LA Times Crossword 29 Feb 20, Saturday

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Constructed by: Michael Weisenberg
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme: None

Bill’s time: 8m 47s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Baseball warm-up word : SHAG

To shag (I am reliably informed, never having played a game of baseball in my life!) is to chase and catch a fly ball.

5 Brazilian music genre word meaning “trend” : BOSSA

Bossa nova is a style of music from Brazil that evolved from samba. The most famous piece of bossa nova is the song “The Girl from Ipanema”. The term “bossa nova” translates from Potuguese as “new trend”, or more colloquially as “new wave”.

18 Mountain slope debris : SCREE

When a rock face erodes, lumps of rock and dust fall to the ground. The pile of rocks gathered around the rock face is called “scree”, a word derived from the old Norwegian term for a landslide.

19 Welder’s output : ARCS

In the process of arc welding, metal is fused by the heat generated in an electrical arc. The welder uses two cables from an electrical power source. One cable is attached to the metal being welded, and the other to an electrode. The tip of the electrode is touched to the base metal causing a spark and an electrical arc. The electrode is held at an appropriate distance from the base metal to maintain the arc, which creates enough heat to melt the electrode and base metal.

22 One of two sts. admitted to the Union 11/2/1889 : NDAK

The Dakota Territory was formed in 1861 and ceased to exist with the admission to the Union of the states of North Dakota and South Dakota. The territory was split into two states in 1889 largely due to lobbying by the Republican Party, which enjoyed a lot of support in the Dakota Territory. The admission of two states added to the political power of the party in the US Senate, by adding four safe Republican seats.

23 Elder of an ’80s-’90s country duo : NAOMI JUDD

The Judds were a country music singing duo made up of Naomi Judd and her daughter Wynonna. Naomi Judd is also the mother of actress Ashley Judd, with Ashley and Wynonna being half-sisters.

25 Formed by solidified magma : IGNEOUS

Magma is the molten material below the Earth’s surface. When magma cools, it forms igneous rock. “Magma” is a Greek term used for a thick ointment.

28 Perceived Cold War weapons disparity : MISSILE GAP

During the Cold War, future-president John F. Kennedy coined the term “missile gap” to describe the perceived superiority of number of ballistic missiles deployed by the USSR compared to the US. Kennedy used such language to help portray President Dwight D. Eisenhower as weak on defense. It became clear, some years later, that the so-called missile gap was fictitious.

37 Power eponym : WATT

James Watt was a Scottish inventor. He figured prominently in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, largely due to the improvements he made to the fledgling steam engine. The SI unit of power is called the watt, and was named in his honor.

An eponym is a name for something derived from the name of a person, as in the food item we call a “sandwich”, named after the Earl of Sandwich.

42 Amazon, notably : E-TAILER

Amazon.com is the largest online retailer in the world. It is also the largest Internet company in the world by revenue. The company was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, in his garage in Bellevue, Washington. I’m a big fan of Amazon’s approach to customer service …

44 Singer for whom Bernie wrote lyrics : ELTON

Bernie Taupin is the celebrated lyricist who wrote the words to so many of the songs composed and published by Elton John. The pair were brought together by the music paper “New Musical Express” in England. Elton John submitted some of his work to the paper in 1967, and Taupin answered an ad for songwriters. The paper brought the two together, and they’ve worked together ever since.

47 “Contact” author Sagan : CARL

“Contact” is a sci-fi novel by Carl Sagan that was first published in 1985. Sagan had written “Contact” originally as a screenplay in 1979, but when plans for the film stalled, Sagan decided to go ahead and create the novel. An excellent film did eventually hit the theaters in 1997, and starred Jodie Foster.

50 Formal “Who’s there?” response : IT IS I

The much debated statement “it is I” is grammatically correct, and should not be “corrected” to “it is me”. Traditionally, pronouns following linking verbs, such as “is”, “appear” and “seem”, are written in the nominative case. Examples are:

  • It is I (who called)
  • It was he (who did it)
  • It is we (who care)

51 Letter-bottom abbr. : ENCL

Enclosure (encl.)

53 Atlantic food fish : SCROD

Scrod is the name given to fish that has been “scrawed” i.e. split open, dried and then broiled.

54 Pak of the LPGA : SE-RI

Se-Ri Pak is a South Korean golfer playing on the LPGA tour. Having a Korean name, we really should be calling her Pak Se-Ri, as she is known in her homeland. Korean names always start with the family name.

55 Artist’s pseudonym formed from the French pronunciation of his initials : ERTE

“Erté” was the pseudonym of French (Russian-born) artist and designer Romain de Tirtoff. “Erté” is the French pronunciation of his initials “R.T.” Erté’s diverse portfolio of work included costumes and sets for the “Ziegfeld Follies” of 1923, productions of the Parisian cabaret show “Folies Bergère”, as well as the 1925 epic movie “Ben-Hur”. Erté’s most famous work by far is an image titled “Symphony in Black”. It depicts a tall and slender woman dressed in black, holding a black dog on a leash.

56 1953 Ladd classic : SHANE

The classic 1953 western movie “Shane” is based on the novel of the same name by Jack Schaefer published in 1949. Heading the cast is Alan Ladd in the title role, alongside Jean Arthur and Van Heflin.

The last few years of actor Alan Ladd’s life were pretty rough. In 1962, he was found unconscious in a pool of blood with a bullet wound in his chest, an abortive suicide attempt. Two years later he was found dead, apparently having succumbed to an accidental overdose of drugs and sedatives. He was 50 years old.

Down

3 Buttercup family member : ANEMONE

The name “anemone” means “daughter of the wind” in Greek, and at one time it was believed that the wind was what actually caused the flower to bloom. The sea anemone is named for the terrestrial plant even though the sea anemone isn’t a plant at all. The sea anemone is a predatory animal found on the ocean floor.

The Ranunculus genus of flowering plants can also be referred to as “buttercups”. The name “buttercup” may be the result of a traditional belief that cows eat buttercups, resulting in the yellow color of butter. However, buttercups are poisonous to cows, and so they avoid them.

4 Biological mapping subjects : GENOMES

The genome is all the hereditary information needed to reproduce an organism, in other words, all of its chromosomes. When scientists unravel the human genome it takes up an awful lot of computer storage space, and yet all of this information is in almost every cell in our bodies. Each and every cell “knows” how to make a whole human being.

5 Parachutist using low-altitude starting points : BASE JUMPER

BASE jumping is parachuting off fixed objects such as buildings or cliffs. The term “BASE” is actually an acronym standing for the four types of objects from which parachutists jump: Buildings, Antennas. Spans/bridges, Earth/cliffs.

8 Dummy Mortimer : SNERD

Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen’s most famous character was Charlie McCarthy, but Bergen also worked with Mortimer Snerd.

10 Rowena’s lover : IVANHOE

In the famous novel by Sir Walter Scott, the title character “Ivanhoe” marries the Lady Rowena.

“Ivanhoe” is an 1819 historical novel by Sir Walter Scott that is set in 12th-century England. The story is divided into three adventures that involve such characters as Richard the Lionheart, King John and Robin Hood, although the protagonist is a Saxon knight named Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe. An underlying theme in the book is the tension between the Saxons and the Normans who conquered Britain a century earlier.

12 Early Wikipedia competitor : ENCARTA

Microsoft badly wanted to get into the online encyclopedia business in the eighties, and approached the biggest and the best, “Encyclopaedia Britannica”. “Britannica” declined, fearing that an online version would damage their print sales. “Britannica” had to sell eventually, but not to Microsoft, as the inevitable decline in print sales happened anyway. So Microsoft made a deal with “Funk & Wagnalls” and started publishing “Encarta” in disk form in the early nineties. Usage of Encarta grew until along came Wikipedia. Encarta was discontinued at the end of 2009.

24 Roman sun god : SOL

Sol was the Roman god personifying the sun. For centuries, English astronomers have used the name “Sol” for the Sun, to distinguish it from suns in other planetary systems.

26 Like a pendulum’s movement : SIDE-TO-SIDE

A weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely is called a pendulum. The term “pendulum” comes from the Latin “pendere” meaning “to hang”.

32 Like Hollywood films before censorship guidelines were introduced : PRE-CODE

The Motion Picture Production Code that was in place from 1930 to 1968 was named for Presbyterian elder Will H. Hays. Hays was hired by the movie studios to help clean up Hollywood’s image after several scandals had hit the industry. The actual list of standards was drawn up by Catholic layman Martin Quigley and Jesuit priest Father Daniel A. Lord in 1929, but the code still came to be known as the Hays Code.

33 LeBron, since Jul. 2018 : LA LAKER

Basketball player LeBron James (nicknamed “King James”) seems to be in demand for the covers of magazines. James became the first African American man to adorn the front cover of “Vogue” in March 2008. That made him only the third male to make the “Vogue” cover, following Richard Gere and George Clooney.

34 One in a 1K, say : ENTRANT

A 1K race is run over one kilometer.

35 Follower : ACOLYTE

The word “acolyte” comes from the Greek “akolouthos” meaning “companion, attendant, helper”. In the Christian tradition, an acolyte is an individual who assists some way in a ceremony, by lighting candles for example. In more general terms, an acolyte is a devoted follower or attendant.

38 Property recipient, in law : ALIENEE

An alienee is one to whom ownership of property is transferred, is “alienated”.

43 Santa follower : … ANA

Santa Ana is the county seat of Orange County, California and takes its name from the Santa Ana River that runs through the city.

46 “Ran” director Kurosawa : AKIRA

Akira Kurosawa was an Oscar-winning Japanese film director. His most famous movie to us in the West has to be “The Seven Samurai”, the inspiration for “The Magnificent Seven” starring Yul Brynner, and indeed a basis for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”.

48 Wish were here : MISS

I wish you were here, I miss you.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Baseball warm-up word : SHAG
5 Brazilian music genre word meaning “trend” : BOSSA
10 Secured : ICED
14 Ebb : WANE
15 Nailing, in a way : ACING
16 Weather __ : VANE
17 Kitchen fixture : OVEN
18 Mountain slope debris : SCREE
19 Welder’s output : ARCS
20 Home improvement team : REMODELERS
22 One of two sts. admitted to the Union 11/2/1889 : NDAK
23 Elder of an ’80s-’90s country duo : NAOMI JUDD
24 Metaphorical casino loss : SHIRT
25 Formed by solidified magma : IGNEOUS
26 Is __: imminently will : SOON TO
27 Turndowns : NOES
28 Perceived Cold War weapons disparity : MISSILE GAP
31 Propelled, as a raft : POLED
32 Words preceding an important reminder : PLEASE NOTE …
37 Power eponym : WATT
41 Antagonism : RANCOR
42 Amazon, notably : E-TAILER
44 Singer for whom Bernie wrote lyrics : ELTON
45 Remit, nowadays : PAY ONLINE
47 “Contact” author Sagan : CARL
48 Comes to terms : MAKES A DEAL
49 “I’ll do it” : OKAY
50 Formal “Who’s there?” response : IT IS I
51 Letter-bottom abbr. : ENCL
52 Bit of progress : DENT
53 Atlantic food fish : SCROD
54 Pak of the LPGA : SE-RI
55 Artist’s pseudonym formed from the French pronunciation of his initials : ERTE
56 1953 Ladd classic : SHANE
57 Casual wear : TEES

Down

1 Like court witnesses : SWORN IN
2 Try it : HAVE A GO
3 Buttercup family member : ANEMONE
4 Biological mapping subjects : GENOMES
5 Parachutist using low-altitude starting points : BASE JUMPER
6 Blockage : OCCLUSION
7 Brought into being : SIRED
8 Dummy Mortimer : SNERD
9 Quite a while : AGES
10 Rowena’s lover : IVANHOE
11 Bouncer’s job : CARDING
12 Early Wikipedia competitor : ENCARTA
13 Icon locale : DESKTOP
21 Giovanni’s god : DIO
24 Roman sun god : SOL
26 Like a pendulum’s movement : SIDE-TO-SIDE
29 __-mo : SLO
30 Saw : SET EYES ON
32 Like Hollywood films before censorship guidelines were introduced : PRE-CODE
33 LeBron, since Jul. 2018 : LA LAKER
34 One in a 1K, say : ENTRANT
35 Follower : ACOLYTE
36 Certain youngster’s nickname : SON
37 Least civilized : WILDEST
38 Property recipient, in law : ALIENEE
39 Like a good-sized farm : TEN-ACRE
40 Plant support : TRELLIS
43 Santa follower : … ANA
45 Cabbage site : PATCH
46 “Ran” director Kurosawa : AKIRA
48 Wish were here : MISS