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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Fruit preserves : JAM

Jelly is made using strained juice from crushed fruit. Jam is similar, but the whole crushed fruit is used, and often includes seeds.

4A Bottled water brand : DASANI

Dasani is a Coca-Cola brand of bottled water. It is simply filtered tap water with some trace minerals added.

10A Status ___ : QUO

“Status quo” translates from Latin as “state in which”, and in English is used to mean the existing condition or state of affairs.

14A High school assessment scored from 1 to 5 : AP EXAM

Advanced Placement (AP)

15A Address starting “http” : URL

Uniform resource locator (URL)

16A Pearl or peridot : GEM

Pearls form in oysters because of a reaction that is similar to an immune system response in higher animals. The pearl is formed as the oysters lay down successive layers of calcium carbonate around some microscopic foreign body that has penetrated the shell.

Olivine is a relatively common mineral, but is rarely found with purity that is sufficient for use as a gemstone. When the olivine is pure enough to be used as a gem, it is called “peridot”. Peridot is always olive green in color, with its color intensity a function of how much iron is in the stone.

23A One taking office dictation : STENO

Stenography is the process of writing in shorthand. The term comes from the Greek “steno” (narrow) and “graphe” (writing).

28A Concert pianos : GRANDS

A grand piano is one with the frame supported horizontally on three legs. An upright piano has the frame and strings running vertically. Grand pianos come in many sizes. For example, the length of a concert grand is about 9 feet, a parlor grand is about 7 feet, and a baby grand is about 5 feet.

31A Sardine container : TIN

Sardines are oily fish related to herrings. They are also known as pilchards, although in the UK “sardine” is a noun reserved for a young pilchard. Very confusing …

36A Dominican slugger Sammy : SOSA

Sammy Sosa was firmly in the public eye in 1998 when he and Mark McGwire were vying to be the first to surpass the home run record held by Roger Maris. McGwire fell out of public favor due to stories of steroid abuse (stories which he later admitted were true) while Sosa fell out of favor when he was found to be using a corked bat in a 2003 game.

38A Coolness, in Gen Alpha slang : AURA

“Generation Alpha” is a term used to describe those born in the years between the mid-2010s and mid-2020s.

40A Nightmare scenario : DYSTOPIA

A dystopia is an imaginary community in which the residents live unhappily and in fear. “Dystopia” is the opposite of “utopia”. One example of such a society is that described by George Orwell in “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. A more contemporary example would be the setting for the novel “The Hunger Games”.

47A Smokey Robinson’s record label : MOTOWN

Motown is a record label that was founded in 1959 in Detroit (aka “Motor City” or “Motown”). The founder of Motown records was Berry Gordy, Jr.

Singer Smokey Robinson started his musical career in 1955 when he formed a singing group called the Five Chimes in his native Detroit. The group’s name changed to the Matadors in 1957, and eventually to the Miracles. In 1959, Robinson married Claudette Rogers, who was in the Miracles lineup at the time.

48A Capital of Oman : MUSCAT

Muscat is the capital city of Oman. It lies on the northeast coast of the state on the Gulf of Oman, an arm of the Arabian Sea that connects to the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz.

50A North Carolina university : ELON

Elon is a town in the Piedmont region of North Carolina located close to the city of Burlington. Elon University is a private liberal arts school founded in 1889.

51A Leo XIV, for one : POPE

Robert Francis Prevost became the first pope from the US, in 2025, taking the name Leo XIV. He chose the name Leo in part to honor Pope Leo XIII, who was known for his social teachings which addressed workers’ rights and capitalism. The choice of name suggests a continuation of the emphasis placed by Pope Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, on social justice and reform.

57A ___ Menken, composer of “Little Shop of Horrors” : ALAN

Alan Menken is a composer from New York City who is best known for scores he produced for Disney movies. Menken won Oscars for the scores for “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Aladdin” and “Pocahontas”.

“Little Shop of Horrors” is a 1982 rock musical based on the cult 1960 film “The Little Shop of Horrors”. The stage musical was adapted into a 1986 film of the same name, directed by Frank Oz. Not my cup of tea …

60A A village in Wales has one with 58 letters — the world’s longest : NAME

“Llanfairpwll” is the short form of the Welsh village that is more completely named “Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch”. That’s the longest place name in Europe. The name translates as:

[St.] Mary’s Church (Llanfair) [in] the hollow (pwll) of the white hazel (gwyngyll) near (goger) the rapid whirlpool (y chwyrndrobwll) [and] the church of [St.] Tysilio (llantysilio) with a red cave ([a]g ogo goch).

The sign at the local railway station is a spot often used for photos by tourists. The length of the sign necessitates the use of five supporting poles instead of the usual two.

61A It might read “Miss Universe” : SASH

The Miss Universe beauty pageant was founded in 1952. The organization running the contest was bought by Donald Trump in 1996.

Down

3D High-waisted fashion trend of the 1990s : MOM JEANS

“Mom jeans” and “dad jeans” are not-so-nice names for high-waisted jeans, jeans usually worn by older women and men.

4D Physiques that aren’t quite perfect : DAD BODS

A “dad bod” is a man’s body that is softly rounded. Well, that’s the description I like to use for mine …

8D Thomas ___, early political cartoonist and critic of Boss Tweed : NAST

Thomas Nast was an American caricaturist and cartoonist. He was the creator of the Republican Party elephant, the Democratic Party donkey, Uncle Sam and the image of the plump and jocular Santa Claus that we use today. Thomas Nast drew some famous cartoons in which he depicted the Tammany Society as a vicious tiger that was killing democracy. Nast’s use of the tiger symbology caught on and was used by other cartoonists to harp at the society.

William Magear Tweed was known as “Boss” Tweed. He was a 19th-century, American politician who led the Democratic Party machine in New York, headquartered in Tammany Hall. He was one of the most successful of the corrupt politicians of the day, siphoning from taxpayers (in today’s money) billions of dollars. In 1871 he was arrested, and served time in jail. He was then rearrested on civil charges and served time in debtor’s prison. He managed to escape to Spain, but was arrested again and extradited to the United States. He died in jail in 1878.

10D Reality show starring the “Fab Five” : QUEER EYE

“Queer Eye” is a reality TV show that was launched in 2003 as “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”. Each episode features a panel of gay professional experts in the fields of fashion and design giving a makeover to a straight man. The show was given a new life in 2018 when it was launched on Netflix as “Queer Eye” with a new “Fab Five” cast.

20D Newswoman Curry : ANN

Television journalist Ann Curry is perhaps best known for the time she spent as co-host on NBC’s “Today” show. NBC executives asked Curry to resign from the “Today” show because ratings were low. I just read online that Curry was also pushed out because of the way she insisted on dressing and because she refused to dye her gray hair. I hope that isn’t true …

27D Liquors that go in Manhattans : RYES

The cocktail called a manhattan is made from whiskey, sweet vermouth and Angostura bitters. I favor my own version of a brandy manhattan, using brandy, sweet vermouth and orange bitters.

33D Ballerina’s skirt : TUTU

The word “tutu”, used for a ballet dancer’s skirt, is actually a somewhat “naughty” term. It came into English from French in the early 20th century. The French “tutu” is an alteration of the word “cucu”, a childish word meaning “bottom, backside”.

39D Place to hang a fedora : HAT STAND

A fedora is a lovely hat, I think. It is made of felt, and is similar to a trilby, but has a broader brim. “Fédora” was a play written for Sarah Bernhardt and first performed in 1882. Bernhardt had the title role of Princess Fedora, and on stage she wore a hat similar to a modern-day fedora. The play led to the women’s fashion accessory, the fedora hat, commonly worn by women into the beginning of the twentieth century. Men then started wearing fedoras, but only when women gave up the fashion …

41D Classic archery wood : YEW

Yew is the wood of choice for the longbow, a valued weapon in the history of England. The longbow is constructed with a core of yew heartwood (as the heartwood resists compression) that has a sheath of yew sapwood (as the sapwood resists stretching). The yew was in such demand for longbows that for centuries yew trees were in short supply in Britain and the wood had to be imported from all over Europe.

42D Shiba ___ (Japanese hunting dog) : 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”.

43D Piña ___ : COLADA

“Piña colada” is a Spanish term that translates into “strained pineapple”. The piña colada cocktail was introduced in the Caribe Hilton San Juan in 1954, and since 1978 it has been the official beverage of Puerto Rico. The mocktail version of the drink is known as a nada colada.

46D Southernmost country in Central America : PANAMA

The nation that we now know as Panama sits on an isthmus that formed about 3 million years ago. The isthmus was the result of a land bridge forming between North and South America as two tectonic plates of the Earth’s crust slowly collided. Man first attempted to create a waterway across the Isthmus of Panama in 1881, but the 48-mile long Panama Canal only opened for business in 1914.

49D Core belief : TENET

A tenet is an article of faith, something that is “held” to be true. “Tenet” is Latin for “he/she/it holds”.

53D Pouncing predator : PUMA

The mountain lion is found in much of the Americas from the Yukon in Canada right down to the southern Andes in South America. Because the mountain lion is found over such a vast area, it has many different names applied by local peoples, such as “cougar” and “puma”. In fact, the mountain lion holds the Guinness record for the animal with the most number of different names, with over 40 in English alone.