LA Times Crossword Answers 3 Aug 14, Sunday

Frequently Asked Question: Why isn’t the puzzle in my paper the same as the one shown on your blog?
If the puzzle in your paper doesn’t match the one that I solved, it is probably a Sunday crossword. On Sundays, the “LA Times” chooses to publish Merl Reagle’s excellent crossword, and not their own “LA Times” Crossword. The “LA Times” puzzle is still sent out in syndication, and is also published in the “LA Times” online. I’ve been asked to blog about Merl Reagle’s crossword, but frankly I don’t have the time. Sunday puzzles have lots of clues!

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CROSSWORD SETTER: Amy Johnson
THEME: Kiddie Lit … today’s themed answers are the titles of famous books for adults, with a word added that seems to change the genre to children’s literature:

23A. Tolstoy tale of child’s play? THUMB WAR AND PEACE (“thumb war” & “War and Peace”)
36A. Carson tale of well-behaved classroom clock watchers? SILENT SPRING FEVER (“Silent Spring” & “spring fever”)
54A. Dickens tale of math woes? HARD TIMES TABLES (“Hard Times” & “times table”)
75A. Palahniuk tale of a rowdy slumber party society? PILLOW FIGHT CLUB (“pillow fight” & “Fight Club”)
89A. Orwell tale of Beanie Baby breeding? STUFFED ANIMAL FARM (“stuffed animal” & “Animal Farm”)
108A. Updike tale of an idle cereal mascot? TRIX RABBIT AT REST (“Trix rabbit” & “Rabbit at Rest”)

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 24m 22s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

1. Beijing Zoo attraction PANDA
Taxonomic classification of the giant panda has been a subject of great debate for years, the main question being whether it belongs to the bear or raccoon family. The accepted opinion these days, based on molecular studies, seems to be that the panda is in fact a true bear.

11. Spreadsheet figures DATA
Our word “data” (singular “datum”) comes from the Latin “datum” meaning “given”. The idea is that data are “things given”.

19. TWA competitor USAIR
From 1953, what today is US Airways was called Allegheny Airlines. In the seventies, customers became very dissatisfied with the company’s service levels as it struggled to manage a rapid expansion in its number of flights. These problems earned the airline the nickname “Agony Air”. Allegheny tried to leave the “agony” behind in 1979 and changed its name to USAir. In 1997 the name was changed again, to US Airways. US Airways merged with American Airlines in 2013, and the “US Airways” brand name will gradually be replaced with “American Airlines”.

20. Cowboy’s rope RIATA
“Reata” is the Spanish word for “lasso”. We tend to use the spelling “riata” in English, but sometimes can use the original Spanish word.

21. Baylor, for one: Abbr. UNIV
Remember Ken Starr of Whitewater fame? Starr is now President of Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

23. Tolstoy tale of child’s play? THUMB WAR AND PEACE (“thumb war” & “War and Peace”)
A thumb war (also “thumb wrestling”) is a kid’s in which two players grasp each other’s hand, with thumbs pointing upwards. At the “go”, each competitor tries to pin his or her opponent’s thumb with their own.

I have to confess that I have tried to read Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” twice in my life, and failed both times (it is l-o-n-g). Even though the 1956 movie adaptation runs for 3 1/2 hours, it’s still the easy way out! The film version stars Audrey Hepburn as Natasha Rostova and Henry Fonda as Count Pierre Bezukhov.

26. Robert De __ NIRO
Robert De Niro is noted for his longtime and highly successful collaboration with the director Martin Scorsese. He is also noted for his commitment as a method actor. Famously he gained a full 60 pounds in order to play Jake Lamotta in the 1980 movie “Raging Bull”.

27. Giga- x 1,000 TERA-
The prefix tera- signifies a trillion and comes from the Greek word “teras” meaning “monster”.

The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, so a gigabyte is 1,000,000,000 bytes.

28. St. Laurent of fashion YVES
Yves Saint-Laurent was a French fashion designer, actually born in Algeria. Saint-Laurent started off working as an assistant to Christian Dior at the age of 17. Dior died just four years later, and as a very young man Saint-Laurent was named head of the House of Dior. However, in 1950 Saint-Laurent was conscripted into the French Army and ended up in a military hospital after suffering a mental breakdown from the hazing inflicted on him by his fellow soldiers. His treatment included electroshock therapy and administration of sedatives and psychoactive drugs. He was released from prison, managed to pull his life back together and started his own fashion house. A remarkable story …

29. Upper-bod muscle DELT
The deltoid muscle (“delt”) is actually a group of muscles, the ones that cover the shoulder and create the roundness under the skin. The deltoids are triangular in shape resembling the Greek letter delta, hence the name.

30. Hit song of 1950 RAG MOP
“Rag Mop” was a number-one hit in 1950 for the Ames Brothers.

The Ames Brothers were a singing quartet who were active in the 1950s. The “brothers” (actually three brothers and a cousin) started out as an act called the Amory Brothers. After the quartet disbanded in 1961, Ed Ames went on to have a successful solo singing career, and became a familiar television actor. Ed played “Mingo”, the sidekick to the title character on “Daniel Boone” that ran in the sixties.

34. Like Death Valley SERE
Death Valley is a spectacular desert valley in California that is part of the Mojave Desert. Badwater Basin in Death Valley is lowest point in North America, sitting at 282 feet below sea level. Remarkably, Badwater Basin is located just 84 miles from Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States.

36. Carson tale of well-behaved classroom clock watchers? SILENT SPRING FEVER (“Silent Spring” & “spring fever”)
DDT is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (don’t forget now!). DDT was used with great success to control disease-carrying insects during WWII, and when made available for use after the war it became by far the most popular pesticide. And then Rachel Carson published her famous book “Silent Spring”, suggesting there was a link between DDT and diminishing populations of certain wildlife. It was the public outcry sparked by the book, and reports of links between DDT and cancer, that led to the ban on the use of the chemical in 1972. That ban is touted as the main reason that the bald eagle was rescued from near extinction.

46. Botanical coating ARIL
The casing surrounding many seeds is called the aril, and it may be quite fleshy. This fruit-like characteristic makes it desirable as a food and aids in the dispersion of the seeds.

47. “Fernando” band ABBA
I am an unapologetic fan of ABBA’s music. ABBA was of course the Swedish group who topped the charts in the seventies and eighties. The name ABBA is an acronym formed from the first letters of the given names of each of the band members: Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn and Anni-Frid. Early in their careers, the four fell in love and formed two married couples: Agnetha and Bjorn, and Benny and Anni-Frid. However, at the height of their success, the relationships became strained and both couples divorced.

50. Hoover and Mossyrock DAMS
When the magnificent Hoover Dam was completed in 1936 it was the largest hydroelectric plant in the world, as well as being the world’s largest concrete structure. The dam is named after Herbert Hoover for his role in having the dam built when he was Secretary of Commerce, and his later support as US President. When the dam was finally put into service in 1936, the project was two years ahead of schedule. Those were the days …

Mossyrock Dam is the highest dam in Washington State. It spans the Cowlitz River and creates a reservoir called Riffe Lake.

54. Dickens tale of math woes? HARD TIMES TABLES (“Hard Times” & “times table”)
“Hard Times” is a novel by Charles Dickens that was first published in 1854. Next to the other Dickens’ novels, “Hard Times” stands out as the shortest (by far) and as the only one not set in London, but rather in the fictional Coketown in the industrial north of the England.

58. Drink that lost the second part of its name in 1961 PEPSI
The soft drink that we know as Pepsi was introduced in 1893 as Brad’s Drink. It was renamed to Pepsi-Cola in 1898, which was shortened to Pepsi in 1961.

The Pepsi-Cola formulation was developed by one Caleb Bradham who made the drink at home and sold it as “Brad’s Drink”. Bradham’s aim was to provide a drink that was pleasant to taste, that would aid digestion and boost energy. Included in the formula were pepsin (a digestive enzyme) and kola nuts. These two ingredients inspired the brand name we use today: Pepsi-Cola.

60. Israel’s Iron Lady MEIR
Golda Meir was known as the “Iron Lady” when she was Prime Minister of Israel, long before the term came to be associated with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Golda Meir was born Golda Mabovitch in Kiev (in modern-day Ukraine), and when she was a young girl she moved with her family to the United States and settled in Milwaukee. As a teenager she relocated to Denver where she met and married Morris Meyerson, at the age of 19. She and her husband joined a kibbutz in Palestine in 1921, when she was in her twenties. Meir had been active in politics in the US, and continued her political work in Palestine. She was very influential during WWII, and played a leading role in negotiations after the war leading to the setting up of the state of Israel. By the time she was called on to lead the country, Meir had already retired, citing exhaustion and ill health. But serve she did, and led Israel during turbulent times (e.g. the massacre at the Munich Olympics, and the Yom Kippur War). She eventually resigned in 1974, saying that was what the people wanted.

62. Diplomatic rep. AMB
Ambassador (amb.)

65. Evade SKIRT
Back in the 14th century, a “skirt” was the lower part of a woman’s dress, it’s lower border. This evolved over time into the usage that we know today. The verb “to skirt”, meaning to pass along the edge”, comes from the former meaning of the noun.

67. 1921 sci-fi play RUR
Karel Čapek was a Czech writer noted for his works of science fiction. Čapek’s 1920 play “R.U.R.” is remembered in part for introducing the world to the word “robot”. The words “automaton” and “android” were already in use, but Capek gave us “robot” from the original Czech “robota” meaning “forced labor”. The acronym “R.U.R.”, in the context of the play, stands for “Rossum’s Universal Robots”.

71. Earth has one MOON
The Moon is the Earth’s natural satellite. Although there are several theories, it is generally accepted that the Moon formed not long after the Earth, about 4.5 billion years ago. It is also generally accepted that the Moon was formed from the debris after the Earth impacted with a body the size of Mars.

74. These, in Juarez ESTAS
The Mexican city sitting across the border from El Paso is more correctly called Ciudad Juarez. Juarez used to be called El Paso del Norte (the North Pass). It was to be the younger settlement on the northern side of the Rio Grande which would retain the “El Paso” name.

75. Palahniuk tale of a rowdy slumber party society? PILLOW FIGHT CLUB (“pillow fight” & “Fight Club”)
“Fight Club” is a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk about an insomniac who uses and underground fighting club as psychotherapy for his sleeping disorder. Palahniuk’s novel was adapted into a famous 1999 movie starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton.

80. Half a fish MAHI
Mahi-mahi is the Hawaiian name for the dolphin-fish, an ugly looking creature if ever I saw one …

81. Welles of “War of the Worlds” ORSON
Orson Welles starred in and directed 1938’s famous radio play “The War of the Worlds”. This adaptation of the H. G. Wells science-fiction novel included several apparent news broadcasts that reported the effects of an alien invasion. Many people who heard the broadcasts didn’t realise that they were part of a play. It is estimated that of 6 million people who tuned it, 1.2 million listeners were genuinely frightened by what they were hearing.

82. “Return of the Jedi” dancer OOLA
Oola was a slave-girl dancer who was eaten by a scary creature in the movie “Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the the Jedi”. Oola was played by British actor Femi Taylor.

83. Apollo landers, briefly LEMS
In the Apollo program, the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) was the vehicle that actually landed on the moon and returned the astronauts to the command module that was orbiting overhead. The third LEM built was named “Spider”, and it participated in the Apollo 9 mission which tested the functionality of the LEM design in space. The fourth LEM was called “Snoopy” and it flew around the moon in the Apollo 10 mission, the dress rehearsal for the upcoming moon landing. Apollo 11’s LEM was of course called “Eagle” and it brought Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to and from the moon’s surface. Another famous LEM was Apollo 13’s Aquarius. Although Aquarius never landed on the moon, it did serve as a “lifeboat” for the three astronauts after the explosive rupture of an oxygen canister in the Service Module.

86. Samoan capital APIA
Apia is the capital city, and in fact the only city, of the Pacific island-nation of Samoa. The harbor of Apia is famous for a very foolish incident in 1889 involving seven naval vessels from Germany, the US and Britain. A typhoon was approaching so the safest thing to do was to head for open water away from land, but no nation would move its ships for fear of losing face in front of the others. Six of the ships were lost in the typhoon as a result and 200 American and German sailors perished. The British cruiser HMS Calliope barely managed to escape from the harbor and rode out the storm safely.

89. Orwell tale of Beanie Baby breeding? STUFFED ANIMAL FARM (“stuffed animal” & “Animal Farm”)
“Animal Farm” is the 1945 novella written by George Orwell, a satire of life in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. Orwell had trouble getting his novel published in his homeland of the UK during WWII, as anti-Soviet literature wasn’t a good thing to publish while the UK and USSR were on the same side of a World War. In fact, one publisher who was willing to distribute the book changed his mind after being warned off by the British Ministry of Information. Given his experiences, I find it interesting that Orwell should write “Nineteen Eighty-Four” a few years later, and introduce the world to Big Brother.

There were originally just nine Beanie Babies when Ty Warner introduced the stuffed animal in 1993. In the late nineties the toy became a real fad, largely due to innovative marketing techniques. For example, there was no mass marketing with constant TV ads, and the production volume was limited pushing the line into the realm of collectibles. Beanie Baby models were also “retired” on a regular basis, fueling a “must have” behavior in the market.

95. Oregon coastal city ASTORIA
The city of Astoria, Oregon was started out as Fort Astoria in 1810. Fort Astoria was a fur-trading post built by John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company, hence the “Astoria” name.

96. Late notice? OBIT
“Obituary” comes from the Latin “obituaris”, originally the record of the death of a person, although the literal meaning is “pertaining to death”.

97. Berlin School psychological theory GESTALT
Gestalt is a German word meaning “shape”. The principles of gestaltism were developed in Germany in the early 1900s. One of the main tenets is that “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”.

102. Excitable cell NEURON
There are several types of neuron (brain cell), including unipolar, bipolar and multipolar neurons. Multipolar neurons can connect with several other neurons, allowing for efficient integration of information from many sources. Most of the brain’s neurons are multipolar.

103. Billionaire bank founder Andy BEAL
Andy Beal is a businessman and investor who founded Beal Bank in 1988. Poker fans might also know Beal as one of the more successful players who appears on television from time to time. In 2004 at the Bellagio, he won a single had worth almost $12 million.

104. Latin trio member AMAT
“Amo, amas, amat: … “I love, you love, he/she/it loves”, in Latin.

106. Wind in a pit OBOE
The oboe is perhaps my favorite of the reed instruments. The name “oboe” comes from the French “hautbois” which means “high wood”. When you hear an orchestra tuning before a performance you’ll note (pun intended!) that the oboe starts off the process by playing an “A”. The rest of the musicians in turn tune to that oboe’s “A”.

108. Updike tale of an idle cereal mascot? TRIX RABBIT AT REST (“Trix rabbit” & “Rabbit at Rest”)
The 1960 novel by John Updike called “Rabbit Run” tells the story of Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom as he tries to escape from his constraining, middle-class life. “Rabbit Run” is the first in a series of novels from Updike that feature the “Rabbit” character, the others being:

– “Rabbit Redux”
– “Rabbit is Rich”
– “Rabbit at Rest”
– “Rabbit Remembered”

Trix is a corn-based breakfast cereal that has been around since 1954, produced by General Mills. Ads for the cereal featured Trix Rabbit, who would try hard to get hold of bowls of the cereal. He would always get caught though, and be admonished with, “Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!” With 46% sugar content, the rabbit probably wouldn’t have liked it anyway …

112. Employee IDs SSNS
Social Security number (SSN)

113. Actor Morales ESAI
Esai Morales is best known for his role in the 1987 movie “La Bamba”, which depicted the life of Ritchie Valens and his half-brother Bob Morales (played by Esai).

114. What a white flag may mean TRUCE
The use of a white flag is recognized as a request for a ceasefire or negotiation. As it is usually the weaker party who wants to initiate negotiation, it is also seen as a sign of surrender.

117. “Father of the American Cartoon” NAST
Thomas Nast was an American caricaturist and cartoonist. Nast was the creator of the Republican Party elephant, the Democratic Party’s donkey, Uncle Sam and the image of the plump and jocular Santa Claus that we use today. Thomas Nast drew some famous cartoons in which he depicted the Tammany Society as a vicious tiger that was killing democracy. Nast’s use of the tiger symbology caught on and was used by other cartoonists to harp at the society.

118. “Symphony in Black” et al. ERTES
Erté was the pseudonym of French artist (Russian born) Romain de Tirtoff. Erté is the French pronunciation of his initials “R.T.”

119. “The Gondoliers” bride TESSA
“The Gondoliers” is a delightful operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan, first performed in 1889 at the Savoy Theatre in London. Tessa is a maiden selected as a bride in a “line up” by one of the gondoliers. I last saw “The Gondoliers” decades ago, an amateur production in the small town where I was living at the time in Ireland. Great fun!

Down
2. Like Dracula’s visage ASHEN
“Dracula” is a novel written by the Irish author Bram Stoker and first published in 1897. Dracula wasn’t the first vampire of literature, but he certainly was the one who spawned the popularity of vampires in theater, film and television, and indeed more novels. Personally, I can’t stand vampire fiction …

3. Tiny republic formerly called Pleasant Island NAURU
Nauru is the world’s smallest island nation, located in the South Pacific 300 km to the east of Kiribati. The island was taken as a colony by Germany in the late 1800s, and came under the administration of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom after WWI. The Japanese invaded during WWII, but Nauru was one of the islands that was bypassed in the US advance across the Pacific towards Japan. Nauru achieved independence in 1968.

4. Yankee legend, familiarly DIMAG
Joe DiMaggio was born not too far from here, in Martinez, California, the son of Italian immigrants. The family moved to San Francisco when Joltin’ Joe was just a baby. Joe’s Dad was a fisherman, and it was his hope that all his sons would follow him into his trade. But Joe always felt sick at the smell of fish, so fishing’s loss was baseball’s gain.

5. Wall St. trader ARB
“Arb” is short for an arbitrageur, one who profits from the purchase of securities in one market and the subsequent sale in another, hence taking advantage of price discrepancies across markets.

7. Old Bologna bread LIRE
The word “lira” is used in a number of countries for currency. “Lira” comes from the Latin for “pound” and is derived from a British pound sterling, the value of a Troy pound of silver. For example, the lira (plural “lire”) was the official currency of Italy before the country changed over to the euro in 2002.

Bologna is a city in northern Italy. The city is home to the University of Bologna that was founded way back in 1088. The University of Bologna is the oldest existing university in the world.

8. Wiimote inserts AAAS
“Wiimote” is an alternative name for the Wii Remote, the controller for the Nintendo Wii gaming console.

9. Stop: Abbr. STN
Station (stn.)

16. “The Robots of Dawn” author ASIMOV
Isaac Asimov was a wonderful science fiction writer, and a professor of biochemistry. He was a favorite author as I was growing up and I must admit that some hero worship on my part led me to study and work as a biochemist for a short while early in my career. My favorite of his works is the collection of short stories called “I, Robot”, although Asimov’s most famous work is probably his “Foundation” trilogy of novels.

17. Disco light STROBE
Discotheques first appeared during WWII in Occupied France. American-style music (like jazz and jitterbug dances) was banned by the Nazis, so French natives met in underground clubs that they called discotheques where records were often played on just a single turntable. After the war, these clubs came out into the open. One famous Paris discotheque was called “Whiskey a Gogo”. In that Paris disco, non-stop music was played using two turntables next to a dance-floor, and this concept spread around the world.

18. “Sesame Street” store owner HOOPER
Mr. Hooper’s Store on “Sesame Street” is currently owned by a character called Alan. Alan is played by actor Alan Muraoka.

24. Poet Elinor WYLIE
Elinor Wylie was an American poet and novelist who was active in the twenties and thirties.

25. Cop’s quarry PERP
Perpetrator (perp.)

31. Lab greetings ARFS
The Labrador (Lab) breed of dog has been around at least since 1814, and the chocolate Labrador appeared over a century later in the 1930s.

33. Prime meridian std. GST
GST is Greenwich Sidereal Time.

Astronomers use sidereal time to know where to locate given stars in the night sky. Sidereal time is a time scale that takes into account the Earth’s rotation relative to stars with a fixed location in the night sky.

A meridian is a line of longitude, and the Prime Meridian is that line of longitude defined as 0 degrees. The Prime Meridian is also called the Greenwich Meridian as it passes through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich in southeast London. Of course the line of longitude that is used to represent 0 degrees is an arbitrary decision. 25 nations formally decided in 1884 to use the Greenwich Meridian as 0 degrees as it was already a popular choice. That is all except the French, who abstained from the vote and used the Paris Meridian as 0 degrees on French charts for several decades.

34. Source of brown fur STOAT
Ermine is another name for the stoat. The stoat has dark brown fur in the summer, and white fur in the winter. Sometimes the term “ermine” is reserved for the animal during the winter when the fur is white. Ermine skins have long been prized by royalty and are often used for white trim on ceremonial robes.

35. Carbon compounds ENOLS
An enol is an alkene with a hydroxyl group, sort of part-alkene and part-alcohol. The term “enol” therefore, is a portmanteau of “alkene” and “alcohol”.

38. Noggins NOBS
The slang term “nob” has been used for “head” for over 300 years, and is a variant of “knob”.

40. Code word DAH
Samuel Morse was a very accomplished and reputable painter (he was engaged to paint a portrait of President John Adams, for example). In 1825 Morse was in Washington working on a commissioned painting when he received a one-line letter by horse messenger telling him that his wife was ill. He left immediately for his home in New Haven, Connecticut but by the time that Morse arrived his wife had already died and had been buried. This single event spurred him to move from painting to the development of a rapid means of long distance communication, leading to the single-wire telegraph and Morse code.

43. “The Aviator” Oscar nominee ALDA
Alan Alda had a great television career, especially of course on “M*A*S*H”. Alda won his first Emmy in 1972, for playing Hawkeye Pierce on “M*A*S*H”. He won his most recent Emmy in 2006 for his portrayal of Presidential candidate Arnold Vinick in “The West Wing”. When it comes to the big screen, my favorite of Alda’s movies is the 1978 romantic comedy “Same Time, Next Year” in which he starred opposite Ellen Burstyn.

“The Aviator” is a great film from 2004, a biographical piece about much of the life of aviation pioneer Howard Hughes. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the title role, with Cate Blanchett playing a very credible Katharine Hepburn, Hughes’ lover with whom he lived for quite some time. Blanchett won a very much deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. Alan Alda received an Oscar nomination as a supporting actor, playing Senator Owen Brewster, a thorn in the side for Howard Hughes.

47. Skunk River city AMES
The city of Ames, Iowa is famous for holding the Ames Straw Poll in advance of most presidential elections. The poll in question is used to gauge the level of support for two or more Republican candidates, although non-Republicans are allowed to cast a vote. To vote one has to be an Iowa resident and one must buy a ticket to the fundraising dinner at which the vote is taken. The event gets a lot of coverage, so it boosts the local economy as journalists hit the town. It is a very successful fundraiser for the Republican Party in Iowa as well, but the usefulness of the straw poll in predicting the eventual winner of the nomination is less clear. There have been five straw polls since 1979, and just 2 out of 5 times the poll winner went on to capture the party’s nomination.

48. Highway breaker? CBER
A CBer is someone who operates a Citizens’ Band radio. In 1945, the FCC set aside certain radio frequencies for the personal use of citizens. The use of the Citizens’ Band increased throughout the seventies as advances in electronics brought down the size of transceivers and their cost. There aren’t many CB radios sold these days though, as they have largely been replaced by cell phones.

52. PC processing unit MSEC
A millisecond is one thousandth of a second, and is often abbreviated to “msec”. However, the more correct abbreviation for millisecond is “ms”.

55. Races with sulkies TROTS
A “sulky” is a very light cart used in harness racing. The same term is used for a cart pulled by dogs. The cart gets its name because it takes only one driver, so perhaps that driver is “sulking”. Cute …

57. PABA part AMINO-
Para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), or now its derivatives, is the “active” ingredient in sunscreens in that it absorbs UV radiation. PABA derivatives are used today as PABA itself fell out of favor due to its tendency to stain clothes and to cause an allergic reaction in some users.

58. Texarkana-born ’90s candidate PEROT
Henry Ross Perot graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1953, as president of his class. Ross Perot served his 4-year commitment but then resigned his commission, apparently having become somewhat disillusioned with the navy. He was ranked number 101 on the Forbes 400 List of Richest Americans in 2012, and at that time was worth about $3.5 billion.

Texarkana is the name given to the twin cities of Texarkana, Texas and Texarkana, Arkansas that sit either side of the state line between Texas and Arkansas. The name of “Texarkana” was given when the settlement was founded at the junction of two railroads in 1873. Back then, it was believed that the new city would be not only on the borders of Texas (TEX) and Arkansas (ARK) but also on the border of Louisiana (ANA), giving the city its name. The Louisiana state line was eventually set about 30 miles away, but the -ANA suffix was retained.

61. Julia’s “Notting Hill” co-star HUGH
The English actor Hugh Grant’s full name is Hugh John Mungo Grant. Grant’s breakthrough came with his leading role in 1994’s “Four Weddings and a Funeral”. That was a fabulous performance. Sadly, I think Grant has basically been playing the same character ever since …

The Hollywood actress Julia Roberts is from Smyrna, Georgia. Roberts got her big break after starring opposite Richard Gere in the hit 1990 romantic comedy “Pretty Woman”. She was paid $300,000 for her performance in “Pretty Woman”, a little less than the $25 million paycheck she was to earn for appearing in 2003’s “Mona Lisa Smile”. Roberts was married for a couple of years to country singer Lyle Lovett, and her older brother is actor Eric Roberts.

63. Phoenix suburb MESA
The city of Mesa, Arizona is in effect a suburb of Phoenix. The original settlement of non-Native Americans was founded by Daniel Webster Jones who led a Mormon group from St. George, Utah. The settlement was first called Jonesville, then Fort Utah and eventually Lehi. A second group of Mormons arrived and formed a settlement on top of a nearby mesa. It was this use of a mesa that eventually gave the city its current name.

66. City on the Rhein KOLN
Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany, and is known as “Köln” in German.

67. Latvia’s most populous city RIGA
Riga is the capital city of Latvia. The historical center of Riga is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, declared as such because of the city’s magnificent examples of Art Nouveau architecture.

72. Rice style PILAF
“Pilaf” is a Persian word, and we use it to describe rice that is browned in oil and then cooked in a seasoned broth.

73. Jim Morrison’s alma mater UCLA
Jim Morrison was the lead singer for the Doors. Famously, Morrison died at only 27 years of age in Paris. It is thought that his dependence on hard drugs contributed to his demise, although this is disputed. Morrison’s grave site is one of the most-visited attractions in Paris. Morrison was also known as “Mr. Mojo Risin'”, which is an anagram of “Jim Morrison”. “Mr. Mojo Risin’” is also a repeated lyric in the Doors hit “L.A. Woman”.

75. The Devil’s label? PRADA
“The Devil Wears Prada” is a 2003 novel by Lauren Weisberger that is set in the fashion industry. One of the main characters in the story is Miranda Priestly, the tyrannical editor-in-chief of the the fictional fashion magazine “Runway”. It has been suggested that the Priestly character was inspired by Anna Wintour, the real life editor-in-chief of “Vogue”.

76. Tom of “The Dukes of Hazzard” WOPAT
Tom Wopat is the actor who played Luke Duke on the television series “The Dukes of Hazzard”. Wopat also played one of Cybill Shepherd’s exes on the nineties sitcom “Cybill”. More recently, he had a small part in Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained”, playing US Marshal Gil Tatum.

77. Straight man FOIL
A “foil” is a person who enhances another by providing contrast, as in a “straight man” to a comic. This usage of “foil” comes from the practice of placing a metal foil at the back of a gem to make it shine more brightly.

79. Undergrad degs. BSS
My first degree was a bachelor’s in science. As it was awarded in Ireland I have the letters B.Sc. after my name, whereas it would have been B.S. had I earned the degree in the US.

87. Actress Scacchi GRETA
Greta Scacchi is an actress from Italy who now lives in Australia. Scacchi is popular on the European movie circuit as she is fluent in English, German , French and Italian.

88. Condo divs. RMS
Every condominium (condo) has rooms (rms.)

The words “condominium” and “apartment” tend to describe the one type of residential property, a private living space with facilities shared with others residing in the same building or complex. The difference is that a condominium is usually owned, and an apartment is rented. At least that’s how it is in the US. The word “condominium” comes from the Latin “com” (together) and “dominum” (right of ownership).

89. Having the most marbles SANEST
To have one’s “marbles” is to have one’s mental faculties, to have common sense. The term is American slang dating back to the 1920s.

90. Sub-Saharan menace TSETSE
Tsetse flies live on the blood of vertebrate mammals. The name “tsetse” comes from Tswana, a language of southern Africa, and translates simply as “fly”. Tsetse flies are famous for being carriers of the disease known as “sleeping sickness”. Sleeping sickness is caused by a parasite which is passed onto humans when the tsetse fly bites into human skin tissue. If one considers all the diseases transmitted by the insect, then the tsetse fly is responsible for a staggering quarter of a million deaths each year.

94. Shooting marbles AGATES
A playing marble made from agate, or a glass imitation, is called an agate. The agate leads to the marble having a banded appearance.

98. Dessert cart goodie TORTE
A torte is a type of cake made primarily with eggs, sugar and ground nuts (but no flour).

99. Drives the getaway car for ABETS
The word “abet” comes into English from the Old French “abeter” meaning “to bait” or “to harass with dogs” (it literally means “to make bite”). This sense of encouraging something bad to happen morphed into our modern usage of “abet” meaning to aid or encourage someone in a crime.

101. Aquarium swimmer TETRA
The neon tetra is a freshwater fish, native to parts of South America. The tetra is a very popular aquarium fish and millions are imported into the US every year. Almost all of the imported tetras are farm-raised in Asia and very few come from their native continent.

105. Mickey and Minnie MICE
Minnie and Mickey were both introduced to the world in 1928. Minnie was originally known as Minerva, and sometimes still is.

109. Pres. Mandela’s land RSA
Republic of South Africa (RSA)

As a young man, Nelson Mandela led the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). Mandela was eventually arrested and admitted to charges of sabotage and was sentenced to life in prison in 1964. He remained behind bars for 27 years, mainly in the infamous prison on Robben Island. As the years progressed, Mandela became a symbol of the fight against apartheid. He was released in 1990, and immediately declared his commitment to peace and reconciliation with South Africa’s white minority population. Mandela was elected president of the Republic of South Africa (RSA) in 1994, an office that he held until 1999. Nelson Mandela passed away on December 5, 2013.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Beijing Zoo attraction PANDA
6. It’s often seen in sheets GLASS
11. Spreadsheet figures DATA
15. Foolhardy RASH
19. TWA competitor USAIR
20. Cowboy’s rope RIATA
21. Baylor, for one: Abbr. UNIV
22. Analogy words IS TO
23. Tolstoy tale of child’s play? THUMB WAR AND PEACE (“thumb war” & “War and Peace”)
26. Robert De __ NIRO
27. Giga- x 1,000 TERA-
28. St. Laurent of fashion YVES
29. Upper-bod muscle DELT
30. Hit song of 1950 RAG MOP
32. Get cozy SNUGGLE
34. Like Death Valley SERE
35. Stud site EARLOBE
36. Carson tale of well-behaved classroom clock watchers? SILENT SPRING FEVER (“Silent Spring” & “spring fever”)
40. Certain school team activity DEBATE
44. Kick BOOT
45. __ double take DOES A
46. Botanical coating ARIL
47. “Fernando” band ABBA
48. Matches at the poker table CALLS
50. Hoover and Mossyrock DAMS
54. Dickens tale of math woes? HARD TIMES TABLES (“Hard Times” & “times table”)
58. Drink that lost the second part of its name in 1961 PEPSI
59. Mended, in a way DARNED
60. Israel’s Iron Lady MEIR
61. War movie staples HEROES
62. Diplomatic rep. AMB
64. Nods, say OKS
65. Evade SKIRT
67. 1921 sci-fi play RUR
68. Biol. or chem. SCI
69. Artichoke servings HEARTS
71. Earth has one MOON
72. Overdo the buffet, say PIG OUT
74. These, in Juarez ESTAS
75. Palahniuk tale of a rowdy slumber party society? PILLOW FIGHT CLUB (“pillow fight” & “Fight Club”)
80. Half a fish MAHI
81. Welles of “War of the Worlds” ORSON
82. “Return of the Jedi” dancer OOLA
83. Apollo landers, briefly LEMS
84. Grannies NANAS
86. Samoan capital APIA
87. Gets GRASPS
89. Orwell tale of Beanie Baby breeding? STUFFED ANIMAL FARM (“stuffed animal” & “Animal Farm”)
95. Oregon coastal city ASTORIA
96. Late notice? OBIT
97. Berlin School psychological theory GESTALT
102. Excitable cell NEURON
103. Billionaire bank founder Andy BEAL
104. Latin trio member AMAT
106. Wind in a pit OBOE
107. Parisian’s “to be” ETRE
108. Updike tale of an idle cereal mascot? TRIX RABBIT AT REST (“Trix rabbit” & “Rabbit at Rest”)
112. Employee IDs SSNS
113. Actor Morales ESAI
114. What a white flag may mean TRUCE
115. Complete UTTER
116. __ drive TEST
117. “Father of the American Cartoon” NAST
118. “Symphony in Black” et al. ERTES
119. “The Gondoliers” bride TESSA

Down
1. Forgoes the gimme PUTTS
2. Like Dracula’s visage ASHEN
3. Tiny republic formerly called Pleasant Island NAURU
4. Yankee legend, familiarly DIMAG
5. Wall St. trader ARB
6. Fish tank flooring GRAVEL
7. Old Bologna bread LIRE
8. Wiimote inserts AAAS
9. Stop: Abbr. STN
10. Most mournful SADDEST
11. One with a second DUELER
12. Med sch. subject ANAT
13. Poker game tell, maybe TIC
14. Batting figures AVERAGES
15. Mastermind RINGLEADER
16. “The Robots of Dawn” author ASIMOV
17. Disco light STROBE
18. “Sesame Street” store owner HOOPER
24. Poet Elinor WYLIE
25. Cop’s quarry PERP
31. Lab greetings ARFS
33. Prime meridian std. GST
34. Source of brown fur STOAT
35. Carbon compounds ENOLS
37. Receded EBBED
38. Noggins NOBS
39. Hardly a doer IDLER
40. Code word DAH
41. Timeline chapter ERA
42. Pool on a pedestal BIRDBATH
43. “The Aviator” Oscar nominee ALDA
47. Skunk River city AMES
48. Highway breaker? CBER
49. Came down ALIT
51. Last Supper attendees APOSTLES
52. PC processing unit MSEC
53. “Absolutely, amigo!” SI SI!
55. Races with sulkies TROTS
56. Tattoo parlor supplies INKS
57. PABA part AMINO-
58. Texarkana-born ’90s candidate PEROT
61. Julia’s “Notting Hill” co-star HUGH
62. “If I may butt in …” AHEM …
63. Phoenix suburb MESA
65. “Take it!” response, in a jazz club SOLO
66. City on the Rhein KOLN
67. Latvia’s most populous city RIGA
70. Rapidly shrinking ecosystem RAINFOREST
71. Didn’t __ beat MISS A
72. Rice style PILAF
73. Jim Morrison’s alma mater UCLA
75. The Devil’s label? PRADA
76. Tom of “The Dukes of Hazzard” WOPAT
77. Straight man FOIL
78. Base decision maker UMP
79. Undergrad degs. BSS
81. Not a great chance ONE IN TEN
85. Hendrix hairdo AFRO
86. Comment from one rushing in AM I LATE?
87. Actress Scacchi GRETA
88. Condo divs. RMS
89. Having the most marbles SANEST
90. Sub-Saharan menace TSETSE
91. Reversals U-TURNS
92. “You can’t get out this way” NO EXIT
93. Building beam I-BAR
94. Shooting marbles AGATES
98. Dessert cart goodie TORTE
99. Drives the getaway car for ABETS
100. Blows, perhaps LOSES
101. Aquarium swimmer TETRA
103. Predisposition BIAS
104. Be up against ABUT
105. Mickey and Minnie MICE
109. Pres. Mandela’s land RSA
110. Winter outburst? BRR!
111. “Shame on you!” TUT!

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