LA Times Crossword 3 Nov 18, Saturday

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Constructed by: Brian E. Paquin
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme: None

Bill’s time: 10m 02s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

11. You can only get one if you’re near home, briefly : RBI

Run batted in (RBI) … that would be baseball.

18. Fast period : LENT

In Latin, the Christian season that is now called “Lent” was termed “quadragesima” (meaning “fortieth”), a reference to the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert before beginning his public ministry. When the church began its move in the Middle Ages towards using the vernacular, the term “Lent” was introduced. “Lent” comes from “lenz”, the German word for “spring”.

21. Showing a ‘tude : SASSY

‘Tude (attitude)

27. Social media movement since 2017 : ME TOO

The use of the hashtag #MeToo was encouraged initially by actress Alyssa Milano in 2017 to draw attention to sexual assault and sexual harassment. Milano’s was acting in response to the growing number of allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein. The use of the phrase “Me Too” in the context of sexual misconduct dates back to 2006. Social activist Tarana Burke started to use the phrase on the Myspace social network after a 13-year-old girl told her that she had been sexually assaulted. Apparently, Burke had no response at the time the girl confided in her, but later wished she had responding, “Me too”.

31. Bat coating : PINE TAR

Pine tar is applied to the handles of baseball bats as it is a sticky substance and improves the batter’s grip. In a 1983 game, the Yankees manager Billy Martin protested a home run hit by George Brett of the Royals because the pine tar on his bat extended beyond the regulation 18 inches. The home run was later allowed as it was determined that the 18-inch rule was in place for economic reasons, and had nothing to do with competitive advantage. If pine tar gets on a baseball it renders it unusable for play, and baseballs cost money!

34. D12 comedy hip-hop song produced by Eminem : MY BAND

D12 was a hip hop group from Detroit that formed in 1995. The most famous member of the group was rap star Eminem. The name “D12” stood for “The Dirty Dozen”.

36. Like Dorothy’s slippers : RUBY RED

In the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz”, Dorothy arrives in the Land of Oz after her farmhouse is swept up in a cyclone. The farmhouse comes to ground and kills the Wicked Witch of the East. The Wicked Witch of the West arrives to claim the magical ruby slippers worn by the Wicked Witch Witch of the East. The Good Witch of the North steps in and gives the ruby slippers to Dorothy instead.

38. Oprah, at times : ACTRESS

Oprah Winfrey’s multimedia production company is known as Harpo Studios. “Harpo” is “Oprah” spelled backwards, and is also the name of the husband of the character who Winfrey played in the movie “The Color Purple”.

39. Linguine sauce : PESTO

The Italian term “pesto” applies to anything made by pounding. What we tend to know as pesto sauce is more properly called “pesto alla genovese”, pesto from Genoa in northern Italy. I love, love pesto sauce …

Linguine is a type of pasta that is similar to spaghetti, except that in cross-section linguine is elliptical whereas spaghetti is round. The correct name for the dish is “linguine” meaning “little tongues” in Italian. That said, the misspelling “linguini” is given in some dictionaries as an acceptable Americanized variant..

40. Non __ : GRATA

A persona non grata (plural “personae non gratae”) is someone who is not welcome. The phrase is Latin for “an unacceptable person”. The opposite phrase is “persona grata”, meaning “acceptable person”.

41. Largest USA steel producer : NUCOR

Nucor Corporation is the largest producer of steel in the US, bigger even than US Steel. Despite its size, Nucor doesn’t own one blast furnace. Instead, Nucor’s business was built on recycling steel using electric arc furnaces.

43. Subway gate : STILE

A stile is a structure allowing people to pass over or through a fence, while at the same time preventing livestock from escaping. The derivative term “turnstile” describes a revolving structure in a wall or fence that allows the controlled passage of people.

47. Foxglove : DIGITALIS

Foxgloves are a genus of plants with the biological name digitalis. The group of medicines known as digitalins are extracts from foxgloves and are used in the treatment of heart conditions.

51. Part of rock’s CSNY : NASH

Graham Nash is a singer-songwriter from England. Nash is famous as one of the founders of the Hollies, and as a member of the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.

The supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) is made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash. The band can grow to “CSNY” when the trio is joined by Neil Young. Fans have been known to call the act “C, S, N and sometimes Y”, a play on the expression that names all the vowels, “A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y”.

53. Corner piece : ROOK

The corner piece in the game of chess is called a “rook”, a word coming from the Persian “rokh” meaning a “chariot”. The rook has also been called, perhaps incorrectly, the castle, tower, marquess and rector.

57. Off-rd. transports : ATV

All-terrain vehicle (ATV)

59. Friend of Wyatt : BAT

Bat Masterson was a famous character in the Old West. In the latter part of his varied career, Masterson was a gunfighter and sheriff in Dodge City, before moving to New York City and working as a reporter and columnist. He also became good friends with President Theodore Roosevelt. There was a successful TV series titled “Bat Masterson” that aired in the late fifties and early sixties. Loosely based on Masterson’s life, the title role was played by Gene Barry.

Wyatt Earp is famous as one of the participants in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Earp was a city policeman in Wichita, Kansas and also in Dodge City, Kansas. Earp was also deputy sheriff in Tombstone, Arizona where the O.K. Corral gunfight took place. Years later, Earp joined the Alaska Gold Rush and with a partner built and operated the Dexter Saloon in Nome.

Down

1. JFK __ Airport : INTL

The Idlewild Golf Course was taken over by the city of New York in 1943 and construction started on a new airport to serve the metropolis and relieve congestion at LaGuardia. The Idlewild name still persists, even though the airport was named after Major General Alexander E. Anderson from the first days of the project. When the facility started operating in 1948 it was known as New York International Airport, Anderson Field. It was renamed to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in 1963, one month after the President was assassinated.

3. Big brand in appliances : AMANA

The Amana Corporation takes its name from the location of its original headquarters, in Middle Amana, Iowa. Today, the Amana name is very much associated with household appliances. The company was founded in 1934 to manufacture commercial walk-in coolers.

5. Morse character : DAH

Samuel Morse came up with the forerunner to modern Morse code for use on the electric telegraph, of which he was the co-inventor. Morse code uses a series of dots and dashes to represent letters and numbers. The most common letters are assigned the simplest code elements e.g. E is represented by one dot, and T is represented by one dash. When words are spelled aloud in Morse code, a dot is pronounced as “dit”, and a dash is pronounced as “dah”.

9. “Supernatural” co-star Jensen __ : ACKLES

Actor Jensen Ackles is known for playing Dean Winchester on the horror series “Supernatural”, Eric Brady on the soap opera “Days of Our Lives” and Jason Teague on “Smallville”.

“Supernatural” is a TV show that started airing in 2005. It’s all about two brothers hunting down demons, ghosts and monsters. Nope …

10. Electric car maker : TESLA

Tesla Motors is a manufacturer of electric vehicles based in Palo Alto, California. Tesla is noted for producing the first electric sports car, called the Tesla Roadster. The company followed the sports car with a luxury sedan, the Model S. The Model S was the world’s best selling plug-in electric vehicle of 2015.

11. Former security, for short : REPO

A vehicle might be considered a form of security, and so one that is repossessed (a repo) is a “former” security.

12. French flag couleur : BLEU

In French, the national flag of France is a tricolor comprising the “couleurs” (colors) “bleu, blanc et rouge” (blue, white and red).

20. Base kid : ARMY BRAT

An army brat is the child of an army professional.

22. Spend, often begrudgingly : SHELL OUT

One is said to shell out money when disbursing funds. The use of “shell out” is figurative, from the notion of extracting nuts from a shell.

23. Eastwood’s “Rawhide” role : YATES

The actor and director Clint Eastwood is a native of San Francisco, California. As many of us perhaps remember, Eastwood’s big break was playing the supporting role of Rowdy Yates in the TV show “Rawhide” in the late fifties and early sixties. He then became the face of the spaghetti western genre of movie in the sixties, most notably in the classic “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. In later years Eastwood has branched out into directing and producing with remarkable success. And of course in the late eighties he also served as mayor of his hometown, Carmel-by-the-Sea.

“Rawhide” was on the air from 1959-65. The most famous cast member was Clint Eastwood who played Rowdy Yates. The list of guest stars was also impressive. It included Mary Astor, Frankie Avalon, Charles Bronson, and even Frankie Laine. Laine sang the theme song, which was composed by Russian Dimitri Tiomkin.

26. Half an upwind sailing route : ZAG

“To tack” is a sailing term, one meaning “to veer into and through the wind in order change course”. After the maneuver is completed, the wind is coming over the opposite side of the vessel.

28. Sailors : TARS

A jack tar, or just “tar”, was a seaman in the days of the British Empire. The term probably arose due to a sailor’s various uses of tar back then, including waterproofing his clothes and using tar in his hair to slick down his ponytail.

30. Roulette choice : ODD

The term “roulette” means “little wheel” in French, and the game as we know it today did in fact originate in Paris, in 1796. A roulette wheel bears the numbers 1-36. A French entrepreneur called François Blanc introduced the number “0” on the wheel, to give the house an extra advantage. Legend has it that Blanc made a deal with the devil in order to unearth the secrets of roulette. The legend is supported by the fact that the numbers 1 through 36 add up to a total of “666”, which is the “Number of the Beast”. Spooky …

32. Eye part : IRIS

The iris is the colored part of the eye. It has an aperture in the center that can open or close depending on the level of light hitting the eye.

34. Their ancestry is often uncertain : MUTTS

The original use of the term “mutt” was for a foolish person, and was probably short for “muttonhead”. The usage evolved into today’s “mongrel dog”.

35. Data transfer initials : FTP

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a standard protocol used when transferring files between computers on a network.

36. Co. that introduced the 45-rpm record : RCA

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.

42. One eying a basket : CAGER

In the early days of basketball, when a ball went out of bounds possession was awarded to the player who first retrieved the ball. This led to mad scuffles off the court, often involving spectators. As the game became more organized courts were routinely “caged”, largely because of this out of bounds rule, to limit interaction with the crowd. It’s because of these cages that basketball players are sometimes referred to today as “cagers”.

44. Nonsensical : INANE

Our word “inane” meaning silly or lacking substance comes from the Latin “inanitis” meaning “empty space”.

45. Three-time Formula One World Drivers’ Champion Niki __ : LAUDA

Niki Lauda is a former Formula One driver from Austria. After his successful racing career, he moved into the world of aviation, founding and running two now-defunct airlines: Lauda Air and Niki. In 1976, Lauda was seriously injured in a crash during the German Grand Prix. His Ferrari burst into flames after he swerved off the track. Fellow drivers pulled Lauda from his flaming car, but not before he suffered severe burns to his head and inhaled toxic gases that damaged his lungs. Amazingly, Lauda returned only sixs weeks later to finish the season.

46. Sassafras foursome : ESSES

There are fours letters S (esses) in the word “sassafras”.

Sassafras is a genus of deciduous tree. Sassafras leaves are dried and ground to make filé powder, a spicy herb used in making some types of gumbo. An aromatic oil from the sassafras root and bark is the primary flavoring in root beer.

48. Very small bit : IOTA

Iota is the ninth letter in the Greek alphabet, and one that gave rise to our letters I and J. We use the word “iota” to portray something very small, as it is the smallest of all Greek letters.

52. Lamarr of early Hollywood : HEDY

Hedy Lamarr was an American actress who was actually born in Vienna in modern-day Austria. Not only was Lamarr a successful Hollywood performer, during WWII she was the co-inventor of the frequency-hopping spread-spectrum method of transmitting radio signals that is still used to this day in wireless communication. Impressive …

55. Anonymous seashore vendor? : SHE

She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore.
The shells she sells are sea-shells, I’m sure.
For if she sells sea-shells on the sea-shore
Then I’m sure she sells sea-shore shells.

56. Bachelor __ : PAD

Back in the 16th century a pad was a bundle of straw to lie on. “Pad” came to mean “place for sleeping” in the early 1700s. The term was revitalized in the hippie era.

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. “No problem” : I CAN DO THAT
11. You can only get one if you’re near home, briefly : RBI
14. “What are you asking?” : NAME A PRICE
15. Salon inventory : GELS
16. Taunts on the field : TRASH-TALKS
17. Doing business : OPEN
18. Fast period : LENT
19. Loiter : MILL ABOUT
21. Showing a ‘tude : SASSY
24. Emotional : TEARY
25. Confused conditions : HAZES
27. Social media movement since 2017 : ME TOO
31. Bat coating : PINE TAR
34. D12 comedy hip-hop song produced by Eminem : MY BAND
35. One of two raised when rearing : FORELEG
36. Like Dorothy’s slippers : RUBY RED
37. Tough situations : TRIALS
38. Oprah, at times : ACTRESS
39. Linguine sauce : PESTO
40. Non __ : GRATA
41. Largest USA steel producer : NUCOR
43. Subway gate : STILE
47. Foxglove : DIGITALIS
51. Part of rock’s CSNY : NASH
53. Corner piece : ROOK
54. Causes second thoughts : GIVES PAUSE
57. Off-rd. transports : ATV
58. Fair : EVEN-HANDED
59. Friend of Wyatt : BAT
60. Relaxed : RESTED EASY

Down

1. JFK __ Airport : INTL
2. Worries : CARES
3. Big brand in appliances : AMANA
4. Anthills and beehives, e.g. : NESTS
5. Morse character : DAH
6. Go (for) : OPT
7. Airport transport : TRAM
8. Attention-getting marker : HI-LITER
9. “Supernatural” co-star Jensen __ : ACKLES
10. Electric car maker : TESLA
11. Former security, for short : REPO
12. French flag couleur : BLEU
13. “__ that special?” : ISN’T
15. Depart, in totspeak : GO BYE-BYE
20. Base kid : ARMY BRAT
22. Spend, often begrudgingly : SHELL OUT
23. Eastwood’s “Rawhide” role : YATES
26. Half an upwind sailing route : ZAG
28. Sailors : TARS
29. People starter? : ONE’S
30. Roulette choice : ODD
31. Sweater outlet? : PORE
32. Eye part : IRIS
33. They’re constantly picking up : NEATNIKS
34. Their ancestry is often uncertain : MUTTS
35. Data transfer initials : FTP
36. Co. that introduced the 45-rpm record : RCA
38. Makes it : ARRIVES
40. Cut to a field reporter : GO LIVE
42. One eying a basket : CAGER
44. Nonsensical : INANE
45. Three-time Formula One World Drivers’ Champion Niki __ : LAUDA
46. Sassafras foursome : ESSES
47. Uninspiring : DRAB
48. Very small bit : IOTA
49. Type of agcy. : GOVT
50. Shipped : SENT
52. Lamarr of early Hollywood : HEDY
55. Anonymous seashore vendor? : SHE
56. Bachelor __ : PAD

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