1123-25 NY Times Crossword 23 Nov 25, Sunday

Bill’s time: 18m 12s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

20A Certain vacation booking in Madrid? : SPANISH RAMADA (from “Spanish Armada”)

The Ramada Inn hotel chain takes its name from the Spanish word for a shady resting place. A ramada is a shelter with a roof and no walls, mainly found in the American southwest. Nowadays a ramada can be temporary or permanent, but originally ramadas were makeshift shelters constructed by aboriginal Indians from branches or bushes.

The Spanish Armada sailed from Spain with an invasion force intent on overthrowing Queen Elizabeth I of England. The fleet was repulsed by the English, who launched an effective fireship attack on the Spanish. After smaller engagements with the English, the Spanish Armada suffered its greatest losses in severe storms in the North Atlantic that left many vessels wrecked on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. Of the 130 vessels in the original invading force, only two thirds returned to Spain. The storms that help save Queen Elizabeth I’s throne are often referred to collectively as “the Protestant Wind”.

22A Things from a distant land : EXOTICA

The word “exotic” means “belonging to another country”, and is derived from the Greek “exo-” meaning “outside”. Exotica are things that are excitingly strange, often from foreign parts.

23A Samwise ___, companion of Frodo Baggins : GAMGEE

Samwise Gamgee is the sidekick to Frodo Baggins in Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”. “Sam” is portrayed by American actor Sean Astin in the Peter Jackson big screen adaptations of the novels.

24A Number of ancient kings in pre-Republic Rome : VII

Ancient Rome went through three distinct periods. From 753 to 509 BC, Rome was a kingdom founded by the legendary Romulus. From 509 to 27 BC, Rome was a republic. The Roman Republic started with the overthrow of the last monarch Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. He was replaced by two elected consuls who were advised by a senate. The Republic evolved over time, but came to an end when Octavian expanded his power and declared himself “First Citizen”. Octavian effectively became Rome’s first emperor, and took the name “Caesar Augustus”. The “Fall of the Western Roman Empire” took place in the 5th century, formally ending in 476 CE when the last emperor Romulus Augustus was deposed. The Eastern Roman Empire survived as the Byzantine Empire, which was centered on Constantinople.

28A Billions and billions of boutique items? : OCTILLION DRESSES (from “cotillion dresses”)

“Cotillion” is an American term that we’ve been using since about 1900 for a formal ball. In France, a cotillion was a type of dance, with the term deriving from an Old French word for a petticoat. I guess the cotillion dance was one in which the lady would flash her petticoats as she did a twirl!

37A Programming pioneer Lovelace : ADA

Ada Lovelace’s real name and title was Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the poet. Lovelace was fascinated by mathematics and wrote about the work done by Charles Babbage in building his groundbreaking mechanical computer. In some of her notes, she proposed an algorithm for Babbage’s machine to compute Bernoulli numbers. This algorithm is recognized by many as the world’s first computer program and so Lovelace is sometimes called the first “computer programmer”. There is a computer language called “Ada” that was named in her honor. The Ada language was developed from 1977 to 1983 for the US Department of Defense.

43A Actress Conn who played Frenchy in “Grease” : DIDI

Didi Conn, born Edith Bernstein, played a great character named “Frenchy” in the “Grease” films. Conn also played Stacy Jones in the children’s television show “Shining Time Station” in the late eighties-early nineties.

“Grease” is a very successful stage musical with a blockbuster film version released in 1978. The movie stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Travolta wasn’t the first choice for the lead role. It was first offered to Henry Winkler of “Happy Days” fame in which he played “the Fonz”. Winkler turned down the role for fear of being typecast as a leather-clad fifties “hood”.

44A What Wile E. Coyote thinks before his new purchase backfires? : ACME TO THE RESCUE (from “came to the rescue”)

The Acme Corporation is a fictional company used mainly by Looney Tunes, and within the Looney Tunes empire it appears mostly in “Road Runner” cartoons. Wile E. Coyote is always receiving a new piece of gear from Acme designed to finally capture the Road Runner, but the equipment always leads to his downfall.

49A Indiana pro athlete : PACER

The Indiana Pacers are a professional basketball team based in Indianapolis, who play in the NBA. The name was chosen when the team was formed in 1967. “Pacers” is a homage to harness racing pacers (famed in Indiana) and the pace car used in the Indianapolis 500.

50A Nest egg inits. : IRA

A nest egg is an amount of money laid down as a reserve. This is the figurative use of “nest egg” that originally described an artificial egg left in a nest to encourage a hen to lay real eggs in that spot. So our financial nest egg is set aside in anticipation of continued growth, more eggs being laid.

51A Nashville-to-Asheville dir. : ESE

The Tennessee city of Nashville was founded in 1779 near a stockade in the Cumberland River valley called Fort Nashborough. Both the settlement and the fort were named for General Francis Nash, a war hero who died in combat during the American Revolution.

Samuel Ashe was the Governor of North Carolina from 1795 to 1798. North Carolina’s Ashe County and the cities of Asheboro and Asheville are named in his honor.

52A Big name in kitchenware : OXO

The OXO line of kitchen utensils and housewares is designed to be ergonomically superior to the average household tools. The intended user of OXO products is someone who doesn’t have the normal range of motion or strength in the hands e.g. someone suffering from arthritis.

53A San Francisco’s ___ Valley : NOE

Noe Valley is a neighborhood in San Francisco. The area is named after José de Jesús Noé who was the last Mexican mayor of Yerba Buena, which is what San Francisco was called when it was part of Mexico.

56A Tiny stinger : RED ANT

Fire ants are stinging ants, and many species are known as red ants. Most stinging ants bite their prey and then spray acid on the wound. The fire ant, however, bites to hold on and then injects an alkaloid venom from its abdomen, creating a burning sensation in humans who have been nipped.

63A Activity for a nimble-footed noble in Imperial Russia? : DANCING WITH THE TSARS (from “Dancing with the Stars”)

When I was growing up in Ireland, there was a surprisingly popular BBC television show featuring professional ballroom dancing called “Come Dancing”. It ran almost every year from 1949 to 1998, and in 2004 the BBC resurrected it with a new twist, adding celebrities to dance with the professionals. The new show, called “Strictly Come Dancing”, is a huge success and has become a worldwide franchise. Over here we watch the American version called “Dancing with the Stars”. It really can be fun television …

67A Cocktails with curaçao : MAI TAIS

The mai tai cocktail is strongly associated with the Polynesian islands, but the drink was supposedly invented in 1944 in Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland, California. One recipe is 6 parts white rum, 3 parts orange curaçao, 3 parts orgeat syrup, 1 part rock candy syrup, 2 parts fresh lime juice, all mixed with ice and then a float added of 6 parts dark rum. “Maita’i” is the Tahitian word for “good”.

The liqueur known as Curaçao comes from the island of Curaçao in the southern Caribbean. The liqueur is usually given artificial coloring to make it suitable for use in exotic cocktails. The common colors used are blue and orange.

74A Many a Yeshiva student : JEW

In the Jewish tradition, a yeshiva is an educational institution focusing on the study of sacred texts.

75A Kiss ___ : CAM

The kiss cam is a diversion during some sporting events in which a video camera picks out random couples in the crowd, projecting their image onto the giant screen at the venue. The couples are encouraged to kiss, for the entertainment of the fans. Famously, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama kissed for the kiss cam at a basketball game a few years ago, as did former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.

76A Olive of old cartoons : 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!).

79A Figure who might say “Look at me on the cover of all these fashion magazines!”? : EGOCENTRIC MODEL (from “geocentric model”)

Heliocentrism is the astronomical model that has the Earth and other planets revolving around the Sun at the center of the Solar System. The geocentric model holds that the Earth is the center of the Universe.

88A Observes Ramadan, in a way : FASTS

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Fasting during Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The fast begins at dawn and ends at sunset each day. The end of Ramadan is marked by a three-day festival called Eid al-Fitr, which means “festival of breaking the fast.”

90A Sugar suffix : -OSE

Sugars are usually named using the “-ose” suffix e.g., glucose, fructose, sucrose.

91A One might have a “How’s My Driving?” bumper sticker : SEMI

A “semi” is a “semi-trailer truck”. The vehicle is so called because it consists of a tractor and a half-trailer. The half-trailer is so called because it only has wheels on the back end, with the front supported by the tractor.

92A Home of eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains : NEPAL

Nepal lies to the northeast of India. Today, the state is known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. In 2008, the Communist Party of Nepal won the country’s general election. Soon after, the Assembly voted to change the form of government, moving away from a monarchy and creating a secular republic.

101A Bananas : LOCO

In Spanish, if one isn’t “sano” (sane) one might be described as “loco” (crazy).

The expression “to go bananas”, meaning “to become excited or angry”, is one that I would have imagined had a clear etymology but that doesn’t seem to be the case. A further surprise is that we’ve only been “going bananas” since the sixties, the days of flower power. One apt theory about the hippy roots of the phrase is that there was an unfounded belief that ingesting roasted banana peels had a similar hallucinogenic effect as magic mushrooms.

102A Naked ___ jaybird : AS A

The phrase “naked as a jaybird” dates back at least to 1943. Before that, back into the late 1800s, the equivalent phrase was “naked as a robin”. Going back further in time, the phrase “naked as a needle” was used in the late 1500s.

103A Contrarian in a nursery rhyme : MARY

Mary, Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With silver bells, and cockle shells, And pretty maids all in a row.

104A Jedi trained by Luke Skywalker : REY

Rey is a central character in the “Star Wars” universe who first appeared in 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. She is trained as a Jedi by Luke Skywalker and his sister Princess Leia Organa. In honor of her mentors, she takes the name Rey Skywalker, and eventually becomes “The Last Jedi”. Rey is played by British actress Daisy Ridley.

105A Country singer Yearwood : TRISHA

Trisha Yearwood is an American country music singer. She was discovered by the man who is now her third husband, country music legend Garth Brooks.

115A Stop, to a sailor : HEAVE TO

The nautical command “heave to” is an instruction to bring a vessel to a halt. The command especially applies to the maneuvering of a sailing vessel into the wind and trimming the sails so that they act against each other, hence keeping the head of the boat pointed into the wind.

116A Sargasso Sea quartet : ESSES

There is a quartet of letters S (esses) in the name “Sargasso Sea”.

The Sargasso Sea is an area within the Atlantic Ocean that is famous as the home to many species of Sargassum, the algae floating on the surface that gives the area its name. The Sargasso Sea is also where both European and American species of eel lay their eggs and hatch their young. The young eels (or “elvers”) then head east or west, depending on the species.

Down

2D Love ___ : LANGUAGE

Gary Chapman wrote a 1992 book called “The Five Love Languages” in which he suggested that there are five ways that someone might express and experience love. Those five “love languages” are:

1. Words of affirmation (compliments)
2. Quality time
3. Gifts
4. Acts of service
5. Physical touch

3D Canine frenemy of Garfield : ODIE

Odie is Garfield’s best friend, and is a slobbery beagle. Both are characters in Jim Davis’ comic strip named “Garfield”.

4D Leisurely evening walk : PASEO

A paseo is a slow stroll or walk taken outdoors, particularly one taken in the evening. The term “paseo” comes from the Spanish “pasear” meaning “to take a stroll”.

5D Addis Ababa’s country: Abbr. : ETH

Addis Ababa, which means “new flower” in Amharic, is the capital city of Ethiopia and one of the highest capital cities in the world, situated at an altitude of 2,400 meters above sea level. It is also home to the African Union, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and other international organizations.

7D Mark who portrayed Luke Skywalker : HAMILL

Actor Mark Hamill is best known (by far) for playing Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars” movies. That said, fans of “Batman: The Animated Series” will know him as the voice actor behind the Joker.

13D Cousin of Gomez Addams : ITT

Gomez and Morticia (“Tish”) Addams were the parents in “The Addams Family”, a creation of cartoonist Charles Addams. In the sixties television show, Gomez was played by John Astin and Morticia was played by Carolyn Jones.

14D When the first mammals and dinosaurs appeared : TRIASSIC PERIOD

The Triassic period lasted from about 250 to 200 million years ago. It was during the Triassic that dinosaurs first appeared. A major extinction event at the end of the Triassic allowed dinosaurs to dominate the landscape throughout the subsequent Jurassic period.

21D Do the Wright thing? : AVIATE

The Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, used knowledge gained from manufacturing and repairing bicycles when designing the world’s first motor-driven airplane. The key to their success was the development of a mechanical system for controlled flight, building on the existing progress made by others in the fields of wing and engine design.

25D Big fiasco : SNAFU

“SNAFU” is an acronym standing for “situation normal: all fouled up” (well, that’s the polite version!). As one might perhaps imagine, the term developed in the US Army, during WWII.

29D Jalopy : CRATE

The origins of our word “jalopy”, meaning “dilapidated, old motor car”, seem to have been lost in time, but the word has been around since the 1920s. One credible suggestion is that it comes from Xalapa, Mexico as the Xalapa scrap yards were the destination for many discarded American automobiles.

30D John in the Radio Hall of Fame : TESH

John Tesh is a pianist and composer, as well as a radio and television presenter. For many years Tesh presented the show “Entertainment Tonight”. For “ET” he once covered the filming of an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. As part of the piece, he volunteered to act as a Klingon warrior. If you see the “Star Trek: TNG” episode called “The Icarus Factor” in reruns, watch out for John Tesh engaging in ritual torture with Mr. Worf as his victim.

The National Radio Hall of Fame is located on the second floor of the Museum of Broadcast Communication in Chicago.

32D Like many of Horace’s works : ODIC

One of ancient Rome’s leading lyric poets was Quintus Horatius Flaccus or “Horace”, as we tend to know him. Horace’s most famous work is probably his collection of Latin lyric poems titled “Carmina” (the Latin for “Odes”).

40D Little reminders : POST-ITS

The Post-it note was invented at 3M following the accidental discovery of a low-tack, reusable adhesive. The actual intent of the development program was to produce a super-strong adhesive.

44D Word with gauge or guitar : AIR …

The concept of playing an imaginary electric guitar (an “air guitar”) is so popular that there are several championship competitions held. There has even been a world championship since 1996. Crazy …

46D It opened in 1835 with a Chamber of Horrors : MADAME TUSSAUDS

Marie Tussaud was a wax sculptor from France. Some of her early work was very gruesome as she lived through the French Revolution. She would take the decapitated heads of executed citizens and use them to make death masks which were then paraded through the streets. She eventually moved to London, taking with her a vast collection of wax models made by her and her father. She opened a museum to display the works, and Madame Tussauds wax museum is a major attraction in the city to this day.

47D Rice-A-___ : RONI

Rice-A-Roni was introduced in 1958 by the Golden Grain Macaroni Company of San Francisco. The company was run by an Italian immigrant and his four sons. The wife of one of the sons created a pilaf dish for the family diner they owned. It was a big hit, so her brother-in-law created a commercial version by blending dry chicken soup mix with rice and macaroni. Sounds like “a San Francisco treat” to me …

48D Charge to redeem mutual funds : EXIT FEE

A mutual fund is a type of investment vehicle that pools money from many investors and invests it in a variety of securities.

49D The national fruit of Japan, the kaki, is a variety of it : PERSIMMON

The persimmon is the edible fruit of several species of tree, and in botanical terms is actually a berry.

57D Japan’s largest carrier : ANA

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is a Japanese airline, one that is now larger in size than the nation’s flag carrier Japan Airlines (JAL).

58D Some sci-fi film effects, in brief : CGI

Computer-generated imagery (CGI)

60D 4×4, for one : ATV

All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

A 4×4 vehicle has a four-wheel drive system where the engine can send power to all four of its wheels simultaneously. In contrast, a standard 4×2 vehicle also has four wheels, but the engine only powers two of them, either the front or the rear.

61D “Evita” narrator : CHE

“Evita” was the followup musical to “Jesus Christ Superstar” for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Both of these works were originally released as album musicals, and very successful ones at that (I remember buying them when they first came out). For the original album’s cast of “Evita” they chose Irish singer Colm Wilkinson (or C. T. Wilkinson, as we know him back in Ireland) to play “Che”, the narrator of the piece. In the movie adaptation, Che was portrayed by Antonio Banderas.

65D Goldie who won a 1969 Oscar for “Cactus Flower” : HAWN

I remember watching the ditsy character played by Goldie Hawn on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In”. Hawn used to give great performances on the show, convincing everyone that she was the stereotypical dumb blonde. Well, what a great career she was to carve out for herself!

66D Reason to see an ophthalmologist : STYE

Ophthalmology is that branch of medicine dealing with the physiology and health of the eye. “Ophthalmos” is the Greek word for “eye”.

72D Reminiscent of a certain French author’s work : ZOLAESQUE

The most famous work by French writer Émile Zola is his 1898 open letter “J’Accuse!” written to French president Félix Faure. The letter was published on the front page of a leading Paris newspaper, and accused the government of anti-Semitism in its handling of the trial of Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus was a Jewish military officer in the French army, falsely accused and convicted of spying for Germany. Even after the error was discovered, the government refused to back down and let Dreyfus rot away on Devil’s Island rather than admit to the mistake. It wasn’t until 1906, 12 years after the wrongful conviction, that Dreyfus was freed and reinstated, largely due to the advocacy of Emile Zola.

74D Banana Republic competitor : J CREW

J.Crew is a clothing and accessory retailer. Never been there, but I’ve seen the name turn up on credit card statements somehow …

82D A dirty look : THE EYE

The evil eye is a curse that is cast by giving a malicious glare.

83D Actor Malek of “The Amateur” : RAMI

Actor Rami Malek’s big break came with the leading role in the television series “Mr. Robot”. In 2018, Malik gave an Oscar-winning performance playing Freddie Mercury in the hit biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody”. That marked the first time that an actor of Egyptian descent won an Academy Award for Best Actor.

The 2025 film “The Amateur” is an espionage thriller starring Rami Malek, based on the 1981 novel of the same name by Robert Littell. Malek portrays a CIA cryptographer who, after his wife is killed in a terrorist attack, demands to be trained as a field agent to seek revenge. I really enjoyed this one …

89D Mortal mother of Dionysus : SEMELE

Dionysus was the party animal of Greek mythology. He was the god of wine, ritual madness, insanity and ecstasy! My kind of guy …

91D Lithe : SVELTE

“Svelte” comes into English from Latin, via the Italian “svelto” meaning “stretched out”. Something or someone described as svelte would be slender and graceful.

93D Puts forward : POSITS

To “posit” is to assume as fact, to lay down as a “position”.

97D Tears down : RAZES

To raze (“rase”, in British English) is to level to the ground. I’ve always thought it a little quirky that “raise”, a homophone of “raze”, means “build up”.

98D Bonanza discoveries : ORES

A bonanza is a mine with a rich pocket of ore that can be exploited. “Bonanza” is the Spanish word describing a rich lode, and we imported the term into English. “Bonanza” originally meant “fair weather at sea”, and from that came to mean “prosperity, good fortune”. Ultimately, “bonanza” comes from the Latin “bonus” meaning “good”.

99D Aquatic apex predators : ORCAS

An apex predator is at the top of a food chain, and has no other natural predators. Examples are the orca (“killer whale”) in the oceans, the lion in Africa, and the Tyrannosaurus in the days of the dinosaurs.

100D Legendary snake exterminator, familiarly : ST PAT

One of the more commonly known facts about my native Ireland is that there are no snakes in the country (outside of politics, that is). A lesser known fact is that there are no moles either. There are plenty of snakes and moles in Britain, just a few miles away. Over a pint, we tend to give the credit to Saint Patrick, but the last ice age is more likely the responsible party …

106D Emulate a vagabond : ROVE

A vagabond is a person without a home who moves from place to place. The term derives from the Latin “vagabundus” meaning “wandering, strolling about”.

109D Kind of PC port : USB

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard dealing with how computers and electronic devices connect and communicate, and dealing with electrical power through those connections.

110D Museum-funding org. : NEA

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an agency funded by the federal government that offers support and financing for artistic projects. The NEA was created by an Act of Congress in 1965. Between 1965 and 2008, the NEA awarded over $4 billion to the arts, with Congress authorizing around $170 million annually through the eighties and much of the nineties. That funding was cut to less than $100 million in the late nineties due to pressure from conservatives concerned about the use of funds, but it is now back over the $200 million mark.

111D Tuna often served tartare : AHI

Steak tartare was first served in French restaurants in the early 1900s. Back then, the dish went by the name “steak à l’Americaine”, would you believe? It was basically raw, seasoned beef mixed with egg yolk. A later version of l’Americaine, without the egg yolk and with tartar sauce served on the side, was dubbed “steak tartare”. Over time the two versions became one, and the steak tartare moniker won out. By the way, if you order steak tartare in Switzerland, I believe you are served horse meat. There are now similar “tartare” dishes made with raw salmon, or raw tuna.

112D Stimpy’s cartoon pal : REN

“The Ren & Stimpy Show” is an animated television serial created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi, and which ran on Nickelodeon from 1991 to 1996. The title characters are Marland “Ren” Höek, a scrawny Chihuahua, and Stimpson J. Cat, a rotund Manx cat. Not my cup of tea …