Constructed by: Sophia Maymudes
Edited by: Will Shortz
Not your puzzle? Try today’s …
… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Reveal Answer: Bottomless Brunch
Themed answers are in the down-direction. Each ends with a BRUNCH item, and each is missing the BOTTOM letter:
- 7D Event that might feature unlimited mimosas … or a literal description of the answers to the starred clues : BOTTOMLESS BRUNCH
- 3D *Remedy for a cold : COUGH SYRU(P)
- 9D *Help avoid disaster : SAVE ONE’S BACO(N)
- 13D *Go over again : REHAS(H)
- 25D *Raise one’s glass : PROPOSE A TOAS(T)
- 39D *Little scamp : RAGAMUFFI(N)
- 53D *No-goodnik : BAD EG(G)
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… a complete list of answers
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Bill’s time: 8m 11s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
1 Home of Spaceship Earth : EPCOT
Spaceship Earth is perhaps the structure that comes to mind when we think of Epcot in the Walt Disney World Resort. It is a large, white, 18-story geodesic sphere.
6 Kimono sash : OBI
The lovely Japanese kimono is a garment worn by men, women and children. The word “kimono” translates simply as “thing to wear”, with “ki” meaning “wear” and “mono” meaning “thing”.
14 Author Novik of the “Scholomance” trilogy : NAOMI
“The Scholomance” trilogy is a series of fantasy novels written by Naomi Novik that follows the story of Galadriel “El” Higgins, a teenage girl who attends a magical school called the Scholomance. In Romanian folklore, the Scholomance is said to be a hidden school of black magic located in the depths of the Carpathian Mountains. In Novik’s books, the Scholomance is a magical school that is similarly hidden from the world, with its students constantly in danger from the malevolent creatures that lurk in its halls.
17 Direction toward the very top of the world : TRUE NORTH
True north is the direction pointing towards the Earth’s geographic North Pole. Magnetic north is the direction pointing towards the Earth’s Magnetic North Pole, and is the direction indicated by a compass needle.
20 “Game of Thrones” actress Diana : RIGG
Diana Rigg was a marvelous actress from England who was best known for playing Emma Peel on the hit sixties show “The Avengers”. Rigg also won an Emmy for her performance in a 1997 television adaptation of “Rebecca”. In my humble opinion, she was also the best-ever “Bond girl” (opposite George Lazenby, the worst-ever Bond guy), in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” …
23 West Coast team, on scoreboards : LAA
The Anaheim Angels baseball team is today more correctly called the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (LAA). The “Angels” name dates back to 1961 when the team was founded in the “City of Angels”, Los Angeles. When the franchise moved to Anaheim in 1965 they were known as the California Angels, then the Anaheim Angels, and most recently the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels are also known as “the Halos”.
26 Margarine : OLEO
Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France announced a competition to develop a substitute for butter, a substitute that would be more accessible to the lower classes and more practical for the armed forces. A French chemist called Hippolyte Mege-Mouries came up with something he called oleomargarine in 1869, which was eventually manufactured under the trade name “margarine”. The name “oleomargarine” also gives us our generic term “oleo”.
27 Minnesotan trio? : ENS
There is a trio of letters N (ens) in the word “Minnesotan”.
28 Armenia, e.g., until 1991: Abbr. : SSR
Armenia is a landlocked country located east of Turkey, and is a former Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). Back in the year 301 CE, the ancient Kingdom of Armenia became the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity as its national religion.
29 Snack whose name translates as “breaded” : EMPANADA
An empanada is a dish made by folding pastry around cooked meat and vegetables. To me an empanada looks very similar to a dish I grew up with called a Cornish pasty.
31 “Star Wars” heroine : REY
Rey is a central character in the “Star Wars” universe who first appeared in 2015’s “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. She is trained as a Jedi by Luke Skywalker and his sister Princess Leia Organa. In honor of her mentors, she takes the name Rey Skywalker, and eventually becomes “The Last Jedi”. Rey is played by British actress Daisy Ridley.
35 Ctrl-Alt-___ : DEL
Ctrl-Alt-Delete is a keyboard command on IBM PC compatible systems used for a soft reboot, or more recently to bring up the task manager in the Windows operating system. Bill Gates tells us that the command was originally just a device to be used during development and was never meant to “go live”. He once said that “Ctrl+Alt+Delete” was a mistake, and that he would have preferred a dedicated key on the keyboard that carried out the same function.
38 Gemma’s role in “Crazy Rich Asians” : ASTRID
Gemma Chan is a British actress who gained widespread recognition for portraying Astrid Leong-Teo in the critically acclaimed film “Crazy Rich Asians” (2018). She has been in relationships with some household names in the UK. Her partner was standup comedian Jack Whitehall from 2011 to 2017, and fellow actor Dominic Cooper starting in 2018.
“Crazy Rich Asians” is a 2018 rom-com based on a 2013 novel of the same name by Kevin Kwan. The film garnered a lot of attention and accolades, not only for the quality of the script and performances. It was the first major Hollywood movie to feature a principal cast of Asian descent since 1993’s “The Joy Luck Club”.
45 Setting for Cape Cod at Christmas, in brief : EST
Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Cape Cod is indeed named after the fish. It was first referred to as “Cape Cod” by English navigator Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, as his men caught so many fish there.
46 Tegan’s pop music bandmate : SARA
Tegan and Sara are an indie pop duo comprising Tegan Rain Quin and Sara Keirstan Quin, identical twin sisters from Canada.
47 “___ Him Back!” (Olivia Rodrigo hit) : GET
Olivia Rodrigo is a singer-songwriter who rose to prominence with her 2021 song “Drivers License”, which she also co-wrote. In 2021, Rodrigo played her part in a White House program promoting COVID-19 vaccinations among young people.
51 Farm share inits. : CSA
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
55 Chore-doing robot brand : ROOMBA
The Roomba vacuum cleaner is a cool-looking device that navigates its way around a room by itself, picking up dirt as it goes. Like I said, it’s cool-looking, but I am not sure how effective it is …
59 Professor’s goal : TENURE
A job in a university that is described as “tenure-track” is one that can lead to a tenured position. A tenured position is a “job for life”. A person with tenure can only be dismissed for cause.
66 Justice Kagan : ELENA
Elena Kagan was the Solicitor General of the United States from 2009 until 2010, when she replaced Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. That made Justice Kagan the first female US Solicitor General and the fourth female US Supreme Court justice. Kagan also served as the first female dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009.
68 “Priscilla” director Coppola : SOFIA
Sofia Coppola is a filmmaker, following in the footsteps of her father Francis Ford Coppola. She has made some very interesting films, with “Lost in Translation” (2003) and “Marie Antoinette” (2006) being my personal favorites. Before turning to filmmaking, Coppola appeared in front of the camera in several films. She was an infant at a baptism in “The Godfather”, an immigrant child in “The Godfather Part II”, and Michael Corleone’s daughter Mary in “The Godfather Part III”.
70 Org. for care in the U.K. : NHS
The UK introduced the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948 as part of a packet of major social reforms introduced in the wake of the Second World War. The NHS is mainly funded by National Insurance contributions (similar to, but more expansive than, Social Security contributions in the US). National Insurance contributions basically fund the UK’s universal healthcare program, public pension program and unemployment benefits.
Down
1 Ledger item : ENTRY
A ledger is an account book. The term ”ledger” comes from the Middle English “leggen” meaning “to lay”. The original ledger was a large book “laid” in one particular place permanently, an example being a breviary in a church.
2 2024 Olympics host : PARIS
When Paris hosted the Summer Olympics in 2024, it became only the second city to host the Olympics three times (London hosted in 1908, 1948 and 2012).
5 “Cat on a Hot ___ Roof” : TIN
“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is the play that won Tennessee Williams the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. The play was adapted into a famous film version in 1958, with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman playing the leads.
7 Event that might feature unlimited mimosas … or a literal description of the answers to the starred clues : BOTTOMLESS BRUNCH
Our word “brunch” is a portmanteau of “breakfast” and “lunch”. The term was coined as student slang in Oxford, England in the late 1890s. However, “brunch” described a combined meal closer to the breakfast hour, and the term “blunch” was used for a meal closer to lunchtime.
10 Prefix with -meter : ODO-
An odometer measures distance traveled. “Odometer comes from the Greek “hodos” meaning “path” and “metron” meaning “measure”.
11 Received a card, say : FOULED
A series of colored penalty cards is used by referees and umpires in several sports, most notably in soccer. The cards were first used in the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, after language difficulties created confusion during the prior competition in 1966. The main cards used are a yellow card indicating a caution, and a red card indicating expulsion from the game.
12 Major or minor part of a tarot deck : ARCANA
In a 78-card tarot deck, the picture cards are referred to as the Major Arcana. The remaining cards are known as the Minor Arcana. The Major Arcana included The Fool, the Wheel of Fortune, the Hanged Man, and Death.
25 *Raise one’s glass : PROPOSE A TOAS(T)
The tradition of toasting someone probably dates back to the reign of Charles II, when the practice was to drink a glass of wine to the health of a beautiful or favored woman. In those days, spiced toast was added to beverages to add flavor, so the use of the word “toast” was an indicator that the lady’s beauty would enhance the wine. Very charming, I must say …
29 Kernel locale : EAR
Our contemporary word “kernel” comes from the Old English word “cyrnel,” which meant “seed”, and more literally “little corn”. Today, we still refer to the kernel of a nut or corn. We also refer to the kernel of an idea, the most important part of the idea.
30 Vocal range for Amy Winehouse : ALTO
Amy Winehouse was a much ridiculed singer from the UK, and whose life was fraught with very public bouts of drug and alcohol abuse. Winehouse’s lifestyle caught up with her in 2011 when she was found dead from alcohol poisoning. The unfortunate singer was only 27 years old when she died, which means she is now viewed as a member of the “27 Club”. This “club” is made up of famous musicians who all died at the age of 27, including Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison of the Doors, and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.
31 World of Warcraft or Rune, in brief : RPG
Role-playing game (RPG)
32 Flotsam or Jetsam, in “The Little Mermaid” : EEL
Flotsam and Jetsam are characters in the Disney movie called “The Little Mermaid”, released in 1989. Both are moray eels in the service of Ursula, the sea witch.
41 Toxic insecticide : DDT
DDT is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (don’t forget now!). DDT was used with great success to control disease-carrying insects during WWII, and when made available for use after the war it became by far the most popular pesticide. And then Rachel Carson published her famous book “Silent Spring”, suggesting there was a link between DDT and diminishing populations of certain wildlife. It was the public outcry sparked by the book, and reports of links between DDT and cancer, that led to the ban on the use of the chemical in 1972. That ban is touted as the main reason that the bald eagle was rescued from near extinction.
44 “Eloise” author Thompson : KAY
Kay Thompson wrote the “Eloise” series of children’s books. Thompson actually lived at the Plaza Hotel in New York, the setting she would choose for her “Eloise” stories. Eloise started out as a hit song for Thompson, a success that she parlayed into the book franchise.
50 Popular logic puzzle : KENKEN
KenKen is an arithmetic and logic puzzle invented quite recently, in 2004 by a Japanese math teacher named Tetsuya Miyamoto. “Ken” is the Japanese word for “cleverness”.
53 *No-goodnik : BAD EG(G)
The suffix “-nik” is of Slavic origin. It is somewhat like the suffix “-er” in English. By adding “-nik” to a noun, the new word describes a person related to what that noun describes. Examples of the use of “-nik” in mainstream English are “beatnik” and “”refusenik”. Examples of more casual “-nik” terms are “neatnik” and “peacenik”.
65 N.C.A.A. Wildcats, in brief : KSU
The athletic teams of Kansas State University (KSU) are called the Wildcats. The Wildcats official “colors” are just one: the color royal purple.
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Home of Spaceship Earth : EPCOT
6 Kimono sash : OBI
9 To date : SO FAR
14 Author Novik of the “Scholomance” trilogy : NAOMI
15 Kiddie : TOT
16 Cherish : ADORE
17 Direction toward the very top of the world : TRUE NORTH
19 Testify (for) : VOUCH
20 “Game of Thrones” actress Diana : RIGG
21 Appropriate for all gamers : RATED-E
23 West Coast team, on scoreboards : LAA
24 Characteristic of a fork in the road : Y-SHAPE
26 Margarine : OLEO
27 Minnesotan trio? : ENS
28 Armenia, e.g., until 1991: Abbr. : SSR
29 Snack whose name translates as “breaded” : EMPANADA
31 “Star Wars” heroine : REY
33 Shape of the Stade de France : OVAL
35 Ctrl-Alt-___ : DEL
36 Break a sweat : PERSPIRE
38 Gemma’s role in “Crazy Rich Asians” : ASTRID
42 Like fake nails, typically : GLUE-ON
43 One of a wide pair for snow sports : SKIBOARD
45 Setting for Cape Cod at Christmas, in brief : EST
46 Tegan’s pop music bandmate : SARA
47 “___ Him Back!” (Olivia Rodrigo hit) : GET
48 Zoom past : STREAK BY
51 Farm share inits. : CSA
53 Class for a pre-med student : BIO
54 Ending with new or teen : -AGER
55 Chore-doing robot brand : ROOMBA
58 ___ up (get hyped) : AMP
59 Professor’s goal : TENURE
61 Goes a-courting? : SUES
62 “Same here” : DITTO
64 Merchandise with logos for “Baienglaca” or “Guddi,” e.g. : KNOCKOFFS
66 Justice Kagan : ELENA
67 Environmentally friendly prefix : ECO-
68 “Priscilla” director Coppola : SOFIA
69 “Ladies and ___ …” : GENTS
70 Org. for care in the U.K. : NHS
71 Togetherness : UNITY
Down
1 Ledger item : ENTRY
2 2024 Olympics host : PARIS
3 *Remedy for a cold : COUGH SYRU(P)
4 Some sorority members, informally : OMEGAS
5 “Cat on a Hot ___ Roof” : TIN
6 ___ vez (again, in Spanish) : OTRA
7 Event that might feature unlimited mimosas … or a literal description of the answers to the starred clues : BOTTOMLESS BRUNCH
8 What might be necessary after a crash : IT HELP
9 *Help avoid disaster : SAVE ONE’S BACO(N)
10 Prefix with -meter : ODO-
11 Received a card, say : FOULED
12 Major or minor part of a tarot deck : ARCANA
13 *Go over again : REHAS(H)
18 Mined find : ORE
22 Bad thing on a live broadcast : DEAD AIR
25 *Raise one’s glass : PROPOSE A TOAS(T)
29 Kernel locale : EAR
30 Vocal range for Amy Winehouse : ALTO
31 World of Warcraft or Rune, in brief : RPG
32 Flotsam or Jetsam, in “The Little Mermaid” : EEL
34 Retro, maybe : VINTAGE
37 Person using a crystal ball : SEER
39 *Little scamp : RAGAMUFFI(N)
40 Anger : IRE
41 Toxic insecticide : DDT
44 “Eloise” author Thompson : KAY
48 Light as a feather, e.g. : SIMILE
49 Biggest hits : TOP TEN
50 Popular logic puzzle : KENKEN
52 “You’re already leaving?” : SO SOON?
53 *No-goodnik : BAD EG(G)
55 Video camera button : REC
56 Suit : BEFIT
57 Analyze, as 18-Down : ASSAY
60 Large Aussie animals : ROOS
63 Explosive material : TNT
65 N.C.A.A. Wildcats, in brief : KSU
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