LA Times Crossword 12 Aug 20, Wednesday

Bill’s time: 12m 43s (stuck in the northeast)!

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” e.g. : FABLE

“The Boy Who Cried Wolf” is one of Aesop’s fables, and the tale that gives rise to our phrase “to cry wolf” meaning “to give a false alarm”. In the fable, a shepherd boy is in the habit of tricking nearby villagers into thinking a wolf is attacking his flock by crying “Wolf!”. When an actual attack is made, the villages assume it’s another false alarm and the sheep are eaten by the wolf.

6 __ bean : NAVY

A navy bean is a white bean, and is the bean commonly found in the dish known as “baked beans”. It can also be called a haricot bean. The term “navy bean” is used because haricot beans were a staple for sailors in the 19th-century US Navy.

10 “Gee whiz!” : OMG!

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

13 Name on a sweetener packet : EQUAL

Equal was the first aspartame-based artificial sweetener to hit the market, and did so in the early eighties. Up to that point, the only artificial sweetener available was saccharin.

14 Après-ski drink : COCOA

The beverages hot cocoa and hot chocolate differ from each other in that the latter contains cocoa butter, whereas the former does not.

“Après-ski” is a French term meaning “after skiing”. It refers to the good times to be had after coming off the slopes.

15 IOC country two before NZL, alphabetically : NOR

In the list of IOC country codes, NOR (Norway) comes just before NRU (Nauru), which in turn comes just before NZL (New Zealand).

16 Go off without a hiccup : RUN SMOOTHLY (“moot” court)

A moot court is a simulated court proceeding engaged in by law students. A moot court is similar to a mock trial, with the former simulating an appellate court or arbitral case, and the latter simulating a jury trial or bench trial. In Anglo-Saxon times, a “moot” was a gathering of prominent men to discuss matters of local importance.

Hiccups is a series of forced intakes of breath, caused by spasms in the muscles of the chest and throat. The most common cause of hiccups is some sort of irritation to the stomach or oesophagus, usually taking place while eating. Apparently, we don’t really understand the reason why we hiccup, but a favored suggestion is that it may be something that we inherited from our ancestors of long ago who didn’t stand up quite as straight as we do. Gravity helps us swallow our food, but animals who walk on all fours don’t have that advantage as the food moves horizontally down the throat and into the stomach. Such beasts are in greater need of an involuntary hiccup should some food get stuck. Just a theory …

20 WSJ headline topic : IPO

An initial public offering (IPO) is the very first offer of stock for sale by a company on the open market. In other words, an IPO marks the first time that a company is traded on a public exchange. Companies have an IPO to raise capital to expand (usually).

“The Wall Street Journal” (WSJ) is a daily newspaper with a business bent that is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company. The WSJ has a larger US circulation than any other newspaper, with “USA Today” coming in a close second place.

21 Tobacco plug : CHAW

“Chaw” is a slang term for “chew”, a plug of tobacco.

22 Singapore makeup : ISLANDS

The city-state of Singapore comprises one main island (Singapore Island or Mainland Singapore) and 63 outlying islands. Only two of the outlying islands are inhabited, i.e. Sentosa (mainly a resort island) and Ubin (a rural island with a small village population).

27 PC corner key : ESC

The escape key (Esc) was originally used to control computer peripherals. It was a key that allowed the computer operator to stop what the peripheral was doing (cancel a print job, for example). Nowadays the escape key is used for all sorts of things, especially in gaming programs.

30 Paranormal power : PSYCHOMETRY (“home” court)

Psychometry is a form of extrasensory perception in which a person claims to be able to detect the history of an object by touching it.

32 Hawaiian Congresswoman Gabbard : TULSI

Tulsi Gabbard was elected to the US House of Representatives in 2012, and so became the first Hindo member of Congress. She was born in American Samoa, and relocated with her family at a very young age to Hawaii. Gabbard enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard in 2003, served a tour of duty in Iraq, and continues in the service at the rank of major. She is a Democrat, and campaigned to become the party’s nominee for US president in the 2020 election.

34 50 minutes on a couch, say : SESSION

The use of the term “shrink” to describe a psychiatrist is first attested in 1966. “Shrink” is diminutive of “head-shrinker”.

44 Big name in insurance : AETNA

When the healthcare management and insurance company known as Aetna was founded, the name was chosen to evoke images of Mount Etna, the Italian volcano.

45 London-based credit brand : BARCLAYCARD (“clay” court)

A “barclaycard” is a credit card issued by Barclays bank, which is based in the UK. The barclaycard was the first UK-based credit card issued in Britain, back in 1967.

49 “A Death in the Family” author James : AGEE

James Agee was a noted American film critic and screenwriter. Agee wrote an autobiographical novel “A Death in the Family” that won him his Pulitzer in 1958, albeit posthumously. He was also one of the screenwriters for the 1951 classic movie “The African Queen”.

52 Comic Foxx : REDD

“Redd Foxx” was the stage name of John Elroy Sanford, best known for starring in “Sanford and Son”. “Sanford and Son” was an American version of a celebrated hit BBC sitcom that I grew up with in Ireland called “Steptoe and Son”.

53 New Deal agcy. : NRA

The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was one of the first agencies set up under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program. On the one hand the NRA help set minimum wages and maximum working hours for workers in industry, and on the other hand it helped set minimum prices for goods produced by companies. The NRA was very popular with the public, and businesses that didn’t opt to participate in the program found themselves boycotted. The NRA didn’t survive for long though, as after two years of operation it was deemed to be unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court and so it ceased operations in 1935.

The New Deal was the series of economic programs championed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression. The New Deal was focused on three objectives, the “3 Rs”:

1. Relief for the unemployed and poor
2. Recovery of the economy to normal levels
3. Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression

54 Baseball’s Rose : PETE

Pete Rose was a talented baseball player who holds the record for all-time Major League hits. Rose’s nickname was “Charlie Hustle”. In recent years, his reputation has been tarnished by admissions that he bet on games in which he played and managed.

63 The Cyclones of the Big 12 Conf. : ISU

Iowa State University of Science and Technology (ISU) is located in Ames, Iowa. Among many other notable milestones, ISU created the country’s first school of veterinary medicine, in 1879. The sports teams of ISU are known as the Cyclones.

66 Lifesaver, briefly : EMT

Emergency medical technician (EMT)

67 Water ___ : POLO

The sport of water polo is thought to have originated in Scotland, where it was a feature of fairs and festivals. Men’s water polo was introduced into the Olympic Games in 1900, making it one of the oldest team sports in the Games.

Down

1 Stepbrother of Phineas on a Disney animated series : FERB

“Phineas and Ferb” is an animated TV series on the Disney channel. The lead characters are Phineas Flynn and his stepbrother Ferb Fletcher.

3 Hit close to home? : BUNT

To bunt in baseball is to barely hit the ball, just enough to have it roll slowly in front of the infielders.

4 Indian yogurt drink : LASSI

Lassi is a yogurt-based drink from India. Popular variants are namkeen lassi (which is salty), sweet lassi and mango lassi. There is even a bhang lassi, which is infused with a liquid derivative of cannabis.

5 Nightmare street : ELM

“A Nightmare on Elm Street” is a Wes Craven slasher-horror film that was released in 1984. As I don’t do “slasher” or “horror”, I was surprised to learn that Johnny Depp was in the movie, making his feature film debut.

7 “Bah!” in Bavaria : ACH!

Bavaria in southeast Germany is the largest state in the country. The capital and largest city in Bavaria is Munich.

8 Tennessee athlete, briefly : VOL

The Tennessee Volunteers (the Vols) is the name given to the men’s sports teams at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The women’s teams are called the Lady Volunteers.

11 Sweater material : MOHAIR

The Angora goat produces the wool known as mohair. On the other hand, Angora wool comes from the Angora rabbit. Both rabbit and goat are named for Turkey’s capital Ankara, which was known as “Angora” in many European languages.

14 HMO outlays : COPAYS

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

21 Bayou cuisine : CREOLE

In the US, the term “Creole” is usually a reference to the people descended from the colonial French and colonial Spanish people who settled in the Louisiana region before it became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

A bayou is a marshy inlet or outlet of a lake or river, usually with stagnant or slow-moving water. The exact origins of the term “bayou” is uncertain, but it is thought perhaps to come from the Choctaw (a Native American people from the southeast) word “bayuk”, meaning “small stream”.

23 Rubylike gemstone : SPINEL

Spinel is a magnesium aluminate mineral that is sometimes used as a gemstone. Two of the more famous gem-quality spinels are the Black Prince’s Ruby and the Timur Ruby, both of which are in the British Crown Jewels collection. Spinels are distinct from rubies, but the rose-tinted variety used to be called Balas rubies.

24 Post-9/11 cabinet agcy. : DHS

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created in 2002 after the September 11th attacks. Today, the DHS has over 200,000 employees making it the third largest department in the cabinet (the biggest employers are the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs). The formation of the DHS was the biggest government reorganization in US history, with 22 government agencies drawn into a single organization.

25 Slugging Sammy : SOSA

Sammy Sosa was firmly in the public eye in 1998 when he and Mark McGwire were vying to be the first to surpass the home run record held by Roger Maris. McGwire fell out of public favor due to stories of steroid abuse (stories which he later admitted were true) while Sosa fell out of favor when he was found to be using a corked bat in a 2003 game.

27 “The War of the Worlds” villains, for short : ETS

“The War of the Worlds” is a science fiction classic penned by H. G. Wells in 1895-97. This compelling story of Martians invading Earth has been adapted many times into radio dramas, a television series and several movies.

33 Urged to attack, with “on” : SICCED …

“Sic ’em” is an attack order given to a dog, one instructing the animal to growl, bark or even bite. The term dates back to the 1830s, with “sic” being a variation of “seek”.

38 Wile E. Coyote purchase : TNT

“TNT” is an abbreviation for “trinitrotoluene”. Trinitrotoluene was first produced in 1863 by the German chemist Joseph Wilbrand, who developed it for use as a yellow dye. TNT is relatively difficult to detonate so it was on the market as a dye for some years before its more explosive properties were discovered.

Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner are two much-loved cartoon characters from Warner Bros. Wile E. Coyote was created first, and Road Runner was invented as someone for Wile E. to play off. I love this cartoon; it’s definitely one of the best …

43 Close-knit groups : CADRES

A cadre is most commonly a group of experienced personnel at the core of a larger organization that the small group trains or heavily influences. “Cadre” is a French word meaning “frame”. We use it in the sense that a cadre is a group that provides a “framework” for the larger organization.

45 She’s a doll : BARBIE

The famous Barbie doll was created by businesswoman Ruth Handler and first appeared on store shelves in 1959. Barbie was based on a German fashion doll called Bild Lilli that was introduced in 1955. Lilli had been a German cartoon character before taking on a three-dimensional form. Prior to the introduction of Bild Lilli and Barbie, children’s dolls were primarily representations of infants.

51 Many, many years : EPOCH

Geological time is divided into a number of units of varying lengths. These are, starting from the largest:

• supereon
• eon (also “aeon”)
• era
• period
• epoch
• age

55 Spanish coin : EURO

The peseta is the former currency of Spain, and the de facto currency of Spain’s neighbor, the Principality of Andorra. The peseta was replaced by the euro in 2002.

57 Flight board listings: Abbr. : ETDS

Estimated time of departure (ETD)

59 Souvenir shop purchase : CAP

A souvenir is a memento, a token of remembrance. We imported the word “souvenir” from French, in which language it has the same meaning. The term comes from the Latin “subvenire” meaning “to come to mind”, or literally “to come up”.

60 Tokyo, formerly : EDO

“Edo” is the former name of the Japanese city of Tokyo. Edo was the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate, a feudal regime that ruled from 1603 until 1868. The shogun lived in the magnificent Edo Castle. Some parts of the original castle remain and today’s Tokyo Imperial Palace, the residence of the Emperor of Japan, was built on its grounds.