LA Times Crossword 21 Sep 19, Saturday

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Constructed by: Evan Kalish
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme: None

Bill’s time: 9m 31s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

8 It dropped “Western” from its name in 1997 : … SAMOA

The official name for the South Pacific nation formerly known as Western Samoa is the Independent State of Samoa. Samoa is the western part of the island group, with American Samoa lying to the southeast. The whole group of islands used to be known as Navigators Island, a name given by European explorers in recognition of the seafaring skills of the native Samoans.

20 Pacific resort, popularly : 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”.

23 Like : A LA

The phrase “in the style of” can be translated into “alla” in Italian and “à la” in French.

24 Westernmost African capital : DAKAR

The Republic of Senegal is a country on the far western coast of Africa. For many years Senegal was a French colony, gaining independence in 1960. The capital of Senegal is Dakar. Dakar is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, thus making it the westernmost capital on the African mainland.

26 Commonly crumbled fare : SALTINES

F. L. Sommer & Company of St. Joseph, Missouri starting making wafer thin soda crackers in 1876. The crackers were later marketed as Saltines, due to the baking salt that was a key ingredient. The company subsequently lost trademark protection of the term “saltine”.

29 Word on Italian street signs : VIA

“Street” translates into French as “rue” and Italian as “via”.

34 Portmanteau coin : TOONIE

“Toonie” is the familiar name for a two-dollar coin in Canada. The toonie was introduced in 1996, and gets its familiar name from the one-dollar coin known as a “loonie”.

35 Longtime Warner Bros. output : ANIMATED SHORTS

The Warner Bros. film studio was founded by four Warner brothers, although their original family name was Wonskolaser. The brothers Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack emigrated from Poland as children with their parents, and changed their name when they landed in Baltimore, Maryland in 1889.

39 __ player : DVD

The abbreviation “DVD” doesn’t actually stand for anything these days, although it was originally short for “digital video disk”. The use of the word “video” was dropped as DVDs started to be used for storing a lot more than video. As a result, some folks assign the phrase “digital versatile disk” to “DVD”.

41 Legendary Asian : YETI

The yeti, also known as “the abominable snowman”, is a beast of legend. “Yeti” is a Tibetan term, and the beast is fabled to live in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet. Our equivalent legend in North America is that of Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch. The study of animals whose existence have not yet been substantiated is called cryptozoology, and a cryptid is a creature or plant that isn’t recognized by the scientific community, but the existence of which has been suggested.

43 “War on Peace” author __ Farrow : RONAN

Ronan Farrow is a former US government advisor in the Obama administration who hosted “Ronan Farrow Daily” on MSNBC from 2014 to 1025. Farrow is the son of actress Mia Farrow and filmmaker Woody Allen. Ronan is estranged from his father, ever since Allen started a relationship with Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, who is now Allen’s wife.

44 Network for cinema lovers : TMC

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

49 Pinky __ : SWEAR

The use of “pinkie” or “pinky” for the little finger or toe comes into English from “pinkje”, the Dutch word for the same digit. Who knew …?

56 Some of Nixon’s Plumbers, formerly : CIA AGENTS

G. Gordon Liddy serving in various positions in the Nixon administration. In 1971, Liddy was moved into a unit tasked with managing leaks of information from the White House. As the group was working on “leaks”, it was known as the White House “Plumbers” unit. Over time, the Plumbers moved from plugging leaks to actively plotting to embarrass the Democratic opposition during President Nixon’s re-election campaign. Ultimately, Liddy led the group of five men who famously broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Campaign in the Watergate Complex. Liddy was sentenced to a 20-year prison term, although he only served four and a half years following a commutation of his sentence by President Jimmy Carter. Years later, Liddy became quite successful as a nationally syndicated talk show host.

57 Simpson of fashion : ADELE

Adele Simpson was a fashion designer working out of New York for nearly five decades starting in the 1940s. As a child, Simpson was vaudeville performer who danced with several prominent entertainers of that era, including Milton Berle.

Down

1 Puccini 3-Down : TOSCA
(3 See 1-Down : OPERA)

Unlike so many operas, Giacomo Puccini’s “Tosca” was a big hit right from day one, when it was first performed in 1900 at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome. Currently, “Tosca” is the eighth-most performed opera in America.

2 Magic star of the ’90s : O’NEAL

Retired basketball player Shaquille O’Neal now appears regularly as an analyst on the NBA TV show “Inside the NBA”. Shaq has quite a career in the entertainment world. His first rap album, called “Shaq Diesel”, went platinum. He also starred in two of his own reality shows: “Shaq’s Big Challenge” and “Shaq Vs.”

4 Member of an Iraqi minority : KURD

Most of the Kurdish people live in a region known as Kurdistan, which stretches into parts of Iran, Syria, Turkey as well as northern Iraq.

5 “Wonder Woman” (2017) villain : ARES

“Wonder Woman” is a 2017 film starring Gal Gadot as the superhero title character. It is listed by many as one of the best superhero movies of all time. Gadot had already played Wonder Woman, in the 2016 film “Batman v Superman”.

6 Microbrew option : IPA

India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

7 Asti wine grape : MOSCATO

Asti is in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. It is perhaps most famous for its Asti Spumante sparkling white wine. Moscato d’Asti is produced from the same grape (Moscato Bianco). Moscato is a much sweeter wine with a lower alcohol content, and is usually served as a dessert wine.

9 Brown on the Food Network : ALTON

Alton Brown is a celebrity chef who is behind the Food Network show “Good Eats”, and is the host of “Iron Chef America”.

11 Cause of many ’70s lines : OIL CRISIS

The 1973 Oil Crisis started when the Arab members of OPEC imposed an oil embargo. The action was taken as retaliation for the decision by President Nixon to resupply the Israeli military during the Yom Kippur War.

15 With all judges present, as at a Circuit Court : EN BANC

“En banc” is a French term, translating as “on a bench”. It refers to the cases in which all the judges of a court hear a case, as opposed to a case heard just by a panel, a subset of the full complement. The phrase is sometimes written as “in banc” in the US.

21 Lower-calorie cookie since 2015 : OREO THIN

For those of us counting calories, Oreo Thins were introduced in 2015. There are only 40 calories in each thin cookie, compared to 53 calories in the real deal.

26 Filter target : SPAM

The term “spam”, used for unwanted email, is taken from a “Monty Python” sketch. In the sketch (which I’ve seen) the dialog is taken over by the word Spam, a play on the glut of canned meat in the markets of Britain after WWII. So “spam” is used for the glut of emails that takes over online communication. I can just imagine nerdy Internet types (like me) adopting something from a “Monty Python” sketch to describe an online phenomenon …

27 World record? : ATLAS

The famous Flemish geographer Gerardus Mercator published his first collection of maps in 1578. Mercator’s collection contained a frontispiece with an image of Atlas the Titan from Greek mythology holding up the world on his shoulders. That image gave us our term “atlas” that is used for a book of maps.

28 High-and-mighty sort : SNOOT

“Snoot” is a variant of “snout”, and is a word that originated in Scotland. The idea is that someone who is snooty, or “snouty”, tends to look down his or her nose at the rest of the world.

32 Revolutionary-era loyalist : TORY

“Tory” comes from the Irish word “tóraí” meaning “outlaw, robber”. The term “tory” was originally used for an Irish outlaw and later became a term of abuse for Irish rebels. At the end of the reign of King Charles II in Britain, there was a political divide with one side being called “Whigs” and the other “Tories”. Historically, the term “Tory” evolved to basically mean a supporter of the British monarchy, and indeed was used to describe those who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution. Today, “Tory” is used for a member of the British Conservative Party.

33 Super Bowl LI performer : LADY GAGA

“Lady Gaga” is the stage name of Stefani Germanotta. Germanotta is a big fan of the band Queen, and she took her stage name from the marvelous Queen song titled “Radio Ga Ga”.

36 Hot : EROTIC

The name of Eros, the Greek god of love, gives rise to our word “erotic” meaning “arousing sexual desire”. Eros was referred to in Latin as both “Amor” (meaning “love”) and “Cupid” (meaning “desire”).

37 View from Anchorage : DENALI

Denali’s summit stands at 20,237 feet, making it the highest mountain peak in North America. Denali means “the high one” in the native Athabaskan language. The peak was known as Mount McKinley for many years, named in 1896 for future president William McKinley. The state of Alaska changed the name back to Denali in 1975, and the federal government followed suit in 2015.

Anchorage, Alaska is the northernmost city in the US with over 100,000 residents (in fact, it has a population close to 300,000). Anchorage is also the state’s most populous city, and is home to more than 40% of Alaska’s residents.

42 Utopian : IDEAL

The word “Utopia” was coined by Sir Thomas More for his book “Utopia” published in 1516 describing an idyllic fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. More’s use of the name Utopia comes from the Greek “ou” meaning “not” and “topos” meaning “place”. By calling his perfect island “Not Place”, More was apparently making the point that he didn’t think that the ideal could actually exist.

44 Many Beliebers : TEENS

Justin Bieber is a young pop singer from London, Ontario. Bieber was actually discovered on YouTube by talent manager Scooter Brown. Fans of Bieber call themselves “Beliebers”. Personally, I’m no believer in Bieber …

45 Cuban hero José : MARTI

José Martí was a Cuban writer and political activist who became a symbol for his country’s movement to gain independence from Spain in the 1800s, earning him the nickname “Apostle of Cuban Independence”. Martí was killed in action in a battle against Spanish troops in 1895.

49 Dreamcast maker : SEGA

The Dreamcast is a video game console released by Sega in the late nineties. It was to become the company’s last game console. Since then, Sega has focused on producing video games as opposed to hardware.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Prepared for a shot : TOOK AIM
8 It dropped “Western” from its name in 1997 : … SAMOA
13 By design : ON PURPOSE
16 Basic : PLAIN
17 Come to one’s senses : SEE REASON
18 Not level : ATILT
19 Department store section : CARDS
20 Pacific resort, popularly : CABO
22 Some years ago : ONCE
23 Like : A LA
24 Westernmost African capital : DAKAR
25 Hardly Mr. Cool : NERD
26 Commonly crumbled fare : SALTINES
29 Word on Italian street signs : VIA
30 Competition involving pictures : CAPTION CONTEST
33 Hometown folks : LOCALS
34 Portmanteau coin : TOONIE
35 Longtime Warner Bros. output : ANIMATED SHORTS
39 __ player : DVD
40 Calm : SERENITY
41 Legendary Asian : YETI
43 “War on Peace” author __ Farrow : RONAN
44 Network for cinema lovers : TMC
47 Homecoming figure : GRAD
48 Headline : STAR
49 Pinky __ : SWEAR
51 Completely lost : AT SEA
53 Waiting line : I’LL BE HERE
55 Imply : GET AT
56 Some of Nixon’s Plumbers, formerly : CIA AGENTS
57 Simpson of fashion : ADELE
58 “Aha!” : THAT’S IT!

Down

1 Puccini 3-Down : TOSCA
2 Magic star of the ’90s : O’NEAL
3 See 1-Down : OPERA
4 Member of an Iraqi minority : KURD
5 “Wonder Woman” (2017) villain : ARES
6 Microbrew option : IPA
7 Asti wine grape : MOSCATO
8 Pampering place : SPA
9 Brown on the Food Network : ALTON
10 Ring centerpiece : MAIN EVENT
11 Cause of many ’70s lines : OIL CRISIS
12 Come before : ANTEDATE
14 Really absorb : SOAK IN
15 With all judges present, as at a Circuit Court : EN BANC
21 Lower-calorie cookie since 2015 : OREO THIN
24 Hardly Hollywood’s most wanted : D-LISTERS
26 Filter target : SPAM
27 World record? : ATLAS
28 High-and-mighty sort : SNOOT
30 Exchanged for an equivalent : CONVERTED
31 Pucker inducer : ACID TASTE
32 Revolutionary-era loyalist : TORY
33 Super Bowl LI performer : LADY GAGA
36 Hot : EROTIC
37 View from Anchorage : DENALI
38 Warn, watchdog-style : SNARL AT
42 Utopian : IDEAL
44 Many Beliebers : TEENS
45 Cuban hero José : MARTI
46 Peak : CREST
49 Dreamcast maker : SEGA
50 Sharpen : WHET
52 Had : ATE
54 “What a terrible idea!” : BAH!