0530-22 NY Times Crossword 30 May 22, Monday

Constructed by: Alexander Liebeskind
Edited by: Will Shortz

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Today’s Reveal Answer: New Beginnings

Themed answers each BEGIN with a “NEW-” sound:

37A Fresh starts … or, when said aloud, what 18-, 23-, 53- and 58-Across all have? : NEW BEGINNINGS

18A Nutty candy offering : NOUGAT BAR
23A Ultradense galactic body : NEUTRON STAR
53A Soba servings, for instance : NOODLE BOWLS
58A Top dog : NUMERO UNO

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Bill’s time: 5m 01s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Famous ___ cookies : AMOS

Wally Amos was a talent agent, one who was in the habit of taking home-baked cookies with him as an enticement to get celebrities to see him. He was urged by friends to open a cookie store (the cookies were that delicious, I guess) and this he did in Los Angeles in 1975 using the name “Famous Amos”. The store was a smash hit and he was able to build on the success by introducing his cookies into supermarkets. The brand was eventually purchased, making Wally a rich man, and Famous Amos cookies are still flying off the shelf. Wally Amos also became an energetic literacy advocate. He hosted 30 TV programs in 1987 entitled “Learn to Read” that provided reading instruction targeted at adults.

14 Gem from an oyster : PEARL

Pearls form in oysters because of a reaction that is similar to an immune system response in higher animals. The pearl is formed as the oysters lay down successive layers of calcium carbonate around some microscopic foreign body that has penetrated the shell.

15 Peas, for a pea shooter : AMMO

The word “munitions” describes materials and equipment used in war. The term derives from the Latin “munitionem” meaning “fortification, defensive wall”. Back in the 17th century, French soldiers referred to such materials as “la munition”, a Middle French term. This was misheard as “l’ammunition”, and as a result we ended up importing the word “ammunition” (often shortened to “ammo”), a term that we now use mainly to describe the material fired from a weapon.

17 Web company with an exclamation mark in its name : YAHOO!

Jerry Yang and David Filo called their company “Yahoo!” for two reasons. Firstly, a Yahoo is a rude unsophisticated brute from Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”. Secondly, Yahoo stands for “Yet another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”.

18 Nutty candy offering : NOUGAT BAR

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

20 Mardi Gras city, colloquially : NOLA

The city of New Orleans, Louisiana has the nickname “The Big Easy”. This name might come from the early 1900s when musicians found it relatively “easy” to find work there. The city is also known by the acronym NOLA, standing for New Orleans (NO), Louisiana (LA).

“Mardi Gras” translates from French as “Fat Tuesday”, and gets its name from the practice of eating rich foods on the eve of the fasting season known as Lent. Lent starts on the next day, called Ash Wednesday.

22 Word after game, set or match : … POINT

Our modern sport of tennis evolved from the much older racquet sport known as real tennis. Originally just called “tennis”, the older game was labeled “real tennis” when the modern version began to hold sway. Real tennis is played in a closed court, with the ball frequently bounced off the walls.

23 Ultradense galactic body : NEUTRON STAR

Neutron stars are extremely dense, and extremely small. They may have the mass of two of our suns, and yet measure only 14 miles in diameter. Neutron stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons and are the result of the gravitational collapse of a massive star after a stellar explosion known as a supernova.

29 N.Y.C. airport code : LGA

Fiorello La Guardia was the Mayor of New York from 1934 to 1945, racking up three full terms in office. The famous airport that bears La Guardia’s name was built at his urging, stemming from an incident that took place while he was in office. He was taking a TWA flight to “New York” and was outraged when the plane landed at Newark Airport, in the state of New Jersey. The Mayor demanded that the flight take off again and land at a small airport in Brooklyn. A gaggle of press reporters joined him on the short hop and he gave them a story, urging New Yorkers to support the construction of a new commercial airport within the city’s limits. The new airport, in Queens, opened in 1939 as New York Municipal, often called “LaGuardia” as a nickname. The airport was officially relabeled as “LaGuardia” (LGA) in 1947.

30 ___ Grey (variety of 2-Down) : EARL

The Earl Grey blend of tea is supposedly named after Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey who was Prime Minister of the UK from 1830 to 1834. Earl Grey tea has a distinctive flavor that is largely due to the addition of oil from the rind of the bergamot orange.

The spelling of the word “gray” tends to differ in English-speaking countries. “Gray” is common in North America, while “grey” is more usual elsewhere. That’s why here in the US, we have to watch the spelling of proper nouns like “Earl Grey”. The non-US spelling is used on this side of the Atlantic because the tea is named for a former British prime minister.

32 The Bee ___ (music group) : GEES

The Brothers Gibb (hence, the name “Bee Gees”) were born in England but grew up and started their musical careers in Australia. They moved back to Manchester in the north of England as youths, and there hit the big time.

33 Instrument with 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.

45 “Seven” things for a pirate : SEAS

The phrase “the seven seas” has been used for centuries by many different peoples. The actual definition of what constitutes the collection of seven has varied depending on the period and the culture. Nowadays we consider the seven largest bodies of water as the seven seas, namely:

The North Pacific Ocean
The South Pacific Ocean
The North Atlantic Ocean
The South Atlantic Ocean
The Indian Ocean
The Southern Ocean
The Arctic Ocean

48 Construction beam material : STEEL

Steel is an alloy that is composed mainly of iron, with a small percentage of carbon.

52 Sanjay Gupta’s channel : CNN

Sanjay Gupta is an American neurosurgeon who is best known as CNN’s chief medical correspondent. In 2009, Gupta was offered the post of Surgeon General in the Obama administration, but he declined.

53 Soba servings, for instance : NOODLE BOWLS

Soba is a thin Japanese noodle made from buckwheat flour. In Japan, the word “soba” tends to describe any thin noodle, in contrast with the thicker noodle called “udon”.

55 Houston baseballer : ASTRO

The Houston baseball team changed its name to the Astros (sometimes “’Stros”) from the Colt .45s in 1965 when they started playing in the Astrodome. The Astrodome was so called in recognition of the city’s long association with the US space program. The Astros moved from the National League to the American League starting in the 2013 season.

57 Pollen gatherers : BEES

There are over 16,000 species of bees, with the best-known probably being the western honey bee, the most common of the honey bees worldwide. Bees feed on nectar and pollen, and in so doing play a crucial role in the pollination of many plants. That’s one of the main reasons there is great concern about diminishing populations of wild bees.

The fine powder known as pollen is basically a flower’s sperm. Pollen carries a seed plant’s male reproductive cells.

69 Strong desires : YENS

The word “yen”, meaning “urge”, has been around in English since the very early 1900s. It comes from the earlier word “yin” imported from Chinese, which was used in English to describe an intense craving for opium.

Down

6 Yellow fruit : BANANA

The banana is actually a berry, botanically speaking. And, bananas don’t really grow on trees. The “trunk” of the banana plant is in fact a pseudostem. The pseudostem is a false stem comprising rolled bases of leaves, and it can grow to 2 or 3 meters tall.

9 Weather phenomenon that London is famous for : FOG

London is the largest metropolitan area in the whole of the European Union (and one of my favorite cities in the world). It has been a major settlement for over 2,000 years and was founded as a town by the Romans who named it Londinium. The name “Londinium” may have existed prior to the arrival of the Romans, and no one seems too sure of its origins. Famously, the City of London is a one-square-mile area at the center of the metropolis, the area that marked old medieval London. “The City”, as it is commonly called, has its own Mayor of the City of London (the Mayor of London is someone else), and its own City of London Police Force (the London Metropolitan Police are the police usually seen on the streets, a different force).

10 Judy Garland, voicewise : ALTO

Actress Judy Garland’s real name was Frances Gumm. Garland was respected and loved both within and without the entertainment industry. She was the youngest recipient, at 39 years old, of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the motion picture industry.

11 Kind of phone on the coast of Alabama? : MOBILE

Mobile, Alabama was founded in 1702, and was the first capital of French Colonial Louisiana. The city takes its name from the Mobilian tribe of Native Americans who lived in that area.

13 Some mattress choices : SERTAS

Serta was founded in 1931 when a group of 13 mattress manufacturers came together, essentially forming a cooperative. Today, the Serta company is owned by eight independent licensees in a similar arrangement. Serta advertisements feature the Serta Counting Sheep. Each numbered sheep has a different personality, such as:

#1 The Leader of the Flock
#½ The Tweener
#13 Mr. Bad Luck
#53 The Pessimist
#86 Benedict Arnold

19 Mo. before May : APR

The exact etymology of “April”, the name of the fourth month of our year, seems to be uncertain. The ancient Romans called it “mensis Aprilis”, which roughly translated as “opening month”. The suggestion is that April is the month in which fruits, flowers and animals “open” their life cycles.

23 Protagonist in “The Matrix” : NEO

Neo is the character played by Keanu Reeves in “The Matrix” series of films.

The 1999 movie sensation “The Matrix” was meant to be set in a nondescript urban environment. It was actually shot in Australia, as one of the co-producers of the film was the Australian company, Village Roadshow Pictures. You can pick up all sorts of clues about the location when watching the film, including a view of Sydney Harbour Bridge in a background shot. Also, traffic drives along on the left and there are signs for the “lift” instead of an “elevator”.

27 Arctic ___ (migratory bird) : TERN

Terns are seabirds that are found all over the world. The Arctic Tern makes a very long-distance migration. One Arctic Tern that was tagged as a chick in Great Britain in the summer of 1982, was spotted in Melbourne, Australia just three months later. The bird had traveled over 14,000 miles in over those three months, an average of about 150 miles a day. Remarkable …

28 Mathematician Turing : ALAN

Alan Turing was an English mathematician. He was well-respected for his code-breaking work during WWII at Bletchley Park in England. However, despite his contributions to cracking the German Enigma code and other crucial work, Turing was prosecuted for homosexuality in 1952. He agreed to chemical castration, treatment with female hormones, and then two years later he committed suicide by taking cyanide. Turing’s life story is told in the 2014 film “The Imitation Game” with Benedict Cumberbatch playing the lead. I thoroughly enjoyed that film …

32 Philanthropic quality : GENEROSITY

Philanthropy is a concern for human welfare, and the act of donating to persons or groups who support such concerns. The term “philanthropy” derives from the Greek “phil-” meaning “loving”, and “anthropos” meaning “mankind”.

34 Org. for the Hawks, but not the Falcons : NBA

The NBA’s Atlanta Hawks started out as the Buffalo Bisons in 1946, although after only a few months the team was moved to Moline, Illinois as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. The Blackhawks were one of the 17 original teams playing at the founding of the National Basketball Association. There was another move in 1951 and a renaming to the Milwaukee Hawks, and yet again in 1955 when the team became the St. Louis Hawks. The latest move was to Atlanta, in 1968.

The Atlanta Falcons joined the NFL in 1965. The team name was suggested by a schoolteacher called Miss Julia Elliott. Elliot suggested that “the Falcon is proud and dignified, with great courage and fight. It never drops its prey. It is deadly and has a great sporting tradition.”

38 Canadian gas brand : ESSO

The Esso brand has its roots in the old Standard Oil company as it uses the initial letters of “Standard” and “Oil” (ESS-O). The Esso brand was replaced by Exxon in the US, but ESSO is still used in many other countries.

41 Window ledge : 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.

44 “___ Misérables” : LES

Victor Hugo’s famous 1862 novel “Les Misérables” has been translated into English several times. However, the title is usually left in the original French as a successful translation of “les misérables” seems to be elusive. Some suggestions for an English title are “The Wretched”, “The Victims” and “The Dispossessed”. The novel follows the lives of several characters including an ex-convict Jean Valjean, a fanatic police inspector Javert, a beautiful prostitute Fantine, and Fantine’s illegitimate daughter Cosette.

47 Avenger played by Paul Rudd : ANT-MAN

In the Marvel universe, Ant-Man has been the superhero persona of three different fictional characters: Hank Pym, Scott Lang and Eric O’Grady. In the 2015 film “Ant-Man”, Michael Douglas plays Hank Pym, and Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang.

49 Macaroni shapes : ELBOWS

In many cases, the name given to a type of pasta comes from its shape. However, the name macaroni comes from the type of dough used to make the noodles. Here in the US, macaroni is usually elbow-shaped, but it doesn’t have to be.

63 Source of maple syrup : SAP

About 75% of the world’s maple syrup comes from the province of Quebec. The US’s biggest producer is the state of Vermont, which produces 5-6% of the world’s supply.

64 Political fact-checker’s verdict, maybe : LIE

The default verdict these days, sadly …

65 Triage centers, for short : ERS

Triage is the process of prioritizing patients for treatment, especially on the battlefield. The term “triage” is French and means “sorting”.

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Wizard’s weapon : STAFF
6 Meat in a burger : BEEF
10 Famous ___ cookies : AMOS
14 Gem from an oyster : PEARL
15 Peas, for a pea shooter : AMMO
16 Tales handed down orally : LORE
17 Web company with an exclamation mark in its name : YAHOO!
18 Nutty candy offering : NOUGAT BAR
20 Mardi Gras city, colloquially : NOLA
22 Word after game, set or match : … POINT
23 Ultradense galactic body : NEUTRON STAR
29 N.Y.C. airport code : LGA
30 ___ Grey (variety of 2-Down) : EARL
31 Spot for a mic clip : LAPEL
32 The Bee ___ (music group) : GEES
33 Instrument with pipes : ORGAN
35 Deliver a grand message : ORATE
37 Fresh starts … or, when said aloud, what 18-, 23-, 53- and 58-Across all have? : NEW BEGINNINGS
42 Like some sprays and voices : NASAL
43 Danger : PERIL
45 “Seven” things for a pirate : SEAS
48 Construction beam material : STEEL
51 Part to play : ROLE
52 Sanjay Gupta’s channel : CNN
53 Soba servings, for instance : NOODLE BOWLS
55 Houston baseballer : ASTRO
57 Pollen gatherers : BEES
58 Top dog : NUMERO UNO
62 Airplane seating alternative to window : AISLE
66 It’s catchy : TRAP
67 Picked a card : DREW
68 Step : STAIR
69 Strong desires : YENS
70 Wraps up : ENDS
71 Uses a computer keyboard : TYPES

Down

1 Intel employee? : SPY
2 Breakfast beverage : TEA
3 Ooh and ___ : AAH
4 Grassy areas near driveways : FRONT LAWNS
5 Each button in an elevator : FLOOR
6 Yellow fruit : BANANA
7 Music subcategory that’s a vowel change from 8-Down : EMO
8 Australian bird that’s a vowel change from 7-Down : EMU
9 Weather phenomenon that London is famous for : FOG
10 Judy Garland, voicewise : ALTO
11 Kind of phone on the coast of Alabama? : MOBILE
12 Fruit with the name of its color : ORANGE
13 Some mattress choices : SERTAS
19 Mo. before May : APR
21 “Haha” alternative : LOL
23 Protagonist in “The Matrix” : NEO
24 Bring in, as income : EARN
25 Strongly suggest : URGE
26 This is not good! : SPOILED
27 Arctic ___ (migratory bird) : TERN
28 Mathematician Turing : ALAN
32 Philanthropic quality : GENEROSITY
34 Org. for the Hawks, but not the Falcons : NBA
36 Gratuity : TIP
38 Canadian gas brand : ESSO
39 Cat: Sp. : GATO
40 “Money doesn’t ___ on trees” : GROW
41 Window ledge : SILL
44 “___ Misérables” : LES
45 Insufficient in quantity : SCANTY
46 Guarantee : ENSURE
47 Avenger played by Paul Rudd : ANT-MAN
49 Macaroni shapes : ELBOWS
50 Suni ___, Team U.S.A. gymnastics medalist : LEE
53 Neither’s partner : NOR
54 Brutish creature : BEAST
56 Parts of a gym set : REPS
59 Poem of praise : ODE
60 Coffee vessel : URN
61 Sansa’s father on “Game of Thrones” : NED
63 Source of maple syrup : SAP
64 Political fact-checker’s verdict, maybe : LIE
65 Triage centers, for short : ERS

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