LA Times Crossword 19 Jan 19, Saturday

Bill’s time: 25m 44s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” is in it : B-FLAT MINOR

Samuel Barber was one of the most respected composers of 20th-century classical music. Barber’s most famous work is probably “Adagio for Strings”, a piece that has been used a lot in television and movies, including a memorable scene in the movie “Platoon”.

15. Kerry Washington’s “Scandal” role : OLIVIA POPE

“Scandal” is a political drama TV show centered on a former White House Communications Director named Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington. Pope has a complicated relationship with her ex-boss President Fitzgerald Grant, and therefore a complicated relationship with the First Lady. I haven’t seen this one …

16. Jukebox opening : SLOT

Although coin-operated music players had been around for decades, the term “jukebox” wasn’t used until about 1940. “Jukebox” derives from a Gullah word, the language of African Americans living in the coastal areas of South Carolina and Georgia. In Gullah, a “juke joint”, from “juke” or “joog” meaning “rowdy, wicked”, was an informal establishment where African Americans would gather and for some music, dancing, gambling and drinking. The coin-operated music players became known as “jukeboxes”.

18. Villa-studded Italian lake : COMO

Lake Como is a glacial lake in Lombardy in Italy. Lake Como has long been a retreat for the rich and famous. Lakeside homes there are owned by the likes of Madonna, George Clooney, Gianni Versace, Sylvester Stallone and Richard Branson.

19. Salon boards : EMERIES

Emery is a very hard type of rock that is crushed for use as an abrasive. Emery paper is made by gluing small particles of emery to paper. Emery boards are just emery paper with a cardboard backing. And emery boards are primarily used for filing nails.

20. One taking things literally? : REPO MAN

Repossession (repo)

23. Part of a football game-ending tradition : GATORADE

Gatorade was developed at the University of Florida by a team of researchers at the request of the school’s football team. And so, Gatorade is named after the Gators football team.

27. “Rabbit ears” antennae, e.g. : DIPOLES

When German physicist Heinrich Hertz first demonstrated radio waves in 1887, he used the simplest form of antenna, namely a dipole antenna. A dipole antenna comprises two metal rods that are usually pointing away from each other. ideally, the length of each rod is set at one half of the wavelength off the signal to be received.

28. Pixie and flip : DOS

The pixie cut is a hairstyle that is relatively short at the back and sides compared to the top. Famous examples of women wearing the cut are Audrey Hepburn in “Roman Holiday”, Twiggy for much of the 1960s, Goldie Hawn on “Laugh-In” and Halle Berry in the Bond film “Die Another Day”.

The flip hairstyle was popular with women in the sixties, and was characterized by an upward curl in the ends of the hair (a “flip”).

33. Washington team : HUSKIES

The Huskies are the sports teams of the University of Washington. A student committee chose the husky as the school mascot in 1923, replacing the existing Sun Dodger. The name “Sun Dodger” was an abstract reference to the cloudy weather experienced in Washington.

34. Goat-man of myth : FAUN

Fauns are regarded as the Roman mythological equivalent of the Greek satyrs, but fauns were half-man and half-goat and much more “carefree” in personality than their Hellenic cousins. In the modern age we are quite familiar with Mr. Tumnus, the faun-like character encountered by the children entering the world of Narnia in C. S. Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”.

38. Cabinet member under Dubya : CONDI

Condoleezza “Condi” Rice was the second African American to serve as US Secretary of State (after Colin Powell) and the second woman to hold the office (after Madeleine Albright). Prior to becoming Secretary of State in President George W. Bush’s administration, Rice was the first woman to hold the office of National Security Advisor. In private life, Rice is a remarkably capable pianist. Given her stature in Washington, Rice has had the opportunity to play piano in public with the likes of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and soul singer Aretha Franklin.

President George W. Bush was nicknamed “Dubya” based on the Texas pronunciation of his middle initial “W”.

40. “Clown Prince of Hip-hop” Biz __ : MARKIE

Biz Markie is the stage name of rapper Marcel Theo Hall. Markie has the nickname “the Clown Prince of Hip Hop”. His biggest hit is 1989’s “Just a Friend”.

42. Rocky Mountain rodents : MARMOTS

Marmots are large ground squirrels. Included in the genus is the famous groundhog, but not the equally famous prairie dog.

46. Reactor meltdown site : CORE

A nuclear reactor is a device designed to maintain a self-contained nuclear chain reaction. Nuclear fission generates heat in the reactor core. That heat is transferred out of the core by a nuclear reactor coolant, and is used to turn steam turbines. Those steam turbines usually drive electrical generators, or perhaps a ship’s propellers.

47. Old cooking show with a Creole theme : EMERIL LIVE

Emeril Lagasse is an American chef who was born in Massachusetts. Lagasse first achieved celebrity as executive chef in Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. Now famous for his television shows, his cuisine still showcases New Orleans ingredients and influences. Lagasse started using his famous “Bam!” catchphrase in order to keep his crew awake during repeated tapings of his show.

“Creole” is the term used in Haiti to describe all of the native people, as well as the music, food and culture of the country. 80% of the Haitian Creole people are so called black creoles, descendants of the original Africans brought to the island as slaves during the French colonial days.

Down

2. Spanish steps? : FLAMENCO

Flamenco is a style of Spanish music and dance. The origin of the word “flamenco” isn’t clearly understood, but the explanation that seems most credible to me is that it comes from Flanders in Northern Europe. Given that “flamenco” is the Spanish word for “Flemish” and Flanders is home to the Flemish people it makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

4. Staved off : AVERTED

The word “stave” was originally the plural of “staff”, a word describing a wooden rod. To “stave off” originated with the concept of holding off with a staff. In the world of barrel-making, a stave is a narrow strip of wood that forms part of a barrel’s side.

5. Larger, as a sum : TIDIER

A tidy sum, a pretty penny, a considerable amount of money.

6. Like gnus : MANED

The gnu is also known as the wildebeest, and is an antelope native to Africa. “Wildebeest” is a Dutch meaning “wild beast”.

7. Draft choices : IPAS

India pale ale (IPA) is a style of beer that originated in England. The beer was originally intended for transportation from England to India, hence the name.

8. __ de guerre : NOM

“Nom de guerre” is a French term meaning “name of war”. It describes the practice of adopting a pseudonym when in a conflict, perhaps to protect family or to symbolize a separation between one’s life in the military and as a civilian. The term originates with the French Foreign Legion, in which recruits routinely adopted noms de guerre as they broke with their past lives and started afresh.

9. Macbeth and Otello : OPERA ROLES

Giuseppe Verdi was an Italian composer, mainly of operas, who was active during the Romantic era. Equally as famous as Verdi’s operas, are arias from those operas such as “La donna è mobile” from “Rigoletto”, “The Drinking Song” from “La Traviata” and “The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves” from “Nabucco”. Verdi was a big fan of William Shakespeare and wrote three operas based on the Bard’s plays: “Macbeth”, “Otello” and “Falstaff”.

11. Standard deviation measures : Z-SCORES

In the world of statistics, a z-score is the distance a specific observation is away from the mean of a normal distribution. For z-scores, that distance is measured in standard deviations.

12. Baseball family name : ALOMAR

Roberto Alomar is a former Major League Baseball (MLB) player, considered by many to be the greatest ever second baseman. Alomar won 10 Gold Glove awards in his career, which is more than any other second baseman in history. Roberto is the son of MLB second baseman Sandy Alomar Sr., and the younger brother of MLB catcher and base coach Sandy Alomar Jr.

13. Salon stuff : POMADE

Pomade is perfumed ointment, mainly used for grooming the hair. The word “pomade” comes from the Latin “pomum” meaning “apple”, as the original ointment recipe used smashed apples.

21. Johnnycakes : PONES

Johnnycake is a flatbread made from cornmeal that is associated with the Atlantic coast. There are claims that johnnycake originated in Rhode Island.

23. Retailer specializing in youth fashion : GAPKIDS

The Gap is a San Francisco-based clothing retailer founded in 1969. The name “the Gap” was a homage to the popular sixties term “the generation gap”.

32. River to the Black Sea : DNIESTER

The Dniester (also “Dnister”) is a river that rises in the Ukraine and empties into the Black Sea. For much of its length, it marks the border between Ukraine and Moldova.

34. Conventional writing method : FORMULA

Formula fiction is literature that is formulaic (!), fiction that uses storylines and plots that are predictable as they have been used in similar works over and over again.

35. “Uh-uh” : NO DICE

One suggestion for the origin of the phrase “no dice”, meaning “nothing doing, no way”, refers back to illegal gambling in the early 1900s. When approached by police, illegal gamblers would hide their dice (some even swallowed them). It was well known that city attorneys wouldn’t prosecute unless the police could produce the dice. Apparently there was an idiom at the time, “no dice, no conviction”.

36. “Little House” antagonist Nellie __ : OLESON

In the TV show “Little House on the Prairie”, Nellie Oleson is a daughter of mercantile owners Nels and Harriet Oleson. Nellie is a manipulative and sharp-tongued girl. Played by Alison Arngrim, Nellie’s role is greatly amplified in the TV show relative to the original “Little House” series of novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

37. Digital camera insert, briefly : SD CARD

SD cards are memory cards that were introduced in 1999. The initials “SD” stand for “Secure Digital”.

38. Steve of “Foxcatcher” : CARELL

The actor Steve Carell has achieved great success on both television and in movies. On the small screen, Carell came to prominence on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and then of as the lead in the US version of “The Office”. On the big screen, he starred in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin”, “Evan Almighty”. My personal favorite Carell movie is 2007’s ”Dan in Real Life”, in which he stars opposite the wonderful Juliette Binoche.

“Foxcatcher” It’s a 2004 drama movie that is based on a true story. The film stars Steve Carell as multi-millionaire and wrestling enthusiast John du Pont. Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo portray Mark and David Schultz, two brothers who are Olympic gold medal-winning wrestlers. Spoiler alert: du Pont murders David Schultz.

45. Alumni newsletter word : NEE

“Née” is the French word for “born” when referring to a female. The male equivalent is “né”.

An alumnus (plural “alumni”) is a graduate or former student of a school or college. The female form is “alumna” (plural “alumnae”). The term comes into English from Latin, in which an alumnus is a foster-son or pupil. “Alum” is an informal term used for either an alumna or an alumnus.