0803-19 NY Times Crossword 3 Aug 19, Saturday

Constructed by: Ryan McCarty
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 13m 00s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Calgary nickname, along with “Stampede City” : COWTOWN

Calgary, the largest city in the Canadian province of Alberta, is named for Calgary on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. The Canadian Calgary hosted the 1988 Winter Olympic Games.

8 Competitor of Twinings : SALADA

Salada Tea was founded in 1892 to provide tea packaged in foil to the consumer, as opposed to smaller wooden tea chests. This kept the tea fresher and more consistent in flavor.

14 Collapsible chapeau : OPERA HAT

An opera hat is a spring-loaded, collapsible top hat. Doesn’t that sound cool …?

16 Where Sevastopol is : CRIMEA

Crimea is a peninsula jutting out into the Black Sea that is almost completely surrounded by water. It is connected to the Ukrainian mainland to the north by the Isthmus of Perekop, and is separated from the nearby Russian region of Kuban by the narrow (less than 10 miles) Kerch Strait. Crimea has been occupied by foreign powers many times over the centuries, and now control of the region is disputed by Ukraine and Russia.

17 Like Denver : MILE HIGH

Denver, Colorado is nicknamed the “Mile-High City” because its official elevation is listed as exactly one mile. Denver City was founded in 1858 as a mining town. The name was chosen in honor of the Kansas Territorial Governor at the time, James W. Denver.

18 Book page size : OCTAVO

Some common book formats/sizes are folio, octavo and quarto. For an octavo book for example, sixteen pages of text are printed, eight pages on each side of a “full-size” piece of paper. The pages are formed by folding the sheet of paper three times in half, giving a group of sixteen pages printed on eight leaves (after separation). The size of the resulting pages of course depends on the size of the original sheet, but each page is one eighth the size of that original (hence the name octavo). Nowadays the octavo size refers to books that are between eight and ten inches tall. If you do the math, octavo books are then twice the size of quarto, and folio twice the size of folio.

20 Some legal speeders, briefly : EMTS

Emergency medical technician (EMT)

22 Cab alternative : ZIN

Zinfandel is one of my favorite red wine varietals. It amazes me that the rich and heavy red Zinfandel comes from the same grape as does the sweet White Zinfandel.

23 Pioneering football coach ___ Alonzo Stagg : AMOS

Amos Alonzo Stagg was an athlete and coach whose talents extended across a number of sports. He was inducted into both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Basketball Hall of Fame.

29 Member of Dubya’s cabinet : CONDI

Condoleezza “Condi” Rice was the second African American to serve as US Secretary of State (after Colin Powell) and the second woman to hold the office (after Madeleine Albright). Prior to becoming Secretary of State in President George W. Bush’s administration, Rice was the first woman to hold the office of National Security Advisor. In private life, Rice is a remarkably capable pianist. Given her stature in Washington, Rice has had the opportunity to play piano in public with the likes of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and soul singer Aretha Franklin.

32 The Netherlands was the first country to legalize it : SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

The concept of same-sex marriage isn’t a new one by any means, as there are references to such legal arrangements in the days of the Roman Empire and the Ming Dynasty in China. These days, same-sex marriage is legal in nations such as the United States, and my homeland of Ireland. In fact, in 2015 Ireland became the first country in the world to approve same-sex marriage as the result of a nationwide referendum.

36 Winegrowing region of SW France : MEDOC

Médoc is an appellation for wine in the Bordeaux region of France. The area produces red wine almost exclusively, and no white wine can be labelled as “Médoc”.

42 Bygone potentates : TSARS

The last ruler of Imperial Russia was Tsar Nicholas II (of the House of Romanov). Famously, the Tsar and his family were murdered in 1918 in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg, Russia by members of the Bolshevik secret police. The Tsar’s youngest daughter was 16-year-old Anastasia and rumors of her escape have persisted for years. The rumors grew with the help of numerous women who claimed to be Anastasia. In 2009, DNA testing finally proved that the remains of all of the Tsar’s immediate family, including Anastasia, have been found and identified.

44 Love, by another name : NIL

In tennis the score of zero is designated as “love”. Some people believe that this usage originates from the French “l’oeuf” (meaning “the egg”). The idea is that the written character “0” looks like an egg.

50 Pogo and others : OPOSSUMS

“Pogo” is a comic strip launched in 1948 that was the creation of cartoonist Walt Kelly. The story centers on animals that live in the Okefenokee Swamp on the Georgia-Florida border, with the title character “Pogo Possum” being an anthropomorphic opossum.

53 Bad record? : RAP SHEET

A rap sheet is a criminal record. “Rap” is a slang term dating back to the 1700s that means “blame, responsibility” as in “to take the rap”, “bad rap” and “to beat the rap”. This usage morphed into “rap sheet” in the early 1900s.

Down

2 Poppy products : OPIUMS

The opium poppy is the source of the narcotic alkaloids known as opiates. To produce opiates, the latex sap of the opium poppy is collected and processed. The naturally-occurring drugs of morphine and codeine can both be extracted from the sap. Some synthesis is required to make derivative drugs like heroin and oxycodone.

5 Island with a state capital : OAHU

Honolulu is the largest city in Hawaii, and the state capital. Located on the island of Oahu, the name “Honolulu” translates from Hawaiian as “place of shelter, calm port, sheltered bay”.

8 Michael ___, “The Office” manager : SCOTT

The excellent sitcom “The Office” is set in a branch of a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. If you haven’t seen the original UK version starring Ricky Gervais, I do recommend you check it out. Having said that, the US cast took the show to a whole new level. Great television …

11 Endangered watershed : AMAZONIA

The Amazon rainforest is the world’s largest, covering 1.4 billion acres in nine different countries of South America. Those 1.4 billion acres represent more than half of the rainforest that’s left on the planet.

12 Marine : DEVIL DOG

Apparently, the US Marines were nicknamed “Teufel Hunden” (dogs from Hell”) by German soldiers during WWI, although this has been disputed. Notwithstanding, the “Devil Dog” nickname is still used today by the Marines, and with pride.

13 Web-based recovery program, informally : AA ONLINE

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. As the organization grew, the guiding principles established by the founders were formatted into a 12-step program that was in place by the forties.

15 Film featuring an assassin from 2029 : THE TERMINATOR

The 1984 movie “The Terminator” was directed by James Cameron. It was a relatively low-budget production, costing $6.4 million, but has grossed at least $80 million to date. No wonder the Terminator said “I’ll be back” …

26 Indian flatbreads : ROTIS

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

28 Trig function : COSEC

The most familiar trigonometric functions are sine, cosine and tangent (abbreviated to “sin, cos and tan”). Each of these is a ratio: a ratio of two sides of a right-angled triangle. The “reciprocal” of these three functions are cosecant, secant and cotangent. The reciprocal functions are simply the inverted ratios, the inverted sine, cosine and tangent. These inverted ratios should not be confused with the “inverse” trigonometric functions e.g. arcsine, arccosine and arctangent. These inverse functions are the reverse of the sine, cosine and tangent.

30 Souchong alternative : PEKOE

A pekoe (or more commonly “orange pekoe”) is a medium-grade black tea. There is no orange flavor in an orange pekoe tea. The “orange” name most likely derived from the name of the trading company that brought the tea to Europe from Asia.

Lapsang souchong is a black tea originally from the Chinese province of Fujian. Lapsang is also called “smoked tea” as the leaves are smoke-dried to give a nice smoky flavor. I am going to have to try Lapsang …

32 Vessel in a famous 1960s shipwreck : SS MINNOW

The iconic sitcom “Gilligan’s Island” ran for only three seasons, although that added up to a total of 98 episodes. The show is about a small band of castaways who are trying to escape their island and return to Hawaii. The last episode originally aired in 1967. The castaways did eventually get off the island in a 1978 TV movie called “Rescue from Gilligan’s Island”, but ended up back on the island at the end of the film.

33 Midwest university city : AMES, IOWA

The Iowa city of Ames was founded as a stop on the Cedar Rapids and Missouri Railroad in 1864. It was named for US Congressman Oakes Ames from the state of Massachusetts in honor of the role that Ames played in the building of the transcontinental railroad.

39 Hannity’s former Fox News foil : COLMES

Alan Colmes was a relatively liberal political commentator who did a lot of work for Fox News on television and radio. He used to square off against conservative commentator Sean Hannity on the TV show “Hannity and Colmes”.

43 Bento box fare : SUSHI

A bento is a single-person meal that is eaten quite commonly in Japan. A bento can be purchased as a take-out meal, or it may be packed at home. A bento is usually sold as a “bento box”.

45 Skier Lindsey with three Olympic medals : VONN

Lindsey Vonn is a World Champion alpine ski racer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is one of the few women to have won World Cup races in all five alpine racing disciplines: downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and super combined. In fact, Vonn is the most successful US ski racer in history.

47 Peak in Thessaly : OSSA

Mount Ossa in Greece is located between Mount Pelion in the south, and the famed Mount Olympus in the north. Mount Ossa is also known as Kissavos.

The region of Greece known as Thessaly used to be called Aeolia, and appears in Homer’s “Odyssey” under the latter name.

49 Bravo, e.g. : RIO

The Rio Grande (Spanish for “big river”) is a waterway that forms part of the border between Mexico and the United States. Although we call the river the Rio Grande on this side of the border, in Mexico it is called the Río Bravo or Río Bravo del Norte (Spanish for “furious river of the north”).

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Calgary nickname, along with “Stampede City” : COWTOWN
8 Competitor of Twinings : SALADA
14 Collapsible chapeau : OPERA HAT
16 Where Sevastopol is : CRIMEA
17 Like Denver : MILE HIGH
18 Book page size : OCTAVO
19 Eat lots of protein and carbs, say : BULK UP
20 Some legal speeders, briefly : EMTS
22 Cab alternative : ZIN
23 Pioneering football coach ___ Alonzo Stagg : AMOS
24 Occupy, as a desk : SIT AT
26 “Let’s ___!” : ROLL
27 “I expected better” : TSK
28 They may go on long walks : CANES
29 Member of Dubya’s cabinet : CONDI
30 It’s filled with energy : POWER STATION
32 The Netherlands was the first country to legalize it : SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
35 Celebrated the birth of a child, perhaps : SMOKED CIGARS
36 Winegrowing region of SW France : MEDOC
37 Them, to us : ENEMY
38 Prefix with tourism or politics : ECO-
41 “Hmm …” : I SEE …
42 Bygone potentates : TSARS
43 Word with bank or blind : SNOW …
44 Love, by another name : NIL
45 Like the ocean : VAST
46 Mess up : TOUSLE
48 Permanent-press : NO-IRON
50 Pogo and others : OPOSSUMS
52 Totally dominating : OWNING
53 Bad record? : RAP SHEET
54 Alternatives to S.U.V.s, informally : WAGONS
55 Common “explanation” from a parent : I SAID SO!

Down

1 Private practice? : COMBAT
2 Poppy products : OPIUMS
3 “Sure, I guess …” : WELL, OK …
4 Long hauls : TREKS
5 Island with a state capital : OAHU
6 Jerked in two directions at once : WHIPSAWED
7 Poke with a lot of needles? : NAG
8 Michael ___, “The Office” manager : SCOTT
9 Their lengths are computed by (Θ ÷ 360) x 2πr : ARCS
10 Sloshed : LIT
11 Endangered watershed : AMAZONIA
12 Marine : DEVIL DOG
13 Web-based recovery program, informally : AA ONLINE
15 Film featuring an assassin from 2029 : THE TERMINATOR
21 Rubber : MASSAGER
25 To a fault : IN EXCESS
26 Indian flatbreads : ROTIS
28 Trig function : COSEC
29 Deal in : CARRY
30 Souchong alternative : PEKOE
31 Boarding points at amusement parks : TRAM STOPS
32 Vessel in a famous 1960s shipwreck : SS MINNOW
33 Midwest university city : AMES, IOWA
34 Part-time job for many an actor or actress : MODELING
38 Came after : ENSUED
39 Hannity’s former Fox News foil : COLMES
40 Must pay : OWES TO
42 Sharp tastes : TANGS
43 Bento box fare : SUSHI
45 Skier Lindsey with three Olympic medals : VONN
47 Peak in Thessaly : OSSA
49 Bravo, e.g. : RIO
51 ___ gow (gambling game played with dominoes) : PAI