LA Times Crossword 30 Jul 21, Friday

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Constructed by: Michael Dewey & Kevin Christian
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: IHOP

Themed answers each include an errant letter I over which we must HOP:

  • 52D Chain with an alternate 28-letter name … and what you need to write five puzzle answers? : IHOP
  • 18A Item served at 52-Down : POACHED (I) EGG
  • 24A Item served at 52-Down : FRENCH (I) TOAST
  • 38A Item served at 52-Down : BANANA (I) PANCAKES
  • 47A Item served at 52-Down : TURKEY (I) BACON
  • 57A Item served at 52-Down : HASH (I) BROWNS

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

Bill’s time: 10m 24s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Surfing venue : WEB

The Internet (uppercase letter I) is a system of interconnected networks that use the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to link devices around the world. In common usage, the word “internet” (lowercase letter I) is often used interchangeably with “World Wide Web”, although “the Web” is just one of many services and applications that uses the Internet.

4 Tapered off : ABATED

I used to think that the word “taper” was used for a slender candle because said candle was “tapered” in shape, but it’s exactly the opposite. It turns out that our word “tapered” comes from the candle. “Taper” and “tapur” are Old English words meaning “candle”. From these nouns arose the verb “to taper” meaning “shoot up like flame”. This meaning evolved into “become slender” from the idea that a candle’s flame has such a shape.

10 Yankees’ foes : JAYS

The Toronto Blue Jays baseball franchise was founded in 1977. The Blue Jays are the only team based outside the US to have won a World Series, doing so in 1992 and 1993. And since the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, the Blue Jays are the only Major League Baseball team now headquartered outside of the US.

15 Chowder chunk : POTATO

The type of soup known as “chowder” is possibly named for the pot in which it used to be cooked called a “chaudière”, a French term.

16 Wind in the reeds : OBOE

The oboe is perhaps my favorite of the reed instruments. The name “oboe” comes from the French “hautbois” which means “high wood”.

17 Ring star : ALI

Boxer Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. was born in 1942 in Louisville, Kentucky. Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali when he converted to Islam in 1964. Who can forget Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic flame for the 1996 games in Atlanta?

18 Item served at 52-Down : POACHED (I) EGG

Our verb “to poach”, meaning “to cook in liquid”, comes from the Old French verb “pochier”, meaning “to put into a pocket”. The idea is that the yolk of a “poached” egg is “pocketed” in the egg white.

20 1988 self-titled country album : REBA

Reba McEntire is a country music singer and television actress. McEntire starred in her own sitcom “Reba” that aired on the WB and the CW cable channels from 2001 to 2007. She is sometimes referred to as “The Queen of Country”.

22 Three, in Bari : TRE

Bari is a major port city on the Adriatic coast of Italy. Bari has the unfortunate distinction of being the only city in Europe to experience chemical warfare during WWII. Allied stores of mustard gas were released during a German bombing raid on Bari in 1943. Fatalities caused by the chemical agent were reported as 69, although other reports list the number as maybe a thousand military personnel and a thousand civilians.

23 One of the “Emerging 7” nations : INDIA

In 2006, a pair of economists at PricewaterhouseCoopers coined the term “E7” (for “Emerging 7”) to describe a group of seven countries recognized for their forecasted growth in economies. Those seven nations are:

  • China
  • India
  • Brazil
  • Mexico
  • Russia
  • Indonesia
  • Turkey

24 Item served at 52-Down : FRENCH (I) TOAST

The dish made from bread soaked in milk with beaten eggs and then fried is usually called French toast in the US, but it also goes by the names German toast and Spanish toast. In France, the dish is known as “pain perdu”, which translates as “lost bread”. This name is a reference to the fact that “lost” or “stale” bread can be reclaimed by dipping it in a mixture of milk and eggs and then frying it.

28 Word associated with Denver : MILE

Denver, Colorado is nicknamed “Mile-High City” because its official elevation is listed as exactly one mile. Denver City was founded in 1858 as a mining town. The name was chosen in honor of the Kansas Territorial Governor at the time, James W. Denver.

29 Govt. health org. : CDC

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC started out life during WWII as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. The CDC worries about much more than malaria these days …

30 Flight : LAM

To be on the lam is to be in flight, to have escaped from prison. “On the lam” is American slang that originated at the end of the 19th century. The word “lam” also means “beat” or “thrash”, as in “lambaste”. So “on the lam” might derive from the phrase “to beat it, to scram”.

35 Mum of Charlotte, George and Louis : KATE

Kate Middleton is the wife of Prince William of the UK. Middleton is what one might call a commoner, although since her marriage she is known as the Duchess of Cambridge. She was born to parents who had worked together as flight attendants before becoming quite wealthy running their own mail-order business. As is so often the case in Britain, Kate’s ancestry can be traced back far enough to show that she and William do have common ancestors, dating back to the 1500s on her mother’s side and to the 1400s on her father’s side.

37 Queen’s home : HIVE

A queen bee has a stinger, just like worker bees. When a worker bee stings, it leaves its stinger in its victim. The worker bee dies after losing its stinger as the loss rips out part of its insides. However, a queen bee can sting with impunity as her stinger’s anatomy is different.

41 Stuntman Knievel : EVEL

Daredevil Evel Knievel contracted hepatitis C from the many blood transfusions that he needed after injuries incurred during stunts. He had to have a liver transplant as a result, but his health declined after that. Knievel eventually passed away in 2007.

42 Like Vassar since 1969 : COED

Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York is now a coeducational school, after over a century of operating as a women’s college since its founding in 1861. The school was officially declared co-ed in 1969, although it had accepted a handful of male students on the GI Bill after WWII.

43 Lift providers : UBERS

The basic service offered by ride-hailing company Uber is known as UberX. The service provides a private ride for up to four passengers in a standard car. UberXL provides a minivan or SUV with room for up to 6 passengers.

44 Mystery writer Josephine : TEY

“Josephine Tey” was the pen name of Scottish mystery writer Elizabeth Mackintosh, who was best known for writing mystery novels. One of Tey’s more famous works is the 1949 crime novel “Brat Farrar”, the story of an orphan who impersonates the missing son of a rich family in order to wangle his way into an inheritance. Another is “The Daughter of Time”, in which a Scotland Yard inspector who is laid up in hospital takes on the mystery of whether or not King Richard III of England murdered his nephews, the Princes in the Tower.

46 Orange County city : BREA

The city of Brea, California takes its name from “brea”, the Spanish word for “tar”. Back in the 1800s, entrepreneurs were attracted to the area by the “black gold” (crude oil) that in some locations was just bubbling up from the ground.

Orange County in the Greater Los Angeles Area is the smallest county in Southern California by area, and yet it is the sixth most populous county in the US. The county seat is Santa Ana.

55 Heckle : BOO

Originally, the verb “to heckle” meant “to question severely”, and for many years was associated with the public questioning of parliamentary candidates in Scotland. In more recent times, the meaning has evolved into questioning that is less polite and that is directed at stand-up comics.

56 One-horse ride : SHAY

A chaise is a light carriage with a folding hood that transports one or two people. “Chaise” is the French for “chair”, and takes its name from the “sedan chair” means of transportation. In the US, the name “chaise” evolved into “shay”.

57 Item served at 52-Down : HASH (I) BROWNS

Hash, beef and vegetables mashed together, is a very American dish and one that really surprised me when I first came across it. “Hash” just seems like such an unappetizing item, but I soon found out how delicious it was. The name “hash” in this context comes from the French “hacher” meaning “to chop”. Back in the early 1900s the dish called “hashed browned potatoes” was developed, which quickly morphed into “hash browns”. From there the likes of corned beef hash was introduced.

61 Non-verbal syst. : ASL

American Sign Language (ASL)

62 Tony kin : OBIE

The Obies are the Off-Broadway Theater Awards. The Obies have been presented annually since 1956. The recipients used to be chosen by “The Village Voice” newspaper, but now are jointly administered with the American Theatre Wing.

64 2016 Olympics host : RIO

Even though the 2016 Olympic Games was a summer competition, it was held in Rio de Janeiro in winter. As Rio is in the southern hemisphere, the opening ceremony on 5th August 2016 fell in the local winter season. The 2016 games was also the first to be held in South America, and the first to be hosted by a Portuguese-speaking country.

66 Dumpster fire : FIASCO

Back in the mid-1800s, “fiasco” was theater slang meaning “failure in performance”. The meaning morphed soon after into any kind of failure or flop. The term evolved from the Italian “far fiasco”, a phrase that had the same meaning in Italian theater, but translated literally as “make a bottle”. It turns out that “fiasco” and “flask” both derive from the Latin “flasco” meaning “bottle”.

“Dumpster” is one of those words that we use generically, even though it is actually a brand name. The original “Dumpster” was patented by the Dempster Brothers of Knoxville, Tennessee. “Dumpster” is derived from “dump” and “Dempster”.

67 ISP option : MSN

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

Down

2 Conger chaser : EELER

Conger eels can grow to be very, very large, perhaps up to 10 feet in length.

5 “The Women” playwright Clare __ Luce : BOOTHE

Author and politician Clare Boothe Luce was married to publisher Henry Luce. As a politician, Luce was a noted Republican. She entered the House of Representatives in 1942 as an outspoken critic of the policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After campaigning tirelessly for Dwight D Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election, Luce was rewarded with the US Ambassadorship to Italy. She had to resign her post in 1956 when she became ill from lead poisoning (from the stucco ceiling in her bedroom). After Luce recovered, President Eisenhower nominated her US Ambassador to Portugal. However, her conservative views met with such resistance from Democrats that she resigned the post after only 4 days on the job, and without leaving the US.

“The Women” is a 1936 comedy play by author and politician Clare Boothe Luce. Notably, the cast of characters is very large, and that cast is all-female. The play has been adapted for the big screen several times, including a 1939 version starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell.

6 Millipede maker : ATARI

Millipede is a video game that Atari introduced in 1982. It was developed as a sequel to the very successful arcade game called Centipede.

7 Musical “don’t play” : TACET

“Tacet” is a musical direction meaning “be silent”. It is typically written on a score to instruct a particular voice or instrument to remain silent for a whole movement. “Tacet” is Latin for “it is silent”.

8 E. African land : ETH

Ethiopia holds an important position within the nations of Africa, with the capital of Addis Ababa being home to many international organizations that are focused on the continent.

9 Buck’s mate : DOE

A male deer is usually called a buck, and a female is a doe. However, the male red deer is usually referred to as a stag. The males of even larger species of deer are often called bulls, and females cows. In older English, male deer of over 5 years were called harts, and females of over 3 years were called hinds. The young of small species are known as fawns, and of larger species are called calves. All very confusing …

12 Hindu ascetic : YOGI

A yogi is a practitioner of yoga.

In the West, we tend to think of yoga as just a physical discipline, a means of exercise that uses specific poses to stretch and strengthen muscles. While it is true that the ancient Indian practice of yoga does involve such physical discipline, the corporeal aspect of the practice plays a relatively small part in the whole philosophy. Other major components are meditation, ethical behavior, breathing and contemplation.

13 6-Down rival : SEGA
(6D Millipede maker : ATARI)

Sega is a Japanese video game company headquartered in Tokyo. Sega actually started out in 1940 as Standard Games and was located in Honolulu, which at that time was a city in the US Territory of Hawaii. The owners moved the operation to Tokyo in 1951 and renamed the company to Service Games. The name “Sega” is a combination of the first two letters of the words “Se-rvice” and “Ga-mes”.

19 Clay pigeon, e.g. : DISC

There are three types of competitive shotgun target shooting sports:

  • Skeet shooting
  • Trap shooting
  • Sporting clays

21 __ kingdom : ANIMAL

Biological classification is a method used to group organisms by biological type. The method uses a hierarchy of nested classes, with an organism being classified with reference to evolutionary traits. The major taxonomic ranks used are:

  • Life
  • Domain
  • Kingdom
  • Phylum (plural “phyla”)
  • Class
  • Order
  • Family
  • Genus (plural “genera”)
  • Species

27 Port on its own gulf : ADEN

Aden is a seaport in Yemen that is located on the Gulf of Aden by the eastern approach to the Red Sea. Aden has a long history of British rule, from 1838 until a very messy withdrawal in 1967. A native of Aden is known as an Adeni. Some believe that Cain and Abel are buried in the city.

33 Help, as a hood : ABET

The word “abet” comes into English from the Old French “abeter” meaning “to bait” or “to harass with dogs” (literally “to make bite”). This sense of encouraging something bad to happen morphed into our modern usage of “abet” meaning to aid or encourage someone in a crime.

35 Newspaper stand, e.g. : KIOSK

Our word “kiosk” came to us via French and Turkish from the Persian “kushk” meaning “palace, portico”.

37 Writ of __ corpus : HABEAS

The Latin term “habeas corpus” translates literally as “you are to have the body”, and is a legal action (i.e. a writ) that is used to release a prisoner from unlawful detention.

39 Taiwanese laptop brand : ACER

Acer is a Taiwanese company that I visited a couple of times when I was in the electronics business. I was very impressed back then with the company’s dedication to quality, although I have heard that things haven’t gone so well in recent years …

40 Street border : CURB

“Curb” is another of those words that I had to learn when I came to the US. We park by the “kerb” on the other side of the Atlantic. Oh, and the “pavement”, that’s what we call the “footpath” (because the footpath is “paved”!). It’s very confusing when you arrive in this country from Ireland, and a little dangerous, when one has been taught to “walk on the pavement” …

45 __ Gagarin, first human in outer space : YURI

Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space when his spacecraft Vostok I made a single orbit of the Earth in 1961. Sadly, Gagarin died only seven years later in a plane crash.

46 Jaime Sommers, TV’s “__ Woman” : BIONIC

I so much preferred “The Bionic Woman” than the original show, “The Six Million Dollar Man”, but that was probably because I was “at that age” in the mid-seventies when the star Lindsay Wagner was attracting my attention! Wagner played Jaime Sommers who was badly injured in a parachute jump, and so was treated by the implanting of robotic devices that gave her speed, strength and exceptional hearing.

48 Congo River tributary : EBOLA

The Ebola virus causes a very nasty form of hemorrhagic fever. The name of the virus comes from the site of the first known outbreak, in a mission hospital in the Ebola River Valley in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as Zaire). The disease is transmitted from human to human by exposure to bodily fluids. In nature, the main carrier of Ebola is the fruit bat.

50 Refuge from the heat : OASIS

An isolated area of vegetation in a desert is called an oasis (plural “oases”). As water is needed for plant growth, an oasis might also include a spring, pond or small lake. We often use the term “oasis” more generally to describe a haven, a place of rest.

51 Early seat belt material : NYLON

The national “Click It or Ticket” campaign started at the state level in 1993, when it was introduced in North Carolina. New York was the first state to introduce a mandatory seat belt use law, back in 1984. There is only one state in the US that does not require drivers to wear seat belts by law, and that is New Hampshire.

52 Chain with an alternate 28-letter name … and what you need to write five puzzle answers? : IHOP

The International House of Pancakes (IHOP) was founded back in 1958. IHOP was originally intended to be called IHOE, the International House of Eggs, but that name didn’t do too well in marketing tests.

53 Mexican resort, for short : CABO

Cabo San Lucas is a major tourist destination at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. “Cabo” is sometimes referred to as the “Fort Lauderdale of Mexico”.

54 Sister of Osiris : ISIS

Isis was the ancient Egyptian goddess of fertility, as well as the protector of the dead and the goddess of children. She was the personification of the pharaoh’s power. The name “Isis” translates as “throne”, and she is usually depicted with a headdress shaped like a throne.

58 Lifelong bud, initially : BFF

Best friend forever (BFF)

59 Italian counterpart of the BBC : RAI

Rai 1, 2 & 3 are three television channels owned and operated by the Italian government. Rai stands for “Radiotelevisione Italiana”, meaning “Italian public broadcasting”.

60 __-cone : SNO

A sno-cone (also “snow cone”) is just a paper cone filled with crushed ice and topped with flavored water. Italian ice is similar, but different. Whereas the flavoring is added on top of the ice to make a sno-cone, Italian ice is made with water that is flavored before it is frozen.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Surfing venue : WEB
4 Tapered off : ABATED
10 Yankees’ foes : JAYS
14 Nautical pronoun : HER
15 Chowder chunk : POTATO
16 Wind in the reeds : OBOE
17 Ring star : ALI
18 Item served at 52-Down : POACHED (I) EGG
20 1988 self-titled country album : REBA
22 Three, in Bari : TRE
23 One of the “Emerging 7” nations : INDIA
24 Item served at 52-Down : FRENCH (I) TOAST
28 Word associated with Denver : MILE
29 Govt. health org. : CDC
30 Flight : LAM
33 Kitchen draw : AROMA
35 Mum of Charlotte, George and Louis : KATE
37 Queen’s home : HIVE
38 Item served at 52-Down : BANANA (I) PANCAKES
41 Stuntman Knievel : EVEL
42 Like Vassar since 1969 : COED
43 Lift providers : UBERS
44 Mystery writer Josephine : TEY
45 “Can I help you?” : YES?
46 Orange County city : BREA
47 Item served at 52-Down : TURKEY (I) BACON
52 More unfriendly : ICIER
55 Heckle : BOO
56 One-horse ride : SHAY
57 Item served at 52-Down : HASH (I) BROWNS
61 Non-verbal syst. : ASL
62 Tony kin : OBIE
63 Begin to associate (with) : FALL IN
64 2016 Olympics host : RIO
65 Prepare for a pic : POSE
66 Dumpster fire : FIASCO
67 ISP option : MSN

Down

1 Landing : WHARF
2 Conger chaser : EELER
3 Loot to keep mute? : BRIBE MONEY
4 Smartphone software : APP
5 “The Women” playwright Clare __ Luce : BOOTHE
6 Millipede maker : ATARI
7 Musical “don’t play” : TACET
8 E. African land : ETH
9 Buck’s mate : DOE
10 Combined : JOINT
11 In the sack : ABED
12 Hindu ascetic : YOGI
13 6-Down rival : SEGA
19 Clay pigeon, e.g. : DISC
21 __ kingdom : ANIMAL
25 Scottish family : CLAN
26 Group of eight : OCTAD
27 Port on its own gulf : ADEN
30 Best way for something to work : LIKE A CHARM
31 Declare : AVER
32 Untidy situation : MESS
33 Help, as a hood : ABET
34 Wild, all-night party : RAVE
35 Newspaper stand, e.g. : KIOSK
36 Imitate : APE
37 Writ of __ corpus : HABEAS
39 Taiwanese laptop brand : ACER
40 Street border : CURB
45 __ Gagarin, first human in outer space : YURI
46 Jaime Sommers, TV’s “__ Woman” : BIONIC
47 Chuckle : TEHEE
48 Congo River tributary : EBOLA
49 Feline complaints : YOWLS
50 Refuge from the heat : OASIS
51 Early seat belt material : NYLON
52 Chain with an alternate 28-letter name … and what you need to write five puzzle answers? : IHOP
53 Mexican resort, for short : CABO
54 Sister of Osiris : ISIS
58 Lifelong bud, initially : BFF
59 Italian counterpart of the BBC : RAI
60 __-cone : SNO

14 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword 30 Jul 21, Friday”

    1. And some absurd clues that made little sense. We averaged just under 90%
      solved for the week, scoring above 95% three times.

      A bit too much.

  1. Did great for a friday…
    Messed up on 66A.. didn’t get the whole DUMPSTER FIRE meaning. Had EBOLA, then crossed out A for I , didn’t know italian tv so went with RER and that gave me FRISCO!!! thought maybe it was some west coast slang since it is the LA TIMES.. never heard it referred to as a FIASCO..

  2. 30 min. no errors…didn’t really get the theme til I read it here.
    Stay safe😀
    Get the shot PLEASE🙏

  3. Finished the puzzle with no errors. But the theme was totally (I) lame. Constructors should look for another type of work.

  4. 11:23, and no errors.
    The “theme” was an *unforgivable* groaner.

    Not to mention another appearance of the popularized misspelling of TEE HEE, (it’s got FOUR E’s, dammit!!!), the second consecutive appearance for LAM, and too many names.

  5. 8:39

    I kept wanting the “I” to have the word HOP nearby, or maybe to have hopped up from another word. Just sticking an I in the middle of banana pancakes looks weird.

  6. I was unable to “hop over” to this theme. Lame one, for sure. How a dumpster fire can have “fiasco” as an answer is beyond logical. I just couldn’t “begin to associate with” much within this puzzle, even though I was able to (finally) solve it.

    1. Steve, business people like to co-opt all sorts of things and turn them into business lingo (e.g., low-hanging fruit, drink the Kool-Aid, move the needle, not enough bandwidth, etc). Dumpster fire is another one of those.

  7. 14:32 with one letter error: TRi/TACiT instead of TRe/TACeT – didn’t recall the musical term and didn’t know where Bari is located. Everything else fell into place after I figured out the theme and had changed POACHEDEGGS to POACHEDIEGG.

    I thought the theme was clever. But then, I like puns, plays on words, and so-called “Dad jokes”.

  8. Tricky Friday for me; took 33:04 with 4 errors. Went with rAYS and forgot to check the cross. Also had TRi instead of TRE. And, two more in the SE, where I didn’t know S_AY and had changed dSl to dSN to make NYLON work, but just don’t think of MSN (or AOL, for that matter) as ISPs.

    Live and learn!!

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