LA Times Crossword 27 Dec 18, Thursday

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Constructed by: Bruce Haight
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): “Right” Down Names

Themed answers are names of fictional characters whose given and family names start with the same letter. The given name is in the grid in the across-direction, and the family name in the down-direction, with both names sharing the same initial letter:

  • 1A. Popular peck picker : PETER
  • 1D. — : PIPER
  • 6A. Sinister “Smallville” supervillain : LEX
  • 6D. — : LUTHOR
  • 9A. Ghastly gargantuan gorilla : KING
  • 9D. — : KONG
  • 31A. Conniving carrot cruncher : BUGS
  • 31D. — : BUNNY
  • 35A. Fantastic Four foe : DOCTOR
  • 35D. — : DOOM
  • 50A. Tall toon toothpick : OLIVE
  • 50D. — : OYL
  • 54A. Flirty Fleischer flapper : BETTY
  • 54D. — : BOOP
  • 60A. Dedicated DC damsel : LOIS
  • 60D. — : LANE

Bill’s time: 7m 18s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. Popular peck picker : PETER
1D. — : PIPER

The earliest written version of the “Peter Piper” nursery rhyme and tongue twister dates back to 1813 London:

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

A peck is a unit of dry volume, equivalent to two gallons. Four pecks then make up a bushel.

6. Sinister “Smallville” supervillain : LEX
6D. — : LUTHOR

Lex Luthor is the arch-nemesis of Superman in comics. Luthor has been portrayed in a number of guises in the comic world as well in movies and on the small screen. For example, he appeared as Atom Man in the 1950 film series “Atom Man vs. Superman”, and was played by actor Lyle Talbot, opposite Kirk Alyn’s Superman.

Smallville, Kansas is the town on Earth in which Superman grew up (as Clark Kent). One of Clark’s best friends in Smallville, and the romantic interest of his youth, was Lana Lang. The town name gave its name to the TV series “Smallville” that aired from 2001 to 2011.

9. Ghastly gargantuan gorilla : KING
9D. — : KONG

When RKO released the 1933 movie “King Kong”, the promotional material listed the ape’s height as 50 feet. During filming, a bust was created for a 40-foot ape, as well as a full-size hand that went with a 70-foot Kong.

Our term “gargantuan” meaning “enormous” comes from a series of five novels titled “The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel” written in the 1500s by François Rabelais. Gargantua and Pantagruel are two giants in the tale, a father and a son.

13. Peaceful : IRENIC

“Irenic” (also “eirenic”) means peaceful, and comes from the Greek “eirene” meaning “peace”. A lovely word …

15. Wire service initials : UPI

Founded in 1958, United Press International (UPI) used to be one of the biggest news agencies in the world, sending out news by wire to the major newspapers. UPI ran into trouble with the change in media formats at the end of the twentieth century and lost many of its clients as the afternoon newspapers shut down due to the advent of television news. UPI, which once employed thousands, still exists today but with just a fraction of that workforce.

16. Music halls of old : ODEA

In Ancient Greece an odeon (also “odeum”) was like a small theater, with “odeon” literally meaning a “building for musical competition”. Odea were used in both Greece and Rome for entertainments such as musical shows and poetry readings.

17. Black-and-white bears : PANDAS

Taxonomic classification of the giant panda has been a subject of great debate for years, the main question being whether it belongs to the bear or raccoon family. The accepted opinion these days, based on molecular studies, seems to be that the panda is in fact a true bear.

20. DFW postings : ETDS

Estimated time of departure (ETD)

Dallas/Fort Worth Airport (DFW) is the largest hub for American Airlines, and is also the third busiest airport in the world in terms of aircraft landings and takeoffs (Chicago O’Hare is the world’s busiest, followed by Atlanta).

21. Queens tennis stadium : ASHE

The Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York opened in 1997 and for years was the largest outdoor, tennis-only venue in the world. The stadium was often criticized for not having a retractable dome to protect the playing surface from inclement weather. Well, that changed in 2016 when the stadium debuted its new retractable roof, a $150 million investment in the facility.

23. Small type size : AGATE

In the world of typography, agate is a unit of measure. One agate is is equal to 5.5 points, or about one quarter of an inch. Agate is generally the smallest type size used in newspapers, and is generally restricted to advertisements and market reports in financial publications.

24. Seafood delicacy : ROE

Roe is the name given to fish eggs and to the ovaries of a fish laden with eggs.

25. “I’m Free” musical : TOMMY

“Tommy” is the fourth album recorded by the British band called the Who. “Tommy” was the original rock opera and was adapted for both the stage and screen, with both adaptations becoming huge successes. The title character has an uncanny ability to play pinball, giving rise to the hit song “Pinball Wizard”.

27. White House foreign policy gp. : NSC

The National Security Council (NSC) was created by President Harry S. Truman in 1947. The NSC is chaired by the sitting president and meets in the White House Situation Room.

30. __ school : PREP

A “preppy” is a student or graduate of a preparatory school. Such a school is designed to prepare students for college, and is often private with expensive fees.

31. Conniving carrot cruncher : BUGS
31D. — : BUNNY

Bugs Bunny first said “What’s up, Doc?” in the 1940 cartoon short “A Wild Hare” while addressing the hunter Elmer Fudd.

35. Fantastic Four foe : DOCTOR
35D. — : DOOM

Doctor Doom is a supervillain created in the Marvel Comics universe, and is an archenemy of the Fantastic Four.

40. Camden Yards team : ORIOLES

Oriole Park is home to the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. The full name of the stadium is Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The name “Camden Yards” is used because the ballpark is built on land that was once used as the rail yard for B&O Railroad’s Camden Station.

46. “You said it” : AMEN

The word “amen” translates as “so be it”. “Amen” is said to be of Hebrew origin, but it is also likely to be influenced by Aramaic and Arabic.

49. NFC East team, on crawl lines : NYG

The New York Giants (NYG) football team play their home games in MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, a stadium shared with the New York Jets (NYJ). The Giants are the only team remaining from a group of five that joined the league in 1925. For many years, the Giants shared team names with the New York Giants MLB team, before the baseball franchise moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season.

50. Tall toon toothpick : OLIVE
50D. — : OYL

Popeye first appeared in 1929 in a comic strip called “Thimble Theatre”. The strip, created by E. C. Segar, ran for ten years before Popeye made an appearance. Popeye received such a great welcome from readers that he soon “took over” the strip, and eventually even hogged the strip’s title. Before Popeye turned up, Olive Oyl was the main character.

“Toothpick” is a slang term used for someone who is tall and overly thin.

51. Big Pharma watchdog: Abbr. : FDA

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has its roots in the Division of Chemistry (later “Bureau of Chemistry”) that was part of the US Department of Agriculture. President Theodore Roosevelt gave responsibility for examination of food and drugs to the Bureau of Chemistry with the signing of the Pure Food and Drug Act. The Bureau’s name was changed to the Food, Drug and Insecticide Organization in 1927, and to the Food and Drug Administration in 1930.

“Big Pharma” is a nickname for the pharmaceutical industry. The monker comes from the acronym for the lobbying group for the industry, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

54. Flirty Fleischer flapper : BETTY
54D. — : BOOP

Betty Boop made her first appearance on the screen in 1930, in a cartoon called “Dizzy Dishes”. Her character was modeled on the the It-girl, the sexy Clara Bow of movie fame. Back then Betty Boop was a sexy poodle and it wasn’t until 1932 that she morphed into completely human form. Betty was quite the risqué figure, but her vampish ways only lasted a few years. When the Production Code of 1934 came into force, Betty started to dress more modestly and toned down her behavior.

Max Fleischer was a Polish-American animator who had great influence on the animated cartoon genre. Fleischer was the first person to bring to our screens the likes of Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman. He also introduced us to the song films in which we “follow the bouncing ball” over the on-screen lyrics.

Flappers were the so-called “new breed” of young women of the twenties. The flappers wore their hair short (with ringlets), dressed in short skirts and generally rebelled against the accepted norms of the time. The term “flapper” comes from the 1920 movie “The Flapper” starring Olive Thomas as a young woman who lived the more liberal lifestyle that was emerging at that time.

60. Dedicated DC damsel : LOIS
60D. — : LANE

Lois Lane has been the love interest of Superman/Clark Kent since the DC Comics series was first published in 1938. Lois and Clark both work for the big newspaper in the city of Metropolis called “The Daily Planet”. The couple finally got hitched in the comics (and on television’s “Lois and Clark”) in 1996. One has to wonder how challenging the crossword is in “The Daily Planet” …

A damsel is a young woman, and often a lady of noble birth. The term “damsel” came into English from the Old French “dameisele”, which had the same meaning. The modern French term is “demoiselle”, which in turn is related to the term of address “mademoiselle”.

65. Wine opener? : OENO-

In Greek mythology, Oeno was the goddess of wine, giving us “oeno-” as a prefix meaning “wine”. For example, oenology is the study of wine and an oenophile is a wine-lover.

67. Ball State University city : MUNCIE

In the 1920s, two sociologists conducted a study in a “typical Middle-American community” that they dubbed “Middletown, USA”. It turned out that the actual community in the study was Muncie, Indiana.

Ball State University is located in Muncie, Indiana. The school took on the name “Ball” in recognition of the generosity of the Ball Brothers, local industrialists who saved the institution from collapse in 1917 by intervening financially.

69. “Criminal Minds” agent : FED

A fed is an officer of a US federal agency, although the term “fed” usually applies to an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

“Criminal Minds” is a police drama that has aired on CBS since 2005. The stories revolve around the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia.

70. Chilly temps : TEENS

When Gabriel Fahrenheit first defined his temperature scale he set 0 degrees as the temperature of a mixture ice, water and salt. He defined 100 degrees as the temperature under his wife’s armpit! Using this scale he determined that water boiled at 210 degrees. Later refinements moved the boiling point of water up to 212 degrees, and as a result “body temperature” was shifted downwards to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Down

2. Millay’s muse : ERATO

In Greek mythology, Erato was the Muse of lyric poetry. She is often depicted with a wreath of myrtle and roses, and playing a lyre.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was an American poet and playwright, and the third woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (in 1923 for “The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver”). Millay was noted not only for her work, but also for the open arrangement that she and her husband had in their marriage. Millay took many lovers, including the poet George Dillon, for whom she wrote a number of sonnets.

5. Narrow inlet : RIA

A drowned valley might be called a ria or a fjord, with both formed as sea level rises. A ria is a drowned valley created by river erosion, and a fjord is a drowned valley created by glaciation.

7. Transitory things : EPHEMERA

“Ephemera” was originally a medical term used to describe a fever that only lasted a day. The use of the term was expanded in the 17th century to include insects that were short-lived, and by end of the 18th century ephemera were any things of transitory existence.

8. Number between I and XI? : XII

In Roman numerals, the number XII (12) lies between XI (11) and I (1) at the top of a clock face.

11. Fit together, as matryoshka dolls : NEST

Matryoshka dolls are those wooden nesting dolls that are on sale at every tourist trap across Russia. “Matryoshka” is Russian for “little matron”.

14. One side in “Gone With the Wind”: Abbr. : CSA

Confederate States of America (CSA)

Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel “Gone with the Wind” earned the author a Pulitzer in 1937. Mitchell started writing the book in 1926 as a way to pass the time while she was recuperating from injuries sustained in a car crash. The title comes from a poem by English writer Ernest Dowson:

I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,
Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng,
Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind…

22. Indy brand : STP

STP is a brand name for automotive lubricants and additives. The name “STP” is an initialism standing for “Scientifically Treated Petroleum”.

The Indianapolis 500 race is held annually at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The race is run around a 2.5 mile oval, hence requiring 200 laps for completion. The first Indy 500 race was held on Memorial Day in 1911. The winner that day was one Ray Harroun. Harroun had seen someone using a rear view mirror on a horse-drawn vehicle, and decided to fit one on his Marmon “Wasp” motor car. Supposedly, that was the first ever use of a rear view mirror on a motor vehicle.

26. Digital video files : MPEGS

The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) was established in 1988 to set standards for audio and video compression. The standards they’ve come up with use the acronym “MPEG”.

29. Pop genre? : COLA

The first cola drink to become a commercial success was Coca-Cola, soon after it was invented by a druggist in 1886. That original Coca-Cola was flavored mainly with kola nuts and vanilla. The formulation was based on an alcoholic drink called Coca Wine that had been on sale for over twenty years.

36. Writer Sarah __ Jewett : ORNE

Sarah Orne Jewett was a novelist who wrote stories about life in and around where she lived in South Berwick, Maine.

41. Florida State athlete : SEMINOLE

Florida State University (FSU) is located in Tallahassee, the state capital of Florida. The school’s athletic teams are known as the Seminoles (sometimes “the ‘Noles”). The team name was chosen in 1947 by the students in a vote, and alludes to the Seminole people who originally lived in the state. Most of the Seminole now live in Oklahoma, after their forced relocation by the US government in the 1840s.

56. Teller’s stack : TENS

“To tell” can mean “to count”, as in “telling one’s blessings” and “there are 16, all told”. This usage of the word “tell” gives us the term “bank teller”.

59. “Let’s put smart to work” company : IBM

Tech giant IBM was founded as the Tabulating Machine Company in 1896. The company changed its name to the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR) in 1911 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1916. The name “International Business Machines” (IBM) was given first to the company’s Canadian subsidiary, and then to its South American subsidiary. In 1924, it was decided to adopt the International Business Machines name for the whole company. Good choice …

64. Last word of “Casey at the Bat” : OUT

“Casey at the Bat” is a poem written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer, first published in the San Francisco Examiner. The poem became very popular due to repeated live performances in vaudeville by DeWolf Hopper. Casey played for the Mudville Nine, and the last line of the poem is “But there is no joy in Mudville – mighty Casey has struck out.”

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. Popular peck picker : PETER
6. Sinister “Smallville” supervillain : LEX
9. Ghastly gargantuan gorilla : KING
13. Peaceful : IRENIC
15. Wire service initials : UPI
16. Music halls of old : ODEA
17. Black-and-white bears : PANDAS
18. Like the most rarefied air : THINNEST
20. DFW postings : ETDS
21. Queens tennis stadium : ASHE
23. Small type size : AGATE
24. Seafood delicacy : ROE
25. “I’m Free” musical : TOMMY
27. White House foreign policy gp. : NSC
30. __ school : PREP
31. Conniving carrot cruncher : BUGS
35. Fantastic Four foe : DOCTOR
38. Self-disqualification : RECUSAL
40. Camden Yards team : ORIOLES
42. Fret (over) : AGONIZE
43. Like a short report : ONE-PAGE
44. Acted badly : SINNED
45. Sticky situation : MESS
46. “You said it” : AMEN
49. NFC East team, on crawl lines : NYG
50. Tall toon toothpick : OLIVE
51. Big Pharma watchdog: Abbr. : FDA
54. Flirty Fleischer flapper : BETTY
58. “Me? Never!” : NOT I!
60. Dedicated DC damsel : LOIS
61. Scenic viewpoint : OVERLOOK
63. Certifying exams : BOARDS
65. Wine opener? : OENO-
66. It may be brown or golden : ALE
67. Ball State University city : MUNCIE
68. Soft call : PSST!
69. “Criminal Minds” agent : FED
70. Chilly temps : TEENS

Down

1. — : PIPER
2. Millay’s muse : ERATO
3. Leanings : TENDENCIES
4. Objectives : ENDS
5. Narrow inlet : RIA
6. — : LUTHOR
7. Transitory things : EPHEMERA
8. Number between I and XI? : XII
9. — : KONG
10. Creative spark : IDEA
11. Fit together, as matryoshka dolls : NEST
12. Portal : GATE
14. One side in “Gone With the Wind”: Abbr. : CSA
19. Word of dissent : NAY
22. Indy brand : STP
26. Digital video files : MPEGS
28. Dots on a transit map : STOPS
29. Pop genre? : COLA
31. — : BUNNY
32. What may be resorted to when words fail : USING FORCE
33. Long look : GAZE
34. Downhill racer : SLED
35. — : DOOM
36. Writer Sarah __ Jewett : ORNE
37. Majestic : REGAL
39. Element of change? : COIN
41. Florida State athlete : SEMINOLE
47. Called forth : EVOKED
48. Safety device : NET
50. — : OYL
52. Brought to ruin : DID IN
53. Horse relatives : ASSES
54. — : BOOP
55. Pre-revelry nights : EVES
56. Teller’s stack : TENS
57. Leisurely pace : TROT
59. “Let’s put smart to work” company : IBM
60. — : LANE
62. Buffoon : OAF
64. Last word of “Casey at the Bat” : OUT

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