Bill’s time: 9m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Component of an Olympic bronze medal : ZINC

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. Compare this with bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. Brass and bronze are often mistaken for each other.

In the Ancient Olympic Games, the winner of an event was awarded an olive wreath. When the games were revived in 1896, the winners were originally given a silver medal and an olive branch, with runners-up receiving a bronze medal and a laurel branch. The tradition of giving gold, silver and bronze medals began at the 1904 Summer Olympic Games held in St. Louis, Missouri.

5 Off-road vehicle maker? : TONKA

The toy manufacturer today known as Tonka started out as a manufacturer of garden implements in Mound, Minnesota in 1946. By 1955, toys had become the main product line for the company. At that time the owners decided to change the company name and opted for “Tonka”, a Dakota Sioux word meaning “great, big”.

10 Peddle : HAWK

The verb “to hawk” has a Germanic origin, and comes from the Low German word “hoken” meaning “to peddle”. A hawker is actually slightly different from a peddler by definition, as a hawker is a peddler that uses a horse and cart, or a van nowadays perhaps, to sell his or her wares.

14 Brand in a studio, maybe : IKEA

The IKEA furniture chain was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, when he was just 17-years-old. IKEA is an acronym standing for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd (don’t forget now!). Elmtaryd was the name of the farm where Ingvar Kamprad grew up, and Agunnaryd is his home parish in Sweden.

16 Onetime capital of the Mughal Empire : AGRA

Agra is a medieval city on the banks of the river Yamuna in India. Agra was also the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1556 to 1658. The city is home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites:

• The Taj Mahal: the famous mausoleum built in memory of Mumtaz Mahal.
• Agra Fort: the site where the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond was seized.
• Fatehpur Sikri: a historic city that’s home to well-preserved Mughal architecture.

17 Seats facing the altar : PEWS

A pew is a bench in a church, one usually with a high back. The original pews were raised and sometimes enclosed seats in the church used by women and important men or families. “Pew” comes from the Old French “puie” meaning “balcony, elevation”.

18 Alley button : RESET

That would be a bowling alley.

19 Genesis problem : RAIN

According to the Bible’s Book of Genesis, rain fell for forty days and forty nights, resulting in the Great Flood. All creatures on the land perished, except Noah, his family, and the animals that he brought into the ark.

20 Soiree for woodchip manufacturers? : SPLINTER PARTY

A splinter group or party is one that has broken away from a larger group or party.

26 Soiree for certain divers? : PEARL JAM

Pearl Jam is an alternative rock band from Seattle, Washington.

30 Govt. stipend : SSI

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a federal program that provides financial relief to persons with low incomes who are 65 or older, or who are blind or disabled. The SSI program is administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA) even though the Social Security trust fund is not used for SSI payments. SSI payments come out of general tax revenue.

31 Angel dust letters : PCP

Phencyclidine is a recreational drug usually referred to on the street as “PCP” or “angel dust”.

32 Neural transmitter : AXON

A nerve cell is more correctly called a neuron. The branched projections that receive electrochemical signals from other neurons are known as dendrites. The long nerve fiber that conducts signals away from the neuron is known as the axon. A neuron that has no definite axon is referred to as “apolar” or “nonpolar”. In apolar neurons the nerve impulses radiate in all directions.

34 Powerful 2017 hurricane : IRMA

Hurricane Irma was a devastating category-5 hurricane that led to over 100 deaths in the contiguous US in 2017, and half as many in the Caribbean islands. Irma was the most intense hurricane to make landfall in the continental US since Katrina in 2005.

42 Gear for Lindsey Vonn : SKIS

Lindsey Vonn is a World Champion alpine ski racer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is one of the few women to have won World Cup races in all five alpine racing disciplines: downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and super combined. In fact, Vonn is the most successful US ski racer in history.

45 PETA concern : FUR

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is a very large animal rights organization, with 300 employees and two million members and supporters worldwide. Although the group campaigns for animal rights across a broad spectrum of issues, it has a stated focus in opposition of four practices:

• Factory farming
• Fur farming
• Animal testing
• Use of animals in entertainment

47 Soiree for fake coin makers? : SLUGFEST

A slug is a counterfeit coin that is used to trick a coin-operated machine. A slug might just be a metal blank, or another coin of lower value. I remember the Austrian Schilling trick that was used in the nineties in the UK. A counterfeiter simply glued two Austrian Schillings back-to-back, and these passed nicely as pound coins. Back then, that represented a 90% profit for the bad guy.

60 Louvre Pyramid architect : IM PEI

I. M. Pei (full name: Ieoh Ming Pei) was an exceptional American architect who was born in China. Of Pei’s many wonderful works, my favorite is the renovation of the Louvre in Paris, and especially the Glass Pyramid in the museum’s courtyard.

When I. M. Pei became the first foreign architect to work on the Louvre in Paris, he not only designed the famous glass and steel pyramid, but also worked on renovations throughout the museum. His design was very controversial, causing a lot of ill feelings among the public. Eventually, when the work was complete, public opinion became more favorable. Personally, I think it is magnificent, both inside and out.

61 Chatroom spammers : BOTS

A bot is a computer program that is designed to imitate human behavior. It might crawl around the Web doing searches for example, or it might participate in discussions in chat rooms by giving pre-programmed responses. It might also act as a competitor in a computer game.

67 Hot message : SEXT

Sexting (a portmanteau of “sex” and “texting”) is the sending of explicit dialog and images between cell phones. The term “sexting” was coined by the UK’s “Sunday Telegraph Magazine” in a 2005 article.

68 American in Paris, perhaps : EXPAT

Expatriate (expat)

69 One of 11 for Julia Louis-Dreyfus : EMMY

Actress and comedian Julia Louis-Dreyfus is an alum of the sketch show “Saturday Night Live”, in which she appeared from 1982 to 1985. Her really big break came when she was chosen to play Elaine Benes on “Seinfeld”. More recently, Louis-Dreyfus can be seen playing Vice President Selina Meyer on the HBO comedy show “Veep”.

Down

1 12345, for Schenectady, NY : ZIP

ZIP codes were introduced in 1963. The acronym “ZIP” stands for “Zone Improvement Plan”, a name indicating that mail travels more efficiently when the codes are included in the postal address.

Schenectady is a city in Upstate New York located just a few minutes from the state capitol, Albany. The name “Schenectady” comes from a Mohawk word meaning “beyond the pines”.

2 Turner on a turntable : IKE

Musician Ike Turner is perhaps best known for the work in the sixties and seventies with then-wife Tina Turner. Turner met his future wife on the local club circuit in St. Louis in the mid-fifties, and together they formed the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Despite all of his success, Ike’s life went downhill in the eighties and nineties, largely due to addiction to cocaine and crack. He served time in jail, and Tina later described episodes of domestic abuse in her autobiography “I, Tina”. Ike was diagnosed with emphysema in 2005, which left him very weak and in need of a constant supply of oxygen. He passed away in 2007 due to a cocaine overdose.

3 Times, at times : NEWSPAPER

Of the many newspapers around the world that use the moniker “Times”, the original was “The Times” of London. Founded in 1785 as “The Daily Universal Register”, the paper changed its name to “The Times” in 1788.

4 Spirited toon? : CASPER

Casper the Friendly Ghost features in a whole series of cartoon shorts made by Famous Studios. Casper made the big time in 1995 when he appeared in his own “Casper” movie, alongside Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman and Eric Idle.

5 Actress Hatcher : TERI

Teri Hatcher’s most famous role is the Susan Mayer character on the TV comedy-drama “Desperate Housewives”. I’ve never seen more than a few minutes of “Housewives” but I do know Teri Hatcher as a Bond girl, as she appeared in “Tomorrow Never Dies”. More recently, she portrayed Lois Lane on the show “Lois & Clark”.

6 “Top Chef” set piece : OVEN

“Top Chef” is a reality television show on the Bravo channel. It’s basically a cooking competition.

7 Building project for cranes? : NEST

The magnificent birds known as cranes have long legs and long necks. The species called the Sarus Crane is the world’s tallest flying bird.

9 First pro team to play on artificial turf : ASTROS

“AstroTurf” is the trademarked name of an artificial playing surface suitable for many ball sports. AstroTurf was invented in 1965 and originally went on the market as ChemGrass. The first really big application was in 1996 in the Houston Astrodome, so the name “AstroTurf” was applied and has remained ever since.

10 Samurai ritual : HARA-KIRI

“Hara-kiri” translates from Japanese as “cutting the belly”, and is a form of ritual suicide. “Hara-kiri” is the term used in speech that is equivalent to “seppuku”, the term used in writing for the same ritual suicide. The act is carried out by plunging a short blade into the belly and moving it from left to right, slicing through the organs within the abdomen.

11 Lab gelatins : AGARS

Agar (also “agar-agar”) is a jelly extracted from seaweed that has many uses. Agar is found in Japanese desserts, and can also be used as a food thickener or even as a laxative. In the world of science, it is the most common medium used for growing bacteria in Petri dishes.

13 GOOD Music record label founder : KANYE

Kanye West is a rap singer who was born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago. He also spent some time in Nanjing, China as a child, where his mother was teaching as part of an exchange program. West is married to reality star Kim Kardashian.

21 Cholesterol letters : LDL

LDL (low-density lipoprotein) is one of the compounds responsible for transporting fats around the body. When LDL is combined with cholesterol it can be referred to as “bad cholesterol”. This is because LDL actually transports cholesterol into the inner walls of blood vessels leading to atherosclerosis.

24 Hajji’s destination : MECCA

Mecca is in the Makkah province of Saudi Arabia. It was the birthplace of Muhammad and is the holiest city in Islam. Every year several million Muslims perform the Hajj, a holy pilgrimage to Mecca.

“Haji” (also “Hajji” and “Hadji”) is the term used for someone who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca, and it is sometimes also used as a form of address for such a person. The journey itself goes by the name “haj”, “hajj” or “hadj”.

33 “American Gods” author Gaiman : NEIL

“American Gods” is a 2001 fantasy novel by English author Neil Gaiman. The book has been adapted into a TV series, with the first season airing on Starz in 2017. It’s all about gods and mythological creatures in contemporary America. Not my cup of tea, although there is a leprechaun named Mad Sweeney in the mix …

36 Seasoning seed : ANISE

The essential oil in the anise plant is anethole. Anethole has a licorice-like flavor, and is used extensively in cooking and to flavor several distilled alcoholic drinks.

39 Actress Dern of “Twin Peaks” : LAURA

Actress Laura Dern is the daughter of the actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. Among her many notable roles, Laura played the Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in the 2008 movie “Recount”, and Dr. Ellie Sattler in the 1993 blockbuster “Jurassic Park”.

“Twin Peaks” is an ABC TV drama about an FBI murder investigation in the fictional town of Twin Peaks, Washington. The show originally ran for just two seasons, from 1990 to 1991. There followed a 1992 feature film called “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me”, and Showtime came up with “Twin Peaks: The Return” that started airing in 2017. I haven’t seen any incarnations of the show, but I hear good things …

40 Sch. with a Harrisburg campus : PSU

Pennsylvania State University (PSU) was founded in 1855 as the Farmer’s High School of Pennsylvania. Penn State is listed as one of the “Public Ivies”, a public university that offers a quality of education comparable to that of the Ivy League.

The city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is the state’s capital. The city was named for John Harris, Sr. who operated a ferry across the Susquehanna River that runs through Harrisburg. Harrisburg is home to the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, which is located alongside the Susquehanna, and which had a partial meltdown in 1979.

48 2.3, perhaps: Abbr. : GPA

Grade point average (GPA)

49 Slight character flaw : FOIBLE

Originally, a foible was the weak point of a sword’s blade. Over time, “foible” came to be used for a weak point in a person’s character.

50 2.3, roughly : C-PLUS

On a 4.0 GPA scale, a letter grade of C+ is equivalent to 2.3.

52 Big name in stopwatches : TIMEX

The Timex Group, a manufacturer of watches, evolved from the Waterbury Clock Company that was founded in 1854 in Waterbury, Connecticut. The company achieved tremendous success in the early sixties largely due to an innovative marketing campaign. Advertisements featured the memorable tagline “Timex – Takes a licking and keeps on ticking”. In 1962, one out of every three watches sold in the US was a Timex.

57 Spanakopita cheese : FETA

Spanakopita is a savory pastry from Greece. The term “spanakopita” translates from Greek as “spinach pie”. The pie’s filling includes feta cheese, onions and egg, along with the spinach.

62 First of a generic trio : TOM

That would be Tom, Dick and Harry.

The post LA Times Crossword 7 Feb 20, Friday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 11m 01s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 Lead-in for an old saw : AS THE SAYING GOES …

A saw is an old saying, one that is often repeated and is very familiar. The term “old saw” is actually a tautology, as by definition a “saw” is “old”.

17 Star associated with Venus : SERENA

Serena Williams is the younger of the two Williams sisters playing professional tennis. Serena has won more prize money in her career than any other female athlete.

Venus Williams is the older of the two Williams sisters playing professional tennis. In 2002, Williams became the first African-American woman to earn the World No. 1 ranking by the Women’s Tennis Association in the Open Era.

23 __ Stadium, home to the 49ers : LEVI’S

The San Francisco 49ers of the NFL have been playing their home games in Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara since 2014. The team moved from the famous Candlestick Park, which they had been using since 1971. Levi’s Stadium, the team’s new home, got a big boost in January 2016 when it was used as the venue for the Super Bowl.

24 Wild fruit is a feature of it : PALEO DIET

The paleolithic (or “paleo, caveman”) diet is a fad diet that became popular in the 2000s. The idea is to eat wild plants and animals that would have been available to humans during the Paleolithic era (roughly the Stone Age). This period precedes the introduction of agriculture and the domestication of animals. As a result, someone on the diet avoids consuming grains, legumes, dairy and processed foods. The diet consists mainly of lean meat (about 45-65% of the total calorie intake), non-starchy vegetables, fruits, berries and nuts.

27 Unadon fish : EELS

“Unadon” is the Japanese word for “eel bowl”. “Unadon” is actually a contraction, of “unagi no kabayaki” (grilled eel) and “donburi” (rice bowl dish).

30 Either co-author of Curious George books : REY

Curious George is a character in a series of children’s books written by husband and wife Hans Augusto and Margret Rey. The couple wrote the original stories in Paris, taking the manuscripts with them as they fled from the city ahead of the Nazi invasion in 1940.

31 Ward of “FBI” : SELA

Actress Sela Ward turns up in crosswords a lot. Ward played Teddy Reed in the TV show “Sisters” in the nineties, and was in “Once and Again” from 1999-2002. I don’t know either show, but I do know Ward from the medical drama “House” in which she played the hospital’s lawyer and Greg House’s ex-partner. That was a fun role, I thought. More recently, Ward played a lead role on “CSI: NY” and was a very welcome and much-needed addition to the cast. And, Ward played Dr. Richard Kimble’s murdered wife in the 1993 film version of “The Fugitive”.

The TV crime drama “FBI” premiered in 2018, and centers on the FBI office in New York City. Star of the show is Canadian actress Missy Peregrym, who plays FBI special agent Maggie Bell.

32 Clubs for Cubs : BATS

The Chicago Cubs is one of only two charter members of the baseball’s National League who are still playing, the other being the Atlanta Braves. The Cubs won the World Series in 2016 for the first time since 1908, which is a long time ago. In fact, the Cubs had the longest championship drought of any professional sports team in North America.

40 Aphrodite’s love child : EROS

As always seems to be the case with Greek gods, Eros and Aphrodite have overlapping spheres of influence. Aphrodite was the goddess of love between a man and a woman, and Eros was the god who stirred the passions of the male. The Roman equivalent of Aphrodite was Venus, and the equivalent of Eros was Cupid.

46 Baseball’s Maglie and Bando : SALS

Sal Maglie was a professional baseball pitcher, and one of just a few players who played for all three New York teams of his day, namely the New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees. Maglie was known as Sal the Barber because he was said to give “close shaves” to hitters, frequently pitching on the inside.

Sal Bando is a former Major League Baseball player and baseball executive. After retiring as a player, Bando worked for a while as a color analyst for NBC, appearing alongside Bob Costas.

47 TurboTax pros : CPAS

Certified public accountant (CPA)

TurboTax is a software- and online-based income tax preparation service. It’s what I’ve used since I retired, and I have no complaints …

49 Tequila sources : AGAVES

The agave is a succulent plant found mainly in Mexico. Surprisingly (to me, anyway), the agave is unrelated to the cactus, and isn’t related to the aloe plant either. The blue agave is used in the production of tequila.

Tequila is a city in Mexico that is located about 40 miles northwest of Guadalajara in the state of Jalisco. The city is the birthplace of the drink called “tequila”. Local people made a variety of a drink called mezcal by fermenting the heart of the blue agave plant that is native to the area surrounding Tequila. It was the Spanish who introduced the distillation process to the mescal, giving us what we now know as “tequila”.

51 Short-legged lizard : SKINK

Skinks are lizards with relatively small legs and without a pronounced neck. Most skink species have long tails that they can shed if it is grabbed by a predator. The tail can then be regenerated.

52 Song title line after “once, twice” : THREE TIMES A LADY

“Three Times a Lady” is a 1978 song that Lionel Richie wrote for the Commodores, the group for whom Richie was a lead singer. Richie was inspired to write the song after hearing his father toast his mother at their wedding anniversary with the words:

She’s a great lady, she’s a great mother, and she’s a great friend.

57 Basements, to Realtors : TERRACE LEVELS

“Real estate agent” is a general, generic term. “Realtor” is the name given to a member of the trade association known as the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The NAR has gone so far as the trademark the term “Realtor” in the US.

58 Sources of sprays : NEBULIZERS

A nebulizer is a device used to convert a liquid into a mist or spray. The term “nebulizer” comes from the Latin “nebula” meaning “mist”.

Down

1 Andorra’s only official language : CATALAN

Catalonia is an autonomous community in the northeast of Spain. The capital of Catalonia is the city of Barcelona. Sandwiched between Catalonia and France to the north, is the lovely Principality of Andorra that is nestled in the Pyrenees. Andorra is the country in the world in which Catalan is an official language.

Andorra is a small principality nestled in the Pyrénées between France and Spain. Andorra is a very prosperous country, mainly due to its status as a tax haven and thriving tourist industry. We used to help out the tourist industry there in the winters, enjoying a couple of skiing vacations there. Happy memories …

2 Victim of Paris : ACHILLES

Achilles is the protagonist in Homer’s “Iliad”. When Achilles was born, his mother attempted to make him immortal by dipping him into the River Styx. As he was held by the heel as he was immersed, this became the only vulnerable point on his body. Years later he was killed when a poisoned arrow struck him in the heel. That arrow was shot by Paris.

4 “Men in Black” gp. : ETS

Extraterrestrial (ET)

6 Myrna who played Nora Charles : LOY

The elegant Myrna Loy was one of my favorite actresses. Her career took off when she was paired up with William Powell in the fabulous “The Thin Man” series of films. Loy also appeared opposite Cary Grant in a couple of films that I like to watch every so often, namely “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer” (1947) and “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House” (1948).

“The Thin Man” is a detective novel written by Dashiell Hammett that was first published in the magazine “Redbook” in 1934. Hammett never wrote a sequel to his story, but it spawned a wonderful, wonderful series of “The Thin Man” films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy (as Nick and Nora Charles). “The Thin Man” was the last novel that Hammett wrote.

8 Figs. with two dashes : SSNS

A Social Security number (SSN) is divided into three parts i.e AAA-GG-SSSS, Originally, the Area Number (AAA) was the code for the office that issued the card. Since 1973, the Area Number reflects the ZIP code from which the application was made. The GG in the SSN is the Group Number, and the SSSS in the number is the Serial Number. However, this is all moot. Since 2011 SSNs are assigned randomly. However, some random numbers have been excluded from use, i.e. Area Numbers 000, 666 (!) and 900-999.

9 Tannenbaum topper : ENGEL

In German, there might be an “Engel” (angel) on top of a “Tannenbaum” (fir tree) at Christmas.

11 Depth-of-field setting : F-STOP

Varying the f-stop in a lens varies how big the lens opening (the aperture) is when a photograph is taken. Smaller apertures (higher f-stop values) admit less light, but result in a greater depth of field (more of the photograph is in focus).

13 Declining in later years : SENILE

Something described as senile relates to old age. The term “senile” comes from “senex”, which is Latin for “old man”.

14 Slithery danger : ASP

The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.

21 “El Cantar de mío __”: Castilian epic poem : CID

“El Cantar de mio Cid” (“The Song of my Cid” in English) is an old epic poem from Spain that recounts the exploits of the Castilian hero El Cid. The composition was written sometime between 1140 and 1207.

The Kingdom of Castile was one seven medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. The name “Catile” comes from the large number of castles that were built across the kingdom.

22 Minor league game? : TEE-BALL

Although there seems to be some dispute about who invented tee-ball, the game did emerge in the 1950s.

25 Farm animals that sound like trees : EWES

“Ewes” sounds like “yews”.

29 Hockey Hall of Famer Mikita : STAN

Stan Mikita is a retired professional Canadian hockey player who was born in Communist-controlled former Czechoslovakia.

36 Like a June day, to Lowell : SO RARE

James Russell Lowell was a Romantic poet from Massachusetts. Lowell was also known as one of the Fireside Poets, a group of New England poets who used a simpler style to make their work accessible to the general populace. One of his more famous works is the poem that starts, “And what is so rare as a day in June?”

38 Where many get manis : SPA

Manicure (mani)

39 Observations : ESPIALS

Espial: the act of noticing, espying.

41 The U.S. Naval Academy is situated at is mouth : SEVERN

The United States Naval Academy (USNA) is located in Annapolis, Maryland. The USNA was founded in 1845 and educates officers for both the US Navy and the US Marine Corps. The motto of the USNA is “Ex Scientia Tridens”, which translates as “From Knowledge, Sea Power”.

45 Caterpillar rival : DEERE

John Deere invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837. Prior to Deere’s invention, farmers used an iron or wooden plow that constantly had to be cleaned as rich soil stuck to its surfaces. The cast-steel plow was revolutionary as its smooth sides solved the problem of “stickiness”. The Deere company that John founded uses the slogan “Nothing Runs Like a Deere”, and has a leaping deer as its logo.

Back in the early 1900s, Benjamin Holt invented a steam tractor that was able to move over soggy land. The new vehicle crawled over the ground using wheels that drove tracks. Someone apparently noted that the tractor moved along like a caterpillar, and so the enterprise that was to be known as the Caterpillar Tractor Company was born.

50 Whack : STAB

Take a whack, take a stab, have a go, try.

53 Hosp. area with few visitors : ICU

Many a hospital (hosp.) includes an intensive care unit (ICU).

54 “AGT” judge __ B : MEL

“Mel B” is the stage name of Melanie Brown, who came to fame as a member of the Spice Girls musical group. She took the name Mel B to distinguish herself from fellow band member Melanie Chisholm (Melanie C). Mel B was also known as “Scary Spice”, a nickname given to her by the media. American viewers saw Mel B on the TV show “America’s Got Talent” from 2013 through 2019, on which show she served as a judge.

55 Singer in the Whiffenpoofs, e.g. : ELI

The Yale Whiffenpoofs are an a cappella group based in Yale University. They are the oldest such university group in this country, established in 1909. “The Whiffenpoof Song” is the group’s traditional closing number. The song was first performed back in 1909, and has been recorded by many artists including Rudy Vallee and Bing Crosby.

We’re poor little lambs
Who have lost our way,
Baa Baa Baa,
We’re little black sheep
Who have gone astray
Baa Baa Baa.

The post LA Times Crossword 8 Feb 20, Saturday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 14m 30s

Bill’s errors: 2

• GUN (run)
• STENGEL (Stenrel!!!)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Stand array : ZINES

A zine is a magazine. The term “zine” is often reserved for noncommercial publications, including those issued online.

6 Exams for aspiring MBAs : GMATS

If you want to get into a business school’s graduate program then you might have to take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), which will cost you about $250, I believe …

20 Draw a bead on : AIM AT

To draw a bead on something is to take aim at it. The “bead” in question is the front sight of a gun.

21 Old alphabet character : RUNE

A rune is a character in an alphabet that is believed to have mysterious powers. In Norse mythology, the runic alphabet was said to have a divine origin.

22 Inter __: among others : ALIA

“Inter alia” is Latin for “among other things”.

27 Most exceptional, in recent lingo : INSANEST

Lingo is specialized vocabulary. “Journalese” and “legalese” would be good examples.

32 Tannery tub : VAT

Leather is made from animal skins. When the flesh, fat and hair is removed from the skin and it is dried, the resulting product is rawhide. Further treatment of the skin with chemicals that permanently alter the protein structure of the skin is known as tanning, and the resulting product is leather.

34 What many writers work on : SPEC

Something that is created on spec is done so without having a specific buyer or consumer in mind. Many crosswords are constructed on spec, and then submitted to the likes of the “New York Times” or “Los Angeles Times” in the hope of publication.

46 Ant or Arkin : ADAM

Adam Ant is an English musician who had a few number-one hits on both sides of the Atlantic in the eighties. His most famous recordings were probably “Stand and Deliver” and “Prince Charming” from 1981, and “Goody Two-Shoes” from 1982. Englishman Ant even managed to get himself voted as sexiest man in America by viewers of MTV.

Actor Adam Arkin’s breakthrough role was probably playing Aaron Shutt in the TV drama “Chicago Hope”. Born in 1956, Adam is the son of fellow-actor Alan Arkin.

51 Title words before Legend or Woman : I AM …

“I Am Legend” is a 1955 science fiction novel by Richard Matheson that tells of an apparent sole survivor of a pandemic. The survivor has to fight off zombie-like vampires who come out at night. “I Am Legend” was famously adapted into a 1971 movie called “The Omega Man” starring Charlton Heston, and then into a 2007 film using the same title as the novel that stars Will Smith.

The successful singer Helen Reddy was born in Melbourne, Australia. In 1966, Reddy won a talent contest and earned herself a trip to New York City for an audition. The 25-year-old single mother decided to stay in the US, and a few years later was able to launch a successful singing career. Her hit song “I Am Woman”, released in 1972, was the first recording by an Australian artist to reach #1 in the US charts.

53 “You __ Beautiful”: Joe Cocker hit : ARE SO

“You Are So Beautiful” is a song written by Dennis Wilson and Billy Preston, first recorded by Preston in 1974. Later the same year, Joe Cocker recorded a slower version of the song that was to become more successful than the original.

54 Roast job : MC’ING

The term “emcee” comes from “MC”, an initialism used for a Master or Mistress of Ceremonies.

56 Reporter’s query : WHEN?

The Five Ws (or “Five Ws and one H”) is a journalistic concept used for gathering information. For a story to be complete, six questions need to be answered:

1. Who is it about?
2. What happened?
3. Where did it take place?
4. When did it take place?
5. Why did it happen?
6. How did it happen?

60 Biblical prophet : AMOS

Amos is one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. The Old Testament’s Book of Amos is attributed to him.

62 Local monastery VIP? : THE TOWN PRIOR (from “the town crier”)

Town criers make public announcements on the streets, usually shouting “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!” to attract attention. The term “oyez” derives from the Anglo-Norman word for “listen” and is used in this instance to me “Hear ye!”

64 Air__, 2011 Southwest acquisition : TRAN

AirTran Airways was a budget airline that has its principal hub in Atlanta. The company was founded in 1993 as ValuJet Airlines. AirTran had been owned by Southwest Airlines since 2011 and was fully integrated into the parent company in 2014, when the AirTran brand was shelved.

65 Chicago’s __ Tower : SEARS

Sears made a big splash in the world’s newspapers in 1974 when it completed its new headquarters in Chicago, the Sears Tower. At 110 stories, it was the tallest building in the world, and remained so until the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur were completed in 1996. Sears moved out of the building in 1993, but had the rights to the name on the building until early 2009. Since that time, the building has been called the Willis Tower, after the new owners.

71 Italian actress Virna : LISI

Virna Lisi is an Italian film actress who made a few movies in Hollywood in the sixties. Lisi appeared opposite Jack Lemmon in the fun movie “How to Murder Your Wife” in 1965, and with Frank Sinatra in “Assault on a Queen” in 1966.

72 Submissions to an ed. : MSS

An editor (ed.) might read or edit a manuscript (MS)

75 Big name in plastic explosives : SEMTEX

The plastic explosive known as Semtex was developed in former Czechoslovakia in the late fifties. The material is named for Semtin, a suburb of the city of Pardubice located just under 100 km east of Prague. Semtex was developed in Semtin.

76 First name in folk : ARLO

Singer Arlo Guthrie is known for his protest songs, just like his father Woody Guthrie. The younger Guthrie only ever had one song in the top 40: a cover version of “City of New Orleans”. He has lived for years in the town of Washington, just outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His 1976 song “Massachusetts” has been the official folk song of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since 1981.

77 Hwy. crime : DUI

In some states, there is no longer a legal difference between a DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) and a DUI (Driving Under the Influence). Other states retain that difference, so that by definition a DUI is a lesser offence than a DWI.

78 Hogwarts potions master : SNAPE

Severus Snape is a character in the “Harry Potter” novels by J. K. Rowling. He was played by the wonderful Alan Rickman on the big screen.

80 Word before county, river or Bill : PECOS …

Pecos County in western Texas is named for the Pecos River.

The Pecos River rises north of the village of Pecos in New Mexico, and flows almost a thousand miles before entering the Rio Grande near Del Rio, Texas. Arguably, the Pecos is the only river in the world that crosses itself. In the late 1800s, settlers near Carlsbad, New Mexico built a series of dams and canals to irrigate the semi-arid Pecos Valley. The irrigation project included a large wooden flume that in its heyday carried 9,000 gallons of water per second, 145 feet above the river. Apparently, that water originated in the Pecos, hence the claim that the Pecos “crossed itself”. I’m a bit sceptical of the physics behind that claim though …

Pecos Bill has become a character in tall tales of the Old West after having been introduced in 1917 by author Edward O’Reilly. Legend has it that Bill was travelling in a covered wagon from Texas with his family when he fell out unnoticed by the party. He was lost near the Pecos River, hence his name. He was found and raised by a pack of coyotes, but years later was recovered by his real brother. Pecos Bill grew up to be a cowboy and married a woman called Slue-Foot Sue who he met riding a giant catfish down the Rio Grande.

82 Japanese assent : HAI

The word “yes” translates into “oui” in French, “ja” in German, and “hai” in Japanese.

83 “Turn! Turn! Turn!” songwriter : SEEGER

There aren’t many pop hits that have lyrics taking almost entirely from the Bible. Pete Seeger took some words from the Book of Ecclesiastes, and set them to music in 1959, using the title “To Everything There Is a Season”. He recorded the song in 1962 for one of his albums. It wasn’t until it was recorded by the Byrds as “Turn! Turn! Turn!” that the song climbed the charts. It’s a nice contemplative song, I always think …

84 Hand measure : SPAN

A span is a measurement equal to the width of a hand. The span is measured from the tip of the thumb to the top of the little finger when the fingers and thumb are splayed.

85 Young shepherd resigned to losing his flock? : BOY WHO SIGHED WOLF (from “Boy Who Cried Wolf”)

“The Boy Who Cried Wolf” is one of Aesop’s fables, and the tale that gives rise to our phrase “to cry wolf” meaning “to give a false alarm”. In the fable, a shepherd boy is in the habit of tricking nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his flock by crying “Wolf!”. When an actual attack is made, the villages assume it’s another false alarm and the sheep are are eaten by the wolf.

89 Resignee before Richard : SPIRO

Spiro Agnew served as Vice-President under Richard Nixon, before becoming the only VP in American history to resign because of criminal charges (there was a bribery scandal). Agnew was also the first Greek-American to serve as US Vice President as he was the son of a Greek immigrant who had shortened the family name from Anagnostopoulos.

93 Soccer star Hamm : MIA

Mia Hamm is a retired American soccer player. She played as a forward on the US national team that won the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991. Hamm scored 158 international goals, more than any other player in the world, male or female. Amazingly, Hamm was born with a clubfoot, and so had to wear corrective shoes when she was growing up.

97 82-Down’s predecessor : FDR
(82 DDE’s predecessor : HST)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was the only child of Sara Delano and James Roosevelt Sr. The Delano family history in America goes back to the pilgrim Philippe de Lannoy, an immigrant of Flemish descent who arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. The family name “de Lannoy” was anglicized here in the US, to “Delano”. Franklin was to marry Eleanor Roosevelt, and apparently the relationship between Sara and her daughter-in-law was very “strained”.

98 Lawless role : XENA

The Xena character, played by New Zealander Lucy Lawless, was introduced in a made-for-TV movie called “Hercules and the Amazon Women”. Lawless reprised the role in a series called “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”. Xena became so popular that a series was built around her character, with Lawless retained for the title role. The fictional Xena supposedly came from the “non-fictional” Greek city of Amphipolis.

100 Short __: little or no consideration : SHRIFT

The Old English term “scrift” was used to describe confession to a priest followed by penance and absolution. The term “short shrift” developed from “scrift”, and was a brief period given to a condemned criminal to confess his sins before execution. We now use “short shrift” to mean “little or no consideration”.

102 Environs : AREAS

“Environ” is the French word for “round” or “round about”. We use “environ” as a verb in English, meaning to surround, form a circle around. The related plural noun “environs” is used to mean “surroundings, environment”.

108 Evita’s exhortation to use sunscreen? : DON’T FRY FOR ME, ARGENTINA (from “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”)

“Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” is a hit song that came out of the 1976 concept album “Evita” by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Recorded by English singer Julie Covington, it is sung by the character Eva Perón on the album and in the subsequent stage musical. Covington opted out from appearing in the musical, and so the role of Eva went to Elaine Paige.

111 Aunt Bee’s charge : OPIE

Aunt Bee is a character in “The Andy Griffith Show”. The character’s full name is Beatrice Taylor but everyone in Mayberry calls her “Aunt Bee”. In the storyline, she is the aunt of protagonist Sheriff Andy Taylor, and great-aunt to Andy’s son Opie. Aunt Bee was played by actress Frances Bavier.

113 Ancient: Pref. : PALEO-

The prefix “paleo-” means “prehistoric, primitive”. It comes from the Greek word “palaios” which means “old, ancient”. The prefix “neo-” would be the opposite, meaning “new, recent”.

114 Rock-‘n’-roller whom Forrest Gump supposedly met : ELVIS

The epic 1994 movie “Forrest Gump” is based on a 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. Groom said that he had envisioned John Goodman playing the title role, and not Tom Hanks.

118 Saxes, e.g. : REEDS

The saxophone was invented by Belgian musician Adolphe Sax. Sax developed lip cancer at one point in his life, and one has to wonder if his affliction was related to his saxophone playing (I am sure not!). I had the privilege of visiting Sax’s grave in the Cemetery of Montmartre in Paris a few years ago.

Down

1 New Mexico native : ZUNI

The Zuni are a Pueblo people. They live on the Zuni River in western New Mexico, a tributary of the Little Colorado River.

4 “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” co-director : ETHAN COEN

I think it’s great to see two brothers working together and being so successful. Joel and Ethan Coen are two movie producers and directors who both live in New York City. The Coen brothers do love the movie-making business and they even married industry “insiders”. Ethan’s wife is film editor Tricia Cooke, and Joel is married to one of my favorite actresses, the talented Frances McDormand.’

5 Paris divider : SEINE

The Seine is the river that flows through Paris. The Seine empties into the English Channel to the north, at the port city of Le Havre.

7 Jazz legend Jackson : MILT

Milt Jackson was a jazz vibraphonist. A vibraphone is similar to a xylophone, but it has aluminum instead of wooden bars. Vibraphones are most commonly seen as part of jazz ensembles. Milt Jackson started his career as part of the band playing with Dizzy Gillespie.

10 “Casey at the Bat” autobiographer : STENGEL

Casey Stengel was a professional baseball player, playing from 1912-1925 and managing from 1934-1965. Stengel was born in Kansas City. He had German heritage, and so was called “Dutch” for much of his early life. As he acquired fame on the baseball field, Stengel was given the nickname “Casey”, largely because he came from Kansas City (“KC”) and also because of the popularity of the poem “Casey at the Bat”. He was a smart and erudite guy when it came to baseball, so sportswriters tended to call him “The Old Professor”.

13 108-card game : UNO

In my youth I remember being taught a great card game by a German acquaintance of mine, a game called Mau Mau. Years later I discovered that UNO is basically the same game, but played with a purpose-printed deck instead of the regular deck of playing cards that’s used for Mau Mau. I hear that Mau Mau is derived from the game called Crazy Eights.

14 Roger Ebert gave one entitled “Remaking My Voice” in 2011 : TED TALK

The acronym “TED” stands for “Technology, Entertainment and Design”. TED is a set of conferences held around the world by a non-profit group called the Sapling Foundation. The conference subjects are varied, and the meetings are often led by big names such as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Gates and Jane Goodall. The Sapling Foundation then makes recordings of the conferences available for free online with the intent of disseminating the ideas globally. These conferences are known as “TED Talks”.

Roger Ebert was a film critic for “The Chicago Sun-Times” for 50 years. He also co-hosted a succession of film review television programs for over 23 years, most famously with Gene Siskel until Siskel passed away in 1999. Siskel and Ebert famously gave their thumbs up or thumbs down to the movies they reviewed. Ebert was the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, which he did in 1975. He was diagnosed and treated for thyroid cancer in 2002, and finally succumbed to a recurrence of the disease in April 2013.

17 Hybrid big cat : LIGER

The tiger is the largest species in the cat family. Tigers have been known to breed with lions. A liger is a cross between a male lion and female tiger. A tigon is a cross between a female lion and a male tiger.

18 “Swing Shift” actress Christine : LAHTI

Christine Lahti is an actress probably best known for playing Dr. Kate Austen on the TV medical drama “Chicago Hope”. If you read “The Huffington Post” you might run across her as well, as Lahti is a contributing blogger.

“Swing Shift” is a 1984 movie starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell. It was while filming “Swing Shift” that Hawn and Russell met for the first time, and have been in a relationship ever since.

26 Head of Québec : TETE

The name of the province Québec comes from an Algonquin word “kebec” meaning “where the river narrows”. This refers to the area around Quebec City where the St. Lawrence River narrows as it flows through a gap lined by steep cliffs.

32 Electrical unit : VOLT

Alessandro Volta was the physicist who invented the first battery, way back in 1800. One of Volta’s first applications of his new invention was to use a battery (and a very long run of wire between the Italian cities of Como and Milan) to shoot off a pistol from 30 miles away! The electric potential unit “volt” is named for Volta.

34 Jacob Riis concerns : SLUMS

Journalist Jacob Riis is famous for his photographs and newspaper articles that highlighted the plight of the impoverished in New York City. He wrote “How the Other Half Lives”, originally an extensive article that appeared in “Scribner’s Magazine” at Christmas 1889. The article had such an impact that Riis was commissioned to expand it into a book, which was published the following year.

35 Skosh : PINCH

“Skosh” is a slang term meaning “a little bit”, and was originally military slang that came out of the Korean War. “Skosh” derives from the Japanese word “sukoshi” which translates as “few, little, some”.

36 Like typical King novels : EERIE

Author Stephen King started to use the pen name “Richard Bachman” in the late 1970s, after he had already achieved success. There’s still some speculation about the reasoning behind King’s use of a pseudonym. Some suggest that he did so to prove to himself that he could replicate his success. Others suggest that the use of the pen name allowed him to publish more than one book a year, which was a publishing guideline at that time. King’s choice of pseudonym was inspired by the rock group Bachman-Turner Overdrive, as he is a fan.

38 Reebok rival : ASICS

ASICS is a Japanese company that produces athletic gear, including running shoes. The name comes from the Latin phrase “anima sana in corpore sano” which translates to “a healthy soul in a healthy body”.

The brand name Reebok was adopted as the new company name for Foster Shoes of the UK in 1960. The name Reebok (more commonly “Rhebok”) is an Afrikaans word for an antelope, and comes from the term “roe buck”.

39 Pros with schedules : CPAS

Certified public accountant (CPA)

41 Liszt’s instrument : PIANO

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer and a fabulous pianist. Particularly towards the end of his life, Liszt gained a tremendous reputation as a teacher. While he was in his sixties, his teaching profession demanded that he commute regularly between the cities of Rome, Weimar and Budapest. It is quite remarkable that a man of such an advanced age, and in the 1870s, could do so much annual travel. It is estimated that Liszt journeyed at least 4,000 miles every year!

42 “Being and Nothingness” philosopher : SARTRE

Jean-Paul Sartre wrote the philosophical treatise “L’Etre et le neant” in 1943. The title translates as “Being and Nothingness”.

47 Bandleader Arnaz : DESI

Desi Arnaz was famous for his turbulent marriage to Lucille Ball. Arnaz was a native of Cuba, and was from a privileged family. His father was Mayor of Santiago and served in the Cuban House of Representatives. However, the family had to flee to Miami after the 1933 revolt led by Batista.

55 Pioneering video game : PONG

Do you remember the arcade video game that is like a game of tennis, with paddles moving up and down to hit what looks like a ball, over what looks like a net? Well, that is Pong. The arcade version of Pong was introduced in 1972, with Atari selling a home version through Sears for the Christmas market in 1975.

56 Hacky Sack maker : WHAM-O

Wham-O was founded in 1948, with the company’s first product being the Wham-O slingshot. Since then, Wham-O has market a string of hit toys including the Hula Hoop, Frisbee, Slip ‘N Slide, Silly String, Hacky Sack and Boogie Board.

61 Tailless feline : MANX

I’ve seen Manx cats by the dozen on their native island. They’re found all over the Isle of Man (hence the name “Manx”) that is located in the middle of the Irish Sea. Manx cats have just a stub of a tail, and hence are called “stubbins” by the locals.

62 Color named for a duck : TEAL

The beautiful color teal takes it name from the duck called a teal, which has dark greenish-blue (teal) markings on its head and wings.

63 D-Day conflict : WWII

The Normandy landings on D-Day in 1944 took place along a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. The worst fighting by far took place on Omaha Beach, a sector assigned to the US Army that was transported by elements of the US Navy and the Royal Navy.

64 Jackson Hole backdrop : TETONS

Grand Teton National Park (NP) is located just south of Yellowstone NP, and a must-see if you are visiting the latter. The park is named after the tallest peak in the magnificent Teton Range known as Grand Teton. The origins of the name “Teton” is not very clear, although my one story is that it was named by French trappers, as the word “tetons” in French is a slang term meaning “breasts”.

Jackson Hole is the name of a beautiful valley in Wyoming formed between the Teton and Gros Ventre Ranges. The name “Jackson Hole” is also used locally for the town of Jackson that is located in the valley.

65 Kate, pre-taming : SHREW

William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” is about a courting couple. The male in the couple is Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, and the female is Katharina/Kate, the so-called “shrew”. As the play progresses, the “shrew” is “tamed” and becomes an “obedient” bride … a controversial storyline in the contemporary world, to say the least. Regardless, modern adaptations have been made, including 1948’s Broadway musical “Kiss Me Kate” and the 1999 romantic comedy “10 Things I Hate About You”.

67 Dangerous biters : ASPS

The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.

69 Community pool site : YMCA

The YMCA (the Y) is a worldwide movement that has its roots in London, England. There, in 1844, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was founded with the intent of promoting Christian principles through the development of “a healthy spirit, mind and body”. The founder, George Williams, saw the need to create YMCA facilities for young men who were flocking to the cities as the Industrial Revolution flourished. He saw that these men were frequenting taverns and brothels, and wanted to offer a more wholesome alternative.

70 2009 Panasonic purchase : SANYO

Sanyo is a Japanese electronics manufacturer based near Osaka and founded in 1947. The company name means “three oceans” reflecting the company’s original aim to sell its products all around the world (across three oceans: the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian).

71 Mario’s brother : LUIGI

Mario Bros. started out as an arcade game back in 1983, developed by Nintendo. The more famous of the two brothers, Mario, had already appeared in an earlier arcade game “Donkey Kong”. Mario was given a brother called Luigi, and the pair have been around ever since. In the game, Mario and Luigi are Italian American plumbers from New York City.

72 Myopic Mr. : MAGOO

Mr. Quincy Magoo is a wonderful cartoon character voiced by Jim Backus. Backus is probably equally well-known for playing Mr. Magoo as well as Thurston Howell, III on “Gilligan’s Island”. Mr. Magoo first appeared on the screen in a short called “The Ragtime Bear” in 1949. His persona was at least in part based on the antics of W. C. Fields. Backus originally used a fake rubber nose that pinched his nostrils in order to create the distinctive voice, although in time he learned to do the voice without the prop. My absolute favorite appearance by Mr. Magoo is in “Mr Magoo’s Christmas Carol”, a true classic from the sixties. There was a movie adaptation of “Mr Magoo” released in 1997, with Leslie Nielsen playing the title role.

A myope is someone suffering from myopia, short-sightedness. Far-sightedness or long-sightedness is known as hypermetropia or hyperopia .

73 Competed in a British bee : SPELT

Both “spelled” and “spelt” are valid past tenses for the verb “to spell”, although the former is way more common on this side of the Atlantic. I grew up with “spelt” on the other side of the pond, but its usage is rapidly being replaced by “spelled” in the UK and Ireland.

74 Feudal workers : SERFS

A serf was a member of the lowest feudal class, someone attached to land owned by a lord. “Serf” comes from the Latin “servus”, meaning “slave”.

Feudalism was a legal and military system that flourished in medieval Europe. Central to the system were the concepts of lords, vassals and fiefs. Lords would grant fiefs (land or rights) to vassals in exchange for allegiance and service.

77 Roast site : DAIS

A dais is a raised platform for a speaker. The term “dais” comes from the Latin “discus” meaning a “disk-shaped object”. I guess that the original daises had such a shape.

79 English coal mining city : NEWCASTLE

Newcastle upon Tyne in the North of England used to be home to a lot of coal, and now is home to the famous Newcastle Brown Ale.

81 Filmmaker Ephron : NORA

Nora Ephron had many talents, including writing film scripts and novels. Many of the movies that she wrote, she also directed. These would include some of my favorite movies of all time like “Sleepless in Seattle”, “You’ve Got Mail” and most recently, the wonderful “Julie & Julia”. And, did you know that Nora Ephron’s second marriage was to journalist Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame? She wrote an autobiographical novel based on her life with Bernstein, which deals in particular with Bernstein’s affair with the daughter of British Prime Minister James Callaghan.

82 DDE’s predecessor : HST

The letter “S” in the middle of the name Harry S. Truman (HST) doesn’t stand for anything. The future-president was named “Harry” in honor of his mother’s brother Harrison “Harry” Young. The initial “S” was chosen in honor of young Harry’s two grandfathers: Anderson S-hipp Truman and S-olomon Young.

Future US president Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas in 1890 and given the name David Dwight, but by the time he made it to the White House he was going by the name Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE). Growing up, his family called him Dwight, and when “Ike” enrolled in West Point he himself reversed the order of his given names.

85 Small bars : BISTROS

“Bistro” was originally a Parisian slang term for a “little wine shop or restaurant”.

86 “Barry” star Bill : HADER

Bill Hader is an actor and comedian best known as a member of the cast of “Saturday Night Live”. Hader was introduced to Lorne Michaels (producer of “Saturday Night Live”) by Megan Mullally, co-star of the sitcom “Will & Grace”.

88 Common nut shape : HEXAGON

That would be a nut as in “nut and bolt”.

90 Musical dragon loved by Little Jackie Paper : PUFF

“Puff the Magic Dragon” is a song released in 1963 by Peter, Paul and Mary. It was written by Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow (the “Peter” of the singing trio). The lyrics tell the story of a dragon named Puff, and a little boy named Jackie Paper. There is an urban myth that the lyrics refer to the use of drugs. In fact, the words are based on a poem that Lipton wrote when he was 19-years-old in 1959, and which was inspired by an Ogden Nash poem called “Custard the Dragon”.

93 Windows precursor : MS-DOS

MS-DOS (short for “Microsoft Disk Operating System”) was the main operating system used by IBM-compatible PCs in the eighties and for much of the nineties.

95 Memorable links nickname : ARNIE

Arnold Palmer was one of the greats of the world of golf. He was very popular with many fans of the game, and his followers were usually referred to as “Arnie’s Army”. Off the course, Palmer was an avid pilot until his latter years. He resided in Latrobe, Pennsylvania for much of the year and the local airport is named in his honor: Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

99 Bay Area NFLer : NINER

The 49ers football team in San Francisco takes its name from the gold prospectors who flooded into Northern California around 1849 during the California Gold Rush. These “1849 prospectors” became known as the “49ers”.

103 Dodge City, to Ford County : SEAT

Fort Dodge was in Kansas, on the Santa Fe Trail (connecting Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico). The fort was named after Major General Grenville M. Dodge, who was in charge of the army presence in the area. Fort Dodge gave its name to Dodge City, which grew up near the fort.

104 Storied fox title : BR’ER

Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox are characters in the Uncle Remus stories, written by Joel Chandler Harris. The “Uncle Remus” stories are adaptations of African American folktales that Harris collected across the Southern States. “Br’er” is an abbreviated form of “brother”.

106 Writer Bagnold : ENID

Enid Bagnold was a British author and is best known for her 1935 novel “National Velvet”, which famously was adapted into a very successful film starring Elizabeth Taylor.

The post LA Times Crossword 9 Feb 20, Sunday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 5m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Pod in Creole cuisine : OKRA

The plant known as okra is mainly grown for it edible green pods. The pods are said to resemble “ladies’ fingers”, which is an alternative name for the plant. Okra is known as “ngombo” in Bantu, a name that might give us the word “gumbo”, the name for the name of the southern Louisiana stew that includes okra as a key ingredient.

9 Theme park that retired its IllumiNations show in 2019 : EPCOT

Imagination! Is a pavilion in “Future World” at Florida’s Epcot Center. The pavilion comprises glass pyramids, and opened in 1982 as home to the 3-D film “Magic Journeys”. The name “Imagination!” was adopted in 1999, after a major renovation.

14 Tall and skinny : LANK

The term “lank” can describe something that is straight and flat, particularly hair. The usage was extended in the early 1800s (especially in the form “lanky”) to mean “awkwardly tall and thin”.

15 Umpire’s call : FOUL

Back in the 15th century, “an umpire” was referred to as “a noumpere”, which was misheard and hence causing the dropping of the initial letter N. The term “noumpere” came from Old French “nonper” meaning “not even, odd number”. The idea was that the original umpire was a third person called on to arbitrate between two, providing that “odd number” needed to decide the dispute.

16 Greek played by Anthony Quinn : ZORBA

The film “Zorba the Greek” and the musical “Zorba” are adaptations of the 1952 novel “Zorba the Greek” by Nikos Kazantzakis. The 1964 film version stars Anthony Quinn in the title role, and Alan Bates. The movie is set and was filmed on location on the island of Crete, the home of author Kazantzakis.

Anthony Quinn was a Mexican-born American actor who is perhaps best known for playing the title role in the 1964 film “Zorba the Greek”. Off the screen, Quinn was an accomplished artist, with his works being exhibited both domestically and internationally.

20 Series-ending abbr. : ETC

The Latin phrase “et cetera” translates as “and other things”. The term is usually abbreviated to “etc.”

24 Letters shown in the “Wheel of Fortune” bonus round : RSTLNE

On the game show “Wheel of Fortune”, players are given the letters R, S, T, L, N & E when guessing the hidden word or phrase. The contestant then selects four more letters before trying to come up with the answer.

26 PC panic key : ESC

The escape key (Esc) was originally used to control computer peripherals. It was a key that allowed the computer operator to stop what the peripheral was doing (cancel a print job, for example). Nowadays the escape key is used for all sorts of things, especially in gaming programs.

38 Writer Ferber : EDNA

Edna Ferber was a novelist and playwright from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Ferber won a Pulitzer for her novel “So Big”, which was made into a film a few times, most famously in 1953 starring Jane Wyman. Ferber also wrote “Show Boat”, “Cimarron” and “Giant”, which were adapted successfully for the stage and/or big screen.

39 Novelist Levin : IRA

As well as writing novels, Ira Levin was a dramatist and a songwriter. Levin’s first novel was “A Kiss Before Dying”, and his most famous work was “Rosemary’s Baby” which became a Hollywood hit. His best known play is “Deathtrap”, a production that is often seen in local theater (I’ve seen it a couple of times around here). “Deathtrap” was also was a successful movie, starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve. My favorite of Levin’s novels are “The Boys from Brazil” and “The Stepford Wives”.

43 Tarzan player Ron : ELY

Ron Ely is most famous for playing the title role in the “Tarzan” TV series in the sixties. Years later, Ely hosted the 1980 and 1981 “Miss America” pageants right after longtime host Bert Parks retired, before the job was taken over by Gary Collins. And Ely is a successful mystery novelist. He wrote “Night Shadows” and “East Beach” in the mid-nineties, both of which featured his private eye Jake Sands.

44 Owlet’s home : NEST

Baby owl is an owlet. The term “owlet” can also be used for the adults of the smaller species of owls.

47 ER images : X-RAYS

X-rays were first studied comprehensively by the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen (also “Roentgen”), and it was he who gave the name “X-rays” to this particular type of radiation. Paradoxically, in Röntgen’s native language of German, X-rays are routinely referred to as “Röntgen rays”. In 1901, Röntgen’s work on X-rays won him the first Nobel Prize in Physics that was ever awarded.

Emergency room (ER)

49 Work out regularly at the gym : GET INTO SHAPE

Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed in ancient Greece.

57 Domed hall : ROTUNDA

In architecture, the word “rotunda” describes a building with a circular ground plan. Often the building has a dome, but that isn’t a strict requirement. The term can also refer to a round room within a building. The most famous example in this country is the Rotunda in the US Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

61 Watergate pres. : RMN

President Richard Milhous Nixon (RMN) used “Milhous” in his name in honor of his mother Hannah Milhous. Richard was born in a house in Yorba Linda, California. You can visit that house today as it is on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. It’s a really interesting way to spend a few hours if you ever get to Yorba Linda …

The Watergate scandal is so named because it involved a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. The Watergate complex is made up of five units, three of which are apartment buildings, one an office building, and one a hotel-office building (which housed the DNC headquarters). Watergate led to the “-gate” suffix being used for many subsequent scandals, such as “Irangate”, “Bridgegate” and “Deflategate”.

62 Sigma follower : TAU

Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, and the letter which gave rise to our Roman “T”. Both the letters tau (T) and chi (X) have long been symbolically associated with the cross.

63 Soft palate part : UVULA

The uvula is that conical fleshy projection hanging down at the back of the soft palate. The uvula plays an important role in human speech, particularly in the making of “guttural” sounds. The Latin word for “grape” is “uva”, so “uvula” is a “little grape”.

68 James of “Elf” : CAAN

James Caan is an actor from the Bronx, New York City. He is noted for his appearances in some very big movies such as “The Godfather”, “Misery”, “A Bridge Too Far”, “Rollerball” and more recently “Elf”. Caan is quite the sportsman. He plays golf with an 8 handicap, and is a 6-Dan Black Belt Master of Gosoku Karate.

“Elf” is a comedy movie that was released for the 2003 Christmas season. “Elf” was directed by Jon Favreau and stars Will Ferrell in the title role, with James Caan supporting and Ed Asner playing Santa Claus. It’s all about one of Santa’s elves who finds out he is human and goes to meet his father in New York City.

Down

1 Worrier’s stomach woe : ULCER

Until fairly recently, a peptic ulcer was believed to be caused by undue amounts of stress in one’s life. It is now known that 70-90% of all peptic ulcers are in fact associated with a particular bacterium.

2 Seasons with crystals : SALTS

Sodium chloride (NaCl, common salt) is an ionic compound. It comprises a crystal lattice made up of large chloride (Cl) ions in a cubic structure, with smaller sodium (Na) ions in between the chlorides.

4 Tackle moguls : SKI

Moguls are the series of bumps in the surface of snow that arise naturally as a succession of skiers make turns on a slope.

6 Eccentric sort : KOOK

“Kooky” is a slang word meaning “out there, crazy”. The term has been around since the beatnik era, and it may be a shortened version of the word “cuckoo”.

7 Capek play about automatons : RUR

Karel Čapek was a Czech writer noted for his works of science fiction. Čapek’s 1921 play “R.U.R.” is remembered in part for introducing the world to the word “robot”. The words “automaton” and “android” were already in use, but Capek gave us “robot” from the original Czech “robota” meaning “forced labor”. The acronym “R.U.R.”, in the context of the play, stands for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”.

8 __ mater : ALMA

The literal translation for the Latin term “alma mater” is “nourishing mother”. The phrase was used in ancient Rome to refer to mother goddesses, and in Medieval Christianity the term was used to refer to the Virgin Mary. Nowadays, one’s alma mater is the school one attended, either high school or college, usually one’s last place of education.

9 Toll-paying convenience : E-ZPASS

E-ZPass was a technology development driven (pun!) by the tolling agencies of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The first E-ZPass toll booth was built on the New York Thruway, and opened at the Spring Valley toll plaza in 1993.

10 Sports car that has two syllables in German : PORSCHE

Porsche was founded in 1931 in Stuttgart, Germany by Professor Ferdinand Porsche. The company didn’t produce cars at first, but worked on design and development. The first big job awarded to the company was from the German government, to design a car for the people. The result was the Volkswagen Beetle. Yep, the Beetle/Bug is a Porsche design.

We tend to say the name “Porsche” in English as if it is perhaps French, pronouncing it as one syllable. In German, it is pronounced with two syllables: Por-sche.

11 NFL analyst Collinsworth : CRIS

Cris Collinsworth is a sportscaster for several broadcasting organizations. Collinsworth played as a wide receiver in the NFL for eight seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals.

12 Slender wind : OBOE

The oboe is perhaps my favorite of the reed instruments. The name “oboe” comes from the French “hautbois” which means “high wood”.

13 Seasoned sailors : TARS

A jack tar, or just “tar”, was a seaman in the days of the British Empire. The term probably arose due to a sailor’s various uses of tar back then, including waterproofing his clothes and using tar in his hair to slick down his ponytail.

18 “Hamilton” creator Lin-__ Miranda : MANUEL

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a composer and playwright from New York City, and the creator and star of the hit Broadway musicals “Hamilton” and “In the Heights”. Miranda also co-wrote the songs for the 2016 Disney animated feature “Moana”. He started composing early, and wrote jingles as a child. One of those jingles was later used by Eliot Spitzer in his 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

23 Victor at Gettysburg : MEADE

George Meade was a career army officer with a depth of experience in civil and military operations even before the onset of the Civil War. During the war he rose to the level of Commander of the Army of the Potomac, and is best remembered for leading the Union forces that defeated General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg in 1863.

The Gettysburg Campaign was a series of battles fought in June and July of 1863 during the American Civil War. The campaign started with Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia invading Maryland and Pennsylvania, and ended with Lee’s escape back to Virginia after being defeated by Union troops led by Major General George G. Meade at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg, fought between July 1st and July 3rd, is recognized by many historians as the turning point in the war.

25 Chaney of silents : LON

Lon Chaney, Sr. played a lot of crazed-looking characters in the days of silent movies. He did much of his own make-up work, developing the grotesque appearances that became his trademark, and earning himself the nickname “the man of a thousand faces”. Most famous were his portrayals of the title characters in the films “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1923) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925).

28 Bone: Pref. : OSTEO-

The prefix “osteo-” is a combining form meaning “bone”. The term comes from “steon”, the Greek for “bone”.

29 Pet peeves? : FLEAS

Fleas are flightless insects, but they sure can jump. Their very specialized hind legs allow them to jump up to 50 times the length of their bodies.

30 Saks __ Avenue : FIFTH

Saks Fifth Avenue is a high-end specialty store that competes with the likes of Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus. The original Saks & Company business was founded by Andrew Saks in 1867. The first Saks Fifth Avenue store was opened on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1924. There are now Saks Fifth Avenue stores in many major cities in the US, as well in several locations worldwide.

32 “I’m __ human” : ONLY

Me too …

34 Act the fink : SING

A fink is an informer, someone who rats out his or her cohorts.

35 First Nations tribe : CREE

The Cree are one of the largest groups of Native Americans on the continent. In the US, Montana is home to most of the Cree nation. They live on a reservation shared with the Ojibwe people. In Canada, most of the Cree live in Manitoba.

36 “__ of Eden” : EAST

John Steinbeck considered “East of Eden” his magnum opus. Most of the storyline takes place near Salinas, just south of where I live here in the Bay Area. Two of the characters in the story are brothers Cal and Aron Trask, representative of the biblical Cain and Abel.

51 Designer Giorgio : ARMANI

Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer and founder of the company that has borne his name since 1975. Although Armani is famous for his menswear, the company makes everything from jewelry to perfume.

54 Ring-shaped reef : ATOLL

An atoll is a coral island that is shaped in a ring that encloses a lagoon. There is still some debate as to how an atoll forms, but a theory proposed by Charles Darwin while on his famous voyage aboard HMS Beagle still holds sway. Basically an atoll was once a volcanic island that had subsided and fallen into the sea. The coastline of the island is home to coral growth which persists even as the island continues to subside internal to the circling coral reef.

55 Director Brian De __ : PALMA

Brian De Palma is a very successful film director from Newark, New Jersey. Examples of De Palma films are “Carrie”, “Dressed to Kill”, “Scarface”, “The Untouchables” and “Mission: Impossible”.

61 Paper quantity : REAM

A ream is 500 sheets of paper. As there were 24 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires made up a ream, there used to be 480 sheets in a ream. Ever since the standard was changed to 500, a 480-sheet packet of paper has been called a “short ream”. We also use the term “reams” to mean a great amount, evolving from the idea of a lot of printed material.

65 Grammy winner Corinne Bailey __ : RAE

Corinne Bailey Rae is a British singer from Yorkshire in northern England.

66 PC alternative : MAC

Macintosh (also “Mac”) is a line of computers from Apple Inc. The first Mac was introduced in 1984, and I remember someone showing me one at work in those early days of personal computing. There was a piece of white plastic connected to the main computer by a cord, and I was amazed when the guy showed me that it controlled where the cursor was on the screen. My colleague told me that this lump of plastic was called “a mouse” …

The post LA Times Crossword 10 Feb 20, Monday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 5m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Come clean, with “up” : FESS …

The term “fess” is most often seen as part of the phrasal verb “to fess up” meaning “to admit to something”. “Fess” is simply a shortened form of “confess”.

15 Greek marketplace : AGORA

In early Greece, an agora was a place of assembly. The assemblies held there were often quite formal, perhaps for the reading of a proclamation. Later in Greek history, things became less formal as the agora evolved into a marketplace. Our contemporary word “agoraphobia” comes from these agorae, in the sense that an agoraphobe has a fear of open spaces, a fear of “public meeting places”.

16 Ski resort near Salt Lake City : ALTA

Alta ski resort actually lies within the Salt Lake City Metropolitan Area. The first ski lift in the resort was opened way back in 1939. Today, Alta is one of only three ski resorts in the country that prohibits snowboarding (along with Deer Valley, Utah and Mad River Glen, Vermont. The ski resort of Snowbird, located next to Alta, has been in operation since 1971.

17 *Expensive flying option : FIRST CLASS (giving “first mate” & “classmate”)

On a merchant ship, the first mate (sometimes “first officer, chief mate”) is the highest-ranking deck officer, and reports directly to the captain.

19 Greenish-blue : TEAL

The beautiful color teal takes it name from the duck called a teal, which has dark greenish-blue (teal) markings on its head and wings.

22 Scarlett of Tara : O’HARA

In Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind”, Scarlett O’Hara’s home is the Tara plantation. Tara was founded not far from the Georgia city of Jonesboro by Scarlett’s father, Irish immigrant Gerald O’Hara. Gerald won the square mile of land on which Tara was built in an all-night poker game. He named his new abode after the Hill of Tara back in his home country, the ancient seat of the High King of Ireland. Rhett’s rival for the affections of Scarlet is Ashley Wilkes who lives at the nearby Twelve Oaks plantation.

23 Chemical reaction named for its two processes : REDOX

In the world of chemistry, redox reactions are those in which electrons are transferred between species. “Redox” is a portmanteau of “reduction” and “oxidation”, where reduction is the gain of electrons by a molecule or atom, and oxidation is the corresponding loss of electrons. Examples of redox reactions are the oxidation of carbon to create carbon dioxide, and the reduction of carbon using hydrogen to create methane.

25 Rhoda’s sister : BRENDA

Julie Kavner is an actress whose big break came playing the role of Brenda Morgenstern on the sitcom “Rhoda” in the 1070s. Nowadays, she is known for voicing Marge Simpson on “The Simpsons”. Kavener leads a very, very private life. She even has a clause in her contract with the producers of “The Simpsons” that she never has to promote the show on video.

26 __ of Capricorn : TROPIC

Lines of latitude are imaginary horizontal lines surrounding the planet. The most “important” lines of latitude are, from north to south:

• Arctic Circle
• Tropic of Cancer
• Equator
• Tropic of Capricorn
• Antarctic Circle

30 Old fast jets : SSTS

The first supersonic transport (SST) to fly was the Tupolev Tu-144, which was constructed in the Soviet Union. The Tu-144 first flew in 1968, but did not carry passengers until 1977. The aircraft was permanently grounded as a passenger craft in 1978 due to concerns about safety (there had been two Tu-144 crashes). The second SST to fly was the Anglo-French Concorde, which operated at a profit for over 27 years until it was withdrawn from service in 2003. There was one Concorde crash, in Paris in July 2000. Since then, there have been no commercial SST services.

31 Augusta National signature shrub : AZALEA

Azaleas are very toxic to horses, sheep and goats, but strangely enough cause no problem for cats or dogs. And if you go to Korea, you might come across “Tug Yonju”, which is azalea wine made from the plant’s blossoms. Azaleas are usually grown as shrubs, but are also seen as small trees, and often indoors.

The Augusta National Golf Club was built on a former plant nursery. As such, each hole on the course is named for a tree or shrub associated with that hole. For example, the par-5 thirteenth hole is named “Azalea”.

33 __ Titanic: ill-fated ship : RMS

The ship prefix “HMS” is used by the warships of the Royal Navy, and stands for “Her/His Majesty’s Ship/Submarine”. The prefix “RMS” is used by ships of the merchant navy, and stands for “Royal Mail Ship/Steamer”.

The RMS Titanic set off on her tragic maiden voyage in 1912, sailing from Southampton, England bound for New York City. Regulations only required that the ship have lifeboat capacity for 1,178 people, even though a full complement of passengers and crew was 3,547. When the order was given to abandon ship, the captain adhered to the traditional protocol of “women and children first”. As a result, only 20% of male passengers survived the disaster, compared to 75% of the female passengers. Perhaps more telling is that 61% of those in first class survived, and only 25% of those in third class. The crew fared even worse though, with only 24% making it.

34 Of the seventh planet : URANIAN

One of the unique features of the planet Uranus is that its north and south poles lie where most other planets have their equators. That means that Uranus’ axis of rotation is almost in its solar orbit.

38 Red wine choice : MERLOT

Merlot is one of the main grapes used to make Bordeaux wines, along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

45 1920s-’30s “Blonde Bombshell” Jean : HARLOW

Jean Harlow was a Hollywood actress who was at the height of her success in the nineteen-thirties, appearing in many hit movies for MGM. Sadly, Harlow died in 1937, when she was only 26 years old, from kidney failure that was probably the result of her suffering scarlet fever when she was 15. Harlow wrote a novel that took many years to get published. Called “Today is Tonight”, it first appeared on bookshelves in 1965.

48 Vodka brand, familiarly : STOLI

Stolichnaya is a brand of “Russian” vodka made from wheat and rye grain. “Stoli” originated in Russia, but now it’s made in Latvia. Latvia is of course a completely different country, so you won’t see the word “Russian” on the label anymore.

50 Lauder of makeup : ESTEE

Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, and someone with a great reputation as a salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales volume …

54 Auto title ID : VIN

Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) were introduced by the automotive industry in 1954.

55 Word after King or Hong : … KONG

“King Kong” really is a classic movie. It stars Fay Wray as the young woman (Ann Darrow) with whom Kong falls in love. Wray was very interested in the role as she was told that she would be playing opposite the “tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood”. She thought it might be Clark Gable. At least that’s how the story goes …

Hong Kong first became part of the British Empire after the First Opium War in 1842. In 1898, Britain signed a 99-year lease to retain control of Hong Kong. That control ended 99 years later in 1997 with a formal transfer of sovereignty back to China.

56 *Payment method being replaced by mobile banking : PAPER CHECK (giving “Paper Mate” & “checkmate”)

The Paper Mate pen was introduced in 1949 by the Frawley Pen Company, with the attraction being that it delivered a revolutionary ink that dried instantly on paper.

In the game of chess, when the king is under immediate threat of capture it is said to be “in check”. If the king cannot escape from check, then the game ends in “checkmate” and the player in check loses. In the original Sanskrit game of chess, the king could actually be captured. Then a rule was introduced requiring that a warning be given if capture was imminent (today we announce “check!”) so that an accidental and early ending to the game doesn’t occur.

59 Prepare, as Parmesan : GRATE

Genuine Parmesan cheese is made in and around the province of Parma in northern Italy, which province gives the cheese its name.

60 Et __: and others : ALII

“Et alii” (et al.) is the equivalent of “et cetera” (etc.), with “et cetera” being used in place of a list of objects, and “et alii” used for a list of names. In fact, “et al.” can stand for “et alii” (a group of males, or males and females), “et aliae” (a group of women) and “et alia” (a group of neuter nouns, or a group of people where the intent is to retain gender-neutrality).

61 Bridge “no bid” : PASS

The version of the card game bridge that is played mostly today is contract bridge. Auction bridge is a similar game, and is a precursor to contract bridge.

Down

3 August birthstone : PERIDOT

Olivine is 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.

5 Table salt, to a chemist : NACL

Sodium chloride (NaCl, common salt) is an ionic compound. It comprises a crystal lattice made up of large chloride (Cl) ions in a cubic structure, with smaller sodium (Na) ions in between the chlorides.

8 Once, once upon a time : ERST

“Erst” is an archaic way of saying “formerly, before the present time”. The term is mostly seen as part of the word “erstwhile”, an adjective meaning “of times past”.

9 Some govt. lawyers : DAS

District attorney (DA)

11 __ Roosevelt, first lady for 12 years : ELEANOR

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the daughter of Elliot, brother to President Theodore Roosevelt. “Eleanor” met Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was her father’s fifth cousin, in 1902. The two started “walking out together” the following year after they both attended a White House dinner with President Theodore Roosevelt.

13 Respectful bows : SALAAMS

The word “salaam” is an Anglicized spelling of the Arabic word for “peace”. The term can describe an act of deference, and in particular a very low bow.

22 Like Mindy’s alien husband : ORKAN

“Mork & Mindy” is a sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982. The title characters were played by Robin Williams and Pam Dawber. Mork is an alien from the planet Ork who reports back to his superior called Orson. Orson is played by voice actor Ralph James. Ralph James was also known for providing the voice of Mr. Turtle in famous Tootsie Pop commercials in the seventies. Nanu nanu!

24 Covert missions : OPS

“Black ops” is the name given to covert operations, activities that are usually outside of standard military protocol and may even be against the law. Funding for black ops is usually provided by a secret “black budget”.

27 “The Office” star Steve : CARELL

Actor Steve Carell has achieved great success on both television and in movies. On the small screen, Carell came to prominence on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and then as the lead in the US version of “The Office”. On the big screen, he starred in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, “Evan Almighty”. My personal favorite Carell movie is 2007’s ”Dan in Real Life”, in which he stars opposite the wonderful Juliette Binoche.

The excellent sitcom “The Office” is set in a branch of a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. If you haven’t seen the original UK version starring Ricky Gervais, I do recommend you check it out. Having said that, the US cast took the show to a whole new level. Great television …

29 Miscellany : OLIO

“Olio” is a term meaning “hodgepodge, mixture” that comes from the mixed stew of the same name. The stew in turn takes its name from the Spanish “olla”, the clay pot used for cooking.

32 Swedish singer Larsson with the Top 20 hit “Never Forget You” : ZARA

Zara Larsson is a singer/songwriter from Sweden. She won the Swedish version of “America’s Got Talent” in 2008, when she was just 10 years old.

34 Called balls and strikes : UMPED

That would be baseball.

36 Portuguese lady : SENHORA

The equivalent of “Mrs.” in French is “Mme.” (Madame), in Spanish is “Sra.” (Señora) and in Portuguese is also “Sra.” (Senhora).

37 South Seas wrapped garments : SARONGS

“Sarong” is the Malay word for “sheath. The term originally described a garment worn by Malay men and women around their waists. The Malay sarong is actually a tube of fabric, about a yard wide and two-and-a-half yards long. Many variations of the sarong are worn all over South Asia and the Pacific Islands. I had occasion to wear one in Hawaii many years ago, and found it very … freeing!

39 “The A-Team” actor : MR T

Mr. T’s real name is Laurence Tero Tureaud. Mr. T is famous for many things, including the wearing of excessive amounts of jewelry. He started this habit when he was working as a bouncer, wearing jewelry items that had been left behind by customers at a nightclub so that the items might be recognized and claimed. It was also as a bouncer that he adopted the name Mr. T. His catch phrase comes from the movie “Rocky III”. In the film, before he goes up against Rocky Balboa, Mr. T says, “No, I don’t hate Balboa, but I pity the fool”. He parlayed that line into quite a bit of success. He had a reality TV show called “I Pity the Fool”, and produced a motivational video called “Be Somebody … or Be Somebody’s Fool!”.

“The A-Team” is an action television series that originally ran in the eighties. The A-Team was a group of ex-US special forces personnel who became mercenaries. Star of the show was Hollywood actor George Peppard (as “Hannibal” Smith), ably assisted by Mr. T (as “B.A.” Baracus) and Robert Vaughn (as Hunt Stockwell).

40 Randy Newman song played at Dodger Stadium : I LOVE LA

“I Love L.A.” is a song written and recorded by Randy Newman in 1983. The song is played at major sporting events in the city, usually after the home team scores or wins.

Randy Newman is a singer/songwriter who is most famous for his movie scores. The list of scores on his resume includes “The Natural”, “Meet the Parents” and all the “Toy Story” movies from Pixar. Also on his resume are songs that he wrote, but were made hits by others. Included in this list are “You Can Leave Your Hat On” (Joe Cocker & Tom Jones) and “Mama Told Me Not to Come” (Three Dog Night).

Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles is the third oldest stadium currently used in Major League Baseball (after Fenway Park in Boston and Wrigley Field in Chicago).

42 Hostess sponge cake : TWINKIE

The snack cakes called Twinkies have been around since 1930. They were created by a baker called James Dewar, who chose the name from a billboard advertising “Twinkle Toe Shoes”. The original filling in the cake was a banana cream, but this was swapped out as a result of rationing during WWII. The vanilla cream became so popular that the banana recipe was dropped completely.

50 Wild West Wyatt : EARP

Wyatt Earp is famous as one of the participants in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Earp was a city policeman in Wichita, Kansas and also in Dodge City, Kansas. Earp was also deputy sheriff in Tombstone, Arizona where the O.K. Corral gunfight took place. Years later, Earp joined the Alaska Gold Rush and with a partner built and operated the Dexter Saloon in Nome.

52 A beret covers it : TETE

In French, the “tête” (head) is the top of “le corps” (the body).

53 “__ Tu”: 1974 hit : ERES

We have a big event across Europe every year called the Eurovision Song Contest. Each nation enters one song in competition with each other, and then voters across the whole continent decide on the winner. That’s how ABBA got their big break when they won in 1974 with “Waterloo”. In 1973, Spain’s entry was “Eres tú” (“It’s You”, literally “You Are”) sung by the band Mocedades. “Eres tú” came second in the competition, but should have won in my humble opinion.

56 Tiger Woods’ org. : PGA

Golfer Tiger Woods’ real name is Eldrick Tont Woods. “Tont” is a traditional Thai name. Tiger’s father Earl Woods met his second wife Kultida Punsawad in 1966, while on a tour of duty with the US Army in Thailand.

The post LA Times Crossword 11 Feb 20, Tuesday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 8m 08s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Hardly wimpy : MACHO

A macho man is one showing pride in his masculinity. “Macho” is a Spanish word for “male animal”.

11 Film watcher’s channel : TMC

The Movie Channel is owned by Showtime, which in turn is a subsidiary of CBS. The channel’s name is often abbreviated to “TMC”, although this is informal usage.

15 “Encore!” : AGAIN!

“Encore” is French for “again, one more time”, and is a shout that an audience member will make here in North America to request perhaps another song. But, the term is not used this way in France. Rather, the audience will shout “Bis!”, which is the Italian for “twice!”

16 Évian water : EAU

Évian-les-Bains (or simply “Évian”) is in the very east of France, on the shores of Lake Geneva directly across the lake from Lausanne, Switzerland. As one might imagine, Évian is the home of Évian mineral water, the most successful business in town. Personally, I can’t stand the distinctive taste of Évian water …

19 Digital readout, for short : LCD

Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) are the screens that are found in most laptops today, and in flat panel computer screens and some televisions. LCD monitors basically replaced Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) screens, the old television technology.

21 “I, Claudius” star Jacobi : DEREK

Derek Jacobi is an English actor, and a holder of a knighthood. Although Jacobi is mainly a stage actor, the role I most associate him with is the title character in the marvelous television adaptation of Robert Graves’ “I, Claudius”.

“I, Claudius” is a 1934 novel penned by Robert Graves, written in the form of an autobiography of Emperor Claudius of Rome. Graves wrote a sequel in 1935 called “Claudius the God”. Both books were adapted by the BBC into a fabulous television series that went by the name of the first book “I, Claudius”.

23 RSVP part : S’IL

“RSVP” stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “answer, please”.

31 Escape : LAM

To be on the lam is to be in flight, to have escaped from prison. “On the lam” is American slang that originated at the end of the 19th century. The word “lam” also means to “beat” or “thrash”, as in “lambaste”. So “on the lam” might derive from the phrase “to beat it, to scram”.

32 Man-to-man defense alternative : ZONE

In some team sports, there is a choice between man-to-man defense and zone defense. In the former, each defensive player guards a corresponding player on the other team. In the latter, each defensive player covers a particular “zone” of the playing area.

35 Place for a “ped” to cross : XING

Pedestrian crossing (Ped Xing)

38 Bobbsey girl : NAN

The “Bobbsey Twins” series of children’s novels was first written by Edward Stratemeyer in 1904. Stratemeyer used the pseudonym Laura Lee Hope, as did subsequent authors who wrote 72 books in the series between 1904 and 1979. The title characters are two sets of fraternal twins, one named Bert and Nan (who are 12) and the other named Flossie and Freddie (who are 6).

44 Big rig : SEMI

A “semi” is a “semi-trailer truck”. The vehicle is so called because it consists of a tractor and a half-trailer. The half-trailer is so called because it only has wheels on the back end, with the front supported by the tractor.

45 Bandleader Lombardo : GUY

Violinist and bandleader Guy Lombardo started his career in his native Canada before moving to the US. Lombardo and his band were in demand for years to play live music on New Year’s Eve broadcasts, which earned him the nickname “Mr. New Year’s Eve”. For many years, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians could be heard live on CBS Radio before midnight, and on NBC Radio after midnight. To this day, the first song of the new years played in Times Square in New York City is the Royal Canadians’ recording of “Auld Lang Syne”.

46 Beanery sign : EATS

A beanery is an inexpensive restaurant. The term “beanery” has been used in American English since the 1800s.

48 Ticker tape letters? : EKG

An EKG measures the electrical activity in the heart. Back in my homeland of Ireland, an EKG is known as an ECG (for electrocardiogram). We use the German name in the US, Elektrokardiogramm, giving us EKG. Apparently the abbreviation EKG is preferred, as ECG might be confused (if poorly handwritten, I guess) with EEG, the abbreviation for an electroencephalogram.

“Ticker” is a slang term used for the heart.

53 *Stretch between two Bushes : CLINTON ERA (“tone” inside)

President Bill Clinton was born not as a Clinton, but as William Jefferson Blythe. Bill’s father was killed in a car accident just three months before he was born. His mother remarried a few years later, to Roger Clinton. Bill didn’t formally adopt the Clinton name until he was fourteen years old, although he used it as he was growing up.

60 Language spoken by Jesus : ARAMAIC

The ancient Biblical land of Aram was named after Aram, a grandson of Noah. Aram was located in the center of modern-day Syria. Aramaic became the everyday language of Syria, Mesopotamia and Palestine.

63 Bygone airline : TWA

Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a big carrier in the US, but was perhaps even more recognized for its extensive presence in Europe and the Middle East. For many years, especially after the collapse of Pan Am and TWA’s purchase by Howard Hughes, TWA was considered the unofficial flag carrier for the US. The company started in 1930, the product of a forced merger of Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express. The Transcontinental and Western Air that resulted (the original meaning of the initialism “TWA”) was what the Postmaster General wanted, a bigger airline to which the Postal Service could award airmail contracts.

64 Ballpark brushback, perhaps … and a hint to each set of circled letters : INSIDE PITCH

In baseball, a brushback pitch is one thrown high and inside the strike zone, and is designed to “brush back” the batter away from the plate for subsequent pitches.

67 Rock’s Fleetwood __ : MAC

The band Fleetwood Mac was founded in 1967 in London by Peter Green. He chose “Fleetwood Mac” from the names of two friends in former groups, i.e. “Fleetwood” and “McVie”). Green did this despite the fact that Fleetwood Mac’s drummer’s name happens to be Mick Fleetwood.

68 Code name : MORSE

Samuel Morse was a very accomplished and reputable painter (he was engaged to paint a portrait of President John Adams, for example). In 1825 Morse was in Washington working on a commissioned painting when he received a one-line letter by horse messenger telling him that his wife was ill. He left immediately for his home in New Haven, Connecticut but by the time that Morse arrived his wife had already died and had been buried. This single event spurred him to move from painting to the development of a rapid means of long distance communication, leading to the single-wire telegraph and Morse code.

70 “Hometown Proud” supermarket chain : IGA

The initialism “IGA” stands for “Independent Grocers Alliance”, and is a chain of supermarkets that extends right around the world. IGA’s headquarters is in Chicago. The company uses the slogan “Hometown Proud Supermarkets”.

Down

1 TV host Philbin : REGIS

Regis Philbin is an incredibly popular television personality. Philbin is in such high demand and has had such a long career, that he holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera (in excess of 16,000 hours).

2 “Jagged Little Pill” co-songwriter Morissette : ALANIS

Alanis Morissette is a Canadian singer-songwriter. After releasing two pop albums in Canada, in 1995 she recorded her first album to be distributed internationally. Called “Jagged Little Pill”, it is a collection of songs with more of a rock influence. The album was a huge success, the highest-selling album of the 1990s, and the highest-selling debut album by any artist at any time (selling over 30 million units).

3 Old register key : NO SALE

The “No Sale” key on a cash register is the one pushed to open the cash drawer without recording a transaction, when there is “no sale”.

4 They report to sgts. : CPLS

Sergeant (sgt.) is a rank above corporal (cpl.).

6 Barbie’s company : MATTEL

Mattel is the world’s largest toy manufacturer. Mattel was founded by Harold “Matt” Matson and Elliot Handler in 1945, and they chose the company name by combining “Matt” with “El-liot” giving “Matt-el”.

The famous Barbie doll was created by businesswoman Ruth Handler and first appeared on store shelves in 1959. Barbie was based on a German fashion doll called Bild Lilli that was introduced in 1955. Lilli had been a German cartoon character before taking on a three-dimensional form. Prior to the introduction of Bild Lilli and Barbie, children’s dolls were primarily representations of infants.

8 Aries or Taurus : CAR

The Dodge Aries (and the Plymouth Reliant) were Chrysler’s first “K-cars”, introduced in 1981. The K-cars were designed to carry 6 passengers, on two bench seats. Remember taking a corner a little too fast on those seats, in the days when no one wore seat belts?

The Taurus is an incredibly successful car that was introduced by Ford in 1985. The Taurus was the successor to the Ford LTD, and is still in production today. The Taurus was the best-selling automobile in the US between 1992 and 1996, before being knocked off its pedestal by Japanese imports.

9 Like many yoga practitioners : HINDU

Hinduism is the world’s third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam.

In the West we tend to think of yoga as a physical discipline, a means of exercise that uses specific poses to stretch and strengthen muscles. While it is true that the ancient Indian practice of yoga does involve such physical discipline, the corporeal aspect of the practice plays a relatively small part in the whole philosophy. Other major components are meditation, ethical behavior, breathing and contemplation.

11 Ringer in la casa : TELEFONO

In Spanish, one might hear a “teléfono” (telephone) ringing in the “las casa” (the house).

12 Wool coat that is often plaid : MACKINAW

Mackinaw cloth is a heavy and dense woolen cloth that repels water. It is used to make a short coat known as a Mackinaw jacket that is very much associated with lumberjacks, especially in the mid-1800s. The jacket was first made by women in the Mackinaw region of present-day Michigan, hence the name.

13 Something to chew : CUD

Animals that chew the cud are called ruminants. Ruminants eat vegetable matter but cannot extract any nutritional value from cellulose without the help of microbes in the gut. Ruminants collect roughage in the first part of the alimentary canal, allowing microbes to work on it. The partially digested material (the cud) is regurgitated into the mouth so that the ruminant can chew the food more completely exposing more surface area for microbes to do their work.

18 Holiday quaff : NOG

It’s not really clear where the term “nog” (as in “eggnog”) comes from although it might derive from the word “noggin”, which was originally a small wooden cup that was long associated with alcoholic drinks.

22 Cartoonist Chast : ROZ

Roz Chast had her first cartoon published in “The New Yorker” in 1978, and has had more than 800 published since then.

27 Common base : TEN

We use base-10, the decimal system for our numbers. Base-60, the sexagesimal system, was used by the ancient Babylonians. This ancient usage gives rise to our 60 seconds in a minute, and 360 (6 x 60) degrees in a circle.

29 Auto financing abbr. : APR

Annual percentage rate (APR)

39 Rascal : SCALAWAG

The American word “scalawag” meaning “rogue” was originally used as a nickname for southern white people who supported reconstruction after the Civil War.

40 Bolivian border lake : TITICACA

Lake Titicaca is the largest lake in South America, and the highest navigable lake in the world (navigable by “large” commercial vessels). Lake Titicaca is located in the Andes, on the border between Peru and Bolivia.

41 Fed. agents : G-MEN

The nickname “G-men” is short for “government men” and refers to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

47 __-Caps: candy : SNO

Sno-Caps are a brand of candy usually only available in movie theaters. Sno-caps have been around since the 1920s, would you believe?

52 “The Masked Singer” judge Robin : THICKE

Robin Thicke is a singer-songwriter from Los Angeles who has a pair of showbiz parents. Robin’s Dad is actor Alan Thicke who made his name on the TV show “Growing Pains”. Robin’s mother is singer and actress Gloria Loring. Loring and her husband composed the theme songs for the TV shows “Diff’rent Strokes” and “The Facts of Life”.

“The Masked Singer” is a reality TV show in which masked celebrities compete anonymously in a singing competition. Contestants reveal their identities when they are voted off the show by the audience and a panel of judges. The American version of the show is part of an international “Masked Singer” franchise that originated in South Korea.

58 Flu symptoms : ACHES

Influenza (the “flu”) is an ailment that is caused by a virus. The virus is readily inactivated by the use of soap, so washing hands and surfaces is especially helpful in containing flu outbreaks.

61 LAPD alerts : APBS

An All Points Bulletin (APB) is a broadcast from one US law enforcement agency to another.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is the third largest local law enforcement agency in the country, after New York PD and Chicago PD. Among other things, LAPD is famous for creating the first Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team in the US, in 1965.

62 Actress Sorvino : MIRA

Mira Sorvino is an American actress, and a winner of an Oscar for her supporting role in the 1995 Woody Allen movie “Mighty Aphrodite”. Sorvino also played a title role opposite Lisa Kudrow in the very forgettable “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion”.

63 Texter’s “No more details!” : TMI!

Too much information (TMI)

65 Sellout letters : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

The post LA Times Crossword 12 Feb 20, Wednesday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 7m 04s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Suffix for Wikipedia : ORG

Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia, and is the most-used reference site on the Internet. The site was launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001. I, for one, am very grateful …

9 Network with a “Cameras in the Court” page : C-SPAN

C-SPAN is a privately-funded, nonprofit cable channel that broadcasts continuous coverage of government proceedings.

C-SPAN’s website has a “Cameras in the Court” page that provides coverage of the judicial branch of the US government. Some notable words at the top of that page are:

The prohibition of televised coverage of the Supreme Court’s oral arguments has been an obstacle …

The policy of banning the use of cameras in the courtroom while the Supreme Court is in session is a much debated topic.

15 Where many watch the Beeb : TELLY

“Telly” is a term commonly used in Britain and Ireland that is short for “television”.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is also known as “the Beeb”, a name given to the network by the great Peter Sellers on the classic British radio comedy called “The Goon Show”. The BBC was founded in 1922, and was the world’s first national broadcasting organization.

17 Crow : HUMBLE PIE

The phrase “humble pie” derives from a medieval meat dish called “umble pie”. The filling in umble pie usually contained the offal (heart, liver, lungs and kidneys) of deer. The name “umble” came from the French “nomble” meaning “deer’s innards”.

The phrase “eat crow”, an alternative to “eat humble pie”, perhaps refers to the fact that cooked crow may be edible, but is not a great food choice.

19 Plug-in Chevys : VOLTS

Despite being late entering the eco-friendly car market, Chevrolet today produces the most fuel-efficient compact car with a gasoline engine that is sold in the US. The Chevrolet Volt went on sale at the end of 2010, and is a plug-in hybrid car that runs on batteries. The Volt has a gasoline engine that can be used to run an electric generator when needed. The Volt also uses a regenerative braking system.

23 Delete for security reasons, say : REDACT

Our word “redact”, meaning to revise or edit, comes from the past participle of the Latin “redigere” meaning “to reduce”.

26 Crow : BOAST WITH JOY

The verb “to crow” meaning “to exult in triumph” is imitative of the sound made by a crow, perhaps as it settles over some dead animal that it has found …

36 Amana Colonies state : IOWA

“The Amana Colonies” is the collective name given to seven villages in east-central Iowa, namely Amana, East Amana, High Amana, Middle Amana, South Amana, West Amana and Homestead. All seven villages were founded by German immigrants who called themselves the Community of True Inspiration.

37 Copier pioneer : XEROX

Xerox was founded in 1906 in Rochester, New York and originally made photographic paper and equipment. Real success came for the company in 1959 when it introduced the first plain-paper photocopier. Xerox named Ursula Burns as CEO in 2009, the first African American woman to head up a S&P 100 company. Burn was also the first woman to succeed another female CEO (replacing Anne Mulcahy).

39 Taylor of fashion : ANN

There was no actual person named “Ann Taylor” associated with the Ann Taylor line of clothes. The name was chosen by the marketing professionals because “Ann” was considered to be “very New England” back in 1954 when the stores first opened, and “Taylor” suggested that clothes were carefully “tailored”.

40 Likely 2020 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee : JETER

Derek Jeter played his entire professional baseball career with the New York Yankees, and was the team’s captain. Jeter is the all-time career leader for the Yankees in hits, games played, stolen bases and at bats. He is also the all-time leader in hits by a shortstop in the whole of professional baseball. Jeter’s performances in the postseason earned him the nicknames “Captain Clutch” and “Mr. November”. Jeter retired from the game in 2014.

41 Composer Satie : ERIK

Erik Satie was a French composer best known for his beautiful composition, the three “Gymnopédies”. I have tried so hard to appreciate other works by Satie but I find them so very different from the minimalist simplicity of the lyrical “Gymnopédies”.

42 Taco sauce brand : ORTEGA

The Ortega food manufacturing company has been around for about 150 years. It was founded by Maria Concepcion Jacinta Dominguez Ortega, known affectionately as Mama Ortega within the company.

44 IRS identifier : SSN

The main purpose of a Social Security Number (SSN) is to track individuals for the purposes of taxation, although given its ubiquitous use, it is looking more and more like an identity number to me. The social security number system was introduced in 1936. Prior to 1986, an SSN was required only for persons with substantial income, so many children under 14 had no number assigned. For some years the IRS had a concern that a lot of people were claiming children on their tax returns who did not actually exist. So, from 1986 onward, it is a requirement to get an SSN for any dependents over the age of 5. Sure enough, seven million dependents “disappeared” in 1987.

45 Crow : SINGER SHERYL

Famously, Sheryl Crow dated cyclist Lance Armstrong from 2003-2006. Armstrong has stated publicly more than once that Crow’s music cured his cancer.

49 Range that contains much of the Mark Twain National Forest : OZARKS

The Ozark Mountains aren’t really mountains geographically speaking, and so the Ozarks are better described by the alternate name, the Ozark Plateau. It’s not really certain how the Ozarks got their name, but my favorite theory is that “Ozarks” is the phonetic spelling of “aux Arks”, short for “of Arkansas” in French.

53 Temple with an upcurved roof : PAGODA

Pagodas are tiered (“storied”) towers found in various parts of Asia that are usually built for religious purposes.

56 Blue-__: pain relief brand : EMU

Blu-Emu is a brand of topical pain relievers that was introduced in 2002. As suggested by the name, Blue-Emu products include emu oil as an ingredient. Emu oil is extracted from the fat of emu carcases that are processed for meat.

60 Crow : BLACK BIRD

Ravens and crows are very similar species, and it can be difficult to tell them apart. Ravens are a little larger and often travel in pairs, whereas crows are a little smaller are are usually seen in larger groups. Crows make a cawing sound, while the raven’s call is more like a croak.

62 Electric car named for a physicist : TESLA

Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 as a manufacturer of electric vehicles based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla is noted for producing the first electric sports car, called the Tesla Roadster. The company followed the sports car with a luxury sedan, the Model S. The Model S was the world’s best selling plug-in electric vehicle of 2015. Tesla Motors shortened its name to Tesla in early 2017.

Nikola Tesla was born in Serbia, but later moved to the US. Tesla’s work on mechanical and electrical engineering was crucial to the development of alternating current technology, the same technology that is used by equipment at the backbone of modern power generation and distribution systems.

63 Kirin competitor : ASAHI

Asahi is a beer, and the name of the brewery that produces it. “Asahi” is Japanese for “morning sun”. Asahi introduced a “dry beer” in 1987, igniting a craze that rocketed the brewery to the number one spot in terms of beer production in Japan, with Sapporo close behind.

Kirin lager is the oldest brand of beer in Japan. The “Kirin” name comes from the Japanese word for a mythical Chinese creature.

64 Zero, in soccer : NIL

Soccer (also known as “association football”) is the most popular sport in the world. The term “association football” was introduced in 1863 in England, with the name chosen to distinguish the sport from rugby football. The term “soccer” started to appear about 20 years later in Oxford, as an abbreviation for “association”.

65 Get to the point? : TAPER

I used to think that the word “taper” was used for a slender candle because said candle was “tapered” in shape, but it’s exactly the opposite. It turns out that our word “tapered” comes from the candle. “Taper” and “tapur” are Old English words meaning “candle”. From these nouns arose the verb “to taper” meaning “shoot up like flame”. This meaning evolved into “become slender” from the idea that a candle’s flame has such a shape.

66 Exorcist’s target : DEMON

An exorcist is a religious figure who is believed to be able to cast out demons that have possessed a person or perhaps a building.

Down

2 Waze recommendation : ROUTE

Waze is a navigation app that is similar to Google Maps and Apple Maps. Waze was developed in Israel, and was acquired by Google in 2013.

4 Delta hub code : ATL

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world’s busiest airport, as measured by passenger traffic. Atlanta has had that distinction since 1998, and was the world’s busiest in terms of take-offs and landings from 2005 until 2013. Over 50% of Atlanta’s traffic comes from Delta Air Lines.

6 Pet food brand : ALPO

Alpo is a brand of dog food introduced by Allen Products in 1936, with “Alpo” being an abbreviation for “Allen Products”. Lorne Greene used to push Alpo in television spots, as did Ed McMahon and Garfield the Cat, would you believe?

7 Avoided a tag, perhaps : SLID

That would be baseball.

8 “Queer __”: revived style show : 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.

12 Bubbly city : ASTI

Asti is a city in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. The region is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine.

18 Spill the beans : BLAB

To spill the beans is to divulge a secret. The expression first appeared in American English, in the early 1900s. The phrase arose as an alternative to “spoil the beans” or “upset the applecart”. The similarly meaning phrase “spill the tea” is more prevalent on the other side of the Atlantic.

22 Slinky shape : COIL

The marvelous Slinky toy was invented in the early forties by a naval engineer named Richard James. James was developing springs for the navy that could stabilize sensitive instruments in rough seas. One day he accidentally knocked one of his experimental coils off a shelf and watched it “step” onto a stack of books, then onto a table and from there onto the floor where it recoiled itself very neatly. The Slinky was born …

24 Persuade with flattery : COAX

To coax is to cajole, to influence using gentle persuasion. Back in the 16th century, “coax” was a noun meaning “fool”, and was used in the sense of “make a coax of, make a fool of”.

25 Title river in a Gershwin/Caesar song : SWANEE

“Swanee” was written in 1919 by George Gershwin. Gershwin was very young at the time and came up with the music in just ten minutes while riding on a Manhattan bus. Al Jolson was already a star, and he heard Gershwin playing the song at a party. Jolson made a deal to include the song in his show “Sinbad”, and then “Swanee” just took off.

27 Like Wyoming’s population : SPARSE

Wyoming is the least populous state in the Union, and the second-least sparsely populated. The state with the lowest population density is Alaska.

28 Start of the back nine : TENTH

There’s an urban myth that the standard number of holes on a golf course is 18 because it takes 18 shots to polish off a fifth of scotch whisky. However, the truth is that the standard number of holes in the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland happened to settle down over time at 18, and that standard was adopted all around the world.

30 Is in the red : OWES

To be in the red is to be in debt, to owe money. The expression “in the red” is a reference to the accounting practice of recording debts and losses in red ink in ledgers. The related phrase “in the black” means “solvent, making a profit”.

31 It may get crewel treatment : YARN

Crewelwork is a type of embroidery using wool thread. The oldest surviving example of crewelwork is the celebrated Bayeux Tapestry. As such, the Bayeux “Tapestry” isn’t a tapestry at all.

33 Polo of “The Fosters” : TERI

Teri Polo’s most prominent role on the big screen was Pam Focker in “Meet the Fockers” and its sequel. Pam is the wife of the character played by Ben Stiller. Polo also played the wife of Presidential candidate Matt Santos in “The West Wing”.

“The Fosters” is a teen drama TV show about a lesbian couple raising a blended family of biological, adopted and foster children. Originally airing from 2013 to 2018, Jennifer Lopez was involved in the show as an executive producer.

34 Shillelagh’s land : ERIN

A “shillelagh” is a wooden walking stick that, according to Irish folklore, was often used as a weapon, as a club. The term “shillelagh” is an anglicized corruption of “sail éille” meaning “thonged willow”. The spelling of this corruption somehow got confused over the years with the village of Shillelagh in County Wicklow. The name of the village is unrelated to the walking stick, and rather comes from the Irish “Síol Éalaigh” meaning “people descended from Élothach”, i.e. descended from Élothach mac Fáelchon, one of the Irish kings.

38 Words that activate an assistant : OK GOOGLE

Google Assistant is a virtual assistant that can engage in two-way conversation. Google Assistant competes with Microsoft’s Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri.

40 “Empire State of Mind” rapper : JAY-Z

Jay-Z, as well as being a successful and very rich rap artist, is married to singer Beyoncé. Jay-Z was born Shawn Corey Carter in Brooklyn, New York. As Carter was growing up, he was nicknamed “Jazzy”, a reference to his interest in music. “Jazzy” evolved into the stage name “Jay-Z”. Jay-Z and Beyoncé have a daughter named Blue Ivy Carter, and twins named Rumi and Sir Carter.

42 White-bellied swimmer : ORCA

The taxonomic name for the killer whale is “Orcinus orca”. The use of the name “orca”, rather than “killer whale”, is becoming more and more common. The Latin word “Orcinus” means “belonging to Orcus”, with Orcus being the name for the Kingdom of the Dead.

43 First name in comedy : GROUCHO

Groucho Marx’s real name was Julius Henry Marx. By the time Groucho started his successful, post-Hollywood career hosting the quiz show “You Bet Your Life”, he was sporting a real mustache. For all his movies, his mustache had been painted on with greasepaint.

47 Souvlaki meat : LAMB

Souvlaki is a “fast food” from Greece consisting of meat (often lamb) grilled on a skewer, and sometimes served in a pita sandwich.

51 2012 NBA Rookie of the Year __ Irving : KYRIE

Kyrie Irving is a professional basketball player who grew up in New Jersey, although he was born in Melbourne, Australia to American parents. Irving played for Duke University before launching his NBA career with the Cleveland Cavaliers following the 2011 draft.

The post LA Times Crossword 13 Feb 20, Thursday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 9m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Penthouses, e.g.: Abbr. : APTS

Originally, the term “penthouse” described a modest building attached to a main structure. In fact, in centuries past, the manger in which Jesus was born was often referred to as a penthouse. The modern, more luxurious connotation dates back to the early twenties.

13 Adriatic port : BARI

Bari is a major port city on the Adriatic coast of Italy. Bari has the unfortunate distinction of being the only city in Europe to experience chemical warfare during WWII. Allied stores of mustard gas were released during a German bombing raid on Bari in 1943. Fatalities caused by the chemical agent were reported as 69, although other reports list the number as maybe a thousand military personnel and a thousand civilians.

14 March Madness org. : NCAA

“March Madness” is the name given to the NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship (among others), that is held in the spring each year.

15 “Beavis and Butt-head” spin-off : DARIA

“Daria” is an animated television show on MTV. It is a spin-off from the hit series “Beavis and Butthead”.

“Beavis and Butt-Head” is an adult cartoon television show and film. The show ran on MTV. I’ve never seen it …

17 Start of a Charles M. Schulz quote : ALL YOU NEED …

Charles M. Schulz was a cartoonist best known for his comic strip “Peanuts” that featured the much-loved characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy. “Peanuts” was so successful, running daily in over 70 countries and 21 languages, that it earned Schulz an estimated 30-40 million dollars annually.

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. As the organization grew, the guiding principles established by the founders were formatted into a 12-step program that was in place by the forties.

21 Twelve-step helper : AA SPONSOR

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was founded in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in Akron, Ohio. As the organization grew, the guiding principles established by the founders were formatted into a 12-step program that was in place by the forties.

26 Living area in “The Martian,” with “the” : HAB

In the 2015 film “The Martian”, the stranded astronaut survives in the surface habitat (Hab).

28 A Gabor sister : EVA

Eva Gabor was the youngest of the Gabor sisters, all three of whom were celebrated Hollywood actresses and socialites (her siblings were Zsa-Zsa and Magda). One of Eva’s claims to fame is the unwitting promotion of the game called “Twister”, the sales of which were languishing in 1966. In an appearance on “The Tonight Show” she got on all fours and played the game with Johnny Carson. Sales took off immediately, and Twister became a huge hit.

34 Classic sci-fi villain : VADER

The top 5 movie villains in the American Film Institute’s list “100 Years … 100 Heroes & Villains” are:

1. Dr. Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs”
2. Norman Bates in “Psycho”
3. Darth Vader in “The Empire Strikes Back”
4. The Wicked Witch of the West in “The Wizard of Oz”
5. Nurse Ratched in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”

41 1980s attorney general : MEESE

Ed Meese was born in Oakland, California and spent 24 years in the office of the Treasurer of Alameda County, the county in which I used to live. After military service, Meese earned himself a law degree at UC Berkeley. Later, as chief of staff for President Reagan, he was instrumental in a famous decision to crack down on student protesters at Berkeley which resulted in one protester dying and a two-week occupation of the city by the California National Guard.

58 “__ Mio” : O SOLE

“O sole mio” is a famous Italian song from Naples, written in 1898. The song’s lyrics are usually sung in the original Neapolitan, as opposed to Italian. The title translates from Neapolitan into “My Sun” (and not into “O, My Sun” as one might expect). It’s a love song, sung by a young man declaring that there is a sun brighter than that in the sky, the sun that is his lover’s face. Awww …

61 Avian crop : CRAW

“Craw” is another name for “crop”, a portion of the alimentary tract of some animals, including birds. The crop is used for the storage of food prior to digestion. It allows the animal to eat large amounts and then digest that food with efficiency over an extended period. The expression “to stick in one’s craw” is used when one cannot accept something, cannot “swallow” it.

62 Score symbols : FLATS

That would be a musical score.

64 Whodunit canine : ASTA

Asta is the wonderful little dog in the superb “The Thin Man” series of films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy (as Nick and Nora Charles). In the original story by Dashiell Hammett, Asta was a female Schnauzer, but on screen Asta was played by a wire-haired fox terrier called “Skippy”. Skippy was also the dog in “Bringing Up Baby” with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, the one who kept stealing the dinosaur bone. Skippy retired in 1939, so Asta was played by other dogs in the remainder of “The Thin Man” films.

65 Club with a green and blue diamond logo : SAM’S

Sam’s Club is a warehouse club that is owned and operated by Walmart. It is named after the company’s founder Sam Walton.

66 Phillies slugger Hoskins : RHYS

Rhys Hoskins is a professional baseball player who was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2014. Hoskins made his first appearance for the Phillies in 2017.

67 Nair rival, once : NEET

The hair removal product “Neet” was launched in Canada in 1901, and was also sold as “Immac”. Today, it is sold under the name “Veet”.

Down

1 Old counters : ABACI

The abacus (plural “abaci”) was used as a counting frame long before man had invented a numbering system. It is a remarkable invention, particularly when one notes that abaci are still widely used today across Africa and Asia.

5 Prefix with -gram : ANA-

Here are some of my favorite anagrams:

• “Dormitory” and “dirty room”
• “Elvis” and “lives”
• “The eyes” and “they see”
• “Eleven plus two” and “twelve plus one”

7 Caroline Islands republic : PALAU

Palau is a tiny island nation lying 500 miles east of the Philippines, and 2,000 miles south of Japan. Palau was once a Spanish possession and was sold by Spain to Germany in the late 19th century. During WWI, Japan invaded the islands (Japan had declared war on Germany) and was awarded the islands as a territory by the League of Nations at the end of hostilities. In WWII the US took Palau from the Japanese in a bloody battle in 1944. Palau emerged from American administration in 1994 and is now a sovereign state.

The Caroline Islands are an archipelago of about 500 small islands located in the western Pacific to the north of New Guinea. The island group was named by the Spanish in the 17th century in honor of King Carlos II of Spain.

9 Legendary Carthaginian general : HANNIBAL

Hannibal was a military commander from Ancient Carthage. Hannibal lived during a time of great conflict between Carthage and the Roman Republic, as the Romans worked to extend their influence over the Mediterranean region. Famously, Hannibal took on Rome on their own territory by marching his army, including his war elephants, over the Alps into Italy. His forces occupied much of Italy for 15 years.

The Carthaginian Republic was centered on the city of Carthage, the ruins of which are located on the coast of modern-day Tunisia. The Latin name for the people of Carthage was “Afri”. When the Romans took over Carthage, they created a province they called “Africa”. That name extended over time to include the whole continent.

12 __ City, Iraq : SADR

Sadr City is a suburb of Baghdad that has oft been in the news in recent years. Sadr City is named after the deceased Shia leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.

15 The Carpenters, for one : DUO

The Carpenters were a musical duo comprising brother and sister Richard and Karen Carpenter. Karen had an amazing contralto voice, and played the drums. Richard played the piano, and composed and arranged most of their music. Tragically, Karen Carpenter died in 1983 due to heart failure brought on by an eating disorder. She was only 32 years old.

18 Deep-water fish : OPAH

“Opah” is the more correct name for the fish also known as the sunfish, moonfish or Jerusalem haddock. I’ve seen one in the Monterey Aquarium. It is one huge fish …

20 More wicked, in Worcester : EVILLER

Worcester is a city in the West Midlands of England. The magnificent Worcester Cathedral overlooks the River Severn, on which the city is located. Here in North America, Worcester is perhaps best known as the namesake of Worcester, Massachusetts, and as the home to Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce.

23 Touching competition? : EPEE

The French word for sword is “épée”. In competitive fencing the épée is connected to a system that records an electrical signal when legal contact is made on an opponent’s body.

27 Guacamole fruit : AVOCADO

Guacamole is one of my favorite dishes. It is prepared by mashing avocados and perhaps adding the likes of tomato, onion and lime juice. The guacamole recipe dates back as early as the 16th century, to the time of the Aztecs. “Guacamole” translates as “avocado sauce”.

28 Disease-stricken tree : ELM

Dutch elm disease is a fungus devastating to all species of elm trees that is transmitted by the elm bark beetle. The disease is thought to have originated in Asia and is now rampant in Europe and North America. Even though there is a hybrid of elm known as the Dutch elm, the disease isn’t named after the tree. Rather, the disease is called “Dutch” as it was identified in 1921 by a phytopathologist (plant pathologist) in the Netherlands.

31 Knee injury initials : ACL

The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of four major ligaments that support the knee.

32 Key letter : PHI

Phi Beta Kappa was the first collegiate Greek fraternity in the US, founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary. The organization served as a model for future collegiate fraternities and sororities, although in the 19th century Phi Beta Kappa distanced itself from the fraternal focus and transformed into the honor society that it is today, recognizing academic excellence. The initials Phi Beta Kappa stand for “philosophia biou kybernētēs”, which translates into “philosophy is the guide of life”. The symbol of the Phi Beta Kappa Society is a golden key.

33 La preceder : SOL

The sol-fa syllables are: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la & ti.

35 Long shot : DARK HORSE

A dark horse is a person or thing that emerges unexpectedly to predominate a situation. As perhaps expected, the term “dark horse” comes from horse racing. The phrase appears to have originated in a novel penned by British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. In “The Young Duke”, published in 1831, Disraeli’s “Duke of St. James” is watching a horse race:

A dark horse which had never been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even observed in the list, rushed past the grandstand in sweeping triumph.

36 Coming-in hr., roughly : ETA

Estimated time of arrival (ETA)

39 Romanov adherents : TSARISTS

The House of Romanov was the second and last imperial dynasty to rule over Russia, after the Rurik dynasty. The reign of the Romanovs ended when Emperor Nicholas II abdicated following the February Revolution of 1917. Famously, Nicholas II and his immediate family were murdered soon after he stepped down, and other members of the Romanov Dynasty were sent into exile by the Bolsheviks.

40 Lyricist Sammy : CAHN

Sammy Cahn wrote for them all, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Doris Day. Cahn’s most famous song was probably “Three Coins in the Fountain”. He also wrote “All the Way”, made famous by Frank Sinatra.

45 Tech tutorials site : CNET

c|net is an excellent technology website. c|net started out in 1994 as a television network specializing in technology news. The host of “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest, started off his career as host of a c|net show.

47 ER diagnostic tool : CT SCAN

A CT (or “CAT”) scan produces (via computer manipulation) a three-dimensional image of the inside of an object, usually the human body. It does so by taking a series of two dimensional x-ray images while rotating the camera around the patient. The issue with CT scans is that they use x-rays. High doses of radiation can be harmful, causing damage that is cumulative over time.

48 Bucks : MOOLA

Lettuce, cabbage, kale, dough, scratch, cheddar, simoleons, clams and moola(h) are all slang terms for money.

“Buck” is a slang term for “dollar”. The term has been around at least since 1856, and is thought to derive from the tradition of using buckskin as a unit of trade with Native Americans during the frontier days.

51 Yellowish brown : OCHER

Ocher is a light, yellowish-brown color, although variations of the pigment are possible such as red ocher and purple ocher. “Ocher” is usually spelled “ochre” on the other side of the pond.

52 “Brideshead Revisited” novelist : WAUGH

Evelyn Waugh was an English author who is most famous for his fabulous 1945 novel “Brideshead Revisited”. Evelyn Waugh met and fell in love with Evelyn Gardner in 1927. Known to friends as “He-Evelyn” and “She-Evelyn”, the couple were married in 1929 (but divorced one year later).

“Brideshead Revisited” is a novel written by Evelyn Waugh that famously was made into a British television series starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews. “Brideshead” was the name of the magnificent estate in the storyline. For the television production, Castle Howard in North Yorkshire was used as Brideshead. if you ever get the chance, Castle Howard is for my money, the must-see stately home in England.

56 Sharable PC files : PDFS

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format introduced by Adobe Systems in 1993. PDF documents can be shared between users and read using many different applications, making them more universally accessible than documents saved by one particular program.

57 Brain and spinal cord: Abbr. : CNS

Central nervous system (CNS)

60 Saints’ achievements: Abbr. : TDS

Touchdown (TD)

The New Orleans Saints football team takes its name from the jazz song “When the Saints Go Marching In”, a tune that is very much associated with the city. The team was founded in 1967, on November 1st, which is All Saints’ Day in the Roman Catholic tradition.

The post LA Times Crossword 14 Feb 20, Friday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 12m 31s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Mineral used in roofing : MICA

Mica is a silicate mineral. Thin sheets of mica are transparent and are used in place of glass in certain applications. This form of mica is called isinglass, and as it has a better thermal performance than glass it is a great choice for peepholes in boilers and lanterns. Mica is also used in the electronics industry, making use of its unique electrical and thermal insulating properties.

10 Short answer? : RSVP

“RSVP” stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “answer, please”.

14 Sukiyaki ingredient : ENOKI

Enokitake (also known as “enoki”) are long and thin white mushrooms often added to soups or salads.

Sukiyaki is a Japanese soup/stew prepared and served in a “nabe”, a Japanese hot pot.

15 Disney theme park designer : IMAGINEER

The Walt Disney Company coined the term “imagineering” to describe the creation and construction of Disney theme parks.

18 55-Down warranty brand : APPLECARE
(55D Tech brand since 1998 : MAC)

AppleCare is hardware warranty and support service provided by Apple for its products.

22 Pathetic start? : SYM-

“Sympathy” and “empathy” are related but different terms. A person exhibiting sympathy acknowledges another person’s emotional distress. A person exhibiting empathy also acknowledges distress, but understands the emotions felt as they have had a similar experience, or can at least put themselves in the shoes of the person affected.

23 George’s musical sibling : IRA

Ira Gershwin was the lyricist who worked with his brother George to create such American classics as the songs “I Got Rhythm” and “Someone to Watch Over Me”, as well as the opera “Porgy and Bess”. After George Gershwin died, Ira continued to create great music, and worked with the likes of Jerome Kern and Kurt Weill.

George Gershwin was a remarkable composer in so many ways, not least in that he was respected for both his popular and classical compositions. Gershwin’s best known works for orchestra are the magnificent “Rhapsody in Blue” from 1924 and “An American in Paris” from 1928. Another noted work is the opera “Porgy and Bess” that was first performed in 1935. Surprisingly, Porgy and Bess was a commercial failure, and so Gershwin moved to Hollywood and started composing very successful film scores. He was only 38 years old when he died in 1937 from a brain tumor.

27 Convergence points : FOCI

A focus (plural “foci”) is a point of convergence, or a center of activity. “Focus” is a Latin word meaning “hearth, fireplace”. The hearth can be a focus of a room.

28 Feline rapper? : TYGA

“Tyga” is the stage name of hip hop artist Michael Stevenson from Compton, California. Apparently, the stage name comes from the phrase “thank you God always”.

30 The Rams of the Atlantic 10 Conf. : URI

The University of Rhode Island (URI) was chartered as an agricultural school back in 1888. Rhody the Ram was chosen as the school’s mascot in 1923, a nod to URI’s agricultural past. As a result, the school’s sports teams are known as the Rams. URI’s main campus is located in the village of Kingston.

31 Only Nobelist besides Marie to win the prize in two fields : LINUS

Being a chemist myself by training, I have nothing but admiration for Linus Pauling, who was perhaps America’s greatest chemist of all time. Pauling is the only person to have individually been awarded two Nobel Prizes (for Chemistry in 1954, and the Peace Prize in 1962). During WWI he worked on military research & development, but after the war he adopted the pacifist views of his wife and led a campaign to ban above-ground nuclear testing, for which he was awarded his Peace Prize.

Marie Curie lived a life of firsts. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and indeed was the first person to win two Nobel prizes (in Physics in 1903, and in Chemistry in 1911). Most of Curie’s work was in the field of radioactivity, and was carried out in the days when the impact of excessive radiation on the human body was not understood. She died from aplastic anemia, caused by high exposure to radiation. To this day, Curie’s personal papers are kept preserved in lead-lined boxes as they are highly radioactive, even her personal cookbook.

38 OkCupid alternative with an oceanic name : PLENTY OF FISH

Plenty of Fish (POF) is an online dating website based in Vancouver. Founded in 2003, POF had over 100 million registered users by 2015.

39 Droid’s “surname” : DETOO

Artoo’s proper name is R2-D2 (also “Artoo-Detoo”). R2-D2 is the smaller of the two famous droids from the “Star Wars” movies. British actor Kenny Baker, who stood just 3 ft 8 ins tall, was the man inside the R2-D2 droid for the first six of the “Star Wars” movies.

41 Swerves at sea : YAWS

The word “yaw” means to deviate from the line of a course and is used mainly at sea and in the air. “Yaw” is derived from the Old Norse word “jaege” which means “to drive, chase”. As such, “yaw” is etymologically related to our word “yacht”.

45 Boobird’s output : JEER

A boobird is a sports fan who does a lot of booing.

49 Mortal Kombat’s __ Kang : LIU

Mortal Kombat is a series of video games launched in 1992 by Midway Games. It’s pretty violent stuff, apparently …

50 30-day mo. : APR

The exact etymology of “April”, the name of the fourth month of our year, seems to be uncertain. The ancient Romans called it “mensis Aprilis”, which roughly translated as “opening month”. The suggestion is that April is the month in which fruits, flowers and animals “open” their life cycles.

51 Column angle: Abbr. : POV

Point of view (POV)

52 Pre-coll. class : AP CALC

The Advanced Placement (AP) program offers college-level courses to kids who are still in high school. After being tested at the end of an AP course, successful students receive credits that count towards a college degree.

The Latin word “calculus” was originally used for a reckoning or an account, and originally applied to a pebble that was used to maintain a count. The Latin word came from the Greek for a pebble, “khalix”.

58 Sight sharpener : LASIK

LASIK surgery uses a laser to reshape the cornea of the eye to improve vision. The LASIK acronym stands for “laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis”.

59 Webinars, e.g. : E-LEARNING

“Webinar” is short for “Web-based seminar”, i.e. a presentation, lecture or similar event held online. In a Webinar, there is two-way interaction, with the audience able to ask questions of the presenter.

60 Classic TV nerd : URKEL

Steve Urkel is a character on the TV show “Family Matters” that originally aired in the late eighties and nineties. The Urkel character was the archetypal “geek”, played by Jaleel White. Urkel was originally written into the show’s storyline for just one episode, but before long, Urkel was the show’s most popular recurring character.

62 Brand with a Chop House variety : ALPO

Alpo is a brand of dog food introduced by Allen Products in 1936, with “Alpo” being an abbreviation for “Allen Products”. Lorne Greene used to push Alpo in television spots, as did Ed McMahon and Garfield the Cat, would you believe?

63 Kind of tire : SPARE

The British spelling of “tyre”, for what we call a “tire” here in North America, was indeed the original spelling. The English started to use “tire” spelling in the 17th century, and then shifted back to the current “tyre” in the 19th century.

Down

3 Item seen in the “Six Feet Under” title sequence : TOE TAG

“Six Feet Under” is reportedly a great TV drama aired by HBO, and one that I fully intend to take a look at one day. The “six feet under” is a reference to the show’s storyline that features a family funeral business.

4 Corningware sister brand : EKCO

The EKCO brand dates back to 1888 when Edward Katzinger founded his company in Chicago, to make baking pans. The acronym “EKCO” stands for “Edward Katzinger Co”.

6 “Crimson Peak” co-star Wasikowska : MIA

Mia Wasikowska is an Australian actress. Wasikowska’s breakthrough role was playing the title character in Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” in 2010. The only movie I’ve seen her in though is 2011’s “Jane Eyre”, a pretty good adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë classic, I thought …

“Crimson Peak” is a 2015 movie described as a “gothic romance horror film”. Not for me …

8 __ pants : CAPRI

Capri pants first became popular on the island of Capri, apparently. They were invented in Europe in 1948, but only became stylish in the US in the sixties. Mary Tyler Moore often wore Capri pants on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and to some extent she sparked a fashion trend. After a lull in the seventies and eighties there was a resurgence in sales after Uma Thurman wore them (and danced in them) in “Pulp Fiction”.

9 Tip that prevents fraying : AGLET

An aglet is a plastic or metal sheath that is found on the end of a shoelace or perhaps a drawstring. The name “aglet” comes from the Old French word “aiguillette” meaning “needle”.

10 Org. chaired by Ronna Romney McDaniel : RNC

National leadership of the Republican Party is provided by the Republican National Committee (RNC). Only one chairperson of the RNC has been elected to the office of US president, and that was George H. W. Bush.

Ronna Romney McDaniel became chair of the Republican National Committee in 2017, after Reince Priebus left the job to become President Donald Trump’s first White House Chief of Staff. McDaniel is the daughter of Scott Romney, brother of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

13 Basic part of a TV showrunner’s pitch : PREMISE

The showrunner of a TV series is really the boss. He or she has creative and management responsibility for the whole operation. Nowadays, shows often have a boatload of names credited as “executive producer”. The showrunner is usually listed among those executive producers, but he or she is the “chief executive” producer.

16 Guerrilla combat weapon: Abbr. : IED

Improvised explosive device (IED)

Guerrilla (sometimes “guerilla”) warfare is a type of fighting engaged in by irregular forces using ambushes and sabotage. The term “guerra” is Spanish for war, and “guerrilla” translates as “little war”.

26 Night light source : FIREFLY

Some living organisms are able to produce light, a phenomenon known as “bioluminescence”. A famous example on land is the firefly, with its glowing tail. There are many marine animals, such as jellyfish, that emit light. The frequently observed bioluminescence on the surface of the sea is usually caused by plankton. This phenomenon may be referred to as “sea fire”.

29 Key with no sharps or flats : A MINOR

Experts, unlike me, can wax lyrical on the technical differences between major and minor keys and scales. To me, music written in major keys is very strident, often very joyful and “honest”. Music written in minor keys (usually my favorite) is more feminine, more delicate and often quite sad.

31 WWII craft : LSTS

The initialism “LST” stands for Landing Ship, Tank. LSTs are the large vessels used mainly in WWII that have doors at either ends through which tanks and other vehicles can roll off and onto beaches. The design concept persists to this day in the huge fleet of commercial roll-on/roll-off car ferries, all inspired by the LST.

34 Saunders/French Britcom : ABFAB

“Absolutely Fabulous” (sometimes shortened to “AbFab”) is a cult-classic sitcom produced by the BBC. The two stars of the show are Jennifer Saunders (Edina Monsoon) and Joanna Lumley (Patsy Stone). “Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie” hit the screens in 2016. I haven’t seen it yet, but my wife did and really enjoyed it. She said that there’s a veritable cavalcade of British stars that make an appearance …

37 William who plays Grissom on “CSI” : PETERSEN

The actor William Petersen is best known for portraying forensic scientist Gil Grissom on the “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”. Petersen quit acting in the show after nine seasons, and moved into the role of executive producer.

38 “A Taste for Death” author : PD JAMES

P. D. James was an incredibly successful English author of crime fiction, with her most famous books being a series that features a policeman and sometime poet named Adam Dalgliesh. James’ 1992 novel called “The Children of Men” was adapted into a 2006 movie (“Children of Men”) starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore. It tells of a world that develops after two generations of human infertility.

42 Kenai Fjords National Park site : ALASKA

The Kenai Peninsula juts out into the Gulf of Alaska from Alaska’s southern coast. The Kenai Peninsula is home to several towns, including Homer, Alaska. Homer is nicknamed “the end of the road” as it is a terminus for North America’s paved highway system. The peninsula is also home to Kenai Fjords National Park.

46 Summer of disco : DONNA

Donna Summer is known as “The Queen of Disco”, with great hits like “Love to Love You, Baby”, “I Feel Love” and “Hot Stuff”. In the late sixties and early seventies, LaDonna Gaines (her real name) lived and worked in Germany. There she met and married an Austrian actor called Helmuth Sommer. They divorced not long after the marriage, but Donna kept his family name, just changing the “o” to “u” to give her the stage name of “Donna Summer”.

53 Koi, e.g. : CARP

Koi are fish that are also known as Japanese carp. Koi have been bred for decorative purposes and there are now some very brightly colored examples found in Japanese water gardens.

55 Tech brand since 1998 : MAC

Macintosh (also “Mac”, since 1998) is a line of computers from Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced in 1984, and I remember someone showing me one at work in those early days of personal computing. There was a piece of white plastic connected to the main computer by a cord, and I was amazed when the guy showed me that it controlled where the cursor was on the screen. My colleague told me that this lump of plastic was called “a mouse” …

56 Economic stat : GNP

A country’s Gross National Product (GNP) is the value of all services and products produced by its residents in a particular year. GNP includes all production wherever it is in the world, as long as the business is owned by residents of the country concerned. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is different, although related, and is the value of all services and goods produced within the borders of the country for that year.

The post LA Times Crossword 15 Feb 20, Saturday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 16m 23s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

7 Queens stadium namesake : ASHE

Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York opened in 1997 and for years was the largest outdoor, tennis-only venue in the world. The stadium was often criticized for not having a retractable dome to protect the playing surface from inclement weather. Well, that changed in 2016 when the stadium debuted its new retractable roof, a $150 million investment in the facility.

11 HUN neighbor, to the IOC : CRO

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) uses its own set of three-letter abbreviations for country names, e.g. HUN (Hungary), ECU (Ecuador), ESP (Spain) and CRO (Croatia).

19 Reading disorder : ALEXIA

Dyslexia is a disorder in which someone of normal intelligence has difficulty reading. If a person who can read normally loses that capability, then the disorder is referred to as alexia.

20 Car thief’s contact : CHOP SHOP

After a car is stolen it might be delivered to a “chop shop”, a workshop that can break up the vehicle so that it can be sold for parts.

22 Cremona strings master : AMATI

The first of the Amati family to make violins was Andrea Amati, who lived in the 14th century. He was succeeded by his sons Antonio and Girolamo. In turn, the two brothers were succeeded by Girolamo’s son Nicolo. Nicolo had a few students who achieved fame making musical instruments as well. One was his own son, Girolamo, and another was the famed Antonio Stradivari.

Cremona is a city in Lombardy in northern Italy that lies on the Po river. Cremona has a rich musical history and was the home to famous craftsmen who made stringed instruments, including Stradivari and several members of the Amati family.

23 How to handle fine china : GENTLY

The ceramic known as “porcelain” can be referred to as “china” or “fine china”, as porcelain was developed in China.

29 One way to solve crosswords : IN INK

Arthur Wynne is generally credited with the invention of what we now known as a crossword puzzle. Wynne was born in Liverpool, England and emigrated to the US when he was 19-years-old. He worked as a journalist and was living in Cedar Grove, New Jersey in 1913 when he introduced a “Word-Cross Puzzle” in his page of puzzles written for the “New York World”. The first book of crossword puzzles was published by Shuster & Shuster, in 1924. The collection of puzzles was a huge hit, and crosswords were elevated to the level of “a craze” in 1924 and 1925.

30 Nomadic Kenyans : MASAI

The Masai (also “Maasai”) are a semi-nomadic people found in Kenya and Tanzania. They are semi-nomadic in that over the years they have been migrating from the Lower Nile Valley in northwest Kenya, and are moving into Tanzania.

33 __ New Guinea : PAPUA

Papua New Guinea is a country occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea (the western side of the island is part of Indonesia).

37 *One may be six feet long : HERO SANDWICH

“Hero” is another name for a submarine sandwich. The hero originated in New York City in the 1800s among Italian immigrants who wanted an Italian sandwich that reminded them of home. The name “hero” was coined in the 1930s, supposedly by a food critic in the “New York Herald Tribune” when he wrote that “one had to be a hero” to finish the gigantic sandwich. Hero is a prevalent term to this day in New York City, reserved for a submarine sandwich with an Italian flavor.

42 Asian holiday : TET

The full name for the New Year holiday in Vietnam is “Tet Nguyen Dan” meaning “Feast of the First Morning”, with the reference being to the arrival of the season of spring. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.

49 Music to a matador’s ears : OLE!

The term “torero” is used to describe all bullfighters. The term “matador” is reserved for the bullfighter whose job is to make the final kill. Aptly enough, “matador” is Spanish for “killer”.

54 Apple starter : CRAN-

A blend of cranberry and apple juice is sold by Ocean Spray as Cran-Apple juice.

55 *Historic site in Paris’ Latin Quarter : THE SORBONNE

“Sorbonne” is the name usually used for the old University of Paris, and some of the institutions that have succeeded it. The institution was named for French theologian Robert de Sorbonne who founded the original Collège de Sorbonne in 1257. That’s quite a while ago …

58 Indian title of respect : SAHIB

“Sahib” is most recognized as a term of address used in India, where it is used in much the same way as we use “mister” in English. The term was also used to address male Europeans in the days of the British Raj. The correct female form of address is “sahiba”, but in the colonial days the address used was “memsahib”, a melding of “ma’am” and “sahib”

63 “The Great Dictator” Oscar nominee Jack : OAKIE

Jack Oakie was the stage name of actor Lewis Offield, who was originally from Missouri. Offield was raised in Oklahoma, and for this reason picked up the nickname “Oakie”. The “Jack” in his stage name came from the first character that he portrayed in a play. Oakie played Benzino Napaloni in Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator”, a character who was very much based on Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

“The Great Dictator” is a 1940 movie starring Charlie Chaplin, who also wrote, directed, produced and scored the film. Made just before the US entered WWII, “The Great Dictator” is a satirical work that condemns Hitler, Mussolini and the rise of fascism. It was to become Chaplin’s most commercially successful film. Years after it was released, Chaplin stated that he could not have made the movie if he known at the time just how truly horrific were the crimes committed by the Nazis.

65 Either of two Indy 500 racers : AL UNSER

The Unser family seems to have auto racing in their blood. Al Unser, Sr. won the Indy 500 on four occasions. Al’s brother Jerry was the first of the Unsers to compete at Indianapolis. Al’s other brother Bobby, won the Indy three times. Al’s son, Al Junior, won the Indy twice. Al Junior’s son is also a racing driver who competes at the Indy Speedway.

69 Sheik’s land, in song : ARABY

“The Sheik of Araby” is a song that dates back to 1921, when it was a Tin Pan Alley hit. It was soon absorbed into the jazz standard repertoire. The inspiration of the song was Rudolph Valentino’s performance in the 1921 movie “The Sheik”.

71 Baltic people : LETTS

Latvia is one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs). People from Latvia are called Letts.

The natives of modern day Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are sometimes referred to as Balts, a reference to the Baltic Sea on which the three countries lie. The term “Balt” is also used for someone who speaks one of the Baltic languages, a group of languages spoken by people mainly residing within the borders of Latvia and Lithuania, as well as in some immigrant communities around the world.

72 *Epithet for a fair British maiden : ENGLISH ROSE

An epithet is a word or phrase used in a name to describe the quality of the person or thing bearing that name. For example, King Richard I was also known as Richard the Lionheart. The term “epithet” can also describe a word that is disparaging or abusive.

75 Yucatán “you” : USTED

Yucatán is one of Mexico’s 31 states and is located in the east of the country, on the northern tip of the Yucatán peninsula.

81 __ Lingus : AER

Aer Lingus is my favorite airline! Well, the service isn’t that great, but when I get on board an Aer Lingus plane I feel like I am back in Ireland. Aer Lingus is the national airline of Ireland, with “Aer Lingus” being a phonetic spelling of the Irish “aer-loingeas” meaning “air fleet”. These days Aer Lingus can only lay claim to the title of Ireland’s oldest airline as it is no longer the biggest. That honor goes to the controversial budget airline Ryanair.

82 “The Jungle” author Sinclair : UPTON

Upton Sinclair was a prolific American author, with almost 100 books to his name. Sinclair’s most famous work is probably “The Jungle”, a 1906 novel about the meatpacking industry. Revelations in “The Jungle” contributed to the Meat Inspection Act being passed by Congress a few months after the book was published. Sinclair also wrote “Oil”, published in 1927, which was the basis of the 2007 film “There Will Be Blood” that stars Daniel Day-Lewis.

83 Smoothie berry : ACAI

Açaí (pronounced “ass-aye-ee”) is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

91 Woodwind piece : REED

Woodwind instruments are a subcategory of wind instruments that were traditionally made of wood, although some are now made from metal. There are two main classes of woodwind: flutes and reed instruments. Flutes produce sound by blowing air across the edge of a hole in a cylindrical tube. Reed instruments produce sounds by blowing into a mouthpiece, which then directs the air over a reed or reeds, causing them to vibrate.

92 Courtroom pro : STENO

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

94 “The Black Cat” author : POE

“The Black Cat” is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe that was first published in 1843. It is a dark tale about a man who murders his wife and is taunted by the couple’s black cat.

95 Blood of the gods : ICHOR

Ichor is a golden fluid that is the blood of the gods in Greek mythology.

97 First name in furniture : ETHAN

Ethan Allen was one of the founders of the state of Vermont. Allen was also a hero in the American Revolutionary War, famous for leading (along with Benedict Arnold) the small band of men known as the Green Mountain Boys that captured Fort Ticonderoga. And yes, the Ethan Allen store and furniture line is named for Ethan Allen the patriot, even though he had nothing to do with the furniture business.

102 1971 Stones hit, or what can be found in the answers to starred clues : WILD HORSES

“Wild Horses” is a 1971 song released by the Rolling Stones. There’s a 1995 music video that’s quite cool featuring the Stones performing an acoustic version.

108 Mix thoroughly, as oil and vinegar : EMULSIFY

An emulsion is a mixture of two liquids, two liquids that don’t easily mix. Examples are milk (water and fat), mayonnaise (oil and water) and vinaigrette (oil and vinegar). Mixture of such liquids requires the presence of an emulsifier, a substance that stabilizes the emulsion so that separation does not occur. Examples of emulsifiers are egg yolk and mustard.

110 “Rabbit” series author : UPDIKE

The novelist John Updike’s most famous work is the Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom series of books. Updike is one of only three authors who has won more than one Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and he did so for two of his “Rabbit” books.

The 1960 novel by John Updike called “Rabbit Run” tells the story of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom as he tries to escape from his constraining, middle-class life. “Rabbit Run” is the first in a series of novels from Updike that feature the “Rabbit” character, the others being:

“Rabbit Redux”
“Rabbit is Rich”
“Rabbit at Rest”
“Rabbit Remembered”

111 Musician Minaj : NICKI

Nicki Minaj is a rapper from the New York borough of Queens who was born in Trinidad.

112 Poppycock : NONSENSE

It is thought that the relatively gentle term “poppycock”, meaning “nonsense”, comes from a Dutch word for “dung” combined with a Latin word for “excrete”. Not so gentle after all …

113 E Street Band notable Van Zandt : STEVEN

The character Silvio Dante on HBO’s excellent series “The Sopranos” really is comical looking. He has dyed hair, possibly a wig that’s truly “big hair”, and all the jewelry and mannerisms that one possibly does not expect from a Consigliere. “Sil” is played by actor Steven Van Zandt, who is also a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, in which he plays the guitar and mandolin.

114 Hydrocarbon group : ALKYL

An alkyl group is an alkane that is missing one hydrogen atom. For example, the methyl group is CH3-, and the methane molecule is CH4.

Down

2 Actor Guinness : ALEC

Sir Alec Guinness played many great roles over a long and distinguished career, but nowadays is best remembered (sadly, I think) for playing the original Obi-Wan Kenobi in “Star Wars”.

3 Like cobras, but not pythons : VENOMOUS

“Cobra” is the name given to a group of snakes, some of which are in different families. The term is reserved for those snakes that can expand their neck ribs to create a hood. The name “cobra” is an abbreviated form of “cobra de capello” which translates from Portuguese as “snake with hood”.

Pythons form a genus of non-venomous, constricting snakes that have flecked skin and a long split tongue. Pythons are native to Africa and Asia, although thousands of pythons live in the Everglades National Park as an invasive species, presumably as the result of pet pythons escaping into the wild.

4 Web system allowing outside access : EXTRANET

An intranet is a computer network that has limited access, usually only to members of a particular organization. An extranet is like an intranet, but is structured to allow access to authorized parties outside of the organization.

5 Frasier’s brother : NILES

In the sitcom called “Frasier”, Niles Crane is the brother of the title character Frasier Crane. Frasier is played by Kelsey Grammer and Niles is played by David Hyde Pierce. Frasier was originally intended to be an only child in the show’s storyline, but the producers decided to add a brother when they noted the remarkable similarity in appearance between David Hyde Pierce and Kelsey Grammer.

10 Lead monitor, for short : EPA

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

11 Word with line or hound : CHOW …

“Chow” is a slang term for food that originated in California in the mid-1800s. “Chow” comes from the Chinese pidgin English “chow-chow” meaning “food”.

13 Slanted column : OP-ED PIECE

“Op-ed” is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

14 Islamic leaders : CALIPHS

“Caliph” is an Arabic word meaning “successor”. In the Islamic tradition, a caliph is a leader who is deemed to be a successor of Muhammad.

17 Thames campus : ETON

The world-famous Eton College is located just outside London. It lies between the River Thames, and the Jubilee River. The Jubilee is a 7-mile stretch of man-made waterway that was built in the late 1990s to take overflow from the Thames and reduce flooding around the nearby towns.

27 “… __ you home to dinner”: Shak. : HIE

Here are some lines from William Shakespeare’s play “The Comedy of Errors”:

Your worship’s wife, my mistress at the Phoenix,
She that doth fast till you come home to dinner
And prays that you will hie you home to dinner.

32 Flat fish : RAY

Rays are fish with flattened bodies that have gill slits on their underside. There are many, many species of ray, including stingrays and skates. Rays are close relatives of sharks, with both being cartilaginous fish, as opposed to bony fish.

35 Motion maker: Abbr. : ATT

Attorney (att.)

38 Mrs. Gorbachev : RAISA

Raisa Gorbacheva was the wife of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. There’s no doubt that Raisa’s charm and personality helped her husband as he worked to change the image of the Soviet Union.

41 Weimaraner’s complaint : WHINE

The Weimaraner was originally bred for hunting large game such as bears, boars and deer, and is now classed as a gun dog. The breed gets its name from Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, as he was big into hunting.

43 Eatery seen in the film “Manhattan” : ELAINE’S

Elaine’s was a bar and restaurant on the Upper East Side of Manhattan that was a regular haunt for celebrity New Yorkers until it closed its doors in 2011. Elaine’s was famous for hosting an Oscar night where the elite and famous would watch the Academy Award ceremony each year. The restaurant gets a mention in the Billy Joel song “Big Shot”, and is also featured in the Woody Allen movie “Manhattan”.

44 Car and Driver yearly listing : TEN-BEST

“Car and Driver” is an automotive magazine published in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “Car and Driver” first appeared in 1955, when it was called “Sports Cars Illustrated”.

46 Can’t brook : DETESTS

“To brook” and “to abide” both mean “to tolerate, to put up with”.

51 Number of singers in The Chipmunks : THREE

Alvin and the Chipmunks is a cartoon musical group that was created for the recording of a novelty song in 1958 called “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)”. The three Chipmunks (Alvin, Simon and Theodore) were all voiced by singer Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. but with a speedy playback to create high-pitched voices.

53 Cans for cons : POKEYS

“Pokey” (also “poky”) is a slang term for prison. It might be a corruption of “pogie”, a term for a “poorhouse”.

54 Jeweler’s measure : CARAT

The carat is a unit of mass equal to 200 mg. It is used in sizing gemstones.

56 Clown mascot’s first name : RONALD

“Fast Food Nation” is an expose by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser that reveals in the inner workings of the US fast food industry. One of Schlosser’s more controversial findings was the deliberate targeting of children by the marketing folks at McDonald’s. McDonald’s copied the marketing plans of Walt Disney to attract not only children, but also their parents and grandparents. That’s how Ronald McDonald was born …

57 Thumper’s friend : BAMBI

Thumper is a rabbit in the Disney animated feature “Bambi”.

58 Evening parties : SOIREES

“Soir” is the French word for “evening” and a soirée is an evening party. The French word “soirée” has an acute accent over the first “e”, but we tend to drop this when using the word in English.

60 Property recipient, in legal language : ALIENEE

An alienee is one to whom ownership of property is transferred, alienated.

64 Crayola color renamed Peach in 1962 : FLESH

Crayola has made the decision to rename colors of crayons a few times, often with a nod to changing attitudes in society. Some examples are:

• “Flesh” to “Peach” (1962 … not all flesh is peach-colored!)
• “Prussian Blue” to “Midnight Blue” (1958 … as the Cold War was raging)
• “Indian Red” to “Chestnut” (1999 … even though the name wasn’t a reference to “American Indian”)

66 Like a “Stat!” instruction : URGENT

The exact etymology of “stat”, a term meaning “immediately” in the medical profession, seems to have been lost in the mists of time. It probably comes from the Latin “statim” meaning “to a standstill, immediately”. A blog reader has helpfully suggested that the term may also come from the world of laboratory analysis, where the acronym STAT stands for “short turn-around time”.

69 Composer Bruckner : ANTON

Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer. He’s no favorite of mine as he embraces the use of dissonances (I’m a sober traditionalist!). Bruckner’s “Symphony No. 7” is perhaps his most popular work. He created a slow and mournful movement for the work in recognition of the impending death of Richard Wagner, whom he greatly admired.

70 Links army leader : ARNIE

Arnold Palmer was one of the greats of the world of golf. He was very popular with many fans of the game, and his followers were usually referred to as “Arnie’s Army”. Off the course, Palmer was an avid pilot until his latter years. He resided in Latrobe, Pennsylvania for much of the year and the local airport is named in his honor: Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

72 Ovarian hormones : ESTROGENS

The primary female sex hormone is estrogen (also “oestrogen”). The “estrogen” comes from the Greek “oistros” meaning “verve, inspiration” and the suffix “-gen” meaning “producer of”.

73 Frosty coat : HOAR

The Old English word “har” meant “gray, venerable, old”, and came into English as “hoar” (and later “hoary”) with the same meaning. The term “hoar-frost” dates back to the 13th century, and reflects the similarity of the white feathers of frost to the gray/white of an old man’s beard.

77 Manhattan, say : BAR ORDER

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.

79 Peggy or Brenda of song : LEE

Peggy Lee was a jazz and popular music singer from Jamestown, North Dakota. “Peggy Lee” was a stage name, as she was born Norma Egstrom. She was a successful songwriter as well as singer, and supplied several numbers for the Disney movie “Lady and the Tramp”. Lee also sang in the film and voiced four of the characters.

Brenda Lee is a country and rockabilly singer who had 37 songs that made the charts in the sixties. Lee’s biggest hits are probably “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” from 1958, and “I’m Sorry” from 1960. Lee was only 13 years old when she recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”.

80 Hallucinogenic letters : LSD

LSD (known colloquially as “acid”) is lysergic acid diethylamide. A Swiss chemist named Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 in a research project looking for medically efficacious ergot alkaloids. It wasn’t until some five years later when Hofmann ingested some of the drug accidentally that its psychedelic properties were discovered. Trippy, man …

83 Japan’s largest active volcano : ASO

Mount Aso is the largest active volcano in Japan and is found on the island of Kyushu.

88 Cars that sound like gems : OPELS

Adam Opel founded his company in 1863, first making sewing machines in a cowshed. Commercial success brought new premises and a new product line in 1886, namely penny-farthing bicycles. Adam Opel died in 1895, leaving his two sons with a company that made more penny-farthings and sewing machines than any other company in the world. In 1899 the two sons partnered with a locksmith and started to make cars, but not very successfully. Two years later, the locksmith was dropped in favor of a licensing arrangement with a French car company. By 1914, Opel was the largest manufacturer of automobiles in Germany. My Dad had an Opel in the seventies, a station wagon (we’d say “estate car” in Ireland) called an Opel Kadett.

90 Run down a mountain : SCHUSS

A schuss is a very fast run downhill in skiing, one with no turns taken to slow the pace of the descent. “Schuss” is a German word for “shot”.

97 Italian hot spot : ETNA

Mount Etna on the island of Sicily is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy, and indeed the largest of all active volcano in Europe. Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius. Mt. Etna is home to a 110-km long narrow-gauge railway, and two ski resorts. It is sometimes referred to as “Mongibello” in Italian, and as “Mungibeddu” in Sicilian. The English name “Etna” comes from the Greek “aitho” meaning “I eat”.

100 Berserk : AMOK

The phrase “to run amok” (sometimes “to run amuck”) has been around since the 1670s and is derived from the Malay word for “attacking furiously”, “amuk”. The word “amok” was also used as a noun to describe Malay natives who were “frenzied”. Given Malaya’s troubled history, the natives probably had a good reason for that frenzy …

101 Pueblo people : ZUNI

The Zuni are a Pueblo people. They live on the Zuni River in western New Mexico, a tributary of the Little Colorado River.

104 Soapmaker’s supplies : LYES

Soap is basically made by adding a strong alkali (like lye) to a fat (like olive oil or palm oil). The fats break down in the basic solution in a process called saponification. The crude soap is extracted from the mixture, washed, purified and finished in molds.

The post LA Times Crossword 16 Feb 20, Sunday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 4m 43s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Annoy : MIFF

To miff is to put out, to tee off. “To miff” is a verb that has been around since the early 1600s. Interestingly, in 1824 Sir Walter Scott described the word “miffed” as “a women’s phrase”. That should get him a slap, I’d say …

9 Macbeth, by birth : SCOT

There is a superstition in the theatrical world that uttering the name “Macbeth” in a theater will bring disaster of some sort. To avoid this, the euphemism “the Scottish Play” is used instead.

13 Saintly glows : AURAS

An aura (plural “aurae”) is an intangible quality that surrounds a person or thing, a “je ne sais quoi”. “Je ne sais quoi” is French for “I don’t know what”.

16 Lola’s nightclub, in song : COPA

The Copacabana of the 1978 Barry Manilow song is the Copacabana nightclub in New York City (which is also the subject of the Frank Sinatra song “Meet Me at the Copa”). The Copa opened in 1940 and is still going today, although it is struggling. The club had to move due to impending construction and is now “sharing” a location with the Columbus 72 nightclub.

His name was Rico
He wore a diamond
He was escorted to his chair, he saw Lola dancing there
And when she finished, he called her over
But Rico went a bit to far
Tony sailed across the bar
And then the punches flew and chairs were smashed in two
There was blood and a single gun shot
But just who shot who?

18 Wind that’s worth a warning : GALE

A gale is a very strong wind, a wind that is defined by the Beaufort wind scale as a wind with speeds from 50 to just over 100 kilometers per hour.

19 Idi of Uganda : AMIN

Idi Amin received most of his military training in the British armed forces, eventually achieving the highest rank possible for a Black African in the British Colonial Army in 1959, that of Warrant Officer. On his return to Uganda Amin joined his country’s military and quickly rose to the rank of Deputy Commander of the Army. During that time he was quite the athlete. He was a noted rugby player and swimmer, and for nine years held the Ugandan national light-heavyweight boxing title. By the early seventies, Amin was commander of all the armed forces of Uganda and in 1971 seized power in a military coup, displacing the country’s president Milton Obote. There followed seven years of brutal rule by Amin during which it is estimated that between 100,000 and 500,000 people were murdered. Amin was ousted from power in 1979 after a war with Tanzania, and fled to Libya where he stayed for a year. He then moved to Saudi Arabia, where he was financially supported by the Saudi Royal Family for the remainder of his life. Amin died in 2003.

20 Deer hunter’s dinner, perhaps : VENISON STEAK (hiding “VENI”)

Venison is the meat of a deer. In days of yore, the term “venison” applied not just to deer, but to any large game. The word ultimately derives from the Latin “venare” meaning “to hunt”.

23 Holy Ohio city? : TOLEDO

Toledo, Ohio lies in the northwest of the state, at the western end of Lake Erie. Toledo was founded as a result of the prosperity that hit the area when the Miami and Erie Canal was constructed in the 19th century connecting Cincinnati to the Great Lakes. Toledo is known as the Glass City as several glass companies originated there, including Owens Corning and Pilkington North America. There is a large exhibition of glass art at the Toledo Museum of Art.

The origin of the term “Holy Toledo!” is much debated. My favorite story is that it comes from the days of Vaudeville. Back then the week before Easter, known as Holy Week, was the worst week at the box office. Old Vaudeville entertainers used to quip that any week in Toledo was Holy Week, that ticket sales were always bad there. They referred to the city as “Holy Toledo”.

26 Bridal bio word : NEE

“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”. The term “née” is mainly used in English when referring to a married woman’s birth name, assuming that she has adopted her husbands name, e.g. Michelle Obama née Robinson, and Melania Trump née Knavs.

27 Sault __ Marie : STE

Sault Ste. Marie is the name of two cities on either side of the Canada-US border, one in Ontario and the other in Michigan. The two cities were originally one settlement in the 17th century, established by Jesuit Missionaries. The missionaries gave the settlement the name “Sault Sainte Marie”, which can be translated as “Saint Mary’s Falls”. The city was one community until 1817, when a US-UK Joint Boundary Commission set the border along the St. Mary’s River.

28 “I think,” to a texter : IMO

In my opinion (IMO)

29 Childlike race in “The Time Machine” : ELOI

In the 1895 novella by H. G. Wells called “The Time Machine”, there are two races that the hero encounter in his travels into the future. The Eloi are the “beautiful people” who live on the planet’s surface. The Morlocks are a domineering race living underground who use the Eloi as food.

37 Seine summers : ETES

The Seine is the river that flows through Paris. The Seine empties into the English Channel to the north, at the port city of Le Havre.

38 Lincoln or Ford : CAR

Lincoln is a high-end brand belonging to the Ford Motor Company. The Lincoln Motor Company was founded in 1917 by Henry M. Leland, who chose the “Lincoln” name in honor of the celebrated American president. Lincoln was acquired by Ford just five years later, in 1922.

42 Nearby : IN THE VICINITY (hiding “VICI”)

A vicinity is an area surrounding a place. The term “vicinity” ultimately comes from the Latin “vicus” meaning “group of houses, village”.

47 Fidel who overthrew Batista : CASTRO

Fidel Castro studied law at the University of Havana and there became a follower of left-wing ideals. He launched his first rebellion against Cuban president Fulgencio Batista in 1953, which landed him in jail for a year. He later led rebels in a guerrilla war against the Cuban government, which led to the Cuban Revolution and the overthrow of Batista in 1959. Castro took control of the country, and immediately formed a strong relationship with the Soviet Union. Concern over the alliance in the US led to the botched Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. There followed the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. Fidel Castro started to transfer power to his brother Raúl in 2008, and passed away in 2016.

49 Aussie birds that don’t fly : EMUS

Emu eggs are very large, with a thick shell that is dark-green in color. One emu egg weighs about the same as a dozen chicken eggs. It is the male emu that incubates the eggs. The incubation period lasts about 8 weeks, during which time the male neither eats nor drinks, just lapping up any morning dew that is nearby. While incubating a clutch of eggs, male emus lose about a third of their weight.

50 San Francisco’s __ Valley : NOE

Noe Valley is a neighborhood in San Francisco. The area is named after José de Jesús Noé who was the last Mexican mayor of Yerba Buena, which is what San Francisco was called when it was part of Mexico.

52 NBA tiebreakers : OTS

Overtime (OT)

56 Attributed speaker of the circled words : JULIUS CAESAR

The oft-quoted statement “Veni, vidi, vici” (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) is believed by many to have been written by Julius Caesar. The words date back to 47 BCE and refer to the short war between Rome and Pharnaces II of Pontus.

60 Medical suffix : -OSIS

The suffix “-osis” is found in medical terms, indicates a disorder in general, with the prefix providing more specificity. Examples are silicosis (a lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica dust), and psychosis (a serious mental illness). The plural of “-osis” is usually “-oses”, but “-osises” is out there as well.

62 Swiss peak in an Eastwood film title : EIGER

The Eiger is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It is a noted peak for mountain climbing, with its treacherous north face being the most famous approach to the summit. Over sixty climbers have died since 1935 on that north face.

“The Eiger Sanction” is a very entertaining action film that was released in 1975, which stars and was directed by Clint Eastwood. The movie is all about assassins and mountain climbers, and is based on a 1972 novel of the same name by Trevanian (a pen name of author Rodney William Whitaker).

66 Eye part : LENS

The lens in the eye can change shape, and in so doing change its focal length. This change allows the eye to focus on objects at different distances. The shape of the lens alters due to the action of the eye’s ciliary muscles.

67 Oil cartel letters : OPEC

The OPEC cartel was formally established in 1960 and has been headquartered in Vienna since 1965. The US is actually the third largest oil producer in the world (after Russia and Saudi Arabia). One reason America isn’t in OPEC, even though we are a big producer, is that we import a lot more than we export. But we all probably knew that already …

69 Icelandic poetic work : EDDA

The “Poetic Edda” and “Prose Edda” are two ancient works that are the source for much of Norse mythology. Both Eddas were written in the 13th century in Iceland.

71 Avec’s opposite : SANS

In French, “avec” (with) is the opposite of “sans” (without).

Down

2 One of an inning’s three : OUT

That would be baseball or softball.

3 Pitcher’s stat : ERA

Earned run average (ERA)

5 Carol kings : MAGI

“Magi” is the plural of the Latin word “magus”, a term applied to someone who was able to read the stars. Hence, “magi” is commonly used with reference to the “wise men from the East” who followed the star and visited Jesus soon after he was born. In Western Christianity, the three Biblical Magi are:

• Melchior: a scholar from Persia
• Caspar: a scholar from India
• Balthazar: a scholar from Arabia

The Christmas carol “We Three Kings” is a favorite of mine. The carol was written in 1857 by the rector of an Episcopal church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania called John Henry Hopkins, Jr. Hopkins composed “We Three Kings” for a Christmas pageant in New York City.

6 Hoppy brews, for short : IPAS

India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

7 Serious criminal : FELON

In the US, felony crimes are categorized according to the maximum prison term that can be imposed at sentencing (class A, B, C, etc.). For example, a class A felony can result in life imprisonment or even a death sentence. A class B felony can result in a jail term of 25 years or more.

8 Portmanteau for a false ally : FRENEMY

A frenemy is someone who feigns friendship but who is actually an enemy or competitor.

11 Addictive narcotic : OPIATE

The opium poppy is the source of the narcotic alkaloids known as opiates. To produce opiates, the latex sap of the opium poppy is collected and processed. The naturally-occurring drugs of morphine and codeine can both be extracted from the sap. Some synthesis is required to make derivative drugs like heroin and oxycodone.

12 Oil cartel ship : TANKER

A cartel is a group of independent businesses who cooperate to regulate production, pricing and marketing of their common product(s).

21 __ me tangere: “Don’t touch me” : NOLI

“Noli me tangere” is Latin for “touch me not”. The words are the Latin translation of “cease holding on to me” written in Greek in the Gospel of John. They are words spoken by Jesus to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection.

23 Ocean motion : TIDE

Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

25 Age-old romantic adage : LOVE IS BLIND

William Shakespeare used the phrase “love is blind” more than once in his works, including “Two Gentlemen of Verona“, “The Merchant of Venice” and “Henry V“.

33 Graceful pond swimmer : SWAN

An adult male swan is a cob, and an adult female is a pen. Young swans are swanlings or cygnets.

36 Fedora feature : BRIM

A fedora is a lovely hat, I think. It is made of felt, and is similar to a trilby, but has a broader brim. “Fedora” was a play written for Sarah Bernhardt and first performed in 1889. 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 …

40 Great Plains tribe : OTOE

The Otoe (also “Oto”) Native American tribe originated in the Great Lakes region as part of the Winnebago or Siouan tribes. The group that would become the Otoe broke away from the Winnebago and migrated southwestward, ending up in the Great Plains. In the plains the Otoe adopted a semi-nomadic lifestyle dependent on the horse, with the American bison becoming central to their diet.

43 Pants, briefly : TROU

Trousers are pants, the garment covering the lower body and each leg separately. Ultimately, the word “trousers” evolved from the Erse word “triubhas” that described close-fitting shorts. Back in the 1600s there was a colorful saying:

A jellous wife was like an Irish trouze, alwayes close to a mans tayle

46 Tel Aviv’s land : ISRAEL

The full name of Israel’s second largest city is Tel Aviv-Yafo. “Tel Aviv” translates into “Spring Mound”, and is a name that was chosen in 1910.

55 Spring zodiac sign : ARIES

Aries the Ram is the first astrological sign in the Zodiac, and is named after the constellation. Your birth sign is Aries if you were born between March 21 and April 20, but if you are an Aries you would know that! “Aries” is the Latin word for “ram”.

57 “Insecure” Emmy nominee __ Rae : ISSA

Issa Rae is a Stanford University graduate who created a YouTube web series called “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl”. Rae also plays the title role in the series, a young lady named “J”. “Awkward Black Girl” was adapted into an HBO comedy-drama called “Insecure”, in which Issa Rae stars.

58 Knighted actor Guinness : ALEC

Sir Alec Guinness played many great roles over a long and distinguished career, but nowadays is best remembered (sadly, I think) for playing the original Obi-Wan Kenobi in “Star Wars”.

63 ABC show for early risers, briefly : GMA

“Good Morning America” (GMA) is ABC’s morning show, and has been since 1975. There was even a spin-off show called “Good Afternoon America”, although that only lasted for a few months in 2012.

65 ICU workers : RNS

A registered nurse (RN) might work in an intensive care unit (ICU).

The post LA Times Crossword 17 Feb 20, Monday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 5m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Govt.-backed investment : T-NOTE

A Treasury note (T-note) is a government debt that matures in 1-10 years. A T-note has a coupon (interest) payment made every six months. The T-note is purchased at a discount to face value, and at the date of maturity can be redeemed at that face value. A Treasury bill (T-bill) is a similar financial vehicle, but it matures in one year or less, and a T-bond matures in 20-30 years.

6 Travelocity recommendations : INNS

Travelocity is an online travel agency that started doing business in 1996. The company gets a lot of exposure as the sponsor of the US version of the reality show “The Amazing Race”. Travelocity’s mascot, the Roaming Gnome, makes a few appearances on the show.

14 Commandment verb involving parents : HONOR

According to the Book of Exodus, God inscribed the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets and gave them to Moses on Mount Sinai.

15 Niño’s “nothing” : NADA

“Nada” is the Spanish word for “nothing”.

17 Kagan of the Supreme Court : ELENA

Elena Kagan was the Solicitor General of the United States from 2009 until 2010, when she replaced Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. That made Justice Kagan the first female US Solicitor General and the fourth female US Supreme Court justice. Kagan also served as the first female dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 to 2009.

18 Fruit grown in bogs : CRANBERRY

When early European settlers came across red berries growing in the bogs of the northern part of America, they felt that the plant’s flower and stem resembled the head and bill of a crane. As such, they called the plant “craneberry”, which later evolved into “cranberry”.

20 *Billy Crystal comedy featuring a cattle drive : CITY SLICKERS

“City Slickers” is an entertaining 1991comedy film starring Billy Crystal and Jack Palance. Palance won the 1992 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as crusty old trail boss Curly Washburn. Famously, the 73-year-old actor did a few one-armed push-ups at the ceremony during his acceptance speech.

22 __, amas, amat … : AMO

“Amo, amas, amat” translates from Latin as “I love, you love, he/she/it loves”.

30 *Exact look-alike : DEAD RINGER

A dead ringer is an exact duplicate. The phrase comes from the use of “dead” to mean “exact, precise” as in “dead center” or “dead heat”, as well as the use of “ringer” from the world of horse racing. A ringer was a horse that looked similar to another, but which was substituted to defraud the bookies. So, a dead ringer is an exact duplicate.

34 Stiff-upper-lip type : STOIC

Zeno of Citium was a Greek philosopher famous for teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the “Painted Porch”, located on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens. Because of the location of his classes, his philosophy became known as stoicism (from “stoa”, the word for “porch”). We get our adjective “stoic”, meaning “indifferent to pleasure or pain”, from the same root.

37 Graffiti signature : TAG

“Graffiti” is the plural of “graffito”, and is the Italian for “scribbling”. The word was first used to describe ancient inscriptions on the walls in the ruins of Pompeii.

38 *Daily filming schedule on the set : CALL SHEET

The daily call sheet is used by the cast and crew making a film as a production schedule. It basically tells everyone when and where they need to report for a day of filming.

45 Roman robe : TOGA

In ancient Rome, the classical attire known as a toga (plural “togae” or “togas”) was usually worn over a tunic. The tunic was made from linen, and the toga itself was a piece of cloth about twenty feet long made from wool. The toga could only be worn by men, and only if those men were Roman citizens. The female equivalent of the toga was called a “stola”.

46 Hustle genre : DISCO

The hustle is a genre of disco dance that was popular in the seventies. The dance form really took off when Van McCoy released a song called “The Hustle”, to which an accompanying line dance became a big craze in 1975.

50 *One in la-la land : SPACE CADET

The expression “space cadet” is used to describe someone who is eccentric and disconnected with reality. It may even imply that the person is a user of hallucinogens. The phrase has been around since the sixties, and may be derived from the science fiction TV show “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet” which aired in the fifties.

54 Croat or Serb : SLAV

The Slavic peoples are in the majority in communities covering over half of Europe. This large ethnic group is traditionally broken down into three smaller groups:

• the West Slavic (including Czechs and Poles)
• the East Slavic (including Russians and Ukrainians)
• the South Slavic (including Bulgarians, Croats and Serbs)

59 Somewhat liberal, or where you might find the first words in the answers to starred clues : LEFT OF CENTER

The concept of left-right politics started in France during the French Revolution. When members of France’s National Assembly convened in 1789, supporters of the King sat to the President’s right, and supporters of the revolution to the President’s left. The political terms “left” and “right” were then coined in the local media and have been used ever since.

64 Soap opera genre : MELODRAMA

A melodrama is a play or film that usually pits good against evil, with an obvious hero or heroine vying against an obvious villain. Melodrama has evolved over time, originating in the 18th century as a drama for which there was a musical accompaniment. The term is derived from the Greek “melos” meaning “music” and the French “drame” meaning “drama”.

67 1960s jacket style : NEHRU

A Nehru jacket is very like a regular suit jacket, except that the collar buttons at the neck. It was originally created in the 1940s in India, and then marketed as the Nehru jacket in the west in the sixties. The name Nehru was lifted from Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of India from 1947 to 1964.

73 From Lillehammer, say : NORSE

Lillehammer, Norway hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 1994. The ‘94 Winter Games were the first to be held two years after the Summer Olympics, and so took place only two years after the ‘92 Games, held in Albertville, France.

Down

1 “My Best Friend’s Girl” rock band : THE CARS

The Cars are a rock band from Boston, Massachusetts who were at the height of their success in the late seventies and early eighties.

4 Tiger mascot with a red scarf : TONY

Tony the Tiger has been the mascot of Frosted Flakes cereal since the product’s introduction in 1951. As Tony would say about Frosted Flakes, “They’re Gr-r-reat!” Well, I thought they were when I was a lot younger …

7 Dealer’s foil, briefly : NARC

“Narc” and “narco” are slang terms describing a law enforcement officer who tracks down criminals associated with illegal drugs. Both words are short for “narcotics officer”. Narcs might work for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

8 Southern neighbor of Sask. : NDAK

North Dakota’s state capital is Bismarck, and the largest city is Fargo. The list of state nicknames includes the Peace Garden State, the Roughrider State and the Flickertail State.

The Canadian province of Saskatchewan (Sask.) takes its name from the Saskatchewan River. The river in turn takes its name from the Cree name, which translates as “swift flowing river”. The capital of Saskatchewan is Regina, although the biggest city in the province is Saskatoon.

11 “To say they __ I dare not be so bold”: Shakespeare : ERR

William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 131” is one of a series of sonnets addressed to the “Dark Lady”. No one seems to know for sure the identity of the mysterious woman. However, there seems to be agreement that she was of Mediterranean or African descent, based on the descriptions provided in Shakespeare’s poems.

12 North Carolina __ Heels : TAR

“Tar Heel” is a nickname for anyone living in, or from, the state of North Carolina. As such, it is the nickname for an athlete of the University of North Carolina (UNC). No one seems to know for sure where the term “Tar Heel” originated, but it is thought to be related to the historical importance of the tar, pitch and turpentine industries that thrived in the state due to the presence of vast forests of pine trees.

25 Bilko’s rank: Abbr. : SGT

Master Sergeant Ernie Bilko was played by Phil Silvers in his TV show that aired in the fifties. “The Phil Silvers Show” was hugely successful in reruns in Britain and Ireland, even more so than over here in the US. Master Sergeant Bilko is routinely referred to as the lower-ranking Sergeant Bilko by viewers, and even by those airing the show in reruns.

27 Joule fraction : ERG

An erg is a unit of mechanical work or energy. It is a small unit, with one joule comprising 10 million ergs. it has been suggested that an erg is about the amount of energy required for a mosquito to take off. The term comes from “ergon”, the Greek word for work.

James Joule was an English physicist who spent much of his life working in the family brewing business. Joule used his work in the brewery to study the relationship between heat and mechanical work. In honor of his achievements, his name is used for the unit of energy in the International System of Units (i.e. the joule).

29 [not my error] : [SIC]

[Sic] indicates that a quotation is written as originally found, perhaps including a typo. “Sic” is Latin for “thus, like this”. The term is more completely written as “sic erat scriptum”, which translates as “thus was it written”.

31 Family name in Mideast politics : ASSAD

Dr. Bashar al-Assad is the current President of the Syrian Arab Republic and the son of the former President Hafez al-Assad, whom he replaced in 2001. President Assad is a medical doctor, speaks fluent English and conversational French. Assad was studying ophthalmology in London when he met his wife, who is an Englishwoman by birth.

32 Homer’s “I’m an idiot!” : D’OH!

“The Simpsons” is one of the most successful programs produced by the Fox Broadcasting Company. Homer Simpson’s catchphrase is “D’oh!”, which became such a famous exclamation that it has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) since 2001. “D’oh!” can be translated as “I should have thought of that!”

39 Tone-__: “Wild Thing” rapper : LOC

Tone Lōc (sometimes “Tone-Lōc”) is the stage name of rapper Anthony Smith. He was somewhat of a pioneer in the world of rap as he was only the second ever act to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s album charts (after the Beastie Boys), doing so in 1989 with “Lōc-ed After Dark”.

40 NYC airport near Citi Field : LGA

Fiorello La Guardia was the Mayor of New York from 1934 to 1945, racking up three full terms in office. The famous airport that bears La Guardia’s name was built at his urging, stemming from an incident that took place while he was in office. He was taking a TWA flight to “New York” and was outraged when the plane landed at Newark Airport, in the state of New Jersey. The Mayor demanded that the flight take off again and land at a small airport in Brooklyn. A gaggle of press reporters joined him on the short hop and he gave them a story, urging New Yorkers to support the construction of a new commercial airport within the city’s limits. The new airport, in Queens, opened in 1939 as New York Municipal, often called “LaGuardia” as a nickname. The airport was officially relabeled as “LaGuardia” (LGA) in 1947.

41 “__ the season … ” : ‘TIS

The music for the Christmas song “Deck the Halls” is a traditional Welsh tune that dates back to the 16th century. The same tune was used by Mozart for a violin and piano duet. The lyrics with which we are familiar (other than the “f-la-la”) are American in origin, and were recorded in the 19th century.

“’Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la la la la!”

42 Scout leader? : ESS

The leading letter in the word “scout” is a letter S (ess).

43 Monkey relative : APE

Apes and monkeys both belong to the order of primates. The most obvious way to distinguish apes from monkeys is by the presence or lack of a tail. Almost all apes have no tail, and almost all monkeys have tails.

47 Move like a mamba : SLITHER

Mambas, and most famously black mambas, are highly venomous snakes that used to be responsible for a great number of fatalities before anti-venoms became available. Mamba venom is a deadly mix of neurotoxins that attack the nervous system and cardiotoxins that attack the heart. A bite, if left untreated, causes the lungs and the heart to shut down.

48 Carlsbad __ National Park : CAVERNS

Carlsbad Cavern is the show cave in Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southeastern New Mexico. The chamber called the Big Room in Carlsbad Cavern is the fifth largest underground chamber in North America. It is estimated that a million bats live in the park’s cave systems.

57 Noble gas : XENON

The element xenon was the first of the noble gases to be made into a compound, which was somewhat remarkable in that the noble gases were thought by many to be completely inert, unreactive.

60 Dancer Astaire : FRED

Fred Astaire’s real name was Frederick Austerlitz. Fred was from Omaha, Nebraska and before he made it big in the movies, he was one half of a celebrated music hall act with his sister Adele. The pair were particularly successful in the UK, and Adele ended up marrying into nobility in England, taking the name Lady Charles Cavendish.

61 Spanish appetizer : TAPA

“Tapa” is the Spanish word for “lid”, and there is no clear rationale for why this word came to be used for an appetizer. There are lots of explanations cited, all of which seem to involve the temporary covering of one’s glass of wine with a plate or item of food to either preserve the wine or give one extra space at the table.

63 Verne captain : NEMO

In the 1954 movie version of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, Captain Nemo goes down with his ship. In the novel by Jules Verne, the fate of Nemo and his crew isn’t quite so cut and dry, although the inference is perhaps that they did indeed head for Davy Jones’ Locker.

65 “Training Day” actress Mendes : EVA

I best know actress Eva Mendes as the female lead in the movie “Hitch”, in which she played opposite Will Smith. Mendes was known off the screen for dating actor Ryan Gosling from 2011 to 2013.

“Training Day” is a 2001 crime movie starring Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke as two narcotics officers in Los Angeles. The film was well received and merited a TV spin off. The small-screen version was canceled after one season following the death of lead actor Bill Paxton.

66 “Superman” villain Luthor : LEX

Lex Luthor is the arch-nemesis of Superman in comics. Luthor has been portrayed in a number of guises in the comic world as well in movies and on the small screen. For example, he appeared as Atom Man in the 1950 film series “Atom Man vs. Superman”, and was played by actor Lyle Talbot, opposite Kirk Alyn’s Superman.

The post LA Times Crossword 18 Feb 20, Tuesday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 7m 25s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9 Nigerian seaport : LAGOS

Lagos is a port and the biggest city in Nigeria. Lagos used to be the country’s capital, until it was replaced in that role in 1991 by Abuja, a city built for just for this purpose. Lagos is also the most populous city in the whole of Africa (followed by Cairo in Egypt).

15 Pizza Quick sauce brand : RAGU

The Ragú brand of pasta sauce is owned by Unilever. The name ” Ragù” is the Italian word for a sauce used to dress pasta, however the spelling is off a little. In Italian the word is “Ragù” with a grave accent over the “u”, but if you look at a jar of the sauce on the supermarket shelf it is spelled “Ragú” on the label, with an acute accent. Sometimes I think we just don’t try …

17 First name in scat : ELLA

Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song”, had a hard and tough upbringing. She was raised by her mother alone in Yonkers, New York. Her mother died while Ella was still a schoolgirl, and around that time the young girl became less interested in her education. She fell in with a bad crowd, even working as a lookout for a bordello and as a Mafia numbers runner. She ended up in reform school, from which she escaped, and found herself homeless and living on the streets for a while. Somehow Fitzgerald managed to get herself a spot singing in the Apollo Theater in Harlem. From there her career took off and as they say, the rest is history.

Scat singing is a vocal improvisation found in the world of jazz. There aren’t any words as such in scat singing, just random nonsense syllables made up on the spot.

22 Former Soviet leader Brezhnev : LEONID

Leonid Brezhnev was Soviet leader from 1964 until his death in 1982. Under Brezhnev, Soviet spending on the military grew to about 12.5% of the nation’s Gross National Product. This level of spending, without effective economic reform, led to the USSR’s “Era of Stagnation” that started in the mid-seventies. His large major political decision was to invade Afghanistan, a move that placed further strain on the fragile Soviet economy.

29 Navigation technology, briefly : GPS

The modern Global Positioning System (GPS) system that we use today was built by the US military who received the massive funding needed because of fears during the Cold War of the use of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. We civilians, all round the world, owe a lot to President Ronald Reagan because he directed the military to make GPS technology available to the public for the common good. President Reagan was moved to do so after the Soviet Union shot down KAL flight 007 carrying 269 people, just because the plane strayed accidentally into Soviet airspace.

30 Brooding genre : EMO

The emo musical genre originated in Washington D.C. in the 80s, and takes its name from “emotional hardcore”. “Emo” is also the name given to the associated subculture. Not my cup of tea …

31 “Spartacus” Oscar winner : USTINOV

Peter Ustinov was a fabulous actor from England. It has to be said though, he was multi-talented and I remember him as a great guest on the talk show circuit.

“Spartacus” is a famous 1960 historical drama directed by Stanley Kubrick. Based on a true story, the film tells the story of Spartacus and his role in the Third Servile War, the last of the unsuccessful slave rebellions of ancient Rome. Spartacus is played by Kirk Douglas, and indeed Douglas was very much the driving force behind making the movie. He had failed to win the title role in “Ben-Hur”, losing out to Charlton Heston. Douglas then decided to make a competing film, with a similar theme and setting. You judge which is best …

34 Bowler’s pickup : SPARE

In bowling, the downing of all ten pins in two balls in the same frame is called a spare, and scores ten points. The player gets a bonus, equal to the number of pins downed with the next ball, which could be up to ten. Hence, a spare can be worth up to 20 points

36 Amtrak express : ACELA

The Acela Express is the fastest train routinely running in the US, as it gets up to 150 mph at times. The service runs between Boston and Washington D.C. via Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Introduced in 2000, the brand name “Acela” was created to evoke “acceleration” and “excellence”.

37 Army rank last conferred in 1950 : FIVE-STAR GENERAL

Omar Bradley graduated from West Point in the class of 1915, along with Dwight Eisenhower who also attained the rank of General of the Army. Bradley was the last person to hold the rank of a five-star commissioned officer, and he was the first general to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I was struck by a quotation from Bradley from later in his life:

Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than about peace, more about killing than we know about living.

42 Breakout game developer : ATARI

Breakout is an Atari arcade game that was released in 1976. Breakout is really like a more complex version of Pong, and involves destroying a layer of bricks in the top third of the screen using a “ball” that is “batted” against the brick wall. I wasted a few hours playing Breakout back in the day …

44 Sent a message, old-style : TELEXED

Telex grew out of the world of the telegraph. What Telex brought to telegraphy was the ability to route messages. Instead of having to talk to an operator to route a particular message to the intended party, the user of a telex could route the message directly to another telex machine by way of a rotary dial, one very similar to that on a telephone.

47 Rock’s Ocasek : RIC

Ric Ocasek is an American musician of Czech heritage. He was the lead vocalist of the rock band known as the Cars.

51 Thorn __, former Virgin Records owner : EMI

EMI was a British music company, with the initialism standing for Electric and Musical Industries.

52 Riot control weapon : TEAR GAS GUN

Technically speaking, tear gas is a lachrymatory agent. This means that it causes tearing (“lacrima” is Latin for “tear”).

55 Arizona MLBers : D-BACKS

The Arizona Diamondbacks (also “D-backs”) joined Major League Baseball’s National League in 1998. By winning the World Series in 2001, the Diamondbacks became the fastest expansion team to do so in Major League history.

65 Yule tune : NOEL

“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, and ultimately comes from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). “Noel” has come to be used as an alternative for “Christmas carol”.

66 Saroyan’s “My Name Is __” : ARAM

“My Name is Aram” is a collection of tales by William Saroyan. All of the short stories are about a boy of Armenian descent growing up in Fresno, California.

67 Collaborative 1993 Sinatra album : DUETS

Frank Sinatra recorded the album “Duets” in 1993 and “Duets II” in 1994. Both of these marvelous sets of recordings featured Sinatra performing with another celebrity singer. However, some folks felt “conned” as the duets didn’t involve Sinatra and the second artist singing together. Instead, the tracks were made using vocal parts pre-recorded by Sinatra.

69 U. of Maryland athlete : TERP

The sports teams of the University of Maryland are called the Maryland Terrapins, or “the Terps” for short. The name dates back to 1932 when it was coined by the university’s president at the time, Curley Byrd. He took the name from the diamondback terrapins that are native to the Chesapeake Bay.

Down

1 Roald Dahl novel adapted as a 2016 Disney film : THE BFG

“The BFG” is a 1982 children’s book by Welsh author Roald Dahl. The initialism in the title stands for “Big Friendly Giant”. Dahl dedicated “The BFG” to his daughter Olivia, who had passed away at the age of 7 in 1962. Steven Spielberg made a 2016 movie adaptation of the book under the same title.

3 Gretzky’s first NHL team : OILERS

The National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers are so called because they are located in Alberta, Canada … oil country.

Wayne Gretzky is regarded by many as the greatest ever player of ice hockey, and indeed he has the nickname “The Great One”.

8 Capital near Glacier Bay National Park : JUNEAU

Given that it’s the capital of the vast state of Alaska, it is perhaps not surprising to learn that the municipality of Juneau is almost as big as the area of the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined, and yet has only a population of about 31,000 people!

Glacier Bay in southeastern Alaska was declared a National Monument in 1925, and a National Park in 1980. UNESCO then declared the bay and surrounding area the largest UNESCO-protected biosphere in the world.

9 Property claim : LIEN

A lien is the right that one has to retain or secure someone’s property until a debt is paid. When an individual takes out a car loan, for example, the lending bank is usually a lien holder. The bank releases the lien on the car when the loan is paid in full.

10 Dark purple berry : ACAI

Açaí (pronounced “ass-aye-ee”) is a palm tree native to Central and South America. The fruit has become very popular in recent years and its juice is a very fashionable addition to juice mixes and smoothies.

13 Briny expanse : SEA

The briny is the sea, with “brine” meaning “salty water”. The term “briny” was originally used for “tears”.

19 Neil Gaiman’s “American __” : GODS

“American Gods” is a 2001 fantasy novel by English author Neil Gaiman. The book has been adapted into a TV series, with the first season airing on Starz in 2017. It’s all about gods and mythological creatures in contemporary America. Not my cup of tea, although there is a leprechaun named Mad Sweeney in the mix …

21 Get rid of : DEEP-SIX

To deep-six something is to toss it, possibly overboard, or to completely destroy it. The derivation of this slang term is from “six feet deep”, not the length of a fathom but rather the traditional depth of a grave.

24 Latin 101 verb : AMAT

“Amo, amas, amat” translates from Latin as “I love, you love, he/she/it loves”.

25 Circle dance : HORA

The hora is a circle dance that originated in the Balkans. It was brought to Israel by Romanian settlers, and is often performed to traditional, Israeli folk songs. The hora (also horah) is a regular sight at Jewish weddings. Sometimes the honoree at an event is raised on a chair during the hora.

27 Cuba libre mixer : COLA

The cocktail known as a Cuba libre is basically a rum and Coke, although the traditional recipe also calls for a splash of lime juice.

32 Chemicals carrier : TANK CAR

A tank car is a railroad car designed specifically for the transportation of liquids and gases.

35 Get an “Oh no” from Alex Trebek, say : ERR

Alex Trebek has been the host of “Jeopardy!” since the syndicated version of the game show launched in 1984. Trebek has missed just one episode since then, when he and host of “Wheel of Fortune” Pat Sajak swapped roles in 1997 as an April Fool’s joke. In 2014, Trebek picked up the Guinness World Record for hosting the most episodes of a game show.

38 Tabloid couple : ITEM

An unmarried couple known to be involved with each other might appear in the gossip columns. This appearance as “an item” in the papers, led to the use of “item” to refer to such a couple, but only since the very early seventies.

“Tabloid” is the trademarked name (owned by Burroughs Wellcome) for a “small tablet of medicine”, a name that goes back to 1884. The word “tabloid” had entered into general use to mean a compressed form of anything, and by the early 1900s was used in “tabloid journalism”, which described newspapers that had short, condensed articles and stories printed on smaller sheets of paper.

39 Stamp, as a passport : VALIDATE

As a result of a League of Nations conference in 1920, passports are usually written in French and one other language. French was specified back then as it was deemed the language of diplomacy. US passports use French and English, given that English is the nation’s de facto national language. Spanish was added as a language for US passports in the late nineties, in recognition of Spanish-speaking Puerto Rico.

40 Teri of “Tootsie” : GARR

Actress Teri Garr had a whole host of minor roles in her youth, including appearances in nine Elvis movies. Garr’s big break came with the role of Inga in “Young Frankenstein”, and her supporting role in “Tootsie” earned Garr an Academy Award nomination. Sadly, Teri Garr suffers from multiple sclerosis. She is a National Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

“Tootsie” is a hilarious 1982 comedy starring Dustin Hoffman in the title role, a male actor who adopts a female identity in order to land an acting job. Jessica Lange won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in the film. “Tootsie” was also provided Geena Davis with her first movie role.

41 Vaping device, familiarly : E-CIG

An electronic cigarette (also called an “e-cigarette”) is a battery-powered device that resembles a real cigarette. The e-cigarette vaporizes a solution that contains nicotine, forming a vapor that resembles smoke. The vapor is inhaled in a process called “vaping”, delivering nicotine into the body. The assumption is that an e-cigarette is healthier than a regular cigarette as the inhaled vapor is less harmful than inhaled smoke. But, that may not be so …

46 Puck-handling skill : DEKING

A deke, also known as a dangle, is a technique used to get past an opponent in ice hockey. “Deke” is a colloquial shortening of the word “decoy”.

Before wooden and rubber pucks were introduced in the late 1800s, ice hockey was played with balls. The first rubber pucks were made by cutting down rubber balls into the shape of discs.

49 Instrument for The Romeros, a classical quartet : GUITAR

The Romeros are a classical and flamenco guitar quartet. The group was founded and led by Celedonio Romero in 1960, and originally included three of his sons: Ángel, Celin and Pepe.

56 Very dry, as Champagne : BRUT

Sparkling wines can be classified according to sweetness. These classifications are, from driest to sweetest:

• Brut Nature
• Extra Brut
• Brut
• Extra Dry
• Dry
• Semi-Dry
• Sweet

57 Nile vipers : ASPS

The asp is a venomous snake found in the Nile region of Africa. It is so venomous that the asp was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as a means of execution. Cleopatra observed such executions noting that the venom brought on sleepiness without any painful spasms. When the great queen opted to commit suicide, the asp was therefore her chosen method.

59 H.S. dropout’s test : GED

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

60 __ de cologne : EAU

Back in 1709, an Italian perfume-maker moved to Cologne in Germany. There he invented a new fragrance that he named Eau de Cologne after his newly adopted town. The fragrance is still produced in Cologne, using a secret formulation. However, the terms “Eau de Cologne” and “cologne”, are now used generically.

The post LA Times Crossword 19 Feb 20, Wednesday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 7m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 __ buco : OSSO

“Osso” is the Italian word for bone, as in the name of the dish “osso buco” (bone with a hole), which features braised veal shanks.

16 Place to talk shop? : MALL

Surprisingly (to me!), our word “mall”, meaning “shady walk” or “enclosed shopping space”, comes from the Italian for “mallet”. All of our shopping-style malls are named for “The Mall” in St. James’s Park in London. This tree-lined promenade was so called as it used to be a famous spot to play the croquet-like game called “pall-mall”. The game derived its name from the Italian for ball (palla) and mallet “maglio”. The London thoroughfare called the Mall still exists, at one end of which is Buckingham Palace. Indeed, parallel to the Mall is a street called Pall Mall.

17 Tackled the job : HAD A GO AT IT (“goat” stuffed inside)

Male goats are bucks or billies, although castrated males are known as wethers. Female goats are does or nannies, and young goats are referred to as kids.

21 Sacred chests : ARKS

The Torah ark is found in a synagogue, and is the ornamental container in which are stored the Torah scrolls. The word “Torah” best translates as “teaching” or “law”, I am told.

25 Range for a manhunt : SEARCH AREA (“hare” stuffed inside)

Hares belong to the genus Lepus. Young hares under one-year-old are called leverets.

28 Arizona landforms : MESAS

“What’s the difference between a butte and a mesa?” Both are hills with flat tops, but a mesa has a top that is wider than it is tall. A butte is a much narrower formation, and taller than it is wide.

30 TourBook-issuing org. : AAA

The American Automobile Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit organization focused on lobbying, provision of automobile servicing, and selling of automobile insurance. The AAA was founded in 1902 in Chicago and published the first of its celebrated hotel guides back in 1917.

31 Designer monogram : YSL

Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) was an Algerian-born French fashion designer. Saint Laurent started off working as an assistant to Christian Dior at the age of 17. Dior died just four years later, and as a very young man Saint-Laurent was named head of the House of Dior. However, in 1950 Saint Laurent was conscripted into the French Army and ended up in a military hospital after suffering a mental breakdown from the hazing inflicted on him by his fellow soldiers. His treatment included electroshock therapy and administration of sedatives and psychoactive drugs. He was released from hospital, managed to pull his life back together and started his own fashion house. A remarkable story …

32 “Hasta la vista” : SEE YA

“Hasta la vista” is Spanish for “goodbye”. The phrase translates literally as “until the seeing”, i.e. “goodbye until we see each other again”.

40 Forklift load : PALLET

There is a difference between a wooden pallet and a wooden skid, both of which are used for shipping. A pallet has boards on top and bottom, whereas a skid only has boards on top.

43 Many AARP mems. : SRS

“AARP” is now the official name for the interest group that used to be called the American Association of Retired Persons. The name change reflects the current focus of the group on all Americans aged 50 or over, as opposed to just people who have retired.

46 Issa of “The Hate U Give” : RAE

Issa Rae is a Stanford University graduate who created a YouTube web series called “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl”. Rae also plays the title role in the series, a young lady named “J”. “Awkward Black Girl” was adapted into an HBO comedy-drama called “Insecure”, in which Issa Rae stars.

“The Hate U Give” is a 2018 film that is based on a 2017 novel of the same name by Angie Thomas. Both the film and novel center on the aftermath of a police officer shooting an unarmed teenager.

48 Intercepting, as at the pass : HEADING OFF (“dingo” stuffed inside)

The dingo is a wild dog of Australia. It is thought to have originated from domesticated dogs that were brought to Australia with humans that settled the land centuries ago.

53 Christmas poem opener : ‘TWAS

The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was published anonymously in 1823, and is better known today by its first line “‘Twas the night before Christmas”. Most scholars believe that the poem was written by Clement Clarke Moore, a theologian from New York City. Others say that it was written by Henry Livingston, Jr., a poet from Upstate New York.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash …

54 “Hasta la vista” : ADIOS

The term “adiós” is Spanish for “goodbye”. “Adiós” comes from the phrase “a Dios vos acomiendo” meaning “I commend you to God”.

55 “The Daily Show” host : NOAH

Trevor Noah is a comedian from Johannesburg, South Africa. Noah took over as host of the Comedy Channel’s “The Daily Show” after Jon Stewart retired. Noah can speak several languages, including English, Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, Afrikaans, and German.

57 Nos. on driver’s licenses : HTS

Height (ht.)

59 Ready to start the day : UP AND ABOUT (“panda” stuffed inside)

Taxonomic classification of the giant panda has been a subject of great debate for years, the main question being whether it belongs to the bear or raccoon family. The accepted opinion these days, based on molecular studies, seems to be that the panda is in fact a true bear.

64 __ toast : MELBA

Melba toast is a dry, thinly sliced toast that is usually served with soup or salad. Melba toast was created by chef Auguste Escoffier for opera singer Dame Nellie Melba, for whom he also created the dessert called peach Melba.

67 Roundup critter : STEER

A steer is a male bovine that was castrated when young and is then raised for beef. The term “steer” comes from the Old English “steor” meaning “bullock”.

Down

1 Deep rifts : SCHISMS

A schism is a split or division, especially in a religion.

4 Sch. founded by Jefferson : UVA

The University of Virginia (UVA) was founded by Thomas Jefferson, who then sat on the original Board of Visitors alongside former US Presidents James Madison and James Monroe. In fact, the original UVA campus was built on land near Charlottesville that was once a farm belonging to President Monroe.

8 “The Rookie” actress Larter : ALI

Ali Larter is an actress and model. Larter played a key role in a hoax carried out on “Esquire” magazine in 1996. Larter portrayed an imaginary model named Allegra Coleman in a bogus article written for the magazine by Martha Sherrill. The article claimed that Coleman/Larter had a role in an upcoming Woody Allen movie, was a good friend of author Deepak Chopra, and was in a torrid relationship with actor David Schwimmer. The hoax caused some uproar at the time, but it certainly did give some impetus to Larter’s acting career.

9 Club alternative : BLT

The BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) is the second-most popular sandwich in the US, after the plain old ham sandwich.

The club sandwich is a double-decker affair with three layers of bread and two layers of filling. This style of sandwich has been around since the end of the 19th century, and some say it was invented at an exclusive gambling “club” in Saratoga Springs, New York.

10 Home of Minor League Baseball’s Storm Chasers : OMAHA

The Omaha Storm Chasers are a triple-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals. The team was founded in 1969 as the Royals, became the Golden Spikes in 1999, and became the Storm Chasers in 2011 following a fan competition to choose a name.

18 “Grey’s Anatomy” settings, for short : ORS

“Gray’s Anatomy” is a very successful human anatomy textbook that was first published back in 1858 and is still in print today. The original text was written by English anatomist Henry Gray, who gave his name to the work. The TV medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy” (note “Grey” vs. Gray”) is centered on the character Dr. Meredith Grey, but the show’s title is a nod to the title of the famous textbook.

27 Normandy city : CAEN

Caen, on the River Orne, lies in the Calvados department of France in the northwest of the country. Caen is famous for the WWII Battle of Caen that left the town practically destroyed. Caen is also the burial place of the Norman King William I of England, also known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

29 Trips where big cats are spotted : SAFARIS

“Safari” is a Swahili word meaning “journey” or “expedition”.

33 Ship owner who described Ahab as “ungodly, god-like” : PELEG

The Pequod is the whaling ship that figures in Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby Dick”. The ship is owned by a consortium of the citizens of Nantucket Island, including Captains Ahab, Bildad and Peleg.

37 Custard dessert : FLAN

Crème caramel (also “flan”) is a delicious dessert comprising a molded custard topped with a clear caramel sauce. The related crème brûlée is a dessert made from molded custard with a hard, burnt caramel layer on top.

39 Conduit created by volcanic activity : LAVA TUBE

Flowing lava can move through lava tubes that form beneath the hardened surface of a lava flow. When the lava cools, it can form long tunnels known as lava caves.

42 Cigarette ad claim : LESS TAR

The partially-combusted particulate matter that is produced as a cigarette burns forms a resinous material called “tar”. Cigarette tar is different than the tar used on roads, but it is still very toxic. Marijuana smoke produces a very similar tar to cigarette smoke, and is just as dangerous.

43 Superhero acronym involving Hercules, Zeus, Achilles and three others : SHAZAM

“Shazam” is a word that was coined in the “Captain Marvel” comics in 1940. Billy Batson is a boy who can transform himself into the superhero Captain Marvel (aka “Shazam”) by speaking the magic word “Shazam”. “Shazam” is actually an acronym standing for “Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury”.

44 Killian’s, originally : RED ALE

The beer known as George Killian’s Irish Red has a recipe that has certainly evolved over time. The original recipe came from Lett’s Brewery in Enniscorthy, Ireland and dates back to the 1860s. That first recipe was a red ale. The Killian’s Irish Red that is brewed today by Coors is actually an amber lager.

45 Former Southeast Asian capital : SAIGON

Hanoi (“Hà Nội” in Vietnamese) was the capital of North Vietnam, and Saigon the capital of South Vietnam. After the Vietnam War, Hanoi was made capital of the reunified state. Saigon, the larger metropolis, was renamed to Ho Chi Minh City. Hanoi is located in the delta of the Red River, and is just over 50 miles from the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea.

56 Ones acting badly : HAMS

The word “ham”, describing a performer who overacts, is a shortened form of “hamfatter” and dates back to the late 1800s. “Hamfatter” comes from a song in old minstrel shows called “The Ham-Fat Man”. It seems that a poorly performing actor was deemed to have the “acting” qualities of a minstrel made up in blackface.

61 Exacta or trifecta : BET

To win a bet called an exacta (also called “perfecta”), the person betting must name the horses that finish first and second, and in the exact order. The related bet called the trifecta requires naming of the first, second and third-place finishers in the right order.

The post LA Times Crossword 20 Feb 20, Thursday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 8m 02s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “… morning roses newly wash’d with __”: Petruchio : DEW

William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” is about a courting couple. The male in the couple is Petruchio, a gentleman of Verona, and the female is Katharina/Kate, the so-called “shrew”. As the play progresses, the “shrew” is “tamed” and becomes an “obedient” bride … a controversial storyline in the contemporary world, to say the least. Regardless, modern adaptations have been made, including 1948’s Broadway musical “Kiss Me Kate” and the 1999 romantic comedy “10 Things I Hate About You”.

8 Caused trepidation : SCARED

Our word “trepidation”, meaning “fear”. comes from the Latin verb “tridare” meaning “to tremble”.

14 Phoenix-to-Albuquerque dir. : ENE

The city of Phoenix is the capital of the state of Arizona. Home to almost 1.5 million people, Phoenix is the most-populous state capital in the country.

Albuquerque is the most populous city in the state of New Mexico. The city was founded in 1706 as a Spanish colonial outpost named “La Villa de Alburquerque” (note the extra letter “r”) in honor of Francisco, Duke of Alburquerque, who had been viceroy of New Spain from 1653 to 1669. Alburquerque is a town in the west of Spain, close to the border with Portugal.

15 O’Neill’s daughter : OONA

Oona O’Neill dated J. D. Salinger and Orson Welles in her teens, but ended up marrying Charlie Chaplin in 1943. Oona was still quite young when she married Chaplin, much to the dismay of her famous father, playwright Eugene O’Neill. Eugene went as far as disowning 18-year-old Oona because of the marriage to 54-year-old Chaplin.

16 “Happy Days” diner namesake : ARNOLD

Much of the sitcom “Happy Days” was set in Arnold’s Drive-In. Arnold Takahashi was played by Pat Morita, who also played Mr Miyagi in the movie “The Karate Kid”. Morita left the show after three seasons, and was replaced by Al Molinaro as Al Delvecchio, the character who ran the diner as “Al’s” for the rest of the series’ run.

17 Networking technology : ETHERNET

“Ethernet” is the name given to a standardized configuration of local area networks (LANs). An ethernet cable is that one that has a connector on the end that looks like a regular telephone connector, but is about twice as wide. Ethernet dates back to the mid seventies, when it was developed by the Xerox Corporation.

19 Jalopy sound : RATTLE

The origins of our word “jalopy” meaning “dilapidated, old motor car” seem to have been lost in time, but the word has been around since the 1920s. One credible suggestion is that it comes from Xalapa, Mexico as the Xalapa scrap yards were the destination for many discarded American automobiles.

20 Offering in shellfish worship? : PRAWN SACRIFICE (sounds like “pawn sacrifice”)

The terms “prawn” and “shrimp” are often used interchangeably on menus. Over in the UK, the term “prawn” is most common, while “shrimp” is seen more often here in North America. Sometimes there is a differentiation from a food standpoint, with “prawn” being used for larger species and “shrimp” for smaller species. As a result, “jumbo prawns” seems to be an acceptable descriptor for a dish, whereas “jumbo shrimp” seems to be an oxymoron.

In the game of chess, the pawns are the weakest pieces on the board. A pawn that can make it to the opposite side of the board can be promoted to a piece of choice, usually a queen. Using promotion of pawns, it is possible for a player to have two or more queens on the board at one time. However, standard chess sets come with only one queen per side, so a captured rook is often used as the second queen by placing it on the board upside down.

22 Mississippi sight : LEVEE

A levee is an artificial bank, usually made of earth, that runs along the length of a river. It is designed to hold back river water at a time of potential flooding. “Levée” is the French word for “raised” and is an American term that originated in French-speaking New Orleans around 1720.

The Mississippi River runs right through the Midwest. It originates in Lake Itasca, Minnesota and flows into the Gulf of Mexico about a hundred miles below New Orleans. The name Mississippi is a corruption of a Native American name “misi-ziibi”, meaning “Great River”.

29 Shellfish massage? : MUSSEL RELAXER (sounds like “muscle relaxer”)

“Mussel” is a common name for several types of clam and other bivalve molluscs, both saltwater and freshwater.

35 Perfect place : UTOPIA

The word “Utopia” was coined by Sir Thomas More in his book “Utopia” published in 1516 to describe an idyllic fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. More’s use of the name Utopia comes from the Greek “ou” meaning “not” and “topos” meaning “place”. By calling his perfect island “Not Place”, More was apparently making the point that he didn’t think that the ideal could actually exist.

37 “Modern Family,” e.g. : SITCOM

“Modern Family” is a marvelous television show shown on ABC since 2009. The show’s format is that of a “mockumentary”, with the cast often addressing the camera directly. In that respect “Modern Family” resembles two other excellent shows: “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation”, both of which might also be described as “mockumentaries”.

44 Rate for records, briefly : RPM

Revolutions per minute (rpm)

The first vinyl records designed to play at 33⅓ rpm were introduced by RCA Victor in 1931, but were discontinued due to quality problems. The first long play (LP) 33⅓ rpm disc was introduced by Columbia Records many years later in 1948, with RCA Victor following up with a 45 rpm “single” the following year, in 1949.

52 Like one who exchanges texts with a shellfish? : WHELK-CONNECTED (sounds like “well-connected”)

“Whelk” is a name given to various sea snails. The actual usage, and its application to various species depends on where you are in the world.

56 Sore application : POULTICE

A poultice is a moist, warm mass that is spread over a cloth and applied to an aching or inflamed part of the body. The term “poultice” comes from “pultes” the plural of the Latin word meaning “porridge”. My mother applied quite a few bread poultices over our skinned knees when we were kids …

57 City adjoining Champaign, Illinois : URBANA

The Champaign-Urbana metropolitan area is located in Illinois, southwest of Chicago. Champaign-Urbana is home to the flagship campus of the University of Illinois.

58 Began, as a co. : ESTD

Established (“est.” or “estd.”)

59 Fourth bk. of the Jewish Torah : NUM

The Book of Numbers in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles relates much of the journey of Moses and the Israelites from Egypt to the promised land. The title comes from the numbering of the people that is described in the beginning of the book.

The Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, are traditionally believed to have been written by Moses. As such, they are sometimes referred to as the Law of Moses, or Mosaic Law. Those five books are:

• Bereshit/Genesis
• Shemot/Exodus
• Vayikra/Leviticus
• Bamidbar/Numbers
• Devarim/Deuteronomy

60 U.S. IOUs : T-NOTES

A Treasury note (T-note) is a government debt that matures in 1-10 years. A T-note has a coupon (interest) payment made every six months. The T-note is purchased at a discount to face value, and at the date of maturity can be redeemed at that face value. A Treasury bill (T-bill) is a similar financial vehicle, but it matures in one year or less, and a T-bond matures in 20-30 years.

62 Fast sports cars : GTS

In the automotive world, “GT” stands for “Grand Touring” or “Gran Turismo”.

Down

2 Dinner menu item : ENTREE

“Entrée” means “entry” in French. An entrée can be something that helps one get “a way in”, an interview for example perhaps helped along by a recommendation letter. In Europe, even in English-speaking countries, the entrée is the name for the “entry” to the meal, the first course. I found the ordering of meals to be very confusing when I first came to America!

7 Bag with a strap : SATCHEL

A satchel is a soft-sided bag, one usually with a strap that is often worn diagonally across the body. When we were kids in Ireland, we’d carry our books to and from school in a backpack satchel. Virtually every Irish schoolchild had a satchel back then.

8 Bollywood costumery : SARIS

The item of clothing called a “sari” (also “saree”) is a strip of cloth, as one might imagine, unusual perhaps in that is unstitched along the whole of its length. The strip of cloth can range from four to nine meters long (that’s a lot of material!). The sari is usually wrapped around the waist, then draped over the shoulder leaving the midriff bare. I must say, it can be a beautiful item of clothing.

“Bollywood” is the informal name given to the huge film industry based in Mumbai in India. The term “Bollywood” is a melding of “Bombay” (the former name of Mumbai), and “Hollywood”.

11 Uniform education org.? : ROTC

The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) is a training program for officers based in colleges all around the US. The ROTC program was established in 1862 when as a condition of receiving a land-grant to create colleges, the federal government required that military tactics be part of a new school’s curriculum.

12 Bardot was on its cover at age 14 : ELLE

“Elle” magazine was founded in 1945 in France and today has the highest circulation of any fashion magazine in the world. “Elle” is the French word for “she”. “Elle” is published monthly worldwide, although you can pick up a weekly edition if you live in France.

Brigitte Bardot is a former model and actress, as well as a noted animal rights activist. Perhaps her best-known screen performance is in the 1956 French film “And God Created Woman” that was directed by her then husband, Roger Vadim.

13 Golfing pres. : DDE

There’s a lot of talk these days about how much golf is played by US presidents. One of the most enthusiastic golfers to sit in the Oval Office was President Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE). “Ike” loved the game so much that he even played through the winter. He had his golf balls painted black so that he could see them against the snow on the ground.

21 __ admiral : REAR

The rank of rear admiral is usually the lowest of the “admiral” ranks. The term originated with the Royal Navy. In days gone by, an admiral would head up the activities of a naval squadron from the central vessel. He would be assisted by a “vice admiral” who acted from the lead vessel. There would also be a lower-ranking admiral to command the ships at the rear of the squadron, and this was the “rear admiral”.

25 “Don’t delay!” letters : ASAP

As soon as possible (ASAP)

27 Early initials in American cars : REO

Ransom Eli Olds was a pioneer in the automotive industry, and the founder of the Oldsmobile and REO brands. Olds introduced the first modern “stationary” assembly line (Henry Ford’s famous innovation was the “moving” assembly line). As a result, it can be argued that the Oldsmobile Curved Dash was the first mass-produced, low-priced automobile, rather than the Ford’s Model T.

30 News agcy. since 1958 : UPI

Founded in 1958, United Press International (UPI) used to be one of the biggest news agencies in the world, sending out news by wire to the major newspapers. UPI ran into trouble with the change in media formats at the end of the twentieth century and lost many of its clients as the afternoon newspapers shut down due to the advent of television news. UPI, which once employed thousands, still exists today but with just a fraction of that workforce.

31 __City: computer game : SIM

SimCity is a very clever computer game. Players build and grow cities and societies by creating the conditions necessary for people (the Sims) to move in and thrive. SimCity was launched in 1989, and to this day it is consistently ranked as one of the greatest computer games of all time.

32 In __: actual : ESSE

The Latin term “in esse” is used to mean “actually existing”, and translates literally as “in being”.

33 YouTube star __ Marie Johnson : LIA

Lia Marie Johnson is an Internet personality turned actress and singer. Johnson’s celebrity is the result of her YouTube channel, which has 1-2 million subscribers. Her mother actually established the channel when Johnson was just 11 years old.

34 Honda FourTrax, e.g.: Abbr. : ATV

All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

35 Very active port? : USB

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard dealing with how computers and electronic devices connect and communicate, and deal with electrical power through those connections.

36 Genesis pronoun : THY

“Genesis” is a Greek word meaning “origin, creation” that was absorbed into Latin, and then into English. We use the Latin plural “geneses”.

39 Baldwin of “30 Rock” : ALEC

Alec Baldwin is the oldest of the acting Baldwin brothers. I think Alec’s big break was playing Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan in “The Hunt for Red October”, but thank goodness that role was taken over by Harrison Ford for the subsequent Jack Ryan movies. Baldwin also made a name for himself playing Jack Donaghy on “30 Rock”, opposite Tina Fey. More recently, he is known for impersonating President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live”.

“30 Rock” is a sitcom on NBC that was created by the show’s star Tina Fey. Fey plays an ex-performer and writer from “Saturday Night Live” and uses her experiences on that show as a basis for the “30 Rock” storyline. Fey plays Liz Lemon, the head writer for the fictional sketch comedy series “TGS with Tracy Jordan”.

41 Vet’s concern, perhaps : DRY NOSE

There’s a bit of a myth that a dry nose indicates that a dog is ailing. Usually, that’s not the case …

45 Like many hobby shop mat boards : PRECUT

Back in the 16th century, a hobbyhorse was a mock horse that was used as a prop in morris dancing. The figure was wrapped around the waist of a dancer, creating the impression that the horse was being ridden. By the 1580s, the term “hobbyhorse” began to describe toy riding horse used by a child. A century later, the word “hobby” was being used for a favorite pastime, an activity that doesn’t real go anywhere, just like a hobbyhorse, or a crossword blog …

46 Surfing equipment : MODEMS

A modem is a device that is used to facilitate the transmission of a digital signal over an analog line. At one end of the line, a modem is used to “modulate” an analog carrier signal to encode digital information. At the other end of the line, a modem is used to “demodulate” the analog carrier signal and so reproduce the original digital information. This modulation-demodulation gives the device its name: a MOdulator-DEModulator, or “modem”.

48 Dior design : A-LINE

An A-line skirt is one that fits snugly at the hips and flares towards the hem. The term “A-line” was first used in fashion by French designer Christian Dior in his 1955 spring collection.

49 Some big box stores : IKEAS

The IKEA furniture chain was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943, when he was just 17-years-old. IKEA is an acronym standing for Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd (don’t forget now!). Elmtaryd was the name of the farm where Ingvar Kamprad grew up, and Agunnaryd is his home parish in Sweden.

50 Neuters : GELDS

To geld is to castrate a male animal. “Geld” comes from the Old Norse word “gelda” meaning “castrate”.

51 Canadian Thanksgiving mo. : OCT

The Canadian Thanksgiving holiday predates the related celebration in the US. The first Canadian Thanksgiving was held in 1578 by an explorer from England named Martin Frobisher. Frobisher was giving thanks for his safe arrival in the New World, and made the observance in the month of October as this was a tradition in England. All this happened 43 years before the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

53 Vagrant : HOBO

No one seems to know for sure how the term “hobo” originated, although there are lots of colorful theories. My favorite is that “hobo” comes from the first letters in the words “ho-meward bo-und”, but it doesn’t seem very plausible. A kind blog reader tells me that according to Click and Clack from PBS’s “Car Talk” (a great source!), “hobo” comes from “hoe boy”. Hoe boys were young men with hoes looking for work after the Civil War. Hobos differed from “tramps” and “bums” in that “bums” refused to work, “tramps” worked when they had to, while “hobos” traveled in search of work.

The post LA Times Crossword 21 Feb 20, Friday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 9m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

7 Rose’s record 14,053 : AT BATS

Pete Rose was a talented baseball player who holds the record for all-time Major League hits. Rose’s nickname was “Charlie Hustle”. In recent years, his reputation has been tarnished by admissions that he bet on games in which he played and managed.

13 Dessert for one, maybe : MINI-PIE

Our word “dessert” comes from the French verb “desservir” meaning “to clear the table”. The idea is that dessert is usually the last course to be cleared from the table.

15 Cotton farm threat : WEEVIL

A weevil is a small beetle known for the damage that it can do to crops. The boll weevil damages cotton plants by laying eggs inside cotton bolls. The young weevils then eat their way out. Some weevils have snouts that are as long as their body.

16 Handlers for a mixologist : ICE TONGS

A pair of tongs is a tool with a scissor-like hinge used to pick up things, like meat cooking on a barbecue grill or ice from an ice bucket. The verb “to tong” means “to handle with tongs”.

A mixologist is someone who is well versed in the mixing of cocktails, said he reaching for the shaker …

18 Joey of *NSYNC : FATONE

NSYNC was a boy band from Orlando, Florida that was formed in 1995. The name of the group came from a comment by the mother of band member Justin Timberlake, who said the boys voices sounded “in sync”. But, it’s also true that the letters of the name NSYNC are the last letters of the given names of the five band members:

• Justin Timberlake
• Chris Kirkpatrick
• Joey Fatone
• Lance “Lansten” Bass
• JC Chasez

19 Liquid meas. : GAL

The name of our fluid measure called a “gallon” ultimately comes from the Medieval Latin term “galleta” meaning “bucket, pail”.

20 Mythical mount that flies : PEGASUS

Pegasus is a white, winged stallion of Greek mythology. Pegasus was sired by Poseidon and foaled by Medusa.

22 ’90s sitcom “__ and Stacey” : NED

“Ned and Stacey” is a sitcom that first aired in the nineties. The title roles were played by Thomas Haden Church and Debra Messing. Ned and Stacey are a couple in a marriage of convenience. Ned needs a wife in order to get a promotion at work, and Stacey just wants to get out of her parents’ house. I’ve never seen this one …

27 Shocker on a cop’s belt : TASER

Victor Appleton wrote a novel for young adults called “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle”. The company that developed the TASER electroshock weapon partly named its product as a homage to the novel. The acronym “TASER” stands for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”.

39 Score half : TEN

Our verb “to score” meaning “to tally”, comes from the Old Norse “skor”, which is a “mark, notch”. It is likely that items such a livestock were counted by placing a notch in a stick for each set of twenty, hence our use of the noun “score” to mean “twenty”.

40 Stadium souvenirs : STUBS

A souvenir is a memento, a token of remembrance. We imported the word “souvenir” from French, in which language it has the same meaning. The term comes from the Latin “subvenire” meaning “to come to mind”, or literally “to come up”.

46 Maui, for one : ISLE

Maui is the second largest of the Hawaiian islands. It is sometimes called the “Valley Isle” as it is composed of two volcanoes to the northwest and southeast of the island, each with numerous beautiful valleys carved into them.

48 Hillary aides : SHERPAS

In the Tibetan language, “Sherpa” means “eastern people” (sher = east, pa = people). Sherpas are an ethnic group from Nepal, but the name is also used for the local guides who assist mountaineers in the Himalayas, and particularly on Mount Everest.

Edmund Hillary was a mountaineer and explorer from New Zealand. Famously, Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first climbers to summit Mount Everest, doing so in 1953. Edmund’s son Peter Hillary also became a climber, and he reached the summit of Everest in 1990. Peter repeated the feat in 2002, climbing alongside Tenzing Norgay’s son Jamling.

51 Springfield small business owner : MOE

Moe Szyslak is the surly bartender and owner of Moe’s Tavern in “The Simpsons” animated TV show. I don’t really care for “The Simpsons”, but Hank Azaria who supplies the voice for the Moe character … him I like …

“The Simpsons” television show is meant to be set in “anytown, USA”. The creators chose the name “Springfield”, as it is one of the most common town and city names in the country.

52 Taste test need : TONGUE

There are 2,000 to 8,000 taste buds on the human tongue, and together they detect five different tastes: salty, sour, bitter, sweet and umami. Taste buds have a short lifetime, and are replaced about every ten days.

54 Sun spot? : SOLARIUM

A solarium (plural “solaria”) is a sunroom or sun lounge, a structure usually built onto the side of a house that contains a lot of glass to let in the sun.

56 Major course : ENTREE

“Entrée” means “entry” in French. An entrée can be something that helps one get “a way in”, an interview for example perhaps helped along by a recommendation letter. In Europe, even in English-speaking countries, the entrée is the name for the “entry” to the meal, the first course. I found the ordering of meals to be very confusing when I first came to America!

59 Sent revealing messages : SEXTED

Sexting (a portmanteau of “sex” and “texting”) is the sending of explicit dialog and images between cell phones. The term “sexting” was coined by the UK’s “Sunday Telegraph Magazine” in a 2005 article.

Down

2 City for which a creed is named : NICAEA

What is known today in the Christian tradition as the Nicene Creed, was originally adopted by the first ecumenical council when it met in 325 AD. The meeting took place in the city of Nicaea, which gave its name to this particular profession of faith. Nicaea is the Greek name of the city that is now called Iznik, and it lies in the northwest of Turkey.

3 Solemn sounds : KNELLS

The word “knell” is used for a solemn ring from a bell, often associated with death or a funeral. “Knell” comes from the Old English “cnell” and is probably imitative in origin, sounding like a peal from a large bell.

4 Date center : PIT

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

8 Hot spots? : TEAS

As in “a spot of tea”.

10 Sellers of some beauty products : AVON REPS

In 1886, a young man called David McConnell was selling books door-to-door. To enhance his sales numbers he was giving out free perfume to the ladies of the houses that he visited. Seeing as his perfume was more popular than his books, he founded the California Perfume Company in New York City and started manufacturing and selling across the country. The company name was changed to Avon in 1939, and the famous “Avon Calling” marketing campaign was launched in 1954.

12 Heavy hitter : SLEDGE

A sledgehammer is a big hammer, one used to apply a lot of force. The word “sledgehammer” comes from the Anglo Saxon “Slaegan” meaning “to strike violently”. “Slaegan” is also the root of the words “slag”, “slay” and “slog”.

14 Starbucks holiday drink : EGGNOG LATTE

The term “latte” is an abbreviation of the Italian “caffelatte” meaning “coffee (and) milk”. Note that in the correct spelling of “latte”, the Italian word for milk, there is no accent over the “e”. An accent is often added by mistake when we use the word in English, perhaps meaning to suggest that the word is French.

17 Many an Arab News reader : SAUDI

“Arab News” is an English-language paper published in Ryadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. It was founded in 1975, and had a major relaunch in 2018.

26 Flatbread similar to naan : CHAPATI

Chapati is an unleavened flatbread that is associated with India. The name of the bread comes from the Hindi word “chapat” meaning “flat”.

30 According to the poet’s oldest son, it was written “by a window looking down a wooded hill” : TREES

The American journalist and poet Joyce Kilmer is primarily known for his 1913 poem titled “Trees”. The original text of the poem is:

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Kilmer died a few years after writing “Trees”. He was a casualty of the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31.

41 Where a lot of money is made : US MINT

The nation’s first mint was established in Philadelphia in 1792, as back then Philadelphia was the capital of the United States. That first mint was located in a building that previously housed a whiskey distillery.

42 Top : BLOUSE

A blouse is a loose-fitting shirt, particularly one worn by women or children. The term “blouse” is French, and originally described a peasant’s smock.

49 Bass and such : ALES

The red triangle on the label of a bottle of Bass Ale was registered in 1875 and is UK Registered Trade Mark (TM) No: 00001, the first trademark issued in the world.

50 Call at a base : SAFE!

That would be baseball.

53 Hurdle for srs. : GRE

Passing the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

55 Dog in the Reagan White House : REX

Rex was a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel owned by the Reagans while they lived in the White House. Rex was given as a Christmas gift by conservative commentator William F. Buckley, Jr. to First Lady Nancy Reagan. The dog was named for Rex Scouten, who was the White House Chief Usher at the time.

The post LA Times Crossword 22 Feb 20, Saturday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 16m 25s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Small Mercedes sedan : A-CLASS

The Mercedes A-Class is a subcompact car that is often referred to as the “Baby Benz”. Launched in 1997, the A-Class was Mercedes-Benz’s first venture into the compact car market. Famously, the first generation A-Class failed the evasive manoeuvre known as the “elk test”. The car flipped while trying to avoid hitting “the moose”. Mercedes stopped production, recalled all A-Class cars sold, and added electronic stability control to solve the problem.

7 Golf match equalizer : HANDICAP

A golfer whose handicap is zero is known as a “scratch golfer”. A player with a handicap of 18, given that there are 18 holes in a full round, is known as a “bogey golfer”.

21 Cheerio relative : AU REVOIR

“Au revoir” is a French phrase translating literally as “until seen again”, although the accepted usage is “goodbye”.

23 Ants in the British colonies? : CONTINENTAL ARMY

Soon after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, the Second Continental Congress formed the Continental Army, and famously appointed General George Washington as the army’s commander-in-chief. The bulk of the Continental Army was disbanded after the war ended in 1783, with only the 1st and 2nd Regiments remaining intact. In 1792, these regiments formed the core of the Legion of the United States, a standing army commanded by Major General Anthony Wayne. The Legion of the United States was renamed the US Army in 1796.

25 Drove at Indy : RACED

The Indianapolis 500 race is held annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The race is run around a 2.5 mile oval, hence requiring 200 laps for completion. The first Indy 500 race was held on Memorial Day in 1911. The winner that day was one Ray Harroun. Harroun had seen someone using a rear view mirror on a horse-drawn vehicle, and decided to fit one on his Marmon “Wasp” motor car. Supposedly, that was the first ever use of a rear view mirror on a motor vehicle.

27 Baton Rouge-to-Jackson dir. : NNE

Baton Rouge is the capital city of the state of Louisiana. The name “Baton Rouge” is French for “red stick” or “red staff”. The exact reason why such a name was given to the city isn’t really clear.

Jackson is the capital of the state of Mississippi. The city was founded in 1821 as a new state capital, and was named for future US president General Andrew Jackson.

28 “Great” Russian czar : PETER I

Peter the Great (aka “Peter I”) was perhaps the most successful of the Romanov tsars, and was famous for modernizing Russia and expanding the country’s sphere of influence, creating the Russian Empire. He ruled from 1682 until his death in 1725.

29 Sun Devils’ sch. : ASU

Arizona State University (ASU) has a long history, and was founded as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory in 1885. The athletic teams of ASU used to be known as the Normals, then the Bulldogs, and since 1946 they’ve been called the Sun Devils.

30 Updike’s “Rabbit Redux,” e.g.: Abbr. : SEQ

The 1960 novel by John Updike called “Rabbit Run” tells the story of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom as he tries to escape from his constraining, middle-class life. “Rabbit Run” is the first in a series of novels from Updike that feature the “Rabbit” character, the others being:

“Rabbit Redux”
“Rabbit is Rich”
“Rabbit at Rest”
“Rabbit Remembered”

31 Tennis immortal : ASHE

The great American tennis player Arthur Ashe spent the last years of his life writing his memoir called “Days of Grace”. He finished the manuscript just a few days before he passed away, dying from AIDS caused by a tainted blood transfusion.

33 Dull opening? : DEE

The opening letter in the word “dull” is a letter D (dee).

34 Gp. with a three-finger salute : BSA

Boy Scouts of America (BSA)

37 Fish attending Mass? : CATHOLIC SCHOOL

The principal act of worship in the Roman Catholic tradition is the Mass. The term “Mass” comes from the Late Latin word “missa” meaning “dismissal”. This word is used at the end of the Latin Mass in “Ite, missa est” which translates literally as “Go, it is the dismissal”.

41 Baroque painter Guido : RENI

Guido Reni was an Italian painter from Bologna who was active in the first half of the 17th century. Reni’s most famous work is probably “Crucifixion of St. Peter”, an altarpiece commissioned in the early 1600s that is now on display in the Vatican.

42 Elvis sings it in “Blue Hawaii” : ALOHA ‘OE

“Aloha ‘Oe” is a song of Hawaii composed by Liliuokalani, the last monarch of Hawaii and her only queen. The title translates as “Farewell to Thee”.

“Blue Hawaii” is one of a series of Elvis Presley movies, one released in 1961. 36-year-old Angela Lansbury was cast as the mother of the character played by 26-year-old Presley. Apparently, Lansbury “wasn’t amused” at the age gap, but took the role anyway.

45 Lions marching event? : PRIDE PARADE

A group of lions is known as a pride. It’s possible that the term “pride”, in this context, derives from the Latin “praeda” meaning “prey”.

47 Cataract surgery replacement : LENS

A cataract is a clouding of the lens in the eye. Although glasses can help alleviate early symptoms of the disease, the most effective treatment is the replacement of the affected lens with an artificial lens.

50 Edmond __: the Count of Monte Cristo : DANTES

“The Count of Monte Cristo” is an 1844 novel by the French author Alexandre Dumas. Dumas’ other famous title is “The Three Musketeers”.

51 Large body of eau : MER

In French, a “mer” (sea) is a large body of “eau” (water).

52 Fiscal execs : CFOS

Chief financial officer (CFO)

54 Pope’s jurisdiction : HOLY SEE

In the Roman Catholic Church, an episcopal see is the official seat of a bishop, and is usually described by the town or city where the bishop resides and has his cathedral. The most famous see in the church is called the Holy See, the episcopal see of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.

61 Juno, to Socrates : HERA

In Greek mythology, Hera was the wife of Zeus and was noted for her jealous and vengeful nature, particularly against those who vied for the affections of her husband. The equivalent character to Hera in Roman mythology was Juno. Hera was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.

In ancient Greece, Socrates was a respected thinker of his day. One of Socrates’ most clever students was Plato, who spent much of life espousing the work and thinking of his mentor and teacher. In later life, Plato himself had a student who built on the work of both Socrates and Plato. That second-generation student was Aristotle. Socrates fell out of favor with the political leaders in Athens who put him on trial on trumped-up charges. He was found guilty of corrupting the youth of the city-state and of not believing in the gods of the state. The sentence levied was death by drinking hemlock.

63 Whales’ sorely lacking veggie supply? : TWO PEAS IN A POD

A group of whales can be called a gam, as well as a pod.

68 Pringles alternative : LAY’S

Lay’s potato chips were introduced in 1938 by Herman W. Lay. Lay started selling his chips out the trunk of his car, travelling all over the US. In those days the chips were pretty much handmade, but Lay put an end to that in 1942. He invented the first continuous potato processor in 1948, and chips started to take over the world!

70 Nestlé candy with a white covering : SNO-CAPS

Sno-Caps are a brand of candy usually only available in movie theaters. Sno-caps have been around since the 1920s, would you believe?

74 LAPD unit? : LOS

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is the third-largest local law enforcement agency in the country, after New York PD and Chicago PD. Among other things, LAPD is famous for creating the first Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team in the US, in 1965.

75 Madame’s Spanish counterpart : SENORA

The equivalent of “Mrs.” in French is “Mme.” (Madame), in Spanish is “Sra.” (Señora) and in Portuguese is also “Sra.” (Senhora).

77 Pale __ : ALE

Pale ale is a beer made using mainly pale malt, which results in a relatively light color for a malted beer.

80 Wolves from Lower Manhattan? : BATTERY PACK

The Battery is a park at the tip of Lower Manhattan that looks out over New York Harbor. Formally known as Battery Park, the area was named for artillery batteries placed there in the late 1600s. The Battery is home to Castle Clinton, formerly “Castle Garden”, which served as the nation’s first immigration station from 1855 to 1890, before being replaced by Ellis Island.

85 Things to avoid : TABOOS

The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

88 Wild plum : SLOE

The sloe is the fruit of the blackthorn bush, and the main flavoring ingredient in sloe gin. A sloe looks like a small plum, but is usually much more tart in taste.

89 Bats living in an old Chrysler? : PLYMOUTH COLONY

Famously, the Mayflower was the ship that transported the Pilgrims from Plymouth, England to the New World in 1620. Most of the Pilgrims actually boarded the vessel on the River Thames in London. The Mayflower then anchored at Southampton Water on the south coast of England where she rendezvoused with another ship, the Speedwell, that was carrying English separatist Puritans from Holland. Both vessels set off for America, but eventually had to berth in Plymouth after the Speedwell started to leak. The Speedwell was in no condition to cross the Atlantic, and so the Mayflower ended up making the historic voyage alone.

92 Whoopi’s role in “The Color Purple” : CELIE

Whoopi Goldberg played Celie Harris Johnson in Steven Spielberg’s “The Color Purple”, the 1985 screen adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alice Walker.

96 Texter’s qualifier : IMO

In my opinion (IMO)

98 NBC show since 1975 : SNL

NBC first aired a form of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) in 1975 under the title “NBC’s Saturday Night”. The show was actually created to give Johnny Carson some time off from “The Tonight Show”. Back then “The Tonight Show” had a weekend episode, and Carson convinced NBC to pull the Saturday or Sunday recordings off the air and hold them for subsequent weeknights in which Carson needed a break. NBC turned to Lorne Michaels and asked him to put together a variety show to fill the vacant slot, and he came up with what we now call “Saturday Night Live”.

102 Aids in DNA sequencing research : GENE MAPS

The genome is all the hereditary information needed to reproduce an organism, in other words, all of its chromosomes. When scientists unravel the human genome it takes up an awful lot of computer storage space, and yet all of this information is in almost every cell in our bodies. Each and every cell “knows” how to make a whole human being.

106 Crows sailing from Ethiopia to Egypt? : MURDER ON THE NILE

There doesn’t seem to be a definitive etymology for “murder” as the collective noun for crows. One suggestion is that it comes from the scavenging behavior of crows, sometimes feeding on rotting bodies of dead animals.

110 Orson Scott Card protagonist __ Wiggin : ENDER

Orson Scott Card is a science fiction author (mainly). Card’s most famous work is his novel “Ender’s Game” first published in 1985. “Ender’s Game” was adapted into a movie and released in 2013, with a cast that includes Harrison Ford.

112 Swimwear fabric : TRICOT

Tricot is a knitting method, a type of warp knitting, as well as the name for the resulting knitted fabric. Tricot is very resistant to runs and is commonly used to make lingerie and swimwear.

113 Short : TESTY

Somebody described as testy is touchy, irritably impatient. The term “testy” comes into English from Old French, ultimately deriving from “testu” meaning “stubborn, headstrong”, literally “heady”. So, our word “testy” comes from the same root as the French word “tête” meaning “head”.

114 Closed ecosystems : BIODOMES

A biodome is an enclosed ecological system, and usually a man-made structure. I visited one of the more famous biodomes a few years ago, namely Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona. The Arizona facility was built as a closed-system experiment and used during the nineties as home to two small teams of people for extended periods. Both experiments ran into problems. The first group confronted insufficient generation of food and oxygen. The second group generated sufficient food, but oxygen eventually had to be injected into the habitat.

Down

1 “black-ish” airer : ABC

“black-ish” is a sitcom starring Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross that premiered in 2014. The show is noted for tackling tough issues such as racism, police brutality, attitudes toward the LGBT community, and the 2016 US presidential election.

2 Symbol of monastic life : CLOISTER

Cloisters are usually such beautifully peaceful areas. They are found as part of religious buildings in particular. Cloisters are rectangular open spaces surrounded by covered walkways that are attached to other structures. The use of the term “cloister” has evolved to also describe a monastery or convent.

3 Alfredo __, “Ratatouille” character named for a pasta : LINGUINI

“Ratatouille” is a 2007 animated film produced by Pixar. The hero of the piece is Remy, a rat whose ambition is to become a chef. Remy was voiced by stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt. The veteran actor Peter O’Toole voiced the character Anton Ego, a restaurant critic.

Linguine is a type of pasta that is similar to spaghetti, except that in cross-section linguine is elliptical whereas spaghetti is round. The correct name for the dish is “linguine” meaning “little tongues” in Italian. That said, the misspelling “linguini” is given in some dictionaries as an acceptable Americanized variant..

4 Alaskan island invaded by Japan in WWII : ATTU

Attu is the westernmost island in the Aleutian chain and so is the westernmost part of Alaska (and is in the Eastern Hemisphere). Japanese forces took the island in October 1942, eventually landing as many as 2,900 soldiers there. In May 1943, the US Army retook the island in twenty days of fighting that is now called the Battle of Attu, the only land battle to take place on US soil during WWII. I am very proud of my father-in-law, who served in the Aleutians during WWII …

7 Brinker on skates : HANS

“Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates” is a children’s novel written by American author Mary Mapes Dodge, and first published in 1865. The novel is famous for introducing, told within the novel’s own storyline, the tale of the little Dutch boy who put his finger in the leaking dike. I always thought the tale of the boy and the dike was a Dutch legend but no, it was a literary invention of Mary Mapes Dodge …

9 Gun lobby org. : NRA

National Rifle Association (NRA)

10 __ Taco : DEL

The Del Taco chain of fast food restaurants opened for business in 1964, with the first restaurant called “Casa Del Taco” located in Yermo, California. Del Taco serves American-style Mexican cuisine as well as the typical collection of hamburgers, fries and shakes.

11 Scott classic : IVANHOE

“Ivanhoe” is an 1819 historical novel by Sir Walter Scott that is set in 12th-century England. The story is divided into three adventures that involve such characters as Richard the Lionheart, King John and Robin Hood, although the protagonist is a Saxon knight named Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe. An underlying theme in the book is the tension between the Saxons and the Normans who conquered Britain a century earlier.

12 “Race Matters” author West : CORNEL

Cornel West is a philosopher, academic and activist who was the first African American to graduate from Princeton with a Ph.D. in philosophy.

13 Lyon lover’s word : AIME

The city of Lyon in France, is sometimes known as “Lyons” in English. Lyon is the second-largest metropolitan area in the country, after Paris. It is located just to the north of the confluence of the Rhône and Saône Rivers.

15 Certain owl’s howl : SCREECH

There are over twenty species of screech owls, all of which are native to the Americas. Named for their eerie trill heard mainly during the night, screech owls are about the size of a pint glass.

16 “How now? __?”: Hamlet : A RAT

In Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, the title character utters the line “How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!”. Hamlet then thrusts his sword through a tapestry covering an alcove and kills Polonius, who was lurking there.

17 News source for millions : FACEBOOK FEED

One has to wonder …

18 “Be it __ humble … “: song lyric : EVER SO

“Home! Sweet Home!” is a song that has been around at least since 1827. The melody was composed by Englishman Sir Henry Bishop, using lyrics written by American John Howard Payne.

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home;
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which seek thro’ the world, is ne’er met elsewhere.
Home! Home!
Sweet, sweet home!
There’s no place like home
There’s no place like home!

24 Law firm abbr. : ESQ

The title “esquire” is of British origin and is used differently today depending on whether one is in the US or the UK. Here in America the term is usually reserved for those practicing the law (both male and female). In the UK, “esquire” is a term of gentle respect reserved for a male who has no other title that one can use. So a mere commoner like me might receive a letter from the bank say, addressed to W. E. Butler Esq.

28 Baja bar tender? : PESOS

The peso is used in many Spanish-speaking countries around the world. The coin originated in Spain where the word “peso” means “weight”. The original peso was what we know in English as a “piece of eight”, a silver coin of a specific weight that had a nominal value of eight “reales”.

29 __ The Magazine : AARP

“AARP The Magazine” is mailed to every AARP member, making it the most widely circulated magazine in the country. It was founded back in 1958 as “Modern Maturity”, and was rebranded in 2002.

32 Oxford, but not Cambridge : SHOE

An oxford is a type of lace-up shoe that originated not in Oxford, but actually in Scotland and/or Ireland.

The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. The exact date of the school’s founding is uncertain, although teaching was recorded there as early as 1096. Back in the early 1200s, the authorities from the town of Oxford hanged two Oxford University scholars following the death of a woman. There followed a dispute between the townsfolk and the university that resulted in many academics leaving Oxford. Many ended up in Cambridge, leading to the founding of the University of Cambridge in 1209. The two universities a similar status today, and are often referred to jointly as “Oxbridge”.

33 Mousetrap brand : D-CON

d-Con is a line of rodent control products that has been around for over 50 years.

36 1970s Plumber : LIDDY

G. Gordon Liddy serving in various positions in the Nixon administration. In 1971, Liddy was moved into a unit tasked with managing leaks of information from the White House. As the group was working on “leaks”, it was known as the White House “Plumbers” unit. Over time, the Plumbers moved from plugging leaks to actively plotting to embarrass the Democratic opposition during President Nixon’s re-election campaign. Ultimately, Liddy led the group of five men who famously broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Campaign in the Watergate Complex. Liddy was sentenced to a 20-year prison term, although he only served four and a half years following a commutation of his sentence by President Jimmy Carter. Years later, Liddy became quite successful as a nationally syndicated talk show host.

39 Madrid-based airline : IBERIA

The airline called Iberia is the flag carrier for Spain and is based in the country’s capital city at Madrid-Barajas Airport.

40 Moonshine : HOOCH

In the Klondike gold rush, a favorite tipple of the miners was “Hoochinoo”, a liquor made by the native Alaskans. Soon after “hooch” (also “hootch”) was adopted as a word for cheap whiskey.

42 Reuters apps alternative : AP NEWS

The Associated Press (AP) is a news agency based in New York City. AP is a non-profit cooperative that was set up by five New York newspapers in 1846 to share the cost of transmitting news. Nowadays, AP recoups most of its cost by selling news stories and related materials to newspapers all around the world, mostly outside of the US.

46 Down __: Maine nickname : EAST

The coast of Maine is often referred to as “Down East” by the people of New England. There is even a monthly magazine aimed at the people of Maine called “Down East”, that is published in Camden, Maine.

47 Writer Uris : LEON

Leon Uris is an American writer. Uris’s most famous books are “Exodus” and “Trinity”, two excellent stories, in my humble opinion …

51 ER scans : MRIS

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine uses powerful magnetic fields to generate images that can be used by medical professionals to diagnose injury and disease.

53 “Love Song” singer Bareilles : SARA

Sara Bareilles achieved success with her 2007 “Love Song” with the help of the iTunes online store. In one week in June of that year, iTunes offered the song as “free single of the week” and it quickly became the most downloaded song in the store, and from there climbed to the number spot in the charts.

54 Beatles album with a bang : HELP

“Help!” is a 1965 movie, and the second film released by the Beatles. The film’s soundtrack was released under the same title. Personally, I preferred “A Hard Day’s Night”, the Beatles’ first movie …

An exclamation mark is sometimes referred to as a bang. The term “bang”, in this context, comes from printers’ jargon.

55 The Wizard of Oz’s hometown : OMAHA

In the novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, the title character is revealed to have no magical powers, and is in fact a conman from Omaha, Nebraska. The “Wizard” was flying in a hot air balloon one day, when it strayed into the Land of Oz. The conman was assumed to be a great sorcerer, and was elevated to Supreme Leader of the kingdom. At the end of the novel, he leaves Oz in another hot air balloon.

57 Lukas of “Witness” : HAAS

Lukas Haas is an American actor best known for the role he played as an 8-year-old child in the excellent 1985 film “Witness”. In “Witness”, Haas plays a young Amish boy, alongside Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. Although Haas still acts today, he is also a musician and plays drums and piano for a band called The Rogues.

58 Debatable “gift” : ESP

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

59 Small piano : SPINET

“Spinet” is the name given to a smaller version of keyboard instruments, such as a small harpsichord, piano or organ. Spinets are still made today, as cheaper versions of full-size instruments.

60 General __ : MOTORS

General Motors (GM) was the largest manufacturer of vehicles in the world for 77 straight years, at least in terms of numbers of cars sold, from 1931 until 2007. GM was established in 1908 in Flint, Michigan as a holding company for Buick, which in turn had been founded in 1899. GM’s Buick brand is the oldest, still-active automotive brand in the US. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009, and emerged from that bankruptcy just one month later, with a lot of help from the US taxpayer. In order to do so, GM had to shut down its Hummer, Pontiac and Saturn operations. The revamped General Motors then had a huge Initial Public Offering in 2010 that raised $23 billion.

65 Aspiring MBA’s major : ECON

Master of Business Administration (MBA)

66 Fishing boat : DORY

A dory is a small boat that’s around 20 feet long with a shallow draft, a flat bottom and a sharp bow. Dories are commonly used for fishing.

75 WWII weapon : STEN

The STEN gun is an iconic armament that was used by the British military. The name STEN is an acronym. The letters S and T come from the name of the gun’s designers, Shepherd and Turpin. The letters EN comes from the Enfield brand name, which in turn comes from the Enfield location where the guns were manufactured for the Royal Small Arms Factory, an enterprise owned by the British government.

76 Crafts website : ETSY

Etsy.com is an e-commerce website where you can buy and sell the kind of items that you might find at a craft fair.

79 Frozen planet in “The Empire Strikes Back” : HOTH

The fictional planet known as Hoth is featured in the “Star Wars” movie “The Empire Strikes Back”. Hoth is an ice planet, and home to a secret base belonging to the Rebel Alliance.

81 J.Lo’s fiancé : A-ROD

Apparently, singer and actress Jennifer Lopez started dating retired baseball player Alex Rodriguez in February 2017. The couple became engaged in March 2019.

82 Pumpkin pie seasoning : ALLSPICE

The spice known as “allspice” was given its name in the early seventeenth century as it flavor was said to resemble a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. In fact, allspice is made from dried berries from the Pimenta dioica tree.

90 Adam of Maroon 5 : LEVINE

Adam Levine is the lead vocalist of the pop rock band Maroon 5. Levine also served as one of the coaches on the reality show “The Voice” from 2011 through 2019.

91 Mexican horseman : CHARRO

A “charro” is a horseman from Mexico, and is similar to a “vaquero”, a cowboy.

96 QB’s pass to a CB, say : INT

In football, if a quarterback’s (QB’s) pass ends up in the hands of a cornerback (CB), then that’s an interception (INT).

97 L.A. Philharmonic Conductor Emeritus : MEHTA

Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music, from Mumbai. Mehta studied music in Vienna, where he made his conducting debut in 1958. In 1961 he was named assistant director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, creating a fuss with the music director designate of the orchestra, Georg Solti. Solti resigned as a protest, and Mehta took his job. In 1978 Mehta took over as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the New York Philharmonic, eventually becoming the longest holder of that position. In 2019, the Los Angeles Philharmonic bestowed on Mehta the title of Conductor Emeritus.

“Emeritus” (female form “emerita”, and plural “emeriti”) is a term in the title of some retired professionals, particularly those from academia. Originally an emeritus was a veteran soldier who had served his time. The term comes from the Latin verb “emerere” meaning to complete one’s service.

100 Tick-ing bomb? : DEET

“DEET” is short for N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide, an active ingredient in insect repellents. DEET is most often used to repel mosquitoes by applying it to the skin and/or clothing. It is also used to protect against tick bites.

101 City bond, briefly : MUNI

A municipal bond (“muni”) is one that is issued by a city or local government, or some similar agency. Munis have an advantage over other investments in that any interest earned on the bond is usually exempt from state and federal income taxes.

102 “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” author : GORE

“An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” is a 2017 documentary film and accompanying book by former US Vice President Al Gore. The “sequel” is a reference back to the very successful 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”.

104 Spanish cordial : ANIS

Back in the 14th century, we used the word “cordial” to mean “from the heart”. The most common meaning today is “courteous and gracious”. The original usage also evolved into the name for a drink that “stimulated the heart”. Today’s cordial beverages are strong, sweetened liqueurs.

107 “The Name of the Rose” author : ECO

Umberto Eco was an Italian writer who is probably best known for his novel “The Name of the Rose”, published in 1980. In 1986, “The Name of the Rose” was adapted into a movie with the same title starring Sean Connery.

109 Presumed UFO crew : ETS

One might speculate that an unidentified flying object (UFO) is flown by an extraterrestrial (ET).

The post LA Times Crossword 23 Feb 20, Sunday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 5m 07s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Panda Express kitchen items : WOKS

“Wok” is a Cantonese word, and is the name for the frying pan now used in many Asian cuisines.

Panda Express is a restaurant chain specializing in American-Chinese cuisine. The chain was founded in 1983 by husband and wife team Andrew and Peggy Cherng. Andrew opened his first restaurant in 1973 with his father, Master Chef Ming Tsai Cherng from the Yangzhou region of China. That full-service restaurant in Pasadena, California was named the Panda Inn. The Panda Express chain was introduced as a fast-food version of the Panda Inn.

9 Aerospace giant __ & Whitney : PRATT

Pratt & Whitney is a huge manufacturer of aircraft engines that competes with General Electric and Roll-Royce. The company is headquartered in East Hartford, Connecticut.

15 Rapper/actor with a cool name? : ICE-T

Rapper Ice-T must be sick of having his name come up as an answer in crossword puzzles (I know I am!). Born Tracy Marrow, Ice-T has been interested in acting for decades and made his film debut in the 1984 movie about breakdancing called “Breakin’”. He has also played Detective Fin Tutuola in the TV show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” since the year 2000.

16 Talk show host in the National Women’s Hall of Fame : OPRAH

What can you say about Oprah Winfrey that hasn’t been said already? Born into poverty to a single mother and with a harrowing childhood, Oprah is now the greatest African American philanthropist the world has ever known. Oprah’s name was originally meant to be “Orpah” after the Biblical character in the Book of Ruth, and that’s how it appears on her birth certificate. Apparently folks had trouble pronouncing “Orpah”, so she’s now “Oprah”.

The National Women’s Hall of Fame is located in Seneca Falls, New York, which was home to the nation’s first women’s rights convention, in 1848. The Hall was established in 1969, when it was hosted by Eisenhower College, which is also in Seneca Falls. The current facility opened for visitors in 1979. I was lucky enough to spend a very uplifting afternoon there several years ago ….

17 Keyboard chamber work : PIANO TRIO

In the world of chamber music, a trio often includes a piano. Common forms are:

• Clarinet-cello-piano
• Clarinet-viola-piano
• Clarinet-violin-piano

19 Pending state : LIMBO

In the Roman Catholic tradition, “Limbo” is a place where souls can remain who cannot enter heaven. For example, infants who have not been baptized are said to reside in Limbo. Limbo is said to be located on the border of Hell. The name was chosen during the Middle Ages from the Latin “limbo” meaning “ornamental border to a fringe”. We use the phrase “in limbo” in contemporary English to mean “in a state of uncertainty”.

20 Go off-script : AD-LIB

“Ad libitum” is a Latin phrase meaning “at one’s pleasure”. In common usage, the phrase is usually shortened to “ad lib”. On the stage, the concept of an ad lib is very familiar.

21 Indian royal : RAJA

“Raja” (also “rajah”) is a word derived from Sanskrit that is used particularly in India for a monarch or princely ruler. The female form is “rani” (also “ranee”) and is used for a raja’s wife.

23 Very long time : EON

Geological time is divided into a number of units of varying lengths. These are, starting from the largest:

• supereon
• eon (also “aeon”)
• era
• period
• epoch
• age

24 Shih Tzu or Chihuahua : MINIATURE DOG

The Shih Tzu is one of the oldest breeds of dog, and a breed that originated in China. Shih Tzus have long hairy coats but they don’t shed.

Chihuahua is a state in northern Mexico that shares a border with Texas and New Mexico. Chihuahua is the largest state in the country, so has the nickname “El Estado Grande”. The state takes its name from the Chihuahuan Desert which lies largely within its borders. The Chihuahua breed of dog takes its name from the state.

31 Airer of old films : TCM

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is one of my favorite television channels as it delivers just what its name promises, i.e. classic movies.

32 Kindle download : APP

Amazon’s Kindle line of e-book readers was introduced in 2007. The name “kindle” was chosen to evoke images of “lighting a fire” through reading and intellectual stimulation. I bought myself a Kindle Fire HD several years ago. I started reading e-books for the first time in my life, as well as enjoying other computing options available with the tablet device …

33 Norse royal name : OLAV

Of the many kings of Norway named Olaf/Olav (and there have been five), Olaf II is perhaps the most celebrated, as he was canonized and made the patron saint of the country. Olaf II was king from 1015 to 1028 and was known as “Olaf the Big” (or “Olaf the Fat”) during his reign. Today he is more commonly referred to as “Olaf the Holy”. After Olaf died he was given the title of “Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae”, which is Latin for “Norway’s Eternal King”.

40 Authorize someone to represent you at the shareholder meeting : DESIGNATE A PROXY

Our word “proxy”, meaning “the agency of one who acts instead of another”, comes from the Latin “procurare” meaning “to manage”. So, “proxy” has the same root as our word “procure”.

46 Fellows : MEN

Our word “fellow”, meaning “comrade, associate”, is related to our word “fee”. Both terms are rooted in the Old Norse “fe” meaning “money”. The idea is that a “fellow” might “lay down” a “fee” to participate in a joint venture.

47 Pontiac muscle car : GTO

The Pontiac GTO was produced by GM from 1964 to 1974, and again by a GM subsidiary in Australia from 2004 to 2006. The original GTO’s design is credited to Pontiac chief engineer at the time John DeLorean, who later founded the DeLorean Motor Company.

57 __ Paulo : SAO

São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil. It is also the city with the highest number of helicopters in the world. This is partly driven by the horrendous traffic jams in São Paulo, but also by the wealthy having a very real fear of being kidnapped on the city’s streets.

58 Bruins star Phil, to fans : ESPO

Phil “Espo” Esposito is a former professional hockey player who played for the Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. Espo scored 126 points in the 1969 season, hence becoming the first NHL player to score 100 points in a season.

The Boston Bruins professional ice hockey team goes way back, and has been in existence since 1924. The National Hockey League back then was a Canadian-only league, but was expanded to include the US in 1923. The Bruins were the first US-team in the expanded league.

59 Eye surgery acronym : LASIK

LASIK surgery uses a laser to reshape the cornea of the eye to improve vision. The LASIK acronym stands for “laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis”.

63 Singer Ronstadt : LINDA

Linda Ronstadt is a singer-songwriter from Tucson, Arizona. Ronstadt really does have a lovely voice, and is someone who can make any song her own. In the late seventies, she was the highest-paid woman in the world of rock music.

69 “Electric” fish : EELS

“Electrophorus electricus” is the biological name for the electric eel. Despite its name, the electric “eel” isn’t an eel at all, but rather what is called a knifefish, a fish with an elongated body that is related to the catfish. The electric eel has three pairs of organs along its abdomen, each capable of generating an electric discharge. The shock can go as high as 500 volts with 1 ampere of current (500 watts), and that could perhaps kill a human.

72 Deuce topper : TREY

A trey is a three in a deck of cards. The term “trey” can also be used for a domino with three pips, and even a three-point play in basketball.

A “two” playing card might be called a “deuce”, from the Middle French “deus” (or Modern French “deux”) meaning “two”.

73 Smoochy love letter letters : SWAK

“SWAK” is an initialism standing for “sealed with a kiss”. SWAK, and the related SWALK (sealed with a loving kiss), are postal acronyms that originated during WWII.

Down

1 Cantina snack : TAPA

“Tapa” is the Spanish word for “lid”, and there is no clear rationale for why this word came to be used for an appetizer. There are lots of explanations cited, all of which seem to involve the temporary covering of one’s glass of wine with a plate or item of food to either preserve the wine or give one extra space at the table.

2 Oklahoma city : ENID

Enid, Oklahoma takes its name from the old railroad station around which the city developed. Back in 1889, that train stop was called Skeleton Station. An official who didn’t like the name changed it to Enid Station, using a character from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King”. Maybe if he hadn’t changed the name, the city of Enid would now be called Skeleton, Oklahoma! Enid has the nickname “Queen Wheat City” because is has a huge capacity for storing grain, the third largest grain storage capacity in the world.

4 Jeans : DENIMS

Denim fabric originated in Nimes in France. The French phrase “de Nimes” (meaning “from Nimes”) gives us the word “denim”. Also, the French phrase “bleu de Genes” (meaning “blue of Genoa”) gives us our word “jeans”.

6 Text digitization meth. : OCR

Optical character recognition (OCR) is the conversion of scanned typewritten text into digital text. Basically, OCR is the conversion of an image into a text document.

7 Knightley of “Love, Actually” : KEIRA

English actress Keira Knightley had her big break in the movies when she co-starred in 2002’s “Bend It Like Beckham”. Knightley played one of my favorite movie roles, Elizabeth Bennett in 2005’s “Pride and Prejudice”. Knightley won a Golden Globe for that performance, although that 2005 film isn’t the best adaptation of Austen’s novel in my humble opinion …

8 Brown ermine : STOAT

The stoat has dark brown fur in the summer, and white fur in the winter. Sometimes the term “ermine” is used for the animal during the winter when the fur is white. Ermine skins have long been prized by royalty and are often used for white trim on ceremonial robes.

9 Frigid zone ice formation : POLAR CAP

The polar ice cap at the north of our planet is floating pack ice in the Arctic Ocean. The southern polar ice cap is an ice sheet that covers the landmass known as Antarctica. About 70% of all the freshwater on Earth is held in the southern polar ice cap.

10 N.Y. tech school : RPI

The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is a private school in Troy, New York. The university is named after its founder Stephen Van Rensselaer who set up the school in 1824. The goal of RPI has always been the “application of science to the common purposes of life”, an objective set by the founder. Given that, the name for the school’s sports teams is quite apt: the Engineers.

12 It’s forbidden : TABOO

The word “taboo” was introduced into English by Captain Cook in his book “A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean”. Cook described “tabu” (likely imitative of a Tongan word that he had heard) as something that was both consecrated and forbidden.

18 Column that aptly includes the letters BIO : OBIT

Our word “obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”. The Latin term was used for “record of the death of a person”, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

25 Sign gas : NEON

Neon was discovered in 1898 by two British chemists Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers. They chilled a sample of air, turning it into a liquid. They then warmed that liquid and separated out the gases that boiled off. Along with nitrogen, oxygen and argon (already known), the pair of scientists discovered two new gases. The first they called “krypton” and the second “neon”. “Krypton” is Greek for “the hidden one” and “neon” is Greek for “new”.

The basic design of neon lighting was first demonstrated at the Paris Motor Show in 1910. Such lighting is made up of glass tubes containing a vacuum into which has been introduced a small amount of neon gas. When a voltage is applied between two electrodes inside the tube, the neon gas “glows” and gives off the familiar light.

27 Mideast bigwig : EMIR

An emir is a prince or chieftain, one most notably from the Middle East. In English, “emir” can also be written variously as “emeer, amir, ameer” (watch out for those spellings in crosswords!).

A bigwig is someone important. The use of the term “bigwig” harks back to the days when men of authority and rank wore … big wigs.

28 Magazines with Alfred E. Neuman : MADS

Alfred E. Neuman is the mascot of “Mad” magazine, although the image of the smiling, jug-eared youth had been around for decades before the magazine. “Mad” first used the likeness in 1955, and young Mr. Neuman has appeared on the cover of almost every issue of the magazine since then. Neuman’s name was inspired by American composer Alfred Newman, a prolific writer of film scores.

29 Intl. oil group : OPEC

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was founded in 1960 at a conference held in Baghdad, Iraq that was attended by Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Nine more countries joined the alliance soon after, and OPEC set up headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland and then Vienna, Austria in 1965. The basic aim of OPEC was to wrest control of oil prices from the oil companies and put it in the hands of the sovereign states that own the natural resource.

30 __ facto : IPSO

“Ipso facto” is Latin, meaning “by the fact itself”. Ipso facto describes something that is a direct consequence of particular act, as opposed to something that is the result of some subsequent event. For example, my father was born in Dublin and was an Irish citizen ipso facto. My son was born in California and is an Irish citizen by virtue of being the son of an Irish citizen (i.e. “not” ipso facto).

35 Snake’s poison : VENOM

Antivenom (also “antivenin”) is made by extracting venom from say a snake (so called “milking”) and then diluting it and injecting it into a host animal (like a cat, horse or sheep). The animal undergoes an immune response and produces antibodies to neutralize the poison. The antibodies are harvested from the animal’s blood and are stored for use with victims who are bitten by the same snake, or by some other creature that injects the same or a similar venom. I guess antivenom might also be called antiserum …

37 Capital of Italia : ROMA

In Italian, “Roma” (Rome) is the “capitale” (capital) of “Italia” (Italy).

39 Unit of force : DYNE

A dyne is a unit of force. The name “dyne” comes from the Greek “dynamis” meaning “power, force”. Ergs and dynes are related to each other in that one erg is the amount of energy needed to move a force of one dyne over a distance of one centimeter.

41 “Picnic” dramatist : INGE

Playwright William Inge had a run of success on Broadway in the early fifties. Inge’s most celebrated work of that time is the play “Picnic”, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. The original 1953 cast of “Picnic” included a young male actor making his debut on Broadway. His name was Paul Newman. Many of Inge’s works are set in the American heartland and so he became known as the “Playwright of the Midwest”.

48 Tense NBA periods : OTS

Overtime (OT)

50 Taylor of “Mystic Pizza” : LILI

Actress Lili Taylor had supporting roles in films like “Mystic Pizza”, “The Haunting” and “Rudy”. She also had a recurring role in the HBO series “Six Feet Under”.

“Mystic Pizza” is a coming-of-age film released in 1988. Included in the cast are Annabeth Gish and Julia Roberts. If you watch closely, you’ll also see Matt Damon speaking his first line in a movie. The title refers to the name of a pizza restaurant located in Mystic, Connecticut.

51 Largest living antelopes : ELANDS

The eland (plural “eland, elands”) is a large African antelope, in fact the largest antelope on the planet. Both male and female eland have horns, and those horns have a steady spiral ridge along their length.

52 Muslim religion : ISLAM

Over 50% of the world’s population consider themselves to be adherents of the “big three” Abrahamic religions: Christianity (2-2.2 billion), Islam (1.6-1.7 billion) and Judaism (14-18 million).

56 “Today” weather anchor : ROKER

As part of a fundraiser to benefit the military and USO, weatherman Al Roker did a non-stop, 34-hour weather forecast on NBC in November, 2014. The event was nicknamed a “Roker-thon”, and set a new Guinness World Record. Roker reproduced the event in different forms in 2015 and 2017. For Roker-thon 2, Al reported on the weather from all fifty states and Washington, D.C. in the same week. For Roker-thon 3, he visiting colleges around the country and participated in record-setting stunts such as the longest conga line on ice, and the largest human letter.

60 Crock-Pot dinner : STEW

We often use the term “crockpot” as an alternative for “slow cooker”. The generic term comes from the trademark “Crock-Pot”, which is now owned by Sunbeam products.

61 Hogwarts librarian __ Pince : IRMA

In the “Harry Potter” universe, Irma Pince is the librarian at Hogwarts. Ms. Pince is a severe woman, and is said to look like an “underfed vulture”. Pince is played on the big screen by English actress Sally Mortemore.

62 Screwball : KOOK

The original screwball was a delivery in the sport of cricket. That term “screwball” was imported into baseball in the 1920s, and applied to an erratic baseball pitch. By the 1930s, a screwball was an eccentric and erratic person.

66 Land in l’eau : ILE

In French, an “île” (island) is “terre dans la mer” (land in the sea).

67 Future therapist’s maj. : PSY

Psychology (psy.)

The post LA Times Crossword 24 Feb 20, Monday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 5m 19s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Rene of “Ransom” (1996) : RUSSO

The talented actress Rene Russo is a native of Burbank, California. Russo went to high school (with actor/director Ron Howard), but dropped out in tenth grade. At seventeen, she was given the opportunity to train as a model and within a very short time appeared on the cover of “Vogue”. As her modelling jobs slowed down in her early thirties, Russo made a career change and studied theater and acting.

“Ransom” is a 1996 movie starring Mel Gibson as the father of a young boy who is kidnapped. The film has an interesting pedigree. It is a remake of the 1956 film titled “Ransom!”, starring Glenn Ford, which in turn was inspired by a 1954 episode of “The United STates Steel Hour” television anthology series. All three productions focus on the father’s public offer to pay the ransom amount as a bounty on the heads of the kidnappers.

14 Part of “the works” on a burger : ONION

The dish we know today as a hamburger was known as a hamburger sandwich prior to 1939. “Hamburger” comes from “hamburg steak”, which was named for the German city starting in 1880.

16 Needle case : ETUI

An etui is an ornamental case used to hold small items, in particular sewing needles. We imported both the case design and the word “etui” from France. The French also have a modern usage of “etui”, using the term to depict a case for carrying CDs.

17 1950 Gloria Swanson film : SUNSET BOULEVARD (giving “Hollywood Boulevard”)

“Sunset Boulevard” is a classic film noir co-written and directed by the great Billy Wilder, and released in 1950. It’s a story about a faded film star (played by Gloria Swanson) who dreams about making a return to the screen. Andrew Lloyd Webber made a reasonably successful musical adaptation of the film using the same title, which opened in London in 1993.

Gloria Swanson was the highest-paid movie actor of the Silent Era. Famously, Swanson made a comeback in movies when she played a reclusive silent film star in the 1950 film “Sunset Boulevard”. Off the screen, the actress was notorious for her affair with Joe Kennedy, Sr., father of President John F. Kennedy.

Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles is home to the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, comprising over 2,500 stars embedded in the sidewalk. The thoroughfare was named Prospect Boulevard until 1920, when the town of Hollywood was annexed by the city of Los Angeles.

22 Note from one who’s shy? : IOU

I owe you (IOU)

25 1979 Jim Henson film : THE MUPPET MOVIE (giving “Hollywood movie”)

1979’s “The Muppet Movie” was the first in a series of theatrical films featuring the Muppets. Charles Durning plays the lead non-puppet role, and there are numerous cameos from a virtual cavalcade of Hollywood stars, including Dom Deluise, James Coburn, Madeline Kahn, Telly Savalas, Milton Berle, Elliott Gould, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Bob Hope and Orson Welles.

34 Jazz instruments : SAXES

The saxophone was invented by Belgian musician Adolphe Sax. Sax developed lip cancer at one point in his life, and one has to wonder if his affliction was related to his saxophone playing (I am sure not!). I had the privilege of visiting Sax’s grave in the Cemetery of Montmartre in Paris a few years ago.

35 Peruvian singer Sumac : YMA

Yma Sumac was a Peruvian soprano. Sumac had a notable vocal range of five octaves.

39 24-hr. cash source : ATM

Automatic Teller Machine (ATM)

42 1988 Demi Moore film : THE SEVENTH SIGN (giving “Hollywood sign”)

“The Seventh Sign” is a horror movie released in 1988. The “Seventh” reference is to the seven symbolic seals securing a scroll described in the Bible’s Book of Revelation. I probably won’t be seeing this one …

Demi Moore was born Demetria Guynes and took the name Demi Moore when she married her first husband, Freddy Moore. Moore’s second husband was Bruce Willis. She changed her name to Demi Guynes Kutcher a few years after marrying her third husband, Ashton Kutcher. However, Kutcher and Moore split in 2013.

The iconic HOLLYWOOD sign located in the hills overlooking the Los Angeles district of Hollywood was erected in 1923. The sign originally read “HOLLYWOODLAND” and was placed as an advertisement for a new housing development with that name. The plan was for the sign to stay in place for 18 months, but as it became associated with the growing film industry, it was left in place. The sign was refurbished in 1949 by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, with the stipulation that the “LAND” be dropped. A new version of the sign using more permanent materials was unveiled in 1978.

45 News initials : UPI

Founded in 1958, United Press International (UPI) used to be one of the biggest news agencies in the world, sending out news by wire to the major newspapers. UPI ran into trouble with the change in media formats at the end of the twentieth century and lost many of its clients as the afternoon newspapers shut down due to the advent of television news. UPI, which once employed thousands, still exists today but with just a fraction of that workforce.

46 __ bunt: productive MLB out : SAC

That would be baseball.

52 “John Wick” star Keanu : REEVES

Keanu Reeves is a Canadian actor whose most celebrated roles were a metalhead in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989), a cop in “Speed” (1994) and the protagonist Neo in “The Matrix” series of films. Although Reeves is a Canadian national, he was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Reeves has some Hawaiian descent, and the name “Keanu” is Hawaiian for “the coolness” or “cool breeze”.

“John Wick” is a 2014 action movie starring Keanu Reeves in the title role. Reeves plays a retired hitman who goes on a killing spree to avenge the murder of his dog. There’s quite the body count …

57 2002 Woody Allen film … or what each of the last words of 17-, 25- and 42-Across can be : HOLLYWOOD ENDING

“Hollywood Ending” is a 2002 film written and directed by Woody Allen. Allen also plays the lead character, a fading movie director who suffers a psychosomatic form of blindness due to the pressure of work.

59 “Garfield” dog : ODIE

Odie is Garfield’s best friend, and is a slobbery beagle. Both are characters in Jim Davis’ comic strip named “Garfield”.

60 Baseball family name : ALOU

Moisés Alou played Major League Baseball, as did his father Felipe and his uncles Matty and Jesús.

61 Dalai Lama’s land : TIBET

Tibet is a plateau region that is part of China, and is located northeast of the Himalayas. Tibet declared its independence from China in 1913, but fell back under Chinese control after the Invasion of Tibet in 1951. The Tibetan leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled the country during the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion. Since then, he has led the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India.

The Dalai Lama is a religious leader in the Gelug branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The current Dalai Lama is the 14th to hold the office. He has indicated that the next Dalai Lama might be found outside of Tibet for the first time, and may even be female.

64 Clairvoyants : SEERS

We’ve been using the term “clairvoyant” to describe a psychic since the nineteenth century. Prior to that, a clairvoyant was a clear-sighted person. The term comes from French, with “clair” meaning “clear” and “voyant” meaning “seeing”.

Down

1 PBS painter Bob : ROSS

Bob Ross was an artist and art instructor. Ross created and appeared in the long-running PBS show “The Joy of Painting”, a show which provided instructions for budding artists.

2 E pluribus __ : UNUM

From 1776, “E pluribus unum” was the unofficial motto of the United States. The phrase translates from Latin as “Out of many, one”. It was pushed aside in 1956 when an Act of Congress designated “In God We Trust” as the country’s official motto. “In God We Trust” had appeared on US coins since 1864, but was only introduced on paper currency in 1957.

3 Chinese: Pref. : SINO-

The prefix “Sino-” is used to refer to things Chinese. It comes from the Latin word “Sinae” meaning … “Chinese”!

7 Fair-haired Wells race : ELOI

In the 1895 novella by H. G. Wells called “The Time Machine”, there are two races that the hero encounter in his travels into the future. The Eloi are the “beautiful people” who live on the planet’s surface. The Morlocks are a domineering race living underground who use the Eloi as food.

The full name of the English author known as H. G. Wells was Herbert George Wells. Wells is particularly well known for his works of science fiction, including “The War of the Worlds”, “The Time Machine”, “The Invisible Man” and “The Island of Doctor Moreau”. He was a prolific author, and a prolific lover as well. While married to one of his former students with whom he had two sons, he also had a child with writer Amber Reeves, and another child with author Rebecca West.

10 Actor Danny who appears in M&M’s commercials : DEVITO

Danny DeVito’s big break as an actor came with the role of Louie De Palma on the sitcom “Taxi”. After parlaying his success on television into some major comic roles on the big screen, DeVito turned to producing. He co-founded the production company Jersey Films which made hit movies such as “Pulp Fiction” and “Garden State”. DeVito has been married to actress Rhea Perlman for well over 30 years.

Forrest Mars, Sr. was the founder of the Mars Company. Forrest invented the Mars Bar while living over in England and then developed M&M’s when he returned to the US. Mars came up with the idea for M&M’s when he saw soldiers in the Spanish Civil War eating chocolate pellets. Those pellets had a hard shell of tempered chocolate on the outside to prevent them from melting. Mars got some of the funding to develop the M&M from William Murrie, the son of the president of Hershey’s Chocolate. It is the “M” and “M” from “Mars” and “Murrie” that gives the name to the candy.

11 Run __: drink on credit : A TAB

When we run a “tab” at a bar, we are running a “tabulation”, a listing of what we owe. Such a use of “tab” is American slang that originated in the 1880s.

13 Laundry soap brand : TIDE

Tide is a laundry detergent that has been made by Procter & Gamble since 1946. Back then, Tide was marketed as “America’s Washday Favorite”.

18 Commandment pronoun : THOU

According to the Book of Exodus, God inscribed the Ten Commandments on two stone tablets and gave them to Moses on Mount Sinai.

19 Red-wrapped cheeses : EDAMS

Edam cheese takes its name from the Dutch town of Edam in North Holland. The cheese is famous for its coating of red paraffin wax, a layer of protection that helps Edam travel well and prevents spoiling. You might occasionally come across an Edam cheese that is coated in black wax. The black color indicates that the underlying cheese has been aged for a minimum of 17 weeks.

25 “The __ is out there”: “The X-Files” catchphrase : TRUTH

“The X-Files” is a very successful science fiction show that originally aired on the Fox network from 1993 to 2002. The stars of the show are David Duchovny (playing Fox Mulder) and the very talented Gillian Anderson (playing Dana Scully). By the time the series ended, “The X-Files” was the longest running sci-fi show in US broadcast history. An “X-Files” reboot started airing in 2016 with Duchovny and Anderson reprising their starring roles.

26 Blackjack request : HIT ME

“Stand” and “hit me” are instructions to the dealer in the card game Blackjack. The instruction “stand” means “I don’t want any more cards, I’ll use these”. The instruction “hit me” means “please deal me another card”.

27 Handy Scrabble tile : ESS

The game of Scrabble has been produced in many international versions, and each of these editions has its own tile distribution to suit the local language. For example, in English we have two tiles worth ten points: one “Q” and one “Z”. If you play the game in French then there are five tiles worth ten points: one “K”, one “W”, one “X”, one “Y” and one “Z”.

28 Eucharistic plate : PATEN

The paten and chalice hold a special place in many Christian services. The paten is the plate that holds the bread and the chalice the wine, used to represent the body and blood of Christ.

In the Christian, the Eucharist is a rite celebrating Christ’s sacrifice, as called out by Jesus at the Last Supper.

32 Wyatt of the Old West : EARP

The legendary Western gunfighter and lawman Wyatt Earp has been portrayed on the big and small screen many, many times. Kevin Costner played the title role in 1994’s “Wyatt Earp”, and Val Kilmer played Earp in 2012’s “The First Ride of Wyatt Earp”. Joel McCrea had the part in 1955’s “Wichita”, and Kurt Russell was Earp in 1993’s “Tombstone”. James Garner played Earp twice, in 1967’s “Hour of the Gun” and 1988’s “Sunset”.

33 Future MD’s class : ANAT

Anatomy (anat.)

37 1860s North-South conflict : CIVIL WAR

The American Civil War lasted just over four years, from 1861 to 1865. Hostilities began with an attack by Confederate forces on Fort Sumter in South Carolina, which was held by Union troops. In essence, the war ended with the defeat of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia by Union forces led by Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Over 750,000 soldiers died in the conflict, making the Civil War the deadliest war in American history. About 30% of all Southern white males aged 18-40 were lost in the fighting.

38 Letter before omega : PSI

Psi is the 23rd and penultimate letter of the Greek alphabet, and the one that looks a bit like a trident or a pitchfork.

44 Tortoise racer : HARE

“The Tortoise and the Hare” is perhaps the most famous fable attributed to Aesop. The cocky hare takes a nap during a race against the tortoise, and the tortoise sneaks past the finish line for the win while his speedier friend is sleeping.

47 Website with step-by-step instructions : EHOW

eHow is a how-to website that was founded in 1999. eHow has an awful lot of content but doesn’t do a great job of assessing the value of that content. I wouldn’t recommend it …

48 “Star Wars” sentence inverter : YODA

Yoda is one of the most beloved characters of the “Star Wars” series of films. Yoda’s voice is provided by the great modern-day puppeteer Frank Oz of “Muppets” fame.

49 Tiger Woods’ ex : ELIN

Elin Nordegren is the ex-wife of Tiger Woods. Nordegren is a native of Sweden, and it was back in Sweden that she was hired as a nanny by the wife of golfer Jesper Parnevik. The job brought her to the US, where she met Tiger Woods. The pair were married in 2004, and have two children together: Sam Alexis born in 2007, and Charlie Axel born in 2009. The marriage fell apart after Woods admitted to infidelity and the couple divorced in 2010.

50 1970 Kinks hit : LOLA

“Lola” is a fabulous song that was written by Ray Davies and released by the Kinks back in 1970. Inspired by a real life incident, the lyrics tell of young man who met a young “lady” in a club, danced with her, and then discovered “she” was actually a transvestite. The storyline isn’t very traditional, but the music is superb.

The Kinks were an English band who participated in the British Invasion of America in the sixties, although only briefly. After touring the US in the middle of 1965, the American Federation of Musicians refused permits for the Kinks to book concerts for four years, apparently in response to some rowdy on-stage behavior by the band.

53 Actress Falco : EDIE

Actress Edie Falco won three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano on HBO’s outstanding drama series called “The Sopranos”. Falco also won an Emmy in 2010 for playing the title role in “Nurse Jackie”, an excellent black comedy.

55 The “E” in DOE: Abbr. : ENER

The US Department of Energy (DOE) came into being largely as a result of the 1973 oil crisis. The DOE was founded in 1977 by the Carter administration. The DOE is responsible for regulating the production of nuclear power, and it is also responsible for the nation’s nuclear weapons. The official DOE seal features a lightning bolt and symbols denoting five sources of energy: the sun, an atom, an oil derrick, a windmill and a dynamo.

56 Some NCOs : SGTS

A non-commissioned officer (NCO) might be a sergeant (sgt.) or a corporal (cpl.).

The post LA Times Crossword 25 Feb 20, Tuesday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.

Bill’s time: 5m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Commerce pact to be replaced by USMCA when its ratified : NAFTA

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is a treaty between Canada, Mexico and the United States. When NAFTA came into force in 1994, it set up the largest free trade zone in the world. The plan is to supercede NAFTA with the USMCA (United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement).

15 Apple music players : IPODS

The iPod is Apple’s signature line of portable media players. The iPod first hit the market in 2001 with a hard drive-based device, now known as the iPod Classic. Later models all use flash memory, allowing a smaller form factor. The smallest of the flash-based models is the iPod Shuffle, which was introduced in 2005.

16 Actress Longoria : EVA

Eva Longoria is a fashion model and actress who had a regular role on TV’s “Desperate Housewives” playing Gabrielle Solis.

17 *Top brass : HEAD HONCHOS (giving “shower head”)

“Honcho” is a slang term meaning “leader”. The word comes to us from Japanese military, in which language a “hancho” is a “squad” (han) “leader” (cho).

20 Iraq War concern: Abbr. : WMD

The first recorded use of the term “Weapon of Mass Destruction” (WMD) was in 1937. The words were used by Cosmo Gordon Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, in reference to the bombardment of Guernica in Spain during the Spanish Civil War by the German Luftwaffe. He said, “Who can think without horror of what another widespread war would mean, waged as it would be with all the new weapons of mass destruction?”

What we now know as the Iraq War started on 20 March 2003 with an invasion by a coalition of forces led by the US. The end of the Iraq War has been set at 15 December 2011, on which date there was a flag-lowering ceremony in Baghdad. The last US troops left Iraq three days later.

28 Almost on “E” : LOW

A gas gauge ranges from E (empty) to F (full).

29 Biblical mount : ASS

The ass or donkey is mentioned several times in the Bible. One of the most-quoted biblical stories involving an ass is the story of Balaam. Balaam was a diviner who appears in the Book of Numbers in. In one account, Balaam is held to task by an angel for particularly cruel treatment of an ass.

31 “The Art of Loving” author Erich : FROMM

Erich Fromm was a German psychologist. Fromm studied extensively the work of Sigmund Freud, and became very critical of his theories. He was also noted for his political views, and had a socialist leaning. He spent some time in the US and was active in the Socialist Party of America in the fifties, when McCarthyism was running rampant.

“The Art of Loving” is a 1956 book by the German-American psychoanalyst Erich Fromm. In the work, Fromm rejects the concept of romantic love, love that is magical and mysterious. He argues that love is a skill that can be taught and developed, and that true love involves care, responsibility, respect and knowledge.

34 Fort Collins sch. : CSU

Colorado State University (CSU) was founded in Fort Collins in 1870 as the Colorado Agricultural College. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Colorado State Rams, although back in the days of the Colorado Agricultural College, the teams were referred to as the Aggies.

The origins of the Colorado city of Fort Collins go back to Camp Collins, which was erected in the mid-1860s to protect the overland mail route passing through the area. The US Army then founded Fort Collins as a military outpost in 1864. The Collins name comes from army officer Lieutenant William O. Collins, who was in charge of Fort Laramie located 150 miles to the north. It was Collins who authorized the establishment of both Camp Collins and Fort Collins.

42 Unagi, e.g. : EEL

“Unagi” is the Japanese term for” freshwater eel”, and “anago” is the term for “saltwater eel”.

47 “Help!” at sea : SOS

The combination of three dots – three dashes – three dots, is a Morse signal first introduced by the German government as a standard distress call in 1905. The sequence is remembered as the letters SOS (three dots – pause – three dashes – pause – three dots). That said, in the emergency signal there is no pause between the dots and dashes, so “SOS” is really only a mnemonic. Similarly, the phrases “Save Our Souls” and “Save Our Ship” are also mnemonics that were introduced after the SOS signal was adopted.

49 P-like letter : RHO

Rho is the Greek letter that looks just like our Roman letter “p”, although it is equivalent to the Roman letter R.

50 *Market-based pollution-control policy : CAP AND TRADE (giving “shower cap”)

“Cap and trade” is an emissions trading scheme designed to reduce overall emission of greenhouse gases. The idea is that a government can limit a country’s overall industrial emissions by issuing permits to companies, allowing a limited level of emissions. A company needing to emit more gases can trade permits with a company needing a lower limit, so that the country’s overall emissions target can still be achieved.

54 “__ Explain Things to Me”: 2014 Rebecca Solnit essay anthology : MEN

“Men Explain Things to Me” is a 2014 collection of seven essays by American writer Rebecca Solnit. The book’s title is taken from the first essay, a 2008 work that explores the silencing of women, and the concept that men always know better. This essay inspired the use of the term “mansplaining”.

55 Yellow-and-white daisy : OXEYE

Oxeyes are in the daisy family of plants.

56 “Otoh, what will you pay?” : OBO

Or best offer (OBO)

On the other hand (OTOH)

57 Long of “Empire” : NIA

Nia Long is an American actress who is probably best known for playing Will Smith’s sometime girlfriend and fiancee Lisa Wilkes on the TV show “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”.

“Empire” is a musical drama series that first aired on Fox early in 2015. The title refers to a hip hop music company.

59 Classic “Psycho” segment where one might see the starts of the answers to starred clues : SHOWER SCENE

The classic Alfred Hitchcock suspense film “Psycho” released in 1960 is based on a 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The Bloch novel in turn is loosely based on actual crimes committed by murderer and grave robber Ed Gein. When “Psycho” was making its initial run in theaters, latecomers were not granted admission, abiding by a policy instigated by Hitchcock himself. He felt that anyone missing the opening scenes would not enjoy the film.

64 Canon SLR : EOS

I’ve been using Canon EOS cameras for decades now, and have nothing but good things to say about both the cameras and the lenses. The EOS name stands for Electro-Optical System, and was chosen because it evokes the name of Eos, the Titan goddess of dawn from Greek mythology.

66 Certain Jamaican, religiously : RASTA

I must admit that I don’t really know much about Rastafarianism. I do know that a “Rasta”, such as Bob Marley, is a follower of the movement. Some say that Rastafarianism is a religion, some not. I also know that it involves the worship of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia.

The island nation of Jamaica is located just under 100 miles south of Cuba in the Carribean Sea. Christopher Columbus first visited the island in 1494, and he and his crew were stranded there for over a year from 1503-1504. Spanish rule devastated the local population, though violence and disease. As a result, the Spanish transplanted African slaves to Jamaica to work as labourers. Spain lost Jamaica to the English in 1655. Given the turbulent history, most Jamaicans today are of African descent, and Jamaica is the third-most populous English-speaking country in the Americas (after the US and Canada).

67 Brief reaction to oversharing : TMI

Too much information (TMI)

68 Newspaper essays : OP-EDS

“Op-ed” is an abbreviation for “opposite the editorial page”. Op-eds started in “The New York Evening World” in 1921 when the page opposite the editorials was used for articles written by a named guest writer, someone independent of the editorial board.

69 Wild West movie : OATER

The term “oater” that is used for a Western movie comes from the number of horses seen, as horses love oats!

Down

4 Lincoln in-law : TODD

Mary Todd moved in the best of the social circles in Springfield, Illinois and there met the successful lawyer, Abraham Lincoln. The path to their marriage wasn’t exactly smooth, as the engagement was broken once but reinstated, with the couple eventually marrying in 1842.

7 Florida theme park : EPCOT

EPCOT Center (now just called “Epcot”) is the theme park beside Walt Disney World in Florida. EPCOT is an acronym standing for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, and is a representation of the future as envisioned by Walt Disney. Walt Disney actually wanted to build a living community for 20,000 residents at EPCOT, but he passed away without that vision being realized.

8 Play-__: kids’ clay : DOH

Back in the 1930s, a manufacturer in Cincinnati produced a doughy compound that was used to clean wallpaper. Twenty years later, school-kids started using the cleaning material as a modelling compound, so the manufacturer reworked the formula, and sold it to local schools. It was given the name “Play-Doh”.

11 Striped equine : ZEBRA

The term “zebra” comes from an old Portuguese word “zevra” meaning “wild ass”. Studies of zebra embryos show that zebras are basically black in color, with white stripes that develop with growth. Before this finding, it was believed they were white, with black stripes.

23 Tesla Model X, for one : ECOCAR

The Model X is an all-electric crossover SUV made by Tesla Motors in Fremont, California. The Model X is built on Tesla’s Model S sedan platform.

24 “The Hobbit” being : ELF

“The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” is a children’s fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien that was popular from the time of its first publication in 1937. Included in the early awards for “The Hobbit” was a prize for best juvenile fiction from “The New York Herald Tribune”. Tolkien adapted his succeeding novel “The Lord of the Rings” to incorporate elements in “The Hobbit”, so that the two tales are very much related.

25 Sleeveless top, for short : CAMI

A camisole (also “cami”) is a sleeveless undergarment worn by women that extends down to the waist. “Camisole” is a French word that we imported into English that ultimately derives from the Latin “camisia” meaning “shirt, nightgown”.

26 “A Death in the Family” author : AGEE

James Agee was a noted American film critic and screenwriter. Agee wrote an autobiographical novel “A Death in the Family” that won him his Pulitzer in 1958, albeit posthumously. He was also one of the screenwriters for the 1951 classic movie “The African Queen”.

32 “Help!” at sea : MAYDAY

The term “Mayday” is an emergency codeword that is used internationally as a distress signal, especially when making a radio transmission. “Mayday” comes from the French phrase “venez m’aider” meaning “come to help me”. When used properly, the term is repeated three times in a row: “Mayday Mayday Mayday”.

33 UPS rival : DHL

Back in the sixties, Larry Hillblom was making pocket money as a Berkeley law student by doing courier runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. After law school, Hillblom decided to parlay his experience into his own business and set up a courier service flying bills of lading ahead of freight from San Francisco to Honolulu. He brought in two buddies, Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn, as partners and the three were soon hopping on and off commercial flights and gradually making more and more money. And DHL was born … D (for Dalsey) H (for Hillblom) L (for Lynn). DHL was acquired by Germany’s Deutsche Post in 2002.

35 Most ingratiatingly earnest : SMARMIEST

The word “smarm” describes insincere flattery. The term comes from a colloquial word “smalm” that was used in the mid-19th century to mean “smear the hair with some sort of styling product”.

46 World Heritage Site org. : UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is better known by the acronym “UNESCO”. UNESCO’s mission is to help build peace in the world using programs focused on education, the sciences, culture, communication and information. The organization’s work is aimed in particular at Africa, and gender equalization. UNESCO also administers a World Heritage Site program that designates and helps conserve sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to humanity across the world.

47 Civil War swords : SABERS

A saber (sometimes “sabre”) is a sword with a curved blade and a relatively large hand guard. It is thought that the term originated with the Hungarian verb “szabni” meaning “to cut”.

48 Baking soda target : ODOR

“Baking soda” is a common name for the compound sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3).

50 Tenth Commandment verb : COVET

According to the Book of Exodus, the wording for the tenth commandment is:

… thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

52 One side in the “cola wars” : PEPSI

“Cola Wars” is a phrase used to describe the competing marketing campaigns of Coca Cola and PepsiCo. Coke is winning …

53 Crewed in a shell : ROWED

A scull is a boat used for competitive rowing. The main hull of the boat is often referred to as a shell. Crew members who row the boat can be referred to as “oars”. And, a scull is also an oar mounted on the stern of a small boat. It’s all very confusing …

57 College Football Playoff org. : NCAA

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

60 Sock __ : HOP

Sock hops were high school dances typically held in the school gym or cafeteria. The term “sock hop” arose because the dancers were often required to remove their shoes to protect the varnished floor in the gym.

62 “No seats” sign : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

The post LA Times Crossword 26 Feb 20, Wednesday appeared first on LAXCrossword.com.