LA Times Crossword 28 Dec 18, Friday

Bill’s time: 8m 57s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Caesar’s fault : CULPA

Many Roman Catholics are very familiar with the Latin phrase “mea culpa” meaning “my fault”, as it is used in the Latin Mass. The additional term “mea maxima culpa” translates as “my most grievous fault”.

6. Big box office success, slangily : BOFF

“Boffo” (also “boff”) is show biz slang for “very successful”, and is a term that dates back to the early sixties.

10. PC scroll key : PGUP

PGUP (Page Up) and PGDN (Page Down) are two navigation keys found on a PC keyboard.

14. Rental brand with a hyphen : U-HAUL

The U-Haul company was started by married couple Leonard Shoen and Anna Mary Carty in Ridgefield, Washington in 1945. The Shoens used $5,000 of seed money to build trailers in their garage, and then cleverly recruited gas station owners as franchisees with whom they would split the rental revenue. There are now about 15,000 U-Haul dealers across the country.

15. Like the 1998 Pikachu Illustrator card : RARE

The Pikachu Illustrator is the rarest and most valuable Pokémon card. ONly 20-40 of the cards were ever printed. One Pikachu Illustrator card was sold at auction in 2016 for just under $55,000.

“Pokémon” is the second-biggest video game franchise in the world, second only to the “Mario” franchise. “Pokémon” is a contraction of “Pocket Monsters”.

17. Stock up time? : BULL MARKET

The terms “bull market” and “bear market” come from the way in which each animal attacks. A bull thrusts his horns upwards (an “up” market), whereas a bear swipes with his paws downward (a “down” market).

20. Hebrew wishing well? : SHALOM

“Shalom” is a Hebrew word meaning “peace” that is also used to mean “hello” and “goodbye”.

25. Atlanta campus : EMORY

Emory is a private school in Atlanta, Georgia with a focus on graduate research. The school was named after a Methodist Episcopal bishop called John Emory, who was very popular at the time of the school’s founding in 1836.

26. Dreamt, perchance : SLEPT

The phrase “To sleep — perchance to dream” comes from Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy:

To die — to sleep.
To sleep — perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub!

A rub is a difficulty or obstruction. The usage of the term “rub” predates Shakespeare, and comes from the game of lawn bowls in which a rub is a fault in the bowling surface.

29. Monument Valley features : MESAS

The spectacular Monument Valley, with its magnificent sandstone buttes and mesas, lies within the bounds of the Navajo Nation Reservation near the Four Corners region in the Southwest. The valley has served as a backdrop in many Hollywood movies. I always remember it as the location where Forrest Gump decided to stop running back and forth across the country.

33. Starfleet Acad. grad at the helm : LT SULU

Mr. Hikaru Sulu was played by George Takei in the original “Star Trek” series. Takei has played lots of roles over the years, and is still very active in television. Did you know that he appeared in the 1963 film, “Pt-109”? He played the helmsman steering the Japanese destroyer that ran down John F. Kennedy’s motor torpedo boat. From destroyer helmsman to starship helmsman …

In the “Star Trek” universe, Starfleet is the military service maintained by the United Federation of Planets. Famously, Starfleet is also tasked with deep-space exploration, to boldly go where no man has gone before …

39. Old duple-time dances : PAVANES

A pavane is a slow dance, one in which the dancers process majestically. Pavanes were very popular in Renaissance Europe.

40. Some religious sculptures : PIETAS

The Pietà is a representation of the Virgin Mary holding in her arms the dead body of her son Jesus. The most famous Pietà is undoubtedly the sculpted rendition by Michelangelo that is located in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. That particular sculpture is thought to be the only work that Michelangelo signed. In some depictions of the Pietà, Mary and her son are surrounded by other figures from the New Testament. Such depictions are known as Lamentations.

44. “How Do I Live” singer : RIMES

LeAnn Rimes has been a country music star since she was 13 years old. In 2008 she disclosed publicly that she suffered from the autoimmune disease psoriasis. She has been active since then in raising money to fight the disease and helping fund cancer research as well. So, not only did Rimes win three Grammy Awards in 1997, she also won a 2009 Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Country Music.

60. __ hack : LIFE

A life hack is a technique that makes a routine task easier or more efficient. The term was coined in 2004 by journalist Danny O’Brien when describing less-than-elegant shortcuts used by IT professionals.

61. Hathaway of “Rachel Getting Married” : ANNE

Actress Anne Hathaway is a favorite of mine, I must say. She starred in “The Devil Wears Prada” in 2006 and in 2007’s “Becoming Jane”, a film that I particularly enjoyed.

“Rachel Getting Married” is a 2008 film starring Anne Hathaway as a woman released from drug rehab in order to attend the wedding of her sister Rachel.

64. Big name in little bricks : LEGO

Lego is manufactured by Lego Group, a privately held company headquartered in Billund, Denmark. The company was founded by a carpenter called Ole Kirk Christiansen in 1934 and the now-famous plastic interlocking blocks were introduced in 1949. The blocks were originally sold under the name “Automatic Binding Bricks” but I think “Lego” is easier to remember! The name “Lego” comes from the Danish term “leg godt” meaning “play well”.

Down

1. Chicago’s “North Siders” : CUBS

Chicago’s North Side is home to the Chicago Cubs’ Wrigley Field.

3. __ land : LA-LA

“La-la land” is a euphemism for a state of unconsciousness or a dreamworld.

5. Like 22-Down, according to a song by John Denver (born 12/31/1943) : ALMOST HEAVEN
(22D. See 5-Down : WEST VIRGINIA)

“Take Me Home, Country Roads” is a 1971 song that was co-written and performed by John Denver. It was destined to become John Denver’s signature song, as well as one of the several official state anthems of West Virginia.

Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze

8. Famille members : FRERES

In French, a “frère” (brother) is a member of the “famille” (family).

9. Cheese served with kalamata olives : FETA

Feta is a Greek cheese made from sheep’s milk, or a mixture of sheep’s and goat’s milk. The cheese is salted and cured in a brine solution for several months before it is eaten.

The kalamata olive is a large, dark purple, almond-shaped olive that is perhaps the most common table olive from Greece. It is named for the city of Kalamata in the southern Peloponnese, which is at the center of the region where the olive variety is grown. Even though the EU reserves the name “kalamata” for only those olives grown in the region, we can buy kalamata olives grown elsewhere, from California for example.

10. One of a Biblical 150 : PSALM

The Greek word “psalmoi” originally meant “songs sung to a harp”, and gave us the word “psalms”. In the Jewish and Western Christian traditions, the Book of Psalms contains 150 individual psalms, divided into five sections.

13. Irish pub pie : PASTY

A pasty is a meat pie, traditionally filled with beef, potato, rutabaga (swede) and onion. The most famous variety of the pie is the Cornish pasty sold in Cornwall in England. Cornish miners brought the recipe with them as they emigrated, so various versions are found around the world. I always get a pasty when I am in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, for example.

26. __ bean : SNAP

Snap beans are also known as green beans and string beans.

27. Math points : LOCI

In mathematics, a locus (plural “loci”) is the set of all points that satisfy a given requirement. For example, the locus called a circle is the set of all points equidistant from a single point.

28. Marion’s conclusion : -ETTE

A marionette is a type of puppet, one that is controlled from above by a series of strings or wires. The term “marionette” is French for “little, little Mary” and is probably a reference to one of the first such puppets, which depicted the Virgin Mary.

30. Actor Thicke on Canada’s Walk of Fame : ALAN

Canadian actor Alan Thicke is best known for portraying the patriarch of the Seaver family on the sitcom “Growing Pains”. He was also quite successful as a composer of TV theme songs. Along with his first wife, Thicke co-wrote the theme songs to the sitcoms “Diff’rent Strokes” and “The Facts of Life”.

32. Mountain near Pelion : OSSA

Mount Ossa in Greece is located between Mount Pelion in the south, and the famed Mount Olympus in the north. Mount Ossa is also known as Kissavos.

34. Ellington classic : SATIN DOLL

“Satin Doll” is a jazz standard that was co-written and recorded by Duke Ellington. Johnny Mercer wrote lyrics to the song, but after it had already become an instrumental hit in 1953. Ellington usually closed his concerts with a rendition of “Satin Doll”.

Duke Ellington was a bandleader and composer believed by many to have elevated jazz to the same level as other respected genres of music. Ellington tended not to use the word “jazz” to describe his compositions, preferring the term “American Music”.

35. Coined word? : UNUM

From 1776, “E pluribus unum” was the unofficial motto of the United States. The phrase translates from Latin as “Out of many, one”. It was pushed aside in 1956 when an Act of Congress designated “In God We Trust” as the country’s official motto. “In God We Trust” had appeared on US coins since 1864, but was only introduced on paper currency in 1957.

36. News article intro : LEDE

The opening paragraph in any work of literature is often just called “the lead”. In the world of journalism, this is usually referred to as “the lede”.

39. Drupe remains : PITS

Our everyday usage of “nut” is often at odds with the botanical definition of the term. Examples of “true nuts” are acorns, chestnuts and hazelnuts. On the other hand, even though we usually refer to almonds, pecans and walnuts as “nuts”, botanically they are classified as “drupes”. Both drupes and true nuts are fruits, the vehicles that flowering plants use to disseminate seeds. True nuts are examples of a “dry fruit”, a fruit that has no fleshy outer layer. Drupes are examples of a “fleshy fruit”, a fruit with a fleshy outer layer that often makes it desirable for an animal to eat. Familiar examples of drupes are cherries, peaches and plums. We eat the fleshy part of these drupes, and discard the pit inside that contains the seed. Other examples of drupes are walnuts, almonds and pecans. The relatively inedible flashy part of these drupes is usually removed for us before they hit our grocery stores shelves. We crack open the pit inside and eat the seed of these drupes. No wonder we use the term “nuts” to mean “crazy”!

43. Polished : URBANE

We use “urbane” today to mean something courteous or refined. Back in the 1500s, the term was used in the same way that we now use “urban”. Those townsfolk thought they were more sophisticated than the country folk, and so the usage evolved.

45. Roman septet : HILLS

Supposedly, there were seven separate settlements on the top of seven hills east of the River Tiber, prior to the founding of the city of Rome. Tradition dictates that Romulus founded Rome on one of these hills, namely Palatine Hill, and the city came to encompass all seven existing settlements. The most famous hill in modern-day Rome is probably Vatican Hill, but it lies outside of walled ancient city.

46. Much cashless commerce : E-TAIL

“E-tail” is the term used these days for online shopping (coming from “retail”). E-tail is often compared to regular shopping in the “real world” by juxtaposing it with a “brick and mortar” store.

47. Ursula K. Le Guin’s genre : SCI-FI

Ursula K. Le Guin was an author best known for her fantasy and science fiction novels. One of Le Guin’s most famous novels is “The Left Hand of Darkness”, published in 1969. The novel’s storyline centers on an envoy from Earth who is sent to a planet inhabited by a race of ambisexual individuals. Le Guin uses this storyline to explore the effect of sex and gender on a culture and society.

48. Polyamorous anime subgenre : HAREM

Harem is a subgenre of anime and manga in which the protagonist is romantically involved with three or more individuals of the same sex.

“Harem” is a Turkish word derived from the Arabic for “forbidden place”. Traditionally a harem was the female quarters in a household in which a man had more than one wife. Not only wives (and concubines) would use the harem, but also young children and other female relatives. The main point was that no men were allowed in the area.

52. Pan name : T-FAL

Tefal (also “T-Fal”) is a French manufacturer of cookware, famous for its nonstick line. The name “Tefal” is a portmanteau, of TEFlon and ALuminum, the key materials used in producing their pots and pans.

54. Seaside soarer : GULL

Gulls are a family of seabirds that is most closely related to terns. Some species of gull can be quite clever. For example, they can reportedly use pieces of bread as a bait to catch goldfish in ponds. Others can be quite fearless, and have been known to land on the backs of whale and peck out pieces of flesh.

55. “Too good not to share” breakfast brand : EGGO

Eggo is the brand name of a line of frozen waffles made by Kellogg’s. When they were introduced in the 1930s, the name “Eggo” was chosen to promote the “egginess” of the batter. “Eggo” replaced “Froffles”, the original name chosen by melding “frozen” and “waffles”.

56. Take third : SHOW

When betting on a horse race, the first-place finisher is said to “win”. A horse finishing first or second is said to “place”. A horse finishing first, second or third is said to “show”.

59. __ Speedwagon : REO

REO Speedwagon is an American rock band that formed in 1967, and is still going strong. The band’s biggest hits are “Keep On Loving You” (1980) and “Can’t Fight This Feeling” (1985). The founding members chose the name for the REO Speed Wagon flatbed truck. Note that the band’s name is one word “Speedwagon”, whereas the vehicle’s name uses two words “Speed Wagon”.