Constructed by: Chuck Deodene
Edited by: Rich Norris
Quicklink to a complete list of today’s clues and answers
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Theme: Drive
Our themed clues today all reference the word DRIVE:
- 36D…Theme of this puzzle..DRIVE
- 17A…Place to take a 36-Down..EXPRESSWAY
- 25A…Place to run a 36-Down..CATTLE RANCH
- 37A…Place to install a 36-Down..DESKTOP COMPUTER
- 47A…Place to hold a 36-Down..BLOODMOBILE
- 57A…Place to hit a 36-Down..GOLF COURSE
Bill’s time: 7m 49s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
6…Work with a number..OPUS
The Latin for “work” is “opus”, with the plural being “opera”.
15…Probe-launching org…NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
20…Euripides drama..MEDEA
“Medea” is a tragedy penned by Ancient Greek playwright Euripides. Dealing with the myth of Jason and Medea, it was not received well at its debut in 431 BC. It was premiered at that year’s Dionysia festival in Athens, competing against plays by Euphorion and Sophocles. Euphorion’s play won the competition and Euripides’ “Medea” came in last.
Euripides was a celebrated playwright of Ancient Greece, renowned for his tragedies. Euripides was one of the three great writers of tragedy of classical Athens, alongside Aeschylus and Sophocles.
22…Venomous reptile..ASP
The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa.
31…__ Throne: “Game of Thrones” monarchy..IRON
HBO’s “Game of Thrones” is a fantasy television drama that is adapted from a series of novels by George R. R. Martin called “A Song of Ice and Fire”. “Game of Thrones” is actually filmed in and around Belfast, Northern Ireland.
42…Members of an exclusive league..IVIES
The term “Ivy League” originally defined an athletic conference, but now it is used to describe a group of schools of higher education that are associated with both a long tradition and academic excellence. The eight Ivy League Schools are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.
43…Pasta choice..ZITI
Cylindrical pasta is known in general as “penne”, and there are many variants. For example, ziti is a particularly large and long tube with square-cut ends. “Penne” is the plural of “penna”, the Italian for “feather, quill”.
52…PC file extension..EXE
In the Windows Operating System, a file with the extension .exe is an “executable” file.
54…Lead-in to a drink?..I NEED …
Don’t tempt me …
62…”Totally!”..AMEN!
The word “amen” is translated as “so be it”. “Amen” is said to be of Hebrew origin, but it is likely to be also influenced by Aramaic and Arabic.
65…Not..NARY
The adjective “nary” means “not one”, as in “nary a soul”.
67…Neighborhood posting..FLYER
“Fliers” are notices that are circulated. The original fliers (also “flyers”) were police bulletins that were “scatter-broadcast”.
Down
1…”__ Hate Me”: Spike Lee film..SHE
Film director Spike Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia but has very much made New York City his home and place of work. Most of Lee’s films are set in New York City, including his first feature film, “She’s Gotta Have It”. That film was shot over two weeks, with a budget of $175,000. “She’s Gotta Have It” grossed over $7 million at the US box office.
2…Prom duds..TUX
The style of men’s evening dress called a “tuxedo” was apparently first worn to a country club event in 1886 in New York. The use of a dark dinner jacket without tails became fashionable at the club with the members, and the tradition spread from there. The country club was located in Tuxedo Park, New York, giving the style of dress its name.
“Duds” is an informal word for clothing, coming from the word “dudde” that was used around 1300 as the name for a cloak.
5…Country bordering three seas..GREECE
The nation of Greece is located at the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula. The mainland of Greece is bordered by three seas: the Aegean to the east, the Ionian to the west, and the Mediterranean to the south.
8…”Royal Pains” network..USA
“Royal Pains” is a medical drama that has aired on the USA network since 2009. The storyline revolves around a “concierge doctor” named Hank Lawson, a doctor who provides medical support to residents of a resort community in the Hamptons.
12…With 45-Across, “The Bicentennial Man” author..ISAAC
45…See 12-Down..ASIMOV
Isaac Asimov was a wonderful science fiction writer, and a professor of biochemistry. He was a favorite author as I was growing up and I must admit that some hero worship on my part led me to study and work as a biochemist for a short while early in my career. My favorite of his works is the collection of short stories called “I, Robot”. Asimov wrote three autobiographies, the last of which was called “I, Asimov”, which was published in 1994, two years after his death.
“The Bicentennial Man” is a 1976 novelette by science fiction author Isaac Asimov, one of his “Robot” series of stories. The novelette provided the basis for the 1999 film “Bicentennial Man”, starring Robin Williams as the title character, a robot named “Andrew”.
18…Deadwood’s state: Abbr…SDAK
The South Dakota city of Deadwood was named for the numerous dead trees found in the area when it was settled illegally by gold miners in the 1870s. The land was owned by the Lakota people, as specified in the Treaty of Laramie signed by the US government in 1868.
26…Locking blocks..LEGOS
Lego is manufactured by Lego Group, a privately held company headquartered in Billund, Denmark. The company was founded by a carpenter called Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1934 and the now-famous plastic interlocking blocks were introduced in 1949. The blocks were originally sold under the name “Automatic Binding Bricks” but I think “Lego” is easier to remember! The name “Lego” comes from the Danish term “leg godt” meaning “play well”.
29…Letterpress need..INK
Letterpress is the original printing press technique, invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-1400s. The basis of such printing is the use of type (letters) in relief, raised from some surface so that the letters alone make contact with the paper being printed.
32…VP after Hubert..SPIRO
Spiro Agnew served as Vice-President under Richard Nixon, before becoming the only VP in American history to resign because of criminal charges (there was a bribery scandal). Agnew was also the first Greek-American to serve as US Vice President as he was the son of a Greek immigrant who had shortened the family name from Anagnostopoulos.
Hubert Humphrey was the running mate of President Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential campaign. Humphrey was sworn in as Vice President in 1965, becoming the 38th person to hold the office. Humphrey was the Democratic candidate for president in the 1968 election, but lost to Richard Nixon.
34…Fairy-tale intro words..A TIME
The stock phrase “Once upon a time” has been used in various forms as the start of a narrative at least since 1380. The stock phrase at the end of stories such as folktales is often “and they all lived happily ever after”. The earlier version of this ending was “happily until their deaths”.
38…El Niño feature..TILDE
A diacritic mark is added to a letter to indicate that it has a special phonetic sound. Examples of diacritic marks are the tilde above the n in Spanish words like “jalapeño” and “niño “, and the cedilla under the c in French words like “façade”.
When the surface temperature of much of the Pacific Ocean rises more that half a degree centigrade, then there is said to be an El Niño episode. That small temperature change in the Pacific has been associated with climatic changes that can stretch right across the globe. El Niño is Spanish for “the boy” and is a reference to the Christ child. The phenomenon was given this particular Spanish name because the warming is usually noticed near South America and around Christmas-time.
39…Female gamete..OVUM
A gamete is a reproductive cell that has half the full complement of genes needed to make a normal cell. In sexual reproduction, it takes two gametes, one from each parent, to fuse into one cell which then develops into a new organism. The female gamete is the ovum, and the male the sperm.
40…Action film weapon..UZI
The first Uzi submachine gun was designed in the late 1940s by Major Uziel “Uzi” Gal of the Israel Defense Forces, who gave his name to the gun.
44…Mendel’s science..BOTANY
Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk, and a scientist who achieved fame after his passing when his work in the field of genetics was rediscovered. The conclusions he drew from his studies of garden peas led to him earning the moniker “father of modern genetics”.
45…Novelist Waugh..ALEC
Alec Waugh was the older brother of the more famous Evelyn Waugh. Both were successful novelists (Evelyn of “Brideshead Revisited” fame), but what I like about Alec is that he supposedly invented the cocktail party. He invited his friends around “for tea” in the twenties, and served them all rum swizzles instead!
48…Andean transport..LLAMA
The wool from a llama is much softer than that from a sheep, and it is also free from lanolin.
49…Edmonton NHL player..OILER
The National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers are so called because they are located in Alberta, Canada … oil country.
50…Hull region..BILGE
The bilge is lowest internal part of a ship. The water that collects in there is called bilge water. The term “bilge” is also used as slang for nonsense talk.
58…Shelley work..ODE
Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English Romantic poet. Shelley had strong views on vegetarianism. He was dedicated to the cause of all sentient beings, believing that the slaughter of animals by humans for the use of food was a barbaric practice. He wrote a famous essay on the subject called “A Vindication of Natural Diet” in 1813.
59…Scheider of “Jaws”..ROY
Hollywood actor Roy Scheider really made it big when he landed the role of Police Chief Martin C. Brody in the 1975 blockbuster “Jaws”. The Brody character uttered one of the most iconic lines in the history of movies in “Jaws”, namely “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”. That was a line improvised by Scheider.
“Jaws” is a thrilling 1975 movie directed by Steven Spielberg that is based on a novel of the same name by Peter Benchley. The film has a powerful cast, led by Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw. “Jaws” was perhaps the first “summer blockbuster” with the highest box office take in history, a record that stood until “Star Wars” was released two years later.
Complete List of Clues and Answers
Across
1…Deceptive operation..STING
6…Work with a number..OPUS
10…Deceptive distortion..SPIN
14…Indulge..HUMOR
15…Probe-launching org…NASA
16…Words often after a number.. … OR SO
17…Place to take a 36-Down..EXPRESSWAY
19…Attire..WEAR
20…Euripides drama..MEDEA
21…Cook books, say..CHEAT
22…Venomous reptile..ASP
25…Place to run a 36-Down..CATTLE RANCH
28…Horror film reaction..SHRIEK
30…Way out..EXIT
31…__ Throne: “Game of Thrones” monarchy..IRON
32…They may span decades..SAGAS
34…Tack on..ADD
37…Place to install a 36-Down..DESKTOP COMPUTER
41…Pasture parent..EWE
42…Members of an exclusive league..IVIES
43…Pasta choice..ZITI
44…Lack of focus..BLUR
45…See 12-Down..ASIMOV
47…Place to hold a 36-Down..BLOODMOBILE
52…PC file extension..EXE
53…One percent, so to speak..ELITE
54…Lead-in to a drink?..I NEED …
56…Fund-raiser, perhaps..GALA
57…Place to hit a 36-Down..GOLF COURSE
62…”Totally!”..AMEN!
63…Brink..EDGE
64…Mill output..FLOUR
65…Not..NARY
66…Wolfish look..LEER
67…Neighborhood posting..FLYER
Down
1…”__ Hate Me”: Spike Lee film..SHE
2…Prom duds..TUX
3…Devil..IMP
4…Social convention..NORM
5…Country bordering three seas..GREECE
6…Kickoff..ONSET
7…Grab for clumsily..PAW AT
8…”Royal Pains” network..USA
9…Declare..SAY
10…”Well, whoop-de-do”..SO WHAT
11…Get duded up..PREEN
12…With 45-Across, “The Bicentennial Man” author..ISAAC
13…Up __..NORTH
18…Deadwood’s state: Abbr…SDAK
21…Like new bills..CRISP
22…Out of the way..ASIDE
23…Nag..SHREW
24…Essay makeup..PROSE
26…Locking blocks..LEGOS
27…End-of-term ordeal..EXAM
29…Letterpress need..INK
32…VP after Hubert..SPIRO
33…Expert..ACE
34…Fairy-tale intro words..A TIME
35…Do a juice cleanse, say..DETOX
36…Theme of this puzzle..DRIVE
38…El Niño feature..TILDE
39…Female gamete..OVUM
40…Action film weapon..UZI
44…Mendel’s science..BOTANY
45…Novelist Waugh..ALEC
46…Wave to from the dock..SEE OFF
47…Initiated..BEGAN
48…Andean transport..LLAMA
49…Edmonton NHL player..OILER
50…Hull region..BILGE
51…Deduce..INFER
55…Sigh-inducing..DULL
57…Holder of locks..GEL
58…Shelley work..ODE
59…Scheider of “Jaws”..ROY
60…Seek payback, maybe..SUE
61…Fumble, e.g…ERR
It isn’t “Legos”. The plural of Lego is Lego.
Not in crossword land, I guess
@Jeff (re: anagram)
Even if I pick up on something (too easy reading blogs like this one period), I always try to do things so I see them for myself. Actually, I would have picked up on it pretty quickly, as there were no gimmes and a couple of the clues were logically screwed up enough to point towards the anagram trick. (Good that I’m beginning to think now that Thursday means “you need to look for a trick” when I pick up a NYT) My Thurs & on NYT skill still isn’t too good (and Thurs/Sat WSJ but that’s another matter), so I take way too long on them anyway. But as of now, I have the anagram grid about half-way done, unaided.
9:39, no errors, iPad. Pretty easy for a Friday.
NE corner was the last to fall. For a Friday this seemed somewhat easier than usual. Hope you all have a great day. Hope Saturday goes as smoothly as today did…
Once I got the theme, this was a pretty easy puzzle. I had some issues, but most of them were self-induced. I actually put “a lapTOPCOMPUTER” before DESK…. A lot of stirkeovers in the midwest needless to say.
Glenn – you, Dave and Bill are certainly giving me a dose of humility over that puzzle. However, I’m just starting the NYT grids and am getting better and better at dealing with the Thursday tricks when they arise. Before it felt like I was playing a game I did’t know the rules to…
Andrew – I think you’re right that legos is technically incorrect. LEGO is a brand name so it’s an adjective. LEGO bricks is actually the plural. Technically “band-aids” is incorrect as well. Band-aid adhesive strips would be correct grammatically. Same thing with kleenex tissue, but does anyone say kleenexes?
I think the defense of it is the gray area when a brand name becomes the generic term (like those instances) I think common usage would dictate that legos is probably ok. Unfortunately, things are only incorrect until too many people are saying it, then the language evolves and stuff like this becomes correct.
Carrie – Buying much of their pitching staff, stealing 2 of the best players from your rivals by outbidding them, and a $171 million payroll is awfully close to buying a title ala the Yankees, Red Sox etc…Only the Yankees, Dodgers and Red Sox have higher payrolls. But I will admit they have some home grown talent on that team.
I have another week or so to disparage the Cubs enough so you aren’t happy when they win. Halley’s comet has been back here twice and is just about halfway through coming back a third time since the Cubs last won the World Series. Boy will he be surprised…
Best –
(GULP) Dave, Tony Jeff…You thought this was EASY?
I almost packed it in twice.
@Bill 7:49 ?????
EXPRESSWAY was the first.
Not much help.
Finally got DRIVE, but BLOOD*****E took forever, and of course, I was thinking of a baseball line drive until G*LF showed up.
Yikes, this took me a loong time.
Finished without errors in a leisurely hour or so. Had a little trouble with the NE before finally switching garb for WEAR and then the rest fell into place.
Onto Saturday.
DANG! I’m with you, Pookie: I thought this one was hard, tho certain sections seemed weirdly easy. Like Tony, the NE was last to fall, but in my case I pulled thru only by cheating. Both “up___” and “get duded up” were terrible clues, I thought.
So Glenn et al, meant to ask yesterday: am I to understand that now EVERY NYT Thursday puzzle has ALL anagrams as clues??! Radical! Must try!
Hey Jeff, you make some good points… I’ll concede that…but I don’t think you can dampen my enthusiasm! Love watching the hustle that whole team displays, especially that infield. Gotta love Baez and Rizzo!!
Really hope I fare better on Saturday’s puzzle, and I likely will, if I strategize. Saturday means starting early and returning to The Grid every couple of hours.
Sweet dreams~~™? (wish I could go horseback riding this weekend….?)