Day: January 3, 2026

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Constructed by: Kyle Dolan

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 12m 02s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A 2013 memoir that was followed in 2025 by “Finding My Way” : I AM MALALA

“I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban” is a memoir co-written by Malala Yousafzai and British journalist Christina Lamb. The title tells the essence of Malala’s story. She started a blog when she was 11 or 12 that outlined her life in northwest Pakistan under occupation by the Taliban. As the Pakistani military regained control of the area, Malala’s story was related in a documentary and she gave frequent interviews. One day a gunman came looking for her, and found her on a school bus. He shot Malala three times, with one bullet going into her forehead. She survived, and was taken to England to recuperate. She was a co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 at the age of 17, making her the youngest ever Nobel laureate.

“Finding My Way” is a 2025 memoir by Malala Yousafzai, a followup to her 2013 memoir “I Am Malala”. It focuses on her time at Oxford University, and deals with her struggles with PTSD, anxiety, and “imposter syndrome” while trying to fit in as a student. She also discussed her struggle to define her identity on her own terms beyond her childhood trauma under the rule of the Taliban.

10A Passing muster? : AWOL

“To pass muster” means “to be deemed acceptable”. One musters troops, often for inspection. So, the original meaning of “pass muster” was to “get through a military inspection successfully”.

15A Birds whose collective noun is chime : WRENS

Here are some colorful collective nouns:

• A pride of lions
• A shrewdness of apes
• A cloud of bats
• A bench of bishops
• A clowder of cats
• A waddling of ducks
• An army of frogs
• A knot of toads
• A memory of elephants
• A dazzle of zebra
• A tower of giraffe
• A crash of rhinos

18A Olive often found with spinach : OYL

The cartoon character Popeye is very fond of spinach, eating cans of the vegetable through his pipe and garnering great strength from it.

Popeye first appeared in 1929 in a comic strip called “Thimble Theatre”. The strip, created by E. C. Segar, ran for ten years before Popeye made an appearance. Popeye received such a great welcome from readers that he soon “took over” the strip, and eventually even hogged the strip’s title. Before Popeye turned up, Olive Oyl was the main character.

19A Word on a green helmet : JETS

Just like the New York Giants, the New York Jets are based in New Jersey, headquartered in Florham Park. The Jets and the Giants have a unique arrangement in the NFL in that the two teams share Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Jets were an AFL charter team, formed in 1959 as the Titans of New York. The Titans changed their name to the Jets in 1963.

23A Brio : PEP

“Brio” is borrowed from Italian, in which language the term means “vigor and vivacity”. “Con brio” is a musical direction often found on a score, instructing the musicians to play “with energy, vigor”.

25A Haterade : FLAK

“Flak” was originally an acronym standing for the German term for an aircraft defense cannon (FLiegerAbwehrKanone). “Flak” then became used in English as a general term for antiaircraft fire and ultimately a term for verbal criticism, as in “to take flak”.

An extremely negative person might be described as having drunk the “haterade”, a play on the beverage name “Gatorade”.

29A Thai’s neighbor : LAO

The Laos–Thailand border stretches over 1,100 miles, mostly following the Mekong River. The northern extremity is a tripoint with Myanmar, and the southern is a tripoint with Cambodia.

40A Big mo. for florists : FEB

Saint Valentine’s Day was introduced by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD to honor various martyrs with the name Valentine. However, the saint’s day was dropped by the Roman Catholic church in 1969, by Pope Paul VI. Try telling that to Hallmark though …

43A Rundgren in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame : TODD

Todd Rundgren is a Philadelphia-born musician who is known as a solo artist as well as a member of Utopia, a rock group that Rundgren formed in 1973. He is also a successful record producer, with his list of production credits including Meatloaf’s “Bat Out of Hell” (1977). Rundgren was listed on the birth certificate as the father of actress Liv Tyler. Rundgren’s girlfriend Bebe Buell had a brief relationship with musician Steven Tyler while she and Rundgren were on a break, and that brief liaison resulted in an unplanned pregnancy and the birth of Liv “Rundgren”. Liv learned of her biological father when she was eight years old, and eventually took his name. Liv and Todd Rundgren remain close to this day.

45A First perfect number : SIX

A perfect number is a whole number that is equal to the sum of its factors (excluding the number itself). The first perfect number is 6 (1 + 2 + 3 = 6), and the second is 28 (1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28).

46A Olympic archer? : EROS

Mount Olympus is the highest peak in Greece. In Greek mythology, it was home to the gods, and in particular home to the principal gods known as the Twelve Olympians.

55A Scenario just before a board takeover? : MATE IN TWO

In the game of chess, when the king is under immediate threat of capture it is said to be “in check”. If the king cannot escape from check, then the game ends in “checkmate” and the player in check loses. In the original Sanskrit game of chess, the king could actually be captured. Then a rule was introduced requiring that a warning be given if capture was imminent (today we announce “check!”) so that an accidental and early ending to the game doesn’t occur.

58A Sharp kicks? : ICE SKATES

“Kicks” is American slang for “shoes, sneakers”.

59A From South Asia, perhaps : DESI

People from the Indian subcontinent might refer to themselves as “desi”.

60A Namesakes of some days in English : NORSE GODS

The days of the week are named for celestial bodies and gods

• Sunday — Sun’s Day
• Monday — Moon’s Day
• Tuesday — Tiu’s day
• Wednesday — Woden’s day
• Thursday — Thor’s day
• Friday — Freya’s day
• Saturday — Saturn’s day

Down

4D Former “The Great British Baking Show” co-host Giedroyc : MEL

Mel Giedroyc is an English comedian best known for originally co-hosting “The Great British Baking Show” alongside her longtime comedy partner, Sue Perkins. The duo famously departed the series when it moved networks in 2016, stating in a joint announcement that they were “not going with the dough”. I’m a big fan of “Mel & Sue” …

“The Great British Bake Off” (GBBO) is a television baking competition introduced by the BBC in the UK in 2010. The show was a phenomenal and perhaps surprising success almost immediately. GBBO is rebroadcast in the US as “The Great British Baking Show”, because Pillsbury have trademarked the term “Bake-Off”.

9D Sanctuary : ARK

The term “ark”, when used with reference to Noah, is a translation of the Hebrew word “tebah”. The word “tebah” is also used in the Bible for the basket in which Moses was placed by his mother when she floated him down the Nile. It seems that the word “tebah” doesn’t mean “boat” and nor does it mean “basket”. Rather, a more appropriate translation is “life-preserver” or “life-saver”. So, Noah’s ark was Noah’s life-preserver during the flood.

10D Nickname of the slugger who holds the MLB record for most career grand slams : A-ROD

Baseball player Alex Rodriguez, nicknamed “A-Rod”, broke a lot of records in his career, albeit under a shroud of controversy due to his use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. When he signed a 10-year contract with the Texas Rangers for $252 million in 2000, it was the most lucrative contract in sports history. In 2007, Rodriguez signed an even more lucrative 10-year contract with the New York Yankees, worth $275 million. Rodriguez retired in 2016.

12D No longer a foal : ONE YEAR OLD

There are lots of terms to describe horses of different ages and sexes, it seems:

• Foal: horse of either sex that is less than one year old
• Yearling: horse of either sex that is one to two years old
• Filly: female horse under the age of four
• Colt: male horse under the age of four
• Gelding: castrated male horse of any age
• Stallion: non-castrated male horse four years or older
• Mare: female horse four years or older

22D “Queen of Creole Cuisine” Chase : LEAH

Chef Leah Chase was based in New Orleans, and earned the moniker “Queen of Creole Cuisine”. She owned a celebrated restaurant in the city, Dooky Chase, that was the place to be during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Disney used Chase as the inspiration for the lead character Tiana in the 2009 animated feature “The Princess and the Frog”.

24D C in C : POTUS

President of the United States (POTUS)

Commander-in-Chief (CINC)

26D Classic toys with colorful pegs : LITE-BRITES

The Lite-Brite toy was introduced in 1967. It is basically a light box with a grid of holes in which colored pegs can be placed to create designs. You can now get a Lite-Brite app for the iPad.

35D Early operating system : UNIX

Unix is a computer operating system that was developed at Bell Labs in 1969. The initial name for the project was Uniplexed Information and Computing Service (Unics), and this evolved over time into “Unix”.

36D Some vintage cars : REOS

The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale 8 and the REO Flying Cloud.

50D Birria order : TACO

Birria is a meat stew from Mexican cuisine. What is essential to the dish is that the meat be marinated in an adobo before being cooked in a broth. The traditional meat used in the stew is goat. Goats were brought to Mexico by the Conquistadors, even though they viewed goat meat as an inferior food. As such, they gave the goats to the locals, who learned to make the meat palatable by marinating and stewing it. The Spanish referred to the resulting dish as “birria”, meaning “worthless”. The name stuck.

51D “The Simpsons” character whose surname is Mann : OTTO

Otto Mann drives the school bus on the TV show “The Simpsons”. He is a Germanic character voiced by Harry Shearer, and his name is a play on “Ottoman Empire”. Whenever Bart sees him, he greets Otto with the words “Otto, man!”

53D Informal ride : HOSS

A cowboy might refer to his horse as a “hoss”.

54D Lemon : DUD

Long before we associated the term “lemon” with a defective car, it was used to describe defective items in general.

55D Hr. division : MIN

We use base-10, the decimal system for our numbers. Base-60, the sexagesimal system, was used by the ancient Babylonians. This ancient usage gives rise to our 60 seconds in a minute, and 360 (6 x 60) degrees in a circle.