1205-22 NY Times Crossword 5 Dec 22, Monday

Constructed by: Tracy Gray
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer: My Bad

Themed answers each end with a synonym of “blunder”, something that might elicit a “My bad” acknowledgment:

  • 62A “Oopsie!”… and a hint to the ends of 18-, 25-, 39- and 50-Across : MY BAD
  • 18A ‘Bama rival : OLE MISS
  • 25A Bit of banking documentation : DEPOSIT SLIP
  • 39A Cause of many California earthquakes : SAN ANDREAS FAULT
  • 50A Former moniker of reality TV child star Alana Thompson : HONEY BOO BOO

Bill’s time: 6m 19s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Center of an ear of corn : COB

“Maize” is another name for “corn”. Even though there is more maize grown in the world than wheat or rice, a relatively small proportion of the total maize crop is consumed directly by humans. That’s because a lot of maize goes to make corn ethanol, animal feed and derivative products like cornstarch and corn syrup. Here in the US, over 40% of the maize produced is used to feed livestock, and about 30% is used to make ethanol.

11 X, to Greeks : CHI

The letter chi is the 22nd letter in the Greek alphabet, and the one that looks like our Roman letter X.

14 “Wise” bird : OWL

The Greek goddess Athena (sometimes “Athene”) is often associated with wisdom, among other attributes. In many representations. Athena is depicted with an owl sitting on her head. It is this linkage of the owl with the goddess of wisdom that led to today’s perception of the owl as being “wise”. Athena’s Roman counterpart was Minerva.

15 Last car on classic trains : CABOOSE

The word “caboose” originally came from Middle Dutch and was the word for a ship’s galley. When the last car in a train in North America was given a stove for the comfort of the crew, it took on the name “caboose”. The term has also become slang for a person’s backside.

17 Only three-letter zodiac sign : LEO

Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 23 to August 22 are Leos.

18 ‘Bama rival : OLE MISS

“Ole Miss” is the nickname for the University of Mississippi located in Oxford, Mississippi. The name “Ole Miss” dates back to 1897, the first year a student yearbook was published. The graduating class held a competition to name the yearbook and “Ole Miss” emerged as the winner. The name stuck to the yearbook, and also as a nickname for the school itself. The University of Mississippi sports teams have been known as the Rebels since 1936. Prior to 1936, they were known as the Mississippi Flood.

19 Letters on a wanted poster : AKA

Also known as (aka)

20 Mexican marinade made with chili peppers : ADOBO

In Spanish and Mexican cuisine, a dish prepared “adobo” style has been marinated in a mixture containing paprika, oregano, salt, garlic and vinegar. “Adobo” is Spanish for “marinade, seasoning”.

22 Craving : YEN

The word “yen”, meaning “urge”, has been around in English since the very early 1900s. It comes from the earlier word “yin” imported from Chinese, which was used in English to describe an intense craving for opium.

23 Officiated at a baseball game : UMPED

Back in the 15th century, “an umpire” was referred to as “a noumpere”, which was misheard and hence causing the dropping of the initial letter N. The term “noumpere” came from Old French “nonper” meaning “not even, odd number”. The idea was that the original umpire was a third person called on to arbitrate between two, providing that “odd number” needed to decide the dispute.

33 Modernist architect I. M. ___ : PEI

I. M. Pei (full name: Ieoh Ming Pei) was an exceptional American architect who was born in China. Of Pei’s many wonderful works, my favorite is the renovation of the Louvre in Paris, and especially the Glass Pyramid in the museum’s courtyard.

34 Coins used in 19 countries : EUROS

Euro coins are issued by all the participating European states. The reverse side is a common design used by all countries, whereas the obverse is a design specific to each nation. For example, the one euro coin issued by Malta features the Maltese Cross. That Maltese euro is legal tender right across the eurozone. The Irish euro features a harp.

38 Status ___ : QUO

“Status quo” translates from Latin as “state in which”, and in English is used to mean the existing condition or state of affairs.

39 Cause of many California earthquakes : SAN ANDREAS FAULT

The famous San Andreas Fault in California lies along the boundary between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. The faultline was named in 1885 after a small lake just south of San Francisco called Laguna de San Andreas.

44 “Aida” or “Lohengrin” : OPERA

“Aida” is a celebrated opera by Giuseppe Verdi that is based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. Mariette also designed the costumes and stages for the opening performance. The opera was first staged in 1871 in an opera house in Cairo. In the storyline, Aida is an Ethiopian princess brought into Egypt as a slave. Radamès is an Egyptian commander who falls in love with her, and then complications arise!

“Lohengrin” is a very popular opera by Richard Wagner that was first performed in 1850. Many arias from “Lohengrin” are staples in “Opera’s Greatest Hits” collections. We’ve often heard the “Bridal Chorus” from “Lohengrin”. It’s the tune to “Here comes the bride …”, which is played regularly at the start of wedding ceremonies as the bride walks down the aisle. In the opera, the “Bridal Chorus” is sung not at the start of the ceremony but afterwards, by the women of the wedding party as they accompany newlywed Elsa to the bridal chamber.

47 Stadium cheer : RAH!

The Greek word “stadion” was a measure of length, about 600 feet. The name “stadion” then came to be used for a running track of that length. That “running track” meaning led to our contemporary term “stadium” (plural “stadia”).

50 Former moniker of reality TV child star Alana Thompson : HONEY BOO BOO

“Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” is a reality show about a child beauty pageant contest called Honey Boo Boo Thompson, and her family. “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” is actually a spin-off show of another reality show called “Toddlers & Tiaras” that follows the families of a whole host of child beauty pageant contestants. Honey Boo Boo’s mother peps up her daughter before appearing in a pageant by giving her “Go Go Juice”, a mixture of Red Bull and Mountain Dew.

55 Cole ___ : SLAW

The term “coleslaw” is an Anglicized version of the Dutch term “koolsla”, which in itself is a shortened form of “Koolsalade” meaning “cabbage salad”.

57 Scottish estate owner : LAIRD

“Laird” is just the word “lord” in the local English dialect in Scotland and the north of England.

58 Letters on love letters : SWAK

“SWAK” is an initialism standing for “sealed with a kiss”. SWAK, and the related SWALK (sealed with a loving kiss), are postal acronyms that originated during WWII.

61 Bottle stopper : CORK

Cork, as in the material used to make wine stoppers, comes from the bark of cork oak trees. The bark of a cork oak is very thick and rugged and can be harvested every 7-10 years, without harming the trees.

64 Novelist James who co-wrote the screenplay for “The African Queen” : AGEE

James Agee was a noted American film critic and screenwriter. Agee wrote an autobiographical novel “A Death in the Family” that won him his Pulitzer in 1958, albeit posthumously. He was also one of the screenwriters for the 1951 classic movie “The African Queen”.

“The African Queen” is a 1935 novel by C. S. Forester that was adapted into a very successful 1951 film of the same name starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. The title refers to a steam-powered launch that travels the Ulanga River. The story is set during World War I. At the climax of the tale, the African Queen is used as a makeshift torpedo to sink a German gunboat (spoiler!).

65 Like a margarita glass rim : SALTY

No one seems to know for sure who first created the margarita cocktail. The most plausible and oft-quoted is that it was invented in 1941 in Ensenada, Mexico. The barman mixed the drink for an important visitor, the daughter of the German ambassador. The daughter’s name was Margarita Henkel, and she lent her name to the new drink. The basic recipe for a margarita is a mixture of tequila, orange-flavored liqueur (like Cointreau) and lime juice.

Down

1 Pepsi or RC : COLA

The Pepsi-Cola formulation was developed by one Caleb Bradham who made the drink at home and sold it as Brad’s Drink. Bradham’s aim was to provide a drink that was pleasant to taste, that would aid digestion and boost energy. Included in the formula were pepsin (a digestive enzyme) and kola nuts. These two ingredients inspired the brand name Pepsi-Cola. That name was shortened to just “Pepsi” in 1961.

Claude A. Hatcher ran a grocery store in Columbus, Georgia. He decided to develop his own soft drink formula when he balked at the price his store was being charged for Coca-Cola syrup. Hatcher launched the Union Bottling Works in his own grocery store, and introduced Royal Crown Ginger Ale in 1905. The Union Bottling Works was renamed to Chero-Cola in 1910, the Nehi Corporation in 1925, and Royal Crown Company in the mid-fifties. The first RC Cola hit the market in 1934.

5 Shakespearean prince : HAL

“Prince Hal” is a term used for Prince Henry, the son of the title character in Shakespeare’s plays “Henry IV, Part 1” and “Henry IV, Part 2”. Prince Hal then becomes king in Shakespeare’s “Henry V”.

7 Actress Marisa of “The Wrestler” : TOMEI

Marisa Tomei’s first screen role was in the daytime soap “As the World Turns”, but her break came with a recurring role in “The Cosby Show” spin-off “A Different World”. Tomei won an Oscar for her delightful performance in “My Cousin Vinny” in 1992.

“The Wrestler” is a really hard, gritty movie from 2008, and a comeback film for actor Mickey Rourke. Rourke stars as an over-the-hill professional wrestler, with Marisa Tomei playing a faded stripper, and the love interest. The film received really strong reviews, but I found it to be a tough movie to sit through.

11 Town in Westchester County, N.Y., where the Clintons live : CHAPPAQUA

Westchester County in the Hudson Valley of New York State was named for the cathedral city of Chester in Cheshire, England. The county seat is White Plains, a suburb of New York City. The county’s most populous city is Yonkers.

13 Amazon Fire competitor : IPAD

Amazon’s Kindle line of e-book readers was introduced in 2007. The name “kindle” was chosen to evoke images of “lighting a fire” through reading and intellectual stimulation. I bought myself a Kindle Fire HD several years ago. I started reading e-books for the first time in my life, as well as enjoying other computing options available with the tablet device …

21 Actress Arthur of “The Golden Girls” : BEA

Actress Bea Arthur’s most famous roles were on television, as the lead in the “All in the Family” spin-off “Maude” and as Dorothy Zbornak in “The Golden Girls”. Arthur also won a Tony for playing Vera Charles on stage in the original cast of “Mame” in 1966, two years after she played Yente the matchmaker in the original cast of “Fiddler on the Roof”.

“The Golden Girls” is a sitcom that originally aired in the eighties and nineties. The show features Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty as four older women who share a house in Miami.

24 Thousand G’s : MIL

One “G” is a thousand dollars, and 1,000 Gs make up a cool million (mil).

26 Gave approval : OK’ED

Back in the late 1830s, there were some slang abbreviations coined mainly in Boston. The craze called for two-letter abbreviations of deliberately misspelled phrases. For example “no use” became “KY” from “know yuse”, and “enough said” became “NC” from “‘nuff ced”. Fortunately (I say!), the practice was short-lived. But, one of those abbreviations persists to this day. “All correct” was misspelled to give “oll korrect”, abbreviated to “OK”.

28 ___ facto : IPSO

“Ipso facto” is Latin, meaning “by the fact itself”. “Ipso facto” describes something that is a direct consequence of a particular act, as opposed to something that is the result of some subsequent event. For example, my father was born in Dublin and was an Irish citizen, ipso facto. My son was born in California and is an Irish citizen by virtue of being the son of an Irish citizen (i.e. “not” ipso facto).

32 Many “PAW Patrol” watchers : TOTS

“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.

36 Onetime manufacturer of the Flying Cloud and Royale : REO

The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale 8 and the REO Flying Cloud.

37 Cheerios grain : OAT

Cheerios breakfast cereal has the distinction of being the first oat-based cereal introduced into the market, hitting the grocery store shelves in 1941. Back then, Cheerios were known as CheeriOats.

41 Flatbread in Indian cooking : NAAN

Naan (also “nan”) bread is very popular in Indian restaurants, as well as in other West, Central and South Asian cuisines. Indian Naan is traditionally baked in a clay oven known as a tandoor.

42 Makeup of a “muffin top” : FLAB

The term “muffin top” is used to describe fatty tissue that spills over a tight waistline of a skirt or pants. I guess the idea is that such a phenomenon resembles the top of a muffin hanging over its case.

43 Some hairsprays : AEROSOLS

Strictly speaking, the term “aerosol” defines a suspension of either liquid droplets or solid particles in a gas. A good example of an aerosol is smoke. We tend to use the “aerosol” to describe what comes out of a spray can, even though the liquid droplets usually fall out of the gas and don’t stay suspended.

48 Steering equipment on ships : HELMS

In its broadest sense, the term “helm” describes the whole of a ship’s steering mechanism, including the rudder and tiller. In a more specific sense, the helm is the handle, tiller or wheel that is used to control the steering gear.

49 Hot boozy beverage : TODDY

The word “toddy” has come a long way. Its origins lie in the Hindi word for a palm tree, which is “tar”. The derivative word “tari” was used for palm sap, which came into English as “tarrie”, then “taddy” and “toddy”, all of which described an alcoholic drink made from fermented palm sap. That was back around 1600. Late in the 18th century, the palm sap drink called “toddy” had morphed into meaning any alcoholic drink made with liquor, hot water, sugar and spices.

50 Unlike rabbits, their young are born open-eyed and hopping : HARES

Hares belong to the genus Lepus. Young hares under one-year-old are called leverets.

51 “Get Yer ___ Out!” (Rolling Stones album) : YA-YAS

“Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!” is a live album that the Rolling Stones released in 1970. The title “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!” is a slang phrase exhorting one to live life to the full.

52 Book used at inaugurations : BIBLE

Inauguration Day is on January 20th in the year following the November election of a US President. This date is called out in the Twentieth Amendment to the US Constitution, which was ratified by the states in 1933.

55 Surgical souvenir : SCAR

A souvenir is a memento, a token of remembrance. We imported “souvenir” from French, in which language it has the same meaning. The term comes from the Latin “subvenire” meaning “to come to mind”, or literally “to come up”.

56 Bull’s-eye for Target, e.g. : LOGO

Target Corporation was founded by George Draper Dayton in 1902 in Minneapolis, Minnesota as Dayton Dry Goods Company. Dayton developed into a department store, and the company opened up a discount store chain in 1962, calling it Target. Today, Target is the second-largest discount retailer in the country, after Walmart.

59 Water balloons at summer camp, maybe : AMMO

The word “munitions” describes materials and equipment used in war. The term derives from the Latin “munitionem” meaning “fortification, defensive wall”. Back in the 17th century, French soldiers referred to such materials as “la munition”, a Middle French term. This was misheard as “l’ammunition”, and as a result we ended up importing the word “ammunition” (often shortened to “ammo”), a term that we now use mainly to describe the material fired from a weapon.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Center of an ear of corn : COB
4 Met the golf course standard : SHOT PAR
11 X, to Greeks : CHI
14 “Wise” bird : OWL
15 Last car on classic trains : CABOOSE
16 Word repeated before “hurray!” : HIP
17 Only three-letter zodiac sign : LEO
18 ‘Bama rival : OLE MISS
19 Letters on a wanted poster : AKA
20 Mexican marinade made with chili peppers : ADOBO
22 Craving : YEN
23 Officiated at a baseball game : UMPED
25 Bit of banking documentation : DEPOSIT SLIP
28 “Let me inquire about that” : I’LL ASK
30 “Finally!” : AT LAST!
33 Modernist architect I. M. ___ : PEI
34 Coins used in 19 countries : EUROS
38 Status ___ : QUO
39 Cause of many California earthquakes : SAN ANDREAS FAULT
44 “Aida” or “Lohengrin” : OPERA
45 Lead-in to “for a moment” or “for profit” : NOT …
46 Ways reporters get some secret information : LEAKS
47 Stadium cheer : RAH!
49 Oily roofing material : TAR
50 Former moniker of reality TV child star Alana Thompson : HONEY BOO BOO
55 Cole ___ : SLAW
57 Scottish estate owner : LAIRD
58 Letters on love letters : SWAK
61 Bottle stopper : CORK
62 “Oopsie!”… and a hint to the ends of 18-, 25-, 39- and 50-Across : MY BAD
63 “This round’s ___” : ON ME
64 Novelist James who co-wrote the screenplay for “The African Queen” : AGEE
65 Like a margarita glass rim : SALTY
66 Gravy glob : LUMP
67 Flushed, as cheeks : ROSY
68 “Didn’t I tell you?!” : SEE!
69 Dry cleaner’s target : SPOT

Down

1 Pepsi or RC : COLA
2 Had bills to pay : OWED
3 Concern for a horse breeder : BLOODLINE
4 Ice cream cone portions : SCOOPS
5 Shakespearean prince : HAL
6 Earns a dog treat, say : OBEYS
7 Actress Marisa of “The Wrestler” : TOMEI
8 Pencil tip : POINT
9 Beast of burden : ASS
10 Outcome : RESULT
11 Town in Westchester County, N.Y., where the Clintons live : CHAPPAQUA
12 Walk with a backpack, maybe : HIKE
13 Amazon Fire competitor : IPAD
21 Actress Arthur of “The Golden Girls” : BEA
24 Thousand G’s : MIL
26 Gave approval : OK’ED
27 Back talk : SASS
28 ___ facto : IPSO
29 Big jump : LEAP
31 Act like a sore loser : SULK
32 Many “PAW Patrol” watchers : TOTS
35 Caterer’s coffee vessel : URN
36 Onetime manufacturer of the Flying Cloud and Royale : REO
37 Cheerios grain : OAT
40 It’s pressed to go left, right, up or down on a computer : ARROW KEY
41 Flatbread in Indian cooking : NAAN
42 Makeup of a “muffin top” : FLAB
43 Some hairsprays : AEROSOLS
48 Steering equipment on ships : HELMS
49 Hot boozy beverage : TODDY
50 Unlike rabbits, their young are born open-eyed and hopping : HARES
51 “Get Yer ___ Out!” (Rolling Stones album) : YA-YAS
52 Book used at inaugurations : BIBLE
53 Speak at length : ORATE
54 Confess (to) : OWN UP
55 Surgical souvenir : SCAR
56 Bull’s-eye for Target, e.g. : LOGO
59 Water balloons at summer camp, maybe : AMMO
60 Hung on to : KEPT