LA Times Crossword 8 Sep 25, Monday

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Constructed by: Zachary David Levy

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Ballpark Figures

Themed answers each end with BALLPARK FIGURES, members of a baseball team:

• 39A Rough estimates, and what can be found at the ends of 17-, 25-, 52-, and 62-Across : BALLPARK FIGURES

• 17A Cheap wines at some restaurants : HOUSE REDS (Cincinnati Reds)
• 25A Large planets made mostly of hydrogen and helium : GAS GIANTS (San Francisco Giants)
• 52A Some sinister siblings : EVIL TWINS (Minnesota Twins)
• 62A Emissions that turned Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk : GAMMA RAYS (Tampa Bay Rays)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 35s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5A Georgetown athlete : HOYA

The athletic teams of Georgetown University are known as the Hoyas. The name is derived from “Hoya Saxa”, a traditional cheer yelled out at Georgetown games as far back as 1893. The term is a mixture of Greek and Latin, with the Greek word “hoya” meaning “such” or “what”, and “saxa” translating from Latin as “rocks” or “small stones”. The cheer is usually rendered in English as “what rocks!”.

9A Flower part : PETAL

The petals of a plant are modified leaves that are usually brightly colored or unusually shaped in order to attract pollinators. Collectively, the petals of a flower are known as the corolla.

16A Egg-producing organ : OVARY

The ovaries are the female reproductive organs. Most female vertebrates have two ovaries. However, only the left ovary develops in female birds, with the right remaining vestigial.

17A Cheap wines at some restaurants : HOUSE REDS (Cincinnati Reds)

When the Cincinnati Reds were a dominating force in the National League in the seventies, the team was given the nickname “the Big Red Machine”.

19A Big cat hybrid : LIGER

The tiger is the largest species in the cat family. Tigers have been known to breed with lions. A liger is a cross between a male lion and female tiger. A tigon is a cross between a female lion and a male tiger.

21A Increasingly quaint phone sound : DIAL TONE

Dial tones are used to indicate to the caller that the exchange is ready to accept dialed digits. The dial tone concept was invented in 1908, and first deployed in Germany. The US moved to dial tones in the 1920s.

23A Massachusetts town that becomes a tourist hot spot in October : SALEM

Salem is a seaport on the Massachusetts coast. It is noted as the location of the Salem witch trials of 1692, an event that the city commemorates during the run-up to Halloween every year in October.

25A Large planets made mostly of hydrogen and helium : GAS GIANTS (San Francisco Giants)

The eight planets of our solar system can be sorted into two categories. Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are “terrestrials” as they are largely composed of rock. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are “gas giants”, as they are largely composed of gaseous material. Uranus and Neptune can be called “ice giants”, a subcategory of gas giants. Ice giants have a lower mass than other gas giants, with very little hydrogen and helium in their atmospheres and a higher proportion of rock and ice.

Today’s San Francisco Giants baseball team was founded in 1883 as the New York Gothams. The team’s name was changed to the Giants in 1885, and the franchise moved to San Francisco in 1958.

30A Discount grocery chain : ALDI

Aldi is an extremely large discount supermarket chain based in Germany with outlets in many countries, including the main European nations and Australia. Here in the US, Aldi owns the Trader Joe’s chain of stores. The chain was founded in 1946 by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht. The name “Aldi” is an abbreviation of “Albrecht Diskont”, “Albrecht Discount” in English.

32A Writer/actress Issa : RAE

Issa Rae rose to prominence with her highly popular web series “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl”, which premiered in 2011. This led to her co-creating and starring in the acclaimed HBO comedy series “Insecure”, which garnered her multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. She’s also expanded into film roles and has her own media company, Hoorae.

39A Rough estimates, and what can be found at the ends of 17-, 25-, 52-, and 62-Across : BALLPARK FIGURES

A ballpark figure is an estimated quantity. The original “ballpark figure” was an estimate of the number of people attending a baseball game, the size of the crowd in the “ballpark”.

43A Turtle cover : SHELL

Sea turtles don’t reach sexual maturity until they are decades old. Turtles mate at sea and then the females head to the shore to lay their eggs. Oftentimes, the female turtle returns to the very same beach where she herself hatched.

45A Wrongful act : TORT

“Tort” is a French word meaning “mischief, injury or wrong”. In common law, a tort is a civil wrong that results in the injured party suffering loss or harm, and the injuring party having a legal liability. Tort law differs from criminal law in that torts may result from negligence and not just intentional actions. Also, tort lawsuits may be decided on a preponderance of evidence, without the need of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

46A Tiebreakers, briefly : OTS

Overtime (OT)

52A Some sinister siblings : EVIL TWINS (Minnesota Twins)

The Minnesota Twins NBA franchise was originally the Washington Senators, one of the eight original American League teams. The Senators spent 60 years in Washington before moving to Minnesota in 1961. The name “Twins” was chosen to represent the “Twin Cities” of Minneapolis and St. Paul and avoid alienating fans from either city.

59A Hibachi-style restaurant chain : BENIHANA

The Benihana chain of restaurants was founded in 1964 in New York City by Rocky Aoki. Aoki was a Japanese-born American wrestler who qualified for the 1960 Summer Olympics, but did not compete. “Benihana” is the Japanese word for “safflower”.

The traditional hibachi in Japan is a heating device, often a ceramic bowl or box that holds burning charcoal. This native type of hibachi isn’t used for cooking, but rather as a space heater (a brazier). Here in the US we use “hibachi” to refer to a charcoal grill used as a small cooking stove, which in Japanese would be called a “shichirin”. “Hibachi” is Japanese for “fire pot” coming from “hi” meaning “fire”, and “bachi” meaning “bowl, pot”.

61A Pop singer Mars : BRUNO

Bruno Mars is a singer-songwriter from Honolulu who has been active in the music business since 2006. “Bruno Mars” is a stage name, as Mars was born “Peter Hernandez”.

62A Emissions that turned Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulk : GAMMA RAYS (Tampa Bay Rays)

Gamma radiation was discovered by the French chemist Paul Villard, as he studied radiation coming from the chemical element radium. This radiation was called “gamma”, the third letter in the Greek alphabet, as alpha and beta particles had already been identified.

The comic book hero Hulk first made an appearance in 1962. Hulk is the alter ego of reserved and withdrawn physicist Bruce Banner. Banner transforms into the Hulk when he gets angry.

The Tampa Bay Rays MLB team is a relatively young franchise, having been formed in 1998. The initial name of the franchise was the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. While known as the Devil Rays, the team finished last in the league almost every year. The name was changed to the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008, and I am told the Rays started into a streak of winning seasons soon after.

66A Ford flop : EDSEL

The Edsel brand of automobile was named for Edsel, son of Henry Ford. Sadly, the name “Edsel” has become synonymous with “failure”, which was no fault of Edsel himself who had died several years before the Edsel line was introduced. When the Ford Motor Company introduced the Edsel on 4 September 1957, Ford proclaimed the day to be “E Day”.

67A Neutral shade : ECRU

The color ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”. “Ecru” has the same roots as our word “crude”.

68A Great Salt Lake state : UTAH

The Great Salt Lake in Utah is extremely shallow, and so the area of the lake fluctuates greatly with the changing volume of water. Back in 1963, the lake shrunk to 950 square miles, whereas in 1988 the area was measured at a whopping 3,300 square miles.

69A Big name in field equipment : DEERE

John Deere invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837. Prior to Deere’s invention, farmers used an iron or wooden plow that constantly had to be cleaned as rich soil stuck to its surfaces. The cast-steel plow was revolutionary as its smooth sides solved the problem of “stickiness”. The Deere company that John founded uses the slogan “Nothing Runs Like a Deere”, and has a leaping deer as its logo.

70A Rotisserie rod : SPIT

We use the term “rotisserie” to describe a cooking device used to roast meat. The French word “rôtisserie” describes a shop selling cooked meats (“rôti” is French for “roasted”). We first absorbed the French term into English in the 1800s, when “rotisserie” described a similar establishment. It was only in the 1950s that we started to describe the home-cooking apparatus as a rotisserie.

71A Viral post : MEME

A meme (from “mineme”) is a cultural practice or idea that is passed on verbally or by repetition from one person to another. The term lends itself very well to the online world where links, emails, files etc. are so easily propagated.

Down

2D Sign between Cancer and Virgo : LEO

Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 23 to August 22 are Leos.

3D Scoop in a tureen : SOUP LADLE

A terrine (also “tureen”) is a cooking dish with a tightly-fitting lid made from glazed earthenware. It is used for cooking in an oven, and for serving soups and stews.

4D “Do the Right Thing” actor Davis : OSSIE

Ossie Davis was a prominent actor and civil rights activist. He married his wife, fellow actor Ruby Dee, in 1948. They remained together until his death in 2005, making their marriage one of the longest-lasting in Hollywood history. Davis was a prominent voice in the civil rights movement, and a close friend of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Davis delivered a powerful eulogy at Malcolm X’s funeral in 1965.

5D Big hopper : HARE

Hares belong to the genus Lepus. Young hares under one-year-old are called leverets.

6D The Grand __ Opry : OLE

The Grand Ole Opry started out as a radio show in 1925 originally called the WSM “Barn Dance”. In 1927, the “Barn Dance” radio show was broadcast in a slot after an NBC production called “Musical Appreciation Hour”, a collection of classical works including Grand Opera. In a December show, the host of “Barn Dance” announced, “For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the ‘Grand Ole Opry'”. That name was used for the radio show from then on.

9D Tadpole : POLLIWOG

“Polliwog” is another word for “tadpole”, which describes the larval stage of an amphibian such as a frog or a toad. The term “polliwog” has been around since the mid-15th century and probably comes from the Old English words “pol” (head) and “wiglen” (wiggle).

10D Andrew Lloyd Webber musical set in Argentina : EVITA

“Evita” was the follow-up musical to “Jesus Christ Superstar” for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Both of these works were originally released as album musicals, and very successful ones at that (I remember buying them when they first came out). “Evita” was made into a film in 1996, with Madonna playing the title role and Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce playing her husband Juan Perón.

13D Ancient harps : LYRES

The lyre is a stringed instrument that is most closely associated with ancient Greece, and with the gods Hermes and Apollo in particular. According to myth, Hermes slaughtered a cow from a sacred herd belonging to Apollo and offered it to the gods but kept the entrails. Hermes used the entrails to make strings that he stretched across the shell of a tortoise, creating the first lyre. Apollo liked the sound from the lyre and agreed to accept it as a trade for his herd of cattle.

18D Stately trees : ELMS

Elm trees have a unique ability to tolerate urban environments, making them a popular choice for city planners looking to add greenery to their landscapes. They have a high tolerance for air pollution, compacted soil, and other stresses commonly found in urban areas, which allows them to thrive in these environments where other tree species might struggle.

23D Bygone Swedish autos : 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.

24D God of Islam : ALLAH

The name “Allah” comes from the Arabic “al-” and “ilah”, meaning “the” and “deity”. So, “Allah” can be translated as “God”.

33D __ out a living : EKE

The verb “to eke” originally meant “to increase” or “to lengthen.” This old meaning survives in the etymology of another common word: “nickname”. This term was once “eke-name”, meaning “additional name”, before the letter N was mistakenly attached to the front of the word.

38D Poly- ending : -ESTER

In a general sense, a polyester is any polymer containing the ester functional group in the main chain. In this sense, the list of polyesters includes naturally occurring compounds as well as synthetics. More specifically, the term “polyester” is often synonymous with the synthetic compound polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is the main constituent of the manufactured fibers Dacron and Terylene.

42D Picked-off pass, for short : INT

In football, a defensive back (DB) is constantly striving for an interception (Int).

47D Carrier whose JFK terminal is now a landmark hotel : TWA

The TWA Hotel that opened in 2019 uses the main part of the TWA terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport that serves New York City. The magnificent TWA Flight Center was designed by Eero Saarinen, opened in 1962, and closed in 2001. The building was repurposed as a hotel and opened for business in 2017. As of 2022, it is the only hotel operating on the grounds of JFK.

50D Casa chamber : SALA

In Spanish, a “sala” (room) is a “división” (division) of a “casa” (house).

53D Colorado’s Mesa __ National Park : VERDE

Mesa Verde National Park is in Colorado. Mesa Verde is home to ancient cliff dwellings built by the Puebloan people, also known as the Anasazi. The most spectacular of these dwellings is Cliff Palace, which is the largest cliff dwelling in North America.

55D Cruise ship : LINER

The use of the word “line” with reference to transportation started in the 1780s, in the context of stagecoaches. Such transportation operated a string of stagecoaches between towns and cities along regular “lines”. The concept shifted to shipping “lines” operating ocean-going “liners” between ports. And then came “airliners”.

56D Civil rights org. : NAACP

The full name of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is remarkable in that it still uses the offensive term “colored people”. The NAACP was founded in 1909, by a group that included suffragette and journalist Mary White Ovington, wealthy socialist William English Walling, and civil rights activist Henry Moskowitz. Another member of the founding group was W. E. B. Du Bois, the first African-American to earn a doctorate at Harvard University. The date chosen for the founding of the NAACP was February 12th, 1909, the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln, the man most visibly associated with the emancipation of African-American slaves.

58D Blood component : SERUM

Blood serum (plural “sera”) is the clear, yellowish part of blood i.e. that part which is neither a blood cell nor a clotting factor. Included in blood serum are antibodies, the proteins that are central to our immune system. Blood serum from animals that have immunity to a particular disease can be transferred to another individual, hence providing that second individual with some level of immunity. Blood serum used to pass on immunity can be called “antiserum”.

60D Filthy material : SMUT

“Smut” means “dirt, smudge” and more recently “pornographic material”. The term comes from the Yiddish “schmutz”, which is a slang word used in English for dirt, as in “dirt on one’s face”.

63D CT scan kin : MRI

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machine uses powerful magnetic fields to generate its images so there is no exposure to ionizing radiation (such as X-rays). We used MRI equipment in our chemistry labs at school, way back in the days when the technology was still called Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging (NMRI). Apparently the marketing folks didn’t like the term “nuclear” because of its association with atomic bombs, so now it’s just called MRI.

A CT (or “CAT”) scan produces (via computer manipulation) a three-dimensional image of the inside of an object, usually the human body. It does so by taking a series of two dimensional x-ray images while rotating the camera around the patient. The issue with CT scans is that they use x-rays. High doses of radiation can be harmful, causing damage that is cumulative over time. The initialism “CT” stands for “computed tomography”. The older initialism “CAT” stands for “computed axial tomography”.