Day: November 2, 2025

Bill’s time: 24m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

19A “Ben-Hur” or “Lawrence of Arabia” : EPIC DRAMA

The celebrated 1959 Charlton Heston movie “Ben-Hur” is a dramatization of a book published in 1880 by Lew Wallace titled “Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ”. The 1959 epic film won a record 11 Academy Awards, a feat that has been equaled since then but never beaten. The other winners of 11 Oscars are “Titanic” (1997) and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003).

“Lawrence of Arabia” is a 1962 movie that recounts the real life story of T. E. Lawrence, a British army officer who was famous for his role in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I. The title role in the film is played by Irish actor Peter O’Toole. The role of Sherif Ali ibn el Kharish is played by Omar Sharif.

34A ___ Jones, author of “How We Fight for Our Lives” : SAEED

Saeed Jones is an award-winning poet and writer. He was also the founding LGBT editor for BuzzFeed.

37A Pieces of art? : MOSAICS

In the Middle Ages, mosaics were often dedicated to the Muses. The term “mosaic” translates as “of the Muses”.

41A Winter Olympics event : BOBSLED

Bobsleds are so called because competitors in the sport originally would “bob” in and out of the sled in order to increase its speed.

44A Agreements where one party takes some heat? : ARMS DEALS

“Packing” and “packing heat” are underworld slang for “carrying a gun”.

48A They point toward Mecca while salah is performed : PRAYER MATS

Salah (also “salat”) are daily prayers performed by the faithful in the Islamic tradition. Collectively, the prayers form the second of the Five Pillars of Islam.

57A Paleolithic-era tools : STONE AXES

The Paleolithic Age is a period of human history lasting from about 2.6 million to about 10,000 years ago. The Paleolithic Age is noted as the time when humans started using stone tools. The word “Paleolithic” comes from the Greek “palaios” meaning “old” and “lithos” meaning “stone”, so the term really translates as “Old Stone Age”.

62A Actress and model Ali ___ : LARTER

Ali Larter is an actress and model. She played a key role in a hoax carried out on “Esquire” magazine in 1996. Larter portrayed an imaginary model named Allegra Coleman in a bogus article written for the magazine by Martha Sherrill. The article claimed that Coleman/Larter had a role in an upcoming Woody Allen movie, was a good friend of author Deepak Chopra, and was in a torrid relationship with actor David Schwimmer. The hoax caused some uproar at the time, but it certainly did give some impetus to Larter’s acting career.

65A Annual awards whose name is an acronym : ESPYS

The ESPY Awards are a creation of the ESPN sports television network. One difference with similarly named awards in the entertainment industry is that ESPY winners are chosen solely based on viewer votes. The acronym “ESPY” stands for “Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly”.

70A Smokey Bear spot, e.g., for short : PSA

Public service announcement (PSA)

Smokey Bear is the mascot of the US Forest Service. He first appeared in 1944, in an advertising campaign directed towards preventing forest fires.

73A Area with the highest percentage of homes valued at $1 million or more : SILICON VALLEY

The Santa Clara Valley, located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, is better known as “Silicon Valley”. The term “Silicon Valley” dates back to 1971 when it was apparently first used in a weekly trade newspaper called “Electronic News” in articles written by journalist Don Hoefler.

89A Mumbo jumbo : HOOEY

“Mumbo jumbo” means “big and empty talk”, and is a term that we’ve been using since the late 1800s. Supposedly the term comes from a Mandingo word for an idol that was worshipped by some tribes in Africa.

92A Drink order at a sushi restaurant : SAKE BOTTLE

We refer to the Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice as “sake”. We’ve gotten things a bit mixed up in the West. “Sake” is actually the word that the Japanese use for all alcoholic drinks. What we know as sake, we sometimes refer to as rice wine. Also, the starch in the rice is first converted to sugars that are then fermented into alcohol. This is more akin to a beer-brewing process than wine production, so the end product is really a rice “beer” rather than a rice “wine”.

97A Quarter-barrel containers of beer : PONY KEGS

A pony keg is a beer container holding about 7¾ gallons. It looks like a regular, full-sized keg, but is half the size.

Down

2D Fizzle (out) : PETER

The verb phrase “to peter out”, meaning “to fizzle out”, originated in the 1840s in the American mining industry. While the exact etymology isn’t clear, it probably derives from the term “saltpeter”, a constituent of gunpowder.

3D Exams whose analytical reasoning sections were removed in 2024 : LSATS

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

4D PINpoints? : ATMS

One enters a Personal Identification Number (PIN) when using an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Given that the N in PIN stands for “number”, then “PIN number” is a redundant phrase. And, given that the M in ATM stands for “machine”, then “ATM machine” is a redundant phrase as well. Grr …!

11D Sport with crampons and carabiners : ICE CLIMBING

Crampons are metallic devices attached to boots that provide traction when climbing on icy surfaces.

Carabiners are specialty shackles that comprise a metal loop with a spring-loaded gate that facilitates speedy and safe connections. The name comes from the German “Karabinerhaken” meaning “spring hook”. The original carabiners were used by carabiniers, soldiers armed with short muskets or rifles called “carbines”. The soldier attached items to his belt or bandolier using carabiners.

12D Document that promises secrecy, for short : NDA

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

13D Like the climate in Antarctica : ARID

On average, Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest of all seven continents. Although Antarctica is very cold, it is essentially a desert, receiving only 8 inches of precipitation annually at the coasts and even less inland.

14D Does the Narrows hike at Zion National Park, say : WADES

To me, the most spectacular feature of southwestern Utah’s Zion National Park is the magnificent Zion Canyon. The canyon cuts through red Navajo sandstone and truly is a beautiful sight.

21D Mythical creature with scales : MERMAN

The mythological creatures named mermaids are usually depicted with the head and upper body of a human female, and with the tail of a fish. The term “mermaid” comes from the Old English “mere” meaning “sea, lake” and “maid” meaning “young woman”. The original mermaids were probably tail-less, with that “fishy” addition likely coming with comparison to classical sirens. The male equivalent of a mermaid is “merman”.

25D Like some donations that anyone can accept : TYPE-O

In general, a person with type O-negative blood is a universal donor, meaning that his or her blood can be used for transfusion into persons with any other blood type: A, B, AB or O, negative or positive (although there are other considerations). Also in general, a person with type AB-positive blood is a universal recipient, meaning that he or she can receive a transfusion of blood of any type: A, B, AB or O, negative or positive.

28D Pride celebration : PARADE

The first gay pride parades were held all on the same weekend in 1970, in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

33D Olympic gymnast Nadia who was the first to receive a perfect 10 score : COMANECI

Romanian Nadia Comăneci won three golds in the 1976 Summer Olympics and was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of ten in the gymnastics competition. Her life took a dramatic turn in 1989 when, just weeks before the Romanian Revolution, she defected from Communist Romania. She fled under the cover of darkness, crossing the Romanian border into Hungary on foot and eventually seeking asylum in the US.

37D TV series starring Rami Malek as a hacktivist : MR ROBOT

Actor Rami Malek’s big break came with the leading role in the television series “Mr. Robot”. In 2018, Malik gave an Oscar-winning performance playing Freddie Mercury in the hit biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody”. That marked the first time that an actor of Egyptian descent won an Academy Award for Best Actor.

38D Absurdist philosopher born in Algeria : CAMUS

Albert Camus was a French author, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. Sadly, Camus died in a car accident just two years after he received the prize, at only 46 years of age.

“Theater of the Absurd” was a literary movement popular mainly in Europe from the forties through the eighties. Adherents to the style were inspired by Albert Camus’ Philosophy of the Absurd, which stated that the search for meaning and truth was absurd. Playwrights associated with the movement were Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Edward Albee. I am not a big fan, not a fan at all …

42D Tandoors, e.g. : OVENS

A tandoor is a cylindrical clay or metal oven used in cuisines from several Asian locales, including India.

44D Garden pest : APHID

Aphids are called “greenfly” back in Britain and Ireland where I come from. The most effective way to control aphids, in my experience, is to make sure there are plenty of ladybugs in the garden (called “ladybirds” in Ireland!).

45D Butterfly, e.g. : STROKE

The butterfly is the newest swimming stroke used in competition, having been introduced in 1933. It was originally used as a variant of the breaststroke, in an attempt to gain an advantage in speed over swimmers using the traditional breaststroke movement. The butterfly was carved out as a style of its own in 1952, and made its Olympic debut in 1956.

46D Cheeky flirts : MINXES

A minx is a flirtatious woman. The term “minx” comes from the 16th-century word “mynx” that was used for a pet dog.

47D Sufferer healed by Jesus : LEPER

The horrible disease known as leprosy is also called Hansen’s disease, named after the Norwegian physician famous for isolating the bacterium that causes the disease. We can use the term “leper” to mean someone in general who is shunned by society.

50D Like some soils high in organic matter : PEATY

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.

56D Sociologist’s concern : MORES

Mores are the accepted customs and practices of a particular group. “Mores” is the plural of the Latin word “mos” which means “custom”.

62D Musical instruments that become other musical instruments when an F is added to the front : LUTES

The lute is a stringed instrument with a long neck and usually a pear-shaped body. It is held and played like a guitar, and was popular from the Middle Ages right through to the late Baroque era. A person who plays the lute can be referred to as a “lutenist”.

A flute is a woodwind instrument that doesn’t have a reed. Instead, sound is produced by blowing air across an opening. A flute player is often referred to as a flautist (sometimes “flutist”). Flutes have been around a long, long time. Primitive flutes found in modern-day Germany date back 43,000 to 35,000 years, which makes the flute the oldest known musical instrument.

68D Physics Nobelist Feynman : RICHARD

Richard Feynman was a theoretical physicist from New York City who was a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965. During WWII, Feynman worked on the development of the atomic bomb. He also served on the commission that investigated the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

71D Shell competitor : SUNOCO

Back in the late 1800s, Sunoco was known as the Sun Oil Company, hence “Sun-o-co”.

The company previously known as Royal Dutch Shell was formed in 1907 when the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company and the UK’s Shell Transport and Trading Company merged to compete with John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. Although it was headquartered in the Hague for over a century, the company restructured in 2022, officially becoming Shell plc and moving its headquarters to London, England. Its major US-based subsidiary is headquartered in Houston, and is known as Shell USA, Inc.

72D Daikin Park team : ASTROS

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.

74D Gregorian ___ : CHANT

The word “Gregorian” is an adjectival form of the name “Gregory”. I suppose the most common uses of the term are in “Gregorian chant” and “Gregorian calendar”. Gregorian chant is named for Pope Gregory I, and the Gregorian calendar is named for Pope Gregory XIII.

77D Bygone devices whose tapes had to be rewound : VCRS

The first video cassette recorder (VCR) was introduced in the 1950s, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that home VCRs became successful.

78D Teatro alla Scala solos : ARIAS

La Scala Opera House opened in 1778. It was built on the site of the church of Santa Maria della Scala, which gave the theater its Italian name “Teatro alla Scala”. Because of bomb damage in WWII, La Scala had to be rebuilt, and reopened in 1946.

79D Ancient philosopher whose name means “old master” : LAO TSE

Lao Tse (also “Lao-Tzu”, “Laozi”) was a central figure in the development of the religion/philosophy of Taoism. Tradition holds that Lao-Tzu wrote the “Tao Te Ching”, a classical Chinese text that is fundamental to the philosophy of Taoism.

80D Support for the tree pose in yoga : ONE LEG

The tree pose in yoga is more correctly known as “vrikshasana”. It involves standing on one leg, with the other leg bent and the foot placed on the inner thigh of the straight leg. The hands are placed together and raised directly over the head.

91D Nittany Lions’ sch. : PSU

The athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University (PSU) are called the Nittany Lions, or in the case of the female teams, the Lady Lions. The Nittany Lion was introduced as a mascot way back in 1904 and is modeled after mountain lions that used to roam Mount Nittany located near the school’s campus.

93D Big ___ : BEN

“Big Ben” is the name commonly used for the large bell in the Clock Tower (“Elizabeth Tower”, since 2012) of the Palace of Westminster (aka “Houses of Parliament”). Big Ben’s official name is the Great Bell, and there is some debate about the origins of the nickname. It may be named after Sir Benjamin Hall who supervised the bell’s installation, or perhaps the English heavyweight champion of the day Benjamin Caunt. Big Ben fell silent in 2017 to make way for four years of maintenance and repair work to the clock’s mechanism and the tower.