Day: April 14, 2026

Bill’s time: 7m 00s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5A Bout rout : KAYO

A kayo is a knockout (KO).

9A Chatted via Teams, say : IM’ED

Microsoft Teams is a videoconferencing application that competes directly with the like of Google Meet and Zoom. One feature of Teams that I quite like is “Together Mode”, which places meeting participants together in a shared virtual space like a 3-D meeting room, or an auditorium if there are numerous participants. To me, this is a more “normal” interface, and preferable to a grid of boxes.

13A Tail-less cat breed : MANX

I’ve seen Manx cats by the dozen on their native island. They’re found all over the Isle of Man (hence the name “Manx”) that is located in the middle of the Irish Sea. Manx cats have just a stub of a tail, and hence are called “stubbins” by the locals.

15A Defense grp. since 1949 : NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an international military alliance that was established in 1949. NATO headquarters was initially set up in London, moved to Paris in 1952, and then to Brussels in 1967.

22A Board game set in a mansion : CLUE

Clue is a board game that we knew under a different name growing up in Ireland. Outside of North America, Clue is marketed as “Cluedo”. Cluedo was the original name of the game, introduced in 1949 by the famous British board game manufacturer Waddingtons. There are cute differences between the US and UK versions. For example, the man who is murdered is called Dr. Black (Mr. Boddy in the US), one of the suspects is the Reverend Green (Mr. Green in the US), and the suspect weapons include a dagger (a knife in the US), and a spanner (a wrench in the US). I think it’s a fabulous game, a must during the holidays …

34A Big name in pest control : D-CON

d-CON is a line of rodent control products that has been around for over 50 years. The name is an abbreviation for “decontamination”. The d-CON Company was founded in 1950 by Chicago businessman Lee Ratner, yes, “Ratner” …

38A Force of habit, for some, in brief : OCD

Apparently, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is the fourth most commonly diagnosed mental disorder, making it about as prevalent as asthma.

39A Chess defeats : MATES

In the game of chess, when the king is under immediate threat of capture it is said to be “in check”. If the king cannot escape from check, then the game ends in “checkmate” and the player in check loses. In the original Sanskrit game of chess, the king could actually be captured. Then a rule was introduced requiring that a warning be given if capture was imminent (today we announce “check!”) so that an accidental and early ending to the game doesn’t occur.

40A Basic unit of work : JOULE

James Joule was an English physicist who spent much of his life working in the family brewing business. Joule used his work in the brewery to study the relationship between heat and mechanical work. In honor of his achievements, his name is used for the unit of energy in the International System of Units (i.e. the joule).

43A Whiskey portion of a boilermaker : SHOT

A boilermaker is a beer cocktail, a serving of beer mixed with a shot of whiskey, or sometimes a shot of tequila or vodka. If the whiskey is still in a shot glass when it’s dropped into the beer, then it’s known as a depth charge.

44A Online storage option since 2011 : APPLE ICLOUD

iCloud is an Apple service that features cloud storage and cloud computing.

47A Cincinnati trio? : ENS

There is a trio of letters N (ens) in the word “Cincinnati”.

48A Capital of Qatar : DOHA

Doha is the capital city of the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. The name “Doha” translates from Arabic as “big tree” or “roundness”.

51A Disney film featuring the Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” : FROZEN

“Let It Go” is an incredibly successful song from the Disney animated film “Frozen” released in 2013. It was performed in the movie by Idina Menzel, who also was the voice actor for the character Elsa. “Let It Go” is one of the very few Disney songs to make it into the Billboard Top Ten.

61A Colorful eye part : IRIS

The iris is the colored part of the eye. It has an aperture in the center that can open or close depending on the level of light hitting the eye.

65A ___ tide : NEAP

Tides on Earth are mainly caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and, to a lesser extent, the gravitational pull of the Sun. During the new moon and full moon, the Sun, Earth, and Moon are roughly aligned. Their gravitational forces combine, resulting in stronger tides called spring tides, which have higher high tides and lower low tides. During the first and third quarter moons (when we see a half moon), the Sun and Moon are at right angles relative to the Earth. This means their gravitational forces partially counteract each other, resulting in more moderate tides called neap tides. High tides are not as high, and low tides are not as low.

66A “Green-eyed” emotion : ENVY

William Shakespeare was one of the first to associate the color green with envy. He called jealousy the “green-eyed monster” in his play “Othello”.

Down

1D Mini maker : BMW

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.

2D Circus crowd chorus : AAHS!

The Circus Maximus was an ancient stadium used for chariot racing in Rome. It was the first such stadium built by the Romans, and was the largest ever to be built in the whole of the Roman Empire. The Circus Maximus was over 2,000 feet long and just under 400 feet wide, and could house 150,000 to 250,000 spectators. There is very little of the original structure remaining and the site is now used as a major park. It was the Circus Maximus and similar “circi” that gave rise to our contemporary word “circus” describing an arena used by clowns, acrobats, etc.

5D Lederhosen typically end just above one : KNEE

“Lederhosen” is the German word describing leather breeches, traditional garments worn by males in Bavaria and Austria.

6D “Totes adorbs!” : AWW!

“Totes adorbs” is a slang term meaning “totally adorable”.

7D Bowmaker’s wood : YEW

Yew is the wood of choice for the longbow, a valued weapon in the history of England. The longbow is constructed with a core of yew heartwood (as the heartwood resists compression) that has a sheath of yew sapwood (as the sapwood resists stretching). The yew was in such demand for longbows that for centuries yew trees were in short supply in Britain and the wood had to be imported from all over Europe.

10D Chichén Itzá people : MAYA

Chichén Itzá is a Mayan ruin located in the Mexican state of Yucatán. It is the second-most visited archaeological site in the country (after the ancient city of Teotihuacan). Chichén Itzá has seen a surge in the number of visitors since the development of nearby Cancún as a tourist destination.

11D Prep school on the Thames : ETON

Eton College near Windsor in the south of England was founded way back in 1440 by King Henry VI. Originally known as “The King’s College of Our Lady of Eton beside Wyndsor”, the school was intended to provide free education to poor boys. Free education today at Eton? Not so much …

12D ___ Ross, George Clooney’s role on “ER” : DOUG

“ER” is a TV medical drama that was created by successful novelist and screenwriter Michael Crichton. The show had an original run of 15 seasons and featured quite a cast of actors who came and went over time. The cast included Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, Noah Wyle, Eriq La Salle, Julianna Margulies and Angela Bassett.

14D Zombie’s status : UNDEAD

A zombie is a corpse that has been brought back to life by some mystical means. Our modern use of the term largely stems from the undead creatures featured in the 1968 horror movie called “Night of the Living Dead”. Now that film I haven’t seen, and probably never will …

18D Belief in God or gods : THEISM

Broadly speaking, theism is the belief that there is at least one god. The term “theism” is also used to describe the belief in just one god, although the term “monotheism” is perhaps more accurate. Followers of Christianity, Judaism and Islam would all be classified as theists or monotheists.

22D Count in the cereal aisle : CHOCULA

General Mills introduced us to a whole series of monster-themed breakfast cereals, starting in 1971 with Count Chocula and Franken Berry. Then came Boo Berry, Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy.

24D Expert in stealth : NINJA

The ninjas were around in Japan at the time of the samurai, but were a very different type of warrior. The ninjas were covert operatives, specializing in the use of stealth to accomplish their missions. As they were a secretive cadre they took on a mystical reputation with the public, who believed they had the ability to become invisible or perhaps walk on water. We now use the term “ninja” figuratively, to describe anyone highly-skilled in a specific field.

28D Lipton choices : TEAS

Sir Thomas Lipton was a grocer in Glasgow, Scotland. He founded a tea packing company in North America in 1893, in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was very successful, primarily due to his blends of tea becoming popular in the US.

42D Automaker with a six-star logo : SUBARU

Subaru is the automobile division of Fuji Heavy Industries, a Japanese conglomerate. “Subaru” is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster. As a result, the Subaru logo is also a cluster of stars.

45D ___ Sea, body between Sicily and Greece : IONIAN

The Ionian Sea is that part of the Mediterranean lying between Greece and the southern part of Italy (under the sole of the “boot”). It is one of the most seismically active regions on the planet.

46D Early 007 adversary : DR NO

“Dr. No” may have been the first film in the wildly successful James Bond franchise, but it was the sixth novel in the series of books penned by Ian Fleming. Fleming was inspired to write the story after reading the Fu Manchu tales by Sax Rohmer. If you’ve read the Rohmer books or seen the films, you’ll recognize the similarities between the characters Dr. Julius No and Fu Manchu. By the way, the author Ian Fleming tells us that Julius No attended medical school in Milwaukee.

50D Piano practice piece : ETUDE

An étude is a short instrumental composition that is usually quite hard to play and is intended to help the performer master a particular technique. “Étude” is the French word for “study”. Études are commonly performed on the piano.

51D “Just so you know,” online : FWIW

For what it’s worth (FWIW)

53D Soul legend Redding : OTIS

Otis Redding is often referred to as the “King of Soul”, and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”.

54D Salsa quality : ZEST

“Salsa” is simply Spanish for “sauce”.

56D Jailhouse weapon : SHIV

“Shiv” is a slang term describing a weapon fashioned crudely to resemble a knife. Mostly we hear of shivs that have been fashioned by prison inmates to do harm to others.

59D Actress Scala : GIA

Gia Scala’s most famous role was the mute resistance fighter in “The Guns of Navarone”. Scala was born in Liverpool, England to an Irish mother and Italian father. She lived some years in Italy before moving to New York City. It’s probably good that she played a mute character in “The Guns of Navarone”, as who knows what her accent was like!