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Constructed by: Mark Carlson & Derek Hinsey

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: I Only Have Eyes for You

Themed answers are all common phrases, but with a letter U replaced with a letter I:

• 22A Is unable to wield forks? : CAN’T CARRY A TINE (from “Can’t carry a tune”)
• 30A Knock over the chicken coop, perhaps? : RILE THE ROOST (from “Rule the roost”)
• 47A No time to enjoy pickles? : NEVER A DILL MOMENT (from “Never a dull moment”)
• 66A Task for the “Planet of the Apes” wardrobe department? : CHIMP CHANGE (from “Chump change”)
• 79A Playlist for making soup? : SONGS OF THE SIMMER (from “Songs of the summer”)
• 95A Make dramatic changes in the garden? : BARE ONE’S SOIL (from “Bare one’s soul”)
• 110A Catchy advertisement for a paving company? : CONCRETE JINGLE (from “Concrete jungle”)

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

Bill’s time: 18m 29s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A President between Roosevelt and Wilson : TAFT

William Howard Taft may have been the 27th President of the United States, but his lifelong ambition was to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The future president had served as dean and professor at the Cincinnati Law School. President Taft was able to realize that dream in 1921, eight years after losing his bid for re-election as president. As Chief Justice, this former US President swore in two new presidents: Calvin Coolidge (in 1925) and Herbert Hoover (in 1929). William Howard Taft is also remembered as the most obese president. In the last year of his presidency, he weighed about 340 pounds (he was 5 feet 11 inches tall). Twelve months after leaving the White House, President Taft had dropped 80 pounds and substantially lowered his blood pressure.

10A Reggae kin : SKA

Ska originated in Jamaica in the late fifties and was the precursor to reggae music. No one has a really definitive etymology of the term “ska”, but it is likely to be imitative of a sound.

13A Tree-climbing Australian canine : DINGO

The dingo is a wild dog of Australia. It is thought to have originated from domesticated dogs that were brought to Australia with humans that settled the land centuries ago.

24A Group after Zoomers : ALPHAS

“Generation Alpha” is a term used to describe those born in the years between the mid-2010s and mid-2020s.

33A Songwriter Leonard : COHEN

I’ve never been a big fan of the music of Canadian singer Leonard Cohen (don’t all yell at me at the same time!). That said, his 1984 song “Hallelujah” is superb, and I particularly like the version recorded by Jeff Buckley in 1994. Then again, “Suzanne” is pretty special too. Just ignore me …

37A Raptor’s claw : TALON

“Raptor” is a generic term for a bird of prey, one that has talons to grip its victims.

39A Part of LED : DIODE

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a specialized form of semiconductor that when switched on releases photons (light). LEDs have many applications, from status indicators in consumer electronics to high-efficiency display backlighting. They are also used as replacements for the much less-efficient tungsten light bulbs. I replaced all of my tungsten Xmas lights many years ago and saved a lot on my electricity bill.

40A Cameo shape : OVAL

Cameo is a method of carving, often the carving of a gemstone or a piece of jewelry. The resulting image is in relief (sits proud of the background), whereas an engraved image would be produced by the similar carving method known as intaglio. Nowadays, the term “cameo” is used for any piece of oval-shaped jewelry that contains the image of a head, usually in profile (maybe even a photograph).

47A No time to enjoy pickles? : NEVER A DILL MOMENT

Dill is a herb in the celery family. Dill seeds can be used for flavoring food, as can dill leaves. In this sense, dill “leaves” are sometimes referred to as dill “weed”.

53A Actor Corddry : NATE

Nate Corddry is an actor and comedian who is perhaps best known for playing the manager of the restaurant where Christy works in the sitcom “Mom”. Corddry also played lawyer Adam Branch on the sitcom “Harry’s Law” alongside Kathy Bates. Nate is the younger brother of comedian and actor Rob Corddry, who turned up quite frequently as a correspondent on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”.

57A Dim sum brew : TEA

Dim sum is a Chinese cuisine made up of small portions of various dishes. The tradition of serving dim sum is associated with the serving of tea, when small delicacies were offered to travelers and guests along with tea as a refreshment. The name “dim sum” translates as “touch the heart” implying that dim sum is not a main meal, just a snack “that touches the heart”.

59A Dish prepared in a terrine : PATE

A terrine (also “tureen”) is a cooking dish with a tightly-fitting lid made from glazed earthenware. It is used for cooking in an oven, and for serving soups and stews.

60A Brand name said with a quack : AFLAC

In 1999, Aflac (American Family Life Assurance Company) was huge in the world of insurance but it wasn’t a household name, so a New York advertising agency was given the task of making the Aflac brand more memorable. One of the agency’s art directors, while walking around Central Park one lunchtime, heard a duck quacking and in his mind linked it with “Aflac”, and that duck has been “Aflacking” ever since …

63A Chum, e.g. : BAIT

The word “chum” meaning “fish bait”, is perhaps derived from the Scottish word “chum” meaning food.

65A Fantasy trilogy, initially : LOTR

“Lord of the Rings” (LOTR)

66A Task for the “Planet of the Apes” wardrobe department? : CHIMP CHANGE

We use “chump change” to describe a trivial amount of money. The phrase was coined in the 1950s, and is probably a reference to an amount of money that only a chump or fool would think was adequate.

The “Planet of the Apes” franchise of films is based on a French novel by Pierre Boulle called “La Planète des singes”. The book was published in English as “Monkey Planet”, but was re-released as “Planet of the Apes” when Hollywood had made its choice for a movie title.

69A Jai __ : ALAI

Jai alai is a game that derives from Basque pelota, and is known as “cesta-punta” in the Basque language. The name “jai alai” translates from the original Basque as “merry festival”.

73A Category for the uncategorizable, for short : MISC

Our terms “miscellany” and “miscellaneous” ultimately come from the Latin verb “miscere” meaning “to mix”.

76A Himalayan ethnic group : SHERPA

In the Tibetan language, “Sherpa” means “eastern people” (sher = east, pa = people). Sherpas are an ethnic group from Nepal, but the name is also used for the local guides who assist mountaineers in the Himalayas, and particularly on Mount Everest.

78A Flour for some flatbread : ATTA

Atta is a whole-wheat flour used to make flatbreads in South Asian cuisine, such as chapati and roti. “Atta” is the Hindi or Urdu word for “dough”.

84A Some fish in the anguilliform group : EELS

The taxonomic order Anguilliformes comprises the true eels, ray-finned fish with elongated, snake-like bodies and a lack of pelvic fins. The name of the order comes from the Latin “anguilla”, meaning “eel”.

88A “Maestro” actor Bomer : MATT

Actor Matt Bomer’s first TV acting roles were on the soaps “All My Children” and “Guiding Light”. His breakthrough role was playing con artist Neal Caffrey in the cop show “White Collar”.

“Maestro” is a 2023 biographical film directed by and starring Bradley Cooper as the legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. The film focuses on Bernstein’s decades-long marriage to Costa Rican Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre, portrayed by Carey Mulligan.

89A Old Milwaukee brewer : PABST

Frederick Pabst was a brewer from the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area who had immigrated to the US from Prussia with his parents. Pabst bought himself into his father-in-law’s small brewery and over the years grew the enterprise into a public company. The most famous beer from Pabst is Pabst Blue Ribbon.

105A Chutney fruit : MANGOS

The delicious mango is the national fruit of India, Pakistan and the Philippines. Almost half of the world’s supply of mangoes comes from India.

Chutney is a typically southern Asian condiment made from spices with vegetables or fruit. The term “chutney” comes from the Sanskrit “caṭnī” meaning “to lick”.

110A Catchy advertisement for a paving company? : CONCRETE JINGLE

The terms “cement”, “mortar” and ”concrete” are related, and tend to get confused at times. Cement is a binder that hardens over time and binds other materials together. Cement mixed with a fine aggregate forms mortar, a workable paste used to bind building blocks together. Cement mixed with sand and gravel forms concrete, a pourable slurry that hardens into an extremely robust building material.

114A Storybook sister : GRETEL

“Hansel and Gretel” is a Germanic fairy tale found in the collection of the Brothers Grimm. It tells of two siblings, Hansel and Gretel, the children of a woodcutter. The youngsters are abandoned in a forest at the behest of an evil stepmother. Clever Hansel hears of the plan and leaves a trail of pebbles so that he and his sister can find their way home, which they do. But the children are abandoned again and this time leave a trail of breadcrumbs. Unfortunately, the crumbs are eaten by birds and so the children do indeed become lost. But eventually they do all live happily ever after …

116A Hall of Famer Rod who was an MLB All-Star for 18 consecutive seasons : CAREW

Rod Carew is a former Major League Baseball player from Panama. Actually, Carew is a “Zonian”, meaning that he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, a political entity that existed for decades from 1903.

118A The Blue Jays, in box scores : TOR

The Toronto Blue Jays baseball franchise was founded in 1977. They are the only team based outside the US to have won a World Series, doing so in 1992 and 1993. And since the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, the Blue Jays are the only Major League Baseball team now headquartered outside of the US.

120A Visby native : SWEDE

Visby is a well-preserved medieval town located on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. It is nicknamed “The City of Ruins”, a reference to the many remnants of ancient churches. Visby was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1995.

Down

1D Hip-hop pioneers Run-__ : DMC

Run-DMC was a hip hop group from Queens, New York. The trio took its name from two of the group’s members: Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels.

3D __ Domini : ANNO

The Latin for “year” is “annus”, which takes the plural “anni”. “Anno” is the ablative or dative case form, translating to “in the year” (as in “Anno Domini”) or “to/for the year”.

4D “Star Wars” bounty hunter who wears Mandalorian armor : FETT

Boba Fett is one of the principal bad guys in the “Star Wars” universe. He appears in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back” and in “Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”. A young version of Boba Fett also appears in “Episode II: Attack of the Clones”.

5D Magnate : TYCOON

Our term “tycoon” meaning powerful business person was originally used by foreigners to describe the shogun of Japan. “Tycoon” is an anglicization of the Japanese “taikun” meaning “great lord or prince”.

8D Leather goods company founded in Massachusetts in 1863 : FRYE

The Frye Company is a manufacturer of leather goods, primarily shoes and boots. Founded in 1863 by John A. Frye, it claims to be the oldest continuously operating shoe company in the US.

11D Actor Watanabe : KEN

Ken Watanabe is an actor from Japan known mainly for his roles in the films “Letters from Iwo Jima” and “The Last Samurai”. My favorite of Watanabe’s movies though, is “Inception”. Great film …

13D National Farm Workers Association co-founder Huerta : DOLORES

Dolores Huerta is a prominent American labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers (UFW) with Cesar Chavez. She is also known for her powerful organizing skills and her famous rallying cry, “Sí, se puede” (“Yes, we can”).

23D Genesis boat : ARK

According to the Bible’s Book of Genesis, Noah was instructed to build his ark 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. That’s about 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.

29D Surrealist Salvador : DALI

Artist Salvador Dalí liked to make a splash in public. He was known to walk an anteater on a lead around Paris. He also brought an anteater on stage to an interview on “The Dick Cavett Show” in 1970.

The cultural movement known as Surrealism emerged in the 1920s, and grew out of the Dada activities that were a response to WWI. The term “surrealist” was coined by Guillaume Apollinaire, when he used it in the preface of his play “Les Mamelles de Tirésias”.

31D Dutch cheese : EDAM

Edam cheese takes its name from the Dutch town of Edam in North Holland. The cheese is famous for its coating of red paraffin wax, a layer of protection that helps Edam travel well and prevents spoiling. You might occasionally come across an Edam cheese that is coated in black wax. The black color indicates that the underlying cheese has been aged for a minimum of 17 weeks.

32D Inhabitants of the highest plateau in the world : TIBETANS

The Tibetan Plateau is the highest and largest plateau on the planet, earning it the nickname “The Roof of the World”. It has also been dubbed “The Third Pole”, as it is home to vast ice fields that represent the largest reserve of fresh water outside of the polar ice caps.

45D Supernatural : PARANORMAL

Something that is paranormal cannot be explained using science.

46D Prospector doll voiced by Kelsey Grammer in “Toy Story 2” : STINKY PETE

Stinky Pete the Prospector is the primary antagonist in Pixar’s 1999 sequel “Toy Story 2”. Voiced by Kelsey Grammer. He is a vintage toy from the fictional 1950s television show “Woody’s Roundup”. Stinky Pete harbors a deep resentment toward children, having spent decades unloved on a dime-store shelf while space toys surged in popularity.

Actor Kelsey Grammer is best known for his two-decade portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane, a character appearing in three different TV series: “Cheers”, “Wings”, and the very successful spin-off “Frasier”. This run tied the record for the longest time an actor played a single live-action character on primetime television at 20 consecutive years (a record previously held by James Arness and Milburn Stone of “Gunsmoke”, and since broken by Mariska Hargitay and Rchard Belzer of “Law & Order: SVU”).

50D Ralph of “Cobra Kai” : MACCHIO

Actor Ralph Macchio’s big break came when he was cast as the underdog martial artist Daniel LaRusso in the 1984 film “The Karate Kid”. Macchio was actually twenty-two years old when he played the bullied high-schooler, making him a full five years older than William Zabka, who played his teenage tormentor Johnny Lawrence. Macchio studied karate in real life, and earned his black belt in 2025, 41 years after appearing in “The Karate Kid”.

52D Name on four British art galleries : TATE

The museum known as “the Tate” comprises four separate galleries in England. The original Tate gallery was founded by Sir Henry Tate as the National Gallery of British Art. It is located on Millbank in London, on the site of the old Millbank Prison, and is now called Tate Britain. There is also the Tate Liverpool in the north of England that is located in an old warehouse, and the Tate St. Ives in the west country located in an old gas works. My favorite of the Tate galleries is the Tate Modern which lies on the banks of the Thames in London. It’s a beautiful building, a converted power station that you have to see to believe. As of 2018, the Tate Modern was the most visited art museum in the UK.

62D Texter’s “I’ll wait to hear from you” : LMK

In textspeak, LMK stands for “let me know”.

72D Letter after upsilon : PHI

Phi is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet.

80D Fathoms : GETS

To fathom something is to comprehend it, to get to the bottom of something. The verb comes from the noun “fathom”, the unit used in measuring the distance between the surface and “the bottom” of a body of water.

82D Oregano, for one : HERB

Oregano is a perennial herb that is in the mint family. Also known as wild marjoram, oregano is very much associated with the cuisine of southern Italy. Oregano’s popularity surged in the US when soldiers returning from WWII in Europe brought with them an affinity for what they called “the pizza herb”.

83D Legal right of way : EASEMENT

In the world of law, an “easement” is the right given to an individual to make limited use of someone else’s real property. Usually this is a right of way allowing someone to cross the property.

90D Cherub or seraph : ANGEL

A cherub (plural “cherubim”) is an angel. The term “cherub” ultimately comes from the Hebrew “kerubh” (plural “kerubhim”) meaning “winged angel”. In the Jewish tradition, cherubim play a key role in protecting the Garden of Eden, and in particular the Tree of Life.

A seraph is a celestial being found in Hebrew and Christian writings. The word “seraph” (plural “seraphim”) literally translates as “burning one”. Seraphs are the highest-ranking angels in the Christian tradition, and the fifth-ranking of ten in the Jewish tradition.

91D “Lemonade” star, familiarly : BEY

Beyoncé Knowles established herself in the entertainment industry as the lead singer with the R&B group Destiny’s Child. She launched her solo singing career in 2002, after making her first appearance as an actor. In 2006 she played the lead in the very successful movie adaptation of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls”. Beyoncé is married to rap star Jay-Z. She is also referred to affectionately as “Queen Bey”, a play on the phrase “the queen bee”. Her fan base goes by the name “Beyhive”.

“Lemonade” is a 2016 studio album released by Beyoncé. The album goes hand-in-hand with a 65-minute film “Beyoncé: Lemonade”, which I suppose might be considered an extended music video …

96D Best Picture Oscar winner starring Mikey Madison : ANORA

The 2024 movie “Anora” is about a young stripper from Brooklyn who impulsively marries the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. The marriage is short-lived, as the groom’s parents send henchmen to find the couple and force an annulment. The film follows the aftermath as the stripper ends the marriage, leaving her in an emotionally vulnerable and uncertain state. The entire film was shot in 37 days, with one 25-minute sequence taking up 10 of those days. The sequence was a particularly demanding and disturbing home invasion scene.

One of Mikey Madison’s first roles was as the eldest daughter in the comedy-drama show “Better Things”, which ran for five seasons from 2016 to 2022. She really hit the big time with her performance as the title character in the 2024 film “Anora”, for which she won that season’s Best Actress Oscar. Personally, I admire her for her attitude towards social media. Apparently, she neither contributes nor reads posts on any social media platform.

101D Blues guitarist __ Mahal : TAJ

“Taj Mahal” is the stage name of blues musician Henry Fredericks. Fredericks says that his stage name came to him in a dream about Gandhi and India, and social tolerance.

104D “The Idol” actress Lily-Rose : DEPP

French-American actress Lily-Rose Depp is the daughter of actors Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp. Lily-Rose’s godfather is rock musician Marilyn Manson.

“The Idol” is a drama TV show that aired for just one season in 2023. It stars Lily-Rose Depp in the title role, a pop idol trying to reclaim her reputation as a sexy pop star after she suffers a nervous breakdown. This one wasn’t received well, not well at all …

112D East Asian principle : TAO

The “Tao Te Ching” is an ancient Chinese text consisting of 81 brief, poetic chapters that outline the core tenets of Taoism. According to the text, The Tao (translating from Old Chinese as “The Way”) represents the fundamental, underlying principle of the universe that defies precise verbal definition. It emphasizes the importance of “wu wei”, or “effortless action”, where an individual aligns their life with the natural world’s rhythm.

113D Manchego source : EWE

Manchego is a cheese made from sheep’s milk that comes from La Mancha in Spain. The term “Manchego” is used to describe things related to La Mancha.