1029-26 NY Times Crossword 29 Oct 26, Thursday

Bill’s time: 11m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Fortune 500 listing: Abbr. : CORP

“Fortune” is a bimonthly business magazine that was founded by Henry Luce in 1930, just four months after the 1929 Wall Street Crash. “Fortune” is noted for its annual ranking of companies by revenue, especially the Fortune 500.

20A Ape-man’s introduction : ME TARZAN

Tarzan is the title character in the series of books created by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The line “Me Tarzan, you Jane” never appeared in the books, and indeed doesn’t even figure in the movies. Apparently, Johnny Weissmuller (who played Tarzan in the thirties and forties) saw Maureen O’Sullivan (“Jane”, to Weissmuller’s “Tarzan”) struggling with a suitcase in the parking lot during filming. He grabbed the bag from her, jokingly saying “Me Tarzan, you Jane”, and people have been quoting those words ever since.

21A Number that Jerry Rice wore for his entire N.F.L. career : EIGHTY

Retired footballer Jerry Rice scored a record 208 touchdowns in his career. Rice also won three Super Bowl rings with the San Francisco 49ers: in Super Bowl XXIII vs the Bengals, Super Bowl XXIV vs the Broncos and Super Bowl XXIX vs the Chargers.

22A Any of four of the six Nobel Prize categories: Abbr. : SCI

The Peace Prize is the most famous of the five prizes bequeathed by Alfred Nobel. The others are for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. There is also a Nobel Prize in Economics that is awarded along with the original five, but it is funded separately and is awarded “in memory of Alfred Nobel”. Four of the prizes are awarded by Swedish organizations (Alfred Nobel was a Swede) and so the award ceremonies take place in Stockholm. The Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and is presented in Oslo.

23A Nickname for golfer Palmer : ARNIE

Arnold Palmer was one of the greats of the world of golf. He was very popular with many fans of the game, and his followers were usually referred to as “Arnie’s Army”. Off the course, Palmer was an avid pilot until his latter years. He resided in Latrobe, Pennsylvania for much of the year and the local airport is named in his honor: Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

29A Make out, in England : SNOG

“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.

36A Puppy : WHELP

A whelp is a young dog, and also a young wolf, bear, lion, tiger and seal. The term has largely been replaced by “pup” or “puppy”.

46A Non-sushi option at some sushi bars : RAMEN

Ramen is a noodle dish composed of Chinese-style wheat noodles in a meat or fish broth flavored with soy sauce or miso paste. Ramen is usually topped with sliced pork and dried seaweed. The term “ramen” is also used for precooked, instant noodles that come in single-serving, solid blocks.

48A Paper you can trip on? : LSD TAB

The drug LSD is often sold impregnated into blotting paper. The paper blotter is usually divided into squares with ¼-inch sides, with each square referred to as a “tab”.

58A Like flickers and flamingos : AVIAN

The name “flamingo” comes from the Spanish and Portuguese word for “flame-colored”. The flamingo’s pink or reddish color comes from the bird’s diet, and in particular the pigments ingested from animal and plant sources.

60A C.F.L. team in Edmonton : ELKS

The Edmonton Elks Canadian football team was founded back in 1949 as the Edmonton Eskimos. The team abandoned the offensive “Eskimos” name in 2020, and adopted the “Elks” name in 2021.

61A Drunk, in modern slang : TURNT

“Turnt” is a slang term that emerged from hip-hop culture as a past participle of “to turn up”. It describes a state of being highly energized, excited, or intoxicated, often in the context of a wild party.

62A Neighbor of a Montenegrin : SERB

Serbs are an ethnic group native to the Balkans in southeastern Europe. Although Serbs exist as a minority group in many countries in the region, they are the majority ethnic group in Serbia, in Montenegro and in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Montenegro is a country in Southeastern Europe that once was part of Yugoslavia. “Montenegro” is a historical Italianate translation of “black mountain”.

Down

2D Award won by a young Meryl Streep for her role in “Alice in Concert” (1981) : OBIE

Meryl Streep has had more Academy Award nominations and more Golden Globe nominations than any other actor, which is both a tribute to her talent and the respect she has earned in the industry. I am not a huge fan of her earlier works but some of her recent movies are now on my list of all-time favorites. I recommend “Mamma Mia!” (you’ll either love it or hate it!), “Julie & Julia”, “It’s Complicated” and ”Hope Springs”.

7D Easternmost member of the Arab League : OMAN

The Arab League was formed in 1945 in Cairo with six founding members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria. As a result of events during the 2011 Arab Spring, the Arab League suspended Syria’s membership, though the nation was readmitted in May 2023.

10D Hero of Philly? : HOAGIE

“Hoagy” (sometimes “hoagie”) is another name for a submarine sandwich. The term “hoagy” originated in Philadelphia, and was apparently introduced by Italians working in the shipyards during WWI. The shipyards were located on Hog Island, and the sandwich was first called “the Hog Island”, which morphed into “hoagy”.

12D Leave in a text, say : STET

“Stet” is a Latin word meaning “let it stand”. In editorial work, the typesetter is instructed to disregard any change previously marked by writing the word “stet” and then underscoring that change with a line of dots or dashes.

13D Labourite’s opponent : TORY

“Tory” comes from the Irish word “tóraí” meaning “outlaw, robber”. The term “tory” was originally used for an Irish outlaw and later became a term of abuse for Irish rebels. At the end of the reign of King Charles II in Britain, there was a political divide with one side being called “Whigs” and the other “Tories”. Historically, the term “Tory” evolved to basically mean a supporter of the British monarchy, and indeed was used to describe those who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution. Today, “Tory” is used for a member of the British Conservative Party.

The UK’s Labour Party was founded in 1900 in response to a demand by the electorate for representation of the urban working class. The party’s first leader was Scottish trade unionist Keir Hardie.

18D It’s all black and white : ORCA

The orca (killer whale) has a unique “saddle patch” just behind its dorsal fin: a gray-white mark that acts much like a human fingerprint. Marine biologists use the specific shape and scarring of this patch to track individual whales across decades.

19D Separate (out) : WINNOW

We use the verb “to winnow” in a figurative sense to describe the separation of something good from a collection of worthless things. The more literal meaning is the freeing of grain from the lighter chaff by blowing on the mixture, or by throwing it in the air.

23D Kutcher on “Two and a Half Men” : ASHTON

Ashton Kutcher played the character Michael Kelso on Fox’s “That ‘70s Show”. Kelso was Kutcher’s breakthrough acting role. Kutcher then starred in the sitcom “Two and a Half Men”, replacing the “disgraced” Charlie Sheen. In 2009, Kutcher became the first user on Twitter to get over 1 million followers.

“Two and a Half Men” is a TV sitcom that had a remarkably successful original run despite being fraught with controversy. The eighth season had to be suspended when the show’s star Charlie Sheen went into drug rehab and made disparaging comments about the show’s producers. Sheen was fired, and his role was taken over by a new character played by Ashton Kutcher. In 2012, Angus T. Jones who plays young Jake urged fans not to watch the show as it was “filth”. Jones had recently converted to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the show’s themes clashed with the church’s standards. Well, I enjoy the show …

32D Chat follower : GPT

ChatGPT is an advanced AI language model developed by OpenAI. It uses a vast amount of text data to understand and generate human-like text responses to a wide range of prompts and questions. You can ask it to write stories, explain complex topics, translate languages, or even help you with coding.

34D Author Rushdie : SALMAN

Salman Rushdie is a famous British novelist, born in India. His most celebrated novel is “The Satanic Verses”, published in 1988, a Booker Prize finalist. However, the book attracted unfavorable attention from many in the Muslim faith who labelled it as blasphemy. Such was the outrage that a fatwā was issued in 1989 by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini calling for the faithful to kill Rushdie. He remains under police protection provided by the UK government, though he was severely injured in a stabbing attack in New York in 2022. Others associated with the book have also been injured and even killed.

37D Gets started the wrong way? : HOT-WIRES

To hot-wire a vehicle is to start it by bypassing the keyed ignition.

44D Fried bites for the Festival of Lights : LATKES

A latke is a delicious potato pancake (I’m Irish, so anything made with potatoes is delicious, to be honest).

45D Robitussin target : COLD

Robitussin is a cold medicine that acts as both an expectorant and a decongestant. Certain prescription variants of the medicine act as a narcotic, as they contain the opiate codeine.

48D Crocodile in a classic children’s book : LYLE

Lyle is a crocodile who lives in the bathtub of a Manhattan brownstone in the “Lyle the Crocodile” series of children’s books by Bernard Waber. Lyle makes his first appearance in the 1962 book “The House on East 88th Street”. The books were adapted into a 2022 live-action animated film “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile”.

50D Ruckus : STIR

The word “ruckus” is used to mean “commotion”, and has been around since the late 1800s. “Ruckus” is possibly a melding of the words “ruction” and “rumpus”.

52D Prix ___ : FIXE

On a restaurant menu, items that are “à la carte” are priced and ordered separately. A menu marked “table d’hôte” (also called “prix fixe”) is a fixed-price menu with limited choice. “Table d’hôte” translates from French as “table of the host”.

53D “In summary …,” in internet shorthand : TL;DR

Too long, didn’t read (TL;DR)

56D Mountaineers’ sch. : WVU

West Virginia University (WVU) was founded in 1867 as the Agricultural College of West Virginia. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Mountaineers.