LA Times Crossword 7 Oct 26, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Robin Stears

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Damage Control

Themed answers are common phrases reinterpreted in a very “damaging” way:

• 17A Ruin the Olympic Games? : SPOIL SPORTS
• 27A Destroy casual chitchat? : TRASH TALKING
• 46A Wreak havoc on origami supplies? : BUTCHER PAPER
• 60A Lay waste to a dairy product? : CREAM CHEESE

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

Bill’s time: 6m 37s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

14A Cartoon canine who speaks with an “R” consonant mutation : ASTRO

“The Jetsons” is an animated show from Hanna-Barbera that had its first run in 1962-1963, and then was recreated in 1985-1987. When it debuted in 1962 on ABC, “The Jetsons” was the network’s first ever color broadcast. “The Jetsons” is like a space-age version of “The Flintstones”. The four Jetson family members are George and Jane, the parents, and children Judy and Elroy. Residing with the family in Orbit City are their household robot Rosie and pet dog Astro.

16A “Argo” org. : CIA

“Argo” is a 2012 movie that is based on the true story of the rescue of six diplomats hiding out during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. The film was directed by and stars Ben Affleck and is produced by Grant Heslov and George Clooney, the same pair who produced the excellent “Good Night, and Good Luck”. I highly recommend “Argo”, although I found the scenes of religious fervor to be very frightening …

20A Tammy Duckworth’s title, briefly : SEN

Tammy Duckworth has been a US Senator for Illinois since 2017. Duckworth is a veteran of the Iraq War, in which she served as a helicopter pilot and suffered severe combat wounds, including the loss of both her legs. She continued to serve in the Illinois National Guard after her recovery, and retired in 2014 at the rank of lieutenant colonel. Duckworth has racked up quite a few firsts while in Congress. For example, she was the first woman with a disability elected to Congress, and the first Senator to give birth while in office. Senate rules were changed following the birth of her daughter, which allowed Duckworth to bring her baby onto the Senate floor and breastfeed her during votes.

21A Merry-go-round music : LILT

The merry-go-round amusement park ride can be a little confusing as one travels the world. In North America, we tend to use the term “carousel” for the ride, whereas it’s a “roundabout” in Britain and Ireland, and a “hurdy-gurdy” in Australia. Yet another difference is the direction of rotation. Carousels typically rotate counterclockwise in North America, and roundabouts rotate clockwise in Britain and Ireland.

22A Bas-__ : RELIEF

In bas-relief, an image projects just a little above the background, as in perhaps a head depicted on a coin.

26A Home of Hawaii’s Merrie Monarch Festival : HILO

The Merrie Monarch Festival has been held annually since 1963, in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii. It is a week-long festival observed during the week following Easter. It is named for the “Merrie Monarch”, King David Kalākaua, the last king of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

32A Tennis great Andre : AGASSI

Retired tennis professional Andre Agassi has been married to fellow player Steffi Graf since 2001. Agassi wrote an autobiography called “Open”, published in 2009. An amazing revelation in the book is that Agassi’s famous head of hair was actually a wig for much of his playing career. Can you imagine how hard it must have been to play tennis at his level with a rug stuck on?

35A Georgia airport code : ATL

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is the world’s busiest airport, as measured by passenger traffic. Atlanta has had that distinction almost every year since 1998, and was the world’s busiest in terms of take-offs and landings from 2005 until 2013. Over 50% of Atlanta’s traffic comes from Delta Air Lines.

38A Super vision? : ESP

Extrasensory perception (ESP)

42A French wine classification : CRU

“Cru” is a term used in the French wine industry that means “growth place”. So, “cru” is the name of the location where the grapes are grown, as opposed to the name of a specific vineyard. The terms “premier cru” and “grand cru” are also used, but the usage depends on the specific wine region. Generally it is a classification awarded to specific vineyards denoting their potential for producing great wines. “Grand cru” is reserved for the very best vineyards, with “premier cru” the level just below.

43A Annette of “Virgin River” : O’TOOLE

Among several notable roles, Annette O’Toole is the actress who plays Clark Kent’s mother on the TV show “Smallville”. She is married to fellow actor Michael McKean (who played lead vocalist David St. Hubbins in “This Is Spinal Tap”). Off screen, O’Toole and McKean share a musical career together.

“Virgin River” is a romantic drama TV show based on a series of novels of the same name by Robyn Carr. It is a hit show, running for several seasons starting in 2019. The story follows Melinda “Mel” Monroe, played by Alexandra Breckenridge, a nurse practitioner who relocates from Los Angeles to a remote Northern California town to escape her past and get a fresh start in life.

46A Wreak havoc on origami supplies? : BUTCHER PAPER

Origami is the traditional Japanese art form of paper folding. The best-known example of the craft is the paper crane (“orizuru“). The word “origami” is derived from “ori“ (folding) and “kami” (paper).

Havoc is great damage or destruction. The term “havoc” comes from the Anglo-French phrase “crier havok”, which was an order given in the Middle Ages, instructing them to seize plunder.

50A Repeat for emphasis : ITERATE

The verb “to iterate” means to repeat over again. The verb “reiterate” means the same thing. One might suspect that “reiterate” is one of those words that has crept into the language due to repeated (reiterated?!) misuse. Well, that’s not quite the case, but close. Back in the 1400s, “iterate” meant “repeat”, and “reiterate” meant “repeat again and again”. We lost the distinction between those two definitions over time.

57A Burlesque bit : SKIT

The word “burlesque” came into English from French, although the word is rooted in the Italian “burla”, the word for a joke, or mockery. A burlesque is a work of literature, drama or music that is intended to amuse and cause laughter. Burlesques in the US took on a variety show format and were popular in the US from the 1860s. Over time, the variety acts started to include female striptease, and the term “burlesque” has come to be mainly associated with such entertainment. The derivative verb “to burlesque” means “to imitate mockingly”.

59A Sometimes called, for short : AKA

Also known as (aka)

64A “__ mañana” : HASTA

“Hasta mañana” translates from Spanish as “See you tomorrow”, and literally as “Until tomorrow”.

67A Elizabeth who plays the Scarlet Witch : OLSEN

Elizabeth Olsen is the younger sister of famous actresses Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who rose to fame as child stars on the TV show “Full House”. Elizabeth starred in several critically acclaimed films, and is also known for her role as Scarlet Witch (aka Wanda Maximoff) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

68A Trig ratios : SINES

In a right-angled triangle, the sine of an angle is the ratio of the length of the side opposite that angle to the length of the hypotenuse.

Down

1D Common voice for an opera villain : BASSO

The bass is the lowest male singing voice. A man with such a voice might be called a “basso” (plural “bassi”). In an opera, the villain of the piece is usually played by a basso.

2D Colorado town near Snowmass : ASPEN

Snowmass Village in Colorado is on the map for a few reasons. Perhaps most notably, it is home to the Snowmass ski area. It is also home to the Snowmastodon site where important Ice Age fossils were discovered, starting in 2010. Tens of thousands of vertebrate fossils were unearthed over the next few years, including fossils of mammoth and mastodons. Sadly, Snowmass was also where serial killer Ted Bundy carried out one of his abductions and murders, in 1975.

3D Curling piece : STONE

I think curling is such a cool (pun!) game. It’s somewhat like bowls, but played on a sheet of ice. The sport was supposedly invented in medieval Scotland, and is called curling because of the action of the granite stone as it moves across the ice. A player can make the stone take a curved path (“curl”) by causing it to slowly rotate as it slides.

4D “__ tu”: Verdi aria : ERI

Every crossword constructor’s favorite aria “Eri tu” is from Verdi’s opera “Un ballo in maschera” (“A Masked Ball”). The opera tells the story of the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden during a masked ball.

5D Brunei money : DOLLARS

The Brunei dollar was introduced in 1967 to replace the Malaya and British Borneo dollar. It holds a unique status in that it is the only global currency with a 1-to-1 peg with the Singapore dollar. Both currencies are treated as “customary tender” in either country and can be exchanged at par without any transaction fees.

11D Breakfast bowl berry : ACAI

Açaí na tigela is a dish made from the frozen, mashed fruit of the açaí palm and served as a smoothie. Often topped with granola, banana, other berries and syrup, the dish is a specialty in much of Brazil. There’s even a savory version of açaí na tigela (“açaí in the bowl”) that includes shrimp or dried fish and tapioca. Açaí bowls are becoming very popular in North America, especially as a health food.

13D Baby camel : CALF

Camels are well adapted to the desert, most notably perhaps having a fatty hump that acts as an energy reservoir. They also have long eyelashes and ear hairs, as well as nostrils that can close, all of which act as barriers to blown sand. They even have a third eyelid, which dislodges any sand that gets lodged in the eye.

18D Africa-to-Asia land bridge : SINAI

The Sinai Peninsula is in the eastern part of Egypt, and is a triangular landform bounded by the Mediterranean to the north and the Red Sea to the south. It is the only part of Egypt that lies in Asia as opposed to Africa. The eastern land border of the peninsula is shared with Israel, and Israel occupied the Sinai during the 1956 Suez Crisis and the Six-Day War of 1967.

23D Trickster in Norse mythology : LOKI

Loki is a trickster god in Norse mythology known for continually creating chaos. He is the father of sons with his wife Sigyn. Because Loki is also a shape-shifter, he gave birth to children “himself” by assuming the shape of the opposite sex.

25D Jr. officers : LTS

The rank “lieutenant” comes from the French phrase “lieu tenant”, which translates literally to “place-holder”. As a military title, the term originally referred to a deputy or second-in-command designated to assume the position of a superior officer who was absent or killed in combat.

26D URL starter : HTTP

“http” are the first letters in many Internet links. “http” stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol. More secure and “safer” websites (like this one!) use links starting with “https”, which stands for “http secure”.

31D Giant oceanic surface current : GYRE

Every Irish school child has to read “The Second Coming”, a 1919 poem by W. B. Yeats. And when it comes to interpreting and understanding it, as kids we were in trouble right from the first line:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Because of this poem, I reckon more Irish kids know what a “gyre” is than kids from any other nation! A gyre is basically a vortex …

32D Part of UAE : ARAB

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

33D Hindu mentor : GURU

“Guru” is a Hindi word meaning “teacher” or “priest”.

A mentor is a trusted teacher or counselor, and the person receiving the advice is the mentee. The term “mentor” comes from Homer’s “Odyssey” in which there is a character named Mentor. He is a friend of Odysseus, although he is a relatively ineffective old man. The goddess Athena takes on Mentor’s appearance in order to guide Odysseus’s young son Telemachus through difficult times.

41D Las Vegas WNBA team : ACES

The Las Vegas Aces women’s basketball team was formed in Salt Lake City in 1997 as the Utah Starzz. The team became the San Antonio (Silver) Stars in 2003, before moving to Las Vegas as the Aces in 2018.

43D __ nerve : OPTIC

The optic nerve enters the eyeball at a location on the retina called the optic disc. Because there are no light-sensitive cells at the optic disc, there is a “hole” in our visual field that is called the blind spot. People with normal vision don’t usually notice this blind spot as the brain “fills in” the blind spot with information from the other eye.

45D Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby : ORR

Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking. While still 31 years old, in 1979, Orr became the youngest person inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Prior to that, in 1967, Orr became the youngest person named the NHL’s Rookie of the Year.

47D Top dog : HONCHO

“Honcho” is a slang term meaning “leader”. The word comes to us from the Japanese military, in which language a “hancho” is a “squad” (han) “leader” (cho).

48D Three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Troy : AIKMAN

Troy Aikman is a former quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. When he retired from football, Aikman started working as a sportscaster.

56D From Perth to Sydney : EAST

Perth is the capital city of Western Australia. Perth earned itself the nickname of “City of Light” in 1962 as virtually all the town’s lights were turned on at full power when astronaut John Glenn passed overhead in earth orbit in Friendship 7, so that he could see the city below. The city gave a repeat performance for Glenn when he passed overhead in the Space Shuttle in 1998.

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia. People from Sydney are known as “Sydneysiders”.

62D Yale grad : ELI

“Eli” is the nickname for a graduate of Yale University, and a term used in honor of the Yale benefactor Elihu Yale.