0624-19 NY Times Crossword 24 Jun 19, Monday

Constructed by: Ross Trudeau
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): “Afflictions”

Themed answers are “afflictions” suffered by people cited in the corresponding clue.

  • 17A “Affliction” suffered by Fab Four devotees : BEATLEMANIA
  • 27A “Affliction” suffered by bracketologists : MARCH MADNESS
  • 43A “Affliction” suffered by clothes lovers : FASHION CRAZE
  • 56A “Affliction” suffered by the winter-weary : SPRING FEVER

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 5m 55s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11 Brevity is said to be the soul of it : WIT

Polonius is an important character in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. Polonius is eventually killed by Hamlet, albeit in a case of mistaken identity. Polonius has several memorable lines in the play that are oft-quoted today, including “To thine own self be true”, “Brevity is the soul of wit”, and “Neither a borrower nor a lender be”.

14 Sir John of London : ELTON

Elton John’s real name is Reginald Dwight. Sir Elton was knighted in 1998, not for his music per se, but for his charitable work. He founded his own Elton John AIDS Foundation back in 1992.

16 Patient’s insurance option, for short : HMO

Health maintenance organization (HMO)

17 “Affliction” suffered by Fab Four devotees : BEATLEMANIA

The phenomenon known as “Beatlemania” originated in the early sixties, with the term describing the frenzy exhibited particularly by female fans of the Beatles. The term is perhaps imitative of the much older “Lisztomania”, a term coined in 1844 for the similar fan frenzy directed towards pianist and composer Franz Liszt during an eight-year tour of Europe starting in 1839. Hysterical fans of Liszt would try to get locks of his hair, fight over his handkerchiefs and even carry glass vials containing the dregs from his coffee cup.

19 “The Simpsons” storekeeper : APU

The fictional Kwik-E-Mart store is operated by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on “The Simpsons” TV show. Apu is married to Manjula, and the couple have eight children. The convenience store owner doesn’t seem to be making much use of his Ph.D in computer science that he earned in the US. Apu’s undergraduate degree is from Caltech (the Calcutta Technical Institute), where he graduated top of his class of seven million students …

24 Prince Charles’s onetime partner, affectionately : LADY DI

Charles, Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer in 1981 at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The wedding was a huge television event, with about 750 million people tuning in worldwide. Although the event was billed as a fairytale wedding, the couple separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. Famously, Lady Diana died in a car crash in Paris the following year.

27 “Affliction” suffered by bracketologists : MARCH MADNESS

“March Madness” is the name given to the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship (among others), that is held in the spring each year.

“Bracketology” is a term used to describe the process of predicting which college basketball teams will advance in a bracket in the annual NCAA Basketball Tournament. President Barack Obama famously participates in an ESPN segment called “Baracketology” in which he predicts the outcome of the tournament, game by game.

38 Triage locales, for short : ERS

Triage is the process of prioritizing patients for treatment, especially on the battlefield. The term “triage” is French and means “sorting”.

41 Green stone popular in Chinese craftwork : JADE

“Jade” is actually the name given to two different mineral rocks, both of which are used to make gemstones. The first is nephrite, a mineral with a varying degree of iron content, the more iron the greener the color. The second is jadeite, a sodium and aluminum-rich pyroxene. As well as being used for gemstones, both jade minerals can be carved into decorative pieces.

42 Woods who voiced Cinderella : ILENE

The folk tale about “Cinderella” was first published by French author Charles Perrault in 1697. The storyline of the tale may date back as far as the days of Ancient Greece. A common alternative title to the story is “The Little Glass Slipper”.

54 “Gone With the Wind” plantation : TARA

In Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind”, Scarlett O’Hara’s home is the Tara plantation. Tara was founded not far from the Georgia city of Jonesboro by Scarlett’s father, Irish immigrant Gerald O’Hara. Gerald won the square mile of land on which Tara was built in an all-night poker game. He named his new abode after the Hill of Tara back in his home country, the ancient seat of the High King of Ireland. Rhett’s rival for the affections of Scarlet is Ashley Wilkes who lives at the nearby Twelve Oaks plantation.

55 Atty.’s org. : ABA

The American Bar Association (ABA) was founded back in 1878 and is a voluntary association for lawyers and law students. The ABA focuses on setting academic standards for law schools and setting ethical codes for the profession.

59 Big part of a T. rex : JAW

The Tyrannosaurus rex (usually written “T. rex”) was a spectacular looking dinosaur. “Tyrannosaurus” comes from the Greek words “tyrannos” (tyrant) and “sauros” (lizard) and “rex” the Latin for “king”. They were big beasts, measuring 42 feet long and 13 feet tall at the hips, and weighing 7.5 tons.

63 Japanese port of 2+ million : OSAKA

The Japanese city of Osaka used to be called Naniwa, with the name changing to Osaka sometime before 1500. “Osaka” can be translated either as “large hill” or “large slope”. Osaka is sometimes referred to as “the Chicago of Japan” as it is a major center of commerce and industry. The city has also been named the “nation’s kitchen”, and was a center for Japan’s rice trade for centuries.

Down

2 Amazon Echo persona : ALEXA

Alexa is a personal assistant application that is most associated with the Amazon Echo smart speaker. Apparently, one reason the name “Alexa” was chosen is because it might remind one of the Library of Alexandria, the “keeper of all knowledge”.

3 Reserved in manner : STAID

Something described as “staid” is unwavering, fixed. This usage expanded to mean “sober, sedate”. The term dates back to the 16th century, and comes from the verb “to stay”. “Staid” is a rewriting of the past participle “stayed”.

5 Weekly show with a cold open, for short : SNL

A “cold open” of a TV show or movie is a scene that is shown before the title sequence or opening credits. Cold opens became quite the rage on television starting in the mid-sixties.

9 Tussle between wiki page modifiers : EDIT-WAR

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, as there are so many collaborators contributing to the site.

13 P.G.A. ___ : TOUR

The Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) was founded in 1916 and today has its headquarters (unsurprisingly) in Florida, where so many golfers live. Back in 1916, the PGA was based in New York City.

18 Kuwaiti leader : EMIR

The State of Kuwait sits at the northern tip of the Persian Gulf, famously sharing a border to the north with Iraq. After WWI, Kuwait was a Protectorate within the British Empire and then gained independence from the UK in 1961. Iraq annexed Kuwait in 1990, which led to the Gulf War of 1990-1991.

23 Mail addressed to the North Pole : SANTA LETTERS

If you want to send a note to Santa from Canada, he has his own special postal code: “North Pole, HOH OHO”. The US Postal Service suggests that we send mail for Santa to zip code 99705, which directs it to the city of North Pole, Alaska.

25 Missile aimed at a bull’s-eye : DART

Darts is a wonderful game that’s often played in English and Irish pubs, even over here in America. The scoring in a traditional game of darts is difficult to describe in a sentence or two, but the game of darts called “Round the Clock” is simply hitting the numbers 1 through 20 on the dartboard in sequence.

30 Scrooge : MISER

The classic 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens has left us with a few famous phrases and words. Firstly, it led to popular use of the phrase “Merry Christmas”, and secondly it gave us the word “scrooge” to describe a miserly person. And thirdly, everyone knows that Ebenezer Scrooge uttered the words “Bah! Humbug!”.

33 Capital of Pakistan : ISLAMABAD

Islamabad is a city that was purpose-built in the sixties to replace Karachi as the capital of Pakistan. The port city of Karachi had been the nation’s capital from 1947, when Pakistan gained independence from Britain. The nearby city of Rawalpindi was used as the temporary capital from 1958 until the necessary infrastructure was completed for Islamabad in 1967.

50 Ankle bones : TARSI

The tarsals (also “tarsi”) are the ankle bones, and are equivalent to the carpals in the wrist.

51 ___ California : BAJA

Baja California is both the most northern and the most western of the Mexican states. The name translates from Spanish as “Lower California”.

52 Stole fur : MINK

There are two species of mink extant: the European Mink and the American Mink. There used to be a Sea Mink which was much larger than its two cousins, but it was hunted to extinction (for its fur) in the late 1800s. American Minks are farmed over in Europe for fur, and animal rights activists have released many of these animals into the wild when raiding mink farms. As a result the European Mink population has declined due to the presence of its larger and more adaptable American cousin.

53 Prime draft status : ONE-A

The US government maintains information on all males who are potentially subject to military conscription, using what is called the Selective Service System (SSS). In the event that a draft was held, men registered would be classified into groups to determine eligibility for service. Class 1-A registrants are those available for unrestricted military service. Other classes are 1-A-O (conscientious objector available for noncombatant service), 4-A (registrant who has completed military service) and 4-D (Minister of religion).

57 Narrow waterway : RIA

A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, and both are formed as sea levels rise. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

58 Agcy. overseeing Rx’s : FDA

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has its roots in the Division of Chemistry (later “Bureau of Chemistry”) that was part of the US Department of Agriculture. President Theodore Roosevelt gave responsibility for examination of food and drugs to the Bureau of Chemistry with the signing of the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Bureau’s name was changed to the Food, Drug and Insecticide Organization in 1927, and to the Food and Drug Administration in 1930.

There seems to some uncertainty about the origin of the symbol “Rx” that’s used for a medical prescription. One explanation is that it comes from the astrological sign for Jupiter, a symbol put on prescriptions in days of old to invoke Jupiter’s blessing to help a patient recover.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Talks with a gravelly voice : RASPS
6 Fastener with a twist : SCREW
11 Brevity is said to be the soul of it : WIT
14 Sir John of London : ELTON
15 Not get caught by, as a pursuer : ELUDE
16 Patient’s insurance option, for short : HMO
17 “Affliction” suffered by Fab Four devotees : BEATLEMANIA
19 “The Simpsons” storekeeper : APU
20 ___ stage left : EXIT
21 Prefix with air or afternoon : MID-
22 Big person on the small screen : TV STAR
24 Prince Charles’s onetime partner, affectionately : LADY DI
26 Removes from nursing, as a foal : WEANS
27 “Affliction” suffered by bracketologists : MARCH MADNESS
32 Child, legally speaking : MINOR
35 Villain’s retreat : LAIR
36 Quartet minus one : TRIO
37 Has left the office : IS OUT
38 Triage locales, for short : ERS
39 Enjoy the taste of : SAVOR
40 Move like a butterfly : FLIT
41 Green stone popular in Chinese craftwork : JADE
42 Woods who voiced Cinderella : ILENE
43 “Affliction” suffered by clothes lovers : FASHION CRAZE
46 Track-and-field competitions : MEETS
47 Insinuates : GETS AT
51 Person with a chrome dome : BALDIE
52 Cow’s sound : MOO!
54 “Gone With the Wind” plantation : TARA
55 Atty.’s org. : ABA
56 “Affliction” suffered by the winter-weary : SPRING FEVER
59 Big part of a T. rex : JAW
60 What diamonds and straight-A students do : SHINE
61 Gown : DRESS
62 Commercials : ADS
63 Japanese port of 2+ million : OSAKA
64 “Same here” : AS DO I

Down

1 One in revolt : REBEL
2 Amazon Echo persona : ALEXA
3 Reserved in manner : STAID
4 Spewing naughty language, as a child : POTTY-MOUTHED
5 Weekly show with a cold open, for short : SNL
6 Vehicle that can jackknife : SEMI
7 Attired : CLAD
8 Go for elected office : RUN
9 Tussle between wiki page modifiers : EDIT-WAR
10 Bobbed and ___ : WEAVED
11 “Well, I never!” : WHAT NERVE!
12 Fill with zeal : IMPASSION
13 P.G.A. ___ : TOUR
18 Kuwaiti leader : EMIR
23 Mail addressed to the North Pole : SANTA LETTERS
25 Missile aimed at a bull’s-eye : DART
28 Off drugs : CLEAN
29 The fourth letter of “circle,” but not the first : HARD C
30 Scrooge : MISER
31 Achy : SORE
32 Make peeved : MIFF
33 Capital of Pakistan : ISLAMABAD
34 Peace-and-quiet ordinances : NOISE LAWS
39 Small, medium or large : SIZE
41 Brooklyn’s St. ___ College : JOSEPH’S
44 “Quite correct” : IT IS SO
45 Wide-eyed : AGOG
48 Placed money in the bank : SAVED
49 “Am not!” comeback : ARE SO!
50 Ankle bones : TARSI
51 ___ California : BAJA
52 Stole fur : MINK
53 Prime draft status : ONE-A
57 Narrow waterway : RIA
58 Agcy. overseeing Rx’s : FDA