LA Times Crossword 9 Nov 25, Sunday

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Constructed by: Zhouqin Burnikel

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Academic Circles

Themed answers start and finish with CIRCLED letters on the OUTSIDE that spell out the names of SCHOOLS, ACADEMIC institutions:

• 77D End-of-term cry, and an alternate title for this puzzle : SCHOOL’S OUT!

• 24A Seeking a seat : RUNNING FOR OFFICE (R-ICE)
• 38A Explains something in simple terms : BREAKS IT DOWN (BR-OWN)
• 55A “Roman Holiday” star : AUDREY HEPBURN (AU-BURN)
• 81A Auto-erased item on a hard drive : TEMPORARY FILE (TEMP-LE)
• 98A Connecticut state song : YANKEE DOODLE (YA-LE)
• 114A Fluffy brunch item baked in a skillet : DUTCH BABY PANCAKE (DU-KE)
• 3D “Oh boy, that’s uncomfortable” : HOW AWKWARD (HOW-ARD)

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

Bill’s time: 14m 26s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Org. on workplace posters : OSHA

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

14A Clubs for chips : IRONS

That would be golf.

23A Mike of “Dirty Jobs” : ROWE

Mike Rowe is host of the successful reality show called “Dirty Jobs” that is broadcast by “Discovery Channel”. Rowe is also a spokesperson for Ford Motor Company in a series of television commercials. He is quite the singer too, and he sang professionally with the Baltimore Opera for a while.

24A Seeking a seat : RUNNING FOR OFFICE (R-ICE)

Rice University is a private school in Houston, Texas. William Marsh Rice had made a will endowing the funds for the establishment of the school at the time of his death. When he was found dead one morning in his bed, his lawyer announced that his will had been changed, with the bulk of Rice’s estate actually going to the lawyer making the announcement. Upon investigation, it was discovered that the lawyer had paid Rice’s valet to murder his employer using chloroform and a fake will was written. Eventually, the original will was deemed valid and the funds were disbursed so that the school could be built.

27A Pacific coast barkers : SEA LIONS

The terms “seal” and “seal lion” are often used interchangeably, although they belong to two different families. tThere are several ways to tell them apart. The most obvious difference is the ears: sea lions have visible external ear flaps, whereas true seals just have ear holes. Another key distinction is how they move on land. A sea lion can rotate its large rear flippers forward, allowing it to “walk” on all fours. A seal cannot rotate its rear flippers and must move on land by wriggling on its belly. Finally, sea lions are noisy, and communicate in loud barks and roars, while seals are much quieter, using just soft grunts and hisses.

29A __ Estados Unidos : LOS

“Estados Unidos” is Spanish for “United States”, and “Reino Unido” is Spanish for “United Kingdom”.

33A Not trans or enby : CIS-

The term “cisgender” is used as the opposite of “transgender”. Cisgender people have a gender identity that matches the sex they were assigned at birth. A transgender person is someone with a gender identity that is different from that assigned at birth.

The non-binary (NB, enbie, enby) spectrum of gender identities covers those that do not qualify as exclusively masculine or feminine.

38A Explains something in simple terms : BREAKS IT DOWN (BR-OWN)

Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island is one of the eight Ivy League schools. Brown has been around a long time, founded in 1764, years before America declared independence from England. The university took the name of Brown in 1804 after one Nicholas Brown, Jr. gave a substantial gift to the school. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Brown Bears, and their mascot is Bruno.

42A Yukon gold rush region : KLONDIKE

The Klondike is a region in Canada’s Yukon territory that is perhaps most famous for the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890s. About 100,000 prospectors migrated to the area, with many coming from Seattle and San Francisco. While a few prospectors did make their fortunes, the vast majority of prospectors endured the long trek and harsh conditions in vain.

47A 401(k) alternatives : IRAS

A 401(k) account resembles an IRA in that contributions can be made from a paycheck prior to the deduction of income taxes. It differs from an IRA in that it is an employer-sponsored plan, with payments taken by the employer directly from an employee’s paycheck. Additionally, contributions can be fully or partially matched by an employer.

49A State flower of New Mexico : YUCCA

Yuccas are a genus of shrubs and trees that live in hot and dry areas of North and South America. One of the more famous species of Yucca is the Joshua tree. Yuccas has a unique pollination system, with moths transferring pollen from plant to plant. New Mexico adopted the yucca as its state flower in 1927. By the way, the yucca is in the asparagus family.

54A The Blue Jays, on sports crawls : 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.

55A “Roman Holiday” star : AUDREY HEPBURN (AU-BURN)

Actress Audrey Hepburn trained as a ballet dancer for much of her early life. She had to give up her ambitions to become a prima ballerina due to a weak constitution attributed to malnutrition she experienced during WWII. Hepburn turned to acting, and earned her first starring film role after a screen test for 1953’s “Roman Holiday”, in which she played opposite Hollywood legend Gregory Peck. That performance changed her life, as she was a surprising winner of the Best Actress Oscar that season. After a long and successful acting career, Hepburn devoted many years to humanitarian causes. She was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF in 1989, and traveled the world promoting programs that benefited humanity. In recognition for her work with UNICEF, President George H. W. Bush awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“Roman Holiday’ is a 1953 film, and surely one of the greatest romcoms ever made. Audrey Hepburn plays a princess who escapes her minders to explore Rome on her own. On her ventures, she meets up with a newspaper reporter played by Gregory Peck. Peck was a major Hollywood A-lister, while Hepburn was a complete unknown at the time. His contract gave him solo, above-the-title billing. Partway through filming, Peck was so impressed by Hepburn’s talent that he contacted his agent and insisted that she be given equal, co-star billing. He correctly predicted that she would win an Academy Award for the role.

Auburn University in Alabama was chartered in 1856 as the East Alabama Male College. The school was renamed when it was granted university status in 1960. Auburn’s sports teams are known as the Tigers, for which supporters use the battle cry “War Eagle!”

60A Burned, in a way : ON DISC

“Ripping” refers to the process of extracting audio or video files from a CD or DVD and converting them into a digital format that can be stored on a computer or other device. Conversely, “burning” is the act of writing digital data, such as music or videos, onto a blank CD or DVD.

62A “The Pioneer Woman” host Drummond : REE

Ree Drummond is a food writer and blogger. Drummond’s blog “The Pioneer Woman” recounts her daily life on her family’s working ranch outside of Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

70A Herring kin : SHAD

The shad is also known as the river herring. The eggs (roe) of the shad are prized as a delicacy, especially in the Eastern US.

80A House Stark patriarch : NED

Eddard “Ned” Stark is the protagonist in George R. R. Martin’s fantasy novel “A Game of Thrones”, although his character doesn’t exactly come out on top by the end of the story. Stark is played by actor Sean Bean in the HBO television adaptation of the novel.

81A Auto-erased item on a hard drive : TEMPORARY FILE (TEMP-LE)

Temple University in Philadelphia was founded in 1888, and started out as a night school offering classes to people of limited means who had to hold down jobs during the day. These students earned themselves the nickname of “night owls”, leading to the use of “Owls” for Temple’s athletic teams.

98A Connecticut state song : YANKEE DOODLE (YA-LE)

The song “Yankee Doodle” began as a British tune mocking colonial soldiers as simpletons. The key insult is in the line “stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni”. In the 18th century, “macaroni” wasn’t pasta but a slang term describing foppish dandy. The inference was that a colonial “doodle” (fool) would think a single feather was the height of style.

Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut was founded in 1701, making it the third-oldest university in the US. Originally called the Collegiate School, it was renamed to Yale University in honor of retired merchant Elihu Yale, who made generous contributions to the institution. Yale University’s nickname is “Old Eli”, in a nod to the benefactor.

106A High euchre card : ACE

Euchre is a card game that probably came to the US from Germany, introduced by German farmers who settled in Wisconsin. Euchre is a trick-taking game usually played by four people in two partnerships. Unlike bridge, Euchre is played with a stripped down deck of 24 or 32 cards. The verb “to euchre” is slang for “to cheat, swindle”, a term that presumably comes from the card game.

108A Classical closing : CODA

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

109A Copa Mundial cheer : OLE!

In Spanish, supporters might be heard yelling “ole!” (bravo!) at the “Copa Mundial” (World Cup) of soccer.

114A Fluffy brunch item baked in a skillet : DUTCH BABY PANCAKE (DU-KE)

A Dutch baby pancake isn’t actually from the Netherlands. It is a large, puffy pancake that was popularized at a Seattle restaurant in the early 1900s, where the name originated. The “Dutch” part comes from the owner’s daughter mispronouncing “Deutsch” (German), the style of pancake it’s based on, while the “baby” referred to the smaller versions also on the menu.

Duke University was founded in 1838 as Brown’s Schoolhouse. The school was renamed to Trinity College in 1859, and to this day the town where the college was located back then is known as Trinity, in honor of the school. The school was moved in 1892 to Durham, North Carolina in part due to generous donations from the wealthy tobacco industrialist Washington Duke. Duke’s donation required that the school open its doors to women, placing them on an equal footing with men. Trinity’s name was changed to Duke in 1924 in recognition of the generosity of the Duke family. Duke’s athletic teams are known as the Blue Devils.

120A Anne of fashion : KLEIN

Anne Klein was a fashion designer from Brooklyn, New York. She was born Hannah Golofski, and founded her first clothing company in the 1940s along with her first husband Ben Klein.

121A __-Ball : SKEE

Skee-Ball is the arcade game in which you roll balls up a ramp trying to “bounce” it into rings for varying numbers of points. The game was first introduced in Philadelphia, in 1909.

122A “Shogun” streaming service : HULU

The 2024 historical epic series “Shōgun” is based on James Clavell’s best-selling 1975 novel of the same name. The book was also famously adapted into a landmark TV miniseries in 1980 starring Richard Chamberlain.

123A Lightheaded? : BLOND

In today’s world, the usage of masculine and feminine forms of English words is largely frowned upon. The one word that seems to have retained its gender specificity is “blond”, the feminine version of which is “blonde”.

Down

1D Steering implements on dragon boats : OARS

Dragon boats are traditional paddled longboats associated with the Pearl River Delta in South China. The locals have been engaged in the sport of dragon boat racing for over two millennia. The vessels are traditionally made from teak, but contemporary racing craft are built using carbon fiber and fiberglass. Traditionally, the boat has the head of a dragon at the prow and a dragon’s tail at the stern.

2D Blackthorn berry : SLOE

The sloe is the fruit of the blackthorn bush, and the main flavoring ingredient in sloe gin. A sloe looks like a small plum, but is usually much more tart in taste.

3D “Oh boy, that’s uncomfortable” : HOW AWKWARD (HOW-ARD)

Howard University is a private school in Washington, D.C. Howard was founded soon after the Civil War with a focus on the education of African American students, although it was open to all races, both sexes and was non-sectarian.

4D Drawing rooms? : ATELIERS

An atelier is an artist’s studio, with “atelier” being the French word for “studio, workshop”.

10D Heart charts, briefly : ECGS

An EKG measures the electrical activity in the heart. Back in my homeland of Ireland, an EKG is known as an ECG (for electrocardiogram). We use the German name in the US, Elektrokardiogramm, giving us EKG. Apparently the abbreviation EKG is preferred, as ECG might be confused (if poorly handwritten, I guess) with EEG, the abbreviation for an electroencephalogram.

11D Org. concerned with traffic : ATF

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) today is part of the Department of Justice (DOJ). The ATF has its roots in the Department of Treasury dating back to 1886 when it was known as the Bureau of Prohibition. “Explosives” was added to the ATF’s name when the bureau was moved under the Department of Justice (DOJ) as part of the reorganization called for in the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

12D Virtual animal such as Xweetok : NEOPET

Neopets.com is a website where one can own a virtual pet. I wouldn’t bother if I were you …

17D Salt, in a chem lab : NACL

NaCl is the chemical formula for sodium chloride, the scientific name for common table salt. It is an ionic compound formed from one sodium ion (Na+) and one chloride ion (Cl-). There are many “salts” found in a chemistry lab, but NaCl specifically refers to the one we use in our food.

25D “Odyssey” prequel : ILIAD

“Iliad” is an epic poem by the Greek poet Homer that tells the story of the ten-year siege of “Ilium” (i.e. “Troy”) during the Trojan war. “The Odyssey”, also attributed to Homer, is sometimes described as a sequel to “Iliad”.

26D “Be a Revolution” author Ijeoma : OLUO

Author Ijeoma Oluo is known for her writings about racism, misogyny, and social justice. Three of her more famous titles are:

1. “The Badass Feminist Coloring Book” (2015)
2. “So You Want to Talk about Race” (2018)
3. “Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America”

33D Part of CDC : CENTERS

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is based in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC started out life during WWII as the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. The CDC worries about much more than malaria these days …

35D Newton or tesla : UNIT

Newtons are units of force. The newton is named for Sir Isaac Newton, the English physicist and mathematician.

The tesla unit measures the strength of a magnetic field, or more precisely the magnetic flux density. It is named for the physicist Nikola Tesla. He was born in a village in modern-day Croatia, then part of the Austrian Empire, and later moved to the US. His work on mechanical and electrical engineering was crucial to the development of alternating current technology, the same technology that is used by equipment at the backbone of modern power generation and distribution systems.

36D Corn chip : FRITO

The Frito Corporation was started in 1932 by Elmer Doolin, basically in his mother’s kitchen. Doolin paid $100 for a corn chip recipe from a local restaurant and started producing Fritos at the rate of 10 pounds per day.

37D “The West Wing” creator Sorkin : AARON

“The West Wing”, when it was being written by Aaron Sorkin, was such a fabulous television event. It is remarkable how quickly it went downhill after Sorkin moved on. Sorkin is also famous for having written the play “A Few Good Men”, and the screenplay for one of my favorite movies, namely “Charlie Wilson’s War”.

40D “The __ Boat Song”: classic Scottish ballad that opens “Outlander” : SKYE

“The Skye Boat Song” is a Scottish song from the late 1800s that tells the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie fleeing to the Isle of Skye after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. It is used as the theme song for the TV series “Outlander”, for which the lyrics were slightly changed. The original line “Sing me a song of a lad that is gone” was changed to “Sing me a song of a lass that is gone” to better reflect the story of the show’s time-traveling protagonist, Claire Fraser.

44D Babe in the woods : FAWN

A fawn is a young deer, usually one less than a year old.

45D Destiny’s Child, for one : TRIO

Destiny’s Child was an R&B group active from 1990 to 2006. The trio’s lineup changed over the years, and probably the most famous former member of the group is Beyoncé Knowles.

50D Chem. in some dispensary products : CBD

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a chemical extracted from cannabis plants that is used as a herbal drug. It does not contain the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is responsible for the marijuana “high”.

52D Tank top openings : ARMHOLES

“Tank top” is another one of those terms that always catches me out, as it has a different meaning on each side of the Atlantic. In the US, a tank top is a sleeveless shirt, something we would call a “vest” back in Ireland (and the US “vest” is what we call a “waistcoat”). A tank top in Ireland is a sleeveless sweater, which further adds to the confusion. The name “tank top” is derived from “tank suit”, an old name for a woman’s one-piece bathing suit. The use of “tank” for the bathing suit came from “swimming tank”, an obsolete term used in the 1920s for a swimming pool.

57D “Hey Arnold!” bully : HELGA

“Hey Arnold!” is a popular Nickelodeon animated series that originally ran from 1996 to 2004. The title character is a kind-hearted fourth-grader, with a football-shaped head, living in a fictional inner-city neighborhood. A central character is 9-year-old Helga, who publicly bullies Arnold but secretly keeps a shrine to him in her closet.

58D Writer Zora __ Hurston : NEALE

Zora Neale Hurston was an American author who is most famous for her 1937 novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God”.

66D Shang-Chi player Liu : SIMU

Simu Liu is a Chinese-born Canadian actor. One of his more famous roles was the title character in the Marvel Comics 2021 superhero movie “Shang-Chi and the legend of the Ten Rings”. He also played one of the Ken dolls in 2023’s “Barbie”.

71D Org. for the Fever : WNBA

The Indiana Fever WNBA team was founded in 2000. The team shares the Gainbridge Fieldhouse indoor arena in Indianapolis with the Indiana Pacers NBA team for home games.

72D Preliminary race : HEAT

The term “heat”, meaning “qualifying race”, dates back to the 1660s. Originally, a heat was a run given to a horse to prepare it for a race, to “heat” it up.

74D Prefix with dermis : EPI-

The epidermis is the outermost layer of the skin. The thickest piece of epidermal tissue in humans is on the soles of the feet and the palms, and measures about 1.5 mm. The thinnest measures 0.1 mm, and that would be the human eyelid.

83D Tara of “Sharknado” : REID

Tara Reid is an actress known for roles she played on television and the big screen. My guess is that her best-known performances were in the “American Pie” series of movies in which she played Vicky. Sadly, Reid succumbed to the pressure to alter her looks with cosmetic surgery. In interviews, she has shared that her first experience under the knife “went wrong” leading to more surgeries in attempts to rectify the resulting deformity.

85D Archipelago part : ISLE

“Archipelago” is our spelling of the Italian “arcipelago”, a word that has Greek roots. The Aegean Sea was once known as the Archipelago. The usage of “Archipelago” migrated over time, eventually applying only to the Aegean Islands. As a result, we use the term “archipelago” today not for a sea, but for a group or chain of islands.

88D Guatemala native : MAYA

The Mayan civilization held sway in Central America and Mexico from about 350 AD, until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s.

91D Hot sauce served with pho : SRIRACHA

Sriracha hot chili sauce is named for the coastal city of Si Racha in eastern Thailand, where the recipe likely originated. Here in North America, we are most familiar with the Sriracha sold in a red bottle with a green top that is made by Huy Fong Foods in the city of Irwindale, California. The manufacturer was founded by Vietnamese refugee David Tran, who escaped from Vietnam in 1978 on a Taiwanese freighter called the Huey Fong, after which he named his new company.

99D Gaming greenhorn : NOOB

A greenhorn is a young-horned animal. “Greenhorn” is also a term that is now applied to any inexperienced person.

100D Some classic cameras : KODAKS

George Eastman founded the Eastman Kodak Company, which he named after the Kodak camera that he had invented four years earlier. He came up with the name of Kodak after careful consideration. Firstly he was a big fan of the letter “K”, calling it “strong, incisive”. He also wanted a word that was short, easy to pronounce and difficult to mispronounce, and a word that was clearly unique with no prior associations. “Kodak” fit the bill.

105D Swords with bell guards : EPEES

The hilt of a sword consists of a grip and a guard (sometimes “bell guard”). One grasps the sword with the grip, and the guard is a metal shell that is designed to protect the fingers.

109D Mayberry boy : OPIE

Opie Taylor is the character played by Ron Howard on “The Andy Griffith Show”. Opie lives with widowed father Andy Taylor (played by Andy Griffith) and his great-aunt Beatrice “Aunt Bee” Taylor (played by Frances Bavier). Ron Howard first played the role in 1960 in the pilot show, when he was just 5 years old. Howard sure has come a long way since playing Opie Taylor. He has directed some fabulous movies including favorites of mine like “Apollo 13”, “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Da Vinci Code”.

110D Michigan, for one : LAKE

Of the five Great Lakes, Lake Michigan is the only one that is located totally within the US. The others are shared by the US and Canada.

115D “Inside Politics” channel : CNN

“Inside Politics” is a CNN news program that had an original run of over 20 years. It was hosted by Judy Woodruff from 1993 to 2005, and was resurrected in 2014 with John King as host.

117D Duluth winter hrs. : CST

Duluth, Minnesota lies at the westernmost end of Lake Superior, and as such is the westernmost port of the Great Lakes. One has to travel 2,300 miles of inland waterway to get to the Atlantic Ocean from Duluth. The city of Duluth takes its name from the first European explorer of the region, the Frenchman Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut.