0221-23 NY Times Crossword 21 Feb 23, Tuesday
Constructed by: Daniel Raymon
Edited by: Will Shortz
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Today’s Reveal Answer(s): Hidden Agenda
Themed answers each include “AGENDA” as a HIDDEN word:
- 9A With 68-Across, ulterior motive … or what 21-, 37- and 59-Across each has? : HIDDEN …
- 68A See 9-Across : … AGENDA
- 21A New York City-born ice cream brand with a Danish-sounding name : HAAGEN-DAZS
- 37A 1970s auto that shares part of its name with one of Santa’s reindeer : VOLKSWAGEN DASHER
- 59A Name for the star on Israel’s flag : MAGEN DAVID
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Bill’s time: 7m 36s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
5 High-five, e.g. : SLAP
The celebratory gesture that we call a “high five” is said to have been invented by former baseball players Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke when they were both playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the late 1970s.
9 With 68-Across, ulterior motive … or what 21-, 37- and 59-Across each has? : HIDDEN …
68A See 9-Across : … AGENDA
“Agenda” is a Latin word that translates as “things to be done”, coming from the verb “agere” meaning “to do”.
15 Start of a conclusion : ERGO …
“Ergo” is a Latin word meaning “hence, therefore”, and one that we absorbed directly into English.
16 Rose or Rozelle of sports : PETE
Pete Rose was a talented baseball player who holds the record for all-time Major League hits. Rose’s nickname was “Charlie Hustle”. In recent years, his reputation has been tarnished by admissions that he bet on games in which he played and managed.
Pete Rozelle was the commissioner of the National Football League (NFL) from 1960 to 1989. He was instrumental in creating the Super Bowl, which is now one of the biggest annual sporting events in the world. In 1966, Rozelle proposed the idea of a championship game between the NFL and the American Football League (AFL), which were two separate leagues at the time. The first Super Bowl was played in January 1967, and the game has been held annually ever since.
18 “Darn!” : CRUD!
The word “crud”, meaning “something disgusting”, is American slang dating back to the 1920s. Originating in the US Army, the term was used in place of “venereal disease”.
21 New York City-born ice cream brand with a Danish-sounding name : HAAGEN-DAZS
Häagen-Dazs ice cream originated in the Bronx, New York in 1961. The name “Häagen-Dazs” is a “nonsense” term, words chosen for its Scandinavian feel that the producers thought would appeal to potential customers.
25 Group of nine : ENNEAD
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”.
26 Frank who directed “It’s a Wonderful Life” : CAPRA
The Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” was released in 1946, and is a Frank Capra movie starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. The film’s screenplay was adapted from a short story called “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern. Remember the famous swimming pool scene? That was shot in Beverly High School gym, and the pool is still in use today.
28 Long-running sketch show, in brief : SNL
NBC first aired a form of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) in 1975 under the title “NBC’s Saturday Night”. The show was actually created to give Johnny Carson some time off from “The Tonight Show”. Back then “The Tonight Show” had a weekend episode, and Carson convinced NBC to pull the Saturday or Sunday recordings off the air and hold them for subsequent weeknights in which Carson needed a break. NBC turned to Lorne Michaels and asked him to put together a variety show to fill the vacant slot, and he came up with what we now call “Saturday Night Live”.
30 Fab Four drummer : STARR
Ringo Starr is a musician, best known as the drummer for the Beatles. In addition to his music career, Ringo Starr has appeared in a number of films. In addition to his film work, Ringo Starr has also done voiceover work for several animated television shows and movies. He has lent his distinctive voice to characters in shows like “Thomas & Friends” and “The Simpsons,” as well as movies like “Yellow Submarine”.
The Beatles were described on the sleeve notes of their 1963 album “With the Beatles” as the “fabulous foursome”. The press picked up on the phrase and morphed it into “the Fab Four”.
31 The Wizard of ___ Park (Thomas Edison) : MENLO
Thomas Alva Edison (TAE) was nicknamed “The Wizard of Menlo Park” by a newspaper reporter, a name that stuck. He was indeed a wizard, in the sense that he was such a prolific inventor. The Menlo Park part of the moniker recognizes the location of his first research lab, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
33 Next-to-last Greek letter : PSI
Psi is the 23rd and penultimate letter of the Greek alphabet, and the one that looks a bit like a trident or a pitchfork.
35 “The Bourne Identity” org. : CIA
“The Bourne Identity” is a great spy novel written by Robert Ludlum, and first published in 1980. It has been ranked as the second best spy novel of all time, just behind the even more enjoyable “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” by John le Carré. Ludlum wrote two sequels, and all three parts of the Bourne Trilogy have been made into very successful movies now, starring Matt Damon in the title role. Ludlum died before he could write more than three novels featuring Jason Bourne, but five more titles in the series have been published, each written by Eric Van Lustbader. I must check them out …
36 Home to the Taj Mahal : AGRA
The most famous mausoleum in the world has to be the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. It was built after the death of the fourth wife of Shah Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal (hence the name of the mausoleum). The poor woman died in childbirth delivering the couple’s 14th child. When Shah Jahan himself passed away 35 years later, he was buried beside his wife Mumtaz, in the Taj Mahal.
37 1970s auto that shares part of its name with one of Santa’s reindeer : VOLKSWAGEN DASHER
“VW” stands for “Volkswagen”, which translates from German into “people’s car”. The original Volkswagen design was the Beetle and was built under a directive from Adolf Hitler, who wanted a cheap car built that ordinary people could afford to purchase. Hitler awarded the contract to engineer Ferdinand Porsche, whose name (paradoxically) would forever be associated with high performance, expensive cars. The Beetle was the official name of the VW model released in North America, but it was usually referred to as a “Bug” here in the US, and a “Beetle” elsewhere in the world.
43 The “E” in the mnemonic HOMES : ERIE
A well-known mnemonic for remembering the names of the Great Lakes is HOMES, an acronym standing for Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. Another mnemonic serving the same purpose is “super heroes must eat oats”.
45 Airport screening grp. : TSA
Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
46 Wambach in the National Soccer Hall of Fame : ABBY
Abby Wambach is a retired professional soccer player who was named FIFA World Player of the Year for 2012. She played for the US national team in all four World tournaments from 2003 to 2015.
54 Word often confused with “lay” : LIE
There is often confusion between the verbs “to lie” and “to lay”. The latter is a transitive verb, and so needs an object. So we can’t “lay down”, we must “lie down”. But, we can “lay out” a plan.
55 Macho sorts : HE-MEN
A macho man is one showing pride in his masculinity. “Macho” is a Spanish word for “male animal”.
56 Perfume ingredient : KETONE
Ketones are organic compounds. Many sugars are ketones, as is the solvent acetone.
57 ZZ Top, for one : TRIO
In the blues rock band ZZ Top, the hairy guitar players are Billy F. Gibbons and Dusty Hill (although Hill died in 2021). The relatively clean-shaven drummer is, wait for it … Frank Beard.
59 Name for the star on Israel’s flag : MAGEN DAVID
Magen (also “Mogen”) David is Hebrew for “Shield of David”, and is another name for the Star of David. The use of the distinctive hexagram as a symbol for the Jewish community started in 17th-century Europe, and today the symbol is found at the center of the flag of Israel.
63 Certain inebriate : WINO
Sobriety is the quality of being sober, not intoxicated. The opposite is insobriety, the quality of not being sober. To be inebriated is to be under the influence of alcohol, and the state of being intoxicated is ebriety. Sort those terms out after a glass or two of wine …
64 Apian abode : HIVE
Something described as apian is related to bees. “Apis” is Latin for “bee”.
65 “Do it again!” : ENCORE!
“Encore” is French for “again, one more time”, and is a shout that an audience member will make here in North America to request perhaps another song. But, the term is not used this way in France. Rather, the audience will shout “Bis!”, which is the Italian for “twice!”
67 Dell competitor : ACER
Acer is a Taiwanese company that I visited a couple of times when I was in the electronics business. I was very impressed back then with the company’s dedication to quality, although I have heard that things haven’t gone so well in recent years …
69 Certain bulbs, in brief : LEDS
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a specialized form of semiconductor that when switched on releases photons (light). LEDs were used in early digital watches, and are getting more and more popular even though their use in electronic equipment is fading away. LEDs are used as replacements for the much less-efficient tungsten light bulbs. I replaced all of my tungsten Xmas lights many years ago and saved a lot on my electricity bill.
70 Loch ___ : NESS
Loch Ness is one of the two most famous lakes in Scotland. Loch Ness is famous for its “monster”, and Loch Lomond is famous for the lovely song “The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond”. Oh, ye’ll tak’ the high road, and I’ll tak’ the low road …
Down
1 Tres ___ cake : LECHES
A tres leches cake is a type of sponge cake that has been soaked in three kinds of milk, in heavy cream, condensed milk and evaporated milk.
2 Unmitigated : ARRANT
“Arrant” means “out-and-out, complete”, and is a variant of “errant”.
3 Lizard with a crest : IGUANA
An iguana is a lizard, and as such is cold-blooded. There are times when pet iguanas need heat from an IR lamp to maintain body temperature.
4 Jackie Robinson, for one : DODGER
The great Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play in baseball’s Major League. When Robinson made his first MLB appearance, for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he did so in front of over 26,000 spectators. Well over half the crowd that day were African-Americans, there to witness the event. Major League Baseball universally retired Robinson’s number 42 in 1997. However, on the annual Jackie Robinson Day, all MLB players on all teams wear #42 in his honor.
8 “The Pirates of ___” (Gilbert and Sullivan operetta) : PENZANCE
“The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty” is an operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan. “Pirates” is a comic piece with the most famous song being the “Major-General’s Song”:
I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I’ve information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical,
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;
9 Motorcycle, in slang : HOG
The Harley-Davidson motorcycle company was founded in the very early 1900s by two childhood friends, William Harley and Arthur Davidson, . Their first design was in effect an engine hooked up to a pedal bicycle, but the 116 cc cylinder capacity simply couldn’t generate enough power to get up the hills of their native city of Milwaukee. The pair came up with a redesigned model that had a cylinder capacity of 405 cc, which the partners built in a shed at the back of Davidson’s house. In 1906, the partners built their first factory, located where the company’s headquarters is to this day, on Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Famously, Harley motorcycles are nicknamed “hogs”.
10 Olympic skater Slutskaya : IRINA
Irina Slutskaya is a retired Russian figure skater. Slutskaya won the World Figure Skating Championships twice, in 2002 and 2005.
11 High-maintenance headliner : DIVA
The term “diva” comes to us from Latin via Italian. It is the feminine form of “divus” meaning “divine one”. The word is used in Italy to mean “goddess” or “fine lady”, and especially is applied to the prima donna in an opera. We often use the term to describe a singer with a big ego.
13 Double ___ (variety of pun) : ENTENDRE
“Double entendre” is a French term describing something said that can be understood in two different ways. The literal translation is “double” (double) “entendre” (to mean).
22 Wyatt and Virgil of the Wild West : EARPS
The famous Earp brothers of the Wild West were Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan. All three brothers participated in what has to be the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Strangely enough, the fight didn’t happen at the O.K. Corral, but took place six doors down the street in a vacant lot next to a photography studio.
29 Kind of jet : LEAR
Learjet is a company making business jets that was founded in 1960 by William Powell Lear. The original Learjet was a modified Swiss ground-attack fighter aircraft.
31 Sports star inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2021 : MIA HAMM
Mia Hamm is a retired American soccer player. She played as a forward on the US national team that won the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991. Hamm scored 158 international goals, which was more than any other player in the world, male or female, until the record was broken in 2013. Amazingly, Hamm was born with a clubfoot, and so had to wear corrective shoes when she was growing up.
The National Women’s Hall of Fame is located in Seneca Falls, New York, which was home to the nation’s first women’s rights convention, in 1848. The Hall was established in 1969, when it was hosted by Eisenhower College, which is also in Seneca Falls. The current facility opened for visitors in 1979. I was lucky enough to spend a very uplifting afternoon there several years ago ….
32 Third word in many limericks : WAS
No one knows for sure how the limerick got its name, although there does seem to be agreement the name does indeed come from the city or county of Limerick in Ireland. Try this one for size:
There was a young lady named Bright
who traveled much faster than light.
She set out one day
in a relative way,
and came back the previous night.
34 Very muscular, in slang : SWOLE
“Swole” is an informal term meaning “very muscular”. Yeah, I hear that word all the time …
37 Wiener schnitzel meat : VEAL
Schnitzel is an Austrian dish made from slices of meat that have been tenderized and thinned with a wooden mallet, and then coated in breadcrumbs and fried. The variant known as Wiener Schnitzel (i.e. Viennese schnitzel) is usually made from veal, although now that veal has fallen into disfavor due to concerns about animal rights, it is often made from pork.
39 Subject of HBO’s 2013 biopic “Behind the Candelabra” : LIBERACE
The flamboyant pianist’s full name was Wladziu Valentino Liberace, and his nickname was “Mr. Showmanship”. Liberace was born in a suburb of Milwaukee into a Polish-Italian family. There used to be a Liberace Museum in Las Vegas, but sadly it closed in 2010 after 31 years in operation.
“Behind the Candelabra” is a 2013 film that covers the last ten years of the life of Liberace. Michael Douglas plays the celebrated pianist and Matt Damon plays Liberace’s lover Scott Thorson. The film is based on a 1988 memoir written by Thorson called “Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace”.
40 Anthem lyricist with a musical name : KEY
The lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner” were written first as a poem by Francis Scott Key. Key’s inspiration was the bombardment by the British of the American forces at Fort McHenry that he witnessed during the Battle of Baltimore in September 1814. The words were then set to the tune of a popular British drinking song penned by John Stafford Smith called “The Anacreontic Song”, with the Anacreontic Society being a men’s club in London.
41 Off-base? : GONE AWOL
MPs (military police officers) often track down personnel who go AWOL (absent without leave).
50 Salt Lake City resident : UTAHAN
Salt Lake City (SLC) was founded by Brigham Young, in 1847. The city takes its name from the Great Salt Lake on which it sits, and indeed was known as “Great Salt Lake City” up until 1868.
51 Rookie : NOVICE
The term “rookie”, used for a raw recruit, first appeared in Rudyard Kipling’s collection of songs and poems called the “Barrack-Room Ballads”, which was originally published in 1892.
52 Cutlery : KNIVES
We mainly use the word “cutlery” these days to describe the implements used for eating food, i.e. knives, forks and spoons. In earlier times, the term “cutlery” referred more specifically to “cutting” tools.
53 Passover repasts : SEDERS
The Passover Seder is a ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish Passover holiday celebrating the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
56 Sailor’s speed : KNOTS
A knot (kt.) is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour. Traditionally a vessel’s speed was determined by using a “chip log”. A chip log is made up of a wooden board attached to a line wrapped around a reel. The line (called a “log-line”) had knots tied in it at uniform spacings. To determine the vessel’s speed the board was thrown overboard and the line allowed to unroll. The speed was then the “number of knots” paid out in a fixed time interval.
58 ___ Lady (nickname for Margaret Thatcher or the Eiffel Tower) : IRON
Margaret Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the UK from 1979 to 1990, making her the longest serving leader of the country in the 20th century, and the first woman to hold the office. Thatcher’s nickname in the press was the “Iron Lady”, a moniker bestowed on her by a Soviet journalist. The “Iron Lady” was born Margaret Hilda Roberts, the daughter of a grocer. She studied chemistry at Oxford University and worked for a while as a research chemist.
The “Exposition Universelle” (World’s Fair) of 1889 was held in Paris, France. The 1900 fair is remembered for the magnificent entrance arch that was constructed for visitors. That entrance arch was to remain standing for only nine years, but the city decided to keep it and you can visit it today. Today we call that entrance arch the Eiffel Tower. The tower is sometimes referred to in French “La Dame de Fer”, meaning “the Iron Lady”.
60 Camelot lady : ENID
Camelot is featured in Arthurian legend. It was King Arthur’s castle and his court.
61 Sri Lankan specialty : TEA
The island nation of Sri Lanka lies off the southeast coast of India. The name “Sri Lanka” translates from Sanskrit into English as “venerable island”. Before 1970, Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon, a name given to the country during British rule.
62 The moon’s ___ of Tranquillity : SEA
Hmm … it seems that there are two spellings: “Tranquillity” and “Tranquility “. I did not know that …
The Moon’s Mare Tranquillitatis (Latin for “Sea of Tranquility”) was named in 1651 by astronomers Francesco Grimaldi and Giovanni Battista Riccioli. Famously, the first manned landing on the Moon was in the Sea of Tranquility, when the Apollo 11 Lunar Module named Eagle touched down there in 1969. However, the first man-made vehicle to reach the Sea of Tranquility arrived four years earlier. The Ranger 8 spacecraft was deliberately crashed there in 1965, sending thousands of photographs back to Earth in the last 23 minutes of its mission.
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Like plans and eggs : LAID
5 High-five, e.g. : SLAP
9 With 68-Across, ulterior motive … or what 21-, 37- and 59-Across each has? : HIDDEN …
15 Start of a conclusion : ERGO …
16 Rose or Rozelle of sports : PETE
17 Get situated : ORIENT
18 “Darn!” : CRUD!
19 Bring in : EARN
20 Bestows, in the Bible : GIVETH
21 New York City-born ice cream brand with a Danish-sounding name : HAAGEN-DAZS
24 A scarf might cover it : NAPE
25 Group of nine : ENNEAD
26 Frank who directed “It’s a Wonderful Life” : CAPRA
28 Long-running sketch show, in brief : SNL
30 Fab Four drummer : STARR
31 The Wizard of ___ Park (Thomas Edison) : MENLO
32 Word before angle or awake : WIDE …
33 Next-to-last Greek letter : PSI
35 “The Bourne Identity” org. : CIA
36 Home to the Taj Mahal : AGRA
37 1970s auto that shares part of its name with one of Santa’s reindeer : VOLKSWAGEN DASHER
43 The “E” in the mnemonic HOMES : ERIE
44 “Well, well, well!” : OHO!
45 Airport screening grp. : TSA
46 Wambach in the National Soccer Hall of Fame : ABBY
47 Bowling alley features : LANES
49 Slabs : HUNKS
54 Word often confused with “lay” : LIE
55 Macho sorts : HE-MEN
56 Perfume ingredient : KETONE
57 ZZ Top, for one : TRIO
59 Name for the star on Israel’s flag : MAGEN DAVID
61 Sparkly headpieces : TIARAS
63 Certain inebriate : WINO
64 Apian abode : HIVE
65 “Do it again!” : ENCORE!
66 “Will do!” : ON IT!
67 Dell competitor : ACER
68 See 9-Across : … AGENDA
69 Certain bulbs, in brief : LEDS
70 Loch ___ : NESS
Down
1 Tres ___ cake : LECHES
2 Unmitigated : ARRANT
3 Lizard with a crest : IGUANA
4 Jackie Robinson, for one : DODGER
5 Go on a shopping spree : SPEND
6 Headliner : LEAD
7 The faintest amount : A TRACE
8 “The Pirates of ___” (Gilbert and Sullivan operetta) : PENZANCE
9 Motorcycle, in slang : HOG
10 Olympic skater Slutskaya : IRINA
11 High-maintenance headliner : DIVA
12 Dramatic exhalation : DEEP SIGH
13 Double ___ (variety of pun) : ENTENDRE
14 Math degree? : NTH
22 Wyatt and Virgil of the Wild West : EARPS
23 First-aid equipment : SPLINTS
27 Lines on a map : ROADS
29 Kind of jet : LEAR
31 Sports star inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2021 : MIA HAMM
32 Third word in many limericks : WAS
34 Very muscular, in slang : SWOLE
37 Wiener schnitzel meat : VEAL
38 Circling, as a satellite : ORBITING
39 Subject of HBO’s 2013 biopic “Behind the Candelabra” : LIBERACE
40 Anthem lyricist with a musical name : KEY
41 Off-base? : GONE AWOL
42 Sounded satisfied, say : AAHED
48 Something that can roar or purr : ENGINE
50 Salt Lake City resident : UTAHAN
51 Rookie : NOVICE
52 Cutlery : KNIVES
53 Passover repasts : SEDERS
55 Amass a mass : HOARD
56 Sailor’s speed : KNOTS
58 ___ Lady (nickname for Margaret Thatcher or the Eiffel Tower) : IRON
60 Camelot lady : ENID
61 Sri Lankan specialty : TEA
62 The moon’s ___ of Tranquillity : SEA
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