LA Times Crossword 10 Feb 20, Monday

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Constructed by: Gail Grabowski & Bruce Venzke
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Clay

Themed answers each end with something we might do to CLAY:

  • 72A Potter’s material associated with the end of 17-, 27-, 49- and 64-Across : CLAY
  • 17A Bit of insurance paperwork : CLAIM FORM
  • 27A No longer in style : OUT OF FASHION
  • 49A Work out regularly at the gym : GET INTO SHAPE
  • 64A Fungus on an old loaf : BREAD MOLD

Bill’s time: 5m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Pod in Creole cuisine : OKRA

The plant known as okra is mainly grown for it edible green pods. The pods are said to resemble “ladies’ fingers”, which is an alternative name for the plant. Okra is known as “ngombo” in Bantu, a name that might give us the word “gumbo”, the name for the name of the southern Louisiana stew that includes okra as a key ingredient.

9 Theme park that retired its IllumiNations show in 2019 : EPCOT

Imagination! Is a pavilion in “Future World” at Florida’s Epcot Center. The pavilion comprises glass pyramids, and opened in 1982 as home to the 3-D film “Magic Journeys”. The name “Imagination!” was adopted in 1999, after a major renovation.

14 Tall and skinny : LANK

The term “lank” can describe something that is straight and flat, particularly hair. The usage was extended in the early 1800s (especially in the form “lanky”) to mean “awkwardly tall and thin”.

15 Umpire’s call : FOUL

Back in the 15th century, “an umpire” was referred to as “a noumpere”, which was misheard and hence causing the dropping of the initial letter N. The term “noumpere” came from Old French “nonper” meaning “not even, odd number”. The idea was that the original umpire was a third person called on to arbitrate between two, providing that “odd number” needed to decide the dispute.

16 Greek played by Anthony Quinn : ZORBA

The film “Zorba the Greek” and the musical “Zorba” are adaptations of the 1952 novel “Zorba the Greek” by Nikos Kazantzakis. The 1964 film version stars Anthony Quinn in the title role, and Alan Bates. The movie is set and was filmed on location on the island of Crete, the home of author Kazantzakis.

Anthony Quinn was a Mexican-born American actor who is perhaps best known for playing the title role in the 1964 film “Zorba the Greek”. Off the screen, Quinn was an accomplished artist, with his works being exhibited both domestically and internationally.

20 Series-ending abbr. : ETC

The Latin phrase “et cetera” translates as “and other things”. The term is usually abbreviated to “etc.”

24 Letters shown in the “Wheel of Fortune” bonus round : RSTLNE

On the game show “Wheel of Fortune”, players are given the letters R, S, T, L, N & E when guessing the hidden word or phrase. The contestant then selects four more letters before trying to come up with the answer.

26 PC panic key : ESC

The escape key (Esc) was originally used to control computer peripherals. It was a key that allowed the computer operator to stop what the peripheral was doing (cancel a print job, for example). Nowadays the escape key is used for all sorts of things, especially in gaming programs.

38 Writer Ferber : EDNA

Edna Ferber was a novelist and playwright from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Ferber won a Pulitzer for her novel “So Big”, which was made into a film a few times, most famously in 1953 starring Jane Wyman. Ferber also wrote “Show Boat”, “Cimarron” and “Giant”, which were adapted successfully for the stage and/or big screen.

39 Novelist Levin : IRA

As well as writing novels, Ira Levin was a dramatist and a songwriter. Levin’s first novel was “A Kiss Before Dying”, and his most famous work was “Rosemary’s Baby” which became a Hollywood hit. His best known play is “Deathtrap”, a production that is often seen in local theater (I’ve seen it a couple of times around here). “Deathtrap” was also was a successful movie, starring Michael Caine and Christopher Reeve. My favorite of Levin’s novels are “The Boys from Brazil” and “The Stepford Wives”.

43 Tarzan player Ron : ELY

Ron Ely is most famous for playing the title role in the “Tarzan” TV series in the sixties. Years later, Ely hosted the 1980 and 1981 “Miss America” pageants right after longtime host Bert Parks retired, before the job was taken over by Gary Collins. And Ely is a successful mystery novelist. He wrote “Night Shadows” and “East Beach” in the mid-nineties, both of which featured his private eye Jake Sands.

44 Owlet’s home : NEST

Baby owl is an owlet. The term “owlet” can also be used for the adults of the smaller species of owls.

47 ER images : X-RAYS

X-rays were first studied comprehensively by the German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen (also “Roentgen”), and it was he who gave the name “X-rays” to this particular type of radiation. Paradoxically, in Röntgen’s native language of German, X-rays are routinely referred to as “Röntgen rays”. In 1901, Röntgen’s work on X-rays won him the first Nobel Prize in Physics that was ever awarded.

Emergency room (ER)

49 Work out regularly at the gym : GET INTO SHAPE

Our word “gymnasium” comes from the Greek “gymnasion” meaning “public place where exercise is taken”. The Greek term comes from “gymnos” meaning “naked”, as that physical training was usually done unclothed in ancient Greece.

57 Domed hall : ROTUNDA

In architecture, the word “rotunda” describes a building with a circular ground plan. Often the building has a dome, but that isn’t a strict requirement. The term can also refer to a round room within a building. The most famous example in this country is the Rotunda in the US Capitol building in Washington, D.C.

61 Watergate pres. : RMN

President Richard Milhous Nixon (RMN) used “Milhous” in his name in honor of his mother Hannah Milhous. Richard was born in a house in Yorba Linda, California. You can visit that house today as it is on the grounds of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library. It’s a really interesting way to spend a few hours if you ever get to Yorba Linda …

The Watergate scandal is so named because it involved a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. The Watergate complex is made up of five units, three of which are apartment buildings, one an office building, and one a hotel-office building (which housed the DNC headquarters). Watergate led to the “-gate” suffix being used for many subsequent scandals, such as “Irangate”, “Bridgegate” and “Deflategate”.

62 Sigma follower : TAU

Tau is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet, and the letter which gave rise to our Roman “T”. Both the letters tau (T) and chi (X) have long been symbolically associated with the cross.

63 Soft palate part : UVULA

The uvula is that conical fleshy projection hanging down at the back of the soft palate. The uvula plays an important role in human speech, particularly in the making of “guttural” sounds. The Latin word for “grape” is “uva”, so “uvula” is a “little grape”.

68 James of “Elf” : CAAN

James Caan is an actor from the Bronx, New York City. He is noted for his appearances in some very big movies such as “The Godfather”, “Misery”, “A Bridge Too Far”, “Rollerball” and more recently “Elf”. Caan is quite the sportsman. He plays golf with an 8 handicap, and is a 6-Dan Black Belt Master of Gosoku Karate.

“Elf” is a comedy movie that was released for the 2003 Christmas season. “Elf” was directed by Jon Favreau and stars Will Ferrell in the title role, with James Caan supporting and Ed Asner playing Santa Claus. It’s all about one of Santa’s elves who finds out he is human and goes to meet his father in New York City.

Down

1 Worrier’s stomach woe : ULCER

Until fairly recently, a peptic ulcer was believed to be caused by undue amounts of stress in one’s life. It is now known that 70-90% of all peptic ulcers are in fact associated with a particular bacterium.

2 Seasons with crystals : SALTS

Sodium chloride (NaCl, common salt) is an ionic compound. It comprises a crystal lattice made up of large chloride (Cl) ions in a cubic structure, with smaller sodium (Na) ions in between the chlorides.

4 Tackle moguls : SKI

Moguls are the series of bumps in the surface of snow that arise naturally as a succession of skiers make turns on a slope.

6 Eccentric sort : KOOK

“Kooky” is a slang word meaning “out there, crazy”. The term has been around since the beatnik era, and it may be a shortened version of the word “cuckoo”.

7 Capek play about automatons : RUR

Karel Čapek was a Czech writer noted for his works of science fiction. Čapek’s 1921 play “R.U.R.” is remembered in part for introducing the world to the word “robot”. The words “automaton” and “android” were already in use, but Capek gave us “robot” from the original Czech “robota” meaning “forced labor”. The acronym “R.U.R.”, in the context of the play, stands for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”.

8 __ mater : ALMA

The literal translation for the Latin term “alma mater” is “nourishing mother”. The phrase was used in ancient Rome to refer to mother goddesses, and in Medieval Christianity the term was used to refer to the Virgin Mary. Nowadays, one’s alma mater is the school one attended, either high school or college, usually one’s last place of education.

9 Toll-paying convenience : E-ZPASS

E-ZPass was a technology development driven (pun!) by the tolling agencies of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The first E-ZPass toll booth was built on the New York Thruway, and opened at the Spring Valley toll plaza in 1993.

10 Sports car that has two syllables in German : PORSCHE

Porsche was founded in 1931 in Stuttgart, Germany by Professor Ferdinand Porsche. The company didn’t produce cars at first, but worked on design and development. The first big job awarded to the company was from the German government, to design a car for the people. The result was the Volkswagen Beetle. Yep, the Beetle/Bug is a Porsche design.

We tend to say the name “Porsche” in English as if it is perhaps French, pronouncing it as one syllable. In German, it is pronounced with two syllables: Por-sche.

11 NFL analyst Collinsworth : CRIS

Cris Collinsworth is a sportscaster for several broadcasting organizations. Collinsworth played as a wide receiver in the NFL for eight seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals.

12 Slender wind : OBOE

The oboe is perhaps my favorite of the reed instruments. The name “oboe” comes from the French “hautbois” which means “high wood”.

13 Seasoned sailors : TARS

A jack tar, or just “tar”, was a seaman in the days of the British Empire. The term probably arose due to a sailor’s various uses of tar back then, including waterproofing his clothes and using tar in his hair to slick down his ponytail.

18 “Hamilton” creator Lin-__ Miranda : MANUEL

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a composer and playwright from New York City, and the creator and star of the hit Broadway musicals “Hamilton” and “In the Heights”. Miranda also co-wrote the songs for the 2016 Disney animated feature “Moana”. He started composing early, and wrote jingles as a child. One of those jingles was later used by Eliot Spitzer in his 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

23 Victor at Gettysburg : MEADE

George Meade was a career army officer with a depth of experience in civil and military operations even before the onset of the Civil War. During the war he rose to the level of Commander of the Army of the Potomac, and is best remembered for leading the Union forces that defeated General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg in 1863.

The Gettysburg Campaign was a series of battles fought in June and July of 1863 during the American Civil War. The campaign started with Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia invading Maryland and Pennsylvania, and ended with Lee’s escape back to Virginia after being defeated by Union troops led by Major General George G. Meade at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Battle of Gettysburg, fought between July 1st and July 3rd, is recognized by many historians as the turning point in the war.

25 Chaney of silents : LON

Lon Chaney, Sr. played a lot of crazed-looking characters in the days of silent movies. He did much of his own make-up work, developing the grotesque appearances that became his trademark, and earning himself the nickname “the man of a thousand faces”. Most famous were his portrayals of the title characters in the films “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1923) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925).

28 Bone: Pref. : OSTEO-

The prefix “osteo-” is a combining form meaning “bone”. The term comes from “steon”, the Greek for “bone”.

29 Pet peeves? : FLEAS

Fleas are flightless insects, but they sure can jump. Their very specialized hind legs allow them to jump up to 50 times the length of their bodies.

30 Saks __ Avenue : FIFTH

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.

32 “I’m __ human” : ONLY

Me too …

34 Act the fink : SING

A fink is an informer, someone who rats out his or her cohorts.

35 First Nations tribe : CREE

The Cree are one of the largest groups of Native Americans on the continent. In the US, Montana is home to most of the Cree nation. They live on a reservation shared with the Ojibwe people. In Canada, most of the Cree live in Manitoba.

36 “__ of Eden” : EAST

John Steinbeck considered “East of Eden” his magnum opus. Most of the storyline takes place near Salinas, just south of where I live here in the Bay Area. Two of the characters in the story are brothers Cal and Aron Trask, representative of the biblical Cain and Abel.

51 Designer Giorgio : ARMANI

Giorgio Armani is an Italian fashion designer and founder of the company that has borne his name since 1975. Although Armani is famous for his menswear, the company makes everything from jewelry to perfume.

54 Ring-shaped reef : ATOLL

An atoll is a coral island that is shaped in a ring that encloses a lagoon. There is still some debate as to how an atoll forms, but a theory proposed by Charles Darwin while on his famous voyage aboard HMS Beagle still holds sway. Basically an atoll was once a volcanic island that had subsided and fallen into the sea. The coastline of the island is home to coral growth which persists even as the island continues to subside internal to the circling coral reef.

55 Director Brian De __ : PALMA

Brian De Palma is a very successful film director from Newark, New Jersey. Examples of De Palma films are “Carrie”, “Dressed to Kill”, “Scarface”, “The Untouchables” and “Mission: Impossible”.

61 Paper quantity : REAM

A ream is 500 sheets of paper. As there were 24 sheets in a quire, and 20 quires made up a ream, there used to be 480 sheets in a ream. Ever since the standard was changed to 500, a 480-sheet packet of paper has been called a “short ream”. We also use the term “reams” to mean a great amount, evolving from the idea of a lot of printed material.

65 Grammy winner Corinne Bailey __ : RAE

Corinne Bailey Rae is a British singer from Yorkshire in northern England.

66 PC alternative : MAC

Macintosh (also “Mac”) is a line of computers from Apple Inc. The first Mac was introduced in 1984, and I remember someone showing me one at work in those early days of personal computing. There was a piece of white plastic connected to the main computer by a cord, and I was amazed when the guy showed me that it controlled where the cursor was on the screen. My colleague told me that this lump of plastic was called “a mouse” …

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Depletes, with “up” : USES …
5 Pod in Creole cuisine : OKRA
9 Theme park that retired its IllumiNations show in 2019 : EPCOT
14 Tall and skinny : LANK
15 Umpire’s call : FOUL
16 Greek played by Anthony Quinn : ZORBA
17 Bit of insurance paperwork : CLAIM FORM
19 Earlier offense : PRIOR
20 Series-ending abbr. : ETC
21 Set as a price : ASK
22 Accumulates : AMASSES
24 Letters shown in the “Wheel of Fortune” bonus round : RSTLNE
26 PC panic key : ESC
27 No longer in style : OUT OF FASHION
34 Public tantrum : SCENE
37 Hydroplaned : SLID
38 Writer Ferber : EDNA
39 Novelist Levin : IRA
40 Charge card charge : LATE FEE
43 Tarzan player Ron : ELY
44 Owlet’s home : NEST
46 With everything in place : NEAT
47 ER images : X-RAYS
49 Work out regularly at the gym : GET INTO SHAPE
52 __ ring: foot jewelry : TOE
53 Postgame rundowns : RECAPS
57 Domed hall : ROTUNDA
61 Watergate pres. : RMN
62 Sigma follower : TAU
63 Soft palate part : UVULA
64 Fungus on an old loaf : BREAD MOLD
67 Latish wake-up hr. : TEN AM
68 James of “Elf” : CAAN
69 Charitable offerings : ALMS
70 Catch by trickery : SNARE
71 Prefix with formal or final : SEMI-
72 Potter’s material associated with the end of 17-, 27-, 49- and 64-Across : CLAY

Down

1 Worrier’s stomach woe : ULCER
2 Seasons with crystals : SALTS
3 Make official : ENACT
4 Tackle moguls : SKI
5 Cancel out : OFFSET
6 Eccentric sort : KOOK
7 Capek play about automatons : RUR
8 __ mater : ALMA
9 Toll-paying convenience : E-ZPASS
10 Sports car that has two syllables in German : PORSCHE
11 NFL analyst Collinsworth : CRIS
12 Slender wind : OBOE
13 Seasoned sailors : TARS
18 “Hamilton” creator Lin-__ Miranda : MANUEL
23 Victor at Gettysburg : MEADE
25 Chaney of silents : LON
28 Bone: Pref. : OSTEO-
29 Pet peeves? : FLEAS
30 Saks __ Avenue : FIFTH
31 Mental flash : IDEA
32 “I’m __ human” : ONLY
33 Negative votes : NAYS
34 Act the fink : SING
35 First Nations tribe : CREE
36 “__ of Eden” : EAST
41 Paid for a hand : ANTED
42 Use, as energy : EXPEND
45 In name only : TITULAR
48 DVR button : REC
50 Like a generic brand : NO-NAME
51 Designer Giorgio : ARMANI
54 Ring-shaped reef : ATOLL
55 Director Brian De __ : PALMA
56 Like dishwater : SUDSY
57 Boring routines : RUTS
58 Baking appliance : OVEN
59 Fish in cat food : TUNA
60 Preschool basics : ABCS
61 Paper quantity : REAM
65 Grammy winner Corinne Bailey __ : RAE
66 PC alternative : MAC