Constructed by: David Liben-Nowell
Edited by: Rich Norris
Quicklink to a complete list of today’s clues and answers
Quicklink to comments
Theme: None
Bill’s time: 14m 53s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1…Jet..INKY
The color “jet black” takes its name from the minor gemstone known as jet. The gemstone and the material it is made of takes its English name from the French name “jaiet”.
5…Govt. property overseer..GSA
The US Government’s General Services Administration (GSA), as the name suggests, provides general services to other federal agencies. So for example, the GSA manages office space for the other agencies, and transportation.
13…Great __..DANE
The Great Dane dog of isn’t actually from Denmark, and rather is a German breed.
14…Gets onstage..CUES
One might get an actor onstage by cuing him or her.
18…Start of a noncommittal RSVP..WE MAY …
RSVP stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “please, answer”.
21…Awards for “Rent” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”..OBIES
The musical “Rent” by Jonathan Larson is based on the Puccini opera “La bohème”. “Rent” tells the story of struggling artists and musicians living in the Lower East Side of New York, and is set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic. We saw “Rent” on Broadway quite a few years ago and we were very disappointed …
“Hedwig and the Angry Inch” is a rock musical that opened Off-Broadway in 1998, and which won that year’s Obie for Best Off-Broadway musical. The film version of the show was released in 2001, and apparently there are plans for a sequel.
22…Cads..HEELS
Our word “cad”, meaning “a person lacking in finer feelings”, is a shortening of the word “cadet”. “Cad” was first used for a servant, and then students at British universities used “cad” as a term for a boy from the local town. “Cad” took on its current meaning in the 1830s.
23…San Francisco, to most Californians..UPSTATE
The California city of San Francisco takes its name from the Presidio of San Francisco and the nearby Mission San Francisco de Asís that were founded in 1776 by Spanish colonists.
26…Rice on a field..JERRY
Jerry Rice won three Super Bowl rings with the San Francisco 49ers: XXIII vs the Bengals, XXIV vs the Broncos, and XXIX vs the Chargers.
27…Laid-back..TYPE B
The Type A and Type B personality theory originated in the fifties. Back then, individuals were labelled as Type A in order to emphasize a perceived increased risk of heart disease. Type A personality types are so called “stress junkies”, whereas Type B types are relaxed and laid back. But there doesn’t seem to be much scientific evidence to support the linkage between the Type A personality and heart problems.
30…PC-checking org., at times..TSA
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was created in 2001, soon after the 9/11 attacks. TSA personnel carry out the baggage and body searches at US airports. The TSA has a Trusted Traveler program that allows certain passengers to move more quickly through security screening. These passengers pay the TSA a one-time fee that covers a background check after which successful applicants are issued a Known Traveler Number (KTN).
34…Pebbles bearer..WILMA
In the classic cartoon show “The Flintstones”, Pebbles is the red-haired daughter of Fred and Wilma Flintstone. Pebbles’ best friend Bamm-Bamm lives next door, the adopted son of Barney and Betty Rubble. As the franchise developed, so did the two youngsters, and they eventually married.
35…Drop..DRAM
The dram is a confusing unit of measurement, I think. It has one value as an ancient unit of mass, and two different values as a modern unit of mass, another value as a unit of fluid volume, and yet another varying value as a measure of Scotch whisky!
37…It first passed 2014 in 2014, briefly..S AND P
Standard & Poor’s (S&P) is a financial services company, famous for its stock market indices, especially the S&P 500. The company also publishes credit ratings for sovereign governments, and in 2011 famously lowered the rating of the US federal government from AAA to to AA+.
38…Choice word..MEENY
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,
Catch the tiger/monkey/baby by the toe.
If it hollers/screams let him go,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, you are it!
39…”Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe” author..FLAGG
Fannie Flagg is the stage name of American actress Patricia Neil. Neil had to change her name to avoid confusion with the famous Oscar-winning actress of the same name. As well as acting, Flagg is a celebrated author, her most famous work being the 1987 novel “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe”. She also wrote the screenplay for the screen adaptation “Fried Green Tomatoes”, which was released in 1991.
41…Raiding group, familiarly..THE FEDS
A “fed” is an officer of a US federal agency, although the term usually applies to an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
51…Group of football players, perhaps..RUGBY TEAM
Rugby is a town in County Warwickshire, England. It is a market town, and is also home to the famous Rugby School, one of the oldest private schools in the country. The school gave its name to the sport of rugby, as the laws of the game were first published by three boys at Rugby School in 1845.
52…”Mr. Belvedere” actress Graff..ILENE
Ilene Graff is an American actress, probably best known for playing Marsha Owens, the wife of George in the TV series “Mr. Belvedere”.
54…French bread..EURO
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. Of course the Irish euro features a harp.
The use of the word “bread” as a slang term for money dates back to the 1940s, and is derived from the term “breadwinner”, meaning the person in the house who puts bread on the table, brings in the money.
55…Square figures..NERDS
Dweeb, squarepants, nerd, they’re all not-nice terms that mean the same thing: someone excessively studious and socially inept.
56…Gp. using sub titles?..USN
US Navy (USN)
57…Unattached..STAG
When a guy heads out to a party alone, he is said to be “going stag”.
Down
1…”Thus with a kiss __”: Romeo..I DIE
In Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, the last words uttered by Romeo are:
O true apothecary!
They drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
Juliet’s last words are:
Yea, noise? then I’ll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die.
2…Table salt, in chem class..NACL
Sodium chloride (NaCl, common salt) is an ionic compound, a crystal lattice made up of large chloride (Cl) ions in a cubic structure, with smaller sodium (Na) ions in between the chlorides.
3…Pants part..KNEE
The term “pants”, meaning trousers, is an abbreviated form of “pantaloons” that first appeared in the 1840s. Pantaloons were a kind of tights named for a silly old male character in Italian comedy called “Pantaloun”, who always wore tight trousers over skinny legs.
6…Part of WYSIWYG..SEE IS
Flip Wilson was a comedian who had his own show on television in the early seventies. Such was his level of success that in 1972, “Time” featured Wilson on the magazine’s cover and dubbed him “TV’s first black superstar”. Wilson’s birth name was Clerow, and he earned the nickname “Flip” while serving the US Air Force, as he was always “flipped out”. He often played a character called Geraldine on his show, who became known for using the expression “What you see is what you get”. Computer scientists adopted Geraldine’s catchphrase to describe a system in which onscreen content is the same as that printed on paper. The computer term is WYSIWYG, an acronym standing for “what you see is what you get”.
7…Home position, for some..ASDF
ASDF is a sequence of keys on the home row of keyboard.
12…Sebaceous gland issue..STYE
A stye is a bacterial infection of the sebaceous glands at the base of the eyelashes, and is also known as a hordeolum.
Tiny sebaceous glands are found on most of the skin. Their function is to produce an oily substance called sebum, which lubricates and waterproofs the skin and hair.
17…Fare on a stick..KEBAB
The name “kebab” (also “kabob”) covers a wide variety of meat dishes that originated in Persia. In the West, we usually use “kebab” when talking about shish kebab, which is meat (often lamb) served on a skewer. “Shish” comes from the Turkish word for “skewer”.
20…Round Greek letter..THETA
The Greek letter theta is the one that looks like a number zero with a horizontal line across the middle.
23…Monument Valley locale..UTAH
The spectacular Monument Valley, with it’s magnificent sandstone buttes and mesas, lies within the bounds of the Navajo Nation Reservation near the Four Corners region in the Southwest. The valley has served as a spectacular backdrop in many Hollywood movies. I always remember it as the location where Forrest Gump decided to stop running back and forth across the country.
24…Sitcom marine..PYLE
Jim Nabors was discovered by Andy Griffith and brought onto “The Andy Griffith Show” as Gomer Pyle, the gas station attendant. Famously, Nabors then got his own show called “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”
25…Computer screen?..SPAM FILTER
Apparently the term “spam”, used for unwanted email, is taken from a “Monty Python” sketch. In the sketch (which I’ve seen) the dialog is taken over by the word Spam, a play on the glut of canned meat in the markets of Britain after WWII. So “spam” is used for the glut of emails that takes over online communication. I can just imagine nerdy Internet types (like me) adopting something from a “Monty Python” sketch to describe an online phenomenon …
32…Organic frozen-food brand..AMY’S
Amy’s Kitchen is a company making organic and easy-to-prepare frozen food. The company was founded in 1987 by Andy and Rachel Berliner, and Amy is their daughter.
37…”SNL” sketches, e.g…SATIRES
“Saturday Night Live” (SNL)
38…Like a bad apple..MEALY
Something described as “mealy” resembles meal in texture, and so is granular in consistency.
40…University founder Stanford..LELAND
Leland Stanford became a very successful businessman in California after moving there from New York during the Gold Rush. Stanford then served as governor of the state for two years, and later US Senator for California. He founded the Leland Stanford Junior University in memory of his teenage son who died of typhoid fever while the family was travelling in Italy in 1884. The university opened its doors for business in 1891, and the first student admitted was none other than Herbert Hoover, the man would become the 31st President of the US.
42…Film hero Roy who wielded a bat called “Wonderboy”..HOBBS
Bernard Malamud wrote the novel “The Natural”, published in 1952. It tells the story of a baseball player named Roy Hobbs, who gets shot early in his career and makes a remarkable comeback many years later. Although Roy Hobbs is a fictional character, the story is apparently based on the real-life Phillies player Eddie Waitkus, who was indeed shot in his hotel room by an obsessed fan in 1949. The film adaptation released in 1984 is an excellent movie starring Robert Redford as “The Natural”.
43…De Gaulle’s birthplace..LILLE
Lille is a large city in the very north of France sitting right on the border with Belgium. The name “Lille” is a derivation of the term “l’isle” meaning “the island”.
Charles de Gaulle was a colonel in the French army at the outbreak of WWII. He was promoted to brigadier general after a successful attack on German tank forces in 1940, one of the few successes enjoyed by the French at the start of the war. Some months later, he was appointed junior minister in the French government, at which time he strenuously argued against surrender to Germany, advocating removal of the government to the French territory of Algeria. He was unsuccessful in his arguments and so flew to England where he set about building the Free French Forces from soldiers who had also fled the country. De Gaulle made several important radio addresses to the French from London that helped rally the resistance movement. Despite a shaky relationship with Winston Churchill and Dwight D. Eisenhower, De Gaulle managed to maintain a working relationship with the rest of the Allies and was accepted as leader of the new French government when Paris was liberated in 1944.
45…Willing..FAIN
“Fain” is an old way of saying “gladly, joyfully”.
46…Briefs covering, in brief..TROU
“Trou” is short for “trousers”.
47…Unaligned: Abbr…NEUT
Neutral (neut.)
48…Supergirl’s Krypton name..KARA
Kara Zor-El is Superman’s cousin, and is also known as Supergirl. Supergirl’s father and Superman’s father were brothers.
49…Irritating blanket..SMOG
“Smog” is a portmanteau formed by melding “smoke” and “fog”. The term was first used to describe the air around London in the early 1900s.
Complete List of Clues and Answers
Across
1…Jet..INKY
5…Govt. property overseer..GSA
8…Artists’ pads..LOFTS
13…Great __..DANE
14…Gets onstage..CUES
15…Detached..APART
16…Slid across the pond, maybe..ICE-SKATED
18…Start of a noncommittal RSVP..WE MAY …
19…Last-minute number?..ELEVEN FIFTY-NINE
21…Awards for “Rent” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”..OBIES
22…Cads..HEELS
23…San Francisco, to most Californians..UPSTATE
26…Rice on a field..JERRY
27…Laid-back..TYPE B
28…Big lugs..LOUTS
30…PC-checking org., at times..TSA
33…Word of regret..ALAS
34…Pebbles bearer..WILMA
35…Drop..DRAM
36…Bringing it up can lead to a fit..HEM
37…It first passed 2014 in 2014, briefly..S AND P
38…Choice word..MEENY
39…”Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe” author..FLAGG
41…Raiding group, familiarly..THE FEDS
43…Fool..LIE TO
44…Sand bar..SHOAL
45…Figure it out..FILL IN THE BLANKS
50…Hitching post?..ALTAR
51…Group of football players, perhaps..RUGBY TEAM
52…”Mr. Belvedere” actress Graff..ILENE
53…Weight..ONUS
54…French bread..EURO
55…Square figures..NERDS
56…Gp. using sub titles?..USN
57…Unattached..STAG
Down
1…”Thus with a kiss __”: Romeo..I DIE
2…Table salt, in chem class..NACL
3…Pants part..KNEE
4…Words said in passing?..YES VOTES
5…Intuition..GUT FEELING
6…Part of WYSIWYG..SEE IS
7…Home position, for some..ASDF
8…Bar staff..LAWYERS
9…Bar tool..OPENER
10…Line diagram..FAMILY TREE
11…Former leader?..TRANS-
12…Sebaceous gland issue..STYE
14…”Enough already!”..CAN IT!
17…Fare on a stick..KEBAB
20…Round Greek letter..THETA
23…Monument Valley locale..UTAH
24…Sitcom marine..PYLE
25…Computer screen?..SPAM FILTER
26…Act too hastily..JUMP THE GUN
29…Overdone..OLD
31…Measure of passing time..SAND
32…Organic frozen-food brand..AMY’S
34…One traveling in Old West circles?..WAGON
35…Lowers the volume of, in a way..DEFLATES
37…”SNL” sketches, e.g…SATIRES
38…Like a bad apple..MEALY
40…University founder Stanford..LELAND
42…Film hero Roy who wielded a bat called “Wonderboy”..HOBBS
43…De Gaulle’s birthplace..LILLE
44…Keeps away from..SHUNS
45…Willing..FAIN
46…Briefs covering, in brief..TROU
47…Unaligned: Abbr…NEUT
48…Supergirl’s Krypton name..KARA
49…Irritating blanket..SMOG
Attempted a Saturday.
Thank you, Bill for an enjoyable and well explained commentary.
I confused Jerr Rice (a guy) with Jerry Hall ( a gal) – whq was Mick Jaggers girlfriend / wife. Talk about confusion.
Re- TSA – Trusted traveller program ….. while I’ve never applied for the TTP or KTN …. both my wife and I have been pre-pre-checked – so we don’t have to remove our shoes. I guess if you have a certain number of years (in the US) and are of a certain age (!), and have sufficient frequent flier miles, and have a high credit score (?) …. then you no longer become of concern for possible terrorist acts ….. In any case, we generally arrive at the airport, three hours in advance.
One of my simplistic brain storming ideas on the “making” of the Euros, was ….. why didn’t Greece mint and / or print their own Euros, when they were famously running out of money, a few years ago. Instead of standing and crowding infront of the closed banks and the 50 Euro limit ATM machines ?? I am sure, there was a reason – its not that easy – and Mr. Varoufakis, the then finance minister, did try to set up some
alternate form of currency.
Have a nice weekend all.
24:17, no errors, iPad. For me, not the easiest puzzle. At the end, I spent a couple of minutes staring at ASDF, wondering what that might mean. So I came here. Bill explained it to me. Duh … 🙂
@Carrie … I’m no expert, but your giant grasshopper was probably not a katydid. I vaguely remember reading that the locusts in the locust swarms that used to afflict areas in the Midwest and still occur in other parts of the world are basically giant grasshoppers. I don’t remember what triggers the swarming episodes during which they grow so large, but there’s probably lots of info online about this.
@Sfingi … Again, I’m no expert, but I know that lightning bugs were common in Iowa when I was growing up there and that I have not seen one in years, either there or here in Colorado.
As for the other issues discussed yesterday: I can see both sides. I think we are all free to follow whatever set of rules we most enjoy.
As a child, I started doing easy crosswords – well, they would be easy for me now – in the Mason City (Iowa) Globe-Gazette. I took them with me to the one-room country school I attended and the teacher allowed me to do them using, as references, an old copy of Webster’s Second Unabridged Dictionary and an old set of encyclopedias. My knowledge base was small and my solving technique laughable, so I would sometimes work on a puzzle for many hours. But I kept at it and, mirabile dictu, I improved … 🙂
In the early 70’s, I discovered the NYT crosswords and became addicted to doing them every day, plus the LAT crosswords on Sunday. I stopped using any references whatsoever except to check my answers after declaring myself done.
Until a few months ago, I did crosswords almost exclusively on paper, using a light red pen for the initial solve and a black pen as needed to make final corrections. A couple of times, I tried using AcrossLite on my Macs, but really didn’t like it. Then, last year, I bought an iPad to use as a navigation tool on a trip to Europe and quickly became dependent on it for lots of other things. This year, I finally downloaded the NYT puzzle app and began experimenting with it. After a month or so, I finally made my peace with it. Now, I’m also doing the daily LAT puzzles online, using a tool on the LAT web site. (I’m also doing the WSJ puzzles, but haven’t yet found a good way to do them online.)
I post my times and my error counts partly in emulation of Bill and partly as a way of keeping tabs on my own progress as time marches on and I grow ever more … what is that word my young friend uses? … ah, yes … seasoned. I still find it fastest, easiest, and most enjoyable to use pen and paper, but my iPad solutions are becoming competitive on all counts. (Using AcrossLite on one of my other Macs would probably be better than using my iPad Mini, but then I would be chained to a desk during the process.)
I still don’t like the fact that, although I can tell the online tools not to check for errors as I do a puzzle, they don’t have a “Done” button. Instead, when the grid is full, they declare you done and, if you have an error somewhere, they tell you that, essentially making you cheat (in my view). My workaround is to leave a square that I’m sure of blank until I have done my final check, but I still sometimes forget to do that.
My, my, how I do run on … 🙂
For those who care about such matters: It says here that Jeffrey Wechsler constructed this puzzle — but didn’t he do yesterday’s? And my paper credits this one to David Liben-Nowell. Oh, well.
Whoever did it, it’s a sufficiently challenging Saturday puzzle, with some clever cluing (Artist’s pads = LOFTS; Words said in passing = YES VOTES; It passed 2014 in 2014 = S AND P; and a couple of others). Easily the top clunker, for me, was 35D: Lowers the volume of, in a way = DEFLAMES. Yuk! When’s the last time you heard that word used, in ANY context? Runner-up clunker honors go to 7D: Home position, for some = ASDF — for some in a typing class, I guess.
Overall, a B-/C+ of a Saturday puzzle — again, IMHO.
Thank you, Joe.
That was my bad, and apologies to Mr. Liben-Nowell for the incorrect attribution. All fixed now, thanks to your editorial assistance, Joe. Much, much appreciated.
@ Joe Bleaux You startled me. “What?”, I said.
Then I rechecked. It was DEFLATES for lowers the volume…as in Tom Brady.
Well, pooh. I was off by two letters.
ASDF really got my goat.
FA*N/*LENE was the other.
But then, I’m really surprised I even got as far as I did.
DOH! Mr. Eagle-eye here spots a wrong constructor’s name, then starts and ends “team” with an “m” when he writes in an answer. Boy, is my face red. I hereby bump my puzzle grade to a solid B+ and drop mine to a D, maybe a D-. Thank you, Pookie. I think I’ll take a nip — I mean nap — now.
Ah yes. The issue of time. I haven’t done this long enough to have any fond recollections (I started doing this when I came here first). As I’ve said before, I always worried more about getting these things right than getting fast times on them, but I’ve learned since that time is a good measure of proficiency. Of course, I don’t care too much to be a speed-solver at the moment, but found it good to be able to do grids proficiently enough to not take hours on them. I used to for most of them (barring the “easy” grids, of course), but there’s something to be said about fitting these into your day instead of them becoming your day.
That said, I’m noticing as I get these NYT grids that they do become my day, like these used to, but I still have my wins and losses. Finishing with errors on a Friday grid (the one I’m looking at just has the upper left unfilled) is still better than looking at it for hours, but still much slower than I like.
Of course, Saturday and Sunday awaits. As do these. Have fun, all!
@Joe – First you had me going back when I read “deflames” in your post. What, I thought? Did I goof up that answer. But then I checked and read farther down where all that got sorted out…Whew! I did do a 1 letter DNF as I had “cued” instead of “cues” for 14 Across. Double D’oh!
See you all right back here either tomorrow or Monday for both the Sunday and Monday grids. Have a good weekend all.
My double doh indeed, bud. Sorry about that. From now on, I’ll double-check my answers before I snark out a constructor and make an ass of myself.
Born in UPSTATE New York (common usage there) but lived in L. A. area for70 years and have NEVER visited “UPSTATE” California. I always go to the BAYAREA, which is the ONLY term I’ve ever heard describing San Fran. Where do you guys get these things???? I know some San Fransicans who would kill over the use of UPSTATE for their area. Other than a couple contrived abbrvs., this grid was challenging but fun.
Just could not get things going on this puzzle. At least I made a path of solutions from top to the bottom.
I was most interested in what “San Francisco, to most Californians” was supposed to be. Here in the Bay Area we just call it The City. Only Otis Redding gets to call it Frisco and he’s dead. Some time ago, the cops, in Tahoe or Sacramento, nabbed these crooks after one, claiming to be a local and not on the lam, said they were on their way to home to Frisco, during a traffic stop. The cops just looked at each other…busted.
I’ve never heard UPSTATE before and it doesn’t sound quite right given that more than half the state is North of the Bay Area.
Hi folks!! Counting this one as a victory — came VERY close to finishing. I cheated on one word: INKY. Figured someone here would have ONYX first, as I did. Close! Then, I didn’t realize till I got here that I’d missed LILLE! I had IRENE, which left me with LILRE — wherever THAT is!!
Very good challenge.
Hey Dave, so that green monster coulda been a cicada! I don’t think they’re found in So Cal… really I think he migrated up from the rainforest. Wish I’d taken a photo.
Hey again Dave, that trick of leaving a known letter blank is great. The few times I’ve done puzzles online I’m always bugged by how quickly you’re shown the “reveal” at the end.
@DIRK, totally agree about that UPSTATE thing! NO ONE says that!! I did initially write in BAY AREA, then tried UP NORTH. But, I think the clue meant just geographic fact: the southern part of the state is more populous, so in a sense SF is UPSTATE, vis a vis most people. Still sounds weird tho.
So an American athlete won the first Olympic gold in Rio! 19-year-old shooter. She seemed so poised for her age.
Sweet dreams~~™⚽???