LA Times Crossword 1 Dec 24, Sunday

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

Today’s Theme: Rhyme Scheme

Themed answers are common phrases reinterpreted with reference to celebrated nursery rhymes:

• 21A Cleanup duty after Humpty Dumpty’s accident? : FALL CLEARANCE
• 37A Rental stipulations for a large family’s befuddled matriarch? : SHOE STRINGS
• 58A Vessel designed for row-row-rowing gently down the stream? : DREAM BOAT
• 72A Serving dish for Old Mother Hubbard’s dog? : BONE CHINA
• 90A Telegram heralding Jack’s candlestick feat? : JUMPER CABLE
• 110A Weasel’s mindset after being chased by a monkey? : POP PSYCHOLOGY
• 14D Identifying marks for a horn-blowing little boy? : BLUE PRINTS
• 70D Strong flavor from that little Horner kid’s Christmas pie? : CORNER KICK

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

Bill’s time: 14m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Barrio grocery : BODEGA

“Bodega” is a Spanish term describing a winery, or these days a grocery store.

“Barrio” is the name given to an urban district in Spanish-speaking countries.

7 Breakfast strip : BACON

“Bacon” is an Old French word that we imported into English. The term ultimately comes from the Proto-Germanic “bakkon” meaning “back meat”.

18 Suggestive : EROTIC

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”).

20 Actress Dahl who founded the Dahlia fragrance company : ARLENE

Arlene Dahl is an American movie actress who was quite famous during the 1950s. Among her screen credits was playing the female lead in 1959’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, alongside James Mason and Pat Boone.

21 Cleanup duty after Humpty Dumpty’s accident? : FALL CLEARANCE

Humpty Dumpty is a character in a nursery rhyme. He is usually depicted as an egg, although that isn’t specifically called out in the original rhyme:

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

23 Crept around : SKULKED

To skulk is to move furtively or in a stealthy manner. The verb “to skulk” is of Scandinavian origin. It is a relative of the Norwegian “skulke”, Danish “skulke” and Swedish “skolka” that all have a similar meaning.

25 Intercontinental mountain range : URALS

The eastern side of the Ural Mountains in Russia and Kazakhstan is generally regarded as the natural divide between the continents of Europe and Asia.

29 Nail polish brand in square bottles : ESSIE

Essie Cosmetics is a company that was founded by Essie Weingarten, and which is now owned by L’Oreal. Apparently, Queen Elizabeth II would only wear Essie’s Ballet Slippers color nail polish. Well, that’s what Wikipedia claims …

31 Color wheel display : TONES

A color wheel is a visual device that illustrates the relationship between various colors and hues.

35 Mind-altering synthetic drug : LSD

LSD (known colloquially as “acid”) is lysergic acid diethylamide. A Swiss chemist named Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938 in a research project looking for medically efficacious ergot alkaloids. It wasn’t until some five years later when Hofmann ingested some of the drug accidentally that its psychedelic properties were discovered. Trippy, man …

37 Rental stipulations for a large family’s befuddled matriarch? : SHOE STRINGS

“There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe” is an English nursery rhyme.

There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do;
She gave them some broth without any bread;
Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

41 Field event : SHOT PUT

Shot put, or events like shot put, have been around for millennia, but the first events that truly resemble today’s track and field event had to come with the invention of the cannonball. Soldiers would “put” (throw) cannonballs as far as possible in attempts to outperform each other. Shot put has been in the modern Olympic Games since day-one, with American Robert Garrett winning the gold in the first games in 1896.

43 Singer Lewis who won “The X Factor” : LEONA

Leona Lewis rocketed to fame after winning the British TV show called “The X Factor” (the show that spawned the UK’s “Pop Idol” and America’s “American Idol”).

56 Electron stream : BETA RAY

Beta particles (the constituents of beta rays) are the products of decay of a radioactive element. Beta particles are high-energy electrons or positrons emitted from the nucleus of the decaying element.

58 Vessel designed for row-row-rowing gently down the stream? : DREAM BOAT

“Row, Row, Row Your Boat” is a nursery rhyme that originated in the US.

Row, row, row your boat,
Gently down the stream,
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream.

60 Bogie toppers? : FEDORAS

A fedora is a lovely hat, I think. It is made of felt, and is similar to a trilby, but has a broader brim. “Fedora” was a play written for Sarah Bernhardt and first performed in 1889. Bernhardt had the title role of Princess Fedora, and on stage she wore a hat similar to a modern-day fedora. The play led to the women’s fashion accessory, the fedora hat, commonly worn by women into the beginning of the twentieth century. Men then started wearing fedoras, but only when women gave up the fashion …

Humphrey “Bogie” Bogart’s breakthrough movie was “The Petrified Forest” from 1936, but for me nothing beats “Casablanca”. That said, check out the original “Sabrina” from 1954. It’s a real delight. Bogie was nominated three times for a Best Actor Oscar, but only won once: for “The African Queen”.

65 City with a van Gogh walking tour : ARLES

Quite a few years ago now, I had the privilege of living just a short car-ride from the beautiful city of Arles in the South of France. Although Arles has a long and colorful history, the Romans had a prevailing influence over the city’s design. Arles has a spectacular Roman amphitheater, arch, circus as well as old walls that surround the center of the city. In more modern times, it was a place Vincent van Gogh often visited, and was where he painted many of his most famous works, including “Cafe Terrace at Night” and “Bedroom in Arles”.

67 Musical endings : CODAS

In music, a coda is primarily a passage that brings a movement to a conclusion. “Coda” is Italian for “tail”.

70 Phylum units : CLASSES

Biological classification is a method used to group organisms by biological type. The method uses a hierarchy of nested classes, with an organism being classified with reference to evolutionary traits. The major taxonomic ranks used are:

• Life
• Domain
• Kingdom
• Phylum (plural “phyla”)
• Class
• Order
• Family
• Genus (plural “genera”)
• Species

72 Serving dish for Old Mother Hubbard’s dog? : BONE CHINA

The English nursery rhyme “Old Mother Hubbard” was first printed in 1805:

Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard,
To give the poor dog a bone;
When she came there,
The cupboard was bare,
And so the poor dog had none.

Bone china is so called because one of the main components is bone ash produced by burning animal bones.

74 Kerosene : LAMP OIL

Kerosene is a mixture of hydrocarbons that is used mainly as a fuel. It is a very volatile substance, but is less flammable than gasoline. Over in the UK and Ireland, we call the same fuel “paraffin”.

79 Use a tiller : STEER

In its broadest sense, the term “helm” describes the whole of a ship’s steering mechanism, including the rudder and tiller. In a more specific sense, the helm is the handle, tiller or wheel that is used to control the steering gear.

82 ICU caregiver : LPN

Licensed practical nurse (LPN)

83 Tennis pair? : ENS

There is a pair of letters N (ens) in the middle of the word “tennis”.

85 Vegetarian chili bits : BEANS

The full name of the dish that is often called simply “chili” is “chili con carne”, Spanish for “peppers with meat”. The dish was created by immigrants from the Spanish Canary Islands in the city of San Antonio, Texas (a city which the islanders founded). The San Antonio Chili Stand was a popular attraction at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and that stand introduced the dish to the rest of America and to the world.

90 Telegram heralding Jack’s candlestick feat? : JUMPER CABLE

Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick,
Jack jump over
The candlestick

In days of old, jumping over a candlestick was a light-hearted from of fortune-telling. If one cleared the candlestick without quenching the flame, then one would have good luck.

94 100 smackers : C-NOTE

“Smacker” is American slang for “money”, with “smackers” often being used to mean ”dollars”. It is suggested that the term might come from “smacking” a banknote into one’s hand.

99 Old cars from Sweden : SAABS

“SAAB” stands for Svenska Aeroplan AB, which translates into English as Swedish Aeroplane Limited. Although we usually think of SAAB as an auto manufacturer, it is mainly an aircraft manufacturer. If you take small hops in Europe you might find yourself on a SAAB passenger plane. The SAAB automotive division was acquired by General Motors in the year 2000, who then sold it to a Dutch concern in 2010. However, SAAB (automotive) finally went bankrupt in 2011. The assets were acquired in 2012 by NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden), a new company that used the SAAB name on its vehicles for several years.

101 Local language in Copenhagen : DANSK

The Danish language (“Dansk” in Danish) is not only spoken in Denmark, but also in the Southern Schleswig region of northern Germany. One of the distinctive characteristics of Dansk is that it has 27 phonetically distinctive vowels.

Copenhagen is the largest city and the capital of Denmark. I haven’t had the privilege of visiting Copenhagen, but I hear it is a wonderful metropolis with a marvelous quality of life. The city is also very environmentally friendly, with over a third of its population commuting to work by bicycle.

103 Happy __ : MEAL

The McDonald’s Happy Meal was introduced in 1977. It was inspired by a selection of food in a Guatemalan McDonald’s designed to suit children that was called “Menu Ronald”. The toys in Happy Meals often tie-in with some movie, and so are part of an advertising campaign.

106 Currency symbolized by € : EURO

The euro sign (€) looks like a letter C, but with two horizontal lines drawn across the middle. Inspiration for the design comes from the Greek letter epsilon.

110 Weasel’s mindset after being chased by a monkey? : POP PSYCHOLOGY

“Pop! Goes the Weasel” is an English nursery rhyme, and a relatively young one that probably dates back only to the mid-1800s. No one really knows for certain the significance of the “pop” or the “weasel”.

113 Cleared for takeoff, in a way : DEICED

Deicing is the process of removing snow and ice from a surface. Deicing is particularly important for aircraft operating in freezing conditions. Ice on the surface of a plane can change its aerodynamics, and dislodged ice can cause damage to engines.

115 “Très chic!” : OO LA LA!

“Très chic” is a French term meaning “very stylish”.

117 Mélange : SALAD

“Mélange” is the French word for “mixture”.

118 Elegant strand : PEARLS

Pearls form in oysters because of a reaction that is similar to an immune system response in higher animals. The pearl is formed as the oysters lay down successive layers of calcium carbonate around some microscopic foreign body that has penetrated the shell.

Down

1 Like a pessimistic broker : BEARISH

The terms “bull market” and “bear market” come from the way in which each animal attacks. A bull thrusts his horns upwards (an “up” market), whereas a bear swipes with his paws downward (a “down” market).

2 Bloom in Hollywood : ORLANDO

English actor Orlando Bloom’s breakthrough on the big screen came when he was chosen to play Legolas, a Sindarin Elf, in “The Lord of the Rings” series of films.

3 Some “Coppélia” characters : DOLLS

“Coppélia” is a delightful 1870 comic ballet by French composer Léo Delibes. It tells the story of the mysterious Dr. Coppélius and his lifelike creation, a dancing doll named Coppélia. “Coppélia” is one of the most-performed ballets in the classical repertoire.

5 Apt name for a pet fish : GIL

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.

9 Hoodwink : CON

“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”.

11 __ for Speed: video game series : NEED

“Need for Speed” (NFS) is a series of video games that launched in 1994. The games generally feature illegal street racing, with lots of chases by cop cars. The series spun off a 2014 film titled “Need for Speed” starring Aaron Paul.

13 Mork’s planet : ORK

The sitcom “Mork & Mindy” was broadcast from 1978 to 1982. We were first introduced to Mork (played by Robin Williams) in a special episode of “Happy Days”. The particular episode in question has a bizarre storyline culminating in Fonzie and Mork having a thumb-to-finger duel. Eventually Richie wakes up in bed, and alien Mork was just part of a dream! Oh, and “Nanu Nanu” means both “hello” and “goodbye” back on the planet Ork. “I am Mork from Ork, Nanu Nanu”. Great stuff …

14 Identifying marks for a horn-blowing little boy? : BLUE PRINTS

Here’s another English nursery rhyme:

Little Boy Blue,
Come blow your horn,
The sheep’s in the meadow,
The cow’s in the corn;
But where is the boy
Who looks after the sheep?
He’s under a haycock,
Fast asleep.
Will you wake him?
No, not I,
For if I do,
He’s sure to cry.

22 “It __ over till it’s over” : AIN’T

Yogi Berra is regarded by many as the greatest catcher ever to play in Major League Baseball, and has to be America’s most celebrated “author” of malapropisms. Here are some great “Yogi-isms”:

• It ain’t over till it’s over.
• 90% of the game is half mental.
• Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.
• When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
• It’s déjà vu all over again.
• Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t go to yours.
• A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.

36 Charley horse, e.g. : SPASM

“Charley horse” is a very American phrase describing painful muscle spasms in the legs. The term possibly arose in the late 19th century, and may be named for baseball pitcher Charlie “Old Hoss” Radbourn who apparently suffered a lot from leg cramps.

43 Silent film star Chaney : LON

Lon Chaney, Sr. played a lot of crazed-looking characters in the days of silent movies. He did much of his own make-up work, developing the grotesque appearances that became his trademark, and earning himself the nickname “the man of a thousand faces”. Most famous were his portrayals of the title characters in the films “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1923) and “The Phantom of the Opera” (1925).

47 Cookie brand owned by Mondelez : TATE’S

In 2012, Kraft foods split into two companies, one specializing in snack foods and the other in grocery items. The grocery company retained the Kraft name, and later merged with Heinz to become Kraft Heinz. The employees of the snack-food company chose the new name of Mondelez themselves. “Mondelez” is a portmanteau of the words for “world” and “delicious” in Romance languages.

49 Stella __: Belgian beer : ARTOIS

The Belgian beer Stella Artois is named for the brewer Sebastianus Artois. Artois was the master brewer at the Den Hoorn Brewery in Leuven, Belgium in the early 1700s. The Den Hoorn Brewery has been around at least since 1366 … yes, 1366!

50 Sesame sauce : TAHINI

“Tahini” is the Arabic name for a paste made from ground sesame seeds. It is a major ingredient in hummus, one of my favorite dishes.

51 Serengeti scavengers : HYENAS

Hyenas have the reputation of being cowardly scavengers. That said, the spotted hyena that lives in Sub-Saharan Africa actually kills about 95% of its food and a pack of spotted hyenas are capable of driving off leopards or lionesses before they can consume their kill.

The Serengeti is a region in Africa located in northern Tanzania and southwest Kenya. The name “Serengeti” comes from the Maasai language and means “Endless Plains”.

52 Near beer brand : O’DOUL’S

“Near beer” is a slang term describing a malt liquor that doesn’t contain enough alcohol to be labeled as “beer”. An example would be “O’Doul’s”, a beverage that I tend to consume in a glass full of ice when I am the designated driver.

59 Indonesia’s “Island of the Gods” : BALI

Bali is an Indonesian island located in the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, lying between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. It is known as the “Island of the Gods” due to its rich and unique culture, which is steeped in religious and spiritual beliefs.

61 Gillis of old TV : DOBIE

“The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” is a sitcom that aired from 1959 to 1963 with Dwayne Hickman playing the title character. The show was based on a collection of short stories of the same name by Max Shulman. The Shulman stories had also inspired a movie back in 1953 called “The Affairs of Dobie Gillis” starring Debbie Reynolds and Bobby Van.

66 African wildcat : SERVAL

The serval is a wild cat found in sub-Saharan Africa. Servals have the longest legs of any species of cat, relative to body size.

68 Gregorian __ : CHANT

The word “Gregorian” is an adjectival form of the name “Gregory”. I suppose the most common uses of the term are in “Gregorian chant” and “Gregorian calendar”. Gregorian chant is named for Pope Gregory I, and the Gregorian calendar is named for Pope Gregory XIII.

70 Strong flavor from that little Horner kid’s Christmas pie? : CORNER KICK

Little Jack Horner
Sat in the corner,
Eating a Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said ‘What a good boy am I!

71 Paris Olympics opening ceremony site : SEINE

In preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics, a massive effort went underway to clean up the Seine River. For decades, pollution plagued the waterway, making it unsafe for swimming. A €1.4 billion project aimed at improving water quality was implemented, including upgrades to wastewater treatment plants and a crackdown on illegal dumping. As a result, several Olympic swimming events were held in the Seine, although some triathletes came down sick afterwards.

73 Thicket : COPSE

A copse is a small stand of trees. The term “copse” originally applied to a small thicket that was specifically grown for cutting.

75 Easter basket treat : PEEP

Peeps are marshmallow candies, usually in the shapes of chicks and bunnies, primarily sold around the Easter holiday. Peeps were introduced in 1952 by a Russian immigrant called Sam Born whose company “Just Born” makes the candies to this day. The original candies were yellow and hand-shaped to look like little chicks, hence the name “Peeps”.

77 Palm Sunday transport : ASS

Palm Sunday is a celebration in the Christian tradition that falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. The day commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, soon after he raised Lazarus from the dead. The faithful carry palms on the day, a reference to the palms scattered in front of Jesus by the welcoming crowd. In many churches, the palms are saved from Palm Sunday and then burned on Shrove Tuesday, The ash from the palms is then used to anoint the faithful on the next day: Ash Wednesday.

81 Food blogger Perelman : DEB

“Smitten Kitchen” is a cooking blog that Deb Perelman has been publishing since 2006. She parlayed her successful blog into a cookbook, also called “Smitten Kitchen”, which was published in 2012. The fourth person to comment on Deb’s blog was a gentleman named Alex Perelman. After that first meeting, Alex and Deb became friends, and years later got married.

84 Last-minute ticket caveat : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

A caveat is a warning or a qualification. “Caveat” is the Latin for “let him beware”.

86 Cyberpunk franchise featuring a crime-fighting cyborg : ROBOCOP

“RoboCop” is a film released in 1987 starring Peter Weller in the title role. Weller wore a very impressive robot suit for the film, the most expensive item on the set, costing over a million dollars. Weller would lose three pounds a day in sweat alone as temperatures inside the suit went to over 100 degrees F.

88 Xenon, for one : RARE GAS

The rare gases are better known as the noble gases, but neither term is really very accurate. “Noble” gas might be a better choice though, as they are all relatively unreactive. But “rare” they are not. Argon, for example, is a major constituent (1%) of the air that we breathe.

The element xenon was the first of the noble gases to be made into a compound, which was somewhat remarkable in that the noble gases were thought by many to be completely inert, unreactive.

90 Emerald alternative : JADE

“Jade” is actually the name given to two different mineral rocks, both of which are used to make gemstones. The first is nephrite, a mineral with a varying degree of iron content, the more iron the greener the color. The second is jadeite, a sodium and aluminum-rich pyroxene. As well as being used for gemstones, both jade minerals can be carved into decorative pieces.

91 Country with a border in Lake Victoria : UGANDA

Uganda is a landlocked county in East Africa lying just to the west of Kenya. It was ruled by the British as a protectorate from 1894 and gained independence in 1962. Uganda is very much associated with the tyrannical rule of Idi Amin in the 1970s.

Lake Victoria is the largest lake by surface area on the continent of Africa. It was named by English explorer John Hanning Speke in honor of Queen Victoria of the UK. Speke was the first European to set eyes on the lake.

92 Genetics pioneer Gregor : MENDEL

Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk, and a scientist who achieved fame after his passing when his work in the field of genetics was rediscovered. The conclusions he drew from his studies of garden peas led to him earning the moniker “father of modern genetics”.

95 __ a soul : NARY

The adjective “nary” means “not one”, as in “nary a soul” or even “nary a one”.

99 Philly transit org. : SEPTA

Public transportation in and around Philadelphia is managed by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA).

100 Chris Van Allsburg’s “The __ Express” : POLAR

“The Polar Express” is a marvelous 2004 3D film based on the popular children’s book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. The movie uses the actions of human actors to animate digital characters, and in fact it is the first all-digital capture film ever produced. Star of the show is Tom Hanks, who has six different roles including Santa Claus.

102 Loretta of “M*A*S*H” : SWIT

Loretta Swit started playing Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan on “M*A*S*H” in 1972. She and Alan Alda were the only actors who appeared in both the pilot and the series finale. Swit has written a book on needlepoint, would you believe? It’s called “A Needlepoint Scrapbook”.

105 Dancer Falana : LOLA

Lola Falana is a singer, dancer and actress who grew up in Philadelphia. In the sixties Falana had an affair with, and later became good friends with, Sammy Davis Jr. Davis helped get her act into Las Vegas where she was very successful, eventually earning Falana the nickname “Queen of Las Vegas”. With her success came money, and so she became the highest-paid female performer in Vegas at that time. Sadly, Falana fell ill with multiple sclerosis, a disease that forced her to cut short her career as an entertainer.

107 Cuba libre mixer : COLA

The Cuba libre cocktail was created during the Spanish-American War. American soldiers, stationed in Cuba, mixed Coca-Cola with Cuban rum and added a squeeze of lime to create a refreshing drink. The name “Cuba libre” translates to “free Cuba,” which became a popular slogan during the war as the United States supported Cuban independence from Spanish rule.