LA Times Crossword 11 Dec 18, Tuesday

Bill’s time: 6m 28s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. With 18-Across, R.E.M. guitarist : PETER (BUCK)

Peter Buck is a musician who played lead guitar for the rock band REM. Buck is an avid record collector and owns around 10,000 singles and 6,000 LPs on vinyl, as well as around 4,000 CDs.

15. 1998 Sarah McLachlan hit : ADIA

Sarah McLachlan is singer/songwriter from Halifax, Nova Scotia who lives in Vancouver. In 1997, McLachlan married Ashwin Sood, the drummer in her band. The 1998 hit song “Adia”, which she co-wrote and recorded, was intended as an apology to her best friend … for stealing her ex-boyfriend and then marrying him!

16. Black-and-white cookie : OREO

How the Oreo cookie came to get its name seems to have been lost in the mists of time. One theory is that it comes from the French “or” meaning “gold”, a reference to the gold color of the original packing. Another suggestion is that the name is the Greek word “oreo” meaning “beautiful, nice, well-done”.

17. Anglo-__ : SAXON

Germanic tribes invaded Great Britain from the early 5th century and created the nation that we now call England. The Anglo-Saxons (sometimes simply “Saxons”), as these tribes came to be called, held sway in the country until the Norman Conquest in 1066. The Anglo-Saxons were descendants of three Germanic tribes:

• The Angles, from Angeln in Northern Germany (and the tribe that gave the name “England”).
• The Saxons, from Lower Saxony and Holland.
• The Jutes, from the Jutland peninsula in Denmark.

18. With 35-Across, 10-time “SNL” host who was Belushi’s straight man in samurai routines : BUCK (HENRY)

Buck Henry is an actor, writer and film director with quite a varied resume. He was co-creator and writer with Mel Brooks for the zany TV comedy “Get Smart”, and he hosted “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) ten times in the late seventies. Famously, John Belushi actually injured Henry with a samurai in a SNL sketch on live television, which forced Henry to wear a bandage on his forehead for the remainder of the show. Henry also co-wrote the screenplay for the 1967 film “The Graduate”, and even had an acting part in the movie playing a room clerk.

20. Gritty film genre : NOIR

The expression “film noir” has French origins, but only in that it was coined by a French critic in describing a style of Hollywood film. The term, meaning “black film” in French, was first used by Nino Frank in 1946. Film noir often applies to a movie with a melodramatic plot and a private eye or detective at its center. Good examples would be “The Big Sleep” and “D.O.A”.

29. Entertainment award quartets, for short : EGOTS

The acronym “EGOT” stands for “Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony”, and is a reference to performers who have won all four awards. Also known as the “Showbiz Award Grand Slam”, there are relatively few individuals who have been so honored. The first five to do so were:

1. Richard Rodgers in 1962
2. Helen Hayes in 1977
3. Rita Moreno in 1977
4. John Gielgud in 1991
5. Audrey Hepburn in 1994 (posthumously)

33. Swiss skiing spot : ALP

There are eight Alpine countries:

• Austria
• Slovenia
• France
• Switzerland
• Liechtenstein
• Germany
• Monaco
• Italy

35. With 44-Across, hitter of 755 home runs : HENRY (AARON)

The great Hank Aaron (“Hammerin’ Hank” or “the Hammer”) has many claims to fame. One notable fact is that he is the last major league baseball player to have also played in the Negro League.

44. With 57-Across, “Breaking Bad” actor : AARON (PAUL)

Actor Aaron Paul is best known for playing Jesse Pinkman in the incredibly successful drama “Breaking Bad”. Paul got himself a “Breaking Bad” tattoo on the last day of filming of the series, as did fellow cast member Bryan Cranston.

48. Courtroom cry : OYEZ!

“Oyez” is an Anglo-French word, traditionally called out three times, with the meaning “hear ye!”

49. Big Apple team : METS

The New York Mets baseball team was founded in 1962 as a replacement for two teams that the city had lost, namely the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. For several years the Mets played very poorly, finishing no better than second-to-last in their division. Then along came the “Miracle Mets” (aka “Amazin’ Mets”) who beat the Baltimore Orioles in 1969 to claim the World Series in a huge upset.

Apparently, the first published use of the term “Big Apple” to describe New York City dates back to 1909. Edward Martin wrote the following in his book “The Wayfarer in New York”:

Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city. . . . It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap.

Over ten years later, the term “big apple” was used as a nickname for racetracks in and around New York City. However, the concerted effort to “brand” the city as the Big Apple had to wait until the seventies and was the work of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau.

52. Anti-cruelty org. : PETA

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is a very large animal rights organization, with 300 employees and two million members and supporters worldwide. Although the group campaigns for animal rights across a broad spectrum of issues, it has a stated focus in opposition of four practices:

• Factory farming
• Fur farming
• Animal testing
• Use of animals in entertainment

54. Green gemstone : JADE

“Jade” is actually the name given to two different mineral rocks, both of which are used to make gemstones. The first is nephrite, a mineral with a varying degree of iron content, the more iron the greener the color. The second is jadeite, a sodium and aluminum-rich pyroxene. As well as being used for gemstones, both jade minerals can be carved into decorative pieces.

57. With 68-Across, Garfunkel’s partner : PAUL (SIMON)

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel performed together as “Simon & Garfunkel”, as I am sure we all know. The friends started singing together way back in the fifties when they were still in school together. The name of their act at that time was “Tom & Jerry”.

63. Big Aussie birds : EMUS

Emu eggs are very large, with a thick shell that is dark-green in color. One emu egg weighs about the same as a dozen chicken eggs.

64. Taj Mahal city : AGRA

Agra is a medieval city on the banks of the river Yamuna in India. Agra was also the capital of the Mughal Empire from 1556 to 1658. The city is home to three UNESCO World Heritage Sites:

• The Taj Mahal: the famous mausoleum built in memory of Mumtaz Mahal.
• Agra Fort: the site where the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond was seized.
• Fatehpur Sikri: a historic city that’s home to well-preserved Mughal architecture.

65. Worker, briefly : PROLE

Back in the days of the Roman Republic, citizens with some material wealth were required to list in the census the property that they owned. Citizens with little or no property instead listed their “proles”, which is the Latin word for “offspring, children”. As a result, the class of people without property were referred to as the “proletarii”. Centuries later, Karl Marx popularized the term “proletariat” to describe the working class. Still later, author George Orwell used the term “prole” to describe a member of the working class in his novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”.

66. Ocean motion : TIDE

Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon on the oceans. At neap tide, the smaller gravitational effect of the sun cancels out some of the moon’s effect. At spring tide, the sun and the moon’s gravitational forces act in concert causing more extreme movement of the oceans.

68. With 1-Across, one of the Twelve Apostles : SIMON (PETER)

Simon Peter (often “Peter” or “Saint Peter”) was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. The Christian tradition holds that Peter founded the Roman Church, and the Roman Catholic tradition names Peter as the first pope.

Down

1. “Arthur” TV station : PBS

“Arthur” is an educational TV show that started airing on PBS in 1996. The title character is an aardvark who regularly introduces children to important social issues such as dyslexia, cancer and autism. “Arthur” is the longest-running children’s animated show on US television, and is the second-longest running of any animated show, behind Fox’s “The Simpsons”.

4. Lodge opening? : ECONO-

Econo Lodge is a low-cost hotel chain in the Choice Hotels portfolio of brands. The chain started in 1969 as Econo-Travel, and demonstrated pretty quickly that budget-hotels were a good idea. The first hotel was built in Norfolk, Virginia and it started making money three weeks after welcoming its first guests.

5. Nevada casino city : RENO

The city of Reno’s economy took off when open gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931. Within a short time, a syndicate had built the Bank Club in Reno, which was the largest casino in the world at the time.

6. Chocolate dog : LABRADOR

The Labrador (Lab) breed of dog has been around at least since 1814, and the chocolate Labrador appeared over a century later in the 1930s. The name “Labrador Retriever” is simply a reference to the breed’s origin and behavior. Labs originally “retrieved” from the “Labrador Sea”.

7. Emory email ender : EDU

Emory is a private school in Atlanta, Georgia with a focus on graduate research. The school was named after a Methodist Episcopal bishop called John Emory, who was very popular at the time of the school’s founding in 1836.

11. Salem is its cap. : ORE

Salem is the state capital of Oregon. It is thought that the city takes its name from the older city of Salem, Massachusetts.

12. Buddhist sect : ZEN

Zen is a Buddhist school that developed its own tradition in China back in the 7th century AD. Zen is a Japanese spelling of the Chinese word “chan”, which in turn derives from the Sanskrit word “dhyana” meaning “meditation”.

21. Tehran residents : IRANIS

Tehran is the capital of Iran and is the largest city in the Middle East, with a population of about 8.5 million. Iran has been around a really long time and Tehran is actually the country’s 31st national capital.

24. Dr. Seuss’ Sam-__ : I-AM

Dr. Seuss’s famous children’s book “Green Eggs and Ham” was first published in 1960. “Green Eggs and Ham” now ranks twelfth in the list of top selling children’s books. By the way, “Harry Potter” books hold the top four slots in that list. The text of “Green Eggs and Ham” has a lot of “I am” going on. It starts with:

I am Sam
I am Sam
Sam I am

and ends with:

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am

26. Invasive computer program : SPYWARE

Spyware is software that is installed on a computer to gather information without the owner’s knowledge. Nasty stuff …

32. Dict. entry : SYN

Synonym (syn.)

34. Pass rusher’s team : DEFENSE

In football, the ball can be advanced by kicking, passing or rushing. Rushing is the act of running with the ball.

37. Meaty spaghetti sauce : BOLOGNESE

Bolognese sauce is a meat-based sauce originating from Bologna in Italy, hence the name. The recipe is usually referred to as “ragù alla bolognese” in Italian, or simply “ragù”. Note that the Ragú brand of sauces introduced in North America in 1937 takes its name from the same source (pun … sauce!). However, the brand name uses the wrong accent (“Ragú” instead of “Ragù”), which drives a pedant like me crazy ..

43. Rx writers : DRS

45. Rx quantity : DOSAGE

There seems to some uncertainty about the origin of the symbol “Rx” that’s used for a medical prescription. One explanation is that it comes from the astrological sign for Jupiter, a symbol put on prescriptions in days of old to invoke Jupiter’s blessing to help a patient recover.

49. New Zealand native : MAORI

The Māori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. They are eastern Polynesian in origin and began arriving in New Zealand relatively recently, starting some time in the late 13th century. The word “māori” simply means “normal”, distinguishing the mortal human being from spiritual entities. The Māori refer to New Zealand as “Aotearoa”.

54. Airbus product : JET

Airbus is an aircraft manufacturer based in Blagnac, France just outside Toulouse. Airbus produces about half of the world’s jetliners. The company built the first fly-by-wire aircraft (the A320) and also builds the world’s largest airliner (the A380).

58. Clickable link : URL

An Internet address (like NYTCrossword.com and LAXCrossword.com) is more correctly called a Uniform Resource Locators (URL).

61. Gaza Strip gp. : PLO

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded in 1964. The PLO’s early stated goal was the liberation of Palestine, with Palestine defined as the geographic entity that existed under the terms of the British Mandate granted by the League of Nations back in 1923. The PLO was granted observer status (i.e. no voting rights) at the United Nations in 1974.

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the boundaries of the strip of land on the Mediterranean around Gaza were fixed in the Israel-Egypt Armistice Agreement. The boundaries were specifically defined but were not to be recognized as an international border. From 1948, the Gaza Strip was occupied and administered by Egypt, until 1967 when Israel took over occupation following the Six-Day War. In 1993, Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Accords which handed over administration to the Palestinian Authority, but with Israel retaining control of the Gaza Strip’s airspace, some land borders and its territorial waters. The intent was to further this agreement, but discussions between the parties broke down. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

62. “An egg’s way of making another egg”: Samuel Butler : HEN

Samuel Butler was a British novelist and satirist. His best known novels are “Erewhon” (1872) and “The Way of All Flesh” (1903). Butler also made translations of Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey” that are still widely used.