Day: October 25, 2025

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Constructed by: David Karp

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 12m 41s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5A Name on Iran’s flag : ALLAH

The Iranian flag in use today was adopted in 1980, a product of the Iranian Revolution. The flag is a tricolor composed of horizontal bands of green, white and red. Included in the green and red bands are the repeated words “Allahu Akbar”, which translates as “God is great”.

14A Pelvic bones : ILIA

The ilium (plural “ilia”) is the upper portion of the hipbone.

15A “Nightcrawling” novelist Mottley : LEILA

Leila Mottley wrote her debut novel, “Nightcrawling”, when she was just 17 years old. The novel was nominated for the Booker Prize, making Mottley the youngest person to be so honored.

16A Umami-rich paste : MISO

Umami is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, sour, bitter and salty. “Umami” is a Japanese word used to describe “a pleasant savory taste”. Umami was proposed as a basic taste in 1908, but it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the scientific community finally accepted it as such.

17A Design trend that showcases literary treasures : BOOKSHELF WEALTH

The term “bookshelf wealth” was coined in 2023 on social media. It describes an interior design trend that focuses on showcasing a large, personal, and well-read collection of books as the primary decor.

20A One of the Six Nations : SENECA

The Seneca Native American nation was a member of the Six Nations or Iroquois League, along with the Iroquois, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Tuscarora peoples. Historically, the Seneca lived south of Lake Ontario. The name “Seneca” translates as “Great Hill People”.

21A Buzzy instruments : KAZOOS

The modern instrument we know today as the kazoo was invented by one Alabama Vest of Macon, Georgia in the 1800s. The kazoo first came to the public’s attention at the Georgia State Fair of 1852, when it was known as the “Down-South Submarine” (because of its shape, I would imagine …).

22A Cookbook writer Rombauer : IRMA

Irma Rombauer was the author of the famous cookbook “The Joy of Cooking”. Rombauer self-published the book back in 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri. She and her family continued to publish privately as demand was high, and then a commercial printing house picked it up in 1936. “The Joy of Cooking” has been in print continuously ever since.

25A Gold-backed cryptocurrencies, e.g. : STABLECOINS

A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency designed to have a stable value, unlike highly volatile cryptocurrencies. It achieves this stability by “pegging” its market value to an external, less volatile asset. The first stablecoin was BitUSD, launched in 2014. BitUSD was pegged (theoretically) to the US dollar.

28A “There is no there there” coiner : GERTRUDE STEIN

Gertrude Stein was a great American writer who spent most of her life in France. Gertrude Stein met Alice B. Toklas in Paris in 1907, and the two were life partners until Stein died in 1946. Cleverly, Stein published her own memoir in 1933 but called the book “The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas”. It was to become Stein’s best selling title.

30A “Aladdin” actor Massoud : MENA

Mena Massoud is an Egyptian-born Canadian actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Tarek Kassar in the action drama series “Jack Ryan”, and the title character in the 2019 movie “Aladdin”.

32A Birkenstock option : CLOG

Clogs are shoes made from wood, at least in part. The clog originated as a protective item of footwear for use by farm, factory and mine workers.

Birkenstock is a shoe manufacturer based in Germany.

36A Texting tech : SMS

Short Message Service (SMS) is the name for the text messaging service that many of us still use on our cell phones to contact friends and family.

38A Festive vegan drink : OAT NOG

Oat-based nog has really taken off in recent years. I am a huge fan of the product, and a huge fan of the dark rum that I mix in with the oat nog ..

41A Guardians, on scoreboards : CLE

The Cleveland baseball franchise started out in 1869 as the Forest Citys, named after Forest City, the nickname for Cleveland. After a number of transitions, in 1914 the team took on the name “Indians”. The media came up with the name “Indians” after being asked for suggestions by the team owners. “Indians” was inspired by the successful Boston team of the day, the Boston Braves. In 2021, the team dropped the insensitive “Indians” moniker and renamed itself to the Guardians. The “Guardians” name is a reference to four pairs of Art Deco statues on the city’s Hope Memorial Bridge known as the Guardians of Traffic.

42A Spice cultivated from Crocus sativus : SAFFRON

Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice by weight. It is derived from the saffron crocus. The spice itself is the dried stigma found in the flower of the plant.

49A Nasty fall : SLEET

Apparently, “sleet” is a term used to describe two different weather conditions. One is a shower of ice pellets that are smaller than hail, and the second is a mixture of rain and snow, with the snow melting as it falls.

50A Thermometer type : ORAL

The first clinical thermometers were developed in the mid-19th century. They were typically a foot long and had to be held in place for as long as 20 minutes to get an accurate reading. The version I grew up with measured just six inches and took only five minutes to record body temperature. It was designed by English physician Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt in 1867.

54A Figure on Arizona license plates : SAGUARO

The saguaro is a beautiful cactus, one that is native to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. Arizona is proud of its saguaros, featuring them prominently on its license plates. If you ever get a chance to visit the Saguaro National Park in southern Arizona, I thoroughly recommend it.

Down

1D Lobster catchers : BIBS

The word “bib” comes from the Latin “bibere” meaning “to drink”, as does our word “imbibe”. So, maybe a bib is less about spilling the food, and more about soaking up the booze …

3D Animal on Sri Lanka’s flag : LION

The Sri Lankan flag features two vertical stripes next to a lion holding a sword. The lion represents the majority Sinhalese people, and the stripes represent the two largest minority populations, i.e. the Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils, and the Sri Lankan Moors.

5D Islamic palace in Spain : ALHAMBRA

Alhambra is a magnificent fortress and palace in Granada, Andalusia in the south of Spain. The large complex was completed in the 14th century in the days when the Moors ruled Andalusia. Its name comes from the Arabic “al-Ḥamrā”, meaning “the red one”, likely due to the reddish hue of its walls.

6D Spike in direction : LEE

Film director Spike Lee was born in Atlanta, Georgia but has very much made New York City his home and place of work. Most of Lee’s films are set in New York City, including his first feature film, 1986’s “She’s Gotta Have It”. That film was shot over two weeks with a budget of $175,000. “She’s Gotta Have It” grossed over $7 million at the US box office.

8D Melmac native : ALF

“ALF” is a sitcom that first aired in the late eighties. The title character is a hand-puppet, and supposedly an alien named Gordon Shumway from the planet Melmac. The alien crash-landed into the house of amateur radio enthusiast Willie Tanner. Tanner renamed the intruder “ALF”, standing for “alien life form”.

10D Component in many a smart home : AMAZON ECHO

Amazon Echo is a voice-controlled hardware device that can be used to provide several services including playing radio programs and music, recording of shopping lists, and managing a calendar. The device just sits in the home listening, until it hears a “wake up” command.

11D Only U.S. city with a zoo in a rainforest : HILO

Panaʻewa Rainforest Zoo on the Big Island of Hawaii is a small, 12-acre zoo, and the only one in the US that is located in a rainforest. It is owned by Hawaii County, and is one of the few zoos in the nation that has free admission (although donations are appreciated).

13D Mineralogist with a scale : MOHS

The Mohs scale of mineral hardness was developed in 1812 by Friedrich Mohs. Basically Mohs took minerals and scratched them with other minerals. In this way he was able to determine which minerals were hardest (most scratch resistant) and which softest. On the scale, diamond is the hardest (and rated 10), while talc is the softest (and rated 1).

18D “Ice Age” squirrel : SCRAT

Scrat is a character in the “Ice Age” series of animated films. He is a sabre-toothed squirrel, a species that is alleged to be the ancestor of the modern squirrel and rat. The name “Scrat” is a melding of “squirrel” and “rat”.

19D “Weird Al” parody that begins, “How come you’re always such a fussy young man?” : EAT IT

The 1984 song “Eat It”, released by “Weird Al” Yankovic, is a parody of Michael Jackson’s 1983 megahit “Beat It”. “Beat It” won the 1984 Grammy for Record of the Year, and “Eat It” won the 1985 Grammy for the Best Comedy Recording.

25D Teen who helps with the bills : SENATE PAGE

The first page employed in the US Senate was a 9-year-old boy appointed by then Senator and future Secretary of State Daniel Webster, in 1829. For almost a century and a half, only males could enter the Senate Page Program, until three female pages were appointed in 1971. Pages were also employed in the US House of Representatives starting the 1820s, but the House Page Program was discontinued in 2011.

26D Common cheese in kaasstengels : EDAM

Kaasstengels are savory cheese cookies from Dutch cuisine that are common in the Netherlands. They are also very popular in Indonesia, a former Dutch colony, especially during festive occasions like Christmas. The name “Kaasstengel” translates from Dutch as “cheese stick”.

28D People born yesterday : GEN ALPHAS

“Generation Alpha” is a term used to describe those born in the years between the mid-2010s and mid-2020s.

35D Children’s author Asquith : ROS

Ros Asquith writes the “Teenage Worrier” books aimed at teens, as well as cartoons for “The Guardian” newspaper in the UK.

37D Long or short amount : TON

Here in the US, a ton is equivalent to 2,000 pounds. In the UK, a ton is 2,240 pounds. The UK unit is sometimes referred to as an Imperial ton, long ton or gross ton. Folks over there refer to the US ton then as a short ton. To further complicate matters, there is also a metric ton or tonne, which is equivalent to 2,204 pounds. Personally, I wish we’d just stick to kilograms …

44D Govt. agent : FED

A fed is an officer of a US federal agency, although the term “fed” usually applies to an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

52D Nordic carrier : SAS

SAS was formerly known as Scandinavian Airlines System and is the flag carrier of three countries: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. SAS is based at Stockholm Arlanda Airport located just north of the Swedish capital.