0814-19 NY Times Crossword 14 Aug 19, Wednesday

Constructed by: David J. Kahn
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer (s): Woodstock

Circled letters in themed answers spell out the names of performers who famously appeared at WOODSTOCK in THE CATSKILLS:

  • 63A Iconic August 1969 music festival, four of whose performers appear in the answers to 17-, 36-, 46- and 55-Across : WOODSTOCK
  • 20A Upstate New York area where 63-Across was held : THE CATSKILLS
  • 17A Casserole dish in a trattoria : BAKED ZITI (hiding “BAEZ”)
  • 36A West Coast city with a popular pier : SANTA MONICA (hiding “SANTANA”)
  • 46A Structures in some old town squares : CLOCK TOWERS (hiding “COCKER”)
  • 55A Interviewee, maybe : JOB APPLICANT (hiding “JOPLIN”)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Mulligan, in golf : REDO

There doesn’t seem to be a definitive account for the origin of the term “mulligan”, which is most often used for a shot do-over in golf. There are lots of stories about golfers named Mulligan though, and I suspect that one of them may be true …

9 Spice added to apple cider : CLOVE

Cloves are the flower buds of the tree Syzygium aromaticum. Until a couple of centuries ago, clove trees were only found in the Maluku Islands in Indonesia. Because they were a rich source of cloves, mace and nutmeg, the Moluccas were referred to historically as the Spice Islands.

14 Cameo, for one : ROLE

Even in my day, a cameo role was more than just a short appearance in a movie (or other artistic piece). For the appearance to be a cameo, the actor had to playing himself or herself, and was instantly recognizable. With this meaning it’s easy to see the etymology of the term, as a cameo brooch is one with the recognizable carving of the silhouette of a person. Nowadays, a cameo is any minor role played by a celebrity or famous actor, regardless of the character played.

15 Sheik … or his mount : ARAB

The Arab (also “Arabian”) breed of horse takes its name from its original home, the Arabian Peninsula. Like any animal that humans have over-bred, the horse falls prey to genetic diseases, some of which are fatal and some of which require the horse to be euthanized.

17 Casserole dish in a trattoria : BAKED ZITI (hiding “BAEZ”)

Cylindrical pasta is known in general as “penne”, and there are many variants. For example, ziti is a particularly large and long tube with square-cut ends. “Penne” is the plural of “penna”, the Italian for “feather, quill”.

Joan Baez is an American folk singer and a prominent activist in the fields of non-violence, civil rights, human rights and environmental protection. Baez has dated some high-profile figures in her life including Bob Dylan, Steve Jobs (of Apple) and Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead.

22 Boy soprano in a Menotti opera : AMAHL

The composer Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors” has a special place in the repertoire, in that it is the first opera specifically composed for American television. “Amahl and the Night Visitors” was commissioned by NBC and had its debut at the NBC studios in Rockefeller Center on Christmas Eve, 1951. In today’s world of commercially-driven television, I can’t imagine a network commissioning a classical work …

25 “___ sells seashells …” : SHE

She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore.
The shells she sells are sea-shells, I’m sure.
For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore
Then I’m sure she sells sea-shore shells.

30 Repeated cry from Richard III, in Shakespeare : A HORSE!

“Richard III” is one of the more famous of William Shakespeare’s historical plays. A well-known 1955 version of the play was made for the big screen with Laurence Olivier playing the title role. The most oft-quoted words from “Richard III” are probably the opening lines “Now is the winter of our discontent/Made glorious summer by this sun of York”, and Richard’s plea at the climax of battle “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!”

36 West Coast city with a popular pier : SANTA MONICA (hiding “SANTANA”)

Santa Monica, California lies on Santa Monica Bay and is in Los Angeles County. The city is home to the world-famous Santa Monica Pier, which opened in 1909.

Santana is a Latin rock band formed by guitarist Carlos Santana in San Francisco in 1967. Santana’s big break came with a well-received performance at Woodstock in 1969, before which the band was completely unknown.

38 “___ God” (2013 Eminem hit) : RAP

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 …

39 J.F.K. or L.B.J.: Abbr. : INITS

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) was the son of Joe Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald, hence the president’s double-barreled name.

Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) was born in Stonewall, Texas to Samuel Ealy Johnson, Jr. and Rebekah Baines.

40 Burton of “Roots” : LEVAR

Actor LeVar Burton is very much associated with two iconic roles on television: young Kunta Kinte in “Roots”, and Geordi La Forge in “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. Burton also hosted the children’s PBS show “Reading Rainbow” for many years. His portrayal of Kunta Kinte in 1977 was Burton’s first acting job. Indeed, Burton’s audition for the part was the first in his professional career!

Not only did Alex Haley author the magnificent novel “Roots”, he was also the collaborator with Malcolm X on “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”. His 1976 novel “Roots” is based on Haley’s own family history, and he claimed to be a direct descendant of the real life Kunta Kinte, the slave who was kidnapped in the Gambia in 1767. If you remember the original television adaptation of “Roots”, you might recall that Kunta Kinte was played by LeVar Burton, who later went on to play another famous role, Geordi La Forge on “Star Trek: the Next Generation”.

46 Structures in some old town squares : CLOCK TOWERS (hiding “COCKER”)

Joe Cocker is an English rock and blues singer from Sheffield in the North of England who is noted for his gritty and raspy voice. Cocker has had many hits, several of which are cover versions of songs. Included in the list is “With a Little Help from My Friends”, “Cry Me a River”, “You Are So Beautiful” and “Up Where We Belong”.

48 Showy neckwear : LEI

“Lei” is the Hawaiian word for “garland, wreath”, although in more general terms a lei is any series of objects strung together as an adornment for the body.

49 Mother ___ : TERESA

Mother Teresa was born in 1910 in the city that is now called Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. At birth she was given the names Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (“Gonxha” means “little flower” in Albanian). She left home at the age of 18 and joined the Sisters of Loreto, and headed to Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham in Dublin, Ireland in order to learn English. Her goal was to teach in India, and English was the language used there for instruction by the nuns. After Mother Teresa passed away in 1997 she was beatified by Pope John Paul II. She was canonized by Pope Francis in 2016, and is now known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

50 TV pundit Navarro : ANA

Ana Navarro is a Nicaraguan-born American political strategist and commentator. Navarro is a lifelong Republican who worked for Governor Jeb Bush and for Senator John McCain. However, she was very critical of presidential candidate Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign. She was so vehement in her anti-Trump views that she ended up voting for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the election.

55 Interviewee, maybe : JOB APPLICANT (hiding “JOPLIN”)

Famously, the singer Janis Joplin died from an overdose of heroin when she was just 27 years old. That puts her in the “27 Club”, a group of famous rock and blues musicians who died at the same age. In the club along with Joplin, are Brian Jones (of the Rolling Stones), Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison and a few others.

62 Formal (and maybe overly dramatic) goodbye : ADIEU

“Adieu” is the French for “goodbye, farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God”. The plural of “adieu” is “adieux”.

63 Iconic August 1969 music festival, four of whose performers appear in the answers to 17-, 36-, 46- and 55-Across : WOODSTOCK

1969’s Woodstock Music & Art Fair was held on a dairy farm located 43 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York. 400,000 young people attended, and saw 32 bands and singers perform over three days.

67 Intolerant sort : BIGOT

“Bigot” is a French word that back in the late 1500s meant “sanctimonious person, religious hypocrite”. We use the term today to describe someone who is biased towards his or her own group, and who is intolerant of those outside of that group.

69 Comprehensive, in ed-speak : ELHI

“Elhi” is an informal word used to describe anything related to schooling from kindergarten through grade 12, i.e. elementary through high school.

71 School with the motto “Lux et veritas” : YALE

“Lux et veritas” translates from Latin as “Light and Truth”. “Lux et veritas” is used as a motto of several universities including Indiana University, the University of Montana and Yale University. However, Yale’s motto is often given in Hebrew, as “Urim and Thummim”.

Down

1 Wall St. pro : ARB

An arbitrageur (arb.) is someone one who profits from the purchase of securities in one market and the subsequent sale in another, by taking advantage of price discrepancies across markets.

5 Demolish : RAZE

To raze (“rase”, in UK English) is to level to the ground. I’ve always thought it a little quirky that “raise”, a homophone of “raze”, means “build up”.

7 Contents of spreadsheets : DATA

Our word “data” (singular “datum”) comes from the Latin “datum” meaning “given”. The idea is that data are “things given”.

8 Closing statements? : OBITS

Our word “obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”. The Latin term was used for “record of the death of a person”, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

9 Some mixed martial arts grips : CHOKE HOLDS

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport in which competitors use a variety of techniques from a variety of traditional combat sports and martial arts.

10 Actress Anderson : LONI

Loni Anderson’s best-remembered role was Jennifer Marlowe on the sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati”. Anderson has been married four times, most famously to actor Burt Reynolds from 1988 to 1993.

11 ___ Office : OVAL

Although there have been several “oval” offices used by US presidents in the White House, the current Oval Office was designed and constructed at the bequest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The room has four doors. One door opens onto the Rose Garden; a second door leads to a small study and dining room; a third opens onto the main corridor running through the West Wing; the fourth door opens to the office of the president’s secretary.

18 FedEx alternative : DHL

Back in the sixties, Larry Hillblom was making pocket money as a Berkeley law student by doing courier runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. After law school, Hillblom decided to parlay his experience into his own business and set up a courier service flying bills of lading ahead of freight from San Francisco to Honolulu. He brought in two buddies, Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn, as partners and the three were soon hopping on and off commercial flights and gradually making more and more money. And DHL was born … D (for Dalsey) H (for Hillblom) L (for Lynn). DHL was acquired by Germany’s Deutsche Post in 2002.

21 Fake : SHAM

A sham is something that is imitation, fake. In the world of bed linens, a sham is also an imitation or fake, in the sense that it is a decorative cover designed to cover up a regular pillow used for sleeping.

28 Architect Jones : INIGO

Inigo Jones was a British architect, and a native of London. The most famous Jones’s design is probably London’s Covent Garden Square.

29 Capital whose name derives from the Ojibwa word for “traders” : OTTAWA

Ottawa is the second-largest city in the Province of Ontario (after Toronto) and is the capital city of Canada. The name “Ottawa” comes from an Algonquin word “adawe”, which means “to trade”.

36 Holes out on the green : SINKS A PUTT

That would be golf.

37 Poplar variety : ASPEN

The “quaking” aspen tree is so called because the structure of the leaves causes them to move easily in the wind, to “tremble, quake”.

44 Hoover has one named for him : ERA

President Herbert Hoover was born in West Branch, Iowa, and is the only president to have been born in that state. His birthplace is now a National Landmark, and he and his wife were buried in the grounds of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch. President Hoover died at the age of 90 years old in 1964, outliving his nemesis Franklin Delano Roosevelt by almost 20 years.

47 Infield shield : TARP

Originally, tarpaulins were made from canvas covered in tar that rendered the material waterproof. The word “tarpaulin” comes from “tar” and “palling”, with “pall” meaning “heavy cloth covering”.

53 QB-turned-football exec John : ELWAY

Former quarterback John Elway played his entire professional football career with the Denver Broncos. Elway was the oldest player ever to be named MVP in a Super Bowl game, being so honored in Super Bowl XXXIII in the 1998 season after the Broncos’ victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

54 Hosp. staffers : RNS

Registered nurse (RN)

56 Keatsian, e.g. : ODIC

English poet John Keats died in Rome in 1821, and is buried there in the Protestant Cemetery. His last wish was that his grave be marked with a tombstone bearing just the words “”Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water”, and no name nor a date. Keats’ friends honored his request to some extent, as the words were included on the stone and no name is given. The full epitaph reads:

This Grave
contains all that was Mortal
of a
Young English Poet
Who
on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his Heart
at the Malicious Power of his Enemies
Desired
these Words to be
engraven on his Tomb Stone:
Here lies One
Whose Name was writ in Water.
24 February 1821

57 Nickname for Angel Stadium, with “the” : BIG A

Angel Stadium of Anaheim is sometimes called the Big A. The Big A opened for business in 1966, making it the fourth oldest stadium in the major leagues, after Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium.

58 Very long time : AEON

Geological time is divided into a number of units of varying lengths. These are, starting from the largest:

  • supereon
  • eon (also “aeon”)
  • era
  • period
  • epoch
  • age

59 Smidge : IOTA

Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet, and one that gave rise to our letters I and J. We use the word “iota” to portray something very small, as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.

Our word “smidgen” (sometimes shortened to “smidge”) is used to describe a small amount. The term might come from the Scots word “smitch” that means the same thing or “a small insignificant person”.

60 Hunky-dory : COOL

Surprisingly (to me), the term “hunky-dory” has been around a long time, and is documented back in the mid-1800s. Nobody’s really sure of its origin, but some say it is an Anglicization of Honcho dori, that back in the day was a street of ill repute in Yokohama, Japan.

61 Wood shaper : ADZE

An adze (also “adz”) is similar to an axe, but is different in that the blade of an adze is set at right angles to the tool’s shaft. An axe blade is set in line with the shaft.

65 Greek X : CHI

The Greek letter chi is the one that looks like our letter X.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Not much : A BIT
5 Mulligan, in golf : REDO
9 Spice added to apple cider : CLOVE
14 Cameo, for one : ROLE
15 Sheik … or his mount : ARAB
16 Be overly protective : HOVER
17 Casserole dish in a trattoria : BAKED ZITI (hiding “BAEZ”)
19 Broadcaster’s alert : ON AIR
20 Upstate New York area where 63-Across was held : THE CATSKILLS
22 Boy soprano in a Menotti opera : AMAHL
25 “___ sells seashells …” : SHE
26 Cause of shore erosion : TIDE
27 A few lines on one’s Twitter profile, say : BIO
30 Repeated cry from Richard III, in Shakespeare : A HORSE!
35 Singing syllable : TRA
36 West Coast city with a popular pier : SANTA MONICA (hiding “SANTANA”)
38 “___ God” (2013 Eminem hit) : RAP
39 J.F.K. or L.B.J.: Abbr. : INITS
40 Burton of “Roots” : LEVAR
41 Be a cast member of : ACT IN
43 Looked shocked, maybe : GAPED
45 See 31-Down : ALL
46 Structures in some old town squares : CLOCK TOWERS (hiding “COCKER”)
48 Showy neckwear : LEI
49 Mother ___ : TERESA
50 TV pundit Navarro : ANA
51 Tiny inheritance? : GENE
52 “What ___ the odds?” : ARE
54 Less mannerly : RUDER
55 Interviewee, maybe : JOB APPLICANT (hiding “JOPLIN”)
62 Formal (and maybe overly dramatic) goodbye : ADIEU
63 Iconic August 1969 music festival, four of whose performers appear in the answers to 17-, 36-, 46- and 55-Across : WOODSTOCK
67 Intolerant sort : BIGOT
68 Comprehensive : A TO Z
69 Comprehensive, in ed-speak : ELHI
70 Meager : SCANT
71 School with the motto “Lux et veritas” : YALE
72 Symbol of control : REIN

Down

1 Wall St. pro : ARB
2 Showy neckwear : BOA
3 Sort : ILK
4 Get a bite? : TEETHE
5 Demolish : RAZE
6 Michael ___ Dyson, author on race, politics and culture : ERIC
7 Contents of spreadsheets : DATA
8 Closing statements? : OBITS
9 Some mixed martial arts grips : CHOKE HOLDS
10 Actress Anderson : LONI
11 ___ Office : OVAL
12 Bridal wear : VEIL
13 Goes amiss : ERRS
18 FedEx alternative : DHL
21 Fake : SHAM
22 What opposites may do : ATTRACT
23 One-in-a-million save, say : MIRACLE
24 Item that might be packed for a foreign trip : ADAPTOR
27 Proscription : BAN
28 Architect Jones : INIGO
29 Capital whose name derives from the Ojibwa word for “traders” : OTTAWA
31 With 45-Across, low draw in soccer : ONE
32 Competed with : RIVALED
33 Like a triangle with unequal sides : SCALENE
34 In the past : EARLIER
36 Holes out on the green : SINKS A PUTT
37 Poplar variety : ASPEN
42 Finish, as a cake : ICE
44 Hoover has one named for him : ERA
47 Infield shield : TARP
51 Idiomatic setting for a dirty mind : GUTTER
53 QB-turned-football exec John : ELWAY
54 Hosp. staffers : RNS
55 Biting comments : JABS
56 Keatsian, e.g. : ODIC
57 Nickname for Angel Stadium, with “the” : BIG A
58 Very long time : AEON
59 Smidge : IOTA
60 Hunky-dory : COOL
61 Wood shaper : ADZE
64 Yell with an accent : OLE!
65 Greek X : CHI
66 Many wedding guests : KIN