Day: August 31, 2025

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Constructed by: Amie Walker & Wendy L. Brandes

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Get the Ball Rolling

Themed answers each start with a homophone of a letter, and those letters spell out “BINGO”:

• 3D With 70-Down, “Never would’ve predicted this scenario,” and what can be said about the first word of the answer to each starred clue? : THAT WASN’T ON …
• 70D See 3-Down : … MY BINGO CARD

• 4D *Request for greater detail : BE A LITTLE MORE SPECIFIC (B)
• 74D *Visionary physicians? : EYE DOCTORS (I)
• 50D *”Free Your Mind” group : EN VOGUE (N)
• 9D *”Really, Captain Obvious?” : GEE, YA THINK? (G)
• 12D *”C’mon, quit pretending to be confused!” : OH, YOU KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING (O)

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

Bill’s time: 16m 59s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8A “Totally ready for the weekend!” : TGIF!

“Thank God It’s Friday” (TGIF)

12A Muppet who lives in a recycling zone : OSCAR

Oscar the Grouch is the Muppet who lives in a garbage can. Oscar’s persona comes from various sources. He is named after Oscar Brand who was one of the board members of the Children’s Television Workshop, the backers for “Sesame Street” as the Muppets were being developed in the sixties. Oscar’s personality was inspired by an angry waiter that once served Jim Henson (father of the Muppets). The voice was modeled on a grumpy New York cab driver encountered one day by Caroll Spinney, the puppeteer who brings Oscar to life.

17A Letters for a monarch : HRH

His/Her Royal Highness (HRH)

18A Nook’s format, e.g. : E-TEXT

The Barnes & Noble electronic-book reader is called the Nook. The reader’s name is intended to evoke the usage of “nook” as a familiar place to sit and read quietly.

21A “Hungry hungry” animal in a kids game : HIPPO

Hungry Hungry Hippos is a children’s game in which players use plastic hippos to gobble up marbles.

22A Porto greeting : OLA!

Portugal’s city of Oporto (“Porto” in Portuguese) gave its name to port wine in the late 1600s. Oporto was the seaport through which most of the region’s fortified red wine was exported.

24A Where Penguins play on ice? : ARENA

The Penguins are a professional hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They have been around since 1967, and were one of the first expansion teams when the NHL grew from six to twelve teams. The expansion team were to play in Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena, a domed structure known locally as the Igloo. It was the “Igloo” name that inspired a fan to suggest the “Penguins” moniker, which won a contest to choose the name of the new franchise.

25A Raising agent : YEAST

Yeasts are unicellular microorganisms in the kingdom Fungi. The species of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been used for centuries in the making of wine and beer, and in breadmaking. Saccharomyces cerevisiae converts carbohydrates into carbon dioxide and alcohol in the process of fermentation. When making beer and wine, the carbon dioxide and alcohol may be captured by the liquid. When making bread, the carbon dioxide and alcohol is driven off by heat.

26A Lotus part : PETAL

The roots of the lotus plant penetrate into the bed of a lake or river, while the leaves float on the water’s surface. This behavior led to the use of the lotus as a symbol in the Buddhist tradition, as a symbol of purity of the body, speech and mind. The idea is that the lotus flower represents the pure body, speech and mind floating above the muddy waters of attachment and desire.

33A Rice dish cooked in a wide pan : PAELLA

Paella is sometimes referred to as the Spanish national dish, but not by Spaniards. In Spain, paella is regarded as a typical regional dish from Valencia. The name “paella” means “frying pan” in Valencian, and is a reference to the shallow vessel traditionally used to cook the dish over an open fire.

35A 1990s treaty acronym : NAFTA

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a treaty between Canada, Mexico and the United States. When NAFTA came into force in 1994, it set up the largest free trade zone in the world. It was replaced by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in 2020, an agreement that is often referred to as NAFTA 2.0 because it largely maintains the provisions in the original NAFTA treaty.

36A Inc., in Britain : LTD

In Britain and Ireland, the most common type of business (my perception anyway) is one that has private shareholders whose liability is limited to the value of their investment. Such a company is known as a private limited company, and has the abbreviation “Ltd.” (for “limited”) after the name. If the shares are publicly traded, then the company is a public limited company, and has the letters “plc” after the name.

44A “The penny drops!” : AHA!

When the penny drops for someone, that person has finally understood something. The phrase “the penny dropped” was coined in the 1930s in Britain and alludes to machines, like public telephones, that require coins to “drop” in order to operate.

48A __ kwon do : TAE

Tae kwon do is the national sport of Korea. “Tae” means “to strike or break with foot”; “kwon” means “to strike or break with fist”; “do” means “way” or “art”. Along with judo, tae kwon do is one of only two martial arts included in the Olympic Games.

54A __ nous : ENTRE

In French, something might perhaps be discussed “entre deux” (between two) or “entre nous” (between us).

59A Classic muscle car : GTO

By definition, a “muscle car” is a small vehicle with a large and maybe oversized engine.

64A Fin. neighbor : SWE

The Finland–Sweden border was defined in 1809 at the end of the Finnish War fought between Sweden and Imperial Russia. Very little of the border is on dry land, and most runs through the Gulf of Bothnia and along the Torne River and its tributaries.

67A KenKen figs. : NOS

KenKen is an arithmetic and logic puzzle invented quite recently, in 2004 by a Japanese math teacher named Tetsuya Miyamoto. “Ken” is the Japanese word for “cleverness”.

75A Mount also known as Kissavos : OSSA

Mount Ossa in Greece is located between Mount Pelion in the south, and the famed Mount Olympus in the north. Mount Ossa is also known as Kissavos.

76A Peruvian singer Sumac : YMA

Yma Sumac was a Peruvian soprano. She had a notable vocal range of five octaves.

84A Soccer star __ Heath : TOBIN

Tobin Heath is a professional soccer player who plays for the US national team. She has played club football on both sides of the Atlantic, turning out for the New York Fury, Paris Saint-Germain, the Portland Thorns, Manchester United and Arsenal.

88A Fair-hiring inits. : EEO

“Equal Employment Opportunity” (EEO) is a term that has been around since 1964 when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set up by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII of the Act prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin or religion.

89A College in Dublin : TRINITY

Trinity College Dublin (TCD) is one of the ancient universities of Britain and Ireland, and was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592. For much of its existence, it was the Protestant university for Ireland’s ruling elite. From 1871 until as late as 1970, the Catholic Church actually had a ban on Catholics attending the college without a special dispensation. There was also a tenuous link between TCD and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. At a time when the two English universities were refusing to confer degrees upon women, over 700 female graduates crossed the Irish Sea to receive degrees from Trinity College Dublin, in recognition of the completion of their studies in “Oxbridge”. These women earned the colorful nickname “Steamboat ladies”.

92A Pride event : PARADE

The first gay pride parades were held all on the same weekend in 1970, in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

95A Epiphany figures : WISE MEN

The holiday in the Christian tradition known as the Epiphany falls on January 6th. In some Spanish-speaking countries, the Epiphany is known as “Día de los Reyes”, and in others as “Día de Reyes” (Day of Kings).

97A Listen clandestinely : EAVESDROP

To eavesdrop is to listen in on someone else’s conversation without being invited to do so. The term comes from the practice of spies loitering in the area just outside the walls of a house, particularly in the “eavesdrip”, the ground close to a house that catches the drips of rainwater falling from the eaves of the roof.

102A Coats with ganache, e.g. : ICES

Ganache is a rich sauce made from chocolate and cream. To make a ganache, one pours heated cream over chopped chocolate, mixes until smooth, with perhaps a liqueur added for flavor. “Ganache” is French for “jowl”. I’m not sure how “jowl” links to a rich chocolate source, though.

103A Baseless rumor : CANARD

“Canard” is the French word for “duck”. We use the term to describe a hoax or a misleading rumor. This usage comes from a phrase used in French that translates as “to half-sell a duck”, meaning “to cheat”.

105A Conditional release : PAROLE

“Parole” is a French word that we use in English, with the French “parole” meaning “word, speech”. Of particular interest is the French phrase “parole d’honneur” which translates as “word of honor”. In the early 1600s we started using “parole” to mean a promise by a prisoner of war not to escape, as in the prisoner giving his “word of honor” not to run off. Over time, parole has come to mean conditional release of a prisoner before he or she has served the full term of a sentence.

107A “Good 4 U” singer Rodrigo : OLIVIA

“Good 4 U” is a 2021 chart-topping single released by Olivia Rodrigo. Three months after its release, Hayley Williams and Josh Farro of rock band Paramore were retrospectively given co-writing credits because the song’s chorus was noted for its influence from Paramore’s 2007 track, “Misery Business”. Ultimately, Williams and Farro received a substantial combined royalty share of 50%, with estimated payments to them falling between $700,000 and $1.2 million.

112A Orgs. that may serve as alternatives to hostels : YMCAS

The YMCA (the Y) is a worldwide movement that has its roots in London, England. There, in 1844, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was founded with the intent of promoting Christian principles through the development of “a healthy spirit, mind and body”. The founder, George Williams, saw the need to create YMCA facilities for young men who were flocking to the cities as the Industrial Revolution flourished. He saw that these men were frequenting taverns and brothels, and wanted to offer a more wholesome alternative.

114A Ring around a lagoon : ATOLL

An atoll is a coral island that is shaped in a ring that encloses a lagoon. There is still some debate as to how an atoll forms, but a theory proposed by Charles Darwin while on his famous voyage aboard HMS Beagle still holds sway. Basically, an atoll was once a volcanic island that had subsided and fallen into the sea. The coastline of the island is home to coral growth which persists even as the island continues to subside inside the circling coral reef.

A lagoon is a shallow body of water, usually separated from the sea by sandbar or reef. The term “lagoon” comes from the Italian “laguna”, the word for a pond or lake. The original “laguna” is the “Laguna Veneta”, the enclosed bay in the Adriatic Sea on which Venice is located. In 1769, Captain Cook was the first to apply the word “lagoon” to the body of water inside a South Seas atoll.

116A Rapace of “Prometheus” : NOOMI

Swedish actress Noomi Rapace really hit the big time when she took on the title role in the Swedish version of the “Millenium” series of movies, starting with “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” in 2009. Born Noomi Norén, she and her husband, actor Ola Norell, decided to jointly adopt the family name “Rapace” simply because it sounded “cool” (it means “bird of prey” in French and Italian).

“Prometheus” is a 2012 sci-fi horror film that is the fifth in the “Alien” series of movies. I saw the first one during its run in theaters, and decided to skip the remainder of the “Alien” films. Horror is not for me …

119A Central Asian mountain range : ALTAI

The Altai Mountains are a range in Asia, located where the countries of Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan meet. “Altai” is Turkic for “Golden Mountain”.

122A Vaccine molecule : RNA

A vaccine used to be exclusively a modified virus administered to an individual to stimulate the immune system into developing immunity, until mRNA vaccines were introduced to combat COVID-19. British physician Edward Jenner came up with the first vaccine, injecting people with the cowpox virus in order to prevent smallpox. The term “vaccination” comes from the Latin “vaccinus” meaning “from cows”, with “vacca” translating as “cow”.

123A “It’s Gonna Be Me” band : NSYNC

“It’s Gonna Be Me” is a song recorded by the boy band NSYNC in 2000. It was the only NSYNC song to make it to the top spot in the US charts.

124A Ramona, per Beezus : PEST

“Ramona and Beezus” is a 2010 kid’s movie based on the “Ramona” series of children’s novels by Beverly Cleary. The title characters are played by Joey King (Ramona) and Selena Gomez (Beezus). The original novel that inspired the title of the film is “Beezus and Ramona” (note the transposition of the names), but the movie’s plot is based on the storylines in the sequel novels “Ramona Forever” and “Ramona’s World”.

126A Susan of “The Partridge Family” : DEY

Actress Susan Dey first appeared on “The Partridge Family” when she was 17-years-old when she had no acting experience. Years later, Dey won a Golden Globe for playing the leading role of Grace Van Owen in “L.A. Law”.

The 1970s musical sitcom “The Partridge Family” stars Shirley Jones as a widowed mother of five children who launch a musical career as a family. The show’s storyline is loosely based on the careers of the real-life singing family The Cowsills.

Down

2D “The Library Book” writer Susan : ORLEAN

Journalist and author Susan Orlean’s “The Library Book” is a non-fiction book about a fire at a branch of the Los Angeles Public Library in 1986. She came up with the idea for the work when she accompanied her son on an interview with one of the facility’s librarians for a school project. Orlean’s own project was to be a tad more extensive, involving three years of research and two years of writing.

5D Georgia airport code : ATL

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is the world’s busiest airport, as measured by passenger traffic. Atlanta has had that distinction since 1998, and was the world’s busiest in terms of take-offs and landings from 2005 until 2013. Over 50% of Atlanta’s traffic comes from Delta Air Lines.

8D Field where accidents are common? : TORT LAW

“Tort” is a French word meaning “mischief, injury or wrong”. In common law, a tort is a civil wrong that results in the injured party suffering loss or harm, and the injuring party having a legal liability. Tort law differs from criminal law in that torts may result from negligence and not just intentional actions. Also, tort lawsuits may be decided on a preponderance of evidence, without the need of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

13D Afternoon snooze : SIESTA

We use the word “siesta” to describe a short nap in the early afternoon, and imported the word into English from Spanish. In turn, the Spanish word is derived from the Latin “hora sexta” meaning “the sixth hour”. The idea is that the nap is taken at the sixth hour after dawn.

14D Pros who try to stay balanced? : CPAS

Certified public accountant (CPA)

29D Nancy Drew’s boyfriend : NED

I loved the “Nancy Drew” mysteries as a kid. They were written by a number of ghost writers, all of whom went by the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. The character was introduced by publisher Edward Stratemeyer in 1930. Nancy Drew’s boyfriend is Ned Nickerson, a college student from Emerson.

30D “Un __ Loco”: “Coco” song : POCO

“Coco” is a 2017 Pixar movie about a 12-year-old boy named Miguel who ends up in the land of the dead by accident. There, he seeks out the help of the great-great-grandfather to get back to his family in the land of the living.

39D Groggy state : DAZE

Edward Vernon was a naval officer with the nickname “Old Grog”. In 1740, Vernon ordered that the daily ration of rum for his sailors should be watered down, in order to reduce discipline problems caused by drunkenness. The diluted rum was sweetened with sugar, and lemon or lime added to help preserve it on long voyages. This recipe, found to reduce scurvy among sailors (because of the citrus) spread throughout the Royal Navy, and “grog” was born. As an aside, George Washington’s older half-brother named the famous Washington Mount Vernon Plantation in honor of Edward Vernon. We use the derivative term “groggy” to mean “unsteady on the feet”, as if under the influence of “grog”.

40D Citi Field predecessor : SHEA

Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadows, New York was named after William A. Shea, the man credited with bringing National League baseball back to the city in the form of the New York Mets. Shea Stadium was dismantled in 2008-2009, and the site now provides additional parking for the new stadium nearby called Citi Field.

42D Follower of Jah : RASTA

“Jah” is a shortened form of “Jehovah”, and is a name often associated with the Rastafari movement.

50D *”Free Your Mind” group : EN VOGUE (N)

“Free Your Mind” is a 1992 song released by the vocal girl group En Vogue. It has been described as a “plea for racial tolerance”, with lyrics pointedly confronting prejudice, e.g. “I might date another race or color/Doesn’t mean I don’t like my strong black brothers”. The accompanying music video for “Free Your Mind” won three MTV Video Music Awards: Best R&B Video, Best Dance Video, and Best Choreography.

53D Brand with a Selena Gomez limited edition version : OREO

The Limited Edition Selena Gomez Oreo Cookies were released in 2025. In addition to the cookie’s unique flavor, each pack of Oreos includes six different embossment designs, including one spelling out “Selenators” (a nod to the Selena Gomez fan base) and another featuring Gomez’s own signature. A portion of proceeds from sales goes to the Rare Impact Fund, an organization founded by Gomez to increase access to mental health services for young people.

63D “__ mio” : O SOLE

“‘O sole mio” is a famous Italian song from Naples, written in 1898. The song’s lyrics are usually sung in the original Neapolitan, as opposed to Italian. The title translates from Neapolitan into “My Sun” (and not into “’O, My Sun” as one might expect). It’s a love song, sung by a young man declaring that there is a sun brighter than that in the sky, the sun that is his lover’s face. Awww …

64D Lead-in to “op” : SYS-

System operator (sysop)

69D Aspiring J.D.s’ exams : LSATS

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

70D See 3-Down : … MY BINGO CARD

The law degree that is abbreviated to “J.D.” stands for “Juris Doctor” or “Doctor of Jurisprudence”.

78D “Shark Tank” network : ABC

“Shark Tank” is a reality television show that features aspiring entrepreneurs making pitches to potential investors (the “sharks”) as they try to grow their businesses. The show is a Mark Burnett production and is based on a British series called “Dragons’ Den”.

80D “Poison” singer Ora : RITA

Rita Ora’s 2015 song “Poison” has an upbeat tempo, but lyrics that are pretty downbeat. They focus on a dysfunctional relationship with a toxic love-interest. The singer herself has stated that the song isn’t about one specific person, but rather about “bad luck” with love in general and how love feels “when it’s poisonous.”

81D Poetic performers : BARDS

The original bards were storytellers, poets and composers of music in medieval Britain and Ireland, with the term coming from the Old Celtic word “bardos” that described a poet or singer. I guess the most famous bard was William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon.

85D Like show-offy pushups : ONE-ARM

Slot machines earned the nickname “one-armed bandits” simply because they had “one arm”, the handle pulled to operate the machine. Well, they also rob your money!

93D Cruising the Caribbean, maybe : ASEA

The Caribbean Sea takes its name from the Island Carib people. The Island Caribs are an American Indian people that live in the Lesser Antilles islands, part of the West Indies.

94D Uniform adornment : EPAULET

An epaulet (also “epaulette”) is an ornamental shoulder pad, particularly one worn with a military uniform. The term “epaulet”comes from French, and translates literally as “little shoulder”.

96D Not alfresco : INDOORS

Our word “alfresco” means outdoors, in the fresh air. The term came into English from Italian, in which language “al fresco” translates literally as “in the cool air”.

98D Vance of “I Love Lucy” : VIVIAN

In the hit television show “I Love Lucy”, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz play Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. The Ricardos’ best friends are also their landlords, Fred and Ethel Mertz. The Mertzes are played by William Frawley and Vivian Vance.

101D Stritch of Broadway : ELAINE

Elaine Stritch was an actress and singer who had a very successful career, particularly on Broadway. She was nominated for a Tony Award five times, with the first nomination coming for her performance in the 1955 production of “Bus Stop”. Stritch eventually won a Tony in 2002, for her one-woman show “Elaine Stritch at Liberty”. She lived and worked in London for a long time. I remember her as a lead in a Britcom titled “Two’s Company”, which was successful in Britain and Ireland and was remade (without much success) in the US as “The Two of Us”.

104D Egyptian river : NILE

Depending on definition, the Nile is regarded generally as the longest river on the planet. The Nile forms from two major tributaries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile, which join together near Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. From Khartoum the Nile flows north, traveling almost entirely through desert making it central to life for those living along its length.

111D End of a.m. : 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.

114D Egyptian viper : ASP

We use the term “asp” today to refer to several venomous species of snakes found in the Nile region. Even though “asp” comes from the Greek “aspis” meaning “viper”, the asp that we know as the symbol of ancient Egyptian royalty was not a viper at all. Rather, it was the Egyptian cobra.