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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Words ___ Friends : WITH

“Words With Friends” (WWF) is a word game application that can be played on smartphones and other electronic devices. “Words With Friends” is basically Scrabble under a different name, or so I hear.

10A Starting point of Diana Nyad’s 2013 swim to Florida : CUBA

Diana Nyad is a long-distance swimmer. She holds the distance record for a non-stop swim without a wetsuit, a record that she set in 1979 by swimming from Bimini to Florida. In 1975, Nyad became the fastest person to circle Manhattan in a swim that lasted 7 hours 57 minutes. More recently, in 2013, she became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the protection of a shark cage. She was 64 years old when she made that swim!

18A Actress ___ Grace Moretz : CHLOE

Chloë Grace Moretz is an actress who got her first TV and film roles when she was just seven years old. Quite frankly, I don’t think I’ve seen a movie in which she has performed …

19A “The game’s ___”: Henry V : AFOOT

To coin a phrase is to invent a new phrase or expression. The greatest “coiner” of them all has to be William Shakespeare. Here are a few everyday expressions that were created by the Bard:

• The game is afoot (Henry IV, Part I)
• Brave new world (The Tempest)
• Break the ice (The Taming of the Shrew)
• Dead as a doornail (Henry VI, Part II)
• Eaten me out of house and home (Henry IV, Part II)
• Forever and a day (As You Like It)
• For goodness’ sake (Henry VIII)
• Knock knock! Who’s there? (Macbeth)
• Set my teeth on edge (Henry IV, Part I)
• Wild-goose chase (Romeo and Juliet)

22A HOT woman worth fighting for? : HELEN OF TROY

According to Greek mythology, Helen (later “Helen of Troy”) was the daughter of Zeus and Leda. When Helen reached the age of marriage, she had many suitors as she was considered the most beautiful woman in the world. Menelaus was chosen as her husband, and he took her back to his home of Sparta. Paris, a Trojan prince, seduced Helen, as she eloped with him and traveled to Troy. This event sparked the Trojan War that waged between the city of Troy and Greece. Because of this war, Helen was said to have “the face that launched a thousand ships”. And because of this phrase, it has been suggested, probably by author Isaac Asimov, that the amount of beauty needed to launch a single ship is one “millihelen”.

24A Throwing weapon known in Japanese as a shuriken : NINJA STAR

A shuriken is a Japanese throwing star, a small, metal weapon with sharp spikes and/or edges that can be thrown at an enemy.

26A 2010-12’s ___ Spring : ARAB

The term “Arab Spring” has been applied to the wave of protests, riots and civil wars that impacted the Arab world from 2010 to 2012. The uprisings were sparked by the Tunisian Revolution at the end of 2010 that led to the ouster of the longtime president and the institution of democratic elections. The period of instability that followed in some Arab League countries has been dubbed the “Arab Winter”

28A GOT in the ballpark? : GIVE OR TAKE

The phrase “in the ballpark” means “within an acceptable range of approximation”. The term was coined in the mid-fifties as jargon used by scientists developing atomic weapons. The first “ballpark” in this sense was the broad area within which a missile was forecast to return to earth.

29A Gomez of “Only Murders in the Building” : SELENA

Selena Gomez is an actress and singer from Grand Prairie, Texas. Gomez’s first television role was in the children’s show “Barney & Friends”. She then played the lead in the TV series “Wizards of Waverly Place”. Gomez’s fans often refer to themselves as “Selenators”. Offscreen, Gomez made a splash as the girlfriend of Canadian singer Justin Bieber for a couple of years. More recently, she has been playing a lead role in the hit TV show “Only Murders in the Building” alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short.

“Only Murders in the Building” is a hit comedy-mystery series, co-created by Steve Martin. It stars Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez as three residents of an affluent Upper West Side apartment building in New York City. The trio bonds over their obsession with true-crime podcasts and decide to start their own to investigate murders in their building. The guest cast is essentially a rolodex of Steve Martin and Martin Short’s real-life best friends and colleagues. The show feels like it is a group of famous actors playing in their New York backyard. I love this show …

36A Some 1960s-style protests : LIE-INS

A die-in (also “lie-in”) is a protest in which those demonstrating lie on the ground and pretend to be dead. One of the more famous die-ins was held in Washington D.C. in 2007 to protest the Iraq War. There were several thousand protesters, almost two hundred of whom were arrested, including ten veterans of the Iraq War.

43A BOB Dylan album? : BLONDE ON BLONDE

“Blonde on Blonde” is a 1966 album by Bob Dylan. One interesting fact about the release is that “Blonde on Blonde” was the first double album in the history of rock music.

49A Fragrant compound : ESTER

Esters are very common chemicals. The smaller, low-molecular-weight esters are usually pleasant smelling and are often found in perfumes. At the other end of the scale, the higher-molecular weight nitroglycerin is a nitrate ester and is very explosive, and polyester is a huge molecule and is a type of plastic. Fats and oils found in nature are fatty acid esters of glycerol known as glycerides.

50A “It’s ___. Do you know where your children are?” (old P.S.A.) : TEN PM

Public service announcement (PSA)

55A Time’s 2023 Person of the Year : SWIFT

Taylor Swift is the first musician to become a billionaire primarily from her music and performances, including songwriting, touring, and her music catalog. There are other billionaire musicians, but they didn’t make their fortunes solely through music. For example, Rihanna made her fortune primarily from a cosmetics company, and Jay-Z built his wealth through a diverse business portfolio in addition to his music.

61A Portuguese wine : MADEIRA

Madeira is a Portuguese-owned archipelago that lies to the southwest of mainland Portugal. Madeira is famous for its fortified wine, which is known as Madeira wine.

68A Casino supervisor : PIT BOSS

The pit is part of a casino that usually holds the tables for craps, blackjack and roulette, and perhaps some other games. The tables are arranged around the pit, with players on the outside and dealers on the inside. The area is supervised by a pit manager (often “pit boss”).

72A Poker in the Olympics? : EPEE

Among the three Olympic fencing disciplines, épée is generally considered the slowest. This is primarily because it lacks “right-of-way” rules, meaning both fencers can score if they hit simultaneously, which encourages a more cautious and defensive style. Additionally, the entire body is a valid target area in épée, requiring fencers to be more strategic and wait for clear openings rather than engaging in rapid, aggressive exchanges.

81A Word on either side of “à” : TETE

A “tête-à-tête” is a one-on-one meeting, and a term that translates from French as “head-to-head”.

82A Org. founded to fund foreign projects : USAID

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) was set up by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. The agency’s mission is to end extreme poverty and promote democratic societies, while helping to advance the security and prosperity of the US.

86A King’s title, in brief : REV

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was only 35 years old when he won the Nobel Peace Prize, making him the youngest person to be so honored up to that time. King was given the award for his work to end racial segregation and discrimination using non-violent means. The following year he was awarded the American Liberties Medallion by the American Jewish Committee.

87A Turkish summit : ARARAT

Mount Ararat is in Turkey. It is a snow-capped, dormant volcano with two peaks. The higher of the two, Greater Ararat, is the tallest peak in the country. Ararat takes its name from a legendary Armenian hero called Ara the Beautiful (or “Ara the Handsome”). According to the Book of Genesis, Noah’s ark landed on Mount Ararat as the Great Flood subsided.

89A SOAP film? : SNAKES ON A PLANE

“Snakes on a Plane” is one of those movies that delivers just what is advertised on the wrapper, namely “snakes on a plane”. Samuel L. Jackson stars in a film about hundreds of snakes released on a plane in a plot to kill a witness who is planning to testify at a trial.

93A Alternative to a Les Paul, for short : STRAT

The Stratocaster (often “Strat”) is an electric guitar that has been made by Fender since 1954. The company that made Fender electric guitars was founded in Fullerton, California in 1946 by Leo Fender.

Les Paul was a guitarist, songwriter and inventor. When he was 33 years old, Paul was involved in a near-fatal car crash that left his right arm and elbow shattered. Surgeons offered him the choice of amputation or a rebuilding of the limb that would leave him unable to bend his elbow. He told them to set his arm at just under 90 degrees so that he could at least hold his guitar and perhaps play it.

95A One of the seven deadly sins : GREED

The cardinal sins of Christian ethics are also known as the seven deadly sins. The seven sins are:

• Wrath
• Greed
• Sloth
• Pride
• Lust
• Envy
• Gluttony

101A Washington or Berlin : IRVING

Washington Irving was an author from New York City. Irving’s most famous works are the short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”.

Irving Berlin’s real name was “Israel Baline”. He was a Russian immigrant who came to New York with his family in 1893. In the words of composer Jerome Kern, “Irving Berlin has no place in American Music – he is American music”. That would seem to ring true looking at a selection of his hits: “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, “White Christmas”, “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and of course, “God Bless America”. Berlin was married twice. His first marriage was in 1912, to Dorothy Goetz. Sadly, Dorothy died just a few months later from typhoid fever that she contracted on their honeymoon in Havana. His second marriage was to a young heiress, Ellin Mackay. That marriage lasted a lot longer, until 1988 when Ellin passed away at the age of 85. Irving himself passed away in 1989, at the ripe old age of 101 years.

109A Loses emotional control, in gamer-speak : TILTS

In a game of pinball, some players get an irresistible urge to “nudge” the machine. Such a nudge, a movement of the machine designed to influence the path taken by the ball, is called a “tilt”. Most pinball machines have sensors designed to detect a tilt, and when activated a “tilt” warning light comes on and the player’s controls are temporarily disabled. Over time, the term moved beyond pinball and was adopted by poker players. A player described as being “on tilt” is in a state of frustration or confusion, often after experiencing bad luck or a significant loss. The agitated state leads them to abandon sound strategy and make reckless or irrational decisions, much like someone angrily shaking a pinball machine and losing control of the game.

111A Socialite Sedgwick, the supposed inspiration for Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” : EDIE

Edie Sedgwick became famous when she starred in several short films made by Andy Warhol in the sixties. Sedgwick’s life was portrayed in a 2006 biographical film called “Factory Girl”.

112A Winning country at the 2022 World Cup : ARGENTINA

The 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament was held in Qatar, making it the first World Cup held in an Arab nation. As host nation, Qatar automatically qualified, marking the first time the Qatari national team had participated in the tournament. Argentina emerged victorious, beating France on penalties.

113A THE big game? : TEXAS HOLD ‘EM

The official birthplace of the incredibly popular poker game of Texas hold ’em is Robstown, Texas where the game dates back to the early 1900s. The game was introduced into Las Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texan enthusiasts including Doyle Brunson, a champion often seen playing on TV. Doyle Brunson published a poker strategy guide in 1978, and this really helped increase the popularity of the game. But it was the inclusion of Texas hold ‘em in the television lineup that really gave the game its explosive surge in popularity, with the size of the prize money just skyrocketing.

115A “You’re full of baloney!” : LIAR!

“Baloney” is an American English variant of “Bologna” as in the sausage. The term came to be used to mean “nonsense” in the 1920s. “Baloney” was popularized in the 1930s by New York Governor Alfred E. Smith as he used the term quite often.

117A “Baywatch” actress Eleniak : ERIKA

Erika Eleniak is a former Playboy Playmate from Glendale, California. After modeling, Eleniak turned to acting and is perhaps best known for playing Shauni McClain on the TV show “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.

121A Fall perennial : ASTER

Apparently, most aster species and cultivars bloom relatively late in the year, usually in the fall. The name “aster” comes into English via Latin from the Greek word “astéri” meaning “star”, a reference to the arrangement of the petals of the flower.

122A Primatologists’ subjects : APES

Primatology is the study of primates, especially non-human primates.

Primates are mammals, many of whom are omnivorous and make good use of their hands. They also have larger brains relative to their body size, compared to other animals. The order Primates includes apes, lemurs, baboons, and humans.

Down

1D One of a reporter’s W’s : WHERE

The Five Ws (or “Five Ws and one H”) is a journalistic concept used for gathering information. For a story to be complete, six questions need to be answered:

1. Who is it about?
2. What happened?
3. Where did it take place?
4. When did it take place?
5. Why did it happen?
6. How did it happen?

3D Squishy part of a cat’s paw, cutesily : TOE BEAN

The squishy, pink pads on the bottom of a cat’s paws are known as digital pads. More casually, they are referred to as toe beans.

7D 2025 biography subtitled “The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live” : LORNE

Lorne Michaels is a television producer who is perhaps best known as the creator of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL). We can get some insight into Michaels’ character and demeanor by watching the show “30 Rock”. The character Jack Donaghy, played by Alec Baldwin, is inspired by Michaels.

11D Part of U.C.L.A.: Abbr. : UNIV

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

13D Pear variety : ANJOU

The Anjou pear is a cultivar of the European Pear. The Anjou is thought to have originated in Belgium or France (Anjou is a province in the Loire Valley of western France).

15D Utah ski resort : ALTA

Alta ski resort lies within the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Area. The first ski lift in the resort was opened way back in 1939. Today, Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the country that prohibits snowboarding (along with Deer Valley, Utah and Mad River Glen, Vermont). The ski resort of Snowbird, located next to Alta, has been in operation since 1971.

23D Native Oklahomans : OSAGES

The Osage Nation originated in the Ohio River valley in what we now call Kentucky. They were forced to migrate west of the Mississippi by the invading Iroquois tribe. Most of the tribe members now live in Osage County, Oklahoma.

28D Treaty of ___, official close to the War of 1812 : GHENT

Ghent is a city in the Flemish region of Belgium. The War of 1812 (between Britain and the US) formally concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. The American negotiating team in Ghent included statesman Henry Clay and future president John Quincy Adams.

30D Some N.S.F.W. texts : NUDES

The abbreviation “NSFW” stands for “not safe/suitable for work”. It’s Internet slang used to describe online content that is best not viewed at work.

32D Madre’s hermano : TIO

In Spanish, a “tio” (uncle) is the “hermano del padre o de la madre” (brother of the father or the mother).

38D Madre’s baby : NENE

“Nene” is the Spanish word for a male baby or young child.

41D Common Wordle starting word (for all those vowels) : ADIEU

“Adieu” is French for “goodbye, farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God”. The plural of “adieu” is “adieux”.

Wordle is a web-based word game that a Welsh software engineer developed to play with his partner during the COVID pandemic. The name “Wordle” is a play on the engineer’s own name: Josh Wardle. Wardle published the game on its own website in 2021, primarily for the use of Wardle’s family. One month later, the game had 90 players, and a month later 300,000 players. A week later, the number of daily players had grown to two million! The New York Times purchased Wordle in 2022 “for an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures”.

44D ___ Greiner, inventor and “Shark Tank” personality : LORI

On the TV show “Shark Tank”, Lori Greiner is one of the “sharks”, one of the investors who choose whether or not to back entrepreneurs making a pitch for their businesses. Greiner has been described as a “serial inventor” and made millions selling those inventions on QVC. Her success on the shopping channel earned her the nickname “the Queen of QVC”.

46D Prickly patch : BRIER

“Briar” (sometimes “brier”) is a generic name describing several plants that have thorns or prickles, including the rose. Famously, Br’er Rabbit lives in a briar patch.

47D Fetter : IMPEDE

A fetter is a chain or shackle for the feet. Less literally, the term “fetter” describes anything that restrains or confines To be unfettered is to be unrestrained.

56D Bona ___ : FIDE

“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.

57D Council of ___ (Counter-Reformation body) : TRENT

Trento is a city in northern Italy that is famous as the host of the 16th-century Council of Trent held by the Roman Catholic Church. This Ecumenical Council meeting was held largely in response to the growing Protestant Reformation. The decisions made at the Council of Trent led to the Counter-Reformation, the revival of the Catholic church over the following 100 years.

62D Bowed, musically : ARCO

“Arco” is a musical direction instructing a string player to return to normal bowing technique after a passage played using some other technique (perhaps pizzicato).

65D Big inits. in 1990s internet : AOL

Founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1983, the company changed its name in 1989 to America Online. As America Online went international, the initialism AOL was used in order to shake off the “America-centric” sound to the name. During the heady days of AOL’s success the company could not keep up with the growing number of subscribers, so people trying to connect often encountered busy signals. That’s when users referred to AOL as “Always Off-Line”.

66D Genre for Stevie Ray Vaughan : BLUES

Stevie Ray Vaughan was a guitarist and singer who was very much associated with the blues revival of the 1980s. Sadly, Vaughan died in a helicopter crash in East Troy, Wisconsin when he was just 35 years old.

67D Celebrity chef DiSpirito : ROCCO

Rocco DiSpirito is a celebrity chef from New York City. He was a contestant on “Dancing with the Stars” in 2008, and did quite well in the competition.

68D Gyro wraps : PITAS

A gyro is a traditional Greek dish of meat roasted on a tall vertical spit that is sliced from the spit as required. Gyros are usually served inside a lightly grilled piece of pita bread, along with tomato, onion and tzatziki (a yogurt and cucumber sauce).

69D Like krypton : INERT

Krypton (Kr) was discovered in 1898 by two British chemists, Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers. They chilled a sample of air, turning it into a liquid. They then warmed that liquid and separated out the gases that boiled off. Along with nitrogen, oxygen and argon (already known), the pair of scientists discovered two new gases. The first they called “krypton” and the second “neon”. “Krypton” is Greek for “the hidden one” and “neon” is Greek for “new”.

70D Turkic language : TATAR

Tatars (sometimes “Tartars”) are an ethnic group of people who mainly reside in Russia (a population of about 5 1/2 million). One of the more famous people with a Tatar heritage was Hollywood actor Charles Bronson. Bronson’s real name was Charles Buchinsky.

74D Steinbeck’s “East of ___” : EDEN

John Steinbeck considered his 1952 novel “East of Eden” to be his magnum opus. Most of the storyline takes place near Salinas, just south of the San Francisco Bay Area. Two of the characters in the story are brothers Cal and Aron Trask, representative of the biblical Cain and Abel.

83D Matt of “Oppenheimer” : DAMON

“Oppenheimer” is an epic 2023 film starring Cillian Murphy in the title role. The movie follows J. Robert Oppenheimer, “the father of the atomic bomb”, from his student days right through World War II and beyond. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film has an amazing ensemble cast that includes:

• Matt Damon (General Leslie Groves)
• Robert Downey Jr. (Lewis Strauss)
• Josh Hartnett (Ernest Lawrence)
• Kenneth Branagh (Niels Bohr)
• Tom Conti (Albert Einstein)
• Gary Oldman (Harry S. Truman)

88D Used DoorDash, say : ATE IN

DoorDash is the largest food delivery company in the country. Customers can order food from many different restaurants using the DoorDash app, and a DoorDash driver delivers it to a home or office. DoorDash also operates ghost kitchens, facilities that prepare meals for delivery customers of a group of restaurants.

90D ___Mari Method (tidying system) : KON

Marie Kondo (also “Konmari”) runs a very successful organizing consulting business that she founded when she was 19 years old, and while a student at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University. She wrote an extremely successful book titled “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” that was first published in 2011. I’ve read it, and acted on at least some of the advice given therein …

102D What a Bohr! : NIELS

Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who won his 1922 Nobel Prize for his work on quantum mechanics and atomic structure. Later in his life, Bohr was part of the team working on the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb. Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein had a series of public debates and disputes in the twenties and thirties. Although the two respected each other very highly, they held very different views on quantum theory, different views on the laws of physics at the atomic level. The passage of time has shown that Bohr was on the right side of those debates.

105D “The Office” receptionist : ERIN

Actress Ellie Kemper’s big break came with the role of Erin Hannon, a receptionist on the sitcom “The Office”. More recently, Kemper played the title role in the Netflix comedy series “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”.

110D Position removed by the February Revolution : 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.

113D Drink “for two,” in song : TEA

“Tea for Two” is a 1924 song that became popular when it was included in the 1925 stage musical “No, No, Nanette”. The phrase “tea for two” dates back to the 1700s when it was used by street vendors touting the price of tea, and was not a reference to “tea, enough for two people”. The original “tea for two” was a reference to a price reduction for a cup of tea, from thruppence (three pence) to tuppence (two pence).