LA Times Crossword 5 Aug 23, Saturday

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Constructed by: Kyle Dolan & Dylan Schiff
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 11m 32s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Next-level experience? : BOSS FIGHT

In the world of video gaming, a significantly strong computer-controlled opponent is referred to as a boss. A fight against a boss is a boss battle or boss fight.

10 “The Hobbit” figure : DWARF

“The Hobbit, or There and Back Again” is a children’s fantasy novel by J. R. R. Tolkien that was popular from the time of its first publication in 1937. Included in the early awards for “The Hobbit” was a prize for best juvenile fiction from “The New York Herald Tribune”. Tolkien adapted his succeeding novel “The Lord of the Rings” to incorporate elements in “The Hobbit”, so that the two tales are very much related.

18 Emma Roberts, to Julia Roberts : NIECE

Actress Emma Roberts is perhaps best known to TV audiences for multiple roles she has played in the show “American Horror Story”. Emma is the daughter of actor Eric Roberts, brother of actress Julia Roberts.

20 London institution with a Los Angeles namesake, familiarly : THE TIMES

“The Times” of London was the first newspaper to bear the “Times” name. The venerable publication was founded in 1785 as “The Daily Universal Register”, and became “The Times” in 1788.

The “Los Angeles Times” newspaper started out life in 1881 as the “Los Angeles Daily Times”. The paper has a turbulent history, especially in the early 1900s when management and unions were at loggerheads. In 1910, two union members bombed the “Los Angeles Times” building causing a fire that killed 21 newspaper employees.

24 Chichi : POSH

No one really knows the etymology of the word “posh”. The popular myth that “posh” is actually an acronym standing for “port out, starboard home” is completely untrue, and is a story that can actually be traced back to the 1968 movie “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. The myth is that wealthy British passengers traveling to and from India would book cabins on the port side for the outward journey and the starboard side for the home journey. This trick was supposedly designed to keep their cabins out of the direct sunlight.

Someone or something described as chichi is showily trendy and pretentious. “Chichi” is a French noun meaning “airs, fuss”.

25 High wind : PICCOLO

The piccolo is a woodwind instrument that looks like a small flute. Piccolos play one octave higher than flutes, and so the instrument is known by Italian musicians as an “ottavino”, Italian for “little octave”. “Piccolo” is Italian for “small”.

29 Hides : SKINS

Both the verb “to hide” (to conceal) and the noun “hide” (skin), derive from the Old English “hyd” meaning “hide, skin”. The idea is that to “hide” something is similar to covering it with a “skin”.

31 Technical drawing : SCHEMATIC

A schema is an outline or a model. The plural of “schema” is “schemata” and the adjectival form is “schematic”.

34 Boddingtons, e.g. : ALE

Boddingtons is a very tasty bitter ale that originated in Manchester, England. It became quite popular here in the US when it was introduced in cans containing a “widget”, which gave the beer a creamy mouth feel.

45 Like many of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s jabots : LACY

A jabot is a very ornate clothing accessory worn around the neck. Jabots were often made from lace, and were originally worn by upper class males around the mid-1600s, with women adopting the style in the late 1800s. Jabots are still worn today in some official costumes. For example, some of our female Supreme Court justices might be seen wearing jabots.

Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) served on the US Supreme Court. Justice Ginsburg was the second woman to join the Court, and was nominated by President Bill Clinton. She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999 and underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. During that time she did not miss one day on the bench. In 2009 Justice Ginsburg had surgery for pancreatic cancer, and was back to work 12 days later. She had left-lung lobectomy to remove cancerous nodules in 2018, which forced Justice Ginsburg to miss oral argument in January 2019, for the first time since joining the court 25 years earlier. She finally succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2020. Much of Ginsburg’s life is recounted in the excellent 2018 movie “On the Basis of Sex”.

50 Onetime carrier based in Cairo : AIR SINAI

Air Sinai was a Cairo-based airline owned by Egyptair. It was set up in 1982 to provide flights between Egypt and Israel, which was a requirement of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty. The name “Air Sinai” was chosen as “Egyptair” was considered too controversial for flights into Israel at the time. Egyptair planes started regular service using its own planes in 2021, and Air Sinai ceased to exist.

52 “The Crown” role, familiarly : LADY DI

Just after Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car accident, then Prime Minister Tony Blair addressed the nation. In so doing, he described her as “the People’s Princess”. That description resonated with many, and is still used today when referring to “Lady Di”.

“The Crown” is a historical drama produced for Netflix that covers the life of British Queen Elizabeth II from her marriage to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. For the first two seasons, Elizabeth is played by Claire Foy and Philip by Matt Smith. For the next two seasons, Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies take over as Elizabeth and Philip. The show finishes up with Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce in the roles.

55 Short-tailed weasel : STOAT

The stoat has dark brown fur in the summer, and white fur in the winter. Sometimes the term “ermine” is used for the animal during the winter when the fur is white. Ermine skins have long been prized by royalty and are often used for white trim on ceremonial robes.

56 Taboo gathering? : GAME NIGHT

Taboo is a guessing game that was introduced by Parker Brothers in 1989. Players must encourage their teammates to guess a word on a card, without using that word or related words defined on the card. It’s a fun game that’s played regularly around here …

58 Flip side? : TAILS

The two sides of a coin are known as the “obverse” and the “reverse”. The obverse is commonly referred to as “heads”, as it often depicts someone’s head. The reverse is commonly called “tails”, as it is the opposite of “heads”.

60 Diamond Jubilee number : SIXTY

A diamond jubilee is the 60th anniversary of a significant event.

61 Beach club? : SAND WEDGE

A sand wedge is a club used to get out of the sand in a game of golf.

Down

1 Chess pieces known as elephants in Russia : BISHOPS

In the game of chess, the piece known in English as the “bishop” can have other names when translated from other languages. For example:

1. Elephant: Chinese and Russian
2. Jester: French
3. Runner: German
4. Camel: Hindi
5. Standard-bearer: Italian

3 Elaine who had a recurring role as Jack’s mother on “30 Rock” : STRITCH

Elaine Stritch was an actress and singer who had a very successful career, particularly on Broadway. She was nominated for a Tony Award five times, with the first nomination coming for her performance in the 1955 production of “Bus Stop”. Stritch eventually won a Tony in 2002, for her one-woman show “Elaine Stritch at Liberty”. She lived and worked in London for a long time. I remember her as a lead in a Britcom titled “Two’s Company”, which was successful in Britain and Ireland and was remade (without much success) in the US as “The Two of Us”.

4 First word of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin'” : SHE’S

“Free Fallin’” is a 1989 song recorded by Tom Petty. It was the first track that Petty completed for his debut album “Full Moon Fever”, and was to become his most successful and best-known song.

5 Potential Guinness entry, say : FEAT

“The Guinness Book of World Records” holds some records of its own. It is the best-selling, copyrighted series of books of all time and is one of the books most often stolen from public libraries! The book was first published in 1954 by two twins, Norris and Ross McWhirter. The McWhirter twins found themselves with a smash hit, and eventually became very famous in Britain hosting a TV show based on world records.

6 Perfect Portions brand : IAMS

Iams dog food was introduced by animal nutritionist Paul Iams. He felt that household pets were suffering somewhat by being fed a diet of table scraps, so he developed dry dog food that he felt was more nutritious and suitable for pet dogs. He founded the Iams company, now part of Procter & Gamble, in 1946.

7 Test with a max verbal reasoning score of 170 : GRE

Passing the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) is usually a requirement for entry into graduate school here in the US.

8 Enterprise rival : HERTZ

The Hertz car rental company was started in 1918 by Walter L. Jacobs in Chicago. He began with just twelve model T Ford cars available for rent. In 1923, the car rental operation was bought out by John D. Hertz who incorporated it into his truck and coach manufacturing company.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car was established in 1957 by Jack. C. Taylor in St. Louis, Missouri, where the company is still headquartered today. The company was originally called Executive Leasing Company. The name was changed in 1962 in honor of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, on which Taylor served during WWII.

9 Smith of TV’s “Empire” : TASHA

Actress Tasha Smith’s break came with a starring role in the nineties sitcom “Boston Common”, playing Tasha King. More recently, she landed a recurring role in the show “Empire”, playing Carol Holloway.

11 O’Hare and Bush, for two : WWII PILOTS

Lieutenant Commander Edward “Butch” O’Hare was the US Navy’s first flying ace and a Medal of Honor recipient in WWII. He received that medal for intercepting single-handedly nine heavy bombers that were approaching his aircraft carrier. He had limited ammunition at the time, but used what was left to shoot down five bombers and damage a sixth. The following year, in 1943, his aircraft was shot down while he led the first ever nighttime fighter attack from a carrier. His body was never found. The USS O’Hare destroyer was named in his honor, as was Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

President George H. W. Bush served in the US Navy during WWII. Future President Bush postponed his entry into college after the attack on Pearl Harbor and enlisted in the navy instead. When he earned his wings, he was the youngest aviator in the US Navy at that time.

12 Sea __ : ANEMONE

The name “anemone” means “daughter of the wind” in Greek, and at one time it was believed that the wind was what actually caused the flower to bloom. The sea anemone is named for the terrestrial plant even though the sea anemone isn’t a plant at all. The sea anemone is a predatory animal found on the ocean floor.

23 __ du Rhône : COTES

Côtes du Rhône is a wine region centered on the Rhône river in France. The name of the region translates as “Slopes (or Hills) of Rhône”. The most prevalent grapes used in Côtes du Rhône wine are grenache (in reds and rosés) and grenache blanc (in whites).

26 Seasoning on a Chicago-style hot dog : CELERY SALT

A Chicago-style hot dog consists of an all-beef frankfurter on a poppy seed bun. The sausage is topped with yellow mustard, dark green relish, chopped raw onion, pickle spear, sport peppers, tomato slices and a dash of celery salt.

28 Heathrow facilities : LAV

London’s Heathrow handles more international passengers than any other airport in the world, and is the third busiest airport around the globe in terms of passenger traffic (after Atlanta and Beijing).

30 Japanese cutlet : KATSU

“Katsuretsu” (also just “katsu”) is a dish from Japanese cuisine that resembles a Wiener schnitzel from Viennese cuisine. Katsu is a breaded meat cutlet.

33 “The Flight Attendant” star : CUOCO

Kaley Cuoco is an actress from Camarillo, California who is best known for playing Penny, the female lead on the sitcom “The Big Bang Theory”. Cuoco’s love interest in the show is played by Johnny Galecki, and the two were romantically involved in real life for a couple of years. Cuoco also got a lot of exposure playing William Shatner’s daughter on priceline.com ads, and playing a genie in Toyota RAV4 commercials.

“The Flight Attendant” is a comedy-drama TV show that is based on a 2018 novel of the same name by Chris Bohjalian. It stars Kaley Cuoco in the title role. Cuoco’s own production company (Yes, Norman Productions) had optioned the rights to the novel in 2017. The show is described as a mystery-thriller as well as a comedy-drama. It’s on my list to watch …

37 Brand with a Pamplemousse flavor : LA CROIX

La Croix is a sparkling water brand that comes from La Crosse, Wisconsin, hence the name.

“Pamplemousse” is French for “grapefruit”.

42 Cocktail flavored with orgeat syrup : MAI TAI

The mai tai cocktail is strongly associated with the Polynesian islands, but the drink was supposedly invented in 1944 in Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland, California. One recipe is 6 parts white rum, 3 parts orange curaçao, 3 parts orgeat syrup, 1 part rock candy syrup, 2 parts fresh lime juice, all mixed with ice and then a float added of 6 parts dark rum. “Maita’i” is the Tahitian word for “good”.

Orgeat is an almond-flavored syrup, and an essential ingredient in a classic mai tai cocktail. Although today’s orgeat is made from almonds, the original recipe called for a blend of almonds and barley. The name “orgeat” comes from Latin via the French “orge” meaning “barley”.

43 “Always and Forever, Lara Jean” novelist Jenny : HAN

Author Jenny Han wrote a trilogy of young adult romance novels based on her own habit of writing love letters as a teenager to boys on whom she had a crush. Known as the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” series, the trilogy comprises:

1. “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” (2014)
2. “P.S. I Still Love You” (2015)
3. “Always and Forever, Lara Jean” (2017)

48 Pageant prize : TIARA

The oldest beauty pageant still operating in the US is the Miss America contest. The Miss America beauty pageant started out as a marketing ploy in the early twenties to attract tourists to the Atlantic City boardwalk after Labor Day. Today, contestants must be between 17 and 24 years of age. Before those limits were introduced, Marian Bergeron won the 1933 title at only 15 years of age.

54 Boggle pieces : DICE

Boggle is a word game in which one uses 16 lettered dice in a 4×4 tray to find words. There was even a “Boggle” game show that ran on the Family Channel for a few months in 1994.

57 All U.S. vice presidents until 2021 : MEN

Kamala Harris was a US Senator for California starting in 2017, after serving for six years as the Attorney General of California. In early 2019, Harris announced her run for the Democratic nomination for US president in the 2020 election. Although she dropped out of the race, she was chosen by eventual nominee Joe Biden as his vice-presidential running mate. When the Biden-Harris ticket won the election, Harris became the first female US vice president, and the highest-ranking female politician in the history of the nation.