LA Times Crossword Solution 29 May 16, Sunday

LA Times Crossword Solution 29 May 16 - 90%







Constructed by: Pancho Harrison

Edited by: Rich Norris

Quicklink to a complete list of today’s clues and answers

Theme: Pool Party

Each of today’s themed answers ends with a type of pool:

  • 25A…Try..GIVE IT A WHIRL (giving “whirlpool”)
  • 31A…Track runner?..TROLLEY CAR (giving “car pool”)
  • 46A…Removable engine..OUTBOARD MOTOR (giving “motor pool”)
  • 63A…Pickup spot..BOX OFFICE (giving “office pool”)
  • 79A…Undeveloped ability..RAW TALENT (giving “talent pool”)
  • 96A…Certain trait carrier..RECESSIVE GENE (giving “gene pool”)
  • 110A…Pond prohibition..NO SWIMMING (giving “swimming pool”)
  • 121A…Unscrupulously competitive..DOWN AND DIRTY (giving “dirty pool”)

Bill’s time: 16m 01s

Bill’s errors: 0




Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies

Across

1…Keystone officer..KOP

The Keystone Cops (sometimes “Keystone Kops”) were a band of madcap policemen characters who appeared in silent movies. A 1914 short film called “A Thief Catcher” that was believed lost was rediscovered in 2010. “A Thief Catcher” featured the magnificent Charlie Chaplin in an early role as a Keystone Cop.

4…Judicial seat..BANC

“Banc” is the French word for bench or seat.

8…Frat house letter..SIGMA

Sigma is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet, and is the one used for an “ess” sound, equivalent to our letter S. Sigma is used in mathematics to represent a summation, the adding together of a sequence of numbers.

19…Org. with a caduceus in its logo..AMA

The icon known as the caduceus is a staff around which are twisted two serpents and which has two wings at the top. The caduceus was carried by the Greek god Hermes. The traditional symbol for the medical profession was the rod of Asclepius, a Greek god associated with healing and medicine. The rod of Asclepius is similar to the caduceus, being a staff with a single serpent-entwined. Some medical organizations use the caduceus as a symbol, apparently due to confusion that dates by to the its mistaken use by the US Army Medical Corps in 1902.

20…1847 novel with the chapter “What Happened at Hytyhoo”..OMOO

Herman Melville mined his own experiences when writing his novels. Melville sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1841 on a whaler heading into the Pacific Ocean (a source for “Moby-Dick”). Melville ended up deserting his ship 18 months later and lived with natives on a South Pacific Island for three weeks (a source for “Typee”). He picked up another whaler and headed for Hawaii, where he joined the crew of a US navy frigate that was bound for Boston (a source for “Omoo”).

27…Pakistani language..URDU

Urdu is one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English), and is one of 22 scheduled languages in India. Urdu partly developed from Persian and is written from right to left.

30…”Spellbound” malady..AMNESIA

“Spellbound” is a 1945 Hitchcock film starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. It is a psychological thriller in which Bergman and Peck play psychoanalysts. That’s all I’ll say, to avoid spoiling the film for potential viewers. I will say that Hitchcock makes his traditional cameo appearance in the movie, although it occurs relatively late in the plot. Hitch can be seen exiting an elevator carrying a violin case and smoking a cigarette about 43 minutes into the film.

34…Graduation hanger..TASSEL

Tasseled mortarboards, or square academic caps, are associated with school graduations all over the world, although traditions do differ. For example in Ireland (where I come from), mortarboards are only worn by female graduates.

43…Mostly shaved style..MOHAWK

Here is another example of a difference in terminology on either side of the Atlantic. What we call the Mohawk hairstyle in the US is known as a “Mohican” in the British Isles. The Mohawk hairstyle is named after the Mohawk nation, who wore their hair in the same fashion. The Mohawk style has been around for a long time elsewhere in the world. There was a well-preserved male body found in a bog near Dublin in Ireland in 2003. The body is about 2,000 years old, and has the Mohawk haircut.

50…Oklahoma native..OTO

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 southwestwards 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.

54…Suffix with proto-..-ZOA

The suffix “-zoa” is used for groups of animal organisms e.g. protozoa and metazoa. “Zoia” is the Greek for “animals, living beings”.

55…Minuscule part of a min…NSEC

“Nanosecond” is more correctly abbreviated to “ns”, and really is a tiny amount of time: one billionth of a second.

56…Mont. neighbor..IDA

The US state of Idaho has a panhandle that extends northwards between Washington and Montana, right up to the border with Canada. Across that border is the Canadian province of British Columbia. Most of Idaho is in the Mountain Time Zone, but Northern Idaho (the Panhandle) is in the Pacific Time Zone.

57…Arcade pioneer..ATARI

At one point, the electronics and video game manufacturer Atari was the fastest growing company in US history. However, Atari never really recovered from the video game industry crash of 1983.

59…Lowest points..NADIRS

The nadir is the direction pointing immediately below a particular location (through to the other side of the Earth for example). The opposite direction, that pointing immediately above, is called the zenith.

61…MTV’s parent company..VIACOM

Media giant Viacom takes it’s name from the phrase VI-deo & A-udio COM-unications.

63…Pickup spot..BOX OFFICE (giving “office pool”)

The term “box office” may date back to Shakespearean times. In those days long past, patrons would deposit fees for seeing theater performances in boxes. The full boxes would be collected and placed in an office called, imaginatively enough, the “box office”.

65…Old auto named for an explorer..DESOTO

The DeSoto brand of car was built by Chrysler from 1928 to 1961. The line was named after the Spanish explorer and conquistador, Hernando de Soto, widely reported as the first European to have crossed the Mississippi River (although Cabeza de Vaca had at least discovered one of the mouths of the Mississippi twenty years earlier).

69…Purina rival..IAMS

Iams dog food was produced by the animal nutritionist Paul Iams. He felt that household pets were suffering somewhat by being fed a diet of table scraps, so he developed a dry dog food that he felt was more nutritious and suitable for pet dogs. He founded the Iams company, now part of Procter & Gamble, in 1946.

70…Pacino title role..SERPICO

The 1973 movie “Serpico”, starring Al Pacino, is a based on a book by Peter Maas. The book is based on the true story of undercover police officer Frank Serpico. Serpico went undercover to investigate corruption within the New York Police Department.

74…Kipling’s Rikki-Tikki-__..TAVI

In Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book”, one of the short stories is titled “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi”, the story about a mongoose, the brave pet of an English family that protects them from a succession of snakes.

77…”Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it’s __”: Anthony Bourdain..A START

Anthony Bourdain is a chef, author and television personality from New York City. Bourdain’s celebrity came with the publication of his book “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly” in 2000. Bourdain moved on to host the television shows “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” and “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown”.

85…Sweater pattern..ARGYLE

The argyle pattern is based on the Campbell tartan. The Campbell clan is based in the Argyll region (note the spelling) in the west of Scotland, giving the Argyle pattern its name.

87…Mythical servant..GENIE

The “genie” in the bottle takes his or her name from “djinn”. “Djinns” were various spirits considered lesser than angels, with people exhibiting unsavory characteristics said to be possessed by djinn. When the book “The Thousand and One Nights” was translated into French, the word “djinn” was transformed into the existing word “génie”, because of the similarity in sound and the related spiritual meaning. This “génie” from the Arabian tale became confused with the Latin-derived “genius”, a guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at birth. Purely as a result of that mistranslation the word genie has come to mean the “djinn” that pops out of the bottle. A little hard to follow, I know, but still quite interesting …

88…Young Skywalker’s nickname..ANI

Anakin “Ani” Skywalker is the principal character in the first six of the “Star Wars” movies. His progress chronologically through the series of films is:

  • Episode I: Anakin is a 9-year-old slave boy who earns the promise of Jedi training by young Obi-Wan Kenobi.
  • Episode II: Anakin is 18-years-old and goes on a murdering rampage to avenge the killing of his mother.
  • Episode III: Anakin is 21-years-old and a Jedi knight, but he turns to the Dark Side and becomes Darth Vader. His wife Padme gives birth to twins, Luke and Leia Skywalker.
  • Episode IV: Darth Vader, comes into conflict with his children, Luke Skywalker and the Princess Leia.
  • Episode V: Darth Vader attempts to coax his son Luke over to the dark side, and reveals to Luke that he is his father.
  • Episode VI: Luke learns that Leia is his sister, and takes on the task of bringing Darth Vader back from the Dark Side in order to save the Galaxy. Vader saves his son from the Emperor’s evil grip, dying in the process, but his spirit ends up alongside the spirits of Yoda and Obi-Wan. They all live happily ever after …

92…Rapa __: Easter Island..NUI

Rapa Nui is the Polynesian name for what we are more likely to call Easter Island. The European name was coined by the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen, who came across the island on Easter Sunday in the year 1722. Easter Island is inhabited, and is a location that is remarkably distant from neighboring civilization. The nearest inhabited island is Pitcairn Island, almost 1300 miles away.

93…One of TV’s Mavericks..BRET

“Maverick” is a TV series set in the Wild West and starring James Garner as Bret Maverick. Midway through the first series, Bret was given a brother called Bart, who was played by Jack Kelly. Once the brother’s character was introduced, Bart and Bret alternated as the lead character in each weekly episode. Both Mavericks were expert poker players who got themselves in and out of all sorts of trouble. After the third season, James Garner left the show and was replaced by actor Roger Moore who played a Maverick cousin called Beau. Still later, actor Robert Colbert was introduced as a third brother called Brent Maverick.

95…Dockworker’s org…ILA

International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA)

96…Certain trait carrier..RECESSIVE GENE (giving “gene pool”)

A gene is a section of a chromosome that is responsible for a particular characteristic in an organism. For example, one gene may determine eye color. We have two copies of each gene, one copy from each of our parents, with each called an allele. An allele may be dominant or recessive, and it requires a pair of recessive alleles for the recessive characteristic to be expressed (like blue eye color for example). If one parent donates a dominant allele, and one a recessive allele, then the recessive characteristic is repressed, dominated. No blue eyes then …

102…”Modern Family” daughter..ALEX

Alex Dunphy is the youngest daughter of Claire and Phil on the sitcom “Modern Family”. Alex is played by the very talented young actress Ariel Winter.

104…Sportscaster Ahmad..RASHAD

Ahmad Rashād is a former football player who now works with NBC as a sportscaster. Ahmad proposed marriage to actress Phylicia Ayers-Allen on national television in 1985. Phylicia, who played Bill Cosby’s wife on “The Cosby Show”, accepted the proposal and became Rashād’s third wife.

107…Bunch..PASSEL

A passel is a large group or quantity. “Passel” is a variant of the word “parcel”.

127…Coffee maker brand..BRAUN

Braun is a manufacturer of consumer goods based in Kronberg, Germany.

128…KOA patron..RVER

One using a “recreational vehicle” (RVer).

Kampgrounds of America (KOA) was founded in 1962 by Montana businessman Dave Drum, who opened up his first property along the Yellowstone River. His strategy was to offer a rich package of services including hot showers, restrooms and a store, which he hoped would attract people used to camping in the rough. The original campground was an immediate hit and Drum took on two partners and sold franchises all over the country. There are about 500 KOA sites today.

129…Night school subj…ESL

English as a Second Language (ESL) is sometimes referred to as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL).

130…Sights along old Route 66..MOTELS

The famous old highway called Route 66 has largely been replaced by modern interstates. It ran from Chicago to Los Angeles, right through the heart of America, and so it was often called the “Main Street of America”. The road gained notoriety because of Nat King Cole’s song “(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66”, and also because of the sixties TV show called “Route 66”.

131…Gelatin garnish..ASPIC

Aspic is a dish in which the main ingredients are served in a gelatin made from meat stock. “Aspic” is a French word for “jelly”.

133…ACLU issues..RTS

Rights (rts.)

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has its roots in the First World War when it was founded to provide legal advice and support to conscientious objectors. The ACLU’s motto is “Because Freedom Can’t Protect Itself”. The ACLU also hosts a blog on the ACLU.org website called “Speak Freely”.

Down

1…On the fritz..KAPUT

“Kaput” is a familiar term meaning “incapacitated, destroyed”, and comes to us from French (via German). The original word “capot” means “not having won a single trick” in the French card game called Piquet.

The American slang term “on the fritz” means “inoperative”. There doesn’t seem to be a definitive etymology for the term, although there are indications it has a theatrical origin.

2…Astrologer Sydney..OMARR

Sydney Omarr was an astrology consultant to the rich and famous, and author of a horoscope column that appeared in the Los Angeles Times. While Omarr (real name Sidney Kimmelman) was in the US Army he even wrote a horoscope column for “Stars and Stripes”. He claimed that he got the job of writing for “Stars and Stripes” after having giving a consultation to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

3…NBC-affiliated announcer in nine different decades..PARDO

Don Pardo’s distinctive voice announces the show “Saturday Night Live, and has been doing so since the premiere episode that aired in 1975. Pardo has been the announcer for all the SNL shows except for the 1981-82 season. Pardo retired from NBC in 2004 and moved to Tucson, Arizona, but the producers of “Saturday Night Live” persuaded him to stay on as announcer for their show. He has a lifetime contract, one of only two people ever to have such an arrangement with NBC (the other was Bob Hope!). Pardo is still doing the job and celebrated his 90th birthday on air, blowing out candles on his birthday cake at the end of an episode of SNL.

4…AI game competitor..BOT

A bot is 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.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

8…Bacharach collaborator Carol Bayer __..SAGER

Carole Bayer Sager is a lyricist and singer. Sager’s first big hit was “A Groovy Kind of Love”, which she wrote with Toni White. She won the Best Song Oscar in 1981 for the theme song from the film “Arthur”, and won a Grammy in 1987 for “That’s What Friends Are For”, which she co-wrote with Burt Bacharach. In terms of her personal life, Sager had a romantic relationship with composer Marvin Hamlisch, and was married for several years to composer Burt Bacharach.

9…Georgia O’Keeffe subject..IRIS

Georgia O’Keeffe was an influential American artist, one who led the introduction of American art into Europe. Famously, she was married to photographer Alfred Stieglitz who helped develop her career in the early days. Georgia O’Keeffe’s last home was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she had done a lot of her work during her lifetime. She died there in 1986, at the ripe old age of 98. One of her most famous paintings is from 1926, called “Black Iris III”.

11…Podium tapper, at times..MAESTRO

“Maestro” is often used to address a musical conductor. “Maestro” (plural “maestri”) is the Italian word for “master, teacher”. The plural in English is usually “maestros”.

12…D-backs, on scoreboards..ARI

The Arizona Diamondbacks 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.

14…”Chinatown” screenwriter Robert..TOWNE

Screenwriter Robert Towne has supplied screenplays to an impressive list of movies, including Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown”, for which he won an Academy Award. He also wrote the screenplays for “Shampoo” and the first two “Mission Impossible” films.

15…The lord in “O beware, my lord, of jealousy!”..OTHELLO

Iago says the following words about jealousy and envy to Othello in William Shakespeare’s play:

O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on; that cuckold lives in bliss
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger;
But, O, what damned minutes tells he o’er
Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves!

16…Soulful Redding..OTIS

Otis Redding is often referred to as the “King of Soul”, and what a voice he had. Like so many of the greats in the world of popular music it seems, Redding was killed in a plane crash, in 1967 when he was just 26 years old. Just three days earlier he had recorded what was to be his biggest hit, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”.

17…Prefix with scope..PERI-

The prefix “peri-” is Greek in origin and means “around”. An example of its use is “periscope”, a device on a submarine for looking “around”.

18…Room next to la cocina, maybe..SALA

In Spanish, a “sala” (living room) might be located next to “la cocina” (the kitchen).

24…Oral Roberts University city..TULSA

Oral Roberts University (ORU) is a private school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. ORU was founded relatively recently, in 1963 by the late televangelist Oral Roberts. The campus includes a Prayer Tower at its center, a spectacular glass and steel structure designed by architect Frank Wallace. The tower includes an observation deck, and is a popular tourist attraction. The school’s sports teams are known as the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles.

29…Pricey watch..RADO

Rado is a celebrated manufacturer of watches, noted for pioneering the use of scratch-proof materials. Rado make a watch that the Guinness Book of Records calls “the hardest watch on Earth”.

33…Nevada city on I-80..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

37…Former Calif. base..FT ORD

Fort Ord was an army post on Monterey Bay in California named after a General Ord, established in 1917 and closed in 1994. The fort was in a spectacular location with miles of beachfront, and it also had that lovely California weather. The old fort’s land is now managed as the Fort Ord National Monument.

40…City near Syracuse..UTICA

Utica in New York is known as “Second Chance City” these days, due to the recent influx of refugees from war-torn parts of the world and from Bosnia in particular. These immigrants have helped revitalize the area and reverse a trend of population loss.

Syracuse is a large city in Central New York. The settlement that eventually became Syracuse was given its name in 1825, in honor of the city of Syracuse in Sicily. It just so happens that the US company that employed me in Ireland transferred me to Syracuse, New York, way back in 1983. I am a big fan of the city and visit as often as I can …

41…Doomed Genesis city..SODOM

The two cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as Admah and Zeboim, were destroyed by God for the sins of their inhabitants, according to the Bible. The name Sodom has become a metaphor for vice and homosexuality, and gives us our word “sodomy”.

43…Ancient Dead Sea kingdom..MOAB

In the Bible, Moab was the first son of Lot, and the founder of the Kingdom of Moab. Moab was located on a plateau above the Dead Sea.

44…Conductor Klemperer..OTTO

Otto Klemperer was a conductor and composer from Germany. Klemperer was a friend of the noted composer Gustav Mahler and assisted Mahler in the first production of his “Symphony of a Thousand”, one of the largest scale choral works in the repertoire. Otto’s son was Werner Klemperer, the actor who played Colonel Klink on the TV show “Hogan’s Heroes”.

47…Compact automatic weapon..UZI

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.

49…Old AT&T rival..MCI

MCI was a giant telecom company that suffered a similar fate to Enron, and around about the same time. MCI’s stock price fell in 2000 and in maneuvers designed to protect the price, the company committed illegal acts. The larger-than-life CEO back then, Bernie Ebbers, is now serving a 25-year sentence in Louisiana.

58…Cellist’s need..ROSIN

Rosin is a solid form of resin derived from plant sources. Rosin is formed into cakes that players of stringed instruments use to rub along the hairs of their bows to help improve sound quality. The rosin increases the degree of friction between the strings and the bow. That same friction-increasing property comes into play when baseball pitchers use rosin to get a better grip on the ball.

The word “cello” (plural “celli” or “cellos”) is an abbreviation for “violoncello”, an Italian word for “little violone”, referring to a group of stringed instruments that were popular up to the end of the 17th century. The name violoncello persisted for the instrument that we know today, although the abbreviation ‘cello was often used. Nowadays we just drop the apostrophe.

67…Big name in dental care..ORAL-B

The Oral-B toothbrush was introduced to the world in 1950, designed by a California periodontist. The first “model” was the Oral-B 60, a name given to reflect the 60 tufts in the brush. In 1969, the Oral-B was the first toothbrush to get to the moon as it was the toothbrush of choice for the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

71…Disneyland’s county..ORANGE

Orange County in the Greater Los Angeles Area is the smallest county in Southern California, yet is the sixth most populous county in the US. The county seat is Santa Ana.

Walt Disney came up with the idea of building Disneyland after visiting other theme parks with his daughters in the thirties and forties. He started building the park at Anaheim, California in 1954, and the facility opened just one year and one day later. The total cost of construction was $17 million. Opening day did not go smoothly, largely because over 28,000 people visited the park compared to the 11,000 people expected at the invitation-only event. The opening day went so badly that for years Disney executives referred to it as “Black Sunday”.

74…Wonder Woman accessory..TIARA

Wonder Woman first appeared in print in 1941, in a publication from DC Comics. As she was created during WWII, Wonder Woman’s first foes were the axis powers. In the less realistic world her biggest foe was and still is Ares, a “baddie” named for the Greek mythological figure. Wonder Woman had several signature expressions, including “Merciful Minerva!”, “Suffering Sappho!” and “Great Hera!”.

75…Synthetic fiber..ARNEL

Arnel is a brand name of acetate textile.

76…NBC musical reality show, with “The”..VOICE

“The Voice” is yet another reality television show. “The Voice” is a singing competition in which the judges hear the contestants without seeing them in the first round. The judges then take on chosen contestants as coaches for the remaining rounds. “The Voice” is a highly successful worldwide franchise that originated in the Netherlands.

80…Geraint’s wife..ENID

“Idylls of the King” is a cycle of twelve poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson that retells the tale of King Arthur. One of the “idylls” is the story of Geraint and Enid. Tennyson’s Enid gave her name to the city of Enid, Oklahoma.

86…__ mill..GIN

A “gin mill” is a neighborhood bar or saloon, often a disreputable establishment.

91…’60s pop singer Sands..EVIE

Evie Sands is a singer from Brooklyn, New York. Sands is also a noted songwriter, having penned songs that have been recorded by the likes of Barbra Streisand, Gladys Knight, Karen Carpenter, Linda Ronstadt and Dusty Springfield.

94…K thru 12..ELHI

“Elhi” is an informal word used to describe anything related to schooling from grades 1 through 12, i.e. elementary through high school.

98…Pastries made with choux dough..ECLAIRS

The name for the pastry known as an “éclair” is clearly French in origin. The French word for lightning is “éclair”, but no one seems to be too sure how it came to be used for the rather delicious bakery item.

101…Clio contender..ADMAN

The Clio Awards are the Oscars of the advertising world and are named after Clio, the Greek Muse of History. Clio was also the recorder of great deeds, the proclaimer and celebrator of great accomplishments and a source of inspiration and genius. The Clio Awards were first presented in 1959.

105…Capital of Eritrea..ASMARA

Asmara is the capital and largest city in Eritrea.

Eritrea is a country located in the Horn of Africa, surrounded by Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti and the Red Sea. Some scientists believe that the area now known as Eritrea was the departure point for the anatomically modern humans who first left Africa to populate the rest of the world.

109…Trig ratios..SINES

The most familiar trigonometric functions are sine, cosine and tangent (abbreviated to “sin, cos and tan”). Each of these is a ratio, a ratio of two sides of a right-angled triangle. The “reciprocal” of these three functions are cosecant, secant and cotangent. The reciprocal functions are simply the inverted ratios, the inverted sine, cosine and tangent. These inverted ratios should not be confused with the “inverse” trigonometric functions e.g. arcsine, arccosine and arctangent. These inverse functions are the reverse of the sine, cosine and tangent. For example, the arctangent can be read as “What angle is equivalent to the following ratio of opposite over adjacent?”

110…Boy band with an acronymic name..NSYNC

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

111…Actress Stevens..INGER-

Inger Stevens was an actress from Sweden who moved to New York City with her father when she was a girl. Stevens is probably best remembered for for playing the female lead in the sixties TV show “The Farmer’s Daughter”, appearing opposite William Windom.

112…Explosive trial..N-TEST

Nuclear test (N-test)

113…Lena Dunham HBO series..GIRLS

Lena Dunham is a co-star in the HBO series “Girls”, and is also the show’s creator. Dunham garnered a lot of attention for herself during the 2012 US Presidential election cycle as she starred in ad focused on getting out the youth vote. In the spot she compared voting for the first time with having sex for the first time. I must say, I quite enjoy the show “Girls” …

114…Footnote word..IDEM

Idem is usually abbreviated as “id.” and is the Latin word for “the same”. In research papers, idem is used in a list of references in place of citations “already mentioned above”.

116…Houlihan portrayer on “M*A*S*H”..SWIT

Loretta Swit started playing “Hot Lips” Houlihan on “M*A*S*H” in 1972. She and Alan Alda were the only actors who appeared in both the pilot and the series finale. Swit has written a book on needlepoint, would you believe? It’s called “A Needlepoint Scrapbook”.

118…Finish shooting..WRAP

When shooting of a film is concluded the movie is said to “wrap”, and everyone heads to the wrap party. There is one story that “wrap” is actually an acronym for “wind, reel and print”, a reference to the transition of the filming process into post-production. But, this explanation is disputed.

119…Decorative sewing 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.

122…Trade name letters..DBA

Doing business as (DBA)

124…Classic roadster..REO

The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale and the REO Flying Cloud.

125…Prince Valiant’s son..ARN

“Prince Valiant” is a comic strip that first appeared in 1937 when it was created by Hal Foster. Edward, Duke of Windsor called the “Prince Valiant” comic strip the “greatest contribution to English literature in the past one hundred years”. I’m not so sure …

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Complete List of Clues and Answers

Across

1…Keystone officer..KOP

4…Judicial seat..BANC

8…Frat house letter..SIGMA

13…Lowers oneself..STOOPS

19…Org. with a caduceus in its logo..AMA

20…1847 novel with the chapter “What Happened at Hytyhoo”..OMOO

21…Rocking the stadium..AROAR

22…Chinese restaurant offering..HOT TEA

23…Lacking benefits, perhaps..PART-TIME

25…Try..GIVE IT A WHIRL (giving “whirlpool”)

27…Pakistani language..URDU

28…Collars..ARRESTS

30…”Spellbound” malady..AMNESIA

31…Track runner?..TROLLEY CAR (giving “car pool”)

34…Graduation hanger..TASSEL

36…Took a verse alone..SOLOED

37…Travesty..FARCE

39…Romance novel emotion..LUST

43…Mostly shaved style..MOHAWK

46…Removable engine..OUTBOARD MOTOR (giving “motor pool”)

50…Oklahoma native..OTO

51…”Sorry, you __ me”..LOST

54…Suffix with proto-..-ZOA

55…Minuscule part of a min…NSEC

56…Mont. neighbor..IDA

57…Arcade pioneer..ATARI

59…Lowest points..NADIRS

61…MTV’s parent company..VIACOM

63…Pickup spot..BOX OFFICE (giving “office pool”)

65…Old auto named for an explorer..DESOTO

69…Purina rival..IAMS

70…Pacino title role..SERPICO

72…Germinates..SPROUTS

74…Kipling’s Rikki-Tikki-__..TAVI

77…”Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it’s __”: Anthony Bourdain..A START

79…Undeveloped ability..RAW TALENT (giving “talent pool”)

83…Like some surprise endings..IRONIC

85…Sweater pattern..ARGYLE

87…Mythical servant..GENIE

88…Young Skywalker’s nickname..ANI

89…Pickup at a stand..FARE

92…Rapa __: Easter Island..NUI

93…One of TV’s Mavericks..BRET

95…Dockworker’s org…ILA

96…Certain trait carrier..RECESSIVE GENE (giving “gene pool”)

100…President, e.g…LEADER

102…”Modern Family” daughter..ALEX

103…More agreeable..NICER

104…Sportscaster Ahmad..RASHAD

107…Bunch..PASSEL

110…Pond prohibition..NO SWIMMING (giving “swimming pool”)

114…”We’re headed for overtime!”..IT’S A TIE!

117…Really cool..AWESOME

120…Naysayer..ANTI

121…Unscrupulously competitive..DOWN AND DIRTY (giving “dirty pool”)

123…Orchestrator, perhaps..ARRANGER

126…Maroon..ENISLE

127…Coffee maker brand..BRAUN

128…KOA patron..RVER

129…Night school subj…ESL

130…Sights along old Route 66..MOTELS

131…Gelatin garnish..ASPIC

132…Many millennia..AEON

133…ACLU issues..RTS

Down

1…On the fritz..KAPUT

2…Astrologer Sydney..OMARR

3…NBC-affiliated announcer in nine different decades..PARDO

4…AI game competitor..BOT

5…”__ dreaming?”..AM I

6…Deli order..NO MAYO

7…Compel by force..COERCE

8…Bacharach collaborator Carol Bayer __..SAGER

9…Georgia O’Keeffe subject..IRIS

10…Bond issuer: Abbr…GOVT

11…Podium tapper, at times..MAESTRO

12…D-backs, on scoreboards..ARI

13…Phonies..SHAMS

14…”Chinatown” screenwriter Robert..TOWNE

15…The lord in “O beware, my lord, of jealousy!”..OTHELLO

16…Soulful Redding..OTIS

17…Prefix with scope..PERI-

18…Room next to la cocina, maybe..SALA

24…Oral Roberts University city..TULSA

26…Electrode shooters..TASERS

29…Pricey watch..RADO

32…Reprobate..LOWLIFE

33…Nevada city on I-80..ELKO

35…Open __ of worms..A CAN

37…Former Calif. base..FT ORD

38…Belittles..ABASES

40…City near Syracuse..UTICA

41…Doomed Genesis city..SODOM

42…Monorail transports..TRAMS

43…Ancient Dead Sea kingdom..MOAB

44…Conductor Klemperer..OTTO

45…Put-on..HOAX

47…Compact automatic weapon..UZI

48…Reverent..DEVOUT

49…Old AT&T rival..MCI

52…Salon sounds..SNIPS

53…Implied..TACIT

58…Cellist’s need..ROSIN

60…Twice penta-..DECA-

62…Flier’s option..AISLE

64…Melee..FRACAS

66…Nimble..SPRY

67…Big name in dental care..ORAL-B

68…Control __..TOWER

71…Disneyland’s county..ORANGE

73…Ring pair..TAG TEAM

74…Wonder Woman accessory..TIARA

75…Synthetic fiber..ARNEL

76…NBC musical reality show, with “The”..VOICE

78…More accurate..TRUER

80…Geraint’s wife..ENID

81…Shade of green..NILE

82…Go like crazy..TEAR

84…Consideration complications..IFS

86…__ mill..GIN

90…Did a salon job..RINSED

91…’60s pop singer Sands..EVIE

94…K thru 12..ELHI

97…Wide-open space..EXPANSE

98…Pastries made with choux dough..ECLAIRS

99…Switch add-on..-EROO

101…Clio contender..ADMAN

105…Capital of Eritrea..ASMARA

106…Change course suddenly..SWERVE

108…To any extent..AT ALL

109…Trig ratios..SINES

110…Boy band with an acronymic name..NSYNC

111…Actress Stevens..INGER-

112…Explosive trial..N-TEST

113…Lena Dunham HBO series..GIRLS

114…Footnote word..IDEM

115…__ avail..TO NO

116…Houlihan portrayer on “M*A*S*H”..SWIT

118…Finish shooting..WRAP

119…Decorative sewing case..ETUI

122…Trade name letters..DBA

124…Classic roadster..REO

125…Prince Valiant’s son..ARN




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