LA Times Crossword 25 Nov 25, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Theresa Brady & Gene Leganza

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Opening Bell

Themed answers each OPEN with a BELL:

• 36A Start of the stock exchange trading day, or a feature of 18-, 23-, 51-, and 56-Across : OPENING BELL

• 18A Debt security sold to raise funds for World War I : LIBERTY BOND (Liberty Bell)
• 23A Unexpected and undeserved fortune : DUMB LUCK (dumbbell)
• 51A Singer dubbed the “Mother of the Blues” : MA RAINEY (Ma Bell)
• 56A Weekly promotion in some Tex-Mex restaurants : TACO TUESDAY (Taco Bell)

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

Bill’s time: 5m 53s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

4A Long-tailed parrot : MACAW

Macaws are beautifully-colored birds native to Central and South America that are actually a type of parrot. Most species of macaws are now endangered, with several having become extinct in recent decades. The main threats are deforestation and illegal trapping and trafficking of exotic birds.

14A Mork’s planet : ORK

The sitcom “Mork & Mindy” was broadcast from 1978 to 1982. We were first introduced to Mork (played by Robin Williams) in a special episode of “Happy Days”. The particular episode in question has a bizarre storyline culminating in Fonzie and Mork having a thumb-to-finger duel. Eventually Richie wakes up in bed, and alien Mork was just part of a dream! Oh, and “Nanu Nanu” means both “hello” and “goodbye” back on the planet Ork. “I am Mork from Ork, Nanu Nanu”. Great stuff …

16A “When the moon hits your eye” condition : AMORE

“That’s Amore” is a pop standard written by Harry Warren and Jack Brooks in 1952. It became the signature song for Dean Martin after he sang it (with some help from Jerry Lewis) in the 1953 comedy film “The Caddy”. “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore …”

17A Soda can opener : TAB

The term “pop-top” refers to a whole family of designs for opening the top of a soda can. The oldest method is the “pull tab” or “ring pull”, invented in Canada in 1956. The design was long-lived, but it had its problems, so the world heaved a sigh of relief with the invention of the stay-on-tab in 1975. The new design led to less injuries and eliminated all those used pull tabs that littered the streets.

18A Debt security sold to raise funds for World War I : LIBERTY BOND (Liberty Bell)

Liberty Bonds were war bonds sold in the U.S. between 1917 and 1919 to finance the Allied effort in World War I. The campaign to sell these bonds was one of the first-ever, celebrity-driven PR tours. In one famous 1918 event on Wall Street, Douglas Fairbanks held Charlie Chaplin up on his shoulders so he could speak through a megaphone to a crowd of over 20,000 people.

The Liberty Bell was commissioned in 1752 and installed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The bell bears the inscription “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof”, a quotation from the Book of Leviticus in the Bible. Famously, the bell cracked when it was first rung in Philadelphia after arriving from the foundry where it was made in London, England. The bell’s fame originated with a short story by George Lippard published in 1847 that gave a fictional account of an old bell-ringer ringing it on July 4, 1776 upon hearing that the Second Continental Congress had voted for independence. That ringing of the bell never actually happened, even though the account was constantly presented as fact in school texts around the country for generations.

20A “Orinoco Flow” singer : ENYA

“Orinoco Flow” is a song by Irish singer Enya that she released in 1988. It was to be the number that launched Enya to global fame (it’s the one that goes “sail away, sail away, sail away …”). The title is a reference to the Orinoco River in Venezuela, and also a nod to the Orinoco Studios in London where the song was recorded.

22A Glacier-forming periods : ICE AGES

Ice ages are periods in the Earth’s history when there are extensive ice sheets present in the northern and southern hemispheres. One might argue that we are still in an ice age that began 2.6 million years ago, as evidenced by the presence of ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica.

23A Unexpected and undeserved fortune : DUMB LUCK (dumbbell)

A dumbbell is a short bar with weights on either end that is used for strength-training. There is a theory that such an apparatus was used to train church bell ringers. As there isn’t any bell, it was referred to as a dumbbell. Um, I’m not sure …

26A Airport surface : TARMAC

The terms “tarmac” and “macadam” are short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call “tarmac”.

32A Perfect place : UTOPIA

The word “Utopia” was coined by Sir Thomas More in his book “Utopia” published in 1516 to describe an idyllic fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. More’s use of the name Utopia comes from the Greek “ou” meaning “not” and “topos” meaning “place”. By calling his perfect island “Not Place”, More was apparently making the point that he didn’t think that the ideal could actually exist.

36A Start of the stock exchange trading day, or a feature of 18-, 23-, 51-, and 56-Across : OPENING BELL

When the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) first standardized its trading day in the 1870s, the instrument used to signal the start and end of trading was not a bell, but a massive Chinese gong. The exchange switched to the current, electrically-operated brass bell system in 1903.

43A Tiny ammo : BBS

A BB gun is an air pistol or rifle that shoots birdshot known as BBs. Birdshot comes in a number of different sizes, from size 9 (0.070″ in diameter) to size FF (.230″). Birdshot that is size BB (0.180″ in diameter) gives the airgun its name.

51A Singer dubbed the “Mother of the Blues” : MA RAINEY (Ma Bell)

Ma Rainey was a blues singer, in fact the earliest-known professional blues singer in North America. Born Gertrude Pridgett in 1886, she adopted the stage name Ma Rainey after marrying Will Rainey in 1904.

The term “Ma Bell” was used to describe the monopoly led by the American Bell Telephone Company and AT&T, that controlled telephone service right across the country. The name “Bell” is after Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the first practical telephone.

53A Greek goddess of the hunt : ARTEMIS

Artemis was an ancient Greek goddess, and the equivalent of the Roman goddess Diana. She was also a daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. Among other things, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, and so often is depicted carrying a bow and arrows.

55A Bunco trio : DICE

Bunco is a dice game typically played with 12 players divided into groups of four. The objective of the game is to score points by rolling certain combinations of dice. Players take turns rolling three dice, trying to roll the number that corresponds to the current round. Interestingly, the name “Bunco” originally referred to a confidence trick or swindle similar to three-card monte.

56A Weekly promotion in some Tex-Mex restaurants : TACO TUESDAY (Taco Bell)

Taco Tuesday is a promotion run by many American restaurants, especially in Southern California. Participating establishments offer deals on tacos, and perhaps other Mexican dishes served in tortillas. Apparently, “Taco Tuesday” is a trademark owned by Wyoming-based fast-food restaurant Taco John’s.

Taco Bell was founded by a former US Marine, 25-year-old Glen Bell. His first restaurant was Bell’s Drive-In, located in Southern California. After opening that first establishment, Bell bought up some more restaurants including four named El Taco. He sold off the El Taco restaurants but used the name in part when he opened his first Taco Bell in 1962. Bell then sold franchises, with the 100th Taco Bell opening in 1967. The ex-Marine sold off the whole chain to PepsiCo in 1978, and I am guessing he made a pretty penny. Taco Bell has been using the “Live Más” slogan since 2012, with “más” being the Spanish word for “more”.

60A Fla. NBA team : ORL

The Orlando Magic were formed in 1989 as an NBA expansion team. A local paper was asked to run a competition to suggest names for the new team and the community came up with its four top picks of “Heat”, “Tropics”, “Juice” and “Magic”. A committee then opted for “Orlando Magic”. A good choice I think …

61A Any ABBA member : SWEDE

Only three members of the quartet that made up the Swedish pop group ABBA were born in Sweden. Anni-Frid Lyngstad was born in Norway just after the end of WWII, the daughter of a Norwegian mother and a father who was a German soldier and a member of the German occupying forces during the war. The father returned to Germany with the army, and in 1947, Anni-Frid was taken with her family to Sweden. They left fearing reprisals against those who dealt with the German army during the occupation.

64A Mexican bucks : PESOS

The peso is used in many Spanish-speaking countries around the world. The coin originated in Spain where the word “peso” means “weight”. The original peso was what we know in English as a “piece of eight”, a silver coin of a specific weight that had a nominal value of eight “reales”.

65A From Nepal, e.g. : ASIAN

Nepal lies to the northeast of India. Today, the state is known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. In 2008, the Communist Party of Nepal won the country’s general election. Soon after, the Assembly voted to change the form of government, moving away from a monarchy and creating a secular republic.

Down

1D End of a school email address : DOT EDU

The .edu domain was one of the six original generic top-level domains specified. The complete original list is:

• .com (commercial enterprise)
• .net (entity involved in network infrastructure e.g. an ISP)
• .mil (US military)
• .org (not-for-profit organization)
• .gov (US federal government entity)
• .edu (college-level educational institution)

2D Planet between Saturn and Neptune : URANUS

One of the unique features of the planet Uranus is that its north and south poles lie where most other planets have their equators. That means that Uranus’ axis of rotation is almost in its solar orbit.

4D The Brewers, in box scores : MIL

The Milwaukee Brewers Major League Baseball (MLB) team was founded in 1969 as the Seattle Pilots. The Pilots only played one season in Seattle before going bankrupt, relocating to Milwaukee and adopting the “Brewers” name. At that time, the Brewers were playing in the American League, and joined the National League in 1998. Only two MLB teams have switched leagues, the other being the Houston Astros.

5D Former NPR host Shapiro : ARI

Ari Shapiro served very ably as White House correspondent for National Public Radio (NPR) for several years. He then became a co-host of the network’s drive-time program “All Things Considered” in 2015. When he’s not working, Shapiro likes to sing. He appears regularly as a guest singer with the group Pink Martini, and has appeared on several of the band’s albums. He also turned up as host of the seventh season of the reality game show “The Mole”.

7D Smart __ : ALECK

Apparently, the original “smart Alec” (sometimes “Aleck”) was one Alec Hoag, a pimp, thief and confidence trickster who plied his trade in New York City in the 1840s.

10D Natural pigment darker than ocher : UMBER

Umber is an earthy, brown shade. The word “umber” originally described a pigment made from earth found in Umbria, a region in central Italy. In its natural form, the pigment is referred to as “raw umber”. The heated form of the pigment has a more intense color and is known as “burnt umber”.

13D Thin sock worn to try on shoes : PED

Peds are thin, disposable or reusable foot coverings you’ll often find in shoe stores. Their purpose is purely hygienic, providing a barrier between a person’s bare foot and the inside of a shoe that many other people have tried on.

19D The “TT” of TTFN : TA-TA

Ta-ta for now (TTFN)

25D Japanese soup noodle : UDON

Udon noodles are made from wheat-flour and are very popular in Japanese cuisines such as tempura.

28D Tax prep pro : CPA

Certified public accountant (CPA)

34D Cookbook writer Garten : INA

Ina Garten is an author as well as the host of a cooking show on the Food Network called “Barefoot Contessa”. She is a mentee of Martha Stewart, and indeed was touted as a potential “successor” to the TV celebrity when Stewart was incarcerated in 2004 after an insider trading scandal. Garten has no formal training as a chef, and indeed used to work as a nuclear policy analyst at the White House!

38D Active Sicilian volcano : ETNA

According to Greek mythology, Mount Etna was the prison of a monster. After Zeus defeated the 100-headed giant Typhon, he trapped him under the volcano. The eruptions, smoke, and tremors were believed to be the giant’s fiery breath as he struggled to break free.

39D Chain known for health products : GNC

General Nutrition Centers (GNC) is a retailer of health and nutrition supplements based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded in 1935 as a small health food store in downtown Pittsburgh. There are now about 5,000 stores in the US. The GNC slogan is “Live Well”.

40D Bud’s bud in comedy : LOU

Lou Costello was half of the Abbott & Costello double act. One tragic and terrible event in Lou Costello’s life was the death of his baby son, Lou Costello, Jr. Lou was at NBC studios one night for his regular broadcast when he received word that the 11-month-old baby had somehow drowned in the family swimming pool. With the words “Wherever he is tonight, I want him to hear me”, he made the scheduled broadcast in front of a live and unsuspecting audience.

Bud Abbott was the straight man in the comedy duo Abbott and Costello, alongside Lou Costello. The pair met on the burlesque circuit in the early 1930s, and formally teamed up in 1936. The initial arrangement for splitting earnings was to give Abbott 60% of the income, as the straight man was traditionally viewed as the more valuable member of a comedy double act. Costello became disgruntled with the split, and eventually renegotiated 50/50 terms. When Abbott and Costello made it to Hollywood in the early 1940s, Costello insisted on taking a 60% share, an arrangement that caused a permanent chill between the partners. Money problems and differences plagued them for the rest of their careers, with the pair eventually having to sell off their assets to pay off back taxes. They parted company in 1957.

44D “Sacré __!” : BLEU

French speakers don’t really use the profanity “sacré bleu”, at least not anymore, but we see it a lot in English literature featuring native French speakers. Most famously it is uttered by Agatha Christie’s delightful Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. There is some dispute about the origins of “sacré bleu” (sacred blue), but French dictionaries explain that it is a “softening” of the alternative “sacré Dieu” (Holy God).

48D Doily loop : EYELET

There was a draper in London in the seventeenth century named Doiley, and he gave his name to the lace fabric that he sold. The fabric in turn gave its name to the ornamental mat that we call a “doily”. I can’t abide doilies …

50D Hobbit who travels to Mount Doom : FRODO

Frodo Baggins is a principal character in J. R. R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”. He is a Hobbit, and is charged with the quest of destroying Sauron’s Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. Frodo is portrayed by American actor Elijah Wood in Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of the novels.