LA Times Crossword 10 Mar 21, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Roland Huget
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Dance Around

Themed answers each start and end with circled letters in the grid, letters that spell out a DANCE:

• 60A Skirt, as an issue … or a hint to the puzzle’s circles : DANCE AROUND

• 17A “ABC” group, with “The” : JACKSON FIVE (“JIVE” around)
• 26A Part-plant DC Comics superhero : SWAMP THING (“SWING around”)
• 36A Pioneer’s wagon with an upward-curved floor : CONESTOGA (“CONGA” around)
• 50A Weight loss guru : JENNY CRAIG (“JIG” around)

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 8m 46s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

6 Bobby who lost to Billie Jean King in tennis’ “Battle of the Sexes” : RIGGS

Bobby Riggs was a World No. 1 tennis player in the thirties and forties, both as an amatuer and a professional. However, Riggs is best remembered for playing “The Battle of the Sexes” match against Billie Jean King in 1973. Riggs was defeated by King in three straight sets.

14 Grenoble’s river : ISERE

The Isère river gives its name to the French Department of Isère, located partly in the French Alps. In turn, Isère gave its name to a somewhat famous ship called the Isère, which in 1885 delivered the Statue of Liberty from France to America in 214 shipping crates.

Grenoble is a city at the foot of the French Alps. The Winter Olympic Games were held there in 1968.

15 Sign up, in Sussex : ENROL

“Enroll” in the US is “enrol” in the UK. I’ll never get the hang of American spelling. Or is it speling …?

Sussex is a county in the southeast of England that lies right on the English Channel. The county of Sussex has about the same boundaries as the ancient Kingdom of Sussex, a Saxon colony that existed for about five hundred years until the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Hastings, a town on the Sussex coast, was the site of the first battle of the Norman Conquest of England.

16 Reliever’s asset : ARM

That would be baseball …

17 “ABC” group, with “The” : JACKSON FIVE (“JIVE” around)

“ABC” topped the charts for the Jackson 5 in 1970, and might perhaps be called the Jackson 5’s signature tune.

The Jackson 5 singing group were originally made up of brothers Tito, Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael. The four eldest brothers continued to perform, using the name “The Jacksons”, after Michael went solo.

The word “jive” meaning a style of fast, dance music, probably is of African origin coming into American English through the African-American population.

19 USN clerk : YEO

In the US Navy, a yeoman (yeo.) is tasked with administrative and clerical work. In fact, the position of yeoman is the oldest rating in the navy. You’ll also see a lot of yeomen in the background on “Star Trek”.

21 Heat unit : THERM

A therm is a unit of heat energy. One therm is equivalent to 100,000 British thermal units (BTUs).

22 Ruhr Valley city : ESSEN

Essen is a large industrial city located on the River Ruhr in western Germany. The city experienced major population growth in the mid-1800s that was driven by the iron works established by the Krupp family.

26 Part-plant DC Comics superhero : SWAMP THING (“SWING around”)

Swamp Thing is a DC Comics superhero who was introduced in 1971. He has had several alter egos over the years. The original human form of Swamp Thing was a scientist named Alec Holland who gets soaked in an experimental formula during an explosion, causing him to morph into plant life with a human consciousness.

The swing style of dance was developed to accompany the swing style of jazz music that became particularly popular in the swing era (1933-1947). Examples of swing dances that persist to this day are the Lindy hop and Charleston.

28 Compulsive thief, for short : KLEPTO

Kleptomania is the compulsion to steal, whether or not one is in need of what is stolen. The term derives from the Greek word for “to steal”, “kleptein”, with the suffix “-mania”.

31 Prefix with comic : SERIO-

Something described as seriocomic has both serious and comical elements, but generally the comic side predominates.

35 Left on a liner : PORT

The left side of a ship used to be called the “larboard” side, but this was dropped in favor of “port” as the pronunciation of “larboard” was easily confused with “starboard”, the right side of the vessel. The term “port” was chosen as it was customary to dock a ship, for loading in port, with the left side of the vessel against the dock.

The use of the word “line” with reference to transportation started in the 1780s, in the context of stagecoaches. Such transportation operated a string of stagecoaches between towns and cities along regular “lines”. The concept shifted to shipping “lines” operating ocean-going “liners” between ports.

36 Pioneer’s wagon with an upward-curved floor : CONESTOGA (“CONGA” around)

A conestoga is a large covered wagon that was used in many of the wagon trains that crossed North America in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The name was taken from the Conestoga Valley near Lancaster, Pennsylvania where the design was developed. The conestoga wagon resembled a boat on wheels, and often the gaps between the planks were caulked so that it would float when crossing water.

The conga line is a dance that originated as a Cuban carnival march. It became popular in the US starting in the thirties. The dance is apparently named after the Congo region of Africa, and it was originated by slaves who were brought from there to Cuba.

39 Popular side : SLAW

The term “coleslaw” is an Anglicized version of the Dutch term “koolsla”, which in itself is a shortened form of “Koolsalade” meaning “cabbage salad”.

43 Makeshift knives : SHIVS

“Shiv” is a slang term describing a weapon crudely fashioned to resemble a knife. Mostly we hear of shivs that have been fashioned by prison inmates to do harm to others.

50 Weight loss guru : JENNY CRAIG (“JIG” around)

The Jenny Craig weight control company was started in 1983 by Jenny and Sidney Craig in Melbourne, Australia. Jenny Craig came to North American two years later, and is headquartered in Carlsbad, California.

The jig is a dance most associated with Ireland and Scotland. In traditional Irish dancing, the jig is second in popularity only to the reel. The most famous Irish jig is probably “The Irish Washerwoman”. I may not dance a jig, but I sure do know the tune of “The Irish Washerwoman” …

54 New Haven Ivy : YALE

Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded in 1701, making it the third-oldest university in the US. Originally called the Collegiate School, it was renamed to Yale University in honor of retired merchant Elihu Yale, who made generous contributions to the institution. Yale University’s nickname is “Old Eli”, in a nod to the benefactor.

The term “Ivy League” originally defined an athletic conference, but now it is used to describe a group of schools of higher education that are associated with both a long tradition and academic excellence. The eight Ivy League Schools are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.

59 Printemps month : MAI

In French, the month of “mai” (May) is in the season of “printemps” (spring).

63 Outer: Prefix : ECT-

The prefix “ecto-” (sometimes “ect-”) is used to mean “outside”, and the opposite “ento-” (also “endo-”) is used to mean “within”.

65 Gold unit : OUNCE

Our term “ounce” comes from the Latin “uncia”, which was 1/12 of a “libra”, the Roman “pound”. “Uncia” is also the derivation of our word “inch”, 1/12 of a foot.

66 Blue shade : SKY

Light in the sky is caused by sunlight. When that sunlight is indirect, it is caused by sunlight scattering due to particles present in the air. Scattering is stronger for the blue end of the spectrum, rather than the red. And that is why the sky appears blue.

67 Designer fragrance : CK ONE

CK One is a fragrance that was developed for Calvin Klein and launched in 1994. It was to become the first really successful unisex fragrance.

Down

3 Any of 11 1860s states : SECEDER

Back in the very early 1700s, to secede was to leave one’s companions. In the mid-18th century, the meaning of “secession” took on the current meaning of withdrawing from an organized union. The first such “secession” was the exodus of ministers and members from the Church of Scotland starting in 1733.

4 Sitcom planet : ORK

“Mork & Mindy” is a sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982. The title characters were played by Robin Williams and Pam Dawber. Mork is an alien from the planet Ork who reports back to his superior called Orson. Orson is played by voice actor Ralph James. Ralph James was also known for providing the voice of Mr. Turtle in famous Tootsie Pop commercials in the seventies. Nanu nanu!

8 Big name in fairy tales : GRIMM

The Brothers Grimm (Jacob and Wilhelm) were two German academics noted for collecting and publishing folk tales. Among the tales in their marvelous collection are “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Sleeping Beauty” and “Cinderella”.

9 Federal URL ending : GOV

The .gov domain was one of the six original generic top-level domains specified. The complete original list is:

• .com (commercial enterprise)
• .net (entity involved in network infrastructure e.g. an ISP)
• .mil (US military)
• .org (not-for-profit organization)
• .gov (US federal government entity)
• .edu (college-level educational institution)

An Internet address (like NYXCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

10 Makes things slippery, in a way : SLEETS

Apparently, “sleet” is a term used to describe two different weather conditions. One is a shower of ice pellets that are smaller than hail, and the second is a mixture of rain and snow, with the snow melting as it falls.

12 Peacock, e.g. : PREENER

The male peafowl is known as a peacock, and the female a peahen. The peafowl’s young are sometimes called peachicks.

23 Shout from the main mast : SHIP AHOY!

“Ahoy!” is a nautical term used to signal a vessel. When the telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell, he suggested that “ahoy” be used as a standard greeting when answering a call. However, Thomas Edison came up with “hello”, and we’ve been using that ever since.

27 Part of UTEP : PASO

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) was founded in 1914 as the Texas State School of Mines and Metallurgy. To this day, there is a mine shaft on the campus. The mascot of the school’s sports teams is Paydirt Pete, a prospector from the mining industry. The teams are also known as the UTEP Miners and Lady Miners.

32 Bench press target, for short : PEC

“Pecs” is the familiar name for the chest muscle, which is more correctly known as the pectoralis major muscle. “Pectus” is the Latin word for “breast, chest”.

33 Bat wood : ASH

The wood of the ash tree is a hardwood, although it is relatively elastic. Famously, ash is the wood of choice for baseball bats. It is also the wood of choice for hurleys, the wooden sticks used in the Irish sport of hurling.

37 “Breaking Bad” agent : NARC

The AMC drama “Breaking Bad” is a well-written show about a high school teacher stricken by lung cancer who turns to a life of crime to make money. It turns out that the teacher has a talent for making high-quality crystal meth. The show was created by Vince Gilligan who had spent many years as a producer and writer of “The X-Files”. There is a “Breaking Bad” spin-off show running on AMC called “Better Call Saul” that focuses on the life of lawyer Saul Goodman. To be honest, I enjoyed “Better Call Saul” even more than the original show …

38 Prime meridian std. : GST

Greenwich Sidereal Time (GST)

Astronomers use sidereal time to know where to locate given stars in the night sky. Sidereal time is a time scale that takes into account the Earth’s rotation relative to stars with a fixed location in the night sky.

A meridian is a line of longitude, and the Prime Meridian is that line of longitude defined as 0 degrees. The Prime Meridian is also called the Greenwich Meridian as it passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in southeast London. Of course the line of longitude that is used to represent 0 degrees is an arbitrary decision. 25 nations formally decided in 1884 to use the Greenwich Meridian as 0 degrees as it was already a popular choice. That is all except the French, who abstained from the vote and used the Paris Meridian as 0 degrees on French charts for several decades.

39 Place near the Pennsylvania Railroad : ST JAMES

The street names in the original US version of the board game Monopoly are locations in or around Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The four railroad (RR) properties in the Monopoly board game are:

• Reading Railroad
• Pennsylvania Railroad
• B&O Railroad
• Short Line

The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) was a large rail network in the northeast that was founded in 1846. Even though the “Pennsy” (as it was called) was the busiest railroad in the first half of the twentieth century, it went out of business in 1968. The PRR was also the largest public company in the world at one point, and it still holds the record for the longest continuous dividend history, having paid out an annual dividend for over one hundred years in a row.

41 Retirement income source : ANNUITY

Annuities are regular payments made at fixed intervals of time. That interval of time used to be yearly (annual), but the term is used now for any regular payment, regardless of the interval of time.

44 Down : IN A FUNK

Funk is ill-humor, and is a word that dates back to the mid-1700s. “Funk” is probably a term that came from Scottish and northern English.

45 Chemical bonding number : VALENCE

An atom’s valence is the number of electrons that it loses, adds or shares when bonding with other atoms.

46 Tobogganed : SLEDDED

“Toboggan” came into English from the French Canadian “tabagane”, the name for a long sled with a flat bottom. The French Canadian word is probably from the Algonquian word for a sled, “tobakun”,

48 Ophthalmologist, for short : EYE DOC

Ophthalmology is that branch of medicine dealing with the physiology and health of the eye. “Ophthalmos” is the Greek word for “eye”.

49 Lago filler : AGUA

In Spanish, “un lago” (a lake) contains “agua” (water).

52 Highway through Whitehorse : ALCAN

The Alaska Highway is also known as the Alaska-Canadian Highway or ALCAN Highway. A highway connecting the contiguous United States to Alaska was proposed in the twenties, but the Canadian authorities didn’t believe the project had much merit as the road would be used by very few of its citizens. The perceived importance of the route increased during WWII and President Roosevelt deemed the road a strategic necessity so he made a deal with Canada. The cost of construction would be borne by the US, but the road and related facilities were to be handed over to Canada at the end of the war. The project was accelerated when the Japanese invaded and occupied Kiska and Attu Islands in the Aleutians. The road of course has been improved and is still in use today. The ALCAN Highway forms part of what is popularly known as the Pan-American Highway, which runs from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to the south of Argentina or Chile depending on how the route is defined.

Whitehorse is the capital city of Canada’s Yukon Territory. It sits at the head of the Yukon River and its location made it an important supply center during the Klondike Gold Rush.

53 __-France : ILE-DE

Île-de-France (literally “Island of France”) isn’t an island at all. Instead, it is the most populous of France’s 26 administrative regions. Île-de-France is roughly equivalent to the Paris metropolitan area.

57 Senior’s highlight : PROM

A prom is a formal dance held upon graduation from high school (we call them “formals” over in Ireland). The term “prom” is short for “promenade”, the name given to a type of dance or ball.

62 Non opposite : OUI

In French, a “législateur” (legislator) might vote “oui” (yes) or “non” (no).