Tag: Everypooch crossword clue

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Constructed by: Gary Larson & Amy Ensz

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Game Changers

Themed answers are common phrases reinterpreted as bespoke versions of POPULAR BOARD GAMES:

• 23A Genius edition of a popular board game? : HARD SCRABBLE
• 29A Extended-family edition of a popular board game? : RELATIVE RISK
• 70A Solitaire edition of a popular board game? : SORRY! FOR ONESELF
• 113A Trivia edition of a popular board game? : FACT CHECKERS
• 124A Body-building edition of a popular card game? : MUSCLE MEMORY
• 33D Personalized edition of a popular strategy game? : GO YOUR OWN WAY
• 43D Easy edition of a popular board game? : TROUBLE LIGHT

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

Bill’s time: 13m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Everypooch : BOWSER

“Bowser” became a popular name for a dog in the late 1800s and early 1900s, largely due to the writings of Thornton Burgess. He created the character Bowser the Hound, who was known for his loud bark.

7A Sudden burst : SALVO

A salvo is a simultaneous discharge of guns. Ironically, “salvo” comes from the Latin “salve” meaning “be in good health”. Salvo was originally the name given to the firing of guns in the air as a sign of respect or greeting for an important visitor. Good health!

12A David of “Starsky & Hutch” : SOUL

Actor David Soul is perhaps best known for playing Ken “Hutch” Hutchinson, alongside Paul Michael Glaser, in the hit cop show “Starsky & Hutch” in the 1970s. Prior to winning that breakthrough role, he made several appearances on “The Merv Griffin Show” singing “The Covered Man”, while disguised in a stocking cap. There’s a clip on YouTube that’s quite cool, showing The Covered Man in all his glory. Soul declared to Griffin, during one of his appearances, “My name is David Soul, and I want to be known for my music”. Well, that kind of came true in 1977 when he topped the US and UK charts with the song “Don’t Give Up on Us”. Soul moved from the US to the UK in the mid-1990s, and passed away in London in 2024.

16A __ race : RAT

We use “rat race” figuratively to describe an endless, pointless pursuit. The term comes from the laboratory, where one might imagine rats racing around a maze in search of some cheese.

19A Colorful songbird : ORIOLE

The songbird called an oriole builds an interesting nest. It is a woven cup-like structure that is suspended from a branch like a hammock.

21A __ Domini : ANNO

The Latin word for year is “annus” (plural “anni”). We often see it used in Latin phrases, but usually with a different spelling. In “anno Domini”, the “anno” is the ablative case of “annus” as the phrase means “in the year of the Lord”. Another example is “per annum”, in which “annum” is the accusative case as the literal translation of the phrase is “during the year”.

23A Genius edition of a popular board game? : HARD SCRABBLE

The game of Scrabble has been around since 1938, and is the invention of an architect named Alfred Mosher Butts. Butts was born on April 13th, and we now celebrate National Scrabble Day on April 13th each year in his honor.

25A Rheinland refusal : NEIN

The Rhineland is a region in western Germany defined as the land along the midsection of the Rhine River. Historically, the area was the nation’s industrial heartland. It was the subject of a major international crisis in 1936, when Adolf Hitler ordered German troops to reoccupy the Rhineland, which had been demilitarized by the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. The move was an enormous gamble, as the German army was still relatively weak at the time. The lack of a military response from France and Britain emboldened the Nazi regime and the occupation is now seen as a crucial step on the path to World War II.

26A Karate level : DAN

The dan ranking system is used in several Japanese and Korean martial arts. The ranking indicates a level of proficiency, and often only applies to practitioners who have already earned a black belt.

28A __ Lingus : AER

Aer Lingus is my favorite airline! Well, the service isn’t that great, but when I get on board an Aer Lingus plane I feel like I am back in Ireland. Aer Lingus is the national airline of Ireland, with “Aer Lingus” being a phonetic spelling of the Irish “aer-loingeas” meaning “air fleet”. These days Aer Lingus can only lay claim to the title of Ireland’s oldest airline as it is no longer the biggest. That honor goes to the controversial budget airline Ryanair.

29A Extended-family edition of a popular board game? : RELATIVE RISK

Risk is a fabulous board game that was introduced in France in 1957. It was invented by a very successful French director of short films called Albert Lamorisse. Lamorisse called his new game “La Conquête du Monde”, which translates into English as “The Conquest of the World”. A game of Risk is a must during the holidays in our house …

32A Baseball player Jose with the hit song “OMG” : IGLESIAS

Jose Iglesias is a Cuban-born professional baseball player, and a Latin pop music artist. He performs under the name “Candelita”, meaning “Little Candle”. His song “OMG” topped the Billboard Hot Latin Songs Chart in 2024.

36A Picnic pests : ANTS

Our term “picnic” comes from the French word “pique-nique”, which now has the same meaning. The original “pique-nique” was a fashionable potluck affair, and not necessarily held outdoors.

37A Jon Favreau holiday film : ELF

“Elf” is a comedy movie that was released for the 2003 Christmas season. It was directed by Jon Favreau and stars Will Ferrell in the title role, with James Caan supporting and Ed Asner playing Santa Claus. It’s all about one of Santa’s elves who finds out he is human and goes to meet his father in New York City. The film was adapted into a stage musical that premiered on Broadway during the Christmas season of 2010.

Jon Favreau is an actor and filmmaker who has played a key role in the development of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He directed the first two “Iron Man” movies, which kicked off the Marvel Cinematic Universe and helped establish the franchise. He also played the role of Happy Hogan, the personal chauffeur and bodyguard of Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, in the films. Additionally, Favreau is known for his passion for cooking and has even hosted a cooking show called “The Chef Show”, which he also created and produced.

41A Some volcanic rocks : BASALTS

Basalt is a volcanic rock that is created when lava cools rapidly at the earth’s surface.

49A Place to work on Wikipedia drafts : USER PAGE

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, and is the most-used reference site on the Internet. The site was launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. I, for one, am very grateful …

53A Chocolaty cereal brand : OREO O’S

Oreo O’s cereal was made by Post from 1998 to 2007. The pieces of cereal were basically O-shaped (like Cheerios) but chocolate-flavored, dark brown in color and with white sprinkles on them. Oh, and lots of sugar.

55A “South Pacific” song : BALI HA’I

The song “Bali Ha’i” is from the musical “South Pacific” by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Bali Ha’i is the name of a volcanic island that neighbors the island on which the story takes place. The matriarch of Bali Ha’i is a character named Bloody Mary, and it is Bloody Mary who sings the song in the musical.

“South Pacific” is a stage musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein that premiered in 1949. It is based on the Pulitzer-winning 1947 book “Tales of the South Pacific” by James A. Michener. The storyline centers on a young American nurse named Nellie Forbush who falls in love with an expatriate French planter named Emile de Becque. The show tackles racism in America head on, as Nellie struggles to accept Emile’s mixed-race children.

60A Channel launched in 1981 : MTV

The first video played at the launch of MTV the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” (I love that song), followed by Pat Benatar singing “You Better Run”.

62A Intercontinental mountain range : URALS

The eastern side of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan is generally regarded as the natural divide between the continents of Europe and Asia.

67A BOLO alternative : APB

An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a broadcast from one US law enforcement agency to another.

A BOLO is a police alert, with the acronym standing for “be on the look-out”. A BOLO can also be called an APB, an “all-points bulletin”.

69A Foot the bill : PAY

To foot the bill is to pay it, to pay the total at the “foot” of the bill.

70A Solitaire edition of a popular board game? : SORRY! FOR ONESELF

Sorry! is a board game that dates back at least to 1934 when it was introduced in the UK market by Waddingtons. The game itself is based on the ancient game of pachisi, and involves players racing against each other to move their playing pieces around the board as quickly as possible. Players can cause opponents to return to the start, hopefully while saying “Sorry!” in the process.

74A Street of nightmares : ELM

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” is a Wes Craven slasher-horror film that was released in 1984. As I don’t do “slasher” or “horror”, I was surprised to learn that Johnny Depp was in the movie, making his feature film debut.

78A Les États-__ : UNIS

“Les États-Unis” is what French speakers call “the United States”.

79A Like the 18th Amendment : REPEALED

The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution was a great victory for the temperance movement (the “dry” movement), and in 1919 ushered in the Prohibition era. Highly unpopular (with the “wet” movement), Prohibition was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment.

87A Luminous ball of plasma : STAR

The most common state of matter in the universe, making up an estimated 99% of all visible material. Every star that we see, including our sun, is a giant ball of plasma.

89A In the previous month : ULTIMO

“Ultimo” is the Italian for “last” and is used in English to mean “in the last month”.

90A Tropical birds : MACAWS

Macaws are beautifully-colored birds native to Central and South America that are actually a type of parrot. Most species of macaws are now endangered, with several having become extinct in recent decades. The main threats are deforestation and illegal trapping and trafficking of exotic birds.

94A Keyed instruments : PIANOS

What was remarkable about the piano when it was invented, compared to other keyboard instruments, was that notes could be played with varying degrees of loudness. This is accomplished by pressing the keys lightly or firmly. Because of this quality, the new instrument was called a “pianoforte”, with “piano” and “forte” meaning “soft” and “loud” in Italian. We tend to shorten the name these days to just “piano”.

95A Met topper : OPERA HAT

An opera hat is a spring-loaded, collapsible top hat. Doesn’t that sound cool …?

97A Cold War satellites, briefly : SSRS

The former Soviet Union (officially “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” or “USSR”) was created in 1922, not long after the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew the tsar. Geographically, the new Soviet Union was roughly equivalent to the old Russian Empire, and comprised fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs).

98A Squat target, for short : GLUTE

There are three gluteal muscles in the human body, the largest of which is the gluteus maximus. It’s the gluteus maximus which really dictates the shape and size of the human buttocks. In evolutionary terms, the human “glutes” (also “glutei”) are larger than those in related species because they play a big role in maintaining our erect posture.

101A O Magazine mogul : OPRAH

The full name of the print publication usually called “O” was “O: The Oprah Magazine”. After the magazine’s founding in 2000, Oprah appeared alone on the cover of each issue, with three exceptions. On the April 2009 cover Oprah was shown with First Lady Michelle Obama, and on the December 2009 cover Oprah shared the limelight with Ellen DeGeneres. The September 2020 issue featured a portrait of Breaonna Taylor, the African American medical worker who was killed that year when police officers forced entry into her Louisville home. The last print edition of the magazine ran in December 2020.

106A Brief December celebration : XMAS

The abbreviation “Xmas” that is used for “Christmas” comes from the Greek letter chi (X), which is the first letter of the Greek word for “Christ” (“Χριστός”).

113A Trivia edition of a popular board game? : FACT CHECKERS

“Checkers” is yet another word that I had to learn moving across the Atlantic. In Ireland, the game is called “draughts”.

117A Vader, as a boy : ANI

Darth Vader is (to me) the most colorful antagonist in the “Star Wars” universe. Born as Anakin “Ani” Skywalker, he was corrupted by the Emperor Palpatine and turned to “the Dark Side”. In the original films, Darth Vader was portrayed by English bodybuilder David Prowse, and voiced by actor James Earl Jones. Jones asked that he go uncredited for the first two “Star Wars” films, feeling that his contributions were insufficient to warrant recognition. I disagree …

118A Turn over __ leaf : A NEW

To turn over a new leaf is to start anew, with a change in attitude or manner. The literal interpretation of “leaf” in this case is “page of a book”. Someone turning over a new leaf is turning to a blank page, making a fresh start.

122A Shiba __ : INU

The Shiba Inu is a Japanese breed of dog that was developed for hunting. Although the exact etymology of “Shibu” is unclear, the term translates as “brushwood”. “Inu” is Japanese for “dog”.

123A Daughter of Cronus : HERA

In Greek mythology, Hera was the wife of Zeus and the goddess of women, marriage, family and childbirth. She was noted for her jealous and vengeful nature, particularly against those who vied for the affections of her husband. The equivalent character to Hera in Roman mythology was Juno. Hera was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.

Down

1D __ chic : BOHO

Boho-chic is a style of fashion that grew out of the bohemian and hippie looks.

8D Wall St. figure : ARB

An arbitrageur (arb.) is someone who profits from the purchase of securities in one market and the subsequent sale in another, by taking advantage of price discrepancies across markets.

9D First sign of fall : LIBRA

Libra is the seventh sign of the zodiac, and is named for the scales held by the goddess of justice. It is the only sign of the zodiac that isn’t named for a living creature.

10D Field mice : VOLES

Vole populations can increase very rapidly. Mama vole is pregnant for just three weeks before giving birth to litters of 5-10 baby voles. Then, the young voles become sexually mature in just one month! If you have one pregnant vole in your yard, within a year you could have over a hundred of the little critters.

11D Former pitcher Hershiser : OREL

Orel Hershiser is big into poker now that he has retired from Major League Baseball. Hershiser lives in Las Vegas and when he isn’t working for ESPN, apparently he is at the poker tables, playing professionally. When Hershiser is eliminated in a poker tournament, he is in the habit of presenting the person who ousts him with an autographed baseball.

13D Five Nations members : ONEIDAS

The Oneida people originally lived in the area that is now Central New York. They were one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the Five Nations (the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca).

14D Pt. of NYU : UNIV

The main campus of the private New York University (NYU) is located right in Manhattan, in Washington Square in the heart of Greenwich Village. NYU has over 12,000 resident students, the largest number of residents in a private school in the whole country. NYU’s sports teams are known as the Violets, a reference to the violet and white colors that are worn in competition. Since the 1980s, the school’s mascot has been a bobcat. “Bobcat” had been the familiar name given to NYU’s Bobst Library computerized catalog.

16D The Thinker’s sculptor : RODIN

Rodin’s famous sculpture known as “The Thinker” has been reproduced many times. Rodin’s original version of “The Thinker” is actually a detail in a much larger work known as “The Gates of Hell”. The original plaster version of “The Gates of Hell” can be seen at the magnificent Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

17D Nautical “Halt!” : AVAST!

“Avast” is a nautical term used to tell someone to stop or desist from what they are doing. The word comes from the Dutch “hou vast” meaning “hold fast”.

18D Loses on purpose : TANKS

Apparently, the first use of the verb “to tank” to mean “to lose or fail” can be pinpointed quite precisely. Tennis great Billie Jean King used the verb in that sense in an interview with “Life” magazine in 1967, with reference to male players. A more specific use of “tanking” in recent years is “deliberately losing” a contest.

24D Saxophone insert : REED

Saxophones are made of brass, but they also have some features in common with woodwind instruments, such as the use of a reed to create sound. Because of that reed, the “sax” is classified not as a brass instrument, but as a woodwind.

30D Butterfield of “Sex Education” : ASA

Asa Butterfield is an actor from London whose breakthrough came with the title role in the 2008 Holocaust movie “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas”. More recently, he starred in the excellent Netflix comedy-drama series “Sex Education”, alongside Gillian Anderson.

“Sex Education” is a marvelous Netflix comedy-drama show made for Netflix that stars Gillian Anderson as a single-mother and sex therapist, and Asa Butterfield as her insecure teenage son. Highly recommended …

33D Personalized edition of a popular strategy game? : GO YOUR OWN WAY

Go is a strategy board game that was invented in China over 5,500 years ago. Go’s name in Chinese translates as “encircling game”, which reflects the objective of surrounding the largest area on the board.

34D Ancient Andean : INCAN

The Inca Empire was known as the Tawantinsuyu, which translates as “land of the four quarters”. It was a federal organization with a central government that sat above four “suyu” or “quarters”, four administrative regions.

37D Gut bacteria : E COLI

Escherichia coli (E. coli) are usually harmless bacteria found in the human gut, working away quite happily. However, there are some strains that can produce lethal toxins. These strains can make their way into the food chain from animal fecal matter that comes into contact with food designated for human consumption.

38D Navigation acronym : LORAN

LORAN was a radio navigation system developed during WWII by the US. The acronym LORAN stood for “LOng RAnge Navigation”.

41D “Poppycock!” : BAH!

It is thought that the relatively gentle term “poppycock”, meaning “nonsense”, comes from a Dutch word for “dung” combined with a Latin word for “excrete”. Not so gentle after all …

43D Easy edition of a popular board game? : TROUBLE LIGHT

The board game Trouble was introduced in the US in 1965, and is very similar to the competing game Sorry! that was already on the market. Both games are in turn based on the ancient game of Pachisi. The big selling feature of Trouble was the Pop-O-Matic dice container in the center of the board. I remember it well …

47D Brie of “GLOW” : ALISON

Alison Brie is an actress who is perhaps best known for playing Trudy Campbell, the wife of Pete Campbell on the TV drama “Mad Men”.

“GLOW” is a comedy-drama TV show about the women’s professional wrestling promotion known as Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW).

48D Musicians who may be accompanied by tabla and tambura players : SITARISTS

The sitar has been around since the Middle Ages. It is a stringed instrument that is played by plucking, and is used most often in Hindustani classical music. A key feature of the sitar is its set of sympathetic strings, which are not plucked but resonate in response to the main strings, contributing to its rich, shimmering sound. In the West we have been exposed to the instrument largely through the performances of Ravi Shankar and some music by George Harrison of the Beatles, a onetime student of Shankar.

A tabla is a percussion instrument used mainly in the Indian subcontinent. It consists of a pair of hand drums and is similar to bongos.

The tanpura (also “tambura”) is a stringed instrument with a long neck that is used mainly in Indian music. It is usually used to play a continuous “drone” sound beneath a melody played on another instrument or provided by a singer. That background harmony comes from continuous and repeated plucking of all four of the tanpura’s strings at the same time.

50D Pronto : ASAP

The Spanish and Italian (and now English) word “pronto” is derived from the Latin “promptus” meaning “ready, quick”.

51D __ monster : GILA

A Gila monster is a venomous lizard found in the southwestern US and northern Mexico, and is the only venomous lizard native to America. Gila monsters move along at a snail’s pace so aren’t normally a danger to humans. The name “Gila” is a reference to the Gila River Basin in the American Southwest, where the Gila monster was prevalent.

54D Steeple : SPIRE

In general terms, a steeple is a tall tower on a building, often a church. More specifically, a steeple can be made up of several distinct parts:

1. Tower: the base of the steeple, which can often house a clock.
2. Belfry: the part that holds bells, often part of church steeples
3. Lantern: a decorative, windowed structure that admits light into the steeple
4. Spire: the tall, slender top

64D “__ chic!” : TRES

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

74D Toy that’s more than tickled pink : ELMO

The Tickle Me Elmo toy was a sensational fad in the late nineties, with stores raising prices dramatically above the recommended retail price to take advantage of demand. Reportedly, prices as high as $1500 were paid at the height of the craze. The toy’s manufacturer, Tyco, originally planned to market the “tickle” toy as Tickle Me Tasmanian Devil (after the “Looney Tunes” character), but then went with “Elmo” after they bought the rights to use “Sesame Street” names.

76D Nutmeg spice : MACE

The fruit of the nutmeg tree yields two very different spices. What we call “nutmeg” comes from the seed of the tree. “Mace” is the dried covering of the seed.

80D PC OS choice : LINUX

Linux is an open-source operating system (OS), the core of many derivative operating systems. Developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991, inspired by Unix, Linux grew through community collaboration. It now powers everything from servers to Android devices, and is valued for its flexibility and stability.

88D “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” actor Mount : ANSON

Actor Anson Mount was given the role of Captain Christopher Pile in the TV show “Star Trek: Discovery” in 2018. He reprised the role in several episodes of the sister show “Star Trek: Short Treks”, and then led the cast as Captain Pike in the TV series “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” starting in 2022.

91D “That’s all __ wrote” : SHE

No one seems to be very certain of the origin of “that’s all she wrote”, meaning “there’s nothing more to be said”. One popular story is that it stems from the unfortunate “Dear John” letters that some soldiers received during WWII.

93D Cleopatra biter : ASP

The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.

102D Old Testament book : PSALMS

The Greek word “psalmoi” originally meant “songs sung to a harp”, and gave us the word “psalms”. In the Jewish and Western Christian traditions, the Book of Psalms contains 150 individual psalms, divided into five sections.

103D Actress Russo : RENE

Actress Rene Russo is a native of Burbank, California. Russo went to high school (with actor/director Ron Howard), but dropped out in tenth grade. At seventeen, she was given the opportunity to train as a model and within a very short time appeared on the cover of “Vogue”. As her modeling jobs slowed down in her early thirties, Russo made a career change and studied theater and acting. Her breakout role was in the 1989 film “Major League.”

106D Case for Scully and Mulder : X-FILE

“The X-Files” is a very successful science fiction show that originally aired on the Fox network from 1993 to 2002. The stars of the show are David Duchovny (playing Fox Mulder) and the very talented Gillian Anderson (playing Dana Scully). By the time the series ended, “The X-Files” was the longest running sci-fi show in US broadcast history. An “X-Files” reboot started airing in 2016 with Duchovny and Anderson reprising their starring roles.

108D Not quite right? : ACUTE

In geometry, there are several classes of angles:

• Acute (< 90 degrees) 
• Right (= 90 degrees) 
• Obtuse (> 90 degrees and < 180 degrees) 
• Straight (180 degrees) 
• Reflex (> 180 degrees)

111D Actor/activist Davis : OSSIE

Ossie Davis was a very successful actor, and also a director, poet, playwright and social activist. One of Davis’s better known performances was in the 1993 movie “Grumpy Old Men”, in which he played the owner of the bait shop by the lake.

112D Pago Pago’s land : SAMOA

Pago Pago is the capital of American Samoa in the South Pacific. The island was used by the US Navy during WWII and it managed to escape most of the conflict. The only military incident of consequence was the shelling of the city’s harbor by a Japanese submarine. A more devastating event was the tsunami that hit Pago Pago and surrounding areas in 2009, causing widespread damage and numerous deaths.

115D When repeated, cry of approval : HEAR!

The phrase “Hear! Hear!” is an expression of support that is perhaps more commonly used in the UK than on this side of the Atlantic. It evolved from “Hear him! Hear him!”, which was the original utterance used in the UK parliament in the 17th century.

119D Onigiri seaweed : NORI

Onigiri is an item from Japanese cuisine, one often served in a bento box. It comprises white rice, usually formed into the shape of a pyramid or cylinder. The rice is wrapped in nori, dried edible seaweed.

121D “The Pitt” actor Noah : WYLE

Noah Wyle is an actor noted for playing Dr. John Truman Carter III on television’s “ER”. He was highly valued by the show’s producers, earning about $400,000 per episode in 2005, a world record for an actor in a TV drama at that time.

“The Pitt” is a medical drama TV show that premiered in 2025. The title refers to the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. In each episode, we follow the staff through an hour in the emergency department, navigating challenges like staff shortages and underfunding. The show has been praised by the medical community for its realistic portrayal of healthcare workers and the psychological challenges faced in a post-pandemic world.

126D Classic record label : EMI

EMI was a British music company, with the initialism standing for Electric and Musical Industries.