Day: August 8, 2025

Advertisement

Constructed by: Jess Rucks

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Four Three Dee

Themed answers all include exactly THREE letter Ds:

• 16A 3D film? : DROP DEAD GORGEOUS
• 25A 3D puzzle? : WORD LADDER
• 47A 3D animation? : DONALD DUCK
• 59A 3D printing? : DAVID COPPERFIELD

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

Bill’s time:7m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Blush wine : ROSE

The term “blush” has only been used in the world of wine since the late seventies, and is really only used here in the US. Today, we think of a blush as a relatively sweet pink wine, and a rosé as something more dry.

Rosé wines get their color from the skins of the grapes, although the intensity of the color is not sufficient to make them red wines. Of the varying type of rosé wines available, we are most familiar with sweet white zinfandels. Personally, I am fond of the dry Provençal rosé wines …

13A Loot : BOOTY

“Booty”, meaning “plunder, profit”, is derived from the Old French word “butin” that has the same meaning.

16A 3D film? : DROP DEAD GORGEOUS

The 1999 black comedy mockumentary “Drop Dead Gorgeous” stars Kirstie Alley, Ellen Barkin and Kirsten Dunst, as well as Amy Adams in her film debut. It had a mixed critical reception and was far from being a box office hit, but has since garnered a cult following. Allison Janney also appeared in the film, and has remarked that more fans approach her about “Drop Dead Gorgeous” than about her Emmy-winning role in “The West Wing”.

19A Buffoons : OAFS

A buffoon is a clown or jester, although the word “buffoon” tends to be used more figuratively to describe someone foolish and ridiculous. The term comes from the Italian “buffa” meaning “joke”.

22A Hairy Addams cousin : ITT

In the television sitcom “The Addams Family”, the family has a frequent visitor named Cousin Itt. He is a short man with long hair that runs from his head to the floor. Itt was played by Italian actor Felix Silla.

29A Fragrant latte : CHAI

Chai is a drink made from spiced black tea, honey and milk, with “chai” being the Hindi word for “tea”. We often called tea “a cup of char” growing up in Ireland, with “char” being our slang word for tea, derived from “chai”.

33A Drag icon with 14 Emmys : RUPAUL

RuPaul is a famous drag queen who has developed a diverse career beyond performing on stage. He works as an actor, model, author and a recording artist. Famously, RuPaul doesn’t mind whether one addresses him as “he” or as “she” …

You can call me he. You can call me she. You can call me Regis and Kathie Lee; I don’t care! Just as long as you call me.

He currently hosts his own reality TV show called “RuPaul’s Drag Race”, which is billed as a search for “America’s next drag superstar”.

37A Hieroglyph beetle : SCARAB

Scarabs were amulets in ancient Egypt. They were modeled on the dung beetle, as it was viewed as a symbol of the cycle of life.

The prefix “hiero-” comes from the Greek word “hieros” meaning sacred or holy. The classic use of the prefix is in the term “hieroglyph” (meaning “sacred carving”), the writing system that uses symbols and pictures.

40A __ Pueblo, New Mexico : TAOS

The town of Taos, New Mexico is named for the Native American village nearby called Taos Pueblo. The town is famous for its art colony. Artists began settling in Taos in 1899, and the Taos Society of Artists was founded in 1915.

41A “Seize the Awkward” spot, e.g. : PSA

“Seize the Awkward” is a public service announcement (PSA) campaign launched in 2018. It aims to empower young adults to talk to each other about mental health. The campaign received a 2020 Shorty Award for Best Use of a Spokesperson for its partnership with singer-songwriter Billie Eilish.

45A Basic French verb : ETRE

The French word for “to be” is “être”.

47A 3D animation? : DONALD DUCK

Donald Duck was created in 1934 by Walt Disney Productions, and first appeared in “The Wise Little Hen” in 1934. Donald’s full name is Donald Fauntleroy Duck.

52A Cuban ingredient : HAM

A Cuban sandwich (Spanish: Sándwich cubano) almost always includes Cuban bread filled with roast pork, glazed ham, Swiss cheese and sliced dill pickles. The Cuban was designated the city of Tampa’s signature sandwich in 2012.

54A Native Nebraskans : OMAHAS

The Omaha Nation was one of the most welcoming of the Native American tribes, never resisting the influx of European explorers and traders. The Omaha even fought alongside Union troops during the American Civil War, and have stood by the US people ever since. Regardless, the Omaha people lost most of their land and now reside on the Omaha Reservation in northeastern Nebraska and western Iowa.

58A “Queen of Country” McEntire : REBA

Reba McEntire is a country music singer and television actress. McEntire starred in her own sitcom “Reba” that aired on the WB and the CW cable channels from 2001 to 2007. She is sometimes referred to as “The Queen of Country”.

59A 3D printing? : DAVID COPPERFIELD

“David Copperfield” is the eighth novel penned by English author Charles Dickens, first published in serial form from 1848 to 1849. The novel is seen as a somewhat autobiographical work, with many characters and events mirrored in Dickens’ own life.

63A Corp. bigwig : EXEC

A bigwig is someone important. The use of the term “bigwig” harks back to the days when men of authority and rank wore … big wigs.

65A Animal whose name means “eater of bark” in Algonquian : MOOSE

The moose is the largest species in the deer family, and can stand almost at 7 feet at the shoulder. Moose are a little unusual in that they are solitary animals, unlike other deers who tend to move in herds. We use the term “moose” here in North America, but confusingly, the same animal is referred to as “elk” in British English.

68A Field for Kahlo y Burga : ARTE

Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter famous for her self-portraits. She was married to the equally famous artist Diego Rivera. Kahlo was portrayed by actress Salma Hayek in a film about her colorful life called “Frida” released in 2002.

Teresa Burga was a Peruvian conceptual artist who tragically passed away from COVID-19 in 2021. She was a pioneer of media art and installation art in Peru during the late 1960s and 1970s.

Down

7D Nocturnal cat? : LEO

The constellation named Leo can be said to resemble a lion. Others say that it resembles a bent coat hanger. “Leo” is the Latin for “lion”, but I’m not sure how to translate “coat hanger” into Latin …

9D Celtic language : GAELIC

The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic (in the same way that Romance languages, like Spanish and French, are descended from Latin. There are two main branches in the Celtic language family:

• Q-Celtic: often called “Gaelic”, and includes Irish, Scottish and Manx
• P-Celtic: including Welsh, Cornish and Breton

10D Potatoes, in Urdu : ALOO

Urdu is one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English), and is one of the 22 scheduled languages in India. Urdu partly developed from Persian and is written from right to left.

11D __ finder : STUD

A stud finder is a handy little device used to locate framing studs behind drywall. It’s very useful when searching for a stud to use in hanging a picture, say.

12D Small bouquet : POSY

“Poesy” was the name given to a line of verse engraved on the inner surface of a ring. The related word “posy”, for a bouquet of flowers, arose with the notion that giving a posy might be a message of love, just as a poesy inside a ring could have the same meaning.

13D Sausage that may be boiled in bier : BRATWURST

A bratwurst (sometimes simply “brat” in the US) is a German sausage. The name comes from “brät-” meaning “finely chopped meat”, and “Wurst” meaning “sausage”.

17D Karenina of literature : ANNA

I have to admit to not having read Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”, but I did see the excellent 1977 British television adaptation starring Nicola Pagett. I also saw the 2012 film adaptation with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard and found that to be far from excellent, awful in fact. I am no Stoppard fan …

18D Ruby, e.g. : GEM

Ruby is a precious stone made from the mineral corundum, also called aluminum oxide. The corundum includes some of the element chromium, which results in the red or pink color.

24D Creator of Sonic and Knuckles : SEGA

Sega is a Japanese video game company headquartered in Tokyo. Sega actually started out in 1940 as Standard Games and was located in Honolulu, which at that time was a city in the US Territory of Hawaii. The owners moved the operation to Tokyo in 1951 and renamed the company to Service Games. The name “Sega” is a combination of the first two letters of the words “Se-rvice” and “Ga-mes”.

26D Dorm figs. : RAS

A resident assistant/adviser (RA) is a peer leader found in a residence hall/dormitory, particularly on a college campus.

28D Hindu goddess whose name means “impassable” : DURGA

Durga is a major Hindu goddess whose name literally translates as “impassable” or “invincible”. She is often depicted riding a lion or tiger with many arms, each carrying a weapon, and is widely worshipped during festivals like Durga Puja and Navaratri.

30D Dish that resembles a jellied meatloaf : HEAD CHEESE

Head cheese is a meat jelly usually made using the fleshy part of the head from a calf or pig. The dish’s name is a bit of a misnomer, as there is no dairy involved at all. Rather, the meat products are set in gelatin. Back in Ireland, I used to eat a variant called brawn, which is made from the head of a pig and is offered as a sliced sandwich meat in delis. I didn’t know what I was eating …

31D Endearingly nerdy : ADORKABLE

I consider “dork” and “adorkable” to be pretty offensive slang. “Dork” originated in the sixties among American students, and has its roots in another slang term, a term for male genitalia.

38D __ rotation : CROP

Farmers use the technique of crop rotation in order to avoid one crop depleting the same set of nutrients from the soil in one particular field. In addition to rotating crops, farmers will usually let a field lie fallow for one season, i.e. leave it unplanted in order to give the soil time to recover.

39D Many unhappy returns? : BAD KARMA

Karma is a religious concept with its basis in Indian faiths. Karma embraces the notion of cause and effect. Good deeds have good consequences at some later point in one’s life, one’s future life, or one’s afterlife. And, bad deeds have bad consequences.

44D Investigative journalist __ B. Wells : IDA

Ida B. Wells was an African-American journalist and leader of the civil rights movement. She published a pamphlet in 1892 called “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases”, which publicized the horrors of lynching of African Americans by white mobs in the South.

47D Spots for hustlers : DISCOS

Discotheques first appeared during WWII in Occupied France. American-style music (like jazz and jitterbug dances) was banned by the Nazis, so French natives met in underground clubs that they called discotheques where records were often played on just a single turntable. After the war, these clubs came out into the open. One famous Paris discotheque was called “Whiskey a Gogo”. In that Paris disco, non-stop music was played using two turntables next to a dance-floor, and this concept spread around the world.

The hustle is a genre of disco dance that was popular in the seventies. The dance form really took off when Van McCoy released a song called “The Hustle”, to which an accompanying line dance became a big craze in 1975.

48D Tahoe, for one : LAKE

Lake Tahoe (often referred to simply as “Tahoe”) is up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and is located right on the border between California and Nevada. It is the largest alpine lake in the country. Tahoe is also the second deepest lake, with only the beautiful Crater Lake in Oregon being deeper. Given its location, there are tall casinos that sit right on the shore on the Nevada side of the state line where gambling is legal.

54D Some Keats works : ODES

Poet John Keats is famous for writing a whole series of beautiful odes. The most renowned are the so-called “1819 Odes”, a collection from the year 1819 that includes famous poems such as “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode to Psyche”.

57D Ignored the signs, perhaps : SPED

The first speed limit introduced on a road system was in 1861 in the UK. The limit back then was 10 mph, and this was reduced a few years later to 4 mph in the country, and 2 mph in towns. The highest speed limit ever posted was in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates from 2005 to 2010, a maximum of 160 km/hr (99 mph). Famously, the autobahns of Germany have no speed limit in some rural, uncongested areas.

61D March 14 dessert : PIE

The first three digits of the mathematical constant pi are 3.14. Pi Day has been celebrated on March 14th (3/14) every year since 1988, when it was inaugurated at the San Francisco Exploratorium. In countries where the day is usually written before the month, Pi Day is July 22nd, reflecting the more accurate approximation of pi as 22/7. Interestingly, March 14th is also Albert Einstein’s birthday.