Tag: Minor dustup crossword clue

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Constructed by: Amanda Cook

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Finish Line

Themed answers all FINISH with a word that can be FINISHED by the word “LINE”:

• 58A End of a race, or what’s found at the end of 16-, 24-, 34-, and 50-Across? : FINISH LINE

• 16A Minute Maid juice box option : FRUIT PUNCH (punch line)
• 24A Catchphrase associated with hippies : FLOWER POWER (power line)
• 34A Occasion to wear a little black dress, perhaps : COCKTAIL PARTY (party line)
• 50A Tennis server’s infraction : DOUBLE FAULT (fault line)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 01s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6A Quarterback Darnold who won the Super Bowl with the Seahawks in 2026 : SAM

Sam Darnold is a quarterback who had a less than stellar start to his NFL career after being drafted by the New York Jets in 2018. But, he staged a historic career revival with the Minnesota Vikings in 2024 before signing with the Seattle Seahawks and leading them to a Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots at the end of the 2025 season. Darnold’s maternal grandfather was athlete, firefighter and actor Dick Hammer, who portrayed the Marlboro Man in print ads in the 1970s (and eventually died from smoking-related lung cancer).

9A Tom or drake : MALE

A male turkey is called a tom, taking its name from “tomcat”. The inference is that, like a tomcat, the male turkey is relatively wild and undomesticated, sexually promiscuous and frequently gets into fights. A female turkey is called a hen.

A male duck is a drake, and a female duck is a hen. That said, a female is sometimes just referred to as a duck!

13A Japanese breadcrumbs : PANKO

Panko is a breadcrumb used in some Japanese cuisine, primarily as a crunchy coating for fried foods.

16A Minute Maid juice box option : FRUIT PUNCH (punch line)

In the mid-forties a process was developed to concentrate orange juice into a powder, the intent being to make it available to the armed forces. When WWII came to an end, the government’s need for the product went away, so Florida Foods Corporation was set up to market orange juice concentrate (rather than powder) to the public. This new concentrate was given the name “Minute Maid” implying that juice could be prepared quickly by simple dilution.

18A Dressage gait : TROT

The equestrian sport of dressage involves demonstration of how well a horse responds to training. “Dressage” is a French word meaning “training”.

19A The “D” of LED : DIODE

Light-emitting diode (LED)

20A Atmospheric layer with holes : OZONE

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used to be widely used as propellants in aerosols, and as refrigerants in cooling systems. CFCs make their way up into the ozone layer and trigger a chain reaction that converts ozone (O₃) into regular oxygen (O₂). That conversion creates “holes” in the ozone layer. Regular O₂ is good stuff, but we need O₃ to absorb harmful UV radiation raining down on us. CFC is not good stuff …

21A Knee pt. studied in an MRI, perhaps : ACL

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of the stabilizing bands of tissue connecting the human thighbone to the shinbone. The term “cruciate” comes from the Latin “crux” meaning cross, which describes how the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments intersect to form an “X” shape inside the center of the knee joint.

24A Catchphrase associated with hippies : FLOWER POWER (power line)

“Flower power” was a slogan coined by Allen Ginsberg in 1965 to portray the ongoing war protests in a more positive light.

29A Migrating geese formation : VEE

A collection of geese is referred to as a “gaggle” when on the ground. When geese are in V-formation in flight, they are referred to collectively as a “skein”.

Apparently, birds that fly in a V-formation do so for a couple of reasons. One is that it makes for efficient flight and conserves energy. The leading bird gets no advantage, but every following bird gets to “slipstream” a little. It has been noted that the lead bird drops to the back of the formation when they get fatigued. It’s also thought that the flock can stick together more easily when in formation, so it is more difficult to lose someone along the way.

32A Pageant crown : TIARA

The oldest beauty pageant still operating in the US is the Miss America contest. It started out as a marketing ploy in the early twenties to attract tourists to the Atlantic City boardwalk after Labor Day. Today, contestants must be between 18 and 28 years of age. Before those limits were introduced, Marian Bergeron won the 1933 title at only 15 years of age.

40A Maid of honor speech, typically : TOAST

The members of the bride’s party in a wedding are the bridesmaids. The principal bridesmaid is the maid of honor. The principal bridesmaid might be referred to as the matron of honor if she is married.

57A Leaning Tower city : PISA

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, which is caused by an unstable foundation. The tower was built in the 12th century and began to lean during construction. The lean worsened over time, and by the 1990s, the tower was at risk of collapse with a lean of 5½ degrees. A major stabilization project was undertaken in the 1990s, which reduced the lean to 3.97 degrees.

64A Opinion column : OP-ED

“Op-ed” is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in the “New York World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

65A Conger catcher : EELER

Conger eels can grow to be very, very large, perhaps up to 10 feet in length.

66A Classic game console, for short : SNES

The name “Super NES” (or “SNES”) stands for “Super Nintendo Entertainment System”.

68A Airline based in Atlanta : DELTA

Delta Air Lines were the first airline to ban smoking on all flights, in 1995. They were also the first airline to board more than 100 million passengers in a year, doing so in 1997.

Down

1D Coppertone initials : SPF

Coppertone is a brand of sunscreen that is owned by the German personal-care company Beiersdorf. There is a famous advertising campaign featuring the “Coppertone girl”, in which a little dog pulls at the bathing suit of a pig-tailed girl revealing a cheeky tanline. A 1965 TV version of the ad featured 3-year-old Jodie Foster in her first acting role.

3D Shiba __: dog breed : INU

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

6D Connective tissue : SINEW

“Sinew” is another name for “tendon”. Tendons are bands of collagen that connect muscle to bone. Tendons are similar to ligaments and fasciae, which are also connective tissue made out of collagen, but ligaments join bone to bone, and fasciae connect muscle to muscle. We also use the term “sinew” to mean “muscular power”.

9D __ ball soup : MATZO

Matzo is an unleavened bread that is very brittle. The bread is crushed, creating a Matzo meal that is then formed into balls using eggs and oil as a binder. The balls are usually served in a chicken stock.

11D “Hello” singer Richie : LIONEL

Back in the early 1980s, record producer James Anthony Carmichael visited the home of Lionel Richie one day, and the singer greeted him, jokingly, with the line, “Hello, is it me you’re looking for?” Carmichael replied with, “Finish that song”, and the Lionel Richie 1984 hit “Hello” was the end result.

14D Royal house of Elizabeth I : TUDOR

The Elizabethan era, the period associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, is considered by many to be the golden age of English history. It was the age of William Shakespeare and the age of the English Renaissance. Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, and the last sovereign of the House of Tudor.

20D La Scala production : OPERA

La Scala Opera House opened in 1778. It was built on the site of the church of Santa Maria della Scala, which gave the theater its Italian name “Teatro alla Scala”. Because of bomb damage in WWII, La Scala had to be rebuilt, and reopened in 1946.

22D Colorful clog with holes : CROC

Crocs are foam clogs that were originally designed as boating shoes. I bought a pair of crocs, and then my kids said they weren’t going to talk to me again …

23D Longtime late-night host Jay : LENO

Jay Leno was born James Leno in New Rochelle, New York. Jay’s father was the son of Italian immigrants, and his mother was from Scotland. Leno grew up in Andover, Massachusetts and attended Emerson College, earning a Bachelor’s degree in speech therapy. Leno also started a comedy club at Emerson in 1973. Today Jay Leno is a car nut and owns over 300 vehicles of various types. You can check them out on his website: www.jaylenosgarage.com.

25D Nefarious : EVIL

Something described as “nefarious” is extremely wicked. The term comes from the Latin “nefarius” meaning “wicked”, which in turn comes from “nefas” meaning crime, or “ne-” (not) and “fas” (right).

33D North __ Sea: Kazakh lake : ARAL

The former Soviet Union decided to divert the two rivers feeding the Aral Sea in order to irrigate food and cotton crops. Once the fourth largest lake in the world, the Aral Sea began to shrink dramatically in the 1960s due to the loss of water. Today, the Aral Sea is no more. Instead, there are two relatively small bodies of water labeled as the North Aral Sea and the South Aral Sea.

The Republic of Kazakhstan in Central Asia is the world’s largest landlocked country. It was also the last of the former Soviet Republics (SSRs) to declare itself independent from the Soviet Union.

35D Eucalyptus lover : KOALA

Koalas are not bears, but are marsupials, which means they carry their young in a pouch. They are known for their diet of eucalyptus leaves, which are toxic to most other animals. To cope with this, koalas have a special digestive system that allows them to break down the toxins and extract the nutrients from the leaves. Koalas are one of the sleepiest animals in the world, sleeping up to 20 hours a day. This is because eucalyptus leaves provide very little energy.

Eucalyptus (plural “eucalypti”) is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs that is particularly widespread in Australia. The species known as mountain ash or swamp gum is the tallest flowering plant in the world, with the tallest example located in Tasmania and standing at over 325 feet tall.

52D Ed of “Elf” : ASNER

“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.

56D “Twittering Machine” painter Paul : KLEE

Artist Paul Klee was born in Switzerland, but studied art in Munich in Germany. We can see many of Klee’s works in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. If you get to Bern in Switzerland, even more of them can be seen at the Zentrum Paul Klee that was opened in 2005. Klee’s most celebrated work is his pointillist painting from 1932 called “Ad Parnassum”, which is owned by the Kunstmuseum, also located in Bern.

“Twittering Machine” is a watercolor-and-ink drawing by Swiss-German artist Paul Klee. It depicts some birds on a wire, which is in turn connected to a hand-crank making a “twittering machine”. You can see the work in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, where it is regarded as one of the museum’s best-known and treasured pieces.

58D Keyless key : FOB

A fob is attached to an object to make it easier to access. And so, a key fob is a chain attached to a key so that it can be retrieved easily. There are also watch fobs, and the pocket in a vest in which a watch can be placed is called a fob. In fact, the original use of the term “fob” was for a small pocket in which one could carry valuables.

59D Bitter beer letters : IPA

Hops are what give beer its bitterness, and IPAs are relatively bitter because extra hops are used when brewing. Different types of hops have different levels of bitterness, and brewers can choose how much to add to make their IPA more or less bitter.

62D Pitching ace’s stat : ERA

Earned run average (ERA)