Day: November 12, 2026

Bill’s time: 10m 12s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A “Unbelievable,” in a text : SMH

Shaking my head (SMH)

4A What’s never heard in indictments? : CEE

The letter C (cee) is silent in the word “indictments”.

7A Absent, for short : MIA

Missing in action (MIA)

10A John of 2018’s “Searching” : CHO

John Cho is an actor and musician who was born in Seoul, South Korea but has lived in the US since he was a young boy. Cho’s break in movies came in playing Harold Lee in the “Harold & Kumar” films. He is now making a name for himself playing Mr. Sulu in the latest “Star Trek” movies.

13A Skintight activewear : LEOTARD

The garment known as a leotard was named for French trapeze artist Jules Léotard. Léotard wore such a garment when he was performing.

21A Image Awards org. : NAACP

The NAACP Image Awards are presented annually to recognise people of color in the worlds of film, television, music and literature. The first awards were presented in 1967, and the ceremony usually takes place in Los Angeles.

24A Scores that usually occur on fourth downs, in brief : FGS

Field goal (FG)

26A Some snowmobiles : SKI-DOOS

Ski-Doo is a brand of snowmobile produced by the Canadian company, Bombardier Recreational Products. The first Ski-Doo went on sale in 1959 and was intended to be named a “Ski-Dog” as the marketing concept was that the personal snowmobile would replace the dog sleds used by hunters and trappers. A painter misread instructions and wrote “Ski-Doo” on the side of the vehicle instead of “Ski-Dog”, and the name stuck.

34A French verb with a circumflex : ETRE

A circumflex is a diacritic mark used routinely in some languages, such as French. For example, there’s a circumflex over the first “e” in “être”, the French for “to be”.

36A Bridal shop fabric : TULLE

Tulle is a lightweight net fabric that is often used in veils, wedding gowns and ballet tutus.

37A “___ she blows!” : THAR

“Thar she blows!” is a phrase that originated on whaling ships. A lookout spotting a whale surfacing to breathe might see the spray from the blowhole caused by the expulsion of warm, moist exhaled air expanding and cooling rapidly, resulting in the condensation of water vapor. Thar (there) she blows!

40A Word with red, pink or Golden : … EYE

A red-eye flight is one departing late at night and arriving early the next morning. The term “red-eye” is a reference to tired passengers disembarking with red eyes.

The conjunctivae are membranes on the outer surface of the eye and in the inner surface of the eyelid. If the conjunctivae get inflamed, due to an infection or perhaps an allergy, then this condition is called conjunctivitis, or more commonly “pinkeye”.

“GoldenEye” was the first film in the “James Bond” series of movies to feature Pierce Brosnan as the lead. The title is a nod to the author of the “James Bond” novels, Ian Fleming. Fleming had worked for British Naval Intelligence during the war, and on Operation Goldeneye in particular. Fleming also used Goldeneye as the name for his estate in Jamaica.

41A “Surprise Symphony” composer : HAYDN

Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 in G major is nicknamed “The Surprise Symphony”. Haydn was very fond of including a little humor in his music, and the “surprise” in Symphony No. 94 is the most famous. That surprise is a very loud chord at the end of a very quiet and lyrical passage in the second movement. As a result, the German nickname for “The Surprise Symphony” is “The Symphony with the Kettledrum Stroke”.

45A “To ___ will be an awfully big adventure”: Peter Pan : DIE

J.M. Barrie’s stage play “Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” premiered in London in 1904. Barrie adapted the play into a 1911 novel titled “Peter and Wendy”. The character Peter Pan actually predated the play, having been introduced by Barrie as a baby in his 1902 adult novel called “The Little White Bird”.

47A Flamenco shout : OLE!

Flamenco is a style of Spanish music and dance. The origin of the word “flamenco” isn’t clearly understood, but the explanation that seems most credible to me is that it comes from Flanders in Northern Europe. Given that “flamenco” is the Spanish word for “Flemish” and Flanders is home to the Flemish people it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

50A Novelist Butler : SAMUEL

Samuel Butler was a British novelist and satirist. His best known novels are “Erewhon” (1872) and “The Way of All Flesh” (1903). Butler also made translations of Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey” that are still widely used.

54A Alan of “Marriage Story” : ALDA

“Marriage Story” is a 2019 movie starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as a couple going through a messy divorce. The critics loved this one. Me, not so much …

67A “Don’t feed the ___” (message board advice) : TROLL

In Internet terms, a troll is someone who attempts to disrupt online group activities. The fishing term “troll” is used to describe such a person as he or she throws out off-topic remarks in an attempt to “lure” others into some emotional response. I must admit to feeling sorry for people who have such sad lives …

Down

1D Some Nikons, for short : SLRS

The Japanese company Nikon was founded in 1917 with the merger of three manufacturers of various optical devices. After the merger, Nikon’s main output was lenses (including the first lenses for Canon cameras, before Canon made its own). During the war, Nikon sales grew rapidly as the company focused on (pun!) equipment for the military including periscopes and bomb sights.

2D Rendezvous : MEET

A rendezvous is a meeting. The noun used in English comes from the French phrase “rendez vous” meaning “present yourselves”.

3D Symphony known as “Eroica” : [BEET]HOVEN’S THIRD

Beethoven originally dedicated his “Symphony No. 3” to Napoleon Bonaparte. Beethoven admired the principles of the French Revolution and as such respected Bonaparte who was “born” out of the uprising. When Napoleon declared himself Emperor, Beethoven (and much of Europe) saw this as a betrayal to the ideals of the revolution so he changed the name of his new symphony from “Bonaparte” to “Eroica”, meaning “heroic, valiant”.

8D Toy meant to be looked into : [KALE]IDOSCOPE

A kaleidoscope is an optical device that generates colorful patterns. Usually in the form of a tube, the patterns are the result of loose bits of colored material moving between two clear plates and viewed in two mirrors placed at an angle. “Kaleidoscope” was coined by Scottish scientist and inventor Sir David Brewster. The term comes from the Ancient Greek “kalos” meaning “beautiful”, “eidos” meaning “shape”, with the suffix “-scope” (as in “telescope”).

12D Stops vacillating : OPTS

To vacillate is to be indecisive, to waver. The verb “to vacillate” comes from the Latin “vacillare” meaning “to sway to and fro”.

14D Actress Reid of “The Big Lebowski” : TARA

Tara Reid is an actress known for roles she played on television and the big screen. My guess is that her best-known performances were in the “American Pie” series of movies in which she played Vicky. Sadly, Reid succumbed to the pressure to alter her looks with cosmetic surgery. In interviews, she has shared that her first experience under the knife “went wrong” leading to more surgeries in attempts to rectify the resulting deformity.

“The Big Lebowski” is a 1998 comedy directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and starring Jeff Bridges. The film’s script is loosely based on the Raymond Chandler novel “The Big Sleep”. I thought “The Big Lebowski” was just “okay” though …

16D Broccoli ___ : RABE

Broccoli rabe is perhaps better known as “rapini”, and is a vegetable often used in Mediterranean cuisines. It is quite delicious sauteed with garlic …

24D Big altercation : FRACAS

“Fracas”, meaning “noisy quarrel”, is a French word that we absorbed into English. In turn, the French usage evolved from the Italian “fracasso” meaning “uproar, crash”.

25D Lacrosse player with specialized padding : GOALIE

Lacrosse is a game very much associated with the cultural tradition of the Iroquois people, and may have originated as early as the 12th century. The original games lasted all day long, and perhaps for two or three days, and were played as part of a ceremonial ritual. In the native language, the activity was referred to as “the Creator’s Game”. It was French Jesuit missionaries who coined the name “lacrosse”. In French, a “crosse” is a “stick with a curved end”.

32D 1040 fig. : SSN

Form 1040, issued by the IRS, is the “US Individual Income Tax Return”. It was originally created just for tax returns from 1913, 1914 and 1915, but it’s a form that just keeps on giving, or should I say “taking” …?

34D Info from Delta, or a letter soon after delta : ETA

Delta Air Lines were the first airline to ban smoking on all flights, in 1995. They were also the first airline to board more than 100 million passengers in a year, doing so in 1997.

44D Volkswagen compact : JETTA

“Jetta” is one in a series of model names related to winds that has been used by Volkswagen. “Jetta” comes from the German for “jet stream”, and the model name “Passat” comes from the German for “trade wind”.

49D Shape-shifting organism : AMOEBA

An ameba (also “amoeba”) is a single-celled microorganism. The name comes from the Greek “amoibe” meaning “change”. The name is quite apt, as the cell changes shape readily as the ameba moves, eats and reproduces.

53D Beekeeping or birdwatching : HOBBY

Back in the 16th century, a hobbyhorse was a mock horse that was used as a prop in morris dancing. The figure was wrapped around the waist of a dancer, creating the impression that the horse was being ridden. By the 1580s, the term “hobbyhorse” began to describe a toy riding horse used by a child. A century later, the word “hobby” was being used for a favorite pastime, an activity that doesn’t really go anywhere, just like a hobbyhorse.

57D Ballerina’s move : PLIE

The French word for “bent” is “plié”. In the ballet move known as a plié, the knees are bent. A “demi-plié” is a similar move, but with less bending of the knees. A fondu is similar to a plié, except that only one leg remains on the ground.

59D Simon or Diamond : NEIL

Neil Simon was one of my favorite playwrights. He wrote over thirty plays and about thirty screenplays. My favorite play penned by Simon has to be “Brighton Beach Memoirs”, but the list of his great stage works seems endless and includes “Barefoot in the Park”, “The Odd Couple”, “Sweet Charity”, “Plaza Suite”, “California Suite”, “Biloxi Blues” and “The Goodbye Girl”.

I saw Neil Diamond in concert back in the mid-nineties, and I must say he put on a great show. His voice has cracked a bit, but that didn’t seem to spoil anyone’s enjoyment. I’ve also seen Diamond interviewed a few times on television, and I wouldn’t say he has the most scintillating of personalities.

60D Diesel in a muscle car? : VIN

Vin Diesel is the stage name of actor Mark Sinclair Vincent. He was born in New York City with his twin brother Paul. The twins never knew their father, and their mother is an astrologer. Vincent was given the nickname of “Diesel” by his friends early in his life, as he was said to have a bottomless supply of energy.

61D Parisian fashion monogram : YSL

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)