LA Times Crossword 12 Jan 26, Monday

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Constructed by: Patti Varol

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Office Work

Themed answers each end with a task one might have in an office:

• 17A 1980s Atari racing game : SUPER SPRINT
• 29A Minimally invasive surgical procedure : ARTHROSCOPY
• 45A Hall of Fame pitcher who threw four no-hitters for the Dodgers : SANDY KOUFAX
• 60A Cylinder in the snack aisle : PRINGLES CAN

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

Bill’s time: 6m 34s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Awards such as Best Upset and Best Game : ESPYS

The ESPY Awards, also known as the Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards, were first presented in a ceremony in 1993. They were created by ESPN as a response to the lack of sports coverage during the summer months. ESPN decided to create an awards show to help fill that gap.

15A Astronaut Ellen who was the first Latina director of the Johnson Space Center : OCHOA

Ellen Ochoa was the first Hispanic woman in space, serving on a nine-day mission on the space shuttle Discovery in 1993. She spent over 1,000 hours in space over the course of four missions. In 2013, Ochoa became only the second woman to serve as Director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

16A Activist Yoko : ONO

Yoko Ono was born in 1933 in Tokyo into a prosperous Japanese family, and is actually a descendant of one of the emperors of Japan. Yoko’s father moved around the world for work, and she lived the first few years of her life in San Francisco. The family returned to Japan, before moving on to New York, Hanoi and back to Japan just before WWII, in time to live through the great firebombing of Tokyo in 1945. Immediately after the war the family was far from prosperous. While Yoko’s father was being held in a prison camp in Vietnam, her mother had to resort to begging and bartering to feed her children. When her father was repatriated, life started to return to normal and Yoko was able to attend university. She was the first woman to be accepted into the philosophy program of Gakushuin University.

17A 1980s Atari racing game : SUPER SPRINT

The racing game “Super Sprint” was released in 1986. It is remembered by many for its arcade version, which featured a unique cabinet that allowed three players to compete simultaneously. Each player had their own steering wheel and their own gas pedal.

19A Air passenger screening org. : TSA

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

23A 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.

25A Black dialect, for short : AAVE

African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

28A Tree goo : SAP

The sap of a plant can be broadly divided into phloem sap and xylem sap. The phloem is the tissue that transports sugars made by photosynthesis from the leaves to the parts of the plant needing those sugars. The sugary solution flowing through the phloem is the phloem sap. The xylem is the tissue that transports water and other nutrients from the roots to the rest of the plant. The watery solution flowing through the xylem is the xylem sap.

29A Minimally invasive surgical procedure : ARTHROSCOPY

Arthroscopy is surgery that is minimally invasive and is performed on a joint, often the knee, hip or shoulder.

34A Old photo hue : SEPIA

Sepia is that rich, brown-gray color so common in old photographs. “Sepia” is the Latinized version of the Greek word for cuttlefish, as sepia pigment is derived from the ink sac of the cuttlefish. Sepia ink was commonly used for writing and drawing as far back as ancient Rome and ancient Greece. The “sepia tone” of old photographs is not the result of deterioration over time. Rather, it is the result of a deliberate preservation process which converts the metallic silver in the photographic image to a more stable silver sulfide. Prints that have been sepia-toned can last in excess of 150 years.

38A Elementary school shoebox project : DIORAMA

A diorama is a full-scale or small-scale replica of a scene. We mostly see full-size dioramas in museums, whereas our kids might create small-scale dioramas as homework projects. The original diorama was a picture-viewing device that was invented in 1822 by Louis Daguerre and Charles Marie Bouton. These historic dioramas were quite large, and featured scenes that appeared to change as the lighting was manipulated.

42A Actor Nick : NOLTE

Actor Nick Nolte got his big break in movies playing opposite Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Shaw in “The Deep”, a film released in 1976. Around the same time, he landed a leading role in the hit TV miniseries “Rich Man, Poor Man”. Off the screen, Nolte has always had a “bad-boy” reputation. He is indeed a convicted felon, for selling counterfeit draft cards in the early 1960s. He had to pay a $75,000 fine, and was given a suspended prison sentence.

45A Hall of Fame pitcher who threw four no-hitters for the Dodgers : SANDY KOUFAX

Sandy Koufax is a retired baseball pitcher who turned out for the Dodgers from 1955 to 1966. Koufax was the first player to win three Cy Young Awards, and the first player to pitch four no-hitters. He was also an iconic Jewish American in the field of sports, notably refusing to play in the first game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur. When Koufax was invited to attend a White House reception in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month in 2010, President Obama remarked that he and Kofax had something in common. The president continued, “He can’t pitch on Yom Kippur. I can’t pitch.” Funny …

51A __ vera gel : ALOE

Aloe vera is a succulent plant that grows in relatively dry climates. The plant’s leaves are full of biologically-active compounds that have been studied extensively. Aloe vera has been used for centuries in herbal medicine, mainly for topical treatment of wounds.

57A Times New __ : ROMAN

Times New Roman is a typeface that was designed in 1931 for “The Times” (of London) newspaper. Although the typeface is still very popular today, “The Times” itself moved away from Times New Roman in the 1970s.

60A Cylinder in the snack aisle : PRINGLES CAN

Pringles snack chips were introduced in 1967 by Procter & Gamble and were first sold as “Pringles Newfangled Potato Chips”.

65A Texas A&M athlete : AGGIE

Texas A&M is the seventh largest university in the country, and was the first public higher education institute in the state when it accepted its first students in 1876. The full name of the school was the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas (hence “A&M”) and its primary mission used to be the education of males in the techniques of farming and military warfare. That’s quite a combination! Because of the agricultural connection, the college’s sports teams use the moniker “Aggies”. Texas A&M is also home to the George Bush Presidential Library.

66A Cathedral city in Tuscany : SIENA

Siena is a beautiful city in the Tuscany region of Italy. In the center of Siena is the magnificent medieval square called Piazza del Campo, a paved sloping open area made up of nine triangular sections. The square has to be seen to be believed. Twice a year, the famous bareback horse-race called the Palio di Siena is held in the Piazza.

67A Summer hrs. : DST

On the other side of the Atlantic, daylight saving time (DST) is known as “summer time”. The idea behind summer/daylight-savings is to move clocks forward an hour in spring (“spring forward”), and backwards in the fall (“fall back”) so that afternoons have more daylight. Here in the US, DST starts on the second Sunday of March, and ends on the first Sunday of November.

Down

1D Start to sneeze? : ESS

The word “sneeze” starts with the letter S (ess).

2D Moo __ pork : SHU

Moo shu pork (also “mu shu pork”) is a traditional dish from northern China, with the main ingredients being shredded pork and scrambled egg. In North America, the dish is served with tortilla-like wrappers that are sometimes referred to as “moo shu pancakes”.

3D British cartoon character who loves muddy puddles : PEPPA PIG

“Peppa Pig” is a children’s animated show that is produced in the UK and airs all over the world. There’s even a Peppa Pig World theme park located in Hampshire, England.

6D Monopoly token sported by the game’s mascot : TOP HAT

The tokens included with a game of Monopoly have changed over the years. Two of the more interesting tokens are the battleship and cannon. These were created by Hasbro for a board game called Conflict. When Conflict failed in the market, the excess tokens were recycled and included with Monopoly.

Mr. Monopoly is also known as Rich Uncle Pennybags, and is the mascot of the game Monopoly. For years, we could spot Mr. Monopoly reaching out of the “O” in the word Monopoly on the game board.

9D Novelist Morrison : TONI

Writer Toni Morrison won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. Amongst other things, Morrison is noted for coining the phrase “our first black President”, a reference to President Bill Clinton.

11D Miyazaki’s “My Neighbor __” : TOTORO

“My Neighbor Totoro” is a 1988 Japanese animated film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten. The film tells the story of two sisters, Satsuki and Mei, who move to the countryside with their father to be closer to their hospitalized mother. The sisters befriend Totoro, a large, furry creature who lives in the nearby forest.

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese film director and animator who specializes in producing anime feature films. Anime is animation in the style of Japanese manga comic books.

26D With 24-Down, outmoded media format : VHS …
24D See 26-Down : … TAPE

The VHS video standard is more fully referred to as the Video Home System. VHS was one of many standards touted by various manufacturers in the seventies. The biggest rival to VHS was Betamax, but we baby boomers all knew which of the two standards won the final round in that fight.

30D Nail salon brand : OPI

Opi (originally “Odontorium Products Inc.”) is a manufacturer of nail polish based in North Hollywood, California. One of Opi’s marketing coups was the introduction of a line of Legally Blonde 2 polishes, which featured in the film. Opi also launched a collection of nail lacquers inspired by the hit Broadway musical “Wicked” in celebration of its 10th anniversary on Broadway.

31D __ City, Iowa : SIOUX

Sioux City, Iowa has a history that is inextricably linked with the Missouri River. The city grew from a camp established by the Lewis and Clark expedition that traveled up the river in 1804. Today, Sioux City is the navigational head of the Missouri, the furthest point upstream that is accessible by general cargo ships.

36D Large ruminant in the Rockies : ELK

Ruminants are animals that “chew the cud”. They eat vegetable matter but cannot extract any nutritional value from cellulose without the help of microbes in the gut. Ruminants collect roughage in the first part of the alimentary canal, allowing microbes to work on it. The partially digested material (the cud) is regurgitated into the mouth so that the ruminant can chew the food more completely, exposing more surface area for microbes to do their work. We also use the verb “to ruminate” in a figurative sense, to mean “to muse, ponder, chew over”.

37D Octagon at an intersection : STOP SIGN

The first stop sign appeared in Detroit in 1915, though it looked quite different than today. It was a simple square with black letters on a white background. In 1923, the Mississippi Valley Association of State Highway Departments recommended the octagonal shape we know today. This helped drivers recognize it from a distance or even from behind. Reflective materials were added in 1935 for better nighttime visibility, and the red color with white lettering was standardized in 1954 to make it even more noticeable.

40D Ravioli filling, sometimes : MEAT

Ravioli (singular “raviolo”) are filled dumplings served in Italian cuisine.

43D Benelux continent : EUR

Back in 1944, the three neighboring European countries of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg made a customs cooperation agreement. This was known as the Benelux Agreement, with “Benelux” coming from the first two-three letters of the participating countries’ names. The term “Benelux” is now used to describe several more agreements and structures shared by the three nations.

47D Chewy candy : NOUGAT

“Nougat” is an Occitan word (Occitania being a region of Southern Europe) that translates as “nut bread”.

48D Blacksmiths’ workplaces : FORGES

A blacksmith is someone who forges and shapes iron, perhaps to make horseshoes. A farrier is someone who fits horseshoes onto the hooves of horses. The term “blacksmith” is sometimes used for one who shoes horses, especially as many blacksmiths make horseshoes and fit them as well.

49D Mil. truant : AWOL

“Truant” is such a lovely word. We have been using it to describe someone who wanders from an appointed place since the mid-1400s. Prior to that, a truant was a beggar or a vagabond.

55D AirPlay and AirDrop tablet : IPAD

Apple AirPlay allows a user to send music, videos, pictures, and even a phone or computer screen, wirelessly to other devices like speakers and TVs.

AirDrop is Apple’s file-sharing service that allows users to wirelessly transfer photos, videos, documents, and other data between nearby Apple devices (iPhones, iPads, and Macs). I’m a Google Pixel guy, and so use the equivalent Android service called Quick Share.

56D Challenging chem course : ORGO

By one definition, an organic chemical is a compound containing carbon-hydrogen and/or carbon-carbon bonds. A more broad definition is that a chemical containing carbon is classed as organic. Back in the mid-1600s, anything described as “organical” related to the body and its organs. In the early 1800s, the phrase “organic chemistry” was coined to describe the study of compounds derived from living things, from nature.

58D Phoenix suburb : MESA

The city of Mesa, Arizona is in effect a suburb of Phoenix. The original settlement of non-Native Americans was founded by Daniel Webster Jones who led a Mormon group from St. George, Utah. The settlement was first called Jonesville, then Fort Utah and eventually Lehi. A second group of Mormons arrived and formed a settlement on top of a nearby mesa. It was this use of a mesa that eventually gave the city its current name.

62D Actress de Armas : ANA

Ana de Armas is an actress from Cuba. Having attended the National Theater School of Cuba, she moved to Spain at the age of 18. There, she made a name for herself in a Spanish TV series called “El Internado”. De Armas moved to Los Angeles in 2014, after which her performance opposite Ryan Gosling in 2017’s “Blade Runner 2049” earned her critical acclaim.