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Bill’s time: 5m 46s

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5A Former Giants QB Manning : ELI

Eli Manning is a retired footballer who played quarterback for the New York Giants. Eli’s brother Peyton Manning retired from football as the quarterback for the Denver Broncos in 2016. Eli and Peyton’s father is Archie Manning, who was also a successful NFL quarterback. Eli, Peyton and Archie co-authored a book for children titled “Family Huddle” in 2009. It describes the Mannings playing football together as young boys.

8A Element discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie : RADIUM

Marie Curie lived a life of firsts. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and indeed was the first person to win two Nobel prizes (in Physics in 1903, and in Chemistry in 1911). Most of Curie’s work was in the field of radioactivity, and was carried out in the days when the impact of excessive radiation on the human body was not understood. She died from aplastic anemia, caused by high exposure to radiation. To this day, Curie’s personal papers are kept preserved in lead-lined boxes as they are highly radioactive, even her personal cookbook.

Pierre Curie was a French physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, sharing the award with his wife Marie and Henri Becquerel. Pierre and Marie spent most of their working lives researching radioactivity. Marie eventually died as a result of prolonged exposure to radiation. Pierre would likely have had the same fate, if he hadn’t been killed in a street accident when he was 46 years old.

17A Endless TikTok scrolling or Tetris playing, e.g. : TIME SINK

Tetris is a very addictive video game that was developed in the Soviet Union in 1984. The name Tetris comes from a melding of the prefix “tetra-” (as all the game pieces have four segments) and “tennis” (a favorite sport played by the developer). Since 2005 there have been more than 100 million copies of the game installed on cell phones alone.

22A Only U.S. president from Delaware : BIDEN

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.

26A ___ Plaines, Ill. : DES

Des Plaines is a suburb of Chicago that is located next to O’Hare International Airport. The city is named for the Des Plaines river that runs through the area.

27A Smelter’s material : ORE

Metals are found in ore in the form of oxides. In order to get pure metal from the ore, the ore is heated and the metal oxides within are reduced (i.e. the oxygen is removed) in the chemical process known as smelting. The oxygen is extracted by adding a source of carbon or carbon monoxide which uses up the excess oxygen atoms to make carbon dioxide, a waste product of smelting (and a greenhouse gas).

28A Popular sushi fish : EEL

Anyone going to a sushi restaurant can order all types of raw fish (known collectively as “sashimi”). However, eel is always served cooked, and that’s because the blood of eels contains a protein that cramps muscles if eaten. If the heart muscle “cramps”, the result can be death. The protein is easily rendered harmless by applying heat, i.e. by cooking.

30A Like the Mariana Trench among all the world’s underwater places : DEEPEST

Challenger Deep is the deepest known point in the Earth’s oceans, with a depth of approximately 36,070 feet. It is located in the Mariana Trench, which is in the western Pacific Ocean, east of the Mariana Islands. The location is named for the HMS Challenger, a British surveying ship that conducted the first systematic study of the world’s oceans in the late 1800s. The list of people to have descended to its depths is relatively short, but it includes filmmaker James Cameron, in 2012 in the deep-submergence vehicle Deepsea Challenger.

33A Guy who goes a-courting : BEAU

A beau (plural “beaux”) is the boyfriend of a belle, a young lady. “Beau” and “belle” are the masculine and feminine forms of the French word for “handsome, beautiful”.

37A Rodeo rope : LASSO

Our English word “lasso” comes from the Spanish “lazo”, and ultimately from the Latin “laqueum” meaning “noose, snare”.

45A Corner piece on a chessboard : ROOK

The corner piece in the game of chess is called a “rook”, a word coming from the Persian “rokh” meaning a “chariot”. The rook has also been called, perhaps incorrectly, the castle, tower, marquess and rector.

48A Top placement in a bracket, for a March Madness team : ONE SEED

“March Madness” is the name given to the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship (among others), that is held in the spring each year. Another name is “the Big Dance”.

54A Onetime AT&T competitor : MCI

MCI was a giant telecom company that suffered a similar fate to Enron, and around about the same time. MCI was formed with the merger of MCI Communications and WorldCom in 1997, and eventually became the second-largest, long-distance provider in the US. MCI’s stock price fell in 2000 and, in maneuvers designed to protect the price, the company committed illegal acts. MCI’s larger-than-life CEO Bernie Ebbers (formerly of WorldCom) served 13 years of a 25-year sentence, before being released due to a decline in health. He died one month later.

68A Word after Irish or jet : SETTER

An Irish setter is a breed of dog …
… or maybe someone from Dublin who sets crosswords …

69A Longtime record label or Beastie Boy : MCA

Beastie Boys were a hip hop band from New York that formed back in 1978. The name “Beastie” was suggested by one of the original band members, John Berry. Some time after getting together, the group asserted that “Beastie” was an acronym standing for Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Inner Excellence.

70A Valentine’s Day flower : ROSE

Saint Valentine’s Day was introduced by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD to honor various martyrs with the name Valentine. However, the saint’s day was dropped by the Roman Catholic church in 1969, by Pope Paul VI. Try telling that to Hallmark though …

73A ___ of the Horse (2026 in the Chinese zodiac) : YEAR

The 12-year cycle in the Chinese calendar uses the following animals in order:

• Rat
• Ox
• Tiger
• Rabbit
• Dragon
• Snake
• Horse
• Goat
• Monkey
• Rooster
• Dog
• Pig

Down

2D Long-running CBS procedural with spinoffs : CSI

The “CSI” TV show franchise uses hits from the Who as theme music:

• “Who Are You” … “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”
• “Baba O’Riley” … “CSI: New York”
• “Won’t Get Fooled Again” … “CSI: Miami”
• “I Can See for Miles” … “CSI: Cyber”

5D Dubai dignitary : EMIR

Dubai is one of the seven emirates that make up the federation known as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The two largest members of the UAE (geographically) are Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the only two of the seven members that have veto power over UAE policy.

6D Round Table knight who betrayed King Arthur : LANCELOT

Sir Lancelot is one of the knights in the legend of King Arthur and the Round Table. Lancelot is the most trusted of Arthur’s knights when it comes to battle, but off the field he has a poorer reputation. Famously, Lancelot had an affair with Guinevere, Arthur’s wife.

34D Internet addresses, for short : URLS

An Internet address (like NYXCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a uniform resource locator (URL).

36D Uno + due : TRE

In Italian, “uno e due” (one and two) is “tre” (three).

40D Like the original Broadway cast of “The Wiz” : ALL-BLACK

“The Wiz”, the 1974 musical, was written by Charlie Smalls and is an African American adaptation of Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. The film version of the stage show was released in 1978, starring Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow. I haven’t seen it, though. “The Wizard of Oz” scares me, as the flying monkeys creep me out. There, I’ve admitted it in public …

42D Kenya’s second-largest city : MOMBASA

Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya (after the capital, Nairobi). Mombasa is located on the east coast of the country, on the Indian Ocean.

46D “Wise” bird : OWL

The Greek goddess Athena (sometimes “Athene”) is often associated with wisdom, among other attributes. In many representations, Athena is depicted with an owl sitting on her head. It is this linkage of the owl with the goddess of wisdom that led to today’s perception of the owl as being “wise”. Athena’s Roman counterpart was Minerva.

50D Rap’s Dr. ___ : DRE

“Dr. Dre” is the stage name of rapper Andre Romelle Young. He is known for his own singing career as well as for producing records and starting the careers of others such as Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent.

52D Actor Estrada of “CHiPs” : ERIK

Actor Erik Estrada’s big break came with the movie “Airport 1975”, in which he played the doomed flight engineer of a Boeing 747. A couple of years later, Estrada began a six-year gig, co-starring on the television show “CHiPs” as motorcycle police officer Poncherello.

The TV cop show “CHiPs” ran from 1977 until 1983. Stars of the show were Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada, who played two California Highway Patrol (CHP) motorcycle officers. I find it interesting that the storylines never once called for the officers to draw their firearms over the six seasons (how shows have changed!). Erik Estrada had to learn how to ride a motorcycle for the show, but wasn’t licensed to drive one during the entire run of the series. He eventually qualified, but only after three attempts to pass the test.

56D Warhead weapons, for short : ICBMS

An Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with the range necessary to cross between continents. Being ballistic (unlike a cruise missile), an ICBM is guided during the initial launch phase, but later in flight just relies on thrust and gravity to arrive at its target. It is defined as intercontinental as it has a range greater than 3,500 miles. ICBMs are really only used for delivering nuclear warheads. Scary stuff …

58D Manicurist’s board : EMERY

Emery is a very hard type of rock that is crushed for use as an abrasive. Emery paper is made by gluing small particles of emery to paper. Emery boards are just emery paper with a cardboard backing. And emery boards are primarily used for filing nails.

61D Iowa college town : AMES

Iowa State University of Science and Technology (ISU) is located in Ames, Iowa. Among many other notable milestones, ISU created the country’s first school of veterinary medicine, in 1879. The sports teams of ISU are known as the Cyclones.

62D “Superfood” berry : ACAI

We hear the word “superfood” a lot these days. I think it’s important that we realize that our friends in marketing coined the term to promote foods that have supposed health benefits, even though there’s no obligation to prove those health benefits exist. Since 2007, the European Union (EU) has banned the use of the term “superfood” in marketing of foodstuffs unless there is credible scientific research to back up any health claim. Good for the EU …

66D Team for Olympians Simone Biles and Mikaela Shiffrin : USA

Artistic gymnast Simone Biles holds many, many world and US records. In 2022, President Joe Biden presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, making her the youngest person ever to receive the award.

Mikaela Shiffrin is a World Cup alpine skier from Vail, Colorado. Her remarkable list of victories in competition includes an Olympic Gold in 2014 in the slalom event. She was only 18 years of age, making her the youngest slalom champion in Olympic history.

67D ___ capita : PER

“Per capita” is a Latin term used to mean “per person, per unit of population”. The literal translation of the term is “by heads”.