Solution: Sneaky ___ (sly dogs) - NYT Crossword

You just know the term in this clue has a great origin story. [Sneaky _____ (sly dogs)] solves to PETES, which could be a reference to pool cues (apparently after Pete Margo, a pool player who feigned novice status with cues designed to look shoddy but that worked perfectly). “Sneaky Pete” was also used to describe cheap wines after the Prohibition. In the 1950s, instead of Two-Buck Chuck, you could buy 40-cent Sneaky Pete Mary on the streets of New York City. That libation, which was spiked with grain alcohol, probably got its name from a Bowery fixture: peter players, who used knockout drops to sedate and rob their victims. Peter players may have gotten their name, in turn, from Peter Sawyer, a sly dog who worked his “snuff game” in the late 1800s in the city.