Day: July 27, 2025

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Constructed by: Joe Rodini

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Three-Point Line

Themed answers are (obviously!) phrases composed of three repeated words:

• 22A Cosmetics case designed to hold a concise agreement? : COMPACT COMPACT COMPACT (concise – case – agreement)
• 34A Variety of thoughtful people? : KIND KIND KIND (thoughtful – people – variety)
• 54A Give the gift of the moment? : PRESENT PRESENT PRESENT (give – of the moment – gift)
• 75A Prevailing attitude about electric flow? : CURRENT CURRENT CURRENT (prevailing – attitude/drift – electric flow)
• 92A Precise penalty that works okay? : FINE FINE FINE (precise – penalty – works okay)
• 111A Neurosis caused by a group of labyrinthine apartments? : COMPLEX COMPLEX COMPLEX (labyrinthine – group of apartments – neurosis)

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

Bill’s time:17m 06s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Speed reader? : RADAR

Radar speed guns were first used to monitor traffic by Connecticut State Police in the town of Glastonbury, way back in 1947!

19A “The Firebird” outfit : TUTU

The word “tutu”, used for a ballet dancer’s skirt, is actually a somewhat “naughty” term. It came into English from French in the early 20th century. The French “tutu” is an alteration of the word “cucu”, a childish word meaning “bottom, backside”.

“The Firebird” is a ballet by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky that premiered in Paris in 1910. It tells the story of Prince Ivan and his encounter with the magical Firebird. The prince captures the Firebird, and uses it to defeat the evil sorcerer Kastchei, who holds a princess and her companions captive.

20A Crimson Tide, to fans : BAMA

The nickname “Crimson Tide” for the University of Alabama’s athletic teams originated in 1907. A sportswriter, after a particularly muddy game, described Alabama as a “crimson tide” due to their jerseys being stained red from the red clay in the field. The name stuck.

21A __ firma : TERRA

“Terra firma” is Latin for “solid ground”.

22A Cosmetics case designed to hold a concise agreement? : COMPACT COMPACT COMPACT

In the world of cosmetics, a compact is so called as it is a container for compacted face powder.

26A Iconic Munch painting : THE SCREAM

Edvard Munch’s iconic painting “The Scream” actually has multiple versions. There are two painted versions, two pastel versions, and a lithograph stone, with the most famous being the 1893 tempera on cardboard, which can be viewed at the National Museum of Norway, in Oslo.

29A Western alliance since 1948: Abbr. : OAS

The Organization of American States (OAS) was founded in Bogotá, Colombia in 1948 to promote solidarity and cooperation among its member states. The charter was signed by 21 countries, including the United States.

30A Largest Chinese ethnic group : HAN

The Han Chinese are the largest ethnic group in the world, making up about 18% of the global population and over 90% of China’s population.

31A Notre-Dame’s river : SEINE

There are two famous “îles” (islands) in the middle of the River Seine in Paris, one being the Île de la Cité, and the other Île Saint-Louis. Île de la Cité is the most renowned of the two, as it is home to the cathedral of Notre-Dame.

33A Spills the __ : TEA

To spill the beans is to divulge a secret. The expression first appeared in American English, in the early 1900s. The phrase arose as an alternative to “spoil the beans” or “upset the applecart”. The similarly meaning phrase “spill the tea” is more prevalent on the other side of the Atlantic.

38A Freddy Krueger’s haunting loc. : ELM ST

Freddy Krueger is the creepy serial killer in the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” movies. Krueger has a burned and disfigured face, wears a brown fedora and a leather glove with metal razors that he uses to kill his victims during their nightmares. He is played by the actor Robert Englund in all of the films.

44A Freud’s “The __ and the Id” : EGO

“The Ego and the Id” is a 1923 publication by Sigmund Freud. The paper was the culmination of the years of research focused on Freud’s model of the psyche, which incorporates the id, ego and superego.

48A Quaker grains : OATS

The Quaker Oats Company was founded in 1901 when four oat mills merged, including the Quaker Mill Company of Ravenna, Ohio. Quaker Mill’s owner Henry Parsons Crowell played the key role in creating the new company and remained at the helm until 1943.

49A Fireside treats : S’MORES

S’mores are treats peculiar to North America that are usually eaten around a campfire. A s’more consists of a roasted marshmallow and a layer of chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers. The earliest written reference to the recipe is in a 1927 publication called “Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts”. Girl Scouts always did corner the market on cookies and the like!

52A Langley org. : CIA

The CIA headquarters is located in Langley, Virginia in a complex called the George Bush Center for Intelligence. The facility was named for former Director of the CIA and US President George H. W. Bush. Langley used to be the largest intelligence agency (by area) in the western world, but that honor now goes to the BND Headquarters in Berlin.

53A “Don’t Matter” singer : AKON

“Don’t Matter” is a 2007 single by Senegalese American singer Akon. The song’s chorus features an interpolation of the 1979 song “Zimbabwe” by Bob Marley and the Wailers. As a result, Bob merely got a posthumous co-writing credit for “Don’t Matter”.

59A __ the line : TOE

The idiomatic expression “to toe the line” means “to obey”. The etymology of the phrase is disputed, although it is likely to come from the Royal Navy. Barefooted sailors were required to stand to attention for inspection lined up along the seams for the wooden deck, hence “toeing the line”.

63A Heidi Gardner’s show, for short : SNL

Comedian and actress Heidi Gardner joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in 2017.

65A Buds : CHUMS

A chum is a friend. The term “chum” originated in the late 1600s as an alternative spelling for “cham”. In turn, “cham” was a shortened form of “chambermate”, a roommate at university.

68A Yellowfin tuna : AHI

Yellowfin and bigeye tuna are usually marketed as “ahi”, the Hawaiian name. They are both big fish, with yellowfish tuna often weighing over 300 pounds, and bigeye tuna getting up to 400 pounds.

70A Matchmaking app that asks “Do you keep kosher?” : JDATE

Spark Networks is a company that owns several special-interest dating sites online. The most famous is probably ChristianMingle.com, but there is also BlackSingles.com, LDSSingles.com, JDate.com and CatholicMingle.com.

72A “This Film Is Not Yet Rated” subj. : MPAA

“This Film Is Not Yet Rated” is a fascinating 2006 documentary film about the rating system used by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). The film is largely critical of the MPAA rating system, and makes some pretty good arguments, in my humble opinion …

73A Actress Skye : IONE

Ione Skye is an American actress born in London, England. She is best known for portraying the character Diane Court in the 1989 high school romance movie “Say Anything…”, starring opposite John Cusack. Skye is the daughter of the Scottish folk singer Donovan.

75A Prevailing attitude about electric flow? : CURRENT CURRENT CURRENT

We often think of electric current as something that moves incredibly fast, but the individual electrons themselves actually drift quite slowly, often just a few millimeters per second. What travels at nearly the speed of light isn’t the electrons, but rather the electrical energy and the electromagnetic field that propels them.

80A Together, in scores : A DUE

“A due” is a musical term meaning “together” that translates literally from Italian as “by two”.

81A Phoenix cager : SUN

The Phoenix Suns NBA team are in the Pacific Division, and are the only team in that division not based in California.

82A Pacers point guard Haliburton : TYRESE

Tyrese Haliburton was drafted by the Sacramento Kings in the 2020 NBA Draft. He was traded to the Indiana Pacers in 2022, and made the NBA All-Star team in both 2023 and 2024. Haliburton also helped the USA Men’s National Team secure a gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games, becoming the first former Iowa State player to win Olympic gold in men’s basketball.

83A Othello’s false friend : IAGO

In William Shakespeare’s “Othello”, Iago is the villain of the piece. At one point he readily admits this, saying “Thus do I ever make my fool my purse”. Here he is claiming to make money out of making fools of others. In this case, he takes money from Roderigo, who believes that Iago will help him bed Othello’s wife Desdemona.

84A “Moonstruck” studio : MGM

“Moonstruck” is a 1987 movie, a romantic comedy starring Cher and Nicolas Cage. There’s a bit of a love triangle in the storyline, with Danny Aiello playing the man who loses the girl. “Moonstruck” won three Oscars and was a huge success, and somehow, I’ve never seen it …

85A Kentucky college that doesn’t charge tuition : BEREA

Berea College is located in Berea, Kentucky, just south of Lexington. It is a remarkable university that is focused on providing a low-cost education to students from low-income families. There are no tuition fees and instead students must work at least ten hours a week on campus and in service jobs. Berea was also the first college in the Southern US to become coeducational and the first to become racially integrated.

87A __ de plume : NOM

“Nom de plume” translates from French simply as “pen name”.

88A French city near the Belgian border : LILLE

Lille is a large city in the very north of France that sits right on the border with Belgium. The name “Lille” is a derivation of the term “l’isle” meaning “the island”. The former name “L’Isle” dates back to 1066, and is a reference to a castle that once stood on an island in the Deûle river that runs through the city. The city grew around the island and the castle.

90A Nutty green sauce : PESTO

Pesto sauce is more completely called “pesto alla genovese”, i.e. pesto from Genoa. A traditional recipe calls for crushed garlic, pine nuts, salt, basil leaves, parmesan cheese and olive oil. Yum …

96A “Notorious” SCOTUS justice : RBG

The 2015 book “Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg” was co-written by Shana Knizhnik and Iris Carmon. Knizhnik had previously authored a “Notorious R.B.G” blog. The moniker “Notorious RBG” is reminiscent of the name of rap star the Notorious B.I.G.

98A Punch bowl item : LADLE

The drink we call “punch” can be either alcoholic or non-alcoholic, but usually contains some fruit juice and/or fruit. The original “punch” was served in India, and the name comes from the Hindi word “panch” meaning “five”. This name was used because the traditional drink had “five” ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water and tea or spices.

99A Mens __ : REA

“Mens rea” is Latin for “guilty mind” and is a central concept in criminal law. The concept is expanded to “actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea” meaning “the act does not make a person guilty unless the mind be also guilty”. In other words, someone should not be deemed guilty of an act, unless he or she had a “guilty mind”, intended to do wrong.

100A “20/20” network : ABC

20/20 is one of the longest-running news magazines on American television, having premiered on ABC in 1978.

107A Vientiane language : LAO

Vientiane is the capital city of Laos, and is situated on the Mekong River. The city was originally called the “city of sandalwood” by Buddhist monks, naming it after the valued trees that grew in the area. The French took the Pali words for “city of sandalwood” and rewrote it as the French-sounding “Vientiane”.

108A Out of control situation : GOAT RODEO

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

114A Santiago’s country : CHILE

Santiago is the capital of Chile. The city was founded in 1541 by the Spanish as Santiago de Nueva Extremadura. The name was chosen in honor of Saint James and the community of Extremadura in western Spain.

121A Attire worn over pajamas : ROBES

Our word “pajamas” (sometimes “PJs” or “jammies”) comes to us from the Indian subcontinent, where “pai jamahs” were loose fitting pants tied at the waist and worn at night by locals and ultimately by the Europeans living there. And “pajamas” is another of those words that I had to learn to spell differently when I came to America. On the other side of the Atlantic, the spelling is “pyjamas”.

Down

1D Page facing a verso : RECTO

The left and right pages of a book or magazine are known in publishing circles as verso and recto. Recto comes from the Latin for “right”, and verso comes from the Latin word for “turned”. The idea is that the left side of the page is “turned” and is the reverse of the recto/right side.

5D Defensive basketball foul : REACH-IN

What might be described as a reach-in foul in basketball is when a defender extends an arm to impede an offensive player who does not have the ball. The official NBA rulebook doesn’t actually use that specific term. Instead, it’s categorized more generally under personal fouls.

7D Pixar film set on the Mediterranean coast : LUCA

“Luca” is a 2021 Pixar animated film. The title character is a sea monster boy who can take the form of a human while on land.

9D Dim __ : SUM

Dim sum is a Chinese cuisine made up of small portions of various dishes. The tradition of serving dim sum is associated with the serving of tea, when small delicacies were offered to travelers and guests along with tea as a refreshment. The name “dim sum” translates as “touch the heart” implying that dim sum is not a main meal, just a snack “that touches the heart”.

10D Brief : LACONIC

Ancient Laconia was a region in southern Greece that was dominated by the city of Sparta. The people from Laconia were proud of their brevity of speech, which gives rise to our modern term “laconic” meaning someone who uses few words.

11D BP checker : EMT

A blood pressure monitor is known more formally as a sphygmomanometer. It comprises an inflatable cuff and a manometer to measure the pressure in the cuff. The cuff is first inflated to the extent that the brachial artery in the upper arm becomes occluded (halting the blood flow). Two measurements are taken as the pressure is gradually reduced. The first is the pressure at which blood just starts to flow again. The second is the pressure at which blood starts to flow freely, unimpeded by the cuff.

14D The 21st Amendment, e.g. : REPEAL

Prohibition ended in December 1933 when the 21st Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified by the states. Ten months earlier, in anticipation of ratification of the 21st amendment, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Cullen-Harrison Act that allowed consumption of relatively low-alcohol content beer and wine (up to 3.2% by weight). The passage of the Cullen-Harrison Act is celebrated each year on April 7th as National Beer Day. April 6th is observed as “New Beer’s Eve”.

16D Tolkien monsters : ORCS

According to Tolkien, Orcs are small humanoids that live in his fantasy world of Middle-earth (also called “Mordor”). They are very ugly and dirty, and are fond of eating human flesh.

20D A dyeing art? : BATIK

Genuine batik cloth is produced by applying wax to the parts of the cloth that are not to be dyed. After the cloth has been dyed, it is dried and then dipped in a solvent that dissolves the wax. Although wax-resist dyeing of fabric has existed in various parts of the world for centuries, it is most closely associated historically with the island of Java in Indonesia.

23D Paper bird : CRANE

Origami is the traditional Japanese art form of paper folding. The best-known example of the craft is the paper crane (“orizuru“). The word “origami” is derived from “ori“ (folding) and “kami” (paper).

34D Big name in headphones : KOSS

Koss is a manufacturer mainly of headphones based in Milwaukee. The company was founded in 1958 by John C. Koss, the inventor of the first stereo headphone set.

35D Tidily arranged : KEMPT

The word “unkempt” means “disheveled, not well-combed”. It derives from the Old English word “cemban” meaning “to comb”. The opposite to the more common “unkempt” is … “kempt”.

36D “The Firebird” composer Stravinsky : IGOR

Composer Igor Stravinsky’s most famous works were completed relatively early in his career, when he was quite young. His three ballets “The Firebird”, “Petrushka” and “The Rite of Spring” were published in 1910-1913, when Stravinsky was in his early thirties.

40D Megaliths in Wiltshire, England : STONEHENGE

The magnificent Stonehenge monument in the south of England was built from 3000 to 2000 BC. “Stonehenge” has given its name to “henges”, a whole class of earthwork monuments that are circular in form with an internal ditch surrounded by a bank. Paradoxically, Stonehenge doesn’t qualify as a henge by this contemporary definition, as its earthen bank is surrounded by an external ditch.

42D Yankees slugger who wears No. 99 : AARON JUDGE

Aaron Judge is a baseball outfielder who was selected as 2017’s American League Rookie of the Year. Judge is a big guy. He weighs 282 pounds, and is 6 foot 7 inches tall. Judge set the American League single-season home run record in 2022 with 62 home runs, surpassing Roger Maris’s 61 from 1961.

43D Metal percussion instruments : STEEL DRUMS

Steel drums (also “steelpans”) are musical instruments that originated in Trinidad and Tobago. They were an evolution of similar drums made using bamboo. That evolution started in the early 1940s, when the base material for the drums became 55-gallon oil drums.

49D “Uncle!” : STOP!

To say uncle is to submit or yield. This peculiarly American use of “uncle” dates back to the early 1900s, but nobody seems to know how “uncle!” came to mean “stop!”

50D Place where salt and fresh water mix : ESTUARY

An estuary is a body of water that is connected directly to the open sea as well as to one or more rivers. As such, the water in an estuary is “brackish”, less saline than seawater but more saline than freshwater. The list of significant estuaries in North America includes Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, the East River and Long Island Sound.

57D Sudoku figs. : NOS

Number puzzles similar to our modern-day Sudoku first appeared in French newspapers in the late 1800s. The format that we use today was created by Howard Garns, a 74-year-old freelance puzzle constructor from Connersville, Indiana and first published in 1979. The format was introduced in Japan in 1984 and given the title of “Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru”, which translates to “the digits are limited to one occurrence”. The rather elaborate Japanese title was eventually shortened to Sudoku. No doubt many of you are fans of Sudoku puzzles. I know I am …

65D PC data base : CPU

The central processing unit (CPU) is the main component on the motherboard of a computer. The CPU is the part of the computer that carries out most of the functions required by a program. Nowadays you can get CPUs in everything from cars to telephones.

66D Hind counterpart : HART

Nowadays, a hart is a male red deer over five years old. A hind is a female red deer.

67D Sotto __ : VOCE

“Sotto voce” literally means “under the voice” in Italian, and describes the deliberate lowering of one’s voice for emphasis.

71D “We __ Family” : ARE

“We Are Family” is a fabulous 1979 song released by Sister Sledge. The song was written specifically for Sister Sledge, a group that was actually “family”, comprising four Sledge sisters from Philadelphia.

72D __ Laboratories: Tylenol developer : MCNEIL

Tylenol is a pain-relieving drug with the active ingredient acetaminophen (which is known as “paracetamol” outside of the US).

77D 123 Sesame Street resident : ERNIE

The central location in “Sesame Street” is a three-story row house with the address 123 Sesame Street. The first floor of the house is home to Robinson family, and the second story is occupied by the Rodriguez family. Bert and Ernie live in the basement, and Oscar lives in a trash can outside the house’s fence.

78D Gas used in lasers : NEON

Neon (Ne) was discovered in 1898 by two British chemists, Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers. They chilled a sample of air, turning it into a liquid. They then warmed that liquid and separated out the gases that boiled off. Along with nitrogen, oxygen and argon (already known), the pair of scientists discovered two new gases. The first they called “krypton” and the second “neon”. “Krypton” is Greek for “the hidden one” and “neon” is Greek for “new”.

85D Winter team racer : BOBSLED

Bobsleds are so called because competitors in the sport originally would “bob” in and out of the sled in order to increase its speed.

95D Donnybrook : FRACAS

“Fracas”, meaning “noisy quarrel”, is a French word that we absorbed into English. In turn, the French usage evolved from the Italian “fracasso” meaning “uproar, crash”.

A donnybrook is a free-for-all, a melee. It is named for a famous historic fair in Donnybrook, a district in Dublin, Ireland. Donnybrook Fair had the reputation as a place where there was lots of drinking and fighting. I used to hang out a lot in Donnybrook in my student days and didn’t see any fighting. Lots of drinking, but no fighting …

101D Designer Geoffrey : BEENE

Geoffrey Beene was an American fashion designer. He had an impressive list of clients that included First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Nancy Reagan. He had a very successful line of clothing called “Beene Bag”.

102D Directs a crew, informally : COXES

The coxswain of a boat is one in charge of steering and navigation. The word “coxswain” is shortened to “cox”, particularly when used for the person steering and calling out the stroke in a competition rowing boat.

103D Initials on Yuri Gagarin’s helmet : CCCP

The abbreviation CCCP stands for “Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик”, which translates from Russian as “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”, the USSR.

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space when his spacecraft Vostok I made a single orbit of the Earth in 1961. Sadly, Gagarin died only seven years later in a plane crash.

104D Hostess snack : HO HO

Ho Hos snack cakes were first produced in San Francisco in 1967, by Hostess. The “Happy Ho Ho” mascot was created for the brand in the 1970s, and was a cartoon character in a Robin Hood outfit. Ho Hos weren’t the best thing to come out of the sixties I’d say …

105D Bordeaux buddies : AMIS

Bordeaux is perhaps the wine-production capital of the world. Wine has been produced in the area since the eighth century. Bordeaux has an administrative history too. During WWII, the French government relocated from Paris to the port city of Bordeaux when it became clear that Paris was soon to fall to the Germans. After the Germans took France, the capital was famously moved to Vichy.

106D Austin festival, briefly : SXSW

South by Southwest, also known as “SXSW”, is an annual festival that has been taking place in Austin, Texas since 1987. SXSW is a melded event, combining a music festival, a film festival and an interactive festival.

108D “Chicago” star Richard : GERE

Richard Gere has played such great roles on the screen, and I find him to be a very interesting character off the screen. Gere has been studying Buddhism since 1978 and is a very visible supporter of the Dalai Lama and the people of Tibet. Gere has been married twice; to supermodel Cindy Crawford from 1991 to 1995, and to model/actress Carey Lowell from 2002 until 2016. Gere’s breakthrough role was as the male lead in the 1980 film “American Gigolo”.

The 2002 musical film “Chicago” is based on the 1975 stage musical of the same name, which in turn is based on a 1926 play, also of the same name. 2002’s “Chicago” was a big hit, and was the first musical to win the Best Picture Oscar since “Oliver!” in 1968.

109D Bovine workers : OXEN

Something described as bovine is related to a cow, ox or buffalo, or indeed any ruminant in the genus Bos. “Bos” is the Latin for “cow”, and “bovinus” a Late Latin derivative term.

110D Intel on a campaign rival : OPPO

In the world of politics, “oppo” is “opposition research”. The idea is to collect information on one’s opponent that can be used against him or her.