Tag: Prefix with sexual crossword clue

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Constructed by: Emet Ozar

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Players Crying

Themed answers are all common phrases reinterpreted as CRIES from PLAYERS of games cited in the corresponding clues:

• 16A Sad cry from a hot potato player? : I DIDN’T CATCH THAT!
• 25A Sad cry from a Bananagrams player? : CAN I GET A WORD IN?!
• 46A Sad cry from a Battleship player? : I MISSED THE BOAT!
• 61A Happy cry from a Scrabble player? : I’M DRAWING A BLANK!

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

Bill’s time: 6m 54s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A All-Star side : EAST
69A All-Star side : WEST

Major League Baseball’s first All-Star Game was held as part of the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. The longest All-Star games since then went to 15 innings, in 1967 and 2008, with the 2008 game lasting 4 hours and 50 minutes. The event also goes by the name “Midsummer Classic”.

5A Maori dance : HAKA

The haka is a war dance used by the Maori people of New Zealand. Famously, the New Zealand rugby team performs a haka before each of their matches.

15A Biggest city in the Cornhusker State : OMAHA

Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska. It is located on the Missouri River, about 10 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River. When Nebraska was still a territory Omaha was its capital, but when Nebraska achieved statehood the capital was moved to the city of Lincoln.

The state of Nebraska got its “Cornhusker State” nickname from the University of Nebraska athletic teams (and not the other way round). In turn, the university teams’ name comes from the prevalence of corn as a crop, and the harvesting process known as “cornhusking”, removal of the outer husk from the ear of corn.

16A Sad cry from a hot potato player? : I DIDN’T CATCH THAT!

Hot potato is a kid’s game in which an object, like a beanbag, is tossed between players while music is played. When the music stops, whoever is holding the beanbag (hot potato) is eliminated.

19A Custom car made from cast-off parts : RAT ROD

A custom-assembled car, made with cheap or cast-off parts, is known as a rat rod (a play on “hot rod”).

22A Actor Corddry : ROB

Rob Corddry is an actor and comedian who is known by many for his regular appearances as a correspondent on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”. He became one of the three co-hosts of “Top Gear America” starting in 2021. Rob is the older brother of fellow actor and comedian Nate Corddry.

25A Sad cry from a Bananagrams player? : CAN I GET A WORD IN?!

Bananagrams is a fun game that was introduced in 2006. Bananagrams is a little like Scrabble in that letter tiles are used to make interlocking words.

33A Palm fruit : DATE

Date palms can be either male or female. Only the female tree bears fruit (called “dates”).

34A Tool that can be made to sound like a theremin : SAW

The theremin was invented in 1920 by Russian physicist Léon Theremin, and was one of the very first electronic musical instruments. It is unique in that it’s played entirely without physical contact. The musician simply moves their hands in the air near two metal antennas: one vertical to control the pitch and one horizontal loop to control the volume. This produces an eerie, gliding “wooo-ing” sound, which is why it’s often used in sci-fi film soundtracks, like 1951’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still”.

36A Ballpark figs. : ERAS

Earned run average (ERA)

40A Grinding vessel : MORTAR

I’ve loved the sound of the words “mortar” and “pestle”, ever since I was first introduced to them in the chemistry lab. The Romans called a receptacle for pounding or grinding things a “mortarium”, giving us “mortar”. Mortarium was also the word for the product of pounding and grinding, which gives us our “mortar” that’s used with bricks to build a wall. And further, short stubby cannons used in the 16th century resembled a grinding bowl and so were called “mortars”, which evolved into our contemporary weapon of the same name. As far as the pestle is concerned, it is also derived from its Latin name “pistillum”, which comes from the word for “crush”.

43A Orecchiette shape : EAR

Orecchiette are small dome-shaped pasta from Southern Italy. Each piece resembles a small ear, hence the name. “Orecchietta” (the singular) comes from the Italian “orecchia” meaning “ear” and “-etta” meaning “small”.

46A Sad cry from a Battleship player? : I MISSED THE BOAT!

Battleship is a surprisingly fun guessing game that I used to play as a child. Back then, we would play it just using pencil and paper. These days, kids are more likely to play an electronic version of the game.

49A “SNL” alum Gasteyer : ANA

Ana Gasteyer is an actress best known for being a cast member of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) from 1996 to 2002. Gasteyer was famous on SNL for playing Martha Stewart … topless!

51A “KPop Demon Hunters” voice actor Daniel __ Kim : DAE

Daniel Dae Kim is an American actor who is famous for playing Jin-Soo Kwon on “Lost”. Kim moved on to play one of the leads on the CBS remake of “Hawaii Five-O”, portraying the character Chin Ho Kelly.

“K-Pop: Demon Hunters” is a 2025 animated musical film. The plot centers on a chart-topping K-pop girl group named HUNTR/X who lead a secret double life. By day, they are global superstars, but by night, they are elite demon slayers. Their main antagonists are a rival K-pop boy band, the Saja Boys, whose members are secretly demons trying to weaken the barrier between the human and demon worlds. Yikes …

54A “99 Luftballons” band : NENA

Nena is a German singer (“Nena” became the name of her band as well) who had a big hit in 1984 with one of my favorite songs of the eighties “99 Luftballons”. The English translation of the German title (“99 Red Balloons”) isn’t literal, with the color “red” added just so that the title had the right number of syllables for the tune. “Luftballon” is the name given to a child’s toy balloon in German.

61A Happy cry from a Scrabble player? : I’M DRAWING A BLANK!

The two blank tiles supplied in every game of Scrabble were not part of the original design. The game’s inventor, Alfred Mosher Butts, added them later on to increase the game’s flexibility after finding the initial all-letter version too restrictive.

64A Game consoles produced between 1983 and 2001 : SEGAS

Sega is a Japanese video game company headquartered in Tokyo. Sega actually started out in 1940 as Standard Games and was located in Honolulu, which at that time was a city in the US Territory of Hawaii. The owners moved the operation to Tokyo in 1951 and renamed the company to Service Games. The name “Sega” is a combination of the first two letters of the words “Se-rvice” and “Ga-mes”.

65A Escalator part : STEP

Escalators have an advantage over elevators in that they can move larger numbers of people in the same time frame. They can also be placed in just about the same physical space that would be needed for a regular staircase. Patents for escalator-type devices were first filed in 1859, but the first working model wasn’t built until 1892 by one Jesse Reno. It was erected alongside a pier in Coney Island, New York, with the second escalator being placed at an entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. Soon after, the Otis elevator company purchased the necessary patents and went into the business.

66A No-frills grocery chain : 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.

Down

1D Doha dignitary : EMIR

Doha is the capital city of the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. The name “Doha” translates from Arabic as “big tree” or “roundness”.

2D Verdi opera : AIDA

“Aida” is a celebrated opera by Giuseppe Verdi that is based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. Mariette also designed the costumes and stages for the opening performance. The opera was first staged in 1871 in an opera house in Cairo. In the storyline, Aida is an Ethiopian princess brought into Egypt as a slave. Radamès is an Egyptian commander who falls in love with her, and then complications arise!

4D “I lost interest” letters : TL;DR

Too long, didn’t read (TL;DR)

5D Relish-topped ballpark bites : HOT DOGS

A hot dog is a sausage served in a split roll. The term “hot dog” dates back to the 19th-century and is thought to reflect a commonly-held opinion that the sausages contained dog meat.

6D Theater chain with MacGuffins Bar and Lounge : AMC

Many AMC movie theaters feature a bar service branded as MacGuffins Bar and Lounge. “MacGuffin” is a famous film term (popularized by Alfred Hitchcock) describing a plot device that drives the story. It’s the object, like the glowing briefcase in “Pulp Fiction” and the Ark in “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, that all the characters are trying to get.

7D Some Korean cars : KIAS

Kia Motors is the second-largest manufacturer of cars in South Korea, behind Hyundai (and Hyundai is a part owner in Kia now). Kia was founded in 1944 as a manufacturer of bicycle parts, and did indeed produce Korea’s first domestic bicycle. The company’s original name was Kyungsung Precision Industry, with the Kia name introduced in 1952.

8D __ the Hun : ATTILA

In his day, Attila the Hun was the most feared enemy of the Roman Empire, until he died in 453 AD. He was the leader of the Hunnic Empire of central Europe and was famous for invading much of the continent. However, he never directly attacked Rome.

9D Check no. : AMT

Amount (amt.)

10D Thai currency : BAHT

The baht is the currency of Thailand. One baht is subdivided into 100 satang.

11D Hebrew symbol that translates to “living” : CHAI

“Chai” is the Hebrew word meaning “life, living.”. It is represented symbolically by combining the two letters, Chet and Yud. Jewish mystical tradition gives letters numerical values, and so Chai has a value of 18 (Chet=8, Yud=10). Because of this, 18 is considered a lucky number, and it’s a common custom to give charitable donations in multiples of 18 as a “gift of life”. This is also the root of the famous toast “L’Chaim!” which translates to “To life!”

17D Edible seaweed : NORI

Nori is an edible seaweed that we used to know as “laver” when we were living in Wales. Nori is usually dried into thin sheets. Here in the US, we are most familiar with nori as the seaweed used as a wrap for sushi.

25D Tricky pool shot : CAROM

A carom is a ricochet, the bouncing of some projectile off a surface. “Carom” has come to describe the banking of a billiard ball, the bouncing of the ball off the side of the table.

26D Maker of the 2600 and 5200 game consoles : ATARI

Kids today probably don’t realize that we had a video game console back in the seventies, and it wasn’t a Nintendo nor was it a PlayStation. The Atari 2600 game system introduced the idea of separating out computing hardware (the console) from the game code (a cartridge). The same concept persists to this day, although cartridges have been displaced by discs and downloads.

29D __ wave : RADIO

Radio waves are invisible waves of energy, just like visible light, X-rays, and microwaves. They have the longest wavelengths and lowest energy in the full electromagnetic spectrum. Their great wavelength makes them perfect for transmitting information over long distances, which is why we use them for almost all wireless communication.

33D Prefix with sexual : DEMI-

A demisexual person is someone who only feels sexual attraction after forming a strong emotional bond with another person.

41D Vinyasa sequence : ASANAS

In some forms of yoga, it is important to make smooth transitions between the asana (poses). Such a transition is known as a vinyasa.

44D Bureaucratic hassle : RED TAPE

Back in the days of yore in England, official documents were bound in bundles with red ribbon. So, getting through all the paperwork required “cutting through the red tape”.

47D Like kanelsnegle : DANISH

The Danish pastry that we know so well over here in the US is indeed a Danish specialty, although the recipe was brought to Denmark by Austrian bakers. A “Danish” is called “Viennese bread” in Denmark.

A kanelsnegl is the classic Danish version of a cinnamon roll, with the name literally translating to “cinnamon snail” because of its coiled, spiral shape.

48D __ tube : BOOB

“Idiot box” and “boob tube” are nicknames for television.

51D Floppy or hard medium : DISK

I don’t think my kids really know what a floppy disk is. A floppy is made of a thin and flexible magnetic material that can store data, enclosed in a protective case. I’ve used 8-inch floppies in my time, and many 5.25-inch floppy disks. Until fairly recently, I had a desktop that would take 3.5-inch disks, although I think the last 3.5-inch floppy disappeared from the house several years ago …

57D Vegetable side : SLAW

The term “coleslaw” is an Anglicized version of the Dutch term “koolsla”, which in itself is a shortened form of “Koolsalade” meaning “cabbage salad”.

62D Like sashimi : RAW

Sashimi is thinly sliced raw fish, although it can also be raw meat. The word “sashimi” translates literally as “pierced body”, which may be a reference to the practice of sticking the tail and fin to sliced fish to identify it.

63D HS equivalency test : GED

The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a battery of four tests designed to demonstrate that a student has the academic skills of someone who has graduated from an American or Canadian high school.