0206-19 NY Times Crossword 6 Feb 19, Wednesday

Constructed by: Queena Mewers & Alex Eaton-Salners
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answers: English & Espanol

There’s a note with the electronic version of today’s puzzle:

In the newspaper version of this crossword, the clues appear in a single list, combining Across and Down. When two answers share a number, they also share a clue.

Themed answers are in pairs, one across-answer and one down-answer. Both answers have the same clue, and are the same answer. However, the across-answer is in ENGLISH, and the down-answer in SPANISH.

  • 1. It emerges at dawn : SUN & SOL
  • 4. Prometheus’ gift : FIRE & FUEGO
  • 8. May honoree : MOTHER & MADRE
  • 24. Word of greeting : HELLO & HOLA
  • 29. Dawn’s direction : EAST & ESTE
  • 44. Language of the answers to this puzzle’s uniclues : ENGLISH & ESPANOL
  • 45. Urban area : CITY & CIUDAD
  • 54. Prime-time time : NIGHT & NOCHE

Bill’s time: 7m 19s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

2. Sch. with a campus in Providence : URI

The University of Rhode Island (URI) was chartered as an agricultural school back in 1888. Rhody the Ram was chosen as the school’s mascot in 1923, a nod to URI’s agricultural past. As a result, the school’s sports teams are known as the Rams. URI’s main campus is located in the village of Kingston.

4. Prometheus’ gift : FIRE & FUEGO

In Greek mythology, Prometheus was one of the Titans. He was said to have created man from clay as well as giving fire to humanity, and hence allowing the human race to prosper.

5. N.Y.C. subway letters : IRT

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the original private operator of the New York Subway when it opened in 1904. The city took over ownership of the system in 1940, but the lines originally operated by the IRT are still known by the IRT moniker.

8. May honoree : MOTHER & MADRE

Note the official punctuation in “Mother’s Day”, even though one might think it should be “Mothers’ Day”. President Wilson and Anna Jarvis, who created the tradition, specifically wanted Mother’s Day to honor the mothers within each family and not just “mothers” in general, so they went with the “Mother’s Day” punctuation.

9. “Awake and Sing!” playwright Clifford : ODETS

The first play that American playwright Clifford Odets had produced was “Waiting for Lefty”, in 1935. However, the first play that he wrote was “Awake and Sing!”. The latter was produced soon after “Waiting for Lefty”, and is the play that many consider to be his masterpiece.

10. Bygone Pan Am rival : TWA

Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a big carrier in the US, but was perhaps even more recognized for its extensive presence in Europe and the Middle East. For many years, especially after the collapse of Pan Am and TWA’s purchase by Howard Hughes, TWA was considered the unofficial flag carrier for the US. The company started in 1930, the product of a forced merger of Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express. The Transcontinental and Western Air that resulted (the original meaning of the initialism “TWA”) was what the Postmaster General wanted, a bigger airline to which the Postal Service could award airmail contracts.

Pan American World Airways (usually just “Pan Am”) started out as a mail and passenger service between Key West, Florida and Havana, Cuba in 1927. From very early in the company’s life it was the de facto representative air carrier of the United States. For many years Pan Am’s fleet was built around the Boeing 314 Clipper, a long-range flying boat that was one of the largest aircraft around at the time. Pan Am adopted the Clipper as part of its image, even using “clipper” as the call sign for its flights.

12. Port up the lake from Cleveland, O. : ERIE, PA

Erie is a city in the very north of Pennsylvania, right on the southern shore of Lake Erie. The city takes its name from the Erie Native American tribe that resided in the area. Erie is nicknamed the Gem City, a reference to the “sparkling” water of Lake Erie.

15. Russia’s ___ Mountains : URAL

The eastern side of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan is generally regarded as the natural divide between the continents of Europe and Asia.

16. Source of some pop-ups : ADWARE

Adware is “advertising-supported software”, an application that includes ads in some form so that the developed can generate revenue. Sometimes deceptive practices can be used to entice a user to install such programs, so adware can sometimes be classed as malware (malicious software).

17. Contribution of Gilbert, but not Sullivan : LIBRETTO

A libretto can be the book that contains the text of a dramatic musical work, with the text itself also being called the libretto.

18. Seminary subj. : REL

Originally, a seminary was where plants were raised from seeds, as “semen” is the Latin for “seed”. The first schools labeled as seminaries were established in the late 1500s. Those first schools were more likely to be academies for young ladies back then, rather than for trainee priests.

22. Old person, in Oldenburg : ALTE

Oldenburg is a city in the northwest of Germany.

26. Help for a star witness? : TELESCOPE

The first patent application for a telescope was filed in 1608 in the Netherlands to eyeglass maker Hans Lippershey. However, research has shown that there is some evidence that telescopes were built before 1608, perhaps as early as the mid-1500s. But it is clear that reports of Lippershey’s design spread quickly around Europe. By 1609, Galileo had built his own telescope and started to explore the night sky.

27. Sadistic : CRUEL

A sadist is someone who derives pleasure from inflicting pain, with that pleasure often being sexual in nature. The term “sadist” comes from the Marquis de Sade, who was known to exhibit such tendencies.

31. Like Ganymede among Jupiter’s moons : LARGEST

Ganymede is the largest of Jupiter’s sixty-seven moons, and is the largest moon in the Solar System. Ganymede was discovered in 1610 by Galileo. Astronomer Simon Marius gave the moon the name Ganymede, for Zeus’s lover in Greek mythology.

32. “Somebody That I Used to Know” singer, 2011 : GOTYE

Gotye is the stage name of Belgian-Australian singer Wally De Backer. The stage name comes from the French name “Gauthier” meaning “Walter” (Wally).

33. Byron’s “before” : ERE

George Gordon Byron, known simply as “Lord Byron”, was an English poet active in the early 1800s. Byron was equally as famous for his poetry as he was for the wild excesses in his personal life. Byron lived much of that life outside of England, and fought for revolutionaries in both Italy and Greece. He died from a fever contracted while fighting for the Greeks against the Ottomans.

34. Light beige : ECRU

The color ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”. “Ecru” has the same roots as our word “crude”.

36. Dungeons & Dragons, for one, in brief : RPG

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a complex role-playing game (RPG) introduced in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules Incorporated (TSR). Dungeons & Dragons was probably the first of the modern role-playing games to be developed, and the most successful. It is still played by lots of people today, including my youngest son …

38. “Otello” and “Pagliacci” : OPERAS

Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Otello” was first performed in 1887 at La Scala Theater in Milan. The opera is based on Shakespeare’s play “Othello” and is considered by many to be Verdi’s greatest work.

“Pagliacci” (“The Clowns” in English) is an opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo that premiered in 1892 in Milan. Included in the opera is one of the most famous arias of all time, “Vesti la giubba” (“put on the costume”).

40. Author Sholem : ASCH

Sholem Asch was a Polish-born American novelist and dramatist who published his work in Yiddish. One of his plays was “God of Vengeance”, a highly-regarded work performed all over Europe and translated into many languages. It opened on Broadway in 1923, but the adult themes (it was set in a brothel, and featured a lesbian relationship) led to the entire cast being arrested and convicted on obscenity charges.

43. “Peter Pan” dog : NANA

In J.M. Barrie’s play and novel about Peter Pan, Peter takes Wendy Darling and her two brothers on adventures on the island of Neverland. Back in the real world, the Darling children are taken care of by a nanny, a Newfoundland dog called Nana. It is Nana who takes Peter Pan’s shadow away from him as he tries to escape from the Darling house one night.

48. British bottom : ARSE

Well, the word “arse” would never make it into a crossword in Britain and Ireland, as it would be considered too rude. I have a similar reaction to the word “shag” as in “The Spy Who Shagged Me”. The film would never have been released with that name in the UK.

50. Cpl. or sgt. : NCO

A non-commissioned officer (NCO) might be a sergeant (sgt.) or a corporal (cpl.).

52. One practicing self-help, informally : DIY’ER

Back in Ireland, we don’t have “hardware stores” as such, but rather “DIY centres” (and that’s the spelling of “centres”). “DIY” is an initialism standing for “Do it yourself”.

56. Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the ___” : USA

Miley Cyrus became famous playing the Disney Channel character “Hannah Montana”. Miley is the daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. When she was born, Billy Ray and his wife named their daughter “Destiny Hope”, but soon they themselves calling her “Smiley” as she was always smiling as a baby, and this got shortened to Miley over time. Cute …

57. One of Donald Trump Jr.’s parents : IVANA

Ivana Zelníčková was born in Czechoslovakia. She married an Austrian named Alfred Winklmayr, in an arrangement that allowed her to leave Communist Czechoslovakia. The marriage was dissolved within two years, and Zelníčková settled in Canada. She was an excellent skier, and was named as an alternate for the 1982 Czech Olympic Team. She was promoting the Montreal Olympics in New York in 1976 when she met Donald Trump. Ivana and Donald’s marriage was very public and well-covered by the media, but not nearly as well-covered as their very litigious divorce in the early nineties.

Donald Trump Jr. is the oldest child of President Donald Trump and his first wife Ivana Trump née Zelníčková. Soon after his father was elected president, Donald Jr. was named trustee of the Trump Organization, along with his brother Eric and company CFO Allen Weisselberg.

60. Dr. of rap : DRE

“Dr. Dre” is the stage name of rapper Andre Romelle Young. Dr. Dre is known for his own singing career as well as for producing records and starting the careers of others such Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent.

62. Facility at Quantico, Va.: Abbr. : OCS

Officer Candidate School (OCS)

63. News inits. since 1958 : UPI

Founded in 1958, United Press International (UPI) used to be one of the biggest news agencies in the world, sending out news by wire to the major newspapers. UPI ran into trouble with the change in media formats at the end of the twentieth century and lost many of its clients as the afternoon newspapers shut down due to the advent of television news. UPI, which once employed thousands, still exists today but with just a fraction of that workforce.

65. Any of the Magi : ADORER

“Magi” is the plural of the Latin word “magus”, a term applied to someone who was able to read the stars. Hence, “magi” is commonly used with reference to the “wise men from the East” who followed the star and visited Jesus soon after he was born. In Western Christianity, the three Biblical Magi are:

  • Melchior: a scholar from Persia
  • Caspar: a scholar from India
  • Balthazar: a scholar from Arabia

66. Nessie’s home : LOCH

The monster that is reputed to inhabit the depths of Loch Ness in Scotland is often referred affectionately as “Nessie”.

70. How many feet are in a fathom : SIX

Our word “fathom” comes from the Old English word used to describe the length of the outstretched arms. Today, a fathom is equal to six feet.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

1. It emerges at dawn : SUN & SOL
2. Sch. with a campus in Providence : URI
3. Dainty eaters : NIBBLERS
4. Prometheus’ gift : FIRE & FUEGO
5. N.Y.C. subway letters : IRT
6. Rapping sound : RAT-A-TAT
7. Runs off to a justice of the peace : ELOPES
8. May honoree : MOTHER & MADRE
9. “Awake and Sing!” playwright Clifford : ODETS
10. Bygone Pan Am rival : TWA
11. Call to the hounds : HALLOO!
12. Port up the lake from Cleveland, O. : ERIE, PA
13. Clarify, as butter : RENDER
14. “Either you do it ___ will” : OR I
15. Russia’s ___ Mountains : URAL
16. Source of some pop-ups : ADWARE
17. Contribution of Gilbert, but not Sullivan : LIBRETTO
18. Seminary subj. : REL
19. Give a hand to : DEAL IN
20. Implore : BEG
21. “___ from that …” : APART
22. Old person, in Oldenburg : ALTE
23. Presided over : LED
24. Word of greeting : HELLO & HOLA
25. Notable stretches : ERAS
26. Help for a star witness? : TELESCOPE
27. Sadistic : CRUEL
28. Underground rock : ORE
29. Dawn’s direction : EAST & ESTE
30. Sound from a rowdy crowd : ROAR
31. Like Ganymede among Jupiter’s moons : LARGEST
32. “Somebody That I Used to Know” singer, 2011 : GOTYE
33. Byron’s “before” : ERE
34. Light beige : ECRU
35. Alternative to a cup : CONE
36. Dungeons & Dragons, for one, in brief : RPG
37. Classify by type : ASSORT
38. “Otello” and “Pagliacci” : OPERAS
39. Carnival game with bottles : RING TOSS
40. Author Sholem : ASCH
41. Drinking game penalty, perhaps : SHOT
42. Many a character in Ann M. Martin’s “The Baby-Sitters Club” : TEEN
43. “Peter Pan” dog : NANA
44. Language of the answers to this puzzle’s uniclues : ENGLISH & ESPANOL
45. Urban area : CITY & CIUDAD
46. Good place to be during a blizzard : INSIDE
47. It might be left holding the bag : TEAPOT
48. British bottom : ARSE
49. Annoy : RANKLE
50. Cpl. or sgt. : NCO
51. Comment made while yawning : I NEED A NAP
52. One practicing self-help, informally : DIY’ER
53. Declares with confidence : AVERS
54. Prime-time time : NIGHT & NOCHE
55. ___ factor : ICK
56. Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the ___” : USA
57. One of Donald Trump Jr.’s parents : IVANA
58. World Smile Day mo. : OCT
59. Hair-coloring technique : DIP DYE
60. Dr. of rap : DRE
61. Fight finisher : KNOCKOUT
62. Facility at Quantico, Va.: Abbr. : OCS
63. News inits. since 1958 : UPI
64. Line on a receipt : TAX
65. Any of the Magi : ADORER
66. Nessie’s home : LOCH
67. Where you might get into hot water : SPA
68. Dissuades : DETERS
69. “When all ___ fails …” : ELSE
70. How many feet are in a fathom : SIX