Day: November 1, 2025

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Constructed by: Ryan Patrick Smith

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 25m 10s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15A I-dropper : THE ROYAL WE

The “royal we” is more correctly called the “majestic plural”, and is the use of a plural pronoun to describe a single person in a high office. I suppose the most often quoted phrase that uses the majestic plural is “We are not amused”, which is often attributed to Queen Victoria. The “editorial we” is a similar concept, in which a newspaper editor or columnist refers to himself or herself as “we” when giving an opinion.

16A Antler point : TINE

The antlers on a deer come to points. The higher the number of points, the more prized the head of the deer as a trophy, so I am told …

18A Derby, for one : RACE

Our use of the word “derby” to mean a race started in 1780 with the English Derby horse race, which was founded then by the 12th Earl of Derby. Ultimately, the term “derby” derives from the old English shire of “Deorby”, a word meaning “deer village”.

20A Soapstone, largely : TALC

The metamorphic rock known as soapstone or steatite has a myriad of uses, largely because it is relatively soft. It feels quite soapy to the touch, hence the name “soapstone”. It can be used for making countertops, or as a medium for artistic and decorative carving. It’s also used by tailors as a marking tool on cloth.

25A Red __ : HOTS

Red Hots are cinnamon-flavored candy pieces. I recently found out that Red Hots are sometimes used in apple sauce …

27A Youngest sister in the band Haim : ALANA

Musician Alana Haim is a member of the pop rock band Haim, along with her two sisters Este and Danielle. Alana also took a lead role in the 2021 film “Licorice Pizza” opposite Cooper Hoffman, son of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. That performance earned her nominations for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA.

28A Buy more Time : RENEW

“TIME” was the first weekly news magazine in the US. It was founded in 1923 by Briton Hadden and Henry Luce. Hadden and Luce had previously worked together as chairman and managing editor of the “Yale Daily News”.

30A With 56-Down, piledriver or Polish hammer : WRESTLING …
56D See 30-Across : … MOVE

A pile driver is a move used in professional wrestling that involves grabbing one’s opponent, turning them upside down, and driving them in the mat head-first (yikes!). Due to the high risk of head and neck injury, it is considered one of the most dangerous maneuvers in the “sport” and has been banned by major promotions like the WWE.

A professional wrestler making the double axe handle move clutches both hands together, and swings them downwards. The move is also known as the Polish hammer, after wrestler Ivan Putski who was famous for using the tactic.

32A Milwaukee rival : DREMEL

Dremel is a manufacturer of power tools intended for use in the home. The Company was founded back in 1932 in Racine, Wisconsin by Austrian inventor Albert J. Dremel. Dremel was quite the inventor, and held patents for devices such as an electric eraser, an electric fish scaler, and a device to monitor the production of chicken eggs. The first product sold by Dremel was an electric razor-blade sharpener.

35A “Auld Lang Syne” time, for short : NYE

The song “Auld Lang Syne” is a staple at New Year’s Eve (well, actually in the opening minutes of New Year’s Day). The words were written by Scottish poet Robbie Burns. The literal translation of “Auld Lang Syne” is “old long since”, but is better translated as “old times”. The sentiment of the song is “for old time’s sake”.

36A Plan for a night out? : STAR CHART

A star chart is a map of the night sky. The oldest known such map might be a 32,500-year-old mammoth tusk discovered in Germany, which features a carving that resembles the constellation Orion. A drawing in the Lascaux caves in France, dating back as far as 33,000 years ago, has been suggested to be a graphical representation of the Pleiades star cluster.

42A Chicken __ : KIEV

Chicken Kiev may indeed be a Ukrainian dish, one named for the capital city Kiev. It is a boneless chicken breast rolled around garlic, herbs and butter, breaded and deep fried. It was my Dad’s favorite …

43A “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” role : MARTHA

“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” is an Edward Albee play that premiered on Broadway in 1962. The play won a Tony in 1963, and was adapted into a successful film in 1966 starring Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, George Segal and Sandy Dennis. The stage version is a lengthy production lasting over three hours.

50A SoFi Stadium pro : LA RAM

SoFi Stadium is an arena in Inglewood, California just a few miles from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). It is the home of two NFL teams: the LA Rams and the LA Chargers.

54A NOLA squad : PELS

The New Orleans Hornets joined the NBA in 1988 as an expansion team, originally based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The team was going to be called the Charlotte Spirit, but the name was changed following a “name the team” contest run in the local area. During the Revolutionary War, Lord General Cornwallis had referred to Charlotte as a “veritable nest of hornets” due the city’s resistance to British occupation, which explains the local fans’ fondness for the name “Hornets”. The franchise was moved to New Orleans for the 2002 season, as attendance wasn’t big enough to sustain the team in Charlotte. The team had to play two seasons in Oklahoma City due to damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, and played as the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets. After several years back in New Orleans, the franchise was renamed to the Pelicans, a nod to the Brown Pelican that is the Louisiana state bird.

57A Plays that create one-on-one scoring opportunities, in basketball shorthand : ISOS

In basketball, “iso” is shorthand for “isolation play”. It’s a strategy where the team has all but one of its offensive players move to one side of the court. This “isolates” their best scorer on the other side with just one defender. The goal is to let the star player use their individual skills to beat their defender and score without interference from other members of the defense.

60A Animated musical film set in a theater : SING

In the 2016 animated musical “Sing”, a koala named Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) tries to save his struggling theater by hosting a singing competition. A typo on some flyers inflates the prize money, attracting a massive crowd of animal contestants, who are voiced by the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson and Seth MacFarlane. Notably, the movie features a soundtrack that includes over 60 popular songs.

61A Radiohead album with the single “Paranoid Android” : OK COMPUTER

“OK Computer” is a 1997 album released by the rock band Radiohead. All of the tracks were recorded at St. Catherine’s Court, a historic English manor near Bath that was owned at the time by actress Jane Seymour. The band took advantage of the building’s unique acoustics, recording individual tracks at varying locations in the house.

64A Brand in some bathrooms : MOEN

The Moen line of faucets was started in 1956 by inventor Alfred M. Moen. It was Moen who invented the first single-handed mixing faucet.

65A Phase when one stops being a pushover : VILLAIN ERA

The term “villain era” gained widespread popularity on TikTok in 2022. Despite the name, It doesn’t refer to evil-doing, but rather to a period of personal empowerment where an individual rejects people-pleasing tendencies and begins setting firm boundaries, The idea is that the person chooses to be the “villain” in someone else’s story in order to be the hero of their own.

66A Travel itinerary info : ETDS

Estimated time of departure (ETD)

67A Cartoon Network series about a trio of similarly named friends : ED, EDD N EDDY

“Ed, Edd n Eddy” is an animated TV show that aired for about a decade starting 1999. The title characters are three friends, three children living in a cul-de-sac in the fictional town of Peach Creek. In almost every episode, the trio are coming up with money-making scams so that they can purchase jawbreakers, their favorite candy.

Down

3D Captain Marvel, for one : HEROINE

The comic superhero Ms. Marvel was introduced through the character of Carol Danvers in March 1968. Carol Danvers later officially became the first to use the “Ms. Marvel” codename, gaining powers in January 1977 as a female counterpart to her mentor Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel died of cancer, in a 1982 graphic novel. Ms. Marvel finally took on her mentor’s moniker in 2012, becoming Captain Marvel.

6D Red choice : SYRAH

The Iranian city of Shiraz has long been associated with wine, but there is no proven link between the city and the wine/grape we know today as “Shiraz” (also called “Syrah”). Having said that, some clay jars were found just outside of the city of Shiraz that contained wine; wine that was 7,000 years old!

10D Novelist Gerritsen : TESS

Tess Gerritsen is a novelist and retired physician. Her most famous novels are the “Rizzoli & Isles” series, featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles. The Isles character also appears in the stand-alone crime thriller “The Bone Garden”, first published in 2007.

11D Mosey : STROLL

“Mosey” is American slang for “amble”, and is of unknown origin.

13D Preternatural : UNCANNY

The term “preternatural” can be linked to the term “supernatural”. The latter implies things outside our world (like ghosts or magic), whereas the former (from the Latin for “beyond nature”) describes an extraordinary but worldly ability that just seems to exceed normal limits. An example might be a musician with exceptional (preternatural) talent.

22D Rugby pass : LATERAL

In rugby, the fundamental passing rule is that a pass must not travel forward out of the hands. This means the player’s hands must be moving backward or sideways (laterally) relative to their own body when they release the ball. Because the passing player is often running forward at speed, their momentum is transferred to the ball. To an observer, this can look like a forward pass relative to the ground, but as long as the ball left the hands in a backward or lateral direction, the pass is legal.

24D Hill side, for short : DEMS

The designer of Washington D.C., Pierre L’Enfant, chose the crest of a hill as the site for the future Congress House. He called the location “Jenkins Hill” and “Jenkins Heights”. Earlier records show the name as “New Troy”. Today, we call it “Capitol Hill”.

33D Edward R. Robinson’s “Hymn for Soldiers Who Have __ in the Snow” : LAIN

Edward R. Robinson was an American poet and a veteran of World War II. His poem “Hymn for Soldiers Who Have Lain in the Snow” reflects his experiences as a soldier.

40D Went berserk : RAN RIOT

Our word “berserk” meaning “deranged” comes from the “Berserkers”, Norse warriors described in Old Norse literature. Berserkers were renowned for going into battle in a fury, and some believe that they consumed drugged food to get themselves worked up for the fighting ahead.

45D Renaissance weapon : HALBERD

A halberd is a weapon that is similar to a poleax. It comprises an axe blade on a pole, with a long spike above the blade. There is also a hook on the side of the pole opposite the axe blade. Halberds are still used today as ceremonial weapons by the Swiss Guard in the Vatican.

46D “Go jump in a lake!” : AMSCRAY!

Pig Latin is in effect a game. One takes the first consonant or consonant cluster of an English word and moves it to the end of the word, and then adds the letters “ay”. So, the Pig Latin for the word “nix” is “ixnay” (ix-n-ay), and for “scram” is “amscray” (am-scr-ay).

53D Itinerant : NOMAD

A nomad is someone who roams about. The term “nomad” comes from the Latin “nomas” meaning “wandering shepherd”. In turn, “nomas” comes from the Greek “nomas” meaning “roaming (especially when looking for pasture)”.

62D Tyke : KID

“Tyke” has been used playfully to describe a young child since at least 1902 For centuries before that, a tyke was a cur or mongrel, or perhaps a lazy or lower-class man.

63D Article indéfini : UNE

In French, an “article indéfini” (indefinite article) might be “une” (a, for feminine single nouns).