1105-24 NY Times Crossword 5 Nov 24, Tuesday

Bill’s time: 6m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Rae of “Barbie” : ISSA

In the 2023 hit movie “Barbie”, actress Issa Rae plays President Barbie, the ruler of Barbieland.

19 Pulitzer-winning author James : AGEE

James Agee was a noted American film critic and screenwriter. Agee wrote an autobiographical novel “A Death in the Family” that won him his Pulitzer in 1958, albeit posthumously. He was also one of the screenwriters for the 1951 classic movie “The African Queen”.

22 Hindu aphorisms : SUTRAS

The word “sutra” is used in Hinduism for a learned text, one usually meant to be studied by students.

An aphorism is a short and pithy statement that embodies a general truth or insightful observation. Some great examples are:

• Life is a journey, not a destination (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
• The average person thinks he isn’t (Larry Lorenzoni)
• To err is human, to forgive divine (Alexander Pope)
• Reality is an illusion, albeit a very persistent one (Albert Einstein)
• Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely (Lord Acton)

26 Franklin of Motown : ARETHA

Aretha Franklin was a legendary American singer, songwriter, and pianist known as the “Queen of Soul”. She had a long string of hit songs including “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “Think,” and “I Say a Little Prayer”. In 1987, Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

29 Creative spark, for short : INSPO

The informal term “inspo” is used to describe something inspirational or motivational.

33 Cotton gin inventor Whitney : ELI

The term “cotton gin” is a contraction of “cotton eng-ine”. The gin is a machine that mechanically separates cotton fibers from the cotton seed. The modern version of the cotton gin was invented by Eli Whitney in 1793.

34 What was founded as the Collegiate School in Killingworth, Connecticut : YALE

Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded in 1701, making it the third-oldest university in the US. Originally called the Collegiate School, it was renamed to Yale University in honor of retired merchant Elihu Yale, who made generous contributions to the institution. Yale University’s nickname is “Old Eli”, in a nod to the benefactor.

36 Popular sushi options depicted four times in this puzzle : CALIFORNIA ROLLS

A California roll is a kind of sushi roll that is made inside-out, with the seaweed inside and the rice on the outside. A California roll often includes rice, seaweed, cucumber and avocado. The dish originated in Los Angeles where a chef at the Tokyo Kaikan restaurant substituted avocado for fatty tuna (“toro”) in a traditional sushi recipe. The chef also put the seaweed on the inside, as his American customers preferred not to look directly at seaweed while they were eating it!

40 Genre for BTS : K-POP

BTS is a boy band from South Korea with seven members. The initialism “BTS” stands for the phrase “Bangtan Sonyeondan”, which translates literally as “Bulletproof Boy Scouts”. It is the best-selling musical act in the history of South Korea.

41 Like Triple Word Score squares in Scrabble : RED

The game of Scrabble has been around since 1938, the invention of an architect named Alfred Mosher Butts. Butts determined how many tiles of each letter, and the point value of each tile, by analyzing letter distributions in publications like “The New York Times”.

43 Milky Way shape : SPIRAL

According to Greek mythology, The Milky Way is the breast milk of the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus. The term “Milky Way” is a translation of the Latin “via lactea”, used by the Romans. The Romans used the Latin name because the older Greek term for the same phenomenon was “galaxias kyklos” meaning “milky circle”.

45 Nail polish brand : OPI

Opi (originally “Odontorium Products Inc.”) is a manufacturer of nail polish based in North Hollywood, California. One of Opi’s marketing coups was the introduction of a line of Legally Blonde 2 polishes, which featured in the film.

47 ___ contendere : NOLO

“Nolo contendere” (sometimes shortened to “nolo”) is a legal term that translates from Latin as “I do not wish to contend”. It’s the plea of no contest, and is an alternative to guilty and not guilty, meaning that one doesn’t admit guilt but nor does one dispute the charge.

48 Prez #41 : BUSH, SR

President George H. W. Bush served in the US Navy during WWII. Future President Bush postponed his entry into college after the attack on Pearl Harbor and enlisted in the navy instead. When he earned his wings, he was the youngest aviator in the US Navy at that time.

54 Fallopian tube traveler : EGG

The Fallopian tubes stretch from the ovaries of female mammals to the uterus. They are named for the 16th-century Italian anatomist Gabriello Fallopio, who was the first to describe them.

55 Orangutans, e.g. : APES

Orangutans (also “orangs”) are arboreal creatures, the largest arboreal animals known to man. They are native to Indonesia and Malaysia, and live in rainforests. Like most species in rainforests these days, orangutans are endangered, with only two species surviving. The word “orangutan” is Malay, meaning “man of the forest”.

57 Oscar nominee for “Network” : NED BEATTY

Actor Ned Beatty is possibly best remembered for the rather disturbing “squeal like a pig” scene in the movie “Deliverance”. Beatty also earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the 1976 movie “Network”.

59 Pose performed on a mat : ASANA

“Asana” is a Sanskrit word that translates literally as “sitting down”. The asanas are the poses that a practitioner of yoga assumes. The most famous is the lotus position, the cross-legged pose called “padmasana”.

61 Singer Chappell ___ : ROAN

“Chappell Roan” is the stage name of singer/songwriter Kayleigh Amstutz. Roan got her start in the music industry after she uploaded an original song titled “Die Young” to YouTube, when she was just 17 years old. She signed on with Atlantic Records soon after.

Down

1 Makes out, to a Brit : SNOGS

“Snogging” is British slang of unknown origin that dates back to the end of WWII. The term is used for “kissing and cuddling”, what we call “making out” over here in the US.

2 “Farewell!” : ADIEU!

“Adieu” is French for “goodbye, farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God” The plural of “adieu” is “adieux”.

7 City with the Mississippi River-spanning Eads Bridge: Abbr. : STL

James Eads was an American Civil Engineer and inventor. He designed and built the first road and rail bridge to cross the Mississippi River in St. Louis, a bridge which went into service in 1874 and is still used to this day. Aptly enough, it is known as the Eads Bridge.

8 Rosary prayer : AVE MARIA

“Ave Maria” (“Hail Mary” in English) is the prayer at the core of the Roman Catholic Rosary, which itself is a set of prayers asking for the assistance of the Virgin Mary. Much of the text of the “”Hail Mary”” comes from the Gospel of Luke. The words in Latin are:

AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

The prayer has been adapted as a hymn. The two most famous musical versions of “Ave Maria” are by Charles Gounod (based on a piece by Bach) and by Franz Schubert.”

The rosary is a set of prayer beads used in the Roman Catholic tradition. The name “rosary” comes from the Latin “rosarium”, the word for a “rose garden” or a “garland of roses”. The term is used figuratively, in the sense of a “garden of prayers”.

10 Number of carolers? : NOEL

“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, and ultimately comes from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). “Noel” has come to be used as an alternative for “Christmas carol”.

11 Four in a quart : CUPS

Two pints make up a “quart”, which is a “quarter” of a gallon, hence the name.

23 Part of the mouth known as the palate : ROOF

The roof of the mouth is known as the palate. The anterior part of the palate is very bony, and is called the hard palate. The posterior part is very fleshy and is called the soft palate. The soft palate is muscular and moves to close off the nasal passages while swallowing. We often use the term “palate” figuratively, to describe the sense of taste.

24 Neighbor of Niger and Senegal : MALI

The Republic of Mali is a landlocked country in western Africa located south of Algeria. Formerly known as French Sudan, the nation’s most famous city is Timbuktu. Mali is the third-largest producer of gold on the continent, after South Africa and Ghana.

The Republic of Niger is a landlocked country in Western Africa that gets its name from the Niger River. 80% of the country lies within the bounds of the Sahara Desert.

The Republic of Senegal is a country on the far western coast of Africa. For many years Senegal was a French colony, gaining independence in 1960. The capital of Senegal is Dakar. Dakar is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, thus making it the westernmost capital on the African mainland.

35 Part of a dollar sign : ESS

The dollar sign ($) was first used for the Spanish-American peso, in the late 18th century. The peso was also called the “Spanish dollar” (and “piece of eight”). The Spanish dollar was to become a model for the US dollar that was adopted in 1785, along with the dollar sign.

44 Ludwig Mies van der ___ (noted midcentury architect) : ROHE

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a German architect who was routinely referred to simply as “Mies”. I am a philistine, I know, but Mies’ buildings look very plain to me. However, he did come up with two far-from-plain sayings, namely “less is more” and “God is in the details”.

46 Wrinkle-faced pooch : PUG

The pug is a dog breed of Chinese origin. Our last family pet was a boxer/pug cross, and was a good-looking mutt!

50 Fashion designer Kate : SPADE

Kate Spade fashion design house was founded as a supplier of handbags in 1993. The brand is named for founder Kate Brosnahan Spade. The equivalent male brand is called Jack Spade.

58 Croc’s tip : TOE

Crocs are foam clogs that were originally designed as shoes to be worn at health spas. I bought a pair of crocs, and then my kids said they would stop talking to me …