LA Times Crossword Answers 22 Mar 15, Sunday

Frequently Asked Question: Why isn’t the puzzle in my paper the same as the one shown on your blog?
If the puzzle in your paper doesn’t match the one that I solved, it is probably a Sunday crossword. On Sundays, the “LA Times” chooses to publish Merl Reagle’s excellent crossword, and not their own “LA Times” Crossword. The “LA Times” puzzle is still sent out in syndication, and is also published in the “LA Times” online. I’ve been asked to blog about Merl Reagle’s crossword, but frankly I don’t have the time. Sunday puzzles have lots of clues!

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CROSSWORD SETTER: C.C. Burnikel
THEME: Course Catalog … we have a CATALOG of themed clues today that are single words relating to a golf COURSE:

23A. TEE CASUAL SHIRT
25A. PITCH SALES TALK
39A. SLICE PIECE OF PIE
71A. EAGLE SCOUT RANK
100A. HOOK COAT HANGER
116A. LIE FISH STORY
119A. GREEN ECOFRIENDLY
38D. CHIP DIAMOND FLAW
43D. ROUGH ILL-MANNERED

BILL BUTLER’S COMPLETION TIME: 28m 33s
ANSWERS I MISSED: 0

Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across

10. Carpentry groove DADO
In the world of joinery, a dado is a slot cut into a piece of wood across the grain. On the other hand, a “groove” is a slot that is cut with the grain.

14. Creme-filled cake HO HO
Ho Hos snack cakes were first produced in San Francisco in 1967; not the best thing to come out of the sixties I’d say …

18. “Over the Rainbow” composer ARLEN
Harold Arlen is a composer of popular music who will forever be associated with his composition “Over the Rainbow” from the movie “The Wizard of Oz”. Arlen also composed the music to “Come Rain or Come Shine”, “It’s Only a Paper Moon”, “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” and the wonderful “Stormy Weather”.

19. Egyptian sky god HORUS
Horus was one of the oldest gods in Ancient Egyptian religion. Most often, Horus was depicted as a falcon or a man with a falcon head.

22. Sharqiya Sands country OMAN
The Sharqiya Sands region of desert in Oman was formerly known as Wahiba Sands. The Wahiba name came from the al-Wahiba bedouin tribe who gathered annually at an oasis on the desert’s border to gather dates.

27. Kosher deli offering LATKE
A latke is a delicious potato pancake (I’m Irish … so anything made with potato is delicious!).

28. Millennium opener ONE AD
The designations Anno Domini (AD, “year of Our Lord”) and Before Christ (BC) are found in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The dividing point between AD and BC is the year of the conception of Jesus, with AD 1 following 1 BC without a year “0” in between. The AD/BC scheme dates back to AD 525, and gained wide acceptance soon after AD 800. Nowadays a modified version has become popular, with CE (Common/Christian Era) used to replace AD, and BCE (Before the Common/Christian Era) used to replace BC.

30. Asian soup type EGG DROP
Egg drop soup is a Chinese dish in which the key ingredients are beaten eggs and chicken broth. Also called egg flower soup, the final step in its preparation is the addition of a thin stream of beaten eggs to the broth as it boils, creating flakes of cooked egg that float in the soup.

33. Tourney passes BYES
The word “bye”, as used in sport, originated in cricket. A bye is a run scored due to an error by the wicketkeeper (similar to a catcher in baseball) when he fails to stop a ball bowled by the bowler (like a pitcher in baseball). Later the word “bye” in sport came to mean the position of a player in a tournament who is left without a competitor when the rest have drawn pairs. In these commercial times, those byes tend to be awarded to the best (seeded) players, so that the most popular players always advance past the first round of competition.

36. ChooseMyPlate.gov organization USDA
The first food guide pyramid was issued in 1974, in Sweden. The food pyramid that we’re most familiar with in this country is the one published by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1992, which was replaced in 2011. Instead of a pyramid, we now have a guide called MyPlate (available on the website ChooseMyPlate.gov). MyPlate urges us to eat about 30% grains, 30% vegetables, 20% fruits, 20% proteins on our plates, accompanied by a small serving of dairy.

42. R.E.M. vocalist Michael STIPE
Michael Stipe was the lead vocalist for the band R.E.M. that was active from 1980 through 2011. Stipe is also active in the film industry. He served as an executive producer on the films “Being John Malkovich” and “Man on the Moon”.

46. Court attendant BAILIFF
Here in the US, the term “bailiff” is sometimes applied to a peace officer who provides security in a court.

49. Outdated messager TELEX
Telex grew out of the world of the telegraph. What Telex brought to telegraphy was the ability to route messages. Instead of having to talk to an operator to route a particular message to the intended party, the user of a telex could route the message directly to another telex machine by way of a rotary dial, very similar to that on a telephone.

50. Weather-sensitive expectation, briefly ETA
Expected time of arrival (eta)

51. Creme-filled snacks OREOS
The Oreo was the best-selling cookie in the 20th century, and almost 500 billion of them have been sold since they were introduced in 1912 by Nabisco. In those early days the creme filling was made with pork fat, but today vegetable oils are used instead. If you take a bite out of an Oreo sold outside of America you might notice a difference from the homegrown cookie, as coconut oil is added in the overseas version to give a different taste.

53. Catchall phrase ET ALIA
Et alii (et al.) is the equivalent of et cetera (etc.), with et cetera being used in place of a list of objects, and et alii used for a list of names. In fact “et al.” can stand for et alii (for a group of males, or males and females), aliae (for a group of women) and et alia (for a group of neuter nouns, or for a group of people where the intent is to retain gender-neutrality).

56. Descartes’ law LOI
“Loi” is French for “law”.

The great French philosopher Rene Descartes made the famous statement in Latin, “Cogito ergo sum”. This translates into French as “Je pense, donc je suis” and into English as “I think, therefore I am”.

57. Italian cheese ROMANO
“Romano” is actually an American term, and is used for a selection of hard and salty cheeses that are typically grated. One of these cheeses is the Italian Pecorino Romano, from which we get the more generic term “Romano”.

59. Muckraker Jacob RIIS
Jacob Riis is famous for his photographs and newspaper articles that highlighted the plight of the impoverished in New York City. He wrote “How the Other Half Lives”, originally an extensive article that appeared in “Scribner’s Magazine” at Christmas 1889. The article had such an impact that Riis was commissioned to expand it into a book, which was published the following year.

Muckrakers were investigative journalists who were intent on exposing social ills and corruption in the corporate and political worlds. Muckrakers were most active in the US in the Progressive Era, from 1890 to 1920. The term comes from John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” in which there is a character called “the Man with the Muck-Rake”. This “muck-raker” eschews what is lofty and celestial and who instead focuses on the vile and the debasing.

64. Source of a cc ORIG
I wonder do the kids of today know that “cc” stands for carbon copy, and do they have any idea what a carbon copy was? Do you remember how messy carbon paper was to handle?

68. Co-creator of Mickey WALT
Walt Disney’s iconic cartoon character Mickey Mouse, was introduced to the public in 1928 in the cartoon “Steamboat Willie”. Mickey was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978, the first cartoon character to be so honored. Walt Disney has some nice words to say in Disneyland in 1954:

I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.

69. Grammy winner Ronstadt LINDA
Linda Ronstadt is a singer-songwriter from Tucson, Arizona. Ronstadt really does have a lovely voice, and can make any song her own. In the late seventies, she was the highest paid woman in the world of rock music.

71. EAGLE SCOUT RANK
The rank of Eagle Scout was introduced by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in 1911. A candidate for Eagle Scout must have first earned a minimum of 21 merit badges, and demonstrate leadership skills and embrace Scout Spirit. Prior to 1911, the highest rank attainable in the BSA was Wolf Scout.

73. 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.

76. __ cake BUNDT
Here in the US, what we know as “Bundt cake” takes its name from the ring-shaped pan in which it is usually baked. This pan was introduced in 1950 by the company NordicWare, at which time the “Bundt” name was trademarked.

77. Forsaken LORN
To be “lorn” is be “bereft, forsaken”. “Lorn” is an archaic term meaning “lost”. A lovely word, I think …

78. Served with a creamy cheese sauce ALFREDO
Alfredo sauce is usually associated with the Italian dish called fettuccine Alfredo. The sauce is made from Parmesan cheese and butter, and is named for the Italian restaurant owner Alfredo Di Lelio. Di Lelio’s nephews still own and run a restaurant in Rome called “Il Vero Alfredo”. Here in the US, we often add other ingredients to the basic cheese and butter recipe. And the name “fettuccine Alfredo” is unknown in Italy today.

84. Pickles on “Rugrats” DIL
Tommy Pickles is the protagonist on the Nickelodeon cartoon show “Rugrats”. Dil Pickles is Tommy’s younger brother.

85. Mark to come back to DOG-EAR
The folded-down corner of the page of a book, a temporary placeholder, is known as a “dog-ear”.

91. Usher’s “Looking 4 Myself” label RCA
Usher is the stage name of R&B singer Usher Terry Raymond IV.

92. As a friend, to Hollande EN AMI
“En ami” is the French for “in friendship”.

94. Everest expert SHERPA
In the Tibetan language, Sherpa means “eastern people” (sher = east, pa = people). Sherpas are an ethnic group from Nepal, but the name is also used for the local guides who assist mountaineers in the Himalayas, and particularly on Mount Everest.

102. Together, in scores A DUE
“A due” is a musical term meaning “together”, and literally translates from Italian as “by two”.

103. Neighbor of Ghana TOGO
Togo is a country on the West African coast, located between Ghana to the west and Benin to the east.

105. __ Mawr College BRYN
I used to live not far from Bryn-mawr (also “Brynmwar”) in Wales, the town with the highest elevation in the country. Appropriately enough, “bryn mawr” is Welsh for “big hill”. There is also a Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania (note the different capitalization) that is named after its Welsh counterpart. At the Pennsylvania location there’s a Bryn Mawr college, a private women’s school that was the first American university to offer graduate degrees to women.

108. “Beat it!” AMSCRAY!
Pig Latin is in effect a game. One takes the first consonant or consonant cluster of an English word and moves it to the end of the word, and then adds the letters “ay”. So the Pig Latin for the word “nix” is “ix-n-ay” … ixnay, and for “scram” is “am-scr-ay”

111. CenturyLink Center city OMAHA
The CenturyLink Center in Omaha was opened in 2003. The multi-purpose arena is home to the men’s basketball team of Creighton University as well as the men’s hockey team of the University of Nebraska.

113. Rubbish TRIPE
“Tripe” is an informal term meaning “rubbish, of little value”. Tripe is actually the rubbery lining of say a cow, that in the UK is traditionally eaten with onions.

122. Light color ECRU
The shade called ecru is a grayish, yellowish brown. The word “ecru” comes from French and means “raw, unbleached”. “Ecru” has the same roots as our word “crude”.

123. Bluesy James ETTA
Etta James was best known for her beautiful rendition of the song “At Last”. Sadly, as she disclosed in her autobiography, James lived a life that was ravaged by drug addiction leading to numerous legal and health problems. Ms. James passed away in January 2012 having suffered from leukemia.

126. Mud dauber, e.g. WASP
Mud daubers are types of wasps that build their nests from mud. Mud daubers are relatively nonaggressive and rarely use their stings. However, they have been linked to aircraft crashes. Mud daubers built nests within the pitot tubes of each of the planes involved in the accidents. Blocked pitot tubes cause a plane’s airspeed to be measured incorrectly.

129. City on Germany’s A40 ESSEN
Germany’s Autobahn 40 is one of the busiest roadways in the country. It runs from the Dutch-German border in the east, across the Rhine and through the Ruhr valley.

Down
1. EMILY’s List, for one PAC
A Political Action Committee (PAC) is a private group that works to influence the outcome of a particular election or group of elections. Any group becomes a PAC by law when it receives or spends more than $1,000 for the purpose of influencing the outcome of an election. In 2010 the Supreme Court ruled that PACS that did not make direct contributions to candidates or parties could accept unlimited contributions. These “independent-expenditure only committees” are commonly referred to as “super PACs”.

EMILY’s List is a political action committee (PAC) that contributes to the campaigns of pro-choice Democratic female candidates running for office. The PAC’s name is an acronym standing for “Early Money Is Like Yeast”, meaning that early contributions to a campaign really help to “raise dough”.

2. Polluted Asian sea ARAL
The Aral Sea is a great example of how man can have a devastating effect on his environment. In the early sixties the Aral Sea covered 68,000 square miles of Central Asia. Soviet Union irrigation projects drained the lake to such an extent that today the total area is less than 7,000 square miles, with 90% of the lake now completely dry. Sad …

3. She left Casablanca with Victor ILSA
Paul Henreid was an Austrian actor, most famous for playing Victor Laszlo in “Casablanca”, husband of Ilsa Lund played by Ingrid Bergman.

8. Joyce’s home ERIN
“Éire”, is the Irish word for “Ireland”. “Erin” is an anglicized version of “Éire” and actually corresponds to “Éirinn”, the dative case of “Éire”.

Regular readers will know that I am unashamedly supportive of my native Irish culture, but I have to tell you that I can’t handle the works of James Joyce. I have spent many a fine day traipsing around Ireland learning about his life, but I have yet to appreciate one of his books. To me, his life is more absorbing than his writing. Having said that, “Ulysses” is an interesting novel in that it chronicles just one ordinary day in the life of a Dubliner named Leopold Bloom. There’s a huge celebration of “Ulysses” in Dublin every year on June 16th, called Bloomsday. The festivities vary from readings and performances of the storyline, to good old pub crawls. “Ulysses” was made into a film of the same name in 1967 starring Milo O’Shea. Back in 1921 however, the book was effectively banned in the US after a New York court declared the magazine in which was serialized was declared obscene. The US Post Office burned many copies of the novel throughout the 1920s, until the US became the first English-speaking country where the book became freely available.

10. Hearing VIPs DAS
District Attorney (DA)

13. Movado competitor OMEGA
Omega is a manufacturer of high-end watches based in Switzerland. An Omega watch was the first portable timepiece to make it to the moon.

Movado is a manufacturer of upscale watches in Switzerland. The company name is an Esperanto word, meaning “always in motion”.

15. Co-star of Julie in “Doctor Zhivago” OMAR
Omar Sharif is the great Hollywood actor from Egypt, an actor who played major roles in memorable movies such as “Doctor Zhivago” and “Lawrence of Arabia”. But to me he is my bridge hero (the card game). In his heyday Sharif was one of the best bridge players in the world.

Julie Christie is a very talented British actress, actually born in British India. One of her most famous roles was Lara in the the epic 1965 film “Doctor Zhivago”.

“Doctor Zhivago” is an epic novel by Boris Pasternak, first published in 1957. I haven’t tried to read the book, but the 1965 film version is a must-see, directed by David Lean and starring Omar Sharif in the title role. The story centers on Yuri Zhivago, a doctor and poet, and how he is affected by the Russian Revolution and the Russian Civil War.

16. Ring of light HALO
The Greek word “halos” is the name given to the ring of light around the sun or moon, which gives us our word “halo”.

17. Like some GIs in a mess ON KP
KP is a US military slang term that stands for either “kitchen police” or “kitchen patrol”.

“Mess” first came into English about 1300 and described the list of food needed for a meal, from the Old French word “mes” meaning a portion of food or a course at a meal. This usage in English evolved into “mess” meaning a jumbled mass of anything from the concept of “mixed food”. At the same time, the original usage in the sense of a food for a meal surfaced again in the military in the 1500s when a “mess” was a communal eating place.

26. Goarmy.com virtual guide SGT STAR
Sergeant Star is the name given to the web chat personality available to give help on the GoArmy.com website. Sergeant Star has grown up in recent years, and now turns up as a life-size projection image at locations where the army run recruitment drives.

29. Friday’s creator DEFOE
Daniel Defoe is most famous today as an author, of the novel “Robinson Crusoe” in particular. Defoe was also a trader, and a spy for King William III.

In Daniel Defoe’s 1719 novel “Robinson Crusoe”, the castaway encounters a companion that Crusoe calls “Friday”, because the two first met on that day. Friday soon becomes his willing servant. This character is the source of our terms “Man Friday” and “Girl Friday”, which are used to describe a particularly competent and loyal assistant.

36. Super, slangily UBER
We use the prefix “uber-” to mean “over, beyond, ultra”. “Uber” is the German word for “over”.

37. 1974 Peace Nobelist SATO
Prime Minister Eisaku Sato of Japan won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1974 (sharing it with Irishman Sean MacBride). He won for “his renunciation of the nuclear option for Japan and his efforts to further regional reconciliation”. Sato defined Japan’s nuclear policy in the sixties by laying out “Three Non-Nuclear Principles”. The principles are that Japan will not possess, nor manufacture nuclear weapons, not permit introduction of nuclear weapons into Japanese territory.

40. Treasure Island, e.g. CASINO
Treasure Island is a resort and casino in Las Vegas that opened in 1993. The hotel used to feature a famous free “Buccaneer Bay” show in a man-made lake at the front of the property. However, the show was closed permanently in 2013 to make way for retail space. A shame …

44. “Sexiest Man Alive” magazine PEOPLE
“People” magazine 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.

47. Pythagoras’ homeland IONIA
The geographic region called Ionia is located in present day Turkey. Ionia was prominent in the days of Ancient Greece although it wasn’t a unified state, but rather a collection of tribes. The tribal confederacy was more based on religious and cultural similarities than a political or military alliance. Nowadays we often refer to this arrangement as the Ionian League.

Pythagoras of Samos is remembered by most these days for his work in mathematics, and for his famous Pythagorean theorem that states that in any right triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Although there is very little of Pythagoras’s own work that survives, much has been written by his successors that shows how great his influence was above and beyond mathematics, in the fields of philosophy and religion in particular. In fact, it is believed that Pythagoras coined the word “philosophy”, coming from the Greek for “loving wisdom or knowledge”. On a “timeline” of famous Greek philosophers, Pythagoras was doing his work over a hundred years before Socrates, who was followed by Plato and then Aristotle.

52. Maker of the SurfaceScrub floor cleaner ORECK
The Oreck Corporation is named after founder David Oreck and is a manufacturer of vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. The company started out selling vacuum cleaners by mail, a new concept in 1963. David Oreck himself appears regularly as a spokesman in the company’s ads and infomercials.

60. “So __ thee unforgiven”: Metallica lyric I DUB
“So I dub thee unforgiven” is a line from the Metallica power ballad called “The Unforgiven”.

Metallica is a heavy metal band from Los Angeles, formed in 1981. Not my thing …

61. Scam SETUP
The slang term “scam” meaning a swindle may come from the British slang “scamp”.

66. Film villain with prosthetic hands DR NO
“Dr. No” may have been the first film in the wildly successful James Bond franchise, but it was the sixth novel in the series of books penned by Ian Fleming. Fleming was inspired to write the story after reading the Fu Manchu tales by Sax Rohmer. If you’ve read the Rohmer books or seen the films, you’ll recognize the similarities between the characters Dr. No and Fu Manchu.

72. 2012 NFL MVP Peterson ADRIAN
Adrian Peterson is a running back who plays for the Minnesota Vikings. Adrian was a hyperactive kid, so his father nicknamed him “All Day”, which led to one of his current nicknames “A.D.”

73. Reindeer name COMET
We get the names for Santa’s reindeer from the famous 1823 poem called “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, although we’ve modified a couple of the names over the years. The full list is:

– Dasher
– Dancer
– Prancer
– Vixen
– Comet
– Cupid
– Donder (originally “Dunder”, and now often “Donner”)
– Blitzen (originally “Blixem”)

Rudolph was added to the list by retailer Montgomery Ward, would you believe? The store commissioned Robert L. May to create a booklet that could be handed out to children around Christmas in 1939, and May introduced us to a new friend for Santa, namely Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

75. Hearing promise I DO

Do you solemnly swear or affirm that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

77. Intelligentsia LITERATI
Literati are men and women of letters, learned people.

82. Scopes Trial gp. ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has its roots in the First World War when it was founded to provide legal advice and support to conscientious objectors.

In 1925 Tennessee passed the Butler Act which made it unlawful for a public school teacher to teach the theory of evolution over the Biblical account of the origin of man. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sought to challenge this law and found a test case of a Tennessee high school teacher named John Scopes, who was charged with violating the law by presenting to his students ideas put forth by Charles Darwin. Celebrity lawyers descended on the small town of Dayton, Tennessee to argue the case. At the end of a high-profile trial, teacher John Scopes was found guilty as charged and was ordered to pay a fine.

83. Buttermilk lover Evans DALE
Dale Evans was the stage name of actress and singer Lucille Wood Smith, famous as the third wife of Roy Rogers. Evans was from Uvalde, Texas, and had a rough start in life. She eloped with her first husband when she was just 14 years old, and had her first child at 15. That first marriage ended in divorce when she was 17 in 1929, the same year she started on her second marriage. Roy Rogers was Evans’ fourth husband and they married in 1947, a marriage that lasted for 51 years, until Rogers passed away in 1998.

Cowboy Roy Rogers rode the palomino horse named Trigger. Cowgirl Dale Evans rode a buckskin quarter horse called Buttermilk.

86. Paul Anka’s “__ Beso” ESO
“Eso Beso” is Spanish for “That Kiss”, and is the name of a hit song recorded by Canadian-born singer Paul Anka.

87. Starbuck’s boss AHAB
Captain Ahab is the obsessed and far from friendly captain of the Pequod in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”. The role of Captain Ahab was played by Gregory Peck in the 1956 John Huston film adaptation. Patrick Stewart played Ahab in a 1998 miniseries in which Peck made another appearance, as Father Mapple.

The most famous whale-hunting ship in fiction has to be Herman Melville’s Pequod, featured in his novel “Moby Dick”. The young chief mate of the Pequod is named Starbuck. Starbuck’s name was lifted and used by a Seattle-based coffee company.

90. First Met to win a Gold Glove AGEE
Tommie Agee was a Major League Baseball player who played mainly with the Indians, White Sox and Mets. He was one of the “Amazin’ Mets”, and was famous for making two phenomenal catches in game three of the 1969 world series, potentially saving five runs. Agee was also the first Mets outfielder to win a Gold Glove, doing so in 1970.

The Gold Glove is an annual award given by Major League Baseball to the player judged to be the best in each fielding position in a season. The award was instituted in 1957 by the baseball glove manufacturer Rawlings.

96. Cure-all PANACEA
Panacea was the Greek goddess of healing. She lent her name to the term “panacea” that was used by alchemists to describe the beguiling remedy that could cure all diseases and prolong life indefinitely.

98. Some surfers WAHINES
“Wahine” is the word for “woman”, in both Hawaiian and Maori.

100. South Dakota’s state animal COYOTE
The coyote is a canine found in most of Central and North America. The name “coyote” is Mexican Spanish, in which language it means “trickster”. Coyotes can sometimes mate with domestic dogs, creating hybrid animals known as “coydogs”. Coyotes can also mate with wolves, creating a “coywolf”. South Dakota named the coyote its state animal in 1949.

107. Center of the Minoan civilization CRETE
Crete is the largest of the Greek Islands. Crete figures heavily in Greek mythology. Zeus was born in a cave at Mount Ida, the highest peak on the island. Crete was also home to the Labyrinth where the Minotaur was slain by Theseus. Icarus and Daedalus, after having crafted the Labyrinth, escaped from the island using wings that they crafted.

The Minoans were a Bronze Age people that lived on the island of Crete from about 270 to 1450 BCE. Evidence of the Minoan civilization was uncovered by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans at the beginning of the 20th century. Evans coined the term “Minoan” after King Minos of myth, who was said to have built a Labyrinth on the island that housed the Minotaur.

109. Glittery mineral MICA
Mica is a mineral, a sheet silicate. Thin sheets of mica are transparent and are used in place of glass in certain applications. This form of mica is called isinglass, and as it has a better thermal performance than glass it is a great choice for “peepholes’ in boilers and lanterns. Mica is also used in the electronics industry, making use of its unique electrical and thermal insulating properties.

110. Lith. and Ukr., once SSRS
The nation of Lithuania is a former Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) sitting on the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe.

Ukraine is a large country in Eastern Europe, a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) before the dissolution of the USSR. In English we often call the country “the” Ukraine, but I am told that we should just say “Ukraine”.

114. Smartphone ancestors PDAS
Personal digital assistant (PDA)

117. Way to go: Abbr. RTE
Route (rte.)

120. Pal of Harry RON
Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are the principal characters in the “Harry Potter” series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling.

121. Japanese cabbage? YEN
The Korean Won, the Chinese Yuan, and the Japanese Yen (all of which are Asian currencies) take their names from the Chinese written character that represents “round shape”.

Lettuce, cabbage, kale, dinero, dough and moola (also moolah) are all slang terms for money.

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For the sake of completion, here is a full listing of all the answers:
Across
1. Extra care PAINS
6. Sits in a cellar, say AGES
10. Carpentry groove DADO
14. Creme-filled cake HO HO
18. “Over the Rainbow” composer ARLEN
19. Egyptian sky god HORUS
21. “Excuse me …” AHEM …
22. Sharqiya Sands country OMAN
23. TEE CASUAL SHIRT
25. PITCH SALES TALK
27. Kosher deli offering LATKE
28. Millennium opener ONE AD
30. Asian soup type EGG DROP
31. Territory REALM
33. Tourney passes BYES
35. “See you later!” TATA!
36. ChooseMyPlate.gov organization USDA
39. SLICE PIECE OF PIE
42. R.E.M. vocalist Michael STIPE
46. Court attendant BAILIFF
48. When a classic film gunfight started AT NOON
49. Outdated messager TELEX
50. Weather-sensitive expectation, briefly ETA
51. Creme-filled snacks OREOS
53. Catchall phrase ET ALIA
56. Descartes’ law LOI
57. Italian cheese ROMANO
59. Muckraker Jacob RIIS
62. Merging places ON-RAMPS
64. Source of a cc ORIG
65. Put to rest ENDED
67. __ factor ICK
68. Co-creator of Mickey WALT
69. Grammy winner Ronstadt LINDA
71. EAGLE SCOUT RANK
73. Candy shapes CANES
74. Within: Pref. ENDO-
75. Type ILK
76. __ cake BUNDT
77. Forsaken LORN
78. Served with a creamy cheese sauce ALFREDO
80. Go (over) carefully PORE
81. “My parents are gonna kill me!” I’M DEAD!
84. Pickles on “Rugrats” DIL
85. Mark to come back to DOG-EAR
89. Hot IRATE
91. Usher’s “Looking 4 Myself” label RCA
92. As a friend, to Hollande EN AMI
94. Everest expert SHERPA
97. Card message GET WELL
99. Not accustomed to NEW AT
100. HOOK COAT HANGER
102. Together, in scores A DUE
103. Neighbor of Ghana TOGO
105. __ Mawr College BRYN
106. Range of power REACH
108. “Beat it!” AMSCRAY!
111. CenturyLink Center city OMAHA
113. Rubbish TRIPE
116. LIE FISH STORY
119. GREEN ECOFRIENDLY
122. Light color ECRU
123. Bluesy James ETTA
124. Handle SEE TO
125. Taunt TEASE
126. Mud dauber, e.g. WASP
127. Way to go on the gridiron? DEEP
128. NBA part: Abbr. ASSN
129. City on Germany’s A40 ESSEN

Down
1. EMILY’s List, for one PAC
2. Polluted Asian sea ARAL
3. She left Casablanca with Victor ILSA
4. Unaligned NEUTRAL
5. Untrustworthy sort SNAKE
6. Contented sounds AHS
7. “Scram, kid!” GO HOME!
8. Joyce’s home ERIN
9. Shell game, to a con man SURE BET
10. Hearing VIPs DAS
11. “Caught ya!” AHA!
12. Remove, in a way DELETE
13. Movado competitor OMEGA
14. Much-anticipated appointment HOT DATE
15. Co-star of Julie in “Doctor Zhivago” OMAR
16. Ring of light HALO
17. Like some GIs in a mess ON KP
20. Extend a visit STAY ON
24. Spring game? LEAPFROG
26. Goarmy.com virtual guide SGT STAR
29. Friday’s creator DEFOE
32. Long sentence LIFE
34. __ check SPOT
36. Super, slangily UBER
37. 1974 Peace Nobelist SATO
38. CHIP DIAMOND FLAW
40. Treasure Island, e.g. CASINO
41. __ nutshell IN A
43. ROUGH ILL-MANNERED
44. “Sexiest Man Alive” magazine PEOPLE
45. Lives EXISTS
47. Pythagoras’ homeland IONIA
52. Maker of the SurfaceScrub floor cleaner ORECK
54. Security item LOCK
55. Publicity INK
58. Fervor ARDOR
60. “So __ thee unforgiven”: Metallica lyric I DUB
61. Scam SETUP
63. Prize AWARD
66. Film villain with prosthetic hands DR NO
67. Between: Pref. INTER-
69. Dull gray, as winter skies LEADEN
70. __ skating IN-LINE
71. Tough walk SLOG
72. 2012 NFL MVP Peterson ADRIAN
73. Reindeer name COMET
75. Hearing promise I DO
77. Intelligentsia LITERATI
79. They may reduce sentences EDITORS
82. Scopes Trial gp. ACLU
83. Buttermilk lover Evans DALE
86. Paul Anka’s “__ Beso” ESO
87. Starbuck’s boss AHAB
88. Back in RETRO
90. First Met to win a Gold Glove AGEE
93. Contest MATCH-UP
95. Poetic works RHYMES
96. Cure-all PANACEA
98. Some surfers WAHINES
100. South Dakota’s state animal COYOTE
101. Surgical procedures GRAFTS
104. Like some estates GATED
107. Center of the Minoan civilization CRETE
108. Not many A FEW
109. Glittery mineral MICA
110. Lith. and Ukr., once SSRS
112. Soil-scraping tools HOES
114. Smartphone ancestors PDAS
115. Otherwise ELSE
117. Way to go: Abbr. RTE
118. Talk foolishly YAP
120. Pal of Harry RON
121. Japanese cabbage? YEN

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