0830-22 NY Times Crossword 30 Aug 22, Tuesday

Constructed by: Emily Carroll
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Reveal Answer(s): Bunny Slope

Four sets of circled letters SLOPING down in the grid spell out famous BUNNIES:

ENERGIZER BUNNY
We are all fairly familiar with the Energizer Bunny, I am guessing. The “Bunny” was introduced in 1989 to promote Energizer batteries, by parodying the Duracell Bunny that had been introduced in 1973.

DUST BUNNY
What we call “dust bunnies” in American English, have similar inventive names in other languages. The Finns know them as sheep, the Germans wool mice, the Hungarians dust kittens, the Italians dust cats, and the Swedish dust rats.

EASTER BUNNY
The original Easter “Bunny” was an Easter “Hare”, and was part of a traditional celebration by German Lutherans. Legend held that the Easter Hare decided if children had been well-behaved in the prior year, and deserving of Easter eggs and candy.

BUGS BUNNY
Bugs Bunny debuted in the 1940 animated short “A Wild Hare”. Since then, Bugs has appeared in more films than any other cartoon character.

Bill’s time: 6m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Guadalajara goodbye : ADIOS

The term “adiós” is Spanish for “goodbye”. “Adiós” comes from the phrase “a Dios vos acomiendo” meaning “I commend you to God”.

Guadalajara is a populous city in the Mexican state of Jalisco. The Mexican city is named after the city of the same name in the center of Spain.

10 Nonvegan pie crust ingredient : LARD

Fat, when extracted from the carcass of an animal, is called suet. Untreated suet decomposes at room temperature quite easily so it has to be rendered, purified to make it stable. Rendered fat from pigs is what we call lard. Rendered beef or mutton fat is known as tallow.

14 Melee : BRAWL

Our term “melee” comes from the French “mêlée”, and in both languages the word means “confused fight”.

15 Popular site for tech reviews : C|NET

c|net is an excellent technology website. It started out in 1994 as a television network specializing in technology news. The host of “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest, started off his career as host of a c|net show.

16 Composer Stravinsky : IGOR

Composer Igor Stravinsky’s most famous works were completed relatively early in his career, when he was quite young. His three ballets “The Firebird”, “Petrushka” and “The Rite of Spring” were published in 1910-1913, when Stravinsky was in his early thirties.

17 With 69-Across, beginner’s downhill challenge … or a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters : BUNNY …
[69A See 17-Across : … SLOPE]

In North America, ski runs are given a standardized rating in terms of skiing difficulty. The ratings are:

  • Green circles: easy to ski, often termed “bunny slopes”.
  • Blue squares: medium difficulty
  • Black diamond: steep and challenging terrain
  • Double black diamond: experts only (I’ve never braved one!)

18 Curved molding : OGEE

An ogee is a type of S-curve. Specifically, it is a figure consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite directions (like an S) but both ends of the curve end up parallel to each other (which is not necessarily true for an S).

20 Part of AWOL : ABSENT

MPs (military police officers) often track down personnel who go AWOL (absent without leave).

22 Most workers on a kibbutz : ISRAELIS

A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel. Kibbutzim were traditionally agriculture-based, but now are often centered around high-tech and other industrial enterprises. The first kibbutz was established in 1909 in Palestine under Ottoman rule. This kibbutz is called Degania, which now is in northern Israel.

24 Use a divining rod : DOWSE

Dowsing is the practice of divining, not just for water but also for buried metals and gemstones. Often a dowser will use a Y-shaped or L-shaped rod as a tool, which can also be called a dowser. Here in the US, the tool used might be referred to as a “witching rod”, as it is usually made from witch-hazel.

26 Club-wielding bogeywoman : OGRESS

The term “bogeyman” (and “bogeywoman”) seems to be derived from the Scottish word “bogle” meaning “ghost”.

27 Top toy for a holiday? : DREIDEL

A dreidel is a spinning top with four sides that is often associated with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Each of the four sides on a dreidel bears a letter from the Hebrew alphabet (nun, gimel, hei and shin). The four letters are the initials of the Hebrew phrase “Nes Gadol Hayah Sham” meaning “a great miracle happened there”. According to tradition, children would be taught Torah while hiding in caves away from the Greeks. When Greek soldiers approached, the children would hide their torah scrolls and play with their dreidels instead.

30 Jai ___ : ALAI

Even though jai alai is often said to be the fastest sport in the world because of the speed of the ball, golf balls usually get going at a greater clip. Although, as a blog reader once pointed out to me, you don’t have to catch a golf ball …

31 Reddish hue : RUST

Rust is iron oxide. Rust forms when iron oxidizes, reacts with oxygen.

34 Automaker based in Hiroshima : MAZDA

Mazda is a Japanese car manufacturer based in the prefecture of Hiroshima in Japan. The ballpark where the Hiroshima baseball team played was for many years known as the MAZDA Zoom-Zoom Stadium. Mazda launched a “Zoom-Zoom” marketing campaign in 2000, claiming that the phrase described the “emotion of motion” that is inherent in all of its vehicles.

41 Epileptologist’s test, for short : EEG

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of electrical activity caused by the firing of neurons within the brain. The EEG might be used to diagnose epilepsy, or perhaps to determine if a patient is “brain dead”.

44 Jon Arbuckle’s dog : ODIE

Jon Arbuckle is a fictional character, and the owner of Odie from Jim Davis’s comic strip “Garfield”. Garfield is Arbuckle’s orange tabby cat. Odie is his less-than-smart beagle.

46 Large paper unit : REAM

A ream is 500 sheets of paper. As there were 24 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires made up a ream, there used to be 480 sheets in a ream. Ever since the standard was changed to 500, a 480-sheet packet of paper has been called a “short ream”. We also use the term “reams” to mean a great amount, evolving from the idea of a lot of printed material.

48 Hyundai compact named North American Car of the Year in 2021 : ELANTRA

The Elantra is a compact car made by Hyundai of South Korea. There was a long-standing dispute between Hyundai and manufacturers Lotus and Mitsubishi. Lotus contended that the Elantra’s name was too close to the Lotus Elan, and Mitsubishi didn’t like the similarity to the Mitsubishi Elante.

60 Tush : BUNS

“Tush”, a word meaning “backside”, is an abbreviation of “tochus” that comes from the Yiddish “tokhes”.

65 Actor Idris : ELBA

English actor Idris Elba plays the drug lord Stringer Bell in the marvelous HBO drama series “The Wire”, and played the title character in the 2013 film “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”. Off the screen, Elba occasionally appears as a disk jockey using the name “DJ Big Driis”.

Down

1 Pop group with the 1976 hit “Money, Money, Money” : ABBA

“Money, Money, Money” is a 1976 hit song for Swedish pop group ABBA. The lyrics are basically a narration by a woman who works hard but struggles to make ends meet, and so deserves a well-off man as a partner. As the song says, “It’s a rich man’s world”.

2 Clobber : DRUB

A drubbing is a beating, one given either literally or figuratively. The term “drub” dates back in English to the 17th century when it was imported from the Arabic word for a beating, i.e. “darb”.

3 Johns, in Scotland : IANS

The name “John” translates into Scottish as “Ian” or “Iain”, into Russian as “Ivan”, into Italian as “Giovanni”, into Spanish as “Juan”, into Welsh as “Evan”, and into Irish as “Seán”.

7 Actress Harmon of TNT’s “Rizzoli & Isles” : ANGIE

“Rizzoli & Isles” is a detective drama that is inspired by the “Maura Isles/Jane Rizzoli” series of novels by Tess Gerritsen. In the show, Angie Harmon plays detective Jane Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander plays medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles.

9 Waxy biochemical compound : STEROL

Sterols occur in nature in both plants and animals. The most famous of the animal sterols is cholesterol, which is found in all animals as a vital component of cell walls. Cholesterol is made within the body, so it isn’t a necessary part of the diet.

10 Monrovia’s land : LIBERIA

Monrovia is the capital of Liberia in West Africa. The city was named for US President James Munroe. Monroe was a supporter of the American Colonization Society, which helped found the colony of Liberia.

12 Flatbreads that may be served with saag paneer : ROTIS

In an Indian restaurant, naan bread is very popular. Roti is an unleavened cousin of naan.

Palak paneer is a dish from Indian cuisine. It consists mainly of paneer (a freshly-made cheese) in a puréed spinach paste. Saag paneer is a more generic form of the dish, one in which other leafy vegetables can be used to make the paste, e.g. mustard greens, collard greens or broccoli.

25 Olympic event with gates : SLALOM

“Slalom” is an anglicized version of the Norwegian word “slalam” that translates as “skiing race”. There is a longer version of the traditional slalom that is called giant slalom

28 German industrial region : RUHR

The Ruhr is a large urban region in western Germany. The area is heavily populated, and is the fifth largest urban area in the whole of Europe after Istanbul, Moscow, London and Paris. The Ruhr became heavily industrialized due to its large deposits of coal. By 1850, the area contained nearly 300 operating coal mines. Any coal deposits remaining in the area today are too expensive to exploit.

29 Competitor of Petro-Canada : ESSO

Petro-Canada started out as a government-owned corporation in 1976. Petro-Canada is now a brand name of Suncor Energy.

30 Oscar winner Brody : ADRIEN

Adrien Brody won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in the Roman Polanski masterpiece “The Pianist”. Brody won the award in 2003 at the age of 29, making him the youngest person ever to receive the Best Actor Oscar.

33 Contraceptive insert, in brief : IUD

It seems that it isn’t fully understood how the intrauterine device (IUD) works. The design that was most popular for decades was a T-shaped plastic frame on which was wound copper wire. It’s thought that the device is an irritant in the uterus causing the body to release chemicals that are hostile to sperm and eggs. This effect is enhanced by the presence of the copper.

35 Gusto : ZEST

“Gusto” is an Italian word meaning “taste”. We use it in English in the phrase “with gusto” meaning “with great enjoyment”.

36 A couple of bucks? : DEER

A male deer is usually called a buck, and a female is a doe. However, the male red deer is usually referred to as a stag. The males of even larger species of deer are often called bulls, and the females called cows. In older English, male deer of over 5 years were called harts, and females of over 3 years were called hinds. The young of small species are known as fawns, and of larger species are called calves. All very confusing …

37 Taj Mahal city : AGRA

The most famous mausoleum in the world has to be the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. It was built after the death of the fourth wife of Shah Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal (hence the name of the mausoleum). The poor woman died in childbirth delivering the couple’s 14th child. When Shah Jahan himself passed away 35 years later, he was buried beside his wife Mumtaz, in the Taj Mahal.

40 Freezing : GELID

“Gelid” is such a lovely word, one with the meaning “icy cold”. “Gelid” derives from the Latin “gelum” meaning “frost, intense cold”.

43 Major let-downs for Rapunzel? : TRESSES

“Rapunzel” is a fairy tale in the collection of the Brothers Grimm. Rapunzel was a maiden who was locked in a tower by an enchantress. The inevitable prince turns up, and he climbs up to Rapunzel using her long, fair hair as a climbing rope.

47 Revenue for Madison Ave. firms : AD FEES

Madison Avenue became the center of advertising in the US in the twenties, and serves as the backdrop to the great TV drama “Mad Men”. There aren’t many advertising agencies left on Madison Avenue these days though, as most have moved to other parts of New York City. The street takes its name from Madison Square, which is bounded on one side by Madison Avenue. The square in turn takes its name from James Madison, the fourth President of the United States.

50 Downton, for one : ABBEY

Fans of the wonderful TV drama “Downton Abbey” will be very familiar with the exterior appearance of Highclere Castle in Hampshire. Highclere is used as the location for exterior and many interior shots of the fictitious Grantham residence called Downton Abbey. The exterior of Highclere is very reminiscent of the Houses of Parliament building in London. That similarity exists because the house was largely rebuilt from 1839 to 1842 by architect Sir Charles Barry soon after he finished work on the refurbished Houses of Parliament.

51 Cheese that’s “not badda” : GOUDA

Gouda is a cheese that originated in the Dutch city of the same name, although today Gouda is produced all over the world and very little of it comes from the Netherlands. Gouda is often smoke-cured, which gives it a yellowish-brown outer skin and that characteristic smoky taste.

55 Sch. that used to bring a live bear onto the field at its home football games : UCLA

The UCLA Bruins’ mascots are Joe and Josephine Bruin, characters that have evolved over the years. There used to be “mean” Bruin mascots but they weren’t very popular with the fans, so now there are only “happy” Bruin mascots at the games.

59 The Emerald Isle : EIRE

Ireland is often referred to as “the Emerald Isle” (and described as “green”) because of all that green grass that grows due to the seemingly non-stop rain.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Guadalajara goodbye : ADIOS
6 Puts away, as the groceries? : EATS
10 Nonvegan pie crust ingredient : LARD
14 Melee : BRAWL
15 Popular site for tech reviews : C|NET
16 Composer Stravinsky : IGOR
17 With 69-Across, beginner’s downhill challenge … or a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters : BUNNY …
18 Curved molding : OGEE
19 Quick snack : BITE
20 Part of AWOL : ABSENT
22 Most workers on a kibbutz : ISRAELIS
24 Use a divining rod : DOWSE
26 Club-wielding bogeywoman : OGRESS
27 Top toy for a holiday? : DREIDEL
30 Jai ___ : ALAI
31 Reddish hue : RUST
32 Midnight “excursion” to the fridge : RAID
34 Automaker based in Hiroshima : MAZDA
38 Sighed sounds : AHS
39 Spend indulgently : SPLURGE
41 Epileptologist’s test, for short : EEG
42 Soup base : BROTH
44 Jon Arbuckle’s dog : ODIE
45 Manipulative type : USER
46 Large paper unit : REAM
48 Hyundai compact named North American Car of the Year in 2021 : ELANTRA
50 Shook on it : AGREED
53 Peevish moods : SNITS
54 Braggadocious : BOASTFUL
56 Easygoing reply to “I’m sorry!” : DON’T BE!
60 Tush : BUNS
61 Supply-and-demand subj. : ECON
63 “Is it too audacious of me?” : DARE I?
64 Beat narrowly, with “out” : EDGE …
65 Actor Idris : ELBA
66 More arid : DRIER
67 Happy shouts : YAYS
68 Girl Scout’s accessory : SASH
69 See 17-Across : … SLOPE

Down

1 Pop group with the 1976 hit “Money, Money, Money” : ABBA
2 Clobber : DRUB
3 Johns, in Scotland : IANS
4 Took responsibility for something : OWNED IT
5 Subtle signal that might accompany a wink : SLY NOD
6 Lead-in to freak or friendly : ECO-
7 Actress Harmon of TNT’s “Rizzoli & Isles” : ANGIE
8 Shirts lacking buttons, informally : TEES
9 Waxy biochemical compound : STEROL
10 Monrovia’s land : LIBERIA
11 Quick on one’s feet : AGILE
12 Flatbreads that may be served with saag paneer : ROTIS
13 Garb : DRESS
21 Insignificant sort : TWERP
23 Best effort, informally : A-GAME
25 Olympic event with gates : SLALOM
27 Visually blah : DRAB
28 German industrial region : RUHR
29 Competitor of Petro-Canada : ESSO
30 Oscar winner Brody : ADRIEN
33 Contraceptive insert, in brief : IUD
35 Gusto : ZEST
36 A couple of bucks? : DEER
37 Taj Mahal city : AGRA
39 Small paper unit : SHEET
40 Freezing : GELID
43 Major let-downs for Rapunzel? : TRESSES
45 Fix, as tangles of hair or traffic : UNSNARL
47 Revenue for Madison Ave. firms : AD FEES
49 Not seeing eye to eye : AT ODDS
50 Downton, for one : ABBEY
51 Cheese that’s “not badda” : GOUDA
52 Long-limbed and lean : RANGY
53 Ones not inclined to make sweeping gestures? : SLOBS
55 Sch. that used to bring a live bear onto the field at its home football games : UCLA
57 Small jazz combo : TRIO
58 Pager alert : BEEP
59 The Emerald Isle : EIRE
62 “I’ll pass” : NAH