LA Times Crossword 31 Aug 20, Monday

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Constructed by: Jerome Gunderson
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Where Was I?

Themed answers each start with two letters that spell out an interjection meaning “WHERE WAS I?”:

  • 66A Lost-one’s-place words often preceded by the two-letter start of 17-, 29- and 49-Across : WHERE WAS I?
  • 17A Rental vehicles for self-moving : U-HAUL VANS (giving “Uh …”)
  • 29A Designed for comfort and efficiency : ERGONOMIC (giving “Er …”)
  • 49A Rainy day protectors : UMBRELLAS (giving “Um …”)

Bill’s time: 4m 58s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Asks for a treat, as a boxer : BEGS

The boxer breed of dog (one of my favorites) originated in Germany. My first dog was a boxer/Labrador mix, a beautiful combination. Our current family dog is a boxer/pug mix, and is another gorgeous animal.

5 Site of a boxer’s attack : RING

“Pugilism”, another word for “boxing”, comes from the Latin “pugil” meaning “boxer”. In turn, “pugil” derives from “pugnus”, the word for “fist”.

9 Chocolate syrup brand since 1928 : BOSCO

Bosco Chocolate Syrup is produced in New Jersey, and first hit store shelves in 1928.

14 Circus prefix with bat : ACRO-

An acrobat is someone who performs gymnastic feats. The term “acrobat“ comes into English via French from the Greek “akrobatos” meaning “going on tip-toe, climbing up high”.

15 Diva’s delivery : ARIA

The term “diva” comes to us from Latin via Italian. “Diva” is the feminine form of “divus” meaning “divine one”. The word is used in Italy to mean “goddess” or “fine lady”, and especially is applied to the prima donna in an opera. We often use the term to describe a singer with a big ego.

17 Rental vehicles for self-moving : U-HAUL VANS

The U-Haul company was started by married couple Leonard Shoen and Anna Mary Carty in Ridgefield, Washington in 1945. The Shoens used $5,000 of seed money to build trailers in their garage, and then cleverly recruited gas station owners as franchisees with whom they would split the rental revenue. There are now about 15,000 U-Haul dealers across the country.

20 President after Madison : MONROE

James Monroe was the fifth US President, and the last of the Founding Fathers to hold the highest office. Famously, he presided over the Era of Good Feelings, when there was very little partisan strife in Washington. President Monroe racked up a lot of debt while in politics and so when he retired he had to sell off a lot of his property and struggled financially for the remainder of his life. Monroe was one of three US presidents to pass away on American Independence Day (along with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams). Monroe died on July 4th 1831.

James Madison was one of the Founding Fathers, and the fourth President of the US. Madison played a key role in drafting the US Constitution as well as the Bill of Rights, and so is sometimes referred to as the Father of the Constitution. Along with future president Thomas Jefferson, Madison founded the Democratic-Republican Party, which was one of the nation’s first two major political parties along with Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Party.

21 Mother-of-pearl sources : ABALONES

The large edible sea snails that we call abalone are called ormer in Britain and Ireland, and are served as “awabi” at a sushi bar. The abalone shell resembles a human ear, giving rise to the alternative names “ear shell” and “sea ear”.

Nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl, is the strong iridescent material laid down by some mollusks on the inside of their shells, and it’s also what makes up pearls. The creature lays down nacre as a defensive mechanism, protecting the soft tissue of its body from the rough surface of the outer shell. Similarly, it uses nacre to encapsulate harmful debris or a parasite that penetrates the shell, and that’s how a pearl is formed. Cultured pearls are made by inserting a tissue graft from a donor oyster, around which the nacre is laid down.

35 Guffaw syllable : HAR

“Guffaw”, meaning “boisterous laugh”, is an imitative word that is Scottish in origin.

36 Pirate in “Hook” : SMEE

In J. M. Barrie’s play and novel about Peter Pan, Smee is one of Captain Hook’s pirates and is Hook’s bosun and right-hand man. Smee is described by Barrie as being “Irish” and “a man who stabbed without offence”. Nice guy! Captain Hook and Smee sail on a pirate ship called the Jolly Roger.

“Hook” is a very enjoyable 1991 movie directed by Steven Spielberg that is based on J.M. Barrie’s 1911 novel “Peter and Wendy”. Spielberg elicited great performances from a great cast in “Hook”. Included in the cast are Robin Williams as Peter, Dustin Hoffman as Hook, Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell, Bob Hoskins as Smee and Maggie Smith as a mature Wendy.

38 U.S. state with the lowest average annual rainfall : NEVADA

The driest state in the Union is Nevada, if one considers average precipitation for the whole year. When considering seasonal precipitation, the driest state in the winter is North Dakota, and in the summer is California.

39 Horse known for its endurance : ARAB

The Arab (also “Arabian”) breed of horse takes its name from its original home, the Arabian Peninsula. Like any animal that humans have over-bred, the horse falls prey to genetic diseases, some of which are fatal and some of which require the horse to be euthanized.

44 Wisdom teeth, e.g. : MOLARS

In a human tooth, cusps are the raised points on the crowns. Canine teeth have only one cusp each, and so are known as cuspids. Premolars have two cusps, and are usually referred to as bicuspids.

Wisdom teeth are an extra set of molars in the back of the jaws. There are usually four wisdom teeth, and they only occur in about 65% of the population.

46 Fabled loch : NESS

The Loch Ness monster has been talked about for centuries, but modern interest started in 1933 when a spate of sightings was reported. Those sightings don’t seem to have stopped, with photographs really sparking the imagination.

48 Stooge Howard : MOE

“Moe Howard” was the stage name of Moses Harry Horwitz. Howard was one of the Three Stooges. In 1925, he married Helen Schonberger, who was a cousin of Harry Houdini.

49 Rainy day protectors : UMBRELLAS

Our term “umbrella” ultimately derives from the Latin “umbra” meaning “shade, shadow”.

54 Bro of van Gogh : THEO

Theo van Gogh was the younger brother of painter Vincent van Gogh, and a successful art dealer. Theo provided financial support for his brother throughout his life, allowing Vincent to pursue his passion for creating art. Vincent and Theo died about six months apart. The former committed suicide and the later died from the effects of syphilis.

56 Dedicatee of an annual MLB tribute game : OLD-TIMER

MLB tribute game : OLD-TIMER
Old-Timers’ Day is a tradition observed by several Major League Baseball teams, most notably the New York Yankees. The event is an afternoon game that is used to honor retired former team members.

65 Lion’s warnings : ROARS

The four “big cats” are the tiger, lion, jaguar and leopard. The largest of the big cats is the tiger, and the smallest is the leopard.

68 Lake craft : CANOE

The boat known as a canoe takes its name from the Carib word “kenu” meaning “dugout”. It was Christopher Columbus who brought “kenu” into Spanish as “canoa”, which evolved into our English “canoe”.

69 Bubbly-textured Nestlé chocolate bar : AERO

I must admit to having a weakness for Aero chocolate bars. Aero was introduced by Rowntree’s in the North of England in 1935. The “aero” name is a reference to the chocolate’s “bubbly” texture.

71 Change for the better : AMEND

The verb “to amend” means “to change for the better, put right, alter by adding”. The related verb “to emend” is used more rarely, and mainly in reference to the editing of professional writing. Both terms are derived from the Latin “emendare” meaning “to remove fault”.

72 Tall tale : YARN

The phrase “to spin a yarn”, meaning “to tell a tall tale”, originated in the early 1800s with seamen. The idea was that sailors would tell stories to each other while engaged in mindless work such as twisting yarn.

73 Classic Jaguars : XK-ES

We knew them as E-type Jags in my part of the world growing up, but they were marketed over in the US as the Jaguar XK-E line. The XK-E was manufactured from 1961 to 1974.

Down

1 Wicked Witch of the West creator : BAUM

L. Frank Baum (the “L” is for Lyman) is famous for writing “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. Writing early in the 20th century, Baum actually described in his books things that had yet to be invented, like television, laptop computers and wireless telephones.

Miss Almira Gulch is the woman who gets bitten by Dorothy’s dog Toto right at the start of “The Wizard of Oz”. In Oz, Miss Gulch manifests herself as the Wicked Witch of the West.

5 Poe’s “ebony bird” : RAVEN

“The Raven” is a narrative poem by Edgar Allan Poe that tells of a student who has lost the love of his life, Lenore. A raven enters the student’s bedchamber and perches on a bust of Pallas. The raven can talk, to the student’s surprise, but says nothing but the word “nevermore” (“quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore’”). As the student questions all aspects of his life, the raven taunts him with the same comment, “nevermore”. Finally, the student decides that his soul is trapped beneath the raven’s shadow and shall be lifted “nevermore”.

6 Nest egg letters : IRA

Individual retirement account (IRA)

7 Columbus ship : NINA

The ship used by Christopher Columbus that we know as the Niña was actually the nickname of a ship actually called the Santa Clara. The nickname “Niña” probably came from the name of her owner, Juan Niña of Moguer.

9 Double-winged WWI aircraft : BIPLANE

A biplane features two main wings that are stacked one above the other. Arguably, the most consequential biplane was the Wright Flyer, the first successful heavier-than-air powered aircraft.

10 Norway’s capital : OSLO

Oslo, the capital of Norway, is an ancient city that was founded around 1048. The medieval city was destroyed by fire in 1624 and was rebuilt by the Danish-Norwegian king Christian IV and renamed to Christiana. In 1877 there was an official change of the spelling of the city’s name to “Kristiana”, and then more recently in 1925 the name was restored to the original Oslo. Things have almost gone full circle and now the center of Oslo, the area that would have been contained by the original medieval walls, has apparently been renamed to Christiana.

18 The Home Depot competitor : LOWE’S

Lucius S. Lowe opened the first Lowe’s hardware store in 1921, in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Lucius only knew the one store, as it was his family who expanded the company after he passed away in 1940.

The Home Depot is the largest home improvement retail chain in the US, ahead of Lowe’s. Home Depot opened their first two stores in 1979. The average store size is just over 100,000 square feet. The largest Home Depot outlet is in Union, New Jersey, and it is 225,000 square feet in size. That’s a lot of nuts and bolts …

26 Former SeaWorld star : SHAMU

Shamu was the name of the third orca (aka “killer whale”) ever to be featured in a public exhibition. Shamu starred in a popular SeaWorld show in San Diego in the sixties. After she died in 1971, her name lived on as the “stage name” of orca shows in different SeaWorld parks. That original Shamu was retired after she grabbed and refused to let go of the leg of one of her trainers.

27 Off-the-cushion billiards shot : CAROM

A carom is a ricochet, the bouncing of some projectile off a surface. “Carom” has come to describe the banking of a billiard ball, the bouncing of the ball off the side of the table.

28 Dental care brand : ORAL-B

The Oral-B toothbrush was introduced to the world in 1950, designed by a California periodontist. The first “model” was the Oral-B 60, a name given to reflect the 60 tufts in the brush. In 1969, the Oral-B was the first toothbrush to get to the moon as it was the toothbrush of choice for the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft.

32 Molten rock : MAGMA

Magma is the molten material below the Earth’s surface. When magma cools, it forms igneous rock. “Magma” is a Greek term that describes a thick ointment.

34 Curved-top candy shapes : CANES

Apparently, candy canes were created at the behest of the choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral in Germany in 1672. The sweet sticks were basically used as bribes to keep children quiet during services. The choirmaster specified that the candy sticks should have a crook at the top so that they reminded the children of the three shepherds who visited the infant Jesus just after his birth.

37 Mosque visitor : MUSLIM

The largest mosque in the world is Al-Masjid Al-Haram in Mecca, sometimes referred to in English as the Sacred Mosque or the Grand Mosque. Al-Masjid Al-Haram is home to the Kaaba, the most sacred location in Islam. Muslims face in the direction of the Kaaba when performing formal worship known as Salat.

50 Wiggle room : LEEWAY

Our word “leeway” meaning “spare margin” is nautical in origin. A vessel’s leeway is the amount of drift motion away from her intended course that is caused by the action of the wind.

52 Hair-removal substance : HOT WAX

Ouch …

55 White wader : HERON

Herons are birds with long legs that inhabit freshwater and coastal locales. Some herons are routinely referred to as egrets, and others as bitterns. Herons look a lot like storks and cranes, but differ in their appearance in flight. Herons fly with their necks retracted in an S-shape, whereas storks and cranes have their necks extended.

57 Rich soil : LOAM

Loam is soil made up of sand, silt and clay in the ratio of about 40-40-20. Relative to other soil types, loam is usually rich in nutrients and moisture, drains well and is easy to till. Loam can also be used in constructing houses as it is quite strong when mixed with straw and dried.

58 “Great” dog breed : DANE

The Great Dane breed of dog isn’t actually from Denmark, and rather is from Germany.

59 Suffix with Jumbo : -TRON

A JumboTron is a big-screen television system developed by Sony, one often seen in sports stadiums. The brand name “JumboTron” is used pretty generically now for any big-screen system in such venues, even though Sony exited the business in 2001.

60 Flightless bird : RHEA

The rhea is a flightless bird that is native to South America. The rhea takes its name from the Greek Titan Rhea. It’s an apt name for a flightless bird as “rhea” comes from the Greek word meaning “ground”.

63 Tennis great Arthur : ASHE

The great American tennis player Arthur Ashe spent the last years of his life writing his memoir called “Days of Grace”. He finished the manuscript just a few days before he passed away, dying from AIDS caused by a tainted blood transfusion.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Asks for a treat, as a boxer : BEGS
5 Site of a boxer’s attack : RING
9 Chocolate syrup brand since 1928 : BOSCO
14 Circus prefix with bat : ACRO-
15 Diva’s delivery : ARIA
16 “This __ much!”: “I’m overwhelmed!” : IS TOO
17 Rental vehicles for self-moving : U-HAUL VANS
19 “Pleasantly” chubby : PLUMP
20 President after Madison : MONROE
21 Mother-of-pearl sources : ABALONES
23 Has title to : OWNS
25 __ standstill : AT A
26 Tea biscuit : SCONE
29 Designed for comfort and efficiency : ERGONOMIC
35 Guffaw syllable : HAR
36 Pirate in “Hook” : SMEE
38 U.S. state with the lowest average annual rainfall : NEVADA
39 Horse known for its endurance : ARAB
41 Wed : UNITE
43 Not fer : AGIN
44 Wisdom teeth, e.g. : MOLARS
46 Fabled loch : NESS
48 Stooge Howard : MOE
49 Rainy day protectors : UMBRELLAS
51 Casual conversations : CHATS
53 Contend (for) : VIE
54 Bro of van Gogh : THEO
56 Dedicatee of an annual MLB tribute game : OLD-TIMER
61 Snare : ENTRAP
65 Lion’s warnings : ROARS
66 Lost-one’s-place words often preceded by the two-letter start of 17-, 29- and 49-Across : WHERE WAS I?
68 Lake craft : CANOE
69 Bubbly-textured Nestlé chocolate bar : AERO
70 Muscle pain : ACHE
71 Change for the better : AMEND
72 Tall tale : YARN
73 Classic Jaguars : XK-ES

Down

1 Wicked Witch of the West creator : BAUM
2 Reverberate : ECHO
3 Mom’s mom : GRAN
4 Become disenchanted with : SOUR ON
5 Poe’s “ebony bird” : RAVEN
6 Nest egg letters : IRA
7 Columbus ship : NINA
8 Chatterbox : GASBAG
9 Double-winged WWI aircraft : BIPLANE
10 Norway’s capital : OSLO
11 Leave slack-jawed : STUN
12 Arrive : COME
13 “Sorry, my mistake” : OOPS
18 The Home Depot competitor : LOWE’S
22 Shows contrition : ATONES
24 Noticed : SEEN
26 Former SeaWorld star : SHAMU
27 Off-the-cushion billiards shot : CAROM
28 Dental care brand : ORAL-B
30 Spanish queen : REINA
31 Caesar’s eggs : OVA
32 Molten rock : MAGMA
33 Meathead : IDIOT
34 Curved-top candy shapes : CANES
37 Mosque visitor : MUSLIM
40 Saloon : BAR
42 Exam : TEST
45 Made changes in : REVISED
47 Play division : SCENE
50 Wiggle room : LEEWAY
52 Hair-removal substance : HOT WAX
55 White wader : HERON
56 26-Down, for one : ORCA
57 Rich soil : LOAM
58 “Great” dog breed : DANE
59 Suffix with Jumbo : -TRON
60 Flightless bird : RHEA
62 __ of lamb : RACK
63 Tennis great Arthur : ASHE
64 Crusty desserts : PIES
67 Goof up : ERR