Friday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: November 23, 2018

My time: 12:07.

--

Temple Brown is the author of this enjoyable themeless that features twelve long answers. 

I've heard of the show "Orphan Black" but not "Almost Royal."  They're both on BBC AMERICA.

"Ginormous quantities" is an apt clue for the non-standard SQUILLIONS.

ALMA Reville was Alfred Hitchcock's wife and collaborator.  She helped write Suspicion and Shadow of a Doubt, but also worked on other films as continuity advisor and editor.

The NRA has appeared a few times in this blog, once as the publisher of the magazine "American Hunter."  Today it's clued as the org. behind the magazine "America's 1st Freedom."  I thought America's first freedom is the right to free speech and assembly.  Silly me.

"Tennis's only two-time Grand Slam winner" is Rod LAVER.  He was the No. 1 ranked professional from 1964 to 1970, spanning four years before and three years after the start of the Open Era in 1968.  Laver's 200 singles titles are the most in tennis history. Laver won 11 Grand Slam singles titles despite being banned from them for five years before the Open Era.  He achieved a Grand Slam in 1962 and 1969, and the latter remains the only time a man has done so in the Open Era.  The hard court tournament Laver Cup is named after him.

A MERL is a type of blackbird, though it's usually spelled with an e --- merle.

"Relative of a malt shop" is a MILK BAR?  Welly, welly, my droogs!  Viddy that!  Actually it seems to be an Australian thing.

ITO Hirobumi served as the first, fifth, seventh, and tenth Prime Minister of Japan, from 1885 to 1901.  Itō rejected the United States Constitution as too liberal and the Spanish Restoration as too despotic before ultimately drawing on the British and German models, especially the Prussian Constitution of 1850.

"Word before sign or after red" is CENT.  Cent sign?  No one says cent sign.

I know the song "OL' MAN RIVER" but I guess I couldn't have identified it as from the 1927 musical Show Boat.

The Olympics were held in ASIA for the first time in 1964.  Specifically, Tokyo, Japan. 

I love cooking shows and contests, but somehow have avoided watching "Top Chef."  PADMA Lakshmi, a model, actress, and author, has been the host of the US version since 2006.

"Largest river to the Laptev Sea" is LENA, as described way back on December 14, 2017.

Clever clues: "Foreign dishes?" is UFOS.  "It covers the floor" is C-SPAN.  "One to swear by?" is JOVE.  "State without words?' is AWE.  "Like some tracks" is OVAL --- I was thinking of animal tracks, not running surfaces.

Ahhh. I breathe ACAI of relief as this one goes in the books.  Happy black Friday!