1212-22 NY Times Crossword 12 Dec 22, Monday

Constructed by: Anthony J. Caruso & Zhouqin Burnikel
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Go Fetch!

Themed answers each start with an item a dog might be told to GO FETCH!

  • 39A Dog command … or a hint to the starts of the answers to the four starred clues : GO FETCH!
  • 16A *High-energy person, metaphorically : BALL OF FIRE
  • 63A *Documentation leading to proof : PAPER TRAIL
  • 10D *Some fine porcelain : BONE CHINA
  • 33D *”Don’t quit now!” : STICK TO IT!

Bill’s time: 6m 18s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 Box office dud : FLOP

The term “box office” may date back to Shakespearean times. In those days long past, patrons would deposit fees for seeing theater performances in boxes. The full boxes would be collected and placed in an office called, imaginatively enough, the “box office”.

15 Lasso material : ROPE

Our English word “lasso” comes from the Spanish “lazo”, and ultimately from the Latin “laqueum” meaning “noose, snare”.

21 Corp. honchos : CEOS

“Honcho” is a slang term meaning “leader”. The word comes to us from the Japanese military, in which language a “hancho” is a “squad” (han) “leader” (cho).

22 Melon with a yellow rind : CASABA

A casaba is a type of honeydew melon that ripens relatively late in the season, and so is classed as a winter melon. The casaba takes its name from the Turkish city of Kasaba, from where the fruit was imported into America in the late 1800s.

24 Strategic maneuver : TACTIC

The terms “strategy” and “tactic” are often confused. In the original frame of reference, namely war, strategy is decided prior to battle. Tactics are implemented during the battle, and are consistent with the strategy.

26 Ending with Oktober or gab : -FEST

Oktoberfest is a 16-day beer festival in Munich that actually starts in September. About six million people attend every year, making it the largest fair in the world. I’ve attended twice, and it really is a remarkable party …

31 Obsolescent music purchases, in brief : CDS

The compact disc (CD) was developed jointly by Philips and Sony as a medium for storing and playing sound recordings. When the first commercial CD was introduced back in 1982, a CD’s storage capacity was far greater than the amount of data that could be stored on the hard drive of personal computers available at that time.

34 Low-pH liquids : ACIDS

As we all recall from chemistry class, a pH of 7 is considered neutral. Anything less than 7 is an acid, and anything above 7 is a base.

37 Liberty Mutual alternative : GEICO

GEICO was founded in 1936 with a very specific mission, to provide auto insurance for employees of the federal government and their families, hence the name Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO). GEICO is a private company, despite the word “government” in its name. The founders’ idea was to focus on government employees as they believed such a group represented a lower risk profile than the rest of the population. Nowadays any qualifying person can take out a policy with GEICO.

Liberty Mutual is an insurance company based in Boston. The business was founded in 1912 as the Massachusetts Employees Insurance Association (MEIA). Liberty Mutual has a famous advertising icon named LiMu Emu.

41 Org. for Penguins and Ducks : NHL

The Penguins are a professional hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They have been around since 1967, and were one of the first expansion teams when the NHL grew from six to twelve teams. The expansion team were to play in Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena, a domed structure known locally as the Igloo. It was the “Igloo” name that inspired a fan to suggest the “Penguins” moniker, which won a contest to choose the name of the new franchise.

The Walt Disney Company founded the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim hockey team in 1993, with the franchise’s name being a nod to the 1992 Disney movie called “The Mighty Ducks”. The name was changed to the Anaheim Ducks when Disney sold the team before the 2006-2007 season.

42 Popular sans-serif typeface : ARIAL

Serifs are details on the ends of characters in some typefaces. Typefaces without serifs are known as sans-serif, using the French word “sans” meaning “without” and “serif” from the Dutch “schreef” meaning “line”. Some people say that serif fonts are easier to read on paper, whereas sans-serif fonts work better on a computer screen. I’m not so sure though …

45 “You’ve got mail!” I.S.P. : AOL

The iconic phrase “You’ve got mail” was first used by AOL in 1989. The greeting was recorded by voice actor Elwood Edwards. Edwards has parlayed his gig with AOL into some other work. He appears in an episode of “The Simpsons” as a doctor who says the line “You’ve got leprosy”. Edwards also worked as a weatherman for a while and got to use the line “You’ve got hail” …

48 Christmas song : NOEL

“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, and ultimately comes from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). “Noel” has come to be used as an alternative for “Christmas carol”.

50 Fate : KISMET

“Kismet” is a Turkish word meaning “fate, fortune, lot”.

53 Major blunders : SNAFUS

“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.

57 Fliers that may consume thousands of insects in an hour : BATS

Bats do eat mosquitoes, although they prefer to go after moths and beetles. A friend of mine built a bat house in his yard, in the hope that attracting bats would suppress the mosquito population. Well, that hasn’t worked. My experience is that moving air with fans prevents mosquitoes from landing on you …

59 Pimiento-stuffed treat : OLIVE

A pimiento (also “pimento”) is a cherry pepper in the chili family. It used to be stuffed into Spanish olives by a tool that took out the pit at the same time. Sadly, in these days of modern technology, the pimiento is usually pureed now, mixed with a gum and formed into neat strips, before being stuffed into the olive. Nothing is what it seems anymore …

61 ___ fide : BONA

“Bona fide(s)” translates from the Latin as “in good faith”, and is used to indicate honest intentions. It can also mean that something is authentic, like a piece of art that is represented in good faith as being genuine.

62 Soothing succulent : ALOE

Succulent plants are those with thickened stems and/or leaves that have evolved to retain water. As such, succulents are often found where the climate is particularly dry. The term “succulent” comes from the Latin “sucus” meaning “juice, sap”.

65 Hieroglyphic bird : IBIS

The ibis is a wading bird that was revered in ancient Egypt. “Ibis” is an interesting word grammatically speaking. You can have one “ibis” or two “ibises”, and then again one has a flock of “ibis”. And if you want to go with the classical plural, instead of two “ibises” you would have two “ibides”!

The prefix “hiero-” comes from the Greek word “hieros” meaning sacred or holy. The classic use of the prefix is in the term “hieroglyph” (meaning “sacred carving”), the writing system that uses symbols and pictures.

66 R&B great Redding : OTIS

Otis Redding is often referred to as the “King of Soul”, and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”.

67 Tries to deice, as winter roads : SALTS

Halite is the mineral form of sodium chloride, and is also known as “rock salt”. Halite is used to melt ice, as salt water has a lower freezing point than pure water. Adding salt to icy sidewalks can therefore cause any ice to melt (as long as the ambient temperature isn’t too low). A mixture of halite and ice can also be used to cool things below the freezing point of water, perhaps to make ice cream.

68 Bit of skin ink, informally : TAT

The word “tattoo” (often shortened to “tat”) was first used in English in the writings of the famous English explorer Captain Cook. In his descriptions of the indelible marks adorning the skin of Polynesian natives, Cook anglicized the Tahitian word “tatau” into our “tattoo”. Tattoos are sometimes referred to as “ink”.

Down

1 Shaped like dice : CUBIC

The numbers on dice are arranged so that the opposite faces add up to seven. Given this arrangement, the numbers 1, 2 and 3 all meet at a common vertex. There are two ways of arranging the 1, 2 and 3 around the common vertex, a so-called right-handed die (clockwise 1-2-3) or a left-handed die (counterclockwise 1-2-3). Traditionally, dice used in Western cultures are right-handed, whereas Chinese dice are left-handed. Quite interesting …

2 Carne ___ (taco filling) : ASADA

The name of the dish called “carne asada” translates from Spanish as “roasted meat”.

3 Football team in Buffalo : BILLS

The Buffalo Bills NFL team, founded in 1959, was named after an earlier team with the same name that had merged with the Cleveland Browns back in 1950. The “Bills” name was obviously popular with fans, as the name was chosen in a public contest. The older team had been named for “Buffalo Bill” Cody. The team mascot is Billy Buffalo, and the cheerleaders are known as the Buffalo Jills.

5 Oxfam or Mercy Corps, e.g., in brief : NGO

Non-governmental organization (NGO)

Oxfam was founded in 1942 in Oxford, England, and was originally called the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief. The original mission of Oxfam was to persuade the British government to allow food into Greece during WWII in the days the country was occupied by the Axis Powers. The name OXFAM was adopted in 1965. Prior to that date, OXFAM was quite simply the organization’s telegraph address (remember telegraphs?).

8 ___ Rae (Sally Field title role) : NORMA

“Norma Rae” is a 1979 movie starring Sally Field as Norma Rae Webster in a tale of union activities in a textile factory in Alabama. The film is based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton told in a 1975 book called “Crystal Lee, a Woman of Inheritance”.

10 *Some fine porcelain : BONE CHINA

Bone china is so called because one of the main components is bone ash derived from animal bones.

The ceramic known as “porcelain” can be referred to as “china” or “fine china”, as porcelain was developed in China.

11 Beehive or French twist : UPDO

That distinctive beehive hairstyle is also called a B-52, because the round, beehive-shape also resembles the bulbous nose of a B-52 bomber! The style originated in 1958, and is credited to Margaret Vinci Heldt, the owner of a hair salon in downtown Chicago. I’m not a fan of the beehive, but I do have to say that Audrey Hepburn carried it off in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, as did Dusty Springfield in her heyday.

Apparently, French twist is the name of that updo hairstyle where a ponytail is twisted and lifted up to the top of the head and secured with pins or a clip. Not my forte …

15 A cook might have a secret one : RECIPE

The Latin “recipere” means “to take”, and the imperative form “recipe” was written at the top of medical prescriptions as an instruction, i.e. “take (the following)”. This use of “recipe” evolved into the instruction for preparing a dish of food in the mid-1700s.

17 Ludicrous failure : FIASCO

Back in the mid-1800s, “fiasco” was theater slang meaning “failure in performance”. The meaning morphed soon after into any kind of failure or flop. The term evolved from the Italian “far fiasco”, a phrase that had the same meaning in Italian theater, but translated literally as “make a bottle”. It turns out that “fiasco” and “flask” both derive from the Latin “flasco” meaning “bottle”.

23 Snoopy and Gromit, for two : BEAGLES

The beagle breed of dog is a scent hound, one developed for tracking small game. Because of this characteristic, beagles are often used as detection dogs in customs halls around the world. The world’s most famous beagle is probably Snoopy from the comic strip “Peanuts”.

Snoopy is the beagle owned by Charlie Brown in the “Peanuts” comic strip penned by Charles M. Schulz. Schulz told us in the strip that Snoopy has seven siblings: a sister Belle and four brothers, Spike, Andy, Marbles and Olaf. The remaining brother and sister weren’t named in the comic strip, but we did meet Rover and Molly in the 1991 TV special “Snoopy’s Reunion”.

“Wallace and Gromit” is a famous animation series from England that uses claymation and stop-motion technology. Wallace is a zany inventor who just loves cheese, especially Wensleydale. Gromit is Wallace’s pet dog, and his best friend.

27 Petty kerfuffle : TIFF

“Kerfuffle” comes from the Scottish “curfuffle”, with both words meaning “disruption”.

31 Country east of Niger : CHAD

The landlocked African country called Chad takes its name from the second largest wetland on the continent, which is known as Lake Chad.

32 In ___ straits : DIRE

To be in dire straits is to be in a very difficult situation. The phrase “in dire straits” originated in the world of sail, and is a reference to a vessel navigating a dangerous channel of water, a dire strait.

35 Narc’s org. : DEA

“Narc” and “narco” are slang terms describing a law enforcement officer who tracks down criminals associated with illegal drugs. Both words are short for “narcotics officer”. Narcs might work for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

40 Pitcher sent in to seal a win : CLOSER

That would be baseball.

47 Panic! at the Disco genre : EMO POP

Panic! at the Disco was formed as a pop rock band from Las Vegas in 2004. Two of the original four members left the group in 2009, to form their own band, and Panic! at the Disco was reinvented as a duo. One of the two remaining musicians also moved on, in 2015, leaving just the original lead vocalist Brendon Urie. Urie decided to continue performing as Panic! at the Disco, and treats it as a solo project.

54 Newborn horses : FOALS

There are lots of terms to describe horses of different ages and sexes, it seems:

  • Foal: horse of either sex that is less than one year old
  • Yearling: horse of either sex that is one to two years old
  • Filly: female horse under the age of four
  • Colt: male horse under the age of four
  • Gelding: castrated male horse of any age
  • Stallion: non-castrated male horse four years or older
  • Mare: female horse four years or older

56 It can be verde or roja : SALSA

“Salsa” is simply Spanish for “sauce”.

58 “Sin City” co-star Jessica : ALBA

Actress Jessica Alba got her big break when she was cast in the Fox science fiction show “Dark Angel”. Alba had a tough life growing up as she spent a lot of time in hospital and so found it difficult to develop friendships. As a youngster she twice had a collapsed lung, frequently caught pneumonia, suffered from asthma, had a ruptured appendix and a tonsillar cyst. On top of all that, Alba acknowledges that she suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder as a child.

“Sin City” is a 2005 thriller movie that is based on a series of graphic novels by Frank Miller. Miller also co-directs the film. “Sin City” has a large ensemble cast that includes Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Benicio del Toro, Clive Owen and Mickey Rourke. The author Frank Miller even plays a role himself.

60 Waistcoat : VEST

Here’s another word that often catches me out. What we call a vest here in the US is a waistcoat back in Ireland. And, the Irish use the word “vest” for an undershirt.

64 Airport grp. : TSA

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the agency that employs the good folks who check passengers and baggage at airports.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Cozy home in the woods : CABIN
6 Cooking vessels for omelets : PANS
10 Ask for, as a cigarette, informally : BUM
13 Putting to work : USING
14 Box office dud : FLOP
15 Lasso material : ROPE
16 *High-energy person, metaphorically : BALL OF FIRE
18 Means justifiers, it’s said : ENDS
19 Nothing doing? : IDLE
20 “Who’s there?” response : IT’S ME
21 Corp. honchos : CEOS
22 Melon with a yellow rind : CASABA
24 Strategic maneuver : TACTIC
26 Ending with Oktober or gab : -FEST
28 Rap culture : HIP-HOP
31 Obsolescent music purchases, in brief : CDS
34 Low-pH liquids : ACIDS
37 Liberty Mutual alternative : GEICO
38 Single, double or triple, in baseball : HIT
39 Dog command … or a hint to the starts of the answers to the four starred clues : GO FETCH!
41 Org. for Penguins and Ducks : NHL
42 Popular sans-serif typeface : ARIAL
44 Geological rift : FAULT
45 “You’ve got mail!” I.S.P. : AOL
46 Official order : DECREE
48 Christmas song : NOEL
50 Fate : KISMET
53 Major blunders : SNAFUS
57 Fliers that may consume thousands of insects in an hour : BATS
59 Pimiento-stuffed treat : OLIVE
61 ___ fide : BONA
62 Soothing succulent : ALOE
63 *Documentation leading to proof : PAPER TRAIL
65 Hieroglyphic bird : IBIS
66 R&B great Redding : OTIS
67 Tries to deice, as winter roads : SALTS
68 Bit of skin ink, informally : TAT
69 Cooped (up) : PENT
70 Totally lost : AT SEA

Down

1 Shaped like dice : CUBIC
2 Carne ___ (taco filling) : ASADA
3 Football team in Buffalo : BILLS
4 Blooming with foliage : IN LEAF
5 Oxfam or Mercy Corps, e.g., in brief : NGO
6 [Gone … just like that!] : [PFFT!]
7 Like red-carpet celebrities : A-LIST
8 ___ Rae (Sally Field title role) : NORMA
9 Oration : SPEECH
10 *Some fine porcelain : BONE CHINA
11 Beehive or French twist : UPDO
12 Kitchen description after Spaghetti Sunday : MESS
15 A cook might have a secret one : RECIPE
17 Ludicrous failure : FIASCO
23 Snoopy and Gromit, for two : BEAGLES
25 Turn clockwise, as a screw : TIGHTEN
27 Petty kerfuffle : TIFF
29 Eight: Sp. : OCHO
30 Opinion survey : POLL
31 Country east of Niger : CHAD
32 In ___ straits : DIRE
33 *”Don’t quit now!” : STICK TO IT!
35 Narc’s org. : DEA
36 Leave astounded : STUN
40 Pitcher sent in to seal a win : CLOSER
43 Crops up : ARISES
47 Panic! at the Disco genre : EMO POP
49 One navigating a maze, maybe : LAB RAT
51 Give joy : ELATE
52 Basketball rebound play : TIP-IN
54 Newborn horses : FOALS
55 Join forces : UNITE
56 It can be verde or roja : SALSA
57 Worm on a hook, e.g. : BAIT
58 “Sin City” co-star Jessica : ALBA
60 Waistcoat : VEST
64 Airport grp. : TSA