LA Times Crossword 30 Aug 20, Sunday

Bill’s time: 16m 18s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Did gondola duty : POLED

The word “gondola” was originally limited to the famous boats that travel along the canals of Venice. When man started to fly through the air in hot air balloons, “gondola” was used for the basket in which the passenger(s) traveled. By extension, the structure carrying passengers and crew under an airship is also called a gondola, as are the cars suspended from a cable at a ski resort.

6 “Today” rival, briefly : GMA

“Good Morning America” (GMA) is ABC’s morning show, and has been since 1975. There was even a spin-off show called “Good Afternoon America”, although that only lasted for a few months in 2012.

18 Dollar alternative : ALAMO

The third-largest car rental company in recent years is Alamo, which was founded in 1974. Alamo made inroads (pun!) into the market by popularizing the idea of “unlimited mileage”.

20 Alpha’s antithesis : OMEGA

Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet and is the one that looks like a horseshoe when in uppercase. The lowercase omega looks like a Latin W. The word “omega” literally means “great O” (O-mega). Compare this with the Greek letter Omicron, meaning “little O” (O-micron).

26 Najimy who voiced Peggy Hill in “King of the Hill” : KATHY

Actress Kathy Najimy played Sister Mary Patrick in the two “Sister Act” movies. On television, she played Olive Massery on the sitcom “Veronica’s Closet”. She also voiced Peggy Hill on the animated show “King of the Hill”.

28 Heckle, but not Jeckle : HARASS

Originally, the verb “to heckle” meant “to question severely”, and for many years was associated with the public questioning of parliamentary candidates in Scotland. In more recent times, the meaning has evolved into questioning that is less polite and that is directed at stand-up comics.

Heckle and Jeckle are two animated magpies that star in a series of Terrytoons cartoon shorts that were made from 1946 right up to 1981.

29 The “P” in PIN: Abbr. : PERS

One enters a Personal Identification Number (PIN) when using an Automated Teller Machine (ATM). Given that the N in PIN stands for “number”, then “PIN number” is a redundant phrase. And, given that the M in ATM stands for “machine”, then “ATM machine” is a redundant phrase as well. Grr …!

31 Unilever swab : Q-TIP

Cotton swabs were originally marketed under the name “Baby Gays”. This was changed in 1926 to “Q-Tips”, with the Q standing for “quality”.

34 Scalpel sites, for short : ORS

Surgery (surg.) is usually performed in an operating room (OR).

35 Polynesian wrap : SARONG

“Sarong” is the Malay word for “sheath”. The term originally described a garment worn by Malay men and women around their waists. The Malay sarong is actually a tube of fabric, about a yard wide and two-and-a-half yards long. Many variations of the sarong are worn all over South Asia and the Pacific Islands. I had occasion to wear one in Hawaii many years ago, and found it very … freeing!

48 Georgia gridders, to fans : DAWGS

The University of Georgia (UGA) is primarily located in Athens, Georgia. UGA was founded in 1785 and was the nation’s first state-chartered university. UGA’s sports teams are called the Georgia Bulldogs (sometimes just “Dawgs”).

49 “Ginger __”: 1952 Newbery Medal-winning book : PYE

Eleanor Estes started writing children’s books when she was bedridden, recovering from tuberculosis. By the time she died in 1988, she had written 20 books, including one novel for adults. Her most lauded title is “Ginger Pye”, published in 1951.

50 “Spring forward” letters : DST

On the other side of the Atlantic, daylight saving time (DST) is known as “summer time”. The idea behind summer/daylight-savings is to move clocks forward an hour in spring (“spring forward”), and backwards in the fall (“fall back”) so that afternoons have more daylight. Here in the US, DST starts on the second Sunday of March, and ends on the first Sunday of November.

56 Asian festival : TET

The full name for the New Year holiday in Vietnam is “Tet Nguyen Dan” meaning “Feast of the First Morning”, with the reference being to the arrival of the season of spring. Tet usually falls on the same day as Chinese New Year.

61 Uncle Sam’s land, proudly : US OF A

The Uncle Sam personification of the United States was first used during the War of 1812. The “Uncle Sam” term was so widely accepted that even the Germans used it during WWII, choosing the code word “Samland” for “America” in intelligence communiques.

62 Bunny tail : SCUT

A scut is a short erect tail, like that on a rabbit or a deer.

63 Coral component : POLYP

Polyps are tiny sea creatures that are found attached to underwater structures or to other polyps. Polyps have a mouth at one end of a cylindrical “body” that is surrounded by tentacles. Some polyps cluster into groups called stony corals, with stony corals being the building blocks of coral reefs. The structure of the reef comprises calcium carbonate exoskeletons secreted by the coral polyps.

64 Big shot: Abbr. : ENL

Enlargement (enl.)

65 Cellar, but not collar, opening : SOFT C

The word “cellar” starts with a soft letter C; the word “collar” starts with a hard letter C.

70 Western PA airport code : ERI

Erie International Airport (ERI) is located five miles from the city of Erie, Pennsylvania.

71 Disappearing retail giant : KMART

Kmart is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and Target. The company was founded by S. S. Kresge in 1899, with the first outlets known as S. S. Kresge stores. The first “Kmart” stores opened in 1962, with the “K” standing for “Kresge”. Kmart is famous for its promotions known as “blue light specials”, a program first introduced in 1965 and discontinued in 1991. I remember being in a Kmart store soon after coming to live in the US. That evening an employee installed a light stand an aisle away from me, switched on a flashing blue light and there was some unintelligible announcement over the loudspeaker system. I had no idea what was going on …

73 Hosp. readouts : EEGS

An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a record of electrical activity caused by the firing of neurons within the brain. The EEG might be used to diagnose epilepsy, or perhaps to determine if a patient is “brain dead”.

74 Lodge opening? : ECONO …

Econo Lodge is a low-cost hotel chain in the Choice Hotels portfolio of brands. The chain started in 1969 as Econo-Travel, and demonstrated pretty quickly that budget-hotels were a good idea. The first hotel was built in Norfolk, Virginia and it started making money three weeks after welcoming its first guests.

75 Patel of “Slumdog Millionaire” : DEV

Dev Patel is an actor from Harrow in England. Patel is best known for playing the lead in the hit movie “Slumdog Millionaire”. He also stars in a lovely 2012 film called “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” alongside an incredible cast that included Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Maggie Smith and Tom Wilkinson. Patel also had a regular role in the marvelous HBO drama series called “The Newsroom”.

The brilliant film “Slumdog Millionaire” is a screen adaptation of a 2005 novel by Indian author Vikas Swarup. A low-budget movie, it ended up winning eight Oscars in 2008. I reckon it turned a profit …

77 Milne hopper : ROO

Like most of the characters in A. A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh”, the kangaroo named “Roo” was inspired by a stuffed toy belonging to Milne’s son Christopher Robin.

80 First novel in Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle : ERAGON

Christopher Paolini began writing his best-selling fantasy story “Eragon” at the age of 15. Christopher’s parents, when they read the final version two years later, decided to self-publish it and support Christopher as he toured the US promoting the novel. It was eventually republished by Alfred A. Knopf in 2003, and became the second-best-selling children’s paperback of 2005. The book was adapted for the big screen in 2006. I’d call that a success story …

84 Platters in sleeves : LPS

The first vinyl records designed to play at 33⅓ rpm were introduced by RCA Victor in 1931, but were discontinued due to quality problems. The first long play (LP) 33⅓ rpm disc was introduced by Columbia Records many years later in 1948, with RCA Victor following up with a 45 rpm “single” the following year, in 1949.

90 Svelte : SLENDER

“Svelte” comes into English from Latin, via the Italian “svelto” meaning “stretched out”. Something or someone described as svelte would be slender and graceful.

92 911 pro : EMT

Emergency medical technician (EMT)

The first use of a national emergency phone number was in 1937 in the UK, where the number 999 was introduced to call emergency services. If you need emergency services in the UK or Ireland to this day, you have to dial 999. It’s not really clear why 911 became the emergency number in the US. The most credible suggestion (to me) is that when it was introduced by the FCC in 1967, it was a number that “fit” with the numbers already used by AT&T for free services (211-long distance; 411-information; 611-repair service).

94 Friend of Goat in “Pearls Before Swine” : PIG

The comic strip “Pearls Before Swine” is written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis. Pastis used to be a lawyer in San Francisco. Quite a career change, huh? The title of the strip comes from the Bible. According to the Book of Matthew, Jesus states in the Sermon on the Mount:

Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

99 List-shortening term : ET ALIA

“Et alii” (et al.) is the equivalent of “et cetera” (etc.), with “et cetera” being used in place of a list of objects, and “et alii” used for a list of names. In fact, “et al.” can stand for “et alii” (a group of males, or males and females), “et aliae” (a group of women) and “et alia” (a group of neuter nouns, or a group of people where the intent is to retain gender-neutrality).

105 Boat owner’s rental : SLIP

A “slipway” or “slip” is a ramp on the shore in which boats can “slip” into the water. This “slipping” into the water is literally the case in a shipyard, where a vessel’s hull slips off the ramp after it is coated with grease.

106 Flat owner, maybe : LESSOR

“Flat”, in the sense of an apartment or condominium, is a word more commonly used in Britain and Ireland than on this side of the pond. The term “flat” is Scottish in origin, in which language it used to mean “floor in a house”.

109 Fitness mantra opening : USE IT …

Use it or lose it.

114 Like a fleabag motel : SEEDY

We use the word “seedy” to mean “shabby”. The usage probably arose from the appearance of a flowering plant that has gone to seed.

115 Asian wraps : SARIS

The item of clothing called a “sari” (also “saree”) is a strip of cloth, as one might imagine, unusual perhaps in that it is unstitched along the whole of its length. The strip of cloth can range from four to nine meters long (that’s a lot of material!). The sari is usually wrapped around the waist, then draped over the shoulder leaving the midriff bare. I must say, it can be a beautiful item of clothing.

116 Dusk, to Donne : E’EN

John Donne was one of England’s most celebrated poets, and was active at the start of the 17th century. He spent much of his life in poverty and even spent a short time in prison for having married his wife without procuring the appropriate permissions. After his release, his wife bore him 12 children in 16 years, passing away a few days after the twelfth child was born.

117 __ dish : PETRI

Julius Richard Petri was a German bacteriologist and was the man after whom the Petri dish is named. The petri dish can have an agar gel on the bottom which acts as a nutrient source for the specimen being grown and studied, in which case the dish plus agar is referred to as an “agar plate”.

118 Half of scissors? : ESSES

Half of the letters in the word “scissors” are letters S.

119 Hacking targets: Abbr. : SSNS

Social Security number (SSN)

120 Sellout letters : SRO

Standing room only (SRO)

121 Hackneyed : TRITE

Hackney is a location in London, and it probably gave its name to a “hackney”, an ordinary type of horse around 1300. By 1700 a “hackney” was a person hired to do routine work, and “hackneyed” meant “kept for hire”, and then “stale, uninteresting”. This morphed into a hackney carriage, a carriage or car for hire, and into “hack”, a slang term for a taxi driver or cab.

Down

2 Early Mesoamerican sculptors : OLMEC

The Olmec were an ancient civilization that lived in the lowlands of south-central Mexico from about 1500 BC to about 400 BC.

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.

3 It may be golden : LAGER

Lager is so called because of the tradition of cold-storing the beer during fermentation. “Lager” is the German word for “storage”.

4 Some retired academics : EMERITI

“Emeritus” (female form “emerita”, and plural “emeriti”) is a term in the title of some retired professionals, particularly those from academia. Originally an emeritus was a veteran soldier who had served his time. The term comes from the Latin verb “emerere” meaning to complete one’s service.

6 Karmann __: classic VW : GHIA

Volkswagen made the Karmann Ghia from 1955 to 1974. The original model was built on the VW Beetle chassis, was styled by the Italian automobile design house Ghia, and the bodywork was hand-built by the German coach-builder Karmann.

7 President before an Adams : MONROE

James Monroe was the fifth US President, and the last of the Founding Fathers to hold the highest office. Famously, he presided over the Era of Good Feelings, when there was very little partisan strife in Washington. President Monroe racked up a lot of debt while in politics and so when he retired he had to sell off a lot of his property and struggled financially for the remainder of his life. Monroe was one of three US presidents to pass away on American Independence Day (along with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams). Monroe died on July 4th 1831.

John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams, was the 6th US president. Like his father, John Quincy worked for many years as a diplomat representing the young United States. After leaving office, Adams served in Congress as Representative from Massachusetts, becoming the only president ever to enter the House after leaving the office of president.

8 Eponymous newborn score creator : APGAR

The Apgar scale is used to assess the health of newborn babies. The newborn is evaluated in five categories that are given by the acronym APGAR, namely:

• Appearance
• Pulse
• Grimace
• Activity
• Respiration

The acronym is actually a “backronym”, as the test is named for Dr. Virginia Apgar who devised it in 1952.

9 Sauces for sushi : SOYS

Soy sauce is made by fermenting soybeans with a mold in the presence of water and salt. Charming …

10 Yoga syllables : OMS

“Om” is a sacred mystic word from the Hindu tradition. “Om” is sometimes used as a mantra, a focus for the mind in meditation.

14 Member of three L.A. Lakers championship teams : SHAQ

Retired basketball player Shaquille O’Neal now appears regularly as an analyst on the NBA TV show “Inside the NBA”. Shaq has quite a career in the entertainment world. His first rap album, called “Shaq Diesel”, went platinum. He also starred in two of his own reality shows: “Shaq’s Big Challenge” and “Shaq Vs.”

17 Uses a Zoom alternative : SKYPES

The main feature of the Skype application when introduced was that it allows voice communication to take place over the Internet (aka VoIP). Skype has other features such as video conferencing and instant messaging, but the application made its name from voice communication. Skype was founded by two Scandinavian entrepreneurs and the software necessary was developed by a team of engineers in Estonia. The development project was originally called “Sky peer-to-peer” so the first commercial name for the application was “Skyper”. This had to be shortened to “Skype” because the skyper.com domain name was already in use.

Zoom is a videoconferencing app that became remarkably popular in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The market deemed Zoom to be the easiest to use of the free videoconferencing app. I’ve been using it, but really prefer Google’s Meet offering …

21 “Hair” dos : AFROS

The full name of the famed show from the sixties is “Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical”, although the 1979 film adaptation was simply titled “Hair”. This controversial work outraged many when it was first performed in the sixties, as it attacked many aspects of life at the time. For example, the song “Air” is a satirical look at pollution, sung by a character who comes onto the stage wearing a gas mask. The opening lines are “Welcome, sulfur dioxide. Hello carbon monoxide. The air … is everywhere”. How things have changed over the past few decades said he … satirically …

24 First name of Dickens’ Madame Defarge : THERESE

Madame Thérèse Defarge is a character in the Charles Dickens novel “A Tale of Two Cities”. As part of her role in the story, Mme. Defarge sits knitting while observing the guillotine doing its macabre work.

25 Ed.’s stack : MSS

An editor (ed.) might read or edit a manuscript (MS)

30 Dudley’s toon foe : SNIDELY

Dudley Do-Right appeared on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, a cartoon that appeared on television in a couple of different versions from 1959-1964. Dudley was a bungling Mountie who struggled with his nemesis, the evil Snidely Whiplash, while pursuing the romantic intentions of Nell Fenwick (who always seemed to prefer Dudley’s horse!).

35 Brother of Ham : SHEM

According to the Book of Genesis, Noah lived to a ripe old age. Noah fathered his three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth when he was 500 years old, and the Great Flood took place when he was 600.

36 Fancy poultry dish : GLASS / PHEASANT (pheasant under glass)

Pheasant under glass is a dish featuring a breast of pheasant with shallots in a reduced wine sauce. The dish’s name is a reference to the traditional way the dish is served, i.e. on a plate covered with a glass dome.

39 Retired fliers: Abbr. : SSTS

The most famous supersonic transport (SST) is the retired Concorde. The Concorde routinely broke the sound barrier, and cruised at about twice the speed of sound. Above Mach 2, frictional heat would cause the plane’s aluminum airframe to soften, so airspeed was limited.

44 Negative forecast : ZERO / FIVE DEGREES (five degrees below zero)

When Gabriel Fahrenheit first defined his temperature scale he set 0 degrees as the temperature of a mixture of ice, water and salt. He defined 100 degrees as the temperature under his wife’s armpit! Using this scale he determined that water boiled at 210 degrees. Later refinements moved the boiling point of water up to 212 degrees, and as a result “body temperature” was shifted downwards to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

46 Alaskan native : ALEUT

The Aleuts live on the Aleutian Islands of the North Pacific, and on the Commander Islands at the western end of the same island chain. The Aleutian Islands are part of the United States, and the Commander Islands are in Russia.

47 “SNL” staples : SPOOFS

“Saturday Night Live” (SNL)

57 Features of urns : SPIGOTS

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.

59 Loosens, as a tot’s pajamas : UNSNAPS

Our word “pajamas” (sometimes “PJs” or “jammies”) comes to us from the Indian subcontinent, where “pai jamahs” were loose fitting pants tied at the waist and worn at night by locals and ultimately by the Europeans living there. And “pajamas” is another of those words that I had to learn to spell differently when I came to America. On the other side of the Atlantic, the spelling is “pyjamas”.

60 Soft hits just over the infield : BLOOPS

In baseball, a bloop single is more usually called a blooper. It’s a fly ball that drops for a single between an infielder and an outfielder.

62 Big name in tennis : SERENA

Serena Williams is the younger of the two Williams sisters playing professional tennis. Serena has won more prize money in her career than any other female athlete.

66 Carpenter’s groove : DADO

In the world of joinery, a dado is a slot cut into a piece of wood across the grain. On the other hand, a groove is a slot cut with the grain.

67 Sierra __ : LEONE

The Republic of Sierra Leone is a country in West Africa that lies on the Atlantic Coast. The capital city of Freetown was originally set up as a colony to house the “Black Poor” of London, England. These people were mainly freed British slaves of Caribbean descent who were living a miserable life in the run-down parts of London. Perhaps to help the impoverished souls, perhaps to rid the streets of “a problem”, three ships were chartered in 1787 to transport a group of blacks, with some whites, to a piece of land purchased in Sierra Leone. Those who made the voyage were granted British citizenship and protection. The descendants of these immigrants, and others who made the journey over the next 60 years, make up the ethnic group that’s today called the Sierra Leone Creole.

69 LGBT History Mo. : OCT

LGBT History Month has been celebrated annually since 1994. The month of October was chosen so that it coincided with the already-existing National Coming Out Day, which is observed annually on October 11th.

81 Hermione’s guy : RON

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are the principal characters in the “Harry Potter” series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling. The three are the best of friends. As the stories progress, the friendship between Ron and Hermione developed to the point that they became husband and wife and had two children together.

91 Hershey’s caramel candies : ROLOS

Rolo was a hugely popular chocolate candy in Ireland when I was growing up. Rolo was introduced in the thirties in the UK, and is produced under license in the US by Hershey. I was a little disappointed when I had my first taste of the American version as the center is very hard and chewy. The recipe used on the other side of the Atlantic calls for a soft gooey center.

96 Granada girls : NINAS

Granada is a city and province in Andalusia in the south of Spain. Granada should not be confused with Grenada (note the different spelling), an island nation in the Caribbean that was invaded by the US in 1983.

97 It’s a sign : LEO

Leo is the fifth astrological sign of the Zodiac. People born from July 23 to August 22 are Leos.

98 __ Park, Colorado : ESTES

Estes Park is a town in a beautiful part of the US, in northern Colorado. Estes Park is home to the headquarters of Rocky Mountain National Park.

100 Christine of “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” : LAHTI

Christine Lahti is an actress probably best known for playing Dr. Kate Austen on the TV medical drama “Chicago Hope”. If you read “The Huffington Post” you might run across her as well, as Lahti is a contributing blogger.

“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is a 2019 film that is based on a 1998 “Esquire” article written by Tom Junod. The movie stars Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers, creator and host of the children’s TV show “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”. Matthew Rhys plays Lloyd Vogel, a character loosely based on Junod, author of the original article. Good film …

101 Like radon, say : INERT

The noble gases (also “rare gases”) are those elements on the extreme right of the Periodic Table. Because of their “full” complement of electrons, noble gases are very unreactive. The six noble gases that occur naturally are helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon.

The element radon (Rn) is a radioactive gas, and a byproduct produced when uranium decays naturally in the earth. Radon gas can collect and accumulate in buildings and rooms that are particularly well insulated with very little air exchange. The danger is very real, as radon is listed as the second most frequent cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoke.

102 Home on high : AERIE

An aerie is an eagle’s nest, and is also known as an “eyrie”. The term “aerie” more generally describes any bird’s nest that is located on a cliff or a mountaintop.

106 L, in box scores : LOSS

In baseball, the line square is a summary set of statistics for the game. It is seen at every baseball stadium, and includes the number of runs scored by each team per innings, as well as the total number of hits and errors. The more comprehensive box score includes the line score, but also shows the individual performance of each player.

110 TV’s Burrell and baseball’s Cobb : TYS

Actor and comedian Ty Burrell is perhaps best known for playing Phil Dunphy on the great sitcom “Modern Family”. Off the screen, Burrell is the co-owner of two bar/restaurants in Salt Lake City. Named Bar-X and Beer Bar, Burrell’s establishments are actually located side-by-side, with connecting doors.

Baseball player Ty Cobb was born in Narrows, Georgia and died 74 years later in Atlanta, Georgia. He was nicknamed “The Georgia Peach”. Cobb was one of the richest baseball players of all times. When he retired, Cobb was a major stockholder of the Coca-Cola Corporation. By the time he passed away in 1961, Cobb had an even bigger investment in General Electric. He left an estate after his death worth about $86m (in 2008 dollars). The most common nickname associated with Cobb during his career was “the Georgia Peach”.