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Constructed by: Hannah Binney

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Shark Tank

Themed answers each include circled letters denoting a TANK in which we find a kind of SHARK:

• 60A Reality show with entrepreneurs and investors, or what each set of circled letters make 17-, 27-, or 44-Across? : SHARK TANK

• 17A Amphibians with sticky toes : TREE FROGS (reef shark)
• 27A “Moonlight” and “Hidden Figures” actress : JANELLE MONAE (lemon shark)
• 44A Fishy breakfast combo : BAGELS AND LOX (sand shark)

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 6m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14A Shrek or Fiona : OGRE

Princess Fiona is the title character’s love interest in the “Shrek” series of films. She is voiced by Cameron Diaz.

15A Falco of “The Sopranos” : EDIE

Edie Falco is the first actress to have won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (which she won three times for playing Carmela Soprano in “The Sopranos”) as well as the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series (which she won in 2010 for her title role in “Nurse Jackie”). As of 2025, she was the only actress to have achieved this feat.

16A “True Colors” singer Lauper : CYNDI

“True Colors” is the title track on Cyndi Lauper’s second studio album, released in 1986. It has since become a popular gay anthem. In 2008, Lauper founded “True Colors United”, a non-profit focused on helping homeless youths in the US, of which 40% belong to the LGBT community.

17A Amphibians with sticky toes : TREE FROGS (reef shark)

The name “tree frog” (also “treefrog”) applies to a number of frog species. As the name implies, these are frogs that spend very little time on the ground, and rather live in trees and high-growing vegetation. Tree frogs are usually very small in size, so that their weight can be borne by twigs and branches.

The term “reef shark” refers to five specific and distinct species of shark, i.e. the blacktip, whitetip, grey, Caribbean, and Galapagos sharks. These species all live within coral ecosystems (reefs), and tend to avoid human intervention, and hunt for prey at night. I met many a reef shark in my scuba-diving days …

20A Person-shaped piece in a board game : MEEPLE

A meeple is a piece in a board game that, at least vaguely, resembles the human form. The term “meeple” was coined in the year 2000 to describe the little wooden figures in the game Carcassonne, and is a portmanteau of “my” and “people”. “Meeple” made it into the OED in 2015.

24A Lip balm brand whose name is short for “evolution of smooth” : EOS

eos Products is a company that was founded in 2006 in New York City. eoS sells beauty products such as lotions and creams, and is most famous for its lip balm. The initials “eos” stand for “Evolution of Smooth”.

27A “Moonlight” and “Hidden Figures” actress : JANELLE MONAE (lemon shark)

Janelle Monáe is a singer and actress. I’m not familiar with her as a singer, but did see Monáe play NASA engineer Mary Jackson in the excellent 2016 film “Hidden Figures”.

“Moonlight” is a 2016 semi-autobiographical film based on an unpublished play by Tarell Alvin McCraney titled “In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue”. “Moonlight” won the season’s Best Picture Oscar, thus becoming the first film to do so with an all-Black cast, and the first with an LGBT storyline.

“Hidden Figures” is an excellent 2016 film based on a book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly. Both book and film tell the story of female African-American mathematicians who worked for NASA during the Mercury and Apollo programs in the 1960s.

The lemon shark is named for its distinct yellowish-brown coloring that allows it to blend perfectly into sandy seafloors. Whereas most sharks are solitary creatures, lemon sharks are relatively social, and can travel in groups called “shivers”.

33A Soft drinks : SODAS

The name of the beverage called “soda” comes directly from chemistry. Early carbonated water was made by adding sodium bicarbonate to water, and because the key ingredient was a sodium compound, the drink became known as “soda water”, later shortened to just “soda”.

40A Material that’s dated using dendrochronology : WOOD

Dendrochronology is the dating of trees by examining growth rings.

Growth rings can be seen in a horizontal cross section of a tree trunk. These rings are caused by a change in the rate of growth of a tree that comes with the seasons, so the rings are more easily discerned in trees that grow in regions with marked seasonal changes.

44A Fishy breakfast combo : BAGELS AND LOX (sand shark)

Lox is a brine-cured salmon filet that is finely sliced. The term “lox” comes into English via Yiddish, and derives from the German word for salmon, namely “Lachs”.

Unlike so many shark species, the sand shark is able to hover above the seafloor, remaining relatively still as it hunts its prey. It does this by gulping air at the surface and storing it in its stomach to maintain neutral buoyancy. The sand shark is also famous for a particularly shark-like behavior in the womb. The strongest embryo will often consume its siblings before birth, in a process known as intrauterine cannibalism.

59A Column style : IONIC

The Ionic was one of the three classical orders of architecture, the others being the Doric and Corinthian. An Ionic column is relatively ornate. It usually has grooves running up and down its length and at the top there is a “scroll” design called a “volute”. The scroll motif makes Ionic columns popular for the design of academic buildings. The term “Ionic” means “pertaining to Ionia”, with Ionia being an ancient territory that is located in modern-day Turkey.

60A Reality show with entrepreneurs and investors, or what each set of circled letters make 17-, 27-, or 44-Across? : SHARK TANK

“Shark Tank” is a reality television show that features aspiring entrepreneurs making pitches to potential investors (the “sharks”) as they try to grow their businesses. The show is a Mark Burnett production and is based on a British series called “Dragons’ Den”.

62A Brownie ingredient : COCOA

Apparently, the first brownies were created for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The recipe was developed by a pastry chef at the city’s Palmer House Hotel. The idea was to produce a cake-like dessert that was small enough and dainty enough to be eaten by ladies as part of a boxed lunch.

65A Arterial tube : STENT

In the world of surgical medicine, a stent is an artificial tube inserted inside a vessel in the body, say an artery, in order to reduce the effects of a local restriction in the body’s conduit.

67A Brand of facial cleanser : OLAY

Oil of Olay was developed in South Africa in 1952. When Oil of Olay was introduced internationally, it was given slightly different brand names designed to appeal in the different geographies. In Ireland we know it as Oil of Ulay, for example, and in France it is Oil of Olaz.

Down

3D “But for mine own part, it was __ to me”: Shakespeare : GREEK

The phrase “it’s all Greek to me” is used to describe something that is difficult to understand. It’s possible that the idiom’s use in English comes from an old Latin phrase “Graecum est; non legitur” (It is Greek; it cannot be read). The first use recorded in English dates back to 1599 when it appears in William Shakespeare’s play “Julius Caesar” in lines spoken by Casca:

Nay, an I tell you that, I’ll ne’er look you i’ the face again: but those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me.

8D Philippine money : PESO

The writing on bank notes in the Philippines used to be in English, so the national currency was recorded as the “peso”. Since 1967 the language on the notes has been Filipino, and now the name of the currency is written as “piso”.

11D Dream home? : WNBA

The Atlanta Dream is a WNBA team that joined the league for the 2008 season. After moving around a little, the Dreams settled into the Gateway Center Arena in College Park, Georgia starting with the 2021 season.

12D March day to be wary of : IDES

In Act I of William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, a soothsayer warns the doomed leader to “beware the ides of March”. Caesar ignores the prophecy and is subsequently killed on the steps of the Capitol by a group of conspirators on that fateful day.

13D River with Blue and White tributaries : NILE

Africa’s River Nile has two main tributaries, the Blue Nile and White Nile, with the White Nile deemed to be the headwaters of the Nile itself. The most distant source of the White Nile is unknown, so I suppose one might argue that the “source of the Nile” is a mystery.

18D Performers in a tiny circus : FLEAS

In a real flea circus, fleas are attached to miniature items that create the illusion that the fleas are performing circus acts. The fleas are harnessed by wrapping a metal wire around their bodies, which is then attached to props. Because fleas have such strong legs, they can then move objects that are a lot larger than they are. Apparently, the concept of a flea circus originated with watchmakers in the early 1800s. The artisans used the “circus” to demonstrate their metalworking abilities.

25D Iroquois nation : SENECA

The Seneca Native American nation was a member of the Six Nations or Iroquois League, along with the Iroquois, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Tuscarora peoples. Historically, the Seneca lived south of Lake Ontario. The name “Seneca” translates as “Great Hill People”.

27D Impromptu jazz gathering : JAM SESSION

The use of “jam”, meaning an improvised passage performed by a whole jazz band, dates back to the late twenties. This gave rise to “jam session”, a term used a few years later. The use of “jam” in this context probably stems from the meaning of “jam” as something sweet, something excellent.

29D Capital of the short-lived Republic of the Rio Grande : LAREDO

The slogan “Six Flags over Texas” is a reference to the six countries that controlled at least part of the territory that we now know as the state of Texas. The border city of Laredo, however, is known as the City under Seven Flags. That is because Laredo was declared as the capital of the short-lived Republic of the Rio Grande that broke away from Mexico for just 283 days in 1840.

33D Stuck-up sort : SNOB

Back in the 1780s, a snob was a shoemaker or a shoemaker’s apprentice. By the end of the 18th century the word “snob” was being used by students at Cambridge University in England to refer to all local merchants and people of the town. The term evolved to mean one who copies those who are his or her social superior (and not in a good way). From there it wasn’t a big leap for “snob” to include anyone who emphasized their superior social standing and not just those who aspired to rank. Nowadays a snob is anyone who looks down on those considered to be of inferior standing.

34D Actress Chaplin : OONA

Oona Chaplin is an actress from Madrid in Spain. Chaplin is getting a lot of airtime these days as she plays Talisa Maegyr on HBO’s hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones”. Oona is the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin, and is named for her maternal grandmother Oona O’Neill, the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill.

49D Moving day rental : U-HAUL

The U-Haul company was started by married couple Leonard Shoen and Anna Mary Carty in Ridgefield, Washington in 1945. The Shoens used $5,000 of seed money to build trailers in their garage, and then cleverly recruited gas station owners as franchisees with whom they would split the rental revenue. There are now about 15,000 U-Haul dealers across the country.

50D “Never __ Give You Up”: Rickrolling song : GONNA

Rick Astley is an English singer best known for his 1987 worldwide hit “Never Gonna Give You Up”. He retired in 1993 but became a huge hit on the Internet in 2007 when a YouTube video of “Never Gonna Give You Up” was chosen by tricksters as a link (labeled as something else) that was sent around the world so that the clip was seen by millions online. The phenomenon was given the name “Rickrolling”. With all the new exposure that the song received Astley made a whopping $12 in royalties from YouTube. Yep, 12 whole dollars.

51D Contrived : HOKEY

“To hoke” is a slang term meaning “to create a false impression”. The term derives from the noun “hokum”. “Hokum” was originally theater slang, meaning “melodramatic, exaggerated acting”. Now the term just means “empty talk”. It is also the root for our word “hokey” meaning “silly, old-fashioned”.

54D Fairy tale start : ONCE

The stock phrase “Once upon a time …” has been used in various forms as the start of a narrative at least since 1380. The stock phrase at the end of stories such as folktales is often “and they all lived happily ever after”. The earlier version of this ending was “happily until their deaths”.

55D Evite request : RSVP

RSVP is an initialism derived from the French phrase “Répondez s’il vous plaît”, meaning “Please respond”. It’s a polite way to ask your invited guests to let you know if they will be attending your event.

Evite.com is a website launched in 1998 that is used to create, send and manage “evites”, online invitations.

56D __ butter : SHEA

Shea butter is a common moisturizer and lotion used as a cosmetic. It is a fat that is extracted from the nut of the African shea tree. There is evidence that shea butter was used back in Cleopatra’s Egypt.

58D Director Preminger : OTTO

Otto Preminger was noted for directing films that pushed the envelope in terms of subject matter, at least in the fifties and sixties. Great examples would be 1955’s “The Man with the Golden Arm” that dealt with drug addiction, 1959’s “Anatomy of a Murder” that dealt with rape, and 1962’s “Advise and Consent” that dealt with homosexuality. If you’ve seen these films, you’ll have noticed that the references are somewhat indirect and disguised, in order to get past the censors.