LA Times Crossword 6 May 21, Thursday

Advertisement

Constructed by: Joe Deeney
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Dust Jacket

Themed answers each start with the letters DU- and end with -ST, each has a DU-ST “JACKET”:

  • 63A Book protector … and what 17- 24-, 39-, and 53-Across each has : DUST JACKET
  • 17A Bridge relative for three players : DUMMY WHIST
  • 24A NBA All-Star Weekend event, casually : DUNK CONTEST
  • 39A Equinox sunset direction viewed from the equator : DUE WEST
  • 53A Sporty muffler option : DUAL EXHAUST

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

Bill’s time: 8m 22s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Apple since 1998 : IMAC

When Apple chose the letter “I” prefix for the iMac in 1998, that letter “I” stood for “Internet”. Steve Jobs and his marketing team followed up with the message that I also stood for “individual, instruct, inform and inspire”.

14 Dunn of “SNL” (1985-’90) : NORA

Nora Dunn is a comedian best known as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live”. She is the sister of actor Kevin Dunn, who is known for many supporting roles including Chief of Staff Ben Cafferty in TV’s “Veep”.

15 Food recall cause : E COLI

Escherichia coli (E. coli) are usually harmless bacteria found in the human gut, working away quite happily. However, there are some strains that can produce lethal toxins. These strains can make their way into the food chain from animal fecal matter that comes into contact with food designated for human consumption.

17 Bridge relative for three players : DUMMY WHIST

Whist is usually played by four players. The three-player version known as “dummy whist” entails the dealing of four hands, with the extra hand assigned as a “team mate” for the player who wins the auction at the start of each round of play.

19 Union foe : SCAB

We first started calling strikebreakers scabs in the early 1800s, and before that a scab was a person who refused to join a trade union (back as early 1777). The word “scab” probably comes from the use of “scab” as a symptom of a skin disease, and so is a term that is meant to insult.

20 Muse’s gift, in modern slang : INSPO

“Inspo” is an informal term describing something or someone serving as “inspiration”.

21 “Too Many Rappers” rapper : NAS

“Too Many Rappers” is a 2009 single released by the Beastie Boys, and featuring rapper Nas.

22 Elephantine : HUGE

Something elephantine resembles an elephant, or more figuratively is huge and clumsy.

23 They’re not from around here, briefly : ETS

Extraterrestrial (ET)

24 NBA All-Star Weekend event, casually : DUNK CONTEST

In basketball, a player makes a slam dunk by jumping up and powering the ball downward into the basket with his or her hands over the rim. The term “slam dunk” was coined by Chick Hearn, an announcer for the L.A. Lakers. The NBA even holds an annual Slam Dunk Contest.

28 TV’s Arthur : BEA

Actress Bea Arthur’s most famous roles were on television, as the lead in the “All in the Family” spin-off “Maude” and as Dorothy Zbornak in “The Golden Girls”. Arthur also won a Tony for playing Vera Charles on stage in the original cast of “Mame” in 1966, two years after she played Yente the matchmaker in the original cast of “Fiddler on the Roof”.

29 MSNBC host Melber : ARI

Ari Melber is a television journalist and the chief legal correspondent for MSNBC. He started hosting his own daily show called “The Beat with Ari Melber” in 2017.

30 Irish New Ager : ENYA

Enya’s real name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1980 Enya launched her very successful solo career, eventually becoming Ireland’s best-selling solo musician. And, she sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

New-Age music is created to provide a relaxing and stress-free atmosphere. The New Age movement is often said to have begun with the release of an album called “Spectrum Suite” by Steven Halpern in 1975.

31 Hawks’ home: Abbr. : ATL

The NBA’s Atlanta Hawks started out as the Buffalo Bisons in 1946, although after only a few months the team was moved to Moline, Illinois as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. The Blackhawks were one of the 17 original teams playing at the founding of the National Basketball Association. There was another move in 1951 and a renaming to the Milwaukee Hawks, and yet again in 1955 when the team became the St. Louis Hawks. The latest move was to Atlanta, in 1968.

32 23andMe concern : DNA

23andMe was the first company to offer direct-to-consumer genetic testing, doing so in 2007. Initially, 23andMe offered a test that determined a subject’s predisposition to a list of specific genetic traits, including baldness and blindness. The company now offers a cost-effective ancestry DNA test as well. The name “23andMe” is a reference to the 23 pairs of chromosomes in the cells of a human.

34 Everglades bird : EGRET

Egrets are a group of several species of white herons. Many egret species were faced with extinction in the 1800s and early 1900s due to plume hunting, a practice driven by the demand for egret plumes that could be incorporated into hats.

The Everglades are a tropical wetlands that cover much of southern Florida. The area was named “River Glades” by a British surveyor in 1773, and is suggested that poor transcription of the word “river” led to the use of “ever”. The southern 20% of the Everglades is a protected region that we know as Everglades National Park. The park is the third-largest National Park in the lower 48 states, after Death Valley NP (the largest) and Yellowstone NP.

38 Eugene-to-Portland dir. : NNE

Eugene is the second-largest city in Oregon (after Portland). The city is named for its founder, Eugene Franklin Skinner. Skinner arrived in the area in 1846, after which the settlement he established was called Skinner’s Mudhole. The name was changed to Eugene City in 1852, which was shortened to Eugene in 1889.

Portland is the largest city in Oregon. The city was founded by two claimholders from back East, one from Boston, Massachusetts and one from Portland, Maine. Both of the founders wanted to name the new city after their hometowns, and settled the dilemma with a coin toss. Portland won …

39 Equinox sunset direction viewed from the equator : DUE WEST

An equinox is a phenomenon dictated by the tilt of the earth’s axis. Twice every year, that tilt “evens out” and the sun is equidistant from points at the same latitude both north and south of the equator. It is as if the earth has no tilt relative to the sun. The term “equinox” comes from the Latin for “equal night”, inferring that night and day are equally long, as the effect of the earth’s “tilt” is nullified. Equinoxes occur each year around March 21st (the vernal equinox) and September 23rd (the autumnal equinox).

42 Flying phenom : ACE

A flying ace is an aviator who has shot down a number of enemy planes during combat. The qualifying number of kills seems to vary, but five is common. The first use of “ace” was during WWI, when the French newspapers dubbed pilot Adolphe Pegoud “l’as” (French for “the ace”) when he shot down his fifth German plane.

43 Miso soup base : DASHI

Dashi is a style of cooking stock used in Japanese cuisine. Most famously, dashi” is the stock that is used as the base for miso soup. Traditional dashi is a fish stock to which is added edible kelp called kombu and shavings of preserved and fermented skipjack tuna called katsuobushi.

45 Sch. found inside hotel suites? : LSU

The letter string “LSU” is found inside the phrase “hotel suites”.

46 Scand. land : NOR

Strictly speaking, Scandinavia is a region in Northern Europe that covers the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The broader region that includes Finland and Iceland is referred to locally as “the Nordic countries”.

47 “Wonderfilled” cookie : OREO

Nabisco launched an ad campaign for the Oreo brand in 2012, telling us that the cookie is “wonderfilled”, that the modest little Oreo cookie can bring about a positive change of perspective and create a sense of wonder. I think that’s the idea …

50 Actor Vigoda : ABE

Abe Vigoda played Detective Sergeant Phil Fish in television’s “Barney Miller” in the seventies, and even got his own spin-off show called “Fish”. On the big screen, Vigoda played Sal Tessio in “The Godfather” and Grandpa Ubriacco in “Look Who’s Talking”.

52 U.S. number-issuing agcy. : SSA

Social Security Administration (SSA)

53 Sporty muffler option : DUAL EXHAUST

A muffler is a device, attached to an internal combustion engine, that is designed to reduce noise from the exhaust. We don’t use the term “muffler” on the other side of the Atlantic, opting instead for “silencer”.

57 BOLO cousin : APB

A BOLO is a police alert, with the acronym standing for “be on the look-out”. A BOLO can also be called an APB, an “all-points bulletin”.

59 Constitution letters : USS

“Old Ironsides” is a nickname given to the USS Constitution even though she is actually a wooden-hulled ship. The Constitution was launched in 1797 and can still be seen at sea today. She is the oldest commissioned naval vessel in the world. You can visit Old Ironsides at the Boston Navy Yard, where I had the privilege of touring her in 2011. As an old sailor, I’d say she is the best-maintained ship I’ve ever been on, and paradoxically, she is also the oldest. Really, really beautiful …

62 Caiman kin : CROC

Caimans are relatively small, crocodile-like reptiles that inhabit Central and South America. That said, the largest species can grow to 13 feet in length, but many are about 3 feet long.

66 Casino game : KENO

The name of the game keno has French or Latin roots, with the French “quine” being a term for five winning numbers, and the Latin “quini” meaning “five each”. The game originated in China and was introduced into the West by Chinese immigrants who were working on the first Transcontinental Railroad in the 1800s.

70 Malibu, e.g. : SEDAN

The American sedan car is the equivalent of the British and Irish saloon car. By definition, a sedan car has two rows of seating and a separate trunk (boot in Britain and Ireland), although in some models the engine can be at the rear of the car.

The Chevrolet Malibu was named for the city of Malibu, California. The Malibu was produced by General Motors from 1964 to 1983, and was then reintroduced in 1997.

71 Spenser’s “Epithalamion” and others : ODES

English poet Edmund Spenser wrote an ode to his bride in 1594, supposedly on their wedding day in 1594. The poem, entitled “Epithalamion”, gives an hour-by-hour account of the day from midnight until late into the night. There are 24 stanzas, one for each hour. Wow!

Down

1 The Smiths, e.g. : INDIE BAND

The Smiths were an alternative rock band from Manchester in the north of England. Active from 1982 to 1987, the band’s lead singer was the vocalist Morrissey. Morrissey chose the band’s name, and later revealed that “it was the most ordinary name and I thought it was time that the ordinary folk of the world showed their faces”.

2 Europe’s highest active volcano : MOUNT ETNA

Mount Etna on the island of Sicily is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy, and indeed the largest of all active volcanoes in Europe. Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius. Mt. Etna is home to a 110-km long narrow-gauge railway, and two ski resorts. It is sometimes referred to as “Mongibello” in Italian, and as “Mungibeddu” in Sicilian. The English name “Etna” comes from the Greek “aitho” meaning “I eat”.

3 Heat transfer subject? : ARMS SALES

“Packing” and “packing heat” are underworld slang for “carrying a gun”.

5 Use a Singer : SEW

Isaac Singer was not only an inventor, but also an actor. For much of his life, profits made from his inventions supported him while he pursued his acting career. Singer didn’t actually invent the sewing machine, and never claimed to have done so. What he did do though, was to invent a version of the machine that was practical and easily used in the home.

6 Augsburg “Oh!” : ACH!

The German exclamation “ach!” is usually translated into English as “oh!”

Augsburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany. Augsburg was founded in 15 BC, making it the fourth-oldest city in the whole country (after Cologne, Trier and Neuss).

8 Treaty of Versailles region : ALSACE

The 1919 Treaty of Versailles ended the war between Germany and the Allied Powers, and was the most significant treaty signed at the close of WWI. The war itself ended in November of 1918, but it took six months of negotiations at a peace conference in Paris to hammer out a peace treaty. The treaty called for reparations to be paid by Germany to the Allies, an amount so heavy that it could have taken Germany until the 1980s to settle the debt in full. As it turned out, the agreement was not honored consistently by Germany, and when Adolf Hitler came to power, reparation payments were halted altogether.

Of the 27 regions of metropolitan France (i.e. the territory of France within Europe), the smallest is Alsace. Alsace sits at the very east of the country, right on the border with Germany. The political status of Alsace was disputed by France and Germany for over three centuries, and was formally handed over to French control after Germany’s defeat in WWII.

10 Tweet symbol : HASHTAG

A hashtag is a word preceded by the symbol #. Hashtags are big these days because of its use by Twitter. The “#” symbol is usually referred to as the “number sign”, but here in the US the name “pound sign” is very common as well.

12 Does’ beaux : STAGS

A male deer is usually called a buck, and a female is a doe. However, the male red deer is usually referred to as a stag. The males of even larger species of deer are often called bulls, and females cows. In older English, male deer of over 5 years were called harts, and females of over 3 years were called hinds. The young of small species are known as fawns, and of larger species are called calves. All very confusing …

A beau (plural “beaux”) is the boyfriend of a belle, a young lady. “Beau” and “belle” are the masculine and feminine forms of the French word for “handsome, beautiful”.

13 Starting point for an Everest ascent : TIBET

Tibet is a plateau region that is part of China, and is located northeast of the Himalayas. Tibet declared its independence from China in 1913, but fell back under Chinese control after the Invasion of Tibet in 1951. The Tibetan leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled the country during the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion. Since then, he has led the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India.

Mount Everest was named by the Royal Geographical Society in 1865. The peak is named for Welsh surveyor George Everest, who had served as Surveyor General of India from 1830 through 1843. Everest actually objected initially to the use of his name, given that he had nothing to do with the peak’s discovery, and given that he believed “Everest” was difficult to write and to pronounce in Hindi.

18 “Size matters not” Jedi master : YODA

In the “Star Wars” series of films, the character named Yoda has a unique speech pattern. He often uses the word order object-subject-verb. For example:

  • Patience you must have …
  • Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.
  • To answer power with power, the Jedi way this is not.

25 Pakistani tongue : URDU

Urdu is one of the two official languages of Pakistan (the other being English), and is one of the 22 scheduled languages in India. Urdu partly developed from Persian and is written from right to left.

26 Important baseball number : NINE

Nine innings, and nine players on a team.

27 Nureyev negative : NYET

Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev’s most famous partnership was with Dame Margot Fonteyn. Nureyev and Fonteyn had their last professional performance together when Nureyev was 50-years-old, and Fonteyn an impressive 69 years. One of Nureyev’s claims to fame is that he was the first Soviet artist to defect to the West during the Cold War, doing so in Paris in 1961 while touring with the Mariinsky Ballet.

33 Leatherwork tool : AWL

An awl is a pointed tool used for marking a surface or for piercing small holes. The earliest awls were used to pierce ears, apparently. The tool then became very much associated with shoemakers.

37 Substantial storage units : TERABYTES

The prefix “tera-” signifies a trillion, and comes from the Greek word “teras” meaning “monster”.

In the world of computing, a bit is the basic unit of information. It has a value of 0 or 1. A “byte” is a small collection of “bits” (usually 8), the number of bits needed to uniquely identify a character of text. The prefix mega- stands for 10 to the power of 6, so a megabyte (meg) is 1,000,000 bytes. The prefix giga- means 10 to the power of 9, and so a gigabyte (gig) is 1,000,000,000 bytes. Well, those are the SI definitions of megabyte and gigabyte. The purists still use 2 to the power of 20 for a megabyte (i.e. 1,048,576), and 2 to the power of 30 for a gigabyte.

40 Isaac’s eldest : ESAU

Esau is a son of Isaac, and someone whose story is told in the Bible’s Book of Genesis. Esau had three wives, Adah, Aholibamah and Bashemath.

44 Phil Rizzuto catchphrase : HOLY COW!

Phil Rizzuto was a shortstop who spent his whole career with the New York Yankees. After retiring from the game, Rizzuto worked as a radio and television announcer for the Yankees for 40 years. He was famous for using the expression “Holy cow!”

51 James of jazz : ETTA

“Etta James” was the stage name of celebrated blues and soul singer Jamesetta Hawkins. James’ most famous recording was her 1960 hit “At Last”, which made it into the pop charts. James performed “At Last” at the age of 71 in 2009 on the reality show “Dancing with the Stars”, which was to be her final television appearance. She passed away in 2012.

54 Gen. Assembly member : UN REP

The United Nations was established right after the end of WWII, and was a replacement for the ineffective League of Nations that had been formed after the end of WWI. The US was at the forefront of the founding of the United Nations, led by President Franklin Roosevelt just prior to the start of WWII. The UN’s headquarters is in international territory in New York. There are three regional UN headquarters, also located in international territory, in Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi.

56 Mideast ruling family name : ASSAD

Dr. Bashar al-Assad is the current President of the Syrian Arab Republic and the son of the former President Hafez al-Assad, whom he replaced in 2001. President Assad is a medical doctor, speaks fluent English and conversational French. Assad was studying ophthalmology in London when he met his wife, who is an Englishwoman by birth.

64 Bag-checking org. : TSA

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

65 Comedian Kirkman : JEN

Jen Kirkman is a stand-up comedian who appears regularly on the late-night comedy talk show “Chelsea Lately” hosted by Chelsea Handler. Kirkman was also a major contributor to stand-up routines performed by the title character in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Apple since 1998 : IMAC
5 Doctor’s order? : SAY “AH”
10 Large number : HOST
14 Dunn of “SNL” (1985-’90) : NORA
15 Food recall cause : E COLI
16 Not about to back : ANTI
17 Bridge relative for three players : DUMMY WHIST
19 Union foe : SCAB
20 Muse’s gift, in modern slang : INSPO
21 “Too Many Rappers” rapper : NAS
22 Elephantine : HUGE
23 They’re not from around here, briefly : ETS
24 NBA All-Star Weekend event, casually : DUNK CONTEST
28 TV’s Arthur : BEA
29 MSNBC host Melber : ARI
30 Irish New Ager : ENYA
31 Hawks’ home: Abbr. : ATL
32 23andMe concern : DNA
34 Everglades bird : EGRET
38 Eugene-to-Portland dir. : NNE
39 Equinox sunset direction viewed from the equator : DUE WEST
42 Flying phenom : ACE
43 Miso soup base : DASHI
45 Sch. found inside hotel suites? : LSU
46 Scand. land : NOR
47 “Wonderfilled” cookie : OREO
50 Actor Vigoda : ABE
52 U.S. number-issuing agcy. : SSA
53 Sporty muffler option : DUAL EXHAUST
57 BOLO cousin : APB
58 Lone : ONLY
59 Constitution letters : USS
60 Like computer innovations, say : TECHY
62 Caiman kin : CROC
63 Book protector … and what 17- 24-, 39-, and 53-Across each has : DUST JACKET
66 Casino game : KENO
67 Remove entirely : ERASE
68 “__ we go!” : HERE
69 Eject : SPEW
70 Malibu, e.g. : SEDAN
71 Spenser’s “Epithalamion” and others : ODES

Down

1 The Smiths, e.g. : INDIE BAND
2 Europe’s highest active volcano : MOUNT ETNA
3 Heat transfer subject? : ARMS SALES
4 Like-minded group : CAMP
5 Use a Singer : SEW
6 Augsburg “Oh!” : ACH!
7 “I’m taking that!” : YOINK!
8 Treaty of Versailles region : ALSACE
9 Tries to pick up : HITS ON
10 Tweet symbol : HASHTAG
11 When expected : ON CUE
12 Does’ beaux : STAGS
13 Starting point for an Everest ascent : TIBET
18 “Size matters not” Jedi master : YODA
25 Pakistani tongue : URDU
26 Important baseball number : NINE
27 Nureyev negative : NYET
33 Leatherwork tool : AWL
35 Plundered : RANSACKED
36 Closed system that includes all life on Earth : ECOSPHERE
37 Substantial storage units : TERABYTES
39 Boding disaster : DIRE
40 Isaac’s eldest : ESAU
41 Replacements : SUBS
44 Phil Rizzuto catchphrase : HOLY COW!
48 Radiates : EXUDES
49 “Yeah, I bet!” : OH SURE!
51 James of jazz : ETTA
53 Places to tie up : DOCKS
54 Gen. Assembly member : UN REP
55 Unaccompanied : ALONE
56 Mideast ruling family name : ASSAD
61 Make the same point as : ECHO
64 Bag-checking org. : TSA
65 Comedian Kirkman : JEN