1118-25 NY Times Crossword 18 Nov 25, Tuesday

Bill’s time: 6m 22s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A First female musical artist to have a simultaneous #1 film and #1 album, familiarly : JLO

Singer and actress Jennifer Lopez (aka “J. Lo”) has two children with her third husband, singer Marc Anthony. The twins Maximilian and Emme were born in 2008. Reportedly, “People” magazine paid Lopez and Anthony $6 million to introduce the children to the public, making the images taken by the magazine the most expensive celebrity photographs to that date.

8A Requirement for domestic air travel starting in 2025 : REAL ID

What we know today as “Real IDs” are the result of the Real ID Act of 2005. One of the most visible results of the law are state-issued drivers’ licenses that meet new minimum security standards set by the federal government.

14A Body part that might “pop” : EAR

The Eustachian tubes, also known as auditory tubes, are a pair of narrow tubes that connect the middle ear to the back of the throat. They play a crucial role in regulating the air pressure in the middle ear. When we yawn or swallow, the muscles in the Eustachian tubes contract, which helps to equalize the air pressure in the middle ear with the outside environment.

16A ___ State, nickname for New York : EMPIRE

New York is famously known as the “Empire State”. While the precise origin of the moniker is a little hazy, it’s widely believed to have been inspired by George Washington. In a 1785 letter, remarking on New York’s strategic importance with its excellent harbor and access to the interior via the Hudson River, Washington supposedly referred to it as the “Seat of the Empire”.

23A Industrialist Lilly : ELI

Eli Lilly is the largest corporation in the state of Indiana. Founder Eli Lilly was a veteran of the Union Army in the Civil War, and a failed Mississippi plantation owner. Later in life he returned to his first profession and opened a pharmaceutical operation to manufacture drugs and sell them wholesale. Under Lilly’s early guidance, the company was the first to create gelatin capsules to hold medicines and the first to use fruit flavoring in liquid medicines.

24A Native led by Montezuma : AZTEC

Montezuma I and Montezuma II were Aztec emperors. Montezuma II was the ninth Aztec emperor and ruled from 1502 until 1520. He was the leader of the Aztec Empire when the Spanish first made contact and started the conquest of Mexico. Montezuma II was killed in a battle with the Spanish, although the details of his demise are not clear.

28A Cereal variety from Switzerland : MUESLI

“Muesli” is a Swiss-German term describing a breakfast serving of rolled oats, nuts, fruit and milk. The dish can be soaked overnight in milk before serving (“overnight oats”). “Muesli” is a diminutive of the German word “Mues” meaning “puree”. Delicious …

38A Actress Long of “Boyz N the Hood” : NIA

Nia Long is an actress who is probably best known for playing Will Smith’s sometime girlfriend and fiancee Lisa Wilkes on the TV show “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”.

“Boyz N the Hood” is a 1991 movie about gang culture in South Central LA. Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ice Cube have starring roles, and the director was John Singleton. Singleton was only 23 years old at the time of filming, and his resulting nomination for a Best Director Oscar made him the youngest ever nominee for that category of Academy Award.

40A Shipped without prepaid postage, for short : SENT COD

Cash on delivery (COD)

42A Much of Mauritania and Mali : SAHARA

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is a nation in North Africa on the Atlantic coast. It is named after the old Roman province of Mauretania, although the ancient province was located further north in what is now Morocco and part of Algeria.

The Republic of Mali is a landlocked country in western Africa located south of Algeria. Formerly known as French Sudan, the nation’s most famous city is Timbuktu. Mali is the third-largest producer of gold on the continent, after South Africa and Ghana.

50A Martian explorer : ROVER

There have been several rovers sent to Mars from Earth. The Soviet Union’s Mars 2 landed in 1971, and failed. Mars 3 landed the same year, and ceased operation just 20 seconds after landing. NASA’s Sojourner landed in 1997 (what a great day that was!) and operated from July through September. The British rover Beagle 2 was lost six days before its scheduled entry into the Martian atmosphere. NASA’s Spirit landed in 2004, and operated successfully for over six years before getting trapped in sand and eventually ceasing to communicate. NASA’s Opportunity also landed in 2004, and operated for over fourteen years. And then NASA’s Curiosity made a spectacular, hi-tech landing in 2012 and is continuing to explore the planet today. Based on the Curiosity design, NASA’s Perseverance rover landed in 2021, along with the Mars helicopter named Ingenuity. The China National Space Administration landed its first rover, named Zhurong (“Rover” in English), five months after Perseverance started its mission on the planet.

52A Surgical stitch : SUTURE

A suture is used to close an open wound. The term “suture” comes from the Latin word “suere” meaning “to sew”, the past participle of which is “sutus”.

54A Used a loom : WOVE

There are many types of loom used to weave cloth, but they all hold parallel threads in tension in one direction, while allowing the interweaving of threads in the perpendicular direction. The threads held under tension are the warp threads, and the “woven” threads are the “weft” threads.

55A Related to spiritual cause and effect : KARMIC

Karma is a religious concept with its basis in Indian faiths. Karma embraces the notion of cause and effect. Good deeds have good consequences at some later point in one’s life, one’s future life, or one’s afterlife. And, bad deeds have bad consequences.

60A Small vortex : EDDY

Vortex (plural “vortices”) is something resembling a whirlpool. The term “vortex” comes from the Latin verb “vertere” meaning “to turn”.

Down

1D Material that’s been deliberately thrown overboard : JETSAM

“Flotsam” and “jetsam” are both terms used to describe garbage in the ocean. Flotsam is floating wreckage from a ship or its cargo. Jetsam is similar to flotsam, except that it is part of a ship or cargo that is deliberately cast overboard, perhaps to lighten a vessel.

2D Philosopher who wrote the “Tao Te Ching” : LAO TZU

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.

7D Martial art with bamboo swords : KENDO

Kendo is a Japanese martial art based on sword fighting. Participants wear protective armor, and use bamboo swords.

10D Subject of much Jane Goodall research : APE

Jane Goodall was a British anthropologist famous for studying wild chimpanzees in Africa for 45 years. Working at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, Goodall made many discoveries. She was the first to see chimps constructing and using tools, an activity thought to be limited to the human species. She also found out that chimpanzees are vegetarians.

12D Limerick’s locale : IRELAND

Limerick is the fourth-most populous city in Ireland, after Dublin, Belfast and Cork. It is located on the Shannon Estuary, in the west of the country.

22D Filmmaker Nora : EPHRON

Nora Ephron had many talents, including writing film scripts and novels. Many of the movies that she wrote, she also directed. These would include some of my favorite movies of all time like “Sleepless in Seattle”, “You’ve Got Mail” and most recently, the wonderful “Julie & Julia”. And, did you know that Nora Ephron’s second marriage was to journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame? She wrote an autobiographical novel based on her life with Bernstein, which deals in particular with Bernstein’s affair with the daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

25D Advertising award : CLIO

The Clio Awards are the Oscars of the advertising world and are named after Clio, the Greek Muse of History. Clio was also the recorder of great deeds, the proclaimer and celebrator of great accomplishments and a source of inspiration and genius. The Clio Awards were first presented in 1959.

27D Southwestern wolf : LOBO

The timber wolf is also known as the gray wolf, tundra wolf or lobo.

35D One fiddling around in a workshop : TINKERER

To tinker with something is to adjust or experiment with it. Back in the late 1500’s, “to tinker” was “to work as a tinker”. In those days, a tinker was someone who mended pots and pans.

36D Like granola bars, typically : OATY

The names “Granola” and “Granula” were trademarked back in the late 1800s for whole-grain foods that were crumbled and baked until crisp. Granola was created in Dansville, New York in 1863.

37D Onetime leader in St. Petersburg : TSAR

St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and served as the capital of the Russian Empire for over 200 years. The city is often referred to as the “Venice of the North” due to its numerous canals and bridges, and is home to many beautiful historic buildings, including the Winter Palace and the Hermitage Museum, which houses one of the world’s largest art collections.

43D Coyote’s cry : HOWL

The coyote is a canine found in most of Central and North America. The name “coyote” is Mexican Spanish, in which language it means “trickster”. In Native-American folklore, the coyote is an important character, one often playing tricks and defying conventional behavior. Coyotes can sometimes mate with domestic dogs, creating hybrid animals known as “coydogs”. Coyotes can also mate with wolves, creating a “coywolf”. South Dakota named the coyote its state animal in 1949.

46D First name of the Queen of Soul : ARETHA

Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul”, received numerous accolades throughout her career, including honorary doctorates from universities like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. She was also the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

53D Classic Icelandic saga : EDDA

“Poetic Edda” and “Prose Edda” are two ancient works that are the source for much of Norse mythology. Both Eddas were written in 13th-century Iceland.

56D Scanner whose field strength is measured in teslas, for short : MRI

The tesla unit measures the strength of a magnetic field, or more precisely the magnetic flux density. It is named for the physicist Nikola Tesla. He was born in a village in modern-day Croatia, then part of the Austrian Empire, and later moved to the US. His work on mechanical and electrical engineering was crucial to the development of alternating current technology, the same technology that is used by equipment at the backbone of modern power generation and distribution systems.

58D Toondom’s Olive : OYL

E. C. Segar’s cartoon character Olive Oyl had quite a large family. Her mother is Nana Oyl, and her father Cole Oyl. Olive’s brother is Castor Oyl, and she has uncles named Otto Oyl and Lubry Kent Oyl (my favorite!).