LA Times Crossword 7 Sep 20, Monday

Bill’s time: 4m 57s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

13 Nairobi resident : KENYAN

Nairobi is the capital and largest city in the African nation of Kenya. The city is named for the Nairobi River, which in turn takes its name from the Maasai “Enkare Nairobi” meaning “Cool Water”. Nairobi was founded in 1899 as a stop on the Kenya-Uganda railroad, at a time when the country was a British colony.

15 Sheltered from the wind : ALEE

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

16 *Glowing circular phenomenon in the constellation Lyra : RING NEBULA

The Ring Nebula is located in the Lyra constellation, was discovered in 1779 by Charles Messier. The “ring” is a shell of ionized gas that was expelled by a degenerating star as it evolves into a white dwarf.

18 Cranberry sites : BOGS

When early European settlers came across red berries growing in the bogs of the northern part of America, they felt that the plant’s flower and stem resembled the head and bill of a crane. As such, they called the plant “craneberry”, which evolved into “cranberry”.

19 *Harlequin publication, e.g. : ROMANCE NOVEL

The romance genre of novels was first introduced by the British company Mills and Boon in the UK. These books were resold in the US by Canadian firm Harlequin Enterprises Ltd, beginning in 1957. Harlequin continued to publish exclusively British romance novels until 1975, when it finally published an American author, namely Janet Dailey.

21 “The Time Machine” author : HG WELLS

The full name of the English author known as H. G. Wells was Herbert George Wells. Wells is particularly well known for his works of science fiction, including “The War of the Worlds”, “The Time Machine”, “The Invisible Man” and “The Island of Doctor Moreau”. He was a prolific author, and a prolific lover as well. While married to one of his former students with whom he had two sons, he also had a child with writer Amber Reeves, and another child with author Rebecca West.

In the 1895 novella by H. G. Wells titled “The Time Machine”, the author never actually names the antagonist, and refers to him as “the Time Traveller”. In the famous 1960 movie adaption, also called “The Time Machine”, Rod Taylor plays the Time Traveller, and is given the name “George”. Perceptive viewers of the movie might catch sight of a plaque on the side of the time machine that elaborates on the Time Traveller’s name, naming him “H. George Wells”, a homage to the author.

25 Dollar bill : ONE

The nation’s first president, George Washington, is on the US one-dollar bills produced today. When the original one-dollar bill was issued in 1863, it featured a portrait of Salmon P. Chase, President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury.

26 Strong old-time cleanser : LYE SOAP

What we call “lye” is usually sodium hydroxide, although historically the term “lye” was used for potassium hydroxide. Lye has many uses, including to cure several foodstuffs. Lye can make olives less bitter, for example. The chemical is also found in canned mandarin oranges, pretzels and Japanese ramen noodles. More concentrated grades of lye are used to clear drains and clean ovens. Scary …

30 TSA agents’ requests : IDS

Identity document (ID)

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is the agency that employs the good folks who check passengers and baggage at airports.

31 Toothpaste holder : TUBE

The first toothpaste in a tube was introduced by Johnson & Johnson, in 1889. Back then, toothpaste tubes were made from tin, zinc or lead.

33 Entomologists’ subjects : INSECTS

Entomology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of insects. The etymology(!) of “entomology” is the Greek “entomon” (meaning “insect”) and “logia” (meaning “study of”). In turn, the Greek word “entomos” for insect is a literal translation into Greek of “having a notch or cut”, in deference to the observation by Aristotle that insects have segmented bodies.

41 Tolkien brutes : ORCS

Orcs are mythical humanoid creatures that appear in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. Since Tolkien’s use of orcs, they have also been featured in other fantasy fiction as well as in fantasy video games.

46 Golden __: General Mills crackers : GRAHAMS

General Mills was founded in 1928 in Minneapolis with the merger of four mills, most notably one owned by the Washburn-Crosby Company. The newly formed General Mills paid a dividend in the year of its founding, and has paid a dividend every year since then. There are only a few companies that have consistently paid out dividends to their investments for such a long period.

51 “Laughing” critter : HYENA

The spotted hyena of Sub-Saharan Africa is also known as the laughing hyena because of the sound it oftens makes, which resembles maniacal laughter.

55 *Budget college meal : RAMEN NOODLES

Ramen is a noodle dish composed of Chinese-style wheat noodles in a meat or fish broth flavored with soy or miso sauce. Ramen is usually topped with sliced pork and dried seaweed. The term “ramen” is also used for precooked, instant noodles that come in single-serving, solid blocks.

59 Greek god of war : ARES

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.

69 Hosp. staffers, or an initial feature of the answers to starred clues : RNS

Registered nurse (RN)

Down

1 Knighted one : SIR

Kneel, and a monarch might “dub thee a knight” if you’re lucky. “Dub” is a specific term derived from Old English that was used to mean “make a knight”. As the knight was also given a knightly name at the same time, “dub” has come to mean “give someone a name”.

2 Zen garden fish : KOI

Koi are fish that are also known as Japanese carp. Koi have been bred for decorative purposes and there are now some very brightly colored examples found in Japanese water gardens.

Japanese Zen gardens are inspired by the meditation gardens of Zen Buddhist temples. Zen gardens have no water in them, but often there is gravel and sand that is raked in patterns designed to create the impression of water in waves and ripples.

3 The Boar’s Head in “Henry IV,” e.g. : INN

The Boar’s Head Inn was a tavern in Eastcheap in central London that opened for business sometime before 1537, and was finally demolished in 1831. William Shakespeare cited the Boar’s Head Tavern as a favorite hangout for Falstaff and his friends in the play “Henry IV, Part I”. Although there’s no real evidence that Eastcheap’s Boar’s Head Inn was the actual tavern mentioned by Shakespeare, the boar’s head sign from the inn demolished in 1831 is now on display in Shakespeare’s Globe theater.

6 Olympic miler Jim : RYUN

Jim Ryun is a former US congressman and retired Olympic track and field athlete. In 1964, he became the first high school athlete to run a mile in under four minutes. He ran in the 1964 Olympics when he was only 17 years old, making him the youngest American male track athlete to ever qualify for the Olympic Games. He competed again in 1968, and came away with the silver medal for the 1,500 meters. Ryun entered politics in 1996, and represented Kansas’s 2nd District in the US Congress from 1996 to 2007.

7 Barber’s powder : TALC

Talc is a mineral, hydrated magnesium silicate. Talcum powder is composed of loose talc, although these days “baby powder” is also made from cornstarch.

10 Arthurian tales : LEGENDS

King Arthur (and his Round Table) probably never really existed, but his legend is very persistent. Arthur was supposedly a leader of the Romano-British as they tried to resist the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.

11 Some electric cars : TESLAS

Tesla Motors shortened its name to just “Tesla” in early 2017.

17 College sr.’s test : GRE

Passing the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

22 Wildebeest : GNU

The gnu is also known as the wildebeest, and is an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is a Dutch meaning “wild beast”.

23 Spider’s creation : WEB

The silk that makes up a web is a protein fiber that is “spun” by a spider. Spider silk is about one sixth of the density of steel, yet has a comparable tensile strength.

27 Three-time PGA leading money winner Vijay __ : SINGH

Vijay Singh is a professional golfer from Fiji who led the list of PGA money winners in 2003, 2004 and 2008.

28 Tokyo’s Yoko : ONO

Yoko Ono was born in 1933 in Tokyo into a prosperous Japanese family, and is actually a descendant of one of the emperors of Japan. Yoko’s father moved around the world for work, and she lived the first few years of her life in San Francisco. The family returned to Japan, before moving on to New York, Hanoi and back to Japan just before WWII, in time to live through the great firebombing of Tokyo in 1945. Immediately after the war the family was far from prosperous. While Yoko’s father was being held in a prison camp in Vietnam, her mother had to resort to begging and bartering to feed her children. When her father was repatriated, life started to return to normal and Yoko was able to attend university. She was the first woman to be accepted into the philosophy program of Gakushuin University.

34 Title for Amazon’s Jeff Bezos : CEO

Jeff Bezos is the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, a company that he set up in his garage in 1994. Bezos used some of the fortune that he made with Amazon to purchase “The Washington Post” in 2013.

36 Wurlitzer product : ORGAN

Franz Rudolf Wurlitzer started the Wurlitzer Company in 1853 to make various musical instruments. Over time, the company focused on marketing automated instruments like the “Mighty Wurlitzer” theater organ.

38 Target of a cheek swab : DNA

I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that the DNA of living things is so very similar across different species. Human DNA is almost exactly the same for every individual (to the degree of 99.9%). However, those small differences are sufficient to distinguish one individual from another, and to determine whether or not individuals are close family relatives.

39 San Francisco vicinity : BAY AREA

The San Francisco Bay Area comprises the nine counties that impinge on the San Francisco Bay itself: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma. The region also includes the major cities of San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland.

The city of San Francisco was established in 1776, just a few days before the US declared independence from Britain on the other side of the continent. San Francisco was founded by Spanish colonists who set up a fort at the Golden Gate and a nearby mission named for St. Francis of Assisi.

40 H or O, in H2O : ELEMENT

A water molecule is composed of an oxygen atom with two hydrogen atoms on roughly opposite sides (at about a 150-degree angle). So, sometimes the molecule is represented by “HOH”, although more usually it’s “H2O”.

43 Technique used for many film explosions: Abbr. : CGI

Computer-generated imagery (CGI)

44 Boozer : SOT

Our word “sot” comes from the Old English “sott”, meaning “fool”. The word “sot” started to be associated with alcohol and not just foolery in the late 1500s. The derivative term “besotted” means “muddled with drunkenness”, or more figuratively “infatuated”.

48 Cantaloupes and honeydews : MELONS

The cantaloupe is the most popular type of melon consumed in the US. Apparently the cantaloupe was first cultivated in Cantalupo in Sabina, a town near Rome in Italy.

What we call honeydew melons are also known as white antibes, especially in France and Algeria where the cultivar has been grown for many years. Antibes is a commune in southeastern France, located between Nice and Cannes.

54 AOL rival : MSN

The Microsoft Network (MSN) used to be an Internet service provider (ISP). These days, MSN is mainly a web portal.

56 New Deal prog. : 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.

62 Metal in bronze : TIN

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. Compare this with bronze, an alloy of copper and tin. Brass and bronze are often mistaken for each other.

63 Raised urban trains : ELS

Elevated railroad (El)