0823-26 NY Times Crossword 23 Aug 26, Sunday

Bill’s time: 20m 47s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

18A Silent film actor Jannings : EMIL

Emil Jannings was an actor from Switzerland who also held German and Austrian citizenship. He was the very first person to receive an Oscar, as the star of the 1928 silent movie called “The Last Command”. Jannings also starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in the 1930 classic “The Blue Angel”.

24A Adage promoting thrift : A PENNY SAVED IS A PENNY EARNED

The old adage, “A penny saved is a penny earned” is attributed to Benjamin Franklin. However, what he actually wrote is, “A penny saved is two pence clear”.

29A Return filers, for short : CPAS

Certified public accountant (CPA)

32A Image on one side of this puzzle’s subject : ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The US one-cent coin has borne the profile of President Abraham Lincoln since 1909, the centennial of Lincoln’s birth. Fifty years later, a representation of the Lincoln Memorial was added to the reverse side.

35A Start of a historic triple boast : I CAME

The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BCE and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

37A Seminole’s rival, in college athletics : GATOR

The Florida Gators are the sports teams of the University of Florida, located in Gainesville. Sometimes the female teams are called the “Lady Gators”, and all of the fans make up the “Gator Nation”.

38A Liturgical singer : CANTOR

“Canto” is a Latin word meaning “I sing”. In some religious traditions, a “cantor” is the person assigned to lead the singing of ecclesiastical music.

40A Subtitle alternative : DUB

If voices need to be altered on the soundtrack of a film, that means double the work as there needs to be a re-recording. “Dub” is short for “double”, and is a term we’ve been using since the late 1920s. The term has been extended to describe the adding of sound to an otherwise silent film or tape.

43A Yogurt drink in Delhi : LASSI

Lassi is a yogurt-based drink from India. Popular variants are namkeen lassi (which is salty), sweet lassi and mango lassi. There is even a bhang lassi, which is infused with a liquid derivative of cannabis.

48A Angle variable in geometry : THETA

The Greek letter theta is commonly used in geometry to represent the angle between two lines (say at a corner of a triangle).

50A Where this puzzle’s subject was last made for circulation (in November 2025) : US MINT

The nation’s first mint was established in Philadelphia in 1792, as back then Philadelphia was the capital of the United States. That first mint was located in a building that previously housed a whiskey distillery.

The original one-cent coin was introduced in the US in 1793 and was made of 100% copper, giving rise to the nickname “copper”. The composition varied over time, and was 100% bronze up to the 1940s. During WWII there was a shortage of copper to make bronze, so the US Mint switched to zinc-coated steel for production of one-cent coins in 1943. The “steelie” is the only coin ever issued by the US mint that can be picked up by a magnet. Today’s one-cent coin consists mainly of zinc.

56A Duck known for its insulating feathers : EIDER

Eiders are large sea ducks. Their down feathers are used to fill pillows and quilts, giving the name to the quilt called an “eiderdown”.

61A “Balderdash!” : ROT!

“Balderdash” means “senseless jumble of words”. The original balderdash (back before the late 1600s) was a jumbled mix of liquids like maybe beer and wine, or even beer and milk!

62A “It’s Your Business” sloganeer, for short : WSJ

“The Wall Street Journal” (WSJ) is a daily newspaper with a business bent that is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company. The WSJ has a larger US circulation than any other newspaper, with “USA Today” coming in a close second place.

66A “When We Were Young” singer, 2015 : ADELE

“Adele” is the stage name of English singer Adele Adkins. Adele’s debut album is “19”, named after the age she was during the album’s production. Her second album was even more successful than the first. Called “21”, the second album was released three years after the first, when Adele was three years older. Her third studio album “25”, released in 2015, broke the first-week sales records in both the UK and the US. “30” followed in 2021.

68A Its capital is Roma : ITALIA

In Italian, “Roma” (Rome) is a “città” (city) in “Italia” (Italy).

72A Nursery rhyme street vendor’s cry : ONE A PENNY TWO A PENNY HOT CROSS BUNS

Hot cross buns are buns containing currants and raisins and marked with a cross on the top. They are traditionally eaten in Christian countries on Good Friday with the cross being a symbol of the Crucifixion.

79A Tennis great Arthur : ASHE

When Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years as a political prisoner in South Africa, he was asked which American he would most like to meet. His answer was “How about Arthur Ashe?” Ashe was a vocal critic of South Africa’s apartheid policies and had long campaigned for the country to be excluded from international tennis competition.

80A ___ King Cole : NAT

Nat King Cole’s real name was Nathaniel Adams Coles. Cole made television history in 1956 when his own show debuted on NBC, a first for an African-American. Cole couldn’t pick up a national sponsor, so in order to save money and possibly save the show, many guest artists worked for no fee at all – the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte and Peggy Lee. The show survived for a year, but eventually Nat King Cole had to pull the plug on it himself.

82A Word with constrictor or feather : BOA

Boa constrictors are members of the Boidae family of snakes, all of which are non-venomous. Interestingly, the female boa is always larger than the male.

83A Goddess of the dawn : EOS

In Greek mythology, Eos is the goddess of the dawn who lives at the edge of the ocean. Eos wakes each morning to welcome her brother Helios the Sun. The Roman equivalent of Eos is Aurora. Rather delightfully, Homer referred to Eos as “rosy-fingered dawn” in both “Iliad” and “Odyssey”.

85A Car-pooling convenience : HOV LANE

In some parts of the country, one sees high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. Out here in California we refer to them as carpool lanes.

88A Taco bar adjective : ASADA

The name of the dish called “carne asada” translates from Spanish as “roasted meat”.

91A ___ Féin : SINN

Sinn Féin is a political party in Ireland, and one of the largest parties in both the Northern Ireland Assembly and in the Oireachtas (the parliament of the Republic of Ireland). The party has the stated aim of uniting Ireland north and south. “Sinn Féin” is Irish for “we ourselves”.

95A Musical staff symbol : C-CLEF

“Clef” is the French word for “key”. In music, a clef is used to indicate the pitch of the notes written on a stave. The bass clef is also known as the F-clef, the alto clef is the C-clef, and the treble clef is the G-clef.

102A Some Ivy Leaguers : ELIS

Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania are the three oldest Ivy League institutions, with establishment dates of 1636, 1701, and 1740 respectively. Harvard and Yale were founded as traditional divinity schools aimed at educating young clergymen. Penn, however, was established by Benjamin Franklin to provide a secular curriculum designed for business and public administration.

104A Meeting that goes above and beyond? : SEANCE

“Séance” is a French word meaning “sitting”. We use the term in English for a sitting in which a spiritualist tries to communicate with the spirits of the dead.

117A Tree where the Buddha found enlightenment : BODHI

The Bodhi Tree (also “Bo Tree”) is a sacred fig tree in the Indian state of Bihar in the northeast of the country. It is venerated as the tree under which the Buddha was sitting when he attained enlightenment. The name of the tree translates into English as “Tree of Awakening”.

121A Offer advice … or a hint to 24- and 72-Across : PUT IN YOUR TWO CENTS

To put in one’s two cents is to add one’s opinion. The American expression derives from the older English version, which is “to put in one’s two pennies’ worth”.

125A D’Arcy of “House of the Dragon” : EMMA

The “House of the Dragon” fantasy TV series serves as a prequel to the TV show “Game of Thrones”. Both shows are adaptations of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels by George R. R. Martin. Due to the success of “Game of Thrones”, expectations were high for “House of the Dragon”. The premiere episode of the latter was really well received by audiences, and so it took just five days for HBO to decide to renew “House of the Dragon” for a second season.

126A Paradise : UTOPIA

The word “Utopia” was coined by Sir Thomas More in his book “Utopia” published in 1516 to describe an idyllic fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. More’s use of the name Utopia comes from the Greek “ou” meaning “not” and “topos” meaning “place”. By calling his perfect island “Not Place”, More was apparently making the point that he didn’t think that the ideal could actually exist.

130A Vikings, for example : NORSE

The Vikings were a Germanic people from northern Europe who were noted as great seafarers. Key to the success of the Vikings was the design of their famous “longships”. Made from wood, the longship was long and narrow with a shallow hull, It was also light, so that the crew would actually carry it small distances over land and around obstacles. Longships were designed to be propelled by both sail and oars.

131A Long members of the onion family : 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.

Down

2D Organism that moves using pseudopodia : AMOEBA

An ameba (also “amoeba”) is a single-celled microorganism. The name comes from the Greek “amoibe” meaning “change”. The name is quite apt, as the cell changes shape readily as the ameba moves, eats and reproduces.

A pseudopod is a projection of a cell’s membrane that develops to facilitate the cell’s movement. Amoebae use this type of movement.

4D ___ del Carmen (Mexican resort) : PLAYA

Playa del Carmen is a resort city located south of Cancún in Eastern Mexico. The city is named for Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the patron saint of Cancún.

5D Two farthings, informally : HA’PENNY

Here are some slang terms used for old British coins, coins that became obsolete after the UK moved to decimal currency in 1971:

• Coppers: farthing, halfpenny, penny coins
• Tanner: sixpence
• Bob: shilling

8D Much of Diego Rivera’s work : FRESCOS

A fresco is a painting created on a moist plaster, usually on a wall or ceiling. The plaster is “freshly” laid when the image is created, and “fresco” is the Italian for “fresh”.

Diego Rivera was a prominent Mexican painter and muralist who is best known for his large-scale murals that depict social and political issues of his time. He was married four times, including to the artist Frida Kahlo, who was his third wife. Rivera was an outspoken communist and a strong supporter of the Soviet Union. This led to some controversy in his home country of Mexico, as well as in the US, where his political beliefs were viewed with suspicion during the Cold War. In 1933, Rivera was commissioned to paint a mural in the Rockefeller Center in New York City, but it was later destroyed due to its controversial political themes.

11D It can become amber : RESIN

Amber’s technical name is “resinite”, reflecting its composition and formation. Amber starts out life as soft sticky tree resin but then under high temperature and pressure from overlying layers of soil, it fossilizes. The sticky resin can trap organisms or other plant matter, and this material can sometimes remain virtually intact inside the amber fossil giving us a unique gift from the past.

12D Streetcar : TRAM

A tram is a means of public transportation that runs on rails laid along the length of streets in cities and towns. Trams might also be referred to as trolleys or streetcars.

13D Doo-wop’s ___ Na Na : SHA

Do you remember the band “Johnny Casino & The Gamblers” in the movie “Grease”? That was actually the real-world group named Sha Na Na. Johnny Casino & the Gamblers sang “Those Magic Changes” at the high school dance, in between “Rock’N Roll Is Here to Stay” and “Hound Dog”. Sha Na Na got together in the sixties, hosted the variety show “Sha Na Na” from 1977 to 1981, and are still performing today.

14D Protected space for women in the Ottoman Empire : HAREM

“Harem” is a Turkish word derived from the Arabic for “forbidden place”. Traditionally, a harem was the female quarters in a household in which a man had more than one wife. Not only wives (and concubines) would use the harem, but also young children and other female relatives. The main point was that no men were allowed in the area. The term “harem” is also applied to the women, children and staff occupying the quarters.

16D Scottish dance : REEL

The reel is a Scottish country dance that is also extremely popular in Ireland.

19D “Enemies, a Love Story” actress : LENA OLIN

Lena Olin is a Swedish actress, and someone who has acting in her blood. Her mother was the actress Britta Holmberg and her father the actor and director Stig Olin. Olin had a very successful career in Sweden, often working with the great Ingmar Bergman. Olin’s breakthrough international and English-speaking role was playing opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” released in 1988. Way back in 1974, Miss Olin was crowned Miss Scandinavia in a beauty pageant for Nordic women held in Helsinki, Finland. Olin’s most famous performance was in “Chocolat” released in 2000.

22D “GoodFellas” Oscar winner : PESCI

Joe Pesci got his big break in movies with a supporting role in “Raging Bull” starring Robert De Niro, earning Pesci an Oscar nomination early in his career. There followed a string of gangster roles played alongside De Niro, namely “Once Upon a Time in America”, “GoodFellas” and “Casino”. But I like Pesci’s comedic acting best of all. He was marvelous in the “Home Alone” films, the “Lethal Weapon” series, and my personal favorite, “My Cousin Vinny”. Pesci gets a mention in the stage musical “Jersey Boys”, which isn’t too surprising as he is one of the show’s producers.

The Martin Scorsese classic “GoodFellas” is a 1990 adaptation of a nonfiction book by Nicholas Pileggi called “Wiseguy”. The film tells the story of a mob family that succumbs to the FBI after one of their own becomes an informant.

34D Tolkien monster : ORC

Orcs are mythical humanoid creatures that appear in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien’s use of orcs, they have also been featured in other fantasy fiction as well as in fantasy video games.

41D Indigenous people of the Colorado Plateau : UTE

The Colorado Plateau is a geographical feature in the southwest, covering parts of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, roughly equivalent to what is known as the Four Corners region. It is home to the greatest concentration of national parks in the country. Included in the area are Grand Canyon NP, Zion NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Arches NP and Mesa Verde NP, to name but a few.

42D Setting for many a New Yorker cartoon : BAR

The world-famous “New Yorker” magazine is published by Condé Nast. It was founded back in 1925 by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for “The New York Times”. The venerated magazine has become famous for many aspects of its content, including its stylish covers and its cartoons.

46D Bird with an S-shaped neck : 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.

47D Place for pliers : TOOL CASE

The verb “to ply” can mean “to twist together” and “to bend”. A pair of “pliers” can be used to bend something, hence the tool’s name.

49D Muslim head scarf : HIJAB

Some Muslim women wear a hijab in the presence of males outside of their immediate family. It is a veil covering the head and chest. As part of the hijab, some also wear a niqab, which is a cloth that covers the face. Other Muslim women wear a burqa, which covers the whole body from the top of the head to the ground.

51D Scribe in a courtroom, in brief : STENO

Stenography is the process of writing in shorthand. The term comes from the Greek “steno” (narrow) and “graphe” (writing). A stenographer might be a court reporter, or a person providing captions accompanying a live television broadcast.

54D Notorious Chicago bootlegger : AL CAPONE

When Al Capone was a young man, he worked as a bouncer in nightclubs and saloons. He was working the door of a Brooklyn night spot one evening when he apparently insulted a woman, sparking off a fight with her brother. In the tussle, Capone’s face was slashed three times. Capone wasn’t too proud of the incident, nor the “Scarface” moniker that he was given as a result. He always hid the scars as best he could when being photographed, and was also fond of telling people that the scars were from old war wounds.

To bootleg is to make or smuggle alcoholic drinks illegally. The term arose in the late 1800s as slang for the practice of concealing a flask of liquor down the leg of a high boot. The term has been extended to mean the illegal production and sale of just about anything.

60D Island location of Iolani Palace : OAHU

The ‘Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu is unique within this country. It is the only royal palace in the US that was used as an official residence by a reigning monarch. The Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in 1893 so the palace was used by successive governments even after Hawaii was awarded statehood in 1959. The palace has been a public museum since 1978.

69D Out of this world? : LUNAR

“Luna” is the Latin word for “moon”, and is the name given to the Roman moon goddess. “Luna” is also the name of the Earth’s moon, although we usually refer to it simply as “the moon”.

73D “Hoarders” network : A AND E

“Hoarders” is a documentary show on the A&E channel that tells the stories of real-life people who suffer from compulsive hoarding. The show ran for six seasons before being canceled in 2013.

74D Shoe originally known as a “Weejun” : PENNY LOAFER

The loafer slip-on shoe dates back to 1939. “Loafer” was originally a brand name introduced by Fortnum and Mason’s store in London. The derivative term “penny loafer” arose in the late fifties or early sixties, although the exact etymology seems unclear.

75D Street in Liverpool that has been immortalized in song : PENNY LANE

When in their teens, Paul McCartney and John Lennon would often head into the center of Liverpool together on the bus. The convenient place for them to meet was at the end of Penny Lane. Years later, Paul McCartney wrote the song “Penny Lane”, which was a big hit in 1967. “Penny Lane” was released as a double A-side record with “Strawberry Fields Forever” penned by John Lennon. Coincidentally, Strawberry Field was also a real location, not far from Penny Lane in Liverpool. Strawberry Field was a Salvation Army Children’s Home in the garden of which Lennon would play as a child. I don’t think Lennon and McCartney ever really forgot their roots …

84D Like many farm stand purchases : ORGANIC

Organic farming emphasizes the use of natural substances, and eschews the use of synthetic chemicals. The term “organic farming” was coined in 1940 by Walter James, 4th Baron Northbourne, in his book “Look to the Land”. He thought of a farm as a complex, interconnected living organism rather than a biological factory.

86D “Dodgeball” star Vince : VAUGHN

Just like me and my brothers, Vince Vaughn was born to parents who had a thing about giving names to their kids all starting with the same letter. Vince has two siblings, older sisters called Victoria and Valeri.

87D Specific charge on an invoice : LINE ITEM

An invoice is an itemized bill. The term “invoice” comes from the Middle French “envois” meaning “dispatch (of goods)”. The root verb is “envoyer”, which translates as “to send”.

90D Pork-based taco option : AL PASTOR

A taco al pastor is a popular street food from Mexico that can also be found in parts of the US. The key ingredient in al pastor is sliced, spit-grilled pork. The cooking method, using a vertical spit, is one introduced into Mexico by Lebanese immigrants in the 1800s. The term “al pastor” translates from Spanish as “shepherd style”).

91D Snowmobile brand : SKI-DOO

Ski-Doo is a brand of snowmobile produced by the Canadian company, Bombardier Recreational Products. The first Ski-Doo went on sale in 1959 and was intended to be named a “Ski-Dog” as the marketing concept was that the personal snowmobile would replace the dog sleds used by hunters and trappers. A painter misread instructions and wrote “Ski-Doo” on the side of the vehicle instead of “Ski-Dog”, and the name stuck.

98D Makeup of a nervous system, largely : NEURONS

A nerve cell is more correctly called a neuron. The long nerve fiber that conducts signals away from the neuron is known as the axon. The axon is surrounded by a myelin sheath, which acts as an electrical insulator and which increases the rate the impulses pass along the axon.

103D Locale for camel racing : LIBYA

The Italo-Turkish War was fought between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy from September 1911 and October 1912. At the end of the conflict the Ottoman Empire ceded to Italy the three provinces of Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica. These provinces became Italian North Africa, and ultimately the country that we know today as Libya. The name “Libya” comes from the Ancient Greek “Libúē”, the historical name for Northwest Africa.

Camel racing is big business in parts of the world, including North Africa and Australia. The sport is controversial in that children are favored to ride the camels in some places. Jockeys can also be replaced by robotic whips that are controlled remotely.

105D Christians’ ___ Creed : NICENE

What is known today in the Christian tradition as the Nicene Creed, was originally adopted by the first ecumenical council when it met in 325 AD. The meeting took place in the city of Nicaea, which gave its name to this particular profession of faith. Nicaea is the Greek name of the city that is now called Iznik, and it lies in the northwest of Turkey.

111D Fries in England : CHIPS

French fries are called “chips” back in Ireland, where I grew up. And what we call “chips” in the US are known as “crisps” in Britain and Ireland. In France, French fries are known as “pommes frites” (fried potatoes).

112D Deuce topper : THREE

A two in a deck of playing cards might be called a “deuce”, from the Middle French “deus” (or Modern French “deux”) meaning “two”.

115D Like cotton candy : SPUN

What we call “cotton candy” here in the US has some interesting names in the rest of the world. Back in Ireland it is candyfloss, in France it is “barbe à papa” (Dad’s beard), and in Australia it is called fairy floss. “Fairy floss” is actually the original name for cotton candy, a name first used when the confection was introduced at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.

122D Emphatic refusal in Germany : NIE

In German, not in “eine Million Jahre” (a million years) means “nie” (never).

124D Dress (up) : TOG

The verb “to tog up”, meaning “to dress up”, comes from the Latin “toga” describing the garment worn in ancient Rome. “Tog” can also be used as an informal word for a coat or a cloak. Back in Ireland, togs are what we call swimming shorts.