Day: July 9, 2025

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Constructed by: Gerry Wildenberg

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Redoubled

Themed answers all include “RERE” (RE-DOUBLED) hidden within.

• 18A Bills wide receiver who played in four consecutive Super Bowls : ANDRE REED
• 24A Wildlife sanctuary : NATURE RESERVE
• 36A Meh evaluations : MEDIOCRE REVIEWS
• 49A Like material that slows flames : FIRE RETARDANT

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

Bill’s time: 05:39

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

17A Oscars host O’Brien : CONAN

Conan O’Brien, known for his late-night talk shows like “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and “Conan,” hosted the Academy Awards only once, in 2002. His tenure as a late-night host spanned over 28 years, making him one of the longest-serving hosts in US television history.

18A *Bills wide receiver who played in four consecutive Super Bowls : ANDRE REED

Andre Reed was an NFL wide receiver, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. After retiring in 2000, he has taken on a few TV roles, including appearances in “Hawaii Five-0” and “MacGyver”. He even played dual roles in an episode of “Magnum PI”, playing himself and a car salesman who pretended to be Reed. Cool …

20A Paraguayan pals : AMIGOS

Paraguay is a landlocked country in South America that is bordered by Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia. Paraguay’s capital is Asunción, which is home to almost a third of the nation’s population.

29A Fit, as matryoshka dolls : NEST

Matryoshka dolls are those wooden nesting dolls that are on sale at every tourist trap across Russia. “Matryoshka” is Russian for “little matron”. I was lucky enough to spend a week in Russia in the late 1990s. I brought back just one memento, a pair of matryoshka dolls. One depicted Mikhail Gorbachev, and the other Ronald Reagan. Images of Gorbachev and Reagan were everywhere in Russia back then …

30A Volcano near Catania : ETNA

Mount Etna, located on the island of Sicily, is one of the world’s most active stratovolcanoes and one of the most frequently erupting volcanoes on Earth. It has been active for at least 500,000 years, with historical eruptions documented for over 3,500 years.

Catania is the second-largest city on the island of Sicily (after Palermo). Catania has a long and rich cultural history, and today is best known as a center for technology industries earning it the nickname of the “European Silicon Valley”.

33A Whiskey flavor : PEAT

Peat is partially decayed vegetation found in bogs, and its smoke is used in the malting process of barley to impart a distinctive smoky flavor to certain whiskies, particularly Scotch whiskies from Islay.

34A Chewy mints : MENTOS

Mentos are mints made by the Italian confectioner Perfetti Van Melle. You might have seen videos of Mentos mints being dropped into bottles containing a carbonated drink. The surface of the mint causes an explosive release of carbon dioxide resulting in a geyser of foam that can shoot many feet up into the air.

41A Only national park in New England : ACADIA

Acadia National Park, located primarily on Mount Desert Island in Maine, is the only national park in New England. Established in 1916 as Sieur de Monts National Monument, it became Lafayette National Park in 1919, and was renamed Acadia National Park in 1929.

42A One of 14 in a sonnet : LINE

A sonnet is a poetic form consisting of 14 lines, traditionally written in iambic pentameter. There are two main types: the Shakespearean (or English) sonnet, with a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, and the Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet, with a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA CDECDE or CDCDCD. Got that …?

43A “u crack me up” : ROFL

Rolling on floor laughing (ROFL)

44A Part of a Rorschach test : BLOT

The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which a subject is asked to interpret a series of inkblots. The test was created by Swiss Freudian psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach in the 1920s.

45A Operatic solo : ARIA

An aria is a long, accompanied song for a solo voice, typically one in an opera or oratorio. The word “aria” literally means “air” in Italian.

53A Artist Yoko : ONO

Yoko Ono is an avant-garde artist. She met her future husband John Lennon for the first time while she was preparing her conceptual art exhibit called “Hammer a Nail”. Visitors were encouraged to hammer in a nail into a wooden board, creating the artwork. Lennon wanted to hammer in the first nail, but Ono stopped him as the exhibition had not yet opened. Apparently Ono relented when Lennon paid her an imaginary five shillings to hammer an imaginary nail into the wood.

55A Boxing family name : ALI

The most famous boxing family name is likely “Ali”, referring to Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., perhaps the greatest heavyweight boxer. His daughter, Laila Ali, also became a highly successful professional boxer, maintaining an undefeated record throughout her career.

63A Gymnast Korbut : OLGA

Olga Korbut is from modern-day Belarus, but was born during the days of the Soviet Union. She competed for the USSR team in the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games. Korbut was 17 when she appeared in the 1972 Munich Games, and had been training in a sports school since she was 8-years-old. The world fell in love with her as she was a very emotional young lady, readily expressing joy and disappointment, something that we weren’t used to seeing in athletes from behind the Iron Curtain. Korbut immigrated to the US in 1991 and settled in Scottsdale, Arizona.

66A Golf club choice : WOOD

In golf, a wood is a type of club designed for hitting the ball long distances, typically from the tee or fairway. Originally made of wood, these clubs now commonly feature heads made of metal or composite materials, though the name “wood” has persisted.

Down

2D Inventor Edison : THOMAS

Thomas Alva Edison (TAE) was a very successful inventor. He held over a thousand US patents in his name. Included in the list of Edison’s inventions is the phonograph, the movie camera and the long-lasting light bulb. He passed away in 1931. There is a test tube at the Henry Ford Museum that supposedly holds Edison’s last breath. Ford convinced Thomas’s son Charles to seal up a tube of air in the room just after the inventor died, as a memento.

4D Maritime measure : LEAGUE

A league is a unit of distance that dates back to the Middle Ages. No longer used, it was originally defined as the distance that a person could walk in an hour. In the English-speaking world, a league was equal to three miles on land, and three nautical miles at sea.

8D Like Cain, of Adam’s sons : ELDEST

According to the Bible, Adam and Eve had several children, although only the first three are mentioned by name: Cain, Abel and Seth.

9D Dense cake : TORTE

A torte is a type of cake made primarily with eggs, sugar and ground nuts (but no flour).

11D Brunch option : OMELETTE

Our word “brunch” is a portmanteau of “breakfast” and “lunch”. The term was coined as student slang in Oxford, England in the late 1890s. However, “brunch” described a combined meal closer to the breakfast hour, and the term “blunch” was used for a meal closer to lunchtime.

13D “The Secret Life of Bees” novelist Sue Monk ____ : KIDD

Sue Monk Kidd’s first novel is probably her most famous, namely “The Secret Life of Bees”, published in 2002. Said novel was adapted into a 2008 movie of the same name starring Queen Latifah and Dakota Fanning. Kidd also wrote a 2020 novel titled “The Book of Longings” that tells the story of a woman who marries Jesus Christ.

19D Linguist’s asset : EAR

The term “linguist” comes from the Latin word “lingua”, meaning “tongue” and “language”. The English word “tongue” itself also shares this dual meaning, referring both to the anatomical organ and to a spoken language.

21D Falls: women’s suffrage convention site : SENECA

The National Women’s Hall of Fame is located in Seneca Falls, New York, which was home to the nation’s first women’s rights convention, in 1848. The Hall was established in 1969, when it was hosted by Eisenhower College, which is also in Seneca Falls. The current facility opened for visitors in 1979. I was lucky enough to spend a very uplifting afternoon there several years ago ….

26D Getty of “The Golden Girls” : ESTELLE

Actress Estelle Getty was best known for playing Sophia Petrillo on “The Golden Girls”. Bea Arthur played Sophia’s daughter on the show, even though Estelle was actually a year younger than Bea in real life!

27D Caesar’s “I came” : VENI

The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BCE and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

37D Italian scholar Umberto : ECO

Umberto Eco was an Italian novelist, literary critic, philosopher, and university professor. He is best known for his 1980 novel “The Name of the Rose”, a historical mystery set in a 14th-century Italian monastery, which became an international bestseller.

38D National flower of Wales : DAFFODIL

Daffodils are more properly called narcissus plants, and are a whole genus in the Amaryllis family. Ancient Greeks believe that after the god Narcissus died (while obsessed with his reflection in a pool), his remains were turned into the Narcissus flower, hence the name. Back in Britain and Ireland, the daffodil is most famous as the national flower of Wales. It is also remembered for its appearance in Wordsworth’s poem:

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;

39D South Asian rice cake : IDLI

Idli (also “idly”) are savory rice cakes in the cuisine from the Indian subcontinent. The cakes are made from de-husked, fermented black lentils incorporated into a batter and then steamed.

44D S.O.S competitor : BRILLO

Brillo is a soapy, steel wool pad patented in 1913. The company claims that the name “Brillo” is derived from the Latin word for “bright”.

S.O.S is a brand of scouring pads made from steel wool impregnated with soap. The product was invented as a giveaway by an aluminum pot salesman in San Francisco called Ed Cox. His wife gave it the name “S.O.S” as an initialism standing for “Save Our Saucepans”. Note the punctuation! There is no period after the last S, and that is deliberate. When Cox went to register the trademark, he found that “S.O.S.” could not be a trademark because it was used as an international distress signal. So he dropped the period after the last S, and I hope made a lot of money for himself and his wife.

46D Madison Square Garden hockey player : RANGER

Madison Square Garden (MSG) is an arena in New York City used for a variety of events. In the world of sports it is home to the New York Rangers of the NHL, as well as the New York Knicks of the NBA. “The Garden” is also the third busiest music venue in the world in terms of ticket sales. The current arena is the fourth structure to bear the name, a name taken from the Madison Square location in Manhattan. In turn, the square was named for James Madison, the fourth President of the US.

50D Novelist Santha Rama____ : RAU

Santha Rama Rau was a travel writer from India who lived much of her life in the US. As well as writing her own books, Rau also adapted the E. M. Forster novel “A Passage to India” for the stage.

52D Coral colonies : REEFS

A reef is a ridge of stable material lying beneath the surface of a body of water. It can be made of sand or rock, and also of coral. The largest coral reef on the planet is Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which stretches over 1,400 miles.

53D Snow globes, e.g. : ORBS

It is believed that the first snow globes were introduced in France in the early 1800s. They were a development of glass paperweights that were already common, and were initially used to do the same job. Do you know who owns the biggest collection of snow globes in the world, over 8,000 of them? That would be the actor Corbin Bernsen of “LA Law” and “Psych” fame.

54D Wolfe of detective fiction : NERO

Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective and the hero of many stories published by author Rex Stout. There are 33 Nero Wolfe novels for us to read, and 39 short stories. There are also movie adaptations of two of the novels: “Meet Nero Wolfe” (1936) which features a young Rita Hayworth, and “The League of Frightened Men” (1937). One of Wolfe’s endearing traits is his love of good food and beer, so he is a pretty rotund character.

60D June honoree : DAD

Father’s Day was added as an official holiday in 1972, although bills to create the holiday had been with Congress since 1913. By rights, the holiday should be called “Fathers’ Day” (note the punctuation), but the bill that was introduced in 1913 used the “Father’s Day” spelling, and that’s the one that has stuck.