Day: January 11, 2026

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Constructed by: Jill Singer

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Repair Work

Themed answers are common phrases, but with a PAIR of adjacent letters that have been changed for a different pair:

• 27A Irresistibly cute river animal? : AN OTTER YOU CAN’T REFUSE (an offer you can’t refuse)
• 42A “Get that pool float out of my way!”? : MOVE THE NOODLE (move the needle)
• 55A Question about a new romantic partner? : WHO ARE YOU KISSING? (who are you kidding?)
• 78A Photo taken as milk spreads over a table? : THE SPILLING IMAGE (the spitting image)
• 91A Goo or ga, for a baby? : HALF THE BABBLE (half the battle)
• 108A Working the barbecue at the corn festival? : GRILLING FROM EAR TO EAR (grinning from ear to ear)

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

Bill’s time: 17m 59s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A Singer Guthrie : ARLO

Singer Arlo Guthrie is known for his protest songs, just like his father Woody Guthrie. The younger Guthrie only ever had one song in the top 40: a cover version of “City of New Orleans”. He has lived for years in the town of Washington, just outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His 1976 song “Massachusetts” has been the official folk song of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since 1981.

10A Actress Mireille : ENOS

Mireille Enos is an actress from Kansas City. She is perhaps best known for her TV work, playing Sarah Linden on “The Killing” and for playing twins Kathy and JoDean Marquart on “Big Love”. Enos is married to actor Alan Ruck, who I mainly remember playing Cameron Frye in the great movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”.

20A Shakespearean king : LEAR

Shakespeare was inspired to write his famous drama “King Lear” by the legend of “Leir of Britain”, the story of a mythological Celtic king.

21A Catholic leader : POPE

The Pope, as the Bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church, also serves as the sovereign of the Vatican City State, which is the world’s smallest independent nation. Vatican City is less than half a square kilometer (about 110 acres), making it smaller than many golf courses!

23A Santa Ana __ : WINDS

The Santa Ana winds are the very dry air currents that sweep offshore late in the year in Southern California. Because these air currents are so dry, they are noted for their influence over forest fires in the area, especially in the heat of the fall. The winds arise from a buildup of air pressure in the Great Basin that lies between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Under the right conditions, that air spills over the peaks of the Sierra Nevada and basically “falls” down the side of the Sierra range, heading for the ocean. As the air falls it becomes drier and heats up so that relative humidity can fall to below 10% by the time it hits the coast.

24A Miami-__ County : DADE

The residents of Florida’s Dade County voted to change its name to Miami-Dade County in 1997. The change was made in recognition of its most populous and famous city.

30A Video game thief Sandiego : CARMEN

The “Carmen Sandiego” franchise is a remarkably clever and helpful series of computer games and other media that is designed to educate users (primarily children). The applications were originally designed to use an exciting espionage motif in order to expose young people to geography and history, and even math, English and other subjects.

32A Pastoral people of Kenya : MASAI

The Masai (also “Maasai”) are a semi-nomadic people found in Kenya and Tanzania. They are semi-nomadic in that over the years they have been migrating from the Lower Nile Valley in northwest Kenya, and are moving into Tanzania.

33A Actor Sean : ASTIN

Sean Astin is best known for playing the title role in the 1993 film “Rudy” and the character Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings” movies. You might also have seen him playing Lynn McGill in the 5th season of “24”. Astin is the son of actress Patty Duke, and the adopted son of actor John Astin (of “The Addams Family” fame).

38A Update a cartographer’s work : REMAP

Cartography is the art of producing maps.

42A “Get that pool float out of my way!”? : MOVE THE NOODLE

Pool noodles are foam flotation devices and swim-toys much-loved by kids.

50A Early show since 1975, briefly : GMA

“Good Morning America” (GMA) is ABC’s morning show, and has been since 1975. There was even a spin-off show called “Good Afternoon America”, although that only lasted for a few months in 2012.

51A Aspiring atty.’s hurdle : LSAT

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

53A Freelancer’s job : GIG

The term “free lance” was coined by Sir Walter Scott in his 1820 novel “Ivanhoe”, when he used it to describe a medieval mercenary warrior. Forty years later, a “freelancer” was a journalist who did work for more than one publication without a long-term commitment.

54A __ a one : NARY

The adjective “nary” means “not one”, as in “nary a soul” or even “nary a one”.

62A Sausages served with sauerkraut, for short : BRATS

A bratwurst (sometimes simply “brat” in the US) is a German sausage. The name comes from “brät-” meaning “finely chopped meat”, and “Wurst” meaning “sausage”.

63A Sonoma product : WINE

Did you know that there are far more wine grapes produced in Sonoma than Napa? Within Sonoma County some of the more well-known appellations are Chalk Hill, Anderson Valley and Russian River Valley. Personally, when I want to visit the wine country, I head for the Russian River Valley as it’s far less crowded and much more fun than Napa Valley.

67A Juniper-flavored liquor : GIN

The spirit known as gin gets its unique flavor mainly from juniper berries. The name “gin” comes into English from the translation of “juniper” from either French (“genièvre”), Dutch (“jenever”) or Italian (“ginepro”).

77A “__ Maria” : AVE

“Ave Maria” (“Hail Mary” in English) is the prayer at the core of the Roman Catholic Rosary, which itself is a set of prayers asking for the assistance of the Virgin Mary. Much of the text of the “”Hail Mary”” comes from the Gospel of Luke. The words in Latin are:

AVE MARIA, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

The prayer has been adapted as a hymn. The two most famous musical versions of “Ave Maria” are by Charles Gounod (based on a piece by Bach) and by Franz Schubert.”

83A Figure skating gold medalist Nathan : CHEN

Nathan Chen is a figure skater from Salt Lake City who is known for performing the most technically difficult of programs in competition. He is a recognized master of the quadruple jump, and is sometimes referred to as the Quad King.

88A Gulf of Mexico structures : OIL RIGS

The Gulf of Mexico is a notorious site for oil exploration. There are about 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells on the Gulf’s seabed.

98A Davenport citizen : IOWAN

Davenport, Iowa sits on the Mississippi River. The city was founded in 1836 by landowner and businessman Antoine LeClaire, with the assistance of a group of investors. The investors resisted the use of LeClaire’s name for the new settlement as LeClaire was of mixed race, had a French name and was a Catholic. Instead, it was named for George Davenport, one of the other investors.

99A G-Shock watchmaker : CASIO

Casio is a Japanese manufacturer of mainly electronic products, including calculators, watches and electronic keyboards. It was Casio that produced the first portable and compact all-electric calculator, way back in 1957.

102A Some British sports cars : MGS

My neighbor used to keep his MG Midget roadster in my garage (away from his kids!) back in Ireland many moons ago. The Midget was produced by the MG division of the British Motor Corporation from 1961 to 1979, with the MG initialism standing for “Morris Garages”.

114A Unit in Chagall’s “Four Seasons” : MOSAIC TILE

Marc Chagall’s “Four Seasons” by Marc Chagall is a huge, four-sided mosaic located in downtown Chicago that portrays the spiritual and physical cycles of human life (the “four seasons”). Chagall, in his 80s, was present for the installation in 1974, where he modified the design on-site to update the depicted Chicago skyline.

118A K.T. of country music : OSLIN

Singer K. T. Oslin is best known for her string of country hits in the eighties.

121A Basketball great Shaquille : O’NEAL

Retired basketball player Shaquille O’Neal now appears regularly as an analyst on the NBA TV show “Inside the NBA”. Shaq has quite a career in the entertainment world. His first rap album, called “Shaq Diesel”, went platinum. He also starred in two of his own reality shows: “Shaq’s Big Challenge” and “Shaq Vs.”

122A Ignominy : SHAME

Ignominy is deep personal humiliation and disgrace. It literally means “loss of name”, coming from the Latin “ignominia”, which is derived from “ig-” (not) and “nomen” (name). So, it describes a disgrace so deep it essentially strips away one’s reputation or “good name”.

123A Hall of Fame safety Ronnie : LOTT

Ronnie Lott is a former NFL footballer who played most of his professional career with the San Francisco 49ers. After Lott retired, he co-founded the investment firm HRJ Capital with Harris Barton and Joe Montana (the H and J in “HRJ”). HRJ was in business for nine years, but collapsed in 2009.

Down

2D __ crest: pelvis part : ILIAC

The iliac crest is the curved, superior (top) edge of the ilium, which is the largest of the three bones that make up the pelvis.

3D Disco legend Summer : DONNA

Donna Summer is known as “The Queen of Disco”, with great hits like “Love to Love You, Baby”, “I Feel Love” and “Hot Stuff”. In the late sixties and early seventies, LaDonna Gaines (her real name) lived and worked in Germany. There she met and married an Austrian actor called Helmuth Sommer. They divorced not long after the marriage, but Donna kept his family name, just changing the “o” to “u” to give her the stage name of “Donna Summer”.

4D “Return of the Jedi” forest moon : ENDOR

The fictional forested moon of Endor features prominently in the “Star Wars” movie “Return of the Jedi”. The moon is home to the race of furry aliens known as Ewoks. Filming for the forest scenes actually took place in Humboldt Redwoods State Park in Northern California.

6D Like some pasta : AL DENTE

The Italian expression “al dente” literally means “to the tooth” or “to the bite” and is used to describe not only pasta, but also vegetables that are cooked so that they are tender and yet still crisp.

7D __ admiral : REAR

The rank of rear admiral is usually the lowest of the admiral ranks. The term originated with the Royal Navy. In days gone by, an admiral would head up the activities of a naval squadron from the central vessel. He (and they were always male back then) would be assisted by a vice admiral who acted from the lead vessel. There would also be a lower-ranking admiral to command the ships at the rear of the squadron, and this was the “rear” admiral.

9D Cookies similar to Trader Joe’s Joe-Joe’s : OREOS

Joe-Joe’s are a house brand of Trader Joe’s, the store’s answer to Oreos. They differ from the classic cookie in that Joe-Joe’s use real vanilla bean, visible as specks in the cream, and avoid hydrogenated oils and high-fructose corn syrup.

11D Bossa __ : NOVA

Bossa nova is a style of music from Brazil that evolved from samba. The most famous piece of bossa nova is the song “The Girl from Ipanema”. The term “bossa nova” translates from Portuguese as “new trend”, or more colloquially as “new wave”.

13D Sealy rival : SERTA

Serta was founded in 1931 when a group of 13 mattress manufacturers came together, essentially forming a cooperative. Today, the Serta company is owned by eight independent licensees in a similar arrangement. Serta advertisements feature the Serta Counting Sheep. Each numbered sheep has a different personality, such as:

• #1 The Leader of the Flock
• #½ The Tweener
• #13 Mr. Bad Luck
• #53 The Pessimist
• #86 Benedict Arnold

16D Home of the Spectacled Bear Conservation Society : PERU

The spectacled bear is also known as the Andean bear. The name “spectacled” comes from the bear’s coloring, which can resemble eyeglasses. The name “Andean” comes from the bear’s habitat along the Andes mountain range.

28D Musician and radio host John : TESH

John Tesh is a pianist and composer, as well as a radio and television presenter. For many years Tesh presented the show “Entertainment Tonight”. For “ET” he once covered the filming of an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. As part of the piece, he volunteered to act as a Klingon warrior. If you see the “Star Trek: TNG” episode called “The Icarus Factor” in reruns, watch out for John Tesh engaging in ritual torture with Mr. Worf as his victim.

29D The Tritons of the NCAA : UCSD

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is located in La Jolla. The school was founded in 1960 as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Appropriately enough, UCSD’s athletic teams are known as the Tritons, and the school mascot is King Triton.

37D Honeydew, e.g. : MELON

What we call honeydew melons are also known as white antibes, especially in France and Algeria where the cultivar has been grown for many years. Antibes is a commune in southeastern France, located between Nice and Cannes.

39D Crèche figures : MAGI

“Magi” is the plural of the Latin word “magus”, a term applied to someone who was able to read the stars. Hence, “magi” is commonly used with reference to the “wise men from the East” who followed the star and visited Jesus soon after he was born. In Western Christianity, the three Biblical Magi are:

• Melchior: a scholar from Persia
• Caspar (also “Gaspar”): a scholar from India
• Balthazar: a scholar from Arabia

In the Christian tradition, a nativity scene (also “crèche”) is a display representing the scene of the birth of Jesus. Nativity scenes might be subjects for paintings, for example, although the term is usually used for seasonal displays associated with the Christmas season.

41D Simon of “The Boys” : PEGG

Simon Pegg is an English actor and comedian who has hit the big time in Hollywood in the past few years. He played “Scotty” in a couple of “Star Trek” movies and tech wizard Benji Dunn in some of the “Mission: Impossible” films.

“The Boys” is a satirical superhero TV show based on a comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The superheroes (Supes) are marketed as heroic personae to the public, but their alter egos are corrupt and self-serving. The title characters are a CIA-sponsored black op team fighting that corruption.

42D Impressionist Édouard : MANET

Édouard Manet was a French painter whose works are mainly classified as Realist and Impressionist. Manet was friends with Impressionists masters like Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir and greatly influenced the Impressionist movement. The list of Manet’s marvelous paintings includes “Le Déjeuner sur l’Herbe”, “Le Repose”, and “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère”.

43D “The Light We Carry” writer Michelle : OBAMA

“The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times” is Michelle Obama’s 2022 follow-up to her bestselling 2018 memoir, “Becoming.” In this book, she shares personal stories and strategies she uses for navigating life’s challenges and staying hopeful in the face of uncertainty.

44D Self-replicating malware : VIRUS

A computer virus has characteristics very similar to a virus found in nature. It is a small computer program that can copy itself and can infect another host (computer).

45D Ice cream maker Joseph : EDY

Joseph Edy was a candy maker who famously partnered with ice cream maker William Dreyer. Edy’s confectionary background led to the concept of “mix-ins”. By adding marshmallows and walnuts into chocolate ice cream, the pair created rocky road, the first widely popular flavor beyond the standard vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.

47D Shipbuilding wood : OAK

White oak is uniquely suited for shipbuilding because it contains microscopic structures called tyloses that plug the wood’s pores as it matures, making it naturally watertight and rot-resistant.

55D Cuneiform, e.g. : WRITING

Cuneiform writing is a very early form of written expression that uses characters that are variants of a wedge shape. The first form of cuneiform writing was developed in Sumer (in modern-day Iraq), and was largely a system of pictographs. Over time, the number of characters decreased and became smaller and simpler, until they eventually evolved into the characters that we use in alphabetic writing today.

56D Panama, for one : HAT

Panama hats are traditional headgear from Ecuador, and have never been made in volume in Panama. The “panama” moniker came about as many of the hats were shipped to the Isthmus of Panama for transportation by sea to the rest of the world. Authentic panama hats are made from the leaves of a palm-like plant known locally as the jipijapa palm.

57D “Dallas” surname : EWING

The TV soap “Dallas” revolved around the Ewing family. The series that ran for 13 years was originally intended as a five-part mini-series, with the main characters being newlyweds Bobby and Pam Ewing. But, the devious character in the piece, Bobby’s brother J. R., became so popular with audiences that the series was extended with J. R. at the center of the story. Who can remember who shot J.R.? (It was Kristin Shepard: J.R.’s mistress, who was also his sister-in-law).

58D __ and yang : YIN

The yin and yang can be illustrated using many different metaphors. In one, as the sun shines on a mountain, the side in the shade is the yin and the side in the light is the yang. The yin is also regarded as the feminine side, and the yang the masculine. The yin can also be associated with the moon, while the yang is associated with the sun.

67D X, Y, or Z intro : GEN

The term “Generation X” originated in the UK where it was the name of a book by Jane Deverson. Her book detailed the results of a study of British youths in 1964, contrasting their lifestyle to those of previous generations. It was Canadian author Douglas Coupland who was responsible for popularizing the term, with his more successful publication “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”. By one definition, Gen-Xers were born between 1961 and 1981.

The Millennial Generation are sometimes referred to as “Generation Y” (Gen-Y). Millennials were born after the “Gen-Xers”, from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.

Definitions vary, but it seems that the term “Generation Z” is reserved for the children of “Generation X”, and for the generation that follows the “Millennials” (Generation Y). Gen-Zers are also known as “Zoomers”, a portmanteau of “Z” and “boomer” (as in “baby boomer”).

69D Hindi title : SAHIB

“Sahib” is most recognized as a term of address used in India, where it is used in much the same way as we use “mister” in English. The term was also used to address male Europeans in the days of the British Raj. The correct female form of address is “sahiba”, but in the colonial days the address used was “memsahib”, a melding of “ma’am” and “sahib”

70D Rejoice with pride : KVELL

To kvell is to be particularly proud, to rejoice. The verb “to kvell” comes into English via Yiddish from the Middle High German “kveln” meaning “to well up”.

73D Clerical robe : ALB

An alb is a white, neck-to-toe vestment worn by priests, usually with a rope cord around the waist. The term alb comes from “albus”, the Latin word for “white”.

74D “Supernatural” actor Collins : MISHA

Misha Collins is an actor best known for his role as the angel Castiel on the long-running TV series “Supernatural.” Beyond his acting career, Collins is a published poet with works featured in several literary magazines.

75D Rare Italian violin : AMATI

The first of the Amati family to make violins was Andrea Amati, who lived in the 14th century. He was succeeded by his sons Antonio and Girolamo. In turn, the two brothers were succeeded by Girolamo’s son Nicolo. Nicolo had a few students who achieved fame making musical instruments as well. One was his own son, Girolamo, and another was the famed Antonio Stradivari.

76D “__ Man”: Village People hit : MACHO

“Macho Man” is a 1978 song written and recorded by the disco group Village People. It was the group’s first song to chart in the US.

78D Mustang roof option : T-TOP

The Ford Mustang car was introduced in 1964. Back then the Mustang wasn’t a brand new design, but was based on the Ford Falcon. The Mustang was the first of the “pony cars”, American models that are compact and affordable, as well as sporty in image and performance.

81D __ Vegas Raiders : LAS

The Las Vegas Raiders football team was founded in 1960, and was originally intended to play in Minnesota. Instead, the team played in Oakland from 1960 to 1981 and then spent 12 years in Los Angeles before returning to Oakland in 1995. In 2017, the Raiders announced their plan to relocate to Las Vegas starting in 2020.

82D Global finance org. : IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was established at the end of 1945 with 29 major economies supporting and funding an effort to stabilize economies across the globe after WWII. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the IMF now has almost 200 member nations.

93D Brickmaker : LEGO

Lego produces some wonderful specialized sets with which you can build models of celebrated structures, including:

• The Statue of Liberty (2,882 pieces)
• The Sydney Opera House (2,989 pieces)
• The Eiffel Tower (3,428 pieces)
• Tower Bridge (4,295 pieces)
• The Taj Mahal (5,922 pieces)
• The World Map (11,695 pieces)

97D “__, ergo sum” : COGITO

The great French philosopher Rene Descartes made the famous statement in Latin, “Cogito ergo sum”. This translates into French as “Je pense, donc je suis” and into English as “I think, therefore I am”. Anything pertaining to the philosophy of Descartes can be described by the adjective “Cartesian”.

100D “I know this is wrong,” from an editor : [SIC]

[Sic] indicates that a quotation is written as originally found, perhaps including a typo. “Sic” is Latin for “thus, like this”. The term is more completely written as “sic erat scriptum”, which translates as “thus was it written”.

105D Silas of the Continental Congress : DEANE

Silas Deane was a member of the Continental Congress. When he was dispatched to Paris by the Congress, he became America’s first foreign diplomat. Deane’s amazing story is told in Joel Richard Paul’s book titled “Unlikely Allies”.

108D Engineered foods, for short : GMOS

A genetically modified organism (GMO) is one with genetic material that has been altered by genetic engineering. One might argue that the oldest form of genetic engineering is selective breeding, the use of animals or plants with desired traits for the creation of the next generation.

109D __ Hashana : ROSH

Rosh Hashanah is loosely referred to as “Jewish New Year”. The literal translation from Hebrew is “head of the year”.

112D Director Kazan : ELIA

Elia Kazan won Oscars for best director in 1948 for “Gentleman’s Agreement” and in 1955 for “On The Waterfront”. He was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences when he was given the 1998 Academy Honorary Award citing his lifetime achievement in the industry. Kazan also directed “East of Eden”, which introduced James Dean to movie audiences, and “Splendor in the Grass” that included Warren Beatty in his debut role.