LA Times Crossword 1 Sep 21, Wednesday

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Constructed by: Paul Coulter
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Split Ends

Themed answers come in pairs SPLIT by a black square. Each pair is a type of END:

  • 36A Perm problem, and a hint to the four two-part answers : SPLIT ENDS
  • 17A With 18-Across, symbolic goal : FINISH …
  • 18A See 17-Across : … LINE
  • 20A With 22-Across, daily Wall Street signal : CLOSING …
  • 22A See 20-Across : … BELL
  • 52A With 53-Across, concluding phase : HOME …
  • 53A See 52-Across : … STRETCH
  • 56A With 57-Across, farewell effort : LAST …
  • 57A See 56-Across : … HURRAH

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

Bill’s time: 6m 18s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

10 Flight coordinators: Abbr. : ATC

The concept of air traffic control (ATC) was introduced to the world in 1920 at Croydon Airport in South London, England.

13 Brawl : FRACAS

“Fracas”, meaning “noisy quarrel”, is a French word that we absorbed into English. In turn, the French usage evolved from the Italian “fracasso” meaning “uproar, crash”.

15 Author Hubbard : L RON

L. Ron Hubbard wrote a self-improvement book in 1950 called “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health”. A few years later, he used the concepts in the book as he founded his Church of Scientology.

16 John, to Ringo : LOO

The use of “john” as a slang term for a toilet is peculiar to North America. “John” probably comes from the older slang term of “jack” or “jakes” that had been around since the 16th century. In Ireland, in less polite moments, we still refer to a toilet as “the jacks”.

Sir Ringo Starr’s real name is Richard Starkey. Before he joined the Beatles, replacing drummer Pete Best, Starkey played with the Raving Texans. It was with the Raving Texans that he adopted the name “Ringo Starr”, because he wore a lot of rings and he thought it sounded “cowboyish”. Back then his drum solos were billed as “Starr Time”.

19 Landlocked land in S.A. : BOL

Bolivia is a landlocked country in South America that is bordered by Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Peru and Argentina. The land now occupied by Bolivia was originally part of the Inca Empire. The country declared independence from Spain in 1809, which led to 16 years of war. When the Republic was finally named, “Bolivia” was chosen in honor of Venezuelan-born revolutionary leader, Simón Bolívar.

20 With 22-Across, daily Wall Street signal : CLOSING …

22 See 20-Across : … BELL

New York’s famous Wall Street was originally named by the Dutch “de Waalstraat”.

27 Berlin’s Maxim __ Theater : GORKI

The Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin is named for Soviet author Maxim Gorky. The building opened in 1827, making it the oldest concert hall structure in the city. The dedication to Maxim Gorky took place in 1952 when it was in the Soviet-controlled zone of the city.

30 Colorful disc-shaped candy : SMARTIE

Here in the US, Smarties are tablet-like candy. Smarties are known as Rockets in Canada. The latter brand name is used to differentiate the product from Nestlé’s Smarties, which are sugar-coated chocolate candies that resemble M&Ms.

32 Fed. fiscal agency : OMB

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the successor to the Bureau of the Budget that was formed in 1970 during the Nixon administration. The main task of the OMB is to prepare the budget for the federal government. The Director of the OMB is a member of the Cabinet.

36 Perm problem, and a hint to the four two-part answers : SPLIT ENDS

The hair condition that we commonly refer to as “split ends”, is more formally known as “trichoptilosis”. The latter term comes from the Greek “tricho-” meaning “hair” and “ptilosis” meaning “arrangement of feathers in definite areas”!

40 Chemical formula for lye : NAOH

What we call “lye” is usually sodium hydroxide (NaOH), although historically the term “lye” was used for potassium hydroxide. Lye has many uses, including to cure several foodstuffs. Lye can make olives less bitter, for example. The chemical is also found in canned mandarin oranges, pretzels and Japanese ramen noodles. More concentrated grades of lye are used to clear drains and clean ovens. Scary …

41 Antipollution org. : EPA

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

44 Pro tennis designation since 1968 : OPEN ERA

In the sport of tennis, the Grand Slam tournaments were opened up to professional players, and not just amateurs, in 1968. So, the period since 1968 has been called the “Open Era”.

48 Law school class : TORTS

“Tort” is a French word meaning “mischief, injury or wrong”. In common law, a tort is a civil wrong that results in the injured party suffering loss or harm, and the injuring party having a legal liability. Tort law differs from criminal law in that torts may result from negligence and not just intentional actions. Also, tort lawsuits may be decided on a preponderance of evidence, without the need of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

49 City near Colombia’s coastline : CALI

In terms of population, Cali is the third largest city in Colombia (after Bogotá and Medellin). Santiago de Cali (the full name for the city) lies in western Colombia. Apparently, Cali is a destination for “medical tourists”. The city’s surgeons have a reputation for being experts in cosmetic surgery and so folks head there looking for a “cheap” nose job. Cali has also been historically associated with the illegal drug trade and money laundering.

55 Quarterback Manning : ELI

Eli Manning is a retired footballer who played quarterback for the New York Giants. Eli’s brother Peyton Manning retired from football as the quarterback for the Denver Broncos in 2015. Eli and Peyton’s father is Archie Manning, who was also a successful NFL quarterback. Eli, Peyton and Archie co-authored a book for children titled “Family Huddle” in 2009. It describes the Mannings playing football together as young boys.

61 Cartoon canine : REN

“The Ren & Stimpy Show” is an animated television serial created by Canadian animator John Kricfalusi, and which ran on Nickelodeon from 1991 to 1996. The title characters are Marland “Ren” Höek, a scrawny Chihuahua, and Stimpson J. Cat, a rotund Manx cat. Not my cup of tea …

62 African bovines : GNUS

The gnu is also known as the wildebeest, and is an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is a Dutch meaning “wild beast”.

Something described as bovine is related to a cow, ox or buffalo, indeed any ruminant in the genus Bos. “Bos” is the Latin for “cow”, and “bovinus” a Late Latin derivative term.

64 Indian honorific : SRI

“Sri” is a title of respect for a male in India.

65 Best Upset, e.g. : ESPY

The ESPY Awards are a creation of the ESPN sports television network. One difference with similarly named awards in the entertainment industry is that ESPY winners are chosen solely based on viewer votes.

66 Uppity sort : SNOOT

“Snoot” is a variant of “snout”, and is a word that originated in Scotland. The idea is that someone who is snooty, or “snouty”, tends to look down his or her nose at the rest of the world.

Down

1 Gee preceder : EFF

The letter F (eff) comes before the letter G (gee).

2 “Exodus” hero : ARI

“Exodus” is a wonderful novel written by American writer Leon Uris that was first published in 1947. The hero of the piece is Ari Ben Canaan, a character played by Paul Newman in the 1960 film adaptation directed by Otto Preminger.

5 Former FC Edmonton org. : NASL

The North American Soccer League (NASL) was formed in 1968 with a merger of two competing leagues. The NASL operated until 1984. A new soccer league with the same name has been operating since April 2011.

FC Edmonton is a professional soccer team based in Edmonton, Alberta that plays in the Canadian Premier League. The club was founded in 2010, and played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) until 2017.

6 Skate park move : OLLIE

An ollie is a skateboarding trick invented in 1976 by Alan “Ollie” Gelfand. Apparently it’s a way of lifting the board off the ground, while standing on it, without touching the board with one’s hands. Yeah, I could do that …

8 Like marathons : LONG

The marathon commemorates the legendary messenger-run by Pheidippides from the site of the Battle of Marathon back to Athens, and is run over 26 miles and 385 yards. The first modern Olympic marathon races were run over a distance that approximated the length of the modern-day Marathon-Athens highway, although the actual length of the race varied from games to games. For the 1908 Olympics in London, a course starting at Windsor Castle and ending in front of the Royal Box at White City Stadium was defined. That course was 26 miles and 385 yards, the standard length now used at all Olympic Games. Organizers of subsequent games continued to vary the length of the race, until a decision was made in 1921 to adopt the distance used in London in 1908.

9 Charlotte-to-Raleigh dir. : ENE

The city of Charlotte is the most populous in the state of North Carolina. It was named for the queen consort of King George III of Britain, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Raleigh is North Carolina’s second largest city (behind Charlotte), but it is the state’s capital. Chartered in 1792, the city is named for Sir Walter Raleigh, the Elizabethan explorer who founded the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

10 Medicine Hat’s province : ALBERTA

Medicine Hat is a city in Alberta. Canada. Medicine Hat is known for its extensive natural gas fields. In fact, English writer Rudyard Kipling described the city as having “all hell for a basement”.

11 Carpenter’s collection : TOOLKIT

A carpenter is someone who shapes and assembles structural woodwork. The term “carpenter” comes from the Late Latin “carpentarius” meaning “wagon or carriage maker”. Both “carpenter” and “car” probably derive ultimately from the Gaulish word “karros” meaning “chariot”. Quite interesting …

12 Lassie, for one : COLLIE

The collie isn’t actually a breed of dog, but rather the name given to a group of herding dogs that originated in Scotland and Northern England. An obvious (and wonderful) example would be the Border collie. Many dogs classed as collies don’t have the word “collie” in the name of the breed, for example the Old English sheepdog and the Shetland sheepdog.

The canine character Lassie is the creation of Eric Knight, an author who wrote a short story that he expanded into a novel called “Lassie Come Home” published in 1940. “Lassie Come Home” was turned into a movie three years later, the first of a very successful franchise. The original Lassie (a female) was played by a long-haired collie called Pal (a male). In fact, all of the dogs that played Lassie over the years were males, because they looked better on camera, retaining a thick coat even during the summer months.

21 Moses’ mount : SINAI

In the Book of Deuteronomy, it is stated that Moses was given the Ten Commandments on Mount Horeb. In other parts of the Bible the same event is described as taking place on Mount Sinai. So, many think that Horeb is an alternative name for Sinai.

23 WWII battle site, for short : IWO

Iwo Jima is a volcanic island located south of Tokyo that today is uninhabited. The name is Japanese for “Sulfur Island”, referring to the sulfur mining on which Iwo Jima’s economy once depended. There were about a thousand Japanese civilians living on the island prior to WWII. In 1944, there was a massive influx of Japanese military personnel in anticipation of the inevitable US invasion. As the Japanese military moved in, the civilians were forced out and no one has lived there since. Control of the island was wrested from the Japanese in the five-week Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. Said battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific theater in WWII.

25 The Sun, say : ORB

Sol was the Roman god personifying the Sun. For centuries, English astronomers have used the name “Sol” for our sun, to distinguish it from suns in other planetary systems.

27 Biopic that was 1982’s Best Picture : GANDHI

“Gandhi” is a fabulous film released in 1982 that chronicles the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi. The film stars Ben Kingsley in the title role, and was directed by Sir Richard Attenborough. “Gandhi” won eight Oscars, including the award for Best Picture and Best Actor for Kingsley..

29 Syrup sources : MAPLES

About 75% of the world’s maple syrup comes from the province of Quebec. The US’s biggest producer is the state of Vermont, which produces 5-6% of the world’s supply.

31 The Sphinx et al. : MONOLITHS

The Great Sphinx of Giza is a huge limestone statue of a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human. It is the largest monolithic statue in the world. Famously, the Great Sphinx is missing its nose and beard.

34 Subway stop: Abbr. : STN

Station (stn.)

36 “À votre __!” : SANTE

“À votre santé” is French for “to your health”. Cheers!

37 Bird on old quarters : EAGLE

The American quarter is a little unusual in the world of decimal currency, if you think about it. Most currencies have a “20-cent” coin, which is easier to work with mathematically. The US went for the quarter in deference to the practice of dividing Spanish Milled Dollars into eight wedge-shaped “bits”. That’s also why the quarter is sometimes referred to as “two bits”. We’ve been using the adjective “two-bit” to mean “cheap, tawdry” at least since 1929. State quarters were introduced in 1999.

38 Printing program : SPOOLER

In the world of computing, spooling is the process of regulating transmission of data between devices. We are most familiar with spooling between fast computer applications, and relatively slow printers. Spooling takes care of buffering and queuing print jobs. Some say that the term “spool” is an acronym standing for “Simultaneous Peripheral Operations On-Line”.

39 Subway system extremes : TERMINI

We absorbed our word “terminus” (plural “termini”) from Latin, and in both languages it means “end, final goal”. The Roman god Terminus presided over landmarks and boundaries, and was the focus of the festival of Terminalia at the end of the Roman year.

42 Part of mpg : PER

Miles per gallon (mpg)

43 Horace’s “__ Poetica” : ARS

The full name of Horace’s work is “Ars Poetica, Epistula ad Pisones” (The Art of Poetry, Letters to the Pisos). The work describes the technical aspects of poetry in ancient Rome, and the term “ars poetica” has come to mean the poetry of that period.

44 Significant ones? : OTHERS

The phrase “significant other” comes from the worlds of psychology and sociology. Coined in 1940, the term describes a person of great importance to an individual’s life and well-being. In common parlance today, one’s significant other is usually one’s life partner.

47 Mideast capital : TEHRAN

Tehran is the capital of Iran and is the largest city in the Middle East, with a population of about 8.5 million. Iran has been around a really long time and Tehran is actually the country’s 31st national capital.

50 Dilettantish : ARTSY

We use the word “dilettante” for someone who dabbles in the world of art or in some particular field of knowledge. We borrowed the term from Italian, in which language a dilettante is a lover of fine arts, a connoisseur.

53 Lacking : SANS

In French, “avec” (with) and “sans” (without) are opposites.

58 __ Grande : RIO

The Rio Grande (Spanish for “big river”) is a waterway that forms part of the border between Mexico and the United States. Although we call the river the Rio Grande on this side of the border, in Mexico it is called the Río Bravo or Río Bravo del Norte (Spanish for “furious river of the north”).

59 Enero begins it : ANO

In Spanish, we start “el año” (the year) in “enero” (January) as noted on a “calendario” (calendar).

60 33rd pres. : HST

The letter “S” in the middle of the name Harry S. Truman (HST) doesn’t stand for anything. The future-president was named “Harry” in honor of his mother’s brother Harrison “Harry” Young. The initial “S” was chosen in honor of young Harry’s two grandfathers: Anderson S-hipp Truman and S-olomon Young.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Dine at home : EAT IN
6 Eye obtrusively : OGLE
10 Flight coordinators: Abbr. : ATC
13 Brawl : FRACAS
15 Author Hubbard : L RON
16 John, to Ringo : LOO
17 With 18-Across, symbolic goal : FINISH …
18 See 17-Across : … LINE
19 Landlocked land in S.A. : BOL
20 With 22-Across, daily Wall Street signal : CLOSING …
22 See 20-Across : … BELL
23 False god : IDOL
26 Went (for) : VIED
27 Berlin’s Maxim __ Theater : GORKI
28 Guys working on lines : WIREMEN
30 Colorful disc-shaped candy : SMARTIE
32 Fed. fiscal agency : OMB
33 “Ah, me!” : ALAS!
35 __ a time : ONE AT
36 Perm problem, and a hint to the four two-part answers : SPLIT ENDS
38 Flat : STALE
40 Chemical formula for lye : NAOH
41 Antipollution org. : EPA
44 Pro tennis designation since 1968 : OPEN ERA
46 Sparkle : GLITTER
48 Law school class : TORTS
49 City near Colombia’s coastline : CALI
51 Canal zones? : EARS
52 With 53-Across, concluding phase : HOME …
53 See 52-Across : … STRETCH
55 Quarterback Manning : ELI
56 With 57-Across, farewell effort : LAST …
57 See 56-Across : … HURRAH
61 Cartoon canine : REN
62 African bovines : GNUS
63 Spots to remove : STAINS
64 Indian honorific : SRI
65 Best Upset, e.g. : ESPY
66 Uppity sort : SNOOT

Down

1 Gee preceder : EFF
2 “Exodus” hero : ARI
3 Summer shade : TAN
4 Pointy, cold formation : ICICLE
5 Former FC Edmonton org. : NASL
6 Skate park move : OLLIE
7 Monotonous routines : GRINDS
8 Like marathons : LONG
9 Charlotte-to-Raleigh dir. : ENE
10 Medicine Hat’s province : ALBERTA
11 Carpenter’s collection : TOOLKIT
12 Lassie, for one : COLLIE
14 December driveway clearer, to a Brit : SHOVELLER
21 Moses’ mount : SINAI
22 Tiresome types : BORES
23 WWII battle site, for short : IWO
24 Faint : DIM
25 The Sun, say : ORB
27 Biopic that was 1982’s Best Picture : GANDHI
29 Syrup sources : MAPLES
31 The Sphinx et al. : MONOLITHS
34 Subway stop: Abbr. : STN
36 “À votre __!” : SANTE
37 Bird on old quarters : EAGLE
38 Printing program : SPOOLER
39 Subway system extremes : TERMINI
41 Pilot’s approx. : ETA
42 Part of mpg : PER
43 Horace’s “__ Poetica” : ARS
44 Significant ones? : OTHERS
45 Doesn’t behave : ACTS UP
47 Mideast capital : TEHRAN
50 Dilettantish : ARTSY
53 Lacking : SANS
54 Skips class : CUTS
56 Clothing dept. size : LGE
58 __ Grande : RIO
59 Enero begins it : ANO
60 33rd pres. : HST