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Constructed by: Joe Grzybowski
Edited by: Rich Norris
Today’s Theme: Ch-ch-ch-changes
Themed answers are common phrases CHANGED by inserting the letter sequence “CH”:
- 23A Headline announcing Thomas Kingsford’s 1842 process? : A STARCH IS BORN (a star is born)
- 37A Breakfast product made from trees? : ALL-BRANCH CEREAL (All-Bran cereal)
- 49A Place for the good guys? : MENSCH ROOM (men’s room)
- 66A Mad Hatter’s cup? : CHALICE IN WONDERLAND (“Alice in Wonderland”)
- 79A Apex predator at the feeder? : SHARK FINCH (shark fin)
- 90A Literary slugger making cookies? : CASEY AT THE BATCH (“Casey at the Bat”)
- 109A What keeps the church singers healthy? : CHORAL HYGIENE (oral hygiene)
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
Want to discuss the puzzle? Then …
… leave a comment
Bill’s time: 16m 22s
Bill’s errors: 3
- AMORES (Ameris!!!)
- KRONOR (Kroner!)
- MENNEN (Mennin!)
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
1 Respectfully tip : DOFF
One doffs one’s hat, usually as a mark of respect. To doff is to take off, with “doff” being a contraction of “do off”. The opposite of “doff” is “don”, meaning “to put on”.
9 Four-time NFL Pro Bowl safety __ Chancellor : KAM
Kam Chancellor is a retired footballer who played his whole NFL career with the Seattle Seahawks, starting in 2010. Sadly, Chancellor was forced to quit the game in 2017 after sustaining a neck injury.
12 Computer addresses: Abbr. : IPS
An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical label assigned to every device on a computer network. The device that you’re using to read this blog post on has been assigned a unique IP address, as has the computer that I’m using to make this post …
15 Newscaster Lindström : PIA
Pia Lindström is a retired television journalist who was born in Sweden, but who lived most of her life in the US. Lindström is the oldest child of actress Ingrid Bergman.
18 Garfield’s foil : ODIE
Odie is Garfield’s best friend, and is a slobbery beagle. Both are characters in Jim Davis’ comic strip named “Garfield”.
A foil is someone who serves to enhance another by contrast. The term “foil” has been used in such a sense since the 16th century, and comes from the practice of placing metal foil at the beck of a gemstone to make it appear more brilliant.
20 Street in Montréal : RUE
The original name of Montreal was “Ville-Marie”, meaning “City of Mary”. “Ville-Marie” is now the name of a borough in the city, the borough which includes the downtown area and “Old Montreal”. The present-day city covers most of the Island of Montreal (in French, “Île de Montréal”) that is located where the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers meet. The name “Montreal” comes from the three-headed hill that dominates the island and is called “Mount Royal”.
23 Headline announcing Thomas Kingsford’s 1842 process? : A STARCH IS BORN (a star is born)
Thomas Kingsford was a chemist who invented a process for manufacturing starch from maize. He built a small factory to produce his product in the 1840s in Bergen, New Jersey. A few years later, manufacturing was moved to Oswego, New York where it continues today.
26 Peak in Exod. : MT SINAI
According to the Bible, Mount Sinai is the mountain on which Moses was given the Ten Commandments. The Biblical Mount Sinai is probably not the mountain in Egypt that today has the same name, although this is the subject of much debate. The Egyptian Mount Sinai has two developed routes that one can take to reach the summit. The longer gentler climb takes about 2 1/2 hours, but there is also the steeper climb up the 3,750 “steps of penitence”.
The Book of Exodus is the second book in the Bible, and deals with Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. The name “Exodus” comes from the Greek “exodos” meaning “departure”.
28 Poet’s “in a trice” : ANON
“Anon” originally meant “at once”, but the term’s meaning evolved into “soon” apparently just because the word was misused over time.
30 English cheese town : STILTON
Stilton is a lovely village in Cambridgeshire in England, and is the original home of the delicious blue cheese called Stilton.
33 Ovid work : AMORES
Ovid wrote a book of poems called “Amores”, as did English writer D. H. Lawrence.
35 The Beatles’ “__ Loser” : I’M A
The Beatles song “I’m a Loser” first appeared on the “Beatles for Sale” album in 1964. The first pressing of the album listed the song’s title as “I’m a Losser”, i.e. with a spelling error. If you have one of those records, I’d say it’s worth a pretty penny …
36 Gimlet garnish : LIME
A gimlet is a relatively simple cocktail that is traditionally made using just gin and lime juice. The trend in more recent times is to replace the gin with vodka.
37 Breakfast product made from trees? : ALL-BRANCH CEREAL (All-Bran cereal)
All-Bran is a breakfast cereal that has been produced by Kellogg’s since 1916. Kellogg’s Bran Flakes had been introduced a year earlier.
47 Carnival city : RIO
Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil (after São Paulo). “Rio de Janeiro” translates as “January River”. The name reflects the discovery of the bay on which Rio sits, on New Year’s Day in 1502.
The celebration of Carnival comes right before the Lenten period in some Christian traditions. It is thought that Carnival perhaps arose from the need to “eat and drink up” any excess food and drink before the beginning of Lent.
48 Mid-12th-century date : MCLI
MCLI (1151)
49 Place for the good guys? : MENSCH ROOM (men’s room)
“Mensch” is a word that comes to us via Yiddish, and is ultimately derived from the German “mensch” meaning “human being”. We use the term to describe someone of integrity and honor.
51 Tissue swellings : EDEMAS
Both animals and plants can suffer from edema, which is a swelling caused by excessive accumulation of fluid.
54 Medical suffix : -OMA
In the world of medicine, the suffix “-oma” is used to denote a swelling or a tumor. For example, a lipoma is a benign, fatty tumor.
57 Ancient German : TEUTON
The Germanic peoples of Northern Europe are often called Teutonic, a term which originated with the Teutons, one of the Germanic tribes that lived in the region in the days of ancient Greece and Rome.
59 Eye layer : SCLERA
The sclera is the white part of the human eye. The sclera is white in most mammals, but in horses it is black. Really! Go check …
62 Fast-food franchise started in Rocky Mount, NC : HARDEE’S
Hardee’s is a chain of fast-food restaurants that was founded in 1960. The first restaurant was opened in Greenville, North Carolina by Wilber Hardee. Hardee’s is now owned by CKE Restaurants, which also owns the Carl’s Jr. chain.
66 Mad Hatter’s cup? : CHALICE IN WONDERLAND (“Alice in Wonderland”)
In Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, the Mad Hatter makes his first appearance in a chapter called “A Mad Tea-Party”. This event is usually described as “The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party”, even though the Mad Hatter was just a guest. The host was the March Hare. In fact, the phrase “Mad Hatter” doesn’t appear anywhere in Lewis Carroll’s novel, although the character, the Hatter (and sometimes “Hatta”), is described as “mad”.
69 Pants fabric : CHINO
Chino is a twill cloth that is most often used to make hard-wearing pants. The pants have come to be referred to as chinos. Chino cloth was originally developed for use by the military, but quickly became popular with civilians.
71 Bites : NOSHES
Our word “nosh” has been around since the late fifties, when it was imported from the Yiddish word “nashn” meaning “to nibble”. We use “nosh” as a noun that means “snack”, or as a verb meaning “to eat between meals”.
75 Lad in Limerick : BOYO
Limerick is the fourth-most populous city in Ireland, after Dublin, Belfast and Cork. It is located on the Shannon Estuary, in the west of the country.
76 MD’s request : MRI
An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine uses powerful magnetic fields to generate its images so there is no exposure to ionizing radiation (such as X-rays). We used MRI equipment in our chemistry labs at school, way back in the days when the technology was still called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI). Apparently the marketing folks didn’t like the term “nuclear” because of its association with atomic bombs, so now it’s just called MRI.
77 Field and Ride : SALLYS
Actress Sally Field first came to the public’s attention in the sixties with title roles in the TV shows “Gidget” and “The Flying Nun”. She has two Best Actress Oscars: one for “Norma Rae” (1979) and one for “Places in the Heart” (1984).
Sally Ride was a physicist and astronaut, who flew two missions on the space shuttle Challenger. In 1983, she became the first American woman in space, having been preceded by two female cosmonauts (in 1963 and 1982). Ride was 32 years on that first mission, making her the youngest astronaut ever to make it into space. In another first, Ride was the first LGBT astronaut, a fact that was revealed after her death in 2012.
79 Apex predator at the feeder? : SHARK FINCH (shark fin)
An apex predator is at the top of a food chain, and has no other natural predators. Examples are the orca (“killer whale”) in the oceans, the lion in Africa, and the Tyrannosaurus in the days of the dinosaurs.
88 Part of a split : PIN
In ten-pin bowling, a split takes place when the number-one pin (headpin) is knocked down with the first ball and two or more non-adjacent pins are left standing. The most difficult split to deal with is the infamous 7-10 split, where just the rear pins at the extreme right and left remain standing.
90 Literary slugger making cookies? : CASEY AT THE BATCH (“Casey at the Bat”)
“Casey at the Bat” is a poem written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer, first published in the San Francisco Examiner. The poem became very popular due to repeated live performances in vaudeville by DeWolf Hopper. Casey played for the Mudville Nine, and the last line of the poem is “But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out.”
97 Soong __-ling: Madame Chiang : MEI
Soong Mei-ling was the Republic of China’s First Lady from 1948 to 1975, the wife of President Chiang Kai-shek. Mei-Ling was also the sister-in-law of Sun Yat-sen, who founded the Republic.
98 All but one of the balls in 9-Ball : SOLIDS
1-8 are solids, and the 9-ball is a stripe.
Eight-ball and nine-ball are arguably the most popular variants of pool played in North America. In eight-ball, one player sinks the striped balls and the other the solid balls. The first to sink all his or her balls and then the black 8-ball, without fouling, wins the game. In nine-ball, each player must hit the lowest numbered ball on the table first with the cue ball. The first player to sink the 9-ball wins. Sinking the nine ball can happen when first hitting the lowest bowl on the table, or possibly when balls numbered 1-8 have been sunk.
99 D.C.’s __ Row : EMBASSY
Most of the embassies and diplomatic missions in Washington, D.C. are located in a section of Massachusetts Avenue. As a result, that section of the thoroughfare earned the nickname “Embassy Row”. Some embassies and diplomatic buildings occupy buildings in nearby streets, and so the term “Embassy Row” can be extended to include a whole neighborhood.
102 Composer Saint-Saëns : CAMILLE
Camille Saint-Saëns was one of the great French composers, in my humble opinion. He composed during the Romantic Era, and it was he who introduced the symphonic poem to France. Even Saint-Saëns’ light and airy “The Carnival of the Animals” is a lovely work. The most famous movement in the “The Carnival …” is the beautiful “The Swan”, which is traditionally played by a solo cello accompanied by two pianos.
106 Lift one’s spirits? : TOPE
To tope is to drink alcohol excessively and habitually.
116 Legal claim : LIEN
A lien is the right that one has to retain or secure someone’s property until a debt is paid. When an individual takes out a car loan, for example, the lending bank is usually a lien holder. The bank releases the lien on the car when the loan is paid in full.
118 Sault __ Marie : STE
Sault Ste. Marie is the name of two cities on either side of the Canada-US border, one in Ontario and the other in Michigan. The two cities were originally one settlement in the 17th century, established by Jesuit Missionaries. The missionaries gave the settlement the name “Sault Sainte Marie”, which can be translated as “Saint Mary’s Falls”. The city was one community until 1817, when a US-UK Joint Boundary Commission set the border along the St. Mary’s River.
119 2000 Peace Prize recipient Kim __-jung : DAE
Kim Dae-jung was the President of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. He had a policy of engagement with North Korea, and even even had an official meeting with Kim Jong-il in 2000 in Pyongyang. Although his approach, dubbed the Sunshine Policy, did not appear to yield much success, his efforts earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000.
120 Apt. listing abbr. : RMS
Room (rm.)
122 Evergreen shrubs : YEWS
The family of trees and shrubs known as yews propagate by producing a seed surrounded by soft, sweet and brightly colored aril. Birds eat the fruit and then disperse the seed in their droppings. The birds leave the seed undamaged, and so are unharmed by the potent poisons taxane and taxol that are found within the seed. The seeds are highly toxic to humans.
Down
2 Consumes to excess, briefly : ODS
Overdose (OD)
5 Vanzetti’s partner : SACCO
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two anarchists accused of committing murder during an armed robbery in 1920. They were arrested the day after the crime. There followed two controversial trials, guilty verdicts and several appeals that went all the way to the US Supreme Court. Despite mounting evidence that the pair was innocent, the guilty verdicts were repeatedly upheld. A lot of the public accepted that Sacco and Vanzetti were not guilty, and many protests were staged. Regardless, the two were executed in the electric chair in 1927.
6 Greek goddess of wisdom : ATHENA
The Greek goddess Athena (sometimes “Athene”) is often associated with wisdom, among other attributes. In many representations. Athena is depicted with an owl sitting on her head. It is this linkage of the owl with the goddess of wisdom that led to today’s perception of the owl as being “wise”. Athena’s Roman counterpart was Minerva.
7 Daily Planet name : LOIS
Lois Lane has been the love interest of Superman/Clark Kent since the comic series was first published in 1938. Lois and Clark both work for the big newspaper in the city of Metropolis called “The Daily Planet”. The couple finally got hitched in the comics (and on television’s “Lois and Clark”) in 1996. One has to wonder how challenging the crossword is in “The Daily Planet” …
8 Ambulance initials : EMS
Emergency medical services (EMS)
9 Swedish monetary units : KRONOR
“Krona” (plural “kronor”) translates in English as “crown”, and is the currency of Sweden. As a member of the European Union, Sweden is required to adopt the euro as its official currency. Such a move isn’t really popular in Sweden and so the Swedish government has been using a legal loophole to allow the country to retain the krona.
10 Second-largest Illinois city : AURORA
Aurora, Illinois is the second-most populous city in the state, after Chicago. Aurora’s nickname is “City of Lights”, a nod to the early implementation of all-electric street lighting in 1881.
11 Skin Bracer maker : MENNEN
Mennen is a brand of toiletries that has its roots in the Mennen Company founded in Newark, New Jersey in 1878 by German immigrant Gerhard Heinrich Mennen.
13 Ruffled-edge underskirt : PETTICOAT
A petticoat is an undergarment worn from the waist that goes under a skirt or dress. That said, the term “petticoat” was used in my day back in Britain and Ireland for a full-length slip. The name translates literally as “small coat” and originally described a padded coat worn by men under armor.
14 Kind of oil used in hummus : SESAME
The lovely dip/spread called hummus usually contains mashed chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic. The name “hummus” is an Arabic word for “chickpeas”.
15 Phnom __ : PENH
Phnom Penh (also “Pnom Penh”) is the capital of Cambodia, and has been so since the French colonized the country in the late 1800s. The city’s name translates from the Khmer language as “Hill of Penh”.
16 Wrath, in a hymn : IRAE
“Dies Irae” is Latin for “Day of Wrath”. It is the name of a famous melody in Gregorian Chant, one that is often used as part of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass.
25 __ Bigelow, echoically nicknamed 20th-century wrestler : BAM BAM
“Bam Bam Bigelow” was the ring name of professional wrestler Scott Charles Bigelow. He was a big guy, weighing almost 400 pounds.
31 Spork prong : TINE
“Spork” is the more common name for the utensil that is a hybrid between a spoon and a fork. The same utensil is less commonly referred to as a “foon”.
32 Somali-born supermodel : IMAN
Iman Mohamed Abdulmajid is a supermodel from Somalia who goes simply by the name “Iman” these days. “Iman” is an Arabic word for “faith”. Iman is a smart cookie. Imam has a degree in Political Science and is fluent in five languages: Somali, Arabic, Italian, French and English. Iman was married to English rock star David Bowie from 1992 until his death in 2016.
38 Many August births : LEOS
Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 23 to August 22 are Leos.
40 Transition area between plant communities : ECOTONE
An ecotone is a transition area between two different biological communities that sit adjacent to each other.
41 Nuts that put the joy in candy bars? : ALMONDS
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
42 Former NPR host Hansen : LIANE
Liane Hansen was the very capable host of Weekend Edition Sunday who retired quite recently from broadcasting. She was married to fellow NPR broadcaster Neil Conan, although the two divorced in 2011.
44 Levels of authority : ECHELONS
We use the word “echelon” (ech.) to describe a rank or level, particularly in the military. The term comes from French, in which language it has the same meaning, although the original meaning in Old French is “rung of a ladder”.
45 “SNL” alumna Oteri : CHERI
Cheri Oteri was the SNL (“Saturday Night Live”) cast member who regularly appeared with Will Ferrell in the skit featuring a pair of Spartan cheerleaders.
51 Home of the Ewoks : ENDOR
The fictional forested moon of Endor features prominently in the “Star Wars” movie “Return of the Jedi”. The moon is home to the race of furry aliens known as Ewoks. Filming for the forest scenes actually took place in Humboldt Redwoods State Park in Northern California.
52 Cook Paula et al. : DEENS
Paula Deen is a celebrity chef from Savannah, Georgia who is noted for her Southern cooking. Deen has been criticized for the amount of salt, fat and sugar in her recipes. The criticism became even more intense when Deen disclosed that she herself has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
56 Half-elf married to Aragorn : ARWEN
Arwen Undómiel is a character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”. In the movie adaptations by Peter Jackson, Arwen is played by actress Liv Tyler.
58 Home of Canyonlands National Park : UTAH
Canyonlands is a magnificent national park in southeast Utah not far from Moab. The canyons in the park, and the associated mesas and buttes, were formed mainly by the Colorado and Green Rivers.
59 Astronaut Wally : SCHIRRA
Wally Schirra was one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, and the only astronaut who flew in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Programs. Schirra retired after commanding the Apollo 7 mission, and took the seat beside Walter Cronkite for the TV coverage for the seven moon landings. Schirra was a naval officer. After he passed away in 2007, his body was cremated and his ashes were committed to the deep in a burial at sea ceremony on the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.
60 Habaneros and jalapeños : CHILIES
The habanero chili has a very intense flavor. Interestingly, the correct spelling of the chili’s name is “habanero”. We often try to be clever in English and add a tilde making it “habañero”, which isn’t right at all …
The jalapeño is a chili pepper, and a favorite of mine. The pepper’s name translates from Spanish as “from Xalapa”. Xalapa (also “Jalapa”) is the capital of the Mexican state of Veracruz, and the traditional origin of the jalapeño pepper. A smoke-dried jalapeño, called a chipotle, is used for seasoning.
61 Turner on a screen : LANA
Lana Turner started work as a Hollywood actress at a very young age, signing up with MGM at only sixteen. Early in her career she earned the nickname “The Sweater Girl” after wearing a pretty tight sweater in the film “They Won’t Forget”, which was her film debut. She married eight times, to seven different husbands, the first of which was bandleader Artie Shaw. Shaw and Turner eloped and married on their very first date, when the young actress was just nineteen years old. After divorcing Shaw she married restaurateur Steve Crane, but had the marriage annulled when she found out that Crane was still married to his first wife. The two had a daughter together, and so remarried when Crane’s divorce was finalized. Cheryl Crane was the daughter from the marriage to Joseph and she lived with Turner after her parents split up. When Cheryl was 14-years-old, her mother was romantically involved with a shady character named Johnny Stompanato. One evening Cheryl found her mother engaged in a violent argument with Stompanato, and Cheryl became so scared that she pulled out a gun and killed him in what was deemed to be justifiable homicide. Turner’s last marriage was to a nightclub hypnotist named Ronald Pellar, and that union lasted just six months as Pellar disappeared one day with a lot of Turner’s money and jewelry. Years later Turner said, “My goal was to have one husband and seven children, but it turned out to be the other way around.”
64 Tijuana mister : SENOR
Tijuana is the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California, and lies just across the US-Mexico border from San Diego. Tijuana is also the most westerly of all Mexican cities. A lot of Tijuana’s growth took place in the twenties as tourists flocked south of the border during the days of prohibition in the US. One of the many casinos and hotels that flourished at that time was Hotel Caesar’s in the Avenida Revolución area. Hotel Caesar’s claims to be the birthplace of the now ubiquitous Caesar Salad.
67 Aerie newcomers : EAGLETS
An aerie is an eagle’s nest, and is also known as an “eyrie”. The term “aerie” more generally describes any bird’s nest that is located on a cliff or a mountaintop.
68 Pulitzer-winning Chicago journalist Mike : ROYKO
Mike Royko was a celebrated columnist who wrote for all the major Chicago newspapers. Royko also wrote several books, including the most famous, “Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago” published in 1988. This unauthorized biography of the famous Chicago Mayor, portraying him as corrupt and a racist. The title spent 26 weeks on the New York Times Bestsellers List.
69 Demetri Martin, e.g. : COMIC
Demetri Martin is a stand-up comedian and actor from New York City. Martin has a distinctive deadpan style of delivery, a style that is influenced by fellow comedian Steven Wright. Martin is also fond of using a large white pad in his stage act.
73 Exiled religious leader : DALAI LAMA
Tibet is a plateau region that is part of China, and is located northeast of the Himalayas. Tibet declared its independence from China in 1913, but fell back under Chinese control after the Invasion of Tibet in 1951. The Tibetan leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled the country during the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion. Since then, he has led the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India.
The Dalai Lama is a religious leader in the Gelug branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The current Dalai Lama is the 14th to hold the office. He has indicated that the next Dalai Lama might be found outside of Tibet for the first time, and may even be female.
75 Judge’s seat : BANC
“Banc” is the French word for bench or seat.
79 “The Blacklist” star : SPADER
Actor James Spader’s breakthrough role was the male lead in the 1989 film “Sex, Lies and Videotape”. After building a successful career on the big screen, Spader played some high-profile characters on the small screen in shows like “The Practice”, “Boston Legal” and “The Blacklist”. Spader worked as a yoga instructor while he was starting out his career, and indeed met his ex-wife while working at a yoga studio in the eighties.
“The Blacklist” is an entertaining, albeit a little formulaic, crime drama TV show starring James Spader and Megan Boone. Spader plays a successful criminal who surrenders to the FBI in order to help catch a “blacklist” of high-profile criminals.
83 UPS boxes : CTNS
Carton (ctn.)
United Parcel Service (UPS) is based in Sandy Springs, Georgia and has its own airline that operates out of Louisville, Kentucky. UPS often goes by the nickname “Brown”, because of its brown delivery trucks and brown uniforms.
84 Actress Lamarr : HEDY
Hedy Lamarr was an American actress who was actually born in Vienna in modern-day Austria. Not only was Lamarr a successful Hollywood performer, during WWII she was the co-inventor of the frequency-hopping spread-spectrum method of transmitting radio signals that is still used to this day in wireless communication. Impressive …
86 Arab or Hebrew : SEMITE
The word “Semitic” comes from the Greek for “Shem”, one of the three sons of Noah. A Semite is one of a large list of peoples, from the Assyrians and Babylonians to the Hebrews. The term “anti-Semite” however, almost always refers to anti-Jewish sentiment.
93 Hebrew God : ELOHIM
“Elohim” is a Hebrew word meaning “god” or “gods”.
95 Conniving laugh : HEH HEH
To connive is to conspire with, to cooperate in secret. The term comes from the Latin verb “connivere” meaning “to wink”, the idea being that connivers might give each other a sly wink.
100 ESPN journalist Kenny : MAYNE
Kenny Mayne is a sports journalist who started working for ESPN in 1994. Famously, Mayne appeared in the second season of ABC’s hit show “Dancing with the Stars”, and was the first contestant to be eliminated. More famously, Mayne returned repeatedly for a “Dances with the Stars” segment called “DanceCenter”, a parody of ESPN’s “SportsCenter”.
105 Latin 101 verb : ESSE
“Esse” is the Latin for “to be”. “Sum” means “I am”, “est” means “he, she is”, and “erat” means “he, she was”.
107 __ Stic: retractable Bic pen : CLIC
Société Bic is a company based in Clichy in France. The first product the company produced, more than fifty years ago, was the Bic Cristal ballpoint pen that is still produced today. Bic also makes other disposable products such as lighters and razors.
110 In the manner of : A LA
The phrase “in the style of” can be translated as “alla” in Italian and “à la” in French.
113 Magazine VIPs : EDS
Editor (ed.)
Read on, or …
… return to top of page
Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1 Respectfully tip : DOFF
5 Shopper’s delight : SALE
9 Four-time NFL Pro Bowl safety __ Chancellor : KAM
12 Computer addresses: Abbr. : IPS
15 Newscaster Lindström : PIA
18 Garfield’s foil : ODIE
19 Elemental bit : ATOM
20 Street in Montréal : RUE
21 Farm equipment : SEEDERS
23 Headline announcing Thomas Kingsford’s 1842 process? : A STARCH IS BORN (a star is born)
26 Peak in Exod. : MT SINAI
27 Speeds : RACES
28 Poet’s “in a trice” : ANON
29 Secret supplies : STASHES
30 English cheese town : STILTON
33 Ovid work : AMORES
35 The Beatles’ “__ Loser” : I’M A
36 Gimlet garnish : LIME
37 Breakfast product made from trees? : ALL-BRANCH CEREAL (All-Bran cereal)
43 “Hold your horses!” : IN A SEC
46 Approx. landing time : ETA
47 Carnival city : RIO
48 Mid-12th-century date : MCLI
49 Place for the good guys? : MENSCH ROOM (men’s room)
51 Tissue swellings : EDEMAS
54 Medical suffix : -OMA
55 Little laughs : HEES
56 From the top : ANEW
57 Ancient German : TEUTON
59 Eye layer : SCLERA
62 Fast-food franchise started in Rocky Mount, NC : HARDEE’S
65 Do penance : ATONE
66 Mad Hatter’s cup? : CHALICE IN WONDERLAND (“Alice in Wonderland”)
69 Pants fabric : CHINO
70 Tops that bare arms and midriffs : HALTERS
71 Bites : NOSHES
72 __ vinegar : OIL AND
74 Secluded valley : GLEN
75 Lad in Limerick : BOYO
76 MD’s request : MRI
77 Field and Ride : SALLYS
79 Apex predator at the feeder? : SHARK FINCH (shark fin)
85 Gets steamed : IRES
87 Golfer’s concern : LIE
88 Part of a split : PIN
89 Worth remembering : OF NOTE
90 Literary slugger making cookies? : CASEY AT THE BATCH (“Casey at the Bat”)
96 Email button : SEND
97 Soong __-ling: Madame Chiang : MEI
98 All but one of the balls in 9-Ball : SOLIDS
99 D.C.’s __ Row : EMBASSY
102 Composer Saint-Saëns : CAMILLE
106 Lift one’s spirits? : TOPE
107 Bike part : CHAIN
108 Low-tech traveler’s reference : US ATLAS
109 What keeps the church singers healthy? : CHORAL HYGIENE (oral hygiene)
114 Puts on a pedestal : ESTEEMS
115 Give a leg up : AID
116 Legal claim : LIEN
117 Promo on the tube : TV AD
118 Sault __ Marie : STE
119 2000 Peace Prize recipient Kim __-jung : DAE
120 Apt. listing abbr. : RMS
121 Pain in the neck, e.g. : ACHE
122 Evergreen shrubs : YEWS
Down
1 __ double take : DO A
2 Consumes to excess, briefly : ODS
3 It’s thrown in anger : FIT
4 Courageous : FEARLESS
5 Vanzetti’s partner : SACCO
6 Greek goddess of wisdom : ATHENA
7 Daily Planet name : LOIS
8 Ambulance initials : EMS
9 Swedish monetary units : KRONOR
10 Second-largest Illinois city : AURORA
11 Skin Bracer maker : MENNEN
12 Beliefs : ISMS
13 Ruffled-edge underskirt : PETTICOAT
14 Kind of oil used in hummus : SESAME
15 Phnom __ : PENH
16 Wrath, in a hymn : IRAE
17 5-Across alert : AS IS
22 Win over : DISARM
24 Informer : RAT
25 __ Bigelow, echoically nicknamed 20th-century wrestler : BAM BAM
30 Remote : SLIM
31 Spork prong : TINE
32 Somali-born supermodel : IMAN
33 Voice above tenor : ALTO
34 Attached with spiral hardware : SCREWED
38 Many August births : LEOS
39 That guy : HIM
40 Transition area between plant communities : ECOTONE
41 Nuts that put the joy in candy bars? : ALMONDS
42 Former NPR host Hansen : LIANE
44 Levels of authority : ECHELONS
45 “SNL” alumna Oteri : CHERI
50 Get to : REACH
51 Home of the Ewoks : ENDOR
52 Cook Paula et al. : DEENS
53 Closes securely : SEALS OFF
56 Half-elf married to Aragorn : ARWEN
58 Home of Canyonlands National Park : UTAH
59 Astronaut Wally : SCHIRRA
60 Habaneros and jalapeños : CHILIES
61 Turner on a screen : LANA
62 Like sledding terrain : HILLY
63 Feeds the pot : ANTES
64 Tijuana mister : SENOR
67 Aerie newcomers : EAGLETS
68 Pulitzer-winning Chicago journalist Mike : ROYKO
69 Demetri Martin, e.g. : COMIC
73 Exiled religious leader : DALAI LAMA
75 Judge’s seat : BANC
78 Ignited : LIT
79 “The Blacklist” star : SPADER
80 Top numbers : HITS
81 Extreme foolishness : INSANITY
82 Negatives : NOES
83 UPS boxes : CTNS
84 Actress Lamarr : HEDY
86 Arab or Hebrew : SEMITE
91 Showed anger, perhaps : YELLED
92 Wheels involved in a crime, maybe : HOT CAR
93 Hebrew God : ELOHIM
94 Two-legged supports : BIPODS
95 Conniving laugh : HEH HEH
100 ESPN journalist Kenny : MAYNE
101 Trending : BIG
102 Lines before yours, say : CUES
103 Admin. aide : ASST
104 Pal : MATE
105 Latin 101 verb : ESSE
107 __ Stic: retractable Bic pen : CLIC
110 In the manner of : A LA
111 Night before the big day : EVE
112 Rural regrets : NAW
113 Magazine VIPs : EDS
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23 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword 22 Nov 20, Sunday”
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Lana was married to Stephen Crane, not Joseph Crane. Feels so good to see the error on your side; I have (too) many on mine.
Enjoyed this puzzle.
Good catch, Natalie. Thank you for taking the time to point out the slip. All fixed now.
Took nearly an hour to get the whole thing filled in and then it didn’t “blink”. Couldn’t find the mistakes so I did a grid check. Had kronar instead of kronor (and so amares instead of amores). Had Stelton instead of Stilton. Someday I’ll remember the name of the Somalian model. I grew up on the far, far south side of Chicago many years ago and I had no idea Aurora was the second largest city. I figured it was Rockford or something. Duh.
I also had Kronar which is particularly embarrassing since my Dad was born in Sweden.
Like you, many years ago I grew up on the far south side of Chicago (Morgan Park/Evergreen Park) and I first tried Joliet as I was pretty sure that Springfield is more than six letters. 😀
Re “sharkfinch: if the “shark” part of the phrase is meant to describe an aggressive, sharklike finch rather than an actual shark, then perhaps the definition of “shark” should have been more metaphorical such as “one who is aggressive and rapacious”.
thought I had no errors, but found I, too, had Kronar instead of Kronor.
Oh, well, tomorrow is another day.
18:33, 4 errors. Just an unintelligible theme and Naticks everywhere. Between this and the WSJ (haven’t done the rest yet, I’m hoping they’re better than those two disasters), it seems people can’t construct or edit 21x21s this weekend.
43:24 1 lookup 3 errors
Looking up “The Blacklist” fixed one mistake, but I didn’t notice that “Kroner” + “Mennon” = “Ameros”.
Today, I learned a bunch of other things, too. Thanks, Bill!
1:30:50 with one error…I spelled Dalai Lama as Dala Llama and of course everyone knows Madame Chiangs middle name (I had Mel for Mei). Please excuse the blue collar remarks of someone who doesn’t have 3 or 4 degrees but sometimes I just can’t hold back😩
Stay safe😀
Go Ravens🙏
33:22, two errors
Nice Sunday puzzle, but I do have a question: Has anyone noticed that last Sunday and today, the puzzles only had 138 words instead of the usual 144? I noticed this because, out of nothing more than pandemic-fueled OCD, I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet of every LA Times puzzle I’ve done since last May. Since I do the LAT every day, there are now quite a few entries. The scores that popup on the LA Times website when you complete the puzzle give you a score of 10 points per word you got correct, plus an extra 10 points for each minute under 15 minutes that it took you to solve the puzzle. Since I can never solve the puzzle in under 15 minutes, Sunday’s scores have been the same every Sunday since May: 1440. Last week and this week they were both 1380. Does anyone know if the grid was shrunk?
Most grids have a range of word counts from time to time. Usually the way most places that take submissions do it is that there’s a cap and a range. For instance, anything more than about 78 words is a no-no on 15x15s, and most of the time on themed stuff you won’t see less than 72. Then with themeless stuff like Saturday, the cap is much lower to encourage longer answers. Of course, the number goes up when you start talking about 21×21. For instance for this weekend, LAT was 138, WSJ was 140, Birnholz was 154, Newsday was 146, Universal was 144. Just depends on who’s constructing, who’s editing, and what it is precisely.
22:57, no errors, no complaints. Clever theme, no Naticks.
Enjoyed all the 21x21s from this weekend, though the Evan Birnholz puzzle in the Washington Post presented some unusual problems. I did a version from “Diary of a Crossword Fiend” and got through it okay; other versions were a bit different and may have posed a little different challenge.
@Jay and @Liz (from yesterday) … with reference to the phrase “in a pet” … look here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pet
(Check out the fourth entry from the top.)
Fun, challenging and totally enjoyable puzzle. Got the theme pretty quickly but it still took me an hour to complete. Had no idea who Dmitri Martin was and also stumbled on kronor crossing amores. And for Hebrew god I thought for sure it was Adenoi. Took me awhile to get Elohim.
I never thought it was possible to have an odd number of errors (it is of course a CROSSword puzzle). But Bill, you showed me how. You had 2 errors on one cross! Amazing
ECOTONE? I studied plants in school and I don’t recall seeing that term. TOPE was a new one to me. Not sure I like IRES for “Gets steamed.” I’ve never heard of being ired. Feeling ired? I don’t follow the grammar. I had to look up several clues in this puzzle, then got tripped up around the usual spots.
I still don’t get Boyo…
Irish for BOY or LAD
boyo, noun plural is boyos
Well, I got theme, got the “normal” clues but just plain got worn out on french, Irish , German and other foreign clues..
It was like a graduate final geography word final exam.. Couldn’t stay with the pack. Last 4 clues I just stopped.. Maybe it’s because it was about the same time the Vikings lost in the last minute of the game..
Boyo – I can’t see that without thinking of Captain Dudley Smith (played by James Cromwell) in L.A. Confidential
Bill – not sure if you noticed but there’s another link to the Ch-ch-ch-changes theme. IMAN was married, as you noted, to David Bowie. Bowie wrote & performed “Changes” (which includes lyrics of ch-ch-ch-changes) – that song was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame after Bowie’s death.
Great catch, Bill J! I would not be at all surprised to find that Bowie’s song gave Mr. Grzybowski the idea for this puzzle. (And I would never have noticed it on my own.)
30 mins 53 sec to solve this INCREDIBLY *FORCED*, horrendously edited piece of trash. Bad puns, clumsy clueing, alternative spellings (likely fished out of Merriam-Webster, the #1 source for usages and words nobody uses); just a mess from top to bottom. A candidate for “worst grid of the year”.
Enjoyed the theme, but some of the clues frustrated me. 85 across “get steamed” is ires? The verb tense doesn’t match. 72 across _ vinegar is actually 2 words.
Thanks to Bill (as always) for providing elucidation on boyo and others. IMO there were too many l-o-n-g stretches between the clue and the answer to that clue. Otherwise, it certainly was an interesting challenge to my snowy Sunday morning.