Day: March 4, 2026

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Constructed by: Jacob Reed

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Coffee Break

Themed answers come in side-by-side pairs. Hidden within each pair is a kind of COFFEE, BROKEN in two by a black square:

• 64A Midmorning respite, or what can be found four times in this puzzle : COFFEE BREAK

• 17A Like many theme park puppets : ANIMATRONIC
• 19A School URL ending : EDU (ICED coffee break)

• 23A Dating app that went public in 2022 : GRINDR
• 25A Apple Store purchase : IPAD CASE (DRIP coffee break)

• 38A Not for : AGAINST
• 41A Pays to play : ANTES UP (INSTANT coffee break)

• 52A Rum cocktail : DAIQUIRI
• 55A Sundial need : SHADOW (IRISH coffee break)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Dept. of Labor div. : OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

5A Clinks with drinks : TOASTS

The tradition of toasting someone probably dates back to the reign of Charles II, when the practice was to drink a glass of wine to the health of a beautiful or favored woman. In those days, spiced toast was added to beverages to add flavor, so the use of the word “toast” was an indicator that the lady’s beauty would enhance the wine. Very charming, I must say …

11A Loop in on the DL : BCC

Something described as on the down low is secret. The phrase “on the down low” is often shortened to “on the DL”. The same abbreviated expression can also mean “on the disabled list” in sports.

14A Tangible : REAL

Something tangible can be perceived by using the sense of touch. “Tangible” derives from the Latin verb “tangere” meaning “to touch”. We also use the adjective figuratively to describe something that we can perceive as real in our minds.

16A WC : LOO

When I was growing up in Ireland, a bathroom was a room that had a bath and no toilet. The separate room with the commode was called the toilet or sometimes the WC (the water closet). Apparently the term “closet” was used because in the 1800s when homeowners started installing toilets indoors they often displaced clothes and linens in a closet, as a closet was the right size to take the commode.

23A Dating app that went public in 2022 : GRINDR

Grindr is a social networking app aimed at gay and bisexual men. Subscribers locate potential partners using the geolocation capabilities of smartphones. A user in a particular location can view a grid showing pictures of fellow subscribers arranged by proximity.

30A __ and cheese : MAC

Thomas Jefferson’s name is associated with the dish we know today as “mac ‘n’ cheese”. The future president discovered baked macaroni with Parmesan cheese while in Paris and in northern Italy. He started serving the dish to guests in the US, and even had a machine imported to make the macaroni locally. Whether or not Jefferson was the first to bring mac ‘n’ cheese to America isn’t entirely clear, but it has been popular ever since.

43A World Heritage Site in Jordan : PETRA

The archaeological city of Petra in Jordan sounds like a fabulous sight, and is known for its beautiful buildings that have been carved out of the natural rock. Because of the color of the sandstone used, Petra is known as “Rose City”. It is Jordan’s most visited tourist attraction.

47A Shoe brand known for a checkerboard design : VANS

Vans is a manufacturer of mainly skateboarding shoes. The company was founded as a shoe manufacturer in 1966 called the Van Doren Rubber Company. The business turned towards skateboarders in the seventies, and then adopted the “Vans” name in the nineties.

49A Butch Cassidy or the Sundance Kid : ALIAS

The Old West train and bank robber Robert Parker was better known by the name Butch Cassidy. His partner in crime Harry Longabaugh was known as the Sundance Kid. Famously, the exploits of Butch and Sundance were reenacted in the marvelous 1969 film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.

52A Rum cocktail : DAIQUIRI

Daiquirí is a small village on the coast near Santiago, Cuba and a key location in the American invasion of Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Supposedly, the cocktail called a “daiquiri” was invented by American mining engineers in a bar in nearby Santiago.

59A Grocery chain that requires a deposit for a shopping cart : ALDI

Aldi is an extremely large discount supermarket chain based in Germany with outlets in many countries, including the main European nations and Australia. The chain was founded in 1946 by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht. The name “Aldi” is an abbreviation of “Albrecht Diskont”, “Albrecht Discount” in English.

62A Upscale Honda : ACURA

Acura is a luxury vehicle brand produced by the Japanese automaker Honda. It was the first Japanese luxury car brand to be introduced to the US, in 1986. The Acura Legend and Acura Integra were the first two models released.

63A “Emilia Pérez” Oscar winner Saldaña : ZOE

American actress Zoë Saldaña played the Na’vi princess in “Avatar”, and Uhura in the 2009 movie “Star Trek” (and sequels). She seems to pick the right movies, as Saldaña is the only actress to have three different films in the top twenty at the box office for three consecutive weeks (“Avatar”, “The Losers” and “Death at a Funeral”).

“Emilia Pérez” is a 2024 musical crime film that originated as a libretto for an opera, which in turn is an adaptation from a single chapter in “Écoute”, a novel by Boris Razon. This French-language movie was a sensation at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, with the jury awarding the Best Actress prize to its entire female cast.

66A Musician Brian who co-developed the Oblique Strategies creative process : ENO

Musician Brian Eno and artist Peter Schmidt developed a deck of 113 cards subtitled “Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas” designed to combat the “studio panic” that often forces creators toward safe choices. They offered the deck for sale starting in 1974, although they are now somewhat of a collector’s item. The cards offer prompts that can be used to overcome a deadlock or dilemma during the creative process. Examples are: “Use an old idea”, “Try faking it!” and “Work at a different speed”.

69A __ Moines, Iowa : DES

The city of Des Moines is the capital of Iowa, and takes its name from the Des Moines River. The river in turn takes its name from the French “Riviere des Moines” meaning “River of the Monks”. It looks like there isn’t any “monkish” connection to the city’s name per se. “Des Moines” was just the name given by French traders who corrupted “Moingona”, the name of a group of Illinois Native Americans who lived by the river. However, others contend that French Trappist monks, who lived a full 200 miles from the river, somehow influenced the name.

70A Camelot figure : MERLIN

Merlin is a figure of legend. He is the wizard in the stories of King Arthur.

Camelot is featured in Arthurian legend. It was King Arthur’s castle and his court.

1D Chimp kin : ORANG

Orangutans (also “orangs”) are arboreal creatures, the largest arboreal animals known to man. They are native to Indonesia and Malaysia, and live in rainforests. Like most species in rainforests these days, orangutans are endangered, with only three species surviving. The word “orangutan” is Malay, meaning “man of the forest”.

2D Man of La Mancha : SENOR

La Mancha is a region in Spain, a plateau lying south of Madrid. The area became especially famous after the publication of the novel “Don Quixote de La Mancha” by Miguel de Cervantes.

3D Wyclef Jean’s birth country : HAITI

Wyclef Jean is an American rap artist who was born in Haiti and emigrated to the US with his family when he was 9 years old. In 2010, Wyclef made a serious attempt to run in the Haitian presidential election. His candidacy was rejected as he had not lived in the country for five years prior to the date of that election.

4D Amaretto flavor : ALMOND

Amaretto is an Italian liqueur with a sweet almond flavor. Even though the drink is sweet, it has a bitterness lent to it by the bitter almonds that are often used as a flavoring. The name “amaretto” is a diminutive of the Italian word “amaro” meaning “bitter”.

5D Letters on red Minecraft blocks : TNT

Minecraft is a video game that was released in 2011. Apparently, it is the most popular video game of all time, with well over 200 million units sold.

8D Vampire’s bedtime : SUNUP

Legends about vampires were particularly common in Eastern Europe and in the Balkans in particular. The superstition was that vampires could be killed using a wooden stake, with the preferred type of wood varying from place to place. Superstition also defines where the body should be pierced. Most often, the stake was driven through the heart, but Russians and northern Germans went for the mouth, and northeastern Serbs for the stomach.

10D Jiffy : SEC

“Jiff”, or “jiffy”, meaning “short time, instant” is thought originally to be thieves’ slang for “lightning”.

12D Musical finales : CODAS

In music, a coda is primarily a passage that brings a movement to a conclusion. “Coda” is Italian for “tail”.

13D Sedan alternative : COUPE

The type of car known as a “coupe” or “coupé” is a closed automobile with two doors. The name comes from the French word “couper” meaning “to cut”. In most parts of the English-speaking world the pronunciation adheres to the original French, but here in most of North America we go with “coop”. The original coupé was a horse-drawn carriage that was cut (coupé) to eliminate the rear-facing passenger seats. That left just a driver and two front-facing passengers. If the driver was left without a roof and out in the open, then the carriage was known as a “coupé de-ville”.

18D “__ Mack”: Disney Channel series featuring seventh graders : ANDI

“Andi Mack” is a comedy-drama TV series that aired on the Disney Channel. It was very popular with its target audience, young teenagers, and was praised for content that dealt with real-world issues. Notably, it was the first show on the channel to feature a main character that was gay.

22D Beaufort __ : SCALE

The Beaufort wind scale is named after Irishman Sir Francis Beaufort, a Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy. Beaufort was a hydrographer as well as a career navy man.

24D D&D et al. : RPGS

Dungeons & Dragons (D&D, DnD) is a complex role-playing game (RPG) introduced in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules Incorporated (TSR). Dungeons & Dragons was probably the first of the modern role-playing games to be developed, and the most successful. It is still played by lots of people today, including my youngest son …

31D Information conveyed by tree rings : AGE

Growth rings can be seen in a horizontal cross section of a tree trunk. These rings are caused by a change in the rate of growth of a tree that comes with the seasons, so the rings are more easily discerned in trees that grow in regions with marked seasonal changes.

39D Mosul resident : IRAQI

Mosul is located in northern Iraq and is the third largest city in the country, after Baghdad and Basra. It is located on the west bank of the Tigris river, opposite the ruins of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh in the east bank. Mosul was captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in 2014. Those residents of Mosul who did not escape suffered under the rule of ISIL until the city’s liberation following the Battle of Mosul in 2016/2017.

40D Half of Mork’s farewell : NANU

“Mork & Mindy” is a sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982. The title characters were played by Robin Williams and Pam Dawber. Mork is an alien from the planet Ork who reports back to his superior called Orson. Orson is played by voice actor Ralph James. Ralph James was also known for providing the voice of Mr. Turtle in famous Tootsie Pop commercials in the seventies. Nanu nanu!

42D Procedural that spun off from “JAG” : NCIS

NCIS is the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which investigates crimes in the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The service gives its name to the CBS TV show “NCIS”, a spin-off drama from “JAG” in which the main “NCIS” characters were first introduced. The big star in “NCIS” is the actor Mark Harmon. “NCIS” is now a franchise, with spin-off shows “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “NCIS: New Orleans”.

48D Olympian Biles who wears a goat necklace : SIMONE

Artistic gymnast Simone Biles holds many, many world and US records. In 2022, President Joe Biden presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, making her the youngest person ever to receive the award.

50D Starbuck’s boss : AHAB

The most famous whale-hunting ship in fiction has to be Herman Melville’s Pequod, which is featured in his novel “Moby-Dick”. It is skippered by the maniacal Captain Ahab, and the young chief mate is the thoughtful and intellectual Starbuck. Starbuck’s name was lifted and used by the Seattle-based coffee company.

57D Go on the stump : ORATE

“To stump” can mean “to go on a speaking tour during a political campaign”. This peculiarly American term dates back to the 19th century. Back then, a stump speech was an address given by someone standing on a large tree stump that provided a convenient perch to help the speaker get his or her message across to the crowd.

61D Lydic of “The Daily Show” : DESI

Comedian and actress Desi Lydic is perhaps best known as a correspondent on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah”, a gig that she signed up for in 2015. Lydic’s first name is short for her middle name. Her full birth name is Lani Desmonet Lydic.

65D Velvet finish? : EEN

Velveteen is an imitation velvet that is made from cotton or cotton and silk.