1010-20 NY Times Crossword 10 Oct 20, Saturday

Constructed by: Brian Thomas
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: None

Bill’s time: 15m 41s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Half of a 1960s pop group : MAMAS

The folk group called the Magic Circle renamed itself to the Mamas and the Papas in the early sixties. Sadly, the Mamas and the Papas weren’t a happy bunch, always fighting over who was getting credit for songs and whose voice was getting mixed out of recordings, so they split up, twice. While they were together though, they wrote and recorded some great songs, songs which really do epitomize the sound of the sixties. “Monday, Monday” was written by John Phillips, one of “the Papas”, and it was to become the only number one hit for the group. Here’s a shocker … when it hit number one in 1966, it was the first time that a group made up of both sexes topped the American charts!

14 Traveler with a turbine : HOVERCRAFT

A turbine is a machine that uses the flow of a fluid (sometimes air) to create rotational work. Simple examples of turbines are windmills and waterwheels.

16 “911!” preceder : RENO

“Reno 911!” is what nowadays is called a “mockumentary”, a documentary-style comedy that parodies the television show “COPS”. I am afraid I don’t watch either TV program … not my cup of tea.

17 Global news concern of the mid-2010s : EBOLA SCARE

The Ebola virus causes a very nasty form of hemorrhagic fever. The name of the virus comes from the site of the first known outbreak, in a mission hospital in the Ebola River Valley in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as Zaire). The disease is transmitted from human to human by exposure to bodily fluids. In nature, the main carrier of Ebola is the fruit bat.

18 One of the Jackson 5 : TITO

The Jackson 5 singing group were originally made up of brothers Tito, Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael. The four eldest brothers continued to perform, using the name “The Jacksons”, after Michael went solo.

19 Vodka go-with : TONIC

The original tonic water was a fairly strong solution of the drug quinine dissolved in carbonated water. It was used in tropical areas in South Asia and Africa where malaria is rampant. The quinine has a prophylactic effect against the disease, and was formulated as “tonic water” so that it could be easily distributed. In British colonial India, the colonial types got into the habit of mixing in gin with the tonic water to make it more palatable by hiding the bitter taste of quinine. Nowadays, the level of quinine in tonic water has been dropped, and sugar has been added.

22 ___ Bartlet, president on “The West Wing” : JED

In the excellent television show “The West Wing”, President Jed Bartlet is played by Martin Sheen. Sheen also played real-life President John F. Kennedy in the miniseries “Kennedy: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy”.

23 Color in a color printer : CYAN

“Cyan” is short for “cyan blue”. The term comes from the Greek word “kyanos” meaning “dark blue, the color of lapis lazuli”.

25 Angry arenagoer, in slang : BOOBIRD

A boobird is a sports fan who does a lot of booing.

27 Remote hiding spot? : SOFA

“Sofa” is a Turkish word meaning “bench”.

32 Tundra, e.g. : BIOME

I tend to think of “biome” as another word for “ecosystem”.

Tundra is an ecosystem that is treeless, or very nearly so. There are three types of tundra. Arctic and Antarctic tundra can’t support the growth of trees as the ground is pretty much frozen. Alpine tundra cannot support tree-growth due to high altitude.

35 Where people get in hot water : JACUZZIS

“Jacuzzi” is one of those brand names that has become so much associated with the product that it is often assumed to be a generic term. The Jacuzzi company was founded in 1915 by the seven(!) Jacuzzi brothers in Berkeley California. The brothers, who were Italian immigrants, pronounced their name “ja-coot-si”, as one might suspect when one realizes the name is of Italian origin. The company started off by making aircraft propellers and then small aircraft, but suspended aircraft production in 1925 when one the brothers was killed in one of their planes. The family then started making hydraulic pumps, and in 1948 developed a submersible bathtub pump so that a son of one of the brothers could enjoy hydrotherapy for his rheumatoid arthritis. The “hydrotherapy product” took off in the fifties with some astute marketing towards “worn-out housewives” and the use of celebrity spokesman Jack Benny.

37 No. on a check : AMT

Amount (amt.)

38 Drinks sometimes garnished with 52-Down : MOJITOS

A mojito is a Cuban cocktail, although the exact origins appear to be unclear, as does the derivation of the name. Want one? Put 4 mint leaves in a glass, and add the juice of half a lime and a teaspoon of powdered sugar. Muddle the ingredients, smashing them together with a muddler or a spoon. Add some crushed ice, two ounces of white rum and stir. Top with a couple of ounces of club soda, and garnish with a sprig of mint and/or a slice of lime. Cheers!

41 Material used for weaponry in ancient China as early as 500 B.C. : CAST IRON

Cast iron is an alloy of iron and carbon, with a carbon content that is greater than 1.8%. Iron-carbon alloys containing less carbon are known as steel.

46 Pulitzer-winning novelist Jennifer : EGAN

Jennifer Egan is an author who grew up in San Francisco. Egan’s 2010 work “A Visit from the Goon Squad” won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Usually termed a novel, “A Visit from the Goon Squad” is structured in such a way that it is sometimes described as a collection of linked short stories.

51 Tierra en el agua : ISLA

In Spanish, “tierra” (land) surrounded by “agua” (water) is an “isla” (island).

53 Corona, in an eclipse : RIM

The external part of the sun is made up of ionized material at a very high temperature and a very low density. This external aura is known as the solar corona, with “corona” being Latin for “crown”. The corona is best observed during a solar eclipse, when the bright light from the sun’s main body is blocked by the moon.

60 “Ars Amatoria” author : OVID

“Ars amatoria” (“The Art of Love” in English) is a series of poems in three books by the Roman poet Ovid. Book one provides men with instruction on how to find a woman. Book two gives a man guidance on keeping that woman. Ovid turns the tables in book three and gives advice to women on how to find and keep a man.

62 “Babe” : THE BAMBINO

Baseball legend George Herman Ruth, Jr. had several nicknames, the best known being “Babe”. He was also called “the Bambino” and “the Sultan of Swat”.

68 “White-fronted” or “chestnut-bellied” birds : TITS

The birds known as chickadees or titmice in North America, are usually called simply “tits” in the rest of the English-speaking world.

Down

3 Enterprise once known as the California Perfume Company : AVON

In 1886, a young man called David McConnell was selling books door-to-door. To enhance his sales numbers he was giving out free perfume to the ladies of the houses that he visited. Seeing as his perfume was more popular than his books, he founded the California Perfume Company in New York City and started manufacturing and selling across the country. The company name was changed to Avon in 1939, and the famous “Avon Calling” marketing campaign was launched in 1954.

4 It has a big pouch : PELICAN

The pelican is an example of a piscivore. A piscivorous animal is actually a carnivore, but one that lives on fish.

5 Presenters, for short : MCS

The term “emcee” comes from “MC”, an initialism used for a Master or Mistress of Ceremonies.

6 Recherché : ARCANE

Something that is arcane is something that is understood by only a few, something that might be described as mysterious.

The adjective “recherché” can mean “exquisite, choice” or “exotic, rare”. The term is French in origin, in which language it means “sought out”. We use it in the sense of carefully seeking out something special.

8 Music genre for Fela Kuti : AFROBEAT

Fela Kuti was a Nigerian musician, a pioneer in the genre known as “Afrobeat”. Fela had an interesting relationship with women, and actually married twenty-seven different women in the same year, in 1978. He then slowed down a little and maintained a rotating roster of only twelve wives at any one time. Fela died from AIDS in 1997.

9 Court pro : STENO

Stenography is the process of writing in shorthand. The term comes from the Greek “steno” (narrow) and “graphe” (writing).

11 Longtime head of the Boston Symphony Orchestra : SEIJI OZAWA

Seiji Ozawa is most famous for his work as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, although he is also the principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera. Ozawa is renowned for wearing a white turtleneck under his dress suit when he conducts, rather than the traditional starched shirt and white tie.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is one of the Big Five in the US (along with the New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras). The BSO was founded in 1881, and has been calling Boston’s Symphony Hall its home since the building was purpose-built for the orchestra in 1900. The BSO’s first conductor was German-born British baritone and conductor George Henschel, who was a close friend of composer Johannes Brahms.

12 Italian soccer club with three Champions League titles : INTER MILAN

Inter Milan is the commonly-used name for the Italian professional soccer team more completely known as F.C. Internazionale Milano. Within Italy, the team is known simply as “Inter”.

28 Who “just keeps rollin’ along” in a classic show tune : OL’ MAN RIVER

“Ol’ Man River” is a wonderful song by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein from the musical “Show Boat”. The most famous performances of the song were by Paul Robeson, starting in 1938 when he appeared in a movie version of the stage show. Over the years Robeson changed the lyrics as he sang it at various recitals. The original words used a lot of racial epithets and stereotypical African American slang that he decided to change or omit.

29 Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer from New Orleans : FATS DOMINO

Antoine “Fats” Domino was born and raised in New Orleans, with Creole as his first language. He made it into the big time in 1949 when he recorded an early rock and roll record called “The Fat Man”. That record sold over a million copies, the first rock and roll record to achieve that milestone.

31 Turning the tables? : DJING

The world’s first radio disc jockey (DJ) was one Ray Newby of Stockton, California who made his debut broadcast in 1909, would you believe? When he was 16 years old and a student, Newby started to play his records on a primitive radio located in the Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless in San Jose. The records played back then were mostly recordings of Enrico Caruso.

34 Longtime music collaborator with Royce da 5’9″ : EMINEM

Rap star Eminem’s real name is Marshall Mathers. Mathers grew up poor in Saint Joseph, Missouri. He was raised by a single-mom as the family was abandoned by his father when he was 18 months old. Marshall and his mother moved around the country before settling in a suburb of Detroit. He didn’t do well at school, and dropped out at the age of 17. But in the end he made it pretty big …

36 Makes up : COINS

To coin a phrase is to invent a new phrase or expression. The greatest “coiner” of them all has to be William Shakespeare. Here are a few everyday expressions that were created by the Bard:

  • The game is afoot (Henry IV, Part I)
  • Brave new world (The Tempest)
  • Break the ice (The Taming of the Shrew)
  • Dead as a doornail (Henry VI, Part II)
  • Eaten me out of house and home (Henry IV, Part II)
  • Forever and a day (As You Like It)
  • For goodness’ sake (Henry VIII)
  • Knock knock! Who’s there? (Macbeth)
  • Set my teeth on edge (Henry IV, Part I)
  • Wild-goose chase (Romeo and Juliet)

39 What’s-his-name : JOE SCHMO

“Schmo” (also “shmo”) is American slang for a dull or boring person, and comes from the Yiddish word “shmok”.

44 Sender of many unwanted messages : SPAMBOT

Spambots are nasty little computer programs that send out spam emails and messages, often from fake accounts. This blog gets about 300 spam comments a day that I have to delete, almost all of which are written by spambots.

47 Lufthansa supplier : AIRBUS

Airbus is an aircraft manufacturer based in Blagnac, France just outside Toulouse. Airbus produces about half of the world’s jetliners. The company built the first fly-by-wire aircraft (the A320) and also builds the world’s largest airliner (the A380).

50 Mass medium : LATIN

The principal act of worship in the Roman Catholic tradition is the Mass. The term “Mass” comes from the Late Latin word “missa” meaning “dismissal”. This word is used at the end of the Latin Mass in “Ite, missa est” which translates literally as “Go, it is the dismissal”.

55 Bach’s “___, Joy of Man’s Desiring” : JESU

The Bach cantata “Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben” (Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life) has ten movements. The most famous of these movements is the last one, a chorale titled “Jesus bleibet meine Freude”, usually translated as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.

57 Like some sound systems : HI-FI

Hi-fi systems were introduced in the late forties. A hi-fi is a piece of audio equipment designed to give a much higher quality reproduction of sound than cheaper systems available up to that point. “Hi-fi” stands for “high fidelity”.

59 French fries alternative, informally : TOTS

Ore-Ida’s founders came up with the idea for Tater Tots when they were deciding what to do with residual cuts of potato. They chopped up the leftovers, added flour and seasoning, and extruded the mix through a large hole making a sausage that they cut into small cylinders. We eat 70 million pounds of this extruded potato every year!

61 Requirement for some drilling: Abbr. : DDS

Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS)

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Smack! : WHAP!
5 Half of a 1960s pop group : MAMAS
10 “Puh-leeze!” : AS IF!
14 Traveler with a turbine : HOVERCRAFT
16 “911!” preceder : RENO
17 Global news concern of the mid-2010s : EBOLA SCARE
18 One of the Jackson 5 : TITO
19 Vodka go-with : TONIC
20 Within : AMONG
22 ___ Bartlet, president on “The West Wing” : JED
23 Color in a color printer : CYAN
25 Angry arenagoer, in slang : BOOBIRD
27 Remote hiding spot? : SOFA
30 Surrender : CEDE
32 Tundra, e.g. : BIOME
33 It goes around in circles : PLANET
35 Where people get in hot water : JACUZZIS
37 No. on a check : AMT
38 Drinks sometimes garnished with 52-Down : MOJITOS
40 Pint Night purchase : ALE
41 Material used for weaponry in ancient China as early as 500 B.C. : CAST IRON
43 Battle cry : IT’S WAR!
45 ___ good terms : END ON
46 Pulitzer-winning novelist Jennifer : EGAN
48 Huff and puff : PANT
49 Makes go : PROPELS
51 Tierra en el agua : ISLA
53 Corona, in an eclipse : RIM
54 Fast-food order that had “all the flavor, one less layer” : MAC JR
56 Battle cry : I’M HIT!
60 “Ars Amatoria” author : OVID
62 “Babe” : THE BAMBINO
64 Finally give in after initial pushback : BEND
65 “Believe me!” : I’M SURE OF IT!
66 Concept in Freudian psychology : EROS
67 Pointless : NO USE
68 “White-fronted” or “chestnut-bellied” birds : TITS

Down

1 Arouse : WHET
2 ___ spider, creature named for its presence around train tracks : HOBO
3 Enterprise once known as the California Perfume Company : AVON
4 It has a big pouch : PELICAN
5 Presenters, for short : MCS
6 Recherché : ARCANE
7 Polite term of address : MA’AM
8 Music genre for Fela Kuti : AFROBEAT
9 Court pro : STENO
10 Real piece of work? : ART
11 Longtime head of the Boston Symphony Orchestra : SEIJI OZAWA
12 Italian soccer club with three Champions League titles : INTER MILAN
13 Area with limited access to supermarkets : FOOD DESERT
15 Salacious : RACY
21 Flop : GO BUST
24 Someone in the picture : ACTOR
26 Ad ___ : BIZ
27 Far-off explorer : SPACE PROBE
28 Who “just keeps rollin’ along” in a classic show tune : OL’ MAN RIVER
29 Rock ‘n’ roll pioneer from New Orleans : FATS DOMINO
31 Turning the tables? : DJING
34 Longtime music collaborator with Royce da 5’9″ : EMINEM
36 Makes up : COINS
39 What’s-his-name : JOE SCHMO
42 Tee, e.g. : TOP
44 Sender of many unwanted messages : SPAMBOT
47 Lufthansa supplier : AIRBUS
50 Mass medium : LATIN
52 See 38-Across : LIME
55 Bach’s “___, Joy of Man’s Desiring” : JESU
57 Like some sound systems : HI-FI
58 Not eliminated : IN IT
59 French fries alternative, informally : TOTS
61 Requirement for some drilling: Abbr. : DDS
63 “___ so!” : ARE