LA Times Crossword 8 Jan 22, Saturday

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Constructed by: David Karp
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 11m 12s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

15 Epitome of Americanism? : APPLE PIE

The full expression is “as American as motherhood and apple pie”. I think the concept here is not that America is the home of motherhood nor apple pie, but rather that America is as wholesome as motherhood and apple pie. I’ve heard that the phrase originated in WWII when GI’s being interviewed by journalists would say that they were going to war “for Mom and apple pie”.

16 “Seinfeld” character who dated baseball’s Keith Hernandez : ELAINE

The character Elaine Benes, unlike the other lead characters (Jerry, Kramer and George), did not appear in the pilot episode of “Seinfeld”. NBC executives specified the addition of a female lead when they picked up the show citing that the situation was too “male-centric”.

Keith Hernandez is a former professional first baseman who played Major League Baseball mainly with the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets. After retiring in 1990, Hernandez became a television broadcaster for Mets games. He also appeared in three episodes of the sitcom “Seinfeld”, including the last episode, playing himself. In the show, Hernandez dated Elaine, and became the object of Jerry’s “male crush”.

17 Vitamin intake for some : MEGADOSE

“Vitamins” are substances that are “vital” to life in small quantities. The term “vitamine” was coined in 1912 by Casimir Funk, a Polish biochemist who isolated several essential chemicals, all of which he assumed were amines. When it was later determined that these vital micronutrients were not all amines, then the letter E was dropped from “vitamine” to give us “vitamin”.

18 Screenwriter __ Trumbo : DALTON

Dalton Trumbo was an American novelist and screenwriter, and one of the famous “Hollywood Ten” film professionals who testified in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947. Trumbo refused to give information to the committee and was found in contempt, and served 11 months in prison. Trumbo had his anti-war novel “Johnny Got His Gun” published in 1938. He also directed a film adaption that was released in 1971 that starred Timothy Bottoms.

22 Criticism : FLAK

“Flak” was originally an acronym standing for the German term for an aircraft defense cannon (FLiegerAbwehrKanone). “Flak” then became used in English as a general term for antiaircraft fire and ultimately a term for verbal criticism, as in “to take flak”.

27 “By the power vested __ … ” : IN ME

“By the power vested in me by …” is a line from a traditional wedding ceremony.

33 Godfather cocktail ingredient : AMARETTO

Amaretto is an Italian liqueur with a sweet almond flavor. Even though the drink is sweet, it has a bitterness lent to it by the bitter almonds that are often used as a flavoring. The name “amaretto” is a diminutive of the Italian word “amaro” meaning “bitter”.

The cocktail known as the Godfather is a mixture of equal parts Scotch whiskey and amaretto, usually served over ice. Variants of the Godfather are the Godmother (using vodka instead of whiskey) and the French Connection (using Cognac instead of whiskey).

35 KFC bucket piece : LEG

The famous “Colonel” of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) fame was Harland Sanders, an entrepreneur from Henryville, Indiana. Although not really a “Colonel”, Sanders did indeed serve in the military. He enlisted in the Army as a private in 1906 at the age of 16, lying about his age. He spent the whole of his time in the Army as a soldier in Cuba. It was much later, in the 1930s, that Sanders went into the restaurant business making his specialty deep-fried chicken. By 1935 his reputation as a “character” had grown, so much so that Governor Ruby Laffoon of Kentucky gave Sanders the honorary title of “Kentucky Colonel”. Later in the fifties, Sanders developed his trademark look with the white suit, string tie, mustache and goatee. When Sanders was 65 however, his business failed and in stepped Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s. Thomas simplified the Sanders menu, cutting it back from over a hundred items to just fried chicken and salads. That was enough to launch KFC into the fast food business. Sanders sold the US franchise in 1964 for just $2 million and moved to Canada to grow KFC north of the border. He died in 1980 and is buried in Louisville, Kentucky. The Colonel’s secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices is indeed a trade secret. Apparently there is only one copy of the recipe, a handwritten piece of paper, written in pencil and signed by Colonel Sanders. Since 2009, the piece of paper has been locked in a computerized vault surrounded with motion detectors and security cameras.

43 Put drinks on plastic? : RAN A TAB

When we run a “tab” at a bar, we are running a “tabulation”, a listing of what we owe. Such a use of “tab” is American slang that originated in the 1880s.

48 Two-time Tony winner Judith : IVEY

Judith Ivey is an actress from El Paso, Texas. Ivey is perhaps best known for playing B. J. Poteet in the last season of the TV show “Designing Women”.

51 Boris Johnson, e.g. : TORY

“Tory” comes from the Irish word “tóraí” meaning “outlaw, robber”. The term “tory” was originally used for an Irish outlaw and later became a term of abuse for Irish rebels. At the end of the reign of King Charles II in Britain, there was a political divide with one side being called “Whigs” and the other “Tories”. Historically, the term “Tory” evolved to basically mean a supporter of the British monarchy, and indeed was used to describe those who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolution. Today, “Tory” is used for a member of the British Conservative Party.

Boris Johnson is a larger-than-life Conservative politician in the UK, and former Mayor of London. He was the very visible frontman in the campaign for the UK to exit the European Union, the so-called Brexit campaign. As a result of the UK voting to exit the EU, Prime Minister David Cameron resigned, to be replaced by Theresa May. Theresa May then appointed Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. Almost inevitably, Boris Johnson then replaced May as Prime Minister. In more recent times, Johnson famously made light of the coronavirus pandemic and ignored calls for social distancing. He then fell ill with COVID-19, ended up in an intensive care unit, and ultimately revised his advice about social distancing.

52 So yesterday : PASSE

“Passé” is a French word, meaning “past, faded”. We’ve imported the term into English, and use it in the same sense.

54 “Aha!” : EUREKA!

“Eureka” translates from Greek as “I have found it”. The word is usually associated with Archimedes, uttered as he stepped into his bath one day. His discovery was that the volume of water that was displaced was equal to that of the object (presumably his foot) that had been submerged. He used this fact to determine the volume of a crown, something he needed in order to determine if it was made of pure gold or was a forgery.

57 Capital north of Washington, D.C. : OTTAWA

Ottawa is the second-largest city in the Province of Ontario (after Toronto) and is the capital city of Canada. The name “Ottawa” comes from an Algonquin word “adawe”, which means “to trade”.

59 Salsa roja ingredient : CILANTRO

What we know here in North America as cilantro is called coriander in the UK and other parts of the world. “Cilantro” is the Spanish name for the herb.

64 Tonsorial work : HAIRCUTS

Something described as tonsorial pertains to a barber or to haircutting. The Latin term “tonsor” translates as “barber, shaver, shearer”.

Down

1 “Batman” sound : BAM!

The television show “Batman” aired from 1966-1968. Burt Ward played Robin opposite Adam West’s Batman. Supposedly, Burt Ward was offered the part taken by Dustin Hoffman in “The Graduate”, but Ward couldn’t get out of his contract for the “Batman” television series. Holy xxxx, Batman!

3 Final Fantasy, e.g., briefly : RPG

Role-playing game (RPG)

“Final Fantasy” is a series of fantasy role-playing video games that is much-respected in the gaming community. The first game was released back in 1987.

4 Christmas shopping draw : BLACK FRIDAY SALE

In the world of retail, Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the US. It is also the day when many stores start the holiday shopping season, and so offer deep discounts to get ahead of the competition.

5 “The Scarlet Letter” letter : RED A

The main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter” is Hester Prynne. After the birth of her illegitimate daughter Pearl, she is convicted by her puritanical neighbors of the crime of adultery. Hester is forced to wear a scarlet “A” (for “adultery”) on her clothing for the rest of her life, hence the novel’s title “The Scarlet Letter”.

8 Looks lasciviously : LEERS

“Lascivious” is such an appropriate-sounding word, I always think. It means “lecherous, salacious”.

9 H.S. dropout’s test : GED

The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a battery of four tests designed to demonstrate that a student has the academic skills of someone who has graduated from an American or Canadian high school.

10 “__, I am not coop’d here for defence!”: Shak. : ALAS

“Alas! I am not coop’d here for defence” is a line from William Shakespeare’s play “Henry VI, Part 3”.

The consensus seems to be that William Shakespeare wrote 38 plays in all. Seven of the plays are about kings called “Henry”:

• Henry IV, Part 1
• Henry IV, Part 2
• Henry V
• Henry VI, Part 1
• Henry VI, Part 2
• Henry VI, Part 3
• Henry VIII

11 Everywhere, “if you have the time”: Steven Wright : WALKING DISTANCE

Steven Wright is a remarkably droll comedian from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Wright is very, very quotable:

• What’s another word for Thesaurus?
• If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?
• I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
• When I was a little kid we had a sandbox. It was a quicksand box. I was an only child… eventually.

12 Fraud with checks : KITING

Check kiting is illegal. The idea behind kiting is to write a check, even though there are insufficient funds to cover the amount. The con artist then writes another check, also with insufficient funds, from another bank’s account to cover the original check. I am not sure it would work nowadays, but then I am as honest as the day is long! Oh, and I think the term “kiting” comes from the older phrase “go fly a kite”, the idea being that the bad check is floated on air (on non-existent funds).

13 Massive, in Montréal : ENORME

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”.

20 Jiff : SEC

“Jiff”, or “jiffy”, meaning “short time, instant” is thought originally to be thieves’ slang for “lightning”.

22 __ Street: R.L. Stine series : FEAR

“Fear Street” is a series of horror novels by R. L. Stine that are aimed at a teenage audience. The series title is a reference to the Fear family who live in the fictional town of Shadyside. The books were adapted into a trilogy of “Fear Street” films released by Netflix in 2021.

23 Like dad jokes, to kids : LAME

I tell dad jokes all the time, just to annoy the kids …

• I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. It’s impossible to put down!
• If you see a robbery at an Apple Store, does that make you an iWitness?
• A termite walks into a bar and asks, “Is the bar tender here?”
• Two guys walk into a bar, the third one ducks.
• What’s the best part about living in Switzerland? I don’t know, but the flag is a big plus.

24 Depleted sea : ARAL

The Aral Sea is a great example of how man can have a devastating effect on his environment. In the early sixties the Aral Sea covered 68,000 square miles of Central Asia. Soviet irrigation projects drained the lake to such an extent that today the total area is less than 7,000 square miles, with 90% of the lake now completely dry. Sad …

26 Israeli violinist Mintz : SHLOMO

Shlomo Mintz is a violin virtuoso from Israel, who lived the first two years of life in Moscow. Mintz studied with Dorothy Delay in the Juilliard School of Music, and was mentored by Isaac Stern.

30 Lorazepam brand : ATIVAN

Ativan is a brand name for the drug Lorazepam, which is often prescribed for anxiety disorders.

32 Word on Spanish mail : AEREO

The words “Correo Aereo” can be found on some stamps. The phrase translates from Spanish as “Air Mail”.

37 __ tiger : SIBERIAN

The Siberian tiger is native to the Russian Far East and Northeast China. It is a threatened species, with the number living in the wild estimated in the hundreds.

38 This, in Tenerife : ESTO

Tenerife is the largest of the seven Canary Islands located off the coast of Morocco in North Africa. Part of Spain, Tenerife is the nation’s most populous island, home to almost 900,000 people. It also receives about five million visitors annually, making it one of the most important tourist destinations in the world.

40 Lissome : SPRY

“Lissome” is such a lovely word, I think. It applies to something that is easily bent and supple. The term is a variation of “lithesome”.

44 Personal online image : AVATAR

The Sanskrit word “avatar” describes the concept of a deity descending into earthly life and taking on a persona. It’s easy to see how in the world of online presences one might use the word avatar to describe one’s online identity.

45 Food giant : NESTLE

Nestlé is the world’s largest food company. It was founded in 1905 in Vevey, Switzerland where the company headquarters is to this day. Although the company came into being as the result of a merger, it retains the name of one of the co-founders, German confectioner Henri Nestlé. Henri Nestlé’s real breakthrough product was baby formula.

46 Main squeeze, in modern lingo : BAE

“Bae” is a contemporary term of endearment. It is a pet name that is an abbreviation of “babe, baby”, although I’ve also read that it is an acronym standing for “before anyone else”.

55 Lamb pen name : ELIA

The “Essays of Elia” began appearing in “London Magazine” in 1820, and were immediate hits with the public. The author was Charles Lamb, and “Elia” was actually a clerk with whom Lamb worked. The most famous of the essays in the collection are probably “Dream-Children” and “Old China”.

56 Marx not seen in films : KARL

Karl Marx was a German philosopher and revolutionary who helped develop the principles of modern communism and socialism. Marx argued that feudal society created internal strife due to class inequalities which led to its destruction and replacement by capitalism. He further argued that the inequalities created in a capitalist society create tensions that will also lead to its self-destruction. His thesis was that the inevitable replacement of capitalism was a classless (and stateless) society, which he called pure communism.

58 Creature that can carry many times its body weight : ANT

Myrmecology is the study of ants. The term “myrmecology” derives from the Greek “myrmex” meaning “ant”.

60 Dolphins quarterback Tagovailoa : TUA

NFL quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was born to a Samoan family in Hawaii. His nickname “Tua” is short for “Tuanigamanuolepola”. Tagovailoa was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the 2020 NFL draft. His younger brother Taulia was his backup quarterback at the University of Alabama, before Taulia transferred to the University of Maryland to become starting quarterback.

61 Shares again, on Twitter : RTS

Retweet (RT)

62 __Kosh B’gosh : OSH

OshKosh B’gosh is a company that produces and sells children’s clothes. The trademark OshKosh bib-overalls remind us of the company’s roots, as it was originally a manufacturer of adult work clothes based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.