Day: June 2, 2025

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Constructed by: Zachary David Levy
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: SOS

Themed answers each comprise three words, beginning with the letters “SOS”:

• 38A Mayday call, or a pattern found in 17-, 27-, 45-, and 60-Across : SOS

• 17A Stark choice between success and failure : SINK OR SWIM
• 27A Hunting dog’s prized ability : SENSE OF SMELL
• 45A Take baby steps, so to speak : START OUT SLOW
• 60A Footwear without laces : SLIP-ON SHOE

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

Bill’s time: 5m 34s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Greek pocket breads : PITAS

Pita is a lovely bread from Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines. It is usually round, and has a “pocket” in the center. The pocket is created by steam that puffs up the dough during cooking leaving a void when the bread cools.

10 Close pals, briefly : BFFS

Best friend forever (BFF)

15 Bilingual cartoon explorer on Nickelodeon : DORA
47D Thieving fox often scolded by 15-Across : SWIPER

“Dora the Explorer” is a cartoon series shown on Nickelodeon. Part of Dora’s remit is to introduce the show’s young viewers to some Spanish words and phrases. She often spars with a thieving anthropomorphic fox named Swiper.

16 Western Pennsylvania city : ERIE

Erie is a port city in the very north of Pennsylvania, sitting on the southern shore of Lake Erie. The city takes its name from the Erie Native American tribe that resided in the area. Erie is nicknamed the Gem City, a reference to the “sparkling” water of Lake Erie.

19 Latte spot : CAFE

The term “latte” is an abbreviation of the Italian “caffelatte” meaning “coffee (and) milk”. Note that in the correct spelling of “latte”, the Italian word for milk; there is no accent over the “e”. An accent is often added by mistake when we use the word in English, perhaps meaning to suggest that the word is French.

23 Lode load : ORE

A lode is a metal ore deposit that’s found between two layers of rock or in a fissure. The mother lode is the principal deposit in a mine, usually of gold or silver. “Mother lode” is probably a translation of “veta madre”, an expression used in mining in Mexico.

26 Internet co. once known for mailing CDs : AOL

In its early pursuit of market share, America Online (AOL) famously employed a strategy of mass-mailing millions of floppy disks, and later CDs, containing its dial-up internet access software. The tactic, though seemingly costly, proved incredibly effective in rapidly expanding its user base.

27 Hunting dog’s prized ability : SENSE OF SMELL

Dogs have an amazing sense of smell, and scientists tell us that it is 10,000 to 100,000 more acute than human olfactory capability. We have about 6 million olfactory receptors in our noses, compared to about 300 million in the nose of a dog. When we breathe in through our noses, all of that air goes straight to the lungs for respiration. In dogs, about 12% of inspired air is directed to a part of the nose that is dedicated to the sense of smell.

32 Goatees, e.g. : BEARDS

A goatee is a beard formed by hair on a man’s chin. The name probably comes from the tuft of hair seen on an adult goat.

36 Org. offering travel advice : AAA

The American Automobile Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit organization focused on lobbying, provision of automobile servicing, and selling of automobile insurance. The AAA was founded in 1902 in Chicago and published the first of its celebrated hotel guides back in 1917.

37 Starchy root in poi : TARO

I am a big fan of starch (being an Irishman I love potatoes). That said, I think that poi tastes horrible! Poi is made from the bulbous tubers (corm) of the taro plant by cooking the corm in water and mashing it until the desired consistency is achieved.

38 Mayday call, or a pattern found in 17-, 27-, 45-, and 60-Across : SOS

The term “Mayday” is an emergency codeword that is used internationally as a distress signal, especially when making a radio transmission. “Mayday” comes from the French phrase “venez m’aider” meaning “come to help me”. When used properly, the term is repeated three times in a row: “Mayday Mayday Mayday”.

41 Norse god who wields the hammer Mjölnir : THOR

The hammer associated with the Norse god Thor is known as Mjölnir. The name “Mjölnir” translates as “crusher”.

43 Meeting outline : AGENDA

“Agenda” is a Latin word that translates as “things to be done”, coming from the verb “agere” meaning “to do”.

53 Chinese canine : SHAR-PEI

The shar-pei breed of dog is one with a wrinkly face and really dark tongue. The breed originated in China, with “shar-pei” being the British spelling of the Cantonese name.

59 Bowling alley assignment : LANE

Bowling has been around for an awfully long time. The oldest known reference to the game is in Egypt, where pins and balls were found in an ancient tomb that is over 5,000 years old. The first form of the game to come to America was nine-pin bowling, which had been very popular in Europe for centuries. In 1841 in Connecticut, nine-pin bowling was banned due to its association with gambling. Supposedly, an additional pin was added to get around the ban, and ten-pin bowling was born.

60 Footwear without laces : SLIP-ON SHOE

The loafer slip-on shoe dates back to 1939. “Loafer” was originally a brand name introduced by Fortnum and Mason’s store in London. The derivative term “penny loafer” arose in the late fifties or early sixties, although the exact etymology seems unclear.

62 Sicilian volcano : ETNA

In the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, the “boot” is the mainland of Italy, and the “ball” being kicked by the boot is the island of Sicily.

63 Goodyear product : TIRE

The Goodyear tire company was founded in 1898. The company was named for Charles Goodyear, the man who invented vulcanized rubber in 1839. Despite the Goodyear name, Charles Goodyear himself had no connection with the company. Sadly, he never really reaped a financial reward for his inventions.

64 Home Depot purchases : TOOLS

The Home Depot is the largest home improvement retail chain in the US, ahead of Lowe’s. Home Depot opened their first two stores in 1979. The average store size is just over 100,000 square feet. The largest Home Depot outlet is in Union, New Jersey, and it is 225,000 square feet in size. That’s a lot of nuts and bolts …

66 12 months : YEAR

Understanding months and years might have been a lot easier if we had settled on 13 “months” in a year, with a “month” comprising the four weeks that it takes to go through a complete lunar cycle (full moon to full moon). Every month would have been 4 weeks long, and it would be easy to understand why there are 52 weeks in a year (13 months x 4 weeks). Instead, we “mess” around with 12 “messy” months …

67 “__ Mio”: classic Italian song : O SOLE

“‘O sole mio” is a famous Italian song from Naples, written in 1898. The song’s lyrics are usually sung in the original Neapolitan, as opposed to Italian. The title translates from Neapolitan into “My Sun” (and not into “’O, My Sun” as one might expect). It’s a love song, sung by a young man declaring that there is a sun brighter than that in the sky, the sun that is his lover’s face. Awww …

Down

1 “__ Beach and all the clams we can eat!” : PISMO

“Pismo Beach and all the clams we can eat!” is a pretty well-known phrase, especially in California, largely thanks to its use by the iconic cartoon character Bugs Bunny. He often uttered the line to infer that he was escaping to a life of leisure and endless bounty. The recurring gag, particularly in the 1940s and 50s, played on Pismo Beach’s real-world reputation as the self-proclaimed “Clam Capital of the World”.

4 Egyptian cross : ANKH

The ankh was the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic character for “eternal life”. The ankh wasn’t just used in inscriptions but was often fashioned into amulets and as surrounds for mirrors (perhaps symbolizing a view into another world). The ankh is also known as “the key of the Nile” and “crux ansata” (Latin for “cross with a handle”).

6 Old Ford models : EDSELS

The Edsel brand of automobile was named for Edsel, son of Henry Ford. Sadly, the name “Edsel” has become synonymous with “failure”, which was no fault of Edsel himself who had died several years before the Edsel line was introduced. When the Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel on 4 September 1957, Ford proclaimed the day to be “E Day”.

7 __ Jones Industrial Average : DOW

Dow Jones & Company was founded as a publishing house in 1882 by three newspaper reporters, Charles Dow, Edward Jones and Charles Bergstresser. Today, the company’s most famous publication has to be “The Wall Street Journal”. In 1884, Charles Dow started reporting the average dollar value of the stock of eleven companies, an index which spawned a whole host of metrics that carry the Dow Jones name to this day. The most famous of these metrics is the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), also known as “the Dow 30” or simply “the Dow”.

8 Colorful eye part : IRIS

The iris is the colored part of the eye. It has an aperture in the center that can open or close depending on the level of light hitting the eye.

9 City across the bay from St. Petersburg : TAMPA, FL

The Florida city of Tampa has been known as “the Big Guava” since the seventies. The term is imitative of New York’s “Big Apple”, and refers to the unsuccessful search for the reported wild guava trees that were once hoped to be the basis of a new industry for the area. Tampa has also been called “Cigar City”, a reference to the cigar industry that fueled the area’s growth starting in the 1880s.

11 Brouhaha : FRAY

“Brouhaha”, meaning “ado, stir”, was a French word that back in the 1550s meant “the cry of the devil disguised as clergy” . Wow!

12 High-pitched wind instrument : FIFE

A fife is a small flute that is often used in military and marching bands. The name “fife” comes from the German “Pfeife” meaning “pipe”.

22 Valentine bloom : ROSE

Saint Valentine’s Day was introduced by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD to honor various martyrs with the name Valentine. However, the saint’s day was dropped by the Roman Catholic church in 1969, by Pope Paul VI. Try telling that to Hallmark though …

27 Sign at a sellout : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

28 Post-WWII alliance : OAS

The Organization of American States (OAS) was founded in 1948, and has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. Not all of the independent states in the Americas are members. Cuba was barred from participation in the organization after a vote in 1962. Honduras had her membership suspended after the country’s 2009 coup.

29 Make, as a salary : EARN

It has been suggested that our term “salary” comes from the Latin “sal” meaning “salt”. The idea is that a Roman soldier’s “salarium” might have been an allowance to purchase salt.

31 The Dalai __ : LAMA

The Dalai Lama is a religious leader in the Gelug branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The current Dalai Lama is the 14th to hold the office. He has indicated that the next Dalai Lama might be found outside of Tibet for the first time, and may even be female.

32 AC measures : BTUS

British Thermal Unit (BTU)

38 Tiny amount : SOU

A sou is an old French coin. We use the term “sou” to mean “practically worthless amount”.

41 Sporty car roof : T-TOP

A T-top is a car roof that has removable panels on either side of a rigid bar that runs down the center of the vehicle above the driver.

43 Historic Texas site : ALAMO

The San Antonio mission known as the Alamo may have been named for a grove of nearby cottonwood trees. “Álamo” is the Spanish name for the cottonwood.

44 Took up, as a hobby : GOT INTO

Back in the 16th century, a hobbyhorse was a mock horse that was used as a prop in morris dancing. The figure was wrapped around the waist of a dancer, creating the impression that the horse was being ridden. By the 1580s, the term “hobbyhorse” began to describe toy riding horse used by a child. A century later, the word “hobby” was being used for a favorite pastime, an activity that doesn’t really go anywhere, just like a hobbyhorse.

51 Ring-shaped island : ATOLL

An atoll is a coral island that is shaped in a ring that encloses a lagoon. There is still some debate as to how an atoll forms, but a theory proposed by Charles Darwin while on his famous voyage aboard HMS Beagle still holds sway. Basically, an atoll was once a volcanic island that had subsided and fallen into the sea. The coastline of the island is home to coral growth which persists even as the island continues to subside inside the circling coral reef.

52 Honking birds : GEESE

A male goose is called a gander, with the female simply being referred to as a goose. Young geese are called goslings.

55 Bancroft of “The Graduate” : ANNE

The actress Anne Bancroft was born Anna Italiano in the Bronx, New York. She is probably best known for her performances in the 1962 movie “The Miracle Worker” (for which she won a Best Actress Oscar) and in the 1967 movie “The Graduate”. Bancroft was married for 40 years to Mel Brooks, right up till her passing in 2005.

The marvelous 1967 film “The Graduate” is a big screen adaptation of a novel of the same name by Charles Webb. Apparently director Mike Nichols wanted Doris Day to play Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft was cast), and Robert Redford to play Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman was cast). In the storyline, Benjamin is 20 years old, and Mrs. Robinson is “twice his age”. In fact, Hoffman was 30 at the time, and Bancroft was just 36.

56 “Would __ to You?”: BBC panel show : I LIE

“Would I Lie to You?” (WILTY) is an extremely entertaining comedy panel show aired by the BBC. Team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack, and host Rob Brydon, produce comedy gold. HIghly recommended …

58 General __ chicken : TSO’S

General Tso’s chicken is an American creation, and a dish often found on the menu of a Chinese restaurant. The name General Tso may be a reference to General Zuo Zongtang of the Qing Dynasty, but there is no clear link.

61 401(k) kin : IRA

A 401(k) account resembles an IRA in that contributions can be made from a paycheck prior to the deduction of income taxes. A 401(k) differs from an IRA in that it is an employer-sponsored plan, with payments taken by the employer directly from an employee’s paycheck. Additionally, contributions can be fully or partially matched by an employer.