Day: December 16, 2025

Bill’s time: 7m 34s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16A Maine-to-Florida hwy. : US-ONE

US Route 1 is the longest north-south road in the US, stretching over 2,370 miles from Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida. It largely parallels the Atlantic coast.

20A Hockey feints : DEKES

A deke, also known as a dangle, is a technique used to get past an opponent in ice hockey. “Deke” is a colloquial shortening of the word “decoy”.

22A Like someone who knows everything about a niche subject, maybe : GEEKY

Originally, a geek was a sideshow performer, perhaps one at a circus. Sometimes the term “geek” is used today for someone regarded as foolish or clumsy, and also for someone who is technically driven and expert, but often socially inept.

23A Prefix with cache or tag : GEO-

Geocaching is a game rather like hide and seek that is played outdoors using hi-tech equipment. The idea is that someone places a waterproof container in a specific location with known GPS coordinates. The container has a logbook inside, so that players who find the “cache” can record their discovery along with any notes of interest. The location of the container is listed on special sites on the Internet for anyone to access. You can check out caches near you at www.geocaching.com. You will probably be surprised at how many there are! I know I was …

Geotagging is the process of adding geographical metadata to various media such as photographs, videos, websites, or documents. This metadata is usually in the form of latitude and longitude coordinates.

24A Person in hot pants? : LIAR

The full rhyme used by children to deride someone not telling the truth is:

Liar, liar, pants on fire,
Hang them up on the telephone wire.

26A Name on a prestigious award : NOBEL

Alfred Nobel was a Swedish chemist and businessman. He is famous for the invention of dynamite during his lifetime, as well as for instituting the Nobel Prizes by providing the necessary funds in his will.

33A C-suite types : EXECS

The C-suite is the suite of offices assigned to senior management. The “C” reference is to the abbreviation for “Chief”, the word that starts the titles of many senior officers in a company, e.g. chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer (COO) and chief financial officer(CFO).

42A Orchestra-tuning instrument : OBOE

When the members of a full orchestra tune their instruments, they almost always tune to an “A” played by an oboe. A wind ensemble usually tunes to a B-flat, as this is an “open” note on many instruments, one in which all valves are open on trumpet for example, or the slider on a trombone is in home position.

54A Down Under land: Abbr. : AUS

The Commonwealth of Australia is a federation of six states:

• New South Wales
• Queensland
• South Australia
• Tasmania
• Victoria
• Western Australia

56A Computer acronym since the 1960s : ASCII

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) lists codes for 32 “control” characters, as well as the 95 printable characters. These binary codes are the way that our computers can understand what we mean when we type, say a letter or a number. Unicode is a more contemporary standard, and is like “Ascii on steroids”, encompassing more characters.

58A Inventor Nikola : TESLA

Nikola Tesla was born in the Austrian Empire in a village located in modern-day Croatia, and later moved to the US. Tesla’s work on mechanical and electrical engineering was crucial to the development of alternating current technology, the same technology that is used by equipment at the backbone of modern power generation and distribution systems.

68A Wacky : ZANY

Something described as zany is clownish and bizarre. “Zany” can also be a noun, a term used for a clown or buffoon. The original noun was “Zanni”, a Venetian dialect variant of Gianni, short for Giovanni (John). Zanni was a character who appeared in comedy plays of the day, and was someone who aped the principal actors.

69A Lords’ lands : FIEFS

In the days of feudalism, a “fief” was basically a “fee” (the words “fee” and “fief” have the same origins) paid by a Lord in exchange for some benefit to him, perhaps loyalty, or military service. The fief itself was often land granted by the Lord. We use the term “fiefdom” (and sometimes “fief) figuratively, to describe a sphere of operation controlled by one dominant person or entity.

Down

2D Many a character in “The Grapes of Wrath” : OKIE

John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel “The Grapes of Wrath” is set during the Great Depression. It tells the story of the Joad family from Oklahoma, farmers who had to leave their home and head for California due to economic hardship.

13D Grammy-winning R&B artist whose stage name is said to have been inspired by “The Matrix” : NE-YO

“Ne-Yo” is the stage name of R&B singer Shaffer Chimere Smith. He began his career as a songwriter, penning hits for artists such as Mario, Rihanna, and Beyoncé. In 2006, he released his debut album “In My Own Words”, which launched Ne-Yo’s career as a solo artist.

19D Golden Age studio known for many Astaire/Rogers films : RKO

RKO Pictures was one of the major film studios during Hollywood’s Golden Age. The studio’s iconic logo was a rotating globe with a radio tower atop. The tower beeped out “A Radio Picture” in Morse code. That is, except during WWI, when it beeped out “V for Victory”.

Dancer, actor and singer Fred Astaire never won a competitive Academy Award, and received just one nomination: for Best Supporting Actor in 1974’s “The Towering Inferno”. However, he was presented with an honorary Academy Award in the 1949 season “for his unique artistry and his contributions to the technique of musical pictures”. That honorary Oscar was presented by his longtime film and dance partner Ginger Rogers.

I am a huge Ginger Rogers fan. She was famous as the on-screen and dancing partner of Fred Astaire. However, my favorite films are those romantic comedies she made later in her career, especially “The Major and the Minor” and “Monkey Business”. There is a musical stage show about Ginger Rogers’ life called “Backwards in High Heels: The Ginger Musical” that debuted in 2007. The title is taken from a 1982 “Frank & Ernest” cartoon about Fred & Ginger” with the words:

Sure he was great, but don’t forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did – backwards and in high heels.

27D Mike in “Breaking Bad,” for example : EX-COP

The AMC drama “Breaking Bad” is a well-written show about a high school teacher stricken by lung cancer who turns to a life of crime to make money. It turns out that the teacher has a talent for making high-quality crystal meth. The show was created by Vince Gilligan who had spent many years as a producer and writer of “The X-Files”. There is a “Breaking Bad” spin-off show running on AMC called “Better Call Saul” that focuses on the life of lawyer Saul Goodman. If I’m honest, I enjoyed “Better Call Saul” even more than the original show …

32D Shallow boat with a square stern : SKIFF

A skiff is a small boat. The name can be used generically and applied to several unrelated styles of vessel, as long as they are relatively small. The term “skiff” comes from “scif”, the Old High German word for “boat” and a term that also gave us our word “ship”.

34D Neighbor of a Slovene : CROAT

The Republic of Croatia is a Balkan country. The Croats declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Croatia became a member of NATO in 2009, and a member of the European Union in 2013.

The Republic of Slovenia is a country in Central Europe that is bordered by Italy, Austria, Croatia and Hungary. Given its geographic location, the country has been part of various realms over the centuries, most recently being part of Yugoslavia. Slovenia declared independence from former Yugoslavia in 1991, and is now a member of the European Union.

37D Brother to Groucho : CHICO

Chico was the oldest of the Marx Brothers. Well, Chico did in fact have an older brother Manfred, but he died in infancy.

41D One in a box at the theater? : RAISINET

Raisinets are chocolate-covered raisins produced by Nestlé. They are often sold in boxes in movie theaters.

48D Artist known for his “impossible staircases” : ESCHER

M. C. Escher was a graphic artist from the Netherlands. Escher was noted for creating works inspired by mathematics, often works that were physical impossibilities. One such work is “Drawing Hands” (1948) in which a pair of hands emerge from a piece of paper and actually draw themselves. He also created a drawing in which a group of red ants are crawling around a Möbius strip, never reaching the end.

51D Symbol of divine authority in hieroglyphics : ASP

The prefix “hiero-” comes from the Greek word “hieros” meaning sacred or holy. The classic use of the prefix is in the term “hieroglyph” (meaning “sacred carving”), the writing system that uses symbols and pictures.

57D The Hawkeye State : IOWA

Iowa is nicknamed the Hawkeye State in honor of Chief Black Hawk, a leader of the Sauk people during the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War.

59D Show extreme fandom for, in slang : STAN

“Stan” is a song by rapper Eminem (featuring Dido) that was recorded in 2000. The title refers to a fictional Eminem fan named “Stan” who becomes obsessed with the rapper, and who grows irate when his letters to his idol go unanswered. Stan’s final act is to make a voice recording as he drives into a river, with his pregnant girlfriend locked in the trunk. One of the legacies of the song is that “stan” is now used as a slang term for an obsessed and maniacal fan.

61D Ryan and Adams of Hollywood : AMYS

Actress Amy Ryan is perhaps best known on the big screen for her playing Helene McCready, the mother of the abducted girl in the 2007 crime thriller “Gone Baby Gone”. On the small screen, she plays Holly Flax, the love interest of Michael Scott in “The Office”.

Amy Adams is an American actress, although she was actually born in Vicenza, Italy while her father was a US serviceman stationed on an Italian base. My favorite Amy Adams film so far is the outstanding “Julie & Julia” in which she acted alongside Meryl Streep. I highly recommend this truly delightful movie.