LA Times Crossword 21 Feb 25, Friday

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Constructed by: Jeff Stillman
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): A-Plus

Themed answers are common phrases, but with an A inserted into the first word:

• 20A Say, “Everyone put your key in the ignition and turn,” e.g.?: TEACH STARTUPS (A + tech startups)
• 28A Brief reminder before a Disney musical featuring Belle?: BEAST IN SHOW (A + best in show)
• 44A Sidewalk stand earnings arranged in tidy stacks of cash?: NEAT PROFITS (A + net profits)
• 55A One overseeing a reform program for kleptomaniacs?: DEAN OF THIEVES (A + den of thieves)

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

Bill’s time: 8m 02s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Half an island in French Polynesia: BORA

Bora Bora is one of the Society Islands of French Polynesia. The name “Bora Bora” is imitative of the Tahitian name for the island and should really be pronounced “pora pora”. “Bora bora” translates as “first born”.

French Polynesia (Polynésie française) is a vast overseas territory of France that is located in the South Pacific Ocean. It comprises 118 islands and atolls dispersed over 1,609 square miles, the most populous being Tahiti.

14 Fish tacos fish, on menus: MAHI

“Mahi-mahi” (meaning “very strong”) is the Hawaiian name for the dolphinfish, which is also known as the dorado. The mahi-mahi is an ugly looking creature if ever I saw one …

18 Kunis of “Family Guy”: MILA

Mila Kunis is a Ukrainian-born, American actress who plays Jackie Burkhart on “That ’70s Show”. Fans of the cartoon series “Family Guy” might recognize her voicing the Meg Griffin character. In ”Black Swan”, Kunis plays a rival ballet dancer to the character played by Natalie Portman. In her personal life, Kunis dated Macaulay Culkin for 8 years, but married Ashton Kutcher, her co-star from “That 70s Show”, in 2015.

19 __ knife: BOWIE

A Bowie knife is a fixed-blade knife that was made famous by Colonel Jim Bowie in the early 1800s. A Bowie knife is one that comes with a sheath and has a crossguard at the end of the hilt. It also has a clip point, meaning that the forward third of the blade appears to be “clipped off”, leaving a sharp point.

24 Early late-night host: PAAR

Jack Paar was most famous as the host of “The Tonight Show”, from 1957 to 1962. When he died in 2004, “Time” magazine wrote that Paar was “the fellow who split talk show history into two eras: “Before Paar and Below Paar”. Very complimentary …

28 Brief reminder before a Disney musical featuring Belle?: BEAST IN SHOW (A + best in show)

Disney’s 2017 romantic fantasy film “Beauty and the Beast” is based on the animated movie the same studio released in 1991. In turn, 1991’s “Beauty and the Beast” was an adaptation of the 18th-century version of the fairy tale “La Belle et la Bête” written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Emma Watson and Dan Stevens play the title roles in the 2017 film, with both performances garnering critical acclaim.

35 Bull’s-__: EYE

The bull’s eye (also “bullseye”) is the center of a target. The term was coined in the 1830s and comes from the resemblance of the target, in terms of size and color, to the eye of the bull.

36 Lyric poem: EPODE

An epode is a lyric poem made up of couplets in which the first line is long, and the second line much shorter. The form was invented by the Greek poet Archilochus, and was most famously used by the Roman poet Horace.

37 Tablet option: IPAD PRO

The iPad Pro tablet computer, when it was released in November 2015, featured a larger screen than all prior iPad models. The iPad Pro also came with some interesting accessories, including an attachable keyboard and the Apple Pencil.

41 Actress Kemper: ELLIE

Actress Ellie Kemper’s big break came with the role of Erin Hannon, a receptionist on the sitcom “The Office”. More recently, Kemper played the title role in the Netflix comedy series “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”.

49 VMI program: ROTC

Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC)

The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is one of the six senior military colleges in the country, and is located in Lexington, Virginia. The sports teams of VMI are known as the Keydets, southern slang for “cadets”.

50 Opening word?: SESAME

In the folk tale “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, the title character is a poor woodcutter who discovers the magic phrase “Open sesame!” that opens the thieves’ den.

55 One overseeing a reform program for kleptomaniacs?: DEAN OF THIEVES (A + den of thieves)

Kleptomania is the compulsion to steal, whether or not one is in need of what is stolen. The term “kleptomania” derives from the Greek word for “to steal”, “kleptein”, with the suffix “-mania”.

64 Empire State canal: ERIE

The Erie Canal runs from Albany to Buffalo in the state of New York. What the canal does is allow shipping to proceed from New York Harbor right up the Hudson River, through the canal and into the Great Lakes. When it was opened in 1825, the Erie Canal had an immediate impact on the economy of New York City and locations along its route. It was the first means of “cheap” transportation from a port on the Atlantic seaboard into the interior of the United States. Arguably it was the most important factor contributing to the growth of New York City over competing ports such as Baltimore and Philadelphia. It was largely because of the Erie Canal that New York became such an economic powerhouse, earning it the nickname of “the Empire State”. Paradoxically, one of the project’s main proponents was severely criticized. New York Governor DeWitt Clinton received so much ridicule that the canal was nicknamed “Clinton’s Folly” and “Clinton’s Ditch”.

67 Chips-in-a-can brand: STAX

Stax is a brand of potato snack made by Lay’s. Stax are similar to the brand’s famous competitor Pringles.

Down

2 French city, in song: PAREE

“Who Said Gay Paree?” is a song from the Cole Porter musical “Can-Can”.

4 Networking giant: CISCO

Cisco is a company that I really admire (in terms of innovation and management). Headquartered in San Jose, California, Cisco develops and sells products and services in the communications sector. The name “Cisco” was taken from the name of the city San Francisco.

6 Account of life after death?: OBIT

Our word “obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”. The Latin term was used for “record of the death of a person”, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

8 Turkey’s highest peak: ARARAT

Mount Ararat is in Turkey. It is a snow-capped, dormant volcano with two peaks. The higher of the two, Greater Ararat, is the tallest peak in the country. Ararat takes its name from a legendary Armenian hero called Ara the Beautiful (or “Ara the Handsome”). According to the Book of Genesis, Noah’s ark landed on Mount Ararat as the Great Flood subsided.

10 Play thing: PROP

We use the word “props” for objects that are used by actors on stage during a play. The term is a shortening of the older term “properties”, which was used with the same meaning up through the 19th century.

11 “The Paper Chase” setting: LAW SCHOOL

“The Paper Chase” is a 1973 film that led to a very enjoyable spin-off TV series of the same name that ran in the seventies and eighties. The film is based on a 1970 novel, also called “The Paper Chase”, by John Jay Osborn, Jr. The actor John Houseman does a marvelous job playing an intimidating professor teaching first-year law students at Harvard, both in the film and in television series.

12 Letters in the news: UPI

Founded in 1958, United Press International (UPI) used to be one of the biggest news agencies in the world, sending out news by wire to the major newspapers. UPI ran into trouble with the change in media formats at the end of the twentieth century and lost many of its clients as the afternoon newspapers shut down due to the advent of television news. UPI, which once employed thousands, still exists today but with just a fraction of that workforce.

22 __ chi: TAI

More correctly called “t‘ai chi ch‘uan”, tai chi is a martial art that is mostly practiced to improve overall health and increase longevity.

26 Salty dog option: VODKA

A salty dog cocktail contains vodka (or gin) and grapefruit juice served in a glass with a salted rim.

27 Saccharine: SWEET

The adjective “saccharine”, meaning “relating to sugar”, comes from the Greek word for sugar “sakkharon”. We’ve been using “saccharine” metaphorically since the 1840s to mean “overly sweet”. The name of the sugar substitute has similar roots, with the trade name “Saccharin” coined in 1879 by Russian-born chemist Constantin Fahlberg.

29 “Big Mouth” writer/voice actress Edebiri: AYO

Actor, comedian and television writer Ayo Edebiri gained prominence for her role as Sydney Adamu, the young sous-chef in the very successful Hulu series “The Bear”.

“Big Mouth” is an adult animated sitcom about middle school teens navigating their way through puberty. Set in the suburbs of New York City, the show is known for its frank and often raunchy humor, its relatable characters, and its willingness to tackle sensitive topics like sexuality, body image, and mental health.

33 Times of youthful innocence: SALAD DAYS

One’s salad days are the days of one’s youth, days of carefree exuberance and idealism. The expression “salad days” originated in William Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” as Cleopatra refers to her youthful indiscretions saying:

…My salad days, / When I was green in judgment, cold in blood…

39 Ryssdal who hosts NPR’s “Marketplace”: KAI

Kai Ryssdal is a radio journalist who is famous as the host of the weekday business program “Marketplace”. He has been doing the job since 2005.

42 Like most aerosol cans, now: CFC-FREE

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used to be widely used as propellants in aerosols, and as refrigerants in cooling systems. CFCs make their way up into the ozone layer and trigger a chain reaction that converts ozone (O₃) into regular oxygen (O₂). That conversion creates “holes” in the ozone layer. Regular O₂ is good stuff, but we need O₃ to absorb harmful UV radiation raining down on us. CFC is not good stuff …

45 Former Mets pitcher Darling: RON

Ron Darling is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. Darling retired from the game in 1995, and started working as a color commentator for TBS in 2007.

46 “Smallville” actress Annette: O’TOOLE

Among several notable roles, Annette O’Toole is the actress who plays Clark Kent’s mother on the TV show “Smallville”. She is married to fellow actor Michael McKean (who played lead vocalist David St. Hubbins in “This Is Spinal Tap”). Off screen, O’Toole and McKean share a musical career together.

“Smallville” is a superhero TV show set in the fictional Kansas town of Smallville, where Clark Kent grew up before becoming Superman. The show originally ran from 2001 to 2011, and starred Tom Welling as Clark Kent, and Kristin Kreuk as Lana Lang.

47 Cinque e uno: SEI

In Italian, “sei” (six) is “cinque e uno” (five plus one).

51 Monica who won three consecutive French Opens: SELES

Monica Seles has a Hungarian name as she was born to Hungarian parents in former Yugoslavia. Seles was the World No. 1 professional tennis player in 1991 and 1992 before being forced from the sport when she was stabbed by a spectator at a match in 1993. She did return to the game two years later, but never achieved the same level of success.

54 County in the Greater Boston area: ESSEX

Essex County, Massachusetts, had a notable role in the development of gerrymandering. In 1812, Governor Elbridge Gerry signed a bill that redistricted the state senate in a way that benefited his party. One of the oddly shaped districts in Essex County was said to resemble a salamander, leading to the term “gerrymander”.

56 Airline to Israel: EL AL

El Al Israel Airlines is the flag carrier of Israel. The term “el al” translates from Hebrew as “to the skies”. The company started operations in 1948, with a flight from Geneva to Tel Aviv. Famously, El Al only operates six days a week, not flying on the Sabbath.

58 Weather anchor Roker and actor Pacino: ALS

Al Roker is best known as the weatherman on the “Today” show on NBC. He has successfully branched out from that platform though, and even co-wrote a novel called “The Morning Show Murders”, about a celebrity chef and TV host who gets entangled in mystery. Topical stuff …

Al Pacino is an actor who has had a long and successful career in Hollywood. He was once offered the role of Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy, but he turned it down. The role eventually went to Harrison Ford, who went on to become one of the most iconic actors in Hollywood history.

59 Only Canadian MLB city, for short: TOR

The Toronto Blue Jays baseball franchise was founded in 1977. They are the only team based outside the US to have won a World Series, doing so in 1992 and 1993. And since the Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, the Blue Jays are the only Major League Baseball team now headquartered outside of the US.