LA Times Crossword 9 Jun 21, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Julian Lim
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Cry Uncle

Themed answers each end with a synonym of “CRY UNCLE”:

  • 60A Concede … or a hint to the last words of the answers to starred clues : CRY UNCLE
  • 17A *”Rockin’ the Suburbs” alt-rocker : BEN FOLDS
  • 24A *”Anything wrong?” : WHAT GIVES?
  • 36A *Not much interest : LOW YIELDS
  • 52A *Ursine dens : BEAR CAVES

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

Bill’s time: 6m 42s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4 Stark daughter on “Game of Thrones” : ARYA

Maisie Williams is the English actress who plays the tomboyish young girl Arya Stark on the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones”.

8 “__ tardes” : BUENAS

“Buenas tardes” is Spanish for “Good afternoon”.

14 Kwik-E-Mart owner : APU

“The Problem with Apu” is a 2017 documentary that explores the use of racial stereotypes by focusing on the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from the animated sitcom “The Simpsons”. The film was written by and stars American stand-up comedian Hari Kondabolu.

16 “Bewitched” witch : ENDORA

In the television sitcom “Bewitched”, Endora is Samantha’s mother. Mother and daughter, and indeed granddaughter, have the magical powers accorded to witches. Endora is played flamboyantly by Agnes Moorehead.

The delightful sitcom “Bewitched” originally ran on ABC from 1964 to 1972. The lead character in the show is Samantha Stephens, played by the lovely Elizabeth Montgomery. Elizabeth was the daughter of Hollywood star Robert Montgomery.

17 *”Rockin’ the Suburbs” alt-rocker : BEN FOLDS

Ben Folds is a singer-songwriter who for several years led the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five.

20 38th-parallel land : KOREA

Korea was occupied by the Japanese military from 1910 until Japan surrendered at the end of WWII in 1945. While the UN was working towards a trusteeship administration for Korea, the Soviet Union managed the Korean Peninsula north of the 38th parallel and the US managed the south. The UN’s plans came to naught as the Cold War dictated the establishment of the two separate states of North Korea and South Korea. North Korea invaded the South in 1950, leading to the Korean War. After three years of fighting, the border between the two states became the demarcation line between the two military forces on the day the Armistice Agreement was signed. That line runs diagonally across the 38th parallel, and is better known as the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).

28 Aviation pioneer Sikorsky : IGOR

Igor Sikorsky was a Russian pioneer in the world of aviation. He designed, and indeed piloted, the world’s first multi-engine, fixed-wing aircraft in 1913. He moved to the US in 1919 and set up his own aircraft manufacturing business. In the thirties he made the magnificent flying boats that were used by Pan Am in their Clipper era. Sikorsky also developed the world’s first mass-produced helicopter, in 1942.

32 Sun and Sky org. : WNBA

The WNBA’s Connecticut Sun joined the league as an expansion team in 1999 as the Orlando Miracle. The Miracle moved to Uncasville, Connecticut in 2003, changing their name to the Sun. For several years, the Sun were the only WNBA franchise that didn’t share the local market with an NBA team. That distinction ended when the NBA’s Supersonics relocated, leaving the WNBA’s Storm as the only professional team based in Seattle.

The Chicago Sky are a professional basketball team based in Rosemont, Illinois that plays in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). The Sky were founded in 2006

35 Cowboy Rogers : ROY

Cowboy actor and singer Roy Rogers’ real name was Leonard Franklin Slye, and his nickname was “King of the Cowboys”. Roy Rogers married Dale Evans in 1947. Evans’ nickname was “Queen of the West”.

42 Southwest art hub : TAOS

The town of Taos, New Mexico is named for the Native American village nearby called Taos Pueblo. Taos is famous for its art colony. Artists began settling in Taos in 1899, and the Taos Society of Artists was founded in 1915.

43 Low-tech travel guide : AAA MAP

The American Automobile Association (AAA) is a not-for-profit organization focused on lobbying, provision of automobile servicing, and selling of automobile insurance. The AAA was founded in 1902 in Chicago and published the first of its celebrated hotel guides back in 1917.

47 The “F” in UHF: Abbr. : FREQ

The radio spectrum is divided into bands based on frequency. “High band” is composed of relatively high frequency values, and “low band” is composed of frequencies that are relatively low. FM radio falls into the band called Very High Frequency (VHF). Television signals use frequencies even higher than VHF, frequencies in the Ultra High Frequency band (UHF). AM radio uses lower frequencies that fall into the relatively low bands of Low, Medium and High Frequency (LF, MF, and HF).

51 YouTube vote : LIKE

YouTube is a video-sharing website that was launched in 2005 by three ex-PayPal employees. Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Yep, $1.65 billion, less than two years after it was founded …

52 *Ursine dens : BEAR CAVES

Something described as ursine is related to a bear. The term “ursine” comes from “ursus” (plural “ursi”), Latin for “bear”.

56 Riverdale High redhead : ARCHIE

Archie Andrews is the main character in a comic book series introduced in 1941 by Archie Comics. Archie was such a successful character that he went on to appear in a radio series, a syndicated comic strip and two television cartoon shows. Famously, Archie got himself in a love triangle with Betty Cooper, the girl next door, and Veronica Lodge, the only child of the richest man in town.

60 Concede .. .or a hint to the last words of the answers to starred clues : CRY UNCLE

To say uncle is to submit or yield. This peculiarly American use of “uncle” dates back to the early 1900s, but nobody seems to know how “uncle!” came to mean “stop!”

63 Epicure : FOODIE

An epicure is a gourmet, one who appreciates fine food and drink in particular. The term is derived from the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus.

64 Actor Brad : PITT

Brad Pitt’s first major role was the cowboy hitchhiker in the 1991’s “Thelma and Louise”. Pitt’s life offscreen garners as much attention as his work onscreen, it seems. The tabloids revel in the series of high-profile relationships in which he has been involved. He was engaged to Gwyneth Paltrow for a while, married to Jennifer Aniston and then to Angelina Jolie.

65 62-Down homonym : AIR
(62D Misspell a word, say : ERR)

Homonyms are words that have the same spelling and the same pronunciation but different meanings e.g. skate (a fish) and skate (worn on the foot). However, the term “homonyms” can also apply in common parlance to words that are pronounced OR spelled the same way but have different meanings. So one might also refer to the words ere, air, err and heir as homonyms, as they all can be pronounced the same way. Strictly speaking, this is a list of homophones. I know, I don’t like ambiguity either …

66 Astronomer Celsius : ANDERS

Anders Celsius was a Swedish astronomer. The temperature scale that Celsius created was the reverse of that used today, with “zero” representing the boiling point of water and “100” representing water’s freezing point. This scale was “upended” (in 1744) just after Celsius died, by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. The resulting temperature scale then became known as the “centigrade” scale for over 200 years, until in 1948 it was decided to adopt the degree “celsius”. So, anyone still using “degrees centigrade” is actually way behind the times …

68 “Fresh Air” network : NPR

“Fresh Air” is a marvelous radio talk show broadcast on NPR, and hosted by Terry Gross. The first broadcast of the program was made in 1975, with Judy Blank hosting. Terry Gross took over a few months later, and Gross has been presenting and producing the show ever since. I had the privilege of hearing Terry Gross give a talk here in my hometown some years ago. What a fascinating woman she is, full of great stories about her experiences interviewing so many interesting personalities.

Down

1 Semi driver’s spot : CAB

A “semi” is a “semi-trailer truck”. The vehicle is so called because it consists of a tractor and a half-trailer. The half-trailer is so called because it only has wheels on the back end, with the front supported by the tractor.

3 Quit like a wimp : PUNK OUT

Our term “wimp”, describing a “timid person”, is probably an alteration of “whimper”, the sound that such an individual might make.

7 Alarm-setting hrs. : AMS

The 12-hour clock has been around a long time, and was even used in sundial format in ancient Egypt. Our use of AM and PM dates back to Roman times, with AM standing for Ante Meridiem (before noon) and PM standing for Post Meridiem (after noon). However, the Romans originally used the AM concept a little differently, by counting backwards from noon. So, 2AM to the Romans would be two hours before noon, or 10AM as we would call it today.

8 Make smitten : BESOT

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”.

“Smitten” is the past participle of “to smite”, meaning “to inflict a heavy blow”. We tend to use “smitten” to mean “affected by love, love-struck”.

9 De-identify, as an Insta photo : UNTAG

Instagram (often abbreviated to “Insta”) is a photo-sharing application, one that is extremely popular. Instagram started in San Francisco in 2010. Facebook purchased Instagram two years later, paying $1 billion. The billion-dollar Instagram company had just 13 employees at the time of the sale …

12 Like many Miami Beach structures : ART DECO

The coastal city of Miami Beach sits on a string of islands on the Florida coast, separated from Miami proper by Biscayne Bay. Miami Beach is home to the Art Deco Historic District, which is home to the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the world.

13 Airline to Sweden : SAS

SAS was formerly known as Scandinavian Airlines System and is the flag carrier of three countries: Denmark, Norway and Sweden. SAS is based at Stockholm Arlanda Airport located just north of the Swedish capital.

18 Kind of fuel : FOSSIL

Originally, the term “fossil” described anything that was unearthed, dug up. We tend to define the term more narrowly today, reserving it for the geological remains of a plant or animal. “Fossil” comes from the Latin “fossilis” meaning “dug up”.

21 __ asada : CARNE

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

22 Campaign pro : POL

Politician (pol)

23 Genetic letters : RNA

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA. An added complication is that small changes in the sequence of amino acids specified by DNA sometimes takes place in a process known as RNA editing. This RNA editing occurs after the nucleotide sequence has been transcribed from DNA, but before it is translated into protein.

33 Lackluster : BLAH

Something described as lackluster is dull, it “lacks luster”. The term “lack-luster” was probably coined by the Bard himself. William Shakespeare used is in his play “As You Like It”, which was probably written in 1599:

And then he drew a dial from his poke
And, looking on it with lackluster eye,
Says very wisely, “It is ten o’clock.

34 Crest box abbr. : ADA

The American Dental Association (ADA) is the largest and oldest national dental association in the world. Today the ADA is based in Chicago, but the association was founded in Niagara Falls, New York in 1859. The ADA started out as a group of 26 dentists, and it now has more than 152,000 members.

Crest is a Procter & Gamble brand of toothpaste that was introduced in 1953.

39 Langley, e.g.: Abbr. : AFB

Since 2010, Langley Air Force Base (AFB) has been part of Joint Base Langley-Eustis, and is located close to Newport News, Virginia. Langley Field is one of the oldest facilities operated by the Air Force, having been established by the Army Air Service in 1916.

45 Letters before a pen name : AKA

Also known as (aka)

48 Scanned black-and-white image : QR CODE

A QR Code (for “Quick Response Code”) is a two-dimensional barcode that is favored over UPC barcodes as it can read more quickly and can store much more information. The QR Code comprises black squares within a square grid on a white background.

58 Data storage unit : BYTE

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, and so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and gigabyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

59 “__ tree falls … ” : IF A

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody’s around to hear it, does it make a sound? Answers on a postcard please …

60 Tax pro : CPA

Certified public accountant (CPA)

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Twistable container part : CAP
4 Stark daughter on “Game of Thrones” : ARYA
8 “__ tardes” : BUENAS
14 Kwik-E-Mart owner : APU
15 Spell the end of : DOOM
16 “Bewitched” witch : ENDORA
17 *”Rockin’ the Suburbs” alt-rocker : BEN FOLDS
19 Periods of duty : STINTS
20 38th-parallel land : KOREA
21 Covered, as with sugar : COATED
22 Novel makeup : PROSE
24 *”Anything wrong?” : WHAT GIVES?
27 Responsibility : ONUS
28 Aviation pioneer Sikorsky : IGOR
29 Bottle part : NECK
30 Like many MLB players : LATINO
32 Sun and Sky org. : WNBA
35 Cowboy Rogers : ROY
36 *Not much interest : LOW YIELDS
39 Do sum work : ADD
42 Southwest art hub : TAOS
43 Low-tech travel guide : AAA MAP
47 The “F” in UHF: Abbr. : FREQ
49 “Not happenin'” : UH-UH
51 YouTube vote : LIKE
52 *Ursine dens : BEAR CAVES
55 Really cold : POLAR
56 Riverdale High redhead : ARCHIE
57 Tablet download : E-BOOK
59 “All set here” : I’M GOOD
60 Concede … or a hint to the last words of the answers to starred clues : CRY UNCLE
63 Epicure : FOODIE
64 Actor Brad : PITT
65 62-Down homonym : AIR
66 Astronomer Celsius : ANDERS
67 Lemon drinks : ADES
68 “Fresh Air” network : NPR

Down

1 Semi driver’s spot : CAB
2 Impersonate : APE
3 Quit like a wimp : PUNK OUT
4 Love to bits : ADORE
5 One played on stage : ROLE
6 “‘Sup, bro?” : YO, DAWG
7 Alarm-setting hrs. : AMS
8 Make smitten : BESOT
9 De-identify, as an Insta photo : UNTAG
10 Add, as to text : EDIT IN
11 “Ain’t gonna happen” : NO, NEVER
12 Like many Miami Beach structures : ART DECO
13 Airline to Sweden : SAS
18 Kind of fuel : FOSSIL
21 __ asada : CARNE
22 Campaign pro : POL
23 Genetic letters : RNA
25 “My guy doing okay, doc?” : HOW IS HE?
26 What’s up to you? : SKY
28 Illinois neighbor : IOWA
31 “That’s __ fair!” : NOT
33 Lackluster : BLAH
34 Crest box abbr. : ADA
37 “__ been served” : YOU’VE
38 Spot for a Wild West brawl : SALOON
39 Langley, e.g.: Abbr. : AFB
40 “Like that’ll ever happen” : DREAM ON
41 Response to awful news : DEAR GOD!
44 Dairy container : MILK CAN
45 Letters before a pen name : AKA
46 Each : PER
48 Scanned black-and-white image : QR CODE
50 Online handle : USER ID
53 Group with scores : CHOIR
54 Senate staffers : AIDES
55 Mopes : POUTS
58 Data storage unit : BYTE
59 “__ tree falls … ” : IF A
60 Tax pro : CPA
61 Sassy reaction : LIP
62 Misspell a word, say : ERR