Category: Adam Shapiro

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Constructed by: Adam Shapiro

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Sky-High

Themed answers are common idioms meaning “ecstatic”, with each featuring something found HIGH in the SKY:

• 39A Like exorbitant prices, and like 17-, 24-, 51-, and 62-Across? : SKY-HIGH

• 17A Ecstatic, like a nursery rhyme cow? : OVER THE MOON
• 24A Ecstatic, like a tightrope performer? : WALKING ON AIR
• 51A Ecstatic, like a songbird? : HAPPY AS A LARK
• 62A Ecstatic, like a big pig? : IN HOG HEAVEN

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

Bill’s time: 5m 47s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Stories and Reels app, familiarly : INSTA

Instagram Stories launched in 2016 as a direct response to the popularity of Snapchat’s disappearing content. The feature allows users to post photos and short videos that vanish after exactly 24 hours.

Reels is a facility introduced by Instagram in 2020. Essentially, it is a feature that competes with TikTok.

14A Bath accessory : LOOFA

The loofah (also “loofa”, “lufah” and “luffa”, all Arabic words) is a vine, with fruit that’s very popular in Asia and Africa. If the fruit is allowed to mature, it can be processed to remove everything but the more rigid xylem structure (remember your high school botany class?) leaving a soft, sponge-like mass that is used as a skin polisher.

16A Santa __, California : ANA

Santa Ana is the county seat of Orange County, California and takes its name from the Santa Ana River that runs through the city.

17A Ecstatic, like a nursery rhyme cow? : OVER THE MOON

The nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle” has been around at least since the mid-1700s.

Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon,
The little dog laughed to see such fun,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

19A North Atlantic fish : COD

In Britain and Ireland, the most common fish that is used in traditional “fish and chips” is Atlantic cod. Cod has been overfished all over the world, and is now considered to be an endangered species by many international bodies. Confrontations over fishing rights in the North Atlantic led to conflicts called “the Cod Wars” between Iceland and the UK in the 1950s and the 1970s, with fishing fleets being protected by naval vessels and even shots being fired.

20A Weaken, in gaming slang : NERF

The online gaming community adopted the term “nerf” in the 1990s when developers reduced the combat power of some weapons used in action games. Frustrated players complained that their weapons now felt as though they were hitting opponents with foam “Nerf” bats. The comparison stuck and “nerf” became gaming slang describing any intentional reduction in the effectiveness of a weapon or character’s ability.

21A Low card in cribbage : ACE

Cribbage is one of my favorite card games. It always had a certain mystique to me as I was growing up as I’d see folks playing it in local pubs, sitting with cards and the fascinating cribbage board with its pegs as score markers. Apparently, cribbage was invented in the early 1600s by an English poet called John Suckling, who based it on a long-gone game called Noddy. Cribbage is often referred to simply as “crib”, and the name “cribbage” probably comes from this term. The “crib” is a set of cards that features in the game.

22A Chicken __ masala : TIKKA

Chicken tikka masala is a dish consisting of chicken tikka (chunks of marinated chicken) served in a masala sauce. Masala is the Hindi word for “mixture”, and describes a mixture of spices. A dish named “masala” uses the spices incorporated into a sauce that includes garlic, ginger, onions and chili paste. Although served as part of Indian cuisine, there seems to be a lot of evidence that chicken tikka masala was actually invented in an Indian restaurant in Britain.

24A Ecstatic, like a tightrope performer? : WALKING ON AIR

Tightrope walking is also known as funambulism, from the Latin “funis” (rope, line) and “ambulare” (to walk). While tightrope walkers use a tensioned wire or rope, slack rope walkers use a rope that is simply anchored at either end.

28A Volcanic rock : BASALT

Basalt is a volcanic rock that is created when lava cools rapidly at the earth’s surface. The vast majority of volcanic rock on the planet is basalt.

33A Shark called the “cheetah of the ocean” : MAKO

The shortfin mako shark can appear on restaurant menus, and as a result the species is dying out in some parts of the world. The mako gets its own back sometimes though, as attacks on humans are not unknown. It is the fastest-swimming shark, and has been clocked at speeds of over 40 miles/hour. And the shark in Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea”, that’s a mako. “Mako” is the Maori word for “shark” or “shark tooth”.

38A Animated response? : GIF

The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is an image format developed in the 1980s by CompuServe (remember CompuServe?). GIF images are compressed, reducing the file size, but without losing information. So, the original image can be reconstructed perfectly from the compressed GIF version. But, and it’s a big but, GIF images use only 256 individual colors. This means that GIF is a relatively poor choice of compression for color photographs, while it is usually fine for logos with large blocks of single colors.

46A “Li’l” resident of Dogpatch : ABNER

Cartoonist Al Capp set his classic comic strip “Li’l Abner” in the fictional community of Dogpatch. According to one of the “Li’l Abner” strips, Dogpatch is located somewhere in the state of Kentucky.

51A Ecstatic, like a songbird? : HAPPY AS A LARK

The idiom “happy as a lark” was popularized in the Victorian era, when writers adopted the phrase to depict characters experiencing contentment and sheer bliss. It reflects the melodious, and seemingly joyous, songs that larks sing while flying high in the sky.

56A Team transport : BUS

We use the term “bus” for a mode of transportation as it is an abbreviated form of the original “omnibus”. We imported “omnibus” via French from Latin, in which language it means “for all”. The idea is that an omnibus is a carriage “for all”.

61A Karaoke aid : MIC

The first karaoke machine was reportedly invented in 1971 by Japanese musician Daisuke Inoue, though he never patented his invention. The concept caught on, and Inoue earned himself the Ig Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. I guess the awards committee weren’t big karaoke fans …

62A Ecstatic, like a big pig? : IN HOG HEAVEN

To be in hog heaven is to be in a state of ultimate bliss. The American slang phrase draws up images of pigs happily wallowing in mud, a behavior that is actually rooted in biology. Pigs lack functional sweat glands, and so a cool mud “bath” is not just enjoyable, but a necessity to regulate body temperature and protect the skin from the sun.

66A Sharon Olds’ “__ to My Whiteness” : ODE

“Ode to My Whiteness” is a provocative poem by poet Sharon Olds published in her 2016 collection “Odes”. Olds wrote it after reading poet Evie Shockley’s collection “The New Black”, and specifically Shockley’s poem “Ode to My Blackness”.

71A Cosmic fate : KARMA

Karma is a religious concept with its basis in Indian faiths. Karma embraces the notion of cause and effect. Good deeds have good consequences at some later point in one’s life, one’s future life, or one’s afterlife. And, bad deeds have bad consequences.

Down

2D Campbell of “The Lincoln Lawyer” : NEVE

Neve Campbell is a Canadian actress whose big break in the movies came with the “Scream” horror film series, in which she had a leading role. I don’t do horror films, so I haven’t seen any of the “Scream” movies. Nor have I seen the TV series “Party of Five” that launched the acting careers of both Campbell and Jennifer Love Hewitt in the nineties.

“The Lincoln Lawyer” is a TV adaptation of the series of legal novels by Michael Connelly. The title character is Mickey Haller (played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), a lawyer who operates out of the back seat of his Lincoln Navigator. Despite the title of the show, the narrative skips over “the Lincoln Lawyer”, Connelly’s first book, and starts with an adaptation of the second book in the series: “The Brass Verdict”.

6D Smart __ : ALECK

Apparently, the original “smart Alec” (sometimes “Aleck”) was one Alec Hoag, a pimp, thief and confidence trickster who plied his trade in New York City in the 1840s.

7D Oscar winner Marisa : TOMEI

Marisa Tomei’s first screen role was in the daytime soap “As the World Turns”, but her break came with a recurring role in “The Cosby Show” spin-off “A Different World”. Tomei won an Oscar for her delightful performance in “My Cousin Vinny” in 1992.

9D NorCal airport : SFO

San Francisco International Airport (SFO) served as the main base of operations for Virgin America (sold to Alaska Airlines), and is also the maintenance hub for United Airlines. Even though SFO is owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, the airport is located to the south in San Mateo County.

10D Collaborative coding events : HACKATHONS

A hackathon is an event in which software developers collaborate intensively on a project, usually for a day or a week. It is a hack marathon, with “hack” in this case being legal, explorative programming. Apparently, the first event described as a hackathon was held by ten American developers who met in Calgary to work on cryptographic software. Calgary was chosen so as to avoid US export regulations relating to software.

11D Japanese mushroom : ENOKI

Enokitake (also known as “enoki”) are long and thin white mushrooms often added to soups or salads.

12D Plane-tracking tech : RADAR

Scientists have been using radio waves to detect the presence of objects since the late 1800s, but it was the demands of WWII that accelerated the practical application of the technology. The British called their system RDF standing for Radio Direction Finding. The system used by the US Navy was called “Radio Detection And Ranging”, which was shortened to the acronym “RADAR”.

15D Writer Chekhov : ANTON

Anton Chekhov was a Russian writer of short stories and a playwright, as well as a physician. He wrote four classic plays that are often performed all around the world, namely “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Three Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard”. All the time Chekhov was writing, he continued to practice medicine. He is quoted as saying “Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.”

26D Pioneer in mobile phone technology : NOKIA

Many of us probably think of the Finnish company Nokia as a mobile phone manufacturer, one that was the largest vendor for a decade starting in the late 1990s. Bad decisions by management led to Microsoft buying Nokia’s declining phone business in 2014. It is a very old company, established way back in 1865 as a wood pulp mill, believe it or not.

27D Shipboard booze : GROG

Edward Vernon was a naval officer with the nickname “Old Grog”. In 1740, Vernon ordered that the daily ration of rum for his sailors should be watered down, in order to reduce discipline problems caused by drunkenness. The diluted rum was sweetened with sugar, and lemon or lime added to help preserve it on long voyages. This recipe, found to reduce scurvy among sailors (because of the citrus) spread throughout the Royal Navy, and “grog” was born. As an aside, George Washington’s older half-brother named the famous Washington Mount Vernon Plantation in honor of Edward Vernon. We use the derivative term “groggy” to mean “unsteady on the feet”, as if under the influence of “grog”.

33D NFLer Garrett who made a record 23 sacks in 2025 : MYLES

Myles Garrett is an American football defensive end who was selected first overall by the Cleveland Browns in the 2017 NFL Draft out of Texas A&M. He cannot be described as a stereotypical football pro. In his downtime he is a passionate paleontology enthusiast who nicknamed himself “Jurassic Myles”, a dedicated anime fan, and a writer of poetry. Good for him …

34D Poke bowl tuna : AHI

Poke is a Native Hawaiian dish featuring diced raw fish. “Poke” is a Hawaiian word meaning “to slice”.

36D Not aweather : ALEE

Alee is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, they are pointing aweather. The sheltered side of an island, for example, might be referred to as the “lee” side.

37D Trivia champion, perhaps : NERD

Trivia are things of little consequence. “Trivia” is the plural of the Latin word “trivium” which means “a place where three roads meet”. I guess the idea was that folks would meet at road junctions and chat, exchanging (trivial) snippets of news. Now that’s what I call a trivial fact …

40D Intoxicating Polynesian drink : KAVA

Kava is a plant found in the western Pacific. Its roots are used to make an intoxicating drink also called kava, which acts as a sedative.

47D Layered pastry with honey and nuts : BAKLAVA

Baklava is a very sweet and rich (and delicious) dessert pastry made from layers of filo dough filled with nuts and sweetened with honey or syrup. The name “baklava” comes from the Ottoman Turkish name for the pastry.

49D Golfer Ko in the LPGA Hall of Fame : LYDIA

Lydia Ko is a professional golfer from New Zealand. In 2015, she reached number-one in the Women’s World Golf Rankings, when she was only 17 years old. That made her the youngest player, male or female, to make the number-one ranking in professional golf.

50D Major shindig : BASH

“Shindig” is such a lovely word, I think. It describes a party that usually includes some dancing. Although its origin isn’t really clear, the term perhaps comes from “shinty”, a Scottish game that’s similar to field hockey.

54D Raced on a sled : LUGED

“Luge” is a French word meaning “sled”. It describes a small sled used by one or two people, on which one lies face up and feet first. The luge can be compared to the skeleton, a sled for only one person and on which the rider lies face down and goes down the hill head-first. Yikes!

60D Irish New Age singer : ENYA

Enya’s real name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1982, Enya launched her very successful solo career, eventually becoming Ireland’s best-selling solo musician. And, she sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

63D Org. with Hornets and Bulls : NBA

The Charlotte Hornets NBA team takes its name from a Revolutionary War insult delivered by British General Lord Cornwallis. After encountering fierce resistance from local militias in 1780, Cornwallis famously described the city of Charlotte as a “veritable hornet’s nest” of rebellion.

The Chicago Bulls have won six NBA championships in the life of the franchise, all of them in the nineties. They won in the 1991, 1992 and 1993 seasons (a so-called “three-peat”), and then again in 1996, 1997 and 1998 (a second “three-peat”).