Day: July 3, 2025

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Constructed by: Jake Halperin
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): There’s an Echo in Here!

Themed answers are common two-word terms, but with the second word repeated, all to fit with one-word clues. Clever …

1. 19A Forensics? : CRIME SCENE SCENE
2. 36A Geometry? : SURFACE AREA AREA
3. 49A Physics? : FORCE FIELD FIELD

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

Bill’s time: 7m 17s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5A Chesapeake and Delaware : BAYS

The Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay are two of the most significant estuaries on the East Coast of the United States. There is a 14-mile long, 450-foot wide, and 35-foot deep ship canal that connects the Delaware River (and thus Delaware Bay) with the Chesapeake Bay, the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal (C&D Canal). First opened in 1829, it’s one of the oldest continuously operating canals in the US and allows ships to shave nearly 300 miles off the journey between Philadelphia and Baltimore.

16A Nick Mohammed’s “Ted Lasso” role : NATE

Actor and comedian Nick Mohammed is perhaps best known on this side of the pond for portraying kit man turned coach Nathan “Nate” Shelley in the hit series “Ted Lasso”. Mohammed is a standup comic and writer, and also a skilled magician, He is a member of the Magic Circle, a prestigious British organization for magicians.

19A Forensics? : CRIME SCENE SCENE

Something described as forensic is connected with a court of law, or with public discussion or debate. The term comes from the Latin “forensis” meaning “of a forum, of a place of assembly”. We mainly use the word today to mean “pertaining to legal trials” as in “forensic medicine” and “forensic science”.

23A Maintain a lab coat? : GROOM

The Labrador (Lab) breed of dog has been around at least since 1814, and the chocolate Labrador appeared over a century later in the 1930s. The name “Labrador Retriever” is simply a reference to the breed’s origin and behavior. Labs originally “retrieved” from the “Labrador Sea”.

29A Tip-to-frog violin motion : UPBOW

In violin playing, an “upbow” is when the bow is drawn from the tip (point) towards the frog (the end held by the player), while a “downbow” is the opposite motion.

32A Novelist Bellow : SAUL

Saul Bellow was the only writer to win the National Book Award three times. He also won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976. Bellow was a Canadian-born American writer, and among his most famous works were “Herzog” and “Humboldt’s Gift”.

39A Postscript’s place : END

One adds a PS (post scriptum, or simply “postscript”) at the end of a letter (ltr.). A second postscript is a post post scriptum, a PPS.

40A Fierce fauna : BEASTS

The fauna (plural “faunae”) is the animal life of a particular region, and the flora (plural “florae”) is that region’s plant life. The term “fauna” comes from the Roman goddess of earth and fertility who was called Fauna. Flora was the Roman goddess of plants, flowers and fertility.

41A Frankenstein’s helper : IGOR

The character Igor, the hunchbacked assistant to Dr. Frankenstein, is perhaps as well known as the “good” doctor himself. However, in Mary Shelley’s original 1818 novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”, Dr. Frankenstein works alone. There is no assistant named Igor, nor any hunchbacked lab helper. The character of Igor (or sometimes “Fritz” in early
film adaptations) was largely a creation for later stage and film productions.

48A Co. with a SoSecure mobile safety app : ADT

ADT is a home and small-business security company based in Boca Raton, Florida. The company was founded back in 1874 by Edward Callahan. Callahan invented the stock ticker several years earlier, and ran the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company. Calahan was awoken one morning by the sound of a burglar in his house, and so he decided to develop a telegraph-based security alarm system. The success of the system led to the founding of American District Telegraph, later known as ADT.

56A “Funny Girl” co-star Sharif : OMAR

Omar Sharif was a great Hollywood actor from Egypt, someone who played major roles in memorable movies such as “Doctor Zhivago” and “Lawrence of Arabia”. But to me, he was my bridge hero (referring to the card game). In his heyday, Sharif was one of the best bridge players in the world.

The 1968 movie “Funny Girl” stars Barbra Streisand in the title role of Fanny Brice. The real Fanny Brice was a theater and film actress, and “Funny Girl” is very loosely based on her life story. Fanny Brice was born into a Hungarian Jewish family in New York City, with the real name of Fania Borach.

60A Instrument for many Bach compositions : ORGAN

Johann Sebastian Bach died when he was 65-years-old, in 1750. He was buried in Old St. John’s Cemetery in Leipzig, and his grave went unmarked until 1894. At that time his coffin was located, removed and buried in a vault within the church. The church was destroyed in an Allied bombing raid during WWII, and so after the war the remains had to be recovered and taken to the Church of St. Thomas in Leipzig.

61A Writer Bombeck : ERMA

Erma Bombeck wrote for newspapers for about 35 years. She produced more than 4,000 witty and humorous columns under the title “At Wit’s End”, with all describing her home life in suburbia.

63A Empire State resident, for short : NYER

New York is famously known as the “Empire State”. While the precise origin of the moniker is a little hazy, it’s widely believed to have been inspired by George Washington. In a 1785 letter, remarking on New York’s strategic importance with its excellent harbor and access to the interior via the Hudson River, Washington supposedly referred to it as the “Seat of the Empire”.

64A “Work it!” : SLAY!

“Slay!” has become a popular slang term meaning to do something exceptionally well, to be amazing, or to impress greatly.

Down

3D Ballet opener : ACT I

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”.

5D Type of 2-Down : BOSC
2D Crumble fruit : PEAR

Bosc is a cultivar of the European pear that is grown mainly in the northwest of the United States. It is named for French horticulturist Louis Bosc. The cultivar originated in Belgium or France in the early 19th century. The Bosc is that pear with a skin the color of a potato, with a long neck.

7D Branch of creationism : YOUNG EARTH

Young Earth creationism is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created in their present forms by God sometime in the last 10,000 years. This is debated, although not within the scientific community …

9D Sgt. Friday’s declaration on “Dragnet” : I’M A COP

Sgt. Joe Friday may have said “No, ma’am” and “I’m a cop” a lot on “Dragnet”, but he never actually said the oft-quoted “Just the facts, ma’am”.

10D Petroleum trade ban : OIL EMBARGO

“Embargo” and “blockade” are two similar yet different terms. An embargo is a legal prohibition of trade with a particular country, whilst a blockade is an act of war, a militarily enforced prevention of the movement of goods and services. The term “embargo” came into English from Spanish, in the late 16th century.

11D Japanese food staple : UDON

Udon noodles are made from wheat-flour and are very popular in Japanese cuisines such as tempura.

12D Wikipedia, e.g. : SITE

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, and is the most-used reference site on the Internet. The site was launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. I, for one, am very grateful …

14D Ostrich warning sound : HISS

The ostrich is a flightless bird that is native to Africa. It is extensively farmed, mainly for its feathers but also for its skin/leather and meat. Famously, the ostrich is the fastest moving of any flightless bird, capable of achieving speeds of over 40 mph. It is also the largest living species of bird, and lays the largest eggs.

20D The Proterozoic, e.g. : EON

The Earth’s Proterozoic eon lasted from about 2,500 to 540 million years ago. The eon started with the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere, and ended just before complex life began to proliferate.

21D Composer born in Washington, D.C. : SOUSA

John Philip Sousa was a composer and conductor from Washington, D.C. Sousa was well known for his patriotic marches and earned himself the nickname “The American March King”. He served as a member of the US Marine Band from 1868 to 1875, and after leaving the Marines learned to conduct and compose. One of the Sousa compositions that is well-known around the world is called “The Liberty Bell”, a tune used as the musical theme for BBC Television’s “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”. Sousa also wrote “Semper Fidelis”, which is the official march of the US Marine Corps.

24D Burros : ASSES

Our word “burro”, meaning “donkey”, comes from the Spanish word for the same animal, namely “burrico”.

25D Cold plunge partner : SAUNA

As my Finnish-American wife will tell you, “sauna” is a Finnish word. It is pronounced more correctly as “sow-nah” (“sow”, as in the female pig).

30D Twistable treats : OREOS

There is an “official” competition involving Oreo cookies, in case anyone is interested in participating. A competitor has to take several steps to finish an OREO Lick Race:

1. Twist open the cookie.
2. Lick each half clean of creme.
3. Show the clean cookie halves to the fellow competitors.
4. Dunk the cookie halves in a glass of milk.
5. Eat the cookie halves.
6. Drink the milk.
7. Ready, set, go …

45D “Save as” option : PDF

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format introduced by Adobe Systems in 1993. PDF documents can be shared between users and read using many different applications and platforms, making them more universally accessible than documents saved by one particular program.

47D Zac of “The Greatest Showman” : EFRON

Zac Efron is an actor from San Luis Obispo, California. Apparently, Efron is a heartthrob to “tweenyboppers”. His big break came with the hit Disney movie “High School Musical”.

“The Greatest Showman” is a 2017 musical film about the life of PT Barnum, co-creator of the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Hugh Jackman plays the title character. Barnum & Bailey ceased operations just seven months before the movie premiered. The circus resumed operations five years later, but without any animal acts.

48D Tennis score after deuce : AD IN

In tennis, if the score reaches deuce (i.e. when both players have scored three points), then the first player to win two points in a row wins the game. The player who wins the point immediately after deuce is said to have the advantage. If the player with the advantage wins the next point then that’s two in a row and that player wins the game. If the person with the advantage loses the next point, then advantage is lost and the players return to deuce and try again. The player calling out the score announces “ad in”, or more formally “advantage in”, if he/she has the advantage. If the score announcer’s opponent has the advantage, then the announcement is “ad out” or “advantage out”. Follow all of that …?

51D Microsoft browser : EDGE

Edge is a web browser developed by Microsoft. It was first released for Windows 10 in 2015, and replaced Internet Explorer as the default browser on Windows devices. Edge is based on the Chromium open-source project, the same engine that powers Google Chrome.

53D Noble rank below marquess : EARL

A marquess (also “marquis”, from French) is a nobleman of high rank in the UK. The title ranks below a duke, and above an earl. The term “marquess” comes from Medieval Latin “marca” meaning “frontier”. Originally, a marquess ruled border territories.

54D Peruvian city with a San Isidro district : LIMA

Lima is the capital city of Peru. It was founded in 1535 by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, who named it “la Ciudad de los Reyes” (the City of Kings). He chose this name because the decision to found the city was made on January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany that commemorates the visit of the three kings to Jesus in Bethlehem. Lima is home to the oldest university in all of the Americas, as San Marco University was founded in 1551 during the days of Spanish colonial rule.

55D WWII turning point : D-DAY

The Allied Invasion of Normandy during WWII was given the codename “Operation Overlord”. The Normandy landings that kicked off the invasion on D-Day (6 June 1944) were given the codename “Operation Neptune”.