Day: June 3, 2024

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Constructed by: Renee Thomason & Zhouqin Burnikel
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Unshapely

Themed answers sound like shaped objects, but aren’t shaped objects:

• 18A What sounds like a disk, but isn’t a disk? : FACT-CHECKER
• 28A What sounds like a cube, but isn’t a cube? : WRITER’S BLOCK
• 49A What sounds like a circle, but isn’t a circle? : FAMILIAR RING
• 63A What sounds like a sphere, but isn’t a sphere? : CHARITY BALL

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

Bill’s time: 5m 32s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 Language of Southeast Asia’s only landlocked country : LAO

Lao, the language of Laos, does not use spaces between words (or periods!), although this is apparently changing. Spaces are used between sentences and clauses.

15 HS class for aspiring premeds, perhaps : AP BIO

Advanced Placement (AP)

17 Bing’s web portal : MSN

Bing is the search engine from Microsoft. “Bing” is the latest name for an engine that Microsoft used to call Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search.

18 What sounds like a disk, but isn’t a disk? : FACT-CHECKER

“Checkers” is yet another word that I had to learn moving across the Atlantic. In Ireland, the game is called “draughts”.

23 Frito-__ snacks : LAY

The manufacturers of Frito and Lay potato chips merged to form Frito-Lay in 1961. Frito-Lay then merged with Pepsi-Cola in 1965 to form PepsiCo.

43 England’s largest all-boys boarding school : ETON

The world-famous Eton College is just a brisk walk from Windsor Castle, which itself is just outside London. Eton is noted for producing many British leaders, including prime ministers David Cameron and Boris Johnson. The list of Old Etonians also includes Princes William and Harry, the Duke of Wellington and George Orwell. Author Ian Fleming was also an Eton alumnus, as was Fleming’s iconic character James Bond, although 007 was expelled by the school.

46 Uterus : WOMB

“Uterus” (plural “uteri”) is the Latin word for “womb”.

48 Barnyard baby sound : MAA!

“Maa” is the call of a goat.

53 Unhelpful RSVPs : MAYBES

“RSVP” stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “answer, please”.

55 Flatbread served with chana masala : NAAN

Chana masala is a chickpea curry from Indian cuisine.

“Masala” is a Hindi word meaning “spice mixture”. A dish named “masala” uses the spices incorporated into a sauce that includes garlic, ginger, onions and chili paste. Who doesn’t love Indian cuisine? Yum …

56 Louisville Slugger product : BAT

Louisville Slugger is a brand of baseball bat manufactured by the Hillerich & Bradsby Company in Louisville, Kentucky. The famous bat is made of Northern White Ash grown on the New York/Pennsylvania border. These ash forests used by the company are threatened by the emerald ash borer which is moving closer and closer every year. There are already plans in place to replace the traditional wood used in the bat as the assumption is that the source of ash will succumb to infestation.

63 What sounds like a sphere, but isn’t a sphere? : CHARITY BALL

A “ball” is a formal dance. The term derives from the Latin “ballare” meaning “to dance”, a word that also gives us “ballet”.

67 Diamond unit : CARAT

The carat is a unit of mass equal to 200 mg (0.2 grams). It is used in sizing gemstones.

68 Republic in the Himalayas : NEPAL

Nepal lies to the northeast of India. Today, the state is known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. In 2008, the Communist Party of Nepal won the country’s general election. Soon after, the Assembly voted to change the form of government, moving away from a monarchy and creating a secular republic.

69 Duck sauce for egg rolls, e.g. : DIP

Duck sauce is sweet and sour sauce served at Chinese restaurants in North America. It is orange in color, and sometimes referred to as “orange sauce”, a reference to the color and not an ingredient. The name “duck sauce” is probably a reference to a related sweet bean sauce that is served in China with Peking duck.

Down

1 Shade trees on the National Mall : ELMS

The National Mall is a park in downtown Washington, D.C. It is home to several museums that are part of the Smithsonian, as well as the National Gallery of Art.

4 Fundraisers with tickets : RAFFLES

A raffle is a game of chance in which the prize can be won by numerous people who buy into the draw. Back in the 14th century, in Old French, a “rafle” was a dice game.

5 Clean energy org. : EPA

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was set up during the Nixon administration and began operation at the end of 1970.

10 Fond du __, Wisconsin : LAC

“Fond du lac” is French and translates as “bottom of the lake”. It is an apt name for the Wisconsin city of Fond du Lac, located at the foot of Lake Winnebago. If you like to play the lottery, you might want to stop off in Fond du Lac as there is a stretch of South Main Street called “Miracle Mile”. Back in 1993, someone bought a ticket there and won $100 million. Then in 2006, another store sold a ticket that won $209 million. These things always come in threes, so buy your tickets now …

13 Parliament conservative : TORY

“Tory” comes from the Irish word “tóraí” meaning “outlaw, robber”. The term “tory” was originally used for an Irish outlaw and later became a term of abuse for Irish rebels. At the end of the reign of King Charles II in Britain, there was a political divide with one side being called “Whigs” and the other “Tories”. Historically, the term “Tory” evolved to basically mean a supporter of the British monarchy, and indeed was used to describe those who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution. Today, “Tory” is used for a member of the British Conservative Party.

27 Trademark in an arcade game name : SKEE

Skee-Ball is the arcade game in which you roll balls up a ramp trying to “bounce” it into rings for varying numbers of points. The game was first introduced in Philadelphia, in 1909.

42 Saudi Arabia neighbor : OMAN

The Arabian Peninsula is shaped like a boot, with the Sultanate of Oman occupying the toe of that boot.

45 Cottontails : RABBITS

Cottontail are rabbits that are native to the Americas. They are very prolific breeders, but they need to be. Very few young cottontails survive to maturity as they are prey to almost every animal that is larger in size or moves more quickly, including snakes and birds of prey. Their stubby white tail gives the name “cottontail”.

47 Alphabet read with the fingers : BRAILLE

The Braille system of reading and writing was devised in 1825 by Louis Braille, who was himself afflicted with blindness. Braille characters are composed of six positions or dots, each arranged in two columns of three dots each. Every dot can be raised or not raised, given a total of 64 possible characters.

53 Taj __ : MAHAL

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India is a magnificent marble mausoleum. It was built in the mid-17th century by the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to her 14th child in 1631. When Shah Jahan himself died in 1666, he was buried in the Taj Mahal, alongside his wife.

54 Pong Quest maker : ATARI

Pong Quest is a video game released by Atari in 2020. It is based on the classic paddle tennis game that Atari brought out in the 1970s, but is way, way more sophisticated than its predecessor.

58 Lyft rival : UBER

The basic service offered by ride-hailing company Uber is known as UberX. The service provides a private ride for up to four passengers in a standard car. UberXL provides a minivan or SUV with room for up to 6 passengers.

59 Spanish appetizer : TAPA

“Tapa” is the Spanish word for “lid”. There is no clear rationale for why this word came to be used for an appetizer. There are lots of explanations cited, all of which seem to involve the temporary covering of one’s glass of wine with a plate or item of food to either preserve the wine or give one extra space at the table.

62 Dreidels, e.g. : TOPS

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.

65 Long. crosser : LAT

Lines of latitude are imaginary horizontal lines surrounding the planet. The most “important” lines of latitude are, from north to south:

• Arctic Circle
• Tropic of Cancer
• Equator
• Tropic of Capricorn
• Antarctic Circle

Lines of longitude are imaginary lines that run from pole to pole. The distance between lines of longitude decreases as you move away from the equator. At the equator, the distance between lines of longitude is about 69 miles. At 60 degrees north or south, the distance is 35 miles. At the poles, the lines of longitude converge to a single point.