0712-26 NY Times Crossword 12 Jul 26, Sunday

Bill’s time: 19m 40s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A One-named singer from County Donegal : ENYA

Enya’s real name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1982, Enya launched her very successful solo career, eventually becoming Ireland’s best-selling solo musician. And, she sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

Donegal is the most northerly county in Ireland, and is also the name of the town that gave the county its name. “Donegal” is the anglicized form of the Irish “Dún na nGall” meaning “fort of the foreigners”. Donegal is a really beautiful part of the country, and my favorite county to visit …

18A Shallot relatives : LEEKS

The leek is a vegetable closely related to the onion and the garlic. It is also a national emblem of Wales (along with the daffodil), although I don’t think we know for sure how this came to be. One story is that the Welsh were ordered to wear leeks in their helmets to identify themselves in a battle against the Saxons. Apparently, the battle took place in a field of leeks.

20A Icon beside a username : AVATAR

The Sanskrit word “avatar” describes the concept of a deity descending into earthly life and taking on a persona. It’s easy to see how in the world of online presences one might use the word avatar to describe one’s online identity.

22A Asia’s rejuvenated North ___ Sea : ARAL

The former Soviet Union decided to divert the two rivers feeding the Aral Sea in order to irrigate food and cotton crops. Once the fourth largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea began to shrink dramatically in the 1960s due to the loss of water. Today, the Aral Sea is no more. Instead, there are two relatively small bodies of water labeled as the North Aral Sea and the South Aral Sea.

25A White Claws, e.g. : SELTZERS

White Claw Hard Seltzer was introduced in 2016 by the same Canadian company that produces Mike’s Hard Lemonade.

30A Sculptor’s degree, for short : BFA

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)

31A Little annoyance : FLEA

Fleas can jump incredibly high relative to their size, up to 150 times their own height. This is due to a specialized protein in their legs called resilin, which stores and releases energy like a spring.

32A Turkey part : ANKARA

Ankara is the second largest city in Turkey, after Istanbul (formerly Constantinople). After WWI, the Ottoman Empire had been defeated and the Allies occupied the Ottoman capital of Istanbul. The victors planned to break up most of Turkey, leaving native Turks just part of their country for their own. In the inevitable War of Independence that followed, the Turkish Nationalists used Ankara as their base. When the Nationalists emerged victorious, they declared Ankara the new capital of Turkey.

41A Reef setting : CAY

A key (also “cay”) is a low offshore island, as in the Florida “Keys”. Our term in English comes from the Spanish “cayo” meaning “shoal, reef”.

52A Digs in the snow? : IGLOO

The Inuit word for “house” is “iglu”, which we usually write as “igloo”. The Greenlandic (yes, that’s a language) word for “house” is very similar, namely “igdlo”. The walls of igloos are tremendous insulators, due to the air pockets in the blocks of snow.

53A Gridiron unit that includes the nose tackle, informally : D-LINE

Defensive line (D-line)

54A Certain bony protrusions : BUNIONS

A bunion is a deformity that can develop in the joint connecting the big toe to the foot. A similar condition that affects the little toe is referred to as a bunionette, or Tailor’s bunion. The latter name arose when the affliction was attributed to sitting cross-legged, a posture adopted by many tailors of old.

60A Prodigal ___ : SON

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is related in the Gospel of Luke. Someone who is prodigal is wasteful or extravagant. The parable tells of a man with two sons. The youngest asks for and receives his share of the family estate, and then spends it all unwisely. When the prodigal son returns, he faces an unwelcoming older brother. The father, however, declares happily that his son “was lost and now is found”.

73A What fighter pilots fight, for short : G-FORCES

The force of gravity (g-force) that we all feel is referred to as “one G”. As gravity is an accelerating force, acceleration is measured relative to that force of gravity. So, if we are sitting in a vehicle that accelerates at 3G, then we are experiencing a force that is three times that which we feel from the gravitational pull of the earth. Zero G is weightlessness that is experienced when in a spacecraft that is in a continuous state of free-fall around the planet. And yes, I know that gravity is really NOT a force, according to the Theory of General Relativity. We’re Newtonian here …

77A Device for sending group messages? : OUIJA

The Ouija board was introduced to America as a harmless parlor game at the end of the 19th century, although variations of the board date back to 1100 AD in China, where it was apparently used to “contact” the spirit world. The name “Ouija” is relatively recent, and is probably just a combination of the French and German words for “yes” … “oui” and “ja”.

79A Oaf : GALOOT

“Galoot” is an insulting word describing an awkward or boorish man, an ape. The term comes from the nautical world, where it was originally what a sailor might call a soldier or marine.

81A Surf in a daring way : HANG TEN

“To hang ten” is a verb used in surfing. A surfer hangs ten when he or she is able to walk forward and hang ten toes over the nose of the board because the back of the board is covered by the waves being ridden.

84A Japanese city known for its beef : KOBE

Kobe is a port city on the island of Honshu in Japan. Here in North America, the city of Kobe is perhaps most famous for its beef. And yes, basketball star Kobe Bryant was named after that very same beef.

85A Shop ___ : VAC

The first practical portable vacuum cleaner was invented by James Spangler in 1907. Spangler sold the patent for the design to his cousin’s husband, William Henry Hoover. Hoover then made his fortune from manufacturing and selling vacuum cleaners. Hoover was so successful in my part of the world that back in Ireland we don’t use the verb “to vacuum” and instead say “to hoover”. Also, “hoover” is what we call a vacuum cleaner, regardless of who makes it.

106A Where one might drink a mai tai or piña colada : POOLSIDE

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”.

“Piña colada” is a Spanish term that translates into “strained pineapple”. The piña colada cocktail was introduced in the Caribe Hilton San Juan in 1954, and since 1978 it has been the official beverage of Puerto Rico. The mocktail version of the drink is known as a nada colada.

109A Kind of contraceptive : ORAL

“The Pill” is more correctly called “the combined oral contraceptive pill”. The formulation is a combination of an estrogen called estradiol and a progestogen called progestin.

111A Josh of ‘No Country for Old Men’ : BROLIN

Actor Josh Brolin got his big break playing Brandon Walsh in the 1985 movie “The Goonies”. One of his more famous roles was playing George W. Bush in Oliver Stone’s biopic about the president titled “W”. Josh is the son of actor James Brolin, and hence stepson of singer Barbra Streisand.

“No Country for Old Men” is a 2007 thriller made by the Coen brothers that is based on a novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. I have to put this one on my list as I hear good things about it. It won several Oscars and stars Tommy Lee Jones, a favorite actor of mine.

112A Love seats, e.g. : SOFAS

A love seat is a sofa made for two people. Lovely …

Down

1D Actor Idris : ELBA

Idris Elba is a British actor and DJ. He was born in London to a Sierra Leonean father and a Ghanaian mother. Elba’s breakthrough role came in 2002, when he was cast as Stringer Bell in the HBO series “The Wire”.

4D With hands on hips : AKIMBO

“Akimbo” is such a lovely word, I think (as in “arms akimbo”). I failed to dig up anything too exciting about the term’s etymology. It seems to stem from Middle English, “in kekbowe” or “on kenbow” meaning “bend in a curve”. When the arms are held akimbo, the hands are on the hips and the elbows are pointed outward.

5D Common occurrences for scratch golfers : PARS

A golfer whose handicap is zero is known as a “scratch golfer”. A player with a handicap of 18, given that there are 18 holes in a full round, is known as a “bogey golfer”.

7D Mesoamerican staple cooked in a cornhusk : TAMALE

A tamale is a traditional dish from Mexico composed of a starchy dough that is steamed or boiled in a wrapper made from a corn husk or banana leaf. The dough is called masa, and can include many different ingredients including meat, cheese, fruit and vegetables. A hot tamale is a kind of tamale that originated in the Mississippi Delta. It is particularly spicy, and the masa is replaced with corn meal.

Mesoamerica is a region extending from Central Mexico, south to Costa Rica. It is known as an area where societies flourished prior to the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries.

9D Heavy coats : PARKAS

A parka is a hooded jacket that is often lined with fur, and that is worn in cold weather. The original parka was a pullover design, but nowadays it is usually zipped at the front. “Parka” is the Russian name for the garment, and it was absorbed into English in the late 1700s via the Aleut language.

10D Torah vessels : ARKS

The Torah ark is found in a synagogue, and is the ornamental container in which the Torah scrolls are stored. The word “Torah” best translates as “teaching” or “law”. The Torah ark is referred to as the “Aron Kodesh” in Hebrew, meaning “Holy Ark”.

14D Dress for a job you probably don’t want? : HAZMAT SUIT

Dangerous goods are commonly referred to as hazardous materials, or HAZMAT. People working with dangerous goods might wear a HAZMAT suit.

15D Apt name for a tuxedo cat : OREO

A tuxedo cat is one with a white and black coat. Specifically, the coloring is a solid black coat with white fur on the paws, belly, chest, throat and sometimes the chin.

19D Screw-up : 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.

26D Supermodel Banks : TYRA

Tyra Banks is a tremendously successful model and businesswoman. Banks created and hosted the hit show “America’s Next Top Model”, and also had her own talk show. She was also the first African-American woman to make the cover of the “Sports Illustrated” swimsuit issue.

31D Groovy : FLY

The term “groovy” meaning “neat, cool” comes from the jazz slang phrase “in the groove”.

33D Rarin’ to go : GUNG-HO

“Kung ho” is a Chinese expression meaning “work together, cooperate”. The anglicized version “gung-ho” was adopted by Major Evans Carlson as an expression of combined spirit for his 2nd Marine Raider Battalion during WWII. From there the term spread throughout the Marine Corps and back to America where it persists to this day.

37D Shakespeare character who declares ‘I am not what I am’ : IAGO

Iago is the main antagonist in William Shakespeare’s 1603 tragedy “Othello”, and is considered one of the most sinister villains in literature. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the phrase “motiveless malignity” to describe Iago’s lack of a clear and rational justification for systematically destroying Othello’s life. He’s just a bad guy …

39D Loch ___ : NESS

Scotland’s Loch Ness is famous for its fabled “monster”, referred to affectionately as “Nessie”. The loch is the second-largest lake in the country (Loch Lomond is the largest). Loch Ness takes its name from the River Ness that flows from the loch’s northern end.

53D Audience stat : DEMO

Demographic (demo.)

54D ___-a-brac : BRIC

“Bric-a-brac” is a French phrase (actually “bric-à-brac”, with an accent) that was used as far back as the 16th century. Back then, it was a nonsense term meaning “at random” or “any old way”. Since Victorian times we have used the phrase in English to describe a collection of curios, statues and the like. In modern usage, bric-a-brac tends to be a selection of cheaper items.

56D David who directed the final four Harry Potter films : YATES

David Yates is an English film director, most famous now for having directed the last four of the “Harry Potter” movies. However, he was also responsible for the outstanding 2003 TV political thriller series “State of Play” and the excellent made-for-TV drama “The Girl in the Café”.

58D 2020 Christopher Nolan sci-fi movie : TENET

British director Christopher Nolan was best known for some time for “rescuing” the floundering Batman movie franchise. In that series, Nolan directed “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight”. He was also at the helm of a couple of sci-fi movies that I really enjoyed, namely “Inception” (2010) and “Interstellar” (2014). And then, along came “Oppenheimer” …

63D Tofu alternative : SEITAN

Seitan is a foodstuff made from wheat gluten that is often used as an alternative to meat. “Seitan” is a word that was coined in Japanese in 1961 by George Ohsawa, the founder of the macrobiotic diet.

65D Obsessive supporters, in modern lingo : STANS

“Stan” is a song by rapper Eminem (featuring Dido) that was recorded in 2000. The title refers to a fictional Eminem fan named “Stan” who becomes obsessed with the rapper, and who grows irate when his letters to his idol go unanswered. Stan’s final act is to make a voice recording as he drives into a river, with his pregnant girlfriend locked in the trunk. One of the legacies of the song is that “stan” is now used as a slang term for an obsessed and maniacal fan.

71D Dude in Jamaica : MON

The island nation of Jamaica is located just under 100 miles south of Cuba in the Caribbean Sea. Christopher Columbus first visited the island in 1494, and he and his crew were stranded there for over a year from 1503-1504. Spanish rule devastated the local population, through violence and disease. As a result, the Spanish transplanted African slaves to Jamaica to work as laborers. Spain lost Jamaica to the English in 1655. Given the turbulent history, most Jamaicans today are of African descent, and Jamaica is the third-most populous English-speaking country in the Americas (after the US and Canada).

72D Root beer order : MUG

Mug Root Beer is produced in San Francisco. The beverage was introduced in the city in the 1940s under the name Belfast Root Beer.

74D Disaster relief org. : FEMA

Federal emergency management has been structured for over 200 years, but what we know today as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was created in 1979 in an Executive Order issued by President Jimmy Carter.

75D Noted example of oligopoly, in brief : OPEC

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) controls a significant portion of the world’s oil supply. OPEC member countries account for around 44% of global oil production and 73% of the world’s oil reserves.

80D Fivers : ABES

The US five-dollar bill is often called an “Abe”, as President Abraham Lincoln’s portrait is on the front. An Abe is also referred to as a “fin”, a term that has been used for a five-pound note in Britain since 1868.

81D ‘2001’ villain : HAL

“2001: A Space Odyssey” is a groundbreaking 1968 sci-fi film that was inspired by an Arthur C. Clarke short story “The Sentinel”. Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick teamed up to write the film’s screenplay. While working on the screenplay, Clarke wrote a novel with the same title as the film, and published it soon after the release of the movie.

85D Biden and Bush, once, in brief : VPS

Future US president Joe Biden was born in Scranton in 1942. He lived in the Pennsylvania city for the first ten years of his life, before moving with his family to Claymont, Delaware and then to Wilmington.

President George H. W. Bush served in the US Navy during WWII. Future President Bush postponed his entry into college after the attack on Pearl Harbor and enlisted in the navy instead. When he earned his wings, he was the youngest aviator in the US Navy at that time.

90D Cubans, e.g. : CIGARS

The production of all cigars and cigarettes in Cuba is managed by a state tobacco company called Cubatabaco. The marketing and distribution of all Cuban tobacco products is handled by Habanos, which is a subsidiary of Cubatabaco. Habanos works with just one company in each country where it markets products. As a result, customers seeking out genuine Cuban cigars know that there is a limited and defined list of suppliers around the world.

91D Spotted wildcat : OCELOT

The ocelot is a wild cat found mainly in South and Central America, although there have been sightings as far north as Arkansas. An ocelot doesn’t look too different from a domestic cat, and some have been kept as pets. Perhaps most famously, Salvador Dali had one that he carried around everywhere with him.

99D ‘Holesome’ figures : TORI

A torus (plural “tori”) is a shape resembling a doughnut.

101D ___ Arena, concert venue in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park : ABBA

ABBA Voyage is an ingenious virtual concert that fans of the Swedish group can attend in London. The band appears on stage as virtual avatars, alongside live instrumental musicians. To create the show, the band members performed all the songs live, over a 5-week period wearing motion-capture suits. The ABBAtars were then “de-aged”, so that they appear as they did in 1979. From what I’ve heard, this is a fabulous show, and it’s on my list for the next time I’m in London …

103D ___ Romeo : ALFA

The “Alfa” in “Alfa Romeo” is actually an acronym, one standing for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (“Lombard Automobile Factory, Public Company”). ALFA was an enterprise founded in 1910 and which was taken over by Nicola Romeo in 1915. In 1920 the company name was changed to Alfa Romeo.

104D Director Johnson of ‘Knives Out’ : RIAN

Filmmaker Rian Johnson wrote and directed quite a few major films, including “Looper” (2012), “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” (2017), as well as the highly successful “Knives Out” franchise that he wrote and directed.

108D Symbol on an Oregon license plate : FIR

Oregon license plates have been decorated with an image of a Douglas Fir tree since July 1988.