LA Times Crossword 4 Mar 23, Saturday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Rafael Musa & Michael Lieberman
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme: None

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

Bill’s time: 9m 25s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

5 Ebullience : PEP

“Ebullient” means high-spirited, overflowing with enthusiasm. The term comes from the Latin “ebullire” meaning “to boil over”.

12 Calculus calculation : AREA

Remember doing calculus at school, and all those derivatives and integrals? Well, you probably also remember that an integral calculates the area under a curve (for example), and a derivative calculates the slope of a tangent at a particular point on a curve.

13 Internal revolution : PALACE COUP

Our word “palace” ultimately comes from the name of Rome’s Palatine Hill, “Mons Palatinus” in Latin. The original “palace” was the house of Augustus Caesar, which stood on the Palatine Hill.

20 Low-quality : CRUDDY

The word “crud”, meaning “something disgusting”, is American slang dating back to the 1920s. Originating in the US Army, the term was used in place of “venereal disease”.

21 “Mamma Mia!” song with the lyric “The love you gave me, nothing else can save me” : SOS

The ABBA 1975 song “SOS” was originally titled “Turn Me On”. In the movie “Mamma Mia!”, “SOS” is performed by Meryl Streep (brilliantly) and by Pierce Brosnan (terribly).

The hit musical “Mamma Mia!” was written to showcase the songs of ABBA. I’m a big fan of ABBA’s music, so I’ve seen this show a couple of times and just love it. “Mamma Mia!” is such a big hit on the stage that on any given day there are at least seven performances going on somewhere in the world. There is a really interesting film version of the show that was released in 2008. I think the female lead Meryl Streep is wonderful in the movie, but the male leads … not so much! By the way, one can tell the difference between “Mamma Mia” the ABBA song and “Mamma Mia!” the musical, by noting the difference in the punctuation in the titles.

22 Mystery writer Josephine : TEY

“Josephine Tey” was the pen name of Scottish mystery writer Elizabeth Mackintosh, who was best known for writing mystery novels. One of Tey’s more famous works is the 1949 crime novel “Brat Farrar”, the story of an orphan who impersonates the missing son of a rich family in order to wangle his way into an inheritance. Another is “The Daughter of Time”, in which a Scotland Yard inspector who is laid up in hospital takes on the mystery of whether or not King Richard III of England murdered his nephews, the Princes in the Tower.

27 Infinitive with a circumflex : ETRE

A circumflex is a diacritic mark used routinely in some languages, such as French. For example, there’s a circumflex over the first “e” in “être”, the French for “to be”.

32 Penguin hunters : ORCAS

Orcas, also known as killer whales, are actually members of the dolphin family. They are the largest members of this family and can weigh up to 6 tons.

Penguins are flightless, aquatic birds that spend half their lives on land, and half in the sea. All species of penguins, bar one, live in the southern hemisphere. The one species found north of the equator is the Galápagos penguin that is endemic to the Galápagos Islands located west of Ecuador. Adult male penguins are called cocks, females are hens, and the young are chicks. A group of penguins in the water is a raft, and on land is a waddle. Apt, and cute …

39 “Pressure” singer Lennox : ARI

“Ari Lennox” is the stage name of R&B singer Courtney Salter. In choosing her stage name, Salter was influenced by a character named Mary Lennox in the 1993 movie version of “The Secret Garden”.

45 Little League game ender, perhaps : MERCY RULE

A mercy rule in a sport is one that brings a game to an early conclusion when it is deemed that the losing team has no chance of making a comeback.

52 Garment traditionally worn with a kebaya : SARONG

“Sarong” is the Malay word for “sheath”. The term originally described a garment worn by Malay men and women around their waists. The Malay sarong is actually a tube of fabric, about a yard wide and two-and-a-half yards long. Many variations of the sarong are worn all over South Asia and the Pacific Islands. I had occasion to wear one in Hawaii many years ago, and found it very … freeing!

Kebaya is a traditional blouse-dress combination that originated in Indonesia and is typically worn by women for formal occasions such as weddings, cultural events, and traditional ceremonies.

60 Some online tell-all sessions : REDDIT AMAS

Reddit.com is a networking and news website that started up in 2005. It is essentially a bulletin board system with posts that are voted up and down by users, which determines the ranking of posts. The name “Reddit” is a play on “read it”, as in “I read it on Reddit”. One popular feature of the Reddit site is an online forum that is similar to a press conference. Known as an AMA (for “ask me anything”), participants have included the likes of President Barack Obama, Madonna, Bill Gates, Stephen Colbert and Gordon Ramsay. President Obama’s AMA was so popular that the high level of traffic brought down many parts of the Reddit site.

61 Actress Russo : RENE

The talented actress Rene Russo is a native of Burbank, California. Russo went to high school (with actor/director Ron Howard), but dropped out in tenth grade. At seventeen, she was given the opportunity to train as a model and within a very short time appeared on the cover of “Vogue”. As her modeling jobs slowed down in her early thirties, Russo made a career change and studied theater and acting. Her breakout role was in the 1989 film “Major League.”

62 Red and Coral, but not pink : SEAS

The Red Sea (sometimes “Arabian Gulf”) is a stretch of water lying between Africa and Asia. The Gulf of Suez (and the Suez Canal) lies to the north, and the Gulf of Aden to the south. According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible, God parted the Red Sea to allow Moses lead the Israelites from Egypt.

The Coral Sea is part of the South Pacific Ocean lying off the northeast coast of Australia. It is home to the renowned Great Barrier Reef.

64 Reindeer kin : ELKS

The elk (also “wapiti”) is one of the largest species of deer in the world, with only the moose being bigger. Early European settlers were familiar with the smaller red deer back in their homelands, so when they saw the “huge” wapiti they assumed it was a moose, and incorrectly gave it the European name for a moose, namely “elk”. The more correct name for the beast is “wapiti”, which means “white rump” in Shawnee. It’s all very confusing …

“Caribou” is the North American name for “reindeer”.

Down

3 Pride of Lions, e.g. : TEAM SPIRIT

The Detroit Lions are the NFL team that play home games at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan. The team was founded way back in 1929 as the Portsmouth Spartans from Portsmouth, Ohio. The Spartans joined the NFL during the Great Depression as other franchises collapsed. However, the Spartans couldn’t command a large enough gate in Portsmouth so the team was sold and relocated to Detroit in 1934.

4 Guinness logo : HARP

Guinness trademarked its famous harp logo way back in 1862. The harp is also a symbol of Ireland. When Ireland became a Free State from the United Kingdom in 1922, the new Irish government had to come up with a different symbol so as not to infringe trademark laws. That’s why Ireland’s harp points in the opposite direction of Guinness’ harp. ‘Tis true, ‘tis true …

6 Many Central Park trees : ELMS

The man most associated with the decision to develop Central Park in New York City was William Cullen Bryant, the editor of what today is the “New York Post”. He argued that the growing city needed a large, public open space, along the lines of Hyde Park in London and the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. Most of the park’s construction took place between 1860 and 1873. Much of the clearing work was accomplished using gunpowder, and it is often noted that more gunpowder was used in Central Park than in the Battle of Gettysburg.

7 __-Man : PAC

The Pac-Man arcade game was first released in Japan in 1980, and is as popular today as it ever was. The game features characters that are maneuvered around the screen to eat up dots and earn points, while being pursued by ghosts named Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. The name of the game comes from the Japanese folk hero “Paku”, who is known for his voracious appetite. The spin-off game called Ms. Pac-Man was released in 1981.

10 Like some expensive bars : GOLD

Gold is a metallic chemical element with the symbol “Au”. It is extremely unreactive. Silver and other base metals dissolve in nitric acid, and so testing an unknown sample with nitric acid can confirm the presence of gold. This assaying practice gave rise to the figurative use of the term “acid test” to describe any definitive test.

14 Summer bug : CICADA

Cicadas are insects that are found all over the world. Although they resemble locusts, cicadas are an unrelated family. The name “cicada” is Latin and translated as “tree cricket”. However, the name is imitative of the clicking sound the insect makes using parts of its exoskeleton known as “tymbals”.

15 Humanities subj. : PSY

The academic studies of human culture are collectively called the humanities. Subjects included in the humanities are languages, literature, philosophy, religion and music.

26 Catcher’s interference, for one : ERROR

That would be baseball.

28 Skating feat first performed in competition by Vern Taylor : TRIPLE AXEL

Canadian figure skater Vern Taylor is perhaps best known for being the first figure skater to land a triple axel in competition, doing so at the 1978 World Figure Skating Championships.

An axel is a forward take-off jump in figure skating. The maneuver was first performed by Norwegian Axel Paulsen at the 1882 World Figure Skating championships.

29 Derby place : ROLLER RINK

The sport of roller derby has an international footprint, with almost half the world’s teams being located outside of the US. Most of the teams playing the sport are all-female.

30 Site of creation? : ETSY

Etsy.com is an e-commerce website where you can buy and sell the kind of items that you might find at a craft fair.

31 “Need this rn” : ASAP

Right now (rn)

38 “The Problem With __”: “The Simpsons” documentary : APU

“The Problem with Apu” is a 2017 documentary that explores the use of racial stereotypes by focusing on the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from the animated sitcom “The Simpsons”. The film was written by and stars American stand-up comedian Hari Kondabolu.

44 Writer/producer Rhimes : SHONDA

Shonda Rhimes is the creator and head writer of the TV shows “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal”. She also serves as executive producer for the crime shows “How to Get Away with Murder” and “The Catch”. Rhimes also runs her own production company called Shondaland.

51 Donkeys : ASSES

A female donkey/ass is known as a jenny and a male is known as a jack, or sometimes “jackass”. We started using the term “jackass” to mean “fool” in the 1820s.

52 Big follower in California? : SUR

Big Sur is a lovely part of the California Coast located south of Monterey and Carmel. The name “Big Sur” comes from the original Spanish description of the area as “el sur grande” meaning “the big south”.

53 Primatology focus : APES

Primatology is the study of primates, especially non-human primates.

Primates are mammals, many of whom are omnivorous and make good use of their hands. They also have larger brains relative to their body size, compared to other animals. The order Primates includes apes, lemurs, baboons and humans.

56 Discount when buying some foods? : TARE

Tare is the weight of a container that is deducted from the gross weight to determine the net weight, the weight of the container’s contents.

58 Eustachian tube locale : EAR

The Eustachian tubes, also known as auditory tubes, are a pair of narrow tubes that connect the middle ear to the back of the throat. They play a crucial role in regulating the air pressure in the middle ear. When we yawn or swallow, the muscles in the Eustachian tubes contract, which helps to equalize the air pressure in the middle ear with the outside environment.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Ice __ : BATH
5 Ebullience : PEP
8 Helps with checking out, maybe : BAGS
12 Calculus calculation : AREA
13 Internal revolution : PALACE COUP
16 Approach : NEAR
17 Fitness revolutions : ARM CIRCLES
18 Joggers : GYM PANTS
20 Low-quality : CRUDDY
21 “Mamma Mia!” song with the lyric “The love you gave me, nothing else can save me” : SOS
22 Mystery writer Josephine : TEY
23 Beams : RAYS
24 Filled in : UP TO SPEED
27 Infinitive with a circumflex : ETRE
31 __ pear : ASIAN
32 Penguin hunters : ORCAS
34 Utter nonsense : ROT
35 Rush : SURGE
36 Underground rock? : ORE
37 Uses a collection box, say : MAILS
39 “Pressure” singer Lennox : ARI
40 Nurse : SIP ON
42 Be relevant : APPLY
43 Dependents that can’t be claimed as tax deductions : PETS
45 Little League game ender, perhaps : MERCY RULE
47 Locks : HAIR
49 Still : YET
50 Big time : ERA
52 Garment traditionally worn with a kebaya : SARONG
55 Court luminaries : NBA STARS
57 Not set : UP IN THE AIR
59 Plot line : AXIS
60 Some online tell-all sessions : REDDIT AMAS
61 Actress Russo : RENE
62 Red and Coral, but not pink : SEAS
63 Low-__ : RES
64 Reindeer kin : ELKS

Down

1 Loud reports : BANGS
2 “Final answer?” : ARE YOU SURE?
3 Pride of Lions, e.g. : TEAM SPIRIT
4 Guinness logo : HARP
5 One who makes everyone get down on the dance floor? : PARTY POOPER
6 Many Central Park trees : ELMS
7 __-Man : PAC
8 Juicy fruit : BERRY
9 Impeach : ACCUSE
10 Like some expensive bars : GOLD
11 Sought redress : SUED
13 Glazier supply : PANES
14 Summer bug : CICADA
15 Humanities subj. : PSY
19 Does penance (for) : ATONES
23 Tendency to rely on short-term memory : RECENCY BIAS
25 Label : TAG
26 Catcher’s interference, for one : ERROR
28 Skating feat first performed in competition by Vern Taylor : TRIPLE AXEL
29 Derby place : ROLLER RINK
30 Site of creation? : ETSY
31 “Need this rn” : ASAP
33 Brains : SMARTS
38 “The Problem With __”: “The Simpsons” documentary : APU
41 “We’ll see” : I MIGHT
44 Writer/producer Rhimes : SHONDA
46 What dates may end with : YEARS
48 Naysayers : ANTIS
51 Donkeys : ASSES
52 Big follower in California? : SUR
53 Primatology focus : APES
54 Lift : RIDE
55 Moniker : NAME
56 Discount when buying some foods? : TARE
58 Eustachian tube locale : EAR