LA Times Crossword 12 Nov 18, Monday

Bill’s time: 6m 28s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Tempo similar to lento : LARGO

Largo is an instruction to play a piece of music with a very slow tempo. “Largo” is an Italian word meaning “broadly”.

A lento passage is a piece of music that has a slow tempo. “Lento” is Italian for “slow”.

6. Quacked insurance name : AFLAC

In 1999, Aflac (American Family Life Assurance Company) was huge in the world of insurance but it wasn’t a household name, so a New York advertising agency was given the task of making the Aflac brand more memorable. One of the agency’s art directors, while walking around Central Park one lunchtime, heard a duck quacking and in his mind linked it with “Aflac”, and that duck has been “Aflacking” ever since …

11. Film watcher’s channel : TMC

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

15. “Fighting” Notre Dame team : IRISH

The athletic teams of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana are known as the Fighting Irish. There are several debated etymologies for the moniker “Fighting Irish”, with the most generally accepted being that it was applied by the press in the 1920s, reflecting the team’s’ fighting spirit and grit, determination and tenacity. I guess “grit, determination and tenacity” are characteristics often associated with the Irish.

17. Forgetful moment : MENTAL LAPSE (giving “tall story”)

In centuries past, “tall talk” was important and grand discourse, and the opposite of “small talk”. Somehow, this use of the adjective “tall” came to be used in the phrases “tall tale” and “tall story”, which both describe an account that is untrue and not to be believed.

21. Great enthusiasm : GUSTO

“Gusto” is an Italian word meaning “taste”. We use it in English in the phrase “with gusto” meaning “with great enjoyment”.

22. Revise, as text : EMEND

The verb “to amend” means “to change for the better, put right, alter by adding”. The related verb “to emend” is used more rarely and mainly in reference to the editing of professional writing. Both terms are derived from the Latin “emendare” meaning “to remove fault”.

24. Indian lentil stew : DAL

I love dal dishes, which are prepared from various peas or beans (often lentils) that have been stripped of their outer skins and split. Dal is an important part of Indian cuisines. I suppose in Indian terms, split pea soup (another of my favorites) would be called a dal.

25. Sporty sunroofs : T-TOPS

A T-top is a car roof that has removable panels on either side of a rigid bar that runs down the center of the vehicle above the driver.

26. One arguing for the unpopular side : DEVIL’S ADVOCATE (giving “sad story”)

In the Roman Catholic tradition, an “Advocatus Diaboli” (Latin for “Devil’s Advocate”) was a person tasked with arguing against the canonization of a candidate. We now use the phrase “devil’s advocate” in common speech to refer to someone who is arguing a position opposite to the norm or perhaps opposite to his or her own real belief.

36. “Cha-__!”: register sound : CHING

What we usually call a cash register here in North America, we mostly call a “till” in Ireland and the UK. I haven’t heard the word “till” used much here in that sense.

38. Summer hrs. in Oregon : PDT

Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)

39. William __, early bathysphere user : BEEBE

William Beebe was an American explorer who was active in the first half of the 20th century. Beebe was very interested deep-sea exploration and this interest led to the development of the bathysphere by Otis Barton in 1928. Beebe accompanied Barton on the first manned descent in a bathysphere, down to 803 ft. A few years later, in 1934, the pair descended to 3,028 ft. setting a record that stood for 15 years.

A bathysphere is a submersible used in exploring the deep sea. The bathysphere is spherical in shape, so as to better resist the high pressure of deep waters. The term “bathysphere” comes from the Greek “bathus” and “sphaira” meaning “deep” and “sphere”. The vessel is simply lowered into the water on a strong cable.

46. Aleut relative : INUIT

The Inuit peoples live in the Arctic, in parts of the US, Russia, Greenland and Canada.

The Aleuts live on the Aleutian Islands of the North Pacific, and on the Commander Islands at the western end of the same island chain. The Aleutian Islands are part of the United States, and the Commander Islands are in Russia.

47. Louvre Pyramid architect : IM PEI

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

50. Govt. agent : FED

A fed is an officer of a US federal agency, although the term “fed” usually applies to an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

53. Windy City rail initials : CTA

Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)

It seems that the derivation of Chicago’s nickname as the “Windy City” isn’t as obvious as I would have thought. There are two viable theories. Firstly, that the weather can be breezy with wind blowing in off Lake Michigan. The effect of the wind is exaggerated by the grid-layout adopted by city planners after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The second theory is that “windy” means “being full of bluster”. Sportswriters from the rival city of Cincinnati were fond of calling Chicago supporters “windy” in the 1860s and 1870s, meaning that they were full of hot air in their claims that the Chicago White Stockings were superior to the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

58. Wafer named for its flavor : NILLA

As one might expect, “Nilla” is a shortened form of “vanilla”. However, you won’t find any vanilla in Nilla brand cookies or wafers. They have always been flavored with vanillin, which is synthetic vanilla. Is nothing sacred …?

60. Dr. of rap : DRE

“Dr. Dre” is the stage name of rapper Andre Romelle Young. Dr. Dre is known for his own singing career as well as for producing records and starting the careers of others such Snoop Dogg, Eminem and 50 Cent.

61. Best Buy “squad” members : GEEKS

Best Buy is a retailer specializing in the supply of consumer electronics. Best Buy services include the famous “Geek Squad”, a band of technical experts that will help solve your computer and other consumer electronic problems.

62. Faked, in hockey : DEKED

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

Down

1. Dalai __ : LAMA

The Dalai Lama is a religious leader in the Gelug branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The current Dalai Lama is the 14th to hold the office. He has indicated that the next Dalai Lama might be found outside of Tibet for the first time, and may even be female.

2. NYC’s Madison and Lexington : AVES

Madison Avenue became the center of advertising in the US in the twenties, and serves as the backdrop to the great TV drama “Mad Men”. There aren’t many advertising agencies left on Madison Avenue these days though, as most have moved to other parts of New York City. The street takes its name from Madison Square, which is bounded on one side by Madison Avenue. The square in turn takes its name from James Madison, the fourth President of the United States.

Lexington Avenue in New York City is famous from many things, but my favorite fact is that it was the site of the first ever arrest for speeding in the city. In 1899 a police officer on a bicycle caught up with a cab driver who was tearing down Lexington Avenue, at the breakneck speed of 12mph …

8. Slimming surgery, for short : LIPO

Liposuction (lipo) dates back to the 1920s when it was developed by a surgeon in France. However, the procedure quickly lost favor when a French model developed gangrene after surgery. As a result, it wasn’t until the mid-seventies that modern liposuction took off, after being popularized by two Italian-American surgeons in Rome.

10. Frito-Lay corn snacks : CHEETOS

Cheetos snacks were developed by the same guy who created Fritos, hence the similarity in name. On the market since 1948, up until the turn of the century the name was written as “Chee-tos”. Oh, and Cheetos contain pork enzymes, so vegetarians beware!

11. Blessed with ESP : TELEPATHIC

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

12. Primary thoroughfare in many towns : MAIN STREET

The most common street name in the US is “Second Street”. “First Street” comes in only at number three, and this is because many cities and towns forego the use of “First” and instead go with “Main” or something more historical in nature. The spooky “Elm Street” appears on the list at number fifteen.

13. Believability, for short : CRED

“Street cred” is slang for “street credibility”, of which I have none …

23. Soft shoe : MOC

“Moc” is short for “moccasin”, a type of shoe. The moccasin is a traditional form of footwear worn by members of many Native American tribes.

24. TiVo products : DVRS

Digital Video Recorder (DVR)

29. Crook’s cover : ALIBI

“Alibi” is the Latin word for “elsewhere” as in, “I claim that I was ‘elsewhere’ when the crime was committed … I have an ‘alibi’”.

30. Claire of “Homeland” : DANES

Claire Danes is an actress from New York City who played the title role in the HBO movie “Temple Grandin”. More recently, she has been starring as Carrie Mathison in the excellent Showtime drama series “Homeland”.

“Homeland” is a psychological drama on Showtime about a CIA officer who is convinced that a certain US Marine is a threat to the security of the United States. The show is based on a series from Israeli television called “Hatufim” (Prisoners of War”). I saw the first season of this show and highly recommend it …

36. Phone in a purse : CELL

What we mostly know as a “cell phone” here in North America is more usually referred to as a “mobile phone” in Britain and Ireland. My favorite term for the device is used in Germany, where it is called a “Handy”.

37. Legal document : WRIT

A writ is an order issued by some formal body (these days, usually a court) with the order being in “written” form. Warrants and subpoenas are examples of writs.

49. Smooching in a crowded park and such, briefly : PDAS

Public display of affection (PDA)

51. Lake that’s a homophone of 59-Across : ERIE

Lake Erie is the fourth largest of the five Great Lakes by area (Lake Ontario is the smallest). The lake takes its name from the Erie tribe of Native Americans that used to live along its southern shore. Erie is the smallest of the Great Lakes by volume and the shallowest, something for which nearby residents must be quite grateful. Being relatively shallow, much of Erie freezes over part way through most winters putting an end to most of the lake-effect snow that falls in the snow belt extending from the lake’s edge.

55. Nietzsche’s “never” : NIE

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher. Not my cup of tea …