Constructed by: David Distenfeld
Edited by: Will Shortz
Not your puzzle? Try today’s …
… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Sucks from Sacs
Themed answers end with similar sounding words, but for a vowel progression as we descend the grid:
- 17A Bee storage centers : HONEY SACS
- 25A Option in a “no strings attached” relationship : CASUAL SEX
- 39A Football interception leading to a touchdown, colloquially : PICK SIX
- 50A Stockings for athletes : TUBE SOCKS
- 62A “Oof, sorry to hear it” : THAT SUCKS
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Bill’s time: 5m 45s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
1 Fictional Looney Tunes corporation : ACME
The Acme Corporation is a fictional company used mainly by Looney Tunes, and within the Looney Tunes empire it appears mostly in “Road Runner” cartoons. Wile E. Coyote is always receiving a new piece of gear from Acme designed to finally capture the Road Runner, but the equipment always leads to his downfall.
5 Bean named for a South American capital : LIMA
The lima bean is also known as the butter bean or madagascar bean. It was introduced to Europe from the area around Lima, Peru, hence the name.
Lima is the capital city of Peru. It was founded in 1535 by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, who named it “la Ciudad de los Reyes” (the City of Kings). He chose this name because the decision to found the city was made on January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany that commemorates the visit of the three kings to Jesus in Bethlehem. Lima is home to the oldest university in all of the Americas, as San Marco University was founded in 1551 during the days of Spanish colonial rule.
9 Title pig in a children’s show : PEPPA
“Peppa Pig” is a children’s animated show that is produced in the UK and airs all over the world. There’s even a Peppa Pig World theme park located in Hampshire, England.
15 N.Y.S.E. events : IPOS
An initial public offering (IPO) is a significant event for a company as it marks the first time it becomes a publicly traded company. IPOs are often accompanied by a so-called “lock-up period.” This is a period of time, typically 90 to 180 days after the IPO, during which company insiders, such as executives and early investors, are not allowed to sell their shares on the open market. The purpose of the lock-up period is to prevent a flood of shares from hitting the market and potentially driving down the price of the stock.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the world’s largest stock exchange by market capitalization, and it has been in operation for over 230 years. The first company to be listed on the NYSE was the Bank of New York. It was traded alongside four other securities when the exchange opened.
17 Bee storage centers : HONEY SACS
The “honey sac” is that part of the esophagus of a bee in which honey forms from nectar.
20 Cat also called a dwarf leopard : OCELOT
The ocelot is a wild cat found mainly in South and Central America, although there have been sightings as far north as Arkansas. An ocelot doesn’t look too different from a domestic cat, and some have been kept as pets. Perhaps most famously, Salvador Dali had one that he carried around everywhere with him.
30 Buzz Lightyear and Woody, for two : TOYS
1995’s “Toy Story” was the world’s first feature-length computer-animated movie. “Toy Story” was also Pixar’s first production. The main roles in the film are Buzz Lightyear and Woody, who are voiced by Tim Allen and Tom Hanks respectively. Hanks was the first choice to voice Woody, but Allen was asked to voice Buzz after Billy Crystal turned down the role.
33 π’s : PIS
Pi is the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, and is probably most famous to us as a symbol for a mathematical constant, the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. The letter pi has represented this constant since the mid-1700s, and was chosen because pi is the first letter of the Greek word “perimetros” meaning “circumference”.
39 Football interception leading to a touchdown, colloquially : PICK SIX
“Pick-six” is a football term, an interception returned by the defensive team for a touchdown. The “pick” is the interception, and the “six” is the number of points awarded for a touchdown.
41 Langley-based spy grp. : CIA
The CIA headquarters is located in Langley, Virginia in a complex called the George Bush Center for Intelligence. The facility was named for former Director of the CIA and US President George H. W. Bush. Langley used to be the largest intelligence agency in the western world, but that honor now goes to the BND Headquarters in Berlin.
42 Provokes : EGGS ON
The verb “to edge” has been used to mean to incite, to urge on, from the 16th century. Somewhere along the way “edge” was mistakenly replaced with “egg”, giving us our term “to egg on” meaning “to goad”.
45 Big letters in fashion : DKNY
Donna Karan is an American fashion designer, creator of the Donna Karan New York (DKNY) clothing label. Karan was very much raised in the fashion industry, as her mother was a model and her stepfather a tailor.
46 Dressed for bed, informally : IN PJ’S
Our word “pajamas” (sometimes “PJs” or “jammies”) comes to us from the Indian subcontinent, where “pai jamahs” were loose fitting pants tied at the waist and worn at night by locals and ultimately by the Europeans living there. And “pajamas” is another of those words that I had to learn to spell differently when I came to America. On the other side of the Atlantic, the spelling is “pyjamas”.
48 “Here’s a quick summary,” in internet-speak : TL;DR
Too long, didn’t read (TL;DR)
58 Accessory named for a snake : BOA
Boa constrictors are members of the Boidae family of snakes, all of which are non-venomous. Interestingly, the female boa is always larger than the male.
59 Reddish-brown shade : SIENNA
The shade known as “sienna” or “burnt sienna” was originally a pigment made from earth found around Siena in Tuscany.
64 Wetlands wader : EGRET
Egrets are a group of several species of white herons. Many egret species were faced with extinction in the 1800s and early 1900s due to plume hunting, a practice driven by the demand for egret plumes that could be incorporated into hats.
65 Bone by the humerus : ULNA
The radius and ulna are bones in the forearm. If you hold the palm of your hand up in front of you, the radius is the bone on the “thumb-side” of the arm, and the ulna is the bone on the “pinky-side”.
66 Cyber Monday event : SALE
Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving, when retailers offer incentives to online shoppers in the hope of boosting sales. The term “Cyber Monday” was coined in 2005 in a press release issued by the website Shop.org. In recent years, consumers have been spending more money online on Cyber Monday than any other day in the year.
69 Did 70 in a 55 zone, e.g. : SPED
The first speed limit introduced on a road system was in 1861 in the UK. The limit back then was 10 mph, and this was reduced a few years later to 4 mph in the country, and 2 mph in towns. The highest speed limit ever posted was in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates from 2005 to 2010, a maximum of 160 km/hr (99 mph). Famously, the autobahns of Germany have no speed limit in rural, uncongested areas.
Down
2 Jim who sang “Time in a Bottle” : CROCE
“Time in a Bottle” is a song written by Jim Croce in 1970 and recorded by him in 1972. The song was released as a single in 1973, soon after Croce died in a plane crash. It was to be Croce’s last number-one hit.
6 Hip, hoppy brew : IPA
India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.
7 Chocolaty coffee flavor : MOCHA
Mocha is a port city in Yemen on the Red Sea and was once the principal port for the capital city of Sana’a. Mocha was the major marketplace in the world for coffee until the 1600s, and gave its name to the Mocha coffee bean, which in turn gave its name to the mocha brown color, and the flavor of coffee infused with chocolate.
8 St. Francis’ home : ASSISI
Francis of Assisi was a Catholic friar and preacher who founded the Franciscan order. Because he is honored for his love of animals and nature, many churches hold ceremonies to bless animals on the feast day of Saint Francis, October 4th, every year.
9 Embellish, as a résumé : PAD
A résumé is a summary of a person’s job experience and education and is used as a tool by a job seeker. In many countries, a résumé is equivalent to a curriculum vitae. “Résumé” is the French word for “summary”.
11 Device for someone who’s hopping mad? : POGO STICK
What we know today as a pogo stick was invented in Germany by Max Pohlig and Ernst Gottschall. The name “pogo” comes from the first two letters in each of the inventors’ family names: Po-hlig and Go-ttschall. The highest jump on a pogo stick was achieved by Fred Grzybowski in 2010. He jumped over three cars and reached a height of 9 feet, 6 inches.
12 LGBT ___ Month (June) : PRIDE
The police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn on June 29th, 1969. That raid triggered a spate of violent demonstrations led by the LGBT community. Now known as the Stonewall riots, those demonstrations are viewed by many as a significant event leading to the modern-day fight for LGBT rights in the US. Since then, June has been chosen as LGBT Pride Month in recognition of the Stonewall riots.
18 Beloved film character who says “Size matters not” : YODA
In the “Star Wars” series of films, the character named Yoda has a unique speech pattern. He often uses the word order object-subject-verb. For example:
- Patience you must have …
- Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.
- To answer power with power, the Jedi way this is not.
25 Stylish : CHIC
“Chic” is a French word meaning “stylish”.
26 Trebek of “Jeopardy!” : ALEX
Alex Trebek was the host of “Jeopardy!” from the launch of the syndicated version of the game show in 1984 until his passing in 2020. Trebek missed just one episode during that time, when he and host of “Wheel of Fortune” Pat Sajak swapped roles in 1997 as an April Fool’s joke. In 2014, Trebek picked up the Guinness World Record for hosting the most episodes of a game show.
28 Publicist’s output in the face of controversy : SPIN JOB
“Spin doctor” is a slang term describing a professional in the field of public relations (PR).
32 Who said “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical” : YOGI BERRA
Yogi Berra is regarded by many as the greatest catcher ever to play in Major League Baseball, and has to be America’s most celebrated “author” of malapropisms. Here are some greats:
- It ain’t over till it’s over.
- 90% of the game is half mental.
- Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.
- When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
- It’s déjà vu all over again.
- Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.
- A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.
36 Tonic go-with : GIN
The original tonic water was a fairly strong solution of the drug quinine dissolved in carbonated water. It was used in tropical areas in South Asia and Africa where malaria is rampant. The quinine has a prophylactic effect against the disease, and was formulated as “tonic water” so that it could be easily distributed. In British colonial India, the colonial types got into the habit of mixing gin with the tonic water to make it more palatable by hiding the bitter taste of quinine. Nowadays, the level of quinine in tonic water has dropped, and sugar has been added.
45 Creator of Horton the Elephant and Yertle the Turtle : DR SEUSS
Horton the Elephant turns up in two books by Dr. Seuss, “Horton Hatches the Egg” and “Horton Hears a Who!”
47 High-ranking justices’ grp. : SCOTUS
Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS)
49 Charges for tipsy motorists, for short : DUIS
In some states, there is no longer a legal difference between a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) and a DUI (Driving Under the Influence). Other states retain that difference, so that by definition a DUI is a lesser offense than a DWI.
50 Come to a point? : TAPER
I used to think that the word “taper” was used for a slender candle because said candle was “tapered” in shape, but it’s exactly the opposite. It turns out that our word “tapered” comes from the candle. “Taper” and “tapur” are Old English words meaning “candle”. From these nouns arose the verb “to taper” meaning “shoot up like flame”. This meaning evolved into “become slender” from the idea that a candle’s flame has such a shape.
52 Artist played by Salma Hayek in “Frida” : KAHLO
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter famous for her self-portraits. She was married to the equally famous artist Diego Rivera. Kahlo was portrayed by actress Salma Hayek in a film about her colorful life called “Frida” released in 2002.
56 Used a surgical beam on : LASED
The term “laser” is an acronym standing for “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”. It has been pointed out that a more precise name for laser technology is “light oscillation by stimulated emission of radiation”, but the resulting acronym isn’t quite so appealing, namely “loser”.
63 Santa ___, Calif. : ANA
Santa Ana is the county seat of Orange County, California and takes its name from the Santa Ana River that runs through the city.
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Fictional Looney Tunes corporation : ACME
5 Bean named for a South American capital : LIMA
9 Title pig in a children’s show : PEPPA
14 Neigh : horse :: ___ : donkey : BRAY
15 N.Y.S.E. events : IPOS
16 Decorate : ADORN
17 Bee storage centers : HONEY SACS
19 “Eat!” : DIG IN!
20 Cat also called a dwarf leopard : OCELOT
21 That guy’s : HIS
23 Portend : BODE
24 Made over, as a kitchen : REDID
25 Option in a “no strings attached” relationship : CASUAL SEX
27 100-yard run, say : DASH
29 Small bay : INLET
30 Buzz Lightyear and Woody, for two : TOYS
33 π’s : PIS
35 Field for an architect or an artist : DESIGN
38 Genre associated with black eyeliner : EMO
39 Football interception leading to a touchdown, colloquially : PICK SIX
41 Langley-based spy grp. : CIA
42 Provokes : EGGS ON
44 Affirmative vote : YEA
45 Big letters in fashion : DKNY
46 Dressed for bed, informally : IN PJ’S
48 “Here’s a quick summary,” in internet-speak : TL;DR
50 Stockings for athletes : TUBE SOCKS
53 “I’ll have the ___” (unoriginal diner order) : USUAL
57 On a boat, maybe : ASEA
58 Accessory named for a snake : BOA
59 Reddish-brown shade : SIENNA
60 Playground places : PARKS
62 “Oof, sorry to hear it” : THAT SUCKS
64 Wetlands wader : EGRET
65 Bone by the humerus : ULNA
66 Cyber Monday event : SALE
67 “All set?” : READY?
68 Fly high : SOAR
69 Did 70 in a 55 zone, e.g. : SPED
Down
1 Detest : ABHOR
2 Jim who sang “Time in a Bottle” : CROCE
3 Like a lion, but not a lioness : MANED
4 Peeper protectors : EYELIDS
5 Something made by Santa labeled “Naughty” or “Nice” : LIST
6 Hip, hoppy brew : IPA
7 Chocolaty coffee flavor : MOCHA
8 St. Francis’ home : ASSISI
9 Embellish, as a résumé : PAD
10 Things to eat : EDIBLES
11 Device for someone who’s hopping mad? : POGO STICK
12 LGBT ___ Month (June) : PRIDE
13 Building wing : ANNEX
18 Beloved film character who says “Size matters not” : YODA
22 Timekeeping device that doesn’t work when it’s cloudy : SUNDIAL
25 Stylish : CHIC
26 Trebek of “Jeopardy!” : ALEX
28 Publicist’s output in the face of controversy : SPIN JOB
30 Peg for a golfer : TEE
31 “Holy wow!” : OMG!
32 Who said “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical” : YOGI BERRA
34 “Why is the ___ blue?” : SKY
36 Tonic go-with : GIN
37 Negative vote : NAY
39 Daddy-o : POPS
40 Theater backdrops : SETS
43 Crept : SNEAKED
45 Creator of Horton the Elephant and Yertle the Turtle : DR SEUSS
47 High-ranking justices’ grp. : SCOTUS
49 Charges for tipsy motorists, for short : DUIS
50 Come to a point? : TAPER
51 Part of a dictionary entry : USAGE
52 Artist played by Salma Hayek in “Frida” : KAHLO
54 Open, as a pen : UNCAP
55 Commonly sprained joint : ANKLE
56 Used a surgical beam on : LASED
59 Leading actor or actress : STAR
61 Pig’s pen : STY
63 Santa ___, Calif. : ANA
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