Constructed by: Grant Boroughs
Edited by: Will Shortz
Not your puzzle? Try today’s …
… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Theme (according to Bill) Crossword Addics?
Themed answers are common phrases with the suffix -ICS added to the end:
- 17A Much of Roy Lichtenstein’s work? : DOT COMICS (from “dot-com”)
- 28A Euclid’s “Elements,” Descartes’s “La Géométrie,” etc.? : MATH CLASSICS (from “math class”)
- 38A Wacky shenanigans of a woodworker? : CARPENTER ANTICS (from “carpenter ant”)
- 46A Frights upon waking up from sunbathing naps? : FRYING PANICS (from “frying pan”)
- 64A Things that dad likes to discuss? : POP TOPICS (from “pop top”)
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
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Bill’s time: 8m 03s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
1 Indian wedding garb : SARI
The item of clothing called a “sari” (also “saree”) is a strip of cloth, as one might imagine, unusual perhaps in that it is unstitched along the whole of its length. The strip of cloth can range from four to nine meters long (that’s a lot of material!). The sari is usually wrapped around the waist, then draped over the shoulder leaving the midriff bare. I must say, it can be a beautiful item of clothing.
15 Calculus calculation : AREA
Remember doing calculus at school, and all those derivatives and integrals? Well, you probably also remember that an integral calculates the area under a curve (for example), and a derivative calculates the slope of a tangent at a particular point on a curve.
16 ___ City (nickname for Detroit) : MOTOR
The city of Detroit was founded in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a French explorer. The original settlement was named for the Detroit River, which in turn takes its name from the French word “détroit” meaning “strait”. Detroit became inextricably linked with the automotive business from the very early 20th century when Henry Ford and others set up manufacturing in the area. This link to transportation led to Detroit’s nicknames “Motor City” and “Motown”. The city’s economic strength declined at the beginning of the 21st century, resulting in a 25% drop in population between 2000 and 2010. Detroit filed for the country’s largest municipal bankruptcy in history in 2013, facing a debt of $18.8 billion. The city exited bankruptcy at the end of 2014.
17 Much of Roy Lichtenstein’s work? : DOT COMICS (from “dot-com”)
Roy Lichtenstein was a pop artist from New York City, and a contemporary of Andy Warhol. He was famous for his “cartoon-strip” paintings, especially works called “Whaam!” and “Drowning Girl”. If you saw the Ben Stiller film “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”, you might remember Lichtenstein’s painting “Crying Girl” coming to life as part of the plot.
A dot-com is a company that primarily makes it money by providing products and services using its online presence.
21 Milky Way bit : STAR
The Milky Way is the name given to our own galaxy, the home to the Solar System. In fact, the word “galaxy” comes from the Greek “galaxias” meaning “milky”.
24 9/ : SEPT
The month of September is the ninth month in our year, although the name “September” comes from the Latin word “septum” meaning “seventh”. September was the seventh month in the Roman calendar until the year 46 BC when Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar. The Julian system moved the start of the year from March 1st to January 1st, and shifted September to the ninth month. The Gregorian calendar that we use today was introduced in 1582.
28 Euclid’s “Elements,” Descartes’s “La Géométrie,” etc.? : MATH CLASSICS (from “math class”)
Euclid of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician who lived in the first millennium, often referred to as the “Father of Geometry”. He wrote a famous book called “Elements” on the subject of mathematics, and the title was so enduring that it was used as the main textbook for the subject right up to the late 19th century.
The great French philosopher Rene Descartes made the famous statement in Latin, “Cogito ergo sum”. This translates into French as “Je pense, donc je suis” and into English as “I think, therefore I am”. Anything pertaining to the philosophy of Descartes can be described by the adjective “Cartesian”.
33 Display at the Getty : ART
The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is one of the most visited museums in the country. Like many museums in developed countries these days, the Getty has been embroiled in disputes about ownership of artifacts. The curators of the Getty have gone so far as to repatriate some items in recent years, especially to Greece and Italy. The J. Paul Getty Museum has two locations. The Getty Center is the primary location, and houses art from the Middle Ages to the present. The associated (and beautiful) Getty Villa displays art from ancient Greece, Rome and Etruria.
38 Wacky shenanigans of a woodworker? : CARPENTER ANTICS (from “carpenter ant”)
Carpenter ants can wreak havoc in a wooden structure. They burrow into damp wood creating galleries and pathways that form a complex network of nests. Unlike termites though, carpenter ants don’t feed on the wood.
I suppose one might be forgiven for thinking that “shenanigan” is an Irish term, as it certainly sounds Irish. Usually written in the plural, shenanigans are acts of mischief, pranks. Apparently the word is of uncertain derivation, but was coined in San Francisco and Sacramento, California in the mid-1800s.
43 Major mix-up : SNAFU
“SNAFU” is an acronym standing for “situation normal: all fouled up” (well, that’s the polite version!). As one might perhaps imagine, the term developed in the US Army, during WWII.
45 “Beats me,” in textspeak : IDK
I don’t know (IDK)
51 “SpongeBob SquarePants,” e.g. : CARTOON
The word “cartoon” was originally used for a “drawing on strong paper”, a durable drawing used as a model for a work of art. The term comes from the French word “carton” meaning “heavy paper, pasteboard”. Cartoons have been around a long time, with some of the most famous having been drawn by Leonardo da Vinci.
SpongeBob SquarePants is a cartoon character in a Nickelodeon television series. Spongebob first appeared in 1999, and he “lives in a pineapple under the sea”. The character was created by marine biologist, cartoonist and animator Stephen Hillenburg.
54 Fitzgerald of jazz : ELLA
Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song”, had a hard and tough upbringing. She was raised by her mother alone in Yonkers, New York. Her mother died while Ella was still a schoolgirl, and around that time the young girl became less interested in her education. She fell in with a bad crowd, even working as a lookout for a bordello and as a Mafia numbers runner. She ended up in reform school, from which she escaped, and found herself homeless and living on the streets for a while. Somehow Fitzgerald managed to get herself a spot singing in the Apollo Theater in Harlem. From there her career took off and as they say, the rest is history.
55 ___ de la Cité, one end of Paris’s Pont Neuf : ILE
There are two famous “îles” (islands) in the middle of the River Seine in Paris, one being the Île de la Cité, and the other Île Saint-Louis. Île de la Cité is the most renowned of the two, as it is home to the cathedral of Notre Dame.
Paradoxically, Pont Neuf is the oldest bridge standing today that crosses the River Seine in Paris. The paradox is that the name translates to “new bridge”. The bridge is in two parts, as it crosses from the Left Bank to the Île de la Cité (on which stands Notre Dame) and then from the Île de la Cité to the Right Bank.
58 Madrid’s land, to locals : ESPANA
Spain is the second largest country in the European Union (after France). “Spain” is an anglicized form of the Spanish name “España”, which comes from the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula “Hispania”.
Madrid is the most populous city in Spain, and is the nation’s capital. It is located very close to the geographical center of the country. Madrid is the second-largest city in the European Union by population, after Berlin. People from Madrid called themselves Madrileños.
64 Things that dad likes to discuss? : POP TOPICS (from “pop top”)
The term “pop top” refers to a whole family of designs for opening the top of a soda can. The oldest method is the “pull tab” or “ring pull”, invented in Canada in 1956. The design was long-lived, but it had its problems, so the world heaved a sigh of relief with the invention of the stay-on-tab in 1975. The new design led to less injuries and eliminated all those used pull tabs that littered the streets.
66 Tiramisu topper : COCOA
Tiramisu is an Italian cake. The name “tiramisu” translates from Italian as “pull me up”, and is often translated into our English phrase “pick-me-up”.
67 Ship built with the help of Athena : 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 the ship’s builder, a man named Argus.
The Greek goddess Athena (sometimes “Athene”) is often associated with wisdom, among other attributes. In many representations. Athena is depicted with an owl sitting on her head. It is this linkage of the owl with the goddess of wisdom that led to today’s perception of the owl as being “wise”. Athena’s Roman counterpart was Minerva.
70 Chair’s superior : DEAN
Those would be university posts.
71 Member of the South Asian diaspora : DESI
People from the Indian subcontinent might refer to themselves as “desi”.
“Diaspora” is a Greek word meaning “a scattering of seeds”. I guess I’m one of the Irish seeds …
Down
2 Book after Joel : AMOS
Amos is one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament’s Book of Amos is attributed to him.
3 Campus military org. : ROTC
The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) is a training program for officers based in colleges all around the US. The ROTC program was established in 1862 when as a condition of receiving a land-grant to create colleges, the federal government required that military tactics be part of a new school’s curriculum.
4 Not by check or credit card, say : IN CASH
Our word “cash” comes from the Middle French “caisse” meaning “money box”.
6 Shapiro of NPR : ARI
Ari Shapiro served very ably as White House correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR) for several years. He then became a co-host of the network’s drive-time program “All Things Considered” in 2015. When he’s not working, Shapiro likes to sing. He regularly appears as a guest singer with the group Pink Martini, and has appeared on several of the band’s albums.
9 Dweller west of the North Atlantic : AMERICAN
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer. Vespucci was the man who established that the landmass discovered by Christopher Columbus was not the eastern coast of Asia, but rather was a “New World”. The newly-discovered supercontinent was named “America”, coming from the Latin version of Vespucci’s first name “Amerigo”.
10 Got the gold : WON
In the Ancient Olympic Games, the winner of an event was awarded an olive wreath. When the games were revived in 1896, the winners were originally given a silver medal and an olive branch, with runners-up receiving a bronze medal and a laurel branch. The tradition of giving gold, silver and bronze medals began at the 1904 Summer Olympic Games held in St. Louis, Missouri.
12 “Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon” speaker : ROMEO
There’s a famous couplet in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” spoken by Romeo as he spots Juliet above him at a window or on a balcony:
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Romeo continues with:
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou, her maid, art far more fair than she.
I reckon Romeo is smitten …
18 International grp. founded in 1960 in Baghdad : OPEC
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded in 1960 at a conference held in Baghdad, Iraq that was attended by Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Nine more countries joined the alliance soon after, and OPEC set up headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and then Vienna, Austria in 1965. The basic aim of OPEC was to wrest control of oil prices from the oil companies and put it in the hands of the sovereign states that own the natural resource.
According to the University of Baghdad, the name “Baghdad” dates way back, to the 18th-century BCE (yes, BCE!). The name can be translated into English from the language of ancient Babylon as “old garden” (bagh-) and “beloved” (-dad).
22 Bird: Prefix : AVI-
The prefix “avi-” means “bird-related” as in “aviculture”, the breeding of birds. “Avis” is Latin for “bird”.
25 Like key lime pie : TART
The species of citrus fruit called a key lime is so named due to its association with the Florida Keys.
28 Raincoats, to Brits : MACS
When I was growing up in Ireland, we had to take our macs to school in case it rained (and it usually did!). “Mac” is short for “macintosh”, a waterproof raincoat made of rubberized fabric. The coat was named after its inventor, Scotsman Charles Macintosh.
29 ___ Page, N.F.L. Hall-of-Famer turned justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court : ALAN
Alan Page is a former NFL footballer who played for the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears. While still playing professional football, Page went to the University of Minnesota Law School and earned his Juris Doctor degree in 1978. Outside of the football season, Page then worked at a law firm. In 1992, he was elected to the Minnesota Supreme Court, becoming the first African American to serve on the court.
30 Skater Lipinski : TARA
When American skater Tara Lipinski won the figure skating gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics, she was only 15 years old. To this day, Lipinski is the youngest person to win an individual gold at the Winter Games.
36 “Thunderstruck” rock band : AC/DC
“Thunderstruck” is a single by Australian hard rock band AC/DC released in 1990. The title of the song was used for a 2004 Australian film about five AC/DC fans.
40 Dweller east of the North Atlantic : EUROPEAN
The continent of Europe was named for Europa, a Phoenician princess of Greek mythology.
51 Computer networking company : CISCO
Cisco is a company that I really admire (in terms of innovation and management). Headquartered in San Jose, California, Cisco develops and sells products and services in the communications sector. The name “Cisco” was taken from the name of the city San Francisco.
52 “___ the other reindeer …” : ALL OF
The song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was written by Johnny Marks, and was based on the story created by Marks’ brother-in-law Robert L. May.
59 Many an anonymous source on Capitol Hill : AIDE
The designer of Washington D.C., Pierre L’Enfant, chose the crest of a hill as the site for the future Congress House. He called the location “Jenkins Hill” and “Jenkins Heights”. Earlier records show the name as “New Troy”. Today we call it “Capitol Hill”.
60 CBS police procedural : NCIS
NCIS is the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which investigates crimes in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The service gives its name to the CBS TV show “NCIS”, a spin-off drama from “JAG” in which the main “NCIS” characters were first introduced. The big star in “NCIS” is the actor Mark Harmon. “NCIS” is now a franchise, with spin-off shows “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “NCIS: New Orleans”.
61 Italian wine region : ASTI
Asti is in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. It is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine. Moscato d’Asti is produced from the same grape (Moscato Bianco). Moscato is a much sweeter wine with a lower alcohol content, and is usually served as a dessert wine.
65 Sports org. with the Ryder Cup : PGA
The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) was founded in 1916 and today has its headquarters (unsurprisingly) in Florida, where so many golfers live. Back in 1916, the PGA was based in New York City.
The Ryder Cup trophy was donated to the sport of golf by Samuel Ryder, an English entrepreneur. Ryder made his money selling garden seeds in small packets. He only took up golf when he was in his fifties but became quite the enthusiast and eventually donated the trophy in 1927, when it was valued at 100 guineas. The Ryder Cup is a biennial tournament played between teams from the US and Europe.
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Indian wedding garb : SARI
5 Show of shock : GASP
9 Trophy, e.g. : AWARD
14 “It’s showtime for me!” : I’M ON!
15 Calculus calculation : AREA
16 ___ City (nickname for Detroit) : MOTOR
17 Much of Roy Lichtenstein’s work? : DOT COMICS (from “dot-com”)
19 Hip-hop’s Public ___ : ENEMY
20 Get out : ESCAPE
21 Milky Way bit : STAR
23 Observe : SEE
24 9/ : SEPT
26 High flier : AVIATOR
28 Euclid’s “Elements,” Descartes’s “La Géométrie,” etc.? : MATH CLASSICS (from “math class”)
32 In the fashion of : A LA
33 Display at the Getty : ART
34 Target : AIM AT
38 Wacky shenanigans of a woodworker? : CARPENTER ANTICS (from “carpenter ant”)
43 Major mix-up : SNAFU
44 Knock on the door : RAP
45 “Beats me,” in textspeak : IDK
46 Frights upon waking up from sunbathing naps? : FRYING PANICS (from “frying pan”)
51 “SpongeBob SquarePants,” e.g. : CARTOON
54 Fitzgerald of jazz : ELLA
55 ___ de la Cité, one end of Paris’s Pont Neuf : ILE
56 Annoyingly slow : POKY
58 Madrid’s land, to locals : ESPANA
62 Chalkboard material : SLATE
64 Things that dad likes to discuss? : POP TOPICS (from “pop top”)
66 Tiramisu topper : COCOA
67 Ship built with the help of Athena : ARGO
68 Deal with issues at work? : EDIT
69 In many cases : OFTEN
70 Chair’s superior : DEAN
71 Member of the South Asian diaspora : DESI
Down
1 Word before dish or effect : SIDE-
2 Book after Joel : AMOS
3 Campus military org. : ROTC
4 Not by check or credit card, say : IN CASH
5 Coach’s strategy : GAME PLAN
6 Shapiro of NPR : ARI
7 Brief periods of time : SECS
8 They can be shaped like tubes or wheels : PASTAS
9 Dweller west of the North Atlantic : AMERICAN
10 Got the gold : WON
11 “This is only ___” : A TEST
12 “Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon” speaker : ROMEO
13 Black hole for socks, facetiously : DRYER
18 International grp. founded in 1960 in Baghdad : OPEC
22 Bird: Prefix : AVI-
25 Like key lime pie : TART
27 “___ just so happens …” : AS IT
28 Raincoats, to Brits : MACS
29 ___ Page, N.F.L. Hall-of-Famer turned justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court : ALAN
30 Skater Lipinski : TARA
31 Like the tone of a talking-to : STERN
35 1,003, in Roman numerals : MIII
36 “Thunderstruck” rock band : AC/DC
37 Sounds of disapproval : TSKS
39 Sound of dismissiveness : PFFT!
40 Dweller east of the North Atlantic : EUROPEAN
41 All the ___ : RAGE
42 Wisconsin city that’s home to Lawrence University : APPLETON
47 ___-hoo : YOO
48 You might put your stamp on it : INK PAD
49 “And another thing …” : ALSO …
50 Snoozed : NAPPED
51 Computer networking company : CISCO
52 “___ the other reindeer …” : ALL OF
53 Respond to a stimulus : REACT
57 Long ago : YORE
59 Many an anonymous source on Capitol Hill : AIDE
60 CBS police procedural : NCIS
61 Italian wine region : ASTI
63 Low digit? : TOE
65 Sports org. with the Ryder Cup : PGA
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