Day: September 8, 2025

Bill’s time: 5m 55s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14A Condiment with four vowels in its name : AIOLI

Aioli is a French sauce made from garlic, egg yolks, and olive oil. The word “aioli” comes from “alh”, the Provençal word for garlic, and “oli”, a Catalan word meaning “oil”.

16A *Pad in a makeup kit : POWDER PUFF (take a powder & take a puff)

The phrase “to take a powder” means “to scram, vanish”. This meaning was first recorded in the 1920s, and may derive from the medical instruction “take a powder”, which may imply having to make a quick exit!

20A Prayer’s end : AMEN

The word “amen” translates as “so be it”. “Amen” is said to be of Hebrew origin, but it is also likely to be influenced by Aramaic and Arabic.

23A Oasis setting : DESERT

The most famous oasis in the US is … Las Vegas, which is located in the middle of the Mojave Desert.

27A No contest, for example : PLEA

“Nolo contendere” (sometimes shortened to “nolo”) is a legal term that translates from Latin as “I do not wish to contend”. It’s the plea of no contest, and is an alternative to guilty and not guilty, meaning that one doesn’t admit guilt but nor does one dispute the charge.

29A $7 million for 30 seconds during the Super Bowl, say : AD RATE

The Super Bowl is used for high-profile advertising because of the high viewership numbers. For example, Super Bowl XLIX (2015) had an average audience of 114 million viewers, making it the most-watched American TV program in history.

34A “Highway to Hell” band : AC/DC

The Heavy Metal band known as AC/DC was formed by two brothers Malcolm and Angus Young in Australia. Malcolm and Angus chose the name “AC/DC” after their sister Margaret noticed them on a sewing machine (the abbreviation for alternating current/direct current). The group is usually called “Acca Dacca” down under.

36A Winner of 2008 and 2012 : OBAMA

The 2008 campaign that resulted in the election of President Barack Obama used the slogan “Change we can believe in”, along with the associated chant “Yes We Can”. The words “Yes We Can” were perhaps borrowed from the United Farm Workers, which organization uses the motto “Sí, se puede”. “Sí, se puede” translates as “Yes, it is possible” and is a phrase very much associated with labor leader Cesar Chavez.

38A Mauna ___ Observatory : LOA

The Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) on the Big Island of Hawaii primarily monitors and collects data about changes in the Earth’s atmosphere. The MLO has been continuously monitoring CO2 levels in the atmosphere longer than any other facility on the planet, with records going back to 1958.

42A Flower symbolizing early love : LILAC

The ornamental flowering plant known as lilac is native to the Balkans, and is a member of the olive family. The name “lilac” comes from the Persian word “lilaq,” which means “flower.”

46A Big clothing retailer headquartered in Freeport, Maine : L.L.BEAN

L.L.Bean (note the lack of spaces in the company name) was founded back in 1912 in Freeport, Maine as a company selling its own line of waterproof boots. The founder, Leon Leonwood Bean, gave his name to the enterprise. Right from the start, L.L.Bean focused on mail-order and sold from a circular he distributed and then from a catalog. Defects in the initial design led to 90% of the first boots sold being returned, and the company made good on its guarantee to replace them or give back the money paid.

48A Place for un béret : TETE

In French, on one’s “tête” (head), one might wear “un chapeau” (a hat) or “un béret” (a beret), perhaps.

58A Exam on which Elle Woods scored 179 in “Legally Blonde,” for short : LSAT

“LEGALLY blonde” is a 2001 comedy film starring Reese Witherspoon as a girlish sorority president who heads to Harvard to earn a law degree. “LEGALLY blonde” was successful enough to warrant two sequels as well as a spin-off musical that played most successfully in London’s West End (for 974 performances).

65A Signed vows of secrecy, for short : NDAS

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

67A Toboggan, e.g. : SLED

“Toboggan” came into English from the French Canadian “tabagane”, the name for a long sled with a flat bottom. The French Canadian word is probably from the Algonquian word for a sled, “tobakun”,

Down

2D Higher than on the totem pole : ABOVE

“Totem” is a word used to describe any entity that watches over a group of people. As such, totems are usually the subjects of worship. Totem poles are really misnamed, as they are not intended to represent figures to be worshiped, but rather are heraldic in nature, and often celebrating the legends or notable events in the history of a tribe.

3D Home Depot competitor : LOWE’S

Lucius S. Lowe opened the first Lowe’s hardware store in 1921, in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Lucius only knew the one store, as it was his family who expanded the company after he passed away in 1940.

7D The “Y” of Y.A. books : YOUNG

Young adult (YA)

8D Keebler worker : ELF

The famous Keebler Elves have been appearing in ads for Keebler since 1968. The original head of the elves was J. J. Keebler, but he was toppled from power by Ernest J. Keebler in 1970. The Keebler Elves bake their cookies in the Hollow Tree Factory.

11D Iridescent stone : OPAL

The largest opal ever found, and the most valuable, is the Olympic Australis. It was discovered in South Australia in 1956. That same year, the Summer Olympics were being held in Melbourne so the newly discovered stone was given the name “Olympic Australis”.

12D House ___ and Means Committee : WAYS

The Committee of Ways and Means is an extremely influential body in the US House of Representatives. The US Constitution requires that all taxation bills must originate in the House, and procedures in the House require that all taxation bills must go through the Ways and Means Committee.

15D Can-opening mechanism : POP-TAB

The term “pop-top” refers to a whole family of designs for opening the top of a soda can. The oldest method is the “pull tab” or “ring pull”, invented in Canada in 1956. The design was long-lived, but it had its problems, so the world heaved a sigh of relief with the invention of the stay-on-tab in 1975. The new design led to less injuries and eliminated all those used pull tabs that littered the streets.

17D ___ Grey tea : EARL

Earl Grey tea is a black tea flavored with oil of bergamot, a citrus fruit. The tea is named after Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, who was British Prime Minister in the 1830s. The popular story is that he received a gift of tea flavored with bergamot from a Chinese mandarin, which he liked and asked for it to be blended specifically for him, though the exact origins are a bit murky.

22D Slugger Judge : AARON

Aaron Judge is a baseball outfielder who was selected as 2017’s American League Rookie of the Year. Judge is a big guy. He weighs 282 pounds, and is 6 foot 7 inches tall. Judge set the American League single-season home run record in 2022 with 62 home runs, surpassing Roger Maris’s 61 from 1961.

24D Limited releases on Spotify, informally : EPS

An extended-play (EP) record, CD or download contains more music than a single, but less than a long-play (LP) record.

Spotify is a popular music-streaming service that was launched in Sweden in 2008.

26D Article of sports equipment that needs to be strung : RACKET

The instrument striking a tennis ball, here in America, is a “racket’. In Britain and Ireland, and other English-speaking nations, the spelling “racquet” is more common. Interestingly (to me, anyway!), the spelling “racket” dates back to the 14th century. “Racquet” appeared later, in the early 16th century.

35D Hit on a vape pen : DAB

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 …

37D Off-roading transport, in brief : ATV

All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

43D Georgia politico Stacey ___ : ABRAMS

Stacey Abrams is a politician and voting rights activist who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017. In 2019, she delivered the Democratic Party’s response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, and became the first African-American woman to do so.

45D 2013 movie about an A.I. crush : HER

2003’s “Her” is a rather unusual film. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as a man who develops a relationship with a computer operating system called “Samantha”, which is voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

49D Ballerina’s garb : TUTU

The word “tutu”, used for a ballet dancer’s skirt, is actually a somewhat “naughty” term. It came into English from French in the early 20th century. The French “tutu” is an alteration of the word “cucu”, a childish word meaning “bottom, backside”.

53D Hold to discuss at a later time : TABLE

These “tabling” and “shelving” idioms drive me crazy, because they are often misused. If a topic is shelved, it is set aside. If a topic is tabled, it is brought “off the shelf” and put “on the table” for discussion. I know that language evolves, but I think that it should at least make sense …

57D Cincinnati baseball franchise : 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”.

59D Editor’s mark : STET

“Stet” is a Latin word meaning “let it stand”. In editorial work, the typesetter is instructed to disregard any change previously marked by writing the word “stet” and then underscoring that change with a line of dots or dashes.

63D Pesticide regulator, in brief : EPA

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

64D Food seasoning, for short : MSG

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the sodium salt of a naturally-occurring, non-essential amino acid called glutamic acid. It is used widely as a flavor enhancer, particularly in many Asian cuisines, intensifying the umami flavor. Whether or not MSG is harmful seems to be still under debate.