LA Times Crossword 19 Jul 26, Sunday

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Constructed by: Rebecca Goldstein

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: Whirlwind Tour

Themed answers each include the names of BANDS hidden within that we GET BACK TOGETHER by reading backwards:

• 98A With 107-Across, reunite a musical group, or a hint to this puzzle’s circled letters : GET THE BAND …
• 107A See 98-Across : … BACK TOGETHER

• 22A Sign on rural roads : DEER CROSSING (getting back “CREED”)
• 28A Stays with a series of friends : COUCH-SURFS (getting back “RUSH”)
• 47A “I’ve seen worse” : IT’S NOT SO BAD (getting back “BOSTON”)
• 50A Savory potato patties in Indian cuisine : ALOO TIKKI (getting back “TOOL”)
• 61A Find common ground : SEEK A COMPROMISE (getting back “CAKE”)
• 79A “How rude!” : EXCUSE YOU! (getting back “YES”)
• 81A Project that kindergartners need to use their noodles for : MACARONI ART (getting back “TRAIN”)

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

Bill’s time: 15m 45s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11A Kinney who writes the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” books : JEFF

“Diary of a Wimpy Kid” is a series of humorous novels for children and teens by cartoonist and author Jeff Kinney. The central character in the books is a middle school student named Greg Heffley. The series is very successful, and there is now a series of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” movies.

20A R&B’s India.__ : ARIE

India Arie (sometimes “india.arie”) is an American soul and R&B singer who was born India Arie Simpson in Denver, Colorado.

21A Dory mover : OAR

A dory is a small boat that’s around 20 feet long with a shallow draft, a flat bottom and a sharp bow. Dories are commonly used for fishing.

22A Sign on rural roads : DEER CROSSING (getting back “CREED”)

Creed is a rock band formed in Tallahassee in 1994, founded by two friends who had attended high school and Florida State together. The group first performed together under the bizarre name “Naked Toddler”, but they changed that very quickly after some negative feedback.

24A University of Montana’s home : MISSOULA

Missoula, Montana is home to the University of Montana. The city was the birthplace of Jeannette Rankin, who became the first woman to hold high government office when she was elected to the US Congress in 1916. Another famous Missoula resident, Mike Mansfield, was the longest-serving Majority Leader in the history of the US Senate.

28A Stays with a series of friends : COUCH-SURFS (getting back “RUSH”)

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.

30A Six-time NBA MVP Abdul-Jabbar : KAREEM

Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s name at birth was Ferdinand Lewis “Lew” Alcindor. Alcindor changed his name when he converted to Islam.

33A College Park athlete, for short : TERP

The sports teams of the University of Maryland (UMD) are called the Maryland Terrapins, or “Terps” for short. The name dates back to 1932 when it was coined by the university’s president at the time, Curley Byrd. He took the name from the diamondback terrapins that are native to the Chesapeake Bay.

34A Instruments in string quartets : CELLI

The word “cello” (plural “celli” or “cellos”) is an abbreviation for “violoncello”, an Italian word for “little violone”, referring to a group of stringed instruments that were popular up to the end of the 17th century. The name violoncello persisted for the instrument that we know today, although the abbreviation “‘cello” was often used. Nowadays, we just drop the apostrophe.

42A Vegetables that may be chopped while wearing goggles : ONIONS

When an onion is sliced, cells are broken. Enzymatic reactions take place that result in the generation of a volatile gas, syn-propanethial-S-oxide. The gas irritates the eyes and tears are produced in order to clear them.

44A Actress Jessica : BIEL

Jessica Biel is an actress who was known by television audiences for portraying Mary Camden on “7th Heaven”. Biel’s first film role was playing Peter Fonda’s granddaughter in “Ulee’s Gold”. Biel married singer and actor Justin Timberlake in 2012.

46A Bronco or Mustang : CAR

The Bronco is an SUV that was made by Ford from 1966 to 1996. O. J. Simpson was the passenger in a white Ford Bronco in that well-known, low-speed chase by the LAPD that resulted in Simpson’s arrest.

The Ford Mustang car was introduced in 1964. Back then the Mustang wasn’t a brand new design, but was based on the Ford Falcon. The Mustang was the first of the “pony cars”, American models that are compact and affordable, as well as sporty in image and performance.

47A “I’ve seen worse” : IT’S NOT SO BAD (getting back “BOSTON”)

Boston is a rock band from … Boston. Boston’s biggest hit is “Amanda”, released in 1986.

50A Savory potato patties in Indian cuisine : ALOO TIKKI (getting back “TOOL”)

Aloo tikki is a snack dish from Indian cuisine. In Hindi, “aloo” means “potato” and “tikki” means “patty, croquette”, so “aloo tikki” literally translates to “potato patty”.

Tool is a rock band founded in 1990 in Los Angeles. Apparently, the group’s name was chosen to be deliberately provocative.

54A Flatbreads served with saag paneer : ROTIS

Palak paneer is a dish from Indian cuisine. It consists mainly of paneer (a freshly-made cheese) in a puréed spinach paste. Saag paneer is a more generic form of the dish, one in which other leafy vegetables can be used to make the paste, e.g. mustard greens, collard greens or broccoli.

59A Semana seventh : DIA

In Spanish, the “número de días en una semana” (number of days in a week) is “siete” (seven).

61A Find common ground : SEEK A COMPROMISE (getting back “CAKE”)

Cake is an alternative rock band from Sacramento that was founded in 1991. They are known for their unique sound that blends genres like funk, mariachi, and hip-hop. The band’s name has nothing to do with the dessert. Founder John McCrea has said it’s meant to describe something that “cakes” onto your shoe, an insidious part of your life you have to get rid of.

70A “Breaking Bad” org. : DEA

The AMC drama “Breaking Bad” is a well-written show about a high school teacher stricken by lung cancer who turns to a life of crime to make money. It turns out that the teacher has a talent for making high-quality crystal meth. The show was created by Vince Gilligan who had spent many years as a producer and writer of “The X-Files”. There is a “Breaking Bad” spin-off show that ran on AMC called “Better Call Saul”, which focuses on the life of lawyer Saul Goodman. If I’m honest, I enjoyed “Better Call Saul” even more than the original show …

73A Living space? : BIOME

I tend to think of “biome” as another word for “ecosystem”.

76A Crunchy salad bits : BAC-OS

Betty Crocker Bac-Os aren’t real “bacon bits”. Rather, they are “bacon-flavor” morsels made out of, well, probably nothing too healthy. But still, vegans should be happy to hear that there are no animal products included.

79A “How rude!” : EXCUSE YOU! (getting back “YES”)

The English rock band Yes formed in London in 1968. The band members have changed many times over the years, with at least 20 professional musicians credited as Yes alumni. Three members of the first lineup performed together under the name “Mabel Greer’s Toyshop” starting in 1966, before leaving to form Yes.

81A Project that kindergartners need to use their noodles for : MACARONI ART (getting back “TRAIN”)

The rock band Train was formed in 1993 in San Francisco. Lead singer Pat Monahan embarked on a side hustle in 2011, founding a wine company called “Save Me, San Francisco”. The company produces wines named after the band’s songs, such as “Calling All Angels” Chardonnay and “Soul Sister” Pinot Noir.

84A Kyoto currency : YEN

The city of Kyoto was once the capital of Japan. Indeed, the name “Kyoto” means “capital city” in Japanese. Kyoto is sometimes referred to as the City of Ten Thousand Shrines.

85A Dance that tells a story : HULA

The hula is a native dance of Hawaii that uses arm movements to relate a story. The hula can be performed while sitting (a noho dance) or while standing (a luna dance).

93A Site of a Herculean task : NEMEA

“The Twelve Labors of Hercules” is actually a Greek myth, although Hercules is the Roman name for the hero that the Greeks called “Heracles”. The first of these labors was to slay the Nemean lion, a monster that lived in a cave near Nemea. Hercules had a tough job as the lion’s golden fur was impenetrable to normal weapons. One version of the story is that Hercules killed the lion by shooting an arrow into its mouth. Another version says that Hercules stunned the monster with a club and then strangled him with his bare hands.

96A Mexican bucks : DINERO

“Buck” is a slang word meaning “dollar”. The term has been around at least since 1856, and is thought to derive from the tradition of using buckskin as a unit of trade with Native Americans during the frontier days.

101A “Foundation” trilogy novelist Isaac : ASIMOV

Isaac Asimov’s epic series of science fiction novels known as the “Foundation Trilogy”, started life in print as a collection of short stories and novellas published in the 1940s. In the 1950s, the series was restructured as the “Foundation Trilogy”. The series had legs, as Asimov later added two sequels and then two prequels. The “original” trilogy is the only work to win the Hugo Award for “Best All-Time Series”, doing so in 1966.

103A LAX gatekeepers : TSA

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

112A Rights activist Hernandez : AILEEN

Aileen Hernandez was an African American union organizer and activist for women’s rights. She was appointed in 1964 by President Johnson to the original Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), but as the only woman on the commission, she resigned after two years as the EEOC failed to take up sex discrimination cases. Hernandez then helped found the National Organization for Women (NOW), and served as NOW’s second national president, from 1970 to 1971.

114A The Oilers, on sports crawls : EDM

The National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers are so called because they are located in Alberta, Canada … oil country.

Down

5D Cheese with a Romano variety : PECORINO

Pecorino is a family of hard cheeses from Italy, with the name coming from the Italian “pecora” meaning “sheep”. The most famous variety here in North America is Pecorino Romano, which we often refer to simply as “Romano”.

8D Canal in upstate New York : ERIE

The Erie Canal runs from Albany to Buffalo in the state of New York. What the canal does is allow shipping to proceed from New York Harbor right up the Hudson River, through the canal and into the Great Lakes. When it was opened in 1825, the Erie Canal had an immediate impact on the economy of New York City and locations along its route. It was the first means of “cheap” transportation from a port on the Atlantic seaboard into the interior of the United States. Arguably it was the most important factor contributing to the growth of New York City over competing ports such as Baltimore and Philadelphia. It was largely because of the Erie Canal that New York became such an economic powerhouse, earning it the nickname of “the Empire State”. Paradoxically, one of the project’s main proponents was severely criticized. New York Governor DeWitt Clinton received so much ridicule that the canal was nicknamed “Clinton’s Folly” and “Clinton’s Ditch”.

9D “Encanto” songwriter __-Manuel Miranda : LIN

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a composer and playwright from New York City, and the creator and star of the hit Broadway musicals “Hamilton” and “In the Heights”. Miranda also co-wrote the songs for the Disney animated features “Moana” and “Encanto”. He started composing early, and wrote jingles as a child.

10D Hamstring exercise : LEG CURL

The hamstrings are four tendons connected to three posterior thigh muscles, although the term “hamstring” is sometimes used for the thigh muscles themselves.

12D Celebrity chef Adjepong : ERIC

Eric Adjepong is a chef and TV personality. He was born in the Bronx in New York City, and is first-generation Ghanaian American. He used his appearance in the final of “Top Chef: Kentucky” to “tell the story of the transatlantic slave trade and how those flavors migrated to the South”. His Washington, D.C. restaurant Elmina specializes in Ghanaian food.

13D Tilapia-and-tortilla dish : FISH TACO

The name “tilapia” is used for almost a hundred species of related fish, most of which are found in freshwater. Tilapia are found in many fish farms as they grow very quickly and are popular in restaurants.

32D Splotchy : PIED

Something described as pied is patchy or blotchy in color, piebald. The term comes from the Middle English “pie”, an old name for the magpie, and is a reference to the bird’s black and white plumage.

34D Bobs and weaves? : COIFS

A coif is a hairdo. The term “coif” comes from an old French term “coife” describing a skull-cap that was worn under a helmet back in the late 13th century.

37D Jacobson of “Long Story Short” : ABBI

Abbi Jacobson is a comedian and actress who is perhaps best known as the co-creator, along with Ilana Glazer, of the Comedy Central sitcom “Broad City”. She also appeared in, wrote for and co-created the 2022 TV series “A League of Their Own”, which is based on the 1992 film of the same name.

41D Crossword diagram : GRID

Arthur Wynne is generally credited with the invention of what we now know as a crossword puzzle. Wynne was born in Liverpool, England and emigrated to the US when he was 19 years old. He worked as a journalist and was living in Cedar Grove, New Jersey in 1913 when he introduced a “Word-Cross Puzzle” in his page of puzzles written for the “New York World”. The first book of crossword puzzles was published by Simon & Schuster, in 1924. The collection of puzzles was a huge hit, and crosswords were elevated to the level of “a craze” in 1924 and 1925.

51D Not entirely sober : TIPSY

The term “tipsy” comes from the verb “to tip” meaning “to overturn, knock over”, and has been meaning “drunk” since the late 1500s.

52D Nice concept? : IDEE

The French city of Nice is on the Mediterranean coast in the southeast of the country. Although Nice is only the fifth most populous city in France, it is home to the busiest airport outside of Paris. That’s because of all the tourists flocking to the French Riviera. Something described as “à la niçoise” is “of Nice”.

58D Chromosome units : GENES

A gene is a section of a chromosome that is responsible for a particular characteristic in an organism. For example, one gene may determine eye color and another balding pattern. We have two copies of each gene, one from each of our parents, with each copy known as an allele.

59D Private convos : DMS

Direct message (DM)

61D Actor Liu : SIMU

Simu Liu is a Chinese-born Canadian actor. One of his more famous roles was the title character in the Marvel Comics 2021 superhero movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”. He also played one of the Ken dolls in 2023’s “Barbie”.

64D Swimmer with a saddle patch : ORCA

The orca (killer whale) has a unique “saddle patch” just behind its dorsal fin: a gray-white mark that acts much like a human fingerprint. Marine biologists use the specific shape and scarring of this patch to track individual whales across decades.

65D “Wuthering Heights” setting : MOOR

“Wuthering Heights” is the only novel written by Emily Brontë, and one that she published using the pen name Ellis Bell. It was published in December of 1847, a date chosen to take advantage of the wave of success enjoyed by Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” that had been published just two months earlier.

66D Google phone : PIXEL

“Pixel” is a brand of electronic devices for consumers supplied by Google. The main Pixel devices are smartphones, but the brand name is also used for laptops, tablet computers and smartwatches. I’m a fan …

67D Product of Chicago? : ROCK ANTHEM

The rock band called Chicago was formed in … Chicago. The band’s biggest hits are “If You Leave Me Now” (1976) and “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” (1982). The band’s lineup has changed a lot over the years. The most tragic reason for a change was in 1978 when Terry Kath, one of the band’s founding members, died from an accidentally self-inflicted gun wound. Kath enjoyed playing with guns and as a joke held a pistol with an empty magazine to his temple and pulled the trigger. A round in the chamber killed him instantly.

73D Feud : BEEF

A beef is a complaint or a grievance. It’s not quite clear how “beef” came to have this meaning, but one suggestion is that it derives from the habit of soldiers at the end of the 1800s complaining about the quality or availability of beef in their rations.

75D Particle in a stellar wind : ION

A stellar wind is a continuous, high-speed flow of gas and charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of a star. We refer to our Sun’s stellar wind as the “solar wind”.

The Sun’s upper atmosphere continually ejects a stream of the charged particles that have such high energy that they can escape the Sun’s gravity. This supersonic plasma consisting mainly of electrons, protons and alpha particles is referred to as the solar wind. The solar wind extends as far as the outer limits of our solar system, and is responsible for phenomena such as the Earth’s northern and southern lights, the geomagnetic storms that affect radio reception, and the plasma tails of comets.

78D Striped big cat : TIGER

Tigers are the largest of all the cat species. They are referred to as “apex predators” (as are lions and humans, for example), meaning that tigers are at the top of the food chain and aren’t the prey of any other animal.

81D “__ the word!” : MUM’S

The phrase “mum’s the word” has been around since the early 1700s. “Mum” has been used to mean “silent” for centuries, the idea being that “mum” is the sound made when the lips are tightly sealed.

85D Fanny pack alternative : HANDBAG

In Britain and Ireland, a “fanny pack” is called a “bum bag”. The use of the word “bum” is considered more polite than the word “fanny”, which has a very rude meaning in that part of the world. In North America, we sometimes use the term “butt pack” for the same thing.

89D Drummer’s cymbals : HI-HATS

In a drum kit, a hi-hat is a pairing of cymbals that sits on a stand and is played by using a foot pedal. The top cymbal is raised and lowered by the foot, hence creating a crashing sound.

90D Stan and __ Berenstain of kid-lit : JAN

Stan and Jan Berenstain were a married couple from Philadelphia famous for creating the series of books for children called “Berenstain Bears”. The first in the series was published in 1962 and now over 250 million copies have been sold with over 300 titles.

92D Alvin and Theodore’s brother : SIMON

Alvin and the Chipmunks is a cartoon musical group that was created for the recording of a novelty song in 1958 called “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)”. The three Chipmunks (Alvin, Simon and Theodore) were all voiced by singer Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. but with a speedy playback to create high-pitched voices.

99D Oklahoma city : 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.

100D Winter hibernator : BEAR

When animals hibernate, they are minimally active, have low body temperatures, relatively slow breathing and a low metabolic rate overall. Hibernation can last days and even months, and is most closely associated with the winter season. The term “hibernation” comes from the Latin “hibernare” meaning “to pass the winter, occupy winter quarters”.

101D Anti-censorship org. : ACLU

The ACLU’s first major defense of literature was in 1933, when the organization was successful in overturning a federal ban on James Joyce’s “Ulysses”. The ACLU sells “I Read Banned Books” bookmarks in a fundraiser to support litigation against such censorship. There were a record 4,240 titles challenged in libraries in 2023.

102D __-Ball: arcade game : SKEE

Skee-Ball is the arcade game in which the player rolls balls up a ramp trying to “bounce” them into rings for varying numbers of points. The game was first introduced in Philadelphia, in 1909.

105D Trojan War god : ARES

The Greek god Ares is often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, but originally he was regarded as the god of bloodlust and slaughter. He united with Aphrodite to create several gods, including Phobos (Fear), Deimos (Terror) and Eros (Desire). Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera, and the Roman equivalent to Ares was Mars.

The ancient city of Troy was located on the west coast of modern-day Turkey. The Trojan War of Greek mythology was precipitated by the elopement of Helen, the wife of the king of Sparta, with Paris of Troy. The war itself largely consisted of a ten-year siege of Troy by the Greeks. We know most about the final year of that siege, as it is described extensively in Homer’s “Iliad”. The city eventually fell when the Greeks hid soldiers inside the Trojan Horse, which the Trojans brought inside the city’s walls. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts …

109D Argentine aunt : TIA

Argentina is the second largest country in South America (after Brazil), and the world’s largest Spanish-speaking nation. The name “Argentina” comes from the Latin “argentum”, the word for “silver”. It is thought that the name was given by the early Spanish and Portuguese conquerors who also named the Rio de la Plata (the “Silver River”). Those early explorers got hold of lots of silver objects that they found among the native population.