LA Times Crossword Answers 13 May 15, Wednesday

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Gail Grabowski & Bruce Venzke
THEME: Wait, there’s more … each of the themed answers today goes with the same clue, i.e. “Wait, there’s more …”

17A. “Wait, there’s more … ” COME TO THINK OF IT …
27A. “Wait, there’s more … ” BEFORE I FORGET …
50A. “Wait, there’s more … ” THAT REMINDS ME …
65A. “Wait, there’s more … ” AND ANOTHER THING …

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 6m 40s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. 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.

14. Advil alternative ALEVE
Aleve is a brand name used for the anti-inflammatory drug Naproxen sodium.

20. Hullabaloo STIR
Our word “hullabaloo” meaning a “commotion” is a derivative of an older term “hollo-ballo”. “Hollo-ballo” was a word used for an uproar in the north of England and Scotland.

21. Barry White genre SOUL
Barry White was a singer-songwriter from Texas who grew up in South Central Los Angeles. White has a rough start to life and ended up in jail at 17 for stealing Cadillac tires. It was while in prison that White was inspired to begin a musical career, after listening Elvis Presley on record singing “It’s Now or Never”. White’s greatest chart success was in the mid-seventies, with recordings such as “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up” and “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything”.

22. Dossier cover? ALIAS
A “dossier” is a collection of papers with information about a person or subject. “Dossier” is a French term meaning “bundle of papers”. The French word comes from the word “dos” meaning “back”. It is suggested that the term “dossier” arose as there was usually a label on the back (dos) of the bundle.

23. “Boy, am I dumb!” 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!”

33. Airline with the MileagePlus frequent flier prog. UAL
United Airlines (UAL) has a complicated history, but can trace its roots back to Aviation Enterprises, founded in 1944 and later called Texas International. The first use of the “United” name in the company’s history was when airplane pioneer William Boeing merged his Boeing Air Transport with Pratt & Whitney to form the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation (UATC) in 1929. The Air Mail Act of 1934 required that UATC be broken up into United Aircraft (which became United Technologies), the Boeing Aircraft Company and United Air Lines.

34. Ole Miss rival BAMA
The athletic teams of the University of Alabama (“Bama”) are nicknamed the Crimson Tide, a reference to the team colors of crimson and white.

Ole Miss is the nickname for the University of Mississippi located in Oxford, Mississippi. The name “Ole Miss” dates back to 1897, the first year a student yearbook was published. The graduating class held a competition to name the yearbook and “Ole Miss” emerged as the winner. The name stuck to the yearbook, and also as a nickname for the school itself.

40. Charmin layer PLY
Charmin is a brand of toilet paper made by Procter & Gamble.

42. Black & Decker rival SKIL
Skil Power Tools sold their first “Skilsaw” back in 1924, for $160. Despite almost a century of inflation, a Skilsaw can be purchased today for a fraction of that original price.

Black & Decker is a manufacturer of power tools that was founded in Baltimore in 1910 by S. Duncan Black and Alonzo G. Decker. The company’s first product was the first portable electric drill, the basic design of which we still use today.

53. Brainy Simpson LISA
Lisa Simpson is Bart’s brainy younger sister on TV’s “The Simpsons”. Lisa is voiced by actress Yeardley Smith.

58. “__ Girl”: 2014 Affleck film GONE
“Gone Girl” is a thriller novel written by Gillian Flynn that was first published in 2012. The story tells of a man whose wife has disappeared, with the reader not being certain if the husband is involved in the disappearance. The book was adapted into a movie of the same name released in 2014, starring Ben Affleck.

68. D.C. dealers POLS
Politician (pol.)

69. Hawaiian coffee district KONA
Kona coffee is cultivated on the Big Island of Hawaii, on the slopes of Mauna Loa and Hualalai, two of the five active volcanoes on the island. Coffee plants were brought to Kona in 1828 and late in the 19th century, coffee became a viable and worthwhile crop. Today Kona is a one of the most expensive and popular coffees in the world.

The Kona district on the Big Island of Hawaii is on the western side of the island. The largest town in Kona is Kailua-Kona. Kailua-Kona is often incorrectly referred to as “Kona”. The term “kona” translates as “leeward side of the island” in Hawaiian.

72. Kiddie-lit dog SPOT
In the “Dick and Jane” series of book for children, Spot was a cat back in the thirties, but then became a dog in later editions.

The “Dick and Jane” beginning reader series of books was originally written by William S. Gray and Zerna Sharp and first published in the 1930s. There are claims of plagiarism from an earlier pair of books published throughout the British Commonwealth that featured the characters Dick and Dora. Indeed, I grew up in the British Isles with “Dick and Dora”, and always assumed that “Dick and Jane” were somehow their American cousins!

Down
1. Apple Store array MACS
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” …

3. Prefix with goddess DEMI-
In Greek mythology, a demigod was a half-god, the offspring of one parent who was a god and one parent who was human. The list of demigods includes the Greek Heracles and the Celtic hero Cú Chulainn.

Ever wonder what the difference is between the prefixes “hemi-”, “demi-” and “semi-”, all of which mean “half”? Well, the general observation is that words using the “demi-” prefix date back to the days of Norman influence over the English language. As a result, “demi-” turns up in the world of period costume and coats of arms. Words using “hemi-” tend to have Greek roots, and are prevalent in the world of the sciences and the medical field. Words with “semi-” tend to have Latin roots, and are most often found in music and the arts, and mathematics.

6. Con __: briskly, on scores MOTO
The musical term “con moto” indicates that a passage should be played quickly, briskly, The term translates from Italian as “with motion”.

7. Iolani Palace site OAHU
The ‘Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu is unique within this country. It is the only royal palace in the US that was used as an official residence by a reigning monarch. The Kingdom of Hawaii was overthrown in 1893 so the palace was used by successive governments even after Hawaii was awarded statehood in 1959. The palace has been a public museum since 1978.

8. Estracell sponge brand BRILLO
Brillo Pad is a soapy, steel wool pad, patented in 1913. The company claims that the name “Brillo” is derived from the Latin word for “bright”. The problem with the assertion is that no such word exists in Latin, although the prefix brill- is used for words meaning “bright” in Italian, French and Spanish.

9. Phishing fig. SSN
Social Security number (SSN)

Phishing is the name given to the online practice of stealing usernames, passwords and credit card details by creating a site that deceptively looks reliable and trustworthy. Phishers often send out safe-looking emails or instant messages that direct someone to an equally safe-looking website where the person might inadvertently enter sensitive information. “Phishing” is a play on the word “fishing”, as in “fishing for passwords, PIN numbers etc.”

11. Surfing convenience WI-FI
“Wi-Fi” is nothing more than a trademark, a trademark registered by an association of manufacturers of equipment that use wireless LAN (Local Area Network) technology. A device labeled with “Wi-Fi” has to meet certain defined technical standards, basically meaning that the devices can talk to each other. The name “Wi-Fi” suggests “Wireless Fidelity”, although apparently the term was never intended to mean anything at all.

18. Milo of the movies O’SHEA
Milo O’Shea was a great Irish character actor from Dublin who has appeared in everything from “Romeo and Juliet” to “The West Wing”. Sadly, O’Shea passed away in 2013 in New York City.

19. She adopted Tigger KANGA
Kanga is a friend of A. A. Milne’s “Winnie-the-Pooh”, and is a kangaroo. She is the mother of Roo, who appears more frequently in the storyline.

Tigger is a character in the “Winnie-the-Pooh” stories by A. A. Milne. He is a tiger with a springy tail and just loves to bounce around. Tigger will tell you himself that “bouncing is what tiggers do best.”

24. Top of a scepter, perhaps ORB
A scepter is a ceremonial staff often held by a monarch.

26. Part of MoMA ART
The founding of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City was very much driven by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, the wife of John D. Rockefeller, son of the oil magnate. Working with two friends, Abby managed to get the museum opened in 1929, just nine days after the Wall Street Crash. The MoMA’s sculpture garden bears the name of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and has done so since 1949.

28. O.K. Corral gunfighter 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.

The most famous gunfight in the history of the Old West has to be the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which took place in Tombstone, Arizona. Strangely enough, the fight didn’t happen at the O.K. Corral, but played out six doors down the street in a vacant lot next to a photography studio.

32. Maori carvings TIKIS
A tiki is a large carving of wood or stone resembling a human form, found in Polynesian cultures. The carvings often mark out boundaries of sites sacred to the locals.

The Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. The Māori are eastern Polynesian in origin and began arriving in New Zealand relatively recently, starting sometime in the late 13th century. The word “māori” simply means “normal”, distinguishing the mortal human being from spiritual entities.

41. __ Kippur YOM
Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people and is also known as the Day of Atonement.

44. Stone monument CAIRN
A cairn is a man-made pile of stones that can have various uses. A cairn might be a prosaic trail marker, or a distinctive landmark or monument. Our term “cairn” derives from the Gaelic “carn” meaning “rocky hill, heap of stones”.

45. UFO fliers, purportedly ETS
One might speculate that an unidentified flying object (UFO) might be flown by an extraterrestrial (ET).

48. Forensic investigator’s molecule DNA
I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that the DNA of living things is so very similar across different species. Human DNA is almost exactly the same for every individual (to the degree of 99.9%). However, those small differences are sufficient to distinguish one individual from another, and to determine whether or not individuals are close family relations.

52. Adviser who was a regular “Oprah” guest DR PHIL
Dr. Phil (McGraw) met Oprah Winfrey when he was hired to work with her as a legal consultant during the Amarillo Texas beef trial (when the industry sued Oprah for libel over “Mad Cow Disease” statements). Oprah was impressed with Dr. Phil and invited him onto her show, and we haven’t stopped seeing him since!

55. Enervates SAPS
“To enervate” is to have someone feel drained of energy. “Enervare” is the Latin for “to weaken”.

62. Wedding rental LIMO
The word “limousine” actually derives from the French city of Limoges. The area around Limoges is called the Limousin, and it gave its name to a cloak hood worn by local shepherds. In early motor cars, a driver would sit outside in the weather while the passengers would sit in the covered compartment. The driver would often wear a limousin-style protective hood, giving rise to that type of transportation being called a “limousine”. Well, that’s how the story goes anyway …

64. LAPD ranks SGTS
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.

67. Pampering, for short TLC
Tender loving care (TLC)

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Windows precursor MS-DOS
6. Hard-to-control groups MOBS
10. Forensic investigator’s item SWAB
14. Advil alternative ALEVE
15. Pair on a lake OARS
16. Place to slog through MIRE
17. “Wait, there’s more … ” COME TO THINK OF IT …
20. Hullabaloo STIR
21. Barry White genre SOUL
22. Dossier cover? ALIAS
23. “Boy, am I dumb!” D’OH!
25. Touch the ground LAND
27. “Wait, there’s more … ” BEFORE I FORGET …
33. Airline with the MileagePlus frequent flier prog. UAL
34. Ole Miss rival BAMA
35. Customs collection TARIFF
38. Golf lesson subject GRIP
40. Charmin layer PLY
42. Black & Decker rival SKIL
43. Dapper SPRUCE
46. Gave up for money SOLD
49. Irritated state IRE
50. “Wait, there’s more … ” THAT REMINDS ME …
53. Brainy Simpson LISA
54. Not within walking distance FAR
55. One needing a lift SKIER
58. “__ Girl”: 2014 Affleck film GONE
61. Battery terminal sign PLUS
65. “Wait, there’s more … ” AND ANOTHER THING …
68. D.C. dealers POLS
69. Hawaiian coffee district KONA
70. Put a cap on LIMIT
71. Eye woe STYE
72. Kiddie-lit dog SPOT
73. Stops bleeding CLOTS

Down
1. Apple Store array MACS
2. Job opening SLOT
3. Prefix with goddess DEMI-
4. Go to extremes OVERDO
5. Complete collection SET
6. Con __: briskly, on scores MOTO
7. Iolani Palace site OAHU
8. Estracell sponge brand BRILLO
9. Phishing fig. SSN
10. Does a slow burn SMOLDERS
11. Surfing convenience WI-FI
12. Opera showstopper ARIA
13. Gets in the pool, maybe BETS
18. Milo of the movies O’SHEA
19. She adopted Tigger KANGA
24. Top of a scepter, perhaps ORB
26. Part of MoMA ART
27. Perturbs BUGS
28. O.K. Corral gunfighter EARP
29. Toy (with), as an idea FLIRT
30. Sitter’s challenge IMP
31. Quiz answer FALSE
32. Maori carvings TIKIS
36. Unshakable FIRM
37. Cut and run FLEE
39. “Don’t make me laugh!” PUH-LEASE!
41. __ Kippur YOM
44. Stone monument CAIRN
45. UFO fliers, purportedly ETS
47. Career officer LIFER
48. Forensic investigator’s molecule DNA
51. Convertible, in slang RAGTOP
52. Adviser who was a regular “Oprah” guest DR PHIL
55. Enervates SAPS
56. Feature of some paneling KNOT
57. In a laid-back manner IDLY
59. Words of dismay OH NO
60. Straightened up NEAT
62. Wedding rental LIMO
63. Combat group UNIT
64. LAPD ranks SGTS
66. Puts one’s initials on OKS
67. Pampering, for short TLC

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