LA Times Crossword 26 Apr 22, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Joseph A. Gangi
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): I Hear Lou Ended It

Themed answers each end with a “loo” sound:

  • 17A Was completely crushed by the competition : MET ONE’S WATERLOO
  • 39A Actress who played Joan Watson on “Elementary” : LUCY LIU
  • 61A Is hopelessly confused : DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE
  • 3D Catches a seasonal malady : GETS THE FLU
  • 32D Stuffed with ham and cheese : CORDON BLEU

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

Bill’s time: 6m 15s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

9 Suffers after a CrossFit workout, say : ACHES

CrossFit is a trademarked fitness, strength and conditioning program that was introduced in 2000.

17 Was completely crushed by the competition : MET ONE’S WATERLOO

Waterloo is a small municipality in Belgium. The name “Waterloo” originated with the Dutch and is probably an anglicization of a Dutch word meaning “wet clearing in a forest”. The town is famous for the Battle of Waterloo that took place nearby in 1815. Said battle was fought between the Imperial French army led by Emperor Napoleon, and an Anglo-Allied army led by Irish-born British Field Marshal, the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo led to his abdication and the restoration of King Louis XVIII to the throne of France. Bonaparte was exiled to the British-owned island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died in 1821. Such is the fame of the battle that the term “Waterloo” is used figuratively today for any decisive or crushing defeat.

20 Orzo and ziti : PASTAS

Orzo is pasta that has been formed into granular shapes, much like barley. And indeed, “orzo” is the Italian word for “barley”. Orzo is also called “risoni”, meaning “large rice”.

Cylindrical pasta is known in general as “penne”, and there are many variants. For example, ziti is a particularly large and long tube with square-cut ends. “Penne” is the plural of “penna”, the Italian for “feather, quill”.

24 __ soup: sushi bar bowlful : MISO

Miso is the name of the seasoning that makes miso soup. Basic miso seasoning is made by fermenting rice, barley and soybeans with salt and a fungus to produce a paste. The paste can be added to stock to make miso soup, or perhaps to flavor tofu.

28 “La La Land” Oscar winner Stone : EMMA

Actress Emma Stone is from Scottsdale, Arizona. Stone really came to prominence with her performance in the 2010 high school movie called “Easy A”. She won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in the 2016 movie “La La Land”. Now one of the most sought-after actresses in Hollywood, Stone values her privacy and works hard to maintain a low profile. Good for her, I say …

“La La Land” is a 2016 romantic musical film starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone as a musician and actress who fall in love in “La La Land” (Los Angeles, i.e. “LA”). The film was written and directed by Damien Chazelle, who had found success two years earlier with the musical drama “Whiplash”. “La La Land” won a record-breaking seven Golden Globes and tied the record number of Oscar nominations at fourteen, winning six.

31 Chocolaty drink : COCOA

The beverages hot cocoa and hot chocolate differ from each other in that the latter contains cocoa butter, whereas the former does not.

35 Before, in classic palindromes : ERE

The three most famous palindromes in English have to be:

  • Able was I ere I saw Elba
  • A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
  • Madam, I’m Adam

One of my favorite terms is “Aibohphobia”, although it doesn’t appear in the dictionary and is a joke term. “Aibohphobia” is a great way to describe a fear of palindromes, by creating a palindrome out of the suffix “-phobia”.

36 Continent with most of the world’s people : ASIA

Most of the world’s population lives in Asia (60%), and Asia is the largest continent in terms of landmass (30% of the world). Asia also has the highest population density (246 people per square mile), and the most populous city on the continent is Shanghai, China.

37 “Adios!” : SO LONG!

The term “adiós” is Spanish for “goodbye”. “Adiós” comes from the phrase “a Dios vos acomiendo” meaning “I commend you to God”.

38 Org. with bomb-sniffing dogs : ATF

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) today is part of the Department of Justice (DOJ). The ATF has its roots in the Department of Treasury dating back to 1886 when it was known as the Bureau of Prohibition. “Explosives” was added to the ATF’s name when the bureau was moved under the Department of Justice (DOJ) as part of the reorganization called for in the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

39 Actress who played Joan Watson on “Elementary” : LUCY LIU

Lucy Liu is an actress from Queens, New York. Liu’s big break came when she was chosen to play the Ling Woo character in “Ally McBeal”. I liked her in the 2000 film “Charlie’s Angels” but as I am no fan of Quentin Tarantino, I did not enjoy the movie “Kill Bill”. I do enjoy one of Liu’s more recent projects in which she plays Joan Watson, one of the two lead characters in the TV crime drama “Elementary”.

If you’ve seen the American television show “Elementary”, you will know that it is an adaptation of the classic tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that are set in the present day. “Elementary” is similar in look and feel to the excellent BBC series “Sherlock”, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a modern-day Holmes. We can pick up “Sherlock” in some parts of the country as part of “Masterpiece Mystery” on PBS.

41 __ de Janeiro : RIO

Rio de Janeiro is the second largest city in Brazil (after São Paulo). “Rio de Janeiro” translates as “January River”. The name reflects the discovery of the bay on which Rio sits, on New Year’s Day in 1502.

44 Asteroid formation : BELT

The vast majority of asteroids in the Solar System are found in the main asteroid belt, which is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Four large asteroids (Ceres, Vesta, Pallas and Hygeia) make up about half the mass of the asteroid belt and are 400-950 km in diameter. The total mass of the belt is just 4% of the mass of our Moon. The larger asteroids are also known as “planetoids”.

49 Number-picking bar game : KENO

The name of the game keno has French or Latin roots, with the French “quine” being a term for five winning numbers, and the Latin “quini” meaning “five each”. The game originated in China and was introduced into the West by Chinese immigrants who were working on the first Transcontinental Railroad in the 1800s.

56 “Maa” ma : EWE

An adult male sheep is a ram, although a castrated ram is known as a wether. An adult female is a ewe, and a young sheep is a lamb.

65 Yard sale caveat : AS IS

A caveat is a warning or a qualification. “Caveat” is the Latin for “let him beware”.

66 Queen of Mount Olympus : HERA

In Greek mythology, Hera was the wife of Zeus and the goddess of women, marriage, family and childbirth. She was noted for her jealous and vengeful nature, particularly against those who vied for the affections of her husband. The equivalent character to Hera in Roman mythology was Juno. Hera was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.

Mount Olympus is the highest peak in Greece. In Greek mythology, it was home to the gods, and in particular home to the principal gods known as the Twelve Olympians.

68 Golf pegs : TEES

A tee is a small device on which, say, a golf ball is placed before striking it. The term “tee” comes from the Scottish “teaz”, which described little heaps of sand used to elevate a golf ball for the purpose of getting a clean hit with a club.

69 Chinese currency : YUAN

Even though we generally refer to the currency of China as the “yuan”, the yuan is actually the basic unit of the “renminbi”. This is analogous to “sterling” being the official currency of the UK, with the “pound” being the basic unit of sterling.

Down

3 Catches a seasonal malady : GETS THE FLU

Influenza (the “flu”) is an ailment that is caused by a virus. The virus is readily inactivated by the use of soap, so washing hands and surfaces is especially helpful in containing flu outbreaks, and other virus pandemics …

4 Nova __ : SCOTIA

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia (NS) lies on the east coast of the country and is a peninsula surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. The area was settled by Scots starting in 1621, and Nova Scotia is Latin for “New Scotland”.

“Scotia” has been the Latin word for “Scotland” since the Middle Ages, and is sometimes used in poetry as the name for the country. Paradoxically, the Ancient Romans used the name “Scotia” for the island of Ireland. The meaning mutated over the centuries.

5 Gets into character for Comic-Con, say : DRESSES UP

San Diego’s Comic-Con was founded in 1970 as the Golden State Comic Book Convention. Held over four days each summer, I hear it is the largest show in North America.

6 Lip balm brand with egg-shaped containers : EOS

eos Products is a company that was founded in 2006 in New York City. eoS sells beauty products such as lotions and creams, and is most famous for its lip balm. The initials “eos” stand for “Evolution of Smooth”.

9 Smithwick’s beer : ALE

My guess is that the most famous Irish red ale that actually comes from Ireland is Smithwick’s, which is produced in Kilkenny. Many visitors to Ireland flock to the world-famous Guinness Storehouse. The equivalent Smithwick’s Experience in Kilkenny is a much more intimate affair, and one that I highly recommend …

10 Commuting arrangement : CARPOOL

Our verb “to commute”, meaning “to go back and forth to work”, ultimately derives from the Latin “commutare”, meaning “to often change”. Back in the late 1800s, a “commutation ticket” was a season pass, so named because it allowed one to “change” one kind of payment into another. Quite interesting …

11 Hip-moving Hawaiian dance : HULA

The hula is a native dance of Hawaii that uses arm movements to relate a story. The hula can be performed while sitting (a noho dance) or while standing (a luna dance).

19 “I could do without this knowledge,” way less formally : TMI

Too much information (TMI)

27 Threepio’s companion : ARTOO

Artoo’s proper name is R2-D2 (also “Artoo-Detoo”). R2-D2 is the smaller of the two famous droids from the “Star Wars” movies. British actor Kenny Baker, who stood just 3 feet 8 inches tall, was the man inside the R2-D2 droid for the first six of the “Star Wars” movies.

C-3PO (or “Threepio”) is the protocol droid that appears in the “Star Wars” movie franchise.

32 Stuffed with ham and cheese : CORDON BLEU

A “cordon bleu” dish is a meat dish, one prepared by wrapping the meat around cheese, covering it with breading and then pan-frying. Specifically, veal cordon bleu is made using veal that is pounded thin and wrapped around slices of ham and cheese. The term “cordon bleu” translated from French as “blue ribbon”.

33 French __ soup : ONION

To cook “au gratin” is to prepare something in a shallow dish with a crust of bread or cheese on top. In America we tend to think mainly of potatoes prepared this way, but the technique can be used for many different dishes. What we call French onion soup, a soup with some bread and cheese baked on top, is called “gratinée” in France.

40 __ & Perrins steak sauce : LEA

Worcestershire sauce is a variant of a fermented fish sauce that has been around since the days of the Roman Empire. The modern sauce was developed and marketed by Messrs. Lea & Perrins in the city of Worcester, then in the county of Worcestershire, hence the name. We vegans aren’t supposed to touch it, as it contains anchovies! Oh, and “Worcestershire” is pronounced “wooster-sheer” …

48 Uneven, as fog : PATCHY

The phenomena cloud, fog and mist are closely related in that all are aerosols comprising water droplets suspended in air. “Cloud” is a more generic term, with “fog” being more specific. Basically, fog is a low-lying cloud that is often generated from moisture found at ground level, e.g. a lake, the ocean. Fog differs from mist in that it is more dense, and by definition reduces visibility to less than one kilometer.

50 Badminton court divider : NET

The game of badminton was developed in the mid-1700s by British military officers in India. There was already an old game called battledore and shuttlecock, so the creation of badminton was essentially the addition of a net and boundary lines for play. The game was launched officially as a sport in 1873 at Badminton House in Gloucestershire in England, hence the name that we now use.

52 Extinct emu-like bird : MOA

Moas were flightless birds native to New Zealand that are now extinct. The fate of the Moa is a great example of the detrimental effect that humans can have on animal populations. The Maoris arrived in New Zealand about 1300 AD, upsetting the balance of the ecosystem. The Moa were hunted to extinction within 200 years, which had the knock-on effect of killing off the Haast’s Eagle, the Moa’s only predator prior to the arrival of man. Moa were huge creatures, measuring up to 12 feet tall with their necks stretched upwards.

54 Yule tune : NOEL

“Noël” is the French word for the Christmas season, and ultimately comes from the Latin word for “birth” (natalis). “Noel” has come to be used as an alternative for “Christmas carol”.

Yule celebrations coincide with Christmas, and the words “Christmas” and “Yule” (often “Yuletide”) have become synonymous in much of the world. However, Yule was originally a pagan festival celebrated by Germanic peoples. The name “Yule” comes from the Old Norse word “jol” that was used to describe the festival.

55 “Superbad” actor Michael : CERA

Michael Cera is a Canadian actor who played great characters on the TV show “Arrested Development”, and in the 2007 comedy-drama “Juno”. Cera is also quite the musician. He released an indie folk album titled “True That” in 2014.

“Superbad” is a comedy movie released in 2007. The script for the film was written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Rogen and Goldberg started work on the script when they were just thirteen years old, with the first draft being completed by the time they were fifteen.

59 Mystical glow : AURA

An aura (plural “aurae”) is an intangible quality that surrounds a person or thing, a “je ne sais quoi”. “Je ne sais quoi” is French for “I don’t know what”.

60 Campus official : DEAN

Our use of “dean” to describe an administrative officer in an educational institution dates back to the 1570s. The term comes via the Old French “deien” from the Latin “decanus”, which was the name for the head of a group of ten monks in a monastery, and earlier still, the name for the commander of ten soldiers. So ultimately, “dean” comes from the Greek “deka” meaning “ten”.

62 Alumna bio word : NEE

“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”. The term “née” is mainly used in English when referring to a married woman’s birth name, assuming that she has adopted her husband’s name, e.g. Michelle Obama née Robinson, Melania Trump née Knavs, and Jill Biden née Jacobs.

An alumnus (plural “alumni”) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural “alumnae”). The term comes into English from Latin, in which an alumnus is a foster-son or pupil. “Alum” is an informal term used for either an alumna or alumnus.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Cleaning cloths : RAGS
5 Branch of govt. : DEPT
9 Suffers after a CrossFit workout, say : ACHES
14 “Just gimme __!” : A SEC
15 Really, really enjoy a joke : ROAR
16 Enjoy a joke : LAUGH
17 Was completely crushed by the competition : MET ONE’S WATERLOO
20 Orzo and ziti : PASTAS
21 Grand total : SUM
22 History : PAST
23 Part of a server’s income : TIPS
24 __ soup: sushi bar bowlful : MISO
26 “Good one” : HA HA
28 “La La Land” Oscar winner Stone : EMMA
31 Chocolaty drink : COCOA
35 Before, in classic palindromes : ERE
36 Continent with most of the world’s people : ASIA
37 “Adios!” : SO LONG!
38 Org. with bomb-sniffing dogs : ATF
39 Actress who played Joan Watson on “Elementary” : LUCY LIU
41 __ de Janeiro : RIO
42 Blob : DOLLOP
44 Asteroid formation : BELT
45 Put on : DON
46 “Gonna join us?” : YOU IN?
47 __ the deal : SEAL
48 Fair ride : PONY
49 Number-picking bar game : KENO
51 “__ open book”: “Ask me anything” : I’M AN
53 A single time : ONCE
56 “Maa” ma : EWE
58 Just okay : NOT BAD
61 Is hopelessly confused : DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE
64 Spine-tingling : EERIE
65 Yard sale caveat : AS IS
66 Queen of Mount Olympus : HERA
67 Roofing stone : SLATE
68 Golf pegs : TEES
69 Chinese currency : YUAN

Down

1 Wheelchair access : RAMP
2 Between ports on a cruise : ASEA
3 Catches a seasonal malady : GETS THE FLU
4 Nova __ : SCOTIA
5 Gets into character for Comic-Con, say : DRESSES UP
6 Lip balm brand with egg-shaped containers : EOS
7 Bear feet : PAWS
8 Damage that may be psychological : TRAUMA
9 Smithwick’s beer : ALE
10 Commuting arrangement : CARPOOL
11 Hip-moving Hawaiian dance : HULA
12 Alter __: secret identities for superheroes : EGOS
13 Completely worn out : SHOT
18 Quick snooze : NAP
19 “I could do without this knowledge,” way less formally : TMI
25 Merit badge earner : SCOUT
26 Stimulating : HEADY
27 Threepio’s companion : ARTOO
29 Open __ night : MIC
30 “I’ll think about it” : MAYBE
32 Stuffed with ham and cheese : CORDON BLEU
33 French __ soup : ONION
34 Anguish : AGONY
36 Flying solo : ALONE
37 Inanity : SILLINESS
40 __ & Perrins steak sauce : LEA
43 Gives something a thumbs-up : LIKES IT
47 “Big deal” : SO WHAT?
48 Uneven, as fog : PATCHY
50 Badminton court divider : NET
52 Extinct emu-like bird : MOA
53 Poetic tributes : ODES
54 Yule tune : NOEL
55 “Superbad” actor Michael : CERA
57 Simplicity : EASE
59 Mystical glow : AURA
60 Campus official : DEAN
62 Alumna bio word : NEE
63 Compete (for) : VIE