Tag: Bottom-heavy fruit crossword clue

Bill’s time: 6m 09s

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16A American Girl toy : DOLL

American Girl is a line of dolls introduced in 1986. The dolls were originally young girls dressed in clothes that evoked various periods of American history.

19A Madonna’s “La ___ Bonita” : ISLA

“La Isla Bonita” (Spanish for “The Beautiful Island”) is a song recorded by Madonna as a single in 1987. It had appeared as a track on her studio album “True Blue” the year before.

21A Piglet and Pooh’s marsupial friend : ROO

In A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh” collection of stories, Pooh has many friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. Besides Christopher Robin, who doesn’t actually live in the woods, the list includes Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, Tigger and Owl.

24A Clic Stic and Wite-Out brand : BIC

Clic Stic is a model of pen made by Bic.

Wite-Out is a brand of correction fluid made by Bic.

26A Character at the heart of the “Who shot …?” cliffhanger of 1980s TV : JR EWING

The TV soap “Dallas” revolved around the Ewing family. The series that ran for 13 years was originally intended as a five-part mini-series, with the main characters being newlyweds Bobby and Pam Ewing. But, the devious character in the piece, Bobby’s brother J. R., became so popular with audiences that the series was extended with J. R. at the center of the story. Who can remember who shot J.R.? (It was Kristin Shepard: J.R.’s mistress, who was also his sister-in-law).

27A Colombian cornmeal cake : AREPA

An arepa is a cornmeal cake or bread that is popular in Colombian and Venezuelan cuisines in particular. Each arepa has a flat, round shape and is often split to make a sandwich.

29A San José, ___ Rica : COSTA

San José is the capital of Costa Rica. Costa Rica is in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua in the north and Panama to the south. It is a remarkable country in my opinion, a leader on the world stage in many areas. It has been referred to as the “greenest” country in the world, the “happiest” country in the world, and has a highly educated populace. In 1949, the country unilaterally abolished its own army … permanently!

30A Oculus Rift or Meta Quest 3 : VR HEADSET

Virtual reality (VR)

37A Started a game of blackjack, say : DEALT

Blackjack is one of the few casino games where the player has a decent chance to beat the house. This is because the house edge in blackjack is relatively low, around 1%. That edge can be reduced or overcome by “counting cards”, something that casinos really don’t like …

38A 18-wheeler : SEMI

An 18-wheeler semi-trailer truck has eight wheels under the trailer, i.e. four on each of the two rear axles. There are 10 wheels under the tractor unit. Two of the ten wheels are on the front axle, and eight are on the rear two axles that sit under the front of the trailer.

47A Many characters on “The Pitt” : ER DOCTORS

“The Pitt” is a medical drama TV show that premiered in 2025. The title refers to the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. In each episode, we follow the staff through an hour in the emergency department, navigating challenges like staff shortages and underfunding. The show has been praised by the medical community for its realistic portrayal of healthcare workers and the psychological challenges faced in a post-pandemic world.

51A Group holding a nominating convention : PARTY

Modern national conventions are largely ceremonial, with the presidential nominee predetermined by primaries and caucuses. The last time one required multiple ballots to select a nominee was in 1952 for the Democrats (Adlai Stevenson) and 1948 for the Republicans (Thomas Dewey).

52A Scannable squares often used in place of paper menus : QR CODES

A QR Code (for “Quick Response Code”) is a two-dimensional barcode that is favored over UPC barcodes as it can read more quickly and can store much more information. The QR Code comprises black squares within a square grid on a white background.

55A ___-Wan Kenobi : OBI

Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the more beloved of the “Star Wars” characters. He was portrayed by two fabulous actors in the series of films. As a young man Kenobi was played by Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, and as an older man by Alec Guinness.

59A Paddington Bear’s country of origin : PERU

Paddington Bear is a character from a series of books written by Michael Bond. Paddington is an immigrant from Peru who is found sitting on his suitcase in London Paddington railway station. He is a beloved character in the UK. When the two sides of the Channel Tunnel were linked in 1990 during construction, the first item passed by the British to the French was a Paddington Bear soft toy.

64A Puppet dragon of 1960s kids’ TV : HR PUFNSTUF

Sid and Marty Krofft were two brothers who worked as puppeteers, and then TV creators and writers. Born Cydus and Moshopopoulos Yola in Montreal, the Krofft brothers made several successful children’s TV shows that made it big in the US, including “H.R. Pufnstuf”, “Land of the Lost”, and “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters”.

68A Britney Spears’s “___! … I Did It Again” : OOPS

Certainly as far as Britney Spears’ public life was concerned, the singer had a couple of rough years. In 2008, a court placed Spears under a conservatorship against her will. Her father and an attorney were then given control of her estate and also of her person. The conservatorship lasted for many years, and eventually a social movement with the tag #FreeBritney gained momentum. And so, after 13 years, the conservatorship was finally lifted in 2021.

Down

4D Ultimate ___ (team sport) : FRISBEE

Disc golf is also known as Frisbee golf, and sometimes even Frolf. Believe it or not, disc golf predates the introduction of the Frisbee. The first game was played at a school in Bladworth, Saskatchewan in 1926. The participating schoolkids threw tin lids into circles drawn on a course they created in the school grounds. They named the game “Tin Lid Golf”. By the way, I try to play disc golf at least three times a week. Lots of fun …

7D Grp. with a phonetic alphabet : NATO

The NATO phonetic alphabet was actually developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization in the 1950s. It was introduced to prevent catastrophic misunderstandings in post-WWII global air traffic. Its final twenty-six words feature deliberate spelling quirks designed specifically to accommodate international accents. For example, “Alfa” uses an “f” instead of a “ph” to prevent non-English speakers from pronouncing it with a hard “p”, and “Juliett” gains an extra “t” so French operators won’t treat the final consonant as silent.

10D Conflicts over Wikipedia content : EDIT WARS

Wikipedia edit wars are conflicts that arise when multiple editors disagree on the content of an article and repeatedly try to change it to reflect their own viewpoint. Disputes can sometimes be resolved through discussion and compromise, but they can escalate into full-blown “edit wars” where editors engage in a back-and-forth battle to control the article. Wikipedia imposes the “three-revert rule” (3RR), which is a policy that limits the number of times an editor can revert a page to three times within a 24-hour period. The purpose of this rule is to prevent edit wars from getting out of hand and to encourage editors to engage in civil discussion.

11D Mario’s dinosaur sidekick : YOSHI

Yoshi is a dinosaur-like character in some Nintendo video games. Yoshi first appeared as a sidekick to Mario and Luigi in the 1991 game called “Super Mario World”.

12D Actress Pompeo of “Grey’s Anatomy” : ELLEN

Actress Ellen Pompeo is perhaps best known for playing the title character in the TV medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy”. That gig has paid well. Pompeo was ranked third in the “Forbes” list of highest-paid TV actresses in 2017, with Sofia Vergara (from “Modern Family”) and Kaley Cuoco (from “The Big Bang Theory”) holding the first and second spots respectively.

The very successful hospital drama TV show “Grey’s Anatomy” premiered in 2005. The title is a reference to the show’s central character, Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo), as well as a reference to the classic human anatomy textbook commonly called “Gray’s Anatomy”.

13D Vernacular found in Urban Dictionary : SLANG

Urban Dictionary is a website that was founded in 1999 by a computer science student at Cal Poly. The site contains definitions of mainly slang terms, and is maintained by the site’s members.

23D Kind of high-fat diet : KETO

A ketogenic (also “keto”) diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet. When a body consumes insufficient carbohydrates to meet the need for energy, then the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies in order to make up the energy deficit. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the bloodstream is known as “ketosis”, a term that gives rise to the name “ketogenic diet”. Medical professionals sometimes prescribe a ketogenic diet in order to control epilepsy in children. A condition of ketosis can reduce the frequency of epileptic seizures.

28D The “R” in R.I. : RHODE

Rhode Island is the smallest state in the union, and is the second-most densely populated (after New Jersey). Rhode Island is known as the Ocean State (and more informally “Little Rhody”), largely because about 14% of the state’s area is made up of ocean bays and inlets. Exactly how Rhode Island got its name is a little unclear. What is known is that way back in 1524, long before the Pilgrims came to New England, the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano likened an island in the area to the Island of Rhodes in the Mediterranean. There were subsequent references to “Rhode Island” in English publications, before the colonists arrived.

29D The “log” in “ants on a log” : CELERY

Ants on a log is a snack food prepared by spreading something like peanut butter or cream cheese on celery and placing raisins on top. If you leave out the raisins, the snack becomes “ants on vacation”.

31D “Light” Jedi weapons : SABERS

The famous lightsaber weapons in the “Star Wars” series of films were updated for the seventh episode “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. The newer lightsabers have energy crossguards just above the grip.

33D Railroad station : DEPOT

Our term “depot”, meaning “station, warehouse”, comes from the French word “dépôt”. The French term translates into English as “deposit” or “place of deposit”.

34D Manicurist’s filing board : EMERY

Emery is a very hard type of rock that is crushed for use as an abrasive. Emery paper is made by gluing small particles of emery to paper. Emery boards are just emery paper with a cardboard backing. And emery boards are primarily used for filing nails.

50D Bit of fiery cinnamon candy : RED HOT

Red Hots are cinnamon-flavored candy pieces. I recently found out that Red Hots are sometimes used in applesauce …

52D Cotton swabs not recommended for ear canal use : Q-TIPS

Cotton swabs were originally marketed under the name “Baby Gays”. This was changed in 1926 to “Q-Tips”, with the Q standing for “quality”.

53D Cowboy contest : RODEO

“Rodeo” is a Spanish word that is usually translated into English as “round up”.

54D Fresh from the dishwasher : CLEAN

The first mechanical dishwasher to be described as practical and reliable was invented by Josephine Cochrane of Ohio. Cochrane didn’t wash dishes herself, as she had servants for that task, so the main purpose of her invention was not to save effort. Rather, she wanted a device that washed dishes without chipping them, something her household help was liable to do.

57D Grindr and Tinder, for two : APPS

Grindr is a social networking app aimed at gay and bisexual men. Subscribers locate potential partners using the geolocation capabilities of smartphones. A user in a particular location can view a grid showing pictures of fellow subscribers arranged by proximity.

Tinder is a matchmaking app that uses Facebook profiles. Users “swipe” photos of potential matches, either to the right (“like”) or to the left (“not interested”). Users who “match” each other can then chat within the app.

60D “___, Brute?” : ET TU

Julius Caesar was assassinated on the 15th (the ides) of March, 44 BC. He was attacked by a group of sixty people in the Roman Senate, and was stabbed 23 times. The first to strike a blow was Servilius Casca, who attacked Caesar from behind and stabbed him in the neck. In Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, Casca utters the words “Speak, hands, for me!” just before making the fatal blow. The following line, uttered by Caesar, is more famous though: “Et tu, Brute?”

61D “Ant-Man” star Paul : RUDD

In the Marvel universe, Ant-Man has been the superhero persona of three different fictional characters: Hank Pym, Scott Lang and Eric O’Grady. In the 2015 film “Ant-Man”, Michael Douglas plays Hank Pym, and Paul Rudd plays Scott Lang.

62D Sights that make you go “What the …?!” : UFOS

In 1952, the USAF revived its studies of reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in a program called Project Blue Book. Project Blue Book ran from 1952 until it was shut down in 1969 with the conclusion that there was no threat to national security and that there were no sightings that could not be explained within the bounds of modern scientific knowledge.

65D ___ v. Wade (1973 Supreme Court decision) : ROE

Roe v. Wade was decided in a US District Court in Texas in 1970, and reached the Supreme Court on appeal. The basic decision by the Supreme Court was that a woman’s constitutional right to privacy applied to an abortion, but that this right had to be balanced with a state’s interest in protecting an unborn child and a mother’s health. The Court further defined that the state’s interest became stronger with each trimester of a pregnancy. So, in the first trimester the woman’s right to privacy outweighed any state interest. In the second trimester the state’s interest in maternal health was deemed to be strong enough to allow state regulation of abortion for the sake of the mother. In the third trimester the viability of the fetus dictated that the state’s interest in the unborn child came into play, so states could regulate or prohibit abortions, except in cases where the mother’s life was in danger. I’m no lawyer, but that’s my understanding of the Supreme Court decision …