LA Times Crossword 8 Nov 26, Sunday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Katie Hale

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Empty Words

Themed answers are common phrases with the starting letter T in one word swapped out for a letter M:

• 22A Rowing teams that spread good cheer? : MERRY CREWS (from “Terry Crews”)
• 40A Scampering after a letter caught by the wind? : CHASING ONE’S MAIL (from “chasing one’s tail”)
• 47A Exhausted after cramming for a geography test? : ALL MAPPED OUT (from “all tapped out”)
• 64A Trick to getting the cleanest floors? : MOP SECRET (from “top secret”)
• 71A Courthouse employee responsible for maintenance? : BAR MENDER (from “bartender”)
• 85A Solution when it’s too hard to choose one Halloween costume? : MULTIMASKING (from “multi-tasking”)
• 92A “Let’s raise a glass to our favorite silent performers of yore!”? : FOR OLD MIMES‘ SAKE! (from “for old time’s sake”)
• 115A Shop displays of long skirts? : MAXI STANDS (from “taxi stands”)

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

Bill’s time: 18m 57s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A NYC home of Dalí’s “The Persistence of Memory” : MOMA

“The Persistence of Memory” is probably Salvador Dalí’s most famous work. It features the celebrated melting clocks/watches, and you can see them in the painting in the MoMA in New York City.

5A Leader of the Aesir : ODIN

The gods and goddesses of Norse mythology generally belong to either the Aesir tribe or the Vanir tribe. Most of the Norse gods with which we are familiar belong to Aesir, including Odin, Thor, Frigg and Tyr. Examples of the Vanir gods are Freya and Njord. The Aesir live in Asgard, and the Vanir in Vanaheim. The Aesir and Vanir eventually united into one pantheon after the Aesir-Vanir War.

18A Body lotion brand : NIVEA

Nivea is a brand name of skin-care products from Germany. The Latin word “nivea” means “snow-white”.

21A Hebrew prophet : MICAH

The name “Micah” translates into English from Hebrew as “Who is like God?”

22A Rowing teams that spread good cheer? : MERRY CREWS (from “Terry Crews”)

Terry Crews is a former football player who became a very successful actor and comedian after retiring from the sport. Crews is a multi-talented person. He is a very capable flute player, and quite the portrait artist. Crews took over as host of “America’s Got Talent” in 2019.

25A The Gem State : IDAHO

Idaho has the nickname “Gem State”, mainly because almost every known type of gemstone has been found there. Idaho is also sometimes called the Potato State, as potatoes are such a popular crop in the state. I’d go for the potatoes over the gems, but that’s probably just me. Oh, and Idaho license plates have borne the slogan “Famous Potatoes” for decades …

29A From Laos, say : ASIAN

The official name for the country of Laos is the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In the Lao language, the country’s name is “Meuang Lao”. The French ruled Laos as part of French Indochina, having united three separate Lao kingdoms. As there was a plural of “Lao” entities united into one, the French added the “S” and so today we tend to use “Laos” instead of “Lao”.

35A Clear plastic : LUCITE

Lucite is a brand name of transparent thermoplastic that is used as a safe alternative to glass. The material was first brought to market in 1933 as Plexiglas, and has also been sold as Perspex.

37A Mesoamerican fruit : CACAO

The flowers of the cacao tree grow in clusters, directly on the trunk and on older branches. The pollinated flowers turn into ovoid cacao pods, each of which contain 20-60 seeds or beans. The seeds are used as the main ingredient in chocolate.

Mesoamerica is a region extending from Central Mexico, south to Costa Rica. It is known as an area where societies flourished prior to the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries.

43A “For You” singer Rita : ORA

“For You” is a 2018 song recorded by Liam Payne (of One Direction) and Rita Ora. It was used as the lead single from the soundtrack of the movie “Fifty Shades Freed”, the third installment in the “Fifty Shades” trilogy.

52A Ides of March utterance : ET TU

In Act I of William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, a soothsayer warns the doomed leader to “beware the ides of March”. Caesar ignores the prophecy and is subsequently killed on the steps of the Capitol by a group of conspirators on that fateful day.

53A Texas metropolis, for short : DFW

Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)

56A Jeep headquarters city : TOLEDO

Willys-Overland Motors was founded by John North Willys in 1908 after he acquired the Overland Automotive Division. Between 1912 and 1918, the Toledo-based company was the second-largest automobile producer in the US, trailing only Henry Ford. Willys-Overland is perhaps best remembered for securing the primary World War II military contract to produce the iconic Willys MB Jeep.

57A Shortly after the big bang, e.g. : EONS AGO

According to the Big Bang theory, the universe came into being just under 14 billion years ago. The theory posits that the universe started out as a hot and dense mass that began to expand rapidly (in a “big bang”). Within three minutes of the “bang”, the universe cooled so that energy was converted into subatomic particles like protons, electrons and neutrons. Over time, subatomic particles turned into atoms. Clouds of those atoms formed stars and galaxies.

59A Orléans river : LOIRE

Orléans is a city in France that is located less than 100 miles southwest of Paris. The French city gives its name to the American city of New Orleans.

63A Title role for Benicio del Toro : CHE

“Che” is a 2008 film about the life of the revolutionary hero Che Guevara. Starring Benicio del Toro in the title role, the movie is in two parts. The first part is called “The Argentine” and deals with the part Guevara played in the Cuban Revolution. Part two is called “Guerrilla” and covers Guevara’s attempt to foment revolution in Bolivia.

67A Chobani competitor : OIKOS

Oikos is a brand of Greek yogurt made by Danone.

74A Cacophonous : NOISY

“Cacophony” is such a lovely word, a word used to describe a harsh or jarring sound. The term arises from the Greek “kakos” (bad) and “phone” (voice).

88A Late-night TV pioneer : 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 …

89A 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.

90A 2019 W.S. champ : NAT

The 2019 World Series was played between the American League’s Houston Astros and the National League’s Washington Nationals. The Nationals emerged victorious, and were crowned champions for the first time. The last time a D.C. team won the World Series was back in 1924, when the Washington Senators beat the New York Giants.

98A NHL legend Hull : BRETT

Brett Hull is a retired hockey player from Ontario, although he chose to represent the American National Team having obtained dual citizenship. Brett is the son of professional hockey player Bobby Hull and professional figure skater Joanne McKay. Bobby’s nickname is “The Golden Jet”, and Brett’s is “The Golden Brett”. Brett is quite the golfer too, and has stated several times that he prefers golf to hockey.

100A Image in a group chat, perhaps : AVATAR

The Sanskrit word “avatar” describes the concept of a deity descending into earthly life and taking on a persona. It’s easy to see how in the world of online presences one might use the word avatar to describe one’s online identity.

102A Hip-hop pioneer Kool __ Dee : MOE

“Kool Moe Dee” is the stage name of rap artist Mohandas Dewese. He had the honor of being the first rap artist to perform at the Grammys, and was one of the first rappers to win a Grammy Award.

103A Blue rep. : DEM

On political maps, red states are predominantly Republican and blue states predominantly Democrat. The designation of red and blue states is a very recent concept, only introduced in the 2000 presidential election by TV journalist, the late Tim Russert. In retrospect, the choice of colors is surprising, as in other democracies around the world red is usually used to describe left-leaning socialist parties (the reds under the bed!), and blue is used for conservative right-wing parties. In election cycles, swing/battleground states are often depicted in purple.

106A Prayer __ : RUG

The tradition of using prayer rugs, “sajjada” in Arabic, dates back to early Islamic history. While not explicitly commanded in the Quran, the practice developed from the need for a clean and defined space for prayer, especially when praying outdoors. The rug designs frequently feature a mihrab motif, an arch-shaped pattern symbolizing the mihrab in a mosque, which indicates the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca.

111A Muse of poetry : ERATO

In Greek mythology, Erato was the Muse of lyric poetry. She is often depicted with a wreath of myrtle and roses, and playing a lyre.

117A Contract addition : RIDER

A rider is an additional provision attached to an original contract or legislative bill to modify its terms without rewriting the entire document. The concept is perhaps most (in)famous in the entertainment industry, where a performance agreement typically includes a hospitality rider outlining an artist’s specific backstage demands. One of the most legendary examples is rock band Van Halen’s 1982 tour rider, which stipulated that a bowl of M&Ms be provided with all the brown candies removed. It was a test to ensure a venue’s representatives had really read the complex technical requirements in the contract.

120A “Heat” director Michael : MANN

Filmmaker Michael Mann is known for his neo-noir crime thrillers and dedication to technical realism. His name is associated with successful TV shows like “Miami Vice”, for which he was executive producer, and hit movies like “Heat”, which wrote and directed. The LA street shootout in “Heat” was choreographed so meticulously that its unedited audio and tactical movements have been used as training material by the USMarine Corps.

“Heat” is a 1995 action movie starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer. Pacino plays an LAPD detective on the trail of a big-time thief played by De Niro. The storyline is based on the real-world interactions between Chicago cop Chuck Adamson and ex-Alcatraz inmate Neil McCauley.

123A Normandy landing time : D-DAY

The Normandy landings on D-Day in 1944 took place along a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword. The worst fighting by far took place on Omaha Beach, a sector assigned to the US Army that was transported by elements of the US Navy and the Royal Navy.

Down

3D “Wheel of Fortune” creator Griffin : MERV

Merv Griffin was quite the entertainer, and truly a mogul in the business. He started his career as a singer on the radio during the big band era. In the sixties he hosted his own talk show, and then famously developed such great game shows as “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune”.

6D Short ways to go? : DIRS

Direction (dir.)

8D Cap company : NEW ERA

The New Era Cap Company is a headwear manufacturer based in Buffalo, New York. It is New Era that supplies all the official baseball caps used by the Major League teams.

10D Chihuahua neighbor : DURANGO

Durango is one of Mexico’s 32 “estados” (states). It is landlocked, and is located in the northwest of the country.

12D Ming who hosts the cooking show “Simply Ming” : TSAI

Celebrity chef Ming Tsai got his big break as the host of the Food Network series “East Meets West”. He later anchored the PBS cooking show “Simply Ming” and became an advocate for food allergy awareness, eventually helping to draft the Massachusetts food allergy law to protect restaurant patrons.

13D Camouflaged : HID

Our word “camouflage” (often abbreviated to “camo”) evolved directly from a Parisian slang term “camoufler” meaning “to disguise”. The term was first used in WWI, although the British navy at that time preferred the expression “dazzle-painting” as it applied to the pattern painted on the hulls of ships.

14D National park near Bar Harbor : ACADIA

Acadia National Park in Maine was created in 1919, although back then it was called Lafayette National Park in honor of the Marquis de Lafayette who famously supported the American Revolution. The park was renamed to Acadia in 1929. It is the oldest national park east of the Mississippi River.

Bar Harbor is a town on the Maine coast that is a popular place to visit in the summer. Cruise ships are a common sight in the harbor from May through October. One of the town’s more famous sons was former US Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, who was born there in 1908.

15D Largest island in French Polynesia : TAHITI

Tahiti is the most populous island in French Polynesia, which is located in the central Southern Pacific. Although Captain Cook landed in Tahiti in 1769, he wasn’t the first European to do so. However, Cook’s visit was the most significant in that it heralded a whole spate of European visitors, who brought with them prostitution, venereal disease and alcohol. Included among the subsequent visitors was the famous HMS Bounty under the charge of Captain Bligh.

21D Wee : MINUSCULE

“Minuscule” is one of those words that’s often misspelled, usually as “miniscule”.

28D The Texas __: nonprofit media company : TRIBUNE

Founded in 2009, The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization based in Austin. It has a digital-first newsroom that focuses on statewide politics and public policy, with a mission to fill the void left by shrinking traditional newspaper bureaus in the state capitol.

36D Nashville awards org. : CMA

The Country Music Association Awards, or CMAs, are presented annually in Nashville. The inaugural ceremony was held in 1967, hosted by Sonny James and Bobbie Gentry.

38D “Heaven” singer Parks : ARLO

“Arlo Parks” is the stage name of British singer and poet Anaïs Marinho. Parks seems to have hit the big time early in her career, with her first studio album “Collapsed in Sunbeams” (2021) garnering a lot of positive attention.

44D Totally right : SPOT-ON

Something described as spot-on is exactly correct. The term “spot-on” originated with the Royal Air Force in WWII when it described a shot or bomb that was right on target.

49D Lovelace of computing history : ADA

Ada Lovelace’s full name and title was Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the poet. Lovelace was fascinated by mathematics and wrote about the work done by Charles Babbage in building his groundbreaking mechanical computer. In some of her notes, she proposed an algorithm for Babbage’s machine to compute Bernoulli numbers. This algorithm is recognized by many as the world’s first computer program and so Lovelace is sometimes called the first “computer programmer”. There is a computer language called “Ada” that was named in her honor. The Ada language was developed from 1977 to 1983 for the US Department of Defense.

53D Cajun dish cooked with giblets : DIRTY RICE

“Dirty rice” is a white rice made to look “dirty” by cooking it with chicken liver, green peppers, celery and onion, with cayenne and black pepper. It is a traditional Cajun dish.

55D Like a martini with extra vermouth : WET

The term “martini” probably takes its name from the “Martini & Rossi” brand of dry vermouth, although no one seems to be completely sure. What is clear is that despite the Martini name originating in Italy, the martini drink originated in the US. The original martini was made with gin and sweet vermouth, but someone specifying a “dry” martini was given gin and dry vermouth. Nowadays we use dry vermouth for all martinis, and the term “dry” has become a reference to how little vermouth is included in the drink. Famously, Noël Coward liked his drink very dry and said that a perfect martini is made by “filling a glass with gin then waving it in the general direction of Italy”. On the contrary, adding extra vermouth results in a “wet” martini. The German-American journalist and satirist H. L. Mencken referred to the martini as “the only American invention as perfect as a sonnet”.

60D Ric of The Cars : OCASEK

Ric Ocasek was an American musician of Czech heritage. He was the lead vocalist of the Cars rock band.

65D Ski run vehicle : SNO-CAT

The brand name “Sno-Cat” is owned by the Tucker company. All snowcats are tracked vehicles built to work in snow, and are famously used in expeditions to the polar regions. The modern Sno-Cat from Tucker differs from its competitors in that it has four independently-mounted tracks.

66D Peppermint candy shape : CANE

Apparently, candy canes were created at the behest of the choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral in Germany in 1670. The sweet sticks were basically used as bribes to keep children quiet during services. The choirmaster specified that the candy sticks should have a crook at the top so that they reminded the children of the three shepherds who visited the infant Jesus just after his birth.

68D Some dolls : KENS

Barbie’s male counterpart doll is Ken, and Ken’s family name is Carson. Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. When Ken was introduced in 1961, it was as Barbie’s boyfriend. In 2004 it was announced that Ken and Barbie were splitting up, and needed to spend quality time apart. Soon after the split, Barbie “met” Blaine, a boogie boarder from Australia. Happily, Barbie and Ken reconciled and reunited on Valentine’s Day 2011.

72D Moving staircase : ESCALATOR

Escalators have an advantage over elevators in that they can move larger numbers of people in the same time frame. They can also be placed in just about the same physical space that would be needed for a regular staircase. Patents for escalator-type devices were first filed in 1859, but the first working model wasn’t built until 1896 by one Jesse Reno. It was erected alongside a pier in Coney Island, New York, with the second escalator being placed at an entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. Soon after, the Otis elevator company purchased the necessary patents and went into the business.

73D Elle Woods’ dog : BRUISER

In the “Legally Blonde” media franchise, Bruiser Woods is the pink-clad Chihuahua belonging to Elle Woods. In the movies, Bruiser was portrayed by a canine actor named Moonie. Apparently, Moonie landed the role because his trainer’s other famous dog, Gidget, was too busy with commercial commitments as the Taco Bell Chihuahua.

80D Tech coverage site : CNET

CNET is a technology website, with the acronym “CNET” standing for “computer network”. It started out in 1994 as a television network specializing in technology news. The host of “American Idol”, Ryan Seacrest, started off his career as host of a CNET show.

81D Awards quartet : EGOT

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

84D Fernando Tatís Jr., for one : PADRE

Fernando Tatís Jr. is a professional baseball player from the Dominican Republic, the son of former MLB player Fernando Tatís (Sr.). He has earned the nicknames “El Niño” and “El Bebo”, and is known for a signature stutter-step when rounding third base.

87D Astronaut Jemison : MAE

Mae Jemison was a crew member on the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a 1992 mission, and as such became the first African-American woman to travel in space. She is also a big fan of “Star Trek” and appeared on an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. That made Jemison the first real astronaut to appear on any of the “Star Trek” shows.

92D Sliding volume controls : FADERS

A fader is a knob (more usually, a slider) that gradually increases or decreases the level of an audio signal. You’ll often see audio engineers at a performance or in a recording studio sliding buttons up and down. Those are faders.

94D Best Western rival : RAMADA

The Ramada Inn hotel chain takes its name from the Spanish word for a shady resting place. A ramada is a shelter with a roof and no walls, mainly found in the American southwest. Nowadays, a ramada can be temporary or permanent, but originally ramadas were makeshift shelters constructed by aboriginal Indians from branches or bushes.

95D Antelope with twisted horns : IMPALA

“Impala” is the Zulu word for “gazelle”. When running at a sustained speed, gazelles can move along at 30 miles per hour. If needed, they can accelerate for bursts up to 60 miles per hour.

97D Home of 5-Across : ASGARD
[5A Leader of the Aesir : ODIN]

Asgard is one of the Nine Worlds of Norse religions. It is where the Norse gods live, and is also home to Valhalla, the enormous hall ruled over by the god Odin.

107D Kudrow of “The Comeback” : LISA

The character Phoebe Buffay (and her identical twin sister Ursula) is played on the sitcom “Friends” by the actress Lisa Kudrow. Kudrow plays the ditzy member of the troupe of friends, but I’ve always viewed her as the “smartest” of the group of actors in real life, as best I could tell. Kudrow is behind the US version of the British genealogy show “Who Do You Think You Are?” a very entertaining bit of television.

“The Comeback” is a reality TV mockumentary, by all accounts a pioneer in the genre. It premiered in 2005 and stars Lisa Kudrow as a washed-up former sitcom star desperately clinging to relevance by allowing a camera crew to document her humiliating return to television. HBO canceled the cringe-inducing series after a single season, but fiction became reality when the show made a comeback nine years later in 2014.

109D Writer Ferber : EDNA

Edna Ferber was a novelist and playwright from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Ferber won a Pulitzer for her novel “So Big”, which was made into a film a few times, most famously in 1953 starring Jane Wyman. Ferber also wrote “Show Boat”, “Cimarron” and “Giant”, which were adapted successfully for the stage and/or big screen.