LA Times Crossword 24 Nov 18, Saturday

Bill’s time: 14m 49s

Bill’s errors: 0

Advertisement

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Fitness trend that involves kids? : GOAT YOGA

Believe it or not, goat yoga is a thing, a thing that has been around since 2016. It’s doing yoga on a farm with goats around you.

14. Arcade bonus : EXTRA BALL

Our word “arcade” comes from the Latin “arcus” meaning “arc”. The first arcades were passages made from a series of arches. This could be an avenue of trees, and eventually any covered avenue. I remember arcades lined with shops and stores when I was growing up on the other side of the Atlantic. Arcades came to be lined with lots of amusements, resulting in amusement arcades and video game arcades.

16. Old market for olive oil : AGORA

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

17. Setting for Dante’s “Divine Comedy” : AFTERLIFE

In Dante’s epic poem “The Divine Comedy”, the poet journeys through the three realms of the dead. The Roman poet Virgil guides Dante through Hell and Purgatory. Dante is guided through Heaven by Beatrice, the poet’s ideal of womanhood Beatrice

18. “Impractical Jokers” network : TRUTV

truTV is a Turner Broadcasting cable network that launched in 1991 as Court TV. The name was changed to truTV in 2008.

“Impractical Jokers” is a show that first aired in 2011 that falls into the “Candid Camera” genre, with the hosts pranking the public.

23. Drei, in the Apennines : TRE

In Italian, “due” (two) is company, and “tre” (three) is a crowd.
“Eins, zwei, drei, vier” is German for “one, two, three, four”.

The Apennines are the chain of mountains running the length of the Italian peninsula. The highest peak of the range is in the central Apennines and is the Corno Grande, which rises to over 9,500 feet.

27. Neruda wrote one about the sea : ODE

“Pablo Neruda” was the pen name, and eventually the legal name, used by Chilean writer Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Basoalto chose the name as a homage to Czech poet Jan Neruda.

29. Dirty digs : RATHOLE

“Digs” is short for “diggings” meaning “lodgings”. Where “diggings” came from, no one seems to know.

34. Bit of bedroom decor : SHAM

A sham is something that is imitation, fake. In the world of bed linens, a sham is also an imitation or fake, in the sense that it is a decorative cover designed to cover up a regular pillow used for sleeping.

36. When tripled, “Yum!” : NOM

Cookie Monster is a beloved Muppet on the TV show “Sesame Street”. He is a big eater, and is especially fond of cookies, which he eats while grunting out “Om nom nom nom”.

39. Cover stories? : BLURBS

The use of the word “blurb”, to describe a publicity notice on a book jacket, dates back to 1907 when it was used by American humorist Gelett Burgess. Burgess used a picture of a fictitious young woman named Miss Belinda Blurb on the dust jacket of a limited run of his 1906 book “Are You a Bromide?” That jacket proclaimed “YES, this is a ‘BLURB’!” The term persists to this day, without the young damsel.

45. “__ & Him”: Zooey Deschanel duo : SHE

Zooey Deschanel is an actress and singer-songwriter from Los Angeles. Zooey is the younger sister of Emily Deschanel who plays the title role on the TV show “Bones”. Now Zooey is playing Jess Day, the lead character on the sitcom “New Girl”. In the world of music, Zooey teams up with “M” Ward in the duo that goes by the name “She & Him”.

46. Prefix with gender : CIS-

The term “cisgender” is now used as the opposite of “transgender”. Cisgender people have a gender identity that matches the sex they were assigned at birth.

49. Polly’s call : AWK!

“Polly” is a stereotypical name for a parrot.

53. Ziggy Stardust genre : GLAM

I remember the days of glam rock so well, as it was a hugely popular genre of music in the British Isles during the early seventies. Artistes wore the wildest of clothes, big hair, shiny outfits and really high platform boots. Names associated with glam rock are T. Rex, David Bowie, Roxy Music and the infamous Gary Glitter.

David Bowie was the stage name of English singer David Jones. Bowie adopted the alter ego Ziggy Stardust during his glam rock phase in the 1970s. Sadly, Bowie passed away from liver cancer in early 2016.

56. Jaunty greeting : HI-HO!

Our words “jaunty” and “genteel” are related in that they both derive from the French “gentil” meaning “nice, pleasing”. In modern usage, someone described as jaunty has a buoyant air. Someone described as genteel is refined in manner.

57. Country on the Gulf of Guinea : GABON

The nation of Gabon lies on the west coast of Central Africa. Since it became independent from France in 1960, Gabon has become one of the most prosperous countries on the continent, by making use of the abundant natural resources and willing foreign investment.

The Gulf of Guinea is a large gulf that forms part of the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast of Africa. One of the Gulf of Guinea’s claim to fame is that it is home to the intersecting point between zero degrees of latitude and zero degrees of longitude, i.e. where the Equator and Prime Meridian cross.

61. Summer month in Santiago : ENERO

In Spanish, “el año” (the year) starts in “enero” (January) and ends in “diciembre” (December).

Santiago is the capital of Chile. The city was founded in 1541 by the Spanish as Santiago de Nueva Extremadura. The name was chosen in honor of Saint James and the community of Extremadura in western Spain.

62. Italian bread often served at Christmastime : PANETTONE

Panettone is a sweet type of bread that originated in Milan, Italy. It is now served, especially at Christmas, over much of Europe. The name “panettone” comes from the Italian “panetto” meaning “small loaf cake”.

63. Particulars, informally : DEETS

“Deets” is slang for “details”.

Down

2. 3-Down’s alma mater : OXFORD

The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. The exact date of the school’s founding is uncertain, although teaching was recorded there as early as 1096. Back in the early 1200s, the authorities from the town of Oxford hanged two Oxford University scholars following the death of a woman. There followed a dispute between the townsfolk and the university that resulted in many academics leaving Oxford. Many ended up in Cambridge, leading to the founding of the University of Cambridge in 1209. The two universities a similar status today, and are often referred to jointly as “Oxbridge”.

3. Churchill’s 1945 successor : ATTLEE

Clement Attlee served as leader of Britain’s Labour Party and as Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government during the war years under the leadership of Winston Churchill, a Conservative. Attlee swept into power right after WWII in a landslide victory over Churchill, and was responsible for major changes not only in Britain but around the waning British Empire. It was under Attlee that former British colonies like India, Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka and Jordan became independent. Also, the Palestine Mandate was terminated in 1948, while he was in office, with the state of Israel being declared the very next day.

5. Pirate’s cry : YAR!

International Talk Like a Pirate (TALP) Day is September 19th every year, a “holiday” that was created in 1995. The event started out as an inside joke between John Baur and Mark Summers of Albany, Oregon, but when they shared the notion with the columnist Dave Barry, he promoted the idea and it took off.

6. Public humiliation : OBLOQUY

“Obloquy” is such a lovely sounding word, and yet it describes something far from lovely, namely abusive language. The word comes from Latin “ob” (against) and “loqui” (from “to speak”).

8. 2004 remake starring Jude Law : ALFIE

There have been two versions of the movie “Alfie”. The original, and for my money the best, was made in 1966 with Michael Caine. The remake came out in 2004 and stars Jude Law in the title role. The theme song was performed by Cher in the 1966 movie, but it was Dionne Warwick’s cover version from 1967 that was the most successful in the charts.

13. Disentangled : RAVELED

While “ravel” can mean to get tangled up, the term is usually used to mean “unravel, disentangle”. Yep, “ravel” and “unravel” mean the same thing!

15. ’70s-’80s Rabbit competitor : LE CAR

French automaker Renault made the “mini-like” Renault 5 and sold it as the Renault Le Car in North America. My Dad had a Renault 5 in Ireland, back in the day …

21. Panache : ELAN

Our word “élan” was imported from French, in which language the word has a similar meaning to ours, i.e “style, flair”.

Someone exhibiting panache is showing dash and verve, and perhaps has a swagger. “Panache” is a French word used for a plume of feathers, especially in a hat.

24. One may be foiled by a captcha : SPAMBOT

Spambots are nasty little computer programs that send out spam emails and messages, often from fake accounts. This blog alone gets about 300 spam comments a day that I have to delete, almost all of which are written by spambots.

A CAPTCHA is a challenge-and-response test that is used to determine if a user is a human or some automated program. The acronym “CAPTCHA” stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”.

31. Euro forerunner : MARK

One of the currencies replaced by the euro was Germany’s Deutsche Mark (known as “deutschmark” in English).

32. Tommy add-on : ROT

Tommyrot is utter foolishness, nonsense.

35. Two-time Republican presidential candidate : HUCKABEE

Mike Huckabee is a former Governor of Arkansas, and host of his own show on the Fox News Channel from 2008 until 2015. Just like President Bill Clinton, Huckabee was born in Hope, Arkansas. Mike Huckabee’s daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, serves as the White House Press Secretary in the Trump administration.

37. Camp gathering place : MESS TENT

“Mess” first came into English about 1300, when it described the list of food needed for a meal. The term comes from the Old French word “mes” meaning a portion of food or a course at a meal. This usage in English evolved into “mess” meaning a jumbled mass of anything, from the concept of “mixed food”. The original usage, in the sense of a food for a meal, surfaced again in the military in the 1500s when a “mess” was a communal eating place.

42. Grover’s predecessor : CHESTER

President Chester Alan Arthur (CAA) came to power after the assassination of James Garfield in 1881. After Arthur was promoted to president, the office of vice president was left unfilled. The need to replace to the vice president was not called out in the US Constitution until the adoption of the 25th Amendment in 1967. Arthur was the last US president to serve without a vice president.

Grover Cleveland was the only person to have served as US President in two non-consecutive terms, and is sometimes referred to as our 22nd and 24th president. 49-year-old President Cleveland married 21-year-old Frances Folsom during his first term. This marked the only time that a president has married in the White House. And, that marriage made Frances the youngest wife of any sitting US president.

44. Spring bloom : TULIP

We usually associate the cultivation of tulips with the Netherlands, but they were first grown commercially in the Ottoman Empire. The name “tulip” ultimately derives from the Ottoman Turkish word “tulbend” which means “muslin, gauze”.

47. Apple’s X, e.g. : IPHONE

The iPhone X (pronounced “iPhone ten”) is a the eleventh generation of the iPhone, and was released in 2017 on the tenth anniversary of the original iPhone.

54. Cartoonist Walker : MORT

Mort Walker was a writer of comic strips who was best known as the man behind the iconic “Beetle Bailey” and “Hi and Lois”.

56. Letters in an internet bar : HTTP

“http” are the first letters in many Internet links. “http” stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. More secure and “safer” websites (like this one!) use links starting with “https”, which stands for “http secure”).