Bill’s time: 13m 12s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14A Skin-care brand known for its pore strips : BIORE

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

17A Dubious sighting in the night sky : ALIEN SHIP

In 1952, the USAF revived its studies of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in a program called Project Blue Book. Project Blue Book ran from 1952 until it was shut down in 1969 with the conclusion that there was no threat to national security and that there was no evidence the unexplained sightings represented technology beyond the bounds of modern scientific knowledge.

21A Romance author Huang : ANA

Ana Huang is an author who is best known for her “Twisted” series of New Adult romance novels.

22A They might be rehabbed with knee flexion : ACLS

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the stabilizing bands of tissue connecting the human thighbone to the shinbone. The term “cruciate” comes from the Latin “crux” meaning cross, which describes how the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments intersect to form an “X” shape inside the center of the knee joint.

23A His #33 was retired by the Knicks in 2003 : EWING

Patrick Ewing is a former NBA player, and a two-time inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2008 for his individual career and in 2010 as a member of the 1992 Olympic team. Ewing is Jamaican-born, and moved with his family to the US in 1975. He was actually born in the British Colony of Jamaica, as Jamaica became independent from the UK the day after his birth.

25A Winner of the 2025 Outstanding Drama Series Emmy, with “The” : PITT

“The Pitt” is a medical drama TV show that premiered in 2025. The title refers to the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. In each episode, we follow the staff through an hour in the emergency department, navigating challenges like staff shortages and underfunding. The show has been praised by the medical community for its realistic portrayal of healthcare workers and the psychological challenges faced in a post-pandemic world.

26A Personne canonisée: Abbr. : STE

“Sainte” (ste.) is French for “saint”, when referring to a “femme” (woman).

27A ___ Capital, investment firm co-founded by Mitt Romney : BAIN

Mitt Romney was born Willard Mitt Romney in 1947 in Detroit, Michigan. Romney’s parents named him after J. Willard Marriott (the hotel magnate) who was the father’s best friend, and after Milton “Mitt” Romney who was the father’s cousin and quarterback for the Chicago Bears.

39A Like much of Libya : ARID

Libya’s Great Man-Made River Project (GMRP) is the world’s largest irrigation project. It’s a massive network of underground pipes, stretching thousands of miles, transporting fresh water from the Sahara to coastal cities. The water source is the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System, an ancient groundwater reserve in southern Libya that was discovered during oil exploration in 1953. The project began in 1984, but its completion has been stalled for years by the nation’s civil wars.

43A “Sweet dreams are made of cheese / Who am I to dis a ___?” (parody lyrics) : BRIE

Eurythmics is the name used by British pop duo Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. The pair had previously performed together in a band called the Tourists. Eurythmics had their big break in 1983 with the release of the single “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”, a lovely song.

47A “It is not easy for a ___ to balance himself on a ladder”: “Animal Farm” : PIG

“Animal Farm” is a 1945 novella written by George Orwell, a satire of life in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. Orwell had trouble getting his novel published in his homeland of the UK during WWII, as anti-Soviet literature wasn’t a good thing to publish while the UK and USSR were on the same side of a World War. In fact, one publisher who was willing to distribute the book changed his mind after being warned off by the British Ministry of Information. Given his experiences, I find it interesting that Orwell should write “Nineteen Eighty-Four” a few years later, and introduce the world to Big Brother.

49A Relative of house music : TECHNO

Techno is a type of electronic dance music that originated in Detroit in the eighties. Techno involves a heavy beat in common time, and what seems to be a lot of repetition. Not for me …

House music is a type of electronic dance music. The genre originated in Chicago in the eighties, and has now invaded the whole world. House music is characterized by a rhythmic thumping sound from drum machines and a simple 4/4 beat. It’s not the Beatles …

51A Inverse of an exponential function : LOGARITHM

As an example of a logarithm, the number 10,000 is equal to 10 to the power of 4, so the base-10 logarithm of 10,000 is said to be 4. Inversely, the antilogarithm of 4 (in the base-10) is 10,000. We all remember that from school, don’t we?

54A Vikings’ offense? : RAIDS

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.

Down

4D Sonic system : SEGA

Sonic the Hedgehog is a title character in a videogame and the mascot of Sega, the computer game developer. Sonic was set up as a rival to Nintendo’s mascot Mario.

5D Org. featured in 1998’s “Enemy of the State” : NSA

“Enemy of the State” is an excellent thriller film released in 1998 starring Will Smith and Gene Hackman. The movie is all about the NSA and surveillance.

6D Breaking character? : BULL IN A CHINA SHOP

The idiom “like a bull in a china shop” has been around since the early 1800s.

7D Like parts of Istanbul : ASIAN

Istanbul, Turkey (formerly “Byzantium” and “Constantinople”) is a major metropolis that is situated on two continents. The city extends both on the European side and on the Asian side of the Bosphorus Strait.

11D Soft, silky material : MOHAIR

The Angora goat produces the wool known as mohair. On the other hand, Angora wool comes from the Angora rabbit. Both rabbit and goat are named for Turkey’s capital Ankara, which was known as “Angora” in many European languages.

13D Green day star, for short : ST PAT

There is a fair amount known about Saint Patrick, some of which comes from two letters written in his own hand. St. Patrick lived in the fifth century, but was not born in Ireland. He was first brought to Ireland at about 16 years of age from his native Britain, by Irish raiders who made him a slave for six years. Patrick managed to escape and returned to his homeland where he studied and entered the Church. He went back to Ireland as a bishop and a missionary and there lived out the rest of his life. There seems to be good evidence that he died on March 17th (now celebrated annually as Saint Patrick’s Day), although the year is less clear. The stories about shamrock and snakes, I am afraid they are the stuff of legend.

14D Humongous, slangily : BIG-ASS

Something humongous is very, very large. “Humongous” comes from the words “huge” and “monstrous”.

24D August ___, “Fences” playwright : WILSON

“Fences” is a 2016 drama film starring and directed by Denzel Washington. The movie’s screenplay was written by August Wilson, and is based on his own Pulitzer Prize-winning 1985 play of the same name. Viola Davis plays opposite Washington in a performance that earned her that season’s Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

34D Former : ERSTWHILE

“Erst” is an archaic way of saying “formerly, before the present time”. The term is mostly seen as part of the word “erstwhile”, an adjective meaning “of times past”.

38D Publisher of the front-page headline “This sport is stupid anyway” after a U.S. loss at the World Cup, in brief : NY POST

The “New York Post” is a daily newspaper that has been around since 1801, when it was established by Founding Father Alexander Hamilton. In the 19th century, the paper was known as the “New York Evening Post”, and was a respected broadsheet. Rupert Murdoch originally took over in 1976 and turned it into the tabloid that it is today, eventually repurchasing the paper in 1993 after a brief sale.

39D Half-spoken, half-sung passages of an opera : ARIOSI

An arioso (plural “ariosi”) is a solo vocal piece in a classical work such as an opera or an oratorio. An arioso’s structure lies somewhere between that of a full-blown aria and speech-like recitative.

45D Shockingly unconventional : OUTRE

The word “outré”, meaning “unconventional, bizarre”, comes to us from French, as one might imagine. It is derived from the verb “outrer” meaning “to overdo, exaggerate”. “Outrer” is also the ultimate root of our word “outrage”.

48D “___ chic!” : TRES

“Très chic” is a French term meaning “very stylish”.

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