0818-24 NY Times Crossword 18 Aug 24, Sunday - NYXCrossword.com (2024)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

19 Thickening substance obtained from seaweed : AGAR

Agar (also “agar-agar”) is a jelly extracted from seaweed that has many uses. Agar is found in Japanese desserts, and can also be used as a food thickener or even as a laxative. In the world of science, it is the most common medium used for growing bacteria in Petri dishes.

21 Trash-loving Muppet : OSCAR

Oscar the Grouch is the Muppet who lives in a garbage can. Oscar’s persona comes from various sources. He is named after Oscar Brand who was one of the board members of the Children’s Television Workshop, the backers for “Sesame Street” as the Muppets were being developed in the sixties. Oscar’s personality was inspired by an angry waiter that once served Jim Henson (father of the Muppets). The voice was modeled on a grumpy New York cab driver encountered one day by Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer who brings Oscar to life.

23 Its name comes from Japanese for “to fight” : SUMO

Sumo is a sport that is practiced professionally only in Japan, the country of its origin. There is an international federation of sumo wrestling now, and one of the organization’s aims is to have the sport accepted as an Olympic event.

25 Amusem*nt park attraction depicted above and below this answer : BUMPER CARS

Bumper cars are a fairground ride comprising electrically-powered cars that are driven with the intent of bumping into each other. Invented in the US, one of the most successful brands of bumper car is the Dodgem. In fact, the term “dodgem” is used generically instead of “bumper car” outside of North America.

32 Prof’s helpers : TAS

Teaching Assistants (TAs)

36 N.Y.C. home of “Christina’s World” : MOMA

“Christina’s World” is an Andrew Wyeth painting that dates back to 1948. The subject of the work is Christina Olson, a woman who suffered from polio that paralyzed her lower body. In the picture, Wyeth painted Christina crawling across a field towards a house in the distance.

42 “Fiddler on the Roof” matchmaker : YENTE

In the stage musical “Fiddler on the Roof”, the village matchmaker Yente tries to bring together 19-year-old Tzeite, eldest daughter of Tevye the milkman, with the local butcher named Lazar Wolf.

44 Titled widows : DOWAGERS

Originally, a dowry was money that was set aside by a man for his wife and children, to be used in the event that he passed away. A widow who received said money was known as a dowager. Over time, “dowry” became a term used for the money, goods or estate that a woman brought into a marriage, and “dowager” came to mean an elderly woman with an elevated social position.

48 Glass tube illuminant : NEON

Neon (Ne) was discovered in 1898 by two British chemists, Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers. They chilled a sample of air, turning it into a liquid. They then warmed that liquid and separated out the gases that boiled off. Along with nitrogen, oxygen and argon (already known), the pair of scientists discovered two new gases. The first they called “krypton” and the second “neon”. “Krypton” is Greek for “the hidden one” and “neon” is Greek for “new”.

50 About 3.26 light years : PARSEC

A parsec is a measure of length or distance used in astronomy. One parsec is equal to about 19.2 trillion miles.

51 “Her Kind” poet Sexton : ANNE

Anne Sexton was a poet from Massachusetts who won the 1967 Pulitzer for poetry for her collection titled “Live or Die”. Sexton’s style of poetry is sometimes classified as “confessional”, and reveals details of her private life, including her battle with depression. She finally committed suicide in 1974 at the age of 45.

52 Capital on the Gulf of Guinea : ACCRA

Accra sits on Ghana’s coast and is a major seaport as well as the country’s capital city. The name “Accra” comes from a local word “Nkran” meaning “ants”, a name chosen because of the large number of anthills found in the area when the city was founded.

53 Insignificant amount : SOU

A sou is an old French coin. We use the term “sou” to mean “practically worthless amount”.

55 Suffix with cyclo- : -TRON

A cyclotron accelerates charged particles (ions) using a magnetic field, usually directing the particles round and round a huge underground circular structure.

57 Genre influenced by calypso : SKA

The musical style known as calypso originated in Trinidad and Tobago, but there seems to be some debate about which influences were most important as the genre developed. It is generally agreed that the music was imported by African slaves from their homeland, but others emphasize influences of the medieval French troubadours. To me it sounds more African in nature. Calypso reached the masses when it was first recorded in 1912, and it spread around the world in the thirties and forties. It reached its pinnacle with the release of the famous “Banana Boat Song” by Harry Belafonte.

58 “The Shape of Water” director : DEL TORO

“The Shape of Water” is a 2017 movie that is described as a “romantic monster” film, and so is in a pretty unique genre, I’d say. It was directed by Guillermo del Toro, who also co-wrote the script. It’s all about a mute young lady working in a government laboratory and falling in love with a humanoid amphibian who is held captive there. Not my cup of tea …

65 Amusem*nt park attraction depicted weaving through this answer : ROLLER COASTER

When a body moves at a steady speed along a circular path, the force that keeps the body in that circular path (rather than a straight line) is the centripetal force. For example, if we’re on a roller coaster doing a loop, the force that keeps the coaster moving in a circular direction, preventing it from flying off in a straight line, is centripetal force. The opposing force that we riders feel while looping on the coaster is centrifugal force, the force that we feel pinning us to our seats.

73 Burnsian lead-in to body : NAE-

Robert Burns is a cultural icon in Scotland and for Scots around the world. As a poet, Burns was a pioneer in the Romantic movement in the second half of the 18th century. One of his most famous works is the poem “Auld Lang Syne”, which has been set to the tune of a traditional Scottish folk song and is used to celebrate the New Year in the English-speaking world.

77 A+ service? : ACE

That could be tennis.

78 Ingvar Kamprad or Ingmar Bergman, e.g. : SWEDE

The IKEA furniture chain was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, when he was just 17-years-old. IKEA is an acronym standing for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd (don’t forget now!). Elmtaryd was the name of the farm where Ingvar Kamprad grew up, and Agunnaryd is his home parish in Sweden.

Ingmar Bergman was a director of movies, stage and television from Sweden. Late in his life, Bergman ceased working for several years and left Sweden when he was wrongly charged with tax evasion, an event that caused him to have a nervous breakdown. Despite pleas from even the Swedish Prime Minister to return to his homeland, Bergman stayed in Germany for eight years before finally picking up his life again in Sweden.

83 Canadian N.H.L. team : OILERS

The National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers are so called because they are located in Alberta, Canada … oil country.

85 Prominent feature of Tom Selleck or David Hasselhoff : CHEST HAIR

Tom Selleck’s big break as an actor came with the title role in the 1980s crime show “Magnum, P.I.” Prior to that breakthrough, Selleck had appeared twice on TV’s “The Dating Game” in the 1960s, and also appeared in commercials for products such as Pepsi-Cola. One role that Selleck missed out on was Indiana Jones in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. Selleck had to pass on that one because of his contract to play Thomas Magnum. Selleck and his family live on a 60-acre avocado ranch in Hidden Valley, California that was once owned by Dean Martin.

Actor and singer David Hasselhoff has appeared on many hit TV shows, including “The Young and the Restless”, “Knight Rider”, “Baywatch”, “Dancing with the Stars” and “America’s Got Talent”. According to “The Guinness Book of Records”, Hasselhoff is the most-watched man on TV, ever. Not by me …

88 Showy garden flower : PEONY

The flowering plant called a peony is named for Paean, the mythical physician to the Greek gods. Indiana adopted the peony as its state flower in 1957.

89 Sour grapes drink? : HATERADE

An extremely negative person might be described as having drunk the “haterade”, a play on the beverage “Gatorade”.

92 Digs in the mud : STY

“Digs” is short for “diggings” meaning “lodgings”. Where “diggings” came from, no one seems to know.

114 People that call New Zealand “Aotearoa” : MAORI

The Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. They are eastern Polynesian in origin and began arriving in New Zealand relatively recently, starting some time in the late 13th century. The word “māori” simply means “normal”, distinguishing mortal humans from spiritual entities. The Māori refer to New Zealand as “Aotearoa”.

116 Last word before eating, sometimes : AMEN

The word “amen” translates as “so be it”. “Amen” is said to be of Hebrew origin, but it is also likely to be influenced by Aramaic and Arabic.

117 Nickname for the Los Angeles Angels : HALOS

The Anaheim Angels baseball team is today more correctly called the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (LAA). The “Angels” name dates back to 1961 when the team was founded in the “City of Angels”, Los Angeles. When the franchise moved to Anaheim in 1965 they were known as the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, and most recently the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels are also known as “the Halos”.

118 Set of pipes? : ORGAN

The organ that we often see in churches, synagogues and concert halls is a pipe organ. Sound is produced by pressurized air driven through particular pipes selected by keys on a keyboard.

122 Mammal whose name is spelled using only the letters of “mammal” : LLAMA

The llama is a camelid mammal very much associated with the Andean cultures. Despite the association with South America, it is thought that the ancestors of the modern llama migrated south from the Great Plains of North America about 40 million years ago.

123 Biblical father of Kenan : ENOS

Enos was the son of Seth, and therefore the grandson of Adam and Eve, and nephew of Cain and Abel. According to the ancient Jewish work called the Book of Jubilees, Enos married his own sister Noam.

Down

5 Participate in a Lakota smudging ceremony : BURN SAGE

The burning of sage is known as “smudging”. It is a ritual that originated with many Native-American peoples, although similar practices are found around the world in other cultures. The most common type of sage used in smudge sticks (sage bundles) is white sage, Salvia apiana.

8 With 29-Down, insect that conducts raids : ARMY …
[29 See 8-Down : … ANT]

Army ants are a collection of over two hundred different species of ants. Each species is known for aggressively raiding a certain area en masse, foraging for food. Army ants also stay on the move, never building permanent nests.

10 A gilded one is seen on King Tut’s crown : COBRA

The Egyptian cobra (Naja haje) is also known as the asp. That said, the term “asp” can apply to several species of snake, including the Egyptian cobra. Legend has it that Cleopatra committed suicide by enticing an asp to bite her. If that’s true, then that asp was probably an Egyptian cobra.

“King Tut” is a name commonly used for the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun. Tutankhamun may not have been the most significant of the pharaohs historically, but he is the most famous today largely because of the discovery of his nearly intact tomb in 1922 by Howard Carter. Prior to this find, any Egyptian tombs uncovered by archaeologists had been ravaged by grave robbers. Tutankhamun’s magnificent burial mask is one of the most recognizable of all Egyptian artifacts.

11 Baton Rouge sch. : LSU

Baton Rouge is the capital city of the state of Louisiana. The name “Baton Rouge” is French for “red stick” or “red staff”. The exact reason why such a name was given to the city isn’t really clear.

12 Zenith : ACME

The nadir is the direction pointing immediately below a particular location (through to the other side of the Earth for example). The opposite direction, that pointing immediately above, is called the zenith. We use the terms “nadir” and “zenith” figuratively to mean the low and high points in a person’s fortunes.

14 Actress Lee of “Past Lives” : GRETA

Actress Greta Lee is perhaps best known to TV audiences for playing Stella Bak, a news division president on “The Morning Show”. She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the 2023 romantic drama film “Past Lives”.

16 Designer of noted terminals at Dulles and J.F.K. : SAARINEN

Eero Saarinen was a Finnish-American architect who was renowned in this country for his unique designs for public buildings such as the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Dulles International Airport Terminal, and the TWA building at JFK. The list of his lesser-known, but still impressive, works includes several buildings erected on academic campuses. For example, the Chapel and Kresge Auditorium on the MIT campus, the Emma Hartman Noyes House at Vassar College, the Law School building at the University of Chicago, and Yale’s David S. Ingalls Rink.

17 “The Office” setting : SCRANTON

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 …

26 Risqué : RACY

“Risqué” is a French word, the past participle of the verb meaning “to risk”. So in English we use “risqué” to mean “racy”, but in French it means “risky”.

28 Maker of pianos and motorcycles : YAMAHA

The Japanese company Yamaha started out way back in 1888 as a manufacturer of pianos and reed organs. Even though the company has diversified since then, Yamaha’s logo still reflects its musical roots. Said logo is made up of three intersecting tuning forks, and can even be seen on Yamaha motorcycles and ATVs.

35 Apartment dweller : TENANT

A tenant is a person or entity “holding” property by virtue of title or lease. The term “tenant” comes from the Latin “tenere” meaning “to hold”.

36 Fruity Italian wine : MOSCATO

Asti is in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. It is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine. Moscato d’Asti is produced from the same grape (Moscato Bianco). Moscato is a much sweeter wine with a lower alcohol content, and is usually served as a dessert wine.

37 Jazz pianist Garner : ERROLL

Erroll Garner was a jazz pianist and composer. Garner’s most famous composition by far is 1954’s “Misty”, which is now a jazz standard.

39 Goddess whose name fills in this fact: Hephaestus once made ___ magical throne : HERA

In Greek mythology, Hera was the wife of Zeus and the goddess of women, marriage, family and childbirth. She was noted for her jealous and vengeful nature, particularly against those who vied for the affections of her husband. The equivalent character to Hera in Roman mythology was Juno. Hera was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.

In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the god of blacksmiths, sculptors, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. The Roman equivalent of Hephaestus was Vulcan. Given his spheres of influence, it is perhaps not surprising that Hephaestus made all of the weapons for the gods of Olympus.

43 Brussels-to-Berlin dir. : ENE

The Belgian capital Brussels is famous for its food and drink. The list of goodies includes the city’s special waffles, chocolate, French fries and beer.

Berlin is the capital of Germany. It is the nation’s largest city, and is the second-most populous city in the European Union (after London).

45 Oil platform? : EASEL

The term “easel” comes from an old Dutch word meaning “donkey”, would you believe? The idea is that an easel carries its load (an oil painting, say) just as a donkey would be made to carry a load.

46 Boorish sorts : YAHOOS

Yahoos are brutish creatures introduced by Irish author Jonathan Swift in “Gulliver’s Travels”. Their savage, slovenly ways gave rise to the use of “yahoo” in English to describe a lout or neanderthal.

47 Assist in a pick-and-roll : SCREEN

That would be basketball.

49 Yogurt-based beverage : LASSI

Lassi is a yogurt-based drink from India. Popular variants are namkeen lassi (which is salty), sweet lassi and mango lassi. There is even a bhang lassi, which is infused with a liquid derivative of cannabis.

56 Shell tool : OAR

A scull is a boat used for competitive rowing. The main hull of the boat is often referred to as a shell. Crew members who row the boat can be referred to as “oars”. And, a scull is also an oar mounted on the stern of a small boat. It’s all very confusing …

58 The Four Knights’ genre : DOO-WOP

Doo-wop developed in the 1940s and can be described as a vocal-based R&B music. Even though the style has been around since the forties, the name doo-wop wasn’t introduced until the early sixties.

59 Solar system model : ORRERY

An orrery is an ingenious mechanical device that shows the relative motion and relative positions of the planets in our solar system. The first “modern” orrery was produced in 1704 and was presented to the Irish peer known as the Earl of Orrery, from whence the name “orrery” comes.

61 Groups of nine : ENNEADS

The Ennead is a group of nine gods in Egyptian mythology. The Ennead were all in the same family, all descendents of the god Atum. The word “ennead” is also used more generically for any group of nine things. The term comes from “ennea”, the Greek word for “nine”.

62 One hopping on the band wagon? : ROADIE

A “roadie” is someone who loads, unloads and sets up equipment for musicians on tour, on the “road”.

66 Indigenous people with a First Moccasin ceremony : APACHE

The Apache are a group of Native American peoples originally from the Southwest US. The Navajo are a separate but related people, through culture and language, and are often described as “Apachean”.

67 Louis who wrote “Holes” : SACHAR

“Holes” is a 2003 American comedy-drama film directed by Andrew Davis and based on the novel of the same name by Louis Sachar. Shia LaBeouf, who played the lead role of Stanley Yelnats IV, was relatively unknown at the time the movie was made. His performance in “Holes” helped to launch his career as an actor.

79 Amusem*nt park attraction depicted in and around this answer : WHAC-A-MOLE

The Whac-A-Mole arcade game was invented in 1976. Players use a mallet to force five plastic moles back into their holes. Whacking the moles can be so frustrating that we sometimes use the term “whac-a-mole” to describe a repetitive and futile task.

80 Typing stat: Abbr. : WPM

Words per minute (wpm)

91 Munich “mister” : HERR

Munich is the capital of the German state of Bavaria, and is the third-largest city in the country (after Berlin and Hamburg). The city is called “München” in German, a term that derives from the Old German word for “by the monks’ place”, which is a reference to the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city in 1158.

94 Pepto-___ : BISMOL

Pepto-Bismol was originally marketed as a remedy for infant diarrhea, and sold under the name “Bismosol: Mixture Cholera Infantum”.

97 Part of an omakase meal : SUSHI

When food is ordered “omakase” in a Japanese restaurant, the patron is asking the chef to choose what is served. The term “omakase” comes from the Japanese for “to entrust”.

98 Word with French or free : … PRESS

A French press is a type of coffee pot in which the grounds are separated from the coffee when a fine mesh filter is pressed to the bottom of the pot using a plunger. Back in Ireland, our name for a French press is a cafetière.

103 Common spot for a houseplant : SILL

“Sill plate”, or simply “sill”, is an architectural term describing a bottom horizontal member to which vertical members are attached. Window sills and door sills are specific sill plates found at the bottoms of windows and door openings.

105 Title in Parliament : EARL

The UK Parliament is divided into two houses, with the upper house known as the House of Lords and the lower house as the House of Commons. The members of the House of Commons (MPs) are elected, but most new members of the House of Lords are appointed. Historically, a large proportion of the membership of the upper house were hereditary peers, but recent legislative changes are reducing the numbers who can sit in the House of Lords by virtue of birthright.

106 Draped garment : TOGA

In ancient Rome, the color of a man’s toga could indicate the wearer’s social status. For example, a plain white toga (known as a “toga candida”) was worn by candidates for political office, while a “toga praetexta” with a purple border was worn by magistrates and certain priests. A “toga picta”, which was decorated with elaborate embroidery and gold trim, was reserved for victorious generals and triumphal processions.

107 Aerial transport across New York’s East River : TRAM

Roosevelt Island is an island in New York City’s East River lying within the borough of Manhattan. The island was known as Welfare Island when it was used principally for hospitals, from 1921 to 1973. It was renamed Roosevelt Island (in honor of Franklin D. Roosevelt) in 1973. I recommend that visitors take a ride on the Roosevelt Island Tramway, especially at night, as the tram offers beautiful views of Manhattan and Queens.

108 Actress Moriarty : ERIN

Erin Moriarty is an actress from New York City whose big break came when she landed the role of Starlight (aka AnnieJanuary) in the superhero TV series “The Boys”.

109 Finding ___ Submarine Voyage (Disneyland attraction) : NEMO

“Finding Nemo” is a 2003 animated blockbuster from Pixar. The film was the winner of the Oscar that year for Best Animated Feature. Believe it or not, “Finding Nemo” is the best-selling DVD of all time and, until 2010’s “Toy Story 3”, it was the highest-grossing, G-rated movie at the box office.

112 Audiologist’s colleague, in brief : ENT

Ear, nose and throat specialist (ENT)

113 Agcy. overseeing public schools : DOE

The largest government department in the cabinet is the Department of Defense (DOD), with a permanent staff of over 600,000. The smallest department, by far, is the Department of Education, with a mere four or five thousand employees.