LA Times Crossword Answers 4 Jun 17, Sunday










Constructed by: Jim Holland

Edited by: Rich Norris

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

Quicklink to comments

Theme: Product Expansion

Each of today’s themed answers is a manufactured PRODUCT, including the manufacturer’s name. The twist is that the product has been EXPANDED, has letters added at the end:

  • 22A. Automaker’s expansion into music? : HONDA ACCORDIONS
  • 45A. Candy company’s expansion into exercise equipment? : HERSHEY BARBELLS
  • 72A. Drink container company’s expansion into bakery products? : DIXIE CUPCAKES
  • 95A. Jewelry company’s expansion into fishing for delicacies? : TIFFANY LAMPREYS
  • 122A. Cleaning products company’s expansion into arena seating? : CLOROX BLEACHERS
  • 14D. Writing implement company’s expansion into jewelry? : BIC PENDANTS
  • 71D. Kitchen supplies company’s expansion into security? : SOS PADLOCKS

Bill’s time: 15m 33s

Bill’s errors: 0




Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Icy coating : RIME

Rime is that beautiful coating of ice that forms on surfaces like roofs, trees and grass, when cold water freezes instantly under the right conditions.

5. Heroine in the “Divergent” films : TRIS

Tris Prior is the main protagonist in “The Divergent Series” of movies, and is played by actress Shailene Woodley.

“The Divergent Series” of movies is based on the “Divergent” novels written by Veronica Roth. The movies and novels are set in a post-apocalyptic version of Chicago called the Divergent Universe. The story is about a citizenry that is divided into five different factions based on personality traits. The critics weren’t crazy about the first movie in the series, but I really enjoyed it …

12. Castro, for one : CUBAN

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.

21. Bud in Baja : AMIGO

Baja California is both the most northern and the most western of the Mexican states. The name translates from Spanish as “Lower California”.

22. Automaker’s expansion into music? : HONDA ACCORDIONS

Honda started manufacturing its Accord model in Marysville, Ohio in 1982, making the Accord the first Japanese car to be produced in the US. The Accord was the best-selling Japanese car in America from 1982 to 1997, and 1989 was the first import to become the best-selling car in the US.

25. Tijuana restaurant staples : TACOS

Tijuana is the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California, and lies just across the US-Mexico border from San Diego. Tijuana is also the most westerly of all Mexican cities. A lot of Tijuana’s growth took place in the twenties as tourists flocked south of the border during the days of prohibition in the US. One of the many casinos and hotels that flourished at that time was Hotel Caesar’s in the Avenida Revolución area. Hotel Caesar’s claims to be the birthplace of the now ubiquitous Caesar Salad.

27. “SNL” parody Baba __ : WAWA

Barbara Walters was originally quite upset at the caricature of her performed by Saturday Night Live star, Gilda Radner. She took offense at Radner exaggerating her speech impediment, which of course led to the name “Baba Wawa” being used for “Barbara Walters”. However, when she saw that her own daughter found the skit to be hilarious, Barbara decided that she needed to lighten up.

33. Dizzy’s jazz : BEBOP

Dizzy Gillespie was a musician from Cheraw, South Carolina who was best known as a jazz trumpeter. Gillespie was also known for playing a “bent” trumpet, one with the bell projecting upwards at a 45-degree angle. The unusual configuration of the instrument came about accidentally, when a pair of dancers fell on it during a birthday party. The damage to the instrument caused a change in the tone which Gillespie liked, so he left it as is.

38. __ 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.

43. Lamb by another name : ELIA

Charles Lamb published a famous collection of essays simply entitled “Essays of Elia”. Elia was actually a clerk and co-worker of Charles Lamb, whereas Lamb was the author.

45. Candy company’s expansion into exercise equipment? : HERSHEY BARBELLS

Milton Hershey used profits from the sale of his successful Lancaster Caramel Company to construct a chocolate plant in his hometown of Derry Church, Pennsylvania. Hershey started building the factory in 1903, and by 1906 his chocolate was so successful that Derry Church changed its name to Hershey, Pennsylvania.

53. Supermodel Sastre : INES

Inés Sastre is a supermodel and actress from Spain who was born Inés Sastre Moratón.

56. “Family” actress Thompson : SADA

Sada Thompson was an actress from Des Moines, Iowa. Thompson is best known for playing the mother and wife in the eighties television drama series called “Family”.

63. __-de-France : ILE

Île-de-France (literally “Island of France”) isn’t an island at all. It is the name given to the most populous of France’s 26 administrative regions. Île-de-France is roughly equivalent to the Paris metropolitan area.

68. Ed’s title : MISTER

The sitcom “Mister Ed” first aired in 1961 and ran for almost five years. It was a very successful show (and even made it to Ireland!). Mister Ed, the talking horse, was a palomino that had the real name of Bamboo Harvester. Mister Ed’s “voice” was that of actor Allan “Rocky” Lane, a star of a lot of B-movie westerns from the forties and fifties. In the show, Mister Ed would only talk to the lead (human) character Wilbur, played by Alan Young, leading to some hilarious situations. Mister Ed had a stunt double and stand-in for the show, another horse called Pumpkin. Pumpkin later made frequent appearances on the show “Green Acres”.

72. Drink container company’s expansion into bakery products? : DIXIE CUPCAKES

Dixie Cup is a brand of disposable papers cups. The first such cups were introduced to promote hygiene at shared water fountains, as prior to disposable cups, glasses or dippers were shared by people taking a drink. As such, the Dixie Cup was introduced in 1907 as the “Health Kup”. The name was changed in 1919 to Dixie Cup, after a line of dolls (presumably as the cups were relatively small).

75. Montevideo Mrs. : SRA

Montevideo is the capital and main port of Uruguay. Famously, Montevideo featured in the Battle of the River Plate in WWII that resulted in the scuttling of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee.

79. Co. that merged into Verizon : GTE

GTE was a rival to AT&T, the largest of the independent competitors to the Bell System. GTE merged with Bell Atlantic in 2000 to form the company that we know today as Verizon. Verizon made some high-profile acquisitions over the years, including MCI in 2005 and AOL in 2015.

80. Like car carburetors, for the most part : OBSOLETE

The carburetor is a device in an internal combustion engine that has the job of blending air and fuel prior to combustion. When you hit the accelerator on a car, you’re not actually directly controlling the amount of fuel going to the engine. Instead, you’re controlling the amount of air that the carburetor gets. The carburetor then sucks in the amount of fuel it needs for efficient combustion. Carburetors have largely been replaced by fuel injectors that atomize the fuel through a small nozzle under high pressure.

88. Stella __ cookies : D’ORO

Stella D’Oro is a brand of cookies and breadsticks that were originally manufactured in the Bronx, New York City but are now made in New Jersey.

90. Singer Horne : LENA

Lena Horne was an American jazz singer, actress, dancer and civil rights activist. Horne started out her career as a nightclub singer and then began to get some meaty acting roles in Hollywood. However, she ended up on the blacklist during the McCarthy Era for expressing left wing political views. One of Horne’s starring roles was in the 1943 movie “Stormy Weather” for which she also performed the title song.

91. Emphatic type: Abbr. : ITAL

Italic type leans to the right, and is often used to provide emphasis in text. The style is known as “italic” because the stylized calligraphic form of writing originated in Italy, probably in the Vatican.

93. Shelley’s Muse : ERATO

In Greek mythology, Erato was the Muse of lyric poetry, and is often depicted playing a lyre.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was an English Romantic poet. Shelley had strong views on vegetarianism. He was dedicated to the cause of all sentient beings, believing that the slaughter of animals by humans for the use of food was a barbaric practice. He wrote a famous essay on the subject called “A Vindication of Natural Diet” in 1813.

95. Jewelry company’s expansion into fishing for delicacies? : TIFFANY LAMPREYS

The Tiffany’s jewelry company is headquartered in New York City. The flagship Tiffany’s store is located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan, and famously featured in the delightful Audrey Hepburn movie “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”.

A lamprey looks like a cross between a fish and an eel.

100. Figure (out) : DOPE

Apparently, “to dope out” is a slang term meaning “to figure out, infer from available information”.

102. Latin trio part : AMAT

Amo, amas, amat … I love, you love, he/she/it loves, in Latin.

103. Older Obama daughter : MALIA

Malia Obama is the oldest of Barack and Michelle Obama’s two daughters. Malia graduated from the private Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C., the same school that Chelsea Clinton attended. Malia took a gap year after leaving high school, and spent the 2016 summer as an intern in the US Embassy in Madrid, before heading to Harvard in 2017

105. “Route 66” co-star : MILNER

Martin Milner is a former actor who is best known for playing lead roles on the TV shows “Route 66” and “Adam-12”. Milner is enjoying his retirement in California, as the owner of a productive walnut farm.

“Route 66” is a classic television show from the early sixties about two young men traveling across the US in a Corvette. The original lead characters were Tod Stiles (played by Martin Milner) and Buz Murdock (played by George Maharis), with Murdock being replaced by a character called Lincoln Case (played by Glenn Corbett) in the third season.

107. Saint Kitts’ island partner : NEVIS

Saint Kitts is the more familiar name for Saint Christopher Island, part of the West Indies. Saint Kitts, along with the neighboring island of Nevis, is part of the country known as the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint Kitts has had a troubled history, with the Spanish, British and French all vying for control of the island. Most of the population today is descended from slaves brought onto Saint Kitts to farm tobacco and then sugar cane. Most of the slaves were from Africa, although Irish and Scottish slaves were also used.

110. Mil. address : APO

Army post office (APO)

113. Draft category : ONE-A

The US government maintains information on all males who are potentially subject to military conscription, using what is called the Selective Service System (SS). In the event that a draft was held, men registered would be classified into groups to determine eligibility for service. Class 1-A registrants are those available for unrestricted military service. Other classes are 1-A-O (conscientious objector available for noncombatant service), 4-A (registrant who has completed military service) and 4-D (Minister of religion).

115. Med. diagnostic procedure : MRI SCAN

MRI scans can be daunting for many people as they usually involve the patient lying inside a tube with the imaging magnet surrounding the body. Additionally, the scan can take up to 40 minutes in some cases. There are some open MRI scanners available that help prevent a feeling of claustrophobia. However, the image produced by open scanners are of lower quality as they operate at lower magnetic fields.

120. Shell lining : NACRE

Mother-of-pearl is another name for nacre. Nacre is the strong iridescent material laid down by some mollusks on the inside of their shells, and it’s also what makes up pearls. The creature lays down nacre as a defensive mechanism, protecting the soft tissue of its body from the rough surface of the outer shell. Similarly, it uses nacre to encapsulate harmful debris or a parasite that penetrates the shell, and that’s how a pearl is formed.

122. Cleaning products company’s expansion into arena seating? : CLOROX BLEACHERS

Clorox bleach was first produced by a business called the Electro-Alkaline Company in 1913, just a few miles from where I live here on the east side of San Francisco Bay. I use a generic version of Clorox as the source of chlorine for my swimming pool. It’s the same chemical solution as that sold for pools, just half as concentrated and a lot cheaper!

At a sports event one might sit in the bleachers. “Bleachers” is a particularly American term used to describe the tiered stands that provide seating for spectators. These seats were originally wooden planks, and as they were uncovered they would be “bleached” by the sun, giving them the name we use today. Sometimes the fans using the bleachers might be referred to as “bleacherites”.

129. Cosmo competitor : 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.

Down

2. “__ You Babe”: 1965 #1 hit : I GOT

“I Got You Babe” is a duet that was released in 1965 by Sonny & Cher. The lyrics and music for the song were written by Sonny Bono himself. In 1993, Sonny and Cher did a version of the song with the animated characters Beavis and Butt-head. One has to ask, “Why …?”

3. Actress Suvari : MENA

Mena Suvari’s most famous role to date is probably “the beauty” in the 1999 movie “American Beauty”. She plays the teenage girl with whom the Kevin Spacey character becomes infatuated. She also plays Heather in the “American Pie” films.

7. Forbes competitor : INC

“Inc.” is a business magazine that specializes in articles about growing companies. “Inc.” publishes a list of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the country each year, calling it the “Inc. 500”. The “Inc 5000” is an expanded list also published by the magazine.

10. Gothic novel pioneer Radcliffe : ANN

Ann Radcliffe was an English author famous for her Gothic novels, a genre that she helped to pioneer in the late 18th century. I’m not a huge fan of Gothic novels, Gothic horror in particular …

13. Thurman of film : UMA

Uma Thurman started her working career as a fashion model, at the age of 15. She appeared in her first movies at 17, with her most acclaimed early role being Cécile de Volanges in 1988’s “Dangerous Liaisons”. Thurman’s career really took off when she played the gangster’s “moll” in Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” in 1994. My favorite of all Thurman’s movies is “The Truth About Cats & Dog’s”, a less acclaimed romcom released in 1996. She took a few years off from 1998 until 2002, doing very little work in favor of motherhood. It was Tarantino who relaunched her career, giving her the lead in the “Kill Bill” films.

14. Writing implement company’s expansion into jewelry? : BIC PENDANTS

Société Bic is a French company, based in Clichy in France. The first product the company produced, more than fifty years ago, was the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen that is still produced today. Bic also makes other disposable products such as lighters and razors.

15. Selling spot in Sparta : AGORA

In early Greece the “agora” was a place of assembly. Often the assemblies held there were quite formal, perhaps for the reading of a proclamation. Later in Greek history, things became less formal as the agora evolved into a market place. 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”.

19. Many an Omani : ARAB

Oman lies on the southeast coast of the Arabian Peninsula and is neighbored by the OAE, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Oman is a monarchy, and the official name of the state is the Sultanate of Oman. All of the country’s legislative, executive and judiciary power resides with the hereditary sultan.

23. “__ Called Wanda” : A FISH

The 1988 comedy “A Fish Called Wanda” is a favorite of mine. The film was co-written by and stars John Cleese, and has an exceptional cast including Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Cleese’s friend from “Monty Python”, Michael Palin. Kevin Kline won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance. The “fish” in the film is the con artist Wanda, played by Curtis.

24. Stereotypical pocket protector wearers : DWEEBS

“Dweeb” is relatively recent American slang that came out of college life in the late sixties. Dweeb, squarepants, nerd, they’re all not-nice terms that mean the same thing: someone excessively studious and socially inept.

29. Part of TGIF : IT’S

“Thank God It’s Friday” (TGIF) is a relatively new expression that apparently originated in Akron, Ohio. It was a catchphrase used first by disk jockey Jerry Healy of WAKR in the early seventies. That said, one blog reader wrote me to say that he had been using the phrase in the fifties.

34. Louvre displays : OILS

The Musée du Louvre has the distinction of being the most visited art museum in the whole world. The collection is housed in the magnificent Louvre Palace that used to be the seat of power in France, until 1682 when Louis XIV moved to Versailles.

35. Ancient Syrian trade center : PALMYRA

Palmyra is an ancient city in Syria that became very wealthy as a center of trade during the days of the Roman Empire. Palmyra was attacked and destroyed twice, by the Romans in 273 and by the Timurids in 1400, although it still is home to spectacular ruins of magnificent structures erected during the city’s heyday. This is despite recent acts of sabotage by Islamic State soldiers who took control of Palmyra several times during the current conflict in Syria.

37. Piece maker : REESE’S

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were invented by Harry Burnett “H.B.” Reese. Peanut Butter Cups were originally called penny cups, reflecting the price at which they were sold. Then inflation took over, and maybe that’s why they were broken into smaller “Pieces” …

38. Broadcast format: Abbr. : UHF

TV frequencies here in North America are divided into two bands. The VHF band covers channels 2 through 13; the UHF band covers channels 14 through 83.

40. __ Rabbit : 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”.

42. Sea cow : MANATEE

Manatees, also known as sea cows, are very large marine mammals that can grow to 12 feet in length. The manatee is believed to have evolved from four-legged land mammals and probably shares a common ancestor with the elephant.

51. Iraq’s main port : BASRA

Basra is a Iraq’s main port, and is located in the south of the country, 34 miles from the Persian Gulf. Access to the gulf ii via the Shatt al-Arab waterway, a river that discharges into the gulf in the port city of Umm Qasr.

55. One of two zygote producers : GAMETE

A gamete is a reproductive cell that has half the full complement of genes needed to make a normal cell. In sexual reproduction, it takes two gametes, one from each parent, to fuse into one cell which then develops into a new organism. The female gamete is the ovum, and the male the sperm.

“Zygote” is the name given to the cell formed when (in the case of humans) a sperm fertilizes an egg. It is the earliest stage in the development of an embryo. The term “zygote” comes from the Greek for “joined, yoked”.

60. T. __ : REX

The Tyrannosaurus rex (usually written “T. rex”) was a spectacular looking dinosaur. “Tyrannosaurus” comes from the Greek words “tyrannos” (tyrant) and “sauros” (lizard) and “rex” the Latin for “king”. They were big beasts, measuring 42 feet long and 13 feet tall at the hips, and weighing 7.5 tons.

65. Kook : NUT

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

66. Anaphylaxis treatment : EPIPEN

EpiPen is a brand name of epinephrine auto-injector. An EpiPen delivers a measured dose of epinephrine, usually for the treatment of an allergic reaction.

Anaphylaxis is a rapid and extreme reaction to an allergen, one that might even cause death. People who are at risk often carry epinephrine injectors and wear medical identification tags.

67. NATO, for one : ACRONYM

Strictly speaking, words formed from the first letters or other words are known as “initialisms”. Examples would be FBI and NBC, where the initials are spoken by sounding out each letter. Certain initialisms are pronounced as words in their own right, such as NATO and AWOL, and are called “acronyms”. So, acronyms are a subset of initialisms. As I say, that’s “strictly speaking”, so please don’t write in …

69. Target, for one : STORE

Target Corporation was founded by George Draper Dayton in 1902 in Minneapolis, Minnesota as Dayton Dry Goods Company. Dayton developed into a department store, and the company opened up a discount store chain in 1962, calling it Target. Today Target is the second-largest discount retailer in the country, after Walmart.

71. Kitchen supplies company’s expansion into security? : SOS PADLOCKS

S.O.S is a brand name of scouring pads made from steel wool impregnated with soap. The product was invented as a giveaway by an aluminum pot salesman in San Francisco called Ed Cox. His wife gave it the name “S.O.S” as an initialism standing for “Save Our Saucepans”. Note the punctuation! There is no period after the last S, and that is deliberate. When Cox went to register the trademark, he found that “S.O.S.” could not be a trademark because it was used as an international distress signal. So he dropped the period after the last S, and I hope made a lot of money for himself and his wife.

73. __ Peninsula : IBERIAN

The Ebro is the longest river in Spain. The river was known by the Romans as the Iber, and it is the “Iber” river that gives the “Iberian” Peninsula its name.

77. Second-easternmost U.S. state capital : BOSTON

The easternmost US state capital is Augusta, Maine. The second-easternmost capital is Boston, Massachusetts. The westernmost US state capital is Honolulu, Hawaii, with the second-westernmost being Juneau, Alaska.

83. Rooms in a casa : SALAS

In Spanish, a “sala” (room) is a “división” (division) of a “casa” (house).

84. Beatle Paul’s title : SIR

The ex-Beatles bass player’s full name is Sir James Paul McCartney. “Paul” was knighted for his services to music in 1997. The Rolling Stones lead singer’s full name is Sir Michael Philip Jagger. “Mick” was knighted for his services to popular music in 2003.

85. Nice summers : ETES

The French city of Nice is on the Mediterranean coast in the southeast of the country. Although Nice is only the fifth most populous city in France, it is home to the busiest airport outside of Paris. That’s because of all the tourists flocking to the French Riviera.

86. Ballpark rallying cry based on a 1950s hit : DAY-O

“Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” is a traditional folk song from Jamaica. It is sung from the standpoint of dock workers unloading boats on the night shift, so daylight has come, and they want to go home. The most famous version of “Day-O” was recorded by Harry Belafonte, in 1956. Fans at baseball games have been known to sing “Day-O” to encourage a runner to score (head for home). That’s because of the song’s lyrics “Daylight come and he wan’ go home”.

90. Bodega patron : LATINO

“Bodega” is the Spanish term for a winery, or these days for a grocery store.

92. Trip provider : LSD

LSD (known colloquially as “acid”) is short for lysergic acid diethylamide. A Swiss chemist called 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 …

97. Food : ALIMENT

An aliment is an item of food, something that nourishes. The term comes from the Latin “alimentum” meaning “nourishment”.

101. Byron’s “before” : ERE

George Gordon Byron, known simply as “Lord Byron”, was an English poet active in the early 1800s. Byron was equally as famous for his poetry as he was for the wild excesses in his personal life. Byron lived much of that life outside of England, and fought for revolutionaries in both Italy and Greece. He died from a fever contracted while fighting for the Greeks against the Ottomans.

106. Bucky Beaver’s toothpaste : IPANA

Ipana toothpaste was introduced in 1915 and was at the height of its popularity in the forties and fifties. Sales declined in the sixties and the product was withdrawn from the US market in the seventies. Bucky the Beaver was the “spokesman” for Ipana. Bucky the Beaver’s slogan was “Brusha… Brusha… Brusha. Get the New Ipana – it’s dandy for your teeth!” Bucky’s nemesis in commercials was Mr. Decay Germ.

108. Racy message : SEXT

“Sexting” (a portmanteau of “sex” and “texting”) is the sending of explicit dialog and images between cell phones. The term “sexting” was first coined by the UK’s “Sunday Telegraph Magazine” in a 2005 article. Apparently the practice is “rampant” among teens and young adults. Whatever happened to dinner and a movie …?

112. Prefix with -pus : OCTO-

The name “octopus” comes from the Greek for “eight-footed”. The most common plural used is “octopuses”, although the Greek plural form “octopodes” is also quite correct. The plural “octopi” isn’t really correct as the inference is that “octopus” is like a second-declension Latin noun, which it isn’t. That said, dictionaries are now citing “octopi” as an acceptable plural. Language does evolve, even though it drives me crazy …

114. Down with, in Dunkirk : A BAS

“À bas” is French for “down with”, as in “À bas le roi!” meaning “Down with the king!”, and a phrase often heard during the French Revolution.

Dunkirk is in the very north of France, on the coast just a few miles from the border with Belgium. The beaches and harbor of Dunkirk were used for a massive evacuation of British forces early in WWII after they were surrounded by the German army. Over 330,000 mainly British and French combatants were picked up by 900 vessels that made repeated journeys over several days.

116. “The Purple People Eater” singer Wooley : SHEB

As well as having his huge hit in 1958 called “The Purple People Eater”, Sheb Wooley played Ben Miller in the movie “High Noon” and co-starred in the TV’s “Rawhide”, playing the role of Pete Nolan. Wooley also wrote the theme song for the long-running television show “Hee Haw”.

118. Woody’s boy : ARLO

Arlo Guthrie is the son of Woody Guthrie. Both father and son are renowned for their singing of protest songs about social injustice. Arlo is most famous for his epic “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”, a song that lasts a full 18m 34s. In the song Guthrie tells how, after being drafted, he was rejected for service in the Vietnam War based on his criminal record. He had only one incident on his public record, a Thanksgiving Day arrest for littering and being a public nuisance when he was 18-years-old.

119. Brief time pd. : NSEC

“Nanosecond” is more correctly abbreviated to “ns” (as opposed to “nsec”) and really is a tiny amount of time: one billionth of a second.

121. U.S. Army rank qualifier : RET

Retired (ret.)

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Complete List of Clues and Answers

Across

1. Icy coating : RIME

5. Heroine in the “Divergent” films : TRIS

9. Route shower : MAP

12. Castro, for one : CUBAN

17. Unlike spring chickens? : AGED

18. __-car : RENT-A

20. One-of-a-kind : LONE

21. Bud in Baja : AMIGO

22. Automaker’s expansion into music? : HONDA ACCORDIONS

25. Tijuana restaurant staples : TACOS

26. Work out : STAY FIT

27. “SNL” parody Baba __ : WAWA

28. Behavioral oddity : TIC

30. Fore relative? : PRE-

31. “Are you __ out?” : IN OR

33. Dizzy’s jazz : BEBOP

36. Story line : THREAD

38. __ port : USB

41. Antitoxin : SERUM

43. Lamb by another name : ELIA

44. Observed : SEEN

45. Candy company’s expansion into exercise equipment? : HERSHEY BARBELLS

49. Studio amendment : REDUB

52. Run : FLEE

53. Supermodel Sastre : INES

54. Self-satisfied : SMUG

56. “Family” actress Thompson : SADA

57. Like some twins : FRATERNAL

61. Final financials : YEAR-ENDS

63. __-de-France : ILE

64. It may quash dreams of a musical career : TIN EAR

68. Ed’s title : MISTER

69. Air-escape sound : SSS

72. Drink container company’s expansion into bakery products? : DIXIE CUPCAKES

75. Montevideo Mrs. : SRA

76. “Tough!” : TOO BAD!

78. Rouse to action : BESTIR

79. Co. that merged into Verizon : GTE

80. Like car carburetors, for the most part : OBSOLETE

82. Victimized by bad spelling? : POSSESSED

87. They often have quotas : REPS

88. Stella __ cookies : D’ORO

90. Singer Horne : LENA

91. Emphatic type: Abbr. : ITAL

93. Shelley’s Muse : ERATO

95. Jewelry company’s expansion into fishing for delicacies? : TIFFANY LAMPREYS

100. Figure (out) : DOPE

102. Latin trio part : AMAT

103. Older Obama daughter : MALIA

104. Turf : SOD

105. “Route 66” co-star : MILNER

107. Saint Kitts’ island partner : NEVIS

109. Agree to, in a way : SIGN

110. Mil. address : APO

111. Classical start : NEO-

113. Draft category : ONE-A

115. Med. diagnostic procedure : MRI SCAN

120. Shell lining : NACRE

122. Cleaning products company’s expansion into arena seating? : CLOROX BLEACHERS

126. Comic book artist : INKER

127. Bits : TADS

128. Jeer : TAUNT

129. Cosmo competitor : ELLE

130. Sends a fly flying : CASTS

131. Be in a red state? : OWE

132. Place : SITE

133. Political group : BLOC

Down

1. Fan sounds : RAHS

2. “__ You Babe”: 1965 #1 hit : I GOT

3. Actress Suvari : MENA

4. What goes around : EDDY

5. Work newbie : TRAINEE

6. Clergy abode : RECTORY

7. Forbes competitor : INC

8. Pack away : STOW

9. Farm sound : MOO

10. Gothic novel pioneer Radcliffe : ANN

11. Unrelenting annoyance : PEST

12. One usually crouching : CATCHER

13. Thurman of film : UMA

14. Writing implement company’s expansion into jewelry? : BIC PENDANTS

15. Selling spot in Sparta : AGORA

16. Went snooping : NOSED

19. Many an Omani : ARAB

20. Held to account : LIABLE

23. “__ Called Wanda” : A FISH

24. Stereotypical pocket protector wearers : DWEEBS

29. Part of TGIF : IT’S

32. Repeat annoyingly : RUB IN

34. Louvre displays : OILS

35. Ancient Syrian trade center : PALMYRA

37. Piece maker : REESE’S

38. Broadcast format: Abbr. : UHF

39. __-employed : SELF

40. __ Rabbit : BR’ER

42. Sea cow : MANATEE

46. Blue map area : SEA

47. Museum pieces : RELICS

48. Respond to defamation, say : SUE

50. Milk container : UDDER

51. Iraq’s main port : BASRA

55. One of two zygote producers : GAMETE

58. Word before wave or pool : TIDAL

59. Slurred in pronunciation : ELIDED

60. T. __ : REX

62. High grounds : RISES

65. Kook : NUT

66. Anaphylaxis treatment : EPIPEN

67. NATO, for one : ACRONYM

69. Target, for one : STORE

70. Grave : SOBER

71. Kitchen supplies company’s expansion into security? : SOS PADLOCKS

73. __ Peninsula : IBERIAN

74. Metric wts. : KGS

77. Second-easternmost U.S. state capital : BOSTON

81. Wee one : TOT

83. Rooms in a casa : SALAS

84. Beatle Paul’s title : SIR

85. Nice summers : ETES

86. Ballpark rallying cry based on a 1950s hit : DAY-O

89. “How silly __!” : OF ME

90. Bodega patron : LATINO

92. Trip provider : LSD

94. Corkscrews, essentially : OPENERS

96. Party gifts : FAVORS

97. Food : ALIMENT

98. Move periodically : MIGRATE

99. __ button : PANIC

101. Byron’s “before” : ERE

105. Frenzied : MANIC

106. Bucky Beaver’s toothpaste : IPANA

108. Racy message : SEXT

112. Prefix with -pus : OCTO-

114. Down with, in Dunkirk : A BAS

116. “The Purple People Eater” singer Wooley : SHEB

117. Holding area : CELL

118. Woody’s boy : ARLO

119. Brief time pd. : NSEC

121. U.S. Army rank qualifier : RET

123. Prosecutor’s field : LAW

124. Tribute in verse : ODE

125. Him, to Henri : LUI

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21 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 4 Jun 17, Sunday”

  1. 1 dumb error, 73 minutes. Pretty par for things, though probably could have been 20 minutes quicker for not stopping the timer for a break and being a bit unfocused for a good long period.

  2. 27:33, including the time required to find and fix one error after getting the silent treatment: I initially had KMS/MTE instead of KGS/GTE.

  3. I had an easier time with this one than some other Sundays. 43 minutes. Good theme that got me a lot of squares filled in quickly.

    Honolulu is also the most southern capital in the U.S. The most southern capital in the mainland U.S. is surprisingly Austin, TX.

    Best –

  4. Jeff pretty much said it for me today. But what Mr. Holland’s puzzle may lack in the way of challenge, it makes up for in plain old fun — and ain’t that why we do these things anyway?
    @Carrie (from yesterday), ❤️!
    @Dirk, this nomination for inclusion in the book of all-time profound Presidential pronouncements: “I believe in weather.” ?

  5. @Joe Bleaux There you go again. You have no respect for the general rules and understanding of this blog by continuing to insert your political biases. And for the record, as for yesterday, that was not an authentic apology. That was more unnecessary hostility. All you did was use the so-called apology as a gateway to spew more toxicity. You display for all to see that you have no boundaries.

    @Bill Will you kindly re-iterate to everyone here that political discourse has no place in this blog, and will only result in ultimately destroying it.

    1. Oh, give it a rest. The blog ain’t about cheerleading for the likes of Sean Hannity and advancing zany alt.right conspiracy theories, either.

  6. I totally agree with RestMyCase.
    I hear this negativity everyday and I’m sick of it.
    Newspapers, radio, news programs.
    LA Times is so blatantly anti-Trump it’s laughable, if it weren’t so tragic.
    This is a crossword blog and nobody wants to hear it here.
    The first 100 days of Trump coverage were 80% NEGATIVE.
    The numbers for previous presidents: Barack Obama, 41 percent negative, 59 percent positive; George W. Bush, 57 percent negative, 43 percent positive; and Bill Clinton, 60 percent negative, 40 percent positive.
    Here is the study.
    HARVARD STUDY
    Your candidate LOST. Get over it and stop disrespecting the President.
    Even your candidate can’t accept that she LOST.

  7. @RestMyCase … Perhaps Bill will correct me, but I just looked for a set of ground rules for his blog and was unable to find any. It seems to me that a better solution is for all of us to realize that opinions differ; that, sometimes, people say things with which we disagree; and that we do not always have to bring out the big cannons to shoot them down. (In particular, when I read some of your posts, I mostly just grit my teeth and keep my mouth shut.)

    Joe’s latest comment, in my mind, does not qualify as “spewing toxicity”. It’s not even a particularly political comment. Mr. Trump did, in fact, say something similar to “I believe in weather” – a characteristically simplistic comment and, under the circumstances, worthy of a certain degree of humor. Our president is becoming known for many things, but intellectual curiosity and a basic respect for truth, for the findings of science, and for the opinions of others are not among them.

    My two cents’ worth …

  8. @ RestMyCase. Your welcome and you’re RIGHT.
    Had to support you.
    So bothered by this, I forgot about THE PUZZLE and why we come to Bill’s blog.
    Just saw Dave’s insult. Here we go again.
    Hillary LOST. She thought it was in the bag.
    Fun and interesting. A couple of errors, of all things I didn’t get RE-DUB.
    Loved seeing Dizzy and BEBOP in a puzzle.

  9. I agree w/ Pookie and RestMyCase. Please don’t make the blog comments a display of hate.

    I enjoyed the theme answers, but it took forever to get SOSPAD because S.O.S is an item, not a company/supplier.

    I knew abt nacre because we once had goldfish.

    So that’s why we sing DAYO at baseball games? I thought it was just for fun.

  10. @Pookie … Yes, my candidate lost. Trump is the president. But this is a democracy. I get to disagree, as I see fit, with the things he says and does. In fact, it is my duty. I even get to be concerned when a man in his position gives ample evidence of being mentally unbalanced.

    And, as for Trump’s negative press score: is there not a simpler explanation than, “They’re all biased against him!”?

    @Bella … I do not believe that I insulted anyone and I do my best not to indulge in hate, which I consider a waste of time …

    Over and out …

  11. This is a crossword blog, not a political forum. Those have been the ground rules from day one, regardless of whether or not they are written. Bill has made this clear in the past. There are a number of us on here that don’t want to hear the constant barrage of misinformation and hate coming from some of you. Keep your politics to yourself or join an organization or blog for that purpose. That is not the purpose of this blog. If you’re not willing to respect the boundaries of this blog, then it certainly is the option of some of us here to disassociate from it, and believe me, there are more of us here than you know. For the record, I have never initiated posts of a political nature; however if somebody states something then that certainly invites a response.

    @Bill do you want to see your blog destroyed by these people who have no respect for your ground rules?

  12. @Bill
    I have tolerated the writings of those who have same-sex partners.
    I have not commented.
    This blog has taken a bad turn.
    Democrats in favor of the most “questionably” qualified candidate, Hillary ( It’s all a right-wing conspiracy! ) whose husband brought this country to an all-time low and a debased temperament. “It depends what is…is”still claims that she would have won the election if it were held sooner.
    Democrats do not believe in Free Speech.
    If it is not their belief, they shout it down.
    I will be exiting this blog, as there is no over-riding of editorial supervision.
    I therefore relinquish my position as the CEO of “Knock it off” and say “Adios muchachos y muchachsas”

  13. @Pookie is there a way to contact you? Are you on Facebook so that we can friend each other? Please send me an email:

    vicki@RestMyCase.com

    Anyone else who wishes to connect with me please feel free to email me as well, except for haters and insulters, as I am neither interested in drama nor debate with closed-minded individuals who can’t control themselves, have no boundaries, and have no respect for others or for the rules of engagement in this forum or in general.

    1. Yes, I will contact you tomorrow. I know your website from past comments. We are both named the same, same spelling.:-)

  14. In honor of Bill’s Irish heritage, I’m going to refer to the last few days’ posts as The Troubles….

    Let me put my 2 cents worth in. My beef? Seran Wrap!!!! Has ANYONE ever been able to get through an entire roll of that stuff without destroying it??!! Why can’t we make a decent roll of plastic wrap where we can see where we left off the last time AND get a hold of it? I just tried pulling the edge out from the rest of the plastic, and it’s IMPOSSIBLE. Even after you’ve mangled it and have destroyed half the roll to get the edge unstuck, the roll then sticks to EVERYTHING. If one end touches the other, it just becomes a wadded up mess. How can I fix all of the world’s problems when I can’t even save half a sandwich??

    Tomorrow I’ll let you know what I think of packing tape – another demonic invention…Included in that diatribe will be my opinion on packing peanuts and anyone who sends me something in them….

    Best –

  15. @Jeff … Thanks for the mood lightener!

    And I could not agree more with your description of Saran Wrap, a truly evil invention. My kids tell me that they took a secret delight in watching me try to deal with the stuff. Luckily, at some point, I discovered a cheap knockoff that doesn’t stick to itself nearly as well and is at least somewhat manageable, thereby rescuing at least a small portion of my sanity … ?

  16. Hey everyone!!
    Good Sunday puzzle, tho there was ONE LETTER I didn’t ink in till I checked on Bill: I guessed the “A” correctly, but still a real Natick for me at ELIA/PALMYRA!! And those are both things I should know, if only from past grids. Theme answers were pretty easy.
    Re: Saran wrap: I finally found a solution to the madness, and it was completely accidental: HUGE rolls used for wrapping furniture and other big stuff you want to protect!! Industrial strength!! Years ago some movers left behind a roll. Perhaps it’s slightly thicker than regular plastic wrap, cuz it’s MUCH easier to handle. I peeled off the first coupla layers (in case the roll was dusty) and I’ve been using it ever since. Must cut w/scissors when you use it.
    “The Troubles” I face include just about anything that is “sealed for my protection.” Where’s the protection against the inevitable paper cuts??
    Dave, may I thank you for being clear and respectful.
    Sweet dreams~~™?????

  17. To all:
    Try using a paper clip to secure the end of tapes and wraps. Works for me. Packaging is a huge nemesis.
    No political comments here.

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