LA Times Crossword 4 Oct 24, Friday

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Constructed by: Gary Larson & Amy Ensz
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill):Adder!

Themed answers are common terms, with “-ER” added at the end:

17A Die-hard independent? : PARTY HATER (party hat + er)

28A Baked potato? : HOT TUBER (hot tub + er)

48A Diamond heist? : ICE CAPER (ice cap + er)

63A Problematic dental patient? : DRILL BITER (drill bit + er)

11D Gauge on an oil rig? : WELL METER (well-met + er)

35D Quality-control inspector at a knapsack factory? : PACK RATER (pack rat + er)

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

Bill’s time: 9m 49s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14 Eighth Greek letter : THETA

The letter theta is the eighth in the Greek alphabet, and the one that looks like the number zero with a horizontal line across the middle.

16 Deli sandwich : HERO

The word “delicatessen” (or “deli” for short) came into English from the German “Delikatessen”. The Germans borrowed the word from French, in which language “délicatesse” means “delicious things (to eat)”. The term’s ultimate root is “delicatus”, the Latin for “giving pleasure, delightful”.

20 Alpine cheese from Italy : ASIAGO

Asiago is a cheese that is named for the region in northeastern Italy from where it originates. It comes in varying textures depending on its age. Fresh Asiago is very smooth, while aged Asiago can be very crumbly.

23 Support on a course : TEE

A tee is a small device on which, say, a golf ball is placed before striking it. The term “tee” comes from the Scottish “teaz”, which described little heaps of sand used to elevate a golf ball for the purpose of getting a clean hit with a club.

24 “Stay” singer Lisa : LOEB

Singer Lisa Loeb was discovered by actor Ethan Hawke, who lived just across the street from her in New York City. Hawke took a demo of her song “Stay (I Missed You)” and gave it to director Ben Stiller, who in turn used it over the ending credits of his 1994 movie “Reality Bites”. The movie was a hit, the song went to number one, and Loeb became the first artist ever to hit that number one spot without having signed up with a record label. Good for her!

27 Ode or haiku : POEM

A haiku is a very elegant form of Japanese verse. When writing a haiku in English we tend to impose the rule that the verse must contain 17 syllables. This restriction comes from the rule in Japanese that the verse must contain 17 sound units called “moras”, but moras and syllables aren’t the same thing. Sadly, the difference is not so clear to me. Here’s an example of a Haiku:

Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don’t make sense
Refrigerator

30 One of Bo Peep’s charges : EWE

The lines that are most commonly quoted from the rhyme about “Little Bo Peep” are:

Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep,
And can’t tell where to find them;
Leave them alone, And they’ll come home,
Wagging their tails behind them.

But, there are actually four more verses, including this one:

It happened one day, as Bo-peep did stray
Into a meadow hard by,
There she espied their tails side by side,
All hung on a tree to dry.

39 “To the stars,” in mottos : AD ASTRA

“Ad Astra” translates from Latin as “To the Stars”, as in the title of the magazine published by the National Space Society, and as in the motto of my alma mater, University College Dublin …

43 Kitchen gadget : RICER

A potato ricer is a kitchen tool used to force potatoes through small holes that are about the diameter of a grain of rice. It usually looks like a large garlic press.

44 Carp kin : DACE

The common dace is a freshwater fish, sometimes also found in brackish water. Native to Europe, it is a target for coarse fishing (rather than game fishing). Coarse anglers try to hook fish that are unsuitable for eating, and usually release their catch back into the water.

46 Writer Bombeck : ERMA

Erma Bombeck wrote for newspapers for about 35 years. She produced more than 4,000 witty and humorous columns under the title “At Wit’s End”, with all describing her home life in suburbia.

48 Diamond heist? : ICE CAPER (ice cap + er)

The polar ice cap at the north of our planet is floating pack ice in the Arctic Ocean. The southern polar ice cap is an ice sheet that covers the landmass known as Antarctica. About 70% of all the freshwater on Earth is held in the southern polar ice cap.

53 Henry VI’s school : ETON

Eton College near Windsor in the south of England was founded way back in 1440 by King Henry VI. Originally known as “The King’s College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor”, the school was intended to provide free education to poor boys. Free education today at Eton? Not so much …

54 Apollo vehicle, briefly : LEM

In the Apollo program, the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) was the vehicle that actually landed on the moon and returned the astronauts to the command module that was orbiting overhead. The third LEM built was named “Spider”, and it participated in the Apollo 9 mission which tested the functionality of the LEM design in space. The fourth LEM was called “Snoopy” and it flew around the moon in the Apollo 10 mission, the dress rehearsal for the upcoming moon landing. Apollo 11’s LEM was called “Eagle” and it brought Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to and from the moon’s surface. Another famous LEM was Apollo 13’s Aquarius. Although Aquarius never landed on the moon, it did serve as a “lifeboat” for the three astronauts after the explosive rupture of an oxygen canister in the Service Module.

57 Netflix title role for Lily : FRANKIE

“Grace and Frankie” is a Netflix original comedy series starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin in the title roles, alongside Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston. Grace & Frankie are two ex-wives who decide to live together after their longtime husbands announce that they are in love and intend to get married.

Lily Tomlin is a comedian and actress who got her big break as a regular member of the cast of “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” in the late sixties and early seventies. Tomlin created several great characters on the show. My personal favorite is Ernestine, the condescending telephone operator with the marvelous nasal voice and snorting laugh. Ernestine was fond of saying “One ringy dingy …” I really enjoy Tomlin’s performances as an actress, notably in the movies “9 to 5” and “All of Me”, and on the TV shows “The West Wing” and “Grace and Frankie”. I went to her stage show many years ago in San Francisco, and just did not enjoy it. I was devastated …

60 Gender-neutral ethnic identity : LATINE

“Latinx” is a gender-neutral term that can be used in place of “Latino” and “Latina”. It is a neologism that first appeared online around 2004. Since then, the term “Latine” has emerged with the same meaning. The latter is considered by many to be more respectful of the Spanish language conventions.

62 Ninth Greek letter : IOTA

Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet, and one that gave rise to our letters I and J. We use the word “iota” to portray something very small, as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.

67 Country whose name comes from a Gaelic goddess : EIRE

There are only two sovereign nations named for women. The island country of Saint Lucia in the Caribbean was named after Saint Lucy of Syracuse. The island country of Ireland (“Éire” in Irish) was named the goddess Ériu from Irish mythology.

71 Barnett of CBS News : ERROL

Errol Barnett was a CNN anchor based in Johannesburg, South Africa and then Atlanta, Georgia before moving to Washington, D.C to work for CBS News in 2016. Barnett was born in England, but was educated in Phoenix, Arizona.

Down

1 Mid-Mar. figure : ST PAT

The first Saint Patrick’s Day celebration in the US was held in 1600, in St. Augustine, Florida. There is some evidence that the first St. Paddy’s Day parade was held the following year, in the same locale. The annual parade in Boston dates back to 1737, in New York City dates back to 1762, and in Chicago dates back to 1843.

2 Lunar cycle component : PHASE

The phases of the moon have been given the following names, in order:

• New moon
• Waxing crescent moon
• First quarter moon
• Waxing gibbous moon
• Full moon
• Waning gibbous moon
• Third quarter moon
• Waning crescent moon
• Dark moon

4 Blues guitarist Baker : ETTA

Etta Baker was a blues guitarist and singer who was born in 1913 and passed away in 2006. She was relatively unknown outside of her hometown in North Carolina for most of her life. However, in the 1990s, she gained national attention after recording her first album at the age of 78. The album, called “One-Dime Blues,” was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1991.

5 Company that invented black-light fluorescent paint : DAY-GLO

“Day-Glo” is a registered trademark used for an ink or paint that glows when exposed to a black light in a darkened room. When Day-Glo paint is viewed in daylight, the colors can look particularly vivid because they respond to UV light present in sunlight.

9 Oaxacan wrap : SERAPE

“Serape” is the English pronunciation and spelling of the Spanish word “zarape”. A zarape is like a Mexican poncho, a soft woolen blanket with a hole in the middle for the head. Most serapes have colorful designs that use traditional Mayan motifs.

Oaxaca (officially “Oaxaca de Juárez”) is the capital city of the Mexican state of Oaxaca, which is located in the south of the country.

12 “Songversation” artist India.__ : ARIE

“Songversation” is a 2013 studio album released by singer/songwriter India Arie. She also released an EP in 2017 titled “SongVersation: Medicine”.

13 Double boilers, e.g. : POTS

A double boiler (also “bain-marie” or “water bath”) is a piece of equipment used to apply gentle heat. It is commonly used in kitchens on the stove top to melt ingredients (like chocolate) and in the oven to provide moist heat (when baking cheesecake, perhaps).

18 Owl : HOOTER

“Hoot owl” is an informal name for the barred owl. Barred owls have dark stripes running up and down the underside of their bodies, hence the name “barred”. They also have a very distinctive two-phrase vocalization, hence the name “hoot”.

22 Like Vikings : NORSE

The Vikings were a Germanic people from northern Europe who were noted as great seafarers. Key to the success of the Vikings was the design of their famous “longships”. Made from wood, the longship was long and narrow with a shallow hull, It was also light, so that the crew would actually carry it small distances over land and around obstacles. Longships were designed to be propelled by both sail and oars.

25 Robinhood alternative : E-TRADE

E-Trade is mainly an online discount brokerage. It was founded in 1982 in Palo Alto, California, and I used to drive by its headquarters almost every day. The company is now run out of New York City. E-Trade used to produce those famous Super Bowl ads with the talking babies staring into a webcam.

Robinhood is a financial services company that specializes in providing stock-trading and banking using its mobile app. The company name references the outlaw of English legend who robbed the rich and gave to the poor. Robinhood’s mission is to provide everyone with access to the financial markets, and not just the wealthy.

26 App issue : BUG

Back in 1947, famed computer programmer Grace Hopper noticed some colleagues fixing a piece of equipment by removing a dead moth from a relay. She remarked that they were “debugging” the system, and so Hopper has been given credit for popularizing the term “bug” in the context of computing.

28 Socks : HOSE

The word “hose” meaning “covering for the leg” has the same roots as the contemporary German word “Hose” meaning “trousers, pants”.

29 Excavator-maker : BOBCAT

Bobcat is a manufacturer of construction and farm equipment based in North Dakota.

32 Grammy winner from Donegal : ENYA

Enya’s real name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1980 Enya launched her very successful solo career, eventually becoming Ireland’s best-selling solo musician. And, she sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

34 Actress Falco : EDIE

Actress Edie Falco won three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano on HBO’s outstanding drama series called “The Sopranos”. Falco also won an Emmy in 2010 for playing the title role in “Nurse Jackie”, an excellent black comedy.

35 Quality-control inspector at a knapsack factory? : PACK RATER (pack rat + er)

“Knapsack” is a Low German word describing a bag with straps designed to be carried on the back. The word “knapsack” probably comes from the German verb “knappen” meaning “to eat”.

38 Amphoralike vessel : EWER

An amphora is a ceramic vase with two handles on either side of a long neck. The name “amphora” is Latin, coming from the Greek meaning “on both sides of the carrier”, referring to the two carrying handles.

55 Año Nuevo month : ENERO

In Spanish, in “enero” (January), one wishes someone “un prospero año nuevo” (a happy new year).

56 Streep of “Only Murders in the Building” : MERYL

Meryl Streep has had more Academy Award nominations and more Golden Globe nominations than any other actor, which is both a tribute to her talent and the respect she has earned in the industry. I am not a huge fan of her earlier works but some of her recent movies are now on my list of all-time favorites. I recommend “Mamma Mia!” (you’ll either love it or hate it!), “Julie & Julia”, “It’s Complicated” and ”Hope Springs”.

“Only Murders in the Building” is a comedy-mystery TV show starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez as a trio of true-crime podcasters who band together to solve murders in their apartment building. Steve Martin co-created the series. Highly recommended …

57 Order : FIAT

A fiat is an arbitrary rule that is imposed. The verb “fiat” is Latin for “let it be done”.

58 Tony who holds the Cowboys record for most touchdown passes : ROMO

Tony Romo is a former quarterback who spent his entire NFL career with the Dallas Cowboys. Romo is also an avid amateur golfer and has even tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to qualify for the US Open golf championship.

59 Playwright Bogosian : ERIC

Actor and playwright Eric Bogosian is perhaps best known for his 1987 play “Talk Radio”, which was adapted into a 1988 film of the same name directed by Oliver Stone.

64 401(k) rollover target : IRA

A rollover IRA is a subtype of traditional Individual Retirement Account (IRA). The funds for a rollover IRA come from another qualified plan such as a 401(k) or 403(b) account.

65 Tennis mulligan : LET

There doesn’t seem to be a definitive account for the origin of the term “mulligan”, which is most often used for a shot do-over in golf. There are lots of stories about golfers named Mulligan though, and I suspect that one of them may be true …