LA Times Crossword 8 May 19, Wednesday

Bill’s time: 7m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Org. concerned with outbreaks : CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC started out life during WWII as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. The CDC worries about much more than malaria these days …

9 Follower of Guru Nanak : SIKH

Sikhism is a religion that was founded in the Punjab region, which straddles the India-Pakistan border. Even though Sikhism was established relatively recently, it is now the fifth-largest organized religion in the world. Sikhism was founded in the 15th century by Guru Nanak.

14 Shapiro of NPR : ARI

Ari Shapiro served very ably as White House correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR) for several years. He then became a co-host of network’s drive-time program “All Things Considered” in 2015.

15 Sunlit lobbies : ATRIA

In modern architecture, an atrium (plural “atria” or “atriums”) is a large open space usually in the center of a building and extending upwards to the roof. The original atrium was an open court in the center of an Ancient Roman house. One could access most of the enclosed rooms of the house from the atrium.

19 Soccer legend Mia : HAMM

Mia Hamm is a retired American soccer player. She was a forward who played on the US national team that won the FIFA women’s World Cup in 1991. Hamm has scored 158 international goals, more than other player in the world, male or female. Amazingly, Hamm was born with a clubfoot, and so had to wear corrective shoes when she was growing up.

21 Verb type without a direct obj. : INTR

Transitive verbs are those that can take direct objects, and intransitive verbs are those that do not. Examples of transitive verbs are “throw (the ball)” and “injure (a leg)”. Examples of intransitive verbs are “fall” and “sit”.

24 Bad guy you root for : ANTIHERO

An “antihero” is a character perhaps in a movie or novel. He or she is the “hero” of the piece, but is also someone who doesn’t exhibit the qualities associated traditionally with a hero, such as bravery or moral fortitude.

27 __ de cologne : EAU

Back in 1709, an Italian perfume-maker moved to Cologne in Germany. There he invented a new fragrance that he named Eau de Cologne after his newly adopted town. The fragrance is still produced in Cologne, using a secret formulation. However, the terms “Eau de Cologne” and “cologne”, are now used generically.

35 Prepare to drag : REV

Back in the 18th century “drag” was slang for a wagon or buggy, as it was “dragged” along by a horse or horses. In the 1930s, the underworld adopted “drag” as slang for an automobile. This sense of the word was imported into automobile racing in the forties, giving the name to “drag racing”. A drag race is basically a competition between two cars to determine which can accelerate faster from a standstill.

41 “Wherever __”: OneRepublic song : I GO

OneRepublic is a pop rock band that formed in 2002 in Colorado Springs. Initially, the band used the name “Republic”, but changed to “OneRepublic” to avoid possible conflict with similar band names.

45 Flightless birds : RHEAS

The rhea is a flightless bird that is native to South America. The rhea takes its name from the Greek Titan Rhea. It’s an apt name for a flightless bird as “rhea” comes from the Greek word meaning “ground”.

49 Aspiring DA’s exam : LSAT

Law School Admission Test (LSAT)

54 Pet healers : VETS

“Vet” is an abbreviation for “veterinarian”, a professional who treat animals for disease and injury. The word “veterinary” comes from the Latin “veterinae” meaning “working animals, beasts of burden”.

57 *HBO vampire series : TRUE BLOOD (giving “draw blood”)

“True Blood” is a television drama made by HBO. The series is based on a series of novels written by Charlaine Harris that describe human and vampires co-existing in a small town in Louisiana. I don’t do vampires …

58 San Diego player : PADRE

The San Diego Padres baseball team was founded in 1969, and immediately joined the ranks of Major League Baseball as an expansion team. The Padres took their name from a Minor League team that had been in the the city since 1936. The name is Spanish for “fathers” and is a reference to the Franciscan Friars from Spain who founded San Diego in 1769.

59 Like games in an arcade bar : RETRO

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.

60 Protein-building molecule : RNA

The two most common nucleic acids are deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), both of which play crucial roles in genetics. The DNA contains the genetic instructions used to keep living organisms functioning, and RNA is used to transcribe that information from the DNA to protein “generators” called ribosomes.

61 Shoelace tip : AGLET

An aglet is a plastic or metal sheath that is found on the end of a shoelace or perhaps a drawstring. The name “aglet” comes from the Old French word “aiguillette” meaning “needle”.

64 Spanish rulers : REYES

In Spanish, “reyes” (kings) rule.

Down

1 Kid : JOSH

When the verb “to josh”, meaning “to kid”, was coined in the 1840s as an American slang term, it was written with a capital J. It is likely that the term somehow comes from the proper name “Joshua”, but no one seems to remember why.

2 Nike competitor : AVIA

The “Avia” brand name for athletic shoes was chosen as “avia” is the Latin word for “to fly”, and suggests the concept of aviation. Avia was founded in Oregon in 1979.

3 Jewish girl’s coming-of-age : BAT MITZVAH

A Jewish girl becomes a Bat Mitzvah at 12 years of age, the age at which she becomes responsible for her actions. Boys become Bar Mitzvahs at 13. The terms translate into English as daughter and son of the commandments.

5 Baker’s meas. : TSP

Teaspoon (tsp.)

6 __ San Lucas: Baja resort : CABO

Cabo San Lucas is a major tourist destination at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. “Cabo” is sometimes referred to as the “Fort Lauderdale of Mexico”.

9 “Gone With the Wind” composer Max : STEINER

Max Steiner was an Austrian-born composer who moved to Hollywood in 1929, and who earned himself the moniker “the father of film music”. Steiner composed over 300 film scores, including, “King Kong” (1933), “Little Women” (1933), “Casablanca” (1942) and “Gone with the Wind” (1939).

10 Shiraz’s country : IRAN

The Iranian city of Shiraz has long been associated with wine, but there is no proven link between the city and the wine/grape we know today as “Shiraz” (also called “Syrah”). Having said that, some clay jars were found just outside of the city of Shiraz that contained wine; wine that was 7,000 years old!

15 Woody’s son : ARLO

Singer Arlo Guthrie is known for his protest songs, just like his father Woody Guthrie. The younger Guthrie only ever had one song in the top 40: a cover version of “City of New Orleans”. He has lived for years in the town of Washington, just outside Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His 1976 song “Massachusetts” has been the official folk song of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts since 1981.

20 Musician André with 11 Grammys : PREVIN

André Previn was a pianist, conductor and composer who was born in Berlin, Germany but who grew up in Los Angeles. Previn won four Oscars for his work on the musical scores of “Gigi” (1958), “Porgy & Bess” (1959), “Irma la Douce” (1963) and “My Fair Lady” (1964). Previn was married five time, most famously probably to actress Mia Farrow.

22 GIs’ support gp. : THE VA

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was formed in 1930 to manage pre-existing government benefits for war veterans. Some of those benefits dated back to the Continental Congress.

24 Like six starred puz. answers : ACR

Across (acr.)

25 New, in Nogales : NUEVO

Nogales (properly called “Heroica Nogales”) is a city in the Mexican State of Sonora. Nogales lies right on the Mexico-US border, opposite the city of Nogales, Arizona.

33 Nautilus cousin : CUTTLE

Cuttlefish are marine animals that are related to squids and octopodes. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell and are molluscs, not fish.

The marine creature called a nautilus (plural “nautili”) is referred to as a “living fossil”, as it looks just like the spiral-shelled creatures that are commonly found in fossils. The spiral shape is a great example of the Fibonacci series defining a natural phenomenon, as the spiral is a Fibonacci spiral, described by the famous series of numbers. The nautilus moves using jet propulsion, by ingesting water at one end and then squirting it out at the other.

40 Least gooey brownie pieces : CORNERS

Apparently, the first brownies were created for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. The recipe was developed by a pastry chef at the city’s Palmer House Hotel. The idea was to produce a cake-like dessert that was small enough and dainty enough to be eaten by ladies as part of a boxed lunch.

46 Stereotypical train hopper : HOBO

No one seems to know for sure how the term “hobo” originated, although there are lots of colorful theories. My favorite is that “hobo” comes from the first letters in the words “ho-meward bo-und”, but it doesn’t seem very plausible. A kind blog reader tells me that according to Click and Clack from PBS’s “Car Talk” (a great source!), “hobo” comes from “hoe boy”. Hoe boys were young men with hoes looking for work after the Civil War. Hobos differed from “tramps” and “bums”, in that “bums” refused to work, “tramps” worked when they had to, while “hobos” traveled in search of work.

47 Blowup: Abbr. : ENL

Enlargement (enl.)

50 Bottom row PC key : CTRL

The Control (CTRL) key on a PC keyboard is used to modify the function of other keys. For example, pressing CTRL+C copies a selection to the clipboard, and CTRL+V pastes the contents of the clipboard to a location defined by the cursor. Control keys were introduced on teletypewriters to generate “control characters”, which are non-printing characters that instruct a computer to do something like print a page, ring a bell etc.

51 Real estate calculation : AREA

The terms “realty” and “real estate” actually date back to the late 1600s. Back then, the terms meant “real possessions, things owned that are tangible and real”.

53 Nutritional stds. : RDAS

Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs) were introduced during WWII, and were replaced by Recommended Daily Intakes (RDIs) in 1997.

55 Christmas decoration : TREE

The custom of decorating trees at Christmas seems to have originated in Renaissance Germany. Those first trees were placed in guildhalls and were decorated with sweets and candy for the apprentices and children. After the Protestant Reformation, the Christmas tree became an alternative in Protestant homes for the Roman Catholic Christmas cribs. The Christmas tree tradition was imported into Britain by the royal family because of its German heritage. That tradition spread from Britain into North America.

58 72 for 18 holes, often : PAR

There’s an urban myth that the standard number of holes on a golf course is 18 because it takes 18 shots to polish off a fifth of scotch whisky. However, the truth is that the standard number of holes in the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland happened to settle down over time at 18, and that standard was adopted all around the world.