Day: July 28, 2025

Bill’s time: 6m 07s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A “Catfish” channel : MTV

Catfishing refers to the deceptive practice of creating a false online identity to trick someone into a romantic or other type of relationship. The term originated with the 2010 documentary “Catfish” that tells of a man becoming emotionally involved with a woman who turned out to be a fabricated persona. In the film, the term “catfishing” is used metaphorically, citing a possibly apocryphal story about catfish being introduced into tanks to keep cod active during transport. A deceptive person online can stir up a stagnant relationship and keep it “interesting”, albeit dishonestly.

4A Center’s stat in an N.B.A. game: Abbr. : REB

In basketball, a rebound (REB) is retrieval of the ball after it “rebounds” (usually off the backboard) following a missed field goal or free throw. If the offensive side recovers the ball, it’s known as an offensive rebound. If the defensive side recovers it, it is a defensive rebound.

7A Cole ___ (cabbage dishes) : SLAWS

The term “coleslaw” is an Anglicized version of the Dutch term “koolsla”, which in itself is a shortened form of “Koolsalade” meaning “cabbage salad”.

13A Cupid, to ancient Greeks : EROS

In Greek mythology, Eros is the god of love, desire, and sexual attraction. He is often depicted as a winged youth carrying a bow and arrows, with which he shoots either golden arrows to inspire love or leaden ones to inspire aversion. His Roman counterpart is Cupid.

15A Combustible fuel for trucks : DIESEL

There are two main types of internal combustion engine. Most cars in the US use spark injection engines (gasoline engines) in which a spark plug sparks in order to ignite the fuel-air mixture. A diesel engine, on the other hand, has no spark plug per se, and uses the heat generated by compressing the air-fuel mixture to cause ignition.

Rudolf Diesel was a German engineer, and the inventor of the diesel engine. Diesel died under mysterious circumstances, having disappeared from a passenger vessel sailing from Antwerp to London. Whether death was due to an accident, suicide or murder is the subject of much speculation.

18A Canada’s capital : OTTAWA

Ottawa is the second-largest city in the Province of Ontario (after Toronto) and is the capital city of Canada. The name “Ottawa” comes from an Algonquin word “adawe”, which means “to trade”.

19A Children’s song refrain (“Old MacDonald had a farm …”) : E-I-E-I-O

There was an old American version of the English children’s song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” (E-I-E-I-O) that was around in the days of WWI. The first line of the older US version goes “Old MacDougal had a farm, in Ohio-i-o”.

31A Cloud ___ (blissful spot, in an idiom) : NINE

I don’t think that anyone is really certain of the etymology of the term “on cloud nine” meaning “elated”, but I do like the following explanation. The 1896 “International Cloud-Atlas” was a long-standing reference used to define cloud shapes that was based on a classification created by amateur meteorologist Luke Howard some decades earlier. The biggest and fluffiest of all cloud shapes (and most comfortable-looking to lie on) is cumulonimbus. And you guessed it, of the ten cloud shapes defined in the atlas, cumulonimbus was cloud nine …

39A Carbonated beverage as reintroduced in 1985 : COCA-COLA CLASSIC

When “new Coke” was introduced in 1985, the market reacted very, very badly. The public reaction was so negative that the Coca-Cola company quickly reintroduced its “Coca-Cola Classic” line. Ironically, the whole debacle resulted in Coke actually gaining market share when the “old coke” returned to supermarket shelves. Coca-Cola prevailed in the end, and made a successful reintroduction of “New Coke” in 2019.

45A Comedian Fey : TINA

Comedian and actress Tina Fey was born Elizabeth Stamatina Fey in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. She is perhaps best known to television viewers as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” (1997-2006), and as the creator and star of the sitcom “30 Rock” (2006-2013).

46A Croquet locale : YARD

The very genteel game of croquet is played on lawns all over the world. It’s the game where mallets are used to hit wooden balls through hoops embedded in the grass. The name “croquet” is from French dialect and means “hockey stick”. The game originated in Brittany in France, and was popularized in Ireland in the 1830s.

52A College basketball phenom drafted by the Indiana Fever in 2024 : CAITLIN CLARK

Basketball great Caitlin Clark was the first selection in the 2024 WNBA draft, and signed up with the Indian Fever. Her quality of play and success on the court has helped popularize women’s basketball. That boost in popularity has been dubbed “the Caitlin Clark effect”.

58A City of Honolulu’s island : OAHU

Honolulu is the largest city in Hawaii, and the state capital. Located on the island of Oahu, the name “Honolulu” translates from Hawaiian as “place of shelter, calm port, sheltered bay”.

67A Crested wading birds : EGRETS

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.

71A Charlotte Brontë, to Anne and Emily, informally : SIS

Charlotte Brontë was the eldest of the three Brontë sister authors. Her most famous work is the novel “Jane Eyre”, which she published under the pen name Currer Bell. The pen name veiled her gender, but preserved the initials of her real name. After “Jane Eyre” was published, Brontë started to move in the same circles as other successful novelists of the day, including William Makepeace Thackeray and Elizabeth Gaskell. Just two years after Bronte died in her late thirties, it was Gaskell who published the first biography of Charlotte Brontë.

In terms of age, Emily Brontë was the middle of the three Brontë sisters, younger than Charlotte and older than Anne. Emily was a poet and a novelist, and is best remembered for her only novel, “Wuthering Heights”. Emily died very young, at 30 years old. She never recovered from a severe cold that she caught at the funeral service of Branwell Brontë, her only brother. The cold developed into tuberculosis, for which she eschewed medical attention. She passed away after three months of illness.

Anne was the youngest of the three sisters in the literary Brontë family. Her older sisters wrote novels that are more recognized, but Anne’s two novels do have a following. “Agnes Grey” is based on her own experiences working as a governess. Her other novel, “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” is written as a long letter from a young man describing the events leading up to his first meeting with his wife-to-be. Anne Brontë’s writing career was cut short in 1849, when she died of pulmonary tuberculosis, at only 29 years of age.

Down

1D Ceremonial rod : MACE

A mace is a relatively simple weapon in essence. It is a heavy weight on the end of a handle that is used to deliver powerful blows on an opponent’s body.

2D Cuisine with pad see ew : THAI

Pad see ew is also known as Phat si io, and is a stir-fried noodle dish in Thai cuisine. “Phat si io” means “fried with soy sauce”. I love Thai food …

3D Carnation holder : VASE

The carnation is also known as the clove pink. President William McKinley viewed the red carnation as his lucky flower, and so one often adorned his jacket lapel. Ohio named the red carnation its state flower in McKinley’s honor, after he was assassinated in 1901.

15D Cousin of a cruller or bear claw : DONUT

Crullers (also “twisters”) are fried pastries that have a twisted shape. The pastry’s name comes from the Dutch “kruller” meaning “to curl”. Crullers are a traditional dish served on Shrove Tuesday (the day before Lent) in some European countries, including Germany.

17D Cartoon sound from an intoxicated person : HIC

Hiccups is a series of forced intakes of breath, the result of spasms in the muscles of the chest and throat. The most common cause of hiccups is some sort of irritation to the stomach or esophagus, usually taking place while eating. Apparently, we don’t really understand the reason why we hiccup, but a favored suggestion is that it may be something that we inherited from our ancestors of long ago who didn’t stand up quite as straight as we do. Gravity helps us swallow our food, but animals who walk on all fours don’t have that advantage as the food moves horizontally down the throat and into the stomach. Such beasts are in greater need of an involuntary hiccup should some food get stuck. Just a theory …

21D Canon camera brand named for a goddess : EOS

I’ve been using Canon EOS cameras for decades now, and have nothing but good things to say about both the cameras and the lenses. The EOS name stands for Electro-Optical System, and was chosen because it evokes the name of Eos, the Titan goddess of dawn from Greek mythology.

25D California wine valley : NAPA

Napa Valley in California is home to over 400 wineries, the first being established in 1858. Napa is also home to over 100 different grape varieties, the most popular being cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, and pinot noir.

26D Cuzco dweller of old : INCA

Cusco (also “Cuzco”) is a city in the southeast of Peru. Historically, Cusco was the historic capital of the Inca Empire, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

27D Christian of fashion : DIOR

Christian Dior was a highly influential fashion designer who is widely credited with revolutionizing women’s fashion in the post-World War II era. Before he became a fashion designer, Dior worked as an art dealer, and he even ran his own art gallery for a time. There, he and a friend sold works by Pablo Picasso and others.

34D Cardi B’s genre : RAP

Rap artist Cardi B’s real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar. Her stage name is a diminutive of “Bacardi,” a nickname she was given because her sister is named Hennessy.

36D China’s continent : ASIA

Until overtaken recently by India, the world’s most populous country was the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The Republic of China (ROC) is the official name of the sovereign state that we usually call Taiwan.

38D Copious amount : SCAD

The origin of the word “scads”, meaning “lots and lots”, is unclear. That said, “scads” was used to mean “dollars” back in the mid-1800s.

40D Christmas stocking filler for a naughty child : COAL

Apparently, the tradition of putting coal in the Christmas stocking of a poorly-behaved child comes simply from the proximity of the stocking (hanging on the fireplace) to a source of coal!

41D Concoctions with masa, cheese, lettuce and salsa : CHALUPAS

A chalupa is a Mexican dish consisting of a tostada shaped into a “cup” and filled with various ingredients. “Chalupa” translates from Mexican Spanish as “small boat”.

42D Capital of Peru : LIMA

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.

54D Chief Hindu god : INDRA

In Hindu mythology, Indra is the King of the gods and Lord of Heaven. Indra is also the God of War, Storms and Rainfall.

55D Chicken ___ mein : CHOW

“Chow mein” has two slightly different meanings on the East and West Coasts of the US. On the East Coast, basic chow mein is a crispy dish, whereas on the West Coast it is a steamed dish that is relatively soft. On the East Coast the steamed dish is available, but under the name “lo mein”. On the West Coast, the crispy dish is also on the menu, as “Hong Kong-style chow mein”.

60D Cincinnati baseball team : REDS

When the Cincinnati Reds were a dominating force in the National League in the seventies, the team was given the nickname “the Big Red Machine”.

64D Coneheads, e.g., for short : ETS

“The Coneheads” first appeared in a “Saturday Night Live” sketch in 1977. The three family members back then were played by Dan Ackroyd (father), Jane Curtin (mother) and Laraine Newman (daughter). The characters became so popular that they were featured in a “Coneheads” movie in 1993.

66D Cooper and Peyton Manning’s Q.B. brother : ELI

Eli Manning is a retired footballer who played quarterback for the New York Giants. Eli’s brother Peyton Manning retired from football as the quarterback for the Denver Broncos in 2015. Eli and Peyton’s father is Archie Manning, who was also a successful NFL quarterback. Eli, Peyton and Archie co-authored a book for children titled “Family Huddle” in 2009. It describes the Mannings playing football together as young boys.