Day: November 13, 2026

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Constructed by: Stacey McCullough & Larry Snyder

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Looks Can Be Deceiving

Themed clues each include two words that look like they might rhyme, but they don’t!

• 18A Year of tears? : PAGE-A-DAY CALENDAR
• 30A Show bow? : CURTAIN CALL
• 45A Kind of wind? : OCEAN BREEZE
• 58A Power shower? : BATTERY INDICATOR

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

Bill’s time: 7m 11s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Chicago team : CUBS

The Chicago Cubs baseball team was supposedly subject to the “Curse of the Billy Goat” from 1945 until 2016. Billy Sianis, the owner of a Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago, took his pet goat with him to a World Series game against the Detroit Tigers at Wrigley Field. Fans sitting nearby didn’t like the smell of the goat, and so the owner was asked to leave. As he left, Sianis yelled out, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.” And that is how a curse is born …

17A Beethoven symphony originally intended to honor Napoleon : EROICA

Beethoven originally dedicated his “Symphony No. 3” to Napoleon Bonaparte. Beethoven admired the principles of the French Revolution and as such respected Bonaparte who was “born” out of the uprising. When Napoleon declared himself Emperor, Beethoven (and much of Europe) saw this as a betrayal to the ideals of the revolution so he changed the name of his new symphony from “Bonaparte” to “Eroica”, meaning “heroic, valiant”.

18A Year of tears? : PAGE-A-DAY CALENDAR

Our word “calendar” ultimately derives from the Latin “calendae”. “Calends” were the first days of each Roman month. The Latin “calendarium” was an account book, as the debts fell due and accounts were reckoned on the first day of each month.

22A Paleozoic, for one : ERA

The Paleozoic Era (with “Paleozoic” meaning “ancient life”) was a geologic era from roughly 542 to 251 million years ago. Notably in the Paleozoic Era, fish populations thrived and vast forests of primitive plants covered the land. Those forests were the source material for the coal which we dig out of the ground now in Europe and the eastern parts of North America. The end of the Paleozoic Era was marked by the largest mass extinction in the history of the Earth, killing off 96% of all marine species and 70% of all terrestrial vertebrates. Causes of the extinction have been suggested, with one hypothesis being gradually accelerating climate change (scary!).

24A Little dickens : IMP

The phrase “little dickens” is used to describe a little imp, a badly behaved child. “Dickens” has served as a polite euphemism for the devil since the late 1500s.

25A Pumpkin seeds : PEPITAS

Pumpkin seeds are also known as “pepitas”, from the Mexican Spanish term “pepita de calabaza” meaning “little seed of squash”.

34A Pointillism bit : DOT

Pointillism is a style of painting that grew out of Impressionism. The pointillist technique calls for the artist to use small, distinct dots of bold color to build up the image. Pointillism was developed in the late 1800s by the great French painter, Georges Seurat. You can go see his magnificent work “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” at The Art Institute of Chicago the next time you’re in town.

35A Ribs, e.g. : BONES

In the human rib cage, the top seven sets of bones are known as true ribs as they are attached directly to the sternum or breastbone. The five sets below the true ribs are called false ribs as they don’t have this direct connection. The bottom two of the false ribs are also called floating ribs as they don’t connect to the sternum at all.

36A Ashram mentors : GURUS

“Ashram” is a term used in the Hindu tradition to describe a place of spiritual retreat, one that is typically located in a remote location conducive to spiritual instruction and meditation.

39A Countertop option : FORMICA

Formica is a laminated plastic that was invented in 1912 by two Westinghouse engineers. They developed it as an insulating material, something to use in place of the mineral mica. We are perhaps most familiar with formica as a surface finish for countertops and tabletops, an application that opened up in the 1920s when a process was developed to print marble and wood-grain patterns onto sheets of formica. Anyway, the name “formica” was chosen because it was intended as a replacement “for mica”. Quite interesting …

44A Bird that may be rufous-naped, fire-capped, or black-bibbed : TIT

The birds known as chickadees or titmice in North America, are usually called simply “tits” in the rest of the English-speaking world.

49A Mixture : MELANGE

“Mélange” is the French word for “mixture”.

63A Outdated marriage vow word : OBEY

In the Christian tradition, the requirement for a bride to promise to “obey” her husband originates from the 1549 “Book of Common Prayer”. For centuries, the groom vowed to “love and cherish”, while the bride was promised to “love, cherish, and to obey”. A major cultural shift occurred in 1922 when the Episcopal Church in the US officially voted to remove the word from its standard matrimonial vows.

67A Solitaire foundation cards : ACES

I think that a single-player card game is usually called “solitaire” in the US, whereas we use the name “patience” back in Ireland.

Down

1D Tool for a quick key change : CAPO

A capo is a clamp-like device that is placed around the neck of a guitar or other stringed instrument to shorten the strings, and hence raise the pitch. The full name, rarely used these days, is “capo tasto”, which is Italian for “head of the fingerboard”.

2D State whose license plates say “Life Elevated” : UTAH

Utah introduced the “Life Elevated” slogan in 2006 to replace “Greatest Snow on Earth” as its tourism brand. The state’s license plate features the motto set against the backdrop of Delicate Arch, the famous freestanding sandstone structure located in Arches National Park. The use of the term “elevated” is quite apt, as Utah has the third-highest mean elevation of any state in the union, trailing only Colorado and Wyoming.

5D Opera mentioned in the 10,000 Maniacs song “Verdi Cries” : AIDA

“Verdi Cries” is a track from the 1987 album “In My Tribe”, released by the rock band 10,000 Maniacs. The song was written by the group’s lead singer Natalie Merchant, and was inspired by a stay at a hotel in Mallorca a few years earlier. An older tourist in the neighboring room was in the habit of playing Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Aida” on repeat, and Merchant found the daily soundtrack filtering through the thin hotel walls deeply moving.

6D Actress Thurman : UMA

Robert Thurman was the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Robert raised his children in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and called his daughter “Uma” as it is a phonetic spelling of the Buddhist name “Dbuma”. Uma’s big break in the movies came with her starring role in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 hit “Pulp Fiction”. My favorite Uma Thurman film is the wonderful 1996 romantic comedy “The Truth About Cats and Dogs”.

7D Word with UV or X, but not W : … RAY

At either end of the visible light spectrum are the invisible forms of radiation known as infrared (IR) light and ultraviolet (UV) light. IR light lies just beyond the red end of the visible spectrum, and UV light lies just beyond the violet end.

X-rays were first studied comprehensively by the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen (also “Roentgen”), and it was he who gave the name “X-rays” to this particular type of radiation. Paradoxically, in Röntgen’s native language of German, X-rays are routinely referred to as “Röntgen rays”. In 1901, Röntgen’s work on X-rays won him the first Nobel Prize in Physics that was ever awarded.

9D Frozen Italian desserts : GELATI

Gelato (plural “gelati”) is the Italian version of American ice cream, differing in that it has a lower butterfat content than its US counterpart.

28D Craters of the Moon locale : IDAHO

Craters of the Moon National Monument in Central Idaho is a breathtakingly beautiful spot. The park includes three extensive lava fields that really do give one the impression that one is looking at craters on the moon. The term “Craters of the Moon” was coined in 1923 during a campaign to convince the National Park Service to protect the area. Apollo astronauts actually trained in the park, learning to seek out and collect rock specimens just as they would be doing on the actual moon.

29D Elixir : TONIC

A tonic is medication that is said to restore health. The original use of the term “tonic” was as an adjective meaning increasing body “tone”.

An elixir is a solution of alcohol and water that is used to deliver a medicine. The term “elixir” can also be used to mean a medicine that has the power to cure all ills.

31D Branch of mathematics : ARITHMETIC

Arithmetic is the most elementary branch of mathematics. It is concerned with the effect of basic operations on numbers, and especially the effect of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

32D __ dreaming : LUCID

A lucid dream is a dream in which the person dreaming actually becomes aware that they are in fact dreaming.

33D Future DAs’ exams : LSATS

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

38D Semi pro? : TEAMSTER

Originally, a teamster was a person who drove a team of animals that pulled a wagon. Over time, “teamster” became a synonym for “truck driver”. The term became more prevalent as the trade union called the International Brotherhood of Teamsters grew in importance during the Depression.

40D Many a poem by Clint Smith : ODE

Clint Smith is an author, poet, and staff writer at “The Atlantic” magazine. He achieved literary acclaim with his 2021 nonfiction book “How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America”. It was a #1 New York Times bestseller, and documents how various historical sites across the US either reckon with or deliberately obscure their ties to slavery.

43D Limb lifted in a développé : LEG

In ballet, a temps développé (or simply just “développé”) is an unfolding into the air of the free leg, the leg that is not supporting the dancer.

48D One hanging around a party? : PINATA

Piñatas originated in Mexico, probably among the Aztecs or Mayans. Today’s piñatas are usually made from cardboard that is brightly decorated with papier-mâché. Traditionally a piñata was made out of a clay pot, adorned with feathers and ribbons and filled with small treasures. During religious ceremonies the clay pots would be suspended and broken open so that the contents would spill out onto the ground at the feet of a god as an offering.

50D MS Word file : DOC

Microsoft Word documents have the “.doc” file extension, at least those created prior to the introduction of Microsoft Office 2007. The extension used now is “.docx”.

51D Starts to peter out : EBBS

The verb phrase “to peter out”, meaning “to fizzle out”, originated in the 1840s in the American mining industry. While the exact etymology isn’t clear, it probably derives from the term “saltpeter”, a constituent of gunpowder.

53D Inflatable pilot in “Airplane!” : OTTO

In the 1980 comedy film “Airplane!”, the aircraft’s autopilot system is a life-sized inflatable dummy named Otto. Otto isn’t forgotten in the movie closing credits, where his role is listed as “Otto – Himself”.

The 1980 movie “Airplane!” has to be one of the zaniest comedies ever made. The lead roles were Ted Striker (played by Robert Hays) and Elaine Dickinson (played by Julie Hagerty). But it was Leslie Nielsen who stole the show, playing Dr. Barry Rumack. That’s my own humble opinion of course …

57D “__ chic!” : TRES

“Très chic” is a French term meaning “very stylish”.

59D Vitals checker, briefly : EMT

There are four primary vital signs that are measured by health professionals:

1. Body temperature
2. Blood pressure
3. Pulse
4. Breathing rate

60D Org. for Suns and Rockets : NBA

The Phoenix Suns NBA team are in the Pacific Division, and are the only team in that division not based in California.

The Houston Rockets NBA team was founded as a league expansion team in 1967 in San Diego. The Rockets relocated to Houston in 1971. Surprisingly (to me), the Rockets were not named for Houston’s connection to NASA. The “Rockets” moniker was partly due to San Diego’s more tenuous NASA connection. General Dynamics’ San Diego operation developed and built the first Atlas rockets, including those used in Project Mercury.