LA Times Crossword 27 Sep 26, Sunday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Jeremy Venook

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Drop in Anytime

Themed answers sound like common phrases, but with an “EN” sound DROPPED from the end of one word:

23A Tacky style influenced by West Coast beach culture and Neapolitan food traditions? : CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITSCH (from “California Pizza Kitchen”)

36A One tasked with keeping produce from spoiling? : VEGETABLE GUARD (from “vegetable garden”)

55A Caption of a selfie next to one fine fen? : MY FAVORITE MARSH (from “My Favorite Martian”)

65A Stacking figurines of a Canadian prog rock band? : RUSH NESTING DOLL (from “Russian nesting doll”)

81A Individual with exceptional integrity? : HONORABLE MENSCH (from “honorable mention”)

98A Annual award coveted by handbag designers? : PURSE OF THE YEAR (from “person of the year”)

116A Is able to say, “This parrot is all the evidence I need!”? : CARRIES THE BIRD OF PROOF (from “carries the burden of proof”)

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

Bill’s time: 18m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

20A Forty winks : CATNAP

Back in the early 1800s, folks took “nine winks” when getting a few minutes of sleep during the day. Dr. William Kitchiner extended this concept in his 1821 self-help book “The Art of Invigorating and Prolonging Life”. He suggested “A Forty Winks Nap”, which we seem to have been taking ever since. Mind you, I’m up to about eighty winks most days …

23A Tacky style influenced by West Coast beach culture and Neapolitan food traditions? : CALIFORNIA PIZZA KITSCH (from “California Pizza Kitchen”)

“Kitsch” is a German word, a noun describing something gaudy or trashy.

California Pizza Kitchen was founded in 1985 in Beverly Hills, by two former federal prosecutors (!). The chain differentiated itself from other pizza restaurants by offering non-traditional, gourmet toppings on traditional crusts.

28A Saxophone need : REED

The saxophone was invented by Belgian musician Adolphe Sax, hence the name. Sax developed lip cancer at one point in his life, and one has to wonder if his affliction was related to his saxophone playing (I am sure not!). I had the privilege of visiting Sax’s grave in the Cemetery of Montmartre in Paris a few years ago.

34A Tatami, e.g. : MAT

A tatami is a traditional mat used on floors in Japan. The term “tatami” comes from the Japanese word “tatamu” meaning “to fold”, reflecting the fact that the mat used to be folded up for storage. Modern tatami mats are thick (approx. 2 inches), heavy, and rigid modules with a compressed rice-straw core. They are no longer designed to be folded.

47A Mac spec : RAM

Random-access memory (RAM) is a form of computer storage.

48A Melee memento : SCAR

Our term “melee” comes from the French “mêlée”, and in both languages the word means “confused fight”.

51A Tel __, Israel : AVIV

The full name of Israel’s second largest city is Tel Aviv-Yafo. “Tel Aviv” translates into “Spring Mound”, and is a name that was chosen in 1910. Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 as a housing development outside the port city of Jaffa. Tel Aviv and Jaffa merged in 1950.

54A Draw Four card game : UNO

The card game called Uno was invented by Merle Robbins, an Ohio barbershop owner, in 1971. He was largely motivated to come up with the game to resolve a family dispute over the rules of Crazy Eights. He originally self-published the game, selling the first 5,000 decks directly from his barbershop, before handing over the rights for $50,000 plus royalties of 10 cents per game. I’d say that those royalties were more valuable than the lump sum. By 2006, there were 150 million copies sold worldwide.

55A Caption of a selfie next to one fine fen? : MY FAVORITE MARSH (from “My Favorite Martian”)

“My Favorite Martian” is a sitcom about a crash-landed alien anthropologist who adopts the guise of “Uncle Martin” to live with newspaper reporter Tim O’Hara, played by Bill Bixby. Looking back, it was a groundbreaking show, pioneering the television fantasy-sitcom genre that paved the way for later hits like “Bewitched” and “I Dream of Jeannie”. I used to love all of those shows as a kid …

61A Chicken cordon __ : BLEU

A “cordon bleu” dish is a meat dish, one prepared by wrapping the meat around cheese, covering it with breading and then pan-frying. Specifically, veal cordon bleu is made using veal that is pounded thin and wrapped around slices of ham and cheese. The term “cordon bleu” translates from French as “blue ribbon”.

62A Microwave maker : RCA

The microwave oven was invented in 1945 by Percy Spencer, an engineer at Raytheon. While he was standing beside an active radar unit, which used microwaves, he noticed that the candy bar in his pocket had melted. Spencer proceeded to expose various foods to microwaves in tests that would lead to the development of the first commercial microwave oven.

65A Stacking figurines of a Canadian prog rock band? : RUSH NESTING DOLL (from “Russian nesting doll”)

Rush is a Canadian rock band that has been around since 1968. Although there were several changes in lineup, the band had three steady members for decades: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart.

Matryoshka dolls are those wooden nesting dolls that are on sale at every tourist trap across Russia. “Matryoshka” is Russian for “little matron”. I was lucky enough to spend a week in Russia in the late 1990s. I brought back just one memento, a pair of matryoshka dolls. One depicted Mikhail Gorbachev, and the other Ronald Reagan. Images of Gorbachev and Reagan were everywhere in Russia back then …

71A Over again : DE NOVO

“De novo” is Latin for “anew”, and is a term that we use in English with the same meaning.

74A Artist Yoko : ONO

Yoko Ono is an avant-garde artist. She met her future husband John Lennon for the first time while she was preparing her conceptual art exhibit called “Hammer a Nail”. Visitors were encouraged to hammer in a nail into a wooden board, creating the artwork. Lennon wanted to hammer in the first nail, but Ono stopped him as the exhibition had not yet opened. Apparently Ono relented when Lennon paid her an imaginary five shillings to hammer an imaginary nail into the wood.

76A Alpo rival : IAMS

Iams dog food was introduced by animal nutritionist Paul Iams. He felt that household pets were suffering somewhat by being fed a diet of table scraps, so he developed dry dog food that he felt was more nutritious and suitable for pet dogs. He founded the Iams company in 1946.

81A Individual with exceptional integrity? : HONORABLE MENSCH (from “honorable mention”)

“Mensch” is a word that comes to us via Yiddish, and is ultimately derived from the German “mensch” meaning “human being”. We use the term to describe someone of integrity and honor.

86A U.K. lawmakers : MPS

Member of Parliament (MP)

87A Spots for electron clouds : ATOMS

The informal term “electron cloud” describes where electrons are located as they orbit an atomic nucleus. According to the electron cloud model, developed by Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg in 1925, we cannot pinpoint the exact location of electrons at any time. The varying “density” of the electron cloud reflects the probability of finding electrons in a specific area.

93A Colorful carp : KOI

Koi are fish that are also known as Japanese carp. Koi have been bred for decorative purposes and there are now some very brightly colored examples found in Japanese water gardens.

94A Pickets : PROTESTS

Back in the late 17th century, a picket was a pointed stake used militarily to defend against attacking forces, and charging cavalry in particular. Ultimately, the term “picket” comes from the French verb “piquer” meaning “to pierce”. The term “pickets” then became the name for troops posted in the front lines, watching for the enemy. A picket line is a unit of soldiers lined up as a team of lookouts. The first use of “picket line” in the sense of labor disputes appeared in the 19th century. Our use of “picket fence” evolved from the original lines of pointed stakes used to defend positions held by early colonists.

97A Genre that includes techno : EDM

Electronic dance music (EDM)

103A Chaps : HES

“Chap” is an informal term meaning “lad, fellow” that is used especially in England. The term derives from “chapman”, an obsolete word meaning “purchaser” or “trader”.

111A Guitar tuners : PEGS

A cello has four tuning pegs in a pegbox, one for each string.

121A Tough to comprehend : ESOTERIC

Something described as esoteric is meant only for a select few with special knowledge. The term “esoteric” comes from the Greek “esoterikos” meaning “belonging to an inner circle”.

123A Japanese boxed lunch : BENTO

A bento is a single-person meal that is eaten quite commonly in Japan. It can be purchased as a take-out meal, or it may be packed at home. A bento is usually sold as a “bento box”.

125A Poison ivy symptom : RASH

Two of the plants that are most painful to humans are poison oak and poison ivy. Poison oak is mainly found west of the Rocky Mountains, and poison ivy to the east.

126A Tubes in antique radios : DIODES

A diode is a component in a circuit, the most notable characteristic of which is that it will conduct electric current in only one direction. Some of those vacuum tubes we used to see in old radios and television were diodes, but nowadays almost all diodes are semiconductor devices.

127A Olympic track great Owens : JESSE

Jesse Owens is famous for winning four gold medals at the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, much to the chagrin of Adolf Hitler. Jesse’s real name was James Cleveland Owens, and he went by “JC” as a child. However, his Alabama accent was misconstrued at school when his family moved to Cleveland, so teachers and classmates called him “Jesse” instead of “JC”, and the name stuck.

Down

3D Cager’s motto : BALL IS LIFE

In the early days of basketball, when a ball went out of bounds possession was awarded to the player who first retrieved the ball. This led to mad scuffles off the court, often involving spectators. As the game became more organized, courts were routinely “caged”, largely because of this out of bounds rule, to limit interaction with the crowd. It’s because of these cages that basketball players are sometimes referred to today as “cagers”.

4D Camden Yards player : ORIOLE

Oriole Park is home to the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. The full name of the stadium is Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The name “Camden Yards” is used because the ballpark is built on land that was once used as the rail yard for B&O Railroad’s Camden Station.

7D Word with farm or foam : … HAND

The concept of a foam hand gesturing “number one” dates back to a prototype made out of hardware cloth and papier-mâché in 1971 by a high school student in Ottumwa, Iowa. Steve Schmelar was photographed supporting his school wearing his giant “hand”, and the photo was published by several outlets. A few years later, Texas high school teacher Geral Fauss recreated the design in foam to raise funds for an arts club at his school. Building on the popularity of the foam fingers, Fauss went on to create Spirit Industries for mass-production, and I’d say he made a pretty penny …

8D Big name in small cars : OTIS

Otis is a manufacturer of elevators, escalators and moving walkways. By some accounts, Otis is the world’s most popular transportation company, with the equivalent of the whole world’s population traveling on Otis devices every few days.

9D Genetic messenger molecule : RNA

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is an essential catalyst in the manufacture of proteins in the body. The genetic code in DNA determines the sequence of amino acids that make up each protein. That sequence is read in DNA by messenger RNA, and amino acids are delivered for protein manufacture in the correct sequence by transfer RNA. The amino acids are then formed into proteins by ribosomal RNA. An added complication is that small changes in the sequence of amino acids specified by DNA sometimes take place in a process known as RNA editing. This RNA editing occurs after the nucleotide sequence has been transcribed from DNA, but before it is translated into protein.

10D Spigot : TAP

Back in the 15th century, a spigot was specifically a plug to stop a hole in a cask. Somewhere along the way, a spigot had a valve added for variable control of flow.

12D Woodworking tool : ADZE

An adze (also “adz”) is similar to an ax, but is different in that the blade of an adze is set at right angles to the tool’s shaft. An ax blade is set in line with the shaft.

18D Tennis icon honored on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia : ASHE

Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, is a tree-lined residential boulevard originally anchored by a tall equestrian statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that was unveiled in 1890. In the ensuing decades, a series of bronze monuments memorializing Confederate leaders were added to the thoroughfare. The theme of the collection shifted in 1996 with the addition of a monument dedicated to Richmond native, civil rights activist, and tennis champion Arthur Ashe. Following widespread civil rights protests in 2020, all of the Confederate statues were removed, leaving Ashe’s memorial as the sole historical figure on display.

25D Epsilon follower : ZETA

Zeta is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a precursor of our Roman letter Z. The word “zeta” is also the ancestor of the letter name “zed”, which became “zee”, the term that we use here in the US.

31D Samsung product, perhaps : LED TV

Samsung is a huge multinational company based in Seoul, South Korea. We tend to think of Samsung as a supplier of consumer electronics perhaps, but the company is into so much more. Samsung Heavy Industries is the world’s second-biggest shipbuilder, and Samsung Techwin is a major manufacturer of aeronautic and weapons systems. The name “Samsung” means “three stars” in Korean.

32D “Uncle!” : I GIVE!

To say uncle is to submit or yield. This peculiarly American use of “uncle” dates back to the early 1900s, but nobody seems to know how “uncle!” came to mean “stop!”

36D Civil rights leader C.T. __ : VIVIAN

C.T. Vivian was a minister, author, and close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He is perhaps best remembered for a televised 1965 confrontation in Selma, Alabama, where he was punched by Sheriff Jim Clark while attempting to escort Black citizens to register to vote. Vivian was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2013 in recognition of his lifetime of steadfast activism.

38D Thirdlove garments : BRAS

ThirdLove is a supplier of lingerie that was founded in 2013 by Heidi Zak and her husband David Spector. Zak was driven to found her company because of the difficulty she had finding bras that fit comfortably, and also were stylish. Much of ThirdLove’s early success came with supplying bras in half-cup sizes.

42D Dickens title character Edwin : DROOD

“The Mystery of Edwin Drood” is an unfinished novel by Charles Dickens. The story itself is centered not on the title character, but on Edwin Drood’s uncle, a choirmaster named John Jasper.

43D The Taj Mahal, for one : TOMB

The Taj Mahal in Agra, India is a magnificent marble mausoleum. It was built in the mid-17th century by the fifth Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to house the tomb of his favorite wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died while giving birth to her 14th child in 1631. When Shah Jahan himself died in 1666, he was buried in the Taj Mahal, alongside his wife.

46D Turpentine tree : LARCH

Turpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. It is a colorless, oily, odorous, flammable, water-immiscible liquid. Showing my age perhaps, I mostly think of turpentine as a paint thinner, and a solvent used to clean paint brushes.

50D Dark lord of “The Lord of the Rings” : SAURON

In J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”, Sauron is the actual “Lord of the Rings”. He was the Dark Lord Morgoth’s trusted lieutenant.

58D Undefeated boxer Laila : ALI

Laila Ali is the daughter of the great Muhammad Ali and is a very capable boxer in her own right. Laila’s professional record is an impressive 24 wins, including 21 knockouts. Now retired, she never lost a fight, and nor did she ever draw. One of those victories was against Jackie Frazier-Lyde, daughter of her father’s nemesis Joe Frazier. Laila is not a bad dancer either, coming in third place in the fourth season of “Dancing with the Stars”.

66D Eye layer : UVEA

The uvea is the middle of the three layers that make up the eyeball. The outer layer is called the fibrous tunic, and the inner layer is the retina.

72D College sports channel : ESPNU

ESPNU (short for “ESPN Universities”) is a sports channel focused on college athletics.

84D __ carotene : BETA

Carotene is an orange pigment that plants use in the process of photosynthesis. Carotene gives carrots their orange color, and it is carrots that give the pigment its name. “Carota” is the Latin for “carrot”. Carotene is found in nature in two structural forms: alpha-carotene and the more common beta-carotene.

94D Meteor in the summer sky : PERSEID

The two most famous meteor showers are the Perseids and Leonids. The Perseid meteor shower is most visible around August 12th each year, and the Leonid meteor shower is most notable around November 17th. The Perseids appear to emanate from the constellation Perseus, and the Leonids from the constellation Leo (hence the names “Perseids” and “Leonids”).

105D Slag : DROSS

When metals are smelted, there is a scum made up of impurities that floats on the surface of the molten metal. This scum is called “dross” and is drawn off and discarded. The term “dross” has come to mean any waste or impure matter.

106D Award quartets, for short : EGOTS

The acronym “EGOT” stands for “Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony”, and is a reference to performers who have won all four awards.

107D Oscar nominee Willem : DAFOE

Willem Dafoe is an American actor, one from Wisconsin. He was born just plain “William” Dafoe, but didn’t like being called “Billy”. So, he changed his name to “Willem”, which was the pronunciation of his name by his Scottish babysitter.

110D City tricked by a wooden horse : TROY

The story of the Wooden Horse of Troy is told in Virgil’s poem “The Aeneid”. According to the tale, the city of Troy finally fell to Greeks after a siege that had lasted for ten years. In a ruse, the Greeks sailed away in apparent defeat, leaving behind a large wooden horse. Inside the horse were hidden 30 crack soldiers. When the horse was dragged into the city as a victory trophy, the soldiers sneaked out and opened the city’s gates. The Greeks returned under cover of night and entered the open city.

113D Ascot-wearing driver of the Mystery Machine : FRED

The Mystery Machine is the psychedelically-painted van that transports the Mystery, Inc. gang in the “Scooby-Doo” franchise.

117D Pitching stat : ERA

Earned run average (ERA)

118D Songwriters’ rights org. : BMI

BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) collects licence fees for musicians and distributes royalties to composers whose works have been performed. ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) provides the same service.

119D Wall St. launch : IPO

Initial public offering (IPO)