0306-22 NY Times Crossword 6 Mar 22, Sunday

Constructed by: Matthew Stock & Will Nediger
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: Parlor Trick

We are in a PACHINKO PARLOR today, with a ball (O) FALLING INTO PLACE in the middle of the grid. Letters in the CUPS defined by black squares spell out “PACHINKO”:

  • 82A Something’s essential aspect … or what’s spelled out by letters in this puzzle’s eight “cups” : NAME OF THE GAME
  • 103A Karaoke instruction … or what to do starting at 10-Down : FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BALL
  • 3D Election night calculation … or what’s traced by the circled letters : PATH TO VICTORY
  • 17D Become clear … or make like the object represented by the circled letters : FALL INTO PLACE

Bill’s time: 32m 10s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “Bon ___!” : APPETIT

The phrase “Enjoy your meal” translates into French as “Bon appétit”, and into German as “Guten Appetit”.

13 It covers more than 30% of the earth’s surface : PACIFIC

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who was hired by King Charles I of Spain to find a westward route to the Spice Islands, now known as the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. Magellan headed west through the Atlantic starting out in 1519. He passed south of the Americas through what is now called the Strait of Magellan. He gave the name “Peaceful Sea” to the body of water that he encountered west of the Americas, which we now know as the Pacific Ocean. He and his expedition reached the Spice Islands in 1521, and returned home via the Indian Ocean. This voyage was the first circumnavigation of the globe in history.

20 Donna ___, member of Bill Clinton’s cabinet : SHALALA

Donna Shalala was a Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Clinton Administration. Shalala was the first Arab-American to serve in a cabinet position. She was named head of the Clinton Foundation in 2015.

22 Desert whose soil has been compared to that of Mars : ATACAMA

Even deserts get rain at some point in the year, with very few exceptions. One of those exceptions is the Atacama Desert in South America, which receives no rain at all.

34 Nickel found in a pocket, say : ORE

The whitish metal we know as “nickel” was given its name by Swedish mineralogist Axel von Cronstedt in 1754. The name he chose was an abbreviated version of “kopparnickel”, the Swedish for “copper-colored ore”.

35 Actor Barinholtz of “The Mindy Project” : IKE

Ike Barinholtz is an actor and comedian who appeared on MADtv from 2002 until 2007. More recently, Barinholtz became a writer on the TV show “The Mindy Project”, and was then cast as Nurse Morgan Tookers.

36 Classic Camaro : IROC

The IROC-Z is a model of Camaro that was introduced by Chevrolet in 1978. The IROC-Z takes its name from a famous stock car race, the International Race of Champions.

43 “La Dolce ___” : VITA

The title of the celebrated 1960 Federico Fellini film “La Dolce Vita” translates from Italian as “The Good Life”. There is a character in the film called Paparazzo who is a news photographer. It is this character who gives us our word “Paparazzi”, a term used for photographers who make careers out of taking candid shots of celebrities.

47 Bump on a frog : WART

The “warts” on the skin of a toad have no relation to the viral infection that can occur on human skin. A toad’s warts are colored bumps that are believed to help the animal blend more effectively into its environment.

52 One of the Blues Brothers : ELWOOD

The Blues Brothers blues band was created in 1978 for a “Saturday Night Live” sketch. The original Blues Brothers were Dan Aykroyd (Elwood Blues) and John Belushi (“Joliet” Jake Blues). The band eventually made it to the big screen in a 1980 musical comedy called “The Blues Brothers”.

57 Syrian city with a historic citadel : ALEPPO

Aleppo is the largest city in Syria and is located not far from Damascus, the nation’s capital. Aleppo owes its size and history of prosperity to its location at the end of the Silk Road, the trade route that linked Asia to Europe (and other locations). The Suez Canal was opened up in 1869 bringing a new route for transport of goods, and so Aleppo’s prosperity declined over the past one hundred years or so. The city’s population has suffered terribly since the start of the Syrian Civil War, with the Battle of Aleppo raging from 2012 to 2016.

58 What “10” can mean : OCTOBER

October is the tenth month in our calendar but was the eighth month in the old Roman calendar, hence the prefix “octo-”. Back then there were only ten months in the year. “Ianuarius” (January) and “Februarius” were then added as the eleventh and twelfth months of the year. Soon after, the year was reset and January and February became the first and second months.

63 Linguistic unit : PHONEME

I’m no linguist and just accept that a “phoneme” is a basic sound in a language. A language is built up from a collection of those basic sounds.

64 Giraffe’s closest living relative : OKAPI

The okapi is closely related to the giraffe, although it does have markings on its legs and haunches that resemble those of a zebra. The okapi’s tongue is long enough to reach back and wash its eyeballs, and can go back even further to clean its ears inside and out.

69 Exams for some future clerks: Abbr. : LSATS

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

71 Cold open? : CEE

The opening of the word “cold” is a letter C (cee).

73 U.K. award bestowed by the queen : OBE

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry in the UK that was established in 1917 by King George V. There are five classes within the order, which are in descending seniority:

  • Knight Grand Cross (GBE)
  • Knight Commander (KBE)
  • Commander (CBE)
  • Officer (OBE)
  • Member (MBE)

74 West Coast news inits. : LAT

The “Los Angeles Times” newspaper started out life in 1881 as the “Los Angeles Daily Times”. The paper has a turbulent history, especially in the early 1900s when management and unions were at loggerheads. In 1910, two union members bombed the “Los Angeles Times” building causing a fire that killed 21 newspaper employees.

82 Something’s essential aspect … or what’s spelled out by letters in this puzzle’s eight “cups” : NAME OF THE GAME

Pachinko is an arcade game as well as a gambling machine that is very, very popular in Japan in particular. It resembles a vertical pinball device into which steel balls are inserted.

87 Comedian Margaret : CHO

Margaret Cho is a very successful stand-up comedian, and also a fashion designer with her own line of clothing. Cho acts as well, and you might have seen her in the John Travolta/Nicolas Cage movie “Face/Off” in which she played John Travolta’s FBI colleague.

90 2011 film for which Octavia Spencer won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar : THE HELP

“The Help” is a 2011 film that is an adaptation of a 2009 novel of the same name written by Kathryn Stockett. The story centers on a young female journalist who writes a book exposing the racism experienced by African American maids working in Jackson, Mississippi in the sixties.

98 Records request inits. : FOIA

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)

101 Utah’s state flower : SEGO

The sego lily is the state flower of Utah, and is a perennial plant found throughout the Western United States.

102 Org. that sets permissible exposure limits : OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

103 Karaoke instruction … or what to do starting at 10-Down : FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BALL

“Karate” is a Japanese word meaning “empty hand”, and the related word “karaoke” translates as “empty orchestra”.

109 P.R. consultant on “Ted Lasso” : KEELEY

“Ted Lasso” is a marvelous sports-comedy TV show about an American college football coach who moves to the UK to manage an English soccer team. The title character is played very admirably by Jason Sudeikas. Sudeikas first played Lasso in a series of TV commercials commissioned to promote NBC’s coverage of the British Premier League. Great stuff, and highly recommended …

112 Scott who sued for his freedom : DRED

The landmark case of Dred Scott vs. Sandford came before the US Supreme Court in 1857. Scott had been born a slave, but lived with his owner in a free state for several years before returning to the slave state of Missouri. Scott’s argument was that living in a free state entitled him to emancipation. A divided US Supreme Court sided with Scott’s owner John Sandford. The decision was that no African American, free or enslaved, was entitled to US citizenship and therefore Scott was unable to petition the court for his freedom. The decision heightened tensions between the North and South, and the American Civil War erupted just three years later.

114 Add salt to, say : CURE

Salt is used to “cure” meats. Curing is a preservation process. The salt kills and inhibits the growth of microorganisms by sucking the water out of the microbe’s cells in the process of osmosis. Smoking is also cited as a curing process, although smoking alone is insufficient for preserving food as the antimicrobial smoke compounds only adhere to the outside of the meat or fish. Smoking is usually combined with salt-curing or drying.

Down

1 Home of St. Clare : ASSISI

The Italian town of Assisi is in Umbria. Assisi is famous as the birthplace of St. Francis and as the home to the Franciscan religious order. It was also the home to Saint Clare and her order of the Poor Sisters (later known as the Poor Clares).

2 Starfleet weapon : PHASER

A MASER is a device that was around long before LASERs came into the public consciousness. A MASER (Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) is similar to a LASER, but microwaves are emitted rather than light waves. When the storyline for “Star Trek” was being developed, the writers introduced a weapon called a “phaser”, with the name “phaser” derived from PHoton mASER.

5 Save it for a rainy day! : 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”.

6 La Corse, par exemple : ILE

Corsica (“La Corse” in French) is a large island in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to France. Napoléon Bonaparte was born on Corsica, in the town of Ajaccio.

10 Worker’s “on vacation” inits. : OOO

Out of the office (OOO)

12 Rococo painter of “Allegory of the Planets and Continents” : TIEPOLO

Tiepolo (full name “Giovanni Battista Tiepolo”) was a prolific artist from the Republic in Venice who was active during the 18th century. His large painting “The Banquet of Cleopatra” shows the result of a wager between Cleopatra and Mark Anthony about who could host the most expensive feast. The former won when she dropped a rare pearl in a cup of vinegar, and then drank the mixture.

14 Organic energy compound, for short : ATP

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is a chemical used in the body to transfer energy for cell-to-cell. One of the main uses of ATP is to shorten muscles, so that they can do work.

15 “Mi ___ es su ___” : CASA

The Spanish phrases “Mi casa es tu casa” and “Mi casa es su casa” are expressions of welcome translating as “My house is your house”. The former is more informal than the latter.

19 Hereditary divisions : CASTES

Although caste systems exist in several societies around the world, we tend to associate the concept with the social stratification that is still found in many parts of India. The term “caste” comes from the Portuguese word “casta” meaning “race, breed”. The Portuguese used the term to describe the hereditary social groups that they found in India when they arrived in the subcontinent in 1498.

28 Physicist Newton : ISAAC

English polymath Sir Isaac Newton was responsible for so many discoveries in science and philosophy, and is regarded as key to the scientific revolution that led to the birth of what we now call “modern science”. While most of Newton’s discoveries were undisputed, his introduction of the mathematical discipline of calculus was challenged by German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz. It seems that Newton and Leibniz discovered calculus simultaneously, but each claimed that the other stole his work. That dispute persisted well past the death of both parties.

30 Loyalty that’s pledged : TROTH

There’s a phrase used in some traditional wedding vows that goes “… and thereto I plight thee my troth”. “I plight” is an obsolete way of saying “I pledge”. “Troth” is an old variant of the word truth, and meant “truth” but also “loyalty”. So, “I plight thee my troth” means, “I promise to be loyal to you”.

37 Lemonlike fruit : CITRON

Most of our citrus fruits are hybrids of four original fruits: the pomelo, mandarin, papeda and citron.

42 Big Brother’s creator : ORWELL

“George Orwell” was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, the famous British author of the classics “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and “Animal Farm”.

50 ___ torte (Austrian cake) : SACHER

Sachertorte is a chocolate cake from Austria. It was specifically created in 1832 when Prince Metternich commanded his personal chef to prepare a dessert for some special guests. But his head chef became ill so the task fell to 16-year-old Franz Sacher, an apprentice in the kitchen. That teenager’s dessert is now one of Austria’s most famous dishes.

59 Ross Perot founded it in 1995 : REFORM PARTY

The Reform Party of the USA was founded in 1995 by Ross Perot with the intent of creating an alternative to the Republican and Democratic Parties. The Reform Party’s biggest success was the election of Jesse Ventura as Governor of Minnesota.

Ross Perot graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1953, as president of his class. Perot served his 4-year commitment but then resigned his commission, apparently having become somewhat disillusioned with the navy. He was ranked number 101 on the Forbes 400 List of Richest Americans in 2012, and at that time was worth about $3.5 billion. Back in 1992, Perot ran as an independent candidate for US president. He founded the Reform Party in 1995, and ran as the Reform Party candidate for president in 1996.

77 Airport with a Harvey Milk terminal: Abbr. : SFO

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) served as the main base of operations for Virgin America (sold to Alaska Airlines), and is also the maintenance hub for United Airlines. Even though SFO is owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the airport is located to the south in San Mateo County.

78 Harry Styles tune about a woman who “lives in daydreams” : SHE

Harry Styles is a singer from England who got his big break when he appeared on the British version of “The X Factor”, from which he was selected as an original member of the boy band One Direction. Styles turned to acting, and had a significant role in the 2017 war movie “Dunkirk”. Reading the gossip columns reveals that he dated Taylor Swift for a while in 2012.

79 Lines of notes : STAFF

The set of five horizontal lines and four spaces used in Western musical notation can be called a staff or stave. Either way, the plural form is “staves”.

82 Prefix with -lithic : NEO-

A neolith is a stone tool that was produced during the Neolithic Era, the last part of the Stone Age.

85 ___ lodge : MASONIC

The term “Masonic lodge” describes a local chapter of Freemasons, as well as the building in which the chapter meets.

89 Actress Tatum : O’NEAL

Tatum O’Neal is the youngest actress to win a competitive Oscar. She won the Best Supporting Actress Award in 1974 when she was just 10 years old, for her role as Addie in “Paper Moon”. The youngest person to win an honorary Academy Award was Shirley Temple, who was only 5 years old when she was presented with an Oscar in 1934.

97 Universal Human Rights Mo. : DEC

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948.

101 Kiss, in Kent : SNOG

“Snogging” is British slang of unknown origin that dates back to the end of WWII. The term is used for “kissing and cuddling”, what we call “making out” over here in the US.

Kent is a county in the southeast of England. Kent is a little unusual in that it shares a “land” border with France. That border nominally exists halfway through the Channel Tunnel, one end of which comes to the surface in the Kent port of Folkestone.

106 Nail polish brand : OPI

Opi (originally “Odontorium Products Inc.”) is a manufacturer of nail polish based in North Hollywood, California. One of Opi’s marketing coups was the introduction of a line of Legally Blonde 2 polishes, which featured in the film.

107 Buffet table item : URN

Our word “buffet” comes from the French “bufet” meaning “bench, sideboard”. So, a buffet is a meal served from a “bufet”.

108 Zoo animal whose name rhymes with “zoo” : GNU

The gnu is also known as the wildebeest, and is an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is a Dutch meaning “wild beast”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 “Bon ___!” : APPETIT
8 “See ya later!” : I’M OUT!
13 It covers more than 30% of the earth’s surface : PACIFIC
20 Donna ___, member of Bill Clinton’s cabinet : SHALALA
21 Klein who wrote the best seller “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate” : NAOMI
22 Desert whose soil has been compared to that of Mars : ATACAMA
23 Biting writings : SATIRES
24 Breakfast treat : SCONE
25 Convinces a customer to pay more : UPSELLS
26 “Or so” : ISH
27 Much of a delivery person’s income : TIPS
29 Makes a choice : OPTS
31 Hoppin’ : LIT
32 Prearranged : SET
33 Suffix with official : -ESE
34 Nickel found in a pocket, say : ORE
35 Actor Barinholtz of “The Mindy Project” : IKE
36 Classic Camaro : IROC
38 ___ K. Smith, poet who won a Pulitzer for “Life on Mars” : TRACY
40 Cosmetic that can be applied with a brush : GLOSS
42 Neighbors of exclamation marks : ONES
43 “La Dolce ___” : VITA
45 Stuffed one’s face : ATE A LOT
47 Bump on a frog : WART
49 Question regarding a mic : IS IT ON?
51 Hubbub : ADO
52 One of the Blues Brothers : ELWOOD
55 Above criticism : SACRED
56 Question from the befuddled : HOW?
57 Syrian city with a historic citadel : ALEPPO
58 What “10” can mean : OCTOBER
60 Extra : BONUS
62 Rolled one’s r’s, say : TRILLED
63 Linguistic unit : PHONEME
64 Giraffe’s closest living relative : OKAPI
65 Deb ___, secretary of the interior starting in 2021 : HAALAND
66 Opposite of ‘neath : O’ER
67 Regarding : AS FOR
69 Exams for some future clerks: Abbr. : LSATS
71 Cold open? : CEE
72 Hang out on a line : DRY
73 U.K. award bestowed by the queen : OBE
74 West Coast news inits. : LAT
75 Blunder : ERR
76 They cast lots : RODS
78 “Love covers a multitude of ___”: I Peter 4:8 : SINS
79 Lawn material : SOD
82 Something’s essential aspect … or what’s spelled out by letters in this puzzle’s eight “cups” : NAME OF THE GAME
87 Comedian Margaret : CHO
90 2011 film for which Octavia Spencer won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar : THE HELP
92 It takes blades to blades : MOWER
93 Deal : BARGAIN
95 Like the consonants “t” and “d” : ALVEOLAR
97 Eject forcefully : DISGORGE
98 Records request inits. : FOIA
99 ___ history : ORAL
101 Utah’s state flower : SEGO
102 Org. that sets permissible exposure limits : OSHA
103 Karaoke instruction … or what to do starting at 10-Down : FOLLOW THE BOUNCING BALL
109 P.R. consultant on “Ted Lasso” : KEELEY
110 Start playing for pay : GO PRO
111 Into really small pieces : FINELY
112 Scott who sued for his freedom : DRED
113 Afford, casually : SWING
114 Add salt to, say : CURE

Down

1 Home of St. Clare : ASSISI
2 Starfleet weapon : PHASER
3 Election night calculation … or what’s traced by the circled letters : PATH TO VICTORY
4 Name that’s 6-Down backward : ELI
5 Save it for a rainy day! : TARP
6 La Corse, par exemple : ILE
7 Brewery employee : TASTER
8 Comb through : INSPECT
9 Bubs : MACS
10 Worker’s “on vacation” inits. : OOO
11 “Actually, I disagree” : UM, NO
12 Rococo painter of “Allegory of the Planets and Continents” : TIEPOLO
13 They might be pregnant : PAUSES
14 Organic energy compound, for short : ATP
15 “Mi ___ es su ___” : CASA
16 Part of a cold compress : ICE
17 Become clear … or make like the object represented by the circled letters : FALL INTO PLACE
18 “So then my response was …” : I’M LIKE …
19 Hereditary divisions : CASTES
28 Physicist Newton : ISAAC
30 Loyalty that’s pledged : TROTH
37 Lemonlike fruit : CITRON
38 Big rigs : TANDEMS
39 “Well, fine then” : YEAH, OK
40 Age beautifully, informally : GLOW UP
41 Cuss out : SWEAR AT
42 Big Brother’s creator : ORWELL
44 Pink pad on a paw, in slang : TOE BEAN
46 The Lord, in the Hebrew Bible : ADONAI
48 Start of a simple request : ALL I ASK …
49 Roly-poly, scientifically : ISOPOD
50 ___ torte (Austrian cake) : SACHER
53 Warm-up act : OPENER
54 Move shakily : DODDER
59 Ross Perot founded it in 1995 : REFORM PARTY
60 Lack of engagement : BOREDOM
61 More wacky : SILLIER
62 “You’re just assuming” : THAT’S A BIG IF
68 It’s blown in the winds : OBOE
70 Showed off one’s pipes : SANG
77 Airport with a Harvey Milk terminal: Abbr. : SFO
78 Harry Styles tune about a woman who “lives in daydreams” : SHE
79 Lines of notes : STAFF
80 Sight line? : OH LOOK
81 Cooked with hot seasoning : DEVILED
82 Prefix with -lithic : NEO-
83 Not against the rules : ALLOWED
84 It’s under @ on a keyboard : TWO
85 ___ lodge : MASONIC
86 Rowing machine, informally : ERG
87 Event for moving vehicles : CAR SALE
88 Super : HIGHLY
89 Actress Tatum : O’NEAL
91 Folk medicine practitioner : HEALER
94 Foolish sort : GOOBER
96 Sports fan’s cheer : RAH!
97 Universal Human Rights Mo. : DEC
100 Ability to sustain long-term interest : LEGS
101 Kiss, in Kent : SNOG
104 Sports fan’s cheer : OLE!
105 Gift wrapper’s final touch : BOW
106 Nail polish brand : OPI
107 Buffet table item : URN
108 Zoo animal whose name rhymes with “zoo” : GNU