Day: March 19, 2025

Advertisement

Constructed by: Tara Holland
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Holy Moly!

Themed answers all match the same clue, namely “MOLE”:

• 17A Mole: BEAUTY MARK
• 23A Mole: SLEEPER AGENT
• 37A Mole: UNIT OF SUBSTANCE
• 48A Mole: MEXICAN SAUCE
• 59A Mole: GARDEN PEST

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

Bill’s time: 6m 06s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Maker of the first graphing calculator: CASIO

Casio is a Japanese manufacturer of mainly electronic products, including calculators, watches and electronic keyboards. It was Casio that produced the first portable and compact all-electric calculator, way back in 1957.

14 Acrylic fiber: ORLON

Orlon is the brand name used by the DuPont Corporation for the acrylic fibers the company developed in 1941.

15 Blistex targets: LIPS

Blistex is a company that was founded in 1947 to produce and market lip care products. The company possibly put its foot in its mouth in 2001, when it purchased the Odor-Eaters product line …

16 Goddess born to the Titans Coeus and Phoebe: 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.

17 Mole: BEAUTY MARK

A mole is a dark spot on the skin that is sometimes called a beauty spot, if it is located on the face. The term “mole” comes from the Old English word “mal”, which describes a mark or blemish on a piece of cloth.

23 Mole: SLEEPER AGENT

A mole is a spy who works from within the ranks of an enemy’s government of intelligence service. The use of “mole” took off after the publication of John Le Carré’s 1974 novel “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”. The author was himself a former intelligence officer and asserts that “mole” was a term used by the KGB, whereas Western agencies used the term “sleeper agent”.

29 Ornamental pond fish: KOI

Koi are fish that are also known as Japanese carp. Koi have been bred for decorative purposes and there are now some very brightly colored examples found in Japanese water gardens.

35 Pines, e.g.: CONIFERS

There are many species of pine tree (well over 100). The smallest is probably the Siberian dwarf pine, which usually grows to less than 10-feet tall. The tallest is the ponderosa pine, which regularly grows to over 200-feet tall.

37 Mole: UNIT OF SUBSTANCE

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).

44 Not exactly talkative: MUM

The phrase “mum’s the word” has been around since the early 1700s. “Mum” has been used to mean “silent” for centuries, the idea being that “mum” is the sound made when the lips are tightly sealed.

48 Mole: MEXICAN SAUCE

Mole sauce, from Mexican cuisine, comes in various guises. “Mole negro” includes everyone’s favorite ingredient, namely chocolate.

56 Palo __, California: ALTO

The city of Palo Alto, California takes its name from a specific redwood tree called El Palo Alto (Spanish for “the tall stick”) that is located within the bounds of the city. The tree is 110 feet tall and over a thousand years old.

58 North __ Sea: Central Asian lake: ARAL

The former Soviet Union decided to divert the two rivers feeding the Aral Sea in order to irrigate food and cotton crops. Once the fourth largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea began to shrink dramatically in the 1960s due to the loss of water. Today, the Aral Sea is no more. Instead, there are two relatively small bodies of water labeled as the North Aral Sea and the South Aral Sea.

59 Mole: GARDEN PEST

One of the more commonly known facts about my native Ireland is that there are no snakes in the country (outside of politics, that is). A lesser known fact is that there are no moles either. There are plenty of snakes and moles in Britain, just a few miles away. Over a pint, we tend to give the credit to Saint Patrick, but the last ice age is more likely the responsible party …

62 Demolish: RAZE

To raze (“rase”, in British English) is to level to the ground. I’ve always thought it a little quirky that “raise”, a homophone of “raze”, means “build up”.

64 Soeur de la mère: TANTE

In French, “la tante” (the aunt) is “la soeur de la mère” (the sister of the mother).

66 Once in a blue __: MOON

As there is a full moon once every four weeks, approximately monthly, there are usually twelve full moons in any given year. However, every 2-3 years, depending on the phase of the moon at the beginning of the calendar year, there may be a thirteenth full moon. The “extra” full moon is called a “blue” moon, although no one seems to really know why the term “blue” is used, as far as I can tell. Which of the thirteen full moons that is designated as the blue moon varies depending on tradition. My favorite definition is from the Farmer’s Almanac. It states that as each of the seasons normally has three full moons (one for each calendar month), then the season with four full moons is designated as “special”, then the third (and not the fourth) full moon in that “special” season is the blue moon. Complicated, huh?

Down

1 Some hearty salads: COBBS

Ty Cobb’s first cousin, Robert H. Cobb, owned the Brown Derby chain of restaurants. One of his regular customers was the famous Sid Grauman, who ran Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Late one night, Grauman asked for a snack, and Cobb came up with a chopped salad simply made from ingredients he happened to have in the refrigerator. Grauman liked it so much that he continued to request it, and the Cobb salad was born.

6 Big name in glue: ELMER’S

Elsie the Cow is the mascot of the Borden Company. Elsie first appeared at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, introduced to symbolize the perfect dairy product. She is so famous and respected that she has been awarded the degrees of Doctor of Bovinity, Doctor of Human Kindness and Doctor of Ecownomics. Elsie was also given a husband named Elmer the Bull. Elmer eventually moved over to the chemical division of Borden where he gave his name to Elmer’s Glue.

7 Diadem: TIARA

A diadem is a type of crown that is worn as a sign of royalty. The original diadem wasn’t made of metal and was simply an embroidered silk ribbon that was worn by a king as a symbol of his authority.

8 “Fresh Air” airer: NPR

“Fresh Air” is a marvelous radio talk show broadcast on NPR, and hosted by Terry Gross. The first broadcast of the program was made in 1975, with Judy Blank hosting. Terry Gross took over a few months later, and Gross has been presenting and producing the show ever since. I had the privilege of hearing Terry Gross give a talk here in my hometown some years ago. What a fascinating woman she is, full of great stories about her experiences interviewing so many interesting personalities.

13 “Call Me” or “Call Me Maybe”: SONG

“Call Me” is a 1980 song that was recorded by Blondie and written as the theme song for the excellent 1980 film “American Gigolo”. The tune was composed by Giorgio Moroder, and the lyrics were written by Blondie’s lead vocalist Debbie Harry.

“Call Me Maybe” was released as a single in 2011 by Canadian singer-songwriter Carly Rae Jepsen. Jepsen co-wrote the number originally as a folk song, but it was transformed into pop during production.

18 __ Saint Laurent: YVES

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) was an Algerian-born French fashion designer. Saint Laurent started off working as an assistant to Christian Dior at the age of 17. Dior died just four years later, and as a very young man Saint-Laurent was named head of the House of Dior. However, in 1950 Saint Laurent was conscripted into the French Army and ended up in a military hospital after suffering a mental breakdown from the hazing inflicted on him by his fellow soldiers. His treatment included electroshock therapy and administration of sedatives and psychoactive drugs. He was released from hospital, managed to pull his life back together and started his own fashion house. A remarkable story …

29 Lotto game: KENO

The name of the game keno has French or Latin roots, with the French “quine” being a term describing five winning numbers, and the Latin “quini” meaning “five each”. The game originated in China and was introduced into the West by Chinese immigrants who were working on the first Transcontinental Railroad in the 1800s.

30 Middle-earth menaces: ORCS

Middle-earth is the setting for J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” series.

35 Bovine mouthful: CUD

Animals that chew the cud are called ruminants. Ruminants eat vegetable matter but cannot extract any nutritional value from cellulose without the help of microbes in the gut. Ruminants collect roughage in the first part of the alimentary canal, allowing microbes to work on it. The partially digested material (the cud) is regurgitated into the mouth so that the ruminant can chew the food more completely, exposing more surface area for microbes to do their work.

36 Crush alternative: FANTA

The soft drink Fanta has quite an interesting history. As WWII approached, the Coca-Cola plant in Germany had trouble obtaining the ingredients it needed to continue production of the cola beverage, so the plant manager decided to create a new drink from what was available. The new beverage was built around whey (leftover from cheese production) and pomace (left over after juice has been extracted from fruit). The inventor asked his colleagues to use their “imagination” (“Fantasie” in German) and come up with a name for the drink, so they piped up “Fanta!”

The Crush brand of soft drinks was formulated in 1916. The first product was an orange-flavored beverage sold as Ward’s Orange Crush.

38 Early Mesoamerican civilization: OLMEC

The Olmecs were an ancient civilization that lived in the lowlands of south-central Mexico from about 1500 BC to about 400 BC.

39 __ capacitor: “Back to the Future” device: FLUX

In the fun 1985 movie “Back to the Future”, Marty McFly finds himself back in 1955, and is trying to get back to HIS future, 1985. But on the other hand, 1985 is really Marty’s present, before he went back in time. Why does time travel have to be so complicated …?

45 Thoreau work subtitled “Life in the Woods”: WALDEN

Henry David Thoreau is a personal hero of mine. He is best known for his book called “Walden” published in 1854. The book outlines his philosophy of life and details his experiences living in a cabin near Walden Pond just outside Concord, Massachusetts.

48 Marathon units: MILES

The marathon commemorates the legendary messenger-run by Pheidippides from the site of the Battle of Marathon back to Athens, and is run over 26 miles and 385 yards. The first modern Olympic marathon races were run over a distance that approximated the length of the modern-day Marathon-Athens highway, although the actual length of the race varied from games to games. For the 1908 Olympics in London, a course starting at Windsor Castle and ending in front of the Royal Box at White City Stadium was defined. That course was 26 miles and 385 yards, the standard length now used at all Olympic Games. Organizers of subsequent games continued to vary the length of the race, until a decision was made in 1921 to adopt the distance used in London in 1908.

49 __ pants: CARGO

Cargo pants are trousers made out of hard-wearing material and have several large pockets designed to carry tools. They are sometimes referred to as “combat pants”, reflecting the original use by members of the armed forces in the 1930s and 1940s.

51 Isabel Wilkerson book that inspired the Ava DuVernay film “Origin”: CASTE

Journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson was the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism, doing so in 1994. Wilkerson’s father was one of the renowned Tuskegee Airmen who fought during World War II. Her 2020 book “Castes: The Origins of Our Discontents” discusses racism in the US and posits that racial stratification in America is best understood as a caste system, similar to that existing in India and Nazi Germany.

“Origin” is a 2023 film written and directed by Ava Duvernay. It follows the life of Pulitzer-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson as she travels through the US, Germany and India, researching for her 2020 book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents”. In the movie, Wilkerson is portrayed by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

53 “Scars to Your Beautiful” singer Alessia: CARA

Alessia Cara is a Canadian singer and songwriter known for her soulful voice and introspective lyrics. Born Alessia Caracciolo, she first gained attention by posting covers of popular songs on YouTube at the young age of 13. The online exposure helped her build a following and eventually led to a record deal.

59 Peridot, for one: GEM

Olivine is a relatively common mineral, but is rarely found with purity that is sufficient for use as a gemstone. When the olivine is pure enough to be used as a gem, it is called “peridot”. Peridot is always olive green in color, with its color intensity a function of how much iron is in the stone.