LA Times Crossword 24 Jul 20, Friday

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Constructed by: Jake Scheele
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer(s): Who Killed Cock Robin?

Themed answers are the family names of fictional sleuths. Circled letters within those answers reveal WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN, namely THE SPARROW. Clever puzzle …

  • 17A With 59-Across, old English nursery rhyme being investigated by the detectives in this puzzle : WHO KILLED …
  • 59A See 17-Across (and see circles for the solution to the mystery) : … COCK ROBIN?
  • 23A Wealthy TV sleuth Matt : HOUSTON
  • 26A Hard-boiled sleuth Mike : HAMMER
  • 39A Falcon-finding sleuth Sam : SPADE
  • 51A Twinkly-eyed sleuth Jane : MARPLE
  • 54A Wisecracking sleuth Philip : MARLOWE

Bill’s time: 5m 54s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Basic card game : WAR

War is a card game, one played mainly by children.

8 Saltpetre : NITRE

The chemical name for saltpeter (also “saltpetre, niter, nitre”) is potassium nitrate. The exact origin of the name “saltpeter” isn’t clear, but it may have come from the Latin “sal petrae” meaning “stone salt”. The main use for potassium nitrate is as a fertilizer, a source of potassium and nitrogen. As it is a powerful oxidizing agent, it is also used in amateur rocket propellants. Anyone who has ignited one of those “engines” would have noticed the lilac-colored flame, indicating the presence of potassium.

14 Camaro __-Z : IROC

The IROC-Z is a model of Camaro that was introduced by Chevrolet in 1978. The IROC-Z takes its name from a famous stock car race, the International Race of Champions.

16 They may be crumbled in ice cream : OREOS

The Oreo cookie was introduced in 1912. The Oreo was intended to be a competitor to the very similar Hydrox cookie which had debuted four years earlier. The Oreo won the resulting battle on the grocery store shelves …

17 With 59-Across, old English nursery rhyme being investigated by the detectives in this puzzle : WHO KILLED …
(59A See 17-Across (and see circles for the solution to the mystery) : … COCK ROBIN?)

“Who Killed Cock Robin?” is a nursery rhyme that dates back at least to the mid-18th century.
Here’s the first verse …

Who killed Cock Robin?
I, said the Sparrow,
with my bow and arrow,
I killed Cock Robin.

… and the last …

All the birds of the air
fell a-sighing and a-sobbing,
when they heard the bell toll
for poor Cock Robin.

23 Wealthy TV sleuth Matt : HOUSTON

“Matt Houston” is a private-eye drama that aired in the early to mid-eighties. It is about a wealthy Texas oilman, played by Lee Horsely, who works as a private investigator in his spare time. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an episode …

26 Hard-boiled sleuth Mike : HAMMER

Mike Hammer is the protagonist in a series of private detective novels by Mickey Spillane. The novels have been adapted for radio, television and the big screen. The actor most associated with Mike Hammer is Stacy Keach, who played the role in the TV series “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer” from 1984 to 1987.

27 Northern sky sight : AURORA

The spectacular aurora phenomenon is seen lighting up the night sky at both poles of the earth (the Aurora Borealis in the north, and the Aurora Australis in the south). The eerie effect is caused by charged particles colliding with atoms at high latitudes.

28 __ ballerina : PRIMA

The title “prima ballerina” is the second-highest awarded to a female dancer in a company. The more prestigious “prima ballerina assoluta” is only awarded to the most notable dancers.

30 Where Charlie “may ride forever,” in a 1959 hit : MTA

“M.T.A.” was a 1958 hit for the Kingston Trio. The song tells of a man called Charlie who is stuck on board an MTA subway car in Boston. His problem is that “exit fares” had been introduced on the system to supplement “entrance fares” (true story!), and the man didn’t have the extra nickel needed to get off the train. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MTBA) started issuing smart cards for use as tickets in 2006, calling them “Charlie Cards” in honor of “Charlie on the MTA”.

31 Gaming biggie : ATARI

At one point, the electronics and video game manufacturer Atari was the fastest-growing company in US history. However, Atari never really recovered from the video game industry crash of 1983.

33 Watchdog org.? : ASPCA

Unlike most developed countries, the US has no umbrella organization with the goal of preventing cruelty to animals. Instead there are independent organizations set up all over the nation using the name SPCA. Having said that, there is an organization called the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) that was originally intended to operate across the country, but really it now focuses its efforts in New York City.

39 Falcon-finding sleuth Sam : SPADE

The classic detective novel “The Maltese Falcon” was written by Dashiell Hammett and first published in 1930. The main character is Sam Spade, a character played by Humphrey Bogart in the third movie adaptation of the book, a film of the same name and released in 1941.

41 Medieval Asian leader : KHAN

A “khan” was a medieval sovereign, more specifically a ruler over Mongol, Turkish and Tatar tribes.

44 Twosomes in the news : ITEMS

An unmarried couple known to be involved with each other might appear in the gossip columns. This appearance as “an item” in the papers, led to the use of “item” to refer to such a couple, but only since the very early seventies.

46 Guadalajara gold : ORO

Guadalajara is a populous city in the Mexican state of Jalisco. The Mexican city is named after the city of the same name in the center of Spain.

47 Gulf of Aqaba city : EILAT

Eilat (sometimes “Elat”) the most southerly city in Israel. It sits right at the northern tip of the Red Sea, on the Gulf of Aqaba.

49 Took the sloop : BOATED

Sloops and cutters are sailboats, and each has just one mast. One major difference between the two types of vessel is that the mast on a cutter is set much further aft than the mast on a sloop.

51 Twinkly-eyed sleuth Jane : MARPLE

Miss Jane Marple is a much-loved character in detective stories penned by Agatha Christie. Miss Marple has been played by a number of excellent actresses on the large and small screens, but my favorite has to be Margaret Rutherford. Rutherford starred in very light comedic “Miss Marple” films that were very popular, although Christie herself didn’t care for them at all.

54 Wisecracking sleuth Philip : MARLOWE

Philip Marlowe is a character, created by Raymond Chandler, who appears in the novels “The Big Sleep” and “The Long Goodbye”.

55 Spammer, e.g. : EMAILER

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 …

57 City on Utah Lake : OREM

Orem, Utah was originally known as “Sharon” (a Biblical name), then “Provo Bench”, and in 1914 it was given the family name of a local railroad operator called “Orem”. Orem gave itself the nickname “Family City USA” and sure enough in 2010, “Forbes” rated Orem the 5th best place in the country to raise a family.

Utah Lake is a slightly saline freshwater body of water located in the Provo-Orem metropolitan area in Utah. The lake’s salinity arises as over 40% of its water is lost to evaporation.

64 It’s a fact : DATUM

Our word “data” (singular “datum”) comes from the Latin “datum” meaning “given”. The idea is that data are “things given”.

66 Roman fiddler : NERO

The Great Fire of Rome raged for five and a half days in 64 AD. Of the fourteen districts of Rome, three were completely destroyed and seven more suffered serious damage. The emperor at the time was Nero, although reports that he fiddled, played his lyre or sang while the city burned; those accounts are probably not true. In fact, Nero was staying outside of Rome when the fire started and rushed home upon hearing the news. He organized a massive relief effort, throwing open his own home to give shelter to many of the citizens who were left living on the street.

67 Rickman role in Harry Potter films : SNAPE

Alan Rickman was a marvelous English actor, one famous for playing bad guy Hans Gruber in the original “Die Hard” film, Severus Snape in the “Harry Potter” series and (my personal favorite) Eamon de Valera in “Michael Collins”. Sadly, Rickman passed away in January 2016, after which fans created a memorial under the “Platform 9¾” sign in London’s Kings Cross Railway Station, from where the Hogwarts Express is said to depart in the “Harry Potter” universe.

68 Smidge : TAD

Back in the 1800s, “tad” was used to describe a young child, and this extended into our usage of “small amount” in the early 1900s. The original use of “tad” for a child is very likely a shortened version of “tadpole”.

Our word “smidgen” (sometimes shortened to “smidge”) is used to describe a small amount. The term might come from the Scots word “smitch” that means the same thing or “a small insignificant person”.

69 Feint on the ice : DEKE

A deke, also known as a dangle, is a technique used to get past an opponent in ice hockey. “Deke” is a colloquial shortening of the word “decoy”.

Down

1 FYI cousin : BTW

By the way (BTW)

For your information (FYI)

2 Sound from a spa : AHH!

The word “spa” migrated into English from Belgium, as “Spa” is the name of a municipality in the east of the country that is famous for its healing hot springs. The name “Spa” comes from the Walloon word “espa” meaning “spring, fountain”.

3 Vientiane native : LAO

Vientiane is the capital city of Laos, and is situated on the famous Mekong River. The city was originally called the “city of sandalwood” by Buddhist monks, naming it after the valued trees that grew in the area. The French took the Pali words for “city of sandalwood” and rewrote it as the French-sounding “Vientiane”.

5 Metaphor for youthful indiscretion : WILD OATS

Traditionally, “wild oats” were a crop that one might regret sowing instead of “good grain”. Young and tempestuous people were rash enough to sow their wild oats, and had yet to comprehend their folly. Over time, to “feel one’s oats” came to mean “be lively and confident”.

6 Former senator Specter : ARLEN

Arlen Specter was the US Senator for Pennsylvania, famous for switching from the Republican to the Democratic Party in 2009. In 2010 he lost the Democratic primary and his seat went to Pat Toomey, a Republican. Spector developed a reputation for himself of being hard to work with over the years, earning the nickname “Snarlin’ Arlen”.

7 Caviar : ROE

Caviar is the roe of a large fish that has been salted and seasoned, and especially the roe of a sturgeon. Beluga caviar comes from the beluga sturgeon, which is found primarily in the Caspian Sea. It is the most expensive type of caviar in the world. 8 ounces of US-farmed beluga caviar can be purchased through Amazon.com for just over $850, in case you’re feeling peckish …

9 Identity-concealing attire, in a Dumas novel : IRON MASK

“The Man in the Iron Mask” is the third part of a novel by Alexandre Dumas called “The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later”. The novel uses characters appearing in the earlier Dumas novel “The Three Musketeers”. In the plot, the musketeers are getting on in years and become involved in the mystery of “the man in the iron mask”, a prisoner locked up in French jails with his identity hidden behind a mask.

12 Perfume compound : ESTER

Esters are very common chemicals. The smaller, low-molecular weight esters are usually pleasant smelling and are often found in perfumes. At the other end of the scale, the higher-molecular weight nitroglycerin is a nitrate ester and is very explosive, and polyester is a huge molecule and is a type of plastic. Fats and oils found in nature are fatty acid esters of glycerol known as glycerides.

15 Epidemic-fighting agcy. : CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC started out life during WWII as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. The CDC worries about much more than malaria these days …

18 Mural opening : INTRA-

Intramural sports are conducted within a certain geographic area, as opposed to varsity sports which are played with teams outside that area. The term “intramural” comes from the Latin for “within walls” and first applied to events held between teams based within the walls of a city.

22 Sashimi selection : AHI

Sashimi is thinly sliced raw fish, although it can also be raw meat. The word “sashimi” translates literally as “pierced body”, which may be a reference to the practice of sticking the tail and fin to sliced fish to identify it.

23 Given to overacting : HAMMY

The word “ham”, describing a performer who overacts, is a shortened form of “hamfatter” and dates back to the late 1800s. “Hamfatter” comes from a song in old minstrel shows called “The Ham-Fat Man”. It seems that a poorly performing actor was deemed to have the “acting” qualities of a minstrel made up in blackface.

24 Navel type : OUTIE

The navel is basically the scar left behind when the umbilical cord is removed from a newborn baby. One interesting use of the umbilicus (navel, belly button) is to differentiate between identical twins, especially when they are very young.

25 Eurasian divide : URALS

The eastern side of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan is generally regarded as the natural divide between the continents of Europe and Asia.

28 Star-Lord portrayer Chris : PRATT

Chris Pratt is an actor who really got his big break playing the rather dopey Andy Dwyer on the sitcom “Parks and Recreation”. Pratt then played a pretty macho role as a SEAL team operator in “Zero Dark Thirty”, before taking leading heroic roles in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Jurassic World”. Pratt was married from 2009 until 2018 to Anna Faris, the comedic actress who plays Christy Plunkett on the sitcom “Mom”. In 2019, Prat married Katherine Schwarzenegger, the eldest child of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Star-Lord is a superhero in the Marvel Comics universe who first appeared in print in 1976. He eventually became the leader of the interplanetary superhero team known as the Guardians of the Galaxy. Star-Lord is played by actor Chris Pratt in the series of “Guardians of the Galaxy” films.

32 Samoan port : APIA

Apia is the capital city, and in fact the only city, of the Pacific island-nation of Samoa. The harbor of Apia is famous for a very foolish incident in 1889 involving seven naval vessels from Germany, the US and Britain. A typhoon was approaching so the safest thing to do was to head for open water away from land, but no nation would move its ships for fear of losing face in front of others. Six of the ships were lost in the typhoon as a result and 200 American and German sailors perished. The British cruiser HMS Calliope barely managed to escape from the harbor and rode out the storm safely. Apia is also known as the home of writer Robert Louis Stevenson, for the last four years of his life.

35 Rod in Cooperstown : CAREW

Rod Carew is a former Major League Baseball player from Panama. Actually. Carew is a “Zonian”, meaning that he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, a political entity that existed for decades from 1903.

Cooperstown is a village in New York that is famous as the home to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The village was named for Judge William Cooper, the founder of Cooperstown and the father of the noted writer James Fenimore Cooper.

36 Positive pole, perhaps : ANODE

A battery is a device that converts chemical energy into electric energy. A simple battery is made up of three parts: a cathode, an anode and a liquid electrolyte. Ions from the electrolyte react chemically with the material in the anode producing a compound and releasing electrons. At the same time, the electrolyte reacts with the material in the cathode, absorbing electrons and producing a different chemical compound. In this way, there is a buildup of electrons at the anode and a deficit of electrons at the cathode. When a connection (wire, say) is made between the cathode and anode, electrons flow through the resulting circuit from the anode to cathode in an attempt to rectify the electron imbalance.

40 Left on a sloop : EMBARKED

In getting on and off a seagoing vessel, one embarks and debarks. The terms come from the name of the small ship known as a barque.

45 More ticked off : SORER

The term “to tick off” came into use in the early 1900s when it meant “to reprimand, scold”. We still use it in this sense in Ireland. The usage “to peeve, annoy” only came into being in the mid-seventies.

48 Sheltered side : LEE

Alee is the direction away from the wind. If a sailor points into the wind, he or she is pointing aweather.

50 __ Joy : ALMOND

I think my favorite candy growing up was an Almond Joy, although in my part of the world it was a little different formulation and was called a Bounty Bar (and was more like a Mounds bar). The Almond Joy bar has been around since 1946. Hershey’s used a famous jingle in a seventies ad campaign for the Mounds and Almond Joy:

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t
Almond Joy’s got nuts
Mounds don’t

51 Honey drinks : MEADS

Mead is a lovely drink that’s made from fermented honey and water.

52 Capital south of Beirut : AMMAN

Amman is the capital city of Jordan, and is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world. Amman has been occupied by a number of different civilizations over the centuries, including the Greeks who called it “Philadelphia”, a name retained by the Romans when they occupied the city just after 100 AD.

Beirut is the capital city of Lebanon. After WWI, Lebanon was placed under administrative control of the French and Beirut flourished as a financial center in the Middle East and as a major world tourist destination. The city was devastated in the Lebanese Civil War that raged from 1975 to 1990, but reconstruction has restored the city to much of its former glory, making it a major cultural center once again.

53 Indian yogurt dip : RAITA

Raita is a condiment served in Indian restaurants that is made from yogurt flavored with coriander, cumin, mint and cayenne pepper.

54 Coffee shop order : MOCHA

Mocha is a port city in Yemen on the Red Sea and was once the principal port for the capital city of Sana’a. Mocha was the major marketplace in the world for coffee until the 1600s, and gave its name to the Mocha coffee bean, which in turn gave its name to the mocha brown color, and the flavor of coffee infused with chocolate.

60 It ends rather spookily: Abbr. : OCT

All Saints’ Day is November 1st each year. The day before All Saints’ Day is All Hallows’ Eve, better known by the Scottish term “Halloween”.

63 San Francisco’s __ Valley : NOE

Noe Valley is a neighborhood in San Francisco. The area is named after José de Jesús Noé who was the last Mexican mayor of Yerba Buena, which is what San Francisco was called when it was part of Mexico.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Need in many outdoor games : BALL
5 Basic card game : WAR
8 Saltpetre : NITRE
13 Takeout option : THAI
14 Camaro __-Z : IROC
16 They may be crumbled in ice cream : OREOS
17 With 59-Across, old English nursery rhyme being investigated by the detectives in this puzzle : WHO KILLED …
19 Coffee mate? : DONUT
20 German finale : ENDE
21 Chaotic situation, in slang : CARNAGE
23 Wealthy TV sleuth Matt : HOUSTON
26 Hard-boiled sleuth Mike : HAMMER
27 Northern sky sight : AURORA
28 __ ballerina : PRIMA
30 Where Charlie “may ride forever,” in a 1959 hit : MTA
31 Gaming biggie : ATARI
33 Watchdog org.? : ASPCA
37 Exploit : MILK
39 Falcon-finding sleuth Sam : SPADE
41 Medieval Asian leader : KHAN
42 Consents : YESES
44 Twosomes in the news : ITEMS
46 Guadalajara gold : ORO
47 Gulf of Aqaba city : EILAT
49 Took the sloop : BOATED
51 Twinkly-eyed sleuth Jane : MARPLE
54 Wisecracking sleuth Philip : MARLOWE
55 Spammer, e.g. : EMAILER
57 City on Utah Lake : OREM
58 Cordial relations : AMITY
59 See 17-Across (and see circles for the solution to the mystery) : … COCK ROBIN?
64 It’s a fact : DATUM
65 Pain in the neck, e.g. : ACHE
66 Roman fiddler : NERO
67 Rickman role in Harry Potter films : SNAPE
68 Smidge : TAD
69 Feint on the ice : DEKE

Down

1 FYI cousin : BTW
2 Sound from a spa : AHH!
3 Vientiane native : LAO
4 “Just watch me” : LIKE SO
5 Metaphor for youthful indiscretion : WILD OATS
6 Former senator Specter : ARLEN
7 Caviar : ROE
8 Having a calm temperament : NO-DRAMA
9 Identity-concealing attire, in a Dumas novel : IRON MASK
10 Coffee hr. : TEN AM
11 Compact item : ROUGE
12 Perfume compound : ESTER
15 Epidemic-fighting agcy. : CDC
18 Mural opening : INTRA-
22 Sashimi selection : AHI
23 Given to overacting : HAMMY
24 Navel type : OUTIE
25 Eurasian divide : URALS
28 Star-Lord portrayer Chris : PRATT
29 Theme park staple : RIDE
32 Samoan port : APIA
34 One of many on a phone these days : PHOTO
35 Rod in Cooperstown : CAREW
36 Positive pole, perhaps : ANODE
38 “Hang in there” : KEEP IT UP
40 Left on a sloop : EMBARKED
43 “D’oh!” : SILLY ME!
45 More ticked off : SORER
48 Sheltered side : LEE
50 __ Joy : ALMOND
51 Honey drinks : MEADS
52 Capital south of Beirut : AMMAN
53 Indian yogurt dip : RAITA
54 Coffee shop order : MOCHA
56 Color TV pioneer : RCA
60 It ends rather spookily: Abbr. : OCT
61 Busyness symbol : BEE
62 Tick off : IRK
63 San Francisco’s __ Valley : NOE