1106-21 NY Times Crossword 6 Nov 21, Saturday

Constructed by: Brooke Husic & Will Nediger
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme None

Bill’s time: 13m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Kind of rock : ACID

The musical genre known as acid rock is a subset of psychedelic rock. The term comes from the influence of the drug LSD (acid) on some compositions in the early days.

9 Toni Morrison title character who lives in the Bottom : SULA

“Sula” is a 1973 novel by Toni Morrison. The title character is a young woman who returns to her hometown in Ohio. Sula’s return disrupts the community as she defies social norms.

Writer Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Amongst other things, Morrison is noted for coining the phrase “our first black President”, a reference to President Bill Clinton.

16 Furry creature that Wallace becomes during the full moon, in a “Wallace & Gromit” film : WERE-RABBIT

“Wallace and Gromit” is a famous animation series from England that uses claymation and stop-motion technology. Wallace is a zany inventor who just loves cheese, especially Wensleydale. Gromit is Wallace’s pet dog, and his best friend.

19 Feature of the inner planets : CRUST

The inner planets of our solar system are also known as the terrestrial planets. They are Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury. They all are dense and rocky, and are composed mainly of silicates and metals. The silicates make up the rocky crusts of the inner planets, and the metals form their cores.

23 Reciprocal of a siemens : OHM

Conductance (measured in “mhos”) is the inverse of resistance (measured in “ohms”). The mho has been replaced by the SI unit called the siemens.

24 Sharon Olds’s “___ to Dirt” : ODE

Poet Sharon Olds won a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2013. She was also the first American woman to win the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry.

25 Hush puppies alternative : PONE

“Pone” is another name for corn bread, and comes from the Powhatan term “apan” meaning “something baked”.

27 Restaurant starter, informally : APP

Appetizer (app)

30 Prominent attire for Jr. Pac-Man : PROPELLER BEANIE

The propeller beanie was introduced in drawings in the 1940s by high school student Ray Nelson as an emblem for fans of science fiction. Propeller beanies were embraced by comic strip artists, and eventually turned up on the head of Beany, one of the title characters in the animated cartoon series “Beany and Cecil” aired by ABC in the sixties. It’s this propeller beanie that led to our usage of the somewhat pejorative term “propellerhead” for someone who is technically able or perhaps computer savvy.

36 Grande and others : STARBUCKS ORDERS

Starbucks introduced us to coffee drinks in a whole range of volumes:

  • Demi … 3 fl oz
  • Short … 8 fl oz
  • Tall … 12 fl oz
  • Grande … 16 fl oz (Italian for “large”)
  • Venti … 20 fl oz (Italian for “twenty”)
  • Trenta … 30 fl oz (Italian for “thirty”)

37 Actress Susan : DEY

Actress Susan Dey first appeared on “The Partridge Family” when she was 17-years-old when she had no acting experience. Years later, Dey won a Golden Globe for playing the leading role of Grace Van Owen in “L.A. Law”.

38 Order at a lodge : ELKS

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) was founded in 1868, and is a social club that has about a million members today. It started out as a group of men getting together in a “club” in order to get around the legal opening hours of taverns in New York City. The club took on a new role as it started to look out for poor families of members who passed away. The club now accepts African Americans as members (since the seventies) and women (since the nineties), but atheists still aren’t welcome. The list of US presidents that have been members of the BPOE includes Presidents Eisenhower, Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Ford.

39 It’s sold by the yard : ALE

A yard of ale is a very tall glass, one that is just under a yard (three feet) long. It holds about 60 fluid ounces of beer. I’ve tried drinking out of one, and it is extremely difficult. There is a bulb at the bottom of the glass. When you get towards the end of the drink, that bulb causes a kind of airlock and the remainder of the beer rushes to the top of the glass, splashing you in the face.

41 What a trip! : ODYSSEY

“Odyssey” is one of two epic poems from ancient Greece that are attributed to Homer. “Odyssey” is largely a sequel to Homer’s other epic “Iliad”. “Odyssey” centers on the heroic figure Odysseus, and his adventures on his journey home to Greece following the fall of Troy. We now use the term “odyssey” to describe any long series of adventures.

50 Creature whose male incubates the eggs, during which it won’t eat, drink or defecate for 50+ days : EMU

Emu eggs are very large, with a thick shell that is dark-green in color. One emu egg weighs about the same as a dozen chicken eggs. It is the male emu that incubates the eggs. The incubation period lasts about 8 weeks, during which time the male neither eats nor drinks, just lapping up any morning dew that is nearby. While incubating a clutch of eggs, male emus lose about a third of their weight.

52 New York City setting of the “Eloise” books : PLAZA HOTEL

The celebrated Plaza Hotel in New York City is named for Grand Army Plaza, which faces the hotel’s main entrance on Fifth Avenue.

Kay Thompson wrote the “Eloise” series of children’s books. Kay Thompson actually lived at the Plaza Hotel in New York, the setting she would choose for her “Eloise” stories. Eloise started out as a hit song for Thompson, a success that she parlayed into the book franchise.

56 Whom to call “maman” : MERE

In French, a “mère” (mother) bears an “enfant” (child).

Down

1 Martin or Harvey : STEVE

Comedian, actor and writer Steve Martin is from Waco, Texas. Martin’s entertainment career started to take off with success as a writer for the “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour”. He then turned to stand-up comedy and often appeared on “The Tonight Show”. He was, and still is, a popular guest host on “Saturday Night Live”. He is so popular on “SNL” that many mistakenly believe that he was a permanent member of the “Saturday NIght Live” cast.

Steve Harvey is a comedian and TV personality who really started his successful career in 1990 when he landed the job of hosting “It’s Showtime at the Apollo” in 1990. He has hosted “The Steve Harvey Morning Show” on the radio since 2000, and “Family Feud” on television since 2010.

2 Actress with an Academy Award for 1960’s “Two Women” : LOREN

Sophia Loren certainly has earned her exalted position in the world of movies. In 1962 Loren won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in the Italian film “Two Women”, marking the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English speaking performance. She received a second nomination for Best Actress for her role in “Marriage Italian-Style”, another Italian-language movie, released in 1964.

“Two Women” (“La Ciociara”, in Italian, meaning “The Woman from Ciociara”) is a 1960 film that won Sophia Loren that season’s Best Actress Oscar. The title characters are a widowed shopkeeper (played by Loren) and her 12-year-old daughter. The movie is set in WWII, and there is a very disturbing scene in which the two “women” are gang-raped by a group of soldiers. Actress Eleonora Brown played the daughter, and was actually only 12 years of age at the time of shooting. A tough scene to watch, and surely a tough scene to film …

4 Maker of the world’s first diesel-powered passenger car : MERCEDES-BENZ

There are two main types of internal combustion engine. Most cars in the US use spark injection engines (gasoline engines) in which a spark plug sparks in order to ignite the fuel-air mixture. A diesel engine, on the other hand, has no spark plug per se, and uses the heat generated by compressing the air-fuel mixture to cause ignition.

Rudolf Diesel was a German engineer, and the inventor of the diesel engine. Diesel died under mysterious circumstances, having disappeared from a passenger vessel sailing from Antwerp to London. Whether death was due to an accident, suicide or murder is the subject of much speculation.

5 Photographer Diane : ARBUS

Diane Arbus was a photographer famous for producing black & white images of the unusual and less than savory aspects of life. The 2006 movie “Fur” presents a fictionalized account of her life and work, with Nicole Kidman playing Arbus.

8 Noted organochloride, in brief : DDT

DDT is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (don’t forget now!). DDT was used with great success to control disease-carrying insects during WWII, and when made available for use after the war it became by far the most popular pesticide. And then Rachel Carson published her famous book “Silent Spring”, suggesting there was a link between DDT and diminishing populations of certain wildlife. It was the public outcry sparked by the book, and reports of links between DDT and cancer, that led to the ban on the use of the chemical in 1972. That ban is touted as the main reason that the bald eagle was rescued from near extinction.

9 Boston exurb : SALEM

Salem is a seaport on the Massachusetts coast. It is noted as the location of the Salem witch trials of 1692, an event that the city commemorates during the run-up to Halloween every year in October.

An extension to the term “suburb”, an exurb is an area beyond the suburbs at the very outskirts of a city. The term “exurbia” is often used to denote an area inhabited by more wealthy people.

10 Bell Labs development of the 1970s : UNIX

Unix is a computer operating system that was developed at Bell Labs in 1969. The initial name for the project was Uniplexed Information and Computing Service (Unics), and this evolved over time into “Unix”.

Bell Labs dates back to the days of Alexander Graham Bell. The first Bell Labs building was in the carriage house of Bell’s father’s house in Washington, D.C.

23 Like Tony-winning plays : ON BROADWAY

The Tony Awards are more completely referred to as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Broadway Theatre. The awards are named for Mary Antoinette “Tony” Perry, who was a co-founder of the American Theatre Wing.

26 ASCAP and A.S.P.C.A.: Abbr. : ORGS

ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) collects licence fees for musicians and distributes royalties to composers whose works have been performed. BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) provides the same service.

Unlike most developed countries, the US has no umbrella organization with the goal of preventing cruelty to animals. Instead there are independent organizations set up all over the nation using the name SPCA. Having said that, there is an organization called the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) that was originally intended to operate across the country, but really it now focuses its efforts in New York City.

30 What cognitive behavioral therapy might treat, in brief : PTSD

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

32 “Capisce?” : OKAY?

“Capeesh?” is a slang term meaning “do you understand?” It comes from the Italian “capisce” meaning “understand”.

42 ___ Hall : SETON

Seton Hall University is a private, Roman Catholic college in South Orange, New Jersey. The most famous of the school’s sports programs is men’s basketball, played by the Seton Hall Pirates.

43 Change in writing : EMEND

The verb “to amend” means “to change for the better, put right, alter by adding”. The related verb “to emend” is used more rarely, and mainly in reference to the editing of professional writing. Both terms are derived from the Latin “emendare” meaning “to remove fault”.The verb “to amend” means “to change for the better, put right, alter by adding”. The related verb “to emend” is used more rarely, and mainly in reference to the editing of professional writing. Both terms are derived from the Latin “emendare” meaning “to remove fault”.

44 ‘Tis the season to be jolly : YULE

Yule celebrations coincide with Christmas, and the words “Christmas” and “Yule” (often “Yuletide”) have become synonymous in much of the world. However, Yule was originally a pagan festival celebrated by Germanic peoples. The name “Yule” comes from the Old Norse word “jol” that was used to describe the festival.

45 Kind of rock : GLAM

I remember the days of glam rock so well, as it was a hugely popular genre of music in Britain and Ireland during the early seventies. Artistes wore the wildest of clothes, big hair, shiny outfits and really high platform boots. Names associated with glam rock are T. Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music and the infamous Gary Glitter.

48 Barents Sea sight : FLOE

An ice floe is a sheet of ice that has separated from an ice field and is floating freely on the surface of the ocean.

In his native Dutch, the explorer William Barents was known as “Willem Barentsz”. Barents made three main voyages of exploration in his lifetime, all of them searching for the Northeast Passage, the route from the Atlantic into the Pacific along the Arctic coast. Barents was not successful in finding the route, but made notable discoveries including Bear Island and Spitsbergen. What is now called the Barents Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean north of Norway and Russia.

49 Quad part : LAWN

A university often features a central quadrangle (quad).

53 “Absolument!” : OUI!

“Absolument” is French for “absolutely”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Trash : SLAM
5 Kind of rock : ACID
9 Toni Morrison title character who lives in the Bottom : SULA
13 Lower-cost option at a supermarket, usually : STORE BRAND
15 Fresh : ANEW
16 Furry creature that Wallace becomes during the full moon, in a “Wallace & Gromit” film : WERE-RABBIT
17 Bio subject : LIFE
18 “___ changed” : I’VE
19 Feature of the inner planets : CRUST
20 Thread count? : TEXTS
21 Facebook allows for more than 50 : GENDERS
23 Reciprocal of a siemens : OHM
24 Sharon Olds’s “___ to Dirt” : ODE
25 Hush puppies alternative : PONE
27 Restaurant starter, informally : APP
30 Prominent attire for Jr. Pac-Man : PROPELLER BEANIE
35 Assumes : TAKES FOR GRANTED
36 Grande and others : STARBUCKS ORDERS
37 Actress Susan : DEY
38 Order at a lodge : ELKS
39 It’s sold by the yard : ALE
40 Good things to have for a private party : INS
41 What a trip! : ODYSSEY
45 Alliterative partner of 45-Down : GLITZ
48 Proceeds smoothly : FLOWS
50 Creature whose male incubates the eggs, during which it won’t eat, drink or defecate for 50+ days : EMU
51 Trails : LAGS
52 New York City setting of the “Eloise” books : PLAZA HOTEL
54 It may be bonded : ATOM
55 “Much obliged!” : I OWE YOU ONE!
56 Whom to call “maman” : MERE
57 Guard, perhaps : TEND
58 Current : WIND

Down

1 Martin or Harvey : STEVE
2 Actress with an Academy Award for 1960’s “Two Women” : LOREN
3 Amount to : ARE
4 Maker of the world’s first diesel-powered passenger car : MERCEDES-BENZ
5 Photographer Diane : ARBUS
6 Pickup line? : CABS
7 Still alive, so to speak : IN IT
8 Noted organochloride, in brief : DDT
9 Boston exurb : SALEM
10 Bell Labs development of the 1970s : UNIX
11 Took off : LEFT
12 Floors : AWES
13 Amount from a flask, maybe : SWIG
14 Amounts from a distillery, maybe : BARRELFULS
20 Program replaced by “CBS This Morning” : THE EARLY SHOW
22 Olympics rule-breaker : DOPER
23 Like Tony-winning plays : ON BROADWAY
25 Brightens, with “up” : PERKS …
26 ASCAP and A.S.P.C.A.: Abbr. : ORGS
27 Lead-in to date : ANTE-
28 Walk on water? : PIER
29 Disposable shoe liners : PEDS
30 What cognitive behavioral therapy might treat, in brief : PTSD
31 Grade : RATE
32 “Capisce?” : OKAY?
33 Sure thing : LOCK
34 Home of the two deepest canyons in the Americas (each 11,500+ feet) : ANDES
40 Response at the door : IT’S ME!
41 Gave off, in a way : OOZED
42 ___ Hall : SETON
43 Change in writing : EMEND
44 ‘Tis the season to be jolly : YULE
45 Kind of rock : GLAM
46 Behind : LATE
47 2008 animated film with the tagline “He’s got a monster of a problem” : IGOR
48 Barents Sea sight : FLOE
49 Quad part : LAWN
52 Stone : PIT
53 “Absolument!” : OUI!