LA Times Crossword 8 Jan 24, Monday

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Constructed by: Paul Coulter
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Not a Word

Themed answers each start with a section of a BOOK, growing in size as we descend the grid:

  • 16A Activity at a country western bar : LINE DANCING
  • 26A Error message that results from clicking a broken link : PAGE NOT FOUND
  • 47A Fraternity building : CHAPTER HOUSE
  • 62A “Hawaii Five-O” catchphrase : BOOK ‘EM DANNO

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

Bill’s time: 4m 48s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “SNL” alum McKinnon : KATE

Comedian and impressionist Kate McKinnon’s career took off when she became a cast member of “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) in 2013. Famously, McKinnon portrayed Hillary Clinton in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. She also co-starred in the 2016 reboot of the movie “Ghostbusters”, playing Dr. Jillian Holtzmann.

10 Set the dog (on) : SIC

To sic on is to let at or set on. The verb “to sic on” comes from the attack command given to a dog: “sic ‘em”.

13 Wildly 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 …

19 __ foo yung : EGG

Egg foo yung is a dish served in Chinese restaurants. It is basically an omelet, and probably takes its name from a flower called the Fu Yung.

21 Nervous system cells : NEURONS

A nerve cell is more correctly called a neuron. The long nerve fiber that conducts signals away from the neuron is known as the axon. The axon is surrounded by a myelin sheath, which acts as an electrical insulator and which increases the rate the impulses pass along the axon.

23 Longtime Dodgers manager Tommy : LASORDA

Tommy Lasorda had been with the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers for over sixty years when he retired in 1996 (although he did spend one season playing with the Kansas City Athletics).

34 Director DuVernay : AVA

Ava DuVernay is a filmmaker who became the first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, a feat she achieved in 2012 for her feature film “Middle of Nowhere”. “Middle of Nowhere” tells the story of a woman who drops out of medical school to focus on her husband when he is sentenced to 8 years in prison. DuVernay also directed the 2014 film “Selma” about the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

44 Wrestler Flair nicknamed the “Nature Boy” : RIC

Wrestler Ric Flair’s real name is Richard Fliehr. Perhaps following the lead of his compatriot Jesse Ventura, Flair explored the possibility of running for governor of the state of North Carolina.

51 Snowblower brand : TORO

Toro is a manufacturer of lawn mowers and snow removal equipment that is based in Bloomington, Minnesota. The company was founded in 1914 to build tractor engines.

52 New York’s Waldorf __ hotel : ASTORIA

The Waldorf=Astoria hotel (note the double hyphen) is named for the famous Astor family of New York that was so successful in business. The first Astors to arrive in the US immigrated from Walldorf in Germany. Two members of the family eventually built hotels in the city, one called the Waldorf (opened in 1893) and the other the Astoria (opened in 1897), with the pair operating next door to each other in competition. The hotels were eventually joined into one, creating the world’s largest hotel of the day. The original Waldorf=Astoria was demolished (the Empire State Building occupies that space now). The current hotel is an Art Deco landmark in the city that opened in 1931.

60 Early ISP : AOL

AOL was a leading Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the 1980s and 1990s. The company does still provide dial-up access to the Internet for some subscribers, but most users now access AOL using faster, non-AOL ISPs.

62 “Hawaii Five-O” catchphrase : BOOK ‘EM DANNO

The cop show “Hawaii Five-O” originally ran from 1968 until 1980, with Jack Lord and James MacArthur playing detectives Steve McGarrett and “Danno” Williams. The famous theme music was composed by Morton Stevens. The show was rebooted as “Hawaii Five-0”, premiering in 2010, with Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan playing Steve McGarrett and “Danno” Williams. Notice the important difference in the titles of the two versions of the show: the former uses a capital letter O, and the latter the numeral 0. Now that’s trivial …

67 End-of-the-week letters : TGIF

“Thank God It’s Friday” (TGIF)

69 Wails with grief : KEENS

To keen is to wail in lamentation. The word “keening” has its roots in Ireland, coming from the Irish word “caoinim” meaning “I weep, wail, lament”.

h3>Down

1 Superman’s birth name : KAL-EL

Jor-El was a scientist on the planet Krypton who was married to Lara. Jor-El and Lara had an infant son named Kal-El who they were able to launch into space towards Earth just before Krypton was destroyed. Kal-El became Superman. In the 1978 movie “Superman”, Jor-El was played by Marlon Brando, Lara was played by Susannah York, and Kal-El/Superman was played by Christopher Reeve.

3 Kitchen picker-uppers : TONGS

A pair of tongs is a tool with a scissor-like hinge used to pick up things, like meat cooking on a barbecue grill or ice from an ice bucket. The verb “to tong” means “to handle with tongs”.

5 Dairy Queen order : SUNDAE

Soft serve ice cream was developed by John McCullough in 1938. McCullough was able to get his new dessert carried by a local ice cream store in Illinois. He and the store owner became so swamped with sales that they opened a store specifically built around the product in Joliet, Illinois, hence creating the first Dairy Queen outlet. There are now over 5,700 Dairy Queen franchises in 19 countries. We’ve even got one in Ireland …

6 Special attention, for short : TLC

Tender loving care (TLC)

7 Lena of “Chocolat” : OLIN

Lena Olin is a Swedish actress, and someone who has acting in her blood. Her mother was the actress Britta Holmberg and her father the actor and director Stig Olin. Olin had a very successful career in Sweden, often working with the great Ingmar Bergman. Olin’s breakthrough international and English-speaking role was playing opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” released in 1988. Way back in 1974, Miss Olin was crowned Miss Scandinavia in a beauty pageant for Nordic women held in Helsinki, Finland. Olin’s most famous performance was in “Chocolat” released in 2000, and then she won an Emmy in 2003 for Best Supporting Actress in the TV show “Alias”.

The movie “Chocolat”, released in 2000, is a big-screen adaption of the novel of the same name by Joanne Harris. “Chocolat” tells the story of a young mother with a six-year-old daughter who opens up a chocolate shop in a French village. The mother is played by the talented Juliette Binoche.

8 Symbol on the Texas flag : LONE STAR

The single star on the state flag of Texas is a reminder of the “lone star” on the 1836 National Standard of Texas. The single white star on a blue background symbolizes Texas as an independent republic and its struggle for independence from Mexico.

11 Shiraz’s country : IRAN

The Iranian city of Shiraz has long been associated with wine, but there is no proven link between the city and the wine/grape we know today as “Shiraz” (also called “Syrah”). Having said that, some clay jars were found just outside of the city of Shiraz that contained wine; wine that was 7,000 years old!

14 Ivory soap company, informally : P AND G

Procter & Gamble was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. Procter was a candlemaker, an immigrant from England. Gamble was a soapmaker, an immigrant from Ireland. The pair had settled in Cincinnati and married two sisters. Their father-in-law persuaded the two to set up in business together, and the rest is history.

22 Early 20th century autos : REOS

The REO Motor Company was founded by Ransom Eli Olds (hence the name REO). The company made cars, trucks and buses, and was in business from 1905 to 1975 in Lansing, Michigan. Among the company’s most famous models were the REO Royale 8 and the REO Flying Cloud.

27 Slangy “Of course!” : NATCH!

“Natch” is a slang term meaning “naturally, of course”. “Natch” is simply a shortening of the word “‘naturally”, and was first recorded at the end of WWII.

29 Bread baked in a tandoor : NAAN

A tandoor is a cylindrical clay or metal oven used in cuisines from several Asian locales, including India.

31 Painter Chagall : MARC

Marc Chagall was a Russian-French artist, one of the most successful of the 20th century. Unlike so many painters, Chagall was able to achieve wealth and fame for his work during his own lifetime. It did help that Chagall lived to a ripe old age though. He passed away in 1985, when he was 97 years young. One of Chagall’s most famous works is the ceiling of the Paris Opera. The new ceiling for the beautiful 19th-century building was commissioned in 1963, and took Chagall a year to complete. Chagall was 77 years old when he worked on the Paris Opera project.

32 Provo’s state : UTAH

Provo, Utah is a city located just over 40 miles south of South Lake City. It is home to Brigham Young University. The city was originally called Fort Utah, and the name was changed to Provo in 1850 in honor of Étienne Provost. Provost was a French-Canadian fur trader who was perhaps the first man of European descent to see the Great Salt Lake.

39 Round Table title : SIR

King Arthur (and his Round Table) probably never really existed, but his legend is very persistent. Arthur was supposedly a leader of the Romano-British as they tried to resist the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons in the late 5th and early 6th centuries.

46 Zodiac sign before Virgo : LEO

In astronomical terms, the zodiac is a group of 13 constellations that together form a roughly circular pattern in the night sky. Most of these constellations are named for animals, which explains why the word “zodiac” comes from the Greek “zodiakos” meaning “circle of little animals”. We can’t see the whole Zodiac at any one time in the year, but one constellation does dominate the sky every four weeks. In astrological terms, there are only 12 signs of the zodiac. Astrologists skip the constellation Ophiuchus (visible November/December). Ophiuchus is the serpent bearer.

48 Alex whose job was in “Jeopardy!” for many years : TREBEK

Alex Trebek was the host of “Jeopardy!” from the launch of the syndicated version of the game show in 1984 until his passing in 2020. Trebek missed just one episode during that time, when he and host of “Wheel of Fortune” Pat Sajak swapped roles in 1997 as an April Fool’s joke. In 2014, Trebek picked up the Guinness World Record for hosting the most episodes of a game show.

49 Horse operas : OATERS

The term “oater” that is used for a Western movie comes from the number of horses seen, as horses love oats!

54 Ancient Aegean region : IONIA

The geographic region called Ionia is located in present-day Turkey. Ionia was prominent in the days of ancient Greece, although it wasn’t a unified state and rather a collection of tribes. The tribal confederacy was more based on religious and cultural similarities than a political or military alliance. Nowadays we often refer to this arrangement as the Ionian League.

The Aegean Sea is that part of the Mediterranean that lies between Greece and Turkey. Within the Aegean Sea are found the Aegean Islands, a group that includes Crete and Rhodes.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 “SNL” alum McKinnon : KATE
5 Made off with : STOLE
10 Set the dog (on) : SIC
13 Wildly out of control : AMOK
14 Don, as boots : PULL ON
15 __-la-la: singer’s syllables : TRA
16 Activity at a country western bar : LINE DANCING
18 Crew team’s blade : OAR
19 __ foo yung : EGG
20 Wrap up : END
21 Nervous system cells : NEURONS
23 Longtime Dodgers manager Tommy : LASORDA
25 Snow vehicle pulled by huskies : SLED
26 Error message that results from clicking a broken link : PAGE NOT FOUND
31 “Are you really making me do this?” : MUST I?
34 Director DuVernay : AVA
35 Practice in the ring : SPAR
36 Absorbed, as a cost : ATE
37 Skill on the verge of extinction : LOST ART
41 Greek T : TAU
42 “Darn it all!” : RATS!
44 Wrestler Flair nicknamed the “Nature Boy” : RIC
45 Beside : ALONG
47 Fraternity building : CHAPTER HOUSE
51 Snowblower brand : TORO
52 New York’s Waldorf __ hotel : ASTORIA
56 Shield from harm : PROTECT
59 Simple top : TEE
60 Early ISP : AOL
61 __ and reel : ROD
62 “Hawaii Five-O” catchphrase : BOOK ‘EM DANNO
65 Throw in : ADD
66 Whole : ENTIRE
67 End-of-the-week letters : TGIF
68 “You got it” : YES
69 Wails with grief : KEENS
70 Ham or lamb : MEAT
h3>Down

1 Superman’s birth name : KAL-EL
2 Latina friend : AMIGA
3 Kitchen picker-uppers : TONGS
4 __ out a living: just get by : EKE
5 Dairy Queen order : SUNDAE
6 Special attention, for short : TLC
7 Lena of “Chocolat” : OLIN
8 Symbol on the Texas flag : LONE STAR
9 Overwhelm : ENGULF
10 Didn’t back down from : STOOD UP TO
11 Shiraz’s country : IRAN
12 Autos : CARS
14 Ivory soap company, informally : P AND G
17 Upset, as a plan : DERAIL
22 Early 20th century autos : REOS
24 Decide to leave, with “out” : OPT …
27 Slangy “Of course!” : NATCH!
28 Reproductive cells : OVA
29 Bread baked in a tandoor : NAAN
30 Medication : DRUG
31 Painter Chagall : MARC
32 Provo’s state : UTAH
33 Caused a disagreement between, say : SET AT ODDS
38 Cookie-flavored ice cream holder : OREO CONE
39 Round Table title : SIR
40 Had a bite of : TASTED
43 “You missed a __” : SPOT
46 Zodiac sign before Virgo : LEO
48 Alex whose job was in “Jeopardy!” for many years : TREBEK
49 Horse operas : OATERS
50 “I’m at your disposal” : USE ME
53 Driving __: golfer’s practice site : RANGE
54 Ancient Aegean region : IONIA
55 High up : ALOFT
56 Seek divine guidance : PRAY
57 Went in a biker’s sidecar, say : RODE
58 Handy bag : TOTE
63 Extended family : KIN
64 Spot for fast cash : ATM