0608-21 NY Times Crossword 8 Jun 21, Tuesday

Constructed by: Christopher Adams
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme (according to Bill) Is H Added?

Themed answers are common two-word phrases with a letter H added at the end of the first word:

  • 20A Checkout devices at Dublin supermarkets? : IRISH SCANNERS (from “iris scanners”)
  • 34A Urban area around a church district? : PARISH METRO (from “Paris Metro”)
  • 40A Claim that a language in “The Lord of the Rings” is not extinct? : ELVISH LIVES (from “Elvis lives!”)
  • 52A Suggestion to friends on when to meet for lunch? : TENNISH, ANYONE? (from “Tennis, anyone?”)

Bill’s time: 9m 23s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9 Transparent hospital container, informally : IV BAG

One might see an intravenous drip (IV) in an intensive care unit (ICU), operating room (OR) or emergency room (ER).

16 With 22-Down, star of TV’s “Claws” : NIECY …
22D See 16-Across : … NASH

Niecy Nash is a comedian and actress who played Deputy Raineesha Williams in the comedy show “Reno 911!” Nash is one of the celebrities to have participated in the reality competition “Dancing with the Stars”, taking fifth place in the tenth season.

17 Actress Russell : KERI

Actress Keri Russell’s big break in television came with the title role in the drama show “Felicity” that ran from 1998 from 2002. The lead character in the show is Felicity Porter, a young lady introduced to the audience with a head of long curly blonde hair. Famously, Russell cut her hair extremely short at the start of the second season, an action that was associated with a significant drop in the show’s viewership. Russell had to grow out her hair over the season. I haven’t seen “Felicity”, but I really do enjoy Russell playing one of the leads in the entertaining Cold War drama called “The Americans” that is aired by FX.

18 Descartes who said “Cogito, ergo sum” : RENE

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”.

20 Checkout devices at Dublin supermarkets? : IRISH SCANNERS (from “iris scanners”)

The city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland, is known as “Baile Átha Cliath” in Irish (“town of the hurdled ford”). The English name “Dublin” is an anglicized form of the older Irish name for the city “Dubh Linn”, meaning “black pool”.

23 Ixnay : VETO
65D “Amscray!” : SHOO!

Pig Latin is in effect a game. One takes the first consonant or consonant cluster of an English word and moves it to the end of the word, and then adds the letters “ay”. So, the Pig Latin for the word “nix” is “ixnay” (ix-n-ay), and for “scram” is “amscray” (am-scr-ay).

24 Figure 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.

34 Urban area around a church district? : PARISH METRO (from “Paris Metro”)

The Paris Métro is the busiest underground transportation system in western Europe. The network carries about 4.5 million passengers a day, which is about the same ridership as the New York City Subway. The system took its name from the company that originally operated it, namely “La Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris”, which was shortened to “Métro”. The term “Metro” was then adopted for similar systems in cities all over the world.

36 Footnote abbr. : IBID

Ibid. is short for the Latin word “ibidem” and is typically found in footnotes and bibliographies. Ibid. is used to refer the reader to the prior citation, instead of giving the same information all over again (title, author etc.).

38 Lead-in to an alias : AKA …

Also known as (aka)

39 “Sorry Not Sorry” singer Lovato : DEMI

Pop and R&B singer Demi Lovato started her performing career as a child actress, playing Angela on the kids TV show “Barney & Friends” from 2002 to 2004. When she was all grown up, Levato served as a judge on “The X Factor” from 2012 to 2013, and soon after had the recurring role of Dani on “Glee”.

40 Claim that a language in “The Lord of the Rings” is not extinct? : ELVISH LIVES (from “Elvis lives!”)

The popular phrase “Elvis has left the building” has its roots in the concerts given by the King in his heyday. It was normal for fans to hang around after a performance in hopes of seeing their idol one more time. This became such an issue that an announcement was routinely made that “Elvis has left the building”.

47 Bubbly mixers : SELTZERS

The term “seltzer” comes from the village of Selters in Germany. Selters has natural springs of carbonated mineral water that is bottled and sold as Selters water. In English-speaking countries, the name has morphed into “Seltzer” water.

49 Peddle : HAWK

The verb “to hawk” has a Germanic origin, and comes from the Low German word “hoken” meaning “to peddle”. A hawker is actually slightly different from a peddler by definition, as a hawker is a peddler that uses a horse and cart, or a van nowadays perhaps, to sell his or her wares.

In its purest sense, a peddler is someone who sells his or her wares on the street or from door to door. The term probably comes from the Latin “pedarius” meaning “one who goes on foot”.

57 “Precision crafted performance” sloganeer : ACURA

Acura is the luxury brand of the Honda Motor Company. As an aside, Infiniti is the equivalent luxury brand for the Nissan Motor Company, and Lexus is the more luxurious version of Toyota’s models.

59 One-named singer with a 1988 Best Actress Oscar : CHER

“Cher” is the stage name used by singer and actress Cherilyn Sarkisian. Formerly one half of husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher, she is often referred to as the Goddess of Pop. In her acting career, Cher was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar of 1984 for her performance in “Silkwood”. She went further in 1988 and won the season’s Best Actress Oscar for playing Loretta Castorini in “Moonstruck”.

61 Tempter of Odysseus : SIREN

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were seductive bird-women who lured men to their deaths with their song. When Odysseus sailed close to the island home of the Sirens he wanted to hear their voices, but in safety. He had his men plug their ears with beeswax and then ordered them to tie him to the mast and not to free him until they were safe. On hearing their song Odysseus begged to be let loose, but the sailors just tightened his bonds and the whole crew sailed away unharmed. We sometimes use the term “siren” today to describe a seductively charming woman.

62 Nintendo’s Mario ___ : KART

“Mario Kart” is a go-kart racing video game series from Nintendo.

63 Quechua speaker of old : INCA

Quechua was the Native-American language adopted by the Incan Empire and favored over other dialects. Today, Quechua is one of the official languages in Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, alongside Spanish.

64 “Bear” with black eye patches : PANDA

Taxonomic classification of the giant panda has been a subject of great debate for years, the main question being whether it belongs to the bear or raccoon family. The accepted opinion these days, based on molecular studies, seems to be that the panda is in fact a true bear.

Down

1 “The Open Window” story writer : SAKI

Hector Hugh Munro was a British writer, actually born in Burma. Munro was famous for his short stories, which he published using the pen name “Saki”. His most well-known story is “The Open Window”, which ends with the great line “Romance at short notice was her specialty”.

2 Set of six bowls, in cricket : OVER

Cricket is the national game of England. The term “cricket” apparently comes from the Old French word “criquet” meaning “goalpost, stick”.

3 Cosine vis-à-vis sine : DERIVATIVE

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.

5 Slim Shady, for Eminem : PERSONA

The Shady Records label was founded by rapper Eminem and his manager in 1999. The label’s name comes from Eminem’s album “The Slim Shady LP” released earlier that year.

6 International grp. founded 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.

7 Funny Fey : TINA

Comedian and actress Tina Fey was born Elizabeth Stamatina Fey in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Fey is perhaps best known to television viewers as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” (1997-2006), and as the creator and star of the sitcom “30 Rock” (2006-2013).

8 What a bloodhound follows : SCENT

Bloodhounds have an amazing sense of smell, and have been bred to track humans in particular. Bloodhounds have been used to follow humans since the Middle Ages.

11 Nectar collectors : BEES

The waggle dance is a behavior exhibited by bees that informs other members of the hive about the direction and distance to a supply of nectar. Apparently the meaning of the dance “moves” are fairly well understood. The direction of the dance relative to the sun indicates the direction to the nectar source. The length of time spent “waggling” in one direction indicates how far away the source is.

12 Signature Obama legislation, in brief : ACA

The correct name for what has been dubbed “Obamacare” is the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (ACA).

13 Spot for some reps : GYM

Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed in ancient Greece.

21 Internet address starter : HTTP

“http” are the first letters in many Internet links. “http” stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. More secure and “safer” websites (like this one!) use links starting with “https”, which stands for “http secure”).

25 Cornell and Columbia, for two : IVIES

The term “Ivy League” originally defined an athletic conference, but now it is used to describe a group of schools of higher education that are associated with both a long tradition and academic excellence. The eight Ivy League Schools are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.

Columbia University is an Ivy League school in New York City. Columbia’s athletic teams are called the Lions, which is thought to be a reference to the lion on the English coat of arms. Prior to the American Revolution, Columbia was called King’s College as it was chartered by King George II in 1754.

Ezra Cornell was an associate of Samuel Morse and made his money in the telegraph business. After he retired he co-founded Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He provided a generous endowment and donated his farm as a site for the school, and was then rewarded by having the institute named after him.

28 Websites that allow collaborative editing : WIKIS

A wiki is a website on which users are allowed to create and edit content themselves. The term “wiki” comes from the name of the first such site, introduced in 1994 and called WikiWikiWeb. “Wiki” is a Hawaiian word for “quick”, and is used because comprehensive content is created very quickly, as there are so many collaborators contributing to the site.

30 QB with the most touchdown passes in a single Super Bowl (six) : STEVE YOUNG

Brigham Young was the second President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Young believed in and practiced polygamy, so he has a large family of descendants. One of his more famous great-great-great-grandsons is Steve Young, the retired quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.

35 It might be represented by a floppy disk icon : SAVE

I don’t think my kids really know what a floppy disk is. A floppy disk is made up of a thin and flexible magnetic material that can store data, enclosed in a protective case. I’ve used 8-inch floppies in my time, and many 5.25-inch floppy disks. Until fairly recently, I had a desktop that would take 3.5-inch disks, although I think the last 3.5-inch floppy disappeared from the house several years ago …

41 Doo-wop group with six songs on the “Grease” soundtrack : SHA NA NA

Do you remember the band “Johnny Casino & The Gamblers” in the movie “Grease”? That was actually the real-world group named Sha Na Na. Johnny Casino & the Gamblers sang “Those Magic Changes” at the high school dance, in between “Rock’N Roll Is Here to Stay” and “Hound Dog”. Sha Na Na got together in the sixties, hosted the variety show “Sha Na Na” from 1977 to 1981, and are still performing today.

“Grease” was, and still is, a very successful stage musical with a blockbuster film version released in 1978. The movie stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Travolta wasn’t the first choice for the lead role. It was first offered to Henry Winkler of “Happy Days” fame in which he played “the Fonz”. Winkler turned down the role for fear of being typecast as a leather-clad fifties “hood”.

43 Alter ego for Homer’s son on “The Simpsons” : EL BARTO

Bart Simpson is the main character in television’s “The Simpsons”. Bart’s name was chosen by the writers as it is an anagram of “brat”. Bart is voiced by actress and comedian Nancy Cartwright.

48 Common golf course grass : ZOYSIA

Zoysia is a creeping grass that is widely used for lawns in temperate climates.

53 Old Iranian leader : SHAH

The last Shah of Iran was Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was overthrown in the revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. The post-revolution government sought the extradition of the Shah back to Iran while he was in the United States seeking medical care (he had cancer). His prolonged stay in the United States, recovering from surgery, caused some unrest back in Iran and resentment towards the United States. Some say that this resentment precipitated the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran and the resulting hostage crisis.

54 Footlong, maybe : HERO

A hero is a submarine sandwich. The hero originated in New York City in the 1800s among Italian immigrants who wanted an Italian sandwich that reminded them of home. The name “hero” was coined in the 1930s, supposedly by a food critic in the “New York Herald Tribune” when he wrote that “one had to be a hero” to finish the gigantic sandwich. Hero is a prevalent term to this day in New York City, reserved for a submarine sandwich with an Italian flavor.

56 Greek H’s : ETAS

Eta is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a forerunner of our Latin character “H”. Originally denoting a consonant, eta was used as a long vowel in Ancient Greek.

57 “Raiders of the Lost Ark” snake : ASP

The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.

“Raiders of the Lost Ark” is, in my humble opinion, the best of the Indiana Jones franchise of movies. This first Indiana Jones film was released in 1981, produced by George Lucas and directed by Steven Spielberg. Harrison Ford was Spielberg’s first choice to play the lead, but Lucas resisted as he was concerned that he would be too closely associated with the actor (as Ford played Han Solo in “Star Wars”, and also appeared in Lucas’s “American Graffiti”). Tom Selleck was offered the role but he couldn’t get out of his commitments to “Magnum, P.I.” Eventually Spielberg got his way and Ford was hired, a good thing I say …

58 Bad place for a mole, for short : CIA

A mole is a spy who works from within the ranks of an enemy’s government of intelligence service. The use of “mole” took off after the publication of John Le Carré’s 1974 novel “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”. The author was himself a former intelligence officer and asserts that “mole” was a term used by the KGB, whereas Western agencies used the term “sleeper agent”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Part of a combo meal : SODA
5 Stew containers : POTS
9 Transparent hospital container, informally : IV BAG
14 Claim confidently : AVER
15 ___ Games, maker of Fortnite : EPIC
16 With 22-Down, star of TV’s “Claws” : NIECY …
17 Actress Russell : KERI
18 Descartes who said “Cogito, ergo sum” : RENE
19 Letter-shaped construction piece : T-BEAM
20 Checkout devices at Dublin supermarkets? : IRISH SCANNERS (from “iris scanners”)
23 Ixnay : VETO
24 Figure skater Lipinski : TARA
25 “Too busy at the moment” : I CAN’T NOW
29 Occupies, as a desk : SITS AT
33 Winery container : VAT
34 Urban area around a church district? : PARISH METRO (from “Paris Metro”)
36 Footnote abbr. : IBID
38 Lead-in to an alias : AKA …
39 “Sorry Not Sorry” singer Lovato : DEMI
40 Claim that a language in “The Lord of the Rings” is not extinct? : ELVISH LIVES (from “Elvis lives!”)
45 Button on a remote: Abbr. : VOL
46 Stew, steam or boil : SEETHE
47 Bubbly mixers : SELTZERS
49 Peddle : HAWK
51 Marina marker : BUOY
52 Suggestion to friends on when to meet for lunch? : TENNISH, ANYONE? (from “Tennis, anyone?”)
57 “Precision crafted performance” sloganeer : ACURA
59 One-named singer with a 1988 Best Actress Oscar : CHER
60 Look attractive on : SUIT
61 Tempter of Odysseus : SIREN
62 Nintendo’s Mario ___ : KART
63 Quechua speaker of old : INCA
64 “Bear” with black eye patches : PANDA
65 “Amscray!” : SHOO!
66 A lo-o-ong time : AGES

Down

1 “The Open Window” story writer : SAKI
2 Set of six bowls, in cricket : OVER
3 Cosine vis-à-vis sine : DERIVATIVE
4 Gotten up : ARISEN
5 Slim Shady, for Eminem : PERSONA
6 International grp. founded in Baghdad : OPEC
7 Funny Fey : TINA
8 What a bloodhound follows : SCENT
9 Temporary : INTERIM
10 Gave a soundless alert : VIBRATED
11 Nectar collectors : BEES
12 Signature Obama legislation, in brief : ACA
13 Spot for some reps : GYM
21 Internet address starter : HTTP
22 See 16-Across : … NASH
25 Cornell and Columbia, for two : IVIES
26 Monthly cost, for many : CABLE
27 Like many unofficial agreements : ORAL
28 Websites that allow collaborative editing : WIKIS
30 QB with the most touchdown passes in a single Super Bowl (six) : STEVE YOUNG
31 Full metal jacket? : ARMOR
32 Works hard : TOILS
35 It might be represented by a floppy disk icon : SAVE
37 Hemmed and hawed : DITHERED
41 Doo-wop group with six songs on the “Grease” soundtrack : SHA NA NA
42 Cut down : HEWN
43 Alter ego for Homer’s son on “The Simpsons” : EL BARTO
44 Shock : STUN
48 Common golf course grass : ZOYSIA
50 Thrills : KICKS
52 Go bad : TURN
53 Old Iranian leader : SHAH
54 Footlong, maybe : HERO
55 “I like what you did there” : NICE
56 Greek H’s : ETAS
57 “Raiders of the Lost Ark” snake : ASP
58 Bad place for a mole, for short : CIA