Month: April 2026

Bill’s time: 15m 12s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

13A Nested birds? : TURDUCKEN

Turducken is a dish that is sometimes served at Thanksgiving. It is a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck stuffed into a deboned turkey. You can also try a gooducken, which is a chicken stuffed into a duck stuffed into a goose.

14A “___ Atardecer,” Bad Bunny song whose name means “Another Sunset” : OTRO

Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is a Puerto Rican rapper and singer. He was the first non-English language act to top Spotify’s most-streamed artist list, doing so in 2020. He stormed past that record that year, and in the following years, becoming Spotify’s most-streamed artist in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2025 (losing out to Taylor Swift in 2023 and 2024). In 2026, Bad Bunny headlined the Super Bowl halftime show.

19A Philosopher Descartes : RENE

The great French philosopher Rene Descartes made the famous statement in Latin, “Cogito ergo sum”. This translates into French as “Je pense, donc je suis” and into English as “I think, therefore I am”. Anything pertaining to the philosophy of Descartes can be described by the adjective “Cartesian”.

23A The flying fox is a type of one : BAT

The genus of bats known as fruit bats are also commonly referred to as flying foxes. Their natural habitats are found mainly in South Asia, Australia and East Africa.

24A Site with a monument that gets around 7 million ticketed visitors a year : AGRA

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India is a magnificent marble mausoleum. It was built in the mid-17th century by the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to her 14th child in 1631. When Shah Jahan himself died in 1666, he was buried in the Taj Mahal, alongside his wife.

29A Like the glass in many a Dale Chihuly sculpture : FUSED

American artist Dale Chihuly is best known for his large glass sculptures. The largest permanent exhibit of his work is at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, although I’ve personally seen large amounts of his work at Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle and at the Bellagio resort and hotel in Las Vegas.

40A Title derived from the Persian for “king” : SHAH

“Shah” was a title used by Persian emperors that translates into English as “king”. The full title in Persian is “Shahanshah”, which means “King of Kings”.

43A Anora’s husband in “Anora” : IVAN

The 2024 movie “Anora” is about a young stripper from Brooklyn who impulsively marries the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. The marriage is short-lived, as the groom’s parents send henchmen to find the couple and force an annulment. The film follows the aftermath as the stripper ends the marriage, leaving her in an emotionally vulnerable and uncertain state. The entire film was shot in 37 days, with one 25-minute sequence taking up 10 of those days. The sequence was a particularly demanding and disturbing home invasion scene.

44A Sat ___ (GPS, to Brits) : NAV

A global positioning system (GPS) is known as a satellite navigation system (Sat Nav) in Britain and Ireland.

47A Church congresses : SYNODS

The word “synod” comes from the Greek word for “assembly, meeting”. A synod is a church council, usually one in the Christian faith.

50A Foe of Wonder Woman : ARES

Superhero Wonder Woman first appeared in print in 1941, in a publication from DC Comics. As she was created during WWII, Wonder Woman’s first foes were the Axis powers. In the less realistic world her biggest foe was and still is Ares, a “baddie” named after the Greek mythological figure. Wonder Woman had several signature expressions, including “Merciful Minerva!”, “Suffering Sappho!” and “Great Hera!”. She also has several devices that she uses in her quest for justice, e.g. the Lasso of Truth, a pair of indestructible bracelets and a tiara that can be used as a deadly projectile. Wonder Woman uses the name “Diana Prince” when “out of uniform”.

51A Cold shoulder, so to speak : SILENT TREATMENT

To give someone the cold shoulder is to ignore the person deliberately. A little research into the etymology of “cold shoulder” reveals that there’s some dispute over the origin of the phrase. To me, the most credible suggestion is that the term was coined by Sir Walter Scott in his writings, and he simply used the imagery of someone “turning away, coldly”, to suggest the act of ignoring someone. Less credible is the suggestion that unwelcome visitors to a home in days gone by might be offered a “cold shoulder” of mutton, rather than a hot meal.

54A ___ bar : TIKI

The world’s first tiki bar was called “Don the Beachcomber”, and was opened in L.A. in 1933 by Ernest Gantt (also known as “Donn Beach”). The bar became famous for its exotic rum cocktails. Gantt was called to serve in WWII, and the business expanded dramatically under his ex-wife’s management so that there was a 16-restaurant chain waiting for Gantt when he returned stateside.

56A Backup for a trapeze artist : NET

The circus act known as the “trapeze” is so called because the shape defined by the crossbar, ropes and ceiling of the tent is a “trapezium”.

57A Popular antibiotic ointment : NEOSPORIN

Neosporin is an over-the-counter antibiotic ointment, one that is a little controversial. I just read that Neosporin is about as effective as petroleum jelly in preventing infection. Also, the low level of antibiotic in the cream has little effect in killing any bacteria and in fact contributes to antibiotic resistance. On top of that, reports of contact dermatitis caused by Neosporin are relatively common. If that’s all true, then I’m going to stop using it …

Down

5D Status ___ : QUO

“Status quo” translates from Latin as “state in which”, and in English is used to mean the existing condition or state of affairs.

6D Bay Area sch. : UCSF

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

7D “___ From Muskogee” (Merle Haggard song) : OKIE

Merle Haggard was a country singer and songwriter whose most famous recording has to be “Okie from Muskogee” released in 1969. Haggard would tell you that the song was actually meant as a spoof, but it has become a country “anthem”.

9D “Storage unit” of memory in the brain : ENGRAM

An engram is a hypothetical construct, an explanation for the brain’s ability to store memories. The idea is that some biophysical or biochemical changes take place in the brain in response to external stimuli.

11D C-store offering : ATM

Convenience store (C-store)

15D Like the original Looney Tunes shorts, lengthwise : ONE-REEL

“Looney Tunes” and “Merrie Melodies” are two series of animated short films produced by Warner Bros. from 1930 until 1969. The list of famous “Looney Tunes” characters includes Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Tweety Bird, and my favorites Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.

24D Helical tools : AUGERS

An auger is a drill, a boring tool [yawn] …

26D Actor Edward of “A Complete Unknown” : NORTON

Edward Norton is a Hollywood actor who was nominated for Oscars for his performances in 1996’s “Primal Fear” (his debut film) and 1998’s “American History X”. I haven’t seen either movie, but really enjoyed him as the villain in “The Italian Job” (2003) and as the title character in “The Illusionist” (2006).

“A Complete Unknown” is a 2024 biopic covering the early years of Bob Dylan’s career. The storyline draws from Elijah Wald’s 2015 book “Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties”. The film culminates in scenes at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival when Dylan abandoned his acoustic roots for an electric guitar and a high-decibel backing band. Folk purists, including Pete Seeger, were outraged. Timothée Chalamet plays Dylan, and Edward Norton portrays Seeger.

27D Big cheese : BOSS

The phrase “the big cheese” doesn’t have its roots in the word “cheese” at all. The original phrase was “the real cheese” meaning “the real thing”, and was used way back in the late 1800s. “Chiz” is a Persian and Hindi word meaning “thing”, and it’s not hard to see how the expression “the real chiz” morphed into “the real cheese”. In early-20th century America, instead of “the real cheese”, the most influential person in a group was labeled as “the big cheese”.

28D Nincompoop : ASS

The word “nincompoop”, meaning “fool”, seems to have been around for quite a while. It has been used since the 1670s, but no one appears to know its origins.

31D Key ingredient in Bridget’s blue soup, in “Bridget Jones’s Diary” : LEEK

“Bridget Jones’s Diary” is a 1996 novel by English novelist Helen Fielding. The novel is a clever adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and even includes a lead character named Darcy. “Bridget Jones’s Diary” was adapted into a very successful movie released in 2001. Colin Firth plays Darcy in the movie, and also played Mr. Darcy in a famous television version of “Pride and Prejudice” in 1995.

32D Dance wildly, in a way : MOSH

Moshing (also “slam dancing”) is the pushing and shoving that takes place in the audience at a concert (usually a punk or heavy metal concert). The area directly in front of the stage is known as the mosh pit. When a performer does a “stage dive”, it is into (or I suppose “onto”) the mosh pit. It doesn’t sound like fun to me. Injuries are commonplace in the mosh pit, and deaths are not unknown.

33D Ixnays : DENIES

Pig Latin is in effect a game. One takes the first consonant or consonant cluster of an English word and moves it to the end of the word, and then adds the letters “ay”. So, the Pig Latin for the word “nix” is “ixnay” (ix-n-ay), and for “scram” is “amscray” (am-scr-ay).

34D “Yas queen!” : I LOVE IT!

“Yas” is a slang term used in place of the interjection “yes!”, when it expresses pleasure and excitement. The exclamation often takes the form “Yas queen!”

35D Legend of Zelda console inits. : NES

“The Legend of Zelda” is a whole series of video games. First released in 1986, I hear that it is very successful …

44D Big Apple media inits. : NYT

“The New York Times” (NYT) has been published since 1851, and is sometimes referred to as “the Gray Lady”. These days a viable alternative to buying the paper is to read the news online. NYTimes.com is the most popular online newspaper website in the country.

48D Empire State Building’s style, informally : DECO

New York City’s Empire State Building was the world’s tallest building from 1931, the date of its completion, until 1970 when the North Tower of the World Trade Center surpassed it in height in 1970. The Empire State Building was constructed in less than 15 months, handily beating the planned 18-month schedule.

49D Pizza shop in “Do the Right Thing” : SAL’S

“Do the Right Thing” is a Spike Lee movie that was released in 1989. Much of the action in the film is centered on a local pizzeria called “Sal’s” owned by Italian-American Salvatore Frangione (played by Danny Aiello).

53D Q follower : … TIP

Cotton swabs were originally marketed under the name “Baby Gays”. This was changed in 1926 to “Q-Tips”, with the Q standing for “quality”.