LA Times Crossword 22 Jun 24, Saturday

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Constructed by: Wendy L. Brandes & John Lieb
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 12m 32s

Bill’s errors: 2

• SCARE (scary)
• GRIESE (Griesy)

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 __ board : ABOVE

We use “above board” to mean “on the up and up, without any trickery”. The phrase dates back to the 17th century, and comes from the gaming world. Card players who keep their hands above the board (i.e. the card table) are assumed to be playing openly and fairly.

6 Crab organ : GILL

A fish’s gills are the organs equivalent to the lungs of many land animals. The gills can extract oxygen dissolved in water and excrete carbon dioxide.

15 One of the Three Rivers Stadium rivers : OHIO

The Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh was home to both the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team and the Pittsburgh Steelers football team. It opened in 1970, and closed in 2000. The facility was imploded the following year, to make way for a parking lot. The Pirates and Steelers moved into new, purpose-built facilities: PNC Park and Heinz Field respectively.

17 Like the lines in a Mondrian painting : CRISSCROSS

Piet Mondrian was a painter from the Netherlands who also lived and worked in Paris, London and New York. Mondrian’s works ranged in style from Impressionism to Abstract.

19 “Sourced from the same material” abbr. : IBID

Ibid. is short for the Latin word “ibidem” and is typically found in footnotes and bibliographies. Ibid. is used to refer the reader to the prior citation, instead of giving the same information all over again (title, author etc.).

20 Baseball family name : ALOU

Felipe Alou is a former professional baseball player and manager. Alou managed the Montreal Expos from 1992 to 2001, and the San Francisco Giants from 2003 to 2006. Alou was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and came to the US to play for the Giants in 1955. Felipe’s brothers Matty and Jesús followed him to the US, and into Major League baseball.

21 McIntosh product : APPLE SAUCE

Every McIntosh apple grown today can trace its roots back (pun!) to a tree on a farm near Morrisburg in Ontario, Canada. John McIntosh owned the tree, and he started to cultivate seedlings in 1796. Today, the McIntosh is the national apple of Canada.

23 Make potable, as seawater : DESALT

Something that is potable is fit to drink. The term “potable” derives from the Latin verb “potare” meaning “to drink”, which is also the root for our word “potion”.

25 “Buona __” : SERA

“Buona sera” is Italian for “good evening”.

26 Letters that end a fight : TKO

Technical knockout (TKO)

29 Cholesterol drug : STATIN

Statins are cholesterol-lowering drugs. They act by inhibiting an enzyme that plays a role in the production of cholesterol in the body. The best-selling statin in Lipitor. Lipitor is also the best-selling pharmaceutical in history.

31 Spotted : CALICO

In North America, calico is a brightly printed cloth made from cotton material. Over on the other side of the Atlantic, calico is a plain white cotton cloth.

34 Bread in a skillet : PONE

“Pone” is another name for corn bread, and comes from the Powhatan term “apan” meaning “something baked”.

41 Actress Milano : ALYSSA

Alyssa Milano is an actress who started her career at a very young age. She played Samantha Micelli on “Who’s the Boss”, the daughter of the character played by Tony Danza.

48 Pro __ : TEM

“Pro tempore” can be abbreviated to “pro tem” or “p.t.” “Pro tempore” is a Latin phrase that best translates as “for the time being”. It is used to describe a person who is acting for another, usually a superior. The President pro tempore of the US Senate is the person who presides over the Senate in the absence of the Vice President of the US. It has been tradition since 1890 that the president pro tem is the most senior senator in the majority party. The president pro tem ranks highly in the line of succession to the presidency, falling third in line after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House.

49 Diamond appraisers? : UMPS

Back in the 15th century, “an umpire” was referred to as “a noumpere”, which was misheard and hence causing the dropping of the initial letter N. The term “noumpere” came from Old French “nonper” meaning “not even, odd number”. The idea was that the original umpire was a third person called on to arbitrate between two, providing that “odd number” needed to decide the dispute.

53 “Sesame Street” song that’s complete rubbish? : I LOVE TRASH

“I Love Trash” is a 1969 song performed by Caroll Spinney, voicing the “Sesame Street” character Oscar the Grouch. The song was written by Jeff Moss, who also penned the “Sesame Street” song “Rubber Duckie” that made it into the “Billboard” Hot 100.

56 __ latte : CHAI

Chai is a drink made from spiced black tea, honey and milk, with “chai” being the Hindi word for “tea”. We often called tea “a cup of char” growing up in Ireland, with “char” being our slang word for tea, derived from “chai”.

60 Viola Davis achievement, in brief : EGOT

Emmy, Grammy, Oscar & Tony Awards (EGOT)

64 Big name in salad dressing : KEN’S

The food manufacturing company called Ken’s Foods is known for its salad dressings. As well as selling its own products, it is Ken’s Foods that manufactures the Newman’s Own brand, under contract.

65 __ quotes : SCARE

I must admit, I probably overuse scare quotes in this blog. Scare quotes are quotation marks placed around a word or phrase implying a non-standard usage. Yes, a “non-standard” usage …

Down

1 Boardwalk business : ARCADE

Our word “arcade” comes from the Latin “arcus” meaning “arc”. The first arcades were passages made from a series of arches. This could be an avenue of trees, and eventually any covered avenue. I remember arcades lined with shops and stores when I was growing up on the other side of the Atlantic. Arcades came to be lined with lots of amusements, resulting in amusement arcades and video game arcades.

3 Useless : OTIOSE

“Otiose” means “lazy, indolent”, and comes from the Latin word “otium” meaning “leisure”. Use of the term has extended to mean “without profit, futile”.

5 Aurora’s counterpart : EOS

In Greek mythology, Eos was the goddess of the dawn who lived at the edge of the ocean. Eos would wake each morning to welcome her brother Helios the sun. The Roman equivalent of Eos was Aurora. Rather delightfully, Homer referred to Eos as “rosy-fingered dawn” in both “Iliad” and “Odyssey”.

6 Fuel for climbers : GORP

“Gorp” is a name sometimes used for trail mix, particularly by hikers. It’s not really known for sure how this name came about, but some say it stands for “good old raisins and peanuts” or perhaps “gobs of raw protein”.

7 Places with stacks of silver dollars : IHOPS

So-called “silver dollar” pancakes are about 2-3 inches in diameter, a size that’s not far off pre-1979 US silver dollar coins, hence the name.

8 Cotton thread : LISLE

Lisle is a cotton fabric that has been through an extra process at the end of its manufacture that burns off lint and the ends of fibers leaving the fabric very smooth and with a clean edge. Cotton lisle is mainly used in the manufacture of underwear and stockings. The process to make the thread was invented in the French city of Lille (formerly “Lisle”), hence the name.

9 Second-person plural? : LOSERS

Losers come in second, not first.

10 Mother of Hermes : MAIA

Maia is one of the Pleiades of Greek mythology, and is the eldest of the Seven Sisters. The month of May is named for Maia.

Hermes was the Greek god of transitions and boundaries, one who intercedes between mortals and the divine. The Roman equivalent to Hermes was the god Mercury.

12 Gecko’s specialty : STICKING

The word “gecko” comes from an Indonesian/Javanese word “tokek”, which is imitative of the reptile’s chirping sound. In making such a sound, geckos are unique in the world of lizards. More interesting to me than a gecko’s chirping is its ability to cling to walls and other vertical surfaces. Their feet are specially adapted with “toes” that make extremely intimate, close contact to a surface. The toes have millions of hairs called setae that enable the clinging. It isn’t suction that supports them, but rather van der Waals forces (weak “gravitational” attractions). Fascinating stuff …

18 Source of the Dutton family’s wealth on “Yellowstone” : CATTLE

“Yellowstone” is a pretty successful drama series starring Kevin Costner that premiered in 2018. Costner plays a rich and powerful rancher in Montana. Such is the success of the show that two spin-off shows were commissioned, with other spin-offs planned:

1. “1883” (premiered in 2021, starring Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill)
2. “1923” (starring Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford)

24 Part of a billionaire’s jet set? : LEAR

Business jet manufacturer Learjet was founded in 1960 by William Powell Lear. The original Learjet was a modified Swiss ground-attack fighter aircraft. Some models were particularly groundbreaking. For example, the Learjet 23 was the first private jet to exceed Mach 0.8 (around 600 mph), while the Learjet 28/29 was the first private jet to be certified for operation at altitudes above 51,000 feet. Learjet was purchased by Bombardier in 1990. Bombardier halted production of Learjet models in 2022.

30 Furious and then some : APOPLECTIC

In non-medical usage, the term “apoplexy” describes a state of intense anger. “Apoplexy” was once used medically to mean “stroke”.

33 Beverly Cleary’s “__ Spofford” : OTIS

“Otis Spofford” is a children’s novel by Beverly Cleary that was first published in 1953. The title character is a young boy who likes to make mischief.

35 Treats baked in Swiss roll pans : YULE LOGS

A Yule log is a large log made from a very hard wood that is burned as part of the Christmas celebration. There is also a cake called a Yule log that is served at Christmas, especially in French-speaking parts of the world. The cake is made from a sponge that is rolled up to resemble a wooden Yule log.

The cake that we tend to call a “jelly roll” in the US is referred to as a “swiss roll” in many other parts of the world. It is a rolled sponge cake, filled with perhaps whipped cream or jam.

36 Element in “Night of the Living Dead” : OXYMORON

The word “oxymoron” is in itself an oxymoron. It is derived from the Greek words “Oxys” and “moros” meaning “sharp” and “stupid” respectively.

A zombie is a corpse that has been brought back to life by some mystical means. Our modern use of the term largely stems from the undead creatures featured in the 1968 horror movie called “Night of the Living Dead”. Now that film I haven’t seen, and probably never will …

38 __ Goldberg machine : RUBE

Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist, engineer and inventor who became famous for designing overly-complicated gadgets to perform the simplest of tasks. Goldberg produced a famous series of cartoons depicting such designs. Such was the success of his work, the Merriam-Webster dictionary accepted the phrase “Rube Goldberg” as an adjective in 1931, an adjective meaning “accomplishing something simple through complex means”.

39 W. Coast daily : LA TIMES

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.

42 Jane’s “Glee” role : SUE

In the TV show “Glee”, actress Jane Lynch plays the school cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester. Well, Sylvester is the cheerleading coach for the first four seasons. She gets promoted to high school principal for the last two seasons.

43 Sunset Limited operator : AMTRAK

The Sunset Limited is a passenger train service between New Orleans and Los Angeles. The train used to run between Miami and Los Angeles, making the Sunset Limited the only true transcontinental service in American history.

45 End of a course in Greek literature? : ITHACA

Ithaca is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It features in Homer’s “Odyssey” as it was the home of the mythological hero Odysseus, who was Ithaca’s king. “Odyssey” tells of the long journey home of Odysseus to Ithaca after the Trojan War.

46 More like a Marie Kondo disciple : NEATER

Marie Kondo (also known as “Konmari”) runs a very successful organizing consulting business that she founded when she was 19 years old, and while a student at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University. She wrote an extremely successful book titled “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” that was first published in 2011. I’ve read it, and acted on at least some of the advice given therein …

47 Quarterback Bob who won two Super Bowls with the Dolphins : GRIESE

Bob Griese is a retired NFL player who was a quarterback for the Miami Dolphin from 1967 to 1980. Bob’s son Brian Griese was also a quarterback in the NFL.

51 Carl who said, “We are made of star-stuff” : SAGAN

Carl Sagan was a brilliant astrophysicist, and a great communicator. He was famous for presenting obscure concepts about the cosmos in such a way that we mere mortals could appreciate. Sagan also wrote the novel “Contact” that was adapted into a fascinating 1997 film of the same name starring Jodie Foster.

54 Checks out : VETS

The verb “to vet” comes from the term “veterinarian”. The idea is that to vet something is to subject it to careful examination, like a veterinarian checking out an animal.