Day: March 26, 2023

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Constructed by: Dylan Schiff & Matthew Stock
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Split a Ride

Themed answers each include circled letters that spell out a brand of RIDE (car). Each of those RIDES is SPLIT into two parts by a single letter:

• 23A Snarky response to criticism : WELL, EXCUSE ME! (LEX-US)
• 32A Snack source : VENDING MACHINE (GM-C)
• 41A Store with discounted athletic apparel : UNDER ARMOUR OUTLET (RA-M)
• 64A Oscar night phrase : THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE (OPE-L)
• 74A Festivals with jousts : RENAISSANCE FAIRES (N-ISSAN)
• 96A Cartoon Network show about a boy-genius inventor : DEXTER’S LABORATORY (TE-SLA)
• 105A The whole lot : KIT AND CABOODLE (KI-A)
• 120A “Just wait till I tell Mom!” : YOU ARE SO DEAD! (RE-O)

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

Bill’s time: 17m 52s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “Nonsense!” : BOSH!

Our word “bosh” meaning “nonsense” came into English via a well-defined route. It was first used in the novel “Ayesha, the Maid of Kars” written by J. J. Morier in 1905, and is a Turkish word that literally translates as “empty”.

5 Illinois-Indiana border river : WABASH

The Wabash River is the largest northern tributary of the Ohio River. The Wabash is the state river of Indiana, and forms much of the border between the Indiana and Illinois. The river takes its name from the French “Ouabache”, a word that French traders adopted from a Miami Indian word meaning “it shines white”.

18 Calculus calculation : AREA

Remember doing calculus at school, and all those derivatives and integrals? Well, you probably also remember that an integral calculates the area under a curve (for example), and a derivative calculates the slope of a tangent at a particular point on a curve.

21 Mole, for one : UNIT

The mole (abbreviated to mol.) is a fundamental unit in chemistry. It is an amount unit, and might be compared to a pair and a dozen. It is a specific measure of the number of atoms, or molecules, in a given sample of matter. Technically, one mole is the number of atoms in exactly 12 grams of pure carbon-12. That number is a constant known as Avogadro’s number (6.02214076×10²³).

23 Snarky response to criticism : WELL, EXCUSE ME! (LEX-US)

Lexus is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota. Lexus cars were originally developed as part of a top-secret project within Toyota that was code-named “F1” (Flagship One). The goal was to create a luxury car that could compete with the best in the world.

27 Candies on sticks, informally : LOLLIES

A lollipop is a piece of candy on a stick. The name “lollipop” surfaced in 1908, and was taken from a prominent race horse of the day named Lolly Pop.

28 Like music from “The Twilight Zone” : EERIE

The iconic television series “The Twilight Zone” first aired in 1959 and then ran for 156 episodes before being pulled in 1964. “The Twilight Zone” was revived for four years in the late eighties, and was also spun-off into a movie by Steven Spielberg in 1983.

32 Snack source : VENDING MACHINE (GM-C)

GMC is a division of General Motors (GM) that was established in 1901 and started out as “GMC Truck”.

41 Store with discounted athletic apparel : UNDER ARMOUR OUTLET (RA-M)

Under Armour is a supplier mainly of sports apparel that was founded in 1996 by a 24-year old (Kevin Plank) working out of a basement in Washington, D.C. Plank’s big break came in 1999 when he was asked to outfit cast members in the movies “Any Given Sunday” and “The Replacements”.

Chrysler put ram hood ornaments on all of its Dodge-branded vehicles starting in 1933. When the first line of Dodge trucks and vans were introduced in 1981, they were named “Rams” in honor of that hood ornament.

49 Aesop racer : HARE

“The Tortoise and the Hare” is perhaps the most famous fable attributed to Aesop. The cocky hare takes a nap during a race against the tortoise, and the tortoise sneaks past the finish line for the win while his speedier friend is sleeping.

54 Writer/director Phyllis : NAGY

Phyllis Nagy is perhaps best known for writing and directing the intriguing 2005 film “Mrs. Harris”, and for writing the screenplay for the 2015 film “Carol”.

56 “Written in the Stars” musical : AIDA

“Written in the Stars”, a duet, is one of the most popular songs from the 1998 musical “Aida” (music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice). Elton John and LeAnn Rimes recorded a hit version in 1999. Actually, there are two versions of “Written in the Stars” available as singles, one with John singing the first verse, and one with Rimes singing it.

57 Carpentry tool : RIPSAW

In woodworking, a cut across the grain is known as a cross cut. A cut along the grain is called a rip cut. Most saws are designed to perform the best cross cuts, but there is a special ripsaw that more easily cuts straight lines along the grain.

64 Oscar night phrase : THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE (OPE-L)

Adam Opel founded his company in 1863, first making sewing machines in a cowshed. Commercial success brought new premises and a new product line in 1886, namely penny-farthing bicycles. Adam Opel died in 1895, leaving his two sons with a company that made more penny-farthings and sewing machines than any other company in the world. In 1899 the two sons partnered with a locksmith and started to make cars, but not very successfully. Two years later, the locksmith was dropped in favor of a licensing arrangement with a French car company. By 1914, Opel was the largest manufacturer of automobiles in Germany. My Dad had an Opel in the seventies, a station wagon (we’d say “estate car” in Ireland) called an Opel Kadett.

71 Hudson Riv. tech school : RPI

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is a private school in Troy, New York. The university is named after its founder Stephen Van Rensselaer who set up the school in 1824. The goal of RPI has always been the “application of science to the common purposes of life”, an objective set by the founder. Given that, the name for the school’s sports teams is quite apt: the Engineers.

The Hudson River flows through eastern New York State from Henderson Lake in the Adirondacks to the Port of New York and New Jersey. The river is named for the English explorer Henry Hudson, who navigated the waterway in 1609.

72 The NCAA’s Spartans : MSU

Michigan State University’s sports teams used to be called the Aggies, as the school was founded as the State Agricultural College of Michigan. The team name was changed to the Spartans in 1925, reflecting the school’s shift in focus beyond agriculture-centered education. The school mascot Sparty hit the scene in 1989.

74 Festivals with jousts : RENAISSANCE FAIRES (N-ISSAN)

A Renaissance faire (Ren faire) is an outdoor public event in which many participants recreate historical settings by dressing in costume. Usually held in North America, many such fairs are set during the English Renaissance, and more particularly during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The definition of “Renaissance” is often stretched quite a bit, with fairs also set during the reign of Henry VIII, and maybe even during medieval times.

Nissan is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer that was founded in 1933. Here are a few interesting facts about Nissan:

Nissan Motors was founded in Tokyo in 1911 as Kwaishinsha Motor Car Works. The first car produced was called the DAT, an acronym formed from the family names of the investors Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama and Meitaro Takeuchi. In 1931, the company introduced the Datson line of small cars, with the model name coming from “son of DAT”. “Datson” was changed to “Datsun” two years later. Earlier, in 1928, the company started using the name “Nihon Sangyo”, with “Nissan” used as an abbreviation on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The “Nissan” name was formally adopted in 1934.

81 First name in Indian politics : INDIRA

Indira Gandhi’s father was Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India. Indira herself became prime minister in 1966. She was assassinated in 1984 by two of her own bodyguards as she was walking to meet Peter Ustinov, who was about to interview her for Irish television.

82 “Fall back” interval : HOUR

On the other side of the Atlantic, daylight saving time (DST) is known as “summer time”. The idea behind summer/daylight-savings is to move clocks forward an hour in spring (“spring forward”), and backwards in the fall (“fall back”) so that afternoons have more daylight. Here in the US, DST starts on the second Sunday of March, and ends on the first Sunday of November.

85 Tricky rink move : DEKE

A deke, also known as a dangle, is a technique used to get past an opponent in ice hockey. “Deke” is a colloquial shortening of the word “decoy”.

88 Maker of Two Baroque Pearls nail polish : OPI

Opi (originally “Odontorium Products Inc.”) is a manufacturer of nail polish based in North Hollywood, California. One of Opi’s marketing coups was the introduction of a line of Legally Blonde 2 polishes, which featured in the film.

93 Watch chain : FOB

A fob is attached to an object to make it easier to access. And so, a key fob is a chain attached to a key so that it can be retrieved easily. There are also watch fobs, and the pocket in a vest in which a watch can be placed is called a fob. In fact, the original use of the term “fob” was for a small pocket in which one could carry valuables.

96 Cartoon Network show about a boy-genius inventor : DEXTER’S LABORATORY (TE-SLA)

“Dexter’s Laboratory” is an animated TV show about a boy-genius who has a secret laboratory hidden in his bedroom. The boy’s name is Dexter, and his older sister is Dee Dee. Dee Dee is always ruining Dexter’s experiments by mistake. The series premiered in 1996.

Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 as a manufacturer of electric vehicles based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla is noted for producing the first electric sports car, called the Tesla Roadster. The company followed the sports car with a luxury sedan, the Model S. The Model S was the world’s best selling plug-in electric vehicle of 2015. Tesla Motors shortened its name to Tesla in early 2017.

100 Many a Meccan : ARAB

Mecca is in the Makkah province of Saudi Arabia. It was the birthplace of Muhammad and is the holiest city in Islam. Every year several million Muslims perform the Hajj, a holy pilgrimage to Mecca.

102 Unagi roll protein : EEL

“Unagi” is the Japanese term for” freshwater eel”, and “anago” is the term for “saltwater eel”.

103 Dreidel, for one : TOP

A dreidel is a spinning top with four sides that is often associated with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Each of the four sides on a dreidel bears a letter from the Hebrew alphabet (nun, gimel, hei and shin). The four letters are the initials of the Hebrew phrase “Nes Gadol Hayah Sham” meaning “a great miracle happened there”. According to tradition, children would be taught Torah while hiding in caves away from the Greeks. When Greek soldiers approached, the children would hide their torah scrolls and play with their dreidels instead.

105 The whole lot : KIT AND CABOODLE (KI-A)

In the idiomatic expression “the whole kit and caboodle”, “caboodle” (sometimes spelled “kaboodle”) is an informal term describing a bunch of people, or sometimes “the whole lot”.

Kia Motors is the second-largest manufacturer of cars in South Korea, behind Hyundai (and Hyundai is a part owner in Kia now). Kia was founded in 1944 as a manufacturer of bicycle parts, and did indeed produce Korea’s first domestic bicycle. The company’s original name was Kyungsung Precision Industry, with the Kia name introduced in 1952.

111 Tuna in poke bowls : AHI

Poke is a Native-Hawaiian dish featuring diced raw fish. “Poke” is a Hawaiian word meaning “to slice”.

112 App follower, often : ENTREE

“Entrée” means “entry” in French. An entrée can be something that helps one get “a way in”, an interview for example perhaps helped along by a recommendation letter. In Europe, even in English-speaking countries, the entrée is the name for the “entry” to the meal, the first course. I found the ordering of meals to be very confusing when I first came to America!

113 With 121-Down, seat of California’s Orange County : SANTA … [121D See 113-Across : … ANA]

Santa Ana is the county seat of Orange County, California and takes its name from the Santa Ana River that runs through the city.

114 Spanish expression of shock : DIOS MIO!

“Dios mio!” translates from Spanish as “My God!”

118 Fibbed : TOLD A LIE

To fib is to tell a lie. The verb “to fib” likely comes from “fibble-fable” meaning “nonsense”, with “fibble-fable” coming from “fable”.

120 “Just wait till I tell Mom!” : YOU ARE SO DEAD! (RE-O)

The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale 8 and the REO Flying Cloud.

125 Member of the “Oregon Trail Generation” : XENNIAL

Xennials, often considered to be a “micro-generation”, were born between 1977 and 1983, bridging the gap between Generation X and Millennials. Unlike older generations, they have a strong understanding of pre-Internet life and the value of face-to-face communication. At the same time, they are comfortable with technology and have adapted to the digital world in a way that many older generations have not. Well, that’s what I just read …

127 Poetic partner of Wynken and Blynken : NOD

“Wynken, Blynken and Nod” is a children’s poem written by Eugene Field, first published in 1889. The original title of the work was “Dutch Lullaby”.

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe —
Sailed on a river of crystal light,
Into a sea of dew.
“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we!”
Said Wynken, Blynken, and Nod.

128 Figures shared with CPAs : SSNS

Certified public accountant (CPA)

Down

2 Cold Stone Creamery mix-in : OREO

Cold Stone Creamery is a chain of ice cream parlors based in Scottsdale, Arizona. The chain takes its name from the frozen granite stone on which servers mix in “toppings” or other flavors of ice cream.

3 Hawk : SELL

The verb “to hawk” has a Germanic origin, and comes from the Low German word “hoken” meaning “to peddle”. A hawker is actually slightly different from a peddler by definition, as a hawker is a peddler that uses a horse and cart, or a van nowadays perhaps, to sell his or her wares.

4 Night when Linus waits for the Great Pumpkin : HALLOWEEN

The Great Pumpkin is a figure dreamed up by Linus van Pelt, the character in the comic strip “Peanuts” by Charles M. Schulz. To Linus, the Great Pumpkin is the Halloween equivalent of the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. Famously, Linus said:

There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.

7 Utility bill meas. : BTU

In the world of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), the power of a heating or cooling unit can be measured using the British Thermal Unit (BTU). This dated unit is the amount of energy required to heat a pound of water so that the water’s temperature increases by one degree Fahrenheit.

8 Burro : ASS

Our word “burro”, meaning “donkey”, comes from the Spanish word for the same animal, namely “burrico”.

20 Gilpin of “Frasier” : PERI

Peri Gilpin is an actress best known for playing Roz Doyle on the hit sitcom “Frasier”. “Frasier” was a spinoff of “Cheers”. Gilpin actually made an appearance on “Cheers”, albeit playing a completely different character.

24 Down source : EIDER

Eiders are large sea ducks. Their down feathers are used to fill pillows and quilts, giving the name to the quilt called an “eiderdown”.

26 Actress Arlene : DAHL

Arlene Dahl is an American movie actress who was quite famous during the 1950s. Among her screen credits was playing the female lead in 1959’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, alongside James Mason and Pat Boone. Dahl was one of the first celebrities to write a syndicated beauty column, which focused on skincare, makeup, and fashion.

32 Improvised jazz part : VAMP

To vamp is to improvise musically, usually on a piano. A vamp is often an accompaniment to a solo.

36 Garten of “Barefoot Contessa” : INA

Ina Garten is an author as well as the host of a cooking show on the Food Network called “Barefoot Contessa”. She is a mentee of Martha Stewart, and indeed was touted as a potential “successor” to the TV celebrity when Stewart was incarcerated in 2004 after an insider trading scandal. Garten has no formal training as a chef, and indeed used to work as a nuclear policy analyst at the White House!

37 Video game with a floor mat, for short : DDR

Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is a series of music video games that launched in 1998. DDR is usually found in arcades, as players have to stand on a special dance stage and hit arrows with their feet on cue.

38 Frozen dessert brand : BREYERS

Breyers ice cream was introduced by William A. Breyer in 1866, in Philadelphia. Always known for using all-natural ingredients, Breyers products made in recent years contain more and more food additives in an attempt to cut costs in a competitive market. In fact, most Breyers products can’t even be labeled “ice cream” anymore as they don’t contain enough milk and cream and so are labeled “frozen dairy dessert” instead.

46 Tombstone name : EARP

The famous Earp brothers of the Wild West were Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan. All three brothers participated in what has to be the most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Strangely enough, the fight didn’t happen at the O.K. Corral, but took place six doors down the street in a vacant lot next to a photography studio.

The Arizona town of Tombstone built up around a mine that was owned by one Ed Schieffelin. Schieffelin had been told by US soldiers stationed in the area that the only stone (ore sample) he would find in the area was his tombstone. Regardless, he did file a claim, and it was centered on the grave site of one of his men who had been killed by Apaches. Schieffelin filed papers under the name “the Tombstone claim”.

47 Georgia capital : TBILISI

Tbilisi is the largest city and capital of Georgia, the former Soviet Socialist Republic. The name “Tbilisi” comes from the Georgian word “tbili” meaning “warm.” This is because the city is situated on hot springs, and the warm waters have been used for centuries for medicinal and therapeutic purposes.

58 Kid-lit classic “Caps for __” : SALE

“Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business” is a picture book for children authored by Russian-born American Esphyr Slobodkina. First published in 1940, “Caps for Sale” is popular to this day. Based on a folk story, it tells the story of a man peddling caps who wears all of his inventory on his head. Then, along comes a monkey …

61 Wraparound dress : SARI

The item of clothing called a “sari” (also “saree”) is a strip of cloth, as one might imagine, unusual perhaps in that it is unstitched along the whole of its length. The strip of cloth can range from four to nine meters long (that’s a lot of material!). The sari is usually wrapped around the waist, then draped over the shoulder leaving the midriff bare. I must say, it can be a beautiful item of clothing.

63 Mascara applicator : WAND

Variants of mascara have been around a long time, and certainly there was a similar substance in use in ancient Egypt. “Mascara” is a Spanish word meaning “stain, mask”.

66 Actor Sharif : OMAR

Omar Sharif was a great Hollywood actor from Egypt, someone who played major roles in memorable movies such as “Doctor Zhivago” and “Lawrence of Arabia”. But to me, he was my bridge hero (referring to the card game). In his heyday, Sharif was one of the best bridge players in the world.

67 Tire meas. : PSI

Pounds per square inch (PSI) is a measure of pressure.

68 Ace of Base genre : EUROPOP

Ace of Base is a pop group from Sweden. The band had several names before settling on “Ace of Base”, which was inspired by the Motörhead song “Ace of Spades”.

70 Invoice stamp : PAID

An invoice is an itemized bill. The term comes from the Middle French “envois” meaning “dispatch (of goods)”. The root verb is “envoyer”, which translates as “to send”.

75 Hibachi restaurant potable : SAKE

The traditional hibachi in Japan is a heating device, often a ceramic bowl or box that holds burning charcoal. This native type of hibachi isn’t used for cooking, but rather as a space heater (a brazier). Here in the US we use the term hibachi to refer to a charcoal grill used as a small cooking stove, which in Japanese would be called a “shichirin”. “Hibachi” is Japanese for “fire pot” coming from “hi” meaning “fire”, and “bachi” meaning “bowl, pot”.

79 Gulf States title : EMIR

The Persian Gulf is in effect an inland sea, although it technically is an offshoot of the Indian Ocean. The outlet from the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean is one of the most famous maritime “choke points” in the world, and is known as the Strait of Hormuz. About 20% of the world’s supply of petroleum passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

87 __ toast : MELBA

Melba toast is a dry, thinly sliced toast that is usually served with soup or salad. Melba toast was created by chef Auguste Escoffier for opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, for whom he also created the dessert called peach Melba.

88 Thin wind : OBOE

When you hear an orchestra tuning before a performance, you’ll note (pun!) that the oboe starts off the process by playing an “A”. The rest of the musicians in turn tune to that oboe’s “A”.

90 __ juice : MOO

“Moo juice” is a slang term meaning “milk”.

91 Torah holder : ARK

The Torah ark is found in a synagogue, and is the ornamental container in which the Torah scrolls are stored. The word “Torah” best translates as “teaching” or “law”, I am told.

92 TV’s “Science Guy” : NYE

That would be “Bill Nye the Science Guy”. In addition to his career as a science educator, Nye is also a comedian. He performed stand-up comedy during his early years as an engineer.

93 Color from a bottle : FAKE TAN

The most effective fake tans available today are not dyes or stains. Instead, they are sprays with the active ingredient dihydroxyacetone (DHA). DHA reacts chemically with amino acids in the dead layer of skin on the surface of the body. Sounds a little risky to me …

94 Venezuelan river : ORINOCO

The Orinoco is a major river in South America that flows over 1,320 miles through Venezuela and Colombia, emptying into the Atlantic Ocean.

98 Ga. capital : ATL

The city of Atlanta, Georgia (A-Town) had its beginnings in the late 1830s when the location was chosen as the terminus for a new railroad to be built connecting Georgia with the Midwestern United States. The city’s name was chosen by the Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, apparently after the middle name of the daughter of Governor Wilson Lumpkin: “Atalanta”.

99 “Gesundheit” trigger : ACHOO!

“Gesundheit” is the German word for “health”, and is used in response to a sneeze in Germany, as indeed it is quite often here in the US.

101 Play-ful sort? : BARD

The original bards were storytellers, poets and composers of music in medieval Britain and Ireland, with the term coming from the Old Celtic word “bardos” that described a poet or singer. I guess the most famous bard was William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon.

107 Día __ Muertos : DE LOS

The “Día de Muertos” (also “Dia de los Muertos”, both meaning “Day of the Dead”) is a holiday that originated in Mexico, and is now celebrated around the world. It is traditionally celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, and involves family and friends gathering to remember those who have died. Despite the somber nature, the Day of the Dead usually has a joyful tone, as family remembers the happier events and anecdotes associated with the departed.

108 Part of a mineralogist’s collection : ONYX

Onyx is a form of quartz that comes in many different shades, but most often it’s the black version that’s used for jewelry. The name “onyx” comes from the Greek word for “fingernail”, as onyx in the flesh color is said to resemble a fingernail.

109 Great Plains natives : OTOES

The Great Plains lie between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains in North America. This vast grassland is known as “the Prairies” in Canada.

115 Distracted boyfriend, for one : MEME

“Distracted boyfriend” is an Internet meme featuring a staged photograph taken in 2015 by Spanish photographer Antonio Guillem. The picture was uploaded to stock photography website Shutterstock with the caption “Disloyal man walking with his girlfriend and looking amazed at another seductive girl”, which perfectly describes the image. The meme uses the image as a metaphor for many different situations involving disloyalty and distractions.

116 Food brand with a paw print logo : 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, now part of Procter & Gamble, in 1946.

117 Leslie __ Jr. of “Glass Onion” : ODOM

Leslie Odom Jr. is the actor and singer who originated the role of Aaron Burr in “Hamilton” on Broadway. More recently, he played Dr. Arbuthnot in the 2017 movie adaptation of Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient Express”.

119 Olympic swimmer Thorpe : IAN

Ian Thorpe is a retired competitive swimmer from Australia. Thorpe won five Olympic gold medals, and earned himself the nickname “The Thorpedo”. Analysts have suggested that Thorpe’s success as a swimmer is partially due to his physique. He relies on his legs more than most to get propulsion in the water. And, he has size-17 feet.

122 Umbrella spoke : RIB

Our term “umbrella” ultimately derives from the Latin “umbra” meaning “shade, shadow”.