0807-18 NY Times Crossword 7 Aug 18, Tuesday

Constructed by: Alex Eaton-Salners
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: Beer Ingredients

Themed answers each include a different INGREDIENT in BEER as a hidden word:

  • 37A. What’s found hidden inside 16-, 23-, 47- and 59-Across : BEER INGREDIENTS
  • 16A. Union representative : SHOP STEWARD (hiding “hops”)
  • 23A. Louisiana Purchase region from 1838 to 1846 : IOWA TERRITORY (hiding “water”)
  • 47A. Job at a circus : ANIMAL TRAINER (hiding “malt”)
  • 59A. Spring greeting : HAPPY EASTER (hiding “yeast”)

Bill’s time: 6m 20s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Snake charmer’s snake : COBRA

Snake charmers don’t actually hypnotize their cobras, but they do train them. The snake is trained to “follow” the movement of end of the pungi, the instrument that the charmer uses in the act. The snake presents no danger to the charmer or the audience, as it is typically defanged or has it’s mouth partially stitched up so that only the tongue can be moved in and out. Not a very nice practice …

10. Preceder of “two, three, four” : HUP

“Hup, two three, four”, said the drill sergeant.

13. Geographer’s reference : ATLAS

The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas” that is used for a book of maps.

14. Middle-earth area under the Misty Mountains : MORIA

Moria is a Middle-earth location in Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” series of fantasy novels. Moria is home to the Dwarf clan called the Longbeards.

15. Volcanic debris : ASH

Our word “volcano” comes from “Vulcano”, the name of a volcanic island off the coast of Italy. The island’s name comes from Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. The Romans believed that the island of Vulcano was the chimney of the forge belonging to the god Vulcan. The Romans also believed that the eruptions on Mount Etna in Sicily were caused by Vulcan getting angry and working his forge so hard that sparks and smoke flew out of the top of the volcano.

16. Union representative : SHOP STEWARD (hiding “hops”)

The foodstuff that we call “hops” are actually the female flower of the hop plant. The main use of hops is to add flavor to beer. The town in which I live here in California used to be home to the largest hop farm in the whole world. Most of the harvested hops were exported all the way to the breweries of London, where they could fetch the best price.

18. Pi follower : RHO

Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”, although it is equivalent to the Roman letter R.

19. Car-pool lane designation : HOV

In some parts of the country, one sees high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. Out here in California we refer to them as carpool lanes.

20. Manning manning the Giants’ backfield : ELI

Eli Manning plays as quarterback for the New York Giants. Eli’s brother Peyton Manning retired from football as the quarterback for the Denver Broncos in 2015. Eli and Peyton’s father is Archie Manning, who was also a successful NFL quarterback. Eli, Peyton and Archie co-authored a book for children titles “Family Huddle” in 2009. It describes the Mannings playing football together as young boys.

23. Louisiana Purchase region from 1838 to 1846 : IOWA TERRITORY (hiding “water”)

In the Louisiana Purchase, the US government bought French Louisiana from France. Soon after the purchase was made, the newly acquired land was split into the Orleans Territory (lands south of the 33rd parallel) and the Louisiana Territory (lands north of the 33rd parallel). The Louisiana Territory stretched northwards as far as the Great Lakes, and the seat of government was chosen as the city of St. Louis. Just to confuse everyone (such as foreigners like me), the Orleans Territory was admitted to the Union in 1812 as the State of Louisiana. At the same time, in a measure designed to prevent confusion, the Louisiana Territory was renamed to the Territory of Missouri.

28. Savory taste of MSG : UMAMI

Umami is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, bitter and salty. “Umami” is a Japanese word used to describe “a pleasant savory taste”. Umami was proposed as a basic taste in 1908, but it wasn’t until 1985 that the scientific community finally accepted it as such.

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the sodium salt of a naturally-occurring,non-essential amino acid called glutamic acid. It is used widely as a flavor enhancer, particularly in many Asian cuisines. Whether or not it is harmful seems to be still under debate. I say that something produced in a test tube shouldn’t be in our food …

33. Samovar : URN

The samovar originated in Russia, and is often a very elegant water boiler, usually for making tea. As such, there is often an attachment on top of a samovar to keep a teapot warm.

34. “Mr. Robot” network : USA

“Mr. Robot” is an engaging drama series about an anxious and clinically depressed computer hacker. Said hacker joins an anarchic group of hackers known as “Mr. Robot” who are intent on taking down the largest conglomerate in the world. I binge-watched the first two series, and really enjoyed the experience …

41. A&E, in D.C.? : STS

Famously, the layout of the streets in Washington was designed by French-born American architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant. The L’Enfant Plan called for a grid of east-west and north-south streets. This grid was crisscrossed with diagonal avenues. The avenues and streets met at circles and rectangular plazas. The east-west streets are generally named for letters, while the north-south streets are numbered. Later, many of the diagonal avenues were named for states of the union.

42. Onetime Mets manager Hodges : GIL

Gil Hodges was a professional baseball player and manager. Perhaps Hodges’ most celebrated achievement was managing the New York Mets team (the “Miracle Mets”) that won the 1969 World Series. Hodges died from a heart attack just a few years later in 1972, when he was only 48 years old.

47. Job at a circus : ANIMAL TRAINER (hiding “malt”)

Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried. The cereal is germinated by soaking it in water, and then germination is halted by drying the grains with hot air.

53. How a dying machine goes : KAPUT

“Kaput” is a familiar term meaning “incapacitated, destroyed”, and comes to us from French (via German). The original word “capot” means “not having won a single trick” in the French card game Piquet.

55. Glass of public radio : IRA

Ira Glass is a well-respected presenter on American Public Radio who is perhaps best known for his show “This American Life”. I was interested to learn that one of my favorite composers, Philip Glass, is Ira’s first cousin.

59. Spring greeting : HAPPY EASTER (hiding “yeast”)

Yeasts are unicellular microorganisms in the Fungi kingdom. The species of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used for centuries in the making of wine and beer, and in breadmaking. Saccharomyces cerevisiae converts carbohydrates into carbon dioxide and alcohol in the process of fermentation. When making beer and wine, the carbon dioxide and alcohol may be captured by the liquid. When making bread, the carbon dioxide and alcohol is driven off by heat.

65. Sri Lanka’s nearest neighbor : INDIA

The island nation of Sri Lanka lies off the southeast coast of India. The name “Sri Lanka” translates from Sanskrit into English as “venerable island”. Before 1970, Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon, a name given to the country during British rule.

66. “Muy ___!” : BUENO

“Muy bueno” is Spanish for “very good”.

68. “Holy Toledo!” : EGAD!

The origin of the term “Holy Toledo!” is much debated. My favorite story is that it comes from the days of Vaudeville. Back then the week before Easter, known as Holy Week, was the worst week at the box office. Old Vaudeville entertainers used to quip that any week in Toledo was Holy Week, that ticket sales were always bad there. They referred to the city as “Holy Toledo”.

Down

2. Roman emperor of A.D. 69 : OTHO

AD 69 was a year of civil war in ancient Rome. The unrest started with the death of emperor Nero in AD 68, after which followed the brief rule of Galba, of Otho, of Vitellius, and of Vespasian all in the same year. As a result, AD 69 became known as the Year of the Four Emperors.

3. Goes on and on about nothing : BLOVIATES

“To bloviate” is such a descriptive verb, one meaning “to discourse pompously”. “Bloviate” is mock-Latin and derived from “blow”.

6. Kind of knife : BOWIE

A Bowie knife is a fixed-blade knife that was made famous by Colonel Jim Bowie in the early 1800s. A Bowie knife is one that comes with a sheath and has a crossguard at the end of the hilt. It also has a clip point, meaning that the forward third of the blade appears to be “clipped off”, leaving a sharp point.

7. Victorian ___ : ERA

The Victorian era was a period in British history from 1837 to 1901, defined by the reign of Queen Victoria. Generally speaking, the Victorian era was a period of peace and prosperity for the UK.

8. Scuba tankful : AIR

The self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) was co-invented by celebrated French marine explorer Jacques Cousteau.

9. Home of the Prado Museum : MADRID

The Museo del Prado is in Madrid, the capital of Spain, and has one of the finest art collections in the world. The gallery’s most famous work is “Las Meninas” By Velazquez.

10. ___ Productions, Oprah Winfrey enterprise : HARPO

Oprah Winfrey’s multimedia production company is known as Harpo Studios. “Harpo” is “Oprah” spelled backwards, and is also the name of the husband of the character Winfrey played in the movie “The Color Purple”.

17. Darjeeling, for one : TEA

Darjeeling tea comes from the Darjeeling district of West Bengal in India.

22. “___ a beautiful day in the neighborhood”: Mr. Rogers : IT’S

The “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” TV show starred Fred Rogers. It was the second-longest running series on PBS television after that other iconic children’s show “Sesame Street”.

24. General Bradley, W.W. II commander : OMAR

Omar Bradley graduated from West Point in the class of 1915, along with Dwight Eisenhower who also attained the rank of General of the Army. Bradley was the last person to hold the rank of a five-star commissioned officer, and he was the first general to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I was struck by a quotation from Bradley from later in his life:

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than about peace, more about killing than we know about living.

25. Collaborative online site : WIKI

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 a there are so many collaborators contributing to the site.

32. Georgia of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” : ENGEL

Georgia Engel is a very funny comedy actress who is best known for playing Georgette Baxter, wife of Ted Baxter, on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. Engel’s father was a vice admiral in the Coast Guard, and her sister was Miss Hawaii for 1967.

33. Internet address : URL

An Internet address (like NYTCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a Uniform Resource Locators (URL).

36. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” menaces : ASPS

According to the “Indiana Jones” series of films, Indy’s fear of snakes goes back when he was a young man. In “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, we see actor River Phoenix playing young Indie as a Boy Scout and falling into a huge pit of snakes during a chase scene.

“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 …

44. Runner with wings : EMU

The emu has had a tough time in Australia since man settled there. There was even an “Emu War” in Western Australia in 1932 when migrating emus competed with livestock for water and food. Soldiers were sent in and used machine guns in an unsuccessful attempt to drive off the “invading force”. The emus were clever, breaking their usual formations and adopting guerrilla tactics, operating as smaller units. After 50 days of “war”, the military withdrew. Subsequent requests for military help for the farmers were ignored. The emus had emerged victorious …

45. TV host ___ Lee Gifford : KATHIE

Kathie Lee Gifford is most famous for working alongside Regis Philbin on the talk show “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee”, in a stint that lasted for about 15 years.

47. Director Kurosawa : AKIRA

Akira Kurosawa was an Oscar-winning Japanese film director. His most famous movie to us in the West has to be “The Seven Samurai”, the inspiration for “The Magnificent Seven” starring Yul Brynner, and indeed a basis for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.

48. Lowest point : NADIR

The nadir is the direction pointing immediately below a particular location (through to the other side of the Earth for example). The opposite direction, that pointing immediately above, is called the zenith. We use the terms “nadir” and “zenith” figuratively to mean the low and high points in a person’s fortunes.

49. Music players of the 2000s : IPODS

The iPod is Apple’s signature line of portable media players. The iPod first hit the market in 2001 with a hard drive-based device, now known as the iPod Classic. Later models all use flash memory, allowing a smaller form factor. The smallest of the flash-based models is the iPod Shuffle, which was introduced in 2005.

51. ___ Stark, “Game of Thrones” protagonist : ARYA

Maisie Williams is the English actress who plays the tomboyish young girl Arya Stark on the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones”.

52. Makeup of Saturn’s rings, mostly : ICE

Saturn is easily visible from Earth with the unaided eye, but we need some help to see the planet’s famous rings. Galileo was the first person to see Saturn’s rings, when he turned his primitive telescope towards the night sky in 1610. However, he misinterpreted what he was observing and assumed that the rings were in fact two smaller planets located at either side of the larger Saturn.

56. Philosopher Descartes : 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”.

57. Former Yank with 25 career grand slams : A-ROD

Baseball player Alex Rodriguez, nicknamed “A-Rod”, broke a lot of records in his career, albeit under a shroud of controversy due to his use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. When he signed a 10-year contract with the Texas Rangers for $252 million in 2000, it was the most lucrative contract in sports history. In 2007, Rodriguez signed an even more lucrative 10-year contract with the New York Yankees, worth $275 million. Rodriguez retired in 2016.

60. Director Lee : ANG

Taiwanese director Ang Lee sure has directed a mixed bag of films, mixed in terms of genre but not in terms of quality. He was at the helm for such classics as “Sense & Sensibility” (my personal favorite), “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, “Hulk”, “Brokeback Mountain” and “Life of Pi”.

61. Holding hands or kissing on the street, in brief : PDA

Public display of affection (PDA)

62. Vigoda of old TV and movies : ABE

Abe Vigoda played Detective Sergeant Phil Fish in television’s “Barney Miller” in the seventies, and even got his own spin-off show called “Fish”. On the big screen, Vigoda played Sal Tessio in “The Godfather” and Grandpa Ubriacco in “Look Who’s Talking”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Snake charmer’s snake : COBRA
6. Smile from ear to ear : BEAM
10. Preceder of “two, three, four” : HUP
13. Geographer’s reference : ATLAS
14. Middle-earth area under the Misty Mountains : MORIA
15. Volcanic debris : ASH
16. Union representative : SHOP STEWARD (hiding “hops”)
18. Pi follower : RHO
19. Car-pool lane designation : HOV
20. Manning manning the Giants’ backfield : ELI
21. Mature : RIPEN
23. Louisiana Purchase region from 1838 to 1846 : IOWA TERRITORY (hiding “water”)
28. Savory taste of MSG : UMAMI
30. Lends a hand : AIDS
31. Seize, as formerly held land : RETAKE
33. Samovar : URN
34. “Mr. Robot” network : USA
37. What’s found hidden inside 16-, 23-, 47- and 59-Across : BEER INGREDIENTS
41. A&E, in D.C.? : STS
42. Onetime Mets manager Hodges : GIL
43. Navigated against, as the current : SWAM UP
44. Barely gets (by) : EKES
46. Fixtures in Pillsbury facilities : OVENS
47. Job at a circus : ANIMAL TRAINER (hiding “malt”)
53. How a dying machine goes : KAPUT
54. Path of the moon through the sky : ARC
55. Glass of public radio : IRA
58. Prelude to a kiss : I DO
59. Spring greeting : HAPPY EASTER (hiding “yeast”)
64. Clear (of) : RID
65. Sri Lanka’s nearest neighbor : INDIA
66. “Muy ___!” : BUENO
67. ___ Technica, website with gadget news : ARS
68. “Holy Toledo!” : EGAD!
69. Brought to a conclusion : ENDED

Down

1. Dollars and cents : CASH
2. Roman emperor of A.D. 69 : OTHO
3. Goes on and on about nothing : BLOVIATES
4. Genre for DJ Khaled : RAP
5. Beast of burden : ASS
6. Kind of knife : BOWIE
7. Victorian ___ : ERA
8. Scuba tankful : AIR
9. Home of the Prado Museum : MADRID
10. ___ Productions, Oprah Winfrey enterprise : HARPO
11. One walking down the aisle : USHER
12. Faker : PHONY
14. Hot sandwich : MELT
17. Darjeeling, for one : TEA
22. “___ a beautiful day in the neighborhood”: Mr. Rogers : IT’S
24. General Bradley, W.W. II commander : OMAR
25. Collaborative online site : WIKI
26. Still red in the middle : RARE
27. Fruit roll-ups? : RINDS
28. Cities, informally : URBS
29. Bump into : MEET
32. Georgia of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” : ENGEL
33. Internet address : URL
34. Not deserved : UNMERITED
35. Bring to a standstill, say : STUN
36. “Raiders of the Lost Ark” menaces : ASPS
38. General idea : GIST
39. “Victory is mine!” : I WON!
40. Window shade? : EAVE
44. Runner with wings : EMU
45. TV host ___ Lee Gifford : KATHIE
47. Director Kurosawa : AKIRA
48. Lowest point : NADIR
49. Music players of the 2000s : IPODS
50. Word before fire or transit : RAPID
51. ___ Stark, “Game of Thrones” protagonist : ARYA
52. Makeup of Saturn’s rings, mostly : ICE
56. Philosopher Descartes : RENE
57. Former Yank with 25 career grand slams : A-ROD
60. Director Lee : ANG
61. Holding hands or kissing on the street, in brief : PDA
62. Vigoda of old TV and movies : ABE
63. Morning riser : SUN