LA Times Crossword 18 Feb 23, Saturday

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Constructed by: Tom Pepper & 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 06s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 High-end evening wear? : PAJAMA TOPS

Our word “pajamas” (sometimes “PJs” or “jammies”) comes to us from the Indian subcontinent, where “pai jamahs” were loose fitting pants tied at the waist and worn at night by locals and ultimately by the Europeans living there. And “pajamas” is another of those words that I had to learn to spell differently when I came to America. On the other side of the Atlantic, the spelling is “pyjamas”.

15 Honor won by Beyoncé a record 22 times : IMAGE AWARD

The NAACP Image Awards are presented annually to recognise people of color in the worlds of film, television, music and literature. The first awards were presented in 1967, and the ceremony usually takes place in Los Angeles.

Beyoncé Knowles established herself in the entertainment industry as the lead singer with the R&B group Destiny’s Child. She launched her solo singing career in 2002, after making her first appearance as an actor. In 2006 she played the lead in the very successful movie adaptation of the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls”. Beyoncé is married to rap star Jay-Z. She is also referred to affectionately as “Queen Bey”, a play on the phrase “the queen bee”. Her fan base goes by the name “Beyhive”.

17 Information for the record : LINER NOTES

These days, the term “liner notes” is used for the informational booklet which comes with a music CD. The original liner notes (also “sleeve notes”) were the informational text printed on the inner sleeve (“liner”) of a 12-inch vinyl record.

19 Radio host Shapiro who sings with Pink Martini : 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 appears regularly as a guest singer with the group Pink Martini, and has appeared on several of the band’s albums.

20 Org. whose website has a “Travelers’ Health” page : 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 …

21 Tarnished : SULLIED

To sully is to stain, tarnish. The term is often used in the context of sullying or tarnishing a reputation.

23 Pique periods : FITS

Our term “pique” meaning “fit of ill feeling” is a French word meaning “prick, sting, irritation”.

25 Navigation software once called FreeMap Israel : WAZE

Waze is a navigation app that is similar to Google Maps and Apple Maps. Waze was developed in Israel, and was acquired by Google in 2013.

30 Flat rates? : RENTS

“Flat”, in the sense of an apartment or condominium, is a word more commonly used in Britain and Ireland than on this side of the pond. The term “flat” is Scottish in origin, in which language it used to mean “floor in a house”.

33 Field trip? : ERROR

That would be baseball …

35 Org. with conferences : NCAA

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) dates back to the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. When his son broke his nose playing football at Harvard, President Roosevelt turned his attention to the number of serious injuries and even deaths occurring in college sports. He instigated meetings between the major educational institutions, leading to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS) in 1906, which was given the remit of regulating college sports. The IAAUS became the NCAA in 1910. The NCAA has been headquartered in Indianapolis since 1999.

37 Cholesterol-rich burger toppers : FRIED EGGS

Sterols occur in nature in both plants and animals. The most famous of the animal sterols is cholesterol, which is found in all animals as a vital component of cell walls. Cholesterol is made within the body, so it isn’t a necessary part of the diet.

40 Venue with programmes : BBC

The marvelous British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is mainly funded by the UK government through a television “licence” (British spelling, as opposed to “license”!) fee that is levied annually on all households watching TV transmissions.

43 Cuarón Oscar winner about a domestic worker in 1970s Mexico : ROMA

The 2018 movie “Roma” won that season’s Oscar for Best Director (Alfonso Cuarón), and in doing so became the first foreign-language film to win in that category. “Roma” was also the first Mexican entry to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Film director Alfonso Cuarón has been at the helm of some real blockbusters, including 2004’s “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” and 2013’s “Gravity”. When he won the Academy Award for Best Directing for the latter film, Cuarón became the first Mexican director to be so honored.

44 Hoodwinks : SNOWS

“To hoodwink” has had the meaning “to deceive” since about 1600. Prior to that it meant simply “to blindfold”, and is simply a combination of the words “hood” and “wink”.

48 Best Driver and Best Jockey, e.g. : ESPYS

The ESPY Awards are a creation of the ESPN sports television network. One difference with similarly named awards in the entertainment industry is that ESPY winners are chosen solely based on viewer votes. The acronym “ESPY” stands for “Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly”.

50 Flounder’s best friend, in a Disney film : ARIEL

“The Little Mermaid” is a 1989 animated feature from Disney that is based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. It tells the story of a mermaid princess named Ariel who falls in love with the human Prince Eric. Ariel’s father is chief merman King Triton. Her best friend is Flounder, who despite his name is not a flounder at all and is actually a tropical fish. Ariel is also friends with Sebastian, a red Jamaican crab whose full name is Horatio Thelonious Ignacious Crustaceous Sebastian.

52 Monet’s “Cathedral Series” city : ROUEN

Rouen is the major city in Normandy in northern France. During the days of Norman Britain, Rouen was one of the capitals of the Anglo-Norman dynasties. It was also where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake in 1431.

Impressionist Claude Monet produced a series of paintings of Rouen Cathedral in the 1890s. Famously, Monet painted the same subject at varying times of the day and times of the year, with the intention of recording the changes in appearance with differing light. He produced over thirty such paintings of Rouen Cathedral over a two-year period, resulting in one of the artist’s most famous and prized series of works.

56 Danish shoe brand : ECCO

I have to say, after owning several pairs, that ECCO shoes are the most comfortable in the world. The company is headquartered in Denmark.

57 Flip one’s lid : GO BATTY

The expression “bats in the belfry” meaning “mad, crazy” conjures up images of bats flying around Gothic bell towers, but actually it’s a relatively recent addition to our vernacular. The term is American in origin, and dates back only to the early 1900s. The concept is that someone who is “crazy”, with wild ideas flying around his or her head, can be described as having bats (wild ideas) flying around the belfry (head). The terms “bats” and “batty” originated at the same time, and are clearly derivative.

59 Homes on the road, briefly : RVS

Recreational vehicle (RV)

67 Heart-to-hearts : TETE-A-TETES

A “tête-à-tête” is a one-on-one meeting, and a term that translates from French as “head-to-head”.

68 Olympic archer? : EROS

The name of Eros, the Greek god of love, gives rise to our word “erotic” meaning “arousing sexual desire”. Eros was referred to in Latin as both “Amor” (meaning “love”) and “Cupid” (meaning “desire”).

An archer is someone who shoots with a bow and arrow. The term “archer” comes from the Latin “arcus” meaning “bow, arc”.

Down

1 Rice dishes : PILAFS

“Pilaf” is a Persian word, one that we use to describe rice that is browned in oil and then cooked in a seasoned broth. It can also be called “pilau”.

3 Cleaning agent : JANITOR

A janitor is someone who takes care of the maintenance or cleaning of a building. An older definition of the term “janitor” is “doorman”. Our word comes from the Latin “ianitor” meaning “doorkeeper”.

5 Defunct Ford div. : MERC

The Mercury brand of car was made by Ford from 1938 until 2011. Mercury was introduced by Henry Ford’s son Edsel Ford. Mercury vehicles were positioned as being more luxurious that the regular Ford models, and more economical than Ford’s high-end Lincoln models.

6 Mug alternative : A AND W

A&W is a brand of root beer that has been around since 1920, when Roy Allen partnered with Frank Wright to create the A&W moniker from their family names.

Mug Root Beer is produced in San Francisco. The beverage was introduced in the city in the 1940s under the name Belfast Root Beer.

7 Garage type : TWO-CAR

We imported the word “garage” into English from French, in which language the term historically described a place for storing or sheltering something. Later the term specifically applied to a “shelter” for a car. The verb “garer” is French for “to shelter”, and now also means “to park (a car)”.

8 __ of This Swirled: Ben & Jerry’s flavor with cookie bits : OAT

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield did a correspondence course on making ice-cream in 1977 that was given by Pennsylvania State University’s creamery. The following year they opened an ice cream parlor in an old gas station in Burlington, Vermont. Today Ben & Jerry’s has locations in over 20 countries around the world, and theirs was the first brand of ice-cream to go into space.

10 California sch. : SDSU

San Diego State University (SDSU) was founded in 1897 as San Diego Normal School. Back then, the main purpose of the school was to educate women who wanted to be elementary school teachers. It changed its name to San Diego State Teachers College in 1923. The curriculum expanded beyond teacher education in 1935, and became San Diego State College. In 1960, the college joined what is now known as the California State University.

22 One of the oldest types of pasta : LASAGNA

“Lasagna” was originally the name of a cooking pot, but the term came to mean a dish that was cooked in it. “Lasagna” also became the name of the flat noodle used in the dish. If you order lasagna on the other side of the Atlantic, you’ll notice the “lasagne” spelling, the plural of “lasagna”. The plural is used as there is more than one layer of pasta in the dish.

26 Emmy-winning star of “Euphoria” : ZENDAYA

Zendaya Coleman, known simply as “Zendaya” on stage, is an actress and singer. Her big break as an actress came with the role of Rocky Blue on the Disney sitcom “Shake It Up”. Zendaya gained further attention from TV audiences when in 2013, at 16 years of age, she became the youngest contestant up to that time on “Dancing with the Stars”. She did well, coming in second in the competition.

“Euphoria” is an HBO teen drama show that is loosely based on a miniseries of the same name from Israel. Lead actress in the show is Zendaya, who plays a recovering teenage drug addict.

31 Elements in a photo’s metadata : TAGS

“Metadata” is usually defined as “data about data”. The classic example is the card catalog of a library. The catalog is a set of data about a collection of books. Each entry in the catalog is data about a specific publication.

34 Ocho __, Jamaica : RIOS

If you ever take a cruise ship to Jamaica, you will likely disembark in Ocho Rios, a major port of call for the cruise lines. “Ocho rios” is Spanish for “eight rivers”.

If you ever take a cruise ship to Jamaica, you will likely disembark in Ocho Rios, a major port of call for the cruise lines. “Ocho rios” is Spanish for “eight rivers”.

40 Darts, e.g. : BAR GAME

Darts is a game that’s often played in English and Irish pubs, even over here in America. The scoring in a traditional game of darts is difficult to describe in a sentence or two, but the game of darts called “Round the Clock” is simply hitting the numbers 1 through 20 on the dartboard in sequence.

45 Kansas setting of “Dennis the Menace” : WICHITA

Wichita, Kansas started out as a trading post established by Jesse Chisholm in the 1860s, a stopover on the famous Chisholm Trail. Wichita became one of the railheads on the Chisholm Trail, the end point of many cattle drives from Texas. As such, Wichita earned the nickname “Cowtown”.

“Dennis the Menace” is a comic strip that first appeared in 1951, and was originally drawn by Hank Ketcham. The strip made the jump over the years from the newspaper to television and the silver screen. Dennis’s full name is Dennis Mitchell, and his parents are Henry and Alice (Johnson) Mitchell. Dennis’s nemesis is his neighbor, Mister George Everett Wilson. Hank Ketcham drew his inspiration for the story from his real life. When he introduced the strip he had a 4-year-old son called Dennis, and a wife named Alice.

55 Jack Pearson or Phil Dunphy : TV DAD

“This Is Us” is a television drama that debuted in 2016. The storyline centers on three siblings Kevin, Kate and Randall Pearson and their parents Jack and Rebecca Pearson. Kevin and Kate are the surviving members of a triplet pregnancy. Jack and Rebecca decide to adopt Randall, a child born on the same day as the surviving siblings. The adopting family is white, and the adopted child is black.

The character Phil Dunphy on the sitcom “Modern Family” is played by actor Ty Burrell. Phil is a real estate agent and refers to his role in his family as “cool Dad”.

58 Small songbirds : TITS

The birds known as chickadees or titmice in North America, are usually called simply “tits” in the rest of the English-speaking world.

60 Exams no longer considered for admissions decisions at UC : SATS

Today, the standardized test for admission to colleges is known as the SAT Reasoning Test, but it used to be called the Scholastic Aptitude Test and Scholastic Assessment Test, which led to the abbreviation “SAT”.

64 Itinerary info : ETA

Estimated time of arrival (ETA)