LA Times Crossword 27 Aug 20, Thursday

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Constructed by: Andy Morrison
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): Today’s Sandwich Specials

Themed answers are common phrases reinterpreted as sandwiches related to specific locales:

  • 20A Sandwich in Denver? : MILE HIGH CLUB
  • 35A Sandwich on the briny? : MARINE SUB
  • 40A Sandwich in the neighborhood? : LOCAL HERO
  • 52A Sandwich at a church concert? : ORGAN GRINDER

Bill’s time: 8m 14s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “Amanpour & Co.” network : PBS

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) was founded in 1970, and is my favorite of the broadcast networks. I love PBS’s drama and science shows in particular, and always watch election results coming in with the NewsHour team.

Christiane Amanpour is a marvelous television journalist who started her career with CNN in 1983. She is known for her live reporting of major conflicts around the world, including the Iran-Iraq War, the fall of European communism, the Persian Gulf War and the Siege of Sarajevo. In 2018, Amanpour was chosen by PBS to replace Charlie Rose after he resigned his post facing allegations of sexual misconduct. . Amanpur was born in London, but raised in Tehran.

14 GPS finding : LAT

Lines of latitude are imaginary horizontal lines surrounding the planet. The most “important” lines of latitude are, from north to south:

  • Arctic Circle
  • Tropic of Cancer
  • Equator
  • Tropic of Capricorn
  • Antarctic Circle

16 “__ Rae” : NORMA

“Norma Rae” is a 1979 movie starring Sally Field as Norma Rae Webster in a tale of union activities in a textile factory in Alabama. The film is based on the true story of Crystal Lee Sutton told in a 1975 book called “Crystal Lee, a Woman of Inheritance”.

18 Small earthen pot : CRUSE

A cruse is a small earthenware pot. A cruse lamp was a round bowl with a handle at one end and a spout with a wick at the other. The bowl probably held some animal fat as fuel for the flame.

20 Sandwich in Denver? : MILE HIGH CLUB

The club sandwich is a double-decker affair with three layers of bread and two layers of filling. This style of sandwich has been around since the end of the 19th century, and some say it was invented at an exclusive gambling “club” in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Denver, Colorado is nicknamed the “Mile-High City” because its official elevation is listed as exactly one mile. Denver City was founded in 1858 as a mining town. The name was chosen in honor of the Kansas Territorial Governor at the time, James W. Denver.

To become a member of the “Mile High Club”, one must have sexual relations on an aircraft.

23 Astronomical octet : PLANETS

There are several mnemonics used to remember the planets and the order in which they are found in the Solar System. One example is “My Very Easy Method Just Shows Us Nine Planets”, but that doesn’t really work since Pluto was relegated from “planethood” in 2006. The most oft-quoted mnemonic for the eight planets is “My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nachos”. Given the relegation of Pluto, I kind of like “Many Very Educated Men Just Screwed Up Nature”.

24 River Foyle’s province : ULSTER

Ireland is divided into four provinces: Leinster, Munster, Connacht and Ulster. “Ulster” is sometimes used as a synonym for Northern Ireland, but in fact Ulster comprises the six counties of Northern Ireland and three more, namely Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan.

The River Foyle in the northern part of Ireland runs through both the Republic (Southern Ireland) and Northern Ireland.

28 Form 1099 agcy. : IRS

There is a series of IRS 1099 forms used to report various types of income, other than wages, salaries and tips that are reported on Form W-2. Examples are Form 1099-INT used to report interest income, 1099-DIV used to report dividend income, and 1099-MISC used to report miscellaneous income.

29 Japanese sandal : ZORI

Zori are thonged sandals commonly worn in Japan. Our modern “flip-flops” are based on the traditional zori design, although the original sandal is a pair of symmetrical shoes.

31 Hullabaloo : ADO

Our word “hullabaloo”, meaning “commotion”, is a derivative of an older term “hollo-ballo”. “Hollo-ballo” was a word used for an uproar in the north of England and Scotland.

32 Puts up, as drapes : HANGS

When I was growing up on the other side of the pond, a drapery was a shop where one could buy cloth for making clothes or curtains. It was only when I came to America that I heard the term “drapes” used for curtains.

35 Sandwich on the briny? : MARINE SUB

The briny is the sea, with “brine” meaning “salty water”. The term “briny” was originally used for “tears”.

37 Scott of “Big Little Lies” : ADAM

Adam Scott is an actor from Santa Cruz, California who is best known for playing Ben Wyatt on the hit sitcom “Parks and Recreation”.

“Big Little Lies” is a 2017 TV miniseries that is based on a 2014 novel of the same name. It stars Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Shailene Woodley as three women who, while dealing with their own emotional problems, find themselves involved in a murder investigation. I haven’t seen this one, but hear very good things …

39 Metric prefix : DECI-

The prefix “deci-” indicates “a tenth”.

40 Sandwich in the neighborhood? : LOCAL HERO

A hero is a submarine sandwich. The hero originated in New York City in the 1800s among Italian immigrants who wanted an Italian sandwich that reminded them of home. The name “hero” was coined in the 1930s, supposedly by a food critic in the “New York Herald Tribune” when he wrote that “one had to be a hero” to finish the gigantic sandwich. Hero is a prevalent term to this day in New York City, reserved for a submarine sandwich with an Italian flavor.

42 Like a soufflé, if everything goes well : RISEN

A soufflé is a French dish that is usually served as a dessert. The verb “souffler” means “to blow, blow up”.

43 Busy mo. for the 28-Across : APR
(28A Form 1099 agcy. : IRS )

April 15th wasn’t always Tax Day in the US. The deadline for returns was March 1st from 1913-18, when it was moved to March 15th. Tax Day has been April 15th since 1955.

45 Some MIT grads : EES

Electrical engineer (EE)

46 Wright who quipped, “Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time” : STEVEN

Steven Wright is a remarkably droll comedian from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Wright is very, very quotable:

  • What’s another word for Thesaurus?
  • If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?
  • I intend to live forever. So far, so good.
  • When I was a little kid we had a sandbox. It was a quicksand box. I was an only child… eventually.

48 Elaborate wardrobe : ARMOIRE

“Armoire” is the French word for “wardrobe”, and is used in English for a standing closet that stores clothes.

52 Sandwich at a church concert? : ORGAN GRINDER

The etymology of “grinder”, as a name for a sandwich, is unknown. That said, it is known that the term dates back to 1954. It is speculated that eating the large sandwich requires a lot of chewing, and hence the name “grinder”.

58 Bugs with weapons : MORAN

Bugs Moran was a Chicago gangster, the main rival to the slightly more famous Al Capone. Moran tried twice to kill Capone. In the first attempt Moran and his gang shot at Capone from their car as their target was getting out of his own automobile. They missed Capone, and he took to driving in an armored vehicle after that. The second, more famous attempt (in 1926), involved Moran and a fleet of cars driving by Capone’s hotel and spraying the lobby in which he was standing. Again, Capone escaped unharmed. Three years later, in February 1929, six members of Moran’s gang were lined up against a wall and shot by order of Capone, an incident we now remember as the famous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.

59 Oral health org. : ADA

The American Dental Association (ADA) is the largest and oldest national dental association in the world. Today the ADA is based in Chicago, but the association was founded in Niagara Falls, New York in 1859. The ADA started out as a group of 26 dentists, and it now has more than 152,000 members.

61 Revise : EMEND

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”.

63 Gets the kitty going : ANTES

The pot in a card game has been referred to as “the kitty” since the 1880s. It’s not certain how the name “kitty” evolved but possibly it comes from “kit”, the necessary equipment for the game.

65 Neruda verse : ODE

“Odes to Common Things” is a collection of poems by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Included in the list of 25 odes is “Ode to the Table”, “Ode to the Dog”, Ode to the Artichoke” and “Ode to French Fries”.

Down

1 Zaftig : PLUMP

A woman who is described as “zaftig” has a full and shapely figure. “Zaftig” comes from the Yiddish word “zaftik” meaning “juicy”. I am not going to touch this one …

2 Pho garnish : BASIL

Traditionally, basil is considered “the king of herbs”. And in fact, the herb’s name comes from the Greek “basileus” meaning “king”.

Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is a noodle soup from Vietnam that is a popular street food.

3 Inscribed pillar : STELA

Stelae (singular “stele” or “stela”) were used all over the world, sometimes as territorial markers and sometimes to commemorate military victories. In later times stelae were commonly erected as commemorative markers in graveyards or other religious sites.

4 Quiver carriers : ARCHERS

A quiver is a container used to carry arrows.

7 Mascara target : LASH

Variants of mascara have been around a long time, and certainly there was a similar substance in use in ancient Egypt. “Mascara” is a Spanish word meaning “stain, mask”.

8 Corp. bigwig : EXEC

A bigwig is someone important. The use of the term “bigwig” harks back to the days when men of authority and rank wore … big wigs.

9 Pancreatic hormone : INSULIN

The hormone insulin is secreted by structures in the pancreas called the islets of Langerhans, which are named for their island-like appearance under a microscope and for their discoverer Paul Langerhans. The hormone is named for the “islets”, as the Latin for island is “insula”.

The pancreas has two main functions in the human body. In one role, it is part of the digestive system and secretes pancreatic juice into the digestive tract to neutralize stomach acids. In a second role, it secretes hormones (most notably insulin) that help regulate sugar levels in the blood.

10 “The Gift of the Magi” gift : COMBS

O. Henry’s short story called “The Gift of the Magi” was first published in 1905. It tells of relatively poor, newly-married couple who want to buy each other a gift for Christmas. The wife’s pride and joy is her long blonde hair, while the husband’s most treasured possession is his grandfather’s gold pocket watch. The wife sells her hair to buy her gift, and the husband sells his watch to buy his gift for his spouse. The wife is given a set of combs, hair accessories that are useless now that her hair is short. The husband gets a platinum fob chain for the watch that he no longer owns.

11 Stat for Clayton Kershaw : ERA

Clayton Kershaw is a pitcher who started playing for the LA Dodgers in 2008. Outside of baseball, Kershaw is noted for his charitable work, especially his efforts to raise money for an orphanage in Zambia.

12 Online chats, briefly : IMS

Even though instant messaging (sending and receiving IMs) has been around since the 1960s, it was AOL who popularized the term “instant message” in the eighties and nineties. The “AOL Instant Message” service was known as AIM.

13 “Hard pass” : NAH

“Hard pass” is a slang term meaning “absolutely not, not interested”.

21 “The Imitation Game” encryption machine : ENIGMA

An Enigma machine is a cipher device developed at the end of WWI by German engineer Arthur Scherbius. The machine was used by Nazi Germany in the run-up to and during WWII. The Enigma codes used by the Germans were first broken by three Polish mathematicians who subsequently designed mechanical devices for automated deciphering of Enigma-coded messages. Polish Military Intelligence handed over the decryption technology to the French and British just before the outbreak of war.

25 Zaps : TASES

Victor Appleton wrote a novel for young adults called “Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle”. The company that developed the TASER electroshock weapon partly named its product as a homage to the novel. The acronym “TASER” stands for “Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle”.

27 Sign of spring : ROBIN

The American robin has a reddish-orange breast. This coloring gave the bird its name, due to the similarity to the European robin. The two species are not in fact related, with the American robin being a thrush, and its European cousin an Old World flycatcher. It is the American robin that famously lays light-blue eggs.

29 Former name of the Congo : ZAIRE

The African nation once called Zaire is a neighbor of Rwanda. The genocide and war in Rwanda spilled over into Zaire in 1996, with the conflict escalating into what is now called the First Congo War. As part of the war’s fallout there was a regime change, and in 1997 Zaire became the Democratic Republic of Congo.

30 Cookie with a Tiramisu Flavor Creme variety : OREO

Oreo cookies actually come in a few flavors, but it takes some work to find them. For example, Green Tea Oreos are only available in China and Japan. Many flavors are only available for a limited time. For example, Watermelon Oreos were only sold in the summer of 2013, and Cookie Dough Oreos were only available in March 2014.

32 “Papa Bear” of football : HALAS

The NFL’s George Stanley Halas, Sr. was nicknamed “Papa Bear”. He also earned the well-deserved nickname of “Mr Everything” as he was a player, coach, inventor, jurist, producer, philanthropist, philatelist and NFL owner. He led the Chicago Bears from 1921 to 1967.

34 Mother-of-pearl : NACRE

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 TV’s talking horse : MR ED

The sitcom “Mister Ed” first aired in 1961 and ran for almost five years. It was a very successful show (and even made it to Ireland!). Mister Ed, the talking horse, was a palomino that had the real name of Bamboo Harvester. Mister Ed’s “voice” was that of actor Allan “Rocky” Lane, a star of a lot of B-movie westerns from the forties and fifties. In the show, Mister Ed would only talk to the lead (human) character Wilbur, played by Alan Young, leading to some hilarious situations. Mister Ed had a stunt double and stand-in for the show, another horse called Pumpkin. Pumpkin later made frequent appearances on the show “Green Acres”.

36 Acquirer of more than 1,000 patents : EDISON

Thomas Alva Edison (TAE) was a very successful inventor. He held over a thousand US patents in his name. Included in the list of Edison’s inventions is the phonograph, the movie camera and the long-lasting light bulb. He passed away in 1931. There is a test tube at the Henry Ford Museum that supposedly holds Edison’s last breath. Ford convinced Thomas’s son Charles to seal up a tube of air in the room just after the inventor died, as a memento.

41 Ophelia’s brother : LAERTES

In William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”, Laertes is the son of Polonius and brother of Ophelia. It is Laertes who kills Hamlet using a poisoned sword..

47 Word with mail or box : VOICE …

The voice box or larynx is where pitch and volume of sound are manipulated when we talk. The structure called the Adam’s apple that protrudes from the human neck is formed by the thyroid cartilage that surrounds the larynx. The Adam’s apple of males tends to increase in size during puberty, so the feature tended to be associated more with males in days gone by, perhaps leading to the name “Adam’s” apple. A doctor specializing in treating the larynx is a laryngologist.

49 You can cross it in about an hour on I-90 : IDAHO

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.

53 Grace period? : AMEN

The word “amen” translates as “so be it”. “Amen” is said to be of Hebrew origin, but it is also likely to be influenced by Aramaic and Arabic.

A grace is a short prayer recited before or after a meal.

54 Alaskan seaport : NOME

In 1899, the Alaska city of Nome was briefly known as Anvil City by locals to avoid confusion with the nearby city of Cape Nome. However, the US Post Office refused to approve the change, and so the name was immediately changed back to Nome.

57 Service to redo : LET

That would be tennis, for example.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 “Amanpour & Co.” network : PBS
4 Enough and then some : AMPLE
9 Strand during a hail storm, say : ICE IN
14 GPS finding : LAT
15 Take it easy : RELAX
16 “__ Rae” : NORMA
17 Put to work : USE
18 Small earthen pot : CRUSE
19 Huge success : SMASH
20 Sandwich in Denver? : MILE HIGH CLUB
23 Astronomical octet : PLANETS
24 River Foyle’s province : ULSTER
28 Form 1099 agcy. : IRS
29 Japanese sandal : ZORI
31 Hullabaloo : ADO
32 Puts up, as drapes : HANGS
35 Sandwich on the briny? : MARINE SUB
37 Scott of “Big Little Lies” : ADAM
38 Examined in court : TRIED
39 Metric prefix : DECI-
40 Sandwich in the neighborhood? : LOCAL HERO
42 Like a soufflé, if everything goes well : RISEN
43 Busy mo. for the 28-Across : APR
44 Senate staffer : AIDE
45 Some MIT grads : EES
46 Wright who quipped, “Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time” : STEVEN
48 Elaborate wardrobe : ARMOIRE
52 Sandwich at a church concert? : ORGAN GRINDER
55 Left : SPLIT
58 Bugs with weapons : MORAN
59 Oral health org. : ADA
60 Musical work : PIECE
61 Revise : EMEND
62 Casual greetings : HIS
63 Gets the kitty going : ANTES
64 They may be pressing : NEEDS
65 Neruda verse : ODE

Down

1 Zaftig : PLUMP
2 Pho garnish : BASIL
3 Inscribed pillar : STELA
4 Quiver carriers : ARCHERS
5 Rates : MERITS
6 Promotes : PLUGS
7 Mascara target : LASH
8 Corp. bigwig : EXEC
9 Pancreatic hormone : INSULIN
10 “The Gift of the Magi” gift : COMBS
11 Stat for Clayton Kershaw : ERA
12 Online chats, briefly : IMS
13 “Hard pass” : NAH
21 “The Imitation Game” encryption machine : ENIGMA
22 Shockingly vivid : LURID
25 Zaps : TASES
26 Elicit : EDUCE
27 Sign of spring : ROBIN
29 Former name of the Congo : ZAIRE
30 Cookie with a Tiramisu Flavor Creme variety : OREO
32 “Papa Bear” of football : HALAS
33 Take on : ADOPT
34 Mother-of-pearl : NACRE
35 TV’s talking horse : MR ED
36 Acquirer of more than 1,000 patents : EDISON
38 Doohickey : THING
41 Ophelia’s brother : LAERTES
42 Does some jogging? : REMINDS
45 Task for a gofer : ERRAND
47 Word with mail or box : VOICE
48 Say yes : AGREE
49 You can cross it in about an hour on I-90 : IDAHO
50 Fixed up : REDID
51 Remove all traces of : ERASE
53 Grace period? : AMEN
54 Alaskan seaport : NOME
55 Place for a peel : SPA
56 Map insert : PIN
57 Service to redo : LET