Month: November 2025

Bill’s time: 13m 26s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11A Branded T-shirts, pens, phone chargers, etc. : SWAG

Swag is loot, stolen property, and a term that started out as criminal slang in England in the 1830s. “Swag” is also the name given to the promotional freebies available at some events. That said, there’s an urban myth that the promotional version of “swag” is an acronym standing for “stuff we all get”.

15A Many a role for Keanu Reeves or Bruce Willis : ACTION HERO

Keanu Reeves is a Canadian actor whose most celebrated roles were a metalhead in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989), a cop in “Speed” (1994) and the protagonist Neo in “The Matrix” series of films. Although Reeves is a Canadian national, he was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Reeves has some Hawaiian descent, and the name “Keanu” is Hawaiian for “the coolness” or “cool breeze”.

Actor Bruce Willis started to hit the big time when he got a lead role in the comedy detective series “Moonlighting” in the late eighties. Willis was born in Germany, where his father was stationed while serving in the US Army. Willis’ mother was German.

17A Production company behind TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” named for its founder : SHONDALAND

Shonda Rhimes is the creator and head writer of the TV shows “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal”. She also serves as executive producer for the crime shows “How to Get Away with Murder” and “The Catch”. Rhimes also runs her own production company called Shondaland.

35A Kidney-related : RENAL

Something described as renal is related to the kidneys. “Ren” is the Latin word for “kidney”.

37A Chick of jazz : COREA

Chick Corea is an American jazz pianist. Corea is noted for his work in the area of jazz fusion, as well as for his promotion of Scientology.

38A Gem with a “black” variety : OPAL

97% of the world’s opals come from Australia, so it’s no surprise perhaps that the opal is the national gemstone of the country. The state of South Australia provides the bulk of the world’s production, i.e. about 80%. White, gray and green opals are the most common varieties found, and black opals the rarest.

44A Currency of Qatar : RIYALS

The Saudi riyal is the currency of Saudi Arabia, and the Qatari riyal is the currency of Qatar.

45A Sail on the front of a foremast : JIB

A jib is a triangular sail that is set at the bow of a sailboat.

49A Fantasy monster whose name is an anagram of another fantasy monster : ORC

Orcs are mythical humanoid creatures that appear in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien’s use of orcs, they have also been featured in other fantasy fiction as well as in fantasy video games.

The mythical roc is a huge bird of prey, one reputedly able to carry off and eat elephants. The roc was said to come from the Indian subcontinent. The supposed existence of the roc was promulgated by Marco Polo in the accounts that he published about his travels through Asia.

50A Westminster Abbey has one named after King Henry VII : CHAPEL

The actual name for the Gothic church we know as Westminster Abbey is the Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Westminster. The Abbey is a favored location for coronations and royal weddings and burials.

53A ___ platter : PUPU

In Hawaiian, “pupu” is a word originally meaning “snail”. Nowadays “pupu” denotes many different types of food that are usually served as hors d’oeuvres. A “pupu platter” is a selection of such foods served in a Hawaiian restaurant.

58A Source of umami in Japanese cuisine : MISO

Miso is the name of the seasoning that makes miso soup. Basic miso seasoning is made by fermenting rice, barley and soybeans with salt and a fungus to produce a paste. The paste can be added to stock to make miso soup, or perhaps to flavor tofu.

Umami is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, bitter and salty. “Umami” is a Japanese word used to describe “a pleasant savory taste”. It was proposed as a basic taste in 1908, but it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the scientific community finally accepted it as such.

Down

3D L.G.B.T.Q. vacation destination on Cape Cod, for short : P-TOWN

Provincetown is located at the very tip of Cape Cod. As a major vacation destination, Provincetown has a summer population of up to 60,000 people, dropping to under 3,000 off season. The land now called Provincetown was the original “Cape Cod” back in the early 1600s. It wasn’t until much later that the Cape Cod name was applied to the entire region.

4D Spam might fill them : TINS

Spam is a precooked meat product that is sold in cans. It was introduced by Hormel Foods in 1937. The main meat ingredients are pork shoulder meat and ham. The name “Spam” was chosen as the result of a competition at Hormel, with the winner earning himself a hundred dollars. According to the company, the derivation of the name “Spam” is a secret known by only a few former executives, but the speculation is that it stands for “spiced ham” or “shoulders of pork and ham”. Spam is particularly popular in Hawaii, so popular that it is sometimes referred to as “the Hawaiian steak”.

6D Ducks are seen on ice here : ANAHEIM

The Walt Disney Company founded the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim hockey team in 1993, with the franchise’s name being a nod to the 1992 Disney movie called “The Mighty Ducks”. The name was changed to the Anaheim Ducks when Disney sold the team before the 2006-2007 season.

7D Showy purple flower : PHLOX

Phlox is a genus of flowering plants found mainly in North America. A common name for the plant is Jacob’s Ladder.

8D Organic energy source : PEAT

When dead plant matter accumulates in marshy areas, it may not fully decay due to a lack of oxygen or acidic conditions. We are familiar with this in Ireland, because this decaying matter can form peat, and we have lots and lots of peat bogs around the country.

9D ___ Laszlo, cosmetics businessman : ERNO

Ernő László was a dermatologist from Hungary who became sought out by celebrities for treatment of both serious and cosmetic skin issues. He founded the Ernő László Institute in New York in 1939, which soon had an impressive list of clients that included the Duchess of Windsor, Greta Garbo, Grace Kelly, Ava Gardner, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

11D ___-Cat : SNO

The brand name “Sno-Cat” is owned by the Tucker company. All snowcats are tracked vehicles built to work in snow, and are famously used in expeditions to the polar regions. The modern Sno-Cat from Tucker differs from its competitors in that it has four independently-mounted tracks.

12D Brand associated with push-ups : WONDERBRA

The world’s first push-up bra was the Wonderbra. The Wonderbra became very popular in the 1990s, although the brand name has been around since 1935.

13D Form of literature coined by Sartre : ANTINOVEL

An antinovel is an experimental work of fiction that was popularized by French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre as an “anti-roman” (the French translation of the term). I’ve never read an antinovel, and it sounds like I would not appreciate the genre at all. It is characterized by a lack of plot, presentation of characters outside of chronological order, and experimental use of vocabulary.

21D Unexposed side : LEE

Alee is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing aweather. The sheltered side of an island, for example, might be referred to as the “lee” side.

24D Author Silverstein : SHEL

Author Shel Silverstein had a varied career and did a lot more than write books. He was a poet, composer, cartoonist and screenwriter among other things. One of his successful children’s books is “A Light in the Attic”, a collection of poems that was first published in 1981. Some parents have tried to get the book banned from libraries. The collection includes the poem “How Not to Have to Dry the Dishes”, which encourages disobedience and making a mess. Scandalous …

27D Plant whose nectar produces the mildly toxic “mad honey” : AZALEA

Azaleas are very toxic to most animals. If you go to Korea, you might come across “Tug Yonju”, which is azalea wine made from the plant’s blossoms. Azaleas are usually grown as shrubs, but are also seen as small trees, and often indoors. The name “azalea” comes from the Greek “azaleos” meaning “dry”, reflecting the plant’s ability to thrive in sandy soil.

30D Places to keep play things : PROP ROOMS

We use the word “props” for objects that are used by actors on stage during a play. The term is a shortening of the older term “properties”, which was used with the same meaning up through the 19th century.

33D ___ Day and the Knights, fictional R&B band in “Animal House” : OTIS

Otis Day & the Knights were a fictional band created for the 1978 movie “Animal House“. In the film, they perform fabulous versions of “Shout” and “Shama Lama Ding Dong”. The band’s performance was so well received that they transitioned from the world of make believe to reality.

37D Salad choice : COBB

Ty Cobb’s first cousin, Robert H. Cobb, owned the Brown Derby chain of restaurants. One of his regular customers was the famous Sid Grauman, who ran Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Late one night, Grauman asked for a snack, and Cobb came up with a chopped salad simply made from ingredients he happened to have in the refrigerator. Grauman liked it so much that he continued to request it, and the Cobb salad was born.

40D High point of 1950s car design? : TAILFIN

Tailfins started appearing on cars in the late forties, and became popular in the fifties. The first tailfins were introduced on the 1948 Cadillac by GM designer Harley Earl. Earl got his inspiration from WWII fighter aircraft.

42D Close of business? : LLC

A limited liability company (LLC) has a structure that limits the liability of the owner or owners. It is a hybrid structure in the sense that it can be taxed as would an individual or partnership, while also maintaining the liability protection afforded to a corporation.

45D Martial artist who appeared in three “Expendables” films : JET LI

“The Expendables” is an action movie released in 2010 that was co-written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, who also stars. The cast of the film includes an impressive array of action actors including Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis and even Arnold Schwarzenegger. Despite the cast, I found this movie to be pretty boring. That said, a sequel was released, and then another, so what do I know …?

57D Condition of Freud’s “Rat Man,” in brief : OCD

Apparently, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed mental disorder, making it about as prevalent as asthma.