LA Times Crossword 18 Apr 20, Saturday

Bill’s time: 10m 04s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Joe __ : SCHMO

“Schmo” (also “shmo”) is American slang for a dull or boring person, and comes from the Yiddish word “shmok”.

14 Distant : ALOOF

I suppose one might guess from the “feel” of the word “aloof” that it has nautical roots. Originally “aloof” meant “to windward” and was the opposite of “alee”. A helmsman might be instructed to stay aloof, to steer the boat into the weather to keep a distance from a lee-shore. It is from this sense of maintaining a distance that aloof came to mean “distant” in terms of personality. Interesting, huh …?

15 Foam footwear : CROC

Crocs are foam clogs that were originally designed as shoes to be worn at health spas.

16 Place for a grinder : DELI

The etymology of “grinder”, as a name for a sandwich, is unknown. That said, it is known that term dates back to 1954. It is speculated that eating the large sandwich requires a lot of chewing, and hence the name “grinder”.

17 Metropolis nickname : MAN OF STEEL

In the world of DC Comics, Metropolis is a city-state in America that is inspired by real-life New York City that is home to Superman, the Man of Steel. And, while New York City is nicknamed “the Big Apple”, fictional Metropolis is nicknamed “the Big Apricot”.

19 2004 International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee : GRAF

Steffi Graf is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from Germany. Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, which is more than any other man or woman other than Margaret Court. She is married to another former World No. 1, namely Andre Agassi.

20 Liqueur flavoring : MENTHE

A “cream liqueur” is one that includes dairy cream. The most famous example is probably Baileys Irish Cream, that is made from cream and Irish whiskey. A crème liqueur, on the other hand, is one that includes a lot of added sugar, but no dairy cream. Examples are crème de cacao (chocolate-flavored), crème de menthe (mint-flavored) and crème de cassis (blackcurrant-flavored).

23 Money layouts, say : PHOTOSPREADS

“Money” magazine is a sister publication of “Time”, and focuses on personal finance.

29 John Wayne film set in Tanganyika : HATARI!

“Hatari!” is a film directed by Howard Hawks that was released in 1962. The movie stars John Wayne as a big game hunter in Africa. “Hatari” translates from Swahili as “danger”.

John Wayne was named Marion Mitchell Morrison at birth, after his grandfather who was a Civil War veteran. When young Marion was a little boy, a local fireman used to call him “Little Duke” because he was always seen walking with his large dog called “Duke”. Marion liked the name “Duke” and so he called himself Duke Morrison for the rest of his life. That said, Duke Morrison also used John Wayne as a stage name.

Tanganyika was a former British colony that gained its independence from the UK in 1961. Three years later, Tanganyika joined with Zanzibar to form a new nation that soon adopted the name of Tanzania. “Tanzania” is a portmanteau of “Tanganyika” and “Zanzibar”.

30 15th-century ruler Axayácatl, e.g. : AZTEC

Axayácatl was ruler of the Aztec Empire from 1469 to 1481. The name “Axayácatl” translates as “face of water”.

31 Sean who played Samwise : ASTIN

Sean Astin is best known for playing the title role in the 1993 film “Rudy” and the character Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings” movies. You might also have seen him playing Lynn McGill in the 5th season of “24”. Astin is the son of actress Patty Duke, and the adopted son of actor John Astin (of “The Addams Family” fame).

32 Trip-taking aid : 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 …

35 She plays Watson on “Elementary” : LIU

Lucy Liu is an actress from Queens, New York. Liu’s big break came when she was chosen to play the Ling Woo character in “Ally McBeal”. I liked her in the 2000 film “Charlie’s Angels” but as I am no fan of Quentin Tarantino, I did not enjoy the movie “Kill Bill”. I do enjoy one of Liu’s more recent projects in which she plays Jane Watson, one of the two lead characters in the TV crime drama “Elementary”.

If you’ve seen the American television show “Elementary”, you will know that it is an adaptation of the classic tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that are set in the present day. “Elementary” is similar in look and feel to the excellent BBC series “Sherlock”, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a modern-day Holmes. We can pick up “Sherlock” in some parts of the country as part of “Masterpiece Mystery” on PBS.

38 __ Day: Hawaii celebration : LEI

What’s known as “May Day” around the world is also called “Lei Day” in Hawaii. Lei Day started in the twenties and is a celebration of native Hawaiian culture.

39 ISP choice : MSN

The Microsoft Network (MSN) used to be an Internet service provider (ISP). These days, MSN is mainly a web portal.

40 Watts on the keys : ANDRE

André Watts is a classical pianist who was born in Germany to a Hungarian mother and an American father who was serving with the US military. Watts is a professor at the Jacobs School of Music in Indiana University.

45 Mall booths : KIOSKS

Our word “kiosk” came to us via French and Turkish from the Persian “kushk” meaning “palace, portico”.

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.

46 Nakia portrayer in “Black Panther” : LUPITA NYONG’O

Lupita Nyong’o is a Kenyan-Mexican actress who was born in Mexico, raised in Kenya, and educated in the US. Nyong’o got her big break in movies with an Oscar-winning supporting role in the 2013 film “12 Years a Slave”. She was named “People” magazine’s “ Most Beautiful Woman” in 2014.

“Black Panther” is a 2018 superhero film starring Chadwick Boseman in the title role. Black Panther is a Marvel Comics character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. When not a superhero, Black Panther is the king of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, and goes by the name “T’Challa”.

49 Melodic pieces : ARIOSI

An arioso (plural “ariosi”) is a solo vocal piece in a classical work such as an opera or an oratorio. An arioso’s structure lies somewhere between that of a full-blown aria and speech-like recitative.

58 Wells’ Weena et al. : ELOI

In the 1895 novella by H. G. Wells called “The Time Machine”, there are two races that the hero encounters 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.

Yvette Mimieux is an American actress, born to a French father and Mexican mother. Mimieux had a lot of success in Hollywood in the early sixties, but was never able to regain the same level of celebrity in later years. Most famously, she portrayed Weena in the excellent 1960 film “The Time Machine”.

59 Nevada city straddling the Humboldt River : ELKO

The city of Elko, Nevada came into being in 1868 as a settlement built around the eastern end of a railway line that was constructed from California and that was destined for Utah. When that section of the line was completed, the construction crews moved on towards the Nevada/Utah border, and the settlement was left behind to eventually form the city of Elko

The Humboldt River in northern Nevada never makes it to the ocean. Rather, it empties into the Humboldt Sink, a dry lake located about 50 miles northeast of Reno. Eventually named for German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, the river had many names in the past , including “Unknown River”, “Paul’s River”, “Mary’s River”, “Swampy River”, “Barren River” and “Ogden River”.

61 Old swift fliers : SSTS

The most famous supersonic transport (SST) is the retired Concorde. Concorde was developed and produced under an Anglo-French treaty by France’s Aérospatiale and the UK’s British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Concordes were mainly operated by Air France and British Airways, with both companies buying the planes with substantial subsidies from the French and British governments. The final Concorde flight was a British Airways plane that landed in the UK on 26 November 2003.

62 Cannon of Hollywood : DYAN

Actress Dyan Cannon is perhaps best known for playing Alice in the 1969 film “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice”, for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Cannon is also famous for having been on Cary Grant’s long list of wives, from 1965 to 1968 (and he was 33 years her senior).

63 Newton parts : DYNES

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.

Newtons are units of force. The newton is named for Sir Isaac Newton, the English physicist and mathematician.

Down

1 “In the Lonely Hour” singer Smith : SAM

Sam Smith is a singer from London. I think that the only recording I’ve heard of his is “Writing’s on the Wall”, which is the theme song from the 2015 James Bond movie “Spectre”.

4 Heavenly dessert? : MOON PIE

Marshmallow cream was developed in 1927. Soon after, workers in the coal mines around Chattanooga, Tennessee started dipping graham crackers in marshmallow cream as a snack. Then a local baker jumped on the idea, and came up with a sandwich made with a marshmallow filling between two round graham crackers. His young grandson remarked that the popped bubbles in the marshmallow (from baking) looked like moon craters, and the Moon Pie was born. I used to love them as a kid, although we called them “Wagon Wheels” in our part of the world.

8 Kazan of “Olive Kitteridge” : ZOE

Actress Zoe Kazan is a granddaughter of famed film and theater director Elia Kazan.

“Olive Kitteridge” is a 2014 miniseries that is based on a 2008 novel of the same name by Elizabeth Strout. Actress Frances McDormand plays the title role, a cantankerous but well-meaning, retired schoolteacher living in a coastal town in Maine. I haven’t seen this one, but it’s on the list …

9 Like a much-watched 8/21/2017 alignment : ECLIPTIC

The solar eclipse of 2017 (August 21st) was broadly referred to as the Great American Eclipse, as the whole of the US experienced at least a partial eclipse, and the path of totality swept through 14 states.

11 Pre-revolution French royal residence site : VERSAILLES

Versailles is a city located just 10 miles from the center of Paris. It is famous as home to the magnificent Palace of Versailles. The palace started out as a hunting lodge built in the village of Versailles in 1624, built for Louis XIII. Louis XIII extended the lodge into a full-blown château, but it was Louis XIV who expanded it into one of the largest palaces on the planet. Louis XIV moved the royal court from Paris to Versailles starting in 1678.

12 African antelope : ELAND

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.

25 “Mercure” composer Erik : SATIE

“Mercure” is a 1924 ballet by French composer Erik Satie. When it debuted in 1924 in Paris, the set and costumes were designed by Pablo Picasso.

27 Israeli weapons : UZIS

The first Uzi submachine gun was designed in the late 1940s by Major Uziel “Uzi” Gal of the Israel Defense Forces, who gave his name to the gun.

31 “As You Like It” forest : ARDEN

The Forest of Arden is the setting for Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”. Even though there is a Forest of Arden surrounding Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford-on-Avon, as the play is set in France one has to assume that the “As You Like It” Arden is an anglicization of the forested “Ardennes” region that stretches from Belgium into France.

34 Ph.D. hurdle : DISS

Dissertation (diss.)

44 Pungent spreads : AIOLIS

To the purist, especially in Provence in the South of France, aioli is prepared just by grinding garlic with olive oil. However, other ingredients are often added to the mix, particularly egg yolks.

47 Eurasian range : URALS

The eastern side of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan is generally regarded as the natural divide between the continents of Europe and Asia.

48 “Ender’s Game” author __ Scott Card : ORSON

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.

51 John in Wales : EVAN

The name “John” translates into Scottish as “Ian”, into Russian as “Ivan”, into Italian as “Giovanni”, into Spanish as “Juan”, into Welsh as “Evan”, and into Irish as “Seán”.

The Principality of Wales was created in 1216 when sovereign princes of Welsh territories agreed that Llywelyn the Great would become the paramount ruler of the region. The Principality covered about two thirds of what we call Wales today, and it gained partial recognition by the English Crown with the title of Prince of Wales being created for Llywelyn the Great and his successors. The relationship between the Principality and its powerful neighbor was an uneasy one though, and eventually there was a military conquest by English King Edward I in 1282-1283. In 1284 the Statute of Rhuddlan became law which brought all the land held by the Prince of Wales under English rule. And today of course, the title of Prince of Wales is held by the heir to the British throne, Prince Charles.

55 English cathedral town : ELY

Ely Cathedral is a famous and beautiful church in the city of Ely in the county of Cambridgeshire. There is a Gothic door on the north face of the cathedral that was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the man famous as the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Christopher Wren had a personal link to the church, as his uncle was the Bishop of Ely.

56 Jamaican music : SKA

Ska originated in Jamaica in the late fifties and was the precursor to reggae music. No one has a really definitive etymology of the term “ska”, but it is likely to be imitative of a sound.

57 Guitarist Paul : LES

Les Paul was a guitarist, songwriter and inventor. When he was 33 years old, Paul was involved in a near-fatal car crash that left his right arm and elbow shattered. Surgeons offered him the choice of amputation or a rebuilding of the limb that would leave him unable to bend his elbow. He told them to set his arm at just under 90 degrees so that he could at least hold his guitar and perhaps play it.

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