0711-26 NY Times Crossword 11 Jul 26, Saturday

Bill’s time: 18m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A ___ bowl : POKE

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

5A Eschews English, say : SKIPS CLASS

“To eschew”, meaning “to avoid, shun”, comes from the Old French word “eschiver” that means the same thing.

16A .08 for 49 of the 50 states : LEGAL LIMIT

In some states, there is no longer a legal difference between a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) and a DUI (Driving Under the Influence). Other states retain that difference, so that by definition a DUI is a lesser offense than a DWI.

18A Classic Indian film series by Satyajit Ray, with “The” : APU TRILOGY

Satyajit Ray was a Bengali filmmaker famous for directing “The Apu Trilogy”. These were three Bengali films that were released between 1955 and 1959. They featured music composed by Ravi Shankar, and are considered to be some of the greatest movies of all time by international critics, yet they were filmed on tiny budgets.

20A “Sweeney Todd” subject : PIES

“Sweeney Todd” originally appeared in a Victorian penny dreadful and an 1847 play, later inspiring a 1936 film, a 1973 play, a 1979 musical, and a 2007 movie adaptation. After Sweeney Todd has killed his victims, his partner in crime Mrs. Lovett helped him dispose of the bodies by taking the flesh and baking it into meat pies that she sold in her pie shop. Ugh!

23A Statue in East Asian temples : JOSS

A joss stick is a type of incense that is traditionally burned before religious images and shrines in many Asian cultures. The term “joss” comes into English via Portuguese from the Latin “deus” meaning “god”.

24A Org. with an annual Thanksgiving competition : AKC

The American Kennel Club (AKC) is the organization that handles registration of purebred dogs. The AKC also promotes dog shows around the country, including the famous Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

25A Business tycoon Sam : WALTON

The city of Bentonville in Arkansas is perhaps best known as the birthplace and world headquarters of Walmart. Sam Walton bought the Harrison Variety Store on the Bentonville town square in 1950. He remodeled the building and opened Walton’s 5 and 10 Variety Store (a “five and dime” store) the following year. That store has served as the Walmart Visitor’s Center since 1990.

27A “Splendid” things in a Khaled Hosseini title : SUNS

“The Kite Runner” was the first novel by Khaled Hosseini, published in 2003. The very successful book became an equally successful film released in 2007. “The Kite Runner” tells the story of a young boy named Amir growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan. Author Hosseini is a medical doctor, but after the success of “The Kite Runner” he gave up his practice and is now a full-time writer. His second book, “A Thousand Splendid Suns”, is also a great success.

29A Offering at a BBQ joint : BIB

The word “bib” comes from the Latin “bibere” meaning “to drink”, as does our word “imbibe”. So, maybe a bib is less about spilling the food, and more about soaking up the booze …

32A Words to a genie : I WISH

The “genie” in the bottle (or lamp) takes his or her name from “djinn”. “Djinns” were various spirits considered lesser than angels, with people exhibiting unsavory characteristics said to be possessed by djinn. When the book “The Thousand and One Nights” was translated into French, the word “djinn” was transformed into the existing word “génie”, because of the similarity in sound and the related spiritual meaning. This “génie” from the Arabian tale became confused with the Latin-derived “genius”, a guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at birth. Purely as a result of that mistranslation the word genie has come to mean the “djinn” that pops out of the bottle. A little hard to follow, I know, but still quite interesting …

33A “Keep Commerce Human” sloganeer : ETSY

Etsy.com was founded in 2005 as a way for artists and craftspeople to sell their handmade goods online, and has since grown to include vintage items and crafting supplies as well.

34A Angsty feeling associated with exclusion : FOMO

Fear of missing out (FOMO)

40A Eurasian divide : URALS

The eastern side of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan is generally regarded as the natural divide between the continents of Europe and Asia.

41A “Spamalot” title : SIR

The hit musical “Spamalot” is a show derived from the 1975 movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. In typical Monty Python style, the action starts just before the curtain goes up with an announcement recorded by the great John Cleese:

(You can) let your cell phones and pagers ring willy-nilly … (but) be aware there are heavily armed knights on stage that may drag you on stage and impale you.

42A Get out of Dodge : BOLT

The phrase “get out of Dodge”, meaning “scram, flee”, is a reference to Dodge City, Kansas. The phrase became a cliché on TV westerns (mainly “Gunsmoke”, I think) and was then popularized by teenagers in the sixties and seventies.

47A Huck Finn’s father : PAP

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain was first published in 1884, not here in the US but rather in England. The original launch planned for the US had to be delayed until the following year because some rascal had defaced the plate for one of the illustrations, making an obscene joke. Once the problem was spotted a new plate had to be made, and 30,000 copies already printed had to be reworked to cover up the obscenity.

51A Being in Bordeaux : ETRE

Bordeaux is perhaps the wine-production capital of the world. Wine has been produced in the area since the eighth century. Bordeaux has an administrative history too. During WWII, the French government relocated from Paris to the port city of Bordeaux when it became clear that Paris was soon to fall to the Germans. After the Germans took France, the capital was famously moved to Vichy.

52A First name in classic horror : BELA

Bela Lugosi was a Hungarian stage and screen actor who was perhaps best known for playing the title role in the 1931 film “Dracula” and for playing the same role on Broadway. Lugosi found himself typecast for the rest of his career and almost always played the role of the villain, often in horror movies. When he passed away in 1956, his wife had him buried in the costume he wore playing Count Dracula on Broadway.

55A School on the Thames : ETON

The world-famous Eton College is located just outside London. It lies between the River Thames, and the Jubilee River. The Jubilee is a 7-mile stretch of man-made waterway that was built in the late 1990s to take overflow from the Thames and reduce flooding around the nearby towns.

58A What’s kraken? : SEA MONSTER

Kraken are huge sea monsters of legend that were reputed to live off the coasts of Iceland and Norway. It’s possible that the kraken legend was inspired by real-life giant squid.

59A Big 12 team from Salt Lake City : UTES

The Utah Utes are the athletic teams of the University of Utah.

Down

1D Features of many M. Night Shyamalan films : PLOT TWISTS

M. Night Shyamalan is an Indian American screenwriter and film producer. Shyamalan has written and directed some great films, with my favorites being “The Sixth Sense” (1999), “Signs” (2002) and “The Village” (2004).

2D Home to Pearl Harbor : OAHU, HAWAII

The US Navy’s presence in Pearl Harbor dates back to 1899. The original name for the bay was “Wai Momi”, which translates from Hawaiian as “Waters of Pearl”.

5D Haphazardly add : SLAP ON

Our word “hap” means chance or fortune. It turns up combined in words like “haphazard” and even “happen”. “To happen” originally meant “to occur by hap, by chance”.

6D Military hats that may be worn with epaulets : KEPIS

A kepi is a circular cap with a visor, one that’s particularly associated with the French military.

An epaulet (also “epaulette”) is an ornamental shoulder pad, particularly one worn with a military uniform. The term “epaulet” comes from French, and translates literally as “little shoulder”.

9D Classic analog camera style : SLR

Single-lens reflex (SLR) camera

10D Falls for some bait, maybe : CLICKS

Clickbait is trickery used by website designers to entice a reader to click on a particular link. That link may be a disguised ad, so that the website owner gets some income from the advertiser.

11D Aromatic bloom : LILAC

The ornamental flowering plant known as lilac is native to the Balkans, and is a member of the olive family.

14D Target of a therapeutic tea bag : STYE

A stye is a bacterial infection of the sebaceous glands at the base of the eyelashes, and is also known as a hordeolum.

23D One of 21 popes : JOHN

The last pope named John was Pope John XXIII, who held office until his death in 1963. Even though he used the regnal number XXIII, he cannot really be considered the 23rd pope. John XVI was an antipope who made an illegitimate claim to the position from 997 to 998. In addition, there never was a Pope John XX. During the nineteenth century, historians discovered an error in records in which the papacy of John XIV was mistakenly interpreted as the reign of two different popes named John. So, the last Pope John was named the “23rd”, but was actually the “21st”.

24D Actress Taylor-Joy : ANYA

Actress Anya Taylor-Joy had quite the international upbringing. She was born in Miami, and raised in Buenos Aires and then London. She is perhaps best known for playing the title character in the 2020 film adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma”, and the lead role in the Netflix miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit”.

26D Title abolished in 1917 : TSAR

The year 1917 saw two revolutions in Russia, with the pair collectively called “the Russian Revolution”. As a result of the February Revolution that centered on Petrograd, the last Emperor of Russia (Tsar Nicholas II) abdicated and members of the Imperial parliament took control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The Provisional Government was itself overthrown in the October Revolution, which was led by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik party.

28D Some ports, for short : USBS

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.

29D Julia Child catchphrase : BON APPETIT

The phrase “Enjoy your meal” translates into French as “Bon appétit”, and into German as “Guten Appetit”.

Julia Child was an American chef who is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public. During WWII, Julia Child joined the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the predecessor to the CIA. She worked for the OSS in Washington, Ceylon and China. While in the OSS, she met her husband Paul Child who was also an OSS employee. Paul joined the Foreign Service after the war, and it was his posting to France that created the opportunity for Julia to learn about French cuisine. If you haven’t seen it, I highly, highly recommend the movie “Julie & Julia”, one of the best films of 2009. Meryl Streep does a fabulous job playing the larger-than-life Julia Child.

31D Best-selling comedic autobiography of 2011 : BOSSYPANTS

Tina Fey’s 2011 humorous autobiography “Bossypants” topped the New York Times Best Seller list for five weeks.

33D Title seen in a tea caddy : EARL

The Earl Grey blend of tea is supposedly named after Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey who was Prime Minister of the UK from 1830 to 1834. It has a distinctive flavor that is largely due to the addition of oil from the rind of the bergamot orange.

A caddy is a container used for tea. “Caddy” comes from the Malay word “kati”, a unit of weight used as a standard by British tea companies in the East Indies.

36D Arkansas : Nebraska :: Argon : ___ : NEON

Arkansas (AR) : Nebraska (NE) and Argon (AR) : NEON (NE)

37D Some characters in the Tony winning play “Doubt” : NUNS

“Doubt: A Parable” is a play by John Patrick Shanley that premiered off-Broadway in 2004. It won both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2005. It was adapted into a very powerful 2008 film titled “Doubt” starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

42D Dining spot with a European vibe : BISTRO

“Bistro” was originally a Parisian slang term describing a little wine shop or restaurant.

46D Voltaire’s penultimate play : IRENE

“Voltaire” was the pen name of French writer and philosopher François-Marie Arouet. He chose the name “Voltaire” as it is an anagram of “Arovet Li”, the Latinized spelling of his family name “Arouet”.

50D “___ Nagila” (Jewish folk song) : HAVA

“Hava Nagila” is a Hebrew folk song, with the title translating into “Let Us Rejoice”. The melody is from a Ukrainian folk song. The words to “Hava Nagila” were composed in 1918 to celebrate the British victory in Palestine during WWI.

51D Some creatures in the ocean’s “midnight zone” : EELS

An ocean’s bathyal zone extends from a depth of 3,300 to 13,000 feet below the surface. It is the shallowest zone receiving no sunlight, leading to the nickname “midnight zone”. Due to the lack of sunlight, there are no plants in the bathyal zone. Also, many of the species of fish found in the zone lack eyes.

54D On-air marketplace, for short : HSN

The Home Shopping Network (HSN) was the first national shopping network, and was launched locally as the Home Shopping Club in Florida in 1982. Its first product was a can opener.