Day: July 11, 2025

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Constructed by: Wayne Bergman

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Autocorrect

Themed answers are all types of AUTOS written incorrectly because AUTOCORRECT went AWRY:

• 61A Texting feature that sometimes goes awry, and what was used on 17-, 28-, and 46-Across? : AUTOCORRECT

• 17A Antelope who really loves bubble gum? : CHEWY IMPALA (from “Chevy Impala”)
• 28A Expert on the hunt for the perfect eating utensil? : FORK EXPLORER (from “Ford Explorer”)
• 46A One who organizes hecklers at a comedy club? : JEER WRANGLER (from “Jeep Wrangler”)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Startle : ALARM

The word “alarm” comes from the Old French “a l’arme!”, meaning “to the arms!”, a cry to arms indicating a call to defend oneself or to action.

15A Antler points : TINES

The antlers on a deer come to points. The higher the number of points, the more prized the head of the deer as a trophy, so I am told …

17A Antelope who really loves bubble gum? : CHEWY IMPALA (from “Chevy Impala”)

“Impala” is the Zulu word for “gazelle”. When running at a sustained speed, gazelles can move along at 30 miles per hour. If needed, they can accelerate for bursts up to 60 miles per hour.

20A Sun-Maid morsel : RAISIN

“Raisin” is the French word for “grape”. The French for “raisin” is “raisin sec”, which translates literally as “dried grape”.

The Sun-Maid brand of raisins belongs to a cooperative of raisin growers in California. The cooperative was founded in 1912, and the famous Sun-Maid girl shown on each container of raisins was actually a seeder and packer called Lorraine Collett who worked for one of the members of the cooperative.

21A “General Hospital” network : ABC

The daytime soap opera “General Hospital” is the longest-running such drama still in production in the US, and is the second-longest running soap in the world. The first episode of “General Hospital” aired on April 1, 1963. The UK soap “Coronation Street” has been on TV since 9 December 1960.

24A Old Pontiac : GTO

The Pontiac GTO was produced by GM from 1964 to 1974, and again by a GM subsidiary in Australia from 2004 to 2006. The original GTO’s design is credited to Pontiac chief engineer at the time John DeLorean, who later founded the DeLorean Motor Company.

26A “Wonderwall” band : OASIS

“Wonderwall” is a 1995 song released by the English band Oasis. Originally titled “Wishing Stone”, composers Noel Gallagher and Owen Morris changed the name to “Wonderwall” as a nod to George Harrison’s 1968 debut solo album “Wonderwall Music”.

28A Expert on the hunt for the perfect eating utensil? : FORK EXPLORER (from “Ford Explorer”)

The Ford Explorer SUV was introduced in 1990, and is still going strong. The same car has been sold as the Mercury Mountaineer and the Lincoln Aviator.

34A Magic, on ESPN crawls : ORL

The Orlando Magic were formed in 1989 as an NBA expansion team. A local paper was asked to run a competition to suggest names for the new team and the community came up with its four top picks of “Heat”, “Tropics”, “Juice” and “Magic”. A committee then opted for “Orlando Magic”. A good choice I think …

36A Walks like a hippo : PLODS

The name “hippopotamus” comes from the Greek for “river horse”. Hippos are the third-largest land mammals, after elephants and rhinos. The closest living relatives to hippos don’t even live on land. They are the whales and porpoises of the oceans.

38A Hawks, on ESPN crawls : ATL

The NBA’s Atlanta Hawks started out as the Buffalo Bisons in 1946, although after only a few months the team was moved to Moline, Illinois as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. The Blackhawks were one of the 17 original teams playing at the founding of the National Basketball Association. There was another move in 1951 and a renaming to the Milwaukee Hawks, and yet again in 1955 when the team became the St. Louis Hawks. The latest move was to Atlanta, in 1968.

41A Ineffective shepherd of rhyme : BO PEEP

The lines that are most commonly quoted from the rhyme about “Little Bo Peep” are:

Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
And can’t tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, And they’ll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them.

But, there are actually four more verses, including this one:

It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side,
All hung on a tree to dry.

46A One who organizes hecklers at a comedy club? : JEER WRANGLER (from “Jeep Wrangler”)

Originally, the verb “to heckle” meant “to question severely”, and for many years was associated with the public questioning of parliamentary candidates in Scotland. In more recent times, the meaning has evolved into questioning that is less polite and that is directed at stand-up comics.

Chrysler’s Jeep Wrangler is a direct descendent of the military “Jeep” vehicle that the US military relied on heavily during WWII.

49A Quartet voice : TENOR

The voice types soprano, alto, tenor and bass can be abbreviated to the initialism “SATB”.

50A Coltrane’s horn : SAX

John Coltrane was a jazz saxophonist who also went by the nickname “Trane”. John’s son Ravi Coltrane is also a noted jazz saxophonist.

51A Big primate : APE

The tailless primates known as apes (also “hominoids”) are divided into two main branches: gibbons (lesser apes) and hominids (great apes). The hominids are the great apes, and belong to the family of primates called Hominidae. Extant genera that make up the family Hominidae are:

• chimpanzees
• gorillas
• humans
• orangutans

54A “Ragnarok” hero : THOR

“Thor: Ragnarok” is a 2017 superhero film in the “Thor” series. It departs from the previous Thor films’ more serious tone, and instead uses a fast-paced, humorous narrative. The film is noted for the strong chemistry between cast members, particularly Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, and Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie.

58A Metaphor for fitting items into a tight space : TETRIS

Tetris is a very addictive video game that was developed in the Soviet Union in 1984. The name Tetris comes from a melding of the prefix “tetra-” (as all the game pieces have four segments) and “tennis” (a favorite sport played by the developer). Since 2005 there have been more than 100 million copies of the game installed on cell phones alone.

65A Name on some compact trucks : TONKA

The toy manufacturer today known as Tonka started out as a manufacturer of garden implements in Mound, Minnesota in 1946. By 1955, toys had become the main product line for the company. At that time the owners decided to change the company name and opted for “Tonka”, a Dakota Sioux word meaning “great, big”.

67A Bob Marley’s “Get Up, __ Up” : STAND

Bob Marley co-wrote “Get Up, Stand Up” for The Wailers’ 1973 album “Burnin’”. He was inspired to write the song after visiting Haiti and being deeply affected by the poverty he witnessed there. It was to be the last song Marley ever performed live, which he sang from a stool at his final show in Pittsburgh in 1980.

Down

1D West African capital : ACCRA

Accra sits on Ghana’s coast and is a major seaport as well as the country’s capital city. The name “Accra” comes from a local word “Nkran” meaning “ants”, a name chosen because of the large number of anthills found in the area when the city was founded.

2D “Mean Girls” star : LOHAN

“Mean Girls” is a teen comedy movie released in 2004 starring Lindsay Lohan. Tina Fey also puts in an appearance, which really isn’t surprising as Fey wrote the screenplay.

6D Scratch removal device? : ATM

Lettuce, cabbage, kale, dough, bread, scratch, cheddar, simoleons, clams and moola(h) are all slang terms for money.

7D “New Love” singer Dua __ : LIPA

“New Love” is the debut single co-written and released by English singer Dua Lipa in 2015. Despite the title hinting at a romantic relationship with someone, the lyrics actually refer to Lipa’s struggle to find her place in the music industry.

9D Some oral meds : GELCAPS

Gelatin capsules (gelcaps) might be an issue for those on a strict vegan diet. The gelatin used in the capsule is made from collagen extracted from animal skin and bone.

11D Snack cake with a swirl : SWISS ROLL

The cake that we tend to call a “jelly roll” in the US is referred to as a “swiss roll” in many other parts of the world. It is a rolled sponge cake, filled with perhaps whipped cream or jam.

28D Tennis great Roger : FEDERER

Roger Federer is a Swiss tennis player considered by many to be the greatest tennis player of all time. Federer is married to former tennis pro Mirka Vavrinec. The couple are parents to two sets of twins.

29D Pop icon John : ELTON

Elton John’s stage name is a tribute to two members of his early band, Bluesology. He took the “Elton” from Elton Dean, a jazz saxophonist, and the “John” from Long John Baldry, a blues musician who famously topped the UK charts with “Let the Heartaches Begin”.

32D Blackthorn fruit : SLOE

The sloe is the fruit of the blackthorn bush, and the main flavoring ingredient in sloe gin. A sloe looks like a small plum, but is usually much more tart in taste.

39D Records : LOGS

The word “logbook” dates back to the days when the captain of a ship kept a daily record of the vessel’s speed, progress etc. using a “log”. A log was a wooden float on a knotted line that was dropped overboard to measure speed through the water.

44D “Theory of Forms” philosopher : PLATO

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato proposed the “Theory of Forms”, suggesting that true reality isn’t what we perceive in the physical world, but rather exists as perfect, unchanging “Forms” (Ideas) in a separate realm. What we see are imperfect copies of the “Forms”, which we cannot see.

47D Franklin who received honorary degrees from Harvard, Princeton, and Yale : ARETHA

Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul”, received numerous accolades throughout her career, including honorary doctorates from universities like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. She was also the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

51D Taylor Swift concert venue : ARENA

Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” made history by becoming the highest-grossing tour of all time, and the first concert tour to ever surpass $1 billion in revenue.

57D Morning’s end : NOON

Our word “noon”, meaning “midday”, comes from the Latin “nona hora” that translates as “ninth hour”. Back in ancient Rome, the “ninth hour” was three in the afternoon. Over the centuries, traditions such as church prayers and “midday” meals shifted from 3 p.m. to 12 p.m., and so “noon” became understood as 12 noon.

61D Some Energizers : AAS

We are all fairly familiar with the Energizer Bunny, I am guessing. It was introduced in 1989 to promote Energizer batteries, by parodying the Duracell Bunny that made its debut in 1973.

62D Atlantic food fish : COD

In Britain and Ireland, the most common fish that is used in traditional “fish and chips” is Atlantic cod. Cod has been overfished all over the world, and is now considered to be an endangered species by many international bodies. Confrontations over fishing rights in the North Atlantic led to conflicts called “the Cod Wars” between Iceland and the UK in the 1950s and the 1970s, with fishing fleets being protected by naval vessels and even shots being fired.