Crossword Epiphany!

This morning as my wife seemed close to finishing the New York Times crossword puzzle, I asked across the table, "Do you want to call in your closer" [a baseball term, for the final relief pitcher]? She said, "I'm stumped by 39 down," and handed me the puzzle (as I've blipped it).

I glanced at that incomplete word, and instantly said, "Zamboni!" filling in the "o" and "i". I hadn't looked at the clue: "It's driven over the ice between periods". But having watched many a hockey game in my younger days, the word Zamboni is hard-wired in my brain. Frank Zamboni developed the device in 1949; it resurfaces an ice rink by melting and thus smoothing the very top of the ice. Like "Kleenex", the word is both a trade mark and a generic term for any such machine.

Edit: I got the above slightly wrong; to quote the Wikipedia article I linked to, a Zamboni "lays down a layer of clean water, which will freeze to form a smooth ice surface."

Today's Tuesday; Monday is usually relatively easy, and the puzzles generally get harder as the week progresses. My wife usually struggles at least a bit by Wednesday, and we have a friend who never bothers with them until Thursday!