LA Times Crossword Answers 10 Jul 2018, Tuesday

Bill’s time: 6m 03s

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Chatting online, for short : IM’ING

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

10. Invitation letters : RSVP

RSVP stands for “répondez s’il vous plaît”, which is French for “answer, please”.

14. Indiana hoopster : PACER

The Indiana Pacers are the professional basketball team based in Indianapolis, who play in the NBA. The name was chosen when the team was formed in 1967. “Pacers” is a homage harness racing pacers (famed in Indiana) and the pace car used in the Indianapolis 500.

17. Fast train in the Northeast : ACELA

The Acela Express is the fastest train routinely running in the US, getting up to 150 mph at times. The service runs between Boston and Washington D.C. via Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Introduced in 2000, the brand name “Acela” was created to evoke “acceleration” and “excellence”.

18. Ideal occupations : DREAM JOBS

Professional crossword solver, perhaps? If only …

20. Scrambled words newspaper game : DAILY JUMBLE

The Daily and Sunday Jumbles are syndicated puzzles from Tribune Media Services that are syndicated widely in newspapers all over the English-speaking world. The first Jumble was created in 1954 by Martin Naydel.

22. Crosswalk user, briefly : PED

Pedestrian crossing (Ped Xing)

23. Prodigal __ : SON

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is related in the Gospel of Luke. Someone who is prodigal is wasteful or extravagant. The parable tells of a man with two sons. The youngest asks for and receives his share of the family estate, and then spends it all unwisely. The “prodigal” son returns, to an unwelcoming older brother. The father, however, declares happily that his son “was lost and now is found”.

25. Hosp. drips : IVS

One might see an intravenous drips (IV) in an intensive care unit (ICU).

27. Vaudeville bit : GAG

The Vire is a river that flows through Normandy in France. The poets of the Vire valley were known as the “Vau de Vire”, a term that some say gave rise to our word “Vaudeville”.

32. Baghdad native : IRAQI

According to the University of Baghdad, the name “Baghdad” dates way back, to the 18th-century BCE (yes, BCE!). The name can be translated into English from the language of ancient Babylon as “old garden” (bagh-) and “beloved” (-dad).

38. Fashionably ripped denim : DISTRESSED JEANS

Nîmes is a lovely city in the south of France. One of the claims to fame of the city is the invention of denim fabric. The French phrase “de Nimes” (from Nimes) gives us the word “denim”. Also, the French phrase “bleu de Genes” (blue of Genoa) gives us our word “jeans”.

42. Fencing sword : EPEE

The sword known as an épée has a three-sided blade. The épée is similar to a foil and sabre, although the foil and saber have rectangular cross-sections.

44. Matthew and Mark wrote two of them : GOSPELS

“Gospel” is a term that came to us via Old English. The Old English term is “godspel” meaning “good story”, and referred to the glad tidings announced by Jesus. There are four Gospels in the Christian New Testament: the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

48. Surrealist Salvador : DALI

The famous surrealist painter Salvador Dalí was born in Figueres, Spain. I had the privilege of visiting the Dalí Museum in Figueres some years ago, just north of Barcelona. If you ever get the chance, it’s a “must see” as it really is a quite magnificent building with a fascinating collection.

50. Ike’s monogram : DDE

Future US president Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas in 1890 and given the name David Dwight, but by the time he made it to the White House he was going by the name Dwight D. Eisenhower (DDE). Growing up, his family called him Dwight, and when “Ike” enrolled in West Point he himself reversed the order of his given names.

53. Medical ins. plan : HMO

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

62. Chicago paper, familiarly : TRIB

“The Chicago Tribune” was first published in 1847. The most famous edition of “The Trib” was probably in 1948 when the headline was “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN”, on the occasion of that year’s presidential election. When it turned out Truman had actually won, the victor picked up the paper with the erroneous headline and posed for photographs with it … a famous, famous photo, that must have stuck in the craw of the editor at the time.

65. November honorees : VETS

Veterans Day used to be known as Armistice Day, and is observed on November 11th each year. This particular date was chosen as the Armistice that ended WWI was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

67. Moth-eaten : TATTY

The larvae of several types of moth are noted for eating fabrics made from natural fibers such as wool or cotton. Many people store woolens in cedar chests believing that the scent of the wood prevents a moth infestation. In fact, the only known effective repellent is the naphthalene found in mothballs, which might be a health concern for humans. One way to kill moth larvae in fabric is to freeze the garment for several days at a temperature below -8 degrees centigrade.

Down

2. Chinese gambling mecca : MACAO

Macau (also “Macao”) is an autonomous territory of China located on the Pearl River estuary about 40 miles west of Hong Kong. Macau was a Portuguese colony from the mid-1500s until 1999. It was in fact the first European colony in China, and the last, having been handed back to the Chinese in 1999, two years after Hong Kong was returned by the British. Macau’s economy is driven by tourism and gambling. The territory’s gaming revenue is the highest for any gambling center in the world.

4. Women’s basketball analyst Fortner : NELL

Nell Fortner is a former college basketball coach, who most notably led the Auburn team from 2004 until 2012. Fortner also coached the US national team to victory in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

7. Quaint schoolteachers : MARMS

“Marm” is short for “schoolmarm”, a quaint term for a female teacher.

8. Roman commoner : PLEB

In ancient Rome, the patricians were the members of the families in the ruling classes. Those Romans who were not patricians by birth were known as plebs.

10. Indian friend of TV’s Sheldon : RAJ

Raj Koothrappali is a character on the sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” who is played by British-Indian actor Kunal Nayyar. Nayyar is married to Neha Kapur, a former Miss India.

Jim Parsons is an actor from Houston, Texas who is best known for playing Sheldon Cooper on the television sitcom “The Big Bang Theory”. As of 2014, Parsons and his co-stars Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco are earning one million dollars per episode of the show.

13. Condition once called “shell shock,” for short : PTSD

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

19. Israel’s Golda : MEIR

Golda Meir was known as the “Iron Lady” when she was Prime Minister of Israel, long before that sobriquet came to be associated with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Golda Meir was born Golda Mabovitch in Kiev (in modern-day Ukraine), and when she was a young girl she moved with her family to the United States and settled in Milwaukee. As a teenager she relocated to Denver where she met and married Morris Meyerson, at the age of 19. She and her husband joined a kibbutz in Palestine in 1921, when she was in her twenties. Meir had been active in politics in the US, and continued her political work in Palestine. She was very influential during WWII, and played a leading role in negotiations after the war leading to the setting up of the state of Israel. By the time she was called on to lead the country, Meir had already retired, citing exhaustion and ill health. But serve she did, and led Israel during turbulent times (e.g. the massacre at the Munich Olympics, and the Yom Kippur War). She eventually resigned in 1974, saying that was what the people wanted.

26. “Donna” singer Ritchie : VALENS

Ritchie Valens was a pioneer in the world of rock & roll and in Chicano rock in particular. Sadly, his recording career lasted less than a year, as Valens was killed in a plane crash in 1959, on “the Day the Music Died” (to quote Don McLean in “American Pie”). That plane crash in Iowa also claimed the lives of Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper (JP Richardson).

The 1958 single “Donna” by Ritchie Valens is one of those A-sides that was outshone by the record’s B-side, which in this case was “La Bamba”. “Donna” was written as a tribute to Valens’ high school sweetheart Donna Ludwig.

27. One usually dressed for success : GQ TYPE

The men’s magazine known today as “GQ” used to be titled “Gentlemen’s Quarterly”. It was known as “Apparel Arts” when launched in 1931.

29. Alfred E. Neuman magazine : MAD

Alfred E. Neuman is the mascot of “Mad” magazine, although the image of the smiling, jug-eared youth had been around for decades before the magazine. “Mad” first used the likeness in 1955, and young Mr. Neuman has appeared on the cover of almost every issue of the magazine since then. Neuman’s name was inspired by American composer Alfred Newman, a prolific writer of film scores.

31. __ buco: veal dish : OSSO

“Osso” is the Italian word for bone, as in the name of the dish “osso buco” (bone with a hole), which features braised veal shanks.

32. Beatnik’s “Gotcha!” : I DIG

The term “beatnik” was coined by journalist Herb Caen in 1958 when he used it to describe the stereotypical young person of the beat generation that was oft associated with the writer Jack Kerouac.

33. Puerto __ : RICO

Puerto Rico (PR) is located in the northeastern Caribbean (in the Atlantic Ocean), east of the Dominican Republic. The name “Puerto Rico” is Spanish for “rich port”. The locals often call their island Borinquen, the Spanish form of “Boriken”, the original name used by the natives.

35. Once-sacred snakes : ASPS

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

46. Fútbol fan’s cry : OLE!

“Fútbol” is the Spanish word for “football, soccer”.

48. Noblemen below princes : DUKES

A duke is a high-ranking nobleman. The term “duke” comes in to English via the French “duc”, and ultimately derives from the Latin verb “ducere” meaning “to lead”.

49. Chorus from the pews : AMENS

A pew is a bench in a church, one usually with a high back. The original pews were raised and sometimes enclosed seats in the church used by women and important men or families. “Pew” comes from the Old French “puie” meaning “balcony, elevation”.

50. Track mix for a party, and what the five longest Across answers comprise : DJ SET

The world’s first radio disc jockey (DJ) was one Ray Newby of Stockton, California who made his debut broadcast in 1909, would you believe? When he was 16 years old and a student, Newby started to play his records on a primitive radio located in the Herrold College of Engineering and Wireless in San Jose. The records played back then were mostly recordings of Enrico Caruso.

57. Deep sleep : COMA

Our term “coma” comes from the Greek “koma” meaning “deep sleep”.

58. “Sharknado” actress Reid : TARA

Tara Reid is an actress known for roles she played on television and the big screen. My guess is her most-remembered performances were in the “American Pie” series of movies in which she played Vicky. Sadly, Reid succumbed to the pressure to alter her looks with plastic surgery. In interviews, she has shared that her first experience under the knife “went wrong” leading to more surgeries in attempts to rectify the resulting deformity.

“Sharknado” is a 2013 tongue-in-cheek disaster movie that was made for the Syfy television channel. The basis of the plot is a freak hurricane that hits Los Angeles, resulting in a flood that leaves man-eating sharks roaming the city. I don’t think so …

60. Atlanta-based cable channel : TBS

The tbs cable television station started out in 1967 as local broadcast TV station in Atlanta. The station’s first call letters were WJRJ-TV, and this was changed to WTCG in 1970 when it was acquired by Ted Turner (the TCG stood for Turner Communications Group). In 1976, Turner started distributing WTCG via satellite making its programming available in other parts of the country. WTCG was only the second channel to transmit via satellite, following HBO. The difference was that WTCG was broadcast without requiring a premium subscription. The station’s call sign was changed again in 1979 to WTBS, with TBS standing for Turner Broadcasting System. In 1981, the channel adopted the moniker “Superstation WTBS”.