0121-26 NY Times Crossword 21 Jan 26, Wednesday

Bill’s time: 11m 14s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Practiced pitches : SPIELS

A spiel is a lengthy speech or argument designed to persuade, like a sales pitch. “Spiel” comes to us from German, either directly (“spiel” is the German for “play”) or via the Yiddish “shpil”.

14A “Lee has a hot bowl of ___ to start off his day” : CONGEE

Congee is an Asian dish. It is a gruel prepared by cooking rice in water for an extended period, long enough for the grains to practically disintegrate.

16A Enemy of the Avengers : ULTRON

The Avengers are a team of superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe. The original lineup, which dates back to 1963, consisted of Ant-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and the Wasp. Soon after their formation, the Avengers rescued Captain America trapped in ice, and thereafter he joined the team. There is a 2012 movie called “The Avengers” that features Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Thor.

17A Ones with the munchies, maybe : POTHEADS

“Potiguaya” is the Mexican-Spanish word for “marijuana leaves”. The slang name “pot” comes from “potiguaya”.

19A Like those local to Universal Studios Japan : OSAKAN

Universal Studios Japan opened in Osaka in 2001, and is modeled on the sister Universal Orlando Resort. The Osaka park receives about 8 million visitors a year.

22A Like the study of the kabbalah : ESOTERIC

Something described as esoteric is meant only for a select few with special knowledge. The term “esoteric” comes from the Greek “esoterikos” meaning “belonging to an inner circle”.

“Cabala” refers to a Jewish mystical doctrine. The word has several spellings, including “Kabbalah”, “Qabalah” and “Cabalah”, which can correspond to different historical and theological traditions. The Hebrew root of the term means “to receive”, which is a reference to the oral tradition of receiving mystical knowledge.

26A Polarizing punctuation choice : SERIAL COMMA

Also called an Oxford comma and Harvard comma, a serial comma is the comma in a list of terms before the word “and”, as in “clues, answers, and crosswords”. The use of the Oxford comma is controversial, accepted more on this side of the Atlantic than the other. Personally, I use the Oxford comma when it seems appropriate verbally, when a pause adds to the sentence. But then, my English teacher really didn’t approve of any of my opinions …

31A Bracket-busting wins in March Madness : UPSETS

“March Madness” is the name given to the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship (among others), that is held in the spring each year. Another name is “the Big Dance”.

In the context of a sports tournament, a bracket buster is a lower-seeded team or individual that unexpectedly defeats a higher-seeded opponent, disrupting predictions and potentially changing the outcome of the tournament.

37A “Says ___ to his neighbor, then heads on his way” : NIHAO

One might say “ni hao” (also “nihao”) in Chinese to mean “hello”, although a more literal translation is “you good”.

42A Like the villain at the end of a “Scooby-Doo” episode : OUTED

“Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” is a series of cartoons produced for Hanna-Barbera Productions, first broadcast in 1969. The title character is a great Dane dog befriended by a young male called Shaggy Rogers. The character’s name was inspired by the famous “doo-be-doo-be-doo” refrain in the Frank Sinatra hit “Strangers in the Night”. Shaggy was voiced by famed disk jockey Casey Kasem. Shaggy and Scooby’s friends are Velma, Fred and Daphne.

45A Jay-Z’s and Alicia Keys’s “___ State of Mind” : EMPIRE

“Empire State of Mind” is a 2009 song released by Jay-Z, and featuring Alicia Keys. The song’s writers, Angela Hunte and Janet Sewell-Ulepic, wrote it as a tribute to New York City, their hometown. The title is reminiscent of the title of the Billy Joel 1976 hit “New York State of Mind”, and may be a reference to the “Empire State” and/or the “Empire State Building”.

46A Classic P.O.W. movie starring Steve McQueen, with “The” : … GREAT ESCAPE

“The Great Escape” is a 1950 nonfiction book by Paul Brickhill that recounts the story of a mass escape from Stalag Luft III in Germany. Brickhill was actually a participant in the breakout. Famously, the book was adapted into a very successful 1963 movie starring Steve McQueen and Richard Attenborough.

Apparently, Steve McQueen wasn’t the easiest actor to work with, at least as far as directors were concerned. He pretty much had a free rein though, as he was so popular with the public in the seventies (he had the nickname “The King of Cool”). McQueen was the highest-paid movie star in 1974.

55A Govt. org. in “Alias” : CIA

“Alias” is an action show that was aired by ABC from 2001 to 2006. Star of the show is Jennifer Garner. Garner plays a CIA agent named Sydney Bristow who must adopt multiple aliases over the series for her missions, while concealing her real career from family and friends. Sydney’s mother is a former Russian spy played by the marvelous Lena Olin.

58A Entertainer who says “If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?” : RUPAUL

RuPaul is a famous drag queen who has developed a diverse career beyond performing on stage. He works as an actor, model, author and a recording artist. Famously, RuPaul doesn’t mind whether one addresses him as “he” or as “she” …

You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee; I don’t care! Just as long as you call me.

He currently hosts his own reality TV show called “RuPaul’s Drag Race”, which is billed as a search for “America’s next drag superstar”.

60A Inflation measures, for short : PSIS

Pounds per square inch (PSI) is a measure of pressure.

63A Eagles’ nests : AERIES

Eagles have extraordinary eyesight that is several times stronger than that enjoyed by humans. The average eagle weighs about ten pounds, and yet has eyes that are about the same size as human eyes.

65A “With gossip and beer over Friday’s ___ game” : MAHJONG

Mahjong (also “mahjongg” and “mah-jongg”) is the Chinese word for “sparrow”. Mahjong is a game that originated in China, and is usually played by four players. There is a myth that the game was developed by the Chinese philosopher, Confucius. The myth also suggests that Confucius was fond of birds, and hence chose the name “sparrow”.

66A “With gossip and beer over Friday’s ___ game” : BRIDGE

The version of the card game bridge that is played mostly today is contract bridge. Auction bridge is a similar game, and is a precursor to contract bridge.

68A Luxurious cotton fabric : SATEEN

Sateen is a cotton fabric. It has a weave that is “four over, one under”, meaning that most of the threads come to the surface to give it a softer feel.

Down

2D Some pullover shirts : POLOS

René Lacoste was a French tennis player who went into the clothing business, and came up with a more comfortable shirt that players could use. This became known as a “tennis shirt”. When it was adopted for use in the sport of polo, the shirts also became known as “polo shirts”. The “golf shirt” is basically the same thing. The Lacoste line of clothing features a crocodile logo, because René was nicknamed “The Crocodile”.

4D Bird with a plume that, ounce for ounce, was once worth more than gold : EGRET

Egrets are a group of several species of white herons. Many egret species were faced with extinction in the 1800s and early 1900s due to plume hunting, a practice driven by the demand for egret plumes that could be incorporated into hats.

5D Constellation near the Big Dipper : LEO

The constellation named Leo can be said to resemble a lion. Others say that it resembles a bent coat hanger. “Leo” is the Latin for “lion”, but I’m not sure how to translate “coat hanger” into Latin …

6D Gentlemen, in Granada : SENORES

Granada is a city and province in Andalusia in the south of Spain. Granada should not be confused with Grenada (note the different spelling), an island nation in the Caribbean that was invaded by the US in 1983.

17D “Life across the ___ is much the same” : PACIFIC OCEAN

The Pacific Ocean was given its name by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. When Magellan sailed into the ocean on his 1521 circumnavigation of the globe, he encountered favorable winds and so called it “Mar Pacifico” meaning “peaceful sea”.

29D Athlete aiming for a four-minute finish, perhaps : MILER

The 4-minute barrier for the mile run was first broken in 1954 by Roger Bannister, when he finished in 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds. If you plan on running a 4-minute mile, you should probably be warned that this means you have to run the whole race at an average speed of over 15 mph (do the math!).

44D Bona fide : GENUINE

“Bona fide(s)” translates from the Latin as “in good faith”, and is used to indicate honest intentions. It can also mean that something is authentic, like a piece of art that is represented in good faith as being genuine.

51D Spar on a sailing boat : SPRIT

A sprit is a pole that extends out from a mast, one often supporting a special sail called a spritsail.

52D Comment that breaks the fourth wall : ASIDE

In the theater world, the fourth wall is an imaginary plane at the front of the stage through which the audience experiences the action. When a character acknowledges the existence of the audience, perhaps by addressing them, he or she is said to have broken the fourth wall.

53D Feudal lord : LIEGE

A liege was a feudal lord, one to whom service or allegiance was owed under feudal law. “Liege” was also the term used for one who owed allegiance or service to a lord. Apparently the term is influenced by the Latin verb “ligare” meaning “to tie, bind”. So, I guess both lord and servant were “bound” to each other.

54D German steel city : ESSEN

Essen is a large industrial city located on the River Ruhr in western Germany. The city experienced major population growth in the mid-1800s that was driven by the iron works established by the Krupp family.

55D Provide for free, as a drink : COMP

To comp is to give for free, with “comp” coming from “complimentary”.

59D Collectible caps in the ’90s : POGS

The game of pogs was originally played with bottle caps from POG fruit juice. The juice was named for its constituents, passion fruit, orange and guava.

62D Steely Dan album whose name is pronounced “Asia” : AJA

Steely Dan’s heyday was in the seventies when they toured for a couple of years, although the group mainly focused on studio work. The band was formed in 1972 and broke up in 1981. The core of the band reunited in 1993, and is still performing today despite the passing of founding member Walter Becker in 2017. Steely Dan’s best-selling album is “Aja” (pronounced like “Asia”), which was released in 1977.

64D The Three Kingdoms in Chinese history, e.g. : ERA

During the Three Kingdoms Period in Chinese history, there were three kingdoms vying for control of China. The three competing kingdoms were Wei, Shu and Wu.