Day: October 23, 2025

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Constructed by: Rebecca Goldstein

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Adherents to Culture

Themed answers are common roles reinterpreted as ADHERENTS to CULTURES specified in the corresponding clues:

• 17A Cancel culture adherent? : CORD CUTTER
• 25A Pop culture adherent? : SODA JERK
• 35A Counter culture adherent? : DELI CLERK
• 50A Hookup culture adherent? : SYSADMIN
• 59A Club culture adherent? : GOLF CADDIE

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

Bill’s time: 8m 41s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Jazz venue : UTAH

The Utah Jazz professional basketball team moved to Salt Lake City in 1979. As one might guess from the name, the team originated in New Orleans, but only played there for five seasons. New Orleans was a tough place to be based because venues were hard to come by, and Mardi Gras forced the team to play on the road for a whole month.

9A Bejeweled Blitz icons : GEMS

Bejeweled Blitz is a fast-paced puzzle video game in the popular Bejeweled series. The original Bejeweled video game involved matching up gems, and the Blitz version involves the same thing, but play time is limited to one minute.

17A Cancel culture adherent? : CORD CUTTER

Cord-cutting is moving away from subscription TV service offered by cable and satellite providers, and moving to streaming services offered over the Internet. I made the move some years ago, and saved a LOT of money. But, the providers of streaming services are smart, and my TV-viewing costs are rising steadily …

The contemporary term “cancel culture” describes a form of ostracism in which a person is ousted from various social circles. The victims, or so-called “victims”, of cancel culture are often celebrities who have acted questionably or made a controversial statement.

19A Purple pet in classic cartoons : DINO

In the Hanna-Barbera cartoon “The Flintstones”, Dino the pet dinosaur was voiced by the famous Mel Blanc, until Blanc passed away in 1989.

25A Pop culture adherent? : SODA JERK

In the halcyon days of yore, a soda jerk was usually a young person whose main job was to serve ice cream sodas in a drugstore. The server would “jerk” the handle on the soda fountain to dispense the soda water, giving the job its distinctive name.

27A Inverness veto : NAE

Inverness is in effect the capital city of the Scottish Highlands. It is the most northerly city in the whole of the United Kingdom. Inverness sits at the mouth of the River Ness, which flows from the famous Loch Ness.

28A Pinkie promises, e.g. : PACTS

The use of “pinkie” or “pinky” for the little finger or toe comes into English from “pinkje”, the Dutch word for the same digit. Who knew …?

30A Samba or mambo : DANCE

The samba is a Brazilian dance that is very much symbolic of the festival of Carnival. Like so much culture around the world, the samba has its roots in Africa, as the dance is derived from dances performed by former slaves who migrated into urban Rio de Janeiro in the late 1800s. The exact roots of the name “samba” seem to have been lost in the mists of time. However, my favorite explanation is that it comes from an African Kikongo word “semba” which means “a blow struck with the belly button”. We don’t seem to have a need for such a word in English …

The form of music and dance known as “mambo” developed in Cuba. “Mambo” means “conversation with the gods” in Kikongo, a language spoken by slaves taken to Cuba from Central Africa.

31A Trader Joe’s rival : ALDI

Aldi is an extremely large discount supermarket chain based in Germany with outlets in many countries, including the main European nations and Australia. The chain was founded in 1946 by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht. The name “Aldi” is an abbreviation of “Albrecht Diskont”, “Albrecht Discount” in English.

Trader Joe’s is a grocery store chain based in Monrovia, California that was founded in 1979 by Joe Coulombe. Trader Joe’s is very popular where I live, even though it stocks less than 10% of the items found in a typical grocery store. 80% of the items on the shelves are sold under a Trader Joe’s brand name, and are obviously chosen well. One of the more successful items is Charles Shaw wine, known as “Two Buck Chuck” here in California as it sold for many years at a price of $1.99.

33A “Geaux Tigers!” sch. : LSU

The Tigers are the sports teams of Louisiana State University (LSU). They are officially known as the Fightin’ Tigers, and the school mascot is “Mike the Tiger”. The name comes from the days of the Civil War, when two Louisiana brigades earned the nickname the “Louisiana Tigers”. Given the French/Cajun history of Louisiana, the LSU fans use the cheer “Geaux Tigers” instead of “Go Tigers”.

35A Counter culture adherent? : DELI CLERK

“Counterculture” refers to a movement whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, often in direct opposition to them. Examples would be the Beat Generation in the 1950s, and the Hippie Movement in the 1960s.

38A Rosemary cuttings : SPRIGS

The herb known as rosemary is reputed to improve memory. As such, rosemary has been used as a symbol of remembrance, especially in Europe and Australia. For example, mourners might throw sprigs of rosemary into graves, symbolically remembering the dead. The character Ophelia in William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” utters the line “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance”. The name of the herb comes from the Latin “ros marinus” which means “dew of the sea”. The idea is that rosemary can in fact grow in some arid locations with only the moisture that is carried by a sea breeze.

42A The __: manifestation of performance anxiety : YIPS

The informal term “yips” applies to the nervous twitching that can sometimes spoil a sportsman’s performance, especially a golfer’s putting stroke.

47A Computer clicker : MOUSE

The computer mouse was invented at the Stanford Research Institute in 1963, by one Douglas Engelbart. Sadly for him, his patent ran out before mice became standard equipment on computers, so he never made any money from his amazing invention.

50A Hookup culture adherent? : SYSADMIN

A system administrator (in the field of information technology) might be referred to as a “sysadmin”.

52A Alternative milk source with a high water footprint : ALMOND

I used to be a big fan of plain, unsweetened almond milk. It is made by combining almonds and water in a blender, and then straining out the almond pulp. I moved on to oat milk …

55A Froot Loops mascot Toucan __ : SAM

Toucan Sam is the mascot of Kellogg’s Froot Loops breakfast cereal, and he can be seen on the front of every box. Froot Loops have been manufactured by Kellogg’s since 1963. The little loops come in different colors, originally red, orange and yellow, but now there are green, purple and blue loops as well. Notice I said “different colors” not “different flavors”. Each loop tastes the same, so I wonder where the color comes from …?

59A Club culture adherent? : GOLF CADDIE

“Caddie” is a Scottish word, as one might expect given the history of the game of golf. It is a local word derived from the French “cadet” that describes a younger son or brother, or a student officer in the military. The variant spelling “caddy” is quite common.

63A Crochet Away nail polish brand : ESSIE

Essie Cosmetics is a company that was founded by Essie Weingarten, and which is now owned by L’Oreal. Apparently, Queen Elizabeth II would only wear Essie’s Ballet Slippers color nail polish. Well, that’s what Wikipedia claims …

64A Inheritance portion : GENE

A gene is a section of a chromosome that is responsible for a particular characteristic in an organism. For example, one gene may determine eye color and another balding pattern. We have two copies of each gene, one from each of our parents, with each copy known as an allele.

Down

1D Product lines? : UPC

The initialism “UPC” stands for Universal Price Code or Universal Product Code. The first ever UPC-marked item to get scanned in a store was on June 26, 1974 at 08:01 a.m. at Marsh’s supermarket in Troy, Ohio. It was a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum.

8D __ rancheros : HUEVOS

The popular breakfast dish huevos rancheros consists mainly of fried eggs served on tortillas and topped with salsa. The dish’s name translates as “eggs ranch-style”.

11D Isla in the Balearic Sea : MENORCA

The island of Minorca in the Mediterranean takes its name from the larger neighboring island of Majorca. The names come from the Latin “Insula Minor” meaning “Minor Island” and “Insula Major” meaning “Major Island”. The island is known as “Minorca” in English, and “Menorca” in Spanish and Catalan.

The Balearic Sea (also known as the Iberian Sea) is a section of the western Mediterranean located off the eastern coast of Spain. It is home to the Balearic Islands, which include Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, and Formentera. Major Spanish coastal cities like Barcelona and Valencia border the Balearic Sea, and it also receives the outflow of the Ebro River.

12D Explore the Balearic Sea, e.g. : SNORKEL

Our word “snorkel” comes from German navy slang “Schnorchel” meaning “nose, snout”. The German slang was applied to an air-shaft used for submarines, due to its resemblance to a nose, in that air passed through it and it made a “snoring” sound. “Schnorchel” comes from “Schnarchen”, the German for “snore”.

24D Biological translation template : RNA

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA. An added complication is that small changes in the sequence of amino acids specified by DNA sometimes takes place in a process known as RNA editing. This RNA editing occurs after the nucleotide sequence has been transcribed from DNA, but before it is translated into protein.

29D Forensic drama franchise : CSI

The “CSI” franchise of TV shows has been tremendously successful, and seems to really have legs. “CSI: Miami” (the “worst” of the franchise, I think) was canceled in 2012 after ten seasons. “CSI: NY” (the “best” of the franchise) was canceled in 2013 after nine seasons. The original “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” was set in Las Vegas, and hung in there until 2015 when it ended with a two-hour TV movie. Then there was “CSI: Cyber”. It lasted for two seasons, before being canceled in 2016. “CSI: Vegas”, a sequel to the original “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, launched in 2021, and lasted for three seasons.

32D Menzel who made her Broadway debut in “Rent” : IDINA

Actress and singer Idina Menzel came to public attention when she was a member of the original Broadway cast of “Rent”. She is known on the small screen for playing Shelby Corcoran on the musical TV show “Glee”. On the big screen, her most noted performance was as the voice actor behind Queen Elsa in the Disney hit “Frozen”. It is Menzel who sings the Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” in “Frozen”.

34D Coats paired with bow ties? : RED SAUCES

Farfalle is commonly referred to as bow-tie pasta because of its shape. The name comes from the Italian “farfalla” meaning “butterfly”.

37D Actor Simu : LIU

Simu Liu is a Chinese-born Canadian actor. One of his more famous roles was the title character in the Marvel Comics 2021 superhero movie “Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings”. He also played one of the Ken dolls in 2023’s “Barbie”.

38D Raw fish delicacy : SASHIMI

Sashimi is thinly sliced raw fish, although it can also be raw meat. The word “sashimi” translates literally as “pierced body”, which may be a reference to the practice of sticking the tail and fin to sliced fish to identify it.

44D Trying to reach, in a way : PINGING

In the world of computer science, a ping is a test message sent over a network between computers to check for a response and to measure the time of that response. We now use the verb “to ping” more generally, meaning to send someone a message, usually a reminder.

47D Boozy brunch beverage : MIMOSA

Where I come from, the cocktail known in North America as a mimosa is called a buck’s fizz, with the latter named for Buck’s Club in London where it was introduced in 1921. The mimosa came along a few years later, apparently first being served in the Paris Ritz. If you want to make a mimosa, it’s a 50-50 mix of champagne and orange juice, and it is very tasty …

48D Jazz icon Fitzgerald : ELLA

Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song”, made her real stage debut at the Apollo Theater in Harlem on Amateur Night when she was just 17 years old. She had intended to perform a dance routine, but decided to sing instead after seeing a superior dance act. She won the Amateur Night competition.

51D Spelling expert? : MAGE

“Mage” is an archaic word meaning “magician, wizard”.

53D Frog snack : MIDGE

“Midge” is a familiar term used for many different kinds of small flies.

56D Touch-to-pay tech : RFID

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a technology that uses radio waves to identify and track objects. It involves the use of an RFID tag, which is a small electronic device that consists of a microchip and an antenna, attached to the object. RFID technology is used in a wide range of applications, including payment systems and animal tracking.

58D Fenwick Island St. Park loc. : DEL

Fenwick Island is a narrow strip of land, just 3 miles wide, on the Atlantic coast of Delaware and Maryland. Despite the name, it isn’t really an island, and is joined to the mainland at the northern end.

60D Psychedelics study subj. : LSD

The term “psychedelic” was coined in 1956 by British-born psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. He proposed the term to describe the effects of taking the drugs LSD and mescaline. He suggested that “psychedelic” be defined as “mind-manifesting”, from the Greek “psyche” (mind) and “delos” (manifest).

61D Fair-hiring initials : 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.