Day: April 11, 2025

Advertisement

Constructed by: Zachary Edward-Brown
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: All-In

Themed answers are common phrases, but with “ALL” inserted:

• 53D Bold poker play, and an apt title for this puzzle : ALL-IN

• 18A Performance in which dancers avoid center stage? : SIDE BALLET (“all” in “side bet”)
• 31A Fearlessness shared by characters such as Rocky and Rambo? : HEART OF STALLONE (“all” in “heart of stone”)
• 40A Decide it’s time to harvest oniony bulbs? : CALL THE SHALLOTS (“all” in “call the shots”)
• 58A Vehicle built for Yao Ming and Shaq? : TALL-MOBILE (“all” in “T-Mobile”)

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

Bill’s time: 8m 01s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “Casablanca” role : ILSA

Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund were played by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the 1942 movie “Casablanca”. I love the words of one critic describing the chemistry between Bogart and Bergman in this film: “She paints his face with her eyes”. Wow …

10 Sound from R2-D2 : BEEP

Artoo’s proper name is R2-D2 (also “Artoo-Detoo”). R2-D2 is the smaller of the two famous droids from the “Star Wars” movies. British actor Kenny Baker, who stood just 3 feet 8 inches tall, was the man inside the R2-D2 droid for the first six of the “Star Wars” movies.

15 Insect stage : IMAGO

The imago is an intermediate stage in the development of an insect. All four stages are embryo, larva, pupa and imago.

16 Syllables repeated in Rihanna’s “Umbrella” : EL-LA

“Umbrella” is a 2007 song released by Rihanna as the lead single from the album “Good Girl Gone Bad”. It features rap artist Jay-Z, who also co-wrote the song. The song was a huge hit, and topped charts all over the world. While “Umbrella” was at number-one in the UK, the nation was plagued with unseasonal rain storms and flooding. One British newspaper dubbed the event the “Rihanna Curse”. The “Curse” moved around the planet, with the number-one spot coinciding with storms in New Zealand and Romania.

17 Place for Jazz players to practice : UTAH

The Utah Jazz professional basketball team moved to Salt Lake City in 1979. As one might guess from the name, the team originated in New Orleans, but only played there for five seasons. New Orleans was a tough place to be based because venues were hard to come by, and Mardi Gras forced the team to play on the road for a whole month.

18 Performance in which dancers avoid center stage? : SIDE BALLET (“all” in “side bet”)

Ballet is a type of dance that originated in Italy during the Renaissance. The term “ballet” ultimately derives from the Greek “ballizo” meaning “to dance”.

21 Like supernovas : HOT

A nova (plural “novae”) is basically a star that suddenly gets much brighter, gradually returning to its original state weeks or even years later. The increased brightness of a nova is due to increased nuclear activity causing the star to pick up extra hydrogen from a neighboring celestial body. A supernova is very different from a nova. A supernova is a very bright burst of light and energy created when most of the material in a star explodes. The bright burst of a supernova is very short-lived compared to the sustained brightness of a nova.

22 Some flight destinations : ATTICS

An attic or loft is a room or space located below the roof of a building. The term “attic” is a shortened form of “attic story”, the uppermost story or level of a house. This term “attic story” originally applied to a low, decorative level built on top of the uppermost story behind a building’s decorative facade. This use of decoration at the top of buildings was common in ancient Greece, and was particularly important in the Attica style. That Attica style was so called because it originated in the historical region of Attica that encompassed the city of Athens. And that’s how our attics are linked to ancient Greece.

A landing is the area at the top and bottom of a staircase. Apparently, we call the steps between the landings a “flight” of stairs, because one “flies” between landings! Can that be true?

23 Underwater trap : EELPOT

An eelpot is used to catch eels. Similar to a lobster pot, an eelpot is usually box-shaped with a funnel-like entrance that an eel can swim into, but through which it cannot escape.

29 Holiday melodies : NOELS

“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, and ultimately comes from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). “Noel” has come to be used as an alternative for “Christmas carol”.

31 Fearlessness shared by characters such as Rocky and Rambo? : HEART OF STALLONE (“all” in “heart of stone”)

If ever there was a movie that defined a career breakthrough for an actor, it would have to be “Rocky” for Sylvester Stallone. Stallone was a struggling actor in 1975 when a Muhammad Ali fight inspired Stallone to write a screenplay for a boxing movie, which he did in just three days. His efforts to sell the script went well but for the fact that the interested studios wanted a big name for the lead role, and Stallone was determined to be the star himself. Stallone persevered and “Rocky” was eventually made with him playing the title role of Rocky Balboa. The movie won three Oscars, and “Sly” Stallone had arrived …

“First Blood” was the original of the four “Rambo” films starring Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo, a troubled Vietnam War veteran. I thought “First Blood” was a pretty good film actually, but the sequels were terrible, and way too violent for me. But, action all the way …

38 Flair who was the first wrestler to complete the WCW’s Triple Crown : RIC

Wrestler Ric Flair’s real name is Richard Fliehr. Perhaps following the lead of his compatriot Jesse Ventura, Flair explored the possibility of running for governor of the state of North Carolina.

In professional wrestling, specifically within the now defunct World Championship Wrestling (WCW), the Triple Crown was achieved by winning the promotion’s three top championships:

• The WCW World Heavyweight Championship
• The WCW United States Heavyweight Championship
• The WCW World Tag Team Championship

40 Decide it’s time to harvest oniony bulbs? : CALL THE SHALLOTS (“all” in “call the shots”)

The shallot is a type of onion that is closely related to the garlic, leek and chive. I’m a big fan …

45 WWII craft : E-BOAT

In WWII, the German Navy’s Motor Torpedo Boats were similar to American PT boats and were called S-boots, short for Schnellboot (“fast craft”). The Allied forces referred to them as E-boats, with the “E” possibly standing for “enemy” or “Eilboot” (“hurry boat”).

47 Dockworker’s gp. : ILA

International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA)

50 Part of BPOE : ELKS

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) was founded in 1868, and is a social club that has about a million members today. It started out as a group of men getting together in a “club” in order to get around the legal opening hours of taverns in New York City. The club took on a new role as it started to look out for poor families of members who passed away. The club now accepts African Americans as members (since the seventies) and women (since the nineties), but atheists still aren’t welcome. The list of US presidents that have been members of the BPOE includes Presidents Eisenhower, Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Ford.

58 Vehicle built for Yao Ming and Shaq? : TALL-MOBILE (“all” in “T-Mobile”)

Yao Ming is a retired professional basketball player from Shanghai who played for the Houston Rockets. At 7’6″, Yao was the tallest man playing in the NBA. He has a cute nickname: “the Ming Dynasty”.

Retired basketball player Shaquille O’Neal now appears regularly as an analyst on the NBA TV show “Inside the NBA”. Shaq has quite a career in the entertainment world. His first rap album, called “Shaq Diesel”, went platinum. He also starred in two of his own reality shows: “Shaq’s Big Challenge” and “Shaq Vs.”

T-Mobile is a German telecommunications company, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom has used the “T” prefix for a number of its services, including T-Com, T-Online and T-Home.

62 Biblical twin of Jacob : ESAU

Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, the founder of the Israelites. When their mother Rebekah gave birth to the twins “the first emerged red and hairy all over (Esau), with his heel grasped by the hand of the second to come out (Jacob)”. As Esau was the first born, he was entitled to inherit his father’s wealth (it was his “birthright”). Instead, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for the price of a “mess of pottage” (a meal of lentils).

64 Alien-seeking org. : SETI

“SETI” is the name given to a number of projects searching for extraterrestrial life. The acronym stands for “search for extraterrestrial intelligence”. One of the main SETI activities is the monitoring of electromagnetic radiation (such as radio waves) reaching the Earth in the hope of finding a transmission from a civilization in another world.

66 Les __-Unis : ETATS

“Les États-Unis” is what French speakers call “the United States”.

67 Prefix in some juice names : CRAN-

When early European settlers came across red berries growing in the bogs of the northern part of America, they felt that the plant’s flower and stem resembled the head and bill of a crane. As such, they called the plant “craneberry”, which evolved into “cranberry”.

Down

2 Potato pancake : LATKE

A latke is a delicious potato pancake (I’m Irish, so anything made with potatoes is delicious, to be honest).

3 Delivery for those who haven’t gone paperless : SNAIL MAIL

Snail mail is regular mail delivered by the postal service. The term “snail mail” arose as email gained in popularity, and is a reference to the difference in speed between email and paper mail.

5 Starchy dish that requires attentive stirring : RISOTTO

Risotto is an Italian rice dish that is usually served as a first course in Italy, but as a main course here in North America.

9 Bubbly drink? : BOBA TEA

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.

11 “Black-ish” star Tracee __ Ross : ELLIS

Actress Tracee Ellis Ross is perhaps best known for playing lead roles in the TV shows “Girlfriends” and “black-ish”. She was born Tracee Joy Silberstein, and is the daughter of singer Diana Ross and music executive Robert Ellis Silberstein.

“Black-ish” is a sitcom starring Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross that premiered in 2014. The lead actors play Dre and Rainbow Johnson, a married couple leading an upper-middle class black family. The show is noted for tackling tough issues such as racism, police brutality, attitudes toward the LGBT community, and the 2016 US presidential election.

13 Gullible one : PATSY

The etymology of the word “patsy” meaning “fall guy” isn’t really understood. One colorful theory suggests that the term comes from an 1890s vaudeville character named Patsy Bolivar. Patsy always got the blame when something went wrong.

A gull is someone easily cheated, a dupe. The term “gull” gave rise to the word “gullible”, which is in common use today. Did you know that the word “gullible” doesn’t appear in any reputable online dictionaries? Really! Go check!

19 Bikini, for one : ATOLL

The name of Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands comes from the Marshallese name “Pikinni”, meaning “coconut place”. Famously, Bikini Atoll was the site of 23 nuclear detonations by the US from 1946 to 1958.

24 Color of Fear in the “Inside Out” films : PURPLE

“Inside Out” is a 2015 Pixar animated feature film. It’s all about a young girl who relocates with her family from Minnesota to San Francisco. The movie’s action is actually set inside the girl’s head, as five personified emotions deal with the changes she has to face. Those emotions are voiced by:

• Amy Poehler (Joy)
• Phyllis Smith (Sadness)
• Lewis Black (Anger)
• Bill Hader (Fear)
• Mindy Kaling (Disgust)

30 Super G event, e.g. : SLALOM

Super Giant Slalom (Super G) is an alpine skiing event introduced in 1982. The Super G isn’t as fast as its sister event the Downhill, but is faster than the more technical Giant Slalom.

31 Taiwanese electronics giant : HTC

HTC Corporation is a Taiwanese consumer electronics company that was a notable player in the mobile technology sector. Originally known as High Tech Computer Corporation, HTC lost its competitive edge in the smartphone market. The company then shifted its focus to the virtual reality (VR) sector, and is known for producing VR headsets.

32 Cy Young stat : ERA

Cy Young was a pitcher in the major leagues from 1890-1911. Young is remembered for pitching the first perfect game of baseball’s modern era. Soon after he died in 1955, the Cy Young Award was created and is presented to the best pitcher in each baseball season.

33 “Let your __ flag fly” : FREAK

The phrase “let your freak flag fly” is an idiomatic expression that encourages people to embrace their individuality and express themselves without fear of judgment. It suggests being proud of one’s quirks and not being afraid to show them to the world.

34 Shoe insert : ODOR-EATER

Odor-Eater insoles were introduced in the early seventies, and are manufactured by Combe. Combe sponsors a national contest held every year in Montpelier, Vermont, called “The Odor-Eaters Rotten Sneaker Contest”. Very pleasant …

36 Start of spring : ESS

The start of the word “spring” is a letter S (ess).

42 “The Paper City” of Massachusetts : HOLYOKE

Holyoke, Massachusetts is located along the Connecticut River, and is often referred to as “The Paper City.” This nickname stems from its historical prominence as a major paper manufacturing center, thanks largely to the building of the Holyoke Dam and Canal System. Built in the 19th century, the system harnessed the river’s power, providing the city with an industrial advantage that fueled its paper mills.

43 “GMA” production co. : ABC NEWS

“Good Morning America” (GMA) is ABC’s morning show, and has been since 1975. There was even a spin-off show called “Good Afternoon America”, although that only lasted for a few months in 2012.

47 Brand of chips : INTEL

Intel used to be the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips, but has faced challenges in recent years, apparently “missing” the AI boom. The company was founded in 1968, and the name “Intel” is derived from the term “int(egrated) el(ectronics)”. Recognition of the Intel brand has been greatly helped by the success of the “Intel Inside” campaign that started back in 1991.

52 Vaquero’s rope : RIATA

A riata is a lariat or a lasso. “Riata” comes from “reata”, the Spanish word for “lasso”.

The Spanish suffix “-ero” can be added to a noun to describe someone who works with that “noun”. Examples would be a “vaquero” (a cowboy working with a “vaca”, a cow) and a “torero” (a bullfighter fighting a “toro”, a bull).

53 Bold poker play, and an apt title for this puzzle : ALL-IN

The official birthplace of the incredibly popular poker game of Texas hold ’em is Robstown, Texas where the game dates back to the early 1900s. The game was introduced into Las Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texan enthusiasts including Doyle Brunson, a champion often seen playing on TV. Doyle Brunson published a poker strategy guide in 1978, and this really helped increase the popularity of the game. But it was the inclusion of Texas hold ‘em in the television lineup that really gave the game its explosive surge in popularity, with the size of the prize money just skyrocketing.

59 Critter under Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas : BAT

The Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin, Texas serves a dual purpose. In addition to its function as a crossing over Lady Bird Lake, it’s also a significant roosting site for Mexican free-tailed bats. During the spring and summer months, a large colony of these bats, estimated to be around 1.5 million, make the bridge their home. At twilight each evening, the bats emerge from their crevices to forage for insects, creating a spectacular show for tourists and locals alike.

61 Key above ∼ : ESC

The tilde diacritical mark (~) is very much associated with the Spanish language. We use the name “tilde” in English, taking that name from Spanish. Confusingly, the word “tilde” in Spanish is used more generally to mean “accent mark, diacritic”, of which a “~” is just one. What we call a “tilde” in English is usually referred to as a “virgulilla” or “tilde de la eñe” in Spanish.