0311-21 NY Times Crossword 11 Mar 21, Thursday

Constructed by: Leslie Rogers
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Spring Forward

Themed answers are common phrases with a time that has SPRUNG FORWARD by an hour:

  • 60A Observe daylight saving time, in a way … as in 17-, 29- and 54-Across? : SPRING FORWARD
  • 17A 1940 Arthur Koestler novel set during the Moscow Trials : DARKNESS AT ONE PM (from “Darkness at Noon”)
  • 29A Short stubble : SIX O’CLOCK SHADOW (from “five o’clock shadow”)
  • 54A Work very late : BURN THE ONE AM OIL (from “burn the midnight oil”)

Bill’s time: 11m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Kerfuffle : FUSS

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

10 Org. with lots of inspectors : OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

14 Contents of un río : AGUA

In Spanish, “agua” (water) is found in a “río” (river), and around an “isla” (island).

17 1940 Arthur Koestler novel set during the Moscow Trials : DARKNESS AT ONE PM (from “Darkness at Noon”)

The novel “Darkness at Noon” is the best-known work by Hungarian-British author Arthur Koestler. Koestler live the last four decades of his life in Britain, before committing suicide with his wife in their home in London in 1983.

24 Big public radio letters after “W” : -NYC

There are two WNYC radio stations, both of which are based in New York City. Both stations (one AM, and one FM) are in the National Public Radio family.

26 Soup served with chopsticks : PHO

Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is a noodle soup from Vietnam that is a popular street food.

29 Short stubble : SIX O’CLOCK SHADOW (from “five o’clock shadow”)

A male might shave to remove his five o’clock shadow, a short growth of beard evident late in the day.

33 Any ghost, to Pac-Man : ENEMY

The Pac-Man arcade game was first released in Japan in 1980, and is as popular today as it ever was. The game features characters that are maneuvered around the screen to eat up dots and earn points, while being pursued by ghosts named Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. The name of the game comes from the Japanese folk hero “Paku”, who is known for his voracious appetite. The spin-off game called Ms. Pac-Man was released in 1981.

34 Randomizer : DIE

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 …

35 “Jacked” : SWOLE

“Swole” is an informal term meaning “very muscular”. Yeah, I hear that word all the time …

36 South Asian living abroad : DESI

People from the Indian subcontinent might refer to themselves as “desi”.

37 What might come with a flat fee : LEASE

“Flat”, in the sense of an apartment or condominium, is a word more commonly used in Britain and Ireland than on this side of the pond. The term “flat” is Scottish in origin, in which language it used to mean “floor in a house”.

42 “Now I ___ me …” : LAY

One of the prayers that I was taught as a child goes:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I shall die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

44 Abbr. in many an urban address : APT

Apartment (apt.)

51 Title with a tilde : SAO

In Portuguese, the word “são” can mean “saint”, as in São Paulo (Saint Paul) and São José (Saint Joseph). If the saint’s name starts with a letter H or with a vowel, then the word “santo” is used instead, as in Santo Agostinho (Saint Augustine) and Santo Antônio (Saint Anthony).

The tilde diacritical mark (~) is very much associated with the Spanish language. We use the name “tilde” in English, taking that name from Spanish. Confusingly, the word “tilde” in Spanish is used more generally to mean “accent mark, diacritic”, of which a “~” is just one. What we call a “tilde” in English is usually referred to as a “virgulilla” or “tilde de la eñe” in Spanish.

57 Author Wiesel : ELIE

Elie Wiesel was a holocaust survivor, and is best known for his book “Night” that tells of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. He was also the first recipient of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Award, which was later renamed the Elie Wiesel Award in his honor.

58 Safari runner, at times : IOS

iOS is what Apple now calls its mobile operating system. Previously, it was known as iPhone OS.

Safari is Apple’s flagship Internet browser, one that is used on its Mac line of computers. A mobile version of Safari is included with all iPhones.

59 Homeland of James Joyce : EIRE

Regular readers will know that I am unashamedly supportive of my native Irish culture, but I have to tell you that I can’t stand many of the works of James Joyce. I have spent many a fine day traipsing around Ireland learning about him, but I find myself more absorbed by Joyce’s life than by his writing. Having said that, “Ulysses” is an interesting novel in that it chronicles just one ordinary day in the life of a Dubliner named Leopold Bloom. There’s a huge celebration of “Ulysses” in Dublin every year on June 16th, called Bloomsday. The festivities vary from readings and performances of the storyline, to good old pub crawls. “Ulysses” was made into a film of the same name in 1967 starring Milo O’Shea.

60 Observe daylight saving time, in a way … as in 17-, 29- and 54-Across? : SPRING FORWARD

On the other side of the Atlantic, daylight saving time (DST) is known as “summer time”. The idea behind summer/daylight-savings is to move clocks forward an hour in spring (“spring forward”), and backwards in the fall (“fall back”) so that afternoons have more daylight. Here in the US, DST starts on the second Sunday of March, and ends on the first Sunday of November.

65 Buzz in a rocket : ALDRIN

Buzz Aldrin was a true American hero, I’d say. He flew 66 combat missions in Korea, shot down two MiGs, earned his Sc. D. degree from MIT, and was one of the two men who landed on the moon for the first time. Now that man, he lived a life worth living.

Down

2 The Bulldogs of the N.C.A.A. : UGA

The sports teams of the University of Georgia (UGA)
are called the Bulldogs. The team mascot is known as Hairy Dawg. “Forbes” magazine lists Hairy Dawg as the third-best sports mascot. Impressive …

4 Drink served hot or cold : SAKE

We refer to the Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice as “sake”. We’ve gotten things a bit mixed up in the West. “Sake” is actually the word that the Japanese use for all alcoholic drinks. What we know as sake, we sometimes refer to as rice wine. Also, the starch in the rice is first converted to sugars that are then fermented into alcohol. This is more akin to a beer-brewing process than wine production, so the end product is really a rice “beer” rather than a rice “wine”.

5 Crow native to the Midwest : SHERYL

Famously, Sheryl Crow dated cyclist Lance Armstrong from 2003-2006. Armstrong has stated publicly more than once that Crow’s music cured his cancer.

7 Hosp. administrations : IVS

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

8 Biscuit relatives : TEACAKES

Our word “biscuit” comes from the Medieval Latin “biscotum” meaning “twice-baked”. This etymology reflects the original two-step process used to make biscuits. After initially baking at a relatively high temperature, biscuits were then dried out in an oven set at a lower temperature.

12 In yoga, one point of a triangle formed in triangle pose : HIP

13 In yoga, one side of a triangle formed in triangle pose : ARM

“Asana” is a Sanskrit word that translates literally as “sitting down”. The asanas are the poses that a practitioner of yoga assumes. The most famous is the lotus position, the cross-legged pose called “padmasana”.

18 Woman’s name that’s also a city in France : NANCY

Nancy is a city in northeastern France that was once the capital of the Duchy of Lorraine.

31 Org. in Showtime’s “Homeland” : CIA

“Homeland” is a psychological drama on Showtime about a CIA officer who is convinced that a certain US Marine is a threat to the security of the United States. The show is based on a series from Israeli television called “Hatufim” (Prisoners of War”). I highly recommend it …

37 Actress Remini : LEAH

Leah Remini is an actress and comedian who is best known for playing Carrie Heffernan on the sitcom “The King of Queens”. More recently, in 2013, Remini competed on “Dancing with the Stars”. After that, Remini appeared as a guest co-host on the show several times. Famously, Remini was a member of the Church of Scientology, and left the organization in 2013. Since leaving, Remini has been very vocal in her criticism of the practices and policies of the church.

38 Conditional keyword for a programmer : ELSE

In the world of computer programming, an “if-then-else” construct is a type of conditional statement. The idea is that IF a particular condition is met THEN a particular action is executed. The additional ELSE statement can be used to define an alternative action.

41 Trauma professional, for short : EMT

Emergency medical technician (EMT)

44 Fin : ABE

The US five-dollar bill is often called an “Abe”, as President Abraham Lincoln’s portrait is on the front. An Abe is also referred to as a “fin”, a term that has been used for a five-pound note in Britain since 1868.

45 Dense, spinning celestial body : PULSAR

A pulsar is a rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation. As the beam is not emitted in all directions, it is only seen from Earth when at particular rotations, hence creating a cycle of pulsed gamma rays known as the lighthouse effect.

46 It gets you close to home : TRIPLE

That would be baseball.

51 Evening affair : SOIREE

“Soir” is the French word for “evening” and a soirée is an evening party. The French word “soirée” has an acute accent over the first “e”, but we tend to drop this when using the word in English.

63 Young one in the Hundred Acre Wood : ROO

Hundred Acre Wood is where Winnie-the-Pooh lives with his friends. According to a map illustrating the books by A. A. Milne, Hundred Acre Wood is part of a larger forest, with Owl’s house sitting right at the center. Piglet also lives in the Hundred Acre Wood, in a beech tree next to a sign that says “TRESPASSERS W”. Piglet says this is short for Trespassers William, which is his grandfather’s name.

64 “I have seen ___. I have seen ___ on land and sea. … I hate ___.”: F.D.R. : WAR

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Kerfuffle : FUSS
5 Intentionally hurt : SPITE
10 Org. with lots of inspectors : OSHA
14 Contents of un río : AGUA
15 Shelter : HAVEN
16 Noise from a fan : WHIR
17 1940 Arthur Koestler novel set during the Moscow Trials : DARKNESS AT ONE PM (from “Darkness at Noon”)
20 Signs of something moving? : TEARS
21 Discontinue : CEASE
22 Olympic women’s gymnastics powerhouse : USA
24 Big public radio letters after “W” : -NYC
25 Word with fine or found : ART
26 Soup served with chopsticks : PHO
29 Short stubble : SIX O’CLOCK SHADOW (from “five o’clock shadow”)
33 Any ghost, to Pac-Man : ENEMY
34 Randomizer : DIE
35 “Jacked” : SWOLE
36 South Asian living abroad : DESI
37 What might come with a flat fee : LEASE
39 Barrel-___ : AGED
40 Symbol for a timeout : TEE
42 “Now I ___ me …” : LAY
44 Abbr. in many an urban address : APT
47 Scramble : MAD RUSH
51 Title with a tilde : SAO
54 Work very late : BURN THE ONE AM OIL (from “burn the midnight oil”)
57 Author Wiesel : ELIE
58 Safari runner, at times : IOS
59 Homeland of James Joyce : EIRE
60 Observe daylight saving time, in a way … as in 17-, 29- and 54-Across? : SPRING FORWARD
65 Buzz in a rocket : ALDRIN
66 Repair shop offering : LOANER
67 Changes, as a 6-Down : RESETS
68 Jack ___, co-founder and longtime C.E.O. of Twitter : DORSEY

Down

1 Something lacking staying power : FAD
2 The Bulldogs of the N.C.A.A. : UGA
3 Added assessments : SURTAXES
4 Drink served hot or cold : SAKE
5 Crow native to the Midwest : SHERYL
6 Smartphone alternative to a fingerprint scan : PASSCODE
7 Hosp. administrations : IVS
8 Biscuit relatives : TEACAKES
9 Types in : ENTERS
10 Accepts accountability for : OWNS
11 Longhaired herder : SHEEPDOG
12 In yoga, one point of a triangle formed in triangle pose : HIP
13 In yoga, one side of a triangle formed in triangle pose : ARM
18 Woman’s name that’s also a city in France : NANCY
19 “%$#*” and “@#&!” : OATHS
22 Like most books offered on AbeBooks.com : USED
23 Function yielding 0 when applied to pi : SINE
27 Weakness in an argument : HOLE
28 Overdue : OWED
30 Disregard : OMIT
31 Org. in Showtime’s “Homeland” : CIA
32 Not around : AWAY
37 Actress Remini : LEAH
38 Conditional keyword for a programmer : ELSE
41 Trauma professional, for short : EMT
43 “Got it!” : AHA!
44 Fin : ABE
45 Dense, spinning celestial body : PULSAR
46 It gets you close to home : TRIPLE
48 Stoops : DEIGNS
49 Hit the ___ : ROOF
50 Still in stock : UNSOLD
51 Evening affair : SOIREE
52 Put on the line : AIR-DRY
53 Noise from a fan : OLE!
55 Bookworms, maybe : NERDS
56 Wherewithal : MEANS
61 Red state : IRE
62 Quibble : NIT
63 Young one in the Hundred Acre Wood : ROO
64 “I have seen ___. I have seen ___ on land and sea. … I hate ___.”: F.D.R. : WAR