LA Times Crossword 6 Aug 22, Saturday

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Constructed by: C.C. Burnikel
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 10m 34s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Includes, briefly : CCS

I wonder if the kids of today know that “cc” stands for carbon copy, and do they have any idea what a carbon copy was? Do you remember how messy carbon paper was to handle? A kind blog reader pointed out to me a while back that the abbreviation has evolved and taken on the meaning “courtesy copy” in our modern world.

4 Bell hooks work whose title comes from a line often attributed to Sojourner Truth : AIN’T I A WOMAN?

“Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism” is a 1981 book by bell hooks. One of hooks’ main arguments is that the feminist movement was historically focused on white middle and upper class women, and largely ignored the needs of less wealthy women of color. Hooks took the title of her book from the “Ain’t I a Woman” speech delivered by freed slave Sojourner Truth at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851.

Gloria Jean Watkins was an author and activist who is better known by her pen name “bell hooks”. Watkins borrowed that moniker from her maternal grandmother Bell Blair Hooks.

16 Pink flower with a yellow center : PRAIRIE ROSE

The wild prairie rose is a rose species that is native to North America. It is the state flower of Iowa and North Dakota.

17 “Oklahoma!” Tony winner Stroker : ALI

Actress Ali Stroker won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress for her performance in the 2019 Broadway revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Oklahoma!” In doing so, Stroker became the first wheelchair-bound actor to win a Tony. She is paralyzed from the waist down due to a spinal cord injury incurred in a car accident when she was just two years old.

“Oklahoma!” was the first musical written by the great duo Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The storyline comes from a 1931 stage play called “Green Grow the Lilacs”.

18 Mayonnaise-based condiment : TARTAR SAUCE

Tartar sauce is basically mayonnaise with some chopped pickles, capers and onion or chives. The recipe was invented by the French (as “sauce tartare”) with the name somehow linked to the Tatars, a people who once occupied Ukraine and parts of Russia.

19 Jedi on Dagobah : YODA

Dagobah is a fictional planet in the “Star Wars” universe. Jedi Master Yoda chose Dagobah as a place to hide from the Galactic Empire, and was where he trained Luke Skywalker to become a Jedi Knight.

27 “Born a __”: Trevor Noah memoir : CRIME

“Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood” is a comedic autobiographical book penned by comedian Trevor Noah. It tells of Noah’s early life growing up during apartheid in South Africa. The title refers to the fact that black-white marriages were illegal under apartheid, and the very existence of a mixed-race child was evidence of a crime.

Trevor Noah is an outstanding comedian from Johannesburg, South Africa. Noah took over as host of the Comedy Channel’s “The Daily Show” after Jon Stewart retired. Noah can speak several languages, including English, Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, Afrikaans, and German.

28 __ pool : STENO

Stenography is the process of writing in shorthand. The term comes from the Greek “steno” (narrow) and “graphe” (writing).

30 Elements of Byzantine architecture : DOMES

Byzantium was a Greek colony that was centered on what was to become Constantinople, now Istanbul. Legend suggests that there was a king Byzas, who gave his name to the city and later the Byzantine Empire. The Eastern Roman Empire later became known as the Byzantine Empire, right up until the Middle Ages.

35 Journalist Tarbell : IDA

Ida Tarbell was a teacher and what we would call today an “investigative journalist”, although back in her day she was known as a “muckraker”. Her most famous work is her 1904 book “The History of the Standard Oil Company”. It is an exposé that is credited with hastening the breakup of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil in 1911. She also wrote several books about President Abraham Lincoln.

36 Award with a Journalistic Integrity category : PEABODY

The Peabody Awards have been presented annually since 1941 to individuals and organizations for excellence in broadcasting. They are named for businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, who provided the funds to establish the awards program.

38 Quebec street : RUE

The name of the province Québec comes from an Algonquin word “kebec” meaning “where the river narrows”. This refers to the area around Quebec City where the St. Lawrence River narrows as it flows through a gap lined by steep cliffs.

41 Whirlpool subsidiary : AMANA

Whirlpool is a manufacturer of home appliances that was founded as the Upton Machine Company in 1911.

44 Jellyfish’s lack : BRAIN

Jellyfish are found all over the ocean, right across the whole planet. They have been around for 500-700 million years, and so are the oldest multi-organ animal extant.

45 Medicare Advantage program : PART C

Medicare is divided into four parts:

  • A: Hospital Insurance
  • B: Medical Insurance
  • C: Medicare Advantage Plans
  • D: Prescription Drug Plans

47 Hawk : PEDDLE

The verb “to hawk” has a Germanic origin, and comes from the Low German word “hoken” meaning “to peddle”. A hawker is actually slightly different from a peddler by definition, as a hawker is a peddler that uses a horse and cart, or a van nowadays perhaps, to sell his or her wares.

48 Self-referential : META

In recent decades the prefix “meta-” has been used as a standalone adjective. In this sense “meta” means “self-referential”, describing something that refers to itself. For example, “This sentence starts with the word ‘this’ and ends with the word ‘this’” might be called a meta sentence. A movie that is about the making of the very same movie could also be described as meta.

57 NPR host Shapiro : ARI

Ari Shapiro served very ably as White House correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR) for several years. He then became a co-host of the network’s drive-time program “All Things Considered” in 2015. When he’s not working, Shapiro likes to sing. He regularly appears as a guest singer with the group Pink Martini, and has appeared on several of the band’s albums.

58 Mail with a North Pole return address : SANTA LETTER

If you want to send a note to Santa from Canada, he has his own special postal code: “North Pole, HOH OHO”. The US Postal Service suggests that we send mail for Santa to zip code 99705, which directs it to the city of North Pole, Alaska.

59 __-de-sac : CUL

Even though “cul-de-sac” can indeed mean “bottom-of-the-bag” in French, the term “cul-de-sac” is of English origin (the use of “cul” in French is actually quite rude). The term was introduced in aristocratic circles at a time when it was considered very fashionable to speak French. Dead-end streets in France are usually signposted with just a symbol and no accompanying words, but if words are included they are “voie sans issue”, meaning “way without exit”.

60 Multipurpose piece : SLEEPER SOFA

The first patent for a folding bed (later “hide-a-bed”) was issued way back in 1899.

Down

1 Tandoor material : CLAY

A tandoor is a cylindrical clay or metal oven used in cuisines from several Asian locales, including India.

2 System with shades of meaning : COLOR CODE

A color code is a system that uses varying colors to display information. Examples would be color-coded electrical wiring, and a color-coded alert system.

3 Character who debuted in the 1962 comic book “Amazing Fantasy” : SPIDER-MAN

Spider-Man is a creation of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and first appeared in comics in 1962. Spider-Man was a somewhat groundbreaking character in that his alter ego was a teenage high school student (Peter Parker), which marked the first time that a young person featured front and center as the superhero.

4 Germane : APT

Something that is germane is relevant. “Germane” originally meant “having the same parents”, but the term was used more figuratively to mean “on topic” by William Shakespeare in “Hamlet”. That’s the way we’ve been using the word since “Hamlet” was first performed in the 1600s.

6 Busters : NARCS

“Narc” and “narco” are slang terms describing a law enforcement officer who tracks down criminals associated with illegal drugs. Both words are short for “narcotics officer”. Narcs might work for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

7 Nickname of vodka-maker Beveridge : TITO

Tito’s Vodka is a brand that was founded in Austin, Texas in 1997 by Bert “Tito” Beveridge. Yes, Beveridge became a beverage maker …

8 Home country of Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi : IRAN

Asghar Farhadi is an Iranian movie director and screenwriter. Farhadi won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film on two occasions: for his movies “A Separation” (2012), and “The Salesman (2017).

10 Director Anderson : WES

Film director Wes Anderson’s most famous movie is probably “The Royal Tenenbaums” that was released in 2001, and is not my favorite film by any stretch. However, Anderson’s 2007 release “The Darjeeling Limited”, that I enjoyed.

11 Sojourner Truth forte : ORATION

Sojourner Truth (real name Isabella Baumfree) was an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist. Truth was born a slave in New York State, and freed in 1827. She became famous for her speeches against slavery, including her most famous address “Ain’t I a Woman?” that was delivered at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851.

13 Broad tie : ASCOT

An ascot is a wide tie that narrows at the neck, which these days is only really worn at weddings or part of a dress uniform. The tie takes its name from the Royal Ascot horse race at which punters still turn up in formal wear at Ascot Racecourse in England.

14 Sine qua non : NEED

“Sine qua non” is a Latin phrase that we use to mean “the essential element or condition”. The literal translation is “without which not”. One might say, for example, “a challenging crossword is the sine qua non of a good newspaper”. Well, crossword fans might say that …

20 Brest friend : AMIE

Brest is a port city in northwest France, and is the second largest military port in the country. Brest was an important base for German U-boats during WWII when France was occupied by the Nazis. Brest is the most westerly city in the whole country.

26 Minor gridiron gain : ONE YARD

We never used the word “gridiron” when I was growing up in Ireland (meaning a grill used for cooking food over an open fire). So, maybe I am excused for taking two decades living in the US to work out that a football field gridiron is so called because the layout of yard lines over the field looks like a gridiron used in cooking.

28 Nick who’s coached four Heisman winners at Alabama : SABAN

Nick Saban is a former NFL coach with the Miami Dolphins, and head football coach at the University of Alabama starting in 2007.

29 Sporty car roof : T-TOP

A T-top is a car roof that has removable panels on either side of a rigid bar that runs down the center of the vehicle above the driver.

31 Vacaciones destination : LAGO

In Spanish, a “lago” (lake) might be a destination for “Vacaciones” (holidays).

37 “Spamalot” co-creator : ERIC IDLE

Eric Idle is one of the founding members of the Monty Python team. He was very much the musician of the bunch, and is an accomplished guitarist. If you’ve seen the Monty Python film “The Life of Brian”, you might remember the closing number “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”. It was sung by Idle, and was also written by him. That song made it to number-3 in the UK charts in 1991.

The hit musical “Spamalot” is a show derived from the 1974 movie “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. In typical Monty Python style, the action starts just before the curtain goes up with an announcement recorded by the great John Cleese:

(You can) let your cell phones and pagers ring willy-nilly … (but) be aware there are heavily armed knights on stage that may drag you on stage and impale you.

40 Vaudeville great : DURANTE

Jimmy Durante was a very talented entertainer, with that wonderful, gravelly voice, as well as that large nose that he used in so much of his humor (and earned him the nickname “Schnozzola”). Durante appeared in the Broadway stage musical “Jumbo” in 1935. In one scene, he leads a live elephant across the stage, and gets stopped by a police officer who asks, “What are you doing with that elephant?” Durante replies “What elephant?” and brings the house down every night.

The Vire is a river that flows through Normandy in France. The poets of the Vire valley were known as the “Vau de Vire”, a term that some say gave rise to our word “vaudeville”.

45 Use the elliptical : PEDAL

The elliptical trainer exercise machine entered the market in the nineties. It is intended to provide a cardiovascular workout with very little impact on the body. The low impact motion is achieved because the movement of the pedal ensures that the heels stay in contact with the pedals. At the same time, the elliptical motion of the pedals allow the foot to roll from toe to heel, just as if the user is running.

46 Make reparations : ATONE

To atone is to make “reparations”, to “repair” a wrong.

48 Major in transgender activism : MISS

Miss Major Griffin-Gracy (often just “Miss Major”) is an activist working for transgender rights. She is a trans woman herself, having been assigned a male gender at birth in 1940. Griffin-Gracy has been an activist for decades, and even participated in the Stonewall riots in New York City in 1969.

50 Bucks in a forest : DEER

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 the females called 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 …

51 Treebeard and friends : ENTS

Treebeard is the elder of the tree-like people called Ents in J. R. R. Tolkien’s series of novels set in Middle-earth.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Includes, briefly : CCS
4 Bell hooks work whose title comes from a line often attributed to Sojourner Truth : AIN’T I A WOMAN?
15 Prune : LOP
16 Pink flower with a yellow center : PRAIRIE ROSE
17 “Oklahoma!” Tony winner Stroker : ALI
18 Mayonnaise-based condiment : TARTAR SAUCE
19 Jedi on Dagobah : YODA
21 Taskbar lineup : ICONS
22 Walked : TROD
23 Negligent : REMISS
25 Aim : POINT
27 “Born a __”: Trevor Noah memoir : CRIME
28 __ pool : STENO
30 Elements of Byzantine architecture : DOMES
31 Last-minute participant : LATE ENTRY
35 Journalist Tarbell : IDA
36 Award with a Journalistic Integrity category : PEABODY
38 Quebec street : RUE
39 Equal-pay issue : GENDER GAP
41 Whirlpool subsidiary : AMANA
43 Strike force? : UNION
44 Jellyfish’s lack : BRAIN
45 Medicare Advantage program : PART C
47 Hawk : PEDDLE
48 Self-referential : META
49 Best possible : IDEAL
52 Forgets to charge the phone, say : ERRS
54 “Okay, you got me” : I DON’T DENY IT
57 NPR host Shapiro : ARI
58 Mail with a North Pole return address : SANTA LETTER
59 __-de-sac : CUL
60 Multipurpose piece : SLEEPER SOFA
61 Problem that often grows with fame : EGO

Down

1 Tandoor material : CLAY
2 System with shades of meaning : COLOR CODE
3 Character who debuted in the 1962 comic book “Amazing Fantasy” : SPIDER-MAN
4 Germane : APT
5 Game challenge : I RAISE
6 Busters : NARCS
7 Nickname of vodka-maker Beveridge : TITO
8 Home country of Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi : IRAN
9 Flight number : AIRSPEED
10 Director Anderson : WES
11 Sojourner Truth forte : ORATION
12 Grieve : MOURN
13 Broad tie : ASCOT
14 Sine qua non : NEED
20 Brest friend : AMIE
24 “That did me in” : I’M SPENT
26 Minor gridiron gain : ONE YARD
28 Nick who’s coached four Heisman winners at Alabama : SABAN
29 Sporty car roof : T-TOP
30 Unkind remark : DIG
31 Vacaciones destination : LAGO
32 Rugged contest : TRAIL RACE
33 Hallway accent : RUNNER RUG
34 House call? : YEA!
37 “Spamalot” co-creator : ERIC IDLE
40 Vaudeville great : DURANTE
42 Cooked : MADE
44 Faith : BELIEF
45 Use the elliptical : PEDAL
46 Make reparations : ATONE
47 Check words : PAY TO
48 Major in transgender activism : MISS
50 Bucks in a forest : DEER
51 Treebeard and friends : ENTS
53 Isolated work group : SILO
55 Touch a touchscreen : TAP
56 Part of a chorus line? : TRA-