LA Times Crossword 8 Jan 23, Sunday

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Constructed by: David Alfred Bywaters
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Down in Front

Themed answers are all in the DOWN-direction. Each is a common phrase with “IN-” place IN FRONT:

  • 3D Orchestra conductor’s memo heading? : IN RE PERCUSSION (from “repercussion”)
  • 6D So-so golf swings? : INDIFFERENT STROKES (from “different strokes”)
  • 10D How married couples may spend Thanksgiving? : IN-LAW ABIDING (from “law-abiding”)
  • 14D Baseball groundskeeper’s problem? : INFIELD MOUSE (from “field mouse”)
  • 30D Religious seminary? : INVOCATIONAL SCHOOL (from “vocational school”)
  • 53D Dragon tattoos, e.g.? : INKING OF BEASTS (from “king of beasts”)
  • 61D Take out a policy for replacement value? : INSURE ENOUGH (from “sure enough”)
  • 63D Finding actors for a small-studio film? : INDIE CASTING (from “die casting”)

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

Bill’s time: 13m 59s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

13 Mint metal, once : SILVER

The chemical symbol for the element silver is “Ag”, which comes from the Latin word for silver “argentum”.

19 Wine opener? : OENO-

In Greek mythology, Oeno was the goddess of wine, giving us “oeno-” as a prefix meaning “wine”. For example, oenology is the study of wine and an oenophile is a wine-lover.

20 Home of the Railroad Museum of Oklahoma : ENID

Enid, Oklahoma takes its name from the old railroad station around which the city developed. Back in 1889, that train stop was called Skeleton Station. An official who didn’t like the name changed it to Enid Station, using a character from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Idylls of the King”. Maybe if he hadn’t changed the name, the city of Enid would now be called Skeleton, Oklahoma! Enid has the nickname “Queen Wheat City” because it has a huge capacity for storing grain, the third largest grain storage capacity in the world.

26 Paranormal cases : X-FILES

“The X-Files” is a very successful science fiction show that originally aired on the Fox network from 1993 to 2002. The stars of the show are David Duchovny (playing Fox Mulder) and the very talented Gillian Anderson (playing Dana Scully). By the time the series ended, “The X-Files” was the longest running sci-fi show in US broadcast history. An “X-Files” reboot started airing in 2016 with Duchovny and Anderson reprising their starring roles.

28 Nintendo consoles : WIIS

Introduced in 2006, Nintendo’s Wii quickly became the biggest-selling game console in the world.

29 Designer Versace : GIANNI

Gianni Versace was an Italian fashion designer. Versace’s death was perhaps as famous as his life. He was murdered in 1997 outside his mansion in Miami Beach by one Andrew Cunanan. It is not certain that Cunanan knew who his victim was, as this was the last in a spree of five murders committed by him over a four month period. A few days after killing Versace, Cunanan used the same gun to commit suicide.

44 __ Haute : TERRE

Terre Haute, Indiana is a city close to the state’s western border with Illinois. The city is home to a state prison which in turn is home to the state’s death row. The name “Terre Haute” was chosen by French explorers in the 18th century to describe the location, as “terre haute” is French for “high ground”.

46 Lawyer’s gp. : ABA

American Bar Association (ABA)

49 NBC founder : RCA

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) has had a number of different logos in its history, including the famous peacock with which we are familiar today. The first peacock logo was introduced in the early days of color television and was designed to illustrate how wonderful color television would be, so go buy one! (NBC was owned by RCA, and so had a vested interest in sales of color television sets).

50 Purple flower : LILAC

The ornamental flowering plant known as lilac is native to the Balkans, and is a member of the olive family.

52 “__ oui!” : MAIS

In French, “oui” translates as “yes”, and “mais oui!” as “but yes!”

58 Hindu deity : DEVA

In the Hindu transition, the devas are benevolent deities. The female form of “deva” is “devi”.

61 McShane of “Deadwood” : IAN

Ian McShane is an English actor who is famous in his homeland, and to PBS viewers in the US, for playing the title role in “Lovejoy”. In this country, he is perhaps better known for playing the conniving saloon owner on the HBO western drama “Deadwood”.

“Deadwood” is a very enjoyable western series that aired on HBO from 2004 to 2006. The show is set in Deadwood, South Dakota in the 1870s. At that time, Deadwood was transitioning from an illegal settlement on Native American land thriving on the discovery of gold, into a fully-fledged frontier town. Some famous and colorful characters appear in the storyline, including Seth Bullock, Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Recommended viewing …

65 Rebuke from Caesar : ET TU?

It was Shakespeare who popularized the words “Et tu, Brute?” (meaning “And you, Brutus?”). They appear in his play “Julius Caesar”, although the phrase had been around long before he penned his drama. It’s not known what Julius Caesar actually said in real life (if anything at all) as he was assassinated on the steps of the Senate in Rome.

67 Kith and __ : KIN

The word “kith” describes friends and acquaintances, and is used in the phrase “kith and kin” meaning “friends and family”. “Kith” comes from an Old English word meaning “native country, home”, as the expression “kith and kin” was used originally to mean “country and kinsmen”.

69 Raised trains : ELS

Elevated railroad (El)

72 “I’ll Be Your Mirror” photographer Goldin : NAN

“I’ll Be Your Mirror” is a 1996 publication that showcases the work of photographer Nan Goldin.

Nan Goldin is an American photographer who works out of New York, Berlin and Paris. She is known for her work featuring LGBT models, and for images highlighting the HIV crisis and the opioid epidemic.

73 Ebro y Douro : RIOS

The Ebro is the longest river in Spain. The river was known by the Romans as the Iber, and it is the “Iber” river that gives the “Iberian” Peninsula its name.

The Duoro (“Duero” in Spanish) is a major river in the Iberian Peninsula that rises in Central Spain and flows into the Atlantic at the city of Porto in Northern Portugal.

79 Smelter’s supply : ORE

Metals are found in ore in the form of oxides. In order to get pure metal from the ore, the ore is heated and the metal oxides within are reduced (i.e. the oxygen is removed) in the chemical process known as smelting. The oxygen is extracted by adding a source of carbon or carbon monoxide which uses up the excess oxygen atoms to make carbon dioxide, a waste product of smelting (and, a greenhouse gas).

80 Grant-giving gp. : NEA

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an agency funded by the federal government that offers support and financing for artistic projects. The NEA was created by an Act of Congress in 1965. Between 1965 and 2008, the NEA awarded over $4 billion to the arts, with Congress authorizing around $170 million annually through the eighties and much of the nineties. That funding was cut to less than $100 million in the late nineties due to pressure from conservatives concerned about the use of funds, but it is now back over the $150 million mark.

81 Soy block : TOFU

“Tofu” is a name for bean curd, and is a Japanese word meaning just that … bean that has curdled. Tofu is produced by coagulating soy milk, using either salt or something acidic. Once the protein has coagulated, the curds are pressed into the familiar blocks. Personally I love tofu, but my wife absolutely hates it …

83 Pad krapow gai cuisine : THAI

“Pad krapow gai” is a dish from Thai cuisine. The name usually translates as “spicy basil chicken”.

87 Disney CEO Bob : IGER

Robert Iger took over from Michael Eisner as CEO in 2005. Iger worked for ABC when it was taken over by Disney in 1996, and in 1999 he was named president of Walt Disney International. Iger is doing okay for himself; he earned more than $29 million in 2009.

91 Roth __ : IRA

Roth Individual Retirement Accounts (Roth IRAs) were introduced in 1997 under a bill sponsored by Senator William Roth of Delaware, hence the name.

92 Peace activist Yoko : ONO

Artist Yoko Ono operates the website ImaginePeace.com. I checked it out once and found these two lovely quotes:

  • Imagine all the people living life in peace … John Lennon
  • A dream you dream alone is only a dream, a dream you dream together is reality … Yoko Ono

93 Forfeited auto : REPO

Repossession (repo)

96 “Wonder Woman” star Gadot : GAL

Gal Gadot is an actress and former Miss Israel. She played Gisele Yashar in the “Fast & Furious” film franchise, and then began portraying Wonder Woman in superhero movies.

97 Aficionados : BUFFS

An aficionado is an enthusiast. Imported from Spanish, “aficionado” was originally used in English to describe a devotee of bullfighting.

105 Defame in print : LIBEL

The word “libel” describes a published or written statement likely to harm a person’s reputation. It comes into English from the Latin “libellus”, the word for a small book. Back in the 1500s, libel was just a formal written statement, with the more damaging association arising in the 1600s. The related concept of slander is defamation in a transient form, such as speech, sign language or gestures.

106 Chemical suffix : -ANE

The “smaller” alkanes are gases and are quite combustible. Methane (CH4) is the main component of natural gas, with ethane (C2H6) being the second largest component. Propane (C3H8) is also found in natural gas and is heavy enough to be readily turned into a liquid by compression, for ease of transportation and storage. Butane (C4H10) is also easily liquefied under pressure and can be used as the fuel in cigarette lighters or as the propellant in aerosol sprays. The heavier alkanes are liquids and solids at room temperature.

107 Tiny amt. of time : NSEC

“Nanosecond” is more correctly abbreviated to “ns” (as opposed to “nsec”) and really is a tiny amount of time: one billionth of a second.

116 Not ajar : SHUT

Our word “ajar” is thought to come from Scottish dialect, in which “a char” means “slightly open”.

123 Cheese in some bagels : ASIAGO

Asiago is a cheese that is named for the region in northeastern Italy from where it originates. It comes in varying textures depending on its age. Fresh Asiago is very smooth, while aged Asiago can be very crumbly.

124 Pre-Easter period : LENT

In Latin, the Christian season that is now called “Lent” was termed “quadragesima” (meaning “fortieth”), a reference to the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert before beginning his public ministry. When the church began its move in the Middle Ages towards using the vernacular, the term “Lent” was introduced. “Lent” comes from “lenz”, the German word for “spring”.

125 Out of control : AMOK

The phrase “to run amok” (sometimes “to run amuck”) has been around since the 1670s and is derived from the Malay word for “attacking furiously”, “amuk”. The word “amok” was also used as a noun to describe Malay natives who were “frenzied”. Given Malaya’s troubled history, the natives probably had a good reason for that frenzy …

126 Raison d’__ : ETRE

“Raison d’être” is a French phrase meaning “reason for existence”.

128 “Bus Stop” playwright : INGE

During his career, dramatist William Inge was known as the “Playwright of the Midwest”, as many of his works were set in the American heartland and explored small town life. When Inge was 60 years old, he committed suicide by poisoning himself with carbon monoxide. He was buried in his hometown of Independence, Kansas. Inge’s grave is marked with a headstone that reads simply “Playwright”.

“Bus Stop” is a marvelous play written by William Inge in 1955. The famous 1956 movie of the same name, starring Marilyn Monroe, is only very loosely based on the play.

Down

5 Sans-__: type style : SERIF

Serifs are details on the ends of characters in some typefaces. Typefaces without serifs are known as sans-serif, using the French word “sans” meaning “without” and “serif” from the Dutch “schreef” meaning “line”. Some people say that serif fonts are easier to read on paper, whereas sans-serif fonts work better on a computer screen. I’m not so sure though …

11 FBI guy : G-MAN

The nickname “G-men” is short for “government men” and refers to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

12 Reddish brown dye : HENNA

Henna has been used for centuries as a dye, for leather and wool as well as hair and skin. In modern days, henna is often used for temporary tattoos.

13 Jazz horn : SAX

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.

15 “__ Eyes”: 1975 Eagles hit : LYIN’

The Eagles song “Lyin’ Eyes” was recorded in 1975. Written by band members Don Henley and Glenn Frey, the lyrics were inspired by a meeting between a man and a woman the composers witnessed in Dan Tana’s Bar & Restaurant in Los Angeles. Henley and Frey imagined a scenario of secret love, and “Lyin’ Eyes” was born.

You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes
And your smile is a thin disguise
I thought by now you’d realize
There ain’t no way to hide your lyin’ eyes

16 Encyclopedia unit : VOLUME

An encyclopedia is a compendium reference work containing summary information about a branch of knowledge, or about all knowledge. The word “encyclopedia” comes from the Greek “enkyklios paideia” meaning “general education”, or literally “general rearing of a child”.

17 Cabinet department created under Carter : ENERGY

The US Department of Energy (DOE) came into being largely as a result of the 1973 oil crisis. The DOE was founded in 1977 by the Carter administration. The DOE is responsible for regulating the production of nuclear power, and it is also responsible for the nation’s nuclear weapons. The official DOE seal features a lightning bolt and symbols denoting five sources of energy: the sun, an atom, an oil derrick, a windmill and a dynamo.

29 Rte. provider : GPS

A global positioning system (GPS) might point out a route (rte.).

30 Religious seminary? : INVOCATIONAL SCHOOL (from “vocational school”)

Originally, a seminary was where plants were raised from seeds, as “semen” is the Latin for “seed”. The first schools labeled as seminaries were established in the late 1500s. Those first schools were more likely to be academies for young ladies back then, rather than for trainee priests.

33 Wrap brand : SARAN

What’s known as plastic wrap in America, we call cling-film in Ireland. The brand name “Saran” is often used generically in the US, while “Glad” wrap is common down under. Plastic wrap was one of those unintended inventions, a byproduct of a development program to create a hard plastic cover for cars.

34 Some cars : SEDANS

The American sedan car is the equivalent of the British and Irish saloon car. By definition, a sedan car has two rows of seating and a separate trunk (boot in Britain and Ireland), although in some models the engine can be at the rear of the car.

36 “Culture Warlords” author Lavin : TAL

Journalist “Tal Lavin” wrote a 2020 non-fiction book “Culture Warlords”. In it, he describes his use of several online personae in order to research fascism and white supremacy in America.

40 Worshipper of the goddess Pachamama : INCA

Pachamama is a goddess worshiped by indigenous peoples in the Andes of South America. “Pachamama” translates best as “Mother World” and embraces the whole universe as opposed to just the Earth.

43 “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology” memoirist Remini : LEAH

Leah Remini is an actress and comedian who is best known for playing Carrie Heffernan on the sitcom “The King of Queens”. More recently, in 2013, Remini competed on “Dancing with the Stars”. After that, Remini appeared as a guest co-host on the show several times. Famously, Remini was a member of the Church of Scientology, and left the organization in 2013. Since leaving, Remini has been very vocal in her criticism of the practices and policies of the church.

54 Evening party : SOIREE

“Soir” is the French word for “evening” and a soirée is an evening party. The French word “soirée” has an acute accent over the first “e”, but we tend to drop this when using the word in English.

55 “__ So Unusual”: Cyndi Lauper’s debut album : SHE’S

“She’s So Unusual” is a very successful 1983 album by Cyndi Lauper. The list of singles released from the album include “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”, “Time after Time” and “All Through the Night”. That’s a string of hits …

If you’ve ever heard Cyndi Lauper speaking, you’d know that she was from Queens, New York. She is the daughter of divorced parents, and strongly influenced by a supportive mother. Lauper was always a free spirit, and even as a young teen in the mid-sixties she dyed her hair different colors and wore outlandish fashions. She was a young woman who wanted to “find herself”, and to that end she once spent two weeks alone in the woods up in Canada, well, just with her dog.

57 Month between abril and junho : MAIO

In Portuguese, “maio” (May) is a month in spring.

63 Finding actors for a small-studio film? : INDIE CASTING (from “die-casting”)

Injection molding is a manufacturing process in which a molten material, such as a plastic, is injected into a mold. The molten material cools, and adopts the shape of the mold. The related process of die-casting involves the pouring of molten metal into a custom-shaped die.

71 Little Italy neighbor : SOHO

The Manhattan neighborhood known today as SoHo was very fashionable in the early 1900s, but as the well-heeled started to move uptown the area became very run down and poorly maintained. Noted for the number of fires that erupted in derelict buildings, SoHo earned the nickname “Hell’s Hundred Acres”. The area was then zoned for manufacturing and became home to many sweatshops. In the mid-1900s artists started to move into open loft spaces and renovating old buildings as the lofts were ideal locations in which an artist could both live and work. In 1968, artists and others organized themselves so that they could legalize their residential use of an area zoned for manufacturing. The group they formed took its name from the name given to the area by the city’s Planning Commission i.e “South of Houston”. This was shortened from So-uth of Ho-uston to SoHo as in “SoHo Artists Association”, and the name stuck.

78 Tap : SPIGOT

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.

86 Part of UAE : ARAB

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates (states) in the Middle East. Included in the seven are Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with the city of Abu Dhabi being the UAE capital and cultural center.

87 Indigenous people of the far North : INUIT

The Inuit word for “house” is “iglu”, which we usually write as “igloo”. The Greenlandic (yes, that’s a language) word for “house” is very similar, namely “igdlo”. The walls of igloos are tremendous insulators, due to the air pockets in the blocks of snow.

92 Not quite spherical : OBLATE

Technically speaking, a spheroid is a shape made by rotating an ellipse around one of its two principal axes. An ellipse rotated around its major axis forms a shape similar to an American football, i.e. a prolate or elongated spheroid. An ellipse rotated around its minor axis forms a shape similar to a lentil, i.e. an oblate or flattened spheroid. A circle is also an ellipse, just one in which the minor axis and major axis are the same thing. A circle rotated around its axis is a sphere, i.e. a spheroid with circular symmetry.

99 Had a dry spell at the plate : SLUMPED

That would be baseball.

102 Geneticist Stevens who discovered sex chromosomes : NETTIE

American geneticist Nettie Stevens observed in 1905 that male mealworms produced two distinct types of sperm; one had a large chromosome, and the other a small chromosome. She further observed that sperm with a large chromosome produced female offspring after fertilization of an egg. Sperm with a small chromosome produced male offspring. In later years, these two different types of chromosomes were given the names X and Y sex chromosomes.

108 Cook-off dish : CHILI

The full name of the dish that is often called simply “chili” is “chili con carne”, Spanish for “peppers with meat”. The dish was created by immigrants from the Spanish Canary Islands in the city of San Antonio, Texas (a city which the islanders founded). The San Antonio Chili Stand was a popular attraction at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and that stand introduced the dish to the rest of America and to the world.

111 Shucker’s discards : HUSKS

To shuck is to remove the husk from (say, an ear of corn) or to remove the shell from (say, an oyster).

113 Superlative acronym : GOAT

Greatest of all time (GOAT)

119 __ loop: simple skating jump : TOE

A toe loop is a relatively simple jump in figure skating (not that I could do one!). In a toe loop, the skater uses the toe pick on the skate to lift off on a backward outside edge, landing on the same backward outside edge.

122 Modern, in German : NEU

In German, the opposite of “alt” (old) is “neu” (new).

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Breezily unconcerned : GLIB
5 Storage tower : SILO
9 Emotional exhalation : SIGH
13 Mint metal, once : SILVER
19 Wine opener? : OENO-
20 Home of the Railroad Museum of Oklahoma : ENID
21 “Next round’s __” : ON ME
22 Whomever : ANYONE
23 Sent on : FORWARDED
25 Group with ancestral ties : CLAN
26 Paranormal cases : X-FILES
27 Serpent’s tail? : -INE
28 Nintendo consoles : WIIS
29 Designer Versace : GIANNI
31 Habituate : INURE
32 Swindles : RIPS OFF
34 Eject forcibly : SPEW
35 Cost of hand delivery? : ANTE
37 CEO, CFO, etc. : MGT
38 Go furtively : SNEAK
39 82-Down subcompacts : FIESTAS
42 Low places : VALLEYS
44 __ Haute : TERRE
45 Finish : END
46 Lawyer’s gp. : ABA
47 Outdated, spelled in an outdated way : OLDE
48 Is able to : CAN
49 NBC founder : RCA
50 Purple flower : LILAC
52 “__ oui!” : MAIS
55 Render aghast : STUN
57 Intend : MEAN
58 Hindu deity : DEVA
59 Cry of dismay : OH NO!
60 Owns : HAS
61 McShane of “Deadwood” : IAN
62 Spanish ayes : SI SI
65 Rebuke from Caesar : ET TU?
67 Kith and __ : KIN
69 Raised trains : ELS
70 Minor quibbles : NITS
72 “I’ll Be Your Mirror” photographer Goldin : NAN
73 Ebro y Douro : RIOS
74 Anger : IRE
75 Hit the slopes : SKI
76 Shrugworthy : SO-SO
77 Hounds, e.g. : DOGS
79 Smelter’s supply : ORE
80 Grant-giving gp. : NEA
81 Soy block : TOFU
83 Pad krapow gai cuisine : THAI
85 Glass piece : PANE
87 Disney CEO Bob : IGER
88 __ close to schedule : ON OR
89 Choir attire : ROBES
91 Roth __ : IRA
92 Peace activist Yoko : ONO
93 Forfeited auto : REPO
95 Earth-friendly prefix : ECO-
96 “Wonder Woman” star Gadot : GAL
97 Aficionados : BUFFS
100 Spot with patio furniture : SUNDECK
103 Relatively reliable sources of income : DAY JOBS
105 Defame in print : LIBEL
106 Chemical suffix : -ANE
107 Tiny amt. of time : NSEC
109 Coin receiver : SLOT
110 Country estate : CHATEAU
112 Release : LET GO
114 Targeted, as a basketball hoop : SHOT AT
116 Not ajar : SHUT
117 Bank drive-thru device : ATM
118 Warmed the bench : SAT OUT
120 “There’s nobody else” : I’M IT
121 Relaxes : LOOSENS UP
123 Cheese in some bagels : ASIAGO
124 Pre-Easter period : LENT
125 Out of control : AMOK
126 Raison d’__ : ETRE
127 Come to a boil : SEETHE
128 “Bus Stop” playwright : INGE
129 Salon array : GELS
130 Secondhand : USED

Down

1 Lead : GO FIRST
2 Like a maned cat : LEONINE
3 Orchestra conductor’s memo heading? : IN RE PERCUSSION (from “repercussion”)
4 Gift topper : BOW
5 Sans-__: type style : SERIF
6 So-so golf swings? : INDIFFERENT STROKES (from “different strokes”)
7 Reclines : LIES
8 Peculiar : ODD
9 Transcending the individual : SOCIETAL
10 How married couples may spend Thanksgiving? : IN-LAW ABIDING (from “law-abiding”)
11 FBI guy : G-MAN
12 Reddish brown dye : HENNA
13 Jazz horn : SAX
14 Baseball groundskeeper’s problem? : INFIELD MOUSE (from “field mouse”)
15 “__ Eyes”: 1975 Eagles hit : LYIN’
16 Encyclopedia unit : VOLUME
17 Cabinet department created under Carter : ENERGY
18 Creates anew, as a password : RESETS
24 Roused : AWOKEN
29 Rte. provider : GPS
30 Religious seminary? : INVOCATIONAL SCHOOL (from “vocational school”)
33 Wrap brand : SARAN
34 Some cars : SEDANS
36 “Culture Warlords” author Lavin : TAL
40 Worshipper of the goddess Pachamama : INCA
41 Merchant’s goal : SALE
43 “Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology” memoirist Remini : LEAH
51 Affirm : AVER
53 Dragon tattoos, e.g.? : INKING OF BEASTS (from “king of beasts”)
54 Evening party : SOIREE
55 “__ So Unusual”: Cyndi Lauper’s debut album : SHE’S
56 Converse with : TALK TO
57 Month between abril and junho : MAIO
61 Take out a policy for replacement value? : INSURE ENOUGH (from “sure enough”)
63 Finding actors for a small-studio film? : INDIE CASTING (from “die-casting”)
64 First word of some Brazilian city names : SAO …
66 Ripped apart : TORE
68 Close : NEAR
71 Little Italy neighbor : SOHO
78 Tap : SPIGOT
82 Maker of Explorers and 39-Across : FORD
84 Still tucked in : ABED
86 Part of UAE : ARAB
87 Indigenous people of the far North : INUIT
90 Nondairy coffeehouse order : SOY LATTE
92 Not quite spherical : OBLATE
94 Mac alternatives : PCS
98 __ film : FEATURE
99 Had a dry spell at the plate : SLUMPED
100 Taco bar array : SALSAS
101 Disquiet : UNEASE
102 Geneticist Stevens who discovered sex chromosomes : NETTIE
104 Write (down) : JOT
108 Cook-off dish : CHILI
111 Shucker’s discards : HUSKS
113 Superlative acronym : GOAT
115 Sign : OMEN
116 More than none : SOME
119 __ loop: simple skating jump : TOE
121 Fall behind : LAG
122 Modern, in German : NEU