LA Times Crossword 20 Jul 20, Monday

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Constructed by: Evan Kalish
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Asset Manager

Themed answers each start with something handled by an ASSET MANAGER:

  • 49A Adviser concerned with the starts of 20-, 31- and 44-Across : ASSET MANAGER
  • 20A Reused file film : STOCK FOOTAGE
  • 31A Audiophile’s multi-disc holder : CD CHANGER
  • 44A Flicks with 007 : BOND FILMS

Bill’s time: 4m 30s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Dust __: teensy arachnid : MITE

Mites are tiny arthropods in the arachnid (spider) class. Mites are (annoyingly!) very successful creatures that have adapted to all sorts of habitats. And being so small, they generally pass unnoticed. Ick …

10 Female pop star : DIVA

The term “diva” comes to us from Latin via Italian. “Diva” is the feminine form of “divus” meaning “divine one”. The word is used in Italy to mean “goddess” or “fine lady”, and especially is applied to the prima donna in an opera. We often use the term to describe a singer with a big ego.

14 “Now!” letters : ASAP!

As soon as possible (ASAP)

15 Bounce off a wall : CAROM

A carom is a ricochet, the bouncing of some projectile off a surface. “Carom” has come to describe the banking of a billiard ball, the bouncing of the ball off the side of the table.

17 iPhone assistant : SIRI

Siri is a software application that works with Apple’s iOS operating system. “Siri” is an acronym standing for Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface. Voice-over artist Susan Bennett revealed herself as the female American voice of Siri a few years ago. The British version of Siri is called Daniel, and the Australian version is called Karen. Also, “Siri” is a Norwegian name meaning “beautiful woman who leads you to victory”, and was the name the developer had chosen for his first child.

23 Nintendo console with a similarly named remote : WII

Introduced in 2006, Nintendo’s Wii quickly became the biggest-selling game console in the world.

37 Musician Yoko : ONO

Yoko Ono is an avant-garde artist. Ono actually met her future husband John Lennon for the first time while she was preparing her conceptual art exhibit called “Hammer a Nail”. Visitors were encouraged to hammer in a nail into a wooden board, creating the artwork. Lennon wanted to hammer in the first nail, but Ono stopped him as the exhibition had not yet opened. Apparently Ono relented when Lennon paid her an imaginary five shillings to hammer an imaginary nail into the wood.

38 Actress Aniston, in tabloids : JEN

Jennifer Aniston won a 2002 Emmy for playing Rachel on the great sitcom “Friends”. Jennifer’s parents are both actors, and her godfather was the actor Telly Savalas.

“Tabloid” is the trademarked name (owned by Burroughs Wellcome) for a “small tablet of medicine”, a name that goes back to 1884. The word “tabloid” had entered into general use to mean a compressed form of anything, and by the early 1900s was used in “tabloid journalism”, which described newspapers that had short, condensed articles and stories printed on smaller sheets of paper.

41 Actor Mahershala : ALI

Mahershala Ali is an actor and sometime rapper. Among the more memorable roles Ali has had are lobbyist Remy Danton in TV’s “House of Cards”, and Colonel Boggs in “The Hunger Games” series of movies. He also won Best Supporting Actor Oscars for playing Juan in the 2016 drama “Moonlight”, and Dr. Don Shirley in 2018’s “Green Book”.

44 Flicks with 007 : BOND FILMS

The character James Bond was the creation of writer Ian Fleming. Fleming “stole” the James Bond name from an American ornithologist. The number “007” was “stolen” from the real-life, 16th-century English spy named John Dee. Dee would sign his reports to Queen Elizabeth I with a stylized “007” to indicate that the reports were for “her eyes only”. There’s an entertaining miniseries that aired on BBC America called “Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond” that details Ian Fleming’s military career, and draws some nice parallels between Fleming’s experiences and aspirations and those of his hero James Bond. Recommended …

48 Tasseled hat : FEZ

A fez is a red, cylindrical hat worn mainly in North Africa, and by Shriners here in the US. The fez used to be a very popular hat across the Ottoman Empire. The etymology of “fez” is unclear, although it might have something to do with the Moroccan city named Fez.

57 Tree part that yields cinnamon : BARK

“True” cinnamon sticks are taken from the inner bark of the Cinnamomum verum tree. However, a lot of cinnamon sticks are also sold that come from a related species of tree, and these are more correctly referred to as “cassia”.

60 Knighted composer Edward : ELGAR

Sir Edward Elgar was the quintessential English composer. He is inextricably associated with his “Pomp and Circumstance” marches (including “Land of Hope and Glory”) and the “Enigma Variations”.

62 Haleakala National Park’s island : MAUI

If you visit the island of Maui, a trip to the Haleakala National Park is a must. One section of the park features the spectacular Haleakala Crater, where you would swear you are on the moon. The second part of the park is the Kipahulu section, which features the very picturesque pools accessed along the Road to Hana. When we visited (quite a few years ago), the Road to Hana was a tad undeveloped and rental car companies would not allow you to drive their cars there. Funnily enough, the only cars you’d meet on the Road to Hana were rental cars …

Down

1 Sunday service : MASS

The principal act of worship in the Roman Catholic tradition is the Mass. The term “Mass” comes from the Late Latin word “missa” meaning “dismissal”. This word is used at the end of the Latin Mass in “Ite, missa est” which translates literally as “Go, it is the dismissal”.

3 Poi plant : TARO

The corm of some taro plants is used to make poi, a traditional Hawaiian dish (which I think tastes horrible). When a taro plant is grown as an ornamental, it is often called Elephant Ears due to the shape of its large leaves.

5 “Star Wars” genre : SCI-FI

The epic sci-fi film “Star Wars” was released in 1977. When the movie was re-released in 1981, the subtitle “Episode IV: A New Hope” was added.

6 Prefix between micro- and pico- : NANO-

The prefix “nano-” is used for units of one thousand-millionth part. “Nano-” comes from the Greek “nanos” meaning “dwarf”.

9 Actress Watson : EMMA

Emma Watson is an English actress famous for playing Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” series of movies. Watson continued her education while pursuing her acting career and studied at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

12 Thoroughly evaluate : VET

The verb “to vet” comes from the term “veterinarian”. The idea is that to vet something is to subject it to careful examination, like a veterinarian checking out an animal.

22 Large piano : GRAND

A grand piano is one with the frame supported horizontally on three legs. An upright piano has the frame and strings running vertically. Grand pianos come in many sizes. For example, the length of a concert grand is about 9 feet, a parlor grand is about 7 feet, and a baby grand is about 5 feet.

25 “This fly ball is mine!” : I GOT IT!

That would be baseball.

26 Roman political body : SENATE

Our word “senate” comes from the Latin name for such a body, namely “senatus”. In turn, “senatus” is derived from “senex” meaning “old man”, reflecting the original Roman Senate’s makeup as a council of “elders”.

28 Muslim head coverings : HIJABS

Some Muslim women wear a hijab in the presence of males outside of their immediate family. A hijab is a veil covering the head and chest. Some also wear a niqab as part of the hijab, which is a cloth that covers the face. Other Muslim women wear a burqa, which covers the whole body from the top of the head to the ground.

29 Leopardlike feline : OCELOT

The ocelot is a wildcat found mainly in South and Central America, although there have been sightings as far north as Arkansas. An ocelot doesn’t look too different from a domestic cat, and some have been kept as pets. Perhaps most famously, Salvador Dali had one that he carried around everywhere with him.

30 Pressed Italian sandwich : PANINI

In Italy, a sandwich made from sliced bread is called a “tramezzino”, while sandwiches made from non-sliced breads are called “panini” (singular “panino”). We’ve imported the term “panini” into English to describe a pressed and toasted sandwich.

31 Saharan beast : CAMEL

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of a camel is the large deposit of fatty tissue on its back. The dromedary is the most common camel, and has one hump of fatty tissue on its back. The Bactrian camel has two humps, and makes up just 6% of the world’s camel population. Those fatty humps are useful if no food or water is available, as fat can be broken down into water and energy.

33 Colorado-based brewery : COORS

Adolph Coors founded the Coors brewing company in 1873, in Golden, Colorado. Coors was originally from the Rhine Province in Prussia, and worked in various brewers around what is today Germany before immigrating to the US in 1868. Despite all of his success as a brewer here in America, Coors ended up taking his own life in 1929, by jumping to his death out of a hotel window.

36 Half a fish : MAHI

“Mahi-mahi” is the Hawaiian name for the dolphinfish, which is also called the dorado. The mahi-mahi is an ugly looking creature if ever I saw one …

43 __ World, DC Comics planet of opposites : BIZARRO

Bizarro World is a planet in the DC Comics universe. It is a world of opposites, and is inhabited by its own versions (mirror images) of other characters. For example, Bizarro is a supervillain, and someone with the opposite characteristics of Superman. There is also a Bizarro Lois Lane and a Bizarro Jimmy Olsen. The Bizarro version of Batman is Batzarro, who is billed as the “World’s Worst Detective”.

45 Ancestry.com apparatus : DNA KIT

Ancestry.com is the largest commercial genealogy company in the world. It operates out of Provo, Utah.

46 “Jeopardy!” great Jennings : KEN

Ken Jennings is a remarkable man, the person who had the longest winning streak on television’s “Jeopardy”. He has also won more game show money than any other person. He was defeated after 75 appearances on the show, after racking up over $2.5 million in the prior episodes.

48 Taxi fees : FARES

We call cabs “taxis”, a word derived from “taximeter cabs” that were introduced in London in 1907. A taximeter was an automated meter designed to record distance travelled and fare to be charged. The term “taximeter” evolved from “taxameter”, with “taxa” being Latin for “tax, charge”.

51 Idris of “Luther” : ELBA

English actor Idris Elba plays the drug lord Stringer Bell in the marvelous HBO drama series “The Wire”, and played the title character in the 2013 film “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”. Off the screen, Elba occasionally appears as a disk jockey using the name “DJ Big Driis”.

“Luther” is a British television series starring Idris Elba in the title role as Detective Chief Inspector John Luther. There has been talk about developing a US version of “Luther”, and a Russian version first broadcast in 2016 using the title “Klim”.

52 Relieved end-of-week cry : TGIF!

“Thank God It’s Friday” (TGIF) is a relatively new expression that apparently originated in Akron, Ohio. It was a catchphrase used first by disk jockey Jerry Healy of WAKR in the early seventies. That said, one blog reader wrote to me to say that he had been using the phrase in the fifties.

54 Hired hood : GOON

The term “goon” was coined by American humorist Frederick J. Allen in a 1921 “Harper’s” piece titled “The Goon and His Style”. The article defines a good as “a person with a heavy touch” someone lacking “a playful mind”. The term was popularized in the “Thimble Theater” comic strips featuring Popeye. The first use of “goon” to describe a hired thug was in 1938, with reference to strikebreakers.

“Hood” is a slang term for “gangster”, a shortening of “hoodlum”.

57 German luxury car : BMW

The initialism “BMW” stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke, which translates into Bavarian Motor Works. BMW was making aircraft engines during WWI, but had to cease that activity according to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The company then started making motorcycles, and moved into automobile production starting in 1928. BMW moved back into aircraft engine manufacturing during the build-up of the Luftwaffe prior to WWII.

58 Towing org. : AAA

The American Automobile Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit organization focused on lobbying, provision of automobile servicing, and selling of automobile insurance. The AAA was founded in 1902 in Chicago and published the first of its celebrated hotel guides back in 1917.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Dust __: teensy arachnid : MITE
5 Sleep audibly : SNORE
10 Female pop star : DIVA
14 “Now!” letters : ASAP!
15 Bounce off a wall : CAROM
16 Days of anticipation : EVES
17 iPhone assistant : SIRI
18 “Long story short … ” : IN SUM …
19 Greek god story, e.g. : MYTH
20 Reused file film : STOCK FOOTAGE
23 Nintendo console with a similarly named remote : WII
24 Increase, as the stakes : RAISE
28 “Climb aboard!” : HOP IN!
31 Audiophile’s multi-disc holder : CD CHANGER
35 “__ explain!” : I CAN
36 Strand on a desert island : MAROON
37 Musician Yoko : ONO
38 Actress Aniston, in tabloids : JEN
39 When repeated, nothing new : SAME OLD
40 Wee bit : TAD
41 Actor Mahershala : ALI
42 “People say … ” : I HEARD …
43 Snack : BITE
44 Flicks with 007 : BOND FILMS
46 Tethered fliers : KITES
47 Tour of duty : STINT
48 Tasseled hat : FEZ
49 Adviser concerned with the starts of 20-, 31- and 44-Across : ASSET MANAGER
57 Tree part that yields cinnamon : BARK
60 Knighted composer Edward : ELGAR
61 Wander : ROVE
62 Haleakala National Park’s island : MAUI
63 Two-wheeled transport with a battery : E-BIKE
64 Agitate : ROIL
65 Would like : WANT
66 In-the-wall security features : SAFES
67 Sale price come-on adverb : ONLY

Down

1 Sunday service : MASS
2 “Ya think?” : IS IT?
3 Poi plant : TARO
4 Underdog’s surprising feat : EPIC WIN
5 “Star Wars” genre : SCI-FI
6 Prefix between micro- and pico- : NANO-
7 Approximately : OR SO
8 10-1 victory, e.g. : ROUT
9 Actress Watson : EMMA
10 Humiliate : DEMEAN
11 Climbing vine : IVY
12 Thoroughly evaluate : VET
13 Campfire residue : ASH
21 Family : KIN
22 Large piano : GRAND
25 “This fly ball is mine!” : I GOT IT!
26 Roman political body : SENATE
27 Wears away : ERODES
28 Muslim head coverings : HIJABS
29 Leopardlike feline : OCELOT
30 Pressed Italian sandwich : PANINI
31 Saharan beast : CAMEL
32 Imagine great things : DREAM
33 Colorado-based brewery : COORS
34 Wait to speak to the next available agent, say : HOLD
36 Half a fish : MAHI
39 Searches (through) : SIFTS
43 __ World, DC Comics planet of opposites : BIZARRO
45 Ancestry.com apparatus : DNA KIT
46 “Jeopardy!” great Jennings : KEN
48 Taxi fees : FARES
50 Goes out with : SEES
51 Idris of “Luther” : ELBA
52 Relieved end-of-week cry : TGIF!
53 Produce : MAKE
54 Hired hood : GOON
55 Malevolent : EVIL
56 Depend (on) : RELY
57 German luxury car : BMW
58 Towing org. : AAA
59 Gallop : RUN