LA Times Crossword 26 Apr 21, Monday

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Constructed by: Catherine Cetta
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: On Your Feet

Themed answers each start with a shoe, something you might wear ON YOUR FEET:

  • 63A “Stand up!” … and a hint to the beginnings of the answers to starred clues : ON YOUR FEET!
  • 17A *Divisive political topic : WEDGE ISSUE
  • 24A *Want-ad heading in the London Times, perhaps : FLAT FOR RENT
  • 40A *Get up and running, digitally : BOOT THE COMPUTER
  • 50A *Interrogate persistently : PUMP FOR INFO

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

Bill’s time: 6m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Igloo shape : DOME

The Inuit word for “house” is “iglu”, which we usually write as “igloo”. The Greenlandic (yes, that’s a language) word for “house” is very similar, namely “igdlo”. The walls of igloos are tremendous insulators, due to the air pockets in the blocks of snow.

15 “Christina’s World” painter Andrew : WYETH

Andrew Wyeth was known as a realist painter and “the painter of the people” in recognition of his popularity with the man in the street. His neighbor, Helga Testorf, posed for a total of 247 paintings over a 14 year period, a series known as “The Helga Pictures”. The remarkable thing is that neither Wyeth’s wife nor Testorf’s husband knew anything about the portrait sessions or the paintings.

“Christina’s World” is an Andrew Wyeth painting that dates back to 1948. The subject of the work is Christina Olson, a woman who suffered from polio that paralyzed her lower body. In the picture, Wyeth painted Christina crawling across a field towards a house in the distance.

19 Useful Word command for the error-prone : UNDO

Microsoft Word was introduced in 1981 as Multi-Tool Word for Xenix (Xenix is a discontinued version of the Unix operating system). I used to be a power user of Word, but now use Google Docs for all of my word processing needs.

20 “Good __!”: Charlie Brownism : GRIEF

Charlie Brown is the main character in the long-running comic strip called “Peanuts”, created by Charles Schulz. Charlie’s catchphrase is “good grief”. He has several persistent frustrations in his life, including an inability to fly a kite. The focus of his kite-flying frustration is the dreaded Kite-Eating Tree.

21 Immature newt : EFT

Newts wouldn’t be my favorite animals. They are found all over the world living on land or in water depending on the species, but always associated with water even if it is only for breeding. Newts metamorphose through three distinct developmental stages during their lives. They start off as larvae in water, fertilized eggs that often cling to aquatic plants. The eggs hatch into tadpoles, the first developmental form of the newt. After living some months as tadpoles swimming around in the water, they undergo another metamorphosis, sprouting legs and replacing their external gills with lungs. At this juvenile stage they are known as efts, and leave the water to live on land. A more gradual transition takes place then, as the eft takes on the lizard-like appearance of the adult newt.

24 *Want-ad heading in the London Times, perhaps : FLAT FOR RENT

“Flat”, in the sense of an apartment or condominium, is a word more commonly used in Britain and Ireland than on this side of the pond. The term “flat” is Scottish in origin, in which language it used to mean “floor in a house”.

“The Times” of London started out life in 1785 as “The Daily Universal Register”. By 1830, it had established itself as the original “Times” newspaper, a name copied across the world from Dublin, Ireland to New York City. On February 7th of 1830, one Lord Graves was found dead in his rooms, his throat cut from ear-to-ear, and even though there was no suicide note, a jury returned a verdict of death caused by a self-inflicted wound. The Times did not agree, and published an article attacking the inquest, an attack that provoked a lot of reaction. A follow up article in The Times commented on the reaction, and cited the original piece with the words “… we thundered out that article …” Other papers picked up on the phrase, calling The Times “The Thunderer”. That name stuck, and to this day “The Times” of London is often referred to as “The Thunderer”.

28 MADD ads, e.g. : PSAS

Public service announcement (PSA)

Candace Lightner lost her 13-year-old child to a drink-driver in 1980. Soon after, Lightner formed the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

29 Gerbil or hamster, often : PET

Most species of gerbil are native to arid regions, and in fact used to be called “desert rats”. They make popular household pets because they are very social and friendly by nature. As desert natives, they also have specially adapted kidneys that produce a very small amount of waste so that bodily fluids are preserved.

The rodents known as hamsters are commonly kept as house pets. Male hamsters are called bucks, females are called does, and baby hamsters are known as pups.

30 I-90 in Mass., say : TPKE

Back in the 15th century, a turnpike (tpk.) was a defensive barrier across a road. By the 17th century the term was used for a barrier that stopped travelers until a toll was paid. By the 18th century a turnpike was the name given to a road with a toll.

I-90 runs in an east-west direction from Seattle to Boston, and is the longest interstate in the US. When I-90 was built, it made use of several existing roads, including the Massachusetts Turnpike, New York State Thruway, Ohio Turnpike, Indiana Toll Road, Chicago Skyway, and the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway.

40 *Get up and running, digitally : BOOT THE COMPUTER

The verb “to boot”, as used in the world of computers, comes from the phrase “pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps”. The idea is that the software that has to be loaded before a computer can do anything useful is called a “bootstrap load”.

43 Vowel-heavy goodbye : ADIEU

“Adieu” is French for “goodbye, farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God”. The plural of “adieu” is “adieux”.

46 Monopoly quartet, briefly : RRS

The four railroad (RR) properties in the Monopoly board game are:

  • Reading Railroad
  • Pennsylvania Railroad
  • B&O Railroad
  • Short Line

48 HQs for B-52s : AFBS

Air Force Base (AFB)

The B-52 Stratofortress has been a mainstay of the USAF since its introduction in 1955. The stated intention is to keep the B-52 in service until 2045, which would give a remarkable length of service of over 90 years.

55 Nor. neighbor : SWE

The country of Sweden emerged during the Middle Ages, and became one of the great powers of Europe in the days of the Swedish Empire in the 17th and early 18th century. Since then Sweden’s influence has waned. What was the eastern part of Sweden was lost to Russia in the early 1800s, and is now modern-day Finland. In the 20th century Sweden has adopted a very non-aggressive stance and was neutral in both World Wars. Sweden is not a member of NATO, but is a member of the European Union, although the country does not use the euro as its currency.

58 Morales of “Ozark” : ESAI

Actor Esai Morales is best known in the world of film for the 1987 movie “La Bamba”, which depicted the life of Ritchie Valens and his half-brother Bob Morales (played by Esai). On the small screen, Morales plays Lt. Tony Rodriguez on “NYPD Blue” and Joseph Adama on “Caprica”.

“Ozark” is an excellent TV crime show starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney as a married couple who relocate from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks. The couple fall foul of Mexican drug lord after a money laundering scheme goes awry. The show is set at a lake resort in the Ozarks, although filming actually takes place at lakes in the Atlanta area in order to take advantage of tax breaks offered by the State of Georgia.

67 Double-curved arches : OGEES

An ogee is a type of S-curve. Specifically, it is a figure consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite directions (like an S) but both ends of the curve end up parallel to each other (which is not necessarily true for an S).

70 __-Dame de Paris : NOTRE

Notre-Dame de Paris is the spectacular Gothic cathedral that sits on the Île de la Cité, one of the islands in the middle on the River Seine in Paris. Notre Dame is home to many beautiful and significant artifacts, the most famous of which is the Crown of Thorns supposedly worn by Jesus Christ at his execution, placed in the cathedral in 1239. It’s also home to some magnificent gargoyles on the roof, and you can climb up to the roof and take a very close look at them. Well, you used to be able to, until the tragic fire of 2019.

Down

1 Georgia team, in sports headlines : DAWGS

The University of Georgia (UGA) is primarily located in Athens, Georgia. UGA was founded in 1785 and was the nation’s first state-chartered university. UGA’s sports teams are called the Georgia Bulldogs (sometimes just “Dawgs”).

2 “Aida,” for one : OPERA

“Aida” is a celebrated opera by Giuseppe Verdi that is based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. Mariette also designed the costumes and stages for the opening performance. The opera was first staged in 1871 in an opera house in Cairo. In the storyline, Aida is an Ethiopian princess brought into Egypt as a slave. Radames is an Egyptian commander who falls in love with her, and then complications arise!

5 Early 20th-cent. conflict : WWI

Prior to the outbreak of World War II, what we now know as World War I was referred to as “the World War” or “The Great War”.

11 Part of a pound : OUNCE

Our term “ounce” comes from the Latin “uncia”, which was 1/12 of a “libra”, the Roman “pound”. “Uncia” is also the derivation of our word “inch”, 1/12 of a foot.

13 Hurling or curling : SPORT

Hurling is the national sport of my homeland of Ireland. It’s played with a stick called a hurley and a ball called a “sliotar”. It’s thought to be the fastest team sport in the world, and certainly has to be the oldest as it predates Christianity and was brought to Ireland by the Celts.

I think curling is such a cool game (pun!). It’s somewhat like bowls, but played on a sheet of ice. The sport was supposedly invented in medieval Scotland, and is called curling because of the action of the granite stone as it moves across the ice. A player can make the stone take a curved path (“curl”) by causing it to slowly rotate as it slides.

25 Wood strip : LATH

The words “lath” and “lattice” have the same root in Old French. Laths are thin strips of wood that are nailed across a frame forming a backing to which plaster can be applied to finish a wall. The term is also used for the main elements in a trellis, or the lengths of wood in a roof to which shingles are nailed.

26 Campfire remnants : ASHES

A remnant is a small part that’s left over from something larger. The term comes from the Latin “remanour” meaning “to remain”. So, a “remnant” is something “remaining”.

28 Guy in a popular tongue-twister : PETER PIPER

The earliest written version of the “Peter Piper” nursery rhyme and tongue twister dates back to 1813 London:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

A peck is a unit of dry volume, equivalent to two gallons. Four pecks then make up a bushel.

30 Not yet known: Abbr. : TBA

Something not yet on the schedule (“sked” or “sched.”) is to be advised/announced (TBA).

32 Decorative fish : KOI

Koi are fish that are also known as Japanese carp. Koi have been bred for decorative purposes and there are now some very brightly colored examples found in Japanese water gardens.

35 Wonder __ : WOMAN

Superhero Wonder Woman first appeared in print in 1941, in a publication from DC Comics. As she was created during WWII, Wonder Woman’s first foes were the axis powers. In the less realistic world her biggest foe was and still is Ares, a “baddie” named after the Greek mythological figure. Wonder Woman had several signature expressions, including “Merciful Minerva!”, “Suffering Sappho!” and “Great Hera!”. She also has several devices that she uses in her quest for justice, e.g. the Lasso of Truth, a pair of indestructible bracelets and a tiara that can be used as a deadly projectile. Wonder Woman uses the name “Diana Prince” when “out of uniform”.

38 Princess’ bane, in a fairy tale : PEA

Today, we tend to use the word “bane” to mean “anathema, a source of persistent annoyance”. A few centuries ago, a bane was a cause of harm or death, perhaps a deadly poison.

42 Tick off : MIFF

To miff is to put out, to tee off. “To miff” is a verb that has been around since the early 1600s. Interestingly, in 1824 Sir Walter Scott described the word “miffed” as “a women’s phrase”. That should get him a slap, I’d say …

50 ’90s candidate Ross : PEROT

Ross Perot graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1953, as president of his class. 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. Back in 1992, Perot ran as an independent candidate for US president. He founded the Reform Party in 1995, and ran as the Reform Party candidate for president in 1996.

51 Me.-to-Fla. route : US-ONE

US Route 1 runs from Fort Kent in Maine right down to Key West in Florida.

53 Drummer for John, Paul and George : RINGO

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”.

55 Shorthand specialist, for short : STENO

Stenography is the process of writing in shorthand. The term comes from the Greek “steno” (narrow) and “graphe” (writing).

57 Cosmetician Lauder : ESTEE

Estée Lauder was a very successful businesswoman, and someone with a great reputation as a salesperson. Lauder introduced her own line of fragrances in 1953, a bath oil called “Youth Dew”. “Youth Dew” was marketed as a perfume, but it was added to bathwater. All of a sudden women were pouring whole bottles of Ms. Lauder’s “perfume” into their baths while using only a drop or two of French perfumes behind their ears. That’s quite a difference in sales volume …

64 “__ the ramparts … ” : O’ER

The words “o’er the ramparts we watched” come from “The Star Spangled Banner” written by Francis Scott Key.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Igloo shape : DOME
5 Least satisfactory : WORST
10 Boars’ mates : SOWS
14 Did a takeoff on : APED
15 “Christina’s World” painter Andrew : WYETH
16 Witty remark : QUIP
17 *Divisive political topic : WEDGE ISSUE
19 Useful Word command for the error-prone : UNDO
20 “Good __!”: Charlie Brownism : GRIEF
21 Immature newt : EFT
22 Cake decorator : ICER
23 Biological pouch : SAC
24 *Want-ad heading in the London Times, perhaps : FLAT FOR RENT
28 MADD ads, e.g. : PSAS
29 Gerbil or hamster, often : PET
30 I-90 in Mass., say : TPKE
33 Defrost : THAW
36 Slack-jawed : AGAPE
40 *Get up and running, digitally : BOOT THE COMPUTER
43 Vowel-heavy goodbye : ADIEU
44 Truck stop vehicle : SEMI
45 About to arrive at : NEAR
46 Monopoly quartet, briefly : RRS
48 HQs for B-52s : AFBS
50 *Interrogate persistently : PUMP FOR INFO
55 Nor. neighbor : SWE
58 Morales of “Ozark” : ESAI
59 Female in the fam : SIS
60 “Darn!” and “Dagnabbit!” are mild ones : OATHS
62 Easy win : ROMP
63 “Stand up!” … and a hint to the beginnings of the answers to starred clues : ON YOUR FEET!
66 “My treat” : ON ME
67 Double-curved arches : OGEES
68 Starting poker pot contribution : ANTE
69 Sign of joy, maybe : TEAR
70 __-Dame de Paris : NOTRE
71 Went up : ROSE

Down

1 Georgia team, in sports headlines : DAWGS
2 “Aida,” for one : OPERA
3 Battlefield doc : MEDIC
4 Beat by a hair : EDGE
5 Early 20th-cent. conflict : WWI
6 Yiddish laments : OYS
7 Start-over button : RESET
8 Assorted items : STUFF
9 Place to take it from? : THE TOP
10 Water pistols : SQUIRT GUNS
11 Part of a pound : OUNCE
12 Add a lane to, say : WIDEN
13 Hurling or curling : SPORT
18 Failing grades : EFFS
25 Wood strip : LATH
26 Campfire remnants : ASHES
27 Harvest : REAP
28 Guy in a popular tongue-twister : PETER PIPER
30 Not yet known: Abbr. : TBA
31 Pea holder : POD
32 Decorative fish : KOI
34 Pro : ACE
35 Wonder __ : WOMAN
37 Had : ATE
38 Princess’ bane, in a fairy tale : PEA
39 Goof : ERR
41 Grass-and-roots layer : TURF
42 Tick off : MIFF
47 “Already?” : SO SOON?
49 Ill-mannered sort : BOOR
50 ’90s candidate Ross : PEROT
51 Me.-to-Fla. route : US-ONE
52 Poppa’s partner : MAMMA
53 Drummer for John, Paul and George : RINGO
54 “The best __ to come” : IS YET
55 Shorthand specialist, for short : STENO
56 Stimulates : WHETS
57 Cosmetician Lauder : ESTEE
61 Many miles away : AFAR
64 “__ the ramparts … ” : O’ER
65 Take advantage of : USE