Day: March 4, 2026

Bill’s time: 8m 27s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A N.H.L.’s ___ Bay Lightning : TAMPA

The Tampa Bay Lightning are a National Hockey League team based in Tampa, Florida. Commonly referred to as “the Bolts”, the team name comes from Tampa Bay’s reputation as the Lightning Capital of North America.

6A Parapsychologist’s study, for short : ESP

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

9A “Star Wars” droid, informally : ARTOO

Artoo’s proper name is R2-D2 (also “Artoo-Detoo”). R2-D2 is the smaller of the two famous droids from the “Star Wars” movies. British actor Kenny Baker, who stood just 3 feet 8 inches tall, was the man inside the R2-D2 droid for the first six of the “Star Wars” movies.

14A April Fools’ Day sign : ARIES

Aries the Ram is the first astrological sign in the Zodiac, and is named after the constellation. Your birth sign is Aries if you were born between March 21 and April 20, but if you are an Aries you would know that! “Aries” is the Latin word for “ram”.

April Fools’ Day is celebrated on April 1st in the Western world. In the US (and Ireland) one can make practical jokes all day long if one wants, but in the UK there is a noon deadline. Anyone pranking after midday is called an “April Fool”.

15A Letters before a stage name : AKA

Also known as (aka)

19A Spicy chip brand : TAKIS

Takis are a brand of rolled corn tortilla chips, first introduced in Mexico in 1999. The most successful variety is “Fuego”, which comes in a purple bag and delivers a powerful kick of hot chili pepper and lime. That sounds fantastic …

31A Saucer crew, in brief : ETS

Disc-shaped flying objects have been reported in the sky since the Middle Ages. In the modern era, the event that launched the term “flying saucer” was a UFO sighting in 1947, which was covered widely in the media. Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine unidentified flying objects in formation near Mount Rainier in Washington. In describing the objects, he repeatedly used the words “saucer”, “disc” and “pie-plate”. Newspapers latched onto the terminology, and we’ve been seeing flying “saucers” ever since.

36A Japan’s national sport : SUMO

Sumo is a sport that is practiced professionally only in Japan, the country of its origin. There is an international federation of sumo wrestling now, and one of the organization’s aims is to have the sport accepted as an Olympic event.

40A M.B.A. subj. : ECON

The world’s first Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree was offered by Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, in 1908.

43A “Ozark” actor Morales : ESAI

Actor Esai Morales is best known in the world of film for the 1987 movie “La Bamba”, which depicted the life of Ritchie Valens and his half-brother Bob Morales (played by Esai). On the small screen, Morales plays Lt. Tony Rodriguez on “NYPD Blue” and Joseph Adama on “Caprica”.

“Ozark” is an excellent TV crime show starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney as a married couple who relocate from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks. The couple fall foul of a Mexican drug lord after a money laundering scheme goes awry. The show is set at a lake resort in the Ozarks, although filming actually takes place at lakes in the Atlanta area in order to take advantage of tax breaks offered by the State of Georgia.

46A Mini mart? : CAR LOT

The original Mini was a fabulous car, one that I drove all over Ireland in my youth. It had a unique front-wheel-drive layout that took up very little space, allowing for a lot of room (relatively speaking) for passengers and baggage. One space-saving trick was to mount the engine transversely, so it sits rotated 90 degrees from the norm. That engine had a capacity of only 848cc. In 1961, a Mini Cooper model was introduced, which was a sporty version. The Mini Cooper was a phenomenal hit, especially after repeated wins in the Monte Carlo Rally. The Mini marque has been owned by BMW since 1994.

50A Where you might drink from a junmai glass : SAKE BAR

We refer to the Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice as “sake”. We’ve gotten things a bit mixed up in the West. “Sake” is actually the word that the Japanese use for all alcoholic drinks. What we know as sake, we sometimes refer to as rice wine. Also, the starch in the rice is first converted to sugars that are then fermented into alcohol. This is more akin to a beer-brewing process than wine production, so the end product is really a rice “beer” rather than a rice “wine”.

52A Mercury, but not Venus : ELEMENT

Mercury is the only metallic element that is a liquid at room temperature. Mercury used to be known as “hydrargyrum”, from the Greek “hydr-” meaning “water” and “argyros” meaning “silver”. As a result, Mercury’s modern chemical symbol is “Hg” (for “Hydrargyrum”).

65A March Madness placement : SEED

“March Madness” is the name given to the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship (among others), that is held in the spring each year. Another name is “the Big Dance”.

Down

1D Dental hygienist’s target : TARTAR

Calculus (also “tartar”) is dental plaque that has hardened on the surface of teeth. Plaque is removed relatively easily by brushing and flossing. Once plaque has hardened into tartar, a dental hygienist usually needs to intervene.

2D Grande of “Wicked” : ARIANA

Ariana Grande is a singer and actress from Boca Raton, Florida. Grande plays the role of Cat Valentine on the sitcom “Victorious” that aired for four seasons on Nickelodeon. Grande’s singing career took off with the release of the 2011 album “Victorious: Music from the Hit TV Show”.

“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 …

3D “Twain, ___, Hamill, Wahlberg” : MISS THE MARK

“Samuel Langhorne Clemens” was the real name of the author Mark Twain. Twain wasn’t the only pen name used by Clemens. Early in his career he signed some sketches as “Josh”, and signed some humorous letters that he wrote under the name “Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass”. The name of Mark Twain came from the days when Clemens was working on riverboats on the Mississippi. A riverboatman would call out “by the mark twain” when measuring the depth of water. This meant that on the sounding line, according to the “mark” on the line, the depth was two (“twain”) fathoms, and so it was safe for the riverboat to proceed.

Actor Mark Hamill is best known (by far) for playing Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars” movies. That said, fans of “Batman: The Animated Series” will know him as the voice actor behind the Joker.

Marky Mark was frontman for the band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch in the nineties. We know Marky Mark these days as noted movie actor Mark Wahlberg, leading actor in the likes of “The Italian Job” and “Shooter”.

9D Key near Ctrl : ALT

The Alt (alternate) key is found on either side of the space bar on US PC keyboards. It evolved from what was called a Meta key on old MIT keyboards, although the function has changed somewhat over the years. Alt is equivalent in many ways to the Option key on a Mac keyboard, and indeed the letters “Alt” have been printed on most Mac keyboards, starting in the nineties.

11D “Red velvet, ___, Black Forest, angel food” : TAKE THE CAKE

Today, red velvet cake is often colored using food dye. Traditional recipes call for brown sugar or non-Dutched cocoa to impart color. Basically, red velvet cake and devil’s food cake are the same thing, with the former using cocoa and the latter using chocolate.

Angel food cake is an American creation, with the name being a reference to the sponge’s lightness, as if it is “food of angels”. The chocolate butter cake called Devil’s food cake came along later, and is considered to be a counterpart to the more angelic variety.

13D Delicacy that’s often slurped : OYSTER

Oysters contain more zinc per serving than any other food. This high concentration is perhaps behind the oyster’s reputation as an aphrodisiac, as zinc is a critical building block for testosterone.

21D “Ben-___” : HUR

The celebrated 1959 Charlton Heston movie “Ben-Hur” is a dramatization of a book published in 1880 by Lew Wallace titled “Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ”. The 1959 epic film won a record 11 Academy Awards, a feat that has been equaled since then but never beaten. The other winners of 11 Oscars are “Titanic” (1997) and “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2003).

25D Cassette successors : CDS

The French for “box” is “caisse”. So, a “cassette” is a “little box”.

26D Pontiac in a ’60s song : GTO

The Pontiac GTO was produced by GM from 1964 to 1974, and again by a GM subsidiary in Australia from 2004 to 2006. The original GTO’s design is credited to Pontiac chief engineer at the time John DeLorean, who later founded the DeLorean Motor Company.

37D Insurance co. for military families : USAA

The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) is an insurance company that was founded in 1922 by officers in the US Army. The group was prompted to form the enterprise as main street insurance companies viewed members of the military as a high-risk group and so refused coverage or charged excessive rates. The USAA continues to focus on its niche market, members and immediate family members of the US military, and has extended services offered to banking products.

47D Japanese belts : OBIS

The sash worn as part of traditional Japanese dress is known as an obi. It can be tied at the back in what is called a butterfly knot. The term “obi” is also used for the thick cotton belts that are an essential part of the outfits worn by practitioners of many martial arts. The color of the martial arts obi signifies the wearer’s skill level.

52D Ford flop : EDSEL

The Edsel brand of automobile was named for Edsel, son of Henry Ford. Sadly, the name “Edsel” has become synonymous with “failure”, which was no fault of Edsel himself who had died several years before the Edsel line was introduced. When the Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel on 4 September 1957, Ford proclaimed the day to be “E Day”.

55D Canadian leaders, for short : PMS

The Prime Minister of Canada has two official residences made available to him or her. The year-round residence in the New Edinburgh neighborhood of Ottawa is known by its address “24 Sussex”. The summer residence is the Harrington Lake estate in nearby Gatineau Park. Unlike 10 Downing Street in London, 24 Sussex is primarily just a residence, as the Prime Minister of Canada spends the working day at the Office of the Prime Minister near Parliament Hill.

56D Mideast inits. : UAE

United Arab Emirates (UAE)