Day: October 20, 2025

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Constructed by: Matthew Stock

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Side of Fries

The left SIDE of themed answers in the grid is a French FRY shape:

• 54A Combo meal component, and what the answers to the starred clues have : SIDE OF FRIES

• 16A *Breakfast chain founded in metro Atlanta : WAFFLE HOUSE
• 18A *Harlem Globetrotters legend known for his shaved head : CURLY NEAL
• 234A *Dramatic snag in the outfield : SHOE-STRING CATCH
• 51A *Feature of some blocky footwear : WEDGE HEEL

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

Bill’s time: 6m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Prefix with gender : CIS-

The term “cisgender” is used as the opposite of “transgender”. Cisgender people have a gender identity that matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

4A East Coast gas station chain with a goose logo : WAWA

Wawa is an East Coast chain of gas stations and convenience stores. Back in the late 1800s, Wawa was the name of a dairy farm operation that delivered milk to homes. When consumers started buying milk in grocery stores in the 1960s, the owners of Wawa shifted their focus and opened up the Wawa Food Market as an outlet for the milk from the dairy operation. Those early food markets developed into the chain of Wawa convenience stores.

13A Purple flower : LILAC

The ornamental flowering plant known as lilac is native to the Balkans, and is a member of the olive family. The name “lilac” comes from the Persian word “lilaq,” which means “flower.”

14A Wind instrument that typically has 23 tone holes : OBOE

An oboe as 23 tone holes, and sometimes an optional 24th. Some of these tone holes are incredibly small, with diameters as little as 2 mm, which contributes to the instrument’s unique, penetrating sound.

15A Hopping pal of Pooh : ROO

Like most of the characters in A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh”, the kangaroo named “Roo” was inspired by a stuffed toy belonging to Milne’s son Christopher Robin.

16A *Breakfast chain founded in metro Atlanta : WAFFLE HOUSE

Waffle House is a chain of restaurants, located mainly in the Midwest and South, that specializes in Southern breakfast food. Most Waffle House outlets have jukeboxes, and the chain even has its own record label: Waffle Records.

18A *Harlem Globetrotters legend known for his shaved head : CURLY NEAL

Fred “Curly” Neal played for the Harlem Globetrotters, wearing jersey number 22 for the entire 22 years he spent with the team. In 2008, he became just the fifth player in the Globetrotters’ long history to have his number retired.

24A __ Diego Padres : SAN

The San Diego Padres baseball team was founded in 1969, and immediately joined the ranks of Major League Baseball as an expansion team. The Padres took their name from a Minor League team that had been in the city since 1936. The name is Spanish for “fathers” and is a reference to the Franciscan Friars from Spain who founded San Diego in 1769.

32A Baseball apparel company : NEW ERA

The New Era Cap Company is a headwear manufacturer based in Buffalo, New York. It is New Era that supplies all the official baseball caps used by the Major League teams.

34A *Dramatic snag in the outfield : SHOESTRING CATCH

The shoestring catch gets its name because the fielder catches the ball just above the top of their shoes.

37A “Pick up the pace!” : PRONTO!

The Spanish and Italian (and now English) word “pronto” is derived from the Latin “promptus” meaning “ready, quick”.

40A Guffaw : YUK

“Guffaw”, meaning “boisterous laugh”, is an imitative word that is Scottish in origin.

43A Theater chain initials : AMC

The AMC theater chain used to go by the name American Multi-Cinema Inc., hence the initialism “AMC”.

45A Tennis legend Gibson : ALTHEA

Althea Gibson was known as “the Jackie Robinson of tennis” as she broke the “color barrier” and became the first African-American woman to win a Grand Slam title, in France in 1956. She was quite the athlete and was a great golfer as well as a great tennis player. She was the first African-American woman to play in the Ladies PGA tour, although she never had a win. Outside of sport, she sang a little and recorded an album, and even appeared in a movie (“The Horse Soldiers”) with John Wayne and William Holden. Sadly, towards the end of her life she ended up destitute and on welfare. When her plight was made known in a tennis magazine, well-wishers from all over the world sent her gifts of money, a total of nearly one million dollars. Quite a story …

54A Combo meal component, and what the answers to the starred clues have : SIDE OF FRIES

French fries are called “chips” back in Ireland, where I grew up. And what we call “chips” in the US are known as “crisps” in Britain and Ireland. In France, French fries are known as “pommes frites” (fried potatoes).

58A Some UNESCO World Heritage Sites : RUINS

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is better known by the acronym “UNESCO”. UNESCO’s mission is to help build peace in the world using programs focused on education, the sciences, culture, communication and information. The organization’s work is aimed in particular at Africa, and gender equalization. UNESCO also administers a World Heritage Site program that designates and helps conserve sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to humanity across the world.

59A Quoter’s “I’m aware of the error” : [SIC]

[Sic] indicates that a quotation is written as originally found, perhaps including a typo. “Sic” is Latin for “thus, like this”. The term is more completely written as “sic erat scriptum”, which translates as “thus was it written”.

Down

1D Historian’s word of approximation : CIRCA

“Circa” is a Latin word meaning “around, near, about the time of”. We use “circa” directly in English to mean “about the time of”, as well as in derivative words such as “circle” and “circus”.

3D Gambling venue that may offer Super Bowl parlays : SPORTSBOOK

A sportsbook is a place that accepts bets on sporting events. The name comes from:

• Sports: it accepts wagers on various sports, duh …
• Book: a reference to the ledgers that “bookmakers” (or “bookies”) traditionally used to keep track of all the bets and odds.

A parlay is a combination wager, one that links two or more bets. All bets have to win in order to collect on a parlay.

4D Elastigirl, to Mr. Incredible : WIFE

The creator of “The Incredibles” franchise designed Elastigirl’s powers to be a metaphor for the modern mother. He saw mothers as having to “stretch in a million directions” to juggle the countless demands of family life, which is mirrored in her superhuman elasticity.

5D __ Romeo : ALFA

The “Alfa” in “Alfa Romeo” is actually an acronym, one standing for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili (“Lombard Automobile Factory, Public Company”). ALFA was an enterprise founded in 1909 and which was taken over by Nicola Romeo in 1915. In 1920 the company name was changed to Alfa Romeo.

7D Blackjack card : ACE

In the card game blackjack, an ace has the point value of one or eleven. When one of the two cards dealt to a player is an ace, the hand is called “soft”. This means that the player cannot go bust by taking another card, as the ace can be revalued at “one” if necessary in order to stay under 21.

8D Pirate riches : BOOTY

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

13D __ Back: movement focused on ancestral sovereignty : LAND

The Land Back movement is a campaign by Indigenous peoples around the world to reclaim and restore Indigenous sovereignty and legal authority over lands that were taken through colonization. The movement is active, and has in some cases has had some success, in Australia, Canada, the US, Mexico, New Zealand and Fiji.

16D MGM Grand rival : WYNN

Steve Wynn is a businessman who made most of his fortune building and refurbishing casinos during the resurgence of Las Vegas in the 1990s. The Wynn Las Vegas, a resort and casino that bears his name, opened in 2005, at which time it was the tallest building in Nevada. Wynn is quite the art collector, and has paid record prices for paintings by both Turner and Rembrandt. He stepped down as CEO of Wynn Resorts in 2018, facing dozens of accusations of sexual misconduct.

17D HS course that taught practical skills : HOME EC

Home economics (home ec)

23D Dating app “designed to be deleted” : HINGE

Hinge is a dating app that was launched in 2012. Apparently, a key feature of the app is the use of Facebook friends to facilitate introductions to potential matches.

25D Card game that requires no skill : WAR

War is a card game, one played mainly by children.

26D Iron __ : rust : OXIDE

Rust is iron oxide. It forms when iron oxidizes, reacts with oxygen.

27D Greek salad topper : FETA CHEESE

What we know as a Greek salad here in North America evolved from the horiatiki salad from Greek cuisine. The name “horiatiki” translates as “peasant, village salad”. A typical horiatiki salad consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, onion, olives with a slice of feta cheese on top. It also includes a dressing made from Greek oregano and salt in olive oil. Notably, the original dish does not include lettuce.

28D St. Louis landmark : ARCH

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is located on the banks of the Mississippi River, and is the tallest monument in the United States. It was designed by Eero Saarinen, with the help of structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel. They did their design work back in 1947, but construction wasn’t started until 1963. In 1980, a daredevil took it upon himself to parachute onto the top of the arch, intending to further jump from the apex of the arch and parachute to the ground. He hit the arch all right, and slid all the way down one of the arches to his death. No comment …

47D Smart __ : ALECK

Apparently, the original “smart Alec” (sometimes “Aleck”) was one Alec Hoag, a pimp, thief and confidence trickster who plied his trade in New York City in the 1840s.

52D Lake between Toledo and Buffalo : ERIE

Toledo, Ohio lies in the northwest of the state, at the western end of Lake Erie. Toledo was founded as a result of the prosperity that hit the area when the Miami and Erie Canal was constructed in the 19th century connecting Cincinnati to the Great Lakes. Toledo is known as the Glass City as several glass companies originated there, including Owens Corning and Pilkington North America. There is a large exhibition of glass art at the Toledo Museum of Art.

Buffalo is the second-most populous city in the state of New York. The city takes its name from Buffalo Creek that runs through the metropolis (although the waterway is called Buffalo River within the city). The source of the name Buffalo Creek is the subject of much speculation, but one thing is clear, there were never any bison in the area.