LA Times Crossword 27 Apr 23, Thursday

Constructed by: Lance Enfinger & Jeff Chen
Edited by: Patti Varol

Today’s Theme (according to Bill): The Upper Class

Themed answers are words starting with APP- that have been reinterpreted as Advanced Placement (AP) classes:

18A Honors course for an aspiring aircraft marshaller? : AP POINTING
62A Honors course for an aspiring pastor? : AP PRAISING
3D Honors course for an aspiring lawyer? : AP PROVING
36D Honors course for an aspiring bell ringer? : AP PEALING

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Bill’s time: 7m 21s

Bill’s errors: 0

Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1 Cracked : AJAR

Our word “ajar” is thought to come from Scottish dialect, in which “a char” means “slightly open”.

5 Actor Omar : EPPS

Actor Omar Epps was originally a rapper and was a member of a group called “Wolfpack” before he pursued acting full-time. Epps’ really big break came in the form of a recurring role on the popular medical drama series “ER”, followed by a recurring role in the TV series “House” as Dr. Eric Foreman.

16 Ancient region of modern Turkey : IONIA

The geographic region called Ionia is located in present-day Turkey. Ionia was prominent in the days of ancient Greece, although it wasn’t a unified state and rather a collection of tribes. The tribal confederacy was more based on religious and cultural similarities than a political or military alliance. Nowadays we often refer to this arrangement as the Ionian League.

17 Range for Zermatt and the Matter Valley : ALPS

The Swiss town of Zermatt lies at one end of the Matter Valley, which is surrounded by several Alpine peaks, including the Matterhorn. The town is focused on maintaining the view to the magnificent Matterhorn, and so bans the use of combustion-engine vehicles.

18 Honors course for an aspiring aircraft marshaller? : AP POINTING

Aircraft marshallers are the good folks who guide planes on the ground at airports. They’re the people who signal pilots manually and direct them to a gate or parking location.

24 Irish actor Chris of TV’s “Get Shorty” : O’DOWD

Irish actor and comedian Chris O’Dowd hit the big time on the other side of the Atlantic with a starring role in the quirky British sitcom “The IT Crowd”. His first major role in the US, I think, was as the Irish-American Wisconsin State Patrol officer in the comedy film “Bridesmaids”. O’Dowd married Scottish writer and TV presenter Dawn Porter in 2012, after which Dawn changed her name to “O’Porter”.

26 Shenanigans : HIJINKS

Our expression “high jinks”, meaning “prank, frolic”, was once the name of an 18th-century Scottish drinking game, would you believe? A bad score on a dice and you had to take a drink, or do something undignified.

I suppose one might be forgiven for thinking that “shenanigan” is an Irish term, as it certainly sounds Irish. Usually written in the plural, shenanigans are acts of mischief, pranks. Apparently the word is of uncertain derivation, but was coined in San Francisco or Sacramento, California in the mid-1800s.

31 Bowling pin count : TEN

Bowling has been around for an awfully long time. The oldest known reference to the game is in Egypt, where pins and balls were found in an ancient tomb that is over 5,000 years old. The first form of the game to come to America was nine-pin bowling, which had been very popular in Europe for centuries. In 1841 in Connecticut, nine-pin bowling was banned due to its association with gambling. Supposedly, an additional pin was added to get around the ban, and ten-pin bowling was born.

32 Bird mascot for the Miami Hurricanes : IBIS

The Hurricanes (also “Canes”) are the athletics teams of the University of Miami. The school’s mascot is Sebastian the Ibis. “The Ibis” was chosen as the name of the school’s yearbook in 1926, and was adopted as the mascot decades later in the eighties. The ibis was selected by the Hurricanes as the bird is known for its bravery when a hurricane approaches.

33 New Zealand parrots : KEAS

The kea is a large parrot that is native to the South Island of New Zealand. Apparently, tourists love keas as they are intelligent and curious. Natives tend to regard them as pests, for the same reasons.

35 Ray’s relative : SKATE

Skates (formally “Rajidae”) are a family of fish in the superorder of rays (formally “batoidea”). Skates look very similar to stingrays, but they lack stinging spines.

39 Tanqueray liquor : GIN

Tanqueray is a popular brand of gin here in the US, although it is less popular over in the UK, where it originated. It was first produced in the 1830s by Charles Tanqueray, hence the name. The list of added botanicals in Tanqueray includes juniper (necessary to be called “gin”), coriander, angelica root and liquorice.

40 Georgia fruit : PEACHES

There are two broad categories of peaches: freestones and clingstones. Clingstones (also “cling peaches”) have flesh that clings tightly to the pit. Freestones are easier to consume as the flesh separates easily from the pit.

The US state of Georgia has two nicknames: the Peach State, and the Empire State of the South.

42 Hoppin’ John morsel : PEA

Hoppin’ John is a dish from the American South in which the main ingredients are black-eyed peas, rice, onion and bacon. There is a tradition that eating a bowl of Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day will bring luck. Any Hoppin’ John that is left over after New Year’s Day is renamed to Skippin’ Jenny.

43 George of “The Goldbergs” : SEGAL

Actor George Segal was one of my favorite Hollywood stars when I was growing up. I most remember him from the dramatic role he played in 1966’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” alongside Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and the comedic role he played in 1973’s “A Touch of Class” opposite Glenda Jackson. Segal made a successful transition to television in recent years, playing lead roles on the sitcoms “Just Shoot Me!” and “The Goldbergs”.

“The Goldbergs” is a very entertaining sitcom that started airing in 2013. The show was created by Adam F. Goldberg and is based on Goldberg’s own childhood and family. My favorite part of the show comes at the end of each episode, when a clip from Goldberg’s real home movies is shown, which clip relates back to that episode’s storyline.

45 Word with ring or music : MOOD …

Mood rings were invented relatively recently, in 1975, and became a bit of a fad for a few years. A mood ring is one containing a “stone” that changes color with temperature, although the color change is touted as being dependent on the wearer’s mood. The part of the ring that changes color is actually a liquid crystal that responds to temperature changes.

47 Claire of “The Crown” : FOY

English actress Claire Foy is perhaps best known in North America for playing Queen Anne Boleyn in the miniseries “Wolf Hall”, and a young Queen Elizabeth II in the award-winning series “The Crown”.

“The Crown” is a historical drama produced for Netflix that covers the life of British Queen Elizabeth II from her marriage to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. For the first two seasons, Elizabeth is played by Claire Foy and Philip by Matt Smith. For the next two seasons, Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies take over as Elizabeth and Philip. The show finishes up with Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce in the roles.

51 Brandy glass : SNIFTER

A brandy snifter is a glass with a short stem, a wide bowl and a narrow top. The bowl is cupped in the hand so that the brandy, whiskey or other spirit is warmed, to facilitate evaporation. The wide bowl gives a large surface area, further encouraging evaporation, and the narrow top traps the aroma in the glass. So, one can easily “sniff” the spirit’s aroma in the “snifter”.

56 Goddess who is the mother of Apollo and Artemis : LETO

In Greek mythology, the goddess Leto and her sister Asteria are daughters of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe. Leto’s twin children Apollo and Artemis were fathered by Zeus, the king of the gods.

57 Protein option for pho : TOFU

Pho (pronounced “fuh”) is a noodle soup from Vietnam that is a popular street food. It is often ordered with a side of hanh dam, pickled white onions.

59 Olympic volleyball great Kerri __ Jennings : WALSH

Kerri Walsh Jennings was partnered with Misty May-Treanor when they won three gold medals in beach volleyball in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

62 Honors course for an aspiring pastor? : AP PRAISING

A pastor is a minister or priest in some Christian traditions. “Pastor” is the Latin word for “shepherd”.

65 Totenberg of NPR : NINA

Nina Totenberg is a very able legal affairs correspondent who works for National Public Radio. Totenberg’s main focus is on the activities of the US Supreme Court. Famously, she was the journalist who uncovered the allegations of sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas made by Anita Hill.

66 Barbecue sites : YARDS

It is believed that our word “barbecue” (BBQ) comes from the Taíno people of the Caribbean in whose language “barbacoa” means “sacred fire pit”.

68 Tiny annoyance : GNAT

Gnats are attracted to the smell of rotting food, and vinegar. Simple homemade traps that use vinegar are often constructed to attract and kill gnats.

Down

1 Quaint plaint : ALAS

A plaint is a grouse, a complaint.

5 Perón of Argentina : EVA

Eva Perón was the second wife of President Juan Perón who was in office from 1946 to 1955. The Argentine First Lady was known affectionately by the people as “Evita”, the Spanish language diminutive of “Eva”. “Evita” is also the title of a tremendously successful musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice that is based on the life of Eva Perón.

6 Out-of-reach goal : PIPE DREAM

In common parlance, a pipe dream is a vain hope for something that is unlikely to take place. The original pipe dreams were visions that were experienced after smoking a pipe filled with opium.

7 __ Smurf : PAPA

The Smurfs are little blue people created in 1958 by the Belgian cartoonist who went by the pen name Peyo. The Smurfs became famous in the US when Hanna-Barbera used them in a children’s cartoon series. The characters are largely a group of males. The original lineup included just one “Smurfette”, who is wooed by almost all of the boy Smurfs. Later, another female was introduced into the mix called Sassette, and still later along came Granny Smurf.

8 Arboreal slowpoke : SLOTH

All four of the extant species of three-toed sloths are native to South and Central America. Cousins of the three-toed sloths are the two-toed sloths, of which there are two species still living.

9 Metal in pewter : TIN

Pewter is a relatively soft alloy that is made up mostly of tin, with some copper, antimony, bismuth and lead.

11 Gabrielle of “L.A.’s Finest” : UNION

Gabrielle Union is a successful American actress who is also an established author. She has written two memoirs (“We’re Going to Need More Wine” and “You Got Anything Stronger”) as well as two children’s books(“Welcome to the Party” and “Shady Baby”).

12 Capital of Belarus : MINSK

Minsk is the capital of Belarus, formerly known as the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. One of Minsk’s more infamous residents was Lee Harvey Oswald, who lived there from 1960 to 1962.

21 __ ejemplo : POR

In Spanish, “por ejemplo” means “for example”.

27 Milo’s “Gilmore Girls” role : JESS

Actor Milo Ventimiglia got his break on TV playing Jess Mariano on the show “Gilmore Girls”. He then played Peter Petrelli on “Heroes”, and Jack Pearson on “This Is Us”.

“Gilmore Girls” is a comedy show that originally aired from 2000 to 2007 on the WB. The title characters are mother and daughter Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, played by Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. All the action takes place in the fictional Connecticut town of Stars Hollow. The theme song was written by Carole King, and is a version of her 1971 recording “Where You Lead”. King sing’s the show’s theme with her own daughter, Louise Goffin.

29 Big Apple stage award : OBIE

The Obies are the Off-Broadway Theater Awards. They have been presented annually since 1956. The recipients used to be chosen by “The Village Voice” newspaper, but now are jointly administered with the American Theatre Wing.

30 Tuesday fare : TACOS

Taco Tuesday is a promotion run by many American restaurants, especially in Southern California. Participating establishments offer deals on tacos, and perhaps other Mexican dishes served in tortillas. Apparently, “Taco Tuesday” is a trademark owned by Wyoming-based fast-food restaurant Taco John’s.

37 Dim sum brews : TEAS

Dim sum is a Chinese cuisine made up of small portions of various dishes. The tradition of serving dim sum is associated with the serving of tea, when small delicacies were offered to travelers and guests along with tea as a refreshment. The name “dim sum” translates as “touch the heart” implying that dim sum is not a main meal, just a snack “that touches the heart”.

38 All-Star side : EAST

Major League Baseball’s first All-Star Game was held as part of the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. The longest All-Star games since then went to 15 innings, in 1967 and 2008, with the 2008 game lasting 4 hours and 50 minutes.

41 Falco of “Nurse Jackie” : EDIE

Actress Edie Falco won three Emmy Awards for playing Carmela Soprano on HBO’s outstanding drama series called “The Sopranos”. Falco also won an Emmy in 2010 for playing the title role in “Nurse Jackie”, an excellent black comedy.

“Nurse Jackie” is a comedy-drama series centered on an emergency room nurse at a hospital in New York City. The lead character is played by Edie Falco, who also played Tony Soprano’s wife on “The Sopranos”. I binge-watched “Nurse Jackie” a while back and found it to be a very well-written show …

46 Idiosyncratic : STRANGE

The prefix “idio-” indicates something peculiar, as in “idiosyncrasy”, a peculiarity exhibited by an individual or a group.

48 Creature in Tibetan myth : YETI

The yeti, also known as the abominable snowman, is a beast of legend. “Yeti” is a Tibetan term, and the beast is fabled to live in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet. Our equivalent legend in North America is that of Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch. The study of animals whose existence have not yet been substantiated is called cryptozoology, and a cryptid is a creature or plant that isn’t recognized by the scientific community, but the existence of which has been suggested.

50 “Woo-hoo!,” in textspeak : FTW

“FTW” is an initialism abbreviating “for the win”, a phrase meaning “being great, sure to succeed”.

52 Place to spot a 48-Down, maybe : NEPAL
[48 Creature in Tibetan myth : YETI]

Nepal lies to the northeast of India. Today, the state is known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. In 2008, the Communist Party of Nepal won the country’s general election. Soon after, the Assembly voted to change the form of government, moving away from a monarchy and creating a secular republic.

54 Pitcher’s gripping aid : ROSIN

Rosin is a solid form of resin derived from plant sources. Rosin is formed into cakes that players of stringed instruments use to rub along the hairs of their bows to help improve sound quality. The rosin increases the degree of friction between the strings and the bow. That same friction-increasing property comes into play when baseball pitchers use rosin to get a better grip on the ball, or when dancers apply rosin to the soles of their shoes.

58 Everymutt : FIDO

“Fido”, the name for many a dog, is Latin for “I trust”.

61 Bowlers, e.g. : HATS

The bowler hat is so called because it was originally designed, in 1849, by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler. The Bowlers created it as an alternative for the top hats then worn by gamekeepers. The gamekeepers needed a tight-fitting hat with a low and rounded crown so that it would stay on their heads as they rode by horseback through woodland with low-hanging branches.

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1 Cracked : AJAR
5 Actor Omar : EPPS
9 Dull sound : THUMP
14 Easy going? : LOPE
15 Pharmacist’s container : VIAL
16 Ancient region of modern Turkey : IONIA
17 Range for Zermatt and the Matter Valley : ALPS
18 Honors course for an aspiring aircraft marshaller? : AP POINTING
20 Get down to basics : STRIP
22 Consumes : EATS
23 Red carpet stance : POSE
24 Irish actor Chris of TV’s “Get Shorty” : O’DOWD
26 Shenanigans : HIJINKS
28 Dust jacket design : COVER ART
31 Bowling pin count : TEN
32 Bird mascot for the Miami Hurricanes : IBIS
33 New Zealand parrots : KEAS
35 Ray’s relative : SKATE
39 Tanqueray liquor : GIN
40 Georgia fruit : PEACHES
42 Hoppin’ John morsel : PEA
43 George of “The Goldbergs” : SEGAL
45 Word with ring or music : MOOD …
46 Relaxation stations : SPAS
47 Claire of “The Crown” : FOY
49 Fleetest of foot : SWIFTEST
51 Brandy glass : SNIFTER
55 Penta- minus one : TETRA-
56 Goddess who is the mother of Apollo and Artemis : LETO
57 Protein option for pho : TOFU
59 Olympic volleyball great Kerri __ Jennings : WALSH
62 Honors course for an aspiring pastor? : AP PRAISING
65 Totenberg of NPR : NINA
66 Barbecue sites : YARDS
67 Creative flash : IDEA
68 Tiny annoyance : GNAT
69 Splash through puddles : SLOSH
70 Prying : NOSY
71 Meringue need : EGGS

Down

1 Quaint plaint : ALAS
2 Shock : JOLT
3 Honors course for an aspiring lawyer? : AP PROVING
4 Lives : RESIDES
5 Perón of Argentina : EVA
6 Out-of-reach goal : PIPE DREAM
7 __ Smurf : PAPA
8 Arboreal slowpoke : SLOTH
9 Metal in pewter : TIN
10 Bright lipstick shade : HOT PINK
11 Gabrielle of “L.A.’s Finest” : UNION
12 Capital of Belarus : MINSK
13 Audiobook’s lack : PAGES
19 “You think so?” : IS IT?
21 __ ejemplo : POR
25 Waves from a boat : WAKE
27 Milo’s “Gilmore Girls” role : JESS
28 Slangy smokes : CIGS
29 Big Apple stage award : OBIE
30 Tuesday fare : TACOS
34 Many entries in the Great American Songbook : SHOW TUNES
36 Honors course for an aspiring bell ringer? : AP PEALING
37 Dim sum brews : TEAS
38 All-Star side : EAST
40 Storyline : PLOT
41 Falco of “Nurse Jackie” : EDIE
44 Provides, as an opportunity : AFFORDS
46 Idiosyncratic : STRANGE
48 Creature in Tibetan myth : YETI
50 “Woo-hoo!,” in textspeak : FTW
51 Leaves rolling in the aisles : SLAYS
52 Place to spot a 48-Down, maybe : NEPAL
53 Staffer who’s good at networking, for short : IT PRO
54 Pitcher’s gripping aid : ROSIN
58 Everymutt : FIDO
60 Obstacle : SNAG
61 Bowlers, e.g. : HATS
63 Fire pit residue : ASH
64 Carefree : GAY

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