Day: July 10, 2025

Bill’s time: 10m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Major-league team known as the “North Siders,” locally : CUBS

The famous ballpark that is home to the Chicago Cubs was built in 1914. Back then it was known as Weeghman Park, before becoming Cubs Park when the Cubs arrived in 1920. It was given the name Wrigley Field in 1926, after the owner William Wrigley, Jr. of chewing gum fame. Wrigley Field is noted as the only professional ballpark that has ivy covering the outfield walls. The ivy is a combination of Boston Ivy and Japanese Bittersweet, both of which can survive the harsh winters in Chicago.

5A I.R.S. fig. : SSN

The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation, although given its ubiquitous use, it is looking more and more like an identity number to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, an SSN was required only for persons with substantial income, so many children under 14 had no number assigned. For some years the IRS had a concern that a lot of people were claiming children on their tax returns who did not actually exist. So starting in 1986, the IRS made it a requirement to get an SSN for any dependents over the age of 5. Sure enough, seven million dependents “disappeared” in 1987. Today, a SSN is required for a child of any age in order to receive a tax exemption.

8A Playbill bits : BIOS

I get quite a kick out of reading the bios in “Playbill” as some of them can be really goofy and entertaining. “Playbill” started off in 1884 in New York as an in-house publication for just one theater on 21st St. You can’t see any decent-sized production these days anywhere in the United States without being handed a copy of “Playbill”.

12A Heckelphone relative : OBOE

A heckelphone is a musical instrument like an oboe, but pitched an octave lower. The heckelphone was invented in 1904 by a manufacturer of woodwind instruments in Germany named Wilhelm Heckel.

13A Urban housing option : CO-OP

Housing co-operatives (co-ops) and condos are similar, but there are important differences. Both co-ops and condos are multi-unit buildings. A condo is a private residence in such a building, with ownership of common areas shared. An owner of a co-op has an interest in the entire multi-unit building, and a contract allowing occupation of a specific unit. So, condo owners own their units, and co-op owners do not.

15A Marie Claire competitor : ELLE

“Marie Claire” is a women’s magazine that originated in France in 1937, and is now published all over the world.

16A 1970 Van Morrison title track : MOONDANCE

“Moondance” is a song recorded in 1969 by Irish singer/songwriter Van Morrison. If you go to a “Van the Man” Morrison concert, “Moondance” is the one song that you’re most likely to hear. And, it’s my wife’s favorite song of all time …

21A Part of the house in which Kevin is left behind in “Home Alone” : ATTIC

“Home Alone” is a 1990 film starring Macaulay Culkin that has become a Christmas classic. Culkin was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe for his performance, becoming the youngest actor ever to be so honored. And, there are four “Home Alone” sequels.

23A How some points end up : MOOT

To moot is to bring up as a subject for discussion or debate. So, something that is moot is open to debate. Something that is no longer moot, is no longer worth debating. We don’t seem to be able to get that right, which drives me crazy …

26A Common fossil fuel : OIL

Fossil fuels are refined forms of the complex mixture of hydrocarbons found in pockets under the surface of the Earth. Strictly speaking, the term “petroleum” describes the mixture in all its forms: liquid, gaseous and solid. The liquid form is “crude oil”, the gaseous form is “natural gas” and the solid form is “bitumen”. In common usage, however, crude oil is often referred to as “petroleum”.

27A K♣ : TIGER WOODS (king of clubs)

Golfer Tiger Woods’ real name is Eldrick Tont Woods. “Tont” is a traditional Thai name. Tiger’s father Earl Woods met his second wife Kultida Punsawad in 1966, while on a tour of duty with the US Army in Thailand.

31A A/C meas. : BTU

In the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), the power of a heating or cooling unit can be measured using the British Thermal Unit (BTU). This dated unit is the amount of energy required to heat a pound of water so that the water’s temperature increases by one degree Fahrenheit.

35A Photographer Goldin : NAN

Nan Goldin is an American photographer who works out of New York, Berlin and Paris. She is known for her work featuring LGBT models, and for images highlighting the HIV crisis and the opioid epidemic.

36A Line of rulers ended by the 33-Down : TSARS
33D See 36-Across : USSR

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).

38A Japanese lunch box : BENTO

A bento is a single-person meal that is eaten quite commonly in Japan. A bento can be purchased as a take-out meal, or it may be packed at home. A bento is usually sold as a “bento box”.

42A Chile’s Nevado ___ Cruces National Park : TRES

Nevado Tres Cruces is a massif in the Andes with two main peaks. The highest summit lies right on the border between Argentina and Chile.

43A Ending with lemon or cannon : -ADE

A cannonade is a bout of very heavy artillery fire. The term “cannonade” may also describe a harsh attack on someone, either verbal or physical.

48A Vape, informally : E-CIG

An electronic cigarette (also called an “e-cigarette”) is a battery-powered device that resembles a real cigarette. The e-cigarette vaporizes a solution that contains nicotine, forming a vapor that resembles smoke. The vapor is inhaled in a process called “vaping”, delivering nicotine into the body. The assumption is that an e-cigarette is healthier than a regular cigarette as the inhaled vapor is less harmful than inhaled smoke. But, that may not be so …

53A 40-40, say : DEUCE

The exact origins of the scoring system used for a game in tennis seems to be a tad murky. One suggestion is that clock faces were once used to keep score, with a hand pointing to 15, 30, 45 and 60. When the rules were changed to ensure games were won with more than a one-point difference in the score, the concept of “deuce” was introduced. The hand on the clock was then moved back to 40 (for deuce), and 50 was used for “advantage”, with 60 continuing to represent “game”. This resulted in the scores 15, 30, 40 and game.

57A J♦ : JACKIE ROBINSON (Jack of diamonds)

The great Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play in baseball’s Major League. When Robinson made his first MLB appearance, for the Brooklyn Dodgers, he did so in front of over 26,000 spectators. Well over half the crowd that day were African Americans, there to witness the event. Major League Baseball universally retired Robinson’s number 42 in 1997. However, on the annual Jackie Robinson Day, all MLB players on all teams wear #42 in his honor.

61A Big race that’s no longer around? : DINOSAURS

Dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for about 135 million years until what’s called the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. It is generally assumed that this extinction event was triggered when a massive comet or asteroid impacted the Earth. That impact created a dust cloud that led to a prolonged “winter” when plants and plankton could not photosynthesise. Almost all dinosaurs died out. The only survivors were the dinosaurs that evolved into our modern-day birds.

64A N.B.A. star Ginóbili : MANU

Manu Ginóbili is a retired NBA player from Argentina. Before joining the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA, he played professional basketball in Italy. He is one of only two players to have won a EuroLeague title, an NBA championship, and an Olympic Gold. The other is Bill Bradley.

66A C.I.A. predecessor : OSS

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was formed during WWII in order to carry out espionage behind enemy lines. A few years after the end of the war the OSS functions were taken up by a new group, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that was chartered by the National Security Act of 1947.

Down

2D German war vessel : U-BOAT

The term “U-boat” comes from the German word “Unterseeboot” (undersea boat). U-boats were primarily used in WWII to enforce a blockade against enemy commercial shipping, with a main objective being to cut off the supplies being transported to Britain from the British colonies and the US. The epic fight for control of the supply routes became known as the Battle of the Atlantic.

6D Karaoke choice : SONG

The first karaoke machine was reportedly invented in 1971 by Japanese musician Daisuke Inoue, though he never patented his invention. The concept caught on, and Inoue earned himself the Ig Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. I guess the awards committee weren’t big karaoke fans …

9D Glazer of “Broad City” : ILANA

Ilana Glazer is a comedian from Long Island, New York. Along with comedian Abbi Jacobson, she is the co-creator of the Comedy Central sitcom “Broad City”.

10D Like Stonehenge vis-à-vis the Parthenon : OLDER

The magnificent Stonehenge monument in the south of England was built from 3000 to 2000 BC. “Stonehenge” has given its name to “henges”, a whole class of earthwork monuments that are circular in form with an internal ditch surrounded by a bank. Paradoxically, Stonehenge doesn’t qualify as a henge by this contemporary definition, as its earthen bank is surrounded by an external ditch.

The Parthenon is the ruined temple that sits on the Athenian Acropolis. Although the Parthenon was dedicated to the goddess Athena as a sacred building in the days of the Athenian Empire, it was actually used primarily as a treasury. In later centuries, the Parthenon was repurposed as a Christian Church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and was also used as a mosque after Ottoman conquest.

11D Sibyls : SEERS

The word “sibyl” and the name “Sibyl” come from the Greek word “sibylla” meaning “prophetess”. There were many prophetic sibyls, but the most famous is probably the Delphic Sibyl.

20D “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the ___” (Bravo show) : D-LIST

I watched “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List” a few times, and enjoyed the very clever premise for the show. Griffin claims to be a D-list celebrity, and documents her drive to climb onto the C-, B- and A-lists.

25D A best man may make one : TOAST

The tradition of toasting someone probably dates back to the reign of Charles II, when the practice was to drink a glass of wine to the health of a beautiful or favored woman. In those days, spiced toast was added to beverages to add flavor, so the use of the word “toast” was an indicator that the lady’s beauty would enhance the wine. Very charming, I must say …

27D Part of a brass band : TUBA

The tuba is the lowest-pitched of all brass instruments, and one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra (usually there is just one tuba included in an orchestral line-up). “Tuba” is the Latin word for “trumpet, horn”. Oom-pah-pah …

28D Checked like a bouncer, for short : ID’ED

Identity document (ID)

29D Blotto : GONE

The term “blotto” meaning “drunk” dates back to the early 1900s. It supposedly is derived from the word “blot”, in the sense that being drunk one must have soaked up a whole load of booze.

37D Nicki Minaj or Iggy Pop, e.g. : STAGE NAME

Nicki Minaj is a rapper from the New York borough of Queens who was born in Trinidad.

Iggy Pop is a punk rock performer from Muskegon, Michigan. When he was in high school, he was a drummer for a local band called the Iguanas, and so was given the nickname “Iggy”. He was the vocalist for a band called the Stooges, and is often referred to as the Godfather of Punk.

41D Active ingredient in some gummies : THC

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the main psychoactive in cannabis.

47D River through six Asian countries : MEKONG

At over 2,700 miles in length, the Mekong is the twelfth longest river in the world. It rises in the Tibetan Plateau and empties into the South China Sea at the famed Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

50D Actress Hayek : SALMA

Salma Hayek is a Mexican actress. Hayek was the first Mexican national to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, earning that nomination with her portrayal of artist Frida Kahlo in the 2002 movie “Frida”.

51D Notable descendant : SCION

“Scion” comes from the old French word “sion” or “cion”, meaning “a shoot or a twig”. In botanical terms today, a scion is used in grafting two compatible plants together. In grafting, one plant is selected for its root system (the “rootstock”), and the other plant is selected for its stems, leaves and fruit (the “scion”). The term scion migrated naturally into the world of family history. A scion is simply a descendant, a son or a daughter and therefore a branching point in the family tree.

52D Cynthia of “Wicked” : ERIVO

British actress Cynthia Erivo’s big break came on the stage, when starred in the Broadway revival of “The Color Purple” from 2015 to 2017. Her Hollywood film breakthrough came with the title role in the 2019 biopic “Harriet”, portraying Harriet Tubman and earning herself a Best Actress nomination.

“Wicked” (2024) is the first installment of a two-part film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical of the same name. It stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, and shows the events that lead them to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good. I skipped this one, because I am scared of flying monkeys …

55D Podiatric maladies : CORNS

Podiatry is a branch of medicine dealing with the foot, ankle and lower extremities.

58D Rare golf scores : ONES

One well-documented hole in one (ace) was during a round of the British Open in 1973. American golfer Gene Sarazen achieved the feat that day, at the age of 71. A less well-documented series of holes in one was reported by the North Korean press in a story about the Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The report was that Kim Jong-il scored 11 holes in one in his first and only round of golf.

59D Freelancer’s lack : BOSS

The term “free lance” was coined by Sir Walter Scott in his 1820 novel “Ivanhoe”, when he used it to describe a medieval mercenary warrior. Forty years later, a “freelancer” was a journalist who did work for more than one publication without a long-term commitment.