.U.R.” is remembered in part for introducing the world to the word “robot”. The words “automaton” and “android” were already in use, but Capek gave us “robot” from the original Czech “robota” meaning “forced labor”. The acronym “R.U.R.”, in the context of the play, stands for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”.

68 GPS display: Abbr. : STS

A global positioning system (GPS) might point streets (sts.).

Down

1 Criminal patterns, in brief : MOSQUITO – QUITO = MOS

“Modus operandi” (plural “modi operandi”) is the Latin for “mode of operating”, a term we’ve been using since the mid-1600s. It’s often used by the police when referring to the methods typically employed by a particular perpetrator of a crime, and is usually abbreviated to “M.O.”

“Mosquito” is Spanish for “little fly”. The female mosquito actually has to have a “blood meal” before she is able to lay her eggs. Mosquitoes are sometimes referred to as “skeeters”.

The full name of the capital city of Ecuador is San Francisco de Quito. Quito is the second highest administrative capital city in the world, after La Paz, Bolivia.

3 Writer Morrison : RIGATONI – RIGA = TONI

Writer Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Amongst other things, Morrison is noted for coining the phrase “our first black President”, a reference to President Bill Clinton.

Rigatoni is a tubular pasta that is relatively short, and with ridges along its length. The name “rigatoni” comes from the Italian “rigato” meaning “ridged, lined”.

Riga is the capital city of Latvia. The historical center of Riga is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, declared as such because of the city’s magnificent examples of Art Nouveau architecture. In fact, Riga has the largest collection of Art Nouveau buildings in the world, with over 750 buildings in the city center designed in the style.

7 Helicon, e.g., musically speaking : TUBA

The tuba is the lowest-pitched of all brass instruments, and one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra (usually there is just one tuba included in an orchestral line-up). “Tuba” is the Latin word for “trumpet, horn”. Oom-pah-pah …

8 Oft-abbreviated Latin phrase : ID EST

“Id est” is Latin for “that is”, and is often abbreviated to “i.e.” when used in English.

10 Colombo’s country, in Olympics shorthand : SRI
38D Former name of Colombo’s country : CEYLON

The island nation of Sri Lanka lies off the southeast coast of India. The name “Sri Lanka” translates from Sanskrit into English as “venerable island”. Before 1970, Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon, a name given to the country during British rule.

Colombo is the largest city in Sri Lanka. It is also the commercial capital of the island nation, whereas the administrative capital is Kotte (or more formally “Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte). Kotte is in fact a suburb of Colombo.

12 What the Rays and Jays are in, for short : AL EAST

The Tampa Bay Rays MLB team is a relatively young franchise, having been formed in 1998. The initial name of the franchise was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. While known as the Devil Rays, the team finished last in the league almost every year. The name was changed to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008, and I am told the Rays started into a streak of winning seasons soon after.

The Toronto Blue Jays baseball franchise was founded in 1977. The Blue Jays are the only team based outside the US to have won a World Series, doing so in 1992 and 1993. And since the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, the Blue Jays are the only Major League Baseball team now headquartered outside of the US.

19 Kind of soup : LENTIL

The Latin name for the lentil plant is “lens”. Because the first lenses were double-convex shaped like a lentil, the glass structures were given the name “lens”.

21 Material that’s bad for the mouth? : SILT

Today, we mostly think of silt as a deposit of sediment in a river. Back in the mid-1400s, silt was sediment deposited by seawater. It is thought that the word “silt” is related to “salt”, as found in seawater.

25 Drops in the gym? : SWEAT

Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed in ancient Greece.

27 Bench press target : PEC

“Pecs” is the familiar name for the chest muscle, which is more correctly known as the pectoralis major muscle. “Pectus” is the Latin word for “breast, chest”.

30 Pedigree competitor : ALPO

Alpo is a brand of dog food introduced by Allen Products in 1936, with “Alpo” being an abbreviation for “Allen Products”. Lorne Greene used to push Alpo dog food in television spots, as did Ed McMahon and Garfield the Cat, would you believe?

35 Ailment treated with a warming compress : STYE

A stye is a bacterial infection of the sebaceous glands at the base of the eyelashes, and is also known as a hordeolum.

39 Fellows : PARISHES – PARIS = HES

The French capital of Paris is named for the Parisii, a Celtic Iron-Age people that lived in the area on the banks of the River Seine.

40 California concert site featured in the documentary “Gimme Shelter” : ALTAMONT

Altamont Raceway Park was a motorsports speedway in Northern California that operated from 1966 to 2008. It was the site of an infamous rock concert in 1969 in which a revolver-brandishing concert-goer was stabbed to death by Hells Angels member hired to provide security for the stage. The stabbing was captured on film, and took place right in front of the stage while the Rolling Stones were performing. The incident features in the 1970 documentary “Gimme Shelter” that chronicles the Rolling Stones 1969 US tour.

41 Some corp. takeovers : LOS LOBOS – OSLO = LBOS

A leveraged buyout (LBO) is a transaction in which an investor acquires a controlling volume of stock in a company, but buys that stock with borrowed funds (hence “leveraged”). Often the assets of the acquired company are used as collateral for the borrowed money. There is a special form of LBO known as a management buyout (MBO) in which the company’s own management team purchases the controlling interest.

Los Lobos are an American Chicano rock band who released their first LP in 1978 and are still going strong today. The band’s name “Los Lobos” translates from Spanish as “The Wolves”.

Oslo is the capital of Norway. The city burns trash to fuel half of its buildings, including all of its schools. The problem faced by the city is that it doesn’t generate enough trash. So, Oslo imports trash from Sweden, England and Ireland, and is now looking to import some American trash too.

42 Hospital diagnostic, for short : MRI

MRI scans can be daunting for many people as they usually involve the patient lying inside a tube with the imaging magnet surrounding the body. Additionally, the scan can take up to 40 minutes in some cases. There are some open MRI scanners available that help prevent a feeling of claustrophobia. However, the images produced by open scanners are of lower quality as they operate at lower magnetic fields.

43 Fashion designer Rabanne : PACO

Paco Rabanne is a Spanish fashion designer who was at the height of his success and influence in the 1960s. He was a pioneer in the genre known as Metal Couture. Indeed, it was Rabanne who was responsible for the elaborate metallic fashions used in the 1968 sci-fi movie “Barbarella” starring Jane Fonda.

44 Like an otter’s feet : WEBBED

Male and female otters are known as dogs and bitches, with the offspring called pups. Males and females are sometimes referred to as boars and sows. A collection of otters is a bevy, family, lodge or perhaps a romp. When in water, a collection of otters can be called a raft.

45 Mark in the World Golf Hall of Fame : O’MEARA

Mark O’Meara is a golfer from Goldsboro, North Carolina. He is known as one of the American players who competes in international tournaments more than most, and has a reputation as a real gentleman all around the world.

46 Jeannette who was the first woman elected to Congress (1916) : RANKIN

Jeannette Rankin was a Montana politician and activist who was elected to the House of Representatives in 1916, making her the first woman to hold a US federal office. Ranking, a Republican, was a lifelong pacifist. Along with 49 of her House colleagues, she opposed the 1917 declaration of war against Germany. Decades later, Rankin was the sole member of Congress to vote against declaring war on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

50 “King Lear” son : EDGAR

Edgar is a key figure in William Shakespeare’s tragedy “King Lear”. He is the legitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester, a powerful man in England. Edgar is tricked by his brother, which leads to his exile. Edgar returns in disguise as a mad beggar, and in his disguise is able to help both his father and King Lear himself.

51 Summer music : DISCO

Donna Summer is known as “The Queen of Disco”, with great hits like “Love to Love You, Baby”, “I Feel Love” and “Hot Stuff”. In the late sixties and early seventies, LaDonna Gaines (her real name) lived and worked in Germany. There she met and married an Austrian actor called Helmuth Sommer. They divorced not long after the marriage, but Donna kept his family name, just changing the “o” to “u” to give her the stage name of “Donna Summer”.

53 Some laptops : ACERS

Acer is a Taiwanese company that I visited a couple of times when I was in the electronics business. I was very impressed back then with the company’s dedication to quality, although I have heard that things haven’t gone so well in recent years …

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Scratch the surface of, say : MAR
4 1983 hit that won a Grammy for Record of the Year : BEAT IT
10 Indication of an operation : SCAR
14 Bit of samurai attire : OBI
15 Refer (to) : ALLUDE
16 Play part : ROLE
17 Lose crispness, as cereal : SOG
18 What “x” might mean : TIMBERLINES – BERLIN = TIMES
20 Suppress : QUASH
22 See 54-Across : … SASSE
23 Oda ___ Brown, Whoopi Goldberg’s character in “Ghost” : MAE
24 Lets loose : UNTIES
26 A little after the hour : TEN PAST
28 Loved one : IDOL
29 Go back and forth, in a way : WAG
32 Some farmer’s market setups : TENTS
33 Glare reducer : TINT
34 Flexible : ELASTIC
37 Demon in Japanese folklore : ONI
38 With 31-Down, proceeds from the sale of an asset … or a hint to understanding six answers in this puzzle : CAPITAL …
39 Compadre : PAL
42 “Hollywood” vis-à-vis the film industry, e.g. : METONYM
43 ___ Alto : PALO
44 You might calmly tell someone not to do this : WORRY
47 Holy ___ : SEE
48 Newspaper section : ARTS
49 Like many invitations nowadays : EMAILED
52 Kind of identity : RACIAL
54 With 22-Across, former senator whose name can be spelled using only the letters in NEBRASKA (his home state) : BEN …
55 Horace was one, notably : ODIST
58 Mag that began endorsing political candidates in 2014 : COSMO
59 Sweetheart : BAKING STONE – KINGSTON = BAE
62 Lead-in to goblin : HOB-
63 Name that can be heard phonetically somewhere in this clue : ERIN
64 More discerning : ACUTER
65 Brian of ambient music : ENO
66 Dungeonlike : DANK
67 Metal workers? : ROBOTS
68 GPS display: Abbr. : STS

Down

1 Criminal patterns, in brief : MOSQUITO – QUITO = MOS
2 Overflow with : ABOUND IN
3 Writer Morrison : RIGATONI – RIGA = TONI
4 Get in hot water, say : BATHE
5 N.F.L. cornerback Apple : ELI
6 Charitable relief : ALMS
7 Helicon, e.g., musically speaking : TUBA
8 Oft-abbreviated Latin phrase : ID EST
9 Short : TERSE
10 Colombo’s country, in Olympics shorthand : SRI
11 Scammer : CON MAN
12 What the Rays and Jays are in, for short : AL EAST
13 Fresh starts : RESETS
19 Kind of soup : LENTIL
21 Material that’s bad for the mouth? : SILT
25 Drops in the gym? : SWEAT
27 Bench press target : PEC
30 Pedigree competitor : ALPO
31 See 38-Across : … GAINS
35 Ailment treated with a warming compress : STYE
36 Not as fierce : TAMER
38 Former name of Colombo’s country : CEYLON
39 Fellows : PARISHES – PARIS = HES
40 California concert site featured in the documentary “Gimme Shelter” : ALTAMONT
41 Some corp. takeovers : LOS LOBOS – OSLO = LBOS
42 Hospital diagnostic, for short : MRI
43 Fashion designer Rabanne : PACO
44 Like an otter’s feet : WEBBED
45 Mark in the World Golf Hall of Fame : O’MEARA
46 Jeannette who was the first woman elected to Congress (1916) : RANKIN
50 “King Lear” son : EDGAR
51 Summer music : DISCO
53 Some laptops : ACERS
56 Toe-jam? : STUB
57 In ___ (completely) : TOTO
60 Sign : INK
61 Final number, say : NET