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Constructed by: Adam Landau

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Supermarket Sweep

Themed answers each comprise three brand names found in the grocery store aisle cited in the corresponding clue:

• 23A Brief but strong infatuation in the beverage aisle? : BRISK MONSTER CRUSH
• 38A Sly campaign to keep white birds out of the deodorant aisle? : SECRET DOVE BAN
• 51A Huge supply of sled dogs in the household goods aisle? : HEFTY HUSKY BOUNTY
• 66A Improve Alabama school spirit in the laundry aisle? : GAIN TIDE CHEER
• 84A Ms. Witherspoon’s Peruvian friends in the candy aisle? : REESE’S ANDES PEEPS
• 92A Full commitment to benevolence in the cereal aisle? : TOTAL KIND LIFE
• 114A Exclusive gathering around a cauldron in the snack aisle? : PREMIUM KETTLE CLUB

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

Bill’s time: 20m 08s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5A Corrida star : TORERO

The term “torero” is used to describe all bullfighters. The term “matador” is reserved for the bullfighter whose job is to make the final kill. Aptly enough, “matador” is Spanish for “killer”.

Spanish bullfighting is known locally as “corrida de toros”, literally “running of bulls”.

16A “__ Is a Woman”: Ariana Grande song : GOD

“God Is a Woman” is a 2018 song co-written and released by Ariana Grande.

19A Shakespearean villain : IAGO

In William Shakespeare’s “Othello”, Iago is the villain of the piece. At one point he readily admits this, saying “Thus do I ever make my fool my purse”. Here he is claiming to make money out of making fools of others. In this case, he takes money from Roderigo, who believes that Iago will help him bed Othello’s wife Desdemona.

21A Trig function : COSEC

The most familiar trigonometric functions are sine, cosine and tangent (abbreviated to “sin, cos and tan”). Each of these is a ratio: a ratio of two sides of a right-angled triangle. The “reciprocal” of these three functions are cosecant, secant and cotangent. The reciprocal functions are simply the inverted ratios, the inverted sine, cosine and tangent. These inverted ratios should not be confused with the “inverse” trigonometric functions e.g. arcsine, arccosine and arctangent. These inverse functions are the reverse of the sine, cosine and tangent.

26A __ of attrition : LAW

The law of attrition holds that every system (or person) wears out over time, with the rate determined by the effect of many small causes.

27A Daytime show until 2022 : ELLEN

Ellen DeGeneres is a very, very successful TV personality, having parlayed her career in stand-up comedy into lucrative gigs as an actress and talk show host. Back in 1997 DeGeneres chose the “Oprah Winfrey Show” to announce that she was a lesbian. Her character on “The Ellen Show” also came out as a lesbian in a scene with her therapist, who was played by Oprah Winfrey. Nice twist!

28A Sundaes, e.g. : DESSERTS

There’s a lot of speculation about how the dessert called a sundae got its name, but there seems to be agreement that it is an alteration of the word “Sunday”.

29A 2026 Olympics host country : ITALY

Italy has hosted four Olympic Games:

• The 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo
• The 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome
• The 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin
• The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan & Cortina

32A Spanish river to the Mediterranean : EBRO

The Ebro is the longest river entirely in Spain. It was known by the Romans as the Iber, and it is “Iber” that gives the “Iberian” Peninsula its name.

35A Evian, par exemple : EAU

Évian-les-Bains (or simply “Évian”) is in the very east of France, on the shores of Lake Geneva directly across the lake from Lausanne, Switzerland. As one might imagine, Évian is the home of Évian mineral water, the most successful business in town. Personally, I can’t stand the distinctive taste of Évian water …

36A Sacramento daily : BEE

“The Sacramento Bee” was founded in 1857 under the name “The Daily Bee”. The front page features the Scoopy Bee mascot, a famous logo created for the paper by Walt Disney in 1943.

56A Toledo’s lake : ERIE

Toledo, Ohio lies in the northwest of the state, at the western end of Lake Erie. Toledo was founded as a result of the prosperity that hit the area when the Miami and Erie Canal was constructed in the 19th century connecting Cincinnati to the Great Lakes. Toledo is known as the Glass City as several glass companies originated there, including Owens Corning and Pilkington North America. There is a large exhibition of glass art at the Toledo Museum of Art.

58A Cell service letters : LTE

In the world of telecommunications, the initialism LTE stands for Long-Term Evolution, and is wireless broadband communication standard. In general terms, LTE improves broadband speeds. As I understand it, LTE technology allows a 3G network to perform almost as well as a true 4G network, and so LTE is sometimes marketed as 4G LTE, even though it’s really “3G plus”.

66A Improve Alabama school spirit in the laundry aisle? : GAIN TIDE CHEER

The athletic teams of the University of Alabama (“Bama”) are nicknamed the Crimson Tide, which is a reference to the team colors of crimson and white. Bama’s mascot is Big Al, an anthropomorphic elephant.

80A Borscht base : BEET

Borscht is a beetroot soup that originated in Ukraine. It can be served both hot and cold.

81A “Here Comes the Hotstepper” singer Kamoze : INI

“Ini Kamoze” is the stage name of Jamaican reggae singer Cecil Campbell. His best-known song is “Here Comes the Hotstepper”, released in 1994.

82A Radii neighbors : ULNAE

The ulnae are the stabilizing bones of the human forearm. They act as stationary hinges for the rotating radii. At one end of each ulna is the olecranon: the bony “hook” that forms the point of the elbow.

83A Nota __ : BENE

“Nota bene” is Latin for “note well”, and is abbreviated to “NB”.

84A Ms. Witherspoon’s Peruvian friends in the candy aisle? : REESE’S ANDES PEEPS

“Reese” is not actually actress Witherspoon’s given name. She started out life as Laura Jeanne Witherspoon. “Reese” is her mother’s maiden name.

88A Tool for an ENT : OTOSCOPE

An ear, nose and throat specialist (ENT) uses an otoscope to look into the interior of one’s ears.

96A Pet brand since 1946 : IAMS

Iams dog food was introduced by animal nutritionist Paul Iams. He felt that household pets were suffering somewhat by being fed a diet of table scraps, so he developed dry dog food that he felt was more nutritious and suitable for pet dogs. He founded the Iams company in 1946.

98A Figure skater Alysa : LIU

American figure skater Alysa Liu made history in 2019 at the age of 13 when she became the youngest skater ever to win a U.S. Figure Skating Championship ladies’ title, breaking a record previously held by Tara Lipinski.

99A Landlocked Eur. country : AUS

The name “Austria” is a Latin variant of the German name for the country, “Österreich”. “Österreich” itself means “Eastern borderlands”, a reference to the country’s history as a prefecture of neighboring Bavaria to the west.

111A Corn : MAIZE

“Maize” is another name for “corn”. Even though there is more maize grown in the world than wheat or rice, a relatively small proportion of the total maize crop is consumed directly by humans. That’s because a lot of maize goes to make corn ethanol, animal feed and derivative products like cornstarch and corn syrup. Here in the US, over 40% of the maize produced is used to feed livestock, and about 30% is used to make ethanol.

113A Sin City airport code : LAS

Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), formerly McCarran International Airport, serves Las Vegas, Nevada. The facility is named for former US Senator for Nevada Harry Reid. Passengers can do a little gambling while waiting for their flights. The airport is home to over a thousand slot machines.

120A City near Hueco Tanks : EL PASO

Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site is a high-desert oasis located near El Paso, Texas. The park is named for the area’s natural rock basins that have trapped life-sustaining rainwater for millennia. The Spanish “huecos” translates as “hollows”, a reference to these rock basins (or “tanks”.

124A Woven furniture material : RATTAN

Rattan is the name of a large number of species of palms, all of which look less like trees and more like vines. The woody stems are used for making cane furniture.

Down

4D “Titanic” heroine : ROSE

When James Cameron made his epic movie “Titanic”, released in 1997, it was the most expensive film ever made and cost about $200 million. It was a good investment for the studio as it became the highest-grossing film of all time, bringing in over $1.8 billion. “Titanic” remained the highest-grossing film until 2010, when Cameron eclipsed the prior record with “Avatar”.

5D __ yum: Thai soup : TOM

Tom yum is a delicious spicy soup served in Thai restaurants. It is usually described as “hot and sour”, and I love it …

6D Peace activist Yoko : ONO

Artist Yoko Ono operates the website ImaginePeace.com. I checked it out once and found these two lovely quotes:

• Imagine all the people living life in peace … John Lennon
• A dream you dream alone is only a dream, a dream you dream together is reality … Yoko Ono

8D Gaelic language : ERSE

There are three Erse languages: Irish, Manx (spoken on the Isle of Man) and Scots Gaelic. In their own tongues, these would be “Gaeilge” (in Ireland), “Gaelg” (on the Isle of Man) and “Gaidhlig” (in Scotland).

13D Taiwanese tech giant : ASUS

Asus is a Taiwanese manufacturer of computing and networking hardware. The company name was chosen as the last four letters of “Pegasus”, the winged horse of Greek mythology.

14D Console known as Famicom in Japan : NES

The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was sold in North America from 1985 to 1995. It was the biggest selling gaming console of the era. It was released in Japan as the Family Computer (Famicom).

33D “Dude, are you serious?” : BRUH?

The slang term “Bruh” traces back to 19th-century African American Vernacular English, long before it became one of the internet’s favorite expressions of disbelief. It is a linguistic descendant of “brother”.

37D Dev of “Monkey Man” : PATEL

Dev Patel is an actor from Harrow in England who is perhaps best known for playing the lead in the hit movie “Slumdog Millionaire”. He also stars in a lovely 2012 film called “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” alongside an incredible cast that included Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith and Tom Wilkinson. Patel also had a regular role in the marvelous HBO drama series called “The Newsroom”.

2024’s “Monkey Man” is an action-thriller movie that has Dev Patel’s name all over it. He co-wrote the screenplay, played the lead, and made his directorial debut. Jordan Peele played an important role as well. He got an early screening and decided to co-produce, and was able to promote “Monkey Man” from being a streaming movie to ensuring it a theatrical run.

39D “Tarzan” actor Ron : ELY

Ron Ely is most famous for playing the title role in the “Tarzan” TV series in the sixties. Years later, Ely hosted the 1980 and 1981 “Miss America” pageants right after longtime host Bert Parks retired, before the job was taken over by Gary Collins. And Ely is a successful mystery novelist. He wrote “Night Shadows” and “East Beach” in the mid-nineties, both of which featured his private eye Jake Sands.

40D Cartoon quartet named for Renaissance artists, for short : TMNT

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) started out as a parody of comic book superheroes, first appearing in a self-published comic book in 1984. A couple of years later the characters were picked up by someone who built a whole line of toys around the characters, and then television and movies followed. Do you remember the names of all four of the Turtles? Their names were all taken from Renaissance artists:

• Leonardo
• Raphael
• Michelangelo
• Donatello

49D Route that includes a ferry between Wisc. and Mich. : US TEN

US Route 10 is a highway that used to run from Detroit, Michigan to Seattle, Washington. Dating back to 1926, interstates have replaced some of its length, so that now US-10 runs from Bay City, Michigan to West Fargo, North Dakota. There’s a ferry service connecting Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin across Lake Michigan. That ferry service is an officially designated section of US-10.

52D Record-setting pilot Chuck : YEAGER

Chuck Yeager enlisted as a private in the US Army Air Forces in 1941, starting out as an aircraft mechanic. With the onset of the war at the end of the year, Yeager was able to enroll in flight school. In 1943 he was posted overseas, and flew P-51 Mustangs out of the south of England. He was shot down over France in 1944 and escaped to Spain with the aid of the French Resistance. His 11.5 accredited victories includes five downed aircraft in one mission (making him an “ace in a day”), and one of the first air-to-air kills of a jet fighter. Yeager didn’t live too far from here, and a friend of mine had the honor to have breakfast with him a couple of times …

55D Sch. whose mascot is Sammy the Banana Slug : UCSC

Sammy the Banana Slug was officially adopted as the UC Santa Cruz mascot in 1986 following a five-year “slug-fest” between students and the administration. The university chancellor originally lobbied for the “Sea Lions”, but students preferred the yellow gastropod for its non-competitive, counter-culture vibe.

63D Mann of alt-rock : AIMEE

Aimee Mann is a rock singer and guitarist from Virginia. Mann is married to Michael Penn, the brother of actor Sean Penn.

65D Like half of Indonesia’s flag : RED

The Indonesian flag is a relatively simple horizontal split of red and white, a design that traces back to the banner of 13th-century Majapahit Empire. It is almost identical to the flag of Monaco, with the two distinguished only by their proportions: Indonesia’s flag is a standard 2:3 rectangle, whereas Monaco’s is a shorter 4:5.

68D One performing puja : HINDU

Puja is a central devotional ritual in Hinduism, serving as a way to connect with and honor deities. It involves making offerings such as flowers, incense, food, and water, accompanied by the chanting of mantras and prayers.

69D American statesman Henry __ Lodge : CABOT

Henry Cabot Lodge was a Republican senator from Massachusetts. Lodge famously went up against President Woodrow Wilson demanding congressional control over the declaration of war. As a result, the US never ratified the Treaty of Versailles that ended WWI, and never joined the League of Nations.

75D Staff figures : CLEFS

“Clef” is the French word for “key”. In music, a clef is used to indicate the pitch of the notes written on a stave. The bass clef is also known as the F-clef, the alto clef is the C-clef, and the treble clef is the G-clef.

76D Fed. power dept. : ENER

The US Department of Energy (DOE) came into being largely as a result of the 1973 oil crisis. The DOE was founded in 1977 by the Carter administration. It is responsible for regulating the production of nuclear power, and it is also responsible for the nation’s nuclear weapons. The official DOE seal features a lightning bolt and symbols denoting five sources of energy: the sun, an atom, an oil derrick, a windmill and a dynamo.

77D __ cabbage : NAPA

Napa cabbage is a Chinese cabbage that turns up a lot in the cuisine of East Asia. The “napa” name comes from the Japanese “nappa”, which describes the leaves of any vegetable when used as food.

84D Smart TV option : ROKU

Roku is a manufacturer of digital media players and distributor of streaming services. The company was founded in Los Gatos, California in 2002 by Anthony Wood. He chose the name “Roku” as it is the Japanese word for “six”, and Roku was the sixth company that Wood founded.

86D DOJ bureau : ATF

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) today is part of the Department of Justice (DOJ). The ATF has its roots in the Department of Treasury dating back to 1886, and at one time was known as the Bureau of Prohibition. “Explosives” was added to the ATF’s name when the bureau was moved under the Department of Justice (DOJ) as part of the reorganization called for in the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

87D Lisa Loeb hit single : STAY

Singer Lisa Loeb was discovered by actor Ethan Hawke, who lived just across the street from her in New York City. Hawke took a demo of her song “Stay (I Missed You)” and gave it to director Ben Stiller, who in turn used it over the ending credits of his 1994 movie “Reality Bites”. The movie was a hit, the song went to number one, and Loeb became the first artist ever to hit that number one spot without having signed up with a record label. Good for her!

89D Intuit Dome player : CLIPPER

The Los Angeles Clippers NBA team started off life as the Buffalo Braves in 1970. The Braves took on the Clippers name when the franchise moved to San Diego in 1978. The new team name was chosen in honor of the great clipper ships that used to pass through San Diego Bay. The San Diego Clippers were sold in 1982 to real estate developer Donald Sterling, who moved the team to his native Los Angeles two years later. That move was not approved by the NBA, which resulted in a lawsuit and a $6 million fine, but the team was allowed to stay in its new home.

94D Doozy : LULU

We call a remarkable thing or a person a lulu. The term “lulu” was coined in honor of Lulu Hurst, the Georgia Wonder, who was a stage magician active in the 1880s.

A doozy is something extraordinary or bizarre. The exact origins of the word “doozy” aren’t clear, but it might be a derivative of the name Eleanora Duse, an Italian actress popular early in the 20th century. Some say that the term comes from the Duesenberg brand of automobile, which was indeed referred to as a “duesy”. However, the use of “doozy” in print occurs before the Duesenberg hit the market.

95D Chemical cousin : ISOMER

In the world of chemistry, isomers are two compounds with the same chemical formula (i.e. the same atomic constituents), but with a slightly different arrangement of the atoms relative to each other. The differing arrangement of atoms often leads to different chemical properties.

101D Pilfer : FILCH

“Filch” is a slang word meaning “steal”. One suggestion is that the term derives from the German “filzen” meaning “comb through”.

102D Bright blue hue : AZURE

The term “azure” came into English from Persian via Old French. The French word “l’azur” was taken from the Persian name for a place in northeastern Afghanistan called “Lazhward” which was the main source of the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. The stone has a vivid blue color, and “azure” has been describing this color since the 14th century.

103D Picture puzzle : REBUS

A rebus is a puzzle that uses pictures to represent letters and groups of letters. For example, a picture of a “ewe” might represent the letter “U” or the pronoun “you”, a picture of an “oar” might represent the letter “R” or the conjunction “or”, and a picture of an “awl” might represent the word “all”.

107D Sister of Asteria in Greek mythology : LETO

In Greek mythology, the goddess Leto and her sister Asteria are daughters of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe. Leto’s twin children Apollo and Artemis were fathered by Zeus, the king of the gods.

108D Pt. of EMT : EMER

Emergency medical technician (EMT)

109D St. with a panhandle : OKLA

Panhandles feature in nine US states:

1. Alaska
2. Connecticut
3. Florida
4. Idaho
5. Maryland
6. Nebraska
7. Oklahoma
8. Texas
9. West Virginia

110D Mo. in a Green Day title : SEPT

“Wake Me Up When September Ends” is a 2005 release by the rock band Green Day. It was written by Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong as a tribute to his father, who passed away in September 1982 when Armstrong was only ten years old.

112D Vegas team : ACES

The Las Vegas Aces women’s basketball team was formed in Salt Lake City in 1997 as the Utah Starzz. The team became the San Antonio (Silver) Stars in 2002, before moving to Las Vegas as the Aces in 2018.

115D Issa of “American Fiction” : RAE

“American Fiction” is a 2023 comedy-drama movie based on a 2001 novel by Percival Everett titled “Erasure”. Jeffrey Wright plays a black writer whose publishers reject his latest story as not being “black enough”. The writer reacts to his lack of success by submitting a satirical novel that panders to black stereotypes. To his surprise, and dismay, the book is a great success.

116D Screening org. : TSA

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the agency that employs the good folks who check passengers and baggage at airports.

117D Silent film star Chaney : LON

Lon Chaney, Sr. played a lot of crazed-looking characters in the days of silent movies. He did much of his own make-up work, developing the grotesque appearances that became his trademark, and earning himself the nickname “the man of a thousand faces”. Most famous were his portrayals of the title characters in the films “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1923) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925).