Day: February 7, 2025

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Constructed by: Kelly Richardson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): State-ments

Themed answers are common phrases, one word of which is reinterpreted as an abbreviation for a US state. Clever …

• 16A Play staged by Boston’s Commonwealth Shakespeare Company? : MASS PRODUCTION (Massachusetts production)
• 23A Demand policy changes from lawmakers in Olympia? : PRESSURE WASH (pressure Washington)
• 53A Digits starting with 908? : JERSEY NUMBER (New Jersey number)
• 62A Fortunes made in Chicago? : ILL-GOTTEN GAINS (Illinois-gotten gains)

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

Bill’s time: 7m 26s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 One of Islam’s five pillars : HAJJ

Followers of the Muslim tradition believe in the Five Pillars of Islam, five obligatory acts that underpin Muslim life. The Five Pillars are:

1. The Islamic creed
2. Daily prayer
3. Almsgiving (Zakat)
4. Fasting during the month of Ramadan
5. The pilgrimage to Mecca (haj, hajj, hadj) once during a lifetime

5 Avocado dip, for short : GUAC

Guacamole is one of my favorite dishes. It is prepared by mashing avocados and perhaps adding the likes of tomato, onion and lime juice. The guacamole recipe dates back as early as the 16th century, to the time of the Aztecs. “Guacamole” translates as “avocado sauce”.

13 Margarine : OLEO

Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France announced a competition to develop a substitute for butter, a substitute that would be more accessible to the lower classes and more practical for the armed forces. A French chemist called Hippolyte Mege-Mouries came up with something he called oleomargarine in 1869, which was eventually manufactured under the trade name “margarine”. The name “oleomargarine” also gives us our generic term “oleo”.

16 Play staged by Boston’s Commonwealth Shakespeare Company? : MASS PRODUCTION (Massachusetts production)

The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC) is a theatre company in Boston known for its free outdoor performances of Shakespeare’s plays. Founded in 1996, CSC stages the productions on the Boston Common each summer.

20 Johnny of “Point Break” : UTAH

“Point Break” is a 1991 film about an FBI agent investigating a series of robberies, with suspicion falling on a group of surfer dudes. Famously, Patrick Swayze plays the leader of the surfers, and Keanu Reeves the rookie FBI agent. A “point break” is a location where waves hit a point of land jutting out from a coastline. The film was remade in 2015 under the same title.

21 Audio jack abbr. : MIC

A jack is a socket that accepts a plug, allowing a connection to some electrical circuit.

23 Demand policy changes from lawmakers in Olympia? : PRESSURE WASH (pressure Washington)

Olympia is the capital of Washington State and is located in the Puget Sound region. The city’s name was chosen in 1852, and is a reference to the view of the Olympic Mountains to the northwest.

29 Vegetable in bamia : OKRA

Bamia is a traditional stew found in several Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines. Characterized by the use of okra as its primary ingredient, bamia features a tomato-based sauce often seasoned with garlic, onions, and a blend of spices such as coriander and cumin. The stew’s texture is notable for the slightly viscous consistency produced by the okra. The name “bamia” translates as “okra”.

30 DOL division : OSHA

The US Department of Labor (DOL) was founded as the Bureau of Labor in 1889 under the Department of the Interior. The Bureau’s status was elevated to Cabinet level by President William Howard Taft in 1913, with a bill he signed on his last day in office. The DOL has been headquartered in the Frances Perkins Building in Washington, D.C. since 1975. The building was named for Frances Perkins who served as Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945 and who was the first female cabinet secretary in US history.

31 “Don’t Bring Me Down” gp. : ELO

“Don’t Bring Me Down” is the biggest hit that the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) had in the US. The song was dedicated to NASA’s Skylab, which reentered the earth’s orbit in 1979, the same year the song was released.

36 Steinem who co-founded Ms. magazine : GLORIA

Gloria Steinem is a journalist whose name is very much associated with the feminist movement of the late sixties and early seventies. Steinem co-founded “Ms.” magazine with fellow-feminist Dorothy Pitman Hughes.

44 Issa of “American Fiction” : RAE

“American Fiction” is a 2023 comedy-drama movie based on a 2023 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.

49 2018 Best New Artist Grammy winner Dua __ : LIPA

Dua Lipa is a singer-songwriter and fashion model from England. She was born in London to Albanian parents, and considers her native language to be Albanian. She also speaks English with a British accent.

51 Sew loosely : BASTE

To baste is to sew loosely, just holding a join in a fabric together temporarily using large running stitches.

53 Digits starting with 908? : JERSEY NUMBER (New Jersey number)

Area codes were introduced in the 1940s. Back then, the “clicks” one heard when dialing a number led to mechanical wear on various pieces of equipment. In order to minimize overall mechanical wear, areas with high call volumes were given the most efficient area codes (lowest number of clicks). That led to New York getting the area code 212, Los Angeles 213 and Chicago 312.

56 __ Lanka : SRI

The island nation of Sri Lanka lies off the southeast coast of India. The name “Sri Lanka” translates from Sanskrit into English as “venerable island”. Before 1970, Sri Lanka was known as Ceylon, a name given to the country during British rule.

57 Little pest : GNAT

Gnats have a relatively short lifespan, of about 7-10 days.

58 Prince Harry’s son : ARCHIE

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan Markle have two children, named Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor. The choice of “Archie” seems to have no significance in the British royal family, whereas “Lilibet” is a nod to Queen Elizabeth II. Elizabeth was known as “Lilibet” by her immediate family.

65 Jelly that may be added to boba tea : ALOE

Bubble tea, sometimes called “boba tea”, is a tea-based drink from Taiwan. The “bubbles” are chewy tapioca balls that are usually added to the drink.

Down

1 Last word of “The Wizard of Oz” : HOME

The last lines of the 1939 film “The Wizard Oz” are spoken by Dorothy:

Oh, but anyway, Toto, we’re home – home! And this is my room – and you’re all here – and I’m not going to leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all! And… oh, Auntie Em, there’s no place like home!

4 Soul and gospel singer Margie : JOSEPH

Margie Joseph is an American soul and gospel singer who rose to prominence in the 1970s with a string of successful singles, including her renditions of “Stop! In the Name of Love” (originally by the Supremes) and “My Love” (originally by Paul McCartney).

5 Grammy winner Eydie : GORME

Eydie Gormé is best known for her work with her husband Steve Lawrence. The duo started performing traditional popular music together in the late fifties. One of the couple’s children is David Nessim Lawrence, a composer who wrote the score for the 2006 movie “High School Musical”.

6 Card game cry : UNO!

UNO is a card game that was developed in the early seventies and that has been sold by Mattel since 1992. It falls into the shedding family of card games, meaning that the goal is to get rid of all your cards while preventing opponents from doing the same.

8 High fashion : COUTURE

“Haute couture”, literally “high dressmaking” in French, is a name given to the creation of exclusive fashions. A couturier is someone who creates or sells such fashions.

10 “Mais __!” : OUI

In French, “oui” translates as “yes”, and “mais oui!” as “but yes!”

12 Coffee pastry : DANISH

The Danish pastry that we know so well over here in the US is indeed a Danish specialty, although the recipe was brought to Denmark by Austrian bakers. A “Danish” is called “Viennese bread” in Denmark.

17 __ meteor: many an August streaker : PERSEID

The two most famous meteor showers are the Perseids and Leonids. The Perseid meteor shower is most visible around August 12th each year, and the Leonid meteor shower is most notable around November 17th. The Perseids appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus, and the Leonids from the constellation Leo (hence the names “Perseids” and “Leonids”).

18 Italian term of affection : CARA MIA

“Cara mia” is Italian for “my beloved” or “my dear”.

26 Cribbage marker : PEG

Cribbage is one of my favorite card games. It always had a certain mystique to me as I was growing up as I’d see folks playing it in local pubs, sitting with cards and the fascinating cribbage board with its pegs as score markers. Apparently, cribbage was invented in the early 1600s by an English poet called John Suckling, who based it on a long-gone game called Noddy. Cribbage is often referred to simply as “crib”, and the name “cribbage” probably comes from this term. The “crib” is a set of cards that features in the game.

35 Glacial calving result : ICEBERG

An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice that is floating freely after having broken away from a glacier or ice shelf. Our use of “iceberg” comes from the Dutch word for the same phenomenon “ijsberg”, which translates literally as “ice mountain”.

37 “I’m Coming Out” singer : ROSS

“I’m Coming Out” is a disco song recorded by Diana Ross in 1980. Although initially intended as a celebratory declaration of Ross’s solo career following her departure from Motown, “I’m Coming Out” has been embraced as an anthem of empowerment and self-acceptance, particularly within the LGBTQ+ community. Ross used the song as an opening number at almost all of her concerts.

39 USDT division : IRS

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury (USDT).

41 Reuben bread : RYE

There are conflicting stories about the origin of the Reuben sandwich. One such story is that it was invented around 1914 by Arnold Reuben, an immigrant from Germany who owned Reuben’s Deli in New York.

43 “Strangers in the Night” crooner : SINATRA

The song “Strangers in the Night” was a huge hit for Frank Sinatra in 1966. Written by Bert Kaempfert, it was originally recorded as an instrument for the film “A Man Could Get Killed” (1966). “Strangers in the Night” became a signature song for Sinatra, even though he apparently hated it!

44 Dodge pickup : RAM

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.

46 Supplies tunes, briefly : DJS

The world’s first radio disc jockey (DJ) was one Ray Newby of Stockton, California who made his debut broadcast in 1909, would you believe? When he was 16 years old and a student, Newby started to play his records on a primitive radio located in the Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless in San Jose. The records played back then were mostly recordings of Enrico Caruso.

48 Kitchen pad : BRILLO

Brillo is a soapy, steel wool pad patented in 1913. The company claims that the name “Brillo” is derived from the Latin word for “bright”.

52 Game point? : ARCADE

Our word “arcade” comes from the Latin “arcus” meaning “arc”. The first arcades were passages made from a series of arches. This could be an avenue of trees, and eventually any covered avenue. I remember arcades lined with shops and stores when I was growing up on the other side of the Atlantic. Arcades came to be lined with lots of amusements, resulting in amusement arcades and video game arcades.

54 Spurred (on) : EGGED

The verb “to edge” has been used to mean to incite, to urge on, from the 16th century. Somewhere along the way “edge” was mistakenly replaced with “egg”, giving us our term “to egg on” meaning “to goad”.

61 Athletic honor : ESPY

The ESPY Awards, also known as the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, were first presented in a ceremony in 1993. They were created by ESPN as a response to the lack of sports coverage during the summer months. ESPN decided to create an awards show to help fill that gap.

63 “The Incredible Hulk” star Ferrigno : LOU

Lou Ferrigno is an American actor and retired professional bodybuilder. He rose to prominence after winning the Mr. America and Mr. Universe titles, and then appearing in the 1977 docudrama “Pumping Iron” (which showcased his bodybuilding rival Arnold Schwarzenegger). Ferrigno is perhaps best known for his portrayal of the Hulk in the television series “The Incredible Hulk” (1978-1982).