0520-26 NY Times Crossword 20 May 26, Wednesday

Bill’s time: 7m 26s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Establishment that serves zombies, perhaps : TIKI BAR

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.

A zombie is an unusually strong cocktail, with a deceptively mild taste. It was invented in the late thirties by Donn Beach, owner of the Don the Beachcomber restaurant in Hollywood. Apparently Beach created the drink for a friend who consumed three of them right before taking a flight from L.A. to San Francisco. When he returned, he complained that the drinks had “turned him into a zombie” for the trip, giving the drink its name. If you dare, one recipe is:

• 1 part white rum
• 1 part golden rum
• 1 part dark rum
• 1 part apricot brandy
• 1 part papaya juice
• 1/2 part 151-proof rum
• 1 dash of grenadine

14A “Drink” for vocal critics : HATERADE

An extremely negative person might be described as having drunk the “haterade”, a play on the beverage name “Gatorade”.

15A European city that “waits for you,” in a Billy Joel tune : VIENNA

Vienna is the capital of Austria. The city has a long musical tradition and was home to Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss (I and II), Josef Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler. As such, Vienna is sometimes called the “City of Music”. It is also called the “City of Dreams” as it was home to the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.

Billy Joel is the fourth-best selling solo artist in the US, after Garth Brooks, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson. Joel’s name has been associated with two supermodels in his life. He dated Elle Macpherson, and wrote two songs about their relationship: “This Night” and “And So It Goes”. Joel’s second wife was Christie Brinkley, to whom he was married from 1985 to 1994. Brinkley appeared in the title role in the music video for “Uptown Girl”.

18A Redding who sang “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay” : OTIS

“(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” is a song that Otis Redding started composing in 1967 while sitting on a houseboat in Sausalito, on San Francisco Bay. Redding finished the song soon after, with the help of co-writer Steve Cropper. “The Dock of the Bay” was released in January of 1968, just one month after Redding was killed in a plane crash. The song became the first posthumous single to reach number-one in the US charts. As an aside, Janis Joplin’s recording of “Me and Bobby McGee” achieved the same feat in 1971.

19A God played by Anthony Hopkins in Marvel movies : ODIN

The marvelous actor Anthony Hopkins got his big break in movies playing Richard the Lionheart in the 1968 historical drama “The Lion in Winter”. Hopkins hails from the south coast of Wales, and was encouraged in his early career by fellow Welshman Richard Burton, whom he met when he was a teenager. I’d say that Hopkins’ best-known film role was Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs”.

20A Church cross : ROOD

A rood is a crucifix that specifically symbolizes the cross on which Jesus was crucified.

21A Florence-based fashion house : GUCCI

Gucci was founded in Florence, in 1921, by Guccio Gucci. Guccio’s son Aldo took over the company after his father’s death in 1953. It was Aldo who established the international presence for the brand and opened the company’s first overseas store, in New York City.

30A ___ contendere (court plea) : 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.

37A ___ Kippur : YOM

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. It is also known as the Day of Atonement.

39A Actress Bow of the silent film era : CLARA

Clara Bow was a fabulous silent film star, with her most famous movie being “It” from 1927. Clara Bow’s performance was so celebrated in the movie that she was forever to be known as the “It girl”. The term “it” was a euphemism for “sex appeal”, and that is what Clara Bow was known to “exude”. Bow applied her red lipstick in the shape of a heart, and women who copied this style were said to put on a “Clara Bow”. We now use the term “it girl” more generally to describe a celebrity or personality perceived to exhibit sex appeal.

41A TV personality Kotb : HODA

Hoda Kotb is an Egyptian-American television journalist who is perhaps best known as a co-host of the NBC morning show “Today”. She is also the author of the bestselling autobiography “Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee”.

53A Classic Pontiacs : GTOS

The Pontiac GTO was produced by GM from 1964 to 1974, and again by a GM subsidiary in Australia from 2004 to 2006. The original GTO’s design is credited to Pontiac chief engineer at the time John DeLorean, who later founded the DeLorean Motor Company.

62A John in the sketch “The Fish-Slapping Dance” : CLEESE

The actor and comedian John Cleese came to the public’s attention as a cast member in the BBC’s comedy sketch show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”. Cleese then co-wrote and starred in the outstanding comedy “Fawlty Towers”. He even had a role in two “James Bond” films.

64A Words a teenager might say with an eye roll : “YES, DAD”

Heard that a few times …

Down

1D Mustachioed president who succeeded another mustachioed president in 1909 : TAFT

William Howard Taft may have been the 27th President of the United States, but his lifelong ambition was to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The future president had served as dean and professor at the Cincinnati Law School. President Taft was able to realize that dream in 1921, eight years after losing his bid for re-election as president. As Chief Justice, this former US President swore in two new presidents: Calvin Coolidge (in 1925) and Herbert Hoover (in 1929). William Howard Taft is also remembered as the most obese president. In the last year of his presidency, he weighed about 340 pounds (he was 5 feet 11 inches tall). Twelve months after leaving the White House, President Taft had dropped 80 pounds and substantially lowered his blood pressure.

After President Theodore Roosevelt left office in 1909, he became disillusioned with the direction being taken by his own Republican Party. Roosevelt decided to run for the presidency again, and in doing so formed the Progressive Party. The new organization became known as the Bull Moose Party after Roosevelt was quoted as saying “I feel like a bull moose” soon after the new party had been launched. Roosevelt had a very poor showing in the 1912 presidential election, and the Progressive Party dissolved a few years later, in 1916.

7D Clarinet, for one : REED

The clarinet is a lovely-sounding instrument, isn’t it? The name “clarinet” comes from the Italian word “clarino” meaning “trumpet”, with the “-et” suffix indicating “small”.

9D Careful, this might be hot! : MIC

One of my favorite hot-mic moments took place in 2005, when Paris and London were vying to host the 2012 Olympics. French President Jacques Chirac compared Paris and London in that context while chatting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Chirac said, over a hot mic:

The only thing that they have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease … You cannot trust people who have such bad cuisine.

10D Act of Judas : BETRAYAL

Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve original apostles who studied with Jesus. Notably, it was Judas who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, a transaction that led to the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

12D Hoity-toity one : SNOOT

“Snoot” is a variant of “snout”, and is a word that originated in Scotland. The idea is that someone who is snooty, or “snouty”, tends to look down their nose at the rest of the world.

Believe it or not, the term “hoity-toity” has been in the English language since the 1660s, but back then it meant “riotous behavior”. It began to mean “haughty” in the late 1800s, simply because “haughty” sounds similar to “hoity”.

17D Old Italian money : LIRE

The word “lira” is used in a number of countries for currency. “Lira” comes from the Latin for “pound” and is derived from the British pound sterling, the value of a Troy pound of silver. For example, the lira (plural “lire”) was the official currency of Italy before the country changed over to the euro in 2002.

22D Musical notation that means “with vigor” : CON BRIO

“Brio” is borrowed from Italian, in which language the term means “vigor and vivacity”. “Con brio” is a musical direction often found on a score, instructing the musicians to play “with energy, vigor”.

23D Boardroom bigwig, in brief : CFO

Chief financial officer (CFO)

25D Spot to drink a matcha with a Manx : CAT CAFE

Matcha is a powder made by grinding dried, green tea leaves. The selected tea bushes are heavily shaded for several weeks prior to harvest, which stimulates the production of chlorophyll resulting in darker green leaves. Matcha is used in East Asian cuisines to prepare tea for drinking, and also as an ingredient in dishes such as ice cream, cakes and sushi rolls.

I’ve seen Manx cats by the dozen on their native island. They’re found all over the Isle of Man (hence the name “Manx”) that is located in the middle of the Irish Sea. Manx cats have just a stub of a tail, and hence are called “stubbins” by the locals.

33D Protagonist of “That ’70s Show” : ERIC

“That ‘70s Show” is a sitcom that originally aired from 1998 to 2006. As the title suggests, it is set in the 1970s and explores the issues of the time. Two actors from the show that made it particularly big are Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher.

34D Speech full of invective : RANT

Invective is abusive language.

42D Director Guillermo ___ Toro : DEL

Guillermo del Toro is a film director from Guadalajara in Mexico who has had success directing and producing American films. His best-known works are probably action movies like “Blade II” (2002) and “Hellboy” (2004). Del Toro won an Oscar for Best Director for the 2017 movie “The Shape of Water”.

46D Beauty company whose Nasdaq ticker symbol is its name : ULTA

Ulta Beauty is a chain of American beauty stores that was founded in 1990 and headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. I am not part of the company’s target demographic …

47D Atlanta athlete : FALCON

The Atlanta Falcons joined the NFL in 1965. The team name was suggested by a schoolteacher called Miss Julia Elliott. Elliott suggested that “the Falcon is proud and dignified, with great courage and fight. It never drops its prey. It is deadly and has a great sporting tradition.”

48D Risqué : SPICY

“Risqué” is a French word, the past participle of the verb meaning “to risk”. So in English we use “risqué” to mean “racy”, but in French it means “risky”.

54D “___ Noche en Miami” (Bad Bunny song) : OTRA

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.

59D Org. whose staffers wear royal blue uniforms : TSA

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the agency that employs the good folks who check passengers and baggage at airports.

60D Lenovo products, informally : PCS

Lenovo is a Chinese manufacturer of computers that was founded as “Legend” in 1984. The name was changed to “Lenovo” in 2003. “Lenovo” is a portmanteau of “Le” (from “Legend”) and “novo” (Latin for “new”). IBM sold off its personal computer division to Lenovo in 2005.