LA Times Crossword 9 Nov 21, Tuesday

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Constructed by: Michael Wiesenberg & Andrea Carla Michaels
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Sliced Veggies

Themed answers include circled letters that spell out a VEGGIE. Those VEGGIE names have each been SLICED in two, and placed at the start and finish of the answer:

  • 57A Salad crudités … and a hint to each row of circled letters : SLICED VEGGIES
  • 20A December holiday mailing : CHRISTMAS CARD (sliced “CH-ARD”)
  • 28A Orca : KILLER WHALE (sliced “K-ALE”)
  • 46A Significant other : MAIN SQUEEZE (sliced “MAI-ZE”)

Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers

Bill’s time: 4m 52s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 “__: Ragnarok”: 2017 superhero film : THOR

“Thor: Ragnarok” is a 2017 superhero film in the “Thor” series. Not my cup of tea …

“Ragnarök” is the name given to a set of events in Norse mythology that resulted in the deaths of many famous gods, including Odin and Thor.

5 Mob boss : CAPO

More properly called a caporegime, a capo is a high-ranking member of the Mafia (Cosa Nostra).

9 Popular pudding brand : JELL-O

If you like Jell-O, then you might want to stop by LeRoy, New York where you can visit the only Jell-O museum in the world. While at the museum, you can walk along the Jell-O Brick Road …

15 Six-sided state : UTAH

When viewed on a map of the US, the state of Utah has six sides. It’s almost shaped like a rectangle, but there is a “bite” out of that rectangle in the northeast corner of the state.

18 Actress Petty : LORI

Lori Petty is the actress who played the character Kit Keller in the fabulous movie “A League of Their Own”. Petty also played the title role in a 1995 science fiction film called “Tank Girl”.

19 Event site : VENUE

A venue is a specified locale used for an event. The term “venue” came into English via French from the Latin “venire” meaning “to come”. So, a “venue” is a place to which people “come”.

20 December holiday mailing : CHRISTMAS CARD (sliced “CH-ARD”)

Chard is a lovely leafy vegetable, in my humble opinion. It is the same species as the garden beet, but chard is grown for the leaves and beet is grown for the roots. Chard also goes by the names Swiss chard, silverbeet, mangold. In some parts of Australia, it’s even known as spinach.

24 Arthur with two Emmys and a Tony : BEA

Actress Bea Arthur’s most famous roles were on television, as the lead in the “All in the Family” spin-off “Maude” and as Dorothy Zbornak in “The Golden Girls”. Arthur also won a Tony for playing Vera Charles on stage in the original cast of “Mame” in 1966, two years after she played Yente the matchmaker in the original cast of “Fiddler on the Roof”.

25 CO winter hrs. : MST

The state of Colorado took its name from the prior Territory of Colorado that existed from 1861 to 1876. The name was chosen for the Colorado river that originated in the territory. The river in turn was named by the Spanish as “Rio Colorado”, meaning “ruddy, reddish river”.

28 Orca : KILLER WHALE (sliced “K-ALE”)

The taxonomic name for the killer whale is “Orcinus orca”. The use of the name “orca”, rather than “killer whale”, is becoming more and more common. The Latin word “Orcinus” means “belonging to Orcus”, with Orcus being the name for the Kingdom of the Dead.

The vegetable we know as kale gets its name from the Latin “caulis” meaning “cabbage”. Taxonomically, kales are more closely related to wild cabbage than the domesticated forms of cabbage that we see in the grocery store.

33 Indian music style adopted by the Beatles : RAGA

Rock or pop music that exhibits an Indian influence may be called “raga rock”. The influence of Indian classical music in popular music was at its height in the 1960s. Many raga rock pieces feature Indian instruments, particularly the sitar. Famous examples are “Norwegian Wood” by the Beatles and “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones.

39 Flowerlike sea creature : ANEMONE

The name “anemone” means “daughter of the wind” in Greek, and at one time it was believed that the wind was what actually caused the flower to bloom. The sea anemone is named for the terrestrial plant even though the sea anemone isn’t a plant at all. The sea anemone is a predatory animal found on the ocean floor.

41 Airport kiosk printout : E-TICKET

Our word “kiosk” came to us via French and Turkish from the Persian “kushk” meaning “palace, portico”.

43 Prefix with state or net : INTER-

The US Interstate System is more correctly known as the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, a nod to President Eisenhower who championed the construction. The President had come to recognise the value of the German autobahn system in his experiences during WWII, and resolved to give the US a similar infrastructure. In real terms, the US Interstate construction project is said to have been the largest public works project since the Pyramids of Egypt.

The Internet (uppercase letter I) is a system of interconnected networks that use the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to link devices around the world. In common usage, the word “internet” (lowercase letter I) is often used interchangeably with “World Wide Web”, although “the Web” is just one of many services and applications that uses the Internet.

44 __ Kippur : YOM

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people, and is also known as the Day of Atonement.

45 Former fast fliers: Abbr. : SSTS

The most famous supersonic transport (SST) is the retired Concorde. The Concorde routinely broke the sound barrier, and cruised at about twice the speed of sound. Above Mach 2, frictional heat would cause the plane’s aluminum airframe to soften, so airspeed was limited.

46 Significant other : MAIN SQUEEZE (sliced “MAI-ZE”)

Back in the late 1800s, a “main squeeze” was the “most important person”. It wasn’t until almost a century later the one’s main squeeze became one’s sweetheart.

“Maize” is another name for “corn”. Even though there is more maize grown in the world than wheat or rice, a relatively small proportion of the total maize crop is consumed directly by humans. That’s because a lot of maize goes to make corn ethanol, animal feed and derivative products like cornstarch and corn syrup. Here in the US, over 40% of the maize produced is used to feed livestock, and about 30% is used to make ethanol.

51 Pence and Harris: Abbr. : VPS

Mike Pence served as the 50th Governor of Indiana from 2013 until 2017, when he became the 48th Vice President of the US, in the Trump administration. Famously, Vice President Pence has described himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order”, although he grew up in an Irish-Catholic Democrat family.

Kamala Harris was a US Senator for California starting in 2017, after serving for six years as the Attorney General of California. In early 2019, Harris announced her run for the Democratic nomination for US president in the 2020 election. Although she dropped out of the race, she was chosen by eventual nominee Joe Biden as his vice-presidential running mate. When the Biden-Harris ticket won the election, Harris became the highest-ranking female politician in the history of the US.

52 Letter after beta : GAMMA

The Greek alphabet starts off with the letters alpha, beta, gamma …

57 Salad crudités … and a hint to each row of circled letters : SLICED VEGGIES

Crudités are a French appetizer made up of sliced and whole raw vegetables that are dipped into a sauce. The French word “crudité” simply means “raw vegetable”, and derives from the Latin word “crudus” meaning “raw”.

64 Diner sign element : NEON

The basic design of neon lighting was first demonstrated at the Paris Motor Show in 1910. Such lighting is made up of glass tubes containing a vacuum into which has been introduced a small amount of neon gas. When a voltage is applied between two electrodes inside the tube, the neon gas “glows” and gives off the familiar light.

65 Actor Guinness : ALEC

Sir Alec Guinness played many great roles over a long and distinguished career, but nowadays is best remembered (sadly, I think) for playing the original Obi-Wan Kenobi in “Star Wars”.

67 Tyne of “Judging Amy” : DALY

Actress Tyne Daly really came into the public eye playing Detective Lacey in “Cagney and Lacey”. From 1999 to 2005, Daly played the mother of the title character in the TV show “Judging Amy”.

“Judging Amy” is a legal drama that first aired in 1999, and which stars Amy Brenneman and Tyne Daly. Brenneman plays the title character, a judge who serves in a family court. Brenneman also created the show, and based it on the real-life experiences of her own mother who worked as a family court judge in Hartford, Connecticut.

69 Luge vehicles : SLEDS

A luge is a small sled used by one or two people, on which one lies face up and feet first. The luge can be compared to the skeleton, a sled for only one person and on which the rider lies face down and goes down the hill head-first. Yikes!

70 Mex. miss : SRTA

“Señorita” (Srta.) is Spanish, and “Mademoiselle” (Mlle.) is French, for “Miss”.

Down

1 “Baywatch” actress Bingham : TRACI

Actress and model Traci Bingham played Jordan Tate on “Baywatch” from 1996 to 1998.

“Baywatch” is a TV series starring David Hasselhoff that is about lifeguards patrolling the beaches of Los Angeles County. Over the life of the show, the lifeguards not only had to rescue swimmers, they also had to deal with earthquakes, shark attacks, serial killers and even nuclear bombs. The trademark “look” on the show was provided by slow motion shots of the lifeguards running to someone’s rescue in those red bathing costumes.

2 Note for a soprano : HIGH C

The voice types soprano, alto, tenor and bass can be abbreviated to the initialism “SATB”.

3 Rossini work : OPERA

Gioachino Rossini was a prolific and very successful composer from Pesaro, Italy. During his lifetime, Rossini was lauded as the most successful composer of operas in history. His best-known opera today is probably “The Barber of Seville”. His best-known piece of music is probably the finale of the overture from his opera “William Tell”.

6 Quark place : ATOM

Quarks are elementary atomic particles that combine to make composite particles called “hadrons”. I’m really only familiar with the really stable hadrons i.e. protons and neutrons. There are six types of quarks (referred to as “flavors”). These flavors are up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top. The term “quark” was borrowed from James Joyce’s book “Finnegans Wake”, by physicist Murray Gell-Mann. However, the word coined by Joyce is pronounced “kwark”, and the particle’s name is pronounced “kwork”.

7 Sunday school story : PARABLE

A parable is a story told to illustrate a lesson or principle. It is similar to a fable, differing in that a fable uses mainly animals as characters, and a parable uses humans.

9 Morning cup : JAVA

Back in 1850, the name “java” was given to a type of coffee grown on the island of Java, and the more general usage of the term spread from then.

11 Big Ben and the Golden Gate Bridge, e.g. : LANDMARKS

“Big Ben” is the name commonly used for the large bell in the Clock Tower (“Elizabeth Tower” since 2012) of the Palace of Westminster (aka “Houses of Parliament”). Big Ben’s official name is the Great Bell, and there is some debate about the origins of the nickname. It may be named after Sir Benjamin Hall who supervised the bell’s installation, or perhaps the English heavyweight champion of the day Benjamin Caunt. Big Ben fell silent in 2017 to make way for four years of maintenance and repair work to the clock’s mechanism and the tower.

The Golden Gate is the opening of San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. The bridge that spans the Golden Gate is called “the Golden Gate Bridge” and was opened in 1937. At that time it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. One of the most eerie things about the Golden Gate Bridge is that is the second most popular place in the whole world to commit suicide (after the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge). Steps have been taken to reduce the number of suicides, including suicide hotline telephones placed along the walkway, but still there is one suicide every two weeks on average throughout the year. There are plans to place a purpose-built net below the bridge as a deterrent, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.

12 Greater N.Y. school : LIU

Long Island University (LIU) in Brooklyn, New York is a private school that was chartered in 1926. LIU’s focus has always been on providing moderately-priced, effective education to people from all walks in life. To that end, LIU opened a second campus in 1951 in Brookville in the suburbs of New York City, recognizing the need to serve families that were living outside of the metropolis. The athletic teams of LIU’s Brooklyn campus are known as the Brooklyn Blackbirds, and the teams of the Brookville campus are called the Post Pioneers.

21 NASDAQ buy : STK

Stock (stk.)

The Nasdaq has some descriptive symbols to represent companies. Here are some examples:

  • HOG – Harley-Davidson
  • HEINY – Heineken
  • ROCK – Gibraltar Industries
  • GRR – The Asian Tigers Fund
  • BEN – Franklin Resources
  • TWNK – Hostess Brands

22 Jeep or Jetta : CAR

The Jeep is the original off-road vehicle. It was developed by the American Bantam Car Company in 1940 at the request of the US government who recognized the upcoming need for the armed forces as American involvement in WWII loomed. The Bantam Company was too small to cope with demand, so the government gave the designs to competing car companies. The design and brand eventually ended up with AMC in the seventies and eighties.

“Jetta” is one in a series of model names related to winds that has been used by Volkswagen. “Jetta” comes from the German for “jet stream”, and the model name “Passat” comes from the German for “trade wind”.

26 Dangerous precipitation : SLEET

Apparently, “sleet” is a term used to describe two different weather conditions. One is a shower of ice pellets that are smaller than hail, and the second is a mixture of rain and snow, with the snow melting as it falls.

29 Golf commentator __ Baker-Finch : IAN

Ian Baker-Finch is professional golfer turned golf commentator from Australia. Playing the game, he is known for winning the British Open in 1991, which was to be his only major championship victory.

30 Bleaching agent : LYE

What we call “lye” is usually sodium hydroxide (NaOH), although historically the term “lye” was used for potassium hydroxide. Lye has many uses, including to cure several foodstuffs. Lye can make olives less bitter, for example. The chemical is also found in canned mandarin oranges, pretzels and Japanese ramen noodles. More concentrated grades of lye are used to clear drains and clean ovens. Scary …

31 1910s conflict, briefly : WWI

Prior to the outbreak of World War II, what we now know as World War I was referred to as “the World War” or “The Great War”.

32 Minute Maid drinks : HI-CS

Hi-C orange drink was created in 1946 and introduced to the market in 1948, initially in the south of the country. The name “Hi-C” was chosen to emphasize the high vitamin C content in the drink, as it contained added ascorbic acid (vitamin C).

33 Spider-Man films director : RAIMI

Sam Raimi is a very successful director and producer. He was behind the “Spider-Man” series of films among others, and TV shows such as “Xena: Warrior Princess”. In 1993, Raimi married Gillian Green, the youngest daughter of actor Lorne Greene of “Bonanza” fame. Raimi and Greene named their eldest son Lorne, after his grandfather.

34 Kofi of the U.N. : 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.

40 Surg. areas : ORS

Surgery (surg.) is usually performed in an operating room (OR).

41 Want-ad letters : EOE

Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE)

42 Harvey Levin’s online tabloid : TMZ

TMZ.com is a celebrity gossip website launched in 2005 by producer Harvey Levin. “TMZ” stands for “thirty-mile zone”, a reference to the “studio zone” in Los Angeles. The studio zone is circular in shape with a 30-mile radius centered on the intersection of West Beverly Boulevard and North La Cienega Boulevard.

47 Home shopper’s channel : QVC

The QVC shopping channel was founded in 1986 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The company now has operations not only in the US but also in the UK, Germany, Japan and Italy. That means QVC is reaching 200 million households. The QVC initialism stands for Quality, Value and Convenience.

49 Silly Putty holder : EGG

Silly Putty is a silicone polymer that is marketed as a toy, usually sold in an egg-shaped plastic container. It is a remarkable material that can flow like a liquid and can also bounce. Silly Putty was one of those accidental creations, an outcome of research during WWII in search of substitutes for rubber. The substitution became urgent as Japan invaded rubber-producing countries all around the Pacific Rim.

54 Pooh creator : MILNE

Alan Alexander (A.A.) Milne was an English author who is best known for his delightful “Winnie-the-Pooh” series of books. He had only one son, Christopher Robin Milne, born in 1920. The young Milne was the inspiration for the Christopher Robin character in the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. Winnie-the-Pooh was named after Christopher Robin’s real teddy bear, one he called Winnie, who in turn was named after a Canadian black bear called Winnie that the Milnes would visit in London Zoo. The original Winnie teddy bear is on display at the main branch of the New York Public Library in New York.

56 Knotted neckwear : ASCOT

An ascot is a wide tie that narrows at the neck, which these days is only really worn at weddings or part of a dress uniform. The tie takes its name from the Royal Ascot horse race at which punters still turn up in formal wear at Ascot Racecourse in England.

60 Battery unit : VOLT

Alessandro Volta was the physicist who invented the first battery, way back in 1800. One of Volta’s first applications of his new invention was to use a battery (and a very long run of wire between the Italian cities of Como and Milan) to shoot off a pistol from 30 miles away! The electric potential unit “volt” is named for Volta.

61 Irish New Ager : ENYA

Enya’s real name is Eithne Ní Bhraonáin, which can translate from Irish into Enya Brennan. Her Donegal family (in the northwest of Ireland) formed a band called Clannad, which included Enya. In 1980 Enya launched her very successful solo career, eventually becoming Ireland’s best-selling solo musician. And, she sure does turn up a lot in crosswords!

63 Ctrl-Alt-__ : DEL

Ctrl-Alt-Delete is a keyboard command on IBM PC compatible systems used for a soft reboot, or more recently to bring up the task manager in the Windows operating system. Bill Gates tells us that the command was originally just a device to be used during development and was never meant to “go live”. He once said that “Ctrl+Alt+Delete” was a mistake, and that he would have preferred a dedicated key on the keyboard that carried out the same function.

Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 “__: Ragnarok”: 2017 superhero film : THOR
5 Mob boss : CAPO
9 Popular pudding brand : JELL-O
14 Fit for harvesting : RIPE
15 Six-sided state : UTAH
16 Be of use to : AVAIL
17 Suitable for all __: game rating : AGES
18 Actress Petty : LORI
19 Event site : VENUE
20 December holiday mailing : CHRISTMAS CARD (sliced “CH-ARD”)
23 “__ do it”: “Sorry” : I CAN’T
24 Arthur with two Emmys and a Tony : BEA
25 CO winter hrs. : MST
28 Orca : KILLER WHALE (sliced “K-ALE”)
33 Indian music style adopted by the Beatles : RAGA
37 “All in favor” vote : AYE
38 Undercover cops may wear them : WIRES
39 Flowerlike sea creature : ANEMONE
41 Airport kiosk printout : E-TICKET
43 Prefix with state or net : INTER-
44 __ Kippur : YOM
45 Former fast fliers: Abbr. : SSTS
46 Significant other : MAIN SQUEEZE (sliced “MAI-ZE”)
50 Overnight option : INN
51 Pence and Harris: Abbr. : VPS
52 Letter after beta : GAMMA
57 Salad crudités … and a hint to each row of circled letters : SLICED VEGGIES
62 “Piece of cake,” e.g. : IDIOM
64 Diner sign element : NEON
65 Actor Guinness : ALEC
66 Patient no longer : FED UP
67 Tyne of “Judging Amy” : DALY
68 Fascinated by : INTO
69 Luge vehicles : SLEDS
70 Mex. miss : SRTA
71 Tree house : NEST

Down

1 “Baywatch” actress Bingham : TRACI
2 Note for a soprano : HIGH C
3 Rossini work : OPERA
4 Varnish component : RESIN
5 Like many midnight movies : CULT
6 Quark place : ATOM
7 Sunday school story : PARABLE
8 “Yes, it’s clear now” : OH, I SEE
9 Morning cup : JAVA
10 At any point : EVER
11 Big Ben and the Golden Gate Bridge, e.g. : LANDMARKS
12 Greater N.Y. school : LIU
13 Bullring “Bravo!” : OLE!
21 NASDAQ buy : STK
22 Jeep or Jetta : CAR
26 Dangerous precipitation : SLEET
27 What the doctor ordered : TESTS
29 Golf commentator __ Baker-Finch : IAN
30 Bleaching agent : LYE
31 1910s conflict, briefly : WWI
32 Minute Maid drinks : HI-CS
33 Spider-Man films director : RAIMI
34 Kofi of the U.N. : ANNAN
35 Pick a lock, say : GET INSIDE
36 “__ to that!” : AMEN
40 Surg. areas : ORS
41 Want-ad letters : EOE
42 Harvey Levin’s online tabloid : TMZ
44 Sighed agreement : YES, DEAR
47 Home shopper’s channel : QVC
48 Flips : UPENDS
49 Silly Putty holder : EGG
53 “Let’s take it from the top” : AGAIN
54 Pooh creator : MILNE
55 Runs into : MEETS
56 Knotted neckwear : ASCOT
58 Overly bright, fashionwise : LOUD
59 Rascals : IMPS
60 Battery unit : VOLT
61 Irish New Ager : ENYA
62 They aren’t sure things : IFS
63 Ctrl-Alt-__ : DEL