0419-19 NY Times Crossword 19 Apr 19, Friday

Constructed by: Caleb Madison
Edited by: Will Shortz

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 10m 01s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8 Freaks : HAS A COW

The phrase “don’t have a cow” originated in the fifties, as a variation of the older “don’t have kittens”. The concept behind the phrase is that one shouldn’t get worked up, it’s not like one is giving birth to a cow.

15 What may be propelled by a propellant : AEROSOL

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.

16 Classic song with the lyric “Let’s get together and feel all right” : ONE LOVE

“One Love” is a classic reggae song from 1977 recorded by Bob Marley and the Wailers. A ska version of “One Love” had been released by the Wailers as early as 1965, but it is the 1977 release that we all remember, I am sure.

17 Response to a joke : RIMSHOT

A rimshot is a sound made when a drummer hits the head of a drum and the rim at the same time. It’s a sound often used by comics to help punctuate a gag.

18 Rat : TATTLER

Something described as tattletale is revealing, it gives away a secret. The term is a combination of “tattle” and “tale”, and is probably patterned on the similar word “telltale”. “To tattle” means “to tell secrets”, and the noun “tattletale” applies to someone who tells secrets and informs.

20 Game where you don’t want to reach the top : TETRIS

Tetris is a very addictive video game that was developed in the Soviet Union in 1984. The name Tetris comes from a melding of the prefix “tetra-” (as all the game pieces have four segments) and “tennis” (a favorite sport played by the developer). Since 2005 there have been more than 100 million copies of the game installed on cell phones alone.

23 Chemical suffix : -IDE

In chemistry, when a metal combines with a nonmetal, the nonmetal is often given the suffix “-ide”. One example would be iron sulfide, made from iron (a metal) and sulfur (a nonmetal).

24 P’s : RHOS

Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”, although it is equivalent to the Roman letter R.

25 Direction to a cellist : ARCO

“Arco” is a musical direction instructing a string player to return to normal bowing technique after a passage played using some other technique (perhaps pizzicato).

31 Epcot’s Spaceship Earth, architecturally : GEODESIC DOME

The term “geodesic” originally applied to the shortest route between any two points on the Earth’s surface. In this sense, a geodesic is an arc, a segment of a great circle that goes around the whole of the Earth. A geodesic dome is a structure that gets its strength from an interlocking network of triangular elements. The sides of those triangles are geodesics, arced segments of great circles that encompass the dome.

Spaceship Earth is perhaps the structure that comes to mind when we think of Epcot in the Walt Disney World Resort. It is the large, white, 18-story geodesic sphere.

36 Opera with the “Gypsy Song” : CARMEN

When Georges Bizet wrote his famous opera “Carmen”, he used the melody of what he thought was an old folk song as a theme in the lovely aria “ Habanera”. Not long after he finished “Carmen” he discovered that the folk song was in fact a piece that had been written by another composer, who had died just ten years before “Carmen” was published. Fittingly, Bizet added a note to the score, declaring the original source.

41 Santa ___ : CLAUS

Saint Nicholas of Myra is the inspiration for Santa Claus. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra (now in modern-day Turkey) during the 4th century AD, and was known for being generous to the poor. Centuries after he died, his remains were desecrated by Italian sailors and moved to Bari in Italy. One legend has it that the relics were moved again centuries later and reburied in the grounds of Jerpoint Abbey in Co. Kilkenny in Ireland, where you can visit the grave today. I choose to believe that Santa Claus’s relics are indeed buried in Ireland …

47 Actor Green of the “Austin Powers” movies : SETH

Seth Green is an actor and comedian best-known by many as creator and voice actor on the animated television series “Robot Chicken”. I know him best for playing “Napster” in the 2005 film “The Italian Job”.

The Austin Powers character was created by the actor who plays him, namely Mike Myers. Apparently Myers came up with the idea for Powers while listening to the Burt Bacharach song “The Look of Love”.

48 “Odi et ___” (Catullus poem) : AMO

Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet active in the days of the Roman Republic.

52 Amoeba, e.g. : BLOB

An ameba (also “amoeba”) is a single-celled microorganism. The name comes from the Greek “amoibe”, meaning change. The name is quite apt, as the cell changes shape readily as the ameba moves, eats and reproduces.

57 Minute Maid drink : LIMEADE

In the mid-forties a process was developed to concentrate orange juice into a powder, the intent being to make it available to the armed forces. When WWII came to an end, the government’s need for the product went away, so Florida Foods Corporation was set up to market orange juice concentrate (rather than powder) to the public. This new concentrate was given the name “Minute Maid” implying that juice could be prepared quickly by simple dilution.

58 It comes after “Coming soon …” : TRAILER

The term “trailer” was originally used in the film industry to describe advertisements for upcoming features. These trailers were originally shown at the end of a movie being screened, hence the name. This practice quickly fell out of favor as theater patrons usually left at the end of the movie without paying much attention to the trailers. So, the trailers were moved to the beginning of the show, but the term “trailer” persisted.

Down

8 Street racers : HOT RODS

A hot rod is an American car that has been modified for speed by installing a larger than normal engine. A street rod is generally a more comfortable type of hot rod, with the emphasis less on the engine and more on custom paint jobs and interiors. By definition, a street rod must be based on an automobile design that originated prior to 1949.

9 Diarist Nin : ANAIS

Anaïs Nin was a French author who was famous for the journals that she wrote for over sixty years from the age of 11 right up to her death. Nin also wrote highly regarded erotica and cited D. H. Lawrence as someone from whom she drew inspiration. Nin was married to banker and artist Hugh Parker Guiler in 1923. Decades later in 1955, Nin married former actor Rupert Pole, even though she was still married to Guiler. Nin and Pole had their marriage annulled in 1966, but just for legal reasons, and they continued to live together as husband and wife until Nin passed away in 1977.

11 Delaware has the lowest mean one in the U.S.: Abbr. : ALT

The state of Delaware takes its name from Virginia’s first colonial governor, Englishman Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr. Delaware is known as “the First State” as it was the first to ratify the US Constitution, in 1787.

21 Pronoun in “America” : THEE

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

When she was 33 years old, Katharine Lee Bates took a train ride from Massachusetts to Colorado Springs. She was so inspired by many of the beautiful sights she saw on her journey that she wrote a poem she called “Pikes Peak”. Upon publication the poem became quite a hit, and several musical works were adapted to the words of the poem, the most popular being a hymn tune composed by Samuel Ward. Bates’s poem and Ward’s tune were published together for the first time in 1910, and given the title “America the Beautiful”.

33 Sportscaster inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2013 : MICHAELS

Al Michaels is a sportscaster who worked with NBC Sports for nearly 30 years. Michaels is probably best known for his work on “Monday Night Football” for nearly two decades starting in 1986.

39 Tiny bit : MITE

A mite is a small amount, as in “The Widow’s Mite”, a story from the Bible.

40 Companions : COHORTS

“Cohort” can be used as a collective noun, meaning “group, company”. The term can also apply to an individual supporter or companion, although usually in a derogatory sense. “Cohort” comes from the Latin “cohors”, which was an infantry company in the Roman army, one tenth of a legion.

43 ___ Yousafzai, 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner : MALALA

“I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban” is a memoir co-written by Malala Yousafzai and British journalist Christina Lamb. The title tells the essence of Malala’s story. She started a blog when she was 11 or 12 that outlined her life in northwest Pakistan under occupation by the Taliban. As the Pakistani military regained control of the area, Malala’s story was related in a documentary and she gave frequent interviews. One day a gunman came looking for her, and found her on a school bus. He shot Malala three times, with one bullet going into her forehead. She survived, and was taken to England to recuperate. She was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at the age of 17, making her the youngest ever Nobel laureate.

45 King in “Game of Thrones” : ROBERT

HBO’s “Game of Thrones” is a fantasy television drama that is adapted from a series of novels by George R. R. Martin called “A Song of Ice and Fire”. “Game of Thrones” is actually filmed in and around Belfast, Northern Ireland. I recently binge-watched the show’s first seven seasons, and enjoyed it. There’s no doubt that the production value of “Game of Thrones” is remarkable, but to be honest, I never became riveted by the storyline …

47 Nice jacket material : SUEDE

Suede is leather made from the underside of an animal’s skin, usually the skin from a lamb. As such it is very soft, although not as durable as leather made from the exterior skin. The soft leather was, and is still used for making gloves. Back in 1859 these gloves were called “gants de Suede” in France, or “gloves of Sweden”. So, the name “suede” comes from the French word for Sweden.

50 Three-player game : SKAT

When I was a teenager in Ireland, I had a friend with a German father. The father taught us the game of Skat, and what a great game it is. Skat originated in Germany in the 1800s and is to this day the most popular card game in the country. I haven’t played it in decades, but would love to play it again …

51 Meter reading : FARE

We call cabs “taxis”, a word derived from “taximeter cabs” that were introduced in London in 1907. A taximeter was an automated meter designed to record distance travelled and fare to be charged. The term “taximeter” evolved from “taxameter”, with “taxa” being Latin for “tax, charge”.

54 The 2000s, e.g.: Abbr. : CEN

Century (cen.)

56 Tayside turndown : NAE

The Firth of Tay is an inlet on the east coast of Scotland, into which empties Scotland’s largest river, the Tay. The city of Dundee lies on the Firth, and the city of Perth a little further inland on the Tay.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Outburst after a nefarious plan is hatched : MWAHAHA!
8 Freaks : HAS A COW
15 What may be propelled by a propellant : AEROSOL
16 Classic song with the lyric “Let’s get together and feel all right” : ONE LOVE
17 Response to a joke : RIMSHOT
18 Rat : TATTLER
19 Steadfast determination : GRIT
20 Game where you don’t want to reach the top : TETRIS
22 Mac ___ (former Bay Area hip-hop great) : DRE
23 Chemical suffix : -IDE
24 P’s : RHOS
25 Direction to a cellist : ARCO
26 What “epistaxis” is a fancy medical term for : NOSE BLEED
30 Play detective : SNOOP
31 Epcot’s Spaceship Earth, architecturally : GEODESIC DOME
33 Big business news : MERGER
36 Opera with the “Gypsy Song” : CARMEN
37 Treat with an edible container : ICE CREAM CONE
41 Santa ___ : CLAUS
42 Person who’s whip-smart? : LION TAMER
46 Rightmost option in most menu bars : HELP
47 Actor Green of the “Austin Powers” movies : SETH
48 “Odi et ___” (Catullus poem) : AMO
49 It’s not for real : ACT
50 Not doubting at all : SURE OF
52 Amoeba, e.g. : BLOB
53 One might be sent to a passenger’s phone : E-TICKET
55 Went over : RAN LATE
57 Minute Maid drink : LIMEADE
58 It comes after “Coming soon …” : TRAILER
59 Perfumed : SCENTED
60 Not get hung up on : SEE PAST

Down

1 Site for a doodle : MARGIN
2 Kook : WEIRDO
3 Large numbers : ARMIES
4 Large number : HOST
5 An end to smoking? : ASH
6 Hilarious sort : HOOT
7 Like some suits and states : ALTERED
8 Street racers : HOT RODS
9 Diarist Nin : ANAIS
10 Live musicians play them : SETS
11 Delaware has the lowest mean one in the U.S.: Abbr. : ALT
12 Food storage spot : COLD ROOM
13 Triumph : OVERCOME
14 “Come on in!” : WE’RE OPEN!
21 Pronoun in “America” : THEE
25 Girl’s name in the U.S. that’s a boy’s name in Italy : ANDREA
27 Ceramic breakfast accouterment : EGG CUP
28 Round parts? : BEERS
29 Stories that may or may not be true : LORE
30 Meager : SCANT
32 Recognizable figure : ICON
33 Sportscaster inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2013 : MICHAELS
34 Having a little of this and a little of that : ECLECTIC
35 Live-streamed, say : REAL-TIME
38 Let know : ALERTED
39 Tiny bit : MITE
40 Companions : COHORTS
43 ___ Yousafzai, 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner : MALALA
44 Performs too broadly : EMOTES
45 King in “Game of Thrones” : ROBERT
47 Nice jacket material : SUEDE
50 Three-player game : SKAT
51 Meter reading : FARE
52 It’s hardly worth noticing : BLIP
54 The 2000s, e.g.: Abbr. : CEN
56 Tayside turndown : NAE