Day: December 9, 2025

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Constructed by: Doug Peterson

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Beer Run

Themed answers each start with a quantity of BEER, RUNNING from small to large as we descend the grid:

• 38A Trip to buy brewskis, or a sequence found in the starts of the answers to the starred clues : BEER RUN

• 17A *Metaphorical container similar to Pandora’s box : CAN OF WORMS
• 24A *Result of serious core training : SIX-PACK ABS
• 50A *Advocate from a social agency : CASE WORKER
• 60A *Pilot’s aerobatic maneuver : BARREL ROLL

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

Bill’s time: 5m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15A “Encore!” : MORE!

“Encore” is French for “again, one more time”, and is a shout that an audience member will make here in North America to request perhaps another song. But, the term is not used this way in France. Rather, the audience will shout “Bis!”, which is the Italian for “twice!”

16A Lymph __: immune system part : NODE

Lymph is a fluid that exists alongside blood in the body that is transported through lymph vessels. One of the functions of the system is to pick up bacteria in the body, transporting them to lymph nodes where they are destroyed by lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell). Lymph can also carry metastatic cancer cells that can lodge in lymph nodes, making lymph nodes a common site where tumors may be found growing.

17A *Metaphorical container similar to Pandora’s box : CAN OF WORMS

According to Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman. She was created by the gods, with each god bestowing on her a gift. Her name can be translated from Greek as “all-gifted”. Pandora is famous for the story of “Pandora’s Box”. The story should be about Pandora’s “Jar”,as a 16th-century error in translation created a “box” out of the “jar”. In the story of Pandora’s Box, curiosity got the better of her and she opened up a box she was meant to leave alone. As a result she released all the evils of mankind, just closing it in time to trap hope inside.

20A Crumbly Mexican cheese : COTIJA

Cotija is a salty and milky cheese named for the Mexican town of Cotija from where it originated.

22A “Beat Bobby Flay” contestant : CHEF

Bobby Flay is a celebrity chef who has hosted several shows on the Food Network. Flay is also an Iron Chef on the show “Iron Chef America”, which also airs on the Food Network.

30A Retired record holders? : IPODS

Reportedly, when Apple were planning the launch of their new music player in 2001, someone came up with the idea of the “iPod” name from the 1968 movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”. The particular line that inspired the name is: “Open the pod bay doors, HAL”.

31A Book before Amos : JOEL

Joel was one of the minor prophets, and the author of the Book of Joel in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles.

33A Basketball Hall of Famer Steve : NASH

Steve Nash is a former professional basketball player who spent most of his playing career with the Phoenix Suns. Nash is from Canada, although he was actually born in South Africa. He became the first NBA player to carry the Olympic torch and light the Olympic cauldron, which he did at the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, Canada.

37A Lucy of “Elementary” : LIU

Lucy Liu is an actress from Queens, New York. Her big break came when she was chosen to play the Ling Woo character in “Ally McBeal”. I liked Liu in the 2000 film “Charlie’s Angels” but as I am no fan of Quentin Tarantino, I did not enjoy the movie “Kill Bill”. I do enjoy one of Liu’s more recent projects in which she plays Joan Watson, one of the two lead characters in the TV crime drama “Elementary”.

If you’ve seen the American television show “Elementary”, you will know that it is an adaptation of the classic tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that are set in the present day. “Elementary” is similar in look and feel to the excellent BBC series “Sherlock”, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a modern-day Holmes. We can pick up “Sherlock” in some parts of the country as part of “Masterpiece Mystery” on PBS.

41A __-pitch softball : SLO

The sport we know today as softball was created as an indoor version of baseball. The first game was played on Thanksgiving Day in Chicago, in 1887. Back then, a “soft” ball was indeed used, but the name “softball” wasn’t adopted until 1926.

45A Schindler of “Schindler’s List” : OSKAR

Oskar Schindler is the protagonist in the Steven Spielberg movie “Schindler’s List”. Schindler was a real person who survived WWII. During the Holocaust, Schindler managed to save almost 1,200 Jews from perishing by employing them in his factories. After the war, Schindler and his wife were left penniless having used his assets to protect and feed his workers. For years the couple survived on the charity of Jewish groups. Schindler tried to make a go of it in business again but never had any real success. He died a pauper in 1974 in Hildesheim, not far from Hanover. His last wish was to be buried in Jerusalem. Schindler was the only former member of the Nazi Party to be buried on Mount Zion.

60A *Pilot’s aerobatic maneuver : BARREL ROLL

A barrel roll is an aerial stunt in which a plane makes a complete rotation around the longitudinal axis. The maneuver is so called as the corkscrew path that the aircraft executes makes it appear as though it is rotating through the inside of an enormous barrel.

66A Actress Mila : KUNIS

Mila Kunis is a Ukrainian-born, American actress who plays Jackie Burkhart on “That ’70s Show”. Fans of the cartoon series “Family Guy” might recognize her voicing the Meg Griffin character. In ”Black Swan”, Kunis plays a rival ballet dancer to the character played by Natalie Portman. In her personal life, Kunis dated Macaulay Culkin for 8 years, but married Ashton Kutcher, her co-star from “That 70s Show”, in 2015.

67A “Click here” text : LINK

In essence, the World Wide Web (WWW) is a vast collection of documents that is accessible using the Internet, with each document containing hyperlinks that point to other documents in the collection. So the “Web” is different from the Internet, although the terms are often used interchangeably. The Web is a collection of documents, and the Internet is a global network of computers on which the documents reside. The Web was effectively the invention of British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. The key to Berner-Lee’s invention was bringing together two technologies that already existed: hypertext and the Internet. I, for one, am very grateful …

Down

1D Enterprise captain Jean-__ Picard : LUC

When Gene Roddenberry was creating the “Star Trek” spin-off series “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, I think he chose a quite magnificent name for the new starship captain. “Jean-Luc Picard” is imitative of one or both of the twin-brother Swiss scientists Auguste and Jean Felix Piccard. The role of Picard was played by the wonderful Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart.

2D Mex. neighbor : USA

The Mexico-US border is the most frequently-crossed border in the world, although it is only the tenth longest border in the world between two countries.

7D 20 Mule Team laundry product : BORAX

Borax is also known as sodium borate, and is a salt of boric acid. Borax is a white powder that dissolves easily in water. The compound has many uses, for example as an antifungal agent, water-softening agent and as an antiseptic. Actor and future US president Ronald Reagan used to tout 20 Mule Team Borax that was used as a laundry product.

11D Hooded serpent : COBRA

“Cobra” is the name given to a group of snakes, some of which are in different families. The term is reserved for those snakes that can expand their neck ribs to create a hood. The name “cobra” is an abbreviated form of “cobra de capello” which translates from Portuguese as “snake with hood”.

12D Invent lines : AD-LIB

“Ad libitum” is a Latin phrase meaning “at one’s pleasure”. In common usage, the phrase is usually shortened to “ad-lib”. On the stage, the concept of an ad-lib is very familiar.

21D “__ du lieber!” : ACH

The German exclamation “Ach du lieber” translates as “Oh dear”.

22D Frito pie ingredient : CHILI

The oldest known printed recipe for frito pie dates back to 1949, in a Texas publication. Most recipes include chile, cheese and corn chips (usually Fritos), but can also include salsa, refried beans, sour cream, onion, rice and/or jalapeños.

26D Human rights org. : ACLU

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has its roots in the First World War. It grew out of the National Civil Liberties Bureau (CLB) that was founded to provide legal advice and support to conscientious objectors. The ACLU’s motto is “Because Freedom Can’t Protect Itself”. The ACLU also hosts a blog on the ACLU.org website called “Speak Freely”.

28D Plug-and-play port : USB

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard dealing with how computers and electronic devices connect and communicate, and dealing with electrical power through those connections.

31D Derek whose No. 2 was retired by the Yankees : JETER

Derek Jeter played his entire professional baseball career with the New York Yankees, and was the team’s captain. Jeter is the all-time career leader for the Yankees in hits, games played, stolen bases and at bats. He is also the all-time leader in hits by a shortstop in the whole of professional baseball. Jeter’s performances in the postseason earned him the nicknames “Captain Clutch” and “Mr. November”. Jeter retired from the game in 2014.

36D Trio on a triceratops : HORNS

A triceratops was a dinosaur that kind of looked like a rhinoceros, but with three horns. The name “triceratops” is derived from the Greek for “three-horned face”.

43D Tall monument that comes to a point : OBELISK

An obelisk is a rectangular column that tapers to the top and is capped by a pyramid shape. An image of an obelisk was used by the ancient Egyptians as a hieroglyph.

48D Hooting hunter : OWL

Much of an owl’s diet consists of small mammals. As a result, humans have used owls for centuries to control rodent populations, usually by placing a nest box for owls on a property. Despite the fact that owls and humans live together in relative harmony, owls have been known to attack humans from time to time. Celebrated English bird photographer Eric Hosking lost an eye when attacked by a tawny owl that he was trying to photograph. Hosking wrote a 1970 autobiography with the wry title “An Eye for a Bird”.

49D Museo del Prado display : ARTE

The Museo del Prado is in Madrid, the capital of Spain, and has one of the finest art collections in the world. The gallery’s most famous work is “Las Meninas” By Velazquez.

50D Humped oasis visitor : CAMEL

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of a camel is the large deposit of fatty tissue on its back. The dromedary is the most common camel, and has one hump of fatty tissue on its back. The Bactrian camel has two humps, and makes up just 6% of the world’s camel population. Those fatty humps are useful if no food or water is available, as fat can be broken down into water and energy.

51D Activision rival : ATARI

Video game publisher Activision was founded in 1979 by four programmers who left Atari, frustrated by the company’s refusal to give them public credit or royalties for their hit games. In doing so, the quartet founded the world’s first independent, third-party video game developer. Activision really took off with the release of the 1982 hit game”Pitfall!”.

52D Early invader of Britain : SAXON

Germanic tribes invaded Great Britain from the early 5th century and created the nation that we now call England. The Anglo-Saxons (sometimes simply “Saxons”), as these tribes came to be called, held sway in the country until the Norman Conquest in 1066. The Anglo-Saxons were descendants of three Germanic tribes:

• The Angles, from Angeln in Northern Germany (and the tribe that gave the name “England”).
• The Saxons, from Lower Saxony and Holland.
• The Jutes, from the Jutland peninsula in Denmark.

53D “__ Chameleon”: Culture Club hit : KARMA

“Karma Chameleon” was a massive hit for English pop band Culture Club in 1983 hit, and the group’s only song to reach #1 in the US. Lead singer Boy George described it as a song about the fear of alienation and the consequences of not being true to oneself: if one is a “chameleon”, trying to please everyone, “karma” will eventually catch up with you.

58D Grand Lodge group : ELKS

The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) was founded in 1868, and is a social club that has about a million members today. It started out as a group of men getting together in a “club” in order to get around the legal opening hours of taverns in New York City. The club took on a new role as it started to look out for poor families of members who passed away. The club now accepts African Americans as members (since the seventies) and women (since the nineties), but atheists still aren’t welcome. The list of US presidents that have been members of the BPOE includes Presidents Eisenhower, Harding, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Ford.

62D Prevarication : LIE

To prevaricate is to stray from the truth. The term “prevaricate” comes from a Church Latin word meaning “walk crookedly”.

63D Trippy drug : LSD

LSD was first synthesized in 1938 by Albert Hofmann, a Swiss chemist. Its psychedelic properties were not discovered until 1943, when Hofmann accidentally ingested a small amount.