Day: March 28, 2025

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Constructed by: Katherine Simonson
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Easy Puzzle

Themed clues are common phrases starting with a letter E, but that E is reinterpreted as “e-”, meaning “electronic”:

• 16A Headquarters for a simulated space launch? : E-MISSION CONTROL
• 29A Recognition for top cyber snoops? : E-SPY AWARDS
• 47A Group of online church leaders? : E-RECTOR SET
• 62A Co-branding by web-based sellers? : E-MERGING MARKETS

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

Bill’s time: 7m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Legato symbol on a score : SLUR

In the world of music, a slur is a curved line that connects neighboring notes that are to be played smoothly, without separation.

Staccato (stac.) is a musical direction signifying that notes should be played in a disconnected form. The opposite of staccato would be legato, indicating long and continuous notes played very smoothly.

15 Fermented Japanese condiment : TAMARI

Tamari is a variety of soy sauce that is made without wheat, and so is often used by those on a gluten-free diet.

16 Headquarters for a simulated space launch? : E-MISSION CONTROL

NASA’s famous Mission Control is located in the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. NASA’s Launch Control Center is located at the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. Responsibility for controlling the spacecraft resides with the Launch Control Center until the vehicle clears the launch tower, at which time control is passed over to Mission Control.

19 Spunk : MOXIE

Back as far as 1876, Moxie was a brand name of a “medicine” peddled with the claim that it “built up your nerve”. In 1924, “Moxie” was registered as a trademark for a bitter, non-alcoholic beverage (no more claims of nerve-building). We’ve used the term “moxie” to mean “nerve” ever since …

We’ve been using the word “spunk” to mean “pluck, courage” since the late 1700s. Prior to that, it was a Scottish word meaning “spark” that we had absorbed into English.

26 One of Padmé and Anakin’s twins : LUKE

In the “Star Wars” universe, Padmé Amidala is the Queen of the planet Naboo. Played very ably by Natalie Portman, Padmé becomes the secret wife of Anakin Skywalker, later revealed to be Darth Vader. As such, Padmé is also the mother of Luke Skywalker and his sister, Princess Leia Organa.

29 Recognition for top cyber snoops? : E-SPY AWARDS

The ESPY Awards are a creation of the ESPN sports television network. One difference with similarly named awards in the entertainment industry is that ESPY winners are chosen solely based on viewer votes. The acronym “ESPY” stands for “Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly”.

34 Mil. branch : USN

The origins of the US Navy lie in the Continental Navy that was established during the American Revolution as the navy of the Thirteen Colonies. After the end of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Navy was dissolved. The first ships of the US Navy proper were constructed under the Naval Act of 1794, largely in response to the loss of goods and personnel to Barbary pirates from Algiers.

36 Jasper Johns genre : POP ART

Jasper Johns is a contemporary artist from Augusta, Georgia. Johns’ most famous work is called “Flag”, which he created two years after being discharged from the US Army, in 1954. “Flag” is a representation of the “Stars and Stripes” made with paint and a collage of newsprint.

37 Cal State city : CHICO

The city of Chico is located in Northern California in the Sacramento Valley. It was founded in 1860 by John Bidwell, a native New Yorker who arrived in California on one of the first wagon trains heading west. Today, the city is home to California State University, Chico. And, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.

California State University, Chico was established in 1887 as the Northern Branch State Normal School of California. That makes it the second oldest of Cal State’s 23 campuses, after San Jose State University.

47 Group of online church leaders? : E-RECTOR SET

In an ecclesiastical sense, a “rector” is a cleric in charge of a parish or religious institution. In Latin, the word rector means “ruler, director,” coming from “regere”, “to rule.”

Oh how I loved my erector set as a kid. The version we used growing up was referred to as a Meccano set, as “Meccano” was the brand name used for the toy sold as “Mechanics Made Easy”. The original erector set was developed by inventor Alfred Carlton Gilbert, and first produced in 1913. Back then it was sold as “The Erector/Structural Steel and Electro-Mechanical Builder”.

50 __ fresca : AGUA

An agua fresca is a blended drink made with sugar and water flavored with fruit, cereal, flowers or seeds. Traditional aguas frescas are sold by street vendors, especially in Mexico and the American Southwest. Common flavorings are hibiscus and tamarind.

53 Science site : LAB

Our term “laboratory”, often shortened to “lab”, comes from the Medieval Latin word “laboratorium” meaning “place for labor, work”. This in turn comes from the Latin verb “laborare” meaning “to work”.

65 Silky fabric : SATEEN

Sateen is a cotton fabric. It has a weave that is “four over, one under”, meaning that most of the threads come to the surface to give it a softer feel.

68 Some Central Europeans : SLAVS

The Slavic peoples are in the majority in communities covering over half of Europe. This large ethnic group is traditionally broken down into three smaller groups:

• the West Slavic (including Czechs and Poles)
• the East Slavic (including Russians and Ukrainians)
• the South Slavic (including Bulgarians, Croats and Serbs)

69 Dollar : ONE

The dollar sign ($) was first used for the Spanish-American peso, in the late 18th century. The peso was also called the “Spanish dollar” (and “piece of eight”). The Spanish dollar was to become a model for the US dollar that was adopted in 1785, along with the dollar sign.

Down

3 Linux predecessor : UNIX

Unix is a computer operating system that was developed at Bell Labs in 1969. The initial name for the project was Uniplexed Information and Computing Service (Unics), and this evolved over time into “Unix”.

Linux is an open-source operating system, the core of many derivative operating systems. Developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991, inspired by Unix, Linux grew through community collaboration. It now powers everything from servers to Android devices, and is valued for its flexibility and stability.

5 __ alai : JAI

Even though jai alai is often said to be the fastest sport in the world because of the speed of the ball, golf balls usually get going at a greater clip. Although, as a blog reader once pointed out to me, you don’t have to catch a golf ball …

6 Narcissists : EGOTISTS

Narcissus was a proud and vain hunter in Greek mythology. He earned himself a fatal punishment, falling in love with his own reflection in a pool. So, taken was he by his own image that he could not leave it, and wasted away and died by the pool. Narcissus gives us our term “narcissism” meaning “excessive love of oneself”.

7 Collette of “The Power” : TONI

Toni Collette is a marvelous actress from Australia who really started to garner the public’s attention playing the title role in the 1994 film “Muriel’s Wedding”. She went on to take major roles in films like “Emma” (1996), “The Sixth Sense” (1999), “About a Boy” (2002), all of which are favorites of mine. Collette also played the lead in the excellent Showtime comedy-drama “United States of Tara”.

“The Power” is a science fiction series starring Toni Collette, based on Naomi Alderman’s 2016 novel. The show explores a world where teenage girls suddenly develop the ability to generate electrical power, leading to a dramatic shift in the global power dynamic. Collette portrays Margot Cleary-Lopez, the mayor of Seattle, who is faced with the resulting complex political and social upheaval. Notably, production of “The Power” relocated from Georgia after the state enacted a restrictive abortion law.

12 Fine-grained soil : SILT

Today, we mostly think of silt as a deposit of sediment in a river. Back in the mid-1400s, silt was sediment deposited by seawater. It is thought that the word “silt” is related to “salt”, as found in seawater.

18 Fine-grained soil : CLAY

Clay is a naturally-occurring soil material that becomes moldable when wet, and hardens when fired in a kiln. That makes it a ceramic material, the oldest known ceramic used by humans.

25 Taberna dish : TAPA

“Taberna” is Spanish for “tavern”.

26 Ill-gotten gains : LUCRE

Our word “lucre” meaning “money, profits” comes from the Latin “lucrum” that means the same thing.

30 Bog accumulations : PEATS

When dead plant matter accumulates in marshy areas, it may not fully decay due to a lack of oxygen or acidic conditions. We are familiar with this in Ireland, because this decaying matter can form peat, and we have lots and lots of peat bogs around the country.

33 Weasel with a black-tipped tail : STOAT

The stoat has dark brown fur in the summer, and white fur in the winter. Sometimes the term “ermine” is used for the animal during the winter when the fur is white. Ermine skins have long been prized by royalty and are often used for white trim on ceremonial robes.

35 Household expenses : MORTGAGES

Our word “mortgage” comes from the Old French “mort gaige” which translated as “dead pledge”. Such an arrangement was so called because the “pledge” to repay “dies” when the debt is cleared.

38 __-Cola : COCA

The exact formula for Coca-Cola is a trade secret. The secret recipe is locked in a vault. That vault is on public display in the World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta, Georgia.

43 __ Rouge: Paris cabaret : MOULIN

The Moulin Rouge cabaret is located right in the middle of one of the red light districts of Paris, the district of Pigalle. You can’t miss the Moulin Rouge as it has a huge red windmill on its roof (“moulin rouge” is French for “red windmill”). The nightclub opened its doors in 1889 and soon after, the working girls of the cabaret adopted a “respectable” party dance and used it to entice their clients. That was the birth of the can-can. Nowadays, the Moulin Rouge is home to a lavish, Las Vegas-style show that costs millions of euros to stage. It features showgirls, dancers and acrobats, a whole host of entertainers in fact. And I am sure the can-can features as well …

48 Picnic spoiler : RAIN

Our term “picnic” comes from the French word that now has the same meaning, namely “pique-nique”. The original “pique-nique” was a fashionable potluck affair, and not necessarily held outdoors.

54 Human rights lawyer Clooney : AMAL

Amal Alamuddin married celebrated Hollywood actor George Clooney in 2014. Alamuddin was born in Beirut, Lebanon and moved with her family to London when she was a toddler. She is a lawyer specializing in international law, with one of her more renowned clients being the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange.

55 Phi __ Kappa : BETA

Phi Beta Kappa was the first collegiate Greek fraternity in the US, founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary. The organization served as a model for future collegiate fraternities and sororities, although in the 19th century Phi Beta Kappa distanced itself from the fraternal focus and transformed into the honor society that it is today, recognizing academic excellence. The initials Phi Beta Kappa stand for “philosophia biou kybernētēs”, which translates into “philosophy is the guide of life”. The symbol of the Phi Beta Kappa Society is a golden key.

57 Waffle maker : EGGO

By definition, a waffle is made from dough or batter cooked between two patterned plates (a waffle iron). Modern-day waffles were preceded in the Middle Ages by communion wafers used in the Christian tradition. Such wafers usually had images of a crucified Jesus imprinted by the iron plates.