Day: June 7, 2025

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Constructed by: Rafael Musa & Rebecca Goldstein
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 8m 49s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Influential lobbying org. : AARP

“AARP” is now the official name for the interest group that used to be called the American Association of Retired Persons. The name change reflects the current focus of the group on all Americans aged 50 or over, as opposed to just people who have retired.

14 Goat rodeo : HULLABALOO

Our word “hullabaloo”, meaning “commotion”, is a derivative of an older term “hollo-ballo”. “Hollo-ballo” was a word used for an uproar in the north of England and Scotland.

The phrases “goat rodeo” and “goat rope” are used to describe chaotic situations, especially in a business or in government. New to me …

16 “See ya!” : CIAO!

“Ciao” is Italian for “‘bye”. “Arrivederci” is more formal, and translates as “goodbye”.

18 Dip targets, for short : TRIS

The triceps brachii muscle is found at the back of the upper arm. The muscle’s name translates from Latin to “three-headed arm muscle”, fitting as it is actually made up of three bundles of muscles.

27 Téa of “Madam Secretary” : LEONI

Téa Leoni is an American actress. One of Leoni’s early parts was in the great film “A League of Their Own” (a minor role: Racine at first base). She also played the fiancée of Sam Malone from “Cheers” on the spin-off sitcom “Frasier”. A leading role on the big screen was opposite Adam Sandler in “Spanglish”. My favorite of her more prominent movie roles was as Jane in “Fun with Dick and Jane”. Leoni started playing the title role in the drama series “Madam Secretary” in 2014, and that’s a show I quite enjoy …

“Madam Secretary” is a TV show that first aired from 2014 to 2019. It is about an ex-CIA analyst who is appointed as US Secretary of State. Téa Leoni plays the title role, ably supported by a favorite actress of mine, Bebe Neuwirth. I like this show …

28 __-garde : AVANT

Someone or something described as avant-garde is especially innovative. “Avant-garde” is French for “advance guard”.

34 Luxury fashion house founded in Madrid : LOEWE

Despite the German-sounding name, LOEWE is a Spanish fashion house that was founded in Madrid in 1846. It was established by a group of local leather craftsmen, just after they were joined by a merchant named Enrique Loewe Roessberg from the German State of Hesse, hence “LOEWE “.

35 Starchy element in some bubble tea : TARO

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.

39 Wassail ingredient : CIDER

Wassail is ale or mulled wine used for toasting at festivals, especially Christmas. The term “wassail” comes from Old Norse “ves heill” meaning “be healthy”.

40 First sentence of a book written with only 50 distinct words : I AM SAM

Dr. Seuss’s famous children’s book “Green Eggs and Ham” was first published in 1960. “Green Eggs and Ham” now ranks twelfth in the list of top selling children’s books. By the way, “Harry Potter” books hold the top four slots in that list. The text of “Green Eggs and Ham” has a lot of “I am” going on. It starts with:

I am Sam
I am Sam
Sam I am

and ends with:

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am

55 Feature of some Disney headgear : EARS

The Mickey Mouse Ears hat was introduced in the 1950s on the Mickey Mouse Club. The Mouseketeers would wear them in each episode. Years later, the hats were offered to sale to the public, and today are the most popular item purchased at Disney resorts.

57 “The Goldfinch” novelist Tartt : DONNA

Novelist Donna Tartt won a Pulitzer for her 2013 novel “The Goldfinch”. That same novel was adapted into a 2019 film, which bombed at the box office.

Down

2 Goldberg who won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning : RUBE

Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist, engineer and inventor who became famous for designing overly-complicated gadgets to perform the simplest of tasks. Goldberg produced a famous series of cartoons depicting such designs. Such was the success of his work, the Merriam-Webster dictionary accepted the phrase “Rube Goldberg” as an adjective in 1931, an adjective meaning “accomplishing something simple through complex means”.

3 “Call Her Daddy” podcaster Cooper : ALEX

Podcaster Alexandra Cooper is perhaps best known for co-creating and hosting the podcast “Call Her Daddy”. It’s a popular podcast, so Spotify started paying her $20 million per year to continue hosting, starting in 2021. Yep, 20 million dollars …

6 First name in California politics : GAVIN

Gavin Newsom is a former Mayor of San Francisco (2004-2011) who took over as the Governor of California in 2019. Newson is a member of the Democratic Party, and a very outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump. From 2001 to 2006, Newson was married to Kimberley Guilfoyle, a former attorney and fiancée of Donald Trump Jr. Guilfoyle is a very outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump.

9 “A Song of Ice and Fire” show, colloquially : GOT

“A Game of Thrones” is the first novel in the series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin titled “A Song of Ice and Fire”. That first novel’s title gives its name to “Game of Thrones” (GOT), the incredibly popular HBO television series that uses the storyline from the whole series of books.

11 Imaginary instruments : AIR GUITARS

The concept of playing an imaginary electric guitar (an “air guitar”) is so popular that there are several championship competitions held. There has even been a world championship since 1996. Crazy …

13 Band : POSSE

Our word “posse” comes from an Anglo-Latin term from the early 15th century “posse comitatus” meaning “the force of the county”

21 Something dropped in an idiom about inevitability : SHOE

“Waiting for the other shoe to drop” describes the anticipation of a second, usually negative, event after an initial one has occurred. The idiom likely comes from early 20th-century tenement life, where the sound of a neighbor dropping one shoe while getting ready for bed would create suspense until the second shoe fell, signaling quiet.

23 Wild maneuver? : DEKE

A deke, also known as a dangle, is a technique used to get past an opponent in ice hockey. “Deke” is a colloquial shortening of the word “decoy”.

26 Salad whose main ingredient may be massaged : KALE CAESAR

Massaging kale sounds strange (to me), but it’s a process that tenderizes the leaves, making them less bitter and more palatable for salads or even cooked dishes. By rubbing the leaves with your hands (sometimes with a little oil and acid like lemon juice), you break down the kale’s tough fibers.

32 Sapphic work : POEM

Sappho was an Ancient Greek poet born on the Greek island of Lesbos. Sappho was much admired for her work, although very little of it survives today. She was renowned for writing erotic and romantic verse that dealt with the love of women as well as men. It was because of this poetry that the word “lesbian” (someone from Lesbos) is used to describe a gay woman.

34 Eco-friendly cert. : LEED

LEED is a green building certification program. The acronym stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

37 Portentous day : IDES

In Act I of William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, a soothsayer warns the doomed leader to “beware the ides of March”. Caesar ignores the prophecy and is subsequently killed on the steps of the Capitol by a group of conspirators on that fateful day.

38 Told a grown-up, say : TATTLED

Something described as tattletale is revealing, it gives away a secret. The term is a combination of “tattle” and “tale”, and is probably patterned on the similar word “telltale”. “To tattle” means “to tell secrets”, and the noun “tattletale” applies to someone who tells secrets and informs.

40 Like Alaska, often : INSET

That would be on a map of the US.

42 Fine hairs : CILIA

“Cilia” (singular “cilium”) is Latin for “eyelashes”.

43 Standard partner? : POOR’S

The Standard & Poor’s financial services company traces its roots back to the mid-19th and early 20th centuries with two separate entities: Poor’s Publishing, founded by Henry Varnum Poor in 1860, and the Standard Statistics Bureau, established in 1906. Both firms evolved in providing financial data and analysis, with Standard Statistics launching its first stock market indicator in 1923 and Poor’s issuing its first rating in 1916. In 1941, the two companies merged to form Standard & Poor’s Corp., which rebranded to S&P Global in 2016.

47 “Agatha All Along” star Kathryn : HAHN

Kathryn Hahn is an actress and comedian who is perhaps best known for playing grief counselor Lily Lebowski on the crime drama show “Crossing Jordan”. In 2002, Hahn married fellow actor Ethan Sandler who is known for playing Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Brandau on the same show.

“Agatha All Along” is a dark comedy miniseries set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It is a spin-off from “WandaVision” (about Scarlet Witch and Vision), delving deeper into the backstory of the witch Agatha Harkness, played by Kathryn Hahn. Following the events of “WandaVision,” Agatha finds herself stripped of her powers and trapped in a New Jersey town under a magical spell.

48 River associated with Shakespeare : AVON

There are actually four rivers called the Avon in England, but “Shakespeare’s Avon” lies mainly in Warwickshire, and so is sometimes known as the Warwickshire Avon. The name “Avon” comes from the Old English word “abona” meaning “river”. Stratford-upon-Avon was the birthplace of William Shakespeare.

49 __ filter : HEPA

Air filters can be specified as “HEPA”, with the acronym standing for “high-efficiency particulate absorption”. To be given the name “HEPA”, the filter must remove 99.7% of particles with a size of 0.3 microns or larger.