LA Times Crossword 9 Mar 19, Saturday

Bill’s time: 15m 02s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

16. Cruise woe : NAUSEA

“Nausea” is a sick feeling in the stomach. The term derives from the Greek “naus” meaning “ship”, and so was originally associated only with seasickness.

19. “¿Quién __?” : SABE

“Quién sabe?” is Spanish for “who knows?”

20. Green card fig. : ID NO

A “green card” is more correctly called a US Permanent Resident Card. The informal term harks back to the period between 1946 and 1964 when the document was indeed green in color. After dropping the green for many years, the Permanent Resident Card was changed back to a green color in 2010.

23. What unGlue helps parents and kids manage : SCREEN TIME

unGlue is an app that can be installed by parents on their children’s smart devices, with the intent of limiting the amount of time spent on social media, online games, etc. What’s unusual about unGlue is that the kids themselves get to earn and manage that screen time.

29. Linda of Broadway : EDER

Linda Eder is a singer and actress. She came to public attention when she won the television talent show “Star Search” for a record 13 weeks in a row.

30. Film lioness : ELSA

The life story of Elsa the lion was told by game warden Joy Adamson, who had a very close relationship with the lioness from when Elsa was orphaned as a young cub. Adamson wrote the book “Born Free” about Elsa, and then “Living Free” which tells the story of Elsa and her three lion cubs. In the 1966 film based on “Born Free”, Adamson is played by the talented actress Virginia McKenna.

36. Nebraska’s official soft drink : KOOL-AID

The drink we know today as Kool-Aid was invented by Edward Perkins and his wife in Perkins’ mother’s kitchen in southwest Nebraska. Kool-Aid is now the Official Soft Drink of the state.

41. Small stingers : RED ANTS

Fire ants are stinging ants, and many species are known as “red ants”. Most stinging ants bite their prey and then spray acid on the wound. The fire ant, however, bites to hold on and then injects an alkaloid venom from its abdomen, creating a burning sensation in humans who have been nipped.

44. Second person? : EVE

According to the Bible, Eve was created as Adam’s companion by God, creating her from Adam’s rib.

45. Mideast port : ADEN

Aden is a seaport in Yemen that is located on the Gulf of Aden by the eastern approach to the Red Sea. Aden has a long history of British rule, from 1838 until a very messy withdrawal in 1967. A native of Aden is known as an Adeni. Some believe that Cain and Abel are buried in the city.

46. “The Moor already changes with my poison” speaker : IAGO

In William Shakespeare’s play “Othello”, Iago utters the words “The Moor already changes with my poison.” Iago is celebrating the fact that Othello’s mind has already become infected with iago’s devious suggestions.

56. Copper : CENT

The original 1-cent coin was introduced in the US in 1793 and was made of 100% copper, giving rise to the nickname “copper” for a 1-cent coin. The composition varied over time, and was 100% bronze up to the 1940s. During WWII there was a shortage of copper to make bronze, so the US Mint switched to zinc-coated steel for production of one-cent coins in 1943. The “steelie” is the only coin ever issued by the US mint that can be picked up by a magnet. Today’s one-cent coin is comprised mainly of zinc.

60. Home of Tumnus, in fiction : NARNIA

In the “Narnia” series of books, Mr. Tumnus is a faun, i.e. half-man and half-goat. According to author C.S. Lewis, the whole idea for the “Narnia” stories was born from a single image that he had of a faun carrying parcels and an umbrella through a snowy wood. And that’s just what Lucy sees when she first steps into Narnia via the famous wardrobe.

66. Big group : PASSEL

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

Down

1. Sticking points? : RUTS

One can get “stuck in a rut”, perhaps while solving a crossword.

2. Org. with a QuickTakes online newsletter : OSHA

QuickTakes is a biweekly online newsletter issued by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

3. Model for Hook : AHAB

Captain Hook is the bad guy in “Peter Pan”, the famous play by J. M. Barrie. Hook is Peter Pan’s sworn enemy, as Pan cut off Hook’s hand causing it to be replaced by a “hook”. It is implied in the play that Hook attended Eton College, just outside London. Hook’s last words are “Floreat Etona”, which is Eton College’s motto. Barrie openly acknowledged that the Hook character is based on Herman Melville’s Captain Ahab from the novel “Moby Dick”.

6. Outer space feature : NO AIR

The exploration and use of outer space is governed by the Outer Space Treaty that came into force in 1967. The initial signatories were the US, UK and USSR, and now 102 nations are party to the treaty. For the purposes of the treaty, outer space begins at the Kármán line, a theoretical sphere that lies at an altitude of 100km about the Earth’s sea level.

9. The Wildcats of the America East Conf. : UNH

The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is the largest university in the state. UNH was founded as the New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts in 1866 in Hanover. The college was moved to Durham in the early 1890s, which is where UNH’s main campus is located to this day. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Wildcats.

10. Physics Nobelist Wolfgang __ : PAULI

Wolfgang Pauli was an Austrian-born theoretical physicist whose name is most associated with the Pauli exclusion principle. The principle states that particle such as protons, neutrons and electrons cannot have the same quantum numbers, cannot be at the same place at the same time and with the same energy. The discovery of his exclusion principle led to Pauli being awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1945.

21. RAM unit : ONE-K

Random-access memory (RAM) is a form of computer storage.

24. Cheat : COZEN

“To cozen” is such a lovely verb! Meaning to cheat or hoodwink, it comes from the Middle English word “cosin” meaning fraud or trickery.

25. Irony, say : TROPE

A trope is a figure of speech. The term “trope” comes from the Greek word “tropos” that has the same meaning.

26. Play with music : OPERA

Opera is a performing art involving musicians as well as singers who perform a dramatic work that combines a libretto and a musical score. The art form developed in the Italy in the late 1500s, with the first opera being recognised as “Dafne”, a work by Jacopo Peri that is now lost but was first performed in Florence in 1598. The oldest surviving opera score is also by Peri, a work called “Euridice” that was first staged in 1600. The oldest opera that is still performed regularly today is “L’Orfeo” by Claudio Monteverdi, which dates back to 1607.

35. Sean of “Rudy” : ASTIN

Sean Astin is best known for playing the title role in the 1993 film “Rudy” and the character Samwise Gamgee in “The Lord of the Rings” movies. You might also have seen him playing Lynn McGill in the 5th season of “24”. Astin is the son of actress Patty Duke, and the adopted son of actor John Astin (of “The Addams Family” fame).

“Rudy” is a 1993 sports biopic about the life of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, who played college football at Notre Dame. The movie is all about the title character’s desire to play football despite countless obstacles. And play he did, albeit very briefly. After that appearance, Rudy became the first player in Notre Dame history to be carried off the field by his teammates.

37. Film on the range : OATER

The term “oater” that is used for a Western movie comes from the number of horses seen, as horses love oats!

39. Tropical vacation souvenirs : TAN LINES

That’s if you go out in the sun. Not this fair-skinned Irishman …

42. Barneys rival : SAKS

Saks Fifth Avenue is a high-end specialty store that competes with the likes of Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus. The original Saks & Company business was founded by Andrew Saks in 1867. The first Saks Fifth Avenue store was opened on Fifth Avenue in New York City in 1924. There are now Saks Fifth Avenue stores in many major cities in the US, as well in several locations worldwide.

Barneys New York is a luxury department store chain. It was founded by Barney Pressman in 1923, with the first store opening in Manhattan. Pressman raised the funds necessary to lease that first retail space by pawning his wife’s engagement ring!

43. Bit of sparring : POTSHOT

When firing a gun, a “potshot” is a “shot” taken purely to get the prey into the “pot” for cooking. The term was coined in the 1830s, hence distinguishing between a shot taken for sport or marksmanship, and a shot taken as part of a hunt for game.

47. Gear for some test pilots : G-SUITS

A G-suit is needed when astronauts and aviators are subject to high accelerations. Such acceleration can cause blood to pool in the lower part of the body, reducing the supply to the brain and possibly leading to a blackout. A G-suit is basically a special pair of tight-fitting pants that are fitted with inflatable bladders. The bladders inflate during high accelerations, tightening around the legs and abdomen, reducing the amount of blood pooling. So, a “G-suit” is more correctly referred to as an “anti-G suit”.

52. Mountain Pose is a standing one : ASANA

“Asana” is a Sanskrit word literally meaning “sitting down”. The asanas are the poses that a practitioner of yoga assumes. The most famous is the lotus position, the cross-legged pose called “padmasana”.

58. Weather-tracking org. : NOAA

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is one of the seven federal uniformed services, namely:

• Army
• Marine Corps
• Navy
• Air Force
• Coast Guard
• Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps

61. Icel. surrounder : ATL

The earliest known mention of the name “Atlantic” for the world’s second-largest ocean was in Ancient Greece. The Greeks called said ocean “the Sea of Atlas” or “Atlantis thalassa”.

Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in the whole of Europe, with two-thirds of the nation’s population residing in and around the capital city of Reykjavik. Iceland was settled by the Norse people in AD 874, and was ruled for centuries by Norway and then Denmark. Iceland became independent in 1918, and has been a republic since 1944. Iceland is not a member of the EU but is a member of NATO, having joined in 1949 despite not having a standing army.

63. “Miss Pym Disposes” author : TEY

Josephine Tey was a pen name used by Scottish mystery writer Elizabeth Mackintosh. One of Tey’s novels is “Miss Pym Disposes”, which was first published in 1946.