LA Times Crossword 19 Jun 20, Friday

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Constructed by: Pam Amick Klawitter
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): A Change of Air

Themed answers sound like common phrases that start with “AIR”:

  • 19A What “You’re not leaving me enough!” demonstrates? : HEIR PRESSURE (sounds like “air pressure”)
  • 36A Learning to live with your mistakes? : ERR CONDITIONING (sounds like “air conditioning”)
  • 52A Malady caused by overexposure to a Brontë work? : EYRE SICKNESS (sounds like “air sickness”)

Bill’s time: 7m 05s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Shopping club : SAM’S

Sam’s Club is a warehouse club that is owned and operated by Walmart. It is named after the company’s founder Sam Walton.

5 Assist, in a way : ABET

The word “abet” comes into English from the Old French “abeter” meaning “to bait” or “to harass with dogs” (literally “to make bite”). This sense of encouraging something bad to happen morphed into our modern usage of “abet” meaning to aid or encourage someone in a crime.

9 With 43-Across, shipshape : NEAT …
43 See 9-Across : … AS A PIN

Apparently, the idiom “neat as a pin” arose in the early 1800s, with the advent of mass production. Up until that time, pins were handmade and so were irregular and relatively flawed. Mass-produced pins were uniform and of consistent quality. So, something that was uniform and of consistent quality came to be described as “neat as a pin”.

14 __ parade : PRIDE

The first gay pride parades were held all on the same weekend in 1970, in New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

15 Folksy Burl : IVES

As well as being an actor, Burl Ives was a folk singer, which was his original calling. Stemming from his life in Hollywood, Ives had a distressing experience with the House Un-American Activities Committee. He avoided being blacklisted by cooperating to some level with McCarthy and his team. This cooperation created a rift between him and Pete Seeger in particular, as Seeger was a fellow singer whom he “discussed” with the committee.

17 Golfing nickname : ARNIE

Arnold Palmer was one of the greats of the world of golf. He was very popular with many fans of the game, and his followers were usually referred to as “Arnie’s Army”. Off the course, Palmer was an avid pilot until his latter years. He resided in Latrobe, Pennsylvania for much of the year and the local airport is named in his honor: Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

18 Mariner org. : NASA

NASA’s Mariner program was a series of probes launched into space to investigate Mars, Venus and Mercury. There were ten Mariner probes launched in all (three were lost, though), with the planned Mariner 11 and 12 evolving into the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft.

24 __-Locka, Fla. : OPA

Opa-Locka is a rather interesting city in Florida. Located near Miami, Opa-Locka has a themed city plan that is based on “One Thousand and One Nights”. The city hall has a very Arabian look, and some examples of street names are Ali Baba Avenue and Sesame Street.

25 Obstacle for salmon : DAM

When young salmon (born in freshwater) are at the smolt stage, they become adapted to saltwater and head for the sea. They return to freshwater to reproduce, often traveling long distances upstream.

28 Rutgers’ conference : BIG TEN

The Big Ten is the nation’s oldest Division I college athletic conference. The conference was founded in 1896 and earned the name “Big Nine” in 1899 when Iowa and Indiana joined to bring the number of teams in the conference to nine. The conference name was changed to the Big Ten after Michigan rejoined in 1917. Right after WWII, the University of Chicago dropped out so the conference became known as the Big Nine again until 1949. The official designation of “Big Ten” was adopted in 1987 when the conference (once again with a complement of ten teams) registered as a not-for-profit corporation. It was decided to keep the official name of Big Ten when Penn State joined in 1990 bringing the number of schools to the level of eleven. The number of schools in the conference continues to evolve, but that “Big Ten” moniker persists.

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, was founded in 1766 as Queen’s College and was one of the nine Colonial Colleges that existed prior to the American Revolution. The Rutgers name was chosen in 1812 in honor of Colonel Henry Rutgers, a Revolutionary War hero and university benefactor.

30 Tundra neighbor : 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”.

Tundra is an ecosystem that is treeless, or very nearly so. There are three types of tundra. Arctic and Antarctic tundra can’t support the growth of trees as the ground is pretty much frozen. Alpine tundra cannot support tree-growth due to high altitude.

32 Bit of intimacy in a crowd, briefly : PDA

Public display of affection (PDA)

34 J.R.R. Tolkien did some research for it : OED

Author J. R. R. Tolkien is best known as the author of the fantasy novels “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of Rings”. After serving as an officer in the First World War, his first job as a civilian was researching the history and etymology of words for the Oxford English Dictionary. In fact, Tolkien was assigned the words from “waggle” through “warlock”.

40 Chihuahua neighbor: Abbr. : TEX

Chihuahua is a state in northern Mexico that shares a border with Texas and New Mexico. Chihuahua is the largest state in the country, earning it the nickname “El Estado Grande”. The state takes its name from the Chihuahuan Desert which lies largely within its borders. The Chihuahua breed of dog takes its name from the state.

45 Artists Against Fracking co-founder : ONO

Artists Against Fracking is an association formed by Yoko One and her son Sean Lennon. The list of members in the anti-fracking group includes Paula McCartney, Robert de Niro, Mark Ruffalo, Lady Gaga and Deepak Chopra.

49 Bossy comeback : MOO!

“Bossy” is an informal word for a cow or calf. The term comes from “bos”, the Latin for “cow”.

52 Malady caused by overexposure to a Brontë work? : EYRE SICKNESS

“Jane Eyre” is a celebrated novel written by Charlotte Brontë, under the pen name Currer Bell. The love story is perhaps represented by the oft-quoted opening lines of the last chapter, “Reader, I married him”. There is a wonderful 4-hour television adaptation made by the BBC that I highly recommend to fans of the novel …

55 Preacher’s support : 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.

59 Coup d’__ : ETAT

A coup d’état (often just “coup”) is the sudden overthrow of a government, and comes from the French for “stroke of state”. The Swiss-German word “putsch” is sometimes used instead of “coup”, with “Putsch” translating literally as “sudden blow”. We also use the abbreviated “coup” to mean “sudden, brilliant and successful act”.

60 Rocky __ : ROAD

The flavor of ice cream known as rocky road is made using chocolate ice cream mixed with nuts and marshmallows. The exact origin of the flavor seems to be disputed, but one story is that William Dreyer invented it in 1929, chopping up walnuts and marshmallows with sewing scissors belonging to his wife.

61 Tars : SALTS

A jack tar, or just “tar”, was a seaman in the days of the British Empire. The term probably arose due to a sailor’s various uses of tar back then, including waterproofing his clothes and using tar in his hair to slick down his ponytail.

64 This, in Toledo : ESTO

Toledo is a city in central Spain that is located just over 40 miles south of the capital Madrid. Toledo is sometimes called the “City of Three Cultures”, due to the historical co-existence of Christian, Muslim and Jewish traditions.

65 Do some parasailing, say : SOAR

Parasailing is hanging below a tethered parachute that is towed by a boat.

Down

1 2000s White House girl : SASHA

Sasha is the younger of the two Obama children, having been born in 2001. She was the youngest child to reside in the White House since John F. Kennedy, Jr. moved in with his parents as a small infant. Sasha’s Secret Service codename is “Rosebud”, and her older sister Malia has the codename “Radiance”.

2 Fleshy-leaved plants : ALOES

Aloe vera is a succulent plant that grows in relatively dry climates. The plant’s leaves are full of biologically-active compounds that have been studied extensively. Aloe vera has been used for centuries in herbal medicine, mainly for topical treatment of wounds.

4 Symbol for Macy’s : STAR

The original Macy’s store was opened by Rowland Hussey Macy in Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1851. This store, and several others that Macy opened, all failed. Macy picked himself up though, and started over again in New York City. Those early New York stores all focused on the sale of dry goods, but added departments quickly as the clientele grew. The Macy’s red star logo has been around since the company was first established. Macy chose the star because it mimicked the star tattoo that he got as a teenager when he was working on a whaling ship out of Nantucket.

7 Tesla rival : EDISON

Thomas Alva Edison (TAE) was nicknamed “The Wizard of Menlo Park” by a newspaper reporter, a name that stuck. He was indeed a wizard, in the sense that he was such a prolific inventor. The Menlo Park part of the moniker recognizes the location of his first research lab, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

Nikola Tesla was born in Serbia, but later moved to the US. Tesla’s work on mechanical and electrical engineering was crucial to the development of alternating current technology, the same technology that is used by equipment at the backbone of modern power generation and distribution systems.

9 Important number in Sudoku grid construction : NINE

Number puzzles similar to our modern-day Sudoku first appeared in French newspapers in the late 1800s. The format that we use today was created by Howard Garns, a 74-year-old freelance puzzle constructor from Connersville, Indiana and first published in 1979. The format was introduced in Japan in 1984 and given the title of “Sūji wa dokushin ni kagiru”, which translates to “the digits are limited to one occurrence”. The rather elaborate Japanese title was eventually shortened to Sudoku. No doubt many of you are fans of Sudoku puzzles. I know I am …

10 Actress Mendes : EVA

I am most familiar with actress Eva Mendes as the female lead in the movie “Hitch”, in which she played opposite Will Smith. Mendes was known off the screen for dating actor Ryan Gosling from 2011 to 2013.

11 DDE rival : AES

Adlai Stevenson (AES) ran for president unsuccessfully against Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE), once in 1952 and again in 1956. Some years after his second defeat, Stevenson served under President Kennedy (JFK) as Ambassador to the United Nations. Stevenson was always noted for his eloquence and he had a famous exchange in a UN Security Council meeting during the Cuban missile crisis. Stevenson bluntly demanded that the Soviet representative on the council tell the world if the USSR was installing nuclear weapons in Cuba. His words were “Don’t wait for the translation, answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’!” followed by “I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over!”

12 “3-1-1” enforcement gp. : TSA

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) loosened the ban on liquids, aerosols and gels in carry-on baggage in 2006, From that date onwards, passengers had to abide by the 3-1-1 rule, i.e. 3.4-ounce or less containers (3), in a one-quart ziploc bag (1), one bag per person (1) .

14 Perfect models : PARAGONS

A paragon is a model of excellence, a peerless example. Ultimately the term derives from the Greek “para-” meaning “on the side” and “akone” meaning “whetstone”. This derivation comes from the ancient practice of using a touchstone to test gold for its level of purity by drawing a line on the stone with the gold and comparing the resulting mark with samples of known purity.

20 21st of 24 : PHI

Phi is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet.

25 “Mangia!” : DIG IN!

“Mangia!” is Italian for “Eat!” and is often used in the names of Italian restaurants or in brand names of Italian foods.

27 Helgenberger of “A Dog’s Journey” : MARG

Marg Helgenberger is an actress best known for roles she plays on television. Helgenberger played investigator Catherine Willows on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”. She also played drug-addicted prostitute K.C. Koloski in the Vietnam War drama “China Beach”.

“A Dog’s Journey” is a 2019 film based on a 2012 novel of the same name by W. Bruce Cameron. It sounds like a real weepie, with a dog getting cancer, being euthanized, and then getting reincarnated …

28 “Everything Tastes Better With __”: Sara Perry cookbook : BACON

“Everything Tastes Better with Bacon” is a recipe book by Sara Perry, a cookbook author and columnist for “The Oregonian” newspaper. The book’s subtitle is “70 Fabulous Recipes for Every Meal of the Day”.

29 Fixes People, say : EDITS

There used to be a “People” page in each issue of “Time” magazine. This page was spun-off in 1974 as a publication of its own, which we now call “People” magazine. “People” is noted for its annual special editions with features such as “Best & Worst Dressed” and “Sexiest Man Alive”. The “Sexiest Man Alive” edition now appears at the end of November each year. The first choice for “Sexiest Man” was Mel Gibson, in 1985.

31 Former U.N. chief : ANNAN

Kofi Annan was a diplomat from Ghana who served as General Secretary of the UN for ten years until the beginning of 2007. Annan was born into an aristocratic family, and had a twin sister named Efua Atta. Efua and Kofi shared the middle name “Atta”, which means “twin” in the Akan language of Ghana. Annan attended the MIT Sloan School of Management from 1971-72, and graduated with a Master of Science degree. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, winning jointly with the United Nations organization itself.

32 Shrimp kin : PRAWN

The terms “prawn” and “shrimp” are often used interchangeably on menus. Over in the UK, the term “prawn” is most common, while “shrimp” is seen more often here in North America. Sometimes there is a differentiation from a food standpoint, with “prawn” being used for larger species and “shrimp” for smaller species. As a result, “jumbo prawns” seems to be an acceptable descriptor for a dish, whereas “jumbo shrimp” seems to be an oxymoron.

33 1964 Tony Randall title role : DR LAO

“The Circus of Dr. Lao” is a novel by Charles G. Finney, first published in 1935. There was a famous film adaptation released in 1964 called “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” starring Tony Randall in the title role. Randall wasn’t the first choice, as the director wanted Peter Sellers for the part. However, MGM insisted on an American lead, and a great choice it turned out to be.

35 Gym developments : SIX-PACKS

The abdominal muscles (abs) are more correctly referred to as the rectus abdominis muscles. They might be referred to as a “six-pack”, or even a “ten-pack”, in a person who has developed the muscles and who has low body fat. In my case, more like a keg …

36 Exxon, formerly : ESSO

The Esso brand has its roots in the old Standard Oil company as it uses the initial letters of “Standard” and “Oil” (ESS-O). The Esso brand was replaced by Exxon in the US, but ESSO is still used in many other countries.

44 Texter’s “Beats me” : IDK

I don’t know (IDK)

49 Empowerment hashtag : #METOO

The use of the #MeToo hashtag initially was encouraged by actress Alyssa Milano in 2017 to draw attention to sexual assault and sexual harassment. Milano was acting in response to the growing number of allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein. The use of the phrase “Me Too” in the context of sexual misconduct dates back to 2006. Social activist Tarana Burke started to use the phrase on the Myspace social network after a 13-year-old girl told her that she had been sexually assaulted. Apparently, Burke had no response at the time the girl confided in her, but later wished she had responded, “Me too”.

50 Universal Studios Japan home : OSAKA

Universal Studios Japan opened in Osaka in 2001, and is modeled on the sister Universal Orlando Resort. The Osaka park receives about 8 million visitors a year.

51 Blender brand : OSTER

The Oster brand of small appliances was introduced in 1924 by John Oster. He started out by making manually-powered hair clippers designed for cutting women’s hair, and followed up with a motorized version in 1928. The clippers kept the company in business until 1946 when Oster diversified, buying a manufacturer of liquefying blenders in 1946. The blender was renamed to “Osterizer” and was a big hit. Oster was bought by Sunbeam, which has owned the brand since 1960.

56 Bygone New Zealand bird : MOA

Moas were flightless birds native to New Zealand that are now extinct. The fate of the Moa is a great example of the detrimental effect that humans can have on animal populations. The Maoris arrived in New Zealand about 1300 AD, upsetting the balance of the ecosystem. The Moa were hunted to extinction within 200 years, which had the knock-on effect of killing off the Haast’s Eagle, the Moa’s only predator prior to the arrival of man. Moa were huge creatures, measuring up to 12 feet tall with their necks stretched upwards.

57 “Mangia!” : EAT!

“Mangia!” is Italian for “Eat!” and is often used in the names of Italian restaurants or in brand names of Italian foods.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Shopping club : SAM’S
5 Assist, in a way : ABET
9 With 43-Across, shipshape : NEAT …
13 Settled : ALIT
14 __ parade : PRIDE
15 Folksy Burl : IVES
16 Pop opener : SODA …
17 Golfing nickname : ARNIE
18 Mariner org. : NASA
19 What “You’re not leaving me enough!” demonstrates? : HEIR PRESSURE
22 Saddlebag carrier : ASS
23 __-been : HAS
24 __-Locka, Fla. : OPA
25 Obstacle for salmon : DAM
28 Rutgers’ conference : BIG TEN
30 Tundra neighbor : TAIGA
32 Bit of intimacy in a crowd, briefly : PDA
34 J.R.R. Tolkien did some research for it : OED
35 Backup __ : SINGER
36 Learning to live with your mistakes? : ERR CONDITIONING
39 Lock shops? : SALONS
40 Chihuahua neighbor: Abbr. : TEX
41 Hill builder : ANT
42 Ostentatious : SWANK
43 See 9-Across : … AS A PIN
45 Artists Against Fracking co-founder : ONO
46 Pitcher feature : EAR
48 Cool relative : RAD
49 Bossy comeback : MOO!
52 Malady caused by overexposure to a Brontë work? : EYRE SICKNESS
55 Preacher’s support : AMEN
58 How much signing is done : IN INK
59 Coup d’__ : ETAT
60 Rocky __ : ROAD
61 Tars : SALTS
62 Socially conscious : WOKE
63 Dieter’s count : FATS
64 This, in Toledo : ESTO
65 Do some parasailing, say : SOAR

Down

1 2000s White House girl : SASHA
2 Fleshy-leaved plants : ALOES
3 Modest skirts : MIDIS
4 Symbol for Macy’s : STAR
5 Checked : ARRESTED
6 Storage aids : BINS
7 Tesla rival : EDISON
8 Prepare to swing : TEE UP
9 Important number in Sudoku grid construction : NINE
10 Actress Mendes : EVA
11 DDE rival : AES
12 “3-1-1” enforcement gp. : TSA
14 Perfect models : PARAGONS
20 21st of 24 : PHI
21 There’s often a colon in one : RATIO
25 “Mangia!” : DIG IN!
26 Deal maker : AGENT
27 Helgenberger of “A Dog’s Journey” : MARG
28 “Everything Tastes Better With __”: Sara Perry cookbook : BACON
29 Fixes People, say : EDITS
31 Former U.N. chief : ANNAN
32 Shrimp kin : PRAWN
33 1964 Tony Randall title role : DR LAO
35 Gym developments : SIX-PACKS
36 Exxon, formerly : ESSO
37 Perfectly pitched : ON KEY
38 Verbally assault : TEAR INTO
43 Play areas : ARENAS
44 Texter’s “Beats me” : IDK
47 Come to light : ARISE
49 Empowerment hashtag : #METOO
50 Universal Studios Japan home : OSAKA
51 Blender brand : OSTER
52 Purposes : ENDS
53 River sediment : SILT
54 It breaks quickly nowadays : NEWS
55 Bit of dogspeak : ARF!
56 Bygone New Zealand bird : MOA
57 “Mangia!” : EAT!