0321-23 NY Times Crossword 21 Mar 23, Tuesday

Constructed by: Michael Lieberman
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): A So-So Solution?

Themed answers each comprise two words, the first ending with a syllable that is repeated twice to make the second:

  • 17A Injury that’s so embarrassing no one is allowed to mention it? : TABOO BOO-BOO
  • 30A Result of forgetting to pack a toothbrush for a Doha vacation? : QATAR TARTAR
  • 46A Cuban dance performed at a Russian villa? : DACHA CHA-CHA
  • 59A Indistinct muttering from a ring-tailed primate? : LEMUR MURMUR

Bill’s time: 6m 19s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Annual destination of about 2.5 million pilgrims : MECCA

Mecca is in the Makkah province of Saudi Arabia. It was the birthplace of Muhammad and is the holiest city in Islam. Every year, several million Muslims perform the Hajj, a holy pilgrimage to Mecca.

6 Array outside the United Nations headquarters : FLAGS

The United Nations (UN) headquarters in Manhattan, New York City was completed in 1952. The organization also has three main offices around the world, in Geneva (opened in 1946), in Nairobi (opened in 1996) and in Vienna (opened in 1980).

11 Actress Grier of action films : PAM

Pam Grier is an actress whose most acclaimed performance was in the 1997 Quentin Tarantino film “Jackie Brown”, in which she played the title role.

16 Softball stat : RBI

Run batted in (RBI)

17 Injury that’s so embarrassing no one is allowed to mention it? : TABOO BOO-BOO

The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

19 Taylor Swift’s “___ Song” : OUR

“Our Song” is a number recorded by Taylor Swift in 2006. Swift wrote the song during her freshman year for a high school talent show.

25 Conical dwelling : TEPEE

A tepee (also written as “tipi” and “teepee”) is a cone-shaped tent traditionally made from animal hides that is used by the Great Plains Native Americans. A wigwam is a completely different structure and is often a misnomer for a tepee. A wigwam is a domed structure built by Native Americans in the West and Southwest, intended to be a more permanent dwelling. The wigwam can also be covered with hides but more often was covered with grass, reeds, brush or cloth.

28 Home to the Munch Museum : OSLO

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian expressionist, and most famous for his painting “The Scream”, painted in 1893. What a wonderful work that is, a true representation of expressionism. The Munch Museum in Oslo is dedicated to his work and life. In 2004, two of Munch’s paintings, “The Scream” and “Madonna”, were stolen from the Munch Museum by armed robbers who subdued the museum guards. The paintings were missing for two years, but recovered in 2006.

29 Tampa Bay footballer, familiarly : BUC

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (the Bucs) joined the NFL in 1976, along with the Seattle Seahawks, as an expansion team. The Bucs had a tough start in the NFL, losing their first 26 games. Things went better in the early eighties, but then the team went through 14 consecutive losing seasons. Their luck changed again though, and they won the Super Bowl at the end of the 2002 season.

30 Result of forgetting to pack a toothbrush for a Doha vacation? : QATAR TARTAR

Doha is the capital city of the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. The name “Doha” translates from Arabic as “the big tree”.

Calculus (also “tartar”) is dental plaque that has hardened on the surface of teeth. Plaque is removed relatively easily by brushing and flossing. Once plaque has hardened into tartar, a dental hygienist usually needs to intervene.

32 Big bungle : SNAFU

“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.

35 “End of story!” : PERIOD!

The punctuation mark used to terminate a sentence is called a “period” in American English, and a “full stop” in British English. The same punctuation mark has no symbol in Morse code, so the word STOP is used instead in telegraphy.

41 Artery openers : STENTS

In the world of surgical medicine, a stent is an artificial tube inserted inside a vessel in the body, say an artery, in order to reduce the effects of a local restriction in the body’s conduit.

45 Childbirth assistant : DOULA

A doula is a person who provides non-medical support for women and their families during childbirth as well as in the period immediately following the arrival. The term “doula” comes from the Ancient Greek word “doule” which means “female slave”. Given such a negative association, “doula” is often dropped in favor of “labor companion” or “birthworker”.

46 Cuban dance performed at a Russian villa? : DACHA CHA-CHA

Dachas are usually second homes in Russia and the former Soviet Union that are located outside the city limits in rural areas. Residents/tenants of dachas are often called “dachniks”.

The cha-cha-cha (often simplified to “cha-cha”) is a Latin dance with origins in Cuba, where it was introduced by composer Enrique Jorrin in 1953.

52 Pittsburgh-based giant in the metals industry : ALCOA

The Aluminum Corporation of America (ALCOA) is the largest producer of aluminum in the United States. The company was founded in 1888 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where its headquarters are to this day.

56 Earthy pigment : UMBER

Umber is an earthy, brown shade. The word “umber” originally described a pigment made from earth found in Umbria, a region in central Italy. In its natural form, the pigment is referred to as “raw umber”. The heated form of the pigment has a more intense color and is known as “burnt umber”.

58 Penultimate Greek letter : PSI

Psi is the 23rd and penultimate letter of the Greek alphabet, and the one that looks a bit like a trident or a pitchfork.

59 Indistinct muttering from a ring-tailed primate? : LEMUR MURMUR

Lemurs are unusual-looking creatures that are native to the island of Madagascar off the east coast of Africa. With their white fur and dark eyes that are very reflective at night, they have a “ghostly” appearance. Indeed, the animals take their name from Roman mythology in which “lemures” were spirits of the restless dead.

64 Heart test readout, for short : EKG

An EKG measures the electrical activity in the heart. Back in my homeland of Ireland, an EKG is known as an ECG (for electrocardiogram). We use the German name in the US, Elektrokardiogramm, giving us EKG. Apparently the abbreviation EKG is preferred, as ECG might be confused (if poorly handwritten, I guess) with EEG, the abbreviation for an electroencephalogram.

65 ___ of Hearts (tart-stealing Wonderland character) : KNAVE

In the Lewis Carroll novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, Alice attends a trial in which the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing tarts belonging to the Queen of Hearts.

66 Fruit whose name precedes “fruit” in the name of another fruit : GRAPE

Humans have been cultivating grapes as a foodstuff for 6,000 to 8,000 years. They were first cultivated in the Middle East. The surface of grape skins are a natural home for yeasts, and it was this coexistence of yeast and grapes that led to the discovery of the alcoholic drink we refer to as wine.

The somewhat bitter fruit that we know as “grapefruit” originated in the island nation of Barbados in the Caribbean. It developed as a hybrid (possibly accidentally) of the Jamaican sweet orange and the Indonesian pomelo. Back in the mid-1700s, the new hybrid was referred to as “the forbidden fruit”, and later as the shaddock. Some believe that a “Captain Shaddock” brought Indonesian pomelo seeds to Barbados and was responsible for developing the hybrid. The contemporary name is perhaps an allusion to the fact that grapefruit grow in clusters like grapes.

67 Competed in a marathon : RAN

The marathon commemorates the legendary messenger-run by Pheidippides from the site of the Battle of Marathon back to Athens, and is run over 26 miles and 385 yards. The first modern Olympic marathon races were run over a distance that approximated the length of the modern-day Marathon-Athens highway, although the actual length of the race varied from games to games. For the 1908 Olympics in London, a course starting at Windsor Castle and ending in front of the Royal Box at White City Stadium was defined. That course was 26 miles and 385 yards, the standard length now used at all Olympic Games. Organizers of subsequent games continued to vary the length of the race, until a decision was made in 1921 to adopt the distance used in London in 1908.

Down

2 Announcement from a flight attendant, for short : ETA

Estimated time of arrival (ETA)

3 Iconic San Francisco transport : CABLE CAR

The Cable Car Museum in San Francisco is a little special in that it is housed in the same complex as the city’s cable car power house. While touring the museum, visitors can look out over the power house and see the huge haulage cables heading out to the streets to pull the cars up all of those steep hills.

4 Wear for Dracula : CLOAK

“Dracula” is a novel written by the Irish author Bram Stoker and first published in 1897. Dracula wasn’t the first vampire of literature, but he certainly was the one who spawned the popularity of vampires in theater, film and television, and indeed more novels. Personally, I can’t stand vampire fiction …

6 Broccoli tops : FLORETS

The Italian term “broccolo” is used to describe the flowering crest of a cabbage. We use the plural form of the same word “broccoli” as the name of the edible green plant in the cabbage family.

7 Southeast Asian language : LAO

Lao, the language of Laos, does not use spaces between words (or periods!), although this is apparently changing. Spaces are used between sentences and clauses.

8 Police dept. alert : APB

An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a broadcast from one US law enforcement agency to another.

9 What the acorn said when it grew up, in a classic math joke : GEOMETRY

“Geometry” sounds like “Gee, I’m a tree”.

10 Gin flavoring : SLOE

The sloe is the fruit of the blackthorn bush, and the main flavoring ingredient in sloe gin. A sloe looks like a small plum, but is usually much more tart in taste.

11 “Survivor” host Jeff : PROBST

Jeff Probst is the host of the very successful US version of the reality show “Survivor”. Before snapping up that gig, he hosted the VH1 game show “Rock & Roll Jeopardy!”

The reality show “Survivor” is based on a Swedish television series created in 1997 called “Expedition Robinson”.

12 Spanish grandmother : ABUELA

In Spanish, the mother of your “tia” (aunt) is your “abuela” (grandmother).

18 Possibly glitchy software release : BETA

In the world of software development, the first tested issue of a new program is usually called the alpha version. Expected to have a lot of bugs that need to be fixed, the alpha release is usually distributed to a small number of testers. After reported bugs have been eliminated, the refined version is called a beta and is released to a wider audience, but with the program clearly labeled as “beta”. The users generally check functionality and report further bugs that are encountered. The beta version feeds into a release candidate, the version that is tested just prior to the software being sold into the market, hopefully bug-free.

23 Largest in a set of kitchen measurers: Abbr. : TBSP

Tablespoon (tbsp.)

24 Ancient alphabet character : RUNE

A rune is a character in an alphabet that is believed to have mysterious powers. In Norse mythology, the runic alphabet was said to have a divine origin.

26 “___ Patrol” (Nickelodeon show) : PAW

“PAW Patrol” is an animated children’s show that started airing in 2013. It’s all about Ryder, a young lad who leads the PAW Patrol, a pack of search-and-rescue dogs.

30 Fixed share of work : QUOTA

A quota is an allotment. The term “quota” was used originally with reference to the number of soldiers or quantity of supplies required from a particular town or district.

31 100% vegan cosmetics brand : AVEDA

Horst Rechelbacher was traveling in India in 1970 when he was introduced to the Hindu science of longevity called Ayurveda, which inspired him to set up his own company of skin and hair care products that he called Aveda. The company opened its doors in 1978 and is based in Blaine, Minnesota.

38 Figure on the cover of Action Comics #1 : SUPERMAN

Superman’s origins can be traced back to an illustrated short story titled “The Reign of the Superman” created by high school classmates Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1933. That first “Superman” wasn’t a very glamorous character. He was a vagrant who gained psychic powers and used them for nefarious purposes. By the time that Siegel and Shuster put together a comic strip called “The Superman”, the title character had evolved into a superhero. The pair sold all rights to “The Superman” character to Detective Comics in 1938 for the princely sum of $130.

42 Org. that uses Zambonis : NHL

The first ice resurfacing machine was developed in 1949 by one Frank Zamboni. The eponymous Zamboni machine works by simultaneously executing a number of tasks. First, the surface of the ice is scraped off by a sharp blade. Next the ice is “washed” with water sprayed from the front of the Zamboni, and that wash water is vacuumed back up and filtered to remove impurities. Water is then reapplied to the scraped ice by a wet towel dragging behind the machine, forming a new skating surface.

47 U.S. state with nearly 34,000 miles of shoreline : ALASKA

The largest US states by land area are, in order:

  1. Alaska
  2. Texas
  3. California
  4. Montana
  5. New Mexico

The smallest US states are:

  1. Rhode Island
  2. Delaware
  3. Connecticut
  4. New Jersey
  5. New Hampshire

49 Soccer legend Mia : HAMM

Mia Hamm is a retired American soccer player. She played as a forward on the US national team that won the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991. Hamm scored 158 international goals, which was more than any other player in the world, male or female, until the record was broken in 2013. Amazingly, Hamm was born with a clubfoot, and so had to wear corrective shoes when she was growing up.

55 Antlered animals : ELKS

Wapiti, also known as elk, are one of the largest species of deer found in North America and East Asia. They are social animals and live in herds of up to 400 individuals. The herds are usually led by a dominant male, known as a bull, who defends his harem of females during the mating season.

60 Astronaut Jemison : MAE

Mae Jemison was a crew member on the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a 1992 mission, and as such became the first African-American woman to travel in space. She is also a big fan of “Star Trek” and appeared on an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. That made Jemison the first real astronaut to appear on any of the “Star Trek” shows.

61 Sch. in Charlottesville : UVA

The University of Virginia (UVA) was founded by Thomas Jefferson, who then sat on the original Board of Visitors alongside former US Presidents James Madison and James Monroe. In fact, the original UVA campus was built on land near Charlottesville that was once a farm belonging to President Monroe.

The city of Charlottesville, Virginia was named for Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the wife of King George III. George’s queen consort also lent her name to the city of Charlotte, North Carolina.

62 Bars to be scanned, in brief : UPC

The initialism “UPC” stands for Universal Price Code or Universal Product Code. The first ever UPC-marked item to get scanned in a store was on June 26, 1974 at 08:01 a.m. at Marsh’s supermarket in Troy, Ohio. It was a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Annual destination of about 2.5 million pilgrims : MECCA
6 Array outside the United Nations headquarters : FLAGS
11 Actress Grier of action films : PAM
14 Even a little bit : AT ALL
15 Place to clip a wireless mic : LAPEL
16 Softball stat : RBI
17 Injury that’s so embarrassing no one is allowed to mention it? : TABOO BOO-BOO
19 Taylor Swift’s “___ Song” : OUR
20 Not just yet : LATER
21 One of clubs? : MEMBER
23 It’s no walk in the park : TREK
25 Conical dwelling : TEPEE
28 Home to the Munch Museum : OSLO
29 Tampa Bay footballer, familiarly : BUC
30 Result of forgetting to pack a toothbrush for a Doha vacation? : QATAR TARTAR
32 Big bungle : SNAFU
34 Avoid a collision at the last second, say : SWERVE
35 “End of story!” : PERIOD!
37 Soldier’s affirmative : YES, SIR!
41 Artery openers : STENTS
45 Childbirth assistant : DOULA
46 Cuban dance performed at a Russian villa? : DACHA CHA-CHA
50 Toilet paper layer : PLY
51 Plant in some juices and lotions : ALOE
52 Pittsburgh-based giant in the metals industry : ALCOA
53 Scene of chaos : MESS
54 Made the grade : PASSED
56 Earthy pigment : UMBER
58 Penultimate Greek letter : PSI
59 Indistinct muttering from a ring-tailed primate? : LEMUR MURMUR
64 Heart test readout, for short : EKG
65 ___ of Hearts (tart-stealing Wonderland character) : KNAVE
66 Fruit whose name precedes “fruit” in the name of another fruit : GRAPE
67 Competed in a marathon : RAN
68 Lieu : STEAD
69 Matches up : SYNCS

Down

1 Step on it! : MAT
2 Announcement from a flight attendant, for short : ETA
3 Iconic San Francisco transport : CABLE CAR
4 Wear for Dracula : CLOAK
5 Not just some : A LOT
6 Broccoli tops : FLORETS
7 Southeast Asian language : LAO
8 Police dept. alert : APB
9 What the acorn said when it grew up, in a classic math joke : GEOMETRY
10 Gin flavoring : SLOE
11 “Survivor” host Jeff : PROBST
12 Spanish grandmother : ABUELA
13 Something to reflect on? : MIRROR
18 Possibly glitchy software release : BETA
22 To a greater degree : MORE SO
23 Largest in a set of kitchen measurers: Abbr. : TBSP
24 Ancient alphabet character : RUNE
26 “___ Patrol” (Nickelodeon show) : PAW
27 Palindromic poetic preposition : ERE
30 Fixed share of work : QUOTA
31 100% vegan cosmetics brand : AVEDA
33 Casts a wide net, maybe : FISHES
36 Appealing to self-indulgent impulses : DECADENT
38 Figure on the cover of Action Comics #1 : SUPERMAN
39 Societal woes : ILLS
40 Emanations from the sun : RAYS
42 Org. that uses Zambonis : NHL
43 “Tic ___ Dough” (bygone game show) : TAC
44 Searched exhaustively : SCOURED
46 Snazzily dressed : DAPPER
47 U.S. state with nearly 34,000 miles of shoreline : ALASKA
48 Give support in efforts to acquire a loan, say : COSIGN
49 Soccer legend Mia : HAMM
53 ___ Christmas : MERRY
55 Antlered animals : ELKS
57 Creepy-crawlies : BUGS
60 Astronaut Jemison : MAE
61 Sch. in Charlottesville : UVA
62 Bars to be scanned, in brief : UPC
63 Hi-___ photo : RES