Day: June 9, 2026

Bill’s time: 6m 30s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10A Home of the W.N.B.A.’s Fever, informally : INDY

The Indiana Fever WNBA team was founded in 2000. The team shares the Gainbridge Fieldhouse indoor arena in Indianapolis with the Indiana Pacers NBA team for home games.

14A Viral phenomenon : MEME

A meme (from “mineme”) is a cultural practice or idea that is passed on verbally or by repetition from one person to another. The term lends itself very well to the online world where links, emails, files etc. are so easily propagated.

16A Singer Del Rey : LANA

“Lana Del Rey” is the stage name of singer/songwriter Elizabeth Grant. Del Rey calls herself a “self-styled gangsta Nancy Sinatra”. Nice …

18A Echolocation technology : SONAR

Echolocation, when used by animals, is known as biosonar. The best-known example of an animal using biosonar is probably the bat, although not all species of bat use sounds to locate objects.

20A Sport in an octagon, for short : MMA

Mixed martial arts (MMA)

33A Assists, in basketball slang : DIMES

In basketball slang, a “dime” is a particularly precise or spectacular assist. The term originates from the days of payphones, when a call cost a dime. “Dropping a dime” evolved into “making a perfect connection” with a teammate.

35A Romaine course : SALAD

Romaine is also known as cos lettuce, with the “romaine” name being most common here in North America.

37A Collection of photographs or songs : ALBUM

The Latin word “album” translates as “white”. Back in the 17th century, public notices and lists of names were written on a board painted white, or in a souvenir book with white pages known as an “albo” (from “album”). Over time, the term “album” came to be used in English for a blank book created to collect signatures or other mementos. By the end of the 19th century, albums were used to collect photographs. The term “album” was applied to long-playing gramophone records as early as 1909, because the record sleeves resembled large photographic albums.

39A Broadway award : TONY

The Tony Awards are more completely referred to as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Broadway Theatre. The awards are named for Mary Antoinette “Tony” Perry, who was a co-founder of the American Theatre Wing.

40A Lump in one’s throat : TONSIL

The palatine tonsils are located at the back of the human throat. The exact role that tonsils play isn’t completely understood, but it is known that they are in the first line of defense in the body’s immune system. They provide some level of protection against pathogens that are ingested and inhaled.

46A City with Carnival samba parades, informally : RIO

The Rio de Janeiro Carnaval is the largest carnival celebration in the world. The city hosts about two million celebrants on its streets every day for the six days of the festival.

55A Sonic boom generator? : SEGA

Sonic the Hedgehog is a title character in a videogame and the mascot of Sega, the computer game developer. Sonic was set up as a rival to Nintendo’s mascot Mario.

62A Airport raced through in “Home Alone,” in brief : ORD

The IATA airport code for O’Hare International in Chicago is ORD, which comes from Orchard Place Airport/Douglas Field (OR-D).

“Home Alone” is a 1990 film starring Macaulay Culkin that has become a Christmas classic. Culkin was nominated for a Best Actor Golden Globe for his performance, becoming the youngest actor ever to be so honored. And, there are five “Home Alone” sequels.

66A Cruising the Caribbean, say : AT SEA

The Caribbean Sea takes its name from the Island Carib people. The Island Caribs are an American Indian people that live in the Lesser Antilles islands, part of the West Indies.

Down

2D State that’s home to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum : NEW MEXICO

Georgia O’Keeffe was an influential American artist, one who led the introduction of American art into Europe. Famously, she was married to photographer Alfred Stieglitz who helped develop her career in the early days. Georgia O’Keeffe’s last home was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she had done a lot of her work during her lifetime. She died there in 1986, at the ripe old age of 98. One of her most famous paintings is from 1926, called “Black Iris III”.

4D ___ talk : TED

The acronym “TED” stands for “Technology, Entertainment and Design”. TED is a set of conferences held around the world by a non-profit group called the TED Foundation (formerly the “Sapling Foundation”). The conference subjects are varied, and the meetings are often led by big names such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Jane Goodall. The TED Foundation then makes recordings of the conferences available for free online with the intent of disseminating the ideas globally. These conferences are known as “TED Talks”. There are also TEDx events, which are locally-run talks presented under license from TED.

6D Carnivorous cinematic alien : BLOB

The 1958 horror film “The Blob” was the first movie in which Steve McQueen had a leading role. “The Blob” wasn’t a success at all, that is until Steve McQueen became a star. Using McQueen’s name, the movie was re-released and gained a cult following and was particularly successful at drive-in theaters.

12D Half of a biological helix : DNA STRAND

Francis Crick and James Watson discovered that DNA had a double-helix, chain-like structure, and published their results while working at Cambridge University in 1953. To this day the discovery is mired in controversy, as some crucial results collected by fellow researcher Rosalind Franklin were used without her permission or even knowledge. In 1962, along with molecular biologist Maurice Wilkins, Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

21D Dee who directed 2017’s “Mudbound” : REES

Dee Rees is a screenwriter and director who might be best known for directing the historical drama film “Mudbound” (2017). Rees also wrote and directed the 2011 movie “Pariah”, which she describes as semi-autobiographical.

2008’s “Mudbound” was the first novel written by author Hillary Jordan. It was adapted into a 2017 film directed by Dee Rees and starring Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund and Jason Clarke. I haven’t read the book or seen the film, but I do know that the critics loved the movie …

29D Not online, for short : IRL

In real life (IRL)

31D Wildebeest : GNU

The gnu is also known as the wildebeest, and is an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is a Dutch word meaning “wild beast”.

37D Football standout : ALL-PRO

The term “All-Pro” is used in the NFL as a designation for the best player across the whole league in a particular position for a given season.

47D Western half of Hispaniola : HAITI

The island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean, shared between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, is known in Spanish as “La Española”.

49D Parisian subway : METRO

The Paris Métro is the busiest underground transportation system in western Europe. The network carries about 4.5 million passengers a day, which is about the same ridership as the New York City Subway. The system took its name from the company that originally operated it, namely “La Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris” (The Metropolitan Paris Railroad Company), which was shortened to “Métro”. The term “Metro” was then adopted for similar systems in cities all over the world.

50D Squad captained by Lindsey Horan to win Olympic gold in ’24, for short : USWNT

United States women’s national team (USWNT)

Soccer star Lindsey Horan made her debut for the senior United States women’s national soccer team (USWNT) in 2013, when she was just 18 years old. She played her 100th match for the US team eight years later, in 2021. At the club level, Horan played much of her career in Europe, joining Paris Saint-Germain in 2012 and Lyon Féminin in 2022.

57D Penne ___ vodka : ALLA

Penne alla vodka is a pasta dish with a sauce made of vodka, cream, tomatoes, onions and sausage or bacon.

60D Part of una semana : DIA

In Spanish, an “año” (year) comprises 52 “semanas” (weeks), and a week comprises 7 “días” (days).