LA Times Crossword 14 Jun 20, Sunday

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Constructed by:Yaakov Bendavid & Yoni Glatt
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme: Exchangeable Parts

Themed answers are common phrases, but with the first PART EXCHANGED for the last PART:

  • 23A Fault a rearrangement of infielders? : BLAME THE SHIFT (from “shift the blame”)
  • 35A Gives surf ratings? : RANKS THE SWELLS (from “swells the ranks”)
  • 55A Arranges for party chefs? : BOOK THE COOKS (from “cooks the books”)
  • 78A Masters yoga? : RULES THE BENDS (from “bends the rules”)
  • 97A Ask, “You sure this is diet?”? : QUESTION THE POP (from “pop the question”)
  • 114A Emulate a Jedi? : ISSUE THE FORCE (from “force the issue”)
  • 22D What a nervous director may do? : PACE THE SET (from “set the pace”)
  • 66D Block an access road between hills? : BAR THE PASS (from “pass the bar”)

Bill’s time: 20m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

7 Like some captioning : CLOSED

“Open” captioning is subtitling that is visible to all viewers, perhaps while watching a TV program. “Closed” captioning is visible only to viewers who activate the option to include subtitles, usually by using a menu option or remote control.

13 Energy bill letters : KWH

The kilowatt hour (kWh) is a unit of energy, made up of the product of power (kilowatts – kW) and time (hour – h). We see “kWh” all the time, on our electricity bills.

19 Victim of Perseus : MEDUSA

In Greek mythology, Medusa was one of the monstrous female creatures known as Gorgons. According to one version of the Medusa myth, she was once a beautiful woman. She incurred the wrath of Athena who turned her lovely hair into serpents and made her face hideously ugly. Anyone who gazed directly at the transformed Medusa would turn into stone. She was eventually killed by the hero Perseus, who beheaded her. He carried Medusa’s head and used its powers as a weapon, before giving it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. One myth holds that as Perseus was flying over Egypt with Medusa’s severed head, drops of her blood fell to the ground and formed asps.

20 MLB call-up, often : ROOKIE

The term “rookie”, used for a raw recruit, first appeared in Rudyard Kipling’s collection of songs and poems called the “Barrack-Room Ballads”, which was originally published in 1892.

25 “Mean Girls” writer and co-star : TINA FEY

“Mean Girls” is a teen comedy movie released in 2004 starring Lindsay Lohan. Tina Fey also puts in an appearance, which really isn’t surprising as Fey wrote the screenplay.

26 McCann of country : LILA

Lila McCann is a country singer who released her first single “Down Came a Blackbird” when she was just 16 years old. The first song made it into the “Billboard” country charts, peaking at number 28.

27 Sahara respites : OASES

The name “Sahara” means “greatest desert” in Arabic. The Sahara is just that, a great desert covering almost 4 million square miles of Northern Africa. That’s almost the size of the United States.

28 Mixer knob : FADER

A fader is a knob (more usually, a slider) that gradually increases or decreases the level of an audio signal. You’ll often see audio engineers at a performance or in a recording studio sliding buttons up and down. Those are faders.

30 Michael who played Juno’s love interest in “Juno” : CERA

Michael Cera is a Canadian actor who played great characters on the TV show “Arrested Development”, and in the 2007 comedy-drama “Juno”. Cera is also quite the musician. He released an indie folk album titled “True That” in 2014.

“Juno” is a great comedy-drama released in 2007 that tells the story of a spunky teenager who is faced with an unplanned pregnancy. The title character is played by Ellen Page, with Michael Cera playing the father of her child. The film won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. The relatively low-budget movie earned back its initial budget on the first day of its full release to the public. Low-budget blockbuster; my kind of movie …

31 Priest who reared Samuel : ELI

In the Bible, Eli is a High Priest of Shiloh and the teacher of Samuel. As such, his story is told in the Book of Samuel. Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, both of whom are described as wicked. As a result of their wayward lifestyle, it is prophesied that all of Eli’s male descendents will die before reaching old age.

33 Like the Sisters in “Macbeth” : WEIRD

The Three Witches in William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” are referred to in the text as the “weird sisters”. They cook up an ugly brew in their cauldron:

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches’ mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravined salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digged i’ th’ dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat and slips of yew
Slivered in the moon’s eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-delivered by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab.
Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.

39 Way to one’s heart? : ARTERY

Arteries are vessels that carry blood away from the heart, and veins are vessels carrying blood to the heart.

42 “Lucas” co-star : SHEEN

“Lucas” is a 1986 movie about teen love. The film features Courtney Thorne-Smith and Winona Ryder in supporting roles that marked the actresses’ on-screen debuts. There was also a young Charlie Sheen in the mix. Haven’t seen this one …

43 Former Arthur Ashe Stadium neighbor : SHEA

Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadows, New York was named after William A. Shea, the man credited with bringing National League baseball back to the city in the form of the New York Mets. Shea Stadium was dismantled in 2008-2009, and the site now provides additional parking for the new stadium nearby called Citi Field.

45 Uber alternative : LYFT

Lyft is a ridesharing service that is based in San Francisco, as is Uber, Lyft’s biggest competitor.

48 Collection of maps : 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.

52 Have trouble with Sisyphus? : LISP

In the Greek myth, Sisyphus is condemned to roll a boulder up a hill, watch it fall back, then roll it up the hill again for eternity.

58 Friend of Genie in “Aladdin” : ABU

Abu is a monkey in the Disney production of “Aladdin”. The character is based on Abu, a thief in the 1940 film “The Thief of Baghdad”.

59 Dobrev of “The Vampire Diaries” : NINA

Nina Dobrev is a Canadian actress who was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. She is perhaps best known for playing a lead role in the TV version of L. J. Smith’s series of books “The Vampire Diaries”.

65 Celtics star Walker : KEMBA

Kemba Walker is an NBA player who turned out for the Charlotte Bobcats/Hornets from 2011 to 2019, before moving to the Boston Celtics. Walker is quite the dancer, and performed on the TV show “Showtime at the Apollo” three times.

67 Crafty site? : ETSY

Etsy.com is an e-commerce website where you can buy and sell the kind of items that you might find at a craft fair.

71 Lucy’s sitcom pal : ETHEL

In the hit television show “I Love Lucy”, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz play Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. The Ricardos’ best friends are also their landlords, Fred and Ethel Mertz. The Mertzes are played by William Frawley and Vivian Vance.

72 Henry James, for much of his life : EXPAT

Author Henry James was born in New York City, but left the US while a young man and eventually settled in England. The list of his novels includes several that have been adapted for film and television, including “The Turn of the Screw”, “Washington Square”, “The Wings of the Dove” and “The Bostonian”. James died in Chelsea, London but his ashes were buried in Cambridge, Massachusetts at his request.

75 Big ref. volumes : OEDS

Work started on what was to become the first “Oxford English Dictionary” (OED) in 1857. Several interim versions of the dictionary were published in the coming years with the first full version appearing, in ten bound volumes, in 1928. The second edition of the OED appeared in 1989 and is made up of twenty volumes. The OED was first published in electronic form in 1988 and went online in 2000. Given the modern use of computers, the publishing house responsible feels that there will never be a third print version of the famous dictionary.

77 Link letters : URL

An Internet address (like NYXCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

78 Masters yoga? : RULES THE BENDS (from “bends the rules”)

In the West, we tend to think of yoga as a physical discipline, a means of exercise that uses specific poses to stretch and strengthen muscles. While it is true that the ancient Indian practice of yoga does involve such physical discipline, the corporeal aspect of the practice plays a relatively small part in the whole philosophy. Other major components are meditation, ethical behavior, breathing and contemplation.

83 Freud’s homeland : AUSTRIA

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist, and founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychiatry. One of Freud’s tenets was that our dreams are a necessary part of sleep as they prevent the dreamer from awakening due to desire for unfulfilled wishes. The dream’s content represents those unfulfilled wishes and satisfies the desire.

86 __ cords : VOCAL

The vocal cords are also known as the vocal folds, and are two folds of mucous membrane that project into the larynx. The folds vibrate when air passes through the larynx, allowing sounds to be made.

87 Brutal act of Brutus : STAB

The most famous man with the name “Brutus” in ancient Rome was Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger. It was this Brutus that Julius Caesar turned to when he was assassinated on the steps of the Senate. William Shakespeare immortalized Brutus by featuring him in his play, “Julius Caesar”, and giving his victim the line “Et tu, Brute?”

90 Cupid counterpart : EROS

Cupid was the god of love in Roman mythology. Cupid’s name comes from the Latin verb “cupere” meaning “to desire”. Cupid’s Latin name was Amor, and his Greek counterpart was Eros.

92 “The __ Kid”: 1950s TV Western : CISCO

The Cisco Kid is a character who was first introduced in an O. Henry short story called “The Caballero’s Way”. The original literary character was a cruel outlaw, but the character depicted in subsequent movies and television shows is more heroic.

102 Some H.S. classes : APS

The Advanced Placement (AP) program offers college-level courses to kids who are still in high school (HS). After being tested at the end of an AP course, successful students receive credits that count towards a college degree.

105 Big name in Marvel Comics history : LEE

Stan Lee did just about everything at Marvel Comics over the years, from writing to being president and chairman of the board. If you like superhero movies based on the characters from Marvel Comics, then you could spend a few hours trying to spot Stan Lee in those films as he had a penchant for making cameo appearances. Lee can be spotted in “X-Men” (2000), “Spider-Man” (2002), “Hulk” (2003), “Fantastic Four” (2005), “Iron Man” (2008) and many other films.

108 Butler in literature : RHETT

Famously, Clark Gable played Rhett Butler in the 1939 film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel “Gone with the Wind”. However, Butler wasn’t the first choice for the role. It was offered to Gary Cooper, but he turned it down. Apparently, Cooper said, “‘Gone With The Wind’ is going to be the biggest flop in Hollywood history. I’m glad it’ll be Clark Gable who’s falling flat on his nose, not Gary Cooper”.

114 Emulate a Jedi? : ISSUE THE FORCE (from “force the issue”)

The Force is a metaphysical power much cited in all of the “Star Wars” movies. We may even hear someone in real life say “May the Force be with you”. Fans of the movie franchise even celebrate May 4th every year as Star Wars Day, using the pun “May the 4th be with you”!

118 SoCal locale in a 1987 Cheech Marin title : EAST LA

East Los Angeles (usually “East LA”) is the most populous census-designated place in California, and is home to over 125,000 people.

“Born in East L.A.” is a 1987 comedy that was written by, directed by and starred Cheech Marin of Cheech & Chong fame.

121 NBA’s Cavs, on scoreboards : CLE

The Cavaliers are the professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavs joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1970.

Down

2 Biblical betrayer : DELILAH

Delilah is the love, and eventual temptress, of Samson according to the Bible. Delilah was engaged by the Philistines to betray Samson by determining the secret of his great strength. Samson lied to her three times, but on the fourth asking he told Delilah the truth, that he did not cut his hair. Delilah then persuaded Samson to shear his locks and so allowed him to be captured by his enemies. Over the centuries, it has been usual to depict Delilah actually cutting off her husband’s hair, but the Bible actually says that she allowed a man to do the deed while Samson was sleeping.

3 2015 romantic fantasy role for Blake Lively : ADALINE

Blake Lively is an actress who first came to public attention for playing one of the leads in the 2005 film “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”. She then took a starring role in the 2007 movie “Gossip Girl”. She met her future husband Ryan Reynolds while working with him on the 2011 film “Green Lantern”.

“The Age of Adaline” is a 2015 fantasy film starring Blake Lively as the title character, a woman who stops aging as the result of an accident when she is 29 years old.

4 Yellowstone predator : PUMA

The mountain lion is found in much of the Americas from the Yukon in Canada right down to the southern Andes in South America. Because the mountain lion is found over such a vast area, it has many different names applied by local peoples, such as “cougar” and “puma”. In fact, the mountain lion holds the Guinness record for the animal with the most number of different names, with over 40 in English alone.

Yellowstone was the first National Park to be established in the world, when it was designated as such by President Grant in 1872. What a great tradition it started! The American National Parks truly are a treasure.

5 “Old Possum” monogram : TSE

“Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” is a 1939 collection of poems by T. S. Eliot (TSE). The collection of whimsical poetry was a favorite of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber when he was a child. Webber used Eliot’s poems as inspiration for his megahit musical “Cats”.

7 Pungent greens : CRESSES

Garden cress is a leafy vegetable that is closely related to watercress and mustard. Cress is particularly popular in the UK where it is a common ingredient in sandwiches.

10 Emulate Olympians Miller and Vonn : SKI

Bode Miller is the most successful American male alpine ski racer of all time. Miller is married to professional volleyball player and model Morgan Beck.

Lindsey Vonn is a World Champion alpine ski racer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is one of the few women to have won World Cup races in all five alpine racing disciplines: downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and super combined. In fact, Vonn is the most successful US ski racer in history.

11 Statue of Liberty architect : EIFFEL

The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the United States. It was designed by sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and constructed in France by civil engineer Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame). The statue was disassembled, shipped to the US, and reassembled on its pedestal on Bedloe’s Island (now “Liberty Island). A ceremony of dedication was held in 1886. If you take a boat ride down the Seine in Paris you will probably see a one-third replica of Lady Liberty standing on a small island in the river, looking quite magnificent. That copy was given to the people of Paris by the city’s American community in 1889.

13 Passed, as bad checks : KITED

Check kiting is illegal. The idea behind kiting is to write a check, even though there are insufficient funds to cover the amount. The con artist then writes another check, also with insufficient funds, from another bank’s account to cover the original check. I am not sure it would work nowadays, but then I am as honest as the day is long! Oh, and I think the term “kiting” comes from the older phrase “go fly a kite”, the idea being that the bad check is floated on air (non-existent funds).

16 Called the game : REFEREED

Back in the early 17th century, a referee was someone who examined patent applications. We started using the same term for a person presiding over a sporting event in the 1820s. “Referee” is a derivative of the verb “to refer”, and literally describes someone who has the authority to make a decision by “referring to” a book, archive etc.

18 “Creations from la cocina” brand : GOYA

Goya Foods is a supplier of food products headquartered in Secaucus, New Jersey. The company was founded in 1936 by two immigrants from Spain.

24 __ browns : HASH

Hash, beef and vegetables mashed together, is a very American dish and one that really surprised me when I first came across it. “Hash” just seems like such an unappetizing item, but I soon found out how delicious it was. The name “hash” in this context comes from the French “hacher” meaning “to chop”. Back in the early 1900s the dish called “hashed browned potatoes” was developed, which quickly morphed into “hash browns”. From there the likes of corned beef hash was introduced.

32 “Woodstock” quartet, initially : CSNY

The supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) is made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. The band can grow to “CSNY” when the trio is joined by Neil Young. Fans have been known to call the act “C, S, N and sometimes Y”, a play on the expression that names all the vowels, “A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y”.

“Woodstock” is a song that was written and recorded by Joni Mitchell about the 1969 Woodstock Festival. Joni Mitchell opted not to attend the festival, and instead wrote the song in a New York City hotel room while watching coverage of the event on television. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young recorded a cover version of “Woodstock” in 1970 that has proved to be even more successful than Mitchell’s original.

34 Rashida Jones facial feature : FRECKLES

Actress Rashida Jones is famous for playing lead characters on “The Office” and “Parks and Recreations”. She also made an award-winning 2018 documentary titled “Quincy”, which is about the life of Rashida’s father, record producer and singer Quincy Jones.

36 Iodine source : KELP

Kelps are large seaweeds that grow in kelp forests underwater. Kelps can grow to over 250 feet in length, and do so very quickly. Some kelps can grow at the rate of 1-2 feet per day.

The chemical element iodine is a halogen (as are fluorine, chlorine and bromine) and has the symbol “I”. At room temperature, iodine is a purple-black solid. With heat, it melts into violet liquid, and at high temperatures a violet gas. The name “iodine” comes from the Greek “ioeides” meaning “violet-colored”.

37 Source of many dramatic quotes: Abbr. : SHAK

William Shakespeare is known as the Bard of Avon as he was born and raised in the lovely town of Stratford-upon-Avon in the English midlands.

39 Mars: Pref. : AREO-

The Greek god Ares is often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, but originally he was regarded as the god of bloodlust and slaughter. Ares united with Aphrodite to create several gods, including Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Terror) and Eros (Desire). Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera, and the Roman equivalent to Ares was Mars.

40 Issa of “Insecure” : RAE

Issa Rae is a Stanford University graduate who created a YouTube web series called “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl”. Rae also plays the title role in the series, a young lady named “J”. “Awkward Black Girl” was adapted into an HBO comedy-drama called “Insecure”, in which Issa Rae stars.

41 Since Jan. 1, to CPAs : YTD

Year-to-date (YTD)

46 “Criminal Minds” org. : FBI

“Criminal Minds” is a police drama that has aired on CBS since 2005. The stories revolve around the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia.

49 At the drop of __ : A HAT

It is suggested that the idiomatic phrase “at the drop of a hat” comes from the Old West, where a signal to start a fight was just that, a drop of a hat.

50 Golfer Ballesteros : SEVE

Seve Ballesteros was a very entertaining golfer from Spain who was once ranked as the world’s number-one player. Sadly, Ballesteros died from brain cancer in 2011, at the age of 54.

52 Canoeing venue : LAKE

The boat known as a canoe takes its name from the Carib word “kenu” meaning “dugout”. It was Christopher Columbus who brought “kenu” into Spanish as “canoa”, which evolved into our English “canoe”.

53 Curly-horned goat : IBEX

“Ibex” is a common name for various species of mountain goat. “Ibex” is a Latin name that was used for wild goats found in the Alps and Apennines in Europe.

54 Cesspool : SUMP

A cesspit (also “cesspool”) is a covered tank or pit used for the disposal of human waste. The term can be used figuratively to describe a corrupt place or situation.

56 Author with three 5-letter names : OATES

Joyce Carol Oates is a remarkable writer, not just for the quality of her work (her 1969 novel “them” won a National Book Award, for example) but also for how prolific her output is. She published her first book in 1963 and since then has published over fifty novels as well as many other written works.

59 Seven and eleven, in craps : NATURALS

If one considers earlier versions of craps, then the game has been around for a very long time and probably dates back to the Crusades. It may have been derived from an old English game called “hazard” also played with two dice, which was mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” from the 1300s. The American version of the game came here courtesy of the French and first set root in New Orleans where it was given the name “crapaud”, a French word meaning “toad”.

64 First name in jazz : ELLA

Ella Fitzgerald, the “First Lady of Song”, had a hard and tough upbringing. She was raised by her mother alone in Yonkers, New York. Her mother died while Ella was still a schoolgirl, and around that time the young girl became less interested in her education. She fell in with a bad crowd, even working as a lookout for a bordello and as a Mafia numbers runner. She ended up in reform school, from which she escaped, and found herself homeless and living on the streets for a while. Somehow Fitzgerald managed to get herself a spot singing in the Apollo Theater in Harlem. From there her career took off and as they say, the rest is history.

68 “SNL”-like show that spawned many comedic careers : SCTV

“Second City Television” (SCTV) is a sketch show that was produced in Canada from 1976 to 1984. SCTV was very successful with audiences all over North America, and in effect launched the careers of several comedy greats. The list of SCTV alumni includes John Candy, Eugene Levy, Rick Moranis, Catherine O’Hara, Harold Ramis and Martin Short.

69 Start of a pirate chant : YO-HO-

The fictional sea shanty called “Dead Man’s Chest” was introduced in Robert Louis Stevenson’s great novel, “Treasure Island”. In the book, Stevenson only describes the chorus, which goes:

Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest–
…Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest–
…Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

76 Once-a-yr. reason for oversleeping? : DST

Daylight saving time (DST)

80 Bane of Sideshow Bob : BART

Sideshow Bob is a recurring character in “The Simpsons” who is voiced by Kelsey Grammer. By all accounts, Bob is like an evil version of Frasier Crane, the character played by Grammer in “Cheers” and “Frasier”.

81 Wells’ fruit eaters : ELOI

In the 1895 novella by H. G. Wells called “The Time Machine”, there are two races that the hero encounters in his travels into the future. The Eloi are the “beautiful people” who live on the planet’s surface. The Morlocks are a domineering race living underground who use the Eloi as food.

82 Rose’s Broadway beau : ABIE

“Abie’s Irish Rose” is a comedy play by Anne Nichols that opened in 1922 on Broadway and ran for over five years. Back then, that made it the longest run for any show in New York. The show then went on tour, and stayed on tour for an amazing 40 years. The play tells of a young Jewish man called Abie Levy who marries an Irish Catholic girl called Rosemary Murphy. Abie lies to his family and pretends that his “Irish Rose” is Jewish.

83 Verizon subsidiary : AOL

Founded as Quantum Computer Services in 1983, the company changed its name in 1989 to America Online. As America Online went international, the acronym AOL was used in order to shake off the “America-centric” sound to the name. During the heady days of AOL’s success the company could not keep up with the growing number of subscribers, so people trying to connect often encountered busy signals. That’s when users referred to AOL as “Always Off-Line”.

The telecommunications company that we know today as Verizon was founded in 1983 as Bell Atlantic, and was one of the “Baby Bells” that were formed after the breakup of AT&T. Bell Atlantic merged with fellow Baby Bell NYNEX in 1997, and then merged with GTE in 2000 to form Verizon. The new company name is a portmanteau of “veritas” (“truth” in Latin) and “horizon”.

84 Game with Skip cards : UNO

UNO is a card game that was developed in the early seventies and that has been sold by Mattel since 1992. UNO falls into the shedding family of card games, meaning that the goal is to get rid of all your cards while preventing opponents from doing the same.

85 Lawmaking century : SENATORS

The US Senate comprises 100 senators, with each of the fifty states being represented by two popularly elected senators. US senators were appointed by their state legislators from 1798 through 1913, until the Seventeenth Amendment called for popular elections.

88 Frankfurter’s exclamations : ACHS

The German exclamation “ach!” is usually translated into English as “oh!”

Frankfurt is the fifth largest city in Germany. The city is more properly called Frankfurt am Main, to distinguish it from Frankfurt an der Oder, a town near the Polish border. Frankfurt is located on the Main River, hence the name.

91 Beethoven’s 32 for piano : SONATAS

In addition to 5 cello sonatas and 10 violin sonatas, Ludwig van Beethoven composed 32 piano sonatas. The most famous of his sonatas that have acquired names are probably the “Pathétique”, “Moonlight”, “Waldstein” and “Appassionata”.

97 Montreal’s prov. : QUE

The original name of Montreal was Ville-Marie, meaning the City of Mary. Ville-Marie is now the name of a borough in the city, the borough which includes the downtown area and “Old Montreal”. The present-day city covers most of the Island of Montreal (in French, “Île de Montréal”) that is located where the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers meet. The name “Montreal” comes from the three-headed hill that dominates the island and is called “Mount Royal”.

100 Snack : NOSH

Our word “nosh” has been around since the late fifties, when it was imported from the Yiddish word “nashn” meaning “to nibble”. We use “nosh” as a noun that means “snack”, or as a verb meaning “to eat between meals”.

101 Suit fabrics : TWEEDS

Tweed is a rough woolen fabric that is very much associated with Scotland in the UK, and with County Donegal in Ireland. The cloth was originally called “tweel”, the Scots word for “twill”. Apparently a London merchant misinterpreted some handwriting in the early 1800s and assumed the fabric was called “tweed”, a reference to the Scottish River Tweed, and the name stuck …

103 Honorific for Macbeth : THANE

Thanes were Scottish aristocrats. The most famous thanes have to be the Shakespearean characters Macbeth (Thane of Glamis, later “Thane of Cawdor”, and still later “King of Scotland”) and MacDuff (Thane of Fife). Other thanes in “Macbeth” are Ross, Lennox and Angus, as well as Menteith and Caithness.

108 Dough in Tehran : RIAL

The rial is the currency of Iran (as well as Yemen, Oman, Cambodia and Tunisia). Generally, there are 1,000 baisa in a rial.

Tehran is the capital of Iran and is the largest city in the Middle East, with a population of about 8.5 million. Iran has been around a really long time and Tehran is actually the country’s 31st national capital.

110 Setting of many a “Far Side” comic : HELL

“The Far Side” is a cartoon series drawn by Gary Larson. It ran from 1980 to 1995, and continues today in reruns in many papers. A lot of “The Far Side” cartoons feature animals, often in outrageous, human-like situations. Larson was so popular with people working with animals that in 1989 a newly discovered insect species was named Strigiphilus garylarsoni. How cool is that?

113 Karaoke aid : MIC

“Karate” is a Japanese word meaning “empty hand”, and the related word “karaoke” translates as “empty orchestra”.

115 Leeds-to-London dir. : SSE

I went to school for a while not far from Leeds in West Yorkshire in the north of England. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, Leeds was a major center for the production and trading of wool, and then with the onset of mechanization it became a natural hub for manufacture of textiles. These days Leeds is noted as a shopping destination and so has been dubbed “the Knightsbridge of the North”.

116 “__ chance!” : FAT

“Fat chance” means “there’s only a slim chance”, somewhat paradoxically …

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Brings from novel to screen : ADAPTS
7 Like some captioning : CLOSED
13 Energy bill letters : KWH
16 See 117-Across : … RUG
19 Victim of Perseus : MEDUSA
20 MLB call-up, often : ROOKIE
21 “With any luck” : I HOPE SO
23 Fault a rearrangement of infielders? : BLAME THE SHIFT (from “shift the blame”)
25 “Mean Girls” writer and co-star : TINA FEY
26 McCann of country : LILA
27 Sahara respites : OASES
28 Mixer knob : FADER
30 Michael who played Juno’s love interest in “Juno” : CERA
31 Priest who reared Samuel : ELI
32 Swear : CUSS
33 Like the Sisters in “Macbeth” : WEIRD
34 “__ cryin’ out loud!” : FER
35 Gives surf ratings? : RANKS THE SWELLS (from “swells the ranks”)
39 Way to one’s heart? : ARTERY
42 “Lucas” co-star : SHEEN
43 Former Arthur Ashe Stadium neighbor : SHEA
44 Ready, as a range : PREHEAT
45 Uber alternative : LYFT
48 Collection of maps : ATLAS
51 Withdrew : RECEDED
52 Have trouble with Sisyphus? : LISP
55 Arranges for party chefs? : BOOK THE COOKS (from “cooks the books”)
58 Friend of Genie in “Aladdin” : ABU
59 Dobrev of “The Vampire Diaries” : NINA
60 Chaos : HAVOC
61 “__ in!” : LET ME
65 Celtics star Walker : KEMBA
67 Crafty site? : ETSY
70 Vision starter : TELE-
71 Lucy’s sitcom pal : ETHEL
72 Henry James, for much of his life : EXPAT
73 Inside job : DECOR
75 Big ref. volumes : OEDS
77 Link letters : URL
78 Masters yoga? : RULES THE BENDS (from “bends the rules”)
82 Cruising : ASEA
83 Freud’s homeland : AUSTRIA
86 __ cords : VOCAL
87 Brutal act of Brutus : STAB
89 Equal share, maybe : ONE HALF
90 Cupid counterpart : EROS
92 “The __ Kid”: 1950s TV Western : CISCO
96 In need of companionship : LONELY
97 Ask, “You sure this is diet?”? : QUESTION THE POP (from “pop the question”)
102 Some H.S. classes : APS
103 Sushi fillings : TUNAS
104 “__ as good a time … ” : NOW’S
105 Big name in Marvel Comics history : LEE
106 “Toodles” : TA-TA
108 Butler in literature : RHETT
109 Pursue : CHASE
111 “Sick” insult : BURN
112 Inability to smell : ANOSMIA
114 Emulate a Jedi? : ISSUE THE FORCE (from “force the issue”)
117 With 16-Across, elaborately designed decoration : PERSIAN …
118 SoCal locale in a 1987 Cheech Marin title : EAST LA
119 Harm’s way : DANGER
120 Sounds of disgust : EWS
121 NBA’s Cavs, on scoreboards : CLE
122 Prepares (oneself), as for a crisis : STEELS
123 Stable animals : STEEDS

Down

1 Unhurried bunch : AMBLERS
2 Biblical betrayer : DELILAH
3 2015 romantic fantasy role for Blake Lively : ADALINE
4 Yellowstone predator : PUMA
5 “Old Possum” monogram : TSE
6 Took a pass : SAT OUT
7 Pungent greens : CRESSES
8 Give the slip to : LOSE
9 Impressed crowd sounds : OOHS
10 Emulate Olympians Miller and Vonn : SKI
11 Statue of Liberty architect : EIFFEL
12 Fine point : DETAIL
13 Passed, as bad checks : KITED
14 Machinery noise : WHIR
15 Boo : HON
16 Called the game : REFEREED
17 App buyer : USER
18 “Creations from la cocina” brand : GOYA
22 What a nervous director may do? : PACE THE SET (from “set the pace”)
24 __ browns : HASH
29 Many profs. : DRS
32 “Woodstock” quartet, initially : CSNY
33 Plentiful supply : WEALTH
34 Rashida Jones facial feature : FRECKLES
36 Iodine source : KELP
37 Source of many dramatic quotes: Abbr. : SHAK
38 Licks : WETS
39 Mars: Pref. : AREO-
40 Issa of “Insecure” : RAE
41 Since Jan. 1, to CPAs : YTD
44 Take from a sale : PROCEEDS
46 “Criminal Minds” org. : FBI
47 Tin-eared : TONE-DEAF
49 At the drop of __ : A HAT
50 Golfer Ballesteros : SEVE
52 Canoeing venue : LAKE
53 Curly-horned goat : IBEX
54 Cesspool : SUMP
56 Author with three 5-letter names : OATES
57 Dash alternative, perhaps : COLON
59 Seven and eleven, in craps : NATURALS
62 Like so : THUS
63 Simply : MERE
64 First name in jazz : ELLA
66 Block an access road between hills? : BAR THE PASS (from “pass the bar”)
68 “SNL”-like show that spawned many comedic careers : SCTV
69 Start of a pirate chant : YO-HO-
74 Intermission : RECESS
76 Once-a-yr. reason for oversleeping? : DST
79 __ pad : LILY
80 Bane of Sideshow Bob : BART
81 Wells’ fruit eaters : ELOI
82 Rose’s Broadway beau : ABIE
83 Verizon subsidiary : AOL
84 Game with Skip cards : UNO
85 Lawmaking century : SENATORS
88 Frankfurter’s exclamations : ACHS
91 Beethoven’s 32 for piano : SONATAS
93 Spare no expense : SPLURGE
94 Strong-armed : COERCED
95 Some operate remotely : OPENERS
97 Montreal’s prov. : QUE
98 Lets loose : UNTIES
99 Patronizes, as a diner : EATS AT
100 Snack : NOSH
101 Suit fabrics : TWEEDS
103 Honorific for Macbeth : THANE
106 Bygone recording medium : TAPE
107 One way to start : ANEW
108 Dough in Tehran : RIAL
109 A step down from “Funny!” : CUTE!
110 Setting of many a “Far Side” comic : HELL
111 __-tired : BONE
113 Karaoke aid : MIC
115 Leeds-to-London dir. : SSE
116 “__ chance!” : FAT