LA Times Crossword 8 May 26, Friday

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Constructed by: Joel Woodford

Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Reveal Answer: Eye for Detail

Themed answers are common phrases in which the TAILING letter “D” is swapped FOR a letter “I”:

• 52A Designer’s asset, or a phonetic description of 20-, 29-, and 43-Across : EYE FOR DETAIL

• 20A Small car that can only follow a single route? : ONE-TRACK MINI (one-track mind)
• 29A Songs heard during a colorful spring festival? : MUSIC ON HOLI (music on hold)
• 43A First dish made at a cook-off? : OLDEST CHILI (oldest child)

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

Bill’s time: 9m 54s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1A Meat in some fried rice : SPAM

Spam is a precooked meat product that is sold in cans. It was introduced by Hormel Foods in 1937. The main meat ingredients are pork shoulder meat and ham. The name “Spam” was chosen as the result of a competition at Hormel, with the winner earning himself a hundred dollars. According to the company, the derivation of the name “Spam” is a secret known by only a few former executives, but the speculation is that it stands for “spiced ham” or “shoulders of pork and ham”. Spam is particularly popular in Hawaii, so popular that it is sometimes referred to as “the Hawaiian steak”.

5A Place where heros are made : DELI

A hero is a submarine sandwich. It originated in New York City in the 1800s among Italian immigrants who wanted an Italian sandwich that reminded them of home. The name “hero” was coined in the 1930s, supposedly by a food critic in the “New York Herald Tribune” when he wrote that “one had to be a hero” to finish the gigantic sandwich. Hero is a prevalent term to this day in New York City, reserved for a submarine sandwich with an Italian flavor.

14A Purnell of “Fallout” : ELLA

Ella Purnell is an actress from London, now living in the US, whom I perhaps know best for playing Winston Churchill’s secretary in the 2017 film “Churchill”.

“Fallout” is a post-apocalyptic drama TV show based on a video game series of the same name. It stars Ella Purnell playing Lucy MacLean, a woman who exits subterranean Vault 33 to explore a nuclear wasteland that was once Los Angeles. The year is 2296, and the vault was built prior to a nuclear exchange between the US and China in 2077. Filming took place in an abandoned diamond-mining ghost town in Namibia.

20A Small car that can only follow a single route? : ONE-TRACK MINI (one-track mind)

The original Mini was a fabulous car, one that I drove all over Ireland in my youth. It had a unique front-wheel-drive layout that took up very little space, allowing for a lot of room (relatively speaking) for passengers and baggage. One space-saving trick was to mount the engine transversely, so it sits rotated 90 degrees from the norm. That engine had a capacity of only 848cc. In 1961, a Mini Cooper model was introduced, which was a sporty version. The Mini Cooper was a phenomenal hit, especially after repeated wins in the Monte Carlo Rally. The Mini marque has been owned by BMW since 1994.

23A French automaker : RENAULT

Renault is a French automaker that was founded in 1899 by Louis Renault and his brothers. I’ve seen relatively few Renault cars here in North America, but have driven them many times in Europe, which is the company’s core market.

24A Barrel-shaped drums : CONGAS

The type of drum called a conga is more properly known as a tumbadora. It is regarded as a Cuban instrument today, but it probably evolved from older African drums made from hollowed logs.

29A Songs heard during a colorful spring festival? : MUSIC ON HOLI (music on hold)

Factory owner Alfred Levy accidentally invented music on hold in 1962, when a loose wire at his business touched a metal girder and began picking up a neighboring radio station’s signal. He realized that the broadcast was being transmitted to callers to his business who were waiting on the line, providing a “pleasant” alternative to the standard dead silence. Levy patented his discovery in 1966.

32A Generic surname : DOE

Though the English court system does not use the term today, “John Doe” first appeared as the “name of a person unknown” in England in 1659, along with the similar “Richard Roe”. An unknown female is referred to as “Jane Doe”, and the equivalent to Richard Roe is Jane Roe (as in Roe v. Wade, for example). Variants of “John Doe” used outside of the courts are “Joe Blow” and “John Q. Public”.

33A Swanson of “Parks and Recreation” : RON

Ron Swanson is the boss, the director of the parks and recreation department on the NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation”. He is played by actor Nick Offerman.

34A Brewery kiln : OAST

An oast is a kiln used for drying hops as part of the brewing process. Such a structure might also be called an “oast house” or “hop kiln”. The term “oast” can also apply to a kiln used to dry tobacco.

43A First dish made at a cook-off? : OLDEST CHILI (oldest child)

The full name of the dish that is often called simply “chili” is “chili con carne”, Spanish for “peppers with meat”. The dish was created by immigrants from the Spanish Canary Islands in the city of San Antonio, Texas (a city which the islanders founded). The San Antonio Chili Stand was a popular attraction at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and that stand introduced the dish to the rest of America and to the world.

46A __ tai : MAI

The mai tai cocktail is strongly associated with the Polynesian islands, but the drink was supposedly invented in 1944 in Trader Vic’s restaurant in Oakland, California. One recipe is 6 parts white rum, 3 parts orange curaçao, 3 parts orgeat syrup, 1 part rock candy syrup, 2 parts fresh lime juice, all mixed with ice and then a float added of 6 parts dark rum. “Maita’i” is the Tahitian word for “good”.

49A Candy bar with peanuts and caramel : PAYDAY

The Payday candy bar was created in 1932 by the Hollywood Candy Company, named because it was invented on payday at the factory.

50A Small pieces : MORSELS

A morsel is a small bite, a mouthful of food. The term “morsel” comes from the Latin “morsus” meaning “bite”.

55A Some Ukrainians : SLAVS

The Slavic peoples are in the majority in communities covering over half of Europe. This large ethnic group is traditionally broken down into three smaller groups:

• the West Slavic (including Czechs and Poles)
• the East Slavic (including Russians and Ukrainians)
• the South Slavic (including Bulgarians, Croats and Serbs)

59A “Picnic” playwright : INGE

Playwright William Inge had a run of success on Broadway in the early fifties. His most celebrated work of that time is the play “Picnic”, for which he was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. The original 1953 cast of “Picnic” included a young male actor making his debut on Broadway. His name was Paul Newman. Many of Inge’s works are set in the American heartland and so he became known as the “Playwright of the Midwest”.

62A Sweater fuzz : LINT

Until the early 1880s, the word “sweater” applied to clothing worn specifically for weight reduction by “sweating”.

64A Condition affecting focus, briefly : ADHD

The “official” name for the condition we sometimes still refer to as “attention deficit disorder” (ADD) is “attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder” (ADHD).

Down

1D Barcelona men : SENORS

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain, after the capital Madrid. It is also the largest European city that sits on the Mediterranean coast, and the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia.

3D Crop circle makers, supposedly : ALIENS

Don’t believe what you hear. Crop circles are hoaxes …

4D Island near Sicily : MALTA

The island state of Malta is relatively small (122 square miles), but its large number of inhabitants makes it one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. Malta’s strategic location has made it a prized possession for the conquering empires of the world. Most recently it was part of the British Empire and was an important fleet headquarters. Malta played a crucial role for the Allies during WWII as it was located very close to the Axis shipping lanes in the Mediterranean. The Siege of Malta lasted from 1940 to 1942, a prolonged attack by the Italians and Germans on the RAF and Royal Navy, and the people of Malta. When the siege was lifted, King George VI awarded the George Cross to the people of Malta collectively in recognition of their heroism and devotion to the Allied cause. The George Cross can still be seen on the Maltese flag, even though Britain granted Malta independence in 1964.

7D Clickable text : LINK

In essence, the World Wide Web (WWW) is a vast collection of documents that is accessible using the Internet, with each document containing hyperlinks that point to other documents in the collection. So the “Web” is different from the Internet, although the terms are often used interchangeably. The Web is a collection of documents, and the Internet is a global network of computers on which the documents reside. The Web was effectively the invention of British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. The key to Berner-Lee’s invention was bringing together two technologies that already existed: hypertext and the Internet. I, for one, am very grateful …

10D Inspiration for the DC Comics hero Green Arrow : ROBIN HOOD

Robin Hood is a figure from English folklore who is celebrated in story and song. Some stories suggest that Robin Hood the outlaw was actually a real nobleman, the Earl of Huntingdon. Robin Hood’s famous companion was Maid Marian. Interestingly, the legend of Maid Marian (full name Lady Marian of Leaford) had been around for centuries before she became associated with Robin Hood starting in the 1700s.

The Green Arrow is a superhero in the DC Comics universe. He dresses like Robin Hood and uses specially adapted arrows that give him his superpowers.

12D Barbie, e.g. : TOY

The famous Barbie doll was created by businesswoman Ruth Handler and first appeared on store shelves in 1959. Barbie was based on a German fashion doll called Bild Lilli that was introduced in 1955. Lilli had been a German cartoon character before taking on a three-dimensional form. Prior to the introduction of Bild Lilli and Barbie, children’s dolls were primarily representations of infants.

21D Scuttlebutt : RUMOR

Just as modern day office workers gather around the water cooler to gossip, on board a ship back in the early 1800s the sailors would gather around the water barrel on the deck to shoot the breeze. That water barrel was called a “scuttlebutt”, from “scuttle” (opening in a ship’s deck) and “butt” (barrel). Quite interesting …

30D Like Guinness : IRISH

Guinness is the most popular beer sold in Ireland. It is a stout and has that famous creamy white head, a result of mixing the beer with nitrogen as it is poured. You can also buy Guinness that has no nitrogen, which is sold in bottles bearing the name Guinness Export. This carbonated version of the beer has a very different taste, and is my personal favorite …

31D Crew team leader : COX

The coxswain of a boat is one in charge of steering and navigation. The word “coxswain” is often shortened to “cox”, particularly when used for the person steering and calling out the stroke in a competition rowing boat.

39D English county : SHIRE

The word “shire” comes from the Old English “scir” meaning “administrative district”. The term was replaced with “county” as far back as the 14th century, but the usage persists to this day. That is largely because some counties retain the use of “-shire” as a suffix (Yorkshire, Lancashire, etc.).

41D Eye affliction : STYE

A stye is a bacterial infection of the sebaceous glands at the base of the eyelashes, and is also known as a hordeolum.

45D “Jackpot!” : I’M RICH!

The term “jackpot” dates back to the 1800s and comes from the game of poker. In some variants there are progressive antes. This means that players have to ante up, add to the “pot”, when no player has a pair of “jacks” or better. They build a “jackpot”.

48D Archipelago units : ISLETS

“Archipelago” is our spelling of the Italian “arcipelago”, a word that has Greek roots. The Aegean Sea was once known as the Archipelago. The usage of “Archipelago” migrated over time, eventually applying only to the Aegean Islands. As a result, we use the term “archipelago” today not for a sea, but for a group or chain of islands.

53D __ bean : FAVA

The fava bean is also known as the broad bean. “Broad bean” is used “broadly” (pun!) in the UK, whereas “fava bean” is common in the US. “Fava” is the Italian name for the broad bean.

54D “Metamorphoses” poet : OVID

“Metamorphoses” is a narrative poem by Roman poet Ovid that deals with a lofty subject. It describes the history of the world from creation until the “present day”, that is Ovid’s “present day”, the era of Julius Caesar. A lot of the storyline makes use of Greek mythology (rather than Roman).

56D NYC ave. on the East Side : LEX

Lexington Avenue in New York City is famous for many things, but my favorite fact is that it was the site of the first ever arrest for speeding in the city. In 1899 a police officer on a bicycle caught up with a cab driver who was tearing down Lexington Avenue, at the breakneck speed of 12mph …

57D Sushi option : AHI

Ahi tuna is also known as yellowfin tuna and is a popular fish for sushi and sashimi. However, due to overfishing, ahi tuna populations are at risk.