Day: September 5, 2025

Bill’s time: 31m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 It has its X’s and O’s : LOVE NOTE

In the sequence letter sequence “X-O-X”, the X represents a kiss, and the O a hug. “O-O-O” is a string of hugs, and “X-X-X” a string of kisses. Hugs and kisses …

15 Manscapes, perhaps : SHAVES

The practice of men removing and trimming their body hair is known as “manscaping”, a portmanteau of “man” and “landscaping”.

18 Greg ___, author of the 1994 science fiction novel “Permutation City” : EGAN

Greg Egan is a science fiction author from Australia. He is a very private individual, one who does not do book signings or appearances at science fiction fairs. His own website doesn’t even feature a picture of himself. I couldn’t find his photo anywhere on the Web …

22 Goal of a squeeze bunt, for short : RBI

In baseball, a squeeze play (also “squeeze bunt”) is one in which a batter bunts the ball expecting to be thrown out at first, but gives a runner at third base a chance to score. In a safety squeeze the runner at third waits to see where the bunt is going before heading for home. In a suicide squeeze, the runner heads home as soon as the pitcher throws the ball.

23 😔 : I’M SAD

So am I. This was a difficult puzzle …

25 Pro whose work might be shocking : EMT

Emergency medical services (EMS) might administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

28 Alley ___ : OOP

“Alley Oop” is a comic strip that ran for four decades starting in 1932. “Alley Oop” was drawn by V. T. Hamlin. The title character lived in the prehistoric kingdom of Moo, although for much of the strip’s life, Alley Oop had access to a time machine. Alley Oop also had a girlfriend called Ooola. I had assumed that Ooola’s name was a play on “hula hoop”, but that little toy wasn’t invented until the 1950s (a kind blog reader informs me) …

30 Sched. placeholder : TBA

To be advised/announced (TBA)

31 Small semiaquatic mammal with 22 tentacles on its snout : STAR-NOSED MOLE

The star-nosed mole is a small, unusual-looking mammal found in the wet lowland areas of eastern North America. What makes it so unique is its star-shaped nose: a pink, fleshy appendage ringed by 22 tentacle-like projections. These tentacles help the mole navigate underground and detect prey with incredible speed and accuracy.

35 Condiment at an Asian fusion restaurant : TERIYAKI SAUCE

Teriyaki is a Japanese technique of cooking in which the foods are grilled in a sweet soy sauce marinade. The marinade may or may not include ginger.

36 Ground-breaking invention? : DYNAMITE STICK

The explosive called dynamite contains nitroglycerin as its active component. Dynamite also contains diatomaceous earth and sodium carbonate that absorb the nitroglycerin. The absorbed nitroglycerin is far less sensitive to mechanical shock, making it easier to transport and to handle. Famously, dynamite was invented by Alfred Nobel, the man who used his fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes.

37 Big N.Y.S.E. news : IPO

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 roots of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) go back to 1792 when a group of 24 stock brokers set up the New York Stock & Exchange Board. They did so in an agreement signed under a buttonwood tree outside 68 Wall Street. That document became known as the Buttonwood Agreement. Today, the NYSE is located in a National Historic Landmark building with the address 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City.

38 Formal duds : TUX

Apparently, the style of men’s evening dress called a “tuxedo” was first worn to a country club event in 1886 in New York. The use of a dark dinner jacket without tails became fashionable at the club with the members, and the tradition spread from there. The country club was located in Tuxedo Park, New York, giving the style of dress its name.

“Duds” is an informal word meaning “clothing”. The term comes from the word “dudde” that was used around 1300 as the name for a cloak.

39 Kyrgyz city on the ancient Silk Road : OSH

Osh is the second largest city in the former Soviet Republic of Kyrgyzstan (after the capital Bishkek). Osh was a center of silk production and lies along the old Silk Road, the trade route that traversed Asia.

Kyrgyzstan is a landlocked country in Central Asia that is a former Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). The country name’s root “Kyrgyz” translates as “We are forty”. This is a reference to the forty united clans in the region that united under a legendary hero named Manas. The Kyrgyzstan flag also features a sun with forty rays, a further reference to the clans.

The Silk Road was a network of trading routes that crossed North Africa and Asia, connecting Europe to West Asia. The routes get the name from the lucrative trade in silk from China.

40 What the “sans” refers to in Comic Sans : SERIF

Comic Sans MS is a font that looks a bit like that used in old comic books. It was released by Microsoft in 1994. If you live in the Netherlands, you are lucky enough to enjoy Comic Sans Day on the first Friday of July each year.

56 Game with a 32-card deck : ECARTE

Écarté is a card game that comes to us from France, with a name that translates into ‘discarded”. Écarté is similar to whist but is played with a stripped-down deck and involves only two players.

Down

2 Water brand whose logo shows the Alps : EVIAN

Évian-les-Bains (or simply “Évian”) is in the very east of France, on the shores of Lake Geneva directly across the lake from Lausanne, Switzerland. As one might imagine, Évian is the home of Évian mineral water, the most successful business in town. Personally, I can’t stand the distinctive taste of Évian water …

3 Colorful fish with iridescent stripes : NEON TETRA

The neon tetra is a freshwater fish that is native to parts of South America. The tetra is a very popular aquarium fish and millions are imported into the US every year. Almost all of the imported tetras are farm-raised in Asia and very few come from their native continent.

An iridescent surface appears to change color gradually with a change in the angle of view, or a change in the angle that the light is hitting that surface.

4 Need for a demo, maybe : TNT

“TNT” is an abbreviation for “trinitrotoluene”. It was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

6 Belle ___, real-life 19th-century outlaw celebrated in film and TV : STARR

Belle Starr was an outlaw in the Wild West, a descendent of the famous feuding Hatfields. Born Myra Maybelle Shirley, she married a Cherokee man named Sam Starr in 1880. After a life of crime that included a nine-month stint in jail, Belle was ambushed and shot twice in 1889, in an unsolved crime. Belle Starr wasn’t at all notorious during her life, but her story was told quite colorfully in the Richard K. Fox novel “Bella Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James”. The novel was published the year she died, and decades later Starr was portrayed in several movies, including 1941’s “Belle Starr” with Gene Tierney in the title role.

7 Paragon : TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE

A paragon is a model of excellence, a peerless example. Ultimately the term “paragon” derives from the Greek “para-” meaning “on the side” and “akone” meaning “whetstone”. This derivation comes from the ancient practice of using a touchstone to test gold for its level of purity by drawing a line on the stone with the gold and comparing the resulting mark with samples of known purity.

9 Sliding screen in a Japanese tearoom : SHOJI

A shoji is a door, window or room divider in Japanese architecture. A shoji consists of translucent paper stretched over a wooden frame.

10 Bounce : CAROM

A carom is a ricochet, the bouncing of some projectile off a surface. “Carom” has come to describe the banking of a billiard ball, the bouncing of the ball off the side of the table.

11 Excess of inventory : OVERSTOCK

An inventory is a list of current assets, such as goods on hand. The term “inventory” comes from the Latin verb “invenire” meaning “to find, discover”. An inventory is a list of “what is found”.

20 Constriction of the pupils : MIOSIS

An unnatural constriction of the pupil of an eye is called miosis. Unnatural dilation is known as mydriasis.

24 Daniel ___ Kim of “Hawaii Five-0” : DAE

Daniel Dae Kim is an American actor who is famous for playing Jin-Soo Kwon on “Lost”. Kim moved on to play one of the leads on the CBS remake of “Hawaii Five-O”, portraying the character Chin Ho Kelly.

The cop show “Hawaii Five-O” originally ran from 1968 until 1980, with Jack Lord and James MacArthur playing detectives Steve McGarrett and “Danno” Williams. The famous theme music was composed by Morton Stevens. The show was rebooted as “Hawaii Five-0”, premiering in 2010, with Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan playing Steve McGarrett and “Danno” Williams. Notice the important difference in the titles of the two versions of the show: the former uses a capital letter O, and the latter the numeral 0. Now that’s trivial …

29 Topping dolloped on fresh Italian tomatoes, maybe : PESTO

Pesto sauce is more completely called “pesto alla genovese”, i.e. pesto from Genoa. A traditional recipe calls for crushed garlic, pine nuts, salt, basil leaves, parmesan cheese and olive oil. Yum …

33 Spot for a speaker : DAIS

A dais is a raised platform for a speaker. The term “dais” comes from the Latin “discus” meaning a “disk-shaped object”. I guess that the original daises had such a shape.

34 Young 31-Down : MUCHACHAS
[31D Misses watching a bullfight? : SENORITAS]

In Spanish, a “niña” is a young girl, a child. The term “chica” applies to an older girl or perhaps a young woman. The term “muchacha” applies to girls in general, I think …

35 Bold choice, perhaps? : TYPEFACE

We tend to use the terms typeface and font interchangeably. Technically, a typeface and font are not the same thing. A complete set of characters with a common design is referred to as a typeface (common examples being Helvetica and Arial). That typeface consists of a whole collection of fonts, all varying in weight and size. One set of Helvetica fonts, for example, might be Helvetica 14 point or Helvetica 16 point, i.e. a specific size. Another set might be Helvetica bold, or Helvetica italic. The difference between fonts and typefaces mattered a great deal when printers had collections of individual letters to make up blocks of text. Thankfully, we don’t have to worry about that these days.

44 Obama family member with credits as a TV writer : MALIA

Former First Daughter Malia Obama was a staff writer for the 2023 satirical horror series “Swarm”, co-created by Donald Glover. She is credited as a co-writer for the show’s fifth episode, “Girl, Bye”. Glover praised her contribution, saying, “She’s an amazingly talented person. She’s really focused, and she’s working really hard”. Her interest in the industry started much earlier when she interned on the set of the HBO show “Girls” in 2015 and worked as a production assistant on the CBS sci-fi drama “Extant” in 2014.

46 Noted ring bearer : FRODO

Frodo Baggins is a principal character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”. He is a Hobbit, and is charged with the quest of destroying Sauron’s Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. Frodo is portrayed by American actor Elijah Wood in Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of the novels.

47 Slugger Scott with eight Gold Gloves : ROLEN

Scott Rolen is a former Major League Baseball player who won the Gold Glove eight times. He played for the Phillies, Cardinals, Blue Jays and Reds.

The Gold Glove is an annual award given by Major League Baseball to the player judged to be the best in each fielding position in a season. The award was instituted in 1957 by the baseball glove manufacturer Rawlings.

48 Has an unsettled Venmo request, say : OWES

Venmo is a smartphone payment app that is now owned by PayPal. The first version of the product was introduced in 2009 by two entrepreneurs who had met as freshman students at the University of Pennsylvania. They sold the company in 2012 for over $26 million, and then PayPal acquired it the following year for a whopping $800 million. I wonder if PayPal ever buys blogs …

51 Monks’ honorifics : DOMS

The honorific “Dom” is used in English for monks of certain orders, such as Benedictines and Carthusians. The term is a shortened form of the Latin “dominus” meaning “master, owner”.

53 Jewish honorific : REB

The honorific “Reb” is a Yiddish title of respect, equivalent to “Mr.” or “Sir” in English.