0308-26 NY Times Crossword 8 Mar 26, Sunday

Bill’s time: 18m 04s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

12A Some budget-friendly grocery stores : ALDI’S

Discount supermarket chain ALDI features a central aisle of rotating items that are available at low, low prices for a limited time. The store refers to this as the “Aldi Finds” aisle, perhaps because the goods on display have little or nothing to do with grocery shopping. Fans of the Aldi Finds aisle are fond of referring to it as the “aisle of shame”.

17A It’s on a roll! : 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”.

20A Minimalist swimwear : SPEEDO

Speedo brand swimwear was first produced in Australia, in 1928 by a hosiery company that wanted to diversify. The brand name was chosen after a slogan competition among employees was won by “Speed on in your Speedos”. It was a long time ago, I guess …

21A Mineral found in seaweed : IODINE

The chemical element iodine is a halogen (as are fluorine, chlorine and bromine) and has the symbol “I”. At room temperature, iodine is a purple-black solid. With heat, it melts into violet liquid, and at high temperatures a violet gas. The name “iodine” comes from the Greek “ioeides” meaning “violet-colored”.

What’s commonly known as sea oak in North America, we usually refer to as bladderwrack back in Ireland. It is a seaweed, one that was the original source of iodine and was used to treat goiter.

22A Certain supervisor on a film set : KEY GRIP

On a film set, grips are lighting and rigging technicians who set up the infrastructure that supports lights, cameras etc. The key grip is the leader of the whole team. The first grips were technicians that worked in circuses in its early days. The name “grip” possibly comes from the bags called grips, in which the technicians carried their tools.

24A Cozy garment : SWEATER

Until the early 1880s, the word “sweater” applied to clothing worn specifically for weight reduction by “sweating”.

27A Setting for “Gorillas in the Mist” : RWANDA

Rwanda is a sovereign nation in central Africa that is populated by three groups: the Hutu, Tutsi (aka “Watusi”) and Twa. The Tutsi are the second largest population of people in Rwanda, with the Hutu being the largest group. The bloody conflict that has existed between the Tutsi and Hutu peoples dates back to about 1880 when Catholic missionaries arrived in the region. The missionaries found that they had more success converting the Hutus than the Tutsi, and when the Germans occupied the area during WWI they confiscated Tutsi land and gave it to Hutu tribes in order to reward religious conversion. This injustice fuels fighting to this very day.

“Gorillas in the Mist” is a 1988 film that tells the story of naturalist Dian Fossey’s work with mountain gorillas in Rwanda. The movie is based on Fossey’s 1983 book of the same name, and features Sigourney Weaver playing the lead.

34A Most slipshod : SLOPPIEST

Someone or something described as slipshod is slovenly in appearance or sloppy. The term “slipshod” probably comes from the idea of someone appearing in one’s slippers, someone who hasn’t made an effort in their dress.

37A Etta James record in the Grammy Hall of Fame : AT LAST

The 1942 song “At Last” was written for the 1941 musical film “Sun Valley Serenade” in which it is performed by Glenn Miller and his orchestra. Etta James recorded a version of “At Last” in 1960, after which it became her signature song.

40A Californie, par exemple : ETAT

In French, “Californie” (California) is an “état” (state).

41A “Big Blue” : IBM

The origin of the IBM nickname “Big Blue” seems to have been lost in the mists of time. That said, maybe it has something to do with the fact that the IBM logo is blue, and almost every mainframe they produced was painted blue. I remember visiting IBM on business a few times in my career, and back then we were encouraged to wear white shirts and blue suits “to fit in” with our client’s culture.

42A So-called “rooster sauce” : SRIRACHA

Sriracha hot chili sauce is named for the coastal city of Si Racha in eastern Thailand, where the recipe likely originated. Here in North America, we are most familiar with the Sriracha sold in a red bottle with a green top that is made by Huy Fong Foods in the city of Irwindale, California. The manufacturer was founded by Vietnamese refugee David Tran, who escaped from Vietnam in 1978 on a Taiwanese freighter called the Huey Fong, after which he named his new company.

44A Fails ignominiously, in slang : EATS IT

Ignominy is deep personal humiliation and disgrace. It literally means “loss of name”, coming from the Latin “ignominia”, which is derived from “ig-” (not) and “nomen” (name). So, it describes a disgrace so deep it essentially strips away one’s reputation or “good name”.

46A Drag show accessories : BOAS

The etymology of the term “drag”, as used in the transvestite world, seems to be unclear. It perhaps relates to the tendency of a transvestite’s skirts to drag along the ground in days of old (although why they just didn’t hitch up their skirts is beyond me!).

48A “___ Song” (Taylor Swift hit) : OUR

“Our Song” is a number recorded by Taylor Swift in 2006. Swift wrote the song during her freshman year, for a high school talent show.

51A Beethoven’s ___ (the “Fate” Symphony) : FIFTH

Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5” has one of the most recognizable openings in the whole of the classical repertoire, and comprises just four simple notes. The work is sometimes referred to as the “Fate Symphony”, with that opening motif representing Fate knocking at the door.

55A Caitlin Clark’s alma mater : IOWA

Basketball great Caitlin Clark was the first selection in the 2024 WNBA draft, and signed up with the Indiana Fever. Her quality of play and success on the court has helped popularize women’s basketball. That boost in popularity has been dubbed “the Caitlin Clark effect”.

58A ___ tai (cocktail) : MAI

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”.

61A “Je vous en ___” (French words of politeness) : PRIE

“Je vous en prie” is French for “you are welcome”.

68A “Vous êtes ___” (notation on a French map) : ICI

“Vous êtes ici” are important words to know when navigating your way around Paris. They mean “You are here”, and you’ll often see them on maps in the street.

82A Make out, in Manchester : 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.

86A Soft shoe, informally : MOC

“Moc” is short for “moccasin”, a type of shoe. The moccasin is a traditional form of footwear worn by members of many Native American tribes.

88A Ephron who wrote “When Harry Met Sally …” : NORA

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.

“When Harry Met Sally… “ is a 1989 romantic comedy starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in the title roles. This marvelous film was written by the late Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. There’s a famous scene in the movie, filmed in Katz’s Deli in Manhattan, in which the character Sally (fully clothed, while eating) fakes an orgasm at the table in front of Harry. A woman at a nearby table places her order saying, “I’ll have what she’s having”. That woman was Estelle Reiner, director Rob Reiner’s mother. To this day, there is a sign in Katz’s, pointing to Harry and Sally’s table, that reads “Where Harry met Sally… hope you have what she had! Enjoy!”

93A Sch. in College Station, Tex. : A AND M

Texas A&M is the seventh largest university in the country, and was the first public higher education institute in the state when it accepted its first students in 1876. The full name of the school was the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (hence “A&M”) and its primary mission used to be the education of males in the techniques of farming and military warfare. That’s quite a combination! Because of the agricultural connection, the college’s sports teams use the moniker “Aggies”. Texas A&M is also home to the George Bush Presidential Library.

98A Reactor safety agcy. : NRC

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) oversees most aspects of the safety of nuclear power plants and nuclear fuel in the US.

106A Ancient Greek instrument : LYRE

The lyre is a stringed instrument that is most closely associated with ancient Greece, and with the gods Hermes and Apollo in particular. According to myth, Hermes slaughtered a cow from a sacred herd belonging to Apollo and offered it to the gods but kept the entrails. Hermes used the entrails to make strings that he stretched across the shell of a tortoise, creating the first lyre. Apollo liked the sound from the lyre and agreed to accept it as a trade for his herd of cattle.

107A Muppet who was once a regular guest on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show” : ELMO

We don’t get to see Rosie O’Donnell on the screen very much these days. She had a very successful chat show that ran from 1996 to 2002. My favorite performance of hers on the big screen is in a supporting role to Meg Ryan in the 1993 movie “Sleepless in Seattle”.

110A Loo : LAV

Our word “lavatory” (sometimes “lav”) originally referred to a washbasin, and comes from the Latin “lavatorium”, a place for washing. In the 1600s, “lavatory” came to mean a washroom, and in the 1920s a toilet.

111A Formal notes : MEMORANDA

“Memorandum” means “thing to be remembered” in Latin, from the verb “memorare” meaning “to call to mind”.

113A “City of a Thousand Minarets” : CAIRO

Cairo is the capital city of Egypt. It is nicknamed “The City of a Thousand Minarets” because of its impressive skyline replete with Islamic architecture. The name “Cairo” is a European corruption of the city’s original name in Arabic, “Al-Qahira”.

114A French school : ECOLE

In French, one might learn “une leçon” (a lesson) in an “école” (school).

116A Storage unit : MEGABIT

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The term “bit” is an abbreviation for “binary digit”.

119A Used-up crayons : NUBS

We use the word “crayon” for a stick of colored wax used for drawing. The term was imported in the 16th century from French, in which language it means “pencil”.

122A Big name in sparkling water : PERRIER

Perrier is bottled from spring water that is naturally carbonated. The natural carbonation is lost during the purification process, and so has to be restored artificially before bottling. The spring used by Perrier is in the South of France, and has been used since Roman times as a spa.

124A Kathmandu resident : NEPALI

Although Kathmandu (sometimes “Katmandu”) is the capital city of the lofty nation of Nepal, it sits in a bowl-shaped valley at an elevation of only 4,600 ft. Air pollution is a huge problem in the city. Industry and residents launch a lot of smog into the air, and given the surrounding geography and climate, any pollution blown away during the day tends to fall back into the valley at night.

128A Some paintings of water lilies at 116-Down : MONETS
[116D See 128-Across : MOMA]

“Water Lilies” by French Impressionist Claude Monet is actually a whole series of paintings, numbering about 250 in total. The subjects of the works were the water lilies in Monet’s flower garden at Giverny in northern France.

129A Role for Geena Davis in “A League of Their Own” : DOTTIE

“A League of Their Own” is a comedy drama film released in 1992 that tells a tale about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League active during WWII. The lead actors were Tom Hanks and Geena Davis. The film spawned one of the most famous quotes in movie history: “There’s no crying in baseball!”

Down

1D Poke fish, often : AHI

Poke is a Native Hawaiian dish featuring diced raw fish. “Poke” is a Hawaiian word meaning “to slice”.

4D Feeling of distress : AGITA

“Agita” is another name for “acid indigestion”, and more generally for “agitation, anxiety”.

8D ___ May, former British P.M. : THERESA

Theresa May won a leadership election to become UK prime minister in 2016, following the resignation of David Cameron immediately after the nation decided to withdraw from the EU (“Brexit”). As such, May became only the second female prime minister in the UK, after Margaret Thatcher.

9D Drama series co-starring Pamela Anderson : BAYWATCH

“Baywatch” is a TV series starring David Hasselhoff that is about lifeguards patrolling the beaches of Los Angeles County. Over the life of the show, the lifeguards not only had to rescue swimmers, they also had to deal with earthquakes, shark attacks, serial killers and even nuclear bombs. The trademark “look” on the show was provided by slow motion shots of the lifeguards running to someone’s rescue in those red bathing costumes.

Pamela Anderson is a Canadian American actress and model, whose most famous TV roles were on the shows “Home Improvement” and “Baywatch”. Anderson is a hot topic in the gossip columns, especially after a honeymoon sex tape was stolen from her home. Beyond all the hype, she is a very committed animal rights activist, having become a vegetarian in her teens after seeing her father cleaning an animal that he had killed while hunting.

10D ___ score (neonatal measure) : APGAR

The Apgar scale is used to assess the health of newborn babies. The newborn is evaluated in five categories that are given by the acronym APGAR, namely:

• Appearance
• Pulse
• Grimace
• Activity
• Respiration

The acronym is actually a “backronym”, as the test is named for Dr. Virginia Apgar who devised it in 1952.

12D Predinner beverage : APERITIF

An apéritif is an alcoholic drink served before a meal, to stimulate the palate. A digestif is an alcoholic drink served after a meal, to aid digestion.

15D Part of PIN: Abbr. : IDENT

One enters a Personal Identification Number (PIN) when using an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Given that the N in PIN stands for “number”, then “PIN number” is a redundant phrase. And, given that the M in ATM stands for “machine”, then “ATM machine” is a redundant phrase as well. Grr …!

20D Makes a choice on Tinder, e.g. : SWIPES

Many apps on phones are now using “swipe right” and “swipe left” actions to indicate “like” and dislike”. I suppose that the Tinder dating app is the most famous “swipe right/swipe left” app in use today.

23D Structure in a shipping container : PALLET

There is a difference between a wooden pallet and a wooden skid, both of which are used for shipping. A pallet has boards on top and bottom, whereas a skid only has boards on top.

30D Verboten : TABOO

“Verboten” is German for “forbidden”, and is a word that we have imported into English.

31D Actress who portrayed Hermione Granger : EMMA WATSON

Actress Emma Watson is best known for her role as Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” film series, which she started at the age of 11. Watson is a highly educated individual, having graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in English literature. She has also studied at Oxford University and has been recognized for her academic achievements. She is also a talented musician and has played the guitar and the piano in several films.

33D Tubman of the Underground Railroad : HARRIET

Harriet Tubman was not only a former slave who became a legendary abolitionist, but she was also a spy for the Union army during the Civil War. She gathered intelligence behind enemy lines, led raids that freed enslaved people, and even served as a nurse and cook for Union troops.

“Underground Railroad” is the name given to the network of people who helped slaves escape from the South to the free states in the North and Canada. The name was also used for the network of safe houses where the slaves could hide out en route. Some suggest that about 100,000 men, women and children were able to escape from slavery using the “Railroad”.

38D Sci-fi franchise that takes place in “the Grid” : TRON

Released in 1982, Disney’s “Tron” was one of the first mainstream films to make extensive use of computer graphics. The main role in the movie is played by Jeff Bridges. The original spawned a 2010 sequel called “Tron: Legacy”, as well as a 2012 TV show called “Tron: Uprising”. More recently, a 2025 movie “Tron: Ares” starred Jared Leto, with Bridges reprising his iconic role.

39D 2014 Peace Prize laureate Yousafzai : MALALA

“I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban” is a memoir co-written by Malala Yousafzai and British journalist Christina Lamb. The title tells the essence of Malala’s story. She started a blog when she was 11 or 12 that outlined her life in northwest Pakistan under occupation by the Taliban. As the Pakistani military regained control of the area, Malala’s story was related in a documentary and she gave frequent interviews. One day a gunman came looking for her, and found her on a school bus. He shot Malala three times, with one bullet going into her forehead. She survived, and was taken to England to recuperate. She was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at the age of 17, making her the youngest ever Nobel laureate.

43D Green eggs’ partner : HAM

Dr. Seuss’s famous children’s book “Green Eggs and Ham” was first published in 1960. The text of “Green Eggs and Ham” has a lot of “I am” going on. It starts with:

I am Sam
I am Sam
Sam I am

and ends with:

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am

45D Author who won a Pulitzer for “Beloved” : TONI MORRISON

“Beloved” is a 1987 novel by Toni Morrison about a haunted family home in Cincinnati. The disturbing storyline was inspired by real events, and a real person. Margaret Garner was a former slave who escaped from Kentucky to Ohio. US marshals tried to capture her in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Act, and found her with her dead two-year-old daughter, and attempting to kill her remaining two children and herself. Garner committed those acts rather than see herself and her family returned to slavery. The title character in the novel is supposed to be the spirit of the daughter of a former slave killed by her mother to avoid returning to a life in slavery.

47D One-named singer of “Smooth Operator” : SADE

Singer Sade’s real name is Helen Folasade Adu. Although born in Nigeria, Sade grew up and lives in the UK. She was the lead vocalist for the English group Sade, and adopted the name of the band. The band’s biggest hits were “Smooth Operator” (1984) and “The Sweetest Taboo” (1985).

50D Sally with two Oscars : FIELD

Actress Sally Field first came to the public’s attention in the sixties with title roles in the TV shows “Gidget” and “The Flying Nun”. She has two Best Actress Oscars; one for “Norma Rae” (1979) and one for “Places in the Heart” (1984).

52D Mexican painter known for her self-portraits : FRIDA KAHLO

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter famous for her self-portraits. She was married to the equally famous artist Diego Rivera. Kahlo was portrayed by actress Salma Hayek in a film about her colorful life called “Frida” released in 2002.

53D Turner who was twice inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame : TINA

“Tina Turner” was the stage name used by Anna Mae Bullock, the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Turner always loved Europe and moved there in the eighties, splitting her time between her homes in England, France and Switzerland.

54D Inventor and actress Lamarr : HEDY

Hedy Lamarr was an American actress who was actually born in Vienna in modern-day Austria. Not only was Lamarr a successful Hollywood performer, during WWII she was the co-inventor of a frequency-hopping, spread-spectrum method of transmitting radio signals that is still used in wireless communication. Impressive …

57D Tara of “Sharknado” : REID

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.

“Sharknado” is a 2013 tongue-in-cheek disaster movie that was made for the Syfy television channel. The basis of the plot is a freak hurricane that hits Los Angeles, resulting in a flood that leaves man-eating sharks roaming the city. I don’t think so …

60D ___ Spice, Grammy-nominated rapper : ICE

“Ice Spice” is the stage name of Isis Naija Gaston, a rapper born and raised in the Bronx, New York City.

63D “R.I.P.” singer Rita ___ : ORA

Rita Ora is a British singer who was born Rita Sahatçiu in Pristina, Yugoslavia to Albanian parents. The family name “Sahatçiu” comes from a Turkish word meaning “watchmaker”. Rita’s parents changed their name to make it easier to pronounce. So, the family name morphed from “watchmaker” to “time”, which is “ora” in Albanian.

67D ___ Stefani, lead vocalist for No Doubt : GWEN

Gwen Stefani is lead singer with the rock band No Doubt. She joined the band in 1986, focused on a solo career from 2004-2008, but is now back singing and working with No Doubt. She joined the reality show “The Voice” as a coach in 2014, replacing Christina Aguilera. A year later, Stefani announced a relationship with Blake Shelton, a fellow coach on “The Voice”.

69D Celebrity chef Garten : INA

Ina Garten is an author as well as the host of a cooking show on the Food Network called “Barefoot Contessa”. She is a mentee of Martha Stewart, and indeed was touted as a potential “successor” to the TV celebrity when Stewart was incarcerated in 2004 after an insider trading scandal. Garten has no formal training as a chef, and indeed used to work as a nuclear policy analyst at the White House!

71D Rae who co-created “Insecure” : ISSA

“Insecure” is a comedy-drama TV show that premiered in 2016. It is co-written by and stars Issa Rae, who also created the comedy web series “Awkward Black Girl” on which “Insecure” is based.

72D Singer and civil rights activist Simone : NINA

“Nina Simone” was the stage name of Eunice Waymon. Simone was very much associated with jazz music, although she really wanted to be a classical musician early in her career. She was inspired by a love for the music of Bach.

73D Memoirist Anaïs who wrote “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage” : NIN

Anaïs Nin was a French author who was famous for the journals that she wrote for over sixty years from the age of 11 right up to her death. Nin also wrote highly regarded erotica and cited D. H. Lawrence as someone from whom she drew inspiration. Nin was married to banker and artist Hugh Parker Guiler in 1923. Decades later in 1955, Nin married former actor Rupert Pole, even though she was still married to Guiler. Nin and Pole had their marriage annulled in 1966, but just for legal reasons, and they continued to live together as husband and wife until Nin passed away in 1977.

74D Oscar winner Lupita : NYONG’O

Lupita Nyong’o is a Kenyan Mexican actress who was born in Mexico, raised in Kenya, and educated in the US. Nyong’o got her big break in movies with an Oscar-winning supporting role in the 2013 film “12 Years a Slave”. She was named “People” magazine’s “ Most Beautiful Woman” in 2014.

75D Groundbreaking Supreme Court justice appointed in 1981 : O’CONNOR

Sandra Day O’Connor is a former associate justice on the US Supreme Court. She was the first woman appointed to the court, and was in office from 1981 after being appointed by President Reagan. As the court became more conservative she was viewed as the swing vote in many decisions. As a result, O’Connor was known as one of the most powerful women in the world. She retired in 2006 (replaced by Samuel Alito), and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2009.

87D Burnable storage unit, in brief : CD-R

“CD-ROM” stands for “compact disc read only memory”. The name indicates that you can read information from the disc (like a standard music CD for example), but you cannot write to it. You can also buy a CD-RW, which stands for “compact disc – rewritable”, with which you can read data and also write over it multiple times using a suitable CD drive. A CD-R (compact disc-recordable) is a CD that can also be read, but can be written only one time.

94D Styx song that starts “Domo arigato” : MR ROBOTO

“Mr. Roboto” is a song on the 1983 album “Kilroy Was Here” by the Chicago band Styx. The first lines of the song are:

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,
Mata ah-oo hima de
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,
Himitsu wo shiri tai

which translates as:

Thank you very much, Mr. Robot
Until the day (we) meet again
Thank you very much, Mr. Robot
I want to know your secret

106D Babe the Blue Ox, e.g. : LEGEND

Paul Bunyan is a character of American myth. He is a skilled lumberjack, and has a sidekick called Babe the Blue Ox. Both Bunyan and Babe are gigantic in size.

115D Floor show? : C-SPAN

C-SPAN is a privately-funded, nonprofit cable channel that broadcasts continuous coverage of government proceedings. The acronym stands for “Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network”.

123D ___ Speedwagon : REO

REO Speedwagon is an American rock band that formed in 1967, and is still going strong. The band’s biggest hits are “Keep On Loving You” (1980) and “Can’t Fight This Feeling” (1985). The founding members chose the name for the REO Speed Wagon flatbed truck. Note that the band’s name is one word “Speedwagon”, whereas the vehicle’s name uses two words “Speed Wagon”.