1110-24 NY Times Crossword 10 Nov 24, Sunday - NYXCrossword.com (2024)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15 Building access device : FOB

A fob is attached to an object to make it easier to access. And so, a key fob is a chain attached to a key so that it can be retrieved easily. There are also watch fobs, and the pocket in a vest in which a watch can be placed is called a fob. In fact, the original use of the term “fob” was for a small pocket in which one could carry valuables.

18 Poe-esque : EERIE

Celebrated American writer Edgar Allan Poe (EAP) was born “Edgar Poe” in 1809 in Boston. Poe’s father abandoned Edgar and his two siblings after the death of their mother. As a result, Edgar was taken into the home of the Allan family in Richmond, Virginia. His foster parents gave the future author the name “Edgar Allan Poe”.

22 Wild card game : UNO

UNO is a card game that was developed in the early seventies and that has been sold by Mattel since 1992. It falls into the shedding family of card games, meaning that the goal is to get rid of all your cards while preventing opponents from doing the same.

27 Made it through Econ 101? : MANAGED MICRO (from “micromanaged”)

Macroeconomics is the study of economies as a whole, rather than of individual markets. Microeconomics is focused on the actions of individual entities like companies or individuals, and how these actions impact specific markets.

29 Crate & Barrel competitor : WEST ELM

West Elm is an upscale furniture store that is owned by Williams-Sonoma. The West Elm chain was founded in 2002.

31 Museo display : ARTE

In Spanish, one sees works of “arte” (art) in “un museo” (a museum).

32 Big name in big home appliances : KENMORE

Sears had a few long-standing, in-house brands, including Craftsman tools, Kenmore appliances and DieHard car batteries.

38 Stirrup’s place : EAR

The middle ear is the portion of the ear immediately behind the eardrum. The middle ear contains three small bones called the ossicles, the three smallest bones in the human body. The ossicles’ job is to transmit sound from the outer ear to the inner ear. The shape of the bones gives rise to their names: the hammer (malleus), anvil (incus) and stirrup (stapes).

39 It’s attached to covers and sheets : SPINE

In the US, the convention is to write the title on the spine of a book from top-to-bottom. In most of Europe, the convention is to write the title from bottom-to-top. We have a lot of books in the “library” in our house from both sides of the Atlantic, and so there is much movement of the head from left to right as we glance along our bookshelves.

40 Groundhog of renown : PHIL

Punxsutawney is a borough in Pennsylvania that is located about 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Punxsutawney Phil is the famous groundhog that lives in the area. Phil comes out of his hole on February 2 each year and if he sees his shadow he goes back into his hole predicting six more weeks of winter weather. February 2 is known as “Groundhog Day”.

42 Buy-in the round before going all in? : PENULTIMATE ANTE (from “antepenultimate”)

The term “ultimate” means “last. “Penultimate” means “second-to-last”, and “antepenultimate” means “third-to-last”.

57 ___ de Lesseps of the “Real Housewives” franchise : LUANN

“The Real Housewives …” franchise of reality TV shows was launched in 2006 with “The Real Housewives of Orange County”. Spin-off shows include “real housewives” in New York City, Atlanta, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Beverly Hills, Miami, Potomac, Dallas and Salt Lake City, and that’s just in the US. The list of international shows includes “real housewives” in Athens, Vancouver, Melbourne, Cheshire, Hungary, Johannesburg, Napoli and Bangkok. That’s a lot of “real housewives” …

61 Figure that’s roughly six times less on the moon : WEIGHT

The mass of an object differs from its weight. Mass measures the amount of matter present in the object, while its weight is the force exerted on the object by gravity. So, the mass of an object is the same on Earth as it is on the Moon. On the Moon, the same object weighs 16.5% of what it does on Earth.

70 “Next time, try reading the clue!” or “Stick to sudoku!”? : SOLVING DIS (from “dissolving”)

“Dis” (also “diss”) is a slang term meaning “insult” that originated in the eighties. It is a shortened form of “disrespect” or “dismiss”.

Number puzzles similar to our modern-day Sudoku first appeared in French newspapers in the late 1800s. The format that we use today was created by Howard Garns, a 74-year-old freelance puzzle constructor from Connersville, Indiana and first published in 1979. The format was introduced in Japan in 1984 and given the title of “Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru”, which translates to “the digits are limited to one occurrence”. The rather elaborate Japanese title was eventually shortened to Sudoku. No doubt many of you are fans of Sudoku puzzles. I know I am …

72 Transcript creator : STENO

Stenography is the process of writing in shorthand. The term comes from the Greek “steno” (narrow) and “graphe” (writing). A stenographer might be a court reporter, or a person provided captions accompanying a live television broadcast.

74 Yellow-green soft drink, per the stylization on its packaging : MTN DEW

If you check the can, you’ll see that “Mountain Dew” is marketed as “Mtn Dew” in some countries.

78 Jay-Z’s “Magna ___ Holy Grail” : CARTA

Jay-Z, as well as being a successful and very rich rap artist, is married to singer Beyoncé. Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter in Brooklyn, New York. As Carter was growing up, he was nicknamed “Jazzy”, a reference to his interest in music. “Jazzy” evolved into the stage name “Jay-Z”. Jay-Z and Beyoncé have a daughter named Blue Ivy Carter, and twins named Rumi and Sir Carter.

79 Annual river thawing : ICE RUN

An ice run is the initial breaking up of river ice during the first thaw after winter.

81 Avian rhyme of “hawk” : AUK

Auks are penguin-like sea birds that live in colder northern waters including the Arctic. Like penguins, auks are great swimmers, but unlike penguins, auks can fly.

84 N.Y.C.-based sports channel : MSG

Madison Square Garden (MSG) is an arena in New York City used for a variety of events. In the world of sports it is home to the New York Rangers of the NHL, as well as the New York Knicks of the NBA. “The Garden” is also the third busiest music venue in the world in terms of ticket sales. The current arena is the fourth structure to bear the name, a name taken from the Madison Square location in Manhattan. In turn, the square was named for James Madison, the fourth President of the US.

86 Agcy. overseeing reactors : NRC

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) oversees most aspects of the safety of nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel in the US.

94 City on the Nile : ASWAN

The Egyptian city of Aswan lies in the south of the country, on the River Nile. It is famous for its stone quarries, going back to ancient times. The most celebrated granite rock from the area is called syenite. Stone from Aswan was shipped northwards along the Nile and used in the construction of the pyramids. From ancient times right up to 1970, the annual flooding of the Nile was a significant event in Egypt. The flooding allowed the deposition of fertile silt far beyond the banks of the river, helping the region’s agriculture. However, the flooding was unpredictable. So the Aswan Dam was built in the sixties and from 1970 the flooding was brought under control.

100 Asia’s so-called “___ countries” : STAN

The suffix “-stan”, used in many place names, is Persian for “place of”.

105 God who fathered a queen of the Amazons : ARES

The Amazons of Greek mythology were a tribe of female warriors who were the daughters of Ares and Harmonia.

107 Caption describing an online photo that can’t be seen : ALT TEXT

Alt text, short for “alternative text,” is a description of an image that is used to provide information to people who cannot see the image, either because they are visually impaired or because the image cannot be loaded for some reason.

116 Oktoberfest glass : STEIN

Oktoberfest is a 16-day beer festival in Munich that actually starts in September. About six million people attend every year, making it the largest fair in the world. I’ve attended twice, and it really is a remarkable party …

Down

1 Musical nickname since the 1980s : LES MIZ

The 1980 musical “Les Misérables” is an adaptation of the 1862 novel of the same name by Victor Hugo. The show opened in London in 1985, and is the longest running musical in the history of London’s West End. My wife and I saw “Les Miz” in the Queen’s Theatre in London many years ago, but were only able to get tickets in the very back row. The theater seating is very steep, so the back row of the balcony is extremely high over the stage. One of the big events in the storyline is the building of a street barricade over which the rebels fight. At the height we were seated we could see the stagehands behind the barricade, sitting drinking Coke, even smoking cigarettes. On cue, the stagehands would get up and catch a dropped rifle, or an actor who had been shot. It was pretty comical. I didn’t really enjoy the show that much, to be honest. Some great songs, but the musical version of the storyline just didn’t seem to hang together for me.

2 What servers and sleuths each hope to do : GET A TIP

The word “sleuth” came into English from Old Norse as far back as 1200 when it meant the “track or trail of a person”. In the mid-1800s, a sleuthhound described a keen investigator, a hound close on the trail of the suspect. Sleuthhound was shortened to “sleuth” and was used for a detective in general.

3 Kenneth of “Oppenheimer” : BRANAGH

Kenneth Branagh is a much-respected Shakespearean actor and film director from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Not only is Branagh familiar with playing Shakespearean characters on stage, he is also noted for many performances in Shakespearean plays adapted for the big screen. Branagh was married to the magnificent actress Emma Thompson, and after their divorce spent years in a relationship with actress Helena Bonham Carter. Recently, I have been enjoying watching Branagh in the crime TV series called “Wallander” that is set in Sweden.

“Oppenheimer” is an epic 2023 film starring Cillian Murphy in the title role. The movie follows J. Robert Oppenheimer, “the father of the atomic bomb”, from his student days right through World War II and beyond. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film has an amazing ensemble cast that includes:

• Matt Damon (General Leslie Groves)
• Robert Downey Jr. (Lewis Strauss)
• Josh Hartnett (Ernest Lawrence)
• Kenneth Branagh (Niels Bohr)
• Tom Conti (Albert Einstein)
• Gary Oldman (Harry S. Truman)

4 Turner backed by the Ikettes : TINA

The Ikettes were the female backing vocalists for the Ike & Tina Turner Revue in the sixties. The Ikettes replaced the Artettes in 1960.

9 Blended hair coloring effect : OMBRE

The adjective “ombré” describes a color or tone that is a blend of one into another. “Ombré” is French for “shaded”. A softer and more gradual shading of one color into the other is referred to as “sombré”.

13 Clique : POSSE

Our word “posse” comes from an Anglo-Latin term from the early 15th century “posse comitatus” meaning “the force of the county”

A clique is a small, exclusive group of people. The term “clique” comes to us from France, where it has the same meaning. In French, it somehow evolved in meaning from the original “clique” meaning a sharp noise, or as we would say today, “click”.

14 Loretta who played “Hot Lips” Houlihan : SWIT

Loretta Swit started playing Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan on “M*A*S*H” in 1972. She and Alan Alda were the only actors who appeared in both the pilot and the series finale. Swit has written a book on needlepoint, would you believe? It’s called “A Needlepoint Scrapbook”.

15 Connection to a carburetor : FUEL LINE

The carburetor is a device in an internal combustion engine that has the job of blending air and fuel prior to combustion. When you hit the accelerator on a car, you’re not actually directly controlling the amount of fuel going to the engine. Instead, you’re controlling the amount of air that the carburetor gets. The carburetor then sucks in the amount of fuel it needs for efficient combustion.

16 Length of William Henry Harrison’s presidency : ONE MONTH

President William Henry Harrison died in 1841, after only one month in office, simply from complications arising from a cold. Harrison was the oldest person to assume the office of US president, until President Reagan in 1981. He was the first president to die in office, and served the shortest tenure.

19 Masters of the written word? : EDGAR LEE

Edgar Lee Masters was a poet and biographer from Kansas. His best known collection of poems is “Spoon River Anthology”, which was published in 1915. He also wrote biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain and Walt Whitman.

26 Italian scooter brand : VESPA

Vespa is a brand of motor scooter that was originally made in Italy (and now all over the world) by Piaggio. “Vespa” is Italian for “wasp”.

44 Milky Way component : NOUGAT

“Nougat” is an Occitan word (Occitania being a region of Southern Europe) that translates as “nut bread”.

Having lived on both sides of the Atlantic, I find the Mars Bar to be the most perplexing of candies! The original Mars Bar is a British confection (and delicious) that was first manufactured in 1932. The US version of the original Mars Bar is called a Milky Way. But there is a candy bar called a Milky Way that is also produced in the UK, and it is completely different to its US cousin, being more like an American “3 Musketeers”. And then there is an American confection called a Mars Bar, something different again. No wonder I try not to eat candy bars …

45 Park City resident : UTAHN

Park City in Utah is located just 30 miles or so southeast of Salt Lake City. Park City’s economy is very much dependent on tourism. It is home to two ski resorts: Deer Valley and Park City Mountain. It is also home to the annual Sundance Film Festival.

46 Pocket detritus : LINT

Detritus is loose material that results from the process of erosion. The usage of the term has evolved to describe any accumulated material or debris. “Detritus” is Latin for “a wearing away”.

50 East Coast convenience store chain : WAWA

Wawa is an East Coast chain of gas stations and convenience stores. Back in the late 1800s, Wawa was the name of a dairy farm operation that delivered milk to homes. When consumers started buying milk in grocery stores in the 1960s, the owners of Wawa shifted their focus and opened up the Wawa Food Market as an outlet for the milk from the dairy operation. Those early food markets developed into the chain of Wawa convenience stores.

54 Opposite of maigre : GRAS

In French, the opposite of “maigre” (skinny) is “gras” (fat).

59 Young disciple of an old Titian : EL GRECO

El Greco (“the Greek”, in Spanish) was the nickname of the artist whose real name was Domenikos Theotokopoulos. He was born in Crete in 1541, and moved to Venice to study art when he was in his early twenties. A few years later he moved to the city of Toledo in central Spain, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life.

Titian was an Italian painter and a founding member of the Venetian School of the 16th century. His most famous work is probably “Assumption of the Virgin”, which was commissioned for the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice and which can be seen there on the high altar to this very day.

65 Target of a certain “Eater” : ODOR

Odor Eater insoles were introduced in the early seventies, and are manufactured by Combe. Combe sponsors a national contest held every year in Montpelier, Vermont, called “The Odor Eaters Rotten Sneaker Contest”. Very pleasant …

66 Liu of “Barbie” : SIMU

Simu Liu is a Chinese-born Canadian actor. One of his more famous roles was the title character in the Marvel Comics 2021 superhero movie “Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings”.

67 Thunder shower? : ESPN

The Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team arrived in 2008 after relocating from Seattle, where they were named the SuperSonics. The “Thunder” name was chosen as a reference to Oklahoma City’s exposure to the storms of Tornado Alley, and to the 45th Infantry Division “Thunderbirds” who were headquartered there until 1968.

69 ___ Domingo, Best Actor nominee for 2023’s “Rustin” : COLMAN

Actor Colman Domingo is well known to followers of the zombie television show “Fear the Walking Dead”, on which he plays the villainous Victor Strand. He is the first actor in any of the “The Walking Dead” shows to direct an episode.

70 Throat malady : STREP

Streptococcus bacteria multiply and divide along a single axis so that they form linked chains. That behavior gives the genus of bacteria its name, as “streptos” is Greek for “easily twisted, like a chain”. I had to battle with streptococcal pharyngitis (strep throat) twice in the past few years and it was not at all pleasant, I must say. Another species of streptococcus is responsible for that terrible “flesh-eating” infection that makes the news from time to time.

74 Artist Chagall : MARC

Marc Chagall was a Russian-French artist, one of the most successful of the 20th century. Unlike so many painters, Chagall was able to achieve wealth and fame for his work during his own lifetime. It did help that Chagall lived to a ripe old age though. He passed away in 1985, when he was 97 years young. One of Chagall’s most famous works is the ceiling of the Paris Opera. The new ceiling for the beautiful 19th-century building was commissioned in 1963, and took Chagall a year to complete. Chagall was 77 years old when he worked on the Paris Opera project.

77 In which letters are spelled with digits, for short : ASL

American Sign Language (ASL)

78 Former French president Jacques : CHIRAC

Jacques Chirac served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He also served twice as Prime Minister of France, and as the Mayor of Paris.

83 Brando’s role in “A Streetcar Named Desire” : KOWALSKI

“A Streetcar Named Desire” is a Tennessee Williams play that was first performed in 1947, on Broadway. The original cast included Jessica Tandy as Blanche Dubois, Karl Malden as Mitch Mitchell, and Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski. Malden and Brando reprised their stage roles in the celebrated 1951 big screen adaptation. Vivienne Leigh played Blanche Dubois in the movie, having performed the part in the London production of the play.

89 Alternative to litmus paper : PH STRIP

Litmus is a mixture of naturally-occurring dyes that responds to acidity by changing color. It was probably first used around 1300 by the Spanish alchemist Arnaldus de Villa Nova, who extracted the blue dye from lichens. One suggestion is that the term “litmus” comes from the Old Norse “litmose” meaning “lichen for dyeing”. Litmus is often absorbed onto filter paper, creating “litmus paper” or “pH paper”. We also use the phrase “litmus test” figuratively to describe any test in which a single factor decides the outcome.

101 Broadway gossip : YENTE

“Yenta” (also “Yente”) is actually a female Yiddish name. In Yiddish theater “yenta” came to mean a busybody, a gossip.

103 Famous family in atomic theory : BOHRS

Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who won his 1922 Nobel Prize for his work on quantum mechanics and atomic structure. Later in his life, Bohr was part of the team working on the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb. Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein had a series of public debates and disputes in the twenties and thirties. Although the two respected each other very highly, they held very different views on quantum theory, different views on the laws of physics at the atomic level. The passage of time has shown that Bohr was on the right side of those debates.

108 Nonsense, to Brits : TOSH

“Tosh” is British slang for “foolish nonsense”, and is likely a combination of “trash” and “bosh”.