0521-19 NY Times Crossword 21 May 19, Tuesday

Constructed by: Evan Kalish
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Changes the World

Themed answers each include a sequence of letters that are circled in the grid. Each of the sequences is the name of a planet (WORLD), with the order of the letters CHANGED:

  • 35A Has a huge impact … or a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters : CHANGES THE WORLD
  • 17A “Oh, it’s nothing to concern yourself with” : IGNORE THAT (hiding “EARTH” changed)
  • 23A Omits mention of : LEAVES UNSAID (hiding “VENUS” changed)
  • 47A Ones with private ambitions? : ARMY RECRUITS (hiding “MERCURY” changed)
  • 57A Extra song on an album : BONUS TRACK (hiding “SATURN” changed)

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 8m 19s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Automaker with Supercharger stations : TESLA

Tesla Motors shortened its name to just “Tesla” in early 2017.

14 “Peer Gynt” composer : GRIEG

Edvard Grieg is Norway’s best known composer, some who was active in the Romantic Era. Grieg’s most famous works are the gorgeous “Piano Concerto in A minor”, and his incidental music for the play “Peer Gynt” by Henrik Ibsen.

Henrik Ibsen’s play “Peer Gynt” is based on a Scandinavian fairy tale “Per Gynt”. The incidental music to the play, written by Edvard Grieg, is some of the most approachable classical music ever written, at least in my humble opinion …

19 Rose with 4,256 major-league hits : PETE

Pete Rose was a talented baseball player who holds the record for all-time Major League hits. Rose’s nickname was “Charlie Hustle”. In recent years of course his reputation has been tarnished by admissions that he bet on games in which he played and managed.

21 Cleveland’s lake : ERIE

Cleveland, Ohio was named after the man who led the team that surveyed the area prior to founding of the city. General Moses Cleaveland did his work in 1796 and then left Ohio, never to return again.

22 “The Divine Comedy” writer : DANTE

Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” is an epic poem dating back to the 14th century. The first part of that epic is “Inferno”, which is the Italian word for “Hell”. In the poem, Dante is led on a journey by the poet Virgil, starting at the gates of Hell on which are written the famous words “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here”.

26 Lethargy : MALAISE

A malaise is a general but undefined feeling of discomfort or illness. The term “malaise” ultimately comes from Old French with the prefix “mal-” meaning “bad” and “aise” meaning “ease”.

29 Golden-years savings vehicles, for short : IRAS

Individual retirement account (IRA)

31 Australian boot brand : UGG

Uggs are sheepskin boots that were first produced in Australia and New Zealand. The original Uggs have sheepskin fleece on the inside for comfort and insulation, with a tanned leather surface on the outside for durability. “Ugg” is a generic term Down Under, although it’s a brand name here in the US.

32 Abu Dhabi’s land, for short : UAE

Abu Dhabi is one of the seven Emirates that make up the federation known as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The two largest members of the UAE (geographically) are Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the only two of the seven members that have veto power over UAE policy. Before 1971, the UAE was a British Protectorate, a collection of sheikdoms. The sheikdoms entered into a maritime truce with Britain in 1835, after which they became known as the Trucial States, derived from the word “truce”.

45 Genre for the Harry Potter books : FANTASY

The author of the amazingly successful “Harry Potter” series of books is J. K. Rowling. Rowling wrote the first book when she was living on welfare in Edinburgh in Scotland, and in longhand. She would often write in local cafes, largely because she needed to get her baby daughter out of the house (she was a single mom), and the youngster would tend to fall asleep on walks. Within five years, the single mom on welfare became a very rich woman, and is now worth about $1 billion!

52 PIN points? : ATMS

One enters a Personal Identification Number (PIN) when using an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Given that the N in PIN stands for “number”, then “PIN number” is a redundant phrase. And, given that the M in ATM stands for “machine”, then “ATM machine” is a redundant phrase as well. Grr …!

53 Long March leader : MAO

In the 1930s, the rebel People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China was locked in battle with the army of the Chinese Nationalist Party led by Chiang Kai-shek. In the jaws of defeat, the PLA (or “Red Army”, as it was known) managed to make a series of withdrawals from the southern part of the country, evading capture by retreating to the north. This campaign of retreat involved the Red Army traversing about 8,000 miles of difficult terrain in a move that took over a year. The Communist troops of the Red Army were led by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. The retreat came to be termed “the Long March”, and its relative success established the reputations of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai within the Communist Party, and ultimately led to their takeover of power after the subsequent Chinese Civil War.

57 Extra song on an album : BONUS TRACK

A bonus track is a song provided on a CD as an “extra”, an incentive perhaps for someone to buy an album they already own, for example. A bonus track is different from a hidden track, which is a song that isn’t even listed on the album cover. Some folks may never find a hidden track, whereas a bonus track is included in the listing of songs on the CD.

60 Actress Paquin who won an Academy Award at age 11 : ANNA

Anna Paquin is an actress from New Zealand who won an Oscar as an 11-year-old for her role in “The Piano”. In the HBO series “True Blood” she plays Sookie Stackhouse, a role for which she won a Golden Globe.

61 Febreze target : ODOR

The odor-eliminating product we know today as Febreze was developed in England in the early nineties. It is now produced by Procter & Gamble.

64 Chromosome component : GENE

A gene is a section of a chromosome that is responsible for a particular characteristic in an organism. For example, one gene may determine eye color and another balding pattern. We have two copies of each gene, one from each of our parents, with each copy known as an allele.

65 Comic Radner of early “Saturday Night Live” : GILDA

Gilda Radner was a comedian and actress, and one of the original cast members of the hit television show “Saturday Night Live”. Radner left her first husband to marry comedic actor Gene Wilder, whom she met while they were both filming the Sidney Poitier movie “Hanky Panky”.

Down

1 End-of-the-week cheer : TGIF!

“Thank God It’s Friday” (TGIF) is a relatively new expression that apparently originated in Akron, Ohio. It was a catchphrase used first by disk jockey Jerry Healy of WAKR in the early seventies. That said, one blog reader wrote me to say that he had been using the phrase in the fifties.

2 Therefore : ERGO

“Ergo” is a Latin word meaning “hence, therefore”, and one that we’ve absorbed directly into English.

4 July-August sign : LEO

Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 23 to August 22 are Leos.

8 State between Wash. and Mont. : IDA

The US state of Idaho has a panhandle that extends northwards between Washington and Montana, right up to the border with Canada. Across that border is the Canadian province of British Columbia. Most of Idaho is in the Mountain Time Zone, but Northern Idaho (the Panhandle) is in the Pacific Time Zone.

9 Vietnamese New Year : TET

The full name for the New Year holiday in Vietnam is “Tet Nguyen Dan” meaning “Feast of the First Morning”, with the reference being to the arrival of the season of spring. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.

10 Six-point accomplishment for a QB : TD PASS

Touchdown (TD)

12 Mobster John : GOTTI

John Gotti was the boss of the Gambino crime family from 1985. Gotti was known as the “Teflon Don” and took over leadership of the family from Paul Castellano when he was gunned down, allegedly on Gotti’s orders. Gotti remained head of the New York family until he was sentenced to life in prison in 1992. Gotti died of throat cancer after ten years behind bars.

22 Material in a cell’s nucleus : DNA

The two most common nucleic acids are deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which play crucial roles in genetics. The DNA contains the genetic instructions used to keep living organisms functioning, and RNA is used to transcribe that information from the DNA to protein “generators” called ribosomes.

31 Sport-___ (multiterrain vehicle) : UTE

A utility vehicle is often called a “ute” for short. Nowadays one mainly hears about sport-utes and crossover-utes.

32 ___ Major : URSA

The constellation Ursa Major (Latin for “Larger Bear”) is often just called “the Big Dipper” because of its resemblance to a ladle or dipper. Ursa Major also resembles a plow, and that’s what we usually call the same constellation back in Ireland, “the Plough”.

36 Actress Falco : EDIE

Actress Edie Falco won three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano on HBO’s outstanding drama series called “The Sopranos”. Falco also won an Emmy in 2010 for playing the title role in “Nurse Jackie”, an excellent black comedy.

43 One doing heavy lifting, informally? : GYM RAT

“Gym rat” is a slang term describing someone who spends all of his or her leisure time playing sports or working out at the gym. Never been called a gym rat …

48 Primary outflow of Lake Geneva : RHONE

The Rhône river rises in Switzerland, passes through Lake Geneva, flows through the southeast of France, and empties into the Mediterranean Sea near Arles.

49 Jupiter’s Ganymede and Europa : MOONS

So far, Jupiter is known to have 67 moons, more than any other planet in the Solar System. The four largest moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) were discovered by Galileo in 1610, making them the first objects found that did not orbit either the Earth or the Sun.

53 Development that might compete with a downtown : MALL

Surprisingly (to me!), our word “mall”, meaning “shady walk” or “enclosed shopping space”, comes from the Italian for “mallet”. All of our shopping-style malls are named for “The Mall” in St. James’s Park in London. This tree-lined promenade was so called as it used to a famous spot to play the croquet-like game called “pall-mall”. The game derived its name from the Italian for ball (palla) and mallet “maglio”. The London thoroughfare called the Mall still exists, at one end of which is Buckingham Palace. Indeed, parallel to the Mall is a street called Pall Mall.

55 Gumbo green : OKRA

Gumbo is a type of stew or soup that originated in Louisiana. The primary ingredient can be meat or fish, but to be true gumbo it must include the “holy trinity” of vegetables, namely celery, bell peppers and onion. Okra used to be a requirement but this is no longer the case. Okra gave the dish its name as the vernacular word for the African vegetable is “okingumbo”, from the Bantu language spoken by many of the slaves brought to America.

59 One of four for a grand slam, for short : RBI

In baseball, a grand slam is a home run hit with runners on all three bases, leading to a score of four runs.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Automaker with Supercharger stations : TESLA
6 Quarreling : AT IT
10 Identifies, as in a Facebook photo : TAGS
14 “Peer Gynt” composer : GRIEG
15 Let go of : CEDE
16 Word before “a hint,” “a line” or “the ball” : DROP
17 “Oh, it’s nothing to concern yourself with” : IGNORE THAT
19 Rose with 4,256 major-league hits : PETE
20 ___ machine (stage effect maker) : FOG
21 Cleveland’s lake : ERIE
22 “The Divine Comedy” writer : DANTE
23 Omits mention of : LEAVES UNSAID
26 Lethargy : MALAISE
29 Golden-years savings vehicles, for short : IRAS
30 Strand, as during a winter storm : ICE IN
31 Australian boot brand : UGG
32 Abu Dhabi’s land, for short : UAE
35 Has a huge impact … or a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters : CHANGES THE WORLD
40 Cry when encountering 26-Down : EEK!
41 Red 40 or Yellow 6 : DYE
42 Made less strenuous : EASED
43 Profit : GAIN
45 Genre for the Harry Potter books : FANTASY
47 Ones with private ambitions? : ARMY RECRUITS
51 “Wait, you think I did that?” : WHO, ME?
52 PIN points? : ATMS
53 Long March leader : MAO
56 Tie up, as a ship : MOOR
57 Extra song on an album : BONUS TRACK
60 Actress Paquin who won an Academy Award at age 11 : ANNA
61 Febreze target : ODOR
62 Better trained : ABLER
63 Twitter platform? : NEST
64 Chromosome component : GENE
65 Comic Radner of early “Saturday Night Live” : GILDA

Down

1 End-of-the-week cheer : TGIF!
2 Therefore : ERGO
3 Let secrets out : SING
4 July-August sign : LEO
5 On the same page : AGREEING
6 Not idle : ACTIVE
7 Little chuckle : TE-HEE
8 State between Wash. and Mont. : IDA
9 Vietnamese New Year : TET
10 Six-point accomplishment for a QB : TD PASS
11 Sports venue : ARENA
12 Mobster John : GOTTI
13 Go 50 in a school zone, say : SPEED
18 Notable times in history : ERAS
22 Material in a cell’s nucleus : DNA
23 Reclined : LAIN
24 [Ah, me] : [SIGH]
25 Desire : URGE
26 Little scurriers : MICE
27 Result of overexertion : ACHE
28 Reason to replace a fuel line : LEAK
31 Sport-___ (multiterrain vehicle) : UTE
32 ___ Major : URSA
33 Some draft selections : ALES
34 Swirl above a drain : EDDY
36 Actress Falco : EDIE
37 Match up : SYNC
38 Attended a party without a date : WENT STAG
39 Some food for a horse : OATS
43 One doing heavy lifting, informally? : GYM RAT
44 “___ you insane?” : ARE
45 Its time has not yet come : FUTURE
46 Goals : AIMS
47 “Jeez Louise!” : AW, MAN!
48 Primary outflow of Lake Geneva : RHONE
49 Jupiter’s Ganymede and Europa : MOONS
50 Kept going and going : RAN ON
53 Development that might compete with a downtown : MALL
54 Did an amazing job on : ACED
55 Gumbo green : OKRA
57 Marsh : BOG
58 Laudatory poem : ODE
59 One of four for a grand slam, for short : RBI