LA Times Crossword 30 Oct 20, Friday

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Constructed by: Sean Biggins
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Urban Sprawl

We have the names of a US URBAN complex SPRAWLED throughout each of today’s themed rows. The first three letters of the city name are circled in the grid, but we have to find the remaining letters ourselves:

  • 59A Unrestricted city expansion … and what begins in the circled letters (and ends in uncircled ones for you to find) : URBAN SPRAWL
  • 16A __-country : ALT
  • 17A Realize one’s apprenticeship goal : LEARN A TRADE (hiding “ATLANTA”)
  • 22A In the best way : IDEALLY
  • 25A “I do” sites : ALTARS (hiding “DALLAS”)
  • 38A Heaps : LOADS
  • 40A Fight (for) : VIE
  • 41A They’re shifted : GEARS (hiding “LAS VEGAS”)
  • 50A Connection : HOOKUP
  • 52A Rested, maybe : SAT DOWN (hiding “HOUSTON”)

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

Bill’s time: 6m 38s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Second-southernmost Pac-12 sch. : ASU

Arizona State University (ASU) has a long history, and was founded as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory in 1885. The athletic teams of ASU used to be known as the Normals, then the Bulldogs, and since 1946 they’ve been called the Sun Devils.

The most southerly Pac-12 school is the University of Arizona, located in Tucson.

13 Guy : MAN

Even when I was a kid living in England in the 1960s, we would make up an effigy of Guy Fawkes to parade around the streets in the runup to Guy Fawkes Day, November 5th. Guy Fawkes was the man who led the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the British king and Parliament on November 5, 1605. We kids would use the effigy to raise money from strangers by approaching them with the phrase “penny for the guy”. The money collected was used to buy fireworks that we’d shoot off on Bonfire Night, the name given to the evening of Guy Fawkes Day. The effigy known as “the guy” gave rise in the UK to the use of “guy” to describe a poorly-dressed man. By the mid-1800s, the term “guy” was adopted into American-English to mean simply “fellow”.

14 Photo finish : SEPIA

Sepia is that rich, brown-grey color so common in old photographs. “Sepia” is the Latinized version of the Greek word for cuttlefish, as sepia pigment is derived from the ink sac of the cuttlefish. Sepia ink was commonly used for writing and drawing as far back as ancient Rome and ancient Greece. The “sepia tone” of old photographs is not the result of deterioration over time. Rather, it is the result of a deliberate preservation process which converts the metallic silver in the photographic image to a more stable silver sulfide. Prints that have been sepia-toned can last in excess of 150 years.

17 Realize one’s apprenticeship goal : LEARN A TRADE

Our word “apprentice” comes into English from Old French. The Modern French word “apprendre” is related, and means “to learn, teach”.

19 Subarctic forest : TAIGA

The word “taiga” is used for an ecosystem largely covered in coniferous forests that exists in northern regions around the world. “Taiga” is Mongolian in origin, and is sometimes used interchangeably with “boreal forest”.

21 Dr. J, for 11 seasons : SIXER

The Philadelphia 76ers basketball team is one of the oldest franchises in the NBA. The “Sixers” were formed in 1946 as the Syracuse Nationals. The team moved to Philadelphia in 1963, and the name 76er was chosen in a fan contest, a name that honors the men who fought for the country’s independence in 1776.

Julius Erving is a retired professional basketball player who was known as “Dr. J”, a nickname he picked up in high school. Dr. J was a trailblazer in many ways, being the first player associated with slam dunking and other moves above the rim.

28 Latin rock band Los __ : LOBOS

Los Lobos are an American Chicano rock band who released their first LP in 1978 and are still going strong today. The band’s name “Los Lobos” translates from Spanish as “The Wolves”.

30 T.S. and others : ELIOTS

T. S. Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, largely due to his “Four Quartets”, a set of four poems that Eliot himself considered to be his life’s masterpiece. He also won a Tony Award in 1950 for Best Play, for “The Cocktail Party”, as well as two posthumous Tony Awards in 1983 for his poems that are used in the musical “Cats”.

32 WNBA position : CTR

Center (ctr.)

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) was founded in 1996. The WNBA had to compete with the American Basketball League (ABL), a professional women’s basketball league that started playing games the same year the WNBA was founded. The ABL folded in its third season.

35 Coconut candy bar : MOUNDS

I think my favorite candy growing up was an Almond Joy, although in my part of the world it was a little different formulation and was called a Bounty Bar (and was more like a Mounds bar). The Almond Joy bar has been around since 1946. Hershey’s used a famous jingle in a seventies ad campaign for the Mounds and Almond Joy:

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t
Almond Joy’s got nuts
Mounds don’t

37 Four Corners st. : N MEX

The region now covered by the US state of New Mexico (NMex) was known as “Nuevo México” at least since 1563. Spanish explorers gave the area this name due to an erroneous belief that it was home to a branch of the Mexica, an indigenous people living in the Valley of Mexico. So, the region has had the “New Mexico” name for centuries before the nation of Mexico adopted its name in 1821.

42 Galleria filler : ARTE

In Italy, one can see “arte” (art) in a “galleria” (gallery).

45 From Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. : NNW

The Washington city of Seattle was founded on a site that had been occupied by Native Americans for over 4,000 years before the first Europeans arrived in the area. The name “Seattle” was chosen in honor of the Suquamish and Duwamish Chief Seattle, who had a reputation for welcoming white settlers.

Vancouver in British Columbia is a major port in western Canada. It is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the nation (after Toronto and Montreal), and the country’s most densely populated city. Vancouver grew out of a settlement called Gastown named for “Gassy” Jack Deighton, a steamboat captain from Yorkshire, England who opened a saloon in the area in 1867. Gastown became the town of Granville, named for the British Colonial Secretary at the time, Lord Granville. Granville incorporated as a city in 1886, and was named “Vancouver” in honor of Royal Navy officer George Vancouver who explored and charted the northwestern Pacific Coast of North America.

46 Jetta relative : PASSAT

“Passat” is one in a series of model names related to winds that has been used by Volkswagen. “Jetta” comes from the German for “jet stream”, and the model name “Passat” comes from the German for “trade wind”.

48 First name on the Supreme Court : ELENA

Elena Kagan was the Solicitor General of the United States who replaced Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. That made Justice Kagan the first female US Solicitor General and the fourth female US Supreme Court justice. I hear she is a fan of Jane Austen, and used to reread “Pride and Prejudice” once a year. Not a bad thing to do, I’d say …

58 Shoshone Falls state : IDAHO

Shoshone Falls is a major waterfall on the Snake River in southern Idaho. Shoshone Falls is sometimes referred to as the Niagara of the West, and is actually 45 feet taller than Niagara Falls.

65 “Sicko Mode” rapper Travis __ : SCOTT

“Travis Scott” is the stage name of rapper Jacques Webster II from Texas. Webster chose his stage name in honor of his late uncle “Travis” and “Scott” Mescudo, a rap artist who performs as Kid Cudi. Scott has a relationship with Kylie Jenner, a member of the Kardashian dynasty, with whom he has a daughter named Stormi Webster.

66 “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Essman : SUSIE

Comedian and actress Susie Essman is perhaps best known for playing Susie Green on the comedy show “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. Essman is also a regular on “The View” and she is a good friend of the show’s co-host Joy Behar.

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” is an improv comedy show aired by HBO that was created and stars Larry David, the creator of “Seinfeld”. As an aside, Larry David sat a few feet from me at the next table in a Los Angeles restaurant a few years ago. I have such a huge claim to fame …

67 Ivy League nickname : ELI

“Eli” is the nickname for a graduate of Yale University, and a term used in honor of the Yale benefactor Elihu Yale.

The term “Ivy League” originally defined an athletic conference, but now it is used to describe a group of schools of higher education that are associated with both a long tradition and academic excellence. The eight Ivy League Schools are: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.

68 Bone: Pref. : OSTEO-

The prefix “osteo-” is a combining form meaning “bone”. The term comes from “steon”, the Greek for “bone”.

70 Red Wings, on scoreboards : DET

The Detroit Red Wings play in the National Hockey League. The Red Wings have won the Stanley Cup more times than any other US-based NHL team.

Down

1 Prized violin : AMATI

The first of the Amati family to make violins was Andrea Amati, who lived in the 14th century. He was succeeded by his sons Antonio and Girolamo. In turn, the two brothers were succeeded by Girolamo’s son Nicolo. Nicolo had a few students who achieved fame making musical instruments as well. One was his own son, Girolamo, and another was the famed Antonio Stradivari.

2 Course with greens : SALAD

Our word “salad” comes from the Latin “salare” meaning “to salt”. The Latin “herba salata” translates as “salted vegetables”, which I guess could be a salad …

4 Event in the 2002 film “Spellbound” : BEE

“Spellbound” is a very entertaining 2002 documentary film about the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The movie focuses on eight competitors, including 14-year-old Nupur Lala who emerged victorious. “Spellbound” was nominated for that season’s Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, but lost out to Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine”.

5 Org. established by Nixon : EPA

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

8 Yiddish word meaning “little town” : SHTETL

The Yiddish word for “town” is “shtot”, and so “shtetl” is the diminutive form meaning “small town”. The fictional shtetl featured in the musical in “Fiddler on the Roof” is called Anatevka, which is also the title of my favorite song from the show.

9 “A Raisin in the Sun” writer Hansberry : LORRAINE

Lorraine Hansberry was the first female African-American author to have a play produced on Broadway. That was “A Raisin in the Sun”, which opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1959. Leading the cast in that production were Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee. Sadly, Hansberry passed away at only 34 years of age in 1965.

10 2019 NCAA men’s basketball champions : UVA

The University of Virginia (UVA) was founded by Thomas Jefferson, who then sat on the original Board of Visitors alongside former US Presidents James Madison and James Monroe. In fact, the original UVA campus was built on land near Charlottesville that was once a farm belonging to President Monroe.

14 Sinuous ski races : SLALOMS

“Slalom” is an anglicized version of the Norwegian word “slalam” that translates as “skiing race”. There is a longer version of the traditional slalom that is called giant slalom

18 Turnpike toll factor : AXLES

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.

20 “Justice League” actress Gadot : GAL

Gal Gadot is an actress and former Miss Israel. She plays Gisele Yashar in the “Fast & Furious” film franchise, and then began portraying Wonder Woman in superhero movies.

“Justice League” is a 2017 superhero film that is a sequel to the 2016 movie “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”. It was one of the most expensive films ever made, with a budget of $300 million. And, it bombed …

23 Wall St. deal : LBO

A leveraged buyout (LBO) is a transaction in which an investor acquires a controlling volume of stock in a company, but buys that stock with borrowed funds (hence “leveraged”). Often the assets of the acquired company are used as collateral for the borrowed money. There is a special form of LBO known as a management buyout (MBO) in which the company’s own management team purchases the controlling interest.

24 “__ Got a Friend” : YOU’VE

“You’ve Got a Friend” is a song written and recorded by Carole King in 1971. Interestingly, Carole King gave the song to James Taylor to record as well, and the pair recorded it individually during the same recording session, with the same musicians. King included “You’ve Got a Friend” in her album “Tapestry”, and Taylor included it in his album “Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon”. Later that year, Taylor released his recording as a single, and it made it to number 1 on the Billboard charts.

29 Snarky : SNIDE

“Snark” is a term that was coined by Lewis Carroll in his fabulous 1876 nonsense poem “The Hunting of the Snark”. Somehow, the term “snarky” came to mean “irritable, short-tempered” in the early 1900s, and from there “snark” became “sarcastic rhetoric” at the beginning of the 21st century.

31 Austin music festival, initially : SXSW

South by Southwest, also known as “SXSW”, is an annual festival that has been taking place in Austin, Texas since 1987. SXSW is a melded event, combining a music festival, a film festival and an interactive festival.

33 Synagogue reading : TORAH

The Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, are traditionally believed to have been written by Moses. As such, they are sometimes referred to as the Law of Moses, or Mosaic Law. Those five books are:

  • Bereshit/Genesis
  • Shemot/Exodus
  • Vayikra/Leviticus
  • Bamidbar/Numbers
  • Devarim/Deuteronomy

34 Role for Dustin : RATSO

Enrico Salvatore “Ratso” Rizzo is one of the characters in the groundbreaking 1969 movie “Midnight Cowboy”. Rizzo is a down-and-out con man played by Dustin Hoffman.

44 Spill the __: gossip : TEA

To spill the beans is to divulge a secret. The expression first appeared in American English, in the early 1900s. The phrase arose as an alternative to “spoil the beans” or “upset the applecart”. The similarly meaning phrase “spill the tea” is more prevalent on the other side of the Atlantic.

51 Mtn Dew sister brand : PEPSI

If you check the can, you’ll see that “Mountain Dew” is now marketed as “Mtn Dew”.

54 Large mammal : WHALE

There are several main characteristics distinguishing mammals from other animals:

  • Mammals have fur or hair
  • Mammals are warm-blooded
  • Mammals are born alive
  • Mammals feed their young with milk produced by mammary glands
  • Mammals have relatively complex brains

59 GI show gp. : USO

The United Service Organization (USO) was founded in 1941 at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt “to handle the on-leave recreation of the men in the armed forces”. A USO tour is undertaken by a troupe of entertainers, many of whom are big-name celebrities. A USO tour usually includes troop locations in combat zones.

60 Pepsi alternatives : RCS

Claude A. Hatcher ran a grocery store in Columbus, Georgia. He decided to develop his own soft drink formula when he balked at the price his store was being charged for Coca-Cola syrup. Hatcher launched the Union Bottling Works in his own grocery store, and introduced Royal Crown Ginger Ale in 1905. The Union Bottling Works was renamed to Chero-Cola in 1910, the Nehi Corporation in 1925, and Royal Crown Company in the mid-fifties. The first RC Cola hit the market in 1934.

61 Droid : BOT

A bot is a computer program that is designed to imitate human behavior. It might crawl around the Web doing searches for example, or it might participate in discussions in chat rooms by giving pre-programmed responses. It might also act as a competitor in a computer game.

“Droid” is short for “android” and is used to describe a robot that resembles a human. The Latin word “androides” was used in English in the 18th century to mean “like a man”. Science fiction writers introduced us to “android” in the early 1950s.

62 Cairo cobra : ASP

The venomous snake called an asp was a symbol of royalty in ancient Egypt.

Cairo is the capital city of Egypt. It is nicknamed “The City of a Thousand Minarets” because of its impressive skyline replete with Islamic architecture. The name “Cairo” is a European corruption of the city’s original name in Arabic, “Al-Qahira”.

63 Sheboygan’s st. : WIS

The city of Sheboygan is located on the western shore of Lake Michigan where the Sheboygan River empties into the lake.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Second-southernmost Pac-12 sch. : ASU
4 Smile broadly : BEAM
8 Fall, as real estate prices : SLUMP
13 Guy : MAN
14 Photo finish : SEPIA
15 What drones may do : HOVER
16 __-country : ALT
17 Realize one’s apprenticeship goal : LEARN A TRADE
19 Subarctic forest : TAIGA
21 Dr. J, for 11 seasons : SIXER
22 In the best way : IDEALLY
25 “I do” sites : ALTARS
28 Latin rock band Los __ : LOBOS
30 T.S. and others : ELIOTS
32 WNBA position : CTR
35 Coconut candy bar : MOUNDS
37 Four Corners st. : N MEX
38 Heaps : LOADS
40 Fight (for) : VIE
41 They’re shifted : GEARS
42 Galleria filler : ARTE
43 Unflappable : SEDATE
45 From Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. : NNW
46 Jetta relative : PASSAT
48 First name on the Supreme Court : ELENA
50 Connection : HOOKUP
52 Rested, maybe : SAT DOWN
56 Fortified with fur, say : LINED
58 Shoshone Falls state : IDAHO
59 Unrestricted city expansion … and what begins in the circled letters (and ends in uncircled ones for you to find) : URBAN SPRAWL
64 Game noise : RAH!
65 “Sicko Mode” rapper Travis __ : SCOTT
66 “Curb Your Enthusiasm” actress Essman : SUSIE
67 Ivy League nickname : ELI
68 Bone: Pref. : OSTEO-
69 Little terrors : IMPS
70 Red Wings, on scoreboards : DET

Down

1 Prized violin : AMATI
2 Course with greens : SALAD
3 Remove, as a knot : UNTIE
4 Event in the 2002 film “Spellbound” : BEE
5 Org. established by Nixon : EPA
6 Affectations : AIRS
7 Frenzy : MANIA
8 Yiddish word meaning “little town” : SHTETL
9 “A Raisin in the Sun” writer Hansberry : LORRAINE
10 2019 NCAA men’s basketball champions : UVA
11 __ school : MED
12 Serve opening? : PRE-
14 Sinuous ski races : SLALOMS
18 Turnpike toll factor : AXLES
20 “Justice League” actress Gadot : GAL
23 Wall St. deal : LBO
24 “__ Got a Friend” : YOU’VE
26 __ numeral : ROMAN
27 Harsh : STERN
29 Snarky : SNIDE
31 Austin music festival, initially : SXSW
32 Part of a hand : CLAP
33 Synagogue reading : TORAH
34 Role for Dustin : RATSO
36 Gives a hand : DEALS
39 Bleak : DESOLATE
41 Synagogue guest, perhaps : GENTILE
43 Surprises big-time : STUNS
44 Spill the __: gossip : TEA
47 Rather like : AKIN TO
49 Mix in : ADD
51 Mtn Dew sister brand : PEPSI
53 Had a row? : OARED
54 Large mammal : WHALE
55 Like a perfect game : NO-HIT
57 Band instrument : DRUM
59 GI show gp. : USO
60 Pepsi alternatives : RCS
61 Droid : BOT
62 Cairo cobra : ASP
63 Sheboygan’s st. : WIS