LA Times Crossword 1 Aug 20, Saturday

Bill’s time: 11m 24s

Bill’s errors: 2

• YLEM (elem)
• TAUROMACHY (tauromache)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Cajun staple : OKRA

Cajun cuisine is named for the French-speaking Acadian people who were deported from Acadia in Canada to Louisiana in the 18th century.

5 Rhyme $yndicate Records founder : ICE-T

Rapper Ice-T must be sick of having his name come up as an answer in crossword puzzles (I know I am!). Born Tracy Marrow, Ice-T has been interested in acting for decades and made his film debut in the 1984 movie about breakdancing called “Breakin’”. He has also played Detective Fin Tutuola in the TV show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” since the year 2000.

9 Pooch living in 2062 : ASTRO

“The Jetsons” is an animated show from Hanna-Barbera that had its first run in 1962-1963, and then was recreated in 1985-1987. When it debuted in 1963 on ABC, “The Jetsons” was the network’s first ever color broadcast. “The Jetsons” is like a space-age version of “The Flintstones”. The four Jetson family members are George and Jane, the parents, and children Judy and Elroy. Residing with the family in Orbit City are their household robot Rosie and pet dog Astro.

16 Fine fiddle : STRAD

Generations of the Stradivari family produced violins and other stringed instruments, the most famous of which were constructed by Antonio Stradivari.

19 Red state verb : OWE

To be in the red is to be in debt, to owe money. The expression “in the red” is a reference to the accounting practice of recording debts and losses in red ink in ledgers. The related phrase “in the black” means “solvent, making a profit”.

20 Boston song whose title lyric precedes “We’re cookin’ tonight” : SMOKIN’

Boston is a rock band from … Boston. Boston’s biggest hit was “Amanda”, released in 1986.

23 Goose that may nest on volcanic ash : NENE

The nene is a bird that is native to Hawaii, and is also known as the Hawaiian goose. The name “nene” is imitative of its call. When Captain Cook landed on the islands in 1778, there were 25,000 nene living there. By 1950, the number was reduced by hunting to just 30 birds. Conservation efforts in recent years have been somewhat successful. The nene was named State Bird of Hawaii in 1957.

25 Donkey Kong or King Kong : APE

The first video game featuring the ape called Donkey Kong was created in 1981. That same game introduced the world to the character known as Mario, four years before the game Super Mario Bros became such a big hit.

“King Kong” really is a classic movie. It stars Fay Wray as the young woman (Ann Darrow) with whom Kong falls in love. Wray was very interested in the role as she was told that she would be playing opposite the “tallest, darkest leading man in Hollywood”. She thought it might be Clark Gable. At least that’s how the story goes …

26 Blue side: Abbr. : DEMS

On political maps, red states are usually Republican and blue states usually Democrat. The designation of red and blue states is a very recent concept, only introduced in the 2000 presidential election by TV journalist, the late Tim Russert. In retrospect, the choice of colors is surprising, as in other democracies around the world red is usually used to describe left-leaning socialist parties (the reds under the bed!), and blue is used for conservative right-wing parties. In election cycles, swing/battleground states are often depicted in purple.

27 Sound that gets an exam proctor’s attention : PSST!

A proctor is a supervisor, and especially a person overseeing a school examination or a dormitory. The word “proctor” originated in the late 1500s, and is a contraction of the word “procurator”, the name given to an official agent of a church.

31 Jan. honoree : MLK

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a US Federal holiday taking place on the third Monday of each year. It celebrates the birthday of Dr. King, and was signed into law by President Reagan in 1983, and first observed in 1986. However, some states resisted naming the holiday MLK Day, and gave it alternative names (like “Civil Rights Day”). It was officially celebrated as MLK Day in all 50 states from the year 2000 onwards.

33 Pop singer Brenda : LEE

Brenda Lee is a country and rockabilly singer who had 37 songs that made the charts in the sixties. Lee’s biggest hits are probably “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” from 1958, and “I’m Sorry” from 1960. Lee was only 13 years old when she recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”.

38 Teaching where to go in England? : HOUSE-TRAINING

“Housebreaking” is known as “house-training” in British English.

39 Wine label abbr. : ALC

Alcohol (alc.)

40 Airport near OAK : SFO

The San Francisco Bay Area is served by three major airports: San Francisco (SFO), Oakland (OAK) and San Jose (SJC).

42 De Matteo of “The Sopranos” : DREA

Drea de Matteo is an actress who is most familiar to me for playing Adriana la Cerva on HBO’s wonderful series “The Sopranos”. De Matteo also played Joey’s sister on the short-lived “Friends” spin-off called “Joey”, and the character Angie Bolen on “Desperate Housewives”.

44 “!!!” : OMG!

“OMG” is text-speak for “Oh My Gosh!” “Oh My Goodness!” or any other G-words you might care to use …

46 Judicial order : WRIT

A writ is an order issued by some formal body (these days, usually a court) with the order being in “written” form. Warrants and subpoenas are examples of writs.

50 Bubble Up sister brand : DAD’S

Dad’s root beer was developed by Ely Klapman and Barney Berns in 1937, and was given the name “Dad’s” in honor of Klapman’s father who used to make root beer for his family at home.

51 Wyndham-owned chain : RAMADA

The Ramada Inn hotel chain takes its name from the Spanish word for a shady resting place. A ramada is a shelter with a roof and no walls, mainly found in the American southwest. Nowadays a ramada can be temporary or permanent, but originally ramadas were makeshift shelters constructed by aboriginal Indians from branches or bushes.

55 Kerfuffle : ADO

“Kerfuffle” comes from the Scottish “curfuffle”, with both words meaning “disruption”.

58 Spam-revealing aid? : CAN OPENER

Spam is a precooked meat product that is sold in cans. It was introduced by Hormel Foods in 1937. The main meat ingredients are pork shoulder meat and ham. The name “Spam” was chosen as the result of a competition at Hormel, with the winner earning himself a hundred dollars. According to the company, the derivation of the name “Spam” is a secret known by only a few former executives, but the speculation is that it stands for “spiced ham” or “shoulders of pork and ham”. Spam is particularly popular in Hawaii, so popular that it is sometimes referred to as “the Hawaiian steak”.

60 Hitchcock menace : BIRDS

“The Birds” is a 1963 film made by Alfred Hitchcock based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier. I’ve read the story and seen the film and find them both strangely disturbing (it’s probably just me!). I can’t stand the ending of either version, as nothing resolves itself!

62 Toothed whale’s technique : SONAR

The cetaceans are aquatic mammals, or which there are two groups: the toothed whales and the baleen whales. Most toothed whale species (e.g. dolphins and porpoises) feed on fish and squid, although killer whales feed on mammals such as seals. Baleen whales sieve plankton and other organisms from the seawater.

63 Proto-matter of the universe : YLEM

Back in the 1940s, cosmologists George Gamow and Ralph Alpher used the term “ylem” to describe the primordial plasma that was presumed to exist right after the Big Bang.

Down

1 Indulges in to an extreme degree : ODS ON

Overdose (OD)

2 Mardi Gras parade-organizing group : KREWE

“Krewe” is the name given to an organization responsible for putting on parades and balls during Carnival celebrations. The most famous is the krewe that pulls together Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

4 “Selma” director DuVernay : AVA

“Selma” is a 2014 film about the Selma-to-Montgomery marches of 1965. Directed by Ava DuVernay, the movie stars David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson.

7 Alexander of “Living Single” : ERIKA

Erika Alexander is the actress that played Pam Tucker, a cousin that came to live with the Huxtable household in “The Cosby Show”. Alexander also won many awards for playing Maxine Shaw on the Fox sitcom “Living Single”.

8 17th-century craze involving bulbs : TULIP MANIA

The world’s first ever speculative “bubble” in the financial markets took place in 1637, when the price of tulip bulbs skyrocketed out of control. The tulip had been introduced into Europe a few years earlier and demand for tulips was so high that single bulbs were selling for ten times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. The climb in prices was followed quickly by a collapse in the market that was so striking that the forces at play were given the term “tulip mania”. To this day, any large economic bubble may be referred to as “tulip mania”.

9 Puerto Rico hrs. : AST

Atlantic Standard Time (AST) is four hours behind Greenwich Mean Time and one hour ahead of Eastern Standard Time. The list of locations that use AST includes Puerto Rico, Bermuda and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

10 Medieval Times ride : STEED

Medieval Times is a dinner theater show featuring medieval games such as jousting and sword-fighting. The first show opened in a purpose-built building in Orland, Florida.

11 Commuter’s convenience : TRAVEL MUG

Our verb “to commute”, meaning “to go back and forth to work”, ultimately derives from the Latin “commutare”, meaning “to often change”. Back in the late 1800s, a “commutation ticket” was a season pass, so named because it allowed one to “change” one kind of payment into another. Quite interesting …

13 Quite a journey : ODYSSEY

“Odyssey” is one of two epic poems from ancient Greece that is attributed to Homer. “Odyssey” is largely a sequel to Homer’s other epic “Iliad”. “Odyssey” centers on the heroic figure Odysseus, and his adventures on his journey home to Greece following the fall of Troy. We now use the term “odyssey” to describe any long series of adventures.

15 Mushroom ends? : EMS

There is a letter M (em) at either end of the word “mushroom”.

21 ’50s-’60s TV family : NELSONS

“The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” originally ran from 1952 to 1966, and has been running continuously in syndication ever since. It still holds the record for the longest-running, non-animated sitcom ever seen on US television.

24 Pentathlon equipment : EPEES

The original pentathlon of the ancient Olympic games consisted of a foot race, wrestling, long jump, javelin and discus. When a new pentathlon was created as a sport for the modern Olympic Games, it was given the name the “modern pentathlon”. First introduced in 1912, the modern pentathlon consists of:

1. pistol shooting
2. épée fencing
3. 200m freestyle swimming
4. show jumping
5. 3km cross-country running

28 Lid problems : STYES

A stye is a bacterial infection of the sebaceous glands at the base of the eyelashes, and is also known as a hordeolum.

30 Matador’s art : TAUROMACHY

The practice of bullfighting is known formally as “tauromachy”, a term that comes from the Greek “tauromakhia”, which in turn comes from “tauros” (bull) and “-machy” (battle, fighting).

The term “torero” is used to describe all bullfighters. The term “matador” is reserved for the bullfighter whose job is to make the final kill. Aptly enough, “matador” is Spanish for “killer”.

32 Beer order at a sushi bar : KIRIN

Kirin lager is the oldest brand of beer in Japan. The “Kirin” name comes from the Japanese word for a mythical Chinese creature.

34 “Nebraska” Best Actor nominee : BRUCE DERN

Bruce Dern is a Hollywood actor with quite a pedigree. Dern is the grandchild of former Utah governor and Secretary of War, George Henry Dern. Bruce’s godparents were Adlai Stevenson and Eleanor Roosevelt!

“Nebraska” is a really interesting 2013 movie starring Bruce Dern as an elderly man who heads to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect a million-dollar sweepstakes prize that is clearly a scam. This one is filmed in black & white, which adds to the mood nicely. I noticed that a local movie theater here did a one-day showing of a color version.

35 Padre’s hermana : TIA

In Spanish, the “hermana” (sister) of your “padre” (father) is your “tia” (aunt).

37 Music service pioneer that merged with Slacker in 2017 : AOL RADIO

AOL Radio was an online service offering over 200 free Internet radio stations. The service was available online, and as an app for smartphones.

38 Staked a claim (on) : HAD DIBS

The phrase “to have dibs on” expresses a claim on something. Apparently, the term “dibs” is a contraction of “dibstone”, which was a knucklebone or jack used in a children’s game.

43 Adjective on taco truck menus : ASADA

The name of the dish called “carne asada” translates from Spanish as “roasted meat”.

45 Outlook alternative : GMAIL

Gmail is a free webmail service provided by Google, and my favorite of the free email services. Gmail made a big splash when it was introduced because it offered a whopping 1GB of storage whereas other services offered a measly 2-4MB on average.

48 Latin clarifier : ID EST

“Id est” is Latin for “that is”, and is often abbreviated to “i.e.” when used in English.

49 Where the heart is : TORSO

“Torso” (plural “torsi”) is an Italian word meaning the “trunk of a statue”, and is a term that we imported into English.

54 National Poetry Mo. : APR

April was chosen as National Poetry Month by the Academy of American Poets in 1996.

57 Ukr. or Est., once : SSR

Ukraine is a large country in Eastern Europe that was a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) before the dissolution of the USSR. In English, we often call the country “the Ukraine”, but I am told that we should say just “Ukraine”.

Estonia is one of the former Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs) and is located in Northern Europe on the Baltic Sea due south of Finland. Estonia has been overrun and ruled by various empires over the centuries. The country did enjoy a few years of freedom at the beginning of the 20th century after a war of independence against the Russian Empire. However, Estonia was occupied again during WWII, first by the Russians and then by the Germans, and then reoccupied by the Soviets in 1944. Estonia has flourished as an independent country again since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.