Today's crossword by Jeff Stillman is his 22nd published puzzle since 2012. Stillman likes to do clever things with words. One of his puzzles included WINGSPAN and four long answers which started and ended with the letters in WING, such as WELLBEING and WASPSTING. Today's crossword is similar to the WINGSPAN puzzle. It includes WIDESPREAD ("Far-reaching") and the theme answers include the letters W, I, D and E spread out:
Rain-X auto product: WIPERBLADE
Many a military spouse: WARBRIDE
Electrician's basic knowledge: WIRINGCOLORCODE
Manhattan theater district locale: WESTSIDE
"Big name in gas" is AMOCO, "Laundry room brand" is TIDE, "'Grand' ice cream brand" is EDYS, "Chop House dog food brand" is ALPO, and of course we have the clue that mentions Rain-X. Puzzle editors used to object to the use of brand names.
Used to.
"Risky purchase, metaphorically" is PIGINAPOKE. A poke -- the word comes from the French
poque -- is a sack or a bag. In the 14th and 15th centuries, swindlers would often sell a bag which supposedly contained a pig to be used for food. The buyer would return home and open the bag, only to find that it contained a cat or a dog. I can't really feel sorry for anyone who would buy something without seeing it. This swindle is also the source of the expression, "Let the cat out of the bag."
"Feathered layer" was a clever clue for HEN. "Bedtime drink, in totspeak" is WAWA. I wonder if young children would use words such as "wawa," "horsie," "choo-choo" and "go nite-nite" if the
parents didn't talk to them that way. "Dukes not among royalty" is FISTS. When we challenge someone to a fistfight, why do we say "Put up your dukes"? In Great Britain, "fork" is an old slang word meaning "hand." It's the source of the phrases "fork out" and "fork over." In Cockney rhyming slang, "fork" rhymes with "Duke of York" and therefore fists are "dukes." Bizarre, yes -- but that is the origin of the term. There are many hundreds of Cockney rhyming slang words.....and they are all collected here:
http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.ukThat ends the discussion of the WIDESPREAD puzzle. Now I'm going to go for a WALKOUTSIDE.
