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Constructed by: Jess Rucks

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 17m 38s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9A “What’s wrong with u?” : SMH

Shaking my head (SMH)

12A Vader offspring : LEIA

Anakin “Ani” Skywalker is the principal character in the first six of the “Star Wars” movies. His progress chronologically through the series of films is:

• Episode I: Anakin is a 9-year-old slave boy who earns the promise of Jedi training.
• Episode II: Anakin is 18 years old and goes on a murdering rampage to avenge the killing of his mother.
• Episode III: Anakin is 21 years old and a Jedi knight, but he turns to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader. His wife Padme gives birth to twins, Luke and Leia Skywalker.
• Episode IV: Darth Vader comes into conflict with his children, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.
• Episode V: Darth Vader attempts to coax his son Luke over to the dark side, and reveals to Luke that he is his father.
• Episode VI: Luke learns that Leia is his sister, and takes on the task of bringing Darth Vader back from the Dark Side in order to save the Galaxy. Vader saves his son from the Emperor’s evil grip, dying in the process, but his spirit ends up alongside the spirits of Yoda and Obi-Wan. They all live happily ever after …

13A Southwestern casserole : TAMALE PIE

A tamale (“tamal” in Spanish) 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.

18A Forex benchmark : USD

Foreign exchange market (Forex)

24A Tradition within Swedish coffee culture : FIKA

Fika is an established social institution in Sweden centered around slowing down to share coffee and baked goods, particularly cinnamon buns known as kanelbullar. The term “fika” originated as 19th-century back slang, created by reversing the syllables of “kaffi”, an early Swedish spelling for “coffee”. Today, many Swedish workplaces mandate a fika break twice a day. Great, great idea …

25A Like some jobs : CUSHY

Our term “cushy”, meaning “easy and profitable”, is actually Anglo-Indian slang coming from the Hindi word “khush”, which translates as “pleasant, happy”.

27A Shengjian __: pan-fried pork bun : BAO

Shengjian bao is a staple street food of Shanghai that emerged in the city’s tea houses during the early 1900s. They are somewhat unique buns in that they are placed raw into a skillet, covered and steamed with water, and then fried until their bottoms develop a thick crust.

30A Setting of Fox’s “Best Medicine” : MAINE

“Best Medicine” is an American adaptation of the long-running British medical comedy-drama “Doc Martin”. It stars Josh Charles as Dr. Martin Best, a brilliant but notoriously blunt surgeon who relocates to a quaint fishing village to work as a general practitioner. I enjoyed the US version of the show, but the UK original starring Martin Clunes in the title role is superb.

31A Milanese dish traditionally served with risotto : OSSO BUCO

Osso buco is a traditional Italian dish that is typically made with veal shanks that are braised with vegetables and herbs. The name “osso buco” means “bone with a hole” in Italian, which refers to the marrow-filled bone in the center of the veal shank. The marrow is considered a delicacy and is often scooped out and served with the dish.

34A Service rep with a lack of humanity : BOT

In more ways than one …

35A David’s “Baywatch” role : MITCH

Actor and singer David Hasselhoff has appeared on many hit TV shows, including “The Young and the Restless”, “Knight Rider”, “Baywatch”, “Dancing with the Stars” and “America’s Got Talent”. According to “The Guinness Book of Records”, Hasselhoff is the most-watched man on TV, ever. Not by me …

“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.

39A Letters from a bygone empire : SSR

The former Soviet Union (officially “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” or “USSR”) was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the tsar. Geographically, the new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent to the old Russian Empire, and comprised fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs).

40A Travels cross-country? : SKIS

Nordic skiing differs from Alpine skiing in the type of equipment used. Nordic ski boots are fixed to the binding so that the heel can lift off the ski, whereas Alpine ski boots are fixed to the binding along the whole sole. Alpine skiing is also known as downhill skiing, and Nordic skiing disciplines include cross-country skiing and Telemark skiing.

43A Nullifidian : ATHEIST

The term “atheism”, meaning “disbelief in the existence of a god or gods”, comes from the Greek “atheos” meaning “without god”.

The word “nullifidian” was coined in the mid-1500s during the religious upheavals of the English Reformation to describe a person who holds no religious faith or belief. The term comes from the Latin word “nullus” meaning “none”, and “fides” meaning “faith”. “Nullifidian” has largely been replaced with terms like “atheist” and “agnostic”.

45A Cold treat : ICE POP

The term “ice pop” has largely been supplanted in the US by “popsicle”, as the Popsicle brand of ice pop became so popular. We still use “ice pop” in Ireland, and in the UK the same thing is called an “ice lolly”, and in Australia it’s an “ice block”.

48A National Farm Toy Museum locale : IOWA

The National Farm Toy Museum opened up for visitors in Dyersville, Iowa, in 1986. The idea for the facility came from the founders of the Ertl Company, a manufacturer of die-cast replicas of farm machinery that has its headquarters in the city.

50A Home brewer’s appliance : KEGERATOR

A kegerator is a refrigerator used to store and serve chilled draft beer. The term “kegerator” is a portmanteau of “keg” and “refrigerator”.

52A Chute material : NYLON

The term “parachute” was coined by Frenchman François Blanchard, from “para-” meaning “defense against” and “chute” meaning “fall”.

57A Nueva canción great Mercedes : SOSA

Mercedes Sosa was a singer from Argentina who was hugely popular throughout Latin America and performed all over the world. She was so popular in her homeland that when she passed away in 2009 the Argentine president ordered three days of national mourning, and her body was placed on display at the National Congress building in Buenos Aires.

“Nueva canción” (“new song” in Spanish) is a musical and social movement that swept across Latin America during the 1960s and 1970s. It is characterized by the revitalization of traditional folk music, blended with socially conscious lyrics. Pioneers in the movement were Chile’s Violeta Parra and Víctor Jara, and Argentina’s Mercedes Sosa. The genre’s most prominent musicians faced severe censorship, exile, or even assassination at the hands of the era’s military dictatorships because of its association with grassroots activism and human rights.

58A Singer who has six top 10 studio albums with her namesake band : SADE

Singer Sade’s real name is Helen Folasade Adu. Although born in Nigeria, Sade grew up and lives in the UK. She was the lead vocalist for the English group Sade, and adopted the name of the band. The band’s biggest hits were “Smooth Operator” (1984) and “The Sweetest Taboo” (1985).

Down

7D Pings online : IMS

Instant message (IM)

In the world of computer science, a ping is a test message sent over a network between computers to check for a response and to measure the time of that response. We now use the verb “to ping” more generally, meaning to send someone a message, usually a reminder.

8D Birds that recognize faces and hold grudges : MAGPIES

Magpies possess the remarkable ability to recognize individual human faces. Researchers have documented that if a person threatens or harasses a magpie, the bird will remember that specific face for years and actively hold a grudge, often dive-bombing the offender on sight. It is said that their advanced intelligence rivals that of great apes.

9D Rotisserie rod : SPIT

We use the term “rotisserie” to describe a cooking device used to roast meat. The French word “rôtisserie” describes a shop selling cooked meats (“rôti” is French for “roasted”). We first absorbed the French term into English in the 1800s, when “rotisserie” described a similar establishment. It was only in the 1950s that we started to describe the home-cooking apparatus as a rotisserie.

15D James in the Blues Hall of Fame : ETTA

Inaugurated in 1980, the Blues Hall of Fame used to be just a list of people who made significant contributions to the blues genre of music. There is now a music museum with the name Blues Hall of Fame, located in Memphis.

16D Feature of Namibia’s flag : SUN

The flag of Namibia is very colorful. It features a golden-yellow sun in a top-left blue triangle at the hoist. It was adopted upon the nation’s independence from South Africa in 1990.

The Republic of Namibia is a country in southern Africa on the Atlantic coast. The Namibian War of Independence fought from 1966 to 1988 eventually resulted in independence for Namibia from South Africa, and a transition from white minority apartheid rule.

23D Ed of “Up” : ASNER

Ed Asner was most famous for playing the irascible but lovable Lou Grant on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and on the spin-off drama “Lou Grant”. Off-screen Asner was noted for his political activism. He served two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and was very involved in the 1980 SAG strike. When “Lou Grant” was canceled in 1982, despite decent ratings, there was a lot of talk that the cancellation was a move by the network against Asner personally. In fact, one of Asner’s activist colleagues, Howard Hesseman (who played Johnny Fever) found that his show “WKRP in Cincinnati” was also canceled … on the very same day.

“Up” was the tenth movie released by Pixar studios, and features the wonderful animation that we have come to expect from Pixar. The film earned itself two Academy Awards. The main voice actor is Ed Asner, whose animated persona as Carl Fredricksen was created to resemble Spencer Tracy, as Tracy appeared in his last film, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”.

24D End of Oktober? : FEST

Oktoberfest is a 16-day beer festival in Munich that actually starts in September. About six million people attend every year, making it the largest fair in the world. I’ve attended twice, and it really is a remarkable party …

26D __ and the Maytals : TOOTS

Toots and the Maytals are a Jamaican reggae and ska band that have been active since the 1960s. Frontman Toots Hibbert passed away in 2020, at the age of 77.

32D “Free your pores” brand : BIORE

Bioré is a skincare brand owned by the Kao Corporation of Tokyo.

41D “Victory!” letters : FTW!

“FTW” is an initialism abbreviating “for the win”, a phrase meaning “being great, sure to succeed”.

43D Place for a stent : AORTA

In the world of surgical medicine, a stent is an artificial tube inserted inside a vessel in the body, say an artery, in order to reduce the effects of a local restriction in the body’s conduit.

44D Point value of “five” in Scrabble : TEN

F (4), I (1), V (4), E (1).

46D Michael of “The Running Man” : CERA

Michael Cera is a Canadian actor who played great characters on the TV show “Arrested Development”, and in the 2007 comedy-drama “Juno”. Cera is also quite the musician. He released an indie folk album titled “True That” in 2014.

Stephen King penned his 1982 dystopian thriller novel “The Running Man” under his pseudonym, Richard Bachman. The story is best known today for its 1987 film adaptation, which used the same title. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a wrongfully convicted pilot forced to survive a televised gladiatorial game show.

48D Chits : IOUS

A chit is a note or a short letter. The term “chit” tends to be used these days in the sense of an amount owed (as in a poker game). The word used to be “chitty”, which is now obsolete but was closer to the original Hindi term. I feel a tad obsolete myself, because when we were at school we would be excused from class if we had a “chitty”.